We all know the simple reason why apple made the switch: they could not build the next generation of laptops with IBM chips (G5's). Too much heat. And that's been going on for a while now.
Laptop's are probably apple's most successfull non-iPod product. That makes them a development priority.
why can't i just use a second mouse?
on
Two-Fisted Computing
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
i guess this has to be asked...
i use autocad and photoshop quite a bit. in photoshop, you have to constantly swtich to a zoom mode to move around the image you're working on. same in illustrator, pagemaker, etc, etc. in autocad, same deal, except your left (other) hand can use keyboard commands since there is a command line. anyways...
why hasn't someone written a driver which lets you use a second mouse/trackball as a "view" device. for example, in autocad, it'd have the same functionality as the main mouse, but would be dedicated to view commands.
The first problem they were having is that the most expensive $600-$800 wireless audio systems are the cheapest. If you're not willing to drop $3000 per channel on sennheiser transmitters and receivers, where squelch, sensitivity, frequency, and a zillion other things can be set at the venue, you'll have problems. Also, you won't find any serious show using VHF. To much interferance. Most cheepo units are VHF.
First off, let me preface this by saying that i have worked building large-scale theater shows, and as a lighting designer for 7 years. I have worked on shows including the Lion King, Cher, Phanton of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Tim McGraw, the Pan American Games, as well as numerous regional and touring theater shows and outdoor festivals.
Quite literally the only thing these shows have in common is the need for clear, reliable crew communications. During setup/strike (installation/teardown), crews usually have portable radios (Motorola Walkie-talkies generally), so everyone can keep in touch without shouting or running around looking for each other. Essential for big shows, unnecessary but nice for small one. However, for all shows, only "Clearcom" communications are used.
Clearcom is a brand-name of wired "party-line" communications sets. It's used generically for other brand systems, like Telex, HME, etc. It's the same thing you see camera operators on TV shoots wearing. Everyone has a headset and beltpac, and can talk to one another on a common "channel". Everything is hard-wired, and everything works, all the time, every time. The systems is used for calling show cues, as well as any other necessary communication during showtime.
However, the "wired" issue becomes a problem for some people. While audio and lighting techs can often stay put (they sit behind a board), stagehand/stage managers have to be mobile, often on stage. Usually they need to be able to communicate in a high-noise environment, and it must work reliably.
The only way to do this is via a wireless clearcom system. Telex, HME, and Clearcom are the big three, and all of their systems are inter-operable. I personally like HME's RadioComm, but all systems have their own benefits. Simply put, these systems are expensive but necessary. For a school situation, you can probably get away with 2 wireless stations, and 4 wired. But you can't cheap out on this. You need great headsets, and equally good beltpacs to go with them. When you're midshow, and you can't hear your cue, you'll know why.
I hope this helps. I realize that you were looking for a cheap way around the problem, but there isn't one. You'll find that with 95% of things in theater, cheaping-out never works. You buy a crappy light, or sound equipment, or cleacom, and life sux but things go on. You cheap out on rigging or construction, and people die. It's as simple as that.
As strange as this sounds, i study best in very loud, noisy, busy places. During exams, i plunk down 8am to 5pm in the university cafeteria. I know it's weird, but i think it's the "white noise" of people coming and going that helps me concentrate. In a quiet library or something, every little noise grabs my attention.
The other good thing about studying in a cafeteria is that crappy food is always convenient.
My only other advice is to drink lots of water, rather then coffee, coke, etc. I'm not commenting on caffeine (i am a coffee addict), but the water seems to make a difference in how you feel gernerally (helps flush out your system maybe?)
Uh, what?
If someone hits my mother on the freeway and rolls her car, that impacts my life, my family's life, and her friends life in a very big way. When 2000 people die in a terrorist attack, a single event affects many people. When 175,000 people die in car crashes, 175000 small events affect many, many people.
Re:Why are we always nitpicking?
on
Shuttle Politics
·
· Score: 0
Velcro was invented in the 1940s (not discovered) by George de Mestral, a Swiss man who one day noticed burrs stuck to his pants after a hike with his dog. He examined the burrs, realized how their hooks attached to things, and created a method of fabricating hooks and loops mechanically to create a fastening system.
Yes, velcro is used in space, but not discovered in or invented for it.
Tang was first brought to market by General Foods in 1965, based on their Jello mixtures (people used to drink jello rather then let it set sometimes). In 1969, nasa selected tang as a drink for the gemini space program.
As for the pen, well, the russians used a pencil:-).
You'd be suprised. I'm a canadian kid, so i grew up with no guns whatsoever. I was in israel two years ago, and got use use an m-16. They taught us to assmble, clean, and shoot one safely. Very cool, considering it's the only time in my life i have ever or will ever get to hold a gun.
Anyways, as it turned out, i was one of the best marks-people there. I put 8/10 in the center of a paper target 150 yards away. However, most people didn't hit anything. That, and we were shoooting lying down, with no one shooting back, with perfectly aligned sights, and our targets were straight ahead, big, and not moving. I'm told that in a firefight, 95% of the shots aren't aimed to hit anything in particular, but just as cover fire or "shooting in the general direction", etc.
So yeah, it makes sense that none of the shots fired by the "bad guys" in a fictional, pro-american piece of patriotic crap missed, while the marines hit everytime. You'll also notice that in movies, they get more then the 30 rounds an m16 holds before they must reload.
I'll note that i'm canadian, but to respond to your claims:
1) Yes, but shouting fire puts people in danger.
2) What constitutes "incitement" is for the courts to decide. Putting up posters saying "meet tomorrow at townhall with guns to overthrow" is illegal, but you're allowed to insult (provoke) someone.
3) True.
4) It's only libel or slander if it's untrue. I'm allowed to post pictures of you saying your a rapist and murderer as long as you are. Same with info about crappy products. Same with info about someone being incompetent. As long as it's true, and you can prove it, it's not slander.
5) You're definetly allowed to say/write/etc obscene things. However, you have to take reasonable measures to keep them away from under 18-ers. eg, cover the windows on a porn-video store.
So youre only partly right. But free speech is pretty much absolute. Even hate literature is allowed, as long as it doesn't slander. Basically as long as it's true, you're allowed to say/publish it. Or thats what the 1st ammendment allows for.
Or hash the person's name, using a numerical algorith, with a hashcode based upon the current time. It also means that it's easy to track someone down (for database searches) from either their name or student number.
Is it really that hard for a university to assign sequential student numbers? I mean, you start at 1000000, and go up from there! That way, the only information imparted by a student'd number is approximately when they enrolled.
First off, i doubt if even the captain earns 80k / year. So....
Lets say salary is 32k/year (probably hi, but whatever) based on http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/pay/bl enlistedsalary.htm
So... thats 11.2mil per ship per year (assuming 350 per vessel), and 225mil over 20 years. Now lets say that these people get an additional 2500/year for their family, and it costs 250/mo to clothe and feed them (it's not that expensive when you do it in bulk!). So, that's 5500/yr/person, 1.925mil per vessel, 38.5mil over 20 years.
(and i should add, as a canadian), this publication ban only exists for the preliminary hearing, and exists to try and keep potential jurors unbiassed. Living in Manitoba (as opposed to British Columbia), it doesn't exist on local stations that aren't broadcast in BC. And its an open hearing: anyone in BC can attend, they just can't publish what's going in (at least, details). So its not some secret trial, which is what people are probably all in hysterics about.
So, when the trial starts, everything will be broadcast in OJ-style clarity in every media outlet in canada, and many in the US and around the world. So i'm not at all concerned.
Having used both grafiti and jot extensively, i find jot much less reliable. White it may be more me then the software, grafiti tends to make less mistakes, whereas i have to correct far more in jot. Oh well.
That, and all my profs have learned to read grafiti, er, my handwriting.
I don't know about stat's, but here is the law in canada:
a) You cannot, under any circumstances, own an automatic weapon, a handgun with smaller then 105mm barrel, or several other weapons (effectively only police/military can have automatic or "assault" weapons
b) In order to have any kind of handgun or "restricted weapon" ( (a) is not a restricted weapon, it's totally off limits), you have to heave a special license, AND special permission based on your need for such a weapon (eg, security guards, etc). In canada you do not have the right to carry a handgun or concealed weapon.
c) In order to own any non-restricted weapon (essentially a shotgun/rifle), you need a firearms license. I don't know the specifics, but it involves regirstration and a course.
Personally i support gun control. If you live in the middle of nowhere, you have a legitimate reason to own A HUNTING RIFLE. Otherwise, what could you possibly need a gun for? IMHO, gun control isn't about taking away guns so much as making sure that the people who have them are responsible. The reason there are so few non-Palestinian-related (that's a whole nother issue) gun deaths in Israel is that everyone, and i mean EVERYONE there learns to safely use guns. They are a way of life.
Of course there is, you insensitive clod.
As a matter of fact, i ran one for over a year. Yeah, it's just a 166 marked as a 150, but officially it was a 150!
http://developer.intel.com/design/pentium/datashts/241997.htm - Intel spec site for pentium processors
In the experience of my peers, school-supplied required laptops are bad. Usually, they're cheep pieces of ()@#$, with 0 support from the school. In fact, in the case of a Winnipeg-based college, the software that the students had licenses for (supplied by school) wasn't compatible with what they did in class.
For engineering, etc, having a laptop is great. BUT, if they school wants you to have one, they shouldn't provide it. I mean, 99% of engineering students know more about the computers then the school does!!
Why can't schools' do this?
on
Largo Loving Linux
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
After having worked for a highschool IT dept for 3 years, and having dealt with a univsersity IT dept for 2 years, i have to ask: why can't schools do this?
My highschool regularly got grants for buying hardware, and would then proceed to spend $2000 per windows workstation, not including software (they didn't license until they got yelled at by M$). But, they wouldn't hire more then 1 IT guy for 250 workstations, so nothing ever worked.
Same at my university. Aside from all the departmental and faculty machines (~4500), there are about 1500 open-area machines for students. These are a mix of unix thin-clients running solaris, and wintel machines, most of which are outdated. They insist upon buying new NCD/Sun thin-clients, running solaris, or buying new Wintel machines running win2k. Yet these machines cost them $1500-$2000 a piece! And all the old unix clinets (~800) running solaris are super slow (5+ minutes to log in!). Explain to me why a city, with offices here,there, and everywhere, manages to run a linux-based thin-client network, while a university with a huge IT budget runs one that's too slow to use!
Considering the non-existant cost of "outdated" hardware in the marketplace, people would figure out that to run an office suite, web browser, and email, all you need is a P150!!!
There's something to be said for a world of only small and medium businesses. Over the past 10 years, i've watched the large (for Canada) city i live in change due to free trade, and the arrival of american giants. In a city of 600,000, i can remember shopping at small hardware stores, small bookstores, corner grocery stores, and local video rental shops. No more. On the small end, they're canadian conglomerates out of Toronto. On the big end, it's Walmart, Home Depot, and Best Buy out of USA. I can't comment on prices, but my complaint: service. In a company with 1/2/3 locations, and 20-3o people, service sucks. When you pay someone minumum wage, they don't know air compressors from 2x4, or harddrives from CDROMs. Returns are awaful, and dealing with the company is totally unsatisfying. So i don't.
There's a company out of Winnipeg called princess auto, which deals in surplus items, tools, and hydraulics. They have 12? locations across canada, and do booming business. Why? 1) They're cheap. 2) The service is unparalleled. They take returns on anything you've bought there ever. They take returns on things that you haven't even bought from them! And everyone, and i mean everyone there knows what they're talking about. THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SMALL BUSINESS OF 1930 and today!
Slashdot Mirror
We all know the simple reason why apple made the switch: they could not build the next generation of laptops with IBM chips (G5's). Too much heat. And that's been going on for a while now. Laptop's are probably apple's most successfull non-iPod product. That makes them a development priority.
i guess this has to be asked... i use autocad and photoshop quite a bit. in photoshop, you have to constantly swtich to a zoom mode to move around the image you're working on. same in illustrator, pagemaker, etc, etc. in autocad, same deal, except your left (other) hand can use keyboard commands since there is a command line. anyways...
why hasn't someone written a driver which lets you use a second mouse/trackball as a "view" device. for example, in autocad, it'd have the same functionality as the main mouse, but would be dedicated to view commands.
The first problem they were having is that the most expensive $600-$800 wireless audio systems are the cheapest. If you're not willing to drop $3000 per channel on sennheiser transmitters and receivers, where squelch, sensitivity, frequency, and a zillion other things can be set at the venue, you'll have problems. Also, you won't find any serious show using VHF. To much interferance. Most cheepo units are VHF.
First off, let me preface this by saying that i have worked building large-scale theater shows, and as a lighting designer for 7 years. I have worked on shows including the Lion King, Cher, Phanton of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Tim McGraw, the Pan American Games, as well as numerous regional and touring theater shows and outdoor festivals.
Quite literally the only thing these shows have in common is the need for clear, reliable crew communications. During setup/strike (installation/teardown), crews usually have portable radios (Motorola Walkie-talkies generally), so everyone can keep in touch without shouting or running around looking for each other. Essential for big shows, unnecessary but nice for small one. However, for all shows, only "Clearcom" communications are used.
Clearcom is a brand-name of wired "party-line" communications sets. It's used generically for other brand systems, like Telex, HME, etc. It's the same thing you see camera operators on TV shoots wearing. Everyone has a headset and beltpac, and can talk to one another on a common "channel". Everything is hard-wired, and everything works, all the time, every time. The systems is used for calling show cues, as well as any other necessary communication during showtime.
However, the "wired" issue becomes a problem for some people. While audio and lighting techs can often stay put (they sit behind a board), stagehand/stage managers have to be mobile, often on stage. Usually they need to be able to communicate in a high-noise environment, and it must work reliably.
The only way to do this is via a wireless clearcom system. Telex, HME, and Clearcom are the big three, and all of their systems are inter-operable. I personally like HME's RadioComm, but all systems have their own benefits. Simply put, these systems are expensive but necessary. For a school situation, you can probably get away with 2 wireless stations, and 4 wired. But you can't cheap out on this. You need great headsets, and equally good beltpacs to go with them. When you're midshow, and you can't hear your cue, you'll know why.
I hope this helps. I realize that you were looking for a cheap way around the problem, but there isn't one. You'll find that with 95% of things in theater, cheaping-out never works. You buy a crappy light, or sound equipment, or cleacom, and life sux but things go on. You cheap out on rigging or construction, and people die. It's as simple as that.
-Michael Roy
GATOR IS SPYWARE
GATOR IS SPYWARE
comments care of Michael Roy of Winnipeg
As strange as this sounds, i study best in very loud, noisy, busy places. During exams, i plunk down 8am to 5pm in the university cafeteria. I know it's weird, but i think it's the "white noise" of people coming and going that helps me concentrate. In a quiet library or something, every little noise grabs my attention.
The other good thing about studying in a cafeteria is that crappy food is always convenient.
My only other advice is to drink lots of water, rather then coffee, coke, etc. I'm not commenting on caffeine (i am a coffee addict), but the water seems to make a difference in how you feel gernerally (helps flush out your system maybe?)
Uh, what?
If someone hits my mother on the freeway and rolls her car, that impacts my life, my family's life, and her friends life in a very big way. When 2000 people die in a terrorist attack, a single event affects many people. When 175,000 people die in car crashes, 175000 small events affect many, many people.
Velcro was invented in the 1940s (not discovered) by George de Mestral, a Swiss man who one day noticed burrs stuck to his pants after a hike with his dog. He examined the burrs, realized how their hooks attached to things, and created a method of fabricating hooks and loops mechanically to create a fastening system.
:-).
Yes, velcro is used in space, but not discovered in or invented for it.
Tang was first brought to market by General Foods in 1965, based on their Jello mixtures (people used to drink jello rather then let it set sometimes). In 1969, nasa selected tang as a drink for the gemini space program.
As for the pen, well, the russians used a pencil
You'd be suprised. I'm a canadian kid, so i grew up with no guns whatsoever. I was in israel two years ago, and got use use an m-16. They taught us to assmble, clean, and shoot one safely. Very cool, considering it's the only time in my life i have ever or will ever get to hold a gun.
Anyways, as it turned out, i was one of the best marks-people there. I put 8/10 in the center of a paper target 150 yards away. However, most people didn't hit anything. That, and we were shoooting lying down, with no one shooting back, with perfectly aligned sights, and our targets were straight ahead, big, and not moving. I'm told that in a firefight, 95% of the shots aren't aimed to hit anything in particular, but just as cover fire or "shooting in the general direction", etc.
So yeah, it makes sense that none of the shots fired by the "bad guys" in a fictional, pro-american piece of patriotic crap missed, while the marines hit everytime. You'll also notice that in movies, they get more then the 30 rounds an m16 holds before they must reload.
about 26.3 meters! :-(
But i guess if my twin is parallel, they'll always be 26 meters away from me
I'll note that i'm canadian, but to respond to your claims:
1) Yes, but shouting fire puts people in danger.
2) What constitutes "incitement" is for the courts to decide. Putting up posters saying "meet tomorrow at townhall with guns to overthrow" is illegal, but you're allowed to insult (provoke) someone.
3) True.
4) It's only libel or slander if it's untrue. I'm allowed to post pictures of you saying your a rapist and murderer as long as you are. Same with info about crappy products. Same with info about someone being incompetent. As long as it's true, and you can prove it, it's not slander.
5) You're definetly allowed to say/write/etc obscene things. However, you have to take reasonable measures to keep them away from under 18-ers. eg, cover the windows on a porn-video store.
So youre only partly right. But free speech is pretty much absolute. Even hate literature is allowed, as long as it doesn't slander. Basically as long as it's true, you're allowed to say/publish it. Or thats what the 1st ammendment allows for.
Or hash the person's name, using a numerical algorith, with a hashcode based upon the current time. It also means that it's easy to track someone down (for database searches) from either their name or student number.
Is it really that hard for a university to assign sequential student numbers? I mean, you start at 1000000, and go up from there! That way, the only information imparted by a student'd number is approximately when they enrolled.
First off, i doubt if even the captain earns 80k / year. So....
l enlistedsalary.htm
Lets say salary is 32k/year (probably hi, but whatever) based on http://usmilitary.about.com/library/milinfo/pay/b
So... thats 11.2mil per ship per year (assuming 350 per vessel), and 225mil over 20 years. Now lets say that these people get an additional 2500/year for their family, and it costs 250/mo to clothe and feed them (it's not that expensive when you do it in bulk!). So, that's 5500/yr/person, 1.925mil per vessel, 38.5mil over 20 years.
Sorry, but it ain't 80k per person.
Yeah, people under the age of 18 wear helmets. So do people over the age of 18 who don't want to die in an accident.
(and i should add, as a canadian), this publication ban only exists for the preliminary hearing, and exists to try and keep potential jurors unbiassed. Living in Manitoba (as opposed to British Columbia), it doesn't exist on local stations that aren't broadcast in BC. And its an open hearing: anyone in BC can attend, they just can't publish what's going in (at least, details). So its not some secret trial, which is what people are probably all in hysterics about.
So, when the trial starts, everything will be broadcast in OJ-style clarity in every media outlet in canada, and many in the US and around the world. So i'm not at all concerned.
Having used both grafiti and jot extensively, i find jot much less reliable. White it may be more me then the software, grafiti tends to make less mistakes, whereas i have to correct far more in jot. Oh well.
That, and all my profs have learned to read grafiti, er, my handwriting.
I think you missed the point. He bought a commercial, off the shelf FPGA board from xilinx. Didn't have to solder very much!
beowolf cluster of these!
Sorry, i had to.
That's totally not the same. In canada, no matter what, you can't get an automatic or "selective fire" weapon. Ever. Period. (except police/army).
The other thing is that in canada, firearms laws are national, not province-by-province.
I don't know about stat's, but here is the law in canada:
e fault.asp
a) You cannot, under any circumstances, own an automatic weapon, a handgun with smaller then 105mm barrel, or several other weapons (effectively only police/military can have automatic or "assault" weapons
b) In order to have any kind of handgun or "restricted weapon" ( (a) is not a restricted weapon, it's totally off limits), you have to heave a special license, AND special permission based on your need for such a weapon (eg, security guards, etc). In canada you do not have the right to carry a handgun or concealed weapon.
c) In order to own any non-restricted weapon (essentially a shotgun/rifle), you need a firearms license. I don't know the specifics, but it involves regirstration and a course.
For full info, see http://www.cfc-ccaf.gc.ca/en/owners_users/guide/d
Personally i support gun control. If you live in the middle of nowhere, you have a legitimate reason to own A HUNTING RIFLE. Otherwise, what could you possibly need a gun for? IMHO, gun control isn't about taking away guns so much as making sure that the people who have them are responsible. The reason there are so few non-Palestinian-related (that's a whole nother issue) gun deaths in Israel is that everyone, and i mean EVERYONE there learns to safely use guns. They are a way of life.
Of course there is, you insensitive clod. As a matter of fact, i ran one for over a year. Yeah, it's just a 166 marked as a 150, but officially it was a 150! http://developer.intel.com/design/pentium/datashts /241997.htm - Intel spec site for pentium processors
In the experience of my peers, school-supplied required laptops are bad. Usually, they're cheep pieces of ()@#$, with 0 support from the school. In fact, in the case of a Winnipeg-based college, the software that the students had licenses for (supplied by school) wasn't compatible with what they did in class.
For engineering, etc, having a laptop is great. BUT, if they school wants you to have one, they shouldn't provide it. I mean, 99% of engineering students know more about the computers then the school does!!
After having worked for a highschool IT dept for 3 years, and having dealt with a univsersity IT dept for 2 years, i have to ask: why can't schools do this?
My highschool regularly got grants for buying hardware, and would then proceed to spend $2000 per windows workstation, not including software (they didn't license until they got yelled at by M$). But, they wouldn't hire more then 1 IT guy for 250 workstations, so nothing ever worked.
Same at my university. Aside from all the departmental and faculty machines (~4500), there are about 1500 open-area machines for students. These are a mix of unix thin-clients running solaris, and wintel machines, most of which are outdated. They insist upon buying new NCD/Sun thin-clients, running solaris, or buying new Wintel machines running win2k. Yet these machines cost them $1500-$2000 a piece! And all the old unix clinets (~800) running solaris are super slow (5+ minutes to log in!). Explain to me why a city, with offices here,there, and everywhere, manages to run a linux-based thin-client network, while a university with a huge IT budget runs one that's too slow to use!
Considering the non-existant cost of "outdated" hardware in the marketplace, people would figure out that to run an office suite, web browser, and email, all you need is a P150!!!
There's something to be said for a world of only small and medium businesses. Over the past 10 years, i've watched the large (for Canada) city i live in change due to free trade, and the arrival of american giants. In a city of 600,000, i can remember shopping at small hardware stores, small bookstores, corner grocery stores, and local video rental shops. No more. On the small end, they're canadian conglomerates out of Toronto. On the big end, it's Walmart, Home Depot, and Best Buy out of USA. I can't comment on prices, but my complaint: service. In a company with 1/2/3 locations, and 20-3o people, service sucks. When you pay someone minumum wage, they don't know air compressors from 2x4, or harddrives from CDROMs. Returns are awaful, and dealing with the company is totally unsatisfying. So i don't.
There's a company out of Winnipeg called princess auto, which deals in surplus items, tools, and hydraulics. They have 12? locations across canada, and do booming business. Why? 1) They're cheap. 2) The service is unparalleled. They take returns on anything you've bought there ever. They take returns on things that you haven't even bought from them! And everyone, and i mean everyone there knows what they're talking about. THAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SMALL BUSINESS OF 1930 and today!