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User: ramakant

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  1. How to Design Programs on PhD Research On Software Design Principles? · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.htdp.org/

  2. Re:It's been done. on Cambridge's Streetlamp-Powered Wireless Network · · Score: 1

    A few entities tried to purchase the Ricochet infrastructure in the San Francisco Bay Area, simply for their positions on the poles and contracts for use, but all stopped when they realized PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) was holdig a $60 million warrant on the assets for the power they had been drawing since the service was terminated. Seems that the radios have been on the whole time. Two suggestions:
    1. Build remote shutdown into the radios.
    2. Make them field upgradeable, so they're unlikely to be 100% junk when a new wireless technology is introduced.

  3. 4INFO on What are the Best Cell Phone Services in the US? · · Score: 1

    Text anything to 44636 (4INFO), or point your mobile browser to http://wap.4info.net/ (or download their client at http://www.4info.net./ They've got:
    sports scores
    player stats
    stock quotes
    wifi hotspots
    package tracking
    weather
    yellow pages
    news
    flight status
    hotel reservations
    city search
    TV Guide
    movie show times
    drink recipes
    price lookup
    jokes
    horoscopes
    pickup lines
    celebrity gossip
    music charts
    ringtones
    wallpapers
    games ...

    More and higher quality services than Google (46645) and Yahoo (92466).

  4. Re:Google uses this approach on Database Bigwigs Lead Stealthy Open Source Startup · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here's a good comparison of the two approaches:
    http://glinden.blogspot.com/2006/05/c-store-and-go ogle-bigtable.html
    (per my post below, Vertica is a commercial version of MIT C-Store: http://db.lcs.mit.edu/projects/cstore/ )

  5. This is a commercial version of MIT C-Store on Database Bigwigs Lead Stealthy Open Source Startup · · Score: 4, Informative

    This looks like it will be a commercial version of the Michael Stonebraker and MIT developed C-Store column-oriented:
    - Web site: http://db.lcs.mit.edu/projects/cstore/
    - Wikipedia Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-Store
    They distribute the source with a fairly liberal license, so this looks like something the open source community could pick up and run with.

  6. Use Your Competitors' Products on Microsoft Workers Prefer Google · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Microsoft's stated goal is to beat Google at the search game. It seems pretty logical to me that they would be using Google's and Yahoo's search engines in order to generate competitive intelligence and understand what they are doing wrong. I work at a mobile search startup, and I use Google's and Yahoo's products that compete with ours everyday. While Googlers are busy staring at their own reflection in the mirror, Microsoft just might catch up. If I were Steve Ballmer, I'd be pleased with this.

  7. Download Link on Sun Says Java Source Already Available · · Score: 0, Redundant
  8. This is a silly question on Solving the Home Library Problem? · · Score: 1

    Alphabetical by author. 3500 books isn't that many.

  9. Wireless device browser compatibility isn't easy. on Retrofit Your Web Pages For Wireless Compatibility · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is a great article from the standpoint that it gets people thinking about standards compliance and web pages that validate. However, if you actually want your web pages to be correctly renderable on many browsers, you need to be able to send different markup based on the target browser. This is particularly painful for mobile phone browsers, where the specs supported are all over the map. The phone/browser manufacturer may claim XHTML-MP 1.0 compliance, but only support a subset of the actual spec.
    In order to make our site compatible with as many mobile phone browsers as possible (I work for 4INFO), we use the WURFL Wall JSP tag library. This matches the browser user-agent, against a database of known devices and capabilities, and renders the appropriate markup. Only after extending that library and updating its device database have wee been able to get our WAP site to render on most mobile phone browsers.

  10. Re:I know that barn! on More Info on Google's 3D Maps · · Score: 2

    No, not "until recently". Those huts ARE the Stanford Solar Car Project huts. I worked on it while I was in school there, and was over there less than a week ago helping them get ready for the North American Solar Challenge. There is no "secret" Google mapping truck hidden there. The only thing that is there other than the solar car is Stanford's entry into the DARPA Grand Challenge. As a side note, those buildings also aren't 65 years old. They were built in the 60's to house an operations workshop.

  11. Sucks, but won't it ultimately provide more jobs? on Nothing of .Net in Longhorn? · · Score: 1

    ZORG: Follow me.. Life, which you so nobly serve, comes from destruction. Look at this empty glass.
    (Zorg pushes the glass with his finger.)
    ZORG: Here it is... peaceful... serene... but if it is...
    (Zorg pushes the glass off the table. It shatters on the floor.)
    ZORG: Destroyed...
    (Small individual robots, both free-wheeling and integrated, come zipping out to clean up the mess.)
    ZORG: ...Look at all these little things... so busy all of a sudden. Notice how each one is useful. What a lovely ballet, so full of form and color. So full of..life!

    Just replace Zorg with Gates. I guess it's a pretty sick idea, but isn't it true? The more complexity Microsoft adds, the more they cause us to learn new, and dispose old, isn't it ultimately good for us (assuming you belive in the capitalist ideal)? Won't it mean more jobs?

  12. Deep Blue Sea on Finally ... RoboShark! · · Score: 1

    This is really low-tech compared to the shark that was built for Deep Blue Sea.

  13. OpenOffice Database User Tools on Replacing FileMaker with Free Software? · · Score: 1

    I use OpenOffice Databse User Tools. It doesn't have all the great features of FileMaker, but serves as a pretty good alternative to that and MS Access. I think the Form AutoPilot and Report AutoPilot address the problems you're facing.

  14. It's one of the most miserable places on Where's Alviso? · · Score: 2, Informative

    Alviso is right on the Southern tip of the San Francisco Bay. It's mostly abandoned but for a few hold outs like Vahl's Restaurant. There's an bartender named Frank there who's straight out of a Rat Pack movie. Ask him to do some magic tricks for you.
    Most of Alviso is now a briney marsh due to redirection of Bay water, dikes, and nearby salt evaporation pools. On summer evenings, the sound of crickets and frogs in the reeds can be deafening.
    For those brave enough to visit, it's off the 237 next to Tivo's office.

  15. Honda Insight meets its numbers on EPA Fuel Economy Myth: Too High, Too Low? · · Score: 1

    I have a 2000 Honda Insight hybrid and I've found that the mileage I get varies very widely based on terrain, driving condition and, most radically, driving style. The EPA sticker on the Insight is 60mpg city / 66mpg highway. I drive about 60% highway and 40% city (in the San Francisco Bay Area), and I've averaged 60mpg over the life of the vehicle.
    The most amazing part of the experience is how much driving style impacts mileage. Driving conservatively (accelerating modestly, staying under 65 on the freeways, braking slowly and coasting into stop signs, etc.) I've been able to get around 75mpg on a tank. Driving aggressively (accelerating quickly, going 70-75 on the freeways, stopping quickly, etc.) the mileage goes down to closer to 50mpg. I've actually done full-tank experiments, intentionally changing the style of my driving, and this has consistently been the result.

  16. Re:This is fairly unimpressive on Visualizing Stories On Current Events With Newsmap · · Score: 1

    I agree that this newsmap is an infant implementation of this type of visualization. The Hive Group not only has some impressive demonstrations of treemap technology, they also build tools that allows you to create treemaps of your own data. Their product is mature and has shown its capability in displaying very large data sets.

  17. Try UltimateArena on Deathmatch for Dollars? · · Score: 1

    Another similar service is already up and running. YouPlayGames just appears to be a clone of UltimateArena. They have America's Army as their first title.

  18. Just give a physician a free ticket on Medical Briefcase For In-Flight Patient Evaluation · · Score: 1

    Aside from the BBC's numbers being a little suspect, it seems that it would just be cheaper and more effective to put a real physician on every flight - either by giving a free ticket/incentives to doctors, or by giving flight crew members EMT training.

    I have been on 6 flights where the "is there a doctor on board" call has come. On 4 of those flights, there was a physician present. And in each of those 4 cases, the plane did not need to be diverted, and the doctor was able to make a quick diagnosis of a minor ailment (like heartburn confused to be a heart attack). On the other two flights where no physician was present, the plane was diverted and landed at the closest airport. In all cases the medical condition was trivial, but the most important element that kept the plane aloft in the first four cases was having an 'expert' there to calm the patient and reassure the flight crew. I don't think a machine can replace that.

  19. I got 3 Yahoo! pages before receiving any others on Killing Unwanted Text Messages from Yahoo! Alerts? · · Score: 1

    I just got a Timex Internet Messenger watch that can receive pages and short emails. In the process of setting it up, the SkyTel customer service representative put me on hold for a few minutes. During that time, I received 3 pages from Yahoo! before I received the system test page to confirm my account was active. I have had the pager for three days and I receive at least one Yahoo! page every 4 hours, and another Yahoo! page at the same time I receive a real page.

    My question is - Do they actually think that spamming my watch is going to get me to go to Yahoo!'s site? Holy fsck, this is so annoying!

  20. Did anyone get accepted to beta test XPod? on Sync Your iPod on Linux · · Score: 1

    Since their signup script seems to be croaking on their site, I wanted to see if anyone had actually been accepted for the beta? Is it posted for download anywhere?

  21. A good starter, but not for the advanced user on Managing and Using MySQL: Second Edition · · Score: 1

    I bought this book thinking it would be a great resource for an administrator using MySQL in a production environment - My mistake. It is true that MySQL is in use by a lot of large businesses and websites, but this book does not cover issues relevant to those implementations. If you are a programmer (even a very inexperienced one) and want to learn more about using MySQL, buy this book. If you have experience with MySQL and are thinking about using it in a heavy traffic production application, this book is useless to you. Stick to the docs on the MySQL site.

  22. Some Mirrors on NaN Closes Shop, The End of Blender? · · Score: 1

    http://ftp.linux.hr/pub/blender/
    http://californi a.linux.tucows.com/files/blender2. 20-linux-glibc2.1.2-i386.tar.gz

  23. Re:Any mirrors still active? on NaN Closes Shop, The End of Blender? · · Score: 1

    I think 2.23 was the most recent version that you didn't have to buy. I'd be interested in it too. Any mirrors out there?

  24. Looks slick [link to a picture]... on Google's Search Appliance · · Score: 1

    Don' think I'll be buying one anytime soon, but they sure do look slick. Here is a picture of the beauty.

    Also, here's the press release that was sent out on the googlepress group:

    -------------
    Media Alert
    -------------
    February 11, 2002
    Today, Google announced the availability of the Google Search Appliance, an integrated hardware/software solution that extends the power of Google.com to corporate intranets and web servers. The Google Search Appliance simplifies corporate search for administrators and makes it fast and easy for employees to find the intranet information they need.
    The new product comes in two versions: GB-1001 for departments and medium-size companies with up to 150,000 documents, and the GB-8008 for large corporations with millions of documents. Google Search Appliance features include:
    - Complete solution: both hardware and software
    - Easy install: up and running in less than one hour
    - Simple administration: simple and intuitive browser-based admin console
    - High quality: quickly delivers relevant search results
    - Affordable: pricing starts at $20,000 for two years of support and software updates
    The Google Search Appliance was designed to address the growing demand for simple, cost-effective search solutions within corporations. The Google Search Appliance is based on Google's award- winning search technology and provides a complete solution to companies that need search services to manage data behind the firewall.
    An image of the Google Search Appliance can be found here:
    http://www.google.com/press/images.html.
    Additional product information can be found at:
    www.google.com/appliance.
  25. A wishlist... on Slashback: Squashing, N'Synch, Yopy · · Score: 1

    I hope my posting about the N'SUCK cameo and all of other slashdotters comments were read personally by Lucas. Even though I'm sure it was only part of the equation, I'd like to believe I played a small part in saving the Star Wars series from boy band hell. Thanks to everyone who replied to my very first slashdot article!

    Since (it seems) a small voice can actually change the world, I'd like to make a few more wishes while I'm at it:

    1. No more Jar-Jar or Gungans in Episodes II and III.
    2. Bill Gates embraces the open source world and stops being a beeatch.
    3. Dubya and Cheney get impeached for their involvement in Enron.
    4. Real investment in reducing the US's dependency on oil.
    5. At least on nude scene with Natalie Portman in Episode II.