My point is that you don't get free energy... you could eliminate those extra batteries, but to get the same life, you'd need to replace them with a single larger battery. That single larger battery probably wouldn't fit in the cover as well as the lots of little ones.
An example: The CR2016 batteries used are 90mAH, 1.6 mm thick, and 20 mm diameter. Replacing this with a DC/DC converter (at a very generous 80% efficiency - at currents this low, the power taken by the generator is significant - the real efficiency would probably be in the 40-50% range) would be a single 675 mAH battery. That's a CR2450 battery -- 5 mm thick (3x thicker) and 24mm in diameter.
Pricewise, CR2016's are $0.18 each, qty 5000 (Esquire ordered 1.4 million batteries). I didn't find bulk 2450's, so I compared the same manufacturer from the same vendor - the price was 2.66x the cost of the 2016 -- so, I'd guess $0.48. The savings is 6*0.18 - 0.48 = $0.60. At 40% efficiency (two 2450's), the savings is $0.12 -- minus, of course, the cost of the converter, which is non-trivial. You need the driver chip (usually not cheap) and a pair of capacitors (high quality, or else you'll get EMI).
It's pretty well designed. The number and size of batteries happened to fit their desired life expectancy (90 days, including printing time), so they got lucky. In this case, using a DC-DC boost converter would have resulted in one big honkin' battery that would either be a cylinder (not fitting in the cover well) or exceptionally wide (not a standard size = $$$).
What's interesting is that the processor has its own battery (B6), and the eink runs off the rest of the batteries (actually only 15 volts). That means one will run out before the other... if the time difference is large, then that's an inefficiency.
I've heard this argument before, so I was really excited to mind a copy of my all-time favorite record sitting on the coffee table in the basement listening room of one of the fanciest audiophile stores in D.C.. I know this record; it was recorded with a single microphone and the musicians moved further or closer to it to adjust their relative volume. With lots of excitement, I started playing it... and lots of static. so much static, that I couldn't ignore it -- with the cd you hear all the creaks of the musicians chairs. So, I still assume a new record would have sounded better, but that's the thing... I like to listen to music many times and a format that eats itself puts a big barrier between me and the music.
For reference, the weight of the ultra-light main circuit board for a CVS Camcorder is 21 grams - that's without batteries, and without any sort of RF transmitter. It'll be pretty hard to do something cool within that weight limit and budget.
The government has already done this.. airport screening is done for security, but they also search for drugs. If doped-up people on planes were really a security risk, they'd stop serving alcohol. They might as well turn air travel in to a 4th-amendment ignoring government checkpoint for everything else.
I've ridden amtrak once, and apparently the kill switch had been activated. We were locked on the train & didn't leave NYC until about an hour after we were supposed to arrive in DC... so, it wasn't too fun. I've also flown hanggliders, which have their kill switch activated all the time... lots of fun!!
(p.s. I love trains... Japanese ones beat planes for 1 hour flights)
I was going to mod you up, but then I saw where they put the arrow keys -- smaller buttons, all in a line (not in a WASD-type shape), above the backspace key. They're also missing |\{} and have [] on the same key, but to be fair, my Apple II only had one of these keys ( ] = shift-M... not marked on the keyboard... don't ask... there were no lower case letters) and lacked up/down arrows. But, I have to give them props for putting the "GRPH" and "CODE" keys in the right place.
There's a famous quote about supercomputers that says that supercomputers are really good memory systems, with a bit of CPU tacked on. The hard part isn't adding more MIPS -- we've done that with the massively parallel connection machine -- or even increasing speed. It's about shuttling the data around the computer efficiently so that all ALU's are constantly fed. During the cold war, Control Data had a supercomputer that came in two variants -- one for domestic use, one for export. The difference between them? Same ALU speed, but the domestic one had a scatter/gather memory access capability that sped up big matrix operations.
If you read the article closely, it looks like there are two counters when there should be fundamentally one. The design is flawed & indicative of poor thinking -- much more serious than a typo.
I remember the first time I saw a russian tube ticket - it had the date & time of every stop where you'd used the card printed on the outside. "How typically Russian," I thought. The Washington DC tickets just showed your account balance - so you could tell that a $1.50 ticket had been taken, but not the exact stops, nor the time/date.
Yeah, I agree. I need to provide citation. I'm not sure where I heard the story; I've been to the museum & I think I may have seen it there. I've also worked with lots of spooks, too, and lived in the area... I could have picked up the info anywhere.
I presume that when the building started, the area around it wasn't as developed and the parking lots were smaller. They have their own paved exit now, so I presume that's where the hidden road used to be.
There's more truth to that then you'd imagine. It used to be that the NSA wasn't connected to any major roads... you'd have to take the BW parkway and then, at a random unmarked point in the road, turn off the pavement and onto a dirt path through the forest.
The author argues that innovation in disk drives comes from new players. This was true of the transitions from 8" drives -> 5.25" -> 3.5" -> 2.5" -> 1.8" drives. Basically, older companies continue selling their products, oblivious to new markets (for which their older product doesn't fit). Eventually, the new market takes over and the old disk drive is useless. It took an ipod to make 1.8" mass-produced, and now I can buy a laptop that has one of these smaller drives in it. Desktops used to use 5.25" drives until luggables started making the 3.5" form factor popular.
1. I wanted to see if there was any possible way I could avoid taking off my shoes when I fly. 2. I live in Boulder. Mork lived here and didn't raise an eyebrow.
One morning the fate of the free world depended on my screener's determination on if a pair of Vibram Five Fingers was a shoe or not. Never mind that I own bulkier socks than this, but apparently it's a shoe.
Re:Bots COULD invite themselves, that's not the po
on
Gmail CAPTCHA Cracked
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· Score: 1
Sounds good, but the botnet will just hijack the infected peoples' accounts and use their invitations. They'll only invite one or two people per infected user*, so there won't be that much to trace back.
(* by using other accounts, like hotmail or yahoo, the propagation can be independent of gmail accounts, so having "few children" won't kill off the botnet)
Exactly. It's got to be able to move a large quantity of slush off a windshield when the truck next to you hits a puddle and suddenly throws a gallon on your windshield.
I've been working on a totally wireless monitor for years, and I've almost got the solution - details here.
To make it the most efficient, I use a directed beam of energy. I also pre-convert that energy to photons before sending it, so that the monitor won't have to waste energy doing the conversion. I also pre-modulate the signal spatially so that I only send the energy needed -- again, another win for efficiency.
In 2004, the signs in the river next to manhattan warning ships of a submerged gas pipeline were removed -- I assume it was fear that someone would try to do this on purpose. But, I think that the increased chance of someone damaging it by dropping anchor outweighs the chance of intentional damage... but I feel safer now that these safety signs have been removed (sarcasm).
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My point is that you don't get free energy... you could eliminate those extra batteries, but to get the same life, you'd need to replace them with a single larger battery. That single larger battery probably wouldn't fit in the cover as well as the lots of little ones.
An example: The CR2016 batteries used are 90mAH, 1.6 mm thick, and 20 mm diameter. Replacing this with a DC/DC converter (at a very generous 80% efficiency - at currents this low, the power taken by the generator is significant - the real efficiency would probably be in the 40-50% range) would be a single 675 mAH battery. That's a CR2450 battery -- 5 mm thick (3x thicker) and 24mm in diameter.
Pricewise, CR2016's are $0.18 each, qty 5000 (Esquire ordered 1.4 million batteries). I didn't find bulk 2450's, so I compared the same manufacturer from the same vendor - the price was 2.66x the cost of the 2016 -- so, I'd guess $0.48. The savings is 6*0.18 - 0.48 = $0.60. At 40% efficiency (two 2450's), the savings is $0.12 -- minus, of course, the cost of the converter, which is non-trivial. You need the driver chip (usually not cheap) and a pair of capacitors (high quality, or else you'll get EMI).
It's pretty well designed. The number and size of batteries happened to fit their desired life expectancy (90 days, including printing time), so they got lucky. In this case, using a DC-DC boost converter would have resulted in one big honkin' battery that would either be a cylinder (not fitting in the cover well) or exceptionally wide (not a standard size = $$$).
What's interesting is that the processor has its own battery (B6), and the eink runs off the rest of the batteries (actually only 15 volts). That means one will run out before the other ... if the time difference is large, then that's an inefficiency.
I've heard this argument before, so I was really excited to mind a copy of my all-time favorite record sitting on the coffee table in the basement listening room of one of the fanciest audiophile stores in D.C.. I know this record; it was recorded with a single microphone and the musicians moved further or closer to it to adjust their relative volume. With lots of excitement, I started playing it... and lots of static. so much static, that I couldn't ignore it -- with the cd you hear all the creaks of the musicians chairs. So, I still assume a new record would have sounded better, but that's the thing... I like to listen to music many times and a format that eats itself puts a big barrier between me and the music.
For reference, the weight of the ultra-light main circuit board for a CVS Camcorder is 21 grams - that's without batteries, and without any sort of RF transmitter. It'll be pretty hard to do something cool within that weight limit and budget.
The government has already done this .. airport screening is done for security, but they also search for drugs. If doped-up people on planes were really a security risk, they'd stop serving alcohol. They might as well turn air travel in to a 4th-amendment ignoring government checkpoint for everything else.
I've ridden amtrak once, and apparently the kill switch had been activated. We were locked on the train & didn't leave NYC until about an hour after we were supposed to arrive in DC... so, it wasn't too fun. I've also flown hanggliders, which have their kill switch activated all the time... lots of fun!!
(p.s. I love trains... Japanese ones beat planes for 1 hour flights)
I was going to mod you up, but then I saw where they put the arrow keys -- smaller buttons, all in a line (not in a WASD-type shape), above the backspace key. They're also missing |\{} and have [] on the same key, but to be fair, my Apple II only had one of these keys ( ] = shift-M... not marked on the keyboard... don't ask... there were no lower case letters) and lacked up/down arrows. But, I have to give them props for putting the "GRPH" and "CODE" keys in the right place.
Please don't use the bathroom. If you use the bathroom, the terrorist win.
There's a famous quote about supercomputers that says that supercomputers are really good memory systems, with a bit of CPU tacked on. The hard part isn't adding more MIPS -- we've done that with the massively parallel connection machine -- or even increasing speed. It's about shuttling the data around the computer efficiently so that all ALU's are constantly fed. During the cold war, Control Data had a supercomputer that came in two variants -- one for domestic use, one for export. The difference between them? Same ALU speed, but the domestic one had a scatter/gather memory access capability that sped up big matrix operations.
I've also got a drink still in the fridge -- from 7 years ago. The difference is that I left the company 6 years ago.
If you read the article closely, it looks like there are two counters when there should be fundamentally one. The design is flawed & indicative of poor thinking -- much more serious than a typo.
I remember the first time I saw a russian tube ticket - it had the date & time of every stop where you'd used the card printed on the outside. "How typically Russian," I thought. The Washington DC tickets just showed your account balance - so you could tell that a $1.50 ticket had been taken, but not the exact stops, nor the time/date.
... not until they invent the gigantic desk!
Yeah, I agree. I need to provide citation. I'm not sure where I heard the story; I've been to the museum & I think I may have seen it there. I've also worked with lots of spooks, too, and lived in the area... I could have picked up the info anywhere.
I presume that when the building started, the area around it wasn't as developed and the parking lots were smaller. They have their own paved exit now, so I presume that's where the hidden road used to be.
There's more truth to that then you'd imagine. It used to be that the NSA wasn't connected to any major roads... you'd have to take the BW parkway and then, at a random unmarked point in the road, turn off the pavement and onto a dirt path through the forest.
Read the book "The Innovator's Dilemma" (summary of what I'm talking about here).
The author argues that innovation in disk drives comes from new players. This was true of the transitions from 8" drives -> 5.25" -> 3.5" -> 2.5" -> 1.8" drives. Basically, older companies continue selling their products, oblivious to new markets (for which their older product doesn't fit). Eventually, the new market takes over and the old disk drive is useless. It took an ipod to make 1.8" mass-produced, and now I can buy a laptop that has one of these smaller drives in it. Desktops used to use 5.25" drives until luggables started making the 3.5" form factor popular.
1. I wanted to see if there was any possible way I could avoid taking off my shoes when I fly.
2. I live in Boulder. Mork lived here and didn't raise an eyebrow.
One morning the fate of the free world depended on my screener's determination on if a pair of Vibram Five Fingers was a shoe or not. Never mind that I own bulkier socks than this, but apparently it's a shoe.
Sounds good, but the botnet will just hijack the infected peoples' accounts and use their invitations. They'll only invite one or two people per infected user*, so there won't be that much to trace back.
(* by using other accounts, like hotmail or yahoo, the propagation can be independent of gmail accounts, so having "few children" won't kill off the botnet)
I found a website they need to censor. It has gross pictures, pictures of dead people, and a giant phallus! There are even naked breasts. Would someone think of the children?!
Exactly. It's got to be able to move a large quantity of slush off a windshield when the truck next to you hits a puddle and suddenly throws a gallon on your windshield.
I've been working on a totally wireless monitor for years, and I've almost got the solution - details here.
To make it the most efficient, I use a directed beam of energy. I also pre-convert that energy to photons before sending it, so that the monitor won't have to waste energy doing the conversion. I also pre-modulate the signal spatially so that I only send the energy needed -- again, another win for efficiency.
Just one wafer thin mint?
In 2004, the signs in the river next to manhattan warning ships of a submerged gas pipeline were removed -- I assume it was fear that someone would try to do this on purpose. But, I think that the increased chance of someone damaging it by dropping anchor outweighs the chance of intentional damage... but I feel safer now that these safety signs have been removed (sarcasm).
LCoS would be much cheaper than MEMs, and, since it doesn't require a hermetic package, would be smaller, too.