Yeah, this was required. The contest's introduction/sample design document is here (zip w/ MS Word files). It looks like gamemaker isn't 2600-specific, and, in fact, the rules say to use snap-to-grid to approximate the resolution of the 2600. That's kindof disappointing - I'm guessing that the gamemaker can do a whole lot more in terms of control logic than the limited memory of the 2600.
The article said that the battery produces 1.7 volts instead of the typical 1.5 volts. Flashlights were noticeably brighter, but they didn't measure the change in bulb life. Bulb Life is inversely proportional to V^16 -- that's a huge exponent, so bulbs are very sensitive to voltage! This means bulbs in flashlights with the new batteries will last only 1/7th the time or regular batteries.
A friend of mine was obsessively tracking a fed ex package of his and told us the progress of it a couple times a day. There happen to be a big hurricane happening, but it wasn't quite in the path of his package's travel. So, I wgett'ed (wgot?) fedex's site and made my own modifications. I just changed the hosts file on my friend's machine to point to my webserver. My friend watched his package get closer and closer, then looked in horror as it took a detour to florida. The next day it was in the fedex damaged package center, and we had to let him in on the joke.
Original: Transmeta, once the darling of Silicon Valley, employer of Linus Torvalds and heralded as the new Intel is facing bleak times.
With only two commas, the "once" only applies to "darling of silicon valley" -- the "employer of" and "heralded as" are current situations.
Add two commas to make a list: Transmeta, once the darling of Silicon Valley, employer of Linus Torvalds, and heralded as the new Intel, is facing bleak times.... and it's still a pretty weak sentence.
This would have been clearer: Transmeta -- the once darling of Silicon valley who employed Linus Torvalds and had been heralded as the new Intel -- is now facing bleak times.
Wow, I've often thought of becoming a full-time grammar nazi. But, nah, ain't gonna happen is this there lifetime.
In 1991, my CS-major roommate had a department-mandated Amiga running unix. The college didn't want to be bothered with people who messed up their boxes, so the root password (which was the same for every students box) was kept secret. If you had a problem, the support staff would gladly re-ghost your drive for you, but that's all. And, of course, a professor did exactly the same thing you saw... except the password opened everyone's box!
I was in the EE department. How the CS department ever came to the decision to not allow root is beyond me -- aren't they supposed to teach? And if professors can't solve a problem without su, what do they expect students to do? Anyway, the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been - ethernet didn't come to the dorms until a few years later. (we were using special modems to dial each other and mainframes)
Yeah, I settled for the one that shipped because I was already forced to pay for it when I bought Word. This could be seen as a benefit for most (I did), but it's also the classic bundling/monopoly case that people complain about - MS used their 90% market share in one product (office) to push another product (grammer) and destroy the market for any competitors.
Re:Probably worth mentioning...
on
Hacking Mac OS X
·
· Score: 1
Wow! Cool, thanks, I didn't see that;-)
No, seriously, I want actual keys, not keystroke combinations. I've learned to use w and z for the program less, but using the fn key has been harder - especially when I do ctrl-shift-home or stuff like that.
I've thought about remapping F11 and F12, but I use them for expose. There's plenty of room to add in an extra column of keys and still leave the same amount of room for the speakers that are in the 15" model.
Higher screen resolutions -- 1440 x 900 is nice, but after using a (IIRC) 1600x1200 15" laptop, 50% more pixel area was nice. Yeah, it took a week to get used to, and it's a personal choice, but my eyes didn't bug out and actually appreciated the extra resolution without resorting to antialiasing. It's not for everyone, but would be a nice feature. Don't know about the power consumption...
Yeah, but it has pretty much killed the market for this type of software. There was a time when you bought a grammar checker as an add-on package from a different vendor.
Re:Probably worth mentioning...
on
Hacking Mac OS X
·
· Score: 1
I generally like the Finder -- it seems to require less scrolling than on my windows box. But, if you've got a directory with just a dozen 55 MB slide scans, prepare for it to chew cpu time generating preview icons even after you leave the directory. Annoying on a laptop.
But, the two big things I wish my powerbook had were pageup/down keys (it's the 17" - there's plenty of room!) and a higher resolution screen. Hopefully they'll release a denser screen -- I'll be first in line.
If you live on-campus (and most places force you to the first year), then legitimate would encompass much more -- after all, they are providing you living space and any legitimate use for internet access from an off-campus apartment should qualify as legitimate use in a dorm. That would certainly include entertainment.
I think I could type a number in my sleep. Now make it an 8-digit number and require a prime factorization and that'll be much better. Of course, it'll probably be noon before I can turn it off, but I'll be awake.
Re:What causes the price?
on
Contrabandwidth
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I knew someone who had a company that set up some sort of technical equipment in Saudi Arabia. The government wouldn't let them operate there all by themselves, so they only allowed a "partnership" that was 51% owned by a Saudi company - the cousin-in-law of some royal, or something like that. Of course, the Saudi company didn't do 51% of the work, so it was like a hefty tax. Anyway, in addition to their regular installation, they had a bustling business in illegal satellite tv dishes. They eventually got busted, but then it was the fact that this was mainly a Saudi-owned company with royal ties that kept them out of trouble. And, they probably copped a deal to uninstall the dishes. The penalty was only monetary - my friend had all his appendages.
yeah, but the blade has the mass of a popsicle stick. if you approach it slowly, you'll pull back. But if you just unknowningly jam your finger in (like if you reach around and try to pull the whole case forward), you'll make it through. If it was a more substantial fan then (surprisingly!) I'd think it was safer.
I'll go with your razor blade/cup of acid analogy. If you don't see it on your chair and accidently sit on it, you're screwed. No reason needed. But I see your point... it's just that I don't think that the blade is enough of a deterrent in some foreseeable cases.
It's a matter of intrinsic safety. Yeah, I could glue razor blades on all my light switches if I always remember to actuate them carefully... but I'd be crazy to do so. You expect the operation of a light switch to be intrinsically safe.
A drill is a power tool and you don't expect that the operation of its switch is intrinsically safe because there are mechanical consequences. But, if you removed the insulation from the drill's wiring, you've still got an electrocution hazard that even the most careful drill operator will be unlikely to avoid.
So, summary... don't create hazards when you can prevent them. And, just because you can't make a safe drill doesn't mean that you can lower the bar for safety and make all other products equally dangerous.
I worked on an embedded computer that we custom-built. My boss decided to save the $10 for the power supply cover and figured we'd have our machine shop turn out something prettier. We were all careful engineers... Well, the cover never got done, but everyone on the team got shocked exactly once. It was severe enough (120VDC + 120VAC= ~300v peak-peak) that the memory of the first time prevented it happening again.
well, actually I was the only one shocked twice, but it's not because I'm a slow learner -- it's because I worked on it the most. Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself:-)
It'll be playful if you just touch the blades, but if you make it through the fan, there is probably a large heatsink right behind it with lots of voltage on it. Chances are that some other part of your finger or hand will be on the grounded part, so the shock won't go through your heart, but it'll really toast the end of your finger well.
Perhaps a thin but strong grill would be useful? Or a larger grill at a further distance?
Ah, thanks. The time I transitioned must have been more of a factor than the platform. The II+ came with the assembly, and the//c had it in the additional (~$50) technical reference manual. I still have both of mine, in the basement somewhere.
off topic... your name looks familiar... oh yeah, you hacked the old garmins - great work! I reverse-engineered the protocol too, but I wasn't on the web at the time so I didn't have a good way to get out the details. Things have changed since then! I didn't open up my gps45 and hack the rom like you did, but I've done that to plenty of other things.
Slashdot Mirror
It's about $10000/pound, so a kilo would be $4500 - just a small fraction of the cost of the black box.
Just to clarify... this plastic changes shape in response to various wavelengths of light... not the quantity, as has been previously done. (Note - the older technology has been adapted for cell phones, too)
don't forget that super-secret exotic plane getting ready to take off at the end of the runway!
I wonder if this has to do with Google pre-fetching from Mozilla and Firefox that begins to get the top search results before you click on it. I think that could easily significantly skew the results, especially because this isn't done with other browsers.
Now excuse me while load *.OGG files onto my Rio Karma via SHH from a remote SAMBA server...
:-)
I found that when I used the SHH protocol to transfer files, the sound volume was adversely affected. Now I use SSH and it sound much better
Yeah, this was required. The contest's introduction/sample design document is here (zip w/ MS Word files). It looks like gamemaker isn't 2600-specific, and, in fact, the rules say to use snap-to-grid to approximate the resolution of the 2600. That's kindof disappointing - I'm guessing that the gamemaker can do a whole lot more in terms of control logic than the limited memory of the 2600.
Oh, whoa, am I embarrassed! I even double-checked it, too, argh... Here are the corrected links:
No-registration required link (thanks to the NY Times link generator!)
registration-required link
The article said that the battery produces 1.7 volts instead of the typical 1.5 volts. Flashlights were noticeably brighter, but they didn't measure the change in bulb life. Bulb Life is inversely proportional to V^16 -- that's a huge exponent, so bulbs are very sensitive to voltage! This means bulbs in flashlights with the new batteries will last only 1/7th the time or regular batteries.
A friend of mine was obsessively tracking a fed ex package of his and told us the progress of it a couple times a day. There happen to be a big hurricane happening, but it wasn't quite in the path of his package's travel. So, I wgett'ed (wgot?) fedex's site and made my own modifications. I just changed the hosts file on my friend's machine to point to my webserver. My friend watched his package get closer and closer, then looked in horror as it took a detour to florida. The next day it was in the fedex damaged package center, and we had to let him in on the joke.
Nah, it's just poorly worded...
... and it's still a pretty weak sentence.
Original: Transmeta, once the darling of Silicon Valley, employer of Linus Torvalds and heralded as the new Intel is facing bleak times.
With only two commas, the "once" only applies to "darling of silicon valley" -- the "employer of" and "heralded as" are current situations.
Add two commas to make a list: Transmeta, once the darling of Silicon Valley, employer of Linus Torvalds, and heralded as the new Intel, is facing bleak times.
This would have been clearer: Transmeta -- the once darling of Silicon valley who employed Linus Torvalds and had been heralded as the new Intel -- is now facing bleak times.
Wow, I've often thought of becoming a full-time grammar nazi. But, nah, ain't gonna happen is this there lifetime.
Linus left Transmeta in mid-2003 and now works at the Open Source Development Labs. Here is ESR's unofficial Linux FAQ
In 1991, my CS-major roommate had a department-mandated Amiga running unix. The college didn't want to be bothered with people who messed up their boxes, so the root password (which was the same for every students box) was kept secret. If you had a problem, the support staff would gladly re-ghost your drive for you, but that's all. And, of course, a professor did exactly the same thing you saw... except the password opened everyone's box!
I was in the EE department. How the CS department ever came to the decision to not allow root is beyond me -- aren't they supposed to teach? And if professors can't solve a problem without su, what do they expect students to do? Anyway, the damage wasn't as bad as it could have been - ethernet didn't come to the dorms until a few years later. (we were using special modems to dial each other and mainframes)
Yeah, I settled for the one that shipped because I was already forced to pay for it when I bought Word. This could be seen as a benefit for most (I did), but it's also the classic bundling/monopoly case that people complain about - MS used their 90% market share in one product (office) to push another product (grammer) and destroy the market for any competitors.
Wow! Cool, thanks, I didn't see that ;-)
No, seriously, I want actual keys, not keystroke combinations. I've learned to use w and z for the program less, but using the fn key has been harder - especially when I do ctrl-shift-home or stuff like that.
I've thought about remapping F11 and F12, but I use them for expose. There's plenty of room to add in an extra column of keys and still leave the same amount of room for the speakers that are in the 15" model.
Higher screen resolutions -- 1440 x 900 is nice, but after using a (IIRC) 1600x1200 15" laptop, 50% more pixel area was nice. Yeah, it took a week to get used to, and it's a personal choice, but my eyes didn't bug out and actually appreciated the extra resolution without resorting to antialiasing. It's not for everyone, but would be a nice feature. Don't know about the power consumption...
Yeah, but it has pretty much killed the market for this type of software. There was a time when you bought a grammar checker as an add-on package from a different vendor.
I generally like the Finder -- it seems to require less scrolling than on my windows box. But, if you've got a directory with just a dozen 55 MB slide scans, prepare for it to chew cpu time generating preview icons even after you leave the directory. Annoying on a laptop.
But, the two big things I wish my powerbook had were pageup/down keys (it's the 17" - there's plenty of room!) and a higher resolution screen. Hopefully they'll release a denser screen -- I'll be first in line.
If you live on-campus (and most places force you to the first year), then legitimate would encompass much more -- after all, they are providing you living space and any legitimate use for internet access from an off-campus apartment should qualify as legitimate use in a dorm. That would certainly include entertainment.
I think I could type a number in my sleep. Now make it an 8-digit number and require a prime factorization and that'll be much better. Of course, it'll probably be noon before I can turn it off, but I'll be awake.
I knew someone who had a company that set up some sort of technical equipment in Saudi Arabia. The government wouldn't let them operate there all by themselves, so they only allowed a "partnership" that was 51% owned by a Saudi company - the cousin-in-law of some royal, or something like that. Of course, the Saudi company didn't do 51% of the work, so it was like a hefty tax. Anyway, in addition to their regular installation, they had a bustling business in illegal satellite tv dishes. They eventually got busted, but then it was the fact that this was mainly a Saudi-owned company with royal ties that kept them out of trouble. And, they probably copped a deal to uninstall the dishes. The penalty was only monetary - my friend had all his appendages.
When I first got my "email 1.0" address, nobody that needed to email me had one. They got them eventually, though -- funny how that worked out :-)
yeah, but the blade has the mass of a popsicle stick. if you approach it slowly, you'll pull back. But if you just unknowningly jam your finger in (like if you reach around and try to pull the whole case forward), you'll make it through. If it was a more substantial fan then (surprisingly!) I'd think it was safer.
I'll go with your razor blade/cup of acid analogy. If you don't see it on your chair and accidently sit on it, you're screwed. No reason needed. But I see your point... it's just that I don't think that the blade is enough of a deterrent in some foreseeable cases.
(p.s. nice debate)
It's a matter of intrinsic safety. Yeah, I could glue razor blades on all my light switches if I always remember to actuate them carefully... but I'd be crazy to do so. You expect the operation of a light switch to be intrinsically safe.
A drill is a power tool and you don't expect that the operation of its switch is intrinsically safe because there are mechanical consequences. But, if you removed the insulation from the drill's wiring, you've still got an electrocution hazard that even the most careful drill operator will be unlikely to avoid.
So, summary... don't create hazards when you can prevent them. And, just because you can't make a safe drill doesn't mean that you can lower the bar for safety and make all other products equally dangerous.
I worked on an embedded computer that we custom-built. My boss decided to save the $10 for the power supply cover and figured we'd have our machine shop turn out something prettier. We were all careful engineers... Well, the cover never got done, but everyone on the team got shocked exactly once. It was severe enough (120VDC + 120VAC= ~300v peak-peak) that the memory of the first time prevented it happening again.
:-)
well, actually I was the only one shocked twice, but it's not because I'm a slow learner -- it's because I worked on it the most. Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself
playful little bite from the plastic blades.
It'll be playful if you just touch the blades, but if you make it through the fan, there is probably a large heatsink right behind it with lots of voltage on it. Chances are that some other part of your finger or hand will be on the grounded part, so the shock won't go through your heart, but it'll really toast the end of your finger well.
Perhaps a thin but strong grill would be useful? Or a larger grill at a further distance?
Ah, thanks. The time I transitioned must have been more of a factor than the platform. The II+ came with the assembly, and the //c had it in the additional (~$50) technical reference manual. I still have both of mine, in the basement somewhere.
off topic... your name looks familiar... oh yeah, you hacked the old garmins - great work! I reverse-engineered the protocol too, but I wasn't on the web at the time so I didn't have a good way to get out the details. Things have changed since then! I didn't open up my gps45 and hack the rom like you did, but I've done that to plenty of other things.