At first glance, I thought this said "McAfee Granted Spam Patent," and I immediately thought, "Boy, that's a GREAT idea! Patent the concept of spam, and then sue the bejeezus out of anyone who violates your patent..."
Its been widely known that the Canon EOS 300D Digital Rebel and the Canon EOS 10D DSLR's are similar beasts. In fact, if you look at their Side-by-side comparisons you can see that most of the features that vary are catagorized as "Customizable".
The 10D has a menu item called "Custom Functions" which allows these settings to be adjusted. Well, a fellow in Russia found that in the latest firmware, by switching a single byte in the firmware image, he was able to enable most of these 10D "Custom Functions" in the Digital Rebel. Now, some features, such as more frames in rapid shooting, are hardware-limitations but some features lacking such as Flash Exposure Compensation and embedded JPEG quality are found to be working in the 300D.
This is not the 10D firmware, it is the 300D firmware with some of the dormant 10D features enabled. The developers probably shared the codebase between the two models. The 10D firmware will not work on your 300D.
Now, be aware that this Modified firmware will violate your warranty!
There are a bunch of other neat tips on that site, but they aren't directly related to this story, and so I haven't re-posted them here.
With all this said, solar may ultimately be a better idea. The relatively limited research into creating more efficient solar panels has yield extremely promising results. A panel that is perhaps 50% efficient and wafer thin, mass produced and used to cover vast tracts of unused land might ultimately be cheaper than burning coal.
...and such a panel is about 3-5 times more efficient than anything we have today, or are expecting to see within the next 10 years.
Don't forget that most of the Amazon basin counts as "unused land." You f*ck with the supply of solar energy to Earth's lungs, and you're going to cause problems. "Unused by humans" does not mean "ecologically bulletproof." There's something to be said for the tremendous energy density of nuclear power.
A Cessna 182, for example, which has approximately the same passenger capacity as a Chevrolet Blazer or Ford Explorer, gets slightly worse mileage (ca. 15 mpg or so) but at 3-4x the speed.
I'll take the massive time benefit over a few gallons of AVGAS any day. Then again, I can't fly the 182 to my kids' soccer practise...
Microsoft have, um, a bit of a reputation problem as it is:-) and I can't imagine it'd get any better if it became public knowledge that their security updates sometimes deleted the operating system.
I do have to wonder, though, if this is really that fast. His uplink is either cellular (dog-slow) or bridged to another WAP, and I'd have to say I suspect the latter isn't the dominant mode of operation.
In case the site gets slammed later, here's the About page text:
Magicbike is a mobile WiFi (wireless Internet) hotspot that gives free Internet connectivity wherever its ridden or parked. By turning a common bicycle into a wireless hotspot, Magicbike explores new delivery and use strategies for wireless networks and modern-day urbanites. Wireless bicycles disappear into the urban fabric and bring Internet to yet unserved spaces and communities. Mixing public art with techno-activism, Magicbikes are perfect for setting up adhoc Internet connectivity for art and culture events, emergency access, public demonstrations, and communities on the struggling end of the digital-divide.
Weaving Internet Infrastuctures into Cultural Fabric
Magicbike aims to weave wireless infrastructures into an existing mobile and socially active cultural fabric, bicycle culture. Bicycles are extremely versatile vehicles that travel many places inaccessible by automobiles and other forms of transportation. Bicycles are also traditional symbols of political movements ranging from the women's movement in the latter 19th century, to the labor movements of the early 20th century, through today where bicycles are held in high esteem as a clean, energy-efficient alternative to a global dependence on oil and urban sprawl. Since WiFi is an emerging technology based on open standards it is malleable. Superimposing WiFi technology onto bicycle culture pushes the technology towards the particular needs, tastes, and motivations of bicyclists. Wireless and computing technology gain from becoming more (mobile and) bicycle and street friendly. The culture around wireless is also influenced by century-old cultural trends of political consciousness, social responsibility, and physical health.
Bicycle Hotspots Tech Description
Magicbike turns common bicycles into WiFi hotspots. The end effect creates bicycles that broadcast free WiFi connectivity to their proximity. The technology behind this is not complex. Magicbike is simply a creative configuration, or reconfiguration, of widely available computer, bicycle, and WiFi gear. WiFi antennas mounted on the bike's frame feed into a laptop embedded into a specially outfitted bicycle side-bag. The bike's embedded laptop is configured to be a wireless repeater and hotspot. The bike receives its uplink connection either from the cellular network or from far-off WiFi hotspots (with the help of its mounted antennas). With this uplink connection from any one of various sources, the bike is able to serve-up its own Internet connection.
A Magicbike hotspot operates like standard hotspots, able to serve up to 250 users in a radius of 30 meters indoors and 100 meters outdoors [although its antennas can increase the hotspot's accuracy and range]. A group of bikes can repeat and/or bridge the signal down a chain of wireless bikes. Meaning, a bicycle gang can snake into subways stations or across hilltops to provide Internet connectivity to (fringe but) vital communities and spaces ignored by the traditional telecommunications industry. A grassroots bottom-up wireless infrastructure can be formed and pedaled to any place accessible by bicycle.
Wireless Bikes as Art Objects
Wireless bikes are a tacitly surrealistic Ready-made that playfully reframe our assumptions about the interplay of technology and art. The tradition of Ready-made objects in modern art is credited to start with Marcel Duchamp's "Roue de Bicyclette" or "Bicycle Wheel," his first "Ready-made." The bicycle's role in art seems to be that of a transcendent object acting as a vehicle to interface conceptual and m
No offence intended to either you or the parent of your post, but making a joke about "does it support Ogg" is a little lame when the article blurb clearly states that it does. That's about as funny as the guy in the Linux Smartphones article who asked "But do they run Linux?"
As in, well, not really funny.
And in spite of my sig, I'd have to say that would get a "fair" meta-mod.
But I'd be perfectly happy to pay $250-300 for a P900, even if it meant I had to get a two-year service plan. I like T-Mobile, and I like the P900. But I don't like it $1000 and no new-plan goodies' worth.
BTW, the "free fone" concept is more of a subsidy. The fone company gets a guarantee that you'll be a revenue source for one or two years, and in return, they pay a good portion of the price of the fone. I don't see anything wrong with that...
You Europeans and Asians have it so good. You can actually get the P800 or P900 with a service plan there, so it doesn't cost $1000.
Rots of ruck with that here in the US, despite the fact that three major carriers have GSM networks that would work just FINE with the P-series.
I say we worry about getting providers to let us Americans have the *current* crop of smartfones before we worry about whether Linux will be on the next generation of them...
For all the people worring about massive worldwide destruction, have a gander at the Asteroid Impact Simulator
Assumptions:
-- the asteroid would be travelling at a "typical" velocity on impact, or about 17 km/s -- the asteroid is primarily composed of dense rock, rather than solid iron -- it impacts Earth at about a 45-degree angle -- it hits land, not water (actually not too likely, considering Earth's surface is 75% water)
...then you're looking at some pretty serious earthquakes and lots of broken windows within a 1000-km radius, but the worst damage would be confined to about a 250-km radius.
Of course, this also assumes that the asteroid wouldn't break apart in the atmosphere. This thing isn't the most stable, solid asteroid ever -- the space.com article even makes mention of how narrow its "waist" is, and that it might simply be two large chunks that collided gently, sticking together because of gravity. If that's the case, it would almost certainly break apart and its impact wouldn't be nearly as severe.
It would take a much bigger space rock than this to wipe out humanity.
"We are going to send a message," said Richter in an email interview with Tom's Hardware Guide. (emphasis mine -p)
Yeah, sure hope Tom's Hardware used a disposable e-mail address for that one. "We are going to send a message" is probably the understatement of the century.
DA: A revolver holds six bullets, not eight. I submit that this was not a hot-blooded crime of passion. That at least could be understood, if not condoned. No. This was revenge, of a much more brutal, cold-blooded nature. Consider this: four bullets per victim. Not six shots fired, but eight. That means that he fired the gun empty and then stopped to reload so that he could shoot each of them again. An extra bullet per spammer, right in the head.
Judge: You strike me as a particularly icy and remorseless man, Mr. Dufresne. It chills my blood just to look at you.
Dufresne: Well, you would have capped them both an extra time or two in the head, too, if they kept trying to get you to enlarge your penis with all the money you were getting from that nice Nigerian man whose hot college slut daughter wants to show you her boobs.
Just because it sounds OK to you doesn't mean it is OK. You see, that would involve the following series of propositions:
1) I am an expert at grammar. 2) The statement sounds correct to my grammar-expert ear.
3) Therefore, the statement must be correct.
The problem with such an argument is that it commits a logicalfallacy known as the appeal to authority. You, sir, are not an authority on grammar (or, apparently, on logic).
"Were" is the third-person plural past tense of the verb "to be," (PDF file) which implies an action began in the past and concluded fairly shortly thereafter. In other words, the action was brief and did not extend over a long period of time. In the United States legal system, a person "stands accused" of a crime or civil liability for the period beginning with the indictment/arraignment/serving of papers/etc. until the jury returns a verdict, the judge hands down a decision, etc. (barring any appeal).
This necessitates the use of the perfect tense (action began in the past and continues in the present) or the present tense (action occurring now). The perfect tense (what I would have preferred, actually) is "They have been accused...," while the present tense is what the grandparent poster used.
I should also point out that if the accused had been killed before the story went to press -- an example that you invented out of thin air, by the way -- then past tense is still wrong, and you should have used past perfect tense instead: "They had been accused of spamming."
Of course, we could have avoided this entire debate if the AP story writer and the copy-editor in charge of looking over the story had used more proper terminology and said "They stand accused..." in the first place. (Yes, the original error comes from TFA, which I R.)
When I checked/. around the time this story was posted, there was a comment from the editor who posted it to the effect of "several recent stories on Slashdot have discussed this," along with links to said semi-dupes.
Now that sentence (it was the last sentence of the article blurb) is gone.
Even the fastest of close wheeled race cars (many of which have comparable horsepower, much stickier tires, far less weight and better aerodynamics) are hard pressed to break 200mph even on tracks with enormous straight sections. Mostly they keep to speeds below 150 because of having to constantly brake for curves.
Yes, that's why they keep to those speeds, but the reason they're hard-pressed to go a lot faster than 200 is because they aren't geared for it. When your powerband is 3000 RPM wide but it doesn't start until 13,500 RPM, you tend to gear the car as close as possible to keep the engine on full boil all the time. If you put proper high-speed gearing on an F1 car and gave it a 10-mile straight, it could *easily* exceed 250. Same with most NASCAR rides, which, it should be noted, had no problems exceeding 200 MPH on superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega before restrictor plates.
I don't believe Bugatti's 250 MPH figure, however. Just like I don't believe McLaren's 237 MPH figure for the F1. It's never been confirmed by a third-party radar test. Hell, I can make the speedo in my Accord read 200 MPH if I want to, and still remain within the legal speed limit. Doesn't mean I'm doing 200 MPH...
As you noted, the Veyron is a brick. It isn't as aerodynamic as the McLaren F1, though it does have about 50% more claimed BHP. I'll believe 250 when Car and Driver shows it to me. Until then, it's marketing hype, and nothing more.
p
Re:Are there any cars better than this?
on
The Bugatti Veyron
·
· Score: 1
Slashdot Mirror
At first glance, I thought this said "McAfee Granted Spam Patent," and I immediately thought, "Boy, that's a GREAT idea! Patent the concept of spam, and then sue the bejeezus out of anyone who violates your patent..."
p
Firmware update instructions from Canon
10D Instruction Manual (PDF file)
Latest Firmware from Wasia
(Wasia is apparently the pseudonym of the Russian hacker who has developed all these goodies.)
Wasia's site is here:
http://satinfo.narod.ru/
Some more info from the linked page:
There are a bunch of other neat tips on that site, but they aren't directly related to this story, and so I haven't re-posted them here.
p
With all this said, solar may ultimately be a better idea. The relatively limited research into creating more efficient solar panels has yield extremely promising results. A panel that is perhaps 50% efficient and wafer thin, mass produced and used to cover vast tracts of unused land might ultimately be cheaper than burning coal.
...and such a panel is about 3-5 times more efficient than anything we have today, or are expecting to see within the next 10 years.
Don't forget that most of the Amazon basin counts as "unused land." You f*ck with the supply of solar energy to Earth's lungs, and you're going to cause problems. "Unused by humans" does not mean "ecologically bulletproof." There's something to be said for the tremendous energy density of nuclear power.
Next idea, please...?
Since when does "no it isn't" count as a refutation?
Since Mr. Barnard so eruditely explained, "In order to argue with you, I must take up a contrary position."
p
Funny, maybe, but nowhere near original. The HHGG "Marvin" 404 pages have been around for years.
And IMO, this is one of the less well-done examples.
p
The only good comedy sitcom to ever come out of America was Frasier.
You misspelled "most British."
p
Try it sometime.
A Cessna 182, for example, which has approximately the same passenger capacity as a Chevrolet Blazer or Ford Explorer, gets slightly worse mileage (ca. 15 mpg or so) but at 3-4x the speed.
I'll take the massive time benefit over a few gallons of AVGAS any day. Then again, I can't fly the 182 to my kids' soccer practise...
p
Microsoft have, um, a bit of a reputation problem as it is :-) and I can't imagine it'd get any better if it became public knowledge that their security updates sometimes deleted the operating system.
Yeah, like that hasn't happened several times already.
p
Well, those "tinfoil" hats are aluminium too...
p
Hey, as long as he isn't riding around with no pants he might get away with it...
p
It can use either cellular OR bridge an open WAP. RTFAA.
p
Definitely a topic that's been on Slashdot before:
The Internet by Motorbike
I do have to wonder, though, if this is really that fast. His uplink is either cellular (dog-slow) or bridged to another WAP, and I'd have to say I suspect the latter isn't the dominant mode of operation.
In case the site gets slammed later, here's the About page text:
Magicbike is a mobile WiFi (wireless Internet) hotspot that gives free Internet connectivity wherever its ridden or parked. By turning a common bicycle into a wireless hotspot, Magicbike explores new delivery and use strategies for wireless networks and modern-day urbanites. Wireless bicycles disappear into the urban fabric and bring Internet to yet unserved spaces and communities. Mixing public art with techno-activism, Magicbikes are perfect for setting up adhoc Internet connectivity for art and culture events, emergency access, public demonstrations, and communities on the struggling end of the digital-divide.
Weaving Internet Infrastuctures into Cultural Fabric
Magicbike aims to weave wireless infrastructures into an existing mobile and socially active cultural fabric, bicycle culture. Bicycles are extremely versatile vehicles that travel many places inaccessible by automobiles and other forms of transportation. Bicycles are also traditional symbols of political movements ranging from the women's movement in the latter 19th century, to the labor movements of the early 20th century, through today where bicycles are held in high esteem as a clean, energy-efficient alternative to a global dependence on oil and urban sprawl. Since WiFi is an emerging technology based on open standards it is malleable. Superimposing WiFi technology onto bicycle culture pushes the technology towards the particular needs, tastes, and motivations of bicyclists. Wireless and computing technology gain from becoming more (mobile and) bicycle and street friendly. The culture around wireless is also influenced by century-old cultural trends of political consciousness, social responsibility, and physical health.
Bicycle Hotspots Tech Description
Magicbike turns common bicycles into WiFi hotspots. The end effect creates bicycles that broadcast free WiFi connectivity to their proximity. The technology behind this is not complex. Magicbike is simply a creative configuration, or reconfiguration, of widely available computer, bicycle, and WiFi gear. WiFi antennas mounted on the bike's frame feed into a laptop embedded into a specially outfitted bicycle side-bag. The bike's embedded laptop is configured to be a wireless repeater and hotspot. The bike receives its uplink connection either from the cellular network or from far-off WiFi hotspots (with the help of its mounted antennas). With this uplink connection from any one of various sources, the bike is able to serve-up its own Internet connection.
A Magicbike hotspot operates like standard hotspots, able to serve up to 250 users in a radius of 30 meters indoors and 100 meters outdoors [although its antennas can increase the hotspot's accuracy and range]. A group of bikes can repeat and/or bridge the signal down a chain of wireless bikes. Meaning, a bicycle gang can snake into subways stations or across hilltops to provide Internet connectivity to (fringe but) vital communities and spaces ignored by the traditional telecommunications industry. A grassroots bottom-up wireless infrastructure can be formed and pedaled to any place accessible by bicycle.
Wireless Bikes as Art Objects
Wireless bikes are a tacitly surrealistic Ready-made that playfully reframe our assumptions about the interplay of technology and art. The tradition of Ready-made objects in modern art is credited to start with Marcel Duchamp's "Roue de Bicyclette" or "Bicycle Wheel," his first "Ready-made." The bicycle's role in art seems to be that of a transcendent object acting as a vehicle to interface conceptual and m
No offence intended to either you or the parent of your post, but making a joke about "does it support Ogg" is a little lame when the article blurb clearly states that it does. That's about as funny as the guy in the Linux Smartphones article who asked "But do they run Linux?"
As in, well, not really funny.
And in spite of my sig, I'd have to say that would get a "fair" meta-mod.
p
No, of course I don't expect a free fone.
But I'd be perfectly happy to pay $250-300 for a P900, even if it meant I had to get a two-year service plan. I like T-Mobile, and I like the P900. But I don't like it $1000 and no new-plan goodies' worth.
BTW, the "free fone" concept is more of a subsidy. The fone company gets a guarantee that you'll be a revenue source for one or two years, and in return, they pay a good portion of the price of the fone. I don't see anything wrong with that...
p
You Europeans and Asians have it so good. You can actually get the P800 or P900 with a service plan there, so it doesn't cost $1000.
Rots of ruck with that here in the US, despite the fact that three major carriers have GSM networks that would work just FINE with the P-series.
I say we worry about getting providers to let us Americans have the *current* crop of smartfones before we worry about whether Linux will be on the next generation of them...
p
For all the people worring about massive worldwide destruction, have a gander at the Asteroid Impact Simulator
...then you're looking at some pretty serious earthquakes and lots of broken windows within a 1000-km radius, but the worst damage would be confined to about a 250-km radius.
Assumptions:
-- the asteroid would be travelling at a "typical" velocity on impact, or about 17 km/s
-- the asteroid is primarily composed of dense rock, rather than solid iron
-- it impacts Earth at about a 45-degree angle
-- it hits land, not water (actually not too likely, considering Earth's surface is 75% water)
Of course, this also assumes that the asteroid wouldn't break apart in the atmosphere. This thing isn't the most stable, solid asteroid ever -- the space.com article even makes mention of how narrow its "waist" is, and that it might simply be two large chunks that collided gently, sticking together because of gravity. If that's the case, it would almost certainly break apart and its impact wouldn't be nearly as severe.
It would take a much bigger space rock than this to wipe out humanity.
p
...or a local bridge.
Wanna buy?
p
"We are going to send a message," said Richter in an email interview with Tom's Hardware Guide. (emphasis mine -p)
Yeah, sure hope Tom's Hardware used a disposable e-mail address for that one. "We are going to send a message" is probably the understatement of the century.
p
DA: A revolver holds six bullets, not eight. I submit that this was not a hot-blooded crime of passion. That at least could be understood, if not condoned. No. This was revenge, of a much more brutal, cold-blooded nature. Consider this: four bullets per victim. Not six shots fired, but eight. That means that he fired the gun empty and then stopped to reload so that he could shoot each of them again. An extra bullet per spammer, right in the head.
Judge: You strike me as a particularly icy and remorseless man, Mr. Dufresne. It chills my blood just to look at you.
Dufresne: Well, you would have capped them both an extra time or two in the head, too, if they kept trying to get you to enlarge your penis with all the money you were getting from that nice Nigerian man whose hot college slut daughter wants to show you her boobs.
p
Tell that to the moderator who gave you +1, Insightful. ;)
p
Just because it sounds OK to you doesn't mean it is OK. You see, that would involve the following series of propositions:
1) I am an expert at grammar.
2) The statement sounds correct to my grammar-expert ear.
3) Therefore, the statement must be correct.
The problem with such an argument is that it commits a logical fallacy known as the appeal to authority . You, sir, are not an authority on grammar (or, apparently, on logic).
Allow me to explain why the grandparent poster is correct.
"Were" is the third-person plural past tense of the verb "to be," (PDF file) which implies an action began in the past and concluded fairly shortly thereafter. In other words, the action was brief and did not extend over a long period of time. In the United States legal system, a person "stands accused" of a crime or civil liability for the period beginning with the indictment/arraignment/serving of papers/etc. until the jury returns a verdict, the judge hands down a decision, etc. (barring any appeal).
This necessitates the use of the perfect tense (action began in the past and continues in the present) or the present tense (action occurring now). The perfect tense (what I would have preferred, actually) is "They have been accused...," while the present tense is what the grandparent poster used.
I should also point out that if the accused had been killed before the story went to press -- an example that you invented out of thin air, by the way -- then past tense is still wrong, and you should have used past perfect tense instead: "They had been accused of spamming."
Of course, we could have avoided this entire debate if the AP story writer and the copy-editor in charge of looking over the story had used more proper terminology and said "They stand accused..." in the first place. (Yes, the original error comes from TFA, which I R.)
p
When I checked /. around the time this story was posted, there was a comment from the editor who posted it to the effect of "several recent stories on Slashdot have discussed this," along with links to said semi-dupes.
Now that sentence (it was the last sentence of the article blurb) is gone.
What the dilly, yo?
p
/me really wishes he had bookmarked the other two or three Soviet Russia joke posts that were appropriate...ah well. Here's one:
#8732207
Ah, heck, here are a bunch.
#8733043
#8734071
#8735716
#8734082
#8734710
#8732033
#8732104
So yeah, not quite the first. But it's certainly rare that such jokes are on-topic.
p
Even the fastest of close wheeled race cars (many of which have comparable horsepower, much stickier tires, far less weight and better aerodynamics) are hard pressed to break 200mph even on tracks with enormous straight sections. Mostly they keep to speeds below 150 because of having to constantly brake for curves.
Yes, that's why they keep to those speeds, but the reason they're hard-pressed to go a lot faster than 200 is because they aren't geared for it. When your powerband is 3000 RPM wide but it doesn't start until 13,500 RPM, you tend to gear the car as close as possible to keep the engine on full boil all the time. If you put proper high-speed gearing on an F1 car and gave it a 10-mile straight, it could *easily* exceed 250. Same with most NASCAR rides, which, it should be noted, had no problems exceeding 200 MPH on superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega before restrictor plates.
I don't believe Bugatti's 250 MPH figure, however. Just like I don't believe McLaren's 237 MPH figure for the F1. It's never been confirmed by a third-party radar test. Hell, I can make the speedo in my Accord read 200 MPH if I want to, and still remain within the legal speed limit. Doesn't mean I'm doing 200 MPH...
As you noted, the Veyron is a brick. It isn't as aerodynamic as the McLaren F1, though it does have about 50% more claimed BHP. I'll believe 250 when Car and Driver shows it to me. Until then, it's marketing hype, and nothing more.
p
+1, Insightful for the first sentence.
-1, Rampant Vapourware for the second.
p