Agreed. According to the article, Tesla claims that the forward looking camera may have had difficulty distinguishing the white truck from the sky. What is concerning is that it appears Tesla is using cameras for forward collision detection. Why not something less prone to noise from sunlight, like Ultrasound or laser rangefinding? Relying solely on cameras is worrying in my opinion.
While this decision to allow homosexual people to marry is to be praised, there are groups of other people still being discriminated against and prevented from marrying even though they love and commit to each other.
A good example of a group still being discriminated against are consenting adults who wish to marry into polygamous relationships. Why do these people not deserve the same rights and protections as homosexual and heterosexual people?
The BMW i3 already does this. Its got a 66HP 0.4L generator that operates as a true series hybrid. The 1.9 gallon tank gives you an additional ~92 miles of range.
Yes, the Chevy Volt mostly does this. It operates in Series Hybrid mode (ie. uses a 1.4L ICE with 9 gallon tank to charge the battery) when speeds are low and switches to a sort of parallel hybrid mode when speeds are higher. The Chevy Volt gets a combined 37MPG when driven in this mode.
A true series Hybrid, like the BMW i3 ReX utilizes a much smaller 0.4L ICE with a 1.9 gallon tank to charge the battery and give you an additional 92 miles of range on gasoline.
Its time to stop the myth of Eniac being the first electronic programmmable computer. It is well established and generally accepted in the scientific and historic community that Konrad Zuse (from Germany) developed the worlds first electronic programmable computer, the Z3 in 1941 in Germany.
In 1998, it was even proven that his Z3 computer was Turing Complete.
Germany, the traditional powerhouse in physics and America shared this 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics. The interesting thing is the Glauber, the american scientist, was awarded 1/2 of the prize money (approx. 1.1 Million Euro), while Hänsch, from Germany, and Hall, from America, had to share the other half.
Hall, 71, of Colorado University and Hänsch, 63, of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and Munich's Ludwig Maximilian University, share the other half of the prize "for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique".
Hänsch told reporters in Stockholm via telephone that he was at his Munich office when he learned he had won the prize.
"I was speechless and very, very ecstatic," he said. "I'm now trying to get used to the idea.
"I have learned that you don't have to know everything in your field. But you have to know what has previously not been known," he added.
Its too bad that posts from the actual KDE developers are (at the moment) being either ignorned or modded down. Must be alot of Apple fans on Slashdot these days.
Historically, Germany has always been on the forefront of technology. During WWII they had the first operational Jet Fighter and invented many technologies that we use today including the modern cruise missle and the modern Rocket Engine.
In the later years, Germany produced some of the most interesting technology that we currently use almost everyday such as mp3's. It is no wonder that countries like Germany and/or Japan tend to dominate the Robo World Cup. In their culture, its cool to be a 'geek'!
Your standard Volkswagen Jetta TDI gets over 52+ MPG. Thats better milage than the Prius, costs less than the prius, doesn't need batteries that need to be replaced in 5-10 yrs and meets even rigorous California emission standards.
Whats all this hype about Hybrids?
Evolving embodied agents with Genetic Algorithms
on
Evolving Lego Mindstorms
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
If you find the article interesting, you may want to take a look at some of the Reasearch I did for my Master's thesis.
I created a virtual population of Embodied Agents that compete for resources (ala. survival of the fittest). My implementation of the Genetic Algorithm has a fitness selection routine that would optimize for the individuals with the best methods of locomotion.
It is amazing to observe the progress of evolution. Initially, the agents act as though they don't know what they are doing, their movements being very laboured and imprecise. As the population continues to evolve, individuals from the later generations begin to increasingly show signs of intelligent improvements. Such as being able to coordinate and time their movements to afford them better walking/running behaviors. What is really surprising is that as I allowed the population to continue to evolve, I saw behaviors that I could never have predicted. Some of the agents began to do "tricks" and evolved some strange jumping or sommersalting behaviors, not unlike that of a gymnast.
If you get a chance, check out my thesis. It is freely available (with GPL'd source code) at:
http://www.erachampion.com/ai
With the 0.8 release of Firefox, the OSS community has achieved, no, surpassed browser expectations that many have had.
The question now remains.. With IE the default on Windows, what compelling reason does Joe User have to go through the trouble switching to Firefox? I can think of a few: tabbed browsing, security, NTLM compatibility, popup blocking.
But what about Joe Users' activeX sites? Will Firefox work with sites that use activeX? Unfortunately not. Will Joe User see this as a failing of Firefox? Probably. So what can we do to address this issue? Any thoughts?
I have run apache/php on my Zaurus and it works great for serving web pages across 802.11b! I don't know if anyone would try this setup as a production web server; however, it's cool that it works.
A Lockpick set is probably illegal (depending upon which state she attends college in). In California, for instance, it is illegal for any person to posses a lockpick set without being a licensed locksmith.
The other thing you should consider is, are these the values you want to instill in a new college student? Sure hacking, and messing around can be fun, but in today's society, there is a fine line between having fun and breaking the law!
Gururise
More Booth Babes
on
E3 Wrapup
·
· Score: 2, Informative
For your pleasure..
Take a look at these Booth Babes from last years E3!
We had a great time. I especially enjoyed the photos with the police girls!
I have an SMC CF card for my Zaurus, and I have gotten over 3+ hours of continuous internet access with the backlight on before my battery meter starts to show low battery. So the SMC is not as much a power hog as some people claim.
Also, the SMC does not block any ports, and is very very compact in size.
The SYMBOL CARD DOES WORK with the Zaurus. Check out Zaurus Software Index for the Socket/Symbol drivers.
One of the greatest Linux PDA's has just recently been released by Sharp. The Zaurus SL-5500 Linux Based PDA has features above and beyond that of other top of the line handhelds.
Will the community embrace this PDA and support it? I find it a bit odd that Gnome and KDE both so throughly support the Palm Pilots; yet, support for the Zaurus is completely absent despite the developer units being availiable since late last year!
Anyone have any news regarding Zaurus Support in Linux??
I just purchased the Crossover Plugin 1.1.0 yesterday. I've been using Linux exclusively for about a year now (prior to this I had been dual booting). My wife has been using WindowsME, and you can imagine her horror when I told her I'd like to replace her beloved O.S. with Mandrake 8.2! In order to avoid violence, I had to promise her that her Trillian, RealPlayer, and Quicktime would work in Linux. The only way I could keep my word was to purchase the Crossover plugin (thank You Codeweavers!).
I was able to replace the following apps: Outlook -> Evolution Word -> Abiword Excel -> Gnumeric Photoshop -> Gimp IE -> Konqeror or Galeon
While the transition was not 100% smooth, I think she is satisifed. She does miss her MS Word, and her Trillian does not work 100% yet. I had no qualms about purchasing the Crossover plugin, as I believe it will support Wine development. Now my question is, shouldn't the new Crossover Office be incorporated into the Codeweavers Wine distribution? It was my understanding that purchasing the Crossover plugin would help improve Wine so that more Applications could be run with it. I understand Codeweavers has to make money, but I sure hope they don't come out with a Crossover Photoshop plugin at an additional $40 (get my drift?). I think application support should be added to the Codeweavers wine. I don't mind paying for Crossover Plugin, as it allows us to use browser plugins that wine does not support; however, I would not like to pay $20-50 per application for support in Wine.
I also hear that Codeweavers plans on submitting the improvements back to the Wine project, so I might just be blowing steam here. A good idea for Codeweavers is to charge the $50 for companies or for people who need support, while other people who do not need support can download the Codeweavers Wine and use that to run their MS office apps.
Right now, the way to speed up a processor is to pack more transistors on the chip (which is made possible by the ever decreasing die sizes), and to increase clock speeds, which are also helped by better transistors and a smaller die size. The additional transistors are used for additional caches, better branch prediction logic, super scalar architecture (multiple pipelines), and a host of other techniques that help improve the instruction level parallism (ILP).
Eventually, the laws of physics will catch up to us, and Moore's law will not be upheld. How long this will take is anyone's guess; however, many respected scientists believe that uniprocessor systems will continue to see advances into 2006.
At some point in the future, we will not be able to make the die sizes any smaller (right now we are at 0.13 micron) due to the quantum effects that such small circuits display, engineers will be forced to seek alternative methods of performance enhancement. In addition, I suspect, there will also come a time when we can not get a transistor to switch any faster (you can't switch in 0 time). Then what?
So far, the only alternative is Parallel Distributed computing. Having a cheap/efficient parallel computer based on a commodity processor is where the future will be. Operating System support and Compiler support is another story, but Mosix for linux is a good start! =)
I think the fork is the greatest news to happen to the distributed/parallel computing community. Mosix has the potential to bring distributed computing to the masses; however, updates were slow to come, the mailing list is down as of December 2001, and it was beginning to look like Mosix was dying.
I for one, hope that the OpenMosix project moves forward, and makes quick and timely releases. I would like to see an openMosix for 2.4.17 and the upcoming 2.4.18! Great work guys!
Sounds like it will work great, until the criminal unplugs your Linux Server.
Re:A PS2 with different games
on
XBox Released
·
· Score: 1
As any videophile will tell you, using the internal scan doubler of a TV produces output of inferior quality vs. having an already progressive (line doubled) signal fed into the input of a TV.
Most new RPTV's and HDTV sets can support a 480p input. If the XBox truely outputs a 480p signal, I would expect the quality to be superior to that of a Playstation 2 who's output is 480i which can then be converted to 480p by the TV set.
Though you end up with 480p in both cases, its quite obvious the XBox solution is the optimal one.
Slashdot Mirror
Agreed. According to the article, Tesla claims that the forward looking camera may have had difficulty distinguishing the white truck from the sky. What is concerning is that it appears Tesla is using cameras for forward collision detection. Why not something less prone to noise from sunlight, like Ultrasound or laser rangefinding? Relying solely on cameras is worrying in my opinion.
While this decision to allow homosexual people to marry is to be praised, there are groups of other people still being discriminated against and prevented from marrying even though they love and commit to each other.
A good example of a group still being discriminated against are consenting adults who wish to marry into polygamous relationships. Why do these people not deserve the same rights and protections as homosexual and heterosexual people?
#EqualRightsForAllHumans
The BMW i3 already does this. Its got a 66HP 0.4L generator that operates as a true series hybrid. The 1.9 gallon tank gives you an additional ~92 miles of range.
Yes, the Chevy Volt mostly does this. It operates in Series Hybrid mode (ie. uses a 1.4L ICE with 9 gallon tank to charge the battery) when speeds are low and switches to a sort of parallel hybrid mode when speeds are higher. The Chevy Volt gets a combined 37MPG when driven in this mode.
A true series Hybrid, like the BMW i3 ReX utilizes a much smaller 0.4L ICE with a 1.9 gallon tank to charge the battery and give you an additional 92 miles of range on gasoline.
In 1998, it was even proven that his Z3 computer was Turing Complete.
Another good link is here
Germany, the traditional powerhouse in physics and America shared this 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics. The interesting thing is the Glauber, the american scientist, was awarded 1/2 of the prize money (approx. 1.1 Million Euro), while Hänsch, from Germany, and Hall, from America, had to share the other half.
Hall, 71, of Colorado University and Hänsch, 63, of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and Munich's Ludwig Maximilian University, share the other half of the prize "for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique".
Hänsch told reporters in Stockholm via telephone that he was at his Munich office when he learned he had won the prize.
"I was speechless and very, very ecstatic," he said. "I'm now trying to get used to the idea.
"I have learned that you don't have to know everything in your field. But you have to know what has previously not been known," he added.
As an experiement, we created an online German Language Resource to see what effect (if any) Slashdot has on our number of registered visitors.
Its too bad that posts from the actual KDE developers are (at the moment) being either ignorned or modded down. Must be alot of Apple fans on Slashdot these days.
Historically, Germany has always been on the forefront of technology. During WWII they had the first operational Jet Fighter and invented many technologies that we use today including the modern cruise missle and the modern Rocket Engine.
In the later years, Germany produced some of the most interesting technology that we currently use almost everyday such as mp3's. It is no wonder that countries like Germany and/or Japan tend to dominate the Robo World Cup. In their culture, its cool to be a 'geek'!
Your standard Volkswagen Jetta TDI gets over 52+ MPG. Thats better milage than the Prius, costs less than the prius, doesn't need batteries that need to be replaced in 5-10 yrs and meets even rigorous California emission standards.
Whats all this hype about Hybrids?
It is amazing to observe the progress of evolution. Initially, the agents act as though they don't know what they are doing, their movements being very laboured and imprecise. As the population continues to evolve, individuals from the later generations begin to increasingly show signs of intelligent improvements. Such as being able to coordinate and time their movements to afford them better walking/running behaviors. What is really surprising is that as I allowed the population to continue to evolve, I saw behaviors that I could never have predicted. Some of the agents began to do "tricks" and evolved some strange jumping or sommersalting behaviors, not unlike that of a gymnast.
If you get a chance, check out my thesis. It is freely available (with GPL'd source code) at: http://www.erachampion.com/ai
I'm running Gentoo.. Where can I get the ebuilds for this?
=)
With the 0.8 release of Firefox, the OSS community has achieved, no, surpassed browser expectations that many have had.
The question now remains.. With IE the default on Windows, what compelling reason does Joe User have to go through the trouble switching to Firefox? I can think of a few: tabbed browsing, security, NTLM compatibility, popup blocking.
But what about Joe Users' activeX sites? Will Firefox work with sites that use activeX? Unfortunately not. Will Joe User see this as a failing of Firefox? Probably. So what can we do to address this issue? Any thoughts?
Inventors: Megiddo; Nimrod (Palo Alto, CA); Zhu; Xiaoming (San Jose, CA)
Nothing personal, but now we can say that the patent on a "System, method and program product for software development" was invented by a Nimrod.
I have run apache/php on my Zaurus and it works great for serving web pages across 802.11b! I don't know if anyone would try this setup as a production web server; however, it's cool that it works.
Guru
ERA Champion Real Estate
Other great ideas would be a Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 with an 802.11b card and the kismet wireless sniffing software. Great for wardriving, or just walking around the dorms, sniffing for open networks.
The other thing you should consider is, are these the values you want to instill in a new college student? Sure hacking, and messing around can be fun, but in today's society, there is a fine line between having fun and breaking the law!
Gururise
Take a look at these Booth Babes from last years E3!
We had a great time. I especially enjoyed the photos with the police girls!
Gururise
Also, the SMC does not block any ports, and is very very compact in size.
The SYMBOL CARD DOES WORK with the Zaurus.
Check out Zaurus Software Index for the Socket/Symbol drivers.
Will the community embrace this PDA and support it? I find it a bit odd that Gnome and KDE both so throughly support the Palm Pilots; yet, support for the Zaurus is completely absent despite the developer units being availiable since late last year!
Anyone have any news regarding Zaurus Support in Linux??
I just purchased the Crossover Plugin 1.1.0 yesterday. I've been using Linux exclusively for about a year now (prior to this I had been dual booting).
My wife has been using WindowsME, and you can imagine her horror when I told her I'd like to replace her beloved O.S. with Mandrake 8.2! In order to avoid violence, I had to promise her that her Trillian, RealPlayer, and Quicktime would work in Linux. The only way I could keep my word was to purchase the Crossover plugin (thank You Codeweavers!).
I was able to replace the following apps:
Outlook -> Evolution
Word -> Abiword
Excel -> Gnumeric
Photoshop -> Gimp
IE -> Konqeror or Galeon
While the transition was not 100% smooth, I think she is satisifed. She does miss her MS Word, and her Trillian does not work 100% yet. I had no qualms about purchasing the Crossover plugin, as I believe it will support Wine development.
Now my question is, shouldn't the new Crossover Office be incorporated into the Codeweavers Wine distribution?
It was my understanding that purchasing the Crossover plugin would help improve Wine so that more Applications could be run with it. I understand Codeweavers has to make money, but I sure hope they don't come out with a Crossover Photoshop plugin at an additional $40 (get my drift?). I think application support should be added to the Codeweavers wine. I don't mind paying for Crossover Plugin, as it allows us to use browser plugins that wine does not support; however, I would not like to pay $20-50 per application for support in Wine.
I also hear that Codeweavers plans on submitting the improvements back to the Wine project, so I might just be blowing steam here. A good idea for Codeweavers is to charge the $50 for companies or for people who need support, while other people who do not need support can download the Codeweavers Wine and use that to run their MS office apps.
* She likes her Windows Media Player
* She likes her RealPlayer 8
* She likes her Trillian
Xmms will replace her winamp.
Gimp will replace her Photoshop.
But what am I to do about Microsoft Word, Excel, and Publisher??
Eventually, the laws of physics will catch up to us, and Moore's law will not be upheld. How long this will take is anyone's guess; however, many respected scientists believe that uniprocessor systems will continue to see advances into 2006.
At some point in the future, we will not be able to make the die sizes any smaller (right now we are at 0.13 micron) due to the quantum effects that such small circuits display, engineers will be forced to seek alternative methods of performance enhancement. In addition, I suspect, there will also come a time when we can not get a transistor to switch any faster (you can't switch in 0 time). Then what?
So far, the only alternative is Parallel Distributed computing. Having a cheap/efficient parallel computer based on a commodity processor is where the future will be. Operating System support and Compiler support is another story, but Mosix for linux is a good start! =)
Guru
ERA Champion R/E, Inc.
I for one, hope that the OpenMosix project moves forward, and makes quick and timely releases. I would like to see an openMosix for 2.4.17 and the upcoming 2.4.18! Great work guys!
Sounds like it will work great, until the criminal unplugs your Linux Server.
Most new RPTV's and HDTV sets can support a 480p input. If the XBox truely outputs a 480p signal, I would expect the quality to be superior to that of a Playstation 2 who's output is 480i which can then be converted to 480p by the TV set.
Though you end up with 480p in both cases, its quite obvious the XBox solution is the optimal one.
Gene Ruebsamen
Orange County Real Estate