Terminal Velocity talks about Cheryl Stears (U.S.) and Rodd Millner (Australia) who are both going for a record skydiving attempt from 130,000 feet. It looks like QinetiQ is going for altitude. Millner and Stearns are going for altitude and extreme gravitational acceleration.
Forte for Java
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Java IDEs?
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I've used Forte for Java Community Edition (CE) and it's really great. It's free, and supports most everything the developer needs, although if you need some beefier features you have to pay for the Enterprise Edition.
The only problems I've had with it are a lackluster editor, which doesn't do as much syntax coloring as I would like or handle indentation very well (you have to right-click and choose to re-indent/nice-up the code).
But one of the nice things about Forte is that it uses XML and plain text for all the project files. You can copy the files from one computer to another and even between platforms and you're good to go as long as you have a copy of Forte for Java over there.
I've heard that the result of the anti-trust probe into IBM and the resulting litigation resulted in IBM being under serious restrictions regarding just what they could release on the market, in addition to how they could continue to practice business. I've heard that they were/are actually prevented from delivering some of their technologies and products.
Microsoft is trying to avoid the exact same thing. Currently, IBM is an amazing source of research and technology, but they're not so amazing anymore when it comes to their influence on the industry and financial status.
Think of the last time your Windows machine was marketed with Navigator, Corel's office suite or StarOffice, etc.
This needs a bit more clarification, I think. The truth is that Windows machines sold by Gateway, Dell, etc. are now only marketed and bundled with software like MS Office, and maybe some Anti-Virus software (non-MS, of course). But the hardware side is different. OEMs market hardware bundles a lot, and the companies that are providing these hardware components are in a much better position than software developers who are trying to get onto the end user's desktop. ATI, Epson, HP, Palm, etc. are bundled with Windows machines on the motherboard, as printers and scanners, and PDAs. Here you see a lot of push for competition in an attempt to attract the consumer. There's no such software push.
For an example of how obvious this is, and how important as well, you only need to take a look at the new Apple stores. Apple is trying very, very hard to get consumers to come in and see what they can do with a Mac, and how it is better than Windows. To that end, their stores feature BOTH hardware and software offerings from a number of different vendors (e.g. Sony hardware, MS hardware, MS software, Apple software, games, Adobe software, Palm hardware). You won't find anything like this from any other OEM, or even from any other dealer/retailer. CompUSA does carry software and hardware in addition to selling Windows machines, but the store, marketing, and the sales force is not organized to try and associate those other software and hardware products with the Windows computer itself.
You forgot one: There is no OS but Mac OS and Steve Jobs is its prophet.
Oh, wait. Mac OS zealots are constantly being 1) made fun of by everyone else, 2) told they are complete idiots, 3) reminded of that 95% operating system.
The truth is, passion for something one believes in is a good thing, regardless of what that something is. But fanatical devotion is when things can get bad.
I think Mac OS fanatics are a good example of how a fanatic should act. You tell others of why you think something is better, and argue to prove it. You don't kill people who you disagree with (as anti-abortionist fanatics do), punish teammates who "sympathize" with the "enemy" (as those RedHat fanatics did, and as government, and therefore society, does), or force your beliefs upon others (as every nation in power has done throughout history).
If only people were content to tell other people why they think something is great or better, and leave it at that.
"I think Mac OS is the best OS, and using it is its prophet," said the Mac OS, Windows, DOS, Solaris, Linux, and FreeBSD user.
James L. Halperin: The Truth Machine; The First Immortal.
The Truth Machine explores what life would be like from a societial and moral perspective if a 100% accurate lie detector was created. The reason I believe this book is an important read is because it really looks at what our species would become if everyone was completely truthful, and what it means if someone is not truthful in such a society. A great deal of how our current society works is based on the assumption that a person can lie. One day in the future, take the time to think about how you behave when interacting with people and absorbing information, with respect to the truthfulness of those interactions and information. You will discover just how important the ideas of true, false, and shades in-between are to your everyday life.
The First Immortal is not as interesting from a philosophical standpoint as The Truth Machine, in my opinion. However, it approaches the issue of immortality in a similar vein. Our society is directly influenced by death, much as it is influenced by the ideas of truth. Halperin explores what our society would be like if life and death became much more absolute once immortality becomes a reality.
The strength of Halperin is that he is able to realistically explore these ideas while keeping the reader thinking about the world they are currently living in. While many other authors use science fiction to look at a completely different reality, Halperin's books read as if they are historical recounts of specific people who are currently alive in the present (1990-2000).
Tad Williams: Otherland & Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn
I like to think of Tad Williams as the fantasy and science fiction author who is the Tolkien for the rest of us. As anyone who has read Tolkien knows, his world is incredibly rich but the actual story sometimes gets lost in the detailed description he presents. Williams' "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" 3-4 book set (it was 3 books, but the last one was put into two volumes when reprinted since it was so long) is a fantasy trilogy which I believe builds as rich a world as Tolkien, but in the story that focuses more on developing characters than Tolkien does.
Although "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" is an excellent fantasy trilogy, it is not something which creates anything so special as to invoke discussion. The Otherland series (4 books), however, can very well do that. In some respects, this is like the anime series Lain in that it explores the blurring of reality and virtual reality, but it does not go as far as to say they are one and the same. Instead, the story presents bits and pieces of what it would mean to have two equally acceptable realities. I say bits and pieces because the focus of this series is more on the plot than on the ideas.
Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game & Ender's Shadow
Of all Orson Scott Card's books (BTW-the name Orson and the presence of the pig-like creatures in one of the Ender books makes me think of Orson from Jim Davis' comics), Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow are the most impactful. The issues presented, the character development, and the story are thought provoking in different ways for persons of all ages. I think the greatest difficulty which Card had to face, and one which he handled amazingly, was to tell the story from an objective point of view. The motivations and emotions of the characters involved never force one particular conclusion upon the reader. It is the reader's responsiblity to come to his or her own conclusions, but the objectivity of the story makes it impossible to come to a conclusion which is inherently or completely acceptable.
The other books in the Ender series are also very good, and deal with difficult personal issues. I especially like the one with those pig-like creatures (I forget how to spell their name correctly). But in the books which involve Ender as an adult, the story is not presented objectively and instead of idea is mostly to explore an idea which Card has already come to a conclusion about. I'm not too crazy about the non-Ender books by Card.
I don't think Mount Rainer can be patented. This format is declared "next-generation" because it allows you to treat CD-Rs and CD-RWs as regular media with drag-and-drop capabilities for burning data. But I'm pretty sure the latest version of Mac OS X already does that. I run Mac OS X but don't have a burner, so I haven't been able to try it myself, but after reading a recent review on C|NET, it appears you can drag-and-drop onto DVDs, CD-Rs, and CD-RWs to burn data. Prior art, right there.
And since the main purpose of this format appears to be the functional benefits of treating CD-Rs and CD-RWs as regular removable media (floppies, JAZ disks, etc.), the only thing left to patent would be the physical disk. But, that's not possible because there's nothing special or different about "MRW" disks: they are just regular CD-RWs. The real support for MRW comes from the OS and software, not from hardware.
So don't get your hopes up that Philips decided to forego the royalties in favor of widespread adoption. It's entirely possible that someone who works for Philips actually has a Mac OS X system and discovered that the project they've been working on for two years was just shown up by Apple.
In my opinion, however, Philips is more interested in making money by selling lots of disks marked "MRW" at a premium instead of selling CD-RWs. Having support for MRW everywhere then makes more sense than charging developers for support for the format. I doubt Philips ever intended to close off access to the specification despite what Andre Hendrick says. Perhaps they were just keeping it closed until it was finalized.
Re:Think before you gripe....
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Apple releases iPod
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· Score: 2, Insightful
The direct connection to iTunes is the only Mac-only feature that I can see; I should hope Apple will be smart enough to enable compatability with PCs, or if not, develop a Windows version of iTunes to do the same job.
Have you seen the new Windows XP commercials? It looks like Microsoft is bundling something like iTunes (and also something like iMovie, gee, who woulda thunk) with it's latest OS. So, I think it would be up to Microsoft to support firewire MP3 players in its new software.
Plus, I don't think Apple would or should port iTunes to Windows. The fact is, iTunes is part of the Mac OS experience Apple is promoting in an attempt to show that using a Mac is faster, simpler, more productive, and more powerful. Porting iTunes to Windows would make the Mac OS lose one of its selling points and would no doubt provide a worse experience of the software than a user would have using it on a Mac. Providing a port that results in a worse user experience is not something that Apple would ever do.
I have a 2-port Belkin OmniCube and a 4-port Raritan SwitchMan.
The Belkin OmniCube is crappy, doesn't support high resolutions and decent refresh rates, and then it broke so that I could only get signal to one of the computers. Yay! A signal degrader instead of a KVM. The place I work at also has larger Belkin KVMs and they're not working like they're supposed to. Cheap and a waste of money.
The Raritan SwitchMan is exceptional, and works wonderfully. However, you need to use special cables as it wants Male to Male instead of the usual Male to Female. The cables aren't cheap. But I can run high resolutions at 85Hz, and there are some programmable features. You can also chain them together. The more expensive Raritan models support some even more interesting features. The only drawbacks are the somewhat more expensive price, and lack of support for Macs and USB.
I've also found that in addition to switching the keyboard, monitor, and mouse, I want to switch the audio. So, I purchased a Nady MM4 mixer from Musician's Friend (about $80 after shipping) and now I can also mix four audio sources to my Desktop Theater 5.1 sound system.
Something else I think should be mentioned is that you don't have to use KVMs (or the audio mixer) only for computers. I have my Dreamcast plugged into the Raritan KVM and Nady MM4 mixer for use with the VGA output. I plan on getting a PS2 and sending it to the same port of the KVM via a breakout box and video switcher (and my N64 at that point as well), or to a TV tuner card and then to the monitor, plus it's audio signal to the mixer.
The only thing I really want but haven't seen anywhere is the ability to use Macs and PCs alongside the gaming consoles. You can't really interchange Mac and Windows keyboards, but I'd love a KVM that I could do that with. If it could just interpret the Command/Apple key on the keyboard as the Windows key, and vice-versa, then I could put them all on one keyboard, monitor, and mouse.
Yeah, except no one reads the EULA and everyone buys new computers running Windows XP. You can't request Windows 98 on a computer from Dell. And now Microsoft is turning on their force-upgrade plan. Do you really think the average consumer (i.e. 95% market share in the U.S.) is going to think they have any choice here?
Consumer Joe buys a new computer. Hm. I can't rip CDs to share anymore. I'll look online for that new song. Hm. No one seems to have this music for download anymore in peer-to-peer file sharing systems (because the consumer joes can't rip, and it's illegal to run a central server). I guess I have to buy the CD for $35.
Consumer Joe doesn't know how to go out and find file servers outside the U.S. which aren't subject to these problems. Consumer Joe can't download and install easy to use software (e.g. Napster) to access external servers because its installation is blocked by Microsoft software.
So what is the solution? You'll have to use an illegal OS with black-market hardware. Why? Because of the SSSCA (spelled that right?). And how many Consumer Joes are going to do that. Or leave the country. I'm starting to think the latter may be the only choice.
I finally rebooted it when it took a worryingly long time to hibernate (this, to the uninitiated, involves writing all memory out to disk, suspending drivers etc so the system can come back up in it's original state) - which I think's fair enough, seeing as it's quite a large task to ask any OS to do.
I don't know about that being "fair enough". Connectix has supported writing out the entire system to disk so you can come back up to Windows as if you never shut down with their VirtualPC product line. And I don't recall ever having trouble with the write out/read in time there. Of course the entire emulation was slower than an actual x86 Windows machine, but the "hibernation" doesn't require any Windows emulation.
Also, it seems to me that if there is some point at which the hibernation process takes exceptionally long to complete, then there is something very wrong. Perhaps a memory leak, or disk paging problem, or something like that. In which case, the hibernation process might actually corrupt your system state. And that's definitely a bad thing.
You know what the problem with that is? The problem is that we're the bully, we punched them, and they shot back with a few airplanes. You think they attacked the U.S. because we're the weakest one with the easy lunch money? They attacked the U.S. because we're the leader of the jocks who are telling everyone else that they have to live by the jocks' rules.
"Blow Them All Up" or "Don't Punch Back"
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More On Tragedy
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· Score: 1
A lot of people want to hit back at whoever did this and hit them hard. I saw suggested on the news last night that if we can prove that Bin Laden and the Taliban (indirectly as keepers of Bin Laden) can be definitively connected to this event, that we should blow up their entire government.
And, unfortunately, I think that's about the only violent way to solve this problem. Violence does solve problems, as history has shown, and contrary to school teachers. But the problem here is the bully in this schoolyard is driven by hatred. And everyone knows that punching back at someone who hates you is only going to make them hate you more. The only solutions to hatred are to defuse the hatred, or completely destroy it. You can't punch back and say "you hurt me, I hurt you back, now you shouldn't hurt me anymore because I showed you that I can hurt you a lot too."
The problem is that last approach of punching back is just about the only response which politics and the American public will accept. The people and the U.S. government won't accept an all out bomb-them-to-hell approach because that would be deemed morally unacceptable. Likewise, they won't accept an approach which attempts to defuse the hatred because that will be seen as a weak position.
As a result, we'll see some military strikes that really just amount to a few punches in the face, making the hatred grow. Unless something happens which enables the U.S. government to assasinate Bin Laden and cover it up. I doubt the other nations would allow a justification for his assasination to fly.
I think the sensible solution is to try and defuse the hatred. But, of course, people will see that as caving in to terrorist demands. But that is why we have diplomats. Diplomats are in charge of getting both parties to agree on a compromise that doesn't make either party feel like they have caved in to the demands of the other party.
And before any Americans start yelling about how we're the good guys, they're the bad guys, and their hatred is all wrong and bad, I'm telling you all to shut up because you've got hatred for those terrorists yourself. Learn to Grok, and understand that "Thou art God!"
I think some of the very best games when it comes down to problem solving, reasoning, etc. are the original Sierra games. For example the King's Quest, Space Quest, Quest for Glory, and Police Quest series(es?).
Unfortunately, there is a little bit of violence in some of these, notably Quest for Glory which involves sword fighting, Police Quest since you are a cop, and the latest King's Quest which really tried to get gamers who are into things like Quake. But most of the violence in the other King's Quest and Space Quest games weren't anything you wouldn't see in a storybook for kids.
Anyone else look at Adam's resume and notice that he worked at Xing and was part of both Q&A and their MPEG library development? Perhaps he had some small part in the ultimate release of DeCSS. Just a thought.;P
A lot of computers are set up with loose UDP. All those computers, which are quite a few, would let incoming traffic go to 5503 if a local program opened the port.
I would like to see the President say a disparaging remark about China and then go visit them only to get locked up in a standing-room only cell for 2 years. Maybe then the government will think twice about this Dimitry case.
I work at the UC Berkeley Multimedia Research Center. One of the things we have going on here is the encoding and decoding of video streams for use over the Internet/Internet2 using IP Multicast.
The thing is, you can get really good NTSC signals going at 20Mbps. This is television you would watch and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference without having another TV next to it and pushing your nose up against the screen. I'm not surprised that NASA is able to get a decent HDTV feed at 20Mbps. (If you read the article, you'll see that the signal was "crystal-clear", and not a thousand lines of noise.)
The problem is you need hardware to get decent framerates. We use LML33 boards to encode and decode NTSC to MJPEG at 30fps. These boards are $400. To encode MPEG-2 at a reasonable frame rate, you need hardware is at least $2000, I believe. If you try to use software encoding/decoding then your mileage varies but I usually get less than 10fps using 1/4 NTSC or CIF in MJPEG.
Seems to me that Keith had a horrible defense. I took the time to read the penal code, specifically the section which would apply here, and I would think any competent legal defense would have been able to show both that the code itself would not apply to this case and that the code is poorly worded.
Paraphrasing:
11418.5.(a): the threat must be "on its face and under the circumstances" be so unequivocal, immediate, and specific enough to make the person threatened feel that the threatener really means what they say and that the threat is likely to be carried out immediately.
11418.5.(b): "sustained fear" can be identified by any action taken in direct response to the threat, but is not limited to such.
So, for part a, I would think any decent defense would have made clear to the jury the circumstances under which these "supposed" threats were made. This would include making available the context of the Usenet postings. Failure to do so would be a good grounds for appeal.
For part b, I would hope that a defense lawyer would argue that this portion of the penal code is too vague and ill-constructed that it should not be used as a basis for enforcing this code.
Shipping Windows XP through OEM sales doesn't mean as much to Microsoft as getting existing users to upgrade. The biggest Microsoft customers aren't people who buy computers from Gateway or Dell, but companies who already have a lot of Microsoft software. These are companies who have agreements, sales contracts, many licenses, etc. with Microsoft. Microsoft wants these companies to upgrade more than they want the average consumer to buy a new computer with Windows XP on it.
I work at the UC Berkeley Multimedia Research Center (BMRC). One of the projects I help out with is Open Mash, which is an open source multimedia toolkit designed for streaming media. Check it out at http://www.openmash.org/. Includes encoders, decoders, etc. It's pretty much used with multicast/MBone. The toolkit is supported on FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, and Windows, but you could probably get it to work on whatever platform you're using if you have the right tools installed.
Battlefield Earth, the movie, is an excellent learning experience for Hollywood. Now that her latest attempt at taking a rich and detailed (and most importantly thinking instead of acting) book of epic length to the screen has failed, I don't think she'll be trying it again. This means we won't see any more intelligent authors ripped apart on the big screen. Hooray!
The Finder itself can be kinda confusing too, and the Mac OS is not a "make you stupider" design like Windows 9x, so your grandfather might even find it harder in that respect.
However, there are a couple of options here. First, the Finder (in Mac OS 8.5+, I believe) has an option called Simple Finder. I'm not sure if it's available in a Control Panel, but you can get to it from the Mac OS Setup Assistant. Plus, one of the view preference choices is to make all icons into buttons (kinda like AtEase). Another choice is to set yourself up as an "admin" user under Mac OS 9 and your grandfather as a user with much fewer privileges. He might even find it easier with Speech Recognition under Mac OS 8+ to "Open Nisus Writer", "Open Navigator", and "Open My eBooks Folder" instead of using a mouse or keyboard.
When I was around 10 or 11 years old, I started suffering extreme pain in my wrists. Over the course of a week, it got so bad that I could no longer type and moving my wrists hurt. This certainly sucks for a computer geek.
Anyway, I gave my hands and wrists a rest for a week or two, but in order to prevent this from happening again I have to put one of those soft wristpads up against the front of the keyboard. I've never had problems since. I also keep the keyboard as flat as possible (which means keeping those pop-up stands in the bottom closed) so that my wrists and hands are in a straight line when typing.
Dave (dgr116@psu.edu) is correct about your wrists being more comfortable if they are not resting on anything, but the setup I am most comfortable with does not particularly promote this. The arm-rests of my chair are actually below the top of the desk, and my keyboard and wristpad are placed on top of the desk (I hate those pull-out drawers).
Slashdot Mirror
Terminal Velocity talks about Cheryl Stears (U.S.) and Rodd Millner (Australia) who are both going for a record skydiving attempt from 130,000 feet. It looks like QinetiQ is going for altitude. Millner and Stearns are going for altitude and extreme gravitational acceleration.
I've used Forte for Java Community Edition (CE) and it's really great. It's free, and supports most everything the developer needs, although if you need some beefier features you have to pay for the Enterprise Edition.
The only problems I've had with it are a lackluster editor, which doesn't do as much syntax coloring as I would like or handle indentation very well (you have to right-click and choose to re-indent/nice-up the code).
But one of the nice things about Forte is that it uses XML and plain text for all the project files. You can copy the files from one computer to another and even between platforms and you're good to go as long as you have a copy of Forte for Java over there.
I've heard that the result of the anti-trust probe into IBM and the resulting litigation resulted in IBM being under serious restrictions regarding just what they could release on the market, in addition to how they could continue to practice business. I've heard that they were/are actually prevented from delivering some of their technologies and products.
Microsoft is trying to avoid the exact same thing. Currently, IBM is an amazing source of research and technology, but they're not so amazing anymore when it comes to their influence on the industry and financial status.
This needs a bit more clarification, I think. The truth is that Windows machines sold by Gateway, Dell, etc. are now only marketed and bundled with software like MS Office, and maybe some Anti-Virus software (non-MS, of course). But the hardware side is different. OEMs market hardware bundles a lot, and the companies that are providing these hardware components are in a much better position than software developers who are trying to get onto the end user's desktop. ATI, Epson, HP, Palm, etc. are bundled with Windows machines on the motherboard, as printers and scanners, and PDAs. Here you see a lot of push for competition in an attempt to attract the consumer. There's no such software push.
For an example of how obvious this is, and how important as well, you only need to take a look at the new Apple stores. Apple is trying very, very hard to get consumers to come in and see what they can do with a Mac, and how it is better than Windows. To that end, their stores feature BOTH hardware and software offerings from a number of different vendors (e.g. Sony hardware, MS hardware, MS software, Apple software, games, Adobe software, Palm hardware). You won't find anything like this from any other OEM, or even from any other dealer/retailer. CompUSA does carry software and hardware in addition to selling Windows machines, but the store, marketing, and the sales force is not organized to try and associate those other software and hardware products with the Windows computer itself.
You forgot one: There is no OS but Mac OS and Steve Jobs is its prophet.
Oh, wait. Mac OS zealots are constantly being 1) made fun of by everyone else, 2) told they are complete idiots, 3) reminded of that 95% operating system.
The truth is, passion for something one believes in is a good thing, regardless of what that something is. But fanatical devotion is when things can get bad.
I think Mac OS fanatics are a good example of how a fanatic should act. You tell others of why you think something is better, and argue to prove it. You don't kill people who you disagree with (as anti-abortionist fanatics do), punish teammates who "sympathize" with the "enemy" (as those RedHat fanatics did, and as government, and therefore society, does), or force your beliefs upon others (as every nation in power has done throughout history).
If only people were content to tell other people why they think something is great or better, and leave it at that.
"I think Mac OS is the best OS, and using it is its prophet," said the Mac OS, Windows, DOS, Solaris, Linux, and FreeBSD user.
James L. Halperin: The Truth Machine; The First Immortal.
The Truth Machine explores what life would be like from a societial and moral perspective if a 100% accurate lie detector was created. The reason I believe this book is an important read is because it really looks at what our species would become if everyone was completely truthful, and what it means if someone is not truthful in such a society. A great deal of how our current society works is based on the assumption that a person can lie. One day in the future, take the time to think about how you behave when interacting with people and absorbing information, with respect to the truthfulness of those interactions and information. You will discover just how important the ideas of true, false, and shades in-between are to your everyday life.
The First Immortal is not as interesting from a philosophical standpoint as The Truth Machine, in my opinion. However, it approaches the issue of immortality in a similar vein. Our society is directly influenced by death, much as it is influenced by the ideas of truth. Halperin explores what our society would be like if life and death became much more absolute once immortality becomes a reality.
The strength of Halperin is that he is able to realistically explore these ideas while keeping the reader thinking about the world they are currently living in. While many other authors use science fiction to look at a completely different reality, Halperin's books read as if they are historical recounts of specific people who are currently alive in the present (1990-2000).
Tad Williams: Otherland & Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn
I like to think of Tad Williams as the fantasy and science fiction author who is the Tolkien for the rest of us. As anyone who has read Tolkien knows, his world is incredibly rich but the actual story sometimes gets lost in the detailed description he presents. Williams' "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" 3-4 book set (it was 3 books, but the last one was put into two volumes when reprinted since it was so long) is a fantasy trilogy which I believe builds as rich a world as Tolkien, but in the story that focuses more on developing characters than Tolkien does.
Although "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn" is an excellent fantasy trilogy, it is not something which creates anything so special as to invoke discussion. The Otherland series (4 books), however, can very well do that. In some respects, this is like the anime series Lain in that it explores the blurring of reality and virtual reality, but it does not go as far as to say they are one and the same. Instead, the story presents bits and pieces of what it would mean to have two equally acceptable realities. I say bits and pieces because the focus of this series is more on the plot than on the ideas.
Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game & Ender's Shadow
Of all Orson Scott Card's books (BTW-the name Orson and the presence of the pig-like creatures in one of the Ender books makes me think of Orson from Jim Davis' comics), Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow are the most impactful. The issues presented, the character development, and the story are thought provoking in different ways for persons of all ages. I think the greatest difficulty which Card had to face, and one which he handled amazingly, was to tell the story from an objective point of view. The motivations and emotions of the characters involved never force one particular conclusion upon the reader. It is the reader's responsiblity to come to his or her own conclusions, but the objectivity of the story makes it impossible to come to a conclusion which is inherently or completely acceptable.
The other books in the Ender series are also very good, and deal with difficult personal issues. I especially like the one with those pig-like creatures (I forget how to spell their name correctly). But in the books which involve Ender as an adult, the story is not presented objectively and instead of idea is mostly to explore an idea which Card has already come to a conclusion about. I'm not too crazy about the non-Ender books by Card.
I don't think Mount Rainer can be patented. This format is declared "next-generation" because it allows you to treat CD-Rs and CD-RWs as regular media with drag-and-drop capabilities for burning data. But I'm pretty sure the latest version of Mac OS X already does that. I run Mac OS X but don't have a burner, so I haven't been able to try it myself, but after reading a recent review on C|NET, it appears you can drag-and-drop onto DVDs, CD-Rs, and CD-RWs to burn data. Prior art, right there.
And since the main purpose of this format appears to be the functional benefits of treating CD-Rs and CD-RWs as regular removable media (floppies, JAZ disks, etc.), the only thing left to patent would be the physical disk. But, that's not possible because there's nothing special or different about "MRW" disks: they are just regular CD-RWs. The real support for MRW comes from the OS and software, not from hardware.
So don't get your hopes up that Philips decided to forego the royalties in favor of widespread adoption. It's entirely possible that someone who works for Philips actually has a Mac OS X system and discovered that the project they've been working on for two years was just shown up by Apple.
In my opinion, however, Philips is more interested in making money by selling lots of disks marked "MRW" at a premium instead of selling CD-RWs. Having support for MRW everywhere then makes more sense than charging developers for support for the format. I doubt Philips ever intended to close off access to the specification despite what Andre Hendrick says. Perhaps they were just keeping it closed until it was finalized.
The direct connection to iTunes is the only Mac-only feature that I can see; I should hope Apple will be smart enough to enable compatability with PCs, or if not, develop a Windows version of iTunes to do the same job. Have you seen the new Windows XP commercials? It looks like Microsoft is bundling something like iTunes (and also something like iMovie, gee, who woulda thunk) with it's latest OS. So, I think it would be up to Microsoft to support firewire MP3 players in its new software. Plus, I don't think Apple would or should port iTunes to Windows. The fact is, iTunes is part of the Mac OS experience Apple is promoting in an attempt to show that using a Mac is faster, simpler, more productive, and more powerful. Porting iTunes to Windows would make the Mac OS lose one of its selling points and would no doubt provide a worse experience of the software than a user would have using it on a Mac. Providing a port that results in a worse user experience is not something that Apple would ever do.
I have a 2-port Belkin OmniCube and a 4-port Raritan SwitchMan.
The Belkin OmniCube is crappy, doesn't support high resolutions and decent refresh rates, and then it broke so that I could only get signal to one of the computers. Yay! A signal degrader instead of a KVM. The place I work at also has larger Belkin KVMs and they're not working like they're supposed to. Cheap and a waste of money.
The Raritan SwitchMan is exceptional, and works wonderfully. However, you need to use special cables as it wants Male to Male instead of the usual Male to Female. The cables aren't cheap. But I can run high resolutions at 85Hz, and there are some programmable features. You can also chain them together. The more expensive Raritan models support some even more interesting features. The only drawbacks are the somewhat more expensive price, and lack of support for Macs and USB.
I've also found that in addition to switching the keyboard, monitor, and mouse, I want to switch the audio. So, I purchased a Nady MM4 mixer from Musician's Friend (about $80 after shipping) and now I can also mix four audio sources to my Desktop Theater 5.1 sound system.
Something else I think should be mentioned is that you don't have to use KVMs (or the audio mixer) only for computers. I have my Dreamcast plugged into the Raritan KVM and Nady MM4 mixer for use with the VGA output. I plan on getting a PS2 and sending it to the same port of the KVM via a breakout box and video switcher (and my N64 at that point as well), or to a TV tuner card and then to the monitor, plus it's audio signal to the mixer.
The only thing I really want but haven't seen anywhere is the ability to use Macs and PCs alongside the gaming consoles. You can't really interchange Mac and Windows keyboards, but I'd love a KVM that I could do that with. If it could just interpret the Command/Apple key on the keyboard as the Windows key, and vice-versa, then I could put them all on one keyboard, monitor, and mouse.
Yeah, except no one reads the EULA and everyone buys new computers running Windows XP. You can't request Windows 98 on a computer from Dell. And now Microsoft is turning on their force-upgrade plan. Do you really think the average consumer (i.e. 95% market share in the U.S.) is going to think they have any choice here?
Consumer Joe buys a new computer. Hm. I can't rip CDs to share anymore. I'll look online for that new song. Hm. No one seems to have this music for download anymore in peer-to-peer file sharing systems (because the consumer joes can't rip, and it's illegal to run a central server). I guess I have to buy the CD for $35.
Consumer Joe doesn't know how to go out and find file servers outside the U.S. which aren't subject to these problems. Consumer Joe can't download and install easy to use software (e.g. Napster) to access external servers because its installation is blocked by Microsoft software.
So what is the solution? You'll have to use an illegal OS with black-market hardware. Why? Because of the SSSCA (spelled that right?). And how many Consumer Joes are going to do that. Or leave the country. I'm starting to think the latter may be the only choice.
I don't know about that being "fair enough". Connectix has supported writing out the entire system to disk so you can come back up to Windows as if you never shut down with their VirtualPC product line. And I don't recall ever having trouble with the write out/read in time there. Of course the entire emulation was slower than an actual x86 Windows machine, but the "hibernation" doesn't require any Windows emulation.
Also, it seems to me that if there is some point at which the hibernation process takes exceptionally long to complete, then there is something very wrong. Perhaps a memory leak, or disk paging problem, or something like that. In which case, the hibernation process might actually corrupt your system state. And that's definitely a bad thing.
You know what the problem with that is? The problem is that we're the bully, we punched them, and they shot back with a few airplanes. You think they attacked the U.S. because we're the weakest one with the easy lunch money? They attacked the U.S. because we're the leader of the jocks who are telling everyone else that they have to live by the jocks' rules.
A lot of people want to hit back at whoever did this and hit them hard. I saw suggested on the news last night that if we can prove that Bin Laden and the Taliban (indirectly as keepers of Bin Laden) can be definitively connected to this event, that we should blow up their entire government.
And, unfortunately, I think that's about the only violent way to solve this problem. Violence does solve problems, as history has shown, and contrary to school teachers. But the problem here is the bully in this schoolyard is driven by hatred. And everyone knows that punching back at someone who hates you is only going to make them hate you more. The only solutions to hatred are to defuse the hatred, or completely destroy it. You can't punch back and say "you hurt me, I hurt you back, now you shouldn't hurt me anymore because I showed you that I can hurt you a lot too."
The problem is that last approach of punching back is just about the only response which politics and the American public will accept. The people and the U.S. government won't accept an all out bomb-them-to-hell approach because that would be deemed morally unacceptable. Likewise, they won't accept an approach which attempts to defuse the hatred because that will be seen as a weak position.
As a result, we'll see some military strikes that really just amount to a few punches in the face, making the hatred grow. Unless something happens which enables the U.S. government to assasinate Bin Laden and cover it up. I doubt the other nations would allow a justification for his assasination to fly.
I think the sensible solution is to try and defuse the hatred. But, of course, people will see that as caving in to terrorist demands. But that is why we have diplomats. Diplomats are in charge of getting both parties to agree on a compromise that doesn't make either party feel like they have caved in to the demands of the other party.
And before any Americans start yelling about how we're the good guys, they're the bad guys, and their hatred is all wrong and bad, I'm telling you all to shut up because you've got hatred for those terrorists yourself. Learn to Grok, and understand that "Thou art God!"
I think some of the very best games when it comes down to problem solving, reasoning, etc. are the original Sierra games. For example the King's Quest, Space Quest, Quest for Glory, and Police Quest series(es?).
Unfortunately, there is a little bit of violence in some of these, notably Quest for Glory which involves sword fighting, Police Quest since you are a cop, and the latest King's Quest which really tried to get gamers who are into things like Quake. But most of the violence in the other King's Quest and Space Quest games weren't anything you wouldn't see in a storybook for kids.
Anyone else look at Adam's resume and notice that he worked at Xing and was part of both Q&A and their MPEG library development? Perhaps he had some small part in the ultimate release of DeCSS. Just a thought. ;P
A lot of computers are set up with loose UDP. All those computers, which are quite a few, would let incoming traffic go to 5503 if a local program opened the port.
I would like to see the President say a disparaging remark about China and then go visit them only to get locked up in a standing-room only cell for 2 years. Maybe then the government will think twice about this Dimitry case.
I work at the UC Berkeley Multimedia Research Center. One of the things we have going on here is the encoding and decoding of video streams for use over the Internet/Internet2 using IP Multicast.
The thing is, you can get really good NTSC signals going at 20Mbps. This is television you would watch and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference without having another TV next to it and pushing your nose up against the screen. I'm not surprised that NASA is able to get a decent HDTV feed at 20Mbps. (If you read the article, you'll see that the signal was "crystal-clear", and not a thousand lines of noise.)
The problem is you need hardware to get decent framerates. We use LML33 boards to encode and decode NTSC to MJPEG at 30fps. These boards are $400. To encode MPEG-2 at a reasonable frame rate, you need hardware is at least $2000, I believe. If you try to use software encoding/decoding then your mileage varies but I usually get less than 10fps using 1/4 NTSC or CIF in MJPEG.
The software is here: http://www.openmash.org/
Seems to me that Keith had a horrible defense. I took the time to read the penal code, specifically the section which would apply here, and I would think any competent legal defense would have been able to show both that the code itself would not apply to this case and that the code is poorly worded.
Paraphrasing:
11418.5.(a): the threat must be "on its face and under the circumstances" be so unequivocal, immediate, and specific enough to make the person threatened feel that the threatener really means what they say and that the threat is likely to be carried out immediately.
11418.5.(b): "sustained fear" can be identified by any action taken in direct response to the threat, but is not limited to such.
So, for part a, I would think any decent defense would have made clear to the jury the circumstances under which these "supposed" threats were made. This would include making available the context of the Usenet postings. Failure to do so would be a good grounds for appeal.
For part b, I would hope that a defense lawyer would argue that this portion of the penal code is too vague and ill-constructed that it should not be used as a basis for enforcing this code.
Shipping Windows XP through OEM sales doesn't mean as much to Microsoft as getting existing users to upgrade. The biggest Microsoft customers aren't people who buy computers from Gateway or Dell, but companies who already have a lot of Microsoft software. These are companies who have agreements, sales contracts, many licenses, etc. with Microsoft. Microsoft wants these companies to upgrade more than they want the average consumer to buy a new computer with Windows XP on it.
I work at the UC Berkeley Multimedia Research Center (BMRC). One of the projects I help out with is Open Mash, which is an open source multimedia toolkit designed for streaming media. Check it out at http://www.openmash.org/. Includes encoders, decoders, etc. It's pretty much used with multicast/MBone. The toolkit is supported on FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, and Windows, but you could probably get it to work on whatever platform you're using if you have the right tools installed.
Battlefield Earth, the movie, is an excellent learning experience for Hollywood. Now that her latest attempt at taking a rich and detailed (and most importantly thinking instead of acting) book of epic length to the screen has failed, I don't think she'll be trying it again. This means we won't see any more intelligent authors ripped apart on the big screen. Hooray!
The Finder itself can be kinda confusing too, and the Mac OS is not a "make you stupider" design like Windows 9x, so your grandfather might even find it harder in that respect.
However, there are a couple of options here. First, the Finder (in Mac OS 8.5+, I believe) has an option called Simple Finder. I'm not sure if it's available in a Control Panel, but you can get to it from the Mac OS Setup Assistant. Plus, one of the view preference choices is to make all icons into buttons (kinda like AtEase). Another choice is to set yourself up as an "admin" user under Mac OS 9 and your grandfather as a user with much fewer privileges. He might even find it easier with Speech Recognition under Mac OS 8+ to "Open Nisus Writer", "Open Navigator", and "Open My eBooks Folder" instead of using a mouse or keyboard.
When I was around 10 or 11 years old, I started suffering extreme pain in my wrists. Over the course of a week, it got so bad that I could no longer type and moving my wrists hurt. This certainly sucks for a computer geek.
Anyway, I gave my hands and wrists a rest for a week or two, but in order to prevent this from happening again I have to put one of those soft wristpads up against the front of the keyboard. I've never had problems since. I also keep the keyboard as flat as possible (which means keeping those pop-up stands in the bottom closed) so that my wrists and hands are in a straight line when typing.
Dave (dgr116@psu.edu) is correct about your wrists being more comfortable if they are not resting on anything, but the setup I am most comfortable with does not particularly promote this. The arm-rests of my chair are actually below the top of the desk, and my keyboard and wristpad are placed on top of the desk (I hate those pull-out drawers).
Just thought I'd let people know that you can already use Voodoo2 cards on your Mac.