Like many readers, you seem to have missed the point completely. MEMS displayed are not limited to being wearable displays. They can project images large enough to fill a TV screen. Hell, with a strong enough light source, you could even use one as a digital movie projector in a theatre.
In addition, MEMS isn't limited to just projecting and capturing optical images. That same MEMS chip can be used as an extremely-fast processor.
And it's not even vaporware. These things are already being made and bought and used. It's just a matter of waiting for the price to drop to a level where consumers can afford the technology.
I think you missed the fact that a MEMS chip with a laser light source could easily be used to power a big-screen television. You'd watch TV just like you do now -- by looking at a big box -- only it would be the MEMS chip powering the display instead of a CRT (or several CRTs, in the case of some big-screen televisions).
MEMS is good for a lot more than just personal retinal-projected video.
You don't like the idea of making money at someone else's expense? So you're telling me you live on the street and trade sexual favors for Internet access, right? Because based on that statement, you'd feel wrong about getting paid to do a job, because you'd be making money at your employer's expense and your employer would be making money at consumers' expense.
You didn't really think this one through, did you?
My Earthlink experience
on
Disconnecting
·
· Score: 2
A little over a year ago, I signed up for an Earthlink account when my DSL provider went bankrupt and stopped providing service without warning. After a few months, when I got DSL again, I did some searching on Earthlink's website to find out how to cancel. It's not blatantly advertised, but it didn't take me more than five minutes to find the number I needed to call.
I called the number and waited an insane amount of time on hold. In fact, it took me several days of calling, waiting for an hour or so and then hanging up before I finally got through to someone. When I told them I wanted to cancel, they asked me for a reason, and I told them something along the lines of "I'm spending the next three years as a researcher in Antarctica," and they apparently believed me. They canceled my service without any hassle.
Of course, there was no reason this couldn't have been done automatically, online, but that's capitalism for you.
This is a massive spoiler, so don't read below the stars unless you've already seen the movie or don't care.
*****
What the hell is wrong with Amidala? Anakin tells her all about how he murdered an entire camp of Tusken Raiders in cold blood -- men, women and children -- and she still falls in love with him and marries him? I thought she was from good old peace-loving Naboo? Does she just have a shitty memory or what?
...was before the previews started, when the theatre manager walked in with a bunch of drinks on a cart and said, "Anyone want a drink? We brought 'em to you so you won't have to lose your seats!"
One guy in the packed theatre raised his hand and asked for a Diet Coke.
"That'll be $4.00," said the manager. The entire theatre erupted in laughter. Someone threw a bag of popcorn at him. Someone else started whooping and swinging a lightsaber. Ah, it was beautiful.
That's good advice, but it wasn't the problem with my Microsoft mouse. It was the second Microsoft optical mouse to go bad on me. Apparently after a year or so of constant use, something happens that makes them get twitchy. Cleaning the pads doesn't help -- it seems like the sensor is misaligned or something. I even tried cleaning the lens. In the end, I'm glad I bought my Logitech. I like it a lot more.
I bought a Logitech Dual Optical mouse when my Microsoft Intellimouse started getting twitchy for some reason. I absolutely love it, however I've found that the mousing surface has a lot to do with how smoothly the mouse operates. I use a nice padded cloth Belkin mousepad with a wrist rest, and I find that the smoothness is ideal for gaming. I've never had trouble with the mouse getting "lost" during fast movements like some people have, and I suspect this is due to the mousing surface. As long as the mouse knows where it is, you'll be fine.
I don't know why publishers let this man write books, much less books that are as important as this one. The man cannot write a coherent sentece to save his life. And you'd think, given his previous Star Wars track record (the way he killed off Chewbacca was insipid and insulting), Lucasfilm would have released the hounds on him rather than asking him to write the Episode II novelization.
In other news, there's been an astonishing breakthrough in the aerospace industry -- jet-powered aeroplanes! These new jet-planes promise to unite the world as travel times are cut in half across the globe. Stay tuned for more breaking news!
adj : less than the correct or legal or full amount often deliberately so; "a light pound"; "a scant cup of sugar"; "regularly gives short weight" [syn: light, scant(p), short] v 1: work hastily or carelessly; deal with inadequately and superficially [syn: skimp] 2: limit in quality or quantity [syn: skimp] 3: supply sparingly, with a meager allowance [syn: stint, skimp]
They thought this was so important that they haven't bothered getting their facts checked or having their research reviewed? Sounds like they actually thought it was more important to alarm the public than to follow procedure and make sure their research is correct before announcing their findings. That's what publishing is for.
What the hell? Do you have some basis for this claim, or are you just assuming that this company spams people? That's like saying, "I agree with Bob, but he most likely murders people in their sleep, so I hate him."
Unless you or someone you know has actually been spammed by this company, you're a fucking moron.
If what you're saying means that when I publish my book, I, too, can post a long wankish article on Slashdot all about how I think grassroots advertising is cool and good because I can't afford to pay for real advertising, then hell, sign me up. Of course, I can't help but harbor the sneaking suspicion that, had your average Slashdot user submitted this steaming pile of self-promotion, an editor would have vaporized it from the queue without hesitation.
So I guess the moral of the story is, "If you're Jon Katz, posting thinly-veiled advertisements on Slashdot and passing them off as articles is cool and revolutionary."
By the way, Mr. Katz, if you'll include a digital picture of yourself with your index finger buried at least to the middle knuckle in your left nostril, I would be more than happy to post an "article" all about your new book on my own website. Just say the word.
Something like this might be feasible, theoretically, but in practice you'd never ever see something that cool in a consumer device. The number of precision parts and finely-ground mirrors, plus the fact that *exact* manufacturing accuracy would be required or the resulting product wouldn't even function, means that the cost of a device like that would be astronomical.
Even so, I doubt a parabolic mirror would work. It seems like it would diffuse the laser light too much.
I do have some pretty old CDs from the early 80's, and I will NOT put them in my 52X CDROM drive. Unless of course, I want to scrap bits and pieces out of my machine.:)
You probably already know this, but just for the record -- unless you have a defective CD drive, it shouldn't ever try to spin an audio disc up to full speed unless you're doing digital audio extraction. If you're merely listening to your CD, it will spin at 1X, just like any standard CD audio player.
To the reviewer (and anyone else looking for a good PVR card): I highly, highly recommend the AVerTV Stereo. You can buy them from ThinkGeek for only $49.99. And no, that is not a typo.
The price is incredible, but what's even more incredible is that the card is very high quality. It has Coax, S-Video, and RGB inputs, plus an audio loopback to connect to your soundcard. The PVR software that comes with it is very good if you don't need advanced features. It records directly to MPEG-2, although the recording quality is not customizable enough for my tastes.
I personally wanted software that would record to MPEG-1 with custom bitrate settings so I could then use VirtualDub to convert my recordings to DivX. I bought a copy of InterVideo WinDVR for $99.95, and I'm extremely happy with the combination. WinDVR is extremely customizable, letting me choose between MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 formats, as well as giving me a ton of bitrate, audio, resolution, and other options. I highly recommend WinDVR as well.
Based on the review of Creative's card, I wouldn't go anywhere near it. It sounds like a horribly-designed product, and I think the AVerTV Stereo + WinDVR is a much better solution that can be had for about $150
With Uberman's cycle, you end up getting more REM sleep every day than you would with 8 hours of consecutive sleep. Your brain learns to drop into REM sleep immediately, so each 20-30 minute nap is entirely REM, which adds up to between 2 and 3 hours of purely REM sleep per day, which is more than enough.
Try Uberman's Sleep Cycle. If your schedule allows it, and you're able to adjust to the cycle, you'll end up getting around two to three hours of sleep per day (just not consecutively) and you'll feel better than after a normal eight hours of sleep. Or so people say.
Who demands convenience? I don't demand convenience. I *prefer* not having all my eggs in one basket. I like being able to choose which companies get to know which details about me. If I have a hard time keeping track of all my different passwords or user accounts, I'll write my passwords down and store them in a text file that's PGP-encrypted with a 4096-bit key and a passphrase that I know I'll never forget.
I don't want to have to trust some company to store all my information for me. I also don't want to trust some open source project with that information. In fact, I *especially* don't want to trust an open source project with it. The only person I trust with my personal information is me.
You have a very good point (ha ha). Luckily, the thought of getting impaled by an angry longhorn somehow enabled me to actually leap over a barbed-wire fence. To this day I have no clue how I managed to jump that high without getting snagged, but I did. And boy am I glad.
I grew up on a ranch with a neighbor who raised longhorns. They're generally docile creatures, sure, but when you piss one off and it's charging at you with those massive pointed horns, "soft and cuddly" is the last thing going through your mind, believe me.
Yep, I noticed the same thing. I actually pre-ordered Quicksilver from amazon.co.uk several months ago, when it said it was coming out on March 7, 2002. When March 7th rolled around and I hadn't gotten an email about my order, I checked back and, voila, 2002 had changed to 2003. Sigh.
Slashdot Mirror
In addition, MEMS isn't limited to just projecting and capturing optical images. That same MEMS chip can be used as an extremely-fast processor.
And it's not even vaporware. These things are already being made and bought and used. It's just a matter of waiting for the price to drop to a level where consumers can afford the technology.
MEMS is good for a lot more than just personal retinal-projected video.
Thanks for the link, but ugh...the Quicktime video is 5fps, which is horrible. I'm downloading the AVI version now. I hope it's better.
You didn't really think this one through, did you?
I called the number and waited an insane amount of time on hold. In fact, it took me several days of calling, waiting for an hour or so and then hanging up before I finally got through to someone. When I told them I wanted to cancel, they asked me for a reason, and I told them something along the lines of "I'm spending the next three years as a researcher in Antarctica," and they apparently believed me. They canceled my service without any hassle.
Of course, there was no reason this couldn't have been done automatically, online, but that's capitalism for you.
*****
What the hell is wrong with Amidala? Anakin tells her all about how he murdered an entire camp of Tusken Raiders in cold blood -- men, women and children -- and she still falls in love with him and marries him? I thought she was from good old peace-loving Naboo? Does she just have a shitty memory or what?
One guy in the packed theatre raised his hand and asked for a Diet Coke.
"That'll be $4.00," said the manager. The entire theatre erupted in laughter. Someone threw a bag of popcorn at him. Someone else started whooping and swinging a lightsaber. Ah, it was beautiful.
Osama? Is that you?
That's good advice, but it wasn't the problem with my Microsoft mouse. It was the second Microsoft optical mouse to go bad on me. Apparently after a year or so of constant use, something happens that makes them get twitchy. Cleaning the pads doesn't help -- it seems like the sensor is misaligned or something. I even tried cleaning the lens. In the end, I'm glad I bought my Logitech. I like it a lot more.
I bought a Logitech Dual Optical mouse when my Microsoft Intellimouse started getting twitchy for some reason. I absolutely love it, however I've found that the mousing surface has a lot to do with how smoothly the mouse operates. I use a nice padded cloth Belkin mousepad with a wrist rest, and I find that the smoothness is ideal for gaming. I've never had trouble with the mouse getting "lost" during fast movements like some people have, and I suspect this is due to the mousing surface. As long as the mouse knows where it is, you'll be fine.
I don't know why publishers let this man write books, much less books that are as important as this one. The man cannot write a coherent sentece to save his life. And you'd think, given his previous Star Wars track record (the way he killed off Chewbacca was insipid and insulting), Lucasfilm would have released the hounds on him rather than asking him to write the Episode II novelization.
In other news, there's been an astonishing breakthrough in the aerospace industry -- jet-powered aeroplanes! These new jet-planes promise to unite the world as travel times are cut in half across the globe. Stay tuned for more breaking news!
scant
adj : less than the correct or legal or full amount often deliberately so; "a light pound"; "a scant cup of sugar"; "regularly gives short weight" [syn: light, scant(p), short] v 1: work hastily or carelessly; deal with inadequately and superficially [syn: skimp] 2: limit in quality or quantity [syn: skimp] 3: supply sparingly, with a meager allowance [syn: stint, skimp]
This sounds very fishy.
Unless you or someone you know has actually been spammed by this company, you're a fucking moron.
So I guess the moral of the story is, "If you're Jon Katz, posting thinly-veiled advertisements on Slashdot and passing them off as articles is cool and revolutionary."
By the way, Mr. Katz, if you'll include a digital picture of yourself with your index finger buried at least to the middle knuckle in your left nostril, I would be more than happy to post an "article" all about your new book on my own website. Just say the word.
Even so, I doubt a parabolic mirror would work. It seems like it would diffuse the laser light too much.
You probably already know this, but just for the record -- unless you have a defective CD drive, it shouldn't ever try to spin an audio disc up to full speed unless you're doing digital audio extraction. If you're merely listening to your CD, it will spin at 1X, just like any standard CD audio player.
The price is incredible, but what's even more incredible is that the card is very high quality. It has Coax, S-Video, and RGB inputs, plus an audio loopback to connect to your soundcard. The PVR software that comes with it is very good if you don't need advanced features. It records directly to MPEG-2, although the recording quality is not customizable enough for my tastes.
I personally wanted software that would record to MPEG-1 with custom bitrate settings so I could then use VirtualDub to convert my recordings to DivX. I bought a copy of InterVideo WinDVR for $99.95, and I'm extremely happy with the combination. WinDVR is extremely customizable, letting me choose between MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 formats, as well as giving me a ton of bitrate, audio, resolution, and other options. I highly recommend WinDVR as well.
Based on the review of Creative's card, I wouldn't go anywhere near it. It sounds like a horribly-designed product, and I think the AVerTV Stereo + WinDVR is a much better solution that can be had for about $150
With Uberman's cycle, you end up getting more REM sleep every day than you would with 8 hours of consecutive sleep. Your brain learns to drop into REM sleep immediately, so each 20-30 minute nap is entirely REM, which adds up to between 2 and 3 hours of purely REM sleep per day, which is more than enough.
Try Uberman's Sleep Cycle. If your schedule allows it, and you're able to adjust to the cycle, you'll end up getting around two to three hours of sleep per day (just not consecutively) and you'll feel better than after a normal eight hours of sleep. Or so people say.
I don't want to have to trust some company to store all my information for me. I also don't want to trust some open source project with that information. In fact, I *especially* don't want to trust an open source project with it. The only person I trust with my personal information is me.
You have a very good point (ha ha). Luckily, the thought of getting impaled by an angry longhorn somehow enabled me to actually leap over a barbed-wire fence. To this day I have no clue how I managed to jump that high without getting snagged, but I did. And boy am I glad.
Have you ever seen a Texas Longhorn? Think bigass cow. Now put about eight feet worth of sharp pointy horns on its head. How is that soft and cuddly?
I grew up on a ranch with a neighbor who raised longhorns. They're generally docile creatures, sure, but when you piss one off and it's charging at you with those massive pointed horns, "soft and cuddly" is the last thing going through your mind, believe me.
Yep, I noticed the same thing. I actually pre-ordered Quicksilver from amazon.co.uk several months ago, when it said it was coming out on March 7, 2002. When March 7th rolled around and I hadn't gotten an email about my order, I checked back and, voila, 2002 had changed to 2003. Sigh.