The 24 inch square panel emits 1200 lumens with a power consumption of about 80 watts - on par with today's incandescent bulbs.
A H7 halogen headlight bulb, which draws 55 Watts of power at ~13 V, produces 1700 lumens. This is at the forefront of incandescent efficiency, producing 31 lumens per Watt, in a capsule that is about 1/2" x 1/4". This OLED is half as efficient, power consumption wise, and ~1/6500 as intense.
When you compare it to gaseous plasma lighting, it looks even worse. A DS2 HID bulb produces ~3100 lumens at 35 Watts. This is about 90 lumens/Watt, almost six times more efficient and nearly 48,000 times as intense.
I realize that these automotive bulbs are designed for something completely different than the OLED panels, but you have to compare these disparate technologies to assess how far the developing technology has to go, to be economically feasible. The reason I brought up the arc lamp, is because it is similar technology to the cold cathode lamps used for current laptop backlighting. True, an OLED display doesn't need backlighting, but it would have to be both more cost and power efficient than the conventional LCD + cold cathode lamp to displace the established technology. With the current state of this technology, it appears as though it still has a very long way to go, just to catch-up to the status quo.
I'm sure that there will be a company that will throw something similar to this into a laptop soon, and people will buy them because it is new and different. Will it be considered better?
Geek 1: "I have this new type of display, that's better than yours because it's OLED" Geek 2: "Is it on? Why is it so dim?" Geek 1: "It doesn't need a backlight like yours does and I can read it fine in the dark!" Geek 2: "It feels like it's radiating heat." Geek 1: "Yeah maybe, but that might be the 5.7 GHz. Xeon processor. Your laptop doesn't have that!" Geek 2: "You're right, but I don't need to plug my laptop in all of the time."
With the geek laptops out there like the Alienware ones, I'm sure that the groundwork of expecting a laptop to be tethered to a wall socket has been well laid.
If you knew my mom or sister, you may not think that a government sponsored trip to Cuba was that out of the question or a bad idea. But that's enough fodder for you Freud.
What would the result of a corrupt CAPPS server be? Doubtful it would send anyone anywhere. At most, it would permit someone to take a flight, and at least it would prevent someone from taking a flight. Either way, how is this different from being bumped from an overbooked flight, or flying with a bunch of hijackers with clean records. I don't see how this is a bad system, as the former already happens, and the latter would be difficult, if not impossible to catch anyway.
I just merely pose the question of what would be a better system.
Why don't some of you come up with better systems, instead of complaining what a tragedy this is. I would be willing to bet that most of those complaining about this don't fly now as it is.
As I read the articles about CAPPS II, or whatever this thing is called, I sense that this project is trying to rectify the excessive false red flags of the current system. Isn't that something that should be welcomed? How many of you are really so important that you need anonymity when you travel, and would be inconvenienced by giving enough personal information to verify that you are who you say you are?
Too many people are having hissy fits and throwing lawyers at the airlines to thwart a legitimate program enacted by the government. For God's sakes people, they are just trying to do their constitutional duty of protecting the country, and protecting the lives of innocent people. If you have real solutions to the problem, then volunteer them, otherwise shut the f@#$ up.
In non-English speaking countries, I've found this marvel of infinite utility called "American Tape" in both English and translated to other languages.
All I know is that at that time, every Electronic Boutiques and Babage's that I checked in, had the same story. That was that Microsoft recalled all copies of Myth II. They thought it had to do with repackaging to reflect the change in ownership of Bungie, but the boxes never came back.
Mythdev never re-published the games, other than making the binaries available online. You still needed an original CD to run these. Maybe myth II:worlds obtained their copies from other sources.
I thought exactly the same as you when I read this at first, except that Bungie divested itself of the Myth "franchise", a less than brilliant move that seemed to be part of the acquisition deal when they were kidnapped by Microsoft.
Actually, I remember vividly that all copies of Myth II for all platforms were recalled by Microsoft within hours of the acquisition. It took several months to locate a store that still had the Loki published Linux version of Myth II, and to this day, you can still no longer purchase a Windows or Mac version of Myth II. Myth III was released by someone else.
Bungie is not referred to on that page about Mythica, so it will be interesting to see how this turns out.
Damn, I meant text of the bill, not article. Still, the article only quotes critics of the bill, without any answer by supporters. Worse yet, simply citing the actual text of the bill would put to rest any incredulity people like myself have. Until then, it is just yammering by the usual suspects.
The sky is falling, and we are all guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
I'd love to see the article that allegedly says whatever the post alludes to, but it doesn't exist. For such a blatant grab of power, you would hear all of the current opposition (democrats) wailing and gnashing their teeth, but instead we hear them complaining about giving prescription drugs to old people and an energy bill that bans MTBE.
In short, get a grip people, this is FUD! The Patriot act doesn't do even half of the things that people say it does, but propagandists would have you believe otherwise. Apparently many of you are gullible enough to believe this. I doubt that this bill (if it does exist), has anything to do with what the poster alleges, also.
By the way, the latest service pack of Windows XP sends a copy of every piece of pornography that you view, directly to Bill Gates and John Ashcroft, so they have proof when they arrest you for pedo-beastialic terrorism...
Which tax rates was he examining? Tariffs, personal tax, corporate tax? How about the taxes of global trading partners? Economic growth is a trailing indicator, and job growth trails that even more.
Since the US has been off of the gold standard, and ignoring major events such as world wars, the decrease of tax rates (personal and corporate) has preceded every economic boom period. The few doldrums we have had were preceded by personal tax increases, outside events (OPEC, asian meltdown) and general stupidity (dot.bomb).
I even set it up so I can administer it remotely via SSH (or even webmin tunneled over SSH if I'm feeling really lazy).
What happens if, God forbid, you get hit by a bus, or a drunk driver, or if you were kidnapped by a marauding band of scantily clad amazons? How will your parents manage their new computer? Do they know how to do any administration tasks like installing software, or installing a new printer?
I don't wish this on anybody, but in a previous job, I had to create a "hit by a bus" book, so that other people could do any of the frequent admin tasks that they might need, in case I was ever incapacitated. Now granted, most of these things (new users and backup-recovery) are not needed on a home machine, but if you have to ssh into your parent's box for any reason, then it isn't parent-safe enough.
That being said, I've set my parents up with the most parent-safe setup I can imagine. Yes it cost a bit more than $500, but I know that they won't have to find someone who knows KDE or Gnome, or how to re-compile a kernel when they want to plug in a new digital camera. I got them an iMac, and I never have to deal with administration of their machine. It cost a bit more, but I don't loose sleep over worrying if it is working or not.
We have a fairly high standard of 'truth' in advertising here.
...
Plenty of big iron boxes like Crays and IBM are obviously more powerful machines. The ad contains a blatently FALSE sataement.
Apparently extreme truth in advertising is necessary to not confuse the English mind. The ad clearly states "The worlds fastest, most powerful, personal computer."
Where the hell did you get the idea that "big iron boxes like Crays and IBM" are personal computers?
In the US, superlatives are OK, as by some measure something can be the most, best, or greatest. The problem is when some product is advertised with comparatives. A product can be the best, but just better requires irrefutable proof.
They said fastest and most powerful, and by the SPEC benches they submitted, it is. They didn't say the G5 is faster than a Dell dual Xeon 3.0 running XP or a HP Pavilario running Red Hat because this type of apples to oranges comparison would require specific results and would throw off the simplicity of the advertisement.
Anyone who takes the claims of a twelve word advertisement as gospel is a retarded idiot who shouldn't be allowed to buy anything more expensive than a pack of bubble gum. If this is the situation in England, then I truly feel sorry for the few intelligent people who are trapped there and have to be protected by this type of "truth in advertising" laws.
Bush got stuck with a similar tag over his head. What you're failing to mention is the congress was owned by the Republicans for decades before 1994.
Umm. You mean Democrats. The Democratic party held the House and Senate for nearly 40 years.
I knew what you meant. Also to the grandparent post, Regan's big tax increase wasn't a tax increase, but a clearing of abused tax shelters.
-- Len
It's the QT for Java Update that causes this
on
Panther Problem Roundup
·
· Score: 3, Informative
The source of this problem is also the source of the first Panther security update; namely QuickTime for Java. Those unlucky enough to update QuickTime for Java in 10.2.8, prior to upgrading to Panther, found their Java 1.4.1 frameworks hosed.
This is being called the "69 error", as the reported version is 1.4.1_69 rather than 1.4.1_99. The unintentional proximity of releasing this QT Java update and Panther's release, and the inability to change Panther's install scripts after being burned to CD is the cause of this problem.
I can't verify that the security update fixes this problem, but my hunch is that it does. I fixed my machine before the security update was released, and I suspect that those who claim not to have the problem are already patched with the security update, or didn't install the QT Java update prior to installing Panther. The fact that many java programs still utilize Java 1.3, which was unaffected by this problem, probably masked the symptoms from many users, leading them to believe that they were unaffected also.
The problem is in AI, but mostly because the assumption is that mechanical problems can and should be overcome by coding, instead of by mechanical means.
Step back a moment. Most of these builders view the mechanical hulk of the robot as just a platform that runs a program. The problem is that most AI control code is developed to approximate based on whatever model is held in the AI about the physical state of the robot. How many AI coders know about kinematics? How about the various sensor's precision or accuracy?
The problem is that gravity, friction, wear, kinematics and other unbounded influences are mechanical problems that do affect the performance of a robot, in non-nice and non-trivial ways. These are mechanical problems that are written off by AI writers. We can approximate things...
I guess what I'm saying is that at the current state of the art, the AI can be tweaked to approximate the correct control for limited actions, i.e. demos like this only. To get beyond this, the mechanical concepts like kinematics have to be incorporated so that more open ended actions can be performed. To solve these things, there has to be a huge improvement on the mechanical side to minimize these effects, and a corresponding change from stupid do-this type AI models to more aware reflexive control systems with an understanding of the physics of the entire robot.
What really causes this AI problem is the fact that kinematics problems require numerical integration. This task is computationally intensive, and very complex. Many numerical integration codes have a tendency to go unstable, and most are sensitive to the characteristics of the system that they are applied to. This makes it very difficult to implement for the general case of robotic movement outside of a controlled scripted action.
If I was trolling, you'd know it. I never troll in oxygen deprived environments, like this article's thread (OK, maybe a little).
Don't mod me down because you haven't read the law and your friends tell you that it's evil. Grow up.
Anyway, there are armies of strawmen being constructed here, and somebody's got to have the courage to strike a match.
Yes the impetus for this bill was terrorism, but a lot of necessary modernization of investigative techniques were introduced by it. Here's a solution to avoid being victimized by the act, don't do anything illegal.
Again, Lamo and anyone he talked to wouldn't be dealing with these problems if the NY Times didn't press charges. It isn't Ashcroft, Bush, or Rumsfeld hunting anyone down here.
One other thing. All uses of the USA Patriot Act, have to be reported semi-annually to Congress. If there is any abuse, it becomes public record.
More like the "Investigation and apprehension policy unification act"
For all the whining going on here, most people can't see the forest from the trees. This law is not a bad law. It just makes the application of long-standing law enforcement investigation techniques more uniform over existing crimes, with the inclusion of terrorism.
So what if now the same standard applies to terrorists that formerly applied to drug dealer and racketeering investigations? So much the better. There is still a required judicial oversight, as a judge still has to sign warrants. This law probably reduces the paperwork required by not having to list a myriad of unrelated laws when applying for a warrant. USA Patriot Act, catchall, done!
Really, the supreme irony here is the fact that a "press" agency is getting the government to invoke this law against other "press" entities. If I didn't know any better, I would think that Lamo is just an excuse to give a court room test for this law.
The NY Times is run by a bunch of asshats, and now they are proving it by going after a nobody who was trying to help them. Real class acts.
Good for you, but you seem to be the one complaining.
The goal of Robocup Junior is to introduce some electromechanical concepts to high school students. It isn't much beyond that.
The team that posed the question about Bluetooth is entering into the small sized class, a research vehicle. Here, communication is necessary, no vital. We have to deal with interference on several levels, or we fail.
Don't get me wrong, there were some impressive "robots" in the Junior competition this year. The problem there just doesn't hold a candle to what this team will have to do to be competitive.
Does anyone think these yahoo's have a chance of actually fielding a working robosoccer team?
I think they can. In fact I hope that they kick ass and take names.
This is an academic contest. All of the teams are students and grad students, each sponsored by faculty members like them. There is a lot of work to do for this contest, but all previous work done by all previous teams is open to anyone who wants to join in.
My team gives away our design and code every year. Many others do as well. We do it to push ourselves. Every year, teams like this one come along with stuff that we haven't thought of yet, and advance the whole program. We learn stuff from every team that we play.
The fact that they have so many involved faculty speaks volumes about their interest in the program. Yes, students will do the work in the end, but it puts them in a much stronger position to have so many faculty to draw from.
The only thing I have to add is that Bluetooth lies in the crowded 2.4 GHz. band that is used by 802.11b. The 2.4 GHz. band was very problematic for most teams that used it this year, as the entire place was filled with 2.4 GHz. devices. Imagine a hockey stadium filled with ~500 wireless laptops and base stations, ~100 802.11b wireless robots, ~300 wireless robotic dogs and about 600 other wireless robots using some other frequency.
Now most of these teams were using 802.11b, but even if you could coexist with 802.11b traffic you may not be allowed to use Bluetooth. If you were to play against another team using any technology in the 2.4GHz. band, one of the teams would have to switch to a different frequency. The contest (at least in the small-sized league) requires at least two capable frequencies for control.
At Cornell, we used three frequencies this year; 433 MHz., 868 MHz. and 914 MHz. We were lucky to have 868, as nobody else used that one at the competition.
-- Len
Re:Yes, this chimera assumes things go correctly
on
Chimera Twins Story
·
· Score: 1
One other addition.
The molar pregnancy could start from one screwed up egg, or it could be from a screwed up mitosis. The Chimera thing is from combining multiple fertilized eggs, or multiple clumps of different DNA cells into common tissue of an embryo, very early on.
The point being that either one could become "unviable" at any time after conception, but the molar case is wrong within each cell.
-- Len
Re:Yes, this chimera assumes things go correctly
on
Chimera Twins Story
·
· Score: 1
I was just showing that things can and do go wrong with extra or multiple sets of chromosomes. In our case, we had normal (mother + father) and abnormal (father + father) chromosomal pairings. This created two different genetic materials in the embryo, or what should have been an embryo.
As for myself and my sister, we are probably partial chimeras. We both have auto-immune problems that can't be easily explained. At times, our bodies become allergic to themselves. My sister has it worse though. Sometimes she gets spontaneous blood clots in her legs.
Slashdot Mirror
I was hoping that 3.0 would have been renamed as CIFiliS.
I mean, it would give the right impression about the Windows native file sharing protocol, and would be great for PHB's.
PHB: "Did you get that Samba thingy working on the server?"
IT Guy: "No, the server has CIFiliS"
PHB: "Oh. I'm sorry. You should run one of those virus checker things."
-- Len
A H7 halogen headlight bulb, which draws 55 Watts of power at ~13 V, produces 1700 lumens. This is at the forefront of incandescent efficiency, producing 31 lumens per Watt, in a capsule that is about 1/2" x 1/4". This OLED is half as efficient, power consumption wise, and ~1/6500 as intense.
When you compare it to gaseous plasma lighting, it looks even worse. A DS2 HID bulb produces ~3100 lumens at 35 Watts. This is about 90 lumens/Watt, almost six times more efficient and nearly 48,000 times as intense.
I realize that these automotive bulbs are designed for something completely different than the OLED panels, but you have to compare these disparate technologies to assess how far the developing technology has to go, to be economically feasible. The reason I brought up the arc lamp, is because it is similar technology to the cold cathode lamps used for current laptop backlighting. True, an OLED display doesn't need backlighting, but it would have to be both more cost and power efficient than the conventional LCD + cold cathode lamp to displace the established technology. With the current state of this technology, it appears as though it still has a very long way to go, just to catch-up to the status quo.
I'm sure that there will be a company that will throw something similar to this into a laptop soon, and people will buy them because it is new and different. Will it be considered better?
Geek 1: "I have this new type of display, that's better than yours because it's OLED"
Geek 2: "Is it on? Why is it so dim?"
Geek 1: "It doesn't need a backlight like yours does and I can read it fine in the dark!"
Geek 2: "It feels like it's radiating heat."
Geek 1: "Yeah maybe, but that might be the 5.7 GHz. Xeon processor. Your laptop doesn't have that!"
Geek 2: "You're right, but I don't need to plug my laptop in all of the time."
With the geek laptops out there like the Alienware ones, I'm sure that the groundwork of expecting a laptop to be tethered to a wall socket has been well laid.
-- Len
If you knew my mom or sister, you may not think that a government sponsored trip to Cuba was that out of the question or a bad idea. But that's enough fodder for you Freud.
What would the result of a corrupt CAPPS server be? Doubtful it would send anyone anywhere. At most, it would permit someone to take a flight, and at least it would prevent someone from taking a flight. Either way, how is this different from being bumped from an overbooked flight, or flying with a bunch of hijackers with clean records. I don't see how this is a bad system, as the former already happens, and the latter would be difficult, if not impossible to catch anyway.
I just merely pose the question of what would be a better system.
-- Len
Why don't some of you come up with better systems, instead of complaining what a tragedy this is. I would be willing to bet that most of those complaining about this don't fly now as it is.
As I read the articles about CAPPS II, or whatever this thing is called, I sense that this project is trying to rectify the excessive false red flags of the current system. Isn't that something that should be welcomed? How many of you are really so important that you need anonymity when you travel, and would be inconvenienced by giving enough personal information to verify that you are who you say you are?
Too many people are having hissy fits and throwing lawyers at the airlines to thwart a legitimate program enacted by the government. For God's sakes people, they are just trying to do their constitutional duty of protecting the country, and protecting the lives of innocent people. If you have real solutions to the problem, then volunteer them, otherwise shut the f@#$ up.
-- Len
In non-English speaking countries, I've found this marvel of infinite utility called "American Tape" in both English and translated to other languages.
-- Len
All I know is that at that time, every Electronic Boutiques and Babage's that I checked in, had the same story. That was that Microsoft recalled all copies of Myth II. They thought it had to do with repackaging to reflect the change in ownership of Bungie, but the boxes never came back.
Mythdev never re-published the games, other than making the binaries available online. You still needed an original CD to run these. Maybe myth II:worlds obtained their copies from other sources.
-- Len
doesn't own Myth anymore.
I thought exactly the same as you when I read this at first, except that Bungie divested itself of the Myth "franchise", a less than brilliant move that seemed to be part of the acquisition deal when they were kidnapped by Microsoft.
Actually, I remember vividly that all copies of Myth II for all platforms were recalled by Microsoft within hours of the acquisition. It took several months to locate a store that still had the Loki published Linux version of Myth II, and to this day, you can still no longer purchase a Windows or Mac version of Myth II. Myth III was released by someone else.
Bungie is not referred to on that page about Mythica, so it will be interesting to see how this turns out.
-- Len
This stuff still doesn't make us cool. It just raises our profile as a marketable demographic. Not sure if this is a good or bad thing though.
-- Len
Damn, I meant text of the bill, not article. Still, the article only quotes critics of the bill, without any answer by supporters. Worse yet, simply citing the actual text of the bill would put to rest any incredulity people like myself have. Until then, it is just yammering by the usual suspects.
-- Len
The sky is falling, and we are all guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
I'd love to see the article that allegedly says whatever the post alludes to, but it doesn't exist. For such a blatant grab of power, you would hear all of the current opposition (democrats) wailing and gnashing their teeth, but instead we hear them complaining about giving prescription drugs to old people and an energy bill that bans MTBE.
In short, get a grip people, this is FUD! The Patriot act doesn't do even half of the things that people say it does, but propagandists would have you believe otherwise. Apparently many of you are gullible enough to believe this. I doubt that this bill (if it does exist), has anything to do with what the poster alleges, also.
By the way, the latest service pack of Windows XP sends a copy of every piece of pornography that you view, directly to Bill Gates and John Ashcroft, so they have proof when they arrest you for pedo-beastialic terrorism...
-- Len
Your friend's view was too narrow in focus.
Which tax rates was he examining? Tariffs, personal tax, corporate tax? How about the taxes of global trading partners? Economic growth is a trailing indicator, and job growth trails that even more.
Since the US has been off of the gold standard, and ignoring major events such as world wars, the decrease of tax rates (personal and corporate) has preceded every economic boom period. The few doldrums we have had were preceded by personal tax increases, outside events (OPEC, asian meltdown) and general stupidity (dot.bomb).
-- Len
What happens if, God forbid, you get hit by a bus, or a drunk driver, or if you were kidnapped by a marauding band of scantily clad amazons? How will your parents manage their new computer? Do they know how to do any administration tasks like installing software, or installing a new printer?
I don't wish this on anybody, but in a previous job, I had to create a "hit by a bus" book, so that other people could do any of the frequent admin tasks that they might need, in case I was ever incapacitated. Now granted, most of these things (new users and backup-recovery) are not needed on a home machine, but if you have to ssh into your parent's box for any reason, then it isn't parent-safe enough.
That being said, I've set my parents up with the most parent-safe setup I can imagine. Yes it cost a bit more than $500, but I know that they won't have to find someone who knows KDE or Gnome, or how to re-compile a kernel when they want to plug in a new digital camera. I got them an iMac, and I never have to deal with administration of their machine. It cost a bit more, but I don't loose sleep over worrying if it is working or not.
-- Len
Apparently extreme truth in advertising is necessary to not confuse the English mind. The ad clearly states "The worlds fastest, most powerful, personal computer."
Where the hell did you get the idea that "big iron boxes like Crays and IBM" are personal computers?
In the US, superlatives are OK, as by some measure something can be the most, best, or greatest. The problem is when some product is advertised with comparatives. A product can be the best, but just better requires irrefutable proof.
They said fastest and most powerful, and by the SPEC benches they submitted, it is. They didn't say the G5 is faster than a Dell dual Xeon 3.0 running XP or a HP Pavilario running Red Hat because this type of apples to oranges comparison would require specific results and would throw off the simplicity of the advertisement.
Anyone who takes the claims of a twelve word advertisement as gospel is a retarded idiot who shouldn't be allowed to buy anything more expensive than a pack of bubble gum. If this is the situation in England, then I truly feel sorry for the few intelligent people who are trapped there and have to be protected by this type of "truth in advertising" laws.
-- Len
Umm. You mean Democrats. The Democratic party held the House and Senate for nearly 40 years.
I knew what you meant. Also to the grandparent post, Regan's big tax increase wasn't a tax increase, but a clearing of abused tax shelters.
-- Len
The source of this problem is also the source of the first Panther security update; namely QuickTime for Java. Those unlucky enough to update QuickTime for Java in 10.2.8, prior to upgrading to Panther, found their Java 1.4.1 frameworks hosed.
This is being called the "69 error", as the reported version is 1.4.1_69 rather than 1.4.1_99. The unintentional proximity of releasing this QT Java update and Panther's release, and the inability to change Panther's install scripts after being burned to CD is the cause of this problem.
I can't verify that the security update fixes this problem, but my hunch is that it does. I fixed my machine before the security update was released, and I suspect that those who claim not to have the problem are already patched with the security update, or didn't install the QT Java update prior to installing Panther. The fact that many java programs still utilize Java 1.3, which was unaffected by this problem, probably masked the symptoms from many users, leading them to believe that they were unaffected also.
-- Len
And trying to derail the California recall that was prescribed by the state constitution. They are supposed to be non-partisan, but aren't.
ACLU has unfortunately become a whole den of weasels.
-- Len
Step back a moment. Most of these builders view the mechanical hulk of the robot as just a platform that runs a program. The problem is that most AI control code is developed to approximate based on whatever model is held in the AI about the physical state of the robot. How many AI coders know about kinematics? How about the various sensor's precision or accuracy?
The problem is that gravity, friction, wear, kinematics and other unbounded influences are mechanical problems that do affect the performance of a robot, in non-nice and non-trivial ways. These are mechanical problems that are written off by AI writers. We can approximate things...
I guess what I'm saying is that at the current state of the art, the AI can be tweaked to approximate the correct control for limited actions, i.e. demos like this only. To get beyond this, the mechanical concepts like kinematics have to be incorporated so that more open ended actions can be performed. To solve these things, there has to be a huge improvement on the mechanical side to minimize these effects, and a corresponding change from stupid do-this type AI models to more aware reflexive control systems with an understanding of the physics of the entire robot.
What really causes this AI problem is the fact that kinematics problems require numerical integration. This task is computationally intensive, and very complex. Many numerical integration codes have a tendency to go unstable, and most are sensitive to the characteristics of the system that they are applied to. This makes it very difficult to implement for the general case of robotic movement outside of a controlled scripted action.
-- Len
If I was trolling, you'd know it. I never troll in oxygen deprived environments, like this article's thread (OK, maybe a little).
Don't mod me down because you haven't read the law and your friends tell you that it's evil. Grow up.
Anyway, there are armies of strawmen being constructed here, and somebody's got to have the courage to strike a match.
Yes the impetus for this bill was terrorism, but a lot of necessary modernization of investigative techniques were introduced by it. Here's a solution to avoid being victimized by the act, don't do anything illegal.
Again, Lamo and anyone he talked to wouldn't be dealing with these problems if the NY Times didn't press charges. It isn't Ashcroft, Bush, or Rumsfeld hunting anyone down here.
One other thing. All uses of the USA Patriot Act, have to be reported semi-annually to Congress. If there is any abuse, it becomes public record.
-- Len
More like the "Investigation and apprehension policy unification act"
For all the whining going on here, most people can't see the forest from the trees. This law is not a bad law. It just makes the application of long-standing law enforcement investigation techniques more uniform over existing crimes, with the inclusion of terrorism.
So what if now the same standard applies to terrorists that formerly applied to drug dealer and racketeering investigations? So much the better. There is still a required judicial oversight, as a judge still has to sign warrants. This law probably reduces the paperwork required by not having to list a myriad of unrelated laws when applying for a warrant. USA Patriot Act, catchall, done!
Really, the supreme irony here is the fact that a "press" agency is getting the government to invoke this law against other "press" entities. If I didn't know any better, I would think that Lamo is just an excuse to give a court room test for this law.
The NY Times is run by a bunch of asshats, and now they are proving it by going after a nobody who was trying to help them. Real class acts.
-- Len
I don't think that we needed a 1m antenna either, but I'm a ME, so what do I know ;^)
-- Len
Good for you, but you seem to be the one complaining.
The goal of Robocup Junior is to introduce some electromechanical concepts to high school students. It isn't much beyond that.
The team that posed the question about Bluetooth is entering into the small sized class, a research vehicle. Here, communication is necessary, no vital. We have to deal with interference on several levels, or we fail.
Don't get me wrong, there were some impressive "robots" in the Junior competition this year. The problem there just doesn't hold a candle to what this team will have to do to be competitive.
-- Len
I think they can. In fact I hope that they kick ass and take names.
This is an academic contest. All of the teams are students and grad students, each sponsored by faculty members like them. There is a lot of work to do for this contest, but all previous work done by all previous teams is open to anyone who wants to join in.
My team gives away our design and code every year. Many others do as well. We do it to push ourselves. Every year, teams like this one come along with stuff that we haven't thought of yet, and advance the whole program. We learn stuff from every team that we play.
The fact that they have so many involved faculty speaks volumes about their interest in the program. Yes, students will do the work in the end, but it puts them in a much stronger position to have so many faculty to draw from.
-- Len
The only thing I have to add is that Bluetooth lies in the crowded 2.4 GHz. band that is used by 802.11b. The 2.4 GHz. band was very problematic for most teams that used it this year, as the entire place was filled with 2.4 GHz. devices. Imagine a hockey stadium filled with ~500 wireless laptops and base stations, ~100 802.11b wireless robots, ~300 wireless robotic dogs and about 600 other wireless robots using some other frequency.
Now most of these teams were using 802.11b, but even if you could coexist with 802.11b traffic you may not be allowed to use Bluetooth. If you were to play against another team using any technology in the 2.4GHz. band, one of the teams would have to switch to a different frequency. The contest (at least in the small-sized league) requires at least two capable frequencies for control.
At Cornell, we used three frequencies this year; 433 MHz., 868 MHz. and 914 MHz. We were lucky to have 868, as nobody else used that one at the competition.
-- Len
One other addition.
The molar pregnancy could start from one screwed up egg, or it could be from a screwed up mitosis. The Chimera thing is from combining multiple fertilized eggs, or multiple clumps of different DNA cells into common tissue of an embryo, very early on.
The point being that either one could become "unviable" at any time after conception, but the molar case is wrong within each cell.
-- Len
I was just showing that things can and do go wrong with extra or multiple sets of chromosomes. In our case, we had normal (mother + father) and abnormal (father + father) chromosomal pairings. This created two different genetic materials in the embryo, or what should have been an embryo.
As for myself and my sister, we are probably partial chimeras. We both have auto-immune problems that can't be easily explained. At times, our bodies become allergic to themselves. My sister has it worse though. Sometimes she gets spontaneous blood clots in her legs.
-- Len