Immediately did the Windows 7 recovery which was unattended and smooth, to be fair to MS, but then I got a 1 hours countdown to Windows 10 install once I logged in, took about 4 clicks to navigate away from the "Go ahead and upgrade" buttons that were present at every step but did manage to cancel out.
Changed the Windows Update setting so I no longer do automatic updates on this PC and hid the Windows 10 Update so hopefully it'll stay on Win 7 now.
And while Win 10 seems perfectly usable, I let a spare laptop update itself and have Win 10 Insider running in a VM on another PC I'm old enough to believe in the *Personal* part of Personal Computer and having the Windows User Experience altered without my explicit consent is an absolute no-no, especially as I'm pretty sure Win 10 breaks a game I (still) like playing, Diablo 1 with the IPX over TCP/IP patch for local LAN play on Win 7 / Win Vista.
I've been reading some articles about electricity "demand destruction" from customers deploying rooftop solar, adopting energy efficient lighting and other energy saving systems in the near term and potentially seeing increasing use of home energy storage in the next few years..
Have power companies been working with GM to find ways to accelerate the adoption of electric cars as this might be an area where these companies could spur demand for electricity?
It seems like in the next few years a few car companies, GM, Tesla, Nissan, maybe Ford, are planning to release EV models with ~200 mile range at around the $30K price point, after rebates.
Given that range and price are 2 of the key metrics when most (?sweeping generalisation?) potential EV buyers evaluate an electric car do you think that having a number of models available to buyers with similarly high range and low price points will trigger a big uptick in the number of electric cars on the road?
Well I've developed some pretty powerful apps using vi, cc, dbx, CLI index/search tools and make, on the other hand when doing Java development the IDE I use, Netbeans 3.2, is a big help, partly as jdb is such a lousy debugger, but also as the text editor's integration with the database of classes in the system makes it much easier to look up objects/methods in mid-edit that would be a huge pain to look up using grep/awk, or having to hold several hundred classes in my own memory so this certainly speeds development.
This came home when I was doing some work on a C++ system that I was new to, without IDE or class browser support, and I was surprised how much time I spent in another xterm looking up available methods and how to use them.
Of course even Visual C++ eventually just ends up executing cl.exe and link.exe to compile and link the code you've just typed in in the end and also lets you export nmake files so you can build you projects using command line tools too.
If I was developing a GUI based application from scratch I think I'd prefer to do it all in an IDE, then again using Glade to build the GUI and hacking the callback code in using the older steam driven tools, vim/gcc/gdb/gmake, works pretty well too. This was part of a small test program using CORBA with a C++ and a Java GUI based client/server programs. The Java program was done entirely in the IDE, the C++ in a mix of the glade UI builder and the CLI stuff.
Having said that I have met people who have become dependent on flashy GUI tools, and who measure their worth by the sophistication of the tools they use, as opposed to the quality of the code they write. I've even had to cover for people who've refused to fix bugs on certain platforms just because they didn't have access to a GUI based debugger and would be forced to actually read and understand the code, use dbx/xdb/gdb/ladebug/etc or (horrors !) printf()...
1) This probably counts as McGuyver science but given that a 100m telescope would have very approximately 7500m2 of collectiong area that eventually focuses down to a few square centimeters (??) at the sharp end is there any chance of the telescope collecting sufficient energy during observations to noticeably raise the temperature of the CCD/camera/eyeball of the observer ?
I'm pretty sure that the answers no, but does anyone know how many watts per m2 fall onto the earths surface during the night ? With or without a full moon ??
2) How would you keep the mirror clean during/after observations. From the look of the conceptual design of the telescope structure the main mirror is almost at ground level and the body of the telescope is an open lattice so whats to stop a sudden wind gust dropping a few hundred leaves or pounds of volcanic grit onto the precision ground surface ? VLTWBs, Very Large Telescope Wiper Blades ?? 8-)
3) Are there any designs for mirrors made from huge numbers of tiny MEMs reflectors, like the TI chip thats used in the newer Digital light projectors ? At first thought you might be able to "train" these micro/nano-mirrors to dynamically adjust on an individual basis to account for atmospheric disturbance thereby combining the main mirror and adaptive optics in the same structure. Maybe this is how you could build a large mirror in space, a number of main mirror sections that were close enough to shape and then fine tune with the billions of itty bitty mirrors once the main sections were assembled ? The BITBMT ( Billions of Itty Bitty Mirrors Telescope ) ?
Actually I saw a program on the Discovery channel or TLC where they use a spinning concave disk with a thin mercury layer as the mirror for tracking Earth orbiting debris.
Looked interesting with a guy in a full bunny suit pouring in the mercury, to avoid the rather nasty vapours methinks, but the images were pretty good. No idea what the advantage was, maybe it was a left over from an earlier program and good enough for what they needed ?
How about taking one of those plastic foot pump thingys from a blow up bed/dingy/lilo and then duct the compressed air through a small turbine which is powering a generator that charges your laptop ? Keep your legs busy through the flight, give you a mild workout and prolong your battery life to boot ( so to speak ) ! Mind you the intermittent whistle of compressed air through the turbine with the constant slow-mo knee pumping might not go down so well with other passengers on an 8 hour transatlantic flight or a tense board meeting...
Well I doubt we'll ever see Java as the implementation language of choice for time critical functions like rendering scenes on the fly, but it could have its uses in games. Gamasutra has a lengthy article entitled "Dirty Java: Using the Java Native Interface Within Games", here which gives a rundown of some of the uses that Java + compiled native code is being put to and the pros and cons. Kinda interesting I thought.
Straying way off topic theres an intriguing Linux comment from one of the Heretic II developers over on the site too. Heretic Linux comment
Hmmmm, think my QLs still in my parents attic back in England with a non-functional "H" key. Had a lot of fun with mine, played some.... errrr... a game on it, The Pawn, and prototyped parts of our final year engineering project on the blighter. Microdrives weren't bad for the time either, only a little less reliable than my current PC's Jaz drive !
Slashdot Mirror
Immediately did the Windows 7 recovery which was unattended and smooth, to be fair to MS, but then I got a 1 hours countdown to Windows 10 install once I logged in, took about 4 clicks to navigate away from the "Go ahead and upgrade" buttons that were present at every step but did manage to cancel out.
Changed the Windows Update setting so I no longer do automatic updates on this PC and hid the Windows 10 Update so hopefully it'll stay on Win 7 now.
And while Win 10 seems perfectly usable, I let a spare laptop update itself and have Win 10 Insider running in a VM on another PC I'm old enough to believe in the *Personal* part of Personal Computer and having the Windows User Experience altered without my explicit consent is an absolute no-no, especially as I'm pretty sure Win 10 breaks a game I (still) like playing, Diablo 1 with the IPX over TCP/IP patch for local LAN play on Win 7 / Win Vista.
I've been reading some articles about electricity "demand destruction" from customers deploying rooftop solar, adopting energy efficient lighting and other energy saving systems in the near term and potentially seeing increasing use of home energy storage in the next few years..
Have power companies been working with GM to find ways to accelerate the adoption of electric cars as this might be an area where these companies could spur demand for electricity?
It seems like in the next few years a few car companies, GM, Tesla, Nissan, maybe Ford, are planning to release EV models with ~200 mile range at around the $30K price point, after rebates.
Given that range and price are 2 of the key metrics when most (?sweeping generalisation?) potential EV buyers evaluate an electric car do you think that having a number of models available to buyers with similarly high range and low price points will trigger a big uptick in the number of electric cars on the road?
Well I've developed some pretty powerful apps using vi, cc, dbx, CLI index/search tools and make, on the other hand when doing Java development the IDE I use, Netbeans 3.2, is a big help, partly as jdb is such a lousy debugger, but also as the text editor's integration with the database of classes in the system makes it much easier to look up objects/methods in mid-edit that would be a huge pain to look up using grep/awk, or having to hold several hundred classes in my own memory so this certainly speeds development.
...
This came home when I was doing some work on a C++ system that I was new to, without IDE or class browser support, and I was surprised how much time I spent in another xterm looking up available methods and how to use them.
Of course even Visual C++ eventually just ends up executing cl.exe and link.exe to compile and link the code you've just typed in in the end and also lets you export nmake files so you can build you projects using command line tools too.
If I was developing a GUI based application from scratch I think I'd prefer to do it all in an IDE, then again using Glade to build the GUI and hacking the callback code in using the older steam driven tools, vim/gcc/gdb/gmake, works pretty well too. This was part of a small test program using CORBA with a C++ and a Java GUI based client/server programs. The Java program was done entirely in the IDE, the C++ in a mix of the glade UI builder and the CLI stuff.
Having said that I have met people who have become dependent on flashy GUI tools, and who measure their worth by the sophistication of the tools they use, as opposed to the quality of the code they write. I've even had to cover for people who've refused to fix bugs on certain platforms just because they didn't have access to a GUI based debugger and would be forced to actually read and understand the code, use dbx/xdb/gdb/ladebug/etc or (horrors !) printf()
Number of questions.
1) This probably counts as McGuyver science but given that a 100m telescope would have very approximately 7500m2 of collectiong area that eventually focuses down to a few square centimeters (??) at the sharp end is there any chance of the telescope collecting sufficient energy during observations to noticeably raise the temperature of the CCD/camera/eyeball of the observer ?
I'm pretty sure that the answers no, but does anyone know how many watts per m2 fall onto the earths surface during the night ? With or without a full moon ??
2) How would you keep the mirror clean during/after observations. From the look of the conceptual design of the telescope structure the main mirror is almost at ground level and the body of the telescope is an open lattice so whats to stop a sudden wind gust dropping a few hundred leaves or pounds of volcanic grit onto the precision ground surface ? VLTWBs, Very Large Telescope Wiper Blades ?? 8-)
3) Are there any designs for mirrors made from huge numbers of tiny MEMs reflectors, like the TI chip thats used in the newer Digital light projectors ? At first thought you might be able to "train" these micro/nano-mirrors to dynamically adjust on an individual basis to account for atmospheric disturbance thereby combining the main mirror and adaptive optics in the same structure. Maybe this is how you could build a large mirror in space, a number of main mirror sections that were close enough to shape and then fine tune with the billions of itty bitty mirrors once the main sections were assembled ? The BITBMT ( Billions of Itty Bitty Mirrors Telescope ) ?
Actually I saw a program on the Discovery channel or TLC where they use a spinning concave disk with a thin mercury layer as the mirror for tracking Earth orbiting debris.
Looked interesting with a guy in a full bunny suit pouring in the mercury, to avoid the rather nasty vapours methinks, but the images were pretty good. No idea what the advantage was, maybe it was a left over from an earlier program and good enough for what they needed ?
How about taking one of those plastic foot pump thingys from a blow up bed/dingy/lilo and then duct the compressed air through a small turbine which is powering a generator that charges your laptop ? Keep your legs busy through the flight, give you a mild workout and prolong your battery life to boot ( so to speak ) ! Mind you the intermittent whistle of compressed air through the turbine with the constant slow-mo knee pumping might not go down so well with other passengers on an 8 hour transatlantic flight or a tense board meeting ...
Well I doubt we'll ever see Java as the implementation language of choice for time critical functions like rendering scenes on the fly, but it could have its uses in games. Gamasutra has a lengthy article entitled "Dirty Java: Using the Java Native Interface Within Games", here which gives a rundown of some of the uses that Java + compiled native code is being put to and the pros and cons. Kinda interesting I thought.
Straying way off topic theres an intriguing Linux comment from one of the Heretic II developers over on the site too. Heretic Linux comment
Hmmmm, think my QLs still in my parents attic back in England with a non-functional "H" key. Had a lot of fun with mine, played some .... errrr ... a game on it, The Pawn, and prototyped parts of our final year engineering project on the blighter. Microdrives weren't bad for the time either, only a little less reliable than my current PC's Jaz drive !
Check out this account from a security consultant
= /news/022499-NT-Insecure.htm
http://www.ntsecurity.net/scripts/loader.asp?iD
Not sure how biased or fair it is but I thought it
was pretty interesting.