If you don't have a spare PC laying around, VMWare is a pretty spectacular way to get your hands dirty without having to worry about completely hosing your development machine on accident. The only thing you really can't do with VMWare is hardware level drivers, for obvious reasons.
If you really want to get gritty on the emulation level, I highly recommend Bochs. It's a fully functional x86 emulator, and since it's open source, it comes with some nifty options, and the source code is on hand if you really need to get tricky.
I think the key to working efficiently with an x86 emulator/virtualizer is having a significant amount of RAM, and a RAM disk to mount your virtual drives on. Since RAM is so cheap these days, there's no excuse not to have at least a gig of it in a development box. It makes rebooting the virtual machine (which happens a lot) a bearable process.
If you need to work with hardware, you can build yourself a test platform for around $300 now, including a cheap monitor - unless you need exotic hardware.
My experience kernel hacking is in on the VFS level, inserting and modifying a few core routines to report through a/proc interface... and it was pretty easy to get into. I started with a basic understanding of how things work (inodes, etc.), and it came pretty easily. If you're going to be working on file systems, make periodic copies (backups) of your virtual drive image (if you're using VMWare/Bochs)... it's a life saver for the first few weeks.:)
The kernel is complex, but so is any major piece of software. Thankfully, lots of bits in the kernel are well engineered and compartmentalized, so chances are you won't have to worry about screwing up the TCP stack if you're in the midst of inode.c...
Because of the massive movement in China to teach it's children English, there have been a few estimates that say there will be more English speakers in China than there are in North America and Europe combined, by the year 2010.
After traveling around China, I'm somewhat skeptical... but I can pretty much guarantee that the majority of people with Internet connections will have basic English skills. Only the priviledged and educated classes have regular access to computers, and that's a pretty miniscule percentage of the Chinese population.
As a slightly off topic side node, what really surprised me about China was the lack of Communism. Sure, there's a good amount of government subsidising, but it's basically the same as it is in the United States... only the people doling out the cash seem to band together and spend all the money in one place at a time.. like Bejing, for the upcoming olympics in 2008. It's basicaly a capitalistic, entrepenurial country, and it won't surprise me if the Internet floodgates spring open in the next five years.
I worked in IT for a few years at a hot little.com (which is still around), but I completely burnt myself out working 10 to 14 hours a day behind a computer, five days a week. I quit the job, blew my.fortune in Europe, and came back to pursue my interests in photography.
Nearly two years later, I'm working two to three days a week doing web dev for a small on-line retailer - the work environment is better (it's in a real store, with people who like to do fantastic things like climb large mountains), and it provides enough money to pay the bills. Otherwise, I'm still gung-ho for my photography: Some months I make more than I did at my.com... and some months I make nothing.
The trick for me is variety! Three days straight behind a computer is all I can really handle... after that, I go out for the rest of the week, taking pictures, printing in the dark room, with a bit of rock climbing on the side... I had forgotten how enjoyable it can be to actually use my muscles.. puny as they may be.
By the time I go back to the webdev job, I'm fired up and ready for a couple long days hacking PHP and CSS. On the down side, I don't make as much money as I used to. On the plus side, I'm much more satisified with the work I do, and I'm a happier person in general.
... on the other hand, it's nice to be able to have an open testing network for software and hardware companies to use, without blowing the millions nessicary to build something of this scale. Large companies like Cisco and Microsoft (and universities like Stanford and MIT)undoubtedly have their own network simulation labs - this opens the door for smaller companies and universities.
You're perfectly correct when you say simulation is never perfect. However, even basic approximations can really help point out weaknesses and strengths in any system, and in this case in particular, I don't think The Big Boys should be the only ones with access to these simulators.
And, on a slightly more cynical note, remember that business people are very rarely engineers - even if it has no real world use, a simulation network like this will very likely get quite a bit of use from companies hoping to get some sort of advantage. At the very least, the students who run the show at emulab will have some pretty decent high-end networking experience behind them by the time they leave.
The McMaster Motor website, describes the engine running on nitrous oxide and ammonia (essentially hydrogen and oxygen, with a bit of nitrogen thrown in to make things easier and safer to handle = 3 N20 + 2 NH3 = 3 H20 + 4 N2 + kaboom ).
Added bonus: Nice little animations to show how the combustion system works.
Unfortunately, you're not looking towards the future: Adobe, Microsoft, and several other major software manufacturers have promised versions of their major titles for the Cocoa API, several of which have been demonstrated live in the last few months. I encourage you to look at both Microsoft's Macintosh pages, as well as Adobe's web site.
... Photoshop. Illustrator. Office. I consider that a very significant and useful feature. Wouldn't it be interesting if OpenStep provided the doorway for native versions of applications the rest of the computing universe depends on?
The XBox II (or HomeStation) is the key to an "all or nothing" campaign, which is how Microsoft does everything. The general idea is to throw a ton of money into marketing an inital product, and if/when that product gains a reasonable market share, release a newer version which incorporates more non-traditional technology in the niche market they're targeting. Also known as embrace and extend - instead of focusing on making the game console better at playing games, they make it do a whole bunch of other things, which essentially forces the competition to follow their lead if the XBox becomes a successful platform. The trick is to have that second (greatly expanded) product waiting quietly in the wings, so that it can be released before the competition has a chance to develop and retool their production line to incorporate the new features.
From a marketing perspective, it makes a lot of sense for a company with enough resources to do this sort of thing, and it's (obviously) been a very successful tactic in the past. Microsoft can afford to bury their unsuccessful products -- like the oft sited Bob, which undoubtedly had a second revision waiting for release in the event that Bob 1.0 was a huge success.
Best case mod I've ever seen was an Cray T3D unit case, the size of a fridge. It was sitting proudly in the middle of a lab at a software company I visited a while back, in the middle of the.com boom. It took me a little by surprise - This was a standard office building, on the eighth floor, complete with corporate pile carpet and flimsy ceiling tiles, and certainly not the right kind of environment for a Cray. But, then again, the company had just finished a remarkable round of financing, and their product had something to do with supercomputing (although it was clustering, not vector processing). The Cray was also making a really odd sound... a high pitched whine, and a fast shuffling clicking sound.
My fantasies of actually being able to check out a Cray were quickly swept aside when an employee trotted up to the case, popped it open, and revealed the Hewlet-Packard "mopier" tucked inside, furiously spitting out documents.
After asking around, it appears they got the case (and it was a real case) from Cray because it had been seriously damaged when an (ex?) employee had dropped the unit to be shipped off a 4' loading dock.
Considering the average length of a King novel (600.. 700 pages?), he'll be doing quite well if his fan base isn't familiar with grade school math -- That's $30 or $35 per book.:)
For home or lower-end professional work, IDE kicks butt. The problem is when you're dealing with very high bandwidth (like mixing full resolution NTSC video streams), or huge piles of data. A single IDE disk is great if your project will fit on one.. but once you start needing several disks, IDE performance drops like a rock.
We used IDE-based workstations for doing our initial editing. They're great for putting together your first EDL and getting things synched and cut up roughly where you need it to be from lower resolution sources. However, if you want to be editing final broadcast quality material (for digital betacam tape, D1, or what-have-you) you need a system with some serious IO.
However, instead of blowing a ton of money on a high end system, buy some budget equipment that will "get the job done," and if you need the extra high-end equipment, you can find a good post production house that will take your EDLs and source material, and give you back an excellent product.
I've worked with several high-end editing systems, and I have to say that by far the best "all in one" solution I've found is the Jaleo (www.jaleo.com).
The way it works is a fairly big departure from "typical" commercial systems (like Avid), but IMHO it's a huge step in the right direction, and once you wrap your brain around the concepts, it's incredibly easy to use.
For one, it's layers based, not track based -- you put together layers of clips and effects. If you put an effect on a layer, it will effect all the layers underneith it. You can put clips and effects sequentially on the same layer, you can squish a bunch of layers of effects together to create a new effect.. it's great stuff.
It's also insanely configurable. Pick any resolution and any frame rate, you can import and export to dang near any media standard in existance, and it has a bitchin' language for writing plug-ins and effects. It's also UNIX (IRIX) based, so you can do whatever crazy filesystem/data manipulation you want.
Unfortunately, it's hideously expensive -- the unit I demoed weighed in at $250,000, but it was pretty decked out:
Dual processor SGI Octane with a gig of ram and all the video options.
Beauuuutiful wide-aspect ratio SGI/Sony 28" monitor
75GB Fibre-channel RAID
What really knocked my socks off was how efficient the system was at processing effects. I'm used to waiting for a Flame system to render it's effects on a similiary speced out system, but the Jaleo didn't have any problems doing a lot of the same effects in real-time (at least on NTSC video -- it started to crunch a bit on HTDV).
It's probably out of your price range, but it's an awesome system none the less.:)
I'm having a hard time understanding how you can view Quakers and the AFSC as a bad thing. You seem to be somewhat misled as to what the Society of Friends is, and what the AFSC works towards.
The Quaker church was originally created as a Christian sect by George Fox durring the Reformation. Early Quakerism was very Christian -- it was formed because Fox beleived that the core Christian pricipals should be a way of LIFE, not just something you did on Sundays and before meals. Modern Quakerism is quite a bit more fractured, but that's because of the diversity that people are starting to recognise as a Good Thing. There are certainly some very strong Christian Quaker chruches, but there are also some very non-denominational churches which don't even make claim to being Christian (much like the Unitarians). Regardless, the basic principals of the Society of Friends remains strong: Strengthening community, equality of all humans, non-violent resolution, and to actually practice what you beleive.
Your claim that Quakers "reject the Biblically-based doctrine of salvation by faith alone" is ridiculous. The reason George Fox founded the Society of Friends was to put faith into action, because he felt that if one truely beleived in what they preached, it would be a constant part of their lives -- how they dealt with people, how they conducted business, how they regarded injustice and crime, how they did anything.
You can talk about how faithful you are until you're blue in the face, but unless you practice what you preach, how can it possibly be faith?
The AFSC was founded, and operates on those principals. When they speak of social justice, they're not talking about big government and a managed economy -- they're talking about the right to a fair trial, the right to not be tortured, the right to speak freely, and the right to build community. The AFSC has done more than any other organization I know of to promote non-violence and defend what I'd like to consider human rights, both here in the United States and around the world. I have even more respect for them because it is a non-denominational, non-evangelical organization -- they respect the sanctity of religion, regardless of what the religion is.
The reasons the Quakers and the AFSC were tagged by the FBI is that they don't agree with a lot of things that were established government practices at the time. Examples: communist paranoia, racism, the vietnam and korean wars, the death penalty, govermental abuses of power, the US's economic policies in 3rd world countries, and I could continue, but I think you get the point -- the actions of our government are not nessicarily in the best interests of the people, and when they aren't, chances are you'll find Quakers working to fix the problems.
Your claims of disinformation are rediculous. The Amish misconception stems from the period in the 1700s where simplicity of living was paramount in the Church. Nevermind that everyone else at the time also chopped their own wood and rode around in horse-drawn carrages (sp). Yes, the Quakers still beleive in simplicity, but most of us get our first exposure to Quakers when we read our high-school text books which seem to really enjoy talking about the "grey era" of Quaker history. Now Quakers have to spend a lot of time fighting off the stereotype.
I highly suggest that you re-evaluate your opinion of the Quakers and the AFSC. They are by no means perfect, but they're certainly not the threat you seem to think they are.
I've read every article that's been posted by Katz. I enjoy reading his writing, even if I don't agree with all of it. I have a really hard time understanding why so many people have such a hard time with his essays.
I hear a lot of complaints about how he pigeon-holes and stereotypes geeks and what-not. What's up with that? In my personal experience of dealing with a *lot* of geeks, I've found he's *mostly* right. Of course there are exceptions (there are always exceptions) but try as we might, we can't all be beautiful and unique little snowflakes. Geeks are just as cliquish, stand-offish, opinionated, and dead-sure that we're "right" as any other group on this planet.
Katz offers a completely valid perspective on geek culture. I know for a fact that he's done a lot of hanging out with geeks, talking with geeks, interviewing of geeks, and has made several attempts at geekdom himself. The difference is that he's looking in from the outside.. the way most of the world looks in on it.
Sure, he waxes romantic on the nature of being a geek.. but why not? What's wrong with the idea that geeks might actually be an interesting and diverse crowd? In my humble opinion, he's doing quite a bit to make us more palateable to the general population.. which is a good thing.
In my humble opinion, we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss him as a crackpot and a lamer. The world is a hell of a lot larger than our little subculture. Perhaps we should pay attention?
After reading the benchmark papers and what-not, it appears that the current Transmeta chips run x86 software at about 80% the speed of an Intel chip at the same MHz.
Something interesting to note, however, is that the TM die sizes are quite a bit smaller and much less complex than Intel's -- it's quite possible that they can crank 20% more MHz out of their silicon than Intel can. Also, keep in mind that their power usage is about 1/40th of what Intel uses -- they can further increase MHz by pumping up the voltage. Since their chips are being fabbed by IBM, I have no doubt they also have access to the lastest and greatest materials and equipment out there.
All things considered, it *really* wouldn't surprise me if they unveiled a 1GHz+ CPU in the next year, geared for performance instead of efficiency. They have a *lot* going for them. I really look forward to testing their products when they hit the market!
Video editing is one of those things that requires a hell of a lot of horsepower. Sure, it'll work on a bare bones system, but the more CPU, RAM, and speedy hard drives you can throw at it, the better. Simple cut and paste editing doesn't require anything special, but as soon as you start doing any real compositing, chromakeys, or any other sort of image rendering, the cycles add up.
I beleive the book you're refering to is titled "Silicon Snake Oil". It's a very good book to read in this day and age, where computers are hyped as the answer to everything, and shoehorned into places and uses they shouldn't be in.
While he says that computers won't give you a quick and easy education, he does state that they can be a very useful tool for things like research and colaboration -- they have a place. Honestly, given the choice, how many of us would go back to the typewriter to write our term papers?
Personaly, I don't think computers have much of a place in the early stages of education, when the biggest challenge is developing social skills and basic communication abilities. When school assignments become more analytical and research oriented, then computers become tremendously useful.
From the teacher's point of view, computers are an incredible resource! I went to a very small high school with limited resources.. but my favorite teacher of all time was able to deliver amazing lessons on a wide variety of subjects because he had access to a computer, to e-mail, and the 'net. Because he had that sort of access, we were able to interview Ken Kesey about his writing and experiences, we were able to get real-world and up to date information about politics and business in Indonesia, and we were actually interested in what we were learning about.
Of course, the other side of the equasion is that our teacher was an amazing person. It takes someone who's driven and intelligent to keep a class interested in anything, at any academic level.
A smart person, be they student or teacher, will use available tools to their best advantage. Not having a computer or 'net access in the classroom is like telling a carpenter (s)he can't have a hammer -- sure, there are cool things you can do without a hammer, but a hammer really opens up a world of opportunity.
In my second paragraph I used the word "illegally".. it shouldn't be there -- this is just a Finding of Fact. Of course, one could deduce that Microsoft's actions are illegal (especially regarding the licensing issues), but this was not a legal ruling on the case.
I've read the first hundred pages of the FoF, and Judge Jackson really does get it. He spells out very clearly what Microsoft has done, how Microsoft did it, and why it's an abuse of monopoly power. He clearly spells out their position in the market relative to other operating systems. He goes to great lengths to define the difference between the OS, applications, and APIs.
In summary, he states that Microsoft illegally used it's control over the operating system market to gain advantage over Netscape and Sun in regards to the web browser and java runtime environment markets, through restrictive licensing agreements and deliberately smearing the line between application and operating system. (That is my understanding thus far -- there are quite a few smaller issues that he touches on)
I know a lot of people are going to read the press clippings that are saturated with some pretty charged statements from both Microsoft and the Judge Jackson. Unfortunately, they really don't give a good representation of the FoF, which is not only an easy read, but a very enlightening one.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU READ THE FIRST 25 PAGES OF THE FoF. Educate yourself before you become a victim of the avalanche of spin doctoring that's going to consume the media for the next week.
From my understanding, they're not banning teaching evolution, they're just saying you can't say it's a fact. Sure, that'll freak out a lot of people, but hey.. it isn't proven (it's extremely hard to give a biological proof). Theory is theory until proven, and shouldn't be represented as anything else until then.
I think this is actually not as bad as a lot of people seem to think it is -- it'll certainly open up more discussions about our origins, and as far as I'm concerned, that's a good thing. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've certainly gained a great deal of knowledge about the world and people around me through discussion of topics that not everyone can agree on.
In my humble opinion, too many people take too many theories for granted (religion and science both). On the same note, too many people take too many things way too seriously. People need to lighten up and realize that not everybody can agree on everything, and what's right for one community may be a heinous mistake in another.
In no way am I trying to stir up sympathy for nutcases in the ultra-religious ultra-right, but I do think people are over reacting to this.
They're modelling my home town (Portland, OR). I wonder if they'll have a pseudo-me particle, waiting in the rain for a bus every day.:-)
I hope they take weather into their equasions: I know a lot of people who look out the window before they decide to take public transit or jump in their car (or skate to work, or whatever).
The problem is that if you expect to survive in a first world country, you *need* to have money. It's not really an option: No money = no food, no house, no life. Philosophical day dreams can't change that.
I, as well, am a proprietary code writer. Even more so, I write proprietary code for Linux systems. Considering that our business is based on a proprietary value added to Linux, we can't give it away -- and no, the popular Open Source business models don't work for us.
If we could find a way to give all of our code away and still make money, we'd certainly do it. Unfortunately, doing that right now is the equivalent of suicide.
Big businesses opening their proprietary-ware makes sense, because they have other products and a reputation to ask money for. Small companies don't have that luxury, unfortunately.:/
Money doesn't make the world go around. Money is just the tool that makes it possible -- it's the lowest common denominator between the civilizations on this planet that allows people to exchange goods and services, without which the world *would* come to a grinding halt.
Slashdot Mirror
If you don't have a spare PC laying around, VMWare is a pretty spectacular way to get your hands dirty without having to worry about completely hosing your development machine on accident. The only thing you really can't do with VMWare is hardware level drivers, for obvious reasons.
/proc interface ... and it was pretty easy to get into. I started with a basic understanding of how things work (inodes, etc.), and it came pretty easily. If you're going to be working on file systems, make periodic copies (backups) of your virtual drive image (if you're using VMWare/Bochs) ... it's a life saver for the first few weeks. :)
...
If you really want to get gritty on the emulation level, I highly recommend Bochs. It's a fully functional x86 emulator, and since it's open source, it comes with some nifty options, and the source code is on hand if you really need to get tricky.
I think the key to working efficiently with an x86 emulator/virtualizer is having a significant amount of RAM, and a RAM disk to mount your virtual drives on. Since RAM is so cheap these days, there's no excuse not to have at least a gig of it in a development box. It makes rebooting the virtual machine (which happens a lot) a bearable process.
If you need to work with hardware, you can build yourself a test platform for around $300 now, including a cheap monitor - unless you need exotic hardware.
My experience kernel hacking is in on the VFS level, inserting and modifying a few core routines to report through a
The kernel is complex, but so is any major piece of software. Thankfully, lots of bits in the kernel are well engineered and compartmentalized, so chances are you won't have to worry about screwing up the TCP stack if you're in the midst of inode.c
have fun!
Because of the massive movement in China to teach it's children English, there have been a few estimates that say there will be more English speakers in China than there are in North America and Europe combined, by the year 2010.
... but I can pretty much guarantee that the majority of people with Internet connections will have basic English skills. Only the priviledged and educated classes have regular access to computers, and that's a pretty miniscule percentage of the Chinese population.
... only the people doling out the cash seem to band together and spend all the money in one place at a time .. like Bejing, for the upcoming olympics in 2008. It's basicaly a capitalistic, entrepenurial country, and it won't surprise me if the Internet floodgates spring open in the next five years.
After traveling around China, I'm somewhat skeptical
As a slightly off topic side node, what really surprised me about China was the lack of Communism. Sure, there's a good amount of government subsidising, but it's basically the same as it is in the United States
I worked in IT for a few years at a hot little .com (which is still around), but I completely burnt myself out working 10 to 14 hours a day behind a computer, five days a week. I quit the job, blew my .fortune in Europe, and came back to pursue my interests in photography.
Nearly two years later, I'm working two to three days a week doing web dev for a small on-line retailer - the work environment is better (it's in a real store, with people who like to do fantastic things like climb large mountains), and it provides enough money to pay the bills. Otherwise, I'm still gung-ho for my photography: Some months I make more than I did at my .com ... and some months I make nothing.
The trick for me is variety! Three days straight behind a computer is all I can really handle ... after that, I go out for the rest of the week, taking pictures, printing in the dark room, with a bit of rock climbing on the side ... I had forgotten how enjoyable it can be to actually use my muscles .. puny as they may be.
By the time I go back to the webdev job, I'm fired up and ready for a couple long days hacking PHP and CSS. On the down side, I don't make as much money as I used to. On the plus side, I'm much more satisified with the work I do, and I'm a happier person in general.
You're perfectly correct when you say simulation is never perfect. However, even basic approximations can really help point out weaknesses and strengths in any system, and in this case in particular, I don't think The Big Boys should be the only ones with access to these simulators.
And, on a slightly more cynical note, remember that business people are very rarely engineers - even if it has no real world use, a simulation network like this will very likely get quite a bit of use from companies hoping to get some sort of advantage. At the very least, the students who run the show at emulab will have some pretty decent high-end networking experience behind them by the time they leave.
All in all, I think it's a good thing.
The McMaster Motor website, describes the engine running on nitrous oxide and ammonia (essentially hydrogen and oxygen, with a bit of nitrogen thrown in to make things easier and safer to handle = 3 N20 + 2 NH3 = 3 H20 + 4 N2 + kaboom ).
Added bonus: Nice little animations to show how the combustion system works.
Unfortunately, you're not looking towards the future: Adobe, Microsoft, and several other major software manufacturers have promised versions of their major titles for the Cocoa API, several of which have been demonstrated live in the last few months. I encourage you to look at both Microsoft's Macintosh pages, as well as Adobe's web site.
... Photoshop. Illustrator. Office. I consider that a very significant and useful feature. Wouldn't it be interesting if OpenStep provided the doorway for native versions of applications the rest of the computing universe depends on?
The XBox II (or HomeStation) is the key to an "all or nothing" campaign, which is how Microsoft does everything. The general idea is to throw a ton of money into marketing an inital product, and if/when that product gains a reasonable market share, release a newer version which incorporates more non-traditional technology in the niche market they're targeting. Also known as embrace and extend - instead of focusing on making the game console better at playing games, they make it do a whole bunch of other things, which essentially forces the competition to follow their lead if the XBox becomes a successful platform. The trick is to have that second (greatly expanded) product waiting quietly in the wings, so that it can be released before the competition has a chance to develop and retool their production line to incorporate the new features.
From a marketing perspective, it makes a lot of sense for a company with enough resources to do this sort of thing, and it's (obviously) been a very successful tactic in the past. Microsoft can afford to bury their unsuccessful products -- like the oft sited Bob, which undoubtedly had a second revision waiting for release in the event that Bob 1.0 was a huge success.
Best case mod I've ever seen was an Cray T3D unit case, the size of a fridge. It was sitting proudly in the middle of a lab at a software company I visited a while back, in the middle of the .com boom. It took me a little by surprise - This was a standard office building, on the eighth floor, complete with corporate pile carpet and flimsy ceiling tiles, and certainly not the right kind of environment for a Cray. But, then again, the company had just finished a remarkable round of financing, and their product had something to do with supercomputing (although it was clustering, not vector processing). The Cray was also making a really odd sound ... a high pitched whine, and a fast shuffling clicking sound.
My fantasies of actually being able to check out a Cray were quickly swept aside when an employee trotted up to the case, popped it open, and revealed the Hewlet-Packard "mopier" tucked inside, furiously spitting out documents.
After asking around, it appears they got the case (and it was a real case) from Cray because it had been seriously damaged when an (ex?) employee had dropped the unit to be shipped off a 4' loading dock.
Talk about an "Oh Shit" moment.
Considering the average length of a King novel (600 .. 700 pages?), he'll be doing quite well if his fan base isn't familiar with grade school math -- That's $30 or $35 per book. :)
For home or lower-end professional work, IDE kicks butt. The problem is when you're dealing with very high bandwidth (like mixing full resolution NTSC video streams), or huge piles of data. A single IDE disk is great if your project will fit on one .. but once you start needing several disks, IDE performance drops like a rock.
We used IDE-based workstations for doing our initial editing. They're great for putting together your first EDL and getting things synched and cut up roughly where you need it to be from lower resolution sources. However, if you want to be editing final broadcast quality material (for digital betacam tape, D1, or what-have-you) you need a system with some serious IO.
However, instead of blowing a ton of money on a high end system, buy some budget equipment that will "get the job done," and if you need the extra high-end equipment, you can find a good post production house that will take your EDLs and source material, and give you back an excellent product.
I've worked with several high-end editing systems, and I have to say that by far the best "all in one" solution I've found is the Jaleo (www.jaleo.com).
The way it works is a fairly big departure from "typical" commercial systems (like Avid), but IMHO it's a huge step in the right direction, and once you wrap your brain around the concepts, it's incredibly easy to use.
For one, it's layers based, not track based -- you put together layers of clips and effects. If you put an effect on a layer, it will effect all the layers underneith it. You can put clips and effects sequentially on the same layer, you can squish a bunch of layers of effects together to create a new effect .. it's great stuff.
It's also insanely configurable. Pick any resolution and any frame rate, you can import and export to dang near any media standard in existance, and it has a bitchin' language for writing plug-ins and effects. It's also UNIX (IRIX) based, so you can do whatever crazy filesystem/data manipulation you want.
Unfortunately, it's hideously expensive -- the unit I demoed weighed in at $250,000, but it was pretty decked out:
- Dual processor SGI Octane with a gig of ram and all the video options.
- Beauuuutiful wide-aspect ratio SGI/Sony 28" monitor
- 75GB Fibre-channel RAID
What really knocked my socks off was how efficient the system was at processing effects. I'm used to waiting for a Flame system to render it's effects on a similiary speced out system, but the Jaleo didn't have any problems doing a lot of the same effects in real-time (at least on NTSC video -- it started to crunch a bit on HTDV).It's probably out of your price range, but it's an awesome system none the less. :)
The Quaker church was originally created as a Christian sect by George Fox durring the Reformation. Early Quakerism was very Christian -- it was formed because Fox beleived that the core Christian pricipals should be a way of LIFE, not just something you did on Sundays and before meals. Modern Quakerism is quite a bit more fractured, but that's because of the diversity that people are starting to recognise as a Good Thing. There are certainly some very strong Christian Quaker chruches, but there are also some very non-denominational churches which don't even make claim to being Christian (much like the Unitarians). Regardless, the basic principals of the Society of Friends remains strong: Strengthening community, equality of all humans, non-violent resolution, and to actually practice what you beleive.
Your claim that Quakers "reject the Biblically-based doctrine of salvation by faith alone" is ridiculous. The reason George Fox founded the Society of Friends was to put faith into action, because he felt that if one truely beleived in what they preached, it would be a constant part of their lives -- how they dealt with people, how they conducted business, how they regarded injustice and crime, how they did anything.
You can talk about how faithful you are until you're blue in the face, but unless you practice what you preach, how can it possibly be faith?
The AFSC was founded, and operates on those principals. When they speak of social justice, they're not talking about big government and a managed economy -- they're talking about the right to a fair trial, the right to not be tortured, the right to speak freely, and the right to build community. The AFSC has done more than any other organization I know of to promote non-violence and defend what I'd like to consider human rights, both here in the United States and around the world. I have even more respect for them because it is a non-denominational, non-evangelical organization -- they respect the sanctity of religion, regardless of what the religion is.
The reasons the Quakers and the AFSC were tagged by the FBI is that they don't agree with a lot of things that were established government practices at the time. Examples: communist paranoia, racism, the vietnam and korean wars, the death penalty, govermental abuses of power, the US's economic policies in 3rd world countries, and I could continue, but I think you get the point -- the actions of our government are not nessicarily in the best interests of the people, and when they aren't, chances are you'll find Quakers working to fix the problems.
Your claims of disinformation are rediculous. The Amish misconception stems from the period in the 1700s where simplicity of living was paramount in the Church. Nevermind that everyone else at the time also chopped their own wood and rode around in horse-drawn carrages (sp). Yes, the Quakers still beleive in simplicity, but most of us get our first exposure to Quakers when we read our high-school text books which seem to really enjoy talking about the "grey era" of Quaker history. Now Quakers have to spend a lot of time fighting off the stereotype.
I highly suggest that you re-evaluate your opinion of the Quakers and the AFSC. They are by no means perfect, but they're certainly not the threat you seem to think they are.
I've read every article that's been posted by Katz. I enjoy reading his writing, even if I don't agree with all of it. I have a really hard time understanding why so many people have such a hard time with his essays.
.. the way most of the world looks in on it.
.. but why not? What's wrong with the idea that geeks might actually be an interesting and diverse crowd? In my humble opinion, he's doing quite a bit to make us more palateable to the general population .. which is a good thing.
I hear a lot of complaints about how he pigeon-holes and stereotypes geeks and what-not. What's up with that? In my personal experience of dealing with a *lot* of geeks, I've found he's *mostly* right. Of course there are exceptions (there are always exceptions) but try as we might, we can't all be beautiful and unique little snowflakes. Geeks are just as cliquish, stand-offish, opinionated, and dead-sure that we're "right" as any other group on this planet.
Katz offers a completely valid perspective on geek culture. I know for a fact that he's done a lot of hanging out with geeks, talking with geeks, interviewing of geeks, and has made several attempts at geekdom himself. The difference is that he's looking in from the outside
Sure, he waxes romantic on the nature of being a geek
In my humble opinion, we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss him as a crackpot and a lamer. The world is a hell of a lot larger than our little subculture. Perhaps we should pay attention?
I really doubt that the circuitry in his microwave poses any real threat to the rest of the technological world.
.. click
[humor]
Are you kidding me? Look at what horrors can be wrought with a mere household microwave
here.
[/humor]
After reading the benchmark papers and what-not, it appears that the current Transmeta chips run x86 software at about 80% the speed of an Intel chip at the same MHz.
Something interesting to note, however, is that the TM die sizes are quite a bit smaller and much less complex than Intel's -- it's quite possible that they can crank 20% more MHz out of their silicon than Intel can. Also, keep in mind that their power usage is about 1/40th of what Intel uses -- they can further increase MHz by pumping up the voltage. Since their chips are being fabbed by IBM, I have no doubt they also have access to the lastest and greatest materials and equipment out there.
All things considered, it *really* wouldn't surprise me if they unveiled a 1GHz+ CPU in the next year, geared for performance instead of efficiency. They have a *lot* going for them. I really look forward to testing their products when they hit the market!
I think they're making a bit of a joke.
I beleive the book you're refering to is titled "Silicon Snake Oil". It's a very good book to read in this day and age, where computers are hyped as the answer to everything, and shoehorned into places and uses they shouldn't be in.
While he says that computers won't give you a quick and easy education, he does state that they can be a very useful tool for things like research and colaboration -- they have a place. Honestly, given the choice, how many of us would go back to the typewriter to write our term papers?
Personaly, I don't think computers have much of a place in the early stages of education, when the biggest challenge is developing social skills and basic communication abilities. When school assignments become more analytical and research oriented, then computers become tremendously useful.
From the teacher's point of view, computers are an incredible resource! I went to a very small high school with limited resources .. but my favorite teacher of all time was able to deliver amazing lessons on a wide variety of subjects because he had access to a computer, to e-mail, and the 'net. Because he had that sort of access, we were able to interview Ken Kesey about his writing and experiences, we were able to get real-world and up to date information about politics and business in Indonesia, and we were actually interested in what we were learning about.
Of course, the other side of the equasion is that our teacher was an amazing person. It takes someone who's driven and intelligent to keep a class interested in anything, at any academic level.
A smart person, be they student or teacher, will use available tools to their best advantage. Not having a computer or 'net access in the classroom is like telling a carpenter (s)he can't have a hammer -- sure, there are cool things you can do without a hammer, but a hammer really opens up a world of opportunity.
In my second paragraph I used the word "illegally"
Sorry if I caused any confusion.
I've read the first hundred pages of the FoF, and Judge Jackson really does get it. He spells out very clearly what Microsoft has done, how Microsoft did it, and why it's an abuse of monopoly power. He clearly spells out their position in the market relative to other operating systems. He goes to great lengths to define the difference between the OS, applications, and APIs.
In summary, he states that Microsoft illegally used it's control over the operating system market to gain advantage over Netscape and Sun in regards to the web browser and java runtime environment markets, through restrictive licensing agreements and deliberately smearing the line between application and operating system. (That is my understanding thus far -- there are quite a few smaller issues that he touches on)
I know a lot of people are going to read the press clippings that are saturated with some pretty charged statements from both Microsoft and the Judge Jackson. Unfortunately, they really don't give a good representation of the FoF, which is not only an easy read, but a very enlightening one.
I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU READ THE FIRST 25 PAGES OF THE FoF. Educate yourself before you become a victim of the avalanche of spin doctoring that's going to consume the media for the next week.
I could have sworn cheese was the most powerful force in the universe.
Behold the power of cheese!
How much do you want to bet that the next generation of Celeron chips will be called the Opteon?
..
I also think it's kind of funny they registered shelfofshame.com
-Peat
From my understanding, they're not banning teaching evolution, they're just saying you can't say it's a fact. Sure, that'll freak out a lot of people, but hey .. it isn't proven (it's extremely hard to give a biological proof). Theory is theory until proven, and shouldn't be represented as anything else until then.
I think this is actually not as bad as a lot of people seem to think it is -- it'll certainly open up more discussions about our origins, and as far as I'm concerned, that's a good thing. I don't know about the rest of you, but I've certainly gained a great deal of knowledge about the world and people around me through discussion of topics that not everyone can agree on.
In my humble opinion, too many people take too many theories for granted (religion and science both). On the same note, too many people take too many things way too seriously. People need to lighten up and realize that not everybody can agree on everything, and what's right for one community may be a heinous mistake in another.
In no way am I trying to stir up sympathy for nutcases in the ultra-religious ultra-right, but I do think people are over reacting to this.
They're modelling my home town (Portland, OR). I wonder if they'll have a pseudo-me particle, waiting in the rain for a bus every day. :-)
I hope they take weather into their equasions: I know a lot of people who look out the window before they decide to take public transit or jump in their car (or skate to work, or whatever).
The problem is that if you expect to survive in a first world country, you *need* to have money. It's not really an option: No money = no food, no house, no life. Philosophical day dreams can't change that.
:/
I, as well, am a proprietary code writer. Even more so, I write proprietary code for Linux systems. Considering that our business is based on a proprietary value added to Linux, we can't give it away -- and no, the popular Open Source business models don't work for us.
If we could find a way to give all of our code away and still make money, we'd certainly do it. Unfortunately, doing that right now is the equivalent of suicide.
Big businesses opening their proprietary-ware makes sense, because they have other products and a reputation to ask money for. Small companies don't have that luxury, unfortunately.
Money doesn't make the world go around. Money is just the tool that makes it possible -- it's the lowest common denominator between the civilizations on this planet that allows people to exchange goods and services, without which the world *would* come to a grinding halt.