I think the reference to 12/22/2012 is meant to be on the Gregorian calendar.
As you responded later on, you seem to be a bit familiar with the Timewave Zero concept conjectured by Terrance McKenna. His timewave reaches zero right around that date(gregorian time). The date does not equate to Mayan 2012, but rather the end and restart of the Mayan calendar (kind of like when your cars odometer resets to all zero's).
Supposedly something extremely 'novel' will happen on this date, possibly the convergence of everything in the universe into an Omega Point (much like a reverse Big Bang).
I don't dispute that 2012 in Mayan = 2003 June on our calendar...just that I think they were making reference to the end of the Mayan calendar. Aliens taking over the planet and genociding the human race could be considered quite a 'novel' event in our history.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. -AC
Careful viewers would have noticed in the preview after last weeks episode that they had a quick image of Alex Krychek.
He was killed quite dead last season with a bullet to the head in an FBI garage. I don't think they allowed him to crawl away like the Smoking Man did after only being shot in the chest (and hence allowed for his return at the end of season 5).
So most likely these are flashback images from Mulder or other cast members.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
There is a app for windows that is real similar to Photomesa, it is called ZoomBrowserEX. I am not sure if it available by itself, but it came with my Canon digital camera. I'll have to look at it more closely, but it might be built on some similar algorithms.
You can see all of your directories in one big window. Click on a directory name, and the box 'zooms' in to show the other directories or pictures or files within it.
They have another image viewer that came with the package, or rather it is the same one, just a different way of looking at things. It tries to simulate a time tunnel. So you get a pseudo-3D spiral on your screen which you can 'zoom' into (like going down a tunnel). Your pictures will fly by you as you progress. Haven't played with that one much, but looks promising.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
One part of the article mentions "a demo version of a Weather.com-themed browser prepared by United Virtualities", which seems to imply that it is a modified version of a current web browser. This is really nothing new (aside from being able to service ads), when I ran my small ISP in town we modified Netscape Comm. 4 to have our logo in place of the 'N'. This would require the user to download and install a new web browser.
However, there seem to be underpinnings in the article that make it seem like this could affect your current browser you are using. One bad scenario would be that it installs with another (freeware) program...much like the spyware in Kazaa, et al. The worse scenario would be that it could tap into the gui of your current browser just by visiting a web page. Then you would have no real control. This sounds like taking advantage of one of the many bugs^H^H^H^H features that IE has.
And then this statement: "Web surfers will always have a clear option to turn off Ooqa Ooqa and go back to their regular browsers, said Ivan Entel, the firm's chief of staff. In fact, they'll have the option never to be exposed to the technology again on certain Web sites." Go back to my regular browser?? What is meant by that? Does this mean uninstalling/re-installing? Very vague terminology sends scary signals up my spine.
Does anyone know more about this definitively so as to clear up the vagueness?
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
As for player killer types controlling the monsters I am not sure. But the controller of the server is in effect, the Dungeon Master.
He/she has complete control over the world while the players are in it. The game creators claim to allow the DM to enter any NPC or monster in the game to help or hinder the players in any way. I don't see why there couldn't be multiple people with this ability.
And as for customizability, I believe you create the story line and how things are to function in your world (probably constrained to certain physics models). You control the campaign, you are the dungeon master...whether people have a good time or not might depend on your storytelling....
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
Well, they are claiming that the portals do not necessarily have to go to new levels that YOU created. The portals are supposed to be able to connect to other servers that people have setup.
So in a sense, you can get a virtual world. If enough people get together and create a part of this world, and then link their servers together, you get a large, fairly seamless virtual world.
One person could create a dungeon, one does a complex town, another has a server for the countryside, etc. The portal connections here aren't that bad, a slight delay I suppose as you enter a dungeon or exit a town. That is what they are claiming, so let's hope it works out.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
First off, for those who mentioned this looks like the Xybernaut Poma, you are correct.
From the main english Hitachi page: FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, July 18, 2001 - Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) and Xybernaut Corporation (NASDAQ: XYBR), today announced that Hitachi has entered into a license agreement under Xybernaut's broad patents for wearable computing and communications to develop a Wearable Internet Appliance (WIA) for the consumer market.
That said, I played around with one of those for a little bit when I visited the Xybernaut booth at Comdex. My thoughts? They are ok items. The screen projection is not too bad. Until you can focus one eye on the screen and simultaneously focus the other eye on faraway objects, you'll still only either chew gum or walk...if you know what I mean. The screen does flip up so both eyes can be used to focus on the task at hand when needed.
Someone asked about the input device. The one I played with (and you can see in the photos) has a hand-held input device. It has a touch screen which you move your finger (or rather thumb) around on to move the mouse pointer. I don't remember a keyboard, but I think another model might have had small keyboard you strap to your forearm. Otherwise, I think the model I played with had an on-screen keyboard you can bring up and tap out virtual keystrokes with the mouse pointer. This of course was some what a pain in the arse for me...but I guess YMMV.
This will be fairly useful in warehouse situations. Maybe on an assembly line: you can work on your task, and if computer assistance is needed, just flip the screen down and look up a part number or whatever. These still aren't the best for long-term computing sessions.
-A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
Perhaps he should have made that minor in physics a major and minored in the medical field instead.
Hrm, from page 2 of the wired article:
"Firstenberg says he became electrically sensitive in 1982 as a
pre-med student at the University of California at Irvine, after he received more than 40 dental X-rays. One day he collapsed on the hospital floor with heart pains and subsequently he lost 15 pounds in two weeks. He also grew short of breath around electrical equipment. Finally he dropped out of med school and moved to the "clean environment" of Mendocino.
Looks like he sort of tried that route already...
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
...Needless to say, few people (in the modern world, anyway) are willing to give up the use of electricity to protect themselves from EM fields........This leads me to believe that more proof is needed about the causal link of bad health and EM exposure before it makes sense to start in on lifestyle changes.
Couldn't agree with you more.
Funny thing, this phenomenon (freaking out over EM radiation), has been following a somewhat cyclic pattern lately. Having taken several EE fields and antennas course, I had one excellent instructor who pointed this fact out to me. The cycle is roughly every seven years that people start freaking out and raising concerns about EM radiation. Go back seven years and it was the start of cell phones; another seven it was the huge power lines going across country (and through some backyards); another seven and it was those new 'cordless' phones in your house; etc..
It seems around every seven years or so a furor is raised over something new in the technological realm killing us off with EM radiation. Sometimes much is said, sometimes it makes a few late night news slots, then it dies off....until the next new thing sparks almost the same controversy all over again.
The problem is, we are so bathed in EM fields from so many sources, it is impossible to track it down to any particular source. Not to mention (as the poster did above) that the symptons listed are so vague, the percentage is high that they are caused by other environmental factors (natural or man-made). If you are so worried about EM fields: don't drive your car; get rid of your tv, radio, computer, cell phone, cordless phone; no more refridgerator for you; toss out the electric shaver; better not live in a house fed with electricity in case you pick up from the wiring in the house; and so on...
And there has been various studies for over the last 25 or so years that have yet to make any clear connections. Funny thing, seeing how the freaking out is kind of cyclic (roughly 7 years between outbreaks), maybe there is some truth to their complaining after all. The complaining cycle could be representative of a large sine wave, oscillating up and down - not quite unlike a component of an EM wave.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - I am not an Electrical Engineer, I just play one on tv. - AC
Apparently after this article by c't came out, some action was taken by the smoothwall team.
They now have a new patch released for it. Interestingly enough, it seems to fix a few things mentioned on here that should be fixed. From the patch release:
Notes
From: William Anderson
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 17:35:00 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Info file for fixes7
* Patches pppsetup CGI to further increase security of ppp secrets file
* Upgrades passwd file to shadow passwords
* This patch removes the capability to connect to the web admin interface
over the RED (external) interface by DNS name - you must use the IP
address instead, e.g. https://213.123.312.231:445/ instead of
https://mymachine.someisp.net:445/
Apparently the exploit c't found involved the admin of smoothwall visiting a page on the Interent, directly after establishing a connection with the admin interface of the smoothwall (all on the green or internal, safe network). It did have a few caveats to it, like needing to know the name of the smoothwall box (often default set to 'smoothwall'), but apparently was severe enough to warrent a fix. Details on the proof of concept attack can be found in this article on the smoothwall site.
However, the team leader, Richard Morrell still seems to mock the individual at c't as evidenced in this article. Odd that he berates the individual for shoddy reporting, and yet they still release a patch.
Regardless of the pissing match between various individuals and the smoothwall team, I'd suggest all the users of said program head over and update their machines.
-A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
Ooooh, it's a bug!! So what?!? I believe "security by obscurity" has proven to work this time. When did/. hear about this bug? Today. When was the patch released? Prolly before we heard about it. Nuff said.
Being on the MS security update mailing list, I didn't get the email until after I read about it here. Prior cases to this, I've received the email before hearing about it here. They seem to have recently altered there mailing list (it comes from a different mail address now) and since that it has been slow in getting to its subscribers.
Not a good thing.
-A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
Seemed ok. I agree with others that the networks around here need more improvement for these convergent devices to really take off.
My main rant with this is the keyboard - too small for my tastes. Perhaps it's big fingers, but it was *not* very ergonomic for me, and that lowered my impression of the overall product. I had to really concentrate to work the buttons. I would probably rather fight the Graffiti system (or tap a virtual keypad) then try and punch on that keyboard. But then again maybe if you have small fingers, or really sharp nails, it might work good for you.
I didn't see that new 'sideways' Nokia phone (at Comdex) with keys on either side of the screen (I'm sure it was there). But I would gather that *might* be better as the keys could be spaced a bit farther apart. Or, they could be close together and have more of them (which gives the same result). I'm not sure, I wish I spent the time to check that.
Anyway, some food for thought for those of you with larger digits.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
One thing nice about external antennas is it allows the user to extend it away from themself. I know that the debate over them causing cancer and such is still up for grabs (given all other variables involved), but it is nice to have the radiated pattern of waves angled a bit farther out from your head.
That's a good feature of Star Tac phones. The angled flip-piece and extended antenna radiate very little into your brain. Cancer notwithstanding, less radiation bouncing that close to you can only be better for you.
I personally don't like phones with no extendable antenna for this very reason. Just some thoughts.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
Prior to Halo, I'd have to give the nod to Half-Life as the best first person shooter ever. But now, that award goes to Halo, as the game is masterfully presented and offers a rich gameplay experience until the very end.
Hrm. It took Half-Life a good year or so to attain that title (in most peoples minds, myself included...in fact in some circles HL is considered one of, if not the best overall game ever). This game would have to be something utterly, mind-blowingly incredible to earn that title so *quickly*. It hasn't even been played by the masses yet, Internet multiplayer won't be around for a while, who knows when the ports are coming out (which is where it will reach the most people, imo). I think due to these factors, Halo won't quite be able to dethrone HL.
We need to really let it sink in and get played a lot before making those type of grandeous claims. But then again, maybe it will live up to the hype. Personally, however, I see great games rising up from fairly little hype(although I can't remember the hype over HL). All the 'hyped-up' games generally drown a bit in all that hype.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
I have to say that the life of the Arcade is precariously balanced right now. They are doing the right thing by changing the style of the games to make them different than the home console games. What is cutting off their oxygen supply however, is the ease with which to play with your buddies at home and networked play. This however, could be slowly changing...
I remember through the early Quake years a rash of upstart 'gaming' houses, where some guys put a bunch of crappy computers in their basement and charged others by the hour to play Quake and Duke Nukem at the time. But they pretty much died off as people got better computers at home with good modems etc. However Arcades might have the necessary financial backing to make this work again.
One place that seems pretty successful is the Metreon(sp?) out in San Francisco. It's a large mall like structure with movies, stores and large arcade. The games there are different variations on computer games, one is *sort* of like Tribes (I use that comparison lightly). What is nice is that all of the consoles for that game are networked together to form a big game world...nearby consoles might be on the same team, which fight against people on the group of consoles across the room (there's maybe 40 total consoles of this particular game). Now take that concept a step further - have several of these games at arcades across the city, nation or world(what with broadband speeds becoming fairly prevelant in big cities). Now you could have your group of friends play at one arcade against others in another city.
It's kind of the next evolution of the big LAN party tournaments. More people could join in certain competitions because it would be easier for them *not* to have to drag around their computer (I know, I know, most of the fun of LAN partys is the file trading and being at someones house till the wee hours...I don't see those private gatherings going away). The Arcade may not be open all night, but it could be open almost every night...much easier to have a consistantly open gathering place to game. Anyway, some things to think about.
-A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
I think that they let VCR tapes out of this legislation. Please note Section 103(b) Prohibited Acts:
(b) PERSONAL TIME-SHIFTING COPIES CANNOT BE BLOCKED. -- No person may apply a security measure that uses a certified security technology to prevent a lawful recipient from making a personal copy for time-shifting purposes of programming at the time it is lawfully performed, on an over-the-air broadcast, non-premium cable channel, or non-premium satellite channel, by a television broadcast station (as defined in section 122(j)(5)(A) of title 17, United States Code), a cable system (as defined in section 111(f) of such title), or a satellite carrier (as defined in section 119(d)(6) of such title.)
I think (someone correct me if I've interpreted the above wrong) that this clause coupled with Section 101(b), which disallows the law affecting pre-law technology (ie: stuff before this bill gets inacted), would allow people to still record legally via VCR.
However, after all the VCR's break down, all we will be left with are DVD's and anything else pretty much under their heavy-handed control.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
Great for Warehouse inventory
on
Webpads, Anyone?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
With the wireless connections, these will fit in great for our logistics personnel who wander around the warehouse taking inventory. Being able to utilize a decent sized, common web interface will be great as we already have that infrastructure in place...unfortunately it is only accessed at fixed terminals currently.
There have been other solutions, but they were either too bulky, poor battery management, but mostly only interfacable through proprietory inventory management software.
Heh. Yes, you are correct, but that is not the position I was talking about. The original post stated there were 11 positions with 10 different numbers in each.
So something like x-xxx-xxx-xxxx. The position I was refering to about not dialing a 3 or 6 in was the first position...where you dial only a '1' for long distance. Sure you might dial 1-360-453-5533...but that '1' in front is always a '1'. Therefore that falls out of the combination, giving only 10 positions with 10 different numbers or: 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx. Hence it's (10^10)*1 or just 10^10. See the rest of my post for the similar logic in reducing that number even further.
Small flaw in your combinatoric statement. The '1' that is used before the rest of the 10 digits is always a '1'. Near as I can tell (at least for US domestic calls), you never dial a 3 or 6 (for example) for long distance. This being a constant digit, the possible combinations drop to (10^10)*1 (10 possible different values for 10 different positions times the one digit of value 1) or 10,000,000,000.
In reality there are fewer phone numbers than this due to some limitations on number combinations. If I remember correctly, there are no NXX exchanges that handle 1xx-xxx or 0xx-xxxx (they are possibly for internal use). That alone changes the combinatorial sequence to (10^9)* 8 or 8,000,000,000 (since that position can only handle 8 different values. There are probably a few other combinations that drop out as well, but I've not the time to search for them.
That said, with 100,000,000,000 tone combinations copyrighted, they should be able to cover all the phone numbers in the US easily, plus allow for longer combinations for International calls. BTW, has anyone tried that page with a non-US number to see if it has been patented?
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
"From our standpoint, we are designing the software for the 99 percent of the people who don't want to steal the music... not for the 1 percent who are going to take the lock cutters and cut the lock off and steal music in an unauthorized way."
Um...right. What were the numbers on Napster at one point, were they not in upwards of 10's of millions? Granted the 1% using the so-called 'lock-cutters' seems a fairly correct figure; there are really only a small number (overall) who make the circumvention tools. But I gather the other figure would be much lower. Despite hearing people say "uh, I did not realize I was 'stealing' music.", I venture that most people have been, are and always will be cognizant of the supposed illegal nature of their music file trading. A lot want to 'stick it to the man'; a lot just want a free lunch.
I don't accept cookies or javascript in my browser, and I just got to several stories on their site without seeing the ads. I presume the pop-ups are javascript based, yet I was still presented the stories.
Anyone else experience this yet? Is it only on some stories, or all of them. If it is just something as simple as disallowing cookies/javascript for that site, we should be ok ('we' being the technological literate...others with full browser features turned can sit through those ads).
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
This is actually NOT teleportation; this is akin to an episode of The Outer Limits I saw once where they create an exact copy of a person on the other end of a "teleportation" machine, and then destroy the copy that currently resides on the transmitting end. It's a great show, but I digress...
This was also a concept in Micheal Critons(sp?) last book, "TimeLine". Quantum intanglement was perfected to allow individuals to cross over into other probabilities (ie: alternate universe theory). This could only be accomplished by destroying the existing object (person) in one universe and having it reassembled in another one. Slight impefections could creep in (random probabilities far greater from the norm of the universe they left) after many trips...much like over-faxing.
You're right in that it isn't true teleportation, but rather generating the right probabilities for an instance of matter to appear in another location. Sure it needs to be carried along a modulation-like system, but if you could increase the number of particles involved it will be quite impressive.
On those lines, many seem to think that Star Trek like teleportation just 'zoom', goes across space unhindered. But if you watch the shows, it would seem that the mechanism is similar, it sends the information through a modulated beam. Within the ship, the structure must have the ability to transfer this beam, hence they can beam around the ship (also note the frequency of the beam appears to be beyond visible range). As for beaming down to a planet, same thing. You notice they cant beam while their shields are up, because the carrier wave cannot pass the information through.
What the Star Trek teleporters have done is eliminate or reduce the amount of errors and changes in probablities that will arise after many, many, many teleports. The matter is effectively different after teleportation (random probability changes, but enough stay the same so that it still looks the same and exists in the same universe). I wonder what random changes they allow to matter in their teleporters; maybe you get hair that doesn't grow as fast anymore, or some other non-life threatening change.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
Worldwide scalability. Logically there should be only one system,....
Welcome to.NET's future. Not to mention they really do seem to be thinking like the borg, as is also evidenced here:
Self-configuration. New machines, network links, and resources should be automatically assimilated.
Although, their thoughts on distributing web site hits sounds intriguing:
A little-known web site suddenly achieves popularity, perhaps with a link from Cool Site of the DaySM or a mention in a prominent news story. Word of mouth spreads, and soon the web site's servers are overwhelmed. Or rather, would have been overwhelmed except that heuristics in the Millennium system had noticed the new link and already started replicating the site for increased availability. Monitored traffic increases confirm the situation and soon the site's data has been "pre-cached" across the Internet. As the site's usage drops over the following weeks, Millennium reallocates resources to meet new demands.
Unfortunately, this is scary stuff to hear coming from the mouths of Microsoft. *sigh* "All your OS are belong to us".
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. - AC
Considering that MS Word can also be used by mindless drones to produce horribly coded webpages, I wonder if it has similar wording in it's EULA. Not sure if it has access to similar web components that FP has. Interesting to note, is that Frontpage comes with the higher-end MS Office suites. I do not think there is a separate EULA for every program in there (but I could be wrong here). I wonder how many people this will trip up.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the reference to 12/22/2012 is meant to be on the Gregorian calendar.
As you responded later on, you seem to be a bit familiar with the Timewave Zero concept conjectured by Terrance McKenna. His timewave reaches zero right around that date(gregorian time). The date does not equate to Mayan 2012, but rather the end and restart of the Mayan calendar (kind of like when your cars odometer resets to all zero's).
Supposedly something extremely 'novel' will happen on this date, possibly the convergence of everything in the universe into an Omega Point (much like a reverse Big Bang).
I don't dispute that 2012 in Mayan = 2003 June on our calendar...just that I think they were making reference to the end of the Mayan calendar. Aliens taking over the planet and genociding the human race could be considered quite a 'novel' event in our history.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. -AC
Careful viewers would have noticed in the preview after last weeks episode that they had a quick image of Alex Krychek.
He was killed quite dead last season with a bullet to the head in an FBI garage. I don't think they allowed him to crawl away like the Smoking Man did after only being shot in the chest (and hence allowed for his return at the end of season 5).
So most likely these are flashback images from Mulder or other cast members.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
There is a app for windows that is real similar to Photomesa, it is called ZoomBrowserEX. I am not sure if it available by itself, but it came with my Canon digital camera. I'll have to look at it more closely, but it might be built on some similar algorithms.
You can see all of your directories in one big window. Click on a directory name, and the box 'zooms' in to show the other directories or pictures or files within it.
They have another image viewer that came with the package, or rather it is the same one, just a different way of looking at things. It tries to simulate a time tunnel. So you get a pseudo-3D spiral on your screen which you can 'zoom' into (like going down a tunnel). Your pictures will fly by you as you progress. Haven't played with that one much, but looks promising.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
...as maybe many others are.
One part of the article mentions "a demo version of a Weather.com-themed browser prepared by United Virtualities", which seems to imply that it is a modified version of a current web browser. This is really nothing new (aside from being able to service ads), when I ran my small ISP in town we modified Netscape Comm. 4 to have our logo in place of the 'N'. This would require the user to download and install a new web browser.
However, there seem to be underpinnings in the article that make it seem like this could affect your current browser you are using. One bad scenario would be that it installs with another (freeware) program...much like the spyware in Kazaa, et al. The worse scenario would be that it could tap into the gui of your current browser just by visiting a web page. Then you would have no real control. This sounds like taking advantage of one of the many bugs^H^H^H^H features that IE has.
And then this statement: "Web surfers will always have a clear option to turn off Ooqa Ooqa and go back to their regular browsers, said Ivan Entel, the firm's chief of staff. In fact, they'll have the option never to be exposed to the technology again on certain Web sites." Go back to my regular browser?? What is meant by that? Does this mean uninstalling/re-installing? Very vague terminology sends scary signals up my spine.
Does anyone know more about this definitively so as to clear up the vagueness?
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
um....they use a European date format. It puts the day first, so 01/04/2002 is April 1, 2002.
-AC
As for player killer types controlling the monsters I am not sure. But the controller of the server is in effect, the Dungeon Master.
He/she has complete control over the world while the players are in it. The game creators claim to allow the DM to enter any NPC or monster in the game to help or hinder the players in any way. I don't see why there couldn't be multiple people with this ability.
And as for customizability, I believe you create the story line and how things are to function in your world (probably constrained to certain physics models). You control the campaign, you are the dungeon master...whether people have a good time or not might depend on your storytelling....
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
Well, they are claiming that the portals do not necessarily have to go to new levels that YOU created. The portals are supposed to be able to connect to other servers that people have setup.
So in a sense, you can get a virtual world. If enough people get together and create a part of this world, and then link their servers together, you get a large, fairly seamless virtual world.
One person could create a dungeon, one does a complex town, another has a server for the countryside, etc. The portal connections here aren't that bad, a slight delay I suppose as you enter a dungeon or exit a town. That is what they are claiming, so let's hope it works out.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
First off, for those who mentioned this looks like the Xybernaut Poma, you are correct.
From the main english Hitachi page: FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, July 18, 2001 - Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) and Xybernaut Corporation (NASDAQ: XYBR), today announced that Hitachi has entered into a license agreement under Xybernaut's broad patents for wearable computing and communications to develop a Wearable Internet Appliance (WIA) for the consumer market.
That said, I played around with one of those for a little bit when I visited the Xybernaut booth at Comdex. My thoughts? They are ok items. The screen projection is not too bad. Until you can focus one eye on the screen and simultaneously focus the other eye on faraway objects, you'll still only either chew gum or walk...if you know what I mean. The screen does flip up so both eyes can be used to focus on the task at hand when needed.
Someone asked about the input device. The one I played with (and you can see in the photos) has a hand-held input device. It has a touch screen which you move your finger (or rather thumb) around on to move the mouse pointer. I don't remember a keyboard, but I think another model might have had small keyboard you strap to your forearm. Otherwise, I think the model I played with had an on-screen keyboard you can bring up and tap out virtual keystrokes with the mouse pointer. This of course was some what a pain in the arse for me...but I guess YMMV.
This will be fairly useful in warehouse situations. Maybe on an assembly line: you can work on your task, and if computer assistance is needed, just flip the screen down and look up a part number or whatever. These still aren't the best for long-term computing sessions.
-A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
Hrm, from page 2 of the wired article:
Looks like he sort of tried that route already...
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
Couldn't agree with you more.
Funny thing, this phenomenon (freaking out over EM radiation), has been following a somewhat cyclic pattern lately. Having taken several EE fields and antennas course, I had one excellent instructor who pointed this fact out to me. The cycle is roughly every seven years that people start freaking out and raising concerns about EM radiation. Go back seven years and it was the start of cell phones; another seven it was the huge power lines going across country (and through some backyards); another seven and it was those new 'cordless' phones in your house; etc..
It seems around every seven years or so a furor is raised over something new in the technological realm killing us off with EM radiation. Sometimes much is said, sometimes it makes a few late night news slots, then it dies off....until the next new thing sparks almost the same controversy all over again.
The problem is, we are so bathed in EM fields from so many sources, it is impossible to track it down to any particular source. Not to mention (as the poster did above) that the symptons listed are so vague, the percentage is high that they are caused by other environmental factors (natural or man-made). If you are so worried about EM fields: don't drive your car; get rid of your tv, radio, computer, cell phone, cordless phone; no more refridgerator for you; toss out the electric shaver; better not live in a house fed with electricity in case you pick up from the wiring in the house; and so on...
And there has been various studies for over the last 25 or so years that have yet to make any clear connections. Funny thing, seeing how the freaking out is kind of cyclic (roughly 7 years between outbreaks), maybe there is some truth to their complaining after all. The complaining cycle could be representative of a large sine wave, oscillating up and down - not quite unlike a component of an EM wave.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- I am not an Electrical Engineer, I just play one on tv.
- AC
They now have a new patch released for it. Interestingly enough, it seems to fix a few things mentioned on here that should be fixed. From the patch release:
Apparently the exploit c't found involved the admin of smoothwall visiting a page on the Interent, directly after establishing a connection with the admin interface of the smoothwall (all on the green or internal, safe network). It did have a few caveats to it, like needing to know the name of the smoothwall box (often default set to 'smoothwall'), but apparently was severe enough to warrent a fix. Details on the proof of concept attack can be found in this article on the smoothwall site.
However, the team leader, Richard Morrell still seems to mock the individual at c't as evidenced in this article. Odd that he berates the individual for shoddy reporting, and yet they still release a patch.
Regardless of the pissing match between various individuals and the smoothwall team, I'd suggest all the users of said program head over and update their machines.
-A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
Being on the MS security update mailing list, I didn't get the email until after I read about it here. Prior cases to this, I've received the email before hearing about it here. They seem to have recently altered there mailing list (it comes from a different mail address now) and since that it has been slow in getting to its subscribers.
Not a good thing.
-A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
Seemed ok. I agree with others that the networks around here need more improvement for these convergent devices to really take off.
My main rant with this is the keyboard - too small for my tastes. Perhaps it's big fingers, but it was *not* very ergonomic for me, and that lowered my impression of the overall product. I had to really concentrate to work the buttons. I would probably rather fight the Graffiti system (or tap a virtual keypad) then try and punch on that keyboard. But then again maybe if you have small fingers, or really sharp nails, it might work good for you.
I didn't see that new 'sideways' Nokia phone (at Comdex) with keys on either side of the screen (I'm sure it was there). But I would gather that *might* be better as the keys could be spaced a bit farther apart. Or, they could be close together and have more of them (which gives the same result). I'm not sure, I wish I spent the time to check that.
Anyway, some food for thought for those of you with larger digits.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
One thing nice about external antennas is it allows the user to extend it away from themself. I know that the debate over them causing cancer and such is still up for grabs (given all other variables involved), but it is nice to have the radiated pattern of waves angled a bit farther out from your head.
That's a good feature of Star Tac phones. The angled flip-piece and extended antenna radiate very little into your brain. Cancer notwithstanding, less radiation bouncing that close to you can only be better for you.
I personally don't like phones with no extendable antenna for this very reason. Just some thoughts.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
Hrm. It took Half-Life a good year or so to attain that title (in most peoples minds, myself included...in fact in some circles HL is considered one of, if not the best overall game ever). This game would have to be something utterly, mind-blowingly incredible to earn that title so *quickly*. It hasn't even been played by the masses yet, Internet multiplayer won't be around for a while, who knows when the ports are coming out (which is where it will reach the most people, imo). I think due to these factors, Halo won't quite be able to dethrone HL.
We need to really let it sink in and get played a lot before making those type of grandeous claims. But then again, maybe it will live up to the hype. Personally, however, I see great games rising up from fairly little hype(although I can't remember the hype over HL). All the 'hyped-up' games generally drown a bit in all that hype.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
I have to say that the life of the Arcade is precariously balanced right now. They are doing the right thing by changing the style of the games to make them different than the home console games. What is cutting off their oxygen supply however, is the ease with which to play with your buddies at home and networked play. This however, could be slowly changing...
I remember through the early Quake years a rash of upstart 'gaming' houses, where some guys put a bunch of crappy computers in their basement and charged others by the hour to play Quake and Duke Nukem at the time. But they pretty much died off as people got better computers at home with good modems etc. However Arcades might have the necessary financial backing to make this work again.
One place that seems pretty successful is the Metreon(sp?) out in San Francisco. It's a large mall like structure with movies, stores and large arcade. The games there are different variations on computer games, one is *sort* of like Tribes (I use that comparison lightly). What is nice is that all of the consoles for that game are networked together to form a big game world...nearby consoles might be on the same team, which fight against people on the group of consoles across the room (there's maybe 40 total consoles of this particular game). Now take that concept a step further - have several of these games at arcades across the city, nation or world(what with broadband speeds becoming fairly prevelant in big cities). Now you could have your group of friends play at one arcade against others in another city.
It's kind of the next evolution of the big LAN party tournaments. More people could join in certain competitions because it would be easier for them *not* to have to drag around their computer (I know, I know, most of the fun of LAN partys is the file trading and being at someones house till the wee hours...I don't see those private gatherings going away). The Arcade may not be open all night, but it could be open almost every night...much easier to have a consistantly open gathering place to game. Anyway, some things to think about.
-A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
I think (someone correct me if I've interpreted the above wrong) that this clause coupled with Section 101(b), which disallows the law affecting pre-law technology (ie: stuff before this bill gets inacted), would allow people to still record legally via VCR.
However, after all the VCR's break down, all we will be left with are DVD's and anything else pretty much under their heavy-handed control.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
With the wireless connections, these will fit in great for our logistics personnel who wander around the warehouse taking inventory. Being able to utilize a decent sized, common web interface will be great as we already have that infrastructure in place...unfortunately it is only accessed at fixed terminals currently.
There have been other solutions, but they were either too bulky, poor battery management, but mostly only interfacable through proprietory inventory management software.
- AC
Heh. Yes, you are correct, but that is not the position I was talking about. The original post stated there were 11 positions with 10 different numbers in each.
So something like x-xxx-xxx-xxxx. The position I was refering to about not dialing a 3 or 6 in was the first position...where you dial only a '1' for long distance. Sure you might dial 1-360-453-5533...but that '1' in front is always a '1'. Therefore that falls out of the combination, giving only 10 positions with 10 different numbers or: 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx. Hence it's (10^10)*1 or just 10^10. See the rest of my post for the similar logic in reducing that number even further.
- AC
Small flaw in your combinatoric statement. The '1' that is used before the rest of the 10 digits is always a '1'. Near as I can tell (at least for US domestic calls), you never dial a 3 or 6 (for example) for long distance. This being a constant digit, the possible combinations drop to (10^10)*1 (10 possible different values for 10 different positions times the one digit of value 1) or 10,000,000,000.
In reality there are fewer phone numbers than this due to some limitations on number combinations. If I remember correctly, there are no NXX exchanges that handle 1xx-xxx or 0xx-xxxx (they are possibly for internal use). That alone changes the combinatorial sequence to (10^9)* 8 or 8,000,000,000 (since that position can only handle 8 different values. There are probably a few other combinations that drop out as well, but I've not the time to search for them.
That said, with 100,000,000,000 tone combinations copyrighted, they should be able to cover all the phone numbers in the US easily, plus allow for longer combinations for International calls. BTW, has anyone tried that page with a non-US number to see if it has been patented?
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
"From our standpoint, we are designing the software for the 99 percent of the people who don't want to steal the music... not for the 1 percent who are going to take the lock cutters and cut the lock off and steal music in an unauthorized way."
Um...right. What were the numbers on Napster at one point, were they not in upwards of 10's of millions? Granted the 1% using the so-called 'lock-cutters' seems a fairly correct figure; there are really only a small number (overall) who make the circumvention tools. But I gather the other figure would be much lower. Despite hearing people say "uh, I did not realize I was 'stealing' music.", I venture that most people have been, are and always will be cognizant of the supposed illegal nature of their music file trading. A lot want to 'stick it to the man'; a lot just want a free lunch.
- AC
I don't accept cookies or javascript in my browser, and I just got to several stories on their site without seeing the ads. I presume the pop-ups are javascript based, yet I was still presented the stories.
Anyone else experience this yet? Is it only on some stories, or all of them. If it is just something as simple as disallowing cookies/javascript for that site, we should be ok ('we' being the technological literate...others with full browser features turned can sit through those ads).
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
This is actually NOT teleportation; this is akin to an episode of The Outer Limits I saw once where they create an exact copy of a person on the other end of a "teleportation" machine, and then destroy the copy that currently resides on the transmitting end. It's a great show, but I digress...
This was also a concept in Micheal Critons(sp?) last book, "TimeLine". Quantum intanglement was perfected to allow individuals to cross over into other probabilities (ie: alternate universe theory). This could only be accomplished by destroying the existing object (person) in one universe and having it reassembled in another one. Slight impefections could creep in (random probabilities far greater from the norm of the universe they left) after many trips...much like over-faxing.
You're right in that it isn't true teleportation, but rather generating the right probabilities for an instance of matter to appear in another location. Sure it needs to be carried along a modulation-like system, but if you could increase the number of particles involved it will be quite impressive.
On those lines, many seem to think that Star Trek like teleportation just 'zoom', goes across space unhindered. But if you watch the shows, it would seem that the mechanism is similar, it sends the information through a modulated beam. Within the ship, the structure must have the ability to transfer this beam, hence they can beam around the ship (also note the frequency of the beam appears to be beyond visible range). As for beaming down to a planet, same thing. You notice they cant beam while their shields are up, because the carrier wave cannot pass the information through.
What the Star Trek teleporters have done is eliminate or reduce the amount of errors and changes in probablities that will arise after many, many, many teleports. The matter is effectively different after teleportation (random probability changes, but enough stay the same so that it still looks the same and exists in the same universe). I wonder what random changes they allow to matter in their teleporters; maybe you get hair that doesn't grow as fast anymore, or some other non-life threatening change.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
From the article:
.NET's future. Not to mention they really do seem to be thinking like the borg, as is also evidenced here:
Worldwide scalability. Logically there should be only one system,....
Welcome to
Self-configuration. New machines, network links, and resources should be automatically assimilated.
Although, their thoughts on distributing web site hits sounds intriguing:
A little-known web site suddenly achieves popularity, perhaps with a link from Cool Site of the DaySM or a mention in a prominent news story. Word of mouth spreads, and soon the web site's servers are overwhelmed. Or rather, would have been overwhelmed except that heuristics in the Millennium system had noticed the new link and already started replicating the site for increased availability. Monitored traffic increases confirm the situation and soon the site's data has been "pre-cached" across the Internet. As the site's usage drops over the following weeks, Millennium reallocates resources to meet new demands.
Unfortunately, this is scary stuff to hear coming from the mouths of Microsoft. *sigh* "All your OS are belong to us".
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC
Considering that MS Word can also be used by mindless drones to produce horribly coded webpages, I wonder if it has similar wording in it's EULA. Not sure if it has access to similar web components that FP has. Interesting to note, is that Frontpage comes with the higher-end MS Office suites. I do not think there is a separate EULA for every program in there (but I could be wrong here). I wonder how many people this will trip up.
- A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance.
- AC