In my experience, Comcast (north jersey) VOD is severely lacking. I tried VOD when it arrived in my area and it did not work well at all. Both times I tried watching a movie and the thing kept losing signal. A blank screen comes up and say "please standby". This happened about every 5 minutes. After about 20 minutes a new message "please try again later" and the movie stops. "No biggie" i thought as i restart the movie, "I'll just FF through the bit I already saw" Unfortunately the FF functions more like that of a VCR than a DVD, you must hold the button and scan through it, no chapter stops! It took me 3 hours to watch a 1.25 hour movie (Jurassic Park). Of course they bitched about crediting my $5 for this.
I'd also recommend using AdAware, a great little program that scans your registry, memory, and hard drives for spy/scum/adware components and gives you the option to delete them.
I used my brother's computer the other day to show him how to crossfade tracks in Nero. Anyway I went to search something at Google and upon hitting search button was redirected to some shady search engine site for my results. The best part is that it lists the same shady porn/hacker links no matter what you search for (albeit in different order each time). So I tried Yahoo Excite and other sites, same hijacking. "That's it I'm downloading AdAware to fix this!" I go to www.lavasoft.com and wouldn't you know the bastardware re-directed me to the same friggin search engine site.
OK, now I go into Control Panel and removed at least 10 apps that I never heard of (suprised that they even show up in there) each time confronted with scary/threatening warnings about how removing this software will damage my computer or break my software etc. I installed Ad-Aware, Kazaa-lite and cleaned it up.
I assume these bastard-apps came bundled with the plethora of naked girl screensavers, dancing strippers etc. he installed. (He's 14 what do you expect)
Although I gather through the article that UCSD really just doesn't want to even have the CHANCE of violating the Patriot Act, since they would largely be responsible for dealing with the legal repercussions from it.
You are deluding yourself if you believe that. This is simply another case of exploiting a vague interpretation of an equally vague law to shadow an act of censorship.
The real news about the two latest SLRs is that they have no focal length multiplier, and that means that we finally get real wide-angles. That's been the real limitation of digital cameras so far.
Exactly! And I was just about to buy a Fuji S2. This gives me reason to wait it out a bit longer.
Except it sounds damn expensive, and they will surely pass the cost onto the consumer. And when (not if) it is cracked, iso's will roam the net and CDR copies will show up on vendor's stands at street corners and open-air markets everywhere. The legit user is left paying the cost of the war on software pirates.
Fortran still has (and will likely continue to have) its place in science and engineering especially for simulation and computational purposes. For the reasons already listed, efficient and robust computational libraries like BLAS and LAPACK are written in Fortran.
Fortran was designed specifically for numerical calculations and thus is better suited for certain tasks than a language designed for system programming like C. Many engineering schools (mine included) require Fortran in the first year curriculum. They keep talking about switching to a more "modern" language like c or matlab, but that has been mostly talk.
So go learn some Fortran, if you will be doing computational programming. Even if you won't it is one of the easiest languages to get into programming.
It is also legal for you to pay me to come to your house, pop the tape in the VCR, and record Farscape for you, deleting the ads or better yet replacing all the Cingular commercials with Verizon ones.
But is it legal for Verizon to pay me to do this behind your back?
Basically the application is a wavelength selective filter for WDM. They are likely looking at arrays of these for WDM switching, as a fiber based alternative to MEMS.
Probably not, that's part of their brand loyalty strategy. My boss still thinks that he needs to buy a Sony Camera with iLink to use with his shiny new iLink Sony Laptop.
Man I would love to see the results of this testing. Hell I would certainly pay to see a REAL coverage map before I decide on a new provider or plan and get locked into another 1 or 2 year contract for crappy service.
I felt the same way when I got my first wireless phone. The best price is not always the best deal. IMO price is second to quality of service. You'll see exactly what I mean when you lose signal and have dropped calls for no apparent reason. I'd gladly take half the minutes for the same price if I could be guaranteed quality coverage in the area I need it.
Funny cuz its true. The GF4MX line is slower than the older GF3 (non-MX) line, and some of the GF4 models perform about the same as (or a bit slower in some cases) than the top GF3 model.
Only real good news about this is type of incremental progress is that the previous versions will get DIRT cheap soon.
You should buy an Xbox then. You get the current state of the art in console gaming, and because it's a closed (non-upgradeable) platform you can count on it being at or near the top of the heap for a couple of years at least. That's precisely the difference between the PC and console gaming: you get specialized hardware for less than it costs them to build it and a 2-3 year lifespan is guaranteed (Dreamcast excluded). And the games are priced pretty much the same as on a PC.
Al2O3 (pure and undoped) is clear. Bulk (polycrystalline) alumina ceramics are "milky white" because of scattering due to crystal-crystal and crystal-air interfaces. The actual particles are clear though. If you get Al2O3 with very small particle size (1 m) it will have a bluish tint, as it scatters blue light more efficiently. By nature, most pure oxides are infact clear. White paint is actually clear. TiO2 particles in the paint are small enough that light is scattered difusely back to the observer.
You are only partly correct. Hydrogen is what actually powers a fuel cell, but almost any hydrocarbon will power a fuel cell directly, without being "cracked". The downside is higher temperature operation with decreased efficiency vs. using hydrogen directly. Early fuel cells required a seperate operation to free the hydrogen from the hydrocarbon (ie a hydrogen generator). Most current fuel cell research involves increasing the high temperature stability and efficiency of cells powered directly by more conventional hydrocarbon fuels. The fuel cell devices we are likely to use in the (near) future will be powered by butane for small devices and natural gas or liquid fuels (gasoline, fuel oil) for larger electrical generators.
Re:What is important in technology?
on
This is IT?
·
· Score: 1
It may be hyped but it could be a breakthrough. At any rate it is something that interests us as geeks...
Now if this thing ran on fuel cells and cost like $400 that would be a breakthrough.
-it may be just my player, but it's not very shock resistant. i use it at the gym, and if it gets tapped with even more than a slight touch it jumps songs and stops playing (even when locked). Maybe a lose wire somewhere, but it's always done it.
This happened on mine. The springy battery contact is very thin and got compressed. Just extend the contact a bit and should be fine.
-i don't think it takes >64MB smartmedia cards (i may be wrong). I always downsample the stuff to the portable at 96Kbs, so that gets me a good 2 hours with minimal glitches.
They keep telling me support for 128MB+ SM cards is coming anyday now. I think they are lying. I downsample too, but that gets annoying. I found a prog somewhere that would downsample while transfering files to the Rio, but it didn't work so good.
You forgot to say that the RioPort software sucks hiney.
An A4 sized "armheld" would be pretty heavy first of all. As the "Ultimate Handheld," it is not something you would want to bring with you everywhere you go. Look to the current market for cellphones and PDA's and you will see quite generally that the smaller the device, the more successful it is. It should fit in your pocket easily. Handbags are for women and belt clips are for tools.
That said, I don't think a single device could fill the billing of the "Ultimate" or "Ideal" handheld, since everyone has different needs and uses for such a device. In fact the "Ultimate" handheld would have to be more of a complete product line of devices, with similar features, and possibly different form factors. I think this strategy is evolutionary and not too much to ask for today.
1) Entry level. Inexpensive (~$100), small form factor, basic functionality and expandability. Say 1 memory slot, possibly a PC-card slot? Palm m100 is a good place to look for inspiration.
2) Mid level. (~$250) Same form factor and features as above plus color screen, 1 PC-card slot, some form of wireless connectivity, audio (MP3 of course), + ?
3) High end (A) small. (~$300-$500) Same form factor (possibly a bit larger in size) and features as above plus video out, bluetooth headset for integrated phone (who wants to put this thing up to their face to make a call?), GPS, video
4) High end (B) notebook replacement. ($700+) Possibly your A4 sized monster. All the features of the rest of the line plus much larger screen, possibly a hard disk (and dvd drive?). The notebook market today is splitting into 2 main factions, the small and the powerfull. This device would be designed to overtake the small notebook by offering the same functions, with better portability and usability.
The key is that all of these devices should be similar in the sense that a user could trade up with a minimal learning curve, and not lose compatibility in accessories and software (ie same memory card type, etc.), and would gain some funcionality.
As for OS and GUI, there are really 2 options, MS or linux. Interoperability is essential here. All of these devices must be compatible with each other AND your desktop workstation. Palm has it's place as an organizer, but in its current state is at the end of its lifetime. An Apple OSX based product could possibly sweep the market here, as their design department is top notch. Like it or not, MS compatibility is perhaps the biggest requirement for any product these days.
As for my personal wishlist, I want to connect to a projector and show powerpoint presentations, track finances with MS money, throw away my cellphone, get directions via mapquest or MS mappoint using a gps (I get lost easily), and of course do email, keep track or contacts, browse the web, listen to mp3 etc. But i want it now.
"Homer discovers that he has a long-lost half brother, Herb Powell, who is the wealthy CEO of a car company. When Homer and Herb meet, they instantly hit it off and Herb takes in the Simpson family as his own. Herb hires Homer to help design a car for regular guys, but Homer's design proves so disastrous that it bankrupts Herb's company and forces the brothers apart once again."
Um... I think that's the whole point. Most people (even computer geeks) don't want bulky old computers all over their home with fans buzzing and hard disks whining.
Sure part of the problem is we have too many "intelligence" forces that don't share information. The FBI, CIA, secret service, local law enforcement... They all wanna read my email, tap my phone, etc...
Before the attack, it is very likely that each had many pieces to the puzzle, but through a lack of communication noone put it all together. Look at how quickly the current investigation is unfolding. They are cooperating now and shit is actually getting done.
Giving our intelligence agencies more access to our information is not going to help nearly as much as access to their own information.
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In my experience, Comcast (north jersey) VOD is severely lacking. I tried VOD when it arrived in my area and it did not work well at all. Both times I tried watching a movie and the thing kept losing signal. A blank screen comes up and say "please standby". This happened about every 5 minutes. After about 20 minutes a new message "please try again later" and the movie stops. "No biggie" i thought as i restart the movie, "I'll just FF through the bit I already saw" Unfortunately the FF functions more like that of a VCR than a DVD, you must hold the button and scan through it, no chapter stops! It took me 3 hours to watch a 1.25 hour movie (Jurassic Park). Of course they bitched about crediting my $5 for this.
I'd also recommend using AdAware, a great little program that scans your registry, memory, and hard drives for spy/scum/adware components and gives you the option to delete them.
I used my brother's computer the other day to show him how to crossfade tracks in Nero. Anyway I went to search something at Google and upon hitting search button was redirected to some shady search engine site for my results. The best part is that it lists the same shady porn/hacker links no matter what you search for (albeit in different order each time). So I tried Yahoo Excite and other sites, same hijacking. "That's it I'm downloading AdAware to fix this!" I go to www.lavasoft.com and wouldn't you know the bastardware re-directed me to the same friggin search engine site.
OK, now I go into Control Panel and removed at least 10 apps that I never heard of (suprised that they even show up in there) each time confronted with scary/threatening warnings about how removing this software will damage my computer or break my software etc. I installed Ad-Aware, Kazaa-lite and cleaned it up.
I assume these bastard-apps came bundled with the plethora of naked girl screensavers, dancing strippers etc. he installed. (He's 14 what do you expect)
Although I gather through the article that UCSD really just doesn't want to even have the CHANCE of violating the Patriot Act, since they would largely be responsible for dealing with the legal repercussions from it.
You are deluding yourself if you believe that. This is simply another case of exploiting a vague interpretation of an equally vague law to shadow an act of censorship.
The real news about the two latest SLRs is that they have no focal length multiplier, and that means that we finally get real wide-angles. That's been the real limitation of digital cameras so far.
Exactly! And I was just about to buy a Fuji S2. This gives me reason to wait it out a bit longer.
Except it sounds damn expensive, and they will surely pass the cost onto the consumer. And when (not if) it is cracked, iso's will roam the net and CDR copies will show up on vendor's stands at street corners and open-air markets everywhere. The legit user is left paying the cost of the war on software pirates.
Fortran was designed specifically for numerical calculations and thus is better suited for certain tasks than a language designed for system programming like C. Many engineering schools (mine included) require Fortran in the first year curriculum. They keep talking about switching to a more "modern" language like c or matlab, but that has been mostly talk.
So go learn some Fortran, if you will be doing computational programming. Even if you won't it is one of the easiest languages to get into programming.
It is also legal for you to pay me to come to your house, pop the tape in the VCR, and record Farscape for you, deleting the ads or better yet replacing all the Cingular commercials with Verizon ones.
But is it legal for Verizon to pay me to do this behind your back?
even though, yes, glass is a liquid technically
and, yes, you are an idiot technically. Glass is NOT a liquid at room temperature.
Mach, P. et al. Tunable microfluidic optical fiber. Applied Physics Letters, 80, 4294 - 4296, (2002). You might need a subscription to read it though, not sure.
Basically the application is a wavelength selective filter for WDM. They are likely looking at arrays of these for WDM switching, as a fiber based alternative to MEMS.
Probably not, that's part of their brand loyalty strategy. My boss still thinks that he needs to buy a Sony Camera with iLink to use with his shiny new iLink Sony Laptop.
Man I would love to see the results of this testing. Hell I would certainly pay to see a REAL coverage map before I decide on a new provider or plan and get locked into another 1 or 2 year contract for crappy service.
I felt the same way when I got my first wireless phone. The best price is not always the best deal. IMO price is second to quality of service. You'll see exactly what I mean when you lose signal and have dropped calls for no apparent reason. I'd gladly take half the minutes for the same price if I could be guaranteed quality coverage in the area I need it.
Funny cuz its true. The GF4MX line is slower than the older GF3 (non-MX) line, and some of the GF4 models perform about the same as (or a bit slower in some cases) than the top GF3 model.
Only real good news about this is type of incremental progress is that the previous versions will get DIRT cheap soon.
You should buy an Xbox then. You get the current state of the art in console gaming, and because it's a closed (non-upgradeable) platform you can count on it being at or near the top of the heap for a couple of years at least. That's precisely the difference between the PC and console gaming: you get specialized hardware for less than it costs them to build it and a 2-3 year lifespan is guaranteed (Dreamcast excluded). And the games are priced pretty much the same as on a PC.
Al2O3 (pure and undoped) is clear. Bulk (polycrystalline) alumina ceramics are "milky white" because of scattering due to crystal-crystal and crystal-air interfaces. The actual particles are clear though. If you get Al2O3 with very small particle size (1 m) it will have a bluish tint, as it scatters blue light more efficiently. By nature, most pure oxides are infact clear. White paint is actually clear. TiO2 particles in the paint are small enough that light is scattered difusely back to the observer.
mod parent up
You are only partly correct. Hydrogen is what actually powers a fuel cell, but almost any hydrocarbon will power a fuel cell directly, without being "cracked". The downside is higher temperature operation with decreased efficiency vs. using hydrogen directly. Early fuel cells required a seperate operation to free the hydrogen from the hydrocarbon (ie a hydrogen generator). Most current fuel cell research involves increasing the high temperature stability and efficiency of cells powered directly by more conventional hydrocarbon fuels. The fuel cell devices we are likely to use in the (near) future will be powered by butane for small devices and natural gas or liquid fuels (gasoline, fuel oil) for larger electrical generators.
It may be hyped but it could be a breakthrough. At any rate it is something that interests us as geeks...
Now if this thing ran on fuel cells and cost like $400 that would be a breakthrough.
-it may be just my player, but it's not very shock resistant. i use it at the gym, and if it gets tapped with even more than a slight touch it jumps songs and stops playing (even when locked). Maybe a lose wire somewhere, but it's always done it.
This happened on mine. The springy battery contact is very thin and got compressed. Just extend the contact a bit and should be fine.
-i don't think it takes >64MB smartmedia cards (i may be wrong). I always downsample the stuff to the portable at 96Kbs, so that gets me a good 2 hours with minimal glitches.
They keep telling me support for 128MB+ SM cards is coming anyday now. I think they are lying. I downsample too, but that gets annoying. I found a prog somewhere that would downsample while transfering files to the Rio, but it didn't work so good.
You forgot to say that the RioPort software sucks hiney.
Oh man, it was a joke which you obviously didn't get. Nastard gets it. I guess the fact that it bothered you makes it funnier.
I'm fired aren't I?
An A4 sized "armheld" would be pretty heavy first of all. As the "Ultimate Handheld," it is not something you would want to bring with you everywhere you go. Look to the current market for cellphones and PDA's and you will see quite generally that the smaller the device, the more successful it is. It should fit in your pocket easily. Handbags are for women and belt clips are for tools.
That said, I don't think a single device could fill the billing of the "Ultimate" or "Ideal" handheld, since everyone has different needs and uses for such a device. In fact the "Ultimate" handheld would have to be more of a complete product line of devices, with similar features, and possibly different form factors. I think this strategy is evolutionary and not too much to ask for today.
1) Entry level. Inexpensive (~$100), small form factor, basic functionality and expandability. Say 1 memory slot, possibly a PC-card slot? Palm m100 is a good place to look for inspiration.
2) Mid level. (~$250) Same form factor and features as above plus color screen, 1 PC-card slot, some form of wireless connectivity, audio (MP3 of course), + ?
3) High end (A) small. (~$300-$500) Same form factor (possibly a bit larger in size) and features as above plus video out, bluetooth headset for integrated phone (who wants to put this thing up to their face to make a call?), GPS, video
4) High end (B) notebook replacement. ($700+) Possibly your A4 sized monster. All the features of the rest of the line plus much larger screen, possibly a hard disk (and dvd drive?). The notebook market today is splitting into 2 main factions, the small and the powerfull. This device would be designed to overtake the small notebook by offering the same functions, with better portability and usability.
The key is that all of these devices should be similar in the sense that a user could trade up with a minimal learning curve, and not lose compatibility in accessories and software (ie same memory card type, etc.), and would gain some funcionality.
As for OS and GUI, there are really 2 options, MS or linux. Interoperability is essential here. All of these devices must be compatible with each other AND your desktop workstation. Palm has it's place as an organizer, but in its current state is at the end of its lifetime. An Apple OSX based product could possibly sweep the market here, as their design department is top notch. Like it or not, MS compatibility is perhaps the biggest requirement for any product these days.
As for my personal wishlist, I want to connect to a projector and show powerpoint presentations, track finances with MS money, throw away my cellphone, get directions via mapquest or MS mappoint using a gps (I get lost easily), and of course do email, keep track or contacts, browse the web, listen to mp3 etc. But i want it now.
"Holographic memory?" "neural network?" Aren't those buzzwords stupid people use to sound intelligent?
Season 8, Ep 14
Couldn't resist...
The Simpsons, Season 2, Ep 15, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"
"Homer discovers that he has a long-lost half brother, Herb Powell, who is the wealthy CEO of a car company. When Homer and Herb meet, they instantly hit it off and Herb takes in the Simpson family as his own. Herb hires Homer to help design a car for regular guys, but Homer's design proves so disastrous that it bankrupts Herb's company and forces the brothers apart once again."
Now back to the wall...
...old P133 tower sitting in my living room ...
Um... I think that's the whole point. Most people (even computer geeks) don't want bulky old computers all over their home with fans buzzing and hard disks whining.
Sure part of the problem is we have too many "intelligence" forces that don't share information. The FBI, CIA, secret service, local law enforcement... They all wanna read my email, tap my phone, etc...
Before the attack, it is very likely that each had many pieces to the puzzle, but through a lack of communication noone put it all together. Look at how quickly the current investigation is unfolding. They are cooperating now and shit is actually getting done.
Giving our intelligence agencies more access to our information is not going to help nearly as much as access to their own information.