Orginally, Siegel and Schuster based Metropolis on Toronto. Btw, check out 'Watchmen' for accuracy in streets. There's an intersection that re-occurs throughout the series, and they actually built a cardboard model of it to get the perspectives right from any angle. -----------------
I'm sure I saw something on TV years ago about a similar concept at Xerox PARC. Your wore a little badge, and the system followed you aroung the building. Any terminal you used became 'your' terminal, with your preferences, email and so forth, and and phone calls were automatically forwarded to the nearest phone.
Anyone else remember this? -----------------
I have a friend at Nortel who has a hands-free wireless extension to his desk phone. He told me he once went to the can in the middle of a conference call. He blamed the noise of the toilet flush on 'Static'. -----------------
That's ironic considering that Disney bases all of their stuff on public domain works, so that they don't have to pay royalties. And they yanked the "Lady and the Tramp" video off the shelves for years because they refused to pay Peggy Lee residuals. Talk about two-faced... -----------------
Not long, IMHO. I've got a Rocket eBook that has a backlit screen that is very easy on the eyes. I can hold it and turn the pages with one hand, and if I fall asleep reading, it goes into sleep mode. I just bought "Anil's Ghost" by Michael Ondaatje in Rocket Edition, and it's just as easy to read as a paperback.
So, does owning the electronic edition (which is digitally signed to only run on my reader) give me rights to create a paper back-up copy? Serious question, and one the only a lawyer could definitively answer, I think. -----------------
No Commadore 64. Harlan hates word processors, he still does all his writing (such as it is) on a manual typewriter. BTW, Gibson also wrote "Neuromancer" on a manual typewriter, he didn't know how to use a computer at the time. And people thought of him as a prophet of the digital age:) -----------------
No, I think you own it. There is no licencing agreement, like the one you get with software, on a video DVD. There is only the FBI warning against illegal copying. Unlike software, which you are basically buying a licence to use, with a DVD, you are buying the media and and the right to use it in any way you want as long as is does not violate existing laws. Big difference, IMHO. -----------------
Originalinaly it was "reverse the flow of the neutron stream" from Dr. Who. Star Trek couldn't even invent its own double-talk, that had to steal it from Dr. Who.
And don't forgot that Rimmer was a hologram years before Voyager's Doctor showed up. Sheesh. -----------------
Oracle is a damned pig to administer. 8i (8.1.6) installs in 'noarchive' mode which means you can do hot back-ups. To enable archive mode you have un-comment some lines in the init.ora file, which turn out to be coded wrong.
It took us a week and the help of an 'offical' Oracle DBA to get this fixed. Don't tell me how easy it is to administer.
-----------------
a Gameboy, with one of those little B/W cameras they used to sell for the thing. I bet you could pick up one of those real cheap. Then use the Gameboy network port to hook into a mobile phone and you're set! -----------------
It was "Tomorrow Never Dies" and I prefer to think that Jonathan Pryce was playing an older Bill Gates, not Rupert Murdoch. (Gored to death by a drilling machine, wonderful!) -----------------
I don't care if it's Linux, PalmOS, CE (if it ever works) or NewtonOS (which did it first) the most important part of a handheld device it the filesystem.
A handhand file system has to be transparent to the user, unlike regular hierarchical filesystems that load and save.
Take the address book as an example. When I open the address book app on my Palm or Newton, I don't have to load a file, or save it when I'm done. The file system does this auto-magically when you close the app, switch to another app, power down the system or the system powers itself down. The file system API provides the same functionality to any other app on the platform.
If Linux on a hand-held can do this, fine, otherwise it's going to be a pain in the butt to use. -----------------
I think you missed the point, NASA is like any other Dilbert-esque organization; dumb point-haired managers at the top, smart engineers at the bottom. The engineers do clever things and the bosses screw up the implementation. -----------------
Works for me. I've got an Hons. B.Sc. in Physics, and I've been working in IT for 14 years now. Can barely remember what F=ma stands for. -----------------
ADV are also getting flamed for their handling of Farscape. Two one hour episodes per DVD with a list price of $24.98. They could fit at least three on a disk and they're whining that they can afford to ship a boxed set of the first season because the sales wouldn't be big enough. The first Farscape DVD is rank #44 on Amazon's DVD sales; so much for low volume. -----------------
If you're going to program a robot to obey the three laws, concider reversing #2 and #3, to give higher priority to self-prservation. I always thought Asimov treated robots as an expendable commodity item, not the expensive, irreplacable items they should be.
You should be able to do 'real' real-time on a PC if the peripherals you are talking to are interrupt driven. That way the OS handles each hardware interrupt as it trips. I know the serial and parallel ports are interrupt-driven, but I dunno about these new-fangled USB and FireWire thingies.
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For real fan-boy collectors, I have the gold-cover edition of "Cryptonomicon" signed by Neal. Bidding on Ebay starts soon... :)
-----------------
Orginally, Siegel and Schuster based Metropolis on Toronto. Btw, check out 'Watchmen' for accuracy in streets. There's an intersection that re-occurs throughout the series, and they actually built a cardboard model of it to get the perspectives right from any angle.
-----------------
I'm sure I saw something on TV years ago about a similar concept at Xerox PARC. Your wore a little badge, and the system followed you aroung the building. Any terminal you used became 'your' terminal, with your preferences, email and so forth, and and phone calls were automatically forwarded to the nearest phone.
Anyone else remember this?
-----------------
I have a friend at Nortel who has a hands-free wireless extension to his desk phone. He told me he once went to the can in the middle of a conference call. He blamed the noise of the toilet flush on 'Static'.
-----------------
That's ironic considering that Disney bases all of their stuff on public domain works, so that they don't have to pay royalties. And they yanked the "Lady and the Tramp" video off the shelves for years because they refused to pay Peggy Lee residuals. Talk about two-faced...
-----------------
Not long, IMHO. I've got a Rocket eBook that has a backlit screen that is very easy on the eyes. I can hold it and turn the pages with one hand, and if I fall asleep reading, it goes into sleep mode. I just bought "Anil's Ghost" by Michael Ondaatje in Rocket Edition, and it's just as easy to read as a paperback.
So, does owning the electronic edition (which is digitally signed to only run on my reader) give me rights to create a paper back-up copy? Serious question, and one the only a lawyer could definitively answer, I think.
-----------------
No Commadore 64. Harlan hates word processors, he still does all his writing (such as it is) on a manual typewriter. BTW, Gibson also wrote "Neuromancer" on a manual typewriter, he didn't know how to use a computer at the time. And people thought of him as a prophet of the digital age :)
-----------------
Start using a banner ad filter; it makes CNet so much easier to read :)
Well, the Newton used to generate touchtone sounds when you double-tapped a phone number, if that's what you're thinking of.
There's your website right there: squelsh.com. I used to own the domain name, but let it lapse. Pity.
No, I think you own it. There is no licencing agreement, like the one you get with software, on a video DVD. There is only the FBI warning against illegal copying. Unlike software, which you are basically buying a licence to use, with a DVD, you are buying the media and and the right to use it in any way you want as long as is does not violate existing laws. Big difference, IMHO.
-----------------
Yup. As I keep saying, AOL is the trailer-park of the internet.
Originalinaly it was "reverse the flow of the neutron stream" from Dr. Who. Star Trek couldn't even invent its own double-talk, that had to steal it from Dr. Who. And don't forgot that Rimmer was a hologram years before Voyager's Doctor showed up. Sheesh.
-----------------
Oracle is a damned pig to administer. 8i (8.1.6) installs in 'noarchive' mode which means you can do hot back-ups. To enable archive mode you have un-comment some lines in the init.ora file, which turn out to be coded wrong.
It took us a week and the help of an 'offical' Oracle DBA to get this fixed. Don't tell me how easy it is to administer.
-----------------
a Gameboy, with one of those little B/W cameras they used to sell for the thing. I bet you could pick up one of those real cheap. Then use the Gameboy network port to hook into a mobile phone and you're set!
-----------------
It was "Tomorrow Never Dies" and I prefer to think that Jonathan Pryce was playing an older Bill Gates, not Rupert Murdoch. (Gored to death by a drilling machine, wonderful!)
-----------------
A handhand file system has to be transparent to the user, unlike regular hierarchical filesystems that load and save.
Take the address book as an example. When I open the address book app on my Palm or Newton, I don't have to load a file, or save it when I'm done. The file system does this auto-magically when you close the app, switch to another app, power down the system or the system powers itself down. The file system API provides the same functionality to any other app on the platform.
If Linux on a hand-held can do this, fine, otherwise it's going to be a pain in the butt to use.
-----------------
I think you missed the point, NASA is like any other Dilbert-esque organization; dumb point-haired managers at the top, smart engineers at the bottom. The engineers do clever things and the bosses screw up the implementation.
-----------------
Works for me. I've got an Hons. B.Sc. in Physics, and I've been working in IT for 14 years now. Can barely remember what F=ma stands for.
-----------------
Try the other way around. Rumor has it that HotMail runs on Sun Servers. M$ tried to port it to NT, but it crashed.
-----------------
Come over to the dark side. The first two DVD sets of "Thunderbirds" came out on DVD today. Now there's action/adventure for you!
-----------------
ADV are also getting flamed for their handling of Farscape. Two one hour episodes per DVD with a list price of $24.98. They could fit at least three on a disk and they're whining that they can afford to ship a boxed set of the first season because the sales wouldn't be big enough. The first Farscape DVD is rank #44 on Amazon's DVD sales; so much for low volume.
-----------------
If you want an American cartoon with a long plot-line go watch "Gargoyles". 52 episode plot arc, and from Disney yet!
-----------------
If you're going to program a robot to obey the three laws, concider reversing #2 and #3, to give higher priority to self-prservation. I always thought Asimov treated robots as an expendable commodity item, not the expensive, irreplacable items they should be.
You should be able to do 'real' real-time on a PC if the peripherals you are talking to are interrupt driven. That way the OS handles each hardware interrupt as it trips. I know the serial and parallel ports are interrupt-driven, but I dunno about these new-fangled USB and FireWire thingies.