It's not true that the lines of latitude and longitude are entirely arbitrary, as they are conceptually fixed by the rotation of the Earth as it revolves around the Sun. The lines of longitude converge at the poles, which are defined as the two points on the sphere on the axis of the rotation of the Earth. The equator is defined as "zero latitude" and is the diameter of the sphere along the axis of rotation. The other lines of latitude are at right angles to the longitude lines. The angular measurements themselves (360 degrees), the names of "North" and the other directions, and the placement of the "prime meridian" of zero degrees longitude at Greenwich, England, all were essentially arbitrary historical / political / linguistic decisions.
However if there is indeed a preferential direction of the spin axes of the majority of the galaxies in the universe, that might provide an analogous "universal North" direction... whether the cause is Big-Bang era spin related or simply inter-galactic gravitation and angular momentum conservation, similar to that already recognized in stellar systems (e.g. our own solar system) and planetary ring systems (e.g. Saturn).
I wonder if the RIAA will throw money at this type of technology, to help catch "pirates" who might otherwise escape by subtly transmogrifying their shared MP3s. Or maybe it already has?
We have used it (old TAMU v. 2.2.3) in our IT Audit process here at TI for quite a while. We certainly don't rely on it exclusively, but it does catch most of the standard UNIX "gotchas" across various platforms (here mostly Sun, HP, and now Linux). It also has decent reporting and can be as verbose or terse as you like. It integrates nicely with Crack as well. Not too bad for a bunch of Aggies! *ducks*
See http://www.ti.com/cgi-bin/sc/search.cgi - go nuts. We (plug alert - I work at TI) have tons of PC based software to interface with our DSP's for audio applications.
Mostly it is a "2" because I have karma to burn (47 at last count). I was mostly kidding, or maybe "trolling" is a better word. So mod me down already.... I have been to Paris and it is very beautiful (even though it was quite frigid in November 1999 when I went). Et aussi, je parle assez bien en francais, et j'aime bien les francais et les francophones. However the anti-Nazi-stuff laws (which incidentally are even worse in Germany), seem silly &/or misguided to those of us who have grown up in the U.S. under the protection of the (albeit steadily eroding) First Amendment. Ban conduct, not communication.
the chances of him being extradited for something like this are pretty slim, I'd expect. So he can't go to France or any of its territories from now on, big deal.
Apple has had this type of software for decades; it's called "At Ease" and is specifically targeted to the education market. Basically all available apps are displayed as big buttons on the screen, and you can also force login/logout to use a restricted set of apps. Most people never heard of it because they only marketed it to schools, with home users as an afterthought. Too bad it's gone now with Mac OSX (although I'm sure they could code up something similar using UNIX user/group permissions and a restricted UI).
Vinge does allude to this in the Singularity paper:
But it's much more likely that devising the software will be a tricky process, involving lots of false starts and experimentation. If so, then the arrival of self-aware machines will not happen till after the development of hardware that is substantially more powerful than humans' natural equipment.
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
Another excellent read on the trials and tribulations of the cable layers comes ironically enough from Arthur C. Clarke (yes, the grandfather of the communications satellite & "2001" author, among others). It's called _How the World was One: Beyond the Global Village_ and is unfortunately out of print as far as I can tell. It did show up on Amazon's book seller search though.
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
Yeah, but when the whole piece sounds just like a corporate PR press release (right down to quoting the price and availability) I tend to think "ad" not "news" - maybe I'm just being cynical though.
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
I knew all the trade rags, and general interest magazines were like this (basically, industry payola for column inches), but BBC News? Somehow I thought they still had journalistic integrity:-P
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
AOL/TW already does. It's called RoadRunner cable modem service and rides over Warner digital cable. MS also owns big chunks of cable corp's plus WebTV, but the intense gov't scrutiny probably would never let them roll out "MS Passport Digital Cable TV! 1000 channels of Windows Media content plus the WWW and more!" to the masses.
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
A close friend has a really neat old music box that works off punched metal disks (I have no idea how old, but it is probably at least 19th century - gotta get her to bring it on Antiques Roadshow sometime...). It always reminds me of the classic PlaySkool "record player" that runs off little plastic disks with bumps.
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
Actually OJ's hands were/are in the 4D glove, unfortunately the jury only has pseudo-3D perception (two 2D eyeballs in parallax), thus they only saw a small part of the 4D object (3D timeslice during trial) not the part where he was wearing them while killing Ron & Nicole....
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
Yeah, if they can only lure a few thousand more millionaires (unfortunately the dotcom bust has thinned out the supply recently) to cough up a few million each to visit, Mir 2 could practically be a profit center, or at least pay for itself!
If this works, watch out for "DisneySpaceBase" though....
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
Slashdot Mirror
Nah, the real "end" would be if HP finally bows to the inevitable and ports HPUX to x64. Don't hold your breath though....
I tried to be UID 32k (32,768) but missed by 179. Nah, j/k. It was sometime late '98 or early '99.
At least I beat Wil Wheaton though. Nyah nyah!
It's not true that the lines of latitude and longitude are entirely arbitrary, as they are conceptually fixed by the rotation of the Earth as it revolves around the Sun. The lines of longitude converge at the poles, which are defined as the two points on the sphere on the axis of the rotation of the Earth. The equator is defined as "zero latitude" and is the diameter of the sphere along the axis of rotation. The other lines of latitude are at right angles to the longitude lines. The angular measurements themselves (360 degrees), the names of "North" and the other directions, and the placement of the "prime meridian" of zero degrees longitude at Greenwich, England, all were essentially arbitrary historical / political / linguistic decisions.
However if there is indeed a preferential direction of the spin axes of the majority of the galaxies in the universe, that might provide an analogous "universal North" direction... whether the cause is Big-Bang era spin related or simply inter-galactic gravitation and angular momentum conservation, similar to that already recognized in stellar systems (e.g. our own solar system) and planetary ring systems (e.g. Saturn).
I wonder if the RIAA will throw money at this type of technology, to help catch "pirates" who might otherwise escape by subtly transmogrifying their shared MP3s. Or maybe it already has?
We have used it (old TAMU v. 2.2.3) in our IT Audit process here at TI for quite a while. We certainly don't rely on it exclusively, but it does catch most of the standard UNIX "gotchas" across various platforms (here mostly Sun, HP, and now Linux). It also has decent reporting and can be as verbose or terse as you like. It integrates nicely with Crack as well. Not too bad for a bunch of Aggies! *ducks*
See http://www.ti.com/cgi-bin/sc/search.cgi - go nuts. We (plug alert - I work at TI) have tons of PC based software to interface with our DSP's for audio applications.
then what do you do with the wheat? You can't eat it, and if you bury it you are back to square one.
Today the first privately funded "hunter-killer" satellite was launched by the American Petroleum Association.
Uh, "U Stink (But I Luv U)" by Billy and the Boingers? (flexi-disc in the Berke Breathed Bloom County Billy & the Boingers comic strip collection ?)
That's the only one I can think of... unfortunately I lost it a long time ago.
Mostly it is a "2" because I have karma to burn (47 at last count). I was mostly kidding, or maybe "trolling" is a better word. So mod me down already.... I have been to Paris and it is very beautiful (even though it was quite frigid in November 1999 when I went). Et aussi, je parle assez bien en francais, et j'aime bien les francais et les francophones. However the anti-Nazi-stuff laws (which incidentally are even worse in Germany), seem silly &/or misguided to those of us who have grown up in the U.S. under the protection of the (albeit steadily eroding) First Amendment. Ban conduct, not communication.
the chances of him being extradited for something like this are pretty slim, I'd expect. So he can't go to France or any of its territories from now on, big deal.
I know that assembling this stuff on your own, you could probably cut the cost at least in half. Look at this quote sheet from hp.com:
A7796A HP workstation X1000 Base SPU with Linux 1 $650.00
A7796A ABA U.S. - English localization 1 $0.00
A7801A 2.0GHz Pentium 4 Processor (478 pin) 1 $750.00
A7801A 0D1 Factory integrated 1 $0.00
A6065A NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro graphics accelerator 1 $700.00
A6065A 0D1 Factory integrated 1 $0.00
A7243A 3 button PS2 mouse (no scroll) 1 $10.00
A7243A 0D1 Factory integrated 1 $0.00
A6060A 36GB 10K SCSI disk for IA32 systems 1 $550.00
A6060A 0D1 Factory integrated 1 $0.00
A7244A SCSI controller card Ultra 160 (PCI) 1 $130.00
A7244A 0D1 Factory integrated 1 $0.00
A7794A 256MB PC133 ECC SDRAM DIMM for X1000 2 $120.00 $240.00
A7794A 0D1 Factory integrated 2 $0.00
A7808A HP 16X max DVD ROM Drive 1 $150.00
A7808A 0D1 Factory integrated 1 $0.00
A7807A HP 16X max CD R/W ROM drive 1 $200.00
A7807A 0D1 Factory integrated 1 $0.00
H4396A No Additional Support 1 $0.00
subtotal $3,380.00
According to the Acer site the chip is made by Authentec, Inc. (based in Florida); here are some more tech specs: Products; and some other details are in their Media Coverage Archive.
Well, not on the Mac - they don't have floppies anymore!
Apple has had this type of software for decades; it's called "At Ease" and is specifically targeted to the education market. Basically all available apps are displayed as big buttons on the screen, and you can also force login/logout to use a restricted set of apps. Most people never heard of it because they only marketed it to schools, with home users as an afterthought. Too bad it's gone now with Mac OSX (although I'm sure they could code up something similar using UNIX user/group permissions and a restricted UI).
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
Another excellent read on the trials and tribulations of the cable layers comes ironically enough from Arthur C. Clarke (yes, the grandfather of the communications satellite & "2001" author, among others). It's called _How the World was One: Beyond the Global Village_ and is unfortunately out of print as far as I can tell. It did show up on Amazon's book seller search though.
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
Yeah, now I guess we know who the villain in those kooky "Left Behind" novels is... Muah hah hah ha!
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
Yeah, but when the whole piece sounds just like a corporate PR press release (right down to quoting the price and availability) I tend to think "ad" not "news" - maybe I'm just being cynical though.
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
I knew all the trade rags, and general interest magazines were like this (basically, industry payola for column inches), but BBC News? Somehow I thought they still had journalistic integrity :-P
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
They already have that, it's called "methadone" and is available at a rehab near you! ;-)
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
AOL/TW already does. It's called RoadRunner cable modem service and rides over Warner digital cable. MS also owns big chunks of cable corp's plus WebTV, but the intense gov't scrutiny probably would never let them roll out "MS Passport Digital Cable TV! 1000 channels of Windows Media content plus the WWW and more!" to the masses.
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
A close friend has a really neat old music box that works off punched metal disks (I have no idea how old, but it is probably at least 19th century - gotta get her to bring it on Antiques Roadshow sometime...). It always reminds me of the classic PlaySkool "record player" that runs off little plastic disks with bumps.
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
Actually OJ's hands were/are in the 4D glove, unfortunately the jury only has pseudo-3D perception (two 2D eyeballs in parallax), thus they only saw a small part of the 4D object (3D timeslice during trial) not the part where he was wearing them while killing Ron & Nicole....
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
Yeah, if they can only lure a few thousand more millionaires (unfortunately the dotcom bust has thinned out the supply recently) to cough up a few million each to visit, Mir 2 could practically be a profit center, or at least pay for itself!
If this works, watch out for "DisneySpaceBase" though....
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak