> You could run a microwave oven at 100 MHz, > or 10 GHz. There's no "resonance" involved. > The phenomenon is called "dielectric heating."
But higher frequencies dump their heat closer to the surface, while lower frequencies penetrate better, and dump less of their energy into the dinner per pass as more of it goes clear through.
K band was chosen for microwave ovens because it could cook stuff up to roast size without leaving a cold spot in the center, and didn't waste too much power (and overheat the tube) and cook too slowly if you only fed it a hotdog.
If you go to http://www.x10.com/homepage.htm, you can register for (pretty much) daily emails of X.10 specials. In the one I received today, they reference http://www.x10.com/active_home_39.htm which is a "one-day-only" sale (that keeps getting extended) that will sell you Active Home package at $39.99, plus CA tax, if you're out here, but with free shipping (UPS brown).
I started with the Firecracker package, and have really been playing with it, and have an Active Home kit in transit. Seeing heyu, et al, it makes this at least a fun toy, and even practical... perhaps.
Oohh...Joy..more brain washing..my fav.. Im a company will get rich making a program to kill these ads so itz really not as bad as you think...it still soundz horrendous that a manufactor would even consider it...
Now NT/Windoze has a reason to keep crashing... the pathetic uptime generates marketing revenues each time the machine boots up. So That 23x6 uptime really does make sense!
is to buy motherboards with BIOS from a manufacturer that does not do this. Hopefully, this will show Phoenix that this form of advertising is unacceptable.
Unfortunately, all the manufacturers that use Phoenix probably think that this is a swell idea, or they will until a competitor buys ad space on their 'puters:)
Call me cynical, but I don't see this going away. And I'm going to have to put up with it, as writing my own BIOS is way the hell out of my league.
This appears to be a variation of X10 technology. I've been using X10 around the house for some time, and it's quite nice. Most hardware stores carry X10 modules (e.g. switch controls, motion sensors, etc.), so it's easy to upgrade. I run this all through linux with a custom module (have a look at the OReilly book "Writing Linux Device Drivers"--it's cut and paste to make your own kernel module.) You can find out more about x10 at: www.x10.com Beware: DO NOT join their mailing list. It's an absolute fire hose of spam. At least one message per day. Just visit their page every so often for updates.
----------------------------- Computers are useless. They can only give answers.
The FBI, CIA and NSA have a vested interest in keeping strong crypto out of everyday life. It means that they'd have to obey the laws. But when the laws get in their way they just have them changed. For example, you can be indicted in a secret hearing by a secret grand jury using secret evidence which you never have a chance to see, know about or refute.
This was instituted to help bring down the "mafia" and "drug dealers" but it can be applied to anyone among us by liberally interpretting the law.
Two or three drug dealers in a gang can now be prosecuted under the federal RICO statute due to a re-interpretation of 20 year old laws.
How long before the definition of a "criminal enterprise" is re-interpretted? Will/. be next? After all, many of us support things that the government wants to make illegal. (crypto is the prime example).
After watching "Triumph of the Nerds", I felt like , "Wow... I want to run out and make millions creating the next killer app or platform and take over the world!" I was psyched...
"Pirates..." gave me a slightly different take. I know some of it was Hollywoodized, but the shred of truth that existed there opened my eyes to the fact that Jobs and Gates are a couple of unethical scum-sucking amoral slimeballs who will screw people over with any opportunity to make a buck. Certainly Gates more than Jobs, but Job's egomaniacalism more than makes up more whatever honor he may possess. These are not the people I want to emulate...
>I'd sure rather have BeOS be the OS for the masses than Windows.
If every windows machine were magically replaced with BeOS, and Be had the corresponding hardware and software support, I really would not shed one tear.
The hardware OpenGL support is a good start, but in reality it's just one hardware driver out of many that BeOS needs badly. Good OpenGL support won't make it a "Media OS," unless you want to start calling IRIX a media OS:P.
But still, comparing BeOS to Windows, at least from a purely technical standpoint, is no contest...Be wins hands down.
In the fall of 1997 M$ purchased 150 million dollars worth of non-voting apple stock. They also gave apple an "undisclosed sum" of money to make their legal problems with Apple go away.
Remember the scene in the movie where Jobs announces that the era of competition between Apple and MS is over? The part where Gates is on the big screen behind Jobs? That was when they made the announcement about the new partnership. This is also the deal that got MS office 98 for mac released before any new version for windows.
They did portray Jobs as real Prick...wonder if he watched it? Hall did great with Gates, would've liked to see it more technical...but...PBS...anyway...I enjoyed it. Made HP look moronic.
Yes, a Java VM would help tremendously. As for the web browser, I would say it's on par with the KDE browser except that the Be browser doesn't crash all the time. Of course, it still gets annoying when you have a site that uses javascript or java, but for the most part browsing the web is OK.
What's annoying about Be is, when you boot it up and take a look at it, you realize just how tremendously hyped it is. Basically Be, Inc. is a corporation and corporations will tell you anything to get your money. Wow, so it has threads. Wow, so it has a really slow software-only OpenGL implementation. But come on, a "Media OS?" The idea of such a thing is laughable. What you're left with is an operating system with no software, and which has no hack value whatsoever.
The only thing that saves it is their use of gnu tools, but I'm kind of annoyed at the way they did that too...it's like Microsoft integrating the gnu sh utils into their main OS...those programs were made so that people could enjoy a completely *free* system, using them on proprietary junk is just treading water.
That's just my two cents about Be. I just installed it a little while ago, so if you have any (constructive) insight I'd love to hear about it.
1. You obviously weren't using personal computers in the 1980's.
2. The comment about KDE was pure flamebait, so I'm not going to touch it.
3. No one designs "X-server"'s (except maybe the X consortium). You are probably thinking of "Window Manager," in which case check out mlvwm which emulates MacOS, or Enlightenment which can emulate anything you want. In fact KDE also has a Mac-like mode complete with Mac menu bars (Beware of ignorant/. anonymous losers!!!).
What the hell is he playing at? What's Windows based on? DOS. What's DOS based on? CP/M (or whatever the hell it was). How old is CP/M? Pretty damn old. Besides, Linux is only 8 years old, and it's so very convenient that he forgot to mention that Linus wrote the entire thing from scratch. I think that Microsoft probably just sent him a nice big fat check to bash Linux around (gotta have that FUD). Of course, when the UNIX operating systems have taken over the world, little Bobby here'll probably praise Linux and predict that he knew Microsoft would fail. I think he's probably trying to be purposely inflammatory...Internet 'pundit' isn't really appropriate, I think...something more like Internet 'village idiot' would fit him so much better. The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr. Brain has long since departed, hasn't it, Bob?
Better take another look at patent law. If the guy has a patent on antennas, then he can restrict the manufacture of the antennas under all circumstances, including cooking one up at home. Doesn't necessarily mean he'll come after you if you do just one for yourself, but he's legally allowed to. No such thing as 'fair use' of a patent.
There's been a fair amount of discussion on the fractal antenna on various ham radio mailinglists, and whilst the antenna IS patented the person who owns the patent has explicitly given permission for the antenna to be used in non-commercial applications below cellular band.
On the Fractenna Homepage there are also explicit instructions on how to build a fractal antenna for various ham radio bands.
Warning: Subjects of a technical nature relating to both fractals and radio bandwidths follow. It shall be assumed that you have at least some grounders in both fractals and in antenna design if you are reading past this point. If you don't know what the hell a Koch curve, common ham radio terms, wavelength, or Yagi antennas are then the following will probably be of no use whatsoever.:)
As far as I can tell, apparently the fellow has made the antenna in the rough outline of a fractal resembling a Koch curve with squares and pointing inward instead of outward and with triangles (as in normal Koch curves). I don't know of too many hams using them just yet, but once programs are written where one can custom-design such an antenna by both wavelength and iterations then I'd expect more folks to be using them. There's been a fair amount of excitement in the QRP community at least, because one can pack a lot of antenna in one space and antennas for 20 meters and below that don't require longwire hookups, Slinkys, or towers become practical.
The designs for use in ham radio seem to be variations of Yagi square antennas (fairly common for homebrew use) where instead of a square one uses the "modified inverse Koch square" (for want of a better term for the fractal used) for the upper and lower ends of the band. These are better suited for directional antennas, of course (as are all Yagis); if one didn't want to use it as a Yagi and wanted a non-directional antenna I see no real reason you couldn't use a fractal antenna as a sort of modified loop antenna. (Folks doing AM DX listening in cramped quarters where installation of a longwire antenna is impossible ought to like that.;)
If memory serves, calculating wavelengths for the "Yagi fractenna" is a bit more of a bear than configuring wavelengths for the normal type of Yagi. Again, though, it should be possible to figure out a way to rig up a quickie program to determine wavelength.
Just like the man said, the Fractenna is not going to give you ANY more gain than a Yagi antenna of comparable wavelength. What it does do is allow one to install a rather large (in wavelength and in wire length) antenna in a much smaller space than one would normally do so.
(end technical discussion)
Now, as for other interesting uses of fractals...I have heard of a number of kite enthusiasts who have built working kites based off of Sierpinski sponges. (Sierpinski sponges are just like Sierpinski gaskets or triangles, but in three dimensions.;) Apparently the things get amazing lift--one has to be careful not to let the kite drag you because you're dealing really with upwards of four or more box kites!:)
A quickie search of Alta Vista for "fractal kite" or +kite +Sierpinski should lead you to some articles on how to make them and fly them.;)
The thing that I liked best was the way Jobs was portrayed. They showed Steve Jobs to be the asshole that he really is.
I'm extremely happy that someone decided to stop sucking Steve Jobs' ass for just long enough to show him to be the person that he really is.
I also liked the way Bill Gates was not portrayed as just plain evil, but simply greedy which is a much more plausable explaination for why he acts the way he does.
The guy who posted the original "essay" was right..MP3 is fantastic (and should be encouraged) for those rarities, bootlegs, demos, b-sides etc. I was once (partially) involved in the "Lost Wisdom" project (formerly www.lostwisdom.net, alas, no longer), which warehoused all the rare death/black/heavy metal material we could muster. Even albums which have long been out of print.
No copyrights were being infringed, bands were getting that rare material circulated for free (they wouldn't make money from that material anyway, unless it was re-released, in which case, it wouldn't be considered "rare" anyway.) and it circumvented nasty bootleggers who would charge us$30.00 for something we were offering for free.
...and don't get me started on how cool.mp3 is for promotion of unsigned/demo bands.
As I understand it hardware DVD players have imbedded macrovision copy protection. If this is the case those $19.95 copy-protection removers that people sell in popular science should be enough to circumvent it.
It was because of the instructions of the Army that the BATF and FBI poked several holes in the branch davidian home. These holes allowed to fire to burn hotter and spread faster. They alsy know that the branch davdians didn't have child sized gas masks.
Torture and barbecue no doubt. The only doubt is as to who started the fire.
What I'm looking for here is any clue that you actually have any idea what you are talking about or of you are simply picking up on the "x is crap" meme that is pervasive in slashdot.
Slashdot Mirror
Posted by Ungrounded Lightning Rod:
> You could run a microwave oven at 100 MHz,
> or 10 GHz. There's no "resonance" involved.
> The phenomenon is called "dielectric heating."
But higher frequencies dump their heat closer
to the surface, while lower frequencies penetrate
better, and dump less of their energy into the
dinner per pass as more of it goes clear through.
K band was chosen for microwave ovens because it
could cook stuff up to roast size without leaving
a cold spot in the center, and didn't waste too
much power (and overheat the tube) and cook too
slowly if you only fed it a hotdog.
Posted by cmcclure:
And clueless he is. I wonder how much M$ paid him to write that one? Linux - W2K roadkill? I don't think so. W2K is road kill.
If you go to http://www.x10.com/homepage.htm, you can register for (pretty much) daily emails of X.10 specials. In the one I received today, they reference http://www.x10.com/active_home_39.htm which is a "one-day-only" sale (that keeps getting extended) that will sell you Active Home package at $39.99, plus CA tax, if you're out here, but with free shipping (UPS brown).
I started with the Firecracker package, and have really been playing with it, and have an Active Home kit in transit. Seeing heyu, et al, it makes this at least a fun toy, and even practical ... perhaps.
Posted by Forlife:
...
Oohh...Joy..more brain washing..my fav..
Im a company will get rich making a program to kill these ads so itz really not as bad as you think...it still soundz horrendous that a manufactor would even consider it
Posted by Dahakbert:
Now NT/Windoze has a reason to keep crashing... the pathetic uptime generates marketing revenues each time the machine boots up. So That 23x6 uptime really does make sense!
Posted by generic kewl tech reference:
:)
is to buy motherboards with BIOS from a manufacturer that does not do this. Hopefully, this will show Phoenix that this form of advertising is unacceptable.
Unfortunately, all the manufacturers that use Phoenix probably think that this is a swell idea, or they will until a competitor buys ad space on their 'puters
Call me cynical, but I don't see this going away. And I'm going to have to put up with it, as writing my own BIOS is way the hell out of my league.
Posted by FascDot Killed My Previous Use:
Why would robots be using ANY oxygen?
--
"Please remember that how you say something is often more important than what you say." - Rob Malda
Posted by !ErrorBookmarkNotDefined:
This appears to be a variation of X10 technology. I've been using X10 around the house for some time, and it's quite nice. Most hardware stores carry X10 modules (e.g. switch controls, motion sensors, etc.), so it's easy to upgrade. I run this all through linux with a custom module (have a look at the OReilly book "Writing Linux Device Drivers"--it's cut and paste to make your own kernel module.) You can find out more about x10 at: www.x10.com Beware: DO NOT join their mailing list. It's an absolute fire hose of spam. At least one message per day. Just visit their page every so often for updates.
-----------------------------
Computers are useless. They can only give answers.
Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:
/. be next? After all, many of us support things that the government wants to make illegal. (crypto is the prime example).
The FBI, CIA and NSA have a vested interest in keeping strong crypto out of everyday life. It means that they'd have to obey the laws. But when the laws get in their way they just have them changed. For example, you can be indicted in a secret hearing by a secret grand jury using secret evidence which you never have a chance to see, know about or refute.
This was instituted to help bring down the "mafia" and "drug dealers" but it can be applied to anyone among us by liberally interpretting the law.
Two or three drug dealers in a gang can now be prosecuted under the federal RICO statute due to a re-interpretation of 20 year old laws.
How long before the definition of a "criminal enterprise" is re-interpretted? Will
LK
Posted by punkmutha:
After watching "Triumph of the Nerds", I felt like , "Wow... I want to run out and make millions creating the next killer app or platform and take over the world!" I was psyched...
"Pirates..." gave me a slightly different take. I know some of it was Hollywoodized, but the shred of truth that existed there opened my eyes to the fact that Jobs and Gates are a couple of unethical scum-sucking amoral slimeballs who will screw people over with any opportunity to make a buck. Certainly Gates more than Jobs, but Job's egomaniacalism more than makes up more whatever honor he may possess. These are not the people I want to emulate...
Posted by OGL:
:P.
>I'd sure rather have BeOS be the OS for the masses than Windows.
If every windows machine were magically replaced with BeOS, and Be had the corresponding hardware and software support, I really would not shed one tear.
The hardware OpenGL support is a good start, but in reality it's just one hardware driver out of many that BeOS needs badly. Good OpenGL support won't make it a "Media OS," unless you want to start calling IRIX a media OS
But still, comparing BeOS to Windows, at least from a purely technical standpoint, is no contest...Be wins hands down.
-W.W.
Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:
In the fall of 1997 M$ purchased 150 million dollars worth of non-voting apple stock. They also gave apple an "undisclosed sum" of money to make their legal problems with Apple go away.
Remember the scene in the movie where Jobs announces that the era of competition between Apple and MS is over? The part where Gates is on the big screen behind Jobs? That was when they made the announcement about the new partnership. This is also the deal that got MS office 98 for mac released before any new version for windows.
LK
Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:
If memory serves, the late show was an HBO original picture. It was made for HBO and then later aired on network TV. On HBO it was better.
LK
Posted by grphxguru:
...PBS...anyway...I enjoyed it. Made HP look moronic.
They did portray Jobs as real Prick...wonder if he watched it? Hall did great with Gates, would've liked to see it more technical...but
Posted by OGL:
Yes, a Java VM would help tremendously. As for the web browser, I would say it's on par with the KDE browser except that the Be browser doesn't crash all the time. Of course, it still gets annoying when you have a site that uses javascript or java, but for the most part browsing the web is OK.
What's annoying about Be is, when you boot it up and take a look at it, you realize just how tremendously hyped it is. Basically Be, Inc. is a corporation and corporations will tell you anything to get your money. Wow, so it has threads. Wow, so it has a really slow software-only OpenGL implementation. But come on, a "Media OS?" The idea of such a thing is laughable. What you're left with is an operating system with no software, and which has no hack value whatsoever.
The only thing that saves it is their use of gnu tools, but I'm kind of annoyed at the way they did that too...it's like Microsoft integrating the gnu sh utils into their main OS...those programs were made so that people could enjoy a completely *free* system, using them on proprietary junk is just treading water.
That's just my two cents about Be. I just installed it a little while ago, so if you have any (constructive) insight I'd love to hear about it.
-W.W.
Posted by OGL:
Not to mention going open source and getting an actual application or two.
-W.W.
Posted by OGL:
/. anonymous losers!!!).
A couple of notes about your inane post:
1. You obviously weren't using personal computers in the 1980's.
2. The comment about KDE was pure flamebait, so I'm not going to touch it.
3. No one designs "X-server"'s (except maybe the X consortium). You are probably thinking of "Window Manager," in which case check out mlvwm which emulates MacOS, or Enlightenment which can emulate anything you want. In fact KDE also has a Mac-like mode complete with Mac menu bars (Beware of ignorant
Posted by Jæger:
What the hell is he playing at? What's Windows based on? DOS. What's DOS based on? CP/M (or whatever the hell it was). How old is CP/M? Pretty damn old. Besides, Linux is only 8 years old, and it's so very convenient that he forgot to mention that Linus wrote the entire thing from scratch. I think that Microsoft probably just sent him a nice big fat check to bash Linux around (gotta have that FUD). Of course, when the UNIX operating systems have taken over the world, little Bobby here'll probably praise Linux and predict that he knew Microsoft would fail. I think he's probably trying to be purposely inflammatory...Internet 'pundit' isn't really appropriate, I think...something more like Internet 'village idiot' would fit him so much better. The eyes are open, the mouth moves, but Mr. Brain has long since departed, hasn't it, Bob?
Phil Reed sez:
There's been a fair amount of discussion on the fractal antenna on various ham radio mailinglists, and whilst the antenna IS patented the person who owns the patent has explicitly given permission for the antenna to be used in non-commercial applications below cellular band.
On the Fractenna Homepage there are also explicit instructions on how to build a fractal antenna for various ham radio bands.
Warning: Subjects of a technical nature relating to both fractals and radio bandwidths follow. It shall be assumed that you have at least some grounders in both fractals and in antenna design if you are reading past this point. If you don't know what the hell a Koch curve, common ham radio terms, wavelength, or Yagi antennas are then the following will probably be of no use whatsoever. :)
As far as I can tell, apparently the fellow has made the antenna in the rough outline of a fractal resembling a Koch curve with squares and pointing inward instead of outward and with triangles (as in normal Koch curves). I don't know of too many hams using them just yet, but once programs are written where one can custom-design such an antenna by both wavelength and iterations then I'd expect more folks to be using them. There's been a fair amount of excitement in the QRP community at least, because one can pack a lot of antenna in one space and antennas for 20 meters and below that don't require longwire hookups, Slinkys, or towers become practical.
The designs for use in ham radio seem to be variations of Yagi square antennas (fairly common for homebrew use) where instead of a square one uses the "modified inverse Koch square" (for want of a better term for the fractal used) for the upper and lower ends of the band. These are better suited for directional antennas, of course (as are all Yagis); if one didn't want to use it as a Yagi and wanted a non-directional antenna I see no real reason you couldn't use a fractal antenna as a sort of modified loop antenna. (Folks doing AM DX listening in cramped quarters where installation of a longwire antenna is impossible ought to like that. ;)
If memory serves, calculating wavelengths for the "Yagi fractenna" is a bit more of a bear than configuring wavelengths for the normal type of Yagi. Again, though, it should be possible to figure out a way to rig up a quickie program to determine wavelength.
Just like the man said, the Fractenna is not going to give you ANY more gain than a Yagi antenna of comparable wavelength. What it does do is allow one to install a rather large (in wavelength and in wire length) antenna in a much smaller space than one would normally do so.
(end technical discussion)
Now, as for other interesting uses of fractals...I have heard of a number of kite enthusiasts who have built working kites based off of Sierpinski sponges. (Sierpinski sponges are just like Sierpinski gaskets or triangles, but in three dimensions. ;) Apparently the things get amazing lift--one has to be careful not to let the kite drag you because you're dealing really with upwards of four or more box kites! :)
A quickie search of Alta Vista for "fractal kite" or +kite +Sierpinski should lead you to some articles on how to make them and fly them. ;)
Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:
The thing that I liked best was the way Jobs was portrayed. They showed Steve Jobs to be the asshole that he really is.
I'm extremely happy that someone decided to stop sucking Steve Jobs' ass for just long enough to show him to be the person that he really is.
I also liked the way Bill Gates was not portrayed as just plain evil, but simply greedy which is a much more plausable explaination for why he acts the way he does.
LK
Posted by Australian Convict Scum:
.MP3 is fantastic (and should be encouraged) for those rarities, bootlegs, demos, b-sides etc. I was once (partially) involved in the "Lost Wisdom" project (formerly www.lostwisdom.net, alas, no longer), which warehoused all the rare death/black/heavy metal material we could muster. Even albums which have long been out of print.
.mp3 is for promotion of unsigned/demo bands.
The guy who posted the original "essay" was right.
No copyrights were being infringed, bands were getting that rare material circulated for free (they wouldn't make money from that material anyway, unless it was re-released, in which case, it wouldn't be considered "rare" anyway.) and it circumvented nasty bootleggers who would charge us$30.00 for something we were offering for free.
...and don't get me started on how cool
Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:
As I understand it hardware DVD players have imbedded macrovision copy protection. If this is the case those $19.95 copy-protection removers that people sell in popular science should be enough to circumvent it.
LK
Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:
It was because of the instructions of the Army that the BATF and FBI poked several holes in the branch davidian home. These holes allowed to fire to burn hotter and spread faster. They alsy know that the branch davdians didn't have child sized gas masks.
Torture and barbecue no doubt. The only doubt is as to who started the fire.
LK
Posted by d106ene5:
What I'm looking for here is any clue that you actually have any idea what you are talking about or of you are simply picking up on the "x is crap" meme that is pervasive in slashdot.
Posted by stodge:
15 years, and surely past its sell by date. Must be time for a replacement?