If you're burning a pile of binary data, the ondrive compression won't be of much use. But still, 500GB is quite the improvement over 200GB. News to me. Guess I'm not spending enough time reading up on new hardware, thanks for the tip! --M
Yeah. SDLT would help, but it's still only 50% greater capacity over current LTO drives. Considering a current hardware investment in LTO, switching to a new tape format would have to offer considerably more than that to warrant the transition. And yeah, you are so right about the sensitivity of these tape cartridges to shaking and drops. Which in a tape safe isn't much an issue, but during a FedEX shipment definitely is cause for concern! --M
Personally, I just want to know when I can buy a burner.
200GB LTO tapes just don't cut it any more. Seriously. Trying to move terabytes at a time with ten or twenty tapes is a real bitch. Never mind relying on I2 to transfer that amount of data in a short time span. A 1GB disc would be a Godsend for those of us doing data intensive applications. --M
This Eurekalert article discusses a new technique using chemical messengers to lead nerve growth toward a specific site. While originally intended for spinal regrowth after severe trauma, it (and the many other research projects online the same line) would appear relevant to this artificial vision project. They're trying to save the optical nerve so they can stimulate from the eye to the brain. If they could regrow nerve tissue care in surgical placement of the implant during eye surgery might be of less concern.
Also, PBS has a series Innovation - Life, inspired where one of the episodes discusses another artificial vision procedure consisting of a direct ocular brain implant currently in human trials. The program follows a patient who has the surgical procedure done and then her recuperation and initial testing of the implant. Most interesting. They also show another group who is trying a different kind of brain implant, but who haven't yet made it to human trials.
Between nerve / brain cell regrowth and implant research ongoing we will likely see amazing cures for formerly untreatable injuries and illnesses within our lifetimes. It's pretty amazing to see the beginnings of Bionic Man type stuff actually happen in my lifetime. --M
Have you tried other poultry (e.g. turkey) or hormone/antibiotic-free chicken?
Haven't tried turkey yet. I s'pose I could buy some turkey cold cuts to test that out. I was cooking organic whole chickens from Whole Foods Markets, which I would then eat for both dinner and lunch. All of the ingredients I used to bake the chickens I have tried separately (mostly spices and such), so I don't think they're the cause. I should try turkey before Thanksgiving though. Man, turkey causing the problem too to would really suck! --M
Congrats with the chicken thing. Reminds me of the old joke:
"Hey, doc... I get palpations everytime I eat chicken." "Great, don't eat chicken. Next!"
Hey thanks. Good luck with that patient too. Removing the chicken really did do the trick, for whatever reason. And eating chicken to test really did cause the problem again within fifteen to twenty minutes. I think I've got it nailed. Beats me why... --M
Cheers to you in finding that out. You sure it's not coincidental to something else having changed in your life?
Yeah. Chicken has been my preferred meat for nearly fifteen years. So, Something changed, because I certainly didn't have this problem before. But I'd been complaining to my doc of increasing episodes of heart palpitations over the years and it was only recently by removing individual foods over several months that I figured out chicken was a primary cause. It's not an "allergy" per se, since I don't have a histamine or anaphylactic reaction to the substance. But it's definitely some kind of intolerance. Since I stopped eating chicken the palpitations are basically gone. And if I eat chicken again, within fifteen or twenty minutes they come back with a vengeance. Like every five or ten seconds for a couple of hours.
I'm sure there may be other reasons for my experiencing palpitations: work or house related stress, excessive exercise, GF trouble... but the difference after removing chicken is amazing. Guess I can't eat the stuff anymore - which is too bad since I really like chicken! --M
Of course, she slept with her cat... but her cat couldn't be causing her allergies. Of course not.
Now, not speaking as a physician, so I'll defer to your expertise, but isn't it possible the patient knows her cat isn't the cause because she's properly ruled the animal out as the cause of her symptoms? As someone who has gone through the trial and error of trying to discern that specific cause of a food intolerance, with a doctor who was too busy to be concerned, I have some sympathy. For me it turned out that eating chicken caused heart palpitations. My PCP didn't consider the palpitations serious after a holter monitor test, but I was certain diet was the cause and went through a long series of removing various foods until I figured out the specific cause. Removing chicken from my diet has dramatically reduced (really - removed) the palpitations.
IOW: maybe your patient knows something you don't, and she honestly tried to convey it to you during her consultation. In which case you would be yet another example of the doctor too busy to listen to his patient. Which does happen all too frequently.
Scanning through the avsforum thread, FusionHDTV III Gold QAM Impressions seems to indicate success with the product. The AC links to a bogus site which only appears legitimate, doesn't offer up his name on avsforum to verify his claim of unspecified "threats", and blasts the product with further unverified claims of nonfunctionality. The parent post looks either trollish or astroturfish more than offering helpful advice. JMO though. --M
The site we all care about is avsforum, not avsforum(s).com. As for the claims of "threats" and such made by the AC, well it doesn't pass my BS meter. Good call. --M
They haven't upgraded a critical piece of equipment in 30 years? No wonder US manufacters are losing out in the global marketplace.
It's not like the guy's exporting to the international market. The guy makes custom sheet metal ducts for heating and A/C systems and services a local market. It's only one part of his business, but that one purchase (originally bought by his father) has earned its original investment many times over. If his market position was declining due to lack of modern tooling I'm sure he'd re-invest. I guess. Not that he clues me in on the particulars of his finances and business. Would you buy something you didn't need on credit just to "win in the global marketplace"? --M
I seem to remember they said they originally started out with an 11/44 in the early to mid seventies, and then upgraded along the way. That would mean a fairly large transition from a hex to quad backplane system (I think sometime in the late '80s), but the software should have continued running just fine. The system boots RT-11, and which then starts their control application. It was originally purchased as part of a package from a tools manufacturing company, which is either long out of business or at least not supporting that old stuff any longer. The owner is a friend and I occassionally go in to take a look at the box, then we toss some beers. There's rarely anything to do, the damn thing is a tank. It wouldn't surprise me one bit to see the government still relying on old PDP-11s and VAX-11s for critical real-time applications. These systems just don't die. Why risk change when something important still works? --M
Yeah, but if you're going to build an I/O board and write custom emulation drivers, what's the cost compared to buying a new off-the-shelf system and tooling for the shop? Imagine the cost to hire contractors to tease apart the I/O specs on that old stuff just so they could then build a custom board and drivers to emulate the old software on a P4 or something. Compare that to reinvesting in a new system with tools. It's the new tooling which really costs. They've got an old system which works right now and they don't see the point in dumping a couple hundred grand or more to buy new stuff which does exactly what their old stuff still does perfectly well. Can't blame 'em. --M
I know of a PDP-11/73 which to this day is still cutting sheet metal for a duct factory. The damn thing just won't die. And they're not likely to emulate since the I/O board interface between the computer and their machine tools would be more expensive to implement on a custom PCI card, along with emulation drivers, than simply buying excess used PDP-11 parts. Someday they'll have to face the music and actually buy a commercial solution, but for the moment they continue maximizing their return on investment for a computer system originally purchased well over thirty years ago. And why the hell not? --M
Note that most all industrial plasma monitors don't include DVI with HDCP input, and usually only support VGA or component inputs. As a result they will quickly be obsolete once HDCP support becomes mandatory. While industrial plasma units are often $1K or more less than plasma HDTVs for the same display technology, there is a real added value, and thus additional cost, to the consumer branded technology. --M
but as the author says, he's never actually told anybody at google about it. It just doesn't strike me as particularly constructive...
He did say he would contact a friend at google to find out if his theory on how google compresses, stores, decompresses and presents gmail to users is in any way correct and relates to why he was unable to login. He states "[...]Gmail was able to sort things out [END THEORY]. At some point I will talk to my buddy over at Google and have him find out how they really do it." I don't watch the show and don't know who this guy is, but if he's telling the truth he would appear to have a contact at google and would seem to have the means to offer google informal feedback.
Wow, that's a really interesting comment. Thanks for a good counter-example to the arguments against Lucas retroactively changing his work. However, Stravinsky wasn't in a position to alter prior copies of his original work like Lucas can do by letting deteriorating 35mm prints and videocassette fade to oblivion and expressly forbidding new copies of the old work. Stravinsky would have to have changed his prior work and then actively removed access to the originals to better compare - and in such a scenerio future filmmakers would be unable to learn from Lucas's changes as composers currently learn by analysing Stravinsky's updates.
I don't remember that change. But it wouldn't surprise me. Lucas has been retroactively changing SW since at least 1980, when he changed the title for the SW re-release right before ESB. I, like all my friends, saw SW in '80 again several times before ESB was released and while I don't think I noticed the title change I definitely remember people talking about it. And the whole thing about Lucas making three trilogies total, and how he had the whole thing planned and already written (obviously not). Whatever, that was almost twenty five years ago.
I saw TPM when it came out and was so dissapointed that I didn't bother going to see AOTC, and didn't even see that until it hit HBO. Even then I was dissapointed, yet again. Unless Lucas turns about face and releases a spectacular finale tying up all those loose plot points in a coherent whole (instead of just another effects spectacle) I won't bother seeing SW III. Give me another City of Lost Children, or Brazil. Bah. Double Bah. ROTJ really sucked, we all knew it, and Lucas hasn't even one-upped that POS these last two films. Bah again! --M
But then I came to my senses. Lucas knows full well how many people want to own the original films on DVD. I predict that after the altered original trilogy goes on sale, the REAL originals will too, after a few years, and probably in 2007, just in time for the first movie's 30th anniversary.
Could be. Lord knows he's released enough versions and variations of versions on tape and LD. One more time with the unaltered copy for a special price might suck a bit more out of a gullible public. But it's still a shame he didn't do the right thing with this release though. He could have just made a DVD with both sets of scenes and let the viewers decide. Most annoying.
Can't say I'm much of a Star Wars fan these days. Loved it as a kid, and a recent viewing of SW and ESB was fun. Couldn't make it all the way through ROJ though. It just got too boring. Still glad I bought the LDs though, 'cause I know some of my friends will want to watch the unaltered originals again. It's good rainy day party fodder. --M
Slashdot Mirror
Sure, the flying car is a long way off. But chances are, cars will eventually fly. Pigs won't.
But maybe pig neurons might. If they're already using live neurons to control a "toy plane", then why not flying pig brains? --M
If you're burning a pile of binary data, the ondrive compression won't be of much use. But still, 500GB is quite the improvement over 200GB. News to me. Guess I'm not spending enough time reading up on new hardware, thanks for the tip! --M
Yeah. SDLT would help, but it's still only 50% greater capacity over current LTO drives. Considering a current hardware investment in LTO, switching to a new tape format would have to offer considerably more than that to warrant the transition. And yeah, you are so right about the sensitivity of these tape cartridges to shaking and drops. Which in a tape safe isn't much an issue, but during a FedEX shipment definitely is cause for concern! --M
Heh. :) Yeah, I meant a 1TB disc. Whoops. Still, it's pretty obvious from the context. --M
Personally, I just want to know when I can buy a burner.
200GB LTO tapes just don't cut it any more. Seriously. Trying to move terabytes at a time with ten or twenty tapes is a real bitch. Never mind relying on I2 to transfer that amount of data in a short time span. A 1GB disc would be a Godsend for those of us doing data intensive applications. --M
This Eurekalert article discusses a new technique using chemical messengers to lead nerve growth toward a specific site. While originally intended for spinal regrowth after severe trauma, it (and the many other research projects online the same line) would appear relevant to this artificial vision project. They're trying to save the optical nerve so they can stimulate from the eye to the brain. If they could regrow nerve tissue care in surgical placement of the implant during eye surgery might be of less concern.
Also, PBS has a series Innovation - Life, inspired where one of the episodes discusses another artificial vision procedure consisting of a direct ocular brain implant currently in human trials. The program follows a patient who has the surgical procedure done and then her recuperation and initial testing of the implant. Most interesting. They also show another group who is trying a different kind of brain implant, but who haven't yet made it to human trials.
Between nerve / brain cell regrowth and implant research ongoing we will likely see amazing cures for formerly untreatable injuries and illnesses within our lifetimes. It's pretty amazing to see the beginnings of Bionic Man type stuff actually happen in my lifetime. --M
...thanks! --M
if you go from normal sinus to having a ton of PVCs while eating chicken, your doctor would have a very interesting case to publish!
I'm willing to try it. I'll ask doc the next time I see him... --M
Have you tried other poultry (e.g. turkey) or hormone/antibiotic-free chicken?
Haven't tried turkey yet. I s'pose I could buy some turkey cold cuts to test that out. I was cooking organic whole chickens from Whole Foods Markets, which I would then eat for both dinner and lunch. All of the ingredients I used to bake the chickens I have tried separately (mostly spices and such), so I don't think they're the cause. I should try turkey before Thanksgiving though. Man, turkey causing the problem too to would really suck! --M
Congrats with the chicken thing. Reminds me of the old joke:
"Hey, doc... I get palpations everytime I eat chicken."
"Great, don't eat chicken. Next!"
Hey thanks. Good luck with that patient too. Removing the chicken really did do the trick, for whatever reason. And eating chicken to test really did cause the problem again within fifteen to twenty minutes. I think I've got it nailed. Beats me why... --M
Cheers to you in finding that out. You sure it's not coincidental to something else having changed in your life?
Yeah. Chicken has been my preferred meat for nearly fifteen years. So, Something changed, because I certainly didn't have this problem before. But I'd been complaining to my doc of increasing episodes of heart palpitations over the years and it was only recently by removing individual foods over several months that I figured out chicken was a primary cause. It's not an "allergy" per se, since I don't have a histamine or anaphylactic reaction to the substance. But it's definitely some kind of intolerance. Since I stopped eating chicken the palpitations are basically gone. And if I eat chicken again, within fifteen or twenty minutes they come back with a vengeance. Like every five or ten seconds for a couple of hours.
I'm sure there may be other reasons for my experiencing palpitations: work or house related stress, excessive exercise, GF trouble... but the difference after removing chicken is amazing. Guess I can't eat the stuff anymore - which is too bad since I really like chicken! --M
...we're seeing this only from the viewpoint of the OP. We don't have his patient's counterpoint to form an honest judgment. --M
Of course, she slept with her cat... but her cat couldn't be causing her allergies. Of course not.
Now, not speaking as a physician, so I'll defer to your expertise, but isn't it possible the patient knows her cat isn't the cause because she's properly ruled the animal out as the cause of her symptoms? As someone who has gone through the trial and error of trying to discern that specific cause of a food intolerance, with a doctor who was too busy to be concerned, I have some sympathy. For me it turned out that eating chicken caused heart palpitations. My PCP didn't consider the palpitations serious after a holter monitor test, but I was certain diet was the cause and went through a long series of removing various foods until I figured out the specific cause. Removing chicken from my diet has dramatically reduced (really - removed) the palpitations.
IOW: maybe your patient knows something you don't, and she honestly tried to convey it to you during her consultation. In which case you would be yet another example of the doctor too busy to listen to his patient. Which does happen all too frequently.
Cheers,
--Maynard
Scanning through the avsforum thread, FusionHDTV III Gold QAM Impressions seems to indicate success with the product. The AC links to a bogus site which only appears legitimate, doesn't offer up his name on avsforum to verify his claim of unspecified "threats", and blasts the product with further unverified claims of nonfunctionality. The parent post looks either trollish or astroturfish more than offering helpful advice. JMO though. --M
The site we all care about is avsforum, not avsforum(s).com. As for the claims of "threats" and such made by the AC, well it doesn't pass my BS meter. Good call. --M
... $350.00 for a set of 8 4116 300ns (16K) RAM chips. And it was a fair price! --M
They haven't upgraded a critical piece of equipment in 30 years? No wonder US manufacters are losing out in the global marketplace.
It's not like the guy's exporting to the international market. The guy makes custom sheet metal ducts for heating and A/C systems and services a local market. It's only one part of his business, but that one purchase (originally bought by his father) has earned its original investment many times over. If his market position was declining due to lack of modern tooling I'm sure he'd re-invest. I guess. Not that he clues me in on the particulars of his finances and business. Would you buy something you didn't need on credit just to "win in the global marketplace"? --M
I seem to remember they said they originally started out with an 11/44 in the early to mid seventies, and then upgraded along the way. That would mean a fairly large transition from a hex to quad backplane system (I think sometime in the late '80s), but the software should have continued running just fine. The system boots RT-11, and which then starts their control application. It was originally purchased as part of a package from a tools manufacturing company, which is either long out of business or at least not supporting that old stuff any longer. The owner is a friend and I occassionally go in to take a look at the box, then we toss some beers. There's rarely anything to do, the damn thing is a tank. It wouldn't surprise me one bit to see the government still relying on old PDP-11s and VAX-11s for critical real-time applications. These systems just don't die. Why risk change when something important still works? --M
Yeah, but if you're going to build an I/O board and write custom emulation drivers, what's the cost compared to buying a new off-the-shelf system and tooling for the shop? Imagine the cost to hire contractors to tease apart the I/O specs on that old stuff just so they could then build a custom board and drivers to emulate the old software on a P4 or something. Compare that to reinvesting in a new system with tools. It's the new tooling which really costs. They've got an old system which works right now and they don't see the point in dumping a couple hundred grand or more to buy new stuff which does exactly what their old stuff still does perfectly well. Can't blame 'em. --M
I know of a PDP-11/73 which to this day is still cutting sheet metal for a duct factory. The damn thing just won't die. And they're not likely to emulate since the I/O board interface between the computer and their machine tools would be more expensive to implement on a custom PCI card, along with emulation drivers, than simply buying excess used PDP-11 parts. Someday they'll have to face the music and actually buy a commercial solution, but for the moment they continue maximizing their return on investment for a computer system originally purchased well over thirty years ago. And why the hell not? --M
Note that most all industrial plasma monitors don't include DVI with HDCP input, and usually only support VGA or component inputs. As a result they will quickly be obsolete once HDCP support becomes mandatory. While industrial plasma units are often $1K or more less than plasma HDTVs for the same display technology, there is a real added value, and thus additional cost, to the consumer branded technology. --M
but as the author says, he's never actually told anybody at google about it. It just doesn't strike me as particularly constructive...
He did say he would contact a friend at google to find out if his theory on how google compresses, stores, decompresses and presents gmail to users is in any way correct and relates to why he was unable to login. He states "[...]Gmail was able to sort things out [END THEORY]. At some point I will talk to my buddy over at Google and have him find out how they really do it." I don't watch the show and don't know who this guy is, but if he's telling the truth he would appear to have a contact at google and would seem to have the means to offer google informal feedback.
Cheers,
--Maynard
Wow, that's a really interesting comment. Thanks for a good counter-example to the arguments against Lucas retroactively changing his work. However, Stravinsky wasn't in a position to alter prior copies of his original work like Lucas can do by letting deteriorating 35mm prints and videocassette fade to oblivion and expressly forbidding new copies of the old work. Stravinsky would have to have changed his prior work and then actively removed access to the originals to better compare - and in such a scenerio future filmmakers would be unable to learn from Lucas's changes as composers currently learn by analysing Stravinsky's updates.
Thanks again,
--Maynard
I don't remember that change. But it wouldn't surprise me. Lucas has been retroactively changing SW since at least 1980, when he changed the title for the SW re-release right before ESB. I, like all my friends, saw SW in '80 again several times before ESB was released and while I don't think I noticed the title change I definitely remember people talking about it. And the whole thing about Lucas making three trilogies total, and how he had the whole thing planned and already written (obviously not). Whatever, that was almost twenty five years ago.
I saw TPM when it came out and was so dissapointed that I didn't bother going to see AOTC, and didn't even see that until it hit HBO. Even then I was dissapointed, yet again. Unless Lucas turns about face and releases a spectacular finale tying up all those loose plot points in a coherent whole (instead of just another effects spectacle) I won't bother seeing SW III. Give me another City of Lost Children, or Brazil. Bah. Double Bah. ROTJ really sucked, we all knew it, and Lucas hasn't even one-upped that POS these last two films. Bah again! --M
But then I came to my senses. Lucas knows full well how many people want to own the original films on DVD. I predict that after the altered original trilogy goes on sale, the REAL originals will too, after a few years, and probably in 2007, just in time for the first movie's 30th anniversary.
Could be. Lord knows he's released enough versions and variations of versions on tape and LD. One more time with the unaltered copy for a special price might suck a bit more out of a gullible public. But it's still a shame he didn't do the right thing with this release though. He could have just made a DVD with both sets of scenes and let the viewers decide. Most annoying.
Can't say I'm much of a Star Wars fan these days. Loved it as a kid, and a recent viewing of SW and ESB was fun. Couldn't make it all the way through ROJ though. It just got too boring. Still glad I bought the LDs though, 'cause I know some of my friends will want to watch the unaltered originals again. It's good rainy day party fodder. --M