who's going to do better - a kid using a calculator to give him the answer, or the kid doing sums with a pencil and paper? the point being, you don't need a computer to invent a computer. the more you do things manually, the more you are forced to develop your thinking. once you've learned it the hard way, then the benefits of automation become all the more apparent than the person that has never had to do the work under the hood. the same thing applies to programming - someone who knows how to compile their own kernal will have better insight into knowing things are behaving the way they are.
there are many skills in the world, one of them is computer fluency, and because of the saturation in our environment of them, you can almost pick them up along the way for many things without ever having to explicitly take a 'computer' course in school, just like you can become taxi driver without ever having to become a mechinic.
you want to live in the world before modelling it. before i see formal database entries for different kinds of fish and plants, i would think its better to experience these things first hand (if possible - are there frogs and milkweeds out in the creek beside the school - why should i use a CD-ROM about them first? --first i see the frogs, then i become curious, and i may even later do a web search about these things to find out their history and what other people have said. but simulation never replaces first-hand real-world experience. it amazes me last time i went to the museum that they had an actual dinosaur skeleton RIGHT THERE -- first hand data from which everything is derived. and there was nobody actually LOOKING at it - they were all too busy watching a screen with a computer model of the artifact in question --i.e. information ABOUT the artifact, instead of studiously contemplating the actual thing itself. this seems very typical of learning these days.
kids should run around, climb trees and play in the mud. its all very good for them. then later on when they're tired in the evening, settle donw and play a videogame, and when they're curious enough, then maybe they'll decide to go further, and try and learn how to programme one themselves. but running and playing is more important for kids then pointing and clicking. they're already going to have loads of computers in their life, but they're never going to have time to play and run and climb trees again like they do when they're young - let them.:D
the secret to staying young in to never stop climbing trees.
wanting to improve my german, i found some old used berltiz tapes from 1958 containing six hours of graduated conversational german - digitized these into mp3 files, and i just play them on endless repeat on my ipod.
over the course of three months, for each itteration, i find i keep filling in more and more of the words as i keep coming back to the same parts on the tape. i keep repeating until i catch every single word without missing any - the more effort you put into trying to say the words you hear also helps.
for reading - the best thing was peter hagboldt's graduated german reader - they have stories with a several hundred word vocabulary, and each chapter adds in a dozen new key words, with definitions in the footnotes for each new instance. the graduated nature of these readers helps a lot, because it uses a core grammar, and then introduces the new words gradually as you're getting used to using the words you already know. --if you can OCR, or find digitized versions of one of his texts, you can download it into a palm pilot, and practice reading with a text editor.
there are no shortcuts to learning a language. there is no technological solution. but using an ipod with endless repeat on some good audio language content, or using a palm pilot to read practice texts can help facilitate the process.:D
the next step is to set my google news page to german...:-P
i think the biggest thing about this is that it legitimizes the mac hardware for linux advocates - which have been traditionally x86 biased. it legitimizes linux as multi-platform more than anything else could have done.
What's the biggest surprise this technology will deliver?
The problem is I'm older now, I'm 40 years old, and this stuff doesn't change the world. It really doesn't.
That's going to break people's hearts.
I'm sorry, it's true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We're born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It's been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much - if at all.
These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I'm not downplaying that. But it's a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light - that it's going to change everything. Things don't have to change the world to be important.
The Web is going to be very important. Is it going to be a life-changing event for millions of people? No. I mean, maybe. But it's not an assured Yes at this point. And it'll probably creep up on people.
It's certainly not going to be like the first time somebody saw a television. It's certainly not going to be as profound as when someone in Nebraska first heard a radio broadcast. It's not going to be that profound.
Then how will the Web impact our society?
We live in an information economy, but I don't believe we live in an information society. People are thinking less than they used to. It's primarily because of television. People are reading less and they're certainly thinking less. So, I don't see most people using the Web to get more information. We're already in information overload. No matter how much information the Web can dish out, most people get far more information than they can assimilate anyway.
The problem is television?
When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It's the truth.
So Steve Jobs is telling us things are going to continue to get worse.
They are getting worse! Everybody knows that they're getting worse! Don't you think they're getting worse?
I do, but I was hoping I could come here and find out how they were going to get better. Do you really believe that the world is getting worse? Or do you have a feeling that the things you're involved with are making the world better?
No. The world's getting worse. It has gotten worse for the last 15 years or so. Definitely. For two reasons. On a global scale, the population is increasing dramatically and all our structures, from ecological to economic to political, just cannot deal with it. And in this country, we seem to have fewer smart people in government, and people don't seem to be paying as much attention to the important decisions we have to make.
But you seem very optimistic about the potential for change.
I'm an optimist in the sense that I believe humans are noble and honourable, and some of them are really smart. I have a very optimistic view of individuals. As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what's happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don't seem to be excited about making our country a better
the palm m500 works great as a plain text device as long as you use QED -- i use it all the time to read online ascii books. so far, i've read about seven books this way, and it works great.
it provides what i really want in a palm-sized device: a file browser and a decent text editor. i never use the built-in appointment or calendar apps. i actually find the black & white screen better than the colour screens, because it doesn't burn your eyes out in low light conditions (it uses reverse backlight).
> copy the whole dir structure to a hard drive, then tell iTunes > to add them to your library and "keep your iTunes folder organized" > it re-sorts everything automagically for you.
mark the parent poster up -- i've used this handy trick before, and it works great - saved me hours and hours having to manually reorg all that music.
as far as i'm aware, these 'power relay stations' (which provide step-down transformer voltages) weren't necassary in tesla's system.
anyone anywhere, using a device the size of a tesla coil could use the power right out of the air (or ground, as tesla believed the power also went thorugh the earth), without an intermediary 'power relay station', just like television.
the power meters are currently necessary, because of the social and regulatory systems we have deemed necessary to pay those who built the systems to harness the power from various sources. yet the infrastructure of metering is itself a large cost that is considered necessary due to current social arrangements within our society.
you are right - remote transmission of power would enable much cleaner power distribution. according to tesla, wireless power did not have the same diminuation with distance as radio waves -- power generated in niagara falls would not be diminished by distance, you could use it to power a flashlight in kenya as easily as in wyoming.
Tesla did Wireless Power, 'with no diminuation with distance'.
Tesla's wireless power was technically demonstrated to be feasable. But socially unfeasable. Because our Social Structures do not yet permit a system where you can afford to give away your power for free.
The reason nobody wants to use it, is because with Tesla's system, you can't METER it - you have to give it away. If you have a Hydro station, and use Tesla's 'Magnifying Transmitter' (as he called it), then you would be simply GIVING your power away, because you couldn't control who uses it. Therefore, all the electric companies used a more limited version of his AC system, using wires so that you could put a Power-Meter Barnacle on every site that was using the AC power you supplied.
my wrists started hurting after years of using the computer. the solutions that helped most were:
1) using a 'spring' keyboard instead of rubber membrane.
2) switch to dvorak (seven years now, and no regrets), and repogram mouse to avoid double-clicks.
3) practice HANDWRITING, or take up a MUSICAL INSTRUMENT like piano -- this is the single most important thing that helped alleviate my wrist pains -- i started playing bass guitar, and by repetitively and rhythmically using those same muscles in a definite OTHER way --it helped to strengthen them for when i went back to using them with a mouse. if you're not into practicing a musical instrument (which i guarantee will be a useful skill longer than any programming language you may happen to learn) -- then try handwriting -- it forces the muscles involved into definite contortions which counter the repetitive stress of clicking.
to my superficial observation, the nebulae look remarkably similair to giant CELLs. has anyone ever tried comparing Nebulae to EMBRYO development?
embryonic cosmology -- just like you don't explain the movement of a compass needle out of the surrounding totality, can we find any connections between Nebulae and the processes of embryology?
best regards, j.
ah, go ahead, mod me down... i know i'm wasting karma with such a ridiculous idea. nobody wants to hear anything really new.:-P
don't mean to be a troll, but although they're relatively small (yet innovative and profitable) marketshare in the PC space,
it now appears that like their early years in the PC space, they've finally made it to again number one in the consumer space. so congratulations and mery christmas apple -- you have proved that if you just focus on making a great product, they will come.:)
| Popular Consumer Electronics - 2004 | 1. ipod | 2. digital camera | 3. mp3 | 4. xbox | 5. playstation 2 | 6. portable dvd player | 7. plasma tv | 8. digital camcorder | 9. pda | 10. electric scooter
regards, j.
don't mod me down, i'm just an occasional troll. and this has got to be more interesting than all the jabber about some ditzy chick called 'spears' (or something like that).
migration since 1988
on
Digital Packrats
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
digital media is ephemeral, it is only the fact that i have consistently done the work of migrating data from medium to medium for more than two decades (since 1981) that has made the data accesible.
the biggest change is that before, you could not keep all your data in one place on a hard drive, which meant you're always managing data in discrete physical 'chunks' -- as they happen to be distributed across multiple removable media.
but now, we can now consoldate all that stuff into one place with the use of massive hard drive space, and this makes managing that data an order of magnitude easier.
migration has been: - 1981: trs80, 70k 5.25" floppies - 1986: rs232 serial port to macintosh plus 800k 3.5" floppies - 1998: ethernet cable from ZIP disks to imac, and burnt to CD. - 2004: it FINALLY all fits in one place -- from 1981 to 2004 fits
into about 20gig. - the rest, from about 1998 - 2004 -- takes about about another 20gig,
because instead of data, it has become audio, photographs, and these
data formats consume considerably more space for what you get.
> so: twenty-three years of DATA (applications, downloads, database,
fonts, documnents, etc) fits into 20gig -- but of the newer media
types (photo, mp3, and video) has taken 20gigs in four years.
> its not a matter of trying to get as much data as possible,
but rather of having as little data as possible, but not leaving
any essential element out. thus, the data has been highly refined.
> i've found i've started organizing things by YEAR,
and by FREQUENCY of the rate at which the data-type may grow.
roddenberry wasn't the original either -- this fantasizing of procuring women from stone has persisted thousands of years in the greek legend of 'pygmalion galatea'
Pygmalion and Galatea in Greek Mythology - Pygmalion saw so much to blame in women that he came at last to abhor the sex, and resolved to live unmarried. He was a sculptor, and had made with wonderful skill a statue of ivory, so beautiful that no living woman came anywhere near it. It was indeed the perfect semblance of a maiden that seemed to be alive...
sometimes you don't get what you want, but you get what you need. go for the real thing, reciprocal exchange is so much better...:-D
> fantasized about a generator of matter, > one that was able to generate [image of beauty] > right in front of me complete with a handbag > full of a strange gritty substance...
this fantasizing of procuring women from stone has persisted thousands of years in the greek legend of 'pygmalion galatea'
Pygmalion saw so much to blame in women that he came at last to abhor the sex, and resolved to live unmarried. He was a sculptor, and had made with wonderful skill a statue of ivory, so beautiful that no living woman came anywhere near it. It was indeed the perfect semblance of a maiden that seemed to be alive, and only prevented from moving by modesty. His art was so perfect that it concealed itself and its product looked like the workmanship of nature. Pygmalion admired his own work, and at last fell in love with the counterfeit creation. Oftentimes he laid his hand upon it as if to assure himself whether it were living or not, and could not even then believe that it was only ivory. He caressed it, and gave it presents such as young girls love, - bright shells and polished stones, little birds and flowers of various hues, beads and amber. He put rainment on its limbs, and jewels on its fingers, and a necklace about its neck. To the ears he hung earrings and strings of pearls upon the breast. Her dress became her, and she looked not less charming than when unattired. He laid her on a couch spread with cloths of Tyrian dye, and called her his wife, and put her head upon a pillow of the softest feathers, as if she could enjoy their softness.
The festival of Aphrodite was at hand - a festival celebrated with great pomp at Cyprus. Victims were offered, the altars smoked, and the odor of incense filled the air. When Pygmalion had performed his part in the solemnities, he stood before the altar and timidly said, "Ye gods, who can do all things, give me, I pray you, for my wife" - he dared not say "my ivory virgin," but said instead - "one like my ivory virgin."... --
sometimes you don't get what you want, but you get what you need. go for the real thing, reciprocal exchange is so much better...:-D
> 'embezzling the nation's money with no supervision...'
it does seem like bush doesn't feel too accountable...
"I do not need to explain why I say things. -- That's the interesting
thing about being the President. -- Maybe somebody needs to explain
to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody
an explanation. (George W. Bush, to Bob Woodward, 60 Minutes, Nov. 17, 2002)
it does seem like bush doesn't feel too accountable...
"I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain --
I do not need to explain why I say things.
That's the interesting thing about being president."
(George W. Bush, to Bob Woodward, 60 Minutes, Nov. 17, 2002)
lol - that's funny -- from black products to white products; stever jobs from black turtleneck to white suit -- god help us. that would be scary indeed! methinks bill gates is the one in the white suit with the false eyelash.
1) unauthorized files from P2P like Kazaa, FTP, etc.?
2) from sources like iTunes Music Store, eMusic, etc?
3) from shareable sources like Creative Commons-licensed music?
4) Rips of Your Own CDs?
5) Rips of Friends' CDs?
6) Vinyl
7) Home Recordings
1) 2% - i've got about 190 songs downloaded over the span of four years. 2) 0% - itunes isn't available in canada (yet) -- but i would. 3) 0.5% - no creative commons music -- except for bootlegged grateful dead. 4) 92% - i've got about 700 CDs, with an average of 10 songs = 7000 songs 5) 2% - rips of friends CDs (this is like radio for me, i buy what i like) 6) 3% - i've got about 70 vinyl records, and i rip them to MP3. 7) 0.5% - odd assortment of home recordings from christmas, thanksgiving, etc.
for a look at the condensed and compiled PORTION of my MP3 collection, take a look at the starshine mixes -- this is not the whole thing, this is what i've compiled off of the 700 CDs that i bought.
i've rode a regular bicycle to and from work for four years now, and its incredibly reliable -- i live in toronto where there's snow and slush for three months of the year, and i just can't see how one of these eBikes would make it through similair conditions.
there's ice and snow and slush, and you just got to be able to go through it as a matter of course -- with the bicycle, its never been a problem. also, you don't have to go looking places to charge the thing. just put some oil on the chain to keep it from rusting through the winter, dress warm, and you're all set.
also when its cold -- if you're pedaling your own bike, you're making your own warmth, and you end up feeling warmer than on something that is providing the power for you.
the exercise of pedaling a bike keeps you warmer, more fit, and is an order of magnitude more reliable than a complicated electrical assembly.
for RELIABLE transport to work, an ebike makes a nice toy for the fair weather, but it just can't match the reliability and low cost of a real bike.
the aggregate array of sensor data can be thus analyzed, but as comander data asks in TNG 'first contact' -- how does one overcome the sensor-sensation gap?
i have records here that still play fine from the 1930's -- that's about 70 years, and the quality hasn't significantly changed for that amount of time -- i would like to see an ipod hard drive that is still spining in 70 years.
you will say that you should transfer your data from the one hard drive to another before that -- but then we were talking about the record lasting longer than your ipod...:-P
btw -- i did play some stereolab through the old Kuba Tube FM Stereo console using an iPod and a small FM transmitter -- works great!
it was a wonderful moment of nostalgia for me, since i remember listening to that radio when i was four years old (back in 1971), and it was already an antique then. this brought the old and the new together!:-D
there's a solution to the DLL and.so hell -- mac OSX uses frameworks to bundle and manage versions of shared libraries so that the particular shared library you use doesn't end up containing an incompatible version of the functions you need. We've all seen this happen, for example, when an impolite installer overwrites an existing shared library with an older (or newer!) version of that library that breaks applications that used the previously installed version.
Frameworks enjoy the same "single item" install/remove process as Application Packages. Contrast this with, say, the traditional Unix shared library installation which puts the library file(s) in one place (/lib,/usr/lib,/usr/local/lib, etc.), the header files in another (/include,/usr/include,/usr/local/include, etc.), and the documentation in yet another location (/usr/man/man3,/usr/man/man3c++, etc.)--hardly a system that facilitates ease of maintenance!
apple was the first manufacturer to include a 3.5" floppy drive on its machines -- in 1984. a 5.25" drive never existed as an option on the macintosh -- they started their 1.0 machine with 3.5" floppies (and was also y2k ready in 1984).
apple was also the first manufacturer to NOT include a 3.5 drive on their machine -- the iMac in 1998.
because they've included being able to boot off a CD* on all macs since the advent of the powerPC processor migration, one of the main uses of the floppy on the PC side of things (i.e. being able to boot a 3.5" floppy to restoring a PC system) -- on the mac, this use for the floppy was eliminated, and burning CDs has now become the norm.
* you can create a bootable backup system CD on the mac,
just by dragging a system folder onto it before you burn it.
Slashdot Mirror
who's going to do better - a kid using a calculator
to give him the answer, or the kid doing sums with
a pencil and paper? the point being, you don't need
a computer to invent a computer. the more you do things
manually, the more you are forced to develop your thinking.
once you've learned it the hard way, then the benefits
of automation become all the more apparent than the
person that has never had to do the work under the hood.
the same thing applies to programming - someone
who knows how to compile their own kernal
will have better insight into knowing things
are behaving the way they are.
there are many skills in the world,
one of them is computer fluency,
and because of the saturation in our environment
of them, you can almost pick them up along the way
for many things without ever having to explicitly
take a 'computer' course in school, just like you
can become taxi driver without ever having to
become a mechinic.
you want to live in the world before modelling it.
before i see formal database entries for different kinds
of fish and plants, i would think its better to experience
these things first hand (if possible - are there frogs
and milkweeds out in the creek beside the school -
why should i use a CD-ROM about them first? --first
i see the frogs, then i become curious, and i may even later
do a web search about these things to find out their history
and what other people have said. but simulation
never replaces first-hand real-world experience.
it amazes me last time i went to the museum
that they had an actual dinosaur skeleton RIGHT THERE --
first hand data from which everything is derived. and there
was nobody actually LOOKING at it - they were all too busy
watching a screen with a computer model of the artifact
in question --i.e. information ABOUT the artifact,
instead of studiously contemplating the actual thing itself.
this seems very typical of learning these days.
kids should run around, climb trees and play in the mud.
its all very good for them. then later on when they're
tired in the evening, settle donw and play a videogame,
and when they're curious enough, then maybe they'll
decide to go further, and try and learn how to programme
one themselves. but running and playing is more
important for kids then pointing and clicking.
they're already going to have loads of computers
in their life, but they're never going to have
time to play and run and climb trees again
like they do when they're young - let them.
the secret to staying young
in to never stop climbing trees.
regards,
j.
wanting to improve my german, i found some old used berltiz
:D
:-P
tapes from 1958 containing six hours of graduated conversational
german - digitized these into mp3 files, and i just play them
on endless repeat on my ipod.
over the course of three months, for each itteration,
i find i keep filling in more and more of the words
as i keep coming back to the same parts on the tape.
i keep repeating until i catch every single word
without missing any - the more effort you put into
trying to say the words you hear also helps.
for reading - the best thing was peter hagboldt's
graduated german reader - they have stories with a
several hundred word vocabulary, and each chapter
adds in a dozen new key words, with definitions in
the footnotes for each new instance. the graduated
nature of these readers helps a lot, because it uses
a core grammar, and then introduces the new words
gradually as you're getting used to using the words
you already know. --if you can OCR, or find digitized
versions of one of his texts, you can download it
into a palm pilot, and practice reading with a text
editor.
there are no shortcuts to learning a language.
there is no technological solution. but using an ipod
with endless repeat on some good audio language content,
or using a palm pilot to read practice texts
can help facilitate the process.
the next step is to set my google news page to german...
hab ein guten tag!
john.
i think the biggest thing about this is that it legitimizes
the mac hardware for linux advocates - which have been
traditionally x86 biased. it legitimizes linux as
multi-platform more than anything else could have done.
j.
first on technology, then on television, and then on education...
Steve Jobs: The Next Insanely Great Thing
Interview by Gary Wolf, Wired Magazine, February 1996.
Rethinking Revolution
What's the biggest surprise this technology will deliver?
The problem is I'm older now, I'm 40 years old, and this stuff doesn't change the world. It really doesn't.
That's going to break people's hearts.
I'm sorry, it's true. Having children really changes your view on these things. We're born, we live for a brief instant, and we die. It's been happening for a long time. Technology is not changing it much - if at all.
These technologies can make life easier, can let us touch people we might not otherwise. You may have a child with a birth defect and be able to get in touch with other parents and support groups, get medical information, the latest experimental drugs. These things can profoundly influence life. I'm not downplaying that. But it's a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light - that it's going to change everything. Things don't have to change the world to be important.
The Web is going to be very important. Is it going to be a life-changing event for millions of people? No. I mean, maybe. But it's not an assured Yes at this point. And it'll probably creep up on people.
It's certainly not going to be like the first time somebody saw a television. It's certainly not going to be as profound as when someone in Nebraska first heard a radio broadcast. It's not going to be that profound.
Then how will the Web impact our society?
We live in an information economy, but I don't believe we live in an information society. People are thinking less than they used to. It's primarily because of television. People are reading less and they're certainly thinking less. So, I don't see most people using the Web to get more information. We're already in information overload. No matter how much information the Web can dish out, most people get far more information than they can assimilate anyway.
The problem is television?
When you're young, you look at television and think, There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It's the truth.
So Steve Jobs is telling us things are going to continue to get worse.
They are getting worse! Everybody knows that they're getting worse! Don't you think they're getting worse?
I do, but I was hoping I could come here and find out how they were going to get better. Do you really believe that the world is getting worse? Or do you have a feeling that the things you're involved with are making the world better?
No. The world's getting worse. It has gotten worse for the last 15 years or so. Definitely. For two reasons. On a global scale, the population is increasing dramatically and all our structures, from ecological to economic to political, just cannot deal with it. And in this country, we seem to have fewer smart people in government, and people don't seem to be paying as much attention to the important decisions we have to make.
But you seem very optimistic about the potential for change.
I'm an optimist in the sense that I believe humans are noble and honourable, and some of them are really smart. I have a very optimistic view of individuals. As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what's happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don't seem to be excited about making our country a better
the palm m500 works great as a plain text device
as long as you use QED -- i use it all the time to
read online ascii books. so far, i've read about
seven books this way, and it works great.
it provides what i really want in a palm-sized device:
a file browser and a decent text editor. i never use
the built-in appointment or calendar apps. i actually
find the black & white screen better than the colour
screens, because it doesn't burn your eyes out in
low light conditions (it uses reverse backlight).
j.
> copy the whole dir structure to a hard drive, then tell iTunes
> to add them to your library and "keep your iTunes folder organized"
> it re-sorts everything automagically for you.
mark the parent poster up -- i've used this handy trick before,
and it works great - saved me hours and hours having to manually
reorg all that music.
as far as i'm aware, these 'power relay stations' (which provide
step-down transformer voltages) weren't necassary in tesla's system.
anyone anywhere, using a device the size of a tesla coil
could use the power right out of the air (or ground, as
tesla believed the power also went thorugh the earth),
without an intermediary 'power relay station', just like television.
the power meters are currently necessary, because of the social
and regulatory systems we have deemed necessary to pay
those who built the systems to harness the power from various sources.
yet the infrastructure of metering is itself a large cost that is considered
necessary due to current social arrangements within our society.
you are right - remote transmission of power would
enable much cleaner power distribution. according to
tesla, wireless power did not have the same diminuation
with distance as radio waves -- power generated in niagara falls
would not be diminished by distance, you could use it to power a
flashlight in kenya as easily as in wyoming.
regards,
j.
Tesla did Wireless Power, 'with no diminuation with distance'.
Tesla's wireless power was technically demonstrated to be feasable.
But socially unfeasable. Because our Social Structures do not yet permit
a system where you can afford to give away your power for free.
The reason nobody wants to use it, is because with Tesla's system,
you can't METER it - you have to give it away. If you have a Hydro station,
and use Tesla's 'Magnifying Transmitter' (as he called it), then you would be
simply GIVING your power away, because you couldn't control who uses it.
Therefore, all the electric companies used a more limited version of his AC system,
using wires so that you could put a Power-Meter Barnacle on every site that
was using the AC power you supplied.
best regards,
j
my wrists started hurting after years of using the computer.
the solutions that helped most were:
1) using a 'spring' keyboard instead of rubber membrane.
2) switch to dvorak (seven years now, and no regrets),
and repogram mouse to avoid double-clicks.
3) practice HANDWRITING, or take up a MUSICAL INSTRUMENT
like piano -- this is the single most important thing that
helped alleviate my wrist pains -- i started playing bass guitar,
and by repetitively and rhythmically using those same muscles
in a definite OTHER way --it helped to strengthen them for when
i went back to using them with a mouse. if you're not into
practicing a musical instrument (which i guarantee will be
a useful skill longer than any programming language you
may happen to learn) -- then try handwriting -- it forces
the muscles involved into definite contortions which counter
the repetitive stress of clicking.
best regards,
john.
Microsoft Word 1.0 was on a Mac,
because Windows didn't exist then yet.
regards,
j
to my superficial observation, the nebulae look remarkably similair to giant CELLs.
has anyone ever tried comparing Nebulae to EMBRYO development?
embryonic cosmology -- just like you don't explain the movement
of a compass needle out of the surrounding totality,
can we find any connections between Nebulae
and the processes of embryology?
best regards,
j.
ah, go ahead, mod me down...
i know i'm wasting karma with such a ridiculous idea.
nobody wants to hear anything really new.
don't mean to be a troll, but although they're relatively
small (yet innovative and profitable) marketshare in the PC space,
it now appears that like their early years in the PC space,
they've finally made it to again number one in the consumer space.
so congratulations and mery christmas apple -- you have proved that
if you just focus on making a great product, they will come.
| Popular Consumer Electronics - 2004
| 1. ipod
| 2. digital camera
| 3. mp3
| 4. xbox
| 5. playstation 2
| 6. portable dvd player
| 7. plasma tv
| 8. digital camcorder
| 9. pda
| 10. electric scooter
regards,
j.
don't mod me down, i'm just an occasional troll.
and this has got to be more interesting than all the jabber
about some ditzy chick called 'spears' (or something like that).
digital media is ephemeral, it is only the fact that i have consistently
done the work of migrating data from medium to medium for more
than two decades (since 1981) that has made the data accesible.
the biggest change is that before, you could not keep all your
data in one place on a hard drive, which meant you're always managing
data in discrete physical 'chunks' -- as they happen to be distributed
across multiple removable media.
but now, we can now consoldate all that stuff into one place
with the use of massive hard drive space, and this makes
managing that data an order of magnitude easier.
migration has been:
- 1981: trs80, 70k 5.25" floppies
- 1986: rs232 serial port to macintosh plus 800k 3.5" floppies
- 1998: ethernet cable from ZIP disks to imac, and burnt to CD.
- 2004: it FINALLY all fits in one place -- from 1981 to 2004 fits
into about 20gig.
- the rest, from about 1998 - 2004 -- takes about about another 20gig,
because instead of data, it has become audio, photographs, and these
data formats consume considerably more space for what you get.
> so: twenty-three years of DATA (applications, downloads, database,
fonts, documnents, etc) fits into 20gig -- but of the newer media
types (photo, mp3, and video) has taken 20gigs in four years.
> its not a matter of trying to get as much data as possible,
but rather of having as little data as possible, but not leaving
any essential element out. thus, the data has been highly refined.
> i've found i've started organizing things by YEAR,
and by FREQUENCY of the rate at which the data-type may grow.
regards from storm's nest.
roddenberry wasn't the original either -- this fantasizing
of procuring women from stone has persisted thousands of years
in the greek legend of 'pygmalion galatea'
Pygmalion and Galatea in Greek Mythology - Pygmalion saw so much to blame in women that he came at last to abhor the sex, and resolved to live unmarried. He was a sculptor, and had made with wonderful skill a statue of ivory, so beautiful that no living woman came anywhere near it. It was indeed the perfect semblance of a maiden that seemed to be alive...
sometimes you don't get what you want, but you get what you need.
go for the real thing, reciprocal exchange is so much better...
best regards from toronto island
j.
> fantasized about a generator of matter,
> one that was able to generate [image of beauty]
> right in front of me complete with a handbag
> full of a strange gritty substance...
this fantasizing of procuring women from stone has persisted
thousands of years in the greek legend of 'pygmalion galatea'
Pygmalion and Galatea in Greek Mythology
Pygmalion saw so much to blame in women that he came at last to abhor the sex, and resolved to live unmarried. He was a sculptor, and had made with wonderful skill a statue of ivory, so beautiful that no living woman came anywhere near it. It was indeed the perfect semblance of a maiden that seemed to be alive, and only prevented from moving by modesty. His art was so perfect that it concealed itself and its product looked like the workmanship of nature. Pygmalion admired his own work, and at last fell in love with the counterfeit creation. Oftentimes he laid his hand upon it as if to assure himself whether it were living or not, and could not even then believe that it was only ivory. He caressed it, and gave it presents such as young girls love, - bright shells and polished stones, little birds and flowers of various hues, beads and amber. He put rainment on its limbs, and jewels on its fingers, and a necklace about its neck. To the ears he hung earrings and strings of pearls upon the breast. Her dress became her, and she looked not less charming than when unattired. He laid her on a couch spread with cloths of Tyrian dye, and called her his wife, and put her head upon a pillow of the softest feathers, as if she could enjoy their softness.
The festival of Aphrodite was at hand - a festival celebrated with great pomp at Cyprus. Victims were offered, the altars smoked, and the odor of incense filled the air. When Pygmalion had performed his part in the solemnities, he stood before the altar and timidly said, "Ye gods, who can do all things, give me, I pray you, for my wife" - he dared not say "my ivory virgin," but said instead - "one like my ivory virgin."...
--
sometimes you don't get what you want, but you get what you need.
go for the real thing, reciprocal exchange is so much better...
best regards,
j
sorry, that should have been:
---
> 'embezzling the nation's money with no supervision...'
it does seem like bush doesn't feel too accountable...
"I do not need to explain why I say things. -- That's the interesting
thing about being the President. -- Maybe somebody needs to explain
to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody
an explanation. (George W. Bush, to Bob Woodward, 60 Minutes, Nov. 17, 2002)
it does seem like bush doesn't feel too accountable...
"I'm the commander -- see, I don't need to explain --
I do not need to explain why I say things.
That's the interesting thing about being president."
(George W. Bush, to Bob Woodward, 60 Minutes, Nov. 17, 2002)
lol - that's funny -- from black products to white products;
stever jobs from black turtleneck to white suit -- god help us.
that would be scary indeed! methinks bill gates is the one
in the white suit with the false eyelash.
Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add,
but rather when there is nothing more to take away.
(Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
with each revision, the ipod seems to be moving closer to perfection.
the new iriver seems to have taken a step away...
which do you choose?
j
Roughly what percent of your music collection is:
1) unauthorized files from P2P like Kazaa, FTP, etc.?
2) from sources like iTunes Music Store, eMusic, etc?
3) from shareable sources like Creative Commons-licensed music?
4) Rips of Your Own CDs?
5) Rips of Friends' CDs?
6) Vinyl
7) Home Recordings
1) 2% - i've got about 190 songs downloaded over the span of four years.
2) 0% - itunes isn't available in canada (yet) -- but i would.
3) 0.5% - no creative commons music -- except for bootlegged grateful dead.
4) 92% - i've got about 700 CDs, with an average of 10 songs = 7000 songs
5) 2% - rips of friends CDs (this is like radio for me, i buy what i like)
6) 3% - i've got about 70 vinyl records, and i rip them to MP3.
7) 0.5% - odd assortment of home recordings from christmas, thanksgiving, etc.
for a look at the condensed and compiled PORTION of my MP3 collection,
take a look at the starshine mixes -- this is not the whole thing, this is what i've compiled off of
the 700 CDs that i bought.
best regards,
j.
i've rode a regular bicycle to and from work for four years now,
and its incredibly reliable -- i live in toronto where there's snow and
slush for three months of the year, and i just can't see how one of
these eBikes would make it through similair conditions.
there's ice and snow and slush, and you just got to be able to go through it
as a matter of course -- with the bicycle, its never been a problem.
also, you don't have to go looking places to charge the thing. just put
some oil on the chain to keep it from rusting through the winter,
dress warm, and you're all set.
also when its cold -- if you're pedaling your own bike, you're making your
own warmth, and you end up feeling warmer than on something that is
providing the power for you.
the exercise of pedaling a bike keeps you warmer, more fit, and is
an order of magnitude more reliable than a complicated electrical assembly.
for RELIABLE transport to work, an ebike makes a nice toy for the fair weather,
but it just can't match the reliability and low cost of a real bike.
2cents
j
sensor data != Sensation
the aggregate array of sensor data can be thus analyzed,
but as comander data asks in TNG 'first contact' -- how does
one overcome the sensor-sensation gap?
regards,
j
i have records here that still play fine from the 1930's -- that's
about 70 years, and the quality hasn't significantly changed for
that amount of time -- i would like to see an ipod hard drive
that is still spining in 70 years.
you will say that you should transfer your data
from the one hard drive to another before that --
but then we were talking about the record lasting longer
than your ipod...
btw -- i did play some stereolab through the old
Kuba Tube FM Stereo console using an iPod and
a small FM transmitter -- works great!
it was a wonderful moment of nostalgia for me,
since i remember listening to that radio when i was
four years old (back in 1971), and it was already
an antique then. this brought the old and the new together!
best regards,
j
there's a solution to the DLL and .so hell -- mac OSX uses frameworks to bundle and manage versions of shared libraries so that the particular shared library you use doesn't end up containing an incompatible version of the functions you need. We've all seen this happen, for example, when an impolite installer overwrites an existing shared library with an older (or newer!) version of that library that breaks applications that used the previously installed version.
/usr/lib, /usr/local/lib, etc.), the header files in another (/include, /usr/include, /usr/local/include, etc.), and the documentation in yet another location (/usr/man/man3, /usr/man/man3c++, etc.)--hardly a system that facilitates ease of maintenance!
Frameworks enjoy the same "single item" install/remove process as Application Packages. Contrast this with, say, the traditional Unix shared library installation which puts the library file(s) in one place (/lib,
regards,
j.
apple was the first manufacturer to include a 3.5" floppy drive
on its machines -- in 1984. a 5.25" drive never existed as
an option on the macintosh -- they started their 1.0 machine
with 3.5" floppies (and was also y2k ready in 1984).
apple was also the first manufacturer to NOT include
a 3.5 drive on their machine -- the iMac in 1998.
because they've included being able to boot off a CD* on all
macs since the advent of the powerPC processor migration,
one of the main uses of the floppy on the PC side of things
(i.e. being able to boot a 3.5" floppy to restoring a PC system) --
on the mac, this use for the floppy was eliminated, and
burning CDs has now become the norm.
* you can create a bootable backup system CD on the mac,
just by dragging a system folder onto it before you burn it.
j