Ok well obviously a singular voice isn't likely to happen, but, should a true singular voice emerge, it would be the ideal situation. The closer a society gets to sharing the same mindset, the better off it is. And I'm not talking control or limited freedom, I'm talking about a purest form democracy, where the elected (not appointed) leader accurately represents the will of the people.
It's interesting the way in which the internet exists in a total virtual world, a new frontier which has yet to be really colonized. Right now, it's sort of like this huge country, with stores, residents, jobs, basic laws etc... but no real government to speak of. The DMCA is in a way trying to bring order to this chaos, but the problem is no one really owns the internet, which makes it very difficult to enforce all your own laws in it. It will take a much more comprehensive set of rules than the DMCA before people will start to actually respect them. One of the biggest deterrents to committing a crime is knowing that it is completely socially and legally unacceptable. Right now, many things are illegal, but the laws are deemed unfair, so these things are socially acceptable. In time, these will balance out, and the internet will become much more stable, and speak with more of a singular voice.
My friend bought a fog machine for his dorm room last year, and because he thought his fire alarm was heat and not particle detecting, he filled his room with fog. Turns out, it was a particle detector after all, the fire alarm went off, school security came and made fun of him mercilessly for intentionally filling a room with smoke... then they wrote him up. It was funny...
OK, I would just like to say that Family Guy and the current day simpsons are 2 very different things. Family Guy has (had... until fox cancelled it because of it's craptacular time slot...) it's own style that is nothing like the simpsons. Much of the family guy humor revolves around flashbacks (something the simpsons hasn't done yet) and obscure famous people refrences, with very clever written gags in there too. Today's Simpsons make no attempt to establish a plot line or even have characters who are consistant with themselves. Which is really sad. And to say that Family Guy is the same way is just as sad. I'm sorry, I just miss Peter, Lois, Brian, Meg, Chris and Stewart a lot...
I think it's very interesting to note how the slashdot crowd doesn't have nearly as much trouble accepting this as music or art as they do accepting artists like eminem. The discussion about the early releases of his new album quickly degenerated into a discussion, or really a rant about the evils of eminem, and how what he doesn't music or art. But here's something that has no tune, is barely audible, and rather than blasting it for trying to corrupt/ruin/depress the children with it's emptyness and blank space or some other made up psychology, the slashdot crowd embraces as being a "nice break" from regular techno, and having lots of aura and a positive ambient quality. That to me is somewhat of a double standard...
Actually, I picked it up today, and there's a bonus DVD included with it with interviews and videos of him live, so it was really worth it. Also, this is the first rap CD i've bought where the full lyrics to all the songs were in the liner notes, so that also was a bonus.
You should definately try Icy Tower, which can be freely downloaded from here. Unfortunately, their other games are pretty crappy, but Icy Tower directly caused the collective failure on exams for my floor.
That's not a bad strategy... announce that it will take forever to prepare a rebuttal, knowing the states want this trial over with NOW. Although its curious that the states obviously dont think this testimony will be strong enough for the end result to be worth it. Bottom line: It's dirty tactic, but legal, and afterall, it's Microsoft.
It would also be interesting to see how much of the web no longer exists... like at what rate the web is dying. God knows there's enough dead links out there...
Somehow, it just wont be as cool as the sega channel...now THAT was hot... Video games are great and all, but watching people play video games rather than playing them yourself... I just dont know. Hopefully, they'll focus more on behind the scenes, and less on famous gamers and whatnot.
I would love to see a slashdot interview of todd... what i really want to know is does he really talk like that? For those of you who haven't seen it, definately check him out. I was even going to by his "Home Of The Whopper" underwear, but I had already bought my novelty clothing item of the month... So maybe later!
It will be interesting to see if this format takes off not only as a streaming format but also as a general computer audio format. It would be very nice indeed to have portable players for.kts files. Finally flash sticks would be usefull for storing large quantities of songs! Wouldn't that be nice?
Haha if you read more of the site, you find out that his "beloved Donna" is actually Donna from "That 70's Show"... oh well, it's nice to dream at least...
This pretty much shows that any type of program with a scripting language built in is prone to having viruses written for it. (word macros, VBS, etc...) It will be interesting to see what is done in the future to allow for the benefits of having scripting, but reducing the risks associated as well. A possible solution is simply reducing the power that scripting languages have, such as disabling file writing capabilities (although that's not really a legitimate solution, you see where i'm going with it...)
I've recently started using trillian (www.trillian.cc) for all my IMing needs... (yes, it does connect to the AIM server, among others such as MSN messenger, yahoo, and ICQ) I'm assuming it probably doesn't have this flaw, which is obviously a nice feature. And as far as I know, it's the only really solid alternative to a) having a billion separate IM programs b) using hated AOL software.
But filtering in the way that slashdot does means that someone must moderate the posts they see. Slashdot is a relatively easy system in which to set up moderation, and even it is constantly changing the way comments are moderated. So to set up a global moderation system, with millions of comments and notes being posted everyday is pretty crazy. Remember, not everyone can browse at +2, otherwise no one will be able to mod the comments up.
Furthermore, paying for good reviews of restaurants and the like does make sense, but many GPS devices (OnStar for example) already have that technology built in. I still think it's a technology that's been invented for the sake of being invented, rather than having a truely practical purpose.
Where do we draw the line?
on
Mid-Air Messaging?
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
It's cool to be sure, but it doesn't sound particularly useful. The article cites the example of a store having a sale, and then leaving a message right outside the door. I personally don't need to be hounded by advertisements anymore than I already am, and it's not like I can't read window signs either. More and more technologies are being invented for communication, more information is being generated, but at some point, it does become overkill, and this is very near that point. It would be hell if whenever I walked anywhere, my phone started buzzing because someone had left a message in the most random of places. And you thought spam was bad now... Granted, some uses such as the traffic alert may be useful, but there are far better, less invasive ways for alerting people in such a mannner. Sorry for this rant, but sometimes, with all the millions of bits of information I deal with everyday, I just want to scream!
My 486 runs silent as a mouse... it only has 1 fan (in the power supply) and even that's almost totally silent. And hell, I can even score 60 FPS on Wolfenstien 3D!
All the web does a good job of picking up Google's loose ends. (Everyone's gotten those completely random sites google sometimes throws your way) When I use it in conjunction with Google, I can almost find anything. (It's ad free and really fast too...)
In his postscript, the author says that although it's possible to change associations in windows, it's too complex for the average user who "...barely know[s] what right clicking is." If this user does in fact know so little, it's highly likely he/she doesn't even care what program opens his file, as long as it is opened. While this may aid microsoft, other programs almost always change association on installation. So if this inept user does in fact install RealPlayer, RP will make sure that he associates all media with RP. And if he doesnt download/install realplayer because he doesnt know how, this doesn't build on Microsoft's monopoly at all, because Real would never make money off of him anyway, regardless if it was preinstalled... he's too stupid to figure out how to register, remember?
SNES was more powerful than Genesis... It supported 32,768 colors to Genesis' 512. (256 onscreen for SNES compared to 64 for Genesis) SNES was also higher resolution (512x448 vs. 320x224), supported more and larger sprites (128 64x64 vs. 80 32x64) and could scale and rotate images. However, Sega did come out first, and released many many high quality titles before SNES even hit the shelves. But Nintendo does know how to make good games, so they were able to pretty much draw even in the end.
'People asked me today KIRBY why arent you more alarmed by this situation and ITS NOT because i have no compassion and because i dont feel for those who have lost loved ones today I do, and my heart goes out to them. What worries me most is how i can sit with a bunch of my friends and watch them turn a national tragedy into something about themselves how they think that the world and its disasters actually revolve around them and it scares me that from this event, in about 6 months there will be movies made, books written, hosts on Oprah, and forwards that are titled "tell them how you feel before its too late" All about the publicity and making money. We REACT in the strangest manner.'
Sorry about the lack of paragraphs... I sort of forgot. Anyways, here are my responses:
The circuitry used was a 2 resitor/1 capacitor setup, although I'm not sure of the exact values... So it was a filter which essentially cleaned up the static/crosstalk along the wires.
as for the number of sensors, there are ways to acheive the same results using fewer sensors, however, it's much much easier when the simplest way route is taken... in this case, when working with a 6 MHz microcontroller, trig is a royal pain in the neck, as anything as far as floating point math is concerned will just about bring it to a halt.
In addition, one of the biggest problems I found while programming is the large difference in the world of robotics between theory and practice. So while a sensor should be taking a reading in the exact direction that you point it, and the wheels should move the exact speed you tell them to, it quickly gets confused because this generally doesn't happen. So, by adding more sensors, you can get many readings of your surroundings at once that just can't be gotten with 2 sensors no matter how hard you try. (For example, think about what happens when a robot following a wall runs into a corner, or hits the corner at an angle...)
Think of it like this: Assuming the sensors are fixed i.e. they dont rotate, and the robot is pointing at a wall at an angle, how does it know INSTANTLY without moving where the wall is, and what angle it's pointing at, considering the wall can be ANYWHERE relative to the robot. With only 2 sensors, I don't see how it can be done unless the robot or the sensors move, which adds a whole other degree of complexity. Hope that helped.
Most robots do find the stripe around the candle and use it to know once they're close, because most candle sensors measure intensity of the light fromt the candle, and compare it to "dark"... so it's relative, thus the robot knows when it's pointing at the canndle (maximum brightness compared to everything else) but not how far from the candle it is. The stripe tells it that. Also, the robot can't just operate on a search for the stripe method, as there are stripes at the entrances to all the doors.
Slashdot Mirror
Ok well obviously a singular voice isn't likely to happen, but, should a true singular voice emerge, it would be the ideal situation. The closer a society gets to sharing the same mindset, the better off it is. And I'm not talking control or limited freedom, I'm talking about a purest form democracy, where the elected (not appointed) leader accurately represents the will of the people.
It's interesting the way in which the internet exists in a total virtual world, a new frontier which has yet to be really colonized. Right now, it's sort of like this huge country, with stores, residents, jobs, basic laws etc... but no real government to speak of. The DMCA is in a way trying to bring order to this chaos, but the problem is no one really owns the internet, which makes it very difficult to enforce all your own laws in it. It will take a much more comprehensive set of rules than the DMCA before people will start to actually respect them. One of the biggest deterrents to committing a crime is knowing that it is completely socially and legally unacceptable. Right now, many things are illegal, but the laws are deemed unfair, so these things are socially acceptable. In time, these will balance out, and the internet will become much more stable, and speak with more of a singular voice.
Nope... University of Rochester in upstate new york...
My friend bought a fog machine for his dorm room last year, and because he thought his fire alarm was heat and not particle detecting, he filled his room with fog. Turns out, it was a particle detector after all, the fire alarm went off, school security came and made fun of him mercilessly for intentionally filling a room with smoke... then they wrote him up. It was funny...
OK, I would just like to say that Family Guy and the current day simpsons are 2 very different things. Family Guy has (had... until fox cancelled it because of it's craptacular time slot...) it's own style that is nothing like the simpsons. Much of the family guy humor revolves around flashbacks (something the simpsons hasn't done yet) and obscure famous people refrences, with very clever written gags in there too. Today's Simpsons make no attempt to establish a plot line or even have characters who are consistant with themselves. Which is really sad. And to say that Family Guy is the same way is just as sad. I'm sorry, I just miss Peter, Lois, Brian, Meg, Chris and Stewart a lot...
I think it's very interesting to note how the slashdot crowd doesn't have nearly as much trouble accepting this as music or art as they do accepting artists like eminem. The discussion about the early releases of his new album quickly degenerated into a discussion, or really a rant about the evils of eminem, and how what he doesn't music or art. But here's something that has no tune, is barely audible, and rather than blasting it for trying to corrupt/ruin/depress the children with it's emptyness and blank space or some other made up psychology, the slashdot crowd embraces as being a "nice break" from regular techno, and having lots of aura and a positive ambient quality. That to me is somewhat of a double standard...
Actually, I picked it up today, and there's a bonus DVD included with it with interviews and videos of him live, so it was really worth it. Also, this is the first rap CD i've bought where the full lyrics to all the songs were in the liner notes, so that also was a bonus.
You should definately try Icy Tower, which can be freely downloaded from here. Unfortunately, their other games are pretty crappy, but Icy Tower directly caused the collective failure on exams for my floor.
That's not a bad strategy... announce that it will take forever to prepare a rebuttal, knowing the states want this trial over with NOW. Although its curious that the states obviously dont think this testimony will be strong enough for the end result to be worth it. Bottom line: It's dirty tactic, but legal, and afterall, it's Microsoft.
It would also be interesting to see how much of the web no longer exists... like at what rate the web is dying. God knows there's enough dead links out there...
Somehow, it just wont be as cool as the sega channel...now THAT was hot... Video games are great and all, but watching people play video games rather than playing them yourself... I just dont know. Hopefully, they'll focus more on behind the scenes, and less on famous gamers and whatnot.
I would love to see a slashdot interview of todd... what i really want to know is does he really talk like that? For those of you who haven't seen it, definately check him out. I was even going to by his "Home Of The Whopper" underwear, but I had already bought my novelty clothing item of the month... So maybe later!
It will be interesting to see if this format takes off not only as a streaming format but also as a general computer audio format. It would be very nice indeed to have portable players for .kts files. Finally flash sticks would be usefull for storing large quantities of songs! Wouldn't that be nice?
Haha if you read more of the site, you find out that his "beloved Donna" is actually Donna from "That 70's Show"... oh well, it's nice to dream at least...
This pretty much shows that any type of program with a scripting language built in is prone to having viruses written for it. (word macros, VBS, etc...) It will be interesting to see what is done in the future to allow for the benefits of having scripting, but reducing the risks associated as well. A possible solution is simply reducing the power that scripting languages have, such as disabling file writing capabilities (although that's not really a legitimate solution, you see where i'm going with it...)
I've recently started using trillian (www.trillian.cc) for all my IMing needs... (yes, it does connect to the AIM server, among others such as MSN messenger, yahoo, and ICQ) I'm assuming it probably doesn't have this flaw, which is obviously a nice feature. And as far as I know, it's the only really solid alternative to a) having a billion separate IM programs b) using hated AOL software.
But filtering in the way that slashdot does means that someone must moderate the posts they see. Slashdot is a relatively easy system in which to set up moderation, and even it is constantly changing the way comments are moderated. So to set up a global moderation system, with millions of comments and notes being posted everyday is pretty crazy. Remember, not everyone can browse at +2, otherwise no one will be able to mod the comments up.
Furthermore, paying for good reviews of restaurants and the like does make sense, but many GPS devices (OnStar for example) already have that technology built in. I still think it's a technology that's been invented for the sake of being invented, rather than having a truely practical purpose.
It's cool to be sure, but it doesn't sound particularly useful. The article cites the example of a store having a sale, and then leaving a message right outside the door. I personally don't need to be hounded by advertisements anymore than I already am, and it's not like I can't read window signs either. More and more technologies are being invented for communication, more information is being generated, but at some point, it does become overkill, and this is very near that point. It would be hell if whenever I walked anywhere, my phone started buzzing because someone had left a message in the most random of places. And you thought spam was bad now... Granted, some uses such as the traffic alert may be useful, but there are far better, less invasive ways for alerting people in such a mannner. Sorry for this rant, but sometimes, with all the millions of bits of information I deal with everyday, I just want to scream!
My 486 runs silent as a mouse... it only has 1 fan (in the power supply) and even that's almost totally silent. And hell, I can even score 60 FPS on Wolfenstien 3D!
All the web does a good job of picking up Google's loose ends. (Everyone's gotten those completely random sites google sometimes throws your way) When I use it in conjunction with Google, I can almost find anything. (It's ad free and really fast too...)
In his postscript, the author says that although it's possible to change associations in windows, it's too complex for the average user who "...barely know[s] what right clicking is." If this user does in fact know so little, it's highly likely he/she doesn't even care what program opens his file, as long as it is opened. While this may aid microsoft, other programs almost always change association on installation. So if this inept user does in fact install RealPlayer, RP will make sure that he associates all media with RP. And if he doesnt download/install realplayer because he doesnt know how, this doesn't build on Microsoft's monopoly at all, because Real would never make money off of him anyway, regardless if it was preinstalled... he's too stupid to figure out how to register, remember?
SNES was more powerful than Genesis... It supported 32,768 colors to Genesis' 512. (256 onscreen for SNES compared to 64 for Genesis) SNES was also higher resolution (512x448 vs. 320x224), supported more and larger sprites (128 64x64 vs. 80 32x64) and could scale and rotate images. However, Sega did come out first, and released many many high quality titles before SNES even hit the shelves. But Nintendo does know how to make good games, so they were able to pretty much draw even in the end.
My friend kirby said it the best:
'People asked me today KIRBY why arent you more alarmed by this situation and ITS NOT because i have no compassion and because i dont feel for those who have lost loved ones today I do, and my heart goes out to them. What worries me most is how i can sit with a bunch of my friends and watch them turn a national tragedy into something about themselves how they think that the world and its disasters actually revolve around them and it scares me that from this event, in about 6 months there will be movies made, books written, hosts on Oprah, and forwards that are titled "tell them how you feel before its too late" All about the publicity and making money. We REACT in the strangest manner.'
Sorry about the lack of paragraphs... I sort of forgot. Anyways, here are my responses:
The circuitry used was a 2 resitor/1 capacitor setup, although I'm not sure of the exact values... So it was a filter which essentially cleaned up the static/crosstalk along the wires.
as for the number of sensors, there are ways to acheive the same results using fewer sensors, however, it's much much easier when the simplest way route is taken... in this case, when working with a 6 MHz microcontroller, trig is a royal pain in the neck, as anything as far as floating point math is concerned will just about bring it to a halt.
In addition, one of the biggest problems I found while programming is the large difference in the world of robotics between theory and practice. So while a sensor should be taking a reading in the exact direction that you point it, and the wheels should move the exact speed you tell them to, it quickly gets confused because this generally doesn't happen. So, by adding more sensors, you can get many readings of your surroundings at once that just can't be gotten with 2 sensors no matter how hard you try. (For example, think about what happens when a robot following a wall runs into a corner, or hits the corner at an angle...)
Think of it like this: Assuming the sensors are fixed i.e. they dont rotate, and the robot is pointing at a wall at an angle, how does it know INSTANTLY without moving where the wall is, and what angle it's pointing at, considering the wall can be ANYWHERE relative to the robot. With only 2 sensors, I don't see how it can be done unless the robot or the sensors move, which adds a whole other degree of complexity. Hope that helped.
Most robots do find the stripe around the candle and use it to know once they're close, because most candle sensors measure intensity of the light fromt the candle, and compare it to "dark"... so it's relative, thus the robot knows when it's pointing at the canndle (maximum brightness compared to everything else) but not how far from the candle it is. The stripe tells it that. Also, the robot can't just operate on a search for the stripe method, as there are stripes at the entrances to all the doors.