Please note that I do not reccommend this as a "robust" solution, not for business use or personal home use if you have a lot of valuable data. But if you are needing something simple and cheap, this may work out well for you, or at least well enough until you can bring a proper backup solution online. I have been using this system for almost a year now, and it has served my needs well, and recently saved my bacon when I had to rebuild my fileserver.
Basically, my home network consists of a couple of (linux) workstations coupled to a (linux) Samba fileserver (which also does duty as a home "intranet" webserver and database [mysql and postgresql] server). For the workstations, I have a cron job setup for 1am where each machine mounts the nfs partition and copies various directories for the user of that workstation (/home/$USER/* and others) to the "home" mounted directory for the user. On the server a cron job then runs at 2am and backs up those copies, plus other server directories and data (ie, SQL dumps from the databases, config files for Samba, Apache, and PHP, other data I want to keep) to a temporary area. Once this occurs, the process then creates an ISO image of the temporary area, places it in a "public" readable samba directory for the ISOs, and cleans out the temporary area. The iso images are named by a datetime stamp, and this area is also cleaned periodically every 7 days by the automatic processes so that there is only 7 images kept at one time (past 7 days).
Every week I take the last full image made and create a CD-R of it. Obviously, I can only "backup" about 700Mb or so with this method, more if I use a DVD burner. I have also toyed around with the idea of using the split utility to split an archive across disks, or modding my scripts to do this "manually". One could also backup to a tape drive (tar image), or to a USB drive (flash or enclosed laptop drive).
Like I said, this isn't a robust solution, and numerous improvements could be made to it. I don't back up all of the data on the server (which doesn't have a large hard drive, but it is mostly filled with MP3s, pictures, etc - stuff that I already have a copy of on other CD-Rs and other media), just the important or working data (ie, resumes, email, bookmarks, development code, etc) that I want an archive of. However, for most purposes and uses, it would work fine for most people and thier personal data. Should my fileserver crash (which it did recently, and I was able to restore), I am not able to simply "restore from backup" and all is well - I have to rebuild the system in its entirety (reimage drive, reinstall OS, etc), but I do have the data from the last backup available so that I don't lose any work and such.
I am waiting for the day (probably will never come, I am realistic somewhat) when I can buy a backup solution that supports modern consumer drive space requirements and doesn't require me to take out a second mortgage on my house to do so. I will probably be waiting for a very long time...
You are forgetting that the incoming air consists of mostly nitrogen, not oxygen. What you get out the back end is mainly a mixture of water vapor, and NOX. Which is also why an automobile "burning" hydrogen and regular "air" (whether it is being burned by a fuel cell or an actual ICE) will never be 100% emission free. There will always be some NOX (and CO, and CO2 in the case of an ICE, because you still need oil to lubricate the piston rings, some of which will end up in the cylinders and burned).
The only way you would never have any other emissions from such designs would be if you only burned pure oxygen and hydrogen in your ICE or fuel cell (or scramjet - in which case you might as well use a liquid hydrogen/oxygen rocket instead) - which would never pass FHTSA muster, due to the big explosions which would occur in accidents on the freeway...
I would guess it is because a large part of the relevant expertise and knowledge is considered "classified" or at least "off limits". Basically, if you can create a controllable, liquid-fueled rocket, you now have a stable, and possibly long distance (up to intercontinental), launch platform for any number of destructive devices (NBC and conventional explosives). Since just about every country knows this, those people able to design and develop such systems tend to get sucked into the military-industrial complex of their (or other's) country, and virtually never let out of sight.
So, in a way, every private enterprise that attempts to do this is starting from scratch. Perhaps one of these days, we as a species will learn that killing each other is not the answer to our problems, and only leads to other issues. Until that time, I personally don't expect much change to occur in the development of very large-scale rocketry...
You are right about this, and this is what I have been thinking: why bother with the cable feeds at all?
Part of my issue, when or if I get around to building my "PVR" (not really going to be a PVR as such, since it won't have a video input), is the fact that I have a bunch of old hardware that doesn't have the power to digitize video (I am planning on using an old BookPC box). I figure if that works out well (ie, I can get it to do what I want, and it is very easy to use), then I might upgrade to a real set of hardware (ie, buy new stuff specifically for the task).
My plan is to use this box to hook up to my network, and have it play MP3, OGG, and assorted video format files off my network web/file/db server (incidentally, the NFS is based on console Mandrake 10.1 running Apache 2, Samba, MySQL and PostgreSQL). I also plan to have the box (which won't have a huge harddrive - probably an old 6.4 or 8 gig IDE) be able to rip CD's and VCDs (maybe even DVDs, if I am willing to wait and wait) to the network, for later viewing/playback. Finally, I may even set it up to run MAME/MESS for gaming (plus a few other *nix games that would work well on a TV). I also want it to be able to surf the web. For all of this, I don't know if I am going to do a custom build/install, or try to find a distro that will do all of this "out of the box" (anyone have reccommendations?).
Anyhow, since I can't record cable, what then? Well, so what? I can either "browse" crap on TV, or I can browse crap on the internet. For me, I think the internet is the better choice (at least there is some interactivity). Hit Google Video or YouTube and pull my entertainment down for playback. While it isn't professional video for the most part, it is certainly as entertaining as anything on cable, sometimes more so. If I need news or whatnot, there are plenty of options on the web for that as well. In theory, I could even set things up with a web camera to allow me to capture some cheesy video and post to one of the video hosting sites for others to view! Can't do that with cable...
In short, I want to build my "PVR" to be a homebrew "IPTV" box, with the feeds being the free (cheesy) video-on-demand download services that exist today, with a few other tidbits thrown in. If it works out, and I like what I find, then ditching the cable box won't be a problem...
$90k is pretty lucrative for St. Louis! You can probably buy a 1500 square foot house on a 1/4 acre for $90k there (alright, that might be exaggerated, but not by much!)...
My first computer (TRS-80 Color Computer 2) had a whole 16K of RAM, 8K of which was "video memory". When I upgraded to 32K, then 64K - I thought I was in "heaven". Until I got my Color Computer 3 - which had a whopping 128K of memory! WOW! Then I eventually got the 512K Disto upgrade.
The machines we (and kids) have today would have been considered so far outside the possibility of ownership back then, that they would have been mere fantasy. I dreamt about being able to program a 3D adventure game as I played Zork or even King's Quest. I even dabbled with 3D programming, but was unable to realize even the barest of my imaginations.
Today, kids have the power to realize entire worlds in marvelous and stunning 3D, replete with realistic textures and sounds. Yet it feels like they don't care to really attempt to do anything with this power, but rather consume what others give them - they would rather play in a pre-built world, than build their own. I am sure there are a few who do create their own worlds - maybe this passion will always be in the minority. I just wish it wasn't this way.
Finally, I must say I am grateful that my parents supported my computing habit at a time when home computing was still a minor thing, but a major purchase. Had they not, I wouldn't be where I am today (eh, posting to/. at work, I suppose?)...
Because people like to kill each other. It's basic humanity.
You are correct by this, which is what makes me feel so sick.
I don't understand why it is that I can see the illogic of this, yet others, for whatever reason, cannot. Many so-called people seem to have no qualms about killing another individual (or even a group), yet these self-same persons are fearful of (or abhor) their own death. It is like these people lack the ability to project their subjective viewpoint into objective space. They are quite literally unable to "put themselves into the other person's shoes", so to speak.
Yet this is considered "basic humanity"? Does that mean - because I can see where if I don't want to die and I don't want someone to kill me and that thus, someone else may not want me to kill them - that I do not possess "basic humanity", that I am therefore somehow less than human? Is it more human to be irrational and emotional, rather than rational and logical? If so, then why do we (as a whole) refuse to accept we are nothing more or better than animals? Surely animals tend more toward the "irrational" and "emotional" (better known as "instinctual"), than reason.
Why can I see this (and I realize I am by no means alone in this, but that we are a very small minority)? Why must I see this? It is a curse I and others hold. Sometimes I wish to rid myself of it, knowing I cannot. I also know that I would be the lesser for it should that happen.
Society seems to drill into its members that rationalism and logic are to be frowned upon, and beaten out. Should you continue to tread this path, you will be ostracized. You will be ridiculed. Society then upholds greatness in irrationality. The insanity is that society at the same time (societal cognitive dissonance?) knows it cannot live without the rational and the logical, for both concepts are needed in order for society to exist - technology, education, food production, art, etc - cannot exist without some form of rationalism and logic. Without rationalism and logic, we would be mere animals.
This is somehow surpressed and made to appear to be wrong, though, when it comes to killing one another. Insanity.
This is the problem: there are some people out there who, when they view the image of a woman in high heels stepping on a wine glass, or an image of an automobile accident, damn near cream themselves in excitement (some of them might be reading this RIGHT NOW - SHOCK!).
True, these are obscure fetishes, but they exist. Most people would see such images and shrug their shoulders. To these people, those images aren't porn. However, to the fetishist, such images could be porn of high caliber!
Thus, it can't hold true that a single person "knows porn when he sees it" - because each of us might have a totally different perception of what porn is. So, how can a single person decide what porn is for the rest of is? The truth is, they can't. Furthermore, if they try, they won't be successful, because as long as there are images of broken wine glasses, women in high heels, and automobile accidents, there will be porn out there for someone, somewhere...
These are the same sorts of people who always talk about "morality," - note, to them "morality" is about whatever dogmatic belief they would like to impose on others; rather than being about truth, honesty, valor - trating others as you would like to be treated, the best parts of human nature and kindness etc.
I doubt this is about "dogmatic belief". Instead, I believe that this is really about "inner shame", or some other inner fear, that these people aren't even willing to express to themselves, let alone to others.
Instead, these people seek to impose a level of control on others, in the belief that "if this controls them, it will control me too, and I won't feel this way - or at least there will be less temptation". Unfortunately, because they never explore whatever dark feelings they have, in order to understand them and what has motivated them to feel this way, they don't realize that imposing such rules as a whole on the society will ultimately do nothing to assuage the skeletons in their own closets.
Seriously: How many times in the history of the planet have there been those on their high horses who have fallen, due to the very "blasphemy" they have preached against? Need we look further than Catholic priests who molest children? There are other similar instances of such hypocrisy out there - all one has to do is pay attention to the news, and compare today's stories with yesterday's.
I am certain that some of these people are supposedly "pure souls" who seek to "enlighten the rest of us". I am not trying to paint them all with the same large brush. However, I bet the majority of them are as I described above. If not that, then these people are simply on a power grab, saying to themselves "no hedonism for you, but for me - well, I have the power to get around the laws I help create, of course". Either way, these two groups of people scare me...
Does he not remember where he started? Does he not remember that his company was founded on the backs and code created for computers with NO SCREENS (unless you were really lucky and rich - eh, what am I saying - he was rich, and he probably was one of those lucky bastards with a real ADDS ViewPoint or VT100 terminal connected to his Z-80/8080 S100 Bus box), switches for input, and paper tape for storage.
Yet - with this simple hardware, he and many others founded companies, some of which still exist to this day!
Low power computing doesn't equal useless computing, not at all. If it is Turing complete, all bets are off - any computer that is Turing complete can simulate any other computer that is the same. Hardware is software in physical form. It may take one computer longer to compute than another, but so what?
Where is the real payoff of computing? It is an introduction to logic and rationalism, for computers cannot be understood without understanding those two principles (that doesn't mean they can't be used without understanding those principles - but if you don't have a grounding in those principles, and an understanding how to apply both of them, you won't get very far after your computer crashes - better hope - pray! - the reboot works).
These principles are what governments fear, because they ultimately lead to questions, as well as answers, about power and freedom. The People cannot have that at any cost...
Very considerate of you. "Hey I'm dead, who cares if my beneficiaries have to jump through hoops, or better, are screwed and have to go to court to get their $$, it won't matter a hill of beans to me".
Listen, if my beneficiaries are too stupid to a) look through my wallet, b) look through my files at home, c) figure out how to use a death certificate, d) contact my place of work, or e) ignore the letters that "automagically" show up from every quarter when you die, in order to figure out how to contact the insurance companies - then they don't deserve to get the money, as they will be too dumb to figure out how to properly use it when I am gone.
I am certain there are tons of other ways they could figure all of this out. I am not about to use my SSN (as an ID number for insurance) in the here-and-now, which could conceivably allow someone else to compromise my identity and screw with my LIFE, just to be "considerate" so that my so-called beneficiaries aren't inconvenienced by my DEATH.
The reason these are considered "safe" is that most all credit card applications require a social security number. So, that means the identity thief has to steal a piece of mail from your health insurance company, which is a pretty reliable way of obtaining a social security number, since most insurance companies use it as a unique subscriber identifier. Theres no way to win.
Actually, if you sign up for insurance, for most applications you can write the words "please assign" in the space for the SSN, and the company will assign a number for your policy. I should note that some brokers will get smart with you, and try to "guilt you" into providing your real social "in the event you are incapacitated" and "so your loved ones can help". Don't let them guilt you (if I am incapacitated or dead - I don't care anymore, now do I?). Also, don't put in a "fake SSN", as these get caught fairly easily (and you'll get a phone call or letter) - or if they aren't, then it might be YOU who are guilty of "identity theft", if it is found out it matches someone else's real number in the system...
If you aren't shredding them, they won't burn very well. Shouldn't be a problem with an incinerator, but anything else likely won't burn the paper completely. Think of it like flour - you can take a match, light it, then snuff it out in the flour. However, you don't ever want to take that same lit match and attempt to put it out by puffing a cloud of flour at it (look into grain mill explosions if you want!). Basically, the flour is a fuel, and by increasing the ratio of fuel to air, it burns better.
It is the same with paper. Paper that is kept "dense" doesn't burn as well as say crumpled paper because there is higher ratio of oxygen to paper surface area. Shredding the paper increases that ratio to an even greater amount. A hay or straw bale doesn't burn as well as loose hay or straw in a pile will. I think you get the point.
With that said, I would reccommend getting a shredder (cross cut) to run those pages through, before you have them burned. Interestingly, I am trying to figure out how I can take this shredded confetti and turn it into fuel logs or bricks for my fireplace in the wintertime. If I could get blocks of parrafin cheaply enough, some steel molds (maybe bread pans?), and a few other things, such things could be made cheaply (hopefully cheaper than a Duraflame log). Get the junk mail companies to (mostly) pay for heating my home in the winter (not like I need much heat here in Phoenix)...
Note: Ken_g6, this isn't aimed at you - your tips are spot on...
If you know what you are doing, have no qualms about "dumpster diving", and are willing to get up off the couch for a weekend to peruse business park/office building dumpsters - most of the time you can get enough working parts for a computer - for free!
Indeed, if you work for any business with a large enough IT department, and are nice to the IT staff, you can sometimes get whole systems for nothing. The last company I worked at, I managed to grab tons of old hardware - most of the machines in my house are made from scrap they gave me.
I can't tell you how much hardware can be found just by looking at dumpsters behind office buildings and in business parks (another tip - if your municipality has "bulk-trash-pickup", browse around "rich area" of town when their scheduled dates are near - rich people are somtimes idiots when it comes to computers, and tend to throw out 1-2 year old boxes and buy new when they get infested with spyware). Make sure you have a truck (small 4-banger pickup will do), and some scruffy clothes on (jeans, gloves, boots, hat, t-shirt, etc - remember, you will be working with garbage), and just tell any security you are moving and need boxes - most will go away. If they persist, appologize and leave immediately. If you find some stuff, grab it and take it home before grousing elsewhere (hard to pull the "just-moving-and-need-boxes" bit when you have 19 inch rack in the back of your pickup). If you need more parts, Goodwill, other thrift stores, and helpful friends can get you other stuff. For the rest, you may need to EBay or buy new parts.
Now, you won't have the latest and greatest machine on the planet just to play WoW on, but I guarantee (especially using FOSS) that you will have a good machine to do real work on.
First off, people need to understand that the so-called "Three Laws of Robotics" was nothing more than a literary device Asimov used to help advance the plots in his stories revolving around robots. His robotic protagonists could be considered embodiments of "the ideal man", a conception of an individual who strove to be helpful while preserving integrity and life. Since people are, well, human - and thus prone to fallibility - the concept of a robot with in-built laws to guide it was a perfect literary device to allow Asimov to explore the possibilities of a future where mankind, through being forced by his own creations, was a more altruistic species. Granted, in these stories (and I have by no means read them all) ways were found around these laws by both men and robots, but this is again nothing more than another magnifying glass being focused on mankind's faults.
Indeed, it is this and other devices which Asimov employs in his fiction-based studies of human nature which make his books masterpieces in the hard-science fiction genre. He could have just as easily have written about ordinary men under regular law, during just about any era in history, but such stories wouldn't have likely had the same impact as what he ultimately wrote. His work is great social commentary and insight about the human condition wrapped in a gauze of fiction. Unfortunately, so many people seem to not realize this or choose to ignore it. So much for reading comprehension, I guess.
With that said, is it really any wonder why we would make automated war machines (especially ones which fail the "Three Laws of Robotics")? Throughout history, technology (amongst other things) has ultimately been spurred on more by violence than by any other force. Information technology and the machines which manifest themselves from it are no different (save for the other great driving force, sex, which also has proven to be a factor in the spread of information and the technology that controls it). Violence and sex - war and pornography - these are ultimately the two great driving forces of information technology in human society.
If you want to know how to combat the issues you are experiencing, then you need to search on Simulator Sickness.
Simulator sickness is something that has been known about for many, many years, and has had a lot of study put behind it. While people were experiencing similar motion sickness issues with the advent of very large movie screens and "wraparound" 360 degree panorama movies in the 1950's and 1960's, it wasn't until fairly realistic flight-simulator systems were being developed in the late-1960's and 1970's that the issue started being widely studied, because now pilots training on large motion-platform simulators and such started to become more common, and they were experiencing such issues (not good PR for the simulator company - many times the builder of the plane!).
What has been learned is enlightening, and there is a lot of research on the issue (and a large resurgence in interes of the phenomena happened in the 1990's when virtual reality system users experienced simular issues). The main problem is two-fold: as you approach (or attain) full-immersion in a simulated world, you need to make the inputs to your brain (eyes and inner-ear are most important) as synced up as possible. Any deviation from this is likely to cause motion-sickness. Thus, if you are in a fully-immersive environment where you are driving or flying, your real-world cockpit needs to move (or at least feel) as real as the real thing would, and more importantly, those movements cannot be out of sync of the motion "on screen" (whether that screen is in front of/wrapped around you, or as an HMD). If you are in a standup/walkaround VR simulation, you need to be able to match the movement on the screens of the HMD with the movement you are making in real life (3D tracking). If it is out of sync (mainly head movement) - say you turn your head, and the turning of the scene lags by a few milliseconds, you may (most likely will) experience motion sickness. In large motion-platform simulators (like flight simulators), the same issue is at play, but this time with the movement of the cockpit relative to the screen movement.
So, what is the solution to your problems? Many other issues can come into play: refresh rate of the scene is important, of course, but so is the refresh rate of the display, which others have noted. I have read comments here that lowering the resolution/effects can help - these may be pychological remedies (make it more cartoony looking to break the immersion factor more?), but if they work, who cares (I have never seen a study on this, but it is an interesting idea, and makes sense from a simulation perspective). Basically, if you are trying to fully immerse yourself into the game, you can't do it halfway - either take it as fully as you possibly can (full-immersion HMD with full 3D tracking of body - ie, $25,000 will get you there), or stop trying to do this: turn on or at least brighten the room lights so that the screen isn't the only thing your eyes and peripheral vision rest on. Move back from the screen so you can see the edges and stuff around the screen. You might try standing and moving as you play (or move more while sitting). Maybe try a recliner that rocks so you can move more. Play on a smaller screen rather than a large big-screen projection TV.
Yes, I know, none of these suggestions are great - but doing these things will help. Also be aware, as others have noted here, that there is a certain portion of the population who are prone to general motion sickness (sometimes these poor individuals get nauseous just sitting up in bed in the morning). Not much can be done (except to stop playing the games) to help these people. I will note though, that one person posted here about this saying that people who get nauseous while reading a book in a moving vehicle are prone isn't completely correct - it may indicate they might be prone, but I can te
Just like with used cars. When the year old car that's been driven only by a cute old granny, always just to church and back goes for less than 1000 bucks, would you buy it?
I would after I (or had somebody else) inspected it. If I look at it, the outside, the interior, the engine, the mounts, the transmission, hoses, belts, suspension, tires, wheels, etc - if it looks good, then I turn the vehicle on, with the hood open, and listen/look at the engine (no wierd noises, abnormal smells or smoke, open the oil cap once at operating temp to see if there is any smoke/blowby, etc), then drive it around (handles well, runs well, brakes well, no abnormal noises, etc) - if all of that checks out, then yeah - I would buy it.
The thing is, most people don't know how or why to do these things (hell, most people don't even know how to change their oil), and they get scammed on obviously bad car deals every day, that anyone with a modicum of sense (and a little grease under their nails - why don't people understand and work on their cars?) would be able to see was a real lemon.
As far as other products - I have gotten great deals from sellers on EBay for items you can't find any where else. Now, whether the products are actually worth what I paid for them, I don't really know - most of the time I think I got a great deal. For instance, I enjoy buying older (mid-1990's) "professional" VR HMDs. I once picked up a General Reality Cyber-Eye CE-200M HMD from a seller for around $300.00 (and it included a 3DOF sourceless magnetic tracker the seller didn't realize was a separate part - that was an $800.00 unit by itself). A couple of years later I picked up a well used Virtuality Visette 2 HMD (originally part of an arcade pod) for around $200.00 (that one may or may not work - I have yet to get it powered up because of the non-standard connector and the need for PAL composite video). Recently (last year), I picked up (from a local junkyard) an Altair 8080 for $100.00 (it was the lowest he would go - oh, damn). It needs some cleaning and TLC - but I know it is worth way more than I paid.
All of this comes back to knowing what it is you are buying. When it comes to buying used items where the item can be viewed, that is one thing. But where you can't view it, you have to use all the tools at your disposal. For my EBay purchases, that means looking at the history of the seller, and what people have to say about him, and what the item is. Since I tend to buy obscure stuff off of sellers on EBay, I carefully look at any pictures of the item in question. For VR gear, you can tell if it is a "scam" (ie, using obvious product photos instead of real ones of the item in question), or if they are really trying to offload a real item from another era. Most of the time, you can tell when someone is selling used stuff they don't want/need anymore, vs a possible scam, by taking in all the information together, getting a "gut feeling", and going with that.
Now - if only someone would sell for a very low price a multi-sensor Polhemus magnetic tracker system...sigh.
I currently live in an early 1970's-era (built in 1973) "ranch-house" - bought it because it was within our budget, in an ok neighborhood, no HOA, and was block construction (not this stick frame, stucco on cardboard and styrofoam shit they are now putting up). Not the most ideal (need new windows), but it hit our needs and wants for most of them, so that is what we got - our first home.
But who cares about that - what I want in a home is a home designed for the enviroment it is in. I live in Phoenix, AZ and I can't believe the number of houses that are built every day with no regards for "desert living". It is like the builders just assume there will always be groundwater and electricity available for everyone for whatever needs, with no thought at all to the rest. No new houses have integrated solar water heating, for instance, despite the fact that we get so much damn sun and it would cut electricity or gas usage easily. No options, it seems, for installing solar electric panels on rooftops (unless you are going custom - read that as a lot of $$$$, not worth it to many people). What about the design of the house itself? None of them are designed "solar friendly", which if done right could pay off in cooling and heating. None of this stuff is "revolutionary". I am talking about things like rammed-earth construction, or monolithic domes (why all the square sides which expose more surface area to sunlight and heating in the summertime than a dome?).
This type of thinking is what we need for "future housing construction". We need the idea in people's heads that using energy as efficiently as possible for their houses, for the area being lived in, is best - for the environment, for the country, and yes, for the pocketbook as well! Unfortunately, none of the ideas allow builders to simply throw up a cheap stick frame house (using illegal labor, to boot!) with stucco on cardboard, styrofoam, and chicken wire (though the chicken wire is going away, too), then sell the POS to some schmuck for 10x or more what it is probably worth. In other words, like everything else, they build it as cheaply as possible, as quickly as possible, using the cheapest labor possible, then turn around and sell it as quickly as possible to the first Joe willing to cough the dough up, and pocket the return on investment.
I can't say I blame them - after all, that is pure business and capitalism at its base. But ultimately, it is going to run the world (well, us humans at least) into the ground - and most of us are too stupid or greedy to admit it, or see that it is happenning. Every one of us - including me.
I have told this story before here on Slashdot, but it needs repeating. I will try to make it as short as possible.
I started using computers with a TRS-80 Color Computer 2 (and later upgraded to a CoCo 3), around 1984. About a year later I got my first floppy drive (!) - yeah, I was stuck on tape until then, sue me! Anyhow, one of the first games I begged my parents for was a game by a Canadian company called "Diecom Software". The game was "Gates of Delerium". Basically, it was an Ultima clone for the Color Computer.
When it finally arrived in the mail (there was some kind of Canadian postal strike that happenned at the time, and a lot of mail got held up for a couple of months at the border or something), I read the manual, and saw, to my dismay, that there was a form of copy protection on one of the floppies. Basically, you could make a backup of the game floppy (the player data floppy was not protected), but if you wanted to restore the floppy for whatever reason, you had to restore the backup to the original game floppy. If the game floppy became damaged, you would need to send off to Diecom to receive a "new" blank floppy with the protection on it for it to work.
Oh well - I made my backups, played the game, enjoyed it - but never finished it. Fast forward about 15 years...
I get my old computer and all my old floppies from my parents, and I decide that I want to take all of that old software, and move it onto an emulation system. I build a PC running DOS and a few CoCo emulators (mainly David Keil's emus), with a 5 1/4 floppy drive I pick off of Ebay. I find out I need a new drive for the CoCo (my original died for some reason), so on Ebay I find another, get it installed, etc. I decided to try out some of my original floppies. Most of them work. I begin the process of transferring stuff (most of it my old BASIC code and stuff I typed in from old Rainbow and Hot CoCo magazines), and trying it out on the emulator. The majority of it works great. Some of it fails, the floppy is bad. Then, I get to Gates of Delerium.
I tried to run it on my CoCo 3, and it fails to work. I try it on my CoCo 2 - still fails. It gets part way (text title screen loads), then it just hangs. Nothing I do makes it work, I am at a loss. I put it on the "back burner", and continue with the conversion. I get it done, and I would say 95% or so of my data transfers fine - which isn't bad considering the age of the whole system and floppies. But Gates of Delerium - what to do there?
I decided I would try to contact the owner of Diecom software. Through a bit of googling, some link tracking, and whatnot - I eventually get in contact with one of the founders (Dave Dies, incidentally, and he was working as a programmer of cell phone games). I talked to him about Gates of Delerium, mentioned my problem, but he wasn't able to help me - most of the stuff from the Diecom days was gone, the rest was in some storage unit or warehouse that he didn't have the time to search through. I asked him if there would be a problem with me attempting to create a clone of the game from my memory - he said he didn't think there would be an issue, given the amount of time that had passed, etc. I also asked him about the status of the copyright on all of the Diecom software (there were some nice CoCo 3 pieces) - this he wasn't sure on at the time, and was hesitant to say anything, especially when I asked him about abandonware.
So - there I was - no closer to having my copy of the software, which I had the manual, original floppies, etc - ie, I owned a real license, not pirated - but the floppy was dead, and I couldn't get it to run - I had no recourse. What to do?
Some more time passes, and I eventually join the CoCo Mailing List, and I recount my woes there. One person responds to me saying he had a copy of the game as well. To make a long story short, me and two other guys eventually, through a bit of coding, some very deft hardware usage by one dude (without which we never would have gotten anywhere), who had a KopyKat (or
On top of that, most slashdotters would probably be surprised to know that they pick up more radiation in a year from their computer monitors, cell phones, simple radios, and other devices, than a nuclear employee does from the plant. Everything is carefully monitored with dosimeters (devices that measure your radioactive dose). (emphasis mine)
Something a lot of people don't seem to understand about "radiation" is that there are essentially two kinds: ionizing and non-ionizing radiation.
Ionizing radiation can be considered the "bad" kind of radiation - it is radiation of nuclear particles which interact with (on an atomic level) with other particles, and ultimately can cause genetic mutation and other sorts of biological nastiness, for various given levels of exposure and source types. For many particles, ambient environmental water vapor stops their movement. For most other particles, simple paper, or other thin shields stop movement (this includes skin - which is why these can cause long term exposure problems, like cancer). The majority of the rest can be stopped by relatively thin metal plates (steel, iron, lead). High energy particles (which cause much of the short-exposure-but-lethal cases - due to major genetic trauma as they pass through an organism) can be stopped with thick lead and concrete shields. For some (albeit low count) particles, nothing can stop them - not even a universe wide thickness of lead - so don't worry about those.
Non-ionizing radiation, on the other hand, is more benign. Such radiation is typically in the form of electromagnetic waves, at various frequencies and amplitudes. This includes RF sources like cell phones, microwave ovens, radios, and computer monitors. This radiation is typically easily blocked by most materials, although some energy in the form of heat may be transferred in the process. This does not mean such exposure can be safe - it depends on frequency and the power (amplitude) levels of the source. A cell phone or a radio is not likely to give you cancer or "fry your brain". However, this does not mean you should stand next to a 50,000 watt radio station antenna that is transmitting (radiation burns from such source can and do happen, especially at higher frequencies in/near the microwave region - ask any ham operator). A microwave can heat and cook food, but a simple mesh of small holes (smaller than the microwave oven's RF wavelength) can stop these waves from exiting the microwave. That does not mean you should operate the magnetron without shielding in place and point it at your head.
Both sources of radiation, ionizing and non-ionizing, obey the inverse square law - that is, the further you are away, the amount you recieve is based on the inverse square of the distance (I think that is correct). Thus, exposure amounts drop rapidly (exponentially) as you move further from the source.
I think most slashdotters understand and know the above (I will admit I may be wrong in a few details, but I think I am pretty close). The problem with all this "nuclear fear" is that so many regular people just don't understand anything when it comes to radiation. They hear the words "radiation" or "nuclear", and they automatically think death and mutation, when nothing could be further from the truth. Such misunderstanding is the result of a long-time FUD campaign stretching at least as far back as the 1950's, and possible further. As a result of this, trying to educate the populace in the truth regarding radiation feels like a futile effort, but until people understand the issue, we will likely never advance in our use of nuclear energy as a way to provide power...
I saw this crap likely to happen many years ago, so before Yahoo and others went to "must have a valid email address to set up free email", I set up free email accounts with them (and a few others) via a web proxy. These addresses are only used via a proxy, and since that time, I have set up other email accounts elsewhere via proxied access, with those original accounts being the "valid email address". I check these accounts (proxied again) on an regular basis, and make new ones - so I always have a source of anon email addresses - when and if I need them for whatever purpose. I will concede they aren't perfectly anonymous, but they are anonymous enough, since I use proxies in other countries to access them, they would be somewhat of a PITA for LE to track through...
My daughter (currently in High School) was interested in studying Comp Sci in college (like her mom and dad). We talked her out of it.
Why did you talk her out of it? Why did you talk her out of something she was expressing interest in? Was her interest for the money making aspect, or because she wants to know how the machine works?
I can understand if it was strictly for the pursuit of money - one should always attempt to find a job or career, whatever it ultimately is, where one enjoys going into work every day, and furthermore enjoys what they do. If someone doesn't enjoy what they do, they will never be as good at that work as someone who does it for the pleasure of doing it. However, if your daughter was interested in learning about computers for the sake of learning about computers, why supress that?
Indeed, for many diciplines, knowing more about computers will be a requirement, or at the very least allow for interesting opportunities to use that knowledge. For instance, a molecular biologist who understands computers could better utilize bioinformatic techniques, or understand their use by the computer techs - better than just someone who understands biology or computers alone would. An auto mechanic who understands computers could better understand how a vehicular computer does what it does versus a mechanic who doesn't. These are just two examples of many! I honestly wish there were more neurologists (and others in the living brain sciences) who understood computer concepts - and vice-versa! Perhaps we could have better computers - or better brains (or better understanding of brains)! Truely, there are people who have knowledge and training in both, but they are few and far between.
A person who understands computers, computer systems, logical reasoning, processes, and process maps - in addition to their regular training or knowledge - will be a much better person for any job, especially in business. Currently, one of the biggest issues businesses are facing is learning how their own processes, as a system, are working (or more likely, aren't!). While understanding this doesn't require someone who has an MBA and a CS degree, those who do understand both business practices and processes, along with computing systems, techniques, and processes, they can quickly understand and see where those business processes are broken, model the systems, see where the problems lie, then fix those areas to eliminate redundancy, waste, and ultimately increase profits. Furthermore, they are best able to explain and develop logical consistent maps which diagram these processes, and show how and where they are broken, while more importantly, where and how to fix them. The really bright bulbs can see where in these processes the problems that are occurring are happening because of misuse or misapplication of computer technology to what are really "soft" (ie, human coordinated) issues - which are best left (for now) to humans, and not machines.
Please - rethink what you have told your daughter. Talk to her again, find out what is motivating her. Let her know that computer science is not going away. Software development is not going away. What is going away is "willy-nilly" use of computers. What is needed is more people who understand rational, logical system processes and design, and understanding computer systems is something that could be intrinsic to this knowledge. She may still choose (or you may still urge her) to get her major in something else, but I doubt that having a minor in CS would harm her, and ultimately, may benefit her in numerous ways throughout the rest of her life, both personally and with her career goals.
Turns out the to turn a profit it's better to import the drugs or pure chemicals from Mexico.
I mean, come on - let's be honest. It's Arizona, we have a very porous border with our neighbor to the south, it is very easy to get pseudoephedrine down there in many forms for drug manufacture. Heck, it is easier to set up and run a meth lab down there than up here. The law that passed here in AZ was nothing more than a "feel good" measure that does nothing more than make it more difficult for regular citizens to buy OTC cold meds.
The stupid thing is that you couldn't buy enough of the cold meds at one shot, or multiple shots, to actually do this before the law (to make it worthwhile). Unless you filled up your grocery cart, that is. It was much easier to "wait for a box to fall off the truck", so to speak. Guess what - the new law still doesn't stop those errant boxes from falling...
Not that it matters, though - meth production moved down to Mexico a long time ago. There was a series of stories on this not to long ago in the Phoenix New Times...
No, the market really isn't there for such machines. There are only a handful of companies and government markets that need this kind of processing power, and they typically need it for very specific reasons: nuclear simulations (bombs and otherwise), molecular modeling simulations (drug companies, mostly), fluid flow dynamics simulations (weather modeling and aerodymanics).
Many of these needs can be met very well with commodity hardware based cluster machines (which is what this machine sounds like - more or less), with a fat interconnect (Myrinet and others). The old "workhorse" vector-processor supercomputers, like much of the old-skool Cray line - these are machines which are very tough to build, and even tougher to code for. They have their uses, but most "hard problems" are hard because they need parallel processing power - that is, the problems are reducible to simpler problems that can be run in parallel and the solution formed from the aggregate results. Such needs are easily met with the cluster systems - so more of these systems are sold, and the vector boxes have fallen by the wayside (in sales).
Those places that still need those types of machines tend to horde them like old people horde newspapers. Since these machines are few and far between (even in the heyday of Cray, there really weren't that many of the larger Crays installed worldwide), they all know who has what machines - so if one becomes "decommissioned" at one site, it finds a home at another site as a spare or for parts. That said, the rest of these machines typically become scrap. There aren't many individuals who have the room, let alone the money, to properly store, power, and maintain these boxes. They are big, they are power hungry, and they don't use what one would think of as "standard" parts. Don't even think about the cost in flourinert that some of the Crays requires (gallons upon gallons of flourinert - ever priced the stuff?)...
Another individual has already posted to you a site that lets the public access a few of these kind of machines if you have the need - such public sites are very rare, but that's OK because so are the machines and the uses for them (I mean, if you need such a machine, and you have a good reason and code for such a need - then you are probably in a handful of people worldwide who would need such access). But yeah - most of them get sold as "scrap". A few land in museums. Others get parted out and land on Ebay (there is one guy on Ebay that has been selling various boards and such parts from a parted-out Cray 3 for a while now)...
Slashdot Mirror
Basically, my home network consists of a couple of (linux) workstations coupled to a (linux) Samba fileserver (which also does duty as a home "intranet" webserver and database [mysql and postgresql] server). For the workstations, I have a cron job setup for 1am where each machine mounts the nfs partition and copies various directories for the user of that workstation (/home/$USER/* and others) to the "home" mounted directory for the user. On the server a cron job then runs at 2am and backs up those copies, plus other server directories and data (ie, SQL dumps from the databases, config files for Samba, Apache, and PHP, other data I want to keep) to a temporary area. Once this occurs, the process then creates an ISO image of the temporary area, places it in a "public" readable samba directory for the ISOs, and cleans out the temporary area. The iso images are named by a datetime stamp, and this area is also cleaned periodically every 7 days by the automatic processes so that there is only 7 images kept at one time (past 7 days).
Every week I take the last full image made and create a CD-R of it. Obviously, I can only "backup" about 700Mb or so with this method, more if I use a DVD burner. I have also toyed around with the idea of using the split utility to split an archive across disks, or modding my scripts to do this "manually". One could also backup to a tape drive (tar image), or to a USB drive (flash or enclosed laptop drive).
Like I said, this isn't a robust solution, and numerous improvements could be made to it. I don't back up all of the data on the server (which doesn't have a large hard drive, but it is mostly filled with MP3s, pictures, etc - stuff that I already have a copy of on other CD-Rs and other media), just the important or working data (ie, resumes, email, bookmarks, development code, etc) that I want an archive of. However, for most purposes and uses, it would work fine for most people and thier personal data. Should my fileserver crash (which it did recently, and I was able to restore), I am not able to simply "restore from backup" and all is well - I have to rebuild the system in its entirety (reimage drive, reinstall OS, etc), but I do have the data from the last backup available so that I don't lose any work and such.
I am waiting for the day (probably will never come, I am realistic somewhat) when I can buy a backup solution that supports modern consumer drive space requirements and doesn't require me to take out a second mortgage on my house to do so. I will probably be waiting for a very long time...
The only way you would never have any other emissions from such designs would be if you only burned pure oxygen and hydrogen in your ICE or fuel cell (or scramjet - in which case you might as well use a liquid hydrogen/oxygen rocket instead) - which would never pass FHTSA muster, due to the big explosions which would occur in accidents on the freeway...
So, in a way, every private enterprise that attempts to do this is starting from scratch. Perhaps one of these days, we as a species will learn that killing each other is not the answer to our problems, and only leads to other issues. Until that time, I personally don't expect much change to occur in the development of very large-scale rocketry...
Part of my issue, when or if I get around to building my "PVR" (not really going to be a PVR as such, since it won't have a video input), is the fact that I have a bunch of old hardware that doesn't have the power to digitize video (I am planning on using an old BookPC box). I figure if that works out well (ie, I can get it to do what I want, and it is very easy to use), then I might upgrade to a real set of hardware (ie, buy new stuff specifically for the task).
My plan is to use this box to hook up to my network, and have it play MP3, OGG, and assorted video format files off my network web/file/db server (incidentally, the NFS is based on console Mandrake 10.1 running Apache 2, Samba, MySQL and PostgreSQL). I also plan to have the box (which won't have a huge harddrive - probably an old 6.4 or 8 gig IDE) be able to rip CD's and VCDs (maybe even DVDs, if I am willing to wait and wait) to the network, for later viewing/playback. Finally, I may even set it up to run MAME/MESS for gaming (plus a few other *nix games that would work well on a TV). I also want it to be able to surf the web. For all of this, I don't know if I am going to do a custom build/install, or try to find a distro that will do all of this "out of the box" (anyone have reccommendations?).
Anyhow, since I can't record cable, what then? Well, so what? I can either "browse" crap on TV, or I can browse crap on the internet. For me, I think the internet is the better choice (at least there is some interactivity). Hit Google Video or YouTube and pull my entertainment down for playback. While it isn't professional video for the most part, it is certainly as entertaining as anything on cable, sometimes more so. If I need news or whatnot, there are plenty of options on the web for that as well. In theory, I could even set things up with a web camera to allow me to capture some cheesy video and post to one of the video hosting sites for others to view! Can't do that with cable...
In short, I want to build my "PVR" to be a homebrew "IPTV" box, with the feeds being the free (cheesy) video-on-demand download services that exist today, with a few other tidbits thrown in. If it works out, and I like what I find, then ditching the cable box won't be a problem...
$90k is pretty lucrative for St. Louis! You can probably buy a 1500 square foot house on a 1/4 acre for $90k there (alright, that might be exaggerated, but not by much!)...
My first computer (TRS-80 Color Computer 2) had a whole 16K of RAM, 8K of which was "video memory". When I upgraded to 32K, then 64K - I thought I was in "heaven". Until I got my Color Computer 3 - which had a whopping 128K of memory! WOW! Then I eventually got the 512K Disto upgrade.
The machines we (and kids) have today would have been considered so far outside the possibility of ownership back then, that they would have been mere fantasy. I dreamt about being able to program a 3D adventure game as I played Zork or even King's Quest. I even dabbled with 3D programming, but was unable to realize even the barest of my imaginations.
Today, kids have the power to realize entire worlds in marvelous and stunning 3D, replete with realistic textures and sounds. Yet it feels like they don't care to really attempt to do anything with this power, but rather consume what others give them - they would rather play in a pre-built world, than build their own. I am sure there are a few who do create their own worlds - maybe this passion will always be in the minority. I just wish it wasn't this way.
Finally, I must say I am grateful that my parents supported my computing habit at a time when home computing was still a minor thing, but a major purchase. Had they not, I wouldn't be where I am today (eh, posting to /. at work, I suppose?)...
You are correct by this, which is what makes me feel so sick.
I don't understand why it is that I can see the illogic of this, yet others, for whatever reason, cannot. Many so-called people seem to have no qualms about killing another individual (or even a group), yet these self-same persons are fearful of (or abhor) their own death. It is like these people lack the ability to project their subjective viewpoint into objective space. They are quite literally unable to "put themselves into the other person's shoes", so to speak.
Yet this is considered "basic humanity"? Does that mean - because I can see where if I don't want to die and I don't want someone to kill me and that thus, someone else may not want me to kill them - that I do not possess "basic humanity", that I am therefore somehow less than human? Is it more human to be irrational and emotional, rather than rational and logical? If so, then why do we (as a whole) refuse to accept we are nothing more or better than animals? Surely animals tend more toward the "irrational" and "emotional" (better known as "instinctual"), than reason.
Why can I see this (and I realize I am by no means alone in this, but that we are a very small minority)? Why must I see this? It is a curse I and others hold. Sometimes I wish to rid myself of it, knowing I cannot. I also know that I would be the lesser for it should that happen.
Society seems to drill into its members that rationalism and logic are to be frowned upon, and beaten out. Should you continue to tread this path, you will be ostracized. You will be ridiculed. Society then upholds greatness in irrationality. The insanity is that society at the same time (societal cognitive dissonance?) knows it cannot live without the rational and the logical, for both concepts are needed in order for society to exist - technology, education, food production, art, etc - cannot exist without some form of rationalism and logic. Without rationalism and logic, we would be mere animals.
This is somehow surpressed and made to appear to be wrong, though, when it comes to killing one another. Insanity.
This is the problem: there are some people out there who, when they view the image of a woman in high heels stepping on a wine glass, or an image of an automobile accident, damn near cream themselves in excitement (some of them might be reading this RIGHT NOW - SHOCK!).
True, these are obscure fetishes, but they exist. Most people would see such images and shrug their shoulders. To these people, those images aren't porn. However, to the fetishist, such images could be porn of high caliber!
Thus, it can't hold true that a single person "knows porn when he sees it" - because each of us might have a totally different perception of what porn is. So, how can a single person decide what porn is for the rest of is? The truth is, they can't. Furthermore, if they try, they won't be successful, because as long as there are images of broken wine glasses, women in high heels, and automobile accidents, there will be porn out there for someone, somewhere...
I doubt this is about "dogmatic belief". Instead, I believe that this is really about "inner shame", or some other inner fear, that these people aren't even willing to express to themselves, let alone to others.
Instead, these people seek to impose a level of control on others, in the belief that "if this controls them, it will control me too, and I won't feel this way - or at least there will be less temptation". Unfortunately, because they never explore whatever dark feelings they have, in order to understand them and what has motivated them to feel this way, they don't realize that imposing such rules as a whole on the society will ultimately do nothing to assuage the skeletons in their own closets.
Seriously: How many times in the history of the planet have there been those on their high horses who have fallen, due to the very "blasphemy" they have preached against? Need we look further than Catholic priests who molest children? There are other similar instances of such hypocrisy out there - all one has to do is pay attention to the news, and compare today's stories with yesterday's.
I am certain that some of these people are supposedly "pure souls" who seek to "enlighten the rest of us". I am not trying to paint them all with the same large brush. However, I bet the majority of them are as I described above. If not that, then these people are simply on a power grab, saying to themselves "no hedonism for you, but for me - well, I have the power to get around the laws I help create, of course". Either way, these two groups of people scare me...
Yet - with this simple hardware, he and many others founded companies, some of which still exist to this day!
Low power computing doesn't equal useless computing, not at all. If it is Turing complete, all bets are off - any computer that is Turing complete can simulate any other computer that is the same. Hardware is software in physical form. It may take one computer longer to compute than another, but so what?
Where is the real payoff of computing? It is an introduction to logic and rationalism, for computers cannot be understood without understanding those two principles (that doesn't mean they can't be used without understanding those principles - but if you don't have a grounding in those principles, and an understanding how to apply both of them, you won't get very far after your computer crashes - better hope - pray! - the reboot works).
These principles are what governments fear, because they ultimately lead to questions, as well as answers, about power and freedom. The People cannot have that at any cost...
Listen, if my beneficiaries are too stupid to a) look through my wallet, b) look through my files at home, c) figure out how to use a death certificate, d) contact my place of work, or e) ignore the letters that "automagically" show up from every quarter when you die, in order to figure out how to contact the insurance companies - then they don't deserve to get the money, as they will be too dumb to figure out how to properly use it when I am gone.
I am certain there are tons of other ways they could figure all of this out. I am not about to use my SSN (as an ID number for insurance) in the here-and-now, which could conceivably allow someone else to compromise my identity and screw with my LIFE, just to be "considerate" so that my so-called beneficiaries aren't inconvenienced by my DEATH.
Screw that.
Actually, if you sign up for insurance, for most applications you can write the words "please assign" in the space for the SSN, and the company will assign a number for your policy. I should note that some brokers will get smart with you, and try to "guilt you" into providing your real social "in the event you are incapacitated" and "so your loved ones can help". Don't let them guilt you (if I am incapacitated or dead - I don't care anymore, now do I?). Also, don't put in a "fake SSN", as these get caught fairly easily (and you'll get a phone call or letter) - or if they aren't, then it might be YOU who are guilty of "identity theft", if it is found out it matches someone else's real number in the system...
It is the same with paper. Paper that is kept "dense" doesn't burn as well as say crumpled paper because there is higher ratio of oxygen to paper surface area. Shredding the paper increases that ratio to an even greater amount. A hay or straw bale doesn't burn as well as loose hay or straw in a pile will. I think you get the point.
With that said, I would reccommend getting a shredder (cross cut) to run those pages through, before you have them burned. Interestingly, I am trying to figure out how I can take this shredded confetti and turn it into fuel logs or bricks for my fireplace in the wintertime. If I could get blocks of parrafin cheaply enough, some steel molds (maybe bread pans?), and a few other things, such things could be made cheaply (hopefully cheaper than a Duraflame log). Get the junk mail companies to (mostly) pay for heating my home in the winter (not like I need much heat here in Phoenix)...
Note: Ken_g6, this isn't aimed at you - your tips are spot on...
If you know what you are doing, have no qualms about "dumpster diving", and are willing to get up off the couch for a weekend to peruse business park/office building dumpsters - most of the time you can get enough working parts for a computer - for free!
Indeed, if you work for any business with a large enough IT department, and are nice to the IT staff, you can sometimes get whole systems for nothing. The last company I worked at, I managed to grab tons of old hardware - most of the machines in my house are made from scrap they gave me.
I can't tell you how much hardware can be found just by looking at dumpsters behind office buildings and in business parks (another tip - if your municipality has "bulk-trash-pickup", browse around "rich area" of town when their scheduled dates are near - rich people are somtimes idiots when it comes to computers, and tend to throw out 1-2 year old boxes and buy new when they get infested with spyware). Make sure you have a truck (small 4-banger pickup will do), and some scruffy clothes on (jeans, gloves, boots, hat, t-shirt, etc - remember, you will be working with garbage), and just tell any security you are moving and need boxes - most will go away. If they persist, appologize and leave immediately. If you find some stuff, grab it and take it home before grousing elsewhere (hard to pull the "just-moving-and-need-boxes" bit when you have 19 inch rack in the back of your pickup). If you need more parts, Goodwill, other thrift stores, and helpful friends can get you other stuff. For the rest, you may need to EBay or buy new parts.
Now, you won't have the latest and greatest machine on the planet just to play WoW on, but I guarantee (especially using FOSS) that you will have a good machine to do real work on.
Indeed, it is this and other devices which Asimov employs in his fiction-based studies of human nature which make his books masterpieces in the hard-science fiction genre. He could have just as easily have written about ordinary men under regular law, during just about any era in history, but such stories wouldn't have likely had the same impact as what he ultimately wrote. His work is great social commentary and insight about the human condition wrapped in a gauze of fiction. Unfortunately, so many people seem to not realize this or choose to ignore it. So much for reading comprehension, I guess.
With that said, is it really any wonder why we would make automated war machines (especially ones which fail the "Three Laws of Robotics")? Throughout history, technology (amongst other things) has ultimately been spurred on more by violence than by any other force. Information technology and the machines which manifest themselves from it are no different (save for the other great driving force, sex, which also has proven to be a factor in the spread of information and the technology that controls it). Violence and sex - war and pornography - these are ultimately the two great driving forces of information technology in human society.
Where's my fembot, damn it?!
Simulator sickness is something that has been known about for many, many years, and has had a lot of study put behind it. While people were experiencing similar motion sickness issues with the advent of very large movie screens and "wraparound" 360 degree panorama movies in the 1950's and 1960's, it wasn't until fairly realistic flight-simulator systems were being developed in the late-1960's and 1970's that the issue started being widely studied, because now pilots training on large motion-platform simulators and such started to become more common, and they were experiencing such issues (not good PR for the simulator company - many times the builder of the plane!).
What has been learned is enlightening, and there is a lot of research on the issue (and a large resurgence in interes of the phenomena happened in the 1990's when virtual reality system users experienced simular issues). The main problem is two-fold: as you approach (or attain) full-immersion in a simulated world, you need to make the inputs to your brain (eyes and inner-ear are most important) as synced up as possible. Any deviation from this is likely to cause motion-sickness. Thus, if you are in a fully-immersive environment where you are driving or flying, your real-world cockpit needs to move (or at least feel) as real as the real thing would, and more importantly, those movements cannot be out of sync of the motion "on screen" (whether that screen is in front of/wrapped around you, or as an HMD). If you are in a standup/walkaround VR simulation, you need to be able to match the movement on the screens of the HMD with the movement you are making in real life (3D tracking). If it is out of sync (mainly head movement) - say you turn your head, and the turning of the scene lags by a few milliseconds, you may (most likely will) experience motion sickness. In large motion-platform simulators (like flight simulators), the same issue is at play, but this time with the movement of the cockpit relative to the screen movement.
So, what is the solution to your problems? Many other issues can come into play: refresh rate of the scene is important, of course, but so is the refresh rate of the display, which others have noted. I have read comments here that lowering the resolution/effects can help - these may be pychological remedies (make it more cartoony looking to break the immersion factor more?), but if they work, who cares (I have never seen a study on this, but it is an interesting idea, and makes sense from a simulation perspective). Basically, if you are trying to fully immerse yourself into the game, you can't do it halfway - either take it as fully as you possibly can (full-immersion HMD with full 3D tracking of body - ie, $25,000 will get you there), or stop trying to do this: turn on or at least brighten the room lights so that the screen isn't the only thing your eyes and peripheral vision rest on. Move back from the screen so you can see the edges and stuff around the screen. You might try standing and moving as you play (or move more while sitting). Maybe try a recliner that rocks so you can move more. Play on a smaller screen rather than a large big-screen projection TV.
Yes, I know, none of these suggestions are great - but doing these things will help. Also be aware, as others have noted here, that there is a certain portion of the population who are prone to general motion sickness (sometimes these poor individuals get nauseous just sitting up in bed in the morning). Not much can be done (except to stop playing the games) to help these people. I will note though, that one person posted here about this saying that people who get nauseous while reading a book in a moving vehicle are prone isn't completely correct - it may indicate they might be prone, but I can te
I would after I (or had somebody else) inspected it. If I look at it, the outside, the interior, the engine, the mounts, the transmission, hoses, belts, suspension, tires, wheels, etc - if it looks good, then I turn the vehicle on, with the hood open, and listen/look at the engine (no wierd noises, abnormal smells or smoke, open the oil cap once at operating temp to see if there is any smoke/blowby, etc), then drive it around (handles well, runs well, brakes well, no abnormal noises, etc) - if all of that checks out, then yeah - I would buy it.
The thing is, most people don't know how or why to do these things (hell, most people don't even know how to change their oil), and they get scammed on obviously bad car deals every day, that anyone with a modicum of sense (and a little grease under their nails - why don't people understand and work on their cars?) would be able to see was a real lemon.
As far as other products - I have gotten great deals from sellers on EBay for items you can't find any where else. Now, whether the products are actually worth what I paid for them, I don't really know - most of the time I think I got a great deal. For instance, I enjoy buying older (mid-1990's) "professional" VR HMDs. I once picked up a General Reality Cyber-Eye CE-200M HMD from a seller for around $300.00 (and it included a 3DOF sourceless magnetic tracker the seller didn't realize was a separate part - that was an $800.00 unit by itself). A couple of years later I picked up a well used Virtuality Visette 2 HMD (originally part of an arcade pod) for around $200.00 (that one may or may not work - I have yet to get it powered up because of the non-standard connector and the need for PAL composite video). Recently (last year), I picked up (from a local junkyard) an Altair 8080 for $100.00 (it was the lowest he would go - oh, damn). It needs some cleaning and TLC - but I know it is worth way more than I paid.
All of this comes back to knowing what it is you are buying. When it comes to buying used items where the item can be viewed, that is one thing. But where you can't view it, you have to use all the tools at your disposal. For my EBay purchases, that means looking at the history of the seller, and what people have to say about him, and what the item is. Since I tend to buy obscure stuff off of sellers on EBay, I carefully look at any pictures of the item in question. For VR gear, you can tell if it is a "scam" (ie, using obvious product photos instead of real ones of the item in question), or if they are really trying to offload a real item from another era. Most of the time, you can tell when someone is selling used stuff they don't want/need anymore, vs a possible scam, by taking in all the information together, getting a "gut feeling", and going with that.
Now - if only someone would sell for a very low price a multi-sensor Polhemus magnetic tracker system...sigh.
But who cares about that - what I want in a home is a home designed for the enviroment it is in. I live in Phoenix, AZ and I can't believe the number of houses that are built every day with no regards for "desert living". It is like the builders just assume there will always be groundwater and electricity available for everyone for whatever needs, with no thought at all to the rest. No new houses have integrated solar water heating, for instance, despite the fact that we get so much damn sun and it would cut electricity or gas usage easily. No options, it seems, for installing solar electric panels on rooftops (unless you are going custom - read that as a lot of $$$$, not worth it to many people). What about the design of the house itself? None of them are designed "solar friendly", which if done right could pay off in cooling and heating. None of this stuff is "revolutionary". I am talking about things like rammed-earth construction, or monolithic domes (why all the square sides which expose more surface area to sunlight and heating in the summertime than a dome?).
This type of thinking is what we need for "future housing construction". We need the idea in people's heads that using energy as efficiently as possible for their houses, for the area being lived in, is best - for the environment, for the country, and yes, for the pocketbook as well! Unfortunately, none of the ideas allow builders to simply throw up a cheap stick frame house (using illegal labor, to boot!) with stucco on cardboard, styrofoam, and chicken wire (though the chicken wire is going away, too), then sell the POS to some schmuck for 10x or more what it is probably worth. In other words, like everything else, they build it as cheaply as possible, as quickly as possible, using the cheapest labor possible, then turn around and sell it as quickly as possible to the first Joe willing to cough the dough up, and pocket the return on investment.
I can't say I blame them - after all, that is pure business and capitalism at its base. But ultimately, it is going to run the world (well, us humans at least) into the ground - and most of us are too stupid or greedy to admit it, or see that it is happenning. Every one of us - including me.
I started using computers with a TRS-80 Color Computer 2 (and later upgraded to a CoCo 3), around 1984. About a year later I got my first floppy drive (!) - yeah, I was stuck on tape until then, sue me! Anyhow, one of the first games I begged my parents for was a game by a Canadian company called "Diecom Software". The game was "Gates of Delerium". Basically, it was an Ultima clone for the Color Computer.
When it finally arrived in the mail (there was some kind of Canadian postal strike that happenned at the time, and a lot of mail got held up for a couple of months at the border or something), I read the manual, and saw, to my dismay, that there was a form of copy protection on one of the floppies. Basically, you could make a backup of the game floppy (the player data floppy was not protected), but if you wanted to restore the floppy for whatever reason, you had to restore the backup to the original game floppy. If the game floppy became damaged, you would need to send off to Diecom to receive a "new" blank floppy with the protection on it for it to work.
Oh well - I made my backups, played the game, enjoyed it - but never finished it. Fast forward about 15 years...
I get my old computer and all my old floppies from my parents, and I decide that I want to take all of that old software, and move it onto an emulation system. I build a PC running DOS and a few CoCo emulators (mainly David Keil's emus), with a 5 1/4 floppy drive I pick off of Ebay. I find out I need a new drive for the CoCo (my original died for some reason), so on Ebay I find another, get it installed, etc. I decided to try out some of my original floppies. Most of them work. I begin the process of transferring stuff (most of it my old BASIC code and stuff I typed in from old Rainbow and Hot CoCo magazines), and trying it out on the emulator. The majority of it works great. Some of it fails, the floppy is bad. Then, I get to Gates of Delerium.
I tried to run it on my CoCo 3, and it fails to work. I try it on my CoCo 2 - still fails. It gets part way (text title screen loads), then it just hangs. Nothing I do makes it work, I am at a loss. I put it on the "back burner", and continue with the conversion. I get it done, and I would say 95% or so of my data transfers fine - which isn't bad considering the age of the whole system and floppies. But Gates of Delerium - what to do there?
I decided I would try to contact the owner of Diecom software. Through a bit of googling, some link tracking, and whatnot - I eventually get in contact with one of the founders (Dave Dies, incidentally, and he was working as a programmer of cell phone games). I talked to him about Gates of Delerium, mentioned my problem, but he wasn't able to help me - most of the stuff from the Diecom days was gone, the rest was in some storage unit or warehouse that he didn't have the time to search through. I asked him if there would be a problem with me attempting to create a clone of the game from my memory - he said he didn't think there would be an issue, given the amount of time that had passed, etc. I also asked him about the status of the copyright on all of the Diecom software (there were some nice CoCo 3 pieces) - this he wasn't sure on at the time, and was hesitant to say anything, especially when I asked him about abandonware.
So - there I was - no closer to having my copy of the software, which I had the manual, original floppies, etc - ie, I owned a real license, not pirated - but the floppy was dead, and I couldn't get it to run - I had no recourse. What to do?
Some more time passes, and I eventually join the CoCo Mailing List, and I recount my woes there. One person responds to me saying he had a copy of the game as well. To make a long story short, me and two other guys eventually, through a bit of coding, some very deft hardware usage by one dude (without which we never would have gotten anywhere), who had a KopyKat (or
Something a lot of people don't seem to understand about "radiation" is that there are essentially two kinds: ionizing and non-ionizing radiation.
Ionizing radiation can be considered the "bad" kind of radiation - it is radiation of nuclear particles which interact with (on an atomic level) with other particles, and ultimately can cause genetic mutation and other sorts of biological nastiness, for various given levels of exposure and source types. For many particles, ambient environmental water vapor stops their movement. For most other particles, simple paper, or other thin shields stop movement (this includes skin - which is why these can cause long term exposure problems, like cancer). The majority of the rest can be stopped by relatively thin metal plates (steel, iron, lead). High energy particles (which cause much of the short-exposure-but-lethal cases - due to major genetic trauma as they pass through an organism) can be stopped with thick lead and concrete shields. For some (albeit low count) particles, nothing can stop them - not even a universe wide thickness of lead - so don't worry about those.
Non-ionizing radiation, on the other hand, is more benign. Such radiation is typically in the form of electromagnetic waves, at various frequencies and amplitudes. This includes RF sources like cell phones, microwave ovens, radios, and computer monitors. This radiation is typically easily blocked by most materials, although some energy in the form of heat may be transferred in the process. This does not mean such exposure can be safe - it depends on frequency and the power (amplitude) levels of the source. A cell phone or a radio is not likely to give you cancer or "fry your brain". However, this does not mean you should stand next to a 50,000 watt radio station antenna that is transmitting (radiation burns from such source can and do happen, especially at higher frequencies in/near the microwave region - ask any ham operator). A microwave can heat and cook food, but a simple mesh of small holes (smaller than the microwave oven's RF wavelength) can stop these waves from exiting the microwave. That does not mean you should operate the magnetron without shielding in place and point it at your head.
Both sources of radiation, ionizing and non-ionizing, obey the inverse square law - that is, the further you are away, the amount you recieve is based on the inverse square of the distance (I think that is correct). Thus, exposure amounts drop rapidly (exponentially) as you move further from the source.
I think most slashdotters understand and know the above (I will admit I may be wrong in a few details, but I think I am pretty close). The problem with all this "nuclear fear" is that so many regular people just don't understand anything when it comes to radiation. They hear the words "radiation" or "nuclear", and they automatically think death and mutation, when nothing could be further from the truth. Such misunderstanding is the result of a long-time FUD campaign stretching at least as far back as the 1950's, and possible further. As a result of this, trying to educate the populace in the truth regarding radiation feels like a futile effort, but until people understand the issue, we will likely never advance in our use of nuclear energy as a way to provide power...
I saw this crap likely to happen many years ago, so before Yahoo and others went to "must have a valid email address to set up free email", I set up free email accounts with them (and a few others) via a web proxy. These addresses are only used via a proxy, and since that time, I have set up other email accounts elsewhere via proxied access, with those original accounts being the "valid email address". I check these accounts (proxied again) on an regular basis, and make new ones - so I always have a source of anon email addresses - when and if I need them for whatever purpose. I will concede they aren't perfectly anonymous, but they are anonymous enough, since I use proxies in other countries to access them, they would be somewhat of a PITA for LE to track through...
Why did you talk her out of it? Why did you talk her out of something she was expressing interest in? Was her interest for the money making aspect, or because she wants to know how the machine works?
I can understand if it was strictly for the pursuit of money - one should always attempt to find a job or career, whatever it ultimately is, where one enjoys going into work every day, and furthermore enjoys what they do. If someone doesn't enjoy what they do, they will never be as good at that work as someone who does it for the pleasure of doing it. However, if your daughter was interested in learning about computers for the sake of learning about computers, why supress that?
Indeed, for many diciplines, knowing more about computers will be a requirement, or at the very least allow for interesting opportunities to use that knowledge. For instance, a molecular biologist who understands computers could better utilize bioinformatic techniques, or understand their use by the computer techs - better than just someone who understands biology or computers alone would. An auto mechanic who understands computers could better understand how a vehicular computer does what it does versus a mechanic who doesn't. These are just two examples of many! I honestly wish there were more neurologists (and others in the living brain sciences) who understood computer concepts - and vice-versa! Perhaps we could have better computers - or better brains (or better understanding of brains)! Truely, there are people who have knowledge and training in both, but they are few and far between.
A person who understands computers, computer systems, logical reasoning, processes, and process maps - in addition to their regular training or knowledge - will be a much better person for any job, especially in business. Currently, one of the biggest issues businesses are facing is learning how their own processes, as a system, are working (or more likely, aren't!). While understanding this doesn't require someone who has an MBA and a CS degree, those who do understand both business practices and processes, along with computing systems, techniques, and processes, they can quickly understand and see where those business processes are broken, model the systems, see where the problems lie, then fix those areas to eliminate redundancy, waste, and ultimately increase profits. Furthermore, they are best able to explain and develop logical consistent maps which diagram these processes, and show how and where they are broken, while more importantly, where and how to fix them. The really bright bulbs can see where in these processes the problems that are occurring are happening because of misuse or misapplication of computer technology to what are really "soft" (ie, human coordinated) issues - which are best left (for now) to humans, and not machines.
Please - rethink what you have told your daughter. Talk to her again, find out what is motivating her. Let her know that computer science is not going away. Software development is not going away. What is going away is "willy-nilly" use of computers. What is needed is more people who understand rational, logical system processes and design, and understanding computer systems is something that could be intrinsic to this knowledge. She may still choose (or you may still urge her) to get her major in something else, but I doubt that having a minor in CS would harm her, and ultimately, may benefit her in numerous ways throughout the rest of her life, both personally and with her career goals.
I mean, come on - let's be honest. It's Arizona, we have a very porous border with our neighbor to the south, it is very easy to get pseudoephedrine down there in many forms for drug manufacture. Heck, it is easier to set up and run a meth lab down there than up here. The law that passed here in AZ was nothing more than a "feel good" measure that does nothing more than make it more difficult for regular citizens to buy OTC cold meds.
The stupid thing is that you couldn't buy enough of the cold meds at one shot, or multiple shots, to actually do this before the law (to make it worthwhile). Unless you filled up your grocery cart, that is. It was much easier to "wait for a box to fall off the truck", so to speak. Guess what - the new law still doesn't stop those errant boxes from falling...
Not that it matters, though - meth production moved down to Mexico a long time ago. There was a series of stories on this not to long ago in the Phoenix New Times...
Wish I had mod points - love the comment!
Many of these needs can be met very well with commodity hardware based cluster machines (which is what this machine sounds like - more or less), with a fat interconnect (Myrinet and others). The old "workhorse" vector-processor supercomputers, like much of the old-skool Cray line - these are machines which are very tough to build, and even tougher to code for. They have their uses, but most "hard problems" are hard because they need parallel processing power - that is, the problems are reducible to simpler problems that can be run in parallel and the solution formed from the aggregate results. Such needs are easily met with the cluster systems - so more of these systems are sold, and the vector boxes have fallen by the wayside (in sales).
Those places that still need those types of machines tend to horde them like old people horde newspapers. Since these machines are few and far between (even in the heyday of Cray, there really weren't that many of the larger Crays installed worldwide), they all know who has what machines - so if one becomes "decommissioned" at one site, it finds a home at another site as a spare or for parts. That said, the rest of these machines typically become scrap. There aren't many individuals who have the room, let alone the money, to properly store, power, and maintain these boxes. They are big, they are power hungry, and they don't use what one would think of as "standard" parts. Don't even think about the cost in flourinert that some of the Crays requires (gallons upon gallons of flourinert - ever priced the stuff?)...
Another individual has already posted to you a site that lets the public access a few of these kind of machines if you have the need - such public sites are very rare, but that's OK because so are the machines and the uses for them (I mean, if you need such a machine, and you have a good reason and code for such a need - then you are probably in a handful of people worldwide who would need such access). But yeah - most of them get sold as "scrap". A few land in museums. Others get parted out and land on Ebay (there is one guy on Ebay that has been selling various boards and such parts from a parted-out Cray 3 for a while now)...