Actually, two factors are overlooked here. First off, the IRS figures are for the federal income tax one of the most progressive taxes out there. If you take into account the highly regressive federal payroll taxes and the equally regressive state sales taxes, the percentage of taxes paid by the 'lucky duckys' on the bottom of the income scale comes out to about the same percentage as the top of the scale . Secondly, measuring the tax 'burden' of an individual in terms of the percentage of ones income is highly misleading, taking home 60% of minimum wage is really rough, taking home 60% of a six figure income is an irritation.
Finally the better portion of the wealtiest individuals are heirs to fortunes established by their parents and grandparents. If we were really interested in 'equal opprotunity' and rewarding hard work and perserverance we'd have a 100% estate tax. The children of the wealthy would still have the advantages of connections and educations financed by their parents, but would not be subjected to the soft bigotry of low expectations.
What sort of fundamentals do you mean? GOTOs, lack of dymamic data structures, rudmentary structure, total lack of object orientation. QBASIC instills all the worst "bad habits" that we were having to beat out of programmers in the '80s. It's FORTRAN IV without the performance and 6502 Assembly code without the relevance. Why not throw in keypunch training to provide more fundamentals?
The only conceivable reason any teacher would teach QBASIC in 2003 is that it is the only language he ever learned (probably a gym coach moonlighting as a computer teacher). Such "teachers" should be immediately arrested on multiple charges of "Contributing to the Deliquency of a Minor" and "Reckless Child Endangerment".
For the sake of all that is holy start the kids on an elegant, powerful language like Python or Java. I mean Python is not only a hundred times more useful but it's free as well.
as per the episode "Fear, Itself" Buffy: This is SCO? Xander: Big overture. Leetle show. SCO (in a tiny, high-pitched voice): I am the dark lord of nightmares. The bringer of terror! Tremble before me. Fear me! Willow: He... he's so cute! SCO: Tremble! Xander: Who's the little fear demon? Come on, who's the little fear demon? Giles: Don't taunt the fear demon. Xander: Why, can he hurt me? Giles: No. It's just... tacky.
SCO: They're all going to abandon you, you know. Buffy: Yeah, yeah. Gachnar: Wait, wai--//Smoosh!//
The simplest solution is to simply install Linux, once this has been done you have an embarasement of riches, several dozen languages and enviroments to develop in. Personally I recomend python with pygame . Allowing the kids to code videogames in a page or two of code. If you stick to the Windows Enviroment (which, alas will lead to stunted growth, hairy palms, feeblemindedness etc...) simply download ActivePython from ActiveState.com along with pygame from pygame.org. Now you have a full tilt language and an excellent integrated development environment for free (as in beer). On the other hand you could simply download brainf*ck http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/bf/ and a win32 freeware version of vi.
Of course, We have 5 mini-clusters running real time stereoscopic rendering for our 3d displays. Each cube renders a separate perspective with a dedicated video card. We even have Quake II running in 3d without the need for glasses.
Of course the evil Commies had the additional advantage of only using the Metric system* allowing them to avoid mixing metric and english units.
*Devised by the even more evil French specifically designed to confuse good but simpleminded Americans, in much the same manner as that evil Iraqi invention algebra.
The actual path between two points taken by a beam of light is the one which is traversed in the least time. (Wikipedia)
In a medium which is isotropic this corresponds to a straignt line since the shortest path between two points is a straight line. In a inhomogeneous medium the path of a ray of light corresponds to the path integral of the index of refraction. In the case of discrete boundaries this corresponds to straight lines between bounadries with refraction occuring at the boundary according to Snell's law (which corresponds to a minimization of the path integral). In the case of smoothly varying indices of refraction, such as in a heated gas or a medium of varying concentration the light follows a curved path described by a minimization of the path integral, resulting in a curved path. This is not only the basis for mirages but also "lineless" bifocals. The atmoshere of Venus at one point was believed to be so dense that the curvature of these rays would make an observer think that he was within a bowl. see http://www.cosmographica.com/gallery/portfolio/por tfolio051/pages/096-%20Superrefraction%20.htm
As for light travelling in straight lines through water check out http://faraday.physics.uiowa.edu/optics/6A40.40.ht m and http://faraday.physics.uiowa.edu/images/6a40.40b.j pg in this case the varying refraction is achieved by varying concentrations of sugar (although brine will work as well).
This gradient index effect is commonly employed within CD-rom lenses: http://www.sinopt.com/software1/usrguide54/example s/grinlens.htm
So an example of bending rays of light is probably within arm's reach of you.
All this being said the primary source of the distortion is probably the line scan optics.
I use iSilo for my stuff, it supports the Clie high res modes, memory stick and thumbweel and is very good at capturing mulipage html content. I use it in conjunction with sitescooper to capture newspages from the web each day.
A small form factor computer provides huge performance with a cube which is small enough to class as airport carry on. With a GearGrip handle the entire system can be carried at a moments notice . The Shuttle SN41G2 incorporates an nforce2 chipset with integrated dual head video (s-video output too) ethernet socket and six channel audio. Toss in an LCD, DVD/CDR drive speaker set, and a wifi card (or a PVR Card and a usb wifi adapter)and you have equipped the entire dorm room. The one challenge is incorporating a theft protection option.
The other option is a micro-itx based PC, which incorporates everything but fast 3d. Add a wifi card and you are in buisiness.
Cory Doctrow and Charles Stross are writing a short story extrapolating all this. Their work in progress is being tracked on a movable type blog at http://craphound.com/unwirer/
If we follow the trajectory of Spam, DMCA, Super DMCA, Eldred, PATRIOT I&II etc. we won't see the death of the internet, just the death of the United States as a technological superpower. Between the near impossibility of programming new apps, hardware or media that don't infringe and the lack of support for education the US may lose any hope of keeping up with less litigated societies.
I'd Suggest the SPRACHT SP1022 Wherever Light UB. http://www.spracht.com/wherever-gear/wherever -ligh ts.htm The Spracht light uses a flexible gooseneck led lamp like the unit described, but it terminates in a coaxial power connector. The connector connects to three adaptors:
-A USB adaptor for laptops
-A Cigarette Lighter adaptor for the car
-A 3 AA battery pack with belt clip (Handy for repair work) If you need to run the unit with mains power it should be readily achived by rigging a gender bender for a AC transformer 'wall wart' Very solid construction with good light distribution. The NV unit is the same but it has a Red LED for retaining night vision (dim green is actually better for retaining night vision but that's another matter). The switch is located at the "bulb" end which is handy for reading. The belt hook should clip to most book covers.
All for $20 at Fry's.
Alternatively, there are cigarette lighter and mains adapters for USB powered connectors (particularly for PDA chargers). This is handy for illumination in tight spaces (I use a similar arrangement for lighting my expresso machine).
The Borg were hopelessly pussified by the 'Hugh' Borg (I Borg). The 'Hugh borg' made Hello Kitty menacing by comparison. (Actually the borg appearing in the Enterprise will be assimilated forms of Hello Kitty and Badtz Maru)
If portions of the borg sphere survived and made contact with the Enterprise era collective, the resulting jump in borg tech in the next 200 years would render them invincible.
1. Bring in Warren Ellis (transmetropolitan etc.) 2. Remove B&B and get Warren Ellis to determine their fate. 3. Implement #2 on pay per view. 4. ??? 5. Profit!
There won't be much left of the crew, or the galaxy for that matter, after the end of the next season but it will be a hell of a ride. And he will make the first officer a lesbian, albeit an ultraviolent junkie nanotech foglet lesbian.
I've been a die hard trekkie for the past 30+ years.
I'd seen every episode of the TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager (untill the second season ending which sucked so badly, I gave up until 7of9)
I simply can't watch Enterprise, it sucks so bad.
Trek has always been a sci-fi procedural (in the same manner as Law & Order and CSI are police procedural). Consistency and continuity are essential to maintaining the Trek Franchise. Once B&B started to kick the continuity blocks out from under Trek the shows have sucked badly. The onset of this suckage has been slow and each show has been compared to the previous show, so the enormity of the suckage is not as obvious.
This was brought home to me by two things in the past week. The first is that I watched the entire "Irresponsible Capt. Tylor" anime series (www.tylor.com). Forget humor, the drama in the series blew away the past 3 trek series. I really cared about the crew and couldn't anticipate what they would do next. Second, I read Charles Stross' most recent nerdcore fiction 'Router' (http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0303/router.shtml). Trek has always been at best a rehash of half century old golden age SF, with the most recent series having precious little of that, but stuff like "Router" makes it look like the original Flash Gordon serials with sparkler exhausts. If someone can work out a formula for making good TV out of this stuff 'Enterprise' will look like 'Hooterville Junction'.
In the name of all that is holy! -Get rid of B&B (Via a leaf chipper if possible). -Kill the reset button, characters either evolve or die! -Get some aliens that are _alien_!
Hand the whole thing over to one of the folowing individuals:
-Joss Wheedon: He's got time on his hands. He can create real characters. The story will evolve. He can do aliens (read demons) well. He _will_ do something different, he _will not_ rehash the new thing 10,000 times. He _will_ find ways of finding entirely new things to do with the most threadbare plot devices. He will make the first officer a lesbian.
-JMS: He will construct a complete story arc. He will do aliens right. He will crush the reset switch. He will make the first officer a lesbian.
-Kevin Smith: He will make the scripts a lot snappier. Even if the show continues to suck it will be funny as hell. He will make the first officer a lesbian.
I was thinking along the same lines. Some of the cheaper Argus models would seem to be fine. Given the resolution, a ziploc bag might be sufficent and a dessicant pack may fufill the needs.
Embossed Holograms (the type that appear in credit cards) are produced by making a nickel shim from the original hologram (in photoresist) via electroplating Gold is sputtered on the resist and nickel is electroplated. If gold is built up instead a shim with the relief structure could be generated and incorporated into a gold ring. With a thin layer of protective material (perhaps a diamond CVD film) the ring could be extremely durable. A 3d image could be generated or a pattern that would be projected by a laser pointer. Very unique.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't wait for the civilian spinoffs of this one: hypersonic drive-bys
Actually, two factors are overlooked here. First off, the IRS figures are for the federal income tax one of the most progressive taxes out there. If you take into account the highly regressive federal payroll taxes and the equally regressive state sales taxes, the percentage of taxes paid by the 'lucky duckys' on the bottom of the income scale comes out to about the same percentage as the top of the scale . Secondly, measuring the tax 'burden' of an individual in terms of the percentage of ones income is highly misleading, taking home 60% of minimum wage is really rough, taking home 60% of a six figure income is an irritation.
Finally the better portion of the wealtiest individuals are heirs to fortunes established by their parents and grandparents. If we were really interested in 'equal opprotunity' and rewarding hard work and perserverance we'd have a 100% estate tax. The children of the wealthy would still have the advantages of connections and educations financed by their parents, but would not be subjected to the soft bigotry of low expectations.
What sort of fundamentals do you mean? GOTOs, lack of dymamic data structures, rudmentary structure, total lack of object orientation. QBASIC instills all the worst "bad habits" that we were having to beat out of programmers in the '80s. It's FORTRAN IV without the performance and 6502 Assembly code without the relevance. Why not throw in keypunch training to provide more fundamentals?
The only conceivable reason any teacher would teach QBASIC in 2003 is that it is the only language he ever learned (probably a gym coach moonlighting as a computer teacher). Such "teachers" should be immediately arrested on multiple charges of "Contributing to the Deliquency of a Minor" and "Reckless Child Endangerment".
For the sake of all that is holy start the kids on an elegant, powerful language like Python or Java. I mean Python is not only a hundred times more useful but it's free as well.
as per the episode "Fear, Itself"
//Smoosh!//
Buffy: This is SCO?
Xander: Big overture. Leetle show.
SCO (in a tiny, high-pitched voice): I am the dark lord of nightmares. The bringer of terror! Tremble before me. Fear me!
Willow: He... he's so cute!
SCO: Tremble!
Xander: Who's the little fear demon? Come on, who's the little fear demon?
Giles: Don't taunt the fear demon.
Xander: Why, can he hurt me?
Giles: No. It's just... tacky.
SCO: They're all going to abandon you, you know.
Buffy: Yeah, yeah.
Gachnar: Wait, wai--
The simplest solution is to simply install Linux, once this has been done you have an embarasement of riches, several dozen languages and enviroments to develop in. Personally I recomend python with pygame . Allowing the kids to code videogames in a page or two of code.
If you stick to the Windows Enviroment (which, alas will lead to stunted growth, hairy palms, feeblemindedness etc...) simply download ActivePython from ActiveState.com along with pygame from pygame.org. Now you have a full tilt language and an excellent integrated development environment for free (as in beer).
On the other hand you could simply download brainf*ck http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/bf/ and a win32 freeware version of vi.
Of course, We have 5 mini-clusters running real time stereoscopic rendering for our 3d displays. Each cube renders a separate perspective with a dedicated video card. We even have Quake II running in 3d without the need for glasses.
Of course the evil Commies had the additional advantage of only using the Metric system* allowing them to avoid mixing metric and english units.
*Devised by the even more evil French specifically designed to confuse good but simpleminded Americans, in much the same manner as that evil Iraqi invention algebra.
In a medium which is isotropic this corresponds to a straignt line since the shortest path between two points is a straight line. In a inhomogeneous medium the path of a ray of light corresponds to the path integral of the index of refraction. In the case of discrete boundaries this corresponds to straight lines between bounadries with refraction occuring at the boundary according to Snell's law (which corresponds to a minimization of the path integral).
In the case of smoothly varying indices of refraction, such as in a heated gas or a medium of varying concentration the light follows a curved path described by a minimization of the path integral, resulting in a curved path. This is not only the basis for mirages but also "lineless" bifocals. The atmoshere of Venus at one point was believed to be so dense that the curvature of these rays would make an observer think that he was within a bowl. see http://www.cosmographica.com/gallery/portfolio/po
As for light travelling in straight lines through water check out http://faraday.physics.uiowa.edu/optics/6A40.40.h
in this case the varying refraction is achieved by varying concentrations of sugar (although brine will work as well).
This gradient index effect is commonly employed within CD-rom lenses: http://www.sinopt.com/software1/usrguide54/exampl
So an example of bending rays of light is probably within arm's reach of you.
All this being said the primary source of the distortion is probably the line scan optics.
I use iSilo for my stuff, it supports the Clie high res modes, memory stick and thumbweel and is very good at capturing mulipage html content. I use it in conjunction with sitescooper to capture newspages from the web each day.
A small form factor computer provides huge performance with a cube which is small enough to class as airport carry on. With a GearGrip handle the entire system can be carried at a moments notice . The Shuttle SN41G2 incorporates an nforce2 chipset with integrated dual head video (s-video output too) ethernet socket and six channel audio. Toss in an LCD, DVD/CDR drive speaker set, and a wifi card (or a PVR Card and a usb wifi adapter)and you have equipped the entire dorm room. The one challenge is incorporating a theft protection option.
The other option is a micro-itx based PC, which incorporates everything but fast 3d. Add a wifi card and you are in buisiness.
In the future everybody will own Linux for 15 min.
Gripping the standoff from below with a hemostat is useful as well
Cory Doctrow and Charles Stross are writing a short story extrapolating all this. Their work in progress is being tracked on a movable type blog at http://craphound.com/unwirer/
If we follow the trajectory of Spam, DMCA, Super DMCA, Eldred, PATRIOT I&II etc. we won't see the death of the internet, just the death of the United States as a technological superpower. Between the near impossibility of programming new apps, hardware or media that don't infringe and the lack of support for education the US may lose any hope of keeping up with less litigated societies.
I just hope I'm very wrong...
I'd Suggest the SPRACHT SP1022 Wherever Light UB.r -ligh ts.htm
http://www.spracht.com/wherever-gear/whereve
The Spracht light uses a flexible gooseneck led lamp like the unit described, but it terminates in a coaxial power connector. The connector connects to three adaptors:
-A USB adaptor for laptops
-A Cigarette Lighter adaptor for the car
-A 3 AA battery pack with belt clip (Handy for repair work)
If you need to run the unit with mains power it should be readily achived by rigging a gender bender for a AC transformer 'wall wart'
Very solid construction with good light distribution. The NV unit is the same but it has a Red LED for retaining night vision (dim green is actually better for retaining night vision but that's another matter).
The switch is located at the "bulb" end which is handy for reading. The belt hook should clip to most book covers.
All for $20 at Fry's.
Alternatively, there are cigarette lighter and mains adapters for USB powered connectors (particularly for PDA chargers). This is handy for illumination in tight spaces (I use a similar arrangement for lighting my expresso machine).
Two points.
The Borg were hopelessly pussified by the 'Hugh' Borg (I Borg). The 'Hugh borg' made Hello Kitty menacing by comparison. (Actually the borg appearing in the Enterprise will be assimilated forms of Hello Kitty and Badtz Maru)
If portions of the borg sphere survived and made contact with the Enterprise era collective, the resulting jump in borg tech in the next 200 years would render them invincible.
1. Bring in Warren Ellis (transmetropolitan etc.)
2. Remove B&B and get Warren Ellis to determine their fate.
3. Implement #2 on pay per view.
4. ???
5. Profit!
There won't be much left of the crew, or the galaxy for that matter, after the end of the next season but it will be a hell of a ride. And he will make the first officer a lesbian, albeit an ultraviolent junkie nanotech foglet lesbian.
I've been a die hard trekkie for the past 30+ years.
. Trek has always been at best a rehash of half century old golden age SF, with the most recent series having precious little of that, but stuff like "Router" makes it look like the original Flash Gordon serials with sparkler exhausts. If someone can work out a formula for making good TV out of this stuff 'Enterprise' will look like 'Hooterville Junction'.
I'd seen every episode of the TOS, TNG, DS9 and Voyager (untill the second season ending which sucked so badly, I gave up until 7of9)
I simply can't watch Enterprise, it sucks so bad.
Trek has always been a sci-fi procedural (in the same manner as Law & Order and CSI are police procedural). Consistency and continuity are essential to maintaining the Trek Franchise. Once B&B started to kick the continuity blocks out from under Trek the shows have sucked badly. The onset of this suckage has been slow and each show has been compared to the previous show, so the enormity of the suckage is not as obvious.
This was brought home to me by two things in the past week. The first is that I watched the entire "Irresponsible Capt. Tylor" anime series (www.tylor.com). Forget humor, the drama in the series blew away the past 3 trek series. I really cared about the crew and couldn't anticipate what they would do next. Second, I read Charles Stross' most recent nerdcore fiction 'Router' (http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0303/router.shtml)
In the name of all that is holy!
-Get rid of B&B (Via a leaf chipper if possible).
-Kill the reset button, characters either evolve or die!
-Get some aliens that are _alien_!
Hand the whole thing over to one of the folowing individuals:
-Joss Wheedon: He's got time on his hands. He can create real characters. The story will evolve. He can do aliens (read demons) well. He _will_ do something different, he _will not_ rehash the new thing 10,000 times. He _will_ find ways of finding entirely new things to do with the most threadbare plot devices. He will make the first officer a lesbian.
-JMS: He will construct a complete story arc. He will do aliens right. He will crush the reset switch. He will make the first officer a lesbian.
-Kevin Smith: He will make the scripts a lot snappier. Even if the show continues to suck it will be funny as hell. He will make the first officer a lesbian.
Of course
Two Borgs... Therefore
One is Borgified Wesly Crusher
One is Borgified Q (This should eliminate any residual continuity or logic)
They trap the Enterprise in a primitive holodeck jerry-rigged from a PS2 running 'GTA3 Vice City'
As a result the new uniforms are 'Members Only' Jackets and the entire crew gets Flock of Seagulls haircuts.
http://www.acscontrol.com/
Works fine.
I was thinking along the same lines. Some of the cheaper Argus models would seem to be fine. Given the resolution, a ziploc bag might be sufficent and a dessicant pack may fufill the needs.
This is not a problem for the DMV, since as Dave Barry has noted, your photo is immediately discarded and replaced with a photo of Charles Mansion.
Embossed Holograms (the type that appear in credit cards) are produced by making a nickel shim from the original hologram (in photoresist) via electroplating Gold is sputtered on the resist and nickel is electroplated. If gold is built up instead a shim with the relief structure could be generated and incorporated into a gold ring. With a thin layer of protective material (perhaps a diamond CVD film) the ring could be extremely durable. A 3d image could be generated or a pattern that would be projected by a laser pointer. Very unique.
Brass Knuckles: Beautiful and Functional yet Inexpensive
Four times the rings, five times the impact