It might surprise you, that some environmentalists are engineers. I did take one environmental course during my B. of Science studies, that was toughest course I did during my studies.
On that course I learned that there are alternatives, all alternatives have their own problems, but solutions exist.
Main alternative is reducing power consumption on consumer products, then comes renewable energy sources and hybrid power production.
I think that graphs are often quite misleading. Especially when they are used to show statistical information. You can make very different graphs from same base data. One chooses the graph trying to get best propaganda value.
That is why we have the phrase "Lies, damned lies, and statistics"
If you look original EE Times link and read the article, you will see that the love for Android is dropping:
However, despite pulling ahead of FreeRTOS and Ubuntu Linux, the news is not all good for Android in embedded applications. Whereas a year before 34 percent of users thought they would be using Android during the following 12 months that percentage dropped to 28 percent in the latest survey.
After all, used OS is mostly hardware dependent, is it a low end or high end embedded platform.
Low end you do in the house, middle range applications you use some RTOS, in the high end you use those Linuxes and Android.
Disclaimer: I am currently evaluating OS that did leap from 0 to 4% in its first year of use.
Price must be under 100 euros, no touch, good battery life, camera for snapshots.
I use phone mainly for talking, some texting and rarely sending MMS. For mobile data I use my laptop and 3g modem.
My current phone, Nokia 3120 Classic, is over three years old and has so far survived dogs teeths, horse saliva and my sweat. Next phone is probably Samsung Xcover 271, if they still make that when my current phone dies.
Actually it is really easy to make programs for KDE using Qt. QtCreator is great lightweight IDE, basically only lines of code you have to write yourself is what happens when you click something on your GUI, all GUI code is automatically created, you don't have to write any lines of code yourself.
Qt librararies are nicely documented. Using them it is really easy and fast to produce programs which have nice graphical frontends.
Linux has been my main desktop OS since 2001 and after last December it has been my only desktop OS.
Of course there has been some tough times, especially when KDE broke badly and I had to use GNOME.
Three main reasons for my Linux use are cost, virtual desktops, ease of configuration.
Cost has been main factor as I don't have money to get the latest hardware every year, so my newest machine is currently five years old. Also the cost of software and license terms are much more suitable for me.
Virtual desktops are major productivity factor, I used to have GIMP, Kate and Firefox open in separate desktops when doing website designs. For last study project I had Okular, GIMP and LibreOffice Impress open.
Ease of configuration comes from the fact that configurations are simple text files and how I/O is handled on Linux.
Of course you are right, Linux is not really eating MS desktop business, but there are cases when it is better solution for user needs.
I have currently two desktops and two laptops running OpenSuse 12.1, one desktop running Mageia 2. Hardware is quite aged, newest is about five years old and oldest about eight years old.
So for me Linux on the desktop has not been extremely theoretical, instead it has been cost effective solution for my desktop OS needs.
I did google search malmikoira and the first hit was document by Geographical survey of Finland.
One fascinating fact from the document was, that drug sniffing dogs were developed based on the methods used in training of ore dogs.
For non finnish readers perhaps documents bibliography gives some leads for real information instead of jokes:
Aaltonen, U. & Unhola, K. 1999. Suomen koirat sodassa ja rauhassa. Gummerus. 1999. Ekdahl, E. 1976. Pielavesi: the use of dogs in prospecting. Journal of Geochemical Exploration 5 (3), 296-298. Hamilton, S.M., Cameron, E.M., McClenaghan, M.B. & Hall, G.E.M. 2004. Redox, pH and SP variation over mineralization in thick glacial overburden. Part I: methodologies and field investi- gation at he Marsh Zone gold property. Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis 4 (1), 45-58. Hyvarinen, L. 1965. Selostus lohkare-etsintÃjà koskevasta tutkimuksesta jossa vertaillaan lohkare-etsintÃihin koulutetun koiran sekà kokeneen lohkare-etsijÃn keskinÃisià tyÃsuorituksia. Geo- logian tutkimuskeskus, Arkistoraportti M17/Vrs-65/2. Hyvarinen, L. 1997. Saatanan moluuppi. Espoo 1997. Kahma, A. 1965. Trained dog as tracer of sulphide bearing glacial boulders. Sedimentology 5; Atlas Vol. 1. No. 4. Kahma, A., Nurmi, A. & Mattsson, P. 1975. On the composition of the gases generated by sulphide-bearing boulders during wethering and on the ability of prospecting dogs to detect samples treated with these gases in the terrain. Geologian tutkimuskeskus. Tutkimusraportti 6. Laitakari, A. J. 1969. Koira malminetsijan apuna. Pielaveden ja Keiteleen Sanomat 25.4.1969. N:o 16, s. 6. Lindmark, B. 1987. Volframitutkimukset Kangasalan Ahvenlammin alueella vuosina 1983 - 1985. 45 s. Geologian tutkimuskeskus, arkistoraportti, M 19/2142/-87/1/10 Mattsson, P. 1979. Outokummun Sanomat. 43 (3), s. 18-19. Nilsson, G. 1971. The use of dogs in prospecting for sulphide ores. Geol. For. Stockholm Forh., 93, 725-728. Nilsson, G. 1973. Nickel prospecting and the discovery of the Mjovattnet mineralization, northern Sweden: a case history of the use of combined techniques in drift-covered glaciated terrain. Teoksessa: âoeProspecting in areas of glacial terrainâ. Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, London, 97-109. Orlov, A.P., Robonen, V.I. & Kirilenko, G.M. 1969. Geologicheskie poiski s rudorozysknumi sobakami. âNedreâ, Moskva. 47 s.
As a poor middle aged full time student (BSc embedded systems design) I don't have money to buy new hardware for running Windows and Office.
So instead AVR Studio I use MPLAB X. For PCB design I use KiCad and for VHDL Alteras QUARTUS II.
For simple circuit simulations and calculations I use Qucs. For C++ and GUI applications I use Qt Creator.
Documents for projects are usually done in LibreOffice and exported as pdf to avoid compatibility issues with Windows users.
Of course for some projects cloud is used, mbed.org and google docs can both be used with my over 5 year old scrap computers and laptops running OpenSuse.
So I think that I can do with my computers running Linux all the stuff that is needed on my studies. Of course it is not always as easy for me as it is for those running Windows machines, but still I manage to get my courses done:-)
If needles are involved, mechanism is quite clear. Pain releases endorphins and breaking the skin results in small local infection so body fights against infection.
At least that was a result that we got with horses, used one known brand injection that is sold for human athletes by well known German manufacturer whose nasal spray was big hit in the USA.
Injections helped the horse, though I doubt that those minuscule amounts effective ingredients had any real effect (dilution bit above homeopathic levels and much below drug levels), it must have been the way that product was given.
Same kind of effect was also found when horse was injected with his own blood to the muscle (that classic method means that you create artificial bruise by that blood injection), for joint problems effective method is giving horse fluid taken from healthy joint to the sore joint. (That is jokingly said to be oil change)
So when needles are used, I don't think that it is solely placebo effect that causes positive results.
I think modern cars have same effect to driving skills than pocket calculators did to mathematical skills.
In the good old days people could do basic math in their heads, now they use calculators even for the simple math problems.
Old cars didn't have ABS brakes and traction control, you noticed quite quickly when road was slippery and also learned how to really drive a car.
Modern cars don't give similar warning, maybe some light flashes in dashboard telling you that traction control was needed, but you don't register that - this winter we have had lots of pile-ups here in Finland, people drove like it was summer as their modern cars didn't warn them enough that it is really really slippery and you should slow down a bit.
So in the good old days you really needed to learn how to drive a car, it didn't help you, now car has control over braking and throttle, you just steer and when pocket parking car does even that -> drivers don't understand physical laws like they used to do.
Actually they seem to be quite irresponsible and incompetent, French Areva is building Olkiluoto 3 power plant here in Finland.
Building project is years behind because of poor quality and workmanship.
Under constructors have used modern slave labor from former eastern block countries, some electricians had a wage of under two euros per hour.
So far Areva quality has not impressed me, I was pro nuclear for a long time, but watching Olkiluoto III building process has changed my view from pro nuclear to nuclear skeptic.
Actually iPhone was not the first, first version was done in Finland, but not by Nokia, as pioneers they didn't have the ecosystem so there was no market and first try did bankrupt.
So there is previous art before iPhone, I wonder who owns the patents that Finns made or was there even patents made, at least that some serious previous art:-)
Well, second generation processes are completely different story, especially when the production happens near the waste from which bio-ethanol is produced.
One northern European fuel supplier already has working plants and methods for second generation and tests for even wider sources of waste that can be processed to ethanol efficiently.
Actually IEEE is quite good, but you need solid methodology to find what you are looking for for your course work.
First search by using google scholar, see works that are quite new on the field but are cited most, hit the paywall as you are probably getting only the abstracts free online, login through your academy to IEEE, search by paper name/authors name, get the full work.
Directly searching by IEEE is more of a needle in a haystack method, takes more time, but you can speed that also up by using Google in another tab, when you filter results that are interesting for your course work.
Actually there is a reason, Nokia has very extensive patent portfolio if you consider phone technologies. Well as they are now becoming partner with a company which has extensive software patents.
Now that Nokia is coming out as an American company instead its current status as Northern European outsider, I think those patents will weight more in the US courts.
The reason for Nokias enourmous amount of technical patents was that analog mobile system NMT which Nordic countries agreed upon.
That stable environment meant that both Ericsson and Nokia get a head start in developing mobile phones and technologies, Nordic countries also started GSM really early because of good experiences in the developing of NMT.
If Apple didn't use technologies in its phones that Nokia has patented, Apple's phones would be basically non-phones, small tablets without connectivity.
Actually there is strong causation, but the reason why it happened here in Finland is not clear yet, combination of genes and vaccine have been suspected.
At least in the group where I am studying at local University of Applied sciences for my BEng in computer electronics (read embedded systems) Haven't seen a single Mac in the classroom, some other laptops have been seen, but they are quite useless tools as they are not allowed to be used in exams.
On some exams we can use books and own handwritten notes from lectures, but use of laptop or mobile phone is strictly forbidden. And so it should stay, if we are testing what you have learned.
So personally I think that laptops should be banned because of the distraction factor and good ol' pencil and paper should be used instead.
Seriously, Linux users who try and claim that any Linux distribution has any remotely conceivable chance of legitimately competing with either Microsoft or Apple at this point, literally leave me gasping. The amount denial and delusion engaged in is mind boggling.
Hilarious, ROFL.
For the last eight years Linux has been my main desktop OS, because it has given me the performance I have needed.
Of course there has been occasional problems, but usually RTMF and UTFG have been adequate means to get the problem fixed.
I use Linux to do my work, thanks for the multiple workspaces, true multitasking and great stability on suitable cheap iron, I have managed to get them done.
As I am nearing my 50's, I hope that I have left most of my denials and delusions behind:-))
Slashdot Mirror
For that reason I used to send my course work as pdfs. I used Libre Office or Google Docs for editing and converted final documents to pdf format.
So MS Word couldn't change layout when document was opened by the teacher.
It might surprise you, that some environmentalists are engineers. I did take one environmental course during my B. of Science studies, that was toughest course I did during my studies.
On that course I learned that there are alternatives, all alternatives have their own problems, but solutions exist.
Main alternative is reducing power consumption on consumer products, then comes renewable energy sources and hybrid power production.
I think that graphs are often quite misleading. Especially when they are used to show statistical information. You can make very different graphs from same base data. One chooses the graph trying to get best propaganda value.
That is why we have the phrase "Lies, damned lies, and statistics"
If you look original EE Times link and read the article, you will see that the love for Android is dropping:
After all, used OS is mostly hardware dependent, is it a low end or high end embedded platform.
Low end you do in the house, middle range applications you use some RTOS, in the high end you use those Linuxes and Android.
Disclaimer: I am currently evaluating OS that did leap from 0 to 4% in its first year of use.
Price must be under 100 euros, no touch, good battery life, camera for snapshots.
I use phone mainly for talking, some texting and rarely sending MMS. For mobile data I use my laptop and 3g modem.
My current phone, Nokia 3120 Classic, is over three years old and has so far survived dogs teeths, horse saliva and my sweat. Next phone is probably Samsung Xcover 271, if they still make that when my current phone dies.
Actually Nokia did make boots in the ancient history and Nokian jalkineet still does.
So mobile phone throwing was logical sport for modern people that evolved from bootthrowing.
http://bootthrowing.com/online/etusivu/
Actually it is really easy to make programs for KDE using Qt. QtCreator is great lightweight IDE, basically only lines of code you have to write yourself is what happens when you click something on your GUI, all GUI code is automatically created, you don't have to write any lines of code yourself.
Qt librararies are nicely documented. Using them it is really easy and fast to produce programs which have nice graphical frontends.
Linux has been my main desktop OS since 2001 and after last December it has been my only desktop OS.
Of course there has been some tough times, especially when KDE broke badly and I had to use GNOME.
Three main reasons for my Linux use are cost, virtual desktops, ease of configuration.
Cost has been main factor as I don't have money to get the latest hardware every year, so my newest machine is currently five years old. Also the cost of software and license terms are much more suitable for me.
Virtual desktops are major productivity factor, I used to have GIMP, Kate and Firefox open in separate desktops when doing website designs. For last study project I had Okular, GIMP and LibreOffice Impress open.
Ease of configuration comes from the fact that configurations are simple text files and how I/O is handled on Linux.
Of course you are right, Linux is not really eating MS desktop business, but there are cases when it is better solution for user needs.
I have currently two desktops and two laptops running OpenSuse 12.1, one desktop running Mageia 2. Hardware is quite aged, newest is about five years old and oldest about eight years old.
So for me Linux on the desktop has not been extremely theoretical, instead it has been cost effective solution for my desktop OS needs.
I did google search malmikoira and the first hit was document by Geographical survey of Finland.
One fascinating fact from the document was, that drug sniffing dogs were developed based on the methods used in training of ore dogs.
For non finnish readers perhaps documents bibliography gives some leads for real information instead of jokes:
Aaltonen, U. & Unhola, K. 1999. Suomen koirat sodassa ja rauhassa. Gummerus. 1999.
Ekdahl, E. 1976. Pielavesi: the use of dogs in prospecting. Journal of Geochemical Exploration 5
(3), 296-298.
Hamilton, S.M., Cameron, E.M., McClenaghan, M.B. & Hall, G.E.M. 2004. Redox, pH and SP
variation over mineralization in thick glacial overburden. Part I: methodologies and field investi-
gation at he Marsh Zone gold property. Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis 4 (1),
45-58.
Hyvarinen, L. 1965. Selostus lohkare-etsintÃjà koskevasta tutkimuksesta jossa vertaillaan lohkare-etsintÃihin koulutetun koiran sekà kokeneen lohkare-etsijÃn keskinÃisià tyÃsuorituksia. Geo-
logian tutkimuskeskus, Arkistoraportti M17/Vrs-65/2.
Hyvarinen, L. 1997. Saatanan moluuppi. Espoo 1997.
Kahma, A. 1965. Trained dog as tracer of sulphide bearing glacial boulders. Sedimentology 5;
Atlas Vol. 1. No. 4.
Kahma, A., Nurmi, A. & Mattsson, P. 1975. On the composition of the gases generated by sulphide-bearing boulders during wethering and on the ability of prospecting dogs to detect samples
treated with these gases in the terrain. Geologian tutkimuskeskus. Tutkimusraportti 6.
Laitakari, A. J. 1969. Koira malminetsijan apuna. Pielaveden ja Keiteleen Sanomat 25.4.1969.
N:o 16, s. 6.
Lindmark, B. 1987. Volframitutkimukset Kangasalan Ahvenlammin alueella vuosina 1983 -
1985. 45 s. Geologian tutkimuskeskus, arkistoraportti, M 19/2142/-87/1/10
Mattsson, P. 1979. Outokummun Sanomat. 43 (3), s. 18-19.
Nilsson, G. 1971. The use of dogs in prospecting for sulphide ores. Geol. For. Stockholm Forh.,
93, 725-728.
Nilsson, G. 1973. Nickel prospecting and the discovery of the Mjovattnet mineralization, northern Sweden: a case history of the use of combined techniques in drift-covered glaciated terrain.
Teoksessa: âoeProspecting in areas of glacial terrainâ. Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, London, 97-109.
Orlov, A.P., Robonen, V.I. & Kirilenko, G.M. 1969. Geologicheskie poiski s rudorozysknumi
sobakami. âNedreâ, Moskva. 47 s.
As a poor middle aged full time student (BSc embedded systems design) I don't have money to buy new hardware for running Windows and Office.
So instead AVR Studio I use MPLAB X. For PCB design I use KiCad and for VHDL Alteras QUARTUS II.
For simple circuit simulations and calculations I use Qucs. For C++ and GUI applications I use Qt Creator.
Documents for projects are usually done in LibreOffice and exported as pdf to avoid compatibility issues with Windows users.
Of course for some projects cloud is used, mbed.org and google docs can both be used with my over 5 year old scrap computers and laptops running OpenSuse.
So I think that I can do with my computers running Linux all the stuff that is needed on my studies. Of course it is not always as easy for me as it is for those running Windows machines, but still I manage to get my courses done :-)
If needles are involved, mechanism is quite clear. Pain releases endorphins and breaking the skin results in small local infection so body fights against infection.
At least that was a result that we got with horses, used one known brand injection that is sold for human athletes by well known German manufacturer whose nasal spray was big hit in the USA.
Injections helped the horse, though I doubt that those minuscule amounts effective ingredients had any real effect (dilution bit above homeopathic levels and much below drug levels), it must have been the way that product was given.
Same kind of effect was also found when horse was injected with his own blood to the muscle (that classic method means that you create artificial bruise by that blood injection), for joint problems effective method is giving horse fluid taken from healthy joint to the sore joint.
(That is jokingly said to be oil change)
So when needles are used, I don't think that it is solely placebo effect that causes positive results.
I think modern cars have same effect to driving skills than pocket calculators did to mathematical skills.
In the good old days people could do basic math in their heads, now they use calculators even for the simple math problems.
Old cars didn't have ABS brakes and traction control, you noticed quite quickly when road was slippery and also learned how to really drive a car.
Modern cars don't give similar warning, maybe some light flashes in dashboard telling you that traction control was needed, but you don't register that - this winter we have had lots of pile-ups here in Finland, people drove like it was summer as their modern cars didn't warn them enough that it is really really slippery and you should slow down a bit.
So in the good old days you really needed to learn how to drive a car, it didn't help you, now car has control over braking and throttle, you just steer and when pocket parking car does even that -> drivers don't understand physical laws like they used to do.
Actually they seem to be quite irresponsible and incompetent, French Areva is building Olkiluoto 3 power plant here in Finland.
Building project is years behind because of poor quality and workmanship.
Under constructors have used modern slave labor from former eastern block countries, some electricians had a wage of under two euros per hour.
So far Areva quality has not impressed me, I was pro nuclear for a long time, but watching Olkiluoto III building process has changed my view from pro nuclear to nuclear skeptic.
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Construction+work+on+Olkiluoto+III+nuclear+reactor+to+experience+further+major+delays/1135256255133
Actually iPhone was not the first, first version was done in Finland, but not by Nokia, as pioneers they didn't have the ecosystem so there was no market and first try did bankrupt.
http://gizmodo.com/231186/myorigo-mydevice-becomes-relevant-again-thanks-to-the-iphone
So there is previous art before iPhone, I wonder who owns the patents that Finns made or was there even patents made, at least that some serious previous art :-)
Poor != dumb
Rich != intelligent
That from a personal experience.
Actually quite a many computer literate poor people who have older hardware use platform where IE is not even available, Linux.
Well, second generation processes are completely different story, especially when the production happens near the waste from which bio-ethanol is produced.
One northern European fuel supplier already has working plants and methods for second generation and tests for even wider sources of waste that can be processed to ethanol efficiently.
http://www.st1.eu/index.php?id=2876
Actually IEEE is quite good, but you need solid methodology to find what you are looking for for your course work.
First search by using google scholar, see works that are quite new on the field but are cited most, hit the paywall as you are probably getting only the abstracts free online, login through your academy to IEEE, search by paper name/authors name, get the full work.
Directly searching by IEEE is more of a needle in a haystack method, takes more time, but you can speed that also up by using Google in another tab, when you filter results that are interesting for your course work.
Guess what, I have currently one laptop and two desktops running the latest openSUSE, so for me this bug and platform is not irrelevant.
So you don't have Betadine(local antiseptic for humans) in the U.S. or Speedway Leg Paint (blister for horses) ?
Seems that there is huge difference then between U.S. and Europe,
Actually, I'm not sure it is impossible to buy, however seems that you must have a * A DEA Registration Number is required to buy and sell this product.* , I wonder how many horsemen buying iodine based leg paints have that.
http://theharnessshoponline.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=71_83&products_id=2377
Actually there is a reason, Nokia has very extensive patent portfolio if you consider phone technologies. Well as they are now becoming partner with a company which has extensive software patents.
Now that Nokia is coming out as an American company instead its current status as Northern European outsider, I think those patents will weight more in the US courts.
The reason for Nokias enourmous amount of technical patents was that analog mobile system NMT which Nordic countries agreed upon.
That stable environment meant that both Ericsson and Nokia get a head start in developing mobile phones and technologies, Nordic countries also started GSM really early because of good experiences in the developing of NMT.
If Apple didn't use technologies in its phones that Nokia has patented, Apple's phones would be basically non-phones, small tablets without connectivity.
Actually there is strong causation, but the reason why it happened here in Finland is not clear yet, combination of genes and vaccine have been suspected.
Official press release in english:
http://www.thl.fi/en_US/web/en/pressrelease?id=24103
At least in the group where I am studying at local University of Applied sciences for my BEng in computer electronics (read embedded systems) Haven't seen a single Mac in the classroom, some other laptops have been seen, but they are quite useless tools as they are not allowed to be used in exams.
On some exams we can use books and own handwritten notes from lectures, but use of laptop or mobile phone is strictly forbidden. And so it should stay, if we are testing what you have learned.
So personally I think that laptops should be banned because of the distraction factor and good ol' pencil and paper should be used instead.
I wonder if it is possible that search is working as it should.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/25/michelle-obama-google-images-removed
As according to that Guardian article above, the image in question, has been removed from its original linked location.
Hilarious, ROFL.
For the last eight years Linux has been my main desktop OS, because it has given me the performance I have needed.
Of course there has been occasional problems, but usually RTMF and UTFG have been adequate means to get the problem fixed.
I use Linux to do my work, thanks for the multiple workspaces, true multitasking and great stability on suitable cheap iron, I have managed to get them done.
As I am nearing my 50's, I hope that I have left most of my denials and delusions behind :-))
Insted of dices you could use KCALC 1 EUR is about 1.55 USD so instead of 20000 it did cost only about 6200 USD.