MediaMVP is a device that hooks up to your computer via ethernet, and hooks to the TV via SVideo. It can play MP3s, show still photos, and play MPEG1 and MPEG2 movies.
Since he can control a TV using a remote control type device, then he should be able to control this using a remote control.
A ScanTron or similar (here's a random pic for those unfamiliar) The scantron would not be a fancy custom printed thing for the election, but the simple, completely generic ones.
For each question, the order of the choices would be different: Example: For president, A) Republican, B) Democrat, C) Libertarian. For Senate: A) Democrat, B) Libertarian, C) Republican.
All the votes would be counted using a normal scantron machine. If the machine cannot figure out which one was bubbled, then the existing system of having humans look at the ballot to determine voter intent would kick in. But, the people looking at the ballot would not be shown the question number on the ballot, only the bubbles themselves. Since the people evaluating voter intent do not know which party corresponds to which bubble, they would not and could not make their decision based on party, but only on how the voter bubbled.
By doing it this way, it eliminates the problem of partisan humans evaluating the ballots. The only problem I can think of is an inconvenience for people who vote the party line.
Re:Benefit the world: A program to show data split
on
Short Coding Projects?
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· Score: 1
Make a program that shows what parts of a huge folder fit on individual CDs or DVDs. The output of the program would say, for example, that all the files from sub-folders A to Information would fit on the first CD, and all the files from sub-folders Installers to Netgear would fit on the second CD, and so on.
It is necessary to store backup sub-folders in alphabetical order on the backup CDs or DVDs because then they can be found easily.
As described, there's a major problem with your algorithm for deciding the splits. It would result in lots of wasted space on the backup media.
As an example, let's say we have three directories we want to back up. Directory A is 100 MB, Directory B is 610 MB, Directory C is 100 MB, and the backup medium is CDRs.
If a human were to decide what directories should go where, it would put A and C on disk 1, and B on disk 2. Your algorithm would put A on disk 1. There isn't enough space on disk 1 for B, so that goes on disk 2. But now, there isn't enough space on disk 2 for C, so because everything has to be in order, C must go onto disk 3. You now have two CDRs with over 500 MB each of wasted space.
Burn to the brim (mentioned by another poster) appears to do the same thing that the human would do.
Consider upgrading to the commercial service, rather than the residential. Chances are that the commerical service already includes a routable IP, and even if not, it wouldn't be an uncommon thing for a business to need a routable IP, so they would already have a process in place to provide you with one.
someone already patented the Peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Picture this: take a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, cut out a circle from the middle, and then seal the edges of the bread so the peanut butter & jelly can't leak out. That's what is patented, not any generic peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This is being sold, I've seen commercials for it on TV, but I unfortunately don't remember the brand name.
And on top of that there is a ~32GB partition size limit.
That's an artificial limit imposed by Windows, to get people to switch to NTFS. Pick up a copy of PartitionMagic, it'll create those large FAT32 partitions just fine.
I recently assembled a VIA EPIA mini-ITX box to integrate into my home theater system. The idea was having a small form factor that would fit into the entertainment center, utilize an RCA out video port for my 51" rear projection TV, and operate with a wireless keyboard/trackball device. All of that came together fine. On paper at least.
Composite video is bad. Really bad. Very low bandwidth. Switch to S-Video out (if your ITX supports it), and you'll see a huge increase in video quality.
The house has solar panels on the roof, which generate electricity that is used to electrolyze water in to Hydrogen, which is then stored, and later used to power the house.
There already exist houses that have solar panels, generate electricity, store it in a bank of batteries, and then use that power later to power the house.
The only thing new here is that that the bank of batteries has been replaced by a hydrogen tank.
Actually, I wouldn't call that one outmoded. The first time someone mentioned "radio buttons", I was very confused. Not because I didn't know about the push-one-in-the-other-pops-out buttons on a radio, but because I'd always called them "Option Buttons". In this case, the GUI is perfectly fine, we just need to give them a better name.
However, nearly eight years later I'm still on the original bulb, with no perceptible degredation of brightness. At this point, I'm hoping that the bulb dies so I can justify a modern projector! So far, it's refusing.
Umm, you may want to reconsider that. According to the manual for my projector, a bulb that is used longer than the reccommended 2000 hours can explode.
Buy yourself a new bulb, you can probably get one cheap on ebay.
Actually it's been covered in the media. There is one story of a man who setup video cameras all over the house and then sold it. The attic was accessible from the outside, so he'd climb up and swap the tapes in a VCR. There wasn't any sound only video so the most he could be charged with is stealing electricity
What about breaking & entering? Trespass? Last I checked, those were still against the law.
When I was in college, I learned how to turn off my alarm clock in my sleep, so here was my solution:
- medium sized metal box from RadioShack. - Large button I had laying around - The loudest piezo buzzer RadioShack sells (105 dB) - telephone wire - hooked up to the flow control lines on the serial port - program to control it all
Features I included in the program - I set the alarm times once, a different time for each day of the week. The only time I have to adjust it is when I need to get up earlier than usual on the weekends. - when I hit the snooze button, it launches WinAmp to play MP3s until the buzzer goes off again. - the snooze time starts at 5 minutes per snooze, and steps down over 30 minutes. So 30 minutes after the alarm went off, the snooze button doesn't work anymore. - To turn off the alarm completely, one has to get up, walk into the next room, and type in a word that is displayed on the screen, chosen random from a dictionary.
This does have one disadvantage, that the computer must either be in the bedroom or have speakers there. I've got it installed on my server machine, which only makes noise for the alarm, so I didn't mind running speakers into the next room (in other words, since it's on the server, I don't miss having sound locally).
This seems to be pretty close to what you're looking for (having your PC be your alarm clock definately has geek appeal). If you want, send me an email and I'll whip up a schematic for the serial port thing and send you my software.
Once a month or so, I get a message from the mail server "Delivery unsuccessful: Unknown recipient 'relaytest%security.rr.com'". If they find an open relay, then they'll do something about it; otherwise, I'm free to run my mail server.
they can wheel a crane into your backyard to do work, and you will have to live with it. And if they have to take the fence down, or nock out part of your house to get there, they will. (Though they will fix it later).
In many cases, there is a separate easement to allow them access to the easement that contains the power lines. There might be one house that the whole side yard is an easement to allow them access.
Unless you violate the easement (by building on top of it), they can't do anything to your house.
Back feeding lines is an issue, but not as big as you might think. In nearly all cases your house is not the only one isolated, thus when you start backfeeding lines, all your neighbors think they have full grid power and start to use it, but since you don't have an unlimited supply of power, the breakers (and fuses) on your generators trip.
There is equipment that will detect when the line from the power company is down, and will disconnect itself so as to not try to power the grid (just your house). I've seen them on sites that also sell wind turbines, solar cells, etc.
One year non-compete with MS? Since MS is involved in just about everything, wouldn't this prevent working for most companies in the computer industry?
...about a dozen Pentium II computers... ...upgrade them to 2GB...
Let's see, you want to buy 12 GB RAM, 12 gigabit NICs, and a gigabit switch to get a 24 GB logical volume?
The cheapest gigabit NIC on pricewatch is $40. I'm not sure what type of ram a P-II takes, but everything on pricewatch is over or about $100/GB. So that's $140 per computer, times 12 computers is $1,680 for a 24 GB volume. (This is what you consider a 'limited budget'?)
And you said your friend already has a raid array? I'm willing to bet that it's bigger than 24 GB, and since it's probably attached locally instead of through the network, a hell of a lot faster.
For comparison, you can buy a 250 GB EIDE drive for $325. I'm sure you could put together a cheap computer with four of these drives for less than the $1600.
When I started my job after greduation this past May, I tried to get a new clause inserted into the agreement, basically saying that if I worked on something on my own time, with my own resources, that didn't relate to something my company or their clients did, I would own it, not the company.
Basically, I wanted to be able to work on my own software projects on my own time, and not have to worry about my company taking ownership. Now, I should point out that at a company small enough where you call the CEO by his first name, chances of having your work "stolen" are nil, but having it would have made me feel better anyway.
In the end, I wasn't able to get that clause inserted, the CEO said that the lawyers had reviewed the current one, plus the companies we work for had reviewed it, so it wasn't going to change for just me. However, in your situation, where they are revising it for everybody, that would be the perfect time to get that inserted.
Light has mass? no it does not.. the energy of a photon has a mass equivalence, but it does not have mass.
Light does indeed have a mass... Large astronomical bodies can bend light by a measurable amount. From the article:
The opportunity to do this arose in September 2002, when Jupiter passed in front of a quasar that emits bright radio waves. Fomalont and Kopeikin combined observations from a series of radio telescopes across the Earth to measure the apparent change in the quasar's position as the gravitational field of Jupiter bent the passing radio waves.
And, as we all know, light waves are simply radio waves at a much higher frequency.
Also, consider this: A room, with someone holding a flashlight pointed horizontally. When the room is placed on Earth, everything in the room is accelerated downwards at 9.8 m/s^2. Now take that room, put it out in the middle of space, and strap a rocket to it so it too is accelerating at 9.8 m/s^2. From the perspective of the inside of the room, the two are equivelent, both room occupants would feel a downwards acceleration of 9.8 m/s^2. Now, turn on the flashlight. In the room rocketing through space, it is obvious that the beam of light is skewed downwards, since the flashlight (and the rest of the room) continue to be accelerated upwards, while the existing beam does not accelerate, instead "falling behind". The flashlight and the beam of light used to be moving at the same speed, but the flashlight continues to move faster, and the beam does not.
But remember, the two rooms are exactly the same (from the perspective of the inside of the room). Since the light beam is bent by the acceleration of 9.8 m/s^2 in the room in outer space, it therefore must be bent by the 9.8 m/s^2 acceleration here on Earth.
Sure, you could wait 10 minutes at the bridge instead of using a new electronic toll payment system, but do you?
How much would you sell *your* privacy for?
I would sell a PART of my privacy for $450 a year. With the electronic toll system on the New York State Thruway, one can enroll in a plan where the first 30 miles of each trip are free. The plan costs $80 per year, and 30 miles works out to about a dollar per trip. To work and back is ten trips a week, 52 weeks a year, plus other trips on the Thruway on evenings and weekends, is over 550 trips per year, therefore about $550 saved, less $80 enrollment fee, is ~$450.
That said, I consider the loss of privacy to be minimal. Sure, NYS could use it to track speeders, but they don't (I've taken a ~80 mile trip in under an hour (speed limit is 65), and nothing happened.); and I have a feeling that if they did, that's when the privacy advocates would come out and put a stop to it VERY quickly.
Google is a private company. They can make whatever assinite decisions they want to make. If they wanted to, they should be able to only hire white people over 6 feet ball with goatees. Their decision.
Is it absurd? Yes. Is it something Google should be prevented from doing? No.
Actually, they are prevented from doing that. As a privately held corporation, Google has to comply with equal opportunity regulations. ("We do not descriminate in our hiring practices based on...")
Slashdot Mirror
...taking an Assembly course...
Talk to your professor, that's what they're there for! I'm sure they've had other students who either didn't have computers or had Macs like yourself.
MediaMVP is a device that hooks up to your computer via ethernet, and hooks to the TV via SVideo. It can play MP3s, show still photos, and play MPEG1 and MPEG2 movies.
Since he can control a TV using a remote control type device, then he should be able to control this using a remote control.
A ScanTron or similar (here's a random pic for those unfamiliar) The scantron would not be a fancy custom printed thing for the election, but the simple, completely generic ones.
For each question, the order of the choices would be different: Example: For president, A) Republican, B) Democrat, C) Libertarian. For Senate: A) Democrat, B) Libertarian, C) Republican.
All the votes would be counted using a normal scantron machine. If the machine cannot figure out which one was bubbled, then the existing system of having humans look at the ballot to determine voter intent would kick in. But, the people looking at the ballot would not be shown the question number on the ballot, only the bubbles themselves. Since the people evaluating voter intent do not know which party corresponds to which bubble, they would not and could not make their decision based on party, but only on how the voter bubbled.
By doing it this way, it eliminates the problem of partisan humans evaluating the ballots. The only problem I can think of is an inconvenience for people who vote the party line.
Make a program that shows what parts of a huge folder fit on individual CDs or DVDs. The output of the program would say, for example, that all the files from sub-folders A to Information would fit on the first CD, and all the files from sub-folders Installers to Netgear would fit on the second CD, and so on.
It is necessary to store backup sub-folders in alphabetical order on the backup CDs or DVDs because then they can be found easily.
As described, there's a major problem with your algorithm for deciding the splits. It would result in lots of wasted space on the backup media.
As an example, let's say we have three directories we want to back up. Directory A is 100 MB, Directory B is 610 MB, Directory C is 100 MB, and the backup medium is CDRs.
If a human were to decide what directories should go where, it would put A and C on disk 1, and B on disk 2. Your algorithm would put A on disk 1. There isn't enough space on disk 1 for B, so that goes on disk 2. But now, there isn't enough space on disk 2 for C, so because everything has to be in order, C must go onto disk 3. You now have two CDRs with over 500 MB each of wasted space.
Burn to the brim (mentioned by another poster) appears to do the same thing that the human would do.
Consider upgrading to the commercial service, rather than the residential. Chances are that the commerical service already includes a routable IP, and even if not, it wouldn't be an uncommon thing for a business to need a routable IP, so they would already have a process in place to provide you with one.
someone already patented the Peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Picture this: take a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, cut out a circle from the middle, and then seal the edges of the bread so the peanut butter & jelly can't leak out. That's what is patented, not any generic peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This is being sold, I've seen commercials for it on TV, but I unfortunately don't remember the brand name.
And on top of that there is a ~32GB partition size limit.
That's an artificial limit imposed by Windows, to get people to switch to NTFS. Pick up a copy of PartitionMagic, it'll create those large FAT32 partitions just fine.
I recently assembled a VIA EPIA mini-ITX box to integrate into my home theater system. The idea was having a small form factor that would fit into the entertainment center, utilize an RCA out video port for my 51" rear projection TV, and operate with a wireless keyboard/trackball device. All of that came together fine. On paper at least.
Composite video is bad. Really bad. Very low bandwidth. Switch to S-Video out (if your ITX supports it), and you'll see a huge increase in video quality.
The house has solar panels on the roof, which generate electricity that is used to electrolyze water in to Hydrogen, which is then stored, and later used to power the house.
There already exist houses that have solar panels, generate electricity, store it in a bank of batteries, and then use that power later to power the house.
The only thing new here is that that the bank of batteries has been replaced by a hydrogen tank.
Radio buttons in dialogs.
Actually, I wouldn't call that one outmoded. The first time someone mentioned "radio buttons", I was very confused. Not because I didn't know about the push-one-in-the-other-pops-out buttons on a radio, but because I'd always called them "Option Buttons". In this case, the GUI is perfectly fine, we just need to give them a better name.
However, nearly eight years later I'm still on the original bulb, with no perceptible degredation of brightness. At this point, I'm hoping that the bulb dies so I can justify a modern projector! So far, it's refusing.
Umm, you may want to reconsider that. According to the manual for my projector, a bulb that is used longer than the reccommended 2000 hours can explode.
Buy yourself a new bulb, you can probably get one cheap on ebay.
Actually it's been covered in the media. There is one story of a man who setup video cameras all over the house and then sold it. The attic was accessible from the outside, so he'd climb up and swap the tapes in a VCR. There wasn't any sound only video so the most he could be charged with is stealing electricity
What about breaking & entering? Trespass? Last I checked, those were still against the law.
When I was in college, I learned how to turn off my alarm clock in my sleep, so here was my solution:
- medium sized metal box from RadioShack.
- Large button I had laying around
- The loudest piezo buzzer RadioShack sells (105 dB)
- telephone wire
- hooked up to the flow control lines on the serial port
- program to control it all
Features I included in the program
- I set the alarm times once, a different time for each day of the week. The only time I have to adjust it is when I need to get up earlier than usual on the weekends.
- when I hit the snooze button, it launches WinAmp to play MP3s until the buzzer goes off again.
- the snooze time starts at 5 minutes per snooze, and steps down over 30 minutes. So 30 minutes after the alarm went off, the snooze button doesn't work anymore.
- To turn off the alarm completely, one has to get up, walk into the next room, and type in a word that is displayed on the screen, chosen random from a dictionary.
This does have one disadvantage, that the computer must either be in the bedroom or have speakers there. I've got it installed on my server machine, which only makes noise for the alarm, so I didn't mind running speakers into the next room (in other words, since it's on the server, I don't miss having sound locally).
This seems to be pretty close to what you're looking for (having your PC be your alarm clock definately has geek appeal). If you want, send me an email and I'll whip up a schematic for the serial port thing and send you my software.
Once a month or so, I get a message from the mail server "Delivery unsuccessful: Unknown recipient 'relaytest%security.rr.com'". If they find an open relay, then they'll do something about it; otherwise, I'm free to run my mail server.
they can wheel a crane into your backyard to do work, and you will have to live with it. And if they have to take the fence down, or nock out part of your house to get there, they will. (Though they will fix it later).
In many cases, there is a separate easement to allow them access to the easement that contains the power lines. There might be one house that the whole side yard is an easement to allow them access.
Unless you violate the easement (by building on top of it), they can't do anything to your house.
Back feeding lines is an issue, but not as big as you might think. In nearly all cases your house is not the only one isolated, thus when you start backfeeding lines, all your neighbors think they have full grid power and start to use it, but since you don't have an unlimited supply of power, the breakers (and fuses) on your generators trip.
There is equipment that will detect when the line from the power company is down, and will disconnect itself so as to not try to power the grid (just your house). I've seen them on sites that also sell wind turbines, solar cells, etc.
all I can get from them is the company name: NCO. They won't tell me more about their company unless I tell who I am.
Short of making up a social security number, I see nothing wrong with making up all the personal info you give them.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if there's no air-cooling going on whatsoever, does that mean the case can be completely sealed against dust?
I'm sure inhaling the dust that collects in computer cases is a health hazard, if you do it often enough.
If there's no fans, then there'd be very little air circulation, and therefore nothing to suck the dust in.
The quote at the bottom of the page seems appropriate, even if not exactly what you were looking for:
Watch all-night Donna Reed reruns until your mind resembles oatmeal.
9.One-year non-compete\non-solicitation clause.
One year non-compete with MS? Since MS is involved in just about everything, wouldn't this prevent working for most companies in the computer industry?
...about a dozen Pentium II computers...
...upgrade them to 2GB...
Let's see, you want to buy 12 GB RAM, 12 gigabit NICs, and a gigabit switch to get a 24 GB logical volume?
The cheapest gigabit NIC on pricewatch is $40. I'm not sure what type of ram a P-II takes, but everything on pricewatch is over or about $100/GB. So that's $140 per computer, times 12 computers is $1,680 for a 24 GB volume. (This is what you consider a 'limited budget'?)
And you said your friend already has a raid array? I'm willing to bet that it's bigger than 24 GB, and since it's probably attached locally instead of through the network, a hell of a lot faster.
For comparison, you can buy a 250 GB EIDE drive for $325. I'm sure you could put together a cheap computer with four of these drives for less than the $1600.
When I started my job after greduation this past May, I tried to get a new clause inserted into the agreement, basically saying that if I worked on something on my own time, with my own resources, that didn't relate to something my company or their clients did, I would own it, not the company.
Basically, I wanted to be able to work on my own software projects on my own time, and not have to worry about my company taking ownership. Now, I should point out that at a company small enough where you call the CEO by his first name, chances of having your work "stolen" are nil, but having it would have made me feel better anyway.
In the end, I wasn't able to get that clause inserted, the CEO said that the lawyers had reviewed the current one, plus the companies we work for had reviewed it, so it wasn't going to change for just me. However, in your situation, where they are revising it for everybody, that would be the perfect time to get that inserted.
Light has mass? no it does not.. the energy of a photon has a mass equivalence, but it does not have mass.
Light does indeed have a mass... Large astronomical bodies can bend light by a measurable amount. From the article:
The opportunity to do this arose in September 2002, when Jupiter passed in front of a quasar that emits bright radio waves. Fomalont and Kopeikin combined observations from a series of radio telescopes across the Earth to measure the apparent change in the quasar's position as the gravitational field of Jupiter bent the passing radio waves.
And, as we all know, light waves are simply radio waves at a much higher frequency.
Also, consider this: A room, with someone holding a flashlight pointed horizontally. When the room is placed on Earth, everything in the room is accelerated downwards at 9.8 m/s^2. Now take that room, put it out in the middle of space, and strap a rocket to it so it too is accelerating at 9.8 m/s^2. From the perspective of the inside of the room, the two are equivelent, both room occupants would feel a downwards acceleration of 9.8 m/s^2. Now, turn on the flashlight. In the room rocketing through space, it is obvious that the beam of light is skewed downwards, since the flashlight (and the rest of the room) continue to be accelerated upwards, while the existing beam does not accelerate, instead "falling behind". The flashlight and the beam of light used to be moving at the same speed, but the flashlight continues to move faster, and the beam does not.
But remember, the two rooms are exactly the same (from the perspective of the inside of the room). Since the light beam is bent by the acceleration of 9.8 m/s^2 in the room in outer space, it therefore must be bent by the 9.8 m/s^2 acceleration here on Earth.
Sure, you could wait 10 minutes at the bridge instead of using a new electronic toll payment system, but do you?
How much would you sell *your* privacy for?
I would sell a PART of my privacy for $450 a year. With the electronic toll system on the New York State Thruway, one can enroll in a plan where the first 30 miles of each trip are free. The plan costs $80 per year, and 30 miles works out to about a dollar per trip. To work and back is ten trips a week, 52 weeks a year, plus other trips on the Thruway on evenings and weekends, is over 550 trips per year, therefore about $550 saved, less $80 enrollment fee, is ~$450.
That said, I consider the loss of privacy to be minimal. Sure, NYS could use it to track speeders, but they don't (I've taken a ~80 mile trip in under an hour (speed limit is 65), and nothing happened.); and I have a feeling that if they did, that's when the privacy advocates would come out and put a stop to it VERY quickly.
Google is a private company. They can make whatever assinite decisions they want to make. If they wanted to, they should be able to only hire white people over 6 feet ball with goatees. Their decision.
Is it absurd? Yes. Is it something Google should be prevented from doing? No.
Actually, they are prevented from doing that. As a privately held corporation, Google has to comply with equal opportunity regulations. ("We do not descriminate in our hiring practices based on...")