while I agree whole heartedly with the spirit of your post, I think your lack of references diminish your arguement. What figures are available on the US crackdown on public internet access at cafes and such?
Do that in China and you "dissappear" you may eventually reappear, but you're not all in one piece.
That is absolute nonsense. China has no death squad or secret police. You never disappear, much less end up in pieces. You have to remember, China is a big country. When anyone steps out of line, there are a lot of other who are(or could be) watching. The Ministry of Public Security (affectionately known as GongAn, pronounced "goon on") does the most effective thing possible and make an example of out of said individual. The charges may be trumped up, but I assure you, the trial is very public. *You* may assert a crime has been commited, but within the Chinese system, "justice" has been carried out.
We have allowed children to play CounterStrike in Internet cafes for years.
Last I checked, CounterStrike was rated M for mature. The fact you allow children to play it does not necessarily make it a right or wise decision.
Oh? Prove it. I've *never* heard of an Internet cafe in the U.S. being shut down by the government because children were playing violent computer games. (they may have been shut down for other reasons, e.g. trafficking child porn, but violent computer gaming? Never heard of it.)
That's kind of missing the whole point isn't it? When your Internet access is shut down for whatever reason, it infringes on your right to use it for legitimate purposes. *THAT* is the source of your oppression. The double standard lies in the reasoning of "we have a better reason than you do". It is a double edged sword that cuts both ways no matter which sided of the Pacific you are.
China is still a totalitarian socialist state, and this is more proof that socialism and totalitarianism go hand in hand.
Excuse me, but how much do you really know about China? Your so-called proof is *poof*! China is no more a totalitarian socialist state than the US is a radical democratic state. How much air time has the third party candidates recieved in the upcoming presidential election? Do *you* even know who your third party candidates are? With all the spin put out by the two dominant political parties, straight facts are impossible to come by. Good luck excercising your democratic rights without genuine knowledge.
Stop trying to justify a totalitarian nation's destruction of freedom by dodging the issue and bringing out the red-herring of what the U.S. does. This article talks about China, not the U.S..
It isn't a dodge of anything. The grandparent post brings up a very good point by pointing out the hypocrisy of the American perspective. It's just another case of the pot calling the kettle black.
While I find it noble that you think that humanity has a purpose, other than pure selfishness,
If anything, survival is in our very nature.
Survival is selfishness personified, period. End of discussion.
Hardly the end of discussion. I find it extremely sad that you know so little about culture and humanity. What do you know of the heroism and sacrifices parents, soldiers, and scholars have laid down to save loved ones and charished ideas? I would venture to guess that as a person you are not only somewhat dim and ignorant but also lonely. If you do have friends and associates, are they all selfish untrustworthy save-asses like you appearately are?
By the way, I never said humanity had a purpose. In fact, quit the opposite:
The human experience is one of unending curiosity and the relentless pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. People don't always do things to get to some preconcieved goal.
I merely meant the whole lot of us are a great deal better than you imagined. Regardless of how *you* choose to see the world and live your life, there are countless numbers among us who choose to be a credit to our civilization. I sincerely hope you join us someday.
And one more fucking thing, you stupid fuck. read the DEFINITION OF PATHETIC:
Well, I'm glad *you* know the meaning of the words you use? What's your point? I still think you're an arrogant narrowminded coward for asserting the existance of people you have not even met are pathetic. But let me assure you, profanity withstanding, I will support your every right to speak for yourself.
Slap a motor on to those wheels, add microprocessor controlled steering, and a robotic arm and I wouldn't need to go into the store at all.
I suppose this sort of thing is intended to speed up or minimize what for most people is a mindless chore. But I wonder how it would impact those who shop for joy, as with cloths and fashion at department stores or in my case, gadgets and electronics at the local Fry's or Microcenter. How many slasdot geeks pay attention to the PR and promotional advertising anyway? Free is always a good thing, but I've learned not to trust sales pitches as much as my own ability to do research.
There was another show that I used to catch years ago (infrequently, as it seemed to get scheduled at odd times) on one of the local PBS stations. I think it was called 'Physical Universe' or something like that. It had a real clean cut lecturer speaking in an auditorium complete with lab table in front of a bunch of students. There were some simple but, IMHO, effective computer graphics showing some of the physical principles being talked about. Pretty low budget, I'd guess, but interesting. Anyone know if it's still being aired?
I think you are refering to The Mechanical Universe . It was a 26 part series coproduced by Cal Tech which was essentially a telecourse of your basic first semester physics class. Hosted by Caltech Professor David Goodstein, there is a "sequel" of a sort consisting of an additional 26 episodes dealing with electricity and magnetism as well as other topics you'd find in a second semester physics class.
I was too young to really appreciate the contents of each half hour show when the local PBS station aired them years ago. But I remember thinking the CG was really cool and feeling this, as opposed to afternoon cartoons, was my sort of "thing".
as naive as assuming that people would never use a nuclear bomb.
Well, so far, I think we should all be thankful those in charge of space-capable vehicles have been and continue to be Naive.:-)
It is perhaps a good thing engineering and the space industry is not a cheap or easy profession. Even for countries like the US or China with the resources to develope space-based weapons, the process is lengthy enough for politics and diplomacy to play a significant role in successful deployment. One would hope the politicians and diplomats, in any future engagement, be more mindful of things such as Mutually Assured Destruction and nuclear winter than the special interests, petty partisanship, and irrational nationalism that seem to dominate the embarassing state of America's current political climate.
I don't think it is naive at all to express hope and optimism that wisdom and compassion will (?must?) prevail in the national conscience of a democratic country of enfranchised citizens. It really is a shame that vote-wielding Americans don't get much of a chance to really understand the true destructiveness of these weapons. I remember reading that JFK was completely floored when, soon after becoming president, he was presented by the military with one of the many plans developed to handle a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. Looking at the maps and statistics, he was reported to have uttered something to the effect, "...and we consider ourselves human beings..."
Having said all that, I expect the slashdot crowd to be a bit more educated and aware than the average American. Maturity...well, that is another story. So even if the ideas I raise are ridiculed or dismissed, they should at least be understood, and perhaps appreciated.
I just mentioned this to a friend and we've begun a spirited debate about how this will actually play out.
My friend thinks this will all fizzle out eventually because it happened once before. He points out the last attempt at weaponizing space and what a fiasco that turned out to be. He is refering the SDI as one facet of the cold war against the soviet union. In retrospect, we can safely say in relief even though SDI was a failure (and it *was* a failure for the US), it bankrupt the soviet union who tried to keep up. This helped lead to their break up along with their east european satellite states.
But I argue that times are different. Technology has grown since the 80s when SDI was concieved. I'm not as well informed technologically, but I'm willing to bet that even with the failure of the US to practically implement a missile defense system, the resources to establish space-base warfare is orders of magnitude more viable than it was during SDI's haydays. More important than the technical feasibility, the opponent is different. Unlike the soviet union, China is no longer running on the command economy model. Not only is China's capitalist economy growing explosively, it *still* has vast untaped economic potential. To try and bankrupt such a country as we did to the soviet union would likely be just as self-destructive to the US as it would be for China. Left to the hawks among politicians and government leaders, this may bring us closer to mass destruction than we ever faced during the cold war.
Some of the suggestions posted here brings back a bunch of very fond memories for me. But that is actually off-topic because I only started reading in English as a 7-8 year old. The questioner is a relatively new dad. Is his daughter ready for the likes of Danny Dunn and Madeleine L'Engle? I agree with many posters who say simply just be a good dad and don't worry about how your child views your profession. But I also think in order to have your child appreciate you on a personal level, it is important to instill in him/her an appreciation for the qualities which reflects your chosen vocation in life. Perhaps she won't comprehend the ins and outs of programming, but the idea of building or realizing something by being creative is a simple notion any child can relate to. In many ways, it is the very spirit of "playing". To that end, I recommend "Harold and the Purple Crayon" . It is just a simple picture book. But all things considering, our hero Harold is as much a geek/hacker as any of us.
brings to mind an old question I once had.
on
GPU Gems
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
This post reminds me of a question that I haven't thought about since High School. I was taking programming classes right around the time I was discovering the gaming phenomenon. The dizzying pace of hardware evolution at the time (still going strong as ever many would say) prompt me to ask my computer teacher if computer video hardware was designed in such a way that when graphics were not being processed, the GPU could be used for general number crunching. In other words, if it is possible to do load balancing between the GPU and the CPU. I seemed to recall reading something (possibly on/.) about someone investigating this exact thing I was wondering about so long ago. I should probably STFW, but if someone could point me in the proper direction, I would be as grateful as anyone would to have a long-irritated itch finaly scratched.
How is North Korea kind of their fault? Since the collapse of the soviet bloc, communist China is essentially the only supporter of communist Korea. Where Kim Jong Il has made a mess of managing his country, Beijing has readily provided assistance to the N. Korea people, without which they would be even more desperate than they are now. Don't ge me wrong, the fact that China can afford to give a lot more is not lost on me. I think at a some level the top brass in Beijing would even *want* to prop N. Korea up a little more so as to avoid the attention of the world press making a big stink about how bad it is. The problem is Kim Jong Il is very much a dictator who bows to no one, not even his neighbor and benifactors. It isn't China's fault if they are not being *allowed* to help.
I think a little clarification is in order. Do you want to know how television can be broadcast *using* WiFi? or do you want to know how regular television broadcast can *coexist* with WiFi?
In both cases, it is a matter of how you use the spectrum. Concerning the first: HDTV is transmited as a digital signal - nothing more than a bitstream. WiFi is a communications protocol - nothing more than rules detailing how to get data from here to there. Unlike existing over-the-air broadcasting, WiFi is very much bi-directional, so having interactive TV over WiFi is no problem. Concerning the second: Digital TV signals does not necessarily need the 6 MHz allocated for each channel. In fact, broadcasters have the option of simultaneously broadcasting several analog NTSC quality signals that has been digitally compressed instead of a single full-blown HDTV channel with the high definition resolution. This is called multicasting. If a broadcaster decides to scale back the quality of a channel, enough bandwidth could be recovered for other uses - including uploads from a couch potato to where ever.
one possible solution to the physical layer prob.
on
Wiring a Neighborhood?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Preferably, fiber optics will be used. However, it is very difficult to have a good overview of possibilities, and fiber optics technology is apparently very expensive to implement.
You can ditch the fiber but keep the optics. Free Space Optics (FSO) has been around for a long time. Despite being somewhat obscure, it is a very mature technology with a lot of things going for it. It provides fiber level bandwidth without the cost of digging up the ground to lay down fiber. Rapid deployment and high mobility can save not only money but time as well. You didn't mention how far apart the residences are in the neighborhood, but unless you're rural and very spread out, FSO may perform satisfactorily with allowance for bad weather. Bad weather being fog and scintillation.
Fog is a problem if you're near the coast or a large body of water that can produce a lot of mist. A heavy mist can really hammer the signal by several dBs over long distances on the order of a mile/kilometer. Currently it is the largest obstacle faced by permament/semi-permanent FSO implementations. Atmospheric scintillation is the phenomenon that makes stars twinkle at night. It is caused by variations in atmospheric temperature that change the index of refraction an optical signal encounters as it zooms to its destination. This problem, however, is more or less solved by making the signal take parallel paths to the reciever.
you may be interested in the following companies among others.
Now that friends has just aired its series finale, you *know* Americans are just dying to try something new and trendy. What could be cooler than making like Christian Slater and pumping up the volume!?!? That's right you Elvis fan, it's time to dust off your LPs and start gyrating them hips. Three cheers for the aspiring Marconis amongst the air waves!
Re:Interesting facts:
on
Extreme Yo-Yoing
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The yoyo is one of the oldest known toys. It's also not evolved from a weapon, country to popular myth.
Yo-yos have been around for millennia. Historians have found evidence in a painting on a Greek bowl from around 500 B.C., for example. No one knows whether it was the ancient Greeks or Chinese or someone else who invented this toy.
Really?? I have a very distinct memory of being first exposed to this "myth". Years ago when I was in elementary school, I was a fan of author Donald J. Sobol. In addition to the Encyclopedia Brown mysteries, he had also penned a book consisting of nothing but obscure trivia facts. There was one blurb declaring the yo-yo as being of polynesian origin - originally used as a hunting tool. There was a cartoon showing a little boy perched from the safty of a tree branch deploying a stone yo-yo at the snout of a wild boar. Now I'm wondering how this myth got started such that it made it's way into the awarness of my boyhood literary hero.
But isn't peer pressure a good motivator? Now, speeding will not only get you more redlights (making it, in fact, take longer to get anywhere the faster you go), but you also run the risk of being the jackass that stopped all traffic.
Seems to me that this solves the speeding problem in a way that doesn't involve fines, which have had almost no effect.
On the other hand, you could say that this "solution" can contribute to road rage. If traffic lights are giving people more reason to be pissed off on the road at other motorists, Flaring tempers could very well increase incidents of violence. Where there are stop lights, it is very easy to stop your vehicle, get out and pick a fight with someone.
Did you bother reading the sidebar? The satellite was part of the soviet tactical naval system.
This Soviet Union placed a series of radar-equipped ocean reconnaissance satellites, known as RORSATs in the west in low Earth orbit beginning in 1967. Employing powerful radars and working in pairs, they located and targeted U.S. ships for destruction by Soviet naval forces...
This is not the same thing as pulling over all the white cadilacs on I-95 driven by black males...
How is this not the same? You're justifying suspicion of a person based solely on appearance. People don't automatically develop hatred and resentment for others because of skin color or apearance. If that were the case, we would be racists by birth. They learn to do it from interpreting their personal experiences or imitating others whose ideals they accept. Black male drivers and Saudi Arabians both have good reason to be upset because they have been collectively mistreated by an identifiable group. Is it any wonder that some should choose to vent anger at that group? What all terrorists have in common, be they white, black, Christian, or Muslim, is that they feel they have a bone to pick. By adopting racial profiling tactics we are making the bone that much bigger and presenting it to many more people to pick. I don't share your perspective, but I will say that racial profiling is probably one of the more effective measures we can adopt...Which isn't to say it's right or fair, just that it *MAY* be more economical.
I don't think the Russians have any launch vehicles right now that can accomodate the kind of Extra-Vehicular Activity necessary to service the Hubble. Anyone who knows better, feel free to correct me.
I had assumed this was being done all along. How are debian packages currently organized in the install set hierarchy?
By the way, are there any other front-ends to apt-get in the spirit of Synaptic? Synaptic is a nice program, but seems to be still very buggy.
Slashdot Mirror
while I agree whole heartedly with the spirit of your post, I think your lack of references diminish your arguement. What figures are available on the US crackdown on public internet access at cafes and such?
Do that in China and you "dissappear" you may eventually reappear, but you're not all in one piece.
That is absolute nonsense. China has no death squad or secret police. You never disappear, much less end up in pieces. You have to remember, China is a big country. When anyone steps out of line, there are a lot of other who are(or could be) watching. The Ministry of Public Security (affectionately known as GongAn, pronounced "goon on") does the most effective thing possible and make an example of out of said individual. The charges may be trumped up, but I assure you, the trial is very public. *You* may assert a crime has been commited, but within the Chinese system, "justice" has been carried out.
We have allowed children to play CounterStrike in Internet cafes for years.
Last I checked, CounterStrike was rated M for mature. The fact you allow children to play it does not necessarily make it a right or wise decision.
Oh? Prove it. I've *never* heard of an Internet cafe in the U.S. being shut down by the government because children were playing violent computer games. (they may have been shut down for other reasons, e.g. trafficking child porn, but violent computer gaming? Never heard of it.)
That's kind of missing the whole point isn't it? When your Internet access is shut down for whatever reason, it infringes on your right to use it for legitimate purposes. *THAT* is the source of your oppression. The double standard lies in the reasoning of "we have a better reason than you do". It is a double edged sword that cuts both ways no matter which sided of the Pacific you are.
China is still a totalitarian socialist state, and this is more proof that socialism and totalitarianism go hand in hand.
Excuse me, but how much do you really know about China? Your so-called proof is *poof*! China is no more a totalitarian socialist state than the US is a radical democratic state. How much air time has the third party candidates recieved in the upcoming presidential election? Do *you* even know who your third party candidates are? With all the spin put out by the two dominant political parties, straight facts are impossible to come by. Good luck excercising your democratic rights without genuine knowledge.
Stop trying to justify a totalitarian nation's destruction of freedom by dodging the issue and bringing out the red-herring of what the U.S. does. This article talks about China, not the U.S..
It isn't a dodge of anything. The grandparent post brings up a very good point by pointing out the hypocrisy of the American perspective. It's just another case of the pot calling the kettle black.
Thank you for rationally articulating what, as an outraged hothead, I have been unable to. Curse me for exhausting my mod points yesterday!
While I find it noble that you think that humanity has a purpose, other than pure selfishness, If anything, survival is in our very nature. Survival is selfishness personified, period. End of discussion.
Hardly the end of discussion. I find it extremely sad that you know so little about culture and humanity. What do you know of the heroism and sacrifices parents, soldiers, and scholars have laid down to save loved ones and charished ideas? I would venture to guess that as a person you are not only somewhat dim and ignorant but also lonely. If you do have friends and associates, are they all selfish untrustworthy save-asses like you appearately are?
By the way, I never said humanity had a purpose. In fact, quit the opposite:
The human experience is one of unending curiosity and the relentless pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. People don't always do things to get to some preconcieved goal.
I merely meant the whole lot of us are a great deal better than you imagined. Regardless of how *you* choose to see the world and live your life, there are countless numbers among us who choose to be a credit to our civilization. I sincerely hope you join us someday.
And one more fucking thing, you stupid fuck. read the DEFINITION OF PATHETIC:
Well, I'm glad *you* know the meaning of the words you use? What's your point? I still think you're an arrogant narrowminded coward for asserting the existance of people you have not even met are pathetic. But let me assure you, profanity withstanding, I will support your every right to speak for yourself.
how sad. Haven't any /.ers ever heard of "Alice in Wonderland"?
Slap a motor on to those wheels, add microprocessor controlled steering, and a robotic arm and I wouldn't need to go into the store at all.
I suppose this sort of thing is intended to speed up or minimize what for most people is a mindless chore. But I wonder how it would impact those who shop for joy, as with cloths and fashion at department stores or in my case, gadgets and electronics at the local Fry's or Microcenter. How many slasdot geeks pay attention to the PR and promotional advertising anyway? Free is always a good thing, but I've learned not to trust sales pitches as much as my own ability to do research.
There was another show that I used to catch years ago (infrequently, as it seemed to get scheduled at odd times) on one of the local PBS stations. I think it was called 'Physical Universe' or something like that. It had a real clean cut lecturer speaking in an auditorium complete with lab table in front of a bunch of students. There were some simple but, IMHO, effective computer graphics showing some of the physical principles being talked about. Pretty low budget, I'd guess, but interesting. Anyone know if it's still being aired?
I think you are refering to The Mechanical Universe . It was a 26 part series coproduced by Cal Tech which was essentially a telecourse of your basic first semester physics class. Hosted by Caltech Professor David Goodstein, there is a "sequel" of a sort consisting of an additional 26 episodes dealing with electricity and magnetism as well as other topics you'd find in a second semester physics class.
I was too young to really appreciate the contents of each half hour show when the local PBS station aired them years ago. But I remember thinking the CG was really cool and feeling this, as opposed to afternoon cartoons, was my sort of "thing".
as naive as assuming that people would never use a nuclear bomb.
:-)
Well, so far, I think we should all be thankful those in charge of space-capable vehicles have been and continue to be Naive.
It is perhaps a good thing engineering and the space industry is not a cheap or easy profession. Even for countries like the US or China with the resources to develope space-based weapons, the process is lengthy enough for politics and diplomacy to play a significant role in successful deployment. One would hope the politicians and diplomats, in any future engagement, be more mindful of things such as Mutually Assured Destruction and nuclear winter than the special interests, petty partisanship, and irrational nationalism that seem to dominate the embarassing state of America's current political climate.
I don't think it is naive at all to express hope and optimism that wisdom and compassion will (?must?) prevail in the national conscience of a democratic country of enfranchised citizens. It really is a shame that vote-wielding Americans don't get much of a chance to really understand the true destructiveness of these weapons. I remember reading that JFK was completely floored when, soon after becoming president, he was presented by the military with one of the many plans developed to handle a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. Looking at the maps and statistics, he was reported to have uttered something to the effect, "...and we consider ourselves human beings..."
Having said all that, I expect the slashdot crowd to be a bit more educated and aware than the average American. Maturity...well, that is another story. So even if the ideas I raise are ridiculed or dismissed, they should at least be understood, and perhaps appreciated.
I just mentioned this to a friend and we've begun a spirited debate about how this will actually play out.
My friend thinks this will all fizzle out eventually because it happened once before. He points out the last attempt at weaponizing space and what a fiasco that turned out to be. He is refering the SDI as one facet of the cold war against the soviet union. In retrospect, we can safely say in relief even though SDI was a failure (and it *was* a failure for the US), it bankrupt the soviet union who tried to keep up. This helped lead to their break up along with their east european satellite states.
But I argue that times are different. Technology has grown since the 80s when SDI was concieved. I'm not as well informed technologically, but I'm willing to bet that even with the failure of the US to practically implement a missile defense system, the resources to establish space-base warfare is orders of magnitude more viable than it was during SDI's haydays. More important than the technical feasibility, the opponent is different. Unlike the soviet union, China is no longer running on the command economy model. Not only is China's capitalist economy growing explosively, it *still* has vast untaped economic potential. To try and bankrupt such a country as we did to the soviet union would likely be just as self-destructive to the US as it would be for China. Left to the hawks among politicians and government leaders, this may bring us closer to mass destruction than we ever faced during the cold war.
I wonder if the results would have been the same had the gorilla suit or bee costume bee been replaced by Natalie Portman N&P, CiHG.
Did anyone notice the "Mergers & Acquisitions" ads by google? Considering the funding woos of NASA, perhaps......
Some of the suggestions posted here brings back a bunch of very fond memories for me. But that is actually off-topic because I only started reading in English as a 7-8 year old. The questioner is a relatively new dad. Is his daughter ready for the likes of Danny Dunn and Madeleine L'Engle? I agree with many posters who say simply just be a good dad and don't worry about how your child views your profession. But I also think in order to have your child appreciate you on a personal level, it is important to instill in him/her an appreciation for the qualities which reflects your chosen vocation in life. Perhaps she won't comprehend the ins and outs of programming, but the idea of building or realizing something by being creative is a simple notion any child can relate to. In many ways, it is the very spirit of "playing". To that end, I recommend "Harold and the Purple Crayon" . It is just a simple picture book. But all things considering, our hero Harold is as much a geek/hacker as any of us.
This post reminds me of a question that I haven't thought about since High School. I was taking programming classes right around the time I was discovering the gaming phenomenon. The dizzying pace of hardware evolution at the time (still going strong as ever many would say) prompt me to ask my computer teacher if computer video hardware was designed in such a way that when graphics were not being processed, the GPU could be used for general number crunching. In other words, if it is possible to do load balancing between the GPU and the CPU. I seemed to recall reading something (possibly on /.) about someone investigating this exact thing I was wondering about so long ago. I should probably STFW, but if someone could point me in the proper direction, I would be as grateful as anyone would to have a long-irritated itch finaly scratched.
Does it run Linux?
I'm sure once it's open, linux will be running *on* it. How many embedded devices do cars have nowadays?
How is North Korea kind of their fault? Since the collapse of the soviet bloc, communist China is essentially the only supporter of communist Korea. Where Kim Jong Il has made a mess of managing his country, Beijing has readily provided assistance to the N. Korea people, without which they would be even more desperate than they are now. Don't ge me wrong, the fact that China can afford to give a lot more is not lost on me. I think at a some level the top brass in Beijing would even *want* to prop N. Korea up a little more so as to avoid the attention of the world press making a big stink about how bad it is. The problem is Kim Jong Il is very much a dictator who bows to no one, not even his neighbor and benifactors. It isn't China's fault if they are not being *allowed* to help.
I think a little clarification is in order. Do you want to know how television can be broadcast *using* WiFi? or do you want to know how regular television broadcast can *coexist* with WiFi? In both cases, it is a matter of how you use the spectrum. Concerning the first: HDTV is transmited as a digital signal - nothing more than a bitstream. WiFi is a communications protocol - nothing more than rules detailing how to get data from here to there. Unlike existing over-the-air broadcasting, WiFi is very much bi-directional, so having interactive TV over WiFi is no problem. Concerning the second: Digital TV signals does not necessarily need the 6 MHz allocated for each channel. In fact, broadcasters have the option of simultaneously broadcasting several analog NTSC quality signals that has been digitally compressed instead of a single full-blown HDTV channel with the high definition resolution. This is called multicasting. If a broadcaster decides to scale back the quality of a channel, enough bandwidth could be recovered for other uses - including uploads from a couch potato to where ever.
Preferably, fiber optics will be used. However, it is very difficult to have a good overview of possibilities, and fiber optics technology is apparently very expensive to implement.
i .com/fsoalliance/
You can ditch the fiber but keep the optics. Free Space Optics (FSO) has been around for a long time. Despite being somewhat obscure, it is a very mature technology with a lot of things going for it. It provides fiber level bandwidth without the cost of digging up the ground to lay down fiber. Rapid deployment and high mobility can save not only money but time as well. You didn't mention how far apart the residences are in the neighborhood, but unless you're rural and very spread out, FSO may perform satisfactorily with allowance for bad weather. Bad weather being fog and scintillation.
Fog is a problem if you're near the coast or a large body of water that can produce a lot of mist. A heavy mist can really hammer the signal by several dBs over long distances on the order of a mile/kilometer. Currently it is the largest obstacle faced by permament/semi-permanent FSO implementations. Atmospheric scintillation is the phenomenon that makes stars twinkle at night. It is caused by variations in atmospheric temperature that change the index of refraction an optical signal encounters as it zooms to its destination. This problem, however, is more or less solved by making the signal take parallel paths to the reciever.
you may be interested in the following companies among others.
tellaire
terabeam
fsona
airfiber
lightpointe
industry news and references:
http://www.freespaceoptics.org/
http://www.wca
Now that friends has just aired its series finale, you *know* Americans are just dying to try something new and trendy. What could be cooler than making like Christian Slater and pumping up the volume!?!? That's right you Elvis fan, it's time to dust off your LPs and start gyrating them hips. Three cheers for the aspiring Marconis amongst the air waves!
Yo-yos have been around for millennia. Historians have found evidence in a painting on a Greek bowl from around 500 B.C., for example. No one knows whether it was the ancient Greeks or Chinese or someone else who invented this toy.
Really?? I have a very distinct memory of being first exposed to this "myth". Years ago when I was in elementary school, I was a fan of author Donald J. Sobol. In addition to the Encyclopedia Brown mysteries, he had also penned a book consisting of nothing but obscure trivia facts. There was one blurb declaring the yo-yo as being of polynesian origin - originally used as a hunting tool. There was a cartoon showing a little boy perched from the safty of a tree branch deploying a stone yo-yo at the snout of a wild boar. Now I'm wondering how this myth got started such that it made it's way into the awarness of my boyhood literary hero.
On the other hand, you could say that this "solution" can contribute to road rage. If traffic lights are giving people more reason to be pissed off on the road at other motorists, Flaring tempers could very well increase incidents of violence. Where there are stop lights, it is very easy to stop your vehicle, get out and pick a fight with someone.
This Soviet Union placed a series of radar-equipped ocean reconnaissance satellites, known as RORSATs in the west in low Earth orbit beginning in 1967. Employing powerful radars and working in pairs, they located and targeted U.S. ships for destruction by Soviet naval forces...
How is this not the same? You're justifying suspicion of a person based solely on appearance. People don't automatically develop hatred and resentment for others because of skin color or apearance. If that were the case, we would be racists by birth. They learn to do it from interpreting their personal experiences or imitating others whose ideals they accept. Black male drivers and Saudi Arabians both have good reason to be upset because they have been collectively mistreated by an identifiable group. Is it any wonder that some should choose to vent anger at that group? What all terrorists have in common, be they white, black, Christian, or Muslim, is that they feel they have a bone to pick. By adopting racial profiling tactics we are making the bone that much bigger and presenting it to many more people to pick. I don't share your perspective, but I will say that racial profiling is probably one of the more effective measures we can adopt...Which isn't to say it's right or fair, just that it *MAY* be more economical.
I don't think the Russians have any launch vehicles right now that can accomodate the kind of Extra-Vehicular Activity necessary to service the Hubble. Anyone who knows better, feel free to correct me.
I had assumed this was being done all along. How are debian packages currently organized in the install set hierarchy? By the way, are there any other front-ends to apt-get in the spirit of Synaptic? Synaptic is a nice program, but seems to be still very buggy.