I thought the google code was based on harmony, a clean room implementation. If so, I don't see where Oracle has a leg to stand on. Of course, I could be wrong.
You seem to be woefully ignorant in the scale of what you propose. This aircraft has a wing area of some 200m^2, or roughly that of an old 757. With that wing area, allowing for reduced dispersion in the atmosphere, and high efficiency commercially available cells, you might expect as high as 50kW peak generating capacity. For 450knot+ flight speed, you're looking to replace two turbofans with an output likely somewhere around 50MW each. Under the best conditions, you're three whole orders of magnitude off where you need to be. On a big airliner, 50kW wouldn't even come close to enough to run the avionics, lighting, and air supply.
There is NO commercial worth to solar powered airliner. There really is no worth to manned solar powered research aircraft, as the needs of a pilot are far greater than that of any worthwhile payload. This is nothing more than a $100M publicity stunt.
I think the biggest potential use for them is that they could theoretically stay aloft for very long periods of time, and so be used as drones, network repeaters, etc. Of course, it's got to either have some on board energy storage for night flying, or keep flying west at the same speed as the terminator (unlikely given the slow speed of this prototype, but for instance it could fly for months at a time during the daylight of Antarctica).
OK, so the gogol controls my car and it passes a high paying advertiser, does it take a swing through the lot so I can see the digital ads on the front of the building, or does it just park there until I buy something more than $100 value. This does not bother me at all because the car does not have a windows logo or an apple on it.
The funny thing is that they can't be thoroughly tested if they aren't actually *allowed* on the road.... and even if they got special permission for limited testing only, the company could be running tests for centuries without a single accident to their system's credit, and still never achieve any more public confidence, simply owing to the fact that they would not yet be in widespread use, and the lack of accidents could be always readily attributed to their rarity, not their reliability.
The only way they could ever *begin* to gain public acceptance is if the public is actually given the freedom to choose to utilize them.
But, why should they gain public acceptance in the first place?
because "everybody knows" that "the other people" are bad drivers, so if it was "better than all those idiot drivers you see all the time", people would accept it. For instance, I have a friend who hates all Asian drivers, another that hates all drivers driving a vehicle with handicap plates, etc. (mind you, that specific approach could be considered "evil"...)
I'm sure that such a thing must be possible from the command line,
copy file.avi.* file.avi
or, if you are a bit paranoid and want to guarantee append order, you can fall back to the original (DOS 3.x) syntax:
copy file.avi.1+file.avi.2+file.avi.3 file.avi
But yeah, most Windows users aren't even aware of command prompt. Being an ancient and crusty user of DOS (back to 2.0) makes me a 133t h@x0r, apparently.
I wasn't aware that you could use wildcards for that. Good to know.
if you want to cry, follow this link and count the number of shitty gui hacks that do nothing but "split" and "cat"
Oh lordy, if anything typifies the Windows ecosystem for me, this has to be it. I can't count how many posts I've seen on Usenet discussing where to find shiny software that essentially does nothing but "cat file.avi.* > file.avi". I'm sure that such a thing must be possible from the command line, but the majority of Windows users are afraid to venture there.
We could send up a crew of young people to have wacky adventures and fixate on each other. In their spare time they could clean up junk manually. I like the manga/anime that deals with this, Planetes
The words "wacky" and "PlanetES" should never be uttered in the same paragraph, except indicating that one is nothing like the other.
I can't say I've ever seen anything more depressing about the future of space travel than that.
Well, then perhaps wacky in the sense that it's an anime with realistic physics, which is so unusual as to be almost an oxymoron. I mean that statement alone is enough to make most of my friends do a double take when I tell them about the series.
Frankly some specifics should be released about his hack. There should be a GUI interface and we should ALL be able to watch through ANY cop camera ANY time. We pay for it. They better not have ANYTHING to hide. Bullshit about criminals watching cops is moot. Too many to watch continuously. We need MORE transparency. Then we don't have to worry about corruption quite as much. WE will police the police.
true, but if the cops are on stakeout or something, and the criminals can see where they are, that really defeats the purpose.
d'oh, I hit preview, and I wanted to cancel editing, but accidentally hit it twice. Ok, so apparently slashcode can't handle international characters. The wikipedia article listed both romanizations though.
WordPerfect also blew a big chunk of the revenues from their office suite on tech support. You'd call in, and one of 1000 or so well-trained staff would answer almost instantly and talk you through how to solve your problem.
Ever try calling tech support for Lotus, or Microsoft, or just about anyone else? Endless voicemail maze, eventually you wait on hold for half an hour to reach someone who doesn't speak your language and has never used the product. Much, much cheaper for the company.
Yes, indeed, WordPerfect tech support was best in the industry, hands down.
People should be able to do the things likely to be required of them in life, including the 1% chance necessities. Setting a bone is a good example: That's a rarely needed skill. Should everyone really know how to set it? Or, should we learn to ensure that medical help is available instead (something much easier to learn, and more generally applicable... because if you have a crush injury, for example, having made medical help available you are good, but having learned to set a bone, you are screwed.)
Butchering a hog (equivalent to what the parent suggested) is similar. You'd be talking downfall of civilization before that would be needed by most people, who would then actually be better off having learned other skills with that time.
I agree, but sometimes you are cut off from civilization, and that's when it's nice to have some basic abilities. Of course, I think if I was stuck on an island somewhere, with hogs available, I'd still probably have a hard time surviving. I mean, first you have to catch them, before you can start thinking about how to butcher them.
I really hope not as well I would have to ditch skype completely I refuse to use facebook if this proves true I'm deleting my skype details immediately.
Guess it's time to start looking for alternatives apart from google which isn't rolled out in the UK yet I have no Idea.
Wait, I don't get it. You trust skype, but you don't trust facebook? What's the difference? They both are corporations which have profit as an objective.
Why should that be anything but a fringe function? It's like asking if they've never plowed their own wheat, written their own operating system, or installed their own plumbing and electricity. The complexity of our civilization requires specialization.
And yet, human beings are capable generalists. For many things, a generalist's non-specialized abilities are sufficient. For instance, I'm a Linux Sysadmin. Fairly specialized, but it's not the only thing I do. I also drive a car, fix things around the house, make informed decisions, etc. While I personally haven't done every item on Lazarus Long's list (I've never set a bone, for instance), I feel like I could do them if needed. Maybe not as well as an expert in that field, but still.
Oh to hell with it. Have we fallen so far as a civilization that people no longer know where their food comes from? Have never seen butchering and slaughtering done? Have never killed an animal themselves, skinned, cleaned, and done their own cuts. I can probably answer myself too. Yes to all of the above.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Lazarus Long, Time Enough For Love (Robert Heinlein)
This is a great idea! I always thought the "cloud" thing was lame anyways, so lets just start calling it "The Basket". Once the IT people start using it, middle management will pick up on it just to sound like they are in the know.
Boss to IT guy: How is the migration of all our services to the cloud going? IT guy: We don't call it that anymore sir, bad connotations from the Amazon episode. Boss: Well what do we call it now? IT guy: Sir, we now refer to it as "The Basket". Boss: Because all of our eggs are in it? IT guy: Oh no sir, because it is a large, self supporting structure of many interwoven members. Boss: Oh, OK. Please make sure marketing is aware of the new terminology, we would not want to look out of date! IT guy: Yes sir, just as soon as I finish with our eggs...
Anyone else picturing that 7UP commercial with the machine on the tank treads shooting cans at people? I know I am, I would be happy to buy Pepsi for friends if I'm able to launch the soda at them from the machine.
I remember those. I seem to recall the Mythbusters (Well, M5 Industries) made the effects for that one.
Sure - but I would expect if you didn't want support, one would likely be using CentOS to begin with. I don't think there's really much of an alternative to support a deployment of RHEL systems that doesn't come from RedHat. Granted - I've never toyed with Oracle's distro and I seem to remember it's RHEL based (though my bias would suggest that going from RedHat to Oracle is getting out of the fire and in to a bigger fire). Maybe there are easier migrations to be had?
None the less, going from RHEL to Ubuntu or SUSE would involve some level of pain. But it would be much less painful than many other platform migrations - mainly because you're not making much of a platform shift.
I've set up plenty of customers who had initially purchased RHEL with CentOS. One scenario is that the software is initially purchased, but they don't have the budget for ongoing support from Red Hat, Inc. Another scenario is that they got RHEL because it was "Enterprise" but don't really need the extra value-added features. (For instance, a web server that only runs a few static html pages and a php script or two probably doesn't need full-scale enterprise support).
Here's the real deal. Mailing a DVD cheaply is hard. There's a huge price differential, about 4x, between the postage for a "flat", such as a DVD in a reasonably sturdy cardboard envelope, and 1 ounce USPS first class letter postage. First class letter postage is only available to mail pieces which meet certain size criteria which allow them to go through automatic sorting machines.
Netflix developed a package which, with DVD inside, weighs under 1 ounce, and sort of meets the criteria for first class letter postage. "Sort of" means that it sometimes jams up or gets broken in the machinery. However, the USPS allowed Netflix to get the first class rate, and then manually pulled most returning Netflix mailers from the mail stream for manual processing. (Returns are the problem - on the outgoing side, Netflix is sending uniform pieces in bulk, pre-sorted, to get the best rate. Returns just come in from mailboxes, unsorted.)
There is a postal "non-machinable" surcharge, however, which should have probably still applied to the Netflix mailers.
Here's the relevant part of postal regulations: Nonmachinable Criteria
A letter-size piece is nonmachinable (see 6.4) if it... e. Is too rigid (does not bend easily when subjected to a transport belt tension of 40 pounds around an 11-inch diameter turn).
From my experience working at the Postal service, I'd say that the Netflix discs (again, this is talking about the returns to netflix, which come mixed in the unsorted mail from the public) get rejected at the first machine they pass through. Specifically, collected mail is sent through a machine called an Automated Facer-Canceler System, which orients the mail pieces, checks for postage or FIM marks (in this case the Business Reply Mail mark), and applies the postmark. There's a reject chute off to the side of the machine which rejects mail that is too stiff or badly sized, etc., and almost all the Netflix and Blockbuster return DVDs get rejected at that point.
Due to the fact that the Netflix envelopes don't have a specific address on them (they say "Nearest Netflix Shipping Facility"), they don't have to get sorted like most mail. Instead, they get their own bin which the machine operators just toss all the netflix envelopes in. Therefore the additional hand-processing step may be offset by the lack of sorting. Most of the time, as the letters are coming into an individual AFCS machine, the Netflix envelopes are pulled out before even going through the machine at all, but if the operators are busy, they will let them go through into the reject chute.
I live in Maryland, and had one of these go off when I was doing 5 under the speed limit. Also, this one happened to be on a four lane divided highway, what is to say which car is the one that triggers the camera?
Generally, they trigger when they detect only a single vehicle in their radar cone. Since the radar is effectively instant (minus speed of light delay), they can say definitively that it was your vehicle intersecting the radar beam and no other. The photograph may not be instant, however, which is why an officer is supposed to review each one (depending on jurisdiction).
I just got a ticket, but the timestamps only show seconds. Both photographs were taken within the same second. Therefore, there's no way for me to independently verify the accuracy of the system. In my case, I actually was speeding, so I'm not arguing the case, but I do think they should include precise enough time stamps that independent verification after the fact would be possible, which is not the case with radar alone.
It's kind of like a manual recount of paper ballots, which is not possible with electronic tallies alone.
Slashdot Mirror
I thought the google code was based on harmony, a clean room implementation. If so, I don't see where Oracle has a leg to stand on. Of course, I could be wrong.
go to dollar tree, might not poison little johnny with chemical residue from half melted plastic and fibrous threads
and of course, don't forget the lead-based paint.
You seem to be woefully ignorant in the scale of what you propose. This aircraft has a wing area of some 200m^2, or roughly that of an old 757. With that wing area, allowing for reduced dispersion in the atmosphere, and high efficiency commercially available cells, you might expect as high as 50kW peak generating capacity. For 450knot+ flight speed, you're looking to replace two turbofans with an output likely somewhere around 50MW each. Under the best conditions, you're three whole orders of magnitude off where you need to be. On a big airliner, 50kW wouldn't even come close to enough to run the avionics, lighting, and air supply.
There is NO commercial worth to solar powered airliner. There really is no worth to manned solar powered research aircraft, as the needs of a pilot are far greater than that of any worthwhile payload. This is nothing more than a $100M publicity stunt.
I think the biggest potential use for them is that they could theoretically stay aloft for very long periods of time, and so be used as drones, network repeaters, etc. Of course, it's got to either have some on board energy storage for night flying, or keep flying west at the same speed as the terminator (unlikely given the slow speed of this prototype, but for instance it could fly for months at a time during the daylight of Antarctica).
OK, so the gogol controls my car and it passes a high paying advertiser, does it take a swing through the lot so I can see the digital ads on the front of the building, or does it just park there until I buy something more than $100 value. This does not bother me at all because the car does not have a windows logo or an apple on it.
Be careful what you wish for...
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2005-01-02
The funny thing is that they can't be thoroughly tested if they aren't actually *allowed* on the road.... and even if they got special permission for limited testing only, the company could be running tests for centuries without a single accident to their system's credit, and still never achieve any more public confidence, simply owing to the fact that they would not yet be in widespread use, and the lack of accidents could be always readily attributed to their rarity, not their reliability.
The only way they could ever *begin* to gain public acceptance is if the public is actually given the freedom to choose to utilize them.
But, why should they gain public acceptance in the first place?
because "everybody knows" that "the other people" are bad drivers, so if it was "better than all those idiot drivers you see all the time", people would accept it. For instance, I have a friend who hates all Asian drivers, another that hates all drivers driving a vehicle with handicap plates, etc. (mind you, that specific approach could be considered "evil"...)
I'm sure that such a thing must be possible from the command line,
or, if you are a bit paranoid and want to guarantee append order, you can fall back to the original (DOS 3.x) syntax:
But yeah, most Windows users aren't even aware of command prompt. Being an ancient and crusty user of DOS (back to 2.0) makes me a 133t h@x0r, apparently.
I wasn't aware that you could use wildcards for that. Good to know.
if you want to cry, follow this link and count the number of shitty gui hacks that do nothing but "split" and "cat"
Oh lordy, if anything typifies the Windows ecosystem for me, this has to be it. I can't count how many posts I've seen on Usenet discussing where to find shiny software that essentially does nothing but "cat file.avi.* > file.avi". I'm sure that such a thing must be possible from the command line, but the majority of Windows users are afraid to venture there.
sort of. COPY /B exists, but you have do do:
copy /b file.avi.001 + file.avi.002 + file.avi.003 + file.avi.004 + file.avi.005 file.avi
We could send up a crew of young people to have wacky adventures and fixate on each other. In their spare time they could clean up junk manually. I like the manga/anime that deals with this, Planetes
The words "wacky" and "PlanetES" should never be uttered in the same paragraph, except indicating that one is nothing like the other.
I can't say I've ever seen anything more depressing about the future of space travel than that.
Well, then perhaps wacky in the sense that it's an anime with realistic physics, which is so unusual as to be almost an oxymoron. I mean that statement alone is enough to make most of my friends do a double take when I tell them about the series.
Frankly some specifics should be released about his hack.
There should be a GUI interface and we should ALL be able to watch through ANY cop camera ANY time. We pay for it. They better not have ANYTHING to hide.
Bullshit about criminals watching cops is moot. Too many to watch continuously.
We need MORE transparency. Then we don't have to worry about corruption quite as much.
WE will police the police.
true, but if the cops are on stakeout or something, and the criminals can see where they are, that really defeats the purpose.
d'oh, I hit preview, and I wanted to cancel editing, but accidentally hit it twice. Ok, so apparently slashcode can't handle international characters. The wikipedia article listed both romanizations though.
Check your own link, it's Matryoshka, not "Matrushka". :)
Funny, that link seemed to indicate it was , but yeah. :-)
WordPerfect also blew a big chunk of the revenues from their office suite on tech support. You'd call in, and one of 1000 or so well-trained staff would answer almost instantly and talk you through how to solve your problem.
Ever try calling tech support for Lotus, or Microsoft, or just about anyone else? Endless voicemail maze, eventually you wait on hold for half an hour to reach someone who doesn't speak your language and has never used the product. Much, much cheaper for the company.
Yes, indeed, WordPerfect tech support was best in the industry, hands down.
TeX: Writing with reveal codes always on...
nice!
It is tough to feel the moss while traveling at 70MPH.
The Sun however moves pretty predictably.
great news when it's night time or cloudy...
People should be able to do the things likely to be required of them in life, including the 1% chance necessities. ... because if you have a crush injury, for example, having made medical help available you are good, but having learned to set a bone, you are screwed.)
Setting a bone is a good example: That's a rarely needed skill. Should everyone really know how to set it? Or, should we learn to ensure that medical help is available instead (something much easier to learn, and more generally applicable
Butchering a hog (equivalent to what the parent suggested) is similar. You'd be talking downfall of civilization before that would be needed by most people, who would then actually be better off having learned other skills with that time.
I agree, but sometimes you are cut off from civilization, and that's when it's nice to have some basic abilities. Of course, I think if I was stuck on an island somewhere, with hogs available, I'd still probably have a hard time surviving. I mean, first you have to catch them, before you can start thinking about how to butcher them.
I really hope not as well I would have to ditch skype completely I refuse to use facebook if this proves true I'm deleting my skype details immediately.
Guess it's time to start looking for alternatives apart from google which isn't rolled out in the UK yet I have no Idea.
Wait, I don't get it. You trust skype, but you don't trust facebook? What's the difference? They both are corporations which have profit as an objective.
Why should that be anything but a fringe function? It's like asking if they've never plowed their own wheat, written their own operating system, or installed their own plumbing and electricity. The complexity of our civilization requires specialization.
And yet, human beings are capable generalists. For many things, a generalist's non-specialized abilities are sufficient. For instance, I'm a Linux Sysadmin. Fairly specialized, but it's not the only thing I do. I also drive a car, fix things around the house, make informed decisions, etc. While I personally haven't done every item on Lazarus Long's list (I've never set a bone, for instance), I feel like I could do them if needed. Maybe not as well as an expert in that field, but still.
it hurts with the stupid.
Oh to hell with it. Have we fallen so far as a civilization that people no longer know where their food comes from? Have never seen butchering and slaughtering done? Have never killed an animal themselves, skinned, cleaned, and done their own cuts. I can probably answer myself too. Yes to all of the above.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Lazarus Long, Time Enough For Love (Robert Heinlein)
Does a company really want someone who works only for the additional benefits of the company, rather than the core business?
I'm coming from this line is the article:
"The workshops are my No. 1 perk at Google," Awad said during a break from a welding project. "They're the main reason I will be a Googler for life."
yes. It means that the employee is doing their passion, which hopefully means that they are doing good work that they care about.
This is a great idea! I always thought the "cloud" thing was lame anyways, so lets just start calling it "The Basket". Once the IT people start using it, middle management will pick up on it just to sound like they are in the know.
Boss to IT guy:
How is the migration of all our services to the cloud going?
IT guy:
We don't call it that anymore sir, bad connotations from the Amazon episode.
Boss:
Well what do we call it now?
IT guy:
Sir, we now refer to it as "The Basket".
Boss:
Because all of our eggs are in it?
IT guy:
Oh no sir, because it is a large, self supporting structure of many interwoven members.
Boss:
Oh, OK. Please make sure marketing is aware of the new terminology, we would not want to look out of date!
IT guy:
Yes sir, just as soon as I finish with our eggs...
nice! :-)
Anyone else picturing that 7UP commercial with the machine on the tank treads shooting cans at people? I know I am, I would be happy to buy Pepsi for friends if I'm able to launch the soda at them from the machine.
I remember those. I seem to recall the Mythbusters (Well, M5 Industries) made the effects for that one.
Sure - but I would expect if you didn't want support, one would likely be using CentOS to begin with. I don't think there's really much of an alternative to support a deployment of RHEL systems that doesn't come from RedHat. Granted - I've never toyed with Oracle's distro and I seem to remember it's RHEL based (though my bias would suggest that going from RedHat to Oracle is getting out of the fire and in to a bigger fire). Maybe there are easier migrations to be had?
None the less, going from RHEL to Ubuntu or SUSE would involve some level of pain. But it would be much less painful than many other platform migrations - mainly because you're not making much of a platform shift.
I've set up plenty of customers who had initially purchased RHEL with CentOS. One scenario is that the software is initially purchased, but they don't have the budget for ongoing support from Red Hat, Inc. Another scenario is that they got RHEL because it was "Enterprise" but don't really need the extra value-added features. (For instance, a web server that only runs a few static html pages and a php script or two probably doesn't need full-scale enterprise support).
Here's the real deal. Mailing a DVD cheaply is hard. There's a huge price differential, about 4x, between the postage for a "flat", such as a DVD in a reasonably sturdy cardboard envelope, and 1 ounce USPS first class letter postage. First class letter postage is only available to mail pieces which meet certain size criteria which allow them to go through automatic sorting machines.
Netflix developed a package which, with DVD inside, weighs under 1 ounce, and sort of meets the criteria for first class letter postage. "Sort of" means that it sometimes jams up or gets broken in the machinery. However, the USPS allowed Netflix to get the first class rate, and then manually pulled most returning Netflix mailers from the mail stream for manual processing. (Returns are the problem - on the outgoing side, Netflix is sending uniform pieces in bulk, pre-sorted, to get the best rate. Returns just come in from mailboxes, unsorted.)
There is a postal "non-machinable" surcharge, however, which should have probably still applied to the Netflix mailers.
Here's the relevant part of postal regulations:
Nonmachinable Criteria
A letter-size piece is nonmachinable (see 6.4) if it ...
e. Is too rigid (does not bend easily when subjected to a transport belt tension of 40 pounds around an 11-inch diameter turn).
From my experience working at the Postal service, I'd say that the Netflix discs (again, this is talking about the returns to netflix, which come mixed in the unsorted mail from the public) get rejected at the first machine they pass through. Specifically, collected mail is sent through a machine called an Automated Facer-Canceler System, which orients the mail pieces, checks for postage or FIM marks (in this case the Business Reply Mail mark), and applies the postmark. There's a reject chute off to the side of the machine which rejects mail that is too stiff or badly sized, etc., and almost all the Netflix and Blockbuster return DVDs get rejected at that point.
Due to the fact that the Netflix envelopes don't have a specific address on them (they say "Nearest Netflix Shipping Facility"), they don't have to get sorted like most mail. Instead, they get their own bin which the machine operators just toss all the netflix envelopes in. Therefore the additional hand-processing step may be offset by the lack of sorting. Most of the time, as the letters are coming into an individual AFCS machine, the Netflix envelopes are pulled out before even going through the machine at all, but if the operators are busy, they will let them go through into the reject chute.
I live in Maryland, and had one of these go off when I was doing 5 under the speed limit. Also, this one happened to be on a four lane divided highway, what is to say which car is the one that triggers the camera?
Generally, they trigger when they detect only a single vehicle in their radar cone. Since the radar is effectively instant (minus speed of light delay), they can say definitively that it was your vehicle intersecting the radar beam and no other. The photograph may not be instant, however, which is why an officer is supposed to review each one (depending on jurisdiction).
I just got a ticket, but the timestamps only show seconds. Both photographs were taken within the same second. Therefore, there's no way for me to independently verify the accuracy of the system. In my case, I actually was speeding, so I'm not arguing the case, but I do think they should include precise enough time stamps that independent verification after the fact would be possible, which is not the case with radar alone.
It's kind of like a manual recount of paper ballots, which is not possible with electronic tallies alone.