I disagree with this - I think that we're more like a single-threaded system. We have the capability to context-switch, but different people are better at it than others. Still, you can only focus on one thing at a time unless you're doing a task that can be given over to a semi-automatic system (driving, for example, might be considered semi-automatic sometimes).
I think that ADD could be akin to having a computer that spent all of its time context switching and never got any real work done.
I haven't see Google Wave or any demo of it, but if it forces people to context-switch too often, it will become distracting. Same as getting 10 IMs and hearing the tea kettle go off when you're trying to focus on writing a Very Important Slashdot Reply. And - oh yeah, when you're trying to work, too.
They all make statements like that. It is like a high-school class presidential campaign here. They all say it with a little smirk as if to say "Aren't I being clever?".
As I understand it Intelligent Design has accepted that evolution occurs, but argues that it has been guided by an mind (the Judeo-Christian God's) rather than random luck.
Thanks for sharing your beliefs and qualifying the supernatural ones. Just a little bit of nitpicking for you: I don't think anybody says that random luck is responsible for the evolution of creatures. "Survival of the fittest" is probably a better explanation. Things change over time, and the animals that are best adapted for their environment are the ones that tend to win out and survive. A lot of people seem to think that evolutionary biologists think that the way evolution happens is that some creature gets struck by a cosmic ray and all of a sudden it grows an eyeball or a tail. Mutations do occur and may be caused by things like cosmic rays, but I think that the far majority of changes over time tend to be because of natural selection.
It does not behave differently. It behaves exactly the same. People would be less likely to buy an iPhone instead of an iPod if there was a restriction like this.
So I've noticed, for Windows at least, that a defrag will significantly speed up hibernation wake-up times. I think that it has something to do with the fact that the hibernation file becomes a lot more contiguous after a defrag. I too experienced S4 startup times of greater than three minutes, and a defrag got rid of that.
I don't think that the Linux filesystems require defragmentation though, so who knows what a solution for Linux would be.
Suppose that NBC wasn't just a TV network. Suppose that they also manufactured automobiles, in direct competition with Ford, General Motors and all the other car companies. If the other car companies couldn't buy any prime commercial time because NBC was using it all to promote their own cars, they would be pissed.
NBC isn't just a TV network - they are owned by GE. I'm sure that it would be easy to come up with a similar comparison between GE and its competitors. Other people don't seem to have a problem with it for the TV networks. ABC is Disney-owned, and I think CBS is Westinghouse-owned. Also: You don't see a lot of advertising for programs on one network for another network (unless they have the same owners).
generally the audio engineer is paid for his time at the time of recording, he does not receive royalties
Good point. However, that audio engineer is still being paid by the record company that gets part of the $15 spent on the CD, whether it is called a "royalty" or not. In other words, *someone* has to buy a CD in order for them to get paid. Now, does that mean that the record companies should make an obscene profit from the music? Nope.
Huh. And what about the producers that recorded his music? The audio engineers that probably make a heck of a lot less money than he does? Do you think he'll take your $15.00 and divvy it up among the people that helped him make the album? I don't feel great about the situation in the music industry - I absolutely hate it. However, sending the money is just a way to not feel guilty about violating copyright. If you're serious about an actual boycott, don't buy the music. Don't consume the music. Find something else to listen to. Or, on second thought - you could also buy it used. Or purchase a rarity - a lot of artists make small promo records for labels other than their main one. I have no idea whether Weird Al has ever done anything like that though.
I have an LGVX8300, and it was a trivial effort to turn on MP3 functionality. You just had to hit "menu" and then "zero". Enter in all zeroes for the service code. The service menu has an option to turn on MP3 functionality.
I believe that the Chocolate runs a very similar OS to the 8300, so you should be able do the same thing to enable mp3 functionality.
Before the defrag, it was unbearably slow to wake up from hibernate. Something on the order of 2.5 minutes. It would have been faster to shut down and reboot than to hibernate and wake up. After I cleaned up the disk a bit, that time was down to around 45 seconds, which made sense as being right in between the "sleep wake up time" and the "full reboot time".
It does make sense that the readback is proportional to the size of the data, but that readback could take a lot longer if the data is scattered over the entirety of the hard drive versus being in one large spot.
I'm not sure if it is Windows' fault or not, but I've noticed the hibernate problem with more RAM as well. A periodic hard drive defrag seemed to fix it for me (I know, I know... it shouldn't matter!).
Picking up the phone is not as easy to use as IM when you're sitting in a meeting and you need an answer to a quick question without disturbing people around you. We use it all of the time where I work, and it has been invaluable.
If you're in the military or have a relative in the military I'd highly reccommend USAA as an insurance company. They're not really out to make a buck - in fact, they send you a check at the end of the year refunding some of the money that you've paid them, based on their profit this year.
I've only had to file a claim once and it was for my renter's insurance, but they were just great. The auto insurance is similar.
While on the topic - check out their free checking accounts where you can use any ATM in the country and they pay you for the service fees that those ATMs charge you.
-Montag
Re:Speed up the interface a bit!
on
Just a Phone?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
"While I'm at it, am I the only one who wishes that directory enquiries could beam a number to your phone in a specific format, so that you could just call by viewing the text message and using a "convert to number" type option (in the UK we do get a text message, but it's a case of reading the message, remembering the number, backing out back to the main interface and typing it in)? Maybe other countries do this?"
This is a feature of an individual phone's OS. Here in the US, Verizon will send you a text message after a directory enquiry. My phone - a rather humble LG - will parse through every text message and ask me if I want to save the number into my phone book or dial it.
"His name changed from Jerry Dorsey to Englbert Humperdink! I mean, I'd just like to be in the room when they were working that one through:
'Zinglebert Bambledack! Yingeebert Dangleban! Zanglebert Dingleback! Winglebert Humptiback! Slupbum Waller!' 'What?' 'Alright, Kringlebert Fishtibuns! Steveibuns Buttrentrunden...' 'No, Jerry Dorsey! I like...' 'No we can't... Let's see, we have Zinglebert Bambledack, Dinglebert Wangledack, Slupbum Waller, Klingibum Fistlbars, Dinglebert Zambeldack, uh... Jerry Dorsey, Englerbert Humptiback, Zinglebert Bambledack, Englebert Humperdink, Dinglebert Wingledank' 'No, no, go back one'"
I think that one of the security problems is related to the actual storage of the data on the FPGA. Since SRAM is used on Altera and Xilinx FPGAs, it could theoretically be read off of the chip after it has been configured.
However, this triple-DES stuff is interesting. Another factiod that I picked up is that Actel FPGAs are the only ones that can include an ARM soft core because ARM does not trust the SRAM-based FPGAs to keep their IP secure.
Another reason that people don't use FPGAs that much in consumer applications is the security of the IP on the FPGA. They are loaded on power-on with a PROM chip and it is a somewhat trivial task to read the entire contents of the FPGA at power-on. This would be a nightmare for companies like Nvidia and ATI, who value their custom hardware.
Fortunately, there are somecompanies that are incorporating flash memory on to their FPGAs instead of using the standard SRAM. The problem is that flash-based FPGAs are usually a few generations behind SRAM-based FPGAs in terms of die size (and henceforth storage space and speed).
I think that as flash-based securable FPGAs become more popular, cheaper, and less power consuming, we'll start to see cards for the computer that come with completely configurable hardware.
I think that there are plenty of these type of phones out there. The problem is that you're not going to see many news articles about phones that are just phones. Nokia isn't going to send out press releases that generate stories on Yahoo news for the latest "phone-only" cell phone.
One suggestion for you would be to approach the wireless companies with the story that you need a business phone. They won't try to sell you all of this extra junk - they'll only give you what you say you need.
I almost hate to mention it, but Windows Media Player has several "smart" playlists that can do just this. I think that one of them is "Songs I listen to at night" and another one is "Songs I like but haven't listened to lately".
Do I have to hand in my geek membership card for admitting that I use WMP?
Well usually a 0-ohm resistor is called a jumper in electronics-land.
Also, here's my guess on how he performed this hack. He looked up the datasheet either for the clock chip or for the processor and saw which jumper configurations set up the speed. Then he traced back the lines to those resistor pads, either by using sight or a multimeter.
Anyway, its a cool hack and pretty simple to do if you are comfortable handling 0402's.
Its a funny thing - I'm from New York originally, but I've since moved to Portland, OR. It is a relatively big city, but there is a level of friendliness that I didn't expect from customer service. When I first went to buy groceries here, the checkout people would be really friendly and small-talk with me while they were checking out my food. It bothered me at first, because I just wanted to get the transaction over with and not be bugged. I've grown more accustomed to it now though, and every time I go back east I can't believe how people act in transactions (don't make eye contact, etc).
Slashdot Mirror
I disagree with this - I think that we're more like a single-threaded system. We have the capability to context-switch, but different people are better at it than others. Still, you can only focus on one thing at a time unless you're doing a task that can be given over to a semi-automatic system (driving, for example, might be considered semi-automatic sometimes).
I think that ADD could be akin to having a computer that spent all of its time context switching and never got any real work done.
I haven't see Google Wave or any demo of it, but if it forces people to context-switch too often, it will become distracting. Same as getting 10 IMs and hearing the tea kettle go off when you're trying to focus on writing a Very Important Slashdot Reply. And - oh yeah, when you're trying to work, too.
Cheers,
Montag
Awesome! Useless comment, ahoy! (Do I get an achievement for using "ahoy"?)
That TomTom picture was a hoax, as mentioned in a posting the next day. The other add-on could be real though!
Cheers,Montag
They all make statements like that. It is like a high-school class presidential campaign here. They all say it with a little smirk as if to say "Aren't I being clever?".
Dennis, Get back out there on the campaign trail and stop reading slshdot.
Thanks for sharing your beliefs and qualifying the supernatural ones. Just a little bit of nitpicking for you: I don't think anybody says that random luck is responsible for the evolution of creatures. "Survival of the fittest" is probably a better explanation. Things change over time, and the animals that are best adapted for their environment are the ones that tend to win out and survive. A lot of people seem to think that evolutionary biologists think that the way evolution happens is that some creature gets struck by a cosmic ray and all of a sudden it grows an eyeball or a tail. Mutations do occur and may be caused by things like cosmic rays, but I think that the far majority of changes over time tend to be because of natural selection.
Cheers,Montag2k
It does not behave differently. It behaves exactly the same. People would be less likely to buy an iPhone instead of an iPod if there was a restriction like this.
Sounds like someone wants to use Vi with their speech recognition engine!
So I've noticed, for Windows at least, that a defrag will significantly speed up hibernation wake-up times. I think that it has something to do with the fact that the hibernation file becomes a lot more contiguous after a defrag. I too experienced S4 startup times of greater than three minutes, and a defrag got rid of that.
I don't think that the Linux filesystems require defragmentation though, so who knows what a solution for Linux would be.
Cheers,
Montag
NBC isn't just a TV network - they are owned by GE. I'm sure that it would be easy to come up with a similar comparison between GE and its competitors. Other people don't seem to have a problem with it for the TV networks. ABC is Disney-owned, and I think CBS is Westinghouse-owned. Also: You don't see a lot of advertising for programs on one network for another network (unless they have the same owners).
Cheers,Montag
Good point. However, that audio engineer is still being paid by the record company that gets part of the $15 spent on the CD, whether it is called a "royalty" or not. In other words, *someone* has to buy a CD in order for them to get paid. Now, does that mean that the record companies should make an obscene profit from the music? Nope.
MontagHuh. And what about the producers that recorded his music? The audio engineers that probably make a heck of a lot less money than he does? Do you think he'll take your $15.00 and divvy it up among the people that helped him make the album? I don't feel great about the situation in the music industry - I absolutely hate it. However, sending the money is just a way to not feel guilty about violating copyright. If you're serious about an actual boycott, don't buy the music. Don't consume the music. Find something else to listen to. Or, on second thought - you could also buy it used. Or purchase a rarity - a lot of artists make small promo records for labels other than their main one. I have no idea whether Weird Al has ever done anything like that though.
Cheers,Montag
I have an LGVX8300, and it was a trivial effort to turn on MP3 functionality. You just had to hit "menu" and then "zero". Enter in all zeroes for the service code. The service menu has an option to turn on MP3 functionality.
I believe that the Chocolate runs a very similar OS to the 8300, so you should be able do the same thing to enable mp3 functionality.
Good luck,Montag
Before the defrag, it was unbearably slow to wake up from hibernate. Something on the order of 2.5 minutes. It would have been faster to shut down and reboot than to hibernate and wake up. After I cleaned up the disk a bit, that time was down to around 45 seconds, which made sense as being right in between the "sleep wake up time" and the "full reboot time".
It does make sense that the readback is proportional to the size of the data, but that readback could take a lot longer if the data is scattered over the entirety of the hard drive versus being in one large spot.
Cheers, MontagI'm not sure if it is Windows' fault or not, but I've noticed the hibernate problem with more RAM as well. A periodic hard drive defrag seemed to fix it for me (I know, I know... it shouldn't matter!).
Picking up the phone is not as easy to use as IM when you're sitting in a meeting and you need an answer to a quick question without disturbing people around you. We use it all of the time where I work, and it has been invaluable.
-Montag
If you're in the military or have a relative in the military I'd highly reccommend USAA as an insurance company. They're not really out to make a buck - in fact, they send you a check at the end of the year refunding some of the money that you've paid them, based on their profit this year.
I've only had to file a claim once and it was for my renter's insurance, but they were just great. The auto insurance is similar.
While on the topic - check out their free checking accounts where you can use any ATM in the country and they pay you for the service fees that those ATMs charge you.
-MontagThis is a feature of an individual phone's OS. Here in the US, Verizon will send you a text message after a directory enquiry. My phone - a rather humble LG - will parse through every text message and ask me if I want to save the number into my phone book or dial it.
-Montag
I think that one of the security problems is related to the actual storage of the data on the FPGA. Since SRAM is used on Altera and Xilinx FPGAs, it could theoretically be read off of the chip after it has been configured.
However, this triple-DES stuff is interesting. Another factiod that I picked up is that Actel FPGAs are the only ones that can include an ARM soft core because ARM does not trust the SRAM-based FPGAs to keep their IP secure.
-Montag
Another reason that people don't use FPGAs that much in consumer applications is the security of the IP on the FPGA. They are loaded on power-on with a PROM chip and it is a somewhat trivial task to read the entire contents of the FPGA at power-on. This would be a nightmare for companies like Nvidia and ATI, who value their custom hardware.
Fortunately, there are some companies that are incorporating flash memory on to their FPGAs instead of using the standard SRAM. The problem is that flash-based FPGAs are usually a few generations behind SRAM-based FPGAs in terms of die size (and henceforth storage space and speed).
I think that as flash-based securable FPGAs become more popular, cheaper, and less power consuming, we'll start to see cards for the computer that come with completely configurable hardware.
-Montag
I think that there are plenty of these type of phones out there. The problem is that you're not going to see many news articles about phones that are just phones. Nokia isn't going to send out press releases that generate stories on Yahoo news for the latest "phone-only" cell phone.
One suggestion for you would be to approach the wireless companies with the story that you need a business phone. They won't try to sell you all of this extra junk - they'll only give you what you say you need.
Good luck.
-Montag
I almost hate to mention it, but Windows Media Player has several "smart" playlists that can do just this. I think that one of them is "Songs I listen to at night" and another one is "Songs I like but haven't listened to lately".
Do I have to hand in my geek membership card for admitting that I use WMP?
-Montag
Well usually a 0-ohm resistor is called a jumper in electronics-land.
Also, here's my guess on how he performed this hack. He looked up the datasheet either for the clock chip or for the processor and saw which jumper configurations set up the speed. Then he traced back the lines to those resistor pads, either by using sight or a multimeter.
Anyway, its a cool hack and pretty simple to do if you are comfortable handling 0402's.
Its a funny thing - I'm from New York originally, but I've since moved to Portland, OR. It is a relatively big city, but there is a level of friendliness that I didn't expect from customer service. When I first went to buy groceries here, the checkout people would be really friendly and small-talk with me while they were checking out my food. It bothered me at first, because I just wanted to get the transaction over with and not be bugged. I've grown more accustomed to it now though, and every time I go back east I can't believe how people act in transactions (don't make eye contact, etc).