This guy has converted several different consoles into handheld units, including a PS1. My favorite is the wooden VCSp "Special edition" portable atari 2600. Very cool!
Virtual Hideout has some good case reviews. One of my favorites is Bit-Tech. Bit-Tech tends to cover the higher end cases, but touches on some cheaper ones too. Based on their review of the Coolermaster ATC-101, among other sites reviews, I decided to buy one, and haven't been dissapointed at all.
I know cases are dirt cheap nowadays, and Coolermasters are a bit expensive, but you get what you pay for: great looks, great performance, and great construction. No matter what, I reccomend going with an aluminum case. The difference in weight is well worth it if you ever move it around. Another thing you get with better cases is a slide-out motherboard tray, which makes installations and upgrades a breeze.
The major preventable causes of battery drain are:
Airport card on when not necessary
Screen brightness high
Not adjusting energy saver properly
Modem offOS 9 environment running
Can someone explain to me how not having the modem on wastes batteries? I can't figure this one out. Does it waste CPU cycles looking for the modem?
I've heard about this
on
Sensors Gone Wild
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
While we were learning about induction, my high school physics teacher talked about a friend he had who worked for a large company who worked on the technology behind the unique magnetic signature detection. It worked very well, and was tested somewhere (I think it was Germany), with very good accuracy. A vehicle could be identified moving throughout the city.
The major drawback to this was that the technology relied on specific patterns formed by the car running over coils under the street (creating inductance). This worked very well if the car's physical makeup didn't change at all, but if someone were to put some scrap iron in the trunk, the unique signature would be changed.
This was actually done quite some time ago, I think in the 1980s. It's pretty cool technology, because the underlying concept is so simple, but it isn't practical in the real world.
Okay, so it's late and I was tired... but the first thing I tried when I reached for a calculator was reversing 196 (=691) and adding the sum of the digits (1+9+6). Adding them both together gives 707 (a palindrome).
Take this even further. By taking 196, and adding 16 (1+9+6) to it you get 212, another palindrome!
As a student in the Minneapolis Public School system, I think I'll comment on Jesse's performance.
So far, he's ruined the education system. Minnesota used to be one of the leading states in academic performance, but apparently Jesse doesn't realize a good education requires money. A year or two ago he stated, and I quote "education is a black hole for money". Of course, after saying this, the state education budget was slashed. In the past year, I have seen average classroom sizes go from 20 to 30, numerous school closings, as well as drastic layoffs of faculty. Charter schools are losing funding, extracurricular activities are being cut, and the Osseo district was going to change the school week to four days instead of five (I think they've decided not to do this, but fire some teachers instead).
Jesse, like President Bush, loves tax cuts and rebates. The two also don't realize that to cut taxes and give out rebates, you need money. Minnesota is now facing a giant budget shortfall in the upcoming year.
Everyone was excited when Jesse was elected. We recieved attention from around the world. People had high hopes for him, but somehow he never delivered on them. He has made a mockery of our election system, and the governor's job itself.
I'm sorry for going off into a rant, but it's very frustrating having him mess so much up. Everyone in the nation paid attention to him at first, but now apparently, people don't realize he was a big mistake (no pun intended).
Alternatives to photovoltaic cells
on
Lunar Power
·
· Score: 1
The general consensus on photovoltaic cells is they are very inefficient compared to other alternatives, using modern technology.
However, photovoltaic cells aren't the only way to harness solar energy.
Not all solar plants on earth use photovoltaic cells. IIRC, most major solar plants don't use them at all. Instead, they use parabolic mirrors to reflect the light onto a small reigon with something to carry the heat away, such as a pipe filled with oil. The oil is being continuously pumped through the pipe, and in turn, the heat drives turbines, which drive generators.
Back in the 70s, there was a large amount of research being done on large inhabited colonies to be used in space. Back then, photovoltaic cells were even more inefficient, so they looked for alternatives. The most efficient way to collect solar energy they found was using mirrors reflected on a boiler like area that drove a generator. I'm pretty sure this holds true for today.
A couple years ago, I found a book in a used book store titled "Colonies in Space", which was written in the mid-70s by T.A Heppenheimer. It outlined several designs created by various high profile organazations (including NASA), many of them very detailed. All of the colonies were expensive, but they planned to offset the costs by building a satellite in geosynchronous orbit that collected solar energy then beamed it back to earth via microwave energy. Many of these colonies and orbital power stations were proposed to the senate, president, etc, but it was shot down because of initial costs.
One of the more amusing parts of the book explained what would happed were something to cross the beam (like a bird), while it was being sent back to earth. The collection area had to be a few miles in diameter. They could easily keep people out by putting up a fence, and the beams would harmlessly bounce off aiplanes, but any unsuspecting unshielded passerbys would experience a strange warming sensation.
This isn't incredibly new technology. It's been extensively researched for decades now, and the only thing holding it back from happening are the inital costs. We need to start thinking in the long term, instead of worrying about initial offsets.
I've been a part of the beta testing team, and since they have gone public I guess the NDA is more lax.
There seem to be ups and downs in Steam. Sure, it takes a little longer to initially load, but that is only when you access stuff for the first time. You can also choose to "enable background caching", where it downloads everything while your computer is sitting idle, resulting in no waiting for downloads.
Ultimately, Valve's goal with Steam seems to use it as a strong measure to curb cheating. Throughout online communities today, cheating has been running rampant, and honest gamers are being turned away. You could use the traditional approach, and release regular patches every so often to address cheating exploits, but those take time, and still leave some areas vulnerable.
Steam can easily implement something that verifies the integrity of it's *.dll files (which are often hacked to exploit cheats), and if the checksum doesn't match, it could download the original on demand. Better yet, if the files aren't that big, it wouldn't be too hard to download the file every time the application is loaded.
Granted, Steam takes up some bandwidth, and could pave the way towards true "pay per play" services, but the bottom line is that many gamers are pissed off at the cheating, and would happily pay a small fee or put up with a little longer loading if it meant there were considerably less cheaters.
Cheating groups like Myg0t are already worried. They realize that Steam will be a real burden to exploit, and their days will soon come to an end.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't AOL been using those stupid one click ads for quite some time? I remember back sometime around '94 I had AOL service (*shudder*), and was getting them already. They were probably there before then as well.
In curiosity I ran a quick search on google for the cuecat, and came up with a site that has info on a surprising amount of software that acts as an interface for the kitty. It makes me regret not picking up a few while they were availiable. I know I'd take a free (and useable) barcode scanner any day.
If only I had known!
Ah well, I'll just look in the dumpster behind one of the radio shacks near me. I hope the employees at it are too lazy or don't have enough aggression to smash them.
When someone opens a suspicious e-mail, and it screws over their computer, it is easy to trace the problem back to the source. Or, if an IIS server's logs reveal something suspicious going on, an adept admin can figure this out in many cases. However, your typical AOL/AIM user often knows next to nothing about computers or the internet, let alone be aware of an attack.
Who knows? Maybe thousands of people are being hit every day, but don't have a clue as to where the computer's "problems" are coming from. Many people shrug off something unusual as "just one of those complicated computer things", and haven't a clue why when they power on the computer all they see is a blinking cursor.
This technology is NOT a step forwards, it just supposedly makes things easier - but I would argue that the hardware portion of setting up a home network (i.e. Plugging CAT5 cables into a hub or switch from each computer)is much easier for newbies than the software/OS/IP networking setup.
While this technology isn't anything new in terms of setup, installation etc, and doesn't make things easier for newbies, what it DOES do, is remove the hassle of wiring a whole house with CAT5. Not everyone is very willing to knock holes into walls, especially when people are renting and don't own them.
Granted, wireless is arguably just as good as this, but having more options is always a plus.
Oh that's nothing. I remember getting Wolf 3D to run on a monochrome IBM 286 with either 2MB or 4MB of ram (I forget the exact amount).
Either way, what impressed me was that I could get it running on that machine. I tried most of my favorite games on that machine with little success until I got W3D running (bear in mind I was 8 at the time, now I'm 17). I hope this new iteriation lives up to the legacy of Wolfenstein 3D.
Slashdot Mirror
This guy has converted several different consoles into handheld units, including a PS1. My favorite is the wooden VCSp "Special edition" portable atari 2600. Very cool!
I know cases are dirt cheap nowadays, and Coolermasters are a bit expensive, but you get what you pay for: great looks, great performance, and great construction. No matter what, I reccomend going with an aluminum case. The difference in weight is well worth it if you ever move it around. Another thing you get with better cases is a slide-out motherboard tray, which makes installations and upgrades a breeze.
While we were learning about induction, my high school physics teacher talked about a friend he had who worked for a large company who worked on the technology behind the unique magnetic signature detection. It worked very well, and was tested somewhere (I think it was Germany), with very good accuracy. A vehicle could be identified moving throughout the city.
The major drawback to this was that the technology relied on specific patterns formed by the car running over coils under the street (creating inductance). This worked very well if the car's physical makeup didn't change at all, but if someone were to put some scrap iron in the trunk, the unique signature would be changed.
This was actually done quite some time ago, I think in the 1980s. It's pretty cool technology, because the underlying concept is so simple, but it isn't practical in the real world.
Take this even further. By taking 196, and adding 16 (1+9+6) to it you get 212, another palindrome!
This is pretty cool.
Thought you could get that by us did you? We all know 400MHz is plenty fast for a regular office environment.
The real meaning of that statement:
"We have around sixty ~400MHz desktops which are increasingly showing their age during our office-wide quake tournaments".
or
"People are complaining that The Sims is running to choppy".
Don't worry, I won't tell your boss.
As a student in the Minneapolis Public School system, I think I'll comment on Jesse's performance.
So far, he's ruined the education system. Minnesota used to be one of the leading states in academic performance, but apparently Jesse doesn't realize a good education requires money. A year or two ago he stated, and I quote "education is a black hole for money". Of course, after saying this, the state education budget was slashed. In the past year, I have seen average classroom sizes go from 20 to 30, numerous school closings, as well as drastic layoffs of faculty. Charter schools are losing funding, extracurricular activities are being cut, and the Osseo district was going to change the school week to four days instead of five (I think they've decided not to do this, but fire some teachers instead).
Jesse, like President Bush, loves tax cuts and rebates. The two also don't realize that to cut taxes and give out rebates, you need money. Minnesota is now facing a giant budget shortfall in the upcoming year.
Everyone was excited when Jesse was elected. We recieved attention from around the world. People had high hopes for him, but somehow he never delivered on them. He has made a mockery of our election system, and the governor's job itself.
I'm sorry for going off into a rant, but it's very frustrating having him mess so much up. Everyone in the nation paid attention to him at first, but now apparently, people don't realize he was a big mistake (no pun intended).
The general consensus on photovoltaic cells is they are very inefficient compared to other alternatives, using modern technology.
However, photovoltaic cells aren't the only way to harness solar energy.
Not all solar plants on earth use photovoltaic cells. IIRC, most major solar plants don't use them at all. Instead, they use parabolic mirrors to reflect the light onto a small reigon with something to carry the heat away, such as a pipe filled with oil. The oil is being continuously pumped through the pipe, and in turn, the heat drives turbines, which drive generators.
Back in the 70s, there was a large amount of research being done on large inhabited colonies to be used in space. Back then, photovoltaic cells were even more inefficient, so they looked for alternatives. The most efficient way to collect solar energy they found was using mirrors reflected on a boiler like area that drove a generator. I'm pretty sure this holds true for today.
A couple years ago, I found a book in a used book store titled "Colonies in Space", which was written in the mid-70s by T.A Heppenheimer. It outlined several designs created by various high profile organazations (including NASA), many of them very detailed. All of the colonies were expensive, but they planned to offset the costs by building a satellite in geosynchronous orbit that collected solar energy then beamed it back to earth via microwave energy. Many of these colonies and orbital power stations were proposed to the senate, president, etc, but it was shot down because of initial costs.
One of the more amusing parts of the book explained what would happed were something to cross the beam (like a bird), while it was being sent back to earth. The collection area had to be a few miles in diameter. They could easily keep people out by putting up a fence, and the beams would harmlessly bounce off aiplanes, but any unsuspecting unshielded passerbys would experience a strange warming sensation.
This isn't incredibly new technology. It's been extensively researched for decades now, and the only thing holding it back from happening are the inital costs. We need to start thinking in the long term, instead of worrying about initial offsets.
Here is the mirror
You can access some here
There seem to be ups and downs in Steam. Sure, it takes a little longer to initially load, but that is only when you access stuff for the first time. You can also choose to "enable background caching", where it downloads everything while your computer is sitting idle, resulting in no waiting for downloads.
Ultimately, Valve's goal with Steam seems to use it as a strong measure to curb cheating. Throughout online communities today, cheating has been running rampant, and honest gamers are being turned away. You could use the traditional approach, and release regular patches every so often to address cheating exploits, but those take time, and still leave some areas vulnerable.
Steam can easily implement something that verifies the integrity of it's *.dll files (which are often hacked to exploit cheats), and if the checksum doesn't match, it could download the original on demand. Better yet, if the files aren't that big, it wouldn't be too hard to download the file every time the application is loaded.
Granted, Steam takes up some bandwidth, and could pave the way towards true "pay per play" services, but the bottom line is that many gamers are pissed off at the cheating, and would happily pay a small fee or put up with a little longer loading if it meant there were considerably less cheaters.
Cheating groups like Myg0t are already worried. They realize that Steam will be a real burden to exploit, and their days will soon come to an end.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't AOL been using those stupid one click ads for quite some time? I remember back sometime around '94 I had AOL service (*shudder*), and was getting them already. They were probably there before then as well.
Wouldn't this qualify as prior art? Just my $0.02
If only I had known!
Ah well, I'll just look in the dumpster behind one of the radio shacks near me. I hope the employees at it are too lazy or don't have enough aggression to smash them.
When someone opens a suspicious e-mail, and it screws over their computer, it is easy to trace the problem back to the source. Or, if an IIS server's logs reveal something suspicious going on, an adept admin can figure this out in many cases. However, your typical AOL/AIM user often knows next to nothing about computers or the internet, let alone be aware of an attack.
Who knows? Maybe thousands of people are being hit every day, but don't have a clue as to where the computer's "problems" are coming from. Many people shrug off something unusual as "just one of those complicated computer things", and haven't a clue why when they power on the computer all they see is a blinking cursor.
This technology is NOT a step forwards, it just supposedly makes things easier - but I would argue that the hardware portion of setting up a home network (i.e. Plugging CAT5 cables into a hub or switch from each computer)is much easier for newbies than the software/OS/IP networking setup.
While this technology isn't anything new in terms of setup, installation etc, and doesn't make things easier for newbies, what it DOES do, is remove the hassle of wiring a whole house with CAT5. Not everyone is very willing to knock holes into walls, especially when people are renting and don't own them.
Granted, wireless is arguably just as good as this, but having more options is always a plus.
I'll bet her family members use P2P...
Actually, I'm sure all of her family members are rolling in money with her, rich enough to rent any artist for a private concert, let alone a CD.
Oh that's nothing. I remember getting Wolf 3D to run on a monochrome IBM 286 with either 2MB or 4MB of ram (I forget the exact amount).
Either way, what impressed me was that I could get it running on that machine. I tried most of my favorite games on that machine with little success until I got W3D running (bear in mind I was 8 at the time, now I'm 17). I hope this new iteriation lives up to the legacy of Wolfenstein 3D.