Nuclear reactors get flown into space all the time, but they always have much less than critical mass, relying on spontaneous decay to keep the chain reaction limping along at a constant rate.
Yes, this book deals with many aspects of Web Services technology.
Unfortunately, the authors haven't hesitated to fill this book with a lot of triviality and white space. You'll have to read through many extensive descriptions and a lot of javascript that doesn't deserve much attention.
Selecting the right object in IE or Netscape makes the presented code qualify as a Cross-Browser Framework. And when moving from javascript to java, the authors seem to be unaware of any OO methodology, sticking to static procedural implementations. Experienced java and C++ programmers will gradually loose interest when reading this book.
Where other authors delightfully underline the Author's Press promise, these authors bring disappointment to the serious reader.
We are using Embedded Linux for the onboard logic, so we will definitely have the most "brains" of any of the other bots.
Hallelujah. Embedded Linux has been a godsend for Team Overbot.
In terms of the feasibility of using Embedded Linux in such an
application, past experience taught me to build products flexible to
be expanded (or cut) in the future, in terms of both: hardware and
software. This way, future successors would enjoy better opportunity
to improve the project along the time. I always have respect to
students, and think that if they find the base properly laid in this
project they will improve it significantly in terms of functionality
and usability, without wasting much time in re-architecturing the
fundamental stuff. That's why Embeeded Linux came to my mind.
Statistically, more students with Linux exposure are expected to be
available than students with exposure to the myriad of
microcontrollers available now on the shelves.
In terms of using mutliprocessors, that may happen later or in future
expansions. Thanks for the idea.
In terms of assigning part of the job to simpler microcontrollers,
I've been trying to build the project using Mitsubishi's M16C, but was
wondering if Embedded Linux can be mounted on it. Now, as per Michael,
this sounds to be out of question because it's a 16-bit
microcontroller. Mike, what 32-bit powerful microcontroller have you
used with your Embedded Linux projects?
Whether or not you do a lot of heavy duty off-roading, you should look
at the higher end, heavy duty shocks for your vehicle. They may cost
you a lot now, but will not require replacement down the road. The
cheaper shocks will save you $$$ now, but may cost you in terms of
poorer performance later on.
I've cooled on Monroe stuff after my experiences with Monroe shocks
in my father's 73 Suburban. The shocks lasted about 15,000 miles
before I needed to replace them again. I've also experienced quality
problems with other Monroe items, notably gas-charged struts, in
the past 5 to 6 years. Maybe it's just my bad luck...
If you don't want a gas shock, look at a Gabriel Adjustable "E" shock
for all four corners. These are a hydraulic-only shock with an adjustment
that allows you to set the ride from very soft to rock hard. Pay attention
to the instructions, though, because if you set the shock too hard, you
can rip suspension mounts. I put a pair of these in the back end of the
aforementioned Suburban, and ripped one of the shock mounts off the rear
axle! You can avoid this problem by having a competent welding shop
reinforce the welds on the axle. Note: I do not know if these are
still available, the last set I purchased was almost 6 years ago. I
purchased these shocks through Super Shops, but anyone who handles the
Gabriel line of shocks should be able to tell you if they are available.
We had to give up recently after we ran out of money. At any rate, good luck to CMU.
I run one of the Grand Challenge teams,
Team Overbot.
We have a vehicle (a modified six wheel drive Polaris Ranger), a shop in Redwood City, funding,
equipment, and people. We're well along; the vehicle has most of its actuators and some of the sensors working, and about a third of the software is running. We're one of the five DARPA-accepted teams.
Many of us are Stanford alumni or students, but this is not a Stanford project.
Our basic technical approach is to build a rugged, reliable vehicle with conservative control strategies. Others may be faster, but we expect they'll get into trouble at high speed. Our top speed is 40MPH. The real problem with the Grand Challenge is not going fast on the easy parts; it's getting through the hard parts.
The 6WD chassis we're using is one of the most bump-tolerant platforms around. It can go over railroad ties at top speed without problems and
without going airborne. The center of gravity is low. The front and mid axles have independent suspension; the rear axle is a swing arm. This simplifies low-level vehicle control. All wheels can be driven, although at higher speeds, we will switch from 6WD to 4WD.
We have five computers on board. Three are small PC/104 machines, and two are Pentium 4 machines.
All run QNX (the OS for when it has to work.) All are industrial-strength ruggedized units. The actuators are all servomotors driven by industrial microcontrollers. All this hardware is off-the-shelf industrial control gear.
Sensors include LIDAR, doppler RADAR, sonars, cameras, INS, GPS, etc. Some of them are used in unusual ways. That's all I'll say about that.
The pathfinding strategy is indeed borrowed from video game technology. It's more structured than Brooks-type behavior based robotics, and it's less structured than Latoumbe-type planning. There are three layers of control; the top one we call the "back seat driver", because it has only advisory authority over the "driver".
We have road map and topo data onboard, but it's used more as a hint than as rigid guidance. We take the waypoints DARPA gives us (on a CD, at 0430 hrs the
morning of the race) and load it in. There's no offline preplanning. Wouldn't help in the real world.
If nobody wins this year, which is quite likely, we'll be back next year with a faster vehicle.
We had to give up recently after we ran out of money. At any rate, good luck to CMU.
I run one of the Grand Challenge teams,
Team Overbot.
We have a vehicle (a modified six wheel drive Polaris Ranger), a shop in Redwood City, funding,
equipment, and people. We're well along; the vehicle has most of its actuators and some of the sensors working, and about a third of the software is running. We're one of the five DARPA-accepted teams.
Many of us are Stanford alumni or students, but this is not a Stanford project.
Our basic technical approach is to build a rugged, reliable vehicle with conservative control strategies. Others may be faster, but we expect they'll get into trouble at high speed. Our top speed is 40MPH. The real problem with the Grand Challenge is not going fast on the easy parts; it's getting through the hard parts.
The 6WD chassis we're using is one of the most bump-tolerant platforms around. It can go over railroad ties at top speed without problems and
without going airborne. The center of gravity is low. The front and mid axles have independent suspension; the rear axle is a swing arm. This simplifies low-level vehicle control. All wheels can be driven, although at higher speeds, we will switch from 6WD to 4WD.
We have five computers on board. Three are small PC/104 machines, and two are Pentium 4 machines.
All run QNX (the OS for when it has to work.) All are industrial-strength ruggedized units. The actuators are all servomotors driven by industrial microcontrollers. All this hardware is off-the-shelf industrial control gear.
Sensors include LIDAR, doppler RADAR, sonars, cameras, INS, GPS, etc. Some of them are used in unusual ways. That's all I'll say about that.
The pathfinding strategy is indeed borrowed from video game technology. It's more structured than Brooks-type behavior based robotics, and it's less structured than Latoumbe-type planning. There are three layers of control; the top one we call the "back seat driver", because it has only advisory authority over the "driver".
We have road map and topo data onboard, but it's used more as a hint than as rigid guidance. We take the waypoints DARPA gives us (on a CD, at 0430 hrs the
morning of the race) and load it in. There's no offline preplanning. Wouldn't help in the real world.
If nobody wins this year, which is quite likely, we'll be back next year with a faster vehicle.
People perhaps aren't playing adventure games like Full Throttle that are years old but they also aren't playing FPSs that are years old (let me boot up DOOM II again).
I just played Doom 2 last night (with Deathmatch bots at 1152x864 resolution.) With the source code available, old games become new again!
I agree with the other poster that it's always a good time to release any good game. Doom 2 had great gameplay, especially multiplayer, and changed the genre. We'll never get any new games without people inventing new types of games (The Sims, Black and White, etc.)
Riker continuously declined the promotions that the federation tried to offer him, but he ended up an admiral on the 1701E...
The ship featured in "All Good Things..." was still the 1701-D (after some retrofits and upgrades, namely the third warp nacelle and forward-phasing phaser cannon). The 1701-E is the Sovereign-class ship seen in ST 8, 9, and 10.
In that episode, it's obvious that it's still the same Galaxy-class ship. Riker even remarks that "Starfleet tried to retire her a few years ago.. nice thing about being an Admiral is that you get to pick your own ship."
There is a lot of competition due to the low barrier of entry, but a motivated individual with talent could end up quitting their day job. WinZip is a good example of a success.
Sorry, don't think so. How many WinZip registration keys are floating around the internet? How much lost profit $$ does that represent for them?
To me, it seems like a better example of how writing shareware earns you no money because it's that much easier to pirate/crack.
Worse yet, they keep spamming, Someone keeps buying from spam.
Why was this marked Redundant?
Maybe I missed someone else pointing this out, but it's a very important point. The spammers will only stay in business until it's no longer profitable. The technological solutions beat the legislative ones right now, but getting the word out to people that buying from spammers only encourages spam would really help too.
It's a private business.
on
RFID Casino Chips
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
As such, they are free to do whatever they like to stem losses, gain advantage over customers, etc.
If you don't like it, you can go to another casino that doesn't use RFID chips. Ain't America grand?
16C - awesome calculator for programmers, especially embedded work. There is no better number system converter available at any price. No I can't do bin/dec/hex in my head faster than the 16C and neither can you. Expensive due to relatively low numbers produced.
42S - pricey, even used, but excellent. Two line display, a replacement for the 15C.
32SII - somewhat like a 42S but with single line display, not so nice to use.
15C - same form factor as 16C. At the time HP's top scientific.
11C - a simpler 15C
10C - a simpler 11C
All the above have solid old-HP build quality, excellent key feel and outstanding battery life.
Older HPs are also usable (and may be preferred) - but they have even greater collector status and sometimes fetch higher prices. They will go through batteries faster and the red LEDs can be harder to see.
Forget the 48 models, the 49 and all the new stuff. The 48GX is OK if you have to have graphing but the single and dual-line models have better UI for daily use. The 49? HP died when Carly took over. Now they make pretty colored plastic boxes that only work with windows and they have forgotten how to spell "engineering". In fact they fired all the engineers and HP is now run by MBAs in shiny suits.
Yet, you have to admit that the show had too many of the "Data and Geordi try to figure out strange particles/emissions/transmissions/apparitions" type.
Yeah, I'll give you that. It's too bad. These were most apparent in the early seasons, and in seasons 6 and 7 after a) Gene had passed away and b) most of the writing talent had moved to DS9.
TNG: Don't worry, it will be figured out in the last 15 minutes.
Maybe, but to be fair, you should have said that there was some moral dilemma involved: for example, another planet in the system needed the extra heat from the sun to live, and the people on the planet mentioned in this story were threatening to turn it off.
Remember, TNG was a drama first, and sci-fi second. It was the ethical dilemmas around which the viewers needed to wrap their heads that kept the audience interested.
What really irks me with the Treo 300 device, and maybe the 600 has fixed this with it's 5-way toggle, is that you need to use the keypad AND a fingernail/stylus to run many apps that require some kind of tactile feedback. I get to the point where I keep the stylus between two fingers and shift my finger position so I can quickly use the stylus while texting. You have to text, because there is no grafitti. I would actually be quite happy with the graffiti area back and no keypad. Who needs a freaking keypad on a Palm? (Well, actually the Sony Clie's that fold out, with the keypads, are perfectly acceptable, since they have both keypad AND graffiti area).
I didn't spend 6 years using graffiti to just throw it all away now!
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/E/Europa Orb.html
Icy moons orbiter
Nuclear reactors get flown into space all the time, but they always have much less than critical mass, relying on spontaneous decay to keep the chain reaction limping along at a constant rate.
That is NOT how an RTG works.
Check it out! I'm famous!
Get the fuck off my lawn, you ingrates.
Oh yeah, one other thing: when you're hot, you're hot. Check out my highly moderated repost of an Amazon customer review in my comment history.
I confess my trolling in the name of sacred jihad.
Is this "trolls in a circlejerk day" on Slashdot?
Could the two of you talk about how the robots you've invented in your mind are affected by the DMCA, the RIAA, and software patents?
Since you're using embedded linux, has SCO tried to sue you yet?
Has John fucking Titor come to steal your pretend robots yet?
Get the fuck off my lawn, you ingrates.
YHBT.
P.S. This post is valid XHTML, to the point that I can control.
Yes, this book deals with many aspects of Web Services technology.
Unfortunately, the authors haven't hesitated to fill this book with a lot of triviality and white space. You'll have to read through many extensive descriptions and a lot of javascript that doesn't deserve much attention.
Selecting the right object in IE or Netscape makes the presented code qualify as a Cross-Browser Framework. And when moving from javascript to java, the authors seem to be unaware of any OO methodology, sticking to static procedural implementations. Experienced java and C++ programmers will gradually loose interest when reading this book.
Where other authors delightfully underline the Author's Press promise, these authors bring disappointment to the serious reader.
We are using Embedded Linux for the onboard logic, so we will definitely have the most "brains" of any of the other bots.
Hallelujah. Embedded Linux has been a godsend for Team Overbot.
In terms of the feasibility of using Embedded Linux in such an application, past experience taught me to build products flexible to be expanded (or cut) in the future, in terms of both: hardware and software. This way, future successors would enjoy better opportunity to improve the project along the time. I always have respect to students, and think that if they find the base properly laid in this project they will improve it significantly in terms of functionality and usability, without wasting much time in re-architecturing the fundamental stuff. That's why Embeeded Linux came to my mind. Statistically, more students with Linux exposure are expected to be available than students with exposure to the myriad of microcontrollers available now on the shelves.
In terms of using mutliprocessors, that may happen later or in future expansions. Thanks for the idea.
In terms of assigning part of the job to simpler microcontrollers, I've been trying to build the project using Mitsubishi's M16C, but was wondering if Embedded Linux can be mounted on it. Now, as per Michael, this sounds to be out of question because it's a 16-bit microcontroller. Mike, what 32-bit powerful microcontroller have you used with your Embedded Linux projects?
I'm curious- what sort of shocks were you using?
Whether or not you do a lot of heavy duty off-roading, you should look at the higher end, heavy duty shocks for your vehicle. They may cost you a lot now, but will not require replacement down the road. The cheaper shocks will save you $$$ now, but may cost you in terms of poorer performance later on.
I've cooled on Monroe stuff after my experiences with Monroe shocks in my father's 73 Suburban. The shocks lasted about 15,000 miles before I needed to replace them again. I've also experienced quality problems with other Monroe items, notably gas-charged struts, in the past 5 to 6 years. Maybe it's just my bad luck...
If you don't want a gas shock, look at a Gabriel Adjustable "E" shock for all four corners. These are a hydraulic-only shock with an adjustment that allows you to set the ride from very soft to rock hard. Pay attention to the instructions, though, because if you set the shock too hard, you can rip suspension mounts. I put a pair of these in the back end of the aforementioned Suburban, and ripped one of the shock mounts off the rear axle! You can avoid this problem by having a competent welding shop reinforce the welds on the axle. Note: I do not know if these are still available, the last set I purchased was almost 6 years ago. I purchased these shocks through Super Shops, but anyone who handles the Gabriel line of shocks should be able to tell you if they are available.
I run one of the Grand Challenge teams, Team Overbot. We have a vehicle (a modified six wheel drive Polaris Ranger), a shop in Redwood City, funding, equipment, and people. We're well along; the vehicle has most of its actuators and some of the sensors working, and about a third of the software is running. We're one of the five DARPA-accepted teams.
Many of us are Stanford alumni or students, but this is not a Stanford project.
Our basic technical approach is to build a rugged, reliable vehicle with conservative control strategies. Others may be faster, but we expect they'll get into trouble at high speed. Our top speed is 40MPH. The real problem with the Grand Challenge is not going fast on the easy parts; it's getting through the hard parts.
The 6WD chassis we're using is one of the most bump-tolerant platforms around. It can go over railroad ties at top speed without problems and without going airborne. The center of gravity is low. The front and mid axles have independent suspension; the rear axle is a swing arm. This simplifies low-level vehicle control. All wheels can be driven, although at higher speeds, we will switch from 6WD to 4WD.
We have five computers on board. Three are small PC/104 machines, and two are Pentium 4 machines. All run QNX (the OS for when it has to work.) All are industrial-strength ruggedized units. The actuators are all servomotors driven by industrial microcontrollers. All this hardware is off-the-shelf industrial control gear.
Sensors include LIDAR, doppler RADAR, sonars, cameras, INS, GPS, etc. Some of them are used in unusual ways. That's all I'll say about that.
The pathfinding strategy is indeed borrowed from video game technology. It's more structured than Brooks-type behavior based robotics, and it's less structured than Latoumbe-type planning. There are three layers of control; the top one we call the "back seat driver", because it has only advisory authority over the "driver".
We have road map and topo data onboard, but it's used more as a hint than as rigid guidance. We take the waypoints DARPA gives us (on a CD, at 0430 hrs the morning of the race) and load it in. There's no offline preplanning. Wouldn't help in the real world.
If nobody wins this year, which is quite likely, we'll be back next year with a faster vehicle.
Post questions and I'll answer them here.
John Fagogle
Team Overbot
I run one of the Grand Challenge teams, Team Overbot. We have a vehicle (a modified six wheel drive Polaris Ranger), a shop in Redwood City, funding, equipment, and people. We're well along; the vehicle has most of its actuators and some of the sensors working, and about a third of the software is running. We're one of the five DARPA-accepted teams.
Many of us are Stanford alumni or students, but this is not a Stanford project.
Our basic technical approach is to build a rugged, reliable vehicle with conservative control strategies. Others may be faster, but we expect they'll get into trouble at high speed. Our top speed is 40MPH. The real problem with the Grand Challenge is not going fast on the easy parts; it's getting through the hard parts.
The 6WD chassis we're using is one of the most bump-tolerant platforms around. It can go over railroad ties at top speed without problems and without going airborne. The center of gravity is low. The front and mid axles have independent suspension; the rear axle is a swing arm. This simplifies low-level vehicle control. All wheels can be driven, although at higher speeds, we will switch from 6WD to 4WD.
We have five computers on board. Three are small PC/104 machines, and two are Pentium 4 machines. All run QNX (the OS for when it has to work.) All are industrial-strength ruggedized units. The actuators are all servomotors driven by industrial microcontrollers. All this hardware is off-the-shelf industrial control gear.
Sensors include LIDAR, doppler RADAR, sonars, cameras, INS, GPS, etc. Some of them are used in unusual ways. That's all I'll say about that.
The pathfinding strategy is indeed borrowed from video game technology. It's more structured than Brooks-type behavior based robotics, and it's less structured than Latoumbe-type planning. There are three layers of control; the top one we call the "back seat driver", because it has only advisory authority over the "driver".
We have road map and topo data onboard, but it's used more as a hint than as rigid guidance. We take the waypoints DARPA gives us (on a CD, at 0430 hrs the morning of the race) and load it in. There's no offline preplanning. Wouldn't help in the real world.
If nobody wins this year, which is quite likely, we'll be back next year with a faster vehicle.
Post questions and I'll answer them here.
John Homogle
Team Overbot
it's one thing for me to ignore whatever ad is showing on Slashdot today (yes, I use Proxomitron)
Congratulations. Prepare to be: (1) bitchslapped (2) $RTBLed.
Using a fuzzy checksum tool like DCC to block similarly worded messages. It will catch both spams and viruses.
Most viruses spread so quickly that the AV tools' databases are inevitably out of date and ineffective.
People perhaps aren't playing adventure games like Full Throttle that are years old but they also aren't playing FPSs that are years old (let me boot up DOOM II again).
I just played Doom 2 last night (with Deathmatch bots at 1152x864 resolution.) With the source code available, old games become new again!
I agree with the other poster that it's always a good time to release any good game. Doom 2 had great gameplay, especially multiplayer, and changed the genre. We'll never get any new games without people inventing new types of games (The Sims, Black and White, etc.)
The link is to a random character generator written in Java. Mods, do you think random characters will make an iTunes code?
Riker continuously declined the promotions that the federation tried to offer him, but he ended up an admiral on the 1701E...
The ship featured in "All Good Things..." was still the 1701-D (after some retrofits and upgrades, namely the third warp nacelle and forward-phasing phaser cannon). The 1701-E is the Sovereign-class ship seen in ST 8, 9, and 10.
In that episode, it's obvious that it's still the same Galaxy-class ship. Riker even remarks that "Starfleet tried to retire her a few years ago.. nice thing about being an Admiral is that you get to pick your own ship."
There is a lot of competition due to the low barrier of entry, but a motivated individual with talent could end up quitting their day job. WinZip is a good example of a success.
Sorry, don't think so. How many WinZip registration keys are floating around the internet? How much lost profit $$ does that represent for them?
To me, it seems like a better example of how writing shareware earns you no money because it's that much easier to pirate/crack.
Am I the last remaining Slackware user?
No.
The goatse page is offline after the .cx NIC revoked their domain! (No, this isn't a trick!)
More details here.
Fortunately, one of the mods marked it "Funny" - understanding that the joke is on us for ever believing him.
Worse yet, they keep spamming, Someone keeps buying from spam.
Why was this marked Redundant?
Maybe I missed someone else pointing this out, but it's a very important point. The spammers will only stay in business until it's no longer profitable. The technological solutions beat the legislative ones right now, but getting the word out to people that buying from spammers only encourages spam would really help too.
As such, they are free to do whatever they like to stem losses, gain advantage over customers, etc.
If you don't like it, you can go to another casino that doesn't use RFID chips. Ain't America grand?
The RPNs worth buying are:
16C - awesome calculator for programmers, especially embedded work. There is no better number system converter available at any price. No I can't do bin/dec/hex in my head faster than the 16C and neither can you. Expensive due to relatively low numbers produced.
42S - pricey, even used, but excellent. Two line display, a replacement for the 15C.
32SII - somewhat like a 42S but with single line display, not so nice to use.
15C - same form factor as 16C. At the time HP's top scientific.
11C - a simpler 15C
10C - a simpler 11C
All the above have solid old-HP build quality, excellent key feel and outstanding battery life.
Older HPs are also usable (and may be preferred) - but they have even greater collector status and sometimes fetch higher prices. They will go through batteries faster and the red LEDs can be harder to see.
Forget the 48 models, the 49 and all the new stuff. The 48GX is OK if you have to have graphing but the single and dual-line models have better UI for daily use. The 49? HP died when Carly took over. Now they make pretty colored plastic boxes that only work with windows and they have forgotten how to spell "engineering". In fact they fired all the engineers and HP is now run by MBAs in shiny suits.
(I own 16C, 42s, 15C and 11C models.)
Yet, you have to admit that the show had too many of the "Data and Geordi try to figure out strange particles/emissions/transmissions/apparitions" type.
Yeah, I'll give you that. It's too bad. These were most apparent in the early seasons, and in seasons 6 and 7 after a) Gene had passed away and b) most of the writing talent had moved to DS9.
TNG: Don't worry, it will be figured out in the last 15 minutes.
Maybe, but to be fair, you should have said that there was some moral dilemma involved: for example, another planet in the system needed the extra heat from the sun to live, and the people on the planet mentioned in this story were threatening to turn it off.
Remember, TNG was a drama first, and sci-fi second. It was the ethical dilemmas around which the viewers needed to wrap their heads that kept the audience interested.
What really irks me with the Treo 300 device, and maybe the 600 has fixed this with it's 5-way toggle, is that you need to use the keypad AND a fingernail/stylus to run many apps that require some kind of tactile feedback. I get to the point where I keep the stylus between two fingers and shift my finger position so I can quickly use the stylus while texting. You have to text, because there is no grafitti. I would actually be quite happy with the graffiti area back and no keypad. Who needs a freaking keypad on a Palm? (Well, actually the Sony Clie's that fold out, with the keypads, are perfectly acceptable, since they have both keypad AND graffiti area).
I didn't spend 6 years using graffiti to just throw it all away now!