In the UK they're trying to bind Social Security numbers with "biometric data" like retina scans, fingerprints and DNA profiles with the justification that it will reduce fraud and deter terrorism. Of course this system will cost around $80 billion (UK billions) in order to implement.
If you have Linux, look at your security logs (System Tools->System Log->Security Log->Filter For "Failed"). You should see all the failed 'ssh' login attempts. For a broadband connection, I get around 60 per day (usually from the same host in Germany/Korea/Taiwan/Spain/whereever).
If I feel particularly nice, I will look up the abuse E-mail address using dnssstuff.com and send a report.
Processing power is a remarkable thing - you're talking about 1Ghz as being a pedestrian, adequate level of computing, yet you in a prior life (or rather prior year), back in 2001, were undoubtedly saying "Oh who'd need these crazy 1Ghz processors? A 300Mhz is all anyone would ever need...".
I remember spending a bundleful of cash on a high-end 450 MHz PC system back in 1998. Everyone at work asked "why on earth do you want a system that fast - only web-server owners need something that fast".
Three years later, and that system could barely play compressed movies without glitching (realplayer), 3D demos run slow (as compared to new systems). and it takes 4-5 minutes to boot Windows 98.
To collate and merge all the information from the different databases, they need a global unique identifier for each database that never changes between each database ie. your SSN, since at different times your name may be spelled differently/abbreviated, your address may have changed (parents home/college dorm/rented flat/mortgaged house), and your data of birth (as well as many dates) may be scrambled by six digit compression ie. is 04/05/02 is The fourth of April 2002, or the 2nd April 2004, or the 5th February, 2004.
From CPU Planet The target for the standard CPU is power consumption under one watt during normal use (less than half that of the mobile Pentium 4), with overall thermal design power or maximum power dissipation of 24.5 watts for the 1.5GHz and 1.6GHz parts; 22 watts for the 1.3GHz and 1.4GHz; 12 watts for the low-voltage 1.1GHz; and just 7 watts for the ultra-low-voltage 900MHz chip. By contrast, the thermal design power of the 2.4GHz mobile Pentium 4 is 30 watts, while the desktop Pentium 4s range roughly from 50 to 80 watts.
Now, given that a 2.4 GHz Pentium desktop consumes 50 to 80 watts, and power demand is proportional to clock speed, a 600 GHz Pentium would require around 600/2.4 * 50 = 25 Kilowatts, or enough energy to run four or five houses.
I once heard of a case where some corparate admin and her husband figured they could write a company check of $2 million to themselves. The plan was that they would get the cheque signed, fly away to Brazil to start a new life, and by the time they reached the hotel, they would be millionaires.
Unfortunately, they never managed to reached the airplane - they made the mistake of using the wrong color of cheque for the transaction.
The worst thing about ant infestations, is that sugar ants may decide to build an interstate across or (even worse under the keyboard). So every time you type there's another fatality, and your keys start to lock up.
Have you considered that providing software for free to countries such as China is essentially tacit support for oppressive regimes?
Yes, but the CIA have already slipped in secret bugs that will make all spreadsheet applications underestimate the actual number of activists, eventually leading to a total collapse of the economy.
Instead of pushing outward in it's exploration ventures, NASA should push inward and delve deep into Earth's oceans.
But then they would have to rename themselves to NOSA - National Oceanography and Seabed Administration.
Which would annoy the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, especially the National Geophysical Data Center, who research everything geophysical from the Sun to the Earth's core.
Unfortunately, corporations would probably cut back on their research unless they were guaranteed that all of their patents were processed. Otherwise, they would just withhold submitting their applications until the next year.
But if you had more missions, you would end up sending more probes anyway.
For the most part, they do seem to share resources; different countries/universities can install their experiments onto whatever device is being launched. And there is collaboration on the use of radio/optical telescopes - there are early warning networks for important events like supernova.
now faces the situation of getting constant beating by the management in a company which sees their researchers not as assets anymore but more as a cost reduction point which has to be outsourced to another country. It does not matter in the end that the company will run out of new products a few years later, because the management gets the golden handshake.
A textbook example of this situation is MG Rover in the UK.
Re:What provides the orbital speed of the cargo?
on
Space Elevator Update
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
The counter weight is in geostationary orbit, and would be weighted and positioned to balance the tension of the 300 miles of elevator against its orbital motion. The weight of the cargo is miniscule compared against the mass of hundreds of miles of carbon nanotube.
It would probably have to be built somewhere along the equator for geostationary orbital stability. Then you would need an island that is uninhabited, and is 300 miles away from any major population centre. So you could either create your own island, or build on top of a mountain. If you build on an island, you have to withstand hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones. Alternatively, if you build on a mountain, you have the advantage of being located high enough not to worry about weather systems, but you might have the hassle of earthquakes.
The current haptic devices include the Phantom OMNI. This is the only system, I've had the chance to use with 3D software. It gave good feedback on the virtual models, but it would probably be much better if you could combine it with atomic force microscopy.
Well, the atmosphere could have been methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, radon, helium, neon, argon, or any of the other gases emitted by volcanic activity.
But it was hydrogen. So the question I guess most scientists would ask is: did this hydrogen combine with oxygen to form the oceans, or did the water come from comets and asteroids?
The UK also passed legislation to deal with "tax avoidance" employment schemes:
IR35 was introduced to deal with the "employee in disguise" concept, where someone who left their job on Friday as a permanent employee, could return on Monday as a consultant employed as a director within their own limited company.
There is also Section 660 which was intended to deter self-employed people from setting up their own companies with other family members as employees (in particular husband and wife partnerships), and paying them salaries for minimal work which reduce the original tax band for the main worker.
The real problem is that there are different levels of taxation depending upon the type of employment. If everything were taxed at the same rate, then there wouldn't be any problem with how people were employed.
About the only place that I knew to give me Susan B. Anthony coins, was the Caltrain automatic ticket dispensers, which would return any change less that $10 in coins. None of the other vending machines (snacks, drinks) would accept them. Out of loyal duty, I saved up all the coins and used them to pay for the next month's ticket. After I had used this method for only one month, Caltrain decided to scrap the machines.
From a study of 'opsins', the chemical molecules that convert light into electrons, and enable vision to work, many small animals and insects have the ability see these wavelengths. Humans seem to have lost this ability, due to the increased refraction at short wavelengths caused by larger eyes.
5. To be able to visualize magnetic field lines.
Magnetically sensitive molecules have been found in avian retinas. The theory is that these could appear as some sort of overhead display in the bird's mind (although, nothing more than lines running across the field of view, or maybe a pair of light/dark spots).
6. To be able to visualize polarised light (as used by the octopus). Underwater, light is polarized by the reflection of light reflected off fish scales. Many fish try and camouflage themselves by trying to match the optical intensity of their surroundings. For simple predators this works, but more complex creatures such as the octopus are not fooled.
Also, polarized light can be used to signal to other members of the species without attracting undue attention.
7. Or having 16 visual pigments like the Stomatopod, which is also known to use polarised light to signal to others of the same species (And which also has stereo vision using one eye).
Sec. 53.401. APPLICATION OF SUBCHAPTER. This subchapter applies only to a rural incumbent local exchange company.
Sec. 53.402. NEW SERVICES. (a) A rural incumbent local exchange company shall price each new service at or above the service's long run incremental cost. The commission shall allow the company to establish a service's long run incremental cost by adopting, at that company's option, the cost studies of a larger company for that service that have been accepted by the commission.
(b) An affected person, the office on behalf of residential or small commercial customers, or the commission may file a complaint at the commission challenging whether the pricing by a rural incumbent local exchange company of a new service is in compliance with Subsection (a).
How is restricting rural companies from offering competitive based pricing going to help boost competition? Why are urban companies not prohibited from doing the same?
Slashdot Mirror
In the UK they're trying to bind Social Security numbers with "biometric data" like retina scans, fingerprints and DNA profiles with the justification that it will reduce fraud and deter terrorism. Of course this system will cost around $80 billion (UK billions) in order to implement.
If you have Linux, look at your security logs (System Tools->System Log->Security Log->Filter For "Failed"). You should see all the failed 'ssh' login attempts. For a broadband connection, I get around 60 per day (usually from the same host in Germany/Korea/Taiwan/Spain/whereever).
If I feel particularly nice, I will look up the abuse E-mail address using dnssstuff.com and send a report.
Processing power is a remarkable thing - you're talking about 1Ghz as being a pedestrian, adequate level of computing, yet you in a prior life (or rather prior year), back in 2001, were undoubtedly saying "Oh who'd need these crazy 1Ghz processors? A 300Mhz is all anyone would ever need...".
I remember spending a bundleful of cash on a high-end 450 MHz PC system back in 1998. Everyone at work asked "why on earth do you want a system that fast - only web-server owners need something that fast".
Three years later, and that system could barely play compressed movies without glitching (realplayer), 3D demos run slow (as compared to new systems). and it takes 4-5 minutes to boot Windows 98.
To collate and merge all the information from the different databases, they need a global unique identifier for each database that never changes between each database ie. your SSN, since at different times your name may be spelled differently/abbreviated, your address may have changed (parents home/college dorm/rented flat/mortgaged house), and your data of birth (as well as many dates) may be scrambled by six digit compression ie. is 04/05/02 is The fourth of April 2002, or the 2nd April 2004, or the 5th February, 2004.
I look forward to seeing the programming contests for this.
Real-time exploration of the Mandelbrot set using footprint movements as an input device.
Reaction Diffusion equations to give that rippling water effect as someone walks along.
Real-time display of a Voronoi diagram based on the location of users.
... the Mars Rover had a night light.
From CPU Planet
The target for the standard CPU is power consumption under one watt during normal use (less than half that of the mobile Pentium 4), with overall thermal design power or maximum power dissipation of 24.5 watts for the 1.5GHz and 1.6GHz parts; 22 watts for the 1.3GHz and 1.4GHz; 12 watts for the low-voltage 1.1GHz; and just 7 watts for the ultra-low-voltage 900MHz chip. By contrast, the thermal design power of the 2.4GHz mobile Pentium 4 is 30 watts, while the desktop Pentium 4s range roughly from 50 to 80 watts.
Now, given that a 2.4 GHz Pentium desktop consumes 50 to 80 watts, and power demand is proportional to clock speed, a 600 GHz Pentium would
require around 600/2.4 * 50 = 25 Kilowatts, or enough energy to run four or five houses.
That is going to be one hot PC.
I once heard of a case where some corparate admin and her husband figured they could write a company check of $2 million to themselves. The plan was that they would get the cheque signed, fly away to Brazil to start a new life, and by the time they reached the hotel, they would be millionaires.
Unfortunately, they never managed to reached the airplane - they made the mistake of using the wrong color of cheque for the transaction.
The worst thing about ant infestations, is that sugar ants may decide to build an interstate across or (even worse under the keyboard). So every time you type there's another fatality, and your keys start to lock up.
Have you considered that providing software for free to countries such as China is essentially tacit support for oppressive regimes?
Yes, but the CIA have already slipped in secret bugs that will make all spreadsheet applications underestimate the actual number of activists, eventually leading to a total collapse of the economy.
Instead of pushing outward in it's exploration ventures, NASA should push inward and delve deep into Earth's oceans.
But then they would have to rename themselves to NOSA - National Oceanography and Seabed Administration.
Which would annoy the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, especially the National Geophysical Data Center, who research everything geophysical from the Sun to the Earth's core.
Unfortunately, corporations would probably cut back on their research unless they were guaranteed that all of their patents were processed. Otherwise, they would just withhold submitting their applications until the next year.
But if you had more missions, you would end up sending more probes anyway.
For the most part, they do seem to share resources; different countries/universities can install their experiments onto whatever device is being launched. And there is collaboration on the use of radio/optical telescopes - there are early warning networks for important events like supernova.
now faces the situation of getting constant beating by the management in a company which sees their researchers not as assets anymore but more as a cost reduction point which has to be outsourced to another country. It does not matter in the end that the company will run out of new products a few years later, because the management gets the golden handshake.
A textbook example of this situation is MG Rover in the UK.
The counter weight is in geostationary orbit, and would be weighted and positioned to balance the tension of the 300 miles of elevator against its orbital motion. The weight of the cargo is miniscule compared against the mass of hundreds of miles of carbon nanotube.
It would probably have to be built somewhere along the equator for geostationary orbital stability. Then you would need an island that is uninhabited, and is 300 miles away from any major population centre. So you could either create your own island, or build on top of a mountain. If you build on an island, you have to withstand hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones. Alternatively, if you build on a mountain, you have the advantage of being located high enough not to worry about weather systems, but you might have the hassle of earthquakes.
I'm sure they will probably build in a spiral staircase with an emergency exit, if not just a stainless steel slide - the ultimate helter-skelter!
The current haptic devices include the Phantom OMNI. This is the only system, I've had the chance to use with 3D software. It gave good feedback on the virtual models, but it would probably be much better if you could combine it with atomic force microscopy.
Well, the atmosphere could have been methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, radon, helium, neon, argon, or any of the other gases emitted by volcanic activity.
But it was hydrogen. So the question I guess most scientists would ask is: did this hydrogen combine with oxygen to form the oceans, or did the water come from comets and asteroids?
The UK also passed legislation to deal with "tax avoidance" employment schemes:
IR35 was introduced to deal with the "employee in disguise" concept, where someone who left their job on Friday as a permanent employee, could return on Monday as a consultant employed as a director within their own limited company.
There is also Section 660 which was intended to deter self-employed people from setting up their own companies with other family members as employees (in particular husband and wife partnerships), and paying them salaries for minimal work which reduce the original tax band for the main worker.
The real problem is that there are different levels of taxation depending upon the type of employment. If everything were taxed at the same rate, then there wouldn't be any problem with how people were employed.
About the only place that I knew to give me Susan B. Anthony coins, was the Caltrain automatic ticket dispensers, which would return any change less that $10 in coins. None of the other vending machines (snacks, drinks) would accept them. Out of loyal duty, I saved up all the coins and used them to pay for the next month's ticket. After I had used this method for only one month, Caltrain decided to scrap the machines.
Not forgetting
4. Lost the ability to see in ultra-violet.
From a study of 'opsins', the chemical molecules that convert light into electrons, and enable vision to work, many small animals and insects have the ability see these wavelengths. Humans seem to have lost this ability, due to the increased refraction at short wavelengths caused by larger eyes.
5. To be able to visualize magnetic field lines.
Magnetically sensitive molecules have been found in avian retinas. The theory is that these could appear as some sort of overhead display in the bird's mind (although, nothing more than lines running across the field of view, or maybe a pair of light/dark spots).
6. To be able to visualize polarised light (as used by the octopus). Underwater, light is polarized by the reflection of light reflected off fish scales. Many fish try and camouflage themselves by trying to match the optical intensity of their surroundings. For simple predators this works, but more complex creatures
such as the octopus are not fooled.
Also, polarized light can be used to signal to other members of the species without attracting undue attention.
7. Or having 16 visual pigments like the Stomatopod, which is also known to use polarised light to signal to others of the same species (And which also has stereo vision using one eye).
From the text of the document to be passed:
Sec. 53.401. APPLICATION OF SUBCHAPTER. This subchapter
applies only to a rural incumbent local exchange company.
Sec. 53.402. NEW SERVICES. (a) A rural incumbent local
exchange company shall price each new service at or above the
service's long run incremental cost. The commission shall allow
the company to establish a service's long run incremental cost by
adopting, at that company's option, the cost studies of a larger
company for that service that have been accepted by the commission.
(b) An affected person, the office on behalf of residential
or small commercial customers, or the commission may file a
complaint at the commission challenging whether the pricing by a
rural incumbent local exchange company of a new service is in
compliance with Subsection (a).
How is restricting rural companies from offering competitive based pricing going to help boost competition? Why are urban companies not prohibited from doing the same?
There have been several experiments with fake papers:
A Physicist Experiments With Cultural Studies
Physics hoaxers discover Quantum Bogosity
Now there's a new buzzword: war-editing
I've so many wikipedia word-wars, where different factions couldn't agree on the correct meaning.