It has been speculated, and fairly so IMHO, that Y2K was what initially drove the.com bubble.
From working in the Bay Area during the mid-1990's in the Bay Area, it really seemed to be the demand to establish online services and webservers that caused the.com bubble. The peak of the boom was when project managers were losing as much as 25% of their staff in a single week, as programmers left to join startups companies, only to return six months later like tourists who have blown their life-savings on Las Vegas casinos. Then, the Y2K bug was the big issue and there was a massive scramble to update accounting systems everywhere. This bubble burst on January 1st 2000, when everyone realised that the power stations weren't going to fail and airplanes weren't going to suddenly lose all power and fall out of the sky. By mid-year 2000, all of the hype had fizzled out, and the only markets left were mobile phones and wireless. And even those popped as the mobile phone companies had overbid each other on 3G and ended up cutting back on inhouse research.
i understand what you are trying to say, but don't agree - if all people can "know" a good deal from a bad deal, there would be no bad deals
Trial and error - they might get conned the first couple of times, but eventually learn to watch out for the danger signs. Much like buying a second hand car, by reading up on the weak points on all the common models, then visiting a dealership or a private seller, and note how they try a distract you away from the stuff you need to check out.
With the advent of super slick console gaming systems the industry has really fallen apart.
It's not just that there are super slick console systems. It's that the places where the arcades were located (if not the arcades themselves) were seen by parents to be rather dodgy. Invariably, they would be dimly lit (due to the burnt out screens), and would be relatively expensive (2-3 minutes = 50 pence/cents). For several weekends worth of gaming you could have your own arcade centre, and in the safety of your own home, along with the drinks and snacks of your choice, and without the hassle from any of the 'regulars'.
I mean a future where people can't even do 2*3 without a calculator.
I don't think so - even in socially deprived areas where the majority of school-leavers don't go to college, and the black market is the only form of trade, people still instinctively know a good deal from a bad deal.
Having augmented intelligence will probably become a reality though - combine a miniature video camera mounted onto eyeglasses and a headup display projecting onto the lenses, and you could do all sorts of useful things - augmented memory would allow you to automatically cardcount at Poker, or could project the directions you need to go on a freeway system you have never used before. Or you could have a set of headphones and end up looking like Lobot
Anyone think there might be a future where humans rely on computers so much that they don't bother learning math at all any more?
I thought we were already there. How many people truly understand how their digital satellite/cable box works? All they know is that you have to place a dish on a solid foundation and point it at a clearly visible point in the sky, and keep it connected to a power supply and TV. The need to understand how polarised Gigahertz signals are transmitted and received, how satellites are launched into and remain in geostationary orbit, how systems are duplicated to prevent failure, and how digital compression and encryption algorithms operate isn't necessary. All they need to know is how to switch the machine on/off, adjust the volume and change channel.
Somehow, Extremium and Extremon don't seem to have the same rhyme.
Next up from Intel, the Ultra-Spifftronic-Wowee-Zappo Triple Core, with extra schmaltz!
The local ice-cream van used to sell those during the Summer holidays - you had to eat them immediately, otherwise they would melt before you got inside.
They are far safer in a fire, too. If there is an overpressure in the cylinder, the gas is slowly vented, where it burns. With a petrol tank, as the fuel heats up the pressure rises until the tank bursts (because they're either plastic or thin steel).
I've always wondered why we don't have double-skinned fuel tanks, with liquid detergent/fire-retardent foam between the inner/outer layers, so that if the fuel tank were punctured, the foam would mix with the oil, and reduce the risk of fire.
Each bit on the hard disk is represented by a small area of magnetized particles (like lots of little bar magnets).
With the longitudal system, the particles are magnetized so that the North and South are both on the surface of platter (bar magnets lie flat on the surface). ie. <N-S> <S-N> <S-N> <N-S> <N-S>
With the perpendicular system, the particles are magnetized by a field that is perpendicular to the surface (bar magnets point up or down) ie.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
N S S N N
| | | | |
S N N S S
v v v v v
Obviously, this has the potential for increasing storage capacity.
Or we can model protein folding even faster. Run more accurate climate simulations even faster. Run population simulations even faster. Run CAD/CAM simulations even faster.
Jeez, learn to read. There's nothing in the article about saving money.
At the moment, British house prices are actually falling, at the rate of about 0.6% per month (around 1500 pounds/month for the amount he is spending on the vehicle). London house prices have traditionally gone through a boom and bust cycle, so he would be completely wasting his money buying a house now. Even a house in the country isn't a good investment either as it only takes a small group of travellers to set up camp and reduce the value by 75%. And UK banks don't exactly offer generous savings interest rates.
Pitch fees for a mobile home cost around 70-120 pounds/month, which is comparable to the "council tax" (property taxes) for a property of a similar price (Band G).
"A user uploads the PDF they want to track to Remote Approach, assigning variables like 'distribution channels' and 'groups' to add additional detail to the data captured. From there, they can download and distribute the PDF as desired," said John Bielby, president of Remote Approach Inc.
"Every time the PDF is read, it briefly interacts with the reporting repository to record the event. The user has access to live reports and data to see reports on views, distribution by channel or user group, or even download the logs into other systems and applications," Bielby said.
This would seem to imply there is some sort of scripting going on withing the PDF file, the simplest of which would accessing a hashed URL on the host companies website. So just about anything could be tracked (IP address, local system username, time, date, E-mail address)
My favourites (at the moment, as there is always something new...)
Microsoft Stopping Development On Windows Media Player Posted by brian on Sat April 02, 11:11 AM from the have fun hitting reload page dept. Jefro101 writes "According to a story on CNET Microsoft announced today that they are stopping development on Windows Media Player. I know most Slashdotters hate MS, but Windows Media Player is used by a lot of Linux gurus who'll have to search for an alternative. Might be a good oportunity for developers of KOffice to step in and fill the void."
Time Travel Being Used In The Playstation 3 Posted by brian on Sat April 02, 11:12 AM from the have fun hitting reload page dept. Definitely a must have. The new Playstation 3 will be using technology gleaned from research on time travel. This should put the Playstation 3 at the top of the heap, and have their competitors scrambling to catch up. It's sure to be the hot new gizmo for all the mobile business executives who need help with starting World War III.
Also, The Master escaped death by a unexplained method in the Movie.
I didn't really think the Master was portrayed very well in the movie - spitting at people just didn't seem very polite behaviour for an intergalactic supervillain.
Though, I did like the Tardis better in the movie than the new series, but it's better than the old series., which obviously looked like a studio set. The movie set looks more "lived in" with all the bits of antique navigation gear, toolkit boxes and furniture.
It's informative to see the design storyboards for the tardis. The designers almost seemed to be heading for a Star Trek theme, before heading towards a Star Wars look, before looking more like a rusted neutrino detector. If that were a student flat, there'd be a lot more stuff everywhere (boxes, bookshelves, monitors, rugs). Not forgetting a large "mind the step" or "contents may have shifted during transit".
There is a plot device. It's called the "Eye of Harmony" and was used by The Master" in the story "The Deadly Assassin" to get past his twelfth regeneration cycle.
It's a real shame though - After seeing the first episode, Christopher Eccleston seemed to be ready to match Tom Baker's mix of eccentricity, creativiy, and insanity (not forgetting that wild-eyed grin). The other doctors never seemed to have that edgy psychotic attitude, that would justify wanting to escape from the home world and travelling between random locations in space and time.
Oddly enough, for certain college courses, students no longer put down their name, but just use their matriculation number.
And for various research journals, you will never know the name of the persons reviewing your paper, but only an identifier such as "IXL04356". But as you are now able to reply to the reviewers comments, the log of the discussion will appear to be something out of an Asimov short story.
One of the research labs in my university have purchased a couple of these laptop along with a Phantom Omni pen and stands.
The laptop can display photographs and 3D applications in stereo, with the actual depth field being +/-4 inches in front of and behind the laptop screen. The haptic pen provides force feedback to give you an idea where the surface is (resistance will increase if you try and move the pen into somewhere "solid", but will be flexible otherwise).
The two can be combined together with special stand which allows you to turn the laptop upside down, and see a reflection of the screen from a mirror, with the goal being to allow you to use the pen as naturally as possible.
Slashdot Mirror
It has been speculated, and fairly so IMHO, that Y2K was what initially drove the .com bubble.
.com bubble. The peak of the boom was when project managers were losing as much as 25% of their staff in a single week, as programmers left to join startups companies, only to return six months later like tourists who have blown their life-savings on Las Vegas casinos. Then, the Y2K bug was the big issue and there was a massive scramble to update accounting systems everywhere. This bubble burst on January 1st 2000, when everyone realised that the power stations weren't going to fail and airplanes weren't going to suddenly lose all power and fall out of the sky. By mid-year 2000, all of the hype had fizzled out, and the only markets left were mobile phones and wireless. And even those popped as the mobile phone companies had overbid each other on 3G and ended up cutting back on inhouse research.
From working in the Bay Area during the mid-1990's in the Bay Area, it really seemed to be the demand to establish online services and webservers that caused the
There was a sofa store that was sued for putting up a poster claiming themselves to be "sofa-king-good".
i understand what you are trying to say, but don't agree - if all people can "know" a good deal from a bad deal, there would be no bad deals
Trial and error - they might get conned the first couple of times, but eventually learn to watch out for the danger signs. Much like buying a second hand car, by reading up on the weak points on all the common models, then visiting a dealership or a private seller, and note how they try a distract you away from the stuff you need to check out.
With the advent of super slick console gaming systems the industry has really fallen apart.
It's not just that there are super slick console systems. It's that the places where the arcades were located (if not the arcades themselves) were seen by parents to be rather dodgy. Invariably, they would be dimly lit (due to the burnt out screens), and would be relatively expensive (2-3 minutes = 50 pence/cents). For several weekends worth of gaming you could have your own arcade centre, and in the safety of your own home, along with the drinks and snacks of your choice, and without the hassle from any of the 'regulars'.
I mean a future where people can't even do 2*3 without a calculator.
I don't think so - even in socially deprived areas where the majority of school-leavers don't go to college, and the black market is the only form of trade, people still instinctively know a good deal from a bad deal.
Having augmented intelligence will probably become a reality though - combine a miniature video camera mounted onto eyeglasses and a headup display projecting onto the lenses, and you could do all sorts of useful things - augmented memory would allow you to automatically cardcount at Poker, or could project the directions you need to go on a freeway system you have never used before.
Or you could have a set of headphones and end up looking like Lobot
Anyone think there might be a future where humans rely on computers so much that they don't bother learning math at all any more?
I thought we were already there. How many people truly understand how their digital satellite/cable box works? All they know is that you have to place a dish on a solid foundation and point it at a clearly visible point in the sky, and keep it connected to a power supply and TV. The need to understand how polarised Gigahertz signals are transmitted and received, how satellites are launched into and remain in geostationary orbit, how systems are duplicated to prevent failure, and how digital compression and encryption algorithms operate isn't necessary. All they need to know is how to switch the machine on/off, adjust the volume and change channel.
Who's to say that neurons operate in the same way as a computer's multiple-add operations?
The structure of the neuron is well known and has been proven by microscopic and chemical analysis. Details can be found here and here
you'll need additional programming to tell the computer how to emulate the communication and interaction between neurons.
From studies of the human brain, two new computational paradigms have been identified this technical report.
If we end up having two of everything (CPU, GPU, monitors, disk drives), wouldn't we be better off having two PC's with a high-speed network?
A 20" multisync monitor used to be able to jam BBC Radio 4 (around 198 Kilohertz / long wave for a radius of 10 metres around the monitor.
Or read the Conversatron
And of course, there will be the extremeino for mobile computing.
Somehow, Extremium and Extremon don't seem to have the same rhyme. Next up from Intel, the Ultra-Spifftronic-Wowee-Zappo Triple Core, with extra schmaltz! The local ice-cream van used to sell those during the Summer holidays - you had to eat them immediately, otherwise they would melt before you got inside.
They are far safer in a fire, too. If there is an overpressure in the cylinder, the gas is slowly vented, where it burns. With a petrol tank, as the fuel heats up the pressure rises until the tank bursts (because they're either plastic or thin steel).
I've always wondered why we don't have double-skinned fuel tanks, with liquid detergent/fire-retardent foam between the inner/outer layers, so that if the fuel tank were punctured, the foam would mix with the oil, and reduce the risk of fire.
Each bit on the hard disk is represented by a small area of magnetized particles (like lots of little bar magnets).
With the longitudal system, the particles are magnetized so that the North and South are both on the surface of platter (bar magnets lie flat on the surface).
ie. <N-S> <S-N> <S-N> <N-S> <N-S>
With the perpendicular system, the particles are magnetized by a field that is perpendicular to the surface (bar magnets point up or down) ie.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
N S S N N
| | | | |
S N N S S
v v v v v
Obviously, this has the potential for increasing storage capacity.
Or we can model protein folding even faster.
Run more accurate climate simulations even faster.
Run population simulations even faster.
Run CAD/CAM simulations even faster.
Jeez, learn to read. There's nothing in the article about saving money.
At the moment, British house prices are actually falling, at the rate of about 0.6% per month (around 1500 pounds/month for the amount he is spending on the vehicle). London house prices have traditionally gone through a boom and bust cycle, so he would be completely wasting his money buying a house now. Even a house in the country isn't a good investment either as it only takes a small group of travellers to set up camp and reduce the value by 75%. And UK banks don't exactly offer generous savings interest rates.
Pitch fees for a mobile home cost around 70-120 pounds/month, which is comparable to the "council tax" (property taxes) for a property of a similar price (Band G).
From the article text:
"A user uploads the PDF they want to track to Remote Approach, assigning variables like 'distribution channels' and 'groups' to add additional detail to the data captured. From there, they can download and distribute the PDF as desired," said John Bielby, president of Remote Approach Inc.
"Every time the PDF is read, it briefly interacts with the reporting repository to record the event. The user has access to live reports and data to see reports on views, distribution by channel or user group, or even download the logs into other systems and applications," Bielby said.
This would seem to imply there is some sort of scripting going on withing the PDF file, the simplest of which would accessing a hashed URL on the host companies website. So just about anything could be tracked (IP address, local system username, time, date, E-mail address)
My favourites (at the moment, as there is always something new...)
Microsoft Stopping Development On Windows Media Player
Posted by brian on Sat April 02, 11:11 AM
from the have fun hitting reload page dept.
Jefro101 writes "According to a story on CNET Microsoft announced today that they are stopping development on Windows Media Player. I know most Slashdotters hate MS, but Windows Media Player is used by a lot of Linux gurus who'll have to search for an alternative. Might be a good oportunity for developers of KOffice to step in and fill the void."
Time Travel Being Used In The Playstation 3
Posted by brian on Sat April 02, 11:12 AM
from the have fun hitting reload page dept.
Definitely a must have. The new Playstation 3 will be using technology gleaned from research on time travel. This should put the Playstation 3 at the top of the heap, and have their competitors scrambling to catch up. It's sure to be the hot new gizmo for all the mobile business executives who need help with starting World War III.
... the Random slashdot story generator
(On the other hand, as worzel he did get a love interest, if understandably unrequited...)
I don't think there could be any fate worse than Being near crucified on a scarecrow pole, and having to wear straw stuffed up your shirt leaves and over your head, for several years
But there was always "K-9 and Company"
Also, The Master escaped death by a unexplained method in the Movie.
I didn't really think the Master was portrayed very well in the movie - spitting at people just didn't seem very polite behaviour for an intergalactic supervillain.
Though, I did like the Tardis better in the movie than the new series, but it's better than the old series., which obviously looked like a studio set. The movie set looks more "lived in" with all the bits of antique navigation gear, toolkit boxes and furniture.
It's informative to see the design storyboards for the tardis. The designers almost seemed to be heading for a Star Trek theme, before heading towards a Star Wars look, before looking more like a rusted neutrino detector. If that were a student flat, there'd be a lot more stuff everywhere (boxes, bookshelves, monitors, rugs). Not forgetting a large "mind the step" or "contents may have shifted during transit".
There is a plot device. It's called the "Eye of Harmony" and was used by The Master" in the story "The Deadly Assassin" to get past his twelfth regeneration cycle.
It's a real shame though - After seeing the first episode, Christopher Eccleston seemed to be ready to match Tom Baker's mix of eccentricity, creativiy, and insanity (not forgetting that wild-eyed grin). The other doctors never seemed to have that edgy psychotic attitude, that would justify wanting to escape from the home world and travelling between random locations in space and time.
Oddly enough, for certain college courses, students no longer put down their name, but just use their matriculation number.
And for various research journals, you will never know the name of the persons reviewing your paper, but only an identifier such as "IXL04356". But as you are now able to reply to the reviewers comments, the log of the discussion will appear to be something out of an Asimov short story.
Here's a good true story. A thief who nicked a women's handbag, was caught after he answered the call and agreed to return the mobile phone to the police.
One of the research labs in my university have purchased a couple of these laptop along with a Phantom Omni pen and stands.
The laptop can display photographs and 3D applications in stereo, with the actual depth field being +/-4 inches in front of and behind the laptop screen. The haptic pen provides force feedback to give you an idea where the surface is (resistance will increase if you try and move the pen into somewhere "solid", but will be flexible otherwise).
The two can be combined together with special stand which allows you to turn the laptop upside down, and see a reflection of the screen from a mirror, with the goal being to allow you to use the pen as naturally as possible.