The most recent version of Mozilla has a method for dis-allowing the pop-up adverts (0.92mozilla I think) and they even tell you what it is in the release notes! I just added a line from there to the prefs.js file, and no more pop-ups!
I had an employee who had suffered from Carpal tunnel syndrome before he was an employee of mine. Sorta funny that he had to have surgery to get some relief??????
I think someone in Canada has been having more than an extra brewski....
I haven't been able to read the original article because - well it got slashdotted already;-)
I wanted to mentiong that Motorola invented a radar system a few years back that could routinely track aircraft of all types by accumulating the reflections from existing FM radio stations...completely passive! From the brief intro in the article, this is really just an expansion of that basic idea, but using cell-towers.
There is also another technology called bi-static radar - basically having two listeners that is suspected of being capable of seeing stealth - you reflect the radar beam away from the emitter, but if their are two or more receivers - the likelyhood of detection goes WAY up.
The last technology that has been bandied about as being capable of seeing stealy is Ultra Wide Band radar. These are also interesting because they might come under the heading of low-probability of intercept as well! The trick here is to find a frequency spectrum where the stealth technology doesn't work. You just try em all.
uhm - there was an article a few years ago in Linux Journal about how PG&E was looking at Linux to help do reporting and control. I also seem to recall a similar article from a Virginian Power company.
They're using commercial data com to talk now-adays. Heck, even the Richochet modems were invented originally to be power-meter readers (and they started with AX.25 for their first generation protocol!)
I've got to believe that the first order obvious effect is the license fees are reduced to zero. As MS adopts this new pay-as-you-go model, that makes the arguement even stronger!
I've believe that MS going to pay-as-you-go will only make our argument stronger, and may very well be the unexpected nail in the MS coffin put their by themselves. I think that corporate america is going to scream loud and long when this idea finally does go mainstream.
The US was doing this thing years and years ago to the Soviet Union. We snuck into harbors off of Siberia and put pods on their underwater cables to gather intelligence.
Indeed - Monte is a cool guy. I know him through his Harvard room-mate that I worked with 15 years or so ago. It's funny that the guy didn't ask the most obvious question, ie.e is Monte steemed about not being a Billionaire too? Well - let's just say he's gotten over it;-)
It's kinda neat to see a friend actually show up on Slashdot!;-)
The judge handed us the unconstitutional arguement we neeed! Look - DMCA DOES effectively extend copyright on movies to a perpetual status. That is blatantly unconstitutional. The constitution specifically allows copyright for a limited time.
Wallah!
By other court actions, congress can keep on extending copyright as long as it isn't permanent. This one is pemanent as written!
Oddly enough - the internet WAS originally regulated. Before the government gave up nominal control and sponsorship, you couldn't do business over the net. Back then it was only the domain of academics.
The last time I saw something on this - the cell phone concept was first tried in the mid-seventies, and I believe it was Motorolla(could be ATT -not clear on that..)
The systems you are talking about were radio telephones.
Hehe - that's what I thought about Clinton towards the end of his first term. Boy was I wrong... and look at all the good things his 2nd term brought us.
Now for a post that is actually about the original article! The damn plane is "barely" remote controled. It's nominally completely autonomous. The reason this is interesting is that it'll be flying to Australia by itself under NO remote control.
One way that my company has used to get PR is to write technical articles in the appropriate journals to illustrate our expertise. (We do chip design consulting.)
Another is to appear at trade shows in discussion panels.
This gets the name of the company out there in subtle ways, and hopefully provides a good impression at the same time.
In the "unix" world as oppossed to the "linux" world there are really only two standards. System V and BSD in the way of commands.
You learn the switches you need that are different between ps on the two systems, and the rest is duck soup!;-)
Vi is Vi (or if you must - emacs;-) so that takes care of the editor argument, and there are some significant issues in programming libs between all the different distros/systems but autoconf/automake seem to help that become manageable too.
I work as a contractor - and working on multiple platforms is a business necessity - it just aint that hard!
Not all Mips are created equal. For example: is it fair and reasonable to compare a CISC Mips to a RISC Mips? The CISC may be doing something like a string move with one instruction while the RISC machine does it with series of instructions in a loop. Obviously this is an apples an oranges comparison.
Okay - next you look at Flops - aren't Flops the same on every machine. Well - no, though that is probably less of an issue for comparing IEEE based implementations. The question comes up (and it has already been mentioned) that Flops don't compare useful work loads! The vast majority of computer work loads don't involve significant floating point operations. (Yes you can find workloads where that is the case - but it isn't the majority situation.)
So it comes down to comparing computer "systems" is a tricky business. Even Mhz in the same architecture family doesn't work because you don't know how efficiently the machine is designed -the hardware might be capable of greater than one instruction per clock!
Finally - I don't believe the estimate of upto 15 % or clock distribution. It's more like 1%-2%. ( I do chip design for a living..at least I have an educated opinion on this!) The clocks ARE a significant part of the power issue though. CMOS burns power when signals move. The clock moves. Simple enough analysis there.
Asynch design methods have been around forever, but present a number of problems for traditional design tools that depend on the clock to do their work. Further, there are alot of chip designers that throw up their hands if you just mention the word "asynchronous design" to them. Any push to this kind of design would be tramatic to say the least;-)
Oddly, all we need to do is go over to www.nitrozac.com to have some ideas!;-)
Seriously, assume that every transistor on the planet got wiped out. What would be left? First off - the power generation system would probably be broken but repairable. Certainly the generators would be operational, and transmission wires can be repaired. So I'd assume that I can get electricity to my house in some amount of time.
Next - what else would be broken. Maybe my refrigerator - maybe not. Lots of those still around that are pretty simple controllers not using micros. So I might be able to store food in the modern way. Hmm - what about mass communications.
Well -first off, most transmission capabilities would be initially wiped out, but at some time we'd revert to tube technology for the near term. Tube hardware will survive things that transistors don't stand a chance of. I know there is a lot of ham gear from WWII still working fer instance. So I'd imagine that radio would come back up not too long after we have electricity up.
Now - my car wouldn't start because it's all computerized. Only the old gas guzzlers of the 70's would still work. So there would be some transportation, but that would be limited.
These are just some of my thoughts about what would and wouldn't be available. At some point - we start semiconductor manufacturing again....then off we go.
I read thru the comments below and several of them made good points. I'm an EE of 20 years (and have a significant programming backround as well..)
1. The industry (and the economy) is indeed cyclic. At the same time - I've only been out of work for one month in the last 20 years. This stability is tied to what you know, and where you live... it's obviously easier to get a job in Silicon Valley rather than out in the toolies somewhere.
2. Knowing software engineering ups the anti. If you have a software backround as well as know hardware - you can switch hit. It's just that many more job descriptions that you qualify for.
If you are true hardware wheeney - you wouldn't be satisfied with software exclusively anyway, but being able to do more than one thing is always a GOOD THING(TM).
3. Getting a few years of industry experience makes you MUCH more marketable than when you are fresh out of school. Young engineers usually need a little seasoning - so dig in and enjoy it.
4. With that being said, there is a huge amount of salary compression now-adays (and I thought it was bad when I graduated in 79.) Just a few years out of school in the right disciplines will pull down $100K no problems in the right geographic area.
5. Most areas of engineering (and programming) will be salaried, i.e. you get to work for 60 hours a week and get paid for 40. Rare is the place that pays overtime. (hehe...I finally found one again after 20 years...)
6. You better LOVE what you do for a living if you're going to be doing it 40-50 hours a week for 30 to 40 years. You GOTTA love going to work in the morning, or it isn't the right place for you.
The fact that WE did it gives the unique perspective that it might be a STUPID idea to go down the same path to the logical conclusion it gets too. (3..2..1.....BOOM)
Besides the SILLY numbers you chose to include for CA (low 60's for number killed each time in the last three major quakes in CA..) CA's infrastructure is stretched to the breaking point.
India has nearly no infrastructure in some places to break! I was talking with an Indian friend today about this very subject. He worked for a power company there before coming here. His story was that power was only on part of the day EVERY day as the rule. They had just completed a plant that would double the area's power capacity and it was insufficient for current needs.
CA has plenty of issues - but these have to do with aging infrastructure, lack of investment in same, a population that refuses to stop growing. (From 19 million in around 79 to 33 million at the end of the 90's.) (Doesn't compare to India's 1 billion though..)
Slashdot Mirror
The most recent version of Mozilla has a method for dis-allowing the pop-up adverts (0.92mozilla I think) and they even tell you what it is in the release notes! I just added a line from there to the prefs.js file, and no more pop-ups!
I think the poster's "handle" can be used to appropriately qualify this question. After all - he is admitedly a "Raging Idiot!" ;-)
Hmm - - BS...
I had an employee who had suffered from Carpal tunnel syndrome before he was an employee of mine. Sorta funny that he had to have surgery to get some relief??????
I think someone in Canada has been having more than an extra brewski....
I haven't been able to read the original article because - well it got slashdotted already ;-)
I wanted to mentiong that Motorola invented a radar system a few years back that could routinely track aircraft of all types by accumulating the reflections from existing FM radio stations...completely passive! From the brief intro in the article, this is really just an expansion of that basic idea, but using cell-towers.
There is also another technology called bi-static radar - basically having two listeners that is suspected of being capable of seeing stealth - you reflect the radar beam away from the emitter, but if their are two or more receivers - the likelyhood of detection goes WAY up.
The last technology that has been bandied about as being capable of seeing stealy is Ultra Wide Band radar. These are also interesting because they might come under the heading of low-probability of intercept as well! The trick here is to find a frequency spectrum where the stealth technology doesn't work. You just try em all.
uhm - there was an article a few years ago in Linux Journal about how PG&E was looking at Linux to help do reporting and control. I also seem to recall a similar article from a Virginian Power company.
They're using commercial data com to talk now-adays. Heck, even the Richochet modems were invented originally to be power-meter readers (and they started with AX.25 for their first generation protocol!)
Characters my posterior. If the power grid had been taken down, I can guarantee you that is tantamount to an act of war.
Consider that so far US armed forces who are developing similar capabilities have been restrained from using them for just such legal reasons.
Tell ya what - when you're sitting here with the lites out (and I will be) and the Western grid, not just CA is included.. is that funny?
I've got to believe that the first order obvious effect is the license fees are reduced to zero. As MS adopts this new pay-as-you-go model, that makes the arguement even stronger!
I've believe that MS going to pay-as-you-go will only make our argument stronger, and may very well be the unexpected nail in the MS coffin put their by themselves. I think that corporate america is going to scream loud and long when this idea finally does go mainstream.
For the scram jet to actually work, the vehicle needs to be doing something like mach 2 or 3 as I recall.
Quick note (yes and off topic) -
Last I heard - Linus won't accept kdb or any kernel debuger into the source.
The US was doing this thing years and years ago to the Soviet Union. We snuck into harbors off of Siberia and put pods on their underwater cables to gather intelligence.
So what is the big surprise?
Indeed - Monte is a cool guy. I know him through his Harvard room-mate that I worked with 15 years or so ago. It's funny that the guy didn't ask the most obvious question, ie.e is Monte steemed about not being a Billionaire too? Well - let's just say he's gotten over it ;-)
;-)
It's kinda neat to see a friend actually show up on Slashdot!
The judge handed us the unconstitutional arguement we neeed! Look - DMCA DOES effectively extend copyright on movies to a perpetual status. That is blatantly unconstitutional. The constitution specifically allows copyright for a limited time. Wallah! By other court actions, congress can keep on extending copyright as long as it isn't permanent. This one is pemanent as written!
Oddly enough - the internet WAS originally regulated. Before the government gave up nominal control and sponsorship, you couldn't do business over the net. Back then it was only the domain of academics.
Maybe we should revert??
It wasn't -
The last time I saw something on this - the cell phone concept was first tried in the mid-seventies, and I believe it was Motorolla(could be ATT -not clear on that..)
The systems you are talking about were radio telephones.
Hehe - that's what I thought about Clinton towards the end of his first term. Boy was I wrong... and look at all the good things his 2nd term brought us.
Now for a post that is actually about the original article! The damn plane is "barely" remote controled. It's nominally completely autonomous. The reason this is interesting is that it'll be flying to Australia by itself under NO remote control.
One way that my company has used to get PR is to write technical articles in the appropriate journals to illustrate our expertise. (We do chip design consulting.)
Another is to appear at trade shows in discussion panels.
This gets the name of the company out there in subtle ways, and hopefully provides a good impression at the same time.
Just did a little digging - what Al REALLY said -
"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
Close enough - which of course isn't close to accurate since the Intenet evolved from Arpanet which has been around since 69.
" (For instance, Gore never said he "invented" the internet.) Even if he didn't - even LIBERAL's used that joke against Gore.
So many versions?
;-)
;-) so that takes care of the editor argument, and there are some significant issues in programming libs between all the different distros/systems but autoconf/automake seem to help that become manageable too.
In the "unix" world as oppossed to the "linux" world there are really only two standards. System V and BSD in the way of commands.
You learn the switches you need that are different between ps on the two systems, and the rest is duck soup!
Vi is Vi (or if you must - emacs
I work as a contractor - and working on multiple platforms is a business necessity - it just aint that hard!
The problem with Mips:
;-)
Not all Mips are created equal. For example: is it fair and reasonable to compare a CISC Mips to a RISC Mips? The CISC may be doing something like a string move with one instruction while the RISC machine does it with series of instructions in a loop. Obviously this is an apples an oranges comparison.
Okay - next you look at Flops - aren't Flops the same on every machine. Well - no, though that is probably less of an issue for comparing IEEE based implementations. The question comes up (and it has already been mentioned) that Flops don't compare useful work loads! The vast majority of computer work loads don't involve significant floating point operations. (Yes you can find workloads where that is the case - but it isn't the majority situation.)
So it comes down to comparing computer "systems" is a tricky business. Even Mhz in the same architecture family doesn't work because you don't know how efficiently the machine is designed -the hardware might be capable of greater than one instruction per clock!
Finally - I don't believe the estimate of upto 15 % or clock distribution. It's more like 1%-2%. ( I do chip design for a living..at least I have an educated opinion on this!) The clocks ARE a significant part of the power issue though. CMOS burns power when signals move. The clock moves. Simple enough analysis there.
Asynch design methods have been around forever, but present a number of problems for traditional design tools that depend on the clock to do their work. Further, there are alot of chip designers that throw up their hands if you just mention the word "asynchronous design" to them. Any push to this kind of design would be tramatic to say the least
Oddly, all we need to do is go over to www.nitrozac.com to have some ideas! ;-)
Seriously, assume that every transistor on the planet got wiped out. What would be left? First off - the power generation system would probably be broken but repairable. Certainly the generators would be operational, and transmission wires can be repaired. So I'd assume that I can get electricity to my house in some amount of time.
Next - what else would be broken. Maybe my refrigerator - maybe not. Lots of those still around that are pretty simple controllers not using micros. So I might be able to store food in the modern way. Hmm - what about mass communications.
Well -first off, most transmission capabilities would be initially wiped out, but at some time we'd revert to tube technology for the near term. Tube hardware will survive things that transistors don't stand a chance of. I know there is a lot of ham gear from WWII still working fer instance. So I'd imagine that radio would come back up not too long after we have electricity up.
Now - my car wouldn't start because it's all computerized. Only the old gas guzzlers of the 70's would still work. So there would be some transportation, but that would be limited.
These are just some of my thoughts about what would and wouldn't be available. At some point - we start semiconductor manufacturing again....then off we go.
Dude - go read the article, it was a japaneese company.
I read thru the comments below and several of them made good points. I'm an EE of 20 years (and have a significant programming backround as well..)
1. The industry (and the economy) is indeed cyclic. At the same time - I've only been out of work for one month in the last 20 years. This stability is tied to what you know, and where you live... it's obviously easier to get a job in Silicon Valley rather than out in the toolies somewhere.
2. Knowing software engineering ups the anti. If you have a software backround as well as know hardware - you can switch hit. It's just that many more job descriptions that you qualify for.
If you are true hardware wheeney - you wouldn't be satisfied with software exclusively anyway, but being able to do more than one thing is always a GOOD THING(TM).
3. Getting a few years of industry experience makes you MUCH more marketable than when you are fresh out of school. Young engineers usually need a little seasoning - so dig in and enjoy it.
4. With that being said, there is a huge amount of salary compression now-adays (and I thought it was bad when I graduated in 79.) Just a few years out of school in the right disciplines will pull down $100K no problems in the right geographic area.
5. Most areas of engineering (and programming) will be salaried, i.e. you get to work for 60 hours a week and get paid for 40. Rare is the place that pays overtime. (hehe...I finally found one again after 20 years...)
6. You better LOVE what you do for a living if you're going to be doing it 40-50 hours a week for 30 to 40 years. You GOTTA love going to work in the morning, or it isn't the right place for you.
You missed MY point...
The fact that WE did it gives the unique perspective that it might be a STUPID idea to go down the same path to the logical conclusion it gets too. (3..2..1.....BOOM)
Besides the SILLY numbers you chose to include for CA (low 60's for number killed each time in the last three major quakes in CA..) CA's infrastructure is stretched to the breaking point.
India has nearly no infrastructure in some places to break! I was talking with an Indian friend today about this very subject. He worked for a power company there before coming here. His story was that power was only on part of the day EVERY day as the rule. They had just completed a plant that would double the area's power capacity and it was insufficient for current needs.
CA has plenty of issues - but these have to do with aging infrastructure, lack of investment in same, a population that refuses to stop growing. (From 19 million in around 79 to 33 million at the end of the 90's.) (Doesn't compare to India's 1 billion though..)