I generally find that by the time upgrading the CPU is cost effective, a new motherboard makes sense as part of the package.
You are not their target market. In fact, as far as upgrading the CPU, no one is their target market.
You have three end users:
1) The individual who builds their own systems. If they upgrade, their old system is good enough to resell -but they aren't going to sell just the CPU card. Therefore the entire board, cpu card, and cpu are going to stay together after the original purchase.
2) The individual who buys their own system. If they upgrade, they aren't going to bother upgrading the cpu - especially since they originally purchased the computer because it was cheap. Another cheap computer is around the corner.
3) OEM system builder. This is the target market. These motherboard are not really good for upgrades. Upgrading the CPU made sense when the CPU was 1/3 of the cost of the system. That is only true now when you are buying a top of the line CPU, and if so you aren't going to accept the performance hit of this motherboard (which may only be 5%, but you're already paying hundreds of dollars more for a CPU that only gives 10% more performance than one that is *very* cheap).
The OEM builder has a few advantages with this mobo (though these aren't, in practise, all that great):
1) They can stock fewer/smaller components to support a wider range of system configurations.
2) They can pre-build more of the system - leave the cpu card, HD, and video card out. Add these components very quickly on demand.
3) If the CPU is bad on the final test removing the card and putting a new one in may be easier/faster than removing the heatsink, cpu, and replacing them on a regular motherboard.
The biggest downside is that this greatly impedes case airflow, and requires a special or modified case to be truly reliable.
I imagine that those who maintain the root DNS servers are reimbursed in US cash.
It could be that some in Europe want in on that deal, but it certianly can't be that large of a reimbursement. Perhaps a few 100K per year? That's not worth this big campaign.
I suspect it's more political ambition than money. Just as they want their own GPS system, they want to control the naming system somewhat.
I'm curious how the other cuntries are involved in ICANN activities such as new TLDs. Do they have voting power, or just recomendation power? Perhaps they simply want to be able to add other TLDs. Perhaps they hope that with DNS control they can extend their various laws to the internet outside their borders (nazi, etc).
By hosting EU DNS servers, for instance, they can punish web sites that they don't agree with by disabling their domain local to the EU - at least for those that subscribe to the eu DNS servers.
Then they legislate that ISPs have to use the local DNS, and further have to block all root level DNS queries that lead outside the eu. Tunnels will be built and people who want to get through can, but the average joe won't even know that "nazimemorabilia.com" exists, much less be able to visit.
I think following the money is a good idea, but perhaps more importantly, follow the leader - who is pushing this? Are there elections any time soon? Are they trying to make the US appear more isolationist? What's in it for them politically?
Please note that many (if not most?) websites are run on shared IP systems. Without DNS, and without a local hosts file current browsers cannot access these websites even if the IP is known. HTTP1.1, IIRC, requires the HOST: field, so it's not enough to know the IP.
When you go to a food buffet, do you put one item on your plate, sit down and finish it before going back for your second item, which you also sit down and finish before moving on to the third?
Each country has to make decisions on how to allocate their resources. Furthermore, if you focus completely on one task to the exclusion of all others not only do important things fall by the wayside, but your resources are not being used most efficiently.
A country like China needs to focus its money on a multitude of things. Cutting their space program doesn't neessarily improve other programs, especially since the resources needed for space aren't necessarily going to improve the economy when spent elsewhere.
Besides, until your own country has solved poverty you shouldn't be the one lecturing another country on how they should spend their resources.
The intial phase of automatic driving cars would only be on freeways in a special lane. The cars would communicate with each other in a limited fashion and form very efficient "trains" following relatively closely. The car would be capable of moving in such a lane, and merging into and out of that lane, but little else.
Once people find that the automatic lane saves 10-15 minutes or more (cars don't rubberneck, they can all accelerate/decellerate as a train, etc) then they will upgrade to have the units. Eventually the freeway would consist of fewer 'regular' lanes than automatic lanes.
Automatic cars on regulars roads - that's many decades away.
But we can automate what we're able to automate. It'll be the best of both worlds - private tranpsortation with all the freedoms of a personal vehicle, as well as many of the benefits of public transportation (cheaper since it'll be more fuel efficient, don't have to focus on the road during the commute, etc)
If buying flash memory at $10/GB is wrong, I don't want to be right!
Chances are good that it's not Apple that's in trouble with the Korean FTC, it's Samsung. Chances are also good that it's not just this one deal, but this is one deal in many that show Samsung's anticompetitive (as defined by the Korean FTC, keep in mind) practices. And at this point, Apple probably doesn't (and shouldn't) care, other than to make appropiate second sourcing options available to prevent supply line issues. These should already be in place anyway, and perhaps they need to do nothing but wait for the hammer to fall.
Utilize means to use something for a purpose which it was not intended or designed for.
You would use a hammer to hit a nail into an object. But you might instead utilize your shoe to hit the nail into the object.
Utilize - to create utility where there is none.
The upshot is - I'm surprisingly curious to know in what way they are going to utilize Linux. As far as I can tell, not only can linux do everything, it was explicity designed to do everything, and therefore, by definition, cannot possibly be utilized, only used.
For just programming in general, and embedded systems specifically, go for Embedded Systems Programming. Even if you don't plan on working on embedded systems, the articles target a lot of topics that I wish 'regular' programmers studied.
Beyond that, Dr Dobbs is the only other 'general' programming mag I'd recomend. Beyond that, pick up some that specifically address your industry, languages, APIs, and interfaces. There are a ton of C, Java, C++, web, exnterprise, database, etc magazines that will be interesting and useful to you.
Please note that we are moving ever more toward an embedded future.
It was called divx (not to be confused with divx) and was marketted by circuit city.
It failed miserably for a variety of reasons. First and foremost it was more expensive than consumers were willing to pay for something they got to 'keep'. It's a mindset problem - if you rent it, it must be returned, and is probably rentable because it's too expensive to purchase. If you buy it, regardless of the cost, then it's "property". They didn't want to market it as "disposable" or "consumable" which customers understand instantly, and it wasn't a rental. So it failed.
Microsoft is trying to give the mdeia companies something they used to have, and have wanted for years: a bigger slice of the rental market. I don't think it's really going to work out, though, unless they also raise the cost of the DVDs.
But what if they stopped making DVDs for sale. Waht if they went whole-sale to HD-DVD, charged $30 per disc, and also produced a "throw away" DVD that worked in any 'old' DVD player for $3-5. Of course, the rental companies will simply offer the HD-DVDs for $3-5 rental, but those customers who want to view the DVD version will be forced to "rent" it multiple times, or upgrade their equipment and either purchase expensive movies or rent them.
It's temporary. In no case can this type of disc ever really be marketable long term, and it can only work short term under special circumstances.
Of course, if it depends on a windows OS or codec with web access (which would allow multiple plays with purchase of additional keys) then it's going to fail out the door - there's no hardware for the average consumer, and no boxed disc is going to make it in the market unless the average consumer is going to buy into it.
Lastly, it would be a boon for pirates. If it plays once in a regular DVD player, then it can be ripped once.
"Taiwan" -- the geographic name. Perfectly neutral.
When you have the political boundary layer on, it should show the political names, not the geographic names.
If there is a dispute of some sort (tiawan, tibet, etc) then the program should be clear that they use a specific set of political names (ie, "As recognized by the UN") and stay out of political rumbling. Tiawan is simply trying to bring this issue up in the "court of world opinion" again, and Google is a convenient talking point.
I wonder what the pixel refresh is like, can it scroll text or page it?
Wonder no more. From the spec:
2 bit refresh (grayscale): 1000mS
1 bit refresh (B&W): 500mS
So no, you can't scroll. Further it takes a peak of 1800mW (760mW average) during the active portion of the refresh. This is an average current of 230mA during refresh (3.3v supply) with a peak of 545mA. Most rechargable cells will be fine with that - it's not a good load for AAA non-rechargable cells, nervermind watch batteries. Perhaps a supercapacitor can help out there.
This gives about 31,263 page refreshes using a 2AH lithium ion cell, not counting current used in other electronics.
This unit is glass, and while it may be slightly lighter than a similar LCD, users likely won't notice too much of a weight difference. The first generation is not going to be any lighter than the current generation PDA.
This type of system may work well with the sliding bar page update. As you read text slowly changes to the next page fo the parts you've already read. It appears as though there's a bar sliding down the page just above where you're reading. You go to the top of the page to continue, and the bar eventually wraps around as well. This mode may actually use more average current than changing the page all at once, but the user never pauses reading - waiting a full second for an update can take some getting used to, and during action sequences (where you tend to read faster) it can be quite abrupt to have to wait and it will seem to take longer.
There are many suitable uses for this type of display. Reading is obvious. Crossword and other "pen and paper" puzzles will be great, especially once they get pen functionality working. Taking notes would be ok. Signs, clocks, public information kiosks.
Not so great for internet use. But imagine having a "clock" on the wall with 802.11b that had sections for weather, latest headlines, and other information that one would use to plan their day. It would only need to be updated periodically. This kit could easily perform this function, and with bluetooth could even update your phone or PDA with the latest articles, emails, etc to read on the train/etc.
You don't have to use the client library - it's just an easier interface than the port on the mysql server.
I imagine that if this were truly a problem, someone would make an lgpl client library. It may not be trivial, but it's certianly not difficult. Tedious, perhaps.
Anybody know what's on the new civilian channel? e.g. is it the same kinda stuff as the two existing channels, on a new carrier? Or is it a new code?
According to one of the press conference questions:
"We are not going to confirm the content of the new channel at this time. We can state, however, that due to recent FCC regulations affecting our public broadcast, we will not be including Howard Stern for the initial lineup."
First, a normal infrared remote won't work. You'll need a custom programmed microcontroller remote and a receiver to handle such. In order for the receiver to detect all the remote's answers (given a one way system) each remote, when the button is pressed, would send its message, pause a random amount of time, send again, pause random again, etc. This would go on for a second or so during and after the button press so the receiver has a chance to catch it in the midst of all the other remotes sending their data. The data burst would have to be *very* short to increase the bandwidth and decrease the collision rate.
A one-way RF system would be very similar.
If you do a two way radio, there are a few more options. Ideally you'd do a two-way network (such as zigbee) since it would be very expandable - it could accept a variety of clickers from the simple credit card remote to the full keyboard and display.
A simple 2.4GHz custom network could be designed using Nordic Semiconductor's nrf series of chips. The nRF24E1 chip would be perfect - includes microcontroller, 2.4GHz transceiver, and is very low power.
-Adam
Second life may be free, but still requires cc...
on
Quickies Get Massive
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Second life may be free, but it still requires credit card information. And here I was all ready to sign up and everything.
May not be an issue for most people, but if I'm not going to pay, I'm certianly not giving them payment information.
[Why must] programs be re-written to take advantage of the cluster.
The simple answer is that programs, in general, are written as single threaded applications with shared state (memory). A cluster is the opposite of that - multiple parallel CPUs without shared state (or at least requiring one to be explicit about shared state, as opposed to simply declaring a variable).
Usually a program algorithm has to be completely re-designed in order to take advantage of the cluster, while mitigating the problems. At minimum the program must be parallelized. If you don't change the program to succesfully deal with shared memory latency then the cluster becomes nearly as powerful as a single fast computer running the program.
The reason you are asking this question is that you don't realize that a cluster is fundamentally different than a single (or dual or quad) CPU. The architecture is completely different. You can't expect to treat it like any old computer.
Intellectual property is just that - property which is primarily intellectual in nature.
A trademark is just as much IP as a copyright, patent, or trade secret.
Gnu would certianly like to discontinue use of this phrase, but it accurately describes the property in question.
It would be nice if the story submitters were more specific, but the article itself uses IP and more often than not when the submitter tries to clarify the article it simply gets worse. So in this case, I believe the submitter was correct in summarizing the article as they did. The author of the article should have written more concisely.
That's really fascinating. Could one then say that matter "diffuses" radiation in a given frequency across a gradient, much as matter diffuses in solutions/compounds/mixtures across a gradient?
Energy and matter are different. One could think of it as a gradient if one assumes that the radiant source is surrounded by molecules that will absorb the energy. If there is vacuum surrounding the radiation, then it simply travels until it strikes something.
Such a dynamic really changes the way I look at things, literally. For example, I often wonder why a photon moves through space, especially so fast. Is it just "diffusing" through space which doesn't contain as much energy in that photon's wavelength?
Not in the sense you are thinking.
Also, can space that is "charged" with energy in a wavelength inhibit the radiation of energy in that wavelength passing through it? Or is that "impedence" just a property of adjacent matter, with potential energy stored in the energy states of its photons? I thought that space was always permeable to energy, and photons of the same wavelength just constructively interfere, delivering the sum of their energies to their shared locus, before moving on without interacting.
I don't understand the physics enough to say that energy can't interact with other energy. My practical experience is that in a vacuum two different sources of radiation emit in the same pattern as they each individually would summed. Therefore there is no interaction. In other words, cross two laser beams and they travel on in the original dirrections and do not affect each other's travels. The interference (such as in slit experiments) is a different phenomena. However, light and other forms of magnetic radiation are affected by gravity so they must (by definition) have mass unless (or until) we re-define gravity.
Or have I just misinterpreted the phenomenon you're describing? What exactly is this "radiation gradient diffusion" phenomenon called?
I'm not sure what you are trying to explain by the gradiant or diffusion of radiation. Perhaps you are trying to understand the inverse square law of spherical radiation - the further you are from a source of radiation, the less radiation hits you.
If you do a google search (Consult the oracle!) on thermodynamics, radiant heat, etc then you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about this subject, of which I admitedly know very little.
There are several ways to move heat energy. The method being demonstrated here is infrared radiation. All things radiate and accept radiant infrared heat, which is slightly different than infrared light.
All other things being equal, if an object is absorbing more infrared heat radiation than it is releasing, then it gains heat. This one of the forms of radiation the sun puts out that heats the earth's surface (though lots of radiation is harmlessly bounced off the atmosphere or converted before it reaches the ground).
Since the clear night sky contributes little radiation to the earth the earth's surface radiates and cools off more quickly than it heats up. By using reflectors one can increase the surface area of the radiation and gain greater cooling, just as solar collectors with reflectors can gain greater energy with the sun shining on them.
------
In September 1999, we placed two funnels out in the evening, with double-bagged jars inside. One jar was on a block of wood and the other was suspended in the funnel using fishing line. The temperature that evening (in Provo, Utah) was 78 F. Using a Radio Shack indoor/outdoor thermometer, a BYU student (Colter Paulson) measured the temperature inside the funnel and outside in the open air. He found that the temperature of the air inside the funnel dropped quickly by about 15 degrees, as its heat was radiated upwards in the clear sky. That night, the minimum outdoor air temperature measured was 47.5 degrees - but the water in both jars had ICE. I invite others to try this, and please let me know if you get ice at 55 or even 60 degrees outside air temperature (minimum at night). A black PVC container may work even better than a black-painted jar, since PVC is a good infrared radiator - these matters are still being studied.
I would like to see the "Funnel Refrigerator" tried in desert climates, especially where freezing temperatures are rarely reached. It should be possible in this way to cheaply make ice for Hutus in Rwanda and for aborigines in Australia, without using any electricity or other modern "tricks." We are in effect bringing some of the cold of space to a little corner on earth. Please let me know how this works for you. ------
This is an experiment you can conduct yourself. It may be that without advanced insulation (maybe straw wasn't enough?) one couldn't obtain ice in the desert, but given good modern materials the physics suggests that it would work well.
Slashdot Mirror
I generally find that by the time upgrading the CPU is cost effective, a new motherboard makes sense as part of the package.
You are not their target market. In fact, as far as upgrading the CPU, no one is their target market.
You have three end users:
1) The individual who builds their own systems. If they upgrade, their old system is good enough to resell -but they aren't going to sell just the CPU card. Therefore the entire board, cpu card, and cpu are going to stay together after the original purchase.
2) The individual who buys their own system. If they upgrade, they aren't going to bother upgrading the cpu - especially since they originally purchased the computer because it was cheap. Another cheap computer is around the corner.
3) OEM system builder. This is the target market. These motherboard are not really good for upgrades. Upgrading the CPU made sense when the CPU was 1/3 of the cost of the system. That is only true now when you are buying a top of the line CPU, and if so you aren't going to accept the performance hit of this motherboard (which may only be 5%, but you're already paying hundreds of dollars more for a CPU that only gives 10% more performance than one that is *very* cheap).
The OEM builder has a few advantages with this mobo (though these aren't, in practise, all that great):
1) They can stock fewer/smaller components to support a wider range of system configurations.
2) They can pre-build more of the system - leave the cpu card, HD, and video card out. Add these components very quickly on demand.
3) If the CPU is bad on the final test removing the card and putting a new one in may be easier/faster than removing the heatsink, cpu, and replacing them on a regular motherboard.
The biggest downside is that this greatly impedes case airflow, and requires a special or modified case to be truly reliable.
-Adam
I imagine that those who maintain the root DNS servers are reimbursed in US cash.
It could be that some in Europe want in on that deal, but it certianly can't be that large of a reimbursement. Perhaps a few 100K per year? That's not worth this big campaign.
I suspect it's more political ambition than money. Just as they want their own GPS system, they want to control the naming system somewhat.
I'm curious how the other cuntries are involved in ICANN activities such as new TLDs. Do they have voting power, or just recomendation power? Perhaps they simply want to be able to add other TLDs. Perhaps they hope that with DNS control they can extend their various laws to the internet outside their borders (nazi, etc).
By hosting EU DNS servers, for instance, they can punish web sites that they don't agree with by disabling their domain local to the EU - at least for those that subscribe to the eu DNS servers.
Then they legislate that ISPs have to use the local DNS, and further have to block all root level DNS queries that lead outside the eu. Tunnels will be built and people who want to get through can, but the average joe won't even know that "nazimemorabilia.com" exists, much less be able to visit.
I think following the money is a good idea, but perhaps more importantly, follow the leader - who is pushing this? Are there elections any time soon? Are they trying to make the US appear more isolationist? What's in it for them politically?
Please note that many (if not most?) websites are run on shared IP systems. Without DNS, and without a local hosts file current browsers cannot access these websites even if the IP is known. HTTP1.1, IIRC, requires the HOST: field, so it's not enough to know the IP.
-Adam
China needs to focus its money on ...
When you go to a food buffet, do you put one item on your plate, sit down and finish it before going back for your second item, which you also sit down and finish before moving on to the third?
Each country has to make decisions on how to allocate their resources. Furthermore, if you focus completely on one task to the exclusion of all others not only do important things fall by the wayside, but your resources are not being used most efficiently.
A country like China needs to focus its money on a multitude of things. Cutting their space program doesn't neessarily improve other programs, especially since the resources needed for space aren't necessarily going to improve the economy when spent elsewhere.
Besides, until your own country has solved poverty you shouldn't be the one lecturing another country on how they should spend their resources.
-Adam
a $2 million contest for driverless vehicles over a 132 mile course
Wow, that's $15,152 per mile.
I thought I was doing good to get $0.48/mile for work.
-Adam
01001001001000000111000001110111011011100110010101 10010000100000011110010110111101110101001000000110 0001011011000110110000101110
For the binary impaired: "I pwned you all."
-Adam
The intial phase of automatic driving cars would only be on freeways in a special lane. The cars would communicate with each other in a limited fashion and form very efficient "trains" following relatively closely. The car would be capable of moving in such a lane, and merging into and out of that lane, but little else.
Once people find that the automatic lane saves 10-15 minutes or more (cars don't rubberneck, they can all accelerate/decellerate as a train, etc) then they will upgrade to have the units. Eventually the freeway would consist of fewer 'regular' lanes than automatic lanes.
Automatic cars on regulars roads - that's many decades away.
But we can automate what we're able to automate. It'll be the best of both worlds - private tranpsortation with all the freedoms of a personal vehicle, as well as many of the benefits of public transportation (cheaper since it'll be more fuel efficient, don't have to focus on the road during the commute, etc)
-Adam
If buying flash memory at $10/GB is wrong, I don't want to be right!
Chances are good that it's not Apple that's in trouble with the Korean FTC, it's Samsung. Chances are also good that it's not just this one deal, but this is one deal in many that show Samsung's anticompetitive (as defined by the Korean FTC, keep in mind) practices. And at this point, Apple probably doesn't (and shouldn't) care, other than to make appropiate second sourcing options available to prevent supply line issues. These should already be in place anyway, and perhaps they need to do nothing but wait for the hammer to fall.
-Adam
China, Japan To Utilize Linux More Often
Utilize means to use something for a purpose which it was not intended or designed for.
You would use a hammer to hit a nail into an object. But you might instead utilize your shoe to hit the nail into the object.
Utilize - to create utility where there is none.
The upshot is - I'm surprisingly curious to know in what way they are going to utilize Linux. As far as I can tell, not only can linux do everything, it was explicity designed to do everything, and therefore, by definition, cannot possibly be utilized, only used.
</tongue in cheek>
-Adam
For just programming in general, and embedded systems specifically, go for Embedded Systems Programming. Even if you don't plan on working on embedded systems, the articles target a lot of topics that I wish 'regular' programmers studied.
It's essentially a 'free' trade magazine, and all the articles are online (check out Jack Ganssle's column - Here's an example on worst case analysis.)
Beyond that, Dr Dobbs is the only other 'general' programming mag I'd recomend. Beyond that, pick up some that specifically address your industry, languages, APIs, and interfaces. There are a ton of C, Java, C++, web, exnterprise, database, etc magazines that will be interesting and useful to you.
Please note that we are moving ever more toward an embedded future.
-Adam
It was called divx (not to be confused with divx) and was marketted by circuit city.
It failed miserably for a variety of reasons. First and foremost it was more expensive than consumers were willing to pay for something they got to 'keep'. It's a mindset problem - if you rent it, it must be returned, and is probably rentable because it's too expensive to purchase. If you buy it, regardless of the cost, then it's "property". They didn't want to market it as "disposable" or "consumable" which customers understand instantly, and it wasn't a rental. So it failed.
Microsoft is trying to give the mdeia companies something they used to have, and have wanted for years: a bigger slice of the rental market. I don't think it's really going to work out, though, unless they also raise the cost of the DVDs.
But what if they stopped making DVDs for sale. Waht if they went whole-sale to HD-DVD, charged $30 per disc, and also produced a "throw away" DVD that worked in any 'old' DVD player for $3-5. Of course, the rental companies will simply offer the HD-DVDs for $3-5 rental, but those customers who want to view the DVD version will be forced to "rent" it multiple times, or upgrade their equipment and either purchase expensive movies or rent them.
It's temporary. In no case can this type of disc ever really be marketable long term, and it can only work short term under special circumstances.
Of course, if it depends on a windows OS or codec with web access (which would allow multiple plays with purchase of additional keys) then it's going to fail out the door - there's no hardware for the average consumer, and no boxed disc is going to make it in the market unless the average consumer is going to buy into it.
Lastly, it would be a boon for pirates. If it plays once in a regular DVD player, then it can be ripped once.
-Adam
Read the user reviews, a dev made a comment.
Now read the date that comment was submitted - back in April.
-Adam
"Taiwan" -- the geographic name. Perfectly neutral.
When you have the political boundary layer on, it should show the political names, not the geographic names.
If there is a dispute of some sort (tiawan, tibet, etc) then the program should be clear that they use a specific set of political names (ie, "As recognized by the UN") and stay out of political rumbling. Tiawan is simply trying to bring this issue up in the "court of world opinion" again, and Google is a convenient talking point.
-Adam
Google does business in China. China exerts extraordinary control over any company "priviledged" to operate inside china.
Therefore, Google Earth will reflect China's beliefs.
-Adam
I wonder what the pixel refresh is like, can it scroll text or page it?
Wonder no more. From the spec:
2 bit refresh (grayscale): 1000mS
1 bit refresh (B&W): 500mS
So no, you can't scroll. Further it takes a peak of 1800mW (760mW average) during the active portion of the refresh. This is an average current of 230mA during refresh (3.3v supply) with a peak of 545mA. Most rechargable cells will be fine with that - it's not a good load for AAA non-rechargable cells, nervermind watch batteries. Perhaps a supercapacitor can help out there.
This gives about 31,263 page refreshes using a 2AH lithium ion cell, not counting current used in other electronics.
This unit is glass, and while it may be slightly lighter than a similar LCD, users likely won't notice too much of a weight difference. The first generation is not going to be any lighter than the current generation PDA.
This type of system may work well with the sliding bar page update. As you read text slowly changes to the next page fo the parts you've already read. It appears as though there's a bar sliding down the page just above where you're reading. You go to the top of the page to continue, and the bar eventually wraps around as well. This mode may actually use more average current than changing the page all at once, but the user never pauses reading - waiting a full second for an update can take some getting used to, and during action sequences (where you tend to read faster) it can be quite abrupt to have to wait and it will seem to take longer.
There are many suitable uses for this type of display. Reading is obvious. Crossword and other "pen and paper" puzzles will be great, especially once they get pen functionality working. Taking notes would be ok. Signs, clocks, public information kiosks.
Not so great for internet use. But imagine having a "clock" on the wall with 802.11b that had sections for weather, latest headlines, and other information that one would use to plan their day. It would only need to be updated periodically. This kit could easily perform this function, and with bluetooth could even update your phone or PDA with the latest articles, emails, etc to read on the train/etc.
-Adam
You don't have to use the client library - it's just an easier interface than the port on the mysql server.
I imagine that if this were truly a problem, someone would make an lgpl client library. It may not be trivial, but it's certianly not difficult. Tedious, perhaps.
-Adam
Anybody know what's on the new civilian channel? e.g. is it the same kinda stuff as the two existing channels, on a new carrier? Or is it a new code?
According to one of the press conference questions:
"We are not going to confirm the content of the new channel at this time. We can state, however, that due to recent FCC regulations affecting our public broadcast, we will not be including Howard Stern for the initial lineup."
I hope this helps.
-Adam
This will, undoubtedly, be used as cover by those who are willing to commit acts of terrorism.
-Adam
Alright.
First, a normal infrared remote won't work. You'll need a custom programmed microcontroller remote and a receiver to handle such. In order for the receiver to detect all the remote's answers (given a one way system) each remote, when the button is pressed, would send its message, pause a random amount of time, send again, pause random again, etc. This would go on for a second or so during and after the button press so the receiver has a chance to catch it in the midst of all the other remotes sending their data. The data burst would have to be *very* short to increase the bandwidth and decrease the collision rate.
A one-way RF system would be very similar.
If you do a two way radio, there are a few more options. Ideally you'd do a two-way network (such as zigbee) since it would be very expandable - it could accept a variety of clickers from the simple credit card remote to the full keyboard and display.
A simple 2.4GHz custom network could be designed using Nordic Semiconductor's nrf series of chips. The nRF24E1 chip would be perfect - includes microcontroller, 2.4GHz transceiver, and is very low power.
-Adam
Second life may be free, but it still requires credit card information. And here I was all ready to sign up and everything.
May not be an issue for most people, but if I'm not going to pay, I'm certianly not giving them payment information.
-Adam
This is a basic systems question:
[Why must] programs be re-written to take advantage of the cluster.
The simple answer is that programs, in general, are written as single threaded applications with shared state (memory). A cluster is the opposite of that - multiple parallel CPUs without shared state (or at least requiring one to be explicit about shared state, as opposed to simply declaring a variable).
Usually a program algorithm has to be completely re-designed in order to take advantage of the cluster, while mitigating the problems. At minimum the program must be parallelized. If you don't change the program to succesfully deal with shared memory latency then the cluster becomes nearly as powerful as a single fast computer running the program.
The reason you are asking this question is that you don't realize that a cluster is fundamentally different than a single (or dual or quad) CPU. The architecture is completely different. You can't expect to treat it like any old computer.
-Adam
Intellectual property is just that - property which is primarily intellectual in nature.
A trademark is just as much IP as a copyright, patent, or trade secret.
Gnu would certianly like to discontinue use of this phrase, but it accurately describes the property in question.
It would be nice if the story submitters were more specific, but the article itself uses IP and more often than not when the submitter tries to clarify the article it simply gets worse. So in this case, I believe the submitter was correct in summarizing the article as they did. The author of the article should have written more concisely.
-Adam
A trademark is intellectual property (IP).
IP encompasses several "properties", some of which are:
Copyrights
Patents
Trademarks
Trade Secrets
So the GMail service is accused of being in violation of the intellectual property of some other company.
-Adam
That's really fascinating. Could one then say that matter "diffuses" radiation in a given frequency across a gradient, much as matter diffuses in solutions/compounds/mixtures across a gradient?
Energy and matter are different. One could think of it as a gradient if one assumes that the radiant source is surrounded by molecules that will absorb the energy. If there is vacuum surrounding the radiation, then it simply travels until it strikes something.
Such a dynamic really changes the way I look at things, literally. For example, I often wonder why a photon moves through space, especially so fast. Is it just "diffusing" through space which doesn't contain as much energy in that photon's wavelength?
Not in the sense you are thinking.
Also, can space that is "charged" with energy in a wavelength inhibit the radiation of energy in that wavelength passing through it? Or is that "impedence" just a property of adjacent matter, with potential energy stored in the energy states of its photons? I thought that space was always permeable to energy, and photons of the same wavelength just constructively interfere, delivering the sum of their energies to their shared locus, before moving on without interacting.
I don't understand the physics enough to say that energy can't interact with other energy. My practical experience is that in a vacuum two different sources of radiation emit in the same pattern as they each individually would summed. Therefore there is no interaction. In other words, cross two laser beams and they travel on in the original dirrections and do not affect each other's travels. The interference (such as in slit experiments) is a different phenomena. However, light and other forms of magnetic radiation are affected by gravity so they must (by definition) have mass unless (or until) we re-define gravity.
Or have I just misinterpreted the phenomenon you're describing? What exactly is this "radiation gradient diffusion" phenomenon called?
I'm not sure what you are trying to explain by the gradiant or diffusion of radiation. Perhaps you are trying to understand the inverse square law of spherical radiation - the further you are from a source of radiation, the less radiation hits you.
If you do a google search (Consult the oracle!) on thermodynamics, radiant heat, etc then you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about this subject, of which I admitedly know very little.
-Adam
There are several ways to move heat energy. The method being demonstrated here is infrared radiation. All things radiate and accept radiant infrared heat, which is slightly different than infrared light.
All other things being equal, if an object is absorbing more infrared heat radiation than it is releasing, then it gains heat. This one of the forms of radiation the sun puts out that heats the earth's surface (though lots of radiation is harmlessly bounced off the atmosphere or converted before it reaches the ground).
Since the clear night sky contributes little radiation to the earth the earth's surface radiates and cools off more quickly than it heats up. By using reflectors one can increase the surface area of the radiation and gain greater cooling, just as solar collectors with reflectors can gain greater energy with the sun shining on them.
-Adam
From a section on the solar funnel cooker website:
------
In September 1999, we placed two funnels out in the evening, with double-bagged jars inside. One jar was on a block of wood and the other was suspended in the funnel using fishing line. The temperature that evening (in Provo, Utah) was 78 F. Using a Radio Shack indoor/outdoor thermometer, a BYU student (Colter Paulson) measured the temperature inside the funnel and outside in the open air. He found that the temperature of the air inside the funnel dropped quickly by about 15 degrees, as its heat was radiated upwards in the clear sky. That night, the minimum outdoor air temperature measured was 47.5 degrees - but the water in both jars had ICE. I invite others to try this, and please let me know if you get ice at 55 or even 60 degrees outside air temperature (minimum at night). A black PVC container may work even better than a black-painted jar, since PVC is a good infrared radiator - these matters are still being studied.
I would like to see the "Funnel Refrigerator" tried in desert climates, especially where freezing temperatures are rarely reached. It should be possible in this way to cheaply make ice for Hutus in Rwanda and for aborigines in Australia, without using any electricity or other modern "tricks." We are in effect bringing some of the cold of space to a little corner on earth. Please let me know how this works for you.
------
This is an experiment you can conduct yourself. It may be that without advanced insulation (maybe straw wasn't enough?) one couldn't obtain ice in the desert, but given good modern materials the physics suggests that it would work well.
-Adam