The article has the link to the stand-alone Extender boxes by Linksys-Cisco and HP. This page details the Xbox based Extender.
All-in-all an interesting idea... these are sort of the remote "dumb" terminals to connect to your Media Center or Home Theater (file servering/tv recording/music downloading) master PC.
Also, I must confess I didn't bother figuring out the puzzles, but found this on the web via Google. Just goes to show with Google around it's almost impossible to keep a web based secret more than a couple days now.
And for $219 it's a credible alternative to a laptop.
Yeah, if you can find a laptop to plug it into...
Perhaps it's a credible alternative to a remote login to your main computer. You are still going to need to find an existing computer to plug this thing into though.
slashdot also has a sad old, old feature that annoys the hell out of a lot of regular users. These humorless a-holes are called trolling Anonymous Cowards and most usually post shit seemingly knowingly, but are afraid to log in or use their real accounts as they are not sure if they will lose karma for not being as smart as they thought.
Anyway, to help you out... the post was meant to be sarcastically funny with some information (the definitions) thrown in as well.
I can only hope this feature will avoid further confusion!
Truthfully, how many people had more 1/4 of a clue what this story title meant?
Okay: JBoss (is Java Server software and a company) Fleuy (No idea, a guy who works at aforesaid company?) Abjures (what? is this spelled right? after a quick google/dictionary.com lookup it means: 1. To renounce under oath; forswear. 2. To recant solemnly; repudiate: abjure one's beliefs.) Astroturfing (ah, I've heard this around/. before, but it slips my mind as to the exact definition, quick lookup: astroturfing n. The use of paid shills to create the impression of a popular movement, through means like letters to newspapers from soi-disant `concerned citizens', paid opinion pieces, and the formation of grass-roots lobbying groups that are actually funded by a PR group (astroturf is fake grass; hence the term). This term became common among hackers after it came to light in early 1998 that Microsoft had attempted to use such tactics to forestall the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust action against the company.)
Wow, that was a lot of work and I still can't put it together nor do I care to after all of that work as it seem quite boring anyway. Damn, geek elitiest with your word-of-the-day calendars!
I think most of the newegg.com refurbs are more people who order a card and then look at their credit card balance and decide they can't afford it before it even gets to them. LOL
You can first save a few bucks by getting a refurb. instead of a brand new card (these are usually 100% working fine, at least in my experience). Check this link which is a search for '9800pro' in the newegg.com refurb section sorted lowest price to highest.
I'd stay away from OEM unless you want to get an aftermarket cooler. That is, if you plan to try to O/C to get to 9800XT speeds.
Going Retail (Refurbed), instead of OEM new, you usually get a better stock cooling solution for about the same price... but that's your call. This is the card I got refurb. for $184 incidently... that's some GOOD stock cooling.
Once you get your card and install the latest Catalyst driver from the ATI website. Grab this nifty ATI O/C tool which will figure out your max. overclock without corruption automatically and also allow you set that overclock on boot-up.
Good luck. I've led a mostly Windows-based life lately, so I can't give you any advice as to Linux support as I haven't required it lately.
If you are in need of BIG names and support some nice AMD dual Operton 1U's can be had from the likes of HP, IBM or Sun.
Need more horsepower... the Opteron 4-way boxes (HP 4-way), crush the Intel Xeon's (as do the two ways) in most web and DB benchmarks. Oh yeah, they are usually priced comparably or cheaper than the Intels as well.
The NVIDIA Card was built as a PS 3.0 card, the ATI card is a purely PS 2.0 card. The difference is in the completely different way the Pixel Shaders work between version 2.0 and 3.0.
Let's put it this way, ATI pretty much just doubled the vertex and pixel pipelines and did not change much architecture wise beyond it's last version of cards the R350. NVIDIA's new card is much more innovative actually, but it's questionable whether its timing is right with the current lack of PS 3.0 capable games. Also, a bad omen for NVIDIA is the fact that ATI's PS 3.0 R500 architecture is nearing completion and they have already shown their PS 3.0 cards, if you will.
It's also, unfortunate that these R420 ATI cards still beat the NVIDIA 6800's in a lot of the current benchmarks, despite their superior tech.
I'm sticking with my second hand R350 ATI 9800Pro that O/C's to 9800XT speed now, personally and I'll skip this iteration of cards. The 9800 will do PS 2.0 plenty quick (at a slightly lower res.) for the latest games including Far Cry and Doom3 and HL2 when they come out.
Basically, they put a gap (of air or other gas) which acts as an insulator between the hot and cold side of the peltier which they somehow get the electrons to tunnel over. This keeps the hot and cold sides completely seperated, which is the real efficiency issue with current peltiers.
I disagree. Writing secure code is not going to significantly change the difficultly of starting a software company. In fact, if you can't write fairly secure code in the first place, or patch once a vunerability is found then you probably shouldn't be writing software for the masses.
As for supporting pirated software, yeah, it sucks. But, patch the security holes at least. Put the usability bug fixes and new features in a patch that will check for a legit version beforehand.
I have always believed that the company creating the software should be held responsible for security holes, bad code, backdoors, etc.,. in their own damn code.
Given a way to easily update applications (which virtually every useful and enterprise program has in some form) the only way the end-user should be held responsible if is they haven't stayed on top of these updates.
I can see gray areas where exploits are unknown to the software creators, however once made aware either via direct communications or one of the many vuln/exploit websites they should be required to fix the vunerability in a timely manner.
What really gets me is that MS for example clearly knows that probably 1/2 of the Windows installs are pirated versions and they purposefully disallow the Windows Update feature on these copies. I'm willing to bet a good portion if not most of the trojaned and wormed zombie boxes out there are of this class. Perhaps if MS just sucked it up and turned on Windows Update by DEFAULT and allowed pirated versions to download AT LEAST the critical security updates the Internet would indeed be a much happier place.
BTW, I'm a predominantly Windows user most of the time, so don't just file this under 'hating'.
The name of the photo with the text next to it saying "Welcome to the Homepage of Colin Mayhew" is "dave.jpg"
Also, interestingly the two domains found for r50rd.* (co.uk and com) are registered to a "David Mayhew".
Not necessarily proof either way... but another odd inconsistancy.
Oh, and the two subpages were made with Frontpage5, not 3 as the main page is (or at least what it says in the HTML). But, that's still right when FP5 became available.
I don't mean to reply to myself, but the site looks to be coded in Frontpage 3 when looking at the source. That sounds about right for this time frame. Again, either a very detailed hoax or a damn cool robot and a very smart guy.
Here is what Colin Mayhew's Personal Yahoo! freebie website (in case it goes away again) says, since when I first looked it was out of bandwidth.
Welcome to the homepage of Colin Mayhew [picture of our good doctor] Welcome. My name is Dr. Colin Mayhew, and you are visitor number
I'm hoping to make this web site a place where I can share information about myself, my family and my interests.
I hold a doctorate degree in engineering and worked for 30 years in the UK. Since my retirement, I have spent much of my free time in my laboratory. My other interests include reading, miniature locomotives and applied physics. To see my collection of miniature locomotives, click here. For engineering and applied physics links and downloads, click here.
Thanks for your interest.
This site was last updated 01/02/99
Email: colinMayhewphd@yahoo.co.uk
[The 2 linked pages are below] [Locomotive link, each description has a black and white photo]
Pictures back to home
Scene at Greywood North terminal (circa. 1951) before the departure of the 3.10pm 'special' (locomotive on left of picture). This is a K5 (2-6-0) class loco. On right is an 'Immingham' class (4-6-0) loco owned by a drummer in a local pop group at the time.
My father (wearing his Canadian Pacific Railway hat) is sitting on the edge of the turntable pit in front of the purpose built engine shed. The engine on the far left is a 'Sterling' class single (2-2-2), Dad's hand is resting on the Immingham loco as shown in pic. 1.
This is me driving my own loco 'Eureka' which is a Pacific class (4-6-2) over the mere bridge viaduct. Riding in the train behind is my sister Jane and school buddy Charles. Noral were the company which supplied all the 'Dural' aluminium alloy railway track for the GCR.
A K5 loco on the turntable in steam and ready to go.
A friend with my loco Eureka on the turntable.
This is me (age about 8) steaming up my own engine. I dont know who the little enthusiast is on the left - he is probably Chairman of a London bank by now!
My father is sitting on Eureka on the turntable ready to go. In the background is another engine owner, 'Woody' who was a veterinary surgeon; he is leaning over his own locomotive - another Pacific class 4-6-2.
This is the skeleton tunnel or flyover with Eureka on the top level. The railway was sold in 1962 after my father's death and was reconstructed on a nearby farm estate. Underneath the flyover is the Royal Scot class (4-6-2) driven.
This site was last updated 01/02/99 Email: colinMayhewphd@yahoo.co.uk
[Physics and downloads link]
Links back to home
History of quantum mechanics. Nicely details Kirchoff's theorem of blackbody radiation.
Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR).
Institute of Nanotechnology. Excellent venue to keep up on current events.
I highly recommend this abstact to anyone working on computing the area and centroid of multiple intensity-coded objects. Click here to download. [links from above] http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/H istTopic s/The_Quantum_age_begins.html http://www.cs.washi ngton.edu/research/jair/home.ht ml http://www.nano.org.uk/ http://uk.geocities.c om/colinmayhewphd/brajovic_vl adimir_2001_1.pdf This site was last updated 01/02/99 Email: colinMayhewphd@yahoo.co.uk
Someone spent a decent amount of time on this if fake.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The last update of this site is in 1999 if that is to be believed. I suppose it's either the real last modified date along with a real Doc Mayhew or it is another part of the hoax. Thoughts?
I argee with the second part of this... but watch it closely again. It sort of braces itself and right after contact you can actually see it's feet slide in the direction of the cars momentum maybe a foot or two.
From: Chris S. (123@123.com) Subject: Re: Robot built from a Mini Cooper? View: Complete Thread (9 articles) Original Format Newsgroups: comp.robotics.misc Date: 2004-03-11 13:08:35 PST
I'm not so sure. I really want to believe this thing's for real, but I have some serious doubts. Here's the response I got from Colin Mayhew, the robot's inventor:
Colin Mayhew wrote:
>I can assure you that the Cooper project is a real and
>very tangible one. Your suspicion is perhaps
>understandable because the leaps we've made are rather
>significant compared to the current state of
>commercial AI. As Mr. Clarke wrote in Technology and
>the Future, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is
>indistinguishable from magic." What's important to
>remember in this famous quotation is not that the
>technology becomes magic, but rather that technology
>seems magical only to those who don't understand the
>details or are not knowledgeable of the history of a
>technology's development. It's for that reason that
>I've placed notes online and have included videos from
>different stages of the project. Have you seen videos
>of people interacting with the Kismet robot? That
>robot uses a fairly simple emotional model, yet people
>bond to it and treat it as a 'living' creature! It has
>become something magical from bits of aluminum and
>electrons whizzing inside silicon. Your experiences in
>the research sector I'm sure have shown you how
>disconnected the public can be from the realities of
>technology. There are autonomous machines (be they in
>medicine or oil well drilling) so removed from our
>daily lives that when we finally learn of them, we are
>shocked and amazed---far more so than had we followed
>the gradual steps and wrong turns the engineers made
>developing and finessing the technology. This project
>is real, and it, and the systems I've developed for it
>are going to change the way we live our lives. The
>most recent software revision I've tested on the robot
>has some powerful reasoning capabilities, a large step
>more powerful and versatile than that employed on the
>robot when I recorded the videos you may have seen
>online. They are perhaps powerful enough to seem like
>magic, but both devil and the angel of creativity are
>in the details. Soon enough, these little creatures
>will be animating the robots all around us and making
>our lives safer and more fulfilling.
>
>Regards,
>Colin
>
>
> --- "Chris S." wrote: > Is your
>Mini Cooper powered robotic biped a real
>
>>project? Your site
>>seems detailed enough, but the videos look
>>suspiciously like computer
>>generations. Either way, it's an entertaining feat.
>>
>>Sincerely,
>>Chris S.
Take it for what you will. I just can't believe someone built something like that essentially alone in just a few years. It just does too much and it moves too fluidily. For instance watch the video where it stops a run-away Car.
I have mod points, but I'm not going to touch this. I should coin a term for the irrational fear of other users getting karma from "whoring".
What? You figure one less easy point to a 'whorer' means potentially one less for something incredibly witty that you might come up with?
Give me a break. I wouldn't log out and back in to post this either, as I could careless if I get the points or not--it's simply the fact the information that might be useful for others. It's the information we are all after. I don't care if it was posted by an AC, you or your mom.
You sir are a WHORAPHOBE. Get a life.
Nice Wireless Keyboard too... Good for HTPC's
on
Gyroscopic Wireless Mouse
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
As anyone with a HTPC or the need for a remote keyboard/mouse with a range more than 3ft. knows, they are difficult to come by. Gyration also appears to have the ticket in this regard with an advertised 100ft. range in their Media Center Remote & Keyboard. Unforunately, it still may not be _my_ ticket because of the steep price-$179.95.
Is this just an actual case of, you get what you pay for? Does a good ~100ft. wireless keyboard/mouse need components that costs over 50% of that price ($80) assuming 50% for mark-up, etc.,.? That's hard to believe.
BTW, the mouse/keyboard combo noted in the article appear to have only a 30ft. range (which means MAYBE 15ft on a good moonless night).
Although, your statements regarding compressed data looking like noise is true, finding said noise in the vastness of space among similar noise would be impossible. Thus, we will most likely find (using SETI's methods) either rather early evolved civilization or a more advanced one that is trying to be found.
This would be the arguement I'd use against the RIAA if I were ever dragged to court. In fact, once the first person actually argues this and wins, it will take ALL of the wind out of their sails as far as harassing P2P users goes.
If you doubt this arguement would hold... the first P2P MP3 archiving worm will truly make this a valid argument.
I'm really suprised nothing like that is out there already. *hint* *hint*
Slashdot Mirror
Two comments and the link is dead! lol
Perhaps examining the light pole that appears to have been hit would provide a clue? Did anyone do that?
All-in-all an interesting idea... these are sort of the remote "dumb" terminals to connect to your Media Center or Home Theater (file servering/tv recording/music downloading) master PC.
Also, I must confess I didn't bother figuring out the puzzles, but found this on the web via Google. Just goes to show with Google around it's almost impossible to keep a web based secret more than a couple days now.
Be aware you are entered onto a mailing list which you can opt out of without effecting your entry. Instructions provided after entering.
If I win $10k will be donated to Slashdot's favorite charity.
Terms & Conditions
Perhaps it's a credible alternative to a remote login to your main computer. You are still going to need to find an existing computer to plug this thing into though.
slashdot also has a sad old, old feature that annoys the hell out of a lot of regular users. These humorless a-holes are called trolling Anonymous Cowards and most usually post shit seemingly knowingly, but are afraid to log in or use their real accounts as they are not sure if they will lose karma for not being as smart as they thought.
Anyway, to help you out... the post was meant to be sarcastically funny with some information (the definitions) thrown in as well.
I can only hope this feature will avoid further confusion!
Truthfully, how many people had more 1/4 of a clue what this story title meant?
/. before, but it slips my mind as to the exact definition, quick lookup: astroturfing n. The use of paid shills to create the impression of a popular movement, through means like letters to newspapers from soi-disant `concerned citizens', paid opinion pieces, and the formation of grass-roots lobbying groups that are actually funded by a PR group (astroturf is fake grass; hence the term). This term became common among hackers after it came to light in early 1998 that Microsoft had attempted to use such tactics to forestall the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust action against the company.)
Okay:
JBoss (is Java Server software and a company)
Fleuy (No idea, a guy who works at aforesaid company?)
Abjures (what? is this spelled right? after a quick google/dictionary.com lookup it means: 1. To renounce under oath; forswear. 2. To recant solemnly; repudiate: abjure one's beliefs.)
Astroturfing (ah, I've heard this around
Wow, that was a lot of work and I still can't put it together nor do I care to after all of that work as it seem quite boring anyway. Damn, geek elitiest with your word-of-the-day calendars!
I think most of the newegg.com refurbs are more people who order a card and then look at their credit card balance and decide they can't afford it before it even gets to them. LOL
I'd stay away from OEM unless you want to get an aftermarket cooler. That is, if you plan to try to O/C to get to 9800XT speeds.
Going Retail (Refurbed), instead of OEM new, you usually get a better stock cooling solution for about the same price... but that's your call. This is the card I got refurb. for $184 incidently... that's some GOOD stock cooling.
Once you get your card and install the latest Catalyst driver from the ATI website. Grab this nifty ATI O/C tool which will figure out your max. overclock without corruption automatically and also allow you set that overclock on boot-up.
Good luck. I've led a mostly Windows-based life lately, so I can't give you any advice as to Linux support as I haven't required it lately.
Need more horsepower... the Opteron 4-way boxes (HP 4-way), crush the Intel Xeon's (as do the two ways) in most web and DB benchmarks. Oh yeah, they are usually priced comparably or cheaper than the Intels as well.
PS 3.0 offers 32 bit precision and an "unlimited pipeline", vertex textures, etc.,. Here's a good article on the differences.
Let's put it this way, ATI pretty much just doubled the vertex and pixel pipelines and did not change much architecture wise beyond it's last version of cards the R350. NVIDIA's new card is much more innovative actually, but it's questionable whether its timing is right with the current lack of PS 3.0 capable games. Also, a bad omen for NVIDIA is the fact that ATI's PS 3.0 R500 architecture is nearing completion and they have already shown their PS 3.0 cards, if you will.
It's also, unfortunate that these R420 ATI cards still beat the NVIDIA 6800's in a lot of the current benchmarks, despite their superior tech.
I'm sticking with my second hand R350 ATI 9800Pro that O/C's to 9800XT speed now, personally and I'll skip this iteration of cards. The 9800 will do PS 2.0 plenty quick (at a slightly lower res.) for the latest games including Far Cry and Doom3 and HL2 when they come out.
Basically, they put a gap (of air or other gas) which acts as an insulator between the hot and cold side of the peltier which they somehow get the electrons to tunnel over. This keeps the hot and cold sides completely seperated, which is the real efficiency issue with current peltiers.
I disagree. Writing secure code is not going to significantly change the difficultly of starting a software company. In fact, if you can't write fairly secure code in the first place, or patch once a vunerability is found then you probably shouldn't be writing software for the masses.
As for supporting pirated software, yeah, it sucks. But, patch the security holes at least. Put the usability bug fixes and new features in a patch that will check for a legit version beforehand.
I have always believed that the company creating the software should be held responsible for security holes, bad code, backdoors, etc.,. in their own damn code.
Given a way to easily update applications (which virtually every useful and enterprise program has in some form) the only way the end-user should be held responsible if is they haven't stayed on top of these updates.
I can see gray areas where exploits are unknown to the software creators, however once made aware either via direct communications or one of the many vuln/exploit websites they should be required to fix the vunerability in a timely manner.
What really gets me is that MS for example clearly knows that probably 1/2 of the Windows installs are pirated versions and they purposefully disallow the Windows Update feature on these copies. I'm willing to bet a good portion if not most of the trojaned and wormed zombie boxes out there are of this class. Perhaps if MS just sucked it up and turned on Windows Update by DEFAULT and allowed pirated versions to download AT LEAST the critical security updates the Internet would indeed be a much happier place.
BTW, I'm a predominantly Windows user most of the time, so don't just file this under 'hating'.
Last one... hehehe.
The name of the photo with the text next to it saying "Welcome to the Homepage of Colin Mayhew" is "dave.jpg"
Also, interestingly the two domains found for r50rd.* (co.uk and com) are registered to a "David Mayhew".
Not necessarily proof either way... but another odd inconsistancy.
Oh, and the two subpages were made with Frontpage5, not 3 as the main page is (or at least what it says in the HTML). But, that's still right when FP5 became available.
I don't mean to reply to myself, but the site looks to be coded in Frontpage 3 when looking at the source. That sounds about right for this time frame. Again, either a very detailed hoax or a damn cool robot and a very smart guy.
Someone spent a decent amount of time on this if fake.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The last update of this site is in 1999 if that is to be believed. I suppose it's either the real last modified date along with a real Doc Mayhew or it is another part of the hoax. Thoughts?
I argee with the second part of this... but watch it closely again. It sort of braces itself and right after contact you can actually see it's feet slide in the direction of the cars momentum maybe a foot or two.
Interestingly, r50rd.COM was also registered this time at NetSol in Jan. '04 by the same David Mayhew who registered the UK domain.
Just thought I'd share. I must say if it is a hoax... that's some pretty darn nice CG. If real, WOW... give me MY 10ft robot slave already!
I just came across a reply from the creator regarding its authenicty on Google Groups:
From: Chris S. (123@123.com)
Subject: Re: Robot built from a Mini Cooper?
View: Complete Thread (9 articles)
Original Format
Newsgroups: comp.robotics.misc
Date: 2004-03-11 13:08:35 PST
I'm not so sure. I really want to believe this thing's for real, but I
have some serious doubts. Here's the response I got from Colin Mayhew,
the robot's inventor:
Colin Mayhew wrote:
>I can assure you that the Cooper project is a real and
>very tangible one. Your suspicion is perhaps
>understandable because the leaps we've made are rather
>significant compared to the current state of
>commercial AI. As Mr. Clarke wrote in Technology and
>the Future, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is
>indistinguishable from magic." What's important to
>remember in this famous quotation is not that the
>technology becomes magic, but rather that technology
>seems magical only to those who don't understand the
>details or are not knowledgeable of the history of a
>technology's development. It's for that reason that
>I've placed notes online and have included videos from
>different stages of the project. Have you seen videos
>of people interacting with the Kismet robot? That
>robot uses a fairly simple emotional model, yet people
>bond to it and treat it as a 'living' creature! It has
>become something magical from bits of aluminum and
>electrons whizzing inside silicon. Your experiences in
>the research sector I'm sure have shown you how
>disconnected the public can be from the realities of
>technology. There are autonomous machines (be they in
>medicine or oil well drilling) so removed from our
>daily lives that when we finally learn of them, we are
>shocked and amazed---far more so than had we followed
>the gradual steps and wrong turns the engineers made
>developing and finessing the technology. This project
>is real, and it, and the systems I've developed for it
>are going to change the way we live our lives. The
>most recent software revision I've tested on the robot
>has some powerful reasoning capabilities, a large step
>more powerful and versatile than that employed on the
>robot when I recorded the videos you may have seen
>online. They are perhaps powerful enough to seem like
>magic, but both devil and the angel of creativity are
>in the details. Soon enough, these little creatures
>will be animating the robots all around us and making
>our lives safer and more fulfilling.
>
>Regards,
>Colin
>
>
> --- "Chris S." wrote: > Is your
>Mini Cooper powered robotic biped a real
>
>>project? Your site
>>seems detailed enough, but the videos look
>>suspiciously like computer
>>generations. Either way, it's an entertaining feat.
>>
>>Sincerely,
>>Chris S.
Take it for what you will. I just can't believe someone built something like that essentially alone in just a few years. It just does too much and it moves too fluidily. For instance watch the video where it stops a run-away Car.
I have mod points, but I'm not going to touch this. I should coin a term for the irrational fear of other users getting karma from "whoring".
What? You figure one less easy point to a 'whorer' means potentially one less for something incredibly witty that you might come up with?
Give me a break. I wouldn't log out and back in to post this either, as I could careless if I get the points or not--it's simply the fact the information that might be useful for others. It's the information we are all after. I don't care if it was posted by an AC, you or your mom.
You sir are a WHORAPHOBE. Get a life.
Is this just an actual case of, you get what you pay for? Does a good ~100ft. wireless keyboard/mouse need components that costs over 50% of that price ($80) assuming 50% for mark-up, etc.,.? That's hard to believe.
BTW, the mouse/keyboard combo noted in the article appear to have only a 30ft. range (which means MAYBE 15ft on a good moonless night).
Although, your statements regarding compressed data looking like noise is true, finding said noise in the vastness of space among similar noise would be impossible. Thus, we will most likely find (using SETI's methods) either rather early evolved civilization or a more advanced one that is trying to be found.
If you doubt this arguement would hold... the first P2P MP3 archiving worm will truly make this a valid argument.
I'm really suprised nothing like that is out there already. *hint* *hint*