You should only update your BIOS when you mean to. I'm of the opinion that it's something that you should mean to do, not something that should just happen automatically ever. So it doesn't need to be writable 99.999% of the time. So how about a switch that toggles the write enable pin to your bios flash on the front panel of your box?
Want to update your bios? Power down box. Insert CD or USB key. Flip write enable switch. Power up. Flash bios then power down. Flip switch to write disable. Boot.
And for an added measure, don't let the thing ever boot from an MBR if the switch is in "write" mode.
Okay. These researchers figured out the coding sequence for the retina/nerve interface. Basically they figured out TCP/IP for your eyes. And they designed an "honest" retina that mimics a regular retina.
I'll stop there for a moment and say WOW. Nicely done, absolutely thoroughly amazing.
But then let's up the ante and have the circuitry they are using employ infrared detection. Not too difficult to do, we've been making these kinds of devices for many decades. And the same goes for a x50 zoom. Easy peasy.
A HUD display would be possible too. Watch the TED lecture at the bottom of the article. This lady KNOWS THE ENCODING that your eyes use! She can actually take the pulses transmitted to the brain and solve them backwards to see what you were looking at! With that kind of knowledge making something that transmits a generated image would be simple.
The story right behind this one is this: Color Printing Reaches Its Ultimate Resolution.
How did they test it? By printing the "Lena" image.
As a proof of principle, researchers printed a 50×50-micrometre version of the 'Lena' test image, a richly coloured portrait of a woman that is commonly used as a printing standard
I haven't used Qt so I can't speak to the comparison, but VCL is actually pretty awesome. I've always liked CBuilder. It was doing RAD well and correctly back when MS solution was to make the dlls in Visual C and the UI in Visual Basic. Remember that mess? I will always have a fond spot in my heart for CBuilder for being a better alternative.
So take VCL, and couple that with Project Jedi and you've got a great dev environment. Scores of smart widgets, panels, sliders, panes, etc. If there is anything that rich for Qt I'd really like to see it. Seriously - I would! Not being snarky. I'd love to see something that rich as open source. I keep hoping and praying that the Jedi guys will do a port that will work on Lazarus, but so far no luck.
the country seems to be moving further away from doing something about climate change, with the issue having all but fallen out of the national debate
This is a good thing.
Having it be a matter for public debate means that it can become political. Which it has. And that means that every moron will be spoon fed an opinion and the debate can rage. People will use any stupid thing to play pundit with. This needs to be not one of them. It's too important.
So I'm happy people aren't talking about it anymore. We're not talking about the hole in the ozone layer anymore, right? And you know what? The guys with the lab coats were able to not have to waste time with public debate and trying to educate a nation chock full of idiots. And instead they were able to get to work, work the problem, and get on the road to fixing things.
I'm pleased this is starting to happen with global warming. Ten years from now people won't be talking about it, except the ones that you'd want to. It'll be the guys fixing things.
Nice article, but I disagree with the premise somewhat:
Putting aside the obvious objection that poking fun at the powerful isn’t the same as bluntly confronting them, it’s important to give Stewart and Colbert their due.
They do in fact bluntly confront the powerful. Did you see the white house press correspondents dinner that Colbert hosted? No really, watch this.
Watch the audience, the looks on their faces. Some are in total shock. Others look like they're ready to kill him.
RMS can quite happily say all this bullshit about morals and how some laws are just completely wrong, but he equally does nothing about it.
All he does is try to educate people about unjust laws! That's pretty much his entire gig. That was the entire point of the article we're talking about here.
Well it depends on your definition. Microsoft ran that service into the ground, IMO. Remember the big switch, when they acquired Hotmail but had to move all the servers from BSD to Windows? And how the transition was...less than smooth? Remember that? People left Hotmail in droves. They absolutely killed Hotmail.
As a result I haven't seen anyone pass me a Hotmail address in years. It's another example of Microsoft's death-by-bureaucracy that all their assimilated businesses seem to suffer.
And - we do judge people by the email addresses they give us as contact information. You can say we don't, but we absolutely do. And if someone passes you a Hotmail contact address - what do you think about them? Be honest. You know the truth. If you don't want to look like an outdated fossil you pass someone a Gmail address. How exactly did that happen?
Hotmail may be technically physically working, but in all the important ways it isn't. My opinion of course, YMMV, my opinion plus a dollar will get you a cup of coffee, etc.
It is. It's an easy thing to say. And very soothing to stockholders I'm sure. But how are you going to do it? It's sort of like saying "I'm going to have an innovative idea by 3pm tomorrow!" Ok, that's great. How exactly do you do that?
Innovation isn't something you simply decide you're going to have, and then you have it.
What you can do is to change your culture, foster ideas, hire people and don't abuse them. Make your environment a place where innovation can happen. I'm looking at you forced curve. People who think "outside the box" do not like being put in one. If you set up your environment to where only drones do well, then drones are what you'll have. Any real rogue thinkers in the Microsoft structure would get crushed like ants. Need I remind you Einstein did some of his best work while he was getting poor reviews as a patent clerk?
And innovation isn't something you can really buy, either. Although MS tries. The current MS policy of borg-like assimilation of any outside company that might have a good idea isn't really working, is it? It's a wonderful tribute to the amount of money you have, but it hasn't produced any sort of good results I can think of in a decade. Hell, you guys couldn't even keep Hotmail working. They were the #1 gold standard, and Google waltzed right into that space with Gmail and it's a done deal now.
In short, if you want to lead you better change. Your culture is all wrong for innovation.
First thing, if you don't have health insurance and you get sick, who pays? That's right - I do. And everyone else who contributes to the system. But you don't. It's not fair.
Second thing. Health insurance just got a whole lot less scammy now that the reform act is in place. Go read it - you'll see. There's a ton of lousy crap they're not allowed to do now.
Oh I agree. But even the little baby steps we're taking with Obama's health care reform act are being met with all kinds of illogical resistance. It boggles me. People standing in the streets with signs wanting to repeal Obamacare. Even though it has provisions like how you can't be dropped or denied for a pre-existing condition. How in the world could someone be against that? I could see a CEO of a health care company not liking it, but the rest of us? How?
We're so screwed up in this country that you can actually get nearly half the people in the streets shouting that this is a bad idea. I have no idea how you accomplish that, but there you go.
So yeah, anything more invasive like what France has and it's ARRGH SOCIALISM and people would totally lose their minds. Even though it would be in their best interests.
If you liked Public Housing, the Public Post, and Public Schools, you're going to LOVE Public Health Care.
Except that it isn't public health care. It is private health care, mandated publicly. You'll notice private companies handle health insurance like Aetna, Blue Cross, and so on. And they still will. These companies are not going away.
In contrast to that, the US Post Office, public schools, and public housing authority (HUD) are all held by branches of the government. I don't believe the government is going to start buying hospitals or insurance companies and running them. However if they did, your statement would be a valid comparison.
Oh bullcrap. The clerk heard the lady say that she was going to send it to Iran to her grandmother, which is illegal. The clerk didn't want to be an accomplice.
If I was selling tire irons and some guy said "I'm going to use this to beat my neighbor to death", I wouldn't sell him the tire iron.
I like a lot of larger/more famous bands. I do my part to weaken the RIAA's influence by simply not participating anymore. I simply don't buy music anymore.
But if I absolutely have to, I check RIAA radar first. Or purchase used - they don't get a dime that way. Until they lobby to change that. And yes, they are working on that. Get it while you can.
Producing the music and advertizing it costs money.
The main reason why producing and advertising costs so much is because the people who write the checks and the people who cash the checks are the same people.Here, read this.
What do you think would happen if you had a manager and you told him, "Hey, we think these advertising costs are a bit much. I'd like to hit a few ad agencies on my own for quotes and see if I can find a better bargain." Do you think that would be met with, "Okay and jolly good! Let's try to save some money!" I'm betting not.
The real issue here is the middlemen. They've had a fantastic time of it so far, haven't they? They lock down bands with contracts as the barrier of entry into a closed system. It's closed because they have lobbied for it to be closed. That's why it's closed. Then they set the rules for who gets paid and how much. Then they write checks to themselves in whatever amount pleases them. Then they have the audacity to claim they are "protecting the artists". Then finally in a move of unmitigated gall they complain about the ethical implications of people who try to avoid their protection racket!
I'd love to pay the artists, but currently there isn't a legal way to do so without paying these parasites in the middle. And I think you'll find this to be a fairly popular idea. But the current system is so broken you can't sing Happy Birthday in public. Or how SoundExchange can collect royalties on songs they don't own. Even one you make up and stream yourself - they want royalties for that, and they are legally entitled to them.
It's like telling someone saying how important it is to obey the law. And then realizing Emperor Palpatane is running things. Makes the ethics a little fuzzy.
Your skill list is probably good enough. What you need placement help. Check with local technical placement agencies.
Still, if you feel like learning something new check online resources like careerbuilder, craigslist, monster and the like. Look at the jobs that interest you and see what the requirements are. You'll find the holes in your resume pretty quick that way.
I see what you are saying. Learning computers? Ok, let's look at RasPi:
RasPi: $25. Monitor: About 100. Mouse/keyboard: 20 or so. Power supply: 5. Speakers: 5. SD card: we'll say about 20. So we're talking about $175, total for a 700 Mhz machine. I'll bet you could do as well on Craigslist looking for used laptops.
I think the "thing" with RasPi is its hackability. Sure, you could learn to program on any capable machine. But this thing has...other applications. It's small. Embedded small. And very capable. And has lots of exposed I/O which a laptop wouldn't have. This is a device to inspire future geeks, not teach the masses how to program. I think that's the idea.
Honestly the first things I thought when I heard of this project were all pretty black-hat, I must admit. A nifty little proxy you could hide in a wall at a college dorm or computer lab. Or little dinky tor nodes hidden around third world countries. Or stick it in an Altoids tin with a battery near a public wifi spot and have it bittorrent things for you. Or a dinky little sniffer you could leave somewhere strategic running Aircrack or Wireshark and pick up later. Not that I'd do any of these things, or would advocate such, of course, oh heavens no. But you have to admit...a fully capable computer of this size and price - there are a lot of naughty things you could do with it. With nearly zero consequences. Twenty five bucks isn't a lot to gamble.
I think that's the gist, honestly. It's like an arduino on steroids. A little tiny Rorschach test. When you look at it what do you see? What can you make it into?
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You should only update your BIOS when you mean to. I'm of the opinion that it's something that you should mean to do, not something that should just happen automatically ever. So it doesn't need to be writable 99.999% of the time. So how about a switch that toggles the write enable pin to your bios flash on the front panel of your box?
Want to update your bios? Power down box. Insert CD or USB key. Flip write enable switch. Power up. Flash bios then power down. Flip switch to write disable. Boot.
And for an added measure, don't let the thing ever boot from an MBR if the switch is in "write" mode.
Easy peasy.
Earth willan on-prefootset planet prefirst retrostep.
Mars will be the first and last planet humans set foot on.
I believe Earth would be the first planet humans set foot on.
That was my first thought.
Okay. These researchers figured out the coding sequence for the retina/nerve interface. Basically they figured out TCP/IP for your eyes. And they designed an "honest" retina that mimics a regular retina.
I'll stop there for a moment and say WOW. Nicely done, absolutely thoroughly amazing.
But then let's up the ante and have the circuitry they are using employ infrared detection. Not too difficult to do, we've been making these kinds of devices for many decades. And the same goes for a x50 zoom. Easy peasy.
A HUD display would be possible too. Watch the TED lecture at the bottom of the article. This lady KNOWS THE ENCODING that your eyes use! She can actually take the pulses transmitted to the brain and solve them backwards to see what you were looking at! With that kind of knowledge making something that transmits a generated image would be simple.
This is a *gigantic* breakthrough.
The story right behind this one is this: Color Printing Reaches Its Ultimate Resolution.
How did they test it? By printing the "Lena" image.
As a proof of principle, researchers printed a 50×50-micrometre version of the 'Lena' test image, a richly coloured portrait of a woman that is commonly used as a printing standard
So who's Lena? She's a playboy pinup girl. (NSFW).
I haven't used Qt so I can't speak to the comparison, but VCL is actually pretty awesome. I've always liked CBuilder. It was doing RAD well and correctly back when MS solution was to make the dlls in Visual C and the UI in Visual Basic. Remember that mess? I will always have a fond spot in my heart for CBuilder for being a better alternative.
So take VCL, and couple that with Project Jedi and you've got a great dev environment. Scores of smart widgets, panels, sliders, panes, etc. If there is anything that rich for Qt I'd really like to see it. Seriously - I would! Not being snarky. I'd love to see something that rich as open source. I keep hoping and praying that the Jedi guys will do a port that will work on Lazarus, but so far no luck.
the country seems to be moving further away from doing something about climate change, with the issue having all but fallen out of the national debate
This is a good thing.
Having it be a matter for public debate means that it can become political. Which it has. And that means that every moron will be spoon fed an opinion and the debate can rage. People will use any stupid thing to play pundit with. This needs to be not one of them. It's too important.
So I'm happy people aren't talking about it anymore. We're not talking about the hole in the ozone layer anymore, right? And you know what? The guys with the lab coats were able to not have to waste time with public debate and trying to educate a nation chock full of idiots. And instead they were able to get to work, work the problem, and get on the road to fixing things.
I'm pleased this is starting to happen with global warming. Ten years from now people won't be talking about it, except the ones that you'd want to. It'll be the guys fixing things.
Nice article, but I disagree with the premise somewhat:
Putting aside the obvious objection that poking fun at the powerful isn’t the same as bluntly confronting them, it’s important to give Stewart and Colbert their due.
They do in fact bluntly confront the powerful. Did you see the white house press correspondents dinner that Colbert hosted? No really, watch this.
Watch the audience, the looks on their faces. Some are in total shock. Others look like they're ready to kill him.
That took some serious balls.
RMS can quite happily say all this bullshit about morals and how some laws are just completely wrong, but he equally does nothing about it.
All he does is try to educate people about unjust laws! That's pretty much his entire gig. That was the entire point of the article we're talking about here.
Of course it's all Obama's fault. Even though Rick Scott(R) closed the last TB hospital 3 months after a report from the freaking CDC came out detailing the outbreak.
But hey! Don't let the facts get in the way of your Fox news deluded rant.
Well it depends on your definition. Microsoft ran that service into the ground, IMO. Remember the big switch, when they acquired Hotmail but had to move all the servers from BSD to Windows? And how the transition was...less than smooth? Remember that? People left Hotmail in droves. They absolutely killed Hotmail.
As a result I haven't seen anyone pass me a Hotmail address in years. It's another example of Microsoft's death-by-bureaucracy that all their assimilated businesses seem to suffer.
And - we do judge people by the email addresses they give us as contact information. You can say we don't, but we absolutely do. And if someone passes you a Hotmail contact address - what do you think about them? Be honest. You know the truth. If you don't want to look like an outdated fossil you pass someone a Gmail address. How exactly did that happen?
Hotmail may be technically physically working, but in all the important ways it isn't. My opinion of course, YMMV, my opinion plus a dollar will get you a cup of coffee, etc.
It is. It's an easy thing to say. And very soothing to stockholders I'm sure. But how are you going to do it? It's sort of like saying "I'm going to have an innovative idea by 3pm tomorrow!" Ok, that's great. How exactly do you do that?
Innovation isn't something you simply decide you're going to have, and then you have it.
What you can do is to change your culture, foster ideas, hire people and don't abuse them. Make your environment a place where innovation can happen. I'm looking at you forced curve. People who think "outside the box" do not like being put in one. If you set up your environment to where only drones do well, then drones are what you'll have. Any real rogue thinkers in the Microsoft structure would get crushed like ants. Need I remind you Einstein did some of his best work while he was getting poor reviews as a patent clerk?
And innovation isn't something you can really buy, either. Although MS tries. The current MS policy of borg-like assimilation of any outside company that might have a good idea isn't really working, is it? It's a wonderful tribute to the amount of money you have, but it hasn't produced any sort of good results I can think of in a decade. Hell, you guys couldn't even keep Hotmail working. They were the #1 gold standard, and Google waltzed right into that space with Gmail and it's a done deal now.
In short, if you want to lead you better change. Your culture is all wrong for innovation.
Because he's 40. How much longer should he wait? If you wait for the right moment, you'll never do it. Haven't you seen Idiocracy?
Well two things.
First thing, if you don't have health insurance and you get sick, who pays? That's right - I do. And everyone else who contributes to the system. But you don't. It's not fair.
Second thing. Health insurance just got a whole lot less scammy now that the reform act is in place. Go read it - you'll see. There's a ton of lousy crap they're not allowed to do now.
Oh I agree. But even the little baby steps we're taking with Obama's health care reform act are being met with all kinds of illogical resistance. It boggles me. People standing in the streets with signs wanting to repeal Obamacare. Even though it has provisions like how you can't be dropped or denied for a pre-existing condition. How in the world could someone be against that? I could see a CEO of a health care company not liking it, but the rest of us? How?
We're so screwed up in this country that you can actually get nearly half the people in the streets shouting that this is a bad idea. I have no idea how you accomplish that, but there you go.
So yeah, anything more invasive like what France has and it's ARRGH SOCIALISM and people would totally lose their minds. Even though it would be in their best interests.
If you liked Public Housing, the Public Post, and Public Schools, you're going to LOVE Public Health Care.
Except that it isn't public health care. It is private health care, mandated publicly. You'll notice private companies handle health insurance like Aetna, Blue Cross, and so on. And they still will. These companies are not going away.
In contrast to that, the US Post Office, public schools, and public housing authority (HUD) are all held by branches of the government. I don't believe the government is going to start buying hospitals or insurance companies and running them. However if they did, your statement would be a valid comparison.
Oh bullcrap. The clerk heard the lady say that she was going to send it to Iran to her grandmother, which is illegal. The clerk didn't want to be an accomplice.
If I was selling tire irons and some guy said "I'm going to use this to beat my neighbor to death", I wouldn't sell him the tire iron.
This one is a no-brainer.
Get a 32Gb usb stick (not expensive) and put Portable Virtualbox on it.
Then make a VM and put whatever you like on it. Problem solved.
I like a lot of larger/more famous bands. I do my part to weaken the RIAA's influence by simply not participating anymore. I simply don't buy music anymore.
But if I absolutely have to, I check RIAA radar first. Or purchase used - they don't get a dime that way. Until they lobby to change that. And yes, they are working on that. Get it while you can.
That's about as well as I can do.
You're right. It is a story we keep seeing over and over. It always ends the same way, too. "Government, save us!"
Producing the music and advertizing it costs money.
The main reason why producing and advertising costs so much is because the people who write the checks and the people who cash the checks are the same people. Here, read this.
What do you think would happen if you had a manager and you told him, "Hey, we think these advertising costs are a bit much. I'd like to hit a few ad agencies on my own for quotes and see if I can find a better bargain." Do you think that would be met with, "Okay and jolly good! Let's try to save some money!" I'm betting not.
The real issue here is the middlemen. They've had a fantastic time of it so far, haven't they? They lock down bands with contracts as the barrier of entry into a closed system. It's closed because they have lobbied for it to be closed. That's why it's closed. Then they set the rules for who gets paid and how much. Then they write checks to themselves in whatever amount pleases them. Then they have the audacity to claim they are "protecting the artists". Then finally in a move of unmitigated gall they complain about the ethical implications of people who try to avoid their protection racket!
I'd love to pay the artists, but currently there isn't a legal way to do so without paying these parasites in the middle. And I think you'll find this to be a fairly popular idea. But the current system is so broken you can't sing Happy Birthday in public. Or how SoundExchange can collect royalties on songs they don't own. Even one you make up and stream yourself - they want royalties for that, and they are legally entitled to them.
It's like telling someone saying how important it is to obey the law. And then realizing Emperor Palpatane is running things. Makes the ethics a little fuzzy.
Your skill list is probably good enough. What you need placement help. Check with local technical placement agencies.
Still, if you feel like learning something new check online resources like careerbuilder, craigslist, monster and the like. Look at the jobs that interest you and see what the requirements are. You'll find the holes in your resume pretty quick that way.
And don't forget Intelligent Falling.
I see what you are saying. Learning computers? Ok, let's look at RasPi:
RasPi: $25. Monitor: About 100. Mouse/keyboard: 20 or so. Power supply: 5. Speakers: 5. SD card: we'll say about 20. So we're talking about $175, total for a 700 Mhz machine. I'll bet you could do as well on Craigslist looking for used laptops.
I think the "thing" with RasPi is its hackability. Sure, you could learn to program on any capable machine. But this thing has...other applications. It's small. Embedded small. And very capable. And has lots of exposed I/O which a laptop wouldn't have. This is a device to inspire future geeks, not teach the masses how to program. I think that's the idea.
Honestly the first things I thought when I heard of this project were all pretty black-hat, I must admit. A nifty little proxy you could hide in a wall at a college dorm or computer lab. Or little dinky tor nodes hidden around third world countries. Or stick it in an Altoids tin with a battery near a public wifi spot and have it bittorrent things for you. Or a dinky little sniffer you could leave somewhere strategic running Aircrack or Wireshark and pick up later. Not that I'd do any of these things, or would advocate such, of course, oh heavens no. But you have to admit...a fully capable computer of this size and price - there are a lot of naughty things you could do with it. With nearly zero consequences. Twenty five bucks isn't a lot to gamble.
I think that's the gist, honestly. It's like an arduino on steroids. A little tiny Rorschach test. When you look at it what do you see? What can you make it into?
But this way she could retire early.
Seriously - making a lot of money doesn't suck. And she's already used to dealing with assholes. Might as well make it worth your while.