I was there, I was a witness to what happened back in the 90s when this all happened, and Microsoft really did to Go what Kaplan says they did. I worked for Slate, a pen-based apps startup in the same building in Foster City that Go was in. I used the Go OS, which was powerful, well-designed, feature-rich and ran acceptably on a 386-based touchscreen tablet - a real advance at that time. Microsoft's Pen Windows, which I also used on a personal machine, was inferior in comparison. Go was way ahead technologically. Microsoft suckered Go into telling secrets under NDA, and once they had the details, MS's marketing guys played the vaporware game on Go in the public arena. A key clue was that after Go fell, MS pen computing vanished for almost a decade. It had all been about control of the market, not innovation. Hell yes, Kaplan is justified in suing. It really happened as he says.
Apologies, but you're wrong, and maligning me on the basis of incorrect knowledge. Your problem is that you are using a model that applies to DATA CDs, not AUDIO CDs. For data CDs of course you do not repeat data. But audio the dataflow mechanism is designed to support not having dead gaps in the data stream, which you certainly could hear. I worked for a vendor in the industry, a chipmaker, and I am using the correct model in the correct circumstance. Let's not jump to rude foulness in place of brains, either, thank you.
My BS detector was set off by mechanical damping of the player pickup mechanism. This produces digital data, and as long as it doesn't make any mistakes nothing can be done to make it better.
Ok as far as it goes, but it does not go deep enough. All CD/DVD player mechanisms use a tracking system to follow the data track spiral. Mechanical vibrations can temporarily cause the tracking to 'swing' and hunt as it seeks to re-sync with the spiral. Integrated player servo control/data processing chips provide ways to temporarily fill in for data if the flow is interrupted by a tracking error. The servo says 'oops! lost the track! hunting!' and some controller says 'ok, I'll fill in from a buffer while you're looking." Usually this is done by repeating briefly the last good data. So under the right circumstances, one can hear the repeated data when the player is jarred. Not everybody knows how to recognize this in what they hear, as it is very short. So shock-buffering the laser servo does count.
Regardless of which way you go, replacing the stock nickel RCA jacks with better-quality ones is considered standard operating procedure.... Get gold-plated jacks if you must, but make sure they don't have any nickel under the gold (most of them do).No, this is a valid concern. First of all, corrosion can cause the surface of the connector to develop non-linear junctions, basically little rectifying spots. Cheesy diodes in a way. This can cause harmonic distortion of the signal. Gold does not corrode, but the problem is, if it is underlaid with nickel metal for plating purposes, well, there's a junction right there. Bad idea.
Clock jitter just isn't a problem in this day and age -- definitely not to the degree that someone could hear it.Yipes, no no no. This gets complicated, bear with me. DSPs may be driven by external clocks, but in any board or chip design having some PLLs (phase-locked loops), the loop has a finite readjustment time to relock after the source clock changes. So any clock jitter causes the PLL to hunt, and then you have timing changes in the system. So, no, it's not phony. A pricy high-end clock module is designed to be rock-stable to provide a solid base for system data flow.
While it's true that a good service attitude has to come from the heart, there are good books to guide one too. I have a copy of IDG Books Customer Service for Dummies, and it's got a lot of good ideas.
I wish to reveal the results of my private research in this field. By eating a mixture of iron particles, Mexican food, and beer, then holding a plate behind me, I've demonstrated that no human underwear can withstand a 1010 G acceleration, and that it is suicidal to stand behind a scientist in this field of research. And my dog Rex is now somewhere in orbit around Titan, if he survived the initial blast.
Well, I do not know about the specifics of this family's circumstances, but I know what exists for me.
At the far corner of the property next door to me is a HUGE cell phone tower. When I worked on any electronics in my home lab - analog or digital - I used to have problems with high levels of RF that clearly reduced noise margins in the circuitry. Crude experiments with a high frequency probe and antenna showed that the tower seemed to have a nice fat lobe pumping stuff in my direction. Then I began to wonder about living for long periods with my body continuously absorbing RF energy every night. As a precaution, I DID redo my insulation with aluminum-faced foam board, and lined the bedroom curtains with space blanket mylar. Crazy? Well, I'd rather err on this than wake up in five years with cancer.
By the way, years ago I read an article somewhere that explained that metal springs in a bed could pick up RF energy and worse, resonate. In one rare case a local radio station antenna had provided enough energy that a resonant set of bedsprings apparently sparked and caused a fire. Admittedly a very rare situation. Sometimes when grounding in a building is incorrect or the connection corroded, wiring can pick up RF and strange things happen inside. So it's not so nutcase as you might think to be prudent about RF pollution.
Yes, Ben Affleck is slated to play Obi Wan Kenobi in the remake. Han Solo will be played by Commander Taco, and Linus Torvalds plays a cameo as a Finnish Wookie. Steve Balmer is the captain of the Death Star. Princess Leia will be played by Paris Hilton. You KNOW who Darl McBride will play. Excuse me now, I must go and have my head Roto-Rootered.
If you do a web search on the name 'Rife', you will find some discussions of Royal Rife's findings that he could, visibly, destroy microorganisms with RF energy pulsed at various frequencies. Some specific frequencies knocked out specific strains of bacteria. Some resonant phenomenon apparently can take place with organic molecules. Although there are some fringy experiments going on, it does seem that treatments are perhaps possible.
I'm just curious. How is relevant concern about national security and these batteries rated as a troll? Obviously the moderator has never heard that the NY City police carry radiation detectors now, and that people who have had medical exams involving isotope injection for scanning have actually been pulled off public transit. Radioactive batteries *will* get law enforcement response.
Given the paranoid yet incompetent state of security in this country, every single radioactive battery is probably going to get the bearer stopped by the police at some point. Take a radioactive laptop on a plane? -- Stripsearch. Just wait and see. If Homeland Security's detectors currently false-alarm over the natural radioactive potassium isotopes in bananas - yes, bananas! - then these batteries might get the fisheye from these morons.
Slashdot Mirror
"Being Cool by Answering the Interviewer's Question with an Unanswerable Metaquestion";
"Things Not to Bring Up About Bill Gates' Penis";
"How to Plausibly Deny Ever Seeing 'Dance, Monkey Boy' ";
"Asking 'What's in It for Me?' in Just the Right Tone of Arrogance to Intrigue the Interviewer"
A type 27 marine 12v battery on a little wagon can supply 1KW hr. So the robot could roam, with a cart behind it, for 4 hrs.
I was there, I was a witness to what happened back in the 90s when this all happened, and Microsoft really did to Go what Kaplan says they did. I worked for Slate, a pen-based apps startup in the same building in Foster City that Go was in. I used the Go OS, which was powerful, well-designed, feature-rich and ran acceptably on a 386-based touchscreen tablet - a real advance at that time. Microsoft's Pen Windows, which I also used on a personal machine, was inferior in comparison. Go was way ahead technologically. Microsoft suckered Go into telling secrets under NDA, and once they had the details, MS's marketing guys played the vaporware game on Go in the public arena. A key clue was that after Go fell, MS pen computing vanished for almost a decade. It had all been about control of the market, not innovation. Hell yes, Kaplan is justified in suing. It really happened as he says.
Computer implant? OH. I thought you said "breast implant". No way am I going to get manboobs just to play Half-Life.
Apologies, but you're wrong, and maligning me on the basis of incorrect knowledge. Your problem is that you are using a model that applies to DATA CDs, not AUDIO CDs. For data CDs of course you do not repeat data. But audio the dataflow mechanism is designed to support not having dead gaps in the data stream, which you certainly could hear. I worked for a vendor in the industry, a chipmaker, and I am using the correct model in the correct circumstance. Let's not jump to rude foulness in place of brains, either, thank you.
Ok as far as it goes, but it does not go deep enough. All CD/DVD player mechanisms use a tracking system to follow the data track spiral. Mechanical vibrations can temporarily cause the tracking to 'swing' and hunt as it seeks to re-sync with the spiral. Integrated player servo control/data processing chips provide ways to temporarily fill in for data if the flow is interrupted by a tracking error. The servo says 'oops! lost the track! hunting!' and some controller says 'ok, I'll fill in from a buffer while you're looking." Usually this is done by repeating briefly the last good data. So under the right circumstances, one can hear the repeated data when the player is jarred. Not everybody knows how to recognize this in what they hear, as it is very short. So shock-buffering the laser servo does count.
Clock jitter just isn't a problem in this day and age -- definitely not to the degree that someone could hear it.Yipes, no no no. This gets complicated, bear with me. DSPs may be driven by external clocks, but in any board or chip design having some PLLs (phase-locked loops), the loop has a finite readjustment time to relock after the source clock changes. So any clock jitter causes the PLL to hunt, and then you have timing changes in the system. So, no, it's not phony. A pricy high-end clock module is designed to be rock-stable to provide a solid base for system data flow.
Beware, for I am a Jedi Knight AND a MSCE!
While it's true that a good service attitude has to come from the heart, there are good books to guide one too. I have a copy of IDG Books Customer Service for Dummies, and it's got a lot of good ideas.
In a universe that contains Wesley Crusher, you have to ask THIS?
"Young man, just one word -- Plastics! No wait.. I meant to say, .NET!"
I use a much cheaper airconditioner. Three naked women with palm fronds. I'm working on a way to cool CPUs that way, too.
I'm timid, so I just got a tattoo of a piercing.
I wish to reveal the results of my private research in this field. By eating a mixture of iron particles, Mexican food, and beer, then holding a plate behind me, I've demonstrated that no human underwear can withstand a 1010 G acceleration, and that it is suicidal to stand behind a scientist in this field of research. And my dog Rex is now somewhere in orbit around Titan, if he survived the initial blast.
Hey wait! They forgot to mention splitting beer atoms is a cheap source of energy in Australia.
In other news tonight, comedian Dennis Miller applied to medical school, vowing to fight pre-frontal cortex damage wherever he finds it.
At the far corner of the property next door to me is a HUGE cell phone tower. When I worked on any electronics in my home lab - analog or digital - I used to have problems with high levels of RF that clearly reduced noise margins in the circuitry. Crude experiments with a high frequency probe and antenna showed that the tower seemed to have a nice fat lobe pumping stuff in my direction. Then I began to wonder about living for long periods with my body continuously absorbing RF energy every night. As a precaution, I DID redo my insulation with aluminum-faced foam board, and lined the bedroom curtains with space blanket mylar. Crazy? Well, I'd rather err on this than wake up in five years with cancer.
By the way, years ago I read an article somewhere that explained that metal springs in a bed could pick up RF energy and worse, resonate. In one rare case a local radio station antenna had provided enough energy that a resonant set of bedsprings apparently sparked and caused a fire. Admittedly a very rare situation. Sometimes when grounding in a building is incorrect or the connection corroded, wiring can pick up RF and strange things happen inside. So it's not so nutcase as you might think to be prudent about RF pollution.
Yes, Ben Affleck is slated to play Obi Wan Kenobi in the remake. Han Solo will be played by Commander Taco, and Linus Torvalds plays a cameo as a Finnish Wookie. Steve Balmer is the captain of the Death Star. Princess Leia will be played by Paris Hilton. You KNOW who Darl McBride will play. Excuse me now, I must go and have my head Roto-Rootered.
Researchers ... are cybering... chickens??? Thank god the DARPA money is going to the right things.
If you do a web search on the name 'Rife', you will find some discussions of Royal Rife's findings that he could, visibly, destroy microorganisms with RF energy pulsed at various frequencies. Some specific frequencies knocked out specific strains of bacteria. Some resonant phenomenon apparently can take place with organic molecules. Although there are some fringy experiments going on, it does seem that treatments are perhaps possible.
It all made perfect sense to me. But I still can't understand women.
I'm just curious. How is relevant concern about national security and these batteries rated as a troll? Obviously the moderator has never heard that the NY City police carry radiation detectors now, and that people who have had medical exams involving isotope injection for scanning have actually been pulled off public transit. Radioactive batteries *will* get law enforcement response.
Given the paranoid yet incompetent state of security in this country, every single radioactive battery is probably going to get the bearer stopped by the police at some point. Take a radioactive laptop on a plane? -- Stripsearch. Just wait and see. If Homeland Security's detectors currently false-alarm over the natural radioactive potassium isotopes in bananas - yes, bananas! - then these batteries might get the fisheye from these morons.
45 GB and a 55 gallon drum of Astroglide... I'll be set for life!
Hey! Is that a police box in the corner of the room? And who's the guy with the long scarf? This is springtime!