If I had the money, time, and inclination, here are a few things I would think of for a modern house; they're pretty mundane but modern-practical:
Insulate the house, with HRV. Whether your issue is heating or air conditioning, electricity is expensive and modern climate control uses electricity. It's financially sound, and ecologically good.
I would design a "gray water" system. Water that's not sewage - from sinks, washer, etc. - should go into a tank to use for watering the lawn, flushing toilets, etc. This is probaby a better thing for the midwest that in New Orleans - I don't know what their water situation is like, obviously there's whole (muddy) river of the stuff running by. Any such system will have to be heavily designed to prevent cross-contamination and allow for gray water to go down the sewer when the tank gets full. I bet in the midwest, they still wouldn't let you water the lawn with it (or you'd just run the kitchen tap to water the lawn) so you need underground seep watering.
The house of the future will have electronic appliance power control because the Enron of the future will charge you for peak use. One of the problems is that our power plants are sized for dinner-time cooking and the rest of the day, the plant runs at half-power. Each appliance will have the smarts to determine it's current and short term (next 6 hours?) power needs and adjust the power use accordingly. Since appliances aren't there yet, this means that the big power users would be connected to a box with a relay and computer interface. So, your freezer would be run during off peak - provided you don't open it, it will survive a 2 hour delay in being run. (Here's where integrating a temperature sensor would be a plus). When the air conditioner or furnace kicks in, some other devices kick off temporarily. A really smart freezer would cool itself down extra ahead of time to survive no power use for 5 hours... Your air conditioner would stop cooling when nobody's home... however, peak metering would require smarter meters. The appliances aren't there yet either. so instead, we'll all just pay generally higher prices.
As previous posters have mentioned, CAT5e or Cat6 everything. Here. the phone company uses DSL for cable TV. I strongly suspect that a form of ethernet will be the most practical way to distribute HDTV around the house (think AppleTV); and the middle cable pair can be used for telephone. So put a drop anywhere - by where a TV, desk, night table, etc. would go. Wireless is all very well for surfing, but when everyone has one, there's got to be degradation from neighbourhood interference.
Another nifty feature I saw was an infrared relay - an electric eye at each TV location, that runs down to an IR LED in the basement. All your electronics are located there, and any remote commands are relayed to the rack in the basement - so your DVR MythTV or cable box can feed the whole house from there. Required a pair of low voltage, IIRC and electronics at each end.
Finally, all joking aside, you DO have to consider the next "big one". At the very least, have a door into the attic and another onto the roof. Allegedly many people were found drowned in their attic. The prettiest, most practical way to do this is probably a small attic room with a dormer window. Not sure what more there is to help. Locate whatever you can higher up - don't put electronics, etc. in the basement that can go in the attic (Electrical panel?). The next middlin' one may flood halfway up the first story. What else can be done to mitigate problems? I don't know. Use steel 2x4 for non-load bearing walls? Make it 2-storey, where the main floor is essentially garage and family room (like a walk-out basement) and the living area is the second floor? Have a survival kit in the attic - water, food, inflatable boat (and oars!!), etc.?
Good luck!
The full-desk display would be neat - but the obvious question is - what's the resolution?
This thing is just a projection unit, which means underneath is bulky and blocked off. It doesn't seem to be the real table-top display we're all looking for, where you can pop up a window and read it about the same size and resolution as a piece of paper. Basically it should be an electronic D-paper. I think I'll wait.
So, the big deal is the interface. This sounds too complicated. Each special item has to have its own handler - cameras, fingers, stylus, phone, PDA, etc. A "general environment" that has too be programmed for each special case doesn't sound that great.
IIRC, one of the most inept parts of the design was that the O-ring seal cupped upward, allowing precipitation to collect in the seal groove and then freeze? A downward-opening groove would have been more logical.
It just seems to me that reading a description of said mechanical device, written in said legalese vocabulation, verges on parody. It was hard to read the patent with a straight face. It was hard to read it and comprehend.
In Canada, where the US Constitution does not apply (yet), we have the Canada Evidence Act. You have no right against self incrimination when called to testify in a trial, but that evidence and fruit of that evidence cannot be used against you - except for perjury.
(You do not have to testify in your own trial -just, if called on to testify against someone else, you must talk.)
Obviously, you are then at the mercy of the judges who decide if the evidence presented at your own trial actually followed from that testimony. And, you don't have to talk to the cops.... AFAIK, it's still not obstruction unless you withhold physical evidence or actually mislead the police.
However, "Lord" Black of Hollinger Inc. fame is arguing that his testimony should not be compelled in a Canadian court because American justice officials can then take it and attempt to extradite him to the USA to stand trial for nefarious conspiracies. (The Canadian evidence rules don't prevent foreigners from using the info, I guess - American, Syrian, or Egyptian...) Still waiting for the decision on that one, but the general attitude seems to be "we don't care about your USA problems..."
Trying to constrict or direct economics is like trying to hold back water. Water always wants to flow, always downhill (except for those very minor surface effects).
You can do minor direction - temporary dams, change of flow channel - but even this has unintended consequences.
You can dam it for a while, but the more you try to contain it, the bigger and clunkier the dam (and the bigger the mess when it finally gives)
If you block one channel, it will find a different route to go.
You can't squeeze it; if you try, it will burst- more mess.
If you try (like tax dollars) to spread it evenly regardless of natural flow, it will either flow back to where it was going anyway, or evaporate and precipitate somewhere where you didn't intend.
What is information? Yes it's incremental cost (cost of copying) is virtually free, but unless the development cost (cost of first assembly/ writing/ collection) is free (as a byproduct - say, you install the phone lines, you automatically have the white pages list) then it is worth whatever people will pay for it.
MS Office, for example, is worth more to businesses than the casual home user. Innovation would come in figuring a means to exploit that variable value. The phone company, for example, is regulated to make a home line cheaper than a business line. Charge too much, and there is an incentive to pirate. Charge too little, you go broke (? Not Bill...).
One innovation (Bill copies IBM) is to bundle it all into an OS that the hardware manufacturer then licenses, thus ensuring that consumer choices, and motive to pirate, is restricted (and you can vary the price depending on the "business use" appeal of the hardware...).
Perhaps one day we will all "subscribe" to software the way we do to those extra channels on cable. If you use your PeguinPoint this month, the "ArtistCollective Appropriation" (ASCAP?)will charge you $1.
Consider an elliptical orbit around the sun (aren't they all...) with a major axis where perihelion is earth's distance, aphelion is Mars' distance from the sun. I don't know the formula, but you should be able to find it on the net.
Now calculate the orbit time. You start your trip tangent to the earth, and blast away faster than the earth is circling the sun (but in the same direction). You catch up to Mars as the top of your orbit is tangent to (grazes the inside of) Mars' orbit. Therefore, total trip time is 1/2 the orbit period (full orbit time shoould be somewhere between Earth's year and Mars' 2 earth-years - I guess about 16 months?).
This ignores secondary effects like the slowdown escaping earth's gravity, and the acceleration reaching Mars. These should be minor adjustments - you would have to adjust your departure velocity from Earth to include extra for escape velocity from your starting point (presumably Low Earth Orbit). As you depart, Earth will slow you down somewhat, but past a million miles the effect should be negligible. It also ignores the ellipticity(??) of both Earth and Mars orbits, which change the distance an path - more second-order calculations. (Earth's orbit varies from 92m mi to 94m from the sun.) The second-order calculations shouldn't make a big difference...
Then you need braking power at Mars, or you can use the atmosphere to brake (or break, if you miscalculate Km vs. Miles).
So, the launch windows occur when Mars is in such a position that it will be 180 degrees ahead of Earth's current position when you get there...)
Let's say the orbit time above is 16 months (a guess). So if today is a launch window, Mars has to be 180 degrees away in 16 months. Next window? 12 months from now, we're back here (360 deg) but Mars is 180deg away(2-year-long year) from where it was last launch time. 4 months more(16), we're 120 further, Mars 60 more, 180+60 = 240, or only 120 ahead now...etc. 18mo. and we're 360+180, Mars is 180 degrees; bingo - press the launch button again, and in 16(/) months, mars will be where you need it to be.
Basically we're solving for integer solutions of: y= 2x (mod 360); but of course, the Martian year is not exactly 2 earth years. Look that up too.
You can only launch in the same direction as Earth (and Mars) travel around the sun. This is the minimal amount of rocket fuel. It's like throwing a ball in the air so the top of its arc is just as high as the spot you want it to hit... Launch counter to Earth's orbit, other way, and instead of using the speed of the earth's solar orbit to boost you to Mars, it is a detriment. You'd be better off with a more direct route, if you have the fuel to burn.
For faster transits, you just need an arbitrary chunk of an ellipse which intersects both orbits at the correct time. As for slow, steady propulsion like ion-drive or solar sail - well, that's why calculus exists.
27. (1) It is an infringement of copyright for any person to do, without the consent of the owner of the copyright, anything that by this Act only the owner of the copyright has the right to do.
Secondary infringement
(2) It is an infringement of copyright for any person to
(a) sell or rent out,
(b) distribute to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright,
(c) by way of trade distribute, expose or offer for sale or rental, or exhibit in public,
(d) possess for the purpose of doing anything referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c), or
(e) import into Canada for the purpose of doing anything referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c),
a copy of a work, sound recording or fixation of a performer's performance or of a communication signal that the person knows or should have known infringes copyright or would infringe copyright if it had been made in Canada by the person who made it.
So there it is - pretty much, if you don't make money off of copying, it's OK. This was the old-fashioned interpretation of copyright, before the days of cheap and easy reproduction. I don't understand why paragraph (b) doesn't apply to file-sharing across the internet world-wide, but hey, smart lawyers (?!) have successfully argued it doesn't. What isn't forbidden is allowed.
I have heard that the technical Canadian interpretation is - if I lend you a CD and you copy it, that's Ok. You had temporary possession and made a copy. If I make a copy for you, that's not OK. I'm distributing.
The argument is - what is file sharing? Am I lending you the song by hosting it, or am I copying it for you? If I just put it up for share, it's still a passive act. You intiate the download, you are doing the act of copying. Hence, you are "copying something I lent you". Legal as weasel stew...
Not even American, so I don't care about your vocabulary-challenged president and his flaming right wing agenda, but... (Sorry, had to troll that)
Here's what Dave said:
The actual ruling... (Score:2)
by daveschroeder (516195) * on Wednesday August 03, @03:33PM (#13233393)
(http://das.doit.wisc.edu/).
...since the submission is extremely misleading and melodramatic, as usual.
NLRB ruling [nlrb.gov].
The ruling does not universally allow employers to ban any and all off-duty interaction. It made a specific ruling, in its capacity of administering the National Labor Relations Act [nlrb.gov], that Guardsmark's ban on in-uniform, but off duty, fraternization ("dating or becoming overly friendly with") with clients and coworkers. The critical and key aspect of the ruling was that it allowed for the prevention of such inappropriate fraternization while in Guardsmark uniform. The NLRB ruling further stated that care must be taken such that this ruling is not misapplied as to have a "chilling" effect on employee's rights under Section 7 of the the Act..
The actual order is:
So basically, except for the chopped sentence, everyone reads "The critical and key aspect of the ruling was that it allowed for the prevention of such inappropriate fraternization while in Guardsmark uniform." Whether you meant to say that or not, that is how the flaming ----es are reading you. You can't get more specific than that, saying it was about activity in uniform.
If you want to get all Clinton about "allowed for prevention" not same as "ruled in favour", you'll find most people don't read it that way, I'm sure.
I kinda agree with the thrust of this or the hotel ruling - being chummy with people when you are expected to stay aloof can compromise security - that's how social engineering gets people past security barriers; or give the wrong impression of the service in a posh hotel.("We want service to be 'Yes, sir, no sir', not 'Sure nuff, bubba' even if he is your friend.") The ban on fraternizing with co-workers does seem to take it too far. And, any company that finds it necessary to forbid their employees from telling clients how poorly they get paid is probably not on the "10 best places to work" list.
The concept that people can be "fired at will" seems pretty bizarre outside the USA. In Canada, yes, an employer can dump anyone (non-union) as long as it's not discrimination - but the severance pay provisions kick in; it will cost you. (Typically from 1 week to 1 month per year of service, depending on various factors - age, difficulty or finding replacement job, etc.)
Heck, it's illegal in Canada to demand a drug test or lie detector test as a condition of employment. That's an invasion of privacy...
I thought I read somewhere that DVD burners do this same trick - every burned DVD includes the unique ID of the drive that created it; this feature too, is part of the firmware and cannot be bypassed.
Really What Robotic needs... is a high-level operating system and standard interface like normal computer OS's.
The navigation package, the sensor package, etc. need standard interfaces to a "driver" level; just like the different drivers for various levels of the OS - file systems, disk drives, etc.
The OS would output a command like "turn 30 degrees, go forward 3 meters." The drivers would implement these commands. Or maybe, "start turning left" and monitor the output from the "Positional" driver until 30 degrees is reached.
Part of the standard OS (RobOS? Rollux? )would include things like building the virtual map of surroundings and obstacles to calculate the necessary navigation requirements...; receiving things like computer vision or ultrasonics via drivers, calculating arm movement requirements, etc.
If the camera were open source, you could -
-use it as a tethered HDTV camera, probably. (If the exposure is
-Make timelapse movies, like those nifty cloud motion pictures.
-Use it to do automated functions like live webcam snapshots. What elese could you program it for?
I have to do something with my old digital camera, now that I don't feel like shelling out $70 for a battery that would hold a charge...
But, the camera people (a) don't want to give secrets to the competition and (b) why let someone else show you how to upgrade your features without buying anything?
I do think they're missing the boat here. Popular "hacker" products - TIVO, Apple II, IBM PC clones, etc. - became popular specifically because you could do extra things to them.
This looks pretty good. I bought the Multimedia Jukebox 20 when it came out, and I still love it - crappy quality, dying batteries, and all - because it beats lugging a laptop around on vacation to download my digital camera pictures. I've found it's simpler to just snap away and off-load later. So far, this is still cheaper that buying several gig of cards to last me over a vacation... and when the next generation of 10Mpixel cameras come out, we're going to need that much more space!
I looked at an iPod a few months ago and it still doesn't measure up. With the Archos I can look at the pictures ("Yes, they did copy" I distrust technology since the days of floppies) and it works as just a plain old external hard drive without Apple-retentive silly library management crap for my MP3's. Video? Who uses that anyway - although I did see someone using it once. By the time you convert your MP2, you might as well have just sat down and watched it.
This new device might be OK teamed with a PC-based DVR function; the current concept is nice, but what good's a "VCR" that you also have to disconnect and take with you? What's going to stay home and record shows while you're on the road?
They've finally conceded that replaceable batteries are needed. Good!
The "master USB" function is a good idea. It saves them having to build proprietary camera card readers, if any off-the-shelf USB card reader will do the trick.
I have an Archos MMJ. I never have used the video feature, the file prep is too onerous and clunky.
What it is good for, is downloading photos on vacation. You got the little gizmo to provide music on those long trips... and you can also dump your camera card onto a 20Gb hard disk, and then use the colour screen to verify the photos are really there. (Peace of mind!)
This beats taking your laptop on vacation; but nobody other than Archos really seems to value this feature. Even the new ipod requires you to buy the crappy clunky slow Belkin adapter (bigger than the ipod itself! Needs batteries!) just to dwonload a memory card into the unit.
I use my Archos MMJ as a device to offload my camera-cards. It comes with a colour screen to verify the photos are there (peace of mind!).
It also comes with a SmartMedia reader and CompactFlash reader - neither much bigger than the cards themselves, and able to dump a large card in a matter of a minute or 3.
That's an appreciable market - people who want to take a convenient, tiny download option on vacation instead of their laptop. If it includes music for those long flights or when you can only pick up C&W across the midwest, bonus!! The Belkin adapter is bulky, needs batteries and is (so I hear) very slow!
I suspect the "Here, let me show you" market will dwindle. The number of photos you have to leaf thru to find the "good" pic will grow exponentially, nobody will be interested in waiting. (Unless it is pr0n).
The "penny floating in the saucer" trick used the focal point of a mirror to do the trick.
One similar item I recall hearing about did the same thing, but used a projector and a vibrating mirror. As the mirror moved in and out extremely fast, it produced the image of the source (screen?) at a different point of focus; Thus producing a virtual image at a certain point.
So can we modify this a bit by using a spinning glass disk shaped as a variable lens? This eliminates the need for the mirror to oscillate. Rotation is smoother and faster. As different parts of the lens disk pass the source, the virtual image is produced in different locations.
But it still has to be direct line of sight to the source lens. Maybe use a secondary, much larger fixed glass lens to help make the image bigger?
I agree? Where's Ben Affleck when you need him?
The Wrights patented their wing-warping steering and then tried to stifle competion through patent claims. Between 1903 and 1918 most innovation took place in Europe, far from the Wright Brothers' prying lawyers.
IIRC one of the innovations they tried to litigate as patent infringement was Curtis' ailerons, which were more adaptible than wing-warping for controlling larger and faster aircraft.
Hence the Europeans were flying monoplanes, triplanes, enclosed cockpits, multi-engine, machine guns and bombers. The US Army on it's (late 1917) entry into the war, had the "Jenny", which was basically a flying rail with a pair of open-air seats.
Gotta love those lawyers. Maybe the Wrights should have gotten into computers instead?
Moon Missions = Kennedy = Democrats. Therefore, Nixon cancelled as much of that as he could, once he got into power in 68 - most missions were too far along to cancel, but the later ones were ok to stop. "Scrap it all, build me a shuttle!"
Carter was on the brink of cancelling the shuttle (build some nice Democrat program instead when the dust settled) but the program was too far along, to much money wasted to throw away.
And then came Reagan and Bush ! with a vengeance...Although Reagan preferred the space plan, which by the time Clinton got ahold of it was put quietly to rest... I think it had a lot to do with which contractors were where.
The guy set out the rules - he picked the worst possible meals, and automatically supersized them if asked (they always ask...). He ate these large meals morning, noon and night.
Basically, he was eating 5000 calories a day - double the recommended amount, high in sugar, starch and fat, low in vegetables, fresh fruits, fiber etc. Do you think he didn't know what was going to happen? And, his girlfriend was a vegetarian, so his body REALLY wasn't acclimatized to this diet either.
McDonald's sells what people want to buy. If you want healthy, they have salads, they have small regular burgers, they have frozen fruit'n'yoghurt parfaits, and - hey! - they have SMALL soft drinks. Maybe 200 calories of sugar water is a better idea than 700?? They have plain milk too!
Someone else is now doing a movie about losing weight by eating McDonald's food. They're going to eat healthy and sensibly... Do you think it'll get as much publicity?
BTW the guy in the movie said that he wasn't picking on McDonalds (hmmm...) After all, he said, their food is pretty much the same nutrition as any other fast food places. It's the sheer volume that causes the health problems.
Remember when a regular coke - those little greenish bottles - was 8 oz.? Probably before your time, but that was what passed for a regular serving then. Now, you only see that small a serving on the nutrition label "suggested serving" of packaged foods...
If you stay with a bank that charges 50 cents everytime you make a deposit, you really are an easy customer that Best Buy would want.
Welcome to Canada - land of a handful of banks. 5 consumer banks, to be exact; and they want to reduce that through mergers.
Good old bait and switch. When I started with the Toronto-Dominion, it was $5 for unlimited chequing, online, etc. Then they absorbed Standard Trust, and adopted a usurious fee schedule comparable to most other banks. One of my wife's co-workers found her service fees jumped to $70 for a typical household account. (It's 50 cents a transaction over 20 per month - imagine using a bank card for a $5 McPurchase - that adds up quick!) That's one reason why I never use my bank card, except to withdraw $200 cash at a time.
One of the other banks here is advertising $5 no-hassle unlimited accounts now. I wonder how long that will last. I wonder what the fine print is...
I eat at McDonald's BK, KFC, Wendy's for a reason - I know what I'm getting, and no hassles.
My old man was a cheapskate, but he grew up in Europe without a lot of money. I was with him one trip when he pulled up to the Texaco in his Jaguar and bought $1 worth of gas. (OK, that was 2 gallons in those days, but still...) That would keep him going until the Esso where he could use his Esso Credit Card. Oh, and he got a fantastic deal on the Jaguar...
I don't have that kind of brass, or I'd be the "you're fired" customer. If I go to Joe's Eats, I don't know what a burger costs til I walk in the door and read the menu, and I don't know how good it is until it arrives. If I was brassy, I could then reject it and walk out without paying , but it's so much simpler at the big franchises. Plus, sometimes (often) my wife and I will split a single meal; I feel imposing to do that in a small private business (lack of "brass"), but McDonald's couldn't care less if you order nothing but a small coffee and a cup of water.
People will agree that getting rebates on returned merchandise is theft, but I don't think BB will win customers by telling them not to take advantage of sales. I think they'll win more friends with a "let's get simple" approach. Also, here in Canada, eh?, you pay sales tax on the price before rebate - no rebate on taxes - 14% or more! Hmm... I wonder if they claim GST (VAT) back on that rebate? Rebates are a practice I tolerate because I have no choice - and usually take months for the cheque to arrive - and oh yeah, the bank will charge you a service fee to deposit - another 50-cent insult...
The rebate is a gimmick that (a) allows them to advertise a lower than true price - exaggerrated low price gets you in the door so the salesman can work his magic... - and (b) puts some limit on the quantity you buy (If like many box stores, the small retailer says "Their retail is lower than my wholesale!". The Grocery chains enforce limits with their "club" cards, but food is a whole different class of retail.
Those stupid warranty programs are a rip. When Sears first tried selling me one years ago for my fridge, my response was "are you suggesting you expect this product to fail??" When we bought coverage for our car tires from the dealer, and had to claim while away from home, it was almost as more trouble than it was worth. "Sorry, that warranty is through the dealer 1500 miles away, talk to them..." Had to buy a used tire as a spare and ask the dealer later for reimbursement of extra expense. Good thing they liked us...
BTW, notice that the world's biggest, most successful retailer is the one that offers NO gimmicks or sseasonal sales or other crap? Just "everyday, low prices". OK, so they're not always, but for all the (many) complaints thrown at Wal-Mart, the rarest are "I just bought it and then it went on sale", "I found it MUCH cheaper at another store", and "they tried to sell me an extended warranty".
Apparently cellphones and remote doorbells are the preferred way to exercise your vote in the Middle East. However, most targets of any import are wise to this, and do the jamming. If the Musharaf thing was a cell phone, I guess the guy didn't hang up soon enough?
Similarly, the Al Queda wannabe's in Iraq are reduced to using real doorbells, with wires. Apparently many convoys have local jammers to foil the wireless technique.
And,... where was I reading that whenever Air FOrce One comes to town, the garage doors and other remotes just go nuts... Ditto, AF1 have a very good collection of remote jammers for protecting POTUS-W.
Also, rolling codes are now common on garage door openers to foil the old trick - hook a 555 timer to a digital counter, and hook that to a transmitter, and drive around looking for garage doors to open. Originally, their code was only 3 digits long and it was easy to hit the right one within range while driving by and continually repeating the count.
I alsop heard a story (years ago) from a friend in the Canadian "Navy". Similarly, a tech had disabled and locked out the radar while working on the dish.
A know-it-all ahole officer (probably a lieutenant) came along, said "why is this off" took off the tag-out and turned it on. Apparently the guy lost most use of his one arm.
Also heard the story of the US Navy (a real Navy)that sailors used to stand in front of the dish for a few seconds before going on shore leave, to avoid the possibility of child support payments. Apparently the had found that it left them sterile for several days.
Unfortunately, it was later found that repeated exposure resulted in permanent sterility, not just a few days of "no swimmers".
If You could set up an ISP with an pay-per-download, and reach a court-mandated agreement with the local group representing all copyright holders, then - voila! Manadatory licensing.
Consider that SOCAN wanted the ruling enforced world-wide. The converse suggestion would be then that if someone anywhere in the world downloaded from your source, then they now have a legal copy - royalties all neatly paid.
I wonder how much per song SOCAN wanted? $1 Can. = 74cents US. Could probably wipe ITunes and the rest off the map.
Slashdot Mirror
If I had the money, time, and inclination, here are a few things I would think of for a modern house; they're pretty mundane but modern-practical: Insulate the house, with HRV. Whether your issue is heating or air conditioning, electricity is expensive and modern climate control uses electricity. It's financially sound, and ecologically good. I would design a "gray water" system. Water that's not sewage - from sinks, washer, etc. - should go into a tank to use for watering the lawn, flushing toilets, etc. This is probaby a better thing for the midwest that in New Orleans - I don't know what their water situation is like, obviously there's whole (muddy) river of the stuff running by. Any such system will have to be heavily designed to prevent cross-contamination and allow for gray water to go down the sewer when the tank gets full. I bet in the midwest, they still wouldn't let you water the lawn with it (or you'd just run the kitchen tap to water the lawn) so you need underground seep watering. The house of the future will have electronic appliance power control because the Enron of the future will charge you for peak use. One of the problems is that our power plants are sized for dinner-time cooking and the rest of the day, the plant runs at half-power. Each appliance will have the smarts to determine it's current and short term (next 6 hours?) power needs and adjust the power use accordingly. Since appliances aren't there yet, this means that the big power users would be connected to a box with a relay and computer interface. So, your freezer would be run during off peak - provided you don't open it, it will survive a 2 hour delay in being run. (Here's where integrating a temperature sensor would be a plus). When the air conditioner or furnace kicks in, some other devices kick off temporarily. A really smart freezer would cool itself down extra ahead of time to survive no power use for 5 hours... Your air conditioner would stop cooling when nobody's home... however, peak metering would require smarter meters. The appliances aren't there yet either. so instead, we'll all just pay generally higher prices. As previous posters have mentioned, CAT5e or Cat6 everything. Here. the phone company uses DSL for cable TV. I strongly suspect that a form of ethernet will be the most practical way to distribute HDTV around the house (think AppleTV); and the middle cable pair can be used for telephone. So put a drop anywhere - by where a TV, desk, night table, etc. would go. Wireless is all very well for surfing, but when everyone has one, there's got to be degradation from neighbourhood interference. Another nifty feature I saw was an infrared relay - an electric eye at each TV location, that runs down to an IR LED in the basement. All your electronics are located there, and any remote commands are relayed to the rack in the basement - so your DVR MythTV or cable box can feed the whole house from there. Required a pair of low voltage, IIRC and electronics at each end. Finally, all joking aside, you DO have to consider the next "big one". At the very least, have a door into the attic and another onto the roof. Allegedly many people were found drowned in their attic. The prettiest, most practical way to do this is probably a small attic room with a dormer window. Not sure what more there is to help. Locate whatever you can higher up - don't put electronics, etc. in the basement that can go in the attic (Electrical panel?). The next middlin' one may flood halfway up the first story. What else can be done to mitigate problems? I don't know. Use steel 2x4 for non-load bearing walls? Make it 2-storey, where the main floor is essentially garage and family room (like a walk-out basement) and the living area is the second floor? Have a survival kit in the attic - water, food, inflatable boat (and oars!!), etc.? Good luck!
This thing is just a projection unit, which means underneath is bulky and blocked off. It doesn't seem to be the real table-top display we're all looking for, where you can pop up a window and read it about the same size and resolution as a piece of paper. Basically it should be an electronic D-paper. I think I'll wait.
So, the big deal is the interface. This sounds too complicated. Each special item has to have its own handler - cameras, fingers, stylus, phone, PDA, etc. A "general environment" that has too be programmed for each special case doesn't sound that great.
Wonder what happens to it if you spill a drink on the surface. I think that "interesting ripple effect" kicks in...
IIRC, one of the most inept parts of the design was that the O-ring seal cupped upward, allowing precipitation to collect in the seal groove and then freeze? A downward-opening groove would have been more logical.
It was hard to read it.
(You do not have to testify in your own trial -just, if called on to testify against someone else, you must talk.)
Obviously, you are then at the mercy of the judges who decide if the evidence presented at your own trial actually followed from that testimony. And, you don't have to talk to the cops.... AFAIK, it's still not obstruction unless you withhold physical evidence or actually mislead the police.
However, "Lord" Black of Hollinger Inc. fame is arguing that his testimony should not be compelled in a Canadian court because American justice officials can then take it and attempt to extradite him to the USA to stand trial for nefarious conspiracies. (The Canadian evidence rules don't prevent foreigners from using the info, I guess - American, Syrian, or Egyptian...) Still waiting for the decision on that one, but the general attitude seems to be "we don't care about your USA problems..."
Trying to constrict or direct economics is like trying to hold back water. Water always wants to flow, always downhill (except for those very minor surface effects).
You can do minor direction - temporary dams, change of flow channel - but even this has unintended consequences.
You can dam it for a while, but the more you try to contain it, the bigger and clunkier the dam (and the bigger the mess when it finally gives)
If you block one channel, it will find a different route to go.
You can't squeeze it; if you try, it will burst- more mess.
If you try (like tax dollars) to spread it evenly regardless of natural flow, it will either flow back to where it was going anyway, or evaporate and precipitate somewhere where you didn't intend.
What is information? Yes it's incremental cost (cost of copying) is virtually free, but unless the development cost (cost of first assembly/ writing/ collection) is free (as a byproduct - say, you install the phone lines, you automatically have the white pages list) then it is worth whatever people will pay for it.
MS Office, for example, is worth more to businesses than the casual home user. Innovation would come in figuring a means to exploit that variable value. The phone company, for example, is regulated to make a home line cheaper than a business line. Charge too much, and there is an incentive to pirate. Charge too little, you go broke (? Not Bill...).
One innovation (Bill copies IBM) is to bundle it all into an OS that the hardware manufacturer then licenses, thus ensuring that consumer choices, and motive to pirate, is restricted (and you can vary the price depending on the "business use" appeal of the hardware...).
Perhaps one day we will all "subscribe" to software the way we do to those extra channels on cable. If you use your PeguinPoint this month, the "ArtistCollective Appropriation" (ASCAP?)will charge you $1.
Consider an elliptical orbit around the sun (aren't they all...) with a major axis where perihelion is earth's distance, aphelion is Mars' distance from the sun. I don't know the formula, but you should be able to find it on the net.
Now calculate the orbit time. You start your trip tangent to the earth, and blast away faster than the earth is circling the sun (but in the same direction). You catch up to Mars as the top of your orbit is tangent to (grazes the inside of) Mars' orbit. Therefore, total trip time is 1/2 the orbit period (full orbit time shoould be somewhere between Earth's year and Mars' 2 earth-years - I guess about 16 months?).
This ignores secondary effects like the slowdown escaping earth's gravity, and the acceleration reaching Mars. These should be minor adjustments - you would have to adjust your departure velocity from Earth to include extra for escape velocity from your starting point (presumably Low Earth Orbit). As you depart, Earth will slow you down somewhat, but past a million miles the effect should be negligible. It also ignores the ellipticity(??) of both Earth and Mars orbits, which change the distance an path - more second-order calculations. (Earth's orbit varies from 92m mi to 94m from the sun.) The second-order calculations shouldn't make a big difference...
Then you need braking power at Mars, or you can use the atmosphere to brake (or break, if you miscalculate Km vs. Miles).
So, the launch windows occur when Mars is in such a position that it will be 180 degrees ahead of Earth's current position when you get there...)
Let's say the orbit time above is 16 months (a guess). So if today is a launch window, Mars has to be 180 degrees away in 16 months. Next window? 12 months from now, we're back here (360 deg) but Mars is 180deg away(2-year-long year) from where it was last launch time. 4 months more(16), we're 120 further, Mars 60 more, 180+60 = 240, or only 120 ahead now...etc. 18mo. and we're 360+180, Mars is 180 degrees; bingo - press the launch button again, and in 16(/) months, mars will be where you need it to be.
Basically we're solving for integer solutions of: y= 2x (mod 360); but of course, the Martian year is not exactly 2 earth years. Look that up too.
You can only launch in the same direction as Earth (and Mars) travel around the sun. This is the minimal amount of rocket fuel. It's like throwing a ball in the air so the top of its arc is just as high as the spot you want it to hit... Launch counter to Earth's orbit, other way, and instead of using the speed of the earth's solar orbit to boost you to Mars, it is a detriment. You'd be better off with a more direct route, if you have the fuel to burn.
For faster transits, you just need an arbitrary chunk of an ellipse which intersects both orbits at the correct time. As for slow, steady propulsion like ion-drive or solar sail - well, that's why calculus exists.
Rotsa Ruck.
General
Infringement generally
27. (1) It is an infringement of copyright for any person to do, without the consent of the owner of the copyright, anything that by this Act only the owner of the copyright has the right to do.
Secondary infringement
(2) It is an infringement of copyright for any person to
(a) sell or rent out,
(b) distribute to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright,
(c) by way of trade distribute, expose or offer for sale or rental, or exhibit in public,
(d) possess for the purpose of doing anything referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c), or
(e) import into Canada for the purpose of doing anything referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c),
a copy of a work, sound recording or fixation of a performer's performance or of a communication signal that the person knows or should have known infringes copyright or would infringe copyright if it had been made in Canada by the person who made it.
So there it is - pretty much, if you don't make money off of copying, it's OK. This was the old-fashioned interpretation of copyright, before the days of cheap and easy reproduction. I don't understand why paragraph (b) doesn't apply to file-sharing across the internet world-wide, but hey, smart lawyers (?!) have successfully argued it doesn't. What isn't forbidden is allowed.
I have heard that the technical Canadian interpretation is - if I lend you a CD and you copy it, that's Ok. You had temporary possession and made a copy. If I make a copy for you, that's not OK. I'm distributing.
The argument is - what is file sharing? Am I lending you the song by hosting it, or am I copying it for you? If I just put it up for share, it's still a passive act. You intiate the download, you are doing the act of copying. Hence, you are "copying something I lent you". Legal as weasel stew...
Here's what Dave said:
The actual ruling... (Score:2) by daveschroeder (516195) * on Wednesday August 03, @03:33PM (#13233393) (http://das.doit.wisc.edu/) .
NLRB ruling [nlrb.gov].
The ruling does not universally allow employers to ban any and all off-duty interaction. It made a specific ruling, in its capacity of administering the National Labor Relations Act [nlrb.gov], that Guardsmark's ban on in-uniform, but off duty, fraternization ("dating or becoming overly friendly with") with clients and coworkers. The critical and key aspect of the ruling was that it allowed for the prevention of such inappropriate fraternization while in Guardsmark uniform. The NLRB ruling further stated that care must be taken such that this ruling is not misapplied as to have a "chilling" effect on employee's rights under Section 7 of the the Act..
The actual order is:
So basically, except for the chopped sentence, everyone reads "The critical and key aspect of the ruling was that it allowed for the prevention of such inappropriate fraternization while in Guardsmark uniform." Whether you meant to say that or not, that is how the flaming ----es are reading you. You can't get more specific than that, saying it was about activity in uniform.
If you want to get all Clinton about "allowed for prevention" not same as "ruled in favour", you'll find most people don't read it that way, I'm sure.
I kinda agree with the thrust of this or the hotel ruling - being chummy with people when you are expected to stay aloof can compromise security - that's how social engineering gets people past security barriers; or give the wrong impression of the service in a posh hotel.("We want service to be 'Yes, sir, no sir', not 'Sure nuff, bubba' even if he is your friend.") The ban on fraternizing with co-workers does seem to take it too far. And, any company that finds it necessary to forbid their employees from telling clients how poorly they get paid is probably not on the "10 best places to work" list.
The concept that people can be "fired at will" seems pretty bizarre outside the USA. In Canada, yes, an employer can dump anyone (non-union) as long as it's not discrimination - but the severance pay provisions kick in; it will cost you. (Typically from 1 week to 1 month per year of service, depending on various factors - age, difficulty or finding replacement job, etc.)
Heck, it's illegal in Canada to demand a drug test or lie detector test as a condition of employment. That's an invasion of privacy...
I thought I read somewhere that DVD burners do this same trick - every burned DVD includes the unique ID of the drive that created it; this feature too, is part of the firmware and cannot be bypassed.
The navigation package, the sensor package, etc. need standard interfaces to a "driver" level; just like the different drivers for various levels of the OS - file systems, disk drives, etc.
The OS would output a command like "turn 30 degrees, go forward 3 meters." The drivers would implement these commands. Or maybe, "start turning left" and monitor the output from the "Positional" driver until 30 degrees is reached.
Part of the standard OS (RobOS? Rollux? )would include things like building the virtual map of surroundings and obstacles to calculate the necessary navigation requirements...; receiving things like computer vision or ultrasonics via drivers, calculating arm movement requirements, etc.
-use it as a tethered HDTV camera, probably. (If the exposure is -Make timelapse movies, like those nifty cloud motion pictures.
-Use it to do automated functions like live webcam snapshots. What elese could you program it for?
I have to do something with my old digital camera, now that I don't feel like shelling out $70 for a battery that would hold a charge...
But, the camera people (a) don't want to give secrets to the competition and (b) why let someone else show you how to upgrade your features without buying anything?
I do think they're missing the boat here. Popular "hacker" products - TIVO, Apple II, IBM PC clones, etc. - became popular specifically because you could do extra things to them.
This looks pretty good. I bought the Multimedia Jukebox 20 when it came out, and I still love it - crappy quality, dying batteries, and all - because it beats lugging a laptop around on vacation to download my digital camera pictures. I've found it's simpler to just snap away and off-load later. So far, this is still cheaper that buying several gig of cards to last me over a vacation... and when the next generation of 10Mpixel cameras come out, we're going to need that much more space!
I looked at an iPod a few months ago and it still doesn't measure up. With the Archos I can look at the pictures ("Yes, they did copy" I distrust technology since the days of floppies) and it works as just a plain old external hard drive without Apple-retentive silly library management crap for my MP3's. Video? Who uses that anyway - although I did see someone using it once. By the time you convert your MP2, you might as well have just sat down and watched it.
This new device might be OK teamed with a PC-based DVR function; the current concept is nice, but what good's a "VCR" that you also have to disconnect and take with you? What's going to stay home and record shows while you're on the road?
They've finally conceded that replaceable batteries are needed. Good!
The "master USB" function is a good idea. It saves them having to build proprietary camera card readers, if any off-the-shelf USB card reader will do the trick.
What it is good for, is downloading photos on vacation. You got the little gizmo to provide music on those long trips... and you can also dump your camera card onto a 20Gb hard disk, and then use the colour screen to verify the photos are really there. (Peace of mind!)
This beats taking your laptop on vacation; but nobody other than Archos really seems to value this feature. Even the new ipod requires you to buy the crappy clunky slow Belkin adapter (bigger than the ipod itself! Needs batteries!) just to dwonload a memory card into the unit.
It also comes with a SmartMedia reader and CompactFlash reader - neither much bigger than the cards themselves, and able to dump a large card in a matter of a minute or 3.
That's an appreciable market - people who want to take a convenient, tiny download option on vacation instead of their laptop. If it includes music for those long flights or when you can only pick up C&W across the midwest, bonus!! The Belkin adapter is bulky, needs batteries and is (so I hear) very slow!
I suspect the "Here, let me show you" market will dwindle. The number of photos you have to leaf thru to find the "good" pic will grow exponentially, nobody will be interested in waiting. (Unless it is pr0n).
The "penny floating in the saucer" trick used the focal point of a mirror to do the trick. One similar item I recall hearing about did the same thing, but used a projector and a vibrating mirror. As the mirror moved in and out extremely fast, it produced the image of the source (screen?) at a different point of focus; Thus producing a virtual image at a certain point.
So can we modify this a bit by using a spinning glass disk shaped as a variable lens? This eliminates the need for the mirror to oscillate. Rotation is smoother and faster. As different parts of the lens disk pass the source, the virtual image is produced in different locations.
But it still has to be direct line of sight to the source lens. Maybe use a secondary, much larger fixed glass lens to help make the image bigger?
I agree? Where's Ben Affleck when you need him?
Actually, if you dig into the history of flight-
The Wrights patented their wing-warping steering and then tried to stifle competion through patent claims. Between 1903 and 1918 most innovation took place in Europe, far from the Wright Brothers' prying lawyers.
IIRC one of the innovations they tried to litigate as patent infringement was Curtis' ailerons, which were more adaptible than wing-warping for controlling larger and faster aircraft.
Hence the Europeans were flying monoplanes, triplanes, enclosed cockpits, multi-engine, machine guns and bombers. The US Army on it's (late 1917) entry into the war, had the "Jenny", which was basically a flying rail with a pair of open-air seats.
Gotta love those lawyers. Maybe the Wrights should have gotten into computers instead?
Moon Missions = Kennedy = Democrats. Therefore, Nixon cancelled as much of that as he could, once he got into power in 68 - most missions were too far along to cancel, but the later ones were ok to stop. "Scrap it all, build me a shuttle!"
Carter was on the brink of cancelling the shuttle (build some nice Democrat program instead when the dust settled) but the program was too far along, to much money wasted to throw away.
And then came Reagan and Bush ! with a vengeance...Although Reagan preferred the space plan, which by the time Clinton got ahold of it was put quietly to rest... I think it had a lot to do with which contractors were where.
Basically, he was eating 5000 calories a day - double the recommended amount, high in sugar, starch and fat, low in vegetables, fresh fruits, fiber etc. Do you think he didn't know what was going to happen? And, his girlfriend was a vegetarian, so his body REALLY wasn't acclimatized to this diet either.
McDonald's sells what people want to buy. If you want healthy, they have salads, they have small regular burgers, they have frozen fruit'n'yoghurt parfaits, and - hey! - they have SMALL soft drinks. Maybe 200 calories of sugar water is a better idea than 700?? They have plain milk too!
Someone else is now doing a movie about losing weight by eating McDonald's food. They're going to eat healthy and sensibly... Do you think it'll get as much publicity?
BTW the guy in the movie said that he wasn't picking on McDonalds (hmmm...) After all, he said, their food is pretty much the same nutrition as any other fast food places. It's the sheer volume that causes the health problems.
Remember when a regular coke - those little greenish bottles - was 8 oz.? Probably before your time, but that was what passed for a regular serving then. Now, you only see that small a serving on the nutrition label "suggested serving" of packaged foods...
Welcome to Canada - land of a handful of banks. 5 consumer banks, to be exact; and they want to reduce that through mergers.
Good old bait and switch. When I started with the Toronto-Dominion, it was $5 for unlimited chequing, online, etc. Then they absorbed Standard Trust, and adopted a usurious fee schedule comparable to most other banks. One of my wife's co-workers found her service fees jumped to $70 for a typical household account. (It's 50 cents a transaction over 20 per month - imagine using a bank card for a $5 McPurchase - that adds up quick!) That's one reason why I never use my bank card, except to withdraw $200 cash at a time.
One of the other banks here is advertising $5 no-hassle unlimited accounts now. I wonder how long that will last. I wonder what the fine print is...
My old man was a cheapskate, but he grew up in Europe without a lot of money. I was with him one trip when he pulled up to the Texaco in his Jaguar and bought $1 worth of gas. (OK, that was 2 gallons in those days, but still...) That would keep him going until the Esso where he could use his Esso Credit Card. Oh, and he got a fantastic deal on the Jaguar...
I don't have that kind of brass, or I'd be the "you're fired" customer. If I go to Joe's Eats, I don't know what a burger costs til I walk in the door and read the menu, and I don't know how good it is until it arrives. If I was brassy, I could then reject it and walk out without paying , but it's so much simpler at the big franchises. Plus, sometimes (often) my wife and I will split a single meal; I feel imposing to do that in a small private business (lack of "brass"), but McDonald's couldn't care less if you order nothing but a small coffee and a cup of water.
People will agree that getting rebates on returned merchandise is theft, but I don't think BB will win customers by telling them not to take advantage of sales. I think they'll win more friends with a "let's get simple" approach. Also, here in Canada, eh?, you pay sales tax on the price before rebate - no rebate on taxes - 14% or more! Hmm... I wonder if they claim GST (VAT) back on that rebate? Rebates are a practice I tolerate because I have no choice - and usually take months for the cheque to arrive - and oh yeah, the bank will charge you a service fee to deposit - another 50-cent insult...
The rebate is a gimmick that (a) allows them to advertise a lower than true price - exaggerrated low price gets you in the door so the salesman can work his magic... - and (b) puts some limit on the quantity you buy (If like many box stores, the small retailer says "Their retail is lower than my wholesale!". The Grocery chains enforce limits with their "club" cards, but food is a whole different class of retail.
Those stupid warranty programs are a rip. When Sears first tried selling me one years ago for my fridge, my response was "are you suggesting you expect this product to fail??" When we bought coverage for our car tires from the dealer, and had to claim while away from home, it was almost as more trouble than it was worth. "Sorry, that warranty is through the dealer 1500 miles away, talk to them..." Had to buy a used tire as a spare and ask the dealer later for reimbursement of extra expense. Good thing they liked us...
BTW, notice that the world's biggest, most successful retailer is the one that offers NO gimmicks or sseasonal sales or other crap? Just "everyday, low prices". OK, so they're not always, but for all the (many) complaints thrown at Wal-Mart, the rarest are "I just bought it and then it went on sale", "I found it MUCH cheaper at another store", and "they tried to sell me an extended warranty".
Similarly, the Al Queda wannabe's in Iraq are reduced to using real doorbells, with wires. Apparently many convoys have local jammers to foil the wireless technique.
And, ... where was I reading that whenever Air FOrce One comes to town, the garage doors and other remotes just go nuts... Ditto, AF1 have a very good collection of remote jammers for protecting POTUS-W.
Also, rolling codes are now common on garage door openers to foil the old trick - hook a 555 timer to a digital counter, and hook that to a transmitter, and drive around looking for garage doors to open. Originally, their code was only 3 digits long and it was easy to hit the right one within range while driving by and continually repeating the count.
A know-it-all ahole officer (probably a lieutenant) came along, said "why is this off" took off the tag-out and turned it on. Apparently the guy lost most use of his one arm.
Also heard the story of the US Navy (a real Navy)that sailors used to stand in front of the dish for a few seconds before going on shore leave, to avoid the possibility of child support payments. Apparently the had found that it left them sterile for several days.
Unfortunately, it was later found that repeated exposure resulted in permanent sterility, not just a few days of "no swimmers".
If You could set up an ISP with an pay-per-download, and reach a court-mandated agreement with the local group representing all copyright holders, then - voila! Manadatory licensing.
Consider that SOCAN wanted the ruling enforced world-wide. The converse suggestion would be then that if someone anywhere in the world downloaded from your source, then they now have a legal copy - royalties all neatly paid.
I wonder how much per song SOCAN wanted? $1 Can. = 74cents US. Could probably wipe ITunes and the rest off the map.