Funamentally, most people use computers as appliances, and commodity desktops (XP/OS X) are geared towards this. This lets developers make assumptions about how the computer is configured. The downside is that it hampers how much customization you can do to the lower layers.
As a counter example, many moons ago, I hacked the init scripts on a RH installation so that the laptop initialized the network differently depending on whether I was at home or not (these days, probably supported feature; wasn't then). Of course, this meant that RH's GUI net config tools no longer worked, as I had to change the init behavior. Imagine if M$ let you muck around like that: chaos!
So, you get a toaster, which is easy to use for the things it was predicted to be used for, or a power tool, which will take your hand off if you use it wrong. I'm not claiming that combining the two can't be done, but evidence suggests that it would be very hard to get right.
Can your robots be hacked, like the register was reporting recently? (see the 32bit vs 8bit/. article for a link: many CDC machines are too underpowered to have any security built in)
This only holds if they want no more control over their computer than they do their toaster.
Personally, my toaster sucks. It only does one thing, and it does it poorly: it undertoasts the first slice, overtoasts the second.
The computer is not an appliance, but rather a tool. Tools are used by tool users, who have to know how to use them. A hammer will hurt you if you put your thumb between the head of the nail and the hammer. Expecting your computer to be easier to use than a hammer is folly.
The belief that the computer was an appliance has led to the down fall of many a company: Iopener / audrey / that virgin thing.
Which is not to say that there shouldn't be appliances and services built around computers, but these will likely be leased, not owned, by their users. Tivo is close. Itunes is on the way, but still relies too much on the harddrive on your desk.
which raises the somewhat sophilistic question: what constitutes the machine; at what point do you have a different machine than when you started?
unlike most philosophical questions, this one does have practical value, as some OS vendors restrict their software to run on one machine only; which leaves the question of how to define such a machine distressingly open.
how fast would you need to shoot it downwards in order for it to be caught by the atmosphere before it goes into an elliptical orbit?
There must be some critical altitude below which you cannot orbit, regardless of orbital velocity, due to air resistance: all you need to do is get the payload below that.
It's not immediately clear to me why the propagation speed of heat in a wire (dist per deltadegree per time?) should go from very low in a non-supeconductor to speed of light when the same material is superconducting... after all, the electrical propagation speed isn't affected, is it?
I'd much appreciate an intuitive description of why this is the case.
I have the dell 2001 FP (old one, with the chucky bezel), and have never noticed any ghosting or lag. I run DVI-D, so it could (as pointed out earlier) be the VGA circuitry. Or perhaps the newer models just suck more.
There was this great window manager theme years ago, likely for an early enlightenment, which made all the windows look as if they were sunken into a surgical chrome desktop. Very pretty. Didn't work too well for overlapping windows, tho.
I've often wondered about the 1/r^3 law for em transmissions. How come radios don't get alot weaker very quickly as you drive away from the radio station?
If you could power streetlights by the AM transmissions, wouldn't that mean that you could also electrocute yourself by touching any long peice of metal?
I just had a though (quick glance to see if anyone is going to rise to the bait).
I have thoroughly trashed recent linux kernels because their responsiveness sucked under moderate IO load. There was that one kernel, redhat's 2.4.10.xxx, that was smooth under the most intense loads.
Now, I don't know what motherboard I have, appart from it being the cheapest one the "we build cheap pcs and sell them on ebay" could find, so chances are good that it sucks.
Only thing is: It is a P4 celeron. Any known chipset issues with P4 MBs? Or am I stuck blaming the kernel?
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decode?
Isn't it just a raw mpeg stream?
My argument was oversimplified, but not silly.
Funamentally, most people use computers as appliances, and commodity desktops (XP/OS X) are geared towards this. This lets developers make assumptions about how the computer is configured. The downside is that it hampers how much customization you can do to the lower layers.
As a counter example, many moons ago, I hacked the init scripts on a RH installation so that the laptop initialized the network differently depending on whether I was at home or not (these days, probably supported feature; wasn't then). Of course, this meant that RH's GUI net config tools no longer worked, as I had to change the init behavior. Imagine if M$ let you muck around like that: chaos!
So, you get a toaster, which is easy to use for the things it was predicted to be used for, or a power tool, which will take your hand off if you use it wrong. I'm not claiming that combining the two can't be done, but evidence suggests that it would be very hard to get right.
ok, that's a little closer to what I'd hope for.
Can your robots be hacked, like the register was reporting recently? (see the 32bit vs 8bit /. article for a link: many CDC machines are too underpowered to have any security built in)
They shouldn't have to.
This only holds if they want no more control over their computer than they do their toaster.
Personally, my toaster sucks. It only does one thing, and it does it poorly: it undertoasts the first slice, overtoasts the second.
The computer is not an appliance, but rather a tool. Tools are used by tool users, who have to know how to use them. A hammer will hurt you if you put your thumb between the head of the nail and the hammer. Expecting your computer to be easier to use than a hammer is folly.
The belief that the computer was an appliance has led to the down fall of many a company: Iopener / audrey / that virgin thing.
Which is not to say that there shouldn't be appliances and services built around computers, but these will likely be leased, not owned, by their users. Tivo is close. Itunes is on the way, but still relies too much on the harddrive on your desk.
Just to get this straight:
you're getting 20Mbit/s NFS over gigabit ethernet?
And here I was thinking I might upgrade to 1Gb Ethernet... but for 2% of theoretical max, my money's better spent on beer.
The saddest bit about the EU is that we have the benefit of seeing what a disaster US legislation is, and still fall over ourselves copying it.
Truly tragic.
which raises the somewhat sophilistic question: what constitutes the machine; at what point do you have a different machine than when you started?
unlike most philosophical questions, this one does have practical value, as some OS vendors restrict their software to run on one machine only; which leaves the question of how to define such a machine distressingly open.
aha!
So this is how to reboot the client when a mounted NFS server has gone down.
how fast would you need to shoot it downwards in order for it to be caught by the atmosphere before it goes into an elliptical orbit?
There must be some critical altitude below which you cannot orbit, regardless of orbital velocity, due to air resistance: all you need to do is get the payload below that.
by searching the web for install nvidia geforce fx 5700 linux, and voila.
Perhaps if you're lucky (and google somehow figures out the "install" bit from context) you'd end up on this comment.
Of course your money's wasted unless you have used your special green refraction reducing marker to treat the edges of your cds.
cool. please let me know if you come to any conclusions
It's not immediately clear to me why the propagation speed of heat in a wire (dist per deltadegree per time?) should go from very low in a non-supeconductor to speed of light when the same material is superconducting... after all, the electrical propagation speed isn't affected, is it?
I'd much appreciate an intuitive description of why this is the case.
thx
I have the dell 2001 FP (old one, with the chucky bezel), and have never noticed any ghosting or lag. I run DVI-D, so it could (as pointed out earlier) be the VGA circuitry. Or perhaps the newer models just suck more.
There was this great window manager theme years ago, likely for an early enlightenment, which made all the windows look as if they were sunken into a surgical chrome desktop. Very pretty. Didn't work too well for overlapping windows, tho.
I've long since forgotten the name.
nope. Symmetric key cryptography relies completely on P != NP.
The easy definition of NP is the set of problems, which given a candidate solution, it is easy (P) to decide whether the solution is correct.
Given a known ciphertext and key, I can easily see whether the key decrypts the ciphertext. Thus, symmetric key encryption is in NP.
I had been waiting for that one.
truly priceless.
well, not all problems outside P are polynomial-time verifiable.
But x in NP and x not in P works...
well.
that was pedantic.
sounds like the job for any problem in NP.
that's what... 4000kbs? Isn't that within the speed expected from 802.11b?
yah.
I've often wondered about the 1/r^3 law for em transmissions. How come radios don't get alot weaker very quickly as you drive away from the radio station?
If you could power streetlights by the AM transmissions, wouldn't that mean that you could also electrocute yourself by touching any long peice of metal?
how is 4:2:2 different from 2:1:1?
Just curious. Not the first place I've seen the 4:2:2 used.
huh.
I just had a though (quick glance to see if anyone is going to rise to the bait).
I have thoroughly trashed recent linux kernels because their responsiveness sucked under moderate IO load. There was that one kernel, redhat's 2.4.10.xxx, that was smooth under the most intense loads.
Now, I don't know what motherboard I have, appart from it being the cheapest one the "we build cheap pcs and sell them on ebay" could find, so chances are good that it sucks.
Only thing is: It is a P4 celeron. Any known chipset issues with P4 MBs? Or am I stuck blaming the kernel?
confusion.
AFAIR:
An open circuit has a set potential difference (U) and a maximum amperage (I_max). It will supply I=U/R up to I_max.
So it would seem to be a question of the resistance of your body and the I_max of the circuit?
Isn't the concept of amperage in an open ciruit sort of ill-defined?