I think humanity should have little bio-hazard symbols tattooed on our collective foreheads! All kidding aside, though our problems have several parts:
greedy energy demands
wastefulness
ignorance of natural systems
hubris
poor accounting
We are moving slowly into developing technologies that sip, rather then guzzle energy. Rising energy prices help drive an economic decision in this direction. The addition of microcontrollers and wily engineering can help achieve this goal. However I think that more distributed production of local needs is an important part of a less energy strategy. Economies of scale help a lot in some areas, but may be harmful in other ways. The large electrical power plant is a one off deal as an example. Suppose we decided to use a distributed approach. Here, some oil crop like canola is used as the primary solar capture. Treating the seeds gives an oil that can be used for a foodstuff, and a biodiesel feedstock. The protein cake left over can be used as food either for humans or livestock or both. The biodiesel is used to run a small engine that generates power fed into an electrical grid and process heat for cottage industry and home heating. Plant and animal wastes are composted and aged to eliminate pathogens, then used to support the oilseed crop. I think you get the systems idea...and some kind soul's left entries in the wikipedia.
Consider, also, that we still used mass production techniques to make the tools we need. We just spread the results out more!
We have to figure out how to make a no-waste society work. That means thinking up cheap friendly ways to repurpose or reclaim the stuff we want after its' end of life. We have started to do this already, but it will take ingenuity to make it work. RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) is a good start. Is their any way we can use biological systems to help do the work for us?
Understanding how to arrange biological systems to be effective partners would help. No sense trying to make a lawn in a desert, except as a demonstration of bad taste and poor judgement. Understanding the soil foodweb is a start. Developing understanding and engineering of micro climates and micro ecologies might make a lot of tough problems less so.
False pride in humanities accomplishments is a major problem. Just because we can build something doesn't mean it is the "right thing". On the other hand, denegrating our abilities doesn't help either. There is a balance point, it is just hard to find. Further, having society run by warring experts makes me... nervous.
Finally, the way we account for things, systems and resources is suspect. If you wish to make a difference, then change the tax law for corporations. Choosing to reward stewardship rather then rapine and pillage means that the financial systems will put their money for the best value proposition. Think Warren Buffet....
First, the refrigerant used in their independent calculation is R-22, a cloroflorocarbon that kills the ozone layer, implicated in crop failure due to high uv exposure.
Second, the cooling cycle uses water. Considering that potable water is in short supply, this is a problem...
Third, the thermodynamic Carnot cycle is a cap on the efficiency. Higher working temperatures do give a better efficiency, but you still have to cool them!
A different working fluid can be used. unfortunately, organic fluids tend to be flammable. Methanol might be a candidate. It is less toxic then ammonia.
Before the advent of mechanical refrigeration, some AC was done with evaporative air coolers. (for cinemas at the start of the 20th century). This might mitigate the second point.
Perhaps we are missing an important use. The humidity usually makes an environment uncomfortable. This system might find even more effectiveness driving a dehumidifier.
Finally, it might be equally effective to use a two stage boiler. A flat plate to get the fluid up to working temperature, and a solar concentrator to superheat the fluid to drive the system to a higher efficency
If it is as small and low speed as it seems to be, a treadle isn't the only way to use it!
As a low speed generator, it could be used in a smaller windmill, too. And as the generating element in a micro hydroelectric system.
Has anyone found any details on this little unit? Squid labs doesn't yet appear to have any information on it.
And, since the OLPC unit is running linux, that means cross development onto something like the Atmel AVR, MicroChip PIC, or Zilog Z8 might be just a short step away. Since I know that the AVR has app notes for using their parts as low speed USB devices, this may mean that building out infrastructure in a developing nation may just have gotten much, much easier.
This is an old, old arguement, well past it's shelf date.
As a parent, talking to other parents, the public system has some flaws of it's own. Bullying, which distroys a learning environment is one. Art, as mandated by a curriculum committee, of which no members are working artists is another. Music, again by one of those committees with no working performers, is another. And what passes for Phys. Ed. makes me cringe.
Any parent that home schools, is talking to other home schooling parents. They, and their kids, get together in social environments, as I recall. As a group, they see real theater, real music, real art. And, they get involved with all sorts of sports, both individual (martial arts) and group (baseball, soccer)
The fundamental divide is teacher centred learning (pedagogy) or learner centred learning (androgogy). The EducatorSpeak basically dresses up common sense into a maze of polysyllabic gobbledegook. It took me months of research to determine that the emperor has no clothes...
It is a figure that I fell across somewhere that in Mass. 98% were literate. After they introduced a public school system, that dropped to 92%, never to return.
This effort combines the best of a teacher/classroom situation, with that of the involved parents. It will be interesting to see how it compares in success to unaided homeschooling.
Hate to rain on someones parade, but that way lies madness.
The questions that need be asked before this are:
What, in the world around me makes me angry? What injustice is immediately at hand that I can correct?
What situations make me sad? Can I remove or reduce those situations in someone else's life too?
What do I find joy in? Can I spread it around?
Do I know the difference between what is needful, and what is just wanted? Are the real needs of people around us being sacrifised to mere wants?
Who are we trying to impress? Are we so thoughtless as to make other peoples idiocy your own?
I played that game for many years. Fortunately the skills are transferable and bought on someone elses coin. However I do not share so meagre a viewpoint as most. I don't have to do something dramatic to make a difference. Sometimes I found just being is "The Right Thing To Do".
My current personal choice is to live and work in a way that is fullfilling. If I have to learn business processes and form companies and organizations that suck less to do it, so be it. Frankly, I haven't had quite so much fun as now.
And you have the potential for electrolysis.
Process heat comes from the Sun, still the best fusion reactor going.
Electrolytic by-products are:
oxygen
silicon
a glassy slag concentrating mineral impurities to higher grade ore
Now if the reaction can be combined with some hydrogen injection to make water and ease the total (electrical) energy required you get a nice sustainable technology. Water, also.
Solar cells are made from the silicon, formed into parabolic mirrors that focus the IR band to the smelting pot. Interference coating the cells is easy with the free nothing called a vacuum
Electricity from the power cells drives the electrolysis and runs the station power.
With all that silicon, I'm betting that some composition can make silicon into something more ductile. Cheap building material would be nice...
i don't entirely agree with your point on constructivism - however i believe that the major issue with teaching science is; science is a structured process, not a list of facts. a process that happens to use a lot of detail, it is true, but a process nonetheless.
the practical reason for the disconnect of science in the classroom, is that the science teacher does not have practical experience in working with or doing either science or technology.
the scientific hypothesis is taken as the cornerstone of doing science, when, in fact it is a way of structuring a report and catching gross errors in reason.
according to richard feynmann, real science starts with the observer saying "that's funny...."
please excuse the e.e. cummings look - i'm being distressed with the behavior of this shift key.
The cynic in me is saying:
" Oh, and I suppose that legal costs are covered within an R&D budget also? How much of this is actually going to be used for development, as opposed to turf defending legal action by measures such as:
legal challenges to libre software IP
submarine patents to kill libre software initiatives
legal harrasment and intimidation of libre software developers
lobbyist activities in political parties and governments
poisoning the well for libre software in China
support of centeralist, autocratic and totalitarian regimes for monitoring citizens and suppressing privacy, freedom of speech and freedom of association
Apropos of the freedom bit, I think the quote you are looking for goes something like this:
"If you love something, set it free.
If it comes back to you, it's yours.
If it doesn't, hunt it down and kill it."
Cheers...
As a cranky engineer, I find this... sweet. The best phrase to help the system design effort is data flow. How does the machine chop up the task for the most performance?
The major problem in design is finding where to place the dotted line that says "cut here".
Software mavens know this as refactoring, or partitioning.
The gotcha in development would be to ignore the internal architecture of the FPGA. As a word of advice to the beginner, look carefully at the FPGA data flow, and try to decompose the algorithm ( or find a similar one) so that the data manipulation and movement fits the part as best as possible.
Just having an HDL is not enough, the neophyte hardware designer can easily write code that cannot be synthesised to work, let alone fit the part. A sensitivity to the underlying hardware is needed.
As an example of this, using hand crafted hardware design, Chuck Moore wrung several times the expected clock performance for a hardware Forth engine. A starting point for reading might be: http://www.ultratechnology.com/cowboys.html
Using hand-crafting, you can get enormous processing gains, but the hardware and system designs have to be well understood.
Perhaps the GNU uber-geeks could handle the translation efforts to make a tool for the average application programmer, but until then the brave soul who tackles these efforts should be prepared to learn a lot of the edges of computer science, hardware, and system design. It's not a horrible job, just long. And the problem should be worthy of the efforts needed.
Rather then a hodge-podge of radically different systems, I'd like to see a minimum of functional modules that could be:
reused
recycled
repaired and
re-purposed.
All systems Electromagnetic interference hardened.
Systems to have local distributed UPS functionality.
Low bandwidth X-10(tm) style environmental control for:
lighting
heating
security and
appliances.
Failover to a manual default on loss of function and communication.
Smart Human Interface Devices that identify which room they are in, and configure to that rooms functionality. Lightweight bandwidth requirements, power line operation, and easy to navigate and use. (say while injured, or functionally impaired when sick, suffering allergy attacks, or less then sober). Failover protection to a safe state on malfunction.
Data taps for high bandwidth requirements: computer, video, audio communication feeds.
Redundant router/switches with failover behavior. Modular construction.
User transparent so that it looks/acts like current power and telco technologies so user doesn't need a major paradigm shift to use it.
Learning system behavior with constant predictor/corrector behavior.
Ideal integrated home acts transparently.
Replication of design elements for economy of scale and low cost.
Very little that makes it stand out.
Whole-house audio? Hidden video screens? Expandable at will.
Automatic locks? ok
Is the technology ready for prime time? No.
You have the basic elements for a business already in place. The current problem is making all the pieces fit together. Balancing the components will be an ongoing task.
You seem to have:
Contacts and clients in the industry
A cash flow
Fundamental knowledge of the staffing process and the technology needed to support this
The understanding that this is a niche market, and is more service oriented
Assuming that all these factors are true, it would seem to follow that using a service model may be the best use of your time. The staffing part of your business is the best place to finesse your design, introduce this service to your clients (perhaps as a web enabled application/service) and to discern where the best revenue stream lies.
The only other bit of advice is to see where your energy levels peak. If you like the mix of all these activities then you're in the right place. If however parts of the efforts are draining and irksome then that should be cause for reflection.
Any business will take more then you expect, but if you're enjoying it, it's a blessing. If not, it would just get more and more draining every day.
IBM learned long ago that ongoing support generates a constant revenue stream.
That lesson was not lost on Novell, Redhat and I believe Ubuntu is following the same path
I think that we will see the application services and support companies running up the revenue stream. However, it takes talented people to seed this activity; one with a proven track record. I have been told that a VC looks briefly at the business plan, just to see it is thorough, knowing full well that as soon as the business opens it's doors, that plan will change as the prime movers identify the hot market needs.
So the quality of the people in the enterprise, and their successes is what gathers the most attention from the VC. It is the people that will make or break the business.
The comments are interesting, but there is one area that begs comment.
That area is, when do we become aware that each one of us has some handicap or another? Sure, some are severe, physical, and observable. Others, more insidious, are emotional or intellectual in nature. We can operate on a principle of exclusion, or we can attempt the tough work of inclusive design.
I don't hold much credence to commerce as the best measure of value; I believe a humanistic stance serves us better. Yet I am loath to claim that commerce has no value. How you adjust the balance in your deliberations is your personal responsibily. Yet I feel that all parties are best served by a more inclusive stance. Games are important, but especially so for those that can reach a 'normal' life only by proxy.
Should we deny those amoungst us a glimmer of what we take for granted? Or should we choose to include them as much as our wits allow?
I shall be interested as to what will be discussed.
I don't quite how to say this, but in a world of retouched, airbrushed, p0rn enhanced body mods, this seems a natural progression.
I think I shall change careers to be an undertaker. drug-lord or psychologist; I see an increase in suicide and despair as people try to conform to an unrealistic/unobtainable model of perfection.
All three should continue to be major growth industies, and are lucrative investments for the future
Oh, yeah. It isn't sufficient that we have an electronic leash on ourselves by the "powers that be"; we have to make the same indignity to the rest of the world, too.
Suicide is looking more and more as the "thinking mans option"
I am looking to the new ice age; maybe nature will get this broken species off Gaia. We seem to have been a supreme f**k-up. Starting from our own sexuality, for one
So, the uber hackers get their hands/minds on a real processor.
One simple word springs to mind: Refactoring
My experience has been that the cagey designer (I do hardware, friends do software) wants to find that mystic dotted line that says "cut here". The complexity just falls away after that careful choice.
I'll just watch from the sidelines, but I expect a lot of cross pollenation and hybridization to come from this intersection of hardware and software.
I am not kidding; really!
The episode I have in mind is where Spock is presented with a baby, which makes squalling noises until Dr. McCoy shows Spock how it is done.
- hold the baby so its' spine rests on the fore arm; left arm is preferred
- the natural reflex is to hold the baby close to your chest; give in to it
- your heartbeat is a reassuring sound to a newborn
- newborns breath incredibly lightly, so the panic of "is s/he still breathing?" should be expected
There is nothing more profound and scary then being presented with a new life; especially one that is totally dependent on your care.
Here is a hint: pass the bad baggage back, pass the good stuff on
There is a lot of good stuff that a geek has to offer: playfulness, curiousity and a free spirit are but a few of the bonuses of a Geek parent.
But the greatest gift you can give to the new souls in your life, to everyone, actually, is just being yourself. Warts and all.
Is it just me, but has the corporatist agenda suffered a complete disconnect from reality? Perhaps John Raulston Saul *is* the lone voice crying in the wilderness...
We are not just wallets to be picked clean in the most expedient way; perhaps it is time to remove the fictional person status from corporations, and make some other legal arrangement that would involve more of an explicit social contract.
As it now stands, the corporations have taken over much of the public dialog.
Having a moral finesse less then your average alley cat, they strive to offer the best "shareholder value" by an official policy that appears to be one of rapine and pillage.
Perhaps we should have "The Corporate Hun" award?
Or perhaps the Corporatist Pravda where the Official Truth can be promulgated unto the masses?
Oh, this criminal behavior again...
on
The Prodigy Puzzle
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Frankly, I think that streaming kids because of intelligence is a criminal act. This is probably a contentious, inflammatory statement to the slashdot crowd, but there are good reasons behind it. It has been my experience to watch the results of this misguided, hunchbrained thinking. They are not pretty. Merely developing intelligence is a cowardly act of dastardly proportions because people are more then just a disembodied intellect. If the entire person is not cultivated, then the classical "brain" shows up; socially inept, emotionally shallow and oblivious to the consequences of their actions. Contrast this with some of the more colorful characters that established new grounds: Claude Shannon ( Information Theory), Richard Feynmann ( quantum electrodynamics) and others. These people had real personalities, were socially aware of the rules they were breaking, and why those particular circumstances could accept that challenge in the playful spirit it was offered. Frankly, enriching the sterile classroom environment would benefit all learners, even if they were a bit slow. This is especially needed at the elementary level, when the realisation of the world as having both order and mystery can forge the best from every person. Lose the calculators, use the slide rule which gives a tremendous feedback as to the "feel" of arithmetic. Make it real, not abstract and the illiteracy, innumeracy and "common nonsense" bugbears suffer a major blow. Or, keep the things as they are and we can have our surgery done by educated fools. Your call. JB
of the bureaucratic mind. Most "paper pushers" want to make the right thing happen. Really. The system of checks and balances is there to prevent The Wrong thing from happening.
Bet if you cultivate your bureaucat, you might find shortcuts galore, an allied person to make that paper trail much easier to work with and stomach.
Remember, for every person that can produce, there is one more that can actually leave a document trail.
Such people are useful.
Don't waste your time and theres' on silly office politics. put it to better use.
Although it looks like a nice idea, there are a *lot* of drawbacks and problems remaining. It is nice to cater to the whims of the aging baby boomers for profit, but I fail to see the advantage.
First, such a piece of equipment makes their mobility problem worse unless the machine is self balancing; keeping vertical while the vertigo hits will still remain an issue, Should a fall occur, the machinery makes sure the elderly wearer is suitably smacked into the furniture. Old bones can break easily; moreso if they are not stressed by the musculature. By adding hardware assistance, bone and muscle degeneration is speeded up!
Second, the senses of the elderly are fading at this point. The accumulated cruft in the eye means that vision is no longer as sharp as it was. Then there are those danged cateracts...
Hearing, too, becomes more difficult with increasing deafness a major problem. The accumulated excess noise exposure takes it's toll in the loss of the high notes of the hearing range.
Touch ain't what it used to be either; it is difficult to feel things as nerve endings die off .
This looks like flaming death to Granny as she steps from the curb, loses her balance, and in power assisted into a moving vehicle that she hasn't heard or seen.
It nicely solves the problem of what to do with all those baby boomers, though. Just strap em in, and watch the mayhem...
I leave it to the Gentle Reader as to whether the quality of life issues have been addressed for those elderly persons
One last comment...
What happens when the battery packs die?
There better be an emergency escape on that thing that is voice controlled, because by that time, you'd be as helpless as a turtle on its back!
....And in continuing developments in increasing the density of the cavitation bubbles, it was discovered that root beer and a dollop of ice cream lead to an inhanced tritium user experience.
The research subjects were noted to leave with a glow on as well.
This is a safety issue, involving critical care decisions by interns already on hour 81 of a standard 40 hour work week, and the emergency room is crowded with the current fallout from a local riot. Think downtown Detroit in 1967.
I have heard stories of MS products concatenating records in a medical environment. The scheduled breast implants to an 85 year old man in for bypass surgery didn't happen, someone noticing unusual record mismatches with the patient on the gurney...
whatever is decided, Flag in RED possible problems and database sanity check failures. Write as if you are addressing someone who has english as a second or third language. Put the time critical information FIRST. Get real EM staff ( doctors, nurses and the technicians that would usually never see a live patient to check for clairity on the screens, reports, tickets and the importance of which procedure to do first.
A simple test - standard procedure involves taking the blood pressure and pulse.
There is bright red blood on the interior thigh.
Should you follow standard procedure, or check to see if the femoral artery is cut.
Time to bleed to death from such a cut is about 7 or 8 seconds, depending on severity.
And your choice is??
check the organ donation card if he is non- white.
check to see if he has up to date medical insurance
get the janitor to park him in an unused hallway, until someone notices.
immediately leave the scene, making sure you have witnesses in the coffee shop.
Slashdot Mirror
I think humanity should have little bio-hazard symbols tattooed on our collective foreheads!
All kidding aside, though our problems have several parts:
We are moving slowly into developing technologies that sip, rather then guzzle energy. Rising energy prices help drive an economic decision in this direction. The addition of microcontrollers and wily engineering can help achieve this goal.
However I think that more distributed production of local needs is an important part of a less energy strategy. Economies of scale help a lot in some areas, but may be harmful in other ways. The large electrical power plant is a one off deal as an example.
Suppose we decided to use a distributed approach. Here, some oil crop like canola is used as the primary solar capture. Treating the seeds gives an oil that can be used for a foodstuff, and a biodiesel feedstock. The protein cake left over can be used as food either for humans or livestock or both.
The biodiesel is used to run a small engine that generates power fed into an electrical grid and process heat for cottage industry and home heating.
Plant and animal wastes are composted and aged to eliminate pathogens, then used to support the oilseed crop. I think you get the systems idea...and some kind soul's left entries in the wikipedia.
Consider, also, that we still used mass production techniques to make the tools we need. We just spread the results out more!
We have to figure out how to make a no-waste society work. That means thinking up cheap friendly ways to repurpose or reclaim the stuff we want after its' end of life. We have started to do this already, but it will take ingenuity to make it work. RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) is a good start. Is their any way we can use biological systems to help do the work for us?
Understanding how to arrange biological systems to be effective partners would help. No sense trying to make a lawn in a desert, except as a demonstration of bad taste and poor judgement. Understanding the soil foodweb is a start. Developing understanding and engineering of micro climates and micro ecologies might make a lot of tough problems less so.
False pride in humanities accomplishments is a major problem. Just because we can build something doesn't mean it is the "right thing". On the other hand, denegrating our abilities doesn't help either. There is a balance point, it is just hard to find. ... nervous.
Further, having society run by warring experts makes me
Finally, the way we account for things, systems and resources is suspect. If you wish to make a difference, then change the tax law for corporations. Choosing to reward stewardship rather then rapine and pillage means that the financial systems will put their money for the best value proposition. Think Warren Buffet....
First, the refrigerant used in their independent calculation is R-22, a cloroflorocarbon that kills the ozone layer, implicated in crop failure due to high uv exposure.
Second, the cooling cycle uses water. Considering that potable water is in short supply, this is a problem...
Third, the thermodynamic Carnot cycle is a cap on the efficiency. Higher working temperatures do give a better efficiency, but you still have to cool them!
A different working fluid can be used. unfortunately, organic fluids tend to be flammable. Methanol might be a candidate. It is less toxic then ammonia.
Before the advent of mechanical refrigeration, some AC was done with evaporative air coolers. (for cinemas at the start of the 20th century). This might mitigate the second point.
Perhaps we are missing an important use. The humidity usually makes an environment uncomfortable. This system might find even more effectiveness driving a dehumidifier.
Finally, it might be equally effective to use a two stage boiler. A flat plate to get the fluid up to working temperature, and a solar concentrator to superheat the fluid to drive the system to a higher efficency
If it is as small and low speed as it seems to be, a treadle isn't the only way to use it!
As a low speed generator, it could be used in a smaller windmill, too. And as the generating element in a micro hydroelectric system.
Has anyone found any details on this little unit? Squid labs doesn't yet appear to have any information on it.
And, since the OLPC unit is running linux, that means cross development onto something like the Atmel AVR, MicroChip PIC, or Zilog Z8 might be just a short step away. Since I know that the AVR has app notes for using their parts as low speed USB devices, this may mean that building out infrastructure in a developing nation may just have gotten much, much easier.
At least, that is my hope ...
This is an old, old arguement, well past it's shelf date.
As a parent, talking to other parents, the public system has some flaws of it's own. Bullying, which distroys a learning environment is one. Art, as mandated by a curriculum committee, of which no members are working artists is another. Music, again by one of those committees with no working performers, is another. And what passes for Phys. Ed. makes me cringe.
Any parent that home schools, is talking to other home schooling parents. They, and their kids, get together in social environments, as I recall. As a group, they see real theater, real music, real art. And, they get involved with all sorts of sports, both individual (martial arts) and group (baseball, soccer)
The fundamental divide is teacher centred learning (pedagogy) or learner centred learning (androgogy). The EducatorSpeak basically dresses up common sense into a maze of polysyllabic gobbledegook. It took me months of research to determine that the emperor has no clothes...
It is a figure that I fell across somewhere that in Mass. 98% were literate. After they introduced a public school system, that dropped to 92%, never to return.
This effort combines the best of a teacher/classroom situation, with that of the involved parents. It will be interesting to see how it compares in success to unaided homeschooling.
Hate to rain on someones parade, but that way lies madness.
The questions that need be asked before this are:
What injustice is immediately at hand that I can correct?
Can I remove or reduce those situations in someone else's life too?
Can I spread it around?
Are the real needs of people around us being sacrifised to mere wants?
Are we so thoughtless as to make other peoples idiocy your own?
I played that game for many years. Fortunately the skills are transferable and bought on someone elses coin. However I do not share so meagre a viewpoint as most. I don't have to do something dramatic to make a difference. Sometimes I found just being is "The Right Thing To Do".
My current personal choice is to live and work in a way that is fullfilling. If I have to learn business processes and form companies and organizations that suck less to do it, so be it. Frankly, I haven't had quite so much fun as now.
Oh - it does feel like two jobs; but I like both.
Gee, I don't have intestines made by European researchers.
Just the standard issue ones. Not even suitable for use in making Garters.
Cheers!
Process heat comes from the Sun, still the best fusion reactor going.
Electrolytic by-products are:
Now if the reaction can be combined with some hydrogen injection to make water and ease the total (electrical) energy required you get a nice sustainable technology. Water, also.
Solar cells are made from the silicon, formed into parabolic mirrors that focus the IR band to the smelting pot. Interference coating the cells is easy with the free nothing called a vacuum
Electricity from the power cells drives the electrolysis and runs the station power.
With all that silicon, I'm betting that some composition can make silicon into something more ductile.
Cheap building material would be nice...
i don't entirely agree with your point on constructivism - however i believe that the major issue with teaching science is; science is a structured process, not a list of facts.
a process that happens to use a lot of detail, it is true, but a process nonetheless.
the practical reason for the disconnect of science in the classroom, is that the science teacher does not have practical experience in working with or doing either science or technology.
the scientific hypothesis is taken as the cornerstone of doing science, when, in fact it is a way of structuring a report and catching gross errors in reason.
according to richard feynmann, real science starts with the observer saying "that's funny...."
please excuse the e.e. cummings look - i'm being distressed with the behavior of this shift key.
" Oh, and I suppose that legal costs are covered within an R&D budget also? How much of this is actually going to be used for development, as opposed to turf defending legal action by measures such as:
- legal challenges to libre software IP
- submarine patents to kill libre software initiatives
- legal harrasment and intimidation of libre software developers
- lobbyist activities in political parties and governments
- poisoning the well for libre software in China
- support of centeralist, autocratic and totalitarian regimes for monitoring citizens and suppressing privacy, freedom of speech and freedom of association
"Apropos of the freedom bit, I think the quote you are looking for goes something like this:
"If you love something, set it free.
If it comes back to you, it's yours.
If it doesn't, hunt it down and kill it."
Cheers...
As a cranky engineer, I find this ... sweet.
The best phrase to help the system design effort is data flow.
How does the machine chop up the task for the most performance?
The major problem in design is finding where to place the dotted line that says "cut here". Software mavens know this as refactoring, or partitioning.
The gotcha in development would be to ignore the internal architecture of the FPGA.
As a word of advice to the beginner, look carefully at the FPGA data flow, and try to decompose the algorithm ( or find a similar one) so that the data manipulation and movement fits the part as best as possible.
Just having an HDL is not enough, the neophyte hardware designer can easily write code that cannot be synthesised to work, let alone fit the part. A sensitivity to the underlying hardware is needed.
As an example of this, using hand crafted hardware design, Chuck Moore wrung several times the expected clock performance for a hardware Forth engine. A starting point for reading might be:
http://www.ultratechnology.com/cowboys.html
Using hand-crafting, you can get enormous processing gains, but the hardware and system designs have to be well understood.
Perhaps the GNU uber-geeks could handle the translation efforts to make a tool for the average application programmer, but until then the brave soul who tackles these efforts should be prepared to learn a lot of the edges of computer science, hardware, and system design. It's not a horrible job, just long. And the problem should be worthy of the efforts needed.
One design paradigm.
Rather then a hodge-podge of radically different systems, I'd like to see a minimum of functional modules that could be:
All systems Electromagnetic interference hardened.
Systems to have local distributed UPS functionality.
Low bandwidth X-10(tm) style environmental control for:
Failover to a manual default on loss of function and communication.
Smart Human Interface Devices that identify which room they are in, and configure to that rooms functionality.
Lightweight bandwidth requirements, power line operation, and easy to navigate and use.
(say while injured, or functionally impaired when sick, suffering allergy attacks, or less then sober).
Failover protection to a safe state on malfunction.
Data taps for high bandwidth requirements: computer, video, audio communication feeds.
Redundant router/switches with failover behavior.
Modular construction.
User transparent so that it looks/acts like current power and telco technologies so user doesn't need a major paradigm shift to use it.
Learning system behavior with constant predictor/corrector behavior.
Ideal integrated home acts transparently.Replication of design elements for economy of scale and low cost.
Very little that makes it stand out.
Whole-house audio? Hidden video screens? Expandable at will.
Automatic locks? ok
Is the technology ready for prime time? No.
You have the basic elements for a business already in place. The current problem is making all the pieces fit together. Balancing the components will be an ongoing task.
You seem to have:
Assuming that all these factors are true, it would seem to follow that using a service model may be the best use of your time. The staffing part of your business is the best place to finesse your design, introduce this service to your clients (perhaps as a web enabled application/service) and to discern where the best revenue stream lies.
The only other bit of advice is to see where your energy levels peak. If you like the mix of all these activities then you're in the right place. If however parts of the efforts are draining and irksome then that should be cause for reflection.
Any business will take more then you expect, but if you're enjoying it, it's a blessing.
If not, it would just get more and more draining every day.
IBM learned long ago that ongoing support generates a constant revenue stream.
That lesson was not lost on Novell, Redhat and I believe Ubuntu is following the same path
I think that we will see the application services and support companies running up the revenue stream. However, it takes talented people to seed this activity; one with a proven track record. I have been told that a VC looks briefly at the business plan, just to see it is thorough, knowing full well that as soon as the business opens it's doors, that plan will change as the prime movers identify the hot market needs.
So the quality of the people in the enterprise, and their successes is what gathers the most attention from the VC. It is the people that will make or break the business.
The comments are interesting, but there is one area that begs comment.
That area is, when do we become aware that each one of us has some handicap or another? Sure, some are severe, physical, and observable. Others, more insidious, are emotional or intellectual in nature. We can operate on a principle of exclusion, or we can attempt the tough work of inclusive design.
I don't hold much credence to commerce as the best measure of value; I believe a humanistic stance serves us better. Yet I am loath to claim that commerce has no value. How you adjust the balance in your deliberations is your personal responsibily. Yet I feel that all parties are best served by a more inclusive stance. Games are important, but especially so for those that can reach a 'normal' life only by proxy.
Should we deny those amoungst us a glimmer of what we take for granted? Or should we choose to include them as much as our wits allow?
I shall be interested as to what will be discussed.
I don't quite how to say this, but in a world of retouched, airbrushed, p0rn enhanced body mods, this seems a natural progression.
I think I shall change careers to be an undertaker. drug-lord or psychologist; I see an increase in suicide and despair as people try to conform to an unrealistic/unobtainable model of perfection.
All three should continue to be major growth industies, and are lucrative investments for the future
Oh, yeah. It isn't sufficient that we have an electronic leash on ourselves by the "powers that be"; we have to make the same indignity to the rest of the world, too.
Suicide is looking more and more as the "thinking mans option"
I am looking to the new ice age; maybe nature will get this broken species off Gaia. We seem to have been a supreme f**k-up. Starting from our own sexuality, for one
So, the uber hackers get their hands/minds on a real processor.
One simple word springs to mind:
Refactoring
My experience has been that the cagey designer (I do hardware, friends do software) wants to find that mystic dotted line that says "cut here". The complexity just falls away after that careful choice.
I'll just watch from the sidelines, but I expect a lot of cross pollenation and hybridization to come from this intersection of hardware and software.
Crossing my fingers here, but if it works....
The episode I have in mind is where Spock is presented with a baby, which makes squalling noises until Dr. McCoy shows Spock how it is done.
- hold the baby so its' spine rests on the fore arm; left arm is preferred - the natural reflex is to hold the baby close to your chest; give in to it - your heartbeat is a reassuring sound to a newborn - newborns breath incredibly lightly, so the panic of "is s/he still breathing?" should be expected
There is nothing more profound and scary then being presented with a new life; especially one that is totally dependent on your care.
Here is a hint: pass the bad baggage back, pass the good stuff on
There is a lot of good stuff that a geek has to offer: playfulness, curiousity and a free spirit are but a few of the bonuses of a Geek parent.
But the greatest gift you can give to the new souls in your life, to everyone, actually, is just being yourself. Warts and all.
Perhaps John Raulston Saul *is* the lone voice crying in the wilderness...
We are not just wallets to be picked clean in the most expedient way; perhaps it is time to remove the fictional person status from corporations, and make some other legal arrangement that would involve more of an explicit social contract.
As it now stands, the corporations have taken over much of the public dialog.
Having a moral finesse less then your average alley cat, they strive to offer the best "shareholder value" by an official policy that appears to be one of rapine and pillage.
Perhaps we should have "The Corporate Hun" award?
Or perhaps the Corporatist Pravda where the Official Truth can be promulgated unto the masses?
Frankly, I think that streaming kids because of intelligence is a criminal act.
This is probably a contentious, inflammatory statement to the slashdot crowd, but there are good reasons behind it.
It has been my experience to watch the results of this misguided, hunchbrained thinking. They are not pretty.
Merely developing intelligence is a cowardly act of dastardly proportions because people are more then just a disembodied intellect. If the entire person is not cultivated, then the classical "brain" shows up; socially inept, emotionally shallow and oblivious to the consequences of their actions.
Contrast this with some of the more colorful characters that established new grounds: Claude Shannon ( Information Theory), Richard Feynmann ( quantum electrodynamics) and others.
These people had real personalities, were socially aware of the rules they were breaking, and why those particular circumstances could accept that challenge in the playful spirit it was offered.
Frankly, enriching the sterile classroom environment would benefit all learners, even if they were a bit slow. This is especially needed at the elementary level, when the realisation of the world as having both order and mystery can forge the best from every person.
Lose the calculators, use the slide rule which gives a tremendous feedback as to the "feel" of arithmetic. Make it real, not abstract and the illiteracy, innumeracy and "common nonsense" bugbears suffer a major blow.
Or, keep the things as they are and we can have our surgery done by educated fools.
Your call.
JB
of the bureaucratic mind. Most "paper pushers" want to make the right thing happen. Really. The system of checks and balances is there to prevent The Wrong thing from happening. Bet if you cultivate your bureaucat, you might find shortcuts galore, an allied person to make that paper trail much easier to work with and stomach. Remember, for every person that can produce, there is one more that can actually leave a document trail. Such people are useful. Don't waste your time and theres' on silly office politics. put it to better use.
Although it looks like a nice idea, there are a *lot* of drawbacks and problems remaining. It is nice to cater to the whims of the aging baby boomers for profit, but I fail to see the advantage.
First, such a piece of equipment makes their mobility problem worse unless the machine is self balancing; keeping vertical while the vertigo hits will still remain an issue, Should a fall occur, the machinery makes sure the elderly wearer is suitably smacked into the furniture. Old bones can break easily; moreso if they are not stressed by the musculature. By adding hardware assistance, bone and muscle degeneration is speeded up!
Second, the senses of the elderly are fading at this point. The accumulated cruft in the eye means that vision is no longer as sharp as it was. Then there are those danged cateracts...
Hearing, too, becomes more difficult with increasing deafness a major problem. The accumulated excess noise exposure takes it's toll in the loss of the high notes of the hearing range.
Touch ain't what it used to be either; it is difficult to feel things as nerve endings die off .
This looks like flaming death to Granny as she steps from the curb, loses her balance, and in power assisted into a moving vehicle that she hasn't heard or seen.
It nicely solves the problem of what to do with all those baby boomers, though. Just strap em in, and watch the mayhem...
I leave it to the Gentle Reader as to whether the quality of life issues have been addressed for those elderly persons
One last comment...
What happens when the battery packs die?
There better be an emergency escape on that thing that is voice controlled, because by that time, you'd be as helpless as a turtle on its back!
The research subjects were noted to leave with a glow on as well.
More news forthcoming from Slashdot.... -JB
I have heard stories of MS products concatenating records in a medical environment. The scheduled breast implants to an 85 year old man in for bypass surgery didn't happen, someone noticing unusual record mismatches with the patient on the gurney...
whatever is decided, Flag in RED possible problems and database sanity check failures. Write as if you are addressing someone who has english as a second or third language. Put the time critical information FIRST. Get real EM staff ( doctors, nurses and the technicians that would usually never see a live patient to check for clairity on the screens, reports, tickets and the importance of which procedure to do first.
A simple test - standard procedure involves taking the blood pressure and pulse. There is bright red blood on the interior thigh. Should you follow standard procedure, or check to see if the femoral artery is cut. Time to bleed to death from such a cut is about 7 or 8 seconds, depending on severity.
And your choice is??