Ac to dc converters are more tricky because it is necessary to isolate the input from the output. That means using a transformer with either special insulated wire on the primary or the secondary or an insulating layer between the primary and secondary. This means the transformer is less efficient than if the copper was more closely coupled. Also you have to design for a wide variation of input voltages and account for minor brown-outs. Most switchers these days are designed to run on anything from 100V to 240V (plus safety over-rating). The large electrolytics needed to get a reasonably ripple-free d.c. supply from mains are quite bulky and expensive too. All this adds up to addtional component cost and complexity, on top of a reduction in efficiency.
A d.c. to d.c. converter only needs a switching inductor instead of a transformer and the capacitors can be much smaller, and offer better pulse handling, than the massive supply caps needed after a mains rectifier.
Given a choice, I know which I would prefer to design. The mains converter of course because it's so much more fun!!!
Most of the new reactor designs are third-generation pressurized-water reactors (PWR), although companies in China, France, and South Africa are looking to build a fourth-generation design called a gas-pebble-bed reactor (PBMR). The new reactors are supposed to be inexpensive to build, more powerful, and safer; and they can be operated for up to 60 years, according to nuclear-power trade groups.
Can someone please explain to me why we are even considering building PWRs. It doesn't look like they have much going from them and they are the type that, historically, go peeuufff!
I remember seeing TV programmes many years ago outlining how and why PWRs are so dangerous and how there are alternatives that are intrinsically safe from the same problems. If PBMRs are even cheaper than PWRs then why even mess with them?
From my own past experience it was because I lacked social skill. Unlike mice, it is possible for people to learn this if it doesn't come naturally. Bullies come and go but there is no need to withdraw from society. Avoiding bullies, though, is a good strategy because they probably aren't such good company even if they happen to be nice to you! Better to adapt and build on making positive friendships with more positive people. Being and having meaningful friends is a powerful place to be:-)
So a big thanks to all the bullies you helped me get there. Wonder where they are now?
Perhaps more people would listen to radio at home if it sounded any good and wasn't full for adverts. That's why I listen to it anyway. I just had a trawl with Streamtuner and have just found a nice station at OGG quality 7 (about 180kbps average) and it isn't mangled with Optimod dynamic range compression, phase rotation, EQ, clipper, limiter etc. No ads either. I can quite happily hook this up to a hi-fi system and chill to it.
Try doing that with FM or DAB radio!
I don't think internet radio is in any trouble right now as it is filling a niche that conventional radio can no longer touch. Perhaps this is a problem for existing radio stations that try to "go digital" but there is no shortage of small operators. Also, due to it's global nature, punitive licensing laws in one country just move the action to another less punitive country. Although the US can't be _that_ bad if they still have Soma FM (who IIRC fought to keep internet radio licensing within read of small operations in the US).
Yes, understand about the GTK+ bit but this really is a problem.
The first thing a user needs to do is find the document they want to open followed by finding where they want to save it. If they hit roadblocks doing that then they aren't likely to use it further.
The only place for a GTK+ file selector is on a Gnome desktop. Windows, KDE, Mac and other window manager users should not have to suffer the same misery. It must surely be possible to use a file selector from a different library according to the window manager being used? Doesn't Open Office do this?
7. The file selector that doesn't look anything like what the user is used to in either Windows and KDE. In Windows it is sometimes a challenge to find "My Documents" due to the way roaming profiles are configured in some corporate environments. I haven't tried Gimp on Mac to know how out-of-place it's file selector is there.
Why do you feel compelled to upgrade your linux distro?
Basically because so much software only works with the latest and greatest versions of libraries. Try installing the latest version of G-Streamer or VLC 0.8.4 on Redhat Enterprise 3, for example. I have actually wanted to do this recently to try and get streaming Theora to work instead of having to use Real Media. Since the encoding server is, well, a server, I can't just upgrade the OS. Yes, it is an unusual use for a server, I know.
Generally, I find brand new applications install easily on old versions of Windows better than they do on old versions of Linux. If you stick with an old distro you have to stick with all the old applications that came with it.
I am amazed any government can come out with something like this. I have a feeling this is just to deflect attention from more subtle barriers to entry being created. The idea is the FSF, Mandriva, Redhat and any other business and organisation that feels threatend spends all their energy fighting this particular threat.
It can't possibly become law. It's the "bad bill". The "good bill" is in there somewhere.
For software companies to push to ban open source is a bit like publishing companies pushing government to ban blogs and school essays because they threaten their ability to sell books.
Another aspect is that this also threatens the business interests of the companies that use open source in their business such as IBM and Novell. I'm sure they won't take this nonsense from the French government. Have they sent a letter to IBM in France threatening to sue them yet?
Oh my! That was one mother of a typo on the parent post.
I meant to say that the codecs like Theora were missing, not included. I'm really not interested in the proprietry codecs as I am interested in using open codecs for streaming via Icecast. Yes, some distros miss out Theora and virtually all of them miss out PVR support.
Yup, this is the big I'm interested in! I wonder if it will also work with OGG/Theora that way.
Unfortunately I will have to compile this from source for Linux because the rpm and deb packages are so hopelessly lame. They only enable half the codecs (like Theora) or functions (like PVR support) for no good reason I know about. However, whoever looks after the Windows installer pays a lot more care and attention and the Windows version is more representative of what VLC can do. I even resort to running it under Wine sometimes.
Yes, I did re-complile the RPMs myself for my particular distro of choice and one day I might even get them accepted!
I think about 60% of my Slashdot posts over the last few months have been about how peeved I am with half-assed-compiled VLC Linux packages.
As are the current ridiculously low speed limits on motorways. I am quite happy to drive at 30mph in towns and cities and even drive at 20mph in 20mph zones but 70mph is _much_ too low for a motorway. Those roads, and the modern cars that drive on them, are good for at least 90mph, maybe even 100mph.
In fact, in the early sixties the speed limit used to be 90mph but the cars of the day, and the driving skills of drivers not used to motorways who had passed less-strict-than-today driving tests, resulted in some spectacular accidents.
I think that is why speed cameras on motorways are disliked so much, because one has to drive unnaturally slow for the type of road to comply with the limit.
OK, this is a shameless troll but I'm really peeved by the GTK file selector and the way it hides what directory you're in unless you press this tiny little arrow. Is that going to confuse people or what?
It's bad enough having Firefox and Gimp rendered unusable (shameless exageration) in this way let alone a whole suit of applications.
KDE makes much more sense to me (shameless flamebait) and I hope there is another German distro that can become what Suse was once to fill the void that has been left by the "restructuring". All the times I've seen a US corporation take over a European company (shameless generalisation) they have just sabotaged it. I used to work for a European Harmen pro-audio company before the writing was on the wall what they wanted to do with it.
Dogs have been bred to be sociable with humans. A german shephard dog is about the same size as a wolf but a wolves behave differently to dogs. A wolf would naturally hide a safe distance from any humans and try and stay out of their way. If a wolf is domesticated from birth, by constant interaction with humans to the point of hardly leaving it with it's mother, then it will still tend to turn agressive at about 5 years old, I guess that's the age they start making serious pack-leadership challenges. Wolves also detest being restrained or fenced in, they like to roam. Why comapare a dog with a wolf? Because dogs _are_ wolves, or at least they were before we messed with them. Apparently a wolf has a brain twice the size of a dog of comparable build so it looks like we really dumbed them down! Wolves can also hold grudges. They have a strong sense of justice and if you scald them unreasonably they can remember it for years and then suddenly attack. I dog forgets these things within a few hours.
Cats probably behave the same domesticated or wild but a tendanncy to scratch or bite becomes more serious when its a 500kg tiger with 6000 lbs/sq inch biting force.
"My wife and I just watched the whole series of Dr Who on the laptop."
Considering the number of Dr Who programs made you must have now been married a long time. Congratulations:-) Now you may both need treatment for neck injury and deep vein thrombosis after all that time sat in front of a laptop.
With a name like "MythBusters" would anyone expect the experiment to be successfull? Their whole aim in life is to prove things not to be possible or to be wrong, so that's what they did.
I don't watch their programs (are they on TV or something), but I'm curious, have they ever proved a myth to be true? Or are they just into hopelessly beingsceptical and debunking anything that moves.
Or slashdot with it showing a linux user MS ads? Geez talk about adding insult to injury.
Yup. That's why I have now blocked flash. I just found the MS ads most distastful and annoying so now I have this Firefox plug-in that won't let any flash play without me clicking on it. No flash on Slashdot gets played because I can guess what it probably is!
Other ads I don't mind unless they delay page loads to the point of being annoying. Then the hosts file gets the "list of offenders" treatment.
I'm also seeing more sites bypassing Firefox's ad blocking. I have version 1.0.6. I haven't tried the new beta yet as I kind of have some inersia to stick with the disto rpm version.
"Multiply that lawsuit times the 35 to 40 patent lawsuits that are filed against Microsoft each year and you start to see why it is that Microsoft (and IBM, and the rest of the large players software industry) want patent reform." (emphasis mine)
Actually, this had me thinking. Certainly they would want the law changed to deal with the Eolas's of this world but I would be very surpised if they became totally anti-patent. More likely they would want the law changed in such a way to specifically remove the Eolas problem but preserve or enhance the usefulness and menace of their own patent portfolios. They aim is to keep patents as a means to keep software writting in the realm of the big boys and out of reach of any upstart startups that would threaten their business with any disruptive new ideas.
"First Adobe cut Premiere off of Apple, and now their video suite is Windows only."
This is a good thing. The less available it is the better. Premiere mangles audio (re-samples _without_ sample rate conversion) when you import different sample rates. Worse, it doesnt tell you it's doing it. I've even seen programs on BBC TV with audio grated in this way. It most commonly happens when a 44.1KHz CD is imported as backing music to a 48KHz project.
Most video engineers I know don't seem to be able to hear this happening. They use small PC speakers for monitoring.
At least Final Cut Pro sample rate converts when it needs to.
GTKs new file manager jarrs with my sense of what a normal file manager should look like. I was trying to show a newbe how to use Firefox and Gimp this morning on KDE and when this ugly file manager came up I had to explain that you had to click this tiny down-arrow to get anything like a normal view of the directory tree to appear.
This same file manager also rears it's ugly (my opionion, sorry) head on Windows with Gimp and Gimp Shop I think there will still be a major stumbling block to user acceptance.
I tried introducing Windows users to Gimp and even Gimpshop but the thing that always gets in the way is the file open/save dialogue. It might look right at home on a Gnome desktop but in Windows or KDE it just looks, works and feels completely different to the open and save dialogue you get in other applications. It's different, very different. Firefox on KDE also has this problem, that is a Gnome-esk file browser.
Openoffice used to have this problem too but now at least uses the native open/save dialogue to blend in with the style of the window manager it is running with.
Slashdot Mirror
Ac to dc converters are more tricky because it is necessary to isolate the input from the output. That means using a transformer with either special insulated wire on the primary or the secondary or an insulating layer between the primary and secondary. This means the transformer is less efficient than if the copper was more closely coupled. Also you have to design for a wide variation of input voltages and account for minor brown-outs. Most switchers these days are designed to run on anything from 100V to 240V (plus safety over-rating). The large electrolytics needed to get a reasonably ripple-free d.c. supply from mains are quite bulky and expensive too. All this adds up to addtional component cost and complexity, on top of a reduction in efficiency.
A d.c. to d.c. converter only needs a switching inductor instead of a transformer and the capacitors can be much smaller, and offer better pulse handling, than the massive supply caps needed after a mains rectifier.
Given a choice, I know which I would prefer to design. The mains converter of course because it's so much more fun!!!
That's the best news I've heard all day!
So there will be a bunch of compelling freeware and OSS applications that will only be available on Linux, Unix(s) and MacOS...
Most of the new reactor designs are third-generation pressurized-water reactors (PWR), although companies in China, France, and South Africa are looking to build a fourth-generation design called a gas-pebble-bed reactor (PBMR). The new reactors are supposed to be inexpensive to build, more powerful, and safer; and they can be operated for up to 60 years, according to nuclear-power trade groups.
Can someone please explain to me why we are even considering building PWRs. It doesn't look like they have much going from them and they are the type that, historically, go peeuufff!
I remember seeing TV programmes many years ago outlining how and why PWRs are so dangerous and how there are alternatives that are intrinsically safe from the same problems. If PBMRs are even cheaper than PWRs then why even mess with them?
Why is it that the bullied person must change?
:-)
From my own past experience it was because I lacked social skill. Unlike mice, it is possible for people to learn this if it doesn't come naturally. Bullies come and go but there is no need to withdraw from society. Avoiding bullies, though, is a good strategy because they probably aren't such good company even if they happen to be nice to you! Better to adapt and build on making positive friendships with more positive people. Being and having meaningful friends is a powerful place to be
So a big thanks to all the bullies you helped me get there. Wonder where they are now?
Perhaps more people would listen to radio at home if it sounded any good and wasn't full for adverts. That's why I listen to it anyway. I just had a trawl with Streamtuner and have just found a nice station at OGG quality 7 (about 180kbps average) and it isn't mangled with Optimod dynamic range compression, phase rotation, EQ, clipper, limiter etc. No ads either. I can quite happily hook this up to a hi-fi system and chill to it.
Try doing that with FM or DAB radio!
I don't think internet radio is in any trouble right now as it is filling a niche that conventional radio can no longer touch. Perhaps this is a problem for existing radio stations that try to "go digital" but there is no shortage of small operators. Also, due to it's global nature, punitive licensing laws in one country just move the action to another less punitive country. Although the US can't be _that_ bad if they still have Soma FM (who IIRC fought to keep internet radio licensing within read of small operations in the US).
Yes, understand about the GTK+ bit but this really is a problem.
The first thing a user needs to do is find the document they want to open followed by finding where they want to save it. If they hit roadblocks doing that then they aren't likely to use it further.
The only place for a GTK+ file selector is on a Gnome desktop. Windows, KDE, Mac and other window manager users should not have to suffer the same misery. It must surely be possible to use a file selector from a different library according to the window manager being used? Doesn't Open Office do this?
7. The file selector that doesn't look anything like what the user is used to in either Windows and KDE. In Windows it is sometimes a challenge to find "My Documents" due to the way roaming profiles are configured in some corporate environments. I haven't tried Gimp on Mac to know how out-of-place it's file selector is there.
Why do you feel compelled to upgrade your linux distro?
Basically because so much software only works with the latest and greatest versions of libraries. Try installing the latest version of G-Streamer or VLC 0.8.4 on Redhat Enterprise 3, for example. I have actually wanted to do this recently to try and get streaming Theora to work instead of having to use Real Media. Since the encoding server is, well, a server, I can't just upgrade the OS. Yes, it is an unusual use for a server, I know.
Generally, I find brand new applications install easily on old versions of Windows better than they do on old versions of Linux. If you stick with an old distro you have to stick with all the old applications that came with it.
I am amazed any government can come out with something like this. I have a feeling this is just to deflect attention from more subtle barriers to entry being created. The idea is the FSF, Mandriva, Redhat and any other business and organisation that feels threatend spends all their energy fighting this particular threat.
It can't possibly become law. It's the "bad bill". The "good bill" is in there somewhere.
For software companies to push to ban open source is a bit like publishing companies pushing government to ban blogs and school essays because they threaten their ability to sell books.
Another aspect is that this also threatens the business interests of the companies that use open source in their business such as IBM and Novell. I'm sure they won't take this nonsense from the French government. Have they sent a letter to IBM in France threatening to sue them yet?
I really want to know.
what's the open source equivalent of exchange server?
Possible responses...
1) A defective network cable
2) A fork bomb
3) A penguin running off the edge of a cliff
Oh my! That was one mother of a typo on the parent post.
I meant to say that the codecs like Theora were missing, not included. I'm really not interested in the proprietry codecs as I am interested in using open codecs for streaming via Icecast. Yes, some distros miss out Theora and virtually all of them miss out PVR support.
Yup, this is the big I'm interested in! I wonder if it will also work with OGG/Theora that way.
Unfortunately I will have to compile this from source for Linux because the rpm and deb packages are so hopelessly lame. They only enable half the codecs (like Theora) or functions (like PVR support) for no good reason I know about. However, whoever looks after the Windows installer pays a lot more care and attention and the Windows version is more representative of what VLC can do. I even resort to running it under Wine sometimes.
Yes, I did re-complile the RPMs myself for my particular distro of choice and one day I might even get them accepted!
I think about 60% of my Slashdot posts over the last few months have been about how peeved I am with half-assed-compiled VLC Linux packages.
If encouraging people to use non MS operating systems was a priority for them then their desktop apps would at least be cross-platform.
It clearly isn't for them because they aren't.
Redhat comes with Samba 3.x which has active directory support right?
Ok, now set up your Redhat box as an Active Directory Server. Ooops. The Samba set up GUI doesn't seem to have the facility...
I definitely support Linux but these kind of senarios are just plain embarrassing. In this case MS seems to have a point.
"Speeding is a problem"
As are the current ridiculously low speed limits on motorways. I am quite happy to drive at 30mph in towns and cities and even drive at 20mph in 20mph zones but 70mph is _much_ too low for a motorway. Those roads, and the modern cars that drive on them, are good for at least 90mph, maybe even 100mph.
In fact, in the early sixties the speed limit used to be 90mph but the cars of the day, and the driving skills of drivers not used to motorways who had passed less-strict-than-today driving tests, resulted in some spectacular accidents.
I think that is why speed cameras on motorways are disliked so much, because one has to drive unnaturally slow for the type of road to comply with the limit.
OK, this is a shameless troll but I'm really peeved by the GTK file selector and the way it hides what directory you're in unless you press this tiny little arrow. Is that going to confuse people or what?
It's bad enough having Firefox and Gimp rendered unusable (shameless exageration) in this way let alone a whole suit of applications.
KDE makes much more sense to me (shameless flamebait) and I hope there is another German distro that can become what Suse was once to fill the void that has been left by the "restructuring". All the times I've seen a US corporation take over a European company (shameless generalisation) they have just sabotaged it. I used to work for a European Harmen pro-audio company before the writing was on the wall what they wanted to do with it.
What then is the highest court in the land? I think Microsoft would like to know right now.
"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the highest court of all?" Oh- it's us!!!" - Microsoft
Dogs have been bred to be sociable with humans. A german shephard dog is about the same size as a wolf but a wolves behave differently to dogs. A wolf would naturally hide a safe distance from any humans and try and stay out of their way. If a wolf is domesticated from birth, by constant interaction with humans to the point of hardly leaving it with it's mother, then it will still tend to turn agressive at about 5 years old, I guess that's the age they start making serious pack-leadership challenges. Wolves also detest being restrained or fenced in, they like to roam. Why comapare a dog with a wolf? Because dogs _are_ wolves, or at least they were before we messed with them. Apparently a wolf has a brain twice the size of a dog of comparable build so it looks like we really dumbed them down! Wolves can also hold grudges. They have a strong sense of justice and if you scald them unreasonably they can remember it for years and then suddenly attack. I dog forgets these things within a few hours.
Cats probably behave the same domesticated or wild but a tendanncy to scratch or bite becomes more serious when its a 500kg tiger with 6000 lbs/sq inch biting force.
"My wife and I just watched the whole series of Dr Who on the laptop."
:-) Now you may both need treatment for neck injury and deep vein thrombosis after all that time sat in front of a laptop.
Considering the number of Dr Who programs made you must have now been married a long time. Congratulations
With a name like "MythBusters" would anyone expect the experiment to be successfull? Their whole aim in life is to prove things not to be possible or to be wrong, so that's what they did.
I don't watch their programs (are they on TV or something), but I'm curious, have they ever proved a myth to be true? Or are they just into hopelessly beingsceptical and debunking anything that moves.
Or slashdot with it showing a linux user MS ads? Geez talk about adding insult to injury.
Yup. That's why I have now blocked flash. I just found the MS ads most distastful and annoying so now I have this Firefox plug-in that won't let any flash play without me clicking on it. No flash on Slashdot gets played because I can guess what it probably is!
Other ads I don't mind unless they delay page loads to the point of being annoying. Then the hosts file gets the "list of offenders" treatment.
I'm also seeing more sites bypassing Firefox's ad blocking. I have version 1.0.6. I haven't tried the new beta yet as I kind of have some inersia to stick with the disto rpm version.
"Multiply that lawsuit times the 35 to 40 patent lawsuits that are filed against Microsoft each year and you start to see why it is that Microsoft (and IBM, and the rest of the large players software industry) want patent reform." (emphasis mine)
Actually, this had me thinking. Certainly they would want the law changed to deal with the Eolas's of this world but I would be very surpised if they became totally anti-patent. More likely they would want the law changed in such a way to specifically remove the Eolas problem but preserve or enhance the usefulness and menace of their own patent portfolios. They aim is to keep patents as a means to keep software writting in the realm of the big boys and out of reach of any upstart startups that would threaten their business with any disruptive new ideas.
"First Adobe cut Premiere off of Apple, and now their video suite is Windows only."
This is a good thing. The less available it is the better. Premiere mangles audio (re-samples _without_ sample rate conversion) when you import different sample rates. Worse, it doesnt tell you it's doing it. I've even seen programs on BBC TV with audio grated in this way. It most commonly happens when a 44.1KHz CD is imported as backing music to a 48KHz project.
Most video engineers I know don't seem to be able to hear this happening. They use small PC speakers for monitoring.
At least Final Cut Pro sample rate converts when it needs to.
File Manager.
GTKs new file manager jarrs with my sense of what a normal file manager should look like. I was trying to show a newbe how to use Firefox and Gimp this morning on KDE and when this ugly file manager came up I had to explain that you had to click this tiny down-arrow to get anything like a normal view of the directory tree to appear.
This same file manager also rears it's ugly (my opionion, sorry) head on Windows with Gimp and Gimp Shop I think there will still be a major stumbling block to user acceptance.
I tried introducing Windows users to Gimp and even Gimpshop but the thing that always gets in the way is the file open/save dialogue. It might look right at home on a Gnome desktop but in Windows or KDE it just looks, works and feels completely different to the open and save dialogue you get in other applications. It's different, very different. Firefox on KDE also has this problem, that is a Gnome-esk file browser.
Openoffice used to have this problem too but now at least uses the native open/save dialogue to blend in with the style of the window manager it is running with.
Is this too difficult to do?