I graduated from Tech back in 2004. At the time, the Robojackets student org wasn't up to entering DARPA. Nice to see an organization on campus ready and trying.
Good to see some names I know on the list of people, too!
I understood the context of the comment (as MtF), just wanted to point out the incorrectness of calling that person a "male". There was not supposed to be any hard feelings there, just an polite correction (because the large majority of people don't understand us, I try to do outreach when I can). So I took no insult from it, just asking you to please do as you said and consider the proper terminology for future conversations (if indeed you ever talk about transexuals again;) ).
And yes, I completly agree that the whole nipple/breast in public thing is completely bogus, for all sexes.
Actually, just to correct you on one point, as a transexual myself.
A male transexual is a person born female, transitioning or transitioned to male. A female transexual is a person born male, transitioning or transitioned to female.
Female transexuals are refered to as she/her, and male transexuals are refered to as him/he.
A male transexual would probably not wear a corset (corsets being largely gender innapropriate for males). And a female transexual's nipples are no more legal to show in public then a genetic females nipples.
If you are going to try to use us as examples, at least try to be correct about it. There are more of us then you would think;)
Sorry GIMP, but I already bought my Adobe CS2 Suite package. Being able to edit rotated and scaled text is worth something to me (superior text/font support in general). Save for Web image optimization. Slices. Integration with other tools.
Maybe if I didn't learn the PS interface so long ago, but I am quicker in PS then I ever am in GIMP. So sorry, there is a place for the GIMP, but not in my toolbox.
A lot of people have caught the obvious, so I will really just summarize.
LEGO NXT & Mindstorms are both great kits to play around in. Especially if you have traditional LEGO bricks and Technic pieces already.
If you are more into Erector style kits, then go with the Vex kits from Radio Shack. They are clearing them out for some reason, so they are cheap. Make sure you get a programming kit though.
If you want more "professional" robots, maybe take a look at Lynxmotion, they have really really cool sets that will come with everything you need to make an arm, or a walker, or what have you.
Of course, you can go pre-made, but simpler, with a Mark III. This basic kit is wonderful to learn programming of a micro controller.
If you want a more capable micro, the OOPic is a good choice.
I have played or own all of the products above, and they are all wonderful ways to get your hands dirty. Of course, also see the book recomendations in this thread, there are excellent selections there too that I highly recomend.
All of the top modded posts seem to be advocating using off the shelf computers, and keeping them warm. The question I ask, is how much processor power do you really need?
If I were looking for a computer for that environment, I would be looking at Rugged off the shelf (ROTS) (As opposed to commercial off the shelf - COTS) products. Single board computers are your best friend in these conditions. Yes, you will pay a premium for them, but extended tempurature models operate down to -40 C. For example: http://www.versalogic.com/Products/DS.asp?ProductI D=170
Now, monitors can be a little trickier. To get that kind of operating tempurature in a display, you are either going heavy industrial equipment, or military, and you will pay a premium on those. If you don't need a display, or can get away with a small 4x40 LCD module or something, that would be a much better approach I think.
I disagree. I have a bachelors in computer science from Georgia Tech (in 2004), and we didn't do didly windows development.
We were taught concepts. Which means we learned about compilers in C, virtual machines in Java, object oriented programming in Squeak, functional programming in Lisp, etc. Heck, the first year of CS course, is all in a virtual langauge the faculty made up, that doesnt even have a compiler!
All of our assignment where generally done on unix boxes. Even for the game development class I took, you were allowed to choose your target platform (one group actually chose the gameboy).
Windows development experience might be useful if you aspire to be a code-monkey, but otherwise, teaching the concepts makes for much better value in education.
I have a 2.1GHz PPC iMac, with 1.5GB ram. I also have Office Professional with VPC. I have VPC to the max amount of memory allowed (512). It has Win XP Professional installed.
You can JUST ABOUT use VPC to render a page in IE. However, don't try anything with Flash. or Javascript. Or try any form of new application. They all run like molassas. Emulated performance is about a 300MHz machine. VPC is so sluggish, that I bought a wintel box just to do my website checking. (ok, and run oblivion)
Anyway, point is, XP is slow, Vista I am sure would be unusable.
That must be the home version then. I bought a Dell 5150 (the same hardware, but under the small business division) only a few weeks ago, and it did not have Google Desktop. Or any Google software.
"They don't care about technical issues. They care about cost, threat level and benefit.
Exactly.
However, I want to change around what you should present. Present the following:
1) How much does it cost us if we do nothing 2) What do we need to do to eliminate or reduce the cost of 1. 3) How much will step 2 cost. List both costs for eliminating step 1, as well as costs for reducing the majority of 1.
And to stress: SUMMARIZE, SUMMARIZE, SUMMARIZE. Prepare to back up any claim you make, but keep the summary short, sweet, and too the point.
Also, be prepared to compromise. You never seem to get 100% of a solution from a manager. Which is why you need to present the 75% or 90% solution, in addition to the 100% solution.
We personally use a StorCase infostation at work (http://www.storcase.com/infostation/ifs_ovrvw.asp). Now, we have the scsi version, so I can't speak to the Fiber version, but a fully loaded Storcase is cheaper then an XServe, and more dense. Alas, it would not come with the instant solution tech support that an XServe would.
"Cheap and accurate gene sequencing would help detect babies with genetic disorder before their birth, possibly allowing the correction of the defective genes prior to the baby's birth."
One thing that scares me about this scenerio: "Correction" might mean kill off the fetus before its born. Thats the cheap option right?
(I am not advocating that through any means! I am a Transsexual, but I don't want to be "corrected". Why cannot I live my life the way I want?)
I would love to be the proverbial someone to argue with you!
1) Please do not confuse Sex with Gender. They are not synonomous, nor are they interchangable.
2) Sex does have a place in the game. As soon as you introduce sexual characteristics, (ie male or female), then relationships will build based on those characteristics. These relationships can be same sex or different sex. And, they can be romantic, and often are. (I might be outside the norm, but I was involved in several, lesbian, cyber sessions back when I played WoW.) The game might not provide/finger/touch/penetrate etc macros, but that does not stop very descriptive textual (sexual) encounters.
Also, Transgender has nothing to do with sex as an act. I suggest you do more research on the topic.
If you read the article, it was pretty clear the advertisement was for a GLBT Friendly, not GLBT Exclusive guild. And it was spelled out pretty clearly. Therefore, it is non discriminatory, and no close minded players would be recruited.
As a Tech Alum, I must say it is nice to see my school taking on these issues.
However, I have a question for the panel, and the submission form seems to 404 on me.
While I was attending Tech, (only last year), Tech took a stance that it was an ISP, and thus not responsible for filtering the internet. How will a policy on P2P usage effect this stance?
The industry will never suffer acts like this to go on. The industry likes copy protection, and this will only serve to either kill the industry, or force Apple to make encryption server side.
Personally, I have ZERO qualms about the licenses on my iTunes music. So what you had to buy an iPod to use it? I wanted one anyway. My DRMed music plays just happy dandy on my Powerbook, my iPod, and my windows machine at work. I can burn essentially an unlimited number of CDs for the car. What more do I, joe user, need to do with this music that the DRM does not let me?
I second this. In the into to DB class I took, we didnt even get to any languages at all without going through all the basics, normalizations, etc. Only at the VERY END of the class did we actually use databases, and for that we used oracle. (school had a large piece of sun iron running it, but the class was flexible about using mysql and other databases that understand SQL)
So take the parent posters theme to heart: Teach the how and why first, then teach someones interpretation(implementation) of that.
Slashdot Mirror
Anyone else remember the turtle?
um... Eww. We had to do a Squeek 3d map of campus during school, and it was painfully slow...
I graduated from Tech back in 2004. At the time, the Robojackets student org wasn't up to entering DARPA. Nice to see an organization on campus ready and trying.
Good to see some names I know on the list of people, too!
Good luck!
I understood the context of the comment (as MtF), just wanted to point out the incorrectness of calling that person a "male". There was not supposed to be any hard feelings there, just an polite correction (because the large majority of people don't understand us, I try to do outreach when I can). So I took no insult from it, just asking you to please do as you said and consider the proper terminology for future conversations (if indeed you ever talk about transexuals again ;) ).
And yes, I completly agree that the whole nipple/breast in public thing is completely bogus, for all sexes.
Actually, just to correct you on one point, as a transexual myself.
;)
A male transexual is a person born female, transitioning or transitioned to male.
A female transexual is a person born male, transitioning or transitioned to female.
Female transexuals are refered to as she/her, and male transexuals are refered to as him/he.
A male transexual would probably not wear a corset (corsets being largely gender innapropriate for males).
And a female transexual's nipples are no more legal to show in public then a genetic females nipples.
If you are going to try to use us as examples, at least try to be correct about it. There are more of us then you would think
Sorry GIMP, but I already bought my Adobe CS2 Suite package. Being able to edit rotated and scaled text is worth something to me (superior text/font support in general). Save for Web image optimization. Slices. Integration with other tools.
Maybe if I didn't learn the PS interface so long ago, but I am quicker in PS then I ever am in GIMP. So sorry, there is a place for the GIMP, but not in my toolbox.
A lot of people have caught the obvious, so I will really just summarize.
LEGO NXT & Mindstorms are both great kits to play around in. Especially if you have traditional LEGO bricks and Technic pieces already.
If you are more into Erector style kits, then go with the Vex kits from Radio Shack. They are clearing them out for some reason, so they are cheap. Make sure you get a programming kit though.
If you want more "professional" robots, maybe take a look at Lynxmotion, they have really really cool sets that will come with everything you need to make an arm, or a walker, or what have you.
Of course, you can go pre-made, but simpler, with a Mark III. This basic kit is wonderful to learn programming of a micro controller.
If you want a more capable micro, the OOPic is a good choice.
I have played or own all of the products above, and they are all wonderful ways to get your hands dirty. Of course, also see the book recomendations in this thread, there are excellent selections there too that I highly recomend.
All of the top modded posts seem to be advocating using off the shelf computers, and keeping them warm. The question I ask, is how much processor power do you really need?
I D=170
If I were looking for a computer for that environment, I would be looking at Rugged off the shelf (ROTS) (As opposed to commercial off the shelf - COTS) products. Single board computers are your best friend in these conditions. Yes, you will pay a premium for them, but extended tempurature models operate down to -40 C. For example:
http://www.versalogic.com/Products/DS.asp?Product
Now, monitors can be a little trickier. To get that kind of operating tempurature in a display, you are either going heavy industrial equipment, or military, and you will pay a premium on those. If you don't need a display, or can get away with a small 4x40 LCD module or something, that would be a much better approach I think.
I disagree. I have a bachelors in computer science from Georgia Tech (in 2004), and we didn't do didly windows development.
We were taught concepts. Which means we learned about compilers in C, virtual machines in Java, object oriented programming in Squeak, functional programming in Lisp, etc. Heck, the first year of CS course, is all in a virtual langauge the faculty made up, that doesnt even have a compiler!
All of our assignment where generally done on unix boxes. Even for the game development class I took, you were allowed to choose your target platform (one group actually chose the gameboy).
Windows development experience might be useful if you aspire to be a code-monkey, but otherwise, teaching the concepts makes for much better value in education.
I really have to ask.... WHY!
I have a 2.1GHz PPC iMac, with 1.5GB ram. I also have Office Professional with VPC. I have VPC to the max amount of memory allowed (512). It has Win XP Professional installed.
You can JUST ABOUT use VPC to render a page in IE. However, don't try anything with Flash. or Javascript. Or try any form of new application. They all run like molassas. Emulated performance is about a 300MHz machine. VPC is so sluggish, that I bought a wintel box just to do my website checking. (ok, and run oblivion)
Anyway, point is, XP is slow, Vista I am sure would be unusable.
That must be the home version then. I bought a Dell 5150 (the same hardware, but under the small business division) only a few weeks ago, and it did not have Google Desktop. Or any Google software.
I want to highlight a couple of your points:
"They don't care about technical issues. They care about cost, threat level and benefit.
Exactly.
However, I want to change around what you should present. Present the following:
1) How much does it cost us if we do nothing
2) What do we need to do to eliminate or reduce the cost of 1.
3) How much will step 2 cost. List both costs for eliminating step 1, as well as costs for reducing the majority of 1.
And to stress: SUMMARIZE, SUMMARIZE, SUMMARIZE. Prepare to back up any claim you make, but keep the summary short, sweet, and too the point.
Also, be prepared to compromise. You never seem to get 100% of a solution from a manager. Which is why you need to present the 75% or 90% solution, in addition to the 100% solution.
But this wrecks integration with the rest of the site.
(Disclaimer, I am not an adwords subscriber, so I am not sure exactly how much control you get)
With textual ads, I assume that a little CSS can blend the add nicely into the rest of your site.
But with these new picture (and then video) ads, they don't fit in anymore to the rest of the sites appearance.
I realize not all sites are fashion conscious, but there are some sites out there that I am sure will hate the new picture ads.
We personally use a StorCase infostation at work (http://www.storcase.com/infostation/ifs_ovrvw.asp ). Now, we have the scsi version, so I can't speak to the Fiber version, but a fully loaded Storcase is cheaper then an XServe, and more dense. Alas, it would not come with the instant solution tech support that an XServe would.
"Cheap and accurate gene sequencing would help detect babies with genetic disorder before their birth, possibly allowing the correction of the defective genes prior to the baby's birth."
One thing that scares me about this scenerio: "Correction" might mean kill off the fetus before its born. Thats the cheap option right?
(I am not advocating that through any means! I am a Transsexual, but I don't want to be "corrected". Why cannot I live my life the way I want?)
I would love to be the proverbial someone to argue with you!
/finger /touch /penetrate etc macros, but that does not stop very descriptive textual (sexual) encounters.
1) Please do not confuse Sex with Gender. They are not synonomous, nor are they interchangable.
2) Sex does have a place in the game. As soon as you introduce sexual characteristics, (ie male or female), then relationships will build based on those characteristics. These relationships can be same sex or different sex. And, they can be romantic, and often are. (I might be outside the norm, but I was involved in several, lesbian, cyber sessions back when I played WoW.) The game might not provide
Also, Transgender has nothing to do with sex as an act. I suggest you do more research on the topic.
If you read the article, it was pretty clear the advertisement was for a GLBT Friendly, not GLBT Exclusive guild. And it was spelled out pretty clearly. Therefore, it is non discriminatory, and no close minded players would be recruited.
What were your points again?
As a Tech Alum, I must say it is nice to see my school taking on these issues.
However, I have a question for the panel, and the submission form seems to 404 on me.
While I was attending Tech, (only last year), Tech took a stance that it was an ISP, and thus not responsible for filtering the internet. How will a policy on P2P usage effect this stance?
The industry will never suffer acts like this to go on. The industry likes copy protection, and this will only serve to either kill the industry, or force Apple to make encryption server side.
Personally, I have ZERO qualms about the licenses on my iTunes music. So what you had to buy an iPod to use it? I wanted one anyway. My DRMed music plays just happy dandy on my Powerbook, my iPod, and my windows machine at work. I can burn essentially an unlimited number of CDs for the car. What more do I, joe user, need to do with this music that the DRM does not let me?
But its been done before:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0212720/
Yet another throw in vote for firewire cameras.
.5-1 sec delay to focus), if you need that.
One robot I built as part of a club used two firewire cameras. (full resolution from both at 30fps on a 400mb bus)
Unibrain has them on cheap (you will need a ND filter if used outside though)
Also, the apple iSight has autofocus (about
1. Steal Pizza Box (because you're really hungry)
2. Put laptop on Ebay.
3. Profit!
Oh wait, I need a ??? in there somewhere...
Hey. I learned Squeak in college!
They actually used it exclusivly for the object oriented class. (because, well, it is truly object oriented, unlike Java or C++).
Of course, running our app in wonderland (our big project was a 3d campus map) was slower then molases.
And etoys... wow, I think that was brand new near the end of the semester.
This was all about 3 years ago.
Side Note:
what band is that?
what website?
what genre?
etc....
Insert your shameless plug here... im willing to try new things.
I second this. In the into to DB class I took, we didnt even get to any languages at all without going through all the basics, normalizations, etc. Only at the VERY END of the class did we actually use databases, and for that we used oracle. (school had a large piece of sun iron running it, but the class was flexible about using mysql and other databases that understand SQL)
So take the parent posters theme to heart:
Teach the how and why first, then teach someones interpretation(implementation) of that.