I have a suspicion that the 'solution' to this is going to have to be someone re-implementing the SketchUp UI to fit over Blender, and or InkScape. Personally I would prefer it to sit on top of Blender because there are already tools that are well known for printing components from Blender on a 3d printer, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone has (or is working on) the same sort of process for SVG file based component designs.
A lot of 3d printer models are already being started in SketchUp, but then one has to extract the needed content from the SketchUp file to process it in Blender (or other tools) to get/generate tool paths for 3d printers.
I've never seen any of the development team for SketchUp suggest that there ever would be a Linux version. They seem to be content that at least some of the free versions run under Wine. Presuming you have proper 3d hardware acceleration running under Wine. Hell the developers are recommending other companies iOS software to people requesting _something_ for Android.
I gave up on having any real hope for a Linux release over a year ago. The SketchUp developers just don't seem to get the fact that they have a ready audience. And while Linux users have the image of not being willing to spend money, we don't all look for the cheapest hardware and restrict ourselves to software that doesn't have support agreements. And the people who will pay $500 or more for SketchUp are commercial users who would treat it as part of the cost of doing business. And considering that Google themselves have moved to a Linux and MacOS preference for operating systems for desktops, it just seems like ignorance on the developer's side that they haven't even started a port to Linux.
What the Model 100 had going for it was that for the target market you could put in 4 new AA batteries at 8 in the morning, set the clock (if needed) and start working, and not need to be plugged in again until midnight. For writers, and people doing data gathering in the field, this really does mean that you can work all day. The keyboard pretty much feels comfortable, you don't have extra hardware to keep track of in the field, (where did I drop that wireless mouse again?) and so on.
No it doesn't have an HD or Wysiwyg display. It's not going to run 3d games very well. etc. You are not going to watch TV on it, or have it read that book aloud to you. It's not the latest and greatest hardware. On the other hand what it did, and for what it was capable of doing, there really was not a lot of competition. It's not the sexy gadget of the week for endgadget or techcrunch. That's OK.
I don't recall the specs of the model 100, but the model 200 had an Intel 80c85 processor, with 3 26k banks of memory available. Each bank was available to the user as 19k of usable memory. The 200 had a 40 column by 16 line lcd display that folded over the keyboard, and that device gave Tandy a patent on the clamshell design for laptop and pocket computers they earned royalties on for the next 17 years.
I'm not saying that it was the sexiest device. But you would be hard pressed to find a device in the digital technology sector that has put in as many hours of work in as many fields, as the TRS-80 Model 100 (and by extension 102 and 200) portable computer.
This is the suit that Apple has attempted to end run the penalty by filing suit in the US against Motorola asking the courts to prevent Motorola from enforcing the ruling in Germany. The question I have is _in Germany_ who enforces court rulings? The petitioner, or an agent of the court?
It may be that since damages Apple must pay to Motorola are unspecified at this time, that the court in Germany may hold off on specifying them until the case in the US is decided. After all if the only penalty that Apple can declare has been adjudicated in Germany is that they can't offer the service without getting a patent licence, that may be all that the court in the US says they have to do, and there is nothing in the filing that is preventing Apple from doing that. If Apple seeks a license from Motorola, then Germany has a basis for declaring damages based on the negotiated license requirements.
It looks to me that Google is doing exactly what their p3p policy says they will do. It also looks to me like IE is assuming that simply because there is a reference to a p3p that it says whatever the developer thinks a pep should say, rather than whatever it actually says.
I'm not saying that Google shouldn't be setting up a situation where 3rd party cookies may be accepted when they are not wanted. I don't know how the p3p in place was decided upon, but just because I have a valid drivers license, doesn't give me authority to drive any vehicle known to exist. My curiosity may be such that if someone offers to let me try my hand at operating a Peterbuilt tractor, I might give it a go, but that's not part of the class of license that I carry and can present.
Hard for me to judge which platform gets this right. However having run various flavors of Ubuntu over the past few years, and nothing more recent in Windows than Windows 7, I can't tell you whether Windows 8 does a better job of things or not.
Some time _after_ I can pick up a copy of Windows 8, or get a PC with Windows 8 on it, can I judge.
As a point of comparison, Microsoft was giving a reasonably large number of indications that Windows 7 was going to come with a wonderful new file system available to either replace or run along side of NTFS, but by the time they went gold had decided that the file system wasn't ready for production. I'm not suggesting that Linux gets every file system it deploys right first time. Just noting that until Microsoft has released, rather than the 'pre-beta' edition that can be downloaded by developers, you can't rely on what you see in the 'pre-beta' showing up in final release. If you think you can, ask WordPerfect about that.
I'm not an astrophysicist, but I am aware of a few things that being able to map out a galactic magnetic field (or collection of fields) can be useful for.
We know that our knowledge of the makeup of galaxies is not complete, and knowing what the magnetic structure looks like can help point us at things that we may have missed. For example Magnatars are a variation of neutron stars that are very powerful magnetic objects. We know where some are based on observations of gamma ray emissions when their magnetic fields untwist (you will need an astrophysicist to explain why the twisting happens) but just their existence and movement within the galaxy should have an observable effect on the galactic magnetic field that may point us towards a better understanding of where and how many there are.
Additionally magnetic fields have an effect on, and are affected by the distribution of matter. So a better understanding of the structure of the galactic magnetic field should give us a more complete understanding of the structure of the galaxy to begin with. They may also help us to understand phenomena that we can see better. For example the arms or spirals of a galaxy are not 'static' relative to the stars in the arm. They are more of an effect of stars circling the galaxy clumping up or building into a wave, (for the bright portions of the arms) or moving apart (for the dim or spaces between the arms.) Having a good picture of the magnetic structure may give us pointers to what is causing these bunching and moving apart effects.
Finally we know that the magnetic field of Earth protects us from various radiation effects from the sun, which has it's own magnetic field that very well is affecting interstellar radiation. What sorts of affects on galactic and intergalactic radiation does the galactic magnetic field (and similar fields in other galaxies) have.
In time we may also be able to determine things like the age of a galaxy based on more than it's composition of stars. The structure of it's magnetic field where we can detect that, may tell us things about the age of it's stars. Do these fields grow with the absolute mass of a galaxy, is it greater or smaller based on the size of the galactic black hole for a galaxy. How do magnetic fields differ based on the structure of the galaxy that generates them.
If you're going this way, might I suggest just getting a belt sander and a shop vac. Most belt sanders have a shop vac hose fitting to collect the product of sanding. set it up with a good 150-80 grit belt turn it over and set up a platform to let gravity hold the disk against the belt. Turn it on, suck the remnants of the drive into the vac. You've got a shop vac now with powdered hard drive.
Main concern is that you have a good filter on the vac. There is lead in the solder on most drive controllers.
I simply print off and apply a "Western Digital Caviar 200" label. Haven't seen one last more than 6 months. Some of the later models have been ok, but the 200's, not even good paperweights.
...my concern would not be that it blocks sites, but that I get to specify why I am blocking sites, not just that the site is blocked.
Site killers for me are 'free' forums that require you to register to see responses. The ad host that does everything it can to keep you on it's site.
Content pharms are the boogie man here in that most of the time the only readers who knows that the content was pharmed are the original author and the pharmer. All too often the reader who's looking for an answer to what's wrong doesn't care who provides the answer, so long as it solves the problem. I'm not saying that it's not a problem. It is on multiple levels. All I'm saying is that if the information satisfies the question, most searchers are done. I'm probably not going to go back to the site unless I run into the problem again on a different system. But that's me.
Now the 'free' site that requires me to register to see a response, That I would block, and I would be happy to discourage other people from going there as well.
Occasionally I would block sites for content that I don't like, but I'm of the opinion that on that matter you shouldn't be affected by my decision not to see that site again. If you like content I don't, that's your business, not mine. If I like content you don't, I think that's my business not yours.
...when it gets down to it, the MacOS X platform is a Unix kernel and a collection of libraries and UI tools that ride on top of it. The collection that rides on top of it is based on the NeXT Step design and that already has an open source implementation called OpenStep.
The only thing preventing someone from going beyond that and implementing the remainder of the UI on a BSD kernel running OpenStep is either the fear of being stomped on legally by Apple, or the self-fulfilling belief that it can't be done.
OS X users are already benefiting from the experience gained in the development of Wine. If they want their favorite platform to do what it does so well, on the hardware they want to use it on, it is honestly going to be up to them to decide how they are going to deal with the fact that Apple is not only going to be opposed to that stance, Apple is going to act on that opposition.
Considering that many people already are not using their ISP's e-mail server, is this likely to become the death knell of publicly provided e-mail services?
I can see this being a significant issue for gmail, msn, yahoo and AOL (almost had SOL there, interesting) and their customer relations. For me it's a 5 min process to move my own services back onto my own computers. And as part of that I can advise friends and people I am going to exchange personal e-mail with to use an encrypted platform.
I don't know that it's going to be of use to many other people however. We've put a lot of work over time into making web based services simple to work with. Just as Microsoft put millions of hours into making Windows into a simple to use and work with platform. Building security and privacy into those platforms is not going to be a simple matter of tacking authentication and ssl onto them.
Scripting now available as well.
on
Unlocking Android
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· Score: 3, Interesting
If you would rather program in python, lau or bsh (not bash, but bean shell, a java based shell scripting language) and have an android based phone, have a look at ASE. Currently at version 0.8, found at http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/
You will want to follow the instructions under help once you have ASE installed. I found it easiest to save the script interpreters for python and lau along with the sample scripts to my phone's sd card as a separate action, then run the ASE application which immediately installed the interpreters and made the scripts available.
See also the wiki and related pages for explanations of why ASE might be of interest to you. Or may not be of interest.
This might be a good idea for a driving simulator setup. If the simulator already uses a video screen of some sort, add a window to simulate a TV watching a video or Live TV show, then record all the things that happened while the TV was on.
Give the driver a quiz and see how many things besides the TV they actually saw. Did they see the kid on the skateboard grinding his way down the city hall handrail? The scooter that drove through the red light? The red light? Stop signs? Other traffic at a Yield sign? The lady in the red dress? Did they track well in the lane? Did they take the right exit on the freeway? Collisions with traffic stopped ahead of them?
You're presuming that a person in an entry level job at a company who's software or hardware you have been using for some arbitrary amount of time, (5 min to 5 years) knows more about the issue that you're encountering right now, than you've been able to discern.
Yes, that is what they signed up to do. Hopefully they have a usable dataset of historical problems and solutions that they can access, and know how to search, that will give them a fast and easy solution to your issue.
The reality is that at most help desks you get a computer, an introduction to the application you are supporting, and a walk through on how to create a ticket. If you're lucky, you learn how to make the phone system do what you need it to do. If you're very lucky, the ticketing system is search able for more than a history of the tickets you've touched. If someone brilliant at the company you are working for has taken the time and put in the effort, you have a web based search tool available that will go through a data set that you and your peers provide input into, identifying what a problem does, and how to resolve it, including telling the user that it is a known flaw in the application and that it is being worked on if that is the appropriate response.
Also if you are very lucky, there are people looking at the systems that people are reporting issues on, and are actively working on replacing equipment with a defined history of problems, and software that has been updated solving known problems. In all to many cases, the company involved thinks that it's cheaper to just let the help desk monkey take the calls, and send out people to service the equipment.
And remember to check the battery periodically. Both the one in the vehicle, and the standby one on the LoJack system itself. You may need to provide a periodic jump start, often at early hours in the morning. As a result a good alarm clock for you might be in order.
...such as a livescribe pulse, or the like would allow you to capture not just the notes you take during the class, but in some cases the actual audio involved. Each day sync the pen to your computer, post your notes to your web page and blog. At the end of the year turn in the notebook as requested, and for your reference from then on, either look up the data on your web page, or print out the online edition of the notebook.
After the term is graded, and the grades are recorded permanently, publicly thank the teacher for wasting the time you spent in the class, as the notes you took as part of the class are no longer available to refer back to.
From my own experience, I have to admit that perhaps one or two of the classes I took through the various schools that I attended, ever provided me with useful reference material for subsequent classes. In almost all cases the real intent of the class is to learn how to find the answer to the question, and rarely ever has it been strictly having the 'correct' answer.
That applied to being able to demonstrate in the materials turned in for projects that you were able to derive the correct information, or in situations where research on a subject was required, being able to demonstrate that you were able to find resources that support the conclusion you are presenting, or in some cases the ability to propose a conjecture, and demonstrate through the appropriate research that the conjecture is invalid.
The knowledge gained in the process should become a tool you can use that does not rely on the material specific to that course.
In much of the US, high school students are required to take classes in a couple of English classes, some variety of mathematics, a Science class, and a variety of general electives. I strongly suspect that the vast majority of college students have never picked up their high school notebook for one of these classes to refer back to when attempting to understand a topic being discussed in college.
One side effect of this teacher's process very well may be to instruct the student in the value that their notes may have later on, but only if the material is available to them, and reviewed. If you have constructed a means of insuring that your notes are available to you, whether it be with a pen that captures your notes, or if you personally spend time each week transcribing your notes into your computer, or into another notebook, then you will have gained on the availability side, if not on the initiative to review those notes.
Think also of the library at Alexandria. We very well know that we lost significant knowledge of a number of topics as a result of it burning, and have no way of knowing if we have recovered that knowledge, or not.
Server admins have a pretty good idea of the value of having an available backup of the files on the server.
swype is intended as a replacement for an entire keyboard, and presumes that you are reasonably close to the first letter in the word.
One way to make swype work like this would be to start with a 'common' character on the keyboard and draw from there. Preferably central to the keyboard. Another alternative would be to build a 5x5 grid of letters, doubling the c and k characters into one cell of the grid, and using that as a swype board. (It would fit on a screen better as well) That layout is what the tap codes that POWs have used for communicating were based on. A 'faster' version of that would be to build the 5x5, layout where the corners could be function keys to switch between Alphabet, numbers, symbols, and perhaps smilies or commonly used words. Set the alphabet layout to start with 'E' in the middle, 'A', 'I', 'O' and 'U' in the corners around the 'E', and fill in the rest with the most commonly used 4 consanents, then the rest of the alphabet (c/k doubled, or possibly q/z) in a ring around the middle 9.
On the 'number' pad 5 is in the middle, as described, and the outside 13 unused keys could be speed dial entries, or something like that.
Those 'doubled' c/k or q/z keys would be software selected based on context. (which makes q/z seem more intuitively a better combination, not a lot of words using both letters.)
The big difference is that the swype idea is intended to speed up entry of entire words, and presumes you can see the keyboard on the screen. This input method is intended to enter individual numbers (and later by extension characters) on the assumption that you can't 'see' the input surface.
An alternative would be to use a multi-touch interface to do 'chord' key entry. From what I recall the G1 is not able to support that in software yet, and I don't know if the hardware supports multi-touch yet either. However a bluetooth based Chording keyboard would probably work very well.
One of the down sides to hardware that has no screen on it is that there is not a sufficient market for general use, and as a result the cost to the consumer is significantly higher. Braile readers for example end up being hand made because there isn't a sufficient demand to mass produce them, but the result is a display that's one or possibly 2 lines of text, that costs a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars to produce.
Part of the idea of what Raman is doing is taking existing consumer hardware and applying software solutions to make them more usable to the blind.
A similar solution would be to use a cell phone to convert the words a person is speaking into text that a deaf person could read. You could build into it language recognition and translation and the deaf person on the bus next to you on your next tour of Europe, Japan, China, etc. may get more out of what is going on around you than you do.
A screen free MP3 player may sound like something that a blind user would appreciate, especially if the control hardware, and the audio menus were well designed. The big problem becomes one of what all the device can do. Adding a camera to a device like this seems somewhat counter intuitive from a consumer goods perspective, even if the hardware cost were just additional pennies. How about gps location hardware. Again just pennies, but to build it into that MP3 player doesn't seem to make all that much sense, does it. Add in a compass and an accelerometer, and you have a navigation aid that a blind user could use to get almost anywhere with.
The thing is that pretty much everything described is in a G1, so really adding usability for the blind is primarily a matter of plugging into the user interface with something that converts text to speech and where possible images to text. Both of those are partially solved problems. The part that's still difficult is getting it all tied together, and making available sufficient processing power to make it operate cleanly.
One thing to remember when dealing with Amateur operators is that certain pieces of information, (read Hippa restricted) are not allowed to be transmitted in a manner that leaves that communication open for unauthorized people to monitor. At the same time, Amateur service operators (Hams) are not allowed to use encryption or other means of 'hiding' information in what they communicate on Amateur bands.
Part of this can be alleviated by authorizing Amateur operators to use frequencies and technology in support of emergency communications on bands allocated for the appropriate encryption, however at that point you eliminate the need for an amateur operator to be in the loop at all.
Acknowledged Amateur operators are authorized to use whatever radio and or technologies are available to them to communicate emergency traffic in the case of an emergency. However that tends to exclude the variety of information or traffic that supports operations in an emergency situation. The specific exclusion is designed to allow an amateur operator to pass traffic to the appropriate rescue agency to save lives and in some cases (not all) property. While it may be argued that traffic to request supply replenishment for the local shelter will save lives, it is not emergency traffic in nature.
Amateurs can and will continue to support emergency operations, however we know that we have limitations imposed on us by the license we hold, that are in contradiction to regulations regarding traffic that many of the agencies we are willing to support would like us to handle.
As far as the idea of a single system that supports all of the agencies, I don't have any idea when that is going to be pulled together. I doubt that it will be within the next year or four.
Slashdot Mirror
I have a suspicion that the 'solution' to this is going to have to be someone re-implementing the SketchUp UI to fit over Blender, and or InkScape. Personally I would prefer it to sit on top of Blender because there are already tools that are well known for printing components from Blender on a 3d printer, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone has (or is working on) the same sort of process for SVG file based component designs.
A lot of 3d printer models are already being started in SketchUp, but then one has to extract the needed content from the SketchUp file to process it in Blender (or other tools) to get/generate tool paths for 3d printers.
I've never seen any of the development team for SketchUp suggest that there ever would be a Linux version. They seem to be content that at least some of the free versions run under Wine. Presuming you have proper 3d hardware acceleration running under Wine. Hell the developers are recommending other companies iOS software to people requesting _something_ for Android.
I gave up on having any real hope for a Linux release over a year ago. The SketchUp developers just don't seem to get the fact that they have a ready audience. And while Linux users have the image of not being willing to spend money, we don't all look for the cheapest hardware and restrict ourselves to software that doesn't have support agreements. And the people who will pay $500 or more for SketchUp are commercial users who would treat it as part of the cost of doing business. And considering that Google themselves have moved to a Linux and MacOS preference for operating systems for desktops, it just seems like ignorance on the developer's side that they haven't even started a port to Linux.
What the Model 100 had going for it was that for the target market you could put in 4 new AA batteries at 8 in the morning, set the clock (if needed) and start working, and not need to be plugged in again until midnight. For writers, and people doing data gathering in the field, this really does mean that you can work all day. The keyboard pretty much feels comfortable, you don't have extra hardware to keep track of in the field, (where did I drop that wireless mouse again?) and so on.
No it doesn't have an HD or Wysiwyg display. It's not going to run 3d games very well. etc. You are not going to watch TV on it, or have it read that book aloud to you. It's not the latest and greatest hardware. On the other hand what it did, and for what it was capable of doing, there really was not a lot of competition. It's not the sexy gadget of the week for endgadget or techcrunch. That's OK.
I don't recall the specs of the model 100, but the model 200 had an Intel 80c85 processor, with 3 26k banks of memory available. Each bank was available to the user as 19k of usable memory. The 200 had a 40 column by 16 line lcd display that folded over the keyboard, and that device gave Tandy a patent on the clamshell design for laptop and pocket computers they earned royalties on for the next 17 years.
I'm not saying that it was the sexiest device. But you would be hard pressed to find a device in the digital technology sector that has put in as many hours of work in as many fields, as the TRS-80 Model 100 (and by extension 102 and 200) portable computer.
To the several who corrected my misunderstanding, thank you.
This is the suit that Apple has attempted to end run the penalty by filing suit in the US against Motorola asking the courts to prevent Motorola from enforcing the ruling in Germany. The question I have is _in Germany_ who enforces court rulings? The petitioner, or an agent of the court?
It may be that since damages Apple must pay to Motorola are unspecified at this time, that the court in Germany may hold off on specifying them until the case in the US is decided. After all if the only penalty that Apple can declare has been adjudicated in Germany is that they can't offer the service without getting a patent licence, that may be all that the court in the US says they have to do, and there is nothing in the filing that is preventing Apple from doing that. If Apple seeks a license from Motorola, then Germany has a basis for declaring damages based on the negotiated license requirements.
It looks to me that Google is doing exactly what their p3p policy says they will do. It also looks to me like IE is assuming that simply because there is a reference to a p3p that it says whatever the developer thinks a pep should say, rather than whatever it actually says.
I'm not saying that Google shouldn't be setting up a situation where 3rd party cookies may be accepted when they are not wanted. I don't know how the p3p in place was decided upon, but just because I have a valid drivers license, doesn't give me authority to drive any vehicle known to exist. My curiosity may be such that if someone offers to let me try my hand at operating a Peterbuilt tractor, I might give it a go, but that's not part of the class of license that I carry and can present.
Hard for me to judge which platform gets this right. However having run various flavors of Ubuntu over the past few years, and nothing more recent in Windows than Windows 7, I can't tell you whether Windows 8 does a better job of things or not.
Some time _after_ I can pick up a copy of Windows 8, or get a PC with Windows 8 on it, can I judge.
As a point of comparison, Microsoft was giving a reasonably large number of indications that Windows 7 was going to come with a wonderful new file system available to either replace or run along side of NTFS, but by the time they went gold had decided that the file system wasn't ready for production. I'm not suggesting that Linux gets every file system it deploys right first time. Just noting that until Microsoft has released, rather than the 'pre-beta' edition that can be downloaded by developers, you can't rely on what you see in the 'pre-beta' showing up in final release. If you think you can, ask WordPerfect about that.
If I'm in a gui that I've opened the ISO in, why would you 'cd' anywhere?
I'm not an astrophysicist, but I am aware of a few things that being able to map out a galactic magnetic field (or collection of fields) can be useful for.
We know that our knowledge of the makeup of galaxies is not complete, and knowing what the magnetic structure looks like can help point us at things that we may have missed. For example Magnatars are a variation of neutron stars that are very powerful magnetic objects. We know where some are based on observations of gamma ray emissions when their magnetic fields untwist (you will need an astrophysicist to explain why the twisting happens) but just their existence and movement within the galaxy should have an observable effect on the galactic magnetic field that may point us towards a better understanding of where and how many there are.
Additionally magnetic fields have an effect on, and are affected by the distribution of matter. So a better understanding of the structure of the galactic magnetic field should give us a more complete understanding of the structure of the galaxy to begin with. They may also help us to understand phenomena that we can see better. For example the arms or spirals of a galaxy are not 'static' relative to the stars in the arm. They are more of an effect of stars circling the galaxy clumping up or building into a wave, (for the bright portions of the arms) or moving apart (for the dim or spaces between the arms.) Having a good picture of the magnetic structure may give us pointers to what is causing these bunching and moving apart effects.
Finally we know that the magnetic field of Earth protects us from various radiation effects from the sun, which has it's own magnetic field that very well is affecting interstellar radiation. What sorts of affects on galactic and intergalactic radiation does the galactic magnetic field (and similar fields in other galaxies) have.
In time we may also be able to determine things like the age of a galaxy based on more than it's composition of stars. The structure of it's magnetic field where we can detect that, may tell us things about the age of it's stars. Do these fields grow with the absolute mass of a galaxy, is it greater or smaller based on the size of the galactic black hole for a galaxy. How do magnetic fields differ based on the structure of the galaxy that generates them.
A 10 year old who's been sent back a grade a couple or three times.
If you're going this way, might I suggest just getting a belt sander and a shop vac. Most belt sanders have a shop vac hose fitting to collect the product of sanding. set it up with a good 150-80 grit belt turn it over and set up a platform to let gravity hold the disk against the belt. Turn it on, suck the remnants of the drive into the vac. You've got a shop vac now with powdered hard drive.
Main concern is that you have a good filter on the vac. There is lead in the solder on most drive controllers.
I simply print off and apply a "Western Digital Caviar 200" label. Haven't seen one last more than 6 months. Some of the later models have been ok, but the 200's, not even good paperweights.
...my concern would not be that it blocks sites, but that I get to specify why I am blocking sites, not just that the site is blocked.
Site killers for me are 'free' forums that require you to register to see responses. The ad host that does everything it can to keep you on it's site.
Content pharms are the boogie man here in that most of the time the only readers who knows that the content was pharmed are the original author and the pharmer. All too often the reader who's looking for an answer to what's wrong doesn't care who provides the answer, so long as it solves the problem. I'm not saying that it's not a problem. It is on multiple levels. All I'm saying is that if the information satisfies the question, most searchers are done. I'm probably not going to go back to the site unless I run into the problem again on a different system. But that's me.
Now the 'free' site that requires me to register to see a response, That I would block, and I would be happy to discourage other people from going there as well.
Occasionally I would block sites for content that I don't like, but I'm of the opinion that on that matter you shouldn't be affected by my decision not to see that site again. If you like content I don't, that's your business, not mine. If I like content you don't, I think that's my business not yours.
...to avoid customs. I mean how many customs agents are going to be looking for him now?
...when it gets down to it, the MacOS X platform is a Unix kernel and a collection of libraries and UI tools that ride on top of it. The collection that rides on top of it is based on the NeXT Step design and that already has an open source implementation called OpenStep.
The only thing preventing someone from going beyond that and implementing the remainder of the UI on a BSD kernel running OpenStep is either the fear of being stomped on legally by Apple, or the self-fulfilling belief that it can't be done.
OS X users are already benefiting from the experience gained in the development of Wine. If they want their favorite platform to do what it does so well, on the hardware they want to use it on, it is honestly going to be up to them to decide how they are going to deal with the fact that Apple is not only going to be opposed to that stance, Apple is going to act on that opposition.
Considering that many people already are not using their ISP's e-mail server, is this likely to become the death knell of publicly provided e-mail services?
I can see this being a significant issue for gmail, msn, yahoo and AOL (almost had SOL there, interesting) and their customer relations. For me it's a 5 min process to move my own services back onto my own computers. And as part of that I can advise friends and people I am going to exchange personal e-mail with to use an encrypted platform.
I don't know that it's going to be of use to many other people however. We've put a lot of work over time into making web based services simple to work with. Just as Microsoft put millions of hours into making Windows into a simple to use and work with platform. Building security and privacy into those platforms is not going to be a simple matter of tacking authentication and ssl onto them.
If you would rather program in python, lau or bsh (not bash, but bean shell, a java based shell scripting language) and have an android based phone, have a look at ASE. Currently at version 0.8, found at http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/
You will want to follow the instructions under help once you have ASE installed. I found it easiest to save the script interpreters for python and lau along with the sample scripts to my phone's sd card as a separate action, then run the ASE application which immediately installed the interpreters and made the scripts available.
See also the wiki and related pages for explanations of why ASE might be of interest to you. Or may not be of interest.
This might be a good idea for a driving simulator setup. If the simulator already uses a video screen of some sort, add a window to simulate a TV watching a video or Live TV show, then record all the things that happened while the TV was on.
Give the driver a quiz and see how many things besides the TV they actually saw. Did they see the kid on the skateboard grinding his way down the city hall handrail? The scooter that drove through the red light? The red light? Stop signs? Other traffic at a Yield sign? The lady in the red dress? Did they track well in the lane? Did they take the right exit on the freeway? Collisions with traffic stopped ahead of them?
You're presuming that a person in an entry level job at a company who's software or hardware you have been using for some arbitrary amount of time, (5 min to 5 years) knows more about the issue that you're encountering right now, than you've been able to discern.
Yes, that is what they signed up to do. Hopefully they have a usable dataset of historical problems and solutions that they can access, and know how to search, that will give them a fast and easy solution to your issue.
The reality is that at most help desks you get a computer, an introduction to the application you are supporting, and a walk through on how to create a ticket. If you're lucky, you learn how to make the phone system do what you need it to do. If you're very lucky, the ticketing system is search able for more than a history of the tickets you've touched. If someone brilliant at the company you are working for has taken the time and put in the effort, you have a web based search tool available that will go through a data set that you and your peers provide input into, identifying what a problem does, and how to resolve it, including telling the user that it is a known flaw in the application and that it is being worked on if that is the appropriate response.
Also if you are very lucky, there are people looking at the systems that people are reporting issues on, and are actively working on replacing equipment with a defined history of problems, and software that has been updated solving known problems. In all to many cases, the company involved thinks that it's cheaper to just let the help desk monkey take the calls, and send out people to service the equipment.
And remember to check the battery periodically. Both the one in the vehicle, and the standby one on the LoJack system itself. You may need to provide a periodic jump start, often at early hours in the morning. As a result a good alarm clock for you might be in order.
...maybe someone who understands what science fiction is, will start producing it and carrying it on a channel they can name SciFi now.
Not that I'm bitter over the horror channel/ECW channel changing it's focus or anything.
...such as a livescribe pulse, or the like would allow you to capture not just the notes you take during the class, but in some cases the actual audio involved. Each day sync the pen to your computer, post your notes to your web page and blog. At the end of the year turn in the notebook as requested, and for your reference from then on, either look up the data on your web page, or print out the online edition of the notebook.
After the term is graded, and the grades are recorded permanently, publicly thank the teacher for wasting the time you spent in the class, as the notes you took as part of the class are no longer available to refer back to.
From my own experience, I have to admit that perhaps one or two of the classes I took through the various schools that I attended, ever provided me with useful reference material for subsequent classes. In almost all cases the real intent of the class is to learn how to find the answer to the question, and rarely ever has it been strictly having the 'correct' answer.
That applied to being able to demonstrate in the materials turned in for projects that you were able to derive the correct information, or in situations where research on a subject was required, being able to demonstrate that you were able to find resources that support the conclusion you are presenting, or in some cases the ability to propose a conjecture, and demonstrate through the appropriate research that the conjecture is invalid.
The knowledge gained in the process should become a tool you can use that does not rely on the material specific to that course.
In much of the US, high school students are required to take classes in a couple of English classes, some variety of mathematics, a Science class, and a variety of general electives. I strongly suspect that the vast majority of college students have never picked up their high school notebook for one of these classes to refer back to when attempting to understand a topic being discussed in college.
One side effect of this teacher's process very well may be to instruct the student in the value that their notes may have later on, but only if the material is available to them, and reviewed. If you have constructed a means of insuring that your notes are available to you, whether it be with a pen that captures your notes, or if you personally spend time each week transcribing your notes into your computer, or into another notebook, then you will have gained on the availability side, if not on the initiative to review those notes.
Think also of the library at Alexandria. We very well know that we lost significant knowledge of a number of topics as a result of it burning, and have no way of knowing if we have recovered that knowledge, or not.
Server admins have a pretty good idea of the value of having an available backup of the files on the server.
swype is intended as a replacement for an entire keyboard, and presumes that you are reasonably close to the first letter in the word.
One way to make swype work like this would be to start with a 'common' character on the keyboard and draw from there. Preferably central to the keyboard. Another alternative would be to build a 5x5 grid of letters, doubling the c and k characters into one cell of the grid, and using that as a swype board. (It would fit on a screen better as well) That layout is what the tap codes that POWs have used for communicating were based on. A 'faster' version of that would be to build the 5x5, layout where the corners could be function keys to switch between Alphabet, numbers, symbols, and perhaps smilies or commonly used words. Set the alphabet layout to start with 'E' in the middle, 'A', 'I', 'O' and 'U' in the corners around the 'E', and fill in the rest with the most commonly used 4 consanents, then the rest of the alphabet (c/k doubled, or possibly q/z) in a ring around the middle 9.
On the 'number' pad 5 is in the middle, as described, and the outside 13 unused keys could be speed dial entries, or something like that.
Those 'doubled' c/k or q/z keys would be software selected based on context. (which makes q/z seem more intuitively a better combination, not a lot of words using both letters.)
The big difference is that the swype idea is intended to speed up entry of entire words, and presumes you can see the keyboard on the screen. This input method is intended to enter individual numbers (and later by extension characters) on the assumption that you can't 'see' the input surface.
An alternative would be to use a multi-touch interface to do 'chord' key entry. From what I recall the G1 is not able to support that in software yet, and I don't know if the hardware supports multi-touch yet either. However a bluetooth based Chording keyboard would probably work very well.
One of the down sides to hardware that has no screen on it is that there is not a sufficient market for general use, and as a result the cost to the consumer is significantly higher. Braile readers for example end up being hand made because there isn't a sufficient demand to mass produce them, but the result is a display that's one or possibly 2 lines of text, that costs a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars to produce.
Part of the idea of what Raman is doing is taking existing consumer hardware and applying software solutions to make them more usable to the blind.
A similar solution would be to use a cell phone to convert the words a person is speaking into text that a deaf person could read. You could build into it language recognition and translation and the deaf person on the bus next to you on your next tour of Europe, Japan, China, etc. may get more out of what is going on around you than you do.
A screen free MP3 player may sound like something that a blind user would appreciate, especially if the control hardware, and the audio menus were well designed. The big problem becomes one of what all the device can do. Adding a camera to a device like this seems somewhat counter intuitive from a consumer goods perspective, even if the hardware cost were just additional pennies. How about gps location hardware. Again just pennies, but to build it into that MP3 player doesn't seem to make all that much sense, does it. Add in a compass and an accelerometer, and you have a navigation aid that a blind user could use to get almost anywhere with.
The thing is that pretty much everything described is in a G1, so really adding usability for the blind is primarily a matter of plugging into the user interface with something that converts text to speech and where possible images to text. Both of those are partially solved problems. The part that's still difficult is getting it all tied together, and making available sufficient processing power to make it operate cleanly.
One thing to remember when dealing with Amateur operators is that certain pieces of information, (read Hippa restricted) are not allowed to be transmitted in a manner that leaves that communication open for unauthorized people to monitor. At the same time, Amateur service operators (Hams) are not allowed to use encryption or other means of 'hiding' information in what they communicate on Amateur bands.
Part of this can be alleviated by authorizing Amateur operators to use frequencies and technology in support of emergency communications on bands allocated for the appropriate encryption, however at that point you eliminate the need for an amateur operator to be in the loop at all.
Acknowledged Amateur operators are authorized to use whatever radio and or technologies are available to them to communicate emergency traffic in the case of an emergency. However that tends to exclude the variety of information or traffic that supports operations in an emergency situation. The specific exclusion is designed to allow an amateur operator to pass traffic to the appropriate rescue agency to save lives and in some cases (not all) property. While it may be argued that traffic to request supply replenishment for the local shelter will save lives, it is not emergency traffic in nature.
Amateurs can and will continue to support emergency operations, however we know that we have limitations imposed on us by the license we hold, that are in contradiction to regulations regarding traffic that many of the agencies we are willing to support would like us to handle.
As far as the idea of a single system that supports all of the agencies, I don't have any idea when that is going to be pulled together. I doubt that it will be within the next year or four.