Microwaves work by emitting (gasp) microwaves. For the consumer level microwave ovens they work by emitting microwaves which are (hopefully) exactly tuned to the resonant frequency of one of the vibrational modes of the water molecule. Metals typically have lots of valence electrons. The really high flux of electromagnetic waves on these weakly bound electrons can get them moving, creating electric current, which heats up the metal, and can make fire. My personal favorite is the AOL cd in the Microwave. Not only do you get a light show, but it partially melts so you can mold them into funny shapes.
Stephen Wolfram is a Physicist (mathematica). I'ld wadger than all the early computer scientists were formally trained as physicsists.
The place where Computer Science deviates from programming is in hypotheticals and in theory. Unfortunately, there is a very small market for pure computer science (just as with other sciences). Real computer scientists should be developing tools for others to use to fulfil their computing needs. If they are simply programming for someone else, even if they are very very good at it they are simply programmers/technicians.
Yes, there is now and always will be a market for talented computer science people. However, there is a glut of so-called computer scientists.
However, computer science for computer science's sake is a very limited venture. Since science, video games, and porn seem to push the boundaries of computer technology (hardware and software), let's look at an example from the world of Physics. The PHEONIX project, a detector at RHIC, has a pretty robust software and hardware package associated with it. There are approximately 150+ developers working on various peices. Every night the software is re-built (successfully about 2 out of 3 times). All of the developers are Physicists. There are no computer scientists. The project management is done by a comercial software package they payed money for. That project management software is where the computer scientists came in, not in the actual software package.
I've been a firm believer that computer science for computer sciences sake is a limited enterprise, and that corporations (or small businesses) would be much more interested in someone who has expertise in another field and just happens to know how to program.
To this end, I suggest graduate study in another field. Many graduate programs in the hard sciences (especially PhD programs in the sciences) offer good compensation packages and sometimes include low-cost housing. On top of that, you don't have to pay off your student loans for a while.
Think of all the weakly interacting objects in space (that which interacts via gravity over a long distance, Ex. galaxies) as being linked by straws. As the overall volume of the universe increases the straws must get longer to maintain the same relative spacing. AKA everything is moving away from us.
In the three versions of cosmic doom, the universe can end up colapsing, expanding quickly at first and then slowing down, or expanding faster and faster until it basically falls apart. In the first case Einstein's Equations (General relativity) lead to a concave universe, the second leads to a flat universe, and the last leads to a convex universe. The only one of these forms that is really easy to picture is the flat universe since it is pretty much what we live in. The concavity or convexity of the universe has mainly to do with how to find the shortest distance between two points. Basically math becomes a pain in the a** because the derivative becomes location dependant.
Don't forget about Wordperfect Suite. I think it was the first of the office suites that would allow the user to publish directly to html (I think Wordperfect 5.2 had that). Microsofts first leverage of its Windows monopoly was to kill office suites and give MS Office dominance. When they bought Corel Wordperfect was still well known and a good linux version could have provided a nice alternative to MS Windows + MS Office. I think that was actually the packaged box Corel sold at BestBuy and CompUSA.
While I am very skeptical of the pro-linux argument that this is $600 versus "free" due to TCO, note that for the $600, that probably means $600 for an upgrade of software that is meant to similarly last another eight years or more.
The article pointed out that MS wanted 500-600 a year per screen. It also pointed out that they were estimating 200$ a year per screen for linux. It did not point out what those costs included. I think that the MS costs were for the software and system administration and training. The Linux costs was for system administration and training.
IMO Governments have no business producing any documents or storing any data in a proprietary format, because it locks them into a persistant contract. If the government really gets locked in, and MS descides to crank up its fees, the costs will have to be passed on to the taxpayers. There really would be a Microsoft tax (same goes for any other proprietary system eg. SUN, APPLE...).
According to this sec filing Microsoft gets pretty much all its money from Operating Systems and its Office Suite and pretty much looses money on everything else. These are the two areas where they have a 90%+ market share so they cannot sell any more units unless people buy more computers. Their stock valuation was heavily influenced by the assumption of 20% growth every year. The only way MS can do this is to increase the price of these products, which they cannot do for the same reason OPEC tries to keep the price of oil between $25 and $30 a barrel. If the price goes to high people start to look around for alternatives. MS will continue to sell copies of Windows and Office, but not at a rate which will justify their valuation or maintain their profits.
Besides, despite what you may think OSS is really hurting MS's plans. It has completely blocked their move into high end business computing (where the real money is), and consumer level OSS products directly threaten MSs profit centers. Open Office is a direct threat to Office (and runs on Windows). GNU/Linux seems to be making serious inroads in the home market (and don't forget it is the official operating system of China).
Microsoft won't last the 300 years of the slave trading corporations of the 16th century, and it certainly won't die anytime soon, but it won't take too long before they arn't so flush with cash (especially since it claims to be holding onto it's $43 Billion cash reserve to fend off future lawsuits).
$2.00 a song isn't unreasonable in many cases. For instance on a "typical" pop music album (persumably the case in other generes) there is ussually one or two songs which are hyped like hell on the radio (which is why you buy the album), probably two more songs that you might listen to a couple of times, and a bunch of crud. For that you are typically charged about $18. Assuming you get an album with 4 good songs, that is $4.25 a song.
However, in cases of a couple the $2.00 a song rate would dramatically drive up the cost of the music (the beatle's White Album, Pink Floyd's The Wall etc.).
Just out of curiosity, how many people consider a 'fair' price point to be greater than $0.00?
Depends on if there is any added value. I'ld be hard pressed to pay $0.99 a song if I didn't get to listen to it before hand. However, if I could listen to a streamed version of the song before purchase, and if after paying I can do what I like with it (put it on a CD, or a portable solid state player, leave it on my harddrive...) I'ld be pretty happy to pay $2.00 a song. Of course I'm not in the 18-24 demographic anymore so I don't find much "popular" music on the radio that I really enjoy so perhaps my voice doesn't count.
I don't doubt that Microsoft is a great employer. However I'ld be very worried about how the company will treat its employees in the future. I don't mean intentional neglect, but what will end up happening when the company starts to shrink (or even stablize). The two products M$ makes money on (windows and office) are already near 100% market share, so the only growth possible is from people buying new computes. In addition, Microsoft's two flagship products are now starting to experience increased competition (OSS + SUN + China + India). In the past, when other US companies have been in this situation their workers get stuck holding the bag. Look at Bethlehem Steel. At one point they employed 300,000 people and was a dominate force in the worldwide steel market. When they went bankrupt last year they had less than 3000 workers trying to support the pentions and health benefits of 75000 retirees. The US airline business is experiencing similar problems.
I'ld guess that the perks you see now, and those for the interns are probably designed specifically to foster "love" for Microsoft so when the company has to start cutting real benefits their employees will stay loyal.
BTW. If everyone in an area has above average income, the cost of living goes up pretty dramatically and vice versa. Where I live there are lots of students and state workers. As a graduate student I've been able to buy a house. I doubt that the $100,000 a year accountants in Pallo Alto have been able to buy a house.
Hmmm... I wonder if the first batch of PS3's really will be produced mid-year and goto game manufacturers rather than consumers. It sure would make one hell of a product anouncement. Hypothetically in mid-June we might read, "Today Sony shipped 3000 Playstation 3's to game producers. M$ cr**ed its pants."
Whenever the PS3 comes out I sincerely hope that it is backwards compatable with the PS2 (and PS). Perhaps even in the same way the PS2 was backwards compatable with the PS. The entire previous system was produced on a single chip and inserted in the PS2 in addition to the PS2's own circutry (the same chip was the origin of the smaller PS). If Sony anounce that this would be the case with the Playstation 3 I think it would keep current PS2 owners from buying a XBox.
This isn't gasoline. There's only so much gasoline on the planet. This is bandwith. It's intangible. It can't run out.
Nope, it isn't like gasoline. It is like electricity. At any given moment there is a limited supply, and it cannot be stored. During peak times bandwidth (and electricity) are very valuable since nearly all of it is used. In the middle of the night (hmm... that might be a peak time for downloads) err... during a period of low demand it is nearly worthless since there is so much extra capacity. ISPs average this out for us so we do get a flat rate for a month of acess or a flat rate per data unit for transfers (if you're a big user). This is why huge jumps in ussage costs so much to the ISP and why customers who have burst contracts get charged for it.
build in clauses that say the end-user is required to notify the ISP of problematic access within a certain timeframe
This would be like dealing with stolen credit cards. When a credit card is stolen the owner gets 24 hours to report it and is only liable for $50. If they wait up to 72 hours, they are only liable for $500. I'm not sure what happens after that. This system protects both the credit card company and the credit card user by insuring prompt reporting of stolen credit cards and fraudulent activity (and can hopefully catch the crook). This system has worked fairly well.
The implications for ISPs and their customers for a similar system would be pretty interesting. The customers who actively monitor their network traffic and help to head off problems would be rewarded by being less liable for damage, while ISPs would be free to give the full bill to those who ignore their bandwidth usage. This system should lead to lower costs for the better customers and discurage neglegance possibly leading to better service for all.
Use of the school's network is a priveledge, not a right.
I concur. However, it has become a priveledge which is expected, much as driving has. When people turn 16 they expect to be able to get a driver's license (in most states) regardless of weither or not they have a car. They also expect to be able to continue to drive until they die. However, there are circumstances which cause the privledge to drive to be revoked. An exelent example would be too many speeding tickets, hit and run, or a DUI. Similarly, while most colleges provide internet access to their students, they are by no means obligated to, and just like commercial ISPs they can reserve the right to limit ussage or cancel service in cases of abuse. It makes sense to cancel internet acces to a student who is consuming 90% of a dorm's bandwith because he/she is distributing illegal copies of a movie from his/her desktop.
That said, 2 Gigabytes a month sounds a little on the low side. Most GNU/Linux distros can easily reach that with the "extras" disks. Of course one can always vote for linux with their dollars by buying a copy of it.
The article about Amazon was from September of 2000 - after which they stopped doing it.
Not true, in December 2002 we wanted to buy the Band of Brothers video collection for my grandfather-in-law. When my wife and I looked at it (we are frequent amazon.com customers) it was $80. When my mother-in-law (doesn't shop online) looked at it it was $100. Ergo, Amazon.com still does the individualized pricing thing.
The individualized price thing was commonly done in retail until Sears and Roebuck introduced the single price concept near the beginning of the 20th century, allowing them to have more poorly trained sales staff therefore allowing them to make lots of stores very quickly. Very high end and very small volume stores have never stopped doing it since the salesmen/owners at these stores ussually have a good idea what prices their customers can tollerate. Large stores couldn't get to know the customers well enough to do this. Looks like large stores track you well enough to do this now.
They're going to squeeze every last nickel, dime, and quearter out of us, before they decide to innovate.
You mean they are going to try to squeeze every last penny out of us before they innovate. As far as I know the limited range of DSL means that it is only really avalible near city centers, which is a good region for wireless (weither it be based on lasers or radiowaves) which is developing rapidly. For instance in Aspen you can use Rockywave to get your internet access from anywhere in the coverage area (not just near your house). Personally, I'ld love this service over DSL, Satalite, or Cablemodem even if it was somewhat slower (which I don't think it is) because I wouldn't have to re-wire my house or buy a wireless home network. I could also take my laptop to the park and surf from there (should the need arise).
FYI the copper wires were put down using taxpayer money, but I think that the phone companies have paid for a (nearly) all of their fiber optic cables. Certainly that is what the advertising 5-10 years ago would have had us believe.
If the windows registry is in binary (not encrypted) you could look at it in the windows equivalent of octal dump (od) and perhaps even edit it.
Since the registry is updated basically anytime anything happens it is resonable to make a backup of it periodically (certainly before you install a new program or peice of hardware if not weekly).
BTW Binary files are ussually much smaller than equivalent ascii files. EG integer numbers less than 2^8 (256) take up 1 byte in binary, but up to 3 in ascii. 2^16(25536) takes up 2 bytes in binary, and up to 5 in ascii. Character information takes up exactly the same amount of space. Therefore, the registry should be in binary to save space.
Fortran and Tektronics 4010 terminals. Apparently 4010s were one of the first devices which could display graphics. However, they were around well before there was enough RAM in a computer to hold the display in memory. They worked by using a high intensity electon beam to write on the inside of a cathode-ray-tube, a low energy continuous emitance of electrons to maintain the writing, and a high energy pulse to erase what had been drawn. The number crunching was done by a Fortran program and the 4010 was used to display it. For those of you on *nix boxes the xterm (and friends) terminals still contain 4010 emulations. I think it is accessed by "control + right mouse button", but it could be shift or alt.
Matlab is a Black Box mostly because it has huge numbers of built in functions. In order to make sure that all of these functions work properly (you would be amazed by how many commercial functions don't actually do what is advertised) by building our own and then compairing the two.
The other major factor is that nuclear physics is perpetually underfunded and buying commercial software is ussually not nessasary (since we would have to make sure it worked properly anyway).
BTW we do use "building block" type programs and libraries for our interfaces. A good example is SpecTCL at the National Superconductiong Cyclotron Laboratory. I have used GTK/GDK in my applications, others have used Qt. However, the numbercrunching and datacrunching parts are nearly all custom. The data processing is simply too complex and too specialized to trust to prepackaged software. The numbercrunching applications are too time consuming to use a generalized program, everything has to be optimized.
In Experimental Nuclear Physics (ENP) there is a healthy mix of Fortran , C, and C++ (and some others). There is a healthy schepticism of "black box" programs and libraries so programs like Mathematica and Mathlab are pretty much not used. Also, most of the problems are pretty specific (and time consumming to run) so everyone seems to run specialized code (Example: Radware is very popular in Nuclear Spectroscophy). Of course it helps that most ENP's are pretty competant with computers and electronics (amoung other things).
Slashdot Mirror
Microwaves work by emitting (gasp) microwaves. For the consumer level microwave ovens they work by emitting microwaves which are (hopefully) exactly tuned to the resonant frequency of one of the vibrational modes of the water molecule. Metals typically have lots of valence electrons. The really high flux of electromagnetic waves on these weakly bound electrons can get them moving, creating electric current, which heats up the metal, and can make fire. My personal favorite is the AOL cd in the Microwave. Not only do you get a light show, but it partially melts so you can mold them into funny shapes.
The place where Computer Science deviates from programming is in hypotheticals and in theory. Unfortunately, there is a very small market for pure computer science (just as with other sciences). Real computer scientists should be developing tools for others to use to fulfil their computing needs. If they are simply programming for someone else, even if they are very very good at it they are simply programmers/technicians.
However, computer science for computer science's sake is a very limited venture. Since science, video games, and porn seem to push the boundaries of computer technology (hardware and software), let's look at an example from the world of Physics. The PHEONIX project, a detector at RHIC, has a pretty robust software and hardware package associated with it. There are approximately 150+ developers working on various peices. Every night the software is re-built (successfully about 2 out of 3 times). All of the developers are Physicists. There are no computer scientists. The project management is done by a comercial software package they payed money for. That project management software is where the computer scientists came in, not in the actual software package.
To this end, I suggest graduate study in another field. Many graduate programs in the hard sciences (especially PhD programs in the sciences) offer good compensation packages and sometimes include low-cost housing. On top of that, you don't have to pay off your student loans for a while.
In the three versions of cosmic doom, the universe can end up colapsing, expanding quickly at first and then slowing down, or expanding faster and faster until it basically falls apart. In the first case Einstein's Equations (General relativity) lead to a concave universe, the second leads to a flat universe, and the last leads to a convex universe. The only one of these forms that is really easy to picture is the flat universe since it is pretty much what we live in. The concavity or convexity of the universe has mainly to do with how to find the shortest distance between two points. Basically math becomes a pain in the a** because the derivative becomes location dependant.
Doughnuts, is there anything they can't do? -Homer, in the monorail episode.
Don't forget about Wordperfect Suite. I think it was the first of the office suites that would allow the user to publish directly to html (I think Wordperfect 5.2 had that). Microsofts first leverage of its Windows monopoly was to kill office suites and give MS Office dominance. When they bought Corel Wordperfect was still well known and a good linux version could have provided a nice alternative to MS Windows + MS Office. I think that was actually the packaged box Corel sold at BestBuy and CompUSA.
IMO Governments have no business producing any documents or storing any data in a proprietary format, because it locks them into a persistant contract. If the government really gets locked in, and MS descides to crank up its fees, the costs will have to be passed on to the taxpayers. There really would be a Microsoft tax (same goes for any other proprietary system eg. SUN, APPLE...).
Besides, despite what you may think OSS is really hurting MS's plans. It has completely blocked their move into high end business computing (where the real money is), and consumer level OSS products directly threaten MSs profit centers. Open Office is a direct threat to Office (and runs on Windows). GNU/Linux seems to be making serious inroads in the home market (and don't forget it is the official operating system of China).
Microsoft won't last the 300 years of the slave trading corporations of the 16th century, and it certainly won't die anytime soon, but it won't take too long before they arn't so flush with cash (especially since it claims to be holding onto it's $43 Billion cash reserve to fend off future lawsuits).
However, in cases of a couple the $2.00 a song rate would dramatically drive up the cost of the music (the beatle's White Album, Pink Floyd's The Wall etc.).
Depends on if there is any added value. I'ld be hard pressed to pay $0.99 a song if I didn't get to listen to it before hand. However, if I could listen to a streamed version of the song before purchase, and if after paying I can do what I like with it (put it on a CD, or a portable solid state player, leave it on my harddrive...) I'ld be pretty happy to pay $2.00 a song. Of course I'm not in the 18-24 demographic anymore so I don't find much "popular" music on the radio that I really enjoy so perhaps my voice doesn't count.
I'ld guess that the perks you see now, and those for the interns are probably designed specifically to foster "love" for Microsoft so when the company has to start cutting real benefits their employees will stay loyal.
BTW. If everyone in an area has above average income, the cost of living goes up pretty dramatically and vice versa. Where I live there are lots of students and state workers. As a graduate student I've been able to buy a house. I doubt that the $100,000 a year accountants in Pallo Alto have been able to buy a house.
Whenever the PS3 comes out I sincerely hope that it is backwards compatable with the PS2 (and PS). Perhaps even in the same way the PS2 was backwards compatable with the PS. The entire previous system was produced on a single chip and inserted in the PS2 in addition to the PS2's own circutry (the same chip was the origin of the smaller PS). If Sony anounce that this would be the case with the Playstation 3 I think it would keep current PS2 owners from buying a XBox.
I'm pretty sure the Everquest has already figured out a good business model for MMORGsm the subscription.
Nope, it isn't like gasoline. It is like electricity. At any given moment there is a limited supply, and it cannot be stored. During peak times bandwidth (and electricity) are very valuable since nearly all of it is used. In the middle of the night (hmm... that might be a peak time for downloads) err... during a period of low demand it is nearly worthless since there is so much extra capacity. ISPs average this out for us so we do get a flat rate for a month of acess or a flat rate per data unit for transfers (if you're a big user). This is why huge jumps in ussage costs so much to the ISP and why customers who have burst contracts get charged for it.
This would be like dealing with stolen credit cards. When a credit card is stolen the owner gets 24 hours to report it and is only liable for $50. If they wait up to 72 hours, they are only liable for $500. I'm not sure what happens after that. This system protects both the credit card company and the credit card user by insuring prompt reporting of stolen credit cards and fraudulent activity (and can hopefully catch the crook). This system has worked fairly well.
The implications for ISPs and their customers for a similar system would be pretty interesting. The customers who actively monitor their network traffic and help to head off problems would be rewarded by being less liable for damage, while ISPs would be free to give the full bill to those who ignore their bandwidth usage. This system should lead to lower costs for the better customers and discurage neglegance possibly leading to better service for all.
I concur. However, it has become a priveledge which is expected, much as driving has. When people turn 16 they expect to be able to get a driver's license (in most states) regardless of weither or not they have a car. They also expect to be able to continue to drive until they die. However, there are circumstances which cause the privledge to drive to be revoked. An exelent example would be too many speeding tickets, hit and run, or a DUI. Similarly, while most colleges provide internet access to their students, they are by no means obligated to, and just like commercial ISPs they can reserve the right to limit ussage or cancel service in cases of abuse. It makes sense to cancel internet acces to a student who is consuming 90% of a dorm's bandwith because he/she is distributing illegal copies of a movie from his/her desktop.
That said, 2 Gigabytes a month sounds a little on the low side. Most GNU/Linux distros can easily reach that with the "extras" disks. Of course one can always vote for linux with their dollars by buying a copy of it.
Except that BMXXX (PS2) actually has Nudity.
Not true, in December 2002 we wanted to buy the Band of Brothers video collection for my grandfather-in-law. When my wife and I looked at it (we are frequent amazon.com customers) it was $80. When my mother-in-law (doesn't shop online) looked at it it was $100. Ergo, Amazon.com still does the individualized pricing thing.
The individualized price thing was commonly done in retail until Sears and Roebuck introduced the single price concept near the beginning of the 20th century, allowing them to have more poorly trained sales staff therefore allowing them to make lots of stores very quickly. Very high end and very small volume stores have never stopped doing it since the salesmen/owners at these stores ussually have a good idea what prices their customers can tollerate. Large stores couldn't get to know the customers well enough to do this. Looks like large stores track you well enough to do this now.
It is still another last mile solution (sans wires).
You mean they are going to try to squeeze every last penny out of us before they innovate. As far as I know the limited range of DSL means that it is only really avalible near city centers, which is a good region for wireless (weither it be based on lasers or radiowaves) which is developing rapidly. For instance in Aspen you can use Rockywave to get your internet access from anywhere in the coverage area (not just near your house). Personally, I'ld love this service over DSL, Satalite, or Cablemodem even if it was somewhat slower (which I don't think it is) because I wouldn't have to re-wire my house or buy a wireless home network. I could also take my laptop to the park and surf from there (should the need arise).
FYI the copper wires were put down using taxpayer money, but I think that the phone companies have paid for a (nearly) all of their fiber optic cables. Certainly that is what the advertising 5-10 years ago would have had us believe.
Since the registry is updated basically anytime anything happens it is resonable to make a backup of it periodically (certainly before you install a new program or peice of hardware if not weekly).
BTW Binary files are ussually much smaller than equivalent ascii files. EG integer numbers less than 2^8 (256) take up 1 byte in binary, but up to 3 in ascii. 2^16(25536) takes up 2 bytes in binary, and up to 5 in ascii. Character information takes up exactly the same amount of space. Therefore, the registry should be in binary to save space.
Fortran and Tektronics 4010 terminals. Apparently 4010s were one of the first devices which could display graphics. However, they were around well before there was enough RAM in a computer to hold the display in memory. They worked by using a high intensity electon beam to write on the inside of a cathode-ray-tube, a low energy continuous emitance of electrons to maintain the writing, and a high energy pulse to erase what had been drawn. The number crunching was done by a Fortran program and the 4010 was used to display it. For those of you on *nix boxes the xterm (and friends) terminals still contain 4010 emulations. I think it is accessed by "control + right mouse button", but it could be shift or alt.
The other major factor is that nuclear physics is perpetually underfunded and buying commercial software is ussually not nessasary (since we would have to make sure it worked properly anyway).
BTW we do use "building block" type programs and libraries for our interfaces. A good example is SpecTCL at the National Superconductiong Cyclotron Laboratory. I have used GTK/GDK in my applications, others have used Qt. However, the numbercrunching and datacrunching parts are nearly all custom. The data processing is simply too complex and too specialized to trust to prepackaged software. The numbercrunching applications are too time consuming to use a generalized program, everything has to be optimized.
In Experimental Nuclear Physics (ENP) there is a healthy mix of Fortran , C, and C++ (and some others). There is a healthy schepticism of "black box" programs and libraries so programs like Mathematica and Mathlab are pretty much not used. Also, most of the problems are pretty specific (and time consumming to run) so everyone seems to run specialized code (Example: Radware is very popular in Nuclear Spectroscophy). Of course it helps that most ENP's are pretty competant with computers and electronics (amoung other things).