I have used TurboTax for the web two years in a row now. The first year I got a refund, and the bill was deducted from the refund. This year I had to pay and I was able to tell the program on which date the IRS should deduct money from my account. It also remembered where I live, and the various carryover events from last year (like capital losses). Overall, I thought it was a good experience and would recomend it over their normal product or Taxcut. Also, since it is web-based it I did my Taxes on a Linux box.
It would be easy to destroy the RFID tags in products which did not contain electonics themselves. The microwave oven seems to be a popular suggestion. A bigger problem would be figuring out how to kill an RFID tag in a walkman, notebook computer, or other sensative electronic device. I'm not convince that one could build a device to reliably fry just the RFID device.
On the other hand, I would love to have these installed around the laboratory when inventory time came around.
With regards to privacy. I really don't think that anyone can reasonably expect it anymore. The solution is not to fight to bitch and moan about our lost annonymity, but to insist that everything is public so information cannot be abused.
Re:So people can track what I buy? Wow.
on
NYT on RFID Tags
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· Score: 1
These tags don't work off of an internal power supply. Instead they work off of an external power supply. When they are hit by the appropriate frequency broadcast, they use the energy they absorbed to re-transmit their tags, which are then picked up by the scanning device (which is emmitting the power-supply-signal).
Re:cognitive dissonance - linux needs microsoft
on
The Linux Uprising
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· Score: 1
I disagree. There have certainly been other operating systems (BSD and OS2 come to mind) which have not flourished despite being percieved as the only viable alternative to M$. Linux has succeeded where these have failed.
Why Linux has succeeded we could debate all day. Several of my favorite reasons are as follows. It started with a big chunk of the server market as UNIX licenses expired. It is free (kinda). It is scaleable (PDA's to Mainframes). And its license allows corporations to pick and choose features and functions to incorporate into their products.
The licensing agreement for Qt is quasi-open source. The summary is that if you are going to charge for the derivative products you have to pay Trolltech, but if you arn't going to charge for the derivative products then you don't have to pay Trolltech.
Filling the space destroys the ability of the fabric to spread out the kinetic energy of the impact, and would allow a shockwave to propogate towards the surface that you actually care about (the wall of the space station) even if you stop the object. The other big issue with filling the space between layers is that you have to get the filling into orbit somehow. Last time I heard a price/weight for launching stuff into orbit it was something like $8000/kg.
Umm... There is another problem with a stirling engine. You have to be able to rapidly change the temperatures of the gasses. This is possible aboard a boat because you can have a heat source (like a nuclear reactor) and a big-a** heat sink (the ocean). If you are trying to put one of these in a land based vehicle you don't really have any way to discipate the heat quickly (air has a low specific heat when compaired with water).
I also question the applicability of revs since the best way to build one is for linear motion (which you could then convert into circular motions).
The efficiency of the Stirling cycle is also highly dependant on the lowest temperature achieved. It is very difficult to get very cold temperatures (LN2 isn no where near cold enough for the Stirling cycle to reach maximum efficiency, you need absolute zero). If you could really build a 80% efficient Stirling engine it would be worth while to make a fancy transmition to deal with rapidly varying load. Since internal combustion engines are at best 15% efficient in their energy use.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand, cruddy sales for the Segway. I don't see the market for it. If you live outside of the urban centers it doesn't have enough range or speed. If you live in the Urban centers or need to commute to them public transit (light rail and busses) are much more cost efficient and in most cases faster than the Segway. In the few cases when you need to get around an Urban center faster than walking + public transit bicycles are probably faster (and definitely cheaper). That said, the Segway would be pretty fun for some sort of a modified version of polo.
One of the really really big problems with a space garbage collector is the issue of fuel. In order to move in space one must rely on rockets (since you only get thrust from conservation of momentum). The rockets on modern spacecraft fall into two camps. First, the old, chemical reaction and nozzle type. These provide a pretty good amount of thrust by use up a huge amount of fuel. The second is the microwave powered xeon atom emitting type. These are much more efficient because they allow the spacecraft to use solar energy for propultion. Unfortunately, they don't offer a good deal of thrust.
In order for a space garbage collector to work, it would have to go chasing after a large number of peices of junk moving in different orbits. In order to catch a particular piece of space junk, it would have to both match the junk's velocity and possition, then fire up its engines again and go after some other peice of space junk. Even if one could come up with a very efficient algorythm for chasing down the junk, the garbage collector would have to have its engines on nearly all the time. If it used a traditional rocket, it would run out of fuel in at best a couple of days. If it used the microwave heated xeon type it would be collecting garbage for centuries if not millenia.
The ISS has some interesting features to make it space debris resistant. Apparently the sleeping quarters (and hopefully anything else that has humans in it) has several layers of high strength fabric separated by quite a bit of empty volume in order to soak up the kinetic energy of space debris as it will inevitably hit the station. Of course, this approach is difficult for a launch or re-entry vehicle since the gaurd would have to be deployed after launch and retracted before re-entry.
In my experience, the portrayals of computer programmers are much closer to reallity than the portrayals of scientists. Not that Bond films get anything right, but I've met many more programmers like the jerk in Golden Eye than I have nuclear physicists like the babe(s) in about five of the other movies. On the other hand I'm going to see "Hulk" to watch Bruce Banner trash Gammasphere.
When did this happen? According to the IEEE homepage, it is still IEEE 1394 (tm) on Feb 5, 2003. Anyway, my point is that IEEE 1394 is actually more inclusive than the label Firewire. All Firewire is IEEE 1394, but all IEEE 1394 is not Firewire. Therefore the original about "what the heck is 1394?" was incorrect. I will conceed however, that anyone who actually knows anything about that protocol should recognize both names (and I-Link) since they are all the same.
While it is not smaller or lighter than a powerbook, it is much cheaper. Take a look at the internal battery versions of the Desknote line of notebooks by Northgate. When I bought mine it shipped with Linux and I did not pay the so-called Microsoft tax. Unfortunately I'm not sure if there is a version with 802.11b support.
Alternatively the Alienware Area 51m has gotten very high marks in performance tests (well beyond comperably priced desktops of both the PC and Mac varieties). It's price is comperable to a Powerbook.
On a completely different subject, I'm supprised you are so against paying the Microsoft tax but are perfectly happy to pay the Apple Tax. While Apple does not have a monopoly, it's business practices have been much more anticompetative. The main results of this are the lack of software titles for Mac OS's, the lack of Mac OS's for non-Apple hardware, and the lack of non-Apple hardware for Mac OS's. I can remember a brief period when Motorola (and some others) manufactured computers running the Mac OS's. Apple revoked the licences for this quickly, supposedly because they wanted to retain control over the whole product, but it was also clear that the Motorola hardware was much better than the Apple hardware.
We have a filter which compares the from address to the TCP/IP and path the email took to arrive. If the address and the IP address don't match, the e-mail is rejected.
Re:A great testimony to Apple Computers.
on
Baked Apple
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· Score: 1
I'm not so sure. If the computer was off at the time there is no reason to think that any of the transistors/diodes would breakdown at the still relatively low temperature of that oven. There also isn't a reason to think that the circuitboard would have melted because it is made out of glass. Obviously the inside wasn't that hot since the external case was still more or less intact (and pastic _burns_). This was probably no worse that leaving a notebook computer in a black care on a sunny day in Miami.
If you're serious about business, you cannot afford to do business with Microsoft.
Doesn't that mean you're paying taxes to Microsoft? Isn't that the definition of extortion?
Anyway, Staroffice has been able to read MS Office documents since version 5.2 (2 years). However, it has not been able to write them until version 6.0(3 months or more).
IMO the use of priparitary file formats is Microsoft's major sin as a monopolist. If they would publish the file formats they use then it won't matter what software one is running.
"Looks like I'll have to buy the White Album again."
According to copyright law, he wouldn't. He had already purchased the right to listen to the music. He simply has to have the music transfered onto the new medium (should be avalible for a nomial cost). The music industry needs to either admit they are selling us the medium only and cannot lay claim to the content, or admit they are only selling us the content and let us listen to it on whatever medium we want.
Degree's and Certs are fundamentally different. The process of getting a degree (for a good student at a good school) should impart general knowledge that will be applicable to a wide variety of problems in a particular field granting a base from which the degree holder can use to solve problems well into the future. In contrast a certification shows that the certification holder can solve a particular set of problems or accomplish a particular set of tasks. Just having a BSCS does not mean you would make a good (or even competant) Linux administrator, C programmer, or database administrator (MLS/MIS for that). It means that you will be able to apply your general knowledge to learn a specific skill set more quickly. Therefore, the cert is the only thing that gaurantees a new hire has a particular skill.
IMO the value of a comuter science degree is questionable. It is much better to have someone with specific knowledge who just happens to know how to program. Why do you think so many programmers have scientists, artists, doctors, lawyers, and accountants as their ultimate bosses? Because programming for programming's sake is a very limited business.
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I have used TurboTax for the web two years in a row now. The first year I got a refund, and the bill was deducted from the refund. This year I had to pay and I was able to tell the program on which date the IRS should deduct money from my account. It also remembered where I live, and the various carryover events from last year (like capital losses). Overall, I thought it was a good experience and would recomend it over their normal product or Taxcut. Also, since it is web-based it I did my Taxes on a Linux box.
It would be easy to destroy the RFID tags in products which did not contain electonics themselves. The microwave oven seems to be a popular suggestion. A bigger problem would be figuring out how to kill an RFID tag in a walkman, notebook computer, or other sensative electronic device. I'm not convince that one could build a device to reliably fry just the RFID device.
On the other hand, I would love to have these installed around the laboratory when inventory time came around.
With regards to privacy. I really don't think that anyone can reasonably expect it anymore. The solution is not to fight to bitch and moan about our lost annonymity, but to insist that everything is public so information cannot be abused.
These tags don't work off of an internal power supply. Instead they work off of an external power supply. When they are hit by the appropriate frequency broadcast, they use the energy they absorbed to re-transmit their tags, which are then picked up by the scanning device (which is emmitting the power-supply-signal).
I think that the milar strip starts with the 5. It used to start with the 20, but was added to the 5 and the 10 with the re-design.
The RF tag woven into the fabric.
Why Linux has succeeded we could debate all day. Several of my favorite reasons are as follows. It started with a big chunk of the server market as UNIX licenses expired. It is free (kinda). It is scaleable (PDA's to Mainframes). And its license allows corporations to pick and choose features and functions to incorporate into their products.
The licensing agreement for Qt is quasi-open source. The summary is that if you are going to charge for the derivative products you have to pay Trolltech, but if you arn't going to charge for the derivative products then you don't have to pay Trolltech.
Filling the space destroys the ability of the fabric to spread out the kinetic energy of the impact, and would allow a shockwave to propogate towards the surface that you actually care about (the wall of the space station) even if you stop the object. The other big issue with filling the space between layers is that you have to get the filling into orbit somehow. Last time I heard a price/weight for launching stuff into orbit it was something like $8000/kg.
I also question the applicability of revs since the best way to build one is for linear motion (which you could then convert into circular motions).
The efficiency of the Stirling cycle is also highly dependant on the lowest temperature achieved. It is very difficult to get very cold temperatures (LN2 isn no where near cold enough for the Stirling cycle to reach maximum efficiency, you need absolute zero). If you could really build a 80% efficient Stirling engine it would be worth while to make a fancy transmition to deal with rapidly varying load. Since internal combustion engines are at best 15% efficient in their energy use.
Anyway, back to the matter at hand, cruddy sales for the Segway. I don't see the market for it. If you live outside of the urban centers it doesn't have enough range or speed. If you live in the Urban centers or need to commute to them public transit (light rail and busses) are much more cost efficient and in most cases faster than the Segway. In the few cases when you need to get around an Urban center faster than walking + public transit bicycles are probably faster (and definitely cheaper). That said, the Segway would be pretty fun for some sort of a modified version of polo.
In order for a space garbage collector to work, it would have to go chasing after a large number of peices of junk moving in different orbits. In order to catch a particular piece of space junk, it would have to both match the junk's velocity and possition, then fire up its engines again and go after some other peice of space junk. Even if one could come up with a very efficient algorythm for chasing down the junk, the garbage collector would have to have its engines on nearly all the time. If it used a traditional rocket, it would run out of fuel in at best a couple of days. If it used the microwave heated xeon type it would be collecting garbage for centuries if not millenia.
The ISS has some interesting features to make it space debris resistant. Apparently the sleeping quarters (and hopefully anything else that has humans in it) has several layers of high strength fabric separated by quite a bit of empty volume in order to soak up the kinetic energy of space debris as it will inevitably hit the station. Of course, this approach is difficult for a launch or re-entry vehicle since the gaurd would have to be deployed after launch and retracted before re-entry.
You mean Lex Luthor wouldn't secretly put a clone of superman aboard the rocket creating a nuclear powered evil clone?
In my experience, the portrayals of computer programmers are much closer to reallity than the portrayals of scientists. Not that Bond films get anything right, but I've met many more programmers like the jerk in Golden Eye than I have nuclear physicists like the babe(s) in about five of the other movies. On the other hand I'm going to see "Hulk" to watch Bruce Banner trash Gammasphere.
When did this happen? According to the IEEE homepage, it is still IEEE 1394 (tm) on Feb 5, 2003. Anyway, my point is that IEEE 1394 is actually more inclusive than the label Firewire. All Firewire is IEEE 1394, but all IEEE 1394 is not Firewire. Therefore the original about "what the heck is 1394?" was incorrect. I will conceed however, that anyone who actually knows anything about that protocol should recognize both names (and I-Link) since they are all the same.
Alternatively the Alienware Area 51m has gotten very high marks in performance tests (well beyond comperably priced desktops of both the PC and Mac varieties). It's price is comperable to a Powerbook.
On a completely different subject, I'm supprised you are so against paying the Microsoft tax but are perfectly happy to pay the Apple Tax. While Apple does not have a monopoly, it's business practices have been much more anticompetative. The main results of this are the lack of software titles for Mac OS's, the lack of Mac OS's for non-Apple hardware, and the lack of non-Apple hardware for Mac OS's. I can remember a brief period when Motorola (and some others) manufactured computers running the Mac OS's. Apple revoked the licences for this quickly, supposedly because they wanted to retain control over the whole product, but it was also clear that the Motorola hardware was much better than the Apple hardware.
Actually no, the official name for said protocol is IEEE 1394. Apple uses the brand name Firewire and Sony uses the brand name I-Link.
We have a filter which compares the from address to the TCP/IP and path the email took to arrive. If the address and the IP address don't match, the e-mail is rejected.
I'm not so sure. If the computer was off at the time there is no reason to think that any of the transistors/diodes would breakdown at the still relatively low temperature of that oven. There also isn't a reason to think that the circuitboard would have melted because it is made out of glass. Obviously the inside wasn't that hot since the external case was still more or less intact (and pastic _burns_). This was probably no worse that leaving a notebook computer in a black care on a sunny day in Miami.
Doesn't that mean you're paying taxes to Microsoft? Isn't that the definition of extortion?
Anyway, Staroffice has been able to read MS Office documents since version 5.2 (2 years). However, it has not been able to write them until version 6.0(3 months or more).
IMO the use of priparitary file formats is Microsoft's major sin as a monopolist. If they would publish the file formats they use then it won't matter what software one is running.
According to copyright law, he wouldn't. He had already purchased the right to listen to the music. He simply has to have the music transfered onto the new medium (should be avalible for a nomial cost). The music industry needs to either admit they are selling us the medium only and cannot lay claim to the content, or admit they are only selling us the content and let us listen to it on whatever medium we want.
Who is his internet provider?
Can you play the Sims online in the Sims online?
Damn it, now we are restricting our computing to Earth's (or other planets' surfaces). Convective cooling doesn't work without gravity.
IMO the value of a comuter science degree is questionable. It is much better to have someone with specific knowledge who just happens to know how to program. Why do you think so many programmers have scientists, artists, doctors, lawyers, and accountants as their ultimate bosses? Because programming for programming's sake is a very limited business.
Anyway I didn't see it because the last 2 movies sucked.