Of course, if you wanted to be REALLY pedantic, you'd point out how electrons are indistinguishable, and the fermi velocity is much higher than the drift velocity, and the whole process is statisitical...
True - but microsoft is so big, and so rich, they'll act like a lightening rod for any patent infringement suits with their software. The deepest pockets get sued first.
And they've already paid millions for various patent infringement cases against them. No one bothered to go after the users.
Particularly since electricity suppliers only provide you with leptons,
Your utilities do that?? My sneaky bastards make me give one back for every one they give me... and every 1/120th of a second, they sell me the same one they just sold me!
About 8 years ago, I was working in a facility that had just purchased some really high end Silicon Graphics machine (this was back when that was really impressive). The power indicator was 12 blue LED's arranged in a circle on the front. This was when blue LEDs had just come out. As far as I could tell, it was entirely to show off how high tech they were.
'What now? What rights do they have? do we allow them to work in mines and nuclear plants? are they disposable? or better yet: are humans (homo sapiens) less disposable?'
When I was taking physical anthropology, way back in college, we had a lab where we examined a bunch of different skulls. The baboon and chimpanzee skulls were casts, but the human skull was real. The reason? The baboon and chimpanzee are both rare animals, and a real skull would be prohibitively expensive. Human skulls are plentiful and easy to come by.
Now, I don't want to detract from the very good questions you ask, but this struck me as an odd economic fact at the time.
In the end, the case was declared a mistrial. 11 jurors were for acquittal, one was for conviction. I don't know if the case was brought again, but I kind of doubt it.
The judge I got who let me go was actually the chief judge of the court, and a very nice guy, from what I could tell. It's up to the judge.
My wife had a knack for getting called for duty when she was in the third trimester of pregnancy. They's tell her on the phone that preganancy was not an valid excuse. When she got in, whoever was working intake would immediately send her home.
a) most people would not be able to solder a chip with a.3mm pin.3 mm space.
You know, one of the other electronics guys at work here insists on using 0201 components to save space - but no one can solder the damn things! 0402 (.5 mm pad) just about anyone can do, if you use two soldering irons.
Still worth it. I was part of a hung jury over a guy that sold $10 worth of Crack cocaine to an undercover officer. One day of jury selection, one half day trial, 2 and a half days arguing. But it was really and interesting process.
On the other hand, the judge let me out of a murder trial because I pulled the "I work for a small company and three weeks would hurt the business badly", which he was sympathetic to. (And which was true...)
I've been using it for a while, too (on a mac). The spam filtering is pretty bad. It's not the fault of Bayesian filtering, though - I use SpamBayes at work (yes, yes, on Outlook) as a plug in, and it works great.
What Thunderbird really needs is a SpamBayes plug in - easy to install, and trainable through the Thunderbird interface. Then you'd have something.
Most of the other stuff you mention, I can't really comment on - I'm a fairly unsophisticated mail user.
If the students were armed, as provided for by the 2nd amendment, someone could have dropped that guy early on and saved 30 or more people.
Perhaps. But imagine - you see a guy walking down the hall with a bullet proof jacket and a gun. Is it a shooter, or a cop? What if you're wrong?
I've never been in a situation where people were firing weapons, so I don't know. But, as gratifying as it would have been to have this guy blown away sooner rather than later, I don't know how many untrained people could have made the proper judgement - no matter how good a shot they were.
I don't know about you, but I don't keep original copies of data on a USB key. I use it to transfer files from one computer to another, so wiping the data after unsuccessful attempts, in this context, strikes me as a good idea.
I agree that it's the logical choice, but it is surprising - and cool. One of the biggest challenges of being an engineer is realizing when there is a simple solution to your problem - especially when the thing you need was made for another purpose.
Case in point - years ago I worked in a lab making diodes on 4" GaAs wafers. Unlike silicon, GaAs is very fragile, and the wafers kept breaking. The problem was that you had to immerse them in beakers, and when you let go of the wafer in the liquid, it would slide sideways, go "tink" against the edge of the beaker, and split in two.
So we looked at the bottles that the processing chemicals came in (the main one was photoresist developer). On the bottom of the plastic bottle it indicated it was polypropylene. So we went to the local KMart, and bought some tupperware that was the same material and the right size and shape. Then, when we dropped the wafer in, it bounced off the side, and we stopped breaking them.
"approaching the look of standard-definition broadcast TV" and "barely watchable"?
Growing up, my best friend's stepfather used to say that he used to be into high end stereo equipment, but gave it up and settled for a relatively crappy one. As he put it, "I found I was listening to the noise instead of the music".
But I can't tell you what it is. Trade secrets are only valuable as long as they are kept secret, there is no registration or disclosure process, as there is for other forms of "intellectual property".
Not to mention that copyrights are trivially easy for anyone to get. So, pretty much, anyone could legally pretext.
I agree with you on this one. Even in this country, laws regulating political speech are rife with unintended consequence, and we're still trying to figure out the correct balance between freedom of expression and keeping elections fair and lawful.
When your talking about a country with as radically different a history and culture as Japan (it's not Canada, folks), then very few of us in the US (or Europe) have the slightest clue how or why they have the regulations they do, and what the consequences of changing them are.
http://www.gigabeam.com/technology.cfm has a nice plot of atmospheric absorption versus wavelength. For reference, 100 dB/Km = 3 dB/30 meters - or 50% signal strength loss per 30 meters, not counting the 1/r^2 factor.
Also, generating and modulating signals, with current technology, is done by firing very expensive lasers at very customized pieces of semiconductor materials. As for receivers, NixieBunny would know better then me what the current technology cost and noise figures would be.
All of which to say, this is an interesting article, but it's about 1% of the way towards communications in this band.
Don't get me wrong - this is a cool paper, looks like good work, and this might have some very interesting technological applications. But the perpetual question of "what is it good for?" that every reporter asks (it's got to be a law or something) about every scientific advance misses the point. We don't know what it's good for, but it expands our knowledge of the world, and that can only help us.
Using it for something is the job of the next genius. These guys did enough by getting it to work. Someone else will have to figure out what it's good for.
Slashdot Mirror
OK, the jokes REALLY dead now.
T = 0 : electron goes out
T = 1/120th: electron comes in
T = 1/60th: electron goes out again
So yes, it comes in once every 1/60th of a second, but the time between leaving and coming back again is a half cycle.
True - but microsoft is so big, and so rich, they'll act like a lightening rod for any patent infringement suits with their software. The deepest pockets get sued first.
And they've already paid millions for various patent infringement cases against them. No one bothered to go after the users.
Your utilities do that?? My sneaky bastards make me give one back for every one they give me... and every 1/120th of a second, they sell me the same one they just sold me!
I guess he figures everyone hates him already, anyway.
I believe they even blinked...
I HATE AOL. I HATE AOL. I HATE AOL. Its the worst company on the planet
You can't buy publicity like that.
The mix is good too. But cook them in broth, not water, they're much tastier that way.
When I was taking physical anthropology, way back in college, we had a lab where we examined a bunch of different skulls. The baboon and chimpanzee skulls were casts, but the human skull was real. The reason? The baboon and chimpanzee are both rare animals, and a real skull would be prohibitively expensive. Human skulls are plentiful and easy to come by.
Now, I don't want to detract from the very good questions you ask, but this struck me as an odd economic fact at the time.
Standard 60/40 lead tin solder melts at 185C - which is 365 degrees f.
10 (base 13,256,278,887,989,457,651,018,865,901,401,704,640 ).
Not 1.
The judge I got who let me go was actually the chief judge of the court, and a very nice guy, from what I could tell. It's up to the judge.
My wife had a knack for getting called for duty when she was in the third trimester of pregnancy. They's tell her on the phone that preganancy was not an valid excuse. When she got in, whoever was working intake would immediately send her home.
You know, one of the other electronics guys at work here insists on using 0201 components to save space - but no one can solder the damn things! 0402 (.5 mm pad) just about anyone can do, if you use two soldering irons.
On the other hand, the judge let me out of a murder trial because I pulled the "I work for a small company and three weeks would hurt the business badly", which he was sympathetic to. (And which was true...)
What Thunderbird really needs is a SpamBayes plug in - easy to install, and trainable through the Thunderbird interface. Then you'd have something.
Most of the other stuff you mention, I can't really comment on - I'm a fairly unsophisticated mail user.
How much training do you feel is enough?
Perhaps. But imagine - you see a guy walking down the hall with a bullet proof jacket and a gun. Is it a shooter, or a cop? What if you're wrong?
I've never been in a situation where people were firing weapons, so I don't know. But, as gratifying as it would have been to have this guy blown away sooner rather than later, I don't know how many untrained people could have made the proper judgement - no matter how good a shot they were.
Case in point - years ago I worked in a lab making diodes on 4" GaAs wafers. Unlike silicon, GaAs is very fragile, and the wafers kept breaking. The problem was that you had to immerse them in beakers, and when you let go of the wafer in the liquid, it would slide sideways, go "tink" against the edge of the beaker, and split in two.
So we looked at the bottles that the processing chemicals came in (the main one was photoresist developer). On the bottom of the plastic bottle it indicated it was polypropylene. So we went to the local KMart, and bought some tupperware that was the same material and the right size and shape. Then, when we dropped the wafer in, it bounced off the side, and we stopped breaking them.
Growing up, my best friend's stepfather used to say that he used to be into high end stereo equipment, but gave it up and settled for a relatively crappy one. As he put it, "I found I was listening to the noise instead of the music".
Not to mention that copyrights are trivially easy for anyone to get. So, pretty much, anyone could legally pretext.
When your talking about a country with as radically different a history and culture as Japan (it's not Canada, folks), then very few of us in the US (or Europe) have the slightest clue how or why they have the regulations they do, and what the consequences of changing them are.
Also, generating and modulating signals, with current technology, is done by firing very expensive lasers at very customized pieces of semiconductor materials. As for receivers, NixieBunny would know better then me what the current technology cost and noise figures would be.
All of which to say, this is an interesting article, but it's about 1% of the way towards communications in this band.
Don't get me wrong - this is a cool paper, looks like good work, and this might have some very interesting technological applications. But the perpetual question of "what is it good for?" that every reporter asks (it's got to be a law or something) about every scientific advance misses the point. We don't know what it's good for, but it expands our knowledge of the world, and that can only help us.
Using it for something is the job of the next genius. These guys did enough by getting it to work. Someone else will have to figure out what it's good for.
Read the article... they did. That was the whole point.