Most of you who aren't Canadian aren't aware of the severe restrictions on free speech in Canada. For one, "hate" speech is restricted, i.e. you cannot disparage a particular identifiable group. This is why Ernst Zundel was just deported to Germany for spreading "hate" and Jim Keegstra was convicted of spreading hate. The reality is that, while they should have lost their jobs, they shouldn't have been arrested and convicted for saying what they did.
The reality, however, is that the only cure for the negative aspects of free speech is more free speech. As long as someone is not specifically attempting to incite violence or other acts of crime against an individual, or is commiting libel, they should be able to say whatever they want. A great article on the erosion of free speech rights in Canada is available here.
One thing is certain - even though the US may not be to many/.ers the most welcoming place for free speech lately, there are other places that are far worse.
Intel has a good overview on what leakage is all about. Leakage has nothing to do with jumping wire channels, although the electric fields generated between one wire and another in small process geometries cause signal integrity problems such as noise and delay.
As I had mentioned in a previous comment, the front side bus speed is the biggest limiting factor on Pentium M processors. The day we see an 800MHz FSB Pentium M is the day the direct MHz comparisons will apply (i.e. 1.8GHz P-M vs. 1.8GHz A64). Even the Tom's Hardware Guide review of the new Sonoma chipset for P-M shows fairly marginal gains and proves the FSB is the limitation, PLUS they do the stupid thing here and put in DDR-2 which does little for performance but increases system costs.
People whining about extraterritoriality can keep their products out of the United States. This isn't a WTO decision, but you can bet that this may yet be escalated to that level anyway.
If you look at the front side bus speeds of the Pentium M, they're low. Very low, in fact, at 400MHz. Certainly not in the 800MHz -1066MHz range that's required for a lot of operations. A 1.5GHz P-M is about the equivalent of a 2.4GHz P4 Northwood UNLESS it comes to data-intensive operations requiring FSB access, and then it gets constricted.
Let's reserve judgment on the P-M's future unless and until Intel builds a higher FSB speed or unless the biggest priority is low overall system power.
I'm from Edmonton, actually! Went down in '99 and came back in mid '03. I now work in Southern Ontario not because of the money but for personal and professional reasons (i.e. more women than Silicon Valley, progression in my career, company in one of the few markets that is actually growing). The sales tax in Ontario is utterly ridiculous so I won't be buying a new car here for the foreseeable future, but I have ways of avoiding the sales tax to an extent (read: Buffalo, NY and annual trips back to Edmonton to visit family).
In reality, I do have problems up here. I've found that food service up here is abhorrent - I've walked out of six restaurants after talking to the manager about awful service. Another problem with people up here is with my American accent. Once I tell people I'm from Edmonton they tell me "oh, ok!" as if being an American is a problem. The reality is that this bigotry against Americans up here is really very non-Canadian in my book. As you're probably aware, not all Americans are stupid or arrogant or any of the standard things that too many Canadians like to say, but there are those types of people both in the US and in Canada too.
My conclusion is this: do not make an absolute judgment on anything regarding what a particular place is like until you've actually lived there. Not vacationed there, not stayed temporarily there, but actually lived there. For that, I feel blessed.
... I have to say that I largely agree with the culture shock that comes with moving to another country. Even for me, it was more different than I thought it would be. For one thing, I could never figure out how people knew I was Canadian simply when I talked (which I did eventually find out and for which I actually talk more in an American accent now). Things like auto and life insurance can be complicated because of the lack of insurance experience and medical history, respectively. It sucks to have to pay higher rates if you're from overseas because you have no insurance driving record.
Having worked mostly in Silicon Valley, I would say that the cultural environment is more conducive to immigrants there than other places. One Chinese fellow I knew, for example, never truly felt welcome when he worked in Texas but did say that the people there were generally nice. If you're from India or China, there are tons of resources and tons of community and social opportunities for you. YMMV in other places but big cities around big tech centers aren't typically a problem.
Probably the biggest problem that I had when I was in the United States is getting your green card. For those not in the know, the green card process requires that you remain with the same employer in the same type of position and move no further than 50 miles away from where your H-1B was approved. Then you wait and wait. You wait for state and federal labor certification, and then you actually apply for your green card after your priority date comes up (a date which is used to gate applications from countries with high immigrant volumes but from which Canadians are exempted). If you're laid off, fired, moved to another job function, or move, you have to start the process all over again. It takes 2-4 years, and in some cases people have their paperwork lost by the INS/BCIS and you are screwed at the end of your term and have to leave. Immediately. No wait periods.
To me, that's the biggest problem with the system. If you want people, have them stay. Facing a constant end game hurts folks economically, socially, mentally and otherwise. Stories of people leaving their leased cars at SFO and SJC and going back because they had no choice were very sad. Even worse, what does one do with the money they earned? In my case, because of the huge run-up in the Canadian dollar, all my money is "trapped" down there. Do I wait for the US dollar to rise back up to regular levels, or do I bring it back and hope it doesn't come back? That money could've also been spent in the United States, but gets spent outside. Not that beneficial for the US economy if you ask me.
Most of these issues would be addressed if people were simply granted conditional green cards at the time of their entry. A certified criminal background check and health check prior to border entry would allow them to stay without having to worry about the employer doing whatever they want to the employee and throwing them out at the end. That's not technically done today, and it would be smart for security and other reasons. The other aspect is to have the system funded by the immigrants themselves, i.e. you come in and you pay for the BCIS to process your application for $5k or $10k, rather than rely on tax money to fund a severely underfunded immigration processing system. If you're that important to be given a special visa to come in, then come in. Stay. Don't throw the person out later on. If these suggestions are ever implemented, you will see a big difference in the way that immigrant employees are treated and in the way they approach their work. Remove the threat and stress of leaving, and you'll have productive members of society, IT/Engineering workers or otherwise.
The major Electronic Design Automation tool vendors today have yet to come up with effective ways on how to design with and verify very high gate densities devices on the digital side. If you think that 90nm is easy, ask Intel's Prescott core team on why they think 100W out of a processor is "normal". It's not just power, for example, but clock/power gating melding efficiently with the functional aspect of the design. Power analysis and signal integrity (i.e. crosstalk) design flows are only getting more and more complex, and more designs require respins to the tune of almost a million dollars per mask set.
Let's also not forget the analog world, since analog CMOS is notoriously difficult to design linearly across +/- 10% voltage ranges and through temperature and process variations. The problem was bad in 0.18um, very bad in 0.13um, awful now in 90nm and a nightmare in 65nm. All the secondary transistor effects that affect the usually "normal" operating points of logic gates only make things worse for the analog and mixed signal designers. This is not only for integrated analog and mixed signal interfaces but also for on-chip phase/delay lock loops and other assorted necessary goodies.
Nobody has the design expertise or the tools to effectively model all of these phenomena and get them working as efficiently as they'd like. In my experience, it's more of a hack and check mentality that is increasingly pervasive. Once you've stuffed so much analog and digital together, trying to functionally verify it to a particular degree of certainty is a major hassle. Data sets are getting astronomically larger, and simulations are still AFAIK not able to be multi-threaded, leaving you at the mercy of your computing power. Sure, you can use strained silicon and SOI to help you out, but you can't ignore the rest of the design issues because they will only get worse. This is where the EDA tool vendors like Cadence, Synopsys, Mentor Graphics and the rest of them need to come up with some more innovative ways of doing business. Otherwise, we'll have a lot of technology that is manufacturable but cannot be designed with.
If you read the MPEG-7 proposals, you'll find that there are provisions for searching based on varying granularities of characteristics of the video and audio both in metadata and within the clips themselves.
I wonder if the frameworks that these guys are developing are within the standard, or if they're going on their own to do this to sidestep patent licensing obligations?
For those of us who are even slightly environmentally or health conscious, the effects of nanotech-related waste of one type or another should be of concern. From the mercury used to extract gold to the lead used in the solder of so many electronic devices, we now have a new potential threat in the form of nanomaterials.
It's not my intention to come off as a luddite, but these materials are potentially nasty. They react in very different ways than regular chemicals, and for the first time we have materials we can't assume that the natural environment of our planet will simply sweep them away to where we can't see them and where they won't affect us. We really need to be paying attention right here and right now because these materials can persist in our environment for a long time and are not easily incinerated or chemically treated.
The insurance industry should be taking a close look at covering the liability of companies involved in the manufacture and use of nanomaterials. The companies using nanomaterials ought to be held to the highest standards and employ rigorous manufacturing, environmental protection and recycling programs. Why should insurers be covering risk if their manufacturing plant is releasing carcinogenic and mutagenic material that embeds itself in the soil and never leaves it? I believe in conjuntion with government environmental protection agencies, companies will think carefully about employing such techniques. We can't afford to let it get to the point where the government or individuals start suing because of the damage, but neither can a company afford to get its insurance premiums hiked substantially or its coverage dropped.
The bottom line: if you're concerned about nanotech manufacturing facilities, live near a dump, or otherwise are going to be near these materials, get active and involved and start reporting the facts about nanotech materials to companies' insurers and other government agencies to ensure your safety and that of your children.
Also, on a slightly unrelated note, insurance companies are a great way to gain leverage against companies and organizations that screw you over. Whether you complain incessantly about unmaintained gym equipment, an apartment building full of mold, or an employer who insists on putting its employees in potentially dangerous situations, an insurer will always be interested in anything that's not disclosed to them that would affect their coverage risk. If you can find out who insures a company with such a "flaw," you can exact justice by simply documenting the issues with the insurer. Believe me, they DO listen and they WILL get on it.
This is the most important issue of all in this thread. Why should a commercial enterprise receive any type of free assistance? If the movie is worth making, the cost of the render farms will be recovered and with a profit too. If it isn't, then it won't be made. Why its creation should be held on the backs of ordinary people is beyond my comprehension.
The 49-way joystick (12 gradations in four directions plus center) to me would've made it worth the price along with a rotary knob and trackball. As it stands, Sinistar had one of the most complicated joystick arrangements in terms of control points.
Really, folks, this is $150 we're talking about here. That's not chump change. I honestly expected more.
The default settings in Internet Explorer are one of the biggest causes of spyware insertion. The problem is that spyware on a page causes IE to come up with a message window that says "Would you like to install FREE toolbar from foo.bar?" and then at the bottom it says something about a security certificate.
Well, as you all know, anyone can go to Verisign and buy a certificate for authentication purposes, but most people take certificates to mean that it's certified safe software. For the uninformed user, there's little difference between this and the latest Macromedia Flash plug-in.
Even worse, there are a lot of sites that cause Internet Explorer to go into a loop with the plug-in. By that I mean:
1. Plugin for "FREE SphyWhere Inc. ToolBar Search!" presents itself to user.
2. User presses "No" button or the close window button to avoid installation.
3. IE comes back with a dialog that says "You MUST install free toolbar to gain access!" and then has to click the "Ok" button or the close window button on THAT dialog.
4. Process repeats itself at Step 1 and continues in perpetuity unless the user is fast enough to be able to close the actual browser window before the plugin pops up, or until the user consents, or unless the user shuts down Internet Explorer.
The root of the problem here is that - surprise - Microsoft has continued to let websites exploit this peculiarity in its browser. The end result is that users get frustrated and either inadvertently or out of frustration simply allow the spyware to be installed. Even worse, if the user is dumb enough to have "Low" set on their security settings due to their own inability or unwillingness to learn about basic browser functionality, all this spyware will get installed automatically. Some users I believe continually complain about their computer being slow to the point where they're prompted to upgrade unnecessarily because of spyware they don't know that they have.
So...on every fresh Windows install I do, I do it behind a NAT router to begin with, install all service packs and security updates and drivers, then put a software firewall on the computer, then an antivirus app with Trojan detection, and finally a spyware removal app. Then I instruct people to go to Windows Update every day, their virus update every day, and Spyware check every week.
DV format, which uses lossy a Discrete Cosine Transform intraframe compression similar to MotionJPEG or I-frame only MPEG-2, only nets roughly 5:1 compression. The best anyone can get is maybe 2:1 compression with something like HuffYUV, but there's too much random data in video to be able to attain a LOSSLESS 10:1 compression.
In fact, that's been the big advantage of DV - the lossy compression in that format is a great balance between data rate and visual loss. Lots of broadcast media use DV25 (4:1:1) or DVCPRO50 (4:2:2) as their source, and it's nearly impossible to tell the difference between it and lossless on an average interlaced tv set.
I know that a lot of CS majors don't want to get into what's traditionally an EE domain. However, for a lot of companies, EE, CE, CS, Physics and sometimes Math are all more or less equivalent if you have the right course background.
If you want to deal with anything signal processing related, you'll probably need to take a course in complex variable calculus to understand digital filters and the discrete frequency or "z" domain. In my undergrad EE academic stream, that was the sixth and last math course that I took. The courses prior to that were Calculus I, II and III and then Differential Equations I and II. Even then, we had taken another course on signal processing which was mostly math and dealing more in-depth with Fourier series, Fourier/Laplace transforms, sampling rates, and the like. Beware - complex variable calculus is an extremely difficult course to take, though to me not as bad as taking that awful formal proofs class which I thankfully was able to bypass the torture of.
I'm not sure the average CS major wants to take all of that on for DSP, however. In reality, you more or less end up gravitating towards an Electrical/Computer Engineering degree at that point. That's also assuming you can fit all of that into your program.
You claim that the naysayers are less versed than these "experts" in consciousness is a classic appeal to authority or Argumentum ad verecundiam. Physics is not the be-all and end-all of understanding; rather, semantic and ontological constructions form the entire basis of bases. Only through unification and reconciliation with all branches of science and philosophy will consciousness be truly understood.
I will also say that I personally disagree with your theory of the mind as being limited to a Newtonian scale. I've actually designed and been involved in the design of AI algorithms (read: large slow Matlab simulations and FPGA implementations). No matter what I did, there was a level of complexity beyond the understanding of the subject at the time. That's a practical obstacle that I and others have experienced. I believe it's definitely at least quantum in nature. But our personal opinions are not necessarily relevant to the truth now, are they?
I went to this year's National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas. One of the most bizarre things I saw was that, in the midst of all of the cameras and editing equipment, there was a small booth set up promoting the return of an SST. It's bizarre because they basically have nothing to do with broadcast technologies. It was just two guys sitting there in a booth in the south hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center this past week.
Anyone know what the heck these guys were doing in there? I mean, lots of people would love to see another SST, but this was just too bizarre and stuck out like a sore thumb.
Seriously, what marketing genius decided to launch the original N*Gage with Tomb Raider and seven other mostly older games? Tomb Raider is almost 8 years old now. This is really an irrelevant piece of hardware unless it's up to the task of real 3D gaming with real apps that people want to play on the go - something that has not escaped Nintendo's Game Boy line.
The promise of outshoring has always been cheaper goods, but housing in the Western world and particularly the large tech centers in the US have largely been supported by the higher salaries of white collar workers. Because white collar workers in virtually every profession are now subject to offshoring, what is the projected impact on the housing markets, as well as the financial health of mortgage granters such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? My concern is that the housing market will crash, causing defaults and undermining the overall economy. I would also ask the same question regarding automobile manufacturers' sales, and if outsourcing will do the same for their markets, as well as auto loan granters.
They were really the first major EDA vendor to support Linux on x86 servers for their tools. There's a huge installed base out there for Suns, so they won't be going away right away. However, with the increasing complexity of designs in terms of parasitic extraction (i.e. 0.13um and lower starting to use RLC instead of RC) and simulation, which is typically single threaded and highly dependent on processor speed, Suns will slowly go the way of the dodo in the next 3-4 years.
All we REALLY need are server suppliers who are able to include some of the better functions of the Suns, e.g. on-call engineering support for hardware failures, redundancy and hot-swap capability to name a few. That will pretty much be the nail in the coffin IMO.
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Don't be Pippin at the answer. Look where it got Nick Ciarelli...
Most of you who aren't Canadian aren't aware of the severe restrictions on free speech in Canada. For one, "hate" speech is restricted, i.e. you cannot disparage a particular identifiable group. This is why Ernst Zundel was just deported to Germany for spreading "hate" and Jim Keegstra was convicted of spreading hate. The reality is that, while they should have lost their jobs, they shouldn't have been arrested and convicted for saying what they did.
/.ers the most welcoming place for free speech lately, there are other places that are far worse.
Even more significant is the freedom of the press, where journalists had their personal files seized unilaterally by police who were trying to investigate a "leak" in their department due to corruption. At least those reporters in the US who refused to identify their sources probably still have what they have.
The reality, however, is that the only cure for the negative aspects of free speech is more free speech. As long as someone is not specifically attempting to incite violence or other acts of crime against an individual, or is commiting libel, they should be able to say whatever they want. A great article on the erosion of free speech rights in Canada is available here.
One thing is certain - even though the US may not be to many
Intel has a good overview on what leakage is all about. Leakage has nothing to do with jumping wire channels, although the electric fields generated between one wire and another in small process geometries cause signal integrity problems such as noise and delay.
As I had mentioned in a previous comment, the front side bus speed is the biggest limiting factor on Pentium M processors. The day we see an 800MHz FSB Pentium M is the day the direct MHz comparisons will apply (i.e. 1.8GHz P-M vs. 1.8GHz A64). Even the Tom's Hardware Guide review of the new Sonoma chipset for P-M shows fairly marginal gains and proves the FSB is the limitation, PLUS they do the stupid thing here and put in DDR-2 which does little for performance but increases system costs.
People whining about extraterritoriality can keep their products out of the United States. This isn't a WTO decision, but you can bet that this may yet be escalated to that level anyway.
If you look at the front side bus speeds of the Pentium M, they're low. Very low, in fact, at 400MHz. Certainly not in the 800MHz -1066MHz range that's required for a lot of operations. A 1.5GHz P-M is about the equivalent of a 2.4GHz P4 Northwood UNLESS it comes to data-intensive operations requiring FSB access, and then it gets constricted.
Let's reserve judgment on the P-M's future unless and until Intel builds a higher FSB speed or unless the biggest priority is low overall system power.
I'm from Edmonton, actually! Went down in '99 and came back in mid '03. I now work in Southern Ontario not because of the money but for personal and professional reasons (i.e. more women than Silicon Valley, progression in my career, company in one of the few markets that is actually growing). The sales tax in Ontario is utterly ridiculous so I won't be buying a new car here for the foreseeable future, but I have ways of avoiding the sales tax to an extent (read: Buffalo, NY and annual trips back to Edmonton to visit family).
In reality, I do have problems up here. I've found that food service up here is abhorrent - I've walked out of six restaurants after talking to the manager about awful service. Another problem with people up here is with my American accent. Once I tell people I'm from Edmonton they tell me "oh, ok!" as if being an American is a problem. The reality is that this bigotry against Americans up here is really very non-Canadian in my book. As you're probably aware, not all Americans are stupid or arrogant or any of the standard things that too many Canadians like to say, but there are those types of people both in the US and in Canada too.
My conclusion is this: do not make an absolute judgment on anything regarding what a particular place is like until you've actually lived there. Not vacationed there, not stayed temporarily there, but actually lived there. For that, I feel blessed.
I evaluate every opportunity on its own. If I feel it's lucrative and within my scope of personal and professional acceptability, I'll go anywhere.
... I have to say that I largely agree with the culture shock that comes with moving to another country. Even for me, it was more different than I thought it would be. For one thing, I could never figure out how people knew I was Canadian simply when I talked (which I did eventually find out and for which I actually talk more in an American accent now). Things like auto and life insurance can be complicated because of the lack of insurance experience and medical history, respectively. It sucks to have to pay higher rates if you're from overseas because you have no insurance driving record.
Having worked mostly in Silicon Valley, I would say that the cultural environment is more conducive to immigrants there than other places. One Chinese fellow I knew, for example, never truly felt welcome when he worked in Texas but did say that the people there were generally nice. If you're from India or China, there are tons of resources and tons of community and social opportunities for you. YMMV in other places but big cities around big tech centers aren't typically a problem.
Probably the biggest problem that I had when I was in the United States is getting your green card. For those not in the know, the green card process requires that you remain with the same employer in the same type of position and move no further than 50 miles away from where your H-1B was approved. Then you wait and wait. You wait for state and federal labor certification, and then you actually apply for your green card after your priority date comes up (a date which is used to gate applications from countries with high immigrant volumes but from which Canadians are exempted). If you're laid off, fired, moved to another job function, or move, you have to start the process all over again. It takes 2-4 years, and in some cases people have their paperwork lost by the INS/BCIS and you are screwed at the end of your term and have to leave. Immediately. No wait periods.
To me, that's the biggest problem with the system. If you want people, have them stay. Facing a constant end game hurts folks economically, socially, mentally and otherwise. Stories of people leaving their leased cars at SFO and SJC and going back because they had no choice were very sad. Even worse, what does one do with the money they earned? In my case, because of the huge run-up in the Canadian dollar, all my money is "trapped" down there. Do I wait for the US dollar to rise back up to regular levels, or do I bring it back and hope it doesn't come back? That money could've also been spent in the United States, but gets spent outside. Not that beneficial for the US economy if you ask me.
Most of these issues would be addressed if people were simply granted conditional green cards at the time of their entry. A certified criminal background check and health check prior to border entry would allow them to stay without having to worry about the employer doing whatever they want to the employee and throwing them out at the end. That's not technically done today, and it would be smart for security and other reasons. The other aspect is to have the system funded by the immigrants themselves, i.e. you come in and you pay for the BCIS to process your application for $5k or $10k, rather than rely on tax money to fund a severely underfunded immigration processing system. If you're that important to be given a special visa to come in, then come in. Stay. Don't throw the person out later on. If these suggestions are ever implemented, you will see a big difference in the way that immigrant employees are treated and in the way they approach their work. Remove the threat and stress of leaving, and you'll have productive members of society, IT/Engineering workers or otherwise.
The major Electronic Design Automation tool vendors today have yet to come up with effective ways on how to design with and verify very high gate densities devices on the digital side. If you think that 90nm is easy, ask Intel's Prescott core team on why they think 100W out of a processor is "normal". It's not just power, for example, but clock/power gating melding efficiently with the functional aspect of the design. Power analysis and signal integrity (i.e. crosstalk) design flows are only getting more and more complex, and more designs require respins to the tune of almost a million dollars per mask set.
Let's also not forget the analog world, since analog CMOS is notoriously difficult to design linearly across +/- 10% voltage ranges and through temperature and process variations. The problem was bad in 0.18um, very bad in 0.13um, awful now in 90nm and a nightmare in 65nm. All the secondary transistor effects that affect the usually "normal" operating points of logic gates only make things worse for the analog and mixed signal designers. This is not only for integrated analog and mixed signal interfaces but also for on-chip phase/delay lock loops and other assorted necessary goodies.
Nobody has the design expertise or the tools to effectively model all of these phenomena and get them working as efficiently as they'd like. In my experience, it's more of a hack and check mentality that is increasingly pervasive. Once you've stuffed so much analog and digital together, trying to functionally verify it to a particular degree of certainty is a major hassle. Data sets are getting astronomically larger, and simulations are still AFAIK not able to be multi-threaded, leaving you at the mercy of your computing power. Sure, you can use strained silicon and SOI to help you out, but you can't ignore the rest of the design issues because they will only get worse. This is where the EDA tool vendors like Cadence, Synopsys, Mentor Graphics and the rest of them need to come up with some more innovative ways of doing business. Otherwise, we'll have a lot of technology that is manufacturable but cannot be designed with.
If you read the MPEG-7 proposals, you'll find that there are provisions for searching based on varying granularities of characteristics of the video and audio both in metadata and within the clips themselves.
I wonder if the frameworks that these guys are developing are within the standard, or if they're going on their own to do this to sidestep patent licensing obligations?
There are still only four lights...
For those of us who are even slightly environmentally or health conscious, the effects of nanotech-related waste of one type or another should be of concern. From the mercury used to extract gold to the lead used in the solder of so many electronic devices, we now have a new potential threat in the form of nanomaterials.
It's not my intention to come off as a luddite, but these materials are potentially nasty. They react in very different ways than regular chemicals, and for the first time we have materials we can't assume that the natural environment of our planet will simply sweep them away to where we can't see them and where they won't affect us. We really need to be paying attention right here and right now because these materials can persist in our environment for a long time and are not easily incinerated or chemically treated.
The insurance industry should be taking a close look at covering the liability of companies involved in the manufacture and use of nanomaterials. The companies using nanomaterials ought to be held to the highest standards and employ rigorous manufacturing, environmental protection and recycling programs. Why should insurers be covering risk if their manufacturing plant is releasing carcinogenic and mutagenic material that embeds itself in the soil and never leaves it? I believe in conjuntion with government environmental protection agencies, companies will think carefully about employing such techniques. We can't afford to let it get to the point where the government or individuals start suing because of the damage, but neither can a company afford to get its insurance premiums hiked substantially or its coverage dropped.
The bottom line: if you're concerned about nanotech manufacturing facilities, live near a dump, or otherwise are going to be near these materials, get active and involved and start reporting the facts about nanotech materials to companies' insurers and other government agencies to ensure your safety and that of your children.
Also, on a slightly unrelated note, insurance companies are a great way to gain leverage against companies and organizations that screw you over. Whether you complain incessantly about unmaintained gym equipment, an apartment building full of mold, or an employer who insists on putting its employees in potentially dangerous situations, an insurer will always be interested in anything that's not disclosed to them that would affect their coverage risk. If you can find out who insures a company with such a "flaw," you can exact justice by simply documenting the issues with the insurer. Believe me, they DO listen and they WILL get on it.
This is the most important issue of all in this thread. Why should a commercial enterprise receive any type of free assistance? If the movie is worth making, the cost of the render farms will be recovered and with a profit too. If it isn't, then it won't be made. Why its creation should be held on the backs of ordinary people is beyond my comprehension.
The 49-way joystick (12 gradations in four directions plus center) to me would've made it worth the price along with a rotary knob and trackball. As it stands, Sinistar had one of the most complicated joystick arrangements in terms of control points.
Really, folks, this is $150 we're talking about here. That's not chump change. I honestly expected more.
The default settings in Internet Explorer are one of the biggest causes of spyware insertion. The problem is that spyware on a page causes IE to come up with a message window that says "Would you like to install FREE toolbar from foo.bar?" and then at the bottom it says something about a security certificate.
Well, as you all know, anyone can go to Verisign and buy a certificate for authentication purposes, but most people take certificates to mean that it's certified safe software. For the uninformed user, there's little difference between this and the latest Macromedia Flash plug-in.
Even worse, there are a lot of sites that cause Internet Explorer to go into a loop with the plug-in. By that I mean:
1. Plugin for "FREE SphyWhere Inc. ToolBar Search!" presents itself to user.
2. User presses "No" button or the close window button to avoid installation.
3. IE comes back with a dialog that says "You MUST install free toolbar to gain access!" and then has to click the "Ok" button or the close window button on THAT dialog.
4. Process repeats itself at Step 1 and continues in perpetuity unless the user is fast enough to be able to close the actual browser window before the plugin pops up, or until the user consents, or unless the user shuts down Internet Explorer.
This occurs primarily on porn sites, but it will occur many times on legitimate sites (e.g. VG-Network, formerly Dave's Video Game Classics for classic games and one of the music lyric sites (can't remember which off the top of my head).
The root of the problem here is that - surprise - Microsoft has continued to let websites exploit this peculiarity in its browser. The end result is that users get frustrated and either inadvertently or out of frustration simply allow the spyware to be installed. Even worse, if the user is dumb enough to have "Low" set on their security settings due to their own inability or unwillingness to learn about basic browser functionality, all this spyware will get installed automatically. Some users I believe continually complain about their computer being slow to the point where they're prompted to upgrade unnecessarily because of spyware they don't know that they have.
So...on every fresh Windows install I do, I do it behind a NAT router to begin with, install all service packs and security updates and drivers, then put a software firewall on the computer, then an antivirus app with Trojan detection, and finally a spyware removal app. Then I instruct people to go to Windows Update every day, their virus update every day, and Spyware check every week.
Isn't spyware fun?
DV format, which uses lossy a Discrete Cosine Transform intraframe compression similar to MotionJPEG or I-frame only MPEG-2, only nets roughly 5:1 compression. The best anyone can get is maybe 2:1 compression with something like HuffYUV, but there's too much random data in video to be able to attain a LOSSLESS 10:1 compression.
In fact, that's been the big advantage of DV - the lossy compression in that format is a great balance between data rate and visual loss. Lots of broadcast media use DV25 (4:1:1) or DVCPRO50 (4:2:2) as their source, and it's nearly impossible to tell the difference between it and lossless on an average interlaced tv set.
I know that a lot of CS majors don't want to get into what's traditionally an EE domain. However, for a lot of companies, EE, CE, CS, Physics and sometimes Math are all more or less equivalent if you have the right course background.
If you want to deal with anything signal processing related, you'll probably need to take a course in complex variable calculus to understand digital filters and the discrete frequency or "z" domain. In my undergrad EE academic stream, that was the sixth and last math course that I took. The courses prior to that were Calculus I, II and III and then Differential Equations I and II. Even then, we had taken another course on signal processing which was mostly math and dealing more in-depth with Fourier series, Fourier/Laplace transforms, sampling rates, and the like. Beware - complex variable calculus is an extremely difficult course to take, though to me not as bad as taking that awful formal proofs class which I thankfully was able to bypass the torture of.
I'm not sure the average CS major wants to take all of that on for DSP, however. In reality, you more or less end up gravitating towards an Electrical/Computer Engineering degree at that point. That's also assuming you can fit all of that into your program.
You claim that the naysayers are less versed than these "experts" in consciousness is a classic appeal to authority or Argumentum ad verecundiam. Physics is not the be-all and end-all of understanding; rather, semantic and ontological constructions form the entire basis of bases. Only through unification and reconciliation with all branches of science and philosophy will consciousness be truly understood.
I will also say that I personally disagree with your theory of the mind as being limited to a Newtonian scale. I've actually designed and been involved in the design of AI algorithms (read: large slow Matlab simulations and FPGA implementations). No matter what I did, there was a level of complexity beyond the understanding of the subject at the time. That's a practical obstacle that I and others have experienced. I believe it's definitely at least quantum in nature. But our personal opinions are not necessarily relevant to the truth now, are they?
I went to this year's National Association of Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas. One of the most bizarre things I saw was that, in the midst of all of the cameras and editing equipment, there was a small booth set up promoting the return of an SST. It's bizarre because they basically have nothing to do with broadcast technologies. It was just two guys sitting there in a booth in the south hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center this past week.
Anyone know what the heck these guys were doing in there? I mean, lots of people would love to see another SST, but this was just too bizarre and stuck out like a sore thumb.
The chances of either Baystar or RBC getting their money back is slim to none.
How long is the data on these discs supposed to last? Data retention on writeable CDs and DVDs is a big issue.
Seriously, what marketing genius decided to launch the original N*Gage with Tomb Raider and seven other mostly older games? Tomb Raider is almost 8 years old now. This is really an irrelevant piece of hardware unless it's up to the task of real 3D gaming with real apps that people want to play on the go - something that has not escaped Nintendo's Game Boy line.
The promise of outshoring has always been cheaper goods, but housing in the Western world and particularly the large tech centers in the US have largely been supported by the higher salaries of white collar workers. Because white collar workers in virtually every profession are now subject to offshoring, what is the projected impact on the housing markets, as well as the financial health of mortgage granters such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? My concern is that the housing market will crash, causing defaults and undermining the overall economy. I would also ask the same question regarding automobile manufacturers' sales, and if outsourcing will do the same for their markets, as well as auto loan granters.
They were really the first major EDA vendor to support Linux on x86 servers for their tools. There's a huge installed base out there for Suns, so they won't be going away right away. However, with the increasing complexity of designs in terms of parasitic extraction (i.e. 0.13um and lower starting to use RLC instead of RC) and simulation, which is typically single threaded and highly dependent on processor speed, Suns will slowly go the way of the dodo in the next 3-4 years.
All we REALLY need are server suppliers who are able to include some of the better functions of the Suns, e.g. on-call engineering support for hardware failures, redundancy and hot-swap capability to name a few. That will pretty much be the nail in the coffin IMO.