I would highly recommend these. The cost vs. quality is superb. In the many years that I've been using them for everything from home shopping lists to design amendments, I cannot recall a single time one has ever failed on me. The only times they didn't deliver were when I was stupidly trying to write on a glossy or otherwise unsuited surface.
Not sure why but last time I checked (which was some time last week), the Japanese version was only available as an RC. Just checked again now and noticed that the final version's available. So anyway it looks to me like the release schedule for the Japanese version is a couple of weeks behind that of the English version.
This is what I see in the iPod shuffle: relatively short battery life, no display, lack of playback controls. And what about iTMS? What about it? I just need a small general MP3 player which covers all the basics of any audio playback device. Of course depending on prices, these Sonys are much better than the shuffle for someone like me to whom the Apple or Sony brands mean precious little.
Simple is best. Just install a toilet seat with a built-in extractor fan ducted to the engine compartment. The fuel is your diet. A three-meals-a-day cycle of baked beans should get you to the office and back with enough spare for the aircon. It's highly scalable; premium vindaloo curry should get you to around that 185 mph mark and 3 passenger's worth of Sri Lankan Kothu Roti can put you in contention for the Ansari-X prize.
I used to use an ARM computer when home computing was taking off in the UK. They weren't ARM then, they were called Acorn, building oddball "home" computers like the Acorn Atom. In the 1980s Acorn fought off rival bids from the likes of Sinclair to land a deal with the Department of Education and the BBC to develop the BBC Microcomputer and later the Acorn Electron. Its version of BASIC - BBC BASIC - became the programming language standard taught in all schools in the UK for a whole generation. In fact you could stick me infront of a Beeb now and I could probably knock off a simple text adventure without even thinking. ARM, incidentally, used to stand for Acorn RISC Machines. (Later, the 'A' came to stand for 'Advanced'.) Yes, they were in fact one of the earier companies to commercialise RISC computing with their R-series designs, which were also supplied to UK schools in the form of the Acorn Archimedes computer. The Archimedes was one awesome machine.
This is all from memory, however. Here's a more accurate history.
I don't know how or if this can be done in practice, but this is my idea. You could just lift up the turf, lay a thin, continuous (non-oxidizing) metallic strip along the path that you want the mower to take, put the turf back and fit some kind of metal-detecting sensor under the mower so that it will be guided by the metallic path now hidden under tha lawn. It will require you to clear the lawn of stuff like stones etc., but you'd have to do that anyway if you want a nice evenly striped lawn.
No, driving in England. Miles are abbreviated as "m" there, not "mi". Yes, the distances are in arabic numerals with romanized lettering. We use "km" in Japan So "m" to the untrained eye looks like metres.
Coming from a metric country (Japan), I can tell you it's damn scary when you're speeding down the motorway and you see the big road sign that tells you your exit is coming up in 5m!
The (v. short) article - before it gets nuked
on
RF-Blocking Wallpaper
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Stealth wallpaper could keep LANs secure
June 18 2004, by Ron Coates
UK defence contractor BAE Systems has developed a stealth wallpaper to beat electronic eavesdropping on company Wi-Fi and wired LANs.
The company has produced panels using the technology to produce a screen that will prevent outsiders from listening in on companies' Wi-Fi traffic but let other radio and mobile phone traffic get through.
The FSS (Frequency Selective Surface) panels are made in the same way as printed circuit boards - layers of copper on Kapton polymer - and used on stealth bombers and fighter jets. They come in two varieties: passive, which is effectively permanent, and active, where various areas can be switched on and off to enlarge or limit the area of the network.
The panels are 50 to100 microns thick and can be applied to most surfaces including glass. A company spokesman claimed that they also helped reduce "noise" in buildings where a number of companies operate their own separate LANs.
BAE Systems developed the new material with 145,000 of funding from the Radiocommunications Agency, which is now part of Ofcom. BAE says the material is cheap and it will be developing it commercially through BAE's corporate venture subsidiary.
There is no timescale for its commercial availability.
Taking a taxi in Tokyo is not as simple as it seems. Just because you give the driver a slip of paper with the address of where you want to go, doesn't mean s/he can get you there. Most times I catch a cab to a place I'm not familiar with, I check a map for landmarks before setting off - building names, gas stations, shrines, etc. Believe me, having come back from London, I cannot believe how inept some of these drivers are. Sometimes I swear it would be simpler if I just put the driver in the back and drove the thing myself.
Many taxis in Tokyo have GPS in-car navigation systems. A 3D system like one of these would really help alleviate anxiety, both for driver and increasingly irate customer. FWIW, I recognized the junction in the screenshot immediately. It is very accurate, although that green bit on the opposite right corner now has an ugly prefab GAP store. I think with the rate of construction in Tokyo being what it is, the maps would have to be updated and downloaded almost every week. No wonder it's network-capable!
Exactly. Hard disk noise is the least of your worries. The mainboard and major components like the CPU, GPU and memory already generate enough noise in carrying data around at breakneck speed. Adding CompactFlash or running data over a Gigabit Ethernet card will raise the noise floor on the bus(es) considerably. So what you need to do is separate the signal processing from the mainboard, which means the ADCs and DACs should be inside a well-shielded breakout box on a short cable (since longer cables pick up all manner of other electromagnetic interference.) This will reduce noise more effectively than replacing the HDD with SDRAM.
Having enormous populations in congested cities with low average incomes is a great motivation to produce cheap transportation.
I would just like to add, Tokyo mostly fits that description except that (a) average incomes are comparable to western levels and (b) cheap transportation is already available. Yet power-assisted bicycles have been on sale here for several years and remain very popular. Why is that? Japanese brands constitute the majority of the market but the bicycles were initially made in Japan, making them rather expensive. As Japan is a large population with a high disposable income, sales caught on to the extent that it has become economically justifiable to shift production to China. Economies of scale have thus brought unit costs down to a level that makes them affordable to the Chinese population, itself a huge consumer market with increasingly high disposable incomes. That in itself has brought further economies of scale and prices in Japan have dropped to around half of what they were 4 or 5 years ago. Now the average (Japanese) Joe can offord one of these so we keep on buying. It's basically the same as with anything that started out as a "luxury" consumer product in the Japanese market a few years ago; digital cameras, LCD TVs, you name it.
The other thing is its weight. Built-in UPS?! No longer will that old Hammond B3 have the distinction of being the roadies' single most feared, reviled, hernia-inducing instrument on the tour.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd been reading it as "patents". I thought this was another story about that everyday, routine kind of litigation. Been a long day...
http://www.pentel.com/store/hybrid-technicatm-gel-pens
They'll probably just charge repair costs back to the taxpayer.
Correction: the guy that steals your girlfriend is the git. Granted, this being /. the point is somewhat moot.
Weird Al.
Not sure why but last time I checked (which was some time last week), the Japanese version was only available as an RC. Just checked again now and noticed that the final version's available. So anyway it looks to me like the release schedule for the Japanese version is a couple of weeks behind that of the English version.
Or a particular type of bad, in this case.
Homer: "Mmmm, tobacco mosaic virus with platinum nanoparticles..."
This is what I see in the iPod shuffle: relatively short battery life, no display, lack of playback controls. And what about iTMS? What about it? I just need a small general MP3 player which covers all the basics of any audio playback device. Of course depending on prices, these Sonys are much better than the shuffle for someone like me to whom the Apple or Sony brands mean precious little.
1. Take out patent on "FUD".
2. Take out patent on "Prior art".
3. Profit!
An ad-off add-on :o)
Simple is best. Just install a toilet seat with a built-in extractor fan ducted to the engine compartment. The fuel is your diet. A three-meals-a-day cycle of baked beans should get you to the office and back with enough spare for the aircon. It's highly scalable; premium vindaloo curry should get you to around that 185 mph mark and 3 passenger's worth of Sri Lankan Kothu Roti can put you in contention for the Ansari-X prize.
This is all from memory, however. Here's a more accurate history.
I don't know how or if this can be done in practice, but this is my idea. You could just lift up the turf, lay a thin, continuous (non-oxidizing) metallic strip along the path that you want the mower to take, put the turf back and fit some kind of metal-detecting sensor under the mower so that it will be guided by the metallic path now hidden under tha lawn. It will require you to clear the lawn of stuff like stones etc., but you'd have to do that anyway if you want a nice evenly striped lawn.
No, driving in England. Miles are abbreviated as "m" there, not "mi". Yes, the distances are in arabic numerals with romanized lettering. We use "km" in Japan So "m" to the untrained eye looks like metres.
Coming from a metric country (Japan), I can tell you it's damn scary when you're speeding down the motorway and you see the big road sign that tells you your exit is coming up in 5m!
June 18 2004, by Ron Coates
UK defence contractor BAE Systems has developed a stealth wallpaper to beat electronic eavesdropping on company Wi-Fi and wired LANs. The company has produced panels using the technology to produce a screen that will prevent outsiders from listening in on companies' Wi-Fi traffic but let other radio and mobile phone traffic get through.
The FSS (Frequency Selective Surface) panels are made in the same way as printed circuit boards - layers of copper on Kapton polymer - and used on stealth bombers and fighter jets. They come in two varieties: passive, which is effectively permanent, and active, where various areas can be switched on and off to enlarge or limit the area of the network.
The panels are 50 to100 microns thick and can be applied to most surfaces including glass. A company spokesman claimed that they also helped reduce "noise" in buildings where a number of companies operate their own separate LANs.
BAE Systems developed the new material with 145,000 of funding from the Radiocommunications Agency, which is now part of Ofcom. BAE says the material is cheap and it will be developing it commercially through BAE's corporate venture subsidiary.
There is no timescale for its commercial availability.
Many taxis in Tokyo have GPS in-car navigation systems. A 3D system like one of these would really help alleviate anxiety, both for driver and increasingly irate customer. FWIW, I recognized the junction in the screenshot immediately. It is very accurate, although that green bit on the opposite right corner now has an ugly prefab GAP store. I think with the rate of construction in Tokyo being what it is, the maps would have to be updated and downloaded almost every week. No wonder it's network-capable!
Exactly. Hard disk noise is the least of your worries. The mainboard and major components like the CPU, GPU and memory already generate enough noise in carrying data around at breakneck speed. Adding CompactFlash or running data over a Gigabit Ethernet card will raise the noise floor on the bus(es) considerably. So what you need to do is separate the signal processing from the mainboard, which means the ADCs and DACs should be inside a well-shielded breakout box on a short cable (since longer cables pick up all manner of other electromagnetic interference.) This will reduce noise more effectively than replacing the HDD with SDRAM.
There is one on the Japanese market, however. (Sorry, Japanese only but w/ pics.)
I would just like to add, Tokyo mostly fits that description except that (a) average incomes are comparable to western levels and (b) cheap transportation is already available. Yet power-assisted bicycles have been on sale here for several years and remain very popular. Why is that? Japanese brands constitute the majority of the market but the bicycles were initially made in Japan, making them rather expensive. As Japan is a large population with a high disposable income, sales caught on to the extent that it has become economically justifiable to shift production to China. Economies of scale have thus brought unit costs down to a level that makes them affordable to the Chinese population, itself a huge consumer market with increasingly high disposable incomes. That in itself has brought further economies of scale and prices in Japan have dropped to around half of what they were 4 or 5 years ago. Now the average (Japanese) Joe can offord one of these so we keep on buying. It's basically the same as with anything that started out as a "luxury" consumer product in the Japanese market a few years ago; digital cameras, LCD TVs, you name it.
as this is Windows, it would tempt fate not to install some kind of anti-virus utility.
The other thing is its weight. Built-in UPS?! No longer will that old Hammond B3 have the distinction of being the roadies' single most feared, reviled, hernia-inducing instrument on the tour.
Well, it's still vaporware but they did/do indeed plan an SD version with 4.x support, at least according to this. Q3/2003, it says. Right.