Academics love simulations and models. They're great for proving theories. Problem though is that when the real world does not match the simulation model, then the theories don't work in the real world.
Independent traffic lights sound very unlikely to succeed since flowing traffic requires synchronisation of multiple lights to keep the flow going.
Sure we like those frilly bits like AC etc, but cars with AC etc still take you from A to B.
Would you buy a car with an AC if it had square wheels and could not go anywhere effectively? That's what it is like if you buy a "phone" with all the fancy stuff, but the phone part sucks.
This is a trend. OpenGIS has proposed open XML data for a while. Hopefully a lot more data will be exposed this way, making true "internet apps" in the future.
The bit about Xen becoming a household name is bullshit. Outside geek households nobody knows waht an operating system. Most people just talk about "the computer" and can't really tell the the boundaries between their applications, web content and their cameras. They certainly don't know about operating systems and vrtualisation.
Two of these lenses will still be considerably smaller than two glass lenses so a zoom lens will be much smaller.
On mobile phone cameras quality is not a huge deal but I am still rather skeptical about use in medical equipment though. Medical stuff needs to be far more precise and hold its precision over a long time. "Hard stuff" like glass will be hard to displace with sqishy lenses.
is that this also identified a gunshot as distinct from other bangs.
This soulds a bit like a neural net. I know of neural nets taking a FFT and being able to tell one jet engine from another (eg. 747 vs 727) or a Toyota engine vs a VW or an accoustic return from a box vs a sphere.
Gunshot signatures could be quite easy to decipher since a pistol sounds different to a shotgun or rifle and a subsonic (eg..45 APC) sounds different to a supersonic (eg. 9mm). However the sound does get filtered and some components are lost. Perhaps this is why the system only works for a couple of blocks.
My first reaction was: wtf is a TV show being discussed on/.? My "geek news" detector was not going beep,beep, beep. But now I see this bloke was a real nerd. I hope he dressed the part too!
The traditional journalists (newspapers,CNN etc) have said that they don't like blogging because bloggers do not subscribe to journalistic ethics.
The question though is do traditional journalists still subscribe to the ethics that they hold so dear? News is now "infotainment". The emphasis is on getting better viewer ratings etc rather than on getting the truth. Journalists are controlled by the corporations, whitehouse, military etc. They have the right to free speach, but they know that if they don't say the right things they won't get cooperation. If you get a bad name in the whitehouse or a corporation, it will take a little longer for your calls to be returned and you get scooped by someone else. Say the wrng things about what's happing in Iraq and your embedded journalist ends up joining the troops going off to wash trucks instead of the troops going into a nice night firefight with beautiful video images to send home.
than real concern with code quality. The real driver behind ISO9000 and all such quality initiatives is to provide a paper trail to prove "it isn't my fault". Some customers like this, because when something breaks, they can say to their boss/shareholders/whatever "I did the right thing I bought from an ISO9000 company".
The other part to this is being able to make an elite club (ie those inside "quality" vs those "outside"). Such levels of exclusivity fly in the face of what Open Source stands for.
For the last 20 years I've been doing electronic + embedded contracting as a sideline activity. If you have the skills there is always a demand.I've pretty much been able to get work whenever I want it.
Another activity I've done is write for an electronics magazine. There are various publications out there that **want**, and will pay for, submissions. Apart from getting your name in print, and a cheque, it also gets your name out there for people to read.
This is indeed Geek News, but please keep it to yourself. The other 90% of geeks that have yet to be laid will get jealous and mark you offtopic out of spite.
Why would RF make it accurate? For that matter, why would RFID? I guess it could use RFID to prevent you getting cross-talk from other RF mice, but surely RFID won;t make it track better.
Seems to me they just want to stuff in more buzzwords to sound flash.
Linux definitely has an impact and Linus definitely influences Linux. Just because he doesn't use nasty methods to influence (eg. ballmer/Gates style) does not make him less influential. Indeed Linus' influence is fairly hidden from view, making it all the more effective.
Read his (??auto??)biography. If I recall he scooped $20M just from just one Linux company's share options. The company gave Linus a bunch of share options in recognition of his efforts and he cashed up nicely when they went public. Good for him!
Instead of taking the letter of the law, the law makers should consider the spirit of the law. Computers don't change the intention of the current laws, just the mechanism whereby things are executed.
For example, employers reading employee email should be considered the same as them opening regular snail-mail. Snooping through an employee's disk space on the server is the same as snooping through their physical locker. Crackers that barge into other people computers are really no different than someone forcefully entering your house, sitting on your couch and drinking your beer. Saying "they should have better security" is like saying "you should have inch thick stel doors.
The letter of the law might not include electronic methods, but the basic reason the privacy laws are just the same.
Even if Solaris displaced Linux on every server and PC, that would not kill Linux. Most Linux usage is in embedded systems (phones, printers, TV sets,...). I don't see Solaris displacing Linux there anytime soon.
While it is less likely that open source software will violate patents, the risk to the user is higher. That seems self-contradictory, but it isn't.
With closed source it is harder to know if someone is violating a patent or not. Much closed source *does* violate patents, but the source is not visible and it is therefore harder to prosecute. With open source, any infringing patents are more obvious and more provable which opens up risk.
FAT, in embedded devices, is the worst way to save data that you care about. FAT is also veeeerrrrryyyy slow relative to some other options. For anything you care about, they should use a well proven fault tolerant file system like YAFFS or JFFS2.These file systems are designed for use with flash storage which makes them far more efficient.
For amyone that wants to know more about this hit Google for YAFFS or JFFS2.
Bias acknowledgement: I wrote YAFFS. I quite often get emails of the type: "We tried file system xxx but could not make it reliable enough to ship. Since switching to YAFFS we have no more problems".
There are some very cool dynamic programming languages. eg. Forth. In forth you can modify the compiler on the fly and change the language on the fly.
If I try to use an unusual construct in a mathematical expression, I'd probably follow it with a statement in English or mathematics explaining the meaning. That's like doing a comment. I can do those in C.
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Academics love simulations and models. They're great for proving theories. Problem though is that when the real world does not match the simulation model, then the theories don't work in the real world.
Independent traffic lights sound very unlikely to succeed since flowing traffic requires synchronisation of multiple lights to keep the flow going.
Would you buy a car with an AC if it had square wheels and could not go anywhere effectively? That's what it is like if you buy a "phone" with all the fancy stuff, but the phone part sucks.
A phone should primarily be, ummm, a phone I'd think, but then mine is 6 years old and still does fine. No games, no camera. Just SMS and voice.
The bit about Xen becoming a household name is bullshit. Outside geek households nobody knows waht an operating system. Most people just talk about "the computer" and can't really tell the the boundaries between their applications, web content and their cameras. They certainly don't know about operating systems and vrtualisation.
On mobile phone cameras quality is not a huge deal but I am still rather skeptical about use in medical equipment though. Medical stuff needs to be far more precise and hold its precision over a long time. "Hard stuff" like glass will be hard to displace with sqishy lenses.
This soulds a bit like a neural net. I know of neural nets taking a FFT and being able to tell one jet engine from another (eg. 747 vs 727) or a Toyota engine vs a VW or an accoustic return from a box vs a sphere.
Gunshot signatures could be quite easy to decipher since a pistol sounds different to a shotgun or rifle and a subsonic (eg. .45 APC) sounds different to a supersonic (eg. 9mm). However the sound does get filtered and some components are lost. Perhaps this is why the system only works for a couple of blocks.
My first reaction was: wtf is a TV show being discussed on /.? My "geek news" detector was not going beep,beep, beep. But now I see this bloke was a real nerd. I hope he dressed the part too!
Contracting to people requiring embedded software/firmware - like most electronics does these days.
The question though is do traditional journalists still subscribe to the ethics that they hold so dear? News is now "infotainment". The emphasis is on getting better viewer ratings etc rather than on getting the truth. Journalists are controlled by the corporations, whitehouse, military etc. They have the right to free speach, but they know that if they don't say the right things they won't get cooperation. If you get a bad name in the whitehouse or a corporation, it will take a little longer for your calls to be returned and you get scooped by someone else. Say the wrng things about what's happing in Iraq and your embedded journalist ends up joining the troops going off to wash trucks instead of the troops going into a nice night firefight with beautiful video images to send home.
The other part to this is being able to make an elite club (ie those inside "quality" vs those "outside"). Such levels of exclusivity fly in the face of what Open Source stands for.
Another activity I've done is write for an electronics magazine. There are various publications out there that **want**, and will pay for, submissions. Apart from getting your name in print, and a cheque, it also gets your name out there for people to read.
This is indeed Geek News, but please keep it to yourself. The other 90% of geeks that have yet to be laid will get jealous and mark you offtopic out of spite.
Seems to me they just want to stuff in more buzzwords to sound flash.
Most of us left the country years ago.
Linux definitely has an impact and Linus definitely influences Linux. Just because he doesn't use nasty methods to influence (eg. ballmer/Gates style) does not make him less influential. Indeed Linus' influence is fairly hidden from view, making it all the more effective.
Read his (??auto??)biography. If I recall he scooped $20M just from just one Linux company's share options. The company gave Linus a bunch of share options in recognition of his efforts and he cashed up nicely when they went public. Good for him!
There goes geekdom. I hope he wore the Tshirt and pants with matching stains to prove he isn't a real executive.
For example, employers reading employee email should be considered the same as them opening regular snail-mail. Snooping through an employee's disk space on the server is the same as snooping through their physical locker. Crackers that barge into other people computers are really no different than someone forcefully entering your house, sitting on your couch and drinking your beer. Saying "they should have better security" is like saying "you should have inch thick stel doors.
The letter of the law might not include electronic methods, but the basic reason the privacy laws are just the same.
Even if Solaris displaced Linux on every server and PC, that would not kill Linux. Most Linux usage is in embedded systems (phones, printers, TV sets,...). I don't see Solaris displacing Linux there anytime soon.
This is one reason a microkernel OS can be more secure and robust. When shit breaks loose the kernel is still isolated.
With closed source it is harder to know if someone is violating a patent or not. Much closed source *does* violate patents, but the source is not visible and it is therefore harder to prosecute. With open source, any infringing patents are more obvious and more provable which opens up risk.
For amyone that wants to know more about this hit Google for YAFFS or JFFS2.
Bias acknowledgement: I wrote YAFFS. I quite often get emails of the type: "We tried file system xxx but could not make it reliable enough to ship. Since switching to YAFFS we have no more problems".
If I try to use an unusual construct in a mathematical expression, I'd probably follow it with a statement in English or mathematics explaining the meaning. That's like doing a comment. I can do those in C.