No matter how inflated our egos, after a few tears and a small feast for the worms, the planet will continue as if we never even happened. Why complicate matters with a dead man's switch?
I homeschool my kids. I'll definitely be looking at these courses for extra material. I'll also look at these courses for my own benefit too. I don't think that homeschoolers are of primary interest yet.
I think MIT is realising that there are a lot of people out there who want informal education. I have a post grad degree but did not go further (PhD etc) because I thought I could learn much more by pursuing my own goals rather than following a university program. I think this approach has worked well for me. Access to these courses will open up more opportunities.
Languages, OSs, file systems, databases, microprocessors, cars, VCRs, diskdrives, pizzas,.... none of these are one-size-fits-all.
There never has been, and probably never will be. A small embedded database will never be replaced by a fat-asses SQL database any more than Linux will ever find aplace in the really bottom-end microcontroller systems.
Analog(ue). Hook up something that looks like a potentiometer (eg. say an LDR or NTC).
Something via I2C. You can use a Hitechnic proto board or make your own for approx $2 or so using a small micro like an Atmel ATTiny13 which costs less than a buck.
Or, if you hack the NXT firmware, you can do just about anything you can think of using two digital lines and an analogue line.
The NXT has more CPU grunt, more flash more RAM, and a lot of sensors from Lego or third parties.
The NXT is supported by a wide variety of good programming tools (some still emerging). Many of these tools (eg. Lejos -- still in Alpha for NXT) provide very sophisticated programming models.
I do use AVR for teaching robotics to schoolkids, but they're a lot more limited.
My (somewhat jaded) definition of a profession is a practice in which the practitioners (the "professionals") consipre so as to exclude others. Lawyers use legal speak, and in some countries still use Latin, programmers use C/C++/whatever jargon. Wassadifference?
You basically get three major types of caps on motherboards, each of which have different properties:
Ceramics. Small and fast. Typically used for decoupling (small charge storage).
Electrolytic: Larger and slower. They are slower because they are highly inductive. They don't like working at very high frequencies which can make them fail.
Tantalum: Medium/large and fast. They are less inductive than electrolytics. They can dump current far faster than electolytic which can cause undesirable current rushes.
Of course I have not RTFA because that's not the point of/., but I suspect they're swapping tantalums in to replace electrolytics. With proper usage electrolytics will not typically fail, so this is perhaps FUD. Particularly the "overclocker" bit. It sounds like FUD to try generate a new "feature" to sell their motherboards.
Please do post serial numbers. Please also post name/address of previous owner so we can verify that the item is in a good state of repair. Please also get a sworn statement from a police officer that the facts have been verified and are correct.
or business opportunities. They foster personal development and exploration. If you only ever learn or do the stuff you need to do the job, then you're far from likely to bring new ideas & thinking to the table. I spend a lot of time doing personal projects (on my own time) and they often have some spin-off benefit at work. For instance, I recently wrote some software that was cranking approx 50k interrupts per second. At work there was some concern as to whether a similar processor could crank 10k interrupts per second and I could immediately provide some input. In another project, someone was looking for a way to do some test configuration. Someone else had been playing with Python and suggested that some cool python features would be useful.
While the comment might just sound like a silly grab for a funny, I think this is a very valid point. We really have far too many developers who were not intended by the Intelligent Designer to be so. Software quality and robustness etc (which impacts on delivery schedules etc) are dictated mainly by the lowest performer in the group rather than the highest performer.
There's a whole industry of dev tools out there trying to convince management that SilverBullet will make your software come out on time, or make your crappy programmers more productive. I don't think so.
What we really need is to promote the concept of the CodeSmith like a balcksmish, silversmith or whatever, coding is a skilled artisan occupation. Instead of trying to keep good coders coding, most organisations try promoting them and making them managers. Eventually you're left with just the dregs coding.
The main purpose is to vaccinate Microsoft against bad press. The Buffett docation announcement was made on a stadium draped in Microsoft logos.
They think they will cure AIDS. Ha! Developing a vaccine is only part of the cure. There's been a vaccine for TB for 50+ years and still many people die of TB every day.
It does not really matter who's fault it is. In almost all cases where someone else is at fault, you could have been more defensive and more vigalent to have prevented the accident from happening.
If you had no safety gear and instead had a 12 inch iron spike in the centre of the steering wheel, you'd spend a lot more time watching the road and looking out for potential dangers.
I'm quite shocked that all/.ers have looked at so far is a list of things that could go wrong with the technology.
What is really broken with this whole concept is that it takes away driver responsibility and nannies the driver. Instead of making drivers responsible, we make them victims: "It isn't my fault I drove drunk! The car let me drive! Go sue Toyota or put a Toyota exec in jail.". All these so-called safety devices just give users a false sense of safety.
Cars are fucking dangerous things and need to be driven carefully. I think it would be a GoodIdea to strip all the safety gear from the driver (passenger safety is OK). If drivers didn't have airbags and safety belts and crumple zones perhaps they'd spend a bit more time thinking about driving rather than texting etc.
What a crock. Eye candy is completely pointless for its own sake. I'd rather that people fixed some real bugs than put on pointless makeup..
You should not have to wory about how your GUI is built, but it does matter that it works better (which just happens to be achieved by building it differently).
What about employee safety?
on
UFOs In the News
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Many people saw something and United is unable to give a reasonable explanation for what it was. This might not be a huge threat, it surely is a potential and perceived threat. That nothing showed up on radar is surely more of a worry. It means that the radar is not able to see everything there and surely leaves passenger and flight staff safety in question.
Yes, it is possible for one CAN node to launch a network DOS by either continuously flooding the bus with high priority messages (not allowing lower priority messages to get through) or by forcing the bus into non-commucative states.
However, most/all vehicles have more than one bus (three is pretty typical)and critical componentry (braking, engine control) is not on the same bus as body electronics (lights, windows etc) or instrumentation. There are bridges between the buses, but these bridges are like a bit like NAT firewalls in that they translate and regulate messages. This, a well designed bridge will prevent propagation of a DOS on the instrumentation bus onto the engine control bus.
We should leave the aliens alone. Finding out what's in Greenland is surely far more important than pissing money into space to find out what's under Jupiter's/Mars's/etc surface.
Slashdot Mirror
Speak for yourself weener-boy!
No matter how inflated our egos, after a few tears and a small feast for the worms, the planet will continue as if we never even happened. Why complicate matters with a dead man's switch?
If you're doing this just for the paper-credibility then I think you're wasting your time.
I think MIT is realising that there are a lot of people out there who want informal education. I have a post grad degree but did not go further (PhD etc) because I thought I could learn much more by pursuing my own goals rather than following a university program. I think this approach has worked well for me. Access to these courses will open up more opportunities.
There never has been, and probably never will be. A small embedded database will never be replaced by a fat-asses SQL database any more than Linux will ever find aplace in the really bottom-end microcontroller systems.
Analog(ue). Hook up something that looks like a potentiometer (eg. say an LDR or NTC).
Something via I2C. You can use a Hitechnic proto board or make your own for approx $2 or so using a small micro like an Atmel ATTiny13 which costs less than a buck.
Or, if you hack the NXT firmware, you can do just about anything you can think of using two digital lines and an analogue line.
Having the hardware specs (schematics etc) has been great. I started this effort before Lego released the firmware and have not used that.
The NXT has a pretty grunt CPU and is capable of much more than a Roomba. Designing and adding 3rd party sensors is a breeze.
The NXT is supported by a wide variety of good programming tools (some still emerging). Many of these tools (eg. Lejos -- still in Alpha for NXT) provide very sophisticated programming models.
I do use AVR for teaching robotics to schoolkids, but they're a lot more limited.
Making the press release is easy... actually doing the conversion is going to be difficult.
Is cooking a good thing?
My (somewhat jaded) definition of a profession is a practice in which the practitioners (the "professionals") consipre so as to exclude others. Lawyers use legal speak, and in some countries still use Latin, programmers use C/C++/whatever jargon. Wassadifference?
Ceramics. Small and fast. Typically used for decoupling (small charge storage).
Electrolytic: Larger and slower. They are slower because they are highly inductive. They don't like working at very high frequencies which can make them fail.
Tantalum: Medium/large and fast. They are less inductive than electrolytics. They can dump current far faster than electolytic which can cause undesirable current rushes.
Of course I have not RTFA because that's not the point of /., but I suspect they're swapping tantalums in to replace electrolytics. With proper usage electrolytics will not typically fail, so this is perhaps FUD. Particularly the "overclocker" bit. It sounds like FUD to try generate a new "feature" to sell their motherboards.
Please do post serial numbers. Please also post name/address of previous owner so we can verify that the item is in a good state of repair. Please also get a sworn statement from a police officer that the facts have been verified and are correct.
or business opportunities. They foster personal development and exploration. If you only ever learn or do the stuff you need to do the job, then you're far from likely to bring new ideas & thinking to the table. I spend a lot of time doing personal projects (on my own time) and they often have some spin-off benefit at work. For instance, I recently wrote some software that was cranking approx 50k interrupts per second. At work there was some concern as to whether a similar processor could crank 10k interrupts per second and I could immediately provide some input. In another project, someone was looking for a way to do some test configuration. Someone else had been playing with Python and suggested that some cool python features would be useful.
There's a whole industry of dev tools out there trying to convince management that SilverBullet will make your software come out on time, or make your crappy programmers more productive. I don't think so.
What we really need is to promote the concept of the CodeSmith like a balcksmish, silversmith or whatever, coding is a skilled artisan occupation. Instead of trying to keep good coders coding, most organisations try promoting them and making them managers. Eventually you're left with just the dregs coding.
They think they will cure AIDS. Ha! Developing a vaccine is only part of the cure. There's been a vaccine for TB for 50+ years and still many people die of TB every day.
If you had no safety gear and instead had a 12 inch iron spike in the centre of the steering wheel, you'd spend a lot more time watching the road and looking out for potential dangers.
What is really broken with this whole concept is that it takes away driver responsibility and nannies the driver. Instead of making drivers responsible, we make them victims: "It isn't my fault I drove drunk! The car let me drive! Go sue Toyota or put a Toyota exec in jail.". All these so-called safety devices just give users a false sense of safety.
Cars are fucking dangerous things and need to be driven carefully. I think it would be a GoodIdea to strip all the safety gear from the driver (passenger safety is OK). If drivers didn't have airbags and safety belts and crumple zones perhaps they'd spend a bit more time thinking about driving rather than texting etc.
You should not have to wory about how your GUI is built, but it does matter that it works better (which just happens to be achieved by building it differently).
Many people saw something and United is unable to give a reasonable explanation for what it was. This might not be a huge threat, it surely is a potential and perceived threat. That nothing showed up on radar is surely more of a worry. It means that the radar is not able to see everything there and surely leaves passenger and flight staff safety in question.
The nerdy navigators of old drank it and pretty much everyone else since then.
However, most/all vehicles have more than one bus (three is pretty typical)and critical componentry (braking, engine control) is not on the same bus as body electronics (lights, windows etc) or instrumentation. There are bridges between the buses, but these bridges are like a bit like NAT firewalls in that they translate and regulate messages. This, a well designed bridge will prevent propagation of a DOS on the instrumentation bus onto the engine control bus.
Quite a few devices (Wifi etc) often have WinCE drivers available and not Linux drivers. Running Linux is something you want to identify up front.
We should leave the aliens alone. Finding out what's in Greenland is surely far more important than pissing money into space to find out what's under Jupiter's/Mars's/etc surface.
Smallpox etc seems to have been handled pretty well, yet TB - a totally curable disease - still kills more people than 'flu.