I think its dangerous to simply assume that there is net benefit to the environment of something like this, without considering the total cost of using this font. A font full of holes will be considerably more computationally intensive to render than a solid one, which might keep a computer or a printer out of power saving mode longer, which may ultimately offset the saved ink with wasted electricity. This may or may not be true, but it needs to be considered before making the claim that this is good for the environment.
I would argue that setting your printer's darkness setting to 80% would save an equal amount of toner, without the risk of increasing computational cost and energy consumption.
What makes a supercomputer *a* supercomputer, as opposed to a network of not-necessarily-super computers which all happen to be in the same building and connected to the same high-speed network? By the way this is described, it certainly seems to be a network of many computers working together, rather than one single almighty computer.
Re:Despite this "Terminal Chaos"
on
Terminal Chaos
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· Score: 1
I also recommend Airframe by Michael Crighton. Yes, it's Crighton's usual stuff -- heavy on technical details, some of which may be flubbed. But he does grasp the complexities of air travel in the U.S. today.
If you enjoyed Airframe by Michael Crichton, you'll probably also enjoy TRACON by Paul McElroy.
Not necessarily. There is a lot of room for improvement when you consider that a typical projector puts out the same amount of light when it is displaying a dark image as it does when it is projecting a field of pure white -- just that in the former case the light is absorbed (by the LCD) and is transformed into waste heat. An LCD based pocket projector would have the same problem, but I imagine that in the future, pocket projectors could dispense of the LCD altogether and use a grid of LEDs (one for each pixel) which would shine only as bright as they need to be, and consume no energy at all when displaying black.
AFAIK, some pocket projectors, which use lasers rather than LEDs, already are able to achieve this economy (I think they use a scanning, modulated laser to paint the image only where it is light).
> Hint - siding -> insulation -> foam -> plastic -> drywall. All cuttable with a decent pocket knife. Find a > nice secluded area at the rear of the house and you're in and out, no noise no fuss.
Reminds me of a childhood memory I have. I grew up in Brazil, some parts which are notorious for an extremely high crime rate. The houses in our neigborhood were made out of concrete or masonry, had barred windows, and the properties were surrounded wrought-iron fences and by eight foot high concrete block walls topped with glass shards. My dad had reinforced the doors of our home using steel bars and several dead-bolts.
Now here's the funny part. All this paranoia and mistrust among neighors afforded thives with the privacy to do whatever they wanted. I remember a story of a nearby house that was broken into while the owners were on vacation -- the crooks simply used a jackhammer to break through the wall of the house and nobody did anything to stop it!
Even though we've been in the US for decades now, my dad still is fairy paranoid about security. Lucky I was too young to be traumatized by it.
> Hee hee, you said "alimentation"... You mean the wires?
I'll venture a guess that the person who used that word is fluent in some language other than American English. I know in at least one language (Brazilian Portuguese), is common to use the word "alimentation" in regards to speakers or electronics. It is true that word means "nourish", but it is no different than the use of the English word "feed" in such context (such as a "television feed").
I find it highly amusing that the "server" versions of windows all ship with a complete copy of directx (including direct3d, and support for various gaming-related networking protocols and joysticks etc)...
If you watch the movie Hackers, you will find out that real servers are accessed by virtual reality interfaces where you get to fly over a landscape of translucent towers with glowing green lettering on them, while pounding on neon acrylic keyboards.
For this sort of futuristic server interface, you definitely need DirectX. Microsoft is just being forward thinking by including DirectX in their current server products, in anticipation of their Vista Server product, which will make full use of it.
Maybe these researchers could look at things from a seller's perspective and explore the following question:
-- Is it best to set the starting bid on an item to what you expect it to sell for, or to start it at a ridiculously
low price to get a bidding war going?
Back when I was selling items on eBay, I got the impression that the latter strategy worked best for comodity items that were also for sale by other auctioneers. If I started, say, a graphics card at one cent, people would look at my listing rather than the one from the guy who was starting it at say, $20, which was the minimum I hoped to get. In the end, it seemed that people would pay more for my item, since once they got into the heat of the bidding war, there were more likely to pay more than they intended. This also seemed to help with snipers, since it encouraged so many people to participate in the bidding war that at the end snipers were out-sniping each other.
Of course, this strategy can backfire if only one person wants your item, then you end up selling it at a loss, but you can very easily look at sales history to avoid that.
Or, for that matter, electronics....I wouldn't even know how to intentoanly make a tape player/radio into a bomb let alone do it accidentaly.
Maybe it was some sort of hi-tech device with a Lithium Ion battery (like an IPod) and when they dissembled it they shorted the leads of the battery or damaged the protection circuit?
Power is the integral of instantaneous amps times instananeous volts. You can't use a $2.99 Harbor-Freight voltmeter and ammeter to do this.
I'm not sure what they used for their measurments, but since hooking up a multimeter to AC is inconvenient, and geeks are lazy, I'm willing to bet they used this little Kill-A-Watt gadget from ThinkGeek:
I got one from eBay (rather than ThinkGeek) and it's a very addicting gadget. It even does the power factor calculations that were mentioned in this thread (hey, thanks for telling me what the PF button on the unit does. It's embarrassing that I earned an EE degree and I did not know what the button did until now -- I regret doing the computer engineering track, since I learned so embarrasingly little about analog electronics along the way!)
They made paper out of nanotubes. This is cool and worthy of my admiration. But then they add this:
Further, the material can be cast into different three-dimensional shapes, with different functions. The researchers have created tubes, bowls and cups using this process. These three-dimensional hollow objects can be manipulated by hand and trimmed with scissors, the researchers report.
In other words, just like regular paper, you can fold it and trim it with scissors, making interesting origami. It's a pet peeve of mine that researchers feel they have to talk about ordinary things in such obscure ways.
Having gotten my master's degree, I've come to the conclusion that much of the work in academia consists of the following steps repeated over and over again by different people:
1) Spend several months studing an agonizingly complicated research paper, only to realize that 99% of the paper is intentional obfuscation of obvious things, with the remaining 1% being the actual novel idea that improves some technique.
2) Spend a week or two finding another novel idea that leads to some overall improvement of the technique. This improvement could also be stated in a sentence or two, but isn't.
3) Spend several months writing filler material stating obvious things in highly complicated language. Combine with the miniscule morsel of scientific knowledge created in step 2, in a ratio of 100 to 1, then publish as a paper or thesis.
Don't get me wrong. This research is very cool, and I'm sure coming up with carbon-nanotube paper took more than a few weeks of research, but the part about "three-dimensional hollow objects" really bugs me.
[My sincere hopes] are that it has something to do with "Gettin' Perpendicular"
IBM failed to mention that while they can store 15 times as much data per cubic centimeter by standing the bits on end, the tape medium itself is 15 times as thick, leading to the use of a large circular support hub to accommodate the extra weight. The new tapes and tape drives are based on an earlier design popularized by IBM in its heyday.
Nevermind. I posted the because the coral cache was giving a database error, but it seems to be working again. You can use the original coral cache link from the parent and mod my original post redundant:)
I wonder if having tons of slashdotters download a 3KB torrent will slashdot my free web provider.... should I provide a torrent of my torrent? Or a corel cache of my torrent of the torrent?
Indiana University's Kelley Business School had a CIS class for undergraduates that featured a final similar to this where
students had to secure computers and take turns attacking each others machines.
Which is perfectly alright, since the students set up these computers with the express purpose of attacking them. That is not a problem and in fact is the correct way to run a security class.
I beleive the issue at hand is that said professor required his students to probe machines that were "live" on the internet and were not under his student's control.
> The ability to join static networks was taken out.
Not true.
The only annoying ommision in XP Home I've found so far (besides domains) is the lack of the ability to configure file ACLs -- the security tab is available only in safe mode. This makes life very frustrating if you're trying to grant file access to Limited accounts. I had to learn to use "cacls" from the command prompt to change the ACLs.
Slashdot Mirror
I think its dangerous to simply assume that there is net benefit to the environment of something like this, without considering the total cost of using this font. A font full of holes will be considerably more computationally intensive to render than a solid one, which might keep a computer or a printer out of power saving mode longer, which may ultimately offset the saved ink with wasted electricity. This may or may not be true, but it needs to be considered before making the claim that this is good for the environment. I would argue that setting your printer's darkness setting to 80% would save an equal amount of toner, without the risk of increasing computational cost and energy consumption.
What makes a supercomputer *a* supercomputer, as opposed to a network of not-necessarily-super computers which all happen to be in the same building and connected to the same high-speed network? By the way this is described, it certainly seems to be a network of many computers working together, rather than one single almighty computer.
... tin whiskers are the way to go.
I also recommend Airframe by Michael Crighton. Yes, it's Crighton's usual stuff -- heavy on technical details, some of which may be flubbed. But he does grasp the complexities of air travel in the U.S. today.
If you enjoyed Airframe by Michael Crichton, you'll probably also enjoy TRACON by Paul McElroy.Remember kids, wipe down your murder weapon with sand paper!
From the article "P.S. That's a live photo. One more after the break."
Can someone please explain to me what a live photo is, and how it differs from a dead photo?
Not necessarily. There is a lot of room for improvement when you consider that a typical projector puts out the same amount of light when it is displaying a dark image as it does when it is projecting a field of pure white -- just that in the former case the light is absorbed (by the LCD) and is transformed into waste heat. An LCD based pocket projector would have the same problem, but I imagine that in the future, pocket projectors could dispense of the LCD altogether and use a grid of LEDs (one for each pixel) which would shine only as bright as they need to be, and consume no energy at all when displaying black.
AFAIK, some pocket projectors, which use lasers rather than LEDs, already are able to achieve this economy (I think they use a scanning, modulated laser to paint the image only where it is light).
-- Marcio
Been done. Here's an article about a "black" projection screen for daylight use:
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB108742977261939595-IRjg4Nllal3nZyva3qHbqyCm4.html
And a picture:
http://gizmodo.com/archives/better-picture-of-sonys-black-backed-projection-screen-016964.php
More googling revealed these are now sold under the ChromaView brand. Check out the price on that puppy:
http://www.tvcity.tv/productview.aspx?ID=1274
-- Marcio
> Hint - siding -> insulation -> foam -> plastic -> drywall. All cuttable with a decent pocket knife. Find a
> nice secluded area at the rear of the house and you're in and out, no noise no fuss.
Reminds me of a childhood memory I have. I grew up in Brazil, some parts which are notorious for an extremely high crime rate. The houses in our neigborhood were made out of concrete or masonry, had barred windows, and the properties were surrounded wrought-iron fences and by eight foot high concrete block walls topped with glass shards. My dad had reinforced the doors of our home using steel bars and several dead-bolts.
Now here's the funny part. All this paranoia and mistrust among neighors afforded thives with the privacy to do whatever they wanted. I remember a story of a nearby house that was broken into while the owners were on vacation -- the crooks simply used a jackhammer to break through the wall of the house and nobody did anything to stop it!
Even though we've been in the US for decades now, my dad still is fairy paranoid about security. Lucky I was too young to be traumatized by it.
> Hee hee, you said "alimentation" ... You mean the wires?
I'll venture a guess that the person who used that word is fluent in some language other than American English. I know in at least one language (Brazilian Portuguese), is common to use the word "alimentation" in regards to speakers or electronics. It is true that word means "nourish", but it is no different than the use of the English word "feed" in such context (such as a "television feed").
-- Marcio
Preview release is here
(with apologies to the debian developers... I couldn't resist)
I find it highly amusing that the "server" versions of windows all ship with a complete copy of directx (including direct3d, and support for various gaming-related networking protocols and joysticks etc)...
If you watch the movie Hackers, you will find out that real servers are accessed by virtual reality interfaces where you get to fly over a landscape of translucent towers with glowing green lettering on them, while pounding on neon acrylic keyboards.
For this sort of futuristic server interface, you definitely need DirectX. Microsoft is just being forward thinking by including DirectX in their current server products, in anticipation of their Vista Server product, which will make full use of it.
Maybe these researchers could look at things from a seller's perspective and explore the following question:
-- Is it best to set the starting bid on an item to what you expect it to sell for, or to start it at a ridiculously
low price to get a bidding war going?
Back when I was selling items on eBay, I got the impression that the latter strategy worked best for comodity items that were also for sale by other auctioneers. If I started, say, a graphics card at one cent, people would look at my listing rather than the one from the guy who was starting it at say, $20, which was the minimum I hoped to get. In the end, it seemed that people would pay more for my item, since once they got into the heat of the bidding war, there were more likely to pay more than they intended. This also seemed to help with snipers, since it encouraged so many people to participate in the bidding war that at the end snipers were out-sniping each other.
Of course, this strategy can backfire if only one person wants your item, then you end up selling it at a loss, but you can very easily look at sales history to avoid that.
-- Marcio
Bah.... I much rather have a portable computer...
Or, for that matter, electronics. ...I wouldn't even know how to intentoanly make a tape player/radio into a bomb let alone do it accidentaly.
Maybe it was some sort of hi-tech device with a Lithium Ion battery (like an IPod) and when they dissembled it they shorted the leads of the battery or damaged the protection circuit?
-- Marcio
Power is the integral of instantaneous amps times instananeous volts. You can't use a $2.99 Harbor-Freight voltmeter and ammeter to do this.
I'm not sure what they used for their measurments, but since hooking up a multimeter to AC is inconvenient, and geeks are lazy, I'm willing to bet they used this little Kill-A-Watt gadget from ThinkGeek:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/7657
I got one from eBay (rather than ThinkGeek) and it's a very addicting gadget. It even does the power factor calculations that were mentioned in this thread (hey, thanks for telling me what the PF button on the unit does. It's embarrassing that I earned an EE degree and I did not know what the button did until now -- I regret doing the computer engineering track, since I learned so embarrasingly little about analog electronics along the way!)
-- Marcio
Further, the material can be cast into different three-dimensional shapes, with different functions. The researchers have created tubes, bowls and cups using this process. These three-dimensional hollow objects can be manipulated by hand and trimmed with scissors, the researchers report.
In other words, just like regular paper, you can fold it and trim it with scissors, making interesting origami. It's a pet peeve of mine that researchers feel they have to talk about ordinary things in such obscure ways.
Having gotten my master's degree, I've come to the conclusion that much of the work in academia consists of the following steps repeated over and over again by different people:
1) Spend several months studing an agonizingly complicated research paper, only to realize that 99% of the paper is intentional obfuscation of obvious things, with the remaining 1% being the actual novel idea that improves some technique.
2) Spend a week or two finding another novel idea that leads to some overall improvement of the technique. This improvement could also be stated in a sentence or two, but isn't.
3) Spend several months writing filler material stating obvious things in highly complicated language. Combine with the miniscule morsel of scientific knowledge created in step 2, in a ratio of 100 to 1, then publish as a paper or thesis.
Don't get me wrong. This research is very cool, and I'm sure coming up with carbon-nanotube paper took more than a few weeks of research, but the part about "three-dimensional hollow objects" really bugs me.
IBM failed to mention that while they can store 15 times as much data per cubic centimeter by standing the bits on end, the tape medium itself is 15 times as thick, leading to the use of a large circular support hub to accommodate the extra weight. The new tapes and tape drives are based on an earlier design popularized by IBM in its heyday.
The government should support this, since it will encourage nuclear families in the United States, and that is good for the children.
Nevermind. I posted the because the coral cache was giving a database error, but it seems to be working again. You can use the original coral cache link from the parent and mod my original post redundant :)
Does it make sense to post a torrent on a relatively small file (27MBs)? I guess we will find out. I'm seeding the download for now. Good luck.
http://marciot.freeshell.org/BigDog_Feb-26-2006.wm v.torrent
I wonder if having tons of slashdotters download a 3KB torrent will slashdot my free web provider.... should I provide a torrent of my torrent? Or a corel cache of my torrent of the torrent?Which is perfectly alright, since the students set up these computers with the express purpose of attacking them. That is not a problem and in fact is the correct way to run a security class.
I beleive the issue at hand is that said professor required his students to probe machines that were "live" on the internet and were not under his student's control.
-- Marcio
"I mounted my 60GB hard drive on /dev/null and now it's filled with crud..."
> The ability to join static networks was taken out.
Not true.
The only annoying ommision in XP Home I've found so far (besides domains) is the lack of the ability to configure file ACLs -- the security tab is available only in safe mode. This makes life very frustrating if you're trying to grant file access to Limited accounts. I had to learn to use "cacls" from the command prompt to change the ACLs.
Grad Student 1: "Oh no, my quantum computer program is not responding"
Grad Student 2: "Have you tried turning it on and then off again?"