One thing that manufacturers overlook is that not everyone has the same size hands.
I have fairly large hands (the original X-Box controller fit me nicely), and these form-fit mouses just don't work. I use Logitech's original optical scroll mouse and I move it around with my fingers, barely moving my wrist at all. I actually prefer this to moving my whole arm.
Apple did this a while back. It was called 'KidSafe.' People could submit sites for approval and, as far as I know, it had a huge whitelist. I think that all you did was change your DNS servers to some that Apple had and it would check the domain against its list.
Pixlet is designed for video editing. It compresses each frame individually. This is good for doing certain effects, since any frame can be pulled out of context.
MPEG-4 compression uses previous frames to make a frame. This allows the file to be smaller, but doesn't allow frames to pulled out of context for effects to be added.
Hope that clears things up! Otherwise, great post.
World of Warcraft has sorta lost the allure it once had. The Starcraft franchise is so old now. I mean, if this were Warcraft IV this would be quite exciting, but an MMORPG from blizzard...
I have a G4 tower and until recently I only had 256MB of RAM and it ran just fine. Yes, it runs a lot better now with 768, but it's really noticeable until I fire up a game or photoshop.
Don't use 160 kbps AACs. You can't hear the difference anyway.
I can. The jump from 160 kbps down to 128 kbps is very noticable. I use 192 kbps and I can still hear the difference between that and a CD.
Since we're on the subject, I can hear this difference with a pair of Klipsch speakers connected to the sound card built into the motherboard of my G4 Tower that runs iTunes.
Sure, it works pretty well in practice, but it's far from optimal.
It's a real shame that it only works in practice. Because working in practice doesn't matter at all it has to work in theory. (Incidentally, this actually does work in theory, too.)
Also, your analogy is seriously flawed. It's much more like taking a record (a record with few flaws that runs at a very low speed) and encoding that to an audio format somewhere in the neighborhood of twice the quality of a CD.
The record player you do this with is like the camera. The equipment that originally recorded the record on is like your camera. The microphone is like the lens.
This is also in a world where recording straight to digital doesn't sample fast enough.
As an aside, the reason that digital pictures are harder is that sound happens over a very very long period of time compared to photography. You've probably noticed that most digital cameras absolutely suck at taking action shots in all but the brightest light. This is because the stuff that detects light in the camera doesn't work as fast as the chemicals on the film and doesn't scale as well. The reason that scanning works is that a scanner has an eternity to deal with the image compared to the instant that a camera has.
I see a lot of posts complaining of the cost of flying to the moon to pick this stuff up. I think everyone needs the think about how cheap it would be to just drop this stuff on earth in a nice metal container. In this case gravity works in out favor. All the stuff has to do is escape the moons relatively light gravitational pull.
It's another matter entirely decided how to safely drop this stuff, and the politics behind this.
Keep in mind this is not a solve-our-wimpy-economy-slipping-a-little thing. It's a when-we-run-out-of-really-old-dead-things-to-burn kind of solution.
Fuel cells will not provide us with energy. They will only help store it. If we had the perfect battery (long life, close to completely efficient, no leakage, no memory, high output, quick recharge) then the electric car would become a lot more feasible. The electric car is a good thing because your power plant can burn oil and coal at around 80% efficiency. Your car burns gas at, IIRC, a meager 20%-40%. Also, this would allow new forms of electricity generation to not only affect your home, but also your car, trains, trucks, and planes.
It's simple to find a collision. An MD5 checksum is N bits, so anything larger than N bits is guaranteed a collision. Simply take a file N+1 bits long (random data would be nice and hash it. Then flip the first bit, hash the file, flip the first bit back, flip the second bit, hash again, and so on. Do this and eventually you'll run into a collision. Also, you'll only need to do N+1 calculations. N isn't that big either.
Slashdot Mirror
I read that story, too.
Was it Heinlein?
One thing that manufacturers overlook is that not everyone has the same size hands.
I have fairly large hands (the original X-Box controller fit me nicely), and these form-fit mouses just don't work. I use Logitech's original optical scroll mouse and I move it around with my fingers, barely moving my wrist at all. I actually prefer this to moving my whole arm.
I'm still waiting for the worm that will monitor someone's usage habits so it can stealthily download and install Linux.
I bet some people started working on it, but got into a religious argument over what distro to use and gave up.
I could also see a worm that would harvest someone's credit card number and use it to order a Mac Mini.
Apple did this a while back. It was called 'KidSafe.' People could submit sites for approval and, as far as I know, it had a huge whitelist. I think that all you did was change your DNS servers to some that Apple had and it would check the domain against its list.
It was a huge flop.
Lithium Ion batteries, such as those found in the iPod and most laptops, DO NOT HAVE MEMORY.
Someone above posted a relevant page at Apple.
Misconception Alert!
Don't worry, it's a minor one.
Pixlet is designed for video editing. It compresses each frame individually. This is good for doing certain effects, since any frame can be pulled out of context.
MPEG-4 compression uses previous frames to make a frame. This allows the file to be smaller, but doesn't allow frames to pulled out of context for effects to be added.
Hope that clears things up! Otherwise, great post.
http://www.lagercrantz.ath.cx/software/clipboardsh aring/
You can set it up to auto-sync and then it's completely transparent. I haven't tried it across more than two computers, but I imagine it works fine.
It also will save any number of previous clipboards for you.
World of Warcraft has sorta lost the allure it once had. The Starcraft franchise is so old now. I mean, if this were Warcraft IV this would be quite exciting, but an MMORPG from blizzard...
Part of it is that there is no such thing as a loss-less recording.
Another is that it's a lot easier to feel the vibrations from a live organ than it is from a recording.
That's awesome that they were that accommodating.
Go you for voting with your wallet!
OS X flies just fine on this G3 laptop, and I've seen happy people with much lower spec machines.
I have a G4 tower and until recently I only had 256MB of RAM and it ran just fine. Yes, it runs a lot better now with 768, but it's really noticeable until I fire up a game or photoshop.
Nitpicking...
A CD is FAR from lossless.
I'm excited about the new formats on DVD media, but I haven't gotten around giving them a listen just yet.
Don't use 160 kbps AACs. You can't hear the difference anyway.
I can. The jump from 160 kbps down to 128 kbps is very noticable. I use 192 kbps and I can still hear the difference between that and a CD.
Since we're on the subject, I can hear this difference with a pair of Klipsch speakers connected to the sound card built into the motherboard of my G4 Tower that runs iTunes.
Sure, it works pretty well in practice, but it's far from optimal.
It's a real shame that it only works in practice. Because working in practice doesn't matter at all it has to work in theory. (Incidentally, this actually does work in theory, too.)
Also, your analogy is seriously flawed. It's much more like taking a record (a record with few flaws that runs at a very low speed) and encoding that to an audio format somewhere in the neighborhood of twice the quality of a CD.
The record player you do this with is like the camera. The equipment that originally recorded the record on is like your camera. The microphone is like the lens.
This is also in a world where recording straight to digital doesn't sample fast enough.
As an aside, the reason that digital pictures are harder is that sound happens over a very very long period of time compared to photography. You've probably noticed that most digital cameras absolutely suck at taking action shots in all but the brightest light. This is because the stuff that detects light in the camera doesn't work as fast as the chemicals on the film and doesn't scale as well. The reason that scanning works is that a scanner has an eternity to deal with the image compared to the instant that a camera has.
most mucisians aren't always playing or thinking about music
Spoken like someone who doesn't know many musicians. No, I don't spend all my time doing something music related, but most of the time I am.
That said, being a musician is a lot different from working in an office.
I see a lot of posts complaining of the cost of flying to the moon to pick this stuff up. I think everyone needs the think about how cheap it would be to just drop this stuff on earth in a nice metal container. In this case gravity works in out favor. All the stuff has to do is escape the moons relatively light gravitational pull.
It's another matter entirely decided how to safely drop this stuff, and the politics behind this.
Keep in mind this is not a solve-our-wimpy-economy-slipping-a-little thing. It's a when-we-run-out-of-really-old-dead-things-to-burn kind of solution.
RTFA, dude.
If you did RTFA, RTFA more carefully.
When you flip up the earpiece your music pauses. If you just take them off it won't though, unless you flip up the earpiece to take them off.
Please tell me that was sarcasm.
Fuel cells will not provide us with energy. They will only help store it. If we had the perfect battery (long life, close to completely efficient, no leakage, no memory, high output, quick recharge) then the electric car would become a lot more feasible. The electric car is a good thing because your power plant can burn oil and coal at around 80% efficiency. Your car burns gas at, IIRC, a meager 20%-40%. Also, this would allow new forms of electricity generation to not only affect your home, but also your car, trains, trucks, and planes.
Wow, that's some dark humor there. Geez...
if that's the case, then yes, it was introduced before the iMac
The iMac came before the Blue and White G3.
Whoa there, chester!
If the plane flew over the whitehouse it would be shot down. Just shot down.
Captain Hector!
:-).
I haven't seen an Escape Velocity Reference on Slashdot before. It's pretty exciting.
I would write more but Stud Beefpile is chasing after me
Oh, and because I have never seen this flamewar before, Clarinet is so much cooler than violin.
It's simple to find a collision. An MD5 checksum is N bits, so anything larger than N bits is guaranteed a collision. Simply take a file N+1 bits long (random data would be nice and hash it. Then flip the first bit, hash the file, flip the first bit back, flip the second bit, hash again, and so on. Do this and eventually you'll run into a collision. Also, you'll only need to do N+1 calculations. N isn't that big either.