You know those pictures that change as you tilt them or walk by. These displays were all the rage at SIGGRAPH this year, but IMHO, they weren't very good at displaying true "3D".
A few days after Code Red (I think) came out, Road Runner (in Central FL) blocked port 80. I switched Apache to run on 81 and everything was fine.
I think it would be great for ISP's to block ports other than the most obvious ones on an opt-out basis for new accounts. Make a quick option via an online account manager to disable selectively and viola. Those who want access and have enough of a clue to maintain their boxes can probably figure out how to get to their ISP's website and disable the blocking. Those who think ports are the holes on the back of their computer can go along their merry clueless ways.
At Carnegie Mellon, unregistered boxes are automatically routed to a web page that allows them to do temporary or permanent registration based based on MAC address. Once you register, your machine can access the network and DHCP. This allows for easy monitoring, notification, and disconnection of zombies.
It's called AuthBridge and runs on a Linux machine with ethernet bridging and real time packet filtering based on the MAC address. See the link for technical descriptions, diagrams, and further details.
Seems to work quite seamlessly as an end user, IMHO.
This is exactly what I'm talking about when I say Disney is dying.
Doesn't help that most of WDI R&D, the group that created Lucky, has been laid off. Save a buck in the short term and kick all your best talent - the ones responsible for the hits that keep people coming back for more - out. Then clone mass produced attractions on the cheap to save money short term and wonder why no one goes to California Adventure.
Yeah, his name is "Push". He appears daily in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom.
Varieties on the same concept can be found in the other Disney parks as well. At Animal Kingdom they have a palm tree that rolls around.
The person guiding the rollabouts is never too far behind, dressed in plainclothes and with their right arm in a blue camera bag. Their left hand conceals a microphone.
For a short while, SMRT-1, a robot who used to be featured at Communicore in Epcot could be found at the Contemporary Resort. The unit had been converted for RC operation and had its controls (and microphone) concealed in a coffee mug.
One of the companies that sells these types of units is Florida Robotics
Though the chance of getting those 6 numbers in a sequential row is quite small, it is just as random as any other sequence that the system could put out.
'Course, the lava lamp could be slashdotted and just be feeding back a static value. Can't load the page right now anyway.
Just watching Cartoon Network's Adult Swim - the text intros said:
- They Goofed
- And viewers ran
- Like gazelles chased by cheetas
- so Futurama returns tomorrow (Monday) at 11:30pm
Neato.
I wonder... if you take Mickey with you on a roller coaster that he's not tall enough to ride, will he remind you to check himself at the door?
Actually, you're on track. Since he's targeted towards kids, at the "thrill" rides, he'll remind you of height requirements, and usually say something about being nervous about going, or maybe being afraid - in a kid friendly way. Works well to placate kids who aren't tall enough to ride.
The belt clip that attaches the toy to your waist is at the height of many ride restraints, so sometimes it's best to stash the toy in a backpack to prevent losing him. Though it has been reported that the toy reports back to the park database to tell where he's going, no personally identifiable info is taken at purchase, so there's no way to match him to an owner if he's lost.
The toy won't repeat pertinent location info once he's said it for about an hour or two, but rather will tell a corny joke from a database of geolocational relative jokes. (Aka, jokes about the turn of the century on Main Street, or ones about the country you're in at Epcot) After repeating those, he's got a bank of jokes about various Disney characters.
He'll repeat a statement up to 3 or so times within 15 seconds of being triggered, in case it's noisy and your can't hear him. The toy also has a huge inventory of statements matched to a large number of transmitters (in the hundreds), so there are usually at least three or so for every attraction or pavilion, but some have many more. I've taken the toy to the parks a number of times, and still hear new things every time.
Pal Mickey is a great idea, and works quite well. I live in Orlando and visit the parks quite regularly with one. As you walk in the parks, he'll chime up with useful info and timely information regarding your visit - like "I hear the wait's pretty short over at the Tower of Terror". He also mentions height limits and factoids about the rides as you pass. When you walk past a beacon that you've already passed within a certain period of time, he'll tell a corny joke that's pertinent to the area your in. (Jokes about pirates in Adventureland, astronauts in Tomorrowland, etc) One of my favorite quotes I heard him say was walking into Fantasyland - "Welcome to Fantasyland, where all your dreams come true. That is, unless, your dream is to be in Frontierland." Outside the parks, Mickey has a few games that you can play, but doesn't say anything about where you've been, which seems like earlier rumored memory features were left out.
Mickey seems to have been originally intended for kids, but a larger percentage seem to have been purchased for adults. He's powered by AA's and a PIC microporcessor, and has a Vishay TSOP1138 IR receiver in his nose. Disney has deployed hundreds of IR transmitters all over the parks at Walt Disney World which activate the toy, many of which serve double service to trigger "Magical Moments Pins" as well as iPaqs that serve as park guides for foreign and disabled guests.
As far as I have been able to tell, all the doll's sayings are already onboard, plus a number of sentence fragments like numbers and showtimes that allow him to assemble sayings. ("You may want to be back here at 8:00 to get a spot for the fireworks") The only way to get the toy to say something not intended is to somehow capture and retransmit the IR data, or to create your own circuit that reponds to the transmitters. A group has been created to figure out the system at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/re_palmickey
Rumor has it that a Spanish language version is set to come out soon, as well as one that may serve as an electronic FastPass or as a digital camera.
"The preconceived notion is that the network will run Unix, but I came to the view that this is a unique opportunity, so why take something that's decades old?"
Saying that something that's "decades old" won't fit your new business model simply because of its age seems like a short-sighted way to base a decision. Building an IT infrastructure is not only about fitting your needs, but also about one that will serve you reliably. In the end it doesn't matter what the network runs on, but rather that it works, whether it's Unix, Linux, or.NET.
Just sounds to me like these cars won't have rubber tires simply because they've been in use on automobiles for a century.
We're working on using video see-through head mounted displays to overlay real time CG, something we call "mixed reality". It's like traditional VR, but we add a view of the real world, special effects like smoke, compressed air and interactive lighting, spatialized surround sound, etc. Take traditional VR and add in a whole bunch of technologies and techniques from theme parks and you get what we do.
One of our current research projects is for the Army to simulate urban combat training. We were also showing an entertainment version of the system on Display at SIGGRAPH in San Diego this past week.
The graphics engine for our system runs on Linux, using OpenGL and GLUT, written in C++. Control systems for special effects and point source sound are written in Java, which run on Linux, OSX, and WinXP (whatever platform supports harware interface drivers). We couldn't do what we do without OSS, and hope to release some components to the open source community once they get a little more mature.
Prepping our booth now for SIGGRAPH in San Diego later this month. We will be presenting a pair of two player mixed reality games on the show floor. We're using Canon video see through HMD's to put the player in a Sci-Fi Time Portal shoot 'em up game as well as a mixed reality aquarium game where you play ball with dolphins.
The idea is to get away from the "text in space" phenomenon that is present with most augmented or mixed reality systems to try and blend the real and the virtual seamlessly - meaning you can put some virtual character in the center of the room and interact, all the while seeing the real objects in the room as well as your buddies waiting on the sidelines. Interactive sets, lighting, and spatial audio wrap it off. Our placeholder website is available at http://www.mcl.ucf.edu/
The PlanetLab software is based on the most current release of Red Hat
Which version? With the rate of integer jumps in Redhat's latest releases, is it that likely we'll see 10.0 before this article's life expectency is up the next few days?
Had an English class that decided to meet in one of the computer-equipped labs one day. In a few min we had all popped into AIM (I couldn't convince the others to IRC) and started chatting. A few minutes later we had the prof's pic posted on hotornot.com - we checked back later and he'd done pretty well.
They exhibited at the IAAPA Convention last November. The stuff was excellent - very smooth.
The machine used a large tank of liquid nitrogen, and basically worked by spurting ice cream mixture into a bucket, then spraying it with the nitro. Repeat the process 100 times or so, and you've got 5 gallons of the stuff.
That's one of the biggest strengths that Audiogalaxy had (before the service got defanged). You could run their Linux client on a box at home, then sign into the Audiogalaxy site from anywhere (work, school, etc) and grab different things. Made it easy to run the client somewhere safe, with a fast connection, or lots of drive space, and get to it from anywhere. Nice to see another app taking the same approach (though you host the web interface yourself).
Aaah, the wonders of BASIC (and boredom)
on
Build Your Own Computer
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Back in my day I had to write games in BASIC, on a 4.7Mhz computer with no hard disk and 128K of RAM. And I was grateful
Heh. Back in high school we all had TI-83's. You can do a lot with 28k and BASIC given enough mind-numbing general classes and a spot near the back of the room. We got to the point where we could program those things blindfolded (those keypads were a tad awkward) One friend reimplemented Oregon Trail. Another did a 3D plotter and a window manager frontend with app launching. Course, when the rare teacher took to resetting calculators before exams, all that fine work was lost.;^) There was talk of modifying beepers for two way wireless communication.
I know that my story pales in comparison to most of the audience here, but that's how it was for me.
At the office, we've got 3 Pioneer A04's & A05's, a Mac with a Superdrive (an A04 in a different casing), and the new Sony dual format drive. That's 5 "-" drives, and one of them does "+".
The title of this post seems to imply that the decision to use open source should be mandatory. This is as harmful to the world of open source as it is helpful. Remember guys, it's all about decision - and the ability to use the best tool for the job. I've got a Windows workstation, a Linux server, and a Mac laptop on my desk. I feel that each OS is best suited to that particular role, and I use them accordingly.
The article states in regards to lobbying against OSS: " This is a very subtle silencing of Open Source. It is supremely disingenuous, and violates the fundamental principle of a free market: fully informed decision-making. Why shouldn't procurement officers be asked to consider Open Source software?
Fully informed decision making is far from mandatory policies.
Is Usenet still useful? Is it worth maintaining? I
I say certainly! I use USENET daily. Believe it or not, there are still some groups where valuable discussion still goes on and where the tide of spam isn't much more than a trickle. Certainly, I'm not sure I participate as much as I used to, but I attribute that more to school than anything else. I'll take USENET over web based message boards any day - it's quicker and you don't have to reload your interface every time you view a new message. All available discussions are on the same server, usually maintained by your ISP, so USENET is often more reliable to get to as well.
USENET archives via Google Groups is a godsend for anyone looking for technical advice - I'd still be figuring out how to install Linux rather than being paid as a Systems Administrator if it wasn't for the learning opportunities in the numerous messages on very specific problems you're likely to run across. (I want to interface my blah blah modem with my toaster, etc)
Binary groups rock as well - they're a great way to uncover rare and obscure music that other enthusiasts might have in their collections.
Overall, I love USENET. It's not perfect, but it offers advantages that other Internet protocols can't match. It's survived this long - it will probably be going strong for years to come.
Placement of the button in a hard-to-reach spot in Windows was one of several complaints Microsoft's rivals made to the department last year.
This sounds to me like an argument that might be made by people trying modchip X-Boxes - "It's too hard to circumvent Microsoft's way of doing things!"
Is it just me, or does legal wrangling over the placement of a button just seem kind of silly?
Mike Pettit, a spokesman for Procomp, an anti-Microsoft computer industry trade group, said the latest modification was minor. He called it "a complete waste of time and effort and has nothing to do with restoring competition."
Slashdot Mirror
Lenticular Displays.
You know those pictures that change as you tilt them or walk by. These displays were all the rage at SIGGRAPH this year, but IMHO, they weren't very good at displaying true "3D".
Some various pics.
A few days after Code Red (I think) came out, Road Runner (in Central FL) blocked port 80. I switched Apache to run on 81 and everything was fine.
I think it would be great for ISP's to block ports other than the most obvious ones on an opt-out basis for new accounts. Make a quick option via an online account manager to disable selectively and viola. Those who want access and have enough of a clue to maintain their boxes can probably figure out how to get to their ISP's website and disable the blocking. Those who think ports are the holes on the back of their computer can go along their merry clueless ways.
At Carnegie Mellon, unregistered boxes are automatically routed to a web page that allows them to do temporary or permanent registration based based on MAC address. Once you register, your machine can access the network and DHCP. This allows for easy monitoring, notification, and disconnection of zombies.
It's called AuthBridge and runs on a Linux machine with ethernet bridging and real time packet filtering based on the MAC address. See the link for technical descriptions, diagrams, and further details.
Seems to work quite seamlessly as an end user, IMHO.
This is exactly what I'm talking about when I say Disney is dying.
Doesn't help that most of WDI R&D, the group that created Lucky, has been laid off. Save a buck in the short term and kick all your best talent - the ones responsible for the hits that keep people coming back for more - out. Then clone mass produced attractions on the cheap to save money short term and wonder why no one goes to California Adventure.
Yeah, his name is "Push". He appears daily in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom. Varieties on the same concept can be found in the other Disney parks as well. At Animal Kingdom they have a palm tree that rolls around.
The person guiding the rollabouts is never too far behind, dressed in plainclothes and with their right arm in a blue camera bag. Their left hand conceals a microphone.
For a short while, SMRT-1, a robot who used to be featured at Communicore in Epcot could be found at the Contemporary Resort. The unit had been converted for RC operation and had its controls (and microphone) concealed in a coffee mug.
One of the companies that sells these types of units is Florida Robotics
We all know it doesn't hurt to throw a few technical illustrations into papers we may be writing...
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail64.html
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Talk about random...
Though the chance of getting those 6 numbers in a sequential row is quite small, it is just as random as any other sequence that the system could put out.
'Course, the lava lamp could be slashdotted and just be feeding back a static value. Can't load the page right now anyway.
Just watching Cartoon Network's Adult Swim - the text intros said: - They Goofed - And viewers ran - Like gazelles chased by cheetas - so Futurama returns tomorrow (Monday) at 11:30pm Neato.
I wonder... if you take Mickey with you on a roller coaster that he's not tall enough to ride, will he remind you to check himself at the door?
Actually, you're on track. Since he's targeted towards kids, at the "thrill" rides, he'll remind you of height requirements, and usually say something about being nervous about going, or maybe being afraid - in a kid friendly way. Works well to placate kids who aren't tall enough to ride.
The belt clip that attaches the toy to your waist is at the height of many ride restraints, so sometimes it's best to stash the toy in a backpack to prevent losing him. Though it has been reported that the toy reports back to the park database to tell where he's going, no personally identifiable info is taken at purchase, so there's no way to match him to an owner if he's lost.
The toy won't repeat pertinent location info once he's said it for about an hour or two, but rather will tell a corny joke from a database of geolocational relative jokes. (Aka, jokes about the turn of the century on Main Street, or ones about the country you're in at Epcot) After repeating those, he's got a bank of jokes about various Disney characters.
He'll repeat a statement up to 3 or so times within 15 seconds of being triggered, in case it's noisy and your can't hear him. The toy also has a huge inventory of statements matched to a large number of transmitters (in the hundreds), so there are usually at least three or so for every attraction or pavilion, but some have many more. I've taken the toy to the parks a number of times, and still hear new things every time.
Pal Mickey is a great idea, and works quite well. I live in Orlando and visit the parks quite regularly with one. As you walk in the parks, he'll chime up with useful info and timely information regarding your visit - like "I hear the wait's pretty short over at the Tower of Terror". He also mentions height limits and factoids about the rides as you pass. When you walk past a beacon that you've already passed within a certain period of time, he'll tell a corny joke that's pertinent to the area your in. (Jokes about pirates in Adventureland, astronauts in Tomorrowland, etc) One of my favorite quotes I heard him say was walking into Fantasyland - "Welcome to Fantasyland, where all your dreams come true. That is, unless, your dream is to be in Frontierland." Outside the parks, Mickey has a few games that you can play, but doesn't say anything about where you've been, which seems like earlier rumored memory features were left out.
Mickey seems to have been originally intended for kids, but a larger percentage seem to have been purchased for adults. He's powered by AA's and a PIC microporcessor, and has a Vishay TSOP1138 IR receiver in his nose. Disney has deployed hundreds of IR transmitters all over the parks at Walt Disney World which activate the toy, many of which serve double service to trigger "Magical Moments Pins" as well as iPaqs that serve as park guides for foreign and disabled guests.
As far as I have been able to tell, all the doll's sayings are already onboard, plus a number of sentence fragments like numbers and showtimes that allow him to assemble sayings. ("You may want to be back here at 8:00 to get a spot for the fireworks") The only way to get the toy to say something not intended is to somehow capture and retransmit the IR data, or to create your own circuit that reponds to the transmitters. A group has been created to figure out the system at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/re_palmickey
Rumor has it that a Spanish language version is set to come out soon, as well as one that may serve as an electronic FastPass or as a digital camera.
"The preconceived notion is that the network will run Unix, but I came to the view that this is a unique opportunity, so why take something that's decades old?"
.NET.
Saying that something that's "decades old" won't fit your new business model simply because of its age seems like a short-sighted way to base a decision. Building an IT infrastructure is not only about fitting your needs, but also about one that will serve you reliably. In the end it doesn't matter what the network runs on, but rather that it works, whether it's Unix, Linux, or
Just sounds to me like these cars won't have rubber tires simply because they've been in use on automobiles for a century.
We're working on using video see-through head mounted displays to overlay real time CG, something we call "mixed reality". It's like traditional VR, but we add a view of the real world, special effects like smoke, compressed air and interactive lighting, spatialized surround sound, etc. Take traditional VR and add in a whole bunch of technologies and techniques from theme parks and you get what we do.
One of our current research projects is for the Army to simulate urban combat training. We were also showing an entertainment version of the system on Display at SIGGRAPH in San Diego this past week.
The graphics engine for our system runs on Linux, using OpenGL and GLUT, written in C++. Control systems for special effects and point source sound are written in Java, which run on Linux, OSX, and WinXP (whatever platform supports harware interface drivers). We couldn't do what we do without OSS, and hope to release some components to the open source community once they get a little more mature.
See Our Website for more info.
::Blatant Plug Alert:::
Prepping our booth now for SIGGRAPH in San Diego later this month. We will be presenting a pair of two player mixed reality games on the show floor. We're using Canon video see through HMD's to put the player in a Sci-Fi Time Portal shoot 'em up game as well as a mixed reality aquarium game where you play ball with dolphins.
The idea is to get away from the "text in space" phenomenon that is present with most augmented or mixed reality systems to try and blend the real and the virtual seamlessly - meaning you can put some virtual character in the center of the room and interact, all the while seeing the real objects in the room as well as your buddies waiting on the sidelines. Interactive sets, lighting, and spatial audio wrap it off. Our placeholder website is available at http://www.mcl.ucf.edu/
Should be fun for anyone coming to San Diego!
The PlanetLab software is based on the most current release of Red Hat
Which version? With the rate of integer jumps in Redhat's latest releases, is it that likely we'll see 10.0 before this article's life expectency is up the next few days?
Had an English class that decided to meet in one of the computer-equipped labs one day. In a few min we had all popped into AIM (I couldn't convince the others to IRC) and started chatting. A few minutes later we had the prof's pic posted on hotornot.com - we checked back later and he'd done pretty well.
....does it tell time?
http://www.nitroicecream.com/
They exhibited at the IAAPA Convention last November. The stuff was excellent - very smooth.
The machine used a large tank of liquid nitrogen, and basically worked by spurting ice cream mixture into a bucket, then spraying it with the nitro. Repeat the process 100 times or so, and you've got 5 gallons of the stuff.
The web based interface is refresing.
That's one of the biggest strengths that Audiogalaxy had (before the service got defanged). You could run their Linux client on a box at home, then sign into the Audiogalaxy site from anywhere (work, school, etc) and grab different things. Made it easy to run the client somewhere safe, with a fast connection, or lots of drive space, and get to it from anywhere. Nice to see another app taking the same approach (though you host the web interface yourself).
Back in my day I had to write games in BASIC, on a 4.7Mhz computer with no hard disk and 128K of RAM. And I was grateful
;^) There was talk of modifying beepers for two way wireless communication.
Heh. Back in high school we all had TI-83's. You can do a lot with 28k and BASIC given enough mind-numbing general classes and a spot near the back of the room. We got to the point where we could program those things blindfolded (those keypads were a tad awkward) One friend reimplemented Oregon Trail. Another did a 3D plotter and a window manager frontend with app launching. Course, when the rare teacher took to resetting calculators before exams, all that fine work was lost.
I know that my story pales in comparison to most of the audience here, but that's how it was for me.
For those who need a GUI.
SSH Tunnel Manager
DVD+R is the one approved by Sony
DVD+R/+RW is better technically
So was Betamax, but all you hear about it now is because of the legal precedent.
At the office, we've got 3 Pioneer A04's & A05's, a Mac with a Superdrive (an A04 in a different casing), and the new Sony dual format drive. That's 5 "-" drives, and one of them does "+".
Methinks there's a defacto standard.
The title of this post seems to imply that the decision to use open source should be mandatory. This is as harmful to the world of open source as it is helpful. Remember guys, it's all about decision - and the ability to use the best tool for the job. I've got a Windows workstation, a Linux server, and a Mac laptop on my desk. I feel that each OS is best suited to that particular role, and I use them accordingly.
The article states in regards to lobbying against OSS: " This is a very subtle silencing of Open Source. It is supremely disingenuous, and violates the fundamental principle of a free market: fully informed decision-making. Why shouldn't procurement officers be asked to consider Open Source software?
Fully informed decision making is far from mandatory policies.
Is Usenet still useful? Is it worth maintaining? I
I say certainly! I use USENET daily. Believe it or not, there are still some groups where valuable discussion still goes on and where the tide of spam isn't much more than a trickle. Certainly, I'm not sure I participate as much as I used to, but I attribute that more to school than anything else. I'll take USENET over web based message boards any day - it's quicker and you don't have to reload your interface every time you view a new message. All available discussions are on the same server, usually maintained by your ISP, so USENET is often more reliable to get to as well.
USENET archives via Google Groups is a godsend for anyone looking for technical advice - I'd still be figuring out how to install Linux rather than being paid as a Systems Administrator if it wasn't for the learning opportunities in the numerous messages on very specific problems you're likely to run across. (I want to interface my blah blah modem with my toaster, etc)
Binary groups rock as well - they're a great way to uncover rare and obscure music that other enthusiasts might have in their collections.
Overall, I love USENET. It's not perfect, but it offers advantages that other Internet protocols can't match. It's survived this long - it will probably be going strong for years to come.
Placement of the button in a hard-to-reach spot in Windows was one of several complaints Microsoft's rivals made to the department last year.
This sounds to me like an argument that might be made by people trying modchip X-Boxes - "It's too hard to circumvent Microsoft's way of doing things!"
Is it just me, or does legal wrangling over the placement of a button just seem kind of silly?
Mike Pettit, a spokesman for Procomp, an anti-Microsoft computer industry trade group, said the latest modification was minor. He called it "a complete waste of time and effort and has nothing to do with restoring competition."
Apparently not.