I do not seriously think this'll help this lib's author deploying his product.
Agreed. Most commercial software firms will not develop with a library if it's name means shit. It's attitudes like this which work against ascii art libraries being taken seriously in the commercial world.
I am still trying to figure out why Integral Calculus is forced down everyone's throat
That's because you probably assume that the only point in learning pythagoras' theorem is to save the effort of measuring the third side of a triangle. The reason that mathematics has been taught in schools for most of the last 2.5 millenia, has had nothing to do with calculating stuff. Learning mathematics trains the mind to reason about things.
To get to the point, calculus trains the mind to reason about dynamic systems, in a similar way that geometry trains the mind to reason about static systems. Learning geometry and calculus are probably just as important for computer science than set theory, even though the latter is more useful as a tool.
Therefore you'll get much more momentum from accelerating the Xenon out the back of an ion engine at a given speed than you will a Hydrogen atom
Close, but...
The speed isn't a constant for different gasses. What's important, as you point out is momentum.
Change of momentum = impulse = Force * time.
The advantage of heavier ions is that they accelerate slower, thus staying within the engine for longer. As a result, the force is applied to the ions for longer, therefore the change in momentum of the ions is higher, therefore, the change in momentum of the vehicle is also higher.
But seriously, who is going to want a microchip embedded in their body just for paying for stuff. Apart from the odd wierdo, most people get completely creeped out by this kind of thing. There will not be a market for this, and unless some sinister government thinks for soome reason that it's worth forcing its citizens to use this technology it's just not going to happen, because nobody will use it voluntarily. I'm sure there are serious uses for this kind of technology, but payment systems just aren't one of them.
Minimising the size of images isn't the point, though. There are already binary vector graphics formats which do what you want.
XML is extensible, which means you don't have to recompile all the applications which use it whenever someone adds a new shape, or something, to the specification. Also, there are loads of standard tools for parsing XML, converting between XML types, etc. If for example you have an XML DTD for a set of network connections, this could be converted to SVG to create a graphical representation, without writing a full blown application.
Nice idea! But instead of using a "net", you could use a "fishing rod" with different types of "bait", depending on the type of application you want to catch. Also, the applications could grow in size depending on their importance, and the big ones could "eat" the smaller ones - thus creating a self organising system.
Think about representing a shape, say a coloured square. In SVG format, you just specify the top-left and bottom-right coordinates, the shape (square) and the fill colour. Even with XML tags, this isn't a lot of data. Using a simple bitmap format, however, you have to specify a colour value for each of the length*width pixels.
OK, it gets a lot more complicated when you consider compression, but you get the picture. For many images, SVG is very efficient, and has the advantage that images are scaleable. In the end, it just depends on the application.
Why do we need to have small, power-efficient supercomputers?
Very few businesses/institutions can afford, nor need an Earth Simulator. Big power hungry supercomputers need specialised buildings with sufficient power supply and heat dissipation capabilities. By creating a small, power efficient supercomputer which can simply be plugged in in the server room, they open up an entirely new market.
If you are only running a single threaded simulation, it shouldn't make any difference. If, however, you are using a GUI a lot at the same time, it may impair the simulation significantly.
Yet the system hasn't resulted in an increase in CD sales? Hmm... Maybe they will figure out another way to improve their failing business model?
Does the University of florida sell CDs? Is the drop in CD sales affecting the sources of income for the University of florida? If not, isn't this a stupid comment? If the RIAA were blackmailing the university into implementing this then I would agree that this is a rights violation, but get real: the University of Florida is perfectly well entitled to take steps to ensure it's network isn't used for illegal purposes, not to mention monitoring the use of it's resources. Yes, downloading copyrighted material is illegal, whether you think this is right or wrong. If you don't like this, go to a different university, or get a private net connection.
Personal websites are a good idea, in theory -- but, in practice, there are far too many useless, egotistical homepages
Say what you like, I got my first job after graduating simply because I had published my resume online and an employee of the company had found it in a web search. I had never heard of the company and would otherwise probably never made contact with them. Self advertising is not necessarily egotistical - we all do it sometimes.
Any type of door knob would just fluster this expensive two wheeled disaster just waiting to happen
That's why it's important that any general purpose robot has a built in minigun, rocket launcher or chainsaw, as a solution for any problems it encounters which cannot be solved by technological means.
Can anyone explain why Xserver/kdrive doesn't support standard XFree video card drivers? It's a great project, even without these new extensions, but unaccelerated X sucks badly. Is there something wrong with the XFree driver architecture?
ISTR there is an international agreement stating that anything outside Earth cannot be owned by any one government. How long this lasts after resources start being exploited is anyone's guess.
I'm not an expert, but I was under the impression that wine quality improves with more sunlight. This does not necessarily correlate with an increase in temperature on either a local or global scale, although there is obviously a relationship. And like the article says, if it's too warm, the quality suffers. Also, don't forget the effect of varying amounts of rain caused by global warming in various regions. Essentially, some regions will benefit, while others will suffer from changing conditions, and it's probably unpredictable who will be the winners and the losers.
So to summarise: climate change effects agriculture. This is news?
Slashdot Mirror
As long as he can design a solar plane which can fly at mach 2, this shouldn't be a problem.
All he needs is a really big bungee cord...
Agreed. Most commercial software firms will not develop with a library if it's name means shit. It's attitudes like this which work against ascii art libraries being taken seriously in the commercial world.
That's because you probably assume that the only point in learning pythagoras' theorem is to save the effort of measuring the third side of a triangle. The reason that mathematics has been taught in schools for most of the last 2.5 millenia, has had nothing to do with calculating stuff. Learning mathematics trains the mind to reason about things.
To get to the point, calculus trains the mind to reason about dynamic systems, in a similar way that geometry trains the mind to reason about static systems. Learning geometry and calculus are probably just as important for computer science than set theory, even though the latter is more useful as a tool.
Now we just have to find a way of extracting it, and Europe will no longer be at the mercy of the coffee growing countries
Wouldn't Fux be a better name for a beaver mascot?
Close, but...
The speed isn't a constant for different gasses. What's important, as you point out is momentum.
Change of momentum = impulse = Force * time.
The advantage of heavier ions is that they accelerate slower, thus staying within the engine for longer. As a result, the force is applied to the ions for longer, therefore the change in momentum of the ions is higher, therefore, the change in momentum of the vehicle is also higher.
But seriously, who is going to want a microchip embedded in their body just for paying for stuff. Apart from the odd wierdo, most people get completely creeped out by this kind of thing. There will not be a market for this, and unless some sinister government thinks for soome reason that it's worth forcing its citizens to use this technology it's just not going to happen, because nobody will use it voluntarily. I'm sure there are serious uses for this kind of technology, but payment systems just aren't one of them.
The mouse pedometer is pretty inovative.
XML is extensible, which means you don't have to recompile all the applications which use it whenever someone adds a new shape, or something, to the specification. Also, there are loads of standard tools for parsing XML, converting between XML types, etc. If for example you have an XML DTD for a set of network connections, this could be converted to SVG to create a graphical representation, without writing a full blown application.
Nice idea! But instead of using a "net", you could use a "fishing rod" with different types of "bait", depending on the type of application you want to catch. Also, the applications could grow in size depending on their importance, and the big ones could "eat" the smaller ones - thus creating a self organising system.
I predict that someone will ban the use of the colours "Black" and "White" because of their racist overtones.
OK, it gets a lot more complicated when you consider compression, but you get the picture. For many images, SVG is very efficient, and has the advantage that images are scaleable. In the end, it just depends on the application.
Very few businesses/institutions can afford, nor need an Earth Simulator. Big power hungry supercomputers need specialised buildings with sufficient power supply and heat dissipation capabilities. By creating a small, power efficient supercomputer which can simply be plugged in in the server room, they open up an entirely new market.
If you are only running a single threaded simulation, it shouldn't make any difference. If, however, you are using a GUI a lot at the same time, it may impair the simulation significantly.
Does the University of florida sell CDs? Is the drop in CD sales affecting the sources of income for the University of florida? If not, isn't this a stupid comment? If the RIAA were blackmailing the university into implementing this then I would agree that this is a rights violation, but get real: the University of Florida is perfectly well entitled to take steps to ensure it's network isn't used for illegal purposes, not to mention monitoring the use of it's resources. Yes, downloading copyrighted material is illegal, whether you think this is right or wrong. If you don't like this, go to a different university, or get a private net connection.
And lets not forget the thousands of extra IT jobs Bill has created because people have to constantly repair damage caused by his broken software.
Doesn't that mean it can be transmitted by sneezing?
Here's another example
On a related note, I heard that Siemens used to have a customer support center in Staines, UK.
Say what you like, I got my first job after graduating simply because I had published my resume online and an employee of the company had found it in a web search. I had never heard of the company and would otherwise probably never made contact with them. Self advertising is not necessarily egotistical - we all do it sometimes.
That's why it's important that any general purpose robot has a built in minigun, rocket launcher or chainsaw, as a solution for any problems it encounters which cannot be solved by technological means.
Can anyone explain why Xserver/kdrive doesn't support standard XFree video card drivers? It's a great project, even without these new extensions, but unaccelerated X sucks badly. Is there something wrong with the XFree driver architecture?
ISTR there is an international agreement stating that anything outside Earth cannot be owned by any one government. How long this lasts after resources start being exploited is anyone's guess.
So to summarise: climate change effects agriculture. This is news?