Regardless of her political party, regardless of YOUR political party, we did not need this. We are all, on both sides of the aisle, diminished when this happens.
> Of course, ideally I would want a head's up type projection on the windows, showing all the morons using their phone (texting or voice - hands free or regular), in red. But I would settle for a 30 ft warning telling me that the guy in the next lane was doing stupid, dangerous stuff.
I talked to my insurance company about this, and they said it's a wash. Fewer cars going out of control in a skid is pretty much directly balanced by cars rear-ending the ones in front because of increased stopping distance, or intentionally swerving to avoid the car in front and hitting something else.
On my last car, the ABS could be easily disabled by pulling a relay under the hood. It was a 4 wheel 1 channel system, which meant that if any one wheel lost traction the ABS system would affect the braking on all four wheels.
I took it to a parking lot after we got about 4 inches of snow, and did some panic stops with the ABS on and with it off. Stopping distances with ABS off were consistently shorter, although the car tended to stay in a straight line with ABS on and tended to yaw with the ABS off.
This is in line with expectations. ABS is intended to avoid skidding and improve vehicle control. It is an urban legend (or whatever the term is for something a large number of people believe that isn't true) that ABS decreases stopping distance.
Some ABS systems are worse than others. In general, the more the channels, the better. Four channel four wheel systems are optimal for cars of course. This type of system used to be only found on luxury cars. I don't know what's being sold now days but I suspect that low end cars still have low end single channel ABS systems, which significantly increase stopping distance because the brakes for all four tires cut out if any one tire loses traction.
I'm at least three times as fast on a well designed mechanical keyboard than I am on a virtual keyboard, despite months of practice. I don't think virtuals will ever replace mechanical in content-heavy applications, and I'm somewhat surprised that anyone would seriously suggest it.
Like the bumble bee, what's cool about virtual keyboards, even with haptic feedback, is that they work at all. I can write fairly lengthy messages on my phone, but for serious wordsmithing nothing beats the old-style full throw keys.
Parenthetically, as virtual keyboards become more and more common, I'm going to bet that there's a whole new class of repetitive injuries waiting to appear.
My phone is a Droid X. 4.3 inch display at 854x480.
For home, I use Logmein Ignition for Android to remote into a PC with all the administrative tools I normally use. This not only releases me from the need to find and configure SSH and X-windows on the phone, but it also has the advantage of doing an end-run around my firewall so I don't have to expose port 22 to the outside world.
At work where logmein is forbidden, I use the Citrix client for Android to log into a spare work PC that has my tools and direct access to the company intranet.
I know these solutions are not very geeky, but they're widely available, take a minimum of configuration, and appear to be very reliable.
The only problem is to balance connectivity with portability. Wherever I go I'm most likely to have my phone on me, but it has the smallest screen of my devices and space is a little tight to do remote administration. It's more comfortable remoting in with a laptop, but the bulk and weight make it less likely I'll have it on me. I'm thinking a good compromise might be a 7" Android tablet. I hope to do some experiments in that area in the remote future.
Whatever you use, I don't have to say that you DO NOT want to have the phone save passwords and log you in automatically, lest you leave the phone on the table at Starbucks. In some companies this is a firing offense.
Yep. I did this in the eighties and it was pretty much the same thing. The only possible difference is that besides brute force jamming we also had to capture and analyze the signals (often bouncing and wobbling among several frequencies) and attempt to mimic them, in a short enough time to be useful. (Like, before the missile hits you.) My first programming job (all in assembler).
You have to understand that this kind of research is going on all the time. I was doing it back in the eighties for different kinds of communications. (Same issues though -- capture, analyze, counter, when the signal is encrypted and transmitting on multiple frequencies.) There's really nothing to see here.
I've recently become aware of an interesting factor in the iphone/android debate. All iphones work the same, and everything that is an iphone looks and works like an iphone. To someone who wants a smartphone that "just works" this has value.
My daughter goes to an art school, and Android has made serious inroads this year amongst the female students there due mostly to what I've come to call the "bling" factor.
With widgets, active backgrounds and customizable desktops, Android gives them something the iphone does not -- the ability to customize their phones to their own taste, and to make them look different from everyone else's phone. (Important in a school where kids tend to make their own clothes and hair colors not found in nature are common.)
Whether any of these things actually make the phone more useful is of course debatable. (I would have a hard time convincing myself that chewing up CPU with an active background was a good thing, but you'd have a hard time getting me to give up my weather, Facebook and email widgets.) But apparently, being able to make your phone sparkly and different is an important factor.
Unfortunately it is listed "not in stock" or "no longer available" just about everywhere, and my small efforts to find a replacement have been unsuccessful so far. I wonder if there was a legal issue?
The problem as I understand it, put in simplistic terms, is that a USB device is either a Host or a Peripheral. For data to transfer, one of them must be Host, and one must be Peripheral. Both the camera (or flash reader) and the phone are Peripherals. So even if you had a cable to go between, nothing happens. There's also driver issues, but that's the gist.
Pro cameras typically use CompactFlash. I think it's mostly for speed and capacity although I personally believe the CF cards are more sturdy. I shoot Nikon, and if you look at the pro bodies -- D300, D700, D3, Canon's pro bodies; EOS 5D and 7D, the high-end Sony Alpha, Hasselblad digital back, all use CompactFlash. (Ok, Sony Alpha also uses memory stick...) SD cards are typically found in consumer bodies.
There might be a time when SD surpasses CompactFlash and the format goes away, but in the meantime, if you want weather sealing, rugged, and the fastest frame rates, you will be using CompactFlash. And at the moment there doesn't appear to be any way to get images in a CF card onto a phone or tablet, without using a laptop as a go-between. It's too bad, really. I carry a D700 because it's rugged and weatherproof, and I carry a Droid X because it's compact and relatively rugged, but if I'm going to publish photos from the field, I also need to bring along my laptop, which is neither compact, weatherproof, nor rugged.
Yes, I have Photoshop Express for Android, and the ability to post directly from PE to various forums is very useful.
The only part I'm missing is the ability to get the photos from the camera to the phone. For cameras with micro SD cards, you can do it if you're willing to take the phone apart to insert/remove the card, but pro cameras usually use Compact Flash, and there's essentially no way to get there from here. (Yes, I know about CF to SD adapters, but they have speed and corruption problems when used in the camera.)
Slashdot Mirror
That is great news. There are many things I'd love to be wrong about; that's one. I really *want* a Galaxy tablet.
I don't even know what that means.
Wait until dual core tablets become common. Current single core tablets are orphans -- they'll never run Honeycomb.
Regardless of her political party, regardless of YOUR political party, we did not need this. We are all, on both sides of the aisle, diminished when this happens.
This just popped up in yahoo news. There are conflicting reports on whether she's dead or in surgery.
> Of course, ideally I would want a head's up type projection on the windows, showing all the morons using their phone (texting or voice - hands free or regular), in red. But I would settle for a 30 ft warning telling me that the guy in the next lane was doing stupid, dangerous stuff.
But wouldn't that be distracting?
I talked to my insurance company about this, and they said it's a wash. Fewer cars going out of control in a skid is pretty much directly balanced by cars rear-ending the ones in front because of increased stopping distance, or intentionally swerving to avoid the car in front and hitting something else.
On my last car, the ABS could be easily disabled by pulling a relay under the hood. It was a 4 wheel 1 channel system, which meant that if any one wheel lost traction the ABS system would affect the braking on all four wheels.
I took it to a parking lot after we got about 4 inches of snow, and did some panic stops with the ABS on and with it off. Stopping distances with ABS off were consistently shorter, although the car tended to stay in a straight line with ABS on and tended to yaw with the ABS off.
This is in line with expectations. ABS is intended to avoid skidding and improve vehicle control. It is an urban legend (or whatever the term is for something a large number of people believe that isn't true) that ABS decreases stopping distance.
Some ABS systems are worse than others. In general, the more the channels, the better. Four channel four wheel systems are optimal for cars of course. This type of system used to be only found on luxury cars. I don't know what's being sold now days but I suspect that low end cars still have low end single channel ABS systems, which significantly increase stopping distance because the brakes for all four tires cut out if any one tire loses traction.
Let me revise that. Not just no but hell no.
I'm at least three times as fast on a well designed mechanical keyboard than I am on a virtual keyboard, despite months of practice. I don't think virtuals will ever replace mechanical in content-heavy applications, and I'm somewhat surprised that anyone would seriously suggest it.
Like the bumble bee, what's cool about virtual keyboards, even with haptic feedback, is that they work at all. I can write fairly lengthy messages on my phone, but for serious wordsmithing nothing beats the old-style full throw keys.
Parenthetically, as virtual keyboards become more and more common, I'm going to bet that there's a whole new class of repetitive injuries waiting to appear.
My phone is a Droid X. 4.3 inch display at 854x480.
For home, I use Logmein Ignition for Android to remote into a PC with all the administrative tools I normally use. This not only releases me from the need to find and configure SSH and X-windows on the phone, but it also has the advantage of doing an end-run around my firewall so I don't have to expose port 22 to the outside world.
At work where logmein is forbidden, I use the Citrix client for Android to log into a spare work PC that has my tools and direct access to the company intranet.
I know these solutions are not very geeky, but they're widely available, take a minimum of configuration, and appear to be very reliable.
The only problem is to balance connectivity with portability. Wherever I go I'm most likely to have my phone on me, but it has the smallest screen of my devices and space is a little tight to do remote administration. It's more comfortable remoting in with a laptop, but the bulk and weight make it less likely I'll have it on me. I'm thinking a good compromise might be a 7" Android tablet. I hope to do some experiments in that area in the remote future.
Whatever you use, I don't have to say that you DO NOT want to have the phone save passwords and log you in automatically, lest you leave the phone on the table at Starbucks. In some companies this is a firing offense.
> 1. The Heretic, who convincingly builds a case that the company is hopeless and run by a bunch of morons;
But what if that's the actual case?
> What if searches for devious, undetectable methods of murder were in everyone's history?
Aren't they? It's kind of a geek thing.
Yep. I did this in the eighties and it was pretty much the same thing. The only possible difference is that besides brute force jamming we also had to capture and analyze the signals (often bouncing and wobbling among several frequencies) and attempt to mimic them, in a short enough time to be useful. (Like, before the missile hits you.) My first programming job (all in assembler).
You have to understand that this kind of research is going on all the time. I was doing it back in the eighties for different kinds of communications. (Same issues though -- capture, analyze, counter, when the signal is encrypted and transmitting on multiple frequencies.) There's really nothing to see here.
Um, no. Speaking as someone who used to do that kind of stuff, countermeasures are usually a lot more subtle than just pouring out huge amounts of RF.
I've recently become aware of an interesting factor in the iphone/android debate. All iphones work the same, and everything that is an iphone looks and works like an iphone. To someone who wants a smartphone that "just works" this has value.
My daughter goes to an art school, and Android has made serious inroads this year amongst the female students there due mostly to what I've come to call the "bling" factor.
With widgets, active backgrounds and customizable desktops, Android gives them something the iphone does not -- the ability to customize their phones to their own taste, and to make them look different from everyone else's phone. (Important in a school where kids tend to make their own clothes and hair colors not found in nature are common.)
Whether any of these things actually make the phone more useful is of course debatable. (I would have a hard time convincing myself that chewing up CPU with an active background was a good thing, but you'd have a hard time getting me to give up my weather, Facebook and email widgets.) But apparently, being able to make your phone sparkly and different is an important factor.
Yeah yeah, thanks, Steve. Don't quit your day job.
I wish I hadn't run out of mod points. That's hilarious.
It's only important that they continue to compete.
Unfortunately it is listed "not in stock" or "no longer available" just about everywhere, and my small efforts to find a replacement have been unsuccessful so far. I wonder if there was a legal issue?
Thanks, I will look into that. At very least, when I write the manufacturer or participate on forums, I'll know what to ask for.
The problem as I understand it, put in simplistic terms, is that a USB device is either a Host or a Peripheral. For data to transfer, one of them must be Host, and one must be Peripheral. Both the camera (or flash reader) and the phone are Peripherals. So even if you had a cable to go between, nothing happens. There's also driver issues, but that's the gist.
Pro cameras typically use CompactFlash. I think it's mostly for speed and capacity although I personally believe the CF cards are more sturdy. I shoot Nikon, and if you look at the pro bodies -- D300, D700, D3, Canon's pro bodies; EOS 5D and 7D, the high-end Sony Alpha, Hasselblad digital back, all use CompactFlash. (Ok, Sony Alpha also uses memory stick...) SD cards are typically found in consumer bodies.
There might be a time when SD surpasses CompactFlash and the format goes away, but in the meantime, if you want weather sealing, rugged, and the fastest frame rates, you will be using CompactFlash. And at the moment there doesn't appear to be any way to get images in a CF card onto a phone or tablet, without using a laptop as a go-between. It's too bad, really. I carry a D700 because it's rugged and weatherproof, and I carry a Droid X because it's compact and relatively rugged, but if I'm going to publish photos from the field, I also need to bring along my laptop, which is neither compact, weatherproof, nor rugged.
No, you're absolutely right. Apple is the major hold-out. Apparently, selling trendy proprietary cables is still part of their business model.
Yes, I have Photoshop Express for Android, and the ability to post directly from PE to various forums is very useful.
The only part I'm missing is the ability to get the photos from the camera to the phone. For cameras with micro SD cards, you can do it if you're willing to take the phone apart to insert/remove the card, but pro cameras usually use Compact Flash, and there's essentially no way to get there from here. (Yes, I know about CF to SD adapters, but they have speed and corruption problems when used in the camera.)