The last ones I saw were blown through conduits, so they would only have to dig once to put the tube in and after that they could upgrade whatever they wanted.. Not sure what the maximum distance is for that technique though.
I mostly meant that active equipment in fibre cabling is quite common for very long fibres (but they are produced to very high specifications if they can't be reached). Even if they would be mounted in a fibre that could be reached, it's still possible to cut out a broken active component and replace it. I haven't found anything in the articles about how the hollow fibres are made, but I'd think they need to be connected to normal fibres somewhere anyway.
Well, if repulling the line is that expensive, it's probably long enough to already contain active equipment... (If you want to cross an ocean, you'll need amplifiers and signal reconditioners at regular intervals anyway)
Hmm, that's not really my experience with Slackware users, but maybe that's because I'm not on the newsgroup. The attitude on the linuxpackages.net forums seems to be a lot better, although there still is the occasional angry remark (but then again, everybody gets irritated sometimes:-)
I've heard some bad stories about Gentoo user attitudes, but these were mostly from Debian users (who don't seem to be any better to me than what they make out Gentoo users for). From the few things I've seen from the Gentoo forums, they indeed seem to be a helpful and friendly community.
Well, I'm trying to port a selection of Slackware 10 packages to Sparc at the moment, but it's not going very fast (due to a lack of time and a slow processor). No installer (yet), but at the moment I'm already compiling from a Debian/Slackware hybrid, with Slackware steadily gaining ground.
BTW: All of these packages are optimised for Sparc v8 or higher (It might be me, but I'm really noticing a speed improvement because of the hardware multiplication/division)
Yes, the/. post is a bit hard to understand. What you say is right, but NL did not do this, the council of Ministers (European executive branch) did, against the will of the European Parliament. Unfortunately the European Parliament has hardly anything to say in Europe, at least not until there is a decent European constitution.
The next sentence says what NL did: they revoked their vote on the council of Ministers, thereby weakening the decision and perhaps even paving the way for a reversal of the decision, if enough other countries follow.
>It seems to me that what this will really do is
> give us smaller, higher quality imaging devices.
To be honest, I surely hope this will not be the case.. One of my problems with digital photography actually is the small size of the CCD's, which gives an enormous depth of field compared to 35mm film.
(my camera, a Minolta DiMAGE 7, at f/8 gives the same DOF as a 35mm camera at about f/32 if I remember correctly.. this is all very nice, unless you want a very shallow DOF)
Furthermore, the usage of those small CCD's prevent SLR technology from being used in digital cameras (such as phase-detect autofocus, which is fast, a real mirror, true TTL flashmetering).
Yes, there are digital SLRs, but I have not seen any with a full-frame CCD, so you always have a certain multiplication factor for your focal length (your lens acts as if it is more like a telelens). Your CCD is just only seeing the central portion of the frame.
Gtnx
Marcel
PS. Don't think I don't like my camera... I really love it, but there are many things 35mm does better, and I'm hoping for improvements as much as anybody else.
In Europe the frequency actually can not deviate too much from 50 Hz, because all generators are locked into this frequency (if the frequency of one generator would be different an enormous current would flow from the other plants into this generator and it would most probably blow up). This system is used to cover peak loads:
When a large load is applied to the grid, the frequency drops slightly and all generators in Europe deliver extra power to compensate for this (i.e. keep the frequency at 50 Hz), this is called frequency compensation.
If the load persists longer, the plant/country/company responsible for the load increases its power output (thereby raising its frequency) to make sure the cost of this load is directed to the proper plant (power compensation).
Due to the inertia of the entire European powergrid most of these frequency changes are no more than microHertzes, even when applying loads of megawatts.
Just putting my "Process control in high-power electrical systems" course to use, I'm not an enormous expert in this field, and this course was a few years ago (my field is optical communications)..
This is very interesting: because the fibers collect ambient light, the screens will get brighter if there is more ambient light. This is very useful if you are sitting in an environment where the light-intensity changes a lot (for example: sitting in a train in bright sunlight, and then the train goes into a tunnel)
This would solve a lot of my problems with my TFT-screen.
This billboard indeed struck me as one of the most original ones I have seen so far.. When I saw it, I just stared at it for 3 minutes before figuring out that it *really* was a un*x commandline (solaris?).
Anyway, it's an ad for the central ISP of the dutch public tv/radio-broadcasting companies, looking for un*x-people. The part I didn't like however is that I visited their site with lynx, and got a not-so-friendly message telling me I was using an antique browser.
The subject of the mail says: "Your job is in Hilversum", Hilversum is the city where (almost?) all public broadcasting companies in NL are located.
For dutch people: if you go to their site, you can request a small version of the ad (don't know if that's still on the site btw).
On their website they claim that they might get even more bandwidth out of a perfect-mirror cable than out of single-mode fiber.
This is all fine, but how are they going to deal with light bouncing back into the transmitter (lasers break when their light is reflected back into them), and the multi-mode characteristic of their cable?
The EM-picture in the first article seems to show a multi-mode characteristic, and because of the mirrors used I see it as a step-index fiber, which can not be used for long-range broadband transmission. Light coupled in at an angle has to travel a longer distance than light that is emitted along the axis of the cable, and so it takes longer to propagate that light.
I'm really not an expert in electro-optics, but could somebody please enlighten me about this?
On the topic of long SCSI cabling: I have an external box of 4 HDD's connected with a 5m cable, and a friend of mine has the same set-up with 10m of cable (it should work up to 25 m).
This type of SCSI is called HVD (High-Voltage Differential), or differential SCSI (old term from before LVD existed). It might be quite expensive for state of the art equipment, but somewhat older drives might not be very expensive (my 4 HDD's, controller, HVD->SE converter and case were USD ~500)
The only drawbacks are: the disks run quite hot in their 4-bay case, so they need ventilation (4 fans), is that a problem if they are put in a noise-insulating cabinet? Furthermore HVD SCSI with long cables is limited to about 20 MB/s, 40 can only be reached with short cabling.
I can give you the address of the (German) company where I bought them.. just mail me..
Well, I have not seen it yet, but I once made a website where I wanted the buttons to be slightly transparent on the edges, so there would be a nice smooth transition from the button to the background.
With GIF transparency, this was not possible in a reasonable way, because either a pixel has to be fully transparent, or fully opaque (i.e. completely solid), so you can't have a pixel which is 25% transparent for example.
If I had the possibility to use PNG files (which offer 256 levels of transparency), the transition would even have been smooth on a low-resolution display.
So it has its uses, especially for images which have to blend into the background, or maybe into another picture (hmm.. is this possible in HTML?)
Most computerized images have 3 'channels' (red, green and blue). The alpha-channel is an extra channel of information, usually used for transparency information, so this means that images can have 256 levels of transparency in them, instead of the 2 that GIF uses.
The punctuation for numbers is not really odd.. Official dutch punctuation for numbers is the same, although I use dutch, english *and* international standard, depending on what I like that particular second..
In another/. article a long time ago there was a similar discussion. Someone suggested looking at the starting time of init to determine the uptime (when it wraps around).
It seems to be working, but I have noticed that (at least) Debian (2.1) is able to restart init when it is upgraded. Does anybody know if this will affect its starting time?
I am also thinking about getting a GSM phone with integrated PC-card for emergency connections to work. The only problem is the lack of information about using data capabilities (do they use normal AT commands or do they need special software?).
My thoughts go to a Nokia or Ericsson phone which has to be connected to the serial port of my laptop (my PCMCIA ether/modem does not have a digital connection and a dedicated card is WAY too expensive). Does anybody know how good these phones are?
In America 60 Hz AC is used, but because it is a sinusoidal function, the tube should light twice every period (once with the current flowing forward and once flowing backward).
Maybe it's possible to buy fluorescent lights with phosphors that glow longer (do they use phosphor in a TL?).
It's also important to notice that some LCD's refresh at almost the same frequency as lighting, which causes _very_ annoying flickering (due to interferention between the light and the LCD refresh).
Although I'm an EE student, I'm not really an expert on this, so don't sue me on this info:)
If I remember my EMC class correctly (which is about 2 yrs ago) even metal computer cases hardly provide any EMC shielding.
The problem lies in the fact that there are gaps in any computer case (disk drive, CD-ROM, anything that can be seen on the outside of the case). These gaps leak almost as much of your EM fields as having no case at all (at least at the clock frequencies used by your computer).
The only normal case I have seen that shields _something_ is my Alpha XL case, which is lined with EMC springs around every gap. This prevents the computer from disturbing my screen too much (and yes, it even makes the screen wiggle when the case is closed).
If you want EMC protection, you need a special EMC cabinet and knowledge about connecting cables to such a cabinet (you can't plug in cables just like into an ordinary computer).
This really frightens me.. I have had problems at school, but the way even *TEACHERS* are reacting to this as a way to get rid of the geeks scares the hell out of me.
Thank god I'm a university student now, where everybody is judged to their ability and not to their appearance.
Slashdot Mirror
You're actually right, the tax is on the value added to the air (compressing, drying, CO/CO2-filtering), not on the air itself.. :)
Gtnx
Marcel
As a SCUBA diver, my air is already being taxed (VAT on the costs of filling a cylinder)...
:)
Nothing new there
Gtnx
Marcel
The last ones I saw were blown through conduits, so they would only have to dig once to put the tube in and after that they could upgrade whatever they wanted.. Not sure what the maximum distance is for that technique though.
I mostly meant that active equipment in fibre cabling is quite common for very long fibres (but they are produced to very high specifications if they can't be reached). Even if they would be mounted in a fibre that could be reached, it's still possible to cut out a broken active component and replace it. I haven't found anything in the articles about how the hollow fibres are made, but I'd think they need to be connected to normal fibres somewhere anyway.
Gtnx
Marcel
Well, if repulling the line is that expensive, it's probably long enough to already contain active equipment... (If you want to cross an ocean, you'll need amplifiers and signal reconditioners at regular intervals anyway)
Gtnx
Marcel
Hmm, that's not really my experience with Slackware users, but maybe that's because I'm not on the newsgroup. The attitude on the linuxpackages.net forums seems to be a lot better, although there still is the occasional angry remark (but then again, everybody gets irritated sometimes :-)
I've heard some bad stories about Gentoo user attitudes, but these were mostly from Debian users (who don't seem to be any better to me than what they make out Gentoo users for). From the few things I've seen from the Gentoo forums, they indeed seem to be a helpful and friendly community.
Gtnx
Marcel
Well, I'm trying to port a selection of Slackware 10 packages to Sparc at the moment, but it's not going very fast (due to a lack of time and a slow processor). No installer (yet), but at the moment I'm already compiling from a Debian/Slackware hybrid, with Slackware steadily gaining ground.
BTW: All of these packages are optimised for Sparc v8 or higher (It might be me, but I'm really noticing a speed improvement because of the hardware multiplication/division)
Gtnx
Marcel
Yes, the /. post is a bit hard to understand. What you say is right, but NL did not do this, the council of Ministers (European executive branch) did, against the will of the European Parliament. Unfortunately the European Parliament has hardly anything to say in Europe, at least not until there is a decent European constitution.
The next sentence says what NL did: they revoked their vote on the council of Ministers, thereby weakening the decision and perhaps even paving the way for a reversal of the decision, if enough other countries follow.
Gtnx
Marcel
>It seems to me that what this will really do is
> give us smaller, higher quality imaging devices.
To be honest, I surely hope this will not be the case.. One of my problems with digital photography actually is the small size of the CCD's, which gives an enormous depth of field compared to 35mm film.
(my camera, a Minolta DiMAGE 7, at f/8 gives the same DOF as a 35mm camera at about f/32 if I remember correctly.. this is all very nice, unless you want a very shallow DOF)
Furthermore, the usage of those small CCD's prevent SLR technology from being used in digital cameras (such as phase-detect autofocus, which is fast, a real mirror, true TTL flashmetering).
Yes, there are digital SLRs, but I have not seen any with a full-frame CCD, so you always have a certain multiplication factor for your focal length (your lens acts as if it is more like a telelens). Your CCD is just only seeing the central portion of the frame.
Gtnx
Marcel
PS. Don't think I don't like my camera... I really love it, but there are many things 35mm does better, and I'm hoping for improvements as much as anybody else.
In Europe the frequency actually can not deviate too much from 50 Hz, because all generators are locked into this frequency (if the frequency of one generator would be different an enormous current would flow from the other plants into this generator and it would most probably blow up). This system is used to cover peak loads:
When a large load is applied to the grid, the frequency drops slightly and all generators in Europe deliver extra power to compensate for this (i.e. keep the frequency at 50 Hz), this is called frequency compensation.
If the load persists longer, the plant/country/company responsible for the load increases its power output (thereby raising its frequency) to make sure the cost of this load is directed to the proper plant (power compensation).
Due to the inertia of the entire European powergrid most of these frequency changes are no more than microHertzes, even when applying loads of megawatts.
Just putting my "Process control in high-power electrical systems" course to use, I'm not an enormous expert in this field, and this course was a few years ago (my field is optical communications)..
This is very interesting: because the fibers collect ambient light, the screens will get brighter if there is more ambient light. This is very useful if you are sitting in an environment where the light-intensity changes a lot (for example: sitting in a train in bright sunlight, and then the train goes into a tunnel)
This would solve a lot of my problems with my TFT-screen.
This billboard indeed struck me as one of the most original ones I have seen so far.. When I saw it, I just stared at it for 3 minutes before figuring out that it *really* was a un*x commandline (solaris?).
Anyway, it's an ad for the central ISP of the dutch public tv/radio-broadcasting companies, looking for un*x-people. The part I didn't like however is that I visited their site with lynx, and got a not-so-friendly message telling me I was using an antique browser.
The subject of the mail says: "Your job is in Hilversum", Hilversum is the city where (almost?) all public broadcasting companies in NL are located.
For dutch people: if you go to their site, you can request a small version of the ad (don't know if that's still on the site btw).
On their website they claim that they might get even more bandwidth out of a perfect-mirror cable than out of single-mode fiber.
This is all fine, but how are they going to deal with light bouncing back into the transmitter (lasers break when their light is reflected back into them), and the multi-mode characteristic of their cable?
The EM-picture in the first article seems to show a multi-mode characteristic, and because of the mirrors used I see it as a step-index fiber, which can not be used for long-range broadband transmission. Light coupled in at an angle has to travel a longer distance than light that is emitted along the axis of the cable, and so it takes longer to propagate that light.
I'm really not an expert in electro-optics, but could somebody please enlighten me about this?
On the topic of long SCSI cabling: I have an external box of 4 HDD's connected with a 5m cable, and a friend of mine has the same set-up with 10m of cable (it should work up to 25 m).
This type of SCSI is called HVD (High-Voltage Differential), or differential SCSI (old term from before LVD existed). It might be quite expensive for state of the art equipment, but somewhat older drives might not be very expensive (my 4 HDD's, controller, HVD->SE converter and case were USD ~500)
The only drawbacks are: the disks run quite hot in their 4-bay case, so they need ventilation (4 fans), is that a problem if they are put in a noise-insulating cabinet? Furthermore HVD SCSI with long cables is limited to about 20 MB/s, 40 can only be reached with short cabling.
I can give you the address of the (German) company where I bought them.. just mail me..
Well, I have not seen it yet, but I once made a website where I wanted the buttons to be slightly transparent on the edges, so there would be a nice smooth transition from the button to the background.
With GIF transparency, this was not possible in a reasonable way, because either a pixel has to be fully transparent, or fully opaque (i.e. completely solid), so you can't have a pixel which is 25% transparent for example.
If I had the possibility to use PNG files (which offer 256 levels of transparency), the transition would even have been smooth on a low-resolution display.
So it has its uses, especially for images which have to blend into the background, or maybe into another picture (hmm.. is this possible in HTML?)
Most computerized images have 3 'channels' (red, green and blue). The alpha-channel is an extra channel of information, usually used for transparency information, so this means that images can have 256 levels of transparency in them, instead of the 2 that GIF uses.
The punctuation for numbers is not really odd..
Official dutch punctuation for numbers is the same, although I use dutch, english *and* international standard, depending on what I like that particular second..
(NL/FR/?) 1.000,00
(english) 1,000.00
(int.) 1 000.00 (iirc)
Over here in Breda, the Netherlands nothing bad happened.. just a lot of fun.. even the NT servers at work are functional (at least to pings)
It's 1:11 AM right now (0:00 UTC) and still no problems.
Sorry for any (spelling) mistakes: blame the beer and champagne!
Happy New Year to Slashdotters everywhere!!
It's getting too late.. (i DID use the preview)
The correct command is: "ps u 1"
BTW: the command to determine the starting time of init is
init u 1
In another /. article a long time ago there was a similar discussion. Someone suggested looking at the starting time of init to determine the uptime (when it wraps around).
It seems to be working, but I have noticed that (at least) Debian (2.1) is able to restart init when it is upgraded.
Does anybody know if this will affect its starting time?
I am also thinking about getting a GSM phone with integrated PC-card for emergency connections to work. The only problem is the lack of information about using data capabilities (do they use normal AT commands or do they need special software?).
My thoughts go to a Nokia or Ericsson phone which has to be connected to the serial port of my laptop (my PCMCIA ether/modem does not have a digital connection and a dedicated card is WAY too expensive). Does anybody know how good these phones are?
In America 60 Hz AC is used, but because it is a sinusoidal function, the tube should light twice every period (once with the current flowing forward and once flowing backward).
:)
Maybe it's possible to buy fluorescent lights with phosphors that glow longer (do they use phosphor in a TL?).
It's also important to notice that some LCD's refresh at almost the same frequency as lighting, which causes _very_ annoying flickering (due to interferention between the light and the LCD refresh).
Although I'm an EE student, I'm not really an expert on this, so don't sue me on this info
If I remember my EMC class correctly (which is about 2 yrs ago) even metal computer cases hardly provide any EMC shielding.
The problem lies in the fact that there are gaps in any computer case (disk drive, CD-ROM, anything that can be seen on the outside of the case). These gaps leak almost as much of your EM fields as having no case at all (at least at the clock frequencies used by your computer).
The only normal case I have seen that shields _something_ is my Alpha XL case, which is lined with EMC springs around every gap. This prevents the computer from disturbing my screen too much (and yes, it even makes the screen wiggle when the case is closed).
If you want EMC protection, you need a special EMC cabinet and knowledge about connecting cables to such a cabinet (you can't plug in cables just like into an ordinary computer).
Gtnx
Marcel de Boer, 3rd year student EE/IT
This really frightens me.. I have had problems at school, but the way even *TEACHERS* are reacting to this as a way to get rid of the geeks scares the hell out of me.
Thank god I'm a university student now, where everybody is judged to their ability and not to their appearance.
In the article it says that they used _Samba_ 2.0.3.. Maybe somebody got confused and put the wrong information in the posting?
(i'm not familiar with the latest releases of samba and apache, so don't sue me on this..)