DC Mains Power
on
Quantum Wires
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
If powerlines could have negligible resistance, then it will be viable to transmit power as DC. (At the moment, AC is used to minimize power loss during transmission.) This could mean that devices could plug into a (say) 12V DC outlet right in the wall, eliminating all the heat loss from each individual transformer, and getting rid of the bulk. Imagine, your computer wouldn't need some massive AC-DC power supply! (Obviously it'd still need a small, simple one to transform down to 5V, etc.)
I agree with others: A verbal reminder is the best. If it's a technological solution, us-types (Slashdotters, that is) will naturally try to get around it - we treat it as a challenge. The first thing that came to my mind was just picking up a discarded receipt from one of the 98% of customers who don't use wireless.
If you lock a laptop up tight enough but don't watch it, someone may just stuck a pencil thru your LCD to spite you. That's what I would do if I were in a pissy mood and unable to steal your laptop that I was otherwise planning on taking (which I wasn't, if you were wondering.)
Better you just let the a-hole take it and get some some use out of it, I'd say
I'd rather have a damaged laptop and get to keep my data.
From the story: they are offering prizes to Gnome developers who will submit an app during the first week of the site's launch.
People rush to make the date
The site is filled with hurried, poorly-made software after the first week
The crappy software gives the site a bad reputation
Developers of "good" software shun the site's collection
Users find that there is no good software in the repository, only poorly-made software (the programs submitted for the prize were made only for that purpose, and are not maintained due to lack of enthusiasm by the developers)
The site dies
Of course, this is only a possible scenario (and I'm in a pessimistic mood at the moment (or always)). I hope the site goes well, though!
The whole point of graphic cards is that they have a dedicated purpose. Using the cards for anything that is general purpose is like using a motorcycle to tow a pop-up camper.
No, it's like using your pop-up camper for storage space when you're using it on holidays.
This will absolutely drain my Internet quota at college. What about people with text-only browsers? Older computers that can't play the content? External firewalls blocking the ports used (or is it just 80)?
Put static ads with static content. I don't have anything (well, much) against putting video ads with video content (as many sites do).
Slashdot give me a new appreciation for the narrow mindedness of people. Say anything the challenges peoples beliefs and you're "flamebait". Take any kind of tangent from the prescribed topic and you're "offtopic".
And then when you claim that they do that, you're moderated up.:)
If this did take off, would this leave a lot of retail releases very rough around the edges?
For example, I can imagine game publishers saying, "OK, now you only need to make 10% of the content by the time the game's released, so instead of getting twelve months, you only need three." Sure, it may be possible to make 10% of the content in 25% of the time, but it is not possible to do 100% of the programming in 25% of the time.
So it's like Xbox Live (which lets you download content), but without 90% of the content of the original game. Or like a standard PC game with extra units, maps, campaigns, etc. downloadable from the 'Net, but now it costs money. Sounds great.
And since light won't be disturbed by the magnetic fields generated by the current there is no need to worry about power and data interfering with each other
Let us not forget that light, too, is an electromagnetic wave, though.
Unfortunately, 3D is now the main consideration. People benchmark by 3D scores. Graphics card boxes show pictures of 3D games, and the company demos 3D applications of the card. This is simply because they look pretty; imagine showing a picture of a normal desktop on a 3D card, or just showing normal desktop 2D usage at a trade show demo - it wouldn't draw any attention.
Can anyone tell me why they're not bringing this out for the Playstation 1? Doing that will open it up to a much larger audience. I hardly think the games require the power of the PS2!?! Strange.
'Installing Mandrake...'
"Oh, fuck, it broke my LG CD drive! Let me try installing it on my second computer, also with an LG drive..."
'Installing Mandrake...'
"Damn, this one's screwed too! Let me just confirm by installing it on my third computer with another LG CD drive."
'Installing Mandrake...'
"God damn! I'm so pissed off now, I'm just going to go fuck up my other computer too. I'll show those Linux penguins... Microsoft all the way!!"
('Installing Mandrake...' --- "God damn!")
By the way, if you're wondering where I got this from, I just typed more than 16 characters in your XP box's "Password" field and stole it off there.
Yes it would be a one-time hit, but we hard disk intensive audio and video people don't want to be streaming multiple tracks off our hard disks while they are defragging themselves!
OMG, so much for my reputation, too ("it's reputation")... How did I miss that? Now I have to make up for it; Fixing bugs after is much more expensive than if I'd corrected it then and there.:)
Even disregarding the direct developer cost of finding and fixing the bugs, take a look at a recent example. Enter the Matrix seems to have been plagued with bugs (although I must admit that I haven't played it yet myself). It's "reputation" is now far from good, and so the bugs has caused a large loss in potential sales.
Now a hypothetical example. You work for a large company, and you're looking for some enterprise-level database software (HypotheticalDB). You get some that has been hyped, and spend a fair amount of time learning it, and developing your solution. When you start trying to use it, though, there are a few major bugs that make it unusable for practical purposes. You eventually switch programs. Now, the company that makes HypotheticalDB will have lost money in some sales (as the company expands), and likely support, too. But the major hit is this: HypotheticalDB 2.0 comes out, which is a lot less buggy than 1.0. However, would you really trust that program again? Also, you've already set up your solution and are running it now; there would be a large cost for you to switch over, too. So HypotheticalDB has lost money in software licenses, support, and future sales of that product and probably others. And that's excluding the actual development cost of finding and fixing the bugs.
I'm a bit confused about this. Many trademarks are phrases: Red Hat Linux, Office XP, Electronic Frontier Foundation (I assume the last one's trademarked). What happens when these terms are intermixed? For example, it sounds like if I search for "Electronic Frontier Foundation", only ads from the EFF would be allowed to show. But what happens if I search for "Frontier Electronic Foundation"? How about "Linux has a Hat and is Red"? Legislation like this is just too ambiguous, and in the end, damaging.
So does that mean that 'conventional' pain killers should ease emotional pain as well?
Although, a recent Wired article says that "Morphine kills the perception of pain by limiting sensory input to the brain", so perhaps the current conventional drugs stop the pain from the rest of the body reaching the brain, as opposed to pain already internal to the brain.
FingerWorks made a TouchStream replacement keyboard for the older PowerBooks (see here). Does this mean that these no longer work with the new PowerBooks? Damn!
How do you explain, then, that you can ONLY get this file from Kazaa, and not Kazaa K++, Lite, or any of the other variations? It's because you're downloading from Kazaa servers -- believe it or not, they exist!/blockquote
It's really only available from the official KaZaA? If you want to distribute a file, why not make it as available as possible? And also, if there are official KaZaA servers, KaZaA / Sharman Networks must have agreed to put files on there in the first place, right?
I tried to RTFA, but I fainted mid-way during the first paragraph.
...computers are tested for there ability to improve frame rates in games. ...heard from your friends about the latest drivers for there system... ...gave them an extra 30 fps over there old card...
(They're all from the one paragraph introduction...)
Slashdot Mirror
If powerlines could have negligible resistance, then it will be viable to transmit power as DC. (At the moment, AC is used to minimize power loss during transmission.) This could mean that devices could plug into a (say) 12V DC outlet right in the wall, eliminating all the heat loss from each individual transformer, and getting rid of the bulk. Imagine, your computer wouldn't need some massive AC-DC power supply! (Obviously it'd still need a small, simple one to transform down to 5V, etc.)
I agree with others: A verbal reminder is the best. If it's a technological solution, us-types (Slashdotters, that is) will naturally try to get around it - we treat it as a challenge. The first thing that came to my mind was just picking up a discarded receipt from one of the 98% of customers who don't use wireless.
If you lock a laptop up tight enough but don't watch it, someone may just stuck a pencil thru your LCD to spite you. That's what I would do if I were in a pissy mood and unable to steal your laptop that I was otherwise planning on taking (which I wasn't, if you were wondering.)
Better you just let the a-hole take it and get some some use out of it, I'd say
I'd rather have a damaged laptop and get to keep my data.
From the story:
they are offering prizes to Gnome developers who will submit an app during the first week of the site's launch.
Of course, this is only a possible scenario (and I'm in a pessimistic mood at the moment (or always)). I hope the site goes well, though!
No, it's like using your pop-up camper for storage space when you're using it on holidays.
Put static ads with static content. I don't have anything (well, much) against putting video ads with video content (as many sites do).
And then when you claim that they do that, you're moderated up. :)
For example, I can imagine game publishers saying, "OK, now you only need to make 10% of the content by the time the game's released, so instead of getting twelve months, you only need three." Sure, it may be possible to make 10% of the content in 25% of the time, but it is not possible to do 100% of the programming in 25% of the time.
So it's like Xbox Live (which lets you download content), but without 90% of the content of the original game. Or like a standard PC game with extra units, maps, campaigns, etc. downloadable from the 'Net, but now it costs money. Sounds great.
Let us not forget that light, too, is an electromagnetic wave, though.
Unfortunately, 3D is now the main consideration. People benchmark by 3D scores. Graphics card boxes show pictures of 3D games, and the company demos 3D applications of the card. This is simply because they look pretty; imagine showing a picture of a normal desktop on a 3D card, or just showing normal desktop 2D usage at a trade show demo - it wouldn't draw any attention.
Can anyone tell me why they're not bringing this out for the Playstation 1? Doing that will open it up to a much larger audience. I hardly think the games require the power of the PS2!?! Strange.
Actual transcript:
'Installing Mandrake...'
"Oh, fuck, it broke my LG CD drive! Let me try installing it on my second computer, also with an LG drive..."
'Installing Mandrake...'
"Damn, this one's screwed too! Let me just confirm by installing it on my third computer with another LG CD drive."
'Installing Mandrake...'
"God damn! I'm so pissed off now, I'm just going to go fuck up my other computer too. I'll show those Linux penguins... Microsoft all the way!!"
('Installing Mandrake...' --- "God damn!")
By the way, if you're wondering where I got this from, I just typed more than 16 characters in your XP box's "Password" field and stole it off there.
Yes it would be a one-time hit, but we hard disk intensive audio and video people don't want to be streaming multiple tracks off our hard disks while they are defragging themselves!
...which is why there's the 20 MB limit.
...next thing you know they'll change their name to a0l.
(fp?)
OMG, so much for my reputation, too ("it's reputation")... How did I miss that? Now I have to make up for it; Fixing bugs after is much more expensive than if I'd corrected it then and there. :)
Even disregarding the direct developer cost of finding and fixing the bugs, take a look at a recent example. Enter the Matrix seems to have been plagued with bugs (although I must admit that I haven't played it yet myself). It's "reputation" is now far from good, and so the bugs has caused a large loss in potential sales.
Now a hypothetical example. You work for a large company, and you're looking for some enterprise-level database software (HypotheticalDB). You get some that has been hyped, and spend a fair amount of time learning it, and developing your solution. When you start trying to use it, though, there are a few major bugs that make it unusable for practical purposes. You eventually switch programs. Now, the company that makes HypotheticalDB will have lost money in some sales (as the company expands), and likely support, too. But the major hit is this: HypotheticalDB 2.0 comes out, which is a lot less buggy than 1.0. However, would you really trust that program again? Also, you've already set up your solution and are running it now; there would be a large cost for you to switch over, too. So HypotheticalDB has lost money in software licenses, support, and future sales of that product and probably others. And that's excluding the actual development cost of finding and fixing the bugs.
I'm a bit confused about this. Many trademarks are phrases: Red Hat Linux, Office XP, Electronic Frontier Foundation (I assume the last one's trademarked). What happens when these terms are intermixed? For example, it sounds like if I search for "Electronic Frontier Foundation", only ads from the EFF would be allowed to show. But what happens if I search for "Frontier Electronic Foundation"? How about "Linux has a Hat and is Red"? Legislation like this is just too ambiguous, and in the end, damaging.
So does that mean that 'conventional' pain killers should ease emotional pain as well?
Although, a recent Wired article says that "Morphine kills the perception of pain by limiting sensory input to the brain", so perhaps the current conventional drugs stop the pain from the rest of the body reaching the brain, as opposed to pain already internal to the brain.
I wonder if Steve Wozniak has been keeping up with the phone system like he used to. P)
FingerWorks made a TouchStream replacement keyboard for the older PowerBooks (see here). Does this mean that these no longer work with the new PowerBooks? Damn!
Ah yes, but can you read "japenese"?
"KaZaA will foot the bill for bandwidth?" It's a peer-to-peer program; the users supply the files over their own bandwidth. KaZaA pays nothing.
I tried to RTFA, but I fainted mid-way during the first paragraph.
(They're all from the one paragraph introduction...)