Given that the test was held in India, how fluent in English were these 1334 people? Yes, I know that English is taught and used extensively in India; but non-native speakers will likely have a harder time picking up on the nuances which would separate a human from an AI.
Yeah, IIRC a 30W iron didn't quite cut it; the solder never got liquid enough to flow freely, making it nearly impossible to clear the holes. Going to a slightly higher wattage than the one I'm using now would probably make things even easier, but I'm worried about lifting traces.
Forgot to mention, I've also read that heating the pad from one side and jamming the tip of a dental pick through the hole from the other side is pretty effective.
The ground and power planes in a modern multi-layer PCB are quite efficient heat sinks! The key is to use a higher wattage soldering iron than you think you need. I first figured this out about 8 years ago when the capacitor plague hit with a vengeance and I had multiple dead motherboards on my hands. My old Radio Shack 40W (or maybe it is 45W?) iron plus one of those spring loaded solder suckers are the only tools I use for removing the blown caps and clearing the holes. I kept meaning to buy a better (temperature controlled and grounded) iron but somehow never got around to it; I've now recapped numerous motherboards, video cards, network switches, etc. with that crufty old soldering iron.
I have also read that you can clear the holes with a Dremel tool and an appropriately sized bit if you're really, really careful. I haven't tried this method myself so I can't vouch for it.
It does seem that removing the old caps and clearing the holes has gotten somewhat more difficult these past couple of years; perhaps this is because I'm starting to encounter more equipment that was assembled with lead-free solder.
Depends on the component. Passives are still widely available in thru-hole versions. Some semiconductors are as well (e.g. there's still a pretty reasonable selection of transistors, op amps, discrete logic), but obviously anything with a lot of pins is surface-mount only.
I've recently been playing around with some of Microchip's PIC microcontrollers. Their low pin count (up to 28 pins) 8- and 16-bit devices are still available in through-hole DIP packages, so amazingly enough those old solderless breadboards from the '70s are still good for something!
...don't even know how to use a soldering iron. What's this world coming to?;-)
People used to actually fix failed electronics back in the 60s...
Heh... I still fix failed electronics today! Just this past weekend I repaired my daughter's failed video card by replacing all of the crummy leaking and exploded electrolytic capacitors in the VRM circuit. I refuse to pitch an otherwise perfectly good card into the landfill just because a half-dozen 50 cent capacitors have decided to commit suicide.
Their workstation-class machines have been (and still are) fairly reasonable as off-the-rack systems go. Their servers are good too (though overpriced).
Profit margins in the PC hardware business are razor-thin, and not likely to improve. So while their PC business does generate a large percentage of their revenue, it is a much smaller percentage of their profits.
Aside from the Java part (I only learned enough of that to help my son with his AP CS homework when he was in high school), and the fact that I did a few years of C++ too, this is pretty similar to the path I've taken. I've also been picking up CSS in fits and starts, but I hesitate to say that CSS really qualifies as a programming language.
I'm also currently in the process of learning VHDL, which is sort of a programming language too (even though it ultimately gets translated into hardware). So no, IMO you're not too old. But also keep in mind what the guy who posted the first reply said.
At this point, I figure switching jobs may be difficult given the economy and my age. I'm hoping to hang on to the day job for now, but get back into doing a little consulting on the side. If the consulting market really heats up, I may consider going back to doing that full-time (which is what I did until about 6 years ago).
If your giving computers to a charity, its likely that the people who end up using the machines are doing so because they don't normally have access to computers, in which case they will be unfamiliar with whatever you put on them...
Umm... what? So just because kids need the service of a charity, that automatically means they've never used a computer before? They may not have always been down on their luck, and have also probably been exposed to computers at school or the library.
It is sort of like the mainframe to PC transition all over again.
But in an odd twist, we're also coming full circle. Many of the apps that make the iPad and iPhone such compelling tools rely on massive server farms in remote data centers. "The Cloud" is in a sense the modern equivalent of the mainframe.
Stop unconditionally compressing the sh*t out of everything, and record the dynamics the way the musicians meant it to be heard. Some music is just meant to be in-your-face loud, and that's fine if it is the artist's intent. But dynamic range is often a big part of the emotional impact of music, and to strip that out in post-production is no less egregious than arbitrarily lopping off part of the frequency spectrum, or editing out one of the original band members.
Can't make a zero-resistance connection; this is going to constrain things quite a bit. But as a stepping stone to get kids interested, it's great!
My introduction to electronics back in the day was a Radio Shack "65-In-One" electronics project kit. Bunch of discrete components, meter, speaker, photocell, electromagnetic relay, etc. with spring clips that allowed for easy interconnection. It's sad that this sort of thing is no longer widely available.
There are some nice communities in Pennsylvania and Indiana you may wish to consider relocating to. Low crime rate, clean living, and none of that pesky Internet stuff.
This is of course assuming that she's not running bleeding edge hardware (which seems to be a reasonable assumption in this case). Furthermore, unless you're going to provide some hand-holding during the installation (and maybe even if you are), you probably ought to image her hard drive first, just in case.
This is not meant to be disparaging of Ubuntu at all; I run it on my home and work desktops, and on my file and web servers. While I find it to be ideal for my needs, and recommend it to family, friends, and colleagues, I am also aware of its shortcomings. The non-LTS releases are sometimes not quite "ready for prime time", and the LTS releases often lag in support for newer hardware.
Yeah, that was my thought as well. IMO the tilting is a rather small part of making it feel real; pedal resistance is a much bigger factor. The article mentions that they can simulate wind resistance (so the system has the ability to vary the amount of pedaling effort required), but nowhere does it say that they actually tie this in to the inclination data.
Can we at least proofread the headlines? I've gotten used to seeing silly typos like this on mainstream news sites like CNN and the Chicago Tribune, but c'mon Slashdot, you can do better than that!;-)
I agree. In fact, the sort of user who will miss the additional features of synaptic would probably even be perfectly comfortable installing it via apt-get if necessary.
Fourthed! I don't do a lot of web coding, but Bluefish + a local copy of Apache + an assortment of Web browsers to test cross-browser compatibility (using VMs as needed for the ones that run on other OSes) seems like a very sensible way to set up a Web development workstation to me.
I use Bluefish as my general programming editor too; basically I use it for anything more complex than quick config file hacking (God made vi for that). I've become enough of a Bluefish fan that I've started building it from upstream source when new releases come out, rather than waiting for the new version to show up in the Ubuntu repositories...
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Given that the test was held in India, how fluent in English were these 1334 people? Yes, I know that English is taught and used extensively in India; but non-native speakers will likely have a harder time picking up on the nuances which would separate a human from an AI.
Yeah, IIRC a 30W iron didn't quite cut it; the solder never got liquid enough to flow freely, making it nearly impossible to clear the holes. Going to a slightly higher wattage than the one I'm using now would probably make things even easier, but I'm worried about lifting traces.
Forgot to mention, I've also read that heating the pad from one side and jamming the tip of a dental pick through the hole from the other side is pretty effective.
The ground and power planes in a modern multi-layer PCB are quite efficient heat sinks! The key is to use a higher wattage soldering iron than you think you need. I first figured this out about 8 years ago when the capacitor plague hit with a vengeance and I had multiple dead motherboards on my hands. My old Radio Shack 40W (or maybe it is 45W?) iron plus one of those spring loaded solder suckers are the only tools I use for removing the blown caps and clearing the holes. I kept meaning to buy a better (temperature controlled and grounded) iron but somehow never got around to it; I've now recapped numerous motherboards, video cards, network switches, etc. with that crufty old soldering iron.
I have also read that you can clear the holes with a Dremel tool and an appropriately sized bit if you're really, really careful. I haven't tried this method myself so I can't vouch for it.
It does seem that removing the old caps and clearing the holes has gotten somewhat more difficult these past couple of years; perhaps this is because I'm starting to encounter more equipment that was assembled with lead-free solder.
I recently read somewhere (maybe at Sparkfun?) that a $30 hotplate from Target actually works better than a $3,000 reflow oven for small SMT jobs!
Depends on the component. Passives are still widely available in thru-hole versions. Some semiconductors are as well (e.g. there's still a pretty reasonable selection of transistors, op amps, discrete logic), but obviously anything with a lot of pins is surface-mount only.
I've recently been playing around with some of Microchip's PIC microcontrollers. Their low pin count (up to 28 pins) 8- and 16-bit devices are still available in through-hole DIP packages, so amazingly enough those old solderless breadboards from the '70s are still good for something!
...don't even know how to use a soldering iron. What's this world coming to? ;-)
People used to actually fix failed electronics back in the 60s...
Heh... I still fix failed electronics today! Just this past weekend I repaired my daughter's failed video card by replacing all of the crummy leaking and exploded electrolytic capacitors in the VRM circuit. I refuse to pitch an otherwise perfectly good card into the landfill just because a half-dozen 50 cent capacitors have decided to commit suicide.
All your bits are belong to us!
Their workstation-class machines have been (and still are) fairly reasonable as off-the-rack systems go. Their servers are good too (though overpriced).
Profit margins in the PC hardware business are razor-thin, and not likely to improve. So while their PC business does generate a large percentage of their revenue, it is a much smaller percentage of their profits.
Aside from the Java part (I only learned enough of that to help my son with his AP CS homework when he was in high school), and the fact that I did a few years of C++ too, this is pretty similar to the path I've taken. I've also been picking up CSS in fits and starts, but I hesitate to say that CSS really qualifies as a programming language.
I'm also currently in the process of learning VHDL, which is sort of a programming language too (even though it ultimately gets translated into hardware). So no, IMO you're not too old. But also keep in mind what the guy who posted the first reply said.
At this point, I figure switching jobs may be difficult given the economy and my age. I'm hoping to hang on to the day job for now, but get back into doing a little consulting on the side. If the consulting market really heats up, I may consider going back to doing that full-time (which is what I did until about 6 years ago).
You've just described me and my office mate. We're not 55 yet, but we're a lot closer to 55 than 25, and what you've said rings very true.
If your giving computers to a charity, its likely that the people who end up using the machines are doing so because they don't normally have access to computers, in which case they will be unfamiliar with whatever you put on them...
Umm... what? So just because kids need the service of a charity, that automatically means they've never used a computer before? They may not have always been down on their luck, and have also probably been exposed to computers at school or the library.
It is sort of like the mainframe to PC transition all over again.
But in an odd twist, we're also coming full circle. Many of the apps that make the iPad and iPhone such compelling tools rely on massive server farms in remote data centers. "The Cloud" is in a sense the modern equivalent of the mainframe.
... 'cause we wouldn't want to do something crazy like come up with a single new standard for running concurrent init scripts! http://xkcd.com/927/
If you're referring to upstart, IIRC that was actually an Ubuntu (Canonical) project.
Stop unconditionally compressing the sh*t out of everything, and record the dynamics the way the musicians meant it to be heard. Some music is just meant to be in-your-face loud, and that's fine if it is the artist's intent. But dynamic range is often a big part of the emotional impact of music, and to strip that out in post-production is no less egregious than arbitrarily lopping off part of the frequency spectrum, or editing out one of the original band members.
Can't make a zero-resistance connection; this is going to constrain things quite a bit. But as a stepping stone to get kids interested, it's great!
My introduction to electronics back in the day was a Radio Shack "65-In-One" electronics project kit. Bunch of discrete components, meter, speaker, photocell, electromagnetic relay, etc. with spring clips that allowed for easy interconnection. It's sad that this sort of thing is no longer widely available.
There are some nice communities in Pennsylvania and Indiana you may wish to consider relocating to. Low crime rate, clean living, and none of that pesky Internet stuff.
This is of course assuming that she's not running bleeding edge hardware (which seems to be a reasonable assumption in this case). Furthermore, unless you're going to provide some hand-holding during the installation (and maybe even if you are), you probably ought to image her hard drive first, just in case.
This is not meant to be disparaging of Ubuntu at all; I run it on my home and work desktops, and on my file and web servers. While I find it to be ideal for my needs, and recommend it to family, friends, and colleagues, I am also aware of its shortcomings. The non-LTS releases are sometimes not quite "ready for prime time", and the LTS releases often lag in support for newer hardware.
Yeah, that was my thought as well. IMO the tilting is a rather small part of making it feel real; pedal resistance is a much bigger factor. The article mentions that they can simulate wind resistance (so the system has the ability to vary the amount of pedaling effort required), but nowhere does it say that they actually tie this in to the inclination data.
Can we at least proofread the headlines? I've gotten used to seeing silly typos like this on mainstream news sites like CNN and the Chicago Tribune, but c'mon Slashdot, you can do better than that! ;-)
I agree. In fact, the sort of user who will miss the additional features of synaptic would probably even be perfectly comfortable installing it via apt-get if necessary.
Fourthed! I don't do a lot of web coding, but Bluefish + a local copy of Apache + an assortment of Web browsers to test cross-browser compatibility (using VMs as needed for the ones that run on other OSes) seems like a very sensible way to set up a Web development workstation to me.
I use Bluefish as my general programming editor too; basically I use it for anything more complex than quick config file hacking (God made vi for that). I've become enough of a Bluefish fan that I've started building it from upstream source when new releases come out, rather than waiting for the new version to show up in the Ubuntu repositories...