It's another myth that aluminum cases are lighter - that may be true by a half pound or so...
Actually, metallic iron has a density of about 7 g/cc, and aluminum is 2.6 g/cc -- an aluminum case will weigh less than half an iron one made of the same thickness of material.
I can vouch for the lightness of my aluminum case. This isn't 40.0 vs 39.5 lbs, it's more like 40 vs 20.
Due to a problem with the German tape recorder, the tape was not completely erased and the voice of Adolph Hitler was intermittently heard along with Eisenhower's voice. This caused a great deal of fear and confusion among the German people
Something similar happens at the end of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Apparently, the master tape wasn't fully erased after its last use!
It's faint, but there's an unmistakable orchestral version of the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" playing. Interestingly, both artists used Abbey Road studios. This analog tape _must_ be expensive if Pink Floyd had to resort to recycling!
Not ridiculously pathetic
on
Virtual Girlfriend
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
For those of us who remember Ultima VII (one of the best RPGs of all time!)...
There was an optional mini-quest involving a lonely, melancholy woman who spent all day near the town shrine, wondering whether her father was still alive. You could offer to help find out what happened to him.
As a 13 year old boy with very little female experience, I was really enraptured by this quest, and made it my top priority! And even though the game engine's reward was (no kidding) a text message of "She moans deeply as you passionately kiss", that was pretty cool. And it's a fond memory to this day.
This phone game is just another way of letting people have fantasies. I don't see the problem, except that "money" is such an important factor.
Personally, I think underclocking for the masses should be more popular than it is. Desktop motherboards that allow on-the-fly switches in performance levels would be great.
I mean, laptops have already had this technology for years (battery versus wall power), although it is often is fairly proprietary, if it works at all.
For the 9 out of 10 times when I just want web surfing & audio streaming at home, I'd like to run at 20% of my 2 GHz and turn down the fans. After all, when you're trying to set a mood with Soma FM, who needs blaring screaming fans going?
I know it's pretty obligatory to say, but: DAMN! Will these NASA folks ever cease to amaze us with new, amazing, profound things?
I am so engaged by space exploration these days, it makes me really happy to be alive in the century I'm in....Kind of helps make up for all the bad stuff in the world.
> Bringing back James Kirk could breathe new life back into the series
I agree. Say what you will (and people will say a lot), but Capt. Kirk is the biggest single force in Star Trek canon. He set the standard for captains' ethics and behaviour (although I'll admit I don't recall Janeway ever making out with and green alien women).
And say what you will, but Shatner's perfromances in ST:II and ST:III were actually pretty good, I think. "You Klingon bastard, you killed my son" is a heartfelt scene.
Yes, yes, yes. Do optimize. But, come on people, do we really need to turn that nice readable device init code that only executes once into something like:
for (i=0,j=0,init();i!=initDevice(j);j++,writeToLog());
A space elevator is begun almost immediately after first colonization. While he assumes materials science will make great nanotubes by then, the source for the raw material is an asteroid which is directed into Mars' orbit. Then an automated factory on the asteroid builds the cable downward toward the planet until it reaches the surface.
NASA has a jewelry store making analog watches for the Mars Rover mission team. But the watches are Mars Solar Time! Their "day" is 24hrs 39min. Makes since, since the team's schedule is dictated by Mars' rotation, not Earth's.
Obviously, this would have been much easier in digital (firmware change)! But I think the elegance thing factors in. Don't you know these will make for fantastic antiques!
This is just awesome. I watched the whole thing unfold on NASA TV.
But you know, the whole time lag thing kept sticking in my mind... When you hear them say "We have landed on Mars," that event actually happened 10 minutes earlier that the telemetry indicates it did.
What's the best way for humans to deal with the inescapable fact of the speed of light here? Should we report things (for the history books and all) as happening 10 minutes earlier than they appear to?
Aw, heck, what do I know? I'm still weirded out by the 7 second delay on radio.:) Go NASA!
Hehe. Actually, breathing is just fine for these guys -- it's a fairly closed system: (1) Plant fixes carbon dioxide from atmosphere, (2) plant is eaten by animal, (3) animal is eaten by human, (4) human breathes carbon dioxide into air. Repeat. Little net change over a suitable timescale.
The problem is that we're pumping huge oil reserves into the atmosphere, putting carbon back into commission that was taken out of circulation millions of years ago. And we're doing it so very very fast, that the natural carbon "sinks" can't ramp up fast enough to catch up.
Incidentally, the "closed system" idea is the main thrust of the argument behind biomass alternative energy. If you burn a tree, you're just putting the carbon back into the air it fixed during its lifetime (of course, you're putting particulates and other interesting compounds like PAH's into the air at the same time...)
Could we keep using oil forever? Sure. Heck, even if we ran out of traditional oil, there'd be almost limitless oil shale deposits. We'd just need to get an economy of scale going to make them cost effective.
But should we continue using oil, coal, etc? When we have purple air quality days in cities where it's unsafe even for olympic atheletes to exert outdoors? I sincerely hope you aren't so blind to the effects oil and gas consumption have on our air that you have never noticed how the air sometimes turns yellow in some cities??
"Not in some sort of crisis?" I suppose next you'll tell me fresh drinking water isn't a big 21st century issue, since "I can obviously just go turn on the tap and get clean water."
Hmm. What would a guy who scammed thousands of dollars be doing while in jail??
Nelson earns 17 cents an hour working on construction projects inside the medium-security federal prison at Otisville, New York.... He is pursuing a degree in business administration by taking courses offered at the prison.
> I never understand the mentality of these folks. First, we don't get enough money because
> no one visits, then too many people are coming/going to the same place.
It's not that black and white. Look at the National Park Service's mission statement.
It's not about choosing unqualified conservation XOR unqualified public-use.
It's a gray area where the need for conservation is balanced against the need for public enjoyment. And it's a balance that varies from decade to decade, administration to administration, and park to park. As both stewards of the land and public servants, park staff are constantly trying to find the right balance.
The "mentality" of "these folks" is really a lot more mature and deep than you're giving them credit for.
That reminds me of what Wilford Brimley ("eat oatmeal!") said in The China Syndrome.
The China Syndrome is where an unregulated nuclear reactor core is so hot, it melts through its container, and any rock underneath it. Theoretically all the way to China (or until groundwater gets in its way)
Good point. That was a mixed blessing. But then again, so is the fact that any 3rd party can write a kernel driver (although MS is trying to assuage this with things like driver signing)
I've read some interesting defenses of moving GDI to the kernel. Some of the rationale was:
GDI crashing, be it in the kernel or user mode, is basically a fatal system error. As designed, it is not clear how NT could "restart" a crashed user-mode GUI subsystem. Even if GDI is user mode, if it crashes, you'd probably have to reboot anyway.
There are many other complex subsystems that exist in the kernel, and have been made pretty bulletproof (scheduler, disk subsystem). What makes the graphics subsystem any more dangerous? Yes, moving code to the kernel requires less buggy code, but we're Microsoft, and we're up to the challenge. It can be done.
Personally, I would love to see an OS take advantage of more than 2 of the 4 "rings" an x86 processor has. In such an OS, one could theoretically have a driver crash, and could still recover.
Until that day, though, I agree - GUI subsystem code is hard to make bulletproof, and moving said code into the "sacred" kernel is pretty gutsy.
I know this is the equivalent of Flamebait on/., but the NT kernel (borrowed though it may be from other OS ideas) is actually darn good.
Passing IRP's (IO request packets) between drivers creates a much more well-defined interface that a bunch of globally namespaced functions just calling each other (like some other OSes we all know). It also lends itself to a layered driver model (Bus Driver, Physical Driver, Functional Driver) much better.
I really like the NT Kernel. What driver developers do with it isn't the kernel's fault.
> how would this be better than just have LILO and a dedicated "repair" partition with linux and a bunch of repair tools on it?
"What, grandma, your AOL isn't working? Ok, do this. Launch LILO and go into your alternate Linux boot. Ok, then..."
Phoenix is not targeting the/. crowd. They're targeting OEMs who want to reduce customer RMAs by giving them a "known good" OS installation they can self-repair their systems from and such.
Also, the ATA "host protected area" is 100% protected from an OS gone awry. What if your hosed OS decided to start writing into other partitions, including your repair partition?
Starting with the ATA-5 spec (IDE disk drives conform to this), drives can implement a "Host Protected Area." This lets the BIOS OEM put executable code (or anything) on a hard drive, and then make it untouchable by an OS by physically reducing the size of the drive (and the OS cannot undo that size reduction command)
That's actually not a bad idea, and has at least some potential for Good, IMHO. With storage as cheap as $1 per gigabyte, an OEM moving their 650MB Recovery CD into this area seems like a great idea (not great if you want to swap in a new hard drive yourself, but they're not targeting power users)
However, Phoenix seems to be under the impression that just because they have this space, they should use it. A web browser and TCP/IP stack? Someone explain to me how this is good, and how the target "non power user" will be able to make sense of this technology without RMA'ing their computer if it gets that hosed.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, metallic iron has a density of about 7 g/cc, and aluminum is 2.6 g/cc -- an aluminum case will weigh less than half an iron one made of the same thickness of material.
I can vouch for the lightness of my aluminum case. This isn't 40.0 vs 39.5 lbs, it's more like 40 vs 20.
Something similar happens at the end of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Apparently, the master tape wasn't fully erased after its last use!
It's faint, but there's an unmistakable orchestral version of the Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" playing. Interestingly, both artists used Abbey Road studios. This analog tape _must_ be expensive if Pink Floyd had to resort to recycling!
There was an optional mini-quest involving a lonely, melancholy woman who spent all day near the town shrine, wondering whether her father was still alive. You could offer to help find out what happened to him.
As a 13 year old boy with very little female experience, I was really enraptured by this quest, and made it my top priority! And even though the game engine's reward was (no kidding) a text message of "She moans deeply as you passionately kiss", that was pretty cool. And it's a fond memory to this day.
This phone game is just another way of letting people have fantasies. I don't see the problem, except that "money" is such an important factor.
I mean, laptops have already had this technology for years (battery versus wall power), although it is often is fairly proprietary, if it works at all.
For the 9 out of 10 times when I just want web surfing & audio streaming at home, I'd like to run at 20% of my 2 GHz and turn down the fans. After all, when you're trying to set a mood with Soma FM, who needs blaring screaming fans going?
So then, after all these years, Slashdot's unilateral & collective response to all questions seems to be, "Fuck off, dumbass. You bother us!"
Oh well. There's always the real world, where questions may actually be listened to...
I know it's pretty obligatory to say, but: DAMN! Will these NASA folks ever cease to amaze us with new, amazing, profound things? ...Kind of helps make up for all the bad stuff in the world.
I am so engaged by space exploration these days, it makes me really happy to be alive in the century I'm in.
I agree. Say what you will (and people will say a lot), but Capt. Kirk is the biggest single force in Star Trek canon. He set the standard for captains' ethics and behaviour (although I'll admit I don't recall Janeway ever making out with and green alien women).
And say what you will, but Shatner's perfromances in ST:II and ST:III were actually pretty good, I think. "You Klingon bastard, you killed my son" is a heartfelt scene.
I say: Let the man back on Star Trek!
Sheesh!
If this is true, what does this mean for lycos.com?
The only nanos I'm okay with are nanoseconds.
A space elevator is begun almost immediately after first colonization. While he assumes materials science will make great nanotubes by then, the source for the raw material is an asteroid which is directed into Mars' orbit. Then an automated factory on the asteroid builds the cable downward toward the planet until it reaches the surface.
Obviously, this would have been much easier in digital (firmware change)! But I think the elegance thing factors in. Don't you know these will make for fantastic antiques!
But you know, the whole time lag thing kept sticking in my mind... When you hear them say "We have landed on Mars," that event actually happened 10 minutes earlier that the telemetry indicates it did.
What's the best way for humans to deal with the inescapable fact of the speed of light here? Should we report things (for the history books and all) as happening 10 minutes earlier than they appear to?
Aw, heck, what do I know? I'm still weirded out by the 7 second delay on radio. :) Go NASA!
The problem is that we're pumping huge oil reserves into the atmosphere, putting carbon back into commission that was taken out of circulation millions of years ago. And we're doing it so very very fast, that the natural carbon "sinks" can't ramp up fast enough to catch up.
Incidentally, the "closed system" idea is the main thrust of the argument behind biomass alternative energy. If you burn a tree, you're just putting the carbon back into the air it fixed during its lifetime (of course, you're putting particulates and other interesting compounds like PAH's into the air at the same time...)
But should we continue using oil, coal, etc? When we have purple air quality days in cities where it's unsafe even for olympic atheletes to exert outdoors? I sincerely hope you aren't so blind to the effects oil and gas consumption have on our air that you have never noticed how the air sometimes turns yellow in some cities??
"Not in some sort of crisis?" I suppose next you'll tell me fresh drinking water isn't a big 21st century issue, since "I can obviously just go turn on the tap and get clean water."
Open your eyes. It's a big world out there.
Nelson earns 17 cents an hour working on construction projects inside the medium-security federal prison at Otisville, New York. ... He is pursuing a degree in business administration by taking courses offered at the prison.
I see...
Judging from the .xls reception here, this should work fine.
Of course, both of these are non-magnetic. And holographic memory is still research-only, as far as I know.
I wonder, will magnetic storage (in any number of dimensions) ever get eclipsed by non-magnetic ones like these?
> no one visits, then too many people are coming/going to the same place.
It's not that black and white. Look at the National Park Service's mission statement.
It's not about choosing unqualified conservation XOR unqualified public-use.
It's a gray area where the need for conservation is balanced against the need for public enjoyment. And it's a balance that varies from decade to decade, administration to administration, and park to park. As both stewards of the land and public servants, park staff are constantly trying to find the right balance.
The "mentality" of "these folks" is really a lot more mature and deep than you're giving them credit for.
The China Syndrome is where an unregulated nuclear reactor core is so hot, it melts through its container, and any rock underneath it. Theoretically all the way to China (or until groundwater gets in its way)
Great movie, BTW.
Maybe a half price bookstore will have an OS/2 kernel programming book. Unless you have any suggestions for web resources about OS/2 architecture.
I've read some interesting defenses of moving GDI to the kernel. Some of the rationale was:
Personally, I would love to see an OS take advantage of more than 2 of the 4 "rings" an x86 processor has. In such an OS, one could theoretically have a driver crash, and could still recover.
Until that day, though, I agree - GUI subsystem code is hard to make bulletproof, and moving said code into the "sacred" kernel is pretty gutsy.
Passing IRP's (IO request packets) between drivers creates a much more well-defined interface that a bunch of globally namespaced functions just calling each other (like some other OSes we all know). It also lends itself to a layered driver model (Bus Driver, Physical Driver, Functional Driver) much better.
I really like the NT Kernel. What driver developers do with it isn't the kernel's fault.
Phoenix is not targeting the /. crowd. They're targeting OEMs who want to reduce customer RMAs by giving them a "known good" OS installation they can self-repair their systems from and such.
Also, the ATA "host protected area" is 100% protected from an OS gone awry. What if your hosed OS decided to start writing into other partitions, including your repair partition?
That's actually not a bad idea, and has at least some potential for Good, IMHO. With storage as cheap as $1 per gigabyte, an OEM moving their 650MB Recovery CD into this area seems like a great idea (not great if you want to swap in a new hard drive yourself, but they're not targeting power users)
However, Phoenix seems to be under the impression that just because they have this space, they should use it. A web browser and TCP/IP stack? Someone explain to me how this is good, and how the target "non power user" will be able to make sense of this technology without RMA'ing their computer if it gets that hosed.