The District Court is unhappy, because the lawyer issued the subpoenas without the permission of the District Court. In fact, it was after the District Court told the lawyer to stop doing that. The Appellate Court agreed.
So the Appellate Court is upholding the rights of the lower court.
Don't expect the courts to start ruling against media companies that follow the laws that they paid the legislatures to write. Don't even expect significant sanctions when they break the law, as long as they stop when they're told. It looks kind of like this is a media ruling, but its more a "respect the judges" ruling.
A "Helmholtz coil", is actually a pair of coils, that will produce a uniform magnetic field in a cylindrical region between the coils. A "Maxwell coil" is a pair of coils wired to produce a cylindrical magnetic field with a linear gradient between the coils.
Make a pair of big coils, put some power through it, and you can make a big electromagnetic field. Depending on how you connect the coils, the magnetic field will have interesting properties. With simple electronics, you can vary the field strength between your coils.
"Only" a problem for systems where size_t is different from int. So the 15% of you still running in a 32 bit world can rest easy.
This also means that on a mixed 32/64 bit system, you could use 32bit libraries until you get around to patching everything.
Remember, a whole bunch of stuff uses ssl. Have fun fixing your Java jars.
No, this is a feature. These can be used to pave "no parking/no standing" zones. Rule breaker's vehicles will get eaten, by the pavement.
If used on streets, it will encourage drivers to avoid congested areas.
Errr... the internal "bus" between cores on modern x86 chips already is either a ring of point to point links or a star with a massive crossbar at the center.
The researchers can't be this far removed from the state of the art, so I am hoping that it is just a really badly written article. I hope they are comparing their newer research chips with their own previous generation of research chips. Intel and AMD aren't handing out their current chip designs to the universities, so many things have to be re-invented.
My wife is happy with her 2005 Prius. She probably won't replace it for many more years. That is because she likes it. She will probably replace it with a newer Toyota Prius.
I guess that makes her a super-loyal Prius buyer.
This is just the first generation of the technology, and like most first generation products, it is only good for a fairly narrow niche. This is an alternative to tape cartridges. The initial cartridge is the size of two jewel cases and holds 470Gbytes. This can be compared to other tape cartridge technologies based on the usual things, access speed, write speed, read speed, cost and reliability. Don't expect the first generation to make economic sense.
This is just a different way to handle the data layers of optical disks. Expect the data density per disk to catch up with other disk formats. Also expect them to figure out how to make the individual disks thinner. First generation disks are stored in sleeves in cartridges. If the handling system gets better, it won't need sleeves. So future cartridges will hold more disks, and each disk will hold more data.
Whether it becomes better than tape cartridges depends on media cost, access speed, read/write speed, drive cost, drive reliability, media reliability. DVD writers are really cheap. These devices share the same optical mechanism, so they have the potential of being fairly cheap. The media is paper thin, so the media handler might be as cheap as the paper feeder in a printer (but probably not).
For comparison, pricewatch says that LTO-3 tape cartridges, which only hold 200GB, are $60 each. So first generation cartridges would still be price competitive, even if they cost $100 each.
Hybrids use much less fuel when they are just sitting in a traffic jam, or just creeping along at 3 mph. I heard that the average car burns a minimum of a gallon of gas per hour, as long as the engine is running, more if the air conditioner is running.
I've got two electric meters on my house. The (almost) always on power costs about twice as much as the interruptable power for our water heater. The power company can cut off the interruptable power whenever it is short of generator capacity. They offer a similar electric rate for air conditioning.
Quite a few appliances could be re-engineered for intermittent power. For example, add some thermal mass to a freezer, and it can stay cold enough even if it only gets power once a day.
SCO has used past denial of service attacks as "the dog ate my homework" type of excuses in court. They were so happy to be attacked the last time, that they put out multiple press releases. SCO's next court date is in early February, maybe they haven't done all their homework this time.
SCO just started yet another lawsuit, this time with Novell. Now the financial types could be recalculating how many quarters until SCO runs out of cash and has to cease operations. Let's not let them get distracted by stupid email tricks.
If RFID technology was cheap enough, easy to use and not too icky, I'd tag all my tools, the remote controls, the kids toys, and anything else we habitually lose.
As far as I know, systems with reasonable range aren't cheap. I'm not sure any system works well when attached to metal tools.
But the icky issue, is that I want to be able to track my stuff, but I don't want everyone else to be able to track my stuff.
I'd like to try tagging the stuff I lose around the yard and house. Since I would assign the tags, there wouldn't be many privacy issues. People with scanners would know how many things I tagged, but not what they are.
So, are there any affordable systems? How about affordable systems that can quickly scan a room (where is the remote now?). Where can I get them?
[The article was already slashdotted, so I have no idea what it is about.]
I've plugged multiple crappy webcams into my Linux box. The performance doesn't get worse as long as I limit myself to one camera per USB controller.
I could tolerate 10 frames per second and 160x120 pixels, but I can't tolerate the motion blur. I want to do stereo vision, so I want all the cameras to capture an image at the same time.
What's the cheapest USB or firewire camera which allows control of the exposure time and timing?
My computer has USB 1.1, 2.0 and firewire ports on the motherboard. I don't want to use a PCI card, because I don't want anything that can shake loose.
I played with the QuickCam Express, it's cheap, it works as long as nothing moves. Not good for my robot. I want to put cameras facing in all directions, rather than handle the complexity of tilt and pan.
Start with printers that have a banner mode, that is they can print an 8 inch wide by 60 inch long image.
An inkjet printer precisely moves a print head back and forth above the paper path. That's the part of the printer you want to keep. Another part of the printer precisely moves the paper, you want to replace that part of the printer.
Find the wires that lead to the stepper or servo that precisely moves the paper. Replace that with a larger motor that can precisely move what's left of your printer. You will probably need to boost the power. You can use the old stepper signals to drive opto isolators that drive some big MOSfets.
(or a simpler circuit of your choice, that just happens to be how I used my Lego Mindstorms to control some much larger motors. Google for "y3md".)
If you can't dissassemble your printer so that the printhead can scan across your workpiece, start over with another printer. (that's why it is good that the printers are so cheap.)
The next challenge is getting each pass lined up with the previous pass. This is very hard. Don't even try. Instead aim to overlap each pass. At the start of each pass, precisely measure the overlap, and generate an appropriate image to render. It is far easier to measure something than to move something.
It worked for me a couple years ago with cheap USB cameras. I haven't used it recently, so I want to know if there are better choices now. I've got a new robot platform with a lot more CPU power and USB bandwidth, so I'm going to try working on the vision thing again.
Back then, I started with the instructions at Program Your Computer to See. Note how the URLs inside the article are mostly out of date.
Back when fully functional, used 90Mhz laptops were going for $500 each, I bought a couple to use as embedded computers for only $40 each. The screens were totally broken. I didn't need any pixels for that project. I bought a spare because they were "as is-no warrantee".
Obviously that was a few years ago. I've bought other cheap laptops there, and all the parts that they said would work, have worked. I've never paid the big bucks for a laptop with a working battery.
They don't usually advertise the known broken stuff, so you have to ask what they've got.
I see that they have one laptop in stock for $99, but it has a wee tiny screen.
Affordable Computers happens to be near where I live. I suspect other companies that refurbish and sell used laptops will also sell the rejects at a discount, if you ask.
I do that in my basement after construction projects or other dust generation activity. The air pressure holds the filter in place. No duct tape needed. I leave the fan on 24 hours a day until the dust has cleared.
The $0.47 filters will catch dust particles large enough to clog up a computer. Small dust just flows right through the computer, unless it is sticky like smoke. I use the $2.50 filters to catch smaller dust particle that only bother me.
I hardly ever need to buy filters. The secret is to buy lots of filters at once, they're cheaper that way.
Note: I haven't tried the following, some experimentation is required and/or some thermal calculations.
Replace the fan with a vertical pipe. The hot air will rise and convection cool the power supply.
Try to get the pipe outlet up above the living space, that will keep the heat away from you. I don't think you'll need that much height to get enough air flow, but I haven't tried it yet.
Don't think USB, think gigabit ethernet if you want to think of a fast serial protocol.
Oh wait, too early in the morning. Was the USB comment a joke?
If you want a fast parallel protocol, think about trunking multiple gigabit ethernets. Instead of running bits in parallel, you run packets in parallel. You get more bandwidth, without having the timing issues of a bit level parallel cable.
Running multiple serial links in parallel is also a win for fault tolerance. If one cable is sliced, the connection is still up, just slower.
I don't expect to see multiple SATA cables to a single drive, but I wouldn't be surprised by multiple SATA cables to a RAID array.
I want to track my tools. I'd want readers in the toolbox, the basement door, the attic stairs, and the garage. When I start a project I can get an inventory of the tools in the toolbox, when I'm ready to leave, it can tell me what I forgot to put back in.
This would also tell me what tools I left in the attic, the basement, etc... Where did I leave the cordless drill?
The tags cost >$.50 each, but how much do the readers cost? Where can I buy them?
Slashdot Mirror
So the Appellate Court is upholding the rights of the lower court.
Don't expect the courts to start ruling against media companies that follow the laws that they paid the legislatures to write. Don't even expect significant sanctions when they break the law, as long as they stop when they're told. It looks kind of like this is a media ruling, but its more a "respect the judges" ruling.
Make a pair of big coils, put some power through it, and you can make a big electromagnetic field. Depending on how you connect the coils, the magnetic field will have interesting properties. With simple electronics, you can vary the field strength between your coils.
But I could be wrong...
The article says: "Some attack vectors require an I32LP64 architecture, others do not.".
So StikyPad is right, and I was wrong.
"Only" a problem for systems where size_t is different from int. So the 15% of you still running in a 32 bit world can rest easy. This also means that on a mixed 32/64 bit system, you could use 32bit libraries until you get around to patching everything. Remember, a whole bunch of stuff uses ssl. Have fun fixing your Java jars.
No, this is a feature. These can be used to pave "no parking/no standing" zones. Rule breaker's vehicles will get eaten, by the pavement. If used on streets, it will encourage drivers to avoid congested areas.
Errr... the internal "bus" between cores on modern x86 chips already is either a ring of point to point links or a star with a massive crossbar at the center.
The researchers can't be this far removed from the state of the art, so I am hoping that it is just a really badly written article. I hope they are comparing their newer research chips with their own previous generation of research chips. Intel and AMD aren't handing out their current chip designs to the universities, so many things have to be re-invented.
My wife is happy with her 2005 Prius. She probably won't replace it for many more years. That is because she likes it. She will probably replace it with a newer Toyota Prius. I guess that makes her a super-loyal Prius buyer.
The Raspberry Pi Foundation has someone playing wack-a-mole and having the bogus ebay ads taken down. That one has already been removed.
This is just a different way to handle the data layers of optical disks. Expect the data density per disk to catch up with other disk formats. Also expect them to figure out how to make the individual disks thinner. First generation disks are stored in sleeves in cartridges. If the handling system gets better, it won't need sleeves. So future cartridges will hold more disks, and each disk will hold more data.
Whether it becomes better than tape cartridges depends on media cost, access speed, read/write speed, drive cost, drive reliability, media reliability. DVD writers are really cheap. These devices share the same optical mechanism, so they have the potential of being fairly cheap. The media is paper thin, so the media handler might be as cheap as the paper feeder in a printer (but probably not).
For comparison, pricewatch says that LTO-3 tape cartridges, which only hold 200GB, are $60 each. So first generation cartridges would still be price competitive, even if they cost $100 each.
Hybrids use much less fuel when they are just sitting in a traffic jam, or just creeping along at 3 mph. I heard that the average car burns a minimum of a gallon of gas per hour, as long as the engine is running, more if the air conditioner is running.
This is a personal win for Darl, since he will continue to get his million dollar SCO CEO salary for a little bit longer.
Quite a few appliances could be re-engineered for intermittent power. For example, add some thermal mass to a freezer, and it can stay cold enough even if it only gets power once a day.
SCO just started yet another lawsuit, this time with Novell. Now the financial types could be recalculating how many quarters until SCO runs out of cash and has to cease operations. Let's not let them get distracted by stupid email tricks.
Now they're talking about the state of the SCO website and how Groklaw is slashdotted.
If you were running a stock scam, which type of story would you prefer?
As far as I know, systems with reasonable range aren't cheap. I'm not sure any system works well when attached to metal tools.
But the icky issue, is that I want to be able to track my stuff, but I don't want everyone else to be able to track my stuff.
I'd like to try tagging the stuff I lose around the yard and house. Since I would assign the tags, there wouldn't be many privacy issues. People with scanners would know how many things I tagged, but not what they are.
So, are there any affordable systems? How about affordable systems that can quickly scan a room (where is the remote now?). Where can I get them?
[The article was already slashdotted, so I have no idea what it is about.]
I could tolerate 10 frames per second and 160x120 pixels, but I can't tolerate the motion blur. I want to do stereo vision, so I want all the cameras to capture an image at the same time.
What's the cheapest USB or firewire camera which allows control of the exposure time and timing?
My computer has USB 1.1, 2.0 and firewire ports on the motherboard. I don't want to use a PCI card, because I don't want anything that can shake loose.
I played with the QuickCam Express, it's cheap, it works as long as nothing moves. Not good for my robot. I want to put cameras facing in all directions, rather than handle the complexity of tilt and pan.
An inkjet printer precisely moves a print head back and forth above the paper path. That's the part of the printer you want to keep. Another part of the printer precisely moves the paper, you want to replace that part of the printer.
Find the wires that lead to the stepper or servo that precisely moves the paper. Replace that with a larger motor that can precisely move what's left of your printer. You will probably need to boost the power. You can use the old stepper signals to drive opto isolators that drive some big MOSfets. (or a simpler circuit of your choice, that just happens to be how I used my Lego Mindstorms to control some much larger motors. Google for "y3md".)
If you can't dissassemble your printer so that the printhead can scan across your workpiece, start over with another printer. (that's why it is good that the printers are so cheap.)
The next challenge is getting each pass lined up with the previous pass. This is very hard. Don't even try. Instead aim to overlap each pass. At the start of each pass, precisely measure the overlap, and generate an appropriate image to render. It is far easier to measure something than to move something.
That's not quite right, so leave your shorts where they belong.
The warping changes as you change focus or zoom. How much it changes depends on the quality of the lens.
If you zoom in, you may need to recalibrate your dewarping transform.
Cheap cameras that don't autofocus or zoom have an advantage here.
It worked for me a couple years ago with cheap USB cameras. I haven't used it recently, so I want to know if there are better choices now. I've got a new robot platform with a lot more CPU power and USB bandwidth, so I'm going to try working on the vision thing again.
Back then, I started with the instructions at Program Your Computer to See. Note how the URLs inside the article are mostly out of date.
I got them from Affordable Computers Inc. (just a customer)
Obviously that was a few years ago. I've bought other cheap laptops there, and all the parts that they said would work, have worked. I've never paid the big bucks for a laptop with a working battery.
They don't usually advertise the known broken stuff, so you have to ask what they've got.
I see that they have one laptop in stock for $99, but it has a wee tiny screen.
Affordable Computers happens to be near where I live. I suspect other companies that refurbish and sell used laptops will also sell the rejects at a discount, if you ask.
The $0.47 filters will catch dust particles large enough to clog up a computer. Small dust just flows right through the computer, unless it is sticky like smoke. I use the $2.50 filters to catch smaller dust particle that only bother me.
I hardly ever need to buy filters. The secret is to buy lots of filters at once, they're cheaper that way.
Replace the fan with a vertical pipe. The hot air will rise and convection cool the power supply.
Try to get the pipe outlet up above the living space, that will keep the heat away from you. I don't think you'll need that much height to get enough air flow, but I haven't tried it yet.
Oh wait, too early in the morning. Was the USB comment a joke?
If you want a fast parallel protocol, think about trunking multiple gigabit ethernets. Instead of running bits in parallel, you run packets in parallel. You get more bandwidth, without having the timing issues of a bit level parallel cable.
Running multiple serial links in parallel is also a win for fault tolerance. If one cable is sliced, the connection is still up, just slower.
I don't expect to see multiple SATA cables to a single drive, but I wouldn't be surprised by multiple SATA cables to a RAID array.
Which is only half there. It leads to a fine $64. reader, but that works with tags that cost several dollars each.
I should rephrase my query, where can I buy readers for less than $100 that work with tags that cost less than $2 each? In small quantities!
This would also tell me what tools I left in the attic, the basement, etc... Where did I leave the cordless drill?
The tags cost >$.50 each, but how much do the readers cost? Where can I buy them?