Opps, I just remembered that I mixed up Syncronet and RoboBoard a little bit, it was RB that had a custom graphics client. My apologies to Seth Hamilton.
Robobard was important as it was the first BBS software on the DOS > platform to implement Windows style graphics into its design. In an > age where its competitors were operating in ANSI, Robo was designed to > be displayed in SVGA, with all the graphics, buttons, sliders and > other GUI features users were beginning to expect from Windows 3.xx. > Unlike RIP, Robo had a decidedly Windows look and feel. > > Robo had great page design software and was implemented by permanently > saving graphical data on the user's local hard drive so it only had to > be downloaded once. It could send identifying tags which sat on the > users hard drive and alerted the BBS software as to who you were and > what access you had on the page (and so it was that the "cookie" was > born). > > Even at 2400 baud, after the graphics were initially downloaded for > the first time, users could click/navigate their way through BBS > "pages" in a flash. Without doubt, Robo was on to something and it > was financially successful almost overnight, transforming Seth > Hamilton from a geeky kid to a BBS software mogul.
Well you had NAPLPS (more info & pics) which practically no one used (at least in the US) but did get some support from a few BBS packages and terminal programs.
Then there was RIP (aka RIPscript, pics) which got the most implementation, although the tools and actual BBS support were far behind what ANSI was capable of.
Then towards the end of the BBS era, you had Syncronet appear on the scene, which IIRC had ANSI and RIPScript support first, then added a custom terminal program with SVGA graphics. (not sure based on what presentation protocol, but I'm pretty sure it was proprietary) What's really interesting is it's been open sourced and is still in active development.
As a long time BBS operator (Xenogenesis BBS, Sysop HEX, 313 area, first running TAG software then Oblivion/2 which I'm listed as an author for although I never put out an "official release") I'd definately say ANSI was the standard. I still miss my Obv/2 setup and it's tight ANSI menu sets (all produced personally, I'd check out the scenes packs but made my own in TheDraw of course) and I'm hoping to put it up on the Internet someday from my backups.
But the problem stemmed not from the installation but the design, by Lockheed Martin
So what kind of trouble is LM going to get into over this one, like most big money contracts I'm sure there is some kind of penalty for such a screwup. I'm not talking about firing the engineer or some Q&A folks, I'm talking about money returned to NASA.
Of course a normal satelite is usually not designed for reentry, however the Russians reentry program work got them successful landings on Venus, can't recall if they hit Mars or Mercury with a landed probe back then. If it was designed for reentry then I'd say it would be in good enough shape to examine, no matter where it came down.
...that someone actually uses their small, ultra-energy-efficient vehicles for actually driving somewhere...
Considering it's only got a range of 50 miles per 4 hour charge, and a top speed of 35mph I'd say this is a great use considering those restrictions, puttering around a metro area. I expect to see these types of vehicles used for such things as parking meter cops, etc, in the future.
The real breakthrough IMHO is the electric/diesel combos which use a small constant RPM diesel to charge the batteries and electric motors that generate a charge while braking. (altho it seems many folks think that in-hub electic motor/generators weigh too much) And for those who say "Your suggesting diesel you heathen" I only mention it because that's the implementation I've seen of this method (the Swiss or Norway bus) and I'm sure that part of the equation is interchangable with any alternate fuel engine. Look what has been done with the "Robosapien" in terms of extending battery life by simply using the same motors as generators, yes it's a toy but hey the concept works.
Thanks for the info, I'm going to email the webmaster (as mentioned above, thanks!) and see if I can get them to put up a pack for the night of Sept 30th from 8pmEST to 11pmEST, the timeframe I am reffering to.
Forgot to mention, their normal archives onsite (hall of fame, eruption photos/movies) doesn't cover the time frame I'm refering to, which is why I'm looking for a REAL archive.:) -Jonah Hex
Anyone know if they keep an archive of the pics from this thing? (No links I've found on their site to one) I swear I saw an orange glow around 9pmEST the night this was first reported here, since I still had it loaded in a tab and checked it occasionally. Unfortunately I simply kept checking it without saving any of the pics, and was quite suprised to see the next day there was no report of magma flow or fire, just mentioned the small steam eruption which I was watching from approx 8:30pmEST onwards. The cam IIRC is 5 miles away, so I couldn't really tell if the glow was fire or magma, now I'm thinking it perhaps was reflected magma light from deeper within, hence no mention of flow outside the volcano as it appeared then.
where an entire Fortwo comes together in only 41¼2 hours (compared with more than 20 hours at a conventional car plant)
That really makes my brain hurt, the best I can untwist this one is that the author meant to write "4 1/2 hours" or "4¼ hours" or the "¼" is really the "/" or... screw it.
From what I recall of the restrictions in the size of the bandwidth of the lines to/from AU, the misuse of resources could be causing an impact there. Of course I'm sure spam tops the list of unnessesary traffic across those links, but someone ends up paying for the bandwidth no matter if it's automatic scanning or whatever.
Based on the bits of research I've followed on various robot types (IANAE), it seems to me that analog robots in swarms might very well be the way to deal with those "unwanted things" like loss of signal from home, as well as keep costs down. How about a fairly complex base station with 1K cheap analog robots as explorers which have only digital "brains" enough to perform basic tasks based on their series/design, report findings, and "stay alive". (yeah I know I'm moving into digital/analog hybrid, but I say use each tech where it is best suited and damn the definitions)
Maybe I've just been overly impressed with videos of analog robots being crushed/tortured/dismembered and continuing to find a method to operate or "live". Hell, to me they look like a more viable "AI" than most other attempts to mimic life, especially the Eliza/chatbot variety, and some even have a better personality.
Yea, sorry about that, they link directly to the files on his site and thus he didn't have a "complete" link to them including the server info. Here's "fixed" links:
Linux Wipe Tools: Three shell scripts for securely wiping all data from the swap partition, wiping unused disk space on the root partition, or wiping an entire disk, by Thomas C. Greene.
No Messenger: A batch file that eliminates Windows Messenger and fixes the problem of Outlook Express loading slowly when Messenger is absent, by an anonymous friend of The Register.
FileCheck MD5: A free, simple, lightweight MD5 utility for Windows, courtesy of Brandon Staggs.
Errata: A text file containing my various blunders and ommissions in the book (right-click and "save as," or view as HTML). Last updated 6 June 2004.
Forgot about tradition, as in our local, quaint yearly celebration of Devil's Night here in Detroit.;)
Jonah Hex
It fixes the holes, but does it break the fixes?
on
Windows XP SP2 In Release
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Ok, I've read up on the new features, think it's about damn time and all that. However I'm really wondering how this thing is going to effect all the programs my little computer repair biz have been installing since, well, always.;) Firefox, Thunderbird, Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, SpywareBlaster, SpywareGuard, GoogleToolbar, AntiVir, Protowall, Blocklist Manager, a Firewall, etc. And the biz's which usually use a mix of Symantec/Norton alongside something even more esoteric if your unlucky.
I'm really not looking forward to dealing with this major of a Windows architecture switch, if only for the fact that most Windoze users love to find a brick wall and slam into it, even if that means insisting on using VirusScan OuttaDate straight off their Restore Disks labeled "Year 2000 Compliant!" Thanks Microsoft, long overdue fixes for Windows and job security all in one.
..for those of you still playing, hell I would of quit in the first level without adjusting the engine's gamma. This doesn't do anything to my framerate, YMMV
Pull up the console (Ctrl + Alt + ~)
type "r_gamma 2" (max is 3, default 1)
Adjust brightness downward a notch or two; especially if you cranked it up while looking for the fucking gamma control like I did.
And here's a bonus hacking tip, the developer's own config files (keybindings, video settings, etc) are stored in one of the *.pk? files (in D3's case pak000.pk4). Usually you can pull out some interesting command usage, especially when one developer has binds to useful commands and functions as in-game editing menus. From the johnc.cfg file, a few lines out of many such as rebinding console to a normal "~" and Flashlight Batteries (MP option?), plus the fact that he doesn't mind his game dark.
but Firefly got my attention in a way that no TV show has since Blake's 7 (which I recommend to anyone who likes Firefly and doesn't mind terrible BBC special effects from the 1970s)
Couldn't agree more about Blake's 7 (created and many scripts by Terry Nation - famous for creating the Daleks on Doctor Who), even the universe is much alike with some high-tech worlds (mostly the Federation) and many others covering the spectrum from alien to just terraformed wild-west style. And to top it off a totally ruthless and immoral hottie, Servalan (Jacqueline Pearce), as the arch-enemy in revealing outfits, yummy! It'd be a damn hard choice between a new TV series of Firefly or Blake's 7... however since Terry Nation's estate denied the use of the Daleks in the new Doctor Who series perhaps we'll never see a new Blake's 7.
Although I recently got the size bump from Yahoo I'm still dying to try out GMail's interface. If someone can spare an invite I solemnly swear to be as generous with any invites I get, thanks in advance! hexagontk (at) yahoo.com
Anyone care to define these bits of language, I've seen at least something similar in the news/discussions about the new linux scheduler but I can't recall what the heck the notation means:
O(n^2) O(n lg n) O(1)
Thanks, I've already linked most of those sites and the only useful info I get is that there's a cheaper Asterisk compatible card out now.:( How about a bit more info on how these different methods actually stack up against each other? Maybe some success stories?
A couple of well known eDonkey/eMule links sites have gone down recently for legal reasons, including sharereactor.com and jigle.com; plus the-realworld.de going down with sharereactor but popping back up later on another server. Since providing a link to a file hash is much less direct than providing a link to the file itself, how does this decision effect these types of sites, if at all?
Very funny examples, but as with most humor the grain of truth at the center of it is dealing with pain and suffering. In this case it's the suffering felt by the younger who listens to an older spouting slang by rote, and the pain felt by an older who's verbal faux pas kills a conversation like "it's da bomb".
Don't get me wrong, slang can truly be cross-generational and used in mixed age group situations but the speaker must use it freely and with the knowledge of a "second native tongue" at least. Such a knowledge takes time, living in the language as it were, and also a sense of when it's appropriate and useful to employ such modes as, for example; full slang, slang for effect, slang as accepted common usage, or no slang. While I'd say that teachers have a damn good chance of learning Slang as a Second Language, and may even be able to implement it to good effect in certain classroom situations, most parents and grandparents should take a cue from the endless comedy sketches featuring "them" using slang badly and not bother with anything that they don't pick up naturally.
Jonah Hex
Re:Questions to the Slashdot owners
on
Freecache
·
· Score: 1
I think I can answer all three questions, even tho I'm not related in any way to the "Slashdot owners"... Unless someone submits patches to slashcode.org that includes auto-Freecache'ing and it gets accepted as part of the base code used for this site you will not see/. change the way it handles the/. effect for any of your three points. I'm not saying that's what I myself think is "right" or "ideal" but it's the most likely scenario I see.
Reasoning basically stands as follows: "they" would most likely have made such changes if they were going to come, the addition of newer techs like Freecache mean nothing if a site is willing to maintain the status quo. (or as many have said, get worse and worse) I myself respect that life is more than just a job, or a hobby, or a website; and time and effort must be allocated as need and willpower dictate. But of course I've been putting up with substandard computer experiances since the days of the Trash-80, so I can just grin and bear the obvious deficiencies of being a regular reader here.
Jonah Hex
Body Hits makes the cut...
on
G4TechTV Announced
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I'm happy to see that Body Hits is sticking around, I appreciate any show that has the guts to show the reality of drugs and alcohol from a fair viewpoint. If I remember correctly it's one of their "British imports" like that occasionally interesting spy show, which may explain their break from the usual US Drug War propaganda on our TVs over here.
Jonah Hex
The future of motorsports
on
Robocones
·
· Score: 1
This is exactly what's missing in all of today's motorsports, robot barrels that can be controlled by remote computer or operator. And I really do mean ALL of today's motorsports, from the Indy to my local (sorta) Detroit Gran Prix and (closer) Flat Rock Speedway's Enduro 250's and Figure 8 races. Ok, so maybe they'd be a drag in one autosport... but they work for the rest!
Seriously, I don't know why more things like this can't be roboticized, from garbage cans that right themselves and walk 'round to the dumpster for a quick, um, dump; to remote control concrete barriers that are used for the more common long term lane closures here in MI. Definately more robots to come, with and without simple/complex brains.
Slashdot Mirror
Jonah Hex
Well you had NAPLPS (more info & pics) which practically no one used (at least in the US) but did get some support from a few BBS packages and terminal programs.
Then there was RIP (aka RIPscript, pics) which got the most implementation, although the tools and actual BBS support were far behind what ANSI was capable of.
Then towards the end of the BBS era, you had Syncronet appear on the scene, which IIRC had ANSI and RIPScript support first, then added a custom terminal program with SVGA graphics. (not sure based on what presentation protocol, but I'm pretty sure it was proprietary) What's really interesting is it's been open sourced and is still in active development.
As a long time BBS operator (Xenogenesis BBS, Sysop HEX, 313 area, first running TAG software then Oblivion/2 which I'm listed as an author for although I never put out an "official release") I'd definately say ANSI was the standard. I still miss my Obv/2 setup and it's tight ANSI menu sets (all produced personally, I'd check out the scenes packs but made my own in TheDraw of course) and I'm hoping to put it up on the Internet someday from my backups.
Jonah Hex
Jonah Hex
Of course a normal satelite is usually not designed for reentry, however the Russians reentry program work got them successful landings on Venus, can't recall if they hit Mars or Mercury with a landed probe back then. If it was designed for reentry then I'd say it would be in good enough shape to examine, no matter where it came down.
Jonah Hex
The real breakthrough IMHO is the electric/diesel combos which use a small constant RPM diesel to charge the batteries and electric motors that generate a charge while braking. (altho it seems many folks think that in-hub electic motor/generators weigh too much) And for those who say "Your suggesting diesel you heathen" I only mention it because that's the implementation I've seen of this method (the Swiss or Norway bus) and I'm sure that part of the equation is interchangable with any alternate fuel engine. Look what has been done with the "Robosapien" in terms of extending battery life by simply using the same motors as generators, yes it's a toy but hey the concept works.
Jonah Hex
Thanks for the info, I'm going to email the webmaster (as mentioned above, thanks!) and see if I can get them to put up a pack for the night of Sept 30th from 8pmEST to 11pmEST, the timeframe I am reffering to.
Jonah Hex
Forgot to mention, their normal archives onsite (hall of fame, eruption photos/movies) doesn't cover the time frame I'm refering to, which is why I'm looking for a REAL archive. :) -Jonah Hex
Anyone know if they keep an archive of the pics from this thing? (No links I've found on their site to one) I swear I saw an orange glow around 9pmEST the night this was first reported here, since I still had it loaded in a tab and checked it occasionally. Unfortunately I simply kept checking it without saving any of the pics, and was quite suprised to see the next day there was no report of magma flow or fire, just mentioned the small steam eruption which I was watching from approx 8:30pmEST onwards. The cam IIRC is 5 miles away, so I couldn't really tell if the glow was fire or magma, now I'm thinking it perhaps was reflected magma light from deeper within, hence no mention of flow outside the volcano as it appeared then.
Jonah Hex
Jonah Hex
From what I recall of the restrictions in the size of the bandwidth of the lines to/from AU, the misuse of resources could be causing an impact there. Of course I'm sure spam tops the list of unnessesary traffic across those links, but someone ends up paying for the bandwidth no matter if it's automatic scanning or whatever.
Jonah Hex
Based on the bits of research I've followed on various robot types (IANAE), it seems to me that analog robots in swarms might very well be the way to deal with those "unwanted things" like loss of signal from home, as well as keep costs down. How about a fairly complex base station with 1K cheap analog robots as explorers which have only digital "brains" enough to perform basic tasks based on their series/design, report findings, and "stay alive". (yeah I know I'm moving into digital/analog hybrid, but I say use each tech where it is best suited and damn the definitions)
Maybe I've just been overly impressed with videos of analog robots being crushed/tortured/dismembered and continuing to find a method to operate or "live". Hell, to me they look like a more viable "AI" than most other attempts to mimic life, especially the Eliza/chatbot variety, and some even have a better personality.
Jonah Hex
Jonah Hex
Linux Wipe Tools: Three shell scripts for securely wiping all data from the swap partition, wiping unused disk space on the root partition, or wiping an entire disk, by Thomas C. Greene.
No Messenger: A batch file that eliminates Windows Messenger and fixes the problem of Outlook Express loading slowly when Messenger is absent, by an anonymous friend of The Register.
FileCheck MD5: A free, simple, lightweight MD5 utility for Windows, courtesy of Brandon Staggs.
Errata: A text file containing my various blunders and ommissions in the book (right-click and "save as," or view as HTML). Last updated 6 June 2004.
Joanh Hex
Jonah Hex
Ok, I've read up on the new features, think it's about damn time and all that. However I'm really wondering how this thing is going to effect all the programs my little computer repair biz have been installing since, well, always. ;) Firefox, Thunderbird, Ad-Aware, Spybot S&D, SpywareBlaster, SpywareGuard, GoogleToolbar, AntiVir, Protowall, Blocklist Manager, a Firewall, etc. And the biz's which usually use a mix of Symantec/Norton alongside something even more esoteric if your unlucky.
I'm really not looking forward to dealing with this major of a Windows architecture switch, if only for the fact that most Windoze users love to find a brick wall and slam into it, even if that means insisting on using VirusScan OuttaDate straight off their Restore Disks labeled "Year 2000 Compliant!" Thanks Microsoft, long overdue fixes for Windows and job security all in one.
Jonah Hex
Pull up the console (Ctrl + Alt + ~)
type "r_gamma 2" (max is 3, default 1)
Adjust brightness downward a notch or two; especially if you cranked it up while looking for the fucking gamma control like I did.
And here's a bonus hacking tip, the developer's own config files (keybindings, video settings, etc) are stored in one of the *.pk? files (in D3's case pak000.pk4). Usually you can pull out some interesting command usage, especially when one developer has binds to useful commands and functions as in-game editing menus. From the johnc.cfg file, a few lines out of many such as rebinding console to a normal "~" and Flashlight Batteries (MP option?), plus the fact that he doesn't mind his game dark. Jonah Hex (aka [TFO]DogMeat to my MOHAA old mod friends
Jonah Hex
Although I recently got the size bump from Yahoo I'm still dying to try out GMail's interface. If someone can spare an invite I solemnly swear to be as generous with any invites I get, thanks in advance!
hexagontk (at) yahoo.com
Jonah Hex
Anyone care to define these bits of language, I've seen at least something similar in the news/discussions about the new linux scheduler but I can't recall what the heck the notation means:
O(n^2)
O(n lg n)
O(1)
Jonah Hex
Thanks, I've already linked most of those sites and the only useful info I get is that there's a cheaper Asterisk compatible card out now. :( How about a bit more info on how these different methods actually stack up against each other? Maybe some success stories?
Jonah Hex
A couple of well known eDonkey/eMule links sites have gone down recently for legal reasons, including sharereactor.com and jigle.com; plus the-realworld.de going down with sharereactor but popping back up later on another server. Since providing a link to a file hash is much less direct than providing a link to the file itself, how does this decision effect these types of sites, if at all?
Jonah Hex
Very funny examples, but as with most humor the grain of truth at the center of it is dealing with pain and suffering. In this case it's the suffering felt by the younger who listens to an older spouting slang by rote, and the pain felt by an older who's verbal faux pas kills a conversation like "it's da bomb".
Don't get me wrong, slang can truly be cross-generational and used in mixed age group situations but the speaker must use it freely and with the knowledge of a "second native tongue" at least. Such a knowledge takes time, living in the language as it were, and also a sense of when it's appropriate and useful to employ such modes as, for example; full slang, slang for effect, slang as accepted common usage, or no slang. While I'd say that teachers have a damn good chance of learning Slang as a Second Language, and may even be able to implement it to good effect in certain classroom situations, most parents and grandparents should take a cue from the endless comedy sketches featuring "them" using slang badly and not bother with anything that they don't pick up naturally.
Jonah Hex
I think I can answer all three questions, even tho I'm not related in any way to the "Slashdot owners"... Unless someone submits patches to slashcode.org that includes auto-Freecache'ing and it gets accepted as part of the base code used for this site you will not see /. change the way it handles the /. effect for any of your three points. I'm not saying that's what I myself think is "right" or "ideal" but it's the most likely scenario I see.
Reasoning basically stands as follows: "they" would most likely have made such changes if they were going to come, the addition of newer techs like Freecache mean nothing if a site is willing to maintain the status quo. (or as many have said, get worse and worse) I myself respect that life is more than just a job, or a hobby, or a website; and time and effort must be allocated as need and willpower dictate. But of course I've been putting up with substandard computer experiances since the days of the Trash-80, so I can just grin and bear the obvious deficiencies of being a regular reader here.
Jonah Hex
I'm happy to see that Body Hits is sticking around, I appreciate any show that has the guts to show the reality of drugs and alcohol from a fair viewpoint. If I remember correctly it's one of their "British imports" like that occasionally interesting spy show, which may explain their break from the usual US Drug War propaganda on our TVs over here.
Jonah Hex
This is exactly what's missing in all of today's motorsports, robot barrels that can be controlled by remote computer or operator. And I really do mean ALL of today's motorsports, from the Indy to my local (sorta) Detroit Gran Prix and (closer) Flat Rock Speedway's Enduro 250's and Figure 8 races. Ok, so maybe they'd be a drag in one autosport... but they work for the rest!
Seriously, I don't know why more things like this can't be roboticized, from garbage cans that right themselves and walk 'round to the dumpster for a quick, um, dump; to remote control concrete barriers that are used for the more common long term lane closures here in MI. Definately more robots to come, with and without simple/complex brains.
Jonah Hex