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  1. Re:Geocaching on Net Sticky Notes All Over London · · Score: 3, Informative
    Isn't this similar to geocaching?

    Well, technically, there is a different -

    1. Geocaching is primarily GPS based, and locating position with the help of satellites that provides longitude and latitude coordinates, and is very accurate.

      This Urban Tapestries is GSM/GPRS based, using a mobile phone, locating a position with the help of surrounding mobile phone base stations. The accuracy of a position is dependent on the site topology, and could be anywhere around 10-50 meters radius in urban context, for example.

    Application wise, I think each serve slightly different purpose too -

    1. Geocaching requires the seeker to actively seek the cache, and is primarily hobby based.
    2. Urban Tapestries will probably do a information push when one is within a vincinity, and may not require one to actively seek it, except to give Urban Tapstries permission to push. This also means that it could be subscription based.

    Theoretically, it could be possible to use geocaching caches(it's data) in GSM environment. However, the geocaching cache's seeker will probably have a harder time, as the cache will be very hard to find.

  2. Public authoring good, but misuse concerns looms on Net Sticky Notes All Over London · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The idea of public authoring sounds good, just think about wikipedia.org.

    However, the big problem lies in the possibilities for misuse, if accountability is not there. The liabilities that the tapestries information provides might be a privacy concern too, especially when it infringes someone else's privacy.

    For this to work, one way is to have some kind of moderation and meta-moderation capability on the quality of the information pasted to the buildings. ;)

  3. Re:Different/similar images note differences, etc. on 2004 U.S. Puzzle Championship Winners · · Score: 1
    The bridge? They all look the same to me.
    The bush above the house? Again, all look the same to me.

    Hmm.. about the bridge and the bush above the house. There are minor nitpicking differences, which might just be drawing defects.

    For the bush above the house, the highest bush is shaded in different tone (darker vs lighter) on the left outline.

    For the bridge, the "dots" on the bridge are not exactly the same. For example, in pic 3 and 5, the dot on the bridge along the highest row to the right side, differ from the rest.

  4. Re:Different/similar images note differences, etc. on 2004 U.S. Puzzle Championship Winners · · Score: 1
    So, how many differences is there in Question 3 ?

    Only spotted 5 differences so far.

    "COAT AIR"
    The sun ray
    The river
    The bridge
    The bush above house

  5. Sounds like an effort towards standardisation. on EU and US Agree on Galileo · · Score: 0, Troll
    Under the terms of the agreement, the two sides agreed on key points including:

    - a common signal structure for so-called "open" services, and a suitable signal structure for the Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS).

    - a process allowing improvements, either jointly or individually, of the baseline signal structures in order to further improve performances.

    - confirmation of inter-operable time and standards to facilitate the joint use of GPS and Galileo.

    This sounds like an effort towards standardisation. Something the EU and the rest of the world are pretty good at.

    See ITU and 3GPP. And of course IETF. ;)

    It is good to see that US is seeing the values and benefits of standardisation.

  6. The key to good VoIP is QoS primarily on Is VOIP Over WLAN DOA? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Essentially, what we need for VoIP over "any network" is bandwidth allocation based on QoS.

    This QoS capability must happens at various OSI layer, like physical layer 802.11, and/or network layer IP. (Transport and application layer QoS are not as effective.)

    From IP to IP perspective, IP QoS will be the key for good VoIP.

    From WLAN only to WLAN only perspective, WLAN QoS will be beneficial.

    In a hybrid physical layer network, with backbone+broadband+ethernet+WLan, IP QoS is the way to go for good VoIP.

    However, current IPv4 does not support the needed QoS effectively, and IPv6 is suppose to hold the promise. Ironically, we also see that IPv6 deployment is very slow.

    In short, my take is - existing 802.11 is good enough for VoIP, and the problem is actually on the current IPv4, which is not capable to handle QoS.

  7. Is Organic LED == degradable? on OLED Displays Technology Primer and Forecasting · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If so, what is the MTBF (mean time before failure, right term here?)

    or what is the lifetime of such a LED device?

    Imagine your display goes fuzzy and blurred in the middle of a good film.

  8. Where is the weakest link, btw? on Metal Velcro · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You can have a strong bonded metal velcro, but there could still has a weaker link somewhere along the chain of materials, the ones that are not bonded as tightly as the metal velcro.

    To illustrate, imagine a piece of melted cheese is the velcro for 2 pieces of pastry in a burger, then the weakest link is between the pastry and the bread.

  9. Because the responsibility still rest with... on Indian Voting Machines Compared with Diebold · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The hardware and software are of the K.I.S.S. school of thought.

    It works because the main responsibility still rest with the election officials, not the electronic device.

    The main difference from a normal electoral system is that the "box" is a button-based data recorder here, instead of a ballot paper box. Everything else is the same, no roles were being replaced.

    Btw, anyone knows if there is a button for casting invalid vote?

  10. Re:Why is the GBA the center of portable gaming? on GPS for GBA · · Score: 1
    Perhaps Nintendo can turn global navigation into a 2d mario-style game. Then, I could break the road blocks in my way by jumping up at them.

    That will be cool.. imagine a gameplay scenerio build based on surrounding.

    However, where mobile gaming is concern, I think GBA is quite behind other players - assuming the purpose of the GPS module is for mobile gaming intention, like suggested.

    N-Gage, for example, although criticised, is actually a better platform for mobile gaming, with possibilities like bluetooth gaming and over-the-air gaming.

  11. Re:Applications on GPS for GBA · · Score: 4, Insightful
    If the satellite can find them and tell them where they are, it can sure as hell tell *you* where they are!

    Maybe, maybe not. There are a huge set of assumptions if it can.

    One of the key challenge for the location based services (via mobile phone and/or gps) is the tedious management of access groups and permissions.

    It has to do with privacy issues essentially.

    A simple scenerio is - the owner of their location information have the full ownership on how they want their location information be shared, and with who.

    However, like many other services, location based services, for example, tracking, is usually done with a third party involved - acting like a proxy agent, and as such must have certain permission set from the owner of the location information.

    To make things more challenging, we can add another role, by having a guardian over the owner of the location information.

    And the quick question now is - who owns the location information? The owner of the location information or the guardian of the owner? There are no easy answers.

    Anyway - nowadays, knowing where the kids are is a _willing_ mobile phone call away.

  12. Biased? on Putting Google to the Test · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The article report compare between Google, Phone and Library.

    I think this is a biase comparison.

    In the phone and library search, it is assumed upon a narrowed subject or particular topic. Where the searcher knows where to look for the _authorative_ answer, for example the title of the particular book to get the answer.

    Overall, I think the winner is pretty inconclusive, but it still does shows that Google is a really good search engine - where you can actually find a reasonable result.

  13. Irrelevant ads on Coming Soon to a Wireless Hotspot Near You: Ads · · Score: 1
    He also claims '[their] market research indicates that, except for pop-ups, people really don't mind ads.'

    I have a feeling that what people don't mind is context relevant ads.

    I, for one, do not like ads that are irrelevant, even if they are along side the browser. Especially if the ads are animated, and loops endlessly.

    What about you?

  14. Re:Keep it for research... on Internet2 Plus P2P Equals... · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Yes, I understand your concerns perfectly. And the desire to keep it academic, like in the pre and early 90s.

    But we also knows that... if and when the funding get shut off - this internet2 will be turned to commerce inevitably.

    And that was what happened in 1990s, sadly.

  15. Re:Proof of presence and intention on Ireland Rejects E-Voting for Upcoming Elections · · Score: 1
    Yes, I suspected so, as mentioned in my assumption. Thanks for confirming.

    Proof of presence and intention applies more relevantly to internet voting. It is confusing how we like to use "e" to mean everything, anything.

    And thanks for the Voter Verified Audit Trail (VVAT) pointer.

  16. FreeCIV is the most political game on The Politics of the Video Game · · Score: 1

    With all the governments type from Anarchy, Despotism, Monarcy, Communism, Republic, to Democratic.

    And with all the names of countries and political personalities.

    Not forgetting the overthrowing of governments, and the happy-tax-science corelation, and the drivers towards the behaviour in each government type.

    Communism promotes military strength.
    Republic promotes sabotage/incite.
    Democratic promotes growth.

  17. Proof of presence and intention on Ireland Rejects E-Voting for Upcoming Elections · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think two of the important requirements in any voting process is the need for proof of presence and proof of intention.

    In e-voting, proof of presence could be possible/feasible.

    But proof of intention in e-voting is, I think a hard nut. In a physical voting/polling booth, each voter is on their own, to make up their mind and choice, with minimal outside influence, in a so call "holy ground", making a vote untaint from intention. In e-voting, the voting act can take place anywhere, and possibly subjected to a lot of outside influences, and tainting the voter intention.

    I am assuming(might be wrong) e-voting means the ability to vote from anywhere with internet access. It is not clear from the report.

  18. Info: See page 20 of report (Re:Open Source?) on Ireland Rejects E-Voting for Upcoming Elections · · Score: 1
    The report wrote "It has not been possible for the Commission to obtain access to the full source code of the system..."

    Yes, an open source solution automatically fulfil this requirement without fuss, and serve the needs to inspect, and gain electorate confident.

  19. Re:Hubble on NASA - Robotic Repair Of Hubble 'Promising' · · Score: 1

    Good one.. Maybe they are indeed mixing work and play, not a bad proposition huh?

    I think Robonaut will be a very common occurence. At least, it has to be common enough, as a prerequisite to eventually send one to Mars and back to Earth.

  20. Re:I want semware Qedit on JOE Hits 3.0 · · Score: 1
    The only Qedit I knew is this, from Robelle.

    Unlike Unix or Windows, HP3000's editor choices was quite limited.

    Nowadays, things gotten better, I think. But those were the days.

  21. Who will be the dentist then? on Diary Illuminates Einstein's Last Years · · Score: 1
    "one of Einsteins better ideas was a UN with teeth..."

    Better? I am not so sure. We could have a UN with teeth, but who will be the dentist?

    Who and when to chew on is a tricky problem too.

    Alas, how would the one being chewed on react? Lean towards the other side - the anti-UN?

    :%s/N/S/g

  22. The problem... on Physics Goes To Hollywood · · Score: 3, Insightful

    is essentially due to traditional classroom coaching method which leave little room for imagination.

    On the other hand, Physics(or Science) illustrated in movies, could in a few subtle scenes, tickle the itch to followup, run imagination wild, to validate or invalidate flaws or ideas, just for the sake of geekiness.

    I only wished that factual subjects can be written like novels, with a page turner storyline...

  23. Prior art? ;-) on Japanese Inventor's Motor Uses 80% Less Power · · Score: 2, Informative
    This guy still has some way to go... ;-)

    The Classic Magnetic Shield Engine, from The Museum of Unworkable Devices.

    Why do I have the feeling that this is yet another perpetual motion machine/free energy posting?

    Search google, perpetual+motion+magnet

  24. Re:Here is a really easy methodology: on UML Fever · · Score: 1

    I really like what you wrote..

    Simply because these are exactly what we do even when we are using UML notations on paper, on whiteboard, or on a UML tool.

    1. Write down the functional description as text.

    2. When making the nouns as objects, we draw a square in UML notation to denote a class.

    3. When making the verbs as methods, we put the method in the class.

    4. Then find common parts between classes and make base class.

    5. Draw the inheritance-relationship with arrows and lines using UML notations between the classes.

    6. Etc...

    7. And when acting up some examples, that is the sequence diagrams.

    Do these steps that you'd mentioned, and viola -> a class diagram and sequence diagram with UML notations.

    And since it uses UML notations, my other colleague not in this discussion can follow it later and understand it too.

    Hmmm, specification almost done.

  25. ...automatically make UML diagrams based on code on UML Fever · · Score: 1
    ...automatically make UML diagrams based on the code, but other than for top-level interfaces, nobody cares too much about them. It's a checkbox item.

    Actually, you can be quite surprised how much this can help to visualise the codes, especially when we are doing peer reviews.

    For example, we generate sequence diagrams from codes, or unit testing more accurately. And we actually can see easily from the generated diagram that some classes were being instantiated too often (unnecessarily), which we will not discover if we were to see from the codes directly, or until we use some profiling tools.

    Also, we make it a point to generate Doxygen reports, which produces and helps to visualise class diagrams hierachy and relationships and the APIs more easily. We don't use JavaDoc since.

    These kind of things is possible because of the standardised UML notations.

    It is definitely not just a checkbox item.