Actually, most PC's convert ~120VAC @ 60Hz to 12VDC plus 5VDC! And actually, ATX motherboards have a whole bunch of wires going into them, with who knows what other voltages.
I've been running a small ATX MB with a Via 800Mhz CPU fanless (hasn't died yet) with the 12VDC-DC convert board. There is one of those black brick converts that plugs into the wall and outputs 12VDC, which goes into the 12VDC-DC converter board.
My goal was to build a silent computer that could play mp3s while I fall asleep and wake up. And I had just started to hate all the fan noise of most modern PCs.
Anyways, tomorrow morning I'm going to get some big 6V batteries. Really big, like 1'x2'x6". I think bulldozers use them to start. Anyway, my cable modem needs 12VDC and 5VDC, the motherboard needs 12VDC and I have a LCD display that needs 14VDC. I'm hoping the modem will accept 6V instead of 5V, and the screen will run on 12V instead of 14V. Then I can run everything off of the batteries. And I'm hoping the batteries will last for 6 hours of screen on time, longer with the screen off. I want to be able to ride out power outages, of which there is only about 1/year where I live.
So... the idea of running these PCs off of batteries is not unfounded - at least I hope it isn't!
"How many gas stations are there in the US?" is actually a Fermi Question, not a Microsoft question.
Enrico Fermi was a physicist at U. Chicago and participated in the bomb making at Los Alamos. I believe U. Chicagos supercollider is named after him. Fermi definitely predates Microsoft.
My high school math teacher introduced our class to Fermi questions. I'm not sure how good they are at interviews - you have a big advantage answering them if you know what they are, if you've answered one in the past and if you know what is expected of you.
I love O'Rielly books. I have not seen the python book this review addresses, but I didn't like O'Rielly's previous Python books.
Assuming you already know how to program in some language, the Python book I would recommend is _Python Essential Refernce_ by Beazley published by New Riders. It is the book O'Rielly doesn't have. I agree with the others who have recommended it.
I like how Barry Shein says spammers won't listen to reason but then asks them to form a (presumably) voluntary professional association to pay for every spam they send out.
Anyway... here's my solution... I haven't seen anything else like it, although one poster briefly mentioned using crypto to authenticate senders, and another mentioned cloudmark.com (which I had never heard of before).
Here are my background assumptions:
* The only thing that needs to change is the mail client * Email users will always have to spend some time sorting through SPAM (but the client can make that more conveient, more "pleasant").
Let's use cryptographic signatures to authenticate email. Let's modify email clients to make them handle spam better. Let's use PGP-like trust levels and relationships for introducing people.
Specifically:
* The (email) client should try to classify incomming mail into "solicited" and "unsolicited" categories. * If the client misclassifies email, I should be able to correct it, and it should remember the correction. * The client should watch my behavior. For example, if I ever send email to address X, email from address X is probably solicited. However, explicitly correcting the problem might override the clients conclusions. * pem certificates (the ones web servers use, do they have another name?) can be used to sign email. I choose pem certificates because (a) the infrastructure is already in place (b) they are heirarchical and (c) they cost money.
I guess this is basically User-level Smart-Whitelisting with a little bit of crypto just for fun.
Package it as a plugin for common clients.
At present I just delete spam. I've looked at "spam filters", but they look like enough of a pain (I'd need one that works with fetchmail and mutt) that if I ever decided to put more energy into fighting my own personal battle with spam, I'd probably roll my own filter. That way I could hook it into mutt just the way I wanted, and it would automatically whitelist everyone I emailed, etc.
So... I guess my solution is to make user level white listing smart and easy. And this burden should lie with the email client developer.
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Actually, most PC's convert ~120VAC @ 60Hz to 12VDC plus 5VDC! And actually, ATX motherboards have a whole bunch of wires going into them, with who knows what other voltages.
I've been running a small ATX MB with a Via 800Mhz CPU fanless (hasn't died yet) with the 12VDC-DC convert board. There is one of those black brick converts that plugs into the wall and outputs 12VDC, which goes into the 12VDC-DC converter board.
My goal was to build a silent computer that could play mp3s while I fall asleep and wake up. And I had just started to hate all the fan noise of most modern PCs.
Anyways, tomorrow morning I'm going to get some big 6V batteries. Really big, like 1'x2'x6". I think bulldozers use them to start. Anyway, my cable modem needs 12VDC and 5VDC, the motherboard needs 12VDC and I have a LCD display that needs 14VDC. I'm hoping the modem will accept 6V instead of 5V, and the screen will run on 12V instead of 14V. Then I can run everything off of the batteries. And I'm hoping the batteries will last for 6 hours of screen on time, longer with the screen off. I want to be able to ride out power outages, of which there is only about 1/year where I live.
So... the idea of running these PCs off of batteries is not unfounded - at least I hope it isn't!
--syrah
"How many gas stations are there in the US?" is actually a Fermi Question, not a Microsoft question.
Enrico Fermi was a physicist at U. Chicago and participated in the bomb making at Los Alamos. I believe U. Chicagos supercollider is named after him. Fermi definitely predates Microsoft.
My high school math teacher introduced our class to Fermi questions. I'm not sure how good they are at interviews - you have a big advantage answering them if you know what they are, if you've answered one in the past and if you know what is expected of you.
More info about Fermi Questions can be found at:e ila1.html
http://mathforum.org/workshops/sum96/interdisc/sh
I love O'Rielly books. I have not seen the python book this review addresses, but I didn't like O'Rielly's previous Python books. Assuming you already know how to program in some language, the Python book I would recommend is _Python Essential Refernce_ by Beazley published by New Riders. It is the book O'Rielly doesn't have. I agree with the others who have recommended it.
I like how Barry Shein says spammers won't listen to reason but then asks them to form a (presumably) voluntary professional association to pay for every spam they send out.
Anyway... here's my solution... I haven't seen anything else like it, although one poster briefly mentioned using crypto to authenticate senders, and another mentioned cloudmark.com (which I had never heard of before).
Here are my background assumptions:
* The only thing that needs to change is the mail client
* Email users will always have to spend some time sorting through SPAM (but the client can make that more conveient, more "pleasant").
Let's use cryptographic signatures to authenticate email.
Let's modify email clients to make them handle spam better.
Let's use PGP-like trust levels and relationships for introducing people.
Specifically:
* The (email) client should try to classify incomming mail into "solicited" and "unsolicited" categories.
* If the client misclassifies email, I should be able to correct it, and it should remember the correction.
* The client should watch my behavior. For example, if I ever send email to address X, email from address X is probably solicited. However, explicitly correcting the problem might override the clients conclusions.
* pem certificates (the ones web servers use, do they have another name?) can be used to sign email. I choose pem certificates because (a) the infrastructure is already in place (b) they are heirarchical and (c) they cost money.
I guess this is basically User-level Smart-Whitelisting with a little bit of crypto just for fun.
Package it as a plugin for common clients.
At present I just delete spam. I've looked at "spam filters", but they look like enough of a pain (I'd need one that works with fetchmail and mutt) that if I ever decided to put more energy into fighting my own personal battle with spam, I'd probably roll my own filter. That way I could hook it into mutt just the way I wanted, and it would automatically whitelist everyone I emailed, etc.
So... I guess my solution is to make user level white listing smart and easy. And this burden should lie with the email client developer.
Comments appreciated.