Forgive me if my knowledge in transmitted waves is a bit incomplete, but how and which ranges would you receive with these antennas/antennae? Would you focus on ones that are multiples of 60Hz because of the alternating nature of AC?
I do like this idea, though. Imagine having one of these arrays and being able to plug it into your power plug on your computer or directly into the battery to supplement the power.
On the other hand, what about heat engines (from the processor or hard drive to somewhere cooler) or having solar panels built into the chassis to augment power? Just some thought into alternative/supplemental power sources for laptops.
Hmmm, interesting points. This is what the Slashdot community is about, no? Many different points of view, all which are unique and insightful.
I do see how it can be considered that regions outside the sub-Sahara desert can be seen as hostile. However, humans have already adapted to these regions, and 'looking back' at it, it wasn't all that hard.
Of course, if the adaptation of humans for Mars (or any other 'hostile' environment) goes through, I'm sure those 'looking back' at it wouldn't think it was terribly hard either. However, it would, because of the basic necessities needed to sustain human life. One of the comments here mentioned water, and also talked about oxygen. How difficult would it be to modify the entire cell structure so that oxygen was not a primary requirement for biological function? Also, what about the pressure differences of the atmospheres?
I recall reading here on Slashdot that Internet Explorer was getting updated for Longhorn. I don't remember exactly where it was, but it quoted one of the members of the IE development team.
I think Microsoft will be taking a (small) step in the right direction by supporting standards. Well, if they do.
It'd be nice if Mozilla and IE actually rendered things the same way; then you'd only have to develop for one target platform. What about Internet Explorer using the Gecko engine?
Maybe Internet Explorer will become one of the 'better' Microsoft products.
But seriously, what would happen to products like Firefox/Mozilla if IE became totally standards compliant. I know I would still use it, but what would happen to the argument that Firefox is better than IE?
Hopefully Microsoft will actually fix the bugs and have a solid product. Even though it may become a 'competitor' for Firefox, at least the average user who doesn't know more than Internet Explorer will have a usable, secure, browser.
Word of warning, the hot chicks will never ask you to fix their computer. They will bitch about it to their rich boyfriend who will buy them a new Dell. They might ask you to fix it in college, but your not getting any ass in return for it. You probally will be recripocated well in non monetary ways for fixing other peoples computer, but don't expect any nookie.
-> I'm not expecting any. =)
One last peice of advice, do do the programming homework of the hot chicks, Its good practice to do the Comp Sci assignments 4 different ways. Plus, you'll learn which teachers use diff and which don't.
-> Anyone that's suffered through having to take any programming class with um, less technically inclined friends knows the horrors of this. But you know what? I've found that most of the time you just need to stand there, and they'll find the bug on their own. I guess it has to do with them not reading their code to figure out what's wrong, and when they read it to tell me what they're doing, they find the mistake on their own.
Glad my presence has that effect on people.
Ah, this is getting way off-topic. But then again, it's threaded.
Is terraforming even a good idea? Mars ended up the way it is because of its position in the solar system. It was not 'meant' to sustain life from Earth. Hypothetically, life forms can exist on any planet, with each unique to their respective environments.
I don't think terraforming is a really good idea. Is it really necessary to change a planet (or ourselves) in order to do whatever the intent (exploration, colonization, etc) is?
In that case, should we attempt to 'engineer' a race (or a group of people) suitable for this purpose?
I know this is unrelated, but this brings to mind the Xel Naga of Starcraft fame; they engineered the Protoss and the beginnings of the Zerg, and look what happened (a good RTS game, but that's irrelevant =P).
How would this be better when shooting/scanning an object? The camera is designed to revolve 360 degrees rather than 'scan across' an object.
Having said that, what is the point of this What are the practical applications? Industry?
I was going to get A+ certified (even bought the book), but I found out I already knew most of the stuff in the book. I never got around to it, either. This was back in the day of Windows 95/98, which seems like ages ago. I'm 17 now, so this was back when I was 11.
I've found the most practical 'certification' is experience; the more experiences you have, the more knowledge you have, the more you know how to fix things. In regard to A+, does it really matter if you can memorize all the POST errors? I haven't... usually the bios throws out a string of what's wrong. Of course, I learned some things from the book, and perhaps the certification is only to guarantee that you know (or knew for the test) the material covered.
Although I haven't really fixed computers in exchange for money, most people that I know recognize me for my ability to fix computers, even though I don't have any certifications. I can understand why this is important (possibly) for corporate environments (a guarantee), but having it is mostly usless from an application/practical standpoint.
Agreed. Another thing that struck me was the mention of 'laptop size'. It may not be the same gadget the two articles are talking about, but someone's got a huge lap. =D
In this stage, it'd be better off being vehicle mounted.
As for crowd control, maybe it could be used as a distraction. "Hey, what the hell is that?" laugh, laugh, laugh.
The benchmarks page is down. I'm getting the 'slash hole' page.
Does anyone know what these benchmarks are? And, is it an accurate comparison between the object-oriented nature of Java vs. C++ (which, as far as I've done, doesn't really have true oo support)?
Before I read one of the later comments, I had this thought:
This would be camoflage for snipers. I mean, the ghillie suit is already pretty darned good, but if you could match your surrounding optically (instead of a bush/pile of something), especially when there isn't good cover, then that would be a good use for this system.
Of course, there are many issues that need to be resolved. IR signature, the point of view, etc. What would the 'reaction time' for the computer be? One foreseeable counter-system would be something like a strobe light or a camera flash; create a pulse of light that's extremely bright for an extremely short period of light, and then wait for the system to mimic the change. Of course, the people doing the light flashing need to adjust for the brightness flare.
An interesting piece of technology. I remember seeing something like this in a magazine (PopSci, perhaps), and it showed a building and fence with this, as well as a shirt that made the wearer's torso look transparent. Pretty cool, if you ask me.
I'm happy to see the 5GB. In such a small package. =P
Is blogging all that bad?
on
Meet Joe Blog
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I know that there are many types of blogging. There's the 'personal' type, where people write about their daily happenings for friends and such to read. My site is one of those. Then there's those (and many, I may add) that focus on a particular area or subject, eg. technical or scientific news (like Slashdot) or certain lawsuits (Groklaw). There has been a trend of the mainstream media citing blogs as sources and reporting on that, and maybe they should search around and be able to present two opposing views, or what not. I read blogs (type two) to learn about things; it's always nice to know both sides of an issue.
Many type one blogs center around communities such as Xanga or Blogger. I suppose their goal is to promote the sense of being a community, while also conveniently creating the feeling of exclusiveness by limiting it to members only, even though the service is free...
So, can blogging be seen as merely exercising free speech? If "one user in his underwear" can change/skew the media, well, maybe they should do more research first. Too bad the media isn't entirely objective, though. But then again, it's impossible to present everything pertaining to an issue.
This is kind of off the IM topic, but services that are limited to people with accounts (eg. members) that are free annoy me. In the blogging community, Xanga is like this. You must be a member to post. Same thing with Blogger, although they offer an 'anonymous' posting. They could at least let you put in a name, or keep it like the 3rd party commenting systems.
I guess it boils down to AOL offering an IM service, and the reason why they extend it to non-AOL users is to capture market share and to promote its service. Also, some people _might_ start subscribing to AOL because of this... *shrug*
How are you going to handle a new line? Hmm?
Maybe a 'row' attribute?...
And what about using XST to display it? Hehe.
And a really far-fetched idea, maybe MS SQL will have something to store that...
This would be extremely useful, especially in the CAD community. While I only know a little about the area of CAD and manufacturing, this combined with the inkjet plastics printing (I forget the term for it) or rapid prototyping machines would be really neat. Imagine designing something, and being able to view it in 3D from all angles (instead of a render), and then sending it to be printed off.
I've never seen one of these 3D displays before; how are the objects rendered? How much processing power is needed to create such a display, especially from a 3D model? I'm sure it needs to be rendered first, but what about a flat-shading 3D program like Autodesk Inventor?
3D displays would be neat for new GUIs. Instead of having a flat 3D desktop, you could have a true 3D desktop. That would be interesting to see...
Ahh, thank you, whomever modded this offtopic. I don't have any mod points at the moment.
Let's bring the topic of discussion back to 3D Stereo displays, shall we?
(Yes, I know this is offtopic too. Oops.)
As far as my Gnome experiences have taken me, I find that there are a lot of features that are incomplete and/or not fully stable. I think the developers should focus on getting everything that they have working first, and then start fleshing it out with more applications.
As for the 'long term' projects, I don't really have a necessity for a blogging application. Which services will it integrate with? Or will it use one of the common APIs? I ask this because a friend and I are working on a content management system.
Since when has Linux desktop environments started to integrate exclusive programs into the respective environments? Will this eventually end up like the integration of Internet Explorer with Windows? I thought one of the aspects of Open Source was about choice, and so, will this integration limit choice? What if the DE was designed to be modular, where you can install/uninstall components at will? I agree with a previous poster, that software should be easy to install.
Regardless, I'm looking forward to the new release.
I've thought about doing this before, too, but haven't actually implemented it.
I thought about having on a server somewhere emails that I could pre-write, and upon an untimely (or timely) demise, these emails would be released for delivery. Of course, someone would have to know how to work the system; the solution for this came to me as either having a relative be given knowledge on how to activate such a system, or to have something physical (like the token idea) that would walk the user through. A program that connects to a specific server would work just fine, but there would have to be the guarantee that the server IP won't change. I'll leave the security features up for the Slashdot community to discuss. =)
What about Y-Windows? Does that count as "making a new one"? I remember a few X-server discussions back, that X11 is a standard, and so changing that would be a rather lengthy process, despite the numerous pitfalls and lack of 'features' that x-server has. *shrug*
I do both.
I have an old Pentium 200 MMX running as a "firewall". I term it that because Purdue University forbids us to connect two computers up to the ResNet ethernet. We can't have routers, either. So, what this box is doing is acting as my firewall, as well as running some services on which for me to do web development.
Then, on my primary computer (which happens to be a laptop), I'm dual-booting Windows and Slackware (with a GUI). On that, I use Dropline Gnome. Dropline is really sweet-looking, and I've got it customized to my liking. I like it more than KDE. Maybe I'm used to it now... but before, I used KDE and liked that as well. I'm not trying to flame either, but both are respectable desktop environments, and I'm just more acquainted with Gnome at the moment.
And yes, as some other comments suggest, ncurses is a nice GUI. =P (The "firewall" computer can't really run X anyway... it's kind of sluggish. It has acceptable performance with Blackbox (or any blackbox-like clone), but chokes horribly when running anything else, including a Counter-Strike server for more than 2 people. =D
Modded 'Informative'.
I think many people forget that most major distros, especially Debian, often are developed/released for multiple architectures. While I don't have access to a x86_64 or any other 64-bit processor to test Linux on, niall2's post serves as a reminder that not everyone runs x86.
Unfortunately, I do, but Slackware, my distro of choice, has never really given me any problems.
What about that crater that people thought was an extinct volcano off the coast of Australia? I can't find the source to back it up, but I heard it a while ago on NPR (National Public Radio). Those in the US who listen to that program might have some sources. All I could find after a very quick Google run is Australian Impact Craters.
Slashdot Mirror
Forgive me if my knowledge in transmitted waves is a bit incomplete, but how and which ranges would you receive with these antennas/antennae? Would you focus on ones that are multiples of 60Hz because of the alternating nature of AC? I do like this idea, though. Imagine having one of these arrays and being able to plug it into your power plug on your computer or directly into the battery to supplement the power. On the other hand, what about heat engines (from the processor or hard drive to somewhere cooler) or having solar panels built into the chassis to augment power? Just some thought into alternative/supplemental power sources for laptops.
...and software to run on said (required) components.
Hmmm, interesting points. This is what the Slashdot community is about, no? Many different points of view, all which are unique and insightful. I do see how it can be considered that regions outside the sub-Sahara desert can be seen as hostile. However, humans have already adapted to these regions, and 'looking back' at it, it wasn't all that hard. Of course, if the adaptation of humans for Mars (or any other 'hostile' environment) goes through, I'm sure those 'looking back' at it wouldn't think it was terribly hard either. However, it would, because of the basic necessities needed to sustain human life. One of the comments here mentioned water, and also talked about oxygen. How difficult would it be to modify the entire cell structure so that oxygen was not a primary requirement for biological function? Also, what about the pressure differences of the atmospheres?
Yes, that was exactly the post I was referring to. I'm sorry I couldn't remember which one it was and link directly to it. =)
I recall reading here on Slashdot that Internet Explorer was getting updated for Longhorn. I don't remember exactly where it was, but it quoted one of the members of the IE development team. I think Microsoft will be taking a (small) step in the right direction by supporting standards. Well, if they do. It'd be nice if Mozilla and IE actually rendered things the same way; then you'd only have to develop for one target platform. What about Internet Explorer using the Gecko engine? Maybe Internet Explorer will become one of the 'better' Microsoft products. But seriously, what would happen to products like Firefox/Mozilla if IE became totally standards compliant. I know I would still use it, but what would happen to the argument that Firefox is better than IE? Hopefully Microsoft will actually fix the bugs and have a solid product. Even though it may become a 'competitor' for Firefox, at least the average user who doesn't know more than Internet Explorer will have a usable, secure, browser.
Word of warning, the hot chicks will never ask you to fix their computer. They will bitch about it to their rich boyfriend who will buy them a new Dell. They might ask you to fix it in college, but your not getting any ass in return for it. You probally will be recripocated well in non monetary ways for fixing other peoples computer, but don't expect any nookie. -> I'm not expecting any. =) One last peice of advice, do do the programming homework of the hot chicks, Its good practice to do the Comp Sci assignments 4 different ways. Plus, you'll learn which teachers use diff and which don't. -> Anyone that's suffered through having to take any programming class with um, less technically inclined friends knows the horrors of this. But you know what? I've found that most of the time you just need to stand there, and they'll find the bug on their own. I guess it has to do with them not reading their code to figure out what's wrong, and when they read it to tell me what they're doing, they find the mistake on their own. Glad my presence has that effect on people. Ah, this is getting way off-topic. But then again, it's threaded.
Is terraforming even a good idea? Mars ended up the way it is because of its position in the solar system. It was not 'meant' to sustain life from Earth. Hypothetically, life forms can exist on any planet, with each unique to their respective environments. I don't think terraforming is a really good idea. Is it really necessary to change a planet (or ourselves) in order to do whatever the intent (exploration, colonization, etc) is? In that case, should we attempt to 'engineer' a race (or a group of people) suitable for this purpose? I know this is unrelated, but this brings to mind the Xel Naga of Starcraft fame; they engineered the Protoss and the beginnings of the Zerg, and look what happened (a good RTS game, but that's irrelevant =P).
How would this be better when shooting/scanning an object? The camera is designed to revolve 360 degrees rather than 'scan across' an object. Having said that, what is the point of this What are the practical applications? Industry?
I was going to get A+ certified (even bought the book), but I found out I already knew most of the stuff in the book. I never got around to it, either. This was back in the day of Windows 95/98, which seems like ages ago. I'm 17 now, so this was back when I was 11. I've found the most practical 'certification' is experience; the more experiences you have, the more knowledge you have, the more you know how to fix things. In regard to A+, does it really matter if you can memorize all the POST errors? I haven't... usually the bios throws out a string of what's wrong. Of course, I learned some things from the book, and perhaps the certification is only to guarantee that you know (or knew for the test) the material covered. Although I haven't really fixed computers in exchange for money, most people that I know recognize me for my ability to fix computers, even though I don't have any certifications. I can understand why this is important (possibly) for corporate environments (a guarantee), but having it is mostly usless from an application/practical standpoint.
Agreed. Another thing that struck me was the mention of 'laptop size'. It may not be the same gadget the two articles are talking about, but someone's got a huge lap. =D In this stage, it'd be better off being vehicle mounted. As for crowd control, maybe it could be used as a distraction. "Hey, what the hell is that?" laugh, laugh, laugh.
The benchmarks page is down. I'm getting the 'slash hole' page. Does anyone know what these benchmarks are? And, is it an accurate comparison between the object-oriented nature of Java vs. C++ (which, as far as I've done, doesn't really have true oo support)?
Before I read one of the later comments, I had this thought: This would be camoflage for snipers. I mean, the ghillie suit is already pretty darned good, but if you could match your surrounding optically (instead of a bush/pile of something), especially when there isn't good cover, then that would be a good use for this system. Of course, there are many issues that need to be resolved. IR signature, the point of view, etc. What would the 'reaction time' for the computer be? One foreseeable counter-system would be something like a strobe light or a camera flash; create a pulse of light that's extremely bright for an extremely short period of light, and then wait for the system to mimic the change. Of course, the people doing the light flashing need to adjust for the brightness flare. An interesting piece of technology. I remember seeing something like this in a magazine (PopSci, perhaps), and it showed a building and fence with this, as well as a shirt that made the wearer's torso look transparent. Pretty cool, if you ask me.
I'm happy to see the 5GB. In such a small package. =P
I know that there are many types of blogging. There's the 'personal' type, where people write about their daily happenings for friends and such to read. My site is one of those. Then there's those (and many, I may add) that focus on a particular area or subject, eg. technical or scientific news (like Slashdot) or certain lawsuits (Groklaw). There has been a trend of the mainstream media citing blogs as sources and reporting on that, and maybe they should search around and be able to present two opposing views, or what not. I read blogs (type two) to learn about things; it's always nice to know both sides of an issue. Many type one blogs center around communities such as Xanga or Blogger. I suppose their goal is to promote the sense of being a community, while also conveniently creating the feeling of exclusiveness by limiting it to members only, even though the service is free... So, can blogging be seen as merely exercising free speech? If "one user in his underwear" can change/skew the media, well, maybe they should do more research first. Too bad the media isn't entirely objective, though. But then again, it's impossible to present everything pertaining to an issue.
This is kind of off the IM topic, but services that are limited to people with accounts (eg. members) that are free annoy me. In the blogging community, Xanga is like this. You must be a member to post. Same thing with Blogger, although they offer an 'anonymous' posting. They could at least let you put in a name, or keep it like the 3rd party commenting systems. I guess it boils down to AOL offering an IM service, and the reason why they extend it to non-AOL users is to capture market share and to promote its service. Also, some people _might_ start subscribing to AOL because of this... *shrug*
How are you going to handle a new line? Hmm? Maybe a 'row' attribute? ...
And what about using XST to display it? Hehe.
And a really far-fetched idea, maybe MS SQL will have something to store that...
_metal_ pin-cushion + heating elements... hmmm. Not quite fuzzy, but it'll certainly be warm! =D
This would be extremely useful, especially in the CAD community. While I only know a little about the area of CAD and manufacturing, this combined with the inkjet plastics printing (I forget the term for it) or rapid prototyping machines would be really neat. Imagine designing something, and being able to view it in 3D from all angles (instead of a render), and then sending it to be printed off. I've never seen one of these 3D displays before; how are the objects rendered? How much processing power is needed to create such a display, especially from a 3D model? I'm sure it needs to be rendered first, but what about a flat-shading 3D program like Autodesk Inventor? 3D displays would be neat for new GUIs. Instead of having a flat 3D desktop, you could have a true 3D desktop. That would be interesting to see...
Ahh, thank you, whomever modded this offtopic. I don't have any mod points at the moment. Let's bring the topic of discussion back to 3D Stereo displays, shall we? (Yes, I know this is offtopic too. Oops.)
As far as my Gnome experiences have taken me, I find that there are a lot of features that are incomplete and/or not fully stable. I think the developers should focus on getting everything that they have working first, and then start fleshing it out with more applications.
As for the 'long term' projects, I don't really have a necessity for a blogging application. Which services will it integrate with? Or will it use one of the common APIs? I ask this because a friend and I are working on a content management system.
Since when has Linux desktop environments started to integrate exclusive programs into the respective environments? Will this eventually end up like the integration of Internet Explorer with Windows? I thought one of the aspects of Open Source was about choice, and so, will this integration limit choice? What if the DE was designed to be modular, where you can install/uninstall components at will? I agree with a previous poster, that software should be easy to install.
Regardless, I'm looking forward to the new release.
I've thought about doing this before, too, but haven't actually implemented it. I thought about having on a server somewhere emails that I could pre-write, and upon an untimely (or timely) demise, these emails would be released for delivery. Of course, someone would have to know how to work the system; the solution for this came to me as either having a relative be given knowledge on how to activate such a system, or to have something physical (like the token idea) that would walk the user through. A program that connects to a specific server would work just fine, but there would have to be the guarantee that the server IP won't change. I'll leave the security features up for the Slashdot community to discuss. =)
What about Y-Windows? Does that count as "making a new one"? I remember a few X-server discussions back, that X11 is a standard, and so changing that would be a rather lengthy process, despite the numerous pitfalls and lack of 'features' that x-server has. *shrug*
I do both. I have an old Pentium 200 MMX running as a "firewall". I term it that because Purdue University forbids us to connect two computers up to the ResNet ethernet. We can't have routers, either. So, what this box is doing is acting as my firewall, as well as running some services on which for me to do web development. Then, on my primary computer (which happens to be a laptop), I'm dual-booting Windows and Slackware (with a GUI). On that, I use Dropline Gnome. Dropline is really sweet-looking, and I've got it customized to my liking. I like it more than KDE. Maybe I'm used to it now... but before, I used KDE and liked that as well. I'm not trying to flame either, but both are respectable desktop environments, and I'm just more acquainted with Gnome at the moment. And yes, as some other comments suggest, ncurses is a nice GUI. =P (The "firewall" computer can't really run X anyway... it's kind of sluggish. It has acceptable performance with Blackbox (or any blackbox-like clone), but chokes horribly when running anything else, including a Counter-Strike server for more than 2 people. =D
Modded 'Informative'. I think many people forget that most major distros, especially Debian, often are developed/released for multiple architectures. While I don't have access to a x86_64 or any other 64-bit processor to test Linux on, niall2's post serves as a reminder that not everyone runs x86. Unfortunately, I do, but Slackware, my distro of choice, has never really given me any problems.
What about that crater that people thought was an extinct volcano off the coast of Australia? I can't find the source to back it up, but I heard it a while ago on NPR (National Public Radio). Those in the US who listen to that program might have some sources. All I could find after a very quick Google run is Australian Impact Craters.