The most convincing demonstration of magic I have witnessed happened several years ago. I was outdoors with a friend, at night. He had me close my eyes and tilt my head up. When I opened my eyes, I saw the moon.
Re:Where the hell is the Slashdot Mirror?
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Real 'Akira' Motorcycle
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· Score: 3, Informative
Google already mirrors everything, though, so why not find an automated way to link to their copy. They have enough bandwidth to destroy the Earth (in layman's terms), so not much danger of shutting them down with traffic.
How is that tax assessed? If I understand you correctly, you take possession of this oil at a restaurant, deliver it to some other location (your home?) where it is filtered, and then you put it in your Citroen for fuel.
It seems that the logical place in that sequence to pay a tax is where you meter the fuel as it goes into the car, calculate the tax you owe, and send payment to the government. Is there a system in place to ensure compliance with self-reporting?
In Cedar Lake, near Wolcott, CT, there are several cedar stumps that float to the surface when methane collects under them from other organic material rotting. The roots are still connected to the lakebed, so the stumps don't drift anywhere, but they present a significant hazard to navigation. I would estimate that they are about 6 feet across.
I would think that this robot is designed to cut across a trunk, and would have trouble making the irregular cuts required to free a stump. I have no answers.
The article discusses using distributed power systems to reduce the need for a high-capacity power grid. This is where the real parallel to the internet can be drawn. Just as the internet has enabled information workers to telecommute, distributed power production can do the same for power plants (not that power plants commuted in the same sense as office workers).
As power production technology gets less intrusive, it becomes more acceptable to have in a residential neighborhood, or hospital basement. Just as you get better quality of service from a web server down the hall than from one on another continent, a neighborhood fuel cell could provide more reliable power to the customer.
Decentralization is becoming a broad-ranging trend in our society. We have people telecommuting, there are microbreweries springing up all over, and people can make their own diesel fuel in their garages. It is not too difficult to come up with more examples (if you disagree, the same probably holds for counterexamples). On a more political note, this ongoing decentralization helps us reduce our dependence on 'The Man' and increases our self-determination. I, for one, welcome our -- never mind.
I think the math problem is more about hearing the numbers correctly. It seems pretty easy to me to count the digits visually, but there is probably about one extra step in converting voice to math than there is when converting text. YMMV.
The word pyramid is designed for text, so it works better than the math example. If someone were to read that to you, aloud, it would be apparent where the extra word is.
The core is dead? Wasn't there a movie about this happening to Earth? Seems like they used nuclear weapons to fix it, although I haven't seen it and may be thinking of Dr. Evil's scheme from another movie.
Perhaps I would have gone to see The Core if it had been about terraforming Mars by jumpstarting the core. I don't suppose it could have gotten any less plausible.
Although this could be construed to mean the US, common usage generally uses this phraseology to refer to enemies of the US. If the US were indicated, infidel would replace primitive, with a similar substitution for 'primal.' Also, the phrase 'falls into the hands of' clearly means a society or group who did not develop their own weapons, which is looked down upon by 'powerful nations.'
Don't be discouraged; your trolling has some pretty good potential, IMHO. Practice, practice, practice!
I'm not trying to imply my house is nearby, but I have been able to draw from this power you are talking about. Actually, I do it with the power company's blessing, because I am willing to pay for the use. You see, I draw it through a "meter, which the power company uses to determine how much to charge me for the power I draw from these high voltage lines.
I like to think that without people like me, all that energy would be wasted before it could be used.
Your first observation cannot be overemphasized. I have flown in aircraft where parts of the interface are cursor-position dependent (slew-stick, but pretty much the same as a mouse). Using that method to navigate menus is very frustrating in a moving platform. On the other hand, using it to interact with a two dimensional graphic (radar, map, etc.) is probably okay. (But still hard to do while driving)
Hardware buttons around the edge of the display are fairly intuitive, like an ATM display. Just try to design with parallax in mind; I've seen ATMs where the buttons are off by one line from my standing perspective. That could be annoying if you're driving and can't look long enough to make sure you have the right button. Button proximity to the screen allows software to control the label of the button, so you don't have to memorize them for each separate application, as you might for a remote keypad.
Touch screens can be reasonable for entering data or selecting menu options, but once again, the moving platform becomes an issue again. With buttons, you can touch them before pressing them to make sure you have the right one. With the screen, touching is pressing, so an ill-timed bump in the road can change the input.
Speaking of pressing buttons, it may help to have a stiffer spring than your average keyboard, with a shorter throw. This can reduce accidental actuation while reaching for nearby controls. Tactile feedback should also be unambiguous, so you don't have to look to verify proper action by the software. I see this being used in three steps:
(1)Put hand close to button
(2)Look briefly to place finger on the correct button (assuming several close together)
(3)Look ahead to keep driving while pressing the button (i.e. don't keep looking to make sure the button worked) It can be helpful to have some sort of anchor for your fingers while typing on a keypad with your thumb, or vice-versa.
Your reference to "six inch floppy disks" is pretty obscure, but I guess that is the point. Most people have 3.5 inch floppies, several have (or had) 5.25 inch floppies (my parents still use them) and fewer still have seen or heard of 8 inch floppies. Either a masterstroke in obscure references or you made it up. I am giving you the benefit of the doubt.
That would be a step backwards, wouldn't it? We are in the information age, and therefore can't trifle with these obsolete mechanical systems you mention. Besides, with fiber to the home (FTTH) nobody will need roads or bridges, as we will all stay at home and telecommute for our jobs and vacations.
You need to keep looking forward; after the fiber is obsolete, everything will be wireless (perhaps even the plumbing), anyway.
Heck, do you even know how much larger the US is than the entire European continent?
Um, 8% smaller? I've tried to find the area of Europe on line, coming up with figures ranging from 6.7 to 9.9 x10^5 square kilometers. The smaller number may be a total area of "European" countires (not including the European part of Russia, perhaps?). The CIA world factbook lists the US area as 9,629,091 sq km, but has nothing about Europe. The wonderclub.com site has information about both:
But are we talking about land area only (because who lives in water?) or should we include water, too, because some boats have computers? Wasn't there something recently about the USS Umpty-Squat having its email servers 0wned by spammers?
On the other hand, this is trivia, not "stuff that matters."
The military GPS uses a second frequency to receive from the satellites. It is my understanding that the two frequencies (civillian and encrypted military) have the normal random noise that you would expect from a transmission. However, the two signals have different noise (because they are independently random), allowing comparison of the two to find the most accurate signal possible.
The data loaded into the receivers is just normal crypto codes to decrypt the military-only signal. I guess the encrypted signal could be called pseudo-random, though.
There is also a bit that should be mentioned about the crypto making it unfeasible to spoof a GPS signal to send planes and weapons off course. Jamming is still an issue, though.
Slashdot Mirror
The most convincing demonstration of magic I have witnessed happened several years ago. I was outdoors with a friend, at night. He had me close my eyes and tilt my head up. When I opened my eyes, I saw the moon.
Google already mirrors everything, though, so why not find an automated way to link to their copy. They have enough bandwidth to destroy the Earth (in layman's terms), so not much danger of shutting them down with traffic.
It's been April Fools' Day in my house for about five weeks. I don't know what the calendar has to do with any of it.
Real World:
Finite number of pigeons, because somebody has to clean up after them when they are off line
pigeons don't even have thumbs, thus no need for thumb drives
Pigeons can't drive at all; their feet wouldn't reach the pedals
Theory:
Assume a spherical pigeon
Assume constant number of pigeons per mile
Assume infinite number of thumb drives
As you can see, everyone is right, but they are part of two different arguments.
Funny or troll, no middle ground for this issue.
That makes them carrier pigeons!
I don't know about you, but "50 years" is a perfect example of "a few decades".
It seems that the logical place in that sequence to pay a tax is where you meter the fuel as it goes into the car, calculate the tax you owe, and send payment to the government. Is there a system in place to ensure compliance with self-reporting?
I would think that this robot is designed to cut across a trunk, and would have trouble making the irregular cuts required to free a stump. I have no answers.
What? Oh, fiction, you say? Never mind.
That's megagram-hertz, right?
As power production technology gets less intrusive, it becomes more acceptable to have in a residential neighborhood, or hospital basement. Just as you get better quality of service from a web server down the hall than from one on another continent, a neighborhood fuel cell could provide more reliable power to the customer.
Decentralization is becoming a broad-ranging trend in our society. We have people telecommuting, there are microbreweries springing up all over, and people can make their own diesel fuel in their garages. It is not too difficult to come up with more examples (if you disagree, the same probably holds for counterexamples). On a more political note, this ongoing decentralization helps us reduce our dependence on 'The Man' and increases our self-determination. I, for one, welcome our -- never mind.
Wouldn't this all be easier if babies were replaced by machines with known specs?
The word pyramid is designed for text, so it works better than the math example. If someone were to read that to you, aloud, it would be apparent where the extra word is.
Perhaps I would have gone to see The Core if it had been about terraforming Mars by jumpstarting the core. I don't suppose it could have gotten any less plausible.
Don't be discouraged; your trolling has some pretty good potential, IMHO. Practice, practice, practice!
I'd send it back with a note:
It looks good overall; just remove the two commas and change the period to a question mark. I'm happy to help.
I like to think that without people like me, all that energy would be wasted before it could be used.
Well, at least we didn't have to witness yet another sensless** slaughter of lose vs loose.*
Unless, of course, that part wasn't on purpose.
Hardware buttons around the edge of the display are fairly intuitive, like an ATM display. Just try to design with parallax in mind; I've seen ATMs where the buttons are off by one line from my standing perspective. That could be annoying if you're driving and can't look long enough to make sure you have the right button. Button proximity to the screen allows software to control the label of the button, so you don't have to memorize them for each separate application, as you might for a remote keypad.
Touch screens can be reasonable for entering data or selecting menu options, but once again, the moving platform becomes an issue again. With buttons, you can touch them before pressing them to make sure you have the right one. With the screen, touching is pressing, so an ill-timed bump in the road can change the input.
Speaking of pressing buttons, it may help to have a stiffer spring than your average keyboard, with a shorter throw. This can reduce accidental actuation while reaching for nearby controls. Tactile feedback should also be unambiguous, so you don't have to look to verify proper action by the software. I see this being used in three steps:
(1)Put hand close to button
(2)Look briefly to place finger on the correct button (assuming several close together)
(3)Look ahead to keep driving while pressing the button (i.e. don't keep looking to make sure the button worked)
It can be helpful to have some sort of anchor for your fingers while typing on a keypad with your thumb, or vice-versa.
These are just a few of my favourite opinions.
Your reference to "six inch floppy disks" is pretty obscure, but I guess that is the point. Most people have 3.5 inch floppies, several have (or had) 5.25 inch floppies (my parents still use them) and fewer still have seen or heard of 8 inch floppies. Either a masterstroke in obscure references or you made it up. I am giving you the benefit of the doubt.
But seriously, who wants to plug into the toilet (or sink) for network connectivity?
You need to keep looking forward; after the fiber is obsolete, everything will be wireless (perhaps even the plumbing), anyway.
Um, 8% smaller? I've tried to find the area of Europe on line, coming up with figures ranging from 6.7 to 9.9 x10^5 square kilometers. The smaller number may be a total area of "European" countires (not including the European part of Russia, perhaps?). The CIA world factbook lists the US area as 9,629,091 sq km, but has nothing about Europe. The wonderclub.com site has information about both:
Information about Europe
Information about the US
But are we talking about land area only (because who lives in water?) or should we include water, too, because some boats have computers? Wasn't there something recently about the USS Umpty-Squat having its email servers 0wned by spammers?
On the other hand, this is trivia, not "stuff that matters."
Great! That's all we need; now the hive mind at Slashdot is designing weapons.
The data loaded into the receivers is just normal crypto codes to decrypt the military-only signal. I guess the encrypted signal could be called pseudo-random, though.
There is also a bit that should be mentioned about the crypto making it unfeasible to spoof a GPS signal to send planes and weapons off course. Jamming is still an issue, though.