Re:What can be done about terrorism?
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More On Tragedy
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Planes have been a target for terrorism for decades. My thoughts go toward making the planes more benign and less desirable. Currently there are really only two companies making passenger jets, Boeing and Airbus. As far as philosophies on control and instrumentation go, they are quite different. Airbus allows for more control by computers for take-off and landing of the aircraft. I'm not sure, but I think it borders on complete automation of the flight of the plane. Boeing has less computer intervention, for better or worse. People with more knowledge on this can pick this apart if they wish. I'm sure we're all open to ideas.
With the knowledge that there are computers that can do everything on a plane and the fact that we have a wonderful thing called GPS, a "failsafe" system could be built that could take a hijacked jet and land it safely. Ground control saw the jets leave their predetermined courses. Either ground control or the pilot could flip a switch and completely take the control away from the terrorists. We have the technology, It's just a matter of cost. I think, based on the events on the past day, that we may find it a small price.
Well the idea was, at least at one time, that the boradcasters were a "public trust". A broadcaster is required to perform certain functions for the public, (you have seen a PSA right?) in certain amounts. Many TV stations produce newscasts and provide programming, free for public consumption. The Airwaves are owned by the people. With the government auctioning that spectrum, it's basicly a tax. What representation was there to levy this tax? With broadcasters having given over 50 years of service to the public, we cannot seek a little funding to pay for new transmitters? They are really expensive ya' know. Especially for UHF transmitters and the power they require!
If you haven't figured it out, I work for a broadcaster. While I do see the writing on the wall, that TV broadcasting will either go away or change drasticly, I still have an issue with the government auctioning off the spectrum that belongs to you and me.
Well, I work at a broadcast TV station in the 76th market. We haven't even bought a DTV transmitter yet. The big three networks are providing some programming in HD. I attended the NAB convention in `99. I got to see real High-Def and broadcast High-Def. I was actually impressed with the picture quality of ATSC. I didn't see a bunch of MPEG blocking that I've seen with the Direct Broadcast Satellite systems. Currently, with the ATSC system, they can squeeze 20Mbps out of the 6Mhz of bandwidth given. Check out the petitions and protests by Sinclair Broadcasting. They want a system that uses COFDM encoding. Apparently you have better multipath for mobile communications but it had a slower data rate, and requires more power to cover the same coverage area as an ATSC signal. From all accounts, (broadcast engineers, and people who have worked for them) Sinclair is a pretty F'ked up company. Did anyone see the Gary Condit interviews on TV from a TV station in Mr. Condit's district? It had "SBG- Sinclair Broadcast Group" all over it. The viewer doesn't know who the hell they are, why clutter the screen with it? Probably just a rouse the bring their stock price out of the gutter.
I have seen lenses eaten away by fungus. I've also seen the aluminum faces on stereo components eaten by fungus. The probability of a CD being eaten by the fungus is dependent on the way the disk (disc?) is made. If the aluminum plating goes all the way out to the edge of the disk and becomes exposed to the air, then I would imagine that there is a chance that it could fall victim. Otherwise, I'm not too worried.
I've wondered about a CD eating fungus ever since I saw that stereo face plate years ago. It was a cheap "Soundesign" stereo if that makes any difference to you.:)
My problem has been with my butt hurting, not so much my back. What I finally did was buy a Herman Miller Aeron chair off of ebay. It's very comfy!:)
With tension, I had a sort of pent up frustration with driving to work. Sometime after I got a speeding ticket on my way in, I started a sort of bio-feedback on my driving. I started to be able to relax. Now I have fun driving the speed limit and pissing off the people who want to pass me.
The next step is to start throwing things out my sun roof at the tail gaters.:)
Keep this in mind... I still like to drive fast, but I live in south Florida. All the "blue hairs" tend to drive about 5-10 miles under the posted speed limit. So if I do drive the speed limit, I'm going pretty fast.:)
I used an old Cromemco Z80 based computer back in the late `80's. The computer was an old ColorGraphics LiveLine II weather graphics computer. It's 10MB (I believe) hard drive had a clear cover on it. I never knew this while it was in operation. I think that thing had 8" platters in it! I wonder if any are still in operation somewhere?
Nevermind, I just realised that you are talking about registering to download Darwin... Not install the new OS X update... I'm not sure what I was thinking.
I purchased it but I didn't register... You must be talking about the Admin Password before it installs. It's just the security features of the OS. Not much different than logging into Linux! Actually... What are you doing running OS X if you haven't gotten it yet? Actually your whole message doesn't make much sense. If you actually had the hardware to run OS X you probably wouldn't be talking about getting an Intel machine. If anything, you would want to run it on an AMD Athlon. Better yet, just wait for the 1Ghz PPC7400 and DDR RAM.
I did a search awhile back for any kind of background information on an advertising campaign. Back in the early`80's there were these commercials for the coffee growers. These things pre-date Juan Valdez (sp?) and were a little strange. The ad copy said things like, "You're the NEW coffee generation" and "Hold on tight to your drink!". The latter was part of the jingle. I think they ran a lot during "Night Tracks" on Superstation TBS.
Quote... Don't you see how stupid the thing gets?...
No, because you don't make a very good arguement. If I remember correctly, Cobalt was talking about suing Apple over the cube. It's more than than the form factor... Else, Apple would have sued IBM over the PS/2 Model 25 over 10 years ago!!!
The broadcasters have to give the spectrum back anyway! In 2006 we are to stop analogue broadcasting of NTSC. That is provided that a certain percentage of people have upgraded to digital. And I think that is done on a market by market basis.
Broadcasting is a free service... A public trust. The unused spectrum WILL BE auctioned off. Then you can have two cell phones. Wheeeeeeeee.
Hmmm. Certain markets of the 200 or so US television markets have been broadcasting analogue SDTV and digital HDTV before 2001. It's a rollout. We have a lot more broadcasters here in the US. Nobody could build the transmitters, antennas and studio gear fast enough to roll it out for 2001.
Also. The US developed it's own DTV standard. As Australia is a PAL country, they've probably adopted the european DTV system using the COFDM modulation. Not sure of the companies involved... probably Philips is a main one.
Part of the reason for a slower rollout here in the US is due to a debate over the modulation standard. COFDM vs. VSB8. Some broadcasters want receivers that can accept either thus adding delay to the designs and increasing the cost. To what end? My theory is that Sinclair Broadcasting wants COFDM for mobile applications (Data transmition anyone) That is probably worth more in revenue than the broadcasting of programs. Use a quarter of the bandwidth to broadcast a standard def program and use the other three quarters for some serious revenues for pagers and internet appliances.
I believe the Japaneese analog compression method is called MUSE. It was proposed to the US for a possible HDTV system back in the '80's I believe.
The FCC rules call for the new digital TV system to fit inside of the exsisting 6Mhz bandwidth. That means HDTV or SDTV must fit. With MPEG2 you can either place 4 Standard Definition or 1 HDTV program(s) in that space.
Being someone who works in broadcast television I can't tell you how depressing it is to put a lot of work into a project. See it in it's full 5+Mhz component bandwidth on a studio grade monitor and then see it later squished to around 2 or 3 Mhz of composite bandwidth. (Not to mention the multipath distortion) NTSC is an engineering marvel and I have great respect for the guys at RCA that were able to do it. But I can't wait for DTV and HDTV to finally make it into my market
I suggest everyone who is interested in this topic, to read a book called "Defining Vision" by Joel Brinkley. (Son of
famous broadcaster David Brinkley)
The book illustrates the birth of HDTV and the political process behind it. It is quite excellent.
I never had a screw fall out of an Atari 800. They were built like tanks. Atari was very concerned about the FCC approvals and had placed all of the electronics inside of cast metal boxes.
The 800's chipset was designed by the same person who designed the Amiga's chipset... which Commodore later bought.
The reason your school's Amiga kept crashing was that they bought the base Amiga 2000/Toaster bundle that had only a 7Mhz 68000 and only a few megs of memory. Lightwave was much happier with 10 or 20 Megs and a 68040.
Newtek did not buy the Amiga or Commodore. Do some searches to find out more information.
Later seasons of Bab5 were done on Windoze systems and Lightwave.
There were rendering engines that used Alpha processors and tied into the Amiga systems... Perhaps your school should have bought one of those.
What I want to know is, does Leo Schwab still wear a cape?
Also did any of you ex-amigans see the photos of the original Amiga prototype... I didn't think anyone knew what happened to it and I run into photos from the Atari Historical Society of it!!!!
If it means anything to you, I knew what you meant. I have money invested in Apple and I'm putting hope against hope that they do something wonderful in January.
I have bought 4 different 3dfx cards in the past 3 years. The last was a Voodoo 5 5500 for my Mac. I wast really impressed with the effort they were puting into the drivers. I thought it was a pretty safe investment. This is after I was burnt by iXmicro and their iX3d card that I spent nearly $600 on. Damn fast 2D but the 3D that they promised was a joke. I also have a stack of Amigas and Ataris sitting around here. Sigh...
I had a civics class taught by a veteran of WWII. He was a prisoner of war of the Japanese. He took the American flag and brought it before a ROTC kid in the class. He asked him what it was... Of course the student said, "It's the American Flag!". He stopped, and asked him again, "What is it made of?". "Well" the student said "It's a piece of cloth". At that point, the teacher dropped it on the floor. Some gasped at the gesture. "You have to burn it now, you've desecrated the Flag" the student said. The teacher just picked it up, brushed it off and asked the student "What's different about it now?". Nothing was different. He proved to us at that point the importance of the freedom of speech. The flag was just a symbol. But that teacher also showed us just how important that symbol is. You see, he was in the Bataan Death March. He would know more than any of us what the flag stands for. He was also a pilot during the Berlin Air Lift.
I support a person's decision to burn the flag. It's that person's freedom of speech. But it's just my interpretation of the Constitution. It's up to us to vigilant and tell our representatives what we think!
>>And yes, I could ignore Amiga news, but it's just so much fun to rile you guys up!
Well, no harm done I suppose.:) Every once in awhile we need a jolt to remind ourselves what got us here.
Actually, what I saw in the Amiga, wasn't so much the GUI. It was the elegance of how it all fit together. I felt comfortable digging into the thing. The Mac has a similar elegance, but it seems a bit distant. I still prefer that than troubleshooting Windows 96/98 based machines. I can do it, it's just a high level of frustration.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a cop you idiot!
Planes have been a target for terrorism for decades. My thoughts go toward making the planes more benign and less desirable. Currently there are really only two companies making passenger jets, Boeing and Airbus. As far as philosophies on control and instrumentation go, they are quite different. Airbus allows for more control by computers for take-off and landing of the aircraft. I'm not sure, but I think it borders on complete automation of the flight of the plane. Boeing has less computer intervention, for better or worse. People with more knowledge on this can pick this apart if they wish. I'm sure we're all open to ideas.
With the knowledge that there are computers that can do everything on a plane and the fact that we have a wonderful thing called GPS, a "failsafe" system could be built that could take a hijacked jet and land it safely. Ground control saw the jets leave their predetermined courses. Either ground control or the pilot could flip a switch and completely take the control away from the terrorists. We have the technology, It's just a matter of cost. I think, based on the events on the past day, that we may find it a small price.
Well the idea was, at least at one time, that the boradcasters were a "public trust". A broadcaster is required to perform certain functions for the public, (you have seen a PSA right?) in certain amounts. Many TV stations produce newscasts and provide programming, free for public consumption. The Airwaves are owned by the people. With the government auctioning that spectrum, it's basicly a tax. What representation was there to levy this tax? With broadcasters having given over 50 years of service to the public, we cannot seek a little funding to pay for new transmitters? They are really expensive ya' know. Especially for UHF transmitters and the power they require!
If you haven't figured it out, I work for a broadcaster. While I do see the writing on the wall, that TV broadcasting will either go away or change drasticly, I still have an issue with the government auctioning off the spectrum that belongs to you and me.
Well, I work at a broadcast TV station in the 76th market. We haven't even bought a DTV transmitter yet. The big three networks are providing some programming in HD. I attended the NAB convention in `99. I got to see real High-Def and broadcast High-Def. I was actually impressed with the picture quality of ATSC. I didn't see a bunch of MPEG blocking that I've seen with the Direct Broadcast Satellite systems. Currently, with the ATSC system, they can squeeze 20Mbps out of the 6Mhz of bandwidth given. Check out the petitions and protests by Sinclair Broadcasting. They want a system that uses COFDM encoding. Apparently you have better multipath for mobile communications but it had a slower data rate, and requires more power to cover the same coverage area as an ATSC signal. From all accounts, (broadcast engineers, and people who have worked for them) Sinclair is a pretty F'ked up company. Did anyone see the Gary Condit interviews on TV from a TV station in Mr. Condit's district? It had "SBG- Sinclair Broadcast Group" all over it. The viewer doesn't know who the hell they are, why clutter the screen with it? Probably just a rouse the bring their stock price out of the gutter.
I have seen lenses eaten away by fungus. I've also seen the aluminum faces on stereo components eaten by fungus. The probability of a CD being eaten by the fungus is dependent on the way the disk (disc?) is made. If the aluminum plating goes all the way out to the edge of the disk and becomes exposed to the air, then I would imagine that there is a chance that it could fall victim. Otherwise, I'm not too worried.
:)
I've wondered about a CD eating fungus ever since I saw that stereo face plate years ago. It was a cheap "Soundesign" stereo if that makes any difference to you.
My problem has been with my butt hurting, not so much my back. What I finally did was buy a Herman Miller Aeron chair off of ebay. It's very comfy! :)
:)
:)
With tension, I had a sort of pent up frustration with driving to work. Sometime after I got a speeding ticket on my way in, I started a sort of bio-feedback on my driving. I started to be able to relax. Now I have fun driving the speed limit and pissing off the people who want to pass me.
The next step is to start throwing things out my sun roof at the tail gaters.
Keep this in mind... I still like to drive fast, but I live in south Florida. All the "blue hairs" tend to drive about 5-10 miles under the posted speed limit. So if I do drive the speed limit, I'm going pretty fast.
BTW...
That's German for, "The, Rambus, The!"
I have a Braun electric razor... By Gosh! What does it have on the front? Why it's an "I" and an "O".
Silly Germans!
I used an old Cromemco Z80 based computer back in the late `80's. The computer was an old ColorGraphics LiveLine II weather graphics computer. It's 10MB (I believe) hard drive had a clear cover on it. I never knew this while it was in operation. I think that thing had 8" platters in it! I wonder if any are still in operation somewhere?
Nevermind, I just realised that you are talking about registering to download Darwin... Not install the new OS X update... I'm not sure what I was thinking.
In any case...
All my base are belong to you.
I purchased it but I didn't register... You must be talking about the Admin Password before it installs. It's just the security features of the OS. Not much different than logging into Linux! Actually... What are you doing running OS X if you haven't gotten it yet? Actually your whole message doesn't make much sense. If you actually had the hardware to run OS X you probably wouldn't be talking about getting an Intel machine. If anything, you would want to run it on an AMD Athlon. Better yet, just wait for the 1Ghz PPC7400 and DDR RAM.
I did a search awhile back for any kind of background information on an advertising campaign. Back in the early`80's there were these commercials for the coffee growers. These things pre-date Juan Valdez (sp?) and were a little strange. The ad copy said things like, "You're the NEW coffee generation" and "Hold on tight to your drink!". The latter was part of the jingle. I think they ran a lot during "Night Tracks" on Superstation TBS.
Sadly, I've never found the spot.
Quote... Don't you see how stupid the thing gets?...
No, because you don't make a very good arguement. If I remember correctly, Cobalt was talking about suing Apple over the cube. It's more than than the form factor... Else, Apple would have sued IBM over the PS/2 Model 25 over 10 years ago!!!
The broadcasters have to give the spectrum back anyway! In 2006 we are to stop analogue broadcasting of NTSC. That is provided that a certain percentage of people have upgraded to digital. And I think that is done on a market by market basis.
Broadcasting is a free service... A public trust. The unused spectrum WILL BE auctioned off. Then you can have two cell phones. Wheeeeeeeee.
Hmmm. Certain markets of the 200 or so US television markets have been broadcasting analogue SDTV and digital HDTV before 2001. It's a rollout. We have a lot more broadcasters here in the US. Nobody could build the transmitters, antennas and studio gear fast enough to roll it out for 2001.
Also. The US developed it's own DTV standard. As Australia is a PAL country, they've probably adopted the european DTV system using the COFDM modulation. Not sure of the companies involved... probably Philips is a main one.
Part of the reason for a slower rollout here in the US is due to a debate over the modulation standard. COFDM vs. VSB8. Some broadcasters want receivers that can accept either thus adding delay to the designs and increasing the cost. To what end? My theory is that Sinclair Broadcasting wants COFDM for mobile applications (Data transmition anyone) That is probably worth more in revenue than the broadcasting of programs. Use a quarter of the bandwidth to broadcast a standard def program and use the other three quarters for some serious revenues for pagers and internet appliances.
I believe the Japaneese analog compression method is called MUSE. It was proposed to the US for a possible HDTV system back in the '80's I believe.
The FCC rules call for the new digital TV system to fit inside of the exsisting 6Mhz bandwidth. That means HDTV or SDTV must fit. With MPEG2 you can either place 4 Standard Definition or 1 HDTV program(s) in that space.
Being someone who works in broadcast television I can't tell you how depressing it is to put a lot of work into a project. See it in it's full 5+Mhz component bandwidth on a studio grade monitor and then see it later squished to around 2 or 3 Mhz of composite bandwidth. (Not to mention the multipath distortion) NTSC is an engineering marvel and I have great respect for the guys at RCA that were able to do it. But I can't wait for DTV and HDTV to finally make it into my market
I suggest everyone who is interested in this topic, to read a book called "Defining Vision" by Joel Brinkley. (Son of
famous broadcaster David Brinkley)
The book illustrates the birth of HDTV and the political process behind it. It is quite excellent.
I never had a screw fall out of an Atari 800. They were built like tanks. Atari was very concerned about the FCC approvals and had placed all of the electronics inside of cast metal boxes.
The 800's chipset was designed by the same person who designed the Amiga's chipset... which Commodore later bought.
The reason your school's Amiga kept crashing was that they bought the base Amiga 2000/Toaster bundle that had only a 7Mhz 68000 and only a few megs of memory. Lightwave was much happier with 10 or 20 Megs and a 68040.
Newtek did not buy the Amiga or Commodore. Do some searches to find out more information.
Later seasons of Bab5 were done on Windoze systems and Lightwave.
There were rendering engines that used Alpha processors and tied into the Amiga systems... Perhaps your school should have bought one of those.
What I want to know is, does Leo Schwab still wear a cape?
Also did any of you ex-amigans see the photos of the original Amiga prototype... I didn't think anyone knew what happened to it and I run into photos from the Atari Historical Society of it!!!!
If it means anything to you, I knew what you meant. I have money invested in Apple and I'm putting hope against hope that they do something wonderful in January.
I have bought 4 different 3dfx cards in the past 3 years. The last was a Voodoo 5 5500 for my Mac. I wast really impressed with the effort they were puting into the drivers. I thought it was a pretty safe investment. This is after I was burnt by iXmicro and their iX3d card that I spent nearly $600 on. Damn fast 2D but the 3D that they promised was a joke. I also have a stack of Amigas and Ataris sitting around here. Sigh...
This is the funnest thing I've read on Slashdot in twenty years. At this rate, I won't laugh until 2020. Hal?
I had a civics class taught by a veteran of WWII. He was a prisoner of war of the Japanese. He took the American flag and brought it before a ROTC kid in the class. He asked him what it was... Of course the student said, "It's the American Flag!". He stopped, and asked him again, "What is it made of?". "Well" the student said "It's a piece of cloth". At that point, the teacher dropped it on the floor. Some gasped at the gesture. "You have to burn it now, you've desecrated the Flag" the student said. The teacher just picked it up, brushed it off and asked the student "What's different about it now?". Nothing was different. He proved to us at that point the importance of the freedom of speech. The flag was just a symbol. But that teacher also showed us just how important that symbol is. You see, he was in the Bataan Death March. He would know more than any of us what the flag stands for. He was also a pilot during the Berlin Air Lift.
:)
I support a person's decision to burn the flag. It's that person's freedom of speech. But it's just my interpretation of the Constitution. It's up to us to vigilant and tell our representatives what we think!
BTW, I'm in Florida and I voted for Bush.
Scott
Paint Drone
>>And yes, I could ignore Amiga news, but it's just so much fun to rile you guys up!
:) Every once in awhile we need a jolt to remind ourselves what got us here.
Well, no harm done I suppose.
Actually, what I saw in the Amiga, wasn't so much the GUI. It was the elegance of how it all fit together. I felt comfortable digging into the thing. The Mac has a similar elegance, but it seems a bit distant. I still prefer that than troubleshooting Windows 96/98 based machines. I can do it, it's just a high level of frustration.