Until space has a serious market among non-government-backed customers, it will be subject to the political whims of the "how can we spend money on space when we have problems on Earth?" constituency. As much as I love and support space exploration for the purposes of scientific and engineering R&D, feeding at the public trough is a the greatest single point of failure for the development of space. It does not matter whether it is tourism, materials synthesis in zero-G, mineral extraction n the moon/asteroids, or power generation. Creating an environment in which consumers and corporation gladly pay for the fruits of space travel will be the key to creating a truly stable, non-bureaucratic flow of funds and a thriving industry that depends more on proving economic value than on lobbying politicians.
One of the articles I read (http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_WGA_Out age_Not_an_Outage/1188405961) suggested that if the server had actually gone down, then this would not have been a problem. The article, based on comments from Microsoft, suggested that WGA defaults to "genuine" if it can't reach the WGA server. So why didn't MSFT just kill the server to let people's software default to "genuine" instead of leaving the server connected with faulty software?
The issue here is the customer service costs (and loss of revenue). If an ISP cuts off a customer (rightfully or wrongfully), it's the ISP that pays for the irate calls from those customers and suffers from a loss of revenue. Even if the ISP uses an Indian call center, they still face several to tens of dollars in costs as the customer tries to determine why they were cut-off and how to regain service.
Assuming that people have a right to confront the accuser (AFACT), then shouldn't AFACT bear the labor costs of that confrontation?
Although this method will certainly help filter pranks and cranks, it won't help if the "consensus" among wikipedia authors is wrong. If a true expert edits a page, but the masses don't agree with the edit, they will undo the expert's addition and give the expert a low reputation. Thus, the trust rating becomes a tool for maintaining erroneous, but popular ideas.
That said, I can't help but believe that this tool is a net positive because it makes points of debate more visible. One could even argue that it literally highlights the frontiers of human knowledge. That is, high-trust (white) text is well known material and highlighted (orange) text represents contentious or uncertain conclusions.
It's a valid question. Companies put security cameras on the internet to enable remote recording and control. It lets the central office or outsourced security firm handle all the digital video and dispatch police/fire services from a cost-efficient central location. If you owned 100 convenience stores in 10 states, where would you put the security office and how would you link them?
Rather than build a dedicated hardwired telecom network, companies are using the internet to connect everything together (security systems, financial systems, medical records, industrial control, etc.) As we can see from this example, they think they've created their own virtual network (of some degree of privacy), but in practice, the system is extremely vulnerable. I'd bet that more than a few internet-connected security cameras run with factory-default passwords.
I had a Biology professor that could make multiple choice science tests that actually tested scientific reasoning skills (not just memory skills). He'd present the results of a single experiment and then offer a multiple statements that might (or might not) be derivable from the outcome of the experiment. The devilish part (and the part that tested reasoning versus memory) was that many of the statements would be true, but NOT derivable from the experiment. Students that memorized facts and picked the true statements based on their memory of those facts would get the answer wrong.
Of course, I suspect that the Brits want to turn science into a set of dumb facts, and that would be a shame because it misses the entire point of science.
I wonder to what extent current high capacity HDs owe their high power consumption to the needs of high performance (low access time and high bandwidth). But if a large flash cache (say 4-16 GB) buffers the HD, then the HD mechanism could be redesigned to a much lower spec. I'd bet that a ultraslow 300 RPM platter with a stepper-motor head (versus the 4200 to 7500 rpm platter + voice coil technology currently used) would provide adequate performance (and low power consumption) if flash handled the vast majority of accesses and high speed read-writes. The physical disk mechanism would only need to support a bandwidth of about 2-3 Mbytes/sec (for a sustained read of an HD video stream) and flash would provide the 80-150 MBytes/sec burst bandwidth to compete with current laptop drives. (Hardcore video editors wouldn't use this device, but then they wouldn't use most of the low-power laptops on the market anyway).
Just what the motoring public needs, another source of distraction. I can see it now. People will hack the fuzzy dice to do all sorts of amusing things, notice them while driving, and crash (physically, not in the software sense).
On the plus side, I would imagine this "feature" will get the device banned under California's no "entertainment" video displays in sight of the driver whilst the car is in motion.
It seems to me that a great many American's don't believe that evolution occurred. Confronting a candidate on this issue is more likely to boost support among these people than it is to erode support among people who already know that the target candidate is a throw-back to the 14th century. This might do more to energize the religious right if they get a bee in the bonnet over a perceived attack on their beliefs.
The pro-evolution camp might win the debate, by lose the election.
The mass is conserved, but the carbon is more concentrated (by mass) in wood than in CO2. A bit of basic chemistry will show that 44 grams of CO2 plus 18 grams of water yields 30 grams of cellulose (composed of COH2) plus 32 grams of O2. That gives a ratio of about 1.47 tons of CO2 per ton of cellulose. But if you factor in the non-cellulose components of wood such as water (about 15% in dry boards), mineral ash, lignin (a protein), etc. then the ratio drops to about 1.2.
I don't see how burying wood is better than using wood unless Woz finds another building material with a lower total footprint. Given that the footprint for wood is strongly negative (assuming a local plantation using sustainable techniques), I have a hard time thinking that he can find a better material (even rock has a positive footprint). Perhaps underground storage of wood offers a slightly better sequestration (near infinite versus 50-200 years for a home), but I doubt even this is true if you factor in the carbon footprint of build the cavern and the potential methane leaks from decomposing wood.
Woz can help remove CO2 from the atmosphere by using lots of wood or plant fiber (from local sustainably-managed plantations, of course). If each person on the planet used about 30 tons of wood or plant fiber for their house, it would return the Earth's atmosphere to it's pre-industrial level of CO2 (1 ton of wood sequesters roughly 1.2 tons of CO2). The only challenge (aside from growing enough wood) is termites which have a nasty habit of converting wood into CO2 and methane.
Although the article does not say so, I'd bet that creatures don't live for very long. All of high-resolution imaging systems that I'm familiar with concentrate so much light on the subject matter that the creature dies within minutes.
Just think of the physics. Most digital sensors need about 10,000 to 100,000 photon to register a full response (i.e, "white") and to see 30 frames per second, that's 300k to 3 million photons per second per pixel. At high resolution a single cell might be 100 pixels by 100 pixels. That means that the poor creature is being hit by 3 to 30 billion photons per second. Even if there's no UV and all heat is removed from the subject, visible light photons in a high enough flux rate will induce various photochemical reactions that damage DNA, denature proteins, and photo-oxidize cellular chemicals. Or to put in another way. consider the amount of light needed to image the average landscape and then concentrate it on a single cell. Even with high-gain amplifiers (= grainy, low-light pictures), the shear concentration of light means the creature doesn't last long.
1. Employees of a company all visit the ad of a competitor on their cellphones 2. They put all their cell phones in a box 3. A gopher takes the box of phones to the competitor's store, loiters for a few minutes, and comes back 4. UNprofit for the competitor as the pay-for-visit system deducts a bunch of money from the competitor's ad account
OK, its not very scalable, but it is amusing and will happen.
In other news, Radio Shack plans to sue all companies that put a circle-R after their name. "Their trademark symbol is exploiting our trademark symbol" said aggrieved lawyers for the retailer.
Does anyone know of a way to pause/restart someone else's running Javascript (in Firefox or Safari?) without reloading the page. I mostly browse with JS off, but occasionally turn it on for one site or another. But I'd like to be able to stop/pause JS after it starts (e.g., to pause an CPU-sucking JS animation loop or halt JS on a site where I unintentionally had JS on).
Although I can understand the "secure-by-default" ethos, it would seem to me that some people could leave the vulnerable service active because they only use their computer in firewalled physical LAN environment. Does this update come with a new preference panel entry to reenable this mDNS service?
IANAL, but perhaps all the shareholders of Apple stock can sue idiots such as this for any possible loss of the price of the stock or expenses of the company (which ever is greater). To the extent that frivolous litigation damages a public company, the shareholders would seem to have just cause for a class-action countersuit.
Lets think about what the Vista penetration SHOULD BE with a very conservative estimate. Assuming that the average person buys a new PC every 4 years (actual stats suggest the refresh rates are faster than this) and gets Vista with a new PC, Vista penetration should be at about 11% right now (and that assumes that NO ONE upgrades and total PC use is flat). If PC penetration is growing (which it is) or former XP users are upgrading (which I assume some are), then we'd expect even higher than 11% penetration by Vista. That Vista penetration is less that 1/3 these expectations suggests that all is not well with this OS launch. These numbers suggest that very very few people have upgraded from XP and that many people buying new PCs are avoiding Vista (confirmed by MSFT's announcement of higher-than expected XP sales into the coming years).
As much as I love new medical R&D, I think this on is probably a non-starter.
First, we'll ignore the risk of infection on the assumption that we're implanting a device anyway and its just a matter of what power source we pick for the implant. The most serious general problem would be blood clots that form on surfaces of the device. These pose a sever risk if they break-off, migrate downstream and cause heart attacks, strokes, or blockages in the lungs or extremities. Even drug-eluting stents (which are coated with anti-clotting drugs) have now been found to cause clotting after the drugs dissipate from the coating.
Then there are the mechanical/hydraulic problems associated with impaired blood flow (the upstream blood pressure will need to be higher that the downstream pressue -- that pressure differential times the flow rate defines the amount of power extracted). If implanted in an artery this device will increase the back pressure on the heart (leading to an enlarged, inefficient heart) and impair circulation on downstream side (increasing problems with infections and function). If implanted in an vein this device will impair circulation on upstream side and probably lead to fluid build-up on the upstream side.
Cool idea, but I doubt it's compatible with the human body.
The variation in color around the tubes shown in the photos seem to suggest that the color is angle-dependent (not surprising given the photonic crystal design). One would see a redder (longer-wavelength) when viewing straight on to the panel than from any angle to the side. This is NOT acceptable for most applications.
I do hope they can create angle-independence -- perhaps microlenses or shaping of the cell well would help in some way.
I predict this change will lead to more sites where all interaction and pacing is under the control of a designer, not the user. I can see it now:
PHB: "How can we get people to stay longer?" Eager-Beaver Designer: "Let's put everything in Flash, put fewer words per screen and longer pauses between new screens." PHB: "Great!"
My point is that I am a browser and I use a web browser. That means I want to browse. That means I want to be able to glance at something, make a quick decision, and control the movement to the next chunk of content.
This emphasis on viewing time will cause designers (and their bosses) to try anything they can think of to slow down the user.
It's ironic because most people, including some of the early posters, associate high-quality, high-price, extra virgin olive oil as being "more healthful" than the cheap stuff. I'd wager than more than few victims of HIV/AIDs are buying extra virgin oil on the news of the experimental result in hopes of stemming the progress of their illness.
It's ironic if oil extracted with chemical solvents is actually more beneficial than the pure, traditional, cold pressed oil.
Olive pomace is the left-over skins and fruit pulp for the first pressings of the olives. Secondary treatment of the pomace with steam and solvents extracts the residual oil and also extracts this seemingly beneficial oil/wax.
Ironically, the cheaper grades of olive oil probably have more of this oil.
I wonder if these things will reduce the number of hurricanes. It seems that strong hurricanes don't form in the presence of wind shear between surface and higher altitude winds. With enough of these things scattered across the ocean, the drag on low-level air masses should set up a shear condition that helps reduce the formation of intense hurricanes.
On the other hand, weather modification seems a dicey thing to try on our sample-size-of-one planet.
Slashdot Mirror
Until space has a serious market among non-government-backed customers, it will be subject to the political whims of the "how can we spend money on space when we have problems on Earth?" constituency. As much as I love and support space exploration for the purposes of scientific and engineering R&D, feeding at the public trough is a the greatest single point of failure for the development of space. It does not matter whether it is tourism, materials synthesis in zero-G, mineral extraction n the moon/asteroids, or power generation. Creating an environment in which consumers and corporation gladly pay for the fruits of space travel will be the key to creating a truly stable, non-bureaucratic flow of funds and a thriving industry that depends more on proving economic value than on lobbying politicians.
One of the articles I read (http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_WGA_Out age_Not_an_Outage/1188405961) suggested that if the server had actually gone down, then this would not have been a problem. The article, based on comments from Microsoft, suggested that WGA defaults to "genuine" if it can't reach the WGA server. So why didn't MSFT just kill the server to let people's software default to "genuine" instead of leaving the server connected with faulty software?
The issue here is the customer service costs (and loss of revenue). If an ISP cuts off a customer (rightfully or wrongfully), it's the ISP that pays for the irate calls from those customers and suffers from a loss of revenue. Even if the ISP uses an Indian call center, they still face several to tens of dollars in costs as the customer tries to determine why they were cut-off and how to regain service.
Assuming that people have a right to confront the accuser (AFACT), then shouldn't AFACT bear the labor costs of that confrontation?
Although this method will certainly help filter pranks and cranks, it won't help if the "consensus" among wikipedia authors is wrong. If a true expert edits a page, but the masses don't agree with the edit, they will undo the expert's addition and give the expert a low reputation. Thus, the trust rating becomes a tool for maintaining erroneous, but popular ideas.
That said, I can't help but believe that this tool is a net positive because it makes points of debate more visible. One could even argue that it literally highlights the frontiers of human knowledge. That is, high-trust (white) text is well known material and highlighted (orange) text represents contentious or uncertain conclusions.
It's a valid question. Companies put security cameras on the internet to enable remote recording and control. It lets the central office or outsourced security firm handle all the digital video and dispatch police/fire services from a cost-efficient central location. If you owned 100 convenience stores in 10 states, where would you put the security office and how would you link them?
Rather than build a dedicated hardwired telecom network, companies are using the internet to connect everything together (security systems, financial systems, medical records, industrial control, etc.) As we can see from this example, they think they've created their own virtual network (of some degree of privacy), but in practice, the system is extremely vulnerable. I'd bet that more than a few internet-connected security cameras run with factory-default passwords.
I had a Biology professor that could make multiple choice science tests that actually tested scientific reasoning skills (not just memory skills). He'd present the results of a single experiment and then offer a multiple statements that might (or might not) be derivable from the outcome of the experiment. The devilish part (and the part that tested reasoning versus memory) was that many of the statements would be true, but NOT derivable from the experiment. Students that memorized facts and picked the true statements based on their memory of those facts would get the answer wrong.
Of course, I suspect that the Brits want to turn science into a set of dumb facts, and that would be a shame because it misses the entire point of science.
I wonder to what extent current high capacity HDs owe their high power consumption to the needs of high performance (low access time and high bandwidth). But if a large flash cache (say 4-16 GB) buffers the HD, then the HD mechanism could be redesigned to a much lower spec. I'd bet that a ultraslow 300 RPM platter with a stepper-motor head (versus the 4200 to 7500 rpm platter + voice coil technology currently used) would provide adequate performance (and low power consumption) if flash handled the vast majority of accesses and high speed read-writes. The physical disk mechanism would only need to support a bandwidth of about 2-3 Mbytes/sec (for a sustained read of an HD video stream) and flash would provide the 80-150 MBytes/sec burst bandwidth to compete with current laptop drives. (Hardcore video editors wouldn't use this device, but then they wouldn't use most of the low-power laptops on the market anyway).
Just what the motoring public needs, another source of distraction. I can see it now. People will hack the fuzzy dice to do all sorts of amusing things, notice them while driving, and crash (physically, not in the software sense).
On the plus side, I would imagine this "feature" will get the device banned under California's no "entertainment" video displays in sight of the driver whilst the car is in motion.
It seems to me that a great many American's don't believe that evolution occurred. Confronting a candidate on this issue is more likely to boost support among these people than it is to erode support among people who already know that the target candidate is a throw-back to the 14th century. This might do more to energize the religious right if they get a bee in the bonnet over a perceived attack on their beliefs.
The pro-evolution camp might win the debate, by lose the election.
The mass is conserved, but the carbon is more concentrated (by mass) in wood than in CO2. A bit of basic chemistry will show that 44 grams of CO2 plus 18 grams of water yields 30 grams of cellulose (composed of COH2) plus 32 grams of O2. That gives a ratio of about 1.47 tons of CO2 per ton of cellulose. But if you factor in the non-cellulose components of wood such as water (about 15% in dry boards), mineral ash, lignin (a protein), etc. then the ratio drops to about 1.2.
I don't see how burying wood is better than using wood unless Woz finds another building material with a lower total footprint. Given that the footprint for wood is strongly negative (assuming a local plantation using sustainable techniques), I have a hard time thinking that he can find a better material (even rock has a positive footprint). Perhaps underground storage of wood offers a slightly better sequestration (near infinite versus 50-200 years for a home), but I doubt even this is true if you factor in the carbon footprint of build the cavern and the potential methane leaks from decomposing wood.
Woz can help remove CO2 from the atmosphere by using lots of wood or plant fiber (from local sustainably-managed plantations, of course). If each person on the planet used about 30 tons of wood or plant fiber for their house, it would return the Earth's atmosphere to it's pre-industrial level of CO2 (1 ton of wood sequesters roughly 1.2 tons of CO2). The only challenge (aside from growing enough wood) is termites which have a nasty habit of converting wood into CO2 and methane.
Although the article does not say so, I'd bet that creatures don't live for very long. All of high-resolution imaging systems that I'm familiar with concentrate so much light on the subject matter that the creature dies within minutes.
Just think of the physics. Most digital sensors need about 10,000 to 100,000 photon to register a full response (i.e, "white") and to see 30 frames per second, that's 300k to 3 million photons per second per pixel. At high resolution a single cell might be 100 pixels by 100 pixels. That means that the poor creature is being hit by 3 to 30 billion photons per second. Even if there's no UV and all heat is removed from the subject, visible light photons in a high enough flux rate will induce various photochemical reactions that damage DNA, denature proteins, and photo-oxidize cellular chemicals. Or to put in another way. consider the amount of light needed to image the average landscape and then concentrate it on a single cell. Even with high-gain amplifiers (= grainy, low-light pictures), the shear concentration of light means the creature doesn't last long.
1. Employees of a company all visit the ad of a competitor on their cellphones
2. They put all their cell phones in a box
3. A gopher takes the box of phones to the competitor's store, loiters for a few minutes, and comes back
4. UNprofit for the competitor as the pay-for-visit system deducts a bunch of money from the competitor's ad account
OK, its not very scalable, but it is amusing and will happen.
In other news, Radio Shack plans to sue all companies that put a circle-R after their name. "Their trademark symbol is exploiting our trademark symbol" said aggrieved lawyers for the retailer.
Does anyone know of a way to pause/restart someone else's running Javascript (in Firefox or Safari?) without reloading the page. I mostly browse with JS off, but occasionally turn it on for one site or another. But I'd like to be able to stop/pause JS after it starts (e.g., to pause an CPU-sucking JS animation loop or halt JS on a site where I unintentionally had JS on).
Any ideas? Thanks.
Although I can understand the "secure-by-default" ethos, it would seem to me that some people could leave the vulnerable service active because they only use their computer in firewalled physical LAN environment. Does this update come with a new preference panel entry to reenable this mDNS service?
IANAL, but perhaps all the shareholders of Apple stock can sue idiots such as this for any possible loss of the price of the stock or expenses of the company (which ever is greater). To the extent that frivolous litigation damages a public company, the shareholders would seem to have just cause for a class-action countersuit.
Lets think about what the Vista penetration SHOULD BE with a very conservative estimate. Assuming that the average person buys a new PC every 4 years (actual stats suggest the refresh rates are faster than this) and gets Vista with a new PC, Vista penetration should be at about 11% right now (and that assumes that NO ONE upgrades and total PC use is flat). If PC penetration is growing (which it is) or former XP users are upgrading (which I assume some are), then we'd expect even higher than 11% penetration by Vista. That Vista penetration is less that 1/3 these expectations suggests that all is not well with this OS launch. These numbers suggest that very very few people have upgraded from XP and that many people buying new PCs are avoiding Vista (confirmed by MSFT's announcement of higher-than expected XP sales into the coming years).
As much as I love new medical R&D, I think this on is probably a non-starter.
First, we'll ignore the risk of infection on the assumption that we're implanting a device anyway and its just a matter of what power source we pick for the implant. The most serious general problem would be blood clots that form on surfaces of the device. These pose a sever risk if they break-off, migrate downstream and cause heart attacks, strokes, or blockages in the lungs or extremities. Even drug-eluting stents (which are coated with anti-clotting drugs) have now been found to cause clotting after the drugs dissipate from the coating.
Then there are the mechanical/hydraulic problems associated with impaired blood flow (the upstream blood pressure will need to be higher that the downstream pressue -- that pressure differential times the flow rate defines the amount of power extracted). If implanted in an artery this device will increase the back pressure on the heart (leading to an enlarged, inefficient heart) and impair circulation on downstream side (increasing problems with infections and function). If implanted in an vein this device will impair circulation on upstream side and probably lead to fluid build-up on the upstream side.
Cool idea, but I doubt it's compatible with the human body.
The variation in color around the tubes shown in the photos seem to suggest that the color is angle-dependent (not surprising given the photonic crystal design). One would see a redder (longer-wavelength) when viewing straight on to the panel than from any angle to the side. This is NOT acceptable for most applications.
I do hope they can create angle-independence -- perhaps microlenses or shaping of the cell well would help in some way.
I predict this change will lead to more sites where all interaction and pacing is under the control of a designer, not the user. I can see it now:
PHB: "How can we get people to stay longer?"
Eager-Beaver Designer: "Let's put everything in Flash, put fewer words per screen and longer pauses between new screens."
PHB: "Great!"
My point is that I am a browser and I use a web browser. That means I want to browse. That means I want to be able to glance at something, make a quick decision, and control the movement to the next chunk of content.
This emphasis on viewing time will cause designers (and their bosses) to try anything they can think of to slow down the user.
It's ironic because most people, including some of the early posters, associate high-quality, high-price, extra virgin olive oil as being "more healthful" than the cheap stuff. I'd wager than more than few victims of HIV/AIDs are buying extra virgin oil on the news of the experimental result in hopes of stemming the progress of their illness.
It's ironic if oil extracted with chemical solvents is actually more beneficial than the pure, traditional, cold pressed oil.
Olive pomace is the left-over skins and fruit pulp for the first pressings of the olives. Secondary treatment of the pomace with steam and solvents extracts the residual oil and also extracts this seemingly beneficial oil/wax.
Ironically, the cheaper grades of olive oil probably have more of this oil.
I wonder if these things will reduce the number of hurricanes. It seems that strong hurricanes don't form in the presence of wind shear between surface and higher altitude winds. With enough of these things scattered across the ocean, the drag on low-level air masses should set up a shear condition that helps reduce the formation of intense hurricanes.
On the other hand, weather modification seems a dicey thing to try on our sample-size-of-one planet.