The OS you are looking for is called Windows Mobile. Its been around a pretty long time and does not restrict anything you put on it.
As for hardware, I am using an HTC Touch Pro on Sprint. Sprint has the cheapest, fastest internet and pretty good coverage as well. The also don't seem to mind if you tether your phone to your laptop.
There is also several great communities of developers and users devoted to getting all you can out of windows mobile devices. Then have gotten to the point where you can download a "kitchen" with a bunch of precanned programs that you pick and choose from. You then create your own customized firmware with the apps you selected. Its great. Or create you own applications.
Basically, you set up your own local differential GPS station that sits for a while and figures out its position to a very high degree of accuracy.
You then use very accurate devices capable of sub meter accuracy with time averaging and DGPS, and use the signal from the local station to get even better accuracy than that.
Getting accurate positions for surveying isn't that hard, since you can time average, add local DGPS stations and correct the data even after its been collected. You just need the gear.
Now if you want real time tracking with sub meter accuracy, that is very hard.
I graduated with a BS in Aerospace Engineering. I would consider myself as good an engineering programmer as anyone. I write number crunching codes on Unix, Linux, AIX or even Windows. I could even be a network administrator.
I didn't touch LaTeX with a 10 foot pole. No one in my department did. Even the High Performance Computing group people didn't use it.
The only people that I think would use LaTeX would be very computer savvy individuals, and only a very small subset of those. Basically, there is no way anyone that is not in a computer using field is going anywhere near LaTeX. And probably not even them.
I seem to be rambling. But back to the Academic / Technical distinction, I was thinking that all technical people could be considered academics, but I guess it didn't dawn on me the inverse is defiantly not true. Not all academics would be considered technical.
I am sure Microsoft has a system in place to collect and statistically analyze all of the automated bug/crash reports.
Looking at the trends in the data point to services and programs that are not at the level of stability they should be.
I am sure that is all Microsoft is getting of this public beta. And some pretty good press too.
The comment below sums up beta tests pretty accurately.
Beta tests are a free-for-all-bitch-fest...
The only bug reports software developers look at and act on are during the initial development / alpha phase. Probably not even then with software projects as big as a new Windows release.
What about their free version of Visual Studio? Does anything out else there even exist that even tries to come close to it?
What about Windows Mobile Live Search? It is hands down the best mobile search, map and gps program out there and its free.
Have you tried using maps.live.com? Its aerial imagery and isometric views are pretty damn good. Its addresses seem more up to date as well. I move every 2-3 years into new subdivisions and maps.live.com always lists my new address way before Google or Mapquest.
Just a few examples. But I really must re-iterate how good Mobile Live Search is.
FORTRAN - like physics problems about "how high does the baseball go when thrown at 1 meter per second", Fortran is a language you learn in college but never use in the real world.
You aren't serious, are you? Most number cruching codes in the world today are written in FORTRAN. Fluid dynamics, nuclear decay, particle interactions, structural mechanics, etc., the nuts and bolts of solving these problems is all done in FORTRAN.
The real problem with satellite radio is that since it competes mainly with free services (i.e. regular radio)...
I live in a christian fundi area of America (and i am not a christian fundi) and there is one station that I can listen to. Only one. There are many stations on satellite radio that I listen to, probably around 12 or so. That definitely makes the $10 a month worth it, for me, living in this area.
But if I was living in a more metropolitan area, I would have more free options, but there would still be some content on satellite radio that I couldn't get on terrestrial radio. And I would still be willing to pay the monthly fee for it. But that cost / benefit ratio is different for everyone.
What is really hurting the XM Sirius is that lack of new cars being sold. That was the largest growth area they had. Very few people retrofit existing vehicles with new stereos. Its a niche market.
I am pretty sure what they are referring to are satellites already at their desired orbit.
Once satellites reach their orbit, they don't just sit there. After some time the orbit can start to shift around, so satellites use very small station keeping thrusters.
Most of the time these thrusters are bi-props (MMH and NTO) that use the same tanks that were employed to feed the much larger main engine used to circularize the orbit.
But once the satellite is at orbit, you have a relatively small amount of fuel / ox left in a large, mostly empty tank. So you need some stuff in the tank to hold the enough fuel for a quick firing of a station keeping thruster.
This thruster firing occurs in a "weightless" environment. If there wasn't some apparatus to collect and hold fuel / ox, you could never fire a thruster, which in turn sloshes some fuel / ox around, which is captured by the apparatus, which can be used for the next firing... until there is just no more fuel / ox left and the satellite is "dead".
I believe it is the above set of circumstances he is referring to.
Why not just make a device that just sits there, is the size of a trashcan, generates 40kW of power no matter the time of day or time of month and require almost no maintenance. And last for a few years.
That is the idea behind the creation of this nuclear reactor. Make something as easy to use and reliable as an RTG, but create more power at a higher level of efficiency.
They will test the ability of the reactor packaging to generate energy from a heat source. The heat source doesn't have to be nuclear at this stage of development.
In a space environment, I believe the power output from them drops by 5% every year. Solar cells on earth don't degrade that quickly because they aren't exposed to the same amount of radiation.
Also, once the solar cells have degraded, thats it. You can't repair them, they must be replaced. A nuclear reactor could have new shipments of fuel sent up.
I am going to go out on a limb and state that the Segway has almost no real legitimate use.
A bike is way more agile, and is able to cover a much wider assortment of areas.
A bike is able to travel just as fast with little effort, and can travel faster if you want to put that much power into it.
A bike doesn't need batteries.
There are health benefits from this thing called "exercise."
Now if you are talking about a battery powered vehicle that can travel on a road and get you back and forth to work, sign me up. Otherwise its simply a toy.
This article is going to show the true hypocrisy of slashdot.
Normally, the slashdot community will agree with telling software companies to shove that EULA up their ass. But oh no, not with Apple. You bought the software, you agreed to Apple's terms, end of story.
Everyone should be gung ho behind this company, because it seems to have a really good chance to finally throw away EULAs.
There is no copying, no theft, no distribution, no anything. You buy software. You install it on one computer. You shouldn't be dragged into court for that.
I think the above posting was implying we will pay for learning the perils of nanotech with our health.
Industry pushed asbestos into many, many applications and used for decades before the dangers of it were understood.
I have a real concern that carbon nanotubes in particular may suffer from the same problems and will require good engineering to contain and mitigate the problems that MAY be present.
I am not saying we shouldn't use nanotech, but the dangers of them must be understood BEFORE widespread deployment.
Slashdot Mirror
The OS you are looking for is called Windows Mobile. Its been around a pretty long time and does not restrict anything you put on it.
As for hardware, I am using an HTC Touch Pro on Sprint. Sprint has the cheapest, fastest internet and pretty good coverage as well. The also don't seem to mind if you tether your phone to your laptop.
There is also several great communities of developers and users devoted to getting all you can out of windows mobile devices. Then have gotten to the point where you can download a "kitchen" with a bunch of precanned programs that you pick and choose from. You then create your own customized firmware with the apps you selected. Its great. Or create you own applications.
Check out http://www.ppcgeeks.com/
That is why surveyors buy surveyor GPS gear. The shit ain't cheap, but when you want centimeter accuracy, you have to buck up.
http://www.trimble.com/survey/GNSS-Surveying-Systems.aspx
Basically, you set up your own local differential GPS station that sits for a while and figures out its position to a very high degree of accuracy.
You then use very accurate devices capable of sub meter accuracy with time averaging and DGPS, and use the signal from the local station to get even better accuracy than that.
Getting accurate positions for surveying isn't that hard, since you can time average, add local DGPS stations and correct the data even after its been collected. You just need the gear.
Now if you want real time tracking with sub meter accuracy, that is very hard.
I graduated with a BS in Aerospace Engineering. I would consider myself as good an engineering programmer as anyone. I write number crunching codes on Unix, Linux, AIX or even Windows. I could even be a network administrator.
I didn't touch LaTeX with a 10 foot pole. No one in my department did. Even the High Performance Computing group people didn't use it.
The only people that I think would use LaTeX would be very computer savvy individuals, and only a very small subset of those. Basically, there is no way anyone that is not in a computer using field is going anywhere near LaTeX. And probably not even them.
I seem to be rambling. But back to the Academic / Technical distinction, I was thinking that all technical people could be considered academics, but I guess it didn't dawn on me the inverse is defiantly not true. Not all academics would be considered technical.
I would really like to hear your distinction between academic and technical people.
See the Wikipedia entry for Fox Huntsville, WZDX.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WZDX
Lots of small towns in the US already outsource their local news. The one FOX station in Huntsville, AL has its news produced somewhere in Iowa.
I sthink they have ome local people with cameras for clips, but the on air personalities are in Iowa.
I am sure Microsoft has a system in place to collect and statistically analyze all of the automated bug/crash reports.
Looking at the trends in the data point to services and programs that are not at the level of stability they should be.
I am sure that is all Microsoft is getting of this public beta. And some pretty good press too.
The comment below sums up beta tests pretty accurately.
Beta tests are a free-for-all-bitch-fest...
The only bug reports software developers look at and act on are during the initial development / alpha phase. Probably not even then with software projects as big as a new Windows release.
It looks like Microsoft is really taking some pointers from Apple.
Microsoft doesn't give away anything free?
What about their free version of Visual Studio? Does anything out else there even exist that even tries to come close to it?
What about Windows Mobile Live Search? It is hands down the best mobile search, map and gps program out there and its free.
Have you tried using maps.live.com? Its aerial imagery and isometric views are pretty damn good. Its addresses seem more up to date as well. I move every 2-3 years into new subdivisions and maps.live.com always lists my new address way before Google or Mapquest.
Just a few examples. But I really must re-iterate how good Mobile Live Search is.
FORTRAN - like physics problems about "how high does the baseball go when thrown at 1 meter per second", Fortran is a language you learn in college but never use in the real world.
You aren't serious, are you? Most number cruching codes in the world today are written in FORTRAN. Fluid dynamics, nuclear decay, particle interactions, structural mechanics, etc., the nuts and bolts of solving these problems is all done in FORTRAN.
The real problem with satellite radio is that since it competes mainly with free services (i.e. regular radio)...
I live in a christian fundi area of America (and i am not a christian fundi) and there is one station that I can listen to. Only one. There are many stations on satellite radio that I listen to, probably around 12 or so. That definitely makes the $10 a month worth it, for me, living in this area.
But if I was living in a more metropolitan area, I would have more free options, but there would still be some content on satellite radio that I couldn't get on terrestrial radio. And I would still be willing to pay the monthly fee for it. But that cost / benefit ratio is different for everyone.
What is really hurting the XM Sirius is that lack of new cars being sold. That was the largest growth area they had. Very few people retrofit existing vehicles with new stereos. Its a niche market.
I am pretty sure what they are referring to are satellites already at their desired orbit.
Once satellites reach their orbit, they don't just sit there. After some time the orbit can start to shift around, so satellites use very small station keeping thrusters.
Most of the time these thrusters are bi-props (MMH and NTO) that use the same tanks that were employed to feed the much larger main engine used to circularize the orbit.
But once the satellite is at orbit, you have a relatively small amount of fuel / ox left in a large, mostly empty tank. So you need some stuff in the tank to hold the enough fuel for a quick firing of a station keeping thruster.
This thruster firing occurs in a "weightless" environment. If there wasn't some apparatus to collect and hold fuel / ox, you could never fire a thruster, which in turn sloshes some fuel / ox around, which is captured by the apparatus, which can be used for the next firing... until there is just no more fuel / ox left and the satellite is "dead".
I believe it is the above set of circumstances he is referring to.
We need a new strategy for government spending. Simply picking the "lowest" cost proposal is driving the procurement process into litigation hell.
I am not sure what the answer is, but McCain's philosophy of wanting to get rid of cost plus contracts is definately not the way to go.
No company in their right mind would bid on a 40 billion dollar program.
1. Pony up and get this thing launched.
Absolutely.
2. Investigate how this happened so we can avoid overruns like this in the future.
I can give you the results of the investigation right now. Cost estimating billion dollar projects is impossible. Period.
Hmmm.... Not sure why you got modded funny.
Almost all computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis codes are written in fortran.
Wow. You sir are nothing but an Apple Apologist.
Fact of the matter is that Apple uses anti-competitive behavior in every thing they do. But its ok, because its Apple.
Why not just make a device that just sits there, is the size of a trashcan, generates 40kW of power no matter the time of day or time of month and require almost no maintenance. And last for a few years.
That is the idea behind the creation of this nuclear reactor. Make something as easy to use and reliable as an RTG, but create more power at a higher level of efficiency.
RTGs are ridiculously easy to use.
score +1, Sad But True...
They will test the ability of the reactor packaging to generate energy from a heat source. The heat source doesn't have to be nuclear at this stage of development.
Solar cells don't last forever.
In a space environment, I believe the power output from them drops by 5% every year. Solar cells on earth don't degrade that quickly because they aren't exposed to the same amount of radiation.
Also, once the solar cells have degraded, thats it. You can't repair them, they must be replaced. A nuclear reactor could have new shipments of fuel sent up.
"Players can get into the North American open beta by pre-ordering Warhammer Online from select retail partners."
How can it be called an "open beta" when you have to basically purchase the game?
I am going to go out on a limb and state that the Segway has almost no real legitimate use.
A bike is way more agile, and is able to cover a much wider assortment of areas.
A bike is able to travel just as fast with little effort, and can travel faster if you want to put that much power into it.
A bike doesn't need batteries.
There are health benefits from this thing called "exercise."
Now if you are talking about a battery powered vehicle that can travel on a road and get you back and forth to work, sign me up. Otherwise its simply a toy.
This article is going to show the true hypocrisy of slashdot.
Normally, the slashdot community will agree with telling software companies to shove that EULA up their ass. But oh no, not with Apple. You bought the software, you agreed to Apple's terms, end of story.
Everyone should be gung ho behind this company, because it seems to have a really good chance to finally throw away EULAs.
There is no copying, no theft, no distribution, no anything. You buy software. You install it on one computer. You shouldn't be dragged into court for that.
Well, considering the original post was written in a condescending and arrogant manner, I think the response fits just fine.
I think the above posting was implying we will pay for learning the perils of nanotech with our health.
Industry pushed asbestos into many, many applications and used for decades before the dangers of it were understood.
I have a real concern that carbon nanotubes in particular may suffer from the same problems and will require good engineering to contain and mitigate the problems that MAY be present.
I am not saying we shouldn't use nanotech, but the dangers of them must be understood BEFORE widespread deployment.