I don't think LPG is the alternative fuel of the future. The biggest reason is that LPG is made as a byproduct of either the extraction or refining process of gasoline (can't remember which right now). Taxis in Australia have been using LPG for over 10 years - that's pretty much 100% of taxis in every major city. I also have friends who run LPG. You can only tune the engine for one fuel, so you lose power with either petrol or LPG. Also, every car starts on petrol - even if running on LPG, so you still can't have an empty tank. Also, you use around twice as much LPG as regular fuel - ie. if you get 50 km/L, you will get 25km/L on LPG, so unless it's less than half the price of petrol (per litre), it's not worth coverting.
Except the changes between a regular car and an LPG car are: LPG tank, throttle body & intake manifold. It's not like you have to redesign the entire car.
I have the game running off a 15k rpm 18gig SCSI (Seagate cheetah) - with a adaptec scsi card and still have the stuttering problem. I have a similar system (p4 3.0, 1 gig dual channel, ATI Radeon 9600Pro 256mb, Winxp).
Although I admit it did get better after I disabled norton antivirus - but now I'm waiting half a second when it loads new textures rather than 1-2 seconds (and sometimes up to 5 seconds)
While I agree with your point regarding wild dolphins, from the article:
Fuji was stricken by a mysterious disease causing necrosis - the death of cells - in 2002. To save her life, veterinarians had to amputate three-quarters of her tail with an electronic surgical knife.
So it sounds like it was done intentionally while in captivity.
And today in the Monster Garage, we have Jesse James (distant relative to the famous outlaw) and his hand selected team. They have 5 days to rip, grind and burn and turn a 1988 Dodge pickup into the worlds fastest supercharged roadkill collector.
Jesse: "I want it to have guns. That would be cool."
If you are doing regular 300' dives, you are probably diving closed circuit. One of my friends puts one of those pencil shaped mp3 players in the exhaust tube of his Inspiration. He can hear it fine, but the problem is.. so can everyone else:(
I don't know about the previous versions, but I own a H340 which is similar to this PiMP player and they just appear as a HD - no software or drivers required.
Actually, I seriously looked at one these players around a month ago and I'm positive they were selling in the UK then, because online merchants (including Amazon) were saying they had stock. But in the end, I went for the smaller H340 music only player as these looked a little too big. Plus I'd spend all my life converting.avi's into the 320x160 (I think) format required for optimal viewing...
The biggest deposits of Helium in the world are in the US and so it is very cheap there. You're right about it not being very popular - the main uses are baloons, research and deep diving. However because it's not cost effective to extract from the air, when the supplies run out they are gone forever.
Some people say this could be in as little as 10 years. I prefer to think that the pice will keep rising so it's no longer cost effective to use helium. In any case, there is research going on in deep diving now for using gasses other than helium (hydrogen is one, the problem is it likes combining with oxygen too much)
There's no 'library on your computer'. The iRiver can use winamp playlists, but there's no piece of software that manages the music files for you. To get the music on the device, you connect it, it then appears as a new harddisk and you then copy the files over.
You can only really use other devices that need no drivers to work. If your camera appears as a HD when you plug it into a windows machine, then you can plug it directly into the iRiver. Otherwise, you need to get a card reader.
Once your device is connected, you go to a different menu on the iRiver that looks like a primative explorer, and use it to transfer files between the two devices. It's a bit clunky but as something that's not it's primary function, it works quite well.
If you put aside emotions for a minute and do a side-by-side comparison, the iRiver is much better than the iPod. The only thing the iPod maybe wins on is the user interface - and I've had absolutely no problems with my H340 iRiver.
But the thing that closed the deal for me? USB hosting. I no longer have to lug my laptop around on holiday because I can plug my camera into the iRiver and store the files on it's internal HD. All the colour screen, upgradable firmware, internal mic, radio, remote control, not needing custom software by appearing as just another drive, etc. is just icing on the cake.
I have never heard of one taking the driver along for the ride
In some ABS systems (older Bosch I think), I've heard of problems being reported where people have gone down a gradual slope covered in snow/ice. Under normal circumstances, you can lock the wheels and they dig in a little which stops the car. But in this case, the vehicles have been going less than 5mph and the ABS system will not let the wheels lock. The result is that the car gradually rolls down the slope and cannot stop even with full brakes applied.
Telstra have been putting solar powered public telephones in the Australian desert since the 70's. They are backed up by solar powered microwave stations every so often so it's completely wireless. It's also cheaper than running cables out into the desert for just a couple of phones..
I guess it all depends on what you are running on the processor.
I have run a 200 user performance test on a 4-way pentium 3 xenon with 512k L2 cache (this was nearly 4 years ago) VS the same system with 2mb of L2 cache. End user response time difference? Zero. Hardware Price difference? AUD$40k
Actually, you already need an oxygen license. Oxygen is actually a drug and to administer it to someone else, you need to have EMT or dotor/nurse training. Of course, there's nothing stopping you going to Linde gas and buying 50L of compressed O2 yourself, but if you give it to someone else and they die, you can be held responsable.
DAN (Divers Alert Network) offer a course on how to provide oxygen for scuba diving injures involving DCS. At the end of it you recieve a 'license' that says you know how to provide o2. Thing is, part of the course is the memorisation of a phrase along the lines of: "It has been demonstrated that oxygen could improve your condition. I am not offering this oxygen to you, but the regulator is working and I am leaving it here next to you".
I know, I know, you probably meant air (21% o2, 79% n2) when you said o2 above..
I have worked as an "automated testing specalist" for the last 7 years.
In my experience, automated functional testing is good for 1 situation: functional GUI regression testing on systems using a classic "waterfall model" setup where the GUI dosen't change much and there are more than about 3-4 releases per year.
In any other situation, you usually don't get the payback. The software is expensive (I use Mercury Interactive's Winrunner), often running into $100k range. The skill set required is quite specific - you can't just throw 12 arts student graduates at it and expect it to work (which is what happened to me for y2k testing). You need people with development and scripting skills, because it is a development effort. And developers frequently don't want to "lower" themselves to QA (where I don't want to lower myself to dev... heh)
Automated gui testing dosen't work with XP (tried it) or probably any other RAD approach where the gui is constantly changing. Also, an app needs to be a cerain size (or really really frequent release cycles) before it's worth automating. Sometimes it's cheaper and faster to hire test monkeys.
The biggest benefit I see with automated testing is with performance testing. The apps are still $100-150k (MI Loadrunner), but in most cases it's worth it. I can simulate 3000 users on a web server farm after writing a few scripts, making it as simple or as complicated as you like. You usally only write 10 scripts max so one person can finish the scripting in 2-6 weeks, depending on complexity. Compare this with functional testing which ideally needs at least 1 person full time per 100 test scripts, just to maintain/run/write new scripts/report bugs.
I work as a performance tester, and typically make more than your average coder (current rate is UKP50/hr or about US$90/hr, which is actually a little low at the moment but the job is walking distance from home).
Whats cheaper, getting me to write scripts for a couple of weeks then simulate a 3000 user test or pay 3000 users to come in on the weekend and test the system?
A few people have mentioned renting, but noone seems to have mentioned digibeta yet. If I was going to make a short, I would:
work on the script a bit more work on the script alot more finish working on the script (this is IMPORTANT) Plan how long I will need to shoot for Hire the actors Organise to hire a digibeta camera ( Note that this isn't anywhere near the first step) shoot edit.
People are too keen to start shooting. This can work sometimes, but 99.99% of the time you need to plan properly and have a script. But to answer your question, Id hire a digibeta camera. You will be able to attract better quality people if you aren't shooting on dv/dvcam
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That wouldn't be the Inspiration would it?
I don't think LPG is the alternative fuel of the future. The biggest reason is that LPG is made as a byproduct of either the extraction or refining process of gasoline (can't remember which right now).
Taxis in Australia have been using LPG for over 10 years - that's pretty much 100% of taxis in every major city. I also have friends who run LPG. You can only tune the engine for one fuel, so you lose power with either petrol or LPG. Also, every car starts on petrol - even if running on LPG, so you still can't have an empty tank. Also, you use around twice as much LPG as regular fuel - ie. if you get 50 km/L, you will get 25km/L on LPG, so unless it's less than half the price of petrol (per litre), it's not worth coverting.
Except the changes between a regular car and an LPG car are: LPG tank, throttle body & intake manifold. It's not like you have to redesign the entire car.
Although I admit it did get better after I disabled norton antivirus - but now I'm waiting half a second when it loads new textures rather than 1-2 seconds (and sometimes up to 5 seconds)
Fuji was stricken by a mysterious disease causing necrosis - the death of cells - in 2002. To save her life, veterinarians had to amputate three-quarters of her tail with an electronic surgical knife.
So it sounds like it was done intentionally while in captivity.
Jesse: "I want it to have guns. That would be cool."
Leia: "36"
Han: "Including me?"
Leia: "37"
Han: "37? YOU SUCKED 37 DICKS?"
If you are doing regular 300' dives, you are probably diving closed circuit. One of my friends puts one of those pencil shaped mp3 players in the exhaust tube of his Inspiration. :(
He can hear it fine, but the problem is.. so can everyone else
I guess firing off a few of these is just increasing the market value of non-radioactive steel. Time to do some salvage!
Actually, I seriously looked at one these players around a month ago and I'm positive they were selling in the UK then, because online merchants (including Amazon) were saying they had stock. But in the end, I went for the smaller H340 music only player as these looked a little too big. Plus I'd spend all my life converting .avi's into the 320x160 (I think) format required for optimal viewing...
Some people say this could be in as little as 10 years. I prefer to think that the pice will keep rising so it's no longer cost effective to use helium. In any case, there is research going on in deep diving now for using gasses other than helium (hydrogen is one, the problem is it likes combining with oxygen too much)
There's no 'library on your computer'. The iRiver can use winamp playlists, but there's no piece of software that manages the music files for you. To get the music on the device, you connect it, it then appears as a new harddisk and you then copy the files over.
Once your device is connected, you go to a different menu on the iRiver that looks like a primative explorer, and use it to transfer files between the two devices. It's a bit clunky but as something that's not it's primary function, it works quite well.
Plug in the device (or put it in the supplied cradle) and it appears as a HD. Perfect intergration.
And through USB hosting, I can copy my photos from my camera to my iRiver while on holiday.
But the thing that closed the deal for me? USB hosting. I no longer have to lug my laptop around on holiday because I can plug my camera into the iRiver and store the files on it's internal HD. All the colour screen, upgradable firmware, internal mic, radio, remote control, not needing custom software by appearing as just another drive, etc. is just icing on the cake.
In some ABS systems (older Bosch I think), I've heard of problems being reported where people have gone down a gradual slope covered in snow/ice. Under normal circumstances, you can lock the wheels and they dig in a little which stops the car. But in this case, the vehicles have been going less than 5mph and the ABS system will not let the wheels lock. The result is that the car gradually rolls down the slope and cannot stop even with full brakes applied.
Telstra have been putting solar powered public telephones in the Australian desert since the 70's. They are backed up by solar powered microwave stations every so often so it's completely wireless. It's also cheaper than running cables out into the desert for just a couple of phones..
I'm sure it will be as 'good' as star wars galaxies... *sigh*
I have run a 200 user performance test on a 4-way pentium 3 xenon with 512k L2 cache (this was nearly 4 years ago) VS the same system with 2mb of L2 cache. End user response time difference? Zero. Hardware Price difference? AUD$40k
They went with the 512k cache :)
The disadvantage of helium? We are running out.. Some say 10 years, but it's more like 20-30 probably
Actually, you already need an oxygen license. Oxygen is actually a drug and to administer it to someone else, you need to have EMT or dotor/nurse training. Of course, there's nothing stopping you going to Linde gas and buying 50L of compressed O2 yourself, but if you give it to someone else and they die, you can be held responsable.
DAN (Divers Alert Network) offer a course on how to provide oxygen for scuba diving injures involving DCS. At the end of it you recieve a 'license' that says you know how to provide o2. Thing is, part of the course is the memorisation of a phrase along the lines of: "It has been demonstrated that oxygen could improve your condition. I am not offering this oxygen to you, but the regulator is working and I am leaving it here next to you".
I know, I know, you probably meant air (21% o2, 79% n2) when you said o2 above..
In my experience, automated functional testing is good for 1 situation: functional GUI regression testing on systems using a classic "waterfall model" setup where the GUI dosen't change much and there are more than about 3-4 releases per year.
In any other situation, you usually don't get the payback. The software is expensive (I use Mercury Interactive's Winrunner), often running into $100k range. The skill set required is quite specific - you can't just throw 12 arts student graduates at it and expect it to work (which is what happened to me for y2k testing). You need people with development and scripting skills, because it is a development effort. And developers frequently don't want to "lower" themselves to QA (where I don't want to lower myself to dev... heh)
Automated gui testing dosen't work with XP (tried it) or probably any other RAD approach where the gui is constantly changing. Also, an app needs to be a cerain size (or really really frequent release cycles) before it's worth automating. Sometimes it's cheaper and faster to hire test monkeys.
The biggest benefit I see with automated testing is with performance testing. The apps are still $100-150k (MI Loadrunner), but in most cases it's worth it. I can simulate 3000 users on a web server farm after writing a few scripts, making it as simple or as complicated as you like. You usally only write 10 scripts max so one person can finish the scripting in 2-6 weeks, depending on complexity. Compare this with functional testing which ideally needs at least 1 person full time per 100 test scripts, just to maintain/run/write new scripts/report bugs.
Will the boxes be black?
Whats cheaper, getting me to write scripts for a couple of weeks then simulate a 3000 user test or pay 3000 users to come in on the weekend and test the system?
work on the script a bit more
work on the script alot more
finish working on the script (this is IMPORTANT)
Plan how long I will need to shoot for
Hire the actors
Organise to hire a digibeta camera ( Note that this isn't anywhere near the first step)
shoot
edit.
People are too keen to start shooting. This can work sometimes, but 99.99% of the time you need to plan properly and have a script.
But to answer your question, Id hire a digibeta camera. You will be able to attract better quality people if you aren't shooting on dv/dvcam