Our technology can create 120W per square inch of materal given the assumption that there is that much energy to be absorbed - thus you can make a small quantity of our material, then feed it with a large number of cheap mirrors, thus reducing the total cost.
Or perhaps this was a transposition error, and they meant to say "120W per square meter" and somebody got confused.
Or perhaps this is all bullshit and these guys have nothing special.
The problem with a statement like "We need a Free BIOS" is exactly what you mean by "BIOS".
There are two extremes to the schools of thought on this.
The first is the minimalist: The BIOS is just enough code to put the machine into a state where it can load the real OS, and once the real OS is loaded the BIOS is no longer relevant. At a minimum this code would just set up the basics of the machine, and then load some section of the hard disk into memory and jump to it.
The second is the maximalist: The BIOS should provide abstract access to all hardware so that the OS does not have to have drivers. The BIOS would provide routines for the disk controller, video, human interface systems (mouse/keyboard/etc.), memory control, system control, you name it. The OS would never get its hands dirty accessing real hardware.
Both of these approaches have problems. The Minimalist approach means the OS has to support all hardware - which is the lament those of us who don't run Microsoft operating systems will sometimes have. If your OS does not know about your shiny new FooCard then you are out of luck. In the ideal Maximalist case, the BIOS would supply routines to access all the functions of the FooCard and your OS would Just Work no matter what.
However, the problem with the ideal Maximalist approach is that desiging a BIOS API that will work with all operating systems is HARD. Your BIOS has to have a means of calling back into the OS (since real, non-trivial drivers need to have things like semaphores, queues, interrupt handlers, rescheduling points, etc.), but then you have to insure that all operating systems supply all those APIs with the same semantics.
Now, ask yourself, if you designed a BIOS callback API around the Windows semantics (drivers cannot block, drivers must schedule a deferred procedure call if they cannot complete, drivers cannot cause a page fault to swap) how different it would be from a Unix-y style callback (drivers can block, drivers can pagefault from swap, drivers run til they are done).
The current thoughts are "The OS knows best what to do, let the OS have the drivers".
Now, in the context of a Free driver, you have to decide where between the Minimalist and the Maximalist you want to draw the line. Do you want to force the OS to have the code to set up the memory handlers and PCI bridges, for example? If the OS can handle reprogramming the PCI bridges it sure makes PCI hotplugging a great deal easier!
If you look at the LinuxBIOS approach, it is more of a maximalist approach targeting the Linux kernel. This is great if you run Linux, but what if you want to run *BSD, or Windows, or CP/M-86?
It would be possible, barely, to do like my old Multia did - provide BOTH a Windows friendly BIOS and a *nix friendly BIOS, and a means to switch between them. But now you've just doubled (actually more than doubled) the work for a system manufacturer - he has to write a BIOS for Windows, a BIOS for Linux, an BIOS for NetBSD....
"Just publish the specs, and we will write the driver!"
Again, publishing all the specs is hard - there's always that little "Oh yeah, we found that if the temp is less than 5C you have to wait an additional 50uS for this part to respond to a query - it's not intended behavior but it is observed behavior, Charlie found that out."
And even if you can completely document all the specs, there is still the little issue of "How do I, the end user, get the BIOS for *my* OS flashed onto this board?" - if you think the manufacturers are going to flash boards with seventeen different BIOSes depending upon the customers whims... I have some oceanfront property in Goddard, KS to sell you.
Then there is the issue of add-in cards - how do you integrate any BIOS they may have on them into the BIOS on your motherboard?
Now, I know somebody will point out OpenFirmware - the idea that the cards provide drivers in a bytecoded language targeting an API
I am NOT a physician, but I do design test equipment - so metrology (the science of measurement) is something near and dear to me.
I have a thermometer at home (old-school, alcohol filled glass tube). I also have a sphygmomamometer (one of the old-school types - cuff, dial, stethoscope).
Now, if my thermometer shows me running a bit hot, or if my sphygmomamometer shows me running a bit high, am I going to get terribly excited?
No, because I have NO IDEA what the calibration states of those instruments are - they could be dead nuts on, or wildly off. The only thing I will even REMOTELY trust is relative measurements - if the themometer shows me a degree higher than it normally does, then that may be significant. If my BP is 10mmHg higher than normal (controlling for situation), that may be significant.
But then again, while I have an idea how to run a sphygmomamometer, I am not trained to run one - and so my measurements have a built-in error factor.
I would trust one of those Wal-Mart sphygmomamometers about as far as I could throw it for absolute accuracy - I'd want to talk to my doc (or more likely his nurses) to find out how they calibrate their gear, and check the calibration.
But like I said - I build test equipement for a living - metrology is my livelihood.
The big issue with QoS is that your ISP also has to support it, or you don't get the benefit of it.
Consider the case of downloading a big file, and trying to do VOIP. The incoming VOIP packets and the incoming download packets hit your ISPs router.
Now, unless the bandwidth between you and your ISP's router is larger than the bandwidth between your ISP's router and the rest of the world, there will be an outstanding queue of packets to be sent from the router to your computer. If the router does not honor the QoS bits of the incoming packets, and send the VOIP packets first, then your VOIP will be choppy, even though your router is sending all outbound VOIP packets out first.
Moreover, even if your ISP supports QoS, if the machine generating those packets does not set the QoS bits correctly, there will be no way for your ISP's router to assign meaningful priorities - so even though you've tweaked your system to set the QoS on outbound packets correctly, if you are talking to Aunt Tillie, and her computer is not setting the QoS bits, then the incoming traffic will not be sorted correctly.
For example - I always have a bitch of a time donating blood, because I usually run a little hot - 99.2 F. That's my normal temperature - and too many health professionals forget that the original studies that determined body temp were done in Celcius, and were accurate to a degree ( have you ever wondered why 98.6 F = 37.0 C? Because the measurement was done in Celcius first, then converted).
You have to have the background data - what is normal for the patient - in order to really judge what is going on.
This is ALSO why it is SO important to NOT go doctor-shopping - the new doc won't have the accumulated data on you.
Another example - my 94 year old great-aunt has "high" blood pressure - and every doc she sees feels it is his sworn duty to lower it. Of course, when they get her BP where they want it, she is unsteady on her feet, will get dizzy standing up (postural hypotension), and will lose what little mental acuity she has (Alzheimers is a bitch!). These docs seem to forget that it is not unnatural for a 94 year old to have a higher pressure than a 30 year old!
This probably WON'T work, for the same reason he cannot use Samba over normal Ethernet.
Most VPN clients, in order to protect the network you are VPN'ing into, will shut down all other connections - they set the VPN interface to be the default route, and then they remove any other routes.
So doing IP over Firewire will work, right up to the time the VPN client kills it.
I'd suggest finding a small Linksys/Dlink (but NOT BELKIN) router that has Cisco VPN client support - the router will handle the VPN, and you can plug both your Mac and your PC into it.
Most games have several potential threads running at once:
Graphics rendering
Sound rendering (compositing the various sounds together, and playing music)
Game logic (monster AI, object movement, physics model)
User input monitoring
Network processing
An SMP system can greatly benefit a game designed to be truly multithreaded.
Even if the game is NOT designed to be multithreaded, there is the fact that one core can be running the game, while the other core handles interrupts, operating system processing, and other tasks.
The days of your computer doing only one thing at a time are long gone.
Assume you were to use an OpenGL based window manager, wherein each window on your screen is little more than a polygon with a texture applied to it.
Assume you are working at 1600x1200 resolution, 24 bit color depth (padded to 32 bits for possible alpha channel).
Your frame buffer alone takes 7.3 MiBytes.
If you have a 32 bit Z buffer, add another 7.3 MiBytes.
Each 2D window in use will consume texture memory, so if we assume that the remaining 497.4 MiBytes of memory on the card as window memory, that lets us open roughly 68 full-screen windows before consuming all texture memory on the card.
If some of the windows are 3D windows themselves, you are going to want them to have their own Zbuffers - so double the memory usage for them.
While 68 windows may sound like a lot, given that most GL compositing schemes I've heard of want to keep ALL windows available, even if they are not mapped, to avoid expose events to the apps and to speed window open and close events, and I could see you getting to 30 windows pretty easily. Allowing double that for headroom doesn't seem like so bad an idea to me.
Agreed. Can we set up a Paypal donation link to pay to have something terrible happen to the person who came up with this idea? like his internal organs being used as a stunt on Fear Factor?
Yes, I did buy a pcHDTV2000 card, more on general principles than anything else, but my overall attitude on the broadcast flag can be summed up in two words:
Screw them.
If the broadcasters insist upon making me not the master of my TV, PVR, and DVD player, then I shall not consume their product - I'll read a book, I'll work on my car/computer/house/physique, and generally be better off than I am now.
The manufacturers of HDTV sets aren't seeing quite the volume they want - guess what guys, if you continue to make things less friendly to the consumer they will not consume as much!
Perhaps we shall see a rise of "GPL TV" - people creating shows for download (Considering the success of Homestar Runner, this may not be as far-fetched as we might think). Imagine - a Star Dreck^WTrek that has somewhat sensible science and stories! A rendition of Starship Troopers that is actually faithful to RAH's vision!
But no matter what - if my TV does not recognize me as its lord and master, then it shall be summarily expelled from my castle.
Is the BSA stepping up its efforts elsewhere as it is in Wichita, KS?
They've been running SCADLOADS of commercials on the local radio stations - the standard "Piracy is a crime - this is a nice business, it would be a shame if anything were to happen to it, say a disgruntled employee were to snitch on you (by calling 1-888-MESNITCH). You should call us for insurance on your software" commercials.
Is this just a local thing, or is this a part of an increased campaign of extortion nationwide?
The fact that the results are in a PDF file is somewhat ominous, given that this is a group dedicated to the purpose of predicting the future of the Internet.
So, instead of posting their results in a form that is easily browsed, cross-linked, and generally made a part of the Internet, they use a format which has as its primary claim to fame the ability to be printed out.
Perhaps I am just grouchy because I am still working on my morning coffee, but it would seem to me the future of the Internet looks like a lot of proprietary file formats locked up behind walls of DRM.
Given that, if the stock price of SCO falls, they could be the victim of a takeover, and give who might find it useful to own the right to cause trouble for IBM, visualize this:
Scene: SCO HQ, Lindon Daryl McBride is leaving work, when suddenly, the door bursts open. Standing there, fashion by JiffyPop and hair by Dairy Queen, is Bill Gates, who begins to sing:
McBride You Lier It's All Over! Your Lawsuit is a failure Your retoric too extreme! I'm your new co-owner You now are my pensioner You sentenced to federal prison PRE-PARE THE VASOLINE!
Daryl: Wait! I can explain! (turns to his aides, and says sotto voice) "You - get the purple source code light! You - get the fuck out of here. I've got to get my shit together"
(with apologies to Richard O'Brian and RHPS fans everywhere.)
First of all: Given we are talking about how wonderful this new tech is, how much contrast it hat - how about some contrast on the freaking article! Come on, grey text on a white background? Obviously we now know where some of the layout people from Wired Magazine went.
Second of all: The pictures in the article look too damn good - I smell retouch. If you want to convice me of the value of this technology, you need to show me a movie of the produce in use, as the camera moves around the room. After all, I can take your average rear-projection TV and make it look fabulous, IF I pick the camera angle to maximize the brightness of the screen. But as anybody who has ever looked at a rear projection TV knows, the "sweet spot" of the image is very narrow, and if you leave it, the image fades tremendously.
Third of all: The single biggest cause of loss-of-contrast on a light sourcing display, be it a projector or a CRT, is the fact that the light in the room is reflected from the screen, making the blacks of the image not black. Now, this display may be wonderful at redirecting the light from the projector, but if the "glass" is clear, and the wall behind it is NOT black, then the blackest the image can be is the color of the wall behind it. If you wanted to truly get deep blacks, you would need to put something like black velvet behind the glass, to absorb the ambient light.
Fourth of all: Back to the viewing angle issue: holographic techniques usually are VERY angle sensitive - the diffraction grating allows light from a very specific angle to be redirected to a very specific angle. Is this image REALLY viewable from more than one or two places in the room?
Summary of your technique: Declare various global variables. Save game state into them. On Save Game, write block of memory out.
How can this fail, let me count the ways:
Layout of global section can change from link to link due to project changes, thus making saves version dependant.
Non-save game global data can exist between save items, bloating save file.
You can get the size of the save block wrong, and end up not saving the data you need. e.g. you use &foo and &bar as your start and end pointers, but due to a change there are variables after &bar that need to be saved.
If the items you are saving become full-blown objects with compiler generated information (virtual function tables) you are overwriting that data with possibly incorrect data.
No error checking in file - so a recovered file may screw the game up.
And that's just what I can come up with before my morning coffee.
Look, I disagree with your instructer about "global variables are NEVER needed" - what, then are stdout/stderr/stdin/cout/cin/cerr, if not global variables?
However, global variables are like salt - a little may be needed, but too much will raise your blood pressure.
Again, this is before my morning coffee, but here's a couple of techniques that are better:
Define a function to allocate a block of "saved space" - sort of a "save_malloc()" function. Allocate the objects you wish to save via that function. In that function, you grab a block of N bytes at initialization, you initialize an end pointer, and you "malloc" by moving the end pointer (no freeing allowed). You now know exactly what you need to save. You can also write a version # at the beginning of the file, and you can compute a checksum of the data. For OO types, you can fancy this up by writing a "Save_game" base class, and implementing new() for that base class.
The more OO approach: Implement a "Save_game" base class. The base class implements a linked-list, with a static member as the head pointer. The class has Register/Deregister functions, and a pure virtual Size() method. Derived classes implement Size() { return sizeof(*this);} and call Register in their ctor. To save game, walk the list. This also allows you to save the size of the object (even better if you use RTTI, you can save the actual type of the object), and to checksum each object.
The summary of the article (and many of the comments) would have you believe this is a potential "cure for cancer".
Melanoma is a subset of the set of all cancers - specifically, it is a form of skin cancer - more specifically, it is a cancer formed from the skin cells that give skin its pigmentation.
Melanoma is NOT *all cancers* - thus even if this modified virus will kill 100% of all melanomas and have 0% harmful side-effects this does NOT make it a "cure for cancer" - merely a "cure for a type of cancer".
The will need to generalize this virus to attack ALL cancerous cells, and NOT to attack any other cells.
Now, if you can work out how a virus can tell the difference between a cancerous cell and a normal but rapidly reproducing cell, you have a Nobel prize awaiting.
Would you buy designer grass that grows two inches and stops?
I already did - it is called "Buffalo grass", and is a native grass of the midwestern region. Once established, it needs little water, and will not grow very tall.
In this particular case, there is little need for gengineering, just for people to realize that the brilliant green of fescue grass is not needed, and the more muted green of buffalo is just as good.
Slashdot Mirror
Or perhaps this was a transposition error, and they meant to say "120W per square meter" and somebody got confused.
Or perhaps this is all bullshit and these guys have nothing special.
The problem with a statement like "We need a Free BIOS" is exactly what you mean by "BIOS".
There are two extremes to the schools of thought on this.
The first is the minimalist: The BIOS is just enough code to put the machine into a state where it can load the real OS, and once the real OS is loaded the BIOS is no longer relevant. At a minimum this code would just set up the basics of the machine, and then load some section of the hard disk into memory and jump to it.
The second is the maximalist: The BIOS should provide abstract access to all hardware so that the OS does not have to have drivers. The BIOS would provide routines for the disk controller, video, human interface systems (mouse/keyboard/etc.), memory control, system control, you name it. The OS would never get its hands dirty accessing real hardware.
Both of these approaches have problems. The Minimalist approach means the OS has to support all hardware - which is the lament those of us who don't run Microsoft operating systems will sometimes have. If your OS does not know about your shiny new FooCard then you are out of luck. In the ideal Maximalist case, the BIOS would supply routines to access all the functions of the FooCard and your OS would Just Work no matter what.
However, the problem with the ideal Maximalist approach is that desiging a BIOS API that will work with all operating systems is HARD . Your BIOS has to have a means of calling back into the OS (since real, non-trivial drivers need to have things like semaphores, queues, interrupt handlers, rescheduling points, etc.), but then you have to insure that all operating systems supply all those APIs with the same semantics.
Now, ask yourself, if you designed a BIOS callback API around the Windows semantics (drivers cannot block, drivers must schedule a deferred procedure call if they cannot complete, drivers cannot cause a page fault to swap) how different it would be from a Unix-y style callback (drivers can block, drivers can pagefault from swap, drivers run til they are done).
The current thoughts are "The OS knows best what to do, let the OS have the drivers".
Now, in the context of a Free driver, you have to decide where between the Minimalist and the Maximalist you want to draw the line. Do you want to force the OS to have the code to set up the memory handlers and PCI bridges, for example? If the OS can handle reprogramming the PCI bridges it sure makes PCI hotplugging a great deal easier!
If you look at the LinuxBIOS approach, it is more of a maximalist approach targeting the Linux kernel. This is great if you run Linux, but what if you want to run *BSD, or Windows, or CP/M-86?
It would be possible, barely, to do like my old Multia did - provide BOTH a Windows friendly BIOS and a *nix friendly BIOS, and a means to switch between them. But now you've just doubled (actually more than doubled) the work for a system manufacturer - he has to write a BIOS for Windows, a BIOS for Linux, an BIOS for NetBSD....
"Just publish the specs, and we will write the driver!"
Again, publishing all the specs is hard - there's always that little "Oh yeah, we found that if the temp is less than 5C you have to wait an additional 50uS for this part to respond to a query - it's not intended behavior but it is observed behavior, Charlie found that out."
And even if you can completely document all the specs, there is still the little issue of "How do I, the end user, get the BIOS for *my* OS flashed onto this board?" - if you think the manufacturers are going to flash boards with seventeen different BIOSes depending upon the customers whims... I have some oceanfront property in Goddard, KS to sell you.
Then there is the issue of add-in cards - how do you integrate any BIOS they may have on them into the BIOS on your motherboard?
Now, I know somebody will point out OpenFirmware - the idea that the cards provide drivers in a bytecoded language targeting an API
I am NOT a physician, but I do design test equipment - so metrology (the science of measurement) is something near and dear to me.
I have a thermometer at home (old-school, alcohol filled glass tube). I also have a sphygmomamometer (one of the old-school types - cuff, dial, stethoscope).
Now, if my thermometer shows me running a bit hot, or if my sphygmomamometer shows me running a bit high, am I going to get terribly excited?
No, because I have NO IDEA what the calibration states of those instruments are - they could be dead nuts on, or wildly off. The only thing I will even REMOTELY trust is relative measurements - if the themometer shows me a degree higher than it normally does, then that may be significant. If my BP is 10mmHg higher than normal (controlling for situation), that may be significant.
But then again, while I have an idea how to run a sphygmomamometer, I am not trained to run one - and so my measurements have a built-in error factor.
I would trust one of those Wal-Mart sphygmomamometers about as far as I could throw it for absolute accuracy - I'd want to talk to my doc (or more likely his nurses) to find out how they calibrate their gear, and check the calibration.
But like I said - I build test equipement for a living - metrology is my livelihood.
The big issue with QoS is that your ISP also has to support it, or you don't get the benefit of it.
Consider the case of downloading a big file, and trying to do VOIP. The incoming VOIP packets and the incoming download packets hit your ISPs router.
Now, unless the bandwidth between you and your ISP's router is larger than the bandwidth between your ISP's router and the rest of the world, there will be an outstanding queue of packets to be sent from the router to your computer. If the router does not honor the QoS bits of the incoming packets, and send the VOIP packets first, then your VOIP will be choppy, even though your router is sending all outbound VOIP packets out first.
Moreover, even if your ISP supports QoS, if the machine generating those packets does not set the QoS bits correctly, there will be no way for your ISP's router to assign meaningful priorities - so even though you've tweaked your system to set the QoS on outbound packets correctly, if you are talking to Aunt Tillie, and her computer is not setting the QoS bits, then the incoming traffic will not be sorted correctly.
The other thing to remember is that people vary.
For example - I always have a bitch of a time donating blood, because I usually run a little hot - 99.2 F. That's my normal temperature - and too many health professionals forget that the original studies that determined body temp were done in Celcius, and were accurate to a degree ( have you ever wondered why 98.6 F = 37.0 C? Because the measurement was done in Celcius first, then converted).
You have to have the background data - what is normal for the patient - in order to really judge what is going on.
This is ALSO why it is SO important to NOT go doctor-shopping - the new doc won't have the accumulated data on you.
Another example - my 94 year old great-aunt has "high" blood pressure - and every doc she sees feels it is his sworn duty to lower it. Of course, when they get her BP where they want it, she is unsteady on her feet, will get dizzy standing up (postural hypotension), and will lose what little mental acuity she has (Alzheimers is a bitch!). These docs seem to forget that it is not unnatural for a 94 year old to have a higher pressure than a 30 year old!
This probably WON'T work, for the same reason he cannot use Samba over normal Ethernet.
Most VPN clients, in order to protect the network you are VPN'ing into, will shut down all other connections - they set the VPN interface to be the default route, and then they remove any other routes.
So doing IP over Firewire will work, right up to the time the VPN client kills it.
I'd suggest finding a small Linksys/Dlink (but NOT BELKIN) router that has Cisco VPN client support - the router will handle the VPN, and you can plug both your Mac and your PC into it.
An SMP system can greatly benefit a game designed to be truly multithreaded.
Even if the game is NOT designed to be multithreaded, there is the fact that one core can be running the game, while the other core handles interrupts, operating system processing, and other tasks.
The days of your computer doing only one thing at a time are long gone.
Let's see:
Assume you were to use an OpenGL based window manager, wherein each window on your screen is little more than a polygon with a texture applied to it.
Assume you are working at 1600x1200 resolution, 24 bit color depth (padded to 32 bits for possible alpha channel).
Your frame buffer alone takes 7.3 MiBytes.
If you have a 32 bit Z buffer, add another 7.3 MiBytes.
Each 2D window in use will consume texture memory, so if we assume that the remaining 497.4 MiBytes of memory on the card as window memory, that lets us open roughly 68 full-screen windows before consuming all texture memory on the card.
If some of the windows are 3D windows themselves, you are going to want them to have their own Zbuffers - so double the memory usage for them.
While 68 windows may sound like a lot, given that most GL compositing schemes I've heard of want to keep ALL windows available, even if they are not mapped, to avoid expose events to the apps and to speed window open and close events, and I could see you getting to 30 windows pretty easily. Allowing double that for headroom doesn't seem like so bad an idea to me.
And I've ignored the XVideo overlay needs.
Agreed. Can we set up a Paypal donation link to pay to have something terrible happen to the person who came up with this idea? like his internal organs being used as a stunt on Fear Factor?
I wonder - do all of these domains go to the same set of IPs?
Has anybody created a blacklist of those IPs?
Has anybody created a blacklist of those domains?
I'd apply a blocklist on my proxy just to deny these assholes any chance to get anything.
Given one of the article's examples, I think there's a far better name:
"Fillerup?"
"Yes, with new Soylent Green Gas!"
Yes, I did buy a pcHDTV2000 card, more on general principles than anything else, but my overall attitude on the broadcast flag can be summed up in two words:
Screw them.
If the broadcasters insist upon making me not the master of my TV, PVR, and DVD player, then I shall not consume their product - I'll read a book, I'll work on my car/computer/house/physique, and generally be better off than I am now.
The manufacturers of HDTV sets aren't seeing quite the volume they want - guess what guys, if you continue to make things less friendly to the consumer they will not consume as much!
Perhaps we shall see a rise of "GPL TV" - people creating shows for download (Considering the success of Homestar Runner, this may not be as far-fetched as we might think). Imagine - a Star Dreck^WTrek that has somewhat sensible science and stories! A rendition of Starship Troopers that is actually faithful to RAH's vision!
But no matter what - if my TV does not recognize me as its lord and master, then it shall be summarily expelled from my castle.
Is the BSA stepping up its efforts elsewhere as it is in Wichita, KS?
They've been running SCADLOADS of commercials on the local radio stations - the standard "Piracy is a crime - this is a nice business, it would be a shame if anything were to happen to it, say a disgruntled employee were to snitch on you (by calling 1-888-MESNITCH). You should call us for insurance on your software" commercials.
Is this just a local thing, or is this a part of an increased campaign of extortion nationwide?
The fact that the results are in a PDF file is somewhat ominous, given that this is a group dedicated to the purpose of predicting the future of the Internet.
So, instead of posting their results in a form that is easily browsed, cross-linked, and generally made a part of the Internet, they use a format which has as its primary claim to fame the ability to be printed out.
Perhaps I am just grouchy because I am still working on my morning coffee, but it would seem to me the future of the Internet looks like a lot of proprietary file formats locked up behind walls of DRM.
Screw that. Go to Java Villa - Rock and Harry, next door to the Game Exchange, in the same section as the vacuum repair place.
Good free-trade coffee that isn't burnt to a crisp, good sandwiches, biscotti, pie, and WiFi.
Don't you mean "...that guy's God?"
Given that, if the stock price of SCO falls, they could be the victim of a takeover, and give who might find it useful to own the right to cause trouble for IBM, visualize this:
Scene: SCO HQ, Lindon
Daryl McBride is leaving work, when suddenly, the door bursts open. Standing there, fashion by JiffyPop and hair by Dairy Queen, is Bill Gates, who begins to sing:
McBride You Lier
It's All Over!
Your Lawsuit is a failure
Your retoric too extreme!
I'm your new co-owner
You now are my pensioner
You sentenced to federal prison
PRE-PARE THE VASOLINE!
Daryl: Wait! I can explain!
(turns to his aides, and says sotto voice)
"You - get the purple source code light! You - get the fuck out of here. I've got to get my shit together"
(with apologies to Richard O'Brian and RHPS fans everywhere.)
First of all:
Given we are talking about how wonderful this new tech is, how much contrast it hat - how about some contrast on the freaking article! Come on, grey text on a white background? Obviously we now know where some of the layout people from Wired Magazine went.
Second of all:
The pictures in the article look too damn good - I smell retouch. If you want to convice me of the value of this technology, you need to show me a movie of the produce in use, as the camera moves around the room. After all, I can take your average rear-projection TV and make it look fabulous, IF I pick the camera angle to maximize the brightness of the screen. But as anybody who has ever looked at a rear projection TV knows, the "sweet spot" of the image is very narrow, and if you leave it, the image fades tremendously.
Third of all:
The single biggest cause of loss-of-contrast on a light sourcing display, be it a projector or a CRT, is the fact that the light in the room is reflected from the screen, making the blacks of the image not black. Now, this display may be wonderful at redirecting the light from the projector, but if the "glass" is clear, and the wall behind it is NOT black, then the blackest the image can be is the color of the wall behind it. If you wanted to truly get deep blacks, you would need to put something like black velvet behind the glass, to absorb the ambient light.
Fourth of all:
Back to the viewing angle issue: holographic techniques usually are VERY angle sensitive - the diffraction grating allows light from a very specific angle to be redirected to a very specific angle. Is this image REALLY viewable from more than one or two places in the room?
Declare various global variables.
Save game state into them.
On Save Game, write block of memory out.
How can this fail, let me count the ways:
And that's just what I can come up with before my morning coffee.
Look, I disagree with your instructer about "global variables are NEVER needed" - what, then are stdout/stderr/stdin/cout/cin/cerr, if not global variables?
However, global variables are like salt - a little may be needed, but too much will raise your blood pressure.
Again, this is before my morning coffee, but here's a couple of techniques that are better:
Ask them, don't ask me - they won't even let me moderate anymore!
I should learn to put the crackers down when I type.
s/grammer/grammar/g
You need to find him a job where math, spelling, grammer, and long-term memory are not issues.
I hear there is an opening for Slashdot Editor
HIV CE?
HIV Embedded?
HIV Millenium edition?
The summary of the article (and many of the comments) would have you believe this is a potential "cure for cancer".
Melanoma is a subset of the set of all cancers - specifically, it is a form of skin cancer - more specifically, it is a cancer formed from the skin cells that give skin its pigmentation.
Melanoma is NOT *all cancers* - thus even if this modified virus will kill 100% of all melanomas and have 0% harmful side-effects this does NOT make it a "cure for cancer" - merely a "cure for a type of cancer".
The will need to generalize this virus to attack ALL cancerous cells, and NOT to attack any other cells.
Now, if you can work out how a virus can tell the difference between a cancerous cell and a normal but rapidly reproducing cell, you have a Nobel prize awaiting.
I already did - it is called "Buffalo grass", and is a native grass of the midwestern region. Once established, it needs little water, and will not grow very tall.
In this particular case, there is little need for gengineering, just for people to realize that the brilliant green of fescue grass is not needed, and the more muted green of buffalo is just as good.