The availability of BattleStar Galactica is actually what got me started on both Bit Torrent and Television again. I pretty much only watch "real" television for Football.
Note: You want to go download the 2003 MiniSeries as well before watching evening the opening to the first episode, especially if you've never heard of BSG before.
The Mini is on suprnova.org, and you want to ignore the VCD versions here http://www.precious.net/index.php?show=88 the VCDs for most shows come out first, but the quality is very poor in comparison.
Once you've started using BT to watch your television you'll never go back. You can get HD-sourced divx versions of shows that are broadcast as such, and it's higher quality than normal analog broadcast. No Commercials. The ability to pause, go back, whatever (Ya, TiVo). You can watch them whenever you like (TiVo again). And my favourite part is if you're interested in a series already in progress, you can watch the first episode first and catch up in order. Or even watch an entire series that you've missed (I just finished the entirety of Farscape's 92 hours).
If it weren't for having seen half the stuff on slashdot before, I wouldn't have any idea what the heck any of that stuff was supposed to be about. Much of it has been covered in better detail before here on slashdot, and the interesting bits about each project were entirely ignored. There's even a video of that first robot swimming somewhere. Actually, google for "CMU robot swimming" returns this slashdot story if you're interested.
Can't MS right anything that isn't susceptible to worms?
First it was their e-mail client, then their HTTP server, then their DB server, then their web browser, now their IM client... and their word processor has been spreading macro viruses/worms since before the popularization of the internet.
I'm a Vikings fan myself, but I have a slightly different tact on the Packers. I want them to win every week except those weeks which they are playing the Vikings. This way it makes the Vikings look all the better when they beat them.::grin
As someone above already mentioned a perfect application for a higher power-density battery is hybrid/electric cars. The guys over at acpropulsion.com, while having recently switched to Lithium Ion batteries (some ridiculous number of cells) had a very swift car (oversized go-kart of a kit car) put together with, if I recall correctly, 22 lead acid batteries. The car could go 100 miles on the energy in those batteries but the reason they had 22 was not for the range, it was for the power output.
Their motor system draws about 200kW (roughly 260 horsepower). Looking at the Optima Yellow Top (the specific battery model they were using, I believe) specifications we see the rated KW output of 9.0 per battery. 9*22=198KW.
To give you a better idea of how hard it is to reduce your 1/4 mile times. The fastest quarter mile time tested by Car and Driver under $100,000 is the Dodge Viper in 12.1 seconds ($85k). And that doesn't even cut 3 seconds off of the Nissan Altima's 14.6 seconds ($23k).
For what it's worth, a Toyota Prius ($23k) has a poor 18 second quarter mile, and an absolutely abhorrent 11 seconds to 60mph. Even a Chevy Aveo at under $15k (base price of $10k) beats each of those by a second.
Anyone else amused that he goes and uses the HTML for an unordered list... but then being a true geek he reverts to surrounding "3-d chess" with __underscores__ instead of using the HTML code for underline?
Huh... I guess Slashdot strips underline codes. I never knew that. I guess it's to prevent stupid crap like Click Here.
I don't see this as a wannabe Mp3 player. People are willing to pay more than 99c for a 20 second midi clip for their ringtones. I for example paid I think 1.50 for "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" on my Sidekick. There's a little "catalog" function in the sidekick for buying software (the SSH Client, etc) and ringtones.
Wouldn't it be so much cooler if it instead had an interface to the iTMS? Now it's less expensive, and you get the whole song in 128kbps AAC for your ringtone.
"How long before nonvolatile memory becomes the solution to crash-prone software rather than better programming?"
Never. Having the same bits in memory after a reboot doesn't help if you wrote the wrong bits in the first place.
"On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
I've seen two schools of though on the remote control issue. The first suggests using one of the third party utilities to use your bluetooth phone as an iTunes remote. The other predicts Apple will make a new hardware device.
Apple is great at coming up with new things on their own, and while they have in times past had alot of "not invented here syndrome" they seem to have gotten over it. Perhaps they'll adopt the Bluetooth phone remote concept themselves. A couple of standard utilities, dev library, and good AppleScript support would be pretty neat.
It's no surprise that someone involved with "The BeOS journal" (see sig), and a username of "technix4beos" can provide numerous links to archaic and ultimately useless computing devices.
Slashdot Mirror
NASA - get a mission people care about that can be realistically funded, or sign over the next twenty years to Burt Rhutan and company.
A) It's spelled Rutan.
B) Mars Rovers
~Lake
The availability of BattleStar Galactica is actually what got me started on both Bit Torrent and Television again. I pretty much only watch "real" television for Football.
Note: You want to go download the 2003 MiniSeries as well before watching evening the opening to the first episode, especially if you've never heard of BSG before.
The Mini is on suprnova.org, and you want to ignore the VCD versions here http://www.precious.net/index.php?show=88 the VCDs for most shows come out first, but the quality is very poor in comparison.
Once you've started using BT to watch your television you'll never go back. You can get HD-sourced divx versions of shows that are broadcast as such, and it's higher quality than normal analog broadcast. No Commercials. The ability to pause, go back, whatever (Ya, TiVo). You can watch them whenever you like (TiVo again). And my favourite part is if you're interested in a series already in progress, you can watch the first episode first and catch up in order. Or even watch an entire series that you've missed (I just finished the entirety of Farscape's 92 hours).
~Lake
Should stand up to a /.ing fairly well, they seem to be coloed at Level3.net in Seattle.
p s/Colocation_Map.GIF
http://www.level3.com/userimages/dotcom/images/ma
~Lake
Linux already has this sort of technology, it is even interoperable with Windows, Solaris, UNICOS and AIX. It is called Kerberos.
Damn, someone beat me to the FAA/FCC comment. Ah well, off to find something else to be pedantic about.
That was my guess, and "gone.fishing" as a username supports the theory.
~Lake
Actually, I seriously wonder what the uptime will say right after boot. At what point during boot does a Mac OS X (or any) machine 'start the clock'?
~Lake
If it weren't for having seen half the stuff on slashdot before, I wouldn't have any idea what the heck any of that stuff was supposed to be about. Much of it has been covered in better detail before here on slashdot, and the interesting bits about each project were entirely ignored. There's even a video of that first robot swimming somewhere. Actually, google for "CMU robot swimming" returns this slashdot story if you're interested.
~Lake
It seems perfectly reasonable to me to dedicate a museum to those human efforts which have managed to place air in space.
~Lake
P.S. Yes, I know it's and.
First it was their e-mail client, then their HTTP server, then their DB server, then their web browser, now their IM client... and their word processor has been spreading macro viruses/worms since before the popularization of the internet.
~Lake
I'm a Vikings fan myself, but I have a slightly different tact on the Packers. I want them to win every week except those weeks which they are playing the Vikings. This way it makes the Vikings look all the better when they beat them. ::grin
~Lake
Minor consumption: fine.
Google://Minor Consumption: Fine. Ya, there's a fine for Minor Consumption in most places alright.
~Lake
As someone above already mentioned a perfect application for a higher power-density battery is hybrid/electric cars. The guys over at acpropulsion.com, while having recently switched to Lithium Ion batteries (some ridiculous number of cells) had a very swift car (oversized go-kart of a kit car) put together with, if I recall correctly, 22 lead acid batteries. The car could go 100 miles on the energy in those batteries but the reason they had 22 was not for the range, it was for the power output.
Their motor system draws about 200kW (roughly 260 horsepower). Looking at the Optima Yellow Top (the specific battery model they were using, I believe) specifications we see the rated KW output of 9.0 per battery. 9*22=198KW.
~Lake
I believe "first nature" would be more accurate in this instance.
~Lake
Nice little subliminal message.
~lake
To give you a better idea of how hard it is to reduce your 1/4 mile times. The fastest quarter mile time tested by Car and Driver under $100,000 is the Dodge Viper in 12.1 seconds ($85k). And that doesn't even cut 3 seconds off of the Nissan Altima's 14.6 seconds ($23k).
For what it's worth, a Toyota Prius ($23k) has a poor 18 second quarter mile, and an absolutely abhorrent 11 seconds to 60mph. Even a Chevy Aveo at under $15k (base price of $10k) beats each of those by a second.
~Lake
Does anyone else have a sudden urge to run this on the touch-screen of their car-pc? I can't wait...
~Lake
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/viewrecord?11 612
I have my desktop background doing a crossfade between the night and day (linked above) versions of the image... it's pretty neat.
~Lake
Huh... I guess Slashdot strips underline codes. I never knew that. I guess it's to prevent stupid crap like Click Here.
~lake
I don't see this as a wannabe Mp3 player. People are willing to pay more than 99c for a 20 second midi clip for their ringtones. I for example paid I think 1.50 for "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" on my Sidekick. There's a little "catalog" function in the sidekick for buying software (the SSH Client, etc) and ringtones.
Wouldn't it be so much cooler if it instead had an interface to the iTMS? Now it's less expensive, and you get the whole song in 128kbps AAC for your ringtone.
~Lake
"How long before nonvolatile memory becomes the solution to crash-prone software rather than better programming?"
Never. Having the same bits in memory after a reboot doesn't help if you wrote the wrong bits in the first place.
"On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
~Lake
BMW and Apple working together is not entirely new, they did a commercial together a while back which featured the then new Z3.
This page on MacKiDo mentions the ad, but I can't seem to dig up a working link to the video.
~Lake
It is (and it would) and it is -F.
I've seen two schools of though on the remote control issue. The first suggests using one of the third party utilities to use your bluetooth phone as an iTunes remote. The other predicts Apple will make a new hardware device.
Apple is great at coming up with new things on their own, and while they have in times past had alot of "not invented here syndrome" they seem to have gotten over it. Perhaps they'll adopt the Bluetooth phone remote concept themselves. A couple of standard utilities, dev library, and good AppleScript support would be pretty neat.
~Lake
It's no surprise that someone involved with "The BeOS journal" (see sig), and a username of "technix4beos" can provide numerous links to archaic and ultimately useless computing devices.
~Lake