Not sure what protocols your company uses, but at my company, nearly everything is GPIB controlled. Most stuff in the past was either done using LabVIEW or manually - In my lab it's almost all Perl these days thanks to me.
http://www.mock.com/gpib/ has an excellent library for GPIB in Perl. It only supports older equipment, but at least in the GPIB world, nearly everything has a published command set, and the library makes adding support for other instruments extremely simple. (I have yet to find an instrument that didn't have detailed programming info. It takes me an average of an hour to implement most of the funcionality of a new piece of equipment. Sadly, the work I've done on that lib will most likely stay in-house.)
Now if only Octave had the external interfacing capabilities that Matlab did. (Even with some of the "Matlab compatibility" libraries like octave-forge, Octave is still missing a ton of signal processing toolkit functions like psd() - Octave will also not interface with any of our digital I/O cards). Even Matlab under Linux won't help us here.
In short: We've basically replaced LabVIEW with Perl here (to much rejoicing - People at this facility are more familiar with text-based programming than GUI programming.), but I don't forsee us replacing Matlab any time soon.
"(2) Chernobyl: Needs no explanation! At least they tried a containment building, though it didn't hold up to the hydrogen gas explosion that destroyed the plant."
The Chernobyl reactor was high-pressure water-cooled.
If there was no water in the reactor, WHERE THE FUCK DID ALL THAT HYDROGEN COME FROM??? Nuclear reactors don't turn helium into hydrogen, at least not in any significant amounts. On the other hand, generating hydrogen gas from water is pretty damn easy.
Multiple small reactors reduces distribution costs.
The chances of multiple very small reactors going online in Long Island would be much higher than getting a large facility approved. (Note: It's known that a large facility will never be approved on LI. Shoreham never went online due to the difficulty of evacuating the area. As a result, Long Island currently has MASSIVE power distribution problems - Companies like to have at least a 15% margin, LI ran within 1% of capacity last year.)
Big problem with plutonium is that depending on how it gets in, it is likely to STAY IN.
As you said, Pu in the lungs is BAD. Mainly because it will stay there practically forever. Pu injected will likely have cumulative effects.
Cumulative effects of repeated caffeine doses are almost nil. Cumulative Pu doses would be very very bad.
That said - I think America's fear of nuclear power is stupid and irrational. Many previous accidents were in reactors with old designs (I believe after Chernobyl, all reactors similar to it were shut down ASAP because the accident was a result of a major design flaw). Newer reactor designs are far safer.
Those who are clueless get frustrated by being unable to compete with the elite.
The "elite" know every little aspect of the game mechanics, almost making it a science (dealing with formulas, etc.), and have a blast.
I played a web-based strategy game called Planetarion a while ago. On a regular basis, people would have long debates on relative merits of various ships, and I would always have my trusty HP48 out during those IRC convos.
I'm seeing the same while playing EVE Online - Either you understand the mechanics of the economy and make mass profit, or you don't and you get ripped off because you're still mining a mineral no one wants because it USED to be valuable but too many people mined the same thing, flooding the market. It's hilarious how many people post on the EVE forums that the market us FUBAR and the economy is doomed based on the price of a single mineral, without bothering to check prices on other minerals and go mine something else.
I play games a lot. I have avoided a number of accidents with idiots thanks to good reflexes. (Sadly, one was unavoidable. Some lady looked like she was going to run a stop sign - I slowed down. She stopped. I let go of brakes, and when I was *in the intersection* she gunned it right and came out right in front of me.)
If the inventions are created at about the same time, then the patent can be nullified or assigned to the first creator of the invention.
In most countries in the world, the rule is "first to file". In the US, it's "first to invent", but 95% of the time "first to file" wins in a conflict case. (i.e. deciding who actually has rights to the invention.) - You need LOTS of documentation and proof to win such a case if you're not FtF.
Their lawyers have obviously never heard of defensive patents.
Don't mess with someone whose stack (of patents) is bigger than yours. You will lose. You might win the first case (a battle), but you will lose the war.
" IANAL, but I have been involved in a patenting process and subsequent litigation. There was talk about the concept of independent invention, which means that if someone comes up with a solution that someone else has a patent on, the situation isn't a clear-cut matter of infringement."
It is infringement. Period.
Now there IS a difference between "willful infringement" and just plain infringement. i.e. whether you KNEW from the start that you were infringing.
For willfull infringement, damages are usually tripled.
Yup. $1.10/disc in quantity, $1.30 or so at lower quantities.
$1.30 for nearly 5 gigs of data is pretty nice, considering that except for free-after-rebate offers and sales on CD-Rs, you're getting about 10x the capacity of DVDs at less than 4x the price.
Cheapest +R blanks are $1.80/disc that I've seen, not $4
Cheapest -R discs - $0.75, although I would avoid those, cheapest I'd buy are Ritek G03s, around $1.10-1.30 depending on quantity. G03s are excellent discs.
The DRU-500A sucks for recording -R media. It supposedly supports 4x burning, but often fails to recognize 4x discs as such and burns at only 1x or 2x. The Pioneer 105, on the other hand, LOVE 4x discs. It's obvious from many people's experiences that it was designed with those discs in mind. (It does pretty well on 1x discs too, but you have to be more careful about which generic media you buy - Princo 1x sucks, Princo 4x is apparently pretty good.)
I paid $150 after rebates and coupons for my CenDyne (Rebadged DVR-105) drive from OfficeMax 2-3 months ago.
I have a DVR-105 in a Firewire case - It's stellar.
Check www.firmware-flash.com - You'll notice in the forums that even though the DRU-500 supports 4x -R burning, it often fails to detect 4x capable discs and drops the speed to 2x or even 1x. The Pioneer, on the other hand, loves 4x discs. (It has some issues with "cheapie" 1x discs, but 4x discs from the same manufacturer - Princo - work excellently in the 105)
Even vendors that tend to carry more -R than +R media (See www.rima.com - They have a greater assortment of "generic" -Rs than +Rs), are having trouble keeping -R media in stock. Rima was sold out of Ritek G03 (The best of the generics - EXCELLENT discs) for 2-3 weeks last month.
The cheapest I've seen DVD+R media is around 30-50% above "medium grade" (i.e. the best of the generics) -Rs.
Check out www.rima.com - Their cheapest DVD+R discs are over 1.5 times the price of their mid-grade (Ritek G03) -R discs. They're twice the price of the Princos, but that doesn't count because Princos are shit. Riteks, on the other hand, are excellent. The 2.4x +Rs are the same price as 4x -Rs.
http://www.firmware-flash.com/ is where the firmware hackers live.
Region-free, read/write speed limit removal, etc.
There are a lot of general DVD-R/DVD+R discussions on those forums. The most popular burners there seem to be the Pioneer DVR-10x (103, 104, 105) and the Sony dual-format units.
I have a Pioneer DVR-105 and LOVE it. I have had no compatibility problems with the DVD-R format, except in my ancient 2x Creative DVD drive - I haven't tried any +Rs in it but I wouldn't be surprised if it couldn't read those either, that thing is stone-age.
Also known as turok.info, later at www.indianpride.us, now at torrents.slash0.org (but down), which were the site for the #tvtorrents channel on EFNet
Anyone know what's up with THIS site moving every 2 weeks? Esp. because the original (torrents.noneleft.bm) site supposedly got enough user donations for a significant server upgrade. Odd that they disappeared right after receiving a bunch of donations.
It's not even the correct search. Every result of that google search was some form of cellular triangulation, not 802.11 (Since they improperly searched for WAP, which is a protocol for cellular services.)
Interesting results, but completely offtopic and noninformative regarding the original question.
It is possible to triangulate access points, although most software I've seen to do it uses signal strength interpolation instead of triangulation. Kismet - http://www.kismetwireless.net/ is able to do this if enough signal strength data is collected. (Or more specifically, the "gpsmap" tool that comes with Kismet.)
I've recently started playing EVE Online (http://www.eve-online.com/) - It has a lot of "old concepts", but it is ahead of every other massively multiplayer game in its complexity - I don't think I've ever seen any other game with an economy designed to be a player driven free market.
It's lots of fun, and it's also a challenge for the mind. Far more interesting than the FPS o' the day. (Not that there's anything bad about them, I've played my share of Q3.:)
"As for using a phone as a PDA, that is the silliest idea i have ever seen. A PDA is meant to have a nice and *big* screen which makes it easy to use. Meanwhile a phone is meant to be compact and easy to hold in one hand. These two things do NOT work together. A wide phone is a pain in the arse to use as you can not hold it properly. While a slim PDA is useless as you can not display enough useful information across the screen."
Those two work perfectly together, if done right.
You have two options: PDA plus phone, or combo device. No matter how small the phone is, the combo will consume more space and be less convenient. (Esp. if you want to use data services - Palm PQAs are a WONDERFUL thing!)
As to wide phones - Try the Kyocera 6035 or its successor the 7135. They're wide, but I have found them to be more comfortable to hold and easier to dial than smaller phones. Cell phones these days are becoming TOO DAMN SMALL. Yes, the small size is convenient for "storage", but it makes it a PITA to actually USE the damn thing.
Of my past cell phones (Kyocera 2035 and 6035), I vastly prefer the 6035's form factor to that of the old 2035, even though it's much wider. The 2035 required the hand to be clenched to hold properly, whereas the 6035 can be held with the fingers closer to a neutral, relaxed position. I would NEVER want a phone *smaller* than the 2035, and that was a moderately sized phone.
We have an old but MASSIVE exhaust fan that's easily 24" or more. We have it in an upstairs room, facing out the window.
For a significant portion of the summer (until it gets REALLY hot), all we need to do is open all the windows and turn that thing on, we get a cool breeze coming in to every window in the house.
Even on some of the hotter days, running it at night makes the house cool enough so that the AC doesn't kick on until late afternoon.
"Nvidia drivers were horrible until the GeForce boards. Ask anyone who actually owned a TnT 1/2."
*asks himself*
My original Riva TNT's drivers utterly blew away the drivers for ATI boards I had previously been cursed with. And they blew away later ATI drivers as well.
Slashdot Mirror
"TiVo knows that I make more than $155.88/year, but I haven't given them an indication of how much more."
:)
That isn't even a guaranteed number.
Not sure what protocols your company uses, but at my company, nearly everything is GPIB controlled. Most stuff in the past was either done using LabVIEW or manually - In my lab it's almost all Perl these days thanks to me.
http://www.mock.com/gpib/ has an excellent library for GPIB in Perl. It only supports older equipment, but at least in the GPIB world, nearly everything has a published command set, and the library makes adding support for other instruments extremely simple. (I have yet to find an instrument that didn't have detailed programming info. It takes me an average of an hour to implement most of the funcionality of a new piece of equipment. Sadly, the work I've done on that lib will most likely stay in-house.)
Now if only Octave had the external interfacing capabilities that Matlab did. (Even with some of the "Matlab compatibility" libraries like octave-forge, Octave is still missing a ton of signal processing toolkit functions like psd() - Octave will also not interface with any of our digital I/O cards). Even Matlab under Linux won't help us here.
In short: We've basically replaced LabVIEW with Perl here (to much rejoicing - People at this facility are more familiar with text-based programming than GUI programming.), but I don't forsee us replacing Matlab any time soon.
"(2) Chernobyl: Needs no explanation! At least they tried a containment building, though it didn't hold up to the hydrogen gas explosion that destroyed the plant."
s ics/PHY136.HTM
WRONG. http://newton.dep.anl.gov/newton/askasci/1993/phy
The Chernobyl reactor was high-pressure water-cooled.
If there was no water in the reactor, WHERE THE FUCK DID ALL THAT HYDROGEN COME FROM??? Nuclear reactors don't turn helium into hydrogen, at least not in any significant amounts. On the other hand, generating hydrogen gas from water is pretty damn easy.
Multiple small reactors reduces distribution costs.
The chances of multiple very small reactors going online in Long Island would be much higher than getting a large facility approved. (Note: It's known that a large facility will never be approved on LI. Shoreham never went online due to the difficulty of evacuating the area. As a result, Long Island currently has MASSIVE power distribution problems - Companies like to have at least a 15% margin, LI ran within 1% of capacity last year.)
Big problem with plutonium is that depending on how it gets in, it is likely to STAY IN.
As you said, Pu in the lungs is BAD. Mainly because it will stay there practically forever. Pu injected will likely have cumulative effects.
Cumulative effects of repeated caffeine doses are almost nil. Cumulative Pu doses would be very very bad.
That said - I think America's fear of nuclear power is stupid and irrational. Many previous accidents were in reactors with old designs (I believe after Chernobyl, all reactors similar to it were shut down ASAP because the accident was a result of a major design flaw). Newer reactor designs are far safer.
Those who are clueless get frustrated by being unable to compete with the elite.
The "elite" know every little aspect of the game mechanics, almost making it a science (dealing with formulas, etc.), and have a blast.
I played a web-based strategy game called Planetarion a while ago. On a regular basis, people would have long debates on relative merits of various ships, and I would always have my trusty HP48 out during those IRC convos.
I'm seeing the same while playing EVE Online - Either you understand the mechanics of the economy and make mass profit, or you don't and you get ripped off because you're still mining a mineral no one wants because it USED to be valuable but too many people mined the same thing, flooding the market. It's hilarious how many people post on the EVE forums that the market us FUBAR and the economy is doomed based on the price of a single mineral, without bothering to check prices on other minerals and go mine something else.
I play games a lot. I have avoided a number of accidents with idiots thanks to good reflexes. (Sadly, one was unavoidable. Some lady looked like she was going to run a stop sign - I slowed down. She stopped. I let go of brakes, and when I was *in the intersection* she gunned it right and came out right in front of me.)
If the inventions are created at about the same time, then the patent can be nullified or assigned to the first creator of the invention.
In most countries in the world, the rule is "first to file". In the US, it's "first to invent", but 95% of the time "first to file" wins in a conflict case. (i.e. deciding who actually has rights to the invention.) - You need LOTS of documentation and proof to win such a case if you're not FtF.
Their lawyers have obviously never heard of defensive patents.
Don't mess with someone whose stack (of patents) is bigger than yours. You will lose. You might win the first case (a battle), but you will lose the war.
" IANAL, but I have been involved in a patenting process and subsequent litigation. There was talk about the concept of independent invention, which means that if someone comes up with a solution that someone else has a patent on, the situation isn't a clear-cut matter of infringement."
It is infringement. Period.
Now there IS a difference between "willful infringement" and just plain infringement. i.e. whether you KNEW from the start that you were infringing.
For willfull infringement, damages are usually tripled.
Apple Superdrives are rebadged Pioneer DVR-10x drives.
So if you buy a DVR-105, you'll be getting the latest SuperDrive.
"And have you priced DVD-Rs? Aye yai yai."
Yup. $1.10/disc in quantity, $1.30 or so at lower quantities.
$1.30 for nearly 5 gigs of data is pretty nice, considering that except for free-after-rebate offers and sales on CD-Rs, you're getting about 10x the capacity of DVDs at less than 4x the price.
Cheapest +R blanks are $1.80/disc that I've seen, not $4
Cheapest -R discs - $0.75, although I would avoid those, cheapest I'd buy are Ritek G03s, around $1.10-1.30 depending on quantity. G03s are excellent discs.
The DRU-500A sucks for recording -R media. It supposedly supports 4x burning, but often fails to recognize 4x discs as such and burns at only 1x or 2x. The Pioneer 105, on the other hand, LOVE 4x discs. It's obvious from many people's experiences that it was designed with those discs in mind. (It does pretty well on 1x discs too, but you have to be more careful about which generic media you buy - Princo 1x sucks, Princo 4x is apparently pretty good.)
Try $125 less than that.
I paid $150 after rebates and coupons for my CenDyne (Rebadged DVR-105) drive from OfficeMax 2-3 months ago.
I have a DVR-105 in a Firewire case - It's stellar.
Check www.firmware-flash.com - You'll notice in the forums that even though the DRU-500 supports 4x -R burning, it often fails to detect 4x capable discs and drops the speed to 2x or even 1x. The Pioneer, on the other hand, loves 4x discs. (It has some issues with "cheapie" 1x discs, but 4x discs from the same manufacturer - Princo - work excellently in the 105)
Even vendors that tend to carry more -R than +R media (See www.rima.com - They have a greater assortment of "generic" -Rs than +Rs), are having trouble keeping -R media in stock. Rima was sold out of Ritek G03 (The best of the generics - EXCELLENT discs) for 2-3 weeks last month.
The cheapest I've seen DVD+R media is around 30-50% above "medium grade" (i.e. the best of the generics) -Rs.
Check out www.rima.com - Their cheapest DVD+R discs are over 1.5 times the price of their mid-grade (Ritek G03) -R discs. They're twice the price of the Princos, but that doesn't count because Princos are shit. Riteks, on the other hand, are excellent. The 2.4x +Rs are the same price as 4x -Rs.
http://www.firmware-flash.com/ is where the firmware hackers live.
Region-free, read/write speed limit removal, etc.
There are a lot of general DVD-R/DVD+R discussions on those forums. The most popular burners there seem to be the Pioneer DVR-10x (103, 104, 105) and the Sony dual-format units.
I have a Pioneer DVR-105 and LOVE it. I have had no compatibility problems with the DVD-R format, except in my ancient 2x Creative DVD drive - I haven't tried any +Rs in it but I wouldn't be surprised if it couldn't read those either, that thing is stone-age.
Also known as turok.info, later at www.indianpride.us, now at torrents.slash0.org (but down), which were the site for the #tvtorrents channel on EFNet
Anyone know what's up with THIS site moving every 2 weeks? Esp. because the original (torrents.noneleft.bm) site supposedly got enough user donations for a significant server upgrade. Odd that they disappeared right after receiving a bunch of donations.
It's not even the correct search. Every result of that google search was some form of cellular triangulation, not 802.11 (Since they improperly searched for WAP, which is a protocol for cellular services.)
Interesting results, but completely offtopic and noninformative regarding the original question.
It is possible to triangulate access points, although most software I've seen to do it uses signal strength interpolation instead of triangulation. Kismet - http://www.kismetwireless.net/ is able to do this if enough signal strength data is collected. (Or more specifically, the "gpsmap" tool that comes with Kismet.)
I've recently started playing EVE Online (http://www.eve-online.com/) - It has a lot of "old concepts", but it is ahead of every other massively multiplayer game in its complexity - I don't think I've ever seen any other game with an economy designed to be a player driven free market.
:)
It's lots of fun, and it's also a challenge for the mind. Far more interesting than the FPS o' the day. (Not that there's anything bad about them, I've played my share of Q3.
"As for using a phone as a PDA, that is the silliest idea i have ever seen. A PDA is meant to have a nice and *big* screen which makes it easy to use. Meanwhile a phone is meant to be compact and easy to hold in one hand. These two things do NOT work together. A wide phone is a pain in the arse to use as you can not hold it properly. While a slim PDA is useless as you can not display enough useful information across the screen."
Those two work perfectly together, if done right.
You have two options: PDA plus phone, or combo device. No matter how small the phone is, the combo will consume more space and be less convenient. (Esp. if you want to use data services - Palm PQAs are a WONDERFUL thing!)
As to wide phones - Try the Kyocera 6035 or its successor the 7135. They're wide, but I have found them to be more comfortable to hold and easier to dial than smaller phones. Cell phones these days are becoming TOO DAMN SMALL. Yes, the small size is convenient for "storage", but it makes it a PITA to actually USE the damn thing.
Of my past cell phones (Kyocera 2035 and 6035), I vastly prefer the 6035's form factor to that of the old 2035, even though it's much wider. The 2035 required the hand to be clenched to hold properly, whereas the 6035 can be held with the fingers closer to a neutral, relaxed position. I would NEVER want a phone *smaller* than the 2035, and that was a moderately sized phone.
Only 18" - That's tiny.
We have an old but MASSIVE exhaust fan that's easily 24" or more. We have it in an upstairs room, facing out the window.
For a significant portion of the summer (until it gets REALLY hot), all we need to do is open all the windows and turn that thing on, we get a cool breeze coming in to every window in the house.
Even on some of the hotter days, running it at night makes the house cool enough so that the AC doesn't kick on until late afternoon.
MANY of these items that have rebates are a limit of one per person or one per household.
:)
I would often get rebates at my school apartment for stuff my mom bought - An extra "household".
Are not the only thing a potential wearer of this jacket has to worry about.
Ever heard of being mugged for your wallet? Men and women are equally likely to have this problem.
"Nvidia drivers were horrible until the GeForce boards. Ask anyone who actually owned a TnT 1/2."
*asks himself*
My original Riva TNT's drivers utterly blew away the drivers for ATI boards I had previously been cursed with. And they blew away later ATI drivers as well.