I've recently being doing a report for Physics on the Piezoelectric effect, and it is really interesting thing.
When you put a current through a piezoelectric material (e.g. Quartz), it vibrates. The oscillations are used to create sound in Ultrasound Transducers, and they are used in watches as a time measurement.
Conversely, if you mechanically compress a piezoelectric crystal, a charge will occur at the edges. This is used in Ultrasound to detect sound waves, in guitar pickups, and even in those cigarette lighters in cars.
You can read more about it at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectric
If you're worried about that, just don't use it. Sort of like Linux, I suppose.
I use Rockbox, and it is great, but Archos is a crap company who make bad hardware. If this does well, I'll get an iRiver (I'm on the rockbox mail list, but I actually missed this, heh). The Rockbox team have been looking for a good platform to port to who won't cause problems though. Although Rockbox hasn't even been threatened by the DMCA (as far as I know), other similar projects have, and have just ceased without a battle (even though they know they are in the right).
It's annoying people bringing up how they wish this was on the iPod or whatever. They can do the port themselves if they find the current firmware a problem. Also, Apple tend to make good firmware (if Slashdot posts can be trusted. I've never used an iPod myself and I don't want to).
Someone else mentioned how this is "too little too late" because the "target audience" has gone to iPod now. I've never decided if these types of posts are trolls or not, but they annoy me. The programmers are probably programming it for themselves. I bet they want the port so they can work on the firmware themselves when they find something bad in it. I don't know for sure, but I think other people using it is just a side effect which makes it feel worth while. Anyone where who does hobbyist programming will know the feeling.
As for "Will I lose features" - well if you look at this page you can see Rockbox is very complete at the moment, compared to the original firmware - including great support for Blind People, which many people have benefited a lot from. These are great guys doing great work. Of course, things like OGG isn't on there, and it will never be on the Archos, but it will be added to the iRiver if the project gets off the ground. It is the nature of Free Software - and rockbox is GPLed - for features to be constantly added. Programmers, especially, like OGG too much for it to be left out for too long.
Rockbox has done impressive things. Video with sound, for example, and help for blind users. It has reacted to the demands of the people who use it - and for that the users should be thankful, as I am. They're only doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. Remember they owe us nothing.
"PsychoSolitaire wishes to send a message to +XX.YYYYYYYYY. This will cost £x
Some do. aside from the cost part (Which it could not possibly have known - it would require knowledge of my tariff, of how many texts I've already used, my location and the location of the target phone, and if it is a primer rate number).
It is useful in some ways to allow programs to do this. For example, there are Java ICQ clients available. These need to use whatever Mobile Internet services you have available. So long as the phone asks, there are no problems.
So no, allowing a program to send a text message isn't a bad idea at all. In fact, not allowing it might remove some useful uses of applets.
I've had both a Nokia (Ages ago, it was the 3210 which was good for its time), a Sony Erikson (T610) and now have a Samsung D410. Although the Samsung is the best for hardware, the software is just not as good as the other two. In fact, Sony Erikson are by far the best software creators of the three phones I have.
The Sony for example would prompt you before a Java program could use any services (Be it the internet, or texts, or whatever). I know a lot of other phones don't (From reading the API docs) - that would make this virus useless.
The most annoying thing about the Samsung is it starts text messages in capital letters - without option. It's these sort of mistakes which make the phone annoying to use, despite its superior hardware. The vibrate and ring missing feature you mentioned is annoying and as far as I can see just an oversight. Lack of Bluetooth is annoying too.
With so much money at stake, you wonder why they can't spend more time on the software - although in the end I think the reason is that you can't use software as one of the reasons on buying a phone, so they can get away with it.
when someone randomly forwards something to you, without doing a Blind Carbon Copy, your e-mail address can go far-and-wide.
In Access (To practice for school work, not because I wanted to), I wrote a script which would look through text and find the e-mail address. When given a small sample of e-mails, I found 25,354 e-mail addresses.
Check it out at http://www.sylviawebster.f2s.com/office/ if you like.
Slashdot Mirror
Watch DVDs then...
I agree with you (even if you are trolling or something, which is always my inital reaction when someone posts AC).
When reading this article on Slashdot, there were a lot of peoplewho said "I can just download the shows from BitTorrent".
I find this worrying.
C# only has pointers in "unsafe" mode. This causes problems regarding distrubiton.
m yMonth]))[myDay])))[n]))
Some else said:
C# has pointers. I don't use them - really no need to IMHO. You also have to mark the code as unmanaged.
I was programming in C# the other day, and I really missed pointers. I ended up with a lot of lines with code such as:
((string)((((ArrayList)(((ArrayList)(CurrentData[
Which could've been simplifed by pointers. Maybe I was doing something wrong?
Since Java is not free software, many GNU/Linux users will not use it.
XBox... PS2.. Gameboy... None of those use Free Software. Surely, if you are such the Linux user you say you are, you must support Free Software?
Or are you using it for just technical reasons?
I've recently being doing a report for Physics on the Piezoelectric effect, and it is really interesting thing.
When you put a current through a piezoelectric material (e.g. Quartz), it vibrates. The oscillations are used to create sound in Ultrasound Transducers, and they are used in watches as a time measurement.
Conversely, if you mechanically compress a piezoelectric crystal, a charge will occur at the edges. This is used in Ultrasound to detect sound waves, in guitar pickups, and even in those cigarette lighters in cars.
You can read more about it at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectric
Just thought this might interest someone.
If you're worried about that, just don't use it. Sort of like Linux, I suppose.
I use Rockbox, and it is great, but Archos is a crap company who make bad hardware. If this does well, I'll get an iRiver (I'm on the rockbox mail list, but I actually missed this, heh). The Rockbox team have been looking for a good platform to port to who won't cause problems though. Although Rockbox hasn't even been threatened by the DMCA (as far as I know), other similar projects have, and have just ceased without a battle (even though they know they are in the right).
It's annoying people bringing up how they wish this was on the iPod or whatever. They can do the port themselves if they find the current firmware a problem. Also, Apple tend to make good firmware (if Slashdot posts can be trusted. I've never used an iPod myself and I don't want to).
Someone else mentioned how this is "too little too late" because the "target audience" has gone to iPod now. I've never decided if these types of posts are trolls or not, but they annoy me. The programmers are probably programming it for themselves. I bet they want the port so they can work on the firmware themselves when they find something bad in it. I don't know for sure, but I think other people using it is just a side effect which makes it feel worth while. Anyone where who does hobbyist programming will know the feeling.
As for "Will I lose features" - well if you look at this page you can see Rockbox is very complete at the moment, compared to the original firmware - including great support for Blind People, which many people have benefited a lot from. These are great guys doing great work. Of course, things like OGG isn't on there, and it will never be on the Archos, but it will be added to the iRiver if the project gets off the ground. It is the nature of Free Software - and rockbox is GPLed - for features to be constantly added. Programmers, especially, like OGG too much for it to be left out for too long.
Rockbox has done impressive things. Video with sound, for example, and help for blind users. It has reacted to the demands of the people who use it - and for that the users should be thankful, as I am. They're only doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. Remember they owe us nothing.
More about Rockbox at Slashdot that you might find interesting.
For the confused, Wikipedia can help
A very strange party indeed.
Nice post. Wish I had Mod Points. I actually had them the other day but couldn't find anything to use them on. Doh'!
Offtopic: What is your sig about?
Quote: "Current death toll from Amnesty International's actions in Nepal: 9000"
Why would you sing "Hosanna!"? Wouldn't you sing a hosanna?
Am I confused?
Maddox complains about movies a lot. A fun one to read is Five shitty movies that everyone loves. Worth a read.
The best sonic fan game I've seen is DIY Sonic. It's actually more fun to play than the original, although it doesn't seem finished.
Also worth pointing out is this website which lists some of the level which didn't make it into Sonic 2.
"PsychoSolitaire wishes to send a message to +XX.YYYYYYYYY. This will cost £x
Some do. aside from the cost part (Which it could not possibly have known - it would require knowledge of my tariff, of how many texts I've already used, my location and the location of the target phone, and if it is a primer rate number).
It is useful in some ways to allow programs to do this. For example, there are Java ICQ clients available. These need to use whatever Mobile Internet services you have available. So long as the phone asks, there are no problems.
So no, allowing a program to send a text message isn't a bad idea at all. In fact, not allowing it might remove some useful uses of applets.
Sounds like you have a Samsung there.
I've had both a Nokia (Ages ago, it was the 3210 which was good for its time), a Sony Erikson (T610) and now have a Samsung D410. Although the Samsung is the best for hardware, the software is just not as good as the other two. In fact, Sony Erikson are by far the best software creators of the three phones I have.
The Sony for example would prompt you before a Java program could use any services (Be it the internet, or texts, or whatever). I know a lot of other phones don't (From reading the API docs) - that would make this virus useless.
The most annoying thing about the Samsung is it starts text messages in capital letters - without option. It's these sort of mistakes which make the phone annoying to use, despite its superior hardware. The vibrate and ring missing feature you mentioned is annoying and as far as I can see just an oversight. Lack of Bluetooth is annoying too.
With so much money at stake, you wonder why they can't spend more time on the software - although in the end I think the reason is that you can't use software as one of the reasons on buying a phone, so they can get away with it.
Open Source would be so much better...
I was very impress square root of i worked!
when someone randomly forwards something to you, without doing a Blind Carbon Copy, your e-mail address can go far-and-wide.
In Access (To practice for school work, not because I wanted to), I wrote a script which would look through text and find the e-mail address. When given a small sample of e-mails, I found 25,354 e-mail addresses.
Check it out at http://www.sylviawebster.f2s.com/office/ if you like.
This release includes [...] Gnome 2.6.1+, KDE 3.2.3
I don't get it. How many people use Slackware and KDE or GNOME? They seem mutually exclusive to me!
Why don't I ever have mod points when I want to mod something up?
I agree, and actually find iRivers products more attractive.
Thank you for clearing that up then. It was the IEEE Standard I was thinking of.
I just had a look through, and I couldn't find anyone else to point this out, which suggests I'm wrong, but:
Based on a binary floating-point number
Wasn't Floating Point invented by Intel?
In FreeBSD, you can use it to look through what has previously been printed out, but pushed off the screen, in the CLI. That is very useful.
Microsoft Excel uses it so that when it is on, the cursor keys scroll. Needless to say that just confuses people.
Can't really think of any other use for it.
OpenOffice.org automatically converts words surrounded by *stars* into bold text, and words surrounded by _underscores_ into underlined text.
Microsoft Word, if I recall correctly, bolds *stars*, but turns _underscores_ into italics.
The italics and underlines difference doesn't really matter though I don't think - They both show emphasis.
I duel boot Mandrake 10 CE and Windows XP fine.