Perhaps they could be first on the Moon without all the infighting, though... (a lot of people in "the West" don't realize how bitter the competition could be in the USSR, and how far taken - one lead designer simply refused to supply the engines needed by N1 to be successful; or - how many people heard about TKS spacecraft? You know, their other manned program, concurrent with Soyuz...)
Not quite (your post comes out slightly ironic with the mention of Tetris, especially considering how it was copied without licensing; and don't forget the USSR was generally embargoed in the first place).
Their mainframes of that time (not all / there were earlier lines) were compatible with IBM ones, yes (apparently the planners wanted "the standard"). But, as was done also by Hitachi or Siemens, they were reverse engineered, with quite original hardware; and later versions of OS also heavily modified. During detente of the 70's they had contacts with IBM, for cooperation (which did happen after breakup, with IBM cooperating in support services)
But in some areas the engineers could have more freedom. Check Elbrus computers from that time, their properties (almost looks like the tech transfer was the other way around; Intel did buy a lot of that engineering talent). Or, in earlier times, Setun.
"Copying" quickly led to their own ways, too - home computers of PDP11 lineage weren't really popular anywhere else (with many local OS, software, etc.)
I was a bit burned by this too; cheap TOF would be great for so many things (robotics for example) - but it isn't. There is no particularly special hardware to be found in the Kinect, it does its stuff by software running on X360 CPU (maybe some software is why ZCam were bought, or maybe to...eliminate competitor? MS wasn't ever above such tricks)
And how would you recognize TIF camera on a teardown anyway? (nvm how it would have 2 of them for some reason, curiously arranged in a classic stereoscopic way)
The processing of data from Kinect apparently happens on the X360 - I'm not sure how it would give anything better than 1-3 (depending on how much of the functionality you want to recreate in your own software) inexpensive webcams. Unless one cares about looks or quite limited range of tilt...
Will be rather hard, considering the processing happens on the CPU of X360, apparently. It might be still good (and easy enough), for the price(?), as a "head" for some small robot with stereoscopic cameras and IR illumination, for dark areas, I guess...
Or too many people might hate it precisely because "gaming" it is not possible - otherwise, maybe, by now, they would go out, exercise, et al already?
Though who knows, perhaps online system of achievements will result in some big gains in regards to population health... (the important remaining question would be how to trick people similarly with Farmville-like stuff & urban gardening / urban village)
It's not like abrahamic areas managed to avoid directly associating some animals with "evil", one way or another. See: cats; or water animals without scalds (what else can this be about if not some ancient evil?)
Well, OTOH full-blooded autocracy might not even really need such methods all that much, vs. places where the "voice of people" supposedly matters.
(really, it might have been almost a sport; coming from a place formerly behind the Iron Curtain, I'm pretty sure people were treating anything coming from the Party with a grain of salt anyway)
Some training material, if that happens (too bad most cult lines not particularly translatable; and I guess I should also warn the puritans here to be careful while watching...)
Don't you have this the other way around? Resistive touchscreen doesn't have any problems working with plastic bag on top of it. But when it comes to capacitive and any non-conductive barrier...see this thread.
(and pleasing people can take a really wrong turn - just look how oversaturated are default settings of any TV)
Making most of external surface from metal, glass, etc. seems also slightly bizarre. Those are materials which get, subjectively, damn cold and unpleasant to hold even when it's merely chilly outside.
It might not matter, considering how riddled with bacteria touchscreens supposedly are. Of course, might not really make a difference either way, considering how riddled with them our faces and mouths are...
(really people, we are walking colonies of bacteria anyway, anything beyond basic hygiene doesn't make too much of a practical difference)
Yes, gloves. Many types of them - also fingerless gloves. Easy to make from cheap wool ones - and in this case cutting just the tips of two fingers will be usually enough, making them only slightly less warm.
Children are even smarter than cats, they can quickly learn a cat can defend itself.
And no, you don't "declaw a cat to keep it from damaging furniture" - even according to veterinary association of the place in question it "should be considered only after attempts have been made to prevent the cat from using its claws destructively" - but those ethical guidelines are apparently simply ignored in 95% of cases; strong majority of the amputations takes place in the first half a year of life of the cat - which means no serious effort at teaching it proper manners with humans took place; it's still a relatively stupid kitten, weak, and which just plays.
(again all this ignoring how declawing-induced behavioral problems result in ~2x higher ratio of owners abandoning their cat)
Don't forget the practice of disabling amputation known euphemistically as "declawing" - performed despite cats being able to learn quite quickly how relatively unprotected our skin is (doesn't mean it won't scratch sometimes, still, when provoked...so don't do that) and able, mostly, to adopt a dedicated surface for claws sharpening. And despite how the procedure actually doubles the rates of abandonment.
(^fits with how that place is also enthusiastic about adhd/ritalin/etc.; doesn't make it a shining example in this discussion)
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Perhaps they could be first on the Moon without all the infighting, though... (a lot of people in "the West" don't realize how bitter the competition could be in the USSR, and how far taken - one lead designer simply refused to supply the engines needed by N1 to be successful; or - how many people heard about TKS spacecraft? You know, their other manned program, concurrent with Soyuz...)
Not quite (your post comes out slightly ironic with the mention of Tetris, especially considering how it was copied without licensing; and don't forget the USSR was generally embargoed in the first place).
Their mainframes of that time (not all / there were earlier lines) were compatible with IBM ones, yes (apparently the planners wanted "the standard"). But, as was done also by Hitachi or Siemens, they were reverse engineered, with quite original hardware; and later versions of OS also heavily modified. During detente of the 70's they had contacts with IBM, for cooperation (which did happen after breakup, with IBM cooperating in support services)
But in some areas the engineers could have more freedom. Check Elbrus computers from that time, their properties (almost looks like the tech transfer was the other way around; Intel did buy a lot of that engineering talent). Or, in earlier times, Setun.
"Copying" quickly led to their own ways, too - home computers of PDP11 lineage weren't really popular anywhere else (with many local OS, software, etc.)
I was a bit burned by this too; cheap TOF would be great for so many things (robotics for example) - but it isn't. There is no particularly special hardware to be found in the Kinect, it does its stuff by software running on X360 CPU (maybe some software is why ZCam were bought, or maybe to...eliminate competitor? MS wasn't ever above such tricks)
And how would you recognize TIF camera on a teardown anyway? (nvm how it would have 2 of them for some reason, curiously arranged in a classic stereoscopic way)
The processing of data from Kinect apparently happens on the X360 - I'm not sure how it would give anything better than 1-3 (depending on how much of the functionality you want to recreate in your own software) inexpensive webcams. Unless one cares about looks or quite limited range of tilt...
Will be rather hard, considering the processing happens on the CPU of X360, apparently. It might be still good (and easy enough), for the price(?), as a "head" for some small robot with stereoscopic cameras and IR illumination, for dark areas, I guess...
It's not TOF (for a long it seemed like it might be, but it isn't; emitted IR is there for illumination)
What's not be impressed with?
The first quite can be (per wording from second...) a diplomatic way of not mentioning how much worse it is from 'hands on'...
Or too many people might hate it precisely because "gaming" it is not possible - otherwise, maybe, by now, they would go out, exercise, et al already?
Though who knows, perhaps online system of achievements will result in some big gains in regards to population health... (the important remaining question would be how to trick people similarly with Farmville-like stuff & urban gardening / urban village)
It's not like abrahamic areas managed to avoid directly associating some animals with "evil", one way or another. See: cats; or water animals without scalds (what else can this be about if not some ancient evil?)
Well, OTOH full-blooded autocracy might not even really need such methods all that much, vs. places where the "voice of people" supposedly matters.
(really, it might have been almost a sport; coming from a place formerly behind the Iron Curtain, I'm pretty sure people were treating anything coming from the Party with a grain of salt anyway)
what's one redundant mod?
Some training material, if that happens (too bad most cult lines not particularly translatable; and I guess I should also warn the puritans here to be careful while watching...)
But...that's scary.
Don't you have this the other way around? Resistive touchscreen doesn't have any problems working with plastic bag on top of it. But when it comes to capacitive and any non-conductive barrier...see this thread.
(and pleasing people can take a really wrong turn - just look how oversaturated are default settings of any TV)
Snakes are probably the best candidate you can find, for an animal that does have it. A bit more deserving than newborns actually, don't you think?
Would be more fun if you didn't warn them...
Making most of external surface from metal, glass, etc. seems also slightly bizarre. Those are materials which get, subjectively, damn cold and unpleasant to hold even when it's merely chilly outside.
It might not matter, considering how riddled with bacteria touchscreens supposedly are. Of course, might not really make a difference either way, considering how riddled with them our faces and mouths are...
(really people, we are walking colonies of bacteria anyway, anything beyond basic hygiene doesn't make too much of a practical difference)
( http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The_Complicator_0x27_s_Gloves.aspx )
Yes, gloves. Many types of them - also fingerless gloves. Easy to make from cheap wool ones - and in this case cutting just the tips of two fingers will be usually enough, making them only slightly less warm.
...and some Mac users (check prices of high-specced but otherwise very basic Mac Pros)
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that foreign teachers are anywhere near a rule(?)
Children are even smarter than cats, they can quickly learn a cat can defend itself.
And no, you don't "declaw a cat to keep it from damaging furniture" - even according to veterinary association of the place in question it "should be considered only after attempts have been made to prevent the cat from using its claws destructively" - but those ethical guidelines are apparently simply ignored in 95% of cases; strong majority of the amputations takes place in the first half a year of life of the cat - which means no serious effort at teaching it proper manners with humans took place; it's still a relatively stupid kitten, weak, and which just plays.
(again all this ignoring how declawing-induced behavioral problems result in ~2x higher ratio of owners abandoning their cat)
...or insist on getting a high-specced Mac Pro.
Don't forget the practice of disabling amputation known euphemistically as "declawing" - performed despite cats being able to learn quite quickly how relatively unprotected our skin is (doesn't mean it won't scratch sometimes, still, when provoked...so don't do that) and able, mostly, to adopt a dedicated surface for claws sharpening. And despite how the procedure actually doubles the rates of abandonment.
(^fits with how that place is also enthusiastic about adhd/ritalin/etc.; doesn't make it a shining example in this discussion)