how about http? I've been thinking about ways of getting around heavy censorship at universities (block all access but the web proxy port, which needs a password and is censored) by connecting to sites that aren't filtered and somehow using them as a proxy -- not just for web traffic, but for any arbitrary stream of data.
DSSS is designed to avoid problems with fixed frequency interference (IE microwave oven) by using chipping and correlation to spread the signal over a wider band. This should reduce the effect of narrow-band interference even at higher power - in theory. There is an excellent (pdf) paper on the subject, entitled Effects of Microwave Interference On IEEE 802.11 WLAN Reliability.
Given the choice I'd go for the Ninty DS. That optical drive on the PSP is bound to cause battery life issues, and I quite like the dual-screen arrangement over the PSP single screen (even though it's a good size). Is it just me, or are the titles announced for the PSP not very exciting compared to the DS? At least Nintendo have got some innovation in there rather than churning out the usual sports muck.
Anyways, I think the main reason the photos that I have taken have sucked is the lack of a flash. Plus, it's all fixed-focus stuff. It's just not designed to be a good quality digital camera.
Oh absolutely. And the lenses tend to be quite small, not capturing much light. That in combination with an insensative CMOS sensor (CMOS is lower power than CCD) give amplified, grainy looking pictures in low light (EG indoor lighting).
Well, the phones I've seen have the lens recessed into the case (presumably to protect against scratching), and in this aperature the lint collects. Sometimes there is a protective flat glass/plastic sheet in front of the lens and even this can get lint/dust behind it.
I know so many people that just shove the phone in their pockets, then wonder why their lint-filled aperture gives them crappy results. Great for sending a quick pic to your mates, but not for anything else. Quality digital cameras they are not.
Apparently eBay is doing something right, but with no buyer protection, no seller authentication, and no desire to participate in seller-buyer conflicts, no return policy, can the business model be sustained?"
Every system is open to abuse of some kind (even well established banking systems - think phishing). eBay are at least taking some steps to protect the people that use its service (which is the only thing they sell - a service). AFAIK new users are required to provide a credit-card number, both to authenticate age and as an incentive not to rip people off. And some amount of user disgression is required - buying an expensive item off someone with low/negative feedback is a no-no, whereas you can be fairly confident buying something expensive off someone with lots of positive feedback that has sold similar items in the past. I've bought lots of things off eBay (including a widescreen TV) with no problems whatsoever. But I have been very careful to check feedback and use some judgement.
One percent donated to community projects translate to 30 minutes per week, at most. This is actually very little compared to the time people spend on community projects in which they actively participate.
Cost-wise, if you employ 100 people then that would cost the company the same as having one person working full time on community projects. This is better than nothing, even with the reduced productivity involved in spreading this time over 100 employees.
It would be interesting to work out how much a company would save using free OSS over existing solutions (think OpenOffice vs. MS Office) and how much employee time that would equate to that could then be donated back to the community.
It's a great idea to donate something back, even if this particular implementation isn't the best way.
the company should allow their employees to dedicate 1% of paid time to volunteer projects in the community.
It would be nice to see other employers adopt this - especially if the company uses any OSS applications. Trouble is, it looks too much like doing free work for someone else to be widely adopted - and it'd cost in management time to ensure that the 1% isn't exceeded (it's easy to get carried away on a train of thought while coding!)
format their drive and install a cd of opensource programs that run on windows onto their newly blank drive? Great way to get converts.
That's not too far off what my company did a while ago. We were all upgraded(!) to Win2k, but the system team bundled a load of OSS stuff with each installation, including the excellent Gimp. No-one I'd spoken to here before had used it (sure they'd heard of it but had never been bothered to try it). Now there are lots of converts that really swear by it.
I would have modded you insightful rather than funny.
okay, but if we aren't getting any AC from the engine we're left with DC from the battery. So I wasn't factoring in frequency.
Fair enough!:)
I also remember reading somewhere that if you received a shock horizontally across your body (IE arm-to-arm), you were 60% more likely to die than if it was vertically (IE head-to-feet), though I have no references to back this up.
and aminet, yeah nice memories... The difference though is that you rarely had source with the programs (they were mostly shareware) whereas you _must_ have them now because of the GPL. This is an order of magnitude better in my view.
Oh, I completely agree. Not that there would be room on the disks.:) But back then the Fish Disks were invaluable for legally spreading around good free/shareware software at a time when the internet wasn't so commonly available.
I think TheOpenCD is a good idea for increasing OSS availability/awareness, though I question it's validity in this day when everyone is used to just "downloading and installing". Also, everyone seems to want "the latest version" and OSS apps go through versions rapidly, quickly outdating the CD.
500 volts? 45 volts is enough to kill you... at 10 amperes!
Seriously, aren't we nerds, or something?!
Apparently not as much of a nerd as you'd like to think, since you forgot to factor in frequency and duration.
High currents can be passed through (over) the human body at higher frequency a) because they tend to travel over the surface of the body and b) because the nervous system is less likely to react to frequencies 100Hz and upwards.
Also, you really should have mentioned duration, since this governs the energy delivered (which is, after all, what causes the most physical damage). Energy is Voltage * Current * Time. Electric fencers operate in the kV range, but only(!) deliver a few joules.
Heh, reminds me of the old Fred Fish disks for the Amiga, crammed with free/shareware stuff. They were great days.:)
Mechanism by which this works?
on
Directed Sound
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· Score: 1
But in a directional-sound system, the distortion is actually the mechanism that generates the audible sound, breaking the ultrasound waves into lower-frequency, audible sound waves along a straight, narrow path.
Does anyone have an info/links on how this works?
I'd hazard a wild guess that an ultrasound carrier is amplitude modulated with audio frequencies and that the ear drum and associated structure acts like a demodulator and low-pass filter. I'd also be interested to know if it works at one of the industry standard ultrasonic transducer resonant frequencies (IE 40kHz).
First warning sign you'll have career trouble: no one in your target field recognizes your major.
Having done an MEng entitled "Information Engineering" (essentially Electronics and CS), I was worried about this. In every CV I've ever sent, I've included the list of courses I took as part of the degree attached as an appendix. Employers love it and I've had no problem finding jobs here in the UK. I don't get bored in my job because I get to do both, and ultimately it lead to my being in a R&D position within the current company because of having both hardware/software skill-sets. My only advice is, if you find it interesting, do it. Job satisfaction counts for a lot.
FPGAs have had processor IPs available for a while, which, in theory, can be reprogrammed on the fly. But AFAIK, no-one does this. I doubt this will be any different.
Hardware manufacturers that need special hardware operations (IE MPEG-2 decoding) use dedicated, custom hardware for large volume production. Dynamically configurable hardware is expensive for large scales production, and small scale production will likely use FPGA for similar effect. I may be sceptical, but I doubt it'll catch on.
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Heard of HTTP tunnelling? Check these out:
GNU HTTP tunnel
Commercial HTTP tunnel (monthly sub)
DSSS is designed to avoid problems with fixed frequency interference (IE microwave oven) by using chipping and correlation to spread the signal over a wider band. This should reduce the effect of narrow-band interference even at higher power - in theory. There is an excellent (pdf) paper on the subject, entitled Effects of Microwave Interference On IEEE 802.11 WLAN Reliability.
Given the choice I'd go for the Ninty DS. That optical drive on the PSP is bound to cause battery life issues, and I quite like the dual-screen arrangement over the PSP single screen (even though it's a good size). Is it just me, or are the titles announced for the PSP not very exciting compared to the DS? At least Nintendo have got some innovation in there rather than churning out the usual sports muck.
Oh absolutely. And the lenses tend to be quite small, not capturing much light. That in combination with an insensative CMOS sensor (CMOS is lower power than CCD) give amplified, grainy looking pictures in low light (EG indoor lighting).
Well, the phones I've seen have the lens recessed into the case (presumably to protect against scratching), and in this aperature the lint collects. Sometimes there is a protective flat glass/plastic sheet in front of the lens and even this can get lint/dust behind it.
I know so many people that just shove the phone in their pockets, then wonder why their lint-filled aperture gives them crappy results. Great for sending a quick pic to your mates, but not for anything else. Quality digital cameras they are not.
Every system is open to abuse of some kind (even well established banking systems - think phishing). eBay are at least taking some steps to protect the people that use its service (which is the only thing they sell - a service). AFAIK new users are required to provide a credit-card number, both to authenticate age and as an incentive not to rip people off. And some amount of user disgression is required - buying an expensive item off someone with low/negative feedback is a no-no, whereas you can be fairly confident buying something expensive off someone with lots of positive feedback that has sold similar items in the past. I've bought lots of things off eBay (including a widescreen TV) with no problems whatsoever. But I have been very careful to check feedback and use some judgement.
Cost-wise, if you employ 100 people then that would cost the company the same as having one person working full time on community projects. This is better than nothing, even with the reduced productivity involved in spreading this time over 100 employees.
It would be interesting to work out how much a company would save using free OSS over existing solutions (think OpenOffice vs. MS Office) and how much employee time that would equate to that could then be donated back to the community.
It's a great idea to donate something back, even if this particular implementation isn't the best way.
It would be nice to see other employers adopt this - especially if the company uses any OSS applications. Trouble is, it looks too much like doing free work for someone else to be widely adopted - and it'd cost in management time to ensure that the 1% isn't exceeded (it's easy to get carried away on a train of thought while coding!)
It's pretty hard getting that @ down to level 20.
In other news: Sony face a "tough fight" in the face of Nintendo's upcoming 28" widescreen television system...
That's not too far off what my company did a while ago. We were all upgraded(!) to Win2k, but the system team bundled a load of OSS stuff with each installation, including the excellent Gimp. No-one I'd spoken to here before had used it (sure they'd heard of it but had never been bothered to try it). Now there are lots of converts that really swear by it.
I would have modded you insightful rather than funny.
Fair enough! :)
I also remember reading somewhere that if you received a shock horizontally across your body (IE arm-to-arm), you were 60% more likely to die than if it was vertically (IE head-to-feet), though I have no references to back this up.
Obviously I've been spending too much time playing this.
Oh, I completely agree. Not that there would be room on the disks. :) But back then the Fish Disks were invaluable for legally spreading around good free/shareware software at a time when the internet wasn't so commonly available.
I think TheOpenCD is a good idea for increasing OSS availability/awareness, though I question it's validity in this day when everyone is used to just "downloading and installing". Also, everyone seems to want "the latest version" and OSS apps go through versions rapidly, quickly outdating the CD.
500 volts? 45 volts is enough to kill you... at 10 amperes!
Seriously, aren't we nerds, or something?!
Apparently not as much of a nerd as you'd like to think, since you forgot to factor in frequency and duration.
High currents can be passed through (over) the human body at higher frequency a) because they tend to travel over the surface of the body and b) because the nervous system is less likely to react to frequencies 100Hz and upwards.
Also, you really should have mentioned duration, since this governs the energy delivered (which is, after all, what causes the most physical damage). Energy is Voltage * Current * Time. Electric fencers operate in the kV range, but only(!) deliver a few joules.
dumb-asses
Back at ya. ;)
Heh, reminds me of the old Fred Fish disks for the Amiga, crammed with free/shareware stuff. They were great days. :)
Does anyone have an info/links on how this works?
I'd hazard a wild guess that an ultrasound carrier is amplitude modulated with audio frequencies and that the ear drum and associated structure acts like a demodulator and low-pass filter. I'd also be interested to know if it works at one of the industry standard ultrasonic transducer resonant frequencies (IE 40kHz).
Let us not forget our roots; the battle of @ against &.
An epic story of the struggle between good and evil.
Starting Score: 1 point
Moderation -1
100% Flamebait
Heh. :) Strangely satisfying.
Heh, I wonder how many Spectum BASIC games developers never got beyond "Scroll?" doing that?
Wha... you never discovered "RENUMBER"?
Heh, I was so chuffed when I upgraded from my ZX Spectrum to the ZX Spectrum +3A and discovered that functionality. :)
"VB", "Excel" and "Simple" in the same sentence?
Comedy genius!
Go ahead and mod me flamebait, see if I care. ;)
Having done an MEng entitled "Information Engineering" (essentially Electronics and CS), I was worried about this. In every CV I've ever sent, I've included the list of courses I took as part of the degree attached as an appendix. Employers love it and I've had no problem finding jobs here in the UK. I don't get bored in my job because I get to do both, and ultimately it lead to my being in a R&D position within the current company because of having both hardware/software skill-sets. My only advice is, if you find it interesting, do it. Job satisfaction counts for a lot.
Hardware manufacturers that need special hardware operations (IE MPEG-2 decoding) use dedicated, custom hardware for large volume production. Dynamically configurable hardware is expensive for large scales production, and small scale production will likely use FPGA for similar effect. I may be sceptical, but I doubt it'll catch on.