I remember at Siggraph conferences in the mid '80s, the entire ~10,000-geek crowd booing whenever the IBM logo appeared on the screen.
Now, no one would bother to hate IBM. It seems that Microsoft has taken IBM's place of disrespect.
"One study of the situation in Indiana cannot accurately asses the impact of [daylight-saving time] changes across the nation, especially when it does not include more northern, colder regions,"
And, especially when it does not include more southern, warmer regions. Like Florida, where extra evening air conditioning usage likely swamps all other energy saving or wasting effects.
One reason there is so much disagreement about DST is because people live in different latitudes. Of course DST makes great sense in Boston or London. Just as obviously, it makes no sense at all in Florida! I think people also remember the sunrise/sunset of where they grew up, even after they have moved, even though their situation has changed. So, all the people from New York who moved to Florida still think DST is a good idea, even though they may not have been outside to check on the sunlight is a couple of years.
I get quite a bit of internal mail broadcast to the entire company, or at least to hundreds or thousands of people. Some of this is not applicable to many or most of the recipients. Some senders do not have the courtesy to develop a mailing list for their niche, and instead spam everyone.
Also, most corporate broadcast mail is sent anonymously from a send-only email address. If there is an error, ambiguity or other problem with the mail, who do you contact?
As a corporate best-practice, may I suggest that every email broadcast to the company should be signed by someone. If it's important enough to send to thousands of people, it's important enough for someone to sign it. I understand that this type of mail is sent from a send-only address, because you don't want zillions of replies, or worse, reply-alls. However, there should be some way for a recipient to contact the sender.
One-way communication is poor communication. Employees respond more favorably to messages that are from a fellow employee, rather than from an anonymous corporate server.
I live in Florida, and I've used the old and new system. The problems with the punch card system were caused by the humans not the machines. The much-derided punch card system had many features that were better than many newer voting systems.
Votes left an indelible paper trail (you can't reattach a punched chad).
The voting machines were extremely simple, requiring no electricity.
The votes could be easily read by machines at a central location. (Standard punch card readers -- not so common anymore.)
The problems occurred because,
Some voters are idiots.
There was no agreement in advance about how to conduct a recount.
I never noticed the slightest problem with how to mark my ballot: just move the slider to the candidate of choice and push down to punch the ballot. But, there are a lot of idiots, and no system is completely idiot proof.
As to the recount, all this hanging chad business could have been prevented if they had agreed in advance to conduct recounts by machine. It's a binary decision -- the machine either registers a vote or not. The machine is not arbitrarily trying to "determine voter intent".
The new system in my county also seems like a good one. Voters mark a paper ballot with a black pen. You mark the oval, much like standard multiple-choice tests. The ballots are counted immediately by machine, but the paper ballot drops into the box, saved in case of recounts. Ballots with conflicting marks are kicked back right away so the voter can be offered another ballot. But, I'm sure some idiots will screw up this system also.
I always wanted vending machines to have a "Double or Nothing" button. If you push that one, 50% of the time you get your product AND your money back, and the other 50% of the time, you get nothing (lose your money). Revenue neutral, but more fun.
"The ACM technology is based on historical differences in atmospheric barometric pressure in different locations. Pipelines are built to both connect selected locations and concentrate the resulting air flow."
The story they tell hinges on luck and the drive of one man, Sergei Korolyov, who died in 1966, unheralded in his lifetime.
Korolev (westernized spellings vary) had an even less heralded sidekick, Tikhonravov, who although brilliant, is much less well known, even in Russia. You know, the quiet, nerdy type.
Actually, we can improve lighting on earth, save energy, AND improve our view of the cosmos. Our existing nighttime lighting is enormously wasteful. Good lighting design lets you "see where you're going", without blinding you with glare, or destroying your night vision with excessive light.
Please visit the International Dark Sky Association which has been working to solve this problem for decades.
First, realize that lights that shine up into the sky are helping no one. Any electricity used to illuminate the sky is wasteful and causes light pollution. Properly shielded lights direct light at the ground where it is helpful, instead of at the sky.
The southern parts will probably have more benefit than the northern parts This is simply wrong. Daylight saving time was invented to make use of extra daylight available in northern latitudes. The length of the day varies less during the year near the equator than it does at higher latitudes.
Surprisingly, Florida has the latest summer sunrise in the entire Eastern Time Zone (US & Canada). For a discussion of just how silly DST is in Florida, and other points south, please see:
What you are really buying is energy. So, how does electricity compare with gasoline? At December 2005 rates, I'm paying about 9.5 cents per KWH after all taxes and fuel charges. Gasoline was $2.79 per gallon (including all taxes). At these prices, gasoline is still a little bit cheaper per unit of energy than electricity.
2.8 cents/KBTU (electric) vs. 2.2 cents/KBTU (gasoline)
So, since $9 buys only about 3 gallons of gas, what this guy is saying is that his electric car gets the equivalent of over 155 miles/gallon. This is a very dubious claim. Since gasoline is cheaper than electricity, if he'll just power it with gasoline instead, it will be even cheaper!
I have lived on Florida's space coast all my life -- long enough to see the space program from project Mercury on. Watching rocket launches is a hit or miss thing, with delays and cancellations very common. Everywhere within 5 or 10 miles of the launch pad is restricted. The closest viewing location is the VIP stands and news booths near the VAB. That's about 3 miles from the pad. You might luck into tickets if you know someone. Next is the NASA causeway (still restricted), about 6 miles away. This is a great spot, with over-water views. Tickets for this area are through the KSC visitor's center, and disappear withing minutes of going on sale. The KSC visitor's center also sells tickets to be at the KSC visitor's center for the launch. This is nothing special as a viewing spot -- you can't see the shuttle on the pad or anything.
Fortunately, launches can be seen and heard for miles. If you dislike crowds, have kids, or just want a less stressful experience, just pick a spot somewhere and look up. You'll miss a lot of traffic, and won't have too much time invested if the launch is cancelled. Spots along the river (Indian River Lagoon) give you a clear view.
I encourage everyone to visit the KSC visitor's center, especially the Saturn V moon rocket they have on display there. I think you have to ride the bus to get to the building with the Saturn V. That's really a nice exhibit. Very impressive!
Inside tip: All shuttle launches now are destined for the ISS. Because of the orbit, these missions will all launch in a more northerly direction (north-east). Therefore, viewing sites to the north may be slightly more favorable than those to the south of the pad. Non-ISS missions, of which I don't expect any more, launched in a more south-easterly direction.
You can't put perfect faith in this type of technology, for any purpose. On one car trip, my GPS recorded a max speed over 2000 mph. It apparently dropped a bit in longitude. The track showed that I moved a couple hundred miles west for the duration of one GPS update -- then it got a correct update, and I moved back, just as quickly. (Boy will dad be mad when he finds out I broke the sound barrier again.:)
Spreadsheets are a powerful programming environment. But, like some other "visual" environments, there is no way to get a listing of your code. You have to navigate around through all those rows and columns, looking at formulas one-by-one. The old, original idea of having the source code in human-readable form in a text file, where it can be reviewed easily, and checked by utilities like lint, has never been surpassed. Errors are probably no more likely in a spreadsheet than in other programming languages, but in textual languages, it is easier to find the errors. There are a few things that would help this problem, IMO:
1.) Assert statements for spreadsheets. Users can accomplish this with existing tools.
Example: Generate an error if the row-wise sum isn't equal to the column-wise sum.
2.) Pre-defined spreadsheet templates for solving common types of problems. Most spreadsheets reinvent the same wheels over and over again, frequently using poor programming practices. Just like you get templates with Microsoft word for common memo formats, you should get templates with Excel for common spreadsheets. These should come with *gasp*, documentation, describing how to customize them.
The true figure of merit for solar collectors is not $/Watt. Many photoelectric solar cells are in danger of requiring more power to manufacture than they will ever deliver during their lifetime. They still may be economically effective since they are built using cheap power from oil. This is great if you just need the power in a remote location. But don't fool yourself that you are solving the energy crisis. See
http://www.dieoff.org/ and look at "Economic Efficiency"
The subject article may improve both $/Watt and Watt/(Mfg Watt), if the concentrator requires less power to make than the solar cells. So much the better.
I would like to read ebooks, especially project Gutenberg books on my iBook. All the ebook readers either support their own proprietary format only, or don't do a good job with text and usability. I insist on at least the same functionality of a real book:
1) one key press to page forward and back 2) the book returns to where I left off when I resume reading 3) I want to be able to place my own bookmarks & annotations
Also, a decent reader should let me choose the font. It should have decent automatic formatting and pagination of unformatted text such as from project Gutenberg. Most text editors and word processors make lousy readers.
An FM modulator works for me -- but beware, you must get a decent modulator to get good sound without constantly fiddling with things. I built one from a kit -- it's great, but only if you don't mind assembling a lot of loose parts into a transmitter.
Also, the ability to power your transimtter from AC is part of the trick -- it's easy to get them to run quietly from a battery (DC). If you use a wall-wart transformer without careful precautions, you will get a lot of hum in the signal. The kit above has instructions on how to use an AC transformer, but results may vary. Mine works great.
Re:What about "The Adolescence of P-1"
on
Top 20 Geek Novels
·
· Score: 1
The Adolescence of P-1, Thomas J. Ryan 1977.
I vote for this one! It's extra geeky. This novel shows what an AI could do even with the technology of the '70s.
The book is set in the IBM mainframe world of the early '70s, even though the cover shows an early microcomputer and a VDT. I found the technology and terminology believable for the era, once you get past the slip on the first page:
"Rich finished loading a pack on a 2314 disk file and... ". You mounted (or loaded) a disk pack on a disk drive, not a file. Maybe that terminolgy varied at some sites though. Generally, the book captures the feel of an early machine room.
Here's the Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671559702/103-53 69917-7467851?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v =glance
I grew up near Cape Canaveral, and saw most (all?) of the Saturn V launches in person. The Saturn V on display at KSC is in a very nice facility, and is part of a profit-making museum venture. It's definitely worth seeing if you are in FL. There's a lot of real hardware there to look at. I am especially proud of the reaction of foreign visitors when they enter the room with the Saturn V. People are almost in reverence of the thing.
This rocket also used to sit outside near the VAB for a long time. Back in 1976, it was being moved to that outside location. I worked at KSC then, and they had left the Saturn V first stage parked alongside the road on base. (Who's going to steal it? ) A group of us decided to take a picture or two with the rocket. Somewhere there's a snapshot of me and nine other people standing inside one of the 5 rocket nozzles of the 1st stage.
As if anybody will listen to voting recommendations from Florida... Here in Brevard County, Florida, our system (which was in place and working well, before the infamous 2000 elections), is a sane mix of technology and low tech paper. The voter marks a paper ballot with a black ink marker, darkening the oval next to the desired candidate. These paper ballots are then counted by computer, and the totals are made available quickly. The ballots may be recounted as often as desired by machine, but they can also be counted or verified by humans if desired.
I believe that the ballots are scanned and validated as they are fed into the ballot box. If the ballot is inconsistent, it will be kicked back right then and the voter given an opportunity to mark a replacement ballot.
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I remember at Siggraph conferences in the mid '80s, the entire ~10,000-geek crowd booing whenever the IBM logo appeared on the screen. Now, no one would bother to hate IBM. It seems that Microsoft has taken IBM's place of disrespect.
If you can make a matter-squeezer out of a broken remote control with no batteries, then you'll really have something. (John Varley's Red Thunder).
"One study of the situation in Indiana cannot accurately asses the impact of [daylight-saving time] changes across the nation, especially when it does not include more northern, colder regions,"
And, especially when it does not include more southern, warmer regions. Like Florida, where extra evening air conditioning usage likely swamps all other energy saving or wasting effects.
See: http://www.FloridaHatesDST.org
One reason there is so much disagreement about DST is because people live in different latitudes. Of course DST makes great sense in Boston or London. Just as obviously, it makes no sense at all in Florida! I think people also remember the sunrise/sunset of where they grew up, even after they have moved, even though their situation has changed. So, all the people from New York who moved to Florida still think DST is a good idea, even though they may not have been outside to check on the sunlight is a couple of years.
Also, most corporate broadcast mail is sent anonymously from a send-only email address. If there is an error, ambiguity or other problem with the mail, who do you contact?
As a corporate best-practice, may I suggest that every email broadcast to the company should be signed by someone. If it's important enough to send to thousands of people, it's important enough for someone to sign it. I understand that this type of mail is sent from a send-only address, because you don't want zillions of replies, or worse, reply-alls. However, there should be some way for a recipient to contact the sender.
One-way communication is poor communication. Employees respond more favorably to messages that are from a fellow employee, rather than from an anonymous corporate server.
- Votes left an indelible paper trail (you can't reattach a punched chad).
- The voting machines were extremely simple, requiring no electricity.
- The votes could be easily read by machines at a central location. (Standard punch card readers -- not so common anymore.)
The problems occurred because,- Some voters are idiots.
- There was no agreement in advance about how to conduct a recount.
I never noticed the slightest problem with how to mark my ballot: just move the slider to the candidate of choice and push down to punch the ballot. But, there are a lot of idiots, and no system is completely idiot proof.As to the recount, all this hanging chad business could have been prevented if they had agreed in advance to conduct recounts by machine. It's a binary decision -- the machine either registers a vote or not. The machine is not arbitrarily trying to "determine voter intent".
The new system in my county also seems like a good one. Voters mark a paper ballot with a black pen. You mark the oval, much like standard multiple-choice tests. The ballots are counted immediately by machine, but the paper ballot drops into the box, saved in case of recounts. Ballots with conflicting marks are kicked back right away so the voter can be offered another ballot. But, I'm sure some idiots will screw up this system also.
I always wanted vending machines to have a "Double or Nothing" button. If you push that one, 50% of the time you get your product AND your money back, and the other 50% of the time, you get nothing (lose your money). Revenue neutral, but more fun.
If they can sell just one of these, they will make more money than hundreds of ionic bracelets and what-not:
http://www.coldenergy.com/default.htm
"The ACM technology is based on historical differences in atmospheric barometric pressure in different locations. Pipelines are built to both connect selected locations and concentrate the resulting air flow."
Korolev (westernized spellings vary) had an even less heralded sidekick, Tikhonravov, who although brilliant, is much less well known, even in Russia. You know, the quiet, nerdy type.
There is an interesting article this month in Smithsonian Air & Space magazine on him this month: http://airspacemag.com/issues/2007/october-november/sputnik_creator.php
And, of course, any large program has lots of total unknowns who all did their part.
Actually, we can improve lighting on earth, save energy, AND improve our view of the cosmos. Our existing nighttime lighting is enormously wasteful. Good lighting design lets you "see where you're going", without blinding you with glare, or destroying your night vision with excessive light. Please visit the International Dark Sky Association which has been working to solve this problem for decades. First, realize that lights that shine up into the sky are helping no one. Any electricity used to illuminate the sky is wasteful and causes light pollution. Properly shielded lights direct light at the ground where it is helpful, instead of at the sky.
Surprisingly, Florida has the latest summer sunrise in the entire Eastern Time Zone (US & Canada). For a discussion of just how silly DST is in Florida, and other points south, please see:
http://web.mac.com/jamiecox/iWeb/Florida%20Daylig
Daylight Saving Time is very likely wasting energy in the state of Florida.
http://web.mac.com/jamiecox/iWeb/Florida%20Dayligh t/Welcome.html
What you are really buying is energy. So, how does electricity compare with gasoline? At December 2005 rates, I'm paying about 9.5 cents per KWH after all taxes and fuel charges. Gasoline was $2.79 per gallon (including all taxes). At these prices, gasoline is still a little bit cheaper per unit of energy than electricity.
2.8 cents/KBTU (electric) vs. 2.2 cents/KBTU (gasoline)
So, since $9 buys only about 3 gallons of gas, what this guy is saying is that his electric car gets the equivalent of over 155 miles/gallon. This is a very dubious claim. Since gasoline is cheaper than electricity, if he'll just power it with gasoline instead, it will be even cheaper!
I have lived on Florida's space coast all my life -- long enough to see the space program from project Mercury on. Watching rocket launches is a hit or miss thing, with delays and cancellations very common. Everywhere within 5 or 10 miles of the launch pad is restricted. The closest viewing location is the VIP stands and news booths near the VAB. That's about 3 miles from the pad. You might luck into tickets if you know someone. Next is the NASA causeway (still restricted), about 6 miles away. This is a great spot, with over-water views. Tickets for this area are through the KSC visitor's center, and disappear withing minutes of going on sale. The KSC visitor's center also sells tickets to be at the KSC visitor's center for the launch. This is nothing special as a viewing spot -- you can't see the shuttle on the pad or anything.
Fortunately, launches can be seen and heard for miles. If you dislike crowds, have kids, or just want a less stressful experience, just pick a spot somewhere and look up. You'll miss a lot of traffic, and won't have too much time invested if the launch is cancelled. Spots along the river (Indian River Lagoon) give you a clear view.
I encourage everyone to visit the KSC visitor's center, especially the Saturn V moon rocket they have on display there. I think you have to ride the bus to get to the building with the Saturn V. That's really a nice exhibit. Very impressive!
Inside tip: All shuttle launches now are destined for the ISS. Because of the orbit, these missions will all launch in a more northerly direction (north-east). Therefore, viewing sites to the north may be slightly more favorable than those to the south of the pad. Non-ISS missions, of which I don't expect any more, launched in a more south-easterly direction.
You can't put perfect faith in this type of technology, for any purpose. On one car trip, my GPS recorded a max speed over 2000 mph. It apparently dropped a bit in longitude. The track showed that I moved a couple hundred miles west for the duration of one GPS update -- then it got a correct update, and I moved back, just as quickly. (Boy will dad be mad when he finds out I broke the sound barrier again. :)
Spreadsheets are a powerful programming environment. But, like some other "visual" environments, there is no way to get a listing of your code. You have to navigate around through all those rows and columns, looking at formulas one-by-one. The old, original idea of having the source code in human-readable form in a text file, where it can be reviewed easily, and checked by utilities like lint, has never been surpassed. Errors are probably no more likely in a spreadsheet than in other programming languages, but in textual languages, it is easier to find the errors. There are a few things that would help this problem, IMO: 1.) Assert statements for spreadsheets. Users can accomplish this with existing tools. Example: Generate an error if the row-wise sum isn't equal to the column-wise sum. 2.) Pre-defined spreadsheet templates for solving common types of problems. Most spreadsheets reinvent the same wheels over and over again, frequently using poor programming practices. Just like you get templates with Microsoft word for common memo formats, you should get templates with Excel for common spreadsheets. These should come with *gasp*, documentation, describing how to customize them.
All your base pairs are belong to us!
The subject article may improve both $/Watt and Watt/(Mfg Watt), if the concentrator requires less power to make than the solar cells. So much the better.
I would like to read ebooks, especially project Gutenberg books on my iBook. All the ebook readers either support their own proprietary format only, or don't do a good job with text and usability. I insist on at least the same functionality of a real book:
1) one key press to page forward and back
2) the book returns to where I left off when I resume reading
3) I want to be able to place my own bookmarks & annotations
Also, a decent reader should let me choose the font. It should have decent automatic formatting and pagination of unformatted text such as from project Gutenberg. Most text editors and word processors make lousy readers.
I use the MPX96 FM modulator from North Country Radiohttp://www.northcountryradio.com/Kitpages/mpx 96.htm
Also, the ability to power your transimtter from AC is part of the trick -- it's easy to get them to run quietly from a battery (DC). If you use a wall-wart transformer without careful precautions, you will get a lot of hum in the signal. The kit above has instructions on how to use an AC transformer, but results may vary. Mine works great.
The Adolescence of P-1, Thomas J. Ryan 1977. ... ". You mounted (or loaded) a disk pack on a disk drive, not a file. Maybe that terminolgy varied at some sites though. Generally, the book captures the feel of an early machine room.
3 69917-7467851?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v =glance
I vote for this one! It's extra geeky. This novel shows what an AI could do even with the technology of the '70s. The book is set in the IBM mainframe world of the early '70s, even though the cover shows an early microcomputer and a VDT. I found the technology and terminology believable for the era, once you get past the slip on the first page: "Rich finished loading a pack on a 2314 disk file and
Here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671559702/103-5
I grew up near Cape Canaveral, and saw most (all?) of the Saturn V launches in person. The Saturn V on display at KSC is in a very nice facility, and is part of a profit-making museum venture. It's definitely worth seeing if you are in FL. There's a lot of real hardware there to look at. I am especially proud of the reaction of foreign visitors when they enter the room with the Saturn V. People are almost in reverence of the thing. This rocket also used to sit outside near the VAB for a long time. Back in 1976, it was being moved to that outside location. I worked at KSC then, and they had left the Saturn V first stage parked alongside the road on base. (Who's going to steal it? ) A group of us decided to take a picture or two with the rocket. Somewhere there's a snapshot of me and nine other people standing inside one of the 5 rocket nozzles of the 1st stage.
As if anybody will listen to voting recommendations from Florida... Here in Brevard County, Florida, our system (which was in place and working well, before the infamous 2000 elections), is a sane mix of technology and low tech paper. The voter marks a paper ballot with a black ink marker, darkening the oval next to the desired candidate. These paper ballots are then counted by computer, and the totals are made available quickly. The ballots may be recounted as often as desired by machine, but they can also be counted or verified by humans if desired. I believe that the ballots are scanned and validated as they are fed into the ballot box. If the ballot is inconsistent, it will be kicked back right then and the voter given an opportunity to mark a replacement ballot.