Does anyone remember those optical crystals that were grown about 20 years ago that would essentially do this?
IIRC, a description was that if you held one a couple of feet in front of your eyes, very steady, it would create a virtual image of its surroundings, including around corners and behind things. How steady you had to hold it and the speed the image fell into place was dependent on the general level of illumination.
I read about it in one of the trade magazines at the time and you could order small samples (maybe a quarter inch cube) for something like $40. I did try to order one but my check was returned with a letter stating that sales outside the government were halted.
I've always been curious what those things were and what happened to them.
I got a gut feeling there is an indirect effect of the photons that can be detected. Like other "unbreakable" systems this one will only last until it is cracked and the existence of the crack is discovered.
How about demanding better drivers rather than slowing down traffic to the point where gridlock occurs?
The capacity of a road is more or less proportional to the speed limit. Think mass flow. Take a very busy expressway with traffic flowing at 70 MPH and put a cop there to enforce a 55 MPH limit and you will get a major traffic jam.
I say, sure, you can have this technology but let's be realistic about speed limits and allow higher speeds but tie access to high speed roads to driver and vehicle capability. 70-80 MPH on freeways can be safe if you keep poor drivers and vehicles with poor maneuverability and braking ability off them.
If you think you pay higher prices "because of rampant theft" then you have bought in to a spin unsupported by reality.
There are many points to consider, but here are two:
Supply and demand: At zero or very low price there will be greater demand for a product. Most of the people who get the product this way would not pay the going market price and so it is not fair to say that the producer has lost any money. The number of people who are willing to pay the going price but acquire the product via P2P or from the guy on the streetcorner hawking CDs has been shown from studies to be insignificant at this point. (Conclusion: free availability increases market penetration without adding support, distribution or advertising costs.)
Protected product pricing: By your logic a product which is perfectly protected from copying should cost less than one that is not. However, the opposite is true. For example, as Microsoft tightens their activation procedures, prices are increasing rapidly.
Your bandwidth comment makes little sense. The very reason you have the availability of a broadband connection is because of the demand caused by the free flow of large multimedia files. Had full copyright protection been in place all along, the adoption of broadband would not be where it is today. The interaction between different economic sectors is far more complex and intertwined than it may seem at first glance.
But I do agree that the extreme positions taken on all sides do nothing to help come to an agreement and compromise position.
I have always blacklisted telemarketers and spammers.
Today I got a call from a boiler-room stock broker. I asked about his NASD registration and he said he didn't need one to be registered but that he had some great recommendations. I asked if he had his Series 5 and he did not know what I was talking about.
These people use high pressure tactics and snare a small percentage of people. They have absolutely zero regard for laws and rules and I do spend a significant time educating older folks on how to say NO to any kind of sales pitch thrown their way, be it over the phone or via email (for those who even use computers).
Everyone on/. should spend time educating people in their communitiy about these hazards. Try calling your local DA and see if they give talks and if you can be a volunteer.
Damn right I'm protesting! Tough nuggies if you think it's too much.
Do you believe the republicans can do nothing wrong and all the country's ills are due to democrats? If so you have been blinded in a very serious and dangerous way.
Unlike you, I have no misconceptions about the republicans, nor the democrats.
This is about Daley and his crew and what party he is affiliated with has little bearing. Most local politics is like that. The more local, the less the party affiliation matters.
I am a New Yorker and like a lot of what Bloomberg has done and I really don't care what party he says he is with. What matters is his on-the-job performance.
I vote for the best candidate; do you vote straight republican regardless of anything else?
My 10 year old son built one of those screaming fast RC cars in camp and I mounted one of those cameras on it. We stayed in the garage and ran it up and down the street, even UNDER moving cars (they honked like mad).
Try it! It's a blast. A couple of elderly neighbors were not amused though.
The one trouble we encountered is that the cameras are analog and any 1.2 GHz digital portable phones in the area make a good deal of interference so you may have to try a 900 MHz camera as well to see what works in your area. Another solution might be one of those cameras with a more powerful transmitter which would also increase the range from the present aprox 500 feet max usable.
The check failed on all the systems I just got from Dell. It didn't say I had pirated versions, just that it could not verify and that I should contact my vendor.
I am just waiting for my clients to start calling me saying I gave them pirated software.
The huge land grap that is called IP has just begun, and its effects ain't pretty.
The more this kind of corporate behavior gets publicized, the better. Sorry for the farmers but I think Monsanto suing lots of them into bankruptcy might begin to make more people wake up to the problems our current IP laws can cause. Nobody seems to care about IP laws when it affects computers and programming so maybe when the food supply starts getting affected it will add pressure for a re-think of these issues.
One night I was on a CAP SAR flight and we were targeted by such a laser. They can be very bright when your eyes are accustomed to the dark! When we tried to locate the source and got closer, it stopped. It was coming from a residential area. I had spots in my vision like someone took flash photos and I looked into the strobe.
One note; there was mention in the news of a quote from an FBI agent who said it had to be a sophisticated laser to track a plane for severla seconds at 8500 feet. I disagree. I believe with a braced or tripod mounted unit in combination with the beam divergence holding on target for a few seconds is easy.
Another possibility is that it is a posturing move. She sues for disclosure, the judge invites both sides to make comments, and SCO makes a really big deal about IBM wanting to keep some documents sealed.
Between this and the delay caused to the case by the request, SCO then argues that there should be no summary judgement and it should go to trial before a jury in 2007 as planned.
Funding will magically appear as new untraceable overseas SCOsource licenses to keep this dragging out until Longhorn is released.
That will slow them down a bit, as there are no visits to the gasoline pump.
But seriously, if they are talking about wear and tear on the roads, why wouldn't they make the tax a function of vehicle weight AND mileage driven? A heavier vehicle causes MUCH more road damage than a light one.
Well, maybe not quite yet, but there are a lot of people who want that to happen.
I sense a growing religious-based governing mentality. We have the Muslim uprising and the Christian right wing in the USA. I believe religion was created to unite people in a common and good cause but it is now being twisted around to divide people and in doing so its extremism sees science and the scientific method as a threat to its faith-based foundations.
I thought the Republicans were against big government, that it is better to have private interests take on as much as possible.
Yet, throw a few bucks their way, and look what happens! They fall all over each other having the federal government take over what should be a civil matter.
I was on a Search and Rescue mission in CAP and we were targeted by a strong green laser. I was the mission observer and instructed the pilot to look away. Initially it passed by us fast but then it illuminated the cockpit. We got closer but it stopped.
If we had a better location on the source we would have been more active tracking it down. I would not want to be the person caught interfereing with an Air Force assigned SAR mission.
You can't necessarily leave your newspaper on the seat when you're done. At least not if the newspaper companies have a say.
Metro-North railroad (the commuter lines into NYC) now consider leaving a paper on your seat as "littering" and are talking about fines and revocation of the monthly passes of violators. When you get to Grand Central station there are specially designed bins to throw your used paper into. They are locked and were supplied by the New York Times so you cannot reach in and get a used paper. And if you somehow do, the transit police are instructed to treat it as theft and arrest you.
Of course you can *hand* the paper to someone, they don't seem to have that one covered (yet).
$6.50 ?!? Where do YOU live? Theatres that play first run movies charge a minimum of $9.50 around here, and I've seen $11.50 more than once.
And, no, I do NOT think they should be watching people with NVGs. One more reason to avoid going, if you ask me. The ads, the admonishments not to make copies of stuff, the hyper-overpriced snacks...and now they will be spying on us? Even my kids are not so keen on "the movies" any more.
I know they want to protect their "property," but everything has limits. Protecting one's property does not trump all other rights of everyone else. Would you think it's ok to have a sniper guarding someone's car and shooting anyone who came too close? This is not a black and white issue! It's all a matter of degree and balance of competing rights.
Slashdot Mirror
Does anyone remember those optical crystals that were grown about 20 years ago that would essentially do this?
IIRC, a description was that if you held one a couple of feet in front of your eyes, very steady, it would create a virtual image of its surroundings, including around corners and behind things. How steady you had to hold it and the speed the image fell into place was dependent on the general level of illumination.
I read about it in one of the trade magazines at the time and you could order small samples (maybe a quarter inch cube) for something like $40. I did try to order one but my check was returned with a letter stating that sales outside the government were halted.
I've always been curious what those things were and what happened to them.
IMHO it should be a crime to mess up some kid's entire life over something like this.
The prosecutor should be charged and they should drop all charges against the girl.
I got a gut feeling there is an indirect effect of the photons that can be detected. Like other "unbreakable" systems this one will only last until it is cracked and the existence of the crack is discovered.
They sure do, even lower than that. Like with aviation, the limiting factor may well be insurance. Can you get coverage? For how much?
Local zoning is usually the issue. The FAA does not tell you whether or not you can have an "airfield."
How about demanding better drivers rather than slowing down traffic to the point where gridlock occurs?
The capacity of a road is more or less proportional to the speed limit. Think mass flow. Take a very busy expressway with traffic flowing at 70 MPH and put a cop there to enforce a 55 MPH limit and you will get a major traffic jam.
I say, sure, you can have this technology but let's be realistic about speed limits and allow higher speeds but tie access to high speed roads to driver and vehicle capability. 70-80 MPH on freeways can be safe if you keep poor drivers and vehicles with poor maneuverability and braking ability off them.
If you think you pay higher prices "because of rampant theft" then you have bought in to a spin unsupported by reality.
There are many points to consider, but here are two:
Supply and demand: At zero or very low price there will be greater demand for a product. Most of the people who get the product this way would not pay the going market price and so it is not fair to say that the producer has lost any money. The number of people who are willing to pay the going price but acquire the product via P2P or from the guy on the streetcorner hawking CDs has been shown from studies to be insignificant at this point. (Conclusion: free availability increases market penetration without adding support, distribution or advertising costs.)
Protected product pricing: By your logic a product which is perfectly protected from copying should cost less than one that is not. However, the opposite is true. For example, as Microsoft tightens their activation procedures, prices are increasing rapidly.
Your bandwidth comment makes little sense. The very reason you have the availability of a broadband connection is because of the demand caused by the free flow of large multimedia files. Had full copyright protection been in place all along, the adoption of broadband would not be where it is today. The interaction between different economic sectors is far more complex and intertwined than it may seem at first glance.
But I do agree that the extreme positions taken on all sides do nothing to help come to an agreement and compromise position.
I have always blacklisted telemarketers and spammers.
/. should spend time educating people in their communitiy about these hazards. Try calling your local DA and see if they give talks and if you can be a volunteer.
Today I got a call from a boiler-room stock broker. I asked about his NASD registration and he said he didn't need one to be registered but that he had some great recommendations. I asked if he had his Series 5 and he did not know what I was talking about.
These people use high pressure tactics and snare a small percentage of people. They have absolutely zero regard for laws and rules and I do spend a significant time educating older folks on how to say NO to any kind of sales pitch thrown their way, be it over the phone or via email (for those who even use computers).
Everyone on
Damn right I'm protesting! Tough nuggies if you think it's too much.
Do you believe the republicans can do nothing wrong and all the country's ills are due to democrats? If so you have been blinded in a very serious and dangerous way.
Unlike you, I have no misconceptions about the republicans, nor the democrats.
This is about Daley and his crew and what party he is affiliated with has little bearing. Most local politics is like that. The more local, the less the party affiliation matters.
I am a New Yorker and like a lot of what Bloomberg has done and I really don't care what party he says he is with. What matters is his on-the-job performance.
I vote for the best candidate; do you vote straight republican regardless of anything else?
Don't blame this on democrats, every party has crooks and numbskulls and your beloved republicans are no better.
This is about power and the abuse of it, not politics.
It sounds like the whole copyright situation is going to implode.
How absurd do things have to get?
My 10 year old son built one of those screaming fast RC cars in camp and I mounted one of those cameras on it. We stayed in the garage and ran it up and down the street, even UNDER moving cars (they honked like mad).
Try it! It's a blast. A couple of elderly neighbors were not amused though.
The one trouble we encountered is that the cameras are analog and any 1.2 GHz digital portable phones in the area make a good deal of interference so you may have to try a 900 MHz camera as well to see what works in your area. Another solution might be one of those cameras with a more powerful transmitter which would also increase the range from the present aprox 500 feet max usable.
The check failed on all the systems I just got from Dell. It didn't say I had pirated versions, just that it could not verify and that I should contact my vendor.
I am just waiting for my clients to start calling me saying I gave them pirated software.
Thanks SO much, Microsoft!
The huge land grap that is called IP has just begun, and its effects ain't pretty.
The more this kind of corporate behavior gets publicized, the better. Sorry for the farmers but I think Monsanto suing lots of them into bankruptcy might begin to make more people wake up to the problems our current IP laws can cause. Nobody seems to care about IP laws when it affects computers and programming so maybe when the food supply starts getting affected it will add pressure for a re-think of these issues.
One night I was on a CAP SAR flight and we were targeted by such a laser. They can be very bright when your eyes are accustomed to the dark! When we tried to locate the source and got closer, it stopped. It was coming from a residential area. I had spots in my vision like someone took flash photos and I looked into the strobe.
One note; there was mention in the news of a quote from an FBI agent who said it had to be a sophisticated laser to track a plane for severla seconds at 8500 feet. I disagree. I believe with a braced or tripod mounted unit in combination with the beam divergence holding on target for a few seconds is easy.
I imagine it wouldn't be that big of a deal to get a judge to order Yahoo to not delete the account pending resolution of the issue in court.
"Of the things we think, say or do:
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?"
From Rotary International. Simple, but effective.
Too bad they fail all four tests.
Another possibility is that it is a posturing move. She sues for disclosure, the judge invites both sides to make comments, and SCO makes a really big deal about IBM wanting to keep some documents sealed. Between this and the delay caused to the case by the request, SCO then argues that there should be no summary judgement and it should go to trial before a jury in 2007 as planned. Funding will magically appear as new untraceable overseas SCOsource licenses to keep this dragging out until Longhorn is released.
That will slow them down a bit, as there are no visits to the gasoline pump.
But seriously, if they are talking about wear and tear on the roads, why wouldn't they make the tax a function of vehicle weight AND mileage driven? A heavier vehicle causes MUCH more road damage than a light one.
But what do you expect, the Gov drives Hummers...
Well, maybe not quite yet, but there are a lot of people who want that to happen.
I sense a growing religious-based governing mentality. We have the Muslim uprising and the Christian right wing in the USA. I believe religion was created to unite people in a common and good cause but it is now being twisted around to divide people and in doing so its extremism sees science and the scientific method as a threat to its faith-based foundations.
$500-600k is a "starter home" in this entire area. Typical single family homes range from $800k to 1.2M with taxes from $12k to 25k per year.
Money usn't what it used to be.
I thought the Republicans were against big government, that it is better to have private interests take on as much as possible.
Yet, throw a few bucks their way, and look what happens! They fall all over each other having the federal government take over what should be a civil matter.
I was on a Search and Rescue mission in CAP and we were targeted by a strong green laser. I was the mission observer and instructed the pilot to look away. Initially it passed by us fast but then it illuminated the cockpit. We got closer but it stopped.
If we had a better location on the source we would have been more active tracking it down. I would not want to be the person caught interfereing with an Air Force assigned SAR mission.
You can't necessarily leave your newspaper on the seat when you're done. At least not if the newspaper companies have a say.
Metro-North railroad (the commuter lines into NYC) now consider leaving a paper on your seat as "littering" and are talking about fines and revocation of the monthly passes of violators. When you get to Grand Central station there are specially designed bins to throw your used paper into. They are locked and were supplied by the New York Times so you cannot reach in and get a used paper. And if you somehow do, the transit police are instructed to treat it as theft and arrest you.
Of course you can *hand* the paper to someone, they don't seem to have that one covered (yet).
$6.50 ?!? Where do YOU live? Theatres that play first run movies charge a minimum of $9.50 around here, and I've seen $11.50 more than once.
And, no, I do NOT think they should be watching people with NVGs. One more reason to avoid going, if you ask me. The ads, the admonishments not to make copies of stuff, the hyper-overpriced snacks...and now they will be spying on us? Even my kids are not so keen on "the movies" any more.
I know they want to protect their "property," but everything has limits. Protecting one's property does not trump all other rights of everyone else. Would you think it's ok to have a sniper guarding someone's car and shooting anyone who came too close? This is not a black and white issue! It's all a matter of degree and balance of competing rights.