Larry Niven's Sinclair Molecular Chain- the key was that the entire length was one molecule- held together with strong bonds, and incredibly thin. Late 1960's SF from a master.
That didn't take long- Delladapter.com got its bad self slashdotted ! (Altho this time it prolly got the CNN effect.). You wonder about the thought process:
Dell Manager: "Crap. We need to recall a load of AC adapters".
Dell Intern: "No prob, Dude. I'll just set up a little webserver on this here Latitude CPi. Point to this one".
Dell Manager: "OK, as long as it doesn't cost anything."
Dell Intern: "Sweeet !"
Laptop: Uh. Oh. Lots of connections. Need More Power......
AC Adapter: ZZZt !
CNN: "In related news, Dell's customer support web development building burned down today..."
No reset button. At least not where you can get it in a moving car.
PPM is usually considered in defect rates- we're talking about electronics defect rates that are found in the factory. Once they are in the wild, it's hours of operation before failure. Lots of theory exists, and its all sadistical / statistical, but the more complex your system gets, it is more likely that *stuff* is going to happen. And when you add in unexpected external conditions and sensetivity in the system, well, it's kind of like this.
ALL cars fail at some point or another. The designs are built with what is called 'limp home' functionality and 'gentle failure' designs so that the eventual failure will not kill someone. But since many code monkeys have often forgotten (or never learned this), and all the grey heads that knew how the world works have been laid off or outsourced, the new generation of vehicles does not consider this (What do you mean it's going to break ? My code NEVER breaks !). Oops...
The moral of the story, if you're going to write real-time code, take a course in failure engineering, and think about sh*t happening.
And then, as you code, imagine that the person (or AI, or whatever) you love the most in the world will be riding in your product, and plan accordingly.
Please.
PS- Computer failure rates is 100%. Depending on the OS, the MTBF can be less than 24 hours.
This happens in Hardware, too, guys. Envision a combined catastrophic failure- automatic transmission locks in gear (they do, ya know- it's basically a hydraulic switch that gets gunked up), accelerator cable jams in full-on position (again, it CAN happen). Oh, and to add insult to injury, the power switch on the bad boy is jammed somehow. Once you are up to speed (say 100kph plus), the parking brake (which only acivates the rear brakes) will happily burn up the rear brakes, if it works at all (most automatic transmission drivers never use the parking brake, and it's not adjusted, so full pull/push will only result in minor or no brake application). Pushing on the transmission selector doesn't do anything because it's jammed internally with lots of hydraulic pressure. Holding down the brakes will cause 'em to burn up if the engine has enough HP to overcome them.
I can personally recall a wild ride in a manual transmission car where the accelerator cable stuck in full-on. I had the presence of mind and fortune to shut the engine off before it spooled past redline, but in traffic it was an interesting experience.
As we get more into software driven automobiles, the opportunity for failures like this continue to climb. For example --->
OK, I call piffle. In fact, I'm tired of the entire riff here, starting with the article from the freaking San Fransisco newspaper (ooh yeah, like we'll get a lot of real scientific raionality from THAT source, thank you very much).
I did RTFA. It was a lot of typical media hype. The people who actually new about the program were talking about the program in terms of propulsion, not explosion. The remaining 'expertniks' were all of the usual 'military evil, us good' weasels who wouldn't know research if it spit in their morning lattes. SO let's use a little logic, OK children ?
1- Tough to keep antimatter from meetings it's evil twin, matter.
2- lots of energy in a little bit of mass.
3- if you can squirt it into the containment trap slowly, you can squirt it out slowly.
This sounds a hell of a lot like a very energetic solution for an ion drive, but instead of bombarding the reaction mass with electricity, they bombard it with antiprotons. Fast reaction, fast space travel, wheeee !
Companies WANT to do massive amounts of Documentation ? PuhLeeez ! I used to work in the space industry. I fondly remember delivering a 500lb satellite component. It went in a nice little panel truck. The US Government Required, Congress 'make the world safe by covering it with BS paper' documentation weighed 1 1/2 tons and went out LTL truck on a couple of pallets. We never wanted to maintain all the BS- just what was required to assure success.
"while intelligence budgets have increased dramatically in the last five years, congressional oversight budgets have not."
Why is it that da gummint has one half watching the other half, and each of 'em is taking more of OUR money to do it ? Geez....
Does anyone else remember Pan Am taking advanced reservations on the "Space Clipper" as part of their 'product placement' in Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's 2001 ? Someplace admidst the wreckage of my youth I have a certificate that Pan Am mailed to me certifying that I had a reservation when the "Space Clipper" flies. I wish I could find it. At least I have my Apollo 11 patch left over from a NASA visit in '70.
If Virgin can actually make it happen, I say go for it ! Space travel has gotten too Governmental and has lost a ton of the adventure / romance that attracted me as a kid. If Branson can make it work, wahoo !
I just hope he registers through some country that doesn't allow lawyers in, otherwise the bastards will kill the love.
Give my Regards to Broad Street
As I recall, they had a movie related contest where someone 'won' the car with the built in computer... I wonder what happened to it...
Agreed-
The advances that Disney has either driven or inspired involving the use of compressed air/water 'charges' are another example of improved controllability. The 'singing waters' fountains made so popular are also cases in point. Now if I can take that 'stomp rocket' that my kids use, and duct tape a little C-4 to the top of it- cool !
Let's see- Micro$osft unites with RIAA and MPAA. Next up will be Micro-Pec Oil, Micro-China Manufacturing, etc.... Does anyone else see the impending doom ?
Excuse me, I spilled coffee all over myself laughing. Hmm- read our web site, download our trojan, which will ENABLE US to conduct our 'predicted attack' !!!
"The executive director of Dr.Web antivirus lab, Mikhail Bychinsky, quoted by Lenta.ru web agency said he had not heard of such an attack. "I do not believe in mass internet attacks because the main servers are defended, and Kaspersky Labs has been foretelling doomsday for a long time.""
Sounds like Kaspersky Labs is doing a bit of guerilla marketing on their own. "Subscribe to our pay sites and see when this 'attack' will take place !"
I wonder if a 21st century chicken little would have sold newsletters instead of running around the barnyard.
Interesting note in the article : "For most hackers, their greatest fear is not necessarily getting caught, but rather having someone watch and gather information on them without their knowledge. And that is exactly what a honeynet attempts to do. "
Reminds me of what happened to Gene Hackman's character in The Conversation . I personally think that it's more of a challenge / territorial thing- that once hacked, you become motivated to try again without getting caught. Kind of like a Respawn... I agree with the article that the primary purpose is not to 'catch' the hamsters, but to learn their patterns as they race around in their safe little wheels.
As far as organizing the system, why not set it up like George Carlin's old joke - When they put you on hold, they play music. Why not just connect all the people on hold together, and let them talk to each other ?
They need more Astronauts like Story to gain interest. Am I the only one who remembers their kickass EVA on STS-61 ?
Of course, adding in a Zero-G sex act would probably increase viewership way more than the intellectual challenge.
Apple's solution to that is "Party Shuffle", a feature on the newer iTunes client (and iPod firmware). The idea is you set up your party list much like you used to have to 'mix' custom CD's for your party guests. Think of it as a replacement for feeding CDR's into your drive and burning mix copies for your 5 CD changer on your stereo.
If you want to have a 'remote', well hell- just buy an iPod and plug it into the amp. Skip the whole streaming thing. This then becomes more like a 'portable party mix' issue, but with waaay more flexibility.
The main thing to me is the portability of a wireless AP. The music is gravy.
Interesting correlation. I personally expect that this more relates to a correlation of age and artistic tendency than Mac vs. PC. While the apocryphal 'h4x0r' will be a Windows / Linux user, have few face to face social skills, and be a youthful male, the classic 'Mac user' is just an insanely cool bohemian dude who probably lives in a free wi-fi enabled coffee shop.
My personal impression (after playing with Macs and PC's since they were born), is that the typical Mac user likes to use the tool for artistic / creative purposes, and the typical PC user does not. This implies a higher ability to obfuscate in a polysyllabic vein.
Sesequepedalianism does not, however, imply 'intelligence'. If it did, Mary Poppins should have been running the bank instead of those old farts who could not say "Supercalafragalisticexpialadocious".
Re:Changed the view of the US?
on
Bobby Fischer Found
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Sort of, but, well, Blah. It's not that the "United States" grows intelligent people any more or less than any other country on this planet. Same base gene pool, kids. It's more that this country offers / offered the necessary freedoms and opportunities to let the hard working folks with dreams dream and achieve great things. Now that we're becoming more like other countries with more lawyers than scientists and philosphers, it's tougher to achieve dreams. Especially when everyone is suing you.
Of course, that happened a lot back then (think Tesla)
Slashdot Mirror
Larry Niven's Sinclair Molecular Chain- the key was that the entire length was one molecule- held together with strong bonds, and incredibly thin. Late 1960's SF from a master.
Uhm- yeah. The Segway actually grew out of motorized wheelchair designs. That's how the guy made his name, first...
Dell Manager: "Crap. We need to recall a load of AC adapters".
Dell Intern: "No prob, Dude. I'll just set up a little webserver on this here Latitude CPi. Point to this one".
Dell Manager: "OK, as long as it doesn't cost anything."
Dell Intern: "Sweeet !"
Laptop: Uh. Oh. Lots of connections. Need More Power......
AC Adapter: ZZZt !
CNN: "In related news, Dell's customer support web development building burned down today..."
PPM is usually considered in defect rates- we're talking about electronics defect rates that are found in the factory. Once they are in the wild, it's hours of operation before failure. Lots of theory exists, and its all sadistical / statistical, but the more complex your system gets, it is more likely that *stuff* is going to happen. And when you add in unexpected external conditions and sensetivity in the system, well, it's kind of like this.
ALL cars fail at some point or another. The designs are built with what is called 'limp home' functionality and 'gentle failure' designs so that the eventual failure will not kill someone. But since many code monkeys have often forgotten (or never learned this), and all the grey heads that knew how the world works have been laid off or outsourced, the new generation of vehicles does not consider this (What do you mean it's going to break ? My code NEVER breaks !). Oops...
The moral of the story, if you're going to write real-time code, take a course in failure engineering, and think about sh*t happening.
And then, as you code, imagine that the person (or AI, or whatever) you love the most in the world will be riding in your product, and plan accordingly.
Please.
PS- Computer failure rates is 100%. Depending on the OS, the MTBF can be less than 24 hours.
I can personally recall a wild ride in a manual transmission car where the accelerator cable stuck in full-on. I had the presence of mind and fortune to shut the engine off before it spooled past redline, but in traffic it was an interesting experience.
As we get more into software driven automobiles, the opportunity for failures like this continue to climb. For example --->
If Microsoft made cars, and other true stories
Uhm- I hate to break it to you, but he's already reproduced....
OK, I call piffle. In fact, I'm tired of the entire riff here, starting with the article from the freaking San Fransisco newspaper (ooh yeah, like we'll get a lot of real scientific raionality from THAT source, thank you very much). I did RTFA. It was a lot of typical media hype. The people who actually new about the program were talking about the program in terms of propulsion, not explosion. The remaining 'expertniks' were all of the usual 'military evil, us good' weasels who wouldn't know research if it spit in their morning lattes. SO let's use a little logic, OK children ? 1- Tough to keep antimatter from meetings it's evil twin, matter. 2- lots of energy in a little bit of mass. 3- if you can squirt it into the containment trap slowly, you can squirt it out slowly. This sounds a hell of a lot like a very energetic solution for an ion drive, but instead of bombarding the reaction mass with electricity, they bombard it with antiprotons. Fast reaction, fast space travel, wheeee !
Companies WANT to do massive amounts of Documentation ? PuhLeeez ! I used to work in the space industry. I fondly remember delivering a 500lb satellite component. It went in a nice little panel truck. The US Government Required, Congress 'make the world safe by covering it with BS paper' documentation weighed 1 1/2 tons and went out LTL truck on a couple of pallets. We never wanted to maintain all the BS- just what was required to assure success.
I for one welcome the impending arrival of our underworld dwelling overlords.... (someone had to say it)
I REALLY Want to see an annual X prize 'space race'. Except without the Hanna Barbera characters, please.......
"while intelligence budgets have increased dramatically in the last five years, congressional oversight budgets have not." Why is it that da gummint has one half watching the other half, and each of 'em is taking more of OUR money to do it ? Geez....
Does anyone else remember Pan Am taking advanced reservations on the "Space Clipper" as part of their 'product placement' in Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's 2001 ? Someplace admidst the wreckage of my youth I have a certificate that Pan Am mailed to me certifying that I had a reservation when the "Space Clipper" flies. I wish I could find it. At least I have my Apollo 11 patch left over from a NASA visit in '70. If Virgin can actually make it happen, I say go for it ! Space travel has gotten too Governmental and has lost a ton of the adventure / romance that attracted me as a kid. If Branson can make it work, wahoo ! I just hope he registers through some country that doesn't allow lawyers in, otherwise the bastards will kill the love.
"Share and Enjoy". (douglas adams)
Give my Regards to Broad Street As I recall, they had a movie related contest where someone 'won' the car with the built in computer... I wonder what happened to it...
Did you notice that the Genesis capsule looked EXACTLY like the one on the "Andromeda Strain" ?
Agreed- The advances that Disney has either driven or inspired involving the use of compressed air/water 'charges' are another example of improved controllability. The 'singing waters' fountains made so popular are also cases in point. Now if I can take that 'stomp rocket' that my kids use, and duct tape a little C-4 to the top of it- cool !
Let's see- Micro$osft unites with RIAA and MPAA. Next up will be Micro-Pec Oil, Micro-China Manufacturing, etc.... Does anyone else see the impending doom ?
Excuse me, I spilled coffee all over myself laughing. Hmm- read our web site, download our trojan, which will ENABLE US to conduct our 'predicted attack' !!!
"The executive director of Dr.Web antivirus lab, Mikhail Bychinsky, quoted by Lenta.ru web agency said he had not heard of such an attack. "I do not believe in mass internet attacks because the main servers are defended, and Kaspersky Labs has been foretelling doomsday for a long time.""
Sounds like Kaspersky Labs is doing a bit of guerilla marketing on their own. "Subscribe to our pay sites and see when this 'attack' will take place !"
I wonder if a 21st century chicken little would have sold newsletters instead of running around the barnyard.
Reminds me of what happened to Gene Hackman's character in The Conversation . I personally think that it's more of a challenge / territorial thing- that once hacked, you become motivated to try again without getting caught. Kind of like a Respawn... I agree with the article that the primary purpose is not to 'catch' the hamsters, but to learn their patterns as they race around in their safe little wheels.
As far as organizing the system, why not set it up like George Carlin's old joke - When they put you on hold, they play music. Why not just connect all the people on hold together, and let them talk to each other ?
They need more Astronauts like Story to gain interest. Am I the only one who remembers their kickass EVA on STS-61 ? Of course, adding in a Zero-G sex act would probably increase viewership way more than the intellectual challenge.
Apple's solution to that is "Party Shuffle", a feature on the newer iTunes client (and iPod firmware). The idea is you set up your party list much like you used to have to 'mix' custom CD's for your party guests. Think of it as a replacement for feeding CDR's into your drive and burning mix copies for your 5 CD changer on your stereo. If you want to have a 'remote', well hell- just buy an iPod and plug it into the amp. Skip the whole streaming thing. This then becomes more like a 'portable party mix' issue, but with waaay more flexibility. The main thing to me is the portability of a wireless AP. The music is gravy.
Interesting correlation. I personally expect that this more relates to a correlation of age and artistic tendency than Mac vs. PC. While the apocryphal 'h4x0r' will be a Windows / Linux user, have few face to face social skills, and be a youthful male, the classic 'Mac user' is just an insanely cool bohemian dude who probably lives in a free wi-fi enabled coffee shop. My personal impression (after playing with Macs and PC's since they were born), is that the typical Mac user likes to use the tool for artistic / creative purposes, and the typical PC user does not. This implies a higher ability to obfuscate in a polysyllabic vein. Sesequepedalianism does not, however, imply 'intelligence'. If it did, Mary Poppins should have been running the bank instead of those old farts who could not say "Supercalafragalisticexpialadocious".
Sort of, but, well, Blah. It's not that the "United States" grows intelligent people any more or less than any other country on this planet. Same base gene pool, kids. It's more that this country offers / offered the necessary freedoms and opportunities to let the hard working folks with dreams dream and achieve great things. Now that we're becoming more like other countries with more lawyers than scientists and philosphers, it's tougher to achieve dreams. Especially when everyone is suing you. Of course, that happened a lot back then (think Tesla)
For the nonce, this solution seems to be functional. Get the firewire enabled video box, record into DV compatible tool, and away you go.