The alternative, in my mind, is to support a bunch of mirrors with some approximation of a plane (i.e. plywood). Then, either by calculating the angles, or by experimentally aiming each mirror create sort of a fresnel-parabolic reflector. This/won't/ work for an RF reflector such as the satellite dish I used, because the signal will be out of phase.
I think it would work great for this application however.
First, you went to lengths to explain why a parabola works. I know why a parabola works. (That is, in fact, why I've used more-or-less parabolic reflectors.) What I asked was why does it have to be a parabola to work. I conclude from the posts that have followed that it doesn't.
Second, you left out my favorite term in all of Mathematics: latus rectum.
Why does the arrangement have to be parabolic? I thought the advantage of parabolic reflectors was that they keep the signal in phase. Will the light cancel out if out of phase? If so, where does the energy go?
Are you saying that my opinion is worth less because of the color of my skin, you bigot?
EASY for the white guy to redefine racism to suit whatever right-wing purpose suits him.
The term right-wing abjectly fails to capture my politics.
My political purpose, incidentally, is to see all Americans have all of the rights that are theoretically secured to them by the constitution. There are basically two elements to my political goals. 1. Eliminate all personal taxation at the "federal" level. Corporations could be taxed, but individuals couldn't. That doesn't sound very right wing to me. 2. Eliminate all laws that seek to limit personal freedom except where they are necessary to protect life and private property. For example, I think that the idea of "federal" control of substances based on their affects on human brain chemistry is both unconstitutional and misguided. Wow, that doesn't sound very right-wing either!
Basically he's hand-waved all the institutional racism away, saying that it doesn't exist.
I take no credit for the end of institutional racism in this country. The credit goes to '60s radicals. I largely disagree with their politics, but they were absolutely right, and astoundingly courageous to fight that fight.
What you have done is waved away my argument. Can you cite any "federal" law, any state law, any corporate policy of racism? Are you aware that these used to be commonplace?
THEN, he's called the people who are pointing it out racists, [. ..]
I didn't call anyone a racist for pointing anything out. I called people to hire, select students, etc. on the basis of race racists. Pretty sure that's what the word means.
[. ..] saying that trying to help people of races that are discriminated against is racist.
Of course helping a person of any race is laudable, unless, of course, you do it at the direct expense of another person. If you choose the person to harm by your ostensible act of kindness based on their race, it's racism.
Well, why do people still ask about women getting into IT?
It may have something to do with the fact that men and women are meaningfully different from one another, whereas "blacks" and "whites" are not.
Put it the other way: if people are looking around for developers other than white, and not finding many, doesn't that strike you as odd?
It certainly is odd. I find it much more striking that this is a racist attitude. I'm saddened that you seem to find this form of racism natural and acceptable.
You have conflated equality of opportunity with equality of outcome.
In any case the whole argument is difficult to grasp because of the sweeping generalities that are necessary to even have it. Stated differently; how do we know when the problem is fixed? Is it when all "black" people have jobs that are as good (by some yet undefined objective sense) as the average "white" person? Won't that mean that many "white" people are victims, since they will have less good jobs than any "black" person? If all "races" of people gained an equal footing in this country and then behaved in an equally racist way resulting in both equality of outcome and total factionalization of the nation would that constitute success in your eyes?
The fact is that the only remaining institutional racism in this country is against strong performers in favor of lesser performers who will satisfy this pathological need for an equal outcome.
The remaining racism is of a sort that can't be battled by legislation or quotas. It can only be fought one person at a time through human understanding. I think that if you can understand that you will have a more hopeful outlook and become a better champion of the disadvantaged.
"The World Wide Web" and "The Internet" aren't really comparable in this context. The WWW is nothing more or less than a protocol and a (collection of) markup format(s), and a bunch of people pointing their pages at other peoples pages.
IP assignments and DNS would seem to require some control/infrastructure that isn't paralleled by the WWW.
I don't mind tinkering. I don't even mind the assembly. I just don't want to have to worry about what parts are supported by Linux, and what parts will work together.
I just want to spec it out at a high level and whip out the credit card.
I'm replying to myself in response to the replies I've gotten so far.
My issue isn't about assembly. I can do that. I just don't want to do the integration.
I don't want to figure out what parts will perform well with Linux. I don't want to have to figure out which memory goes with which processor and mother board. I just want to order a PC with x processor, y amount of RAM, and z disk capacity and have it arrive on my doorstep with a working NIC and video and sound card and such.
I want to have something like the Dell experience. Configurator, credit card, arrives in a week or two, and everything works out-of-the-box. Only with Red Hat instead of Windows.
This touches on something I've been thinking about sending to Ask Slashdot.
I'm sort of over the whole "building my own machine" thing. I'd like to buy a box that meets the following requirements.
1. Doesn't include windows. 2. Built from "standard" components. (I.e. I don't have to buy a Dell power supply if I need a replacement.) 3. All included hardware natively supported by stable Linux. (I.e. no lame ndis wrapper. I guess I'll probably have to live with binary-only video drivers.)
I don't have a horse in this race. I've sold my stock, and I left the company feeling pretty lousy about the experience. (That can mostly be attributed to it being my first job in "Corporate America".)
That said, I disagree about the quality of the hardware. I strongly disagree that any significant percentage of the clustering problems were attributable to the hardware.
The biggest class of problems were sales related. "Sure you can cluster a 2300 and a 6300, each with a non-cluster PERC!" or "Sure, both servers can serve the same database at the same time!"
Of the remaining problems the huge majority were some variation of the cluster config going wonky for no known reason. These were generally resolved by sending out a "hero kit" of parts that didn't resolve the problem, and then the customer (or less often an SE) rebuilding the cluster from scratch.
I worked in Dell server support from summer of '98 to summer 2000. I supported NT 4 HA clustering and I have to tell you, it was an unqualified nightmare.
Since I was in support I didn't see a cross-section, I only saw the failures. That said, there were a LOT of installations out there that would have had better availability with a beige box, and MUCH better availability with a single fault-tolerant server.
It didn't help that sales constantly sold invalid configurations and set unreasonable expectations.
Bad, bad memories. If I never hear the word quorum again it will be too soon.
It's about an employee colluding with his future employer to hire away an entire department at a vulnerable moment. It's a pretty serious betrayal.
I don't know the specifics of this situation, but you comment struck me odd.
Is it not true that employers collude with other companies to shit-can entire departments at vulnerable moments in those employee's lives all the time?
Trust can only function properly if it is bidirectional. If it is to a company's financial benefit to lay you off it will. If it is to an employee's financial benefit to jump ship it is his choice, and isn't a "betrayal" under any circumstances.
Holy hell, is that monkey waving at us? Oh shit. It understood us. Maybe it's some kind of super monkey. What if there's more supermonkeys up at that lab? WHAT IF THEY'RE CREATING AN ARMY OF THEM? Holy shit. It must be a conspiracy like in the X-Files... ROSWELL style. This little monkey could be the fuckin' damn dirty ape responsible for the fall of the human race. In this world gone mad, we won't spank the monkey- the monkey will spank us. And after the fall of man, these monkey fucks'll start wearing our clothes and rebuilding the world in their image. OH and only those as super smart as me will be left alive to bitterly cry - YOU MANIACS! DAMN YOUS! Goddamn yous all to hell!
You seem to have missed some of the more obvious points of the parallel I drew. Weird.
Anyway, just got home from watching it. A lot of surprises. A lot of light shed on the series. A really good story. And a sense of meaning something, not just being a spectacle.
Slashdot Mirror
An RFID tag is small enough that you don't have to chew it.
But it is a bitter pill to swallow.
-Peter
Cool reply.
/won't/ work for an RF reflector such as the satellite dish I used, because the signal will be out of phase.
The alternative, in my mind, is to support a bunch of mirrors with some approximation of a plane (i.e. plywood). Then, either by calculating the angles, or by experimentally aiming each mirror create sort of a fresnel-parabolic reflector. This
I think it would work great for this application however.
-Peter
I have two complaints about your post.
First, you went to lengths to explain why a parabola works. I know why a parabola works. (That is, in fact, why I've used more-or-less parabolic reflectors.) What I asked was why does it have to be a parabola to work. I conclude from the posts that have followed that it doesn't.
Second, you left out my favorite term in all of Mathematics: latus rectum.
-Peter
Why does the arrangement have to be parabolic? I thought the advantage of parabolic reflectors was that they keep the signal in phase. Will the light cancel out if out of phase? If so, where does the energy go?
I'm genuinely interested.
-Peter
I like mythbusters, but they missed the boat, so to speak, on this one.
I build a Death Ray and it works great.
-Peter
Are you saying that my opinion is worth less because of the color of my skin, you bigot?
The term right-wing abjectly fails to capture my politics.
My political purpose, incidentally, is to see all Americans have all of the rights that are theoretically secured to them by the constitution. There are basically two elements to my political goals. 1. Eliminate all personal taxation at the "federal" level. Corporations could be taxed, but individuals couldn't. That doesn't sound very right wing to me. 2. Eliminate all laws that seek to limit personal freedom except where they are necessary to protect life and private property. For example, I think that the idea of "federal" control of substances based on their affects on human brain chemistry is both unconstitutional and misguided. Wow, that doesn't sound very right-wing either!
I take no credit for the end of institutional racism in this country. The credit goes to '60s radicals. I largely disagree with their politics, but they were absolutely right, and astoundingly courageous to fight that fight.
What you have done is waved away my argument. Can you cite any "federal" law, any state law, any corporate policy of racism? Are you aware that these used to be commonplace?
I didn't call anyone a racist for pointing anything out. I called people to hire, select students, etc. on the basis of race racists. Pretty sure that's what the word means.
Of course helping a person of any race is laudable, unless, of course, you do it at the direct expense of another person. If you choose the person to harm by your ostensible act of kindness based on their race, it's racism.
-Peter
Shit. Slashdot will only let me add you as a friend once.
-Peter
It may have something to do with the fact that men and women are meaningfully different from one another, whereas "blacks" and "whites" are not.
It certainly is odd. I find it much more striking that this is a racist attitude. I'm saddened that you seem to find this form of racism natural and acceptable.
You have conflated equality of opportunity with equality of outcome.
In any case the whole argument is difficult to grasp because of the sweeping generalities that are necessary to even have it. Stated differently; how do we know when the problem is fixed? Is it when all "black" people have jobs that are as good (by some yet undefined objective sense) as the average "white" person? Won't that mean that many "white" people are victims, since they will have less good jobs than any "black" person? If all "races" of people gained an equal footing in this country and then behaved in an equally racist way resulting in both equality of outcome and total factionalization of the nation would that constitute success in your eyes?
The fact is that the only remaining institutional racism in this country is against strong performers in favor of lesser performers who will satisfy this pathological need for an equal outcome.
The remaining racism is of a sort that can't be battled by legislation or quotas. It can only be fought one person at a time through human understanding. I think that if you can understand that you will have a more hopeful outlook and become a better champion of the disadvantaged.
-Peter
It's sweet and fitting to go home after.
-Peter
I think you mean leopard.
That's the display department.
-Peter
So we've completely lost the thread of "I'm sort of over the whole 'building my own machine' thing."
Submitting this to "Ask Slashdot" seems like a worse idea all the time.
-Peter
"The World Wide Web" and "The Internet" aren't really comparable in this context. The WWW is nothing more or less than a protocol and a (collection of) markup format(s), and a bunch of people pointing their pages at other peoples pages.
IP assignments and DNS would seem to require some control/infrastructure that isn't paralleled by the WWW.
-Peter
I didn't even realize that blogs have ads. Thanks Adblock!
-Peter
Worked fine with what?
-Peter
I don't mind tinkering. I don't even mind the assembly. I just don't want to have to worry about what parts are supported by Linux, and what parts will work together.
I just want to spec it out at a high level and whip out the credit card.
-Peter
I'm replying to myself in response to the replies I've gotten so far.
My issue isn't about assembly. I can do that. I just don't want to do the integration.
I don't want to figure out what parts will perform well with Linux. I don't want to have to figure out which memory goes with which processor and mother board. I just want to order a PC with x processor, y amount of RAM, and z disk capacity and have it arrive on my doorstep with a working NIC and video and sound card and such.
I want to have something like the Dell experience. Configurator, credit card, arrives in a week or two, and everything works out-of-the-box. Only with Red Hat instead of Windows.
-Peter
This touches on something I've been thinking about sending to Ask Slashdot.
I'm sort of over the whole "building my own machine" thing. I'd like to buy a box that meets the following requirements.
1. Doesn't include windows.
2. Built from "standard" components. (I.e. I don't have to buy a Dell power supply if I need a replacement.)
3. All included hardware natively supported by stable Linux. (I.e. no lame ndis wrapper. I guess I'll probably have to live with binary-only video drivers.)
Can anybody recommend a vendor?
-Peter
I don't see what you're talking about.
Maybe they changed it back? Or maybe you have have an IP from APNIC to see it?
-Peter
I don't have a horse in this race. I've sold my stock, and I left the company feeling pretty lousy about the experience. (That can mostly be attributed to it being my first job in "Corporate America".)
That said, I disagree about the quality of the hardware. I strongly disagree that any significant percentage of the clustering problems were attributable to the hardware.
The biggest class of problems were sales related. "Sure you can cluster a 2300 and a 6300, each with a non-cluster PERC!" or "Sure, both servers can serve the same database at the same time!"
Of the remaining problems the huge majority were some variation of the cluster config going wonky for no known reason. These were generally resolved by sending out a "hero kit" of parts that didn't resolve the problem, and then the customer (or less often an SE) rebuilding the cluster from scratch.
-Peter
I worked in Dell server support from summer of '98 to summer 2000. I supported NT 4 HA clustering and I have to tell you, it was an unqualified nightmare.
Since I was in support I didn't see a cross-section, I only saw the failures. That said, there were a LOT of installations out there that would have had better availability with a beige box, and MUCH better availability with a single fault-tolerant server.
It didn't help that sales constantly sold invalid configurations and set unreasonable expectations.
Bad, bad memories. If I never hear the word quorum again it will be too soon.
-Peter
I really shouldn't feed the ACs, but I just can't help myself.
Data was neither an engineer nor a virgin.
He was the Science officer.
He got down with Lt. Yar (as portrayed by Denise Crosby) very early in the series.
-Peter
I don't know the specifics of this situation, but you comment struck me odd.
Is it not true that employers collude with other companies to shit-can entire departments at vulnerable moments in those employee's lives all the time?
Trust can only function properly if it is bidirectional. If it is to a company's financial benefit to lay you off it will. If it is to an employee's financial benefit to jump ship it is his choice, and isn't a "betrayal" under any circumstances.
-Peter
Best Jay rant ever.
-Peter
You seem to have missed some of the more obvious points of the parallel I drew. Weird.
Anyway, just got home from watching it. A lot of surprises. A lot of light shed on the series. A really good story. And a sense of meaning something, not just being a spectacle.
Very good.
-Peter
Han Solo gets his own TV show after the war against the Empire. Only the Rebels lost.
Plus more hotchicks and less wookies.
My showing starts in two hours and forty five minutes. I can't wait.
-Peter