"a device called a scanning tunneling microscope."
I had always understood that a scanning eletron microscope made an image by acanning an electron beam a bit like a CRT.
A tunneling electron microscope uses a probe on a piezo base. You increase the tension on the probe until....pop.....an electron jumps the gap. You move the probe around with varying the voltage on the piezo base, and plunk....you can drop the electron down again. A tunneling electron microscope is what I would have been expected to be associated with nanotech.
But what is this "scanning tunneling" device reffered to......a new technique or a blunder?
As has been noted here, the weakest link in any system is the employees (chatting up the receptionist!)
Point here is that having obtained a little bit of privileged information somebody can sit parked in a nearby van and sniff data to thier hearts content.
True you can (and some people do) attach network "bugs" to cables to relay traffic, but the extensive use of switches makes this much more difficult.
Wireless gives easier access to more traffic, and it is often the most interesting as it tends to be executives wandering around meetings with thier webpads who are first to get this kind of access!
I think it is time the RIAA realised that the more they try and tie up music, the more they will send it underground and out of thier control.
Downloading is convinient for broadband users and reduces instances of CD swapping (still popular amonst people with dial-up). If downloading becomes awkward, I see a rise in the popularity of DVD swapping.
Perhaps a lesser known use of this facilty is for running true real time kernels (as in hard scheduling). There are a few such beasts in the automation world. Basically the "second" kernel gets a fixed timeslice and can operate on local I/O, such as industrial bus interface cards, directly, or can access ordinary PC type resources via device drivers which access the NT microkernel services.
This implementation would appear to work in pretty much the same way. Incedently, some real time extensions to the Linux kernel do pretty much the same thing, i.e. Linux is a host to a second kernel which runs the hard real time processes, which kinda makes one wonder about the possibilities of running windows on a linux host. Technically possible but there are almost certinally bits of windows interface code which you can't switch out for alternative drivers!
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Once upon a time Netscape looked like taking over the desktop, with ideas about incorporating improved file browsing and making it the universal front end.
Thats why MS put som much effort into Explorer..Internet Explorer.
Ballamer recently bemoaned the MS lack of precense in the search engine and portal space.
I have often driven between Piedmont and Cumbria. I time my journey to arrive at the ferry at night. I get cheap rates and just buy the ticket at the dock...and usually go right on the next ferry (off peak season may have 2 hour gaps during the night thought).
Not going to quiblle cos I have never been by coach....but...It is an hour from London to Dover down the A2, and an hour from Calais to brussels.
The (cheapest) ferry is 1.5 hours, but put an extra 1 for loading and unloading, an hour to get **out** of London, and 30 mins to get **into** Brussels, and that is still only 6 hours.
BTW, does the high speed ferry from London to Amsterdam still run?
It does seem incredible that 2 major cities that are so close to each other as the crow flies can be so hard to commute between!
Duh,...I meant to write developed, not developing.
As for old folks homes, I think the problem is thicker. In countries with "extended" family homes you have an environment with lots of people coming and going all day. In developed countries the suburban household of a nuclear family is unoccupied for large parts of the day. Old folks home make sense **if** they are well run and integrated into the community where family, grandchildren etc. live.
What elderly person wants to be looked after by a robot, unless it can help them with Euthenasia.
Elderly people in developing countries are lacking **human contact**. Perhaps one of the best innovations in this respect in recent years has been to combine old folks homes in community buildings where childrens nurseries and other activities take place.
Ironically, looking at Orbital developments homepage they would appear to be involved in a things called the Eros project, which is all about property rights in space.
Perhaps your 10Kg cargo could just be flag with which you stake your claim;-)
Not for sending your mother in law, but I think there are many public figures that could potentially entice large funds to send them crashing into the moon. Bin Laden is an obvious choice, but I bet SCO's directors are not far behind;-)
Then of course there is the political spin for politicians in minor countries getting into low cost space programs by sending thier first mission (perhaps an opposition spokeperson) to the moon.
For those in Italy I can hear Berlusconi right now: "Abbiamo fatto grosso impegni con i programmi spaziale....piu viaggi all luna per tutti!"
"the legislation is _merely_ codifying case law practice into statutory to law "
Don't know much about law, but I do know that in most EU jurisdictions legal systems are code based. Of course US law is styled after UK law, but UK law is quite an exception rather than the rule in the EU, where AFAIK case law has little or no relevance.
Not all countries are falling for it. Some countries are extrodinarily void of civil litigation lawyers, and these are often countries that are doing increasingly more of the worlds work.
True,a country cannot export a product to eg. the USA if the product infinges IP, but what about all the tools equipment and everything else that went into it's manufacture?
The western roman empire destroyed itself. True, germanic barbarians overtook rome, but not by some mighty battle, they just strolled into a city that had forgotton the basics, such as how to defend itself. The rest of the empire had even forgotton how to administrate itself.
Nowdays the western economic empire has given up on making wealth by producing things, and likes to make a living by owning the rights to produce things. The western empire will slowly but surely forget how to produce things, and then find that new things are being produced elsewhere using technology they don't own.
In the long term who is going to innovate, the people who are producing today or the people spinning as much money as possible out of what they produced yesterday?
Slashdot Mirror
I yearn for the days of old when if your chair broke somebody in the joinery shop would fix it....with no forms!
I had always understood that a scanning eletron microscope made an image by acanning an electron beam a bit like a CRT.
A tunneling electron microscope uses a probe on a piezo base. You increase the tension on the probe until....pop.....an electron jumps the gap. You move the probe around with varying the voltage on the piezo base, and plunk....you can drop the electron down again. A tunneling electron microscope is what I would have been expected to be associated with nanotech.
But what is this "scanning tunneling" device reffered to......a new technique or a blunder?
If they did not want to do an IPO, couldn't they split up the activities? (Google ads, google servers etc.)?
Point here is that having obtained a little bit of privileged information somebody can sit parked in a nearby van and sniff data to thier hearts content.
True you can (and some people do) attach network "bugs" to cables to relay traffic, but the extensive use of switches makes this much more difficult.
Wireless gives easier access to more traffic, and it is often the most interesting as it tends to be executives wandering around meetings with thier webpads who are first to get this kind of access!
Have I heard about horns and background radiation before?
All I can say is look out for that white dielectric material.....on a cosmic scale!
If you want to write native apps for Linux then you must depend on Posix/Xopen standards.
How do they compare with Sun's API license.
Downloading is convinient for broadband users and reduces instances of CD swapping (still popular amonst people with dial-up). If downloading becomes awkward, I see a rise in the popularity of DVD swapping.
Oh I tried that, but the stain on trousers is so embarassing....
.....cellphones slap you round the face to get your attention.
This implementation would appear to work in pretty much the same way. Incedently, some real time extensions to the Linux kernel do pretty much the same thing, i.e. Linux is a host to a second kernel which runs the hard real time processes, which kinda makes one wonder about the possibilities of running windows on a linux host. Technically possible but there are almost certinally bits of windows interface code which you can't switch out for alternative drivers!
Thats why MS put som much effort into Explorer..Internet Explorer.
Ballamer recently bemoaned the MS lack of precense in the search engine and portal space.
Do I detect a deja vu!
When you download you just get the tracks you like.
I think the music industry is afraid thier "bundling" days are over!
Reminds me of when I saw baked alaska being made when I was six years old.
"Tear down the Borg!"
Also, no traffic on the M25!
Not going to quiblle cos I have never been by coach....but...It is an hour from London to Dover down the A2, and an hour from Calais to brussels.
The (cheapest) ferry is 1.5 hours, but put an extra 1 for loading and unloading, an hour to get **out** of London, and 30 mins to get **into** Brussels, and that is still only 6 hours.
BTW, does the high speed ferry from London to Amsterdam still run?
It does seem incredible that 2 major cities that are so close to each other as the crow flies can be so hard to commute between!
Duh,...I meant to write developed, not developing.
As for old folks homes, I think the problem is thicker. In countries with "extended" family homes you have an environment with lots of people coming and going all day. In developed countries the suburban household of a nuclear family is unoccupied for large parts of the day. Old folks home make sense **if** they are well run and integrated into the community where family, grandchildren etc. live.
Elderly people in developing countries are lacking **human contact**. Perhaps one of the best innovations in this respect in recent years has been to combine old folks homes in community buildings where childrens nurseries and other activities take place.
Perhaps your 10Kg cargo could just be flag with which you stake your claim ;-)
A recent slashdot story established that telescopes on the moon are far less useful than ones simply dropped off halfway in geostationary orbit.
Now advertising hoardings, that would be a different matter......your name on the moon!
But, another recent slashdot story claimed the idea of adverts in space has allready been patented by a russian.
Not for sending your mother in law, but I think there are many public figures that could potentially entice large funds to send them crashing into the moon. Bin Laden is an obvious choice, but I bet SCO's directors are not far behind ;-)
Then of course there is the political spin for politicians in minor countries getting into low cost space programs by sending thier first mission (perhaps an opposition spokeperson) to the moon.
For those in Italy I can hear Berlusconi right now: "Abbiamo fatto grosso impegni con i programmi spaziale....piu viaggi all luna per tutti!"
Don't know much about law, but I do know that in most EU jurisdictions legal systems are code based. Of course US law is styled after UK law, but UK law is quite an exception rather than the rule in the EU, where AFAIK case law has little or no relevance.
To put this into perspective for US readers, Brussels is two hours from London by train.
True,a country cannot export a product to eg. the USA if the product infinges IP, but what about all the tools equipment and everything else that went into it's manufacture?
The western roman empire destroyed itself. True, germanic barbarians overtook rome, but not by some mighty battle, they just strolled into a city that had forgotton the basics, such as how to defend itself. The rest of the empire had even forgotton how to administrate itself.
Nowdays the western economic empire has given up on making wealth by producing things, and likes to make a living by owning the rights to produce things. The western empire will slowly but surely forget how to produce things, and then find that new things are being produced elsewhere using technology they don't own.
In the long term who is going to innovate, the people who are producing today or the people spinning as much money as possible out of what they produced yesterday?
Nature purifies water by a combination of wind and solar power, is there no way this can be mimicked on a large scale?