I don't want this to sound like the famous "640k should be enough for everyone", but...
WQUXGA, 3840x2400, or nine million pixels.
Sounds like overkill to me. I mean, I'm used to play my games @ 1280x1024 and i feel this resolution, maybe combined with a wee bit of AA, does the trick.
I'd rather see all that horsepower invested in more frames/sec or cool effects. I know, it's cool to have the capability, but it makes me wonder about what another user posted here regarding the 8800 being a 700$ paperweight 'cause of early adoption. You'll have a card capable of a gazillion pixels on a single frame, yet no monitor capable of showing it fully, and when finally the monitor comes out or achieves a good price/value relationship, your card is already obsolete. Null selling point there for moi.
Hey there, a couple of my own counterpoints, and i'm here in the trenches in Venezuela, so I can give you a first hand account. It might sound a little biased at times, I admit, but It's all based on what I see everyday.
Venezuela is a Democracy. They have elections every so often so the people get to decide who gets to run the place. They have decided that they prefer Chavez to the alternatives.
That is, of course, if you trust a first time electronic-vote election without giving the oposing party access to a paper trail to check the validity of it. Even if that was allowed, neighbors of mine got a "No" when they actually pressed "Yes" to the question of "would you like to terminate the mandate of the president blah, blah" (don't reember the exact wording of the question). Whoever bitched about that too loudly was arrested for interfering with the election. I'm not making this up.
Chavez is not a communist. He is a socialist. There is a huge difference.
Well, yes, I agree there is a difference in those two concepts. But I think you missed a wee little speech he gave here a couple of weeks ago (maybe more) when he openly admitted he was a comunist (not a sociallist, but a full fledged communist) and that "my mentor has always been Fidel Castro", and another one in which he ordered all his followers (and he seems to think that means everyone) to give up material goods because being "rich" was a bad thing: if you own two fridges, put one on the village's square, if you own two cars give away one...
Of course, that came much to the dismay to some of his cronies, who own factories bought with state money and usually ride Hummer H2s and H3s, not unlike Kim Jong Il's ass-kissers. In the end I doubt those pay the price of their corruption, as long as they stay faithful to the "Proceso"
His socialist view is that *all* of the people of Venezuela should have affordable healthcare, at very low cost, if not free.
It might have been lacking in terms of quality, I will quickly admit, but there has been a social security system in this country for the better part of the 20th century, if not earlier.
It's been good at times, dismal at others, specially after the eighties in which it got terminally bad. It wasn't free as in you never pay anything but you just paid a small fee out of your paycheck every month and you were automatically a benefficiary. Again, it's in horrible shape (still), but it exists and has existed for a long time.
As for Chavez bringing free healthcare for everyone, I admit he has done some good things here and there, but given the amount of cash this country is receiving and taking into account that he took office in 1999, we should already have a top notch public health system and the sad reality is we don't, period.
His socialist view is that *all* of the people should have low cost/free education.
Oooook... First, Cost: there's been almost-free education (1000 Bs., less than 50 Dollar cents a full semester tuition; 5 Bs, less than a Dollar cent per meal in the mess hall, for at least the past 20 years in the UCV, anybody?) in this country for the past 50-odd years, so nothing new here, pure BS from the "Chavistas". Second, Quantity: Anybody could get up to high school without any problems, getting into a college was a little trickier because of admission exams and quotas and such. Some corruption might have played a part in depleting quotas, however, like parents paying admittance officials to get their cherubs in. Third, Quality: Venezuela, over those "democracy" years openly demonized by chavez followers, has produced a lot of quality professionals, college professors were usually recognized scientists and scholars and (in the public colleges at least) almost free. Not everyone got in, but then again not everyone should get in, only those good enough to withstand the grind that produc
Do judges just think computers are magic boxes which they can order to do whatever they may like, and that there are no limits of technical feasibility?
I guess the judges watch too much CSI: infinite resolution security cameras, flashy multicolored OS interface thingies that do the analysis and solve crimes themselves...
Teaching isn't just about the content, but helping the student to process it and put it into context
I don't see teachers disappearing anytime soon. They aren't only a mindless talking machines whose only function is to read aloud a textbook (some actually are, however).
I mean, if they were just like that and thus replaceable, why stopping there? just ditch the whole concept of classroom and just give the tykes some CDs.
Man, thank you very much, following your links I found out that I have a PICAXE distributor here in my country, actually an online electronics store I didn't know about.
72 probes??? First of all, if you're going to do it that way, you'd create hundreds of thousands of probes, if not millions of probes (mass production would reduce the cost). Second, you still probably wouldn't do it that way. You'd wait until you had the technology to make self-replicating probes, and the galaxy could potentially be explored in thousands of years.
Hmm . . .
1.- self replicating probes... check
2.- enuff "intelligence" to determine something it sees/feels/etc is an actual lifeform... check
3.- humanity's own history making buggy, security lax software... check
4.- throw in some polymorphic stuff in the software so the probe can better itself...check
5.- an "easter egg", timebomb prank from a bender-obsessed hacker (MUST KILL HUMANS)... check
Actually, it's not much different from our situation as humans.
We can't feel pain directly in our brain tissue. The tissue around the skull? yes, we feel pain there, but not in the brain itself.
Provided you have an opening to access the brain, you could poke it with a needle and the brain itself won't trigger a pain response, maybe the subject would see static if his/her brain is poked somewhere in the occipital lobe, but it would cause him/her no pain whatsoever:o)
I take You don't know what an accelerometer is . ..
It's a device (like the Analog Devices ADXL202E chip, to use an example) that measures acceleration, hence the name.
It could be used to measure displacement, like when you move your hand with the device, that's why i said it could be used instead of a camera. And it would take A LOT less processor time than to analyze a video frame, cause the chip already gives a serial readout with the changes in acceleration.
Probably they used this method in the gizmondo because the camera was already there.
It seems to me a better choice than the camera, because as somebody already pointed out here, a camera could have problems with background noise like somebody or something moving. Imagine having to point the camera to a wallpapered wall all the time to get the effect right.
With a 2 axis accelerometer (cheap one, chips sell around 15 bucks retail methinks) you could get a better chance of capturing "natural" movement.
If M$$ could strongarm (persuade?) China into doing this, this pretty much says they could do it anywhere else. I don't want to pay for M$$ when all I want is a Penguin.
Slashdot Mirror
. . . Will it blend?
The ones that 'never make it out' are the ones that are tragically flawed and you don't want, anyhow. Too expensive, too cancer-causing...
I prefer my technologies non-cancer-causing, thank you very much.
Maybe using a pair of 2D mouses?
Like one for X and Z (right hand) and another for Y and rotation (left hand)
It may sound awkward, but then again maybe in the future our kids will be laughing at us for not being skilled enough to use such setup.
Then again, 3D design apps have been using mouse + keyboard to do this for a long time without problems, so maybe this solution is overkill.
I don't want this to sound like the famous "640k should be enough for everyone", but...
WQUXGA, 3840x2400, or nine million pixels.
Sounds like overkill to me. I mean, I'm used to play my games @ 1280x1024 and i feel this resolution, maybe combined with a wee bit of AA, does the trick.
I'd rather see all that horsepower invested in more frames/sec or cool effects. I know, it's cool to have the capability, but it makes me wonder about what another user posted here regarding the 8800 being a 700$ paperweight 'cause of early adoption. You'll have a card capable of a gazillion pixels on a single frame, yet no monitor capable of showing it fully, and when finally the monitor comes out or achieves a good price/value relationship, your card is already obsolete. Null selling point there for moi.
Just my "par de" cents.
That combined with potential laser defenses [at least in current development] there is no such thing as "out-running" a laser system.
:)
Maybe the plane could emit a sort of aerosol mist to diffract the laser beam
Am I watching too much sci-fi channel?
*** Long rant warning ***
/free education.
Hey there, a couple of my own counterpoints, and i'm here in the trenches in Venezuela, so I can give you a first hand account. It might sound a little biased at times, I admit, but It's all based on what I see everyday.
Venezuela is a Democracy. They have elections every so often so the people get to decide who gets to run the place. They have decided that they prefer Chavez to the alternatives.
That is, of course, if you trust a first time electronic-vote election without giving the oposing party access to a paper trail to check the validity of it. Even if that was allowed, neighbors of mine got a "No" when they actually pressed "Yes" to the question of "would you like to terminate the mandate of the president blah, blah" (don't reember the exact wording of the question). Whoever bitched about that too loudly was arrested for interfering with the election. I'm not making this up.
Chavez is not a communist. He is a socialist. There is a huge difference.
Well, yes, I agree there is a difference in those two concepts. But I think you missed a wee little speech he gave here a couple of weeks ago (maybe more) when he openly admitted he was a comunist (not a sociallist, but a full fledged communist) and that "my mentor has always been Fidel Castro", and another one in which he ordered all his followers (and he seems to think that means everyone) to give up material goods because being "rich" was a bad thing: if you own two fridges, put one on the village's square, if you own two cars give away one...
Of course, that came much to the dismay to some of his cronies, who own factories bought with state money and usually ride Hummer H2s and H3s, not unlike Kim Jong Il's ass-kissers. In the end I doubt those pay the price of their corruption, as long as they stay faithful to the "Proceso"
His socialist view is that *all* of the people of Venezuela should have affordable healthcare, at very low cost, if not free.
It might have been lacking in terms of quality, I will quickly admit, but there has been a social security system in this country for the better part of the 20th century, if not earlier.
It's been good at times, dismal at others, specially after the eighties in which it got terminally bad. It wasn't free as in you never pay anything but you just paid a small fee out of your paycheck every month and you were automatically a benefficiary. Again, it's in horrible shape (still), but it exists and has existed for a long time.
As for Chavez bringing free healthcare for everyone, I admit he has done some good things here and there, but given the amount of cash this country is receiving and taking into account that he took office in 1999, we should already have a top notch public health system and the sad reality is we don't, period.
His socialist view is that *all* of the people should have low cost
Oooook...
First, Cost: there's been almost-free education (1000 Bs., less than 50 Dollar cents a full semester tuition; 5 Bs, less than a Dollar cent per meal in the mess hall, for at least the past 20 years in the UCV, anybody?) in this country for the past 50-odd years, so nothing new here, pure BS from the "Chavistas".
Second, Quantity: Anybody could get up to high school without any problems, getting into a college was a little trickier because of admission exams and quotas and such. Some corruption might have played a part in depleting quotas, however, like parents paying admittance officials to get their cherubs in.
Third, Quality: Venezuela, over those "democracy" years openly demonized by chavez followers, has produced a lot of quality professionals, college professors were usually recognized scientists and scholars and (in the public colleges at least) almost free. Not everyone got in, but then again not everyone should get in, only those good enough to withstand the grind that produc
Do judges just think computers are magic boxes which they can order to do whatever they may like, and that there are no limits of technical feasibility?
I guess the judges watch too much CSI: infinite resolution security cameras, flashy multicolored OS interface thingies that do the analysis and solve crimes themselves...
### C produces fast, tight code that so far...
... you program in sharp sharp sharp C
. . . why didn't this happen before?
Did it happen before and just now somebody found out?
Teaching isn't just about the content, but helping the student to process it and put it into context
I don't see teachers disappearing anytime soon. They aren't only a mindless talking machines whose only function is to read aloud a textbook (some actually are, however).
I mean, if they were just like that and thus replaceable, why stopping there? just ditch the whole concept of classroom and just give the tykes some CDs.
. . . the "monkeyboy" tag?
Man, thank you very much, following your links I found out that I have a PICAXE distributor here in my country, actually an online electronics store I didn't know about.
72 probes??? First of all, if you're going to do it that way, you'd create hundreds of thousands of probes, if not millions of probes (mass production would reduce the cost). Second, you still probably wouldn't do it that way. You'd wait until you had the technology to make self-replicating probes, and the galaxy could potentially be explored in thousands of years.
:)
Hmm . . .
1.- self replicating probes... check
2.- enuff "intelligence" to determine something it sees/feels/etc is an actual lifeform... check
3.- humanity's own history making buggy, security lax software... check
4.- throw in some polymorphic stuff in the software so the probe can better itself...check
5.- an "easter egg", timebomb prank from a bender-obsessed hacker (MUST KILL HUMANS)... check
Possible end result? == The cylons
forty two
Actually, it's not much different from our situation as humans.
:o)
We can't feel pain directly in our brain tissue. The tissue around the skull? yes, we feel pain there, but not in the brain itself.
Provided you have an opening to access the brain, you could poke it with a needle and the brain itself won't trigger a pain response, maybe the subject would see static if his/her brain is poked somewhere in the occipital lobe, but it would cause him/her no pain whatsoever
... to prevent people from testing .NET on a 386 and then JAVA on a 3 GHZ and saying "See JAVA is faster!"...
* Troll mode On *
Similar to what M$ has done in the past when comparing Linux's TCO with theirs, i guess.
* Troll mode Off *
. . . I for one welcome our new micro-overlords
Nevermind . . . no pun intended either
I take You don't know what an accelerometer is . . .
It's a device (like the Analog Devices ADXL202E chip, to use an example) that measures acceleration, hence the name.
It could be used to measure displacement, like when you move your hand with the device, that's why i said it could be used instead of a camera. And it would take A LOT less processor time than to analyze a video frame, cause the chip already gives a serial readout with the changes in acceleration.
Probably they used this method in the gizmondo because the camera was already there.
A chip with the latteral size of a 1/8 watt resistor not fitting inside a cellphone?
Google for the Analog Devices ADXL202E chip, and check for yourself
Why not an accelerometer?
It seems to me a better choice than the camera, because as somebody already pointed out here, a camera could have problems with background noise like somebody or something moving. Imagine having to point the camera to a wallpapered wall all the time to get the effect right.
With a 2 axis accelerometer (cheap one, chips sell around 15 bucks retail methinks) you could get a better chance of capturing "natural" movement.
I've always wanted to sit around an pay money to run diagnostics on a Federation vessel!!! It would be just like work if my coworkers and I played.
That, and saying things like "It's the neuroplasma temporal injector coil assembly Captain, it's 2 microns out of alignment, I can hear it."
If M$$ could strongarm (persuade?) China into doing this, this pretty much says they could do it anywhere else. I don't want to pay for M$$ when all I want is a Penguin.
You're right. The real issue is open driver support. You get that and the problem is mostly solved.
before they do any damage to us: Detonating an EMP bomb inside?