Seriously, you can go with no idea who's running, and in my state at least, the ballot measures and proposals are summarized with nice bullet points so you know more or less what you're voting for. There's no good excuse not to at least go and consider them, even if you have no intention of casting a vote for a single candidate.
Personally, I only felt informed enough to vote for the office of governor, and 4 of the 5 ballot measures. So that's what I did, and left all the other options undecided.
Okay, judging from that crude diagram, they've left, at best, 33% of the radius of the disc's usable media surface intact (the dotted line, I presume). Let's do a little geometry, accounting for the unusable portion in the center of the disc at around.4r, and the usable portion extending to, let's say,.6r.
A normal disc:
PI * r^2 - PI * (.4r)^2
PI * r^2 -.16(PI * r^2) .84(PI * r^2)
The new magical disc:
PI * (.6r^2) - PI * (.4r^2) .36(PI * r^2) -.16(PI * r^2) .20(PI * r^2)
So in other words, if my math is correct (and it's entirely possible that it's not), you'd be looking at.20/.84, i.e. about 24% the storage space of a normal DVD. Maybe a gig at best?
And I'm sure these guys will go so much trouble to balance these things properly! Even a well balanced commercial disc in a very high speed DVD drive creates an unnerving amount of noise and vibration. I shudder to think of what would happen with the center of mass potentially thrown way off center from the cuts and the electronics, and the tremendous amount of air turbulence you'd end up with from the shape of that thing. You'd be lucky if it didn't destroy itself and/or the drive within seconds if the motor tried to crank it up to full speed.
In short, there's no way in hell this will ever make it to market, for these reasons, and reasons others have already stated.
An interesting idea, but I'm not sure I would go that far without more testing. The 7% difference between the trials may be normal error imposed by chance. For example, it's entirely possible - and in fact, quite likely - that they could run the original experiment again and get a result a little different from 80% being found to be able to "smell" the tomatoes. It wouldn't necessarily mean that the plant got smarter or dumber between trials, just that chaos and chance provided a different result that time.
Think of it this way: if you flip a coin, there's a 50% chance of it coming up heads, and a 50% chance of it coming up tails. Do a few trials of 100 flips, and see how often you get exactly the same percentages between trials.
Very true. And I can imagine that some among us might very well still be stuck with 5.25" floppy drives on our IBM desktops at work.;D "USB? We don't need that. Now go clean out the rollers in these 9-pin serial mice."
I'm not trying to be an OSS zealot here (honestly), but how does this do anything that Firefox doesn't do already? Preferences/Options, Privacy, Clear Private Data tool settings button. (The way to get there might be different in the Windows version, but you get the idea.) You can have it blow away history, forms, passwords, download history, cookies, cache data, and authenticated HTTP sessions automatically when you quit. And a few of those can be disabled outright from the start. And of course, Safari has a similar option too.
Seems to work okay on my Nextel i275. It's rather sluggish, and the UI gets a bit mangled in places because of the really small screen size, and some of the button mappings are weird (Call button becomes the selection/OK button), but it works.:)
Mind you, the usual means of getting it onto a Nextel fall kind of in the area of "don't ask don't tell"...
Actually, with EFS, if you reset an account password, that account CANNOT access the encrypted data. There's a way around this, mind you. Google "efs recovery agent" if you're curious how to set it up.
Since we're on the subject of going overboard with mail-in rebates, have any of you guys had the displeasure of looking through a Circuit City newspaper ad lately? The damned things are almost entirely just mail-in rebate catalogs. Let's hope they get a clue soon and drop these things.
Not to mention my complaint about the flyer's usability problems, with the portrait-layout cover, causing the thing to disintegrate into pieces when you mistakenly unfold it and try to page through it from the "left"...
On the other side of the coin, Staples at least lets you file for the rebates entirely online. No mailing, nothing. It's not any quicker to get the stuff back in the mail, but at least it's significantly less of a pain in the ass to file for the things. And no, I'm not a corporate shill for Staples. Honest.;)
No, it makes a good argument for default-deny security policies. There's no reason for the OS to blindly execute programs on removable storage without first giving the user a VERY prominent warning (or in the case of Windows, allowing it to be disabled completely via Group Policy).
The number of times I've seen a 360 Premium bundle in stores is approximately equal to the number of times I've played chess with Bigfoot. Thus I'm not too surprised that some publishers are still hanging onto the machine that's actually got a market share for now.
I'm too lazy to do the research right now, but I'm willing to bet you could subtract at least 3 years from those dates and roughly apply the timeline to Japanese cell phones.
Ha ha. I think you might be on to something there. If they put out Nethack/Angband/etc. keysets for that thing, it would suddenly look a lot more appealing to me.;)
Wasn't there something vaguely similar to this on an old Nickelodeon show? I have faint memories of a bunch of audience members holding up paddles with two different very bright colors on opposite sides, which could then be used to control simple left/right kinds of behavior based on which side they pointed at the camera.
You might be onto something there. I just got a Cease and Desist order from NASA for spoiling the storyline of tomorrow's Mars fly-by before release day.
It's looking more and more like the DS version was nothing more than just an unsubstantiated rumor.;_; (Yes, I know, even despite the fact that it appeared in a "coming soon" list in Nintendo Power.) If anybody wants to prove me wrong here, please do. Heh.
The PSP version is legit, though, and despite the fact that it will probably make my thumbs ache terribly with the controls on that thing, I'll probably buy it anyway. Whoo.
Funny you should mention that. The N key on my iBook is worn down to the point of looking like an extra I key, the period is MIA, and the M is showing signs that it might be the next to go. I sent it in a few weeks back for a hard drive replacement (Applecare warranty), and they replaced not only the hard drive, but the entire logic board, reed switch assembly, and "spiral tubing". But they didn't change my key caps. And now I'm missing a rubber foot, which vanished sometime after I got it back. Hmm...
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Seriously, you can go with no idea who's running, and in my state at least, the ballot measures and proposals are summarized with nice bullet points so you know more or less what you're voting for. There's no good excuse not to at least go and consider them, even if you have no intention of casting a vote for a single candidate.
Personally, I only felt informed enough to vote for the office of governor, and 4 of the 5 ballot measures. So that's what I did, and left all the other options undecided.
Okay, judging from that crude diagram, they've left, at best, 33% of the radius of the disc's usable media surface intact (the dotted line, I presume). Let's do a little geometry, accounting for the unusable portion in the center of the disc at around .4r, and the usable portion extending to, let's say, .6r.
.16(PI * r^2)
.84(PI * r^2)
.36(PI * r^2) - .16(PI * r^2)
.20(PI * r^2)
.20/.84, i.e. about 24% the storage space of a normal DVD. Maybe a gig at best?
A normal disc:
PI * r^2 - PI * (.4r)^2
PI * r^2 -
The new magical disc:
PI * (.6r^2) - PI * (.4r^2)
So in other words, if my math is correct (and it's entirely possible that it's not), you'd be looking at
And I'm sure these guys will go so much trouble to balance these things properly! Even a well balanced commercial disc in a very high speed DVD drive creates an unnerving amount of noise and vibration. I shudder to think of what would happen with the center of mass potentially thrown way off center from the cuts and the electronics, and the tremendous amount of air turbulence you'd end up with from the shape of that thing. You'd be lucky if it didn't destroy itself and/or the drive within seconds if the motor tried to crank it up to full speed.
In short, there's no way in hell this will ever make it to market, for these reasons, and reasons others have already stated.
You may want to read up on cryptographic signing, because it's intended to prevent that very thing (tampering).
An interesting idea, but I'm not sure I would go that far without more testing. The 7% difference between the trials may be normal error imposed by chance. For example, it's entirely possible - and in fact, quite likely - that they could run the original experiment again and get a result a little different from 80% being found to be able to "smell" the tomatoes. It wouldn't necessarily mean that the plant got smarter or dumber between trials, just that chaos and chance provided a different result that time.
Think of it this way: if you flip a coin, there's a 50% chance of it coming up heads, and a 50% chance of it coming up tails. Do a few trials of 100 flips, and see how often you get exactly the same percentages between trials.
Very true. And I can imagine that some among us might very well still be stuck with 5.25" floppy drives on our IBM desktops at work. ;D "USB? We don't need that. Now go clean out the rollers in these 9-pin serial mice."
I'm not trying to be an OSS zealot here (honestly), but how does this do anything that Firefox doesn't do already? Preferences/Options, Privacy, Clear Private Data tool settings button. (The way to get there might be different in the Windows version, but you get the idea.) You can have it blow away history, forms, passwords, download history, cookies, cache data, and authenticated HTTP sessions automatically when you quit. And a few of those can be disabled outright from the start. And of course, Safari has a similar option too.
Seems to work okay on my Nextel i275. It's rather sluggish, and the UI gets a bit mangled in places because of the really small screen size, and some of the button mappings are weird (Call button becomes the selection/OK button), but it works. :)
Mind you, the usual means of getting it onto a Nextel fall kind of in the area of "don't ask don't tell"...
Actually, with EFS, if you reset an account password, that account CANNOT access the encrypted data. There's a way around this, mind you. Google "efs recovery agent" if you're curious how to set it up.
Seriously, you should see Zork in an anti-aliased TrueType font!
Quick! What's the number for the internet???
Since we're on the subject of going overboard with mail-in rebates, have any of you guys had the displeasure of looking through a Circuit City newspaper ad lately? The damned things are almost entirely just mail-in rebate catalogs. Let's hope they get a clue soon and drop these things.
;)
Not to mention my complaint about the flyer's usability problems, with the portrait-layout cover, causing the thing to disintegrate into pieces when you mistakenly unfold it and try to page through it from the "left"...
On the other side of the coin, Staples at least lets you file for the rebates entirely online. No mailing, nothing. It's not any quicker to get the stuff back in the mail, but at least it's significantly less of a pain in the ass to file for the things. And no, I'm not a corporate shill for Staples. Honest.
No, it makes a good argument for default-deny security policies. There's no reason for the OS to blindly execute programs on removable storage without first giving the user a VERY prominent warning (or in the case of Windows, allowing it to be disabled completely via Group Policy).
The number of times I've seen a 360 Premium bundle in stores is approximately equal to the number of times I've played chess with Bigfoot. Thus I'm not too surprised that some publishers are still hanging onto the machine that's actually got a market share for now.
Oh wow, I didn't realize we go to the same school!
...I feel fully qualified to respond to this article:
tl;dr
Well, they definitely have us trumped on cell phones and toilets, I can tell you that much.
I'm too lazy to do the research right now, but I'm willing to bet you could subtract at least 3 years from those dates and roughly apply the timeline to Japanese cell phones.
Ha ha. I think you might be on to something there. If they put out Nethack/Angband/etc. keysets for that thing, it would suddenly look a lot more appealing to me. ;)
"...It will also engineer itself, be telepathic, cure all known diseases, absolve us of our sins, and come with a free pony."
I can already envision hordes of EU users Googling the name to figure out how the hell to spell it. :)
Wasn't there something vaguely similar to this on an old Nickelodeon show? I have faint memories of a bunch of audience members holding up paddles with two different very bright colors on opposite sides, which could then be used to control simple left/right kinds of behavior based on which side they pointed at the camera.
You might be onto something there. I just got a Cease and Desist order from NASA for spoiling the storyline of tomorrow's Mars fly-by before release day.
It's comforting to know I'm not the only person that uses his laptop on public toilets. More comforting than disturbing, at least.
It's looking more and more like the DS version was nothing more than just an unsubstantiated rumor. ;_; (Yes, I know, even despite the fact that it appeared in a "coming soon" list in Nintendo Power.) If anybody wants to prove me wrong here, please do. Heh.
The PSP version is legit, though, and despite the fact that it will probably make my thumbs ache terribly with the controls on that thing, I'll probably buy it anyway. Whoo.
Funny you should mention that. The N key on my iBook is worn down to the point of looking like an extra I key, the period is MIA, and the M is showing signs that it might be the next to go. I sent it in a few weeks back for a hard drive replacement (Applecare warranty), and they replaced not only the hard drive, but the entire logic board, reed switch assembly, and "spiral tubing". But they didn't change my key caps. And now I'm missing a rubber foot, which vanished sometime after I got it back. Hmm...