Then again, if Wikipedia did not exist, think of all the damage done by millions of people lacking information.
I hope you are joking here? What is worse: not having the information, and looking for it somewhere else, or having wrong info that you trust? No Wikipedia bashing intended, but your statement doesn't hold. Z
Yes, it is, and that's the point. Being "contactable all the time" is just friggin' stupid.
There's not enough time in the day and not enough patience in the soul to deal with all the world's idiots.
That is: if all the world's idiots have your number. My phone number is only known by family, friends and maybe other people that I would not mind contacting me. My phone is on most of the time. Deliberately turning it off to avoid being called by people I like would be a bit odd. Unless on occasions where I want to dedicate my time exclusively to one of them in person. Z
What exactly is the definition of 'speed' here? When I move a DVD from my right hand to my left, one DVD of data has been transfered in less than a second.
I know this is a silly example, but how can you say this is a speed record, when the distance is irrelevant... Z
Linux would be attacked just as frequently as Windows if the open source operating system had as large a share of the operating system market as Windows.
It is a classic case of arguing using a False Analogy
Linux would be attacked just as frequently as Windows if it was as easy to do... Z
The article says they want to grow tomatoes in space to save on food transport to Earth, and because they produce oxygen. But the astronauts are too busy to be gardening, and this will be done by a robot, detecting and picking ripe tomatoes.
I wonder why they think so 'in the box' for this one: really imitating the way humans pick fruit. Wouldn't it be easier to breed a special (spacial?..) tomato, or arrange the trees in one or other way so as to make harvesting easier? Z
I really fail to understand why so many people seem to be afraid of possible robot domination/them hurting people and the like. For starters, however far AI may have come these days, imho we are still quite far from machines that are both intelligent and agile enough. And even if it were possible to build a life-as-we-know-it threatening machine, it would be so way expensive that there is no chance they would get 'out of control'. Someone had to pay for it. He will take care not to lose it.
In spite of romantic movies: a robot is a tool. Nobody fears an 'automated assembly line', but run away from the 'robot'... Z
Long time ago I decided to find out what was the most efficient way to keep my TI60 busy. Turned out it needed over three minutes (blank screen) to calculate the number of combinations of 999 elements in groups of 999 (or whatever was the highest number you could enter), the answer of which was 1, by the way... Z
web content? Tivos will then be able to recognize web content and direct it to the appropriate home device. what does that mean?
From the article: "You can stream any content from the Net, watch it on your TV, or route it wirelessly to any other device -- MP3 player, PDA, laptop. It can all be done with the ease that TiVo's 1.6 million subscribers already have come to relish: You'll never need to click more than a button or two on a single remote to pull entertainment into any room in your house"
The way I understand it, it means that the original Tivo (which I never saw) was a pure harddisk recorder, while the new one will have some more multimedia computer-like abilities, and be able to talk to other devices. Just my interpretation. The article is mostly about how great TIVO and van Hoff are...
I came to understand that the meltdown of my home computer was my fault, the result of having switched to a high-speed Internet connection without installing a firewall or heeding those pesky warnings to download critical updates for Windows and anti-virus software.
Reminds me of something I read somewhere. Don't remember where it was... No one will listen, just laugh for ignoring this SERIOUS WARNING.
Wat is so bad about procrastination is that it deprives you of leisure. If you finish work fast, you can rest afterwards. If you postpone it, you aren't working, but you can never really rest either. And there is no more 'after work', because it consumes all available time.. Z
No surprise 'all wireless phones are at 2.4GHz': this is an international ISM band (industrial, scientific and medical). The other bands are around 900MHz and 5.8GHz (country dependent, I believe). You need no license to transmit in these bands, although the maximum power is limited. The downside is that you have to accept any received interference.
Given that the scientific uses are probably miniscule compared to personal ones, I just don't see a good reason to switch.
While I still do not agree completely, I can see your point. For me (as an engineer) the advantages of the metric system are obvious, but I am aware that this vision may be (IS) biased. It is a bit difficult (for me) to guess how much more inconvenient the metric system would be in American daily (non-scientific) life. Personally I have never regretted it [the metric system], even when building stuff, or making cookbook recipes.
Something completely different: in the MS, there are some interesting relations, e.g. 1 liter of water equals about 1kg, which is very convenient for estimations of size and weight of most liquids. Are there similar relationships in the US?
I used to think metric units were superior until I lived in the US for a while, and found myself doing plenty of carpentry and DIY stuff where the most common units are inches and feet. I think the subdivision of a foot into 12 inches is fantastic; [cut] Regarding your point about doing without metric, note that virtually all building materials come in imperial sizes. There is no need to know metric units in that environment.
That building materials come in imperial sizes is just a convention. In Europe they come in metrics, and where they don't, they should. Maybe imperial units are more conventient for building/DIY/whatever, but I fail to see their advantage for any kind of (scientific) calculation. Also, when converting dimensions, you never have to take into account strange factors like when going from inches to miles, just move the floating point (no bash intended). Z
You can't really beat a 5/8 wavelength groundplane, and they're easy to make. (at lower frequencies anyway, not sure about ghz)
What do you mean exactly, as you probably know Wifi IS GHz (2.4)? This is rather at the end of the range where it is interesting to build non-dish based antennas. At low frequencies, the structures tend to get very big (~wavelength, of course), and at higher freqs, construction tolerances kill you... Z
You are not alone in your idea about this 'greatest cinematic feat ever', imho, far better movies have been made, probably with much less resources.
But bear in mind that it could have been a lot worse! It is a great responsability to make a movie about one of 'the best books ever', and you could easily screw up. For example 'The league of extraordinary gentlemen', which I was inadvertedly exposed to, crams together 8 or so of the best fictional characters of the turn of the 1900th century, and is the worst I ever saw.
At least Peter Jackson made a decent trilogy, be it excellent or just good enough.
I thught horizon was 15 miles from a viewer at sea level on flat terrain. But ya, they'll need good altitude at one or both ends.
It is impossible to say 'at what distance' the horizon is without knowing how high you are from the surface. At zero level, the horizon is at distance zero. The figure you are quoting may be the distance to the horizon for an average person standing. In my previous post, I left out a discussion about the earth's atmosphere: in reality, the radio waves (or light waves) don't follow a straight line, but a somewhat curved path which (depending on the weather circumstances) helps you 'look around the corner', or 'sends you into the ground' (such that you need a higher tower to compensate for this). Propagation calculations take this curved path into account by using a straigth path, but changing the Earth radius for the calculations.
(And then there are some other simplifications, like not taking into account Fresnel zones, interference, etc)
More specifically:
D=sqrt(2Rh), with D the distance to the horizon, R the earth radius and h the antenna height. Apparently, the maximum antenna height is '200 hundred feet'. Let's assume this is 200, which equals about 60m (we really use the metric system). The earth radius is 6378km. This implies that the distance to the horizon is about 27km, and the total distance (from each antenna to the horizon) is 54km or 34 miles. Please correct me when I'm making a mistake in these calculations (which may very well be). Taking into account roundoff errors etc, good luck trying to beat last year's 35 miles...
Because WIFI operates in the microwave territory, you need a line of sight (LOS). These waves do not go 'around the bend', as e.g. long wave radio does. 'Around the bend' also implies 'around the Earth'. I can imagine that at some point the winners of this contest will no longer be limited by power, but by finding suitable high places to transmit and receive from.
This is not exactly how I see it. If someone contributes to any OSS project or supports open source, then they are part of the whole movement as far as Im concerned, and they have every right to complain..
Moreover, when making progress/new inventions, one of the mostly underestimated parts is the mere detection of needs. Developing a knife obviously requires some creativity, but so does realizing you need one or other cutting device. Z
Slashdot Mirror
Then again, if Wikipedia did not exist, think of all the damage done by millions of people lacking information.
I hope you are joking here? What is worse: not having the information, and looking for it somewhere else, or having wrong info that you trust? No Wikipedia bashing intended, but your statement doesn't hold.
Z
Yes, it is, and that's the point. Being "contactable all the time" is just friggin' stupid. There's not enough time in the day and not enough patience in the soul to deal with all the world's idiots.
That is: if all the world's idiots have your number. My phone number is only known by family, friends and maybe other people that I would not mind contacting me. My phone is on most of the time. Deliberately turning it off to avoid being called by people I like would be a bit odd. Unless on occasions where I want to dedicate my time exclusively to one of them in person.
Z
What exactly is the definition of 'speed' here? When I move a DVD from my right hand to my left, one DVD of data has been transfered in less than a second.
I know this is a silly example, but how can you say this is a speed record, when the distance is irrelevant...
Z
Linux would be attacked just as frequently as Windows if the open source operating system had as large a share of the operating system market as Windows.
It is a classic case of arguing using a False Analogy
Linux would be attacked just as frequently as Windows if it was as easy to do...
Z
How can you transfer a browser's contents over a 40kB line when its own internet connection can be a lot higher?
Z
The article says they want to grow tomatoes in space to save on food transport to Earth, and because they produce oxygen. But the astronauts are too busy to be gardening, and this will be done by a robot, detecting and picking ripe tomatoes.
I wonder why they think so 'in the box' for this one: really imitating the way humans pick fruit. Wouldn't it be easier to breed a special (spacial?..) tomato, or arrange the trees in one or other way so as to make harvesting easier?
Z
I really fail to understand why so many people seem to be afraid of possible robot domination/them hurting people and the like. For starters, however far AI may have come these days, imho we are still quite far from machines that are both intelligent and agile enough. And even if it were possible to build a life-as-we-know-it threatening machine, it would be so way expensive that there is no chance they would get 'out of control'. Someone had to pay for it. He will take care not to lose it.
In spite of romantic movies: a robot is a tool. Nobody fears an 'automated assembly line', but run away from the 'robot'...
Z
What's in a name... Combining the robotic suit with Space Odyssey moreless gives you The Wrong Trousers.
I cannot do that, Wallace...
Z
Long time ago I decided to find out what was the most efficient way to keep my TI60 busy. Turned out it needed over three minutes (blank screen) to calculate the number of combinations of 999 elements in groups of 999 (or whatever was the highest number you could enter), the answer of which was 1, by the way...
Z
web content? Tivos will then be able to recognize web content and direct it to the appropriate home device. what does that mean?
From the article: "You can stream any content from the Net, watch it on your TV, or route it wirelessly to any other device -- MP3 player, PDA, laptop. It can all be done with the ease that TiVo's 1.6 million subscribers already have come to relish: You'll never need to click more than a button or two on a single remote to pull entertainment into any room in your house"
The way I understand it, it means that the original Tivo (which I never saw) was a pure harddisk recorder, while the new one will have some more multimedia computer-like abilities, and be able to talk to other devices. Just my interpretation. The article is mostly about how great TIVO and van Hoff are...
Z
I came to understand that the meltdown of my home computer was my fault, the result of having switched to a high-speed Internet connection without installing a firewall or heeding those pesky warnings to download critical updates for Windows and anti-virus software.
Reminds me of something I read somewhere. Don't remember where it was...
No one will listen, just laugh for ignoring this SERIOUS WARNING.
Z
Wat is so bad about procrastination is that it deprives you of leisure. If you finish work fast, you can rest afterwards. If you postpone it, you aren't working, but you can never really rest either. And there is no more 'after work', because it consumes all available time..
Z
No surprise 'all wireless phones are at 2.4GHz': this is an international ISM band (industrial, scientific and medical). The other bands are around 900MHz and 5.8GHz (country dependent, I believe). You need no license to transmit in these bands, although the maximum power is limited. The downside is that you have to accept any received interference.
Z
Nothing like a common threat (and it would be seen as a threat) to make people stop fighting each other.
Especially if this radio signal would read 'all your solar systems are belong to us'...
Z
Given that the scientific uses are probably miniscule compared to personal ones, I just don't see a good reason to switch.
While I still do not agree completely, I can see your point. For me (as an engineer) the advantages of the metric system are obvious, but I am aware that this vision may be (IS) biased. It is a bit difficult (for me) to guess how much more inconvenient the metric system would be in American daily (non-scientific) life. Personally I have never regretted it [the metric system], even when building stuff, or making cookbook recipes.
Something completely different: in the MS, there are some interesting relations, e.g. 1 liter of water equals about 1kg, which is very convenient for estimations of size and weight of most liquids. Are there similar relationships in the US?
Z
I used to think metric units were superior until I lived in the US for a while, and found myself doing plenty of carpentry and DIY stuff where the most common units are inches and feet. I think the subdivision of a foot into 12 inches is fantastic; [cut] Regarding your point about doing without metric, note that virtually all building materials come in imperial sizes. There is no need to know metric units in that environment.
That building materials come in imperial sizes is just a convention. In Europe they come in metrics, and where they don't, they should. Maybe imperial units are more conventient for building/DIY/whatever, but I fail to see their advantage for any kind of (scientific) calculation. Also, when converting dimensions, you never have to take into account strange factors like when going from inches to miles, just move the floating point (no bash intended).
Z
You can't really beat a 5/8 wavelength groundplane, and they're easy to make. (at lower frequencies anyway, not sure about ghz)
What do you mean exactly, as you probably know Wifi IS GHz (2.4)? This is rather at the end of the range where it is interesting to build non-dish based antennas. At low frequencies, the structures tend to get very big (~wavelength, of course), and at higher freqs, construction tolerances kill you...
Z
What good would it be? it may very well become impossible to get an errection without a pulse...
Just open it at a random page and you'll be ok...
Z
You are not alone in your idea about this 'greatest cinematic feat ever', imho, far better movies have been made, probably with much less resources.
But bear in mind that it could have been a lot worse! It is a great responsability to make a movie about one of 'the best books ever', and you could easily screw up. For example 'The league of extraordinary gentlemen', which I was inadvertedly exposed to, crams together 8 or so of the best fictional characters of the turn of the 1900th century, and is the worst I ever saw.
At least Peter Jackson made a decent trilogy, be it excellent or just good enough.
Z
I thught horizon was 15 miles from a viewer at sea level on flat terrain. But ya, they'll need good altitude at one or both ends.
It is impossible to say 'at what distance' the horizon is without knowing how high you are from the surface. At zero level, the horizon is at distance zero. The figure you are quoting may be the distance to the horizon for an average person standing.
In my previous post, I left out a discussion about the earth's atmosphere: in reality, the radio waves (or light waves) don't follow a straight line, but a somewhat curved path which (depending on the weather circumstances) helps you 'look around the corner', or 'sends you into the ground' (such that you need a higher tower to compensate for this). Propagation calculations take this curved path into account by using a straigth path, but changing the Earth radius for the calculations.
(And then there are some other simplifications, like not taking into account Fresnel zones, interference, etc)
Z
More specifically:
D=sqrt(2Rh), with D the distance to the horizon, R the earth radius and h the antenna height. Apparently, the maximum antenna height is '200 hundred feet'. Let's assume this is 200, which equals about 60m (we really use the metric system). The earth radius is 6378km. This implies that the distance to the horizon is about 27km, and the total distance (from each antenna to the horizon) is 54km or 34 miles. Please correct me when I'm making a mistake in these calculations (which may very well be).
Taking into account roundoff errors etc, good luck trying to beat last year's 35 miles...
Z
Because WIFI operates in the microwave territory, you need a line of sight (LOS). These waves do not go 'around the bend', as e.g. long wave radio does. 'Around the bend' also implies 'around the Earth'. I can imagine that at some point the winners of this contest will no longer be limited by power, but by finding suitable high places to transmit and receive from.
Z
This is not exactly how I see it. If someone contributes to any OSS project or supports open source, then they are part of the whole movement as far as Im concerned, and they have every right to complain..
Moreover, when making progress/new inventions, one of the mostly underestimated parts is the mere detection of needs. Developing a knife obviously requires some creativity, but so does realizing you need one or other cutting device.
Z
That's 'free', not like in 'free speech' or 'free beer', but like in:
'I saw the angel in the stone, and wanted to free it' (Michelangelo)
Z?