MS is to corporations what US is to governments...
True. The US government is large enough to break up trusts, but what if the US government becomes monopolistic? Who will be able to break it up? This comment IS coming from an American, and I really hope its not considered to be terroristic.
This is time for a selfish plug. but an honest plug.
About a half year ago i was doing some C++ programming, which i haven't been doing as much as of as i'd like to, and I had an idea. It seemed each time I started programming something in C++, I would have forgotten some of the details of the language. I wanted a reference card for C++. I searched all over the internet for free ones, and even some I had to pay for. but there weren't any!
So i wrote one. It includes all the common syntax, plus a lot of advanced reference such as library functions.
My girlfriend showed me how she was getting off the spammers lists by clicking the "remove" links in each email. Against my better judgement, I tried it too. It worked! Those spammers stopped sending me junkmail! But... it simply confirmed that my address was valid and they sold it to other spammers. So I ended up getting more spam than before.
On a seperate note, the best method to getting rid of spam is to get a new email address.
"are these to be the Malt Shops and arcades of our times?"
no way. in Malt shops, people actually talked to each other. in arcades, you still had to interact with people to get tokens. in a videogame room, all you do is shoot people on a computer screen.
If they had a key to your house, then that would be just the same as breaking a latch on a window and prying it open. If they have a key, or if they break the window, they will still need a security code to turn off the alarm. If there is no alarm, then having a key or breaking a window will make no difference.
Actually, where I work, they've introduced (I can't say we've introduced, because I dont whole-heartedly agree with any of it) a system called the TRS, Time Reporting System. We have to fill out TRS reports about what percentage of our time we put in a certain projects... The system came with no documentation and no explanation of how it was to be used or what it is used for.
Think about it... each week we have to enter a percentage for a project code. There are a few unaswered questions, such as what happens for vacation time. What if you work 1 hour per week on a project, do you enter 2% for a project? and the percentages dont have to total 100%, they can total 500% if you choose. When they introduced this system, I started laughing hysterically because it reminded me so much of the TPS reports..
Like my post above, it's not whether it's digital or film, it's what kind of camera you're using. SLR and medium format cameras offer much better picture quality than point and shoot (either digital or film). point and shoot cameras are simply that, whether its a $30 digital one, or a $6 disposable film. they aren't meant to take high quality photos.
Also, since film is analog, it is possible to acheive higher than expected print qualities. Digital is set, and you get the same quality each time you take a picture.
At least Sigma used an SLR camera body. There are so many digital cameras out there that are point and shoot, but none come close to the quality and usefulness of an SLR. With the different lenses available and the ability to shoot in manual modes, the SLRs are much better. Mutiple exposures, manual: focus/ISO/shutter speed, and auxillary flashes, are things that aren't available on most digital cameras.
I've been wanting a digital SLR camera that was as cheap as the film SLR cameras or as cheap as the 4megapixel digital cameras. But digital SLRs, while available, are prohibitively expensive. Most start at $3,000. The Sigma SLR may not be good, but it is cheap.
When Minolta or Cannon or Olympus comes out with an affordable digital SLR, I will be very happy. and I will still be able to use my lenses from my film SLR.
Will this pasta stick to the ceiling when it's done? I've heard of it, but I've never actually thrown pasta at a wall to test if its done... SPLAT! earthquake occured. and you can eat your results too. mmmmmmmm.... lasagna.
I've created a C++ Reference Card... but i'm actually selling it. I wasn't happy with the reference cards already available, and I wanted to make one. There is something very good about having a paper copy of something, or in this case a laminated paper copy. eBooks are nice, but any book that you can actually hold and flip through is much easier to use than something on the computer screen.
There are other open source reference cards out there as well.
I've done some work on fisheye-views of heirarchical file systems, and representing them as radial trees.
Its very interesting to be able to fit thousands of nodes on a screen and to be able to focus on just a few that are of interest. pictures of the system are available here.
Very early typewriters like the one in the story are also missing the number "1" key. the numbers at the top of the keyboard start at 2. this was done to save space, as the lower-case "L" was to be used as a "1"
i noticed something from the article about using a car battery to power the wireless equipment.
i found it interesting that a person who is willing to live in a tree for months on end to protest the destruction of that tree would use a car battery to power her computer. car batteries can leak, corrode, and are generally bad for the environment if they are not recycled properly. the process the make car batteries is, i'm sure, taxing on the environment as well.
perhaps she could use solar power, or muscle power to power the equipment. it just seems a half hearted effort to demonstrate, but to use a polluting device in the process.
It's actually a little of both that contributes to antibitoic resistance. When millions and millions of bacterial cells are reproducing, there is a good chance that one or two or many of them will mutate. these changes may cause antibiotic resistance.
what is more likely to cause sudden antibiotic resistance is horizontal gene transfer. bacteria like streptococcus can aquire antibiotic resistance through mutltiple encounters with antibiotics. it slowly builds its resistance. a strep bacterium may come in contact with another bacterium such as staphlycoccus and transfer its resistance.
in your mouth and throat, where these bugs live, they have high chances of coming in contact with each other. when a bacteriophage in the body eats these bacteria, their DNA can mix. bacteria also get real close together and use a pillus to attach to each other and transfer genes.
MRSA and VRE (vancomycin resistant enterococcus) are common in hospitals. nosocomial infections are extremely common. not because of poor infection control, but because these bacteria are part of the normal flora in the environment. when you have so many people in a closed space with compromised immune systems and lots of antibiotics, it becomes a concentrated breeding ground for resistant bacteria. with the difference types of bacteria that mix with each other, horizontal gene transfer can create bacterium resistant to even vancomycin, rifampin, and methicillin.
Actually, the poles are due to reverse. They've reversed frequently in the past, and the record is contained in rocks found in ocean crust. When techtonic plates pull apart and magma rises, the newly formed rock is stamped with a record of which way was magneticaly north. the record from the rift in the Atlantic ocean indicates that the poles have shifted several times in the past.
I love the NYC Subway system. It smells bad at times, but its an engineering marvel. So many people, tunnels, electrical, mechanical systems. a good website is http://www.nycsubway.org
This is similar to some work I did on Eye Gaze Tracking in my senior year at University of Connecicut. The project page can be viewed here.
I wish I had done more with it, there are more applications for this than just tracking people in public. They can be used for keeping the laser in the correct position if a person moves their eye during lasic eye surgery. It can be used to by a paraplegic to use a computer. And most importantly it can used to target in Quake3.
Slashdot Mirror
MS is to corporations what US is to governments ...
True. The US government is large enough to break up trusts, but what if the US government becomes monopolistic? Who will be able to break it up? This comment IS coming from an American, and I really hope its not considered to be terroristic.
About a half year ago i was doing some C++ programming, which i haven't been doing as much as of as i'd like to, and I had an idea. It seemed each time I started programming something in C++, I would have forgotten some of the details of the language. I wanted a reference card for C++. I searched all over the internet for free ones, and even some I had to pay for. but there weren't any!
So i wrote one. It includes all the common syntax, plus a lot of advanced reference such as library functions.
gbook.org/refcard
This post is going to get modded down, but I wanted to say how much I like the concept of a one sheet reference card better than reference books.
My girlfriend showed me how she was getting off the spammers lists by clicking the "remove" links in each email. Against my better judgement, I tried it too. It worked! Those spammers stopped sending me junkmail! But... it simply confirmed that my address was valid and they sold it to other spammers. So I ended up getting more spam than before.
On a seperate note, the best method to getting rid of spam is to get a new email address.
At least they didn't put the highway across the Larsen ice shelf. Then it would become the mickey mouse water show.
"are these to be the Malt Shops and arcades of our times?"
no way. in Malt shops, people actually talked to each other. in arcades, you still had to interact with people to get tokens. in a videogame room, all you do is shoot people on a computer screen.
If they had a key to your house, then that would be just the same as breaking a latch on a window and prying it open. If they have a key, or if they break the window, they will still need a security code to turn off the alarm. If there is no alarm, then having a key or breaking a window will make no difference.
If they offered that program at Weslyan University, I could double major in porn and game development. cool!
From the TCPA specification, I am definitely a BIOS engineer, here's why:
a) Main
b) Advanced
c) Security
d) Power
e) Boot
f) Exit
For those reasons, it's clear that engineering BIOS is all about making lists.
Actually, yes there is a project code for filling out the TRS report.
Actually, where I work, they've introduced (I can't say we've introduced, because I dont whole-heartedly agree with any of it) a system called the TRS, Time Reporting System. We have to fill out TRS reports about what percentage of our time we put in a certain projects... The system came with no documentation and no explanation of how it was to be used or what it is used for.
Think about it... each week we have to enter a percentage for a project code. There are a few unaswered questions, such as what happens for vacation time. What if you work 1 hour per week on a project, do you enter 2% for a project? and the percentages dont have to total 100%, they can total 500% if you choose. When they introduced this system, I started laughing hysterically because it reminded me so much of the TPS reports..
Also, since film is analog, it is possible to acheive higher than expected print qualities. Digital is set, and you get the same quality each time you take a picture.
At least Sigma used an SLR camera body. There are so many digital cameras out there that are point and shoot, but none come close to the quality and usefulness of an SLR. With the different lenses available and the ability to shoot in manual modes, the SLRs are much better. Mutiple exposures, manual: focus/ISO/shutter speed, and auxillary flashes, are things that aren't available on most digital cameras.
I've been wanting a digital SLR camera that was as cheap as the film SLR cameras or as cheap as the 4megapixel digital cameras. But digital SLRs, while available, are prohibitively expensive. Most start at $3,000. The Sigma SLR may not be good, but it is cheap.
When Minolta or Cannon or Olympus comes out with an affordable digital SLR, I will be very happy. and I will still be able to use my lenses from my film SLR.
Will this pasta stick to the ceiling when it's done? I've heard of it, but I've never actually thrown pasta at a wall to test if its done... SPLAT! earthquake occured. and you can eat your results too. mmmmmmmm.... lasagna.
I've created a C++ Reference Card... but i'm actually selling it. I wasn't happy with the reference cards already available, and I wanted to make one. There is something very good about having a paper copy of something, or in this case a laminated paper copy. eBooks are nice, but any book that you can actually hold and flip through is much easier to use than something on the computer screen.
There are other open source reference cards out there as well.
Its very interesting to be able to fit thousands of nodes on a screen and to be able to focus on just a few that are of interest. pictures of the system are available here.
Very early typewriters like the one in the story are also missing the number "1" key. the numbers at the top of the keyboard start at 2. this was done to save space, as the lower-case "L" was to be used as a "1"
i found it interesting that a person who is willing to live in a tree for months on end to protest the destruction of that tree would use a car battery to power her computer. car batteries can leak, corrode, and are generally bad for the environment if they are not recycled properly. the process the make car batteries is, i'm sure, taxing on the environment as well.
perhaps she could use solar power, or muscle power to power the equipment. it just seems a half hearted effort to demonstrate, but to use a polluting device in the process.
It's actually a little of both that contributes to antibitoic resistance. When millions and millions of bacterial cells are reproducing, there is a good chance that one or two or many of them will mutate. these changes may cause antibiotic resistance.
what is more likely to cause sudden antibiotic resistance is horizontal gene transfer. bacteria like streptococcus can aquire antibiotic resistance through mutltiple encounters with antibiotics. it slowly builds its resistance. a strep bacterium may come in contact with another bacterium such as staphlycoccus and transfer its resistance.
in your mouth and throat, where these bugs live, they have high chances of coming in contact with each other. when a bacteriophage in the body eats these bacteria, their DNA can mix. bacteria also get real close together and use a pillus to attach to each other and transfer genes.
MRSA and VRE (vancomycin resistant enterococcus) are common in hospitals. nosocomial infections are extremely common. not because of poor infection control, but because these bacteria are part of the normal flora in the environment. when you have so many people in a closed space with compromised immune systems and lots of antibiotics, it becomes a concentrated breeding ground for resistant bacteria. with the difference types of bacteria that mix with each other, horizontal gene transfer can create bacterium resistant to even vancomycin, rifampin, and methicillin.
From the article:
As a user at MIT moves the arm--and therefore the pointer--to touch the box, he can "feel" the box, which has the texture of hard rubber
I don't remember a 'box' feeling like rubber, it was softer than that... and wetter. i think..
Actually, the poles are due to reverse. They've reversed frequently in the past, and the record is contained in rocks found in ocean crust. When techtonic plates pull apart and magma rises, the newly formed rock is stamped with a record of which way was magneticaly north. the record from the rift in the Atlantic ocean indicates that the poles have shifted several times in the past.
I love the NYC Subway system. It smells bad at times, but its an engineering marvel. So many people, tunnels, electrical, mechanical systems. a good website is http://www.nycsubway.org
This is similar to some work I did on Eye Gaze Tracking in my senior year at University of Connecicut. The project page can be viewed here.
I wish I had done more with it, there are more applications for this than just tracking people in public. They can be used for keeping the laser in the correct position if a person moves their eye during lasic eye surgery. It can be used to by a paraplegic to use a computer. And most importantly it can used to target in Quake3.
so even if it blows, someone still needs to go down there. the article says so in the last paragraph...
"We need to go down there."
you mean Ass-backwards compatibility..
yeah, but you can't write in your senior project
/* subroutine taken from Alex T's senior design lab (CSE293 section 2, SP2001) */
even if you cite that you used code from someone in your class, your professor will probably frown upon it...