I was introduced to membrane keyboards like that on the Atari 400 as a nipper on the Magnavox Odyssey game console. They probably wouldn't have been quite so useless if they hadn't tried to mimic the offset grid layout of a traditional keyboard. Something actually shaped like a hand would have been better.
Those keys require a different kind of touch; a squeezey pressure feel not analogous to the tappity used for full-stroke keys. You don't type, you press. Something with that kind of touch could be useful as, for example, keys inside of shoes and intended for your toes.
I'm with you on the insert key, but would have to use the mouse a lot more were it not for those other keys.
I find the Win and Menu keys tremendously useful, though I never did until I tried to do as much as possible with the keyboard. The Win key shortcuts are actually pretty useful (Win+d to toggle desktop, Win+e for explorer, etc.) I got so used to these at work that I map similar Win key shortcuts on my Linux desktop at home. Familiarity with it also comes in handy when you switch to a Mac keyboard; the command key is put to good use.
I'm ambivalent on the Num lock key. It's proved useful for me on keyboards with odd home/end/page up/page down/insert/delete layouts. And I never found much use for those keys until I got familiar with VI, but now would rather use them than the mouse.
I have an older IBM keyboard that would be perfect were it not for the poor placement of the navigation keys. Num lock is useless and redundant however when the arrow/nav/ins keys are well-placed and right next to the num pad.
Eh, wouldn't work. All a hypothetical hijacker would have to do is wait for everyone else to use their Taser on the relentlessly screaming kid in coach and/or his embarrassed parent.
That's not true! USB 2.0 requires gold-plated contacts for maximum bus fidelity. Monster makes a good USB 2.0 cable, and it goes for a steal at $79.99 per cable.
If you put the 2.0 cables in the freezer to align the molecules before you use them you get even better bus response. All of my devices have this warmer, more human feel when I'm using properly-designed cables.
Screw the security line. I'll be fine if you let everyone bring blades, bombs, and shampoo if you just let us have parachutes for each seat.
Seriously, we're facing the possibility of falling tens of thousands of feet and we each get a FLOATING SEAT CUSHION?!?!
I will sleep soundly on a plane the day I can strap on a parachute. Bombers snuck on board? Open the doors and jump out. Engine falling off? Ice on the wings? Arrogant pilots? Exploding tanks? Terrorists? Parachute has me covered, baby. The disabled and children get ejection seats with attached parachutes.
At least with an airline-approved parachute, I won't have to risk the James Bond-style guided freefall into the enemy who actually HAS the parachute. I've never liked the odds that a skydiver would be hurtling past at precisely the same time I need to make a quick evacuation from an airliner.
Alternative idea: several very large parachutes for the plane itself.
It's an interesting phenomenon, but by no means is it a new one. This is basic human nature. What you describe is social order being enforced on a small scale.
Those that dominate a peer group will encourage attributes at which they excel, and discourage those where they fall short. Your ghetto-kids example is one where the leaders of a peer group are not skilled at academic & intellectual pursuits, but are very much skilled when it comes to applying cultural image in a social context. The leaders display the qualities most revered in their limited circle. They don't even have to be the hardest to crack down on intelligence; they can train their 'lieutenants' to enforce the status quo. If all of a sudden, being the dominant peer wasn't based on how much you conformed to ghetto ideal but to how well you did in class, the leadership would be overthrown.
This is rebellion-control 101. Iron-fist, brutal, manipulative despots --like in Chairman Mao's in his 'thousand flowers' campaign where intellectuals were flushed out and systematically destroyed for one of countless examples-- treat intellectuals with similar brutality. You can see this from the small groups that kids forms to entire nations and religions. Skills that conflict with those of the leaders, if they cannot be harnessed and used, will be attacked.
This isn't restricted to intellectuals, mind you. There are other types of intelligence; and kinetic intelligence (athletic skill, be it in sports or dance) is one. Social grace is another. Note how often, in 'nerdier' groups where peers have academic skills but could use work on physical, athletic skills are often discouraged and disparaged. Dumb jock jokes are a way to enforce this particular status quo.
If possible, people will eventually move to and within social circles where their particular skills are valued. If they survive high school, anyway.
Ah, bills. The legislative equivalent of TFA -- no one bothers to read them. Once again, an article about an act of Congress that doesn't even bother including a bill #, or even the proper short title. Why not just refer to it as "that there new energy bill done passed by them there politicians"?
In it, you can see that the only bans are based on efficiency standards, not type of manufacture. For example, 100 watt lamps that do not provide 60 lumens/watt or better are banned. Issues of color spectrum are anticipated and basic measures put into place.
Now if we could apply this method to fuel efficiency we'd actually start making a dent.
A snip:
PART 2--LIGHTING EFFICIENCY
SEC. 9021. EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS.
(a) Prohibition.--
(1) Regulations.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall issue regulations--
(A) prohibiting the sale of 100 watt general service incandescent lamps after January 1, 2012, unless those lamps emit at least 60 lumens per watt; (B) prohibiting the sale of general service lamps manufactured after the effective dates shown in the table below that do not meet the minimum efficacy levels (lumens/watt) shown in the following table:
(C) after January 1, 2020, prohibiting the sale of general service lamps that emit less than 300 percent of the average lumens per watt emitted by 100 watt incandescent general service lamps that are commercially available as of the date of enactment of this Act; (D) establishing a minimum color rendering index (CRI) of 80 or higher for all general service lamps manufactured as of the effective dates in subparagraph (B); and (E) prohibiting the manufacture or import for sale in the United States of an adapter device designed to allow a lamp with a different base to fit into a medium screw base socket manufactured after January 1, 2009. (2) Exemptions.--The regulations issued under paragraph (1) shall include procedures for the Secretary to exempt specialty lamps from the requirements of paragraph (1)....t
Ah, bills. The legislative equivalent of TFA -- no one bothers to read them. Once again, an article about an act of Congress that doesn't even bother including a bill #, or even the proper short title. Why not just refer to it as "that there new energy bill done passed by them there politicians"?
In it, you can see that the only bans are based on efficiency standards, not type of manufacture. For example, 100 watt lamps that do not provide 60 lumens/watt or better are banned. Issues of color spectrum are anticipated and basic measures put into place.
Now if we could apply this method to fuel efficiency we'd actually start making a dent.
Relevant excerpts:
PART 2--LIGHTING EFFICIENCY
SEC. 9021. EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS.
(a) Prohibition.--
(1) Regulations.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall issue regulations-- (A) prohibiting the sale of 100 watt general service incandescent lamps after January 1, 2012, unless those lamps emit at least 60 lumens per watt; (B) prohibiting the sale of general service lamps manufactured after the effective dates shown in the table below that do not meet the minimum efficacy levels (lumens/watt) shown in the following table:
(C) after January 1, 2020, prohibiting the sale of general service lamps that emit less than 300 percent of the average lumens per watt emitted by 100 watt incandescent general service lamps that are commercially available as of the date of enactment of this Act; (D) establishing a minimum color rendering index (CRI) of 80 or higher for all general service lamps manufactured as of the effective dates in subparagraph (B); and (E) prohibiting the manufacture or import for sale in the United States of an adapter device designed to allow a lamp with a different base to fit into a medium screw base socket manufactured after January 1, 2009. (2) Exemptions.--The regulations issued under paragraph (1) shall include procedures for the Secretary to exempt specialty lamps from the requirements of paragraph (1). The Secretary may provide such an exemption only in cases where the Secretary finds, after a hearing and opportunity for public comment, that it is not technically feasible to serve a specialized lighting application, such as a military, medical, public safety application, or in certified historic lighting applications using bulbs that meet the requirements of paragraph (1). In addition, the Secretary shall include as an additional criterion that exempted products are unlikely to be used in the general service lighting applications. (3) Additional lamps types.-- (A) Manufacturers of rough service, vibration service, vibration resistant, appliance, shatter resistant, and three-way lamps shall report annual sales volume to the Secretary. If the Secretary determines that annual sales volume for any of these lamp types increases by 100 percent relative to 2009 sales in any later year, then such lamps shall by subject to the following standards: (i) Appliance lamps shall use no more than 40 watts. (ii) Rough service lamps shall use no more
Ah, bills. The legislative equivalent of TFA -- no one bothers to read them. Once again, an article about an act of Congress that doesn't even bother including a bill #, or even the proper short title. Why not just refer to it as "that there new energy bill done passed by them there politicians"?
The section discussed here is about as long as TFA. It's 9021 of HR 3221 ("Short Titles.--This Act may be cited as the ``New Direction for
Energy Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act'')
(http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.182&filename=h3221eh.txt&directory=/diska/wais/data/110_cong_bills,
In it, you can see that the only bans are based on efficiency standards, not type of manufacture. For example, 100 watt lamps that do not provide 60 lumens/watt or better are banned. Issues of color spectrum are anticipated and basic measures put into place.
Now if we could apply this method to fuel efficiency we'd actually start making a dent.
A snip:
PART 2--LIGHTING EFFICIENCY
SEC. 9021. EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS.
(a) Prohibition.--
(1) Regulations.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall issue regulations--
(A) prohibiting the sale of 100 watt general service incandescent lamps after January 1, 2012, unless those lamps emit at least 60 lumens per watt;
(B) prohibiting the sale of general service lamps manufactured after the effective dates shown in the table below that do not meet the minimum efficacy levels (lumens/watt) shown in the following table:
Lumen Range (Lumens/Watt) Effective Dates
200-449 15 1/1/2014
450-699 17 1/1/2014
700-999 20 1/1/2013
1000-1500 22 1/1/2012
1501-3000 24 1/1/2012
(C) after January 1, 2020, prohibiting the sale of general service lamps that emit less than 300 percent of the average lumens per watt emitted by 100 watt incandescent general service lamps that are commercially available as of the date of enactment of this Act;
(D) establishing a minimum color rendering index (CRI) of 80 or higher for all general service lamps manufactured as of the effective dates in subparagraph (B); and
(E) prohibiting the manufacture or import for sale in the United States of an adapter device designed to allow a lamp with a different base to fit into a medium screw base socket manufactured after January 1, 2009.
(2) Exemptions.--The regulations issued under paragraph (1) shall include procedures for the Secretary to exempt specialty lamps from the requirements of paragraph (1)....
Ah, bills. The legislative equivalent of TFA -- no one bothers to read them. Once again, an article about an act of Congress that doesn't even bother including a bill #, or even the proper short title. Why not just refer to it as "that there new energy bill done passed by them there politicians"?
In it, you can see that the only bans are based on efficiency standards, not type of manufacture. For example, 100 watt lamps that do not provide 60 lumens/watt or better are banned. Issues of color spectrum are anticipated and basic measures put into place.
Now if we could apply this method to fuel efficiency we'd actually start making a dent.
Relevant excerpts:
PART 2--LIGHTING EFFICIENCY
SEC. 9021. EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS.
(a) Prohibition.--
(1) Regulations.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall issue regulations-- (A) prohibiting the sale of 100 watt general service incandescent lamps after January 1, 2012, unless those lamps emit at least 60 lumens per watt; (B) prohibiting the sale of general service lamps manufactured after the effective dates shown in the table below that do not meet the minimum efficacy levels (lumens/watt) shown in the following table:
(C) after January 1, 2020, prohibiting the sale of general service lamps that emit less than 300 percent of the average lumens per watt emitted by 100 watt incandescent general service lamps that are commercially available as of the date of enactment of this Act; (D) establishing a minimum color rendering index (CRI) of 80 or higher for all general service lamps manufactured as of the effective dates in subparagraph (B); and (E) prohibiting the manufacture or import for sale in the United States of an adapter device designed to allow a lamp with a different base to fit into a medium screw base socket manufactured after January 1, 2009. (2) Exemptions.--The regulations issued under paragraph (1) shall include procedures for the Secretary to exempt specialty lamps from the requirements of paragraph (1). The Secretary may provide such an exemption only in cases where the Secretary finds, after a hearing and opportunity for public comment, that it is not technically feasible to serve a specialized lighting application, such as a military, medical, public safety application, or in certified historic lighting applications using bulbs that meet the requirements of paragraph (1). In addition, the Secretary shall include as an additional criterion that exempted products are unlikely to be used in the general service lighting applications. (3) Additional lamps types.-- (A) Manufacturers of rough service, vibration service, vibration resistant, appliance, shatter resistant, and three-way lamps shall report annual sales volume to the Se
Before the 20th century musicians made their money by performing. During the 20th century many musicians made their money by recording music. After the advent of the internet musicians will once again make their money by performing and use their recordings as advertising (as everybody but the RIAA bands do now).
Eh, that's not quite so.
Before the 20th century, it is unlikely that musicians did not make the bulk of their money by performing. Historically, it would appear that publishing and commissions were far more lucrative.
Live music performances were far more common before the 1900s than they are now, odd though that may seem. Contemporary club venues and cover charges were not the prevalent model of live performance at that time. Chamber, church, and open public performances were more common, not to mention the standard evening's entertainment around the piano. There were operas and symphony concerts of course, but the structure of these performances wasn't exactly analogous to modern opera and symphony. And there would be very little similarity to catching your favorite band at a show as you can today.
It's not in the link below, but I believe the first song to sell a million copies sold was in the 1820's. Many of the biggest composers lived at the mercy of support from various royal courts; getting a job as a court composer was how one made it really big, like Mozart. Alternately, birth into a wealthy family (Mendelssohn) was another route.
-The Car Analogy (obligatory): take to mechanic for repair, leave illegal material in an unlocked glovebox. Fuses are in the glovebox, mechanic finds illegal material. Arrested, trail court dismisses on evidentiary grounds, prosecution appeal currently pending. Al Sharpton somehow becomes involved in media coverage.
-The Kitchen Appliance Analogy: take mini fridge in for repair. Leave severed hand of (former) roommate in freezer. Hand is found when test of ice cube tray attempted. Convicted to 30 year sentence, paroled in 9 years. Begin anew with career as tech security consultant.
-The Post Office Analogy: Take large, heavy package to post office. Deliver using media mail rate, the cheapest shipping option. Miss sign claiming that any media mail package is subject to inspection by any PO employee. Box is lined with child pornography. Arrested, sentenced in federal court, killed in prison after 2 years.
-The 19th Century Tech Analogy: take daguerreotype plates in for annual silver halide tune up and focus lens coal-cloth polishing. Leave illegal woodcuts of "ladies of the night" wearing bloomers and baring arms and shoulders(!) underneath stack of plates. Illegal woodcuts & etchings located when technician reaches bottom of stack. Immediately jailed, lynched by angry torch-bearing mob by evening. Grave marker doubles consonants and adds "e"s to the ends of first and last names.
Hate crimes are assaults not only on individuals, but on larger communities. Arguments against hate crime legislation only work as long as you stay squarely in the realm of euphemisms.
There's a difference between, for example, (1) attacking some guy outside a bar because your egos clash, and (2) attacking some guy outside a gay-Mexican-christian bar because you thought he was gay-Mexican-christian, while screaming that all gay-Mexican-christians must die.
The second one is worse, causes more harm than the first, and SHOULD be treated more harshly.
Yes, it is worth it to use open-source alternatives. It's a waste of opportunity when a course that is actually a training course for specific applications is misnamed with a more general term. I remember way back when taking an 'digital composition' university course that was by all rights simply several weeks of Finale! training.
Not only is open source entirely suitable for an academic environment, but any interface shortcomings will allow/force you to focus on the actual fundamentals of, as you put it, multimedia. (I didn't see any audio app mentioned.)
Which course would be more useful in the long run: one that focuses on the novelty features and interface of the latest commercial applications, or one that focuses on the design process in general and treats the apps as the tools they are rather than main focus of the course? Learning how to learn unfamiliar applications is far more valuable than developing overly-specific fluency with a few of the latest.
So you want a nifty box and poster to look at while you listen to music? Ah, the lament for the joy of LP packaging, how I do not share your opinion on this one bit. Hey music industry... this guy here says how about NOT focusing more on packaging. Instead focus on making quality music.
I understand that to you, the packaging is part of the "experience", but not for me. In my opinion, the experience of music are those situations you are in while the music is playing and your reaction to it.
Packaging to me is simply a delivery vehicle. The classic albums from the 70s are simply examples of what marketing fucks would now call 'successful branding'. Contemporary industry has taken this to an extreme, which brings us the likes of madly successful fashion models who call themselves musicians. You're selling an image, and what the the music actually sounds like is not the primary concern. DO NOT WANT.
There's nothing wrong with wrapping music in visual art like some sort of media sandwich, but it is not necessary. You don't need to buy a soundtrack to accompany a framed print, for example, however good each is.
And you can always buy things like attractive stickers, posters, nifty spinning gizmos, and clever boxes elsewhere, then enjoy them while you're listening to music. But aside from any previously unheard tracks, all you're paying for with these special editions is a neat-o box.
Just keep in mind that all of those physical things aren't music, not even the record itself. The music is the noise. And I'd as soon they ship anything that needs shipping in the kind of no-frills box that the White Album came in, rather than see more uniquely-shaped triptych boxes with a 45-page mini designer mag that uses cool fonts and layout.
If you are willing to go with a slightly lesser 8600GTS model, here's a passively-cooled card that I put into my quiet machine last month. FWIW, I get decent frame rates on Oblivion (running on WINE) w/ high quality settings. I hesitate to post a product link/shill for a company, but then again you did ask.
My plan is to wait until these drop below $100, then get another for a silent SLI configuration.
MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256EZ HD GeForce 8600GTS 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
While the construction funding may be mostly private, the lines do use a lot of public real estate.
If you wanted to top thousands of poles and towers with solar panels to sell power to your closest friends, you would not be able to place a thousand poles along ANY public street, let alone ALL public streets.
Well obviously I'm not too polite to name names, but will stop guessing. It's encouraging to hear of a savvy law library operation, and I've certainly encountered many myself.
Frankly I think a lot of the tech knowledge lag I've encountered in librarians is generational. That is, it is type of cynicism developed after a decade or two of wasting time and resources on overly-hyped tech developments that fizzled after a few short years.
An understandable reaction, especially if it has negatively affected an organization's budget, but I think that this can result/has resulted in professionals disregarding essential technologies along with the chaff.
I assume you're speaking of Donna Purvis and the Libraries without Borders conference in Ontario last week. As a California law librarian myself, I am one of her regional peers. I do not know where you may have received the information that she is considered "on the cutting edge" but that is simply not accurate as to how she is regarded by her peers. Purvis may be an accomplished manager, but is certainly not known as any sort of a tech whiz. Sometimes managerial and people skills can provide opportunities to thoroughly demonstrate your tech incompetence to a skilled audience.
Your conclusions may (or may not) be accurate, but it is certainly inaccurate to generalize from interactions with librarians --particularly those attending library/IT conferences. In my experience, librarians in general are as fluent with technology as, say, teachers in public schools. A few are very much so, most of them about as fluent as an average Dell customer, and an unfortunately large portion are absolute luddites.
I had one once tell me in absolute seriousness that, if I were having problems with a certain catalog link, I may need to "click harder". She then demonstrated that she in fact meant, press harder on the mouse button. This librarian had previously been in charge of the purchase of an ILS for a the library for an certain branch of the state government, and was subsequently put in charge of the development said library's web site. Sigh.
(BTW -- I'm sorry to hear of the condescending nationality slights. Raised very near the Canadian border, my accent is often mistaken for a Canadian one, and I've been the object of boorish behavior on occasion, only and always from fellow US citizens. Bigotry corresponds positively to a limited intellect.)
Appropriately geeked by the prospect of LinuxBIOS and OpenBIOS, I recently picked up the first AM2 desktop mobo supported by LinuxBIOS, the Gigabyte M57SLI-S4. Now the MSI K9N-Neo has been added, and I hope to see more recent sockets & chipsets on the supported mobos.
I thought I'd done my homework, too, but wasn't as thorough as required. Replacing proprietary BIOS with LinuxBIOS is more than simply flashing the BIOS.
The Gigabyte M57SLI-S4 has one of two types of BIOS chips, determined by the revision. I was unable to get the revision type from my vendor before purchase, and wound up with the more difficult (and more recent) version. While this motherboard has the space for an additional BIOS chip, both revisions require hardware modification of the sort that includes soldering either a socket (if you're lucky and got the 'easy' revision) or a chip onto your motherboard (among other things.)
I'm very excited at the future possibilities for LinuxBIOS and OpenBIOS. But in reality, at this point and on this mobo, LinuxBIOS on the desktop requires precision soldering. While I'm not adverse to developing this skill, getting a LinuxBIOS desktop will take more time (and hardware) than I initially realized.
There's solid documentation that, right before he was assassinated, Abraham Lincoln had a dream that certainly seems like a premonition of his own death.
There are also documented accounts of a person having a panic attack watching the launch of the Titanic, insisting that it was going to sink.
There are also a lot of lesser examples of various degrees of veracity where, for example, a mother immediately "knew" of the death of her child, and was correct.
I do know know how one could conduct an ethical, controlled experiment to test for this particular sort of thing. Still, these stories are certainly uncanny and are difficult to explain with what we know of the physical senses.
You are free to dispute the accuracy of the accounts, of course.
I like this idea. As long as these incentives are based on chosen behaviors over which a person has control and not genetic predispositions which you can't do anything about, here here.
Now about you parents: I know you love your kids. That's great, you really should. Those little buggers sure are expensive though, aren't they? So expensive in fact that a lot of my money goes to support programs for your kids.
I know that this is supposed to be an investment, because your little darlings will eventually become productive members of society whose value outweighs the tax dollars I "gave" to your spawn. There are some of you whose kids will turn into time-wasting, no-good, Slashdot-reading drains on society whose sedentary and antisocial lifestyles will cause at least as much in the way of social problems as their efforts will offset.
So here's the deal. If you choose to have kids and they turn out to be sociopaths, felons, bad drivers, or celebrities than all future earnings of both you and your kids will be garnished in full. If you chose not to add to the strain on our resources by not spawning your own genetic material, major tax break. (Alternately, we each get a chance to whack your screaming-on-the-airplane kid without getting arrested.)
These tax breaks will apply doubly to adoptive and foster parents.
This technique sounds like a subset of serial composition. In serial composition, a set (sometimes called a "row") is used to determine melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics, or other elements of the music.
In the simplest method, each of the DNA nucleotides A, C, T, and G can be assigned a specific musical note. The data stream of nucleotides can then be transcribed into a data stream of musical notes. Alternatively, the nucleotide sequence can first be decoded to an amino acid sequence, whereby the twenty amino acids can be each assigned to a specific musical note. Variations can be used to produce chords, to specify rhythms, tone, volume, to generate melodic music and harmonic music, and the like.
is a technique for composition that uses sets to describe musical elements, and allows the manipulation of those sets. Serialism is often, though not universally, held to begin with twelve-tone technique, which uses a set of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale to form a row (a nonrepeating arrangement of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale) as the unifying basis for a composition's melody, harmony, structural progressions, and variations. When not used synonymously, serialism differs from twelve-tone technique in that any number of elements from any musical dimension (called "parameters") may be ordered, such as duration, register, dynamics, or timbre.
Slashdot Mirror
I was introduced to membrane keyboards like that on the Atari 400 as a nipper on the Magnavox Odyssey game console. They probably wouldn't have been quite so useless if they hadn't tried to mimic the offset grid layout of a traditional keyboard. Something actually shaped like a hand would have been better.
Those keys require a different kind of touch; a squeezey pressure feel not analogous to the tappity used for full-stroke keys. You don't type, you press. Something with that kind of touch could be useful as, for example, keys inside of shoes and intended for your toes.
I'm with you on the insert key, but would have to use the mouse a lot more were it not for those other keys.
I find the Win and Menu keys tremendously useful, though I never did until I tried to do as much as possible with the keyboard. The Win key shortcuts are actually pretty useful (Win+d to toggle desktop, Win+e for explorer, etc.) I got so used to these at work that I map similar Win key shortcuts on my Linux desktop at home. Familiarity with it also comes in handy when you switch to a Mac keyboard; the command key is put to good use.
I'm ambivalent on the Num lock key. It's proved useful for me on keyboards with odd home/end/page up/page down/insert/delete layouts. And I never found much use for those keys until I got familiar with VI, but now would rather use them than the mouse.
I have an older IBM keyboard that would be perfect were it not for the poor placement of the navigation keys. Num lock is useless and redundant however when the arrow/nav/ins keys are well-placed and right next to the num pad.
Eh, wouldn't work. All a hypothetical hijacker would have to do is wait for everyone else to use their Taser on the relentlessly screaming kid in coach and/or his embarrassed parent.
That's not true! USB 2.0 requires gold-plated contacts for maximum bus fidelity. Monster makes a good USB 2.0 cable, and it goes for a steal at $79.99 per cable.
If you put the 2.0 cables in the freezer to align the molecules before you use them you get even better bus response. All of my devices have this warmer, more human feel when I'm using properly-designed cables.
Screw the security line. I'll be fine if you let everyone bring blades, bombs, and shampoo if you just let us have parachutes for each seat.
Seriously, we're facing the possibility of falling tens of thousands of feet and we each get a FLOATING SEAT CUSHION?!?!
I will sleep soundly on a plane the day I can strap on a parachute. Bombers snuck on board? Open the doors and jump out. Engine falling off? Ice on the wings? Arrogant pilots? Exploding tanks? Terrorists? Parachute has me covered, baby. The disabled and children get ejection seats with attached parachutes.
At least with an airline-approved parachute, I won't have to risk the James Bond-style guided freefall into the enemy who actually HAS the parachute. I've never liked the odds that a skydiver would be hurtling past at precisely the same time I need to make a quick evacuation from an airliner.
Alternative idea: several very large parachutes for the plane itself.
It's an interesting phenomenon, but by no means is it a new one. This is basic human nature. What you describe is social order being enforced on a small scale.
Those that dominate a peer group will encourage attributes at which they excel, and discourage those where they fall short. Your ghetto-kids example is one where the leaders of a peer group are not skilled at academic & intellectual pursuits, but are very much skilled when it comes to applying cultural image in a social context. The leaders display the qualities most revered in their limited circle. They don't even have to be the hardest to crack down on intelligence; they can train their 'lieutenants' to enforce the status quo. If all of a sudden, being the dominant peer wasn't based on how much you conformed to ghetto ideal but to how well you did in class, the leadership would be overthrown.
This is rebellion-control 101. Iron-fist, brutal, manipulative despots --like in Chairman Mao's in his 'thousand flowers' campaign where intellectuals were flushed out and systematically destroyed for one of countless examples-- treat intellectuals with similar brutality. You can see this from the small groups that kids forms to entire nations and religions. Skills that conflict with those of the leaders, if they cannot be harnessed and used, will be attacked.
This isn't restricted to intellectuals, mind you. There are other types of intelligence; and kinetic intelligence (athletic skill, be it in sports or dance) is one. Social grace is another. Note how often, in 'nerdier' groups where peers have academic skills but could use work on physical, athletic skills are often discouraged and disparaged. Dumb jock jokes are a way to enforce this particular status quo.
If possible, people will eventually move to and within social circles where their particular skills are valued. If they survive high school, anyway.
I hear you.
But "hundreds of other countries"??? I believe there are currently only ~194 countries, depending on what you count.
Whoops. Original post and several edits said "blocked because of too much whitespace." Apparently it wasn't.
Ah, bills. The legislative equivalent of TFA -- no one bothers to read them. Once again, an article about an act of Congress that doesn't even bother including a bill #, or even the proper short title. Why not just refer to it as "that there new energy bill done passed by them there politicians"?
The section discussed here is about as long as TFA. It's 9021 of HR 3221 ("Short Titles.--This Act may be cited as the ``New Direction for
Energy Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act'')
(http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.182&filename=h3221eh.txt&directory=/diska/wais/data/110_cong_bills,
In it, you can see that the only bans are based on efficiency standards, not type of manufacture. For example, 100 watt lamps that do not provide 60 lumens/watt or better are banned. Issues of color spectrum are anticipated and basic measures put into place.
Now if we could apply this method to fuel efficiency we'd actually start making a dent.
A snip:
PART 2--LIGHTING EFFICIENCY
SEC. 9021. EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS.
(a) Prohibition.--
(1) Regulations.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall issue regulations--
(A) prohibiting the sale of 100 watt general service incandescent lamps after January 1, 2012, unless those lamps emit at least 60 lumens per watt;
(B) prohibiting the sale of general service lamps manufactured after the effective dates shown in the table below that do not meet the minimum efficacy levels (lumens/watt) shown in the following table:
Lumen Range (Lumens/Watt) Effective Dates
200-449 15 1/1/2014
450-699 17 1/1/2014
700-999 20 1/1/2013
1000-1500 22 1/1/2012
1501-3000 24 1/1/2012
(C) after January 1, 2020, prohibiting the sale of general service lamps that emit less than 300 percent of the average lumens per watt emitted by 100 watt incandescent general service lamps that are commercially available as of the date of enactment of this Act;
(D) establishing a minimum color rendering index (CRI) of 80 or higher for all general service lamps manufactured as of the effective dates in subparagraph (B); and
(E) prohibiting the manufacture or import for sale in the United States of an adapter device designed to allow a lamp with a different base to fit into a medium screw base socket manufactured after January 1, 2009.
(2) Exemptions.--The regulations issued under paragraph (1) shall include procedures for the Secretary to exempt specialty lamps from the requirements of paragraph (1)....t
Ah, bills. The legislative equivalent of TFA -- no one bothers to read them. Once again, an article about an act of Congress that doesn't even bother including a bill #, or even the proper short title. Why not just refer to it as "that there new energy bill done passed by them there politicians"?
The section discussed here is about as long as TFA. It's 9021 of HR 3221 ("Short Titles.--This Act may be cited as the ``New Direction for
Energy Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act'')
(http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.182&filename=h3221eh.txt&directory=/diska/wais/data/110_cong_bills,
In it, you can see that the only bans are based on efficiency standards, not type of manufacture. For example, 100 watt lamps that do not provide 60 lumens/watt or better are banned. Issues of color spectrum are anticipated and basic measures put into place.
Now if we could apply this method to fuel efficiency we'd actually start making a dent.
Relevant excerpts:
PART 2--LIGHTING EFFICIENCY
SEC. 9021. EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS.
(a) Prohibition.--
(1) Regulations.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall issue regulations--
(A) prohibiting the sale of 100 watt general service incandescent lamps after January 1, 2012, unless those lamps emit at least 60 lumens per watt;
(B) prohibiting the sale of general service lamps manufactured after the effective dates shown in the table below that do not meet the minimum efficacy levels (lumens/watt) shown in the following table:
Lumen Range (Lumens/Watt) Effective Dates
200-449 15 1/1/2014
450-699 17 1/1/2014
700-999 20 1/1/2013
1000-1500 22 1/1/2012
1501-3000 24 1/1/2012
(C) after January 1, 2020, prohibiting the sale of general service lamps that emit less than 300 percent of the average lumens per watt emitted by 100 watt incandescent general service lamps that are commercially available as of the date of enactment of this Act;
(D) establishing a minimum color rendering index (CRI) of 80 or higher for all general service lamps manufactured as of the effective dates in subparagraph (B); and
(E) prohibiting the manufacture or import for sale in the United States of an adapter device designed to allow a lamp with a different base to fit into a medium screw base socket manufactured after January 1, 2009.
(2) Exemptions.--The regulations issued under paragraph (1) shall include procedures for the Secretary to exempt specialty lamps from the requirements of paragraph (1). The Secretary may provide such an exemption only in cases where the Secretary finds, after a hearing and opportunity for public comment, that it is not technically feasible to serve a specialized lighting application, such as a military, medical, public safety
application, or in certified historic lighting applications using bulbs that meet the requirements of paragraph (1). In addition, the Secretary shall include as an additional criterion that exempted products are unlikely to be used in the general service lighting applications.
(3) Additional lamps types.--
(A) Manufacturers of rough service, vibration service, vibration resistant, appliance, shatter resistant, and three-way lamps shall report annual
sales volume to the Secretary. If the Secretary determines that annual sales volume for any of these lamp types increases by 100 percent relative to 2009 sales in any later year, then such lamps shall by subject to the following standards:
(i) Appliance lamps shall use no more than 40 watts.
(ii) Rough service lamps shall use no more
Ah, bills. The legislative equivalent of TFA -- no one bothers to read them. Once again, an article about an act of Congress that doesn't even bother including a bill #, or even the proper short title. Why not just refer to it as "that there new energy bill done passed by them there politicians"? The section discussed here is about as long as TFA. It's 9021 of HR 3221 ("Short Titles.--This Act may be cited as the ``New Direction for Energy Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act'') (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.182&filename=h3221eh.txt&directory=/diska/wais/data/110_cong_bills, In it, you can see that the only bans are based on efficiency standards, not type of manufacture. For example, 100 watt lamps that do not provide 60 lumens/watt or better are banned. Issues of color spectrum are anticipated and basic measures put into place. Now if we could apply this method to fuel efficiency we'd actually start making a dent. A snip: PART 2--LIGHTING EFFICIENCY SEC. 9021. EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS. (a) Prohibition.-- (1) Regulations.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall issue regulations-- (A) prohibiting the sale of 100 watt general service incandescent lamps after January 1, 2012, unless those lamps emit at least 60 lumens per watt; (B) prohibiting the sale of general service lamps manufactured after the effective dates shown in the table below that do not meet the minimum efficacy levels (lumens/watt) shown in the following table: Lumen Range (Lumens/Watt) Effective Dates 200-449 15 1/1/2014 450-699 17 1/1/2014 700-999 20 1/1/2013 1000-1500 22 1/1/2012 1501-3000 24 1/1/2012 (C) after January 1, 2020, prohibiting the sale of general service lamps that emit less than 300 percent of the average lumens per watt emitted by 100 watt incandescent general service lamps that are commercially available as of the date of enactment of this Act; (D) establishing a minimum color rendering index (CRI) of 80 or higher for all general service lamps manufactured as of the effective dates in subparagraph (B); and (E) prohibiting the manufacture or import for sale in the United States of an adapter device designed to allow a lamp with a different base to fit into a medium screw base socket manufactured after January 1, 2009. (2) Exemptions.--The regulations issued under paragraph (1) shall include procedures for the Secretary to exempt specialty lamps from the requirements of paragraph (1)....
Ah, bills. The legislative equivalent of TFA -- no one bothers to read them. Once again, an article about an act of Congress that doesn't even bother including a bill #, or even the proper short title. Why not just refer to it as "that there new energy bill done passed by them there politicians"?
The section discussed here is about as long as TFA. It's 9021 of HR 3221 ("Short Titles.--This Act may be cited as the ``New Direction for
Energy Independence, National Security, and Consumer Protection Act'')
(http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=162.140.64.182&filename=h3221eh.txt&directory=/diska/wais/data/110_cong_bills,
In it, you can see that the only bans are based on efficiency standards, not type of manufacture. For example, 100 watt lamps that do not provide 60 lumens/watt or better are banned. Issues of color spectrum are anticipated and basic measures put into place.
Now if we could apply this method to fuel efficiency we'd actually start making a dent.
Relevant excerpts:
PART 2--LIGHTING EFFICIENCY
SEC. 9021. EFFICIENT LIGHT BULBS.
(a) Prohibition.--
(1) Regulations.--Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall issue regulations--
(A) prohibiting the sale of 100 watt general service incandescent lamps after January 1, 2012, unless those lamps emit at least 60 lumens per watt;
(B) prohibiting the sale of general service lamps manufactured after the effective dates shown in the table below that do not meet the minimum efficacy levels (lumens/watt) shown in the following table:
Minimum Efficacy Levels and Effective Dates
Minimum Efficacy
Lumen Range (Lumens/Watt) Effective Dates
200-449 15 1/1/2014
450-699 17 1/1/2014
700-999 20 1/1/2013
1000-1500 22 1/1/2012
1501-3000 24 1/1/2012
(C) after January 1, 2020, prohibiting the sale of general service lamps that emit less than 300 percent of the average lumens per watt emitted by 100 watt incandescent general service lamps that are commercially available as of the date of enactment of this Act;
(D) establishing a minimum color rendering index (CRI) of 80 or higher for all general service lamps manufactured as of the effective dates in subparagraph (B); and
(E) prohibiting the manufacture or import for sale in the United States of an adapter device designed to allow a lamp with a different base to fit into a medium screw base socket manufactured after January 1, 2009.
(2) Exemptions.--The regulations issued under paragraph (1) shall include procedures for the Secretary to exempt specialty lamps from the requirements of paragraph (1). The Secretary may provide such an exemption only in cases where the Secretary finds, after a hearing and opportunity for public comment, that it is not technically feasible to serve a specialized lighting application, such as a military, medical, public safety
application, or in certified historic lighting applications using bulbs that meet the requirements of paragraph (1). In addition, the Secretary shall include as an additional criterion that exempted products are unlikely to be used in the general service lighting applications.
(3) Additional lamps types.--
(A) Manufacturers of rough service, vibration service, vibration resistant, appliance, shatter resistant, and three-way lamps shall report annual
sales volume to the Se
Before the 20th century musicians made their money by performing. During the 20th century many musicians made their money by recording music. After the advent of the internet musicians will once again make their money by performing and use their recordings as advertising (as everybody but the RIAA bands do now).
Eh, that's not quite so.
Before the 20th century, it is unlikely that musicians did not make the bulk of their money by performing. Historically, it would appear that publishing and commissions were far more lucrative.
Live music performances were far more common before the 1900s than they are now, odd though that may seem. Contemporary club venues and cover charges were not the prevalent model of live performance at that time. Chamber, church, and open public performances were more common, not to mention the standard evening's entertainment around the piano. There were operas and symphony concerts of course, but the structure of these performances wasn't exactly analogous to modern opera and symphony. And there would be very little similarity to catching your favorite band at a show as you can today.
It's not in the link below, but I believe the first song to sell a million copies sold was in the 1820's. Many of the biggest composers lived at the mercy of support from various royal courts; getting a job as a court composer was how one made it really big, like Mozart. Alternately, birth into a wealthy family (Mendelssohn) was another route.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_music_publishing
-The Car Analogy (obligatory): take to mechanic for repair, leave illegal material in an unlocked glovebox. Fuses are in the glovebox, mechanic finds illegal material. Arrested, trail court dismisses on evidentiary grounds, prosecution appeal currently pending. Al Sharpton somehow becomes involved in media coverage.
-The Kitchen Appliance Analogy: take mini fridge in for repair. Leave severed hand of (former) roommate in freezer. Hand is found when test of ice cube tray attempted. Convicted to 30 year sentence, paroled in 9 years. Begin anew with career as tech security consultant.
-The Post Office Analogy: Take large, heavy package to post office. Deliver using media mail rate, the cheapest shipping option. Miss sign claiming that any media mail package is subject to inspection by any PO employee. Box is lined with child pornography. Arrested, sentenced in federal court, killed in prison after 2 years.
-The 19th Century Tech Analogy: take daguerreotype plates in for annual silver halide tune up and focus lens coal-cloth polishing. Leave illegal woodcuts of "ladies of the night" wearing bloomers and baring arms and shoulders(!) underneath stack of plates. Illegal woodcuts & etchings located when technician reaches bottom of stack. Immediately jailed, lynched by angry torch-bearing mob by evening. Grave marker doubles consonants and adds "e"s to the ends of first and last names.
Great points, and well said.
Hate crimes are assaults not only on individuals, but on larger communities. Arguments against hate crime legislation only work as long as you stay squarely in the realm of euphemisms.
There's a difference between, for example, (1) attacking some guy outside a bar because your egos clash, and (2) attacking some guy outside a gay-Mexican-christian bar because you thought he was gay-Mexican-christian, while screaming that all gay-Mexican-christians must die.
The second one is worse, causes more harm than the first, and SHOULD be treated more harshly.
Yes, it is worth it to use open-source alternatives. It's a waste of opportunity when a course that is actually a training course for specific applications is misnamed with a more general term. I remember way back when taking an 'digital composition' university course that was by all rights simply several weeks of Finale! training.
Not only is open source entirely suitable for an academic environment, but any interface shortcomings will allow/force you to focus on the actual fundamentals of, as you put it, multimedia. (I didn't see any audio app mentioned.)
Which course would be more useful in the long run: one that focuses on the novelty features and interface of the latest commercial applications, or one that focuses on the design process in general and treats the apps as the tools they are rather than main focus of the course? Learning how to learn unfamiliar applications is far more valuable than developing overly-specific fluency with a few of the latest.
So you want a nifty box and poster to look at while you listen to music? Ah, the lament for the joy of LP packaging, how I do not share your opinion on this one bit. Hey music industry... this guy here says how about NOT focusing more on packaging. Instead focus on making quality music.
I understand that to you, the packaging is part of the "experience", but not for me. In my opinion, the experience of music are those situations you are in while the music is playing and your reaction to it.
Packaging to me is simply a delivery vehicle. The classic albums from the 70s are simply examples of what marketing fucks would now call 'successful branding'. Contemporary industry has taken this to an extreme, which brings us the likes of madly successful fashion models who call themselves musicians. You're selling an image, and what the the music actually sounds like is not the primary concern. DO NOT WANT.
There's nothing wrong with wrapping music in visual art like some sort of media sandwich, but it is not necessary. You don't need to buy a soundtrack to accompany a framed print, for example, however good each is.
And you can always buy things like attractive stickers, posters, nifty spinning gizmos, and clever boxes elsewhere, then enjoy them while you're listening to music. But aside from any previously unheard tracks, all you're paying for with these special editions is a neat-o box.
Just keep in mind that all of those physical things aren't music, not even the record itself. The music is the noise. And I'd as soon they ship anything that needs shipping in the kind of no-frills box that the White Album came in, rather than see more uniquely-shaped triptych boxes with a 45-page mini designer mag that uses cool fonts and layout.
If you are willing to go with a slightly lesser 8600GTS model, here's a passively-cooled card that I put into my quiet machine last month. FWIW, I get decent frame rates on Oblivion (running on WINE) w/ high quality settings. I hesitate to post a product link/shill for a company, but then again you did ask.
My plan is to wait until these drop below $100, then get another for a silent SLI configuration.
MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256EZ HD GeForce 8600GTS 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127287
While the construction funding may be mostly private, the lines do use a lot of public real estate.
If you wanted to top thousands of poles and towers with solar panels to sell power to your closest friends, you would not be able to place a thousand poles along ANY public street, let alone ALL public streets.
It adds up to a lot of real estate.
Well obviously I'm not too polite to name names, but will stop guessing. It's encouraging to hear of a savvy law library operation, and I've certainly encountered many myself.
Frankly I think a lot of the tech knowledge lag I've encountered in librarians is generational. That is, it is type of cynicism developed after a decade or two of wasting time and resources on overly-hyped tech developments that fizzled after a few short years.
An understandable reaction, especially if it has negatively affected an organization's budget, but I think that this can result/has resulted in professionals disregarding essential technologies along with the chaff.
I assume you're speaking of Donna Purvis and the Libraries without Borders conference in Ontario last week. As a California law librarian myself, I am one of her regional peers. I do not know where you may have received the information that she is considered "on the cutting edge" but that is simply not accurate as to how she is regarded by her peers. Purvis may be an accomplished manager, but is certainly not known as any sort of a tech whiz. Sometimes managerial and people skills can provide opportunities to thoroughly demonstrate your tech incompetence to a skilled audience.
Your conclusions may (or may not) be accurate, but it is certainly inaccurate to generalize from interactions with librarians --particularly those attending library/IT conferences. In my experience, librarians in general are as fluent with technology as, say, teachers in public schools. A few are very much so, most of them about as fluent as an average Dell customer, and an unfortunately large portion are absolute luddites.
I had one once tell me in absolute seriousness that, if I were having problems with a certain catalog link, I may need to "click harder". She then demonstrated that she in fact meant, press harder on the mouse button. This librarian had previously been in charge of the purchase of an ILS for a the library for an certain branch of the state government, and was subsequently put in charge of the development said library's web site. Sigh.
(BTW -- I'm sorry to hear of the condescending nationality slights. Raised very near the Canadian border, my accent is often mistaken for a Canadian one, and I've been the object of boorish behavior on occasion, only and always from fellow US citizens. Bigotry corresponds positively to a limited intellect.)
Appropriately geeked by the prospect of LinuxBIOS and OpenBIOS, I recently picked up the first AM2 desktop mobo supported by LinuxBIOS, the Gigabyte M57SLI-S4. Now the MSI K9N-Neo has been added, and I hope to see more recent sockets & chipsets on the supported mobos.
http://linuxbios.org/index.php/Supported_Motherboards
I thought I'd done my homework, too, but wasn't as thorough as required. Replacing proprietary BIOS with LinuxBIOS is more than simply flashing the BIOS.
The Gigabyte M57SLI-S4 has one of two types of BIOS chips, determined by the revision. I was unable to get the revision type from my vendor before purchase, and wound up with the more difficult (and more recent) version. While this motherboard has the space for an additional BIOS chip, both revisions require hardware modification of the sort that includes soldering either a socket (if you're lucky and got the 'easy' revision) or a chip onto your motherboard (among other things.)
I'm very excited at the future possibilities for LinuxBIOS and OpenBIOS. But in reality, at this point and on this mobo, LinuxBIOS on the desktop requires precision soldering. While I'm not adverse to developing this skill, getting a LinuxBIOS desktop will take more time (and hardware) than I initially realized.
There's solid documentation that, right before he was assassinated, Abraham Lincoln had a dream that certainly seems like a premonition of his own death.
There are also documented accounts of a person having a panic attack watching the launch of the Titanic, insisting that it was going to sink.
There are also a lot of lesser examples of various degrees of veracity where, for example, a mother immediately "knew" of the death of her child, and was correct.
I do know know how one could conduct an ethical, controlled experiment to test for this particular sort of thing. Still, these stories are certainly uncanny and are difficult to explain with what we know of the physical senses.
You are free to dispute the accuracy of the accounts, of course.
I like this idea. As long as these incentives are based on chosen behaviors over which a person has control and not genetic predispositions which you can't do anything about, here here.
Now about you parents: I know you love your kids. That's great, you really should. Those little buggers sure are expensive though, aren't they? So expensive in fact that a lot of my money goes to support programs for your kids.
I know that this is supposed to be an investment, because your little darlings will eventually become productive members of society whose value outweighs the tax dollars I "gave" to your spawn. There are some of you whose kids will turn into time-wasting, no-good, Slashdot-reading drains on society whose sedentary and antisocial lifestyles will cause at least as much in the way of social problems as their efforts will offset.
So here's the deal. If you choose to have kids and they turn out to be sociopaths, felons, bad drivers, or celebrities than all future earnings of both you and your kids will be garnished in full. If you chose not to add to the strain on our resources by not spawning your own genetic material, major tax break. (Alternately, we each get a chance to whack your screaming-on-the-airplane kid without getting arrested.)
These tax breaks will apply doubly to adoptive and foster parents.
This technique sounds like a subset of serial composition. In serial composition, a set (sometimes called a "row") is used to determine melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics, or other elements of the music.
T O1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fs rchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7247782.PN.&OS=PN/72477 82&RS=PN/7247782
...with serial composition (aka serialism)
Compare the language of the patent
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=P
In the simplest method, each of the DNA nucleotides A, C, T, and G can be assigned a specific musical note. The data stream of nucleotides can then be transcribed into a data stream of musical notes. Alternatively, the nucleotide sequence can first be decoded to an amino acid sequence, whereby the twenty amino acids can be each assigned to a specific musical note. Variations can be used to produce chords, to specify rhythms, tone, volume, to generate melodic music and harmonic music, and the like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serialism
is a technique for composition that uses sets to describe musical elements, and allows the manipulation of those sets. Serialism is often, though not universally, held to begin with twelve-tone technique, which uses a set of the 12 notes of the chromatic scale to form a row (a nonrepeating arrangement of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale) as the unifying basis for a composition's melody, harmony, structural progressions, and variations. When not used synonymously, serialism differs from twelve-tone technique in that any number of elements from any musical dimension (called "parameters") may be ordered, such as duration, register, dynamics, or timbre.