The meter should have an LED that pulses at a rate equal to the rate of consumption (the pulses/kWh will be written on the meter near the LED). It's an easier programming exercise to measure this, but you have to continuously monitor it and can't just take snapshots.
If the meter is really old it might have a rotating disk with a mark on it. You still get a pulse, but the image-processing exercise isn't much simpler than reading the numbers.
The ultimate configurability comes from having an extensible application (e.g. emacs, sawfish). That way the power user can do what they damn-well please. Of course you still have the argument of how much to configuration to reveal directly to the "normal" user.
(Yes, it's purely a coincidence that both my examples use lisp-like languages, why are you looking at me that way ?)
I'm a long-time Gnome user and was quite dubious when I heard that Gnome 2.0 was going to simplify the configuration operations. Having used various 2.x versions for some size months I've realised that there is nothing I've missed. I've come to the conclusion that while there are a lot of useful configuration options you could put in there are also a lot that are useless or could be simplified (but seemed so cool at the time). I'm generally for configurability, but sometimes a good purge helps.
The problem is never finding a replacement technology, it's finding the time and money to replace the old technology. Even if you clone the 8086 you have to fit it into the same socket and then make sure it has the same power supply requirements, heat dissipation, height above the circuit board, doesn't hit a nearby component, etc, etc.
My experiment at work runs off a computer from ebay. Replacing the software and I/O hardware is the ideal solution, but would take far too much time, and time is scarcer than a NuBus Mac.
Now, I wonder why people continue to use non unique data as identification methods.
Because, in this case, it is too much effort to find the few people who have the same fingerprints as you and try and rip them off. More importantly, you can't feasibly choose a target and then find a match either.
Of course the problem with fingerprints is you only have one set, you can't use one form of identification somewhere that has to remain secure and another where you don't trust them so much. Not without an additional token, which ruins the "convenience" factor.
Well if you can't make the state then not being able to measure it isn't the problem:).
It's the same problem either way, writing or reading, you still want good signal to noise (although, arguably, since Shor's algorithm is probabilistic then a bit more noise on the output isn't as bad as a bit more noise on the input, but when they're both exponentially bad, who cares).
The technique used here (NMR) is probably the best understood way of doing quantum computing (a lot of the basics are dragged straight out of medical imaging technology). Unfortunately it has a very fundamental limitation: the initialisation phase scales exponentially. Everything else is practical, but for every qubit you add you need to add exponentially more molecules to your system. Since you start off with a "billion billion" molecules you get a good head start, but systems much beyond seven qubits become very difficult and anything practical is impossible.
Of course almost all current quantum computing schemes have fatal flaws and NMR is well ahead of everyone else (with the possible exception of ion trapping). However in most other schemes the flaws aren't fundamental (just really, really, difficult to fix).
Disclosure: I have worked on a competing quantum computing scheme (neutral atoms). It's crap too.
As someone who works with Bose-Einstein condensates all I can say is that I've never heard one sing. Since they're kept under vacuum I can't hear them scream either. Pity.
It's worse than that, you can build your state with 2^1000 bits of data, you can perform 2^1000 simulataneous calculations, but in the end you get one 1000 bit number and then you have to start again.
Most of the piece is oversimplified hype (more correctly known as bullshit).
In the security software game paranoia is everything. The problem here is that the obvious place to look for OpenSSH stuff (for people who are guessing) is openssh.org, not openssh.com. There is a good chance that this isn't a problem and that people who are looking will find the correct place, but what happens if openssh.org starts masquerading as the real openssh site and maybe hands out trojaned binaries or source ? Sure this can be done in many other ways, but this is the easiest. This announcement is an attempt to make sure that people know which one is "real" and to try and minimise the possibility of the above scenario happening.
Yeah, it's ridiculously paranoid, but thats the name of the game.
Having recently been professionally obliged to spend three days on a beach as part of a conference I can say without hesitation that it's all about fun and travel.
It's also a really good way to meet new people, but don't let that get in the way of having a good time.
Slashdot Mirror
The meter should have an LED that pulses at a rate equal to the rate of consumption (the pulses/kWh will be written on the meter near the LED). It's an easier programming exercise to measure this, but you have to continuously monitor it and can't just take snapshots.
If the meter is really old it might have a rotating disk with a mark on it. You still get a pulse, but the image-processing exercise isn't much simpler than reading the numbers.
Consider the facts:
:).
Congress authorised the use of the metric system in 1866.
The US signed the Treaty of the Meter in 1875.
Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act in 1975.
So clearly the US *is* on the metric system
The ultimate configurability comes from having an extensible application (e.g. emacs, sawfish). That way the power user can do what they damn-well please. Of course you still have the argument of how much to configuration to reveal directly to the "normal" user.
(Yes, it's purely a coincidence that both my examples use lisp-like languages, why are you looking at me that way ?)
I'm a long-time Gnome user and was quite dubious when I heard that Gnome 2.0 was going to simplify the configuration operations. Having used various 2.x versions for some size months I've realised that there is nothing I've missed. I've come to the conclusion that while there are a lot of useful configuration options you could put in there are also a lot that are useless or could be simplified (but seemed so cool at the time). I'm generally for configurability, but sometimes a good purge helps.
Even more damning is that the original XVID code is hand-coded assembly language.
(02/07/17 1.642)
...
[PATCH] PATCH: personality clashes
If only they were all that easy to fix
The problem is never finding a replacement technology, it's finding the time and money to replace the old technology. Even if you clone the 8086 you have to fit it into the same socket and then make sure it has the same power supply requirements, heat dissipation, height above the circuit board, doesn't hit a nearby component, etc, etc.
My experiment at work runs off a computer from ebay. Replacing the software and I/O hardware is the ideal solution, but would take far too much time, and time is scarcer than a NuBus Mac.
You'll be in even more trouble when the store wants a retinal scan as well. :)
Because, in this case, it is too much effort to find the few people who have the same fingerprints as you and try and rip them off. More importantly, you can't feasibly choose a target and then find a match either. Of course the problem with fingerprints is you only have one set, you can't use one form of identification somewhere that has to remain secure and another where you don't trust them so much. Not without an additional token, which ruins the "convenience" factor.
We had stacks of them in the lab I used to work in.
We called them "incremental height adjusters".
Very useful.
Well if you can't make the state then not being able to measure it isn't the problem :).
It's the same problem either way, writing or reading, you still want good signal to noise (although, arguably, since Shor's algorithm is probabilistic then a bit more noise on the output isn't as bad as a bit more noise on the input, but when they're both exponentially bad, who cares).
The technique used here (NMR) is probably the best understood way of doing quantum computing (a lot of the basics are dragged straight out of medical imaging technology). Unfortunately it has a very fundamental limitation: the initialisation phase scales exponentially. Everything else is practical, but for every qubit you add you need to add exponentially more molecules to your system. Since you start off with a "billion billion" molecules you get a good head start, but systems much beyond seven qubits become very difficult and anything practical is impossible.
Of course almost all current quantum computing schemes have fatal flaws and NMR is well ahead of everyone else (with the possible exception of ion trapping). However in most other schemes the flaws aren't fundamental (just really, really, difficult to fix).
Disclosure: I have worked on a competing quantum computing scheme (neutral atoms). It's crap too.
As someone who works with Bose-Einstein condensates all I can say is that I've never heard one sing. Since they're kept under vacuum I can't hear them scream either. Pity.
I always think of it as meaning eXPerimental.
It's worse than that, you can build your state with 2^1000 bits of data, you can perform 2^1000 simulataneous calculations, but in the end you get one 1000 bit number and then you have to start again.
Most of the piece is oversimplified hype (more correctly known as bullshit).
Just applying a decent strength RF field will burn out the circuit.
An antenna can always act as a reciever as well as a transmitter.
This is how some anti-shoplifting tags work (although most are magnetic) and applying a strong RF field is precisely how they're disabled.
This also suggests an interesting denial of service, if you can get the RF strength high enough from *outside* the building where they're being used.
And now we can all fear the day when the dog remembers where it buried it.
Experimental Aspects of BEC
This is actually a gratuitous plug for my groups homepage, but its worth a look.
In the security software game paranoia is everything. The problem here is that the obvious place to look for OpenSSH stuff (for people who are guessing) is openssh.org, not openssh.com. There is a good chance that this isn't a problem and that people who are looking will find the correct place, but what happens if openssh.org starts masquerading as the real openssh site and maybe hands out trojaned binaries or source ? Sure this can be done in many other ways, but this is the easiest. This announcement is an attempt to make sure that people know which one is "real" and to try and minimise the possibility of the above scenario happening.
Yeah, it's ridiculously paranoid, but thats the name of the game.
Having recently been professionally obliged to spend three days on a beach as part of a conference I can say without hesitation that it's all about fun and travel.
It's also a really good way to meet new people, but don't let that get in the way of having a good time.
Hey, we've still got another year to launch our spacecraft to Jupiter !
I will concede we're way behind schedule for the Big Brother big, but we're getting there.
As for space 1999, some predictions aren't worth it.
Cryptome seems to be keeping a running list of mirrors for this, LiVid and the like :
http://cryptome.org/dvd-free.htm
The last update was a few days ago though.