Still, it would only double the useful life of the lens since it can only heal once in any given location.
That would only be true if you use your glasses until the entire surface area is scratched.
or if you only tolerate a single defect and usually get your scratches in the same area....
On a more practical turn, they're only healing razor thin scratches for now, I imagine one good drag across with a grain of sand would make an unhealable cut.
I agree that it would be more useful on glasses than on a monitor... Still, it would only double the useful life of the lens since it can only heal once in any given location.
The current tech is only good for one healing cycle, can't fix a scratch in the same place twice. Also, it needs fairly strong UV to activate, not likely in most geek-dens.
If I understand the enthusiasm properly, the material could be kept within a static magnetic field (such as found in your average, garden variety medical MRI unit), and energy could be stored and retrieved by directly applying voltages... like a capacitor, except the storage occurs in magnetic spins instead of electric fields. Then removing the charging voltage, the spin energy is slowly released in the form of electrical energy, again similar to a capacitor, but slower.
They're also doing this really really small, so it might be very interesting for nano-machines designed to operate inside an MRI or similar environment.
I doubt that... I imagine they were slapping it together in their free time, just trying to get something reasonably complete, rather than refining the ideas in committee for a year before executing to the highest possible standards.
The tools are getting better, and easier to use, and cheaper, but the thought processes required to tell an interesting story succinctly and entertainingly still cost time and effort, even if you're a pro.
I guess that's the real key... a market for the free stuff will always exist, something to do with the cost = demand/supply relationship... supply will always be > 0, and when cost approaches 0, there's some demand, somewhere on the internet.
I played a horridly crude PBEM MMOG (Play by E-mail, one turn per week), for a few months in 1996-ish, and it was relatively entertaining due to the other players input to the game.
The free stuff lacks polish mostly because polish doesn't feed the ego the way broad strokes do - who wants to spend 3000 hours refining 3D models of 45 character types, or even some part thereof, if they're not getting paid for it? I'd expect some neat new "broad strokes" ideas like Second Life to emerge every couple of years, and tons of half finished "I can do that too" projects.
I'm sure someone will get paid big bucks to make a solution, but it sure sounds like space debris is quickly becoming a problem. Maybe it's just coincidence, though.
Just clean it up with water. What could be easier?
What I see is "potential for greatness" - the musical quality is almost adequate, the production value stinks (saturated, crackly re-digitization artifacts, muddy, etc.) and the video is outright horrid.
But, if someone who actually knew how to use decent mixing and video clipping software put this kind of time and effort into some decent source material, it could be pretty killer.
Frankly, when my family photo/video slideshows come out this crappy, I delete them and start over. But, then, I don't put this much effort into the mixing and sequencing.
Regulatory oversight is not a laminar-flow process. Some things get passed through in a few weeks, others swirl in the Kafka inspired bureaucracy for years. Investors don't like the idea that the profits generated from their investment might be reaped by others - enough so that they'd rather not invest in the first place rather than potentially get disappointed at the outcome.
like in a rape case. I can easily seeing this being used as proof to validate the facebook profile being used against the victim. Look- she said she was feeling sexy and horny- *that* made it consensual.
Apparently you didn't get the date-rape brainwashing of the late 1980s... it doesn't matter how promiscuous someone acts, rape is rape.
If the officers don't even know what they think the person did, how the fuck is the DA going to find out?! The officers are the ones who are supposed to be telling him what happened!
If you've got a nutcase endangering people in assorted ways, arrest then decide can be a valid approach. If they can't decide what "legally" he did wrong by the time he calms down, then he should be kicked loose immediately.
If this happens repeatedly, the nutcase might have grounds for harassment charges... but with as many laws as we have on the books, I'm sure he was guilty of plenty to keep him locked up, even before he started acting nutty.
A police officer who jokes about beating people and planting evidence does not have the temperment or trustworthiness for the job.
True, but that doesn't stop police departments from hiring their like when they can't find better. They're supposed to screen these jokers out before they get a badge - but that doesn't always happen.
I think you are exaggerating about threats against the president. I spend the last 8 years threatening the last motherfucker in public forums and I was never tapped on the shoulder by Interpol.
There are only so many Secret Service agents to go around... you were on their list, but apparently not prioritized as a credible threat.
"An American police officer is a very risky job and comes with shitty hours, high divorce rate, and a paycheck that doesn't match."
The same could be said of the guy working at the QuikyMart. Do you treat them with the same 'respect' that you do the police?
If you don't, what does that say about you as a human being?
always prefix and end your conversations with "yes sir" and "no sir".
This has always baffled me about you Americans, you viciously and readily proclaim yourselves as a nation of citizens over state power and the freest people on earth, but every single time a thread like this comes up people say baffling things like the above. Why would you, a free and presumably upstanding citizen of the community call a public servant "Sir" - in a manner that's really a bit too close to groveling for comfort?
He's not just American, he's in Texas. You call your Daddy "sir" and your Mama "maam", same for your teachers, your elders, and anyone else who you might possibly consider doing something that they ask of you. Hell, you even call bums on the street "sir" just to make them feel better. If you don't call the officer "sir", he's going to assume that your mama is a crack whore and you've never had a daddy, and it's up to him to learn you some manners right now.
Traffic cases are actually a really good training ground for "real life."
The politeness applies, no BS, etc. These all help avoid a citation in the first place. When a citation is issued, you need to evaluate what it's really worth to fight it. If you've taken a number traffic cases to court (I've done about 6, I think), you find that the worst cases of "officer full of shit" usually, but not always, resolve with the officer not showing up.
Then there were the court cases, two or three of them I think, where justice was made a total mockery - the officer lied, distorted and otherwise did whatever it took to make their case in the strongest terms they could regardless of what actually happened. The judge in these cases was usually asleep, which also has something to do with why the officers didn't show up in the other cases - those judges actually seemed to be paying attention and doing some "judgement," with cases going both ways, the sleeper judges were 100% conviction machines - and don't tell me the cops don't know the difference before they decide to show in court or not.
So, if this is how "justice" works for driving, how different is it, really, when other things are at stake? This is why you need lawyers on your side with as much experience in "the system" as the cops, it's not about the rules, it's about how it actually works, and if you don't spend your life in the courthouse, you don't really have a clue.
Coral Gables Florida considers "carrying burglar tools" an arrestable offence. Like a screwdriver, or a spatula, or even a plastic credit card. It's up to the arresting officer to determine intent. Walking while looking like you can't afford to live in the neighborhood seems to be enough to trigger their profile, as is driving slowly in a car that isn't up to the neighborhood's "standards."
people aren't always going to follow the letter of the law but that at the same time it's not done in the name of malice.
Drunk drivers usually aren't being malicious...
Neither are New Years' celebrators who fire guns into the air - but they're all irresponsible assholes who sometimes kill people for little or no reason.
Murder is a pretty big thing to justify with low odds.
That defense actually WORKED? Sorry, but that is nothing more than "locker room talk". If silly bits and pieces like that are valid in court, then the idiotic judge just opened a massive can of worms. Nice precedent, asshole. No more joking on the internet because someone could take it seriously!
If you could record "locker room talk" on video tape and get it admitted as evidence, it would have the same effect. This cop was just dumb enough to broadcast his trash talk to the entire planet in easily printable format.
You can bet that prosecutors will use Facebook and other such "evidence" against defendants just like they used the unibomber's manifesto against him.
Maybe the field needs to be split somehow - big (say $100M) productions can pay for longer copyright. Maybe you get the first 5 years for free, then year 6 costs $100, year 7 costs $200, year 8 costs $400, 9-8, 10-16, 11-32, 12-64, 13-128, 14-256, 15-512, 16-$102,400, etc.
If something is still bringing in the big bucks 20 years after it was released, let the copyright stand, just kick back $1.6M to the government in return, hell, I'd be willing to let a _single_ work maintain copyright indefinitely if it continued to pay taxes on that scale.
The infinite copyright isn't there for the benefit of the author, it's there to feed the machine that produces, promotes and distributes the work. In short, it's there for Warner Brothers, Fox, and the rest of them to continue to profit from their back catalogs, and if the time limits start to run out on something that generates more revenue than it costs to lobby for a law change, guess who's going to lobby for a law change (again.)
I love the propaganda campaign that DVDs have been waging ever since their creation - no longer can you fast forward the FBI warning or the "infomercial" about piracy. How could all of that be viewed as anything other than an attempt at brainwashing the masses?
I've been working in IP based industry (medical devices) for 15+ years now. Without IP, the investors don't have confidence and the little companies can't get off the ground.
It's true that bigger companies bulk up patent portfolios just to play "mine is bigger than yours, now let's make a deal..." but the smaller companies would be worse off without some form of protection.
Having said that, it is waaaaaaaay too easy to get a patent lately. The last 15 years of precedent need to be wiped out and expectations reset regarding what isn't obvious, and also what constitutes prior art.
Slashdot Mirror
Nah, the Crysis sequel was qualified on a $700 system... from 15 years in the future.
Still, it would only double the useful life of the lens since it can only heal once in any given location.
That would only be true if you use your glasses until the entire surface area is scratched.
or if you only tolerate a single defect and usually get your scratches in the same area....
On a more practical turn, they're only healing razor thin scratches for now, I imagine one good drag across with a grain of sand would make an unhealable cut.
I agree that it would be more useful on glasses than on a monitor... Still, it would only double the useful life of the lens since it can only heal once in any given location.
The current tech is only good for one healing cycle, can't fix a scratch in the same place twice. Also, it needs fairly strong UV to activate, not likely in most geek-dens.
9.5 meters?! wide!?! that would be awesome.
If I understand the enthusiasm properly, the material could be kept within a static magnetic field (such as found in your average, garden variety medical MRI unit), and energy could be stored and retrieved by directly applying voltages... like a capacitor, except the storage occurs in magnetic spins instead of electric fields. Then removing the charging voltage, the spin energy is slowly released in the form of electrical energy, again similar to a capacitor, but slower.
They're also doing this really really small, so it might be very interesting for nano-machines designed to operate inside an MRI or similar environment.
Or not... the article is horribly vague.
These guys were doing their best
I doubt that... I imagine they were slapping it together in their free time, just trying to get something reasonably complete, rather than refining the ideas in committee for a year before executing to the highest possible standards.
The tools are getting better, and easier to use, and cheaper, but the thought processes required to tell an interesting story succinctly and entertainingly still cost time and effort, even if you're a pro.
that market can work.
I guess that's the real key... a market for the free stuff will always exist, something to do with the cost = demand/supply relationship... supply will always be > 0, and when cost approaches 0, there's some demand, somewhere on the internet.
I played a horridly crude PBEM MMOG (Play by E-mail, one turn per week), for a few months in 1996-ish, and it was relatively entertaining due to the other players input to the game.
The free stuff lacks polish mostly because polish doesn't feed the ego the way broad strokes do - who wants to spend 3000 hours refining 3D models of 45 character types, or even some part thereof, if they're not getting paid for it? I'd expect some neat new "broad strokes" ideas like Second Life to emerge every couple of years, and tons of half finished "I can do that too" projects.
I'm sure someone will get paid big bucks to make a solution, but it sure sounds like space debris is quickly becoming a problem. Maybe it's just coincidence, though.
Just clean it up with water. What could be easier?
What I see is "potential for greatness" - the musical quality is almost adequate, the production value stinks (saturated, crackly re-digitization artifacts, muddy, etc.) and the video is outright horrid.
But, if someone who actually knew how to use decent mixing and video clipping software put this kind of time and effort into some decent source material, it could be pretty killer.
Frankly, when my family photo/video slideshows come out this crappy, I delete them and start over. But, then, I don't put this much effort into the mixing and sequencing.
Regulatory oversight is not a laminar-flow process. Some things get passed through in a few weeks, others swirl in the Kafka inspired bureaucracy for years. Investors don't like the idea that the profits generated from their investment might be reaped by others - enough so that they'd rather not invest in the first place rather than potentially get disappointed at the outcome.
like in a rape case. I can easily seeing this being used as proof to validate the facebook profile being used against the victim. Look- she said she was feeling sexy and horny- *that* made it consensual.
Apparently you didn't get the date-rape brainwashing of the late 1980s... it doesn't matter how promiscuous someone acts, rape is rape.
If the officers don't even know what they think the person did, how the fuck is the DA going to find out?! The officers are the ones who are supposed to be telling him what happened!
If you've got a nutcase endangering people in assorted ways, arrest then decide can be a valid approach. If they can't decide what "legally" he did wrong by the time he calms down, then he should be kicked loose immediately.
If this happens repeatedly, the nutcase might have grounds for harassment charges... but with as many laws as we have on the books, I'm sure he was guilty of plenty to keep him locked up, even before he started acting nutty.
A police officer who jokes about beating people and planting evidence does not have the temperment or trustworthiness for the job.
True, but that doesn't stop police departments from hiring their like when they can't find better. They're supposed to screen these jokers out before they get a badge - but that doesn't always happen.
I think you are exaggerating about threats against the president. I spend the last 8 years threatening the last motherfucker in public forums and I was never tapped on the shoulder by Interpol.
There are only so many Secret Service agents to go around... you were on their list, but apparently not prioritized as a credible threat.
"An American police officer is a very risky job and comes with shitty hours, high divorce rate, and a paycheck that doesn't match." The same could be said of the guy working at the QuikyMart. Do you treat them with the same 'respect' that you do the police?
If you don't, what does that say about you as a human being?
always prefix and end your conversations with "yes sir" and "no sir".
This has always baffled me about you Americans, you viciously and readily proclaim yourselves as a nation of citizens over state power and the freest people on earth, but every single time a thread like this comes up people say baffling things like the above. Why would you, a free and presumably upstanding citizen of the community call a public servant "Sir" - in a manner that's really a bit too close to groveling for comfort?
He's not just American, he's in Texas. You call your Daddy "sir" and your Mama "maam", same for your teachers, your elders, and anyone else who you might possibly consider doing something that they ask of you. Hell, you even call bums on the street "sir" just to make them feel better. If you don't call the officer "sir", he's going to assume that your mama is a crack whore and you've never had a daddy, and it's up to him to learn you some manners right now.
Traffic cases are actually a really good training ground for "real life."
The politeness applies, no BS, etc. These all help avoid a citation in the first place. When a citation is issued, you need to evaluate what it's really worth to fight it. If you've taken a number traffic cases to court (I've done about 6, I think), you find that the worst cases of "officer full of shit" usually, but not always, resolve with the officer not showing up.
Then there were the court cases, two or three of them I think, where justice was made a total mockery - the officer lied, distorted and otherwise did whatever it took to make their case in the strongest terms they could regardless of what actually happened. The judge in these cases was usually asleep, which also has something to do with why the officers didn't show up in the other cases - those judges actually seemed to be paying attention and doing some "judgement," with cases going both ways, the sleeper judges were 100% conviction machines - and don't tell me the cops don't know the difference before they decide to show in court or not.
So, if this is how "justice" works for driving, how different is it, really, when other things are at stake? This is why you need lawyers on your side with as much experience in "the system" as the cops, it's not about the rules, it's about how it actually works, and if you don't spend your life in the courthouse, you don't really have a clue.
Coral Gables Florida considers "carrying burglar tools" an arrestable offence. Like a screwdriver, or a spatula, or even a plastic credit card. It's up to the arresting officer to determine intent. Walking while looking like you can't afford to live in the neighborhood seems to be enough to trigger their profile, as is driving slowly in a car that isn't up to the neighborhood's "standards."
people aren't always going to follow the letter of the law but that at the same time it's not done in the name of malice.
Drunk drivers usually aren't being malicious...
Neither are New Years' celebrators who fire guns into the air - but they're all irresponsible assholes who sometimes kill people for little or no reason.
Murder is a pretty big thing to justify with low odds.
That defense actually WORKED? Sorry, but that is nothing more than "locker room talk". If silly bits and pieces like that are valid in court, then the idiotic judge just opened a massive can of worms. Nice precedent, asshole. No more joking on the internet because someone could take it seriously!
If you could record "locker room talk" on video tape and get it admitted as evidence, it would have the same effect. This cop was just dumb enough to broadcast his trash talk to the entire planet in easily printable format.
You can bet that prosecutors will use Facebook and other such "evidence" against defendants just like they used the unibomber's manifesto against him.
Maybe the field needs to be split somehow - big (say $100M) productions can pay for longer copyright. Maybe you get the first 5 years for free, then year 6 costs $100, year 7 costs $200, year 8 costs $400, 9-8, 10-16, 11-32, 12-64, 13-128, 14-256, 15-512, 16-$102,400, etc.
If something is still bringing in the big bucks 20 years after it was released, let the copyright stand, just kick back $1.6M to the government in return, hell, I'd be willing to let a _single_ work maintain copyright indefinitely if it continued to pay taxes on that scale.
The infinite copyright isn't there for the benefit of the author, it's there to feed the machine that produces, promotes and distributes the work. In short, it's there for Warner Brothers, Fox, and the rest of them to continue to profit from their back catalogs, and if the time limits start to run out on something that generates more revenue than it costs to lobby for a law change, guess who's going to lobby for a law change (again.)
I love the propaganda campaign that DVDs have been waging ever since their creation - no longer can you fast forward the FBI warning or the "infomercial" about piracy. How could all of that be viewed as anything other than an attempt at brainwashing the masses?
I've been working in IP based industry (medical devices) for 15+ years now. Without IP, the investors don't have confidence and the little companies can't get off the ground.
It's true that bigger companies bulk up patent portfolios just to play "mine is bigger than yours, now let's make a deal..." but the smaller companies would be worse off without some form of protection.
Having said that, it is waaaaaaaay too easy to get a patent lately. The last 15 years of precedent need to be wiped out and expectations reset regarding what isn't obvious, and also what constitutes prior art.