"The problem is, the bits are all coming out a kilometer away, and the printer’s down here at the other end, so how do we get the data to this thing?
So, we sat down one time and said, "So why don’t we make an optical link?" Because we looked at doing microwave, but those were only three megahertz, and you’ve got to get enough FCC permission to do that, even then. So the interesting thing is there are no communications regulations on through-the-air optical communications. As long as the beam power doesn’t destroy things. [Laughter] We built something called a SLOT POLOS , which is the PARC On-Line Office System, Jeanie certainly would probably remember that, so SLOT POLOS On-Line Optical Link. And how do you do this?
Well, I went to my friends Edmund again -- I’ll get free catalogs for the rest of my life [laughter] -- and basically bought four astronomical telescopes. These are just simple Newtonian reflectors. And put two in a box at the 3180 building, on the roof, and two on the roof of Building 34. I put a photomultiplier at the focus of one, and a laser at the focus of the other, and we had a full-duplex optical link running at 30 megabits a second. We used helium-neon for two reasons. First of all, relatively inexpensive -- accousto-optic modulators to turn it on and off. And by using visible light, there was only one risk: fog was a bad thing, because you couldn’t see through fog. On the other hand, if you used infrared, you couldn’t go through rain but you could go through fog. So, made a back-of-the-envelope judgment that rain was probably going to be more prevalent than fog, and went with the visible. It was a good choice, because I think we were only down one day due to fog, in the one year that this system was up."
It would be more interesting if the (i)Phone gave you options in real life. E.g., "You had a fight with your girlfriend. Do you 1.)Post a rant on Facebook (click here) or 2.) Order her flowers (click here). Each click would perform the request (post a rant or buy flowers) and lead you to the next step in your adventure. Your entire life could be driven by phone-led decisions about what to do (and buy)!
Do you:
1.) Mod up (click here)
2.) Wish you had a girlfriend instead (click here)
One time I was staying at a not-so-cheap hotel in upstate UK. The hotel offered a choice of breakfasts: Continental or Full, with about a US$10 price difference. Each day I chose a breakfast, changing based on mood and hunger, about splitting the choices evenly through my 5 day stay. (I was attending a conference at the same hotel)
The waiter took my selection and room number each day. Upon checkout, I found they had charged me (and everyone else) for the Full breakfast everyday. I asked them why and they said they assumed that everyone would chose the "much better breakfast" and made that section for them "as a convenience". I then asked why the waiter bothered to ask the choice if they were going to only charge one price. The desk clerk had corrected the charge and finished my bill and now was just concerned with getting rid of me so he finally said, "Sometimes, sir, hotels just try to rip you off". I had no response.
It appears that you have failed law school or at least the part of the patent bar that recognizes that the first effective filing date of this patent is 2 Nov 1997.
"RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/022,089, filed Dec. 22, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,386,464 which is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/780,486, filed Feb. 17, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,194,419 which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/348,355, filed Jul. 7, 1999 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,714,916), which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/962,997, filed Nov. 2, 1997 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,369). "
TFA says the position was to monitor "University Computers". The university DOES have a right and obligation to keep their own computers (I assume this means office workers, staff, labs and etc.) free of "illegal" downloads, especially since the RIAA would likely see the university as a deep pocket, not to mention viruses, malware and other costly IT problems. I agree with your point for student-owned computers, even using the university network.
Galileoscopes are $15 and have the added benefit that they are kits. Buy a couple. They are better and cheaper than toy-store variety. The best scope is one that gets used. (https://www.galileoscope.org/)
I did a lot of research and a great, low cost, entry level microscope is something called a "My First Lab Duo-Scope Microscope". It sounds fishy but is sturdy, well made and not horrible optically - it runs about $60. Give "The World of the Microscope" book to go along with it. The Eyeclops(http://www.eyeclops.com/) is good for some things too if you have a TV to plug it in to.
We buy a lot of equipment from Homesciencetools.com (http://www.hometrainingtools.com/) and American Science Surplus(http://www.sciplus.com/).
Then best chemistry sets are the Thames and Kosmos sets. They are the least watered-down sets available now.
Well, this can certainly go too far in the other direction. As in the company makes you a PERMENANT "Work from home" employee. Not as in fired, but as in "no cubicle"-be a remote worker. I have colleagues who are full-time "remote workers" and they are often starved for human connection and are certainly out of the loop as far as office gossip, mood, and even work-related hallway conversations. That said, working at home is my most productive time.
Hmmm... You all seem to be under the impression that the high cost of textbooks has something to do with the production cost of the media. If that were the case, then eBooks and MP3s of audiobooks would be much cheaper than their hardcover comrades. A quick review of Amazon.com shows that to not be the case.
Textbooks are a racket. Read Feynman for some anecdotes about this: http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm
40V!
The phone company sends pulses of 40V over your line when your phone rings (to run the solenoid in the bell in an old school phone)
1. sign up for land line phone service, and don't pay. Give only landline number as contact info
2. use land line number to enter as many internet "free iPod" contests as possible
3. hook up a transformer and battery charging system to phone line
4. profit!
It's called a design patent and they are almost worthless except for stopping exact knock-offs. Design claims have no bearing on function so he didn't "patent a staircase", he patented "that particular look of a staircase".
TX works great for this. I use it around my house for the same purpose, portable web browsing. A several year old model used regularly still has a battery life of several days. Don't count on any support from Palm though. You can probably even get a few good reference apps, like the Dewey decimal index or something. Nice big screen and shirt pocket-sized. eBay has several.
I am sitting in the hospital right now so I am getting a kick...
Seriously. My son is in the hospital often for cancer treatment (and treatment of chemo side effects). There are so strict processes around some things, like chemo administration, to prevent errors but that often end up inhibiting things like timeliness (waiting to find a 2nd doc to OK a new dose of a vomited drug for instance). Regardless, small errors do still occur. As a parent, it is our job to be on "shift" 24 hours and learn and try to understand everything that is done, and to double check each thing. We have caught a few minor errors and one major one. Most nurses appreciate it, a very few resent it. They call us "highly involved parents" we joke that is code for "high maintenance parents"
This is is at one of the nation's best hospitals, in pediatrics, in oncology (where the staff are more highly trained and get to know the patients better). From time-to-time we are at other hospitals where our vigilance goes way up because so do the errors.
This is a fine solution for us, but for people in ERs, ICUs, adults or children with less educated or involved caregivers, this is not an option. In some cases, we have seen babies and small children inpatient with no one staying there with them. Those kids are highly susceptible to error because there is no one to even ring the call button if something goes wrong.
I think the root cause is complexity crossed with complacency (similar to airline pilots). Nurses giving the same drug day in and day out might not notice if the pharmacy sends the wrong pill or dose when she is at the end of a 12 hour shift. They DO have checklists by the way.
For ERs and ICUs, Perhaps a checklist could help, as long as it didn't interfere with the timing and administration of care. What I think would REALLY work, is a single common point of care (probably computerized) that tracks every action, and can indicate where harmful actions occur (double dosing, etc.) Things are getting close, but there are still some analog steps like nurses writing down vitals and entering them later.
But I don't need to tell you that such as system is only as good as the programmers who make it (and the data behind it).
If by "Connections-like" you mean appeals to nerds and involves history of technology, fine, but that is where the similarity ends. That being said, this was worth watching. The Silicon Carbide trick was cool.
Slashdot Mirror
Moon dust is toxic. Look what happened to Cave Johnson.
This one by State Farm is better... and it shows the ice in the oil trick!
Everything is better with Shatner.
from the very entertaining: Birth of the Laser Printer
"The problem is, the bits are all coming out a kilometer away, and the printer’s down here at the other end, so how do we get the data to this thing?
So, we sat down one time and said, "So why don’t we make an optical link?" Because we looked at doing microwave, but those were only three megahertz, and you’ve got to get enough FCC permission to do that, even then. So the interesting thing is there are no communications regulations on through-the-air optical communications. As long as the beam power doesn’t destroy things. [Laughter] We built something called a SLOT POLOS , which is the PARC On-Line Office System, Jeanie certainly would probably remember that, so SLOT POLOS On-Line Optical Link. And how do you do this?
Well, I went to my friends Edmund again -- I’ll get free catalogs for the rest of my life [laughter] -- and basically bought four astronomical telescopes. These are just simple Newtonian reflectors. And put two in a box at the 3180 building, on the roof, and two on the roof of Building 34. I put a photomultiplier at the focus of one, and a laser at the focus of the other, and we had a full-duplex optical link running at 30 megabits a second. We used helium-neon for two reasons. First of all, relatively inexpensive -- accousto-optic modulators to turn it on and off. And by using visible light, there was only one risk: fog was a bad thing, because you couldn’t see through fog. On the other hand, if you used infrared, you couldn’t go through rain but you could go through fog. So, made a back-of-the-envelope judgment that rain was probably going to be more prevalent than fog, and went with the visible. It was a good choice, because I think we were only down one day due to fog, in the one year that this system was up."
It would be more interesting if the (i)Phone gave you options in real life. E.g., "You had a fight with your girlfriend. Do you 1.)Post a rant on Facebook (click here) or 2.) Order her flowers (click here). Each click would perform the request (post a rant or buy flowers) and lead you to the next step in your adventure. Your entire life could be driven by phone-led decisions about what to do (and buy)! Do you: 1.) Mod up (click here) 2.) Wish you had a girlfriend instead (click here)
Well C4 molds in to the shape of an attractive female gopher better than gunpowder.
One time I was staying at a not-so-cheap hotel in upstate UK. The hotel offered a choice of breakfasts: Continental or Full, with about a US$10 price difference. Each day I chose a breakfast, changing based on mood and hunger, about splitting the choices evenly through my 5 day stay. (I was attending a conference at the same hotel) The waiter took my selection and room number each day. Upon checkout, I found they had charged me (and everyone else) for the Full breakfast everyday. I asked them why and they said they assumed that everyone would chose the "much better breakfast" and made that section for them "as a convenience". I then asked why the waiter bothered to ask the choice if they were going to only charge one price. The desk clerk had corrected the charge and finished my bill and now was just concerned with getting rid of me so he finally said, "Sometimes, sir, hotels just try to rip you off". I had no response.
And they have built-in employee retention. No need for salary increases because no one else will hire them.
That's my 2 copper cents worth.
Cents (at least US$) are made of Zinc.
It appears that you have failed law school or at least the part of the patent bar that recognizes that the first effective filing date of this patent is 2 Nov 1997. "RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/022,089, filed Dec. 22, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,386,464 which is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/780,486, filed Feb. 17, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,194,419 which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/348,355, filed Jul. 7, 1999 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,714,916), which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/962,997, filed Nov. 2, 1997 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,369). "
TFA says the position was to monitor "University Computers". The university DOES have a right and obligation to keep their own computers (I assume this means office workers, staff, labs and etc.) free of "illegal" downloads, especially since the RIAA would likely see the university as a deep pocket, not to mention viruses, malware and other costly IT problems. I agree with your point for student-owned computers, even using the university network.
It seems like letting high schoolers have access to facilities like this is a good thing: http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2009/pulsarstudent/
Galileoscopes are $15 and have the added benefit that they are kits. Buy a couple. They are better and cheaper than toy-store variety. The best scope is one that gets used. (https://www.galileoscope.org/) I did a lot of research and a great, low cost, entry level microscope is something called a "My First Lab Duo-Scope Microscope". It sounds fishy but is sturdy, well made and not horrible optically - it runs about $60. Give "The World of the Microscope" book to go along with it. The Eyeclops(http://www.eyeclops.com/) is good for some things too if you have a TV to plug it in to. We buy a lot of equipment from Homesciencetools.com (http://www.hometrainingtools.com/) and American Science Surplus(http://www.sciplus.com/). Then best chemistry sets are the Thames and Kosmos sets. They are the least watered-down sets available now.
If no one knows it is recorded, does it make a sound? How can one party NOT know it is being recorded?
You guys are all missing the obvious... What do you think the press-operators at the U.S. Mint do on their breaks in the paper storage room?
Well, this can certainly go too far in the other direction. As in the company makes you a PERMENANT "Work from home" employee. Not as in fired, but as in "no cubicle"-be a remote worker. I have colleagues who are full-time "remote workers" and they are often starved for human connection and are certainly out of the loop as far as office gossip, mood, and even work-related hallway conversations. That said, working at home is my most productive time.
Hmmm... You all seem to be under the impression that the high cost of textbooks has something to do with the production cost of the media. If that were the case, then eBooks and MP3s of audiobooks would be much cheaper than their hardcover comrades. A quick review of Amazon.com shows that to not be the case. Textbooks are a racket. Read Feynman for some anecdotes about this: http://www.textbookleague.org/103feyn.htm
40V! The phone company sends pulses of 40V over your line when your phone rings (to run the solenoid in the bell in an old school phone) 1. sign up for land line phone service, and don't pay. Give only landline number as contact info 2. use land line number to enter as many internet "free iPod" contests as possible 3. hook up a transformer and battery charging system to phone line 4. profit!
It's called a design patent and they are almost worthless except for stopping exact knock-offs. Design claims have no bearing on function so he didn't "patent a staircase", he patented "that particular look of a staircase".
It was called a Capshare. You can buy them now on eBay for $3-400.
TX works great for this. I use it around my house for the same purpose, portable web browsing. A several year old model used regularly still has a battery life of several days. Don't count on any support from Palm though. You can probably even get a few good reference apps, like the Dewey decimal index or something. Nice big screen and shirt pocket-sized. eBay has several.
See Connections, Episode 1: "The Trigger Effect". James Burke is relevant today as it was in 1978. Episode Summary.
"The Stanford researchers devised a way to use single-walled carbon nanotubes as targeted medicinal delivery vehicles."
TFA says both schools (as well as UCSD) are working on it...as the father of someone undergoing chemo, I say: Good for them.
Seriously. My son is in the hospital often for cancer treatment (and treatment of chemo side effects). There are so strict processes around some things, like chemo administration, to prevent errors but that often end up inhibiting things like timeliness (waiting to find a 2nd doc to OK a new dose of a vomited drug for instance). Regardless, small errors do still occur. As a parent, it is our job to be on "shift" 24 hours and learn and try to understand everything that is done, and to double check each thing. We have caught a few minor errors and one major one. Most nurses appreciate it, a very few resent it. They call us "highly involved parents" we joke that is code for "high maintenance parents" This is is at one of the nation's best hospitals, in pediatrics, in oncology (where the staff are more highly trained and get to know the patients better). From time-to-time we are at other hospitals where our vigilance goes way up because so do the errors. This is a fine solution for us, but for people in ERs, ICUs, adults or children with less educated or involved caregivers, this is not an option. In some cases, we have seen babies and small children inpatient with no one staying there with them. Those kids are highly susceptible to error because there is no one to even ring the call button if something goes wrong. I think the root cause is complexity crossed with complacency (similar to airline pilots). Nurses giving the same drug day in and day out might not notice if the pharmacy sends the wrong pill or dose when she is at the end of a 12 hour shift. They DO have checklists by the way. For ERs and ICUs, Perhaps a checklist could help, as long as it didn't interfere with the timing and administration of care. What I think would REALLY work, is a single common point of care (probably computerized) that tracks every action, and can indicate where harmful actions occur (double dosing, etc.) Things are getting close, but there are still some analog steps like nurses writing down vitals and entering them later. But I don't need to tell you that such as system is only as good as the programmers who make it (and the data behind it).
If by "Connections-like" you mean appeals to nerds and involves history of technology, fine, but that is where the similarity ends. That being said, this was worth watching. The Silicon Carbide trick was cool.
By being the ONLY one to eschew these things, we have all your information by the process of elimination!