I remember reading an article about blind people "seeing" again with the help of implanted electrodes. (http://biology.about.com/library/weekly/aa012000a.htm ) This link has a story about it.
So what exactly goes through the person's mind when they are moving the cursor. Do they just think "Left" and "Right" etc. Or do they simply have to look in the direction they want the cursor to go? It'd be interesting to try it out. It would bring me one step closer to utilizing the power of the force.
Very interesting stuff indeed. I especially liked the description of the Anteater, or "Manis" as they called it, from India in the Gentleman's Magazine (n. Unfortunately, the poor animal was kept in the guys room and he didn't know to feed it ants. Eventually it climbed out the window and fell to its death. Interesting to hear a supposedly scientific analysis of the animal though.
"Having automated transport systems removing the human (idiot) factor will be essential to prevent utter gridlock in the future."
The human factor isn't the real cause of traffic, it's the capacity of the highway. It doesn't matter who's driving, a highway has only a certain capacity. After this capacity is filled, traffic jams will occur. It doesn't matter how efficiently a car is driven, as long as you have 5 cars entering a stretch of highway for every 2 cars leaving you will eventually get backed up.
At my university, firefox comes preinstalled on the computer image for the laptops that everyone is required to use. This was even before the 1.0 release. In other words, every student in the school gets the opportunity to use firefox. Whether or not they take advantage of that is difficult to gauge, but I know that I did.
I proceeded to dowload firefox while i was slashdotting at work. I'm now using firefox for all my "productive" web browsing during the day. (Of course I had the older versions at home already, but now i can used tabbed browsing on the job)
With winamp and any media player I would use, the media library is a usless feature. The one defining aspect of winamp that I cannot live without is the "jump" command. I can drag a folder containing all my music into the playlist and while it may not be organized, I just have to press J then type the name of the song, artist, or album I want to hear. The list gets narrowed down instantly and if you don't know the whole title, it will list all songs containing the word you searched for. Now, with Winamp5, the queue feature has been added so quickly setting up 10 min. or 30 min. of music is easier than I have ever been able to accomplish in the other player, (WMP and iTunes).
This feature is so important, I will not likely use another player until I can set up my song queues and search my files just as easily.
This may be an old question, but I'm curious were they get their estimates from for monetary losses. I sure hope they don't try to quantize the number of downloads and use that. I know for a fact that I would buy any movie I really liked and would not be satisfied with any downloaded movie. Therefore, the downloads are mearly a sample for me because I have nothing better to do with my time I guess.
On a couple of occasions, I liked the movie so much from downloading that I went out and bought it. Equilibrium is a good example. I couldn't watch it in theaters because it wasn't playing anywere. I just happened across the file and liked it a lot so went out and bought the DVD.
I guess it's my thought that the amount of times a movie is downloaded does not represent the number of sales that would have occured had that download not been available.
The majority of nicotine from the little NicStic is absorbed by the smoker. The amount that is exhaled will be most likely so minute that it would have absolutely no effect to anyone who passes by except perhaps if you were shotgunning it from the smoker themself. Besides this, it's not the nicotine that poses the problem, but the tar and carcinogens contained in the smoke.
This brings to mind a statement from a former professor of mine that I consider to contain some truths.
"In order for democracy to be successful, a large (informed?) middle class must exist."
This doesn't mean that the vote should be confined to the middle class or above, it just shows that as the middle class of a country begins to diminish (as may be the case in the US), the foundation of the democracy begins to collapse. This may also explain why democracy has a tough time taking hold in some developing countries.
What is confusing is that each state has different methods. Here in WI we don't need to preregister. Like you said, if you show up with an ID and a bill you can register at the polls. Also, I preregistered and only needed to give my name, address, and maybe some other info like telephone (I can't remember because I did it at a bar) but not my affiliation.
Which brings about another another thing. People are pushing registration and voting so much this year that I was approached while sipping a brew at the pub. Quite convenient in one way and a little annoying in the other. I've yet to see if it works or if it was just a shady marketing ploy to get my contact information.
I'm very excited and proud to have my city the setting for the final showdown before the election. It's quite exciting to see all the people right in my backyard. (literally since i live downtown). Well party today and vote tomorrow I say.
I admit I did like the maxim advertisement. Only thing is, I had no idea it was for a Nintendo DS. I kind of caught me by surprise. Here i see a chick telling me why touching is good, why two are better than one, etc. Finally, at the bottom is the little nintendo name. Go figure.
I'm surprised I don't see any mention of Maxwell's equations. From these, any equation involving electronics can be derived. Of course I wouldn't want to go through that process.
How about this one: limit as GPA -> 0 of F(engineering) = Y(business)
Some of us "nerds" would be just as pissed off at missing the big play of the game. How about I use it to turn of some anime just as the bad guy is about to be sliced in half after 30min. of set up time?
Is it just me or does it sound like he doesn't know that much. Many of the questions were answered with "I don't know much/anything about that subject but here's what I think." He's quite the "visionary".
"Putting a chip or biometric data on a driver's license doesn't change one iota the rules under which that information can be used,"
True, the rules stay the same, but all this will do is add another method of breaking these rules. Identity theives don't care about the rules. That's why they are considered criminals.
I'm sure it would be difficult to amass a database that will connect the RFID code to the persons' information, but it still poses a major problem.
The proposed inclusion of HD-DVD on Xbox isn't exactly unexpected. In a comparison between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, it's difficult to determine which is better than the other. Blu-Ray has more storage than HD-DVD, but the latter will have an easier time creating backwards compatibility and will also probably be cheaper.
Hopefully the MPEG-2 codec will hang around for a while on either although I admit some alternatives may be better.
Difficult choice for me on which I like better, but I'm sure the market will decide for me.
All this talk about beer and beer culture and I see no references to good ol' Mil town the Brew City of the USA. True, not many of the large breweries remain here in milwaukee, but this town was built on beer. Blatz, Miller, PBR, Milwaukee's Best, etc. etc. I currently live in a building that was a former brewery. In what other city in the US can you find that?
There's nothing better than getting blatzed at The Blatz.
I for one will vow not to drink this vile stuff. I am just glad I live in the brew city of Milwaukee were I can actually get some good beer that's not made by AB
I recently went on one of the better brewery tours where the main goal is to drink good beer and not to be bored about the brewery process(however that is given too and can be interesting). I recommend it to anyone who wants to see what milwaukee breweries are all about. The best bet is to stay with the smaller breweries although the Miller tour is free which is a great plus.
I can't stand these fruity types of drinks that are marketed to my age group. Am I so different from the norm in that all I want is a good brew that I can enjoy irresponsibly. At least due to the drinking culture of Wisconsin I do have some choices. Any city whos baseball team is the Brewers knows how to enjoy their booze.
I prefer to take a more optimistic view. Living in the cool north, we gain the benefits of heat during the winter from the monster computers in my apartment. Obviously it isn't the most efficient means of heating, but it is a useful by-product
hmm I am connected to Kazaa Lite right now.2,354,881 users online, 1,283,798,791 files shared, 33,460,736 GB of data. I can search and find any music, video, or pic I want right now.
I agree, not only do these safety systems dull our reflexes in driving, but they take some of the fun out of the experience. There are plenty of situations were a controlled skid would be desireable and I would hate to lose the ability to throw the car into a donut in a freshly frozen parking lot;)
Slashdot Mirror
I remember reading an article about blind people "seeing" again with the help of implanted electrodes. (http://biology.about.com/library/weekly/aa012000a .htm ) This link has a story about it.
So what exactly goes through the person's mind when they are moving the cursor. Do they just think "Left" and "Right" etc. Or do they simply have to look in the direction they want the cursor to go? It'd be interesting to try it out. It would bring me one step closer to utilizing the power of the force.
Very interesting stuff indeed. I especially liked the description of the Anteater, or "Manis" as they called it, from India in the Gentleman's Magazine (n. Unfortunately, the poor animal was kept in the guys room and he didn't know to feed it ants. Eventually it climbed out the window and fell to its death. Interesting to hear a supposedly scientific analysis of the animal though.
The human factor isn't the real cause of traffic, it's the capacity of the highway. It doesn't matter who's driving, a highway has only a certain capacity. After this capacity is filled, traffic jams will occur. It doesn't matter how efficiently a car is driven, as long as you have 5 cars entering a stretch of highway for every 2 cars leaving you will eventually get backed up.
At my university, firefox comes preinstalled on the computer image for the laptops that everyone is required to use. This was even before the 1.0 release. In other words, every student in the school gets the opportunity to use firefox. Whether or not they take advantage of that is difficult to gauge, but I know that I did.
I proceeded to dowload firefox while i was slashdotting at work. I'm now using firefox for all my "productive" web browsing during the day. (Of course I had the older versions at home already, but now i can used tabbed browsing on the job)
This feature is so important, I will not likely use another player until I can set up my song queues and search my files just as easily.
I guess I didn't RTFA close enough. They didn't state a cost for online sharing. I'm still curious though if the losses can be quantified.
On a couple of occasions, I liked the movie so much from downloading that I went out and bought it. Equilibrium is a good example. I couldn't watch it in theaters because it wasn't playing anywere. I just happened across the file and liked it a lot so went out and bought the DVD.
I guess it's my thought that the amount of times a movie is downloaded does not represent the number of sales that would have occured had that download not been available.
The majority of nicotine from the little NicStic is absorbed by the smoker. The amount that is exhaled will be most likely so minute that it would have absolutely no effect to anyone who passes by except perhaps if you were shotgunning it from the smoker themself. Besides this, it's not the nicotine that poses the problem, but the tar and carcinogens contained in the smoke.
"In order for democracy to be successful, a large (informed?) middle class must exist."
This doesn't mean that the vote should be confined to the middle class or above, it just shows that as the middle class of a country begins to diminish (as may be the case in the US), the foundation of the democracy begins to collapse. This may also explain why democracy has a tough time taking hold in some developing countries.
Which brings about another another thing. People are pushing registration and voting so much this year that I was approached while sipping a brew at the pub. Quite convenient in one way and a little annoying in the other. I've yet to see if it works or if it was just a shady marketing ploy to get my contact information.
I'm very excited and proud to have my city the setting for the final showdown before the election. It's quite exciting to see all the people right in my backyard. (literally since i live downtown). Well party today and vote tomorrow I say.
I admit I did like the maxim advertisement. Only thing is, I had no idea it was for a Nintendo DS. I kind of caught me by surprise. Here i see a chick telling me why touching is good, why two are better than one, etc. Finally, at the bottom is the little nintendo name. Go figure.
How about this one: limit as GPA -> 0 of F(engineering) = Y(business)
H = F^3 + B
Hapiness = Food x Friends x Fun + Beer
Some of us "nerds" would be just as pissed off at missing the big play of the game. How about I use it to turn of some anime just as the bad guy is about to be sliced in half after 30min. of set up time?
Is it just me or does it sound like he doesn't know that much. Many of the questions were answered with "I don't know much/anything about that subject but here's what I think." He's quite the "visionary".
"Putting a chip or biometric data on a driver's license doesn't change one iota the rules under which that information can be used,"
True, the rules stay the same, but all this will do is add another method of breaking these rules. Identity theives don't care about the rules. That's why they are considered criminals.
I'm sure it would be difficult to amass a database that will connect the RFID code to the persons' information, but it still poses a major problem.
Hopefully the MPEG-2 codec will hang around for a while on either although I admit some alternatives may be better.
Difficult choice for me on which I like better, but I'm sure the market will decide for me.
There's nothing better than getting blatzed at The Blatz.
I recently went on one of the better brewery tours where the main goal is to drink good beer and not to be bored about the brewery process(however that is given too and can be interesting). I recommend it to anyone who wants to see what milwaukee breweries are all about. The best bet is to stay with the smaller breweries although the Miller tour is free which is a great plus.
I can't stand these fruity types of drinks that are marketed to my age group. Am I so different from the norm in that all I want is a good brew that I can enjoy irresponsibly. At least due to the drinking culture of Wisconsin I do have some choices. Any city whos baseball team is the Brewers knows how to enjoy their booze.
I prefer to take a more optimistic view. Living in the cool north, we gain the benefits of heat during the winter from the monster computers in my apartment. Obviously it isn't the most efficient means of heating, but it is a useful by-product
hmm I am connected to Kazaa Lite right now.2,354,881 users online, 1,283,798,791 files shared, 33,460,736 GB of data. I can search and find any music, video, or pic I want right now.
I agree, not only do these safety systems dull our reflexes in driving, but they take some of the fun out of the experience. There are plenty of situations were a controlled skid would be desireable and I would hate to lose the ability to throw the car into a donut in a freshly frozen parking lot ;)