it's open source (i run it under X11 on os x), and is a vector based program -- this means it will replace illustrator, but not photoshop. i've used it for a few projects, and it has worked quite good. it kinda broke down when i had to send a job to the printer (they used corel draw, i think), but we were able to make it work.
on os x, the graphic converter program does fairly well, but i don't know if there are non-os x versions of it.
i guess it depends on what you're trying to teach your coworkers. if it's basics, you could probably use online tools, even. if you're trying to teach them photoshop, well, get photoshop.
Every process is serial from a broad enough perspective. Eight hypothetical modems can send 8 bits per second. Or are they actually sending a single byte?
sounds like heisenberg's uncertainty principle is in there somewhere. . . .
everyday, i have to sort through the junk mail. i have to spend time paying the bills, reading letters, etc.
voicemail is bankrupt, too. i have to listen to the message, write down a number, delete the message, listen to the next.
anything is bankrupt if you A) don't know how to use it or B) don't manage it correctly.
i will, however, concede this: it is essential to use a service like gmail or yahoo that does a very good job of spam filtering. i can count on one hand the number of spam emails that have made it into my gmail inbox. my other (ISP) email addresses went "bankrupt" years ago.
sorry, i was going on the information another poster provided: it was not external network -- that is, it didn't happen over their DSL line . . .
a sensor evidently went haywire and started to dump a ton of data out on the internal sensor network. the way i imagine it, the metric shit ton of sensors in the plant are all networked in some fashion. one went bad, generating the analog of a DOS attack. the plant SHUT DOWN. this is good. this is better than chernobyl, eg. way better.
sure: redundancy, discrete wiring, etc., etc., etc. you CANNOT design for ALL possible scenarios. I'm sure (or at least expect) the system will be reworked in the aftermath of this event. but a shutdown is not necessarily a bad thing.
I agree shutdown should be something difficult to achieve, but we don't really know the details of what happened. I just know from my experience that it's difficult to achieve real results, and very easy to stand by and say, "gee, that could've been done better."
i think the fact that an unforeseen erroneous condition caused the plant to *shutdown* and not *meltdown* is a pretty good indication that it was designed quite well.
There will always be unforeseen situations. The key is for the system to shutdown in an orderly fashion. In programming, this is accomplished through use of error traps.
Now, the hysteria surrounding terrorism is another thing the plant engineers have to worry about.
i just wonder if and when we get to put this hysteria behind us, and get along with our lives. unfortunately, terry gilliam's brazil is on a constant loop in my mind these days. . . .
It's not all doom and gloom, folks. There will be extensive collateral damages, whole species will be lost, but life has a way of moving on. And Homo sapiens is one of the most adaptable vertebrates on this planet, so I'm sure we'll find a way to thrive through this.
i notice that the ones that are comfortable with "collateral damage" are the ones who won't be -- or at least believe they won't be -- "collateral damage".
note that i'm not necessarily talking about, just making an observation in the general.
i think it's all in the perception -- if something "acts" like it is in pain, our perceptual unconsciousness will kick in with feelings of empathy or whatever. i am coming from a viewpoint that there is A LOT of processing that goes on between our senses and our "awareness" -- i think a lot of our emotion/feelings come out of this area. . .
so it sets up a cognitive discord. we watch a robot sacrifice itself, crawling forward on its last leg to save us, and we feel empathy, etc. all the while, we know it's just a machine. if it were a terry gilliam film, this is where our brain would explode.
i knew someone was going to (rightfully) call me out on that. after some reflection, linux is probably more solid that os x *once* you get everything setup. i guess os x (and windows for that matter) is probably more flexible in that i can download some app and use it right away (which i have done during a session) -- my experience with linux is that you can quickly get into dependency hell with that sort of thing.
to put it another way, my experience with linux is that when i've tried to do something different, i quickly run into brickwalls. i can't think of the last time i hit a brick wall with os x.
to be fair, this is a preconceived notion based on indirect experience. that is, i haven't put together a linux DAW and run a session on it to know just how it would be. i am serious about putting one together in the near future. it seems like linux has come a long way since i last gave it serious consideration.
oh, and thanks for the 2 track suggestion. i'll try it.
just some of my experiences as a musician and engineer:
i bought a 12" powerbook with the motu traveler, and it was a rock solid set up. i recorded and mixed a few
albums
on it last summer, and it stood up, and this is with 20+ tracks and effects (including altiverb) -- although there were a few times i thought the laptop was gonna melt. these ppc chips run hot.
this is why i won't be going open source for a while -- when you're with clients, it's a problem if you say, "oh hold on, i have to recompile the kernel". macs, for production, are solid -- which is not surprise since it's one of their major demographics.
but as a musician, i get the sense that linux is there. it would be nice if there was something like reason for linux, but that is asking quite a lot. otherwise, the freedom and programming-friendly environment of linux is very conducive to music-making (assuming electronic-based music, of course).
on windows, soundforge is the greatest 2 track editor evar. (problem is, you can't let anyone touch the machine, just looking at a windows box will get you a few viruses) i havce yet to use a 2 track editor as responsive as souindforge. i use audacity now, and it sucks for editing. also, it wants to save project files, which is ridiculous for 2 track files. it would be nice to know of a stripped down 2 track editor that let you zoom in to a sample level and out immediately, allowed for fades, crossfades, and basic stuff like normalization -- support for audio units, and that's it. i spent so much time just editing mixes -- it's nice to have a program that just let's you do that quickly.
i will say this, i had a PII 266 about 8 years ago, runnin linux 2.2 kernel with a low-latency patch. i could get audio in and out of that box in 8ms -- it still amazes me (i was using csound). i think this is where linux could shine, as real-time effects boxes -- you can strip all the other stuff away.
anyway, more and more i'm thinking of putting together a linux workstation, especially after reading about blender yesterday. i wonder how video is on linux?
i the g3 ibook screen problem (which was due to a logic board issue) was a known issue. i had a friends ibook g3 in for repair, but the recall period had expired. i spent quite a bit of time on the phone with apple, and got them to halve the price of the repair ($200 instead of $400).
it is getting to the point where it's not worth it, tho. g3's are gettin' pretty long in the moore's law tooth.
it sucks, but you have to remember that apple's market is not super broke people. if you want apple products, you just have to pay more, period. apple believes (as most apple users do) that their products are worth it -- even with the design flaws.
i can't tell if you're hinting at a conspiracy theory or not, but the non-conspiracy answer to why lead isn't allowed in consumer grade equipment is that lead is very harmful to humans and the environment. personally, i think that worrying about lead in solder is missing the forest for the trees, but i suppose anything that's more green is better in the long run.
the big problem with lead free solder is tin whiskers . this is why lead solder is most likely allowed in military and medical grade equipment.
although vinyl masting *could* use a compressor to squeeze more onto the vinyl (and maybe necessary if the master tapes have a higher dynamic range than the vinyl), but it's not part of the "spec". the RIAA EQ curve really is just a curve - and can almost be thought of "compression" in the information sense. the key is that it's tied to the format, and all consumer record players have a "decoding" eq built in.
the limiter for the digital stuff i was talking about IS a compressor. but it's not decoded during playback.
i had a tascam ms-16 1" tape machine that had dbx I noise reduction. this essentially boosted the highs and applied a 2:1 compressor going TO tape, and did the opposite coming off of tape. it worked well (i never used it, though, for aesthetic reasons). this is an example of time-domain compression and EQ ( i wonder if the EQ can be thought of as frequency domain compression . . ..)
your father was correct. in fact, as another poster mentioned, the eq curve still bears the name of the organization (RIAA EQ CURVE), and basically describes how vinyl should be "encoded" during mastering, and "decoded" during playback.
it's an issue with vinyl, because if the cutting head moves too much (from bass frequencies), it can actually cut into the adjacent groove, so you can compensate by turning the head in more each turn, but the storage capacity (length of time) suffers.
interestingly, how bass energy is dealt with today is super duper limiting -- this can almost be thought of as dynamic eq, but it's not. it takes place in the time domain rather than the frequency, but when a blip of low end energy hits the limiter, it turns it down -- coupled with the make up gain, this effectively turns everything else up.
i thought that ASCAP, BMI, and the smaller SESAC were the artist royalty companies. They're the ones that venues pay for the sticker they put on the front door (ahem, protection money, ahem).
I also understood that they also collect royalties for airplay -- why doesn't this work for internet streaming? or is this just a case that they (ascap, et al) haven't caught up with the technology, so the RIAA is butting in?
either way, the riaa has certainly earned the status of america's most hated company, and they continue to do so.
Although you can say that BD is perpendicular to the plane AA_1C, I'm not convinced that this means that you can say that BD is perpendicular to A_1C, since in addition to lying in one plane that happens to be perpendicular to BD (AA_1C), A_1C also lies in an infinite number of planes that are not perpendicular to BD.
a very good point. i don't know the geometric property that would say what i was trying to -- i would have to do it with vector analysis -- but intuitively it makes sense. take a line perp to a plane (try it with a few pencils or something). *any* line in that plane will be perp to the first line. i guess it's a bit weird because it plays with our common meaning of perpendicular, which usually involves two intersecting lines on a 2d plane. but here we're talking about two non-intersecting lines in 3d space -- you have to project the line in the plane down to the other line.
with vectors this isn't so bad since you can translate vectors (in certain instances). a dot product and you're done. (showing that A dot B = 0)
although i agree in principle, there are a few things you must consider. first, parents are busy enough providing for their children, and keeping them from HARM's way, they probably don't have time to make sure they're out of the RIAA's way.
your child driving analogy isn't as bad as you think (let's leave the drunk out of it since that wouldn't be necessary for it to be a dangerous act). first, most 7 yr olds simply do not have the same wherewith all that an adults do. second, and most importantly, does a 7 year old understand how to get the correct key, start the car, operate the transmission, etc. etc? this is a relevant question because it leads to the question does a 7yr old understand how to download and install filesharing software, do a search for their favorite music, run the p2p software, or torrent, then open it up and listen to it?
the RIAA is unethical. there is a strong debate about the ethics of filesharing for both sides (just because you may believe strongly for one side doesn't mean that a sound debate doesn't exist) -- the RIAA is helping to push the debate against them with their abhorrent behavior.
in part (i), look at the triangle A A_1 C. since you have three points, you have a plane. so A_1 C is perp to AC.* since AC is perp to BD (given in the problem), A_1 C is perp to BD.
* this is worded a bit dubiously. and would probably need to quote a particular theorem for full points. essentially, tho, if a plane is perpendicular to a line, all the lines in the plane are perp to the line (in 3d space).
part three probably relies on a similar idea, which is covered in vector calculus (calc III at most schools). what this tells me, is that chinese schools deal with 3d geometry in secondary school, while in the states, it's deferred until calc III. as i mentioned in another post, it seems that modern american curriculum ignores "older ways of doing things". this is surely a "dumbing down" of the curriculum. on the other hand, who cares? why do a bunch of geometric analysis, when you can set it all up as vectors, set up a matrix, plug it in a '89 and be done?
i also noted, however, that such a background in noodly geometry problems may well produce a better engineer. viva outsourcing!
i thought there were two in the CDE triangle, but i see that CDA is the right angle, not CDE.
i'm such a visual-based person, i would probably have to redraw the diagram first off if i were to actually attempt this problem.
it's interesting, because it reminds me of how mathematics were done hundreds of years ago. it seems that moderm mathematics downplays geometry, and eschews more symbolic methods. it seems like this is desirable (although this is from a modern western viewpoint!) since rather than pulling our hair out over differential equations, we just do a quick laplace transform and deal with it in the s-domain, to use an example.
of course, becoming proficient in dealing with ugly and noodly geometric problems may very well make someone a better engineer. . .
i looked at the chinese problem form the BBC, and something didn't make sense. it was the BD is perp to AC, and the AD is perp to CD. it i read this correctly, this causes two right angles in the same triangle. what gives?
i think the point you're making is that you would rather do image processing on YOUR cpu rather than on a server's cpu. If these apps use flash and the like, they are actually client side, using your cpu cycles.
to go with the earlier story, i have fond memories of playing dungeons and dragons and listening to iron maiden. of course, i stopped such sociopathic behavior by the time i was 12.
i assume you mean mercury rev. the album Boces started off with a song that was pure slop-pop bliss. That one song almost made up for the rest of the sucky album. *almost*.
well, i assume that behind hawkings "blind faith" are some mathematics somewhere, or at the very least, a "hunch" generated from years of doing the mathematics.
the day theologians start doing math and creating some very provocative theories, i may pay attention. in the mean time, the idea of god is useless. it serves no *real* purpose.
Slashdot Mirror
it's open source (i run it under X11 on os x), and is a vector based program -- this means it will replace illustrator, but not photoshop. i've used it for a few projects, and it has worked quite good. it kinda broke down when i had to send a job to the printer (they used corel draw, i think), but we were able to make it work.
on os x, the graphic converter program does fairly well, but i don't know if there are non-os x versions of it.
i guess it depends on what you're trying to teach your coworkers. if it's basics, you could probably use online tools, even. if you're trying to teach them photoshop, well, get photoshop.
mr c
sounds like heisenberg's uncertainty principle is in there somewhere. . . .
mr c
everyday, i have to sort through the junk mail. i have to spend time paying the bills, reading letters, etc.
voicemail is bankrupt, too. i have to listen to the message, write down a number, delete the message, listen to the next.
anything is bankrupt if you A) don't know how to use it or B) don't manage it correctly.
i will, however, concede this: it is essential to use a service like gmail or yahoo that does a very good job of spam filtering. i can count on one hand the number of spam emails that have made it into my gmail inbox. my other (ISP) email addresses went "bankrupt" years ago.
but this is how it is, 2007.
mr c
sorry, i was going on the information another poster provided: it was not external network -- that is, it didn't happen over their DSL line . . .
a sensor evidently went haywire and started to dump a ton of data out on the internal sensor network. the way i imagine it, the metric shit ton of sensors in the plant are all networked in some fashion. one went bad, generating the analog of a DOS attack. the plant SHUT DOWN. this is good. this is better than chernobyl, eg. way better.
sure: redundancy, discrete wiring, etc., etc., etc. you CANNOT design for ALL possible scenarios. I'm sure (or at least expect) the system will be reworked in the aftermath of this event. but a shutdown is not necessarily a bad thing.
I agree shutdown should be something difficult to achieve, but we don't really know the details of what happened. I just know from my experience that it's difficult to achieve real results, and very easy to stand by and say, "gee, that could've been done better."
mr c
i think the fact that an unforeseen erroneous condition caused the plant to *shutdown* and not *meltdown* is a pretty good indication that it was designed quite well.
There will always be unforeseen situations. The key is for the system to shutdown in an orderly fashion. In programming, this is accomplished through use of error traps.
Now, the hysteria surrounding terrorism is another thing the plant engineers have to worry about.
i just wonder if and when we get to put this hysteria behind us, and get along with our lives. unfortunately, terry gilliam's brazil is on a constant loop in my mind these days. . . .
mr c
i notice that the ones that are comfortable with "collateral damage" are the ones who won't be -- or at least believe they won't be -- "collateral damage".
note that i'm not necessarily talking about, just making an observation in the general.
mr c
mr c
i think it's all in the perception -- if something "acts" like it is in pain, our perceptual unconsciousness will kick in with feelings of empathy or whatever. i am coming from a viewpoint that there is A LOT of processing that goes on between our senses and our "awareness" -- i think a lot of our emotion/feelings come out of this area. . .
so it sets up a cognitive discord. we watch a robot sacrifice itself, crawling forward on its last leg to save us, and we feel empathy, etc. all the while, we know it's just a machine. if it were a terry gilliam film, this is where our brain would explode.
mr c
i knew someone was going to (rightfully) call me out on that. after some reflection, linux is probably more solid that os x *once* you get everything setup. i guess os x (and windows for that matter) is probably more flexible in that i can download some app and use it right away (which i have done during a session) -- my experience with linux is that you can quickly get into dependency hell with that sort of thing.
to put it another way, my experience with linux is that when i've tried to do something different, i quickly run into brickwalls. i can't think of the last time i hit a brick wall with os x.
to be fair, this is a preconceived notion based on indirect experience. that is, i haven't put together a linux DAW and run a session on it to know just how it would be. i am serious about putting one together in the near future. it seems like linux has come a long way since i last gave it serious consideration.
oh, and thanks for the 2 track suggestion. i'll try it.
mr c
just some of my experiences as a musician and engineer:
i bought a 12" powerbook with the motu traveler, and it was a rock solid set up. i recorded and mixed a few albums on it last summer, and it stood up, and this is with 20+ tracks and effects (including altiverb) -- although there were a few times i thought the laptop was gonna melt. these ppc chips run hot.
this is why i won't be going open source for a while -- when you're with clients, it's a problem if you say, "oh hold on, i have to recompile the kernel". macs, for production, are solid -- which is not surprise since it's one of their major demographics.
but as a musician, i get the sense that linux is there. it would be nice if there was something like reason for linux, but that is asking quite a lot. otherwise, the freedom and programming-friendly environment of linux is very conducive to music-making (assuming electronic-based music, of course).
on windows, soundforge is the greatest 2 track editor evar. (problem is, you can't let anyone touch the machine, just looking at a windows box will get you a few viruses) i havce yet to use a 2 track editor as responsive as souindforge. i use audacity now, and it sucks for editing. also, it wants to save project files, which is ridiculous for 2 track files. it would be nice to know of a stripped down 2 track editor that let you zoom in to a sample level and out immediately, allowed for fades, crossfades, and basic stuff like normalization -- support for audio units, and that's it. i spent so much time just editing mixes -- it's nice to have a program that just let's you do that quickly.
i will say this, i had a PII 266 about 8 years ago, runnin linux 2.2 kernel with a low-latency patch. i could get audio in and out of that box in 8ms -- it still amazes me (i was using csound). i think this is where linux could shine, as real-time effects boxes -- you can strip all the other stuff away.
anyway, more and more i'm thinking of putting together a linux workstation, especially after reading about blender yesterday. i wonder how video is on linux?
mr c
i the g3 ibook screen problem (which was due to a logic board issue) was a known issue. i had a friends ibook g3 in for repair, but the recall period had expired. i spent quite a bit of time on the phone with apple, and got them to halve the price of the repair ($200 instead of $400).
it is getting to the point where it's not worth it, tho. g3's are gettin' pretty long in the moore's law tooth.
it sucks, but you have to remember that apple's market is not super broke people. if you want apple products, you just have to pay more, period. apple believes (as most apple users do) that their products are worth it -- even with the design flaws.
mr c
i can't tell if you're hinting at a conspiracy theory or not, but the non-conspiracy answer to why lead isn't allowed in consumer grade equipment is that lead is very harmful to humans and the environment. personally, i think that worrying about lead in solder is missing the forest for the trees, but i suppose anything that's more green is better in the long run.
the big problem with lead free solder is tin whiskers . this is why lead solder is most likely allowed in military and medical grade equipment.
mr c
although vinyl masting *could* use a compressor to squeeze more onto the vinyl (and maybe necessary if the master tapes have a higher dynamic range than the vinyl), but it's not part of the "spec". the RIAA EQ curve really is just a curve - and can almost be thought of "compression" in the information sense. the key is that it's tied to the format, and all consumer record players have a "decoding" eq built in.
the limiter for the digital stuff i was talking about IS a compressor. but it's not decoded during playback.
i had a tascam ms-16 1" tape machine that had dbx I noise reduction. this essentially boosted the highs and applied a 2:1 compressor going TO tape, and did the opposite coming off of tape. it worked well (i never used it, though, for aesthetic reasons). this is an example of time-domain compression and EQ ( i wonder if the EQ can be thought of as frequency domain compression . . .
mr c
your father was correct. in fact, as another poster mentioned, the eq curve still bears the name of the organization (RIAA EQ CURVE), and basically describes how vinyl should be "encoded" during mastering, and "decoded" during playback.
it's an issue with vinyl, because if the cutting head moves too much (from bass frequencies), it can actually cut into the adjacent groove, so you can compensate by turning the head in more each turn, but the storage capacity (length of time) suffers.
interestingly, how bass energy is dealt with today is super duper limiting -- this can almost be thought of as dynamic eq, but it's not. it takes place in the time domain rather than the frequency, but when a blip of low end energy hits the limiter, it turns it down -- coupled with the make up gain, this effectively turns everything else up.
this is why modern music SOUNDS LIKE ALL CAPS.
mr c
i thought that ASCAP, BMI, and the smaller SESAC were the artist royalty companies. They're the ones that venues pay for the sticker they put on the front door (ahem, protection money, ahem).
I also understood that they also collect royalties for airplay -- why doesn't this work for internet streaming? or is this just a case that they (ascap, et al) haven't caught up with the technology, so the RIAA is butting in?
either way, the riaa has certainly earned the status of america's most hated company, and they continue to do so.
mr c
a very good point. i don't know the geometric property that would say what i was trying to -- i would have to do it with vector analysis -- but intuitively it makes sense. take a line perp to a plane (try it with a few pencils or something). *any* line in that plane will be perp to the first line. i guess it's a bit weird because it plays with our common meaning of perpendicular, which usually involves two intersecting lines on a 2d plane. but here we're talking about two non-intersecting lines in 3d space -- you have to project the line in the plane down to the other line.
with vectors this isn't so bad since you can translate vectors (in certain instances). a dot product and you're done. (showing that A dot B = 0)
mr c
although i agree in principle, there are a few things you must consider. first, parents are busy enough providing for their children, and keeping them from HARM's way, they probably don't have time to make sure they're out of the RIAA's way.
your child driving analogy isn't as bad as you think (let's leave the drunk out of it since that wouldn't be necessary for it to be a dangerous act). first, most 7 yr olds simply do not have the same wherewith all that an adults do. second, and most importantly, does a 7 year old understand how to get the correct key, start the car, operate the transmission, etc. etc? this is a relevant question because it leads to the question does a 7yr old understand how to download and install filesharing software, do a search for their favorite music, run the p2p software, or torrent, then open it up and listen to it?
the RIAA is unethical. there is a strong debate about the ethics of filesharing for both sides (just because you may believe strongly for one side doesn't mean that a sound debate doesn't exist) -- the RIAA is helping to push the debate against them with their abhorrent behavior.
mr c
in part (i), look at the triangle A A_1 C. since you have three points, you have a plane. so A_1 C is perp to AC.* since AC is perp to BD (given in the problem), A_1 C is perp to BD.
* this is worded a bit dubiously. and would probably need to quote a particular theorem for full points. essentially, tho, if a plane is perpendicular to a line, all the lines in the plane are perp to the line (in 3d space).
part three probably relies on a similar idea, which is covered in vector calculus (calc III at most schools). what this tells me, is that chinese schools deal with 3d geometry in secondary school, while in the states, it's deferred until calc III. as i mentioned in another post, it seems that modern american curriculum ignores "older ways of doing things". this is surely a "dumbing down" of the curriculum. on the other hand, who cares? why do a bunch of geometric analysis, when you can set it all up as vectors, set up a matrix, plug it in a '89 and be done?
i also noted, however, that such a background in noodly geometry problems may well produce a better engineer. viva outsourcing!
mr c
i thought there were two in the CDE triangle, but i see that CDA is the right angle, not CDE.
i'm such a visual-based person, i would probably have to redraw the diagram first off if i were to actually attempt this problem.
it's interesting, because it reminds me of how mathematics were done hundreds of years ago. it seems that moderm mathematics downplays geometry, and eschews more symbolic methods. it seems like this is desirable (although this is from a modern western viewpoint!) since rather than pulling our hair out over differential equations, we just do a quick laplace transform and deal with it in the s-domain, to use an example.
of course, becoming proficient in dealing with ugly and noodly geometric problems may very well make someone a better engineer. . .
mr c
i looked at the chinese problem form the BBC, and something didn't make sense. it was the BD is perp to AC, and the AD is perp to CD. it i read this correctly, this causes two right angles in the same triangle. what gives?
mr c
i think the point you're making is that you would rather do image processing on YOUR cpu rather than on a server's cpu. If these apps use flash and the like, they are actually client side, using your cpu cycles.
mr c
to go with the earlier story, i have fond memories of playing dungeons and dragons and listening to iron maiden. of course, i stopped such sociopathic behavior by the time i was 12.
mr c
i assume you mean mercury rev. the album Boces started off with a song that was pure slop-pop bliss. That one song almost made up for the rest of the sucky album. *almost*.
mr c
right on, brother.
damn straight!
Yea- . . . . WTF?!?!
[swallows puke in mouth]
mr c
well, i assume that behind hawkings "blind faith" are some mathematics somewhere, or at the very least, a "hunch" generated from years of doing the mathematics.
the day theologians start doing math and creating some very provocative theories, i may pay attention. in the mean time, the idea of god is useless. it serves no *real* purpose.
mr c