This would seem to be a valid approach... some kind of magnetically-powered "cannon" device to fire the trash out of the station at the proper angle & velocity to ensure that it reenters the atmosphere correctly for burn-up. The action/reaction principle can also be applied here- such that the best compromise between the trash's exit trajectory and the kinectic "kick" given to the ISS works best for both. Each trash ejection nudges the ISS' orbit higher by a predetermined amount. As others have suggested, this could reduce the number of orbital boosts it needs.
Inside the station, trash is placed into a special container (rigid plastic, thin metal, whatever) and placed into the airlocked "cannon". The air is pumped out, the hatch opened, and the firing sequence is handled by a computer program. Based on the mass of the trash, it calculates the angle & speed, then fires. Rocket Scientists should have little problem coming up with something like this.
Call me a geek... but many of my computer's sounds are borrowed from Star Trek or other SFX.
Many of these I have loaded into "Cool Edit" software and tweaked to my liking. Whenever I've built new systems, these SFX are setup on them, along with a specific set of winow colors. (Red for inactive, green for active, etc.)
"Start Windows" - A car cranking and starting. (duh! Right?) Sorta like "Terr-rr-rrvooommmm!"
"Exit Windows" - A guy's voice yelling "I QUIT!" followed immediately by a door slamming. Everyone who's heard it, loves it, and asks "Is that you?" It's not, and they don't believe me. Oh well.
"Crtitical stop"- The Star Trek computer voice, saying "Unable to comply!"
"Program error"- A 1-time character in Star Trek saying, "I have failed!"
"Exclamation" - The Star Trek computer alert dound, a sort of metallic, shrill "Bli-di-dit!"
"Question" - The Star Trek "Tactical" station SFX, a metallic jangling like sound with a beep behind it.
"Open Program" - a quiet, very brief little "Tick", borrowed from the Explorer "Navigation" sound. Edited to be much shorter & softer.
"Close Program" - A softer, shorter version of the "Done" SFX, also borrowed from Explorer.
"New Mail" is the default Win98 "Notify" softened a tad. (Sounds much like the one in XP)
Most of the other Windows events are silent.
I've also customized AOL and other programs' defaults to be something meaningful. The idea is that I can be away form the machine, (or the application is minimized) if I hear a sound, I know what just happened. It hearkens back to the days I used to play "Defender" in video arcades in the 80's. That game had a number of unusual SFX, each one of them having a distinct meaning in the gameplay... you knew what was happening offscreen by the sounds. Very helpful.
Someone else has confirmed that it does, indeed, work with XP, so we are all set. Thank you, all, for the information provided. You've made a lot of people's days.:)
Thank you! This was VERY useful information! I had no problem finding it on the W98 setup CD. I am quite relieved that making the change to my WIN98 machines is going to be this simple!:) I owe ya a coffee & donut.;)
Now, the problem is the XP boxes... I've already searched the XP Pro setup disk, and this utility is not there. (Only a compressed HLP file, nothing else.) I'm a little nervous about trying this utility on XP, lest it "break" something. We ALL know how fragile WINDOWS can be!
I work for one of the "dying breed" of Daytime ONLY AM radio stations. Because of the effects of the sun on the ionosphere, Medium Wave (AM Broadcast) signals bounce off of a layer the ionosphere at night, and are absorbed by a different layer which forms during daylight hours. As a result, a number of stations were allowed to operate only during daylight, when the dominating station on that frequency would not be affected.
Case-in-point, WFIF where I work. WTOP (now WTWP) has operated on 1500Khz for many decades. They are the dominant station on that frequency for the entire Eastern half of the US. (At night, you can hear them from Maine to Florida. Been there, done it.) They are located in Washington, DC. WFIF was licensed to operate on that frequency in 1965, as a daylight-only station. Thus, every day at the FCC-established "legal sunset", we must sign off. We cannot return to the air until the FCC-defined "legal sunrise". (The FCC defines the sunrise/set times for each month, based on an average, so the actual sign-on/off times remain the same through each month.)
Now we throw the DST/Standard time curveball into this. Because the sun doesn't change, only our clocks do, this affects when we can sign-on and off, and it affects our program schedule.
Example- under the present system, in October, during DST, we sign-on at 7am and off at 6:30pm. When we change to Standard time on that last Sunday, we get to sign-on at 6am and off at 5:30pm until we hit November. In November, we sign-on at 6:45, and off at 5pm.
Now throw this new monkey wrench into the works...
We will no longer have *any* Standard time operation in October, because it won't kick-in until November... so, that means we won't be able to sign-on until 7:45am! (Right now, our latest sign-on is 7:15am in December & January.) That's pretty darned late in the morning to be signing-on! Once Standard time takes effect, we'd be back to where we are, now: 6:45am to 5pm.
In March of '07, we're going to have another curveball to throw at our audience... we will have been signing-on at 6am for the first few weeks of March. Then the clocks will be changed. Now, we won't be able to sign-on until 7am! Programming that had already re-established itself with our audience will go on yet another hiatus, before returning in April. (The early morning music program already goes away in October & Dec/Jan due to the later sign-on.)
So, as you can see, there are some radio stations and listeners that are going to be ***VERY*** inconvenienced by this mess.
We won't even go into the issue of how many computers are out there still running Windows 98SE, which won't be getting any help from Papa Bill to patch it's internal time-shifting routines. I am hoping for a 3'rd party solution... but won't hold my breath. Since we still have a fair number of perfectly functional Win98SE boxes running, we'll just have to disable the automatic time-shift routines, and do it manually.
When I first started watching the show, I got the impression that they were childhood friends or something... they seemed to get along quite well, and when they had a disagreement, they managed to work it out. I was surprised to discover that this was, in fact, NOT true. (Their relationship is basically professional, only.)
Still, I think it's a *great* show, and I enjoy it a lot. Some of the humor they've added is great. I think they have the right combination of supporting staff, now, and I hope they don't change it anymore.
The only nit I would pick is with their narrator sometimes repeatedly mis-pronouncing easy words, like "Mee-thane" for Methane. There was another blatant one, recently, but I can't remember it, now. Oh well. If that's the worst nit, I guess they're doing OK.;)
My boss' computer puked. Badly. I nuked the HD, and restored everything from a disk image I had made when I first built it for him, then did the Windows Updates. All was well. I created a NEW disk image, and returned the machine to him.
He installed AOL 9.0 and it puked. Again. I suggested he try uninstalling AOL. It said that it uninstalled, but the computer was still lethargic and crashing. So, he brought it back in.
Before nuking it & restoring the new disk image, I figured I'd take a look around. As the article said, there were numerous "pieces" of AOL's "badware" scattered everywhere! I sent him a link to the stopbadware.org site article, with a note telling him that this was exactly what I saw, and was concerned about. I plan to bring this information to the bosses above him, as well.
In summary, this article hits the nail squarely on the head. If you want to use AOL's newer features, you're MUCH better off logging into their WEBsite with Firefox, and using AdBlock and NoScript judiciously. It's amazing how many 3'rd party sites want to run scripts! More than half of them can be safely left blocked without adversely affecting the AOL site's functionality.
With their 9.0 client software, you surrender *all* control. They link you to their servers via VPN. Block the VPN, and the client balks. Leave the VPN open, and any hacker that gets into their servers (or any mischeivous/disgruntled employee)could potentially install rootkits or whatnot onto your PC.
AOL's client software also relies HEAVILY upon IE... and we all know how flawed THAT is.
I'm using Windows 98SE over here... and it was the Windows version I downloaded. I didn't see anything about it specifically requiring XP or anything. Oh well. I uninstalled it.
First, the FCC does *not* charge $500,000 for a radio station license. It's quite a bit less than that. The actual fee varies from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, based on the size of the population of the area they serve, and their transmitter power/coverage area. (Also known as "Market size".) The New York Metro area is the #1 market, because it is the biggest population center. You have Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas/Ft Worth, etc. which are all large markets. Then you get down to the medium markets, like Hartford, CT, or Worcester, MA. Finally, you have the little towns out in Osh Kosh.
It is not RIAA that carges the stations money, it is ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. All three have their hands out, demanding payment. The songs played have little effect on those fees, because the fees are based on how much money the station brings in. (A percentage of the station's gross revenue.) So, large market stations make a whole lot more money, and they pay much more than the Podunk stations, but it's still a *percentage*.
The only way stations can reduce those fees is by playing a little music as possible, or playing nothing but genuinely Public Domain works. (Usually limited to Classical.) Non-Commercial stations also must pay, but their fees are lower than for the commercial stations.
As for the limited playlists, that has nothing to do with ASCAP, etc, but rather with "Market Research" where they survey people, they track music sales, etc, and only play the stuff that the majority of people really want to hear.
A lot of people do, in fact, treat the radio as "background" and many only listen while in their cars. They don't tend to get "burned out" on the limited playlists that quickly for those reasons. The stations play this stuff, because it's what a good majority of poeple want, and advertisers do well because a lot of people listen.
I work for a radio station, so I have a pretty good working knowledge of this stuff.:)
I *have* tried it... from the receiving end. For a while, my friend had both, a VoIP and regular POTS lines. Within seconds, I could tell which one he was on. The POTS line beat-out his VoIP every single time, hands-down. (I'd ask him to call me back or I call him on the POTS line.) Even when he was not using his High Speed for anything at all, the quality of the VoIP was very much less than POTS. Oh, and this was *after* a number of tweaks done by the provider, optimizations he did, etc. (He is very tech savvy, and works in IT. He knows what he's doing.) There was only a very modest improvement after a bunch of twiddling and tweaking. It's still very annoying to me to hear that delay. Perhaps I'm just super-sensitive to it.
He is saving money with the VoIP, so he lives with it.
No, he's not even using his Internet connection when these delays are there. Most of the time, it's down around 1/4 second, but it is very annoying. There are also some instances when the audio drops-out, but that is fairly rare.
I don't have a VoIP system, and at this rate, never will.
A friend of mine has it, and every time I talk to him, it annoys me to no end. There is anywhere from 1/4 to 1 second delay, and very often, I can hear the "echo" of my own voice. This is regardless of whether he calls me, I call him, or where I am when the call is made! (Work or home, two different towns.) The audio quality is not as clear as "POTS" (Plain Old Telephone Service) either. Granted, it's better than most "cell" calls, but it's still got that "digitized sound". 90Kbps? Why does it need *that* much bandwidth? I've heard better quality audio from 12Kbps "RealAudio" feeds back in my dialup modem days!
Then you have the power failure and 911 issues. No thanks. I'll keep my old fashioned, highly reliable "twisted pair", thank you. After all... "It just works!"
I used to be able to play Robotron for two hours on a single quarter! I'd have to start crashing into things to stop the score at 9,999,975 or it would roll over to 0. The best game I ever had, I had to crash 81 times to end it. In the arcades that allowed the 20 letter signature for the top scorer, I would put "Flash is Awesome".
I actually had calluses on my hands from the joystick handles! (Hey, I was a teen- I had no life!)
One arcade set the difficulty of the game to high... I remember being startled at how much more difficult it was to play! I also remember the guys behind the counter laughing at me, because my game ended much sooner than it had the last time I was there! (I also was ticked that my high score was gone!) So, I plunked in another token, and got busy. In spite of the much higher difficulty, I was able to rack up over 7 million points. Those guys weren't laughing anymore!;) I was pouring sweat, but it was a satisfying feeling to put those guys in their place! (It also drew a bit of a crowd watching me struggle with it, and still get a good score.) That was my worst game, once I had mastered it.
Ah, memories!
cayenne8, what was your best ever Robotron game?:)
That is just plain sick. I think it adds fuel to the fires of the anti-videogame crowd when something like this actually gets an "award"... not only that, it's really odd-looking.
As the child gets older, and shows an aptitude for Technology, I would suggest some simple electronics project kits that are suitable for their age, and appeal to their interests.
There are a number of kit manufactures, such as Ramsey Electronics and Velleman which make kits of all types and skill levels. Some of my fondest memories are of having my Dad help me build something. As I got older, I spent my allowance on kits.
Today, I work in a radio station as a Broadcast Engineer. Computers and IT are important, naturally, but if a child shows interest in what's "under the hood", they will have an advantage over their peers who only see the computer as a "box" that runs programs.
...and the markup on parts was from 300 to 500 percent. I kid you not. That IC marked $2.99 cost the store $0.89. Parts and pieces used to be the bread and butter of the store years ago.
I wonder if the decline in their parts secion over the years is a symptom of the decline of Do-It-Yourselfers, or they just didn't want to be bothered anymore with catering to this niche market.
When I was a kid, Radio Shack had incredible amounts of parts. I've watched that variety decline steadily over the years. One of the things I really miss are their kits. Today's kids should be encouraged to get into technology, and some of these kits were a good way to do that.
Radio Shack is more like Cell Phone Shack these days. At least they aren't trying to shove one down my throat, anymore, like they were for a while. I already have one, anyway.
The other sad thing is the lack of any kind of technical knowledge of the people working there. "You've got questions... would you like a cell phone with that?"
I highly recommend Anderson Power Poles as a very convenient means of distributing DC to various devices. I have a Ham Radio setup, which has a multitude of devices that all run on 12vdc (Actually 13.8v) and a large (20 amps) power supply. That supply feeds a DC "power strip" of Answerson Power Pole connectors. Each device gets a set and they all plug into the "power strip". Each "outlet" is fused individually, and there is an LED under the fuses (standard automotive blade type) to show you at-a-glance if a fuse has blown.
This "power strip" is called a "RigRunner" and it is sold by West Mountain Radio. http://www.westmountainradio.com/ and no, I don't work for them... I just really like thier products!
This 12v power distrubtion box is the best investment you can make for DC power distribution. The Anderson connectore are universal- there is no "male" or "female" connection. Thus, you can put them onto a battery pack, and then bring the battery pack with you to run a device, then plug the battery pack into the power strip when you get home to charge it. It's extremely convenient.
I have also made a few adaptors, which have the Power Poles on one end, and the standard "barrel" type power plugs on the other. The possibilities are almost limitless!
The Power Pole connectors come in various sizes, from 15 amps up into the hundreds. The ones I'm using are 25 amp.
I had my PC monitoring for the SSTV image, but got nothing but two frames of static. According to the WEBsite, it was supposed to flyby this area at 1am and 4am.
I am disappointed that it seems to already be malfunctioning. I imagine that the kids in those schools around the world are even more upset.
I've seen a fair amount of misinformation, here. New Voyages has their own message board, and I would encourage my fellow Slashdotters to check it out. (Batten down the servers! There's an Ion Storm a-comin'!)
The New Voyages team is doing this out of love for the show. As someone correctly pointed out, they can NOT make money at all. It is 100% out-of-pocket from the poeple who are doing it. Considering this, you have to give them a lot of credit... they are making a very watchable version of TOS Star Trek, and even including the actual, original actors.
While some here are complaining about the quality of the acting, don't forget the fact that New Voyages is currently *the biggest* of the Fan-produced Star Trek series. The proof is in the fact that they are getting so many of the well-known original actors and writers from Hollywood to come down and participate. This truly sets it apart from all other Trek Fan Fiction.
Go to the WEBsite http:http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/ and click the link to their message boards. It's a large group of people just like you and me that have gotten together to pool their resources to bring back childhood memories and have a whole lot of fun doing it. I for one enjoyed it, and I am looking forward to the next episode, "To serve all my days" with Walter Koenig reprising his role as Chekov.
Right... but I wasn't talking about the Rail industry of *today*. I'm talking about when Aviation first started to "take off". (ahem)
Yes, they would have still lost some business as people took to the skies for much faster trips, but they would not have virtually dried-up overnight if they thought outside the box. That was why I made the original comparison... they were too stuck in the "RAILROAD" mindset, that they forgot about the TRANSPORTATION aspect.
The Music Industry appears to be too wrapped-up in their *physical media* mindset. (The "We're in the CD business" issue.) They treat *everyone* like criminals. (ala the Sony Rootkit fiasco & other draconian DRM nonsense) They have more to gain if they embrace the "purchase and use of digital music across different platforms" model, instead of opposing it.
Slashdot Mirror
This would seem to be a valid approach... some kind of magnetically-powered "cannon" device to fire the trash out of the station at the proper angle & velocity to ensure that it reenters the atmosphere correctly for burn-up. The action/reaction principle can also be applied here- such that the best compromise between the trash's exit trajectory and the kinectic "kick" given to the ISS works best for both. Each trash ejection nudges the ISS' orbit higher by a predetermined amount. As others have suggested, this could reduce the number of orbital boosts it needs.
Inside the station, trash is placed into a special container (rigid plastic, thin metal, whatever) and placed into the airlocked "cannon". The air is pumped out, the hatch opened, and the firing sequence is handled by a computer program. Based on the mass of the trash, it calculates the angle & speed, then fires. Rocket Scientists should have little problem coming up with something like this.
Call me a geek... but many of my computer's sounds are borrowed from Star Trek or other SFX.
Many of these I have loaded into "Cool Edit" software and tweaked to my liking. Whenever I've built new systems, these SFX are setup on them, along with a specific set of winow colors. (Red for inactive, green for active, etc.)
"Start Windows" - A car cranking and starting. (duh! Right?) Sorta like "Terr-rr-rrvooommmm!"
"Exit Windows" - A guy's voice yelling "I QUIT!" followed immediately by a door slamming. Everyone who's heard it, loves it, and asks "Is that you?" It's not, and they don't believe me. Oh well.
"Crtitical stop"- The Star Trek computer voice, saying "Unable to comply!"
"Program error"- A 1-time character in Star Trek saying, "I have failed!"
"Exclamation" - The Star Trek computer alert dound, a sort of metallic, shrill "Bli-di-dit!"
"Question" - The Star Trek "Tactical" station SFX, a metallic jangling like sound with a beep behind it.
"Open Program" - a quiet, very brief little "Tick", borrowed from the Explorer "Navigation" sound. Edited to be much shorter & softer.
"Close Program" - A softer, shorter version of the "Done" SFX, also borrowed from Explorer.
"New Mail" is the default Win98 "Notify" softened a tad. (Sounds much like the one in XP)
Most of the other Windows events are silent.
I've also customized AOL and other programs' defaults to be something meaningful. The idea is that I can be away form the machine, (or the application is minimized) if I hear a sound, I know what just happened. It hearkens back to the days I used to play "Defender" in video arcades in the 80's. That game had a number of unusual SFX, each one of them having a distinct meaning in the gameplay... you knew what was happening offscreen by the sounds. Very helpful.
How are kids supposed to learn proper spelling & grammar?
Anyone remember "Ebonics"?
Someone else has confirmed that it does, indeed, work with XP, so we are all set. Thank you, all, for the information provided. You've made a lot of people's days. :)
Thank you! This was VERY useful information! I had no problem finding it on the W98 setup CD. I am quite relieved that making the change to my WIN98 machines is going to be this simple! :) I owe ya a coffee & donut. ;)
Now, the problem is the XP boxes... I've already searched the XP Pro setup disk, and this utility is not there. (Only a compressed HLP file, nothing else.) I'm a little nervous about trying this utility on XP, lest it "break" something. We ALL know how fragile WINDOWS can be!
I work for one of the "dying breed" of Daytime ONLY AM radio stations. Because of the effects of the sun on the ionosphere, Medium Wave (AM Broadcast) signals bounce off of a layer the ionosphere at night, and are absorbed by a different layer which forms during daylight hours. As a result, a number of stations were allowed to operate only during daylight, when the dominating station on that frequency would not be affected.
Case-in-point, WFIF where I work. WTOP (now WTWP) has operated on 1500Khz for many decades. They are the dominant station on that frequency for the entire Eastern half of the US. (At night, you can hear them from Maine to Florida. Been there, done it.) They are located in Washington, DC. WFIF was licensed to operate on that frequency in 1965, as a daylight-only station. Thus, every day at the FCC-established "legal sunset", we must sign off. We cannot return to the air until the FCC-defined "legal sunrise". (The FCC defines the sunrise/set times for each month, based on an average, so the actual sign-on/off times remain the same through each month.)
Now we throw the DST/Standard time curveball into this. Because the sun doesn't change, only our clocks do, this affects when we can sign-on and off, and it affects our program schedule.
Example- under the present system, in October, during DST, we sign-on at 7am and off at 6:30pm. When we change to Standard time on that last Sunday, we get to sign-on at 6am and off at 5:30pm until we hit November. In November, we sign-on at 6:45, and off at 5pm.
Now throw this new monkey wrench into the works...
We will no longer have *any* Standard time operation in October, because it won't kick-in until November... so, that means we won't be able to sign-on until 7:45am! (Right now, our latest sign-on is 7:15am in December & January.) That's pretty darned late in the morning to be signing-on! Once Standard time takes effect, we'd be back to where we are, now: 6:45am to 5pm.
In March of '07, we're going to have another curveball to throw at our audience... we will have been signing-on at 6am for the first few weeks of March. Then the clocks will be changed. Now, we won't be able to sign-on until 7am! Programming that had already re-established itself with our audience will go on yet another hiatus, before returning in April. (The early morning music program already goes away in October & Dec/Jan due to the later sign-on.)
So, as you can see, there are some radio stations and listeners that are going to be ***VERY*** inconvenienced by this mess.
We won't even go into the issue of how many computers are out there still running Windows 98SE, which won't be getting any help from Papa Bill to patch it's internal time-shifting routines. I am hoping for a 3'rd party solution... but won't hold my breath. Since we still have a fair number of perfectly functional Win98SE boxes running, we'll just have to disable the automatic time-shift routines, and do it manually.
When I first started watching the show, I got the impression that they were childhood friends or something... they seemed to get along quite well, and when they had a disagreement, they managed to work it out. I was surprised to discover that this was, in fact, NOT true. (Their relationship is basically professional, only.)
;)
Still, I think it's a *great* show, and I enjoy it a lot. Some of the humor they've added is great. I think they have the right combination of supporting staff, now, and I hope they don't change it anymore.
The only nit I would pick is with their narrator sometimes repeatedly mis-pronouncing easy words, like "Mee-thane" for Methane. There was another blatant one, recently, but I can't remember it, now. Oh well. If that's the worst nit, I guess they're doing OK.
My boss' computer puked. Badly. I nuked the HD, and restored everything from a disk image I had made when I first built it for him, then did the Windows Updates. All was well. I created a NEW disk image, and returned the machine to him.
He installed AOL 9.0 and it puked. Again. I suggested he try uninstalling AOL. It said that it uninstalled, but the computer was still lethargic and crashing. So, he brought it back in.
Before nuking it & restoring the new disk image, I figured I'd take a look around. As the article said, there were numerous "pieces" of AOL's "badware" scattered everywhere! I sent him a link to the stopbadware.org site article, with a note telling him that this was exactly what I saw, and was concerned about. I plan to bring this information to the bosses above him, as well.
In summary, this article hits the nail squarely on the head. If you want to use AOL's newer features, you're MUCH better off logging into their WEBsite with Firefox, and using AdBlock and NoScript judiciously. It's amazing how many 3'rd party sites want to run scripts! More than half of them can be safely left blocked without adversely affecting the AOL site's functionality.
With their 9.0 client software, you surrender *all* control. They link you to their servers via VPN. Block the VPN, and the client balks. Leave the VPN open, and any hacker that gets into their servers (or any mischeivous/disgruntled employee)could potentially install rootkits or whatnot onto your PC.
AOL's client software also relies HEAVILY upon IE... and we all know how flawed THAT is.
That was just Lenny's way of getting attention. That's all. He's been posting about that incident here on Slashdot for... how long, Lenny? ;)
I'm using Windows 98SE over here... and it was the Windows version I downloaded. I didn't see anything about it specifically requiring XP or anything. Oh well. I uninstalled it.
Downloaded it and tried it. What is a "Pango" Error? It said something about fonts, too, and promplty crashed. I couldn't get it to open at all.
First, the FCC does *not* charge $500,000 for a radio station license. It's quite a bit less than that. The actual fee varies from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, based on the size of the population of the area they serve, and their transmitter power/coverage area. (Also known as "Market size".) The New York Metro area is the #1 market, because it is the biggest population center. You have Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas/Ft Worth, etc. which are all large markets. Then you get down to the medium markets, like Hartford, CT, or Worcester, MA. Finally, you have the little towns out in Osh Kosh.
:)
It is not RIAA that carges the stations money, it is ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. All three have their hands out, demanding payment. The songs played have little effect on those fees, because the fees are based on how much money the station brings in. (A percentage of the station's gross revenue.) So, large market stations make a whole lot more money, and they pay much more than the Podunk stations, but it's still a *percentage*.
The only way stations can reduce those fees is by playing a little music as possible, or playing nothing but genuinely Public Domain works. (Usually limited to Classical.) Non-Commercial stations also must pay, but their fees are lower than for the commercial stations.
As for the limited playlists, that has nothing to do with ASCAP, etc, but rather with "Market Research" where they survey people, they track music sales, etc, and only play the stuff that the majority of people really want to hear.
A lot of people do, in fact, treat the radio as "background" and many only listen while in their cars. They don't tend to get "burned out" on the limited playlists that quickly for those reasons. The stations play this stuff, because it's what a good majority of poeple want, and advertisers do well because a lot of people listen.
I work for a radio station, so I have a pretty good working knowledge of this stuff.
I *have* tried it... from the receiving end. For a while, my friend had both, a VoIP and regular POTS lines. Within seconds, I could tell which one he was on. The POTS line beat-out his VoIP every single time, hands-down. (I'd ask him to call me back or I call him on the POTS line.) Even when he was not using his High Speed for anything at all, the quality of the VoIP was very much less than POTS. Oh, and this was *after* a number of tweaks done by the provider, optimizations he did, etc. (He is very tech savvy, and works in IT. He knows what he's doing.) There was only a very modest improvement after a bunch of twiddling and tweaking. It's still very annoying to me to hear that delay. Perhaps I'm just super-sensitive to it.
He is saving money with the VoIP, so he lives with it.
No, he's not even using his Internet connection when these delays are there. Most of the time, it's down around 1/4 second, but it is very annoying. There are also some instances when the audio drops-out, but that is fairly rare.
I don't have a VoIP system, and at this rate, never will.
A friend of mine has it, and every time I talk to him, it annoys me to no end. There is anywhere from 1/4 to 1 second delay, and very often, I can hear the "echo" of my own voice. This is regardless of whether he calls me, I call him, or where I am when the call is made! (Work or home, two different towns.) The audio quality is not as clear as "POTS" (Plain Old Telephone Service) either. Granted, it's better than most "cell" calls, but it's still got that "digitized sound". 90Kbps? Why does it need *that* much bandwidth? I've heard better quality audio from 12Kbps "RealAudio" feeds back in my dialup modem days!
Then you have the power failure and 911 issues. No thanks. I'll keep my old fashioned, highly reliable "twisted pair", thank you. After all... "It just works!"
I used to be able to play Robotron for two hours on a single quarter! I'd have to start crashing into things to stop the score at 9,999,975 or it would roll over to 0. The best game I ever had, I had to crash 81 times to end it. In the arcades that allowed the 20 letter signature for the top scorer, I would put "Flash is Awesome".
;) I was pouring sweat, but it was a satisfying feeling to put those guys in their place! (It also drew a bit of a crowd watching me struggle with it, and still get a good score.) That was my worst game, once I had mastered it.
:)
I actually had calluses on my hands from the joystick handles! (Hey, I was a teen- I had no life!)
One arcade set the difficulty of the game to high... I remember being startled at how much more difficult it was to play! I also remember the guys behind the counter laughing at me, because my game ended much sooner than it had the last time I was there! (I also was ticked that my high score was gone!) So, I plunked in another token, and got busy. In spite of the much higher difficulty, I was able to rack up over 7 million points. Those guys weren't laughing anymore!
Ah, memories!
cayenne8, what was your best ever Robotron game?
That is just plain sick. I think it adds fuel to the fires of the anti-videogame crowd when something like this actually gets an "award"... not only that, it's really odd-looking.
As the child gets older, and shows an aptitude for Technology, I would suggest some simple electronics project kits that are suitable for their age, and appeal to their interests.
There are a number of kit manufactures, such as Ramsey Electronics and Velleman which make kits of all types and skill levels. Some of my fondest memories are of having my Dad help me build something. As I got older, I spent my allowance on kits.
Today, I work in a radio station as a Broadcast Engineer. Computers and IT are important, naturally, but if a child shows interest in what's "under the hood", they will have an advantage over their peers who only see the computer as a "box" that runs programs.
...and the markup on parts was from 300 to 500 percent. I kid you not. That IC marked $2.99 cost the store $0.89. Parts and pieces used to be the bread and butter of the store years ago.
I wonder if the decline in their parts secion over the years is a symptom of the decline of Do-It-Yourselfers, or they just didn't want to be bothered anymore with catering to this niche market.
When I was a kid, Radio Shack had incredible amounts of parts. I've watched that variety decline steadily over the years. One of the things I really miss are their kits. Today's kids should be encouraged to get into technology, and some of these kits were a good way to do that.
Radio Shack is more like Cell Phone Shack these days. At least they aren't trying to shove one down my throat, anymore, like they were for a while. I already have one, anyway.
The other sad thing is the lack of any kind of technical knowledge of the people working there. "You've got questions... would you like a cell phone with that?"
I highly recommend Anderson Power Poles as a very convenient means of distributing DC to various devices. I have a Ham Radio setup, which has a multitude of devices that all run on 12vdc (Actually 13.8v) and a large (20 amps) power supply. That supply feeds a DC "power strip" of Answerson Power Pole connectors. Each device gets a set and they all plug into the "power strip". Each "outlet" is fused individually, and there is an LED under the fuses (standard automotive blade type) to show you at-a-glance if a fuse has blown.
This "power strip" is called a "RigRunner" and it is sold by West Mountain Radio. http://www.westmountainradio.com/ and no, I don't work for them... I just really like thier products!
This 12v power distrubtion box is the best investment you can make for DC power distribution. The Anderson connectore are universal- there is no "male" or "female" connection. Thus, you can put them onto a battery pack, and then bring the battery pack with you to run a device, then plug the battery pack into the power strip when you get home to charge it. It's extremely convenient.
I have also made a few adaptors, which have the Power Poles on one end, and the standard "barrel" type power plugs on the other. The possibilities are almost limitless!
The Power Pole connectors come in various sizes, from 15 amps up into the hundreds. The ones I'm using are 25 amp.
I had my PC monitoring for the SSTV image, but got nothing but two frames of static. According to the WEBsite, it was supposed to flyby this area at 1am and 4am.
I am disappointed that it seems to already be malfunctioning. I imagine that the kids in those schools around the world are even more upset.
Star Trek: TMP
Star Trek II: TWK
'nuff said.
Come on, Lenny... you know as well as I do, it's not just ANY just... it's STAR dust! ;)
I've seen a fair amount of misinformation, here. New Voyages has their own message board, and I would encourage my fellow Slashdotters to check it out. (Batten down the servers! There's an Ion Storm a-comin'!)
The New Voyages team is doing this out of love for the show. As someone correctly pointed out, they can NOT make money at all. It is 100% out-of-pocket from the poeple who are doing it. Considering this, you have to give them a lot of credit... they are making a very watchable version of TOS Star Trek, and even including the actual, original actors.
While some here are complaining about the quality of the acting, don't forget the fact that New Voyages is currently *the biggest* of the Fan-produced Star Trek series. The proof is in the fact that they are getting so many of the well-known original actors and writers from Hollywood to come down and participate. This truly sets it apart from all other Trek Fan Fiction.
Go to the WEBsite http:http://www.startreknewvoyages.com/ and click the link to their message boards. It's a large group of people just like you and me that have gotten together to pool their resources to bring back childhood memories and have a whole lot of fun doing it. I for one enjoyed it, and I am looking forward to the next episode, "To serve all my days" with Walter Koenig reprising his role as Chekov.
Right... but I wasn't talking about the Rail industry of *today*. I'm talking about when Aviation first started to "take off". (ahem)
Yes, they would have still lost some business as people took to the skies for much faster trips, but they would not have virtually dried-up overnight if they thought outside the box. That was why I made the original comparison... they were too stuck in the "RAILROAD" mindset, that they forgot about the TRANSPORTATION aspect.
The Music Industry appears to be too wrapped-up in their *physical media* mindset. (The "We're in the CD business" issue.) They treat *everyone* like criminals. (ala the Sony Rootkit fiasco & other draconian DRM nonsense) They have more to gain if they embrace the "purchase and use of digital music across different platforms" model, instead of opposing it.