Those who take risks on the road are more likely to enjoy playing computer racing games.
I don't know, man, I never jumped on a turtle or ate mushrooms until I played Mario Bros.
I was under the impression that the FCC was not supposed to regulate content either. At least accoding to the Supreme Court.
Bah, what do they know anyway.
This technology would be ideal for nuclear subs. Silence equates to survival in submarines - already US boats use a "raft" design to prevent noise from entering the water from machinery. All equipment is mounted on rubber bushings, not directly on the deck and the deck is also suspended by isolating rubber pads - all to keep vibration from transmitting to the hull and into the water.
Our nuclear subs already produce enough electricity to light a small city, a little extra juice to power mag lev supports would probably be worth the extra turns on the turbines and cooling pumps. There would, of course, need to be a back-up system to support the equipment should the system fail or the sub loose power (also while the sub is in dock and the reactor is "idle")
New research indicates that applying a Beta-blocker, a blood pressure medication, shortly after a trauma has occured (ie, in the ER after a car accident) it can reduce the intense emotions associated with the memory of the event. One of the critical features of PTSD is experiencing flashbacks, these are not the same as memories, but are the actuall sensations of the traumatic event combined with intense emotion.
Unlike the way this treatment is described in the media, it does not "erase" the bad memory, but it lessens the initial physiological link in the brain between that memory and autonomic nervous system arousal. One can remember the event but at an intensity less than that of PTSD. People suffering from PTSD are traumatized over and over as they suffer from the re-experiencing of the event, this is one of the reasons the disorder can be difficult to treat, with every flashback the neural pathway is strengthened. The beta blocker prevents that imprinting in the first place.
Actually, HHGTTG changed even between printings of the book in subtle ways. I see the movie as just another version of the same story DA has told over and over, each time with a new twist or different details.
I'm still bummed that he died before the Dirk Gently movie and the final book to HHGTTG (he was never happy with ending the series on Mostly Harmless, he thought it was a downer).
Not to be picky, but te Civic is an inline four, not a V-four.
Many of the problems you mention with deisels have since been eliminated. Deisels are very common in Europe and can be found in everything from 4 cyl economy cars, to luxury Jaguars, Mercedes, and BMWs as well as SUVs such as the VW Tou- Tuo- Teu- SUV-Thingy which has a whopping 5.7 Liter deisel. Although deisels do have lower max RPMs than gasoline, they have a broader powerband so you can gear the car higher higher.
Most new deisels are vey quiet, smooth running motors. I drove a VW petrol and deisel of the same model and I actually prefered the low-end torque of the deisel; it was also quiet and very smoothe. The '83 Mercedes 300D 5 cyl turbo deisel is another story, it was a loud car, but the engine was well balanced and there was little vibration, cetainly less than my 4 cyl 1976 Volvo 245 (petrol). Mercedes especially has come along way since the engines that sounded like power sewing machines, the new E-Class deisel is so quiet I could not even hear it running when it was right next to me.
As for cold weather starting, I used to live in Salt Lake City and that Mercedes 300D would just need one more shot of electricity to the glowplugs prior to starting. There were times it would start when other petrol cars wouldn't. Of course that was a Mercedes engine kept in a garage, but I would gladly put a block heater in my car if it ment 50+ MPG.
Deisels are the next logical step. Although they produce more pollutants by weight per gallon than gasoline, they are not the same hydrocarbons that come from petrol engines. Deisels burn at higher temps and pressures, meaning you strip more of the hydrogen atoms off the carbon strains, meaning you have a more effecient engine. The black smoke from a deisel is mostly carbon.
Someone should tell California, New York and Maine (Who have outlawed the sale of new deisel cars) that deisels actually get better milage than real-world hybrid ratings without loosing much in the way of performance (most drivers just need to get used to the different power curve of deisel engines). What we should be doing is finding a way to clean up the deisel fuel so it contains fewer contaminants, like sulfur, while working on synthetic bio-deisel for large scale applications. Then everyone gets to keep their high-powered SUVs and luxury cars while we develop a new renewable energy source using existing technology.
That Honda deisel may be slow, but with a minor change to the displacement and the addition of a turbo it would probably be enough for the typical driver. The other thing is that you have to change the gear ratios when moving from a petrol to deisel engine. Deisels don't have as high a horsepower rating as gasoline, for the most part, but they have alot of torque. If you gear everything higher you can make up for a lack of high-end horsepower by making use of the inherent torqiness of the motor. Slap on a turbo and you have slow initial accelleration until the RPMs get up enough for the turbo to build pressure, but then some deisels can out accellerate some petrol cars. I loved driving our '83 Mercedes 300D Turbo (inline 5 cyl turbo deisel), once I hit 25 mph the turbo kicked in and it was like god grabbing you by the seat of your pants and taking you for a ride.
or the fact that the all three of the prequels were inferior films?
I put thisin the same category as record companies saying declining sales are due to file sharing but make no mention of putting out crappy music for the last decade.
This raises an interesting point. If most new techology will eventually have some form of "Big Brother" looking at everything you do we techophiles might want to hold on to our "obsolete" components, computers, CD and DVD drives and so forth. There may come a time when all this hardware will be more valuable than a new system - kind of like pre-ban assault rifles during the assault weapons ban years. They were selling for much more than they are today because you could only buy ones currently in circulation.
It will be interesting to see what happens with this new direction of integrated copy protection. What really needs to happen is for the RIAA to loose a high profile case that puts a dent in the current campaign. I think alot of these new measures are out of fear that the RIAA or other organizations will go after hardware manufacturers next. Companies may be doing this as a preemptive move to avoid litigation later.
Save your old hardware, someday it may just save your data.
Wow, this is great! I was so tired of my old Belkin USB drive and other memory that let me put any data I wanted. Now I don't have to worry about the possibility of moving copyrighted data, and I never have to think far enough down the road to possibly to *gasp* six backups.
The fact is that newer data storage techniques are more resistant to the ravages of time than many older mediums. Take for example the early movie industry: films were shot onto early concoctions of celluloid and emultions which quickly started to decay. Chemical reactions started to take place in archived film cannisters stored in the Hollywood vaults, so many that there are documented cases of spontanious combustion of stored footage. There are an unknown number of films that were lost when the fire department destroyed them because they had become fire hazards. Paper, even with the most tender care will yellow and turn to dust or rot (depending on the environment) and even my beloved film will turn into a sticky mass with enough time.
In this way, digital technology has a distinct advantage over traditional media. Digital information can be duplicated countless times without any degredation to the data. As long as we continue to archive our data on current forms of storage (and make redundant backups) there is no reason to ever loose data. As for the story in the article, there will always be people with old machines. If nothing else the Smithsonian would be one place to look. There is also a private technology museum I read about some time ago that maintains obsolete machines in working condition. An enterprizing person with enough motivation could find a machine to read the data somewhere.
... than can be defeated by a can of turtle wax and a little elbow grease.
Polish those missiles! I want to see laser beams reflecting off of there by 1400!
As a rather tall (6'4) and broad shouldered guy with a longer than average stride I can see terrible things happening to these little toys as I approach. Many places I go the sensors and motors on automatic doors are not fast enough to get the door out of my way when I am in a hurry.
Also, let's not forget that people, especially Americans, love their space. We pay more for higher celings in our homes for this very reason. With my height I feel somewhat claustrophobic in my freind's 7' celing appartment. This door's entire point is to cut the space around you down to the bare minimum.
All it has to do is sing out with a chorus of "ahhh's" "Thank you's" and so forth from each slat and we can submit the design to Sirius Cybernetics.
From a tactical standpoint, I side with ar32h. A key element of any battle is intelligence. The goal is to have near total awareness of the engagement while denying that awareness to your enemy. During Desert Storm, what did we hit first? Telephones, Radars, and communications systems. We jammed radio frequencies, blinded their radars, and crippled their ability to communicate. Troops in the feild could not get orders from command, and command had no knowlege of freindly or enemy units' positions, movements or status.
Satillites provide necessary infrastructure for communication between troops and command, coordinating support, troop movements and even fixing your position on the ground to make sure you are where you are supposed to be. If we can deny this information to an enemy in a battle situation we can gain the upper hand. One month prior to an engagement is too late to develop this technology. It has been the long spouted argument of militay nay-sayers that "we don't need it." I say that "we don't need it yet, and when we will need it we will need it yesterday."
We just can't leave well enough alone can we? First digital watches, then self-activating faucets and now we are trying to improve on the only thing that will survive man kind... ok roaches and twinkies. Thank you Douglas Adams for the comparison material.
We keep trying to kill the little (or if you are in the tropics Cadillac-sized) buggers with various chemicals. How hard is it going to be when they can just flip on the A/C in the Roach-Coach and motor comfortably accross the kitchen floor? Damned things won't even scatter when you turn the light on either; just flip the sun visor down.
The grain is due to the "speed" of the film, or it's sensitivity to light. The more sensitive the film the higher the ASA. The sensitivity is related to the size of the crystals on the film, the larger the crystals the faster the film. Even though there is a grain to the crystals, it is still an analogue medium.
Mathmatically define two shades of gray.
Now define a shade between those.
Rinse. Repeat.
You can only do this so many times before you start running out of space to express the numbers. Film does not have this problem, it simply reacts to the environment and does not care how a computer defines it. In this way film will never be surpassed by digital photography. The only time this would not matter is when someone creates a system as cheap as a film SLR that can express variations in color and shade so detailed that the differences cannot be detected by the human eye. This might happen sometime in the future... and then I will stick with my film SLRs and Rollei because I'm eccentric like that.
Although many people are switching to DI (Digital Imagery) I am sticking with my old-fashioned manual focus film cameras. (may the gods of/. smite me for my ass-backward ways. No you cannot install Linux on my camera.) To answer your question, Black and White photography is a matter of aesthetics. There are simply some things that photograph better that way. I have found that architecture, aircraft (especially vintage planes), machinery and the human form are all photogenic in black and white (Pr0n is in color, Art is in Black and White). By removing color the photographer can force the viewer to focus on the shape, texture and contrast of the subject. Have you ever photographed Christmas in Black and White? Most people who do tend to find their photos are uniform gray. This is because similar shades of red and green appear as the same shade of gray on film. A photographer who is aware of this can capture images that show the world from a perspective unseen by the human eye. Color can distract from the form and lighting of the subject and dazzle the eye. Black and white images are simple and classy. Some of my best and most rewarding work has been with B&W film in the camera and paper in the darkroom.
As a photographer today, I have found myself to be very distrustful of images I see. It used to be that you could trust that a photograph was a True image, simply because it was not feasible to edit and change the photo. Anymore I doubt the authenticity of images since anyone with a mouse and copy of Photoshop can take a crappy snapshot and turn it into a potential prizewinner. At what point does the image stop existing as a real photograph and become the fantasy of a digital painter?
Film will always have some advantages over digital sensors. For one thing, film is an analogue, within it exists infinite possibilities for shade and color. Digital images will always be limited to what can be mathematically defined within the confines of the sensor, and storage medium. With film I can change from a 1600 ASA to 100 ASA, something that digital cameras cannot do. Once the sensor is installed it cannot be changed. To match film in this way you would need a different camera body with a variety of sensors to simulate various speeds of film.
I have used both film and digital and I find film photography to be far more rewarding. For me photography is not just the act of capturing an image, DI does that reasonably well, it's also about the process. Of course this is just one man's opinion, but I hope film never dies. I would hate to shop at antique stores so I can shoot with my Rollei 35 (1970's vintage).
What was said is not anti-geek by any means. I consider myself a geek. I have the cell phone, the Pocket PC, the killer laptop and gaming rig, and console games. However, portable communications devices such as phones, pagers, pocket PCs and so forth limit face-to-face communication. I am not advocating that you should not be true to your nature.
My point is that "going out" is one of the few remaining times when we spend an extended amount of time with one other person in face-to-face discussion. In our attempts in increase productivitiy and communication we have established barriers to it. Communication is more that just what is being said, it's how you are saying it, along with the facial expressions and body language. The misinterpretation of the post is a perfect example. If the poster had been talking to every one here directly, on a personal level there would not have been this misunderstanding. He could have seen in your faces that his message was being misunderstood and altered the delivery to make it more clear.
Electronic communication is unidirectional and filters out more than 50% of the message, the expression, tone of voice, body language and other non-verbal messages. The poster is not saying that communication gadgets are bad, just that they are limited in their scope, something that many people have forgotten.
Another technological barrier to face-to-face communication. Now we can give you yet another reason not to talk to your date.
Toss it on the pile with the email, PDAs, text messengers, 2-way pagers, cell phones, and other gadgetry.
Probably not the most popular opinion to have on/., but I find the quality of communication, especially in-person communication, sadly lacking these days.
Slashdot Mirror
Those who take risks on the road are more likely to enjoy playing computer racing games. I don't know, man, I never jumped on a turtle or ate mushrooms until I played Mario Bros.
Cheyanne Mountain is in Colorado Springs near Ft. Carson. and about an one hour and fourty minutes away from Pike's Peak (by car).
I was under the impression that the FCC was not supposed to regulate content either. At least accoding to the Supreme Court. Bah, what do they know anyway.
Probably not now that I said that, so check Fark.com, they are not as picky.
Our nuclear subs already produce enough electricity to light a small city, a little extra juice to power mag lev supports would probably be worth the extra turns on the turbines and cooling pumps. There would, of course, need to be a back-up system to support the equipment should the system fail or the sub loose power (also while the sub is in dock and the reactor is "idle")
I wonder how this will affect DVDs when the Blu-Ray or HD-DVD finally hits the market.
Well, since everything Google does is in a cronic state of beta....
New research indicates that applying a Beta-blocker, a blood pressure medication, shortly after a trauma has occured (ie, in the ER after a car accident) it can reduce the intense emotions associated with the memory of the event. One of the critical features of PTSD is experiencing flashbacks, these are not the same as memories, but are the actuall sensations of the traumatic event combined with intense emotion. Unlike the way this treatment is described in the media, it does not "erase" the bad memory, but it lessens the initial physiological link in the brain between that memory and autonomic nervous system arousal. One can remember the event but at an intensity less than that of PTSD. People suffering from PTSD are traumatized over and over as they suffer from the re-experiencing of the event, this is one of the reasons the disorder can be difficult to treat, with every flashback the neural pathway is strengthened. The beta blocker prevents that imprinting in the first place.
It is both on and off ! This message brought to you by Schrodinger Windows Inc.
Actually, HHGTTG changed even between printings of the book in subtle ways. I see the movie as just another version of the same story DA has told over and over, each time with a new twist or different details. I'm still bummed that he died before the Dirk Gently movie and the final book to HHGTTG (he was never happy with ending the series on Mostly Harmless, he thought it was a downer).
Most new deisels are vey quiet, smooth running motors. I drove a VW petrol and deisel of the same model and I actually prefered the low-end torque of the deisel; it was also quiet and very smoothe. The '83 Mercedes 300D 5 cyl turbo deisel is another story, it was a loud car, but the engine was well balanced and there was little vibration, cetainly less than my 4 cyl 1976 Volvo 245 (petrol). Mercedes especially has come along way since the engines that sounded like power sewing machines, the new E-Class deisel is so quiet I could not even hear it running when it was right next to me.
As for cold weather starting, I used to live in Salt Lake City and that Mercedes 300D would just need one more shot of electricity to the glowplugs prior to starting. There were times it would start when other petrol cars wouldn't. Of course that was a Mercedes engine kept in a garage, but I would gladly put a block heater in my car if it ment 50+ MPG.
Someone should tell California, New York and Maine (Who have outlawed the sale of new deisel cars) that deisels actually get better milage than real-world hybrid ratings without loosing much in the way of performance (most drivers just need to get used to the different power curve of deisel engines). What we should be doing is finding a way to clean up the deisel fuel so it contains fewer contaminants, like sulfur, while working on synthetic bio-deisel for large scale applications. Then everyone gets to keep their high-powered SUVs and luxury cars while we develop a new renewable energy source using existing technology.
That Honda deisel may be slow, but with a minor change to the displacement and the addition of a turbo it would probably be enough for the typical driver. The other thing is that you have to change the gear ratios when moving from a petrol to deisel engine. Deisels don't have as high a horsepower rating as gasoline, for the most part, but they have alot of torque. If you gear everything higher you can make up for a lack of high-end horsepower by making use of the inherent torqiness of the motor. Slap on a turbo and you have slow initial accelleration until the RPMs get up enough for the turbo to build pressure, but then some deisels can out accellerate some petrol cars. I loved driving our '83 Mercedes 300D Turbo (inline 5 cyl turbo deisel), once I hit 25 mph the turbo kicked in and it was like god grabbing you by the seat of your pants and taking you for a ride.
or the fact that the all three of the prequels were inferior films? I put thisin the same category as record companies saying declining sales are due to file sharing but make no mention of putting out crappy music for the last decade.
It will be interesting to see what happens with this new direction of integrated copy protection. What really needs to happen is for the RIAA to loose a high profile case that puts a dent in the current campaign. I think alot of these new measures are out of fear that the RIAA or other organizations will go after hardware manufacturers next. Companies may be doing this as a preemptive move to avoid litigation later.
Save your old hardware, someday it may just save your data.
Thanks SanDisk
In this way, digital technology has a distinct advantage over traditional media. Digital information can be duplicated countless times without any degredation to the data. As long as we continue to archive our data on current forms of storage (and make redundant backups) there is no reason to ever loose data. As for the story in the article, there will always be people with old machines. If nothing else the Smithsonian would be one place to look. There is also a private technology museum I read about some time ago that maintains obsolete machines in working condition. An enterprizing person with enough motivation could find a machine to read the data somewhere.
... than can be defeated by a can of turtle wax and a little elbow grease. Polish those missiles! I want to see laser beams reflecting off of there by 1400!
Also, let's not forget that people, especially Americans, love their space. We pay more for higher celings in our homes for this very reason. With my height I feel somewhat claustrophobic in my freind's 7' celing appartment. This door's entire point is to cut the space around you down to the bare minimum.
All it has to do is sing out with a chorus of "ahhh's" "Thank you's" and so forth from each slat and we can submit the design to Sirius Cybernetics.
Satillites provide necessary infrastructure for communication between troops and command, coordinating support, troop movements and even fixing your position on the ground to make sure you are where you are supposed to be. If we can deny this information to an enemy in a battle situation we can gain the upper hand. One month prior to an engagement is too late to develop this technology. It has been the long spouted argument of militay nay-sayers that "we don't need it." I say that "we don't need it yet, and when we will need it we will need it yesterday."
We keep trying to kill the little (or if you are in the tropics Cadillac-sized) buggers with various chemicals. How hard is it going to be when they can just flip on the A/C in the Roach-Coach and motor comfortably accross the kitchen floor? Damned things won't even scatter when you turn the light on either; just flip the sun visor down.
Mathmatically define two shades of gray.
Now define a shade between those.
Rinse. Repeat.
You can only do this so many times before you start running out of space to express the numbers. Film does not have this problem, it simply reacts to the environment and does not care how a computer defines it. In this way film will never be surpassed by digital photography. The only time this would not matter is when someone creates a system as cheap as a film SLR that can express variations in color and shade so detailed that the differences cannot be detected by the human eye. This might happen sometime in the future... and then I will stick with my film SLRs and Rollei because I'm eccentric like that.
Although many people are switching to DI (Digital Imagery) I am sticking with my old-fashioned manual focus film cameras. (may the gods of /. smite me for my ass-backward ways. No you cannot install Linux on my camera.) To answer your question, Black and White photography is a matter of aesthetics. There are simply some things that photograph better that way. I have found that architecture, aircraft (especially vintage planes), machinery and the human form are all photogenic in black and white (Pr0n is in color, Art is in Black and White). By removing color the photographer can force the viewer to focus on the shape, texture and contrast of the subject. Have you ever photographed Christmas in Black and White? Most people who do tend to find their photos are uniform gray. This is because similar shades of red and green appear as the same shade of gray on film. A photographer who is aware of this can capture images that show the world from a perspective unseen by the human eye. Color can distract from the form and lighting of the subject and dazzle the eye. Black and white images are simple and classy. Some of my best and most rewarding work has been with B&W film in the camera and paper in the darkroom.
As a photographer today, I have found myself to be very distrustful of images I see. It used to be that you could trust that a photograph was a True image, simply because it was not feasible to edit and change the photo. Anymore I doubt the authenticity of images since anyone with a mouse and copy of Photoshop can take a crappy snapshot and turn it into a potential prizewinner. At what point does the image stop existing as a real photograph and become the fantasy of a digital painter?
Film will always have some advantages over digital sensors. For one thing, film is an analogue, within it exists infinite possibilities for shade and color. Digital images will always be limited to what can be mathematically defined within the confines of the sensor, and storage medium. With film I can change from a 1600 ASA to 100 ASA, something that digital cameras cannot do. Once the sensor is installed it cannot be changed. To match film in this way you would need a different camera body with a variety of sensors to simulate various speeds of film.
I have used both film and digital and I find film photography to be far more rewarding. For me photography is not just the act of capturing an image, DI does that reasonably well, it's also about the process. Of course this is just one man's opinion, but I hope film never dies. I would hate to shop at antique stores so I can shoot with my Rollei 35 (1970's vintage).
As a former Utah resident: "Girl on girl on girl on girl on girl on guy on sheep" - Da Vinci's Notebook, "Internet Porn"
My point is that "going out" is one of the few remaining times when we spend an extended amount of time with one other person in face-to-face discussion. In our attempts in increase productivitiy and communication we have established barriers to it. Communication is more that just what is being said, it's how you are saying it, along with the facial expressions and body language. The misinterpretation of the post is a perfect example. If the poster had been talking to every one here directly, on a personal level there would not have been this misunderstanding. He could have seen in your faces that his message was being misunderstood and altered the delivery to make it more clear.
Electronic communication is unidirectional and filters out more than 50% of the message, the expression, tone of voice, body language and other non-verbal messages. The poster is not saying that communication gadgets are bad, just that they are limited in their scope, something that many people have forgotten.
Toss it on the pile with the email, PDAs, text messengers, 2-way pagers, cell phones, and other gadgetry.
Probably not the most popular opinion to have on /., but I find the quality of communication, especially in-person communication, sadly lacking these days.