You're right, you'd be a fool to just jump in some contractor's shuttle. Congress would be foolish to just provide funding up front as well. Let some group of people design, build, and test their own equipment. If they get this far, have them apply to Congress for government incentives. I'd say the key is to let the contractors take the financial risks so that once a sound design materializes, Congress can step in and support that instead of paying for R&D right away. Both Congress and the contractors should have experts on hand to examine the craft as well. Taxpayer money goes to the brightest folks, who only get incentives based on the job that they do.
I favor html to the doc (in any shape or form), but what I do like about OOo is it's file conversions, which are still a little clunky, but they're still usable. I find the following especially useful:
html->doc: For when I am forced into submitting something in doc format. There'll be a link to the real html document on the first line of the doc, guaranteed:-) Too bad the CSS ins't handled better...
doc->pdf: Good for making nice clean finished docs, even if they're bloated.
Contributed by Joseph DeRuvo Jr. Friday, 10 December 2004
20041006--001014.jpg - 30.27 KB
Close to 12 years ago I caught wind of an Operating System called PenPoint. This was one of the first pen driven operating systems out there. I had contacted them and spoke of how so many people had been left out of the technological revolution and I had thought it was due to the awkwardness of the current state of hardware and software design. At that time I would have hoped Apple would have risen to the challenge to develop a Tablet but as it turned out it was Microsoft who took the chance.
Working with a computer all day long, I have to say that there is nothing quite as pretty as OS X. It is by no means perfect, as a Photographer running 4 Epson printers and depending on the quality of output, it is a continuous frustration and I am afraid the fault lies with Apple not Epson.
As a Photographer and a Dyslexic the idea of being able to use a Tablet as a platform for showing photographs, editing, and an extension of my badly organized memory is very appealing. I had purchased an early QBE, which I was happy with, except for the problem of going between the QBE and all my other desktops which are Apples, it was always the odd man out, in addition to the frustration of finding cross platform software. So taking matters into my own hands I cut into a Dual USB iBook and didn't look back.
20041006--001012.jpg - 31.42 KB
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The first thing to consider is what I needed it to do. As a Wedding Photographer I needed something that would serve me in the field, so it needed to have:
-A built in Compact Flash Card reader
-Firewire (USB would be to slow) -Two built in hard drives (so that the flashcard could be written to both at the same time)
-Extra Firewire ports for external hard drives and DVD burners.
-Bluetooth built in for keyboard and mouse when needed
-touch screen and the driver board for it.
Some functions I wanted to keep intact:
built in mouse click
on off switch
built in CD burning
good air port reception
mic for voice recognition
ability to put it into sleep mode when I close the cover
Putting it all together I have to thank God wasn't so bad, miracles happen everyday.
20041006--001017.jpg - 41.28 KB
20041006--001015.jpg - 42.57 KB
20041006--001016.jpg - 43.78 KB
The first problem was how to make it touch sensitive. I obviously had thought of going with Wacom but, using their technology would require a different screen configuration which would make it more difficult. Thank God I had found out about Troll Touch, they were a pleasure to work with. Troll Touch are makers of touch screens for Kiosks. They were one of the few manufactures that had a driver written for OS X, the digitizer sits in front of the screen and is touch sensitive, while the driver board runs through a USB port. A resistive digitizer is good and bad, it means you can use your finger to navigate and click, even ink will recognize your hand writing, but you do not have the full functionality of what a Wacom tablet will give you.
The second problem was how to fit all this inside. I had acquired the shell of a dead iBook so with that I took the top plate and used it as a spacer. Recognizing that I had no need of a keyboard I pulled that out making room for the extra hard drive and slot for the flash card reader. I also had to make room for a USB and Firewire hub in the shell. Not to make light of all this but it is a creative process, like baking bread, there is a recipe but, there is also some room for making it up as you go along. After opening the thing up and figuring out where everything will fit, I started to look into removing the screen and hinges. I also came to the (frightening) realization that to get the hubs to fit and not have their cables running from the o
It would be economically beneficial to mine the ocean floor. It may be more useful to have mining vehicles transduce heat from their surroundings into electricity. This would give mankind incentive to destroy otherwise prisitine deep sea vents.
Parent seems to have forgotten that arms and legs are deadly weapons and open for abuse, so they too should be removed at birth. Even further, brains are dangerous and unpredictable systems that should be tightly controlled, if not totally disabled, throughout an individual's lifetime.
I think politicians are stupid and should be replaced on a large scale before listened to. Also, less government is a good thing. I'm no expert on this either, but aren't classical Republicans supposed to be for smaller government that benefits business (laissez faire market approach) which in turn passes the buck to the middle guy, and classical Democrats for larger government that keeps businesses in check and maintains helpful social programs, which are then supposed to help the middle guy? How come the government now seems to take the position of obstruction to most everything innovative? How does that benefit the middle guy? Things seem to be getting progressively wierder in the US. The US could use more progressiveness.
And somehow the Libertarians got into this and it seems to me that barely anyone's listening to them...
The heck. Teach these ignorant jerks in Congress about these fancy new com-pu-ters and how they actually work. That "L1" "L2" and "L3" comment was excellent.
Congress: I don't wanna learn puters.
Congressman: Let's make a Dept. of Technology and Ethics! It'll take ten billion in annual funding.
Congress: Ay!
*sigh* I don't much care for our new Chinese overlords.
In other news, here's a rollcall for the PATRIOT Act. It's a dead horse, but I just noticed that Sen. Sensenbrenner ( R-WI ) sponsored this beast and Sen. Feingold ( D-WI ) cast the only dissenting vote. It's amazing to me that no one voted against the DMCA. I know this has been a bit offtopic, but it was interesting news to me being an ignorant Wisconsonite. *shrug* I guess I'll go back to my chronic Googling now...
i couldn't find anything on pressure thresholds, but there is an article talking about how turgor pressure effects plant growth. turgor is a biology term that princeton defines better than i do. i'd imagine that the turgor pressure corresponds to atmospheric pressure in slightly different ratios species-to-species... The article also talks about yield threshold, which i think is just the output of good crop.
hereis more info on what plants NASA wants to grow for their astronauts ( wheat, rice, lettuce, cabbage, soy, potatoes, and others ) and some issues that they are facing ( one article mentions nuts and fruits are difficult ). too bad NASA is really buries their information...
Slashdot Mirror
You're right, you'd be a fool to just jump in some contractor's shuttle. Congress would be foolish to just provide funding up front as well. Let some group of people design, build, and test their own equipment. If they get this far, have them apply to Congress for government incentives. I'd say the key is to let the contractors take the financial risks so that once a sound design materializes, Congress can step in and support that instead of paying for R&D right away. Both Congress and the contractors should have experts on hand to examine the craft as well. Taxpayer money goes to the brightest folks, who only get incentives based on the job that they do.
Privatize. *cough* Give incentives out instead of doing it in-house. *ahem* Replace NASA slowly...
I favor html to the doc (in any shape or form), but what I do like about OOo is it's file conversions, which are still a little clunky, but they're still usable. I find the following especially useful:
- html->doc: For when I am forced into submitting something in doc format. There'll be a link to the real html document on the first line of the doc, guaranteed
:-) Too bad the CSS ins't handled better...
- doc->pdf: Good for making nice clean finished docs, even if they're bloated.
And it's all free.Contributed by Joseph DeRuvo Jr.
Friday, 10 December 2004
20041006--001014.jpg - 30.27 KB
Close to 12 years ago I caught wind of an Operating System called PenPoint. This was one of the first pen driven operating systems out there. I had contacted them and spoke of how so many people had been left out of the technological revolution and I had thought it was due to the awkwardness of the current state of hardware and software design. At that time I would have hoped Apple would have risen to the challenge to develop a Tablet but as it turned out it was Microsoft who took the chance.
Working with a computer all day long, I have to say that there is nothing quite as pretty as OS X. It is by no means perfect, as a Photographer running 4 Epson printers and depending on the quality of output, it is a continuous frustration and I am afraid the fault lies with Apple not Epson.
As a Photographer and a Dyslexic the idea of being able to use a Tablet as a platform for showing photographs, editing, and an extension of my badly organized memory is very appealing. I had purchased an early QBE, which I was happy with, except for the problem of going between the QBE and all my other desktops which are Apples, it was always the odd man out, in addition to the frustration of finding cross platform software. So taking matters into my own hands I cut into a Dual USB iBook and didn't look back.
20041006--001012.jpg - 31.42 KB
20041006--001013.jpg - 28.96 KB
20041006--001011.jpg - 37.68 KB
The first thing to consider is what I needed it to do. As a Wedding Photographer I needed something that would serve me in the field, so it needed to have:
-A built in Compact Flash Card reader
-Firewire (USB would be to slow)
-Two built in hard drives (so that the flashcard could be written to both at the same time)
-Extra Firewire ports for external hard drives and DVD burners.
-Bluetooth built in for keyboard and mouse when needed
-touch screen and the driver board for it.
Some functions I wanted to keep intact:
built in mouse click
on off switch
built in CD burning
good air port reception
mic for voice recognition
ability to put it into sleep mode when I close the cover
Putting it all together I have to thank God wasn't so bad, miracles happen everyday.
20041006--001017.jpg - 41.28 KB
20041006--001015.jpg - 42.57 KB
20041006--001016.jpg - 43.78 KB
The first problem was how to make it touch sensitive. I obviously had thought of going with Wacom but, using their technology would require a different screen configuration which would make it more difficult. Thank God I had found out about Troll Touch, they were a pleasure to work with. Troll Touch are makers of touch screens for Kiosks. They were one of the few manufactures that had a driver written for OS X, the digitizer sits in front of the screen and is touch sensitive, while the driver board runs through a USB port. A resistive digitizer is good and bad, it means you can use your finger to navigate and click, even ink will recognize your hand writing, but you do not have the full functionality of what a Wacom tablet will give you.
The second problem was how to fit all this inside. I had acquired the shell of a dead iBook so with that I took the top plate and used it as a spacer. Recognizing that I had no need of a keyboard I pulled that out making room for the extra hard drive and slot for the flash card reader. I also had to make room for a USB and Firewire hub in the shell. Not to make light of all this but it is a creative process, like baking bread, there is a recipe but, there is also some room for making it up as you go along. After opening the thing up and figuring out where everything will fit, I started to look into removing the screen and hinges. I also came to the (frightening) realization that to get the hubs to fit and not have their cables running from the o
It would be economically beneficial to mine the ocean floor. It may be more useful to have mining vehicles transduce heat from their surroundings into electricity. This would give mankind incentive to destroy otherwise prisitine deep sea vents.
Parent seems to have forgotten that arms and legs are deadly weapons and open for abuse, so they too should be removed at birth. Even further, brains are dangerous and unpredictable systems that should be tightly controlled, if not totally disabled, throughout an individual's lifetime.
track down spammers and apply shotgun
I think politicians are stupid and should be replaced on a large scale before listened to. Also, less government is a good thing. I'm no expert on this either, but aren't classical Republicans supposed to be for smaller government that benefits business (laissez faire market approach) which in turn passes the buck to the middle guy, and classical Democrats for larger government that keeps businesses in check and maintains helpful social programs, which are then supposed to help the middle guy? How come the government now seems to take the position of obstruction to most everything innovative? How does that benefit the middle guy? Things seem to be getting progressively wierder in the US. The US could use more progressiveness.
And somehow the Libertarians got into this and it seems to me that barely anyone's listening to them...
The heck. Teach these ignorant jerks in Congress about these fancy new com-pu-ters and how they actually work. That "L1" "L2" and "L3" comment was excellent.
Congress: I don't wanna learn puters.
Congressman: Let's make a Dept. of Technology and Ethics! It'll take ten billion in annual funding.
Congress: Ay!
*sigh* I don't much care for our new Chinese overlords.So some overpaid gov't mooch/schmuck is given this "CyberSecurityForTheHomeland.doc"
Said mooch is then told to, "Put this into PDF format, Wilson."
So...
"Thanks, Wilson. You sure are computer-literate!"
And who knew that OpenOffice can "Export to PDF"?
The US gov't sucks so much.
but don't the states have 55E12$ to pay off already?
since when does a couple mil not matter?
oh wait, lame duck session and president. my mistake.
Jobs: Nya Nya! iTunes makes money jerk! :-) not in my country it doesn't
Gates:
In other news, here's a rollcall for the PATRIOT Act. It's a dead horse, but I just noticed that Sen. Sensenbrenner ( R-WI ) sponsored this beast and Sen. Feingold ( D-WI ) cast the only dissenting vote. It's amazing to me that no one voted against the DMCA.
I know this has been a bit offtopic, but it was interesting news to me being an ignorant Wisconsonite.
*shrug*
I guess I'll go back to my chronic Googling now...
i hate you.
i couldn't find anything on pressure thresholds, but there is an article talking about how turgor pressure effects plant growth. turgor is a biology term that princeton defines better than i do. i'd imagine that the turgor pressure corresponds to atmospheric pressure in slightly different ratios species-to-species... The article also talks about yield threshold, which i think is just the output of good crop. here is more info on what plants NASA wants to grow for their astronauts ( wheat, rice, lettuce, cabbage, soy, potatoes, and others ) and some issues that they are facing ( one article mentions nuts and fruits are difficult ). too bad NASA is really buries their information...