Problem with not storing with battery is that Lithium Ion may not be around in 25 years [...] Leaving a tech to figure out how to power this device up,
Just mark the fool thing with "15VDC, tip positive, 2A." Basic electrical specs aren't going away anytime soon. Any "tech" worth the title will know what to do with it. If someone gave me a computer from 25 years ago, I could get it running.
Heck, it'd be easy -- I'd just wire it to the Z80 computer I'm building for an upcoming course to be taught this fall at Drexel.
The "art of soldering," maybe -- but what soldering technique involves gripping the iron in one's fist, as if to stab someone in the back with a dagger?
You'd think if they were teaching soldering, they would start with how to hold the things. About the only way you could do it worse is to grab the actual business end!
...they can have my local computing and storage capabilities when they pry them from my cold, dead hands. Google is great for looking things up -- and webmail accounts are great for portability -- but the old saying applies: If you want something done (backed up, available), do it yourself. Much more secure that way, too.
Besides, with Remote Desktop, FOUSs*, and continuous 'Net connections, it's pretty easy to take it with you.
* (8GB on a microSDHC the size of my fingernail is a Flashdrive Of Unusual Size in my book!)
Having just tried a Wii for the first time the other day, I think it's interesting -- but for accuracy, it doesn't come anywhere near replacing a mouse. I prefer the Logitech Trackball -- but I just don't see touchscreens (even using PDA-style tap-and-hold for right-click, you lose bandwidth) or accelerometer-based devices (for XY input, the trackball is hard to beat IMHO) replacing mouselike devices anytime soon.
Facial recognition? I'll believe that when I see it. Handwriting recognition? We're a loooong way from that working acceptably. Speech recognition? Well, maybe -- but not in the next few years, unless someone makes a really amazing breakthrough in speech-rec algorithms.
As a wild guess, scientists fudging results that sound good, in order to gain recognition. Remember the whole "cold fusion" thing? Perhaps they believed they really had something -- but it's also quite possible that they fudged their statistics a bit (or created outright fabrications) for publicity.
Personally, I'd rather be an unknown but ethical scientist than release sensational results, claiming more statistical confidence than I was certain of. You sleep better at night knowing that if anyone checks up, you won't look like an idiot or a charlatan.
I would think that a professional oath for computer scientists / programmers / code monkeys (choose whichever term you prefer; I've considered myself an amateur at all three) would be helpful. Something along the lines of:
I pledge to not release any code which I have not tested or have reason to believe is incorrect and/or incomplete, unless such code is clearly marked as "Alpha." I further pledge not to use such unreliable and untested code in any projects for public consumption, without ensuring that the project itself is considered "Alpha" and experimental.
...or would companies avoid hiring programmers who had taken such an oath, knowing that such attention to detail might (would?) cause them to have a slower release schedule than their competition?
I don't think 9/11 would have happened under a Gore presidency.
Even if it had, we would have responded the same way in Afghanistan -- which was justified -- and never have gotten ourselves into this whole Iraq mess.
End results? Other nations would have a much higher opinion of the US; our economy would not be in nearly so bad shape; gas would not be above $4/gallon -- and thousands of American servicemen and servicewomen would not be dead. Oh, yeah -- and we wouldn't be using the Bill of Rights as toilet paper.
Amazing how much trouble you can cause by *losing* a presidential election, Bush...
I can't wait to see the guy gone -- but think about it, folks. Even if our Congresscritters grew a collective spine and acted on this, we do *NOT* want to impeach Bush.
I mean, does *anyone* here want "President Cheney"?!?
Yeah, but what if Google decides that nobody is using these -- or they can't legally host them for whatever reason -- or they just decide that they don't want to do this anymore?
I like Google too -- and this is nice of them -- but I like the idea of a website being as self-sufficient as possible (not relying on other servers, which introduce extra single-points-of-failure into the process.)
At the risk of sounding like an old curmudgeon, whatever happened to good ol' HTML?
Nice to see manufacturers still including the venerable RS232 port. It may be old and slow, but it's very easy to work with, if you're an electronics hobbyist -- much simpler than implementing USB connectivity...
They do mention DOS.
As well they should.
I've personally worked with a DOS machine, in a business, this year. Didn't think I'd still see DOS in 2008. GlaDOS?
Even boot up BIOS passwords will probably not suffice. A BIOS boot password is useless against physical access. Won't slow them down by 30 seconds, unless your PC case is really hard to open.
By having some top-notch creative talent (never mind which color hat they're wearing) take a stab at creating new styles of malware under controlled conditions, they're giving the antivirus vendors a great opportunity to study these creations -- and therefore to be better able to protect against them.
Heck, if I were Symantec, McAffee et al -- I'd take the opportunity to try to *recruit* programmers who had interesting entries in the contest! (Better to have them working for you, right?)
Verizon's DSL service, at least in Philadelphia, redirects DNS lookup failures by default. I found this out after mistyping some URL or other. Looking into it, they do have a way to opt out of this "service" -- although if you're not at least reasonably competent with making TCP/IP configuration changes on a home router, don't bother; it involves looking up and modifying IP addresses. Not a big deal to most/.ers, I'd say, but a nightmare for the general public.
Perhaps if there's enough coordinated consumer demand, we could create a market for a certified "standard Internet connection" -- which gives a public IP (static or DHCP) and unfiltered, unadulterated 'Net access -- no port blocking, no bandwidth throttling, no DHCP redirects, no PPPoE or other strange "install-this-software-to-connect-to-the-Internet" schemes. Just gimme a basic 'Net feed terminating in an Ethernet port, thankyouverymuch.
Also, apparently I have yet to "decide" whether I want to choose MSN, AOL, or Yahoo for my "Internet Experience." Such a decision might well take me a while, Verizon...
In both cases the figure was rounded to 1 significant figure, which is as relevant as is needed for the audience.
You're trying to explain significant figures to/. ? You must be new here. Good luck, sir.
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Problem with not storing with battery is that Lithium Ion may not be around in 25 years [...] Leaving a tech to figure out how to power this device up,
Just mark the fool thing with "15VDC, tip positive, 2A." Basic electrical specs aren't going away anytime soon. Any "tech" worth the title will know what to do with it. If someone gave me a computer from 25 years ago, I could get it running.
Heck, it'd be easy -- I'd just wire it to the Z80 computer I'm building for an upcoming course to be taught this fall at Drexel.
The "art of soldering," maybe -- but what soldering technique involves gripping the iron in one's fist, as if to stab someone in the back with a dagger?
You'd think if they were teaching soldering, they would start with how to hold the things. About the only way you could do it worse is to grab the actual business end!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_man
At least he's old enough to remember "NO CARRIER" messages.
...they can have my local computing and storage capabilities when they pry them from my cold, dead hands. Google is great for looking things up -- and webmail accounts are great for portability -- but the old saying applies: If you want something done (backed up, available), do it yourself. Much more secure that way, too.
Besides, with Remote Desktop, FOUSs*, and continuous 'Net connections, it's pretty easy to take it with you.
* (8GB on a microSDHC the size of my fingernail is a Flashdrive Of Unusual Size in my book!)
Having just tried a Wii for the first time the other day, I think it's interesting -- but for accuracy, it doesn't come anywhere near replacing a mouse. I prefer the Logitech Trackball -- but I just don't see touchscreens (even using PDA-style tap-and-hold for right-click, you lose bandwidth) or accelerometer-based devices (for XY input, the trackball is hard to beat IMHO) replacing mouselike devices anytime soon.
Facial recognition? I'll believe that when I see it. Handwriting recognition? We're a loooong way from that working acceptably. Speech recognition? Well, maybe -- but not in the next few years, unless someone makes a really amazing breakthrough in speech-rec algorithms.
As a wild guess, scientists fudging results that sound good, in order to gain recognition. Remember the whole "cold fusion" thing? Perhaps they believed they really had something -- but it's also quite possible that they fudged their statistics a bit (or created outright fabrications) for publicity.
Personally, I'd rather be an unknown but ethical scientist than release sensational results, claiming more statistical confidence than I was certain of. You sleep better at night knowing that if anyone checks up, you won't look like an idiot or a charlatan.
I would think that a professional oath for computer scientists / programmers / code monkeys (choose whichever term you prefer; I've considered myself an amateur at all three) would be helpful. Something along the lines of:
...or would companies avoid hiring programmers who had taken such an oath, knowing that such attention to detail might (would?) cause them to have a slower release schedule than their competition?
I pledge to not release any code which I have not tested or have reason to believe is incorrect and/or incomplete, unless such code is clearly marked as "Alpha." I further pledge not to use such unreliable and untested code in any projects for public consumption, without ensuring that the project itself is considered "Alpha" and experimental.
How about ROCKS: Reduced-Oxide Capacitor Kilowatt Signaling? Or DIRT: Densely-Inductive Resonant Transformers!
I don't think 9/11 would have happened under a Gore presidency.
Even if it had, we would have responded the same way in Afghanistan -- which was justified -- and never have gotten ourselves into this whole Iraq mess.
End results? Other nations would have a much higher opinion of the US; our economy would not be in nearly so bad shape; gas would not be above $4/gallon -- and thousands of American servicemen and servicewomen would not be dead. Oh, yeah -- and we wouldn't be using the Bill of Rights as toilet paper.
Amazing how much trouble you can cause by *losing* a presidential election, Bush...
I can't wait to see the guy gone -- but think about it, folks. Even if our Congresscritters grew a collective spine and acted on this, we do *NOT* want to impeach Bush.
I mean, does *anyone* here want "President Cheney"?!?
Yeah, but what if Google decides that nobody is using these -- or they can't legally host them for whatever reason -- or they just decide that they don't want to do this anymore?
I like Google too -- and this is nice of them -- but I like the idea of a website being as self-sufficient as possible (not relying on other servers, which introduce extra single-points-of-failure into the process.)
At the risk of sounding like an old curmudgeon, whatever happened to good ol' HTML?
Amazing how many euphemisms there are for "Shop Vac" these days!
Nice to see manufacturers still including the venerable RS232 port. It may be old and slow, but it's very easy to work with, if you're an electronics hobbyist -- much simpler than implementing USB connectivity...
Intelligent Design, meet Platypus.
...
Platypus, meet Intelligent Design.
Maybe there is a God, maybe not -- but would any sane being *design* something like this??
...but there's gotta be some "Must-See TV" that I'm missing. No time for boring ol' reading, is there?
Actually, I haven't had TV since January, and other than the Science Channel, I don't really miss it.
By having some top-notch creative talent (never mind which color hat they're wearing) take a stab at creating new styles of malware under controlled conditions, they're giving the antivirus vendors a great opportunity to study these creations -- and therefore to be better able to protect against them.
Heck, if I were Symantec, McAffee et al -- I'd take the opportunity to try to *recruit* programmers who had interesting entries in the contest! (Better to have them working for you, right?)
Verizon's DSL service, at least in Philadelphia, redirects DNS lookup failures by default. I found this out after mistyping some URL or other. Looking into it, they do have a way to opt out of this "service" -- although if you're not at least reasonably competent with making TCP/IP configuration changes on a home router, don't bother; it involves looking up and modifying IP addresses. Not a big deal to most /.ers, I'd say, but a nightmare for the general public.
Perhaps if there's enough coordinated consumer demand, we could create a market for a certified "standard Internet connection" -- which gives a public IP (static or DHCP) and unfiltered, unadulterated 'Net access -- no port blocking, no bandwidth throttling, no DHCP redirects, no PPPoE or other strange "install-this-software-to-connect-to-the-Internet" schemes. Just gimme a basic 'Net feed terminating in an Ethernet port, thankyouverymuch.
Also, apparently I have yet to "decide" whether I want to choose MSN, AOL, or Yahoo for my "Internet Experience." Such a decision might well take me a while, Verizon...
...In Soviet Russia, questionable navigation systems report on *you*!
You're trying to explain significant figures to
There ya go. Fixed that for you. (Not that I don't have suspicious about Ron Paul, too...)
No thanks, Apple. iDON'T.
Directional-control gyros do -- but not nav gyros. There are small versions weighing well under 1kg, for use in model helicopters etc.