Writers on Star Trek, unlike Star Wars, take care not to violate physics. What they do is invent hypothetical addendums to physics that we have not discovered yet that support their own constructs.
IE, "warp speed" does not violate special relativity, because they are not traveling through normal space time. They are traveling through another kind of spacetime (subspace) that we haven't discovered yet, where the constants that govern our laws of physics are different.
Efficiency is not so important in this application because of the useage of your typical car. A car typically sits around for 75% of the day doing nothing. This whole time this process could be converting water into hydrogen.
The only time it would not work is during long highway trips. During these times some kind of accelerated process or hydrogen filling station would be needed.
What they should have is a very simple page at WikiLeaks.com instructing people on how to easily download, install and use FreeNet, with FreeNet links to a FreeNet-hosted WikiLeaks website.
Then the site would not easily be able to be brought off line, because no one would know where it was hosted (since it is not actually hosted *anywhere*)
It is a cool idea, that is for sure, but it would never leave the lab. Why? Because these guys are obviously not usability engineers. The idea that the function of a button changes based on some random event, and the system will tell you which button means what before you click it, is not usable.
I would like to see a formal usability study done on this thing I don't think it would get very far. I see they had some informal study going on where they had participation and error rates, but no data on what kind of users.
I already have this. It's called a SIM card. If I am going out on the town and want to have a small compact phone I put my SIM in my Razr. If I am going to work or traveling and want a PDA I put it in my HTC Wizard.
What is the benefit of this, other than the fact that they want me to likely spend as much on a "sleeve" as I do for a complete unlocked phone on eBay?
The problem with XMPP is not that it is a bad idea or that it is a bad spec, it is that they chose the heavy XML as a container format for the messages.
It is pretty silly that in a a 4-5 word IM message, 75% of the data transferred in an XMPP client is just protocol overhead, and the message is just 25%.
If they had used a more lightweight container like JSON for the protocol it would have much less overhead.
Frankly, IMO, almost all data transfer protocols would be better suited to the JSON container than XML container. XML formats only make sense when you have a complex hierarchical structure with lots of data types. Simple data types and not complex hierarchies make more sense in JSON.
This whole thread is stupid.
Jessica Alba is hot. Jessica Beil is hot. Scarlett Johansson is hot. Elisha Cuthbert is hot.
If you want to go to mainstream TV, Evangeline Lilly from Lost is hot. Jennifer Morrison and Olivia Wilde from House are very hot. Olivia Munn from AOTS is very hot.
If you want to go to the hot with a brain as well, then look no further than Kim Jagtiani (http://www.discoverychannel.ca/shows/castdetails.aspx?cid=3018&sid=5).
Kerri is just average - period. Just because she is a female host on a show you happen to watch often does not make her "hot". She is intelligent yes, but quite average looking.
Even if you are a txt happy teenager, txting is slower than talking. It is slower, it is more distracting, it costs more, it conveys less information... so why again would you txt someone instead of call them / leave a voicemail?
Still, I don't think the FCC will take Google stock as payment - cash only please.
Why would Google need to pay with stock? Google is a money making machine. Google has almost 14 billion in cash and short term investments on its balance sheet right now. They could likely raise two or three times that in a heartbeat if they wanted to mount a large bid.
And just for reference - Verizon only has 11.5 billion in cash on hand. Basically, they would have to team up with one of their nationwide competitors to outbid Google in a bidding war - something they likely would not want to do.
You are the sys admin are you not? Maintaining the operation of the network is YOUR responsibility. That includes maintaining it's carbon footprint.
Push out an update to disable screen savers, turn monitors off after 15 minutes of inactivity, and hibernate after 1.5 hours of inactivity (this saves them from having to boot up after lunch), and set Windows to require administrative privileges to change power management settings.
Piece of cake. If they run Linux s/Windows/Linux above.
We are decades, likely centuries, away from being able to even replicate the functionality of the human body via implants, so you will have a long wait.
For example - this sprinter has an advantage running, yes. However his implants would fall on their feet in a swimming competition, or gymnasitcs competition, or bicycling - or likely even driving a standard car.
This is the problem with human prosthetics. Technology is getting to the point where we can design them so that they function very well, but only for one purpose. The real human body is extremely adaptable due to millions of years of evolution. Just look at how hard it is to design a robot who can walk, run, and stay upright... now try to change all that into bio-mechanics that can be implanted! Difficult tasks indeed.
"The spec has allowed 3200Mb/s over fibre for years but I've not seen any consumer products supporting it. The latest version of the spec (just approved) supports 3200Mb/s over the same cables and connectors as existing FireWire 800 systems."
I have never understood this about "specs". If the cable already had the physical bandwidth to transmit 3200Mb/s from day 1, then why did the orginal "spec", which is just a document after all, specify that higher number? I have the same question for USB 1.1 vs. 2.0 - why wasn't it just 480 Mbps from the get go? Was it because of chip processing limitations at the time or something? Because that argument doesn't hold water for me; it would be perfectly valid to write the spec for the THEORETICAL FUTURE when such speeds are possible and just wait for hardware to catch up with the spec.
I know it can't be as simple as it seems but I just have never understood this.
Slashdot Mirror
Writers on Star Trek, unlike Star Wars, take care not to violate physics. What they do is invent hypothetical addendums to physics that we have not discovered yet that support their own constructs. IE, "warp speed" does not violate special relativity, because they are not traveling through normal space time. They are traveling through another kind of spacetime (subspace) that we haven't discovered yet, where the constants that govern our laws of physics are different.
Efficiency is not so important in this application because of the useage of your typical car. A car typically sits around for 75% of the day doing nothing. This whole time this process could be converting water into hydrogen.
The only time it would not work is during long highway trips. During these times some kind of accelerated process or hydrogen filling station would be needed.
..WikiLeaks is a flawed idea.
What they should have is a very simple page at WikiLeaks.com instructing people on how to easily download, install and use FreeNet, with FreeNet links to a FreeNet-hosted WikiLeaks website.
Then the site would not easily be able to be brought off line, because no one would know where it was hosted (since it is not actually hosted *anywhere*)
It's a physical, wood based, product made into sheets with information pertinent 12-24 hours ago
There, fixed that for you.
If you've ever played Wario Ware or Mario Party with a bunch of friends while half drunk, you know how fun it can be.
Games don't have to have top of the line graphics to be fun. Nintendo got it right with the Wii.
It is a cool idea, that is for sure, but it would never leave the lab. Why? Because these guys are obviously not usability engineers. The idea that the function of a button changes based on some random event, and the system will tell you which button means what before you click it, is not usable.
I would like to see a formal usability study done on this thing I don't think it would get very far. I see they had some informal study going on where they had participation and error rates, but no data on what kind of users.
I already have this. It's called a SIM card. If I am going out on the town and want to have a small compact phone I put my SIM in my Razr. If I am going to work or traveling and want a PDA I put it in my HTC Wizard.
What is the benefit of this, other than the fact that they want me to likely spend as much on a "sleeve" as I do for a complete unlocked phone on eBay?
JSON is also standard, easy to understand and text based, just like XML. It just doesn't have all the overhead because it is very simple.
The problem with XMPP is not that it is a bad idea or that it is a bad spec, it is that they chose the heavy XML as a container format for the messages.
It is pretty silly that in a a 4-5 word IM message, 75% of the data transferred in an XMPP client is just protocol overhead, and the message is just 25%.
If they had used a more lightweight container like JSON for the protocol it would have much less overhead.
Frankly, IMO, almost all data transfer protocols would be better suited to the JSON container than XML container. XML formats only make sense when you have a complex hierarchical structure with lots of data types. Simple data types and not complex hierarchies make more sense in JSON.
They're obviously just waiting till the last minute so they can snap it up for 4,299,999,999.99.
I bet they have a wicked fast sniping script. After all they're Google!
This whole thread is stupid. Jessica Alba is hot. Jessica Beil is hot. Scarlett Johansson is hot. Elisha Cuthbert is hot. If you want to go to mainstream TV, Evangeline Lilly from Lost is hot. Jennifer Morrison and Olivia Wilde from House are very hot. Olivia Munn from AOTS is very hot. If you want to go to the hot with a brain as well, then look no further than Kim Jagtiani (http://www.discoverychannel.ca/shows/castdetails.aspx?cid=3018&sid=5). Kerri is just average - period. Just because she is a female host on a show you happen to watch often does not make her "hot". She is intelligent yes, but quite average looking.
Kari is pretty much average. Being a geek has obviously lowered your standards.
I can't even count on my two hands the girls I know personally who are as good if not better looking than she is.
Crows and several birds of paradise also use tools for various things. It would be interesting to know if their brains showed the same patterns.
However I think it would be more difficult to convince a crow to do this experiment.
Yes, it does.
You can't patent an obvious idea. Period.
The problem with patents is it is up to the courts what is obvious.
Both engineers and terrorists are adept at studying processes and architectures to discover their strengths and weaknesses.
The difference between a terrorist and en engineer is, the engineer wants to know how processes and architectures function to make them better.
The terrorist wants to know how how processes and architectures function to spread terror.
So does that mean I can file a patent for running Microsoft Word in a VM just because I happen to be doing it right now?
An idea has to be ORIGINAL and NOVEL to be patentable. Just saying "take A and B and do them together!" does not a patent make.
I have never understood the allure of txting.
Even if you are a txt happy teenager, txting is slower than talking. It is slower, it is more distracting, it costs more, it conveys less information... so why again would you txt someone instead of call them / leave a voicemail?
Has never ever made sense to me.
Simple reason - because if you count PS3s then you should also count HD DVD ROM drives in PCs and Laptops, which are NEVER counted in these numbers.
There are more laptops and PCs on the market with HD DVD ROM drives than PS3s in the market.
I was just going by whats reported on Google Finance. They might very well have 20 billion now.
This is KDE 4.0, not 3.4.X
4.0 is very new and unstable relative to KDE 3.4.X
Still, I don't think the FCC will take Google stock as payment - cash only please.
Why would Google need to pay with stock? Google is a money making machine. Google has almost 14 billion in cash and short term investments on its balance sheet right now. They could likely raise two or three times that in a heartbeat if they wanted to mount a large bid.
And just for reference - Verizon only has 11.5 billion in cash on hand. Basically, they would have to team up with one of their nationwide competitors to outbid Google in a bidding war - something they likely would not want to do.
Yeah... those VLT machines in use since the 80's are SO UNRELIABLE. They go down at least once every 10 years!
WTF are you smoking?
You are the sys admin are you not? Maintaining the operation of the network is YOUR responsibility. That includes maintaining it's carbon footprint.
Push out an update to disable screen savers, turn monitors off after 15 minutes of inactivity, and hibernate after 1.5 hours of inactivity (this saves them from having to boot up after lunch), and set Windows to require administrative privileges to change power management settings.
Piece of cake. If they run Linux s/Windows/Linux above.
We are decades, likely centuries, away from being able to even replicate the functionality of the human body via implants, so you will have a long wait.
For example - this sprinter has an advantage running, yes. However his implants would fall on their feet in a swimming competition, or gymnasitcs competition, or bicycling - or likely even driving a standard car.
This is the problem with human prosthetics. Technology is getting to the point where we can design them so that they function very well, but only for one purpose. The real human body is extremely adaptable due to millions of years of evolution. Just look at how hard it is to design a robot who can walk, run, and stay upright... now try to change all that into bio-mechanics that can be implanted! Difficult tasks indeed.
"The spec has allowed 3200Mb/s over fibre for years but I've not seen any consumer products supporting it. The latest version of the spec (just approved) supports 3200Mb/s over the same cables and connectors as existing FireWire 800 systems."
I have never understood this about "specs". If the cable already had the physical bandwidth to transmit 3200Mb/s from day 1, then why did the orginal "spec", which is just a document after all, specify that higher number? I have the same question for USB 1.1 vs. 2.0 - why wasn't it just 480 Mbps from the get go? Was it because of chip processing limitations at the time or something? Because that argument doesn't hold water for me; it would be perfectly valid to write the spec for the THEORETICAL FUTURE when such speeds are possible and just wait for hardware to catch up with the spec.
I know it can't be as simple as it seems but I just have never understood this.