How much does this road bend, also what kinda of deformation would we see from traffic. The current roads currently get grooves in them. But make a road that actually felxes, wht kind of effect would that have on the surface of the road? This to me would mean MORE maintaining the road, not less.
Also, what effects would this have on gas mileage of vehicles. If the road was givein way a little as say a semi or large vehicle was driveing over the road, to waht degree would it "sink" into the road? Would you be wanting to run more air pressure in the tires of the vehicle on these types of roads, to compensate for the flex inherant in this road? And over time, what effect would this have on gas. Another valuable resource.
Also, adding fibers into a road, could effect it's traction. Current roads, are rather random. If (through wear) all these fibers were to orientate themselves one way would this effect the grip these roads provided? Also, now does this fiber react after years of abuse, and oil contamination? If oil were to cause these fibers to swell, or if they were to absord it, I would imagine it would have negative effects.
But what the heck, it may just work. Imagine, no ccracks in the slab of your home anymore. All for only a few side effects (and probably 3x the cash).
- Ice_Hole
How this reflects on future internet content..
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Their are a few questions that arize out of this lawsuit, and site shutting down. I honestly, am a collector. I collect data. Most of which I have never used, seem, or done anything with. Call it something to do. I like to collect software that performs a specific task, try a few of them out, and if one is what I am looking for, I buy it. With sites like this closeing down, who do you trust? How do you find out about a product (or movie, or band)? Are you going to rely on somone else's opinion? Their experiances? Some big web sites review of a product that has been bought by that products owner/ dealer/ manufacturer and skewed in their favor against the competition?
Without sites like this you might never get a chance to try out xyz product that does exactly what you want it to do, you will have to buy zyx because it is the one some webmaster some place got sent to him from the vendor to try out, so he gave it a favorable review. Even if zyx isn't what you need, it is what you need only backwards.
If I go to the toy store, I get to play with ALL of the toys there. If their is a cool light up bouncy ball, I get to bounce it. And evntually find out, that the light up ball sucks, it doens't bounce nearly as well as the glow in the dark, which actually works better, and stays lit up, so after I throw the ball in the dark, I actually have a chance of finding it, and I can see it before it slame me in the face breaking my front few teeth.
Also, where will technology like this go? The distribution of movies on a digital medium over the net has driven technology into a new age. To the point that we have a wonderful balance of quality and size. Just imagine if Cable companies stoped using mpeg2 compressions for their cable feeds, and started using a more efficient meduim such as Xvid, DivX, or something similar. The bandwith requirements of cable broadcasts would be reduced significantly. And what does this mean to us? Cable only has a certain frequency range alotted to them. Which makes their technology limited, and very reliant upon technology. Which is where digital cable comes into play. Digital cables uses the same cable, sane frequincy's only modulates them differently, and uses a digital carrier instead of analog. Which in turn means that you don't get one channel every 6 mhz block, but you get up to 40, depending on the quality of broadcast. Now, imagine if they were able to move from mpeg 2 compression to something more efficient that was a byproduct of the "illegal" file shareing market. Now, we can fit 120 video feeds on this one 6mhz channel. Now the cable company is able ot offer more, they make more money, it is more cost efficient, and are able to offer more channels that make the Movie Industry more money. Not to mention freeing up more bandwith for cable modem use.
Good things tend to come out of the underground at times. Products are created, and new products are dicovered. If you are browsin the net, and come across a new compression scheme, that compresses to a density of 25% more than say WinZIP. And you decide you like this new format, you start distributeing files in this format. People looking at your downloads then are forced into looking at this new technology that you seem to like, and try it out. This this other little company is born, and sprouts into somthing bigger because they put forth the time and effort to make a new, and better product. They become known for their product, and build an empire out of offering a superior product.
This is getting long, so I will try and end it with this. I do not want to browse an internet that is nothing but a coporate empire. If I am looking for something that is Adobe, I don't want to have to go to Adobe's site to look for it. If I want to check reviews on a movie, I don't want to go to blockbuster, or the producers web site to check it out. Imagine if the internet was nothing more than a link to a manual on xyz product, and that is what you were limited to. This "tool" would be reduc
What the heck is going on with Atari these days? Did another company purchase the name, and start produceing games with their name? Or did the original company manage to survive some how?
Is it possible they are just a division of a parent company now, being used to get the Famous name on some games once again? And we will never see more than such? Or are they an independant company, that may once again become a player in the console gameing industry?
To me the current stats us Console games is going the way of the buffalo. The freedom and variety of console gameing is being cut down by all these M$ purchases. I had a buddy of mine say, "Well, that is going to suck, who the hell wants to play the same damn game with a different name?" Is this going to cut down on the variety of new games? The Quality? The number? Price? How about the other console platforms? I am curious what other slashdotters think.
Ohh ya, I am happy with my original NES. You should see the thing hooked up to my 52" big screen and suround sound.:)
That is basically how Bit Torrent works. It send the entire file to a few main host files, who in tern share it with the next tier down, who share it with the next tier down, etc. Basically, as soon as you start downloading the file, it is being shared withthe next person in line. So you are simetaneously uploading/ downloading. It is actually an interesting method of transfering files. And has some potential to get files distributed quickly.
Of course, that is deopendant of the number of users, downloading the file. And a few other things. But it is an intersting concept.
Try doing a search on google for Bit Torrent, I THINK that comes up with the best results.
Digital cable is basically just another way to modulate a given 6 mhz block that we call a channel. It makes this block able to carry multiple channles, dependant on the quality, and compression. A highly compressed channel can handle up to 40 channels (Of the cooking show variety), and a minimum of 4 (Die Hard quality).
But this is what I propose. You would have to get a card that is modded to recognize these blocks of channels (They all recognize the channels, but they won't recognize the individual digital channels, unless they are digital cards). BUT, take these cards, and record the 6mhz bandwith, NOT the actualy individual channels.
Lets put it this way, lets say HBO runs at the 550 mhz - 556 mhz range (Which is arrpox where it is for COX Cable Las Vegas) If we were to recorde this range, we would not just be getting the normal HBO that we want, but also all of the other channels on the same bandwith. On average thir are 8 high quality streams on any 6 mhx channel. So in this case, by recording one of these channels, we would be able to extract 8 channels, say HBO, HBO2, HBO Signature, HBO Latina, Cinemax, etc.
In this case, it might be able to record between 8 and 40 channels per tuner card. With specially modified hardware, and software to do this level of decodeing.
Also if you were to find a way to compress this data, you might be able to find an extremely efficient way to compress this data.
I think it would be intersting to see if the coloring and pattern of the kitten was a product of it's suroundings before and during birth.
For Example, lets say the the mother cat was active, and the cat was born in the summer in warm weather. Would that make the kitten be lighter colored, and have thinner fur? How about an identical Clone where the mother was kept in a dark damp room? Would the kitten show up different because of the suroundings it was in before it was even born? (That is assumeing these babies were created, then artificially inseminated.)
To me that would be an interesting extension on this experiment. TO see exactly how things turn out. And maybe make a major breakthrough in how we think of genitics, and the possability of some other factors that have yet to be discovered in teh development of humans/ animals/ all thoes other things:)
Ohh, sorry about grammar, and spelling mistakes, I am sure their are plenty.
Actually, this is somthing that is slowly but surely changeing. We are seeing new mobo chipsts which actually have 2 seperate busses for each processor. But only thing that is combined would the the bus that the RAM runs on. But this also is somthing that is in the works, and may not be a bottle neck for too much longer.
The problem is, their will ALWAY's be a bottle neck. No matter what you are dealing with. Wether it be the internet, the computer memory sub system, or the traffic on the way to work. Once we make one thing faster, it shows that another isn't quite up to par. So, that is th next thing that needs to be worked on. Wether it be the mobo manufactures, processor manufacturers, the wonderful people that lay that precious fiber optic cable, or the road crews that interupt my morning commute to work.
Things like the nVidia nForce shipset are (At least IMHO) going to advance computer technology even more than a newer, slightly faster processor. Why? Because of battle necks such as this memory issue we are seeing with the AthlonMP SMP systems.
Granted we have to give them some credit. When the Via chipsets were first released their memeory bandwith was HORRIBLE. Even to the point that it was better to stay with the BX chipset over upgradeing to the newer Via133 chipset. But, that has been fixed for the most part through things as simple as BIOS updates.
Their is a lot to a computer system, and their is a lot that makes it function properly. And if I had time I would get into the bandwith limitations between the northbridge, and the southbridge, the interactions with a SMP systems and the different cache's available to that processor, and their bandwith/ latencies, etc.
As your sig said, much better to be commented on then moderated..
First of all, I would have to agree with you that it is pretty much safe to say that we can't predict the maximum speeds, or storage compacity of anything these days. The technology involved in computing is very complex, and ever changing.
I see a few flaws in the article. Fist off, quantum computing is not convention computing, and does not rely as heavily on the binary ones and zeros typically associated with computing. In this sence quantum theory becoming a reality in it's self would prove this theory incorrect. As soon as you introduce a new "neutel" state, where a typical atom's state would be translated into more than just a 1 or 0.
In a sence the author of that essay is safe though. If Moore's law hold true, that every 18 months computers are doubling in number of transistors, and thus speed, it will take nearly 200 years to reach the physical limit on computing speed. So for 200 years the author will be correct. This makes it hard to prove him wrong in this day in age.
Their are limits to everything the human mind thinks up. Why? Because we are finate, and are unable to think of anything being infinate. But it is possible that the universe is infinate is it not? In an infinate universe in theory it would be possible to make somthing of infinate porportions. Yet, we can't even imagine such a device. Why? Because our minds don't think like that. Our minds are finite, and our science is derived in a finate matter.
After bringing up the question of the universe being finite, or infinate naturally religion gets brought into the equation. That's right, religion meets computing, head on. Their are religions that believe the world and time to be infinate. Alawy's was, and alway's will be. That is the fundamentals of Christianity. Then their are the others, the big bang people. The author of that article is more than likely a proponent of the big bang theory, and a finite universe with a finite ammount of time.
My personal favorite part of the article was the part which discussed the fact that the theory of relitivity and the theory of relativity can not co exist. And that their has to be a superior relationship between the 2 that has not been theorized yet. What this is saying to me is that with the nature of Quantum mechanics, their are multiple parallel "instances" or "worlds" that exist at the same moment. The theory of Relitivity exists in both "worlds" that is what the basic physics in each is based on, but that the other "worlds" exist in the state described in Quamtum physics. Thus, the missing link is the theory used to bridge the gap from one "world" to the next.
Having said that, it would in theory be possible to create this super computer that is infinately small in size, and located in another "world". Thus, it would be possible for somone to have their own "blackhole computer" with the mass of zero, located in a parrallel world, being controlled from this reality. Such a task would require the ability to retrieve information from this parrallel world. Which is the missing part of our equation. We have the theory for how matter reacts in the other world, and for how it reacts in this world. Now we just have ot be able to extract the information from that parrallel world. That my friend is Quantum Computing.
Here in Vegas the lights probably were not visable. But I took off with some buddies of mine to go out camping to get away from it all. We just spo happened to see 40% of the sky turn bright red. Stood there for hours wondering what it was. Aurora was brought up, but shot down. This far south? Impossable? Guess not. Unbelievable site.
Who are the 3 GiS fans?
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I am one of them.. I have got every episode (all 90mb of them) so I can listen to tem whnever I want. I can even make a nice long playlist out of them and listen to GiS all day long.. Well, maybe not ALL day:-P
It's a game where you play tug of war against your opponent, the faster you rotate the joystick the harder you pull.. Till eventually you pull the other guy over the edge.
I ddin't get a blister the controller actually became part of my hand. But then I think it was partly my fault. I was a little, well, Excited? I was turnin away at the controller, got up, and started yellin, and screamin, go crazy getting myself pumped up, and intimidating my friends. Next thing I knew it was over, and I looked down and the controller was soaked in blood, and I had to pull the center joystik out of my hand, yes it had actually gone INTO my hand! I still have the scar from where this happened to me! And the worst part, I DIDN'T WIN! It was a damn tie:-( Guess I need to try harder next time:-P
Anyway's, I think it would be cool if nintendo sent me a special nintendo gaming glove because I managed to get one of their controllers stuck in my hand.
Imagine, playing against a few of your best friends, and when you are done, you can dog on the loser (If it's not you), OR you can play it the opposite way, and boast that your brain is far superior and capable of thinking more than everyone else.. I personally would play the game both way's.. Who ever has the MOST brain activity can win in one game, then the person withthe least can win in another. If the same person wins, they are deemed in total contrul of their body, second only to monks.. Could be fun.. But for how long?
Only $10.. Go figure.. That's not a very good punishment if you ask me! Now, maybe taking away somone's internet connection and forceing them to use AOL... NOW THAT is punishment!
OK everyone.. Lets trade in our Desktops for some flimsy little hand held thing that we might lose in the seat of the couch. Ya, sure! I don't care about small, and connected! I want, fast, Really, really fast. And I don't care what I have to do to get it. I don't want a computer that can be lost in my couch, not unless it is faster, and performs better than my desktop unit! Now, I can see having a portable device for when you can't be at the desk (aka, when you run down stairs to get some more food, then run back up to reload slashdot...) But in all seriousness, you think it would be revolutionary to have a computer that you could sit at your desk, with it in your hand, with a keyboard too small to really type on, or voice recognition taht doesn't work because EVERYBODY is trying to talk to their ultra small hand held unit? I think that I would rather have my big, fast, hot, sweet soundin (Yes, when all 5 fans start up, the damn thing sounds like it is about to fly away:) machine, with more than enough power for ANYTHING I need to do with it.. And guess what, I am STILL as productive (If not more productive) than the person who is taking this portable unit around with them, having to shut it off half way through their work because the battery is dieing.. Where as my endless supply of energy allows my machine to be as power hungry as it damn well pleases!
Don't get me wrong, I would love to HAVE a hand held device that COULD replace my computer! But, I STILL want to have my computer, the handheld would be for when I can't have my computer with me! I don't see having JUST one of these hand held devices..
Ever try surfing the web on your cell phone? You silly thing you!
((Not trying to burst anyone's bubble, but I don't see this happeneing NOW, or for the next few years. Maybe in my lifetime yes, but I intend on living for a long time!))
OK, for the record, I AM NOT rascist (At least not that I know of)! I look at this completely from a standpoint of the Internet and the Internet being one of our last freedoms.
OK. What does it mean that we are allowing the governments of the world to be able to come together and be able to regulate what is on the internet? It means that we are takeing what freedom is made posible though the internet away. I dont want this to happen, and I am sure you don't either. It's the cammels nose under the tent! What we need is an association, like the American Rifle Association, that can go in, and picket/petition/whatever is necessary to get our views out to the world! To 90% of the world, regulating Raceism on teh internet is a good idea. But the people who are REALLY involved (Us) are the ones being hurt by this legislation. The other people could care less, they don't understand what is going on. Here is an anology for you, to show you what is going on. The UN (Not just the US Congress, or the UK Parliment) get together, and descide that guns are bad (Which a lot of you probably think are.. But that is besides the point). They descide that they should take ALL the guns away, from all citizens of the world! OK, now to the people that don't have guns this is no big deal, they don't have any guns, they don't care to have any, and it makes them feel just a little better knowing that anyone could have a gun. But their are the bad people that have guns. They don't like this one bit, they go and hide their guns, stockpile them even, thus they still have guns (Probably more than they would without this new legislation). Now, their are the people that have guns, and like to go out and shoot for recreation. They enjoy shooting for the challenge of it (Shooting is a challenge, believe it or not.. And it takes skill) They pack some lunch, take their family out to the desert, and go shooting, having some quality family time. These people hear about the new legislation, WANT to keep their guns (because hey, it's good cheap recreation). Now what was accomplshed by this scenero? The people that don't know any better feel a little safer, the people that were bad just stockpiled more bad stuff, and the people that were using somthing for good just lost somthing that they enjoyed. This is similar to what is going on with the racism on the internet. We ALL know regulating this would be impossible but it would just lead to more legislation! The gun legislation started out small, no automatic weapons without a permit, etc. Regulating racism on the net is like saying no automatics, good idea to most, but it's the cammels nose in the tent.
I don't want to see racism as much as the next guy. But I REALLY don't want to see the internet regulted to heack, and our last ounce of freedom, and creativity to be taken away from us! I do not want the Internet to be taken away from me.. I will become a criminal in this cyber world if that ever happens. I refuse to give up this freedom that I have on the net. The 'Underground' would become HUGE, freedom would still reign, but only with work. We don't need regulation, we need de regulation! Let the 'Community' take care of the problems. THAT is how things will get accomplished on the net. The community has the power, and it will never lose it.
((Sorry if I get a bit long, and strayed from the point a bit.. But I feel this is important. And I want you people to see why I think it is important, and why it really matters!))
What about this.. YOU find a fossil in your backyard. A HUGE one, worth a lot of money. You descide that it would be a good idea to dig this thing up. You do so. Now what do you do with it? You are all worried that he will sell it to somone that won't have anything to do with it, and "hide" it from the public. But what is this guy going to do with it? He has to get rid of it. You have no place to store, or display this fossil that you just dug up. So you sell it.. Who do you sell it to? Museum? Actually, I remember hearing about these online auctions that seem to be going pretty well, people are finding places for all kinds of things, not to mention they are getting lots of money for things that they thaught no one would want. What better way to get rid of your new pet? You do some looking around, find out that you REALLY don't want to donate you fossil (too much work has been done on your part allready)! So online auction looks more and more appealing. SO YOU DO IT! Why not? How can it get any worse than you just storing the fossils in a storage unit some place? If some guy puts it in his lawn that is still better than you keeping it in your storage unit! I don't see why the idea of some guy auctiong T-Rex off to ANYONE is that big of a deal to you people. You are inteligent, think of the probablities that some wacko with a ton of money will get a hold of this thing, and that he will hord it all to homself. If somone wealth buy's it, more than likely he will donate it to either a cause, or a mesuem that he/ she believes in, and that they think NEEDS a T-Rex.
((I think I have effectively gone off.. I HATED seeing the SAME IDEAS all over Slashdot. Think about it people..))
You are crazy! Windows 2000 takes AT LEASY 1 gig! Once you got that thing booted up you coulden't do anything with it. Just look at your ugly desktop, mayby use the calculator. Then wait for the blue screen. And you would be happy because you did it on a fast file system.. Sounds like a plan to me. Can I come over and help you time the how long it takes for the Blue Screen of death to pop up? I will bring my stop watch (It measures time in 1000ths of a second, and I have fast reflexes.. We may be able to get a fairly accurate reading)..
I have had GREAT cheap mice. But have resciently ran in a cheap mouse, mouse problem. The other day I had a mouse die on me (Rolled it's last mile) and replaced it with a fairly cheap CompUSA mouse (No scroll button, but had a third button in the thunb position). When I got this mouse home and hooked it up, I found that this mouse was truely cheap. In fact, it was probably constructed cheaper than the $3 mouse in a box mouse.. Ya, it worked fine.. At least it did till somone came and touched you. The small shack created when somone touched the person using the mouse (You didn't even need to feel the shock) would cause the mouse to freeze. Leaving no option but to re boot the computer. This happened about 6 times in the first hour that I used the mouse, and has stedily gotten better (For some reason) to the point where it doean't happen any more (I should have just taken the mouse back). It also seems to "stick" a lot more often than my other mice have. The 3rd day the mouse was allready sticking when moving to the left. VERY annoying!
For these reasons I STRONGLY recomend NOT going the cheap route on mice. Spacifically CompUSA mice. I hope this little story saves somone the problems a cheap mouse caused me (Basically just a pain in the butt). If you want my advice on THE BEST mouse, go for a cordless, optical mouse. Personally, I would LOVE to have one of these. Guess I should stop readin Slashdot and get a job..
I think that the #1 taht would attract me would be geek apartments. Some of you know whwat I am trying to say, others have no clue. But here is the basic concept. You get a bunch of geeks toghether, get an apartment complex. Wire that thing up with a fast ethernet, or better. Get yourself an "community" internet connection. An OC-3 or somthing along thoes lines. Have a few nice computers hosting Quake servers, etc. I envision it as a bunch of geeks leaving their doors unlocked and you just walk from appartment to appartment, moving the LAN party as you go. Their would have to be plenty of pizza, and a nice jacuzzi to relax in every once in a while. I also think it would be nice to have a soccer field right smack dab in the center of the entire complex, but then that is me, I am one of thoes non-stero typical geeks. In fact, if you didn't know me I would probably look more like a jock. So I think it would be nice to have the "typical" types of things also, weight room.. That sort of thing.
Anyone know of a place like this? I have herd of a few places before, but none of them in climates I would enjoy that much (the Hotter the better). I currently live in Las Vegas. If somone wants to get somthing like this started in LV drop me a line. We could have some fun:P
I can send e-mails (even tons of blank ones if you want me to), use Word, Excel, Outlook Express (And een Outlook as an added bonus:), and I even know hot to use the internet! (oooo, ahhh)
SO I see myself as being fully qualified of becoming a Microsoft Executive. Where do I sign?
The whole time you were talking about the sex flyers and Comdex I was cracking up. It's usually pretty bad, but to me it seemed many, many times worse because of Comdex. It was a little rediculous if you ask me. It would have been fun to run around with one of thoes HUGE Creative Labs bags and collect thoes things from all of the mexicans. Just think of all the things you could do.. It could be:
1. Survival kit for Y2k (Just think of the bon fire:) 2. If Y2k doesn't use it all up (Cuz their would be a hell of a lot of pamphlets) You would have paper to start fires when you get a break for a week and and go camping. 3. Grab yourself a scanner and start a porn site, you would have the largestest porn site on the net! 4. Paper Airplanes? You could make an entire airport with them. 5. Papermache your entire house (It would go good with your car that has been re-done with AOL CD's) 6. You could start handing out pamphlets yourself, you could claim that you have a rare one and try to sell it. 7. Start a porn pamphlet collection, kind of like collectins Comic books, or baseball cards. (Comdex would have been a cheap place to stay it, would you not agree?)
Afterall, what did everyone else do with them? I think they just threw them on the ground 2 seconds after they got them, littering the streets like mad (What was it, 2 feet deep in porn papers?).
Anyway's, that was my experience at Comdex. How was yours?
Ya, I for one was VERY dissapointed. I was expecting to see it, talk to somone about it, etc. But they didn't even have one there (That I saw), they did have their Rio like Mp3 players there. But then how cool are thoes? I mean, 64 MB MAX storage is crap. I need at least 500MB, and have transfering data be easy. By far the best unit I saw at Comdex (And I didn't really get to see much of it, the damn place was TOO big!) was the 4.8 gig portable Mp3 player made by Compaq, I think they are calling it "The Personal Jukebox". It sports 10 hours of Battery life, a nice LCD, and a USB interface, in an $800 package (It's very nice, small, fairly light weight). I talked to a rep for a little more than an hour about the player. They are offering a 2 year warrenty on the player. The rep said that most likely the LCD display would break first, my main concern is the HD. It has a good HD in it, (IBM new mini drive or somthing like that. Don't remember the name from the top of my head) But I would suspect that you drop the thing once or teice from about 3 feet and you would get bad sectors. Not a good thing. They do come with a leather case (I was told that in order for Compaq to agree to put their name on it they HAD to have the case.. Just because of the HD). I think that they may have problems with the device, expecially the HD. I for one think it is a great player, but I don't know about $800 (That is not official, just what I was told). I guess we'll all just have to wait and see. ((Note: They had about 5 "The Personal Jukeboxes" At Comdex, all working and playing music. And hooked up to a computer to show you how their interface worked.))
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How much does this road bend, also what kinda of deformation would we see from traffic. The current roads currently get grooves in them. But make a road that actually felxes, wht kind of effect would that have on the surface of the road? This to me would mean MORE maintaining the road, not less.
Also, what effects would this have on gas mileage of vehicles. If the road was givein way a little as say a semi or large vehicle was driveing over the road, to waht degree would it "sink" into the road? Would you be wanting to run more air pressure in the tires of the vehicle on these types of roads, to compensate for the flex inherant in this road? And over time, what effect would this have on gas. Another valuable resource.
Also, adding fibers into a road, could effect it's traction. Current roads, are rather random. If (through wear) all these fibers were to orientate themselves one way would this effect the grip these roads provided? Also, now does this fiber react after years of abuse, and oil contamination? If oil were to cause these fibers to swell, or if they were to absord it, I would imagine it would have negative effects.
But what the heck, it may just work. Imagine, no ccracks in the slab of your home anymore. All for only a few side effects (and probably 3x the cash).
- Ice_Hole
Their are a few questions that arize out of this lawsuit, and site shutting down. I honestly, am a collector. I collect data. Most of which I have never used, seem, or done anything with. Call it something to do. I like to collect software that performs a specific task, try a few of them out, and if one is what I am looking for, I buy it. With sites like this closeing down, who do you trust? How do you find out about a product (or movie, or band)? Are you going to rely on somone else's opinion? Their experiances? Some big web sites review of a product that has been bought by that products owner/ dealer/ manufacturer and skewed in their favor against the competition?
Without sites like this you might never get a chance to try out xyz product that does exactly what you want it to do, you will have to buy zyx because it is the one some webmaster some place got sent to him from the vendor to try out, so he gave it a favorable review. Even if zyx isn't what you need, it is what you need only backwards.
If I go to the toy store, I get to play with ALL of the toys there. If their is a cool light up bouncy ball, I get to bounce it. And evntually find out, that the light up ball sucks, it doens't bounce nearly as well as the glow in the dark, which actually works better, and stays lit up, so after I throw the ball in the dark, I actually have a chance of finding it, and I can see it before it slame me in the face breaking my front few teeth.
Also, where will technology like this go? The distribution of movies on a digital medium over the net has driven technology into a new age. To the point that we have a wonderful balance of quality and size. Just imagine if Cable companies stoped using mpeg2 compressions for their cable feeds, and started using a more efficient meduim such as Xvid, DivX, or something similar. The bandwith requirements of cable broadcasts would be reduced significantly. And what does this mean to us? Cable only has a certain frequency range alotted to them. Which makes their technology limited, and very reliant upon technology. Which is where digital cable comes into play. Digital cables uses the same cable, sane frequincy's only modulates them differently, and uses a digital carrier instead of analog. Which in turn means that you don't get one channel every 6 mhz block, but you get up to 40, depending on the quality of broadcast. Now, imagine if they were able to move from mpeg 2 compression to something more efficient that was a byproduct of the "illegal" file shareing market. Now, we can fit 120 video feeds on this one 6mhz channel. Now the cable company is able ot offer more, they make more money, it is more cost efficient, and are able to offer more channels that make the Movie Industry more money. Not to mention freeing up more bandwith for cable modem use.
Good things tend to come out of the underground at times. Products are created, and new products are dicovered. If you are browsin the net, and come across a new compression scheme, that compresses to a density of 25% more than say WinZIP. And you decide you like this new format, you start distributeing files in this format. People looking at your downloads then are forced into looking at this new technology that you seem to like, and try it out. This this other little company is born, and sprouts into somthing bigger because they put forth the time and effort to make a new, and better product. They become known for their product, and build an empire out of offering a superior product.
This is getting long, so I will try and end it with this. I do not want to browse an internet that is nothing but a coporate empire. If I am looking for something that is Adobe, I don't want to have to go to Adobe's site to look for it. If I want to check reviews on a movie, I don't want to go to blockbuster, or the producers web site to check it out. Imagine if the internet was nothing more than a link to a manual on xyz product, and that is what you were limited to. This "tool" would be reduc
What the heck is going on with Atari these days? Did another company purchase the name, and start produceing games with their name? Or did the original company manage to survive some how?
:)
Is it possible they are just a division of a parent company now, being used to get the Famous name on some games once again? And we will never see more than such? Or are they an independant company, that may once again become a player in the console gameing industry?
To me the current stats us Console games is going the way of the buffalo. The freedom and variety of console gameing is being cut down by all these M$ purchases. I had a buddy of mine say, "Well, that is going to suck, who the hell wants to play the same damn game with a different name?" Is this going to cut down on the variety of new games? The Quality? The number? Price? How about the other console platforms? I am curious what other slashdotters think.
Ohh ya, I am happy with my original NES. You should see the thing hooked up to my 52" big screen and suround sound.
- Ice_Hole
That is basically how Bit Torrent works. It send the entire file to a few main host files, who in tern share it with the next tier down, who share it with the next tier down, etc. Basically, as soon as you start downloading the file, it is being shared withthe next person in line. So you are simetaneously uploading/ downloading. It is actually an interesting method of transfering files. And has some potential to get files distributed quickly.
Of course, that is deopendant of the number of users, downloading the file. And a few other things. But it is an intersting concept.
Try doing a search on google for Bit Torrent, I THINK that comes up with the best results.
- Ice_Hole
Digital cable is basically just another way to modulate a given 6 mhz block that we call a channel. It makes this block able to carry multiple channles, dependant on the quality, and compression. A highly compressed channel can handle up to 40 channels (Of the cooking show variety), and a minimum of 4 (Die Hard quality).
But this is what I propose. You would have to get a card that is modded to recognize these blocks of channels (They all recognize the channels, but they won't recognize the individual digital channels, unless they are digital cards). BUT, take these cards, and record the 6mhz bandwith, NOT the actualy individual channels.
Lets put it this way, lets say HBO runs at the 550 mhz - 556 mhz range (Which is arrpox where it is for COX Cable Las Vegas) If we were to recorde this range, we would not just be getting the normal HBO that we want, but also all of the other channels on the same bandwith. On average thir are 8 high quality streams on any 6 mhx channel. So in this case, by recording one of these channels, we would be able to extract 8 channels, say HBO, HBO2, HBO Signature, HBO Latina, Cinemax, etc.
In this case, it might be able to record between 8 and 40 channels per tuner card. With specially modified hardware, and software to do this level of decodeing.
Also if you were to find a way to compress this data, you might be able to find an extremely efficient way to compress this data.
- Ice_Hole
I think it would be intersting to see if the coloring and pattern of the kitten was a product of it's suroundings before and during birth.
:)
For Example, lets say the the mother cat was active, and the cat was born in the summer in warm weather. Would that make the kitten be lighter colored, and have thinner fur? How about an identical Clone where the mother was kept in a dark damp room? Would the kitten show up different because of the suroundings it was in before it was even born? (That is assumeing these babies were created, then artificially inseminated.)
To me that would be an interesting extension on this experiment. TO see exactly how things turn out. And maybe make a major breakthrough in how we think of genitics, and the possability of some other factors that have yet to be discovered in teh development of humans/ animals/ all thoes other things
Ohh, sorry about grammar, and spelling mistakes, I am sure their are plenty.
- Ice_Hole
Ker splat
Hmm.. Funny, I have the same problem with the Windows Start bar, and WinAMP....
Actually, this is somthing that is slowly but surely changeing. We are seeing new mobo chipsts which actually have 2 seperate busses for each processor. But only thing that is combined would the the bus that the RAM runs on. But this also is somthing that is in the works, and may not be a bottle neck for too much longer.
The problem is, their will ALWAY's be a bottle neck. No matter what you are dealing with. Wether it be the internet, the computer memory sub system, or the traffic on the way to work. Once we make one thing faster, it shows that another isn't quite up to par. So, that is th next thing that needs to be worked on. Wether it be the mobo manufactures, processor manufacturers, the wonderful people that lay that precious fiber optic cable, or the road crews that interupt my morning commute to work.
Things like the nVidia nForce shipset are (At least IMHO) going to advance computer technology even more than a newer, slightly faster processor. Why? Because of battle necks such as this memory issue we are seeing with the AthlonMP SMP systems.
Granted we have to give them some credit. When the Via chipsets were first released their memeory bandwith was HORRIBLE. Even to the point that it was better to stay with the BX chipset over upgradeing to the newer Via133 chipset. But, that has been fixed for the most part through things as simple as BIOS updates.
Their is a lot to a computer system, and their is a lot that makes it function properly. And if I had time I would get into the bandwith limitations between the northbridge, and the southbridge, the interactions with a SMP systems and the different cache's available to that processor, and their bandwith/ latencies, etc.
/pointless blabbering
- Ice_Hole
As your sig said, much better to be commented on then moderated..
First of all, I would have to agree with you that it is pretty much safe to say that we can't predict the maximum speeds, or storage compacity of anything these days. The technology involved in computing is very complex, and ever changing.
I see a few flaws in the article. Fist off, quantum computing is not convention computing, and does not rely as heavily on the binary ones and zeros typically associated with computing. In this sence quantum theory becoming a reality in it's self would prove this theory incorrect. As soon as you introduce a new "neutel" state, where a typical atom's state would be translated into more than just a 1 or 0.
In a sence the author of that essay is safe though. If Moore's law hold true, that every 18 months computers are doubling in number of transistors, and thus speed, it will take nearly 200 years to reach the physical limit on computing speed. So for 200 years the author will be correct. This makes it hard to prove him wrong in this day in age.
Their are limits to everything the human mind thinks up. Why? Because we are finate, and are unable to think of anything being infinate. But it is possible that the universe is infinate is it not? In an infinate universe in theory it would be possible to make somthing of infinate porportions. Yet, we can't even imagine such a device. Why? Because our minds don't think like that. Our minds are finite, and our science is derived in a finate matter.
After bringing up the question of the universe being finite, or infinate naturally religion gets brought into the equation. That's right, religion meets computing, head on. Their are religions that believe the world and time to be infinate. Alawy's was, and alway's will be. That is the fundamentals of Christianity. Then their are the others, the big bang people. The author of that article is more than likely a proponent of the big bang theory, and a finite universe with a finite ammount of time.
My personal favorite part of the article was the part which discussed the fact that the theory of relitivity and the theory of relativity can not co exist. And that their has to be a superior relationship between the 2 that has not been theorized yet. What this is saying to me is that with the nature of Quantum mechanics, their are multiple parallel "instances" or "worlds" that exist at the same moment. The theory of Relitivity exists in both "worlds" that is what the basic physics in each is based on, but that the other "worlds" exist in the state described in Quamtum physics. Thus, the missing link is the theory used to bridge the gap from one "world" to the next.
Having said that, it would in theory be possible to create this super computer that is infinately small in size, and located in another "world". Thus, it would be possible for somone to have their own "blackhole computer" with the mass of zero, located in a parrallel world, being controlled from this reality. Such a task would require the ability to retrieve information from this parrallel world. Which is the missing part of our equation. We have the theory for how matter reacts in the other world, and for how it reacts in this world. Now we just have ot be able to extract the information from that parrallel world. That my friend is Quantum Computing.
Here in Vegas the lights probably were not visable. But I took off with some buddies of mine to go out camping to get away from it all. We just spo happened to see 40% of the sky turn bright red. Stood there for hours wondering what it was. Aurora was brought up, but shot down. This far south? Impossable? Guess not. Unbelievable site.
I am one of them.. I have got every episode (all 90mb of them) so I can listen to tem whnever I want. I can even make a nice long playlist out of them and listen to GiS all day long.. Well, maybe not ALL day :-P
It's a game where you play tug of war against your opponent, the faster you rotate the joystick the harder you pull.. Till eventually you pull the other guy over the edge.
:-( Guess I need to try harder next time :-P
I ddin't get a blister the controller actually became part of my hand. But then I think it was partly my fault. I was a little, well, Excited? I was turnin away at the controller, got up, and started yellin, and screamin, go crazy getting myself pumped up, and intimidating my friends. Next thing I knew it was over, and I looked down and the controller was soaked in blood, and I had to pull the center joystik out of my hand, yes it had actually gone INTO my hand! I still have the scar from where this happened to me! And the worst part, I DIDN'T WIN! It was a damn tie
Anyway's, I think it would be cool if nintendo sent me a special nintendo gaming glove because I managed to get one of their controllers stuck in my hand.
Imagine, playing against a few of your best friends, and when you are done, you can dog on the loser (If it's not you), OR you can play it the opposite way, and boast that your brain is far superior and capable of thinking more than everyone else.. I personally would play the game both way's.. Who ever has the MOST brain activity can win in one game, then the person withthe least can win in another. If the same person wins, they are deemed in total contrul of their body, second only to monks.. Could be fun.. But for how long?
Only $10.. Go figure.. That's not a very good punishment if you ask me! Now, maybe taking away somone's internet connection and forceing them to use AOL... NOW THAT is punishment!
OK everyone.. Lets trade in our Desktops for some flimsy little hand held thing that we might lose in the seat of the couch. Ya, sure! I don't care about small, and connected! I want, fast, Really, really fast. And I don't care what I have to do to get it. I don't want a computer that can be lost in my couch, not unless it is faster, and performs better than my desktop unit! Now, I can see having a portable device for when you can't be at the desk (aka, when you run down stairs to get some more food, then run back up to reload slashdot...) But in all seriousness, you think it would be revolutionary to have a computer that you could sit at your desk, with it in your hand, with a keyboard too small to really type on, or voice recognition taht doesn't work because EVERYBODY is trying to talk to their ultra small hand held unit? I think that I would rather have my big, fast, hot, sweet soundin (Yes, when all 5 fans start up, the damn thing sounds like it is about to fly away :) machine, with more than enough power for ANYTHING I need to do with it.. And guess what, I am STILL as productive (If not more productive) than the person who is taking this portable unit around with them, having to shut it off half way through their work because the battery is dieing.. Where as my endless supply of energy allows my machine to be as power hungry as it damn well pleases!
Don't get me wrong, I would love to HAVE a hand held device that COULD replace my computer! But, I STILL want to have my computer, the handheld would be for when I can't have my computer with me! I don't see having JUST one of these hand held devices..
Ever try surfing the web on your cell phone? You silly thing you!
((Not trying to burst anyone's bubble, but I don't see this happeneing NOW, or for the next few years. Maybe in my lifetime yes, but I intend on living for a long time!))
OK, for the record, I AM NOT rascist (At least not that I know of)! I look at this completely from a standpoint of the Internet and the Internet being one of our last freedoms.
OK. What does it mean that we are allowing the governments of the world to be able to come together and be able to regulate what is on the internet? It means that we are takeing what freedom is made posible though the internet away. I dont want this to happen, and I am sure you don't either. It's the cammels nose under the tent! What we need is an association, like the American Rifle Association, that can go in, and picket/petition/whatever is necessary to get our views out to the world! To 90% of the world, regulating Raceism on teh internet is a good idea. But the people who are REALLY involved (Us) are the ones being hurt by this legislation. The other people could care less, they don't understand what is going on. Here is an anology for you, to show you what is going on. The UN (Not just the US Congress, or the UK Parliment) get together, and descide that guns are bad (Which a lot of you probably think are.. But that is besides the point). They descide that they should take ALL the guns away, from all citizens of the world! OK, now to the people that don't have guns this is no big deal, they don't have any guns, they don't care to have any, and it makes them feel just a little better knowing that anyone could have a gun. But their are the bad people that have guns. They don't like this one bit, they go and hide their guns, stockpile them even, thus they still have guns (Probably more than they would without this new legislation). Now, their are the people that have guns, and like to go out and shoot for recreation. They enjoy shooting for the challenge of it (Shooting is a challenge, believe it or not.. And it takes skill) They pack some lunch, take their family out to the desert, and go shooting, having some quality family time. These people hear about the new legislation, WANT to keep their guns (because hey, it's good cheap recreation). Now what was accomplshed by this scenero? The people that don't know any better feel a little safer, the people that were bad just stockpiled more bad stuff, and the people that were using somthing for good just lost somthing that they enjoyed. This is similar to what is going on with the racism on the internet. We ALL know regulating this would be impossible but it would just lead to more legislation! The gun legislation started out small, no automatic weapons without a permit, etc. Regulating racism on the net is like saying no automatics, good idea to most, but it's the cammels nose in the tent.
I don't want to see racism as much as the next guy. But I REALLY don't want to see the internet regulted to heack, and our last ounce of freedom, and creativity to be taken away from us! I do not want the Internet to be taken away from me.. I will become a criminal in this cyber world if that ever happens. I refuse to give up this freedom that I have on the net. The 'Underground' would become HUGE, freedom would still reign, but only with work. We don't need regulation, we need de regulation! Let the 'Community' take care of the problems. THAT is how things will get accomplished on the net. The community has the power, and it will never lose it.
((Sorry if I get a bit long, and strayed from the point a bit.. But I feel this is important. And I want you people to see why I think it is important, and why it really matters!))
What about this.. YOU find a fossil in your backyard. A HUGE one, worth a lot of money. You descide that it would be a good idea to dig this thing up. You do so. Now what do you do with it? You are all worried that he will sell it to somone that won't have anything to do with it, and "hide" it from the public. But what is this guy going to do with it? He has to get rid of it. You have no place to store, or display this fossil that you just dug up. So you sell it.. Who do you sell it to? Museum? Actually, I remember hearing about these online auctions that seem to be going pretty well, people are finding places for all kinds of things, not to mention they are getting lots of money for things that they thaught no one would want. What better way to get rid of your new pet? You do some looking around, find out that you REALLY don't want to donate you fossil (too much work has been done on your part allready)! So online auction looks more and more appealing. SO YOU DO IT! Why not? How can it get any worse than you just storing the fossils in a storage unit some place? If some guy puts it in his lawn that is still better than you keeping it in your storage unit! I don't see why the idea of some guy auctiong T-Rex off to ANYONE is that big of a deal to you people. You are inteligent, think of the probablities that some wacko with a ton of money will get a hold of this thing, and that he will hord it all to homself. If somone wealth buy's it, more than likely he will donate it to either a cause, or a mesuem that he/ she believes in, and that they think NEEDS a T-Rex.
((I think I have effectively gone off.. I HATED seeing the SAME IDEAS all over Slashdot. Think about it people..))
You are crazy! Windows 2000 takes AT LEASY 1 gig! Once you got that thing booted up you coulden't do anything with it. Just look at your ugly desktop, mayby use the calculator. Then wait for the blue screen. And you would be happy because you did it on a fast file system.. Sounds like a plan to me. Can I come over and help you time the how long it takes for the Blue Screen of death to pop up? I will bring my stop watch (It measures time in 1000ths of a second, and I have fast reflexes.. We may be able to get a fairly accurate reading)..
OK, enough of that.
I have had GREAT cheap mice. But have resciently ran in a cheap mouse, mouse problem. The other day I had a mouse die on me (Rolled it's last mile) and replaced it with a fairly cheap CompUSA mouse (No scroll button, but had a third button in the thunb position). When I got this mouse home and hooked it up, I found that this mouse was truely cheap. In fact, it was probably constructed cheaper than the $3 mouse in a box mouse.. Ya, it worked fine.. At least it did till somone came and touched you. The small shack created when somone touched the person using the mouse (You didn't even need to feel the shock) would cause the mouse to freeze. Leaving no option but to re boot the computer. This happened about 6 times in the first hour that I used the mouse, and has stedily gotten better (For some reason) to the point where it doean't happen any more (I should have just taken the mouse back). It also seems to "stick" a lot more often than my other mice have. The 3rd day the mouse was allready sticking when moving to the left. VERY annoying!
For these reasons I STRONGLY recomend NOT going the cheap route on mice. Spacifically CompUSA mice. I hope this little story saves somone the problems a cheap mouse caused me (Basically just a pain in the butt). If you want my advice on THE BEST mouse, go for a cordless, optical mouse. Personally, I would LOVE to have one of these. Guess I should stop readin Slashdot and get a job..
I think that the #1 taht would attract me would be geek apartments. Some of you know whwat I am trying to say, others have no clue. But here is the basic concept. You get a bunch of geeks toghether, get an apartment complex. Wire that thing up with a fast ethernet, or better. Get yourself an "community" internet connection. An OC-3 or somthing along thoes lines. Have a few nice computers hosting Quake servers, etc. I envision it as a bunch of geeks leaving their doors unlocked and you just walk from appartment to appartment, moving the LAN party as you go. Their would have to be plenty of pizza, and a nice jacuzzi to relax in every once in a while. I also think it would be nice to have a soccer field right smack dab in the center of the entire complex, but then that is me, I am one of thoes non-stero typical geeks. In fact, if you didn't know me I would probably look more like a jock. So I think it would be nice to have the "typical" types of things also, weight room.. That sort of thing.
:P
Anyone know of a place like this? I have herd of a few places before, but none of them in climates I would enjoy that much (the Hotter the better). I currently live in Las Vegas. If somone wants to get somthing like this started in LV drop me a line. We could have some fun
I can send e-mails (even tons of blank ones if you want me to), use Word, Excel, Outlook Express (And een Outlook as an added bonus :), and I even know hot to use the internet! (oooo, ahhh)
SO I see myself as being fully qualified of becoming a Microsoft Executive. Where do I sign?
You need a shagdelic hipster? Count me in :)
The whole time you were talking about the sex flyers and Comdex I was cracking up. It's usually pretty bad, but to me it seemed many, many times worse because of Comdex. It was a little rediculous if you ask me. It would have been fun to run around with one of thoes HUGE Creative Labs bags and collect thoes things from all of the mexicans. Just think of all the things you could do.. It could be:
:)
1. Survival kit for Y2k (Just think of the bon fire
2. If Y2k doesn't use it all up (Cuz their would be a hell of a lot of pamphlets) You would have paper to start fires when you get a break for a week and and go camping.
3. Grab yourself a scanner and start a porn site, you would have the largestest porn site on the net!
4. Paper Airplanes? You could make an entire airport with them.
5. Papermache your entire house (It would go good with your car that has been re-done with AOL CD's)
6. You could start handing out pamphlets yourself, you could claim that you have a rare one and try to sell it.
7. Start a porn pamphlet collection, kind of like collectins Comic books, or baseball cards. (Comdex would have been a cheap place to stay it, would you not agree?)
Afterall, what did everyone else do with them? I think they just threw them on the ground 2 seconds after they got them, littering the streets like mad (What was it, 2 feet deep in porn papers?).
Anyway's, that was my experience at Comdex. How was yours?
Ya, I for one was VERY dissapointed. I was expecting to see it, talk to somone about it, etc. But they didn't even have one there (That I saw), they did have their Rio like Mp3 players there. But then how cool are thoes? I mean, 64 MB MAX storage is crap. I need at least 500MB, and have transfering data be easy. By far the best unit I saw at Comdex (And I didn't really get to see much of it, the damn place was TOO big!) was the 4.8 gig portable Mp3 player made by Compaq, I think they are calling it "The Personal Jukebox". It sports 10 hours of Battery life, a nice LCD, and a USB interface, in an $800 package (It's very nice, small, fairly light weight). I talked to a rep for a little more than an hour about the player. They are offering a 2 year warrenty on the player. The rep said that most likely the LCD display would break first, my main concern is the HD. It has a good HD in it, (IBM new mini drive or somthing like that. Don't remember the name from the top of my head) But I would suspect that you drop the thing once or teice from about 3 feet and you would get bad sectors. Not a good thing. They do come with a leather case (I was told that in order for Compaq to agree to put their name on it they HAD to have the case.. Just because of the HD). I think that they may have problems with the device, expecially the HD. I for one think it is a great player, but I don't know about $800 (That is not official, just what I was told). I guess we'll all just have to wait and see. ((Note: They had about 5 "The Personal Jukeboxes" At Comdex, all working and playing music. And hooked up to a computer to show you how their interface worked.))