I'm watching them right now. Currently, in Australia, simpsons repeats are on at 6pm 7 nights a week, futurama repeats are on two (i think - they keep changing them) nights a week, new simpsons are on at 7:30 one night a week. Additional simspons repeats often sneak in at 7:30 and/or 8:00 on weeknights.
For a while, there was a few 'Simpsons hour' features a week with 2 extra repeats in addition to the 6pm episode. At one point I think there were more than 10 episodes shown a week.
All the repeats were randomly selected from any of the entire history of the simpsons, except I hardly ever get to see the very early episode I really liked where they get lost in the bush and Homer ends up catapulting a rabbit over the horizon.
Apparantly channel Ten loves the simpsons as much as I do. My wife however despises the fact that my daughter and I can watch repeats over and over again without getting bored of them:)
An encrypted transmission path between two parties relies on the same random data being available to both parties at the same time, which means it is either precomputed and both parties have a copy with them, or (in this case) it is a stream of data that both parties have access to in real time.
Not sure how well it would work if both parties were on opposite sides of the world though...
Additionally, there may be filtering of the signal to select various frequency ranges, which would change the random sequence it produced (although may not matter if you could capture the whole signal anyway, but you'd need to know it to actually do the decryption)
Anyway, once i've figured out all the parameters, all I need to do is send a box away from the origin of the quasar faster than the speed of light, so that it can effectively go back in time relative to the signal and capture it.
I believe that this will be the big outcome of faster than light travel - breaking quasar keyed encryption.
What if he's actually a scheming business genius too?
What if the technology they proposed those years ago actually works perfectly and due to some deliberate obfuscation the instructions were flawed?
Maybe, since the 'Pons Fleischmann' incident, he's been working with some secret business partners on bringing a product to market, comfortable in the knowledge that even if rumours did leak out, nobody's going to believe them anyway as he's a proven crackpot.
<conspiracy>also, the oil cartels will just view him as another free energy loony so he won't need to worry about assasination attempts</conspiracy>
Now, they're 12 months away from release, with a 15 year lead on any competition...
We're obviously talking different ends of the spectrum, but even at my end (the low end:) we're talking about 10-30gb of online data in a database, and most of the delay to the end user is caused by waiting for data to arrive over the network. I can't really think of a (well written) database where a single cpu struggles to put data together fast enough to push data through a network port. Unless that database is also doing number crunching rather than just retrieving data, in which case obviously throwing more CPU will probably improve things.
Putting aside for the moment that you wouldn't really put a mail server on the same system as an sql database server if you were worried about performance (unless of course the database server was actually a back end to the smtp server), how much CPU does an smtp service actually use? Data's only coming in at a few megabits (remember, we're talking average business's here, not mail hosting datacenters where the rules change completely). Unless you are doing virus and spam filtering on that same server... I can see where a couple of CPU's churning away could really speed things up there:)
But how many of those threads are CPU bound? The moment you start doing any number crunching then (assuming code written to take advantage of it and only up to a limit) the more CPU's the merrier, but no amount of extra CPU is going to get that data off the disk faster.
That being said though, if you have enough memory to hold your entire SQL/Mail/whatever database in memory, you might start to see the benefits of multiple cpu cores for read oriented queries.
A cool tool would be one that watches system activity over the course of a day/week/month and figures out what system improvement (CPU/Memory/Disk) is going to benefit you the most, based on the time threads spend waiting for swap, disk data, or CPU time.
It matters a little bit. Not much use transmitting data for 10 minutes only to have the other end respond with "sorry... did you say something? I wasn't listening".
Of course if you are going to be transmitting data for a few hours, 15 minutes of handshake and setup time doesn't matter so much.
So instead of tucking away the electronics in a relatively secure place in your car (it's not like there isn't room), you stick it in the great big piece of breakable glass in the front of the car, which is expensive enough to replace anyway? And have you ever fitted a windscreen to a car? Lining up the contacts would be a btich.
There are lots of places where transparent electronics could really improve a product, but I don't think a car windshield is one of them (unless you are talking HUD, but there are better ways of achieving that anyway so i assume you aren't)
The monitor I had at the time would only go up to about 72hz at the resolutions i'd play at (640x480). I never noticed if i'd get sick more playing under natural or artificial lighting... maybe there's something in that.
I am _very_ sensitive to flicker caused by low refresh rates, and in fact if I need to do something on someone elses computer that's the first thing i fix. It doesn't make me feel sick though, just irritated:) It baffles me how nobody else notices it!
Back when I had time for such things, i'd jump into Quake3 and play for a bit against the bots for some target practice.
Sometimes i'd play for a few minutes and then feel so sick that i'd need to lie down, and I wouldn't feel well again for hours.
Other times I could play for hours and feel fine the whole time. Actually, one time I played for about 12 hours on and off at a lan meet without incident, obviously not against bots though.
I never pinned down what the difference was. Same game, same computer, same monitor.
Even thinking about it while typing this makes me feel a bit unpleasant... maybe there is some psychosomatic aspect to it...
I used to be very prone to ear infections as a kid, and still get blocked ears more often than most. Given the role the inner ear plays in balance etc that may have something to do with, even when it's not blocked enough for me to be otherwise aware of it.
I also suffer from motion sickness in a car if I do anything but look out the window (reading, using a laptop, playing on the phone are all bad ideas).
From the literature i've read, in ADHD there is one part of the brain which is underactive, and as a result, other parts of the brain 'speed up' to compensate. Ritalin stimulates the underactive parts, which allow the rest of the brain to resume a more normal level of activity.
So it is a stimulant like speed, and mimics speed fairly closely even though it's not really related, but the net effect in an ADHD 'sufferer' is that it slows the brain down.
It might fix the symptom of the underlying problem, but not the problem itself. Fortunately, most people don't know that:)</pedantic>
There was a dilbert cartoon that went something like this: Dogbert: Picks up phone. Answers with "shutup and reboot". Hangs up Dogbert: <repeat of above> Dogbert: . o O {hmmm... my call times are improving}
that always springs to mind when I hear of someone instructing a user to reboot a computer to fix a problem:)
I always thought water was a greenhouse gas and more water vapour in the air would mean increased greehouse effect which would mean globally warmer temperatures which would mean air capable of holding more vapour... do you have any sources on your statement? I'm not disputing what you said, it's just that i keep hearing arguments in both directions and would like to figure out who's pulling my leg:)
Also, when you say water vapour, I assume you don't mean clouds, which are not vapour.
... was that isp's would start offering completely managed hosted desktops for people (rdp, X, vnc, whatever). The idea is that for many many internet users (eg computer illiterate moms and dads keeping in touch with the kids and grandkids), the entire set of applications they use consist of a web browser, an email client, and solitaire.
For a few extra dollars a month, the isp would provide them with a thin client (either a complete hardware and software package or a cd that would boot on an existing pc), and they'd never have to worry about anything like backups and security again. Email and documents would be stored at the ISP (but readily accessible somehow...). If they botch their browser or email config or something, the ISP would be able to fix it with a few button clicks.
Obviously you'd have to place some trust in the ISP to adequately protect your data etc, but if your data consists of emails like 'little johnny took his first steps today, here's a picture', then it's of limited value to anyone anyway.
I've had the idea before that slashdot needs some 'sub editors' to vote on an article submission, or at least suggest a new headline when someone is being stupid about it.
But if that were done, the last 12 months would have been pretty bare of articles...
And really, the most interesting thing about a lot of recent articles is the comments about how the hell they got through the editorial process in the first place.
A client of ours was still running win95 on about 5 workstations until about 6 months ago. This had the advantage that many modern virus's just won't work on them.
6 months after the Y2K 'bug' forced some people to upgrade older hardware, we in Australia got a VAT based tax system (we called it GST, because we're idiots) which replaced to some extent the previous 'sales tax' based system. These two events meant that we saw quite a bump in sales that year, and it was interesting to observe a slight bump 3 years later. No bump so far this year though.
Worse than that, the polar ice melting is exactly balancing out the extinction of sharks. If we didn't have global warming, you'd have to travel much further to go to the beach!!!
Or maybe we could just wring out all the sponges that are sitting at the bottom of the ocean.
I'm not sure a jar is the best place to be storing your bread... or your marbles.
The bread storage problem has been solved for quite a few years now, possibly longer than CCD's have been around. The marble storage problem is probably still a bit open ended, although less important as marbles have a significantly longer shelf life than bread.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm watching them right now. Currently, in Australia, simpsons repeats are on at 6pm 7 nights a week, futurama repeats are on two (i think - they keep changing them) nights a week, new simpsons are on at 7:30 one night a week. Additional simspons repeats often sneak in at 7:30 and/or 8:00 on weeknights.
:)
For a while, there was a few 'Simpsons hour' features a week with 2 extra repeats in addition to the 6pm episode. At one point I think there were more than 10 episodes shown a week.
All the repeats were randomly selected from any of the entire history of the simpsons, except I hardly ever get to see the very early episode I really liked where they get lost in the bush and Homer ends up catapulting a rabbit over the horizon.
Apparantly channel Ten loves the simpsons as much as I do. My wife however despises the fact that my daughter and I can watch repeats over and over again without getting bored of them
An encrypted transmission path between two parties relies on the same random data being available to both parties at the same time, which means it is either precomputed and both parties have a copy with them, or (in this case) it is a stream of data that both parties have access to in real time.
Not sure how well it would work if both parties were on opposite sides of the world though...
Additionally, there may be filtering of the signal to select various frequency ranges, which would change the random sequence it produced (although may not matter if you could capture the whole signal anyway, but you'd need to know it to actually do the decryption)
:)
Anyway, once i've figured out all the parameters, all I need to do is send a box away from the origin of the quasar faster than the speed of light, so that it can effectively go back in time relative to the signal and capture it.
I believe that this will be the big outcome of faster than light travel - breaking quasar keyed encryption.
(kidding of course
Probably more like Sid 6.7 :)
What if he's actually a scheming business genius too?
What if the technology they proposed those years ago actually works perfectly and due to some deliberate obfuscation the instructions were flawed?
Maybe, since the 'Pons Fleischmann' incident, he's been working with some secret business partners on bringing a product to market, comfortable in the knowledge that even if rumours did leak out, nobody's going to believe them anyway as he's a proven crackpot.
<conspiracy>also, the oil cartels will just view him as another free energy loony so he won't need to worry about assasination attempts</conspiracy>
Now, they're 12 months away from release, with a 15 year lead on any competition...
We're obviously talking different ends of the spectrum, but even at my end (the low end :) we're talking about 10-30gb of online data in a database, and most of the delay to the end user is caused by waiting for data to arrive over the network. I can't really think of a (well written) database where a single cpu struggles to put data together fast enough to push data through a network port. Unless that database is also doing number crunching rather than just retrieving data, in which case obviously throwing more CPU will probably improve things.
:)
Putting aside for the moment that you wouldn't really put a mail server on the same system as an sql database server if you were worried about performance (unless of course the database server was actually a back end to the smtp server), how much CPU does an smtp service actually use? Data's only coming in at a few megabits (remember, we're talking average business's here, not mail hosting datacenters where the rules change completely). Unless you are doing virus and spam filtering on that same server... I can see where a couple of CPU's churning away could really speed things up there
But how many of those threads are CPU bound? The moment you start doing any number crunching then (assuming code written to take advantage of it and only up to a limit) the more CPU's the merrier, but no amount of extra CPU is going to get that data off the disk faster.
That being said though, if you have enough memory to hold your entire SQL/Mail/whatever database in memory, you might start to see the benefits of multiple cpu cores for read oriented queries.
A cool tool would be one that watches system activity over the course of a day/week/month and figures out what system improvement (CPU/Memory/Disk) is going to benefit you the most, based on the time threads spend waiting for swap, disk data, or CPU time.
It matters a little bit. Not much use transmitting data for 10 minutes only to have the other end respond with "sorry... did you say something? I wasn't listening".
Of course if you are going to be transmitting data for a few hours, 15 minutes of handshake and setup time doesn't matter so much.
So instead of tucking away the electronics in a relatively secure place in your car (it's not like there isn't room), you stick it in the great big piece of breakable glass in the front of the car, which is expensive enough to replace anyway? And have you ever fitted a windscreen to a car? Lining up the contacts would be a btich.
There are lots of places where transparent electronics could really improve a product, but I don't think a car windshield is one of them (unless you are talking HUD, but there are better ways of achieving that anyway so i assume you aren't)
The monitor I had at the time would only go up to about 72hz at the resolutions i'd play at (640x480). I never noticed if i'd get sick more playing under natural or artificial lighting... maybe there's something in that.
:) It baffles me how nobody else notices it!
I am _very_ sensitive to flicker caused by low refresh rates, and in fact if I need to do something on someone elses computer that's the first thing i fix. It doesn't make me feel sick though, just irritated
Actually that reminds me, chewing gum is good for equalising inner ear pressure. Might be worth a try.
Back when I had time for such things, i'd jump into Quake3 and play for a bit against the bots for some target practice.
Sometimes i'd play for a few minutes and then feel so sick that i'd need to lie down, and I wouldn't feel well again for hours.
Other times I could play for hours and feel fine the whole time. Actually, one time I played for about 12 hours on and off at a lan meet without incident, obviously not against bots though.
I never pinned down what the difference was. Same game, same computer, same monitor.
Even thinking about it while typing this makes me feel a bit unpleasant... maybe there is some psychosomatic aspect to it...
I used to be very prone to ear infections as a kid, and still get blocked ears more often than most. Given the role the inner ear plays in balance etc that may have something to do with, even when it's not blocked enough for me to be otherwise aware of it.
I also suffer from motion sickness in a car if I do anything but look out the window (reading, using a laptop, playing on the phone are all bad ideas).
But maybe that's just me.
My wife swore by them during her 3rd and 4th pregnancies (and maybe 2nd too, can't remember).
:)
She also swore at me lots, but that's another story
From the literature i've read, in ADHD there is one part of the brain which is underactive, and as a result, other parts of the brain 'speed up' to compensate. Ritalin stimulates the underactive parts, which allow the rest of the brain to resume a more normal level of activity.
So it is a stimulant like speed, and mimics speed fairly closely even though it's not really related, but the net effect in an ADHD 'sufferer' is that it slows the brain down.
You idiot!!! it was all the beer served in styrofoam cups that caused the problem in the first place!!!
Based on prices i've seen recently you won't find a Cisco [EJT]1 WIC for less than $500!
It might fix the symptom of the underlying problem, but not the problem itself. Fortunately, most people don't know that :)</pedantic>
:)
There was a dilbert cartoon that went something like this:
Dogbert: Picks up phone. Answers with "shutup and reboot". Hangs up
Dogbert: <repeat of above>
Dogbert: . o O {hmmm... my call times are improving}
that always springs to mind when I hear of someone instructing a user to reboot a computer to fix a problem
Tech support becomes "Reboot the box."
:)
Isn't that the default scripted instruction from 1st level support anyway?
I always thought water was a greenhouse gas and more water vapour in the air would mean increased greehouse effect which would mean globally warmer temperatures which would mean air capable of holding more vapour... do you have any sources on your statement? I'm not disputing what you said, it's just that i keep hearing arguments in both directions and would like to figure out who's pulling my leg :)
Also, when you say water vapour, I assume you don't mean clouds, which are not vapour.
... was that isp's would start offering completely managed hosted desktops for people (rdp, X, vnc, whatever). The idea is that for many many internet users (eg computer illiterate moms and dads keeping in touch with the kids and grandkids), the entire set of applications they use consist of a web browser, an email client, and solitaire.
For a few extra dollars a month, the isp would provide them with a thin client (either a complete hardware and software package or a cd that would boot on an existing pc), and they'd never have to worry about anything like backups and security again. Email and documents would be stored at the ISP (but readily accessible somehow...). If they botch their browser or email config or something, the ISP would be able to fix it with a few button clicks.
Obviously you'd have to place some trust in the ISP to adequately protect your data etc, but if your data consists of emails like 'little johnny took his first steps today, here's a picture', then it's of limited value to anyone anyway.
Hasn't happened yet though.
I've had the idea before that slashdot needs some 'sub editors' to vote on an article submission, or at least suggest a new headline when someone is being stupid about it.
:)
But if that were done, the last 12 months would have been pretty bare of articles...
And really, the most interesting thing about a lot of recent articles is the comments about how the hell they got through the editorial process in the first place.
Don't ever change, slashdot
As copied from a previous slashdot comment:
Homer: "So there's a commet. Big deal. It'll burn up in our atmosphere and whatever's left will be no bigger than a Chihuahua's head."
Bart: "Wow, dad. Maybe you're right."
Homer: "Of course I'm right. If I'm not may we all be horribly crushed from above somehow."
Moe: Quick... lets burn down the observatory so that this never happens again!!
A client of ours was still running win95 on about 5 workstations until about 6 months ago. This had the advantage that many modern virus's just won't work on them.
6 months after the Y2K 'bug' forced some people to upgrade older hardware, we in Australia got a VAT based tax system (we called it GST, because we're idiots) which replaced to some extent the previous 'sales tax' based system. These two events meant that we saw quite a bump in sales that year, and it was interesting to observe a slight bump 3 years later. No bump so far this year though.
Worse than that, the polar ice melting is exactly balancing out the extinction of sharks. If we didn't have global warming, you'd have to travel much further to go to the beach!!!
Or maybe we could just wring out all the sponges that are sitting at the bottom of the ocean.
I'm not sure a jar is the best place to be storing your bread... or your marbles.
The bread storage problem has been solved for quite a few years now, possibly longer than CCD's have been around. The marble storage problem is probably still a bit open ended, although less important as marbles have a significantly longer shelf life than bread.
Sorry... i don't think i had a point either.