it's as if I took your old book, put it into a book that talks about old stuff, and recopied everything, verbatim.
I have to disagree with you slightly.
I think this is more like if I were to take an old book (or collection of old books) and store them together in a single publically accessible place (hmmm like a library).
Then those books sit there for 6 years, and someone (law firm) decides to (gasp) check out those books and use them as reference material in their suit against the people who originally published those books.
Could the original authors of these stored books then sue the library for providing those books to the public?? (lets assume the robot.txt issue has been resolved, and the library hasn't posted these books illegaly).
fsck me if i'm wrong, but wouldn't this be similar to suing someone for referencing an old book I wrote, just because I'd released a new one that didn't contain much of the old information?
And I thought clearcutting and logging of our national forests was bad....
Take up arms! Our nations keyboards are in jeopardy due to these evil logging tactics, soon our keystroke supply will exist only in preserved forests and small wildlife areas.
I agree, next time I'm in my local tatoo-parlor getting my arm covered in "I love Mom" (okay lets be real, "I love Will Wheaton") I would love to see the sign that says "Supersize your tatto with 1 gig of skin storage for only $99!".
Even then you know the guy with the 12 gauge ring connecting his penis to his lip would look over and say "man I'm never lettin em put that sh*t in my body mein!".
Japanese researchers are using femtosecond laser pulses to write data into human fingernails.
Secure optical data storage could soon literally be at your fingertips thanks to work being carried out in Japan. Yoshio Hayasaki and his colleagues have discovered that data can be written into a human fingernail by irradiating it with femtosecond laser pulses. Capacities are said to be up to 5 mega bits and the stored data lasts for 6 months - the length of time it takes a fingernail to be completely replaced. (Optics Express 13 4560)
Fingernail storage
"I don't like carrying around a large number of cards, money and papers," Hayasaki from Tokushima University told Optics.org. "I think that a key application will be personal authentication. Data stored in a fingernail can be used with biometrics, such as fingerprint authentication and intravenous authentication of the finger."
The team's approach is simple: use a femtosecond laser system to write the data into the nail and a fluorescence microscope to read it out. The key to reading the data out is that the nail's fluorescence increases at the point irradiated by the femtosecond pulses.
Initial experiments were carried out on a small piece of human fingernail measuring 2 x 2 x 0.4 mm3. The writing system comprises a Ti:Sapphire oscillator and Ti: Sapphire amplifier. Pulses of less than 100 fs at 800 nm are then passed through a microscope and focused to three set depths (40, 60 and 80 microns) using an objective lens.
Each "bit" of information has a diameter of 3.1 microns and is written by a single femtosecond pulse. A motorised stage moves the nail to create a bit spacing of 5 microns across the nail and a depth of 20 microns between recording layers.
An optical microscope containing a filtered xenon arc lamp excites the fluorescence and reads out the data stored at the various depths. "We regulate the focus with the movement of the microscope objective," explained Hayasaki. "The distance between the planes is set to prevent cross-talk between data stored at different depths."
Hayasaki adds that the same fluorescence signal is seen 172 days after recording.
Although the initial experiments have concentrated on small pieces of nail, the team is now developing a system that can write data to a fingernail which is still attached to a finger. "We will develop a femtosecond laser processing system that can record the data at the desired points with compensation for the movement of a finger," said Hayasaki.
Author
Jacqueline Hewett is technology editor on Optics.org and Opto & Laser Europe magazine.
article text, for those who don't need 1,000 ads
on
Longhorn Preview
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Longhorn Preview
The newest versions of the next Windows add graphics sizzle and more search features but lack visible productivity enhancements.
Scott Spanbauer
From the August 2005 issue of PC World magazine
Posted Wednesday, June 22, 2005
The most recent build of Longhorn--Microsoft's next Windows--has some impressive visual touches, including the kinds of translucent objects found now in Apple's OS X, and more powerful ways of finding files. But it doesn't yet exhibit any breakthroughs in productivity, or promised features such as security improvements and smarter connections to handheld devices.
We tested the 64-bit version of the latest code released to developers (Longhorn build 5048) and have also viewed demonstrations of a subsequent build. The first beta version of the operating system is due for release this summer.
Over the last several years, Microsoft has touted Longhorn's trio of significant innovations: a graphics engine dubbed Avalon; a technology called Indigo that enables programs on different computers or devices to communicate; and an indexed, searchable data storage layer called WinFS. But when faced with a self-imposed release deadline of late 2006, Microsoft decided last year to pull WinFS out of Longhorn, promising to release that component as an add-on at a later date.
So what of the two remaining Longhorn design pillars? A new desktop theme called Aero is about the only sign of Avalon graphics in our pre-beta. Turning mundane buttons, window frames, title bars, and icons into animated, 3D-rendered, and sometimes transparent objects, Aero brings the Windows interface to life. Indigo, which supports enhanced Web services, won't be visible to end users.
But even though WinFS is now out of the mix, Microsoft has taken advantage of file attributes in the NTFS file system already available in Windows XP to make Explorer better at ferreting out documents according to author, camera model (for photographs), or genre or album title (for music files). The operating system lets you create virtual lists based on these attributes so that, for example, you can see every photo on your system or all Microsoft Word files, regardless of where they are stored and without having to explicitly search for them.
Longhorn will also do a better job of connecting to smart phones (Microsoft wouldn't indicate whether the phones would have to run the company's Windows Mobile operating system), cameras, and audio players, improving their integration into Explorer and making file transfers and synchronization more consistent across device types. Still notably absent from the Longhorn builds we've looked at are new versions of the Internet Explorer browser (even though Microsoft has said it is close to releasing a beta of IE 7) or any other bundled utilities. Gone, for the time being anyway, is the desktop sidebar that lurked in previous preliminary versions of Longhorn.
And in spite of announced planned enhancements such as monitoring of outbound data (Windows XP's firewall watches inbound traffic only), protection against malware, a new type of restricted user account, and a secure startup scheme to ensure that a PC hasn't been tampered with, Longhorn so far has the same minimal security toolbox as Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
Though security remains an unresolved issue, build 5048 brings Longhorn's graphical user interface into sharper focus.
Catch-Up Eye Candy
The new Avalon graphics engine includes a programming interface that permits Microsoft and third-party software makers alike to write applications that put the latest and greatest graphics cards to work rotating, texturing, and fading windows, as well as making menus, title bars, and other elements translucent--finally enabling Windows to catch up to Apple's OS X, several years after the fact.
We managed to activate a subset of these features in our copy of Longhorn build 5048, and they're certainly welcome refinements (see top screen). Nevertheles
Voice over IP is taking over the world and I also like the idea of calling for free... The problem I've experienced so far is the fact that you always have to use those cumbersome headsets. When it would be possible to use your standard phone for this application, the experience of VoIP would be much more like the real POTS (plain old telephone system). Especially a cordless phone with the base station near the pc would be nice. Furthermore it would be desirable to be able to use your normal phone keys to control Skype (or any other VoIP program).
Christoffer Järnåker actually did a nice job eliminating this shortcoming with his Siemens Skype phone, www.grynx.com/index.php/projects/siemens-skype . The disadvantage of this technique is that you kind of ruin your phone and that the procedure to create this kind of phone is different for every single type of phone.
Not too long ago I ran across a device called Chat-Cord (www.chat-cord.com).
This device does actually the same thing but it is placed between you phone and pc, not modifying your phone. But... This device is pretty expensive and I couldn't get it here in the Netherlands. Furthermore it seemed to me that this device actually isn't very complicated. So, after some internet research I somewhat found out how it worked and identified two difficulties to be solved.
In this article a description is given how to make your own chat-cord. It costs
only like 7 euros. You have to solder some parts but it is very basic and simple.
To be able to use a normal phone to connect to the pc we have to make it look like for the phone as if it were connected to a normal telephone line and this telephone line has to look like it is making a call.
First of all the normal telephone line has a certain voltage, depending on the state of the line. On hook (waiting for incoming calls) is like 60V DC, ringing is 100V AC (roughly 100Hz) and off hook (an active call is going on) around 9V DC. So to be able to use a normal phone to make it think a call is going on, the phone has to see a 9V DC voltage at its input. This can simply be achieved with a 9V battery.
An alternative to this is to power the device from your USB port. It will only provide you with 5v instead of 9v, but this works fine in most cases. You have 300mA to your disposal there and that is more then enough. Just make sure you connect the right wires
The second part is the tricky part. A normal telephone system uses only two wires to send both the microphone and the speaker signal. From basic electronics you might know that you need 2 wires to send a signal, and at least 3 to send 2 signals, because one of the wires is acting as a reference (usually called ground).
In a telephone system both the mic and the speaker signal are multiplexed into one signal. To be able to connect your phone to you mic-in and line-out of your pc you have to de-multiplex these signals.
The solution of Chris was to extract the mic an speaker signal before it is multiplexed inside the phone.
But this can also be done by a transformer (which is also used to prevent the 9V DC from going into you soundcard). The kind of transformer used for this application is a so called secondary centre tapped transformer. Meaning that it has 2 connections at its primary side (where the telephone will be connected) and 3 connections at its secondary side. The middle connection is physically connected to the middle of the secondary coil of the transformer. This middle connector is used as a shared ground for both the mic and the line-out.
Another issue is the input impedance of a phone line. When a phone line doesn't see the right input impedance reflections will occur, resulting in echoes or even in disabling the line. A telephone line has a input impedance of 600 Ohms, so the transformer has to be a 600 Ohm transformer. At the secondary side of the transformer a 150 Ohm resistor has to be placed at the middle connection to make the secondary input impedance 600 Ohm as well, resulting i
Your opinion has been impregnated into you by space aliens!
I have a product called "brain wash" that can abort this impregnation immediately!
"Our Brain wash is made from free-range pigs, so you don't have to worry about errr non free range stuff... and its bottled in the US!"
Republicans love this stuff! Just listen to this high profile congressman... "My crazy alien thoughts and ideas vanished instantly after applying brainWash!"
Suzie from Duluth, GA says "I reckon them space critters know we got them whooped now, no more radical leftist thoughts for me! Thank you Brain Wash!"
Who wants crazy alien thoughts in their head? Not me, not you! Get Brain Wash, and get better!
What you say!?! Because I'm shopping on the internet they are keeping track of my visits and offering me different pricing levels based on how often I come back and how much I buy?!?
This is an outrage! I'm pissed off! I'm writing congress... but it will have to wait until after lunch... I'm going to see my favorite waitress Lisa down at the local burger shop.. she never charges me for my milkshakes cause I'm there every week...
Actually the article that I read on this (different source) said that 100K customers is almost nothing in the battle between Netflix and Blockbuster. I guess that was sort of the point, Walmart had so few customers (relatively) that they were never catching up to Netflix (3 million?) which is why they got out of game.
FTFA - In his early 20s, Pitroda received the patent. "There was no contest at all. I got all the claims in one shot," he said. He shared the idea with colleagues at American Express and with Noyce, but neither pursued it. Lacking other investment resources, Pitroda put the invention aside. "I think it was too far ahead of its time. I didn't have the muscles to do it myself," he said. He moved back to India in 1982 and returned to Chicago in 1991, where he saw PDAs becoming commonplace. In court, he won royalty settlements from Casio, HP, Radio Shack, Sharp, and Texas Instruments.
So not only did this guy give birth to the idea of PDAs.. but also to the idea of patenting something general and sweepingly broad, and then suing later when somebody who isn't too lazy implements his idea... wonderful!
Avast Home Edition [avast.com] - Free for personal use. This stuff works like magic. You *do* have to register in order to get a registration code but it is definitely worth it.
I've actually used this software to fix problems that McAfee couldn't (the boot time scan is not possible with McAfee).
Another good, free alternative is AVG Antivirus [grisoft.com]
It's great for tinfoil hatters too, since you don't even need a registration code.
I'm not sure about the rest of you, but at $6 million per launch... even decreasing costs by a factor of ten won't help me out... I'd love to get into space, experiement on sea monkeys, and all that good stuff, but salting pretzels just isn't cuttin the mustard.
On a more serious note, how will this kind of funding and research propel the movement to colonize other planets, become more enlightened, and generally get the f*** off this planet?
Any thoughts from the/. crowd as to how these goals could best be accomplished? Whether through this kind of channel or elsewhere?
When i fiRst stol DOs back in the day, peeple were schtupid... and I culd fewl them into thinkin I was an uber-Geek with my fancy pants cummand line stuff.
You would'nt beelive the a$$ i was gettin with the monay I was brinign in early on, chicks dig my big brain and fat pokets.
Anyhooo the point here is you guys are hip and cool and everythin I wanted to be.. and the azz train had definetly left this station.. so throw an old dawg a bone, stop comin out with all them new feetures every day so ole bIll can get some eh?
If you can kick some of them new fangled ideas over to ole bill every now and again, I promise to license a few of them copies of illegil windoze you have rollin round over there... we can all win!
Slashdot Mirror
I have to disagree with you slightly.
I think this is more like if I were to take an old book (or collection of old books) and store them together in a single publically accessible place (hmmm like a library).
Then those books sit there for 6 years, and someone (law firm) decides to (gasp) check out those books and use them as reference material in their suit against the people who originally published those books.
Could the original authors of these stored books then sue the library for providing those books to the public?? (lets assume the robot.txt issue has been resolved, and the library hasn't posted these books illegaly).
fsck me if i'm wrong, but wouldn't this be similar to suing someone for referencing an old book I wrote, just because I'd released a new one that didn't contain much of the old information?
pffffffff! I bet it's not a "floating" metric desk...
Take up arms! Our nations keyboards are in jeopardy due to these evil logging tactics, soon our keystroke supply will exist only in preserved forests and small wildlife areas.
A modern-day study could come up with incorrect findings for this question, were they to randomly sample a group of slashdotters....
data-mining: pick your nose
data-wharehousing: the morgue
database-connection-strings: ewwwwww
Even then you know the guy with the 12 gauge ring connecting his penis to his lip would look over and say "man I'm never lettin em put that sh*t in my body mein!".
And with no display, could Apple sue for prior art with the Shuffle?
Secure optical data storage could soon literally be at your fingertips thanks to work being carried out in Japan. Yoshio Hayasaki and his colleagues have discovered that data can be written into a human fingernail by irradiating it with femtosecond laser pulses. Capacities are said to be up to 5 mega bits and the stored data lasts for 6 months - the length of time it takes a fingernail to be completely replaced. (Optics Express 13 4560)
Fingernail storage
"I don't like carrying around a large number of cards, money and papers," Hayasaki from Tokushima University told Optics.org. "I think that a key application will be personal authentication. Data stored in a fingernail can be used with biometrics, such as fingerprint authentication and intravenous authentication of the finger."
The team's approach is simple: use a femtosecond laser system to write the data into the nail and a fluorescence microscope to read it out. The key to reading the data out is that the nail's fluorescence increases at the point irradiated by the femtosecond pulses.
Initial experiments were carried out on a small piece of human fingernail measuring 2 x 2 x 0.4 mm3. The writing system comprises a Ti:Sapphire oscillator and Ti: Sapphire amplifier. Pulses of less than 100 fs at 800 nm are then passed through a microscope and focused to three set depths (40, 60 and 80 microns) using an objective lens.
Each "bit" of information has a diameter of 3.1 microns and is written by a single femtosecond pulse. A motorised stage moves the nail to create a bit spacing of 5 microns across the nail and a depth of 20 microns between recording layers.
An optical microscope containing a filtered xenon arc lamp excites the fluorescence and reads out the data stored at the various depths. "We regulate the focus with the movement of the microscope objective," explained Hayasaki. "The distance between the planes is set to prevent cross-talk between data stored at different depths."
Hayasaki adds that the same fluorescence signal is seen 172 days after recording.
Although the initial experiments have concentrated on small pieces of nail, the team is now developing a system that can write data to a fingernail which is still attached to a finger. "We will develop a femtosecond laser processing system that can record the data at the desired points with compensation for the movement of a finger," said Hayasaki.
Author Jacqueline Hewett is technology editor on Optics.org and Opto & Laser Europe magazine.
The newest versions of the next Windows add graphics sizzle and more search features but lack visible productivity enhancements.
Scott Spanbauer From the August 2005 issue of PC World magazine Posted Wednesday, June 22, 2005
The most recent build of Longhorn--Microsoft's next Windows--has some impressive visual touches, including the kinds of translucent objects found now in Apple's OS X, and more powerful ways of finding files. But it doesn't yet exhibit any breakthroughs in productivity, or promised features such as security improvements and smarter connections to handheld devices.
We tested the 64-bit version of the latest code released to developers (Longhorn build 5048) and have also viewed demonstrations of a subsequent build. The first beta version of the operating system is due for release this summer.
Over the last several years, Microsoft has touted Longhorn's trio of significant innovations: a graphics engine dubbed Avalon; a technology called Indigo that enables programs on different computers or devices to communicate; and an indexed, searchable data storage layer called WinFS. But when faced with a self-imposed release deadline of late 2006, Microsoft decided last year to pull WinFS out of Longhorn, promising to release that component as an add-on at a later date.
So what of the two remaining Longhorn design pillars? A new desktop theme called Aero is about the only sign of Avalon graphics in our pre-beta. Turning mundane buttons, window frames, title bars, and icons into animated, 3D-rendered, and sometimes transparent objects, Aero brings the Windows interface to life. Indigo, which supports enhanced Web services, won't be visible to end users.
But even though WinFS is now out of the mix, Microsoft has taken advantage of file attributes in the NTFS file system already available in Windows XP to make Explorer better at ferreting out documents according to author, camera model (for photographs), or genre or album title (for music files). The operating system lets you create virtual lists based on these attributes so that, for example, you can see every photo on your system or all Microsoft Word files, regardless of where they are stored and without having to explicitly search for them.
Longhorn will also do a better job of connecting to smart phones (Microsoft wouldn't indicate whether the phones would have to run the company's Windows Mobile operating system), cameras, and audio players, improving their integration into Explorer and making file transfers and synchronization more consistent across device types. Still notably absent from the Longhorn builds we've looked at are new versions of the Internet Explorer browser (even though Microsoft has said it is close to releasing a beta of IE 7) or any other bundled utilities. Gone, for the time being anyway, is the desktop sidebar that lurked in previous preliminary versions of Longhorn.
And in spite of announced planned enhancements such as monitoring of outbound data (Windows XP's firewall watches inbound traffic only), protection against malware, a new type of restricted user account, and a secure startup scheme to ensure that a PC hasn't been tampered with, Longhorn so far has the same minimal security toolbox as Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
Though security remains an unresolved issue, build 5048 brings Longhorn's graphical user interface into sharper focus.
Catch-Up Eye Candy
The new Avalon graphics engine includes a programming interface that permits Microsoft and third-party software makers alike to write applications that put the latest and greatest graphics cards to work rotating, texturing, and fading windows, as well as making menus, title bars, and other elements translucent--finally enabling Windows to catch up to Apple's OS X, several years after the fact.
We managed to activate a subset of these features in our copy of Longhorn build 5048, and they're certainly welcome refinements (see top screen). Nevertheles
link from dupe
Not too long ago I ran across a device called Chat-Cord (www.chat-cord.com). This device does actually the same thing but it is placed between you phone and pc, not modifying your phone. But... This device is pretty expensive and I couldn't get it here in the Netherlands. Furthermore it seemed to me that this device actually isn't very complicated. So, after some internet research I somewhat found out how it worked and identified two difficulties to be solved.
In this article a description is given how to make your own chat-cord. It costs only like 7 euros. You have to solder some parts but it is very basic and simple.
To be able to use a normal phone to connect to the pc we have to make it look like for the phone as if it were connected to a normal telephone line and this telephone line has to look like it is making a call.
First of all the normal telephone line has a certain voltage, depending on the state of the line. On hook (waiting for incoming calls) is like 60V DC, ringing is 100V AC (roughly 100Hz) and off hook (an active call is going on) around 9V DC. So to be able to use a normal phone to make it think a call is going on, the phone has to see a 9V DC voltage at its input. This can simply be achieved with a 9V battery.
An alternative to this is to power the device from your USB port. It will only provide you with 5v instead of 9v, but this works fine in most cases. You have 300mA to your disposal there and that is more then enough. Just make sure you connect the right wires
The second part is the tricky part. A normal telephone system uses only two wires to send both the microphone and the speaker signal. From basic electronics you might know that you need 2 wires to send a signal, and at least 3 to send 2 signals, because one of the wires is acting as a reference (usually called ground). In a telephone system both the mic and the speaker signal are multiplexed into one signal. To be able to connect your phone to you mic-in and line-out of your pc you have to de-multiplex these signals.
The solution of Chris was to extract the mic an speaker signal before it is multiplexed inside the phone.
But this can also be done by a transformer (which is also used to prevent the 9V DC from going into you soundcard). The kind of transformer used for this application is a so called secondary centre tapped transformer. Meaning that it has 2 connections at its primary side (where the telephone will be connected) and 3 connections at its secondary side. The middle connection is physically connected to the middle of the secondary coil of the transformer. This middle connector is used as a shared ground for both the mic and the line-out.
Another issue is the input impedance of a phone line. When a phone line doesn't see the right input impedance reflections will occur, resulting in echoes or even in disabling the line. A telephone line has a input impedance of 600 Ohms, so the transformer has to be a 600 Ohm transformer. At the secondary side of the transformer a 150 Ohm resistor has to be placed at the middle connection to make the secondary input impedance 600 Ohm as well, resulting i
Your opinion has been impregnated into you by space aliens! I have a product called "brain wash" that can abort this impregnation immediately! "Our Brain wash is made from free-range pigs, so you don't have to worry about errr non free range stuff... and its bottled in the US!" Republicans love this stuff! Just listen to this high profile congressman... "My crazy alien thoughts and ideas vanished instantly after applying brainWash!" Suzie from Duluth, GA says "I reckon them space critters know we got them whooped now, no more radical leftist thoughts for me! Thank you Brain Wash!" Who wants crazy alien thoughts in their head? Not me, not you! Get Brain Wash, and get better!
This is an outrage! I'm pissed off! I'm writing congress... but it will have to wait until after lunch... I'm going to see my favorite waitress Lisa down at the local burger shop.. she never charges me for my milkshakes cause I'm there every week...
ohh.. shit!
So not only did this guy give birth to the idea of PDAs.. but also to the idea of patenting something general and sweepingly broad, and then suing later when somebody who isn't too lazy implements his idea... wonderful!
I've actually used this software to fix problems that McAfee couldn't (the boot time scan is not possible with McAfee).
Another good, free alternative is AVG Antivirus [grisoft.com]
It's great for tinfoil hatters too, since you don't even need a registration code.
On a more serious note, how will this kind of funding and research propel the movement to colonize other planets, become more enlightened, and generally get the f*** off this planet?
Any thoughts from the /. crowd as to how these goals could best be accomplished? Whether through this kind of channel or elsewhere?
When i fiRst stol DOs back in the day, peeple were schtupid... and I culd fewl them into thinkin I was an uber-Geek with my fancy pants cummand line stuff.
You would'nt beelive the a$$ i was gettin with the monay I was brinign in early on, chicks dig my big brain and fat pokets.
Anyhooo the point here is you guys are hip and cool and everythin I wanted to be.. and the azz train had definetly left this station.. so throw an old dawg a bone, stop comin out with all them new feetures every day so ole bIll can get some eh?
If you can kick some of them new fangled ideas over to ole bill every now and again, I promise to license a few of them copies of illegil windoze you have rollin round over there... we can all win!
Sincereleeley,
Mr. Gates (the kids call me 'money' for short)
Free beer to all!