Then they could take advantage of the cross platform swing interface stuff (instead of creating their own version of it), and the code would be more simple and maintainable.
Sure, it would be slow, but it's slow now! A java app will just get faster and faster as JVMs improve (and as CPUs get faster). And if they just focused on making a functional browser (instead of a whole new platform) I bet they could get it running pretty fast in java today.
The more your arm has to move in order to do it, the more it is likely to hurt
It's not that simple. The problem with mice and keyboards is that they force you to twist your hand in an unnatural postion (palms down). This position causes much more strain than the vertical postion your hands are in while writing.
Try this:
With your hands above your keyboard, ready to type, try to rotate them. You can only go in one direction, cause your hands are already at the limit of where they can move (which causes fatigue).
Now put your hand in a writing postion, and rotate it. Can move both ways. Your hand is starting in a neutral position.
Creditors cannot be faulted for Toysmart going out of business, and need to be renumerated somehow.
Sorry, cost of doing business. They took the risk that Toysmart would pay them later, a risk that most suppliers make, and one that usually pays off.
In any case, they do not need to be renumated. If the company has any legitimate assets they can sell, then that money should be used to pay off the creditors. (Key word is *legitimate*.) If not, then the creditors take the hit. Their business plans surely account for some of their clients not paying them.
The Vikings could always just pick another domain name.
Like "VikingsFootball.com".
Even if we don't have all those ".sport", and ".bible" type addresses, it's pretty painless to add another common word to your domain. You can still have the coveted ".com" ending, but also a unique domain name that describes your company.
- Isaac =)
(What's funny in this Vikings case is that "vikings.com" goes to the team, and "vikingsfootball.com" goes to a mn tv station...)
But what about the *cracker's* morals? (I think this is what the original poster meant.) They could come forward and reveal themselves so that the reporter doesn't have to lose his job / go to jail. It's not like they are accused of murder or spying or something.
But then I guess crackers and morals don't exactly go together. (But crackers and cheese do. Mmmm.....)
I can imagine how using light from the sun might work for this (as long as you want to go AWAY from the sun), but I can't see how you could manage to keep a laser aimed at a craft as it travels great distances. I'm sure the craft and the laser source would be moving around at least a tiny bit and would need to correct for that, but by the time the laser emittor can figure out where the craft is, it will have moved (unless they can figure out someway to communicate faster than light between the source and craft).
We are talking a TINY tolorance to get the beam to hit *directly* on the sail (off a little bit in any direction will start it spinning) and once you get a bit of error it gets harder and harder to predict the craft's position.
there's no way for you to say "I don't want X knowing I'm on." someone could be on, but you wouldn't be guaranteed of knowing it
I posted another message mentioning your second point, but your first point gave me an idea to solve it...
When a person adds you to their Buddy List thing, it doesn't actually add you to *theirs*. Instead, your client adds them to your Notify List, whuch means that when you log on it sends out a message to all the people on your list. This also allows *you* to manage who knows you are on or not. Unless you have a static IP number, it would be difficult for others to track you.
what I'm looking forward to is a fully distributed system of communication where every client is also a sort of server
Well, IRC is pretty close to that, except that it is a network of servers with a network of clients attached to them. Still pretty distributed though.
The problem of fully distributing a chat network is how to deal with identities. How do you stop people from taking over other's identities, or sniffing all messages sent to a certain person? (hmm... public key encryption! answered my own question...)
But then how do you deal with discovery of other people? With no centralized server, it could take a VERY long time from the point when someone logs on to when you can see they are part of the network. Gnutella has this problem now.
your emulator would have to be able to emulate whatever changes have occured to the different kernels that are on the discs of many different games
Or it could simply (heh) emulate the hardware itself. Then the games can change their kernals as much as they want. That's how VirtualPC works on the Mac. It emulates all the pieces of hardware (CPU, BIOS, serial ports, ethernet card, etc) so you can install pretty much any OS that runs on Intel. This approach is certainly slower than mapping Windows API calls to MacOS API calls, but I have had zero compatiblity issues with it.
I don't know if VGS works this way too, but since it is more compatible (and slower) than other PC playstation emulators, I wouldn't be suprised if it is emulating hardware.
I would think that emulating an X-Box on a PC wouldn't be terribly different
True, but Connectix makes great emulators for MacOS as well (VGS and VirtualPC). I imagine that MS will make X-Box games work on Windows, but I'm not so sure they will go after the MacOS market (it *is* possible -- there is money to be made from Mac users, and MS does make some very decent Mac software (Office98 and IE 5)).
If Micosoft isn't interested in supporting games on MacOS, perhaps Connectix can step in to make that work.
He mentions that a key point is that the technique of reverse engineering was completely cleared, opening the door to creating PS2, Dreamcast, and even X-Box emulators in the future (once PC hardware speeds are capable of it).
But in this discussion wouldn't it make sense to differentiate the PNG format's "alpha transparency" from the GIF format's transparency, to emphasize that PNG uses a seperate (alpha) channel to determine which pixels should be transparent, as opposed to how GIFs use a pixel value?
The channel is called alpha (Red Green Blue Alpha) perhaps just by convention, but it's used very consitently.
I voted for Nader last election, and will do so again. Screw voting for a candidate you don't like just so a candidate you hate won't win. The only way to change things is to VOTE FOR THE CANDIDATE YOU REALLY WANT TO WIN, even though their chances don't look good. The reason the third party candidates aren't "viable" is because everyone else is holding their noses and voting for a mainstream candidate too.
Reminds me of that great Simpsons episode where the aliens take over Bush and Clinton's bodies during the '96 elections. Their true identities are revealed before the election, but when someone suggests voting for a third party candidate to avoid being ruled by either alien dictator, they reply "Sure, THROW your vote away!" It's funny (sad) cause it's TRUE...
People didn't get together when they were building the Internet and say, "Hey, man, let's design this thing so that we can never be censored!"
No, but they *did* design it so that the transfer of information from one point to another could not be easily blocked. The idea was to make sure that an enemy attack (or a hungry gopher, for that matter) couldn't bring down the whole network by destroying parts of it. This does lend itself well to routing around censorship (barriers).
When you add in software that replicates information accross mutiple servers (like Usenet) and anonymous access (either through remailers or internet cafes) you can very effective go around any controls that may be in place.
Do we really need more posts like "how r u doin? do u study? i am 14 Indian. I m usin intrnet for 1st time"
I think this is a GREAT thing! Sure, YOU may not want to talk to that 14 year old from India, but get him talking with a 14 year old from Pakistan and see how long it takes for those two kids to realize they have a lot in common. When you have all the kids growing up and talking to eachother, maybe they can make a difference in their countries' relations.
I agree with the other posts about plumbing and electricity probably being more important in the near term, but don't underestimate the power of communication. So many problems we face today are the result of groups being isolated from eachother and not understanding eachother. The Internet is one way of changing that.
Slashdot Mirror
Then they could take advantage of the cross platform swing interface stuff (instead of creating their own version of it), and the code would be more simple and maintainable.
Sure, it would be slow, but it's slow now! A java app will just get faster and faster as JVMs improve (and as CPUs get faster). And if they just focused on making a functional browser (instead of a whole new platform) I bet they could get it running pretty fast in java today.
- Isaac =)
True to form for Microsoft. They can't make the system stable, but they can make it crash in the color of your choice.
Doesn't that sound more like Apple?
- Isaac =)
http://www.sea-launch.com/
The more your arm has to move in order to do it, the more it is likely to hurt
It's not that simple. The problem with mice and keyboards is that they force you to twist your hand in an unnatural postion (palms down). This position causes much more strain than the vertical postion your hands are in while writing.
Try this:
With your hands above your keyboard, ready to type, try to rotate them. You can only go in one direction, cause your hands are already at the limit of where they can move (which causes fatigue).
Now put your hand in a writing postion, and rotate it. Can move both ways. Your hand is starting in a neutral position.
- Isaac =)
Yes, there is a risk in both cases.
OK, so we agree. =)
- Isaac
Creditors cannot be faulted for Toysmart going out of business, and need to be renumerated somehow.
Sorry, cost of doing business. They took the risk that Toysmart would pay them later, a risk that most suppliers make, and one that usually pays off.
In any case, they do not need to be renumated. If the company has any legitimate assets they can sell, then that money should be used to pay off the creditors. (Key word is *legitimate*.) If not, then the creditors take the hit. Their business plans surely account for some of their clients not paying them.
- Isaac =)
is like saying that instead of voice-recognition, the future of PDA interaction is in being able to change the colour of the case!
That's what Palm is saying...
http://www.zdnet.com/z dnn/stories/news/0,4586,2605769,00.htm
- Isaac =)
What I don't get, though, is if the Robert Patrick robot isn't T-2000, then why did they call the movie, T2: Judgement Day?
Cause the name of the movie is Terminator 2, or T2 to be short and trendy.
Now as to how the movie H20 got it's name...
- Isaac =)
The Vikings could always just pick another domain name.
Like "VikingsFootball.com".
Even if we don't have all those ".sport", and ".bible" type addresses, it's pretty painless to add another common word to your domain. You can still have the coveted ".com" ending, but also a unique domain name that describes your company.
- Isaac =)
(What's funny in this Vikings case is that "vikings.com" goes to the team, and "vikingsfootball.com" goes to a mn tv station...)
I remember being excited about Apple adding the *floppy* as an available peripheral :)
Jobs giveth and he taketh away. Hallelujah! Praise Jobs!
- Isaac =)
if Magneto was a real humanitarian
You mean "mutantitarian"?
- Isaac =)
But what about the *cracker's* morals? (I think this is what the original poster meant.) They could come forward and reveal themselves so that the reporter doesn't have to lose his job / go to jail. It's not like they are accused of murder or spying or something.
But then I guess crackers and morals don't exactly go together. (But crackers and cheese do. Mmmm.....)
- Isaac =)
I can imagine how using light from the sun might work for this (as long as you want to go AWAY from the sun), but I can't see how you could manage to keep a laser aimed at a craft as it travels great distances. I'm sure the craft and the laser source would be moving around at least a tiny bit and would need to correct for that, but by the time the laser emittor can figure out where the craft is, it will have moved (unless they can figure out someway to communicate faster than light between the source and craft).
We are talking a TINY tolorance to get the beam to hit *directly* on the sail (off a little bit in any direction will start it spinning) and once you get a bit of error it gets harder and harder to predict the craft's position.
- Isaac =)
The reason that all that we can see is visible light is due to the fact that only the wavelengths between ~400 and ~700nm are permeable to water.
Umm... doesn't a doctor's x-ray pass through your (water-filled) body?
Not that I think the x-ray vision idea would work anyway...
- Isaac =)
there's no way for you to say "I don't want X knowing I'm on."
someone could be on, but you wouldn't be guaranteed of knowing it
I posted another message mentioning your second point, but your first point gave me an idea to solve it...
When a person adds you to their Buddy List thing, it doesn't actually add you to *theirs*. Instead, your client adds them to your Notify List, whuch means that when you log on it sends out a message to all the people on your list. This also allows *you* to manage who knows you are on or not. Unless you have a static IP number, it would be difficult for others to track you.
- Isaac =)
what I'm looking forward to is a fully distributed system of communication where every client is also a sort of server
Well, IRC is pretty close to that, except that it is a network of servers with a network of clients attached to them. Still pretty distributed though.
The problem of fully distributing a chat network is how to deal with identities. How do you stop people from taking over other's identities, or sniffing all messages sent to a certain person? (hmm... public key encryption! answered my own question...)
But then how do you deal with discovery of other people? With no centralized server, it could take a VERY long time from the point when someone logs on to when you can see they are part of the network. Gnutella has this problem now.
- Isaac =)
your emulator would have to be able to emulate whatever changes have occured to the different kernels that are on the discs of many different games
Or it could simply (heh) emulate the hardware itself. Then the games can change their kernals as much as they want. That's how VirtualPC works on the Mac. It emulates all the pieces of hardware (CPU, BIOS, serial ports, ethernet card, etc) so you can install pretty much any OS that runs on Intel. This approach is certainly slower than mapping Windows API calls to MacOS API calls, but I have had zero compatiblity issues with it.
I don't know if VGS works this way too, but since it is more compatible (and slower) than other PC playstation emulators, I wouldn't be suprised if it is emulating hardware.
- Isaac =)
I would think that emulating an X-Box on a PC wouldn't be terribly different
True, but Connectix makes great emulators for MacOS as well (VGS and VirtualPC). I imagine that MS will make X-Box games work on Windows, but I'm not so sure they will go after the MacOS market (it *is* possible -- there is money to be made from Mac users, and MS does make some very decent Mac software (Office98 and IE 5)).
If Micosoft isn't interested in supporting games on MacOS, perhaps Connectix can step in to make that work.
- Isaac =)
Short interview with Connectix CEO
He mentions that a key point is that the technique of reverse engineering was completely cleared, opening the door to creating PS2, Dreamcast, and even X-Box emulators in the future (once PC hardware speeds are capable of it).
- Isaac =)
But in this discussion wouldn't it make sense to differentiate the PNG format's "alpha transparency" from the GIF format's transparency, to emphasize that PNG uses a seperate (alpha) channel to determine which pixels should be transparent, as opposed to how GIFs use a pixel value?
The channel is called alpha (Red Green Blue Alpha) perhaps just by convention, but it's used very consitently.
- Isaac =)
I voted for Nader last election, and will do so again. Screw voting for a candidate you don't like just so a candidate you hate won't win. The only way to change things is to VOTE FOR THE CANDIDATE YOU REALLY WANT TO WIN, even though their chances don't look good. The reason the third party candidates aren't "viable" is because everyone else is holding their noses and voting for a mainstream candidate too.
Reminds me of that great Simpsons episode where the aliens take over Bush and Clinton's bodies during the '96 elections. Their true identities are revealed before the election, but when someone suggests voting for a third party candidate to avoid being ruled by either alien dictator, they reply "Sure, THROW your vote away!" It's funny (sad) cause it's TRUE...
People didn't get together when they were building the Internet and say, "Hey, man, let's design this thing so that we can never be censored!"
No, but they *did* design it so that the transfer of information from one point to another could not be easily blocked. The idea was to make sure that an enemy attack (or a hungry gopher, for that matter) couldn't bring down the whole network by destroying parts of it. This does lend itself well to routing around censorship (barriers).
When you add in software that replicates information accross mutiple servers (like Usenet) and anonymous access (either through remailers or internet cafes) you can very effective go around any controls that may be in place.
- Isaac =)
Check out FreeTrade:
http://www.working-dogs.com/freetrade/
It's a GREAT e-commerce solution written in PHP.
- Isaac =)
Wakko cannot count.
Used his two hands and two thumbs.
Not enough fingers.
Do we really need more posts like "how r u doin? do u study? i am 14 Indian. I m usin intrnet for 1st time"
I think this is a GREAT thing! Sure, YOU may not want to talk to that 14 year old from India, but get him talking with a 14 year old from Pakistan and see how long it takes for those two kids to realize they have a lot in common. When you have all the kids growing up and talking to eachother, maybe they can make a difference in their countries' relations.
I agree with the other posts about plumbing and electricity probably being more important in the near term, but don't underestimate the power of communication. So many problems we face today are the result of groups being isolated from eachother and not understanding eachother. The Internet is one way of changing that.
- Isaac =)