This rag-tag "grassroots army" has power: we vote. Dollars can buy senators, but voters can depose them. If we make enough noise, they will listen.
The techie/free software/Slashdot crowds may seem large to us, but compared to the general population I suspect they're insignificant in size; Joe Sixpack doesn't seem to give a damn.
Besides I also supect you'd be trading one bought senator for another. You would need some draconian measures to stop things like that.
Remember the volume of letters sent in during the Tunney Act comment period following the Microsoft-DOJ deal?
And what exactly did that accomplish? Most of the letters were discarded as form letters.
The United States was founded by a rag-tag group of intellectuals leading a "grassroots army", an army that defeated a well organized and provisioned imperial army.
An imperial army operating on the end of a very long supply line, but that's another (and OT) discussion altogether.
The grassroots effort is central to American politics.
Maybe I'm being overly cynical here, but I've got the feeling that the dollar and whoever can provide it is central to (American) politics.
As much as I admire (as a NL citizen) the foundation of US politics like the constitution and the bill of rights, I think that the people who wrote them would be somewhat disappointed by their current implementation.
One interesting area of research is that of how the reflections and light absorption of one object affects the lighting of another/all others in a certain area.
Are you talking about full-scale radiosity calculations here?
This means you have to divide every frame into patches, and calculate the influence of the illimination from all the patches on every other patch!
I wonder if even a thousandfold increase in processor power is able to handle that in real time. (Check out chapter 16.13 of "Computer Graphics" by Foley, van Dam et al. for further reference).
Some rendering programs and raytracers implement this, but it's very slow considering you have to make the paches very small in areas where the light level changes rapidly.
For producing a distribution that's rock-solid and doesn't get in your way.
I still have the CD for 3.2, from 1997:-) which was the release that got me started with Linux. If you _really_ want to learn Linux, I think Slackware is still the way to go.
I've tried Red Hat and Debian, but I still come back to good old Hackware.
I would agree that it might be doable on a per-process basis (if you're willing to look over the already raised objections like broken network connections and removed files etc.)
But doing it to the complete OS would also mean saving and restoring the state of all the hardware devices (like.e.g the OpenGL state machine in your graphics card, or your modem).
I'd imagine that not every piece of hardware has the ability to dump and restore it's state on command. Worst case, you might have to replay every command to a device since a known state (say after boot-up).
I'd say that this is non-trivial for a PC that is not designed for it. PDA's can do it, obviously, but I would guess they're specially engineered for it.
I was really intrigued by that one. Take a plasma toroid, superheat air by funnelling it through a "jet engine" encompassing the toroid, and blast the superheated air out the back. Instead of using burning jet fuel to heat the air, you are using the plasma toroid. No burning fossil fuels, no fuels to blow up in an accident, no emmisions to pollute the atmosphere. WAY cool stuff.
I haven't had a chance to read the article (the server is still/. ed), but what would they use to create the plasma toroid? Making plasma takes a lot of energy.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't see no notification of copyrighted code?
Does anybody have a copy? (pun intended :-)
And free as in beer:
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
You own the media, period.
I'd guess the MPAA would love to sell you a license to watch on an MPAA approved player instead, though.
Can you spot the difference?
The usual microsoft combo.
'Nuff said.
Today I had to use the XP's built in "help" system. None of they keywords I tried gave _any_ results, and after four tries it hung.
You could fit a so-called econometer in your car. They work by measuring the fuel flow and/or inlet underpressure.
I've just switched from -test5 to -test6, and the difference is remarkable.
Xmms doesn't skip, Mozilla doesn't snag, even during a kernel compile and SETI@Home running in the background.
Looks like Con Kolivas's interactivity patches are definitely something.
AIM (now at version 7) is not an instant messanger client. It's a benchmarking tool.
Hmm, you wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of the AIM-7 benchmark.
It packs quite a punch
Bruce Perens and Eric Raymond take this letter apart and publish an appropriate response.
... interesting :-)
It would be
I've had similar problems with word myself, but that's because it's just not made to do this kind of stuff.
If you want ultimate control over text placement etc. you should use typesetting software like e.g. TeX.
Roland
So people will screw it up by:
MS will screw it up by:
Some people think I'm a pessimist, though. :-)
If you already have the book.
Don't get me wrong, I think FOTR was very well done, but the book is clearly superior.
If only because a book can go into much more depth than a movie ever can, due to differences in the media.
Roland
This rag-tag "grassroots army" has power: we vote. Dollars can buy senators, but voters can depose them. If we make enough noise, they will listen.
The techie/free software/Slashdot crowds may seem large to us, but compared to the general population I suspect they're insignificant in size; Joe Sixpack doesn't seem to give a damn.
Besides I also supect you'd be trading one bought senator for another. You would need some draconian measures to stop things like that.
Remember the volume of letters sent in during the Tunney Act comment period following the Microsoft-DOJ deal?
And what exactly did that accomplish? Most of the letters were discarded as form letters.
The United States was founded by a rag-tag group of intellectuals leading a "grassroots army", an army that defeated a well organized and provisioned imperial army.
An imperial army operating on the end of a very long supply line, but that's another (and OT) discussion altogether.
The grassroots effort is central to American politics.
Maybe I'm being overly cynical here, but I've got the feeling that the dollar and whoever can provide it is central to (American) politics.
As much as I admire (as a NL citizen) the foundation of US politics like the constitution and the bill of rights, I think that the people who wrote them would be somewhat disappointed by their current implementation.
Why are these companies trying to reinvent the wheel?
Maybe because they want the whole pie instead of just a piece?
One interesting area of research is that of how the reflections and light absorption of one object affects the lighting of another/all others in a certain area.
Are you talking about full-scale radiosity calculations here?
This means you have to divide every frame into patches, and calculate the influence of the illimination from all the patches on every other patch!
I wonder if even a thousandfold increase in processor power is able to handle that in real time. (Check out chapter 16.13 of "Computer Graphics" by Foley, van Dam et al. for further reference).
Some rendering programs and raytracers implement this, but it's very slow considering you have to make the paches very small in areas where the light level changes rapidly.
For producing a distribution that's rock-solid and doesn't get in your way.
:-) which was the release that got me started with Linux. If you _really_ want to learn Linux, I think Slackware is still the way to go.
I still have the CD for 3.2, from 1997
I've tried Red Hat and Debian, but I still come back to good old Hackware.
Roland
I would agree that it might be doable on a per-process basis (if you're willing to look over the already raised objections like broken network connections and removed files etc.)
.e.g the OpenGL state machine in your graphics card, or your modem).
But doing it to the complete OS would also mean saving and restoring the state of all the hardware devices (like
I'd imagine that not every piece of hardware has the ability to dump and restore it's state on command. Worst case, you might have to replay every command to a device since a known state (say after boot-up).
I'd say that this is non-trivial for a PC that is not designed for it. PDA's can do it, obviously, but I would guess they're specially engineered for it.
Roland
That will probably be the next model, with the built-in iBrator :)
Q: Why do you use Linux?
A: It does not run Outlook.
Should be a requirement for a reliable OS, really :)
Thanks for the tip!
I changed the scaling (View -> Text Size) to 90%, and the fonts look better now (although somewhat smaller :)
Roland
With 0.9.1 it looks O.K, but when loading the same page with 0.9.2 the letters are all jagged.
Roland
Anyone else seeing the same problem?
Roland
If there's one post that has lowered the level on /., this is it.
But nevertheless, congratulations. This is the _worst_ french I've ever seen.
Did you flunk french at school, or did you use babelfish?
Roland
The reporter's writing style destroys much of the credibility this project has, IMHO. This really sounds like pulp science.
Besides, there is two important issues I didn't see addressed in the article.
It is one thing t create fusion circumstances for a very short period of time, using huge amounts of energy.
But once your wires have exploded, how are you going to maintain the temperatures and pressures needed for fusion?
And even if you reach sustainable fusion, how are you going to channel the produced energy into electrical power?
Roland
I haven't had a chance to read the article (the server is still /. ed), but what would they use to create the plasma toroid? Making plasma takes a lot of energy.
Roland