Think about computer displays. Would you ever want to have to deal with non-square pixels? Sometimes, yes, like in the CGA days where the goal was to display 80 columns while keeping memory and bandwidth costs down. In general, it's a PITA. Now multiply that pain by not only having non-square pixels but where the pixels also come in various sizes.
What's the practicality of this? Well, spiral MRIs, for example, where for mechanical reasons you don't want to have to stop-and-start the very heavy "scanner", wasting time and jarring sensitive equipment. As I said, niche applications.
As for compressing audio, there are already plenty of other psychoacoustic compression schemes -- whether non-uniform sampling is better or worse will likely depend on the application.
The first iMac looked like a 1970's dumb terminal. This one looks like a 1950's television set. Extrapolating, I can't imagine what the next iMac will look like, since TVs weren't prevalent in the 1930's. Oh wait...
Won't this make fonts look even more fuzzy and have more "jaggies"? Why aren't there any 3072x2304 monochrome laptops available? Doesn't anyone else think it's a good goal to have dynamic paper-quality images rather than pixels we are able to casually count?
Why hasn't someone come out with a wall system like in the movie Brazil, where 2 ft square panels are removable? It would not only be good for wiring, but also for inserting surround speakers and hallway data-screen terminals.
A [problem threatening free speech in the U.S.] is the FBI Wiretap of the entire Internet
The new FBI plans would give the agency a technical backdoor to the networks of Internet service providers' like AOL and Earthlink and Web hosting companies, Baker said. It would concentrate Internet traffic in several central locations where e-mail and other web activity could be wiretapped.
coupled with the Internet's unsecured DNS. The FBI could surreptitiously censor subtly or DOS sites that criticize the government, for example.
The new FBI plans would give the agency a technical backdoor to the networks of Internet service providers' like AOL and Earthlink and Web hosting companies, Baker said. It would concentrate Internet traffic in several central locations where e-mail and other web activity could be wiretapped.
Without a centerboard or keel, my guess is that dinghy version would be difficult but not impossible to take upwind. The windsurfing-style universal joint would allow one to rotate the sail fore and aft, which would steer the boat upwind or downwind. But even steering upwind there would be slippage downwind without a keel. A good aerodynamic sail, which this would appear to be, could overcome (outweigh) the slippage. But a keel would help, and dinghy without a keel could be frustrating.
Seriously, though, isn't there something kind of ironic about the fact that you can, completely legally, see and touch (and do other fun things with;-) real live naked people when you're under 18, but can't legally view pictures of naked people?
Any person, not being married, who voluntarily shall have sexual intercourse with any other person, shall be guilty of fornication, punishable as a Class 4 misdemeanor.
The Captain seemed to use voice activated controls with his logs
True -- I forgot about that. I seem to remember the Captain or someone on the navigation console speaking to engineering using "push to talk".
'Sir' could have been agreed on as neutral
Indeed it is, but I was referring, of course, to "where no man has gone before," which, as we know, Kirk corrected for the record mid-sentence at the of Star Trek VI.
Here's the original subject that Slashdot's "Lameness filter" censored:
1950 meets 2001 meets 2150
We knew it would be a problem, and it's interesting to see it play out on the screen. Humans have achieved world peace, yet captains and admirals are all white males. Computers have speech capability, yet voice-activation is not yet invented. And, of course what we all expected -- no gender-neutral language yet.
Not all projects are the same. Not all teams are the same. When it comes to process and tools, practice YAGNI (You Aren't Gonna Need It).
Let the team gel together. When you see a problem, then bring in some process and tools. Just as with when there is a conflict between the law and custom it isn't law that wins, so it is with process and tools dictated from on high. Process and tools need reasons for existing. By introducing them later, the purpose is clear to the team lead, and more importantly, the purpose is clear to the team. It also allows team members to bring to the table their favorite tools and processes, and the team lead may learn something.
It sounds reactive rather than proactive, but as with XP, it's really a meta-level up where you're planning ahead to be reactive, and you have a quiver of tools and processes at the ready.
Since when is starting from the mid-west considered "cross-country"? Oh, I guess that's to drive through the desert and avoid the global-warming-induced extra cloud cover on the east coast.
1984? CGA/HGC graphics. 1985, Amiga and Atari ST, but only at the begining of the learning curve.
Atari tried to screw Amiga and thus lost the Amiga and had to make the not-as-fabulous Atari ST. Had Atari had Amiga, and had Atari remained a single company, there would have been a great flow of coin-op-ports to the Amiga.
Console? Like the Atari 2600? (or whatever it was) Eeeh!
No, the 5200 and especially the 7800, which was originally due to be released before the NES.
It's always been my opinion that the mid-80's downturn in videogames (the time between Atari and NES) had two causes:
Dragon's Lair
Warner's mismanagement of Atari
The populace loved the eye candy of Dragon's Lair, but of course quickly tired of its limited gameplay. The games with good gameplay couldn't at the time come up with graphics good enough to lure in the general public. Thus, there was a sugar high, and then withdrawal.
The few people that were still interested in gameplay over eye candy were denied their supply. Demand was there, but supply ran out because the dominant player in the industry, Atari (console, home computer, and coin-op), was driven into the ground by Warner mismanagement.
It's like a nuclear missle killed the classic videogame era, and Dragon's Lair was one of the two launch keys. Yup, I want Dragon's Lair #0001.
Astron Belt was the first laser disc arcade game ever created, but unfortunately, constant delays kept it from reaching the US arcades until late 1983.
Another 1983 LaserDisc game was M.A.C.H. 3. Both Astron Belt and M.A.C.H. 3 featured computer graphics overlayed on top of LaserDisc footage (unlike Dragon's Lair).
Sadly, Verizon DSL requires software in order to operate -- it's not just a raw bit pipe. I was unable to get their software to work with NT Server 4.0 (and neither was their unqualified technician), even though they had "special instructions" for NT Server. One function of the software is that it requires you to "dial in" -- it's not a full-time connection.
So I went with Cox Cable RoadRunner. The advantage is that it's a full-time raw bit pipe. The disadvantage is that it goes down at peak times -- no, not lowered bandwidth, I mean the cable modem reports no carrier.
Oh, how I long for the Bell Atlantic "FlexCap" DSL I had from 1997 to 2000. That's right, 1.5MB in 1997. It was their trial program. And it was a raw bit pipe. And it worked up to 20,000 feet. And it was solid -- never went down.
So the short of it is, if cable Internet is unavailable where you live, you may need to consider business DSL, which is around $300/month. Or get a T1 for $1100/month.
The problem comes in only if the prediction I made comes true: that Google Groups grows to become the primary way for people to post to UseNet due to continuing decay of ISP support for UseNet. UseNet is supposed to be distributed, not centralized in a corporation. We have seen the effects of this already. Frequent posters who relied on deja.com were suddenly silenced.
And now that Google can take posted articles out of context and publish them without attribution -- and if Google becomes the dominant UseNet entryway in the same way Windows is the dominant OS -- then it puts a chill, or at least a corporatized spin, on UseNet.
So, yes, there are alternatives to Google Groups today, but tomorrow UseNet may be nearly fully controlled by and dependent upon a single company.
Slashdot, in its attempt to define itself in the post-dotcom-crash era, needs a new icon for its recent direction change toward Popular Mechanics genre articles. An icon of a computer motherboard just won't do. I have some ideas, but do not want to offend Slashdot readers residing in the state of Georgia.
What's attractive about a palmtop?
on
Palm In Trouble?
·
· Score: 3
Someone please help me -- I haven't figured it out. What's so attractive about a palmtop? I don't know if my lack of interest is due to never trying one extensively, or just being too old and too stuck in my ways. Maybe I'm just too much of a pack-rat. Maybe I'm too addicted to the Internet.
I tried someone else's unit that had a wireless modem. It didn't work indoors. What's the point of something that can't hook up to the Internet?
I prefer to carry around my laptop, which has 2GB of e-mail from the past seven years. And I carry around a spiral notebook and pen, because I find it to be the best way to record ideas and notes.
I suppose a palmtop could be useful for those who would otherwise need a day-timer -- those with complex calendars and extensive phone directories. For me, I just don't get it -- at least not until it can hook up to the Internet and has high enough resolution to read PDF files.
Slashdot Mirror
What's the practicality of this? Well, spiral MRIs, for example, where for mechanical reasons you don't want to have to stop-and-start the very heavy "scanner", wasting time and jarring sensitive equipment. As I said, niche applications.
As for compressing audio, there are already plenty of other psychoacoustic compression schemes -- whether non-uniform sampling is better or worse will likely depend on the application.
To ride in style, you need a stretch limo SUV.
The first iMac looked like a 1970's dumb terminal. This one looks like a 1950's television set. Extrapolating, I can't imagine what the next iMac will look like, since TVs weren't prevalent in the 1930's. Oh wait...
Won't this make fonts look even more fuzzy and have more "jaggies"? Why aren't there any 3072x2304 monochrome laptops available? Doesn't anyone else think it's a good goal to have dynamic paper-quality images rather than pixels we are able to casually count?
Why hasn't someone come out with a wall system like in the movie Brazil, where 2 ft square panels are removable? It would not only be good for wiring, but also for inserting surround speakers and hallway data-screen terminals.
A [problem threatening free speech in the U.S.] is the FBI Wiretap of the entire Internet
coupled with the Internet's unsecured DNS. The FBI could surreptitiously censor subtly or DOS sites that criticize the government, for example.The FBI could surreptitiously censor subtly or DOS sites that criticize the government, for example.
Without a centerboard or keel, my guess is that dinghy version would be difficult but not impossible to take upwind. The windsurfing-style universal joint would allow one to rotate the sail fore and aft, which would steer the boat upwind or downwind. But even steering upwind there would be slippage downwind without a keel. A good aerodynamic sail, which this would appear to be, could overcome (outweigh) the slippage. But a keel would help, and dinghy without a keel could be frustrating.
Not so in Virginia.
18.2-344. says
The minimum marriage age in Virginia is 16.Now why these laws are not used to prosecute teen fathers is beyond me.
True -- I forgot about that. I seem to remember the Captain or someone on the navigation console speaking to engineering using "push to talk".
'Sir' could have been agreed on as neutral
Indeed it is, but I was referring, of course, to "where no man has gone before," which, as we know, Kirk corrected for the record mid-sentence at the of Star Trek VI.
Here's the original subject that Slashdot's "Lameness filter" censored:
1950 meets 2001 meets 2150
We knew it would be a problem, and it's interesting to see it play out on the screen. Humans have achieved world peace, yet captains and admirals are all white males. Computers have speech capability, yet voice-activation is not yet invented. And, of course what we all expected -- no gender-neutral language yet.
Let the team gel together. When you see a problem, then bring in some process and tools. Just as with when there is a conflict between the law and custom it isn't law that wins, so it is with process and tools dictated from on high. Process and tools need reasons for existing. By introducing them later, the purpose is clear to the team lead, and more importantly, the purpose is clear to the team. It also allows team members to bring to the table their favorite tools and processes, and the team lead may learn something.
It sounds reactive rather than proactive, but as with XP, it's really a meta-level up where you're planning ahead to be reactive, and you have a quiver of tools and processes at the ready.
Right, and so now the question is: if you capture the screen, which has priority, the Betamax decision or the DMCA?
My current wristtop (that I wear every day) was purchased in 1986 and does log & trig and metric conversions.
I'll never get used to what is being passed off as "wearable". To me, wearable means wristtop.
Since when is starting from the mid-west considered "cross-country"? Oh, I guess that's to drive through the desert and avoid the global-warming-induced extra cloud cover on the east coast.
If you haven't read Steve Talbott's NetFuture columns, now is a good time to become aquainted. The premise of the column is responsible use of technology, especially when there are unknown consequences upon society, and there is a whole series of articles on ubiquitous computing. The earliest NetFuture article on ubiquitous computing is actually the best.
The real problem here is that under DMCA, a Linux program to dynamically show a Phantom Edit off a purchased Phantom Menace DVD would be illegal.
Atari tried to screw Amiga and thus lost the Amiga and had to make the not-as-fabulous Atari ST. Had Atari had Amiga, and had Atari remained a single company, there would have been a great flow of coin-op-ports to the Amiga.
Console? Like the Atari 2600? (or whatever it was) Eeeh!
No, the 5200 and especially the 7800, which was originally due to be released before the NES.
- Dragon's Lair
- Warner's mismanagement of Atari
The populace loved the eye candy of Dragon's Lair, but of course quickly tired of its limited gameplay. The games with good gameplay couldn't at the time come up with graphics good enough to lure in the general public. Thus, there was a sugar high, and then withdrawal.The few people that were still interested in gameplay over eye candy were denied their supply. Demand was there, but supply ran out because the dominant player in the industry, Atari (console, home computer, and coin-op), was driven into the ground by Warner mismanagement.
It's like a nuclear missle killed the classic videogame era, and Dragon's Lair was one of the two launch keys. Yup, I want Dragon's Lair #0001.
Finally, it's LaserDisc, not Laserdisk.
So I went with Cox Cable RoadRunner. The advantage is that it's a full-time raw bit pipe. The disadvantage is that it goes down at peak times -- no, not lowered bandwidth, I mean the cable modem reports no carrier.
Oh, how I long for the Bell Atlantic "FlexCap" DSL I had from 1997 to 2000. That's right, 1.5MB in 1997. It was their trial program. And it was a raw bit pipe. And it worked up to 20,000 feet. And it was solid -- never went down.
So the short of it is, if cable Internet is unavailable where you live, you may need to consider business DSL, which is around $300/month. Or get a T1 for $1100/month.
The problem comes in only if the prediction I made comes true: that Google Groups grows to become the primary way for people to post to UseNet due to continuing decay of ISP support for UseNet. UseNet is supposed to be distributed, not centralized in a corporation. We have seen the effects of this already. Frequent posters who relied on deja.com were suddenly silenced.
And now that Google can take posted articles out of context and publish them without attribution -- and if Google becomes the dominant UseNet entryway in the same way Windows is the dominant OS -- then it puts a chill, or at least a corporatized spin, on UseNet.
So, yes, there are alternatives to Google Groups today, but tomorrow UseNet may be nearly fully controlled by and dependent upon a single company.
Slashdot, in its attempt to define itself in the post-dotcom-crash era, needs a new icon for its recent direction change toward Popular Mechanics genre articles. An icon of a computer motherboard just won't do. I have some ideas, but do not want to offend Slashdot readers residing in the state of Georgia.
I tried someone else's unit that had a wireless modem. It didn't work indoors. What's the point of something that can't hook up to the Internet?
I prefer to carry around my laptop, which has 2GB of e-mail from the past seven years. And I carry around a spiral notebook and pen, because I find it to be the best way to record ideas and notes.
I suppose a palmtop could be useful for those who would otherwise need a day-timer -- those with complex calendars and extensive phone directories. For me, I just don't get it -- at least not until it can hook up to the Internet and has high enough resolution to read PDF files.
Maybe someone can tell me what I'm missing.