Damn... iRiver sure has some sexy toys lined up for us in the future. Most of these seem like prototypes, to be released in the distant future (iMP-1100, for example). Very nice though. I'm listening to an iMP-400 right now... and I love it. iRiver is a very cool company with cool stuff...
There's some people who compiled the Linux MPlayer for Windows (see this page, scroll down to the Windows section). It works great for all sorts of stuff, including streams (mpeg, real), Quicktime, DVDs, etc. There is no user interface (command line), but you can just drop stuff onto the icon or tell windows to use mplayer.exe to open files. And you can do pretty much everything in MPlayer with keyboard shortcuts, so the lack of a UI doesn't bother me, at least.
There's also VideoLAN Client (VLC). It plays a lot of stuff and has a UI (not that great, but it works). It understands a whole bunch of formats, too.
This is an excellent tracker... my kernel download finished in 1 minute, the download speed was still increasing when the download finished. By then it had reached 550 KB/sec. I haven't seen such a fast BT download before.:-)
Excuse me, but not everyone lives in a country where TiVo is offered. Here in the Netherlands, a DIY box is your only option (there's a really expensive box from Nokia, I think; underpowered, not as configgable). So yeah... its good to have these discussions every once in a while... see what other people are doing to make their own PVRs and their experiences with these.
dd is unix' version of ghost. Its included with nearly every Linux/unix distribution. Okay, it doesn't do stuff over the network, but its very good at copying partitions and stuff like that. See the man page.
Making processors and displays is all well, but when it comes to devices that communicate with the rest of the world, there is an absolute limit to how little power a device communicating with RF can use. It will always need to use so many mW of power to be able to communicate with a base station/tower; you can't improve on this.
The only solution to this is placing the towers closer to eachother. This is already happening, with 3G phone systems. AFAIK, UMTS towers need to be more closely spaced than GSM towers, due to bandwidth and stuff like that, but I think it'll mean the phones can also output less mW to communicate with the tower.
Yep, and don't forget that all airborne vehicles aren't likely to be switching over to fuel cells anytime soon. They will still need Jet A-1 for a long time, is my guess.
Some newer cars, and luxury cars have had this for a while. Its basically a MPG indicator. It'll show you how many MPG you're currently driving at. When you accellerate, it goes up... when you're coasting, you barely use anything. Quite useful yeah, but in general traffic, you basically have to go with the flow and usually don't have the choice.
Otherwise there are ways of driving economically. Accellerate slowly, don't press the gas pedal more than you need to accellerate (there's a point when you press the accellerator but the engine doesn't develop any more power, but it uses more fuel - you should avoid that). And basically don't drive to fast either... higher speed = higher wind resistance.
But these guys took it to the extreme. They probably also considered changes in elevation... used regenerative braking and stuff like that.
They have software managing all the energy uses. There's lots of sensors picking up lighting conditions, road conditions, load on the engines, incline, wind, etc. They all feed into some computer which is in one of the follow cars. This then recommends the driver at what speed he should be going.
They were actually hoping for overcast skies, as this is where the car can really gain on the competition, with the battery/panel management software. In sunny weather every car can drive top speed, but when its cloudy you have to start being clever with your solar panels input vs. battery usage vs. speed (energy usage).
Also, they have pretty efficient solar panels: 3000 Gallium-Arsenide Triple Junction solar cells, 24,5+% efficiency (total 9 square meters).
They also got specially designed tires. Very low roll resistance. The electric engines are mounted in the wheels, so there's no power loss in transmission or gearing.
And of course the frame is a monocoque structure (it doesn't need an internal frame/chassis), of lightweight composites.
These are just some of the things they did. I'm getting this from their website, which is unfortunately in Dutch.
And no, we don't capitalize the 'the', only at the beginning of a sentence.:-)
Sunny weather? Sunny weather??? WTF? For at least 3/4 of the year it's cloudy/overcast here. Not that that helped, in this case. As someone else mentioned, the solar panels used are triple junction Ga-As solar panels also used in space, by the ESA. So, the panels were made for space, not for bad weather in Holland.:-)
That's true... perhaps they also receive a confirmation SMS for this purpose. Although I've never really heard anyone here in the Netherlands complain about SMS messages not arriving, it is a valid concern.
Here in the Netherlands there are a bunch of places where you can pay for car parking by cellphone. You send an SMS message (or place a call) to a number when you park, along with an area code, and you send another one when you leave. They'll deduct the time you were in the parkingspace from your account (you set up an account beforehand).
Check Emopay (in Dutch only, sorry), for more information.
Slashdot Mirror
On the gripping hand
Funny that you use 'gripping hand'. I wonder how many people recognize it. I'm just reading 'The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye' now. Excellent book.
What about large babies? Does Debian kill them too?
Damn... iRiver sure has some sexy toys lined up for us in the future. Most of these seem like prototypes, to be released in the distant future (iMP-1100, for example). Very nice though. I'm listening to an iMP-400 right now... and I love it. iRiver is a very cool company with cool stuff...
There's some people who compiled the Linux MPlayer for Windows (see this page, scroll down to the Windows section). It works great for all sorts of stuff, including streams (mpeg, real), Quicktime, DVDs, etc. There is no user interface (command line), but you can just drop stuff onto the icon or tell windows to use mplayer.exe to open files. And you can do pretty much everything in MPlayer with keyboard shortcuts, so the lack of a UI doesn't bother me, at least.
There's also VideoLAN Client (VLC). It plays a lot of stuff and has a UI (not that great, but it works). It understands a whole bunch of formats, too.
This is an excellent tracker... my kernel download finished in 1 minute, the download speed was still increasing when the download finished. By then it had reached 550 KB/sec. I haven't seen such a fast BT download before. :-)
Nice sig... asshole. :-) Nice way to hide it with a number IP instead of a domain name. Hehehe.
Seems to be a working SCO page allright. And this ad/image really makes me wanna puke. What a bunch of assholes...
I donated $10 the other day, and she even wrote a nice thank you note back to me. Great lady!
Excuse me, but not everyone lives in a country where TiVo is offered. Here in the Netherlands, a DIY box is your only option (there's a really expensive box from Nokia, I think; underpowered, not as configgable). So yeah... its good to have these discussions every once in a while... see what other people are doing to make their own PVRs and their experiences with these.
dd is unix' version of ghost. Its included with nearly every Linux/unix distribution. Okay, it doesn't do stuff over the network, but its very good at copying partitions and stuff like that. See the man page.
Cheers,
Costyn.
Dude that is awesome... how much did that setup cost you? This would be the perfect solution to find stuff... its like a 'ctrl-f' for your house. :-)
:-)
I would love to have a similar setup.
I usually just use Google with the site: option to search Slashdot. It does a much better job. For example:
S CO
http://www.google.com/search?q=site:slashdot.org+
Happy searching!
As you can see in this comment, it wasn't a bug in the software, but the wetware. :-)
So you can use wget, which doesn't have any trouble with a conscience. Replace the 'lynx string with:Cheers,
Costyn.
"trouble free ... hassles"; isn't this an oxymoron? :-)
Making processors and displays is all well, but when it comes to devices that communicate with the rest of the world, there is an absolute limit to how little power a device communicating with RF can use. It will always need to use so many mW of power to be able to communicate with a base station/tower; you can't improve on this.
The only solution to this is placing the towers closer to eachother. This is already happening, with 3G phone systems. AFAIK, UMTS towers need to be more closely spaced than GSM towers, due to bandwidth and stuff like that, but I think it'll mean the phones can also output less mW to communicate with the tower.
Cheers,
CvD.
Yep, and don't forget that all airborne vehicles aren't likely to be switching over to fuel cells anytime soon. They will still need Jet A-1 for a long time, is my guess.
Cheers,
CvD.
I think most open source developers write their software to 'scratch an itch'. They don't like what is available, so they write their own.
Some newer cars, and luxury cars have had this for a while. Its basically a MPG indicator. It'll show you how many MPG you're currently driving at. When you accellerate, it goes up... when you're coasting, you barely use anything. Quite useful yeah, but in general traffic, you basically have to go with the flow and usually don't have the choice.
Otherwise there are ways of driving economically. Accellerate slowly, don't press the gas pedal more than you need to accellerate (there's a point when you press the accellerator but the engine doesn't develop any more power, but it uses more fuel - you should avoid that). And basically don't drive to fast either... higher speed = higher wind resistance.
But these guys took it to the extreme. They probably also considered changes in elevation... used regenerative braking and stuff like that.
Cheers,
Costyn.
They have software managing all the energy uses. There's lots of sensors picking up lighting conditions, road conditions, load on the engines, incline, wind, etc. They all feed into some computer which is in one of the follow cars. This then recommends the driver at what speed he should be going.
:-)
They were actually hoping for overcast skies, as this is where the car can really gain on the competition, with the battery/panel management software. In sunny weather every car can drive top speed, but when its cloudy you have to start being clever with your solar panels input vs. battery usage vs. speed (energy usage).
Also, they have pretty efficient solar panels: 3000 Gallium-Arsenide Triple Junction solar cells, 24,5+% efficiency (total 9 square meters).
They also got specially designed tires. Very low roll resistance. The electric engines are mounted in the wheels, so there's no power loss in transmission or gearing.
And of course the frame is a monocoque structure (it doesn't need an internal frame/chassis), of lightweight composites.
These are just some of the things they did. I'm getting this from their website, which is unfortunately in Dutch.
And no, we don't capitalize the 'the', only at the beginning of a sentence.
Cheers,
Costyn.
Sunny weather? Sunny weather??? WTF? For at least 3/4 of the year it's cloudy/overcast here. Not that that helped, in this case. As someone else mentioned, the solar panels used are triple junction Ga-As solar panels also used in space, by the ESA. So, the panels were made for space, not for bad weather in Holland. :-)
Cheers,
CvD.
Yep, definitely. With temperatures up to 50 C (122 F) in the cockpit these drivers were certainly frying, at times. :-)
That's true... perhaps they also receive a confirmation SMS for this purpose. Although I've never really heard anyone here in the Netherlands complain about SMS messages not arriving, it is a valid concern.
Cheers,
Costyn.
Here in the Netherlands there are a bunch of places where you can pay for car parking by cellphone. You send an SMS message (or place a call) to a number when you park, along with an area code, and you send another one when you leave. They'll deduct the time you were in the parkingspace from your account (you set up an account beforehand).
Check Emopay (in Dutch only, sorry), for more information.
Cheers,
Costyn.
You forgot:
:-)
* Save the planet, kill yourself...