Actually, it's just 2 photos. The computer detects where the license plate is in the photo and they print out a zoomed-in version of it for the record. I'm sure the original photo is significantly higher resolution than that of the printer used to send you the notice.
Note: I haven't been a victim of the red-light cameras, but I was caught by their speeding camera once. Placed on the exit ramp/street from 295 right after the speed limit dropped, but well before the end of the highway and a light/intersection.
Placing of those speed cameras can be just as shady as yellow-light timings . . .
That subject should have been "MythTV + Hulu + Netflix > Cable"... apparently/. doesn't like straight '>' signs in the subject (though it accepts the HTML entity)... I wonder whether that's a bug.
This just adds yet another reason to why I refuse to pay Comcast for TV... an extra 20-50 a month for the handful of channels I want to watch just isn't worth it. A Linux MythTV Box with an OTA antenna gets all of my broadcast shows, Hulu covers those rare instances that something malfunctions and I miss a show I actually care about, while Netflix (streaming to the Xbox360] gets me all of the cable-only shows that I want [albeit a year late]. Oh, and I also get a handful of random unencrypted channels via QAM from comcast [my landlord has a $10 a month super-basic plan] - subject to the whims of comcast's annual channel reshuffles.
Now, if I could only get both Hulu and Netflix to work well under MythTV, I'd truly be able to have all my entertainment on one device . . .
I would start them off using Firefox and OpenOffice under Windows, if they aren't already. If that's about all their using on the computer, then you can transition them to virtually any KDE or Gnome based distribution later with minimal hassle -- assuming you (the tech expert) are on hand for those inevitable questions. Remote access helps. For example, configuring the printer, installing some browser plug-ins that you forgot to setup, telling them that a pop-up ad really is just an ad and not a virus notification (yes, I know someone that was tricked by those), etc.
I've done this for two family members (who are at the computer=browser level of experience) already and haven't looked back. I used Ubuntu in both cases, but realistically if your there to help any distribution you are comfortable with maintaining will work. The non-tech user isn't likely to use any linux applications or functions you don't tell them about or maintain for them, and is inevitably going to turn to you for the usual tech questions no matter what. Ubuntu is nice though because as you train them in the ways of Linux, there's enough user-friendly GUIs for them to navigate.
I only used it once, and that was to fight against a severe Beryl-compiz crash, but it was quite useful.
Before that, I had always just thought 'SysRq' was just an alternative/antiquated name for "Print screen" and not actually a special key code. Judging by the discussions below, I obviously wasn't alone in that assumption.
Of course, landlines only work in a blackout if you have an old, simple, corded low-tech phone. Unfortunately, the masses have forgotten this in favor of cordless phones and base stations, such that most people don't realize they should keep a plain old wired landline phone around for emergencies . . . so for those people VoIP and their UPS might be an improvement.
yet, if, any government agency would, god forbid, to step in to eliminate this blatant slighting of citizens, those bastards all start up yelling 'competition' , 'hands off business', 'no government intervention', 'socialism'.
Why would the government forbid something that they initiated by asking ATT this question in the first place!
Landlines are the most reliable and proven communications technology in use today. It's used everywhere, well understood, and proven to be highly versatile over the years. Cutting the line would be bad for everyone - VoIP and Cell service only last so long on battery power in an emergency (ie:blackout), but landlines can last for days -- in the 2003 blackout internet went down immediately, cell's became sketchy and went out altogether within a day, but landlines worked throughout the blackout without a hitch.
I'll add my vote - logmein has been great for remotely "maintaining" machines for my family, and a few friends. I've even been able to guide a few family members into installing the software themselves with me on the phone (temporarily giving them my login information for the site)
In the case of slightly computer literate friends and family, it's easy enough to show them how to disable logmein when you are not using it. All they need to do is right-click on the tray icon and select "disable remote access" to lock you out, or enable when its time to help them out again.
There used to be an option to allow users to install the logmein softwae and explicitly give out access to their machine when they desired to, but I'm not sure if they still offer that option.
The built-in windows "remote assistance" tools do work great, but it can be a real pain to get it running over the phone if the persons firewall/router isn't already configured to let it through.
I concur - another git user here for my personal systems. Distributed version control systems are ideal in this situation, so you don't have a single point of failure in a central repository, and can easily track and merge conflicting changes when you forget to sync before coding . . .
Shared folders (NFS or Samba) also work great in some scenarios (ie:work). Particularly if your on a secure internal network (/w VPN for remote access), this is by far the easiest way to keep files accessible to all machines and/or multiple users.
BTW, due to the competitive commercial nature of aerospace software development tools, there is a level of incompatibility between them and as such there is also motive for playing the lockin game regardless of any "unforseen" risk to others. Perhaps there is a place for open source software here!!!
Open source is starting to make it's inroads in aerospace as well. VxWorks is still the proprietary king of embedded (flight) software, but there is increasing interest in RTEMS, a FOSS derived alternative from the Unix/Linux world. Separately from that, there's also a growing interest in using re-usable/open-source components in such embedded software, though there are other (non-technical) obstacles with that as well.
There are a couple of aspects about the A330 problems that amaze me:
1. How can an airplane be allowed to carry passengers when the margin to airframe disintegration is so narrow? I can understand falling out of the sky if it stalls, but to be able to tear the airplane apart in level flight? What happened to margin of safety in airframe construction -- or is that whole concept now obsolete? 2. If the airplane can send fault messages home, why don't blackbox data streams get sent as well? At least that way there would be some situation info available as opposed to none. 3. In some ways reliance on flight computers is like reliance on spreadsheets or calculators -- if you do not understand what is going on and are not capable of doing it yourself then you cannot tell if the software is correct. Essentially, if the computer says it is so then it is, and you either survive or not.
1. Don't underestimate the power of wind shear. This plane may have been flying straight and level from the grounds point of view (we don't know that), but it was flying in the middle of a storm according to news accounts, likely experiencing some extreme wind forces. 2. The amount of telemetry and logging data generated by any aerospace system (air or space) is humongous, and even with an aircraft (as opposed to low data rate spacecraft), to large to transmit in real-time. In this case, the system did automatically transmit a wide range of critical telemetry packets which the original designers deigned the most important to transmit in emergency situations. The news articles are vague, but they do mention that those failure messages received were among a much larger set of automated data received. 3. In principal, I completely agree with that. In practice, that's rarely possible. A spreadsheet application can process a file containing 10,000 entries and calculate complex formulas on each one in seconds. Sure the user knows what these formulas do and could do it by hand, but it's not feasible for them to do so in a timeframe that would be useful before the data is outdated. In the manned space program (even in the Apollo days), everything was automated. The "manual" landing sequence was in fact linked to a computer that calculated the correct thrusters to fire based on the pilots desired course, there was no direct control, and no way for a human to calculate in real time exactly which thrusters to fire each second if there was. The pilots of modern airliners must be highly experienced on the principles of flight, but unless they designed the aircraft (and even then), there are often to many variables and control surfaces to monitor to do so without at least some computer assistance. Manual overrides are useful and should be there for redundant single-system failures, but most modern systems are far too complex for a human to be in full control of if all automation fails.
As others have said, computer failure is still only a theory until the black box is recovered.
(Disclaimer: I'm not a pilot or know much about airlines, but I do develop spacecraft flight software)
Precisely. If this is a problem for geo launches, then the same likely applies to future interplanetary launches (Lunar missions, Mars landers, etc.) as well.
Of course, what we really need is a simple deflector shield to protect our ships . . .
I think the program is out of money because a lot of people who don't even need coupons are getting them - my guess is that probably half of the people at least do not understand that if they have cable they don't need a different box.
And the recent "Media Blitz" campaigns often just confuse the average user more than inform them. I've had to explain to a few people already that they don't need a converter box...including a friend with an HDTV and OTA Antenna, but didn't know that he could tune into HD channels with it (ie: 5-1 instead of 5). He saw the color bars during a recent test and was about to go out and buy one before he asked me. Sad, but likely more common than people suspect...
I wouldn't expect MS to show any love for Google's Android. I find it amusing though that MS Labs is developing applications for the iPhone and ignoring their own Windows Mobile OS...
Perhaps that's another sign I should flash my WM6 phone to run Linux/Android....
Probably not, given that they already have one -- The Enterprise nonetheless.
I could see Disney taking one to put in Epcot though...$50 mil would be nothing for them, and realistically, more people visit the Disney parks than most museums.
The best way to learn, is when the goal is to use it to create something that you/they want.
In my case, I taught myself Perl CGI programming in 6th or 7th grade to make a site for my Starcraft guild, and slowly taught myself HTML later. Albeit I read slashdot now, so I'm probably not typical in the topics I chose...
The point though, is that you want to make the kids want to learn it. LEGO Mindstorms, or a Roomba educational kit is probably the best for kids today. Start off with a demonstration/description of some exciting final project (or of a few possibilities, and let the class choose their favorite or a variation thereof), then start teaching them the basics that'll eventually build up to it.
Agreed. Feature wise, the iPhone is probably the best phone on the market now.
Freedom wise? It's not the worst, but pretty close. The phone can only be purchased locked from certain providers. Your limited with what you can do with it. Developers have to follow a strict platform toolset, and applications can ONLY be downloaded (legitimately: jailbreaking phones doesn't count for non-slashdot readers) through iTunes.
Take most Windows Mobile phones on the other hand, and you have all the developer toys, loads of applications, and the ability to upgrade (in some cases even to the truly open Android as it matures)
By the way, this is not the first publicized instance of Apple banning an iPhone app (ie:that rich-person ruby screensaver), just the first with a legitimate purpose (that we know of).
Yep, that's old news. I used to have a nice little javascript command bookmarked in IE (a long, long time ago in a galaxy without Firefox) that I could use to abruptly stop those never-ending pop-up chains without killing all of IE/Windows.
In the Firefox universe, the FireBug plugin lets you run javascript on the fly, not to mention alter stylesheets and HTML code of the page as your viewing (useful for designing/testing).
Indeed. The best source of ideas on improving the user interface of an application comes not just from UI 'experts,' but from the actual users of the program.
This isn't a question of foss vs commercial software (I can name a few of both categories with horrible/buggy UIs), but an issue of design philosophy. If the developers are open to constructive feedback (and yes, not all design comments are constructive), then they will make a better program.
I would presume that interested subscribers (particularly paid ones) would still find a way of receiving their messages. EVERY spam filter has an exceptions list, to explicitly specify addresses that you want to receive messages from, even if the filter thinks they are spam. Yahoo's prefes might be a bit more hidden, but I'd be surprised if adding this 'blocked' mailing address to that list wouldn't let the messages through. Presuming the mailing list is linked to an actual website letting his users know to add the address to their exceptions list, it doesn't seem like this should be more than a temporary problem if his viewers are actually dedicated.
Spam is a problem. Idiots incorrectly using spam filters is another one. But that's how things are, and until some spam-proof Internet 2.0 comes along, we just have to deal with spam or inaccurate filters as they stand - or change mail providers if becomes annoyng.
Allowing custom TLDs is the worst idea ever, if they allow it without restrictions.
Generic terms, such as ".kids", ".car", etc. for
TLDs should remain in the exclusive realm of ICANN. Recognizable brand names though, after its determined that there is no trademark infringment globally (not an easy thing), could be made top-level TLDs for $50k or greater.
In other words - this idea works only if ICANN says that they have, and are responsible for exercising, veto authority on any proposed TLD that is not a recognized international trademark. All other TLDs would have to be proposed through the standard process and voted on, $50k fee or not.
DRM isn't REALLY about software piracy. I haven't known one person that has said "Hey! It is difficult to pirate this. I may as well just go buy it!". It is about squeezing the most money out of you that they possibly can for the least amount of product. Not true, that's just a beneficial side-effect for the corporate executives mandating DRM because they believe it'll actually stop piracy - without any confirmation from developers or customers that can explain otherwise.
Most modern airplanes are not just fly-by-wire, but have a myriad of electronics displays and interfaces. It very likely makes more sense from an interface perspective if the pilot can turn the seatbelt sign on through one of his multi-function touch screen displays or similar, rather than complicating matters with a physical switch taking up space that might otherwise be used for flight-critical controls (and backups).
Electro-mechanical simplicity and seperation does not necessarily equate to being better or safer--the pilots interface is also important. Just because a few cabin control options are in the pilots computer, doesn't equate that there's a full network. Connections can be made read or write only, and that's not counting basic security checks (ie: embedded software/hardware) to ensure only specific data can flow to/from specific places.
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Actually, it's just 2 photos. The computer detects where the license plate is in the photo and they print out a zoomed-in version of it for the record. I'm sure the original photo is significantly higher resolution than that of the printer used to send you the notice.
Note: I haven't been a victim of the red-light cameras, but I was caught by their speeding camera once. Placed on the exit ramp/street from 295 right after the speed limit dropped, but well before the end of the highway and a light/intersection.
Placing of those speed cameras can be just as shady as yellow-light timings . . .
That subject should have been "MythTV + Hulu + Netflix > Cable" ... apparently /. doesn't like straight '>' signs in the subject (though it accepts the HTML entity) ... I wonder whether that's a bug.
This just adds yet another reason to why I refuse to pay Comcast for TV ... an extra 20-50 a month for the handful of channels I want to watch just isn't worth it. A Linux MythTV Box with an OTA antenna gets all of my broadcast shows, Hulu covers those rare instances that something malfunctions and I miss a show I actually care about, while Netflix (streaming to the Xbox360] gets me all of the cable-only shows that I want [albeit a year late]. Oh, and I also get a handful of random unencrypted channels via QAM from comcast [my landlord has a $10 a month super-basic plan] - subject to the whims of comcast's annual channel reshuffles.
Now, if I could only get both Hulu and Netflix to work well under MythTV, I'd truly be able to have all my entertainment on one device . . .
But you forget, it's April Fool's! The real joke is that the /. stories are on time.
I would start them off using Firefox and OpenOffice under Windows, if they aren't already. If that's about all their using on the computer, then you can transition them to virtually any KDE or Gnome based distribution later with minimal hassle -- assuming you (the tech expert) are on hand for those inevitable questions. Remote access helps. For example, configuring the printer, installing some browser plug-ins that you forgot to setup, telling them that a pop-up ad really is just an ad and not a virus notification (yes, I know someone that was tricked by those), etc.
I've done this for two family members (who are at the computer=browser level of experience) already and haven't looked back. I used Ubuntu in both cases, but realistically if your there to help any distribution you are comfortable with maintaining will work. The non-tech user isn't likely to use any linux applications or functions you don't tell them about or maintain for them, and is inevitably going to turn to you for the usual tech questions no matter what. Ubuntu is nice though because as you train them in the ways of Linux, there's enough user-friendly GUIs for them to navigate.
I only used it once, and that was to fight against a severe Beryl-compiz crash, but it was quite useful.
Before that, I had always just thought 'SysRq' was just an alternative/antiquated name for "Print screen" and not actually a special key code. Judging by the discussions below, I obviously wasn't alone in that assumption.
One more thought for the year ...
Of course, landlines only work in a blackout if you have an old, simple, corded low-tech phone. Unfortunately, the masses have forgotten this in favor of cordless phones and base stations, such that most people don't realize they should keep a plain old wired landline phone around for emergencies . . . so for those people VoIP and their UPS might be an improvement.
yet, if, any government agency would, god forbid, to step in to eliminate this blatant slighting of citizens, those bastards all start up yelling 'competition' , 'hands off business', 'no government intervention', 'socialism'.
Why would the government forbid something that they initiated by asking ATT this question in the first place!
Landlines are the most reliable and proven communications technology in use today. It's used everywhere, well understood, and proven to be highly versatile over the years. Cutting the line would be bad for everyone - VoIP and Cell service only last so long on battery power in an emergency (ie:blackout), but landlines can last for days -- in the 2003 blackout internet went down immediately, cell's became sketchy and went out altogether within a day, but landlines worked throughout the blackout without a hitch.
I'll add my vote - logmein has been great for remotely "maintaining" machines for my family, and a few friends. I've even been able to guide a few family members into installing the software themselves with me on the phone (temporarily giving them my login information for the site)
In the case of slightly computer literate friends and family, it's easy enough to show them how to disable logmein when you are not using it. All they need to do is right-click on the tray icon and select "disable remote access" to lock you out, or enable when its time to help them out again.
There used to be an option to allow users to install the logmein softwae and explicitly give out access to their machine when they desired to, but I'm not sure if they still offer that option.
The built-in windows "remote assistance" tools do work great, but it can be a real pain to get it running over the phone if the persons firewall/router isn't already configured to let it through.
I concur - another git user here for my personal systems. Distributed version control systems are ideal in this situation, so you don't have a single point of failure in a central repository, and can easily track and merge conflicting changes when you forget to sync before coding . . .
Shared folders (NFS or Samba) also work great in some scenarios (ie:work). Particularly if your on a secure internal network (/w VPN for remote access), this is by far the easiest way to keep files accessible to all machines and/or multiple users.
BTW, due to the competitive commercial nature of aerospace software development tools, there is a level of incompatibility between them and as such there is also motive for playing the lockin game regardless of any "unforseen" risk to others. Perhaps there is a place for open source software here!!!
Open source is starting to make it's inroads in aerospace as well. VxWorks is still the proprietary king of embedded (flight) software, but there is increasing interest in RTEMS, a FOSS derived alternative from the Unix/Linux world. Separately from that, there's also a growing interest in using re-usable/open-source components in such embedded software, though there are other (non-technical) obstacles with that as well.
There are a couple of aspects about the A330 problems that amaze me:
1. How can an airplane be allowed to carry passengers when the margin to airframe disintegration is so narrow? I can understand falling out of the sky if it stalls, but to be able to tear the airplane apart in level flight? What happened to margin of safety in airframe construction -- or is that whole concept now obsolete?
2. If the airplane can send fault messages home, why don't blackbox data streams get sent as well? At least that way there would be some situation info available as opposed to none.
3. In some ways reliance on flight computers is like reliance on spreadsheets or calculators -- if you do not understand what is going on and are not capable of doing it yourself then you cannot tell if the software is correct. Essentially, if the computer says it is so then it is, and you either survive or not.
1. Don't underestimate the power of wind shear. This plane may have been flying straight and level from the grounds point of view (we don't know that), but it was flying in the middle of a storm according to news accounts, likely experiencing some extreme wind forces.
2. The amount of telemetry and logging data generated by any aerospace system (air or space) is humongous, and even with an aircraft (as opposed to low data rate spacecraft), to large to transmit in real-time. In this case, the system did automatically transmit a wide range of critical telemetry packets which the original designers deigned the most important to transmit in emergency situations. The news articles are vague, but they do mention that those failure messages received were among a much larger set of automated data received.
3. In principal, I completely agree with that. In practice, that's rarely possible. A spreadsheet application can process a file containing 10,000 entries and calculate complex formulas on each one in seconds. Sure the user knows what these formulas do and could do it by hand, but it's not feasible for them to do so in a timeframe that would be useful before the data is outdated. In the manned space program (even in the Apollo days), everything was automated. The "manual" landing sequence was in fact linked to a computer that calculated the correct thrusters to fire based on the pilots desired course, there was no direct control, and no way for a human to calculate in real time exactly which thrusters to fire each second if there was. The pilots of modern airliners must be highly experienced on the principles of flight, but unless they designed the aircraft (and even then), there are often to many variables and control surfaces to monitor to do so without at least some computer assistance. Manual overrides are useful and should be there for redundant single-system failures, but most modern systems are far too complex for a human to be in full control of if all automation fails.
As others have said, computer failure is still only a theory until the black box is recovered.
(Disclaimer: I'm not a pilot or know much about airlines, but I do develop spacecraft flight software)
Precisely. If this is a problem for geo launches, then the same likely applies to future interplanetary launches (Lunar missions, Mars landers, etc.) as well.
Of course, what we really need is a simple deflector shield to protect our ships . . .
I think the program is out of money because a lot of people who don't even need coupons are getting them - my guess is that probably half of the people at least do not understand that if they have cable they don't need a different box.
And the recent "Media Blitz" campaigns often just confuse the average user more than inform them. I've had to explain to a few people already that they don't need a converter box...including a friend with an HDTV and OTA Antenna, but didn't know that he could tune into HD channels with it (ie: 5-1 instead of 5). He saw the color bars during a recent test and was about to go out and buy one before he asked me. Sad, but likely more common than people suspect...
I wouldn't expect MS to show any love for Google's Android. I find it amusing though that MS Labs is developing applications for the iPhone and ignoring their own Windows Mobile OS...
Perhaps that's another sign I should flash my WM6 phone to run Linux/Android....
I'll bet the Smithsonian will go for it.
Probably not, given that they already have one -- The Enterprise nonetheless.
I could see Disney taking one to put in Epcot though...$50 mil would be nothing for them, and realistically, more people visit the Disney parks than most museums.
The best way to learn, is when the goal is to use it to create something that you/they want.
In my case, I taught myself Perl CGI programming in 6th or 7th grade to make a site for my Starcraft guild, and slowly taught myself HTML later. Albeit I read slashdot now, so I'm probably not typical in the topics I chose...
The point though, is that you want to make the kids want to learn it. LEGO Mindstorms, or a Roomba educational kit is probably the best for kids today. Start off with a demonstration/description of some exciting final project (or of a few possibilities, and let the class choose their favorite or a variation thereof), then start teaching them the basics that'll eventually build up to it.
Agreed. Feature wise, the iPhone is probably the best phone on the market now.
Freedom wise? It's not the worst, but pretty close. The phone can only be purchased locked from certain providers. Your limited with what you can do with it. Developers have to follow a strict platform toolset, and applications can ONLY be downloaded (legitimately: jailbreaking phones doesn't count for non-slashdot readers) through iTunes.
Take most Windows Mobile phones on the other hand, and you have all the developer toys, loads of applications, and the ability to upgrade (in some cases even to the truly open Android as it matures)
By the way, this is not the first publicized instance of Apple banning an iPhone app (ie:that rich-person ruby screensaver), just the first with a legitimate purpose (that we know of).
Yep, that's old news. I used to have a nice little javascript command bookmarked in IE (a long, long time ago in a galaxy without Firefox) that I could use to abruptly stop those never-ending pop-up chains without killing all of IE/Windows.
In the Firefox universe, the FireBug plugin lets you run javascript on the fly, not to mention alter stylesheets and HTML code of the page as your viewing (useful for designing/testing).
Indeed. The best source of ideas on improving the user interface of an application comes not just from UI 'experts,' but from the actual users of the program.
This isn't a question of foss vs commercial software (I can name a few of both categories with horrible/buggy UIs), but an issue of design philosophy. If the developers are open to constructive feedback (and yes, not all design comments are constructive), then they will make a better program.
I would presume that interested subscribers (particularly paid ones) would still find a way of receiving their messages. EVERY spam filter has an exceptions list, to explicitly specify addresses that you want to receive messages from, even if the filter thinks they are spam. Yahoo's prefes might be a bit more hidden, but I'd be surprised if adding this 'blocked' mailing address to that list wouldn't let the messages through. Presuming the mailing list is linked to an actual website letting his users know to add the address to their exceptions list, it doesn't seem like this should be more than a temporary problem if his viewers are actually dedicated. Spam is a problem. Idiots incorrectly using spam filters is another one. But that's how things are, and until some spam-proof Internet 2.0 comes along, we just have to deal with spam or inaccurate filters as they stand - or change mail providers if becomes annoyng.
" Remember, remember the Fifth of November, The Gunpowder Treason and Plot, I know of no reason Why Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot. "
Allowing custom TLDs is the worst idea ever, if they allow it without restrictions. Generic terms, such as ".kids", ".car", etc. for TLDs should remain in the exclusive realm of ICANN. Recognizable brand names though, after its determined that there is no trademark infringment globally (not an easy thing), could be made top-level TLDs for $50k or greater.
In other words - this idea works only if ICANN says that they have, and are responsible for exercising, veto authority on any proposed TLD that is not a recognized international trademark. All other TLDs would have to be proposed through the standard process and voted on, $50k fee or not.
Most modern airplanes are not just fly-by-wire, but have a myriad of electronics displays and interfaces. It very likely makes more sense from an interface perspective if the pilot can turn the seatbelt sign on through one of his multi-function touch screen displays or similar, rather than complicating matters with a physical switch taking up space that might otherwise be used for flight-critical controls (and backups).
Electro-mechanical simplicity and seperation does not necessarily equate to being better or safer--the pilots interface is also important. Just because a few cabin control options are in the pilots computer, doesn't equate that there's a full network. Connections can be made read or write only, and that's not counting basic security checks (ie: embedded software/hardware) to ensure only specific data can flow to/from specific places.