Instead of mediocre games that require incredibly expensive stuff few people have.
Isn't gaming pretty much the only motivating factor there is nowadays to expand the boundaries of computer graphics? If you believe progress is a good thing, eye-candy on the desktop or better support in the graphics card itself for managing photos aren't factors that encourage people to upgrade their graphics, and by extension, encourage card manufacturers to improve their mass-production offerings.
Better visual appeal in games does provide that encouragement, and the non-game developers can use that same horsepower in the applications that are meaningful to the rest of us. As a result, I can pay $50 for last-year's graphics card that gives me a much more powerful CAD system, photo management program, desktop eye-candy, Expose' , cubical virtual desktops, live icons, etc. And I'm very grateful to the gamers who will overspend on new graphics hardware to play the current and upcoming crop of games to subsidize that cost for the rest of us.
I suspect the water was too hot for the unprotected circuitry.
One of the comments in this article describes NASA using a dishwasher on circuit boards. When circuit boards are mass-manufactured, I believe they go through a waterfall of molten solder. As such, I'd think the circuit boards themselves could handle the heat of a dishwasher cycle.
Taking it out once the wash cycle is done and then air-drying it for a week is a good idea to make sure all the water is gone before you power it up.
Remap it to backspace. Or anything else you'd use commonly -- it's prime real estate on the keyboard, and remapping software gives you the option to use it for whatever you like. It's a great opportunity to improve your keyboard quite a bit.
I'd say its more likely that the space junk detection bit will be more useful in the short term, since it'll need a whole lot more then this to stop another one like the Tunguska impactor.
Mind you, I nowadays don't use Opera because it is not Free Software. I use Firefox.
Well, it's good of you to admit that Opera is better than Free alternatives. But based on that, a non-Free product is competing with Free alternatives and succeeding (at least in the performance arena) on its own merits and providing a good, perhaps even better quality product without acting unethically.
RMS himself in his early essays would describe why Free produced better software, at least for some areas (TurboTax and its ilk is IMHO a counterexample to the Free is better argument). Where Free doesn't produce better software for one's use, shouldn't one use the best (ethically-produced) tool for the job -- I mean, it's a piece of software, not a human rights issue, right?
I second this -- my arms are long enough that the right position for my keyboard when sitting would be within the tops of my thighs. Don't underestimate how nice it is to be able to change from standing to sitting and back during the day.
As far as tools go, Scientific Linux has been put together by Fermilab and CERN -- if you're considering physics tools, how far wrong can you go with a distro which has those names behind it? Also, wouldn't your colleagues respect those names enough as well to give Scientific Linux a look, if they consider themselves (and their students, in the future) real physicists?
Admittedly, this is the same kind of argument as 'nobody ever got fired for buying IBM equipment'.
I have yet to see SETI@HOME actually have a 'event' worth the trillions of cycles wasted on it.
SETI@Home was a prominent beacon for grid computing for the masses, which spawned BOINC, which is being used to simplify distribution and management of other 'useful' grid computing projects such as protein folding and climate change prediction cores. Significant enough event, IMHO.
a client that allows you to choose out of many projects like Folding@home.
Rosetta@Home, a protein folding program which has active updates from David Baker, the head of the group, runs on BOINC; Folding@Home doesn't. One benefit of BOINC is that you can run it on your system and when Rosetta@Home doesn't have more work for you to do, you can have BOINC switch over to any of a number of other projects you've attached to.
The trouble is, when you put together an unoptimized, unscalable, hastily coded demo to prove the feasibility of something or to make a stopgap before the real version is available the code *lasts forever*. The real version doesn't come and hack is laid on top of hack to make the demo the real thing and you own it.
Had Inform 7 been developed in open source, I am fairly sure it would now be an
elaborated version of the superficial prototype, and that it would be much the
poorer. And it ought to be remembered that for at least the first year of the
project, I wasn't at all sure it would ever work - "work" in the sense of being
capable enough to be useful.
He made it in reference to bazaar-style open source development. Interesting interview, and I have to wonder how much truth there is to the 'much the poorer' argument.
Or, perhaps, the only tool for the job.
AutoCad is practically synonymous with "computer drafting software". The same reason people use Windows, Office, etc. Why isn't there the kind of FLOSS push behind a CAD-alike similar to those behind operating systems, dev tools, office software, etc?
Is there really that much innovation in CAD tools that there needs to be a big R&D budget pushing the technology forward, rather than a common set of functionality that can be implemented and honed to a known 'best practices' tool? And are there so few programmers interested in writing one that's a real contender? Neither of those seem like sound assumptions.
And that is why if you are going to test the temperature of something, use the *back* of your finger/hand/whatever ... of your non-dominant hand. Suffice it to say that frosted pop-tarts fresh out of the toaster oven have characteristics similar to napalm...
That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. That's not always the case, both with respect to whether it's always a good idea to get noticed for your work, and for those special cases where you do something for the sake of the company and the greater good.
Everything you do in your professional life should be geared toward promoting your career and your career interests. That's more true. Getting credit for your work and advancing your career relate to each other more, less, or inversely depending on the situation. This is where a mentor comes in handy.
Hey, stick the right kinds of genes into those, turn them into some of these and you can have all my mod points into perpetuity. Now to find a good African real-estate agent...
Well, what the hell did your girlfriend expect to do with a psychology degree in the first place?;)
Wow, the first thing I thought of was that it would be the most useful degree you could choose nowadays, and that even an undergraduate degree would immediately pay for itself in corporate America.
Baker already heads up Rosetta@Home , a BOINC project that has your computer fold proteins in its spare time. He's appreciated for keeping his journal up-to-date and being responsive to participants; Folding@Home is somewhat less responsive (and doesn't provide the BOINC option).
Slashdot Mirror
Instead of mediocre games that require incredibly expensive stuff few people have.
Isn't gaming pretty much the only motivating factor there is nowadays to expand the boundaries of computer graphics? If you believe progress is a good thing, eye-candy on the desktop or better support in the graphics card itself for managing photos aren't factors that encourage people to upgrade their graphics, and by extension, encourage card manufacturers to improve their mass-production offerings.
Better visual appeal in games does provide that encouragement, and the non-game developers can use that same horsepower in the applications that are meaningful to the rest of us. As a result, I can pay $50 for last-year's graphics card that gives me a much more powerful CAD system, photo management program, desktop eye-candy, Expose' , cubical virtual desktops, live icons, etc. And I'm very grateful to the gamers who will overspend on new graphics hardware to play the current and upcoming crop of games to subsidize that cost for the rest of us.
I suspect the water was too hot for the unprotected circuitry.
One of the comments in this article describes NASA using a dishwasher on circuit boards. When circuit boards are mass-manufactured, I believe they go through a waterfall of molten solder. As such, I'd think the circuit boards themselves could handle the heat of a dishwasher cycle.
Taking it out once the wash cycle is done and then air-drying it for a week is a good idea to make sure all the water is gone before you power it up.
Remap it to backspace. Or anything else you'd use commonly -- it's prime real estate on the keyboard, and remapping software gives you the option to use it for whatever you like. It's a great opportunity to improve your keyboard quite a bit.
I'd say its more likely that the space junk detection bit will be more useful in the short term, since it'll need a whole lot more then this to stop another one like the Tunguska impactor.
Done. Next problem?
I understand the reference, but I still can't help but be reminded of this strip, which is what made this lawyer into something similar.
Well, it's good of you to admit that Opera is better than Free alternatives. But based on that, a non-Free product is competing with Free alternatives and succeeding (at least in the performance arena) on its own merits and providing a good, perhaps even better quality product without acting unethically. RMS himself in his early essays would describe why Free produced better software, at least for some areas (TurboTax and its ilk is IMHO a counterexample to the Free is better argument). Where Free doesn't produce better software for one's use, shouldn't one use the best (ethically-produced) tool for the job -- I mean, it's a piece of software, not a human rights issue, right?
I second this -- my arms are long enough that the right position for my keyboard when sitting would be within the tops of my thighs. Don't underestimate how nice it is to be able to change from standing to sitting and back during the day.
At least the accuracy of the moniker is increasing. Better than PATRIOT act, digital rights management, etc.
Conan agree.
Not if you consider this prank someone pulled to see how far he could go in signing an obviously fake name.
Grammar can be fun!
Admittedly, this is the same kind of argument as 'nobody ever got fired for buying IBM equipment'.
That was him giving the audience the finger, wasn't it? Or was it?
A wind-up laptop?
SETI@Home was a prominent beacon for grid computing for the masses, which spawned BOINC, which is being used to simplify distribution and management of other 'useful' grid computing projects such as protein folding and climate change prediction cores. Significant enough event, IMHO.
I thought A/W was the patent-holder for 'Marking Menus' (at least it was in the 1990s).
Is there really that much innovation in CAD tools that there needs to be a big R&D budget pushing the technology forward, rather than a common set of functionality that can be implemented and honed to a known 'best practices' tool? And are there so few programmers interested in writing one that's a real contender? Neither of those seem like sound assumptions.
It can be quite entertaining under the right circumstances.
Hey, stick the right kinds of genes into those, turn them into some of these and you can have all my mod points into perpetuity. Now to find a good African real-estate agent ...
Wow, the first thing I thought of was that it would be the most useful degree you could choose nowadays, and that even an undergraduate degree would immediately pay for itself in corporate America.
Baker already heads up Rosetta@Home , a BOINC project that has your computer fold proteins in its spare time. He's appreciated for keeping his journal up-to-date and being responsive to participants; Folding@Home is somewhat less responsive (and doesn't provide the BOINC option).