High-speed railways aren't cheap either. I'm really wondering about the respective costs and advantages here...
One thing I see going for (some) Hyperloops is that they probably can be placed high above ground for cheaper than conventional trains - saving on the footprint and especially the need to build tunnels/overpasses needed to accommodate high-speed rail.
Wow, I never thought about it that way !
That was the most important shortcoming I perceived, and I've never realized that we pretty much already had the technology !
(Hopefully the higher stresses due to moving wagons will be low compared to the additional 59-79 bars of pressure the gas pipelines are used to.)
P.S.: A *perfect* vacuum would _still_ have a differential pressure of about 1 bar...
Bitcoin Releases Version 0.3 Posted by kdawson on Sunday July 11, 2010 @09:09PM from the nobody-to-prosecute dept. Teppy writes "How's this for a disruptive technology? Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer, network-based digital currency with no central bank, and no transaction fees. Using a proof-of-work concept, nodes burn CPU cycles searching for bundles of coins, broadcasting their findings to the network. Analysis of energy usage indicates that the market value of Bitcoins is already above the value of the energy needed to generate them, indicating healthy demand. The community is hopeful the currency will remain outside the reach of any government." Here are the FAQ, a paper describing Bitcoin in more technical detail (PDF), and the Wikipedia article. Note: a commercial service called BitCoin Ltd., in pre-alpha at bitcoin.com, bears no relation to the open source digital currency.
WikiLeaks, Money, and Ron Paul Posted by Soulskill on Sunday December 12, 2010 @01:16PM from the headlines-that-will-make-some-people-mad dept. Another day, another dozen WikiLeaks stories, several of which revolve around money. PayPal has given in to pressure to release WikiLeaks funds, though they still won't do further transactions. Mobile payment firm Xipwire is attempting to take PayPal's place. "We do think people should be able to make their own decisions as to who they donate to." PCWorld wonders if the WikiLeaks' money woes could lead to great adoption of Bitcoin, the peer-to-peer currency system we've discussed in the past. Meanwhile, Representative Ron Paul spoke in defense of WikiLeaks on the House floor Thursday, asking a number of questions, including, "Could it be that the real reason for the near universal attacks on WikiLeaks is more about secretly maintaining a seriously flawed foreign policy of empire than it is about national security?" The current uproar over WikiLeaks has prompted Paul Vixie to call for an end to the DDoS attacks and Vladimir Putin to break out a metaphor involving cows and hockey pucks.
Only 3-4%!? (Is that similar in other countries?) I'm *so* happy now that I picked a Masters degree where I can either choose to work directly after getting it or still do a PhD anyway (which would be more for fun than $$$ at this point...)
You should think about the big(ger) picture. Copyright is supposed to be temporary. What is going to happen when that DRM'ed software ends up in the public domain? Are we supposed to rely on people (illegally now!) breaking DRM schemes to preserve our culture? http://www.technologizer.com/2... (And what is the online store's plan to preserve the different software versions?)
Also, each new DRM scheme and monopolistic store brings us closer to the end of general-purpose computing : http://boingboing.net/2012/01/...
I'm willing to bet that there will be a Metro version of Visual Studio within 5 years. Then Microsoft, with their own teams using Metro exclusively, will be able to ditch Windows for good.
This seems to be a good starting point : http://betterexplained.com/ (Something similar to his "intuitive" explanation of the exponential function and of imaginary numbers should be taught in all schools!)
But then, we have to ask ourselves, how can a teacher properly teach (the most important aspect of which is to transmit the passion for learning) a class of 30+ children (or worse, teenagers)?
Or you need a display being able to replicate the whole of a light field, like an hologram. (I'm talking about *real* holograms here, not fictional Star Wars volumetric display "holograms")
Significant progress has been done in recent years in creating actual holographic displays on which the image can be changed : (as compared to non-changing holographic "prints" like this one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?... )
That doesn't nearly carry the rage that some people have for having black borders on the side of the screen. (Thankfully for them it's the smaller UHD-1 that seems to become widespread in consumer screens, rather than the larger 4k, and the 4k source sides will probably just end up being cut on UHD-1 screens, rather than the 4k source being scaled down, which would result in (some) blurriness...)
Harmonic press release (submitted by an AC below) mentions "4k UHD" and "2160p60" (and never 4096x2160), so it's UHD-1, not 4k. http://harmonicinc.com/news/na... It's NASA's press release that used a confusing picture... (and the Slashdot summary then re-used the wrong information)
(Digital Cinema Initiative) 4k resolution means 4*1024=4096 columns, and generally 2*1080=2160 lines (with a resulting aspect ratio of ~17:9). It has been used for several years in movie projectors.
UHD-1 means 3840x2160 (16:9), which is 4 times the "Full HD" of 1920x1080 (or, as it's often abbreviated, 1080p, with 1080 for the number of lines, and p for progressive, 16:9 ratio implied) (While there's also UHD-2, which is 4 times UHD-1 at the gigantic 7680x4320.)
Most screens sold as "4k" are in fact only "UHD-1", except some specific ones, generally used for very high-end video editing, now usually advertised as "True 4k" (which includes a larger color gamut, among other things).
There's also an issue that if you run at 4096x2160, 60Hz, 12-bit JPEG2000 colors, the overwhelming majority of HDMI and DisplayPort cables won't be able to carry the signal due to insufficient bandwidth (it would seem that some monitors can use two cables as a workaround).
Hey, I never said that if you _were_ part of the USA' "Military-Industrial Complex", you couldn't be a terrorist as well! Don't underestimate their paranoia...
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but all of these are less problematic compared to the case of high-speed rail.
Could also be overground, a few meters in the air...
Hyperloop doesn't compete so much with road (or even airplanes, who can fly over seas and mountains), but with train.
High-speed railways aren't cheap either. I'm really wondering about the respective costs and advantages here... One thing I see going for (some) Hyperloops is that they probably can be placed high above ground for cheaper than conventional trains - saving on the footprint and especially the need to build tunnels/overpasses needed to accommodate high-speed rail.
Why? We've been building gas pipelines for more than a century...
Wow, I never thought about it that way !
That was the most important shortcoming I perceived, and I've never realized that we pretty much already had the technology !
(Hopefully the higher stresses due to moving wagons will be low compared to the additional 59-79 bars of pressure the gas pipelines are used to.)
P.S.: A *perfect* vacuum would _still_ have a differential pressure of about 1 bar...
Elon Musk Says He's Not God
Have we gone full Onion?
Bitcoin Releases Version 0.3
Posted by kdawson on Sunday July 11, 2010 @09:09PM from the nobody-to-prosecute dept.
Teppy writes
"How's this for a disruptive technology? Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer, network-based digital currency with no central bank, and no transaction fees. Using a proof-of-work concept, nodes burn CPU cycles searching for bundles of coins, broadcasting their findings to the network. Analysis of energy usage indicates that the market value of Bitcoins is already above the value of the energy needed to generate them, indicating healthy demand. The community is hopeful the currency will remain outside the reach of any government."
Here are the FAQ, a paper describing Bitcoin in more technical detail (PDF), and the Wikipedia article. Note: a commercial service called BitCoin Ltd., in pre-alpha at bitcoin.com, bears no relation to the open source digital currency.
WikiLeaks, Money, and Ron Paul
Posted by Soulskill on Sunday December 12, 2010 @01:16PM from the headlines-that-will-make-some-people-mad dept.
Another day, another dozen WikiLeaks stories, several of which revolve around money. PayPal has given in to pressure to release WikiLeaks funds, though they still won't do further transactions. Mobile payment firm Xipwire is attempting to take PayPal's place. "We do think people should be able to make their own decisions as to who they donate to." PCWorld wonders if the WikiLeaks' money woes could lead to great adoption of Bitcoin, the peer-to-peer currency system we've discussed in the past. Meanwhile, Representative Ron Paul spoke in defense of WikiLeaks on the House floor Thursday, asking a number of questions, including, "Could it be that the real reason for the near universal attacks on WikiLeaks is more about secretly maintaining a seriously flawed foreign policy of empire than it is about national security?" The current uproar over WikiLeaks has prompted Paul Vixie to call for an end to the DDoS attacks and Vladimir Putin to break out a metaphor involving cows and hockey pucks.
Online-Only Currency BitCoin Reaches Dollar Parity
Posted by timothy on Thursday February 10, 2011 @06:59PM from the computationally-intensive dept.
IamTheRealMike writes
"The BitCoin peer to peer currency briefly reached exchange parity with the US dollar today after a spike in demand for the coins pushed prices slightly above 1 USD:1 BTC. BitCoin was launched in early 2009, so in only two years this open source currency has gone from having no value at all to one with not only an open market of competing exchanges, but the ability to buy r
Only 3-4%!? (Is that similar in other countries?)
I'm *so* happy now that I picked a Masters degree where I can either choose to work directly after getting it or still do a PhD anyway (which would be more for fun than $$$ at this point...)
You should think about the big(ger) picture. Copyright is supposed to be temporary. What is going to happen when that DRM'ed software ends up in the public domain? Are we supposed to rely on people (illegally now!) breaking DRM schemes to preserve our culture?
http://www.technologizer.com/2...
(And what is the online store's plan to preserve the different software versions?)
Also, each new DRM scheme and monopolistic store brings us closer to the end of general-purpose computing :
http://boingboing.net/2012/01/...
Personal Computing is dead.
Welcome to the era of Platform Computing.
Enjoy our App Store, and don't worry, we'll take care of everything for you!
I'm willing to bet that there will be a Metro version of Visual Studio within 5 years. Then Microsoft, with their own teams using Metro exclusively, will be able to ditch Windows for good.
Specifically legal DRM-free files. I'll be all over them. My GoG library can attest to that.
*crickets*
... it's Math education that needs to get better!
This seems to be a good starting point :
http://betterexplained.com/
(Something similar to his "intuitive" explanation of the exponential function and of imaginary numbers should be taught in all schools!)
But then, we have to ask ourselves, how can a teacher properly teach (the most important aspect of which is to transmit the passion for learning) a class of 30+ children (or worse, teenagers)?
Or you need a display being able to replicate the whole of a light field, like an hologram.
(I'm talking about *real* holograms here, not fictional Star Wars volumetric display "holograms")
Significant progress has been done in recent years in creating actual holographic displays on which the image can be changed :
(as compared to non-changing holographic "prints" like this one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?... )
http://phys.org/news/2013-06-c...
http://phys.org/news/2015-02-f...
http://phys.org/news/2015-02-h...
(though you'd need a mighty good graphic card to push 45 billion pixels per second?)
That doesn't nearly carry the rage that some people have for having black borders on the side of the screen.
(Thankfully for them it's the smaller UHD-1 that seems to become widespread in consumer screens, rather than the larger 4k, and the 4k source sides will probably just end up being cut on UHD-1 screens, rather than the 4k source being scaled down, which would result in (some) blurriness...)
Harmonic press release (submitted by an AC below) mentions "4k UHD" and "2160p60" (and never 4096x2160), so it's UHD-1, not 4k.
http://harmonicinc.com/news/na...
It's NASA's press release that used a confusing picture... (and the Slashdot summary then re-used the wrong information)
I fear that the power requirements to broadcast a 8Mpx/s signal from Mars towards Earth might be a bit steep?
Except that the NASA page has this picture :
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/defa...
Showing SD, HD, FullHD, and "4k 4096x2160" sizes and "4k is Four Times the resolution of Full HD", which is technically wrong (see my comment below).
4k and UltraHD are not the same format!
http://www.extremetech.com/ext...
(Digital Cinema Initiative) 4k resolution means 4*1024=4096 columns, and generally 2*1080=2160 lines (with a resulting aspect ratio of ~17:9). It has been used for several years in movie projectors.
UHD-1 means 3840x2160 (16:9), which is 4 times the "Full HD" of 1920x1080 (or, as it's often abbreviated, 1080p, with 1080 for the number of lines, and p for progressive, 16:9 ratio implied)
(While there's also UHD-2, which is 4 times UHD-1 at the gigantic 7680x4320.)
Most screens sold as "4k" are in fact only "UHD-1", except some specific ones, generally used for very high-end video editing, now usually advertised as "True 4k" (which includes a larger color gamut, among other things).
There's also an issue that if you run at 4096x2160, 60Hz, 12-bit JPEG2000 colors, the overwhelming majority of HDMI and DisplayPort cables won't be able to carry the signal due to insufficient bandwidth (it would seem that some monitors can use two cables as a workaround).
We've had flying cars for decades now...
They are called "helicopters".
I like this one!
So, how well does this finding fit with the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...
Well, of course! Don't forget, I'm an extremist after all!
Hey, I never said that if you _were_ part of the USA' "Military-Industrial Complex", you couldn't be a terrorist as well! Don't underestimate their paranoia...