Posts by Charles 9
2035 posts • joined Wednesday 10th June 2009 16:31 GMT
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Re: Hemp
Maybe, but hemp only really grows well when the soil is itself pretty good (the results in less ideal soil aren't as productive). Furthermore, hemp oil is not as useful as other oil. For one thing, it can go rancid. For another, it lacks the energy density. Plus, hemp's use as a fabric or rope material is hampered by its hollow fibers (meaning they tend to wick unless you tarred them). That's why ships switched to non-wicking manila rope.
Re: Valid tactics
Was this ever actually tried in say an episode of Doctor Who? I'm not too well versed in the Whoniverse, being a Star Trek fan myself, but the incident piques my curiosity to wonder if a Dalek or two just couldn't get their weapons on target because the target kept lurching around drunk.
Re: the problem with DRM systems
That's the old "Screeners" scenario (taking handycams to theaters). It may be ugly, but if you really just wanna watch the movie, then it'll do. The movie companies concede that point because camera tech is already too far ahead (What you gonna do? Strip-search everyone on entering? And did you know video cameras can now fit in eyeglass frames?)
The current movement in DRM is to limit the quality of these ripoffs, as a screener copy may not be to everyone's liking. OTOH, if someone were to present a 1080p/7.1/multi-language rip of the latest blockbuster, unencrypted, that's gonna get some attention. That's why high-definition content has to many authentication mechanisms: to try to make sure only trusted channels get access to the high-def content on BluRays and so on. That's also why BD+ was developed: it's a virtual machine with the codes on the discs: a moving target for the crackers.
Re: Not wind only
Isn't that why the idea is to install solar plants in deserts? Particularly very arid or very windy deserts: neither of which are very conducive to vegetation and therefore mostly taking up empty space?
If the US military is smart enough, only the public-facing aspects of "secure iPads" would come from their plants. Secure elements are much more likely to come from American firms after they've been carefully vetted.
The move sounds more like a trend toward more diversity in the event Blackberry has trouble continuing operations in the medium term. In military terms, your basic contingency plan.
Re: Sack the earth huggers. Build more nuclear.
Global warming in and of itself isn't a scam. What's the scam is the idea that we're influencing it in any significant way.
Re: Why not just build a solar panel that covers half the world....
And the primary reason we have a waste problem is that people are afraid to reuse the fuel. We ALREADY have reactor designs capable of reusing the fuel and getting more energy out of them. The problem with come is stated concisely in their name: BREEDER reactors. A necessary byproduct of reusing the waste is you end up with more potent waste, and to keep the cycle going, you have to take it out once in a while to reprocess it, which inevitably raises concerns of weaponization and proliferation.
A number of the Generation IV reactor designs DO take breeder reactor concepts into consideration to try to maximize their fuel use.
Re: This assumes the person is contactable
There ARE ways to confirm delivery in the postal services. At least there are in the USA (Certified and Registered Mail, for starters). If they get word of a rumor that post gets lost, odds are they'll send at least one notice with a guaranteed notice of receipt. There goes the "mail gets lost" out. Plus, usually only the addressee can sign for these kinds of mail, blunting the "mail gets stolen" angle.
Interesting thinking going on, for sure, but let's give it a little time. I'm sure people with nothing better to do will take some time and tear into the scheme looking for chinks. For example, this scheme makes me think of DVD's CSS protection, which had to be offline and therefore impossible to update. So if a bunch of movies are signed by a particular key, and the key gets cracked, the box gets opened again, I would think. So I'll see how this plays out.
There's a reason for Geolocation lockouts.
Copyrights are not globally assigned but are held by region by different parties. If one region is down with it but another isn't, then you have no choice but to institute lockouts because the second region can sue for copyright infringement because they never gave permissiobn.
Re: Backwards
Likely, with the PS3, almost zip, because the PC x86 architecture is a lot different from the relatively unique PS3's Cell CPU. Architectural differences make emulation difficult and usually require a performance edge of some ten fold at least, which isn't happening this time (CPU tech hasn't been progressing as quickly as in previous generations). And timing concerns mean you can't throw multiple cores to make up the performance deficit for emulating a single core.
The PS1 has been possible to emulate on the PC for years now, and PS2 emulation on PC hardware is achievable under the right circumstances.
Re: RE: comparison with a PC and PC performance
The prices, however, also include market factors that are not related to the hardware or development costs. If a game is popular on one platform but not the other, or if one port came out later than the other, that will affect the price comparison. Take Halo. The PC version came out long after the original XBox version, for which it was a launch title and a console headliner.
Re: I may be being incredibly naïve, but ...
Trouble is, look at spam (which is ad-bombing cranked Up to Eleven). The cost to deploy even a bazillion ads is so low that the return from JUST ONE HIT usually pays for ALL of it, meaning all the others are pure profit. And given that there's gonna be SOME sucker SOMEwhere (thus nullifying the "everyone block them" angle since JUST ONE is needed), the odds of a return are in the advertiser's favor.
Re: Burning Bodies
Going that far back, we know the Nazis were rather gross, but looking at it strictly from a scientific perspective, the Nazis knew how to run like a well-greased machine. In this case, they knew enough to keep in mind an ideal ratio of tallow (fat) to other body mass.
Re: RE: comparison with a PC and PC performance
In Joerg's defense, hand-tuning is a lot easier when the specifications are more concrete. In the general PC environment, coders have to consider whether their end product will be running a machine with lower levels of shader support which can restrict the level of graphical detail you can put in your product. Consider the game BioShock. It was made right around the time DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4 came out. However, since most video cards on the market could not support them, the amount of DirectX 10 code they could put in the game was quite limited. Pushing the envelope in PC technologies is risky because you risk alienating audiences (Crysis was an exception to the rule--but it scored BECAUSE of its audacity--trying to repeat the feat would be difficult).
OTOH, on something like a console, you know exactly what type and how much hardware you'll be working with. This is the kind of information that lends itself well to hand-tuning. If you know just how much and what kind of RAM you're working with, you can micromanage to get the last byte of performance out of it and do it with the tighest timing you can. Similarly, knowing that every PS4 will fully support OpenGL 4.2, you know just what functions you can and can't use and don't have to worry about fallback functions.
Re: RE: comparison with a PC and PC performance
But to use hand-written assembler over the entire length of a huge project is usually too demanding unless it's a requirement. So as the other writer has said, compiled code is made as a base and then parts of the object code hand-tuned or replaced with hand-written assembler where performance is demanded.
Re: So if the PC dies
But what if one argues that Microsoft sells the LICENSE, which then counts as a sale and therefore invokes exhaustion?
Re: It's such a shame it's x86
The Cell lost when GPUs kept jumping up in performance. The writing was on the wall: the future of HPC would be in GPU-based architectures, and I think Sony recognizes this which is why they seem to be putting a solid emphasis on that part.
So Sony's finally laid its cards on the table. Since they've changed architectures from generation to generation, switching to PC-based architecture is actually not too radical on their part, nor is trying an OnLive-like approach to retro gaming. All I can say at this point is good luck to them.
Which leaves Microsoft. Their console evolution has been a bit different from that of Sony, and it might be of benefit to them to try something different than Sony's so as to differentiate itself. I think it would be best if Microsoft didn't jump architectures the way Sony did and stick with POWER CPUs and AMD GPUs. When it comes to specific hardware development, as long as the tools are robust and the hardware capable, the architecture can usually take care of itself, and sticking with POWER gives them a compatibility angle that keeps them closer to Nintendo's niches. As for memory, at least 4GB would be prudent, though with Sony touting 8GB they may want to consider moving up to allow for larger game worlds: cost-benefit analysis pending. Meanwhile, network-based gaming is thankfully a platform-agnostic idea so they can leverage Live to perform many of the same functions without much of a need for architectural changes.
So, Nintendo's already out the gate, and Sony's laid its cards on the table. Now it's Microsoft's turn. Odds are we'll hear from them at E3.
Hadn't there been one case where one other aspect of SHC was noted, one which wick effect combustion couldn't handle: speed? It'd be interesting to see one where the verified burn time was too short for wick effect combustion.
Re: Typo?
And we all know how much practice private business has had in DE-anonymizing data. Once they figure out datum A is from the same person as datum B, they keep the relationship logged, keep doing so for other linked data until they find enough information through voluntary consent, legal mandata, or public information to identify any one of them. Then suddenly ALL of them are identified.
You just watch. All that "effectively anonymized" data will be effectively DE-anonymized inside of two years.
Turbo Mode
For versions of Opera other than Mini, the proxy service is available as "Turbo Mode": recommended for use on low-speed networks. Desktop installations can find an icon on the lower left (looks like a speedometer) that will let you toggle Turbo Mode, and it will recommend it if it detects a slow network. Opera Mobile keeps Turbo Mode tucked in the settings and allows for the ability to be kept on, kept off, or toggled on whenever one isn't in a WiFi zone.
That's precisely the point. If you have to move behind paywalls, fine. At least we know ahead of time the price of the service. Treat people more like clients and less like cattle.
Re: don't expect any response from Google
Or unless backed up with the threat of a hit to their bottom line. So unless the EU threatens to fine Google (and it would have to be something big like a 10% GAP fine or so), Google will see it as just The Cost of Doing Business.
Re: Or we could try to fix it
Not necessarily. Software patents because algorithms aren't necessarily specific enough to be covered by copyright. Consider the idea of "clean room engineering". This was the method Compaq used to bypass the copyright on the IBM BIOS because they basically came up with an alternative implementation of the BIOS without any inside input. Patents cover that angle by protecting the process in general. If the IBM BIOS had been patented, Compaq would've had no way to legally clone the BIOS, just saying.
Having said that, the length of software patents are not in line with software product lifecycles. Current patent terms were made for when product lifecycles were measured in years (usually around a decade or so) while software tends to cycle every year or so. If software patents are to be issued, then they need to be issued for a much shorter length of time to reflect the pace of change.
Re: GPL is copyright
That was what I thought. The GPL and similar licenses are meant to leverage copyright law to protect the code from hijacking. A similar angle sometimes occurs in the patent field. Their version of the FOSS license is the "hands off" patent: obtaining a patent on a process for the primary purposes of allowing free use of the process and not allowing anyone else to assert it.
Oops.
Sometimes, even the best laid plans can go awry. But give NASA credit for keeping up with their "Steely-Eyed Space Men" mystique. So something went wrong; they already had the backup plan in place. A few quick tweaks and they're back in business. In the annals of space travel, this was the furthest thing from a panic attack; more like one of those many "Oops" moments that occur all the time; annoying, but planned for in any event.
And in that same timeframe software would've undergone two or three product lifecycles. Your argument would make it more valid to make software not patentable at all because the bureaucracy time is longer than the product lifecycle.
Re: Parental Responsibility
Besides, how will you handle things if the kids can outsmart the parents, which is not unheard of in the electronic age?
Re: RC hobbyists
"Law enforcement is REACTIVE. PROACTIVE law enforcement gets into the realm of attempting to determine one's intentions before he or she formulates the intention or executes the action, resulting in everyone being a criminal before given the chance to not be one. This makes the abhorrent assumption that people have no other attachment to doing right, or not doing wrong depending upon the theory applied, which is an affront to personal liberties."
But REACTIVE is now too slow for people. By then, the tragedy (Sandy Hook, Oklahoma City, 9/11) has already occurred and people are dead. That's too late. The move now is towards PRE-crime: preventing the tragedy from actually taking place so people don't die. Because if PRE-crime is such a bad time, how bad would it be compared to someone YOU love being the next to die become of some crime no one anticipated in time?
Re: But /why/ ?
IOW, the idea behind the FOSS licenses is about applying the copyright laws JUST a little bit, not so much to limit the people's ability to USE the code but rather to protect the code from being hijacked.
Re: "....make the act of attaching a camera to a flying machine illegal."
They'd probably say you'd no longer be allowed to fly such a machine in Oregon if the law passes. Owning such a device before the law passes would be a grey area due to prohibitions on retroactive statutes, but if the law passes, FLYING one would almost certainly be forbidden, built-in or not.
Re: If an asteroid wants to wipe out mankind, it had better hurry
Thing is, we still have one edge over other species: we can adapt. Hey, if the Inuit can live in the Arctic all year long, perhaps we will over time. Plus we're good at building things..You'd think in 7,000 years we'd have better access to fission and fusion technology which is basically temperature-agnostic. Rig to some geodesic domes and use the snow and ice for water and you have a fair go, I'd say, regardless of how cold it gets.
To those in Europe, please don't knock all American beers. Admitted, the big brand names are perhaps thin an unsatisfying for your tastes, but most Americans drink it for (relatively) cheap refreshment, not necessarily because of its flavor (Note: the best-selling beers in America tend to be "light" beers--that should say something). However, for those who want more honest beers, we have a great amount of diversity thanks to a booming microbrewing industry, and these microbreweries are not afraid to experiment, so you can find just about anything from the full-bodied to the far-out-there, just by asking around a little.
Re: Bring it on!
Except the primary reason for more than one car is more than one simultaneous driver. And these drivers tend to drive in similar patterns so would want similar kinds of cars to keep costs down.
Re: Maybe 13 is the problem
Part of the problem is that kids that young may not be fully cognizant of the potential consequences. We tell kids to just say no, but they sometimes have trouble understanding WHY they say no. Kids may scoff at "Because I said so," but if told the actual reasons may just reply with a "retard's stare," meaning it went completely over their heads. By the time of adolescence kids are at least aware of the concept of personal privacy and would therefore be interested in ways to safeguard it.
Re: I've got a solution for this...
Oh? I used to recall being able to upload pictures to bulletin boards...and that was in the days of the 9600-bps modem.
Re: Bring it on!
The trouble is that countries like the US have lots of land area. Long haul is a REQUIREMENT for a viable car replacement since people are unlikely to keep two vehicles: a short-haul for intracity driving and a long-haul for the trips to other states. One vehicle would have to fit all.
Re: Much nicer project
As of right now, that's physically impossible due to the distances involved for the car, mobile, laptop, and tablet. Home appliances are easy enough to attach to a home network, but all those devices above can roam, and someone needs to foot the bill to keep them connected even in the middle of nowhere, and as long as you're not the owner of that particular link, you'll have to go through someone to stay connected. That's always been the problem. Someone else owns the road: be it government or a private enterprise.
Too vague
Thrifty Rent A Car tried that already for a service mark. Application was rejected as too vague AND upheld on appeal. Doubt IBM could do much better.
Re: Defense in Depth
Don't savvy IT guys set those buttons up as Schmuck Bait these days? The ones who press the button don't get the trusted positions and so on?
Re: A golden opportunity
But at the same time, any country with an excess of something (in this case, human capital) would do well to find ways to trim the fat, whether it be in inhospitable mines or as cannon fodder.
Re: Acer W510
The point was that 1024x600, single-core ;power-sipping netbooks were plenty good enough AND they kept the price down: which is another check for the netbook as well. I got mine used for $125, and most netbooks of the type run in the $125-150 range used depending on wear and tear.
Correcting myself.
Whether it's a service mark, a design patent, whatever. Point is, it's SPECIFIC. They're locking in a signature style, not saying any other electronics company can have a store. So I say, "So blanking what?"
IINM, Apple now has a Design Patent for their Apple Stores. It's not as if this is the only way to arrange an electronics store and has more to do with Apple's sense of style. As long as the patent is specific to this layout, I say OK they've locked in a signature style. Just steer away from it and life goes on.
Re: I think the only solution here is DBANing the drives.
If I were really sick, I'd give them a few hours through which time I'd try to obtain the victim's identity and address. If they didn't pay up, I'd scatter the pron around the drive (perhaps encrypting a few with a password), lock as much as I could, transmit the information to authorities in e-mails and self-terminate to leave little trace that it was malware. Unless the plods were ready to admit the computer was tampered, the victim can now be arrested for possession of child porn (which in most countries is a felony). That would add real fear factor to the scareware: pay or face the end of your freedom.
Personal testimonial--realtime
The sentiments of this article are echoed with this writer, who is in fact doing the exact same thing. Personal experience has shown that practical remote computing, even web browsing, requires a decent computer with decent software. Tablets are all right for occasional reading, but I type a lot, and the Bluetooth keyboard I brought with me was hit or miss, not to mention the battery life was an issue since you don't have options for them. OTOH, my Acer Aspire One had the option of tacking on not only extra batteries but also a bulkier triple-capacity one that gives me about nine hours of casual use and several hours on more serious stuff like video playback: not bad in my book, and it's proved genuinely useful in an environment where access to wall power is iffy due to my remote location. At least the wireless service is decent and they don't seem to have an issue with mobile hotspotting. For a small investment, I can stay connected for the duration of my trip.
And I thought I was one of the few who actually got genuine use out of these netbooks: small enough to transport easily (note: you don't have to open up netbooks at airport checkpoints) yet just good enough with its SD slots and USB ports to do honest computing work (including handling a TrueCrypted external HDD for the bulk storage).
Re: Licence agreements
Not even a Live OS complete with Kernel which by definition must have low-level access to the hardware in order to function?
Re: @Ru re. Oh How I Laughed...
There are different levels of bricking. Each start with the same problem: useless machine. But "soft" bricks can usually be remedied by switching the machine to different or alternate modes of operation that go around the piece of software/firmware causing the brick. Harder bricks usually affect some piece of software that can't be avoided. In this case, we're dealing with something worse, a "baked" brick in which some hardware or firmware component has been damaged, instantly rendering any fallback worthless because the failure is either in the fallback or affect something above it.
Re: Bad Firmware or Bad Ubuntu ?
Probably because the fallback routine needs to be updateable in case the fallback itself becomes an exploit avenue. And this fail occurred during kernel (Ring 0) operation, so it could conceivably do anything: even access the EPROMs that contain the fallback units, messing them up beyond any means of either recovering (because you now have a backup failure) or preventing (because it's already running at the highest level of trust short of hypervisor mode--who watches over the kernel?).
