Posts by Dave 126 10668 publicly visible posts • joined 21 Jul 2010
Andy Weir, author of The Martian, states that the big storm that sets the events of his story in motion is his only deliberate exaggeration in the novel. He just needed a way to have his protagonist left behind on Mars.
(But hey, Ridley Scott is as fond of flying debris, dust and particulate matter as he is of rain, stream and mist - and he films it all beautifully.)
So, on the way towards Buck Rogers in the 25th Century then: "Ha, their computers are so primitive they still run on electricity!!". (That was an episode from the 80s, in the 90s pop sci TV programme Tomorrow's World had a bit about photonic computing's promise to radically shorten interconnects. Been a long time coming.)
Whereas computers used on the bridge in Star Trek are evidently so advanced they burst into flames if a photo torpedo hits the far end of the starship - perhaps they run on hydrogen?
Joking aside, good luck to those working in this area.
"Literature Review
2.1. Introduction
Henry P. Coats was the first to mention Magnetic Abrasive Finishing (MAF) in his patent in 1938
in the USA. Later MAF was further developed by researchers in the former USSR and Japan [19]. Many
studies have been conducted to investigate the MAF process parameters and performance. Some of the
studies employed permanent magnets as a magnetic field source, while others used electromagnets with
direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC)."
- https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/13695/Al-Dulaimi_Thamir.pdf
If science fiction has taught me anything, it's that no harm ever came from black viscous ooze in bodily orifices, no sir. Er...
- The X Files
- Prometheus
- Star Trek TNG
- Westworld television series
- William Gibson's unfilmed Alien 3 script
It's either going to kill you, rewrite your DNA to turn you into an alien hybrid or else eat your brain leaving just your body as a puppet for an AI.
Cool!
Say you and I met up in seclusion and agreed in advance that parsnip means The Red Lion, and spaniel means The Bell. We go out separate ways. The next week I publically post on this forum, (or send you a letter that is intercepted) a message containing Parsnip. If we only used this substitution once, then yes, it is impossible for an attacker to know which pub we're meeting at.
However, we've been seen in the Red Lion. In order to keep the destination of next week's meeting secret, we must agree in advance, and then substitute, a different word for Red Lion every time we wish to write about it. Excavator. Battery. Stallion. Paperclip. Granite. Confess. Etc etc.
So, on our secure meet-up, we write down these long lists of substitutions, and when we part ways we each take one of only two copies. What we both have is a 'one-time pad'.
Unbreakable if used properly. Not applicable to most applications, because it requires us to meet up in person to share a one time pad.
> codenames, which have a nasty tendency to relate to the operation or item named.
Has this 'tendancy' been statically analysied, or has your source merely presented examples of when Operation Camel has actually been a long range attack in the desert?
I ask because I would expect that if choosing codewords truly randomly, then by chance a fraction of them will reflect their subjects. In a war I'm assuming thousands of codewords must be assigned. Of course, if I was 6'9" and had a squarish head, I would veto Agent Lurch were it be assigned to me by chance.
And that's before we get into the whole "I will name my amphibious assault Operation Sealion, because if the enemy hear about it they will assume I'm trying to lure them to the beach. So they won't go there. But I actually will invade there! Hahaha!" games.
Upon yet more further reading, it appears that the 'EPOS | Sennheiser' headphones that @iron mentioned may also fit your bill - but do read reviews first. Apparently EPOS were already a Swedish gaming audio brand when they took on Sennheiser's branding.
They have headsets that promise quality stereo audio and microphone. These too come with their own USB dongle - and will require drivers and software to be installed.
A dedicated dongle seems to be the common denominator across wireless gaming headsets.
Upon further reading:
To get high quality stereo audio *and* microphone over Bluetooth, you most likely need a special a dongle and compatible headphones. The Amazon reviews for the Creative BT-W2 dongle appear positive, especially from people in Filippo's position. It might be possible to achieve the same with your existing hardware if it's not too old and you can find a suitable driver.
This BT dongle isn't proprietary as such (it appears it just implements some newer codecs and modifications) and thus similar dongles are available from other brands. YMMV.
Good luck.
That's what I thought at first. But it turns out that the Bluetooth SIG haven't created a profile for headphones to receive high quality, buffered stereo whilst transmitting low latency audio from the mic. A 3rd party created a workaround, but I don't know how many headphones (or even OSs and software) support it.
Hiya Filippo!
It appears that by design voice comms over Bluetooth transmit and receive at same bandwidth and with no packet resending to minimise latency. Audio quality takes a bit hit. Not useful for you.
So, it turns out that a company hacked a workaround on a different codec and called it FastStream. You might have some joy seeking (and then reading reviews of, naturally) headphones that have FastStream.
Lots of geeky details about Bluetooth codecs, snarky tone, background, tests and testing tools here:
https://habr.com/en/post/456182/
According to Logitech's blurb on Amazon, the noise cancelling feature is applied to the headset's microphones (as is common practice on mobile phone microphones), not its earphones.
This concurs with the reviewer's observation that *he* couldn't hear the difference. The person on the other end of his call likely could, though.
> The charging cable has a USB-A connector, although Logitech thoughtfully includes a USB-A to USB-C adapter in the box.
Is the first cable USB A Male to USB A Female (just a USB A extension cable), and the second cable a short USB A Male to USB C Female?
Or, is the first cable USB A Male to USB C Male, and the adaptor is USB A Female to USB C Male - for the purposes of charging from a USB C port?
In the event if a fire, the fire crew have a live 3D model of the factory. Not the blueprints, not just the contractor's 3d models, but the factory as is - which tanks currently contain what flammable substance, which pallets and trucks are currently obstructing the loading bays. Obviously too datas on which humans are where.
That would be good for human firefighters. Likely to be invaluable for robotic firefighters too.
Well, make your mind up: either it's a logical progression of existing methodologies - but with cheaper compute, better data and integration with more mature data systems, or it's a a load of marketing fluff. Can't it just be Siemens expressing their road map?
Photorealism for many assessments is secondary to the physical properties of material parts, density, stiffness, friction, mass, wear characteristics, chemistry etc etc for sure, but a system capable of ray tracing is essential for assessing user visibility of emergency exits, glare from the sun, customer perception of a product etc. If you're an architect, it's useful to have a warning that in September your building reflects too much sunlight.
You're sniffy about graphic cards manufacturers, but what do you think physical simulations are run on? Yep, hardware from nVidia and AMD amongst others.
In any case, since they are using Pixar software, the photorealism is an effect of sophisticated physics modelling. Simulations only look like photographs because the physics modelling accounts for friction, viscosity, caustics, kinetics etc.
Thirty years ago you might have heard of Structural Dynamics Research Corporation, but their product I-DEAS was combined with Unigraphics by Siemens and now goes by NX. I belive Siemens know a thing or two about industrial control as well.
Useless? No more useless than drafting, 3D modelling, simulation and then Product Lifecycle Management have been, and they've been very useful - hence their widespread adoption in industry.
If you can benefit from creating digital models and prototypes of a product before spending millions on tooling - you can benefit from creating digital models for entire factories and supply chains.
Yes, this Siemens spokesman was using buzzwords, but the vision is obvious enough - especially if you know that existing PLM software is not merely an evolution of draughting, and not just a simulation environment, but is a method of bringing together all product data (from the 3D model, component supplier agreements, simulation of parts, results of real-world testing and the difference, customer issues from the previous version...) and putting it to use. Cheaply simulate before expensively implementing
Obvious and self evident.
If you add to this more data collection, cheaper processing power and better simulations of physical systems, the more scenarios you can test ahead of time. The cost of simulation goes down. The scope of complex scenarios that can be simulated goes up. You might virtually stress-test your supply chain for example "What happens if factory X is flooded?"*
Now, PLM software carries the usual warning 'digital simulation is not intended to replace physical testing, merely to reduce the search space'. Fine, an engineer can make physical prototypes for real testing. A CEO typically can't do that for business strategies. Simulation, prediction, analysis is all they've got.
* Yeah, to fully analyse supply chains you'd need to interact with other companies' digital models and even then chaos would limit the scopes of predictions - just as with weather forecasting. However, the models would serve as a reminder that macro problems can arise from seemingly micro causes.
And using VR you can have real people virtually populate your virtual factory, for insights into movement, ergonomics, shift patterns. Why stop there?
Have people role-play through social policies before enacting them. I mean, any decision maker who can materially effect millions of lives should be duty bound to do everything they can to make the best decision, no?
To assess qualification for a job, you have to know what the job is. The job in this case is to further the mixed aims of the people who are paying for the ticket. A lot of these aims are to do with inspiring future engineers and scientists, or to promote a country on the world stage. Or to send money to contractors around the country to create jobs, whatever.
Just to be clear: if these Artemis missions require Neil Armstrong-levels of piloting skill, something has gone very wrong.
> How do vegan hippies feel about drinking coffee made from other people's recycled urine?
Hey man, we're all, like, made of stardust y'know.
Joking aside, though many current space efforts are based in Texas, no colony on the moon will be ideal for a barbeque-loving carnivore for a while. Vegans, and ideally vegans who aren't likely to go all Rambo at each other, are a sane enough choice.
The above link is to a YouTube video. It cites the following in its description:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.06887
A discussion of artificial magnetospheres, around a planet or habitat or at a Lagrange point.
The video notes (or at least the transcript does, I didn't actually watch video) that any infrastructure capable of forming an earthlike atmosphere on Mars in a thousand year timeframe would be more than capable of keeping up with the rate at which gas is lost from the atmosphere of Mars without a magnetosphere - by an order of magnitude or two. An interesting point. (But not vital to me right now, so I haven't checked the maths or read around it)
TABLE 1.—POTENTIAL TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS CONSIDERED
Reactor fuel Oxide:
(UO2), Metal (UMo, UZr), Nitride (UN), Carbide (UC), Cermet, UZrH
Fuel form:
Pins, Plates, Block, Spheres
Neutron spectrum:
Thermal, Epithermal, Fast
Cladding/Structure:
Stainless Steel, Ni-Based Superalloy, Refractory Alloy
Control materials:
Be, BeO (Neutron Reflecting), B4C (Neutron Absorbing)
Mechanism:
Rods, Drums, Shutters, Sliders
Heat transport:
Conduction, Heat Pipe, Pumped Liquid Metal, Gas
Reactor heat transfer fluids:
Sodium, Potassium, NaK, Lithium, HeXe, CO2
Shield materials:
LiH, B4C, Tungsten, Depleted Uranium, Lead, Water, Polyethylene, Aluminum
Power conversion:
Thermoelectric (SiGe, PbTe/TAGS, Skutterudites, Zintl/LaTe/SKD), Stirling,
Brayton (HeXe, CO2) , Rankine (Organic, Hg, K)
Heat rejection:
Direct Radiation, Heat Pipes, Two-Phase Loops, Pumped Liquid Loop
Radiator fluids:
Water, Ammonia, Fluorocarbons, Hydrocarbons
Radiator materials:
Aluminum, Polymer Composites, Titanium
Read the article again:
" But don't expect the forum to create standards: it explicitly said it will not. Instead it will take on a more top-level, one might say "meta," role by coordinating requirements and resources to "foster the creation and evolution of standards within standards organizations working in relevant domains.""
Metaverse. Coined by Neal Stephenson. His latest novel, Termination Shock, portrays AR goggles as being used much more as virtual whiteboards, desktop space, conferencing with multimedia, controlling drones... much like Apple's rumoured AR plans.
Mr Stephenson was an early adopter of first the standing desk, and then the treadmill desk - because the scientific literature is fairly clear on the health risks of prolonged sitting. Ditto the ways our posture and movement effect our cognitive abilities.
Less of a cockup of R&D per se, and more of a milestone on many an R&D path.
Many successful products today had prototypes that were too bulky or heavy to be viable products, especially when parts suppliers have provided roadmaps such as "in 18 months our component X will be 50% smaller". Similarly, some bulk and mass savings are only possible if custom parts are used - viable for production but not prototyping.
> take raw input from the players needle, and fix all sound problems easily.
The problem is that the computer doesn't 'know' what is an audio problem and what is actually the audio as was intended by the recording engineer.
That said, some audio artifacts - such as clicks and pops - can be detected by a computer with a fair degree of confidence and then minimised. However, this isn't normally done on the fly when listening, but rather after the vinyl audio has been transcribed to a computer. Various filters, including de-hiss and de-click are available in many audio recording packages. YMMV.
Vinyl can sound different. For years I listened to an album on CD, and on a few tracks the bass was almost-but-not-quite fully there in a way that frustrated my brain. (A dangerous frustration that - it can lead people down the path of buying audio equipment in the hope of scratching that itch)
One day I found a vinyl copy of the same album, and the bass felt correct.
That particular album sounded better to my brain on vinyl. I don't confuse that with sounding more fidelitous though. I understand that recording engineers have to massage audio to fit onto vinyl, but even if not there's lots of reasons vinyl can sound different to CDs.
> This means that adding the feature would benefit those who want it and do nothing to hurt those who like sticking with Apple's catalog.
You'd think, wouldn't you? However, there is an art to getting users to do something unwise - Social Engineering. It's dangerous.
If there is an option to allow side-loading, bad guys will trick users into enabling it.
> About makes me pine for the days when my body just _knew_ where to grab a particular listing or card deck.
I'm old enough that I've done in the old ways what is now done at a computer. My body used to know that I was sat at an A1-sized draughting board. It felt different to using the computer I now use instead.
In between was a stage when I could only use CAD on UNIX workstations, not the under-powered Windows 2K machines in the main studio. So, I would be in different physical rooms for different computer tasks. The rooms were lit differently, noise and activity levels were lower in the CAD suite - which had air conditioning set too cold. Lots of physical cues.
I would type at a desk. I would proof-read sat on an armchair using hard copy.
I used to select a movie by standing up (walking to the video rental shop) and perusing the shelf. Now I can just peruse a menu.
If the author of the article included every announcement from WWDC, their article would resemble the inclusive live blogs from Anandtech or Arstechnica.
I don't think most readers mistook this summary for a blow by blow recap.
AR wasn't mentioned explicitly, but the building blocks of Apple's AR plans were shown at the event.
- multiple workspaces, via Continuity between devices, or by external monitor support on iPads - courting AAA video game developers to Apple Silicon and Metal.
- more collaborative tools
- softening the line between computer tasks and real tasks
Bearing in mind Apple aren't aiming at the traditional VR gaming market.
Apple's AR looks to be set on collaboration. A room of giant whiteboards, if you will. Or a virtual monitor for each part of your workflow, so you move your body instead of alt-tabbing. The research is highly suggestive of the cognitive boosts achievable through movement and spatial cues.
>Right now, there's a very good case to be made for standardising.
Is there?
Fifteen years ago there was a very good case for getting Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, LG et al to stop arsing about shipping chargers with *integrated* cables with tips that were specific to phone *models*. Nokia weren't quite as bad, but still used proprietary headset / headphone connectors on many models. It was a frustrating wasteful mess back then.
Things feel civilised now. I don't see how barring Apple from using a physical connector that is smaller than USB C tangibly benefits anyone though.
Everyone can use proprietary charging methods over USB C if they want, but most USB C laptops support USB C PD - a protocol that allows higher wattage charging, if the cables are up for it.
Samsung have been civilised in recent years; my S8 would *fast* charge using a S7 charger (a phone that still used micro USB) or the Apple USB C PD charger that shipped with a MacBook.
Looking for the above, I nipped back to the Reg comments for a previous article on this company. The comment then by @ IvorTE got my interest. Since no fellow commentards contradicted him I thought I'd copy it here, to see if anyone else can confirm, deny or expand upon it (hopefully with more technical details):
I think the author has missed that Newport is a compound semiconductor fab, not a CMOS silicon foundry. So measuring strategic importance in nm is missing the point. CS can offer orders of magnitude improvements in power and speed over silicon even though it is on larger geometries. Today it is used where silicon can not play, ultra high freq radio and high power delivery applications
Even if the US DoD rolled their own constellation, they'd still want to have agreements and experience with Starlink - for redundancy.
Additionally, a lot of bandwidth used by the military is Netflix and Sype calls home by service personnel - handy for moral but not mission critical. The Navy might rather this sort of thing was routed over Starlink instead of any military satellite network.
> There are, of course, confounding issues (like contrast for some human gene adaptations, which make some faces harder to recognise for example
Also confounding is that cameras and film processing have been calibrated on people with lighter skin. The reference cards that Kodak sent to photo developers only had Caucasian people one them until the late 80s (IIRC, when Kodak brought out a new film). These technical issues could be worked around by a skilled photographer, but often weren't: a school year book might have headshots of the white students correctly exposed, and a near silhouette of the darker skinned students.
Okay, I assume this training data set didn't use photos from the 1970s, but similar issues exist with digital photography, and with lossy image compression that has finer tonal graduation in lighter pixels (hence why areas of dark mist or space can look banded on lower bit-rate video). Our human eyes (and the invisible-to-us data disposal, post processing and compositing that our brains do) are very good at getting an 'image' from subtle cues from a scene with high dynamic range when compared to film cameras. But then film cameras don't 'cheat' as our brains do.
Sidenote: Dang, I have a Samsung phone, the camera smudges any pixels it thinks are a face, because apparently waxy smooth skin is the fashion in Korea.
It's also worth noting that many of the younger generation a, use cheaper, heavier laptops if they are skint or, b, choose a gaming laptop.
Then again, many younger folk don't drive cars, so may choose a lighter laptop because of their journeys by foot, bicycle or public transport.
In any case, saving a kilogram on the weight of a laptop is an extra litre of water in one's rucksack, a couple of texts books or a change of clothes.
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