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Comment Re:Similar to some existing systems (Score 1) 84

And why one would need to navigate in a tunnel? (Other then how deep one's in...).

Certainly more applications are possible as I'd expect it will have much higher sampling rates and precision than GPS and hence can be use in control applications more than in navigation.

Troops with colorful berets (green, red, black, etc) navigating through a sewer system, needing to know what manhole to get out.
Or navigating quickly through a large building. Urban combat is combat too
Or simply knowing *where* you are when you leave the tunnel without having to wait two minutes for acquisition. Well, you might know where you are, but the nav system of your car needs to know too.

Comment Re:Don't they already have this? (Score 1) 84

DC8 jets had inertial navigation systems back in the '60s. You could fly from LAX to Tokyo without touching the controls and the plane would only be a few hundred yards off alignment from the runway. Not bad for a 5000+ mile flight.

A few hundreds yards off when aligning with the runway can make a good flight a really bad one. But I get your point :)

Comment Oh the horror! (Score 1) 96

Let's see... professional DSLR's to be used for spying

That's going to be hard with the camera in the camera bag, where most SLR's are when not in use. But let's assume this one's not.
That's going to be hard with the lens cap on the lens, which is the case with most SLR's that are not in use but not in the bag. But let's assume this one's not.
That's going to be hard with the camera pointing in the right direction, which is pretty hard given the form factor (vertical grip) of a "casual laying around" SLR. But let's assume for some godforsaken reason I tend to store my SLR, without a lens cap, in my living room, mounted on a tripod.
That's going to be pretty hard, unless I have *exactly* the right lens mounted on my camera. Ok, so let's assume that I randomly leave my SLR in my living room, mounted on a tripod, with wide angle lens mounted on it, pointing in the right direction.
That's going to be pretty hard, unless I happen to have it focused on whatever I want to see. Ok, granted, hyperfocal distance on WA lenses is pretty short. But still.
That's going to be pretty hard. Because even though my professional SLR, mounted casually on a tripod in my living room, capturing most of that room, set to hyperfocal distance, without a lens cap, is ready to go, keeping it on "live view" is going to run the battery down pretty seriously, even with the serious batteries those flagship cameras have. You're not going to take pictures in regular SLR mode, right? Because you will hear the shutter on a camera like that. So battery sucking, sensor overheating live view it is.

Mmmh. I guess it's a risk. I always have my SLR with the lens cap off, wide angle lens, covering the entire room, hyperfocal distance, camera on, tethered into a power plug. Wait. If I have my camera tethered in, then why wouldn't I also be tethering it to my PC. Why is it that wireless is a risk? If we're going to make all these half-ass assumptions about using an SLR for spying, why not assume it's hooked up to a computer with a cable? We might as well.
I don't think *wireless* is going to be that much of a security risk.

Comment To point out the obvious (Score 1) 249

Every single computer that the above comments have been typed on, has been manufactured in China. And they've all been shipped all over the world in freight containers. Wrap things in a plastic bag, put them in a cardboard box and let the moving company take care of it. Don't worry about temperature, humidity, etc - just make sure what you pack is dry or you'll be greeted by a big furry mass when opening the boxes.
There is a remote chance that the container will get lost. Assume 5000 boxes on a large vessel. One might get lost during a voyage, on average. So divide the value of your belongings by 5000 and that's, on average, what you should be paying on insurance, likely less than more.
And it's worth doing some research and use a reputable moving company. Skimping a few dollars and not getting your stuff is not worth it.

Comment Do the math (Score 1) 630

Currently millions of people are unemployed. Are we really going to give them all jobs as developers?

Consider Zynga. You can't open Facebook or be slapped in the face with Farmville, Cityville, Suckville or Mafiawars. Apparently it's one of the largest companies (revenue-wise) in what is one of the largest segments (gaming) of software development. In other words, this is one of those 800 pound gorilla's in the industry.

Total number of jobs: 1,200 and I bet a large part of that is in India and China. The toilet paper factory in my town employs half of that (and likely more if we're looking at USA jobs only) and that's only a small regional player. How can software development replace millions of low-schooled manufacturing jobs, especially with education in the USA going down the crapper?

Comment Statistics? (Score 1) 321

"Nichols found free customers are higher maintenance and more demanding than the paying customers. 20 or so paying customers asked questions while "hundreds" of free ones did"
That, of course, are meaningless statistics to draw conclusions from, without knowing the ratio between paying and non-paying customers. We also don't know what the questions were. If there are 50 freeloaders for every paying customer and each class of customer is asking questions at the same rate, those 20 paying customer questions will be matched by 1,000 non-paying customers -- "hundreds" would suggest that non-paying customers are less demanding.
Also, the questions itself might differ. Maybe those non-paying customers where asking questions about the benefits of paying?

Comment Oh, the horror... (Score 5, Interesting) 210

...of having an ad on the cover of a device when it is turned off. Thank god your tablet, smartphone or laptop does not have a big logo on the cover, advertising its manufacturer.

I wouldn't mind getting a $25 discount for that. The two problems that I have with it are:
* Are the ads related to what I bought on Amazon? If I buy, say, a dozen dildos, do I have advertisments for sex toys on the cover of my kindle for the next two weeks (or until I buy something else)
* Is Amazon going to pull a bezos on me? After two months reverting and saying "you know what, we are going to insert advertisements inside your e-book on second thought. You know, a bit like "an e-book on the kindle is just like a real book. Except that we can yank it from your shelf if we decide that's a good idea".
Crime

Student Googles Himself, Finds He's Accused of Murder 184

University of Florida student Zachary Garcia was more than a little surprised to find out he was wanted for murder after Googling his name. It turns out the police were looking for a different man but had mistakenly used Garcia's photo. From the article: "Investigators originally released a driver's license photo of Zachary Garcia — spelled with an 'A' — but it was Zachery Garcia — spelled with an 'E'— who was charged in connection with the crime."

Comment No VBA, no lock-in (Score 1) 421

Microsoft has been working very hard over the last few versions to make the use of VBA less and less attractive. The strategy behind this must be (I cannot imagine anything else) to promote the use of .NET but I don't think that is happening. What is happening, is that it's forcing more and more users to work with macro-less solutions. Microsoft seems to have forgotten that macros are great way to lock their customers in. Instead of getting a small group of developers moving to .NET they are now confronted with a large group of customers moving to OpenOffice. Once you break the VBA barrier there's nothing that will stop you after all.

Comment Am I reading this right? (Score 4, Informative) 171

This was discussed ad nauseum at photography forums last year. Key is to read the actual proposal and not depend on the warmongerings of a journalist trying to attract more traffic to his site:
Cartridges packed with equipment to be packed in intermediate packagings together with the equipment they are capable of powering.
The fuel cell cartridges and the equipment must be packaged with cushioning material or dividers or inner packaging so that the fuel cell cartridges are protected against damage that may be caused by the shifting or placement of the equipment and the cartridges within the outer packaging.


All the rule is basically doing is requiring that batteries are transported in such a way that they cannot short out. Either by putting them in the device they are made for (so your gameboy is safe) or by putting them in a special container (the big Li-Ion batteries for SLR's come like that in the box anyway).

After the Great Battery Scare last year with all those laptops combusting spontaneously their was little choice but to start with at least some regulation regarding the combustable nature of these batteries. The requirements are minimal and reasonable and quite frankly I have yet to see anything shipped commercially that doesn't meet those standards.

Comment Re:Business model (Score 1) 413

The outrageous price for moonrocks is largely based on how incredible rare they are (on earth, at least).
When you start bringing in those rocks by the ton, price will drop significantly. Nobody is going to pay $2000 per gram when they know you're sitting on 5 tons of that stuff. They'll just wait until you are forced to sell at a lower price.
Space

Space Photos Taken From Shed Stun Astronomers 149

krou writes "Amateur astronomer Peter Shah has stunned astronomers around the world with amazing photos of the universe taken from his garden shed. Shah spent £20,000 on the equipment, hooking up a telescope in his shed to his home computer, and the results are being compared to images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. 'Most men like to putter about in their garden shed,' said Shah, 'but mine is a bit more high tech than most. I have fitted it with a sliding roof so I can sit in comfort and look at the heavens. I have a very modest set up, but it just goes to show that a window to the universe is there for all of us – even with the smallest budgets. I had to be patient and take the images over a period of several months because the skies in Britain are often clouded over and you need clear conditions.' His images include the Monkey's head nebula, M33 Pinwheel Galaxy, Andromeda Galaxy and the Flaming Star Nebula, and are being put together for a book."

Comment Let's not forget the reviews (Score 1) 65

All the other things aside - I agree with them - the #1 reason for a Gaming Review magazine is... the reviews, right?

Well, that's where they truly, 10 on a 1-10 scale, suck. I've yet had to see a game that was advertised for that would score less than 70%. In fact, I would usually subtract 60% and divide by 4 to see how the game would rate on a 1-10 score in a more realistic way.

Combine that with enthousiastic "previews" of games in production where the lads of the redaction had a good time with the programmers (read: the review will not dip below 90%) that where always 6 month ahead of when the game had the vaguest chance of appearing and one wonders how they managed to last so long.

Good riddance!

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