Comment Re:It's all interesting (Score 1) 142
There is still a Hurricane down at Wanaka - but it's not being flown due to costs, and for sale if you have the dosh. It looked sad at the last airshow, sitting idle on the apron
Startup Claims C-code To SoC In 8-16 Weeks 205
eldavojohn writes "Details are really thin, but the EE Times is reporting that Algotochip claims to be sitting on the 'Holy Grail' of SoC design. From the article: '"We can move your designs from algorithms to chips in as little as eight weeks," said Satish Padmanabhan CTO and founder of Algotochip, whose EDA tool directly implements digital chips from C-algorithms.' Padmanabhan is the designer of the first superscalar digital signal processor. His company, interestingly enough, claims to provide a service that consists of a 'suite of software tools that interprets a customers' C-code without their having any knowledge of Algotochip's proprietary technology and tools. The resultant GDSII design, from which an EDA system can produce the file that goes to TSMC, and all of its intellectual property is owned completely by the customer—with no licenses required from Algotochip.' This was presented at this year's Globalpress Electronics Summit. Too good to be true? Or can we expect our ANSI C code to be automagically implemented in a SoC in such a short time?"
Comment Re:This is how it goes every damn time. (Score 2) 438
Agree 100%.
In my considerable experience, when somebody asks you to sign an NDA, or won't give you any information without some arbitrary contract signing, it's dollars to donuts, an idea just like this, "you know existing site that makes billions of dollars, yeah, like that, actually, can you just copy that", and not only that, they are the FRUIT LOOPS, the biggest PITA clients you will ever get, they have no idea what they want, except that it's not what you've shown them, or it was when you showed them the concept, and then wasn't when you did it.
They never have any money. They will want you to work for a share of the non-existant (but sure to be billions of dollars worth, because look at how much those other sites are worth) profits.
If somebody contacts me and they either say:
a) "I need you to sign
b) "please call me on
c) "I need some work done on my website" (with no hint of what the website is)
d) "can you add this to my website, but I won't give you any server information, you will have to send all your work to me in a zip file"
I send them to the round filing system in the corner. They all spell TROUBLE.
Comment Re:Defense (Score 4, Insightful) 238
And how do you know which ones ARE credible?
Who is to say this isn't a program of desensitisation, imagine the headlines "Bomb threat ignored, 300 dead"
Comment As S.R. Hadden said... (Score 1) 110
Why build one when you can have two for twice the price.
Comment Re:Glaring errors in the techweek article. (Score 1) 196
I am around 1 unit to 4 gram insulin:carb ratio, so, 300 unit bolus is circa 1200 grams of carb, 1.2 kg (2.64 lbs) of (somewhat rapidly absorbed depending how quick you got onto it) carbs.
Probably unpleasant but not impossible, if your life depended on it. What does a typical bottle of coke contain? It wouldn't have to be instant if you caught it early enough, spread over an hour wouldn't be so bad.
Comment Re:Glaring errors in the techweek article. (Score 1) 196
Maybe if you live on the equator.
At least modern insulin is far more stable than that, I run through a solostar in about 2 weeks, it certainly doesn't get int he fridge, neither do my Humalog carts, I use one of those in 10 days.
Next you'll be telling me that I should change the needle more than once a cartridge, or my lancing device needle more than once a... ever.
Comment Give it to me now. (Score 1) 249
I saw this as a rendering some years ago, thought it was brilliant as an idea , a Carver One with a Gyrocopter, but I thought it was way to fanciful and that they would never actually manage to pull it off, thought it would be just another Moller.
Well damn it, if they didn't go and build the thing.
I don't think I've ever wanted anything so much in my life as to own that.
Comment Re:never heard of tinymce (Score 1) 366
Or XINHA
Murdoch Faces Allegations of Sabotage 201
Presto Vivace writes "Neil Chenoweth, of the Australian Financial Review, reports that the BBC program Panorama is making new allegations against News Corp of serious misconduct. This time it involves the NDS division of News Corp, which makes conditional access cards for pay TV. It seems that NDS also ran a sabotage operation, hiring pirates to crack the cards of rival companies and posting the code on The House of Ill Compute (thoic.com), a web site hosted by NDS. 'ITV Digital collapsed in March 2002 with losses of more than £1 billion, overwhelmed by mass piracy, as well as technical restrictions and expensive sports contracts. Its collapse left Murdoch-controlled BSkyB the dominant pay TV provider in the UK.' Chenoweth reports that James Murdoch has been an advocate for tougher penalties for pirates, 'These are property rights, these are basic property rights,' he said. 'There is no difference from going into a store and stealing a packet of Pringles or a handbag, and stealing something online. Right?'"
Comment Re:As an European citizen... (Score 1) 54
Because you're so good at keeping out of the business of other countries...
Comment Re:It's actually quite safe.....as long as you don (Score 1) 99
Watch the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWnH_yblgTc
You do need the card (for this particular attack), but it is trivial to hide the fact that you are doing anything funny, all you have to do is have the wire from the fake card hidden literally up your sleeve.
Comment Re:ground effects lighting (Score 1) 691
Don't know what it's like in the rest of the world, but here in NZ fuel stations make diddly squat on the sale of fuel, the vast majority of their profit comes from the in-store (impulse) purchases.
Card at pump seriously erodes these purchases, prepay does as well to an extent. NZ is mostly fill-then-pay-inside because of this.
Smart Camera Tells Tobacco From Marijuana 167
An anonymous reader writes "A new smart camera technology not only takes a picture but also assays chemical composition, allowing photographers to tell whether that hand-rolled cigarette contains tobacco or marijuana. Designed to speed industrial inspection systems — such as detecting whether food is spoiled — the new smart camera includes spectral filters that make images of corn fields appear differently from hemp. Spectral cameras have been available for decades, but this microchip version should be cheap enough for almost any application."
Comment BSD (Score 1) 432
DRTFA, but if they are advocating not enforcing the GPL and just developing instead - why don't they just advocate using a BSD derived licence?
In other words, if you have chosen to use GPL for your code, then you must have done so because you want people to abide by those conditions, and so you must want to enforce them.
If you don't, then don't use GPL.
If you selectively enforce GPL, then it just weakens enforcement.
