johnw
Joined 17 years ago
Karma
714
Submissions
49
Member since
Apr 29
Recent submissions
Comment · 12 years ago
There's noway that this is going to be practical within the current laws of physics. You can't use a wide beam to cover an area because the amount of energy available drops by orders of magnitude the further you get from the transmitter. If you used a focussed beam (which is what they are suggesting) then you need a separate beam that tracks and follows the location of each device. So to cover a very small area you'd need multiple transmitters tracking and beaming sound to the exact location of each device. And the transmitters are going to have to be very close by, and then there are all the obstacles between your pocket and the transmitter that will block the beam. You might as well just use an inductive charger. But still, just like solar freaking roadways and perpetual motion machines we want to believe and since most people don't understand the science these ridiculous and impossible ideas draw people in again and again.
There's a more in depth analysis of why this won't work here: http://www.eevblog.com/2014/08/07/ubeam-ultrasonic-wireless-...
Comment · 12 years ago
Does anyone know how you actually use this? I built the project and ran it then enabled Bluetooth on my Mac and iPhone somewhat expecting to receive a notification of the iBeacon but got nothing. Does it have to be coupled with an iOS app to work or can it send notifications even without an app installed?
EDIT: Figured it out - You need an iOS app as well. There's one that can locate and display iBeacon info here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/locate-for-ibeacon/id7387090...
I'm a little disappointed. The use case I had in mind was: Customer walks into a store with iBeacons and is given a notification that they tap which installs the app. I suppose this would have too much potential for abuse though.
Comment · 12 years ago
One big hole in this theory is that its been widely reported [1] that a transponder was switched off before the pilots last radio contact. The pilots would have had no reason to pull the breakers before the last communication if they weren't already aware of a fire.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/world/asia/malaysia-airlin...
Comment · 13 years ago
Also interesting is the amount of damage being done to the wheels as it drives around up there. Some good pictures of that here[1]. Apparently the wheels are designed to leave a mark so they can keep track of the rovers location by looking at the tracks[2]. The tracks spell out JPL in morse code.
[1] http://news.discovery.com/space/martian-wear-and-tear-curios...
[2] http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2013/1002210...
Comment · 13 years ago
Absolutely agree, free software has so much to offer and yet here we see it being promoted using the most desperate and ineffective means possible: dressing up in costumes and handing out flyers to people - people who quite likely just had a positive buying experience at an Apple store which offered real products and solutions and not some half thought out nonsense on a piece of paper that only a few geeks are likely to understand.
They need to find another way, because this isn't going to win over anyone, and it may lead some to believe that free software folk are desperate nutcases (which couldn't be further from the truth). There is just no thought or substance to this campaign at all.
Comment · 13 years ago
Alright, but how do you explain the instructor who had 3,200 hours on the 777 who was sitting beside the pilot not making any mention of a too low airspeed or incorrect landing configuration right up until it was to late? Makes me wonder if there was some ambiguity in the instrument display or procedures for neither pilot to make mention of any problems.
Comment · 13 years ago
Thanks. Really glad you're enjoying it. The code is a real mess, but I'm hoping to gradually improve it now it's open source.
Comment · 13 years ago
This is amazing. The UI is absolutely gorgeous. A few minor things I noticed:
-Scrolling seems very laggy when scrolling with the mouse wheel, although dragging with the scrollbar seems fine. This only seems to be happening in the Popular (Now), view. This is under 10.9.
-When I favorite songs, they don't show up in the favorite section although they did after relaunching the app.
-It would be nice if when you moused over a song in the list if it scrolled the full song name into view - at the moment they get cut off and you can't see the full name.
-The song list scrollbar on the right is obscured by the controller at the bottom. I like what you've done with having the songs scroll underneath the slightly transparent controller but the scrollbar should really end where the controller starts.
-I don't seem to be getting notifications from the app even though it's listed in the Notifications app list under the Notifications section of System Preferences.
Comment · 13 years ago
You're welcome :) I'd love to see some other platforms supported as well.
Comment · 13 years ago
Yep, it's for messaging using Dropbox shared folders.
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