 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We are getting our kitchen renovated. I'll post who is doing it if I like the results and they don't continue to damage our existing floors too much. One of the annoyances though was yesterday where they couldn't give us a time when they would be delivering the new cabinets. So it came to mind that it would be cool if a company could provide a generic system of having: * GPS in every truck doing deliveries with an interface to select the next destination for delivery. * A server that broadcasts to a user when their up for delivery next (IM, text message, phone call, whatever). * Possibly include some statistical work to figure out how long it will be for the driver to get to your place (if the deliveries are ordered and you know the GPS coordinates along with average time spent at each location to deliver goods, then you could have a reasonable estimate). Then people could actually get notified and leave work to be home only when they need to be instead of a four hour (or all day) "window". Most of the parts are already available too. I'm sure UPS and other delivery companies have tracking systems for what is on the vehicle and where it is. It wouldn't be that hard to tie it with a server that tracks progress and the people being visited. Tags: delivery, gps, kitchen, renovation, server, statistics, ups
Current Location: Work
Current Mood:  working
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
First, I will admit I know nothing and that this was a whacked out idea. I just read an article by Douglas Hofstadter (Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid) in SEED and something he said tweaked a neuron or two and inspired the following: Remember when you were shown in math (a + ib)(a + ib) = a * a + 2iab - b * b? Well, I was wondering if the "result" of Godel's self-referential contradiction could be treated like i here. Where we give it some symbol but can have interesting consequences when interacting with itself or other types of contradictions like the imaginary part above affectecting the "real" portion. Anyway, monthly post of crazy thoughts complete. Tags: bach, contradiction, escher, godel, hofstadter, imaginary, principia mathematica, real, self-referential
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: working
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I ran into this today and it was driving me crazy. I happen to like writing in C#. It's fast and easy and provides a lot of functionality that I use. In this case I needed to expose the code I was writing to script, in particular VB or Java script. To do so then it made sense to expose the functionality I was writing as COM objects. This is generally quite trivial in C# by simply adding the ComVisibleAttribute to the interface or class. However it only exposes the methods on the actual class, not any methods that are public on subclasses or interfaces. To clarify then, if you had:
[ComVisible(true)]
interface IBase
{
int IDoStuff();
}
[ComVisible(true)]
interface IDerived : IBase
{
int IDoOtherStuff();
}
And you have an object of type IDerived in script, you would not be able to call IDoStuff(). Instead you would have to implement the classes as follows:
[ComVisible(true)]
interface IBase
{
int IDoStuff();
}
[ComVisible(true)]
interface IDerived : IBase
{
int IDoOtherStuff();
new int IDoStuff();
}
To expose IDoStuff(). It would be awesome if there was an easy way to explose the members and properties of an inherited class or interface at the same level without having to add a potentially arbitrary large number of methods and properties and maintain them. If there is such a way, then please, please let me know. I find this solution inelegant in the extreme. Tags: c#, com, comvisible, interface, javascript, new, vbs, vbscript
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: irked
Current Music: Ambient fans
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I just saw another article today forecasting the death of the PC. It's not going to happen. Why? Where would our computing power go? It would need to go to big, well established corporations that provide processing power. And we would need to pay for it. But we don't trust corporations nor should we. The only other place I can think of that has the resources is government. I don't see this happening for two reasons: security and privacy. It is incredibly rare to find either one of them that makes a significant investment in security on behalf of their users. If we are paying for their service, then we risk having the financial information we use to pay for it at risk not only from external threats (hackers) but internal threats as well (employees that take the data). Furthermore, we risk not having a minimum amount of computing power because other corporations will have established better accounts to get the computing power they need. This information would also be a boon for anyone that wanted to gather data on what people do to do targeted advertising, or perhaps just determine they don't like what you are doing. (GTA 3000? What horrible people you must be! Maybe your a terrorist--perhaps you would like to visit the expanded facilities at Abu Ghraib.) There are also applications where this model doesn't fit. Games for example. Even if we were to just focus on MMO's, the amount of computational performance that exists inside your video card on its own is phenomenal. But the clients of MMOs do more than just feed textures to the graphics card for rendering. They aren't consuming all of your CPU busy-waiting for fun. In fact, even more devices are becoming computers. The PVR I have is a linux box (thank you Panasonic and Shaw). The network attached storage I use for backups has a linux kernel on it (and is hackable for maximum personal customisation). As computing becomes cheaper, more devices are becoming computers than the other way around. The best I can think of is as TVs start getting much better, they might replace the PC monitor. With people moving their PCs to the living room using wireless keyboards and mice to relax on their couch, that seems within the realm possibility. *Might* But I think I'll hold on to my Dell 30" monitor for a while. 2560x1600 is sweet. Tags: death, pc
Current Location: Work
Current Mood:  disappointed
Current Music: Alexandria - The City - Dr. Draw
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
fineredmist's journal
Previous
tired
aggravated
happy
