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2600.com had a similar case where they were ordered not to link to any site that had decss. Never mind the fact that google and pletny of other sites did and still do.

They lost the case.

Intel already has more fabs than AMD, this isn't the problem. Dell would be including AMD chips in their systems if it weren't for the fact that AMD doesn't have enough fabs to keep up with demand.

Remember these cable modem tweakers that were raided by the FBI?

As I recall, the US Army was suffering from a shortage of bugle players to play taps for the passing generation of soldiers. They developed a digital bugle [geek.com] that can play taps even if the bugler is incompetent, drunk, or both.

Since Toyota has now developed a vastly more complicated technology that can be used to solve the same problem as the slightly complicated one above, I look forward to future Pentagon procurement hearings.

Note to self: Sarcasm in this post often results in massive retribution.
ucm

As I recall, the US Army was suffering from a shortage of bugle players to play taps for the passing generation of soldiers. They developed a digital bugle [geek.com] that can play taps even if the bugler is incompetent, drunk, or both.

Since Toyota has now developed a vastly more complicated technology that can be used to solve the same problem as the slightly complicated one above, I look forward to future Pentagon procurement hearings.

Note to self: Sarcasm in this post often results in massive retribution.
zyh

Well, something close was made and produced commercially with the Kenwood label for a couple of years on CD-ROM drives. Zen Research developed what they called "True-X" technology which was their attemp to help debunk all the ridiculous leap-frog marketing of touted drive speeds which we all know was, at the time, less fact than fiction. Very few drives actually reached their advertised speeds and even fewer could actually sustain those claimed speeds over the entire surface of the disc. "True-X" technology developed by Zen research basically took the one laser and split it into multiple beams that would read different tracks of the disc, effectively keeping transfer rates consistent across the entire disc. Having owned several of them, I can testify to the superior speeds they offered over other typical drives of the day, reliability of the units themselves aside. While they still never seemed to actually sustain their advertised speeds either, they were much closer to actual advertised speeds than everything else on the market, and by a long way! Old reviews: http://tech-report.com/reviews/2000q3/kenwood72x/i ndex3.x http://geek.com/hwswrev/hardware/cdrom/kw52xcd.htm Granted all reading and writing was done on one side of the disc, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see that same approach utilized in products in the future since as the ammount of data per disc keeps going up and up, the time taken to read/write that data will as well barring different technical approaches such as your suggested dual head drives. I can speculate at possible reasons why we haven't seen muti-head/sided drives en masse to date, but as I am not in the field, it is just that, speculation. I would imagine that you would effectively almost double the manufacturing costs? I would see split optical methods as a much more realistic and cost effective solution rather than increasing the number of read/write heads. For all I know though, current drives could already be using variations of this method already, but judging from benchmarks of drives I have owned since, that is highly unlikely as the myth of "claimed" drive speeds seems to just be continuing its legacy of hype and half-truths. I am but an egg...

As I recall, the US Army was suffering from a shortage of bugle players to play taps for the passing generation of soldiers. They developed a digital bugle [geek.com] that can play taps even if the bugler is incompetent, drunk, or both.

Since Toyota has now developed a vastly more complicated technology that can be used to solve the same problem as the slightly complicated one above, I look forward to future Pentagon procurement hearings.

Note to self: Sarcasm in this post often results in massive retribution.
vfa

No, actually we can't. At least so far we don't even have leads on a material that can stand the centripital force[1] involved when you start spinning that fast. In short: it would fly apart before you got close to 15,000 rpm.

The technology is here now!

http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/jan2000/gn200022 4000731.htm15000 rpm drive

It gets you thinking, I don't know where that apostrophe came from.
Sun is already working on systems to connect bare dies to each other. Clicky clicky.

I read the diamond dust article at NanoInvestor News, and frankly it still seems mid to long term.

If you want a WORKING flat display, check this out this experimental flat display (picture) using carbon nanotubes as the electron emission source. I just glimpsed over it, but I think this was done by Motorola. At least, the dates fit (2003).

Recently, Samsung's Korean research achieved the same goal, and apparently they're ready for mass production. I told this in an earlier post elsewhere. They plan to distribute their nanodisplays around 2006.
Here's a PDF about Samsung's nanotech displays.

(Unfortunately for me, on the very same day, some guy posted a story about a _DIFFERENT_ kind of "ultra-flat" displays, also by Samsung, that would be available in 2005. I guess the mods confused the articles - bad luck, heh).

Anyway, the diamond dust tech seems too young for now. Samsung's nanotube displays already exist (at least experimentally).

Do you remember the story of NASA searching i8086 CPUs for their space shuttles just two years ago? There are other stories, I remember some companies paying a lot of money for ancient Toshiba 386 laptops that was the only computer certified to "remote control" a certian pacemaker. A re-certification of a new system would have cost much more than buying a few 386 laptops at pentium-class prices.

Some systems (not only NASA shuttles) are designed around a randomly selected CPU, and they run with software that needs the exact behaviour and timing of that special CPU. Say hello to the world of embedded systems.

This message from intel is just a warning for designers of embedded systems that there will be a day when there is no spare P-II left.

Tux2000

From Geek.com

On the twelfth day of Geekmas my True Geek gave to me ...
12 O'Reilly handbooks.
11 cups of caffeine. 10 Help Desk persons screaming.
9 Linux distributions.
8 viral virii.
7 routers routing.
6 Geeks a coding.
5 Handsprings!
4 SDRAM chips.
3 PS2s.
2 Xboxes.
and
a real working Bluetooth device.

The user experience that I think atonomic computing is trying to improve is the "I don't think its working" and all that can be done in that respect is that a system be able to fail-over and recover from user errors. [I think there are social issues with trying to enhance the computer's "person experience";]. And users are not the only humans a good system has to tolerate, some pretty bad things can happen when the system administrators screw up. Clearly autonomic computing is not going to be founded on computing elements that give you a BSOD if you just leave them running too long.

Didn't a guy get sued a while back for providing a VCR like function over the internet. The best reference I could find was from geek.com anyone with more info on how this one wont get sued.

Man some of that furniture is pretty damn nice. I wonder if the rank and file employees ever got to use any of it. Unfortunately after seeing reports like this:

Top Heavy Business Plan

I get the impression all that furniture was for the benefit of the suits. A lot of people complain about how all the dotcoms bought herman miller aeron chairs and stuff but at least the employees got to use them. These marble and cherry wood conference tables and leather chairs were just a colossal waste of money beyond even the dotcomers. It's no wonder they went under. In fact, it almost hints that somebody wanted the company to go under...

Sorry to burst your bubble but WMV has been approved.
Seems like MS we will be seeing a lot of VC1 in the future....

iPods sell like hotcakes despite being not free.

Actually, you can get an iPod for free. Well, it isn't free as in time or effort, but it is free as in cost.

Sound too good to be true? Wired has covered it as well as the New York Sun (Using Google cache because Slashdot doesn't like the NY Sun's URL) and Geek.com.

So step right up and get your free iPod right here.

--
Free iPod Photo | Free Flat Screens

...but I hope they rename the old version to sound faster than the new version so people who have 1st-gen BT gear don't feel sad. Just like DVDs--widescreen, fullscreen... wow, they both sound great!

Ok so they hate me. Big fucking deal what are they going to do - refuse to sell me something? Act rude? Be hard to track down a sales rep? Not take my money?

BUT we still hate BB for calling the cops on customers who ordered stuff on their website.

This interesting stat is just the latest thorn in the side of Microsoft and the less than stellar results the Xbox business unit has had in unseeting the industry leading Sony and their PS family of systems.

This is important because it is said whenever discussing on-line music or video for that matter that if Microsoft wants it, it can have it. (Referring of course to the question on many people's mind as to how long Apple can retain a 70% market share in legal music download.)

But if Sony, clearly better capitalized than Netscape, can defend it's turf against the agressor that fell the industry leading Navigator browser from it's #1 market position by simply giving Internet Explorer away for free as the default for the Windows OS, can Apple, or anyone else, defend their industry from MS?

Yeah it's off topic, but CmdrTaco brought it up!

UltraSparc IV: 66 million transistors
Pentium IV Prescott: 125 million transistors
Power4: 170 million transistors

So how many transistors are in the TR-1?

4

For everything else, there's vacuum tubes. (Or diodes, depending on your radio set.) :-)

From what I can tell there is a special version of Windows that does run on PowerPC. The version in question is running on Apple hardware and is serving as the development platform for the next generation of XBOX. see here.

• AximSite - Axim X50V
• PocketNow - Axim X50 & X50v
• infoSync - Axim X50v
• infoSync - Axim X50 Advanced
• infoSync - Axim X50 Standard
• PDA Buyers Guide - Axim X50v
• Read - Brighthand - Axim X50v
• CNET - Axim X50v
• Pocket PC Thoughts - Axim X50
• BargainPDA - Axim X50 & X50v
• Geek.com - Axim X50 & X50v

• Uses standard LCD screens
• Causes the illusion of 3D with no eye-ware, and
• Can be adapted for full surround 3D

>In any case, kudos to MySQL for taking the first step with Wix and to Microsoft for trying something they have otherwise sworn against.

"Sworn against"? Hardly. If somebody ever figures out a way to make significant money off of FOSS, it's pretty safe to say MS will be all over it. (No, IBM doesn't count, they don't directly make much, if anything, from their FOSS efforts.)

>That would be a nice way of showing MS just what open source can offer, something which everyone else seems to have figured out already.

Offer what? A buyout by Novell? An opportunity to beg for handouts? Not too attractive, IMHO. ;)

What any business, including "open source friendly" companies, would say is: Show Me The Money!

I'm amazed at how well you type with your head up your ass.

Apple sells rack mountable servers if you want to buy them, but rarely anyone does because you can get a comparable one for much cheaper through dell.

You must be fucking crazy. Yeah, Dell's servers are cheap if you want to just sit in your server room and watch the pretty lights blink. If you plan on, oh I don't know, actually CONNECTING to them with other machines to do work, you might want to factor in the cost of Microsoft CALs.

Any Xserve comes with a copy of Mac OS X Server with an unlimited connection license.
Do you know how much an "unlimited" CAL costs from Microsoft? I do, and it's in the low five figures (and remember, that's over and above the hardware cost). That same copy of OS X Server also provides mail service, so you'd better factor in the cost of Exchange 2003 into your Dell's price, too. And suddenly for the price of your Dell server with all the capabilities of my single Xserve, I could buy several Xserves and set them up identically to do load-balancing and such.

And as for rackmountable storage, the Xserve RAID kicks the shit out of comparably-sized competing hardware from other vendors. Again, I know because I've priced several alternatives out for clients, and they've always chosen the Xserve RAID because of its price/space ratio.

And by the way-- no, Microsoft keyboards and mice do not count as "home electronics" products, they're computer accessories. And their wireless products were remarkably short-lived, being announced in September of 2003 and discontinued in May of this year.

Here is a short list. Some are in America, others are global. Remember the blank audio tape tax passed in the 80's? It's still in effect as well as a more modern blank CD and CD/DVD burner tax.

http://www.boycott-riaa.com/facts/
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-891781.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/28/riaa_sues_ moreschools/
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Jan/gee20030 120018251.htm

And here is some info on blank CD taxes in the US and around the world.

Please note that not all of these "taxes" are government taxes in the traditional sense. There are a couple of important questions you should ask yourself though. If every blank CD and new CD/DVD recorder has a tax that is paid to the RIAA (not the artists) as compensation for copyrigt violations, does that mean that we are now free to pirate music since the fine has been paid in advance? Do you believe in corporate welfare? Also, should the public allow tax money to be used to fund governmental investigations into civil matters, such as copyright violations, if said findings are only used to support the corporation (favoring a corporate entity over individual citizen)? Please keep in mind, unless it is bootleging on a massive scale and/or the fradulent copies are sold for profit, it is a civil matter.

Don't forget, we have allowed our rights to me limited more and more over the last couple decades. The media taxes, DMCA, copyright extensions, and many others have made the corporate job of enforcement easier at the expense of personal liberties. The DMCA in paticular only added a few new corporate rights, but was intended to make enforcement/prevention easier at the expense of, lets say, fair use or personal privacy. Not only have we given these corporations laws to make their lives easier, they have the nerve to turn around and say they need tax money because they don't have enough of their own to spend in their defense. It's the equavilent of erasing the fifth ammendment, handing over incriminating evidence, and funding the prosecution.

I did some googling, and came up with:
http://www.mp3playerstore.com/buy_it_now__/mp-2003 .htm, and
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003Sep/con20030 923021241.htm.
They are both portable cd/mp3/dvd units, but I can't tell from the descriptions weather they only play mp3's from burned cd's or if they will also take a dvd full of mp3's.

I wonder if MS has a secret department dedicated to writing worms for Linux boxes? It seems like it would be a huge publicity boost for Windows if a significant worm or virus broke that affected only *nix boxes.

Linux, Macs and all other OSs are enjoying some degree of protection simply because Windows is a bigger, possibly easier target. But almost any system can be hacked. The attitude that Linux is 100% secure is likely to catch a lot of people with their pants down one of these days.

One other thing that's come up more over the last 12 months is this notion of indemnification [against patent and copyright claims].

Yes I wonder who is making it an issue.

More and more customers are asking us, "Help me understand what you do from an indemnification perspective versus HP or IBM or Red Hat or Novell." That's weighing into decisions more and more. ...

Yes because again Microsoft are trying to tie people down with fear that what they will touch they will loose again because the big Microsoft guys will spoil thier fun.

Customers began introducing it and asking me about it more than I was introducing it to them. And I began to say, "Wow. We really stand behind our technology in a pretty aggressive way.

Hahahah yes you are plenty aggressive, like a cornered animal, even the Ministry of Truth could learn from you guys.

We should make sure that we get credit for that compared to Linux in many ways." And it's actually been something that tips the scales sometimes when people are on the fence.

Is that the barbed wire elecrified fence of 10 year supply deal, licensing terms, special backhanders, propriatary formats et al.

Lets all hug this guy. Anyone notice how Microsoft are finding security holes in its own software right when it wants you to upgrade?

As I recall, the US Army was suffering from a shortage of bugle players to play taps for the passing generation of soldiers. They developed a digital bugle [geek.com] that can play taps even if the bugler is incompetent, drunk, or both.

Since Toyota has now developed a vastly more complicated technology that can be used to solve the same problem as the slightly complicated one above, I look forward to future Pentagon procurement hearings.

Note to self: Sarcasm in this post often results in massive retribution.
uke

I believe the systems used to talk to submarines using the extremely low frequency bands (ELF) use something like three megawatts of power ...

Perhaps those who freely offer their IP are more forward-thinking people/groups, who want to foster creativity at all levels, whereas those who try and protect their IP with legislation and legal inuendos do so to keep them on top, while keeping others beneath them in the pecking order of life.

A good example is Microsoft's recent patent achievments... They're (unfairly) acheiving patents on some very low-level, basic system processes and procedures. Everything from tabbing through a web page to how you administer your system. They aren't doing this to protect the purity of their IP so much as to keep "the little guy" down.

It's been argued by many better than I that Microsoft is stifling global development and innovation with their questionable tactics and patents. I think this article illustrates quite clearly why this shouldn't be allowed!

Microsoft was born due to both the creativity of it's founders, and their marketing/business savy. I think it's quite clear that Microsoft's trying to ensure that no one will be able to (legally) unseat them from the top of the mountain they've built. Not financially, but intellectually.

Think about it... You can build a car if you have the right tools and parts at your disposal. But if Ford says "Hold it! You can't use a wrench, or any threaded bolts or screws as those are items we've invented and patented", then your car isn't going to look or perform anywhere near the levels of those who were able to use bolts and screws during their build times. True, you might innovate in ways they hadn't dreamed of due to these restrictions, but more than likely, your invention will never be able to achieve its potential, nor will it perform or be accepted into a market that's already saturated with similar, well-built cars with easily added removed parts that are held on with threaded fasteners.

Or maybe it's this Dayquil I'm on... I probably shouldn't be hypothesizing when I feel this shitty. 8)

Because, ultimately, the safety systems at Three Mile Island were able to keep the plant from blowing up, where other nations have not done so well when they had accidents. Nuclear power systems are safest made by advanced technological nations... even leaving aside the number of agressive loons who want nuclear bombs to lob at their obnoxious neighbors. True, even the current guys get it wrong... but the US has 60 years of experience in screwing up, and tends to not make the same engineering mistakes twice. (Political mistakes are another story.) If the developing world gets to use advanced safety designs, even if only by borrowing them rather than having to build them themselves, it's probably safer than them trying to reverse engineer the product and botching it.

You want to stop nuclear proliferation? How about starting with the United States, Israel, England, France, India...

Ummm... because stopping proliferation means keeping those who don't have nuclear weapons from getting them, which is incidentally easier than it is to get the ones who have them to give them up?

I believe that this is the format you're looking for.

The packeters deserve whatever they get, because frankly, I know how much of a pain in the ass it is to get DDoSed

But that does raise a question: Is Slashdot already in the grey zone of legality? Featuring a front page story often results in the site beeing referenced to going down. See Google and especially "Slashdotted: Surviving The Slashdot Effect" on a neat discussion of the problem.

"Batteries with the affected serial numbers contain cells that were manufactured by LG Chem, Ltd. of South Korea"

I wouldn't blame South Korea, it's probably Microsoft planting faulty batteries as revenge for SK suing them:
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2003May/gee20030 507019891.htm

Alpha-based servers will continue to be sold through 2006, and supported through 2011. Farewell, Alpha; the world's line of chips seems to have declined to Intel and a handful of niche guys. Im not sure about you but Proccesors it looks like there are alot more players in the game other than alpha, and power 4 beats the crap outa alpha, dont even get me started on the RS series.

More on the Blackboard hack vs. DMCA

They were basically put under restraining order by a judge not to divulge specifics of how they defeated the system.

• What Sony hasn't said for sure is whether the PS3 will be backwards compatible with DVD movies and PS2 games.

• "Mr. Ken Kutaragi, the boss of Sony Computer Entertainment division, has confirmed that the trend of backwards compatibility across next-gen consoles will continue. The Playstation 3 will support both Playstation 2 and PSOne titles when released sometime in 2005-2006."

I solidly believe that there is a deliberate gap in the computer market. There are simply no decent devices being currently made which allow one to easily and effortlessly write on the go. The technology is there, and it is entirely possible to build a good word-processor with a good screen and a good keyboard which can last forever on AA's. They used to make them. (The TRS-80 Model 100)

They still sort of do. Alphasmart's Dana is workable tool. But at $700 Canadian for the bottom end model, Alphasmart can go right to hell. Basic LCD with a keyboard and rudimentary electronics? The thing should sell for no more than $100 tops.

I ended up getting myself a Psion 5 from Ebay for $75 bucks.

Nice big sreen, lasts about 25 hours on a pair of AA's and it's got the best key-board I've seen for a palm. It's tight, but with small hands you can touch-type, and with bigger hands, you can do a six-finger version of the same at a fair clip. But it's still not the best solution.

The keyboard, while quite amazing as compared to similar devices, could be better. (If you press the edge of a key rather than the middle of the key, you don't always get a contact. This is needlessly annoying.) Plus the LCD screen is far too reflective for my tastes. If the wall behind you is painted white, chances are you're going to be irritated.

There's a good back-light system on the Psion 5 which fixes this, but it reduced the effective battery life down to, (drum roll please), about 6 hours, which is no better than the average laptop. Thanks guys.

Interestingly, I still find myself using the Psion 5 all the damned time. It does have a couple of features which I have found in no other device. --The primary one being the big screen which allows you to read the thing comfortably while lying in bed. --I don't care who you are, if you're a geek, then you've probably pissed yourself off trying to read in bed with a laptop. The Psion 5 is the first time I've ever comfortably been able to do this. With a fully programmable key-board, (using freeware off the web), you can configure the buttons to match exactly where your fingers fall. Not bad!

I've also done a lot of writing work on the thing since I got mine. It's nowhere nearly as comfortable as a full desktop PC, but it does the job in a pinch. I just don't like to be pinched. Still, if you want to write a term paper in a coffee shop, then you can certainly do so. The batteries will last longer than you. It's just that the device could be better. The sad part is that, as far as I know, it's the best solution currently available in a conusmer product available on the surface of the Earth. And that's pretty lame, because it could be better and it could be better with the technology currently available.

If the keyboard was maybe an inch wider and worked a little better, and if the LCD was just slightly less reflective; why, then the Psion 5 would be a dream come true!

As it is, though, for an average $75 bucks on Ebay, I can't complain too much. You can read the thing while lying in bed, and you can type a paper while sitting at any convenient table top where your PC isn't. Then you can put it in your backpack and move on. If you run out of batteries, you can buy a new set at any convenience store and you're good for another twenty-odd hours. Takes Compact Flash cards, too. That's not bad.

It could just be better. And a part of me thinks that this is entirely by design. Why is it so important that people not be allowed to easily, comfortably and reliably record their thoughts during the day while away from their ugly work stations? --Is there some reason people are required to always be subtly stressing over battery life? How does this affect the over-all tempurature of culture?)

What end does this serve?

And what th

I'm 100% behind what's being said on this thread; the question has troubled me, as I'm sure it's troubled others, for a while.

Everytime I read something by one of the Gartner's of the world, I typically hear at best poor or obvious speculation about what might happen.

Now, taking a step back for a minute I have to ask myself about this incongruence; bad data with good authority; it seems like I must be faulty in (at least) one of my ideas.

First, is Gartner's data faulty? What else should I take it to mean when other people consider Gartner's research as outdated and superficial? Fairly well debunked and answered. Perhaps you shared my amusement when I saw this . Now while I accept Gartner's point as being clearly true (an iPod, could indeed be a security risk, true), I think that on my reading I thought of it in the much the same way as a pencil becoming a stabbing weapon; that is, plausible, but much better and more dangerous tools exist. It sounds like hyperbole. (Although I'm probably overly cynical).

As far as authority goes, Gartner gets significant press attention, and I suppose you could be forgiven for thinking that this makes them correct.

So, where's the gap? Is it an important gap, or is it just a group of slashdotters getting their geek hurt by a group that approaches things from a business perspective?

-cje-

DISCLAIMER: I'm young and naive.

Why couldn't they include mp3 and AAC support to encourage people to switch?

Like everyone else here, I guess it's a DRM thing. That, and the fact that the PSP will probably store mp3 and AAC files on relatively small Memory Sticks. High-capacity drives probably scare Sony's Music division.

What do you get after spending 96 straight hours battling in the realms of Norath?
A free trip to the afterlife, and a nomination for the darwin award.

however, on that same note, slashdot is still unusable on my PDA. why? because it only fits on 640x480 or bigger.

It should also be noted that. . .

I DO NOT NEED OR WANT a color screen. I do not need to watch movies or play games on my wallet. I DO, however, need to be able to type essays on a reliable machine. Until somebody can make a color screen which doesn't turn good batteries into worthless 5 hour charges, then just give me a Black & White LCD screen!

The closest I've seen anything come so far is the Psion series 5. I've written about this several times now in the last week, since I just became the proud owner of a used $75 ebay model. The machine is ALMOST perfect. The screen is just a little too shiny which makes it hard to read, and if the keyboard was only one inch wider and slightly more responsive, it'd be the perfect machine. WHY, OH WHY, DIDN'T THEY MAKE IT PERFECTLY???

I mean, it gives you 35 hours on a couple of AA's, an excellent word processor, fully programmable key-board and as many megs of memory as you can stuff on a Compact Flash card. Man, for 75$, that is one SWEET machine!

ONE inch wider, guys, and a non-reflective plastic on the screen, and you'd have created the perfect product.

-FL

-FL

You could quite effectively put most web sites out of commission by using a method detailed here. Anecdotal evidence shows that an increase in traffic can effectivly deny viewing of content and, in fact, bring a monetary burden to the web host customer. The results are almost immediate compared to action from a DMCA letter.