Lemme get this straight. If they weren't harnessed, many people would've broken bones on a lawn, and they want to use this stuff for crowd control? Yeah, I'm sure the Marine lawyers think this is a GREAT idea!
the good point has been raised that these flies are not actually mutants; just sterilized by radiation. but what worries me a bit is that this is somewhat analogous to the same concept of using antibiotics. yes, they will kill many bacteria in an infected patient. but a few always survive. and they may contain a mutation that makes them immune to future doses of antibiotics. it's become a huge concern for infectious disease departments at all hospitals. great effort has been made to warn doctors and patients against the cavalier prescription and usage of antibiotics.
in the case of these flies, i'm deducing they will have to release large amounts of these flies. with the numbers of flies they would have to release to have any effect, there's a very very good chance that there WILL be a few who are not completely sterilized but only suffer some mutations (which may still be compatible with life). after all, are they gonna check each fly's reproductive capability before releasing them? one or two fertile flies wouldn't be a problem. but if they keep doing it, chances are, they just MIGHT end up with a mutant fly population.
it's not simply a matter of getting more pictures on a card. jpeg2000 is a superior compression format in that the picture quality is far better at a given level of compression when compared to jpeg. there are far fewer artifacts introduced at given levels of compression. plus, at roughly half the space of a tiff file, it can store a LOSSLESS compressed file. in addition, it supports metatag data and is scalable, making it very useful in making webpages, archiving, e-mailing - and all with just one file. at the hospital where i am working, we are currently evaluating its usage for our digital pathology archives.
i agree, SOMEONE needs to start pushing jpeg2000. jpeg is simply not enough anymore. there is work being done on jpeg2000. unfortunately, a lot of it seems to be companies trying to proprietize the format.
luratech lizardtech
I just developed a new calculator that performs additions using a novel method. X+Y is calculated as X-(-Y). It never uses the add function!!! Warning to you thieving bastards: patent is pending.
I get the feeling that Adobe is not just doing this for financial reasons, but also to punish the area by not providing Asian versions of it software. It's too bad that they're going to stop development of Asian language versions, but if punishment is their goal, somehow I think that it will have little effect, and may even backfire.
The thing is that while their programs set the standard here in the US and many companies now depend on their products, the same is not true in Asia, where Linux is actually being adopted quite rapidly, especially now with Windows XP having copy protection in place (although that hasn't stopped many hacked versions from being produced). This may in fact be a big boon to the Linux industry as more and more users may come to find more full fledged Linux graphics solutions (GIMP is getting there).
I enjoyed that little tribute to Thresh with "Daryl Musashi". Only problem is that we know that the real Thresh would've rocket jumped himself out of there.
only complaint i have is that at 1600x1200, the letters are WAAY too small. and he didn't allow viewer definable fonts so i can't even enlarge the text except by changing desktop resolution...
As Mark Twain says, "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." The article may be a bit too quick to announce the death of Intel. Yes, they have made a few missteps in the recent years and yes, AMD must be giving quite few people at Intel headaches. The problem I have with the story is that the author seems to be creating a story from pieces of evidence that everyone already knows from the news. He believes his own story so much that he also draws conclusions based on it. Okay, Intel failed in the video chip arena. Okay, RDRAM is not doing so hot (but then again, neither were PCI and USB when they first came out). Okay, the i820 chipset was a bit of a disaster. Okay, so they're trying to prevent VIA from importing their chips. Okay, ZDNet appears to favor Intel.
All of these are either missteps or character flaws. We may dislike Intel for them or throw insults at them, but don't think that this spells their doom. Okay, let's look at the two companies that the article says will bring about Intel's death.
AMD - Yes, they have come a long ways, and they have created one kickass processor. Kudos to them for that. However, the article ASSUMES that they will pull off everything in the next year. That they will meet production schedules and meet demand with adequate chips, both of which they have a history of failing. As I understand it, building chips with copper interconnects is actually a complicated, problematic, AND expensive process. It remains to be seen if AMD can keep the prices low. That AMD will not run into any production problems is a VERY risky assumption to make and many of the author's conclusions are based it. Let's remember that until very recently, they were bleeding money badly. Besides the desktop, we also need to examine the notebook computers. AMD is still a long ways off towards dominating the notebook arena and as of yet has not announced any Athlon based notebook computers. As of yet, the popularity of K6-x notebooks have not taken off. With the SpeedStep technology from Intel coming out soon, it may very well take away what little marketshare AMD had.
Transmeta - Don't be so quick to think that Transmeta will take Intel down in the notebook arena either. Given that Linus is in the company and he is writing a Linux for Crusoe, we can infer that Transmeta is likely to use Crusoe as a vehicle for Linux. We may like Linux here on this board, but 90% of the computer consumers out there right now does not (probably just as many don't know what it is), and as was mentioned in the article, Crusoe probably WON'T run x86 instructions very quickly. Good battery life or not, this is NOT a good thing. And until it comes out and NO ONE has ANY problems running applications on it, don't assume it will be problem-free. Code-Morphing is a very cool sounding name and it sounds like very cool technology. But until I see it in front of me working flawlessly, it's just a very cool NAME of a very cool technology. People don't like change, especially when it's going to cost them a thousand bucks, because change involves risk. And if one is going to take that risk, there can't be ANY sacrifices, or compromises. If there are, one starts thinking about any hidden sacrifices, or compromises.
Intel, as the author says, has VERY deep pockets. And I disagree with his notion that time can't be bought. It most certainly can. With that much money, Intel can very quickly turn around any mistakes they have made or curtail any problems before they arise. Intel is very well entrenched. That is perhaps a MASSIVE understatement. You don't get to be one of the largest companies around by sitting on your laurels. You can bet your last dollar that Intel has plans. To assume that they don't have any just because nothing has been announced or leaked is just plain foolish.
Slashdot Mirror
I won't buy until there's a color graphics version of Dope Wars.
Lemme get this straight. If they weren't harnessed, many people would've broken bones on a lawn, and they want to use this stuff for crowd control? Yeah, I'm sure the Marine lawyers think this is a GREAT idea!
that an MIT student would pick a teddy bear over a hobbit/R2D2 doll.
the good point has been raised that these flies are not actually mutants; just sterilized by radiation. but what worries me a bit is that this is somewhat analogous to the same concept of using antibiotics. yes, they will kill many bacteria in an infected patient. but a few always survive. and they may contain a mutation that makes them immune to future doses of antibiotics. it's become a huge concern for infectious disease departments at all hospitals. great effort has been made to warn doctors and patients against the cavalier prescription and usage of antibiotics.
in the case of these flies, i'm deducing they will have to release large amounts of these flies. with the numbers of flies they would have to release to have any effect, there's a very very good chance that there WILL be a few who are not completely sterilized but only suffer some mutations (which may still be compatible with life). after all, are they gonna check each fly's reproductive capability before releasing them? one or two fertile flies wouldn't be a problem. but if they keep doing it, chances are, they just MIGHT end up with a mutant fly population.
it's not simply a matter of getting more pictures on a card. jpeg2000 is a superior compression format in that the picture quality is far better at a given level of compression when compared to jpeg. there are far fewer artifacts introduced at given levels of compression. plus, at roughly half the space of a tiff file, it can store a LOSSLESS compressed file. in addition, it supports metatag data and is scalable, making it very useful in making webpages, archiving, e-mailing - and all with just one file. at the hospital where i am working, we are currently evaluating its usage for our digital pathology archives.
i agree, SOMEONE needs to start pushing jpeg2000. jpeg is simply not enough anymore. there is work being done on jpeg2000. unfortunately, a lot of it seems to be companies trying to proprietize the format.
luratech
lizardtech
I just developed a new calculator that performs additions using a novel method. X+Y is calculated as X-(-Y). It never uses the add function!!! Warning to you thieving bastards: patent is pending.
I get the feeling that Adobe is not just doing this for financial reasons, but also to punish the area by not providing Asian versions of it software. It's too bad that they're going to stop development of Asian language versions, but if punishment is their goal, somehow I think that it will have little effect, and may even backfire.
The thing is that while their programs set the standard here in the US and many companies now depend on their products, the same is not true in Asia, where Linux is actually being adopted quite rapidly, especially now with Windows XP having copy protection in place (although that hasn't stopped many hacked versions from being produced). This may in fact be a big boon to the Linux industry as more and more users may come to find more full fledged Linux graphics solutions (GIMP is getting there).
How about "Windux" then? Hmm...no, that's no good either. They might be sued by Windex then because consumers might get 'confused'.
I'll bet CBS put Hawking up to this just to get a head start on hyping "Survivor 3000: Colleen's Revenge".
I enjoyed that little tribute to Thresh with "Daryl Musashi". Only problem is that we know that the real Thresh would've rocket jumped himself out of there.
only complaint i have is that at 1600x1200, the letters are WAAY too small. and he didn't allow viewer definable fonts so i can't even enlarge the text except by changing desktop resolution...
As Mark Twain says, "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
The article may be a bit too quick to announce the death of Intel. Yes, they have made a few missteps in the recent years and yes, AMD must be giving quite few people at Intel headaches. The problem I have with the story is that the author seems to be creating a story from pieces of evidence that everyone already knows from the news. He believes his own story so much that he also draws conclusions based on it.
Okay, Intel failed in the video chip arena.
Okay, RDRAM is not doing so hot (but then again, neither were PCI and USB when they first came out).
Okay, the i820 chipset was a bit of a disaster.
Okay, so they're trying to prevent VIA from importing their chips.
Okay, ZDNet appears to favor Intel.
All of these are either missteps or character flaws. We may dislike Intel for them or throw insults at them, but don't think that this spells their doom. Okay, let's look at the two companies that the article says will bring about Intel's death.
AMD - Yes, they have come a long ways, and they have created one kickass processor. Kudos to them for that. However, the article ASSUMES that they will pull off everything in the next year. That they will meet production schedules and meet demand with adequate chips, both of which they have a history of failing. As I understand it, building chips with copper interconnects is actually a complicated, problematic, AND expensive process. It remains to be seen if AMD can keep the prices low. That AMD will not run into any production problems is a VERY risky assumption to make and many of the author's conclusions are based it. Let's remember that until very recently, they were bleeding money badly. Besides the desktop, we also need to examine the notebook computers. AMD is still a long ways off towards dominating the notebook arena and as of yet has not announced any Athlon based notebook computers. As of yet, the popularity of K6-x notebooks have not taken off. With the SpeedStep technology from Intel coming out soon, it may very well take away what little marketshare AMD had.
Transmeta - Don't be so quick to think that Transmeta will take Intel down in the notebook arena either. Given that Linus is in the company and he is writing a Linux for Crusoe, we can infer that Transmeta is likely to use Crusoe as a vehicle for Linux. We may like Linux here on this board, but 90% of the computer consumers out there right now does not (probably just as many don't know what it is), and as was mentioned in the article, Crusoe probably WON'T run x86 instructions very quickly. Good battery life or not, this is NOT a good thing. And until it comes out and NO ONE has ANY problems running applications on it, don't assume it will be problem-free. Code-Morphing is a very cool sounding name and it sounds like very cool technology. But until I see it in front of me working flawlessly, it's just a very cool NAME of a very cool technology. People don't like change, especially when it's going to cost them a thousand bucks, because change involves risk. And if one is going to take that risk, there can't be ANY sacrifices, or compromises. If there are, one starts thinking about any hidden sacrifices, or compromises.
Intel, as the author says, has VERY deep pockets. And I disagree with his notion that time can't be bought. It most certainly can. With that much money, Intel can very quickly turn around any mistakes they have made or curtail any problems before they arise. Intel is very well entrenched. That is perhaps a MASSIVE understatement. You don't get to be one of the largest companies around by sitting on your laurels. You can bet your last dollar that Intel has plans. To assume that they don't have any just because nothing has been announced or leaked is just plain foolish.
looks like they've struck up a contract with each other. great...amazon is well on it's way to becoming the microsoft of e-commerce.
T-O-O M-A-N-Y S-E-C-R-E-T-S