Ever been to France? I went once, with a baby-carrier on my back, to Nausica or wherever in Boulogne. I didn't get to see many fish because the French don't do queues (lines), they just barge in. It's mob rule over there. And no, I didn't open my mouth so it wasn't an anti-English thing.
I'm an EE who designs deeply embedded firmware for a living. Actually there's very little I CAN do with a Mac. I rely on dozens of *essential tools* most of which only exist for Windows. Why should I pay double ticket price for a fancy white box that does only 10% of what I need? Even with virtualization (whose explicit purpose is to get AWAY from the OS), why would I do a crazy thing like that? Do I have cash to burn?
Don't misunderstand - monopolies don't benefit anyone in the long term. It would be good to have a genuine choice, but in my field it doesn't exist because Apple (and to a lesser extent the open source community) only seem interested in "cool and happening stuff", which excludes a lot of actual work.
The two most enthusiastic early adopters I know are well into their 60s. Seeing them get burned again and again, spending 3 to 4x what they could have if they just waited and hours on helplines trying to get stuff work that's too new to support properly has put me off "early adopting" for good.
I think it has little to do with age and much more with disposable income. Here in the UK, the difference between the Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers is very pronounced. The oft-used phrase "more money than sense" comes easily to mind.
This story broke in the UK some days ago and I've have been thinking about it because I'm a cautious person who tends to learn too much from my mistakes and I wondered if there was a sliding scale of optimism..caution. But I don't think it's a sliding scale, this is a gene we're talking about, although the emergent behaviour of different life experiences in the presence of such a gene could perhaps present a sliding scale across a population with the one gene.
Then I decided.. that's not it at all. These are people who make the EXACT same mistake again and again, not the persevering optimists who try variations.
I've hired a couple of Pug 107 diesels and they were plenty of fun! I still own a 306 XSi (31mpg, I'm trying to sell it) and have recently bought a 1 year old Mondeo diesel which turns in 47 mpg in the same "cold weather". I'd like to be able to use a smaller car, but as a single parent of 2 kids, I need 1 car that does all I need. The small French diesels are terrific, but family cars they're not. I'll bet comfort, 47mpg and 500L boot space against the 107 any day. My Mondeo weighs 1.5T, Pug 306 is 1.3T. About the same power, 0-60, top speed, Mondeo **way better** mpg. That's progress. We need more of it. Hybrid may have a future (is there a diesel hybrid?) but for now, advanced diesels win out.
Yes, DC wins when using cables with high capacitance and also between power grids of different frequency. About 5 mins walk from my house is the anchor point for the UK France cross-channel HVDC link. The converter station is at Sellinge, about 10 miles away, and can ship up to 2GW in either direction. However, due to higher capacity on the French side (they have more nuclear), I understand the UK are net consumers of energy.
Although the UK and France both operate at a nominal 50Hz, it is normal for actual grid frequency to vary slightly throughout the day. The way this was explained to me was fairly intuitive: when you load the grid, you load the generators and in turn they load the turbines, which slow down ever so slightly. Because turbines have very large inertia, their response time to step loads is rather long. In order to pump power into the grid, a generator has to have a phase lead to overcome its self inductance. A shift in the phase means a shift in the power being pumped.
France is 1 hour ahead of the UK and have different norms regarding hours of work, cooking etc, all of which mean they have a different load profile. Combining the UK and French grids would only be possible if the link were much greater than 2GW thus able to cope with the difference in power swing. The link was never intended to serve that purpose. Perhaps, like Concord[e] and the Chunnel, it was more a punctuation of the ongoing Entente Cordiale than a technical necessity.
Like so much other science & technology journalism, the article is written for science fans, not science practitioners.
Anyone who follows the pronouncements of the self-proclaimed "golden eared audiophiles" should know that the Hi-Fi industry only appeals to science & technology as a smokescreen for their never ending quackery of What Will Make Your System Well Again. Did I mention vinyl is making a comeback? If they can get the patient to swallow that expensive medicine, they can go back to flogging all kind of analog "cures". They dislike digital for marketing reasons - it has a mathematical basis, and they have little leverage in that context.
I'm not against people spending money on their hobbies, but please get the science right or just stay away from it.
I agree, the record companies know their business. Though it's still a shame when a mix that could do with gentler treatment gets maximum maximising in the mastering suite anyway. The thing is, music isn't what a lot of people think it is, or want it to be. Most of the people who comment on this kind of story prefer classical music or jazz. That's OK, but music for dancing does need a different treatment because it has a different social context and purpose. And then there's the growth of asocial listening with headphones... often in loud urban areas... so it's a no brainer they're compressed (even clipped) to hell.
Another issue I think is we've run out of ideas, musically speaking. Mixes tend to be very busy and very balanced so that no one part dominates, because they're individually uninteresting. And maximising serves to reinforce this approach. There are exceptions, some good songs still being written and recorded, but they've lost a lot of sensitivity by the time they reach my speakers.
I actually have a beef with too little vocal compression on BBC Radio 4. They're so busy watching their PPMs to realise every time they play a "music clip", I have to cover my ears.
I agree, but the problem is not the market - the problem is the average US consumer is too brand-oriented, and will happily pay out (and upgrade) again and again without thinking what s/he is buying and without shopping around. These people allow monopolies to develop by not playing their part in the market. I used to think it's an excess of disposable income, but after seeing the iPhone phenomenon, I changed my mind.
Here in Europe there's no stigma about not buying brands. We'll buy what works well enough for the least money, which is why you'll see way fewer Apple products, not to mention the other "major" brands.
Of course we're still locked into MS like everyone else, but Eastern Europe is famous for it's pirate "industry" which provides competition, driving down prices. It's interesting to note that Windows is generally cheaper to buy anywhere in the world you can get a cheap copy.
> Office is expensive, but OpenOffice doesn't look as good, doesn't work as well and feels cobbled together.
Well I guess that's why I **gave up** trying to install Word2000 and used OO instead. Word2000 is the best version I've used, and it's still a pile of poo. I don't even bother shopping for Excel, I've used OO for years, saving in Excel format and nobody notices. It does what I want without nannying me.
The World Motor Sport Council met in Paris on July 5, 2006. The following decisions were taken:
FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Bridgestone has been selected as the official tyre supplier to the FIA Formula One World Championship in 2008, 2009 and 2010*.
Microsoft MES has been selected as the official ECU supplier to the FIA Formula One World Championship in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Due to a significant increase in cornering speeds in Formula One this season, the World Motor Sport Council agreed to consult with the Formula One Technical Working Group regarding possible measures to slow the cars.... Hmm - I think that last paragraph might already be covered, no?
>... the iPod still doesn't have an FM receiver or voice recording. > And yet it still dominates the market.
The market for what? If you mean music players then I'd say the iPod is outnumbered 9:1 here in the UK. My son had two and they both broke. The only other one I saw was a broken one. I gave up after that and stuck with cheap sticks, which are absolutely fine.
> Someday the tech pundits will learn that ease of use trumps features.
No - cost of purchase trumps everything. After that: with music players it's music that matters; and with phones it's who you're talking to that matters.
Lessee - the iPhone is a bit more than a phone, and the iPhonano is a bit less than an iPhone. What does that make it? Is it still a phone? It's still too expensive; my K750i has cost me £60 over 12 months, I've never run out of minutes or texts, and it's all mine. WTF do I want with a little white plasticy fashion accessory? I'm not Derek Zoolander.
Re:Learning how to blow shit up ...
on
Explosives Camp
·
· Score: 1
No fate etc...
Learning how to blow shit up ...
on
Explosives Camp
·
· Score: 1
while all the other kids are into Nintendo. But where are the helicopters?!
I've noticed this too over the last 5 years or so in the UK. People are starting to call themselves geeks, when they're really just gadget addicts with plenty of spare cash (or as we say here "more money than sense"). And you know what? Like any other addict, they're not satisfied. They're buying multiple phones, multiple cameras, multiple GPSs, multiple PDAs, PER YEAR.
It's not normal. But it's OK. What ISN'T OK is the gross assumption that anyone / everyone with a clue about technology will automatically follow the herd. We are - if anything - individuals. And what has happened with the iPhone and the Apple Religion in general cuts across that: like most religions, it has polarized society. So it becomes difficult to remain objective because all the time you've got these True Believers shoving things at you and going "WORSHIP MY NEW SHINY TOY". It's called materialism, and it used to be considered shallow. I still do, and I suspect I'm not alone.
Recent surveys show more and more opposition to the status quo in regards to the TV license. Sure people don't like paying the road fund license (I have my renewal on my desk, and it's £180 I can't really afford, but I will pay it because I have to work, to earn the money, to pay the tax..) but at least they use some of those roads. The issue with the BBC is that you have to pay to own the equipment. Shortly, when the BBC begin simulcasting on the web, that will mean anyone with internet access. So I will have to pay the BBC for the benefit of owning a PC.
But it's not about feelings, it's about laws, right? I wish. Ten years of Blair have massively weakened democracy. One million people protest about the Iraq war and they're ignored. Two million people protest about the countryside act and they're ignored. Another two million sign a petition about road tolls and and they're belittled and ignored. Enquiries are avoided, and if unavoidable, they're rigged. In these last few days Blair - who is no longer the leader of the ruling Labour Party - made a deal to sign us all up to the new European constitution, despite promising *us* a referendum. We don't count any more. Because they'd lose that referendum.
The BBC is a state protected monopoly, a relic of a bygone modernist age. The TV License is not a tax, nor are the BBC part of the state. They are a media company guaranteed a significant income by the laws of the land, for which they in turn have to meet certain criteria in their programming and the way the business is run. But they still sell DVDs at a profit, why should they not try to milk the market any way they see fit?
FYI I'm not a fan of the setup. From the start the BBC was supposed to "Educate, Entertain, and Inform." This was pre-WWII mind. The world is different now, there's no shortage of transmission technology, no use for a monopoly just to keep morale up during the depression and then the blitz. I'd happily settle for "Educate" and leave the other two to commercial programmers.
Seriously, the actual physical article couldn't matter less to me. In my life, I've only seen 6 physical Apple products: a IIe, something unidentified in about 1988, an unidentified notebook, and 3 iPods, all broken. So, fangirls, rave all you like about this worldwide phenomenon, but be sure to let me know when it's come close to being tangible and not just an outcrop of the cult of celebrity.
Slashdot Mirror
Ever been to France? I went once, with a baby-carrier on my back, to Nausica or wherever in Boulogne. I didn't get to see many fish because the French don't do queues (lines), they just barge in. It's mob rule over there. And no, I didn't open my mouth so it wasn't an anti-English thing.
I'm an EE who designs deeply embedded firmware for a living. Actually there's very little I CAN do with a Mac. I rely on dozens of *essential tools* most of which only exist for Windows. Why should I pay double ticket price for a fancy white box that does only 10% of what I need? Even with virtualization (whose explicit purpose is to get AWAY from the OS), why would I do a crazy thing like that? Do I have cash to burn?
Don't misunderstand - monopolies don't benefit anyone in the long term. It would be good to have a genuine choice, but in my field it doesn't exist because Apple (and to a lesser extent the open source community) only seem interested in "cool and happening stuff", which excludes a lot of actual work.
The two most enthusiastic early adopters I know are well into their 60s. Seeing them get burned again and again, spending 3 to 4x what they could have if they just waited and hours on helplines trying to get stuff work that's too new to support properly has put me off "early adopting" for good.
I think it has little to do with age and much more with disposable income. Here in the UK, the difference between the Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers is very pronounced. The oft-used phrase "more money than sense" comes easily to mind.
This story broke in the UK some days ago and I've have been thinking about it because I'm a cautious person who tends to learn too much from my mistakes and I wondered if there was a sliding scale of optimism..caution. But I don't think it's a sliding scale, this is a gene we're talking about, although the emergent behaviour of different life experiences in the presence of such a gene could perhaps present a sliding scale across a population with the one gene. Then I decided .. that's not it at all. These are people who make the EXACT same mistake again and again, not the persevering optimists who try variations.
Yeah ... but it goes up to eleven
I doubt Jobs has obsessions. This is just marketing of the "this one goes up to 11" variety. Some people are stupid enough to fall for it.
I've hired a couple of Pug 107 diesels and they were plenty of fun! I still own a 306 XSi (31mpg, I'm trying to sell it) and have recently bought a 1 year old Mondeo diesel which turns in 47 mpg in the same "cold weather". I'd like to be able to use a smaller car, but as a single parent of 2 kids, I need 1 car that does all I need. The small French diesels are terrific, but family cars they're not. I'll bet comfort, 47mpg and 500L boot space against the 107 any day. My Mondeo weighs 1.5T, Pug 306 is 1.3T. About the same power, 0-60, top speed, Mondeo **way better** mpg. That's progress. We need more of it. Hybrid may have a future (is there a diesel hybrid?) but for now, advanced diesels win out.
Yes, DC wins when using cables with high capacitance and also between power grids of different frequency. About 5 mins walk from my house is the anchor point for the UK France cross-channel HVDC link. The converter station is at Sellinge, about 10 miles away, and can ship up to 2GW in either direction. However, due to higher capacity on the French side (they have more nuclear), I understand the UK are net consumers of energy.
Although the UK and France both operate at a nominal 50Hz, it is normal for actual grid frequency to vary slightly throughout the day. The way this was explained to me was fairly intuitive: when you load the grid, you load the generators and in turn they load the turbines, which slow down ever so slightly. Because turbines have very large inertia, their response time to step loads is rather long. In order to pump power into the grid, a generator has to have a phase lead to overcome its self inductance. A shift in the phase means a shift in the power being pumped.
France is 1 hour ahead of the UK and have different norms regarding hours of work, cooking etc, all of which mean they have a different load profile. Combining the UK and French grids would only be possible if the link were much greater than 2GW thus able to cope with the difference in power swing. The link was never intended to serve that purpose. Perhaps, like Concord[e] and the Chunnel, it was more a punctuation of the ongoing Entente Cordiale than a technical necessity.
Like so much other science & technology journalism, the article is written for science fans, not science practitioners.
Anyone who follows the pronouncements of the self-proclaimed "golden eared audiophiles" should know that the Hi-Fi industry only appeals to science & technology as a smokescreen for their never ending quackery of What Will Make Your System Well Again. Did I mention vinyl is making a comeback? If they can get the patient to swallow that expensive medicine, they can go back to flogging all kind of analog "cures". They dislike digital for marketing reasons - it has a mathematical basis, and they have little leverage in that context.
I'm not against people spending money on their hobbies, but please get the science right or just stay away from it.
That's a slur against engineers, AC. Do you really mean those entitled to use the letters PE, CEng, or equivalent?
I agree, the record companies know their business. Though it's still a shame when a mix that could do with gentler treatment gets maximum maximising in the mastering suite anyway. The thing is, music isn't what a lot of people think it is, or want it to be. Most of the people who comment on this kind of story prefer classical music or jazz. That's OK, but music for dancing does need a different treatment because it has a different social context and purpose. And then there's the growth of asocial listening with headphones ... often in loud urban areas ... so it's a no brainer they're compressed (even clipped) to hell.
Another issue I think is we've run out of ideas, musically speaking. Mixes tend to be very busy and very balanced so that no one part dominates, because they're individually uninteresting. And maximising serves to reinforce this approach. There are exceptions, some good songs still being written and recorded, but they've lost a lot of sensitivity by the time they reach my speakers.
I actually have a beef with too little vocal compression on BBC Radio 4. They're so busy watching their PPMs to realise every time they play a "music clip", I have to cover my ears.
I agree, but the problem is not the market - the problem is the average US consumer is too brand-oriented, and will happily pay out (and upgrade) again and again without thinking what s/he is buying and without shopping around. These people allow monopolies to develop by not playing their part in the market. I used to think it's an excess of disposable income, but after seeing the iPhone phenomenon, I changed my mind.
Here in Europe there's no stigma about not buying brands. We'll buy what works well enough for the least money, which is why you'll see way fewer Apple products, not to mention the other "major" brands.
Of course we're still locked into MS like everyone else, but Eastern Europe is famous for it's pirate "industry" which provides competition, driving down prices. It's interesting to note that Windows is generally cheaper to buy anywhere in the world you can get a cheap copy.
> Office is expensive, but OpenOffice doesn't look as good, doesn't work as well and feels cobbled together.
Well I guess that's why I **gave up** trying to install Word2000 and used OO instead. Word2000 is the best version I've used, and it's still a pile of poo. I don't even bother shopping for Excel, I've used OO for years, saving in Excel format and nobody notices. It does what I want without nannying me.
They're just Valspeak for nerds. so...
http://www.fia.com/resources/documents/198095623__ 05_07_2006_wmsc_decisions.pdf
... Hmm - I think that last paragraph might already be covered, no?
PRESS RELEASE
WORLD MOTOR SPORT COUNCIL
The World Motor Sport Council met in Paris on July 5, 2006. The following decisions were taken:
FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Bridgestone has been selected as the official tyre supplier to the FIA Formula One World
Championship in 2008, 2009 and 2010*.
Microsoft MES has been selected as the official ECU supplier to the FIA Formula One World
Championship in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Due to a significant increase in cornering speeds in Formula One this season, the World Motor
Sport Council agreed to consult with the Formula One Technical Working Group regarding possible
measures to slow the cars.
And voila! Who says you need analog?
> ... the iPod still doesn't have an FM receiver or voice recording.
> And yet it still dominates the market.
The market for what? If you mean music players then I'd say the iPod is outnumbered 9:1 here in the UK. My son had two and they both broke. The only other one I saw was a broken one. I gave up after that and stuck with cheap sticks, which are absolutely fine.
> Someday the tech pundits will learn that ease of use trumps features.
No - cost of purchase trumps everything. After that: with music players it's music that matters; and with phones it's who you're talking to that matters.
Lessee - the iPhone is a bit more than a phone, and the iPhonano is a bit less than an iPhone. What does that make it? Is it still a phone? It's still too expensive; my K750i has cost me £60 over 12 months, I've never run out of minutes or texts, and it's all mine. WTF do I want with a little white plasticy fashion accessory? I'm not Derek Zoolander.
No fate etc ...
while all the other kids are into Nintendo. But where are the helicopters?!
I've noticed this too over the last 5 years or so in the UK. People are starting to call themselves geeks, when they're really just gadget addicts with plenty of spare cash (or as we say here "more money than sense"). And you know what? Like any other addict, they're not satisfied. They're buying multiple phones, multiple cameras, multiple GPSs, multiple PDAs, PER YEAR.
It's not normal. But it's OK. What ISN'T OK is the gross assumption that anyone / everyone with a clue about technology will automatically follow the herd. We are - if anything - individuals. And what has happened with the iPhone and the Apple Religion in general cuts across that: like most religions, it has polarized society. So it becomes difficult to remain objective because all the time you've got these True Believers shoving things at you and going "WORSHIP MY NEW SHINY TOY". It's called materialism, and it used to be considered shallow. I still do, and I suspect I'm not alone.
Recent surveys show more and more opposition to the status quo in regards to the TV license. Sure people don't like paying the road fund license (I have my renewal on my desk, and it's £180 I can't really afford, but I will pay it because I have to work, to earn the money, to pay the tax ..) but at least they use some of those roads. The issue with the BBC is that you have to pay to own the equipment. Shortly, when the BBC begin simulcasting on the web, that will mean anyone with internet access. So I will have to pay the BBC for the benefit of owning a PC.
But it's not about feelings, it's about laws, right? I wish. Ten years of Blair have massively weakened democracy. One million people protest about the Iraq war and they're ignored. Two million people protest about the countryside act and they're ignored. Another two million sign a petition about road tolls and and they're belittled and ignored. Enquiries are avoided, and if unavoidable, they're rigged. In these last few days Blair - who is no longer the leader of the ruling Labour Party - made a deal to sign us all up to the new European constitution, despite promising *us* a referendum. We don't count any more. Because they'd lose that referendum.
The BBC is a state protected monopoly, a relic of a bygone modernist age. The TV License is not a tax, nor are the BBC part of the state. They are a media company guaranteed a significant income by the laws of the land, for which they in turn have to meet certain criteria in their programming and the way the business is run. But they still sell DVDs at a profit, why should they not try to milk the market any way they see fit? FYI I'm not a fan of the setup. From the start the BBC was supposed to "Educate, Entertain, and Inform." This was pre-WWII mind. The world is different now, there's no shortage of transmission technology, no use for a monopoly just to keep morale up during the depression and then the blitz. I'd happily settle for "Educate" and leave the other two to commercial programmers.
Where I live (the UK), carrying an iPod is an invitation to get mugged. Perhaps that's how they all get broken ...
Seriously, the actual physical article couldn't matter less to me. In my life, I've only seen 6 physical Apple products: a IIe, something unidentified in about 1988, an unidentified notebook, and 3 iPods, all broken. So, fangirls, rave all you like about this worldwide phenomenon, but be sure to let me know when it's come close to being tangible and not just an outcrop of the cult of celebrity.