Ubuntu is faster *if* everything you want is in a repository, open source and pre-compiled. I installed Gutsy for the first time recently, and while it was easier to get up and running than Feisty or Edgy, I still spent longer compiling and troubleshooting apps, configuring basic settings, and getting drivers to play nice than I do with a Windows box.
As much as I love Linux, IMO the only OS that's easy start-to-finish is OS X. It's ready to go out of the box. It's painfully easy to install or transfer apps. It's fast, it's clean, it has a well-organized interface. It has Cocoa. And all the *nix capabilities I use are just a Bash terminal away.
I can't help but use a Mac as my main work machine. It IS the *nix desktop I'd been dreaming of for a decade. I'm still a big fan of open source, and I hope that I'll be using a "free" OS again in a few years, but open source developers need to really start thinking more about the user experience - simplicity and consistency - if they ever want mass adoption.
If you do the numbers, making the very generous assumption that the computer responsible for the process requires one cycle per particle, you'll find there haven't been enough computer cycles in the entire history of computers to transmit a single person.
To be fair, I'd expect that by the Star Trek era somebody will have learned how to write a decent parallel program.
Nobody blames the manufacturer when a shitty winmodem or onboard graphics chip doesn't work in Linux.
I hate cheap Winmodems and onboard graphics with a passion, and I blame the manufacturers for any problems that arise, so I guess that makes me nobody. Which is actually pretty awesome, since nobody's perfect.
...when chip manufacturers gave away the full specifications. I even received by snail-mail thick books, 500 pages or so, with the specs from companies like Texas instruments and Motorola. Some manufacturers even sent free samples of the chips themselves.
Where have they gone wrong?
Monoculture, and convenient drivers.
Back in the day, most anyone who developed a software program that used a given hardware device had to create their own driver for that device, and needed the hardware specifications to do it. Hardware makers had no choice but to make the details of their hardware more or less public.
Nowadays, with the rise of the MS monoculture and modular driver architectures, hardware makers can just provide drivers instead of the complete hardware specifications, and any program that does things the Windows way can talk to the driver instead of the device. Hardware vendors don't mind this situation, as it gives them an excuse to keep the details of their hardware as secret as possible.
But, naturally, those of us outside the monoculture are screwed.
Actually, the 24" iMac is a great deal if you're looking for a professional LCD.
It uses a H-IPS panel, which provides great color accuracy, contrast, and brightness from almost any viewing angle. There are only a couple other 24" H-IPS displays on the market, and they cost $1250-$1500. Yes, just for the screen.
So, in effect, you're getting the rest of the iMac for $300-$550.
With DDR2 prices so cheap, I don't see why anyone (with a modern enough system to use DDR2) is swapping data to disk regularly. Certainly not anyone who can afford a SSD.
It would be cooler to have mini video cameras on the back of the cop routed to the chest monitor so that it looked like you were looking right through him. In dark lighting that could be really interesting.
Assuming you were standing in precisely the right spot to see in line with the camera's vision, yes, it would be convincing. Otherwise it would look like a guy with a TV on his chest, and draw even more attention than no display at all.
Unless the system can project a different image in every direction, the best approach for active camouflage is not to try to precisely duplicate anything but simply try and blend in with the surrounding colors, breaking up the human outline. Essentially it would be just like regular camouflage except for its ability to adjust to changing environments and light levels.
What reporter is going to cover the launch of a new Apple product that everyone knew about before hand?
Yeah, Apple really shot themselves in the foot over the whole iPhone thing. If they'd kept it a secret till launch it might have at least received some news coverage.
Slashdot Mirror
Picture here.
So we'll finally know for certain that carbon is black, oxygen is red, nitrogen is blue, and hydrogen atoms really are white.
Wireless HDTV (and computer monitors). Imagine a home theater system sans AV cables.
And wireless 5Gbit networking would be awesome, even if you did need a tiny repeater every 30 feet.
Ubuntu is faster *if* everything you want is in a repository, open source and pre-compiled. I installed Gutsy for the first time recently, and while it was easier to get up and running than Feisty or Edgy, I still spent longer compiling and troubleshooting apps, configuring basic settings, and getting drivers to play nice than I do with a Windows box.
As much as I love Linux, IMO the only OS that's easy start-to-finish is OS X. It's ready to go out of the box. It's painfully easy to install or transfer apps. It's fast, it's clean, it has a well-organized interface. It has Cocoa. And all the *nix capabilities I use are just a Bash terminal away.
I can't help but use a Mac as my main work machine. It IS the *nix desktop I'd been dreaming of for a decade. I'm still a big fan of open source, and I hope that I'll be using a "free" OS again in a few years, but open source developers need to really start thinking more about the user experience - simplicity and consistency - if they ever want mass adoption.
Franklin Relano Doosevelt?
You are not the first person to make the claim that widespread incorrect usage is no longer incorrect. You are not the last person who will do so.
And he is not wrong for doing so. How do you think the English language was created? Lexical Engineers?
The Bonneville Salt Flats.
I don't want to go on the fark!
No, you heard it here first.
I hate cheap Winmodems and onboard graphics with a passion, and I blame the manufacturers for any problems that arise, so I guess that makes me nobody. Which is actually pretty awesome, since nobody's perfect.
What are they doing, exactly? Seeing if the rocks are intelligent? Making sure the planet isn't being seeded by aliens?
It's a new year, and I feel like coining something:
Desmond's Law: Every correction must itself contain at least one error.
Monoculture, and convenient drivers.
Back in the day, most anyone who developed a software program that used a given hardware device had to create their own driver for that device, and needed the hardware specifications to do it. Hardware makers had no choice but to make the details of their hardware more or less public.
Nowadays, with the rise of the MS monoculture and modular driver architectures, hardware makers can just provide drivers instead of the complete hardware specifications, and any program that does things the Windows way can talk to the driver instead of the device. Hardware vendors don't mind this situation, as it gives them an excuse to keep the details of their hardware as secret as possible.
But, naturally, those of us outside the monoculture are screwed.
...Sysadmins have recently discovered they can improve uptime by eliminating routine maintenance.
Yeah, the reflections are all wrong. Definitely Photoshopped.
Actually, the 24" iMac is a great deal if you're looking for a professional LCD.
It uses a H-IPS panel, which provides great color accuracy, contrast, and brightness from almost any viewing angle. There are only a couple other 24" H-IPS displays on the market, and they cost $1250-$1500. Yes, just for the screen.
So, in effect, you're getting the rest of the iMac for $300-$550.
Why would anyone use flash for virtual memory? You can get 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM for seventy bucks, or two gigs for less than half that. Notebook SO-DIMM prices are about the same.
With DDR2 prices so cheap, I don't see why anyone (with a modern enough system to use DDR2) is swapping data to disk regularly. Certainly not anyone who can afford a SSD.
It would be cooler to have mini video cameras on the back of the cop routed to the chest monitor so that it looked like you were looking right through him. In dark lighting that could be really interesting.
Assuming you were standing in precisely the right spot to see in line with the camera's vision, yes, it would be convincing. Otherwise it would look like a guy with a TV on his chest, and draw even more attention than no display at all.
Unless the system can project a different image in every direction, the best approach for active camouflage is not to try to precisely duplicate anything but simply try and blend in with the surrounding colors, breaking up the human outline. Essentially it would be just like regular camouflage except for its ability to adjust to changing environments and light levels.
These displays should have a sticker:
Warning: Rebounding Wiimotes may cause severe injury.
A hundred comments and no Sapho/Mentat/Dune references? Who are you people, and what have you done with the real Slashdot?
They'll build bicycling robots. Nuclear-powered bicycling robots. Then it will be too late.
What reporter is going to cover the launch of a new Apple product that everyone knew about before hand?
Yeah, Apple really shot themselves in the foot over the whole iPhone thing. If they'd kept it a secret till launch it might have at least received some news coverage.