The Roku player is only $100 and I have only had it stutter once when my maximum download speed via DSL was 1.5 Mbps.
I have upgraded to 7 Mbps service from Qwest and it works like a dream. I have Tomato on my router so can view the bandwidth as a real-time graph and I see pulses of around 5 Mbps down with about a 25-33% duty cycle.
Obviously you need to pipe the Roku output to something to display it. I pipe it to my TV instead of trying to watch movies on my Mac. But the convenience factor is very nice.
The Roku player has also just had a firmware upgrade that allows you to tie the player to Amazon as well as to Netflix. They say even more is coming. But it's now possible to rent or buy movies from Amazon to watch on the Roku too. Quality is the same as Netflix movies as best I can tell.
One thing to watch out for if you want to rent a movie on Amazon and have a Netflix account - make sure it isn't available on Netflix already for streaming viewing. It's interesting that a number of Amazons movies available to rent or buy are also available through Netflix as part of your regular account.
I use computers for lots of stuff but for me, watching a movie or TV show on a big display in my living room or bedroom is much nicer than sitting at my desk or holding a warm laptop.
Any consulting company or person that supports Linux is no different than a company or individual that supports Windows - with some important exceptions.
One big one is the Linux consultants will spend more time actually getting work done instead of having to spend it evaluating break-ins, removing malware, etc.
Or are you just referring to all the extra business that Windows consultants get for those very reasons?
And lastly - almost forgot - most of the setup apps for Linux, if not all, give you the option to dual boot. The setup is a little more complicated but you still have Windows and can experiment with Linux at your leisure.
Also, be sure to check out Linux Journal. It's not very expensive and there are lots of good how-to articles.
One other thing - depending on the kind of gaming you are into, be sure to check out the games packages in Linux. There are all sorts of really excellent games. Multiplayer, puzzle, board, card, and such.
I can't speak to Ubuntu since I've never run it, but in SuSe you can do all of the configuration in the GUI. You do get more control in the config files themselves, but you can do all the essentials in the GUI.
At least in SuSe you can open the yast2 control center and configure the network stuff, open holes in the firewall for various services, configure your display and such, set up users, and basically everything you can do in Microsoft's control panel and more.
I haven't done anything with Wine but Codeweavers is one of the biggest contributors to the Wine project. I fyou go Linux and have issues with Wine, remember Codeweavers.;-)
If you have been having compatibility issues, have you tried OpenSuSe?
It has been my experience (YMMV) that SuSe has better hardware support than some of the others.
On the other hand, I think it is Debian, possibly Ubuntu, that has a licensed package of codecs for stuff like mp3s and other files. With SuSe, the best method for me is to add the Pacman reository (SuSe makes it really easy) but those are codecs and not drivers.
The only 3rd party driver I've needed for SuSe has been the standard Nvidia driver, but again, SuSe makes that near automatic too.
Linux isn't that hard to deal with but it is a new paradigm and takes a little getting used to. For a standard setup, I really like SuSe. If you want the multimedia stuff with better mpeg support, learn about Pacman. But I think you will find Linux very powerful and very rewarding.
And if you want to get under the hood and explore the UNIX-like underpinnings, it is really an amazing OS and you won't ever look back. Also, if you still need to run some Windows applications, check out Codeweavers.com for Crossover Office. It's great and allows you to load and run Microsoft Office and a bunch of other Windows apps under Linux.
You could do virtually anything with this mod - as one poster put it, put the image from the camera on it, or you could scroll RSS feeds, put other logos inside the Apple cutout just to screw with people, an animated eye looking around and winking, etc.
Maybe just a toy, but a very cool toy that could easily be very useful.
I really like the idea of an eye looking around and blinking. You could even have it follow your cursor on the screen that you see so you could have it look at people and follow them around the room. Wink on a click.
I'm more curious why Microsoft itself can't do something like this and why a third-party company, presumably without benefit of Microsoft's source code, is able to diagnose the problem, remove the infection, and "fix" Windows.
Instead, Microsoft is laying off workers. Perhaps they should concentrate on fixing these issues even faster -- which would probably be better for their public perception of being a virus haven -- instead of cutting staff to appease stockholder's lust for profits.
In the long run, producing a quality OS and fixing these kinds of vulnerabilities promptly would do far more good for their bottom line.
I would never buy a computer from Best Buy or from Office Depot. Or Circuit City. Or Office Max. Or any retail outlet that sells cookie cutter computers to the general public.
You're going to get a stock package that works, but isn't going to have much RAM, not much of a hard drive, a slow processor, a small screen, etc. And the parts you get are going to generally be the cheapest the system builder could find.
I know many might think it's a waste of money, but I'll buy the parts I want, put the money where it will do the most good for me and how I use a computer, and build it myself. I've always done it this way and always will.
Wired ran a story recently on the Tesla roadster and mentioned the time to fully charge the battery - it was some 37 hours.
They figure it wouldn't that big of an issue, though, since most will drive short distances and the charges will be partial charges that don't take nearly as long.
I think in practice, anyone who wants to do much driving in their Tesla is going to find that long charge time a bit frustrating.
I don't think the capacity is really an issue. Capacity is just the amount of reactants in the battery. More reactants means more capacity.
The current delivery capability is going to be related to the electrode area, reactant and ion mobilities, and the distance the electrodes are separated.
All they need to do to increase capacity is upsize the battery which will probably also increase current delivery capability.
I don't think the ability to drain the battery in such a short time is the point. It's in delivering high current easily.
Lots of loads pull a lot of current initially or periodically. One example would be an electric motor since they talk about applications such as hybrids. The stall current is limited by the resistance of the windings but once it spins up, reverse voltage in the motor limits the current to much lower values. If it was a motor under a heavy load, the current could be much higher.
Another point is that in any high current circuit, the power wasted in the circuit as heat can be very high. It's current squared times resistance. With batteries that have a high internal resistance, that power heats the battery and is also power that's wasted. With a high current delivery capability, these would have very low internal resistance and under heavy loads, the batteries would run cooler and would be able to deliver more power to the actual load instead of throwing it away as heat.
This really is an accomplishment and a valuable one.
Just to illustrate battery self heating - if you ever get stranded in extreme cold because your battery doesn't have the power available to turn the engine over, just turn on the headlights for a while. It's a medium load but will heat the battery from the inside due to internal resistance and make the battery better able to start the car. This really works.
A lot for people who don't treat them with the proper respect.
That kind of short circuit current would probably amputate fingers if someone shorted one with a ring, melt metal in seconds (or less), and depending on the circuit, could possibly create enough of a magnetic field to launch that molten metal across a room (think rail guns).
High fault currents can lead to a whole range of bizarre effects. People will need to take off jewelry and should wear gloves and safety glasses when handling them. Also, that kind of fault current and molten or very very hot metal and arcs would probably be a fair fire hazard. Some sort of overcurrent protection will pretty much be mandatory.
But comparing it to a portable nuclear device is a pretty good, if extreme, analogy. One thing about such a high current capability is that less energy will be wasted as heat in the battery itself since its internal resistance must be so low.
Hydrogen is much lighter than air and also diffuses extremely fast. Unlike gasoline, it won't pool under a car to roast the occupants when it catches fire.
Also, unlike gasoline, it doesn't create lots and lots of incandescent soot that acts like a huge radiant heater set to max. You can be right next to a raging hydrogen flame and barely even feel it even though in the flame it's extremely hot.
Compressing hydrogen to put it in the tank uses a lot of energy, though. Hydrogen also attacks ozone similar to the halogens in freon so mass usage and inevitable leaks will possibly damage the ozone layer even more.
Actually, that is a very good suggestion - boot from a Linux CD, mount the Windows drive, and clean up what you can before you even try to boot back into Windows.
I am really glad there are so many Windows machines out there to take the heat and draw the attention of the hackers and organized crime.
I do so hate to ruin a good scare tactic, but elemental lithium supply far outstrips demand. The amount of lithium that has already been found is huge.
"This current estimate totals 28.4 million tonnes Li equivalent to more than 150.0 million tonnes of lithium carbonate of which nearly 14.0 million tonnes lithium (about 74.0 million tonnes of carbonate) are at active or proposed operations."
"This can be compared with current demand for lithium chemicals which approximates to 84,000 tonnes as lithium carbonate equivalents (16,000 tonnes Li)."
"Concerns regarding lithium availability for hybrid or electric vehicle batteries or other foreseeable applications are unfounded."
If you know those conservatives who hate their hybrids when they get their first repair bills, why didn't you ask them why they didn't get repairs under warranty at their dealer where they would be free?
Hybrids are pretty new on the scene and these days, cars come with 80-100,000 mile warranties. My hybrid came with an 80,000 mile warranty that I extended to 100,000 to 150,000 miles depending on the component for all of around $300.
The ONLY person that I know of that had a problem with a hybrid had it fixed by Honda for FREE even though his warranty had expired. Just barely, but it had expired and Honda had no obligation to do what they did and replace his battery pack.
So do you really know people who hate their hybrids because of high repair bills aor are you just making that up?
I think that all depends on the power plant supplying the power. Some are newer and much cleaner than the old ones that Bush helped exempt from clean air standards.
Regardless, gasoline and diesel engines start at a disadvantage compared to power plants. It's obviously in the plant operator's best interest to maximize efficiency. Automobile engines run pretty messily until they reach operating temperature and most trips are short - where engines spend a lot of their time reaching operating temperature.
Even with the resistance losses incurred in getting the energy from the power plant to home, power plant-generated electricity is very efficient compared to conventional automobiles. I don't have the numbers handy to quote, but IIRC, electric cars win in efficiency and reduced pollution even with coal-fired power plants.
Maybe I'm just a geek, but I think wind farms look really cool. All the giant props going round and round - it's kind of like looking at an aquarium and produces almost a zen-like state.
Similarly, I think a neat solar array installation is also appealing. It's all high-tech and it's cool. Literally.
Slashdot Mirror
Heck, just configure it with one of the default Windows desktop backgrounds and you might not need to retrain at all... ;-)
The Roku player is only $100 and I have only had it stutter once when my maximum download speed via DSL was 1.5 Mbps.
I have upgraded to 7 Mbps service from Qwest and it works like a dream. I have Tomato on my router so can view the bandwidth as a real-time graph and I see pulses of around 5 Mbps down with about a 25-33% duty cycle.
Obviously you need to pipe the Roku output to something to display it. I pipe it to my TV instead of trying to watch movies on my Mac. But the convenience factor is very nice.
The Roku player has also just had a firmware upgrade that allows you to tie the player to Amazon as well as to Netflix. They say even more is coming. But it's now possible to rent or buy movies from Amazon to watch on the Roku too. Quality is the same as Netflix movies as best I can tell.
One thing to watch out for if you want to rent a movie on Amazon and have a Netflix account - make sure it isn't available on Netflix already for streaming viewing. It's interesting that a number of Amazons movies available to rent or buy are also available through Netflix as part of your regular account.
I use computers for lots of stuff but for me, watching a movie or TV show on a big display in my living room or bedroom is much nicer than sitting at my desk or holding a warm laptop.
Any consulting company or person that supports Linux is no different than a company or individual that supports Windows - with some important exceptions.
One big one is the Linux consultants will spend more time actually getting work done instead of having to spend it evaluating break-ins, removing malware, etc.
Or are you just referring to all the extra business that Windows consultants get for those very reasons?
And lastly - almost forgot - most of the setup apps for Linux, if not all, give you the option to dual boot. The setup is a little more complicated but you still have Windows and can experiment with Linux at your leisure.
Also, be sure to check out Linux Journal. It's not very expensive and there are lots of good how-to articles.
One other thing - depending on the kind of gaming you are into, be sure to check out the games packages in Linux. There are all sorts of really excellent games. Multiplayer, puzzle, board, card, and such.
I can't speak to Ubuntu since I've never run it, but in SuSe you can do all of the configuration in the GUI. You do get more control in the config files themselves, but you can do all the essentials in the GUI.
;-)
At least in SuSe you can open the yast2 control center and configure the network stuff, open holes in the firewall for various services, configure your display and such, set up users, and basically everything you can do in Microsoft's control panel and more.
I haven't done anything with Wine but Codeweavers is one of the biggest contributors to the Wine project. I fyou go Linux and have issues with Wine, remember Codeweavers.
If you have been having compatibility issues, have you tried OpenSuSe?
It has been my experience (YMMV) that SuSe has better hardware support than some of the others.
On the other hand, I think it is Debian, possibly Ubuntu, that has a licensed package of codecs for stuff like mp3s and other files. With SuSe, the best method for me is to add the Pacman reository (SuSe makes it really easy) but those are codecs and not drivers.
The only 3rd party driver I've needed for SuSe has been the standard Nvidia driver, but again, SuSe makes that near automatic too.
Linux isn't that hard to deal with but it is a new paradigm and takes a little getting used to. For a standard setup, I really like SuSe. If you want the multimedia stuff with better mpeg support, learn about Pacman. But I think you will find Linux very powerful and very rewarding.
And if you want to get under the hood and explore the UNIX-like underpinnings, it is really an amazing OS and you won't ever look back. Also, if you still need to run some Windows applications, check out Codeweavers.com for Crossover Office. It's great and allows you to load and run Microsoft Office and a bunch of other Windows apps under Linux.
Dang! I thought that would take me to Paul Allen's personal web page!
What's this ubuntu thingy?
You could do virtually anything with this mod - as one poster put it, put the image from the camera on it, or you could scroll RSS feeds, put other logos inside the Apple cutout just to screw with people, an animated eye looking around and winking, etc.
Maybe just a toy, but a very cool toy that could easily be very useful.
I really like the idea of an eye looking around and blinking. You could even have it follow your cursor on the screen that you see so you could have it look at people and follow them around the room. Wink on a click.
Very fun! The guy is clever!
I'm more curious why Microsoft itself can't do something like this and why a third-party company, presumably without benefit of Microsoft's source code, is able to diagnose the problem, remove the infection, and "fix" Windows.
Instead, Microsoft is laying off workers. Perhaps they should concentrate on fixing these issues even faster -- which would probably be better for their public perception of being a virus haven -- instead of cutting staff to appease stockholder's lust for profits.
In the long run, producing a quality OS and fixing these kinds of vulnerabilities promptly would do far more good for their bottom line.
I would never buy a computer from Best Buy or from Office Depot. Or Circuit City. Or Office Max. Or any retail outlet that sells cookie cutter computers to the general public.
;-)
You're going to get a stock package that works, but isn't going to have much RAM, not much of a hard drive, a slow processor, a small screen, etc. And the parts you get are going to generally be the cheapest the system builder could find.
I know many might think it's a waste of money, but I'll buy the parts I want, put the money where it will do the most good for me and how I use a computer, and build it myself. I've always done it this way and always will.
Don't all real, manly, Slashdotters do that?
Another good point!
Wired ran a story recently on the Tesla roadster and mentioned the time to fully charge the battery - it was some 37 hours.
They figure it wouldn't that big of an issue, though, since most will drive short distances and the charges will be partial charges that don't take nearly as long.
I think in practice, anyone who wants to do much driving in their Tesla is going to find that long charge time a bit frustrating.
I don't think the capacity is really an issue. Capacity is just the amount of reactants in the battery. More reactants means more capacity.
The current delivery capability is going to be related to the electrode area, reactant and ion mobilities, and the distance the electrodes are separated.
All they need to do to increase capacity is upsize the battery which will probably also increase current delivery capability.
I don't think the ability to drain the battery in such a short time is the point. It's in delivering high current easily.
Lots of loads pull a lot of current initially or periodically. One example would be an electric motor since they talk about applications such as hybrids. The stall current is limited by the resistance of the windings but once it spins up, reverse voltage in the motor limits the current to much lower values. If it was a motor under a heavy load, the current could be much higher.
Another point is that in any high current circuit, the power wasted in the circuit as heat can be very high. It's current squared times resistance. With batteries that have a high internal resistance, that power heats the battery and is also power that's wasted. With a high current delivery capability, these would have very low internal resistance and under heavy loads, the batteries would run cooler and would be able to deliver more power to the actual load instead of throwing it away as heat.
This really is an accomplishment and a valuable one.
Just to illustrate battery self heating - if you ever get stranded in extreme cold because your battery doesn't have the power available to turn the engine over, just turn on the headlights for a while. It's a medium load but will heat the battery from the inside due to internal resistance and make the battery better able to start the car. This really works.
A lot for people who don't treat them with the proper respect.
That kind of short circuit current would probably amputate fingers if someone shorted one with a ring, melt metal in seconds (or less), and depending on the circuit, could possibly create enough of a magnetic field to launch that molten metal across a room (think rail guns).
High fault currents can lead to a whole range of bizarre effects. People will need to take off jewelry and should wear gloves and safety glasses when handling them. Also, that kind of fault current and molten or very very hot metal and arcs would probably be a fair fire hazard. Some sort of overcurrent protection will pretty much be mandatory.
But comparing it to a portable nuclear device is a pretty good, if extreme, analogy. One thing about such a high current capability is that less energy will be wasted as heat in the battery itself since its internal resistance must be so low.
Amazon sells mp3's of very high quality at the same or in many cases less than what Apple charges.
And Amarok plays those, plus all the mp3 files I ripped from my CDs beautifully.
All those iTunes files need to be converted to play on other devices. Mp3 files don't and will also play on an iPod.
And for utmost iTunes compatibility, you want an Apple box running OSX (actually BSD UNIX). Just FYI...
I bet if you do a uname -a at the C> prompt, it will say something along the lines of:
Windows 7 Desktop 2.6.27.19-3.2-default #1 SMP 2009-02-25 15:40:44
Um, nothing?
Hydrogen is much lighter than air and also diffuses extremely fast. Unlike gasoline, it won't pool under a car to roast the occupants when it catches fire.
Also, unlike gasoline, it doesn't create lots and lots of incandescent soot that acts like a huge radiant heater set to max. You can be right next to a raging hydrogen flame and barely even feel it even though in the flame it's extremely hot.
Compressing hydrogen to put it in the tank uses a lot of energy, though. Hydrogen also attacks ozone similar to the halogens in freon so mass usage and inevitable leaks will possibly damage the ozone layer even more.
Actually, that is a very good suggestion - boot from a Linux CD, mount the Windows drive, and clean up what you can before you even try to boot back into Windows.
I am really glad there are so many Windows machines out there to take the heat and draw the attention of the hackers and organized crime.
Except for the low sulfur requirement that makes for an added scrub step and adds expense to refining.
I do so hate to ruin a good scare tactic, but elemental lithium supply far outstrips demand. The amount of lithium that has already been found is huge.
http://lithiumabundance.blogspot.com/
"This current estimate totals 28.4 million tonnes Li equivalent to more than 150.0 million tonnes of lithium carbonate of which nearly 14.0 million tonnes lithium (about 74.0 million tonnes of carbonate) are at active or proposed operations."
"This can be compared with current demand for lithium chemicals which approximates to 84,000 tonnes as lithium carbonate equivalents (16,000 tonnes Li)."
"Concerns regarding lithium availability for hybrid or electric vehicle batteries or other foreseeable applications are unfounded."
If you know those conservatives who hate their hybrids when they get their first repair bills, why didn't you ask them why they didn't get repairs under warranty at their dealer where they would be free?
Hybrids are pretty new on the scene and these days, cars come with 80-100,000 mile warranties. My hybrid came with an 80,000 mile warranty that I extended to 100,000 to 150,000 miles depending on the component for all of around $300.
The ONLY person that I know of that had a problem with a hybrid had it fixed by Honda for FREE even though his warranty had expired. Just barely, but it had expired and Honda had no obligation to do what they did and replace his battery pack.
So do you really know people who hate their hybrids because of high repair bills aor are you just making that up?
I think that all depends on the power plant supplying the power. Some are newer and much cleaner than the old ones that Bush helped exempt from clean air standards.
Regardless, gasoline and diesel engines start at a disadvantage compared to power plants. It's obviously in the plant operator's best interest to maximize efficiency. Automobile engines run pretty messily until they reach operating temperature and most trips are short - where engines spend a lot of their time reaching operating temperature.
Even with the resistance losses incurred in getting the energy from the power plant to home, power plant-generated electricity is very efficient compared to conventional automobiles. I don't have the numbers handy to quote, but IIRC, electric cars win in efficiency and reduced pollution even with coal-fired power plants.
Maybe I'm just a geek, but I think wind farms look really cool. All the giant props going round and round - it's kind of like looking at an aquarium and produces almost a zen-like state.
Similarly, I think a neat solar array installation is also appealing. It's all high-tech and it's cool. Literally.
Looks like a lot of them got posted to YouTube and it was for the Chevy Tahoe.
;-)
If you view one you get links to lots more.
Enjoy! I bet this bring back lots of good memories for the GM execs...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aasSEl-Cr9Y