For how much Slashdotters rip apart the DRM industry, which spends millions upon millions only to have their key's hacked in a day, we sure do expect a lot from our browsers.
I'll just avoid addressing your sarcasm and instead work to weed out what might be plausible.
To release a product that is inherently flawed, which does not meet the necessity of the cause is ridiculous. If the product is designed to be plugged in, then obviously Intel saw its intended market to be people who want a cheap laptop, not the truly needy.
I wonder what you find to be ridiculous assumptions carried with the OLPC. The thought, research, and collaboration that have gone into the project far surpass what any profit-based corporation would achieve on their own. Simply put, even if two products are exactly the same, I would always choose the one that had the truer intentions. If Intel's laptop is aimed at being a consumer product, then its intention is to make money and spread Intel. If the OLPC has the goal of furthering technological education in third world countries, while working to find an affordable way to keep families in touch, then I assume the intentions are as pure as they can be in this day and age.
Obviously you've never worked in charity or been to Africa. You should learn to accept and realize that very few movements in charity or outreach are single-entity. Many subsidies are expected. Everyone gives a little. The market is huge. You're an absolute moron if you can't look at the dispersion of wealth in this world, notice the discrepancy, and recognize the need for the mission of OLPC.
I doubt the OLPC will have much trouble seeing the light of day, even if it takes a bit longer than Intel. I believe that the final product will serve a greater good than Intel's. What remains to be seen is if jerks like you can see the light of day and put forth an effort more attuned than a sarcastic slap at the laudable mission of the OLPC. I'm not worried about companies that have signed on or the drive behind the product, I'm worried about people who fail to see the big-picture mission of the OLPC and try to scuttle it as an improbable concept. Enjoy the circle saved for you.
This review makes me angry. Why the hell would you review something as though it were a consumer product for spoiled white kids who have two computers to choose from and who see if their children's version of "second life" works. OLPC is intended for kids who have one extremely endangered life and need to learn basic computer skills. The fact that they had to CALL a tech support place is the sign of Intel's failure. What, are kids in Africa going to walk 30 miles to a pay phone that they can't afford just to be put on hold and deal with call centers in Bangladesh? Are we trying to punish these poor kids?
Doesn't much of this come down to a lack of education? Computers are a part of society that we are incredibly reliant upon and yet we expect users to be either self-taught or trained. Public education fails in computer education (and many other realms). While there will always be the technologically inept who can't program their Tivo or who look at an iPod as a paperweight, these are devices that don't bring about serious consequences for their misuse. As the reliance upon computers has increased, and as the sensitivity of information retained on computer has also increased, the training to go along with handling these responsibilities and technologies has gone almost untouched.
I'm confused as to why you make a few of your comments.
1. Facebook and Myspace are huge populations of people. Facebook, inherently, is for college students. Working at a university, I often see the amount of information and reliance students place on Facebook as a way to keep in touch. The second is Myspace. This is a haven for anyone, 12 year olds (and those who act like 12 year olds) included. But either way, both are social architectures that have boomed and are huge amongst teenagers and twenty-somethings alike. I can only assume that in all your expressed understanding of these two things, you don't use them.
2. Every guild I've been in for raiding (two long-term) were all players in their 20's--some even were married who played with their wives (in and out of game). The twelve year-olds are easy to avoid--they can't spell and they're immature. Everything and every community has its undesirable aspects. You ignore the parts you don't like and embrace and involve yourself in the parts you do.
I'll tell you what loses its appeal though--people who post sweeping statements that are horribly ignorant.
WoW, aside from being a well polished, easily accessible game has more going for it than fun gameplay. WoW has become a social community, many of whom spend time talking on Vent, many of whom are college roommates or friends who all play together and actually keep in touch, not only through facebook or myspace, but through WoW. WoW is a social game and to say that other games are going to pull away users...well I just don't see it happening.
I love my Intel mac. It performs amazingly and I love being able to boot into OS X or Windows.
Also, Apple doesn't currently have to explain different chip architecture like they did with the G4 "No, really, a 500mhz g4 is faster than a 1.2ghz Celeron." It's just not easy marketing. People now realize that they're buying an operating system and a quality machine. And really, Apple needs stability after such a large change only two years ago--something that AMD simply cannot offer right now.
Switching to AMD would recreate nebulous differences about speed that people would argue about too much, and Slashdot has enough Mac/PC warring conversations. Let's not create another spitting point.
Yeah, but given the amount of resources Google provides for its employees, it's safe to say that 50% of all power will go to catered meals, jacuzzis, and vibrating beds for nap breaks on those difficult 6 and a half hour work days.
As a photographer, having $8,000 of camera gear on me at any point is a reality you live with. Plus, why cringe when you have insurance? All major cell phone companies offer a small monthly fee for cell phone replacement if it's lost or stolen. You're only carrying a $600 device if that's the cost of replacement.
Sensible World of Soccer was one of my favorite games ever. First appearing on Commodore and Amiga, it was a hit in the UK and eventually made it to the US. It allowed you to build teams and play as either Club or World Cup teams with a perspective (bird's eye) not often used in soccer games. It eventually made its way onto SNES and Genesis, but the gameplay is addictive (very quick paced and responsive) and overall ball control is fantastic.
One game I wish hadn't been left off was "Alone in the Dark." That game built the entire genre that the highly successful Resident Evil and Silent Hill series are based on.
A shame for whom? Ease of use to lessen training costs, simplicity without needing specified hardware, and a vast majority of workers whose interfacing with a computer consists of MySpace, Email, and chat. Technologically it could be considered a step sideways, but so was the Wii. It's all about user interactivity.
It was a silly acquisition, but in the travel industry, I think it was a different situation. With all the airlines forming alliances (The Star Alliance, Air Alliance...etc) the perceived strength of the industry was going to be through size and affiliation, drawing people to specific airlines that could cover all their needs via shared incentives. Airlines bought up and merged to not be left out to struggle on their own. What the industry failed to realize was that their traditional practices were crap compared to forward-thinking, new-technology airlines such as Southwest, RyanAir, and a few years later, JetBlue. Compounded with the issues facing Swiss pensions and the downfall of Sabena, Alliances and mergers is what really caught Swissair unready for the fallout. No doubt Swissair had problems, but they were problems that could be subsidized by the government to cover. What it couldn't afford was paying for another airline's follies.
Actually, no, it takes more inside information than that. My dad worked for Swissair for 30 years and its downfall was actually the acquisition of Sabena and the contractual agreement created in the acquisition. At the time, it was a solid investment, but as the overall financial state of Sabena fell apart, Swissair was legally obligated to have to try and save them, draining their resources. The in-flight entertainment was simply a last can of gasoline tossed on an intensely burning flame.
I have no doubt they have a lot of know-how, but firing any projectile into the air at that distance without any means to readjust trajectory in mid-flight has very little to do with know-how and everything to do with physics.
Unless it has GPS tracking or control, there is no way that a shell fired over 200 miles, with an apex of 95 miles up, at over 2000fps, would have any of the necessary accuracy to make it worth it. Wind resistance, air currents, and the rise and fall of the ship by a mere half inch would throw off the trajectory to be not feet or yards off-target, but miles.
I guess my questions comes more from the idea of possible drive failures, data throughput, and lack of knowledge in both these categories than anything else...
With a ~20gig file on such large drives, doesn't the chance for error increase at the same rate? What is to keep these files from having a small error which then destabilizes the whole file? Doesn't it take so much less to make the drive, as a whole, unusable, wiping out that much more data in one fail swoop?
Are there redundancy efforts in place besides a common backup to secure information? It seems as though these large files, floating in lifeboats on bittorrent, retained in case such large drives should go, is the safest place should your HD-DVD or hard drive fail.
If education is failing, coming generations are expecting more handed to them on a silver platter, and jobs in AMERICA are considered immigrant jobs, why shouldn't we expect more jobs to be outsourced? If American students are dropping out of school and then using welfare money to buy $100 shoes, I sure as hell don't want to employ them. I'd rather have somebody abroad who is competitively seeking employment and educating themselves. People always focus on the cost of outsourcing. I choose to focus on the reliability and capability of overseas workers vs. the American counterparts who would eat up all my costs through inefficient healthcare bureaucracy and common mistakes. Overseas workers might get paid less and have fewer protections, but they work harder to get the jobs they have. If the worker protections were the same in India as they were in America, I would no doubt choose the Indian over the American. Thomas Friedman put it best. The world is flat. If American can't compete, blame the legislators who took all the money from education and made it work for short political gain rather than long-term results.
In response to...
Intro: Sure, the phone is going to cost $600. But how many people pay cost for their cell phone when they sign up for a plan? Carriers eat the cost based on the length of the contract and extras added onto it. Clearly anyone who purchases the iPhone will want a data package. There's way more money to be made over 2 years at 19.99 a month for a data package than charging 600 outright for the hardware. Plus, the entire idea of the iPhone is to reinvent the market and put forth the idea that cell phones need to be more interactive when they come in range of your home computer. Purchasing wirelessly is a gutting move that wireless carriers will only be able to continue so much longer.
1) I agree, the free usage of ringtones and photos that are not linked to a pay service (damn you, Verizon) is a departure from the common pay-per method. But, certain phones such as the Sony-Ericsson phones that are completely mac-synchable do not lack these features. It's simply a case of Apple exemplifying what a phone with unlimited Bluetooth access is capable of. As per the wifi argument, it's certainly possible that Skype could become a major platform for free VoiP calling, but rather than pose a challenge it is impossible to not identify it as the way the market is going. With the massive commitment from Google, Orange, Skype and others, wireless carriers have to be trying to discern their place in the market.
2) They just released this Zune. There is no competition for at least 2 years at the speed Microsoft moves. And others? Verizon and sprint are still CDMA. Goodluck making that worth your time. And T-Mobile is too small a provider. Cingular has the means only at this point.
3) Wii. Shh. Never. Never as a game controller. That's ridiculous. What Apple needs to integrate is GPS such as Verizon does for its navigation in the enV. Otherwise, Verizon really has the Googlemaps feature beat.
A Googlephone, more seriously named...it integrates with Googlemaps, youtube, pics, and groups. Using GPS, all pictures and movies can be tagged with the location of where you are, making it possible to search for images and video by location. This in turn makes the organization of pictures much easier and streamlined. Also allows for your googlepage to be updated via cell phone for personal journaling.
GoogleGroups will notify you of members or events in the area and allow you to spread beyond the GoogleTalk already available to use on the phone and let you actually talk with people. Also, groups could tag things to do in their city (ie I'm into museums, my group membership tags on my phonemaps local museums) Again, using GPS, allow pairing to find friends in cities by mapping a route to meet someone.
Slashdot Mirror
How is the economy supposed to grow with all those people playing Halo 3 and WoW?
For how much Slashdotters rip apart the DRM industry, which spends millions upon millions only to have their key's hacked in a day, we sure do expect a lot from our browsers.
I'll just avoid addressing your sarcasm and instead work to weed out what might be plausible.
To release a product that is inherently flawed, which does not meet the necessity of the cause is ridiculous. If the product is designed to be plugged in, then obviously Intel saw its intended market to be people who want a cheap laptop, not the truly needy.
I wonder what you find to be ridiculous assumptions carried with the OLPC. The thought, research, and collaboration that have gone into the project far surpass what any profit-based corporation would achieve on their own. Simply put, even if two products are exactly the same, I would always choose the one that had the truer intentions. If Intel's laptop is aimed at being a consumer product, then its intention is to make money and spread Intel. If the OLPC has the goal of furthering technological education in third world countries, while working to find an affordable way to keep families in touch, then I assume the intentions are as pure as they can be in this day and age.
Obviously you've never worked in charity or been to Africa. You should learn to accept and realize that very few movements in charity or outreach are single-entity. Many subsidies are expected. Everyone gives a little. The market is huge. You're an absolute moron if you can't look at the dispersion of wealth in this world, notice the discrepancy, and recognize the need for the mission of OLPC.
I doubt the OLPC will have much trouble seeing the light of day, even if it takes a bit longer than Intel. I believe that the final product will serve a greater good than Intel's. What remains to be seen is if jerks like you can see the light of day and put forth an effort more attuned than a sarcastic slap at the laudable mission of the OLPC. I'm not worried about companies that have signed on or the drive behind the product, I'm worried about people who fail to see the big-picture mission of the OLPC and try to scuttle it as an improbable concept. Enjoy the circle saved for you.
This review makes me angry. Why the hell would you review something as though it were a consumer product for spoiled white kids who have two computers to choose from and who see if their children's version of "second life" works. OLPC is intended for kids who have one extremely endangered life and need to learn basic computer skills. The fact that they had to CALL a tech support place is the sign of Intel's failure. What, are kids in Africa going to walk 30 miles to a pay phone that they can't afford just to be put on hold and deal with call centers in Bangladesh? Are we trying to punish these poor kids?
Doesn't much of this come down to a lack of education? Computers are a part of society that we are incredibly reliant upon and yet we expect users to be either self-taught or trained. Public education fails in computer education (and many other realms). While there will always be the technologically inept who can't program their Tivo or who look at an iPod as a paperweight, these are devices that don't bring about serious consequences for their misuse. As the reliance upon computers has increased, and as the sensitivity of information retained on computer has also increased, the training to go along with handling these responsibilities and technologies has gone almost untouched.
omg beer through the nose. Goddamn that was funny.
I'm confused as to why you make a few of your comments.
1. Facebook and Myspace are huge populations of people. Facebook, inherently, is for college students. Working at a university, I often see the amount of information and reliance students place on Facebook as a way to keep in touch. The second is Myspace. This is a haven for anyone, 12 year olds (and those who act like 12 year olds) included. But either way, both are social architectures that have boomed and are huge amongst teenagers and twenty-somethings alike. I can only assume that in all your expressed understanding of these two things, you don't use them.
2. Every guild I've been in for raiding (two long-term) were all players in their 20's--some even were married who played with their wives (in and out of game). The twelve year-olds are easy to avoid--they can't spell and they're immature. Everything and every community has its undesirable aspects. You ignore the parts you don't like and embrace and involve yourself in the parts you do.
I'll tell you what loses its appeal though--people who post sweeping statements that are horribly ignorant.
WoW, aside from being a well polished, easily accessible game has more going for it than fun gameplay. WoW has become a social community, many of whom spend time talking on Vent, many of whom are college roommates or friends who all play together and actually keep in touch, not only through facebook or myspace, but through WoW. WoW is a social game and to say that other games are going to pull away users...well I just don't see it happening.
...to teach students to respect an honor code?
I love my Intel mac. It performs amazingly and I love being able to boot into OS X or Windows.
Also, Apple doesn't currently have to explain different chip architecture like they did with the G4 "No, really, a 500mhz g4 is faster than a 1.2ghz Celeron." It's just not easy marketing. People now realize that they're buying an operating system and a quality machine. And really, Apple needs stability after such a large change only two years ago--something that AMD simply cannot offer right now.
Switching to AMD would recreate nebulous differences about speed that people would argue about too much, and Slashdot has enough Mac/PC warring conversations. Let's not create another spitting point.
Yeah, but given the amount of resources Google provides for its employees, it's safe to say that 50% of all power will go to catered meals, jacuzzis, and vibrating beds for nap breaks on those difficult 6 and a half hour work days.
As a photographer, having $8,000 of camera gear on me at any point is a reality you live with. Plus, why cringe when you have insurance? All major cell phone companies offer a small monthly fee for cell phone replacement if it's lost or stolen. You're only carrying a $600 device if that's the cost of replacement.
Sensible World of Soccer was one of my favorite games ever. First appearing on Commodore and Amiga, it was a hit in the UK and eventually made it to the US. It allowed you to build teams and play as either Club or World Cup teams with a perspective (bird's eye) not often used in soccer games. It eventually made its way onto SNES and Genesis, but the gameplay is addictive (very quick paced and responsive) and overall ball control is fantastic. One game I wish hadn't been left off was "Alone in the Dark." That game built the entire genre that the highly successful Resident Evil and Silent Hill series are based on.
How is this only a 1 on the funny? I lost use of a nasal passage from this comment
A shame for whom? Ease of use to lessen training costs, simplicity without needing specified hardware, and a vast majority of workers whose interfacing with a computer consists of MySpace, Email, and chat. Technologically it could be considered a step sideways, but so was the Wii. It's all about user interactivity.
It was a silly acquisition, but in the travel industry, I think it was a different situation. With all the airlines forming alliances (The Star Alliance, Air Alliance...etc) the perceived strength of the industry was going to be through size and affiliation, drawing people to specific airlines that could cover all their needs via shared incentives. Airlines bought up and merged to not be left out to struggle on their own. What the industry failed to realize was that their traditional practices were crap compared to forward-thinking, new-technology airlines such as Southwest, RyanAir, and a few years later, JetBlue. Compounded with the issues facing Swiss pensions and the downfall of Sabena, Alliances and mergers is what really caught Swissair unready for the fallout. No doubt Swissair had problems, but they were problems that could be subsidized by the government to cover. What it couldn't afford was paying for another airline's follies.
Actually, no, it takes more inside information than that. My dad worked for Swissair for 30 years and its downfall was actually the acquisition of Sabena and the contractual agreement created in the acquisition. At the time, it was a solid investment, but as the overall financial state of Sabena fell apart, Swissair was legally obligated to have to try and save them, draining their resources. The in-flight entertainment was simply a last can of gasoline tossed on an intensely burning flame.
All those fancy features and only Cingular and Verizon to play with. It'll probably have the reliability and performance of Rusty the narcoleptic dog.
I have no doubt they have a lot of know-how, but firing any projectile into the air at that distance without any means to readjust trajectory in mid-flight has very little to do with know-how and everything to do with physics.
Unless it has GPS tracking or control, there is no way that a shell fired over 200 miles, with an apex of 95 miles up, at over 2000fps, would have any of the necessary accuracy to make it worth it. Wind resistance, air currents, and the rise and fall of the ship by a mere half inch would throw off the trajectory to be not feet or yards off-target, but miles.
I guess my questions comes more from the idea of possible drive failures, data throughput, and lack of knowledge in both these categories than anything else...
With a ~20gig file on such large drives, doesn't the chance for error increase at the same rate? What is to keep these files from having a small error which then destabilizes the whole file? Doesn't it take so much less to make the drive, as a whole, unusable, wiping out that much more data in one fail swoop?
Are there redundancy efforts in place besides a common backup to secure information? It seems as though these large files, floating in lifeboats on bittorrent, retained in case such large drives should go, is the safest place should your HD-DVD or hard drive fail.
If education is failing, coming generations are expecting more handed to them on a silver platter, and jobs in AMERICA are considered immigrant jobs, why shouldn't we expect more jobs to be outsourced? If American students are dropping out of school and then using welfare money to buy $100 shoes, I sure as hell don't want to employ them. I'd rather have somebody abroad who is competitively seeking employment and educating themselves. People always focus on the cost of outsourcing. I choose to focus on the reliability and capability of overseas workers vs. the American counterparts who would eat up all my costs through inefficient healthcare bureaucracy and common mistakes. Overseas workers might get paid less and have fewer protections, but they work harder to get the jobs they have. If the worker protections were the same in India as they were in America, I would no doubt choose the Indian over the American. Thomas Friedman put it best. The world is flat. If American can't compete, blame the legislators who took all the money from education and made it work for short political gain rather than long-term results.
In response to... Intro: Sure, the phone is going to cost $600. But how many people pay cost for their cell phone when they sign up for a plan? Carriers eat the cost based on the length of the contract and extras added onto it. Clearly anyone who purchases the iPhone will want a data package. There's way more money to be made over 2 years at 19.99 a month for a data package than charging 600 outright for the hardware. Plus, the entire idea of the iPhone is to reinvent the market and put forth the idea that cell phones need to be more interactive when they come in range of your home computer. Purchasing wirelessly is a gutting move that wireless carriers will only be able to continue so much longer. 1) I agree, the free usage of ringtones and photos that are not linked to a pay service (damn you, Verizon) is a departure from the common pay-per method. But, certain phones such as the Sony-Ericsson phones that are completely mac-synchable do not lack these features. It's simply a case of Apple exemplifying what a phone with unlimited Bluetooth access is capable of. As per the wifi argument, it's certainly possible that Skype could become a major platform for free VoiP calling, but rather than pose a challenge it is impossible to not identify it as the way the market is going. With the massive commitment from Google, Orange, Skype and others, wireless carriers have to be trying to discern their place in the market. 2) They just released this Zune. There is no competition for at least 2 years at the speed Microsoft moves. And others? Verizon and sprint are still CDMA. Goodluck making that worth your time. And T-Mobile is too small a provider. Cingular has the means only at this point. 3) Wii. Shh. Never. Never as a game controller. That's ridiculous. What Apple needs to integrate is GPS such as Verizon does for its navigation in the enV. Otherwise, Verizon really has the Googlemaps feature beat.
A Googlephone, more seriously named...it integrates with Googlemaps, youtube, pics, and groups. Using GPS, all pictures and movies can be tagged with the location of where you are, making it possible to search for images and video by location. This in turn makes the organization of pictures much easier and streamlined. Also allows for your googlepage to be updated via cell phone for personal journaling. GoogleGroups will notify you of members or events in the area and allow you to spread beyond the GoogleTalk already available to use on the phone and let you actually talk with people. Also, groups could tag things to do in their city (ie I'm into museums, my group membership tags on my phonemaps local museums) Again, using GPS, allow pairing to find friends in cities by mapping a route to meet someone.