General public does not read books, especially technical ones. It only can take a big colorful leaflet with easy to read steps (how to plug the cord into the wall outlet, for example).
The stuff is just supposed to work. If it doesn't, then the "general public" dials 800 number. RTFM is not in this scheme of things.
That's because it is JPEG already. You can't have non-smooth jpegs:-)
Hard to say if the phone could turn out a decent image or not.
The phone needs to have a decent, preferrably adjustable lens to take sharp pictures. Such a lens will be a composite one, and it will cost more than the phone.
My guess is that the lens is a fixed, cheap, plastic one, something that failed certification for webcam use. Fixed lens has the "infinity" distance quite close to the lens, maybe one meter, and everything past that is equally sharp (or equally blurred).
However, this phone probably yields as good a picture as one can hope for, here and now. Anyone who honestly expects 5 megapixels and 10-element, autofocus lens with an iris diaphragm would be much better off buying something like
this
maybe with a lens like this...
While some people ( read/. geeks) may be using linux on their desktops, I don't think anyone can account for a large enough desktop share to claim that *nix is on the desktop.
The numbers won't change because Mom and Pop researched all the OSes and made the choice to use Linux. Similarly, the numbers won't change because Engineer #129922 in Corporation Z suddenly decided to switch his work computer to Linux(*).
The numbers will change when entire Corporation Z just changes the entire enterprise, department by department, to Linux. And Corporation Z won't be asking opinion of employees on that matter, 'cause it is uninformed at best.
This is what the thread is about.
(*) I actually did change my OS from NT 4.0 to Linux. But I was a senior programmer then, and IT people used to come to me when they needed help. Other people would not be able to get away with that.
There is a comment from another Wacom user below. He notes that the cost of the draw-on monitor is about $3500. Also, I doubt that the device is portable and low power.
I used tablets (digitizers) myself years ago, and they can be made reliable, or cheap, or lightweight. But when you try to combine all that, and glue it on top of a LCD panel (which is not that hi-res after all) then the cost becomes intolerable.
As I said, a notebook and a pen are still the best tools for the job. I remember the notes that I took on electrodynamics, quantum devices and other math-rich subjects... there is no way to convert them to text, ever. It would take tens of minutes to typeset just one formula! In such case tablet has no benefits whatsoever.
In general, students won't benefit from the tablet PC. It can be used, as already many people mentioned, in relatively expensive vertical markets, such as factory floor automation, hospitals, warehouses - where tasks are rigidly defined, and operators access the same forms and the same data day after day. It will be useful (because it is - these areas are already served by existing wireless terminals).
I wish you luck "drawing" any of that on a PC, tablet or not. It won't work because you need a touch screen with unheard before resolution, precision and wear resistance, and a LCD screen with excellent contrast and resolution of 300 dpi, and 8.5" x 11" geometry.
What you need is a notebook and a good, old-fashioned ink pen. No computer will match this combo.
Wikipedia has the definition and examples. Also follow the link to Soft SF and you will clearly see that Firefly is soft SF.
Myself, I often define hard SF as a genre where the science itself is an essential part of the plot. Ringworld, for example, is full of very specific references to very specific technologies, and often even explains how some of them work (such as Ringworld's ramjets, chiltang brone, levitating buildings, shadow squares...) Even casual description of geography is mathematically and physically correct, and is used as essential element of the plot (see the map of Mars, for example).
A soft SF often uses science as a backdrop, or as an excuse to assume something. For example, Two Universes were born in the Big Bang; one is ours, where laws of physics prevail; another is Foo, where laws of magic took hold. And now that we explained all the silliness away, here comes the story of Bar and Frobozz, magicians at large...
You say that more and more people switch back to horses and mules. Ok. I am not going to judge their choice, and obviously that's how they want to do things. However, the point of the discussion was that *I* don't want that. You couldn't pay me enough to ride a horse (or even to come close to one); but I do ride a motorcycle, and I repair my car(s) myself, whenever possible without special equipment. That's who I am.
Sure, I lived in cities and suburbs all my life. I won't deny that. And sure enough, it affected my preferences. For worse? Maybe. I don't like biology, I like electrons. But that alone is not important. What is important is that there are many more people like me, and such people do not like the prehistoric life and rituals of those backwoods, impoverished settlers. That's why I don't like the show, that's all. As I said, I can not imagine myself neither as one of those guys (both the crew or the settlers), nor among them. I don't like them.
So your comment seems to be reasonably correct, but still it argues a different point. You are trying to prove that there could be a high technology in biology and farming. I am trying to prove that western-based story is not appealing to people like me. Those are tangential arguments. I also hate westerns, but that goes without saying:-)
Another point is that 95% of population of Earth have no idea what that "western" thing is. For them it would be as weird as for you would be a story based on 1870's tribal laws in Central Africa - and to add insult to injury, you would be expected to fully understand the setting!
But whatever - by now the debate totally went off topic. If you look through other comments (which you obviously did), you will notice that there are people who like the show, and people who hate it. Well, these are subjects best left alone - "different strokes for different folks". I said my part, and now it's time to do something useful, for a change:-)
if some people form a company they no longer have to follow any moral code?
In one word, YES. But you must take into account that people who form a company are already willing to compete with other companies, and that is usually immoral (because it deprives other people of money).
The best way to stay moral is to lock yourself up in a monastery.
The companies who traded with Nazis before the law was adopted ("Trading With The Enemy", IIRC) were legally and morally OK, until some point when it should have been obvious how evil Nazis are. But that was not discovered until after the war. There were many devastating local wars since then, and every major arms supplier was more than happy to sell. USA itself was involved in a good number of these wars... will you blame the manufacturers for selling to US Army?
Do you care about the details of a street light? How about the details of your car's air conditioner?
I know those details. In fact, a street light is more complicated than most people think. I played with xenon light bulbs, they are interesting creatures. And I definitely know how the air conditioner in my car is supposed to work (but it doesn't because I am too cheap to refill it with freon, and I don't need the air conditioner anyway.)
useless technobabble that appeals to folks who can't grasp personal interaction
You are absolutely right here:-)
I challenge you to demonstrate a moment on the show...
I can't do that. I got bored instantly. What I say is my personal opinion, however incomplete it is.
If the people on the planet are poor and basically just surviving, how can the costs of transport for that fuel on a recurring basis be handled?
Light, wind, water, steam, geothermal, nuclear, orbital mirrors/microwave... they are supposed to be well aware of technology. Is it too much to assume that in 500 years from now a pocket battery can be more powerful than 1000 horses? Can't they buy a powerplant from an old spaceship, at very least? They aren't even *trying*. I don't like when people are not trying. Then they deserve what they get.
The fact of the matter is that horses are cheaper to raise and maintain than a tractor is. And a horse generates fertilizer. A tractor just spits out fumes.
Now I know why all farmers in USA switched to horses, away from their tractors and harvesters:-) The *real* fact of the matter is that horses get sick, injured, want to eat, and they can drag only one plow blade; a tractor can manage tens of blades, can be repaired (or replaced), and can be refueled in a moment. That's how humans ended up with enough food for everyone. Industrialized nations - that's the name:-)
In any case, I do not associate myself with those people, whatever their cause is. I do not understand their problems, and as such I do not care to watch the show. Those people are more than aliens to me, they are totally incomprehensible. You seem to understand them and like them - good for you. But for me, they are moving backward in time, from prosperity and power over elements into poverty, sickness and suffering. I don't want to follow them on this path, even through the safety of a TV screen.
when they get around to making Junkyard Wars in Space, I guess you'll be in heaven
I don't watch Junkyard Wars either. What I would want from a sci-fi show is originality, mystery, challenge, intelligence... not a bunch of people tending to cows.
one of the wonderful things about Firefly was the fact that they treated technology naturally, just something that you used and no big deal about it
But it is a big deal. I want to know all the details about that stuff, and I can't care less about rituals of marriage on some backward planet.
Nobody goes about their daily lives discussing how to rework a dilithium matrix
Not a specific rework matters, but a stroke of genius that enables the rework. Granted, lots of ST themes are simplistic and probably not suitable for discussions of mastery, but still there is a lot of respect for a character who in most difficult situation finds a solution that works. Note that most appreciated is not a technobabble, but a reasonable, practical solution that a viewer could arrive at himself. Many of Picard's command decisions are on that level.
outer colonies reduced to using wagons and horses
I don't believe this. Can't they build a tractor? I don't socialize with such people; their affairs are of no interest to me.
you bitch about the representation of technology in Firefly and then say that Lexx was interesting?
My criteria of interest does not demand technology. Lexx has different appeal, and as I said, it plays by completely different rules. Firefly chose to waive this immunity when it condemned itself to reliving Wild West.
Sci-fi is an abbreviation of "science" and "fiction". Not much of that can be found in a souped-up version of a western. Myself, I am not interested in cattle, dances around fire, or various other intrigues of the sort.
The show failed because it never had an audience. Science aspects of the show (as much as I could suffer through) are abysmal; one can find more science in "The He-Man":-) Fiction aspects (human relationships) are hardly appealing to technologically inclined. Style of a western best caters to my grand-grand-parents. So who is left there to watch?
For me, the show was not interesting. I watched only 1/2 of an episode; could not tolerate more. If there are good scenes elsewhere, I will never see them, because I am not willing to dig through a huge heap of junk for that. Yes, episodes are available on the Net. But they are not worth a blank CD.
However, Lexx is interesting, and Farscape, because these are shows which build their own Universe and play by the rules of that Universe. These show's writers have imagination. I like that.
Without the liquid water there is no "life" in space
We, beings of Jupiter, do not agree. Liquid water that you are talking about is nothing but insanely hot and barely maintainable substance. Only in our high energy labs such material can briefly exist, and obviously no life can thrive in it either.
Besides, everyone knows that liquid, pleasantly warm (+20K) methane is most optimal for life. Water that you speak about is just a heresy.
Keep in mind that most of that memory is the physical RAM on your video card that X maps into its address space to work on. How else would it put anything on screen? 1600x1200x24bpp will require minimum 6 MBytes packed, and my card (for example) has 32 MB RAM on it, and be sure, all of it is mapped into X address space.
A man wanted to get a free medical advice from a known doctor. At a party he approached the doctor, told him that "his friend" has a problem, described the problem, and asked what would the treatment be.
The doctor answered: "I advise him to see a doctor".
And how it is different from a grocery store buying 10,000 gallons of milk from farmers and reselling them one gallon at a time, neatly repackaged and at higher relative price?
I'd think, any sane game software company would look at the games sales figures first and only then on the number of X-boxes sold. Especially if everybody [in the business] knows that X-boxen are being modded for other uses.
The business justification is simple. Advertisement of a movie in one country costs N million dollars; if you do it in M countries you must have N*M million dollars. But this is expensive, and where the money would come from? Especially right after the movie is done and all the investment/loan money already spent?
The easy way out is to start in few countries, collect money, recoup your advertising expenses, and reinvest into advertising in another country or group of countries. This way you only need N million dollars regardless of how many countries you sell the movie to. This, of course, takes time, and that's where the delay comes from.
Re:Companies need to learn how to make money.
on
VisionTek Folds
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Superior products, largest reseller of Nvidia cards... Where did they go wrong?
I suppose financial scandal could do it, but was that the case?
I doubt the accounting had any role in this. They are small fish.
What is more likely is that the investor (or investors, or VCs, etc.) who owned the company did some calculations on a napkin and came up with conclusion that closing the company -now- is more profitable than allowing it to exist. This is a common problem with VCs who own 95% of your company and make decisions for you.
Invalid ID number. Does not appear to be a GUID or a Passport ID
/ads/managers/batchads.inc, line 304
I wonder if this is related to the fact that my browser is refusing cookies, Javascript and all other spyware (being behind Squid and Junkbuster). Or maybe it -is- the article???
Slashdot Mirror
Statistically, they indeed can.
It won't be "slightly" used, it will be totally worn out :-(
The stuff is just supposed to work. If it doesn't, then the "general public" dials 800 number. RTFM is not in this scheme of things.
That's what happens when you have ST:TNG and Voyager merged into one :-)
That's because it is JPEG already. You can't have non-smooth jpegs :-)
Hard to say if the phone could turn out a decent image or not.
The phone needs to have a decent, preferrably adjustable lens to take sharp pictures. Such a lens will be a composite one, and it will cost more than the phone.
My guess is that the lens is a fixed, cheap, plastic one, something that failed certification for webcam use. Fixed lens has the "infinity" distance quite close to the lens, maybe one meter, and everything past that is equally sharp (or equally blurred).
However, this phone probably yields as good a picture as one can hope for, here and now. Anyone who honestly expects 5 megapixels and 10-element, autofocus lens with an iris diaphragm would be much better off buying something like this maybe with a lens like this...
It is bad. So out of focus that I couldn't look at it for more than few seconds! Colors are OK, though.
The numbers won't change because Mom and Pop researched all the OSes and made the choice to use Linux. Similarly, the numbers won't change because Engineer #129922 in Corporation Z suddenly decided to switch his work computer to Linux(*).
The numbers will change when entire Corporation Z just changes the entire enterprise, department by department, to Linux. And Corporation Z won't be asking opinion of employees on that matter, 'cause it is uninformed at best. This is what the thread is about.
(*) I actually did change my OS from NT 4.0 to Linux. But I was a senior programmer then, and IT people used to come to me when they needed help. Other people would not be able to get away with that.
I used tablets (digitizers) myself years ago, and they can be made reliable, or cheap, or lightweight. But when you try to combine all that, and glue it on top of a LCD panel (which is not that hi-res after all) then the cost becomes intolerable.
As I said, a notebook and a pen are still the best tools for the job. I remember the notes that I took on electrodynamics, quantum devices and other math-rich subjects... there is no way to convert them to text, ever. It would take tens of minutes to typeset just one formula! In such case tablet has no benefits whatsoever.
In general, students won't benefit from the tablet PC. It can be used, as already many people mentioned, in relatively expensive vertical markets, such as factory floor automation, hospitals, warehouses - where tasks are rigidly defined, and operators access the same forms and the same data day after day. It will be useful (because it is - these areas are already served by existing wireless terminals).
What you need is a notebook and a good, old-fashioned ink pen. No computer will match this combo.
Myself, I often define hard SF as a genre where the science itself is an essential part of the plot. Ringworld, for example, is full of very specific references to very specific technologies, and often even explains how some of them work (such as Ringworld's ramjets, chiltang brone, levitating buildings, shadow squares...) Even casual description of geography is mathematically and physically correct, and is used as essential element of the plot (see the map of Mars, for example).
A soft SF often uses science as a backdrop, or as an excuse to assume something. For example, Two Universes were born in the Big Bang; one is ours, where laws of physics prevail; another is Foo, where laws of magic took hold. And now that we explained all the silliness away, here comes the story of Bar and Frobozz, magicians at large...
You say that more and more people switch back to horses and mules. Ok. I am not going to judge their choice, and obviously that's how they want to do things. However, the point of the discussion was that *I* don't want that. You couldn't pay me enough to ride a horse (or even to come close to one); but I do ride a motorcycle, and I repair my car(s) myself, whenever possible without special equipment. That's who I am.
Sure, I lived in cities and suburbs all my life. I won't deny that. And sure enough, it affected my preferences. For worse? Maybe. I don't like biology, I like electrons. But that alone is not important. What is important is that there are many more people like me, and such people do not like the prehistoric life and rituals of those backwoods, impoverished settlers. That's why I don't like the show, that's all. As I said, I can not imagine myself neither as one of those guys (both the crew or the settlers), nor among them. I don't like them.
So your comment seems to be reasonably correct, but still it argues a different point. You are trying to prove that there could be a high technology in biology and farming. I am trying to prove that western-based story is not appealing to people like me. Those are tangential arguments. I also hate westerns, but that goes without saying :-)
Another point is that 95% of population of Earth have no idea what that "western" thing is. For them it would be as weird as for you would be a story based on 1870's tribal laws in Central Africa - and to add insult to injury, you would be expected to fully understand the setting!
But whatever - by now the debate totally went off topic. If you look through other comments (which you obviously did), you will notice that there are people who like the show, and people who hate it. Well, these are subjects best left alone - "different strokes for different folks". I said my part, and now it's time to do something useful, for a change :-)
In one word, YES. But you must take into account that people who form a company are already willing to compete with other companies, and that is usually immoral (because it deprives other people of money).
The best way to stay moral is to lock yourself up in a monastery.
The companies who traded with Nazis before the law was adopted ("Trading With The Enemy", IIRC) were legally and morally OK, until some point when it should have been obvious how evil Nazis are. But that was not discovered until after the war. There were many devastating local wars since then, and every major arms supplier was more than happy to sell. USA itself was involved in a good number of these wars... will you blame the manufacturers for selling to US Army?
I know those details. In fact, a street light is more complicated than most people think. I played with xenon light bulbs, they are interesting creatures. And I definitely know how the air conditioner in my car is supposed to work (but it doesn't because I am too cheap to refill it with freon, and I don't need the air conditioner anyway.)
useless technobabble that appeals to folks who can't grasp personal interaction
You are absolutely right here :-)
I challenge you to demonstrate a moment on the show...
I can't do that. I got bored instantly. What I say is my personal opinion, however incomplete it is.
If the people on the planet are poor and basically just surviving, how can the costs of transport for that fuel on a recurring basis be handled?
Light, wind, water, steam, geothermal, nuclear, orbital mirrors/microwave... they are supposed to be well aware of technology. Is it too much to assume that in 500 years from now a pocket battery can be more powerful than 1000 horses? Can't they buy a powerplant from an old spaceship, at very least? They aren't even *trying*. I don't like when people are not trying. Then they deserve what they get.
The fact of the matter is that horses are cheaper to raise and maintain than a tractor is. And a horse generates fertilizer. A tractor just spits out fumes.
Now I know why all farmers in USA switched to horses, away from their tractors and harvesters :-) The *real* fact of the matter is that horses get sick, injured, want to eat, and they can drag only one plow blade; a tractor can manage tens of blades, can be repaired (or replaced), and can be refueled in a moment. That's how humans ended up with enough food for everyone. Industrialized nations - that's the name :-)
In any case, I do not associate myself with those people, whatever their cause is. I do not understand their problems, and as such I do not care to watch the show. Those people are more than aliens to me, they are totally incomprehensible. You seem to understand them and like them - good for you. But for me, they are moving backward in time, from prosperity and power over elements into poverty, sickness and suffering. I don't want to follow them on this path, even through the safety of a TV screen.
I don't watch Junkyard Wars either. What I would want from a sci-fi show is originality, mystery, challenge, intelligence... not a bunch of people tending to cows.
one of the wonderful things about Firefly was the fact that they treated technology naturally, just something that you used and no big deal about it
But it is a big deal. I want to know all the details about that stuff, and I can't care less about rituals of marriage on some backward planet.
Nobody goes about their daily lives discussing how to rework a dilithium matrix
Not a specific rework matters, but a stroke of genius that enables the rework. Granted, lots of ST themes are simplistic and probably not suitable for discussions of mastery, but still there is a lot of respect for a character who in most difficult situation finds a solution that works. Note that most appreciated is not a technobabble, but a reasonable, practical solution that a viewer could arrive at himself. Many of Picard's command decisions are on that level.
outer colonies reduced to using wagons and horses
I don't believe this. Can't they build a tractor? I don't socialize with such people; their affairs are of no interest to me.
you bitch about the representation of technology in Firefly and then say that Lexx was interesting?
My criteria of interest does not demand technology. Lexx has different appeal, and as I said, it plays by completely different rules. Firefly chose to waive this immunity when it condemned itself to reliving Wild West.
The show failed because it never had an audience. Science aspects of the show (as much as I could suffer through) are abysmal; one can find more science in "The He-Man" :-) Fiction aspects (human relationships) are hardly appealing to technologically inclined. Style of a western best caters to my grand-grand-parents. So who is left there to watch?
For me, the show was not interesting. I watched only 1/2 of an episode; could not tolerate more. If there are good scenes elsewhere, I will never see them, because I am not willing to dig through a huge heap of junk for that. Yes, episodes are available on the Net. But they are not worth a blank CD.
However, Lexx is interesting, and Farscape, because these are shows which build their own Universe and play by the rules of that Universe. These show's writers have imagination. I like that.
We, beings of Jupiter, do not agree. Liquid water that you are talking about is nothing but insanely hot and barely maintainable substance. Only in our high energy labs such material can briefly exist, and obviously no life can thrive in it either.
Besides, everyone knows that liquid, pleasantly warm (+20K) methane is most optimal for life. Water that you speak about is just a heresy.
Signed,
88736662-99923662 Jr.
Keep in mind that most of that memory is the physical RAM on your video card that X maps into its address space to work on. How else would it put anything on screen? 1600x1200x24bpp will require minimum 6 MBytes packed, and my card (for example) has 32 MB RAM on it, and be sure, all of it is mapped into X address space.
The doctor answered: "I advise him to see a doctor".
And how it is different from a grocery store buying 10,000 gallons of milk from farmers and reselling them one gallon at a time, neatly repackaged and at higher relative price?
Speeding offence in Moscow is practically impossible. Traffic is too bad. Old city, narrow streets.
I'd think, any sane game software company would look at the games sales figures first and only then on the number of X-boxes sold. Especially if everybody [in the business] knows that X-boxen are being modded for other uses.
The easy way out is to start in few countries, collect money, recoup your advertising expenses, and reinvest into advertising in another country or group of countries. This way you only need N million dollars regardless of how many countries you sell the movie to. This, of course, takes time, and that's where the delay comes from.
I doubt the accounting had any role in this. They are small fish.
What is more likely is that the investor (or investors, or VCs, etc.) who owned the company did some calculations on a napkin and came up with conclusion that closing the company -now- is more profitable than allowing it to exist. This is a common problem with VCs who own 95% of your company and make decisions for you.
Invalid ID number. Does not appear to be a GUID or
a Passport ID
I wonder if this is related to the fact that my browser is refusing cookies, Javascript and all other spyware (being behind Squid and Junkbuster). Or maybe it -is- the article???
Haven't you read that Oracle did exactly this?