It's far worse than that: "64Gbit" is not bytes; you'll have to divide by 8 to get that... oh, that makes for an 8GByte chip. We already have those.
"80 DVD movies or 32,000 MP3 music files" would have to involve rather small movies and music files; at that quantity on paired chips (it's a good thing the author told us that this adds up to 128GB, I'd have otherwise been stumped), a "DVD movie" is 1.6GB and an "MP3 music file" is 4MB. Most DVDs are dual-layer these days, which means 5+GB, and the average music file in my collection is 6.5MB, with MP3s ripped at a higher bitrate than vorbis (so larger average file size).
I want a server-side solution that can forward Skype calls to SIP, so that you can Skype my desk phone, or so that I can use my desk phone to call Skype contacts without each contact needing additional software.
You just use the software to forward the incoming Skype calls to your SIP phone and vice versa. The Server you wanted would be a Windows box running Skype in your server room.
You're missing my point; it's not scalable: how do I deploy this to a hundred users? I would need a hundred Windows boxes (perhaps 13 if it's 8 per box). Not feasible.
Well, this undermines the whole idea and advantage behind VOIP, which is P2P communication.
The best option is to just ditch Skype, and maybe try to convince others to do the same. Then you wouldn't need to reroute calls.
That's easy to advocate and hard to practice. People don't want to change. As I said earlier in this thread, Skype has succeeded where no other VoIP solution has, so getting people to switch to an incompatible network is no easy task.
"Uplink" is a free (as in beer) and easy to use program that can forward Skype calls to SIP BTW. No need for licensed hardware.
Uplink was hard to find given the generic name... That does not do what I want. It still requires running Skype on Windows, which means I'd need one computer per Skype ID. Uplink is a client-side solution that allows a computer running Skype to double as a SIP soft-phone. I want a server-side solution that can forward Skype calls to SIP, so that you can Skype my desk phone, or so that I can use my desk phone to call Skype contacts without each contact needing additional software.
I would use it if it works as a set-and-forget appliance that allows me to:
Map a SIP extension to a skype account for incoming calls (SkypeIn)
Create a dial plan such that dialing "4+number" calls through SkypeOut (as configured from my PBX)
Create a dial plan such that international calls all go through SkypeOut (as configured from my PBX)
Map SIP extensions to external skype accounts for skype-to-skype calling (the most important element)
Admittedly, I could implement the SIP-based GPL'd WengoPhone instead, but then I would lose the ability to call Skype contacts, which is the main point of this exercise anyway.
This would mean that our international calls all go through Skype, which would make them money. It also means we'd have paid for a licensed product that enables this, which would make them a bit of money and recognition; this would be a Skype-branded box in my server room.
Skype succeeded where EVERYBODY else failed and continue to fail. They got a myriad of people to download their software and use their VoIP system. Nobody else has come close to the success that Skype has seen there, even up through today. They completely control the protocol and software (bad for us, good from the corporate perspective), using encryption that is still secure (the Chinese hackers could not intercept other people's data, just their own), and it has been adopted corporately with quite some success as well.
Vonage, the other big VoIP success story, is a completely different service, having little to do with computers and the internet as far as their target customers are concerned. It's just a phone solution that piggybacks on the internet connection, whereas Skype is an Instant Messaging solution, a (crappy) file transfer solution, and a telephony solution for the computer.
I think it is clear that eBay bought a winner. Maybe they overpaid, but they still have a winner. Now all they have to do is be careful about molding it into something more profitable without compromising its computer-based VoIP dominance. Example: cater to the business community with respect to phone conferencing; compete with the telcos and give customers the ability to do it all from a phone and/or from a computer (this would compete with gotomeeting).
Panasonic maker Matsushita Electric Industrial said it... plans to offer the world's first DVD recorders that can store full high-definition programs on conventional DVD discs next month.... The company said it will start selling three models of new DVD recorders capable of recording full HD programs on conventional DVD discs on November 1. The high-end model with a 500-gigabyte hard disk drive is likely to sell for 130,000 yen [US$1127], Matsushita said.
That's all they say about the DVD recorder that can do "full HD programs." I suppose this means it can record a one-hour show without commercials, which would be (worst-case) ~42 minutes on a dual-layer DVD?
According to WikiPedia's comparison of high-def formats, MPEG-2 in HD is 20Mbit/s, roughly twice that of the SD format used on standard DVDs. 4.7gB * 1024MB/GB * 8Mbit/MB / 20Mbit/s = 1925s = 32 minutes, or 58 minutes for a dual-layer DVD, which isn't too far off from the worst-case option above, but still isn't enough for a hour-long show with commercials, which means you can't use this like a HD-quality DVD VCR.
It is also possible to record DVD-quality movies onto CD-R discs. Nobody does it because it would give you twenty minutes of play time, which is maybe enough for a slow-moving (no action, not sitcom) 30 minute TV show episode. Hmm, this looks pretty similar;-)
Roberts: "The equipment analyzes Web traffic to discern whether it is an email, a movie or a phone call and then carves out the bandwidth needed for transmission."
Not sure if I'm missing something here; what's the difference between this and traffic shaping? Traffic shaping already exists for the express purpose of assuring QoS for things like VoIP. In order to take it to the next level, you would have to implement it in a multinational telco's network.
Bosack: "A system that allows businesses to connect to underground cables that have nearly 100 times the capacity of current telecommunications pipes."
... how about making use of all the dark fiber first.
Spot on, suv4x4. We already have the ability to increase bandwidth to most areas via the existing dark fiber, so the only bit that matters is the last mile to your door (which companies like Verizon are working on currently); that's not the problem. Just like when you get a shiny new hard drive, you fill it quite quickly because you have the free space. Increased bandwidth always leads to increased consumption.
The question at hand is how to make internet routing more efficient so as to ensure QoS to the real-time services like voice/video communications and (to a lesser extent) maintain reasonable latency for real-time games (most FPS games don't require much bandwidth, just extremely low latency). Both companies claim to solve or help the issue, neither seems to do that. This is just advertising, not a hard-core restructuring of the internet. For that, we'd likely need another project like Internet2.
My company has ordered about four T60s so far. While we've never had a problem with an older T-series laptop, two of our T60s broke with questionable mainboard issues (mouse/keyboard use locks system, won't boot, batteries are bricks two months after warranty expires).
We now buy Dell. The D830 is roughly equivalent to the T60, or the D630 if you want the lighter widescreen. Dells use the NVIDIA Quadro graphics card, which makes Linux easier to use, plus it has very good support for dual-head (using either the dock or a GXM, which lets you go dual-1920x1200 or triple-1280x1024). I've found the Dell keyboard layout preferable to the Lenovo keyboard layout, specifically the placement of Ctrl vs. Fn and Esc vs F1.
Oops, I didn't consider that. You even intercepted my retort w.r.t. alternatives...
NX (Nomachine's souped VNC) and ICA (Citrix, same family tree as RDP) are the only other things for any platform that even come close.
We've used NX for a while at work. As you mentioned, it's essentially a steroids-enriched version of the VNC protocol, with proprietary(?) X compression techniques plus caching, all sent over an SSH-encrypted connection. I generally don't trust Remote Desktop over the internet, plus NX lets you serve on non-Windows boxes.
I agree with your first point; every Windows version from 95 to XP had far superior USB support, and Vista likely continues that with Bluetooth. I disagree with your second point; Remote Desktop for Win9x and Win2k is a very simple install.
Despite MS's apparent strategy of forcing upgrades and the like, they seem quite happy back-porting various "new" OS concepts to previous versions; Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer 5 (6?) did this for Win2k to feel like XP, and IE7 and those desktop widgit thingies do that for XP to look like Vista.
(You'll have to excuse my limited Vista knowledge; my last Windows desktop ran 2000 until a fatal error finals week of 2003 when I installed Debian so that I could finish a final paper. After that, I've supported XP and 2003 at work, but I've avoided Vista more fervently than Jehovah's Witnesses.)
"Seventy percent of all criminal activity can be tied to a vehicle," says Mark Windover, president of Remington ELSAG Law Enforcement Systems, which is marketing its product to 250 U.S. police agencies."
Hold on a second; what percent of criminal activity is related to Homeland Security? I'll bet it's very low. Now cut that to 70%.
We will lead the unified national effort to secure America. We will prevent and deter terrorist attacks and protect against and respond to threats and hazards to the nation. We will ensure safe and secure borders, welcome lawful immigrants and visitors, and promote the free-flow of commerce.
The DHS constantly oversteps its bounds and infringes on our personal freedom. We must not fall victim to Big Brother tactics.
Actually, Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), the incumbent who failed to win the Connecticut Democratic primary but then went on to win the general election as an "Independent Democrat," voted NAY. Good old Joe; a Democrat who is so right-leaning that he fell out of his party. Good old two-party system; the Dems are so starved for a majority that they're happy to have him caucus with them. (The other independent, Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who also caucuses with the Dems, voted yea.)
As an independent voter, I might have considered voting for McCain in the Republican primary (assuming my Democrat pick was projected to win), but his vote against this bill dampens my interest in that plan.
My guess is: they are looking for http/https proxy definitions there.
Since there is no standard place on Linux to store this, they look into Firefox configuration files.
You are correct. If you re-read the forums and scan for the comments from the Skype staff (ignoring the troll responses), they confirm that they're reading the prefs.js for proxy settings. Doesn't explain why it looks at the plugins, but it's a start. They could tighten it down by adding a "search for proxy" option in the skype pref for proxy so that it doesn't waste as many resources (or as much of privacy nuts' time).
As noted above, CA, NY, and the mystery six other northeastern states* subsidize the cost of PZEVs, thus they constructed laws that make it difficult to use such a car in other states. I don't understand why these eight states didn't simply tax non-PZEV sales instead; add a new tax and make exceptions for hybrids and PZEVs. This would make it okay to sell these anywhere, and pressure is applied to consumers to buy with the environment in mind.
The article stated that Honda's PZEV costs about $400 on top of the car to produce (CA subsidizes $250 of this), so if we assume four non-PZEVs sold for every PZEV purchase, CA could add a $100 tax to the cost of non-PZEVs and use that money to subsidize the full $400 cost without using money from its budget. However, this doesn't solve the out-of-state problem. Increase sales tax on non-PZEVs by 0.5% (an $85 increase to a $17k Honda Civic, a $275 boost to a $55k Hummer H2) and decrease sales tax on PZEVs by 2% ($348 less for the Civic and... the H2 won't get a PZEV package). If we assume the PZEV sales won't exceed the non-PZEVs, the state spends less money while almost fully subsidizing in-state (only!) sales. Better yet, this plan would encourage PZEV sales and there would be no reason to discourage out-of-state purchases by those environmentally savvy.
I'm also of the opinion that an excise tax (section 4001 (a)(2)(B), referring to section 179A) should be revisited for more aggressive definitions of fuel efficiency. I'm from MA, where all vehicles are covered by excise tax; I didn't know until just now that laws are already in place to tax less efficient (and luxury) cars, though I do recall hearing that President Carter implemented such things in the late 70s (as seen in the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?). I'd like to see something like a steep excise tax for fuel-inefficient cars, with an aggressively growing threshold like 30mpg + 1mpg per year after y2k, so 37mpg for cars of this model year and 38mpg in 2008, with NO LIMITS (it is expected that the 2009 Prius will exceed 100mpg, which would meet this threshold in 2070). This should act as a firm reminder that SUVs and other noncommercial trucks are luxury items.
* "California, New York or six other northeast states that follow California's tougher pollution rules" aren't named anywhere in the article. MA, VT, and ME are mentioned in a sister article, leaving three more; it may be fair to assume "northeast" means "New England" (which contains six states), but PA and NJ are often included in the northeast states. On a humorous note, the sentence seems to imply that California is in the northeast.
I've been a fan of Ancient Egyptian language and religion for 20 years now. I know a few words off the top of my head, and it correctly translated them from English. This is far more sophisticated than "your name in hieroglyphics" tricks. For example, the word for "sand" can be transliterated as "sh-ah-y."... were it simply transliterating into Egyptian (as the "your name in hieroglyphics" mechanisms do), it would come out as "s-a-n-d" using the either Egyptian alef (hawk) or ayin (arm) for the A.
All he really did was the tedious work of lining up the flashcard translations with known translations and pump it into a database. This is a significant load of work, and he should be thanked for it. This isn't a new translation method, it doesn't use fancy new algorithms, but it does make the previously inaccessible conversions readily available to inquiring minds. I've been waiting for something like this for many years.
Unfortunately, the site doesn't talk about pronouncing the words; the alphabet chart doesn't cover biliterals or triliterals (2 or 3 characters compacted into one), the absence of vowels (like Hebrew) isn't mentioned, and determinatives (placeholders indicating meaning or part of speech, like a jug ending a word describing beer*) aren't discussed, either. I'd also like hitting [enter] to submit the form, but I'm happy enough with the current system.
* Yes, the Egyptians had beer long before the Christian monks "invented" it.
Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have created a working prototype nanogenerator capable of generating as much as 4 watts per cubic centimeter of continuous direct current. The generators are green (to use), drawing power from natural motion in the surrounding environment. They are based on non-toxic chemicals and should be safe for use in biomechanical implants, but that's not their only potential use.
Without Richard Stallman he would have used a different license, but that wouldn't have kept people from joining up to work on Linux. [...] Linus has written that if the fully open-source BSD had been ready even a year sooner, he would have worked on it and there wouldn't be a Linux.
BSD was given a free license due to Stallman and the FSF's efforts. You can't argue that BSD's example would have influenced Torvalds to have opened up Linux, or that its free license would have had him contribute to BSD instead of his own system, as those contingencies are still results of Stallman's campaigning. Stallman set that golden standard of Free Software, which in turn triggered the so-called Open Source Softwre movement.
Without Richard Stallman, BSD would still be the full property of Berkley, and we would all be using non-free systems and software. Linux would have died in its early stages, having been little more than an interesting school project. Without Linus Torvalds, we would be in a relatively similar boat, running BSD-based systems in place of Linux-based systems.
Dude, a kid without the right skills doesn't get the interview. I was leaving out the technical aspects as they are not applicable to this conversation. Obviously, I do my due diligence in determining whether an applicant has the needed proficiency for the job; there are always tests for professionalism, ability to do the job, and other obvious metrics. The part people don't realize is that exhibiting the ability to learn and to get along well with the rest of the office is extremely important.
Social networking gets you that extra oomph to get in the door, and makes you more personable. If I have a respected peer in the industry who says that this applicant is gold, I will trust that recommendation... this level of social networking does not currently exist online, but we'll see where that's going (Free Software and other types highly visible online collaborative projects are certainly the right direction).
I can't wait to be turned down for a job because I don't like Blink 182 or Christina Aguilera, or because I don't number among the interviewer's 983 link-affirmed friends, or because I don't have pictures of supermodels I've never met on my web page, or the right mix of day-glo colors set on a bright yellow background, or annoying noises, or, or, or, {head explodes}.
In all seriousness, the only examples I've heard are of people *not* getting jobs because they were easily Googled and employers found MySpace pictures of them passed out in their own vomit or running around naked with lampshades on their heads....And for god's sake I hope it stays that way. Your post gave me chills.
Yeah, I'm a paranoid nut who strongly values his personal privacy... yet I go on Facebook and report a slew of information on myself in this spirit of openness and sharing. Lots of people are this way, and there is a lot that can be done with this information. I use Facebook not so much for reasons to not hire somebody but rather for fodder for interviews; it's quite revealing to ask a question about interests that are not reported on the applicant's resume... often times it puts the person on edge, for they haven't prepared for it. I work the conversation in the direction of this interest and let the applicant supply it, then we can chat about it. It either breaks the ice, or the person reveals a lack of social skills (and that ultimately leads to my preferring other applicants).
I don't worry about kids who have evidence of their partying on Facebook. It's rather normal at such an age, and illegal this's and that's aren't any real worry to me (not my job). The red flags are things like wall posts that say "dude, you got fired, again?" The giant pluses are when applicants do things similar to the job while on their own job (we're in software development, so showing a genuine interest in the field from a non-professional perspective, especially on a network for college kids, is a good sign).
I've yet to see this so-called purpose defined, outside of some abstract "all my friends use it" comment. Use it for what? Out of all the "friends" I've had that have pointed me to their myspace, etc. page, none of them have had a defined "purpose". The one's I've visited have left me with a who-cares attitude (and a vague deja-vu experience relating to geocities hosted websites from the 90s).
Social networking is one of the more powerful concepts in life, both online and in the real world. It's how adults get jobs (ask any professional over 30 and you'll see that the resume process isn't so blind -- it's all about who you know). Myspace and Facebook are starting to redefine social networking... little is known about how this will impact the more traditional social networking world, but rest assured that it will.
As to their uses today, this is more clear. Facebook is giving evite a run for its money within the under-30 crowd. Its stalker-esque features allow people to research others (I use it to look at potential employees), which often leads to a real-world friendship. Its groups allow people to be politically active -- you can bet Facebook and its peers will be quite important in the 2008 election (hopefully more of an impact than Howard Dean's campaign turned out to be). It even brings some order to YouTube and similar video sites with its "sharing" system (also has more sensible comments rather than the drivel comments on YouTube).
Not feasible. Try a roof garden.
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Vertical Farming
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I've always been a fan of roof gardens, though more of for personal enjoyment and the like than for actual sustenance, but that seems preferable and more importantly simpler than a skyscraper-style greenhouse. It doesn't create much of a shadow, and it gives the residents of a high-rise apartment building a safe park to play in, without dangers of violence, beggars, or solicitors. A roof garden optimized to supplement the food supply for the residence's occupants seems far more realizable a goal than the far-fetched "arcology" proposed here. Maybe a few stories of greenhouse atop a building would work, but an entire 30-story building seems impractical.
As to larger-scale implementations... the value of land within cities will likely always exceed the cost of shipping in produce from a somewhat nearby location; a vertical greenhouse would have exceptionally high costs in addition to the building's footprint, as well stated in other comments for this article. I think we're better off looking elsewhere for that; irrigate deserts, terrace mountains, or equip barges in the ocean for farming.
Barges for farming (and possibly other things, like a tiny mobile island) seem obvious to me for a (distant) future resource... there's a LOT of space for them, after all. However, they are completely useless until we improve the desalination technologies to a level that makes them more efficient and portable (actually, desalination units already exist on boats...).
Alternates like barges, irrigated deserts, terraced mountains, and even high-rise greenhouses will *not* be economically viable at all until we have exhausted all other methods. Until then, the only way to advance the technology is by introducing them as novelties, with advantages that peak the interest of those buyers willing to pay extra money. This could utilize the controlled aspects of the vertical farm, or use some sort of over-regulated farming practice while in international waters, but I think the best option remains the novelty of a roof garden that doubles as a park.
The CPU has to be significantly more powerful than the TX or n800 to be worth anybody's while... youtube is a good metric currently (assuming it even has flash), but I want FAST native PDF reading, too.
Can it read PDFs better than my Nokia n800 or a Palm TX (both of which take a few seconds to load an image-heavy page, which is intolerable for quickly scanning for something)
Can it play ogg vorbis and mp3 music with a decent UI (iPod features {playlist, random, online radio} + vorbis at minimum)
Built-in speakers would be a plus... I don't need anything more sophisticated than the standard issue palm PDA's speakers
Can it play youtube and similarly cpu-intensive flash animations (the Nokia n800 can, but it stutters)
Does it have decent storage? I want 2+ SD slots... 4+ would be amazing
Can the 5hr battery "even with wifi" maintain that lifetime when using 802.11g (which is the big battery whore, whereas taking net via bluetooth from your cellphone is not)
I'm worried about the lack of an ESC button... (Yes, I'm a vim user). I assume that something like APP+arrows works like Fn+arrows on Macs for PgUp, PgDn, Home, End.
Does the $500 price tag include all those advertised office features... the TX requires you to buy third-party software that blows... crashes Windows all the time, and does not have a Linux client... and the "PDF reader" merely converts to some weird proprietary format.
It can do powerpoint, but does it have VGA and/or TV-out so that I can project presentations
I want more assurance that it works well as a stand-alone; the Treo is too bulky for me, so I'd get this in place of a PDA, and possibly get a standard cellphone-sized smartphone with which to interact. If this is marketed just like the n800, I'm happy... but the email client MUST be fully functional on its own.
Will third-party development be simple enough for me to do? I'm guessing GCC won't come with it...
The laptop will consume about 2 W of power during normal use, far less than the 10 to 45 W of conventional laptops.
If a single cubic centimeter device can put out twice that much energy, the foot petal attachment could be easily made far more optional; the laptop would be charged by simply schlepping it around. It would charge twice as fast as it is used with one nanogenerator, so an OLPC outfitted with three nanogenerators would charge an hour for each ten minutes of jostling. Keep in mind that the walk to school in the OLPC-targeted third-world countries is no ten minute jaunt.
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It's far worse than that: "64Gbit" is not bytes; you'll have to divide by 8 to get that ... oh, that makes for an 8GByte chip. We already have those.
"80 DVD movies or 32,000 MP3 music files" would have to involve rather small movies and music files; at that quantity on paired chips (it's a good thing the author told us that this adds up to 128GB, I'd have otherwise been stumped), a "DVD movie" is 1.6GB and an "MP3 music file" is 4MB. Most DVDs are dual-layer these days, which means 5+GB, and the average music file in my collection is 6.5MB, with MP3s ripped at a higher bitrate than vorbis (so larger average file size).
You're missing my point; it's not scalable: how do I deploy this to a hundred users? I would need a hundred Windows boxes (perhaps 13 if it's 8 per box). Not feasible.
That's easy to advocate and hard to practice. People don't want to change. As I said earlier in this thread, Skype has succeeded where no other VoIP solution has, so getting people to switch to an incompatible network is no easy task.
Uplink was hard to find given the generic name... That does not do what I want. It still requires running Skype on Windows, which means I'd need one computer per Skype ID. Uplink is a client-side solution that allows a computer running Skype to double as a SIP soft-phone. I want a server-side solution that can forward Skype calls to SIP, so that you can Skype my desk phone, or so that I can use my desk phone to call Skype contacts without each contact needing additional software.
I would use it if it works as a set-and-forget appliance that allows me to:
Admittedly, I could implement the SIP-based GPL'd WengoPhone instead, but then I would lose the ability to call Skype contacts, which is the main point of this exercise anyway.
This would mean that our international calls all go through Skype, which would make them money. It also means we'd have paid for a licensed product that enables this, which would make them a bit of money and recognition; this would be a Skype-branded box in my server room.
I almost put this exact recommendation in my post. Then I found it already exists:
Agreed.
Skype succeeded where EVERYBODY else failed and continue to fail. They got a myriad of people to download their software and use their VoIP system. Nobody else has come close to the success that Skype has seen there, even up through today. They completely control the protocol and software (bad for us, good from the corporate perspective), using encryption that is still secure (the Chinese hackers could not intercept other people's data, just their own), and it has been adopted corporately with quite some success as well.
Vonage, the other big VoIP success story, is a completely different service, having little to do with computers and the internet as far as their target customers are concerned. It's just a phone solution that piggybacks on the internet connection, whereas Skype is an Instant Messaging solution, a (crappy) file transfer solution, and a telephony solution for the computer.
I think it is clear that eBay bought a winner. Maybe they overpaid, but they still have a winner. Now all they have to do is be careful about molding it into something more profitable without compromising its computer-based VoIP dominance. Example: cater to the business community with respect to phone conferencing; compete with the telcos and give customers the ability to do it all from a phone and/or from a computer (this would compete with gotomeeting).
That's all they say about the DVD recorder that can do "full HD programs." I suppose this means it can record a one-hour show without commercials, which would be (worst-case) ~42 minutes on a dual-layer DVD?
According to WikiPedia's comparison of high-def formats, MPEG-2 in HD is 20Mbit/s, roughly twice that of the SD format used on standard DVDs. 4.7gB * 1024MB/GB * 8Mbit/MB / 20Mbit/s = 1925s = 32 minutes, or 58 minutes for a dual-layer DVD, which isn't too far off from the worst-case option above, but still isn't enough for a hour-long show with commercials, which means you can't use this like a HD-quality DVD VCR.
It is also possible to record DVD-quality movies onto CD-R discs. Nobody does it because it would give you twenty minutes of play time, which is maybe enough for a slow-moving (no action, not sitcom) 30 minute TV show episode. Hmm, this looks pretty similar ;-)
Not sure if I'm missing something here; what's the difference between this and traffic shaping? Traffic shaping already exists for the express purpose of assuring QoS for things like VoIP. In order to take it to the next level, you would have to implement it in a multinational telco's network.
Spot on, suv4x4. We already have the ability to increase bandwidth to most areas via the existing dark fiber, so the only bit that matters is the last mile to your door (which companies like Verizon are working on currently); that's not the problem. Just like when you get a shiny new hard drive, you fill it quite quickly because you have the free space. Increased bandwidth always leads to increased consumption.
The question at hand is how to make internet routing more efficient so as to ensure QoS to the real-time services like voice/video communications and (to a lesser extent) maintain reasonable latency for real-time games (most FPS games don't require much bandwidth, just extremely low latency). Both companies claim to solve or help the issue, neither seems to do that. This is just advertising, not a hard-core restructuring of the internet. For that, we'd likely need another project like Internet2.
My company has ordered about four T60s so far. While we've never had a problem with an older T-series laptop, two of our T60s broke with questionable mainboard issues (mouse/keyboard use locks system, won't boot, batteries are bricks two months after warranty expires).
We now buy Dell. The D830 is roughly equivalent to the T60, or the D630 if you want the lighter widescreen. Dells use the NVIDIA Quadro graphics card, which makes Linux easier to use, plus it has very good support for dual-head (using either the dock or a GXM, which lets you go dual-1920x1200 or triple-1280x1024). I've found the Dell keyboard layout preferable to the Lenovo keyboard layout, specifically the placement of Ctrl vs. Fn and Esc vs F1.
Oops, I didn't consider that. You even intercepted my retort w.r.t. alternatives...
We've used NX for a while at work. As you mentioned, it's essentially a steroids-enriched version of the VNC protocol, with proprietary(?) X compression techniques plus caching, all sent over an SSH-encrypted connection. I generally don't trust Remote Desktop over the internet, plus NX lets you serve on non-Windows boxes.
I agree with your first point; every Windows version from 95 to XP had far superior USB support, and Vista likely continues that with Bluetooth. I disagree with your second point; Remote Desktop for Win9x and Win2k is a very simple install.
Despite MS's apparent strategy of forcing upgrades and the like, they seem quite happy back-porting various "new" OS concepts to previous versions; Windows Media Player and Internet Explorer 5 (6?) did this for Win2k to feel like XP, and IE7 and those desktop widgit thingies do that for XP to look like Vista.
(You'll have to excuse my limited Vista knowledge; my last Windows desktop ran 2000 until a fatal error finals week of 2003 when I installed Debian so that I could finish a final paper. After that, I've supported XP and 2003 at work, but I've avoided Vista more fervently than Jehovah's Witnesses.)
Hold on a second; what percent of criminal activity is related to Homeland Security? I'll bet it's very low. Now cut that to 70%.
The Department of Homeland Security Mission Statement says:
The DHS constantly oversteps its bounds and infringes on our personal freedom. We must not fall victim to Big Brother tactics.
Actually, Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), the incumbent who failed to win the Connecticut Democratic primary but then went on to win the general election as an "Independent Democrat," voted NAY. Good old Joe; a Democrat who is so right-leaning that he fell out of his party. Good old two-party system; the Dems are so starved for a majority that they're happy to have him caucus with them. (The other independent, Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who also caucuses with the Dems, voted yea.)
As an independent voter, I might have considered voting for McCain in the Republican primary (assuming my Democrat pick was projected to win), but his vote against this bill dampens my interest in that plan.
You are correct. If you re-read the forums and scan for the comments from the Skype staff (ignoring the troll responses), they confirm that they're reading the prefs.js for proxy settings. Doesn't explain why it looks at the plugins, but it's a start. They could tighten it down by adding a "search for proxy" option in the skype pref for proxy so that it doesn't waste as many resources (or as much of privacy nuts' time).
As noted above, CA, NY, and the mystery six other northeastern states* subsidize the cost of PZEVs, thus they constructed laws that make it difficult to use such a car in other states. I don't understand why these eight states didn't simply tax non-PZEV sales instead; add a new tax and make exceptions for hybrids and PZEVs. This would make it okay to sell these anywhere, and pressure is applied to consumers to buy with the environment in mind.
The article stated that Honda's PZEV costs about $400 on top of the car to produce (CA subsidizes $250 of this), so if we assume four non-PZEVs sold for every PZEV purchase, CA could add a $100 tax to the cost of non-PZEVs and use that money to subsidize the full $400 cost without using money from its budget. However, this doesn't solve the out-of-state problem. Increase sales tax on non-PZEVs by 0.5% (an $85 increase to a $17k Honda Civic, a $275 boost to a $55k Hummer H2) and decrease sales tax on PZEVs by 2% ($348 less for the Civic and ... the H2 won't get a PZEV package). If we assume the PZEV sales won't exceed the non-PZEVs, the state spends less money while almost fully subsidizing in-state (only!) sales. Better yet, this plan would encourage PZEV sales and there would be no reason to discourage out-of-state purchases by those environmentally savvy.
I'm also of the opinion that an excise tax (section 4001 (a)(2)(B), referring to section 179A) should be revisited for more aggressive definitions of fuel efficiency. I'm from MA, where all vehicles are covered by excise tax; I didn't know until just now that laws are already in place to tax less efficient (and luxury) cars, though I do recall hearing that President Carter implemented such things in the late 70s (as seen in the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? ). I'd like to see something like a steep excise tax for fuel-inefficient cars, with an aggressively growing threshold like 30mpg + 1mpg per year after y2k, so 37mpg for cars of this model year and 38mpg in 2008, with NO LIMITS (it is expected that the 2009 Prius will exceed 100mpg, which would meet this threshold in 2070). This should act as a firm reminder that SUVs and other noncommercial trucks are luxury items.
* "California, New York or six other northeast states that follow California's tougher pollution rules" aren't named anywhere in the article. MA, VT, and ME are mentioned in a sister article, leaving three more; it may be fair to assume "northeast" means "New England" (which contains six states), but PA and NJ are often included in the northeast states. On a humorous note, the sentence seems to imply that California is in the northeast.
I've been a fan of Ancient Egyptian language and religion for 20 years now. I know a few words off the top of my head, and it correctly translated them from English. This is far more sophisticated than "your name in hieroglyphics" tricks. For example, the word for "sand" can be transliterated as "sh-ah-y." ... were it simply transliterating into Egyptian (as the "your name in hieroglyphics" mechanisms do), it would come out as "s-a-n-d" using the either Egyptian alef (hawk) or ayin (arm) for the A.
All he really did was the tedious work of lining up the flashcard translations with known translations and pump it into a database. This is a significant load of work, and he should be thanked for it. This isn't a new translation method, it doesn't use fancy new algorithms, but it does make the previously inaccessible conversions readily available to inquiring minds. I've been waiting for something like this for many years.
Unfortunately, the site doesn't talk about pronouncing the words; the alphabet chart doesn't cover biliterals or triliterals (2 or 3 characters compacted into one), the absence of vowels (like Hebrew) isn't mentioned, and determinatives (placeholders indicating meaning or part of speech, like a jug ending a word describing beer*) aren't discussed, either. I'd also like hitting [enter] to submit the form, but I'm happy enough with the current system.
* Yes, the Egyptians had beer long before the Christian monks "invented" it.
BSD was given a free license due to Stallman and the FSF's efforts. You can't argue that BSD's example would have influenced Torvalds to have opened up Linux, or that its free license would have had him contribute to BSD instead of his own system, as those contingencies are still results of Stallman's campaigning. Stallman set that golden standard of Free Software, which in turn triggered the so-called Open Source Softwre movement.
Without Richard Stallman, BSD would still be the full property of Berkley, and we would all be using non-free systems and software. Linux would have died in its early stages, having been little more than an interesting school project. Without Linus Torvalds, we would be in a relatively similar boat, running BSD-based systems in place of Linux-based systems.
Dude, a kid without the right skills doesn't get the interview. I was leaving out the technical aspects as they are not applicable to this conversation. Obviously, I do my due diligence in determining whether an applicant has the needed proficiency for the job; there are always tests for professionalism, ability to do the job, and other obvious metrics. The part people don't realize is that exhibiting the ability to learn and to get along well with the rest of the office is extremely important.
Social networking gets you that extra oomph to get in the door, and makes you more personable. If I have a respected peer in the industry who says that this applicant is gold, I will trust that recommendation ... this level of social networking does not currently exist online, but we'll see where that's going (Free Software and other types highly visible online collaborative projects are certainly the right direction).
Yeah, I'm a paranoid nut who strongly values his personal privacy ... yet I go on Facebook and report a slew of information on myself in this spirit of openness and sharing. Lots of people are this way, and there is a lot that can be done with this information. I use Facebook not so much for reasons to not hire somebody but rather for fodder for interviews; it's quite revealing to ask a question about interests that are not reported on the applicant's resume ... often times it puts the person on edge, for they haven't prepared for it. I work the conversation in the direction of this interest and let the applicant supply it, then we can chat about it. It either breaks the ice, or the person reveals a lack of social skills (and that ultimately leads to my preferring other applicants).
I don't worry about kids who have evidence of their partying on Facebook. It's rather normal at such an age, and illegal this's and that's aren't any real worry to me (not my job). The red flags are things like wall posts that say "dude, you got fired, again?" The giant pluses are when applicants do things similar to the job while on their own job (we're in software development, so showing a genuine interest in the field from a non-professional perspective, especially on a network for college kids, is a good sign).
Social networking is one of the more powerful concepts in life, both online and in the real world. It's how adults get jobs (ask any professional over 30 and you'll see that the resume process isn't so blind -- it's all about who you know). Myspace and Facebook are starting to redefine social networking ... little is known about how this will impact the more traditional social networking world, but rest assured that it will.
As to their uses today, this is more clear. Facebook is giving evite a run for its money within the under-30 crowd. Its stalker-esque features allow people to research others (I use it to look at potential employees), which often leads to a real-world friendship. Its groups allow people to be politically active -- you can bet Facebook and its peers will be quite important in the 2008 election (hopefully more of an impact than Howard Dean's campaign turned out to be). It even brings some order to YouTube and similar video sites with its "sharing" system (also has more sensible comments rather than the drivel comments on YouTube).
I've always been a fan of roof gardens, though more of for personal enjoyment and the like than for actual sustenance, but that seems preferable and more importantly simpler than a skyscraper-style greenhouse. It doesn't create much of a shadow, and it gives the residents of a high-rise apartment building a safe park to play in, without dangers of violence, beggars, or solicitors. A roof garden optimized to supplement the food supply for the residence's occupants seems far more realizable a goal than the far-fetched "arcology" proposed here. Maybe a few stories of greenhouse atop a building would work, but an entire 30-story building seems impractical.
As to larger-scale implementations ... the value of land within cities will likely always exceed the cost of shipping in produce from a somewhat nearby location; a vertical greenhouse would have exceptionally high costs in addition to the building's footprint, as well stated in other comments for this article. I think we're better off looking elsewhere for that; irrigate deserts, terrace mountains, or equip barges in the ocean for farming.
Barges for farming (and possibly other things, like a tiny mobile island) seem obvious to me for a (distant) future resource ... there's a LOT of space for them, after all. However, they are completely useless until we improve the desalination technologies to a level that makes them more efficient and portable (actually, desalination units already exist on boats ...).
Alternates like barges, irrigated deserts, terraced mountains, and even high-rise greenhouses will *not* be economically viable at all until we have exhausted all other methods. Until then, the only way to advance the technology is by introducing them as novelties, with advantages that peak the interest of those buyers willing to pay extra money. This could utilize the controlled aspects of the vertical farm, or use some sort of over-regulated farming practice while in international waters, but I think the best option remains the novelty of a roof garden that doubles as a park.
I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet... from the WikiPedia OLPC article:
If a single cubic centimeter device can put out twice that much energy, the foot petal attachment could be easily made far more optional; the laptop would be charged by simply schlepping it around. It would charge twice as fast as it is used with one nanogenerator, so an OLPC outfitted with three nanogenerators would charge an hour for each ten minutes of jostling. Keep in mind that the walk to school in the OLPC-targeted third-world countries is no ten minute jaunt.