Where have all the intelligent slashdotters gone? Let's all STOP trying to come up with the funniest one-liner and talk about the subject at hand here.
They have taken brain cells and taught them to control a robot. This is simply freakin' astounding!
What else has been done related to this such as MEMS? Anyone?
Australia beats the US and Japan in coming up with a cheap CMOS chip designed to deliver the 60 Ghz solution for WirelessHD (see http://www.wirelesshd.org/). That's an incredible feet considering IBM started this effort over two years ago and has yet to deliver a workable solution; however, the article does mention that the University "collaborated" with IBM.
Ultimately however, the companies who are already working together on a WirelessHD solution (such as Intel, LG, Toshiba, and Sony, to name a few) already have working products in the market for Ultrawideband (UWB). Many of you will be purchasing these this Christmas (2008) to offset expensive HDMI cables and connect your HDTV to a PC/Media server in another room. If the 60 Ghz frequency gets approval from the FCC (which will take years), then look for WirelessHD to replace UWB by 2010.
While they are the first ones out of the gate with an all-in-one CMOS solution, I doubt they will be the only ones. Look for Intel to have something available later this year (with the marketing power to make it successful). What we need now is someone like Sony or Toshiba to jump on board so that TVs (er, should I say monitors now) and audio receivers are integrated as well.
I mean WOW... $10 for something that has the transceiver and antenna on ONE single CMOS chip is awesome. Prior technologies required so silicon and multiple chips, etc. This will be huge!
Set-top-boxes will be the LAST ones to get involved. This is unfortunate since they are essentially what 90% of the population will be looking for (cable, satellite, IPTV).
I've seen a lot of responses whether this will be a replacement for blue-tooth or USB. Well, it's not really in the same category, so NO, it won't be either of those. USB is wired, bluetooth is not, but GiFi could really be so much more (I really hate the term GiFi and prefer "WirelessHD"). In that respect (see http://www.wirelesshd.org/), it should really be thought of as an ad-hoc wireless network... not a TCP/IP network, but one dedicated to the coordination of media transmitters and receivers. At least that is my hope, because if it gets shoe-horned into something that already exists like WiFi, or bluetooth it will be a total waste of energy.
What the article is talking about has nothing to do with web servers or the internet, it has to do with confidential data stored on private/internal file servers and database servers. It also has to do with data that "walks" out of the corporation on laptops and PDAs.
When you encrypt this data with a key and you lose the key, you LOSE the data... period. You NEED the key to recover the data... THAT is the risk they are talking about. Now extend that risk from losing the key, to someone stealing it and then holding it for ransom.
The DOJ won't halt this deal because Google has the market share. In fact, the very thing that has plagued Microsoft in the past (monopolistic practices) will actually play into their favor this time because they are in fact the underdog in this scenario. Thus, the merger would theoretically INCREASE competition.
The problem is that Microsoft has a HUGE effort on their hands in trying to consolidate the MSN, Yahoo, and Live portals into one seamless user interface that would entice Google users to not only try the new service, but also abandon Google. Don't forget that it takes USERS to win over advertisers... and users are fickle people. Just look what's happening in the Facebook / MySpace area (speaking of acquisitions;-).
Using history as a lesson, this is just standard protocol for Microsoft. Buy, then bury the competition (SQL Server, Access, Excel, XBox, the list goes on). Unfortunately, this practice is going to KILL Microsoft because it will only confuse and alienate users who can switch to competition at the drop of a hat... which means a continued loss of advertising revenue. Having spent their entire cash reserves with no other cash flow than their Office products, how long do you think it will last?
What are they thinking? Apple needs to give away an Apple TV for FREE as a subscription service for iTunes (with 2-year commitment). If NetFlix was smart they'd be looking pretty hard for a good set-top box to bundle with a 2-year commitment as well. Does anyone have a redbox in their neighborhood? movie rentals for a buck... you just can't beat that!
Also, all of my hopes and dreams surround DLNA... imagine a device that attaches to your home network instead of a single TV. Now imagine TVs with built in DLNA support. Cable companies could price devices that can stream 1, 2, or more channels over your home network. Satellite companies... same thing. IPTV such as u-verse... already done. Movie rentals from ANY service provider (NetFlix, iTunes, Amazon, Blockbuster)... OK... now I'm just dreaming.
Linux usage is on the rise... but how can you draw any statistics from point-something percent. That's not even a statistic, it's a footnote.
Looks what's happening here... iPhone... Playstation... Nintendo Wii... THESE are going to kill the desktop. Linux will fall of the list, just like SunOS and BSD did.
Could someone draw a comparison between Dumb and Dumber, please?
I've never seen someone take so much effort trying to draw comparisons between the Matrix and our reality. Seriously, a master computer that boots up a universe in which everything evolves into beings which ponder their own existence? Is that the best you can do, Whitworth? Maybe you could tell me what that master computer is, then... DUMB ASS.
No wait.. he trying to convince physicists to explain his theory for him... gotcha... any takers?
The problems with this was that you have to boot windows from a hard-drive, put it in suspend, watch your battery life dissipate, then scrap it for uselessness.
So Intel adds a smaller SSD memory for Linux and provides "instant on" features.
While this is not revolutionary, it does indicate where things are going. Everyone is already used to "instant on" mobile phones. The iPhone has the capabilities of an entire operating system, and the latest iPod is basically the iPhone without the phone.
What is GREAT about this is that Intel recognizes the "consumer demand" and isn't holding to the Wintel architecure of the past. While a MID by itself will never be marketable, it paves the way for Intel (and other manufacturers) to more quickly respond to market demands.
Sooner or later, devices will interact better such that you can simply set your [mobile device] next to ANY keyboard, display, printer, fax and use the applications and data at hand without complicated configuration.
Unfortunately, many of you are doing just what the article predicts...
The new FireWire release will likely be compared to USB 3.0, which is still under development. Read the article again!
The new spec also will let users interconnect various home-networking appliances via coax cable, linking HDTVs with set-top boxes...
Why would I pay $100 for an HDMI cable to connect a Blu-ray/HD-DVD to my HDTV when I could use a $4 coax cable instead! PLUS, you can send the signal over 100 meters... with any hope, there will be splitters so that I can send a movie/broadcast from my cable providers set-top box to EVERY tv in my entire house.
Step away from your PC a moment and consider the possibilities this brings to the Home Entertainment industry!
...or at least will play a much less significant role in the future.
As a document format, HTML is great... for example, I throw in a few tags in this forum to create bold, italics, links, etc. Throw in tables and images an you can create a very nice looking article for the web.
However, there is a huge difference between "documents" which can be read in various different monitor/browser sizes, fonts, and languages and what a majority of paid developers do with HTML within corporations. That being creating pixel perfect applications that work in one particular browser (IE or Firefox).
To that end, what we need isn't yet another HTML specification which will make the browsers even that much more bloated and incompatible with each other... it is an application framework for the web. In fact, this is what Adobe and Microsoft are creating with Flex/AIR and Silverlight, respectively. Ultimately, the "markup language" of the future will be dynamically created and compiled on the server and sent to the browser in a binary format which is run by a plug-in.
Therefore, I believe HTML should evolve into what is started out as... a DOCUMENT format. It should really move towards a light-weight Open Document specification, NOT towards something that attempts to embody "Web 2.0" features which are already evolving well beyond dated HTML specifications that are nearly a decade old.
Kids will ALWAYS understand computers better than adults... I bought a Mac last Spring and my 10-year old son is making DVDs, slide shows, ring tones, etc... which he could never do with Windows (mostly because I was too cheap to shell out another $200-300 for additional software)... I'll never buy a Windows PC again.
As much as I'd love to, I haven't played with Linux all that much... maybe I should just give it to my 10-year old and he can teach me.
It's a sad day when you can program software, but can't use it;-)
A long time ago, I heard of the "13-year old effect"... which basically says that whatever a 13 year old wants today will be expected when they enter the workforce. Never discount the opinion of a 13-year old! If gadgets and 3-D interfaces are what gets them excited you better bet your a$$ that those features need to be in the operating system... especially one that goes 5+ years between versions.
Ballmer also gets that corporations want a more secure and reliable desktop platform for Microsoft Office and e-mail... and to his best effort he attempted to point out these "values" were more important than a few gadgets. He couldn't care less if someone has trouble upgrading because he gets his OS revenue from OEM and corporate licenses, not a few excited users willing to shell out for an upgrade that doesn't work on old, incompatible hardware.
I might also add that the future of "operating systems" are DEAD... and not just Windows... Linux and OSX are on their way out too. Eventually (if not already), devices will interact with each other without complicated, hardwired interfaces and device drivers. The next version of the Xbox or Playstation will eliminate the PC at home. So all you fan-boys can bash each others' favorite OS all you want, I look forward to the day when I never have to sit down at my in-law's computer for hours eliminating spyware because I'm the only "geek" they know.
Actually, you are going to pay Microsoft for the operating system even if your PC doesn't come with it because that's the license agreement OEM pay to create their PCs. Worse, MS is getting TWICE the money if a store is putting XP on the machine, because the OEM manufacturer paid for Vista, while the store paid for the full license of XP.
light is made of photons... the speed of photons are consistent... thus, that is how the speed of light is determined.
If you can't make a photon travel faster than the speed of light because light is made of photons, thus the speed of light is the speed of the photon. If anything, what they are saying is that they made one photon travel faster than the other... OR... the speed of photons is not constant... but scientists already acknowledge that.
What's more interesting is that the properties of one photon or electron (both considered to be "waves", not matter) can be affected by another despite the distance between them... whether that is microscopic or on the order of light years. THAT is the fundamental idea that really shakes the grounds of special relativity!
Slashdot Mirror
I found this article... then checked Slashdot.
Where have all the intelligent slashdotters gone? Let's all STOP trying to come up with the funniest one-liner and talk about the subject at hand here.
They have taken brain cells and taught them to control a robot. This is simply freakin' astounding!
What else has been done related to this such as MEMS? Anyone?
Australia beats the US and Japan in coming up with a cheap CMOS chip designed to deliver the 60 Ghz solution for WirelessHD (see http://www.wirelesshd.org/). That's an incredible feet considering IBM started this effort over two years ago and has yet to deliver a workable solution; however, the article does mention that the University "collaborated" with IBM.
Ultimately however, the companies who are already working together on a WirelessHD solution (such as Intel, LG, Toshiba, and Sony, to name a few) already have working products in the market for Ultrawideband (UWB). Many of you will be purchasing these this Christmas (2008) to offset expensive HDMI cables and connect your HDTV to a PC/Media server in another room. If the 60 Ghz frequency gets approval from the FCC (which will take years), then look for WirelessHD to replace UWB by 2010.
While they are the first ones out of the gate with an all-in-one CMOS solution, I doubt they will be the only ones. Look for Intel to have something available later this year (with the marketing power to make it successful). What we need now is someone like Sony or Toshiba to jump on board so that TVs (er, should I say monitors now) and audio receivers are integrated as well.
I mean WOW... $10 for something that has the transceiver and antenna on ONE single CMOS chip is awesome. Prior technologies required so silicon and multiple chips, etc. This will be huge!
Set-top-boxes will be the LAST ones to get involved. This is unfortunate since they are essentially what 90% of the population will be looking for (cable, satellite, IPTV).
I've seen a lot of responses whether this will be a replacement for blue-tooth or USB. Well, it's not really in the same category, so NO, it won't be either of those. USB is wired, bluetooth is not, but GiFi could really be so much more (I really hate the term GiFi and prefer "WirelessHD"). In that respect (see http://www.wirelesshd.org/), it should really be thought of as an ad-hoc wireless network... not a TCP/IP network, but one dedicated to the coordination of media transmitters and receivers. At least that is my hope, because if it gets shoe-horned into something that already exists like WiFi, or bluetooth it will be a total waste of energy.
So some day we'll all be working for Microyoogle?
What the article is talking about has nothing to do with web servers or the internet, it has to do with confidential data stored on private/internal file servers and database servers. It also has to do with data that "walks" out of the corporation on laptops and PDAs.
When you encrypt this data with a key and you lose the key, you LOSE the data... period. You NEED the key to recover the data... THAT is the risk they are talking about. Now extend that risk from losing the key, to someone stealing it and then holding it for ransom.
The DOJ won't halt this deal because Google has the market share. In fact, the very thing that has plagued Microsoft in the past (monopolistic practices) will actually play into their favor this time because they are in fact the underdog in this scenario. Thus, the merger would theoretically INCREASE competition.
The problem is that Microsoft has a HUGE effort on their hands in trying to consolidate the MSN, Yahoo, and Live portals into one seamless user interface that would entice Google users to not only try the new service, but also abandon Google. Don't forget that it takes USERS to win over advertisers... and users are fickle people. Just look what's happening in the Facebook / MySpace area (speaking of acquisitions ;-).
Using history as a lesson, this is just standard protocol for Microsoft. Buy, then bury the competition (SQL Server, Access, Excel, XBox, the list goes on). Unfortunately, this practice is going to KILL Microsoft because it will only confuse and alienate users who can switch to competition at the drop of a hat... which means a continued loss of advertising revenue. Having spent their entire cash reserves with no other cash flow than their Office products, how long do you think it will last?
What are they thinking? Apple needs to give away an Apple TV for FREE as a subscription service for iTunes (with 2-year commitment). If NetFlix was smart they'd be looking pretty hard for a good set-top box to bundle with a 2-year commitment as well. Does anyone have a redbox in their neighborhood? movie rentals for a buck... you just can't beat that!
Also, all of my hopes and dreams surround DLNA... imagine a device that attaches to your home network instead of a single TV. Now imagine TVs with built in DLNA support. Cable companies could price devices that can stream 1, 2, or more channels over your home network. Satellite companies... same thing. IPTV such as u-verse... already done. Movie rentals from ANY service provider (NetFlix, iTunes, Amazon, Blockbuster)... OK... now I'm just dreaming.
Linux usage is on the rise... but how can you draw any statistics from point-something percent. That's not even a statistic, it's a footnote.
Looks what's happening here... iPhone... Playstation... Nintendo Wii... THESE are going to kill the desktop. Linux will fall of the list, just like SunOS and BSD did.
Could someone draw a comparison between Dumb and Dumber, please?
I've never seen someone take so much effort trying to draw comparisons between the Matrix and our reality. Seriously, a master computer that boots up a universe in which everything evolves into beings which ponder their own existence? Is that the best you can do, Whitworth? Maybe you could tell me what that master computer is, then... DUMB ASS.
No wait.. he trying to convince physicists to explain his theory for him... gotcha... any takers?
Intel produced a "mobile internet device", MID, earlier in the year... and it of course came with a 1.8 inch hard-drive with Mobile Windows. (http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS2312330067.html
The problems with this was that you have to boot windows from a hard-drive, put it in suspend, watch your battery life dissipate, then scrap it for uselessness.
So Intel adds a smaller SSD memory for Linux and provides "instant on" features.
While this is not revolutionary, it does indicate where things are going. Everyone is already used to "instant on" mobile phones. The iPhone has the capabilities of an entire operating system, and the latest iPod is basically the iPhone without the phone.
What is GREAT about this is that Intel recognizes the "consumer demand" and isn't holding to the Wintel architecure of the past. While a MID by itself will never be marketable, it paves the way for Intel (and other manufacturers) to more quickly respond to market demands.
Sooner or later, devices will interact better such that you can simply set your [mobile device] next to ANY keyboard, display, printer, fax and use the applications and data at hand without complicated configuration.
Why would I pay $100 for an HDMI cable to connect a Blu-ray/HD-DVD to my HDTV when I could use a $4 coax cable instead! PLUS, you can send the signal over 100 meters... with any hope, there will be splitters so that I can send a movie/broadcast from my cable providers set-top box to EVERY tv in my entire house.
Step away from your PC a moment and consider the possibilities this brings to the Home Entertainment industry!
...or at least will play a much less significant role in the future.
As a document format, HTML is great... for example, I throw in a few tags in this forum to create bold, italics, links, etc. Throw in tables and images an you can create a very nice looking article for the web.
However, there is a huge difference between "documents" which can be read in various different monitor/browser sizes, fonts, and languages and what a majority of paid developers do with HTML within corporations. That being creating pixel perfect applications that work in one particular browser (IE or Firefox).
To that end, what we need isn't yet another HTML specification which will make the browsers even that much more bloated and incompatible with each other... it is an application framework for the web. In fact, this is what Adobe and Microsoft are creating with Flex/AIR and Silverlight, respectively. Ultimately, the "markup language" of the future will be dynamically created and compiled on the server and sent to the browser in a binary format which is run by a plug-in.
Therefore, I believe HTML should evolve into what is started out as... a DOCUMENT format. It should really move towards a light-weight Open Document specification, NOT towards something that attempts to embody "Web 2.0" features which are already evolving well beyond dated HTML specifications that are nearly a decade old.
I bought a Mac myself (last spring) and will never buy a Windows PC again! I've been campaigning ever since.
Kids will ALWAYS understand computers better than adults... I bought a Mac last Spring and my 10-year old son is making DVDs, slide shows, ring tones, etc... which he could never do with Windows (mostly because I was too cheap to shell out another $200-300 for additional software)... I'll never buy a Windows PC again. As much as I'd love to, I haven't played with Linux all that much... maybe I should just give it to my 10-year old and he can teach me. It's a sad day when you can program software, but can't use it ;-)
A long time ago, I heard of the "13-year old effect"... which basically says that whatever a 13 year old wants today will be expected when they enter the workforce. Never discount the opinion of a 13-year old! If gadgets and 3-D interfaces are what gets them excited you better bet your a$$ that those features need to be in the operating system... especially one that goes 5+ years between versions.
Ballmer also gets that corporations want a more secure and reliable desktop platform for Microsoft Office and e-mail... and to his best effort he attempted to point out these "values" were more important than a few gadgets. He couldn't care less if someone has trouble upgrading because he gets his OS revenue from OEM and corporate licenses, not a few excited users willing to shell out for an upgrade that doesn't work on old, incompatible hardware.
I might also add that the future of "operating systems" are DEAD... and not just Windows... Linux and OSX are on their way out too. Eventually (if not already), devices will interact with each other without complicated, hardwired interfaces and device drivers. The next version of the Xbox or Playstation will eliminate the PC at home. So all you fan-boys can bash each others' favorite OS all you want, I look forward to the day when I never have to sit down at my in-law's computer for hours eliminating spyware because I'm the only "geek" they know.
Actually, you are going to pay Microsoft for the operating system even if your PC doesn't come with it because that's the license agreement OEM pay to create their PCs. Worse, MS is getting TWICE the money if a store is putting XP on the machine, because the OEM manufacturer paid for Vista, while the store paid for the full license of XP.
OH NO... what will happen to Babel Fish? http://world.altavista.com/
I agree... if go to the doctor thinking you have something and don't, chances are you'll leave with something and be sick in a few days.
light is made of photons... the speed of photons are consistent... thus, that is how the speed of light is determined. If you can't make a photon travel faster than the speed of light because light is made of photons, thus the speed of light is the speed of the photon. If anything, what they are saying is that they made one photon travel faster than the other... OR... the speed of photons is not constant... but scientists already acknowledge that. What's more interesting is that the properties of one photon or electron (both considered to be "waves", not matter) can be affected by another despite the distance between them... whether that is microscopic or on the order of light years. THAT is the fundamental idea that really shakes the grounds of special relativity!
We already know The Ultimate Answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything... it's 42.