The Duo is a Niche product, and while sure not to be anyone's cup of tea there are a number of people who enjoy the netbook-tablet concept.
Unfortunately, what the netbook-tablet isn't good at yet is what most people expect out of it. People want something that is "An iPad but a computer." Well an iPad is an iPad for a reason, at least for now. We've had lots of touchscreen computers for years and they're all niche devices.
What makes the Duo (And it's lenovo & Gigabyte sisters, and arguably the ASUS half-sisters [I say half due to the resistive touchscreens]) so appealing to a small set of people is the fact it IS a notebook, but if you want to do light browsing or curl up somewhere for a reading/youtube session you have a slightly improved level of portability.
Anyone that expects Dell or Lenovo to in 6 months make an inside-Windows interface even CLOSE to the iPad in terms of usability may be an idiot. It would be GREAT, don't get me wrong, but these mini-tablets are all going to be 'mee-too' devices with a half-assed interface for a while. They -do- still have some dang good uses however.
(Note I left out the HP Slate, which takes everything bad about the iPad and mixes it with everything bad about the Netbook-tablet class. Where the hell is -that- on this list?)
The smartest programmers I've met are the ones who know their low-level stuff. Until you understand the nuts and bolts you're just a part-swapping-monkey.
I just Did my Annual Enrollment, and My premiums went up a whopping 6% for me and my Wife, with my Health Care remaining the same or getting better in every area.
Comparatively, the last Annual Enrollments (For 2009 and 2010) weren't so good. 2009 left me with only a 5% increase, but a 50-100% increase in Copays and Deductibles. 2010 didn't see much of a change, but was over a 10% Increase.
My boss was actually saying pigs were flying, it was the first year since I've started that I didn't bitch a fit about benefit changes.
A Coworker was sent a.MOV file from a manufacturer... I wound up suggesting VLC to him because our IT Department would rather he use than than iCrap software...
It would... but that would also depend on Microsoft being a Direct GAO Vendor.
Not saying that they aren't... but my gut tells me that some distributor(s) that is(are) able to resell volume licences is more likely the one on a GAO Contract.
Comcast is using devices similar to these in some systems for MDUs such as Hospitals and Hotels, etc. I do not know the cost offhand but I'm guessing you're talking about a significant cost... more than a dual bridger but less than a node.
Also, as to "Turning off analog," Comcast in a number of markets is changing their analog services to only provide the "Must-Carry" stations, which is not much more useful than Over-The-Air. It's a win-win for them; less incentive to steal service, and they get more money from the legitimate customers.
Based on my experience with T-Mobile, they're the shittiest customer service out of everyone.
Protip: At the start of any dispute, research ALL Options. T-Mobile wouldn't budge on my issue until I filed complaints with both the FCC and BBB. The second I did both they were much more amicable to to providing a resolution that left noone happy, rather than just them.
In the case of a buyout, or even if the company you're with is the same company, If anything changes with regard to your contract there is a period (I believe 30-60 days) during which you can say "I don't agree to these new terms, I want out of my contract" and you cannot be required to pay the penalty, because it's NOT the same contract you agree to.
In fact, when this happens, you are supposed to be notified in writing of the change.
BeyondTV, if you can deal with the lack of future versions, or SageTV if you are more worried about that sort of thing. If you want to do Cable/Satellite HD there's a significant Up-Front investiment involved (Hauppauge HD-PVR and the headaches it involves,) But the level of freedom you can get with such a setup is liberating.
I've run BeyondTV since 2004 and have been a satisfied customer the whole time. They don't release new versions, but it works well enough (HD Support isn't perfect, but it works for me.) Placeshifting is available, both in the home and over the internet. My current setup involves 3 PCs, one carrying the centralized set of tuners. I can add an additional local client for about 30$ a pop, no guide fees, and setup is easy as pie. Plus there's the DVD Burning Capability. All in all it's a seamless setup, but it's not hard.
I've heard good things about SageTV, but it doesn't have placeshifting as a standard feature. It is, however, supposedly easier than MythTV to setup.
Keep in mind, your initial tuner setup -WILL- set you back. But it's far more affordable, relatively speaking. When I got my first setup I paid 200$ for an External USB 2.0 Tuner. Nowadays you can get the HD-PVR for around that, and USB NTSC/ATSC tuners will set you back less than 100.
True, but it doesn't help for Win32 Programs that have Win16 Installers. This is likely what GP is referring to; a lot of games of that era (And even for some time after) use 16 bit installers because, well, the publisher probably already had the license and didn't see the sense in paying for a new one. After all, there was no way to know back then how far (or close) 64-bitness was to be on a consumer machine, and even still that x64 would be done in such a way that 16 bitness was not doable.
Some good examples of 32 bit Apps with 16 bit Installers; -AutoCAD R14 (Sure, it's old, but a lot of old drafting coots prefer it over newer versions, and reusing their existing version is far cheaper than paying the thousands of dollars for a new license.) -X-Wing Alliance (Released in 1999, and still has a 16-bit installer!) -Installers for some Wacom Tablet Drivers (Oooh, nothing makes me a sad panda quite like hardware being unusable because you don't have a driver)
Dosbox won't help you with these, alas. Perhaps XP mode in Windows 7 but I certainly don't have the money to spend on Ultimate. VM would work, with a required level of fanciness dependent on the software you're running, (At work, I can get by with using the free VMWare Server for AutoCAD R14 when I need it (Still have to code/debug old R14 LISP Expressions, sometimes things act a little different in the newer versions so testing in ACAD 2007 is never a sure thing.)
But, 3d Applications would require a fancier piece of VM software (Probably, say, Workstation, to do the D3D.) Lord knows how easy/hard it would be to get something like a joystick working with that.
Goodness, it's all the pain in the ass of running a Mac, without any of the smugness!
I was blessed with having a father, who after our first sound card became enamored with MIDI Composition and playback; as a result we always had pretty decent sound cards.
We started with a Pro AudioSpectrum 16 card. Came as part of a multimedia kit with a 2x SCSI CD-Rom and a bunch of Shovelware. That thing was rock-solid compatible, and for all the Non-PNPness of the time was extremely easy to set up, as it was all driver controlled. Sound quality was only OK, but that's how it was back then!
We then got a Gravis Ultrasound ACE, to satisfy my dad's wavetable needs. You know, for all of the complaints people had, I never had a problem getting the thing to work with a non Protected-Mode game. And I have to say; that thing made TIE-Fighter AMAZING. And by the time Protected mode got In vogue, the software supported it Natively anyway.
Sound Blaster 32... The sound card upgrade that was so Ho-Hum that we kept the Ultrasound. Sure, the 32 did better at lots of things, but the UltraSound did just as many things better.
We then used an Ensoniq AudioPCI that was included in the new machine (The fact by now we were running Win95 meant GUS support was falling by the wayside, alas.) That thing was so beautiful in it's implementation it's no wonder Creative bought them, otherwise they would have been screwed.
After that came the Live Value. You know, it worked, but this is when sound cards seemed to start to lack the mystical charm they used to have. In fact, my dad stuck with the Live for years, until I went ahead and in a new machine build set him up with a Digifire 7.1.
But to get to the point, if I learned one thing in all of this, it's that most Creative stuff is overpriced for what you get, and some of the underdogs make some truly remarkable products.
Readyboost helps but is not a pancea. It certainly helps with smaller accesses (low latency) but fails at larger ones (low bandwidth.)
That said, I run Readyboost on all my Vista machines and it definately helps, even on the machines with 4GB. But it's not a full-fledged substitute for more RAM.
Manual transmissions are lovely for a variety of reasons, especially in states where you have to deal with snow conditions.
Mind you, a lot of modern automatic transmissions are pretty bulletproof. The GM 4T45E and Saturn MP7 come to mind and the Ford/GM dual clutch 6 speed should be a pretty solid unit.
But there's that devil word. "Should." Automatic transmissions still aren't always as reliable as they perhaps should be. The automation leaves a lot of things to chance (Shift Flare in Aisin 5 Speeds), and sometimes people just plain push a design too long (Chrysler used more or less the same transmission from the K cars to the mid neons. By the late 90s all the power those neons comparatively put out, those transmissions got torn apart.)
But the CVTs were supposed to be a holy grail. Like the VTi that has been known to blow up in 8000 miles. There are some promising designs out there (the Nuvinci comes to mind, the amount of torque it can handle for it's weight is quite astonishing,) but most aren't quite reliable enough at the torque a car puts out..
Manual transmissions, on the other hand, just plain work. The nature of them allows the parts to be much more overbuilt and good designs tend to be improved upon rather than have to be fully scrapped in the name of progress.
Good Example: Saturn MP3 Manual Transmissions have been known to take over double the intended horsepower, with a stronger clutch and a welded differential pin. I'd like to see any modern manual hold up to that claim.
Uhh... That's what they're doing. The court said that under the current regulations, the FCC couldn't do anything. That's WHY they are talking about new regulations.
Bethesda lost me as a customer after completely screwing over me and everyone else who bought Star Trek Legacy for the PC.
If they treat this as well as they treat other third party titles, you'll be in for a great time of necessary patches that never come.
Uhh, have you ever BEEN to Ars? It's a great site, with great content, and the ads are fine. Real Journalism costs money. Money typically comes from advertising revenue, when one is talking about journalism. They've been around over a decade, so it's -not- a case of a web 2.0 money grab.
The real killer for newspapers hasn't been online CONTENT. The killer has been online ADVERTISING. Craigslist et. al. has caused a drop in demand for classefied ads in the papers, which leads to a loss in revenue.
You can, at times, get Good 'Free' Conent. But most of the time, Good Content costs time, which in modern society equates to money. If sites like Ars were only done in people's free time you'd have a lot less great articles.
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The Duo is a Niche product, and while sure not to be anyone's cup of tea there are a number of people who enjoy the netbook-tablet concept.
Unfortunately, what the netbook-tablet isn't good at yet is what most people expect out of it. People want something that is "An iPad but a computer." Well an iPad is an iPad for a reason, at least for now. We've had lots of touchscreen computers for years and they're all niche devices.
What makes the Duo (And it's lenovo & Gigabyte sisters, and arguably the ASUS half-sisters [I say half due to the resistive touchscreens]) so appealing to a small set of people is the fact it IS a notebook, but if you want to do light browsing or curl up somewhere for a reading/youtube session you have a slightly improved level of portability.
Anyone that expects Dell or Lenovo to in 6 months make an inside-Windows interface even CLOSE to the iPad in terms of usability may be an idiot. It would be GREAT, don't get me wrong, but these mini-tablets are all going to be 'mee-too' devices with a half-assed interface for a while. They -do- still have some dang good uses however.
(Note I left out the HP Slate, which takes everything bad about the iPad and mixes it with everything bad about the Netbook-tablet class. Where the hell is -that- on this list?)
The smartest programmers I've met are the ones who know their low-level stuff. Until you understand the nuts and bolts you're just a part-swapping-monkey.
McBain.jpg
Really?
I just Did my Annual Enrollment, and My premiums went up a whopping 6% for me and my Wife, with my Health Care remaining the same or getting better in every area.
Comparatively, the last Annual Enrollments (For 2009 and 2010) weren't so good. 2009 left me with only a 5% increase, but a 50-100% increase in Copays and Deductibles. 2010 didn't see much of a change, but was over a 10% Increase.
My boss was actually saying pigs were flying, it was the first year since I've started that I didn't bitch a fit about benefit changes.
A Coworker was sent a .MOV file from a manufacturer... I wound up suggesting VLC to him because our IT Department would rather he use than than iCrap software...
It would... but that would also depend on Microsoft being a Direct GAO Vendor.
Not saying that they aren't... but my gut tells me that some distributor(s) that is(are) able to resell volume licences is more likely the one on a GAO Contract.
SprintTV is a network specific app. You're suprised?
I've always thought of registering a nick in http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=gay+head,+MA&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=27.643082,61.347656&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Gay+Head,+Dukes,+Massachusetts&ll=41.351557,-70.814781&spn=0.025514,0.05991&t=h&z=14&iwloc=A
Uhh, To the best of my knowledge none of the successful Lego Games haven't been published by Activision.
Lego Star Wars and Indy were published by LucasArts.
Lego Harry Potter was published by a division of Warner.
On the other hand, a possibility for the 7th Pillar would be whatever Bungie has in the works...
THIS.
Comcast is using devices similar to these in some systems for MDUs such as Hospitals and Hotels, etc. I do not know the cost offhand but I'm guessing you're talking about a significant cost... more than a dual bridger but less than a node.
Also, as to "Turning off analog," Comcast in a number of markets is changing their analog services to only provide the "Must-Carry" stations, which is not much more useful than Over-The-Air. It's a win-win for them; less incentive to steal service, and they get more money from the legitimate customers.
OSX? Don't you mean Ubuntu?
What? Threatening to beat a user with my keyboard is a gesture... right?
Right?
Based on my experience with T-Mobile, they're the shittiest customer service out of everyone.
Protip: At the start of any dispute, research ALL Options. T-Mobile wouldn't budge on my issue until I filed complaints with both the FCC and BBB. The second I did both they were much more amicable to to providing a resolution that left noone happy, rather than just them.
In the case of a buyout, or even if the company you're with is the same company, If anything changes with regard to your contract there is a period (I believe 30-60 days) during which you can say "I don't agree to these new terms, I want out of my contract" and you cannot be required to pay the penalty, because it's NOT the same contract you agree to.
In fact, when this happens, you are supposed to be notified in writing of the change.
3:
BeyondTV, if you can deal with the lack of future versions, or SageTV if you are more worried about that sort of thing. If you want to do Cable/Satellite HD there's a significant Up-Front investiment involved (Hauppauge HD-PVR and the headaches it involves,) But the level of freedom you can get with such a setup is liberating.
I've run BeyondTV since 2004 and have been a satisfied customer the whole time. They don't release new versions, but it works well enough (HD Support isn't perfect, but it works for me.) Placeshifting is available, both in the home and over the internet. My current setup involves 3 PCs, one carrying the centralized set of tuners. I can add an additional local client for about 30$ a pop, no guide fees, and setup is easy as pie. Plus there's the DVD Burning Capability. All in all it's a seamless setup, but it's not hard.
I've heard good things about SageTV, but it doesn't have placeshifting as a standard feature. It is, however, supposedly easier than MythTV to setup.
Keep in mind, your initial tuner setup -WILL- set you back. But it's far more affordable, relatively speaking. When I got my first setup I paid 200$ for an External USB 2.0 Tuner. Nowadays you can get the HD-PVR for around that, and USB NTSC/ATSC tuners will set you back less than 100.
True, but it doesn't help for Win32 Programs that have Win16 Installers. This is likely what GP is referring to; a lot of games of that era (And even for some time after) use 16 bit installers because, well, the publisher probably already had the license and didn't see the sense in paying for a new one. After all, there was no way to know back then how far (or close) 64-bitness was to be on a consumer machine, and even still that x64 would be done in such a way that 16 bitness was not doable.
Some good examples of 32 bit Apps with 16 bit Installers;
-AutoCAD R14 (Sure, it's old, but a lot of old drafting coots prefer it over newer versions, and reusing their existing version is far cheaper than paying the thousands of dollars for a new license.)
-X-Wing Alliance (Released in 1999, and still has a 16-bit installer!)
-Installers for some Wacom Tablet Drivers (Oooh, nothing makes me a sad panda quite like hardware being unusable because you don't have a driver)
Dosbox won't help you with these, alas. Perhaps XP mode in Windows 7 but I certainly don't have the money to spend on Ultimate. VM would work, with a required level of fanciness dependent on the software you're running, (At work, I can get by with using the free VMWare Server for AutoCAD R14 when I need it (Still have to code/debug old R14 LISP Expressions, sometimes things act a little different in the newer versions so testing in ACAD 2007 is never a sure thing.)
But, 3d Applications would require a fancier piece of VM software (Probably, say, Workstation, to do the D3D.) Lord knows how easy/hard it would be to get something like a joystick working with that.
Goodness, it's all the pain in the ass of running a Mac, without any of the smugness!
I was blessed with having a father, who after our first sound card became enamored with MIDI Composition and playback; as a result we always had pretty decent sound cards.
We started with a Pro AudioSpectrum 16 card. Came as part of a multimedia kit with a 2x SCSI CD-Rom and a bunch of Shovelware. That thing was rock-solid compatible, and for all the Non-PNPness of the time was extremely easy to set up, as it was all driver controlled. Sound quality was only OK, but that's how it was back then!
We then got a Gravis Ultrasound ACE, to satisfy my dad's wavetable needs. You know, for all of the complaints people had, I never had a problem getting the thing to work with a non Protected-Mode game. And I have to say; that thing made TIE-Fighter AMAZING. And by the time Protected mode got In vogue, the software supported it Natively anyway.
Sound Blaster 32... The sound card upgrade that was so Ho-Hum that we kept the Ultrasound. Sure, the 32 did better at lots of things, but the UltraSound did just as many things better.
We then used an Ensoniq AudioPCI that was included in the new machine (The fact by now we were running Win95 meant GUS support was falling by the wayside, alas.) That thing was so beautiful in it's implementation it's no wonder Creative bought them, otherwise they would have been screwed.
After that came the Live Value. You know, it worked, but this is when sound cards seemed to start to lack the mystical charm they used to have. In fact, my dad stuck with the Live for years, until I went ahead and in a new machine build set him up with a Digifire 7.1.
But to get to the point, if I learned one thing in all of this, it's that most Creative stuff is overpriced for what you get, and some of the underdogs make some truly remarkable products.
I LOLed
Readyboost helps but is not a pancea. It certainly helps with smaller accesses (low latency) but fails at larger ones (low bandwidth.) That said, I run Readyboost on all my Vista machines and it definately helps, even on the machines with 4GB. But it's not a full-fledged substitute for more RAM.
Manual transmissions are lovely for a variety of reasons, especially in states where you have to deal with snow conditions. Mind you, a lot of modern automatic transmissions are pretty bulletproof. The GM 4T45E and Saturn MP7 come to mind and the Ford/GM dual clutch 6 speed should be a pretty solid unit. But there's that devil word. "Should." Automatic transmissions still aren't always as reliable as they perhaps should be. The automation leaves a lot of things to chance (Shift Flare in Aisin 5 Speeds), and sometimes people just plain push a design too long (Chrysler used more or less the same transmission from the K cars to the mid neons. By the late 90s all the power those neons comparatively put out, those transmissions got torn apart.) But the CVTs were supposed to be a holy grail. Like the VTi that has been known to blow up in 8000 miles. There are some promising designs out there (the Nuvinci comes to mind, the amount of torque it can handle for it's weight is quite astonishing,) but most aren't quite reliable enough at the torque a car puts out.. Manual transmissions, on the other hand, just plain work. The nature of them allows the parts to be much more overbuilt and good designs tend to be improved upon rather than have to be fully scrapped in the name of progress. Good Example: Saturn MP3 Manual Transmissions have been known to take over double the intended horsepower, with a stronger clutch and a welded differential pin. I'd like to see any modern manual hold up to that claim.
They're going to start collecting blood samples of all users, and are starting with employees.
Uhh... That's what they're doing. The court said that under the current regulations, the FCC couldn't do anything. That's WHY they are talking about new regulations.
One would assume the same way the digital slot machines are done, audits and all.
Bethesda lost me as a customer after completely screwing over me and everyone else who bought Star Trek Legacy for the PC. If they treat this as well as they treat other third party titles, you'll be in for a great time of necessary patches that never come.
Uhh, have you ever BEEN to Ars? It's a great site, with great content, and the ads are fine. Real Journalism costs money. Money typically comes from advertising revenue, when one is talking about journalism. They've been around over a decade, so it's -not- a case of a web 2.0 money grab.
The real killer for newspapers hasn't been online CONTENT. The killer has been online ADVERTISING. Craigslist et. al. has caused a drop in demand for classefied ads in the papers, which leads to a loss in revenue.
You can, at times, get Good 'Free' Conent. But most of the time, Good Content costs time, which in modern society equates to money. If sites like Ars were only done in people's free time you'd have a lot less great articles.