Neither model precludes a USB wifi dongle(and some stuff, particularly some RaLink, actually works); but it looks like the default options are either "None" or "10/100 ethernet provided by a SMSC9512 USB hub/Ethernet controller hanging off the SoC's USB master port.
A case design allowing for a USB dongle to be installed; but protected inside the case, should be trivial enough; but is not default.
If Nvidia is working on it, it seems quite likely that ARM, as in the instruction set, won't; but ARM, in the same sense that "x86" can also describe a computer built around a specific CPU, quite possibly will.
Given Nvidia's (comparatively mature) GPU compute ambitions, and their displeasure at the fact that Intel has been shoving them out of all but the fat-'n-bulky laptop designs and discrete GPU desktop/workstation designs, it seems very likely indeed that Nvidia wants two things from ARM:
1. An ARM fast enough to, when combined with an Nvidia GPU, produce a tablet/laptop that people won't laugh at in comparison to a ULV i3/5/7 + Intel GMA.
2. An ARM fast enough(and with enough PCIe lanes and memory controller ability) to do boot, housekeeping, and care and feeding, for a big stack of 'Tesla' compute silicon.
Neither really requires(nor would it be obviously sensible) ARM to go up against high-wattage and relatively low thread-count x86 parts(in which struggle Intel is a very, very, dangerous adversary, and AMD a dogged and inexpensive one); but they likely would want something that can provide an adequate user experience compared to the intel power-constrained stuff, and something that can allow them to sell all-Nvidia Tesla compute stacks.
Arguably, MS seeks an outcome where their market power allows them to command high margins on the most lucrative parts of the IT business, particularly its corporate side.
Apple seeks an outcome where they cryptographically control all the devices and you can buy back the ability to do certain things with them.
These outcomes are known as 'a distorted market economy' and 'feudalism' respectively.
My understanding is that anybody who obtains the full version of all Broadcom datasheets, unless placed under an NDA of Greater Warding, will have everything he needs to discover their CEO's true name(in The Old Tongue) by which he can be banished forever from the temporal plane.
I am delighted by the Model B(and will probably soon own more than I can strictly justify...); but I must confess that I find the Model A's purpose in life to be a trifle baffling(except as a sort of 'arduino murderer for non-power-constrained applications').
If all of a school's other computer-related needs are already covered, getting together a programming environment equal or superior to a 700MHz linux box with 128 MB of RAM should be comparatively simple via LiveCD, PXE boot, VM, installing cygwin(or python for windows, or Visual Studio The First Hit is Free, Kid. Edition, or whatever).
If a school currently has deeply inadequate computer resources, the "Well, for $25/unit(plus monitor and peripherals, and probably a USB hub if the monitor doesn't include one, because 1 USB port isn't even enough for a mouse and keyboard, let alone flash drives and whatnot) we could buy a CS education setup or, for 35$/unit(plus monitor and peripherals, and a USB hub if needed for more than mouse and keyboard) we could buy a CS education setup that can also be pressed into service for internet stuff, and accessing/saving files from the other computer lab, etc." dilemma seems trivially tilted in favor of the revision B unit.
Even if these are designed to be a per-pupil thing, making the device more useful to its owner(and able to obtain additional tools without an existing computer and an SD cardreader, make programs that do HTTP stuff, etc.) seems like it would be worth the $10.
The value of ethernet only gets larger if there exists, or comes to exist, a toolkit for managing/updating/backing up/etc. the things over a network. Flashing SD cards is hardly a total killer; but these things don't have to be in service too long before the ability to perform operations across all of them over the network becomes worth the upfront cost...
On the plus side, RIM should find it much easier to retain customer-service reps, now that the risk of picking up the phone and being on the receiving end of Dick Cheney's rather impressive gravelly snarl is gone...
In the interests of fairness, they could just change the verdict from "guilty" to "Formally undecidable in many of the most interesting cases". That should justify the special handling.
The one (partially) compensatory factor is that getting mass roughly where you want it in the ocean is dirt cheap and relatively simple compared to getting it out of a gravity well. So, if you are prepared to massively overbuild, you can at least get your monstrosity delivered...
Unfortunately, even if you are willing to massively overbuild, that doesn't solve the "But why?" problem: Living in a structure designed largely for its ability to survive massive pressure for any length of time would be a fairly horrid experience, and the inability to bring a human outside without truly alarming tech diving(or even have a structurally safe window), would likely leave you with a terribly expensive pressure-vessel full of hydronauts who spend their time operating the same ROVs and whatnot that they could just as easily be operating over a tether from a cheaper and vastly more pleasant surface support ship(or some sort of near-surface neutrally buoyant platform, if local weather is a problem)...
If, and only if, you are content to breathe either some sort of liquid(maybe they've finally gotten those fluorocarbons worked out?) or some gas mix at whatever the pressure imposed by your depth is. Unfortunately, it appears that virtually all potential atmospheres are some flavor of toxic, narcotic, or both at any more than modest pressure.
Also, "Dysbaric Osteonecrosis" is about as fun as it sounds, possibly less so.
Re:The ocean frontier - not
on
Remembering Sealab
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Arguably, deep-ish ocean has most of the same things going against it that space does, but with the additional(advantage or disadvantage depends on your opinion) that there is a much 'smoother' gradient between terrestrial work and deep-ocean work than there is between land and space.
With a mixture of robots and things on strings, you can exploit much of the economically interesting stuff below the water surface without any long term human habitation. Where that isn't possible(certain construction projects related to drilling, some salvage work, having a fleet of nuclear submarines ready to get their second-strike on with extreme prejudice...) you do, indeed, find people. Generally very expensive ones; but available if you are suitably motivated.
The cost of entry starts at nearly zero, pick up a fishing line at your nearest sporting goods shop, and just keeps going up, more or less smoothly(but very, very fast at the high end) for how deep you want to go and how long you want to go there. That's the kicker: For any cool undersea scheme, you can probably cook up a scheme with 90% of the benefits at much lower cost just by not going as deep or by not staying there as long. It doesn't help that many of the technologies you would need to live successfully underwater could be applied more easily and more pleasantly to existing untapped options.
Want to live on seafood and algae, in a hamster-habitube, in a hostile environment where you can't drink the water? No problem, we have loads of coastal desert where you can desalinate to your heart's content, and won't even have to breath trimix all the time!
I understand the, sometimes essential, role of authoritarian revenge fantasies in the masturbatory process of a certain sort of person; but are you seriously suggesting that the overt use of extrajudicial violence is actually a sensible response to a group motivated by the position that the powers-that-be are unaccountable and deeply corrupt?
There isn't the slightest question about where the 'real power' lies; but surely dealing with suspected violators of various computer crime laws, against which you have evidence, and toward which the public doesn't have much sympathy, should be about the easiest place to get the desired result and keep the moral high ground, no?
If, and only if, you also had your iris recalibrated to handle the higher sensitivity...
I'm by no means in genetic-freak-vision territory; but even with merely good low light vision and pale blue eyes, going into sunlight downright hurts for a few minutes until a combination of squinting and iris closure gets the light levels back to acceptable.
You Would. Not. Want. to be the poor sucker who suddenly acquires inhuman low-light sensitivity without the accompanying optical gizmos for handling daylight...
Does this suggest that it may be hazardous to produce soylent green from Alzheimer's casualties, in the same way that consumption of tissue from animals affected by prion disorders is considered unwise?
Ah, remember that there is a second, very important, factor that decides whether or not a system has been "hacked" or "manipulated" or some other sinister-sounding verb...
Whether or not it embarrasses the owner/seller of the system.
In this case, (where a multi-billion-dollar investment bank's anti-fraud system apparently allows the people it is supposed to be monitoring to just manually enter the data that the system is supposed to be verifying) it would be terribly embarrassing to People Who Matter to describe the situation in more honest terms. If anything, the fact that the 'manipulation' hasn't been described as 'highly sophisticated' and the accused as a 'hacking expert' is the surprising bit.
Were the shoe on the other foot, and this system were something being sold commercially for use in all sorts of important places(SCADA systems, say) it would be dreadfully impolite to say that it had been 'manipulated', much less(heaven help us!) 'hacked' or 'exploited'. No, it would, just naturally, be vulnerable to malconfiguration by insider threats.
Apparently the hardware is modestly different(supports closer-in operation, probably costs peanuts at scale, might be a pain to find the right IR-band lenses to mod one yourself); but you might run into some trouble in that MS has been pushing toward signed drivers only for a while now. XP and 32-bit versions of the later stuff can be told to ignore it; but 64-bit 7 does some serious whining if the signatures don't check out...
Probably pretty similar. There was just no pleasing that guy. If he couldn't turn his frown upside down at the prospect of not nuclear war, I doubt that a franchise cash-in not sucking would even register.
Insufficiently 'Social', I'm afraid... Only systems controlled by a central corporate entity, answerable only to them, are 'Social'. This 'peer-to-peer' interaction nonsense just doesn't qualify.
That, and a rifle to use on all the assholes who keep hanging Escher prints in the cameras' field of view and laughing hysterically at your algorithm's attempt to cope...
Be sure to wear your Saturday Morning Watchmen T-shirt, to show your loyalty to, and understanding of, his artistic vision. It'll make him more likely to cooperate.
Slashdot Mirror
According to the present wiki information Model A received "Onboard Network: None".
Neither model precludes a USB wifi dongle(and some stuff, particularly some RaLink, actually works); but it looks like the default options are either "None" or "10/100 ethernet provided by a SMSC9512 USB hub/Ethernet controller hanging off the SoC's USB master port.
A case design allowing for a USB dongle to be installed; but protected inside the case, should be trivial enough; but is not default.
Compared to iOS, OS X is a hippie commune all smoking freedom joints in a big freedom love-in; but it has its quirks...
If Nvidia is working on it, it seems quite likely that ARM, as in the instruction set, won't; but ARM, in the same sense that "x86" can also describe a computer built around a specific CPU, quite possibly will.
Given Nvidia's (comparatively mature) GPU compute ambitions, and their displeasure at the fact that Intel has been shoving them out of all but the fat-'n-bulky laptop designs and discrete GPU desktop/workstation designs, it seems very likely indeed that Nvidia wants two things from ARM:
1. An ARM fast enough to, when combined with an Nvidia GPU, produce a tablet/laptop that people won't laugh at in comparison to a ULV i3/5/7 + Intel GMA.
2. An ARM fast enough(and with enough PCIe lanes and memory controller ability) to do boot, housekeeping, and care and feeding, for a big stack of 'Tesla' compute silicon.
Neither really requires(nor would it be obviously sensible) ARM to go up against high-wattage and relatively low thread-count x86 parts(in which struggle Intel is a very, very, dangerous adversary, and AMD a dogged and inexpensive one); but they likely would want something that can provide an adequate user experience compared to the intel power-constrained stuff, and something that can allow them to sell all-Nvidia Tesla compute stacks.
Arguably, MS seeks an outcome where their market power allows them to command high margins on the most lucrative parts of the IT business, particularly its corporate side.
Apple seeks an outcome where they cryptographically control all the devices and you can buy back the ability to do certain things with them.
These outcomes are known as 'a distorted market economy' and 'feudalism' respectively.
My understanding is that anybody who obtains the full version of all Broadcom datasheets, unless placed under an NDA of Greater Warding, will have everything he needs to discover their CEO's true name(in The Old Tongue) by which he can be banished forever from the temporal plane.
Understandably, he is kind of touchy about that.
I am delighted by the Model B(and will probably soon own more than I can strictly justify...); but I must confess that I find the Model A's purpose in life to be a trifle baffling(except as a sort of 'arduino murderer for non-power-constrained applications').
If all of a school's other computer-related needs are already covered, getting together a programming environment equal or superior to a 700MHz linux box with 128 MB of RAM should be comparatively simple via LiveCD, PXE boot, VM, installing cygwin(or python for windows, or Visual Studio The First Hit is Free, Kid. Edition, or whatever).
If a school currently has deeply inadequate computer resources, the "Well, for $25/unit(plus monitor and peripherals, and probably a USB hub if the monitor doesn't include one, because 1 USB port isn't even enough for a mouse and keyboard, let alone flash drives and whatnot) we could buy a CS education setup or, for 35$/unit(plus monitor and peripherals, and a USB hub if needed for more than mouse and keyboard) we could buy a CS education setup that can also be pressed into service for internet stuff, and accessing/saving files from the other computer lab, etc." dilemma seems trivially tilted in favor of the revision B unit.
Even if these are designed to be a per-pupil thing, making the device more useful to its owner(and able to obtain additional tools without an existing computer and an SD cardreader, make programs that do HTTP stuff, etc.) seems like it would be worth the $10.
The value of ethernet only gets larger if there exists, or comes to exist, a toolkit for managing/updating/backing up/etc. the things over a network. Flashing SD cards is hardly a total killer; but these things don't have to be in service too long before the ability to perform operations across all of them over the network becomes worth the upfront cost...
On the plus side, RIM should find it much easier to retain customer-service reps, now that the risk of picking up the phone and being on the receiving end of Dick Cheney's rather impressive gravelly snarl is gone...
The whole damned island is a penal colony inhabited by venomous everything and criminals! Obviously no amount of Security is too much!
It turns out that the microbiological conditions of ancient lake Vostok are strikingly similar to those of early 21st century drilling mud.
The timeline altering implications of this discovery will keep scientists busy for decades!
In the interests of fairness, they could just change the verdict from "guilty" to "Formally undecidable in many of the most interesting cases". That should justify the special handling.
The one (partially) compensatory factor is that getting mass roughly where you want it in the ocean is dirt cheap and relatively simple compared to getting it out of a gravity well. So, if you are prepared to massively overbuild, you can at least get your monstrosity delivered...
Unfortunately, even if you are willing to massively overbuild, that doesn't solve the "But why?" problem: Living in a structure designed largely for its ability to survive massive pressure for any length of time would be a fairly horrid experience, and the inability to bring a human outside without truly alarming tech diving(or even have a structurally safe window), would likely leave you with a terribly expensive pressure-vessel full of hydronauts who spend their time operating the same ROVs and whatnot that they could just as easily be operating over a tether from a cheaper and vastly more pleasant surface support ship(or some sort of near-surface neutrally buoyant platform, if local weather is a problem)...
If, and only if, you are content to breathe either some sort of liquid(maybe they've finally gotten those fluorocarbons worked out?) or some gas mix at whatever the pressure imposed by your depth is. Unfortunately, it appears that virtually all potential atmospheres are some flavor of toxic, narcotic, or both at any more than modest pressure.
Also, "Dysbaric Osteonecrosis" is about as fun as it sounds, possibly less so.
Arguably, deep-ish ocean has most of the same things going against it that space does, but with the additional(advantage or disadvantage depends on your opinion) that there is a much 'smoother' gradient between terrestrial work and deep-ocean work than there is between land and space.
With a mixture of robots and things on strings, you can exploit much of the economically interesting stuff below the water surface without any long term human habitation. Where that isn't possible(certain construction projects related to drilling, some salvage work, having a fleet of nuclear submarines ready to get their second-strike on with extreme prejudice...) you do, indeed, find people. Generally very expensive ones; but available if you are suitably motivated.
The cost of entry starts at nearly zero, pick up a fishing line at your nearest sporting goods shop, and just keeps going up, more or less smoothly(but very, very fast at the high end) for how deep you want to go and how long you want to go there. That's the kicker: For any cool undersea scheme, you can probably cook up a scheme with 90% of the benefits at much lower cost just by not going as deep or by not staying there as long. It doesn't help that many of the technologies you would need to live successfully underwater could be applied more easily and more pleasantly to existing untapped options.
Want to live on seafood and algae, in a hamster-habitube, in a hostile environment where you can't drink the water? No problem, we have loads of coastal desert where you can desalinate to your heart's content, and won't even have to breath trimix all the time!
It would appear that the MPAA Forgot Poland...
But, but, due process is so Hard!
I understand the, sometimes essential, role of authoritarian revenge fantasies in the masturbatory process of a certain sort of person; but are you seriously suggesting that the overt use of extrajudicial violence is actually a sensible response to a group motivated by the position that the powers-that-be are unaccountable and deeply corrupt?
There isn't the slightest question about where the 'real power' lies; but surely dealing with suspected violators of various computer crime laws, against which you have evidence, and toward which the public doesn't have much sympathy, should be about the easiest place to get the desired result and keep the moral high ground, no?
If, and only if, you also had your iris recalibrated to handle the higher sensitivity...
I'm by no means in genetic-freak-vision territory; but even with merely good low light vision and pale blue eyes, going into sunlight downright hurts for a few minutes until a combination of squinting and iris closure gets the light levels back to acceptable.
You Would. Not. Want. to be the poor sucker who suddenly acquires inhuman low-light sensitivity without the accompanying optical gizmos for handling daylight...
Does this suggest that it may be hazardous to produce soylent green from Alzheimer's casualties, in the same way that consumption of tissue from animals affected by prion disorders is considered unwise?
Ah, remember that there is a second, very important, factor that decides whether or not a system has been "hacked" or "manipulated" or some other sinister-sounding verb...
Whether or not it embarrasses the owner/seller of the system.
In this case, (where a multi-billion-dollar investment bank's anti-fraud system apparently allows the people it is supposed to be monitoring to just manually enter the data that the system is supposed to be verifying) it would be terribly embarrassing to People Who Matter to describe the situation in more honest terms. If anything, the fact that the 'manipulation' hasn't been described as 'highly sophisticated' and the accused as a 'hacking expert' is the surprising bit.
Were the shoe on the other foot, and this system were something being sold commercially for use in all sorts of important places(SCADA systems, say) it would be dreadfully impolite to say that it had been 'manipulated', much less(heaven help us!) 'hacked' or 'exploited'. No, it would, just naturally, be vulnerable to malconfiguration by insider threats.
Apparently the hardware is modestly different(supports closer-in operation, probably costs peanuts at scale, might be a pain to find the right IR-band lenses to mod one yourself); but you might run into some trouble in that MS has been pushing toward signed drivers only for a while now. XP and 32-bit versions of the later stuff can be told to ignore it; but 64-bit 7 does some serious whining if the signatures don't check out...
Probably pretty similar. There was just no pleasing that guy. If he couldn't turn his frown upside down at the prospect of not nuclear war, I doubt that a franchise cash-in not sucking would even register.
Insufficiently 'Social', I'm afraid... Only systems controlled by a central corporate entity, answerable only to them, are 'Social'. This 'peer-to-peer' interaction nonsense just doesn't qualify.
That, and a rifle to use on all the assholes who keep hanging Escher prints in the cameras' field of view and laughing hysterically at your algorithm's attempt to cope...
No; but all the shareholders who aren't major investment banks get their dividends paid out in ZyngaCash and/or Facebook Points...
Be sure to wear your Saturday Morning Watchmen T-shirt, to show your loyalty to, and understanding of, his artistic vision. It'll make him more likely to cooperate.