I guess you don't have much experience with Macs or you would realize that there is no big push to constantly upgrade to the latest major version of the OS. I only went from 10.6 to 10.9 about two years ago when I realized that the graphics subsystem could be hosed by software. (Minecraft 1.6 to be specific.)
As for Windows and 64-bit, I have a USB-based EPROM programmer which only has 32-bit drivers (the company got bought out right before 64-bit became a thing). What. The. Fuck. Seriously, how do you make something which needs kernel drivers to talk over USB? (I guess the answer is: use Windows! USB support has always been crap in Windows, move something to a different port and it has to re-install drivers?) So I keep it together with an awful ancient Dell laptop that runs XP, and I can't even figure out how to get file sharing working, so I have to use USB sticks to get files in and out of it.
Weak bait. IIRC, Apple only made Core 1 systems for a year or so, and they stopped supporting Core 1 with 10.7. Core 2 lasted a bit longer (2010 mac mini is C2D), has x64, and is still supported by El Capitan. What's more interesting is that they are forcing 64-bit on ARM first, which hasn't been 64-bit for as long.
Maybe if they put enough light on new features, they could nip rumors in the bud and grow an operating system good enough for us to leaf previous versions.
At least ISS is up there already. Look at the billions squandered on SLS, which so far hasn't even had its first test launch yet, and still won't launch a human for a few years to come.
The worst thing about labview is that it's basically impossible to use source code control with it. That's fine for throwaway toy programs, but not for anything that has to be maintained.
As I recall, it was more the other way around. The PS3 sound subsystem was based on the PS1 architecture, so emulation came at little extra cost and they simply left it in. The PS2 emulation was completely a "bag on the side", and went away after the first generation of PS3.
The PS4 and Xbone are complete re-designs to have PC-like architectures. The original Xbox was very much a PC architecture, but the X360 was only moderately so, but the PS2 and PS3 both had very custom architectures that (IMHO) in the end were more trouble than they were worth.
I'm going to agree. At least for the laptop form factor they are currently selling, touch screen would not be useful, for the same reason light pens never caught on back in the 1970s. It's just a pain in the ass to lift your arm to interact with the screen. If they made a pad, touch screen might become useful... when not mounted to a keyboard cover. And then there's always the problems of your finger covering what you are trying to touch, and less resolution of the click point than a mouse/trackpad.
Also, most trackpad gestures annoy the hell out of me. Literally the only one I leave enabled is two-finger scroll, which is made of awesome. I don't even like tap-to-click, I prefer an actual button.
Exactly, I'm at bifocal age, except it's really a stealth trifocal, because my uncorrected vision is perfect at about 5-8 inches, so I'll lie down with the laptop on my chest. Retina is intended to let you have higher resolution for photographs and font details and interpolation. I think they intended for you to keep your effective UI dpi about the same. But I have no actual experience with using the newer models.
My main late-2011 17" had its GPU break back in March, and I've finally sent it out for repair. (seems I missed the official Apple repair program by 3-4 months!) I've been using a 13" in the meantime. I miss being able to see two things on the screen at once. The 17" was like having what would be called a "two-page monitor" back in the 90s.
I used the ARM version with C++, in the 6.x era. Yeah, 8051 must be "fun" to make work with C++, instruction-set-wise, but there are worse ISAs. I also pretty much stuck to the EC++ subset, I used virtual methods (every screen on one project was a subclass), but my only template was for a bit string class. No heap (and no STL), but in one place I used placement new to allocate screen objects from a fixed pool that worked like a stack.
I also used IAR with MSP430 and STM8, but not with C++. MSP430 was great, and I would be surprised if its C++ didn't work. STM8 is another matter. I was able to build support for the STM32 bootloader into the code for our factory test equipment (as a screen in the code base I mentioned above, even), but we only ever got the smallest STM8s with no serial bootloader, and writing code from scratch to do SWIM is not trivial (it's a short/long pulse like the WS2812, so you have to get cushy with the timers and DMA to do it right). So I basically told my boss to please stop it with the damn STM8s already, it's not worth the trouble of needing a full PC in our factory test equipment (we were making stuff in China and had to ship the testers to the factory), and we switched to STM32F0 for the low end.
Now when it comes to optimization in IAR, holy crap what horrors, particularly "code movement". On an STM8 project once, it actually replaced a subroutine call with a short-branch-to-self instruction. I'm sure that trying to use C++ with STM8 (which is roughly equivalent to 68HC12) would have opened a gateway to the Elder Gods. But I'll never try, because STM8 was bad for my sanity, and there are some things man was not meant to know.
Someone pointed out about how they moved away from being a hobbyist shop to an overpriced electronics shop and never moved back into the hobbyist market when the hobbyist market picked back up.
They did try, but they took so long to react that by the time they caught up with them newfangled ardoo-weenie things (they were still selling Basic Stamp sets until a few years ago!) the hobbyist market had already moved on to newer stuff. They were just too slow at rotating out older merchandise. Perhaps it was all those years when the parts drawer was still "good enough" that got management complacent about how long they could sell the same things, but they seriously overstocked on stuff that was stale almost immediately to anyone who kept up with the latest thing.
I recently moved back to San Antonio from Austin, where I lived a 10 minute drive from Fry's. Now it's more like two hours away, including crossing to the far side of Austin, so I can't just go when I feel like it, even when I am already going to south Austin.
Back around 10 or so years ago, the word was that they were going to build a Fry's in San Antonio, but that was right about the time the economy went bad, and Fry's ended up in financial trouble bad enough that suppliers required them to pay for merchandise in advance. Given the choice, I prefer to have one Fry's a hundred miles away over no Fry's at all. Even if they did decide to build one here, it would probably take at least two years to open.
They closed all the Radio Shacks in Austin, and all but one in San Antonio (at least everybody has rumored that it will stay open), so I guess RS at least did that right. There are also a few other sources for stuff, like an Altex Electronics nearby. But I'd still love to see a Fry's here.
I guess Sears is staying afloat by the fact that they own most of their real estate
This is true. There was a local mall here which was entirely torn down except for the Sears, presumably because Sears had ownership interest in that part of the mall. A double strip mall was built In place of the rest of the mall (the back side was still a level below the front), and a Target built into a corner of the typically enormous parking lot. The Sears remained right where it was.
Components weren't much of their sales. What really kicked their butt was the "long tail". Not just in terms of mail order, but stuff in stock locally everywhere. Have you been to the electronics section at WalMart lately? I did a few weeks ago. I was surprised what formerly nerd-only stuff they had there.
The Radio Shacks around me that closed had a metric buttload of $35 6-foot HDMI cables, and most of them were still there on the last day, I think they were 70% off at the end. Seriously, I've got tons of second-hand HDMI cables around the house already. They had a real problem with stocking much more than was justified by consumer demand. (though I will accept that they might have gotten some of them from other stores closing out) They may not have had the ability to close enough stores five years ago until declaring bankruptcy, but I think they could have done much better to keep their merchandise stock levels under control. There were also parts I didn't expect they would have, like mini-Displayport monitor adapters and Apple (Magsafe 1) laptop power supplies, so I would never have shopped there for them, because their irrelevancy stopped me from even coming in to browse. Even a PDF-only version of their famous yearly catalog would have educated me about what they had!
Components/hobby stuff likewise failed to save their ass. They at least recognized the maker movement existed, but they were too just slow to react, and ended up with tons of outdated stuff. The packaging was much better at the end (those new gray zip bags probably helped with all the droolers who got the wrong part and came back to return a ripped bag/hang card), and the parts drawer was a great idea. But they had some really obscure parts that probably didn't sell well, thus taking up space for more desirable parts.
And some of the Arduino shields they stocked were pretty lame (let's stock Xbee shields but no radio modules!), but the two lamest were Ethernet (already common on higher-priced Arduino and other uC boards for the few who really needed it) and GSM (use the phone network with your Arduino to send texts for only $69 + monthly fees!) And no shields for WiFi. Wait, WTF, I hadn't realized that until just now. I'll say it again: NO ARDUINO SHIELDS OR ANY OTHER HOBBYIST PARTS FOR WIFI.
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I guess you don't have much experience with Macs or you would realize that there is no big push to constantly upgrade to the latest major version of the OS. I only went from 10.6 to 10.9 about two years ago when I realized that the graphics subsystem could be hosed by software. (Minecraft 1.6 to be specific.)
As for Windows and 64-bit, I have a USB-based EPROM programmer which only has 32-bit drivers (the company got bought out right before 64-bit became a thing). What. The. Fuck. Seriously, how do you make something which needs kernel drivers to talk over USB? (I guess the answer is: use Windows! USB support has always been crap in Windows, move something to a different port and it has to re-install drivers?) So I keep it together with an awful ancient Dell laptop that runs XP, and I can't even figure out how to get file sharing working, so I have to use USB sticks to get files in and out of it.
Weak bait. IIRC, Apple only made Core 1 systems for a year or so, and they stopped supporting Core 1 with 10.7. Core 2 lasted a bit longer (2010 mac mini is C2D), has x64, and is still supported by El Capitan. What's more interesting is that they are forcing 64-bit on ARM first, which hasn't been 64-bit for as long.
Maybe if they put enough light on new features, they could nip rumors in the bud and grow an operating system good enough for us to leaf previous versions.
At least ISS is up there already. Look at the billions squandered on SLS, which so far hasn't even had its first test launch yet, and still won't launch a human for a few years to come.
But that was only the "mobile" build, so the damage was limited to the thirty or so actual users of Windows Phone.
The worst thing about labview is that it's basically impossible to use source code control with it. That's fine for throwaway toy programs, but not for anything that has to be maintained.
Because some people are still falling for the Cell meme.
How long until the media streaming apps stop getting updated? That's probably the worst thing about Netflix-style streaming.
In these days of HDMI ports all over the place, maybe game consoles should start to support two screens for "split-screen" play.
As I recall, it was more the other way around. The PS3 sound subsystem was based on the PS1 architecture, so emulation came at little extra cost and they simply left it in. The PS2 emulation was completely a "bag on the side", and went away after the first generation of PS3.
The PS4 and Xbone are complete re-designs to have PC-like architectures. The original Xbox was very much a PC architecture, but the X360 was only moderately so, but the PS2 and PS3 both had very custom architectures that (IMHO) in the end were more trouble than they were worth.
I'll show them!
int main(int argc, char * const argv[])
{
printf("Hello world!\n");
return 0;
}
(WTF? doesn't work anymore? Even in <code> mode?)
And then there are those of us who don't get sick much and end up losing our "sick" days. At least PTO gives you a choice.
I'm going to agree. At least for the laptop form factor they are currently selling, touch screen would not be useful, for the same reason light pens never caught on back in the 1970s. It's just a pain in the ass to lift your arm to interact with the screen. If they made a pad, touch screen might become useful... when not mounted to a keyboard cover. And then there's always the problems of your finger covering what you are trying to touch, and less resolution of the click point than a mouse/trackpad.
Also, most trackpad gestures annoy the hell out of me. Literally the only one I leave enabled is two-finger scroll, which is made of awesome. I don't even like tap-to-click, I prefer an actual button.
Maybe they can come out with a "ball insulator cover". It would only be $59.99, what a deal, now you can keep yourself fertile!
Curse Apple and their MacPad Pro! All MS can do is copy them!
the only way to tell is to crack open the airplane's POH
It's too bad you couldn't somehow plug a voltmeter into that outlet.
Do we make it opt out or opt in?
The problem right now is that it is neither. Opt-out would be an improvement.
Exactly, I'm at bifocal age, except it's really a stealth trifocal, because my uncorrected vision is perfect at about 5-8 inches, so I'll lie down with the laptop on my chest. Retina is intended to let you have higher resolution for photographs and font details and interpolation. I think they intended for you to keep your effective UI dpi about the same. But I have no actual experience with using the newer models.
My main late-2011 17" had its GPU break back in March, and I've finally sent it out for repair. (seems I missed the official Apple repair program by 3-4 months!) I've been using a 13" in the meantime. I miss being able to see two things on the screen at once. The 17" was like having what would be called a "two-page monitor" back in the 90s.
Yes, orthogonal is also a better word than parallel.
I used the ARM version with C++, in the 6.x era. Yeah, 8051 must be "fun" to make work with C++, instruction-set-wise, but there are worse ISAs. I also pretty much stuck to the EC++ subset, I used virtual methods (every screen on one project was a subclass), but my only template was for a bit string class. No heap (and no STL), but in one place I used placement new to allocate screen objects from a fixed pool that worked like a stack.
I also used IAR with MSP430 and STM8, but not with C++. MSP430 was great, and I would be surprised if its C++ didn't work. STM8 is another matter. I was able to build support for the STM32 bootloader into the code for our factory test equipment (as a screen in the code base I mentioned above, even), but we only ever got the smallest STM8s with no serial bootloader, and writing code from scratch to do SWIM is not trivial (it's a short/long pulse like the WS2812, so you have to get cushy with the timers and DMA to do it right). So I basically told my boss to please stop it with the damn STM8s already, it's not worth the trouble of needing a full PC in our factory test equipment (we were making stuff in China and had to ship the testers to the factory), and we switched to STM32F0 for the low end.
Now when it comes to optimization in IAR, holy crap what horrors, particularly "code movement". On an STM8 project once, it actually replaced a subroutine call with a short-branch-to-self instruction. I'm sure that trying to use C++ with STM8 (which is roughly equivalent to 68HC12) would have opened a gateway to the Elder Gods. But I'll never try, because STM8 was bad for my sanity, and there are some things man was not meant to know.
Someone pointed out about how they moved away from being a hobbyist shop to an overpriced electronics shop and never moved back into the hobbyist market when the hobbyist market picked back up.
They did try, but they took so long to react that by the time they caught up with them newfangled ardoo-weenie things (they were still selling Basic Stamp sets until a few years ago!) the hobbyist market had already moved on to newer stuff. They were just too slow at rotating out older merchandise. Perhaps it was all those years when the parts drawer was still "good enough" that got management complacent about how long they could sell the same things, but they seriously overstocked on stuff that was stale almost immediately to anyone who kept up with the latest thing.
I recently moved back to San Antonio from Austin, where I lived a 10 minute drive from Fry's. Now it's more like two hours away, including crossing to the far side of Austin, so I can't just go when I feel like it, even when I am already going to south Austin.
Back around 10 or so years ago, the word was that they were going to build a Fry's in San Antonio, but that was right about the time the economy went bad, and Fry's ended up in financial trouble bad enough that suppliers required them to pay for merchandise in advance. Given the choice, I prefer to have one Fry's a hundred miles away over no Fry's at all. Even if they did decide to build one here, it would probably take at least two years to open.
They closed all the Radio Shacks in Austin, and all but one in San Antonio (at least everybody has rumored that it will stay open), so I guess RS at least did that right. There are also a few other sources for stuff, like an Altex Electronics nearby. But I'd still love to see a Fry's here.
I guess Sears is staying afloat by the fact that they own most of their real estate
This is true. There was a local mall here which was entirely torn down except for the Sears, presumably because Sears had ownership interest in that part of the mall. A double strip mall was built In place of the rest of the mall (the back side was still a level below the front), and a Target built into a corner of the typically enormous parking lot. The Sears remained right where it was.
Now i'm hopeful that the vacancy left by RatShack (Its pet names go way back)
Mine was "Radio Shock", a slight corruption of the version of their logo in the '80s or so, just lose the tail on the 'a'.
Components weren't much of their sales. What really kicked their butt was the "long tail". Not just in terms of mail order, but stuff in stock locally everywhere. Have you been to the electronics section at WalMart lately? I did a few weeks ago. I was surprised what formerly nerd-only stuff they had there.
The Radio Shacks around me that closed had a metric buttload of $35 6-foot HDMI cables, and most of them were still there on the last day, I think they were 70% off at the end. Seriously, I've got tons of second-hand HDMI cables around the house already. They had a real problem with stocking much more than was justified by consumer demand. (though I will accept that they might have gotten some of them from other stores closing out) They may not have had the ability to close enough stores five years ago until declaring bankruptcy, but I think they could have done much better to keep their merchandise stock levels under control. There were also parts I didn't expect they would have, like mini-Displayport monitor adapters and Apple (Magsafe 1) laptop power supplies, so I would never have shopped there for them, because their irrelevancy stopped me from even coming in to browse. Even a PDF-only version of their famous yearly catalog would have educated me about what they had!
Components/hobby stuff likewise failed to save their ass. They at least recognized the maker movement existed, but they were too just slow to react, and ended up with tons of outdated stuff. The packaging was much better at the end (those new gray zip bags probably helped with all the droolers who got the wrong part and came back to return a ripped bag/hang card), and the parts drawer was a great idea. But they had some really obscure parts that probably didn't sell well, thus taking up space for more desirable parts.
And some of the Arduino shields they stocked were pretty lame (let's stock Xbee shields but no radio modules!), but the two lamest were Ethernet (already common on higher-priced Arduino and other uC boards for the few who really needed it) and GSM (use the phone network with your Arduino to send texts for only $69 + monthly fees!) And no shields for WiFi. Wait, WTF, I hadn't realized that until just now. I'll say it again: NO ARDUINO SHIELDS OR ANY OTHER HOBBYIST PARTS FOR WIFI.