Apple is selling a lot of iPods, but I think its got a short lifespan. Within the next couple of years, you will see flash-memory based players that hold about 5GB's of storage. And these will sell for under $100 at some point. By then, the price will win out over the glamour of the iPod. And once again Apple will be left behind.
Damn near everyone knows Apple now, and for all the right reasons. Can you really see them going away quietly? Sounds like yet another death prediction to me..
But I still want to be able to watch DVDs on my widescreem TV. Doh! That will make me a criminal. Because the TV will theoretically be "capable of receiving a television signal" (because I could plug a portable aerial into it) I'll be legally obliged to pay for a TV license, even though I'll never watch television.
You'll be glad to hear then that you're wrong.:)
Remove the aerial, detune the TV (just reset the channel data), and notify the TV Licensing guys. Tell them your TV is only being used for DVDs/games and you then you don't have to pay. This info hidden away on the TVL site somewhere, and it's what I did.
They emailed me back to say they'd come round and check (they haven't), and that i'd be noted in the database so they don't send me letters demanding I pay up.
100 megabytes and if you exceed that, it's 2 euros/megabyte. So, what's 100 mb/month good for? Definitely not for using graphical WWW on Opera's mobile version.
I get... 0.5MB of GPRS included! GBP2.35 / MB if I go over that.
How do they expect such technologies to seriously take off at such extortionate prices? I could probably download my email once with that amount of inclusive transfer..
I remembered reading this on Everything 2 and immediately thought she'd stolen it straight from there. The thief! But no, it just looks like the same author decided to post it on a website a few months afterwards.
As Sun was the major complaining competitor in the EU case, this gives M$ a lot of fire support when trying to challenge the record fine. Another indication is the timing: shortly after the EU announced the fine.
So, you're saying Micrsoft shelled out $2 billion to get a refund from the EU fine of $500 million?
This is a real problem that they seriously need to tackle. I'm finding increasingly Google is not nearly as good as it used to be, and for some keywords results in masses of extremely unhelpful faux-directories, as you mention in your post.
Sure, they're coming up with all sorts of nifty toys on their site, but their core search engine is slowly slipping..
I ask nicely they always let me try the phone out before deciding.
You don't even need to be particularily nice, these places are trying to sell you some fairly expensive equipment after all. Ask if you can try some real phones and they will bend over backwards to get you the real deal.
Nowhere shows the real phones on the stands because they're so prone to being nicked, but if you show some real interest they'll bring out the real things for you to try.
Other people's advice isn't bad though - see what people with the phone's you're looking at think of them, because in a few minutes of playing about with a phone you're not going to find out all the things that'll drive you mad in the long run..
Hmm, well I'm getting 900KB/s from my connection, so I don't think they're having too many problems.
Re:Difficulties in planning space missions
on
Mars Rovers Update
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Um, I seem to recall they knew about dust problems well before they launched. This isn't something that has surprised the engineers. I remember that was the main reason they said they were planning for a 90 day mission, since beyond that point the cells wouldn't charge enough due to the dust.
I've also seen on SpaceFlight Now reports that projections show they will be probably be able to run both rovers well beyond the initially planned 90 days, so they're looking into plans for extended missions now.
However, like others on the thread have wondered, why not devise something to remove the dust? I'm sure there must be a good reason why they didn't do something - I can't imagine the NASA engineers simply didn't think about this.
Not true, people have been prosecuted for having a device capable of reception. You'd have to remove reception circuits.
Not quite there..
You can have a TV that is detuned (just clear the channel data), and not pluged into the aerial, and then you don't need a license. You need to contact them to let them know about this, and they claim they'll come and check on you.
This snippet of info is buried away somewhere on the TVL site. I wanted my TV for DVDs/PC/Xbox, so that's what I did. They've never actually come to check on me mind you..
I also watch a fair amount of TV, often while I'm gaming
Just make sure you don't watch (or listen) to some real crap while you're playing.
I find that things get stuck in my head, and inextricably linked to the game. I still, after two years, have the Eastenders Christmas special that my family had on stuck in my head whenever I play a certain level on Quake 3.
It is not illegal to set out a machine to be compromised.
Perhaps not criminally illegal, but I believe the owner could certainly be held liable for damages. Imagine if a virus writer put a destructive virus on a stack of floppies and left them precariously around a public computer lab. When the program on one of those disks gets run by some curious person, don't you feel that the virus writer is at least somewhat liable, even though he didn't "pull the trigger"?
Not really the same thing though, is it? To compromise a machine requires you to break the law, no matter how insecure it is. While some may not have much sympathy for people running insecure systems when they're compromised, the person who did it still broke the law.
A better analogy would be if a virus writer left a stack of floppies in his car, someone broke into his car and used them.
Then again, in the legal climate these days, the virus author would probably still get done for it - you can still sometimes be liable for tresspassers hurting themselves on your property, for exmaple.
The same money could buy more desktop units, and could be used to teach the kids how to actually program.
Yeah, lets teach kids how to design and build cars before we allow them on the roads!
Kids need to be taught how to use the computer as a tool. Not everyone needs to know how to code, and I'm not too sure what would be gained from making all kids learn to program. There are far more efficient ways of training people to use a PC as a tool, as it should be.
It's a Zalman case that is coming soon. It will cost a lot - but the entire case acts as a big heatsink. They claim it can easily cool the hottest GPU & CPU's out there, assuming your PC room isn't a furnace, I presume.:)
Here's a japanese link verifying Zalman as the people behind it. http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/20030 712/etc_tnn500a.html
This is the holy grail for silent computing enthusiasts!
I see what you're saying. The phone calls aren't any more expensive than normal local rate calls though, and I think actually they're a bit cheaper. So most people don't really think of it in that way.
Technically though, you're right - the ISP does get money from you, so it's not really free.
Is the survival prospects of the company that important in this case?
Alright, it's a bit of a hassle if they shut down to go find a new one - but if you aren't using them for hosting your email or webspace, it's not such a disaster if the company only lasts a year before folding!
Like some other posters have already mentioned, we've had free ISPs in the UK for years. Since we pay for local calls, the ISP cut a deal that gives them a percentage of the amount we pay for calls.
Along came the deals where you could pay so much to BT a month to not pay for internet calls, and then you usually had to pay the ISP monthly too. They have made it simpler now (although you can still do it the old way), so you just pay the ISP for flat rate access.
The trouble is though, too often I've found the old "You get what you pay for" is very much true with ISPs. We used to pay £40 a month (£20 to Demon, £20 to BT) for our flat rate ISDN access [it'd be the same amount if we were on 56k, incidently], and the service, reliablilty and speed were fantastic. I've had a lot of people come complaining to me that BT (the ISP), Freeserve or whoever were appauling, but refuse to pay a bit more for a better service. Of course, lots of people can't afford it (we were lucky - ours was company paid for), but when looking at the cheap deals people need to realise they may have more problems connecting due to it being oversubscribed, the service may be slow, and support poor.
Then again, cheap bad internet is better than no internet, so it might bring connections to more homes.
Do you remember what kind of computers we had in 1983? Yikes.
Do you remember what kind of lightbulbs we had back in 1983? Yikes.
Oh..
You make it sound worse than it is. Computer technology have been developing at a rate that has never been seen before. We've all heard about the joke with Gates saying "If cars had progressed at the same rate as computers..."
Surprise - other sectors aren't developing at the same rate. It doesn't seem particularily odd at all.
Slashdot Mirror
Apple is selling a lot of iPods, but I think its got a short lifespan. Within the next couple of years, you will see flash-memory based players that hold about 5GB's of storage. And these will sell for under $100 at some point. By then, the price will win out over the glamour of the iPod. And once again Apple will be left behind.
Hmm..They're already having serious problems!
Damn near everyone knows Apple now, and for all the right reasons. Can you really see them going away quietly? Sounds like yet another death prediction to me..
But I still want to be able to watch DVDs on my widescreem TV. Doh! That will make me a criminal. Because the TV will theoretically be "capable of receiving a television signal" (because I could plug a portable aerial into it) I'll be legally obliged to pay for a TV license, even though I'll never watch television.
:)
You'll be glad to hear then that you're wrong.
Remove the aerial, detune the TV (just reset the channel data), and notify the TV Licensing guys. Tell them your TV is only being used for DVDs/games and you then you don't have to pay. This info hidden away on the TVL site somewhere, and it's what I did.
They emailed me back to say they'd come round and check (they haven't), and that i'd be noted in the database so they don't send me letters demanding I pay up.
100 megabytes and if you exceed that, it's 2 euros/megabyte. So, what's 100 mb/month good for? Definitely not for using graphical WWW on Opera's mobile version.
... 0.5MB of GPRS included! GBP2.35 / MB if I go over that.
You think that's bad?
I pay GBP25/mo on O2's online offpeak 500 tariff.
I get
How do they expect such technologies to seriously take off at such extortionate prices? I could probably download my email once with that amount of inclusive transfer..
I remembered reading this on Everything 2 and immediately thought she'd stolen it straight from there. The thief! But no, it just looks like the same author decided to post it on a website a few months afterwards.
There was a point here somewhere..
As Sun was the major complaining competitor in the EU case, this gives M$ a lot of fire support when trying to challenge the record fine. Another indication is the timing: shortly after the EU announced the fine.
So, you're saying Micrsoft shelled out $2 billion to get a refund from the EU fine of $500 million?
Um..
This is a real problem that they seriously need to tackle. I'm finding increasingly Google is not nearly as good as it used to be, and for some keywords results in masses of extremely unhelpful faux-directories, as you mention in your post.
Sure, they're coming up with all sorts of nifty toys on their site, but their core search engine is slowly slipping..
You don't even need to be particularily nice, these places are trying to sell you some fairly expensive equipment after all. Ask if you can try some real phones and they will bend over backwards to get you the real deal.
Nowhere shows the real phones on the stands because they're so prone to being nicked, but if you show some real interest they'll bring out the real things for you to try.
Other people's advice isn't bad though - see what people with the phone's you're looking at think of them, because in a few minutes of playing about with a phone you're not going to find out all the things that'll drive you mad in the long run..
Hmm, well I'm getting 900KB/s from my connection, so I don't think they're having too many problems.
Um, I seem to recall they knew about dust problems well before they launched. This isn't something that has surprised the engineers. I remember that was the main reason they said they were planning for a 90 day mission, since beyond that point the cells wouldn't charge enough due to the dust.
I've also seen on SpaceFlight Now reports that projections show they will be probably be able to run both rovers well beyond the initially planned 90 days, so they're looking into plans for extended missions now.
However, like others on the thread have wondered, why not devise something to remove the dust? I'm sure there must be a good reason why they didn't do something - I can't imagine the NASA engineers simply didn't think about this.
Not true, people have been prosecuted for having a device capable of reception. You'd have to remove reception circuits.
Not quite there..
You can have a TV that is detuned (just clear the channel data), and not pluged into the aerial, and then you don't need a license. You need to contact them to let them know about this, and they claim they'll come and check on you.
This snippet of info is buried away somewhere on the TVL site. I wanted my TV for DVDs/PC/Xbox, so that's what I did. They've never actually come to check on me mind you..
Visual Basic is proprietary and can not be ported to linux at all
You say it as if it were a bad thing..
Good point. Despite 115 comments at -1, this is still showing as zero on the front page to me. Front page just got updated too. Odd.
Has anyone noticed just quite how bad the Hot Dog site is?
The "Current issue" and "Back Issue" link to 192.168.1.100/... addresses for crying out loud!
I also watch a fair amount of TV, often while I'm gaming
Just make sure you don't watch (or listen) to some real crap while you're playing.
I find that things get stuck in my head, and inextricably linked to the game. I still, after two years, have the Eastenders Christmas special that my family had on stuck in my head whenever I play a certain level on Quake 3.
Noooooo!
Strange that he compares it to a system that few libraries use anymore
Heh, well every library I've ever seen uses it.
(I'm in the UK)
Not really the same thing though, is it? To compromise a machine requires you to break the law, no matter how insecure it is. While some may not have much sympathy for people running insecure systems when they're compromised, the person who did it still broke the law.
A better analogy would be if a virus writer left a stack of floppies in his car, someone broke into his car and used them.
Then again, in the legal climate these days, the virus author would probably still get done for it - you can still sometimes be liable for tresspassers hurting themselves on your property, for exmaple.
The same money could buy more desktop units, and could be used to teach the kids how to actually program.
Yeah, lets teach kids how to design and build cars before we allow them on the roads!
Kids need to be taught how to use the computer as a tool. Not everyone needs to know how to code, and I'm not too sure what would be gained from making all kids learn to program. There are far more efficient ways of training people to use a PC as a tool, as it should be.
Duke Nukem Forever!
Try changing your IP address, DNS servers, host name, domain name, machine name, and/or user settings in windoze or linux.
In BeOS, it's as easy as modifying whatever you wish, and hitting "Restart Networking".
Actually, changing IP & DNS in Windows is just the same, since 2000.
No restart required.
Domain and machine name changes though do still require reboots though, I'll grant you.
This is where it's really at.
:)
0 712/etc_tnn500a.html
http://www.directron.com/fanless.html
It's a Zalman case that is coming soon. It will cost a lot - but the entire case acts as a big heatsink. They claim it can easily cool the hottest GPU & CPU's out there, assuming your PC room isn't a furnace, I presume.
Here's a japanese link verifying Zalman as the people behind it. http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/2003
This is the holy grail for silent computing enthusiasts!
I see what you're saying. The phone calls aren't any more expensive than normal local rate calls though, and I think actually they're a bit cheaper. So most people don't really think of it in that way.
Technically though, you're right - the ISP does get money from you, so it's not really free.
The ISP doesn't charge. The phone company does.
Therefore free ISP...
Anyway, there were a few free isps with freephone numbers knocking around a while back, think they're all gone now though.
That's like making it illegal to buy a knife because someone killed another person with it.
No, I think it's more like suing everyone who's ever bought a knife because somebody got stabbed.
Is the survival prospects of the company that important in this case?
Alright, it's a bit of a hassle if they shut down to go find a new one - but if you aren't using them for hosting your email or webspace, it's not such a disaster if the company only lasts a year before folding!
Like some other posters have already mentioned, we've had free ISPs in the UK for years. Since we pay for local calls, the ISP cut a deal that gives them a percentage of the amount we pay for calls.
Along came the deals where you could pay so much to BT a month to not pay for internet calls, and then you usually had to pay the ISP monthly too. They have made it simpler now (although you can still do it the old way), so you just pay the ISP for flat rate access.
The trouble is though, too often I've found the old "You get what you pay for" is very much true with ISPs. We used to pay £40 a month (£20 to Demon, £20 to BT) for our flat rate ISDN access [it'd be the same amount if we were on 56k, incidently], and the service, reliablilty and speed were fantastic. I've had a lot of people come complaining to me that BT (the ISP), Freeserve or whoever were appauling, but refuse to pay a bit more for a better service. Of course, lots of people can't afford it (we were lucky - ours was company paid for), but when looking at the cheap deals people need to realise they may have more problems connecting due to it being oversubscribed, the service may be slow, and support poor.
Then again, cheap bad internet is better than no internet, so it might bring connections to more homes.
Do you remember what kind of computers we had in 1983? Yikes.
Do you remember what kind of lightbulbs we had back in 1983? Yikes.
Oh..
You make it sound worse than it is. Computer technology have been developing at a rate that has never been seen before. We've all heard about the joke with Gates saying "If cars had progressed at the same rate as computers..."
Surprise - other sectors aren't developing at the same rate. It doesn't seem particularily odd at all.