The amount of time between XP and Vista was unusually large for an OS release. Linux distros generally have new releases every year at least. Apple releases a new version of OS X every couple of years.
And they don't change their underlying OS completely with each release. Look at the Linux kernel: the latest major revision of that (2.6) was in 2003. And do you honestly consider every Linux distro released since 2003 a service pack?
Gasoline and internal combustion engines are quite inefficient, is getting much more expensive than it used to be, and has limited natural reserves.
Major advancements in battery technology have made electric cars quite feasible. Major advancements in solar technology might make solar-powered electric cars feasible eventually.
Why should we not look for better solutions. Just because something works doesn't mean it's the best solution, and it doesn't mean that we should stop looking for better ones.
>>In the end, the year of Linux on the desktop will come not when technology matures, but when it is advertised appropriately...it seems Linux has a marketing problem!
Well, now we know that Windows and Linux have at least one thing in common...
You do realize that a 700 billion bailout divided by 300 million people is still only $2,333 per person in the US? Even assuming that were only to be spread over a quarter or so of the total population, the absolute maximum you're talking about is $10,000.
And quite frankly, I think US taxpayers are, by and large, morons. Giving every adult US citizen $10,000 might alleviate some temporary debt problems, but it's likely to cause at least as many problems as it solves, and will have little long-term benefit.
I think that bailouts of failing industries are equally stupid. What needs to happen is investment in business models and industries that are sustainable in the long term and will make the US more competitive globally. Given the way in which our world is moving, universal computer literacy and national fast broadband are two things which very definitely need to happen to keep the United States competitive in the world.
There are several reasons this a terrible, terrible idea.
Do you really want to wait a week or two to be able to sign up places? No, didn't think so.
Do you really want to give your telephone number and address to every website you visit regularly?
AdSense is a whole different ballgame here. Google is running a business, and so can afford the relatively small price of postage/cost of running the phones to make the calls, and since it's a business transaction you're exchanging money and so knowing addresses/phone numbers of the parties you're dealing with is necessary, and waiting a week or so if necessary isn't unrealistic.
But that's not a use condition comparable to most of the places where captchas are used.
This is a useful feature, especially for people with laptops. Dedicated graphics cards are large, run very hot, and draw a ton of power.
Today's integrated chipsets are not nearly where they need to be to handle even simple 3d stuff.
I have a friend who's considering buying a new laptop because he bought one with integrated graphics a year ago. More recently he started to do some 3d work and has found his integrated graphics card completely unable to cope with even simple stuff. He would love to have something like this right now.
Dedicated graphics cards drain (lots) of power, too. The advantage this has is that it doesn't have an additional hardware requirement--fitting a dedicated graphics card in a netbook isn't generally something that works very well.
As the parent up from you said, chips like the Intel Atom draw *very* little power themselves, and it's Intel's bad chipset design that is accounting for most of the platform's power draw. CPU power saving doesn't come into it all that much.
Blue LED's do look cool. It's just that the collective mass of gadget designers have taken 'cool' and extrapolated it to mean 'must have fourteen per square inch of gadget'.
Because Google paying OEMs to install Firefox--a third party browser built by a non-profit organization--would seriously undermine Mozilla's non-profit status. Mozilla already gets the vast majority of its money from Google as it is, and some people are starting to care.
I would like to emphasize the word 'Teen' in that statement. Young people know what FF is, yes. Lots of them even use it. But there are plenty that know it exists and still don't care. People are extremely apathetic regarding technology. They want it to work. For most people, IE works well enough.
Because Google is in the internet business, not the destroy Microsoft business.
Chrome makes sense for Google (especially OEM bundling) because IE's lack of standards compliance and collosal market share have seriously hampered innovation and progress. IE needs to be destroyed (or at least pushed to become standards compliant much faster).
AMD has consistently bested Intel in performance-per-watt comparisons. Their newest released processors (Shanghai) already offer better performance-per-watt than Intel's pre-i7 processors (see Ars' Shanghai review here). They are behind still, yes. But they are catching up.
That wasn't my point though. I realize the reasons people use OS X (and Ubuntu annoys the hell out of me for any number of reasons anyway).
My point was that if all of the other things Apple does to keep their own products tied to their own software/hardware already doesn't drive you away from Apple, them adding in some more DRM isn't going to change anything for the vast majority of consumers.
Slashdot Mirror
There is some unfortunate truth in this.
Uh oh. Looks like said middle schoolers have found slashdot.
The amount of time between XP and Vista was unusually large for an OS release. Linux distros generally have new releases every year at least. Apple releases a new version of OS X every couple of years.
And they don't change their underlying OS completely with each release. Look at the Linux kernel: the latest major revision of that (2.6) was in 2003. And do you honestly consider every Linux distro released since 2003 a service pack?
Gasoline and internal combustion engines are quite inefficient, is getting much more expensive than it used to be, and has limited natural reserves.
Major advancements in battery technology have made electric cars quite feasible. Major advancements in solar technology might make solar-powered electric cars feasible eventually.
Why should we not look for better solutions. Just because something works doesn't mean it's the best solution, and it doesn't mean that we should stop looking for better ones.
>>In the end, the year of Linux on the desktop will come not when technology matures, but when it is advertised appropriately...it seems Linux has a marketing problem!
Well, now we know that Windows and Linux have at least one thing in common...
The same exact thing. The 901 is barely larger than the 701. It just has a gigantic bevel.
Ah, not quite, unfortunately.
You do realize that a 700 billion bailout divided by 300 million people is still only $2,333 per person in the US? Even assuming that were only to be spread over a quarter or so of the total population, the absolute maximum you're talking about is $10,000.
And quite frankly, I think US taxpayers are, by and large, morons. Giving every adult US citizen $10,000 might alleviate some temporary debt problems, but it's likely to cause at least as many problems as it solves, and will have little long-term benefit.
I think that bailouts of failing industries are equally stupid. What needs to happen is investment in business models and industries that are sustainable in the long term and will make the US more competitive globally. Given the way in which our world is moving, universal computer literacy and national fast broadband are two things which very definitely need to happen to keep the United States competitive in the world.
There are several reasons this a terrible, terrible idea.
Do you really want to wait a week or two to be able to sign up places? No, didn't think so.
Do you really want to give your telephone number and address to every website you visit regularly?
AdSense is a whole different ballgame here. Google is running a business, and so can afford the relatively small price of postage/cost of running the phones to make the calls, and since it's a business transaction you're exchanging money and so knowing addresses/phone numbers of the parties you're dealing with is necessary, and waiting a week or so if necessary isn't unrealistic.
But that's not a use condition comparable to most of the places where captchas are used.
Firefox downloads updates automatically in the background by default.
This is a useful feature, especially for people with laptops. Dedicated graphics cards are large, run very hot, and draw a ton of power.
Today's integrated chipsets are not nearly where they need to be to handle even simple 3d stuff.
I have a friend who's considering buying a new laptop because he bought one with integrated graphics a year ago. More recently he started to do some 3d work and has found his integrated graphics card completely unable to cope with even simple stuff. He would love to have something like this right now.
Dedicated graphics cards drain (lots) of power, too. The advantage this has is that it doesn't have an additional hardware requirement--fitting a dedicated graphics card in a netbook isn't generally something that works very well.
As the parent up from you said, chips like the Intel Atom draw *very* little power themselves, and it's Intel's bad chipset design that is accounting for most of the platform's power draw. CPU power saving doesn't come into it all that much.
Sarcasm.
"The state of Arduino hardware in 2008"
You are missing the point of the article. Which says that the fourth wall in games can't be broken because it doesn't exist in the first place.
Whether or not you agree with that, your example does nothing to counter that point.
Because blue is a different wavelength of light, which appears a lot more intense to our eyes.
Blue LED's do look cool. It's just that the collective mass of gadget designers have taken 'cool' and extrapolated it to mean 'must have fourteen per square inch of gadget'.
No, they won't.
Because Google paying OEMs to install Firefox--a third party browser built by a non-profit organization--would seriously undermine Mozilla's non-profit status. Mozilla already gets the vast majority of its money from Google as it is, and some people are starting to care.
I would like to emphasize the word 'Teen' in that statement. Young people know what FF is, yes. Lots of them even use it. But there are plenty that know it exists and still don't care. People are extremely apathetic regarding technology. They want it to work. For most people, IE works well enough.
Because Google is in the internet business, not the destroy Microsoft business.
Chrome makes sense for Google (especially OEM bundling) because IE's lack of standards compliance and collosal market share have seriously hampered innovation and progress. IE needs to be destroyed (or at least pushed to become standards compliant much faster).
AMD has consistently bested Intel in performance-per-watt comparisons. Their newest released processors (Shanghai) already offer better performance-per-watt than Intel's pre-i7 processors (see Ars' Shanghai review here). They are behind still, yes. But they are catching up.
Apple's PR team is much better--that's why Apple avoids all of the crap that gets tossed at MS.
What makes you think AC still buys games at brick & mortar stores?
That wasn't my point though. I realize the reasons people use OS X (and Ubuntu annoys the hell out of me for any number of reasons anyway).
My point was that if all of the other things Apple does to keep their own products tied to their own software/hardware already doesn't drive you away from Apple, them adding in some more DRM isn't going to change anything for the vast majority of consumers.