And of course the entire discussion reminds me of a classic story, paraphrased:
Imagine that tomorrow, Cray releases a new computer. It's the size of a hardback book, but only a quarter of an inch thick. It has a 10 megapixel display. The processor can do 50GFLOPS and it has 10GB of main memory and a 1TB hard drive. It's controlled entirely through voice recognition and comes with a large suite of powerful software. The whole thing costs $400.
The first thing the computing community asks: "Is it PC compatible?"
5. Memory upgrade must be performed by an Apple Authorized Service provider.
You won't find this on other Mac models. The iMac, for example, explicitly marks various parts like the RAM and the hard drive as user-serviceable.
"Easily accessible once you get the case open" is laughable. The original iBook's hard drive was "easily accessible" once you get the case sufficiently open, but getting to that point took an hour and a half, and putting the thing back together took another hour and a half. It's a meaningless statement, and I would like to know how hard it really is to upgrade the RAM.
If you do this, run it inside a screen session. That way if the update ends up being a long one, it will still finish even if you get disconnected or have to leave suddenly.
You're right. I should have said that it was mathematically impossible for any given torrent started by a complete seed, which is true. For an entire site, it is conceivable if incredibly improbable that everybody would have exactly a 1:1 ratio as you say.
A 1:1 ratio for everybody is mathematically impossible. For every byte uploaded, you have a byte downloaded. You also have at least one person who doesn't download anything at all, the original seeder. The average ratio of the entire network is always 1:1, and the average of the entire network minus original seeders will always be less than that. You will always have people who don't have a 1:1 ratio even if everybody is super-nice and lets their torrents run forever after they finish.
There are more ways to do things than government, you know.
I'm not going to take a position either way, but "I don't want my taxes paying for schools" is not equivalent to "I don't want a good education for my children" in any way. It's conceivable that they actually believe privately-funded education is better. Likewise, it's possible that people actually believe that privately-funded internet connectivity is better.
I saw a couple of videos on the news here that just serve to underline your point.
One video was done by a German guy who was at the beach with his family (in Thailand, I think). The kid is splashing in the water, etc. All of a sudden, the water's gone, pulled back out to sea. The guy with the camera is amazed, and is talking about how fast the water went out, etc. He's actually walking around on the newly-uncovered beach talking about how interesting this phenomenon is. At this point, I was sorely tempted to scream at the TV, "Get to higher ground now, you idiot!" Of course it was just a bit too late. I assume that since his video survived, so did he and his family, but holy crap.
The other video was even worse. It was done by some British-sounding guy (I'm American, so that means he could actually be South African, Australian, you name it) from the second or third floor of some house near the beach. He's filming the wave with his children. He says, "Wow, that wave must be 15-20 feet high, easy." He and his kids ooh and aah as it completely flattens the buildings closer to the beach. And then, surprise! The wave reaches the house that he is in, and he finally realizes that he's in imminent danger and he gets the kids inside to shelter.
One of the good things about this disaster (thin silver lining on a really big, dark cloud, I know) is that everybody in the world now knows that when the sea goes out, run away! If another tsunami happens within the next two or three generations, everybody should be much better prepared.
I asked basically the same question on slashdot a while ago, and got an interesting response. Of course I can't find the post now, so I'll have to go by memory.
Basically, when the GSM standard was first created, SMS messages weren't thought about too much. They were shoved into some teeny little side band that was used for low-bandwidth control information or something along those lines. The designers didn't forsee the incredible popularity that SMS would have in the future. The end result is that even though SMS messages are incredibly low bandwidth, and there is a ton of bandwidth floating around, they can't use it because they're restricted to this tiny piece of the spectrum. That's not to say that the price isn't also due to some nice gouging on the part of the companies, but there are good technical reasons for a minute of relatively high-bandwidth voice to cost less than an SMS.
This is pure speculation on my part, but this may also by why MMS often costs less than SMS even though they usually contain a lot more data.
Yeah, right. I read Minority Report after seeing the movie, and had no problems, because there was basically no relation beyond the title. Most of Dick's movies seem to get this treatment, so there probably isn't anything to worry about.
Can you explain about the custom wireless video on the iBook? I was just watching that presentation the other day and it looked completely legit. As far as I recall, he never showed any of the iBook's video on the main screen except by having somebody point a camera at it. Which bit was "faked"?
Democracies the world over are our friends. Except France, of course.
That was a joke, right? A friend isn't required to agree with you 100% of the time. If your friend thinks you're about to do something stupid, he should tell you! That's exactly what France did. France is not our vassal, but they do seem to still be our friend.
Dissent is the only thing prohibited, but I doubt there is any country in which real dissent is permitted.
Are you completely out of your mind? In every Western democracy, I can print incredible, strongly-worded anti-government missives in any newspaper that will accept it. I can put flyers up with my latest manifesto. I can organize my followers and go marching through the streets, carrying any message I feel like, even if my highest goal was to overthrow the democratic government and replace it with, say, an Islamic theocracy.
Try any of that in Iran, advocating an overthrow of the Islamic theocracy and replacing it with a democratic government, and see how long you last.
I just want to say, your post is probably the coolest thing I've read on slashdot in a long time. Every single story like this turns into a gigantic flamefest that has nothing to do with the original topic, and it's incredibly annoying. Your post shows that the occasional nugget of gold can be found. It's wonderful to see that there's someone here who's actively involved in helping people work around these kinds of restrictions, and it's great to hear that your services are so heavily used. Keep up the good work!
Flash storage manufacturers SanDisk and M-Systems are slated to announce Friday at CES a new USB standard called U3, which enables users to carry, store and launch applications directly from a USB flash drive without installation.
Do we really need "a new USB standard" to allow apps to run without installation? I've been doing this on my Mac forever. I know that this can work on Windows if you write the program correctly. Why the need for a giant consortium?
I loved Ender's Game. I hated Speaker so much that I will probably never read another Card book again. It was long, rambling, pointless, and annoying. As far as I'm concerned, he's a one-hit wonder. I might be wrong, but there are plenty of consistently good authors out there that I can devote my time to.
Slashdot Mirror
And of course the entire discussion reminds me of a classic story, paraphrased:
Imagine that tomorrow, Cray releases a new computer. It's the size of a hardback book, but only a quarter of an inch thick. It has a 10 megapixel display. The processor can do 50GFLOPS and it has 10GB of main memory and a 1TB hard drive. It's controlled entirely through voice recognition and comes with a large suite of powerful software. The whole thing costs $400.
The first thing the computing community asks: "Is it PC compatible?"
Almost all DVD players can also play VCDs, so you can even give them to your American family and friends and they will Just Work.
.movs. In fact, Apple positions this as one of the big uses of iMovie and .Mac.
It's also possible to make a movie on a computer without a DVD burner, then transfer the finished product to one that does have one.
And yes, some people do make
This is not Apple's traditional policy.
To quote the Mac Mini tech specs page:
5. Memory upgrade must be performed by an Apple Authorized Service provider.
You won't find this on other Mac models. The iMac, for example, explicitly marks various parts like the RAM and the hard drive as user-serviceable.
"Easily accessible once you get the case open" is laughable. The original iBook's hard drive was "easily accessible" once you get the case sufficiently open, but getting to that point took an hour and a half, and putting the thing back together took another hour and a half. It's a meaningless statement, and I would like to know how hard it really is to upgrade the RAM.
If you do this, run it inside a screen session. That way if the update ends up being a long one, it will still finish even if you get disconnected or have to leave suddenly.
Have you been flaming people for no reason since 1985, too?
The original poster just said that the Mac Mini was going to trash this thing's target market. You need to read before you flame.
I've been a Mac user almost as long as you have, but people like you do nothing to help the platform.
Under capitalism, if you invent something incredible, you might get rich, or you might get screwed.
Under communism, if you invent something incredible, you get screwed, guaranteed.
Why would communism possibly be better?
You're right. I should have said that it was mathematically impossible for any given torrent started by a complete seed, which is true. For an entire site, it is conceivable if incredibly improbable that everybody would have exactly a 1:1 ratio as you say.
A 1:1 ratio for everybody is mathematically impossible. For every byte uploaded, you have a byte downloaded. You also have at least one person who doesn't download anything at all, the original seeder. The average ratio of the entire network is always 1:1, and the average of the entire network minus original seeders will always be less than that. You will always have people who don't have a 1:1 ratio even if everybody is super-nice and lets their torrents run forever after they finish.
This happened with Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto; would you say none of them are planets?
There are more ways to do things than government, you know.
I'm not going to take a position either way, but "I don't want my taxes paying for schools" is not equivalent to "I don't want a good education for my children" in any way. It's conceivable that they actually believe privately-funded education is better. Likewise, it's possible that people actually believe that privately-funded internet connectivity is better.
I saw a couple of videos on the news here that just serve to underline your point.
One video was done by a German guy who was at the beach with his family (in Thailand, I think). The kid is splashing in the water, etc. All of a sudden, the water's gone, pulled back out to sea. The guy with the camera is amazed, and is talking about how fast the water went out, etc. He's actually walking around on the newly-uncovered beach talking about how interesting this phenomenon is. At this point, I was sorely tempted to scream at the TV, "Get to higher ground now, you idiot!" Of course it was just a bit too late. I assume that since his video survived, so did he and his family, but holy crap.
The other video was even worse. It was done by some British-sounding guy (I'm American, so that means he could actually be South African, Australian, you name it) from the second or third floor of some house near the beach. He's filming the wave with his children. He says, "Wow, that wave must be 15-20 feet high, easy." He and his kids ooh and aah as it completely flattens the buildings closer to the beach. And then, surprise! The wave reaches the house that he is in, and he finally realizes that he's in imminent danger and he gets the kids inside to shelter.
One of the good things about this disaster (thin silver lining on a really big, dark cloud, I know) is that everybody in the world now knows that when the sea goes out, run away! If another tsunami happens within the next two or three generations, everybody should be much better prepared.
Anybody feel like setting up a peercast of the MacWorld keynote tomorrow? You will be my God if you do....
I asked basically the same question on slashdot a while ago, and got an interesting response. Of course I can't find the post now, so I'll have to go by memory.
Basically, when the GSM standard was first created, SMS messages weren't thought about too much. They were shoved into some teeny little side band that was used for low-bandwidth control information or something along those lines. The designers didn't forsee the incredible popularity that SMS would have in the future. The end result is that even though SMS messages are incredibly low bandwidth, and there is a ton of bandwidth floating around, they can't use it because they're restricted to this tiny piece of the spectrum. That's not to say that the price isn't also due to some nice gouging on the part of the companies, but there are good technical reasons for a minute of relatively high-bandwidth voice to cost less than an SMS.
This is pure speculation on my part, but this may also by why MMS often costs less than SMS even though they usually contain a lot more data.
Oh my god, he's expanded his horizons from usenet and found slashdot! Run for your lives!
Whoever moderated this idiot "Informative", you should be incredibly ashamed of yourself!
Yeah, right. I read Minority Report after seeing the movie, and had no problems, because there was basically no relation beyond the title. Most of Dick's movies seem to get this treatment, so there probably isn't anything to worry about.
You can grab it from http://mod.carnet.hr/hr/carnet/rdlab/conf/apple/mw ny1999.mov. Beware, the quality is really low, but it's a great show. The first few minutes are especially cool.
Can you explain about the custom wireless video on the iBook? I was just watching that presentation the other day and it looked completely legit. As far as I recall, he never showed any of the iBook's video on the main screen except by having somebody point a camera at it. Which bit was "faked"?
Democracies the world over are our friends. Except France, of course.
That was a joke, right? A friend isn't required to agree with you 100% of the time. If your friend thinks you're about to do something stupid, he should tell you! That's exactly what France did. France is not our vassal, but they do seem to still be our friend.
Dissent is the only thing prohibited, but I doubt there is any country in which real dissent is permitted.
Are you completely out of your mind? In every Western democracy, I can print incredible, strongly-worded anti-government missives in any newspaper that will accept it. I can put flyers up with my latest manifesto. I can organize my followers and go marching through the streets, carrying any message I feel like, even if my highest goal was to overthrow the democratic government and replace it with, say, an Islamic theocracy.
Try any of that in Iran, advocating an overthrow of the Islamic theocracy and replacing it with a democratic government, and see how long you last.
I just want to say, your post is probably the coolest thing I've read on slashdot in a long time. Every single story like this turns into a gigantic flamefest that has nothing to do with the original topic, and it's incredibly annoying. Your post shows that the occasional nugget of gold can be found. It's wonderful to see that there's someone here who's actively involved in helping people work around these kinds of restrictions, and it's great to hear that your services are so heavily used. Keep up the good work!
Flash storage manufacturers SanDisk and M-Systems are slated to announce Friday at CES a new USB standard called U3, which enables users to carry, store and launch applications directly from a USB flash drive without installation.
Do we really need "a new USB standard" to allow apps to run without installation? I've been doing this on my Mac forever. I know that this can work on Windows if you write the program correctly. Why the need for a giant consortium?
I loved Ender's Game. I hated Speaker so much that I will probably never read another Card book again. It was long, rambling, pointless, and annoying. As far as I'm concerned, he's a one-hit wonder. I might be wrong, but there are plenty of consistently good authors out there that I can devote my time to.
If you think the price isn't justified, why don't you start manufacturing your own expansion boxes and undercut them?
Or maybe you think the government should step in and set prices for these things? I can certainly see that working out real well.
Yeah, I mean, stuff like Spotlight, CoreImage/Video/Data, Quartz Extreme, and the entire Mac OS X system in general are so behind the times.
That's a nice theory, except that Apple typically streams to tens of thousands of simultaneous watchers during these events.