- normal keyboard (I'd love a proper keyboard, see www.pckeyboard.com)
If not for the num pad, you could pretty easily fit a (almost) full keyboard on a much smaller notebook. And the trend torwards widescreen displays only makes it easier.
- 2 hard drives (for RAID-1)
Only the smallest, thinest notebooks (~12") would have a problem fitting two hard drives in the case. It's a question of demand (and price), not space.
- bigger battery or two
Again, nothing to do with the size of the notebook at all. My laptop mounts the battery externally, and having it stick out a bit further is no big deal.
- better cooling
Same issue. Demand and price (and noise), not space.
Weight is a minor problem,
No, no it's not. Just ask Sony, Toshiba, or any of the other manufacturers of $3,000+ ultra-light notebooks.
Once properly notified, an offender or facilitator (like YouTube) is obligated to take action, but "policing" is the (C) holder's problem.
No, that's how the DMCA works. Before the DMCA, the service provider (YouTube) could be sued for contributory copyright infringment in addition to the individual who uploaded the video.
They loved the DMCA when it allowed them to silence free speech, and take down entirely legal websites with no burden of proof... but now that it is putting a tiny ammount of burden on them, they're outraged.
I thought we could cover the earth's area with only 3 precisely-based sattelites?
You could manage with 2, actually.
Wouldn't it be amazingly easy just to launch something above your country and angle the "laser" next door?
No, it would be significantly more difficult. At a 45% angle, you're firing through something like 50% more atmosphere, and at a 50% longer distance to the target.
It is concievable that lasers on satellites will become powerful enough to do that in the future, but it's anything but "amazingly easy".
(Not that the GP's post makes a lot of sense, either)
You'll recall Iraq under the government of Saddam Hussein launched two unprovoked aggressive wars of conquest, one against Iran in the 1980s and another against Kuwait in the 1990s.
And the US actively supported Iraq in the unprovoked war against Iran...
all the headlines (save for the last one, I don't know about that one) are from known left-leaning "mainstream media" outlets that show blatant media bias, and these are just more examples typical anti-Bush drivel...
Those damn communist... Always reporting the "facts" that make the conservatives look bad. (Like reporting that pedophile Mark Folley is a Republican... And asking for evidence when Republicans claim Democrats are responsible.)
Clearly, Fox News is "Fair and Balanced", because they don't worry about those nasty little "facts".
Last time I checked, he's not running for President again; it's tough to understand why the lefty-loonies are adamant to continue to campaign against him.
As opposed to the right-wing loonies who are still campaigning against Bill Clinton.
USA foriegn policy has worked in the past because of it's strength... NOT because the rest of the world thinks it's a "good guy" in the world. Doesn't matter what the world thinks.
Right. WWI/II, the Korean war, Gulf Storm, etc. It wasn't a success because the rest of the world was supportive... No.
And wars like Vietnam and Iraq 2003, the fact that other countries weren't supportive has nothing to do with their spectacular failure...
Nor should any other country care what other countries think about them.
Are you writing the foreign policy for Iraq, Iran, Syria, and North Korea?
does anyone in their right mind think that Kim Jong (Mentally) Il(l) cares about the USA?
No, he just keeps asking to negotiate directly with the US, because he doesn't care about the US... Makes perfect sense.
Is that nutball really going to stop developing nukes for any reason.
He's not volunteering to, but long-term sanctions will do a pretty good job of forcing him to stop.
They think they can force the world to cater to it because it has believes it may now threaten nuclear war if it doesn't get its way.
If the world was really woried, North Korea would have been carpet-bombed by now. So they've got maybe 6 atomic bombs that they can't get to detonate in perfect laboratory conditions, and surely can't launch into any other country, currently...
If anyone is worried about North Korea, there's no better time to attack (unless you want to let them to dispose 2-3 more of their own atomic bombs in further tests).
The USA would be absolutely foolish not to do something with regard to space to protect it's own national interests.
IF there was a THREAT to begin with, you might be right. However, there is none. You might as well say the US needs to protect it's national interests in Antartica, or Canada...
What's completely chilish and BS is the left's desperation to grab political power at any cost... even to the detriment of US national security.
It would be nice if the only cables on my desk were power cables.
No, no it wouldn't. Just combine power with the data cable, and you get fewer cables, without making all your devices ridiculously expensive, power hungry, and complex.
So much of personal transportation depends on gasoline and freight depends on diesel [...] No serious alternatives are emerging and the time is running out on those sectors.
Ethanol and Biodiesel are very serious alternatives. Or at least a MAJOR suppliment. Those decrying them apparently believe American farmers don't know how to grow anything other than corn...
Both can immediately be added to petrolum-based fuels.
Ethanol currently makes up 10-20% of gasoline, but all cars made in the past decade must be able to accept 30% blends. Increasing the percentage to more than 30% ethanol will still only have minor negative consequences on current (unmodified) vehicles.
Biodiesel is generally accepted to work everywhere at 20% blends. Biodiesel's only issue is its higher freezing point than petroleum diesel. A small starting tank of diesel, or an insulated (and perhaps electrically heated) fuel tank is the only required modification for current vehicles to accept higher blends of biodiesel.
Fully electric cars, such as the Zap Xebra, are becomming quite practical. http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=188 The only thing really required is a company that can invest enough money for a larger, heavier, 4-wheeled model to go through NHTSA certification process.
Any of the above makes for both short-term, and long term solutions to the energy crisis. The problem is that the focus on hydrogen, more oil exploration, etc., has steered efforts in other directions, that aren't practical or sustainable. The focus on cellulose ethanol has helped to bolster corn farmers, rather than convincing them to grow crops that can currently be turned into ethanol at a real profit.
Can I get this in white? Our puchasing policy explicitly forbids anything "blackbox".
You're absolutely on the right track. First thing I thought when seeing it, was how incredibly hot the outside will get when in direct sunlight. Not only will it make cooling more difficult, but the unit could burn anyone that touches it, if deployed in the desert.
If Sun and Google can fit each container with enough solar cells to power it,
Covering a house's entire roof in solar panels is barely enough to power several computers. Never mind hundreds of ultra-densely packed systems, needing heavy-duty cooling.
You've got a snowball's chance is hell (get it?) of getting the necessary power out of a few solar panels mounted on the container.
You have a much better chance, though, if you PACK this thing with portable cells, and have someone set them up, around the site. Though, you're definately going to need someone to stay around, keep people and animals away, and regularly clean sand, dirt, and leaves off the panels, or they won't last long.
Notice how none of this has anything to do with sound-quality.
The fact that you failed to mention sound quality... or more specifically that the people you heard from failed to mention it... doesn't mean it's not an issue.
If sound-quality was the huge selector you make it out to be, 128Kbps mp3 would *never* have been the stellar success it actually was (and is)
MP3s are a bit like copying songs off the radio. People accepted the quality because they were getting them for free. Unencumbered 128k MP3s didn't replaced CDs, nor will they.
Until that changes, 64-bit is pointless for most people.
Absolutely ridiculous. 64bit-ness doesn't exist in a vaccuum. AMD processors in 64-bit mode plain and simply improves performance significantly. Memory space is FAR from the only reason to use AMD64 processors.
If 99% of all users see no reason to upgrade from one standard to another, teorethically sligthly superior one that cover the wishes of the last 1%, then the new "standard" will remain marginal and irrelevant.
I wouldn't just call 99% "most", I'd call that an overwhelming majority, or "almost everyone".
"Most" is a much lower percentage... And when you have several millions people unwilling to accept the lower standard, the higher standard eventually gets accepted, baring major limitations.
I predict it'll *never* become dominant over CD, despite being technically superior.
It's technical improvements are hampered by it's natural and artifical limitations.
Hell, most people I know that *do* still buy CDs do it explicitly for the purpose of converting them into files for their mp3-players.
Actually, I'd say audio CDs are a very good example of my point... Though many people are willing to buy a few tracks of lossy compressed AAC files, their much poorer quality will prevent them from eliminating CDs. The lossy compression, or the bitrates, will need to be improved significantly before it's suitable enough for almost everyone to be happy with them. And until that happens, the standard will remain decades-old CD technology.
I've never heard any complaints about natural gas. We are currently drilling for it, but it's quite possible that we could start extracting it from biomass like landfills instead. And it's cleaner burning than the rest of the fossil fuels.
It isn't practical in this senario, though.
Wave power is too ugly to be built
Tidal could be COMPLETELY hidden from humans rather easily (submerged), or just put far out from the shore, or near uninhabited shores.
5. Water flow (river) is too unpredictable
No it's really very predictable, it's just a problem that there aren't enough rivers and lakes in the world to supply all the power. Still, it's a good old workhorse.
(and causes environmental damage when you flood blah blah blah).
Well salmon have gone extinct in many areas because of dams. Dramatically improving fish ladders would certainly be a good idea. And the question is, do you want ALL rivers to be dammed up for your electricity needs?
6. Wind power is too noisy
Only if you put it near people. There's plenty of wide-open land.
Solar? Right. Who wants a backyard full of panels?
This is pure troll...
Nobody has to have anything in their yards to use solar power. That's what THE GRID is for. A few square miles in the desert, and you've got thousands of homes on solar power.
Those that do want solar panels, almost always install them on their roof, where they're out of the way. And more than that, lots of people actually have good sized backyards, and wouldn't notice a set of solar panels the size of a car off to the side.
I say.. lets build some nuclear power plants.
And you've proven yourself so well-informed on the issue, clearly everyone should listen to your unsubstantiated opinion on the subject, and throw away their solar panels and wind turbines.
Obviously not the current batch. That was the whole point of my post, of course.
There is, however, nothing stopping hard drive DAPs from using standard-sized batteries.
I like all my devices to have rechargable batteries because all I have to do is plug them in at night and don't have to worry about them suddenly dying during the day.
There's nothing about AAs that precludes you from swapping and recharging them every night, as you do with propritary, built-in batteries.
In fact, I had a Sony CD player several years ago that would recharge standard AA rechargables when the unit was plugged-in to the AC adapter...
And really, with the battery life of hard drive based players, [...] I wouldn't really want to carry around AA batteries.
The battery life still isn't that great. It's probably enough for day-to-day listening (provided you don't watch any videos on it) but it's rather unplesant when traveling.
And even if it lasted for a week on a charge, there's always the issue of overpriced, propritary replacement batteries every 2 years, and that's only while it's popular... I'm not willing to bet the iPod will still be popular enough in more than a decade, that it will be easy to find reasonably-priced replacement parts. I much prefer to invest in something that I'm sure will be able to operate indefinately.
Make sure I've gone to an ATM in advance and got enough cash for the transaction.
This one is absolutely ridiculous. I could just as easily include "Looking around the house for my credit card," "Going to the ATM to check my debit card balance," or any other such nonsense.
Find something approximating exact change. [...] Count the change.
Well, I guess if you can't count, that might take several seconds. Even if so, it probably only takes a couple seconds longer than pulling your credit card out and putting it back.
Wait for cashier to count it. Wait for cashier to hand me my change.
If they've been at the job for any length of time, they can do all this in no time at all.
This is all NOTHING compared to handing over your ID and card, waiting while the cashier compares them, signing your name on the paperwork, writting the exact charge down in your notebook, etc. Never mind having to scan the card repeatedly, waiting for the approval message to come through, etc.
You can make up all the senarios you want, but we've ALL be in line behind people with credit cards, and people with cash, and have all seen those with cash flying through the lines, while those with credit cards hold it up for MINUTES at a time. It's just not even debatable which is faster.
I have precisely one criteria that has never been met by ANY DAP... NORMAL BATTERIES
I don't want crappy, low capacity, hard to change batteries. I want to swap a few AAAs (or AA) in 10 seconds, and have my DAP working non-stop. No need to be plugged-in to a cord for hours every day. Not to mention that battery capacity is continually increasing, and CD players that had a 10 hour battery life some 10 years ago, now have about 30 hours thanks to newer rechargable batteries.
Just add that simple feature to a couple DAPs, and you'll have something that might actually appeal to people like me who wouldn't ever consider an iPod. Meanwhile, I'm sticking with my MP3 CD player that gets 50+ hours on a pair of rechargable AAs.
My other criteria are large (40GB+) hard drive and FLAC/Musepack/Vorbis playback, and any rockbox-supported players will handle those easily.
I know it's supposed to be highter quality, but A, I can't hear the difference,
ANYBODY can hear the difference. Start encoding MP3s at lower bitrates until they sound like crap, then encode to vorbis at the same bitrate... The MP3 will sound like crap, wile the Ogg won't.
and B, why would I want a high quality compressed audio format? To play on my portable music player, which supports which formats? Oh, yeah.
There are numerous DAPs which support Vorbis.
And even if there weren't... MP3 got insanely popular long before DAPs came around, so putting it on your iPod isn't the only use for lossy audio compression.
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If not for the num pad, you could pretty easily fit a (almost) full keyboard on a much smaller notebook. And the trend torwards widescreen displays only makes it easier.
Only the smallest, thinest notebooks (~12") would have a problem fitting two hard drives in the case. It's a question of demand (and price), not space.
Again, nothing to do with the size of the notebook at all. My laptop mounts the battery externally, and having it stick out a bit further is no big deal.
Same issue. Demand and price (and noise), not space.
No, no it's not. Just ask Sony, Toshiba, or any of the other manufacturers of $3,000+ ultra-light notebooks.
Umm, maybe the fact that most people "wouldn't want to use [a lugable] in a subway, plane, bus, etc,"
There's a mutually exclusive market for both, and the question (as to which category this falls under) is a perfectly reasonable one.
PCChips is made in China, and so is Gigabyte... Are you going to tell me they have the same quality, because they're made in the same country?
Well, the whole "Apple Quality" idea is shot to hell, then.
Nobody wants to buy from a company that makes good products only if bought on the 2nd Tuesday of months that have the letter "U" in them.
Just try and tell me that first-generation notebooks from IBM or HP have such horrible problems...
No, that's how the DMCA works. Before the DMCA, the service provider (YouTube) could be sued for contributory copyright infringment in addition to the individual who uploaded the video.
They loved the DMCA when it allowed them to silence free speech, and take down entirely legal websites with no burden of proof... but now that it is putting a tiny ammount of burden on them, they're outraged.
You could manage with 2, actually.
No, it would be significantly more difficult. At a 45% angle, you're firing through something like 50% more atmosphere, and at a 50% longer distance to the target.
It is concievable that lasers on satellites will become powerful enough to do that in the future, but it's anything but "amazingly easy".
(Not that the GP's post makes a lot of sense, either)
And the US actively supported Iraq in the unprovoked war against Iran...
Not if you can throw rocks down selectivly at your opponents.
Installing defensive weapons in a vulnerable area isn't imperialistic.
Despite the US military bases all around the world, the US hasn't tried to militarily take control and rule any other countries yet.
You can call those bases "imperialistic" too, but you'd be wrong.
Those damn communist... Always reporting the "facts" that make the conservatives look bad. (Like reporting that pedophile Mark Folley is a Republican... And asking for evidence when Republicans claim Democrats are responsible.)
Clearly, Fox News is "Fair and Balanced", because they don't worry about those nasty little "facts".
As opposed to the right-wing loonies who are still campaigning against Bill Clinton.
Right. WWI/II, the Korean war, Gulf Storm, etc. It wasn't a success because the rest of the world was supportive... No.
And wars like Vietnam and Iraq 2003, the fact that other countries weren't supportive has nothing to do with their spectacular failure...
Are you writing the foreign policy for Iraq, Iran, Syria, and North Korea?
No, he just keeps asking to negotiate directly with the US, because he doesn't care about the US... Makes perfect sense.
He's not volunteering to, but long-term sanctions will do a pretty good job of forcing him to stop.
If the world was really woried, North Korea would have been carpet-bombed by now. So they've got maybe 6 atomic bombs that they can't get to detonate in perfect laboratory conditions, and surely can't launch into any other country, currently...
If anyone is worried about North Korea, there's no better time to attack (unless you want to let them to dispose 2-3 more of their own atomic bombs in further tests).
IF there was a THREAT to begin with, you might be right. However, there is none. You might as well say the US needs to protect it's national interests in Antartica, or Canada...
You should get your own AM radio program soon...
No, no it wouldn't. Just combine power with the data cable, and you get fewer cables, without making all your devices ridiculously expensive, power hungry, and complex.
Ethanol and Biodiesel are very serious alternatives. Or at least a MAJOR suppliment. Those decrying them apparently believe American farmers don't know how to grow anything other than corn...
Both can immediately be added to petrolum-based fuels.
Ethanol currently makes up 10-20% of gasoline, but all cars made in the past decade must be able to accept 30% blends. Increasing the percentage to more than 30% ethanol will still only have minor negative consequences on current (unmodified) vehicles.
Biodiesel is generally accepted to work everywhere at 20% blends. Biodiesel's only issue is its higher freezing point than petroleum diesel. A small starting tank of diesel, or an insulated (and perhaps electrically heated) fuel tank is the only required modification for current vehicles to accept higher blends of biodiesel.
Fully electric cars, such as the Zap Xebra, are becomming quite practical. http://www.zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=188
The only thing really required is a company that can invest enough money for a larger, heavier, 4-wheeled model to go through NHTSA certification process.
Any of the above makes for both short-term, and long term solutions to the energy crisis. The problem is that the focus on hydrogen, more oil exploration, etc., has steered efforts in other directions, that aren't practical or sustainable. The focus on cellulose ethanol has helped to bolster corn farmers, rather than convincing them to grow crops that can currently be turned into ethanol at a real profit.
You're absolutely on the right track. First thing I thought when seeing it, was how incredibly hot the outside will get when in direct sunlight. Not only will it make cooling more difficult, but the unit could burn anyone that touches it, if deployed in the desert.
Seriously, give the thing an awning.
Covering a house's entire roof in solar panels is barely enough to power several computers. Never mind hundreds of ultra-densely packed systems, needing heavy-duty cooling.
You've got a snowball's chance is hell (get it?) of getting the necessary power out of a few solar panels mounted on the container.
You have a much better chance, though, if you PACK this thing with portable cells, and have someone set them up, around the site. Though, you're definately going to need someone to stay around, keep people and animals away, and regularly clean sand, dirt, and leaves off the panels, or they won't last long.
The fact that you failed to mention sound quality... or more specifically that the people you heard from failed to mention it... doesn't mean it's not an issue.
MP3s are a bit like copying songs off the radio. People accepted the quality because they were getting them for free. Unencumbered 128k MP3s didn't replaced CDs, nor will they.
Absolutely ridiculous. 64bit-ness doesn't exist in a vaccuum. AMD processors in 64-bit mode plain and simply improves performance significantly. Memory space is FAR from the only reason to use AMD64 processors.
Nobody drives a car in New York... There's too much traffic.
In 64-bit modes, the AMD's CPUs perform MUCH better, while Intel's CPUs don't do so well.
I wouldn't just call 99% "most", I'd call that an overwhelming majority, or "almost everyone".
"Most" is a much lower percentage... And when you have several millions people unwilling to accept the lower standard, the higher standard eventually gets accepted, baring major limitations.
It's technical improvements are hampered by it's natural and artifical limitations.
Actually, I'd say audio CDs are a very good example of my point... Though many people are willing to buy a few tracks of lossy compressed AAC files, their much poorer quality will prevent them from eliminating CDs. The lossy compression, or the bitrates, will need to be improved significantly before it's suitable enough for almost everyone to be happy with them. And until that happens, the standard will remain decades-old CD technology.
My comment really wasn't about anecdotes.
Ext2 has well-known and understood issues (async mounted), which Ext3 eliminates. So, comparing the two is just simply a mistake.
I've never heard any complaints about natural gas. We are currently drilling for it, but it's quite possible that we could start extracting it from biomass like landfills instead. And it's cleaner burning than the rest of the fossil fuels.
It isn't practical in this senario, though.
Tidal could be COMPLETELY hidden from humans rather easily (submerged), or just put far out from the shore, or near uninhabited shores.
No it's really very predictable, it's just a problem that there aren't enough rivers and lakes in the world to supply all the power. Still, it's a good old workhorse.
Well salmon have gone extinct in many areas because of dams. Dramatically improving fish ladders would certainly be a good idea. And the question is, do you want ALL rivers to be dammed up for your electricity needs?
Only if you put it near people. There's plenty of wide-open land.
This is pure troll...
Nobody has to have anything in their yards to use solar power. That's what THE GRID is for. A few square miles in the desert, and you've got thousands of homes on solar power.
Those that do want solar panels, almost always install them on their roof, where they're out of the way. And more than that, lots of people actually have good sized backyards, and wouldn't notice a set of solar panels the size of a car off to the side.
And you've proven yourself so well-informed on the issue, clearly everyone should listen to your unsubstantiated opinion on the subject, and throw away their solar panels and wind turbines.
Obviously not the current batch. That was the whole point of my post, of course.
There is, however, nothing stopping hard drive DAPs from using standard-sized batteries.
There's nothing about AAs that precludes you from swapping and recharging them every night, as you do with propritary, built-in batteries.
In fact, I had a Sony CD player several years ago that would recharge standard AA rechargables when the unit was plugged-in to the AC adapter...
The battery life still isn't that great. It's probably enough for day-to-day listening (provided you don't watch any videos on it) but it's rather unplesant when traveling.
And even if it lasted for a week on a charge, there's always the issue of overpriced, propritary replacement batteries every 2 years, and that's only while it's popular... I'm not willing to bet the iPod will still be popular enough in more than a decade, that it will be easy to find reasonably-priced replacement parts. I much prefer to invest in something that I'm sure will be able to operate indefinately.
This one is absolutely ridiculous. I could just as easily include "Looking around the house for my credit card," "Going to the ATM to check my debit card balance," or any other such nonsense.
Well, I guess if you can't count, that might take several seconds. Even if so, it probably only takes a couple seconds longer than pulling your credit card out and putting it back.
If they've been at the job for any length of time, they can do all this in no time at all.
This is all NOTHING compared to handing over your ID and card, waiting while the cashier compares them, signing your name on the paperwork, writting the exact charge down in your notebook, etc. Never mind having to scan the card repeatedly, waiting for the approval message to come through, etc.
You can make up all the senarios you want, but we've ALL be in line behind people with credit cards, and people with cash, and have all seen those with cash flying through the lines, while those with credit cards hold it up for MINUTES at a time. It's just not even debatable which is faster.
I have precisely one criteria that has never been met by ANY DAP... NORMAL BATTERIES
I don't want crappy, low capacity, hard to change batteries. I want to swap a few AAAs (or AA) in 10 seconds, and have my DAP working non-stop. No need to be plugged-in to a cord for hours every day. Not to mention that battery capacity is continually increasing, and CD players that had a 10 hour battery life some 10 years ago, now have about 30 hours thanks to newer rechargable batteries.
Just add that simple feature to a couple DAPs, and you'll have something that might actually appeal to people like me who wouldn't ever consider an iPod. Meanwhile, I'm sticking with my MP3 CD player that gets 50+ hours on a pair of rechargable AAs.
My other criteria are large (40GB+) hard drive and FLAC/Musepack/Vorbis playback, and any rockbox-supported players will handle those easily.
ANYBODY can hear the difference. Start encoding MP3s at lower bitrates until they sound like crap, then encode to vorbis at the same bitrate... The MP3 will sound like crap, wile the Ogg won't.
There are numerous DAPs which support Vorbis.
And even if there weren't... MP3 got insanely popular long before DAPs came around, so putting it on your iPod isn't the only use for lossy audio compression.