It was my understanding that middle and late period Romans used Greek the way Medieval Europeans used Latin. That is to say, it was used primarly by literate and educated people for formal and scholarly works, not as an everyday converstational language. I could be mis-remembering -- my Ancient History coursework is, well, ancient history.
Backwards Compatibility: PS2 was the *first* backwards-compatible gaming console in history. Making backwards compatibility a requirement is a huge liability when you're trying to design a new system: it means you have to replicate or emulate all the bad design decisions you made in the legacy product. Backwards compatibility may be important when you're doing serious work, but it's not an issue for an entertainment product. Do you bitch because your DVD-Audio isn't backwards compatible with your 8-track player? Engineering in backwards compatibility would be *very* expensive for minimal gain.
If people are happy with their current games, they have no incentive to buy a new console. People buy new consoles to run new games; if they want to play their old games they can hook up their old console. Consoles are sold at minimal profit or at a loss... they sell them cheap to entice you to buy the games, which is where the real money is made. Selling a console at a loss so that you can play games you already have makes no business sense; it lessens the incentive to buy new games.
PPC vs Pentium: It's a console, not a PC. PPC uses less power and produces less heat than a Pentium. This is essential for a set-top box, particuarly if it means they eliminate the need for a fan. It also seems likely that they think that the G5 is going to be cheaper than a comperable x86 part. Embedded systems are *VERY* cost sensitive - a few cents difference in manufacturing costs can make or kill an embedded system. The only reason to stick with the suck-ass x86 architecture is backwards compatibility. Plus, as many other people have noted, MS owns VirtualPC, so emulating the x86 in software is possible. I fail to see why a P4 would be "easier to maintain" than a G5: both are commodity parts. The whole point of a console is that it's ZERO maintenance.
Flash vs Disk drive:
Like a fan, a hard disk is a mechanical part which is prone to failure. Eliminating mechanical parts makes the console more reliable. Also remember that an HDD puts out a lot of heat, and uses a lot of power. Less heat and less power means no fans and smaller power supplies, which makes it less expensive and more reliable. You don't need 80GB of storage to save game state. 1G of flash is more than you'll ever use for savefiles. Remember it's a fscking *Game* not a PC. A HDD is overkill.
DPI refers to the density of pixels on the device. Basic lasers have a density of 300 DPI,
Correct so far
Mac displays have 72 DPI, and Windows uses 96 DPI.
Maybe by DEFAULT, but that's all. DPI on a computer screen is a function of display resolution and screen size. An 800x600 display will have a variable DPI depending on the size of monitor being used. If using a CRT it's even more variable, because even two identical 19" monitors won't necessarily be set up with the same viewable image size. LCDs have a fixed DPI when running at their native resolution, which remains the same regardless of what computer it's connected to.
Considering where and when he allegedly lived, he would probably have spoken Aramaic and Latin as well as Hebrew. IIRC Aramaic was the predominant everyday language used in the middle east & north Africa under the Romans.
I'd rather having them arguing about what fonts to use than arguing about what freedom to curtail today. The more time they spend on useless naval-gazing busywork is less time they spend fouling things up. Inefficiency limits the amount of evil government can do.
Any self-respecting geek has a jar filled with hundreds of them on their desk
Nah, a true self-respecting geek has a couple dozen jars, with all the screws sorted by size, head type, and thead pitch. Double geek points if the jars are all labeled. Triple the score if the labels are barcoded.
Zionist is the proper name for a member of a specific extremist Jewish sect, just as Pentecostal is the proper name for a member of a specific extremist Christian sect and Wahabbist is the proper name for a member of a specific extremist Islamic sect.
It's not pejoritive to call a self-declared member of a religious sect by that sects proper name. Calling all jews Zionists is pejorative. Calling members of the Zionist sect of Judeism Zionists isn't pejorative, it's accurate.
Funny one, but it does point out the underlying attitude: even the different Christian sects can't agree with each other, and they're all using the same fsking book. It's frightening how much brainpower has been wasted (and how much blood has been spilled) arguing over who's imaginary friend is better.
Check your math; you are off by an order of magnitude. 0.19% is the actual figure. Using your examples it would either be a $100 fine on $52,000 reserves or a $10 fine on $5200 reserve. The point is, $100M is such a trivial amount of money to Microsoft that it hurts them about as much as it would hurt you if a vending machine ate your dollar.
Anyone who uses *any* technology -- be it stolen, purchased, or created from scratch -- needs to test it before deploying it in a critical role. People who do not heed this basic piece of advice deserve whatever happens to them; and they need to be held personally accountable for any harm thier negligence does to uninvolved third parties.
If you're referring to Christianity vs Islam, you're severely mistaken - they both worship the god of Abraham - ie. What Christians refer to as God (note the capitalisation).
There you go thinking rationally again. You cannot use rational thought to analyze the actions of religious fanatics because they are incapable (or unwilling) of using rational thought themselves. They are totally right and you are completely wrong because [Jesus|Yaweh|Allah] told them so. Just try getting a Pentecostal, a Zionist, and a Wahabbist to admit that they all worship the same diety.
Not only did they steal the software, they used it without auditing the source and testing the executables. That would be the smart thing to do even if you don't expect sabotage. You never use any software (or hardware for that matter), regardless of who wrote it, for a mission critical purpose without putting it through some comprehensive certification trials.
Going public is very often the worst mistake a company can make. Knowledgable private investors are very often more forward-thinking and tuned in to long-term performance, whereas stock market investors are very fickle and often don't look any further forward than the next quarterly earnings statement.
I'm not interested in Google as an investment opportunity; I just want a search engine that doesn't suck. Staying private lets Google concentrate on what they're good at -- making good tools -- and not worry about having Wall Street yahoos questioning every decision they make and penalizing them for long-term strategy over short-term profit.
Right now, if a government wants to declare martial law and force its citizenry to live in a fascist dictatorship, they have to somehow convince the people of the military to do it. That's a lot easier when most of their "troops" can't think for themselves, and you can have them controlled by people who share the totalitarian point of view.
Outstanding point. Not only do the manchines need to be operated by loyal troops, they also have to be maintianed and repaired by loyal troops. While this means you can subjugate more people with fewer troops, it also dramatically increases the amount of damage an infiltrator can do. It also makes the controllers very attractive targets for assassination or conversion.
AS long as there are people in the world who are intent on doing harm to others, there will be a requirement for somebody to stop them. Human life is indeed irreplacable, and it is tragic but unavoidable circumstance that brave young and women sometimes have to lay down their lives in the defense of thier families, communities, nations, or beliefs.
If there is nothing in the world that you feel strongly enough about that you are willing to fight and die for it, then I feel sorry for you.
"Well before the end of the century, there will be no people on the battlefield," said Robert Finkelstein, a professor at the University of Maryland's School of Management and Technology.
Dollars to doughnuts says Dr. Bob has never served in the military. Nothing will ever replace a guy with a rifle. Planes, tanks, nuclear weapons, and a whole raft of other innovations were supposed to make the common infantryman obsolete. Guess what, the grunt is still around. Today's infantryman has a lot of tools to make his job easier and make each man more effective, but in the end no matter how fancy your technology it all comes down to a guy with a weapon in his hand standing on a piece of land saying "I'm here to stay". That hasn't changed since the first Australiopithicus picked up a pointy stick, and it probably never will.
Yeah but the definition of "child porn" varies considerably from country to country. In many (industrialized) countries, 15 & 16 year olds are considered to be mature enough to decide whether or not they wish to be photographed while having sex. There's a world of difference between a pre-pubescent child and a biologically mature teenaged young adult.
The US is pretty fucked up about sex and nudity. It's pretty stupid to tell someone who's old enough to get married, drive a car, and volunteer for military service that they aren't old enough to take off their clothes in front of a camera.
Given the knee-jerk rush to judgement surrounding anything resembling child porn or child abuse, a teenager with an axe to grind could seriously screw up some people's lives by taking nude pictures of themselves with a webcam in the privacy of their own bedroom, and then emailing said pictures to people they don't like and reporting the recipients to the police. Pretty f'ing scary scenerio if you ask me.
Or perhaps they are running a private news server (which, depending on what groups they carry, is pretty much the same thing as being a pr0n|wares monkey).
Of course they could also be doing something totally legitimate, like a family sending home movies of the kiddies to grandma & grandpa, or a sysadmin monitoring performance data from a couple of remote server farms, or a telecommuting developer who's replicating a production database so he can diagnose a problem.
Hopefully Jobs et all didn't give up the whole farm
I think Steve Jobs is a whole hell of a lot smarter than Michael Eisner. Jobs & crew knew exactly what they were doing when they climbed into bed with The Mouse. They used Disney's marketing machine to build their own brand name. Now they don't need Disney anymore -- now Disney needs Pixar a whole lot more than Pixar needs Disney.
I think that now, given Pixar's past successes, they've become a must-see brand name on their own merit. They don't need Disney any more; hell, in 5 years Pixar may very be distributing Disney's films. Disney is fast becoming the *dis*enchanted kingdom, devoted to squeezing the last drop of profit out of it's past glories. Whatever goodwill the Disney name might have commanded in the past is rapidly evaporating.
Slashdot Mirror
It was my understanding that middle and late period Romans used Greek the way Medieval Europeans used Latin. That is to say, it was used primarly by literate and educated people for formal and scholarly works, not as an everyday converstational language. I could be mis-remembering -- my Ancient History coursework is, well, ancient history.
Backwards Compatibility: PS2 was the *first* backwards-compatible gaming console in history. Making backwards compatibility a requirement is a huge liability when you're trying to design a new system: it means you have to replicate or emulate all the bad design decisions you made in the legacy product. Backwards compatibility may be important when you're doing serious work, but it's not an issue for an entertainment product. Do you bitch because your DVD-Audio isn't backwards compatible with your 8-track player? Engineering in backwards compatibility would be *very* expensive for minimal gain.
If people are happy with their current games, they have no incentive to buy a new console. People buy new consoles to run new games; if they want to play their old games they can hook up their old console. Consoles are sold at minimal profit or at a loss... they sell them cheap to entice you to buy the games, which is where the real money is made. Selling a console at a loss so that you can play games you already have makes no business sense; it lessens the incentive to buy new games.
PPC vs Pentium: It's a console, not a PC. PPC uses less power and produces less heat than a Pentium. This is essential for a set-top box, particuarly if it means they eliminate the need for a fan. It also seems likely that they think that the G5 is going to be cheaper than a comperable x86 part. Embedded systems are *VERY* cost sensitive - a few cents difference in manufacturing costs can make or kill an embedded system. The only reason to stick with the suck-ass x86 architecture is backwards compatibility. Plus, as many other people have noted, MS owns VirtualPC, so emulating the x86 in software is possible. I fail to see why a P4 would be "easier to maintain" than a G5: both are commodity parts. The whole point of a console is that it's ZERO maintenance.
Flash vs Disk drive:
Like a fan, a hard disk is a mechanical part which is prone to failure. Eliminating mechanical parts makes the console more reliable. Also remember that an HDD puts out a lot of heat, and uses a lot of power. Less heat and less power means no fans and smaller power supplies, which makes it less expensive and more reliable. You don't need 80GB of storage to save game state. 1G of flash is more than you'll ever use for savefiles. Remember it's a fscking *Game* not a PC. A HDD is overkill.Considering where and when he allegedly lived, he would probably have spoken Aramaic and Latin as well as Hebrew. IIRC Aramaic was the predominant everyday language used in the middle east & north Africa under the Romans.
The 20 point dingbat, with any luck, will be voted out of office this November.
I'd rather having them arguing about what fonts to use than arguing about what freedom to curtail today. The more time they spend on useless naval-gazing busywork is less time they spend fouling things up. Inefficiency limits the amount of evil government can do.
Baby food jars. Easy to come by if you have any friends or relatives with rugrats.
It's not pejoritive to call a self-declared member of a religious sect by that sects proper name. Calling all jews Zionists is pejorative. Calling members of the Zionist sect of Judeism Zionists isn't pejorative, it's accurate.
Funny one, but it does point out the underlying attitude: even the different Christian sects can't agree with each other, and they're all using the same fsking book. It's frightening how much brainpower has been wasted (and how much blood has been spilled) arguing over who's imaginary friend is better.
Check your math; you are off by an order of magnitude. 0.19% is the actual figure. Using your examples it would either be a $100 fine on $52,000 reserves or a $10 fine on $5200 reserve. The point is, $100M is such a trivial amount of money to Microsoft that it hurts them about as much as it would hurt you if a vending machine ate your dollar.
Anyone who uses *any* technology -- be it stolen, purchased, or created from scratch -- needs to test it before deploying it in a critical role. People who do not heed this basic piece of advice deserve whatever happens to them; and they need to be held personally accountable for any harm thier negligence does to uninvolved third parties.
The USA knew Saddam had WMD because the US government sold them to him way back when it was supporting him against Iran.
Not only did they steal the software, they used it without auditing the source and testing the executables. That would be the smart thing to do even if you don't expect sabotage. You never use any software (or hardware for that matter), regardless of who wrote it, for a mission critical purpose without putting it through some comprehensive certification trials.
I'm not interested in Google as an investment opportunity; I just want a search engine that doesn't suck. Staying private lets Google concentrate on what they're good at -- making good tools -- and not worry about having Wall Street yahoos questioning every decision they make and penalizing them for long-term strategy over short-term profit.
If there is nothing in the world that you feel strongly enough about that you are willing to fight and die for it, then I feel sorry for you.
The US is pretty fucked up about sex and nudity. It's pretty stupid to tell someone who's old enough to get married, drive a car, and volunteer for military service that they aren't old enough to take off their clothes in front of a camera.
Given the knee-jerk rush to judgement surrounding anything resembling child porn or child abuse, a teenager with an axe to grind could seriously screw up some people's lives by taking nude pictures of themselves with a webcam in the privacy of their own bedroom, and then emailing said pictures to people they don't like and reporting the recipients to the police. Pretty f'ing scary scenerio if you ask me.
Of course they could also be doing something totally legitimate, like a family sending home movies of the kiddies to grandma & grandpa, or a sysadmin monitoring performance data from a couple of remote server farms, or a telecommuting developer who's replicating a production database so he can diagnose a problem.
- Criminalize the practice of using submarine/stealth patents.
- Remove the corporate shield and hold corporate officers and directors personally liable for the criminal actions of the companies they control.
IMHO, patents should be treated like trademarks: they should automatically invalidated if you do not actively defend them from the start.