I don't think *computer screens* is where this will be used first. But depending on power-requirements I can easily imagine "designer" watches with displays pretty much all around them and other utterly useless (but oh-so-geeky) pieces of clothing.
So it's you, with your blowing up of the prototypes that are keeping the flying car from never being released?! And you know, if you just want to make your coworker miss a meeting and get fired instead of you, it would be much more cunning (and fun) to fill it with eels, and watch him trying to explain it to his clients and superior...
Maglev at 400-500 km/h would be a 21st Century solution to a 21st Century problem -
Who needs MagLev? Japan and Germany has commercial trains running at 300km/h, and france at 320km/h, with some sets capable of 380km/h. (Just no tracks for them yet.)
The speed record for conventional trains is 574km/h, a mere 7km/h behind the MagLev record. Also conventional high-speed trains have the advantage on being able to run on regular tracks, so you don't need to built brand new ones inside the cities they visit. It just slows them down.
Actually, the sometimes large distances between major cities is not such a bad thing. More time between stops means the trains don't need to waste so much time breaking and waiting at stations. Ideally a high speed train shouldn't stop more than once an hours. Even in densely populated Germany I've seen nearly an hours and a half pass between two stops on the fastest trains. For those living in between major stops, you run regional/local trains, similar to the hub'n'spoke system of airlines.
Sure, airplanes will be faster for coast to coast trips as far as passengers are concerned. But getting a lot of the trucks off the road wouldn't be a bad idea either. (Actually, cargo alone could probably make an new/improved rail network worth it alone, with passenger traffic as a byproduct.)
What good is it finally reaching a feasible method of inter planetary travel if within 21 years when your patents expire.
No worries. Whoever has that X amount of money required, also has the amount of money required to convince the courts that the patent laws never specified *earth*-years. Afterwards, just land a patent-office-probe on one of the moons of Jupiter, issuing patents dated on a jovian calendar...
Of course, this means a need for raw materials in space, which pretty much amounts to asteroid/comet mining (anything larger has so much gravity that we might as well ship from earth).
The moon, while certainly having a lot more gravity than an asteroid is still much much cheaper to launch from than earth. Its gravity (and orbit) is also a lot more stable and predictable. Also it is much much closer to home.
Look, this is no different from when Europeans first landed in America (okay - maybe a bit different, but still) - they had no raw metals, no cement, no manufactured items - they were completely dependent on shipments for a lot of their necessities.
The early settlers certainly were dependent on their home countries for a lot of essential goods, like clothing, books, iron tools, and so on until they got factories in place to make it themselves. Which for more advances stuff probably took "a while". However, completely unlike space travel, they had plentiful supply of low-tech lumber for construction, and even if they had to wait a year or two to harvest their first crops, fishing and hunting was available from the start.
In space on the other hand you need to send a lot of (heavy/expensive) machinery to start mining/processing materials into something you can actually build something from. And until you have a large green-house up and running for your vegan crew, (supplemented with poo-to-eatable-goo?), you either have to ship food as well, or have be sure your robot factories won't break down...
That said, I really think we should get some robotic mining equipment to the moon, so they at least can start stockpiling refined materials for whenever the designs for a permanent manned base is ready. (OK, I have no idea how easy it is to turn moon-rock into construction materials...)
They assumed that a lot of people that would need them wouldn't use the coupons, because they would want fancier boxes that the coupons were valid for. They probably underestimated the number of "rich" people satisfied with the basic boxes, using the coupon to get a cheap ones for their secondary TV (kids room, cabins, boat, whatever), or simply being greedy...
Wonder how much could be because your average blogger doesn't know half as much about what rights they have within the laws as their "professional" counterparts do. (Regardless of the freedom of the press is their country)
And for restricted countries, that a paid journalist is either screen by their government, and/or doesn't feel like risking their reasonably comfortable life for challenging said government, leaving the "anti-patriotic" reporting to the bloggers, who (wrongfully) think they are posting anonymously.
Wrong, people stick with XP because they are familiar with it. Otherwise, why would 70% of eeePC sales be XP models?
Have you actually tried using the Xandros version the EEEs are shipped with??
Sure it comes with a lot of decent software for common usage, but try adding something else. (Seriously, mine had a link to some kind of one-click system, they just hadn't actually included the package management for it, and the software update system refused to install the only available update that looked remotely interesting!) And none of the other distros I've tried (including virtually everything "costumized for EEE") would "just work". (no wifi out of the box for my 1000H, occasional sound failure, etc, etc.)
Had they delivered it with a *usable* linux distro (Ubuntu NBR comes to mind, but that probably didn't exist at launch of the first ones), I guess linux would have had a better chance. Too bad they blew it, because it will probably affect other netbooks as well, regardless of their choise of distro.
I got my EEE thinking I would finally get a machine that would run Linux without any issues (on my desktop there has always been at least one piece of hardware or software preventing me), but given the choice between Asus/Xandros or XP, it really is a no-brainer.
Running XP at 300mhz/64mb RAM might have worked prior to any service packs. However, SP2 in particular increased the requirements quite a bit.
Besides you need to find software that is enjoyable such low-end hardware. My 900mhz/256mb laptop was faster than my desktop when I got it, weeks after XP was released. (Narrow escape from ME there!). Today, just Firefox alone can be pushing it on that machine.
This clearly isn't done because it is in any way "better" than buying a cheapish sound system, but purely because of the geek-factor of building it. If you cant live with that, please apply for geek credentials, just so you can hand them in out the way out.
Personally I'd add Symbian to the list as the old Psion 5mx and 7 were in effect the netbooks and ultra-portables of their time and Nokia have some tablet devices at the moment.
I loved my Psion 3c, and when the screen eventually died, I got a PocketPC. Despite running nearly 40 times faster and having "unlimited" storage thanks to cheap memory cards, it couldn't compare to the functionality of the Psion. Two simple reasons: Lack of keyboard, and available (free) software.
Bring back the Psion form factor, run on linux/bsd/android for reasonably easy porting of software, and keep the price in the (lower) netbook range, and at least I would love it. (Bonus points for making different brands 100% software-compatible.)
(The Nokia Internet Tablets are a bit too small for me, and anything with a phone seem to cost twice as much as they should.)
I'm using a plasma cutting tool at school at the moment. The plasma "gas" (regular air) runs at around 10.000'C. Trick is to not require the tool itself to be in contact with the extreme temperatures, but have an insulating layer of gas around it. (The ceramic tips and nozzles still wear out and need to be replaced after a while...)
28 MPH is not fast enough for realistic street travel. [...] I, for one, would not tolerate an urban landscape clogged by a bunch of people who can't go faster than my grandmother.
Check out French "car" maker Ligier. They, and others, have been producing similar vehicles for several years. Just diesel-powered, and less silly-looking. They are classified as mopeds, and are therefore not allowed to go faster than 45km/h (28mph). (Some models are classified as 4-wheel motorcycles and can go faster).
Not being classified as a "car" means they don't have to pass crash tests, so it's probably a good thing they don't go faster.
I'd like to see MS reinvent the WinCE concept as something a bit more similar to DamnSmallLinux/PuppyLinux. A minimalistic base system, capable of (and optimized for) running at ultra low-end hardware, yet able to run virtually any "real" Windows application (and game) if the hardware is up to the task, and have storage space for the extra modules needed.
Microsoft could charge $10 to OEMs (maybe $50 retail) upfront, then require a subscription to get updates other than security updates. It could move to a "new big feature" once or twice a year that only subscribers can get.
I'd rather pay $10 to *not* have them come up with a "new big feature" that often. Netbooks don't need "big features", they need a simple and stable platform to run user applications on.
I assume most of the code went into translation stuff the C64 did in hardware into something that makes sense to a modern OS. Not that an emulator probably would have taken less space...
Knowing how many people were supposed to have used each machine seems like a simple way of knowing if any votes were added to its total. As long as the machine doesn't keep a track of the order of votes, it's still secret what you choose.
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I don't think *computer screens* is where this will be used first. But depending on power-requirements I can easily imagine "designer" watches with displays pretty much all around them and other utterly useless (but oh-so-geeky) pieces of clothing.
And it wasn't a car, it was a hovercraft.
So it's you, with your blowing up of the prototypes that are keeping the flying car from never being released?! And you know, if you just want to make your coworker miss a meeting and get fired instead of you, it would be much more cunning (and fun) to fill it with eels, and watch him trying to explain it to his clients and superior...
Too long. "Target One" will have to do.
Maglev at 400-500 km/h would be a 21st Century solution to a 21st Century problem -
Who needs MagLev? Japan and Germany has commercial trains running at 300km/h, and france at 320km/h, with some sets capable of 380km/h. (Just no tracks for them yet.)
The speed record for conventional trains is 574km/h, a mere 7km/h behind the MagLev record. Also conventional high-speed trains have the advantage on being able to run on regular tracks, so you don't need to built brand new ones inside the cities they visit. It just slows them down.
Actually, the sometimes large distances between major cities is not such a bad thing. More time between stops means the trains don't need to waste so much time breaking and waiting at stations. Ideally a high speed train shouldn't stop more than once an hours. Even in densely populated Germany I've seen nearly an hours and a half pass between two stops on the fastest trains. For those living in between major stops, you run regional/local trains, similar to the hub'n'spoke system of airlines.
Sure, airplanes will be faster for coast to coast trips as far as passengers are concerned. But getting a lot of the trucks off the road wouldn't be a bad idea either. (Actually, cargo alone could probably make an new/improved rail network worth it alone, with passenger traffic as a byproduct.)
What good is it finally reaching a feasible method of inter planetary travel if within 21 years when your patents expire.
No worries. Whoever has that X amount of money required, also has the amount of money required to convince the courts that the patent laws never specified *earth*-years. Afterwards, just land a patent-office-probe on one of the moons of Jupiter, issuing patents dated on a jovian calendar...
Of course, this means a need for raw materials in space, which pretty much amounts to asteroid/comet mining (anything larger has so much gravity that we might as well ship from earth).
The moon, while certainly having a lot more gravity than an asteroid is still much much cheaper to launch from than earth. Its gravity (and orbit) is also a lot more stable and predictable. Also it is much much closer to home.
Look, this is no different from when Europeans first landed in America (okay - maybe a bit different, but still) - they had no raw metals, no cement, no manufactured items - they were completely dependent on shipments for a lot of their necessities.
The early settlers certainly were dependent on their home countries for a lot of essential goods, like clothing, books, iron tools, and so on until they got factories in place to make it themselves. Which for more advances stuff probably took "a while". However, completely unlike space travel, they had plentiful supply of low-tech lumber for construction, and even if they had to wait a year or two to harvest their first crops, fishing and hunting was available from the start.
In space on the other hand you need to send a lot of (heavy/expensive) machinery to start mining/processing materials into something you can actually build something from. And until you have a large green-house up and running for your vegan crew, (supplemented with poo-to-eatable-goo?), you either have to ship food as well, or have be sure your robot factories won't break down...
That said, I really think we should get some robotic mining equipment to the moon, so they at least can start stockpiling refined materials for whenever the designs for a permanent manned base is ready. (OK, I have no idea how easy it is to turn moon-rock into construction materials...)
They assumed that a lot of people that would need them wouldn't use the coupons, because they would want fancier boxes that the coupons were valid for. They probably underestimated the number of "rich" people satisfied with the basic boxes, using the coupon to get a cheap ones for their secondary TV (kids room, cabins, boat, whatever), or simply being greedy...
Given that 0.027% of 3.4x10^38 is around 10^34, I assume that they mean 0.027% compared to the usage of IPv4, which comes out to around 1 million.
Wonder how much could be because your average blogger doesn't know half as much about what rights they have within the laws as their "professional" counterparts do. (Regardless of the freedom of the press is their country)
And for restricted countries, that a paid journalist is either screen by their government, and/or doesn't feel like risking their reasonably comfortable life for challenging said government, leaving the "anti-patriotic" reporting to the bloggers, who (wrongfully) think they are posting anonymously.
Wrong, people stick with XP because they are familiar with it. Otherwise, why would 70% of eeePC sales be XP models?
Have you actually tried using the Xandros version the EEEs are shipped with??
Sure it comes with a lot of decent software for common usage, but try adding something else. (Seriously, mine had a link to some kind of one-click system, they just hadn't actually included the package management for it, and the software update system refused to install the only available update that looked remotely interesting!) And none of the other distros I've tried (including virtually everything "costumized for EEE") would "just work". (no wifi out of the box for my 1000H, occasional sound failure, etc, etc.)
Had they delivered it with a *usable* linux distro (Ubuntu NBR comes to mind, but that probably didn't exist at launch of the first ones), I guess linux would have had a better chance. Too bad they blew it, because it will probably affect other netbooks as well, regardless of their choise of distro.
I got my EEE thinking I would finally get a machine that would run Linux without any issues (on my desktop there has always been at least one piece of hardware or software preventing me), but given the choice between Asus/Xandros or XP, it really is a no-brainer.
Running XP at 300mhz/64mb RAM might have worked prior to any service packs. However, SP2 in particular increased the requirements quite a bit.
Besides you need to find software that is enjoyable such low-end hardware. My 900mhz/256mb laptop was faster than my desktop when I got it, weeks after XP was released. (Narrow escape from ME there!). Today, just Firefox alone can be pushing it on that machine.
This clearly isn't done because it is in any way "better" than buying a cheapish sound system, but purely because of the geek-factor of building it. If you cant live with that, please apply for geek credentials, just so you can hand them in out the way out.
Personally I'd add Symbian to the list as the old Psion 5mx and 7 were in effect the netbooks and ultra-portables of their time and Nokia have some tablet devices at the moment.
I loved my Psion 3c, and when the screen eventually died, I got a PocketPC. Despite running nearly 40 times faster and having "unlimited" storage thanks to cheap memory cards, it couldn't compare to the functionality of the Psion. Two simple reasons: Lack of keyboard, and available (free) software.
Bring back the Psion form factor, run on linux/bsd/android for reasonably easy porting of software, and keep the price in the (lower) netbook range, and at least I would love it. (Bonus points for making different brands 100% software-compatible.)
(The Nokia Internet Tablets are a bit too small for me, and anything with a phone seem to cost twice as much as they should.)
Given that the total costs of the ISS is around $100 Billion over 10 years, or $27 millions a day, that tool-belt set them back about 5 minutes!
I thought there was more than enough advertisement on YouTube as it was already.
I'm using a plasma cutting tool at school at the moment. The plasma "gas" (regular air) runs at around 10.000'C. Trick is to not require the tool itself to be in contact with the extreme temperatures, but have an insulating layer of gas around it. (The ceramic tips and nozzles still wear out and need to be replaced after a while...)
Would you choose a car based on its ability to traverse the English Channel?
Seeing the luck Top Gear had with that one, I think I'll take the ferry instead...
28 MPH is not fast enough for realistic street travel. [...] I, for one, would not tolerate an urban landscape clogged by a bunch of people who can't go faster than my grandmother.
Check out French "car" maker Ligier. They, and others, have been producing similar vehicles for several years. Just diesel-powered, and less silly-looking. They are classified as mopeds, and are therefore not allowed to go faster than 45km/h (28mph). (Some models are classified as 4-wheel motorcycles and can go faster).
Not being classified as a "car" means they don't have to pass crash tests, so it's probably a good thing they don't go faster.
I'd like to see MS reinvent the WinCE concept as something a bit more similar to DamnSmallLinux/PuppyLinux. A minimalistic base system, capable of (and optimized for) running at ultra low-end hardware, yet able to run virtually any "real" Windows application (and game) if the hardware is up to the task, and have storage space for the extra modules needed.
Microsoft could charge $10 to OEMs (maybe $50 retail) upfront, then require a subscription to get updates other than security updates. It could move to a "new big feature" once or twice a year that only subscribers can get.
I'd rather pay $10 to *not* have them come up with a "new big feature" that often. Netbooks don't need "big features", they need a simple and stable platform to run user applications on.
Load Failure. Possible corrupt record.
(R)etry, (P)anic, (E)migrate?
Plenty of "games" for grown ups that are challenging...
- Programming
- 3D modelling
- Spreadsheets
- Online banking
- and so on...
I assume most of the code went into translation stuff the C64 did in hardware into something that makes sense to a modern OS. Not that an emulator probably would have taken less space...
Knowing how many people were supposed to have used each machine seems like a simple way of knowing if any votes were added to its total. As long as the machine doesn't keep a track of the order of votes, it's still secret what you choose.