I really do hope that this is turns into a viable solution for amputees. Combining this with the recent advances in nerve and motor control research should produce some very interesting products. I'm thinking a specialized appendage for using the mouse whilest I type. Then again, a USB port into the brain would be easier.
Surely a bath in some sort of sealant post production would eliminate this problem? Finding a way not to seal up the connection points would be a challenge, though.
Then again, this problem doesn't work out so bad for the hardware manufacturers, now does it?
When it came out, it was revolutionary. Right now, its the dominant player, and probably the most refined, to the point where my parents are comfortable using it.
The problem is that there really isn't much value proposition left. Tivo has been riding on reputation while the market has been changing. That happens over and over in the business world, but I'm sad to see it happen to my beloved Tivo. Tivo seems to be trying to play catch-up by doing things like tivo2go, and find a new niche, like the partnership with netflix. In the end, I think they got too comfortable with the Directv partnership and they got dropped on their butts, and now they are trying to find their way again.
First, I am a huge Tivo fan. I've got 2 of em, and I would be lost without them.
Tivo's recent actions have left me pretty convinced that they're lost. They don't seem to have a cohesive business plan on how they are going to fend off all the "generic" pvr/dvr's that come free with cable or satellite service, or for the onslaught of PC based solutions.
Tivo certainly has refinement and ease of use in its court, but I can see that eroding quickly. They are having to keep adding new features under the same pricing model just to stay competetive.
Part of my thinks the irony is abusrd - they are going to great lengths to fix a problem they created in the first place. But, the reality is that no matter how good they got, there will always be some holes that spyware gets in through, maybe not as many or as frequent. Also, it's hard to keep people from clicking "yes".
I sure hope not. Not that I've *ever* had any luck overclocking an AMD chip with any bit of stability.
It seems that there should be a way to report what the chip actually is (much like SPD eprom with RAM), so that you cannot hide what the chip actually is, but you're still able to overclock it. As many others have pointed out, though, it's non-trivial to implement changes, but I'm betting they'll implement something in future versions of their chips.
I haven't read the book, but it seems to me that, in the case of Best Buy, the company is not selling to "grandma". They're selling the top of the line systems to the clueless geeks (clueful ones would get a better deal online). The fact is that the "speeds and feeds" are what sell many on a more expensive computer.
In many areas, this is a big driver for convergance of different technologies - to be able to provide a "system" that does "something", not pieces that have to be put together. It's true that PCs have very tech centric marketing, but it is quite a bit better than it used to be - now you go out and buy a computer system with keyboard, mouse, printer, camera, monitor, etc etc. That used to not be the case, so I think there has been some level of improvement.
I imagine that the real wear is going to come from the repeated charge/discharge cycling of the batteries and the exposure to solar radiation. The unit hasn't really gone that far to wear out tires, and I think the uplink speed limits how fast pictures can be taken, saving wear on the ccd and flash memory.
That's disappointing, but not at all suprising. Tivo has been really sensitive to the whims of networks over the years. They had to release something like tivo2go to remain at all viable against all the alternatives.
I've been playing with tivo2go this morning and it seems pretty low-end.
I can remember going to field days for many years setting up complete communications centers in the middle of nowhere. One thing I always realized about 99% of those into amatuer radio is that they were always ready, willing and prepared to get into the middle of things.
As others have pointed out, HAMs have helped out in most every major disaster in recent history.
I can see my 4 year old peeling the paint off my car.
Seriously, though, I can see this being useful as a protective layer, though there are already companies that offer that service. Its a clear plastic "bra" that you can peel off and replace when the front of your car gets nicked up.
I had actually mentioned that in another post. Lightning and static from friction would be a way to boost the output of the system, but it doesn't make it any less cumbersome of a system.
Colleting lightning & static electricity from friction would almost be worth pursuing on top of the rotation, if the system were to actually and be sustainable.
I'm really picturing this being quite the Rube Goldberg contraption. Maintaining such a system of giant kites in such strong winds is going to be a problem, as is lightning, storms, etc.
The nice thing about some of the other alternative power systems is that they tend to be smaller scale and are backed up by the power grid or some other form of generation. If you have a 100MW kite system, it would be such a substantial source of power that providing a backup to it when there is no wind or the cable breaks, will not be trivial.
The idea behind passport, at least partly, was a good idea in making the internet a little more consistant and easier to use for the herds of everyday people. The big problem is that when a company like MS forges a solution, its going to have strings attached and a financial motivation to pressure companies to do things they don't want to do.
I still think the idea is valid, but the implementation and execution, in true MS form, left a lot to be desired.
I have to wonder how concerned people are about losing their credit card info. My numbers have gotten out a few times, and it's little more than an inconvience of sending a letter to the credit card company. Banks these days partly compete on how quickly they'll "make it right" if you are the victim of fraud.
My point was more that it is much much harder to upgrade a system when it's managed internally. That is one of the value props of outsourcing. Organizationally, it is easier to do when it is a hosted system. Having said that, I was referring to the incompetence of Comair, not SBS.
Well, not this specific problem, but businesses have a common problem of outgrowing the systems that run their business. OTOH, this was an outsourced solution, so this case is pretty hard to explain away, other than sheer incompetence.
Scalability, not in the traditional sense, but being able to virtualize many different physical systems into a single system for enterprise applications.
I've always considered open source to include GPL, BSD, etc. I consider freeware what I used to download off of download.com et. al., where you got the application, but no source.
I suppose there isn't a whole lot of what I consider 'freeware' left, though, so it may be time to rethink my vocabulary.
Posting a link to buy a high-powered laser on slashdot is certainly a good way to keep them off the streets... er shelves.
That being said, I really want one. I wish the site hadn't died so soon.
If you match up the extremely determined spammers, millions of really incompentent cable modem/dsl users and the roughly 234987234745 ways to get malware onto a computer, it is no wonder that the US is #1.
What's more surpsing is that ISP's have not done more to stop being the source of spam (ala blocking port 25 outbound).
It seems to me that Intel's problems are not just of the fabrication sort. They've fallen behind with innovation, which is where AMD is starting to kick their butt. Sure, Intel needs a plant to back up new designs, but if they can't get their heads back in the game, that plant isn't going to do much.
Slashdot Mirror
Jerry http://www.syslog.org/
I really do hope that this is turns into a viable solution for amputees. Combining this with the recent advances in nerve and motor control research should produce some very interesting products. I'm thinking a specialized appendage for using the mouse whilest I type. Then again, a USB port into the brain would be easier.
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
Then again, this problem doesn't work out so bad for the hardware manufacturers, now does it?
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
The problem is that there really isn't much value proposition left. Tivo has been riding on reputation while the market has been changing. That happens over and over in the business world, but I'm sad to see it happen to my beloved Tivo. Tivo seems to be trying to play catch-up by doing things like tivo2go, and find a new niche, like the partnership with netflix. In the end, I think they got too comfortable with the Directv partnership and they got dropped on their butts, and now they are trying to find their way again.
But that's just my take on them.
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
Tivo's recent actions have left me pretty convinced that they're lost. They don't seem to have a cohesive business plan on how they are going to fend off all the "generic" pvr/dvr's that come free with cable or satellite service, or for the onslaught of PC based solutions.
Tivo certainly has refinement and ease of use in its court, but I can see that eroding quickly. They are having to keep adding new features under the same pricing model just to stay competetive.
Long live Tivo...
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
It seems that there should be a way to report what the chip actually is (much like SPD eprom with RAM), so that you cannot hide what the chip actually is, but you're still able to overclock it. As many others have pointed out, though, it's non-trivial to implement changes, but I'm betting they'll implement something in future versions of their chips.
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
In many areas, this is a big driver for convergance of different technologies - to be able to provide a "system" that does "something", not pieces that have to be put together. It's true that PCs have very tech centric marketing, but it is quite a bit better than it used to be - now you go out and buy a computer system with keyboard, mouse, printer, camera, monitor, etc etc. That used to not be the case, so I think there has been some level of improvement.
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
I'm glad to see that we've gotten our money's worth on this one.
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
I've been playing with tivo2go this morning and it seems pretty low-end.
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
As others have pointed out, HAMs have helped out in most every major disaster in recent history.
Jerry KB8GIG
http://www.syslog.org/
Seriously, though, I can see this being useful as a protective layer, though there are already companies that offer that service. Its a clear plastic "bra" that you can peel off and replace when the front of your car gets nicked up.
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
The nice thing about some of the other alternative power systems is that they tend to be smaller scale and are backed up by the power grid or some other form of generation. If you have a 100MW kite system, it would be such a substantial source of power that providing a backup to it when there is no wind or the cable breaks, will not be trivial.
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
I still think the idea is valid, but the implementation and execution, in true MS form, left a lot to be desired.
I have to wonder how concerned people are about losing their credit card info. My numbers have gotten out a few times, and it's little more than an inconvience of sending a letter to the credit card company. Banks these days partly compete on how quickly they'll "make it right" if you are the victim of fraud.
My point was more that it is much much harder to upgrade a system when it's managed internally. That is one of the value props of outsourcing. Organizationally, it is easier to do when it is a hosted system. Having said that, I was referring to the incompetence of Comair, not SBS.
Well, not this specific problem, but businesses have a common problem of outgrowing the systems that run their business. OTOH, this was an outsourced solution, so this case is pretty hard to explain away, other than sheer incompetence.
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
I suppose there isn't a whole lot of what I consider 'freeware' left, though, so it may be time to rethink my vocabulary.
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
That being said, I really want one. I wish the site hadn't died so soon.
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
What's more surpsing is that ISP's have not done more to stop being the source of spam (ala blocking port 25 outbound).
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/
Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/