There's no such thing as centrifugal force, for one. It's an illusion, at best; a strange contortion of the linear acceleration associated with circular motion.
Furthermore, there's no event horizon "shrinkage" due to the hole spinning. You get a "smaller" event horizon (in comparison to a non-spinning black hole) as a result of frame dragging, but shrinkage would require the hole to speed up.
Black holes _do_ shrink. They do, in fact, evaporate over time, as a result of imaginary particles. This is termed Hawking Radiation. Furthermore, it's now believed that information does indeed escape the event horizon.
This physics is way over my head;-), however, when it comes to vast disturbance in space-time (such as black holes represent), you're better off throwing out all concepts of speed, time, and size.
Sorry about the bank reference, I didn't even realize that wasn't a US bank.
Browsing around a bit more, I find that the average CD rate is ~5.5%, which is nothing special. I don't really use a lot of "conservative bank instruments", but I'm still guessing that he'll make slightly more by taking out an auto loan & purchasing a CD.
I was mainly thinking in terms of superconservative person. Like, someone who buys a Toyota or Honda cash, and then buys a new one (cash) when the warranty runs out (sounds like what the GP poster was talking about).
As to 0% APR, AFAIK, Toyota, Honda and Ford are not offering these as a contrast to cash back; that's something that GM was/is famous for, but it isn't what these three or doing.
In terms of actually saving money, your far better off buying a used car. My Lexus is used, I bought it when it was 2 years old.
In terms of actually investing money, your far better off with certain types of real estate, but the barriers to entry are high. When I say certain kinds, I generally mean rental properties that you can maintain with low overhead. I put every dime I make into my set of buildings, 3 or 4 flats throughout Chicago. I try to buy buildings that require a significant amount of cosmetic work with little to no serious structural issues, and then do 80-90% of the work myself.
The virtue of rental housing is that rental rates are inversly proportional to interest rates. I can refinance down if the interest rates drop, and I can charge higher rates when the interest rates rise. Life is good on both ends of the spectrum.
Beyond that, with a modest real estate market, you can make a ton of money. Given that anyone with decent income, low debt, and good credit can get a good rate with 20%, you get a 5:1 margin rate.
Even if the market is appreciating at a low 5%, the 5:1 margin rate means you're turning 25% APR on your downpayment, and if you're lucky, you'll be making a small payment monthly on rental income.
It's a lot of work, but its worth it.
Just my 2 cents. Again, sorry about the CD advise; this is not stuff I'm familar with, and you really should't be taking investment advice from Slashdot. More likely you should use Slashdot posts like this one to evaluate your options.
There's a lot of PS3 hate here, and I don't understand why.
Imagine I started to market a set-top PC: 1. Near silent. 2. Very sleak and svelt looking. 3. Bluetooth/USB/Wifi/SD/Memory stick support. 3. HDMI output, 1080p included. 4. Fully supported PPC Linux, out-of-box; no messy kernel hacking! 5. Blu-Ray support.
Surely, such a thing would be an absolute bargain at $600. $600 is near the price for some barebone mini-itx systems, and the PS3 is vastly cooler looking (I mean, really, the case is nice!)
As a side benefit, it apparently runs some games;-).
Not even looking at the launch title, but with the vague understand that at some point I'll be able to play a Final Fantasy, and maybe a metal gear solid, this seems like an incredible value to me.
I just bought an 62" HDTV at a CompUSA that was going out of business for $1400. I've been very seriously thinking about a MythTV box to hook up to it, but I'll never be able to afford the box I want (HD playback, either HDDVD or blu-ray, wireless support, and a nice, near-silent form factor); and here comes along Sony, building something _superior_ to the box I would have designed, at literally less than 1/2 the price.
Now, I'll be a little whiny that there isn't OpenGL support in Linux, yet; but I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony & YellowDog work out some sort of deal.
For me, this slaughters the Xbox 360 & Wii. I don't know about you all, but I thought this was a site for nerds. Any of you out there running MythTV should be salivating. Any of you out there playing with XBMC should be salivating. This is hack-free, no modchip required, media center in a box with a blu-ray drive and Linux.
What more could you possibly have asked for from Sony, other than greater launch day availability?
Seriously; stop bitching about the price, and sit down and work out how much it would cost you for a MythTV box that even came close to this puppy. Dollars to donuts it would either be more expensive or far uglier, and this doesn't even require you to look at the value-add of the PS3/PS2/PS1 games.
Edit: Less than sign ate my post. Here's a repost:
*shrug*
Car Loan Interest Savings at 2-3% APR (is less than) Potential Investment Return at 6-7% APR, which is a fairly easy to get return
Having Extra Junk Installed != Function of purchasing a Car in cash
To be honest, I look at people who purchase things like cars & homes 100% cash as people who have no idea how money works.
There's nothing worse that you could do then lock up all of your moola into depreciating assets. These days, saving for retirment does NOT mean stashing a ton of cash into a checking account. That'll never get you anywhere, unless you're a drug dealer, or are high income with low expenses.
Any time you could potentially buy something on credit, you should consider the relative advantage of taking the money you would have spent, cash, and investing it on some sort of safe financial instrument. This bank is selling 5 year CDs at 8.50%, with a $25,000 payment.
Is your friend going to end up paying over an 8.50% APR? He shouldn't, not with reputable companies like Honda & Ford offering 0-2% financing.
Buying all of your assets "cash" is nothing to be proud of; frankly, it is only one step less irresponsible than using credit recklessly. Once you total up all the money you would have made (saved) by utilizing safe banking/investing, you'll be shocked.
Car Loan Interest Savings at 2-3% APR This bank is selling 5 year CDs at 8.50%, with a $25,000 payment.
Is your friend going to end up paying over an 8.50% APR? He shouldn't, not with reputable companies like Honda & Ford offering 0-2% financing.
Buying all of your assets "cash" is nothing to be proud of; frankly, it is only one step less irresponsible than using credit recklessly. Once you total up all the money you would have made (saved) by utilizing safe banking/investing, you'll be shocked.
I'm switching my company off SuSE, starting today.
I was a big fan of Novell. When they first released the announcement of their (MSNovell) deal, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I was willing to ignore the the various cries from the open source community, because I was willing to trust Novell, and willing to trust SuSE.
No more.
Screw you. I will not support any company that makes a deal with MS like this, and tries to lock down Linux like this. I will not pay an innovation tax. I do not want my dollars spent on boxed copies of SuSE going to a deal with MS. I do not want a support contract from an MS-related company.
We don't run Windows in this office. Period. Now, we're not going to run Windows, and we're not going to use Novell products.
The IT industry is literally littered with these failures. You can find the relics of these monuments to failure all over the place.
$4 BILLION spent on establishing an open source foundation to manage these sorts of (slightly more sophisticated than average) CRM projects would resolve this problem indefinitely.
But you see, that would defeat the objective of this kind of government to corporate, and corporate to corporate welfare.
The objective is not to suceed. The objective is to spend money.
100,000 users is a lot, but not a vast number by any standards. They aren't exactly breaking new grounds here. Let's read the PR description:
When fully implemented, it is supposed to give more than 100,000 of Kaiser's physicians and employees instant access to the medical records of some 8.6 million patients, along with e-messaging capability, computerized order entry and electronic prescribing. In addition, the system is supposed to integrate appointment scheduling, registration and billing functions and will offer various features to Kaiser members through KP.org.
I would bet dollars to donuts that Google could implemenet such a system that would scale to _millions_ of physicians and _hundreds_ of millions of patients with few to no issues, and still fit well inside a $4 billion price tag.
The problem is that large companies keep wanting to reinvent the wheel, and I have no idea. Someone with 1/2 a brain should leverage the open source community to build this kind of software (after all, there's _tons_ of money to be made in this business, even in the open source realm. Who the heck but a few large companies has the hardware to run _any_ kind of software supporting this kind of infrastructure). Once that is done, an entire ecosystem could build around the central code, with companies providing service, support, and customization.
Kind of the way Linux works.
I would guess that Microsoft has it's hands in a lot of these implosive deployments.
I do not think that Blizzard has any legal basis for terminating people, and believe that it may be a breach of contract on their part.
I posted this to the WoW forums:
Blizzard:
Review of your ToS and "How to Stay in Game" page do not say anything about Linux. I want to know, specifically, if running World of Warcraft in Linux will get my account banned.
If so, I will stop running it in Linux. I will switch to OS X, completely. However, until such time as I get official notice, I had intended to continue running it on Linux, since my primary gaming system is a Linux system.
Could we please get some clarity and/or verification on this?
Here are the relevant portions of the ToS and "How to Stay in Game":
"How to Stay in Game" World of Warcraft is a persistent online role-playing world where the actions of each player can have a far-reaching effect on numerous other players, whether directly or indirectly. The game is designed to be run by itself, with no supporting software. Any effort to alter or "hack" World of Warcraft will not be tolerated. Any software which allows a player to circumvent the intended use of the game is not permitted.
CONSEQUENCES:
Any evidence uncovered by Support investigations that the account has been involved in the exploitation of World of Warcraft by running software at the same time as World of Warcraft that enables any of the following behavior may result in immediate account closure, whether or not any of the software's features are actually used on, with, or against the World of Warcraft software:
* Botting (automated gameplay, whether or not a human is present at the computer). * Speed/teleport hacking (character movement speeds greater than those achievable through normal in-game means, including teleportation that is not the direct and unmodified result of an in-game spell, ability or effect). * Data mining (gathering of information that is not normally available through the in-game user and/or scripting interfaces). * Software hacking (manipulating the World of Warcraft client and/or server software or the communication between them in any way).
ToS
Nonetheless, certain acts go beyond what is "fair" and are considered serious violations of these Terms of Use. Those acts include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:
(i) Using or exploiting errors in design, features which have not been documented, and/or "program bugs" to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players.
(ii) Connecting, or creating tools that allow you to connect, to World of Warcraft's proprietary interface or interfaces, other than those explicitly provided by Blizzard Entertainment for your use.
(iii) Using tools that hack or otherwise alter the World of Warcraft client or server software.
(iv) Using software products that "packet sniff" or provide scripting and/or macroing to obtain information from World of Warcraft.
(v) Anything that Blizzard Entertainment considers contrary to the "essence" of World of Warcraft.
WHEN RUNNING, THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT CLIENT MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER'S RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) AND/OR CPU PROCESSES FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY WITH WORLD OF WARCRAFT. AN "UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM" AS USED HEREIN SHALL BE DEFINED AS ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY "ADDON" OR "MOD," THAT IN BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT'S SOLE DETERMINATION: (i) ENABLES OR FACILITATES CHEATING OF ANY TYPE; (ii) ALLOWS USERS TO MODIFY OR HACK THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT INTERFACE, ENVIRONMENT, AND/OR EXPERIENCE IN ANY WAY NOT EXPRESSLY AUTHORIZED BY BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT; OR (iii) INTERCEPTS, "MINES," OR OTHERWISE COLLECTS INFORMATION FROM OR THROUGH WORLD OF WARCRAFT. IN THE EVENT THAT WORLD OF WARCRAFT DETECTS AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM, BLIZZARD MAY (a) COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BACK TO BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR ACCOUNT NAME,
I'm not sure what they are playing at, but there is little to no reason not to just take the deal, run with the money, and then not bother heavily integrating MS technologies into your technology.
There's nothing wrong with making your SMB support in Samba better. You may run into long-term issues w/embrace & extend if you use SMB for everything, though, and make SMB your primary file sharing/printing networking support.
It's almost as if MS is offering the same sort of deal that IBM had with MS back with OS/2, except that MS wants to take the roll of IBM.
GPL code is safe. This is not a patent licensing agreement. These agreements do not admit liability to patent infringement lawsuits. The only thing is that Linux distributors should take the money with a grain of salt.
Once you know *what* the trap is, you can potentially use it to your advantage. $300+ Million is no small sum for any company.
Imagine Java not as a plugin, but as part of your browser.
Better; part of your browser that _cannot_ be integrated into non-GPL browsers. They still have to run it as a plugin.
This has mind-boggling implications in terms of patents that apply only to browser plugins (ahem---Eolas).
I've always wished for a Firefox with Java + Flash integrated (does that even make sense?). I don't feel that plugins give as good of an experience as native browser controls.
I bought (and returned) a T-mobile Samsung T809 because it cannot run Google Local for Mobile, or any other unsigned java app. I've had T-mobile for years, I'm a T-mobile "Platinum" customer (meaning that the CS people are really nice to me), and they've unlocked many phones for me.
T-mobile will not admit that they ordered T809s that require signed apps, and Samsung says the problem is squarely on T-mobile's end.
The bitrates you specify do not come close to the bitrates currently being acheived via modern video compression (H.264). AT&T's Project Lightspeed is a drop-in cable replacement service, and is currently operating IPTV over Fiber-To-The-Node, with VDSL providing the last leg, at a total of 25 Mbit/sec per residence.
The quality is supposedly pretty good; though I doubt it is as good as a conventional cable provider.
And the "QXGA" I wrote there is simply a typo. If you notice, in the same paragraph I use the word QVGA. Either way, QXGA is a vastly greater resolution than QVGA. Here's a handy chart for you.
I'm starting to think you are a troll, and I guess I shouldn't be feeding you. There are no online, commercial music providers which ship 384 kbit/s MP3s; and I'm 100% certain that a 128 kbit/sec AAC would satisify 99.5% of the population. I've never heard of anyone encoding anything at 500 kbit/sec ; either switch to a better lossy codec, or switch to a lossless codec. It's pretty much indisputable that 192 kbit/sec AAC is "good enough"; that's iTunes's highest quality bitrate, and Apple does plenty of business through iTunes.
In today's world, it is simply factually true that major companies are currently distribution HiDef Video, way beyond anything you would want on a mobile device, and at a higher resolution that XGA, in 6 Mbit/sec including audio. QVGA at a very high level of quality does not require more than 500-800 kbit/sec; and that's simply fact.
There's a more indepth discussion here, but let it suffice to say that your compression projections are way off. With MPEG-2, think 40:1 to 60:1 compression. With MPEG-4 (or better yet, h.264) think 80:1 to 130:1 .
It's safe to say that your estimates are way off. Do some research, and do automatically assume I don't know what I'm talking about. I do a fair amount of video compression for my job, so I know that this stuff is for real.
Also, as a follow up to my previous content, you do not need to match your display's resolution bit-for-bit. When was the last time you watched "native resolution" footage on your PC? 3D rendered content via your graphics card does not count;-)
Your estimates of bandwidth are way, way, way, way, way off.
Don't forget compression.
AT&T is delivering 3 SD TV streams, and 1 1080p HDTV stream, over a 19 Mbps connection. With a modern codec you can do full screen XGA video (less bandwidth than 720p) in 6 Mbit/s. Apple does 720p Quicktime Trailers at 6 Mbit/s.
For comparison's sake, they do 1080p trailers at 9 Mbit/s, and 480p at under 2 Mbit/s.
Similarly 500 Kbps is WAY over kill. Most people say that stereo MP3's compressed at 384 Kbps are indistinguishable from "uncompressed", and modern formats can get significantly below that (I'd happily take WMA, AAC, or Ogg at 128 Kbps, maybe 192 Kbps for multichannel).
Realistically, for high-quality video on QXGA using H.264, you need ~300-700 Kbit/s. Add in a 96 Kbps stereo AAC track, and your solidly under the 1 Mbit/s barrier with decent quality video. And this isn't a pipe dream; a simple google search reveals dozens of integrated handheld chipsets capable of QVGA H.264 decoding at low power usages.
Because the current Iraqi government, installed via what may have been a democratic vote, is less sovereign than the previous Iraqi government, installed via the "Might makes Right" principle.
And I suggest you review the conduct of the previous judge. His actions were, to say the least, a little bit strange. And that's just from reading translations of the public court documents.
I've done the _exact_ same thing. Existing people are grandfathered in, but from (2 years ago) on wards; if you want computer support from me, you buy a Mac, or install Linux.
Period.
I do not fix IE problems anymore. I do not deal with spyware. I do not do reinstalls. I can potentially be persuaded to do data recovery, but then I'll get the data you want, and put it on a CD or DVD. No Windows reinstall.
The issue with Linux is that there just isn't a good, up-to-date hardware database.
Distributors should try really hard to build an online, wiki-style database of ALL the hardware that a given version of their distribution supports. This should not just be by "chipset" (Atheros, ACX100), but rather, should be by actual box packaged versions of the hardware (D-Link so and so version 2, Linksys so and so versions 3-5, Logitech QuickCam Pro, etc. ..).
There's nothing wrong with supporting fewer hardware configurations than Windows. The issue is to be able to support hardware configurations at the same _cost_ (or slightly more) as Windows, with the same availability.
It doesn't matter to me if all the add-in cards at BestBuy support Linux. It _does_ matter to me that I be able to find one that DOES support the distribution I'm running, with the Out-Of-The-Box kernel I'm running.
The same with Desktops. It doesn't matter to me if all the Best Buy boxes support Linux. It does matter to me that I can find a few HPs or whatever they DO.
Most Linux installs are not home users with Frankenstein boxes, and there's no need to target the Frankenstein box. Instead, customers need to be able to locate Linux compatible hardware quickly and easily, and the entire hardware support problem goes away.
IMHO, supported hardware on Linux is vastly easier to install than on Windows. Modern distributions automagically load kernel modules on demand, and driver updates are pushed via automatic update. The problem comes when you have to figure out the chipset in the box you got at BestBuy, download a custom kernel module, compile into the kernel, and then disable binary kernel updates.
Technically, Linux is already there when it comes to hardware support. You cannot expect the kernel people to produce drivers for every chip out there under the sun. However; it's not enough to tell people that Atheros chipsets will work. You need to be able to directly identify which products on the shelf contain those chipsets. This is mainly an economic/marketing problem.
If you read Novell's page on the subject, they indicate that the balance of payments will be going Microsoft -> Novell, because Microsoft has more customers, and hence, needs more patent licensing.
They can't really lie about it either, because they are a public company.
Slashdot Mirror
Hear Hear!
I fit into the category of, "Too difficult to read, so I won't bother."
Your message is lost on me.
There's no such thing as centrifugal force, for one. It's an illusion, at best; a strange contortion of the linear acceleration associated with circular motion.
;-), however, when it comes to vast disturbance in space-time (such as black holes represent), you're better off throwing out all concepts of speed, time, and size.
Furthermore, there's no event horizon "shrinkage" due to the hole spinning. You get a "smaller" event horizon (in comparison to a non-spinning black hole) as a result of frame dragging, but shrinkage would require the hole to speed up.
Black holes _do_ shrink. They do, in fact, evaporate over time, as a result of imaginary particles. This is termed Hawking Radiation. Furthermore, it's now believed that information does indeed escape the event horizon.
This physics is way over my head
Sorry about the bank reference, I didn't even realize that wasn't a US bank.
Browsing around a bit more, I find that the average CD rate is ~5.5%, which is nothing special. I don't really use a lot of "conservative bank instruments", but I'm still guessing that he'll make slightly more by taking out an auto loan & purchasing a CD.
I was mainly thinking in terms of superconservative person. Like, someone who buys a Toyota or Honda cash, and then buys a new one (cash) when the warranty runs out (sounds like what the GP poster was talking about).
As to 0% APR, AFAIK, Toyota, Honda and Ford are not offering these as a contrast to cash back; that's something that GM was/is famous for, but it isn't what these three or doing.
In terms of actually saving money, your far better off buying a used car. My Lexus is used, I bought it when it was 2 years old.
In terms of actually investing money, your far better off with certain types of real estate, but the barriers to entry are high. When I say certain kinds, I generally mean rental properties that you can maintain with low overhead. I put every dime I make into my set of buildings, 3 or 4 flats throughout Chicago. I try to buy buildings that require a significant amount of cosmetic work with little to no serious structural issues, and then do 80-90% of the work myself.
The virtue of rental housing is that rental rates are inversly proportional to interest rates. I can refinance down if the interest rates drop, and I can charge higher rates when the interest rates rise. Life is good on both ends of the spectrum.
Beyond that, with a modest real estate market, you can make a ton of money. Given that anyone with decent income, low debt, and good credit can get a good rate with 20%, you get a 5:1 margin rate.
Even if the market is appreciating at a low 5%, the 5:1 margin rate means you're turning 25% APR on your downpayment, and if you're lucky, you'll be making a small payment monthly on rental income.
It's a lot of work, but its worth it.
Just my 2 cents. Again, sorry about the CD advise; this is not stuff I'm familar with, and you really should't be taking investment advice from Slashdot. More likely you should use Slashdot posts like this one to evaluate your options.
There's a lot of PS3 hate here, and I don't understand why.
;-).
Imagine I started to market a set-top PC:
1. Near silent.
2. Very sleak and svelt looking.
3. Bluetooth/USB/Wifi/SD/Memory stick support.
3. HDMI output, 1080p included.
4. Fully supported PPC Linux, out-of-box; no messy kernel hacking!
5. Blu-Ray support.
Surely, such a thing would be an absolute bargain at $600. $600 is near the price for some barebone mini-itx systems, and the PS3 is vastly cooler looking (I mean, really, the case is nice!)
As a side benefit, it apparently runs some games
Not even looking at the launch title, but with the vague understand that at some point I'll be able to play a Final Fantasy, and maybe a metal gear solid, this seems like an incredible value to me.
I just bought an 62" HDTV at a CompUSA that was going out of business for $1400. I've been very seriously thinking about a MythTV box to hook up to it, but I'll never be able to afford the box I want (HD playback, either HDDVD or blu-ray, wireless support, and a nice, near-silent form factor); and here comes along Sony, building something _superior_ to the box I would have designed, at literally less than 1/2 the price.
Now, I'll be a little whiny that there isn't OpenGL support in Linux, yet; but I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony & YellowDog work out some sort of deal.
For me, this slaughters the Xbox 360 & Wii. I don't know about you all, but I thought this was a site for nerds. Any of you out there running MythTV should be salivating. Any of you out there playing with XBMC should be salivating. This is hack-free, no modchip required, media center in a box with a blu-ray drive and Linux.
What more could you possibly have asked for from Sony, other than greater launch day availability?
Seriously; stop bitching about the price, and sit down and work out how much it would cost you for a MythTV box that even came close to this puppy. Dollars to donuts it would either be more expensive or far uglier, and this doesn't even require you to look at the value-add of the PS3/PS2/PS1 games.
Edit: Less than sign ate my post. Here's a repost:
*shrug*
Car Loan Interest Savings at 2-3% APR (is less than) Potential Investment Return at 6-7% APR, which is a fairly easy to get return
Having Extra Junk Installed != Function of purchasing a Car in cash
To be honest, I look at people who purchase things like cars & homes 100% cash as people who have no idea how money works.
There's nothing worse that you could do then lock up all of your moola into depreciating assets. These days, saving for retirment does NOT mean stashing a ton of cash into a checking account. That'll never get you anywhere, unless you're a drug dealer, or are high income with low expenses.
Any time you could potentially buy something on credit, you should consider the relative advantage of taking the money you would have spent, cash, and investing it on some sort of safe financial instrument. This bank is selling 5 year CDs at 8.50%, with a $25,000 payment.
Is your friend going to end up paying over an 8.50% APR? He shouldn't, not with reputable companies like Honda & Ford offering 0-2% financing.
Buying all of your assets "cash" is nothing to be proud of; frankly, it is only one step less irresponsible than using credit recklessly. Once you total up all the money you would have made (saved) by utilizing safe banking/investing, you'll be shocked.
*shrug*
Car Loan Interest Savings at 2-3% APR This bank is selling 5 year CDs at 8.50%, with a $25,000 payment.
Is your friend going to end up paying over an 8.50% APR? He shouldn't, not with reputable companies like Honda & Ford offering 0-2% financing.
Buying all of your assets "cash" is nothing to be proud of; frankly, it is only one step less irresponsible than using credit recklessly. Once you total up all the money you would have made (saved) by utilizing safe banking/investing, you'll be shocked.
I'm switching my company off SuSE, starting today.
I was a big fan of Novell. When they first released the announcement of their (MSNovell) deal, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I was willing to ignore the the various cries from the open source community, because I was willing to trust Novell, and willing to trust SuSE.
No more.
Screw you. I will not support any company that makes a deal with MS like this, and tries to lock down Linux like this. I will not pay an innovation tax. I do not want my dollars spent on boxed copies of SuSE going to a deal with MS. I do not want a support contract from an MS-related company.
We don't run Windows in this office. Period. Now, we're not going to run Windows, and we're not going to use Novell products.
The IT industry is literally littered with these failures. You can find the relics of these monuments to failure all over the place.
$4 BILLION spent on establishing an open source foundation to manage these sorts of (slightly more sophisticated than average) CRM projects would resolve this problem indefinitely.
But you see, that would defeat the objective of this kind of government to corporate, and corporate to corporate welfare.
The objective is not to suceed. The objective is to spend money.
100,000 users is a lot, but not a vast number by any standards. They aren't exactly breaking new grounds here. Let's read the PR description:
When fully implemented, it is supposed to give more than 100,000 of Kaiser's physicians and employees instant access to the medical records of some 8.6 million patients, along with e-messaging capability, computerized order entry and electronic prescribing. In addition, the system is supposed to integrate appointment scheduling, registration and billing functions and will offer various features to Kaiser members through KP.org.
I would bet dollars to donuts that Google could implemenet such a system that would scale to _millions_ of physicians and _hundreds_ of millions of patients with few to no issues, and still fit well inside a $4 billion price tag.
The problem is that large companies keep wanting to reinvent the wheel, and I have no idea. Someone with 1/2 a brain should leverage the open source community to build this kind of software (after all, there's _tons_ of money to be made in this business, even in the open source realm. Who the heck but a few large companies has the hardware to run _any_ kind of software supporting this kind of infrastructure). Once that is done, an entire ecosystem could build around the central code, with companies providing service, support, and customization.
Kind of the way Linux works.
I would guess that Microsoft has it's hands in a lot of these implosive deployments.
I do not think that Blizzard has any legal basis for terminating people, and believe that it may be a breach of contract on their part.
I posted this to the WoW forums:
Blizzard:
Review of your ToS and "How to Stay in Game" page do not say anything about Linux. I want to know, specifically, if running World of Warcraft in Linux will get my account banned.
If so, I will stop running it in Linux. I will switch to OS X, completely. However, until such time as I get official notice, I had intended to continue running it on Linux, since my primary gaming system is a Linux system.
Could we please get some clarity and/or verification on this?
Here are the relevant portions of the ToS and "How to Stay in Game":
"How to Stay in Game"
World of Warcraft is a persistent online role-playing world where the actions of each player can have a far-reaching effect on numerous other players, whether directly or indirectly. The game is designed to be run by itself, with no supporting software. Any effort to alter or "hack" World of Warcraft will not be tolerated. Any software which allows a player to circumvent the intended use of the game is not permitted.
CONSEQUENCES:
Any evidence uncovered by Support investigations that the account has been involved in the exploitation of World of Warcraft by running software at the same time as World of Warcraft that enables any of the following behavior may result in immediate account closure, whether or not any of the software's features are actually used on, with, or against the World of Warcraft software:
* Botting (automated gameplay, whether or not a human is present at the computer).
* Speed/teleport hacking (character movement speeds greater than those achievable through normal in-game means, including teleportation that is not the direct and unmodified result of an in-game spell, ability or effect).
* Data mining (gathering of information that is not normally available through the in-game user and/or scripting interfaces).
* Software hacking (manipulating the World of Warcraft client and/or server software or the communication between them in any way).
ToS
Nonetheless, certain acts go beyond what is "fair" and are considered serious violations of these Terms of Use. Those acts include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:
(i) Using or exploiting errors in design, features which have not been documented, and/or "program bugs" to gain access that is otherwise not available, or to obtain a competitive advantage over other players.
(ii) Connecting, or creating tools that allow you to connect, to World of Warcraft's proprietary interface or interfaces, other than those explicitly provided by Blizzard Entertainment for your use.
(iii) Using tools that hack or otherwise alter the World of Warcraft client or server software.
(iv) Using software products that "packet sniff" or provide scripting and/or macroing to obtain information from World of Warcraft.
(v) Anything that Blizzard Entertainment considers contrary to the "essence" of World of Warcraft.
WHEN RUNNING, THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT CLIENT MAY MONITOR YOUR COMPUTER'S RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM) AND/OR CPU PROCESSES FOR UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAMS RUNNING CONCURRENTLY WITH WORLD OF WARCRAFT. AN "UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM" AS USED HEREIN SHALL BE DEFINED AS ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY "ADDON" OR "MOD," THAT IN BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT'S SOLE DETERMINATION: (i) ENABLES OR FACILITATES CHEATING OF ANY TYPE; (ii) ALLOWS USERS TO MODIFY OR HACK THE WORLD OF WARCRAFT INTERFACE, ENVIRONMENT, AND/OR EXPERIENCE IN ANY WAY NOT EXPRESSLY AUTHORIZED BY BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT; OR (iii) INTERCEPTS, "MINES," OR OTHERWISE COLLECTS INFORMATION FROM OR THROUGH WORLD OF WARCRAFT. IN THE EVENT THAT WORLD OF WARCRAFT DETECTS AN UNAUTHORIZED THIRD PARTY PROGRAM, BLIZZARD MAY (a) COMMUNICATE INFORMATION BACK TO BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION YOUR ACCOUNT NAME,
Well, then, you must be okay with Gay porn.
I'm not sure what they are playing at, but there is little to no reason not to just take the deal, run with the money, and then not bother heavily integrating MS technologies into your technology.
There's nothing wrong with making your SMB support in Samba better. You may run into long-term issues w/embrace & extend if you use SMB for everything, though, and make SMB your primary file sharing/printing networking support.
It's almost as if MS is offering the same sort of deal that IBM had with MS back with OS/2, except that MS wants to take the roll of IBM.
GPL code is safe. This is not a patent licensing agreement. These agreements do not admit liability to patent infringement lawsuits. The only thing is that Linux distributors should take the money with a grain of salt.
Once you know *what* the trap is, you can potentially use it to your advantage. $300+ Million is no small sum for any company.
Imagine Java not as a plugin, but as part of your browser.
Better; part of your browser that _cannot_ be integrated into non-GPL browsers. They still have to run it as a plugin.
This has mind-boggling implications in terms of patents that apply only to browser plugins (ahem---Eolas).
I've always wished for a Firefox with Java + Flash integrated (does that even make sense?). I don't feel that plugins give as good of an experience as native browser controls.
This depends on the phone.
I bought (and returned) a T-mobile Samsung T809 because it cannot run Google Local for Mobile, or any other unsigned java app. I've had T-mobile for years, I'm a T-mobile "Platinum" customer (meaning that the CS people are really nice to me), and they've unlocked many phones for me.
T-mobile will not admit that they ordered T809s that require signed apps, and Samsung says the problem is squarely on T-mobile's end.
No, seriously, I don't know why you are arguing.
n e/Zune_walkthrough_QVGA.mov
Please re-read my post.
The bitrates you specify do not come close to the bitrates currently being acheived via modern video compression (H.264). AT&T's Project Lightspeed is a drop-in cable replacement service, and is currently operating IPTV over Fiber-To-The-Node, with VDSL providing the last leg, at a total of 25 Mbit/sec per residence.
The quality is supposedly pretty good; though I doubt it is as good as a conventional cable provider.
And the "QXGA" I wrote there is simply a typo. If you notice, in the same paragraph I use the word QVGA. Either way, QXGA is a vastly greater resolution than QVGA. Here's a handy chart for you.
I'm starting to think you are a troll, and I guess I shouldn't be feeding you. There are no online, commercial music providers which ship 384 kbit/s MP3s; and I'm 100% certain that a 128 kbit/sec AAC would satisify 99.5% of the population. I've never heard of anyone encoding anything at 500 kbit/sec ; either switch to a better lossy codec, or switch to a lossless codec. It's pretty much indisputable that 192 kbit/sec AAC is "good enough"; that's iTunes's highest quality bitrate, and Apple does plenty of business through iTunes.
In today's world, it is simply factually true that major companies are currently distribution HiDef Video, way beyond anything you would want on a mobile device, and at a higher resolution that XGA, in 6 Mbit/sec including audio. QVGA at a very high level of quality does not require more than 500-800 kbit/sec; and that's simply fact.
Endgadget currently encodes it's QVGA podcasts at 300 kbit/sec. Take a look at a sample here: http://weblogs.podcast.aol.com/engadget/videos/Zu
It looks great.
There's a more indepth discussion here, but let it suffice to say that your compression projections are way off. With MPEG-2, think 40:1 to 60:1 compression. With MPEG-4 (or better yet, h.264) think 80:1 to 130:1 .
It's safe to say that your estimates are way off. Do some research, and do automatically assume I don't know what I'm talking about. I do a fair amount of video compression for my job, so I know that this stuff is for real.
AFAIK the GUI can only destructive repartition. You have to use the command line version to nondestructively repartition.
That being said, there are many excellent Linux live cd's that can be used to repartition drives. Take a Look
These will boot just fine on an intel mac, and I'm sure you could piece together a PPC version.
Google is a Linux company.
They build their own, internal linux distribution. They run all their heavy metal on Linux.
They'll never, ever switch to OS X, at least internally.
What does make sense is for them to better support OS X client apps. But at it's core, Google is a Linux company.
Also, as a follow up to my previous content, you do not need to match your display's resolution bit-for-bit. When was the last time you watched "native resolution" footage on your PC? 3D rendered content via your graphics card does not count ;-)
Your estimates of bandwidth are way, way, way, way, way off.
Don't forget compression.
AT&T is delivering 3 SD TV streams, and 1 1080p HDTV stream, over a 19 Mbps connection.
With a modern codec you can do full screen XGA video (less bandwidth than 720p) in 6 Mbit/s. Apple does 720p Quicktime Trailers at 6 Mbit/s.
For comparison's sake, they do 1080p trailers at 9 Mbit/s, and 480p at under 2 Mbit/s.
Similarly 500 Kbps is WAY over kill. Most people say that stereo MP3's compressed at 384 Kbps are indistinguishable from "uncompressed", and modern formats can get significantly below that (I'd happily take WMA, AAC, or Ogg at 128 Kbps, maybe 192 Kbps for multichannel).
Realistically, for high-quality video on QXGA using H.264, you need ~300-700 Kbit/s. Add in a 96 Kbps stereo AAC track, and your solidly under the 1 Mbit/s barrier with decent quality video. And this isn't a pipe dream; a simple google search reveals dozens of integrated handheld chipsets capable of QVGA H.264 decoding at low power usages.
Because the current Iraqi government, installed via what may have been a democratic vote, is less sovereign than the previous Iraqi government, installed via the "Might makes Right" principle.
And I suggest you review the conduct of the previous judge. His actions were, to say the least, a little bit strange. And that's just from reading translations of the public court documents.
Hear Hear!
I've done the _exact_ same thing. Existing people are grandfathered in, but from (2 years ago) on wards; if you want computer support from me, you buy a Mac, or install Linux.
Period.
I do not fix IE problems anymore. I do not deal with spyware. I do not do reinstalls.
I can potentially be persuaded to do data recovery, but then I'll get the data you want, and put it on a CD or DVD. No Windows reinstall.
Ever.
Well,
Ask them if a particular tuna in the sea was "targetted" for eating.
On a more serious note, why not just switch them to Macintoshes?
Much more secure. The only real risk is phishing, and there are some decent browser extensions to help with that (somewhat).
The issue with Linux is that there just isn't a good, up-to-date hardware database.
.).
Distributors should try really hard to build an online, wiki-style database of ALL the hardware that a given version of their distribution supports. This should not just be by "chipset" (Atheros, ACX100), but rather, should be by actual box packaged versions of the hardware (D-Link so and so version 2, Linksys so and so versions 3-5, Logitech QuickCam Pro, etc. .
There's nothing wrong with supporting fewer hardware configurations than Windows. The issue is to be able to support hardware configurations at the same _cost_ (or slightly more) as Windows, with the same availability.
It doesn't matter to me if all the add-in cards at BestBuy support Linux. It _does_ matter to me that I be able to find one that DOES support the distribution I'm running, with the Out-Of-The-Box kernel I'm running.
The same with Desktops. It doesn't matter to me if all the Best Buy boxes support Linux. It does matter to me that I can find a few HPs or whatever they DO.
Most Linux installs are not home users with Frankenstein boxes, and there's no need to target the Frankenstein box. Instead, customers need to be able to locate Linux compatible hardware quickly and easily, and the entire hardware support problem goes away.
IMHO, supported hardware on Linux is vastly easier to install than on Windows. Modern distributions automagically load kernel modules on demand, and driver updates are pushed via automatic update. The problem comes when you have to figure out the chipset in the box you got at BestBuy, download a custom kernel module, compile into the kernel, and then disable binary kernel updates.
Technically, Linux is already there when it comes to hardware support. You cannot expect the kernel people to produce drivers for every chip out there under the sun. However; it's not enough to tell people that Atheros chipsets will work. You need to be able to directly identify which products on the shelf contain those chipsets. This is mainly an economic/marketing problem.
If you read Novell's page on the subject, they indicate that the balance of payments will be going Microsoft -> Novell, because Microsoft has more customers, and hence, needs more patent licensing.
They can't really lie about it either, because they are a public company.
T-mobile USA
Unlimited EDGE data for $19.99 a month.
So the Apple Pro video apps, and the Adobe apps, are all crap?
Pfft.