The competition is coming, but not from clearwire; Sprint's Xohm serivce is going to rock Urban markets.
No contracts, one account per person (unlimited numbers of devices!), and standards-based chipsets than Intel is working in to the next version of Centrino.
Sorry, I forgot to jump up and down. Yay, rah. Three cities, one vendor, one pilot implementation. It's almost as good as beta testing software. Yummy.
And I'll bet it's nationwide, like 1xRTT and ev.do. Nationwide by maybe, Sprint?? Their whole program is in question.
Edge certainly stinks, but at least it's somewhat available, if you can give blood daily, in quarts for it. If and where you can find EV.DO (or even the very rare EV.DOa), it's pricey, also with blood letting, and coverage is at best, mercurial. WiMax could legitimately be a 'broadband replacement' because of its speed, rather than EDGE/UMTS/etc and EV.DOx. But you're going to pay somebody's rates. Face it.
I don't know what experience you have with EVDO, but you're totally off-base.
I've driven cross-country several times recently. Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Savannah, Georgia. Chicago, IL to New York, NY. I'll be travelling to Las Vegas in a few weeks.
In very, very few instances have I seen my EVDO RevA card go into EVDO Rev0 mode. 1xRTT is not uncommon, but on the vast majority of interstates, and nearly every urban area I've been in, EVDO RevA is the norm. I should know; I wouldn't be able to run my Skype phone on 1xRTT.
Beyond that, I pay $49.99 for my unlimited EVDO RevA; which although slightly more expensive on a MBPS rate than Comcast, is pretty comparable given that you can take it everywhere. Wimax pricing from Sprint is rumored to be similar.
And I don't know what beef you have against Sprint. Sprint is soft launching WiMax in 3 cities by THE END OF 2007, and plans to do a nationwide rollout in 12 months. Seems like quite a quick clip, to me. Especially because in the mean time I'm happily surfing on my high-speed EVDO RevA.
Not everyone is stuck in the second-class service you get with AT and given your pessimism, you sound like an AT&T customer.
On a daily basis I find myself travelling between downtown Chicago and rural Wisconsin. EVDO works everywhere, for me. I have every confidence in Sprint's capability to launch Xohm nationwide, and given their solid upgrade to EVDO RevA (they said it would take 1 year, and it is active in 95% of service areas now, 12 months after they announced a nationwide rollout), I expect than their Wimax rollout will proceed without a hitch.
production costs can be trimmed to 2 or 3 good mics, some software and a laptop.
I don't think you can (or should) make it *that* simple, but even accounting for "real" production costs, the cost is not that high.
A few good mics, good sound hardware in a PC/Mac, an (acoustically) excellent room, and a proper monitor system should do it. No more then ten's of thousands of dollars, and something you could squeeze into a few thousand dollars with a great deal of sweat and tear (not to mention knowledge).
Either way, nothing beyond any other sort of small business; and easily within reach of anyone with some dedication.
Here, with either my EVDO Rev0 phone, or EVDO RevA USB card, I get latencies between 50-150 ms. Downloads easily in the 1500 kbps, and uploads in the 1000 kbps range.
In downtown chicago, both go nearer to 600 kbps; but the latency is still excellent, and everything is vastly, vastly better than EDGE.
Latencies over 1000 ms are not uncommon. On EVDO RevA, Latencies under 100 ms are expected. 3G Wins
Battery Drain?
For any given quantity of data, EDGE will take an order of magnitude longer to transfer it. As such, the radio is transmitting/receiving 10x as long. Also, he's assuming some sort of theoretical, 100% efficient (per information theory) protocol is being used on EDGE, which is far from the case. Newer protocols are actually more efficient, not less; there's a reason that ALL new Sprint and Verizon phones are 3G; indeed, there's a reason most new phones worldwide are 3G. Their battery consumption and frequency usage are a good deal better. 3G Wins
Error Prone?
Ever try to use an EDGE data device while travelling over 60 mph? Constant retransmits. Ever try to use an EVDO RevA device over 60 mph? Works just as if it were stationary. 3G Wins
Processor Speed?
Bwaahaaahaa. Beside using a "real" internet device, like connecting your laptop or PDA via bluetooth to a phone, many new Windows Mobile Phones (which I absolutely *hate*) have processors that would put a 4 year old PC to shame. You can get dual-core WM phones now; and Nokia's latest and greatest is nothing to sneer at, either. The main issue here is browser optimization; install Opera on your WM phone, and you'll have snappy browsing. The built-in browsers on the firmwire tend to suck, which is a software problem, not a hardware, or frequency problem. 3G Wins
Not matter what, however, I'm certain that the author has not used a modern 3G network. You cannot compare the latencies of EDGE and 3G; 3G is fantastically better; at least an order of magnitude, and in many cases two orders of magnitude. You cannot compare 3G versus EDGE when you are travelling; and you cannot compare the error rates.
I'm not saying the iPhone isn't a wonderful device, but an EDGE network? It *sucks*. I've had to work over an EDGE network doing interactive tasks, and it made my life miserable. Upgrading to EVDO RevA was a blessing; I can run Skype over it! And combined with a decently powered WM5/6 device (Motorola Q), I've had a vastly better experience, even admitting that the phone's UI sucks terribly compared to an iPhone.
I spent the weekend camping with a friend of mine who has an iPhone. And it knocked the socks off my phone in terms of UI. But I was streaming video, downloading large files, and had snappy access to websites; not to mention VOIP.
RPM. Most users can download an RPM, double click on it, and it'll get installed properly.
I'm 99% sure that Ubuntu or Debian people can do similar things with DEBs. Of course, the downside with the package approach is you have to have one package per distro (take a look at Skype; skype isn't in any linux repositories, but it supplies 4-5 RPMs and a binary tarball).
If you prefer something that is more like a Windows installer, use autopackage. Autopackages are distro neutral. Here's the quote from their website: # What is autopackage? For users: it makes software installation on Linux easier. If a project provides an autopackage, you know it can work on your distribution. You know it'll integrate nicely with your desktop and you know it'll be up to date, because it's provided by the software developers themselves. You don't have to choose which distro you run based on how many packages are available. For developers: it's software that lets you create binary packages for Linux that will install on any distribution, can automatically resolve dependencies and can be installed using multiple front ends, for instance from the command line or from a graphical interface. It lets you get your software to your users quicker, easier and more reliably. It immediately increases your user base by allowing people with no native package to run your software within seconds.
As you can see from the screenshots, autopackage is pretty dead-easy for end users.
There are also next-generation packaging utilities that are overtaking Windows MSI-type things, including openSuSE's one-click-install, and KDE's klik://, but neither of these has taken hold with enough Linux distros yet (you have to be using SuSE 10.3, or install a package on older SuSEs, and klik:// requires a kio-slave).
Fiber is being rolled out in the US, but only for markets not serviced by AT&T. The problem with broadband in the U.S. is essentially focused on the sluggish, craptacular behemoth that is AT&T.
I don't know about that POTS system being cheap, either; in areas without proper internet connectivity (much of Michigan) POTS + Unlimited long distance runs about ~$90 a month, which is crazy.
The thinking is that you'll have more companies emerge than the good-old teleco monopoloy.
These other companies, after having demonstrated some success & savvy, will be able to raise money to do their own network rollouts after having bootstrapped on leased lines. In turn, once they build their own networks, they'll also be required to lease their lines, however, they'll be able to lease other companies' lines to fill the holes in their network.
By and large, it seems to have worked; in most European countries you have a good deal of choice when it comes to telecom, and there is a lot of infrastructure being upgraded.
Here, the cable operators and Verizon seem to have finally gotten their acts together, however, AT&T is still tooting its "6 Mbps is enough for anybody!" line.
The _sole_ problem with US internet connectivity is AT&T. Eliminate those bastards, tar and feather them, and things will improve. The entire communications industry in the U.S. has been a government financed monopoly for SO long that there is literally no way for a competitive market to sponataneously appear. As an ardent capitalist, I recognize that the market is so distorted that severe/harsh regulation is required to beat AT&T into line, with a goal of freeing the marketing 20 or so years from now.
I'm using it, and yes, its fixed. It's cached, and at each package manager startup it checks the cache versus the online version, and even if it needs update the cache update is an order of magnitude faster than a normal startup of the package manager used to be.
It's quite useable now; time from clicking "software manager" to a usable interface is similar to using SMART.
Speed seems to be one of the primary focuses of this release; from the package manager to the boot sequence.
...how far off are you from purchasing the gear necessary to run superconducting cables?
It seems to me that at these stratospheric prices, your better off using something with absolutely 0 resistance; and as a side bonus you can run it as far as you like!
Seriously though; were does the madness stop, and who the *hell* buys this stuff? We work with a speciality provider of cables for aerospace products, and nothing they sell reaches into these ranges; even with the markup aviation and the military normally expects!
I'm speccing out a machine for a friend. He doesn't want to do any upgrades (scared of computers), and doesn't want to spend more than $1500. He's eligible for an Apple education discount.
Can you find a machine compentant at gaming for the same price as the $1399.99 iMac? (this it the $1499.99 model, with educational pricing).
It's got a Radeon HD2600 Pro as default, so I won't accept anything less than that. I know that's not a great video card, but its a heck of a lot better (2x as fast) as a Geforce 8500, and that's the best I can find at any of the other large PC companies in that price range.
Here's my thinking. Each X0 level should be treated as if it were a "cap" level. You should have a toggle on/off, and even prevent yourself from leveling at that level (i.e. you can lock yourself in at min exp at 30,40,50,60).
Then, we need heroic versions of the old instances, and raid encounters, as well. Reconfigure the battle grounds so that the X0 level are the "twink" caps, and then you'd have a totally different game.
Someone could decide they just want to live in the level 30 band, and just use level 30 gear, but go for the epic level 30 gear dropped by the heroic version of RFK, or the 25-man raid boss found in STV.
You could further this idea by eliminating the level checks made for melee and spell casting; level 70 players would have more stats, more hp, and better gear than level 30, but would not be made invincible by virtue of level alone (level 30 mages can't touch level 70 players).
This would make the low-end of the game much more meaningful.
The largest orion designs were for space craft upwards of a million tons. That we change our very notion of space exploration, and we could have done it with 1960s technology.
After I learned about the life and death of Project Orion, I came to the conclusion that we (the US) should give up on manned space exploration.
Without cheaper, easier propulsion, and without the ability to get larger loads into space, there's really no point in it. We can keep playing with satellites and the like, but we'll never gain any economic benefits out of going to the Moon, Mars, or anywhere else. The extra weight needed to transport humans is really unnecessary.
Mankind needs to get over its fear of nuclear power. A hybrid fusion/fission Orion design would not release significant amounts of fallout into the atmosphere (especially compared to all the nuclear explosive testing done in the 50s), and who knows; perhaps after we lifted a few hundred thousand tons of equipment into orbit (and perhaps to the moon) we'll be able to build most of what we need in space, where fallout doesn't matter.
Without significant advances in propulsion technology, or a resurrection of Project Orion, there's no point to manned space exploration. We should redirect these billions to propulsion technology, or just take it out of the doomed space program altogether.
Legally, the government has recognized the consumer's right to unlock a cellphone. The FCC is big on phone portability and number portability.
Yes, so far the it's only been recognized in regards to a DMCA exemption, but I have a feeling both the government and the courts would look well upon consumers who unlock iPhones.
Getting the industry to create a logo for Windows apps that are compatable under a WINE or other emu system would be great.
Get a hint. Let me fix it.
Getting the industry to create Linux, Mac and Windows applications would be great.
Fixed it for you. Getting rid of the need for WINE is the goal. WINE is a patch for applications not yet ported. Native apps don't have to be spoon fed serial ports, USB ports, cut and paste, etc.
There's a half-way point similar to what Winelib was, and what Transgaming's Cider is.
As long as Wine (or a fork of Wine) targets only a specific set of APIs, it should be possible to both perfect it, and to make it look more "native", and interoperate with the Linux desktops (KDE/GNOME) better. Once that becomes the case, and assuming this Wine-lib-ish API is still 100% Windows compatible, developers can start to target it, rather than target Windows OR KDE OR Gnome.
Instead, target Winething 2.5 (or above) and Windows XP (or above), and your app will run anywhere you have a Windows XP or Winething 2.5 (or above) install.
Right now, Wine is such a hard problem because it is pure reverse engineering. If developers were willing to target a wine-like framework, it would be a _much_ easier problem to make Wine (or at least the Winething framework), and it would be much easier to make cross platform apps, particular for shops that are accustomed to Win32.
The nice thing is that you could get this API to compile most anywhere; Wine already runs on Linux, OS X, and BSDs.
Wine is a great project, but I agree with you; you'll never be able to keep up with Microsoft. The key is getting developers to target a stable Wine, rather than targeting Windows. Target Wine, and your app will run just fine on Windows, and it'll run just fine everywhere else, too.
It's not the install that's the problem, its that installing Linux means you no longer get Vendor support.
No drivers, no fix-it, no diagnosis of hardware problems. Just an, "You installed Linux? You just lost your warranty!"
Until that factor goes away (as illusory as it may be), Linux will not take over the desktop market. Frankly, I think the only way to solve this issue is by encouraging more vendors to OEM install Linux.
I plan on making my next system a Dell Ubuntu system. So should you, if you want to see Linux grow.
Slashdot Mirror
The competition is coming, but not from clearwire; Sprint's Xohm serivce is going to rock Urban markets.
No contracts, one account per person (unlimited numbers of devices!), and standards-based chipsets than Intel is working in to the next version of Centrino.
Sorry, I forgot to jump up and down. Yay, rah. Three cities, one vendor, one pilot implementation. It's almost as good as beta testing software. Yummy.
And I'll bet it's nationwide, like 1xRTT and ev.do. Nationwide by maybe, Sprint?? Their whole program is in question.
Edge certainly stinks, but at least it's somewhat available, if you can give blood daily, in quarts for it. If and where you can find EV.DO (or even the very rare EV.DOa), it's pricey, also with blood letting, and coverage is at best, mercurial. WiMax could legitimately be a 'broadband replacement' because of its speed, rather than EDGE/UMTS/etc and EV.DOx. But you're going to pay somebody's rates. Face it.
I don't know what experience you have with EVDO, but you're totally off-base.
I've driven cross-country several times recently. Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Savannah, Georgia. Chicago, IL to New York, NY. I'll be travelling to Las Vegas in a few weeks.
In very, very few instances have I seen my EVDO RevA card go into EVDO Rev0 mode. 1xRTT is not uncommon, but on the vast majority of interstates, and nearly every urban area I've been in, EVDO RevA is the norm. I should know; I wouldn't be able to run my Skype phone on 1xRTT.
Beyond that, I pay $49.99 for my unlimited EVDO RevA; which although slightly more expensive on a MBPS rate than Comcast, is pretty comparable given that you can take it everywhere. Wimax pricing from Sprint is rumored to be similar.
And I don't know what beef you have against Sprint. Sprint is soft launching WiMax in 3 cities by THE END OF 2007, and plans to do a nationwide rollout in 12 months. Seems like quite a quick clip, to me. Especially because in the mean time I'm happily surfing on my high-speed EVDO RevA.
Not everyone is stuck in the second-class service you get with AT and given your pessimism, you sound like an AT&T customer.
On a daily basis I find myself travelling between downtown Chicago and rural Wisconsin. EVDO works everywhere, for me. I have every confidence in Sprint's capability to launch Xohm nationwide, and given their solid upgrade to EVDO RevA (they said it would take 1 year, and it is active in 95% of service areas now, 12 months after they announced a nationwide rollout), I expect than their Wimax rollout will proceed without a hitch.
production costs can be trimmed to 2 or 3 good mics, some software and a laptop.
I don't think you can (or should) make it *that* simple, but even accounting for "real" production costs, the cost is not that high.
A few good mics, good sound hardware in a PC/Mac, an (acoustically) excellent room, and a proper monitor system should do it. No more then ten's of thousands of dollars, and something you could squeeze into a few thousand dollars with a great deal of sweat and tear (not to mention knowledge).
Either way, nothing beyond any other sort of small business; and easily within reach of anyone with some dedication.
I think you may even be underselling 3G.
Here, with either my EVDO Rev0 phone, or EVDO RevA USB card, I get latencies between 50-150 ms. Downloads easily in the 1500 kbps, and uploads in the 1000 kbps range.
In downtown chicago, both go nearer to 600 kbps; but the latency is still excellent, and everything is vastly, vastly better than EDGE.
Correction.
EDGE doesn't have low latency. EDGE is a high latency protocol. EDGE typically has latencies over 1000 ms when the connection is loaded.
There is no way in which 3G is inferior to EDGE. This is someone's attempt at implementing the proprietary Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field.
3G > EDGE, for everything (Voice, Data, Streaming, Interactive, Non-interactive, Downloads, Porn, Whatever).
Not an iPhone, but Redhat.com takes 8 seconds to load on my 3G EVDO Motorola Q, as long as I'm using the Opera browser.
That's definitely not cached, as I've never visited Redhat.com, and I'm using the "Desktop" view, so all images are being loaded.
Latency?
Has the author _EVER_ used an EDGE network?
Latencies over 1000 ms are not uncommon. On EVDO RevA, Latencies under 100 ms are expected.
3G Wins
Battery Drain?
For any given quantity of data, EDGE will take an order of magnitude longer to transfer it. As such, the radio is transmitting/receiving 10x as long. Also, he's assuming some sort of theoretical, 100% efficient (per information theory) protocol is being used on EDGE, which is far from the case. Newer protocols are actually more efficient, not less; there's a reason that ALL new Sprint and Verizon phones are 3G; indeed, there's a reason most new phones worldwide are 3G. Their battery consumption and frequency usage are a good deal better.
3G Wins
Error Prone?
Ever try to use an EDGE data device while travelling over 60 mph? Constant retransmits. Ever try to use an EVDO RevA device over 60 mph? Works just as if it were stationary.
3G Wins
Processor Speed?
Bwaahaaahaa. Beside using a "real" internet device, like connecting your laptop or PDA via bluetooth to a phone, many new Windows Mobile Phones (which I absolutely *hate*) have processors that would put a 4 year old PC to shame. You can get dual-core WM phones now; and Nokia's latest and greatest is nothing to sneer at, either. The main issue here is browser optimization; install Opera on your WM phone, and you'll have snappy browsing. The built-in browsers on the firmwire tend to suck, which is a software problem, not a hardware, or frequency problem.
3G Wins
Not matter what, however, I'm certain that the author has not used a modern 3G network. You cannot compare the latencies of EDGE and 3G; 3G is fantastically better; at least an order of magnitude, and in many cases two orders of magnitude. You cannot compare 3G versus EDGE when you are travelling; and you cannot compare the error rates.
I'm not saying the iPhone isn't a wonderful device, but an EDGE network? It *sucks*. I've had to work over an EDGE network doing interactive tasks, and it made my life miserable. Upgrading to EVDO RevA was a blessing; I can run Skype over it! And combined with a decently powered WM5/6 device (Motorola Q), I've had a vastly better experience, even admitting that the phone's UI sucks terribly compared to an iPhone.
I spent the weekend camping with a friend of mine who has an iPhone. And it knocked the socks off my phone in terms of UI. But I was streaming video, downloading large files, and had snappy access to websites; not to mention VOIP.
This blog is a troll.
The issue here is mostly software packagers, not Linux, the distribution, or a lack of install tools.
Take a look at my grandchild post to your post here:
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=329001&threshold=1&commentsort=3&mode=nested&cid=20994147
Yes, simple;
RPM. Most users can download an RPM, double click on it, and it'll get installed properly.
I'm 99% sure that Ubuntu or Debian people can do similar things with DEBs. Of course, the downside with the package approach is you have to have one package per distro (take a look at Skype; skype isn't in any linux repositories, but it supplies 4-5 RPMs and a binary tarball).
If you prefer something that is more like a Windows installer, use autopackage. Autopackages are distro neutral. Here's the quote from their website:
# What is autopackage?
For users: it makes software installation on Linux easier. If a project provides an autopackage, you know it can work on your distribution. You know it'll integrate nicely with your desktop and you know it'll be up to date, because it's provided by the software developers themselves. You don't have to choose which distro you run based on how many packages are available.
For developers: it's software that lets you create binary packages for Linux that will install on any distribution, can automatically resolve dependencies and can be installed using multiple front ends, for instance from the command line or from a graphical interface. It lets you get your software to your users quicker, easier and more reliably. It immediately increases your user base by allowing people with no native package to run your software within seconds.
As you can see from the screenshots, autopackage is pretty dead-easy for end users.
There are also next-generation packaging utilities that are overtaking Windows MSI-type things, including openSuSE's one-click-install, and KDE's klik://, but neither of these has taken hold with enough Linux distros yet (you have to be using SuSE 10.3, or install a package on older SuSEs, and klik:// requires a kio-slave).
*shrug*
Fiber is being rolled out in the US, but only for markets not serviced by AT&T. The problem with broadband in the U.S. is essentially focused on the sluggish, craptacular behemoth that is AT&T.
I don't know about that POTS system being cheap, either; in areas without proper internet connectivity (much of Michigan) POTS + Unlimited long distance runs about ~$90 a month, which is crazy.
The thinking is that you'll have more companies emerge than the good-old teleco monopoloy.
These other companies, after having demonstrated some success & savvy, will be able to raise money to do their own network rollouts after having bootstrapped on leased lines. In turn, once they build their own networks, they'll also be required to lease their lines, however, they'll be able to lease other companies' lines to fill the holes in their network.
By and large, it seems to have worked; in most European countries you have a good deal of choice when it comes to telecom, and there is a lot of infrastructure being upgraded.
Here, the cable operators and Verizon seem to have finally gotten their acts together, however, AT&T is still tooting its "6 Mbps is enough for anybody!" line.
The _sole_ problem with US internet connectivity is AT&T. Eliminate those bastards, tar and feather them, and things will improve. The entire communications industry in the U.S. has been a government financed monopoly for SO long that there is literally no way for a competitive market to sponataneously appear. As an ardent capitalist, I recognize that the market is so distorted that severe/harsh regulation is required to beat AT&T into line, with a goal of freeing the marketing 20 or so years from now.
IIRC, libzypp wasn't an option in the original DVDs, so a bunch of people who upgraded right at the beginning of its (10.2's) release got burned.
It was resolved in a month or so, but at release you couldn't choose not to install ZMD without breaking the install completely.
The standard 10.2 install included zmd and mono, for sure.
Libzypp has since replaced zmd, and I think they made it the default in one of the 10.2 updates, and then updated the disk images.
But I'm 100% sure that the standard backend at 10.2 release was ZMD.
That hasn't been my experience, and I install quite a few packages via rpm command line.
YaST was borked for 10.1 and 10.2. It made sense to try and use an alternative package manager.
As 10.2 matured, YaST started to work properly, but was slow.
In 10.3, YaST is quite speedy, very capable, and runs very solidly. Plus, the one-click-install thing works really well.
32-bit java on 64-bit firefox on 64-bit suse works just fine.
nsplugin has grown in leaps and bounds.
I'm using it, and yes, its fixed. It's cached, and at each package manager startup it checks the cache versus the online version, and even if it needs update the cache update is an order of magnitude faster than a normal startup of the package manager used to be.
It's quite useable now; time from clicking "software manager" to a usable interface is similar to using SMART.
Speed seems to be one of the primary focuses of this release; from the package manager to the boot sequence.
...how far off are you from purchasing the gear necessary to run superconducting cables?
It seems to me that at these stratospheric prices, your better off using something with absolutely 0 resistance; and as a side bonus you can run it as far as you like!
Seriously though; were does the madness stop, and who the *hell* buys this stuff? We work with a speciality provider of cables for aerospace products, and nothing they sell reaches into these ranges; even with the markup aviation and the military normally expects!
Good grief.
I'm speccing out a machine for a friend. He doesn't want to do any upgrades (scared of computers), and doesn't want to spend more than $1500. He's eligible for an Apple education discount.
Can you find a machine compentant at gaming for the same price as the $1399.99 iMac? (this it the $1499.99 model, with educational pricing).
It's got a Radeon HD2600 Pro as default, so I won't accept anything less than that. I know that's not a great video card, but its a heck of a lot better (2x as fast) as a Geforce 8500, and that's the best I can find at any of the other large PC companies in that price range.
Exactly!
Here's my thinking. Each X0 level should be treated as if it were a "cap" level. You should have a toggle on/off, and even prevent yourself from leveling at that level (i.e. you can lock yourself in at min exp at 30,40,50,60).
Then, we need heroic versions of the old instances, and raid encounters, as well. Reconfigure the battle grounds so that the X0 level are the "twink" caps, and then you'd have a totally different game.
Someone could decide they just want to live in the level 30 band, and just use level 30 gear, but go for the epic level 30 gear dropped by the heroic version of RFK, or the 25-man raid boss found in STV.
You could further this idea by eliminating the level checks made for melee and spell casting; level 70 players would have more stats, more hp, and better gear than level 30, but would not be made invincible by virtue of level alone (level 30 mages can't touch level 70 players).
This would make the low-end of the game much more meaningful.
It used to only be 6 months after the release of the commercial distro. This changed with 10.0, IIRC.
I meant "tens of millions of tons".
The largest orion designs were for space craft upwards of a million tons. That we change our very notion of space exploration, and we could have done it with 1960s technology.
After I learned about the life and death of Project Orion, I came to the conclusion that we (the US) should give up on manned space exploration.
Without cheaper, easier propulsion, and without the ability to get larger loads into space, there's really no point in it. We can keep playing with satellites and the like, but we'll never gain any economic benefits out of going to the Moon, Mars, or anywhere else. The extra weight needed to transport humans is really unnecessary.
Mankind needs to get over its fear of nuclear power. A hybrid fusion/fission Orion design would not release significant amounts of fallout into the atmosphere (especially compared to all the nuclear explosive testing done in the 50s), and who knows; perhaps after we lifted a few hundred thousand tons of equipment into orbit (and perhaps to the moon) we'll be able to build most of what we need in space, where fallout doesn't matter.
Without significant advances in propulsion technology, or a resurrection of Project Orion, there's no point to manned space exploration. We should redirect these billions to propulsion technology, or just take it out of the doomed space program altogether.
*shrug*
Legally, the government has recognized the consumer's right to unlock a cellphone. The FCC is big on phone portability and number portability.
Yes, so far the it's only been recognized in regards to a DMCA exemption, but I have a feeling both the government and the courts would look well upon consumers who unlock iPhones.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061124-8280.html
Getting the industry to create a logo for Windows apps that are compatable under a WINE or other emu system would be great.
Get a hint. Let me fix it.
Getting the industry to create Linux, Mac and Windows applications would be great.
Fixed it for you. Getting rid of the need for WINE is the goal. WINE is a patch for applications not yet ported. Native apps don't have to be spoon fed serial ports, USB ports, cut and paste, etc.
There's a half-way point similar to what Winelib was, and what Transgaming's Cider is.
As long as Wine (or a fork of Wine) targets only a specific set of APIs, it should be possible to both perfect it, and to make it look more "native", and interoperate with the Linux desktops (KDE/GNOME) better. Once that becomes the case, and assuming this Wine-lib-ish API is still 100% Windows compatible, developers can start to target it, rather than target Windows OR KDE OR Gnome.
Instead, target Winething 2.5 (or above) and Windows XP (or above), and your app will run anywhere you have a Windows XP or Winething 2.5 (or above) install.
Right now, Wine is such a hard problem because it is pure reverse engineering. If developers were willing to target a wine-like framework, it would be a _much_ easier problem to make Wine (or at least the Winething framework), and it would be much easier to make cross platform apps, particular for shops that are accustomed to Win32.
The nice thing is that you could get this API to compile most anywhere; Wine already runs on Linux, OS X, and BSDs.
Wine is a great project, but I agree with you; you'll never be able to keep up with Microsoft. The key is getting developers to target a stable Wine, rather than targeting Windows. Target Wine, and your app will run just fine on Windows, and it'll run just fine everywhere else, too.
For the most part, the install issue is goofy.
It's not the install that's the problem, its that installing Linux means you no longer get Vendor support.
No drivers, no fix-it, no diagnosis of hardware problems. Just an, "You installed Linux? You just lost your warranty!"
Until that factor goes away (as illusory as it may be), Linux will not take over the desktop market. Frankly, I think the only way to solve this issue is by encouraging more vendors to OEM install Linux.
I plan on making my next system a Dell Ubuntu system. So should you, if you want to see Linux grow.