Good summary and points (I have no mod points to help). I was wondering who on/. was being fooled by Video Professor? It is pretty obvious in the US if they advertise on TV a great deal, and they are selling video CD's, they must be charging more than the $4.56 which showed up in the article. I am not defending their strategy at all, it is slimy to hide the costs. I like your proposal for open source alternative.
It takes my MacBook Pro, 2.4GHz 2CD, 2GB RAM about 19 seconds to get up the OpenOffice selection screen (where I pick what type of document to created). On the other hand, at work on XP it takes minutes to launch LotusNotes 8. I use the time to get some coffee.
David Pogue commentary also discusses the $1.99 fee for hitting the incorrect button on the phone, where you accidentally request a web service, no matter how fast you cancel the request you get nicked $1.99.
The COLA for Social Security is a formula put in place a long time ago (put into law), so basically "the government" is following the law they enacted. Back in the day the COLA payments were used against the government as a sign of waste, why were we giving such generous increases when the rest of us were suffering. Two sides to every coin.
The ABC web site has a video from Consumer's Report on what to do in case of uncontrolled acceleration. They use a Toyota to demonstrate that pumping the brakes results in brake failure - so the brakes cannot always overcome the engine. The Toyota off button requires holding down for three seconds, which is not obvious (until this happened) even to Toyota owners. They recommend putting into neutral and braking to demonstrate that this does work the best. At then end they show a VW where the full on brake does override the full on accelerator, and this is where good programing could make the car "failsafe" (I know, not the correct term but cut me some slack).
I did not install these drivers together. I installed the Leica when the camera arrived, found out it was incompatible with ImagePro and then found out they had one and removed the Leica and installed ImagePro driver. I cant use the Leica software now, but ImagePro is required, too bad though.
But I still disagree - the Mac has firewire built in, so Apple is responsible for it being up to the IEEE standard and providing operating system access to any firewire device I plug in. Where as you state Microsoft doesn't make hardware so they don't care, and this is what I was asking for, for Windows to care to be integrated with hardware. The other players, SIIG and Leica and ImagePro all felt they had to hack something together because they knew Microsoft didn't care. Unfortunately they don't really work all that well together. Good discussion though.
Isn't a firewire interface part of the hardware-software interaction? I think so. This is the source of all my camera problems. First off there exist (at least) two drivers for the Leica camera, one from Leica and one from ImagePro, each incompatible with each others software. Really, in 2009?. Now apparently the delicate balance has been disturbed by installing all this on a new computer (which is running the same version of WindowsXP as the old computer).
I was suggesting I would chip in for a Wintel computer that brought the tight integration of the Mac, just for my own use and sanity. But alas no amount of money can get me my wish in Wintel land.
I wish Microsoft would quit selling its OS to any idiot who thinks they can cobble together hardware and sell it as a computer. I want a system integrated so that all the parts work together without having to worry about any conflicts, worked so well that I have to reboot or unplug hardware to get it to be recognized (as I am having with my digitial microscope camera). Also with a much more limited set of hardware I would expect my operating system to not slow down over time and randomly forget how to launch powerpoint (as happened today). My employer even tries to mitigate these problems by purchasing all the same models of crappy computer and rigidly enforcing what software we can have loaded. We get virus patches updated at lease 2x per week.
I would even be willing to help my employer pay more for this fully integrated hardware/software combination.
If you read Apple's response they do indeed make that claim. And since it is in a legal case I guess you can say they are serious. The real question is are they correct?
At least when they found the flaw they recognized the danger and attempted to fix before the bridge fell down.. The I35 bridge gusset plates were seen years earlier to be warping and this clue was missed.
* 4,855 (37.5%) specimens tested by U.S. World Health Organization (WHO) and National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) collaborating laboratories and reported to CDC/Influenza Division were positive for influenza.
* All subtyped influenza A viruses being reported to CDC were 2009 influenza A (H1N1) viruses.
This is what I heard on NPR as well. About 1/3 of the people being tested at hospitals (because they came in feeling ill) have the flu virus. But all the flu is the H1N1 type. The seasonal flu has not yet started (it normally starts later in the year).
Currently they are recommending children with underlaying medical issues get vaccinated first (asthma, MD) and women in their third trimester. Both because they are those who are dying at the highest rates. All the reputable medical sites/doctors say the H1N1 vaccine will have the same risks as normal flu vaccine- as they are both made exactly the same way. There is nothing about this strain of virus that makes the vaccine more dangerous. They are even offering versions without the normal preservative (which contains a mercury adduct that has concerned some people).
Everyone adult I know who has gotten the H1N1 was infected from children (usually their kids).
I upgrade over my existing OSX install (not a clean install). Never had a problem, and we have 5 machines at home. But I also don't update immediately and wait to hear if there are any major apps that need an update. I see in another note someone with SVN client failing and upon searching I did see at least one vendor with a problem with certain versions of the client but on their support board they had an older version that worked and then the created a new version in a couple days of the complaint. And this is what I find as well, the developers get pre-releases of the next OS to see if there are any problems and provide updates around the OS release date.
Thanks for this explanation and I wish I had mod points. Patents can spur creative people to invent around them, often coming up with better solutions.
What you pointed out were the consequences of being an asshole with your licensing terms - a competing format was developed and hardly anybody uses GIF today (which uses LZW, as you pointed out). You can be fairly certain that the developers of PNG looked long and hard at LZW before they were able to come up with something better. You look at similar technologies, like mpeg3 and mpeg4, both of which have patents on them, both of which have the exact same potential problems as LZW, and yet together they include the two most popular and ubiquitous digital audio formats out there - mp3 and AAC. They are simply compression algorithms, just like LZW, they are also licensed just like LZW, yet the patent owners handled it much better than the LZW owners did.
As a preface - I am not well versed in chip architecture or PC design...
What about two chips? One runs when on battery mode - gives the best power savings. One that runs when the laptop is plugged into the wall for best performance.
In addition, the replacement no-let solder formulations ran into issues that some of the best were patented and thus rejected because the OEMs did not want to be tied to a single vendor. They liked the old solder model of being able to get solder from multiple suppliers. So the solder formulations that were not patented were selected, but they don't have the best properties. Also, each OEM may be selecting a different formulation, but the contract manufacturer may not be set up or experienced in using that formulation to obtain the best soldering. This pdf file shows some of the many formulations available, if they are patented and some quick comments about each.
From the same pdf file:
Solder manufacturers have found that no lead-free
alloy is a simple "drop-in" replacement as far as solder
paste fluxes are concerned. All are currently developing
new products that will perform well with the new
alloy chemistries and process conditions. Each element,
and resultant alloy, has unique characteristics
with regard to oxidation, surface tension, reflow, and
wetting. Solder paste fluxes must be formulated to
address the specific alloy(s) of choice. Some solder
paste manufacturers have made great advances and
are presently offering viable lead-free solder paste
products.
My daughter took an online gym class in order to take harder academic classes (midway through her HS years they changed the number of hours in a day but kept the gym requirement - causing conflicts resolved by the district setting up this online gym class). The heart rate monitor did not measure her ECG but rather the number of beats per minute and the duration. She then downloaded this to the server to prove she was indeed doing the required exercise. I suspect this is the root of the schools use of the monitors, and the straps probably get all sweated up, and they have no money - so you have to purchase (and they are yours to keep).
I love the Mac version of Word (which I use at home) compared to the work version on a PC. I love the infobox feature, that makes working so much easier. I am glad MS allows a separate development team for the Mac.
A buddy of mine lives in Minneapolis in a stucco house. The chicken wire mesh used to hold the stucco onto the house acts as an EMI cage. So he has to be sitting next to a window to get the city WiFi. In this case I wouldn't blame the vendor specifically. But others commenting might be correct about other flaws in the system. I just think the house design for much of residential MPLS might be a contributing factor.
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Good summary and points (I have no mod points to help). I was wondering who on /. was being fooled by Video Professor? It is pretty obvious in the US if they advertise on TV a great deal, and they are selling video CD's, they must be charging more than the $4.56 which showed up in the article. I am not defending their strategy at all, it is slimy to hide the costs. I like your proposal for open source alternative.
I use the Lotus experience to calm me down whenever some other application is slow to load. I keep thinking to myself "I could be booting Notes...".
It takes my MacBook Pro, 2.4GHz 2CD, 2GB RAM about 19 seconds to get up the OpenOffice selection screen (where I pick what type of document to created). On the other hand, at work on XP it takes minutes to launch LotusNotes 8. I use the time to get some coffee.
David Pogue commentary also discusses the $1.99 fee for hitting the incorrect button on the phone, where you accidentally request a web service, no matter how fast you cancel the request you get nicked $1.99.
The COLA for Social Security is a formula put in place a long time ago (put into law), so basically "the government" is following the law they enacted. Back in the day the COLA payments were used against the government as a sign of waste, why were we giving such generous increases when the rest of us were suffering. Two sides to every coin.
The ABC web site has a video from Consumer's Report on what to do in case of uncontrolled acceleration. They use a Toyota to demonstrate that pumping the brakes results in brake failure - so the brakes cannot always overcome the engine. The Toyota off button requires holding down for three seconds, which is not obvious (until this happened) even to Toyota owners. They recommend putting into neutral and braking to demonstrate that this does work the best. At then end they show a VW where the full on brake does override the full on accelerator, and this is where good programing could make the car "failsafe" (I know, not the correct term but cut me some slack).
I did not install these drivers together. I installed the Leica when the camera arrived, found out it was incompatible with ImagePro and then found out they had one and removed the Leica and installed ImagePro driver. I cant use the Leica software now, but ImagePro is required, too bad though.
But I still disagree - the Mac has firewire built in, so Apple is responsible for it being up to the IEEE standard and providing operating system access to any firewire device I plug in. Where as you state Microsoft doesn't make hardware so they don't care, and this is what I was asking for, for Windows to care to be integrated with hardware. The other players, SIIG and Leica and ImagePro all felt they had to hack something together because they knew Microsoft didn't care. Unfortunately they don't really work all that well together. Good discussion though.
Isn't a firewire interface part of the hardware-software interaction? I think so. This is the source of all my camera problems. First off there exist (at least) two drivers for the Leica camera, one from Leica and one from ImagePro, each incompatible with each others software. Really, in 2009?. Now apparently the delicate balance has been disturbed by installing all this on a new computer (which is running the same version of WindowsXP as the old computer).
I was suggesting I would chip in for a Wintel computer that brought the tight integration of the Mac, just for my own use and sanity. But alas no amount of money can get me my wish in Wintel land.
I wish Microsoft would quit selling its OS to any idiot who thinks they can cobble together hardware and sell it as a computer. I want a system integrated so that all the parts work together without having to worry about any conflicts, worked so well that I have to reboot or unplug hardware to get it to be recognized (as I am having with my digitial microscope camera). Also with a much more limited set of hardware I would expect my operating system to not slow down over time and randomly forget how to launch powerpoint (as happened today). My employer even tries to mitigate these problems by purchasing all the same models of crappy computer and rigidly enforcing what software we can have loaded. We get virus patches updated at lease 2x per week.
I would even be willing to help my employer pay more for this fully integrated hardware/software combination.
Thankfully I get to go home each day to my Macs.
If you read Apple's response they do indeed make that claim. And since it is in a legal case I guess you can say they are serious. The real question is are they correct?
At least when they found the flaw they recognized the danger and attempted to fix before the bridge fell down.. The I35 bridge gusset plates were seen years earlier to be warping and this clue was missed.
Where they are serving all the good Kool-Aide (TM).
During week 41 (October 11-17, 2009), influenza activity increased in the U.S.
* 4,855 (37.5%) specimens tested by U.S. World Health Organization (WHO) and National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) collaborating laboratories and reported to CDC/Influenza Division were positive for influenza.
* All subtyped influenza A viruses being reported to CDC were 2009 influenza A (H1N1) viruses.
This is what I heard on NPR as well. About 1/3 of the people being tested at hospitals (because they came in feeling ill) have the flu virus. But all the flu is the H1N1 type. The seasonal flu has not yet started (it normally starts later in the year).
So you get a virus from an pirated copy of iWorks. (and Photoshop). And you have to give the program root access. Hmm....
Currently they are recommending children with underlaying medical issues get vaccinated first (asthma, MD) and women in their third trimester. Both because they are those who are dying at the highest rates. All the reputable medical sites/doctors say the H1N1 vaccine will have the same risks as normal flu vaccine- as they are both made exactly the same way. There is nothing about this strain of virus that makes the vaccine more dangerous. They are even offering versions without the normal preservative (which contains a mercury adduct that has concerned some people).
Everyone adult I know who has gotten the H1N1 was infected from children (usually their kids).
I upgrade over my existing OSX install (not a clean install). Never had a problem, and we have 5 machines at home. But I also don't update immediately and wait to hear if there are any major apps that need an update. I see in another note someone with SVN client failing and upon searching I did see at least one vendor with a problem with certain versions of the client but on their support board they had an older version that worked and then the created a new version in a couple days of the complaint. And this is what I find as well, the developers get pre-releases of the next OS to see if there are any problems and provide updates around the OS release date.
What you pointed out were the consequences of being an asshole with your licensing terms - a competing format was developed and hardly anybody uses GIF today (which uses LZW, as you pointed out). You can be fairly certain that the developers of PNG looked long and hard at LZW before they were able to come up with something better. You look at similar technologies, like mpeg3 and mpeg4, both of which have patents on them, both of which have the exact same potential problems as LZW, and yet together they include the two most popular and ubiquitous digital audio formats out there - mp3 and AAC. They are simply compression algorithms, just like LZW, they are also licensed just like LZW, yet the patent owners handled it much better than the LZW owners did.
You could consider Prizmodo. It includes OCR should you desire for $40.
As a preface - I am not well versed in chip architecture or PC design...
What about two chips? One runs when on battery mode - gives the best power savings. One that runs when the laptop is plugged into the wall for best performance.
In addition, the replacement no-let solder formulations ran into issues that some of the best were patented and thus rejected because the OEMs did not want to be tied to a single vendor. They liked the old solder model of being able to get solder from multiple suppliers. So the solder formulations that were not patented were selected, but they don't have the best properties. Also, each OEM may be selecting a different formulation, but the contract manufacturer may not be set up or experienced in using that formulation to obtain the best soldering. This pdf file shows some of the many formulations available, if they are patented and some quick comments about each.
From the same pdf file:
Solder manufacturers have found that no lead-free alloy is a simple "drop-in" replacement as far as solder paste fluxes are concerned. All are currently developing new products that will perform well with the new alloy chemistries and process conditions. Each element, and resultant alloy, has unique characteristics with regard to oxidation, surface tension, reflow, and wetting. Solder paste fluxes must be formulated to address the specific alloy(s) of choice. Some solder paste manufacturers have made great advances and are presently offering viable lead-free solder paste products.
My daughter took an online gym class in order to take harder academic classes (midway through her HS years they changed the number of hours in a day but kept the gym requirement - causing conflicts resolved by the district setting up this online gym class). The heart rate monitor did not measure her ECG but rather the number of beats per minute and the duration. She then downloaded this to the server to prove she was indeed doing the required exercise. I suspect this is the root of the schools use of the monitors, and the straps probably get all sweated up, and they have no money - so you have to purchase (and they are yours to keep).
I love the Mac version of Word (which I use at home) compared to the work version on a PC. I love the infobox feature, that makes working so much easier. I am glad MS allows a separate development team for the Mac.
A buddy of mine lives in Minneapolis in a stucco house. The chicken wire mesh used to hold the stucco onto the house acts as an EMI cage. So he has to be sitting next to a window to get the city WiFi. In this case I wouldn't blame the vendor specifically. But others commenting might be correct about other flaws in the system. I just think the house design for much of residential MPLS might be a contributing factor.
I would be mad at the seller. But in general I also would not purchase a used Kindle/iPhone device, for fear of just such things.
Chicago too...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Chicago