You don't think that constant (over) consumption of our modern pop culture isn't addictive? Ever known anyone who had their broadband cut off or whose PS2 broke? Contant exposure to general media, including images of sex, death, power and wealth possesed by others don't affect our reward system?
When men see someone they are sexually attracted to, their pupils dialate, their dopamine goes into overdrive, and their short term memory is affected. Men spend billions on prositutes and titty dancers. Sounds just like a drug to me. And you can bet the reward systems of a sex addict or gambler (or internet user) are different from that of a 'normal' human.
There are more simliarities between living in our materialistic culture and a simple chemical intoxication/addiction than you think.
You can also use plain tranparent vinyl sheets made for inkjet printing. They can be found alongside regular printer paper. Then, use the pattern at this site to cut out your own custom cover.
Except for the fact that the Nano seems to scratch when merely looked at... many people are unhappy about this. This is a post from Apple's Nano disucssion area:
I think Apple is going to have a major problem on their hands when enough of these are sold. They chose a poor material for the Nano and will probably have to change it in the manufacturing process soon. The Nano is a beautiful product and should not have to be covered up just to avoid the slightist scratches from fingernails etc. I bet the Apple stores will soon be required to replace their floor models everyday to keep from turning off the customers. I have treated mine like a king and it already has a few scratches etc. They could at least use the best Lucite they used in the previous models. Only time will tell.
To which I replied (and will likely be censored by Steve J.) Welcome to the world of the new Apple. Apple's dirty little secret for some years (since the first iMacs) has been to make it's products mar and scratch easily to encourage frequent purchases. Gone are the days of robust product casing like those found in the pre TiBook Powerbooks and pre iMac and B/W G3 computers.
My white Nano is my third iPod, and like my first two iPods, it seems to scratch spontanously. The day after I got it, I purchased several sheets of transparent vinyl from the printer supply section at Office Max. This is the same stuff that many manufacturers use to protect displays during shipping and manufacture. I measured and cut strips that are 1.5" X 3.5" and covered both sides, and later evolved the pattern to have protective tabs for the sides and top. It makes the Nano look a little odd on close inspection, but I can actually use the Nano without worrying about it looking it just survived a trip through the sandblaster.
I call Apple to task for not having some kind of protective casing available with the Nano. It seems they'd like people to get their Nano's nice and scratched up before effective protective casings are available.
Hopefully, Apple will wise-up REALLY fast so that the Nano launch will not be marred by a purely cosmetic profit play.
I don't know how relevant this will be to your setup, but I have a 2004 1Ghz iBook that shipped with a 30GB, 4200 RPM Hitachi drive. I replaced it with a Hitachi 60GB, 7200 RPM drive with 2MB of cache. I think the max power consumption went up 15% and the average power by a comparable amount. As a result, I get significantly better performance, and, a much warmer iBook. Since overall memory latency is reduced (less time waiting for swap), one would expect performance to increase, but since the CPU and memory subsystems also work harder, they generate more heat as a side effect. When under constant load (>90% CPU usage, constant disk access), my internal temps can reach 150F+, but normal usage (such as while I type this), I'm sitting at just under 130F. Since the case is plastic, heat transfer is minimized to the detriment the iBook and the benefit of my lap. It's tolerable, but I don't have it on my lap most of the time.:)
The analog circuitry required to detect the output load would be trivial. I think a diode and a resistor would do for detecting two different loads, and a transistor could be used to couple the 'output' of the analog circuit into an impedance matching input port for the output amplifier. It would, in effect, 'know' what is plugged in. I don't KNOW if most digital audio players use them, but it is not out of the realm of possibility to implement such detection, and would make sense to do so.
I know that older players (cassette, early CD) sound TERRIBLE when you couple the headphone output to line level inputs, but my iPod (4G) sounds good at line and headphone loads.
How about adding a dupe checker to Slashcode and allow users to 'turn off' duplicate stories. Dupes frustrate me to a point (dupe complaints are more frustrating), but their utility (for non-frequent readers) has been touted by some. It should be easy to check each storie's URL against previous post URL's in the same topic area, right?
Intel has the same problem as Microsoft... Product development over the last decade has been driven by marketing, not by developing good technology.... They've spent millions adding features and bloat to their respective products for the purpose of marketing, and the results are Itanium, Pentium 4, and (for Microsoft) Windows XP. Both companies' 'product segmentation' also is to blame... Itanium -could- be a mass market chip -if- Intel didn't need to keep it's prices high in order to prop it's gross margins.
And why are AMD and Apple technically 'better' than Intel and Microsoft respectively yet have low(er) market share? Because their focus has been on technology. To compete, they HAVE TO be better than Intel and Microsoft, so their money is better spent on true R & D, not marketing. Since Microsoft and Intel still enjoy the benefits of economies of scale IBM handed them in the early 80's.
I think a straightforward 'FUCK YOU takohcan' is in order...
No one deserves this kind of horrible act of violence.
Try telling the THOUSANDS of people that will be affected by this that their mother/father/sister/brother/etc deserved this because of admittedly shaky nationalistic policies in OTHER nations, let alone our own.
RF glitching == The touch switches (on the cube and monitors) randomly turn on and off when powerful Radio Frequency signals are transmitting nearby.
You think that fanless design is innovative... well that happened in the iMacs first IIRC.
yes its tiny, but in order to have a full system (speakers, power supply, etc) you have a bunch of 'stuff' scattered all over the place... what a mess.
I'm sitting here typing this message on a dual g4 under os X with an IBM 18 flat panel and I don't find myself sitting around wishing I had a cube.
I'm likely as much as an Apple 'fan' as yourself, (I've owned a Mac II, a Duo 270c, an 8100/80, a 9500/233, a 9600/300, a B/W G3, A pismo, and now a dual g4) but they simply blew it with the cube design.
I think this design was much more about a Steve Jobs' obsession, not a good design.
I INTERVIEWED at Apple last year at met a member of the Cube design team, and even he quietly stated that the machine was plagued with technical and mechanical design issues from the get-go, and that it was indeed 'Steve's Baby'.
-t
Lack of real of innovations was the real problem.
on
Apple Dumps the Cube
·
· Score: 4
If you think about it, the machine was basically a G4 with the power supply pulled out... and if you ever saw both (the cube & the supply) you can imagine how that supply would fit right where the heat 'chimney is'. I wonder if they were going for a cube with the power supply inside but couldn't get enough convection current going without a fan... so they had to pull it out!
Anyway... So the main issues as I see them:
1. The cube idea is not new. (nextcube, cobalt servers, etc.)
2. The ONLY innovation on the machine, the ultra-cool touch power button, but unfortunately is susceptible to RF glitching. that sucks!
3. The main appeal of the machine, it's 'look', was marred by poor manufacturing quality (many of the cubes had visible, highly refractive seams)
4. To have a complete system, you had to have a huge mass of cabling going into a very small opening at the bottom and then steeply angling into the machines ports... just bad design.
One way they could have really improved the cube is to include a vid card that has s-video out and pitch the machine as an entertainment device with full DVD/CD/3D-Sound/Gaming capabilities and:
-Put the power supply back in the cube, with a fan!
-And get rid of those stupid orb shaped speakers... they look cool, but aren't practical.
I tried this running Netscape 4.7 on a Solaris box, and intially, I couldn't see the 'complete story' either. By chance, I went back a page (using the back button) and then forwarded (using the forward button) and could then see the rest of the story.
I'd venture a guess that this is a *nix Netscape rendering bug if indeed you are using Netscape.
All this from a "20-year-warez d00d"...
Have you ever voted in a presidential election? I have. And a Karma score of Pi... a troll from behind slashdot lines, perhaps?
Anyway, convince me otherwise. (i.e., that Texas isn't in crappy shape...) I live here... I see it, every day.
Example: Austin metro is an area with more than 1.1 million people, yet there are only about 50 miles of uninterrupted expressway in the entire city. Compare this with Phoenix metro (another state cap with an metro area of about 3.3 million) that has on the order of 150 miles of uninterrupeted freeway/expressway (and another 100 under construction) -AND- 1000's of miles of wide, higher speed streets (a la Parmer lane or Wells Branch Prkwy) with a synchronus, load demanded traffic signaling system, an advanced internet based freeway traffic load monitoring system, etc. Don't even get me started on Dallas...
Example: Texas is one of the worst polluters in the country, yet there are no emmision control laws in Austin, or other Texas cities (to the best of my knowledge). OH... but that would hurt the oil business, now wouldn't it. (Phoenix has emmision controls by the way)
Reminder: Austin is the state Capital.
Reminder: I grew up in Arizona and lived in Phoenix for 4 years.
Example:Teacher salary ranks at beginning of Bush's 1st term, 36 of 50.
Teacher salary rank at beginning of 2nd term 38 of 50. Forgive me for saying so, but that is NOT an improvement.
Example: Texas is the number 1 polluter in the US, and the # 1 violator of the clean Air act.
Example: Texas is number 2 in the nation for children living in poverty.
Example of Bush's Ignorance: One doctrine of which Bush is certain is that heaven is only open to those who accept Jesus Christ. - Houston Post October 2, 1994
Reminder: Not everyone in the United States is Christian or even believes that Christ. (Talk about a good way to alienate your voters..)
I love a good debate. (and I haven't seen any lately...)
Besides, at least I have the BALLS to post my views/opinions/questions and not hide behind the flag of anonymity.
Okay... So I live in Texas (for the last 18 months), and I see what a mess IT is. G. Dubya has been missing in action here since early in the year. I watched the debate, and Bush, to put it lightly, is an idiot... or at the very least, not nealry experienced enough to be the President.
Now my question:
I know Nader cannot win, and Bush winning Texas is almost a sure thing, so should I:
A. Vote for Gore (my pick in the lesser of 2 evils scenario)
-or-
B. Vote for Nader (since my Gore vote would be wasted here in Texas, but would help the larger effort to validate a 3rd political party in the US.)
It's sort of comical that this is news... I mean, jeez... who cares. Let see some iron, Transmeta!
It's also comical that crafty 'marchitecture', which is normally dismissed when Intel and Microsoft (or Apple for that matter)iliicit it, is lauded by the/. crowd when its spewed forth by Transmeta's marketing machine.
Anyway, the simple fact is that if TM had a great story to tell, we'd be hearing all about how great their silicon PERFORMANCE is. But that's not what hearing, and we never will. As much as I hate to say it, I think Intel's implementation(s) of StrongARM are going to TROUNCE Transmeta in the marketplace.... It's a better (and already proven) microarhcitecture.
There's a GOOD reason why Palm is moving to StrongARM and Compaq's iPaq already uses it.
I can just imagine the next Slashdot Transmeta headline:
"Linus breathes on Transmeta hardware prototype, world swoons..."
Intel's engineers are humans too, they make mistakes.
The problem is, this isn't solely a symptom of Intel's engineers goofing... Intel has been trying to get Camino out the door for quite a long time now (I believe the first publicly announced roll out date was more than a year ago). If they can deliver millions of CPU's (which are arguably much more complex than a memory controller) why then, can't they deliver an 820 that works. Remember, this is a company with billions of dollars to spend and thousands of the brightest minds in the industry... They ought to be able to deliver a memory controller that works in a reasonable amount of time.
This latest 820 debacle is more of symptom of political infighting and a company collapsing under its own wieght. There's an awful lot of 'us vs. them' infighting between the various processor and chipset marketing/design teams. Trust me.
Just like they replaced all those Pentiums with the FDIV bug
...but only after a tremendous backlash from customers after Intel told them that Intel's engineers would decide on a case by case basis who would, wouldn't get replacments.
The problem has nothing to do with RDRAM
...excpet that it has EVERYTHING to do with RDRAM. Camino is an RDRAM memory controller, right? So... I don't know how you could say that this has nothing to do with RDRAM.
So please, guys, cut Intel some slack here.
No... they don't deserve it. They've screwed countless customers (think Dell and many other OEM's) with promises of Camino based motherboard delivery, and every time, they've managed to screw it up. Dell has taken it in the shorts for several quarters now due to Intel's inability to deliver Camino and Camino based motherboards. I'm no great lover of Dell, but its fortunes shouldn't be based on (or ruined by) the ineptness of a monopolistic supplier. Expect the governement to start looking at Intel again before too long... I do.
I remember Andy Grove once saying that Intel's biggest enemy was itself.... That's looking more true everyday.
Don't believe Intel's hype, and don't feel sorry for them. They work their engineers and production workers VERY HARD and VERY LONG for relatively low pay (like I said, trust me) and make up the difference with stock options. Well, if the company, as a collective, performs poorly (as Intel has over the past year and half or so), alot of the compensation that comes in the form of stocks options will devaluate and Intel's talent will look elsewhere for a company that can manage its own complexity and avoid political infighting an turf battles.
Yeah... I think I'd have to rate Intel I.R./"slower than" (Improvement Required - Intel-ites will identify with this) for alot of 1998, all of 1999 and this year, too.
For most of the last decade, they've been able to count on the fact that manufacturing capacity and lawyers would keep them at the top. But, guess what, good (great?) CPU architecture and related implementation technology matters, too.
Intel didn't get to the top because they had the best tech, but more because IBM handed them CPU market dominance on a platter while (in the early 1980's) IBM was having its own problems in court regarding monopolistic practices. Ditto for Microsoft re: DOS/Windoze.
Intel is just now starting to realize they've been suffering from a horrid case of denial for several years, and have no clue how to deal with actual competition. Now its coming back to bite them, and that's too bad.
Intel has many talented engineers, but also has marketers, managers and executives that are completely out of touch with that engineering talent and what it takes to create (and sell) the best CPU technology. Unfortunately, 'marchitecture', not architecture, is the rule at Intel.
I can see the CPU market changing radically 'Real Soon Now'.
Being one of a few (if not the only) negative poster, I'm likely to get branded (and moderated) as a troll/flamebaiter, but please hear me out...
I'm wondering if I watched the same presentation as the rest of the posters here... Deitzel and co. effectively skirted the performance/Mhz question, which says to me that they don't have much to brag about in the performance area, otherwise- They would've bragged about performance/Mhz.
I could've sworn I was watching an Microsoft/Apple/Intel love-in/press-conference at times. A quote of note: "Crusoe will be a low power internet platform for the future". What the fsck does that mean? There was lots of 'marchitecure', but little in the way of hard performance numbers.
Looks like Transmeta's smartest move was to hire Linus, 'cause the whole of Slashdot is believing the (and feeding) the hype without knowing all the facts.
There's an interesting double-standard on slashdot... Announced and unshipping products that are !linux are vaporware, yet announced and unshipping products that Linus smiles on are "the next big thing" and "A new paradigm in computing".
With the rise of Slashdot's cultural and financial popularity, the relative quality and S/N of the posts have steadily declined (IMHO), in spite of moderation. Also, the speed and availability of Slashdot's once speedy server(s?) has been degraded.
Question 1 What if anything do you plan to do about these issues?
Question 2 With fame comes responsibility... What do each of you plan to do with your elevated level of influence that will positively serve not only the open source/linux/bsd/etc. community, but also reflect the investment (read - $$$'s) that the market and many open source fans/contributors/advocates (who aren't necessarily reaping financial benefits from the various recent OSS related IPO's) have made in YOU? The additional wealth you guys have seen (whether its small or large is a non-issue) came out of OUR pockets, we want to see what you're going to do with it.
Inferring that my statement was stating that someone somwhere is part of an anti-Chinese conspiracy without first opening up your eyes is kind of like saying that you read and understood my example of a modern Roman character based GUI issue. 1. I didn't state anyone was anti-Chinese. 2. I'm well aware of the reason why we use keyboards as the primary input device on modern PC's, and so are most other slashdot readers. 3. I didn't state anywhere that any Chinese person has been prevented from using computers. 4. Ethnocentricity is a valid concept, and your unduly negative comments exemplify it. 5. You really put a negative twinge on an otherwise positive thread. 6. For the record, I'm not Chinese, nor do I know how to write Chinese characters, but I'd be willing to bet BILLIONS of Chinese would buy a cheap computer with an interface that had input and display in their native tounge and print without having to resort to learning another character set and another language to use it.
Lighten up, chill out and quit looking for conspiracies where there are none. You'll be a happier person for it.
Woz, I'd like to apologize for this person... they forgot to RTFP.
The second and third sentences should read: "... , Apple donated 20-ish Apple II's to the elementary school in my small ( 'less than symbol' 2500 people ) hometown's school. Like many Slashdotter's..." The slashcode code ate the "less than" symbol when I posted in HTML mode. Please forgive. -t (PS - The town had 2500 people, the school less than 800 kids + staff, thank the maker for Woz!)
First off, whether or not my question makes it to Steve, I want to -PERSONALLY- thank him since this is the closest shot I'll EVER get.
In the Apple II+ days (~1979), when I was in 5th grade, Apple donated 20-ish Apple II's to the elementary school in my small (Like many Slashdotter's, when I was a kid, I was extremely bored with the unchallenging, crappy cirruculum available at most public schools and was written off by administrators and teachers as 'lazy and unmotivated'. The Apple II+ changed my life... literally.
I started programming all those years ago in Logo and Basic on the II+, and spent many an hour after school as the lone kid on the computer, so much so, that I was allowed to be the last person in the school building and trusted to make sure the door was locked, sometimes going home as late as 8 or 9 PM after a full day of school.
By 8th grade, I was a teachers aide for the several computer classes, by high school, a general consultant for the school system there, etc. etc. etc. Since college, I've worked for Intel, HP and currently work developing CAD software for a small CPU design center in Austin, TX.
Anyway, I've gotten to work on projects and with technology (Pentium, Pentium III, iA64, other x86 CPU's, Mac consulting, etc) that I could've never dreamed of as a wee kid busting keys on the Apple II+ 20 years ago. All I can say, Steve, is thank you for your -true- innovation to the world of computing, and thank you for your early influence at Apple for supporting education. The difference you have made in my life is greater than I think either of us could imagine.
Now, for my question: While Apple's MacOS is (generally) recognized as the model of 'ease of use', most GUI based/interfaced OS's are still WAY too complex for the masses, not only in configuration complexity, but also in the fact that they are generally American/European-ly ethnocentric. For example, no ones come up with a really good way to input/output Chinese characters on a PC. (at least to my knowledge) In spite of this view, I still use a Mac as my primary computing device, with a Linux box running a close second.
My question to you is: What technology do you see breaking genral computing open to the masses in terms of humanistic ease of use and cutting down the barrier of Roman alphanumeric and English language centricity?
Bonus Question: What is your preferred development language? (I know you -still- code!) Much Respect,
Slashdot Mirror
You don't think that constant (over) consumption of our modern pop culture isn't addictive? Ever known anyone who had their broadband cut off or whose PS2 broke? Contant exposure to general media, including images of sex, death, power and wealth possesed by others don't affect our reward system?
When men see someone they are sexually attracted to, their pupils dialate, their dopamine goes into overdrive, and their short term memory is affected. Men spend billions on prositutes and titty dancers. Sounds just like a drug to me. And you can bet the reward systems of a sex addict or gambler (or internet user) are different from that of a 'normal' human.
There are more simliarities between living in our materialistic culture and a simple chemical intoxication/addiction than you think.
You can also use plain tranparent vinyl sheets made for inkjet printing. They can be found alongside regular printer paper. Then, use the pattern at this site to cut out your own custom cover.
Except for the fact that the Nano seems to scratch when merely looked at... many people are unhappy about this. This is a post from Apple's Nano disucssion area:
I think Apple is going to have a major problem on their hands when enough of these are sold. They chose a poor material for the Nano and will probably have to change it in the manufacturing process soon. The Nano is a beautiful product and should not have to be covered up just to avoid the slightist scratches from fingernails etc. I bet the Apple stores will soon be required to replace their floor models everyday to keep from turning off the customers. I have treated mine like a king and it already has a few scratches etc. They could at least use the best Lucite they used in the previous models. Only time will tell.
To which I replied (and will likely be censored by Steve J.)
Welcome to the world of the new Apple. Apple's dirty little secret for some years (since the first iMacs) has been to make it's products mar and scratch easily to encourage frequent purchases. Gone are the days of robust product casing like those found in the pre TiBook Powerbooks and pre iMac and B/W G3 computers.
My white Nano is my third iPod, and like my first two iPods, it seems to scratch spontanously. The day after I got it, I purchased several sheets of transparent vinyl from the printer supply section at Office Max. This is the same stuff that many manufacturers use to protect displays during shipping and manufacture. I measured and cut strips that are 1.5" X 3.5" and covered both sides, and later evolved the pattern to have protective tabs for the sides and top. It makes the Nano look a little odd on close inspection, but I can actually use the Nano without worrying about it looking it just survived a trip through the sandblaster.
I call Apple to task for not having some kind of protective casing available with the Nano. It seems they'd like people to get their Nano's nice and scratched up before effective protective casings are available.
Hopefully, Apple will wise-up REALLY fast so that the Nano launch will not be marred by a purely cosmetic profit play.
I don't know how relevant this will be to your setup, but I have a 2004 1Ghz iBook that shipped with a 30GB, 4200 RPM Hitachi drive. I replaced it with a Hitachi 60GB, 7200 RPM drive with 2MB of cache. I think the max power consumption went up 15% and the average power by a comparable amount. As a result, I get significantly better performance, and, a much warmer iBook. Since overall memory latency is reduced (less time waiting for swap), one would expect performance to increase, but since the CPU and memory subsystems also work harder, they generate more heat as a side effect. When under constant load (>90% CPU usage, constant disk access), my internal temps can reach 150F+, but normal usage (such as while I type this), I'm sitting at just under 130F. Since the case is plastic, heat transfer is minimized to the detriment the iBook and the benefit of my lap. It's tolerable, but I don't have it on my lap most of the time. :)
The analog circuitry required to detect the output load would be trivial. I think a diode and a resistor would do for detecting two different loads, and a transistor could be used to couple the 'output' of the analog circuit into an impedance matching input port for the output amplifier. It would, in effect, 'know' what is plugged in. I don't KNOW if most digital audio players use them, but it is not out of the realm of possibility to implement such detection, and would make sense to do so.
I know that older players (cassette, early CD) sound TERRIBLE when you couple the headphone output to line level inputs, but my iPod (4G) sounds good at line and headphone loads.
Hey Slashd00dz...
How about adding a dupe checker to Slashcode and allow users to 'turn off' duplicate stories. Dupes frustrate me to a point (dupe complaints are more frustrating), but their utility (for non-frequent readers) has been touted by some. It should be easy to check each storie's URL against previous post URL's in the same topic area, right?
Security through obscurity
Slashdot used to not suck. It seems when you add money and greed to -anything- it becomes a polished TURD.
Intel has the same problem as Microsoft... Product development over the last decade has been driven by marketing, not by developing good technology.... They've spent millions adding features and bloat to their respective products for the purpose of marketing, and the results are Itanium, Pentium 4, and (for Microsoft) Windows XP. Both companies' 'product segmentation' also is to blame... Itanium -could- be a mass market chip -if- Intel didn't need to keep it's prices high in order to prop it's gross margins.
And why are AMD and Apple technically 'better' than Intel and Microsoft respectively yet have low(er) market share? Because their focus has been on technology. To compete, they HAVE TO be better than Intel and Microsoft, so their money is better spent on true R & D, not marketing. Since Microsoft and Intel still enjoy the benefits of economies of scale IBM handed them in the early 80's.
I think a straightforward 'FUCK YOU takohcan' is in order...
No one deserves this kind of horrible act of violence.
Try telling the THOUSANDS of people that will be affected by this that their mother/father/sister/brother/etc deserved this because of admittedly shaky nationalistic policies in OTHER nations, let alone our own.
Your point of view needs some reworking.
-t
RF glitching == The touch switches (on the cube and monitors) randomly turn on and off when powerful Radio Frequency signals are transmitting nearby.
You think that fanless design is innovative... well that happened in the iMacs first IIRC.
yes its tiny, but in order to have a full system (speakers, power supply, etc) you have a bunch of 'stuff' scattered all over the place... what a mess.
I'm sitting here typing this message on a dual g4 under os X with an IBM 18 flat panel and I don't find myself sitting around wishing I had a cube.
I'm likely as much as an Apple 'fan' as yourself, (I've owned a Mac II, a Duo 270c, an 8100/80, a 9500/233, a 9600/300, a B/W G3, A pismo, and now a dual g4) but they simply blew it with the cube design.
I think this design was much more about a Steve Jobs' obsession, not a good design.
I INTERVIEWED at Apple last year at met a member of the Cube design team, and even he quietly stated that the machine was plagued with technical and mechanical design issues from the get-go, and that it was indeed 'Steve's Baby'.
-t
If you think about it, the machine was basically a G4 with the power supply pulled out... and if you ever saw both (the cube & the supply) you can imagine how that supply would fit right where the heat 'chimney is'. I wonder if they were going for a cube with the power supply inside but couldn't get enough convection current going without a fan... so they had to pull it out!
Anyway... So the main issues as I see them:
1. The cube idea is not new. (nextcube, cobalt servers, etc.)
2. The ONLY innovation on the machine, the ultra-cool touch power button, but unfortunately is susceptible to RF glitching. that sucks!
3. The main appeal of the machine, it's 'look', was marred by poor manufacturing quality (many of the cubes had visible, highly refractive seams)
4. To have a complete system, you had to have a huge mass of cabling going into a very small opening at the bottom and then steeply angling into the machines ports... just bad design.
One way they could have really improved the cube is to include a vid card that has s-video out and pitch the machine as an entertainment device with full DVD/CD/3D-Sound/Gaming capabilities and:
-Put the power supply back in the cube, with a fan!
-And get rid of those stupid orb shaped speakers... they look cool, but aren't practical.
Happy Birthday USA!
-t
Hrm... this guy is likely a win-head. Here's a good windows irratation... You have to go to the 'Start' button to shut the machine down. heh...
-t
I tried this running Netscape 4.7 on a Solaris box, and intially, I couldn't see the 'complete story' either. By chance, I went back a page (using the back button) and then forwarded (using the forward button) and could then see the rest of the story.
I'd venture a guess that this is a *nix Netscape rendering bug if indeed you are using Netscape.
-t
All this from a "20-year-warez d00d"...
Have you ever voted in a presidential election? I have. And a Karma score of Pi... a troll from behind slashdot lines, perhaps?
Anyway, convince me otherwise. (i.e., that Texas isn't in crappy shape...) I live here... I see it, every day.
Example: Austin metro is an area with more than 1.1 million people, yet there are only about 50 miles of uninterrupted expressway in the entire city. Compare this with Phoenix metro (another state cap with an metro area of about 3.3 million) that has on the order of 150 miles of uninterrupeted freeway/expressway (and another 100 under construction) -AND- 1000's of miles of wide, higher speed streets (a la Parmer lane or Wells Branch Prkwy) with a synchronus, load demanded traffic signaling system, an advanced internet based freeway traffic load monitoring system, etc. Don't even get me started on Dallas...
Example: Texas is one of the worst polluters in the country, yet there are no emmision control laws in Austin, or other Texas cities (to the best of my knowledge). OH... but that would hurt the oil business, now wouldn't it. (Phoenix has emmision controls by the way)
Reminder: Austin is the state Capital.
Reminder: I grew up in Arizona and lived in Phoenix for 4 years.
Example:Teacher salary ranks at beginning of Bush's 1st term, 36 of 50.
Teacher salary rank at beginning of 2nd term 38 of 50. Forgive me for saying so, but that is NOT an improvement.
Example: Texas is the number 1 polluter in the US, and the # 1 violator of the clean Air act.
Example: Texas is number 2 in the nation for children living in poverty.
Example of Bush's Ignorance: One doctrine of which Bush is certain is that heaven is only open to those who accept Jesus Christ. - Houston Post October 2, 1994
Reminder: Not everyone in the United States is Christian or even believes that Christ. (Talk about a good way to alienate your voters..)
I love a good debate. (and I haven't seen any lately...)
Besides, at least I have the BALLS to post my views/opinions/questions and not hide behind the flag of anonymity.
Please continue...
-t
Okay... So I live in Texas (for the last 18 months), and I see what a mess IT is. G. Dubya has been missing in action here since early in the year. I watched the debate, and Bush, to put it lightly, is an idiot... or at the very least, not nealry experienced enough to be the President.
Now my question:
I know Nader cannot win, and Bush winning Texas is almost a sure thing, so should I:
A. Vote for Gore (my pick in the lesser of 2 evils scenario)
-or-
B. Vote for Nader (since my Gore vote would be wasted here in Texas, but would help the larger effort to validate a 3rd political party in the US.)
-live well-
-t
It's sort of comical that this is news... I mean, jeez... who cares. Let see some iron, Transmeta!
/. crowd when its spewed forth by Transmeta's marketing machine.
It's also comical that crafty 'marchitecture', which is normally dismissed when Intel and Microsoft (or Apple for that matter)iliicit it, is lauded by the
Anyway, the simple fact is that if TM had a great story to tell, we'd be hearing all about how great their silicon PERFORMANCE is. But that's not what hearing, and we never will. As much as I hate to say it, I think Intel's implementation(s) of StrongARM are going to TROUNCE Transmeta in the marketplace.... It's a better (and already proven) microarhcitecture.
There's a GOOD reason why Palm is moving to StrongARM and Compaq's iPaq already uses it.
I can just imagine the next Slashdot Transmeta headline:
"Linus breathes on Transmeta hardware prototype, world swoons..."
-t
Intel's engineers are humans too, they make mistakes.
The problem is, this isn't solely a symptom of Intel's engineers goofing... Intel has been trying to get Camino out the door for quite a long time now (I believe the first publicly announced roll out date was more than a year ago). If they can deliver millions of CPU's (which are arguably much more complex than a memory controller) why then, can't they deliver an 820 that works. Remember, this is a company with billions of dollars to spend and thousands of the brightest minds in the industry... They ought to be able to deliver a memory controller that works in a reasonable amount of time.
This latest 820 debacle is more of symptom of political infighting and a company collapsing under its own wieght. There's an awful lot of 'us vs. them' infighting between the various processor and chipset marketing/design teams. Trust me.
Just like they replaced all those Pentiums with the FDIV bug
...but only after a tremendous backlash from customers after Intel told them that Intel's engineers would decide on a case by case basis who would, wouldn't get replacments.
The problem has nothing to do with RDRAM
...excpet that it has EVERYTHING to do with RDRAM. Camino is an RDRAM memory controller, right? So... I don't know how you could say that this has nothing to do with RDRAM.
So please, guys, cut Intel some slack here.
No... they don't deserve it. They've screwed countless customers (think Dell and many other OEM's) with promises of Camino based motherboard delivery, and every time, they've managed to screw it up. Dell has taken it in the shorts for several quarters now due to Intel's inability to deliver Camino and Camino based motherboards. I'm no great lover of Dell, but its fortunes shouldn't be based on (or ruined by) the ineptness of a monopolistic supplier. Expect the governement to start looking at Intel again before too long... I do.
I remember Andy Grove once saying that Intel's biggest enemy was itself.... That's looking more true everyday.
Don't believe Intel's hype, and don't feel sorry for them. They work their engineers and production workers VERY HARD and VERY LONG for relatively low pay (like I said, trust me) and make up the difference with stock options. Well, if the company, as a collective, performs poorly (as Intel has over the past year and half or so), alot of the compensation that comes in the form of stocks options will devaluate and Intel's talent will look elsewhere for a company that can manage its own complexity and avoid political infighting an turf battles.
-t
Yeah... I think I'd have to rate Intel I.R./"slower than" (Improvement Required - Intel-ites will identify with this) for alot of 1998, all of 1999 and this year, too.
For most of the last decade, they've been able to count on the fact that manufacturing capacity and lawyers would keep them at the top. But, guess what, good (great?) CPU architecture and related implementation technology matters, too.
Intel didn't get to the top because they had the best tech, but more because IBM handed them CPU market dominance on a platter while (in the early 1980's) IBM was having its own problems in court regarding monopolistic practices. Ditto for Microsoft re: DOS/Windoze.
Intel is just now starting to realize they've been suffering from a horrid case of denial for several years, and have no clue how to deal with actual competition. Now its coming back to bite them, and that's too bad.
Intel has many talented engineers, but also has marketers, managers and executives that are completely out of touch with that engineering talent and what it takes to create (and sell) the best CPU technology. Unfortunately, 'marchitecture', not architecture, is the rule at Intel.
I can see the CPU market changing radically 'Real Soon Now'.
-t
Being one of a few (if not the only) negative poster, I'm likely to get branded (and moderated) as a troll/flamebaiter, but please hear me out...
I'm wondering if I watched the same presentation as the rest of the posters here... Deitzel and co. effectively skirted the performance/Mhz question, which says to me that they don't have much to brag about in the performance area, otherwise- They would've bragged about performance/Mhz.
I could've sworn I was watching an Microsoft/Apple/Intel love-in/press-conference at times. A quote of note: "Crusoe will be a low power internet platform for the future". What the fsck does that mean? There was lots of 'marchitecure', but little in the way of hard performance numbers.
Looks like Transmeta's smartest move was to hire Linus, 'cause the whole of Slashdot is believing the (and feeding) the hype without knowing all the facts.
There's an interesting double-standard on slashdot... Announced and unshipping products that are !linux are vaporware, yet announced and unshipping products that Linus smiles on are "the next big thing" and "A new paradigm in computing".
And they say Mac advocates are fanatics...
-t
Question 1 What if anything do you plan to do about these issues?
Question 2 With fame comes responsibility... What do each of you plan to do with your elevated level of influence that will positively serve not only the open source/linux/bsd/etc. community, but also reflect the investment (read - $$$'s) that the market and many open source fans/contributors/advocates (who aren't necessarily reaping financial benefits from the various recent OSS related IPO's) have made in YOU? The additional wealth you guys have seen (whether its small or large is a non-issue) came out of OUR pockets, we want to see what you're going to do with it.
cheers,
-t
So is this an analog to the Japanese Kanji system?
1. I didn't state anyone was anti-Chinese.
2. I'm well aware of the reason why we use keyboards as the primary input device on modern PC's, and so are most other slashdot readers.
3. I didn't state anywhere that any Chinese person has been prevented from using computers.
4. Ethnocentricity is a valid concept, and your unduly negative comments exemplify it.
5. You really put a negative twinge on an otherwise positive thread.
6. For the record, I'm not Chinese, nor do I know how to write Chinese characters, but I'd be willing to bet BILLIONS of Chinese would buy a cheap computer with an interface that had input and display in their native tounge and print without having to resort to learning another character set and another language to use it.
Lighten up, chill out and quit looking for conspiracies where there are none. You'll be a happier person for it.
Woz, I'd like to apologize for this person... they forgot to RTFP.
-t
The second and third sentences should read: "... , Apple donated 20-ish Apple II's to the elementary school in my small ( 'less than symbol' 2500 people ) hometown's school. Like many Slashdotter's..." The slashcode code ate the "less than" symbol when I posted in HTML mode. Please forgive. -t (PS - The town had 2500 people, the school less than 800 kids + staff, thank the maker for Woz!)
In the Apple II+ days (~1979), when I was in 5th grade, Apple donated 20-ish Apple II's to the elementary school in my small (Like many Slashdotter's, when I was a kid, I was extremely bored with the unchallenging, crappy cirruculum available at most public schools and was written off by administrators and teachers as 'lazy and unmotivated'. The Apple II+ changed my life... literally.
I started programming all those years ago in Logo and Basic on the II+, and spent many an hour after school as the lone kid on the computer, so much so, that I was allowed to be the last person in the school building and trusted to make sure the door was locked, sometimes going home as late as 8 or 9 PM after a full day of school.
By 8th grade, I was a teachers aide for the several computer classes, by high school, a general consultant for the school system there, etc. etc. etc. Since college, I've worked for Intel, HP and currently work developing CAD software for a small CPU design center in Austin, TX.
Anyway, I've gotten to work on projects and with technology (Pentium, Pentium III, iA64, other x86 CPU's, Mac consulting, etc) that I could've never dreamed of as a wee kid busting keys on the Apple II+ 20 years ago. All I can say, Steve, is thank you for your -true- innovation to the world of computing, and thank you for your early influence at Apple for supporting education. The difference you have made in my life is greater than I think either of us could imagine.
Now, for my question: While Apple's MacOS is (generally) recognized as the model of 'ease of use', most GUI based/interfaced OS's are still WAY too complex for the masses, not only in configuration complexity, but also in the fact that they are generally American/European-ly ethnocentric. For example, no ones come up with a really good way to input/output Chinese characters on a PC. (at least to my knowledge) In spite of this view, I still use a Mac as my primary computing device, with a Linux box running a close second.
My question to you is: What technology do you see breaking genral computing open to the masses in terms of humanistic ease of use and cutting down the barrier of Roman alphanumeric and English language centricity?
Bonus Question: What is your preferred development language? (I know you -still- code!)
Much Respect,
Toby Sanchez