If people really want a true Open Source solution for the next generation of video compression codecs, I'm surprised there hasn't been more support among the Linux crowd for Ogg Theora, which is being developed more or less by the same people who developed the Ogg Vorbis compression format for audio.
I think the reasons why Intel was able to quickly ramp up the speed of the Pentium 4 were:
1. The architectural design of the CPU core was intended to handle speeds well beyond 3 GHz CPU clock speed.
2. Intel's Northwood-core Pentium 4's with 512 KB of L2 cache on the CPU die substantially speeded up performance.
3. The introduction of Hyper-Threading Technology on the CPU core starting with the 3.06 GHz P4's will offer a bigger performance boost when software that takes full advantage of it arrives over the next six months.
If anyone remembers the original Socket 423 P4's, they ran very hot and had performance that was in many ways inferior to the Thunderbird-core Athlons. The current Northwood-core P4's run quite a bit cooler and offer extraordinary performance.
If you read my message, I would still sue Canon, Epson, HP and Lexmark for violating the Magnuson-Mass Act for the illegal business practice of tying (essentially being forced to buy replacement supplies or services from only one manufacturer after initial sale, I think).
After the successful lawsuit, the Federal government will force the printer manufacturers to allow approved third parties to manufacture printer consumables that will not violate the printer warranty.
I think there is one reason why Microsoft might make it possible to have an Open Source client program that can read.WMA,.WMV and.ASX files--it will put Real Networks and Apple at a serious competitive disadvantage.
It's just like the fact that Microsoft has no qualms about Ximian's Mono project to create the Open Source equivalent of a.NET server--in one fell swoop the Sun-led Liberty Alliance project has been kiboshed because Windows clients and Linux clients can use more or less the same.NET services.
However, many users still want functionality in Linux that closely resemble what you get in Windows XP. Unfortunately that will result in system bloat because of all the multimedia programs, web browsers, etc. you have to include.
Other computer components speeding up
on
Moore's Law Disputed
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I think while we may be starting to reach the point that the laws of physics may limit how much faster a CPU can go, don't forget that other parts of the computer are getting major speed boosts, too.
First, there is the connection between chipsets on the motherboard. AMD's Hypertransport and others could make big differences on overall motherboard speed.
Second, system memory speeds are getting quite a bit faster, too. Developments in DDR-SDRAM technology could eventually result in throughput 2-3 times what we have now with DDR333 technology.
Third, expansion slots are getting faster, too. There are now standards upcoming for both PCI and AGP that will substantially increase data throughput on expansion slots.
Fourth, mass storage devices are getting faster, too. IDE hard drives have now reached ATA-133 speed, and future IDE hard drives using the new Serial ATA connection will eventually reach the equivalent of ATA-600 speed! SCSI interface hard drives are benefiting from Ultra 160 and Ultra 320 speeds, too. Even optical recorders are getting faster, too; we've reach 48X speeds for CD-R writers, and DVD recorders will go past 12X speeds some time in 2004.
Fifth, hot-docked external connections are getting faster, too. USB 2.0 support 480 megabits/second connections, and the next-generation of IEEE-1394 connectors will support 800 megabits/second connections.
Finally, graphics cards have seen VERY dramatic performance increases for 3-D graphics. Today's ATI Radeon 9700 Pro and the upcoming nVidia GeForce FX chipset graphics can achieve 3-D rendering that no one could have dreamed of even five years ago.
In short, CPU's will probably reach their limits before 2010 but overall system speed will still increase dramatically thanks to other system components speeding up.
Linux is great for server duties because of its stability and the fact in most cases you don't need to push the limits of hardware outside of faster data storage access.
However, as a desktop operating system it's not quite there yet. Windows--because it has standardized on the WIN32 API--has much wider hardware support for graphics cards and sound cards, things necessary for multimedia application such as high-end games (Neverwinter Nights, Unreal Tournament 2003, Max Payne, and the upcoming Doom III). Linux needs the equivalent of Microsoft's DirectX API's, not to mention (I know I will be modded way down for this =) ) a single, unified graphical interface which substantially eases progarmming issues. Linux also needs the equivalent of Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) for true automated configuration of new hardware, especially "hot docked" external devices through the USB 2.0 and IEEE-1394 interfaces.
Right now, there are obvious uses for such a high capacity optical drive, especially if they can produce at the same time a one terabyte re-writeable drive too.
For a re-writeable drive, one obvious application is personal video recorders (PVR's). Imagine by 2010 instead of recording shows on a TiVo or Replay TV unit on larger and larger hard drives the PVR will only sport a 20-30 gigabyte hard drive to store the program code for the PVR and program indexing information; the actual program itself will be recorded onto re-writeable and removeable 1 TB optical drives that will store nearly 1,000 hours of standard-format digital video or circa 300 hours of 1080i 16:9 uncompressed HDTV video. It is this technology that will finally end the reign of VHS VCR's for good.
For non-writeable 1.5 TB media, there is one application that needs it now: theatrical quality digital projection of movies. By 2010 digital projectors will have picture quality equivalent to 2000 lines non-interlaced, and that will mean massive storage requirements. Imagine storing the entire movie in uncompressed 2000-line digital projection format on just ONE DVD-sized disc, including multichannel audio in 6-7 languages and 7-8 languages of subtitles! Such a change will make it possible to have true simultaneous worldwide release of theatrical features, and just the savings in shipping costs between a movie on these new digital discs weighing well under half a pound (including the shipping package!) and a 35 mm print that weighs 105 pounds per hour of film is tremendous, to say the least.
Actually, for a ballistic missile you do want fairly intensive computational power, because even a tiny split-second error on engine firing and shutdown sequences will result in a circular error probability (CEP) of over a mile.
However, will the Dragon chip be able to run in the type of harsh environments demanded for military applications? We're talking extremes of physical shock, temperatures, humidity and EMP.
Also, modern electronic warfare demands huge computational needs; will the Dragon CPU be able to keep up with that type of work?
...Sun's own Java VM is dog-slow in many ways. I've tried JVM 1.4.1 on Windows 98 and when it loads the first time and/or run any Java applets it takes a long time to run. It's better in Windows 2000 Pro and Windows XP, but I still think Sun needs to speed up their Java VM to better work with Windows 98 to Windows XP.
Now, if the judge's order specified any Java VM that meets Sun's compatibility tests, maybe Micosoft could use IBM's excellent Java implementation instead.
There is one way to refute the folks who think we faked the missions to the Moon: show samples of Moon soil from the Apollo missions and compare them against the Moon soil sample brought back by the Soviet Luna 16 probe in 1970.
Given that these two samples are pretty much the same element-wise, that should end the arguements once and for all, so there you hoax-believers.:-p
1. Microsoft's Asheron's Call 2 will be the first game to use DirectX 9.0 features. There are a number of upcoming games that will very likely use DirectX 9.0; I wouldn't be surprised that we see a patch for Neverwinter Nights to include DX9 support and EverQuest 2 will also include DX9 support.
2. The only reasonably-priced card that will support DX9 is are the cards from ATI OEM's that use the Radeon 9500 moniker; ATI's own Radeon 9500 Pro and Radeon 9700 Pro cards will support DX9 if you install the ATI CATALYST 3.0 display driver for Windows Me, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I think that nVidia will have GeForce FX variants with full DX9 supports from low-cost to top-end models by the late Spring 2003.
The Radeon 7500 will work under DirectX 9.0, but due to the design of the chipset on the Radeon 7500 the majority of the desireable features of DirectX 9.0 won't be available to your card.
You need a card that takes full advantage of DirectX 9.0; the ATI Radeon 9500/9500Pro (just released) and Radeon 9700/9700 Pro (which has been around for a couple of months) will fully take advantage of DirectX 9.0, especially if you install ATI's CATALYST 3.0 display driver that works with Windows Me, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Unfortunately, nVidia's GeForce4 Ti4xxx series chipsets won't take advantage of DirectX 9.0 features; that will have to wait for the GeForce FX that will ship in the first quarter of 2003.
I think for proper stationkeeping of these communications balloons they're going to have to fly them even higher--as high as 75,000 feet.
There are two reasons for this: 1) the jet stream has strong winds even in the 60,000 feet range; and 2) some thunderstorms have cloudtops as high as 65,000 feet!
I wouldn't be surprised that Microsoft is working on Internet Explorer 7.0 right now, which will probably be part of the next version of Windows (Windows Longhorn).
I wouldn't be surprised that IE 7.0 will include controls to tightly control pop-over/pop-under ads, given that these ads do tend to hog system resources and slow the WWW surfing experience.
Besides the obvious issue of lead poisoning, there were a few other factors in the phaseout of tetraethyl lead.
The development of much more precise fuel delivery systems with port (and now direct) fuel injection, better engine breathing (turbocharging, supercharging and 16 or 20 valve per cylinder cylinder heads) and the development of computerized engine controls made it possible to have extremely precise control of the combustion process, which made it possible to have powerful engines with no worries about engine knocking. A great example of this is the evolution of the four-cylinder engine on the Honda Accord; the 1986 Accord LX sported a 2.2-liter 12-valve per cylinder I-4 engine made about 98 bhp, while the 2003 Accord LX sports a 2.4-liter 16-valve per cylinder I-4 engine that makes 160 bhp, with a tiny fraction of the harmful emissions output and no change in fuel mileage! =)
I think Boeing--now that it no longer needs the resources to devote to the shelved Sonic Cruiser project--will now concentrate on building a transport plane based on the BWB design.
The reason is simple: cargo transport needs. There are two places where the demand will come from:
1. USAF's Air Mobility Command. The Lockheed C-5A/B Galaxy are starting to get old, and even the current rewing/re-engine project for the C-5 won't extend the life of that large transport much longer than an additional 12-13 years. AMC will need a new transport with lower fuel burn and more carrying capacity, and the BWB design is perfect for such a mission (indeed, Boeing's Phantom Works has shown a BWB military transport concept complete with loading ramps).
2. Commercial cargo carriers. Whille the upcoming Airbus A380-800F can carry more cargo volume for longer flight distances, it still can't carry the type of outsized cargo that could fit through the nose loading door of the 747F series. A civilian variant of the BWB cargo transport I just mentioned would be of great interest to FedEx, UPS, DHL, CargoLux, Air Foyle HeavyLift, and the air cargo divisions of Northwest Airlines, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, and Lufthansa. Such a BWB cargo transport could carry more cargo than the A380-800F, be able to accept outsized cargo, and even be able to fly Memphis, TN (FedEx's headquarters) to Tokyo, Japan fully-loaded nonstop year-round.
Eventually, we may see an airliner version of the BWB. Yes, I'm aware of the plane banking issue that could cause serious motion sickness for passengers sitting fairly far away from the airplane centerline, but improvements in aerodynamics and fly-by-wire controls will allow the plane to turn with very little banking to pretty much elminate that problem. The airliner version of the BWB has a number of other benefits:
1) The ground footprint of BWB is a small fraction of that of the A380-800. In fact, when you park the plane it doesn't take much more ground space than a 767-200!
2) Because the BWB is one gigantic natural lifting body, the plane will likely have much shorter runway requirements than the A380-800.
3) Because the BWB is a naturally efficient design the plane will have fuel burn some 20-30% lower than that of the A380-800. This means with the right design a BWB airliner will be the world's first airliner capable of flying between London, England and Sydney, Australia non-stop year-round, the last major hurdle in commercial aviation.
Actually, there are a number of routes that could use that A380-800 right now, even in today's depressed airline economy.
Transpacific flying is one place where we see the demand; for example, Singapore Airlines easily fills their transpacific flights on the Singapore-Hong Kong-San Francisco and Singapore-Taipei-Los Angeles routes most of the year with their 747-400's. Indeed, Singpore Airlines Flights 001/002 (which flies the Singapore-Hong Kong-San Francisco route) is perhaps that airline's most profitable route due to the large number of Hong Kong and Indian subcontinent ex-patriates that fly these two flights. This is why I expect the airline to switch from the 747-400 to the A380-800 by the late spring of 2006 on this very route due to the consistently high demand in all classes on this route.
The problem with Boeing's Sonic Cruiser are twofold:
1. The plane would travel around Mach 0.97, which does not offer that much in the way of speed improvements compared to a 747-400 except on extremely long routes (routes over 4,500 nautical miles in length).
2. The plane only will carry around 200 passengers, which could lead to pretty high seat-mile costs.
I think Boeing is much more wise to develop what amounts to a Next Generation 767. Take a fuselage length somewhere between the 767-300 and 767-400, but replace it with a new nose, new tail design, all-new, lower-drag wings, and use the latest in high-bypass engines. The result is a plane capable of seating 225-250 pax but can fly around 7,000 nautical miles and also cruise as high as Mach 0.89. I think not a few airline would be interested in such a plane, especially for the Mach 0.89 cruising speed.
Having read LoTR several times, I think Jackson did a pretty commendable job considering the original source material.
His strong emphasis on action really stands out in the breathtaking Helm's Deep sequence. That is some of the most amazing CGI I have ever seen.:-)
Yes, Jackson deviated much from the books, but who can blame him? The conversation between Faramir and Frodo/Sam in the novel would have bored people to tears, to say the least.
I for one cannot wait for The Return of the King. Imagine battle scenes ten times bigger in the Battle of Pelennor Fields! I think Mirando Otto will really be great as Eowyn in the next movie.
If you've read Humphrey Carpenter's biography on Tolkien, Carpenter frequently notes Tolkien's regret of watching the rapid industrialization of the United Kingdom.
Carpenter cites the following examples:
1. The encroachment of the city of Birmingham on Sarehole Mill (the inspiration for the mill at Hobbiton); when Tolkien was a small child Sarehole Mill was definitely out in a rural area.
2. Tolkien's experience with the terrifying toll of Industrial Age war in World War I.
3. Tolkien's dislike of what trains do.
4. Tolkien's eventual dislike of automobiles even though he owned one in the 1930's.
5. Tolkien mentioning in his cheque to Inland Revenue in the early 1960's of not a penny for Concorde.
Indeed, the chapter "The Scouring of the Shire" from The Return of the King is essentially an uprising against the Industrial Age in many ways.
While adding more series to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block is nice, unfortunately CN still has a bad habit of editing Japanese anime series various reasons. =(
I'm hoping that ADV Films' plan for a true dedicated anime TV channel becomes reality very soon. That way, we can see anime series UNCUT the way it was shown in Japan, even if we have to dub the voices. Of course, it would also be nice for some anime series to be shown on this channel in the original Japanese with subtitles for the purists, too. =)
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Oh, you mean the Ogg Theora project, done more or less by the same people who developed the Ogg Vorbis codec for audio compression?
If people really want a true Open Source solution for the next generation of video compression codecs, I'm surprised there hasn't been more support among the Linux crowd for Ogg Theora, which is being developed more or less by the same people who developed the Ogg Vorbis compression format for audio.
I think the reasons why Intel was able to quickly ramp up the speed of the Pentium 4 were:
1. The architectural design of the CPU core was intended to handle speeds well beyond 3 GHz CPU clock speed.
2. Intel's Northwood-core Pentium 4's with 512 KB of L2 cache on the CPU die substantially speeded up performance.
3. The introduction of Hyper-Threading Technology on the CPU core starting with the 3.06 GHz P4's will offer a bigger performance boost when software that takes full advantage of it arrives over the next six months.
If anyone remembers the original Socket 423 P4's, they ran very hot and had performance that was in many ways inferior to the Thunderbird-core Athlons. The current Northwood-core P4's run quite a bit cooler and offer extraordinary performance.
If you read my message, I would still sue Canon, Epson, HP and Lexmark for violating the Magnuson-Mass Act for the illegal business practice of tying (essentially being forced to buy replacement supplies or services from only one manufacturer after initial sale, I think).
After the successful lawsuit, the Federal government will force the printer manufacturers to allow approved third parties to manufacture printer consumables that will not violate the printer warranty.
I think there is one reason why Microsoft might make it possible to have an Open Source client program that can read .WMA, .WMV and .ASX files--it will put Real Networks and Apple at a serious competitive disadvantage.
.NET server--in one fell swoop the Sun-led Liberty Alliance project has been kiboshed because Windows clients and Linux clients can use more or less the same .NET services.
It's just like the fact that Microsoft has no qualms about Ximian's Mono project to create the Open Source equivalent of a
However, many users still want functionality in Linux that closely resemble what you get in Windows XP. Unfortunately that will result in system bloat because of all the multimedia programs, web browsers, etc. you have to include.
I think while we may be starting to reach the point that the laws of physics may limit how much faster a CPU can go, don't forget that other parts of the computer are getting major speed boosts, too.
First, there is the connection between chipsets on the motherboard. AMD's Hypertransport and others could make big differences on overall motherboard speed.
Second, system memory speeds are getting quite a bit faster, too. Developments in DDR-SDRAM technology could eventually result in throughput 2-3 times what we have now with DDR333 technology.
Third, expansion slots are getting faster, too. There are now standards upcoming for both PCI and AGP that will substantially increase data throughput on expansion slots.
Fourth, mass storage devices are getting faster, too. IDE hard drives have now reached ATA-133 speed, and future IDE hard drives using the new Serial ATA connection will eventually reach the equivalent of ATA-600 speed! SCSI interface hard drives are benefiting from Ultra 160 and Ultra 320 speeds, too. Even optical recorders are getting faster, too; we've reach 48X speeds for CD-R writers, and DVD recorders will go past 12X speeds some time in 2004.
Fifth, hot-docked external connections are getting faster, too. USB 2.0 support 480 megabits/second connections, and the next-generation of IEEE-1394 connectors will support 800 megabits/second connections.
Finally, graphics cards have seen VERY dramatic performance increases for 3-D graphics. Today's ATI Radeon 9700 Pro and the upcoming nVidia GeForce FX chipset graphics can achieve 3-D rendering that no one could have dreamed of even five years ago.
In short, CPU's will probably reach their limits before 2010 but overall system speed will still increase dramatically thanks to other system components speeding up.
Linux is great for server duties because of its stability and the fact in most cases you don't need to push the limits of hardware outside of faster data storage access.
However, as a desktop operating system it's not quite there yet. Windows--because it has standardized on the WIN32 API--has much wider hardware support for graphics cards and sound cards, things necessary for multimedia application such as high-end games (Neverwinter Nights, Unreal Tournament 2003, Max Payne, and the upcoming Doom III). Linux needs the equivalent of Microsoft's DirectX API's, not to mention (I know I will be modded way down for this =) ) a single, unified graphical interface which substantially eases progarmming issues. Linux also needs the equivalent of Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) for true automated configuration of new hardware, especially "hot docked" external devices through the USB 2.0 and IEEE-1394 interfaces.
Right now, there are obvious uses for such a high capacity optical drive, especially if they can produce at the same time a one terabyte re-writeable drive too.
For a re-writeable drive, one obvious application is personal video recorders (PVR's). Imagine by 2010 instead of recording shows on a TiVo or Replay TV unit on larger and larger hard drives the PVR will only sport a 20-30 gigabyte hard drive to store the program code for the PVR and program indexing information; the actual program itself will be recorded onto re-writeable and removeable 1 TB optical drives that will store nearly 1,000 hours of standard-format digital video or circa 300 hours of 1080i 16:9 uncompressed HDTV video. It is this technology that will finally end the reign of VHS VCR's for good.
For non-writeable 1.5 TB media, there is one application that needs it now: theatrical quality digital projection of movies. By 2010 digital projectors will have picture quality equivalent to 2000 lines non-interlaced, and that will mean massive storage requirements. Imagine storing the entire movie in uncompressed 2000-line digital projection format on just ONE DVD-sized disc, including multichannel audio in 6-7 languages and 7-8 languages of subtitles! Such a change will make it possible to have true simultaneous worldwide release of theatrical features, and just the savings in shipping costs between a movie on these new digital discs weighing well under half a pound (including the shipping package!) and a 35 mm print that weighs 105 pounds per hour of film is tremendous, to say the least.
Actually, for a ballistic missile you do want fairly intensive computational power, because even a tiny split-second error on engine firing and shutdown sequences will result in a circular error probability (CEP) of over a mile.
However, will the Dragon chip be able to run in the type of harsh environments demanded for military applications? We're talking extremes of physical shock, temperatures, humidity and EMP.
Also, modern electronic warfare demands huge computational needs; will the Dragon CPU be able to keep up with that type of work?
...Sun's own Java VM is dog-slow in many ways. I've tried JVM 1.4.1 on Windows 98 and when it loads the first time and/or run any Java applets it takes a long time to run. It's better in Windows 2000 Pro and Windows XP, but I still think Sun needs to speed up their Java VM to better work with Windows 98 to Windows XP.
Now, if the judge's order specified any Java VM that meets Sun's compatibility tests, maybe Micosoft could use IBM's excellent Java implementation instead.
Sheesh!
In that case this crowd needs to be sold a truckful of tinfoil hats. Does the phrase Get A Life have any meaning to them?
There is one way to refute the folks who think we faked the missions to the Moon: show samples of Moon soil from the Apollo missions and compare them against the Moon soil sample brought back by the Soviet Luna 16 probe in 1970.
:-p
Given that these two samples are pretty much the same element-wise, that should end the arguements once and for all, so there you hoax-believers.
Two answer your two points:
1. Microsoft's Asheron's Call 2 will be the first game to use DirectX 9.0 features. There are a number of upcoming games that will very likely use DirectX 9.0; I wouldn't be surprised that we see a patch for Neverwinter Nights to include DX9 support and EverQuest 2 will also include DX9 support.
2. The only reasonably-priced card that will support DX9 is are the cards from ATI OEM's that use the Radeon 9500 moniker; ATI's own Radeon 9500 Pro and Radeon 9700 Pro cards will support DX9 if you install the ATI CATALYST 3.0 display driver for Windows Me, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I think that nVidia will have GeForce FX variants with full DX9 supports from low-cost to top-end models by the late Spring 2003.
The Radeon 7500 will work under DirectX 9.0, but due to the design of the chipset on the Radeon 7500 the majority of the desireable features of DirectX 9.0 won't be available to your card.
You need a card that takes full advantage of DirectX 9.0; the ATI Radeon 9500/9500Pro (just released) and Radeon 9700/9700 Pro (which has been around for a couple of months) will fully take advantage of DirectX 9.0, especially if you install ATI's CATALYST 3.0 display driver that works with Windows Me, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Unfortunately, nVidia's GeForce4 Ti4xxx series chipsets won't take advantage of DirectX 9.0 features; that will have to wait for the GeForce FX that will ship in the first quarter of 2003.
I think for proper stationkeeping of these communications balloons they're going to have to fly them even higher--as high as 75,000 feet.
There are two reasons for this: 1) the jet stream has strong winds even in the 60,000 feet range; and 2) some thunderstorms have cloudtops as high as 65,000 feet!
I wouldn't be surprised that Microsoft is working on Internet Explorer 7.0 right now, which will probably be part of the next version of Windows (Windows Longhorn).
I wouldn't be surprised that IE 7.0 will include controls to tightly control pop-over/pop-under ads, given that these ads do tend to hog system resources and slow the WWW surfing experience.
Besides the obvious issue of lead poisoning, there were a few other factors in the phaseout of tetraethyl lead.
The development of much more precise fuel delivery systems with port (and now direct) fuel injection, better engine breathing (turbocharging, supercharging and 16 or 20 valve per cylinder cylinder heads) and the development of computerized engine controls made it possible to have extremely precise control of the combustion process, which made it possible to have powerful engines with no worries about engine knocking. A great example of this is the evolution of the four-cylinder engine on the Honda Accord; the 1986 Accord LX sported a 2.2-liter 12-valve per cylinder I-4 engine made about 98 bhp, while the 2003 Accord LX sports a 2.4-liter 16-valve per cylinder I-4 engine that makes 160 bhp, with a tiny fraction of the harmful emissions output and no change in fuel mileage! =)
I think Boeing--now that it no longer needs the resources to devote to the shelved Sonic Cruiser project--will now concentrate on building a transport plane based on the BWB design.
The reason is simple: cargo transport needs. There are two places where the demand will come from:
1. USAF's Air Mobility Command. The Lockheed C-5A/B Galaxy are starting to get old, and even the current rewing/re-engine project for the C-5 won't extend the life of that large transport much longer than an additional 12-13 years. AMC will need a new transport with lower fuel burn and more carrying capacity, and the BWB design is perfect for such a mission (indeed, Boeing's Phantom Works has shown a BWB military transport concept complete with loading ramps).
2. Commercial cargo carriers. Whille the upcoming Airbus A380-800F can carry more cargo volume for longer flight distances, it still can't carry the type of outsized cargo that could fit through the nose loading door of the 747F series. A civilian variant of the BWB cargo transport I just mentioned would be of great interest to FedEx, UPS, DHL, CargoLux, Air Foyle HeavyLift, and the air cargo divisions of Northwest Airlines, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, and Lufthansa. Such a BWB cargo transport could carry more cargo than the A380-800F, be able to accept outsized cargo, and even be able to fly Memphis, TN (FedEx's headquarters) to Tokyo, Japan fully-loaded nonstop year-round.
Eventually, we may see an airliner version of the BWB. Yes, I'm aware of the plane banking issue that could cause serious motion sickness for passengers sitting fairly far away from the airplane centerline, but improvements in aerodynamics and fly-by-wire controls will allow the plane to turn with very little banking to pretty much elminate that problem. The airliner version of the BWB has a number of other benefits:
1) The ground footprint of BWB is a small fraction of that of the A380-800. In fact, when you park the plane it doesn't take much more ground space than a 767-200!
2) Because the BWB is one gigantic natural lifting body, the plane will likely have much shorter runway requirements than the A380-800.
3) Because the BWB is a naturally efficient design the plane will have fuel burn some 20-30% lower than that of the A380-800. This means with the right design a BWB airliner will be the world's first airliner capable of flying between London, England and Sydney, Australia non-stop year-round, the last major hurdle in commercial aviation.
Actually, there are a number of routes that could use that A380-800 right now, even in today's depressed airline economy.
Transpacific flying is one place where we see the demand; for example, Singapore Airlines easily fills their transpacific flights on the Singapore-Hong Kong-San Francisco and Singapore-Taipei-Los Angeles routes most of the year with their 747-400's. Indeed, Singpore Airlines Flights 001/002 (which flies the Singapore-Hong Kong-San Francisco route) is perhaps that airline's most profitable route due to the large number of Hong Kong and Indian subcontinent ex-patriates that fly these two flights. This is why I expect the airline to switch from the 747-400 to the A380-800 by the late spring of 2006 on this very route due to the consistently high demand in all classes on this route.
The problem with Boeing's Sonic Cruiser are twofold:
1. The plane would travel around Mach 0.97, which does not offer that much in the way of speed improvements compared to a 747-400 except on extremely long routes (routes over 4,500 nautical miles in length).
2. The plane only will carry around 200 passengers, which could lead to pretty high seat-mile costs.
I think Boeing is much more wise to develop what amounts to a Next Generation 767. Take a fuselage length somewhere between the 767-300 and 767-400, but replace it with a new nose, new tail design, all-new, lower-drag wings, and use the latest in high-bypass engines. The result is a plane capable of seating 225-250 pax but can fly around 7,000 nautical miles and also cruise as high as Mach 0.89. I think not a few airline would be interested in such a plane, especially for the Mach 0.89 cruising speed.
Having read LoTR several times, I think Jackson did a pretty commendable job considering the original source material.
:-)
His strong emphasis on action really stands out in the breathtaking Helm's Deep sequence. That is some of the most amazing CGI I have ever seen.
Yes, Jackson deviated much from the books, but who can blame him? The conversation between Faramir and Frodo/Sam in the novel would have bored people to tears, to say the least.
I for one cannot wait for The Return of the King. Imagine battle scenes ten times bigger in the Battle of Pelennor Fields! I think Mirando Otto will really be great as Eowyn in the next movie.
If you've read Humphrey Carpenter's biography on Tolkien, Carpenter frequently notes Tolkien's regret of watching the rapid industrialization of the United Kingdom.
Carpenter cites the following examples:
1. The encroachment of the city of Birmingham on Sarehole Mill (the inspiration for the mill at Hobbiton); when Tolkien was a small child Sarehole Mill was definitely out in a rural area.
2. Tolkien's experience with the terrifying toll of Industrial Age war in World War I.
3. Tolkien's dislike of what trains do.
4. Tolkien's eventual dislike of automobiles even though he owned one in the 1930's.
5. Tolkien mentioning in his cheque to Inland Revenue in the early 1960's of not a penny for Concorde.
Indeed, the chapter "The Scouring of the Shire" from The Return of the King is essentially an uprising against the Industrial Age in many ways.
While adding more series to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block is nice, unfortunately CN still has a bad habit of editing Japanese anime series various reasons. =(
I'm hoping that ADV Films' plan for a true dedicated anime TV channel becomes reality very soon. That way, we can see anime series UNCUT the way it was shown in Japan, even if we have to dub the voices. Of course, it would also be nice for some anime series to be shown on this channel in the original Japanese with subtitles for the purists, too. =)