While the Wright Brothers created the first successful controllable heavier-than-air airplane, most aviation historians definitely recognize the achievements of Santos-Dumont.
This is because Santos-Dumont was the first to build an airplane that successfully took off in controlled flight using its own power instead of needing a catapault like the Wright Flyer needed.
Unlike Pearse though, the Wrights were highly scientifc and methodical in their approach. Taking every step slowly. Testing, testing, and then testing some more. Working up the final product in careful measured steps.
I think there are a couple of things that made the Wright Brothers' first flight more believable to the scientific community.
First of all, the Wright Brothers--being bicycle mechanics--already had the experience to build and design machines of various types. They just applied much of their bicycle engineering experience into building the Wright Flyer.
Second of all (and this is the very important one), the Wright Brothers methodically used the scientific method to design and refine the Wright Flyer design. Why do you think they were using wind tunnels to study airplane design on scale models, an idea far ahead of its time?
Finally, they actually bothered to get someone out there to take pictures proving such a flight did occur. That's why we have a number of pictures of the setup of the launching system and the actual flight itself.
But unlike all the other claimants, the Wright Brothers did a lot of serious scientific research into flight before they finally got it to work on 17 December 1903.
You are forgetting they used wind tunnels to test flight characteristics on scale models, something that I don't think anyone else had. It's an idea so scientifically sound that even today aerodynamicists use wind tunnels to test airplane shapes even with access to modern supercomputers that can study aerodynamic shapes with computational fluid dynamics.
The reason why most serious aeronautical historians credit the Wright Brothers was the fact that the Wright Brothers did a lot of very serious scientific research into flight before that first successful powered flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903. They used wind tunnels for research, a idea very far ahead of its time!
There are other claimants but none had the repeatability of what the Wright Brothers did in 1903.
The problem with DiVX movie files is that their picture quality is frequently inferior to the original DVD source and also the fact that you often lose the great Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS surround sound audio tracks, not to mention the commentary tracks! DiVX files are about 350 megabytes per hour in size, and downloading a 700 MB file of a two hour movie is a daunting task even for folks with broadband connections.
Besides, haven't you heard of this thing called Amazon.com or DeepDiscountDVD.com, where you can get DVD's for real cheap? Or better yet, carefully watch the sales flyers for Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Target, and so on to get first day of release sale prices? I got The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings Extended Edition for US$24.99 + tax on the first day of sale! At US$24.99 FoTR:EE was probably the biggest DVD bargain of the year, in my opinion.
The problem with buying CD's online is that they don't offer much cheaper prices than the US$18 per disc you see in mortar and brick retail stores. Small wonder why CD piracy is so rampant.
I think the problem the RIAA does not realize is the fact they are falling victim to the laws of economics--the invisible hand has slapped them hard.
When you start pricing album-length audio CD's at US$18 per disc in what amounts to a cartel-like situation customers are LESS likely to buy CD's produced by RIAA member companies because the customer thinks the record companies are gouging them for high prices. Anyone who's read up on basic microeconomics know that high cartel good prices encourage ways to undermine the cartel, hence the reason why file-sharing sites have become all the rage in the last four years.
If the RIAA had been a bit more enlightened they should have priced CD's at round US$11 per album-length disc, which would have drastically cut the economic incentive to pirate music. After all, is there rampant piracy of DVD's here in the USA? Of course not, given the fact that the MPAA allows DVD's to be sold at reasonable prices (US$20 per disc for new releases, US$15 or much less for older releases).
While we all are impresssed by Apple's excellent Final Cut Pro Version 3.0 video editing tools, the PC side has not been standing still.
Anyone who's tried Sonic Foundry's Vegas Video Version 3.0 has found out it can do pretty much everything Final Cut Pro can do, but Vegas Video is under half the price of Apple's program and today's PC hardware and OS software now have the power to do things that used to be the province of the Mac. Also, Windows XP Professional supports IEEE-1394 connections natively, so hooking up a camcorder that has IEEE-1394 connections is a snap.
A do-it-yourselfer could probably build up a very nice cutting-edge system that could easily compete against Apple's high-end Power Macintosh workstations in terms of video capture and editing for probably half the price of Apple's machine.
I don't think Disney will try to pull this stunt on us for the eventual Region 1 DVD release of Spirited Away that will probably come some time in 2003.
Mostly because here in the USA we have a huge number of folks with 32" or larger CRT televisions and an increasing number of folks with projection TV sets--any hint of a reddish tint on the Region 1 DVD release of Spirited Away will cause Disney to be read the riot act in a New York minute and then some.
Here's where consumers need 64-bit CPU's
on
AMD's 64-bit Plot
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I think you'll be surprised where 64-bit CPU's may become useful consumers.
The first place where this will be useful is video editing. With the proliferation of MiniDV camcorders that have IEEE-1394 connections to desktop computers, many camcorder users are downloading video onto their computers for editing and creating home-made VideoCD or DVD-R discs. With 64-bit CPU processing we now can see the development much more sophisticated (yet easier to use) programs that make video editing and VideoCD or DVD-R disc creation almost a snap.
The second place this is useful is still image editing. With the proliferation of digital still cameras with USB ports people are doing more and more image processing of still images before printing out the pictures. With 64-bit CPU processing we can see image-editing tools that can do image processing that is far more sophisticated than what even Photoshop 7.0 can do today, yet would be easier to use than ever.
The final place is games. 64-bit processing makes it possible to do extremely sophisticated graphics effects in real time without over-reliance on an expensive high-end graphics card; a lot of games that need fast motion with complex backgrounds could benefit from going to 64-bit CPU processing.
I think once low-sulfur diesel fuel becomes widely available, the concerns about CAFE on trucks and SUV's will actually go down.
The reason is simple: a turbocharged diesel engine is actually better suited for SUV's and pickup trucks than regular gasoline engines, because the initial startup torque of a modern diesel engine is nothing short of extraordinary, to say the least. That high level of low-end torque is perfect for pulling heavy trailers and driving a SUV in rough terrain. GM's Duramax diesel engine found on their pickup truck models is proof you can pull 7,000 lb. trailers at around 18 miles per US gallon fuel mileage, which is actually superb fuel economy considering the load on the engine.
Just switching most of our pickup trucks and larger SUV's to a 2002-technology turbodiesel engines would raise CAFE of trucks and SUV's by 25% to 30%--and low-sulfur diesel fuel will allow this to happen.
VW's amazing PD 130/PD 150 engines
on
239 MPG Car
·
· Score: 2
The best examples of a powerful and efficient modern diesel engine are Volkswagen's amazing PD 130 and PD 150 turbodiesel engines.
They offer surprisingly amounts of performance and still get 40 to 45 miles per US gallon fuel mileage even with a lot of hard driving. Small wonder why VW's and SEAT's powered by these two engines are extremely popular in Europe.
Re:You Americans are funny sometimes...
on
239 MPG Car
·
· Score: 2
Of course, if you want to drive a diesel car with surprising amount of power, try a Volkswagen Golf or Bora (as the Jetta is known in Europe) with the PD 130 turbodiesel engine. The PD 130-powered VW's (and equivalent SEAT models) are flying out the doors of dealerships all over Europe, especially in countries where diesel fuel is taxed much lower than petrol.
With the EPA in the USA soon mandating the use of low-sulfur diesel fuel, we Americans will soon enjoy PD 130-powered VW's, too.:-)
Today's diesel engines are WAY better
on
239 MPG Car
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Tyro,
Let me address your concerns one by one.
1. The engine being noisy and dirty are things of the past. Modern computer design has improved diesel engines to the point that the clattering sound you hear from old-style engines no longer exists on a 2002-manufactured diesel engine. As for the air pollution problem, the use of modern fuel-delivery systems and modern particulate traps/exhaust catalysts will eliminate the unhealthy exhaust of diesel engines of the past. The only reason why diesels aren't common in the USA is the fact Diesel #2 fuel sold in most of the USA has sulfur compound levels of around 2,000 parts per million, which will quickly corrode fuel-delivery and exhaust emission control systems on European market diesel cars in very short order. Fortunately, with the EPA mandating low-sulfur diesel fuels very soon, we will see clean-burning diesel engines in the US market in a few years.
2. Finding diesel fuel pumping stations is fortunately not as bad as it used to be, thanks to the fact diesel engines are very popular for pickup trucks.
3. Because modern diesel engines don't have the vibrations of older-style engines, you don't have to worry about engine vibration causing long-term structural damage to the car. The current 90 bhp TDI engine on the VW Golf/Jetta is quiet enough that you really for the most part can't tell if it's a gasoline or diesel engine. I can't wait for VW to bring over the PD 130 diesel engine with its 130 bhp output and massive initial starting torque.
4. Modern diesel engines have pretty much cured the problem of not being able to shut them off on high temperature conditions, thanks to modern fuel delivery systems that have automatic cutoff.
I for one want to see Toyota build a Prius with a 1.0-liter turbodiesel engine instead of the 1.3-liter gasoline engine. Instead of getting fuel mileage around 50 miles per US gallon try getting fuel mileage in the range of 70 miles per US gallon!:-)
...the average 3.5" 1/3 height hard disk will be storing more like one hundred terabytes, not one terabyte.
Even with that much storage capacity by 2012 it's likely MPEG-4 will be superceded by an even better video compression format, and we may be seeing a couple of thousand hours of 1080i 16:9 HDTV video stored on a single 100 TB drive.
I think based on the fact that much of the Shire wasn't hilly, hobbit holes are actually quite uncommon there for practical reasons. I can guess only the well-off were able to live at Bag End and the hobbit holes below it on Bagshot Row in Hobbiton. It's likely that when you walk east from Bywater through Frogmorton to the Brandywine Bridge hobbit holes are uncommon sights. It's very unlikely you'll see hobbit holes in Southfarthing, the major agricultural region of the Shire.
Brandy Hall in Buckland is a large series of interconnected hobbit holes, but then Brandy Hall was built upon a hillside just beyond the eastern shores of the Baranduin (neé Brandywine) River.
I think 2002 will be a much better year for Disney animated features.
Lilo & Stitch did good business at the box office and was very well-received by critics; it appears that Treasure Planet may do this also. It appears that Disney has learned from the horrid experiences of The Emperor's New Groove, Dinosaur and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and the upper management kept pretty much hands-off on this year's feature releases.
The lunchbox computer box idea maybe cute, but for not much bigger physical size you can get a REAL computer powerful enough to handle even the most demanding desktop computing tasks. Remember the Shuttle SB-51G case mentioned on/. a few days ago with Intel i845 chipset motherboard that supports even the Pentium 4 3.06 GHz CPU? The one that has USB 2.0, IEEE-1394, and SPDIF connections? With onboard video (which can be disabled so you can install your own graphics card) and excellent onboard audio that supports Dolby Digital 5.1 audio?
...The folks who write spyware and other programs tracking your Internet access haven't yet discovered Mozilla 1.x and Netscape 7.0 yet. Given that many web browsers need cookies to operate in certain sites, it won't be long before you see spyware running in Mozilla and Netscape 7.0 without you knowing it.
Besides, if you apply all appropriate patches from Windows Update, configure Outlook Express' Security functions NOT to allow downloading of attachments and install McAfee VirusScan 7.x, you can surf the Internet pretty securely with Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1.
I think in today's economy, the next major burst of upgrade comes in four areas:
1. Memory upgrades. You'll be amazed that many computer built before 2000 sport 64 MB of RAM at most. Given many of them use 168-pin DIMM's, they could be easily upgrade the RAM to 256 MB or well beyond that for a very reasonable price. And the benefits are immediate: since the need to use the hard drive as virtual memory is very low with computer that have memory upgrades, performance increases of 70 to 100 percent are not out of the question, not to mention substantially fewer system crashes, too.
2. Hard drive upgrades. The switch to a 7200 RPM drive makes reading and writing data on a hard drive much faster. People shouldn't worry about ATA-66 or ATA-100 hard drives working on motherboards with ATA-33 connections, since they should be compatible in general. Sure, you won't get the full benefit of the ATA-66/100 data rate, but it would probably be much better than the old hard drive.
3. Graphics card upgrades. Many older systems use old technology AGP slot graphics cards that are woefully underpowered to handle many of today's multimedia tasks. Cards such as the ATI Radeon 7000 or card that use the nVidia GeForce4 MX420 CPU of course won't offer cutting edge 3-D performance, but they're very reasonably priced and are still vastly better than the original cards.
4. CPU upgrades. Don't laugh--if you have a motherboard that uses Slot 1 or Socket 370, there are now upgrades that can tremendously increase the speed of the computer. Powerleap is now selling CPU upgrades for Slot 1 and Socket 370 that uses the Tualatin-core Celeron and Pentium III CPU's running at well beyond 1 GHz CPU clock speed.
Very likely, most people will spring for the memory upgrade first, since it's the cheapest solution and the one that has the most immediate benefits for all programs.
My prediction is that people will start demanding silent PCs that are power efficient, don't take up much space, and have a chasis, moniter, speakers, keyboard, and mouse that fit the fashion of the day.
...something quite close to Shuttle Computer's XPC series of very small computer boxes.
I wouldn't be surprised the next major form factor for desktop computers is something akin to Shuttle's designs. Why bother with big, monster-sized system cases when you could built a very powerful system with a case that is 1/3 the volume of the average mid-tower system case?
You want something small and quiet, but doesn't sacrifice anything in terms of performance?
Get the Shuttle SB-51G motherboard/case combo, which was mentioned in a very recent/. article. Put in a Pentium 4 2.0 GHz CPU (Northwood-core version), 512 MB of DDR333 RAM, a 60 to 80 GB ATA-100 hard drive, a combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive (e.g., Toshiba SD-R1202), and a LeadTek WinFast A250 LE TD card with the nVidia GeForce4 Ti4200 GPU, and you have a very nice computer that not only plays today's most advanced games quite well but also has enough connections to support today's and tomorrow's multimedia hardware that use USB 2.0 or IEEE-1394 connections.
I don't think AMD is leaving the x86-compatible CPU market anytime soon. I think AMD was just unfortunate that the current market conditions won't allow for the company to be profitable in the CPU market; what AMD wants to do is expand into building other specialty products that will better insulate itself from market conditions. If you look Intel's wide range of products they are heavily into networking, specialized-market RISC CPU, and so on.
The thing is that AMD--unlike previous competitors in the field like Cyrix--has demonstrated that can produce CPU's that are very competitive performance-wise against Intel's products. The Athlon XP 2800+ --which should ship any time now--has proven it can keep up with the Pentium 4 2.8 GHz CPU in most benchmark tests. Intel can't sit on its laurels with the new Pentium 4 3.06 GHz CPU that has the Hyperthreading functionality; they very well know that the Barton-core Athlons due the first quarter of 2003 will probably keep up with the Pentium 4 3.06 GHz, because the new Athlons will not only sport 512 KB L2 cache on the CPU die but also other changes to the main CPU core to improve performance.
Based upon the reviews so far, install a decent 60 GB ATA-133 hard drive, a Toshiba SD-R1202 CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, the upcoming ATI Radeon 9500 Pro video card, an Intel Pentium 4 2.53 GHZ CPU and 512 MB of DDR333 DDR-SDRAM into the case--it could be a very nice gaming system that will run most games decently fast and even support SDPIF out for full Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS surround decoding for DVD movies.
ATI's CATALYST 2.3 and 2.4 drivers will work on every ATI Radeon chipset from the R100 all the way to the R300 used on the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro board. This is pretty much a de facto "unified" driver in my view.
Besides, there is no such thing as a stable driver. I've read on the alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia newsgroup that many high-end games still have trouble with the latest nVidia Detonator 40.72 driver (shrug).
At least ATI is getting their act together with the latest CATALYST drivers.
Actually, the larger Delta IV and Atlas V launchers will be used on the next generation of Mars exploration probes.
Already, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be launched on top of the Atlas V; future Mars missions carrying payloads to examine the Mars atmosphere by glider and free-flying balloon and eventually a Mars soil sample return mission will likely need these bigger launchers.
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While the Wright Brothers created the first successful controllable heavier-than-air airplane, most aviation historians definitely recognize the achievements of Santos-Dumont.
This is because Santos-Dumont was the first to build an airplane that successfully took off in controlled flight using its own power instead of needing a catapault like the Wright Flyer needed.
Unlike Pearse though, the Wrights were highly scientifc and methodical in their approach. Taking every step slowly. Testing, testing, and then testing some more. Working up the final product in careful measured steps.
I think there are a couple of things that made the Wright Brothers' first flight more believable to the scientific community.
First of all, the Wright Brothers--being bicycle mechanics--already had the experience to build and design machines of various types. They just applied much of their bicycle engineering experience into building the Wright Flyer.
Second of all (and this is the very important one), the Wright Brothers methodically used the scientific method to design and refine the Wright Flyer design. Why do you think they were using wind tunnels to study airplane design on scale models, an idea far ahead of its time?
Finally, they actually bothered to get someone out there to take pictures proving such a flight did occur. That's why we have a number of pictures of the setup of the launching system and the actual flight itself.
But unlike all the other claimants, the Wright Brothers did a lot of serious scientific research into flight before they finally got it to work on 17 December 1903.
You are forgetting they used wind tunnels to test flight characteristics on scale models, something that I don't think anyone else had. It's an idea so scientifically sound that even today aerodynamicists use wind tunnels to test airplane shapes even with access to modern supercomputers that can study aerodynamic shapes with computational fluid dynamics.
The reason why most serious aeronautical historians credit the Wright Brothers was the fact that the Wright Brothers did a lot of very serious scientific research into flight before that first successful powered flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903. They used wind tunnels for research, a idea very far ahead of its time!
There are other claimants but none had the repeatability of what the Wright Brothers did in 1903.
You have got to be kidding.
The problem with DiVX movie files is that their picture quality is frequently inferior to the original DVD source and also the fact that you often lose the great Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS surround sound audio tracks, not to mention the commentary tracks! DiVX files are about 350 megabytes per hour in size, and downloading a 700 MB file of a two hour movie is a daunting task even for folks with broadband connections.
Besides, haven't you heard of this thing called Amazon.com or DeepDiscountDVD.com, where you can get DVD's for real cheap? Or better yet, carefully watch the sales flyers for Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Target, and so on to get first day of release sale prices? I got The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings Extended Edition for US$24.99 + tax on the first day of sale! At US$24.99 FoTR:EE was probably the biggest DVD bargain of the year, in my opinion.
The problem with buying CD's online is that they don't offer much cheaper prices than the US$18 per disc you see in mortar and brick retail stores. Small wonder why CD piracy is so rampant.
I think the problem the RIAA does not realize is the fact they are falling victim to the laws of economics--the invisible hand has slapped them hard.
When you start pricing album-length audio CD's at US$18 per disc in what amounts to a cartel-like situation customers are LESS likely to buy CD's produced by RIAA member companies because the customer thinks the record companies are gouging them for high prices. Anyone who's read up on basic microeconomics know that high cartel good prices encourage ways to undermine the cartel, hence the reason why file-sharing sites have become all the rage in the last four years.
If the RIAA had been a bit more enlightened they should have priced CD's at round US$11 per album-length disc, which would have drastically cut the economic incentive to pirate music. After all, is there rampant piracy of DVD's here in the USA? Of course not, given the fact that the MPAA allows DVD's to be sold at reasonable prices (US$20 per disc for new releases, US$15 or much less for older releases).
While we all are impresssed by Apple's excellent Final Cut Pro Version 3.0 video editing tools, the PC side has not been standing still.
Anyone who's tried Sonic Foundry's Vegas Video Version 3.0 has found out it can do pretty much everything Final Cut Pro can do, but Vegas Video is under half the price of Apple's program and today's PC hardware and OS software now have the power to do things that used to be the province of the Mac. Also, Windows XP Professional supports IEEE-1394 connections natively, so hooking up a camcorder that has IEEE-1394 connections is a snap.
A do-it-yourselfer could probably build up a very nice cutting-edge system that could easily compete against Apple's high-end Power Macintosh workstations in terms of video capture and editing for probably half the price of Apple's machine.
I don't think Disney will try to pull this stunt on us for the eventual Region 1 DVD release of Spirited Away that will probably come some time in 2003.
Mostly because here in the USA we have a huge number of folks with 32" or larger CRT televisions and an increasing number of folks with projection TV sets--any hint of a reddish tint on the Region 1 DVD release of Spirited Away will cause Disney to be read the riot act in a New York minute and then some.
I think you'll be surprised where 64-bit CPU's may become useful consumers.
The first place where this will be useful is video editing. With the proliferation of MiniDV camcorders that have IEEE-1394 connections to desktop computers, many camcorder users are downloading video onto their computers for editing and creating home-made VideoCD or DVD-R discs. With 64-bit CPU processing we now can see the development much more sophisticated (yet easier to use) programs that make video editing and VideoCD or DVD-R disc creation almost a snap.
The second place this is useful is still image editing. With the proliferation of digital still cameras with USB ports people are doing more and more image processing of still images before printing out the pictures. With 64-bit CPU processing we can see image-editing tools that can do image processing that is far more sophisticated than what even Photoshop 7.0 can do today, yet would be easier to use than ever.
The final place is games. 64-bit processing makes it possible to do extremely sophisticated graphics effects in real time without over-reliance on an expensive high-end graphics card; a lot of games that need fast motion with complex backgrounds could benefit from going to 64-bit CPU processing.
I think once low-sulfur diesel fuel becomes widely available, the concerns about CAFE on trucks and SUV's will actually go down.
The reason is simple: a turbocharged diesel engine is actually better suited for SUV's and pickup trucks than regular gasoline engines, because the initial startup torque of a modern diesel engine is nothing short of extraordinary, to say the least. That high level of low-end torque is perfect for pulling heavy trailers and driving a SUV in rough terrain. GM's Duramax diesel engine found on their pickup truck models is proof you can pull 7,000 lb. trailers at around 18 miles per US gallon fuel mileage, which is actually superb fuel economy considering the load on the engine.
Just switching most of our pickup trucks and larger SUV's to a 2002-technology turbodiesel engines would raise CAFE of trucks and SUV's by 25% to 30%--and low-sulfur diesel fuel will allow this to happen.
The best examples of a powerful and efficient modern diesel engine are Volkswagen's amazing PD 130 and PD 150 turbodiesel engines.
They offer surprisingly amounts of performance and still get 40 to 45 miles per US gallon fuel mileage even with a lot of hard driving. Small wonder why VW's and SEAT's powered by these two engines are extremely popular in Europe.
Of course, if you want to drive a diesel car with surprising amount of power, try a Volkswagen Golf or Bora (as the Jetta is known in Europe) with the PD 130 turbodiesel engine. The PD 130-powered VW's (and equivalent SEAT models) are flying out the doors of dealerships all over Europe, especially in countries where diesel fuel is taxed much lower than petrol.
:-)
With the EPA in the USA soon mandating the use of low-sulfur diesel fuel, we Americans will soon enjoy PD 130-powered VW's, too.
Tyro,
:-)
Let me address your concerns one by one.
1. The engine being noisy and dirty are things of the past. Modern computer design has improved diesel engines to the point that the clattering sound you hear from old-style engines no longer exists on a 2002-manufactured diesel engine. As for the air pollution problem, the use of modern fuel-delivery systems and modern particulate traps/exhaust catalysts will eliminate the unhealthy exhaust of diesel engines of the past. The only reason why diesels aren't common in the USA is the fact Diesel #2 fuel sold in most of the USA has sulfur compound levels of around 2,000 parts per million, which will quickly corrode fuel-delivery and exhaust emission control systems on European market diesel cars in very short order. Fortunately, with the EPA mandating low-sulfur diesel fuels very soon, we will see clean-burning diesel engines in the US market in a few years.
2. Finding diesel fuel pumping stations is fortunately not as bad as it used to be, thanks to the fact diesel engines are very popular for pickup trucks.
3. Because modern diesel engines don't have the vibrations of older-style engines, you don't have to worry about engine vibration causing long-term structural damage to the car. The current 90 bhp TDI engine on the VW Golf/Jetta is quiet enough that you really for the most part can't tell if it's a gasoline or diesel engine. I can't wait for VW to bring over the PD 130 diesel engine with its 130 bhp output and massive initial starting torque.
4. Modern diesel engines have pretty much cured the problem of not being able to shut them off on high temperature conditions, thanks to modern fuel delivery systems that have automatic cutoff.
I for one want to see Toyota build a Prius with a 1.0-liter turbodiesel engine instead of the 1.3-liter gasoline engine. Instead of getting fuel mileage around 50 miles per US gallon try getting fuel mileage in the range of 70 miles per US gallon!
...the average 3.5" 1/3 height hard disk will be storing more like one hundred terabytes, not one terabyte.
Even with that much storage capacity by 2012 it's likely MPEG-4 will be superceded by an even better video compression format, and we may be seeing a couple of thousand hours of 1080i 16:9 HDTV video stored on a single 100 TB drive.
I think based on the fact that much of the Shire wasn't hilly, hobbit holes are actually quite uncommon there for practical reasons. I can guess only the well-off were able to live at Bag End and the hobbit holes below it on Bagshot Row in Hobbiton. It's likely that when you walk east from Bywater through Frogmorton to the Brandywine Bridge hobbit holes are uncommon sights. It's very unlikely you'll see hobbit holes in Southfarthing, the major agricultural region of the Shire.
Brandy Hall in Buckland is a large series of interconnected hobbit holes, but then Brandy Hall was built upon a hillside just beyond the eastern shores of the Baranduin (neé Brandywine) River.
I think 2002 will be a much better year for Disney animated features.
Lilo & Stitch did good business at the box office and was very well-received by critics; it appears that Treasure Planet may do this also. It appears that Disney has learned from the horrid experiences of The Emperor's New Groove, Dinosaur and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and the upper management kept pretty much hands-off on this year's feature releases.
The lunchbox computer box idea maybe cute, but for not much bigger physical size you can get a REAL computer powerful enough to handle even the most demanding desktop computing tasks. Remember the Shuttle SB-51G case mentioned on /. a few days ago with Intel i845 chipset motherboard that supports even the Pentium 4 3.06 GHz CPU? The one that has USB 2.0, IEEE-1394, and SPDIF connections? With onboard video (which can be disabled so you can install your own graphics card) and excellent onboard audio that supports Dolby Digital 5.1 audio?
...The folks who write spyware and other programs tracking your Internet access haven't yet discovered Mozilla 1.x and Netscape 7.0 yet. Given that many web browsers need cookies to operate in certain sites, it won't be long before you see spyware running in Mozilla and Netscape 7.0 without you knowing it.
Besides, if you apply all appropriate patches from Windows Update, configure Outlook Express' Security functions NOT to allow downloading of attachments and install McAfee VirusScan 7.x, you can surf the Internet pretty securely with Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1.
I think in today's economy, the next major burst of upgrade comes in four areas:
1. Memory upgrades. You'll be amazed that many computer built before 2000 sport 64 MB of RAM at most. Given many of them use 168-pin DIMM's, they could be easily upgrade the RAM to 256 MB or well beyond that for a very reasonable price. And the benefits are immediate: since the need to use the hard drive as virtual memory is very low with computer that have memory upgrades, performance increases of 70 to 100 percent are not out of the question, not to mention substantially fewer system crashes, too.
2. Hard drive upgrades. The switch to a 7200 RPM drive makes reading and writing data on a hard drive much faster. People shouldn't worry about ATA-66 or ATA-100 hard drives working on motherboards with ATA-33 connections, since they should be compatible in general. Sure, you won't get the full benefit of the ATA-66/100 data rate, but it would probably be much better than the old hard drive.
3. Graphics card upgrades. Many older systems use old technology AGP slot graphics cards that are woefully underpowered to handle many of today's multimedia tasks. Cards such as the ATI Radeon 7000 or card that use the nVidia GeForce4 MX420 CPU of course won't offer cutting edge 3-D performance, but they're very reasonably priced and are still vastly better than the original cards.
4. CPU upgrades. Don't laugh--if you have a motherboard that uses Slot 1 or Socket 370, there are now upgrades that can tremendously increase the speed of the computer. Powerleap is now selling CPU upgrades for Slot 1 and Socket 370 that uses the Tualatin-core Celeron and Pentium III CPU's running at well beyond 1 GHz CPU clock speed.
Very likely, most people will spring for the memory upgrade first, since it's the cheapest solution and the one that has the most immediate benefits for all programs.
I wouldn't be surprised the next major form factor for desktop computers is something akin to Shuttle's designs. Why bother with big, monster-sized system cases when you could built a very powerful system with a case that is 1/3 the volume of the average mid-tower system case?
You want something small and quiet, but doesn't sacrifice anything in terms of performance?
/. article. Put in a Pentium 4 2.0 GHz CPU (Northwood-core version), 512 MB of DDR333 RAM, a 60 to 80 GB ATA-100 hard drive, a combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive (e.g., Toshiba SD-R1202), and a LeadTek WinFast A250 LE TD card with the nVidia GeForce4 Ti4200 GPU, and you have a very nice computer that not only plays today's most advanced games quite well but also has enough connections to support today's and tomorrow's multimedia hardware that use USB 2.0 or IEEE-1394 connections.
Get the Shuttle SB-51G motherboard/case combo, which was mentioned in a very recent
I don't think AMD is leaving the x86-compatible CPU market anytime soon. I think AMD was just unfortunate that the current market conditions won't allow for the company to be profitable in the CPU market; what AMD wants to do is expand into building other specialty products that will better insulate itself from market conditions. If you look Intel's wide range of products they are heavily into networking, specialized-market RISC CPU, and so on.
The thing is that AMD--unlike previous competitors in the field like Cyrix--has demonstrated that can produce CPU's that are very competitive performance-wise against Intel's products. The Athlon XP 2800+ --which should ship any time now--has proven it can keep up with the Pentium 4 2.8 GHz CPU in most benchmark tests. Intel can't sit on its laurels with the new Pentium 4 3.06 GHz CPU that has the Hyperthreading functionality; they very well know that the Barton-core Athlons due the first quarter of 2003 will probably keep up with the Pentium 4 3.06 GHz, because the new Athlons will not only sport 512 KB L2 cache on the CPU die but also other changes to the main CPU core to improve performance.
Based upon the reviews so far, install a decent 60 GB ATA-133 hard drive, a Toshiba SD-R1202 CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, the upcoming ATI Radeon 9500 Pro video card, an Intel Pentium 4 2.53 GHZ CPU and 512 MB of DDR333 DDR-SDRAM into the case--it could be a very nice gaming system that will run most games decently fast and even support SDPIF out for full Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS surround decoding for DVD movies.
I have news for you.
ATI's CATALYST 2.3 and 2.4 drivers will work on every ATI Radeon chipset from the R100 all the way to the R300 used on the ATI Radeon 9700 Pro board. This is pretty much a de facto "unified" driver in my view.
Besides, there is no such thing as a stable driver. I've read on the alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia newsgroup that many high-end games still have trouble with the latest nVidia Detonator 40.72 driver (shrug).
At least ATI is getting their act together with the latest CATALYST drivers.
Actually, the larger Delta IV and Atlas V launchers will be used on the next generation of Mars exploration probes.
Already, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be launched on top of the Atlas V; future Mars missions carrying payloads to examine the Mars atmosphere by glider and free-flying balloon and eventually a Mars soil sample return mission will likely need these bigger launchers.