The biggest reason why VHS won was the fact that JVC (the developer of the Video Home System format) and its majority shareholder Matsushita Electric offered extremely low licensing terms for other companies to manufacture VHS recorders--far lower than that of what Sony wanted for the Betamax format.
Besides, VHS had another huge advantage, notably longer recording times at all recording speeds, something highly desirable for recording complete TV seasons, miniseries or sporting events. And VHS easily matched Beta improvements in sound and picture quality with VHS Hi-Fi audio and Super VHS higher-resolution recording.
I think the biggest thing that doomed the Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) was the fact that IBM did not bother to license the technology at very low cost.
If IBM had done a proper job of licensing MCA at a low cost then not only would MCA have replaced the old ISA bus, but alternative bus connection architectures like EISA, VL-Bus, PCI, AGP and PCI Express would have never happened! This is because we know now that MCA could be easily expanded all the way to 64-bit bus connections and support very fast bus speeds. Indeed, if you look at PCI and PCI Express connectors they strongly resemble the old MCA connectors in physical design.
And the very scary part is that al-Qaeda operatives are willing to ANY means to cause mass casualties.
They are definitely not above releasing a deadly biological agent, a canister of home-made chemical weapons (even something as easy to make as phosgene gas can cause a lot of casualties in an enclosed area), or detonating an improvised nuclear bomb of around 1 kT yield on a suicide mission. =:-O
I think people should forget about the very idea of installing thousands of 802.11 variant WiFi transceivers just to cover the metropolitan area. Just the maintanence costs would get ridiculous pretty quickly having service all those thousands of tranceivers, that's to be sure.
The use of WiMAX 802.16d fixed/802.20 mobile works out vastly better, mostly because you need only a small number of transceiver antenna arrays to cover an entire metropolitan area. By piggybacking WiMAX antennas with current cellphone antenna arrays you already have coverage of most of the population of the USA anyway, so you only need to build new WiMAX-specific antenna arrays to cover the most rural areas.
The standard modus operandi of the Provisional IRA is usually announced a blast then the blast occurs, and usually one bomb at a time.
Given the fact the attacks all happened in a very close time period and the terrifying carnage of 45 dead and over 1000 injured (according to Sky News the last I heard) is more the modus operandi of al-Qaeda--a group known for doing spectacular terrorist attacks.
Mostly because if liquid hydrogen explode it does it with great force, as the late Ben Rich found out when he did research for a proposed LH2-fuelled reconnaissance plane. Note that in his book Skunk Works Rich noted that when he visited a university where students did research on LH2 there were a number of holes in the wall caused by LH2 explosions--and that's with a very small amount of LH2 being used in lab experiments!
That's why when Challenger exploded in 1986 it did it with the force of a tactical nuclear warhead, the explosion fuelled by the ignition of LH2 and LOX.
Now I don't want to sound paranoid or suggest a conspiracy, but come on, the timing of this seizure is extraordinary. And there's about 0.00% chance of getting the server back before G8.
If that's true the UK law enforcement authorities would have seized every Indymedia server in the UK by now.
By the way, I think the protesters need to disawow themselves fast from the groups who want to use the protests at the upcoming G8 summit as a pretext to cause violence and looting. Peaceful protest is one thing, but violent protest is quite something else....
With the proliferation of cheap digital still cameras and MiniDV/MicroDV camcorders, people are now increasingly editing their still pictures and home movies on a desktop computer. Problem is, both of these require substantial increases in computing power with lots of RAM available, so getting a faster computer is a MUST.
Programs like Corel's Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Premiere take advantage of the multimedia extensions provided by today's latest CPU's, so using the latest CPU's means less time spending waiting for the computer to do your image/movie edits.
One thing I do express concerns in regards to today's fastest steel-rail trains is the sheer physical wear and tear on the tracks, rolling stock and overhead wiring from all that high speed travel.
When you go faster than 300 km/h (186 mph), the issue of wear from the physical contact between the steel tracks and steel rails and the catenary pickup and overhead wiring could mean much more maintanence expense on a per kilometer basis. This means frequent and high-quality maintanence, because even one small flaw will have extremely disastrous consequences; we all remember that German ICE train tragedy where a flaw in a broken wheel cause a derailment that killed over 100 people some years ago.
As such, for reliability and cost of maintanence reasons I don't see steel-rail high-speed rail go much faster than 300 km/h in revenue service anytime soon. Yes, the French did manage to get TGV to go over 320 mph but that was with a four-car highly-modified trainset on a very straight alignment of track, something not found in regular TGV trains in revenue service.
If you look at Firefox, the Maxthon and Avant Browser shell programs for Internet Explorer, and now Internet Explorer 7.0, they all share one thing in common: they all borrowed Opera's combination of address and search bars at the top of the browser.
Re:But will it be competitive against WiMax?
on
Tetherless Wireless
·
· Score: 1
Actually, there are two variants of WiMax: 802.16 for fixed location users, and 802.20 for mobile users. The 802.20 spec (which should be finalized pretty soon) will address the issues of doppler shifting and multipath because it was designed specifically for use in any moving vehicle up to 250 km/h, according to what I've read in a couple of magazines.
But will it be competitive against WiMax?
on
Tetherless Wireless
·
· Score: 1
I think Verizon's service is only a temporary solution until 802.16/802.20 WiMax rolls out nationally some time in 2006.
Unlike Verizon's service, WiMax is true broadband service that with a single antenna array could cover thousands of users up to line of sight. That means you only need a small number of antenna towers to cover a whole metropolitan area, and WiMax antennas placed along major highways and/or major passenger railroad corridors means high-speed Internet access from a moving vehicle or train.
...Thanks to add-on "shell" programs such as Maxthon and Avant Browser.
I myself have been using Maxthon since Version 1.12 and the AD Hunter function in this program means vastly faster page downloads, not to mention a lot less loading of adware/spyware!:-)
Yahoo makes money by keeping people on their website for as long as possible.
That's because Yahoo! has such a massive amount of content on its own web sites that you can stay all day at Yahoo!'s various web sites. Yahoo! has not only search, but discussion groups, news, lots of multimedia content and even now a music store selling.WMA-format music files.
That way, I can closely monitor all my bank's account activity to make sure somebody isn't trying to hack into my accounts to steal my money. That was how I was able to find out somebody did an inside job identity theft of my checking account and they stomped out that fraud (and got the "perp" pretty quickly).
However, before you do online banking, I would recommend you have both antivirus and firewall programs active and run anti-spyware programs at least once a day to keep out keystroke loggers.
I have to disagree on screen size and sound, though.
With modern non-CRT rear-projection TV's and surround-sound home theater components dropping rapidly in price lately, why bother with all the downsides of a real movie theater?
As for timeliness, you are forgetting the version of the movie shown in the theaters are often not the version the director intended due to MPAA ratings considerations. Because DVD releases are not subject to that issue (for the most part), you often get far better films in the Director's Cut or extended cut home video release version.
That show, in my humble opinion, was a hugely bad influence because it gave the green light for moviegoers to do a running "mocking" commentary when the movie is showing. Many moviegoers find that EXTREMELY annoying, and small wonder why sales of rear-projection TV's and home theater sound systems have boomed lately.
...for DVD releases, I think it really could happen. Don't be surprised that the minimum for DVD release after first day of theatrical release is 180 days, probably agreed upon within the next year or so.
...and a high-quality progressive-scan component-output DVD player, the advantage of film over TV is dramatically reduced.
This is especially true with LCD, HD-ILA and DLP non-CRT rear-projection TV's when fed a 480p signal from DVD player. I've seen Finding Nemo and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition projected on a Samsung HL-5067W 50-inch (diagonal) DLP RPTV and the picture quality is nothing short of amazing. It's even more so when the same RPTV is fed a true ATSC high-definition signal through the HDMI connector.
I recently bumped up an old machine with an Abit AB-BP6 motherboard from 384 MB to 768 MB and the performance difference was quite dramatic, to say the least. Programs open and close far more quickly since the need for hard disk memory virtualization is so much lower.
If you can get your mom's P4 machine to 512 MB of RAM installed she will notice a huge difference in speed.
The big issue here is that they should put in more RAM into the computer.
You really want at least 512 MB for Windows XP Home or a full install of current commercial Linux distributions for things to work decently fast. When you reach 1 GB of RAM installed (most current motherboards can handle this), the only time you need a faster CPU is to run the latest games or run high-end multimedia-editing programs. The big advantage of installing more RAM is that you drastically reduce hard disk memory virtualization, a process that can drastically slow down your computer.
During the early 1990's, there was a competition sponsored by the US government to develop a vehicle that could get 80 miles per US gallon fuel efficiency. GM approached Toyota with doing a co-operative venture on such a vehicle, but Toyota rejected the idea. But during the negotiations with GM, Toyota engineers got a lot of insights (pun not intended) on how to dramatically improve gasoline fuel efficiency, and started work on a drivetrain that allowed for a smaller gasoline-fuelled engine because battery-powered electric motors would do much of the work on moving the car, with the gasoline engine providing a way to recharge the batteries under partial-load or regenerative-braking conditions. That research done by Toyota alone resulted in the Prius, a truly groundbreaking automobile that stunned automobile companies around the world when it was unveiled in 1997.
Actually, the computer industry has already made strides saving energy by doing two things:
1. Mandating the use of VESA DDC-2 power saving techniques that automatically switches a CRT monitor into low-power saving and near-zero power use "OFF" modes. People forget CRT monitors, especially the larger screen sizes, can use hundreds of watts of power.
2. Switching everyone to LCD displays, which uses a quarter to a third of the power of CRT displays. These also benefit for VESA DDC-2 power saving techniques.
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The biggest reason why VHS won was the fact that JVC (the developer of the Video Home System format) and its majority shareholder Matsushita Electric offered extremely low licensing terms for other companies to manufacture VHS recorders--far lower than that of what Sony wanted for the Betamax format.
Besides, VHS had another huge advantage, notably longer recording times at all recording speeds, something highly desirable for recording complete TV seasons, miniseries or sporting events. And VHS easily matched Beta improvements in sound and picture quality with VHS Hi-Fi audio and Super VHS higher-resolution recording.
I think the biggest thing that doomed the Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) was the fact that IBM did not bother to license the technology at very low cost.
If IBM had done a proper job of licensing MCA at a low cost then not only would MCA have replaced the old ISA bus, but alternative bus connection architectures like EISA, VL-Bus, PCI, AGP and PCI Express would have never happened! This is because we know now that MCA could be easily expanded all the way to 64-bit bus connections and support very fast bus speeds. Indeed, if you look at PCI and PCI Express connectors they strongly resemble the old MCA connectors in physical design.
And the very scary part is that al-Qaeda operatives are willing to ANY means to cause mass casualties.
They are definitely not above releasing a deadly biological agent, a canister of home-made chemical weapons (even something as easy to make as phosgene gas can cause a lot of casualties in an enclosed area), or detonating an improvised nuclear bomb of around 1 kT yield on a suicide mission. =:-O
I think people should forget about the very idea of installing thousands of 802.11 variant WiFi transceivers just to cover the metropolitan area. Just the maintanence costs would get ridiculous pretty quickly having service all those thousands of tranceivers, that's to be sure.
The use of WiMAX 802.16d fixed/802.20 mobile works out vastly better, mostly because you need only a small number of transceiver antenna arrays to cover an entire metropolitan area. By piggybacking WiMAX antennas with current cellphone antenna arrays you already have coverage of most of the population of the USA anyway, so you only need to build new WiMAX-specific antenna arrays to cover the most rural areas.
The standard modus operandi of the Provisional IRA is usually announced a blast then the blast occurs, and usually one bomb at a time.
Given the fact the attacks all happened in a very close time period and the terrifying carnage of 45 dead and over 1000 injured (according to Sky News the last I heard) is more the modus operandi of al-Qaeda--a group known for doing spectacular terrorist attacks.
Mostly because if liquid hydrogen explode it does it with great force, as the late Ben Rich found out when he did research for a proposed LH2-fuelled reconnaissance plane. Note that in his book Skunk Works Rich noted that when he visited a university where students did research on LH2 there were a number of holes in the wall caused by LH2 explosions--and that's with a very small amount of LH2 being used in lab experiments!
That's why when Challenger exploded in 1986 it did it with the force of a tactical nuclear warhead, the explosion fuelled by the ignition of LH2 and LOX.
Now I don't want to sound paranoid or suggest a conspiracy, but come on, the timing of this seizure is extraordinary. And there's about 0.00% chance of getting the server back before G8.
If that's true the UK law enforcement authorities would have seized every Indymedia server in the UK by now.
By the way, I think the protesters need to disawow themselves fast from the groups who want to use the protests at the upcoming G8 summit as a pretext to cause violence and looting. Peaceful protest is one thing, but violent protest is quite something else....
Multimedia editing.
With the proliferation of cheap digital still cameras and MiniDV/MicroDV camcorders, people are now increasingly editing their still pictures and home movies on a desktop computer. Problem is, both of these require substantial increases in computing power with lots of RAM available, so getting a faster computer is a MUST.
Programs like Corel's Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Premiere take advantage of the multimedia extensions provided by today's latest CPU's, so using the latest CPU's means less time spending waiting for the computer to do your image/movie edits.
One thing I do express concerns in regards to today's fastest steel-rail trains is the sheer physical wear and tear on the tracks, rolling stock and overhead wiring from all that high speed travel.
When you go faster than 300 km/h (186 mph), the issue of wear from the physical contact between the steel tracks and steel rails and the catenary pickup and overhead wiring could mean much more maintanence expense on a per kilometer basis. This means frequent and high-quality maintanence, because even one small flaw will have extremely disastrous consequences; we all remember that German ICE train tragedy where a flaw in a broken wheel cause a derailment that killed over 100 people some years ago.
As such, for reliability and cost of maintanence reasons I don't see steel-rail high-speed rail go much faster than 300 km/h in revenue service anytime soon. Yes, the French did manage to get TGV to go over 320 mph but that was with a four-car highly-modified trainset on a very straight alignment of track, something not found in regular TGV trains in revenue service.
If you look at Firefox, the Maxthon and Avant Browser shell programs for Internet Explorer, and now Internet Explorer 7.0, they all share one thing in common: they all borrowed Opera's combination of address and search bars at the top of the browser.
Actually, there are two variants of WiMax: 802.16 for fixed location users, and 802.20 for mobile users. The 802.20 spec (which should be finalized pretty soon) will address the issues of doppler shifting and multipath because it was designed specifically for use in any moving vehicle up to 250 km/h, according to what I've read in a couple of magazines.
I think Verizon's service is only a temporary solution until 802.16/802.20 WiMax rolls out nationally some time in 2006.
Unlike Verizon's service, WiMax is true broadband service that with a single antenna array could cover thousands of users up to line of sight. That means you only need a small number of antenna towers to cover a whole metropolitan area, and WiMax antennas placed along major highways and/or major passenger railroad corridors means high-speed Internet access from a moving vehicle or train.
...Thanks to add-on "shell" programs such as Maxthon and Avant Browser.
:-)
I myself have been using Maxthon since Version 1.12 and the AD Hunter function in this program means vastly faster page downloads, not to mention a lot less loading of adware/spyware!
Yahoo makes money by keeping people on their website for as long as possible.
.WMA-format music files.
That's because Yahoo! has such a massive amount of content on its own web sites that you can stay all day at Yahoo!'s various web sites. Yahoo! has not only search, but discussion groups, news, lots of multimedia content and even now a music store selling
That way, I can closely monitor all my bank's account activity to make sure somebody isn't trying to hack into my accounts to steal my money. That was how I was able to find out somebody did an inside job identity theft of my checking account and they stomped out that fraud (and got the "perp" pretty quickly).
However, before you do online banking, I would recommend you have both antivirus and firewall programs active and run anti-spyware programs at least once a day to keep out keystroke loggers.
I have to disagree on screen size and sound, though.
With modern non-CRT rear-projection TV's and surround-sound home theater components dropping rapidly in price lately, why bother with all the downsides of a real movie theater?
As for timeliness, you are forgetting the version of the movie shown in the theaters are often not the version the director intended due to MPAA ratings considerations. Because DVD releases are not subject to that issue (for the most part), you often get far better films in the Director's Cut or extended cut home video release version.
Whoops! The title in the previous message should say "Mystery Science Theater 3000."
That show, in my humble opinion, was a hugely bad influence because it gave the green light for moviegoers to do a running "mocking" commentary when the movie is showing. Many moviegoers find that EXTREMELY annoying, and small wonder why sales of rear-projection TV's and home theater sound systems have boomed lately.
Why do some people think that one has to eat during a movie?
Two words: Alamo Drafthouse.
Anyone who's been to the Alamo Drafthouse theaters in Austin, Dallas or Houston in Texas know what I mean.
...for DVD releases, I think it really could happen. Don't be surprised that the minimum for DVD release after first day of theatrical release is 180 days, probably agreed upon within the next year or so.
...and a high-quality progressive-scan component-output DVD player, the advantage of film over TV is dramatically reduced.
This is especially true with LCD, HD-ILA and DLP non-CRT rear-projection TV's when fed a 480p signal from DVD player. I've seen Finding Nemo and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Extended Edition projected on a Samsung HL-5067W 50-inch (diagonal) DLP RPTV and the picture quality is nothing short of amazing. It's even more so when the same RPTV is fed a true ATSC high-definition signal through the HDMI connector.
I recently bumped up an old machine with an Abit AB-BP6 motherboard from 384 MB to 768 MB and the performance difference was quite dramatic, to say the least. Programs open and close far more quickly since the need for hard disk memory virtualization is so much lower.
If you can get your mom's P4 machine to 512 MB of RAM installed she will notice a huge difference in speed.
The big issue here is that they should put in more RAM into the computer.
You really want at least 512 MB for Windows XP Home or a full install of current commercial Linux distributions for things to work decently fast. When you reach 1 GB of RAM installed (most current motherboards can handle this), the only time you need a faster CPU is to run the latest games or run high-end multimedia-editing programs. The big advantage of installing more RAM is that you drastically reduce hard disk memory virtualization, a process that can drastically slow down your computer.
During the early 1990's, there was a competition sponsored by the US government to develop a vehicle that could get 80 miles per US gallon fuel efficiency. GM approached Toyota with doing a co-operative venture on such a vehicle, but Toyota rejected the idea. But during the negotiations with GM, Toyota engineers got a lot of insights (pun not intended) on how to dramatically improve gasoline fuel efficiency, and started work on a drivetrain that allowed for a smaller gasoline-fuelled engine because battery-powered electric motors would do much of the work on moving the car, with the gasoline engine providing a way to recharge the batteries under partial-load or regenerative-braking conditions. That research done by Toyota alone resulted in the Prius, a truly groundbreaking automobile that stunned automobile companies around the world when it was unveiled in 1997.
Actually, the computer industry has already made strides saving energy by doing two things:
1. Mandating the use of VESA DDC-2 power saving techniques that automatically switches a CRT monitor into low-power saving and near-zero power use "OFF" modes. People forget CRT monitors, especially the larger screen sizes, can use hundreds of watts of power.
2. Switching everyone to LCD displays, which uses a quarter to a third of the power of CRT displays. These also benefit for VESA DDC-2 power saving techniques.