I think the reason why IBM is getting out of the desktop computer business is the fact that desktop computers on the PC-compatible side have essentially become commodity items. Indeed, nowadays you can assemble a homebuilt computer that is just as good as the brand name computers you buy at places like Best Buy, Circuit City, and so on at pretty reasonable prices.
But IBM isn't completely out of the building desktop computer components. Their POWER CPU technology has created superb big iron computers for corporate and government use, and the POWER CPU technology has created the PowerPC CPU used on the Apple Mactintosh computers and soon the Cell CPU used on future consumer electronics (Sony's Playstation 3 only scratches the surface of Cell applications). Indeed, the POWER CPU technology is (arguably) the only real competitor to x86 CPU technology, and in many ways is superior to x86 CPU technology thanks to not having to deal with legacy code of older CPU's.
Remember Sony some time ago demonstrated a multituner PVR in Japan that has FOUR tuners? I think what will happen very soon is that you may see such devices sold in the USA so the whole issue of overlapping programs will be eliminated. Indeed, such a device will allow you to record programs in competing timeslots simultaneously (e.g., two programs that start at the same time).
However, you're not going to get much business if they are running the full version of the Yahoo! Companion toolbar, because the latest versions of this IE add-on has spyware detection and removal built in.
Since I think there is considerable interest at the ESA for its own manned launch capability, how about ESA providing the funding for the completion of the Kliper project? A group like EADS could get the Russians to build Kliper spacecraft that could be launched from the new R-7 launchpad in Kourou in French Guiana at ESA's launch site.
Fuel filling up the passanger hold would weigh one hell of a lot more than the passengers...
That's true if you're talking volume. What I was suggesting was the standard full fuel load of the 747SP plus the weight equivalent in fuel of a full passenger and cargo load plus the weight of the seats and galley areas. The extra fuel tanks needed for that additional weight would likely not take the whole cargo space area.
...I wonder why Boeing didn't consider trying to fly around the world non-stop on a 747SP back in the early 1980's? A 747SP fully fuelled up and also loaded with the equivalent of a full passenger/cargo load in fuel probably could have come close if they used pre-cooled JP4 fuel.
Especially in the field of games for consoles and home computers.
Does anyone remember Zork? The Final Fantasy series? Innumerable console games that required strong interaction by the player (e.g., role playing) to advance the storyline? Or more recently Ultima Online and the original EverQuest and everything since infuenced by these two massively-multiplayer games?
Yes, I do agree that D&D wasn't perfect, but then, its inspiration for game designers since the first D&D game came out in the early 1970's is still unmatched to this day.
Question though: can program code written for the POWER CPU's be used on the new Cell CPU? Is there even the remote chance that MacOS X could be ported to run on the Cell CPU architecture in a pretty straightforward fashion?
The latter could be of great interest to Apple Computer because it means the potential for substantial increases in the performance of future Macintosh models.
Couldn't this be applied to (say) a solar furnace?
I was going to ask the very same question. =)
Remember that amazing solar furnace just east of Barstow, CA that uses concentrated solar light to superboil water for a closed-cycle electric generator? Maybe we can use that same furnace to create the same superheated water to create hydrogen gas easily!:-)
For one reason: it may encourage artists to be more creative in writing music. By not having to constantly pander to the album format and also allowing for a much wider selection of music genres, you will see a lot more variety of music and and single songs with longer running times (for example Led Zepplin's "Stairway to Heaven" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," both of which wouldn't work in play times shorter than the original versions).
...Vangelis never released the music from Blade Runner on a separate album originally. The famous end theme from that movie was best-known by an orchestral version done by someone else until the album Themes was released in 1989. It wasn't until 1994 that the soundtrack album of the movie finally came out.
The introduction and promotion of new genres usually gives the industry a boost. Unfortunately, corporate ownership and quarterly profits have forced many labels to avoid risky long term investments for unproven music. They opt for safe manufactured pop and wonder why sales are diminishing.
Or to be more specific, the influence of MTV and other music video channels has pidgeonholed music into only a few visible genres: heavy metal, adult contemporary, hip-hop and country & western. The other formats are pretty much uncommon on radio or music video playlists.
Hopefully, the wider use of XM and Sirius satellite radio with their 60-plus channels of music will finally get people to listen to more genres of music. There's a lot of great music from Europe and Japan we don't hear on terrestrial radio, and hopefully XM and Sirius will expose Americans to such music.
Alas, the Volkswagen new Beetle TDI isn't as small as you think, given that it's derived from the VW Golf platform. And it's not using the more modern PD130 engine rated at around 134 bhp (SAE) found on European-market Golfs and Boras, which is more fuel-efficient than the 90 bhp TDI engine found on 45-state legal VW Beetles.
Because Honda's i-CTDi engine uses the latest in common-rail direct-injection fuel delivery, the result is very fuel-efficient operation combined with much lower exhaust emissions and far less clattering noise compared to older diesel engines. I do see such engines on future production Honda cars sold in the USA, at least starting in the fall of 2006 when low-sulfur diesel fuel becomes available nationally.
Despite your trolling, you are making a few salient points.:-)
I think you're forgetting that even with healthy Americans, because of the wide availability of foodstuffs Americans tend to grow up on average quite a bit taller than most of the world's peoples. As such, a car that is designed around the shorter statures of Europeans and Japanese ain't going to cut it with American buyers for the most part. For example, the Toyota Echo--derived from the Toyota Yaris hatchback not sold in the USA--has more room than usual for such a small car because of the necessity to accommodate American-sized passengers.
Which model Honda are you driving? I drive a Honda Civic HX CVT coupé (1998 model) and get around 34 MPG city, 37 MPG highway. =)
However, until the USA switches to low-sulfur diesel fuel completely in September 2006, you can forget about buy turbodiesel-powered small cars here in the USA.
But I do think that Honda will sell turbodiesel-powered small cars here in the USA by 2007. Imagine a second-generation Honda Fit powered by a 1.4-liter I-4 i-CTDi turbodiesel engine getting 60+ miles per US gallon fuel efficiency! =)
Especially with Honda about to introduce the Honda Fit here in the USA within next 18 months.
For those who don't know, the Honda Fit (known as the Jazz in Europe) is an very small car that has just as much interior room as a Honda Civic sedan and is quite a bit more fuel efficient than the Civic, especially when powered by the 1.3-liter I-4 i-DSI engine. Honda has publicly said that they will sell a car smaller than the Civic in the USA market soon, especially since Honda will design the next-generation Honda Civic due in September 2005 for a more upmarket type of buyer; the Honda Fit will fill the gap for first-time Honda car buyers here in the USA. However, note that the Honda Fit Americans will get will NOT be the current model sold in Japan and Europe, but a slightly-larger second-generation model designed with larger-sized American passengers and side-curtain air bags in mind; that new model is supposed to be unveiled in Japan this coming summer.
I think Intel is quietly adding support for the x86-64 architecture due to the fact that Microsoft will soon release a version of Windows XP that will fully support the x86-64 architecture. I believe that the target ship date of this new release is some time in the first quarter of calendar year 2005.
VHS won due to cheaper licensing terms.
on
The VHS is Dead
·
· Score: 1
What made VHS win (besides the fact it could record longer than Beta machines) was the fact JVC (a wholy-owned subsidiary of Matsushita Electic Company) offered very generous licensing terms to build VHS-compatible VCR's and VHS tapes. It also helped that VHS quickly matched Beta's attempt at higher quality recordings with VHS Hi-Fi for better-quality sound and Super VHS for better-quality pictures in the late 1980's.
If we ignore the pricing factor, we can consider these reasons for the fact only 20% of the US population can get broadband:
1. Too much legacy communications wiring installed. In order to expand DSL service, it means extremely expensive rebuilds of telephone wiring in almost every city to get everyone with 12,000 feet of a switch station necessary for DSL service.
2. Large sections of the USA are too rural to be within economic reach of DSL or cable modem service.
I believe that here in the USA, the way that broadband finally gets widely accepted is through high-capacity wireless connections, namely 802.16 WiMax and its related 802.20 mobile version, both of which should start becoming widely available from 2006 on. It's vastly cheaper to put up transceiver towers for 802.16/802.20 wireless servce than to upgrade telephone landlines for DSL service or extend wiring for cable modem service, especially in areas of low population density or where it's too expensive to upgrade legacy communications wiring.
Already, the physical infrastructure to get 802.16 started is pretty much place, namely by piggybacking on cellular telephone towers built in the last 20 years.
I'm using a compact flourescent blub on a computer desk lamp and I definitely do like them for one reason: they run far cooler than incandescent bulbs. You can actually touch the metal shade cover around the lamp and it is completely cool to the touch.
Yes, flourescent bulbs do take about a minute or so to get to full brightness, but I don't find that to be a problem.
Here's a easily-achived way to get an environmentally-friendly race car: use a turbodieel engine fuelled by biodiesel fuel.
Essentially, use the engine from the Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI and put the smallest chassis and body around that engine. Modify it to ensure complete compatibility with biodiesel fuel and the result is a race car that could probably go way over 300 km/h (186 mph) and still get far superior fuel efficiency to its gasoline-fuelled competition.:-)
1. The iPod's excellent onboard CPU processing and its excellent controls make it the best-sounding and easiest to master of the portable music players.
2. The iTunes software/online music store is pretty easy to use and integrates extremely well with the iPod.
3. Apple has built up a good relationship with music companies, and it appears very soon Apple may even get full access to the Beatles' music and music created by the various Beatles members since the breakup of the group, something everybody wants.
4. Most importantly, Apple got to the market first and successfully staked out a huge marketshare. Their wise decision to support Windows-based machines with iPods that connect to the computer using the USB 2.0 cable connection has proved to be a huge financial boon for Apple.
Mind you, I'd like Apple to do the following for future iPods:
1. Have the battery be user-replaceable.
2. Offer support for future-technology flash memory cards that can be re-written to many times. Note that I do not suggest using today's flash memory technologies since they have a relatively short re-writeable life.
If I remember correctly, the Pentium M CPU's are fast thanks to the very large on-die CPU cache (L1 and L2) found on the CPU itself.
I think what we might see pretty soon are a new generation of desktop Pentium CPU's that will combine the hardware design of the Pentium M with some of the features of the Prescott-core CPU's; these new CPU's won't need the oversized cooling fans that the Prescott-core CPU's need now.
1. Apple got there first and successfully staked out the market for such a device on both the hardware and software level.
2. The iPod is a technically superior device with excellent user controls and the ability to have no loss of sound quality when manipulating the controls on the iPod.
3. Apple smartly knew that if they really wanted market share for the iPod they have to be Windows compatible, hence the fact newer iPods have USB 2.0 connections in addition to IEEE-1394 connections.
Mind you, I think Apple should seriously consider developing future-generation iPods with user-changeable batteries and possibly an AM/FM tuner.
Re:Did Copland failing actually help Apple succeed
on
NeXTSTEP To Mac OS X
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I think the biggest reason why Apple's Copland project failed was that it was essentially re-inventing the wheel of the type of memory management UNIX and Windows NT did.
(By the way, people forget that Dave Cutler--who spearheaded the Windows NT project back in the late 1980's and early 1990's--essentially used a lot of the stuff he did at DEC in writing Windows NT.)
But MacOS X was different: it essentially put the Macintosh interface on top of the BSD Unix kernel--probably a lot of stuff borrowed from NeXTSTEP. As such, MacOS X (for the most part) has the memory stability and multitasking/multithreading functionality of BSD Unix.
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I think the reason why IBM is getting out of the desktop computer business is the fact that desktop computers on the PC-compatible side have essentially become commodity items. Indeed, nowadays you can assemble a homebuilt computer that is just as good as the brand name computers you buy at places like Best Buy, Circuit City, and so on at pretty reasonable prices.
But IBM isn't completely out of the building desktop computer components. Their POWER CPU technology has created superb big iron computers for corporate and government use, and the POWER CPU technology has created the PowerPC CPU used on the Apple Mactintosh computers and soon the Cell CPU used on future consumer electronics (Sony's Playstation 3 only scratches the surface of Cell applications). Indeed, the POWER CPU technology is (arguably) the only real competitor to x86 CPU technology, and in many ways is superior to x86 CPU technology thanks to not having to deal with legacy code of older CPU's.
Remember Sony some time ago demonstrated a multituner PVR in Japan that has FOUR tuners? I think what will happen very soon is that you may see such devices sold in the USA so the whole issue of overlapping programs will be eliminated. Indeed, such a device will allow you to record programs in competing timeslots simultaneously (e.g., two programs that start at the same time).
However, you're not going to get much business if they are running the full version of the Yahoo! Companion toolbar, because the latest versions of this IE add-on has spyware detection and removal built in.
Since I think there is considerable interest at the ESA for its own manned launch capability, how about ESA providing the funding for the completion of the Kliper project? A group like EADS could get the Russians to build Kliper spacecraft that could be launched from the new R-7 launchpad in Kourou in French Guiana at ESA's launch site.
Fuel filling up the passanger hold would weigh one hell of a lot more than the passengers...
That's true if you're talking volume. What I was suggesting was the standard full fuel load of the 747SP plus the weight equivalent in fuel of a full passenger and cargo load plus the weight of the seats and galley areas. The extra fuel tanks needed for that additional weight would likely not take the whole cargo space area.
...I wonder why Boeing didn't consider trying to fly around the world non-stop on a 747SP back in the early 1980's? A 747SP fully fuelled up and also loaded with the equivalent of a full passenger/cargo load in fuel probably could have come close if they used pre-cooled JP4 fuel.
Especially in the field of games for consoles and home computers.
Does anyone remember Zork? The Final Fantasy series? Innumerable console games that required strong interaction by the player (e.g., role playing) to advance the storyline? Or more recently Ultima Online and the original EverQuest and everything since infuenced by these two massively-multiplayer games?
Yes, I do agree that D&D wasn't perfect, but then, its inspiration for game designers since the first D&D game came out in the early 1970's is still unmatched to this day.
Question though: can program code written for the POWER CPU's be used on the new Cell CPU? Is there even the remote chance that MacOS X could be ported to run on the Cell CPU architecture in a pretty straightforward fashion?
The latter could be of great interest to Apple Computer because it means the potential for substantial increases in the performance of future Macintosh models.
Couldn't this be applied to (say) a solar furnace?
:-)
I was going to ask the very same question. =)
Remember that amazing solar furnace just east of Barstow, CA that uses concentrated solar light to superboil water for a closed-cycle electric generator? Maybe we can use that same furnace to create the same superheated water to create hydrogen gas easily!
For one reason: it may encourage artists to be more creative in writing music. By not having to constantly pander to the album format and also allowing for a much wider selection of music genres, you will see a lot more variety of music and and single songs with longer running times (for example Led Zepplin's "Stairway to Heaven" and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," both of which wouldn't work in play times shorter than the original versions).
...Vangelis never released the music from Blade Runner on a separate album originally. The famous end theme from that movie was best-known by an orchestral version done by someone else until the album Themes was released in 1989. It wasn't until 1994 that the soundtrack album of the movie finally came out.
The introduction and promotion of new genres usually gives the industry a boost. Unfortunately, corporate ownership and quarterly profits have forced many labels to avoid risky long term investments for unproven music. They opt for safe manufactured pop and wonder why sales are diminishing.
Or to be more specific, the influence of MTV and other music video channels has pidgeonholed music into only a few visible genres: heavy metal, adult contemporary, hip-hop and country & western. The other formats are pretty much uncommon on radio or music video playlists.
Hopefully, the wider use of XM and Sirius satellite radio with their 60-plus channels of music will finally get people to listen to more genres of music. There's a lot of great music from Europe and Japan we don't hear on terrestrial radio, and hopefully XM and Sirius will expose Americans to such music.
Alas, the Volkswagen new Beetle TDI isn't as small as you think, given that it's derived from the VW Golf platform. And it's not using the more modern PD130 engine rated at around 134 bhp (SAE) found on European-market Golfs and Boras, which is more fuel-efficient than the 90 bhp TDI engine found on 45-state legal VW Beetles.
Because Honda's i-CTDi engine uses the latest in common-rail direct-injection fuel delivery, the result is very fuel-efficient operation combined with much lower exhaust emissions and far less clattering noise compared to older diesel engines. I do see such engines on future production Honda cars sold in the USA, at least starting in the fall of 2006 when low-sulfur diesel fuel becomes available nationally.
Despite your trolling, you are making a few salient points. :-)
I think you're forgetting that even with healthy Americans, because of the wide availability of foodstuffs Americans tend to grow up on average quite a bit taller than most of the world's peoples. As such, a car that is designed around the shorter statures of Europeans and Japanese ain't going to cut it with American buyers for the most part. For example, the Toyota Echo--derived from the Toyota Yaris hatchback not sold in the USA--has more room than usual for such a small car because of the necessity to accommodate American-sized passengers.
Which model Honda are you driving? I drive a Honda Civic HX CVT coupé (1998 model) and get around 34 MPG city, 37 MPG highway. =)
However, until the USA switches to low-sulfur diesel fuel completely in September 2006, you can forget about buy turbodiesel-powered small cars here in the USA.
But I do think that Honda will sell turbodiesel-powered small cars here in the USA by 2007. Imagine a second-generation Honda Fit powered by a 1.4-liter I-4 i-CTDi turbodiesel engine getting 60+ miles per US gallon fuel efficiency! =)
...Why bother.
Especially with Honda about to introduce the Honda Fit here in the USA within next 18 months.
For those who don't know, the Honda Fit (known as the Jazz in Europe) is an very small car that has just as much interior room as a Honda Civic sedan and is quite a bit more fuel efficient than the Civic, especially when powered by the 1.3-liter I-4 i-DSI engine. Honda has publicly said that they will sell a car smaller than the Civic in the USA market soon, especially since Honda will design the next-generation Honda Civic due in September 2005 for a more upmarket type of buyer; the Honda Fit will fill the gap for first-time Honda car buyers here in the USA. However, note that the Honda Fit Americans will get will NOT be the current model sold in Japan and Europe, but a slightly-larger second-generation model designed with larger-sized American passengers and side-curtain air bags in mind; that new model is supposed to be unveiled in Japan this coming summer.
I think Intel is quietly adding support for the x86-64 architecture due to the fact that Microsoft will soon release a version of Windows XP that will fully support the x86-64 architecture. I believe that the target ship date of this new release is some time in the first quarter of calendar year 2005.
What made VHS win (besides the fact it could record longer than Beta machines) was the fact JVC (a wholy-owned subsidiary of Matsushita Electic Company) offered very generous licensing terms to build VHS-compatible VCR's and VHS tapes. It also helped that VHS quickly matched Beta's attempt at higher quality recordings with VHS Hi-Fi for better-quality sound and Super VHS for better-quality pictures in the late 1980's.
If we ignore the pricing factor, we can consider these reasons for the fact only 20% of the US population can get broadband:
1. Too much legacy communications wiring installed. In order to expand DSL service, it means extremely expensive rebuilds of telephone wiring in almost every city to get everyone with 12,000 feet of a switch station necessary for DSL service.
2. Large sections of the USA are too rural to be within economic reach of DSL or cable modem service.
I believe that here in the USA, the way that broadband finally gets widely accepted is through high-capacity wireless connections, namely 802.16 WiMax and its related 802.20 mobile version, both of which should start becoming widely available from 2006 on. It's vastly cheaper to put up transceiver towers for 802.16/802.20 wireless servce than to upgrade telephone landlines for DSL service or extend wiring for cable modem service, especially in areas of low population density or where it's too expensive to upgrade legacy communications wiring.
Already, the physical infrastructure to get 802.16 started is pretty much place, namely by piggybacking on cellular telephone towers built in the last 20 years.
I'm using a compact flourescent blub on a computer desk lamp and I definitely do like them for one reason: they run far cooler than incandescent bulbs. You can actually touch the metal shade cover around the lamp and it is completely cool to the touch.
Yes, flourescent bulbs do take about a minute or so to get to full brightness, but I don't find that to be a problem.
Here's a easily-achived way to get an environmentally-friendly race car: use a turbodieel engine fuelled by biodiesel fuel.
:-)
Essentially, use the engine from the Mercedes-Benz E320 CDI and put the smallest chassis and body around that engine. Modify it to ensure complete compatibility with biodiesel fuel and the result is a race car that could probably go way over 300 km/h (186 mph) and still get far superior fuel efficiency to its gasoline-fuelled competition.
...for a number of reasons:
1. The iPod's excellent onboard CPU processing and its excellent controls make it the best-sounding and easiest to master of the portable music players.
2. The iTunes software/online music store is pretty easy to use and integrates extremely well with the iPod.
3. Apple has built up a good relationship with music companies, and it appears very soon Apple may even get full access to the Beatles' music and music created by the various Beatles members since the breakup of the group, something everybody wants.
4. Most importantly, Apple got to the market first and successfully staked out a huge marketshare. Their wise decision to support Windows-based machines with iPods that connect to the computer using the USB 2.0 cable connection has proved to be a huge financial boon for Apple.
Mind you, I'd like Apple to do the following for future iPods:
1. Have the battery be user-replaceable.
2. Offer support for future-technology flash memory cards that can be re-written to many times. Note that I do not suggest using today's flash memory technologies since they have a relatively short re-writeable life.
3. Offer a digital AM/FM tuner.
If I remember correctly, the Pentium M CPU's are fast thanks to the very large on-die CPU cache (L1 and L2) found on the CPU itself.
I think what we might see pretty soon are a new generation of desktop Pentium CPU's that will combine the hardware design of the Pentium M with some of the features of the Prescott-core CPU's; these new CPU's won't need the oversized cooling fans that the Prescott-core CPU's need now.
For a number of reasons:
1. Apple got there first and successfully staked out the market for such a device on both the hardware and software level.
2. The iPod is a technically superior device with excellent user controls and the ability to have no loss of sound quality when manipulating the controls on the iPod.
3. Apple smartly knew that if they really wanted market share for the iPod they have to be Windows compatible, hence the fact newer iPods have USB 2.0 connections in addition to IEEE-1394 connections.
Mind you, I think Apple should seriously consider developing future-generation iPods with user-changeable batteries and possibly an AM/FM tuner.
I think the biggest reason why Apple's Copland project failed was that it was essentially re-inventing the wheel of the type of memory management UNIX and Windows NT did.
(By the way, people forget that Dave Cutler--who spearheaded the Windows NT project back in the late 1980's and early 1990's--essentially used a lot of the stuff he did at DEC in writing Windows NT.)
But MacOS X was different: it essentially put the Macintosh interface on top of the BSD Unix kernel--probably a lot of stuff borrowed from NeXTSTEP. As such, MacOS X (for the most part) has the memory stability and multitasking/multithreading functionality of BSD Unix.