Well, Solaris is *that* stable, yes, but only on Sun Hardware so it won't cost them that much, except, of course, if they risk seeing their source code swallowed into the Linux kernel in which case:
they could play SCO-style (but I highly doubt they will)
they plan to sell support (nothing's free as in beer)
they were planning to discrd it after the Linux/Solaris merging is done...
A few years ago, while I was still primarily using my Acorn ARM-based RiscPC, I remember being in contact with TAOS people, they were making an heterogeneous processor operating system on which they claimed they emulated a virtual processor on which the whole environment would run, regardless of the hardware. So, this idea reminds me of this project... It could still be possible, we've got Java classes instantiated and running on many architectures, after all...
Not a mirror but the text which actually comes without the pretty pictures...
1st part
28 August, 2004: The weirdness of crowds
[ Home page | Web log ]
So, many thanks to the thousands of people who have now completed my Estimation Quiz. Special thanks to Michael Williams, who posted a link to del.icio.us, Dave Weeden, Chris Bertram of Crooked Timber, Nick Barlow, Chris Brooke, and many others for linking to the site, including a user of Metafilter -- which link drove most of the traffic. (I was expecting to have to wait months for enough people to complete the thing for the results to be interesting, as with my Political Survey. Instead it took two days. That should probably tell you as much as you need to know about my ability at estimating things.)
So, when I posted the link to the quiz, I said that I had an ulterior motive for building the thing. Michael Williams speculated that my purpose was to,
do something terrifying with the data.
I'm not sure whether the below will actually terrify you, but I'll try my best. (There's quite a lot to say, and some will have to follow tomorrow.)
For those who didn't do the quiz, I'll quote from the description:
How far is it from Edinburgh to Cardiff? When did the English Civil War break out? How long does light from the sun take to reach the Earth? You probably have some idea of the answers to questions like these -- or you could make a guess. But do you know when your guesses are right, and when they're wildly off?
This is a general knowledge quiz which tests you on how well you can answer questions like these -- and whether you know how good your guesses are.
For each question, you will give an answer in the form,
a ± b
a should be your best guess at the answer. b is your idea of roughly how far off your guess might be. If you're absolutely sure of the answer, you can tick ``this is the exact answer''; but if you do, and you are wrong, your score will suffer.
You get points for how good your guess of a is, and whether b was an honest estimate of how wrong you were.
There are no trick questions in this quiz.
The quiz asks for estimates of thirty-one quantities. Most are straight general knowledge questions, for instance,
* [How many] bones [are there] in the adult human body?
* [How many] MPs [were] elected to the House of Commons at the 2001 General Election?
* [What fraction] of the population of the United States [are] below the poverty line?
Others require more specialised knowledge, such as,
* [How many] stars [are there] in the galaxy?
* [What is] the distance from the Earth to the Moon?
* [How long does] light from the Sun [take] to reach the Earth?
And some ask for things which few people are likely to know, but which are very easy to estimate, for instance:
* [How many] plastic carrier (shopping) bags [are] used each year in Australia?
* [How many] petrol stations [were there] in the UK at the end of 2001?
(I hadn't realised that the term `carrier bag' isn't understood to mean a disposable plastic shopping bag outside the UK. I adjusted the wording of the question when I discovered people asking, ``what's a carrier bag?'' In fact the quiz as a whole was rather Anglocentric, basically because I expected it to be answered by this web log's half-dozen readers -- mostly in Britain -- and their friends. The results below incorporate data from about 3,000 responses.)
Note that some of the quantities -- like the three astronomical quantities above -- vary or aren't actually known exactly. More on this later.
So, the first question you might ask is, ``are people actually any good at estimating things?'' The answer is that... it depends.
For some quantities -- especially ones which some respondents actually do know exactly -- the crowd's wisdom isn't bad.
And I am not surprised they only sold 40000 of these, people usually rush and get other stuff, like my HP Deskjet 510 which still works perfectly 11 years later:)
If you're writing an OS for it, then you'll have it scanning your hardware and extracting info in a way that was not meant to be by the manufacturer/distributor (who solely intend this product to play sound files with a possible restriction -maybe not ATM but later, re-read the product EULA...- to DRM'ed stuff). In this regard, and IMHO, I'd say they could argue about some DMCA violation even if I do not endorse this stupid west atlantic law (don't SCO attack Linux companies for something around as stupid ?).
Funny nobody mentioned it and why they'll be sued because they're not doing it as a hobby but as a company... Unless iRever people actually agree but this'd be a first one...
I live in Switzerland and I am slowly aboput to realize that because of the public transportation level of quality, owning a car is bad. There are some excellent car-sharing solutions along with one of the most advanced bus/rail network in the world (.CH has the biggest travel km/user rate in the world). Now, if you think car insurances are too expensive, you do not get it : it's the fact of having a car which is. It's also an ecological responsability to ensure you won't pollute as much as you could easily do.
Just browsed to a random page. Seems that not all the songs of an album may be downloaded, thus forcing the hardcore fans to buy them twice (once online, once on CD). Is it the same with iTunes ?
The signal itself was not stolen, it was the receiver's bandwidth. Now, had they secured their Airport, they would not had it vampirized. And I am not sure the inside/outside concept applies to a radio signal...
I don't like anime which I consider dull and boring. Akira was a fantasdtic comic but didn't make it on a screen. I do not know the other you mention but there's ONE anime which actually carried me, it was Hotaru no haka". Very few anime were THAT convincing.
Yes, CHF is the official acronym for Swiss Francs. Now, we know that despite some previous condamnations, Apple loves to sell us their goods for much more than they sell these to the North Americans. Anyway, they're not the only one to vampirize us and they are actually quite competitive (so this might mean that Dell and their mediocre machines are actually making even more profit).
As only 500 of them will come, I'd say, they might prevent 500 potential mini iPod buyers to give Apple their money... So, I'd rather compare these to some kamikaze as once sold, mini iPod will continue their market penetration.
Slashdot Mirror
Noia 2.0 still doesn't work and I have an ugly default theme :(
:)
The proxy support, however, as improved a lot
It's just a pity that 1.0PR (as announced yesterday) doesn't seem to like all the add-ons and themes it liked so much until 0.9
A few years ago, while I was still primarily using my Acorn ARM-based RiscPC, I remember being in contact with TAOS people, they were making an heterogeneous processor operating system on which they claimed they emulated a virtual processor on which the whole environment would run, regardless of the hardware.
So, this idea reminds me of this project...
It could still be possible, we've got Java classes instantiated and running on many architectures, after all...
1st part
well, this one could have been called 0mail, which'd also implicitely add 10 possibilities ;)
And I am not surprised they only sold 40000 of these, people usually rush and get other stuff, like my HP Deskjet 510 which still works perfectly 11 years later :)
If you're writing an OS for it, then you'll have it scanning your hardware and extracting info in a way that was not meant to be by the manufacturer/distributor (who solely intend this product to play sound files with a possible restriction -maybe not ATM but later, re-read the product EULA...- to DRM'ed stuff).
In this regard, and IMHO, I'd say they could argue about some DMCA violation even if I do not endorse this stupid west atlantic law (don't SCO attack Linux companies for something around as stupid ?).
Funny nobody mentioned it and why they'll be sued because they're not doing it as a hobby but as a company...
Unless iRever people actually agree but this'd be a first one...
There's also Photoplane which consists of putting a camera on a radio-guided plane.
I would hope that moderators are fair enough...
;-)
Mods, fair ?
Are you new here ?
...from Bora Bora, Baden-Baden or from the Titicaca Lake ?
I live in Switzerland and I am slowly aboput to realize that because of the public transportation level of quality, owning a car is bad.
There are some excellent car-sharing solutions along with one of the most advanced bus/rail network in the world (.CH has the biggest travel km/user rate in the world).
Now, if you think car insurances are too expensive, you do not get it : it's the fact of having a car which is. It's also an ecological responsability to ensure you won't pollute as much as you could easily do.
Well, I just clicked over "CD only" and it led me to Amazon...
I actually don't have a clue who she is, I just randomly clicked on her pretty face and got to the mentioned page.
So, can you answer my question ?
Just browsed to a random page.
Seems that not all the songs of an album may be downloaded, thus forcing the hardcore fans to buy them twice (once online, once on CD).
Is it the same with iTunes ?
The signal itself was not stolen, it was the receiver's bandwidth.
Now, had they secured their Airport, they would not had it vampirized.
And I am not sure the inside/outside concept applies to a radio signal...
90 ?
Try a little more : 166, for example.
I don't like anime which I consider dull and boring.
Akira was a fantasdtic comic but didn't make it on a screen.
I do not know the other you mention but there's ONE anime which actually carried me, it was Hotaru no haka".
Very few anime were THAT convincing.
Yes, CHF is the official acronym for Swiss Francs.
Now, we know that despite some previous condamnations, Apple loves to sell us their goods for much more than they sell these to the North Americans.
Anyway, they're not the only one to vampirize us and they are actually quite competitive (so this might mean that Dell and their mediocre machines are actually making even more profit).
The 20" G4 iMac was around 3500CHF, the new 20" G5 iMac is 2900CHF, so there has been an around 15-20% price drop.
Will you testify that Jack Valenti has infringed the law he stands for by making a copy of Doom 3 ?
No, it was if the glass's goal were to hold information that it'd have to be replaced.
So the analogy was wrong in the beginning.
I never used drag'n drop to upload music to my iPod...
mostly because iTunes sync it automatically, btw...
As only 500 of them will come, I'd say, they might prevent 500 potential mini iPod buyers to give Apple their money...
So, I'd rather compare these to some kamikaze as once sold, mini iPod will continue their market penetration.