..But the big corps too. Coincidentally, I tried to remove myself from the iTunes list (which I had accidentally enlisted for when downloading QT) only the find that the unsubscribe-URL "contained no data". Hmm. Double hmm.
That's shitty business. But for those of you unaware, you don't have to give them any info at all to download the software just unclick the subscription boxes and download away.
Or if you insist on putting something in there, I've found that steve.jobs@apple.com works well.
Why do you think it would be cheaper? You sound like the kind of jackass I sometimes have to work for who complains that "all you did was hook up some wires" when I bill him for 3 hours work at $85/hr. Have you ever strung cabling? Set up a CO? Installed any utilities through public rights-of-way? There's more to it than you think, and skilled labor isn't cheap.
Seeing how they don't even have phone service, I'd like to know how you're going to get the internet connectivity out to them to start up this wonderful VOIP solution. The whole rig for $50K? Yer nuts, man. The transmitter for your "long range wireless signal" will likely cost that much by itself. And each residence will require a transceiver. And all this will have to be installed, not by uninsured nerds working for free, but by actual skilled technicians covered by liability insurance. And this whole wireless system will need to be maintained. Are those free nerds going to hang around troubleshooting forever? I doubt it.
You're a telco monkey? Congratulations on screwing people out of $85 an hour - you should be proud.
And you've bassackwards what I said, and then just cocked it all up. There would be one wireless connection to a neighboring town. The antenna on the local end would feed into a switch and distribute telephone over normal means. Perhaps that's not "VOIP", but rather a T1 through the air. Ditch the whole VOIP thing - I misspoke. Just replace a copper T1 that apparently would cost $700,000 with a wireless one instead.
For crap's sake, you could move the entire town for $700,000.
Kevin F. Curtin, a spokesman for BellSouth, said that Mink had been unclaimed territory but that the utility was complying with a state order to annex Mink into its service area, at a cost of $700,000--or about $46,000 per customer. The communications industry contributes to a national Universal Service Fund that underwrites uneconomical service in sparsely populated areas, but it has yet to be activated in Louisiana, said Curtin, leaving BellSouth stuck with the tab. But the Louisiana Public Service Commission said it expected to reimburse BellSouth out of a new state service fund next year.
Can that be right? $700,000 to run phone line (and polls?) to a rural town? I would imagine there are utility polls already there, and there is probably even telephone signaling within a few tens of miles. It can't possibly cost more than a couple hundred grand. Less than 1/3 what the article quotes. BellSouth is just being assinine about it.
I see other good options too - like VOIP and link via long range wireless signal. Put the antenna up on some tall structures. Surely you could construct the whole rig for under $50K.
I don't have a portable gaming device, and I only got an MP3 player very recently, but I'm surprised to hear you say that you don't have any situations in your life where either device could be useful. I mean, my delay has mostly been for financial reasons, but there have been many many times when I wished I had a gaming or a music gadget with me to keep me entertained. OK, you don't take the bus to work. But are you ever stuck waiting at a doctor's office? Do you ever wait in line anywhere, like for a movie, a concert, or getting your driver's license renewed? Are you ever on a plane or an airport with nothing to do? Boring family functions? There's gotta be something. As for getting your money's worth out of an MP3 player, couldn't you listen to it in your car? There are plenty of FM transmitters for the iPod and a direct cable connection for some BMW models.
This is not intended to be rude: Most of those situations you've named, I don't need an electronic device to entertain myself. I'm usually with people I would find far more entertaining to talk to rather than play a video game.
My doctors office visits are usually quick in and out, not more than 10 minutes in the waiting room. Movie lines have been nullified by online ticket purchases and litterly zero line at the box office. Airports might be a good place. I've waited a couple hours in that situation. But it's rare that I fly anymore, and when I do there's been someone with with me 9/10 times.
I would like to move to a larger city with mass-transit (currently have a 45 minute drive) in which case I would take my $1,300 a year in gas money and spend it on a bad ass handheld game collection. Get this, Apple doesn't even advertise the iPod anywhere I've seen in Arkansas. The first time I saw an iPod commercial was visiting Chicago. Then we saw a bunch more on the west coast. They realize there is practically no market here. It's amazing. And all the other appartment sized gadgets don't get marketed here either - like a computer / TV combo... there's hardly any market at all because most of us live in houses, not big-city appartments.
It's really hard to justify portable electronics here. But I get it 100% for certain areas.
I bought a Gameboy Advance used for about $20 USD so I could connect it to my gamecube for things like the Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion link bonuses. After I had picked up a few games for it I invested in the SP because it has a better form factor, a backlit screen, better battery life, etc..
Now I carry it everywhere. Bored on the bus and riding alone? I pull out my GBA and play some Metroid. TV in use? No problem, I've got my own screen.
Yeah, I don't really have those common situations for handheld use. I own my own house and TV, so if there's someone watching it when I want to play games I just say "get the hell off", and I drive myself to work so I can't really pull out a handheld (: Might be nice for sitting in traffic, but those occations are pretty rare.
Goes the same with an mp3 player - an iPod is super cool, but I could never get my money out of it.
I don't know that "The Cell" is the answer, but this kind of distributed CPU load has been a long time coming. Sitting at an ad agency watching eight dual G5 PowerMacs sit idle while two more slug through some Photoshop work makes it really apparent that what IBM / Sony are trying to accomplish is much needed.
Kick it up to a higher level, a 5,000 user corporation, and you could replace million dollar server farms with Cell workstations.
And the home appliances market could be super cool - the more Cells you have, the faster your pr0n server can comb through your nightly batch downloads (:
The real benefit, from my perspective is that it's a low-cost way to upgrade your video card in between new computers. I bought my first Voodoo 2 for $300. My second cost $30.
A friend of mine did the same with CPUs back in the day. He bought a dual Pentium 2 board with one processor - together it ran about $400. Then a year or so later he bought two matched processors for less than $80 (combined) and gave the old one to his brother. We're still using the dual P2 system as a file server.
When do you upgrade? If you are poor, hardly ever. If you are rich, whenever you want. In fact for the rich, the hassle of setting up a new piece of equipment is probably a stronger disincentive than the cost.
If you're rich enough someone else does the setup for you.
Now is when everyone points and laughs at me as I configure my boss's new PowerBook.
I wonder how much bandwidth you could squeeze through electrical wiring. I bet it's quite a bit (no pun). So maybe you could have something like 20 channels, and you can tune any room of the house to the audio output of one of many sources. Since it would come in as digital, distance would not mean a loss of quality.
(And while we're at it, could we do video the same way???)
Seems like there was hardware to do 11mbit, or I could just be confusing that with the HPNA or whatever it's called. Yes it would be great to see audo / video / network running over power in more places. I just think most people didn't get it and the technology never caught on.
I think it's a good idea. If you try to compare wireless speakers to something like a wireless mouse, you're missing the point. A speaker sits stationary, a mouse does not, and a power cord running to the speaker is no big deal. However, the current run of computer speaker setups are so completely covered with wires that I find it rediculous. I'd like wireless speakers for more than just my computer, though.
In my 14' x 20' living room I will have to run speaker wire under the house and through the attic to get 5.1 audio in that room. If there was a high quality wireless alternative I could simply plug big speakers into the wall for power and let their signal come through the air. Bluetooth anyone?
technology isn't just computers. it can be coats and the materials they are made of or how they are made. all, uses of things can be technology. technology is a broad term
Exactly. I was looking at a technology time-line in relation to my 93 year old grandmother's time-line and was surprised to see things like the zipper on the list. But after all, technology is more than things with wires.
I really have to wonder why it took so long for Adobe to jump on the Linux bandwagon. Sure, everybody and their mother will say that there is the GIMP and I agree, it is a great program and ver powerful. However, that being said, it is no Adobe Photoshop.
I think the summary said A company spokesman said they are not currently looking to port any of their flagship products such as Photoshop to Linux yet, as they currently don't see sufficient numbers in the platform to make a good business case for it. So they probably haven't gotten into it yet because they didn't see a good business case for it. And that's about as hard truth as you can get. Dell jumped in early on the desktop market and gave up... twice I believe. IBM did the same. I think now the desktop market is coming alive - Linux as a desktop OS is becoming more viable with the advances in KDE and driver support. The live cd collection is growing and making it easier for people to "look before they leap" and they're begining to like what they see.
So in responce to your posting of curiosity, they've waited so long because previously Linux was damn near worthless as a desktop OS. The people who use Adobe products are not geeks and don't want to deal with making their OS work. Believe me, I spend hours a day fixing their computers because they don't want to, don't know how, and wish they could find the big red button that would make it all just work.
This happened with lavasoft too, right? They started some consortium on spyware and then left it when it was evident that evil practices were going on... Perhaps there needs to be a legal definition of spyware before vendors will keep constant as to their aims? The problem is with defining it is that the somewhat arbitrary nature that's necessary will backfire and be abused *cough cough DMCA cough cough*.
I was sitting here having similar thoughts when it came to me... who cares about a legal definition - what we need is an individual or a small commitee to step up and say "We're going to make a list of apps that we don't like. Here is our solution to removing them from your computer as well."
If the program ran all the time, like Ad-Aware Pro / virus-scanners / firewalls, it could also have a built in bit-torrent service that helped to distribute definitions updates. Also, the users could add and remove items from the list with a 'moderating' system similar to what we use here at Slashdot. Surely something could be built around that concept.
Come on people, any OS can be secured or insecured. If the admin takes the time to secure the box it will be secure. If a hacker takes the time to hack the box it will be hacked.
I understand that certain parts of each operating systems are more or less secure than the other due to the way they were written, but the bottom line is both can be secured "sufficently" if the user / admin takes the time to do the work.
Between this, Tux Racer and xbill, Linux now has three games!
I was going to make this funny post about "We're gaining on the Mac gamers" and link to the Rooster Teeth (Red vs Blue fellas) site where they have the Mac Gamer "switch parody" video but the bastards took it down.
Does anyone have a copy of that or a link somewhere? I think I've deleted my copy.
I think it's odd that the Gran Turismo series is such a huge seller, but when I talk about it outside of the core GT circles no one seems to care. Anyway...
GT4 is another one that hits the over promissing scenario. The said it would be online and it won't. They said it would be ready for Christmas 2003, it wasn't.
Other comments on this topic are talking about the true product being hype. I guess that's true. When you go to a group that adores a certain game (Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Gran Turismo...) they take every bit of media hype as the written law - even if it doesn't come from the game publisher. A certain amount of the hype does belong to the developer / publisher, but you have to keep in mind that the majority of the hype comes from "insider" sites and game enthusiast groups. "Fanatics", if you will. Then when the developer doesn't live up to the claims of the fanatics, the fanatics are let down and the game is viewed as a watered down version of what the developer promised, when in actuality they never claimed any such thing.
/sigh... methinks the point doth missed thou. Have you ever tried to take a pic in a club with a shitty flash? Horrible. A xenon flash would help a LOT. Current camera phones (and this one) don't do what its target audience wants it to do.
I think you're arguing againt yourself. You say that it's not good because it doesn't work in clubs but it is good because a girl can take a picture of her friends and hang it up on her wall.
So basically it doesn't work in clubs. But what cameras do? And seriously, are club pictures going to be any good anyway? A bunch of drunk people? Come on... (:
That being said, 'good' is a rather subjective term. I would imagine that the average user of this camera phone would be more than pleased with the images... and having the ability to off load the odd pic and print it to 4x6 would please the average teenager who wants a pic of her and her girlfriends for her locker door or desk.
So why are you arguing that it needs a better flash? It does what its target audience wants it to do.
Your argument doesn't apply here... if you're a 'photographer', what the hell are you doing with a camera phone?
I guess what I'm saying is that no matter how good of a flash you stick on your camera phone you're still going to have a shitty flash-lit picture. If you want good pictures get a good camera.
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That's shitty business. But for those of you unaware, you don't have to give them any info at all to download the software just unclick the subscription boxes and download away.
Or if you insist on putting something in there, I've found that steve.jobs@apple.com works well.
Why do you think it would be cheaper? You sound like the kind of jackass I sometimes have to work for who complains that "all you did was hook up some wires" when I bill him for 3 hours work at $85/hr. Have you ever strung cabling? Set up a CO? Installed any utilities through public rights-of-way? There's more to it than you think, and skilled labor isn't cheap.
Seeing how they don't even have phone service, I'd like to know how you're going to get the internet connectivity out to them to start up this wonderful VOIP solution. The whole rig for $50K? Yer nuts, man. The transmitter for your "long range wireless signal" will likely cost that much by itself. And each residence will require a transceiver. And all this will have to be installed, not by uninsured nerds working for free, but by actual skilled technicians covered by liability insurance. And this whole wireless system will need to be maintained. Are those free nerds going to hang around troubleshooting forever? I doubt it.
You're a telco monkey? Congratulations on screwing people out of $85 an hour - you should be proud.
And you've bassackwards what I said, and then just cocked it all up. There would be one wireless connection to a neighboring town. The antenna on the local end would feed into a switch and distribute telephone over normal means. Perhaps that's not "VOIP", but rather a T1 through the air. Ditch the whole VOIP thing - I misspoke. Just replace a copper T1 that apparently would cost $700,000 with a wireless one instead.
For crap's sake, you could move the entire town for $700,000.
Kevin F. Curtin, a spokesman for BellSouth, said that Mink had been unclaimed territory but that the utility was complying with a state order to annex Mink into its service area, at a cost of $700,000--or about $46,000 per customer. The communications industry contributes to a national Universal Service Fund that underwrites uneconomical service in sparsely populated areas, but it has yet to be activated in Louisiana, said Curtin, leaving BellSouth stuck with the tab. But the Louisiana Public Service Commission said it expected to reimburse BellSouth out of a new state service fund next year.
Can that be right? $700,000 to run phone line (and polls?) to a rural town? I would imagine there are utility polls already there, and there is probably even telephone signaling within a few tens of miles. It can't possibly cost more than a couple hundred grand. Less than 1/3 what the article quotes. BellSouth is just being assinine about it.
I see other good options too - like VOIP and link via long range wireless signal. Put the antenna up on some tall structures. Surely you could construct the whole rig for under $50K.
Geek challenge anyone?
I don't have a portable gaming device, and I only got an MP3 player very recently, but I'm surprised to hear you say that you don't have any situations in your life where either device could be useful. I mean, my delay has mostly been for financial reasons, but there have been many many times when I wished I had a gaming or a music gadget with me to keep me entertained. OK, you don't take the bus to work. But are you ever stuck waiting at a doctor's office? Do you ever wait in line anywhere, like for a movie, a concert, or getting your driver's license renewed? Are you ever on a plane or an airport with nothing to do? Boring family functions? There's gotta be something. As for getting your money's worth out of an MP3 player, couldn't you listen to it in your car? There are plenty of FM transmitters for the iPod and a direct cable connection for some BMW models.
... there's hardly any market at all because most of us live in houses, not big-city appartments.
This is not intended to be rude: Most of those situations you've named, I don't need an electronic device to entertain myself. I'm usually with people I would find far more entertaining to talk to rather than play a video game.
My doctors office visits are usually quick in and out, not more than 10 minutes in the waiting room. Movie lines have been nullified by online ticket purchases and litterly zero line at the box office. Airports might be a good place. I've waited a couple hours in that situation. But it's rare that I fly anymore, and when I do there's been someone with with me 9/10 times.
I would like to move to a larger city with mass-transit (currently have a 45 minute drive) in which case I would take my $1,300 a year in gas money and spend it on a bad ass handheld game collection. Get this, Apple doesn't even advertise the iPod anywhere I've seen in Arkansas. The first time I saw an iPod commercial was visiting Chicago. Then we saw a bunch more on the west coast. They realize there is practically no market here. It's amazing. And all the other appartment sized gadgets don't get marketed here either - like a computer / TV combo
It's really hard to justify portable electronics here. But I get it 100% for certain areas.
Why handhelds?
I bought a Gameboy Advance used for about $20 USD so I could connect it to my gamecube for things like the Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion link bonuses. After I had picked up a few games for it I invested in the SP because it has a better form factor, a backlit screen, better battery life, etc..
Now I carry it everywhere. Bored on the bus and riding alone? I pull out my GBA and play some Metroid. TV in use? No problem, I've got my own screen.
Yeah, I don't really have those common situations for handheld use. I own my own house and TV, so if there's someone watching it when I want to play games I just say "get the hell off", and I drive myself to work so I can't really pull out a handheld (: Might be nice for sitting in traffic, but those occations are pretty rare.
Goes the same with an mp3 player - an iPod is super cool, but I could never get my money out of it.
I'm still holding out for the PSP though. I think nintendo games are a little too cute for me.
Where I agree with you on the Nintendo products, the PSP is shown to only have one analog thumbstick, making it difficult for FPS games.
Frankly I don't understand the handheld game market anyway, so please take my options on the matter with a grain of salt (whatever that means).
I don't know that "The Cell" is the answer, but this kind of distributed CPU load has been a long time coming. Sitting at an ad agency watching eight dual G5 PowerMacs sit idle while two more slug through some Photoshop work makes it really apparent that what IBM / Sony are trying to accomplish is much needed.
Kick it up to a higher level, a 5,000 user corporation, and you could replace million dollar server farms with Cell workstations.
And the home appliances market could be super cool - the more Cells you have, the faster your pr0n server can comb through your nightly batch downloads (:
Using two cards to generate one image for one monitor may be a return, but I've been using three video cards in my computer for a while.
Eh, sorry, just being nit-picky about the post title.
The real benefit, from my perspective is that it's a low-cost way to upgrade your video card in between new computers. I bought my first Voodoo 2 for $300. My second cost $30.
A friend of mine did the same with CPUs back in the day. He bought a dual Pentium 2 board with one processor - together it ran about $400. Then a year or so later he bought two matched processors for less than $80 (combined) and gave the old one to his brother. We're still using the dual P2 system as a file server.
Wow, why don't they spend $100 million on making a superior product in stead of marketing an inferior one?
My sentiments exactly. It doesn't matter how much you spend on marketing if what you're selling is dog crap. Even if it's lemon flavored.
When do you upgrade? If you are poor, hardly ever. If you are rich, whenever you want. In fact for the rich, the hassle of setting up a new piece of equipment is probably a stronger disincentive than the cost.
If you're rich enough someone else does the setup for you.
Now is when everyone points and laughs at me as I configure my boss's new PowerBook.
Why isn't Apple getting in on the video capture market? They could sell PowerMacs and iMacs with video capture built in and make a ton of cash.
At least, I think so. But I'm probably wrong.
I wonder how much bandwidth you could squeeze through electrical wiring. I bet it's quite a bit (no pun). So maybe you could have something like 20 channels, and you can tune any room of the house to the audio output of one of many sources. Since it would come in as digital, distance would not mean a loss of quality.
(And while we're at it, could we do video the same way???)
Seems like there was hardware to do 11mbit, or I could just be confusing that with the HPNA or whatever it's called. Yes it would be great to see audo / video / network running over power in more places. I just think most people didn't get it and the technology never caught on.
I think it's a good idea. If you try to compare wireless speakers to something like a wireless mouse, you're missing the point. A speaker sits stationary, a mouse does not, and a power cord running to the speaker is no big deal. However, the current run of computer speaker setups are so completely covered with wires that I find it rediculous. I'd like wireless speakers for more than just my computer, though.
In my 14' x 20' living room I will have to run speaker wire under the house and through the attic to get 5.1 audio in that room. If there was a high quality wireless alternative I could simply plug big speakers into the wall for power and let their signal come through the air. Bluetooth anyone?
technology isn't just computers. it can be coats and the materials they are made of or how they are made. all, uses of things can be technology. technology is a broad term
Exactly. I was looking at a technology time-line in relation to my 93 year old grandmother's time-line and was surprised to see things like the zipper on the list. But after all, technology is more than things with wires.
I really have to wonder why it took so long for Adobe to jump on the Linux bandwagon. Sure, everybody and their mother will say that there is the GIMP and I agree, it is a great program and ver powerful. However, that being said, it is no Adobe Photoshop.
... twice I believe. IBM did the same. I think now the desktop market is coming alive - Linux as a desktop OS is becoming more viable with the advances in KDE and driver support. The live cd collection is growing and making it easier for people to "look before they leap" and they're begining to like what they see.
I think the summary said A company spokesman said they are not currently looking to port any of their flagship products such as Photoshop to Linux yet, as they currently don't see sufficient numbers in the platform to make a good business case for it. So they probably haven't gotten into it yet because they didn't see a good business case for it. And that's about as hard truth as you can get. Dell jumped in early on the desktop market and gave up
So in responce to your posting of curiosity, they've waited so long because previously Linux was damn near worthless as a desktop OS. The people who use Adobe products are not geeks and don't want to deal with making their OS work. Believe me, I spend hours a day fixing their computers because they don't want to, don't know how, and wish they could find the big red button that would make it all just work.
This happened with lavasoft too, right? They started some consortium on spyware and then left it when it was evident that evil practices were going on... Perhaps there needs to be a legal definition of spyware before vendors will keep constant as to their aims? The problem is with defining it is that the somewhat arbitrary nature that's necessary will backfire and be abused *cough cough DMCA cough cough*.
... who cares about a legal definition - what we need is an individual or a small commitee to step up and say "We're going to make a list of apps that we don't like. Here is our solution to removing them from your computer as well."
I was sitting here having similar thoughts when it came to me
If the program ran all the time, like Ad-Aware Pro / virus-scanners / firewalls, it could also have a built in bit-torrent service that helped to distribute definitions updates. Also, the users could add and remove items from the list with a 'moderating' system similar to what we use here at Slashdot. Surely something could be built around that concept.
You can't fool me. The internet is clearly stored inside my hard drive and IE is required for me to access it.
Hard-Drive? That must be some new fangle thing. The Inter-net is clearly stored inside that cute blue "e" on the television in front of my typewriter.
And the cartidges had to be cleaned regularly and the slot they go into had to be dusted regularly also.
...
But that's all.
(:
Come on people, any OS can be secured or insecured. If the admin takes the time to secure the box it will be secure. If a hacker takes the time to hack the box it will be hacked.
I understand that certain parts of each operating systems are more or less secure than the other due to the way they were written, but the bottom line is both can be secured "sufficently" if the user / admin takes the time to do the work.
Between this, Tux Racer and xbill, Linux now has three games!
I was going to make this funny post about "We're gaining on the Mac gamers" and link to the Rooster Teeth (Red vs Blue fellas) site where they have the Mac Gamer "switch parody" video but the bastards took it down.
Does anyone have a copy of that or a link somewhere? I think I've deleted my copy.
I think it's odd that the Gran Turismo series is such a huge seller, but when I talk about it outside of the core GT circles no one seems to care. Anyway ...
...) they take every bit of media hype as the written law - even if it doesn't come from the game publisher. A certain amount of the hype does belong to the developer / publisher, but you have to keep in mind that the majority of the hype comes from "insider" sites and game enthusiast groups. "Fanatics", if you will. Then when the developer doesn't live up to the claims of the fanatics, the fanatics are let down and the game is viewed as a watered down version of what the developer promised, when in actuality they never claimed any such thing.
GT4 is another one that hits the over promissing scenario. The said it would be online and it won't. They said it would be ready for Christmas 2003, it wasn't.
Other comments on this topic are talking about the true product being hype. I guess that's true. When you go to a group that adores a certain game (Final Fantasy, Grand Theft Auto, Gran Turismo
Have you ever tried to take a pic in a club with a shitty flash? Horrible. A xenon flash would help a LOT. Current camera phones (and this one) don't do what its target audience wants it to do.
I think you're arguing againt yourself. You say that it's not good because it doesn't work in clubs but it is good because a girl can take a picture of her friends and hang it up on her wall.
So basically it doesn't work in clubs. But what cameras do? And seriously, are club pictures going to be any good anyway? A bunch of drunk people? Come on
That being said, 'good' is a rather subjective term. I would imagine that the average user of this camera phone would be more than pleased with the images... and having the ability to off load the odd pic and print it to 4x6 would please the average teenager who wants a pic of her and her girlfriends for her locker door or desk.
So why are you arguing that it needs a better flash? It does what its target audience wants it to do.
Your argument doesn't apply here... if you're a 'photographer', what the hell are you doing with a camera phone?
I guess what I'm saying is that no matter how good of a flash you stick on your camera phone you're still going to have a shitty flash-lit picture. If you want good pictures get a good camera.