The chip that you use should only consume a few nanowatts of power, so there's room for refinement.
I've used those 8 pin PICs, they are pretty nice. I ran straight from battery power, a linear regulator is too wasteful. It was for a hazardous material area where running power was undesirable and the battery cell had to last a year. I powered sensors directly from the output of one pin, so I can turn the sensors on only when taking a reading. Obviously, it's only useful for low current devices, but other than maybe the speaker, I see no high current devices preventing the technique from being used on several of the inputs.
The problem of excessive CPU draw has been taken care of by staying away from the "desknotes". The current limitation of battery life is not CPU draw, but LCD draw.
Cutting CPU current draw by half will not net a doubling of the current battery charge life.
WorldNetDaily appears to be a fundementalist magazine, with editorials from Jerry Falwell and the like. Falwell was a racist and segregationist for a very long time if he still isn't and spouts quack stuff like trying to make a controversy like outing the "gay" Teletubby.
The old TVs won't be useless if you get a digital tuner, which is one thing being considered for those that can't buy one for themselves. The tuner can automatically scale the picture to the TV in question. Unless the TV was total garbage anyway, the picture will likely be better even on an NTSC TV because digital TV doesn't have snow, static or ghosting that mar analog NTSC broadcasts. I've had a digital tuner for a while, it's pretty darn nice looking even for "just" 480i output, it'll look just like a DVD does on the same set.
Actually, from the proposals I've heard about, the money will come from the auctioning of the reclaimed spectrum for other uses, which should generate a LOT more money than $3B.
Actually, in this case, they see the implication that one human life is ended to save another. The fact that a person is more attached to one human life than another human life doesn't necessarily change things.
Many, if not most, pro-lifers believe that life begins at conception, and as such, destroying a human embryo is ending a human life.
From what I understand, Rouche CANNOT supply enough drugs through production and facility limitations and until recently, was unwilling to even consider licencing out the production. Taiwan and India did start negotiation, but that takes time, any delay may cost lives, and they need all the time they can get. In the case of potential of millions of lives, I'd say it's better to do first and ask forgiveness later.
If you want to compare warranties, last I checked, pressed DVDs really don't have a specified warranty, though some companies will replace bad discs if sent to them within 90 days of purchase.
I've had a small number of DVDs rot, one was a dual layered Toy Story DVD. Those that have tried to get the companies to replace poorly pressed DVDs have met considerable resistance, the companies ask how they can know that the disc wasn't abused.
You are right that hard drives do seem to fail readily, but for me, I personally haven't had a drive fail on me in a long time, though the drive in a laptop I sold to a relative did die a few months after I sold it. Right now, my backup regimen is to duplicate my internal drives to externals of matching size, in a pinch, I can just use the externals as my primary drives.
He is right in his view that the MPAA will back blue ray because of the anticonsumer copy protection in the format.
Except for the bit about Blu-Ray maybe not requiring the availability of a managed copy (HD-DVD), both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD use the SAME copy prevention system, AACS.
I don't know about the cost per GB. It's going down for all formats. Desktop hard drives don't get jostled much, so I can see why someone might say a whole hard drive is more durable than a slice of optical media. Currently recordable DVDs, even expensive writable DVD-DLs, is a lot cheaper than equivalent hard drive storage. For a 400GB hard drive, one step down from the current max, the cost is still above $0.50/GB, I think I saw a 5-pack of DVD-RDL discs for $5-$10 recently, which makes it about a fifth the cost per GB.
I really don't have a problem with variable pricing on its own, though I suspect that the owners would exploit the variation to price their stuff higher than current pricing, and never lower. I'll buy tracks at fifty cents USD, but not $1.49 or $1.29, and frankly, I haven't bought at $0.99 either.
I don't buy music online, either by download or CD, but rather a local used CD store. Still, it's my hope that the ability to buy single tracks would lead to a pressure that improves the entire album. In the past, people complained about the bundling of hits with the throw-aways, the ability to buy the desired track and leave the undesired behind means that the undesired tracks would final getting the fiscal beating they deserve rather than be considered track count padding.
i wont buy an mp3 player (or anything that can play mp3's for that matter) that won't hold a large selection of music. what is the point?
I personally am pretty wary of a hard drive player, I had one exhanged due to a drive starting to fail. I've accidentally dropped the previous unit a few times and the drive started getting noisy, eventually it wouldn't turn on properly. This is in contrast to even an MD player which was dropped onto concrete numerous times and it still worked fine.
An all-flash player can store a pretty good cross-section of my music, I just haven't gotten to the point of getting one yet. A program that copies a random subset of my music collection is working pretty well, basically it ends up pulling a few tracks out of every album and putting it on the player, just to see how I would like it. I think with tweaking, it could just pull random full albums for those that listen to entire albums. After a while, I can re-randomize it for a new batch of music.
I think it's great to have all-in-one because it eliminates having to bugger around with other programs and program compatibility problems.
I used to like iPodder but frankly, I think it's crap now. The Mac version 2.1 loads up slower than 2.0. I'd use 2.0 but there's no way to turn off the update notification. The Windows version of iPodder is clunkier yet.
I have never had an issue with iTunes' ripping feature. It does have an error correction option, which has yet to fail me.
I think iTunes works better than the four separate programs I had to use to get the same functionality.
iTunes does waste CPU power here and there, I'm in agreement with that part.
I don't understand why there's an issue with the option to restrict explicit content. I doubt that bloats anything, and I don't think having the choice really hurts the person that choses not to use it.
I can asure you there are more multiprocessor aware windows programs (Anything using more than one thread) than there are mac apps in total.
I suppose that is true, but the likelyhood of any given Mac program being able to take advantage of more processors seems to be higher than with any given Windows program.
(Or MP-aware in macslang).
Is it macslang? I really don't know where it came from, but I don't think Apple uses it. I simply short-handed multiprocessor-aware, that's all.
Multithreading isn't rocketscience anymore.
No, not really, but developers sometimes need a justification to do so.
Depends, and less likely than you think. A lot more Mac software seems to be multi processor aware than Windows software. H.264 is dog-slow to encode but the Apple H.264 encoder used by the Quicktime encoder is MP-aware, with this, the speed will nearly double.
No self-respecting workstation went without it (same with the graphics cards), and finally, Apple has true workstations available, not just high end desktops priced like workstations.
I don't think MIDI I/O is going to be available on a consumer portable device. You are basically asking for a pro feature, and I don't think it makes sense to have extra hardware and ports that less than 1% of the device's purchasers will use.
I can see the risk of anti-trust, but if the DOJ really couldn't nail Microsoft for having a 95% of the desktop in part by illegal means, I don't see how Apple at 80% of the portable audio file player market is at risk, I don't think Apple's done nearly as much illegal stuff as Microsoft has done.
It is a better price than originally solicited. Even with the older price, it would still beat the cost of 4 x 1GB MS Pro Duo cards and beat the inconvenience of swapping them out, and the new price is better yet.
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The chip that you use should only consume a few nanowatts of power, so there's room for refinement.
I've used those 8 pin PICs, they are pretty nice. I ran straight from battery power, a linear regulator is too wasteful. It was for a hazardous material area where running power was undesirable and the battery cell had to last a year. I powered sensors directly from the output of one pin, so I can turn the sensors on only when taking a reading. Obviously, it's only useful for low current devices, but other than maybe the speaker, I see no high current devices preventing the technique from being used on several of the inputs.
Flight control electronics use PPC chips. The amount of data to track flight variables increases with every generation of aircraft.
The problem of excessive CPU draw has been taken care of by staying away from the "desknotes". The current limitation of battery life is not CPU draw, but LCD draw.
Cutting CPU current draw by half will not net a doubling of the current battery charge life.
It is used in many specialized situations.
I use CNC machines that were built around DOS-based PCs.
WorldNetDaily appears to be a fundementalist magazine, with editorials from Jerry Falwell and the like. Falwell was a racist and segregationist for a very long time if he still isn't and spouts quack stuff like trying to make a controversy like outing the "gay" Teletubby.
The old TVs won't be useless if you get a digital tuner, which is one thing being considered for those that can't buy one for themselves. The tuner can automatically scale the picture to the TV in question. Unless the TV was total garbage anyway, the picture will likely be better even on an NTSC TV because digital TV doesn't have snow, static or ghosting that mar analog NTSC broadcasts. I've had a digital tuner for a while, it's pretty darn nice looking even for "just" 480i output, it'll look just like a DVD does on the same set.
Actually, from the proposals I've heard about, the money will come from the auctioning of the reclaimed spectrum for other uses, which should generate a LOT more money than $3B.
Actually, in this case, they see the implication that one human life is ended to save another. The fact that a person is more attached to one human life than another human life doesn't necessarily change things.
Many, if not most, pro-lifers believe that life begins at conception, and as such, destroying a human embryo is ending a human life.
From what I understand, Rouche CANNOT supply enough drugs through production and facility limitations and until recently, was unwilling to even consider licencing out the production. Taiwan and India did start negotiation, but that takes time, any delay may cost lives, and they need all the time they can get. In the case of potential of millions of lives, I'd say it's better to do first and ask forgiveness later.
If you want to compare warranties, last I checked, pressed DVDs really don't have a specified warranty, though some companies will replace bad discs if sent to them within 90 days of purchase.
I've had a small number of DVDs rot, one was a dual layered Toy Story DVD. Those that have tried to get the companies to replace poorly pressed DVDs have met considerable resistance, the companies ask how they can know that the disc wasn't abused.
You are right that hard drives do seem to fail readily, but for me, I personally haven't had a drive fail on me in a long time, though the drive in a laptop I sold to a relative did die a few months after I sold it. Right now, my backup regimen is to duplicate my internal drives to externals of matching size, in a pinch, I can just use the externals as my primary drives.
He is right in his view that the MPAA will back blue ray because of the anticonsumer copy protection in the format.
Except for the bit about Blu-Ray maybe not requiring the availability of a managed copy (HD-DVD), both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD use the SAME copy prevention system, AACS.
I don't know about the cost per GB. It's going down for all formats. Desktop hard drives don't get jostled much, so I can see why someone might say a whole hard drive is more durable than a slice of optical media. Currently recordable DVDs, even expensive writable DVD-DLs, is a lot cheaper than equivalent hard drive storage. For a 400GB hard drive, one step down from the current max, the cost is still above $0.50/GB, I think I saw a 5-pack of DVD-RDL discs for $5-$10 recently, which makes it about a fifth the cost per GB.
I really don't have a problem with variable pricing on its own, though I suspect that the owners would exploit the variation to price their stuff higher than current pricing, and never lower. I'll buy tracks at fifty cents USD, but not $1.49 or $1.29, and frankly, I haven't bought at $0.99 either.
I don't buy music online, either by download or CD, but rather a local used CD store. Still, it's my hope that the ability to buy single tracks would lead to a pressure that improves the entire album. In the past, people complained about the bundling of hits with the throw-aways, the ability to buy the desired track and leave the undesired behind means that the undesired tracks would final getting the fiscal beating they deserve rather than be considered track count padding.
i wont buy an mp3 player (or anything that can play mp3's for that matter) that won't hold a large selection of music. what is the point?
I personally am pretty wary of a hard drive player, I had one exhanged due to a drive starting to fail. I've accidentally dropped the previous unit a few times and the drive started getting noisy, eventually it wouldn't turn on properly. This is in contrast to even an MD player which was dropped onto concrete numerous times and it still worked fine.
An all-flash player can store a pretty good cross-section of my music, I just haven't gotten to the point of getting one yet. A program that copies a random subset of my music collection is working pretty well, basically it ends up pulling a few tracks out of every album and putting it on the player, just to see how I would like it. I think with tweaking, it could just pull random full albums for those that listen to entire albums. After a while, I can re-randomize it for a new batch of music.
I think it's great to have all-in-one because it eliminates having to bugger around with other programs and program compatibility problems.
I used to like iPodder but frankly, I think it's crap now. The Mac version 2.1 loads up slower than 2.0. I'd use 2.0 but there's no way to turn off the update notification. The Windows version of iPodder is clunkier yet.
I have never had an issue with iTunes' ripping feature. It does have an error correction option, which has yet to fail me.
I think iTunes works better than the four separate programs I had to use to get the same functionality.
iTunes does waste CPU power here and there, I'm in agreement with that part.
I don't understand why there's an issue with the option to restrict explicit content. I doubt that bloats anything, and I don't think having the choice really hurts the person that choses not to use it.
I can asure you there are more multiprocessor aware windows programs (Anything using more than one thread) than there are mac apps in total.
I suppose that is true, but the likelyhood of any given Mac program being able to take advantage of more processors seems to be higher than with any given Windows program.
(Or MP-aware in macslang).
Is it macslang? I really don't know where it came from, but I don't think Apple uses it. I simply short-handed multiprocessor-aware, that's all.
Multithreading isn't rocketscience anymore.
No, not really, but developers sometimes need a justification to do so.
isn't that going to be, uh, slower?
Depends, and less likely than you think. A lot more Mac software seems to be multi processor aware than Windows software. H.264 is dog-slow to encode but the Apple H.264 encoder used by the Quicktime encoder is MP-aware, with this, the speed will nearly double.
I also noticed that the prices of 23" and 30" displays dropped, to $1299 from $1499 on the 23", to $2499 from $2999 on the 30".
Also now avalable: ECC memory.
No self-respecting workstation went without it (same with the graphics cards), and finally, Apple has true workstations available, not just high end desktops priced like workstations.
Dell is locked into Intel and they really needed dual core, so there it is.
If you need a big name company, then HP and SUN would be good alternatives, both offer Opteron-based servers and workstations.
I don't think MIDI I/O is going to be available on a consumer portable device. You are basically asking for a pro feature, and I don't think it makes sense to have extra hardware and ports that less than 1% of the device's purchasers will use.
I can see the risk of anti-trust, but if the DOJ really couldn't nail Microsoft for having a 95% of the desktop in part by illegal means, I don't see how Apple at 80% of the portable audio file player market is at risk, I don't think Apple's done nearly as much illegal stuff as Microsoft has done.
Yeah, let's brag about our willingness to waste electricity. If it doesn't need to be on, turn it off or use sleep mode.
Ultimately, sleep mode seems to show that Robson is kind of a waste, as my computers wake up from sleep to full productivity in five seconds.
The stability of the bittorrent system assumes there's always a seeder up, and that's a problem for smaller torrents when the last seeder shuts down.
You can download videos in a channel/subscription manner in a program called DTV, and it happens to allow using the bittorrent system built-in.
It's actually pretty nifty, it accepts audio and video feeds in RSS, the RSS enclosure can be audio, video or a torrent file for audio or video.
It is a better price than originally solicited. Even with the older price, it would still beat the cost of 4 x 1GB MS Pro Duo cards and beat the inconvenience of swapping them out, and the new price is better yet.