That is a good point. The "why would you run anything else" (OS wise) is an even better point when you find out that Panther will include many of the "popular" APIs from Linux. Of course, with the ability to more directly port Linux software, the ability to almost directly port BSD software, the ability to emulate Windows software and older (pre-)Mac OS, and a fully functional X server included, oh yea, and the ability to run fully 64bit apps natively in Mac OS, the question becomes even more poinient: Why would you run a different OS on these machines?
There aren't any details yet, but I'm guessing these APIs will be dummy code that simply translate and redirect the Linux calls to the native OSX/BSD routines. This is the very form of OS emulation that I described several times on/. where you don't emulate the hardware, you emulate the software by redirecting all system calls to the native versions.
#1. "Linux" can't be put on "any" computer. On x86, is is generally limited to Pentium based machines an newer. #2. MacOS can run on very old hardware also. Versions of MacOS from 8.(something) and back are free from Apple's web site. So if you have some older Mac hardware lying around you can still run it as a file/print server, web server or the like. #3. "Linux" doesn't really work well on anything but 32bit x86 CPUs. I know the KERNEL will run on a lot of other platforms, but quite a LOT of the software out there is poorly written and will not compile, or compiles and runs incorrectly on other platforms. I know I've run RedHat on Dec Alphas for years, and it's a chore to get even the included apps/utils to work properly. Under RH7 the "top" command would contunually dump core, and several 3rd party apps didn't correctly buffer things because they assumed the length of an "int" instead of asking the platdorm what it used. #4. Windows doesn't run on anything but the Microsoft specified computers (namely x86 systems), and it seems to have dominated fairly well, so hardware variety doen't seem to be a factor in acceptance of an OS. It seems consumers and business alike are more interested in something else: ease of use, support, reliably updates, integration; something. #5. From Apple, you don't get a "low-end computer" for $1000. You get a very well appointed, nicely styled system with excellent fit and finish. You get a system that's ready to use out of the box with most all the apps a normal home user would require. Just plug in, turn on and get to work.
Frankly, even if Apple is a niche player for the rest of eternety, I'd be happy. The company has no debt, over $4B in the bank. They can live right along the other niche players in the world like Rolex, Rolls Royce, Gulf Stream, etc. All of these companies maintain a very small percentage of their market sales, yet they stay in business decade after decade.
Linux will have a hard time simply because of what you hinted at an didn't say outright: Linux (and GNU and KDE) don't innovate, they continually take existing ideas and attempt to mimic/emulate them.
When you are continually playing catchup, and can't provide any reasonably reliable timeline for feature releases or updates, it's very hard for a company to take you seriously. There are entire too many projects in the free software model that are totally dependent upon the dedication of one person. It that one poerson gets bored, gets a job, dies, whatever, the project dies.
Sure you can be noble and say that "well someone else will just pick up where they left off", but time after time we've seen that it doesn't happen. A company like Apple,Microsoft, Sun and the like allow projects to survive the loss of even multiple project authors. The company can hire replacements to continue the project since cash is a mighty incentive.
But you (being a person that would assemble an entire system from stratch) would not pay Apple's prices for upgrades. You would order the base system with the minimum RAM, no DVD burner(?) and lowest capacity drive. You would then simply visit pricewatch and purchase all your upgrades at street price, and you'd sell the FX5200 on eBay.
And the Mac still has lots of stuff that your self created system doesn't. Granted, much of it won't do much for your gaming experience. (gigabit ethernet, optical audio ports, PCI-X, FW800, 64bit system).
This is always going to be true: You can assemble a generic Wintel computer from commodity parts with fewer features than Apple's base machine, and spend less money of it. This will always also be true: The Apple system will come with more hardware, software and design elegance than your generic machine. This value may be meaningless to you, but it is sill there.
If I loosely interpolate the performace of the dual CPU duel in the keynote down to the single processors we're talking about, the Mac in question would still be about 1.2 to 1.5 times as fast as the machine you would assemble.
yes I am yelling. It's ugly, it breaks Apple's own stated uses for brushed metal, and it has less functionality than the standard windows, while wasting more space.
True Communism would be utopia, the problem is it's never had a chance to reach that point. In ecery attempt at communism to date, control has found its way in to the hands of a greedy/ruthless dictator and government that then formed classes of people who had more and less than each other.
The U.S. is more than half way to communism at this point. We're well in to Socialism and the office of President looks more and more like a position of dictatorship every year.
Since you are apparently ignorant of this, I will educate you:
The "french" in french fry does not refer to the place of origin or the nation of France. "frenching" is a way of slicing food in to long thin strips. In the case of these potato frenches, you place them in hot oil in a procedure known as "deep fat FRYing". Americans, being lazy with language as they are, shortened the term "french fried potatos" to "french fries".
About 10 years ago I was running multiple monitors in an "immersion" configuration for a flight sim. Granted, I only had 4 monitors, not 13, but then I only used one machine. A Mac Quadra 900. The sim was F/A-18 Hornet. No special software or configuration was necessary. More displays would have simply required more NuBus graphics cards and displays. Of course, when I exited the sim, all four displays belonged to one machine and displayed one contiguous desktop area, and any game that was properly written supported the multi display.
You are absoloutly, absoloutly correct. Apple tossed out the previous UIG documents and created completely new ones. For better or worse, that is the case.
I can't explain why Apple uses brushed metal for Safari or Calculator. To me even the address book is a stretch. But they do. I dislike the look and the behavior of brushed metal. I dislike having all the window operator buttons so closed to each other. I dislike that ALL window buttons highlite and dim in unison instead of just the one that I move the cursor over.
I look at is like this: OS X is only on its third major release. It is more feature rich than any other OS that is at any stage. Sure it lacks many of the features and unambiguous operation of the older Finder and system, but it's betting better each update, and they (so far) are listening to user feedback.
That's a hell of a decision to make from a very few images and comments of dubious origins.
Apple has almost always been very conservative with their version numbering schemes. They're not ones to jump to the next whole integer just for the glitz of it.
When 11.0 is released it will either be one of two things: 1. A complete re-write and restructuring of the underlying OS and APIs in a new language or for a new processor/system technology. The re-write will be totally invisible to the end user who will have the nearly the same exact user experience as the previous 10.x version (ala Sys 6 to Sys 7). 2. The entire OS will be redone, a completely new UI willbe developed and the entire Mac OS as you knew it will be tossed out the window. (ala MacOS 9 to MacOS X). Since this has only happened once in the almost 20 years of Macintosh existence, I would doubt VERY highly that this would occur on your desired upgrade timeline.
Apple is quite clear on this point when you read the developer documentaion of the UI.
Brushed Metal is for all "digital lifestyle" applications. That is, applications that control such devices or use/manipulate the data from those devices (photos, music, video, contacts).
Aqua is for everything else (graphics, sound, animation, text). If an application is not used primarily to interface with digital lifesyle devices, it should use the standard Aqua theme.
Apple's thinking was that this provides a distinction between a "general use" app and a "limited use" app. iPhoto is an exreemely useful app, only if you have lots of photos and/or a digital camera. Photoshop is useful without either. The brushed metal interface also somewhat mimics the curent fad of bright metal cases on consumer devices, much like stereo equipment from the 70s. This is a subliminal "ease of use" thing.
A relatively small project (a few hours to a weekend) and you could build an enclosure for your coputer that would absorb all the noise, and still provide ventilation with a single fan.
I'd use 1x1 lumber for the frame, drywall for the exterior (easy to work with, very sound absorband, easy to paint/decorate), and acoustic tile inside the box. A single 6" fan would drive air through the enclosure via some ducting to prevent heat buildup while absorbing most fan and system noise.
As a simpler idea: you could disassemble your entire system down to a bare case then spray a layer or three of automotive undercoating in the case, then reassemble the case. You'd need to mask off any areas of the case that the internal components may use as a heat sink contact. The undercoating should make the panels much more sound absorband, especially to the higher frequency sources inside a computer case.
My method works pretty well. I (like more people should) run my own SMTP server and own several domain names. When I go to a site that requires my email address I create a new alias for it in the Sendmail config. Not a new account, just an alias that points to my actual account.
Each site I visit and register with has their own alias, usually the name of the site. Ex: paypal@domain.com, ebay@domain.com, megaramdeals@domain.com, wellsfargo@domain.com, slashdot@domain.com All of these emails drop in to one account and are checked easily. If I start getting ANY spam from any of them, I simply delete or rename the alias and change the registration at the site.
I NEVER give out the email address to which all of these aliases point. The only people who know it are those who recieve email replies sent back from my machine. Since I already know who they are (and my server has a blanket deny from AOL, MSN, Yahoo, etc), I feel fairly secure in knowing that the address will not be abused. But then, even if it is, no-one SHOULD know it, so changing it is only as involved as doing a "find/replace all" within the sendmail alias file and changing the name in my mail client. A total of 5 minutes of work.
Some day (soon I hope) ISPs will start doing this. Instead of the "now with 10 email boxes", you get one mailbox and unlimited aliases. There also needs to be a simple UI to change these aliases on the fly, we web page or a specifically formatted email (like subscribing to a listserv).
There are the occasional difficulties. Some automated scripts on the other end of my email scrutinize the return/from address compared to what they sent a message to and offer to change my email address for future use. For most humans though, as long as my name shows up properly in the "from" field, they don't ever look at the actual address.
It is playable. You can create a character. Most all races, classes and skills seem tobe there. You go through a short training class, then you start killing creatures, can create a small party, complete a few small quests. They say the characters you build with this version will transfer to the full release version.
The problem with this article is that 90% of the "shareware" I download isn't shareware at all, it's a demo.
The way I (and most people I know) define these terms:
Shareware: Software distributed in a fully functioning, non-limited version. A request is distributed along with the software that asks the user to send some money to the author(s). whether or not you send the money, the software will have all features and not disable itself at any time. The software may have a "nag" screen that asks for you to send the fee.
Demo: Software that is disabled or restricted in some way from it's full version. To use the software's full feature set, or to use it for an ulimited amount of time requires you to pay a fee. Not paying the fee will cause the software to disable itself, or to continue to operate in a lesser manner than the full version.
Freeware: Shareware that has no request for money. the software is free.
Free Software: Similar to freeware, but the source code is usually available and usable by end users.
There is a VERY large push today (apparently backed by sites like Versiontracker) to use "shareware" and "demo" interchangeably. Sorry, but I just don't but it. I pay shareware fees when I use truely shareware software. I've decided to boycott any software that claims to be shareware but is in fact a demo.
Some software (such as BBEdit on the Mac) sort of blur the line a little. BBEdit Light is freeware, you may use all the program's features for as long as you like. But Light is also a demo for the full BBEdit which is commercial software that has more features than Light. There is also a true demo version of BBEdit that is lauch limited, then refuses to operate.
On top of the reduced efficiency in extreme climates (no heat in sub zero temperatures), heat pumps have one other drawback: You can't run the A/C and heater at the same time. This is invaluable for defogging interior surfaces of windows, and providing comfort on very humid days. You run the intake air through the A/C core first to chill it and cause condensation. You then pass the cooled air over the heater core to raise the temperature, thus lowering the relative humidity significantly. This will defog windows in a matter of seconds. A heat pump can only heat or cool, so this process is not possible.
Because, the web server gets a browser ID string with EVERY request sent to it. If the server (or CGI application) looks at the browser ID and doesn't like it, you will be sent a "get IE" page instead of the content you wanted.
Wells Fargo is like this. They demad that you use the latest version of IE or NS. I use iCab for Mac, and have iCab set to send the ID string for IE. Internet Banking works perfectly fine with iCab, it displays well, it is just as secure, but Wells Fargo refuses to "certify" iCab for use with the service.
The stated reason for the limitation is that security. But they refuse to answer why they don't just check for 128bit encryption and allow any browser that supports it.
In the end, the sender of the information can restrict you based on your client ID, IP address, domain name or anything else. The server is not under any reuirement to send you what you requested, only what the owner wants you to see.
Teach programming on the older machines. Seriously... if you want to teach BASIC, PASCAL, ForTran, C, Assembly; you know, "the standards", why not use antique machines? In just two local second hand shops that I frequent, there are continually at least a few Commodore 64, Tandy CoCo, Apple II type systems about. They usually sell for like $2. It shouldn't be too hard to accumulate 30 or 40 of them to populate a programming classroom or two.
Or go back to the days of terminals and a central computing system. A modest Pentium II or a Mac G3 system should be able to run at least several classrooms worth of terminals (via serial line MUX or Ethernet) when just simple 50-100 line programs are being compiled and run. Run a basic GNU/Linux or BSD system (like Mac OS X). I learned Pascal by programming on punch cards... nothing makes you want to write good code like a 3 day turn around time for your code run results. In this case, the students could use dumb terminals, or generic PCs to connect to the programming environment and program in simple, API and GUI free environments that still protect errant programs from each other.
Actually I think if you were to research is some more you would find that it's an FCC regulation.
The initial problem was that the cellular infrastructure was designed around ground-based usage of the mobile devices. In such a setting only a few (perhaps four) cell towers could "see" a 600mw portable device. Put that same device up in the air several thousand feet and cell towers for miles around can "see" the device, this causing the potential for multiple connections, system lockups, eves dropping, or other problems within the system.
The towers adjacent to each other and the phone should negotiate as to which tower will handle the call at the moment. If one or more of those towers isn't close enough to the others several towers may attempt to control the phone at the same time.
As for the gyro compass calibration... no such thing happens that I am aware of. The hard compass rose is used to calibrate the magnetic compass in the plane.This calibration must happen on a regular maintenance frequency (I think yearly), or whenever any instrumentation or configuration change takes place with the aircraft. It has to be done by an FAA certified compass mechanic. This should also be done if the aircraft's "home" airport is changed significantly (more than 50 miles).
A gyro compass is set at each engine start (and every 15-30 minutes during flight) to the magnetic compass. Doing so requires straight and level steady-speed flight. The gyro compass has so much drift that it doesn't need any tremendous level of accuracy. Besides, because it's not magnetic, the gyro compass does not have any sensitivity to the objects in or near the instrument cluster so checking it agains a compas rose is pointless.
VOR and ADF would in fact be snesitive to certain electromagnetic fields. Specifically those in the VHF and LF ranges respectively. VOR uses H/VhF (108-118mHz) signals and ADF uses LF to MF (190 to 535kHz). Due to radio wave physics which I'm not completely up on, certain harmonics and other "internal" frequencies could also interfere with these devices.
As a pilot let me enlighten you.... Flying a plane in to the World Trade Center Towers required little to no instrumentation. Almost the entire flight would have been completed via VFR (visual flight ruleless). The only rules they followed were the ones of physics that would keep the plane from self destructing before impact.
1. hijack the plane 2. put a person with 4 hours of training in the pilot seat 3. with a sharpie marker, draw a small circle in the middle of the pilot's window 4. keep your target within the circle turning the plane as necessary 5. fly.... fly... fly... boom
Since each team knew approximatly where the planes would be when they started the event they knew approximately what compass heading to fly to reach their targets. From about 30 miles out or more, the targets were easily visible and no compass was needed. And throughout most of the flight, the hijackers could have allowed the use of EMP devices and the attack would still have succeeded.
Compasses, GPS, WAAS, VOR, Radar, DME, minimum spacing, altitude based heading, etc. only matter if you care that your plane and passengers are supposed to survive at the end of the flight. When you don't, all that safety and navigation stuff is useless and you might as well toss it out the window to you can fly faster and hit with more impact.
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That is a good point. The "why would you run anything else" (OS wise) is an even better point when you find out that Panther will include many of the "popular" APIs from Linux. Of course, with the ability to more directly port Linux software, the ability to almost directly port BSD software, the ability to emulate Windows software and older (pre-)Mac OS, and a fully functional X server included, oh yea, and the ability to run fully 64bit apps natively in Mac OS, the question becomes even more poinient: Why would you run a different OS on these machines?
/. where you don't emulate the hardware, you emulate the software by redirecting all system calls to the native versions.
There aren't any details yet, but I'm guessing these APIs will be dummy code that simply translate and redirect the Linux calls to the native OSX/BSD routines. This is the very form of OS emulation that I described several times on
#1. "Linux" can't be put on "any" computer. On x86, is is generally limited to Pentium based machines an newer.
#2. MacOS can run on very old hardware also. Versions of MacOS from 8.(something) and back are free from Apple's web site. So if you have some older Mac hardware lying around you can still run it as a file/print server, web server or the like.
#3. "Linux" doesn't really work well on anything but 32bit x86 CPUs. I know the KERNEL will run on a lot of other platforms, but quite a LOT of the software out there is poorly written and will not compile, or compiles and runs incorrectly on other platforms. I know I've run RedHat on Dec Alphas for years, and it's a chore to get even the included apps/utils to work properly. Under RH7 the "top" command would contunually dump core, and several 3rd party apps didn't correctly buffer things because they assumed the length of an "int" instead of asking the platdorm what it used.
#4. Windows doesn't run on anything but the Microsoft specified computers (namely x86 systems), and it seems to have dominated fairly well, so hardware variety doen't seem to be a factor in acceptance of an OS. It seems consumers and business alike are more interested in something else: ease of use, support, reliably updates, integration; something.
#5. From Apple, you don't get a "low-end computer" for $1000. You get a very well appointed, nicely styled system with excellent fit and finish. You get a system that's ready to use out of the box with most all the apps a normal home user would require. Just plug in, turn on and get to work.
Frankly, even if Apple is a niche player for the rest of eternety, I'd be happy. The company has no debt, over $4B in the bank. They can live right along the other niche players in the world like Rolex, Rolls Royce, Gulf Stream, etc. All of these companies maintain a very small percentage of their market sales, yet they stay in business decade after decade.
Linux will have a hard time simply because of what you hinted at an didn't say outright: Linux (and GNU and KDE) don't innovate, they continually take existing ideas and attempt to mimic/emulate them.
When you are continually playing catchup, and can't provide any reasonably reliable timeline for feature releases or updates, it's very hard for a company to take you seriously. There are entire too many projects in the free software model that are totally dependent upon the dedication of one person. It that one poerson gets bored, gets a job, dies, whatever, the project dies.
Sure you can be noble and say that "well someone else will just pick up where they left off", but time after time we've seen that it doesn't happen. A company like Apple,Microsoft, Sun and the like allow projects to survive the loss of even multiple project authors. The company can hire replacements to continue the project since cash is a mighty incentive.
Quote: "...a platform that is hardware/software locked..."
What exactly do you mean by this? Macs are not "locked" to any software or hardware any more than any X86 system is.
Disk drives:
Mac: IDE,SCSI,FiCal,Serial ATA
x86: IDE,SCSI,FiCal,Serial ATA
Displays:
Mac: ADC, DVI, 15pin VGA
x86: DVI, 15pin VGA
Internal expansion
Mac: PCI, PCI-X, AGP (4x,8x)
x86: PCI, PCI-X, AGP (4x, 84)
External expansion:
Mac: USB 2.0, FireWire
x86: USB 2.0, FireWire, Serial, Parallel (though I don't know many people who use the legay ports any more)
Removable storage:
Mac: CDRW, DVD-RW
x86 CDRW, DVD(-/+)RW, Floppy
Memory:
Mac: PC XXXX
x86: PC XXXX
Networking:
Mac: 10/100/1000bT RJ45, WiFi, BlueTooth
x86: 10/100/1000bT RJ45, WiFi, BlueTooth
Input devices:
Mac: mouse, keyboard, trackball, graphics tablet
x86: mouse, keyboard, trackball, graphics tablet
Operating System:
Mac: MacOS, Linux, BSD ( a few other obscure systems)
x86: Windows, Linux, BSD (a few other obscure systems)
Software:
Too many to list. Most any major app on the x86/windows systems has a port or viable/better alternative on the Mac.
So do tell; where is this proprietary "locked" environment of which you write about regarding the Mac.
But you (being a person that would assemble an entire system from stratch) would not pay Apple's prices for upgrades. You would order the base system with the minimum RAM, no DVD burner(?) and lowest capacity drive.
You would then simply visit pricewatch and purchase all your upgrades at street price, and you'd sell the FX5200 on eBay.
And the Mac still has lots of stuff that your self created system doesn't. Granted, much of it won't do much for your gaming experience. (gigabit ethernet, optical audio ports, PCI-X, FW800, 64bit system).
This is always going to be true: You can assemble a generic Wintel computer from commodity parts with fewer features than Apple's base machine, and spend less money of it.
This will always also be true: The Apple system will come with more hardware, software and design elegance than your generic machine. This value may be meaningless to you, but it is sill there.
If I loosely interpolate the performace of the dual CPU duel in the keynote down to the single processors we're talking about, the Mac in question would still be about 1.2 to 1.5 times as fast as the machine you would assemble.
No, Linux doesn't. Becuase fast user switching has nothing to do with Linux.
KDE and Gnome could get fast user switching though, as they are the programs/libraries that control user intaction with the computer via a GUI.
FINDER IS BRUSHED METAL IN PANTHER!!!
yes I am yelling. It's ugly, it breaks Apple's own stated uses for brushed metal, and it has less functionality than the standard windows, while wasting more space.
True Communism would be utopia, the problem is it's never had a chance to reach that point. In ecery attempt at communism to date, control has found its way in to the hands of a greedy/ruthless dictator and government that then formed classes of people who had more and less than each other.
The U.S. is more than half way to communism at this point. We're well in to Socialism and the office of President looks more and more like a position of dictatorship every year.
No.... He means french fries.
Since you are apparently ignorant of this, I will educate you:
The "french" in french fry does not refer to the place of origin or the nation of France. "frenching" is a way of slicing food in to long thin strips. In the case of these potato frenches, you place them in hot oil in a procedure known as "deep fat FRYing".
Americans, being lazy with language as they are, shortened the term "french fried potatos" to "french fries".
About 10 years ago I was running multiple monitors in an "immersion" configuration for a flight sim. Granted, I only had 4 monitors, not 13, but then I only used one machine. A Mac Quadra 900. The sim was F/A-18 Hornet. No special software or configuration was necessary. More displays would have simply required more NuBus graphics cards and displays.
Of course, when I exited the sim, all four displays belonged to one machine and displayed one contiguous desktop area, and any game that was properly written supported the multi display.
NOTHING looks better as a metal app. That person should be slapped and sterelized so that opinion will not be passed on in the genes.
You are absoloutly, absoloutly correct. Apple tossed out the previous UIG documents and created completely new ones. For better or worse, that is the case.
I can't explain why Apple uses brushed metal for Safari or Calculator. To me even the address book is a stretch. But they do. I dislike the look and the behavior of brushed metal.
I dislike having all the window operator buttons so closed to each other. I dislike that ALL window buttons highlite and dim in unison instead of just the one that I move the cursor over.
I look at is like this: OS X is only on its third major release. It is more feature rich than any other OS that is at any stage. Sure it lacks many of the features and unambiguous operation of the older Finder and system, but it's betting better each update, and they (so far) are listening to user feedback.
That's a hell of a decision to make from a very few images and comments of dubious origins.
Apple has almost always been very conservative with their version numbering schemes. They're not ones to jump to the next whole integer just for the glitz of it.
When 11.0 is released it will either be one of two things:
1. A complete re-write and restructuring of the underlying OS and APIs in a new language or for a new processor/system technology. The re-write will be totally invisible to the end user who will have the nearly the same exact user experience as the previous 10.x version (ala Sys 6 to Sys 7).
2. The entire OS will be redone, a completely new UI willbe developed and the entire Mac OS as you knew it will be tossed out the window. (ala MacOS 9 to MacOS X). Since this has only happened once in the almost 20 years of Macintosh existence, I would doubt VERY highly that this would occur on your desired upgrade timeline.
Apple is quite clear on this point when you read the developer documentaion of the UI.
Brushed Metal is for all "digital lifestyle" applications. That is, applications that control such devices or use/manipulate the data from those devices (photos, music, video, contacts).
Aqua is for everything else (graphics, sound, animation, text). If an application is not used primarily to interface with digital lifesyle devices, it should use the standard Aqua theme.
Apple's thinking was that this provides a distinction between a "general use" app and a "limited use" app. iPhoto is an exreemely useful app, only if you have lots of photos and/or a digital camera. Photoshop is useful without either. The brushed metal interface also somewhat mimics the curent fad of bright metal cases on consumer devices, much like stereo equipment from the 70s. This is a subliminal "ease of use" thing.
"I only have to get up to use a floppy"
Which is... never?
A relatively small project (a few hours to a weekend) and you could build an enclosure for your coputer that would absorb all the noise, and still provide ventilation with a single fan.
I'd use 1x1 lumber for the frame, drywall for the exterior (easy to work with, very sound absorband, easy to paint/decorate), and acoustic tile inside the box.
A single 6" fan would drive air through the enclosure via some ducting to prevent heat buildup while absorbing most fan and system noise.
As a simpler idea: you could disassemble your entire system down to a bare case then spray a layer or three of automotive undercoating in the case, then reassemble the case. You'd need to mask off any areas of the case that the internal components may use as a heat sink contact. The undercoating should make the panels much more sound absorband, especially to the higher frequency sources inside a computer case.
You missed the obvious.
The descriptive text on the regular Apple site is grey, always grey. The descriptive text in the 'modded' image is black.
I think this was a hack (internal probably), but I still hope it's either true, or an understatement.
My method works pretty well. I (like more people should) run my own SMTP server and own several domain names.
When I go to a site that requires my email address I create a new alias for it in the Sendmail config. Not a new account, just an alias that points to my actual account.
Each site I visit and register with has their own alias, usually the name of the site. Ex: paypal@domain.com, ebay@domain.com, megaramdeals@domain.com, wellsfargo@domain.com, slashdot@domain.com
All of these emails drop in to one account and are checked easily. If I start getting ANY spam from any of them, I simply delete or rename the alias and change the registration at the site.
I NEVER give out the email address to which all of these aliases point. The only people who know it are those who recieve email replies sent back from my machine. Since I already know who they are (and my server has a blanket deny from AOL, MSN, Yahoo, etc), I feel fairly secure in knowing that the address will not be abused.
But then, even if it is, no-one SHOULD know it, so changing it is only as involved as doing a "find/replace all" within the sendmail alias file and changing the name in my mail client. A total of 5 minutes of work.
Some day (soon I hope) ISPs will start doing this. Instead of the "now with 10 email boxes", you get one mailbox and unlimited aliases. There also needs to be a simple UI to change these aliases on the fly, we web page or a specifically formatted email (like subscribing to a listserv).
There are the occasional difficulties. Some automated scripts on the other end of my email scrutinize the return/from address compared to what they sent a message to and offer to change my email address for future use.
For most humans though, as long as my name shows up properly in the "from" field, they don't ever look at the actual address.
It is playable.
You can create a character. Most all races, classes and skills seem tobe there.
You go through a short training class, then you start killing creatures, can create a small party, complete a few small quests.
They say the characters you build with this version will transfer to the full release version.
The problem with this article is that 90% of the "shareware" I download isn't shareware at all, it's a demo.
The way I (and most people I know) define these terms:
Shareware: Software distributed in a fully functioning, non-limited version. A request is distributed along with the software that asks the user to send some money to the author(s). whether or not you send the money, the software will have all features and not disable itself at any time. The software may have a "nag" screen that asks for you to send the fee.
Demo: Software that is disabled or restricted in some way from it's full version. To use the software's full feature set, or to use it for an ulimited amount of time requires you to pay a fee. Not paying the fee will cause the software to disable itself, or to continue to operate in a lesser manner than the full version.
Freeware: Shareware that has no request for money. the software is free.
Free Software: Similar to freeware, but the source code is usually available and usable by end users.
There is a VERY large push today (apparently backed by sites like Versiontracker) to use "shareware" and "demo" interchangeably. Sorry, but I just don't but it. I pay shareware fees when I use truely shareware software. I've decided to boycott any software that claims to be shareware but is in fact a demo.
Some software (such as BBEdit on the Mac) sort of blur the line a little. BBEdit Light is freeware, you may use all the program's features for as long as you like. But Light is also a demo for the full BBEdit which is commercial software that has more features than Light. There is also a true demo version of BBEdit that is lauch limited, then refuses to operate.
On top of the reduced efficiency in extreme climates (no heat in sub zero temperatures), heat pumps have one other drawback:
You can't run the A/C and heater at the same time. This is invaluable for defogging interior surfaces of windows, and providing comfort on very humid days. You run the intake air through the A/C core first to chill it and cause condensation. You then pass the cooled air over the heater core to raise the temperature, thus lowering the relative humidity significantly.
This will defog windows in a matter of seconds.
A heat pump can only heat or cool, so this process is not possible.
Because, the web server gets a browser ID string with EVERY request sent to it. If the server (or CGI application) looks at the browser ID and doesn't like it, you will be sent a "get IE" page instead of the content you wanted.
Wells Fargo is like this. They demad that you use the latest version of IE or NS. I use iCab for Mac, and have iCab set to send the ID string for IE. Internet Banking works perfectly fine with iCab, it displays well, it is just as secure, but Wells Fargo refuses to "certify" iCab for use with the service.
The stated reason for the limitation is that security. But they refuse to answer why they don't just check for 128bit encryption and allow any browser that supports it.
In the end, the sender of the information can restrict you based on your client ID, IP address, domain name or anything else. The server is not under any reuirement to send you what you requested, only what the owner wants you to see.
Teach programming on the older machines.
Seriously... if you want to teach BASIC, PASCAL, ForTran, C, Assembly; you know, "the standards", why not use antique machines? In just two local second hand shops that I frequent, there are continually at least a few Commodore 64, Tandy CoCo, Apple II type systems about. They usually sell for like $2. It shouldn't be too hard to accumulate 30 or 40 of them to populate a programming classroom or two.
Or go back to the days of terminals and a central computing system. A modest Pentium II or a Mac G3 system should be able to run at least several classrooms worth of terminals (via serial line MUX or Ethernet) when just simple 50-100 line programs are being compiled and run. Run a basic GNU/Linux or BSD system (like Mac OS X). I learned Pascal by programming on punch cards... nothing makes you want to write good code like a 3 day turn around time for your code run results.
In this case, the students could use dumb terminals, or generic PCs to connect to the programming environment and program in simple, API and GUI free environments that still protect errant programs from each other.
Actually I think if you were to research is some more you would find that it's an FCC regulation.
The initial problem was that the cellular infrastructure was designed around ground-based usage of the mobile devices. In such a setting only a few (perhaps four) cell towers could "see" a 600mw portable device.
Put that same device up in the air several thousand feet and cell towers for miles around can "see" the device, this causing the potential for multiple connections, system lockups, eves dropping, or other problems within the system.
The towers adjacent to each other and the phone should negotiate as to which tower will handle the call at the moment. If one or more of those towers isn't close enough to the others several towers may attempt to control the phone at the same time.
As for the gyro compass calibration... no such thing happens that I am aware of. The hard compass rose is used to calibrate the magnetic compass in the plane.This calibration must happen on a regular maintenance frequency (I think yearly), or whenever any instrumentation or configuration change takes place with the aircraft. It has to be done by an FAA certified compass mechanic. This should also be done if the aircraft's "home" airport is changed significantly (more than 50 miles).
A gyro compass is set at each engine start (and every 15-30 minutes during flight) to the magnetic compass. Doing so requires straight and level steady-speed flight. The gyro compass has so much drift that it doesn't need any tremendous level of accuracy.
Besides, because it's not magnetic, the gyro compass does not have any sensitivity to the objects in or near the instrument cluster so checking it agains a compas rose is pointless.
VOR and ADF would in fact be snesitive to certain electromagnetic fields. Specifically those in the VHF and LF ranges respectively. VOR uses H/VhF (108-118mHz) signals and ADF uses LF to MF (190 to 535kHz).
Due to radio wave physics which I'm not completely up on, certain harmonics and other "internal" frequencies could also interfere with these devices.
As a pilot let me enlighten you....
Flying a plane in to the World Trade Center Towers required little to no instrumentation. Almost the entire flight would have been completed via VFR (visual flight ruleless). The only rules they followed were the ones of physics that would keep the plane from self destructing before impact.
1. hijack the plane
2. put a person with 4 hours of training in the pilot seat
3. with a sharpie marker, draw a small circle in the middle of the pilot's window
4. keep your target within the circle turning the plane as necessary
5. fly.... fly... fly... boom
Since each team knew approximatly where the planes would be when they started the event they knew approximately what compass heading to fly to reach their targets. From about 30 miles out or more, the targets were easily visible and no compass was needed. And throughout most of the flight, the hijackers could have allowed the use of EMP devices and the attack would still have succeeded.
Compasses, GPS, WAAS, VOR, Radar, DME, minimum spacing, altitude based heading, etc. only matter if you care that your plane and passengers are supposed to survive at the end of the flight. When you don't, all that safety and navigation stuff is useless and you might as well toss it out the window to you can fly faster and hit with more impact.