Cool - while ESPN, CNN/SI and Fox are breaking down the game, PBS will be breaking down who spent their 2.5 Million per 30 seconds the best. If the game is not at all interesting, this could be the best thing to tune to after the game.
Besides, sometimes things like herding cats just has to be panned.
Professional computer user maybe. But these are just petty theives who more than likely don't have a real clue about using a computer.
People like you and I see something like this and think - I would have done this that or the other - probably with a great deal of success toward getting away with the crime. Hell, look at the Texas 7 that escaped about a year ago. I thought "If I were them, I would have split up and not hung together" But what did they do? They stuck together and all got caught together.
The first thing that should tip you off is that we all know better than to resort to crime. These people don't and thus stories like these come to pass.
You want a story about criminal stupidity - read this article in the Lawrence Journal-World about two Kansas football players who stole a credit card, and used it to order a pizza - DELEVERED.
Ultimate TV was a nice system, but honestly, was it that great of a system? What did is present for the consumer beyond dual record capability and that nice cutesy added content on the side of the screen? But was that really that useful? I mean dual tuners - how often was that made use of to record two shows at the same time? And as far as their enhanced content, I don't realy think that the regular TV watching world is ready for that. Some ABC/ESPN Shows already use their Enhanced TV content (dual TV show/web show), and the use of that system isn't that high (compared with the number of viewers of these shows).
And finally, I also think that Microsoft is really out classed in this market by the big boys of home audio/video. I wonder if they really understand what it will take for them to break into the market? We are not just talking about making a superior product to what is out there, but you also have to get the consumers to actually buy these products. The A/V community is VERY hard to convince of good products. And when you make a bad product or two, they won't forget about it (see seriously overrated Bose).
CS programs at schools are not out to end colaboration with students. They are aiming to produce students who know how to program. In the real world YES, you can just copy the code directly from someone else, but what does that teach you? Nothing. Well how to copy/paste.
I mean, we talked about this today in class, if a guy gets a degree and makes it out of school riding the coattails of others his degree is worthless. Once he is out in the real world, he also drags down everyone else who has the same degree from the same school because employeers will think - Guys from school x don't know jack.
CS departements are not evil, but they are trying to uphold the principles of school. Don't misinterpret actions such as these as some sort of action to "keep people down".
While this article is really funny to read, it just shows the problems that are now going on at the PTO. There are two main problems - the first being what this article points out - that the agents are not doing enough research to make good judgement. It makes you wonder how much of a background in these particular fields the patent agents have?
The other problem is that the PTO has gotten to the point where people are actually rewarded for issuing as many patents as possible. This is a system that really has to be reviewed. It has gotten the PTO to the point where they basically pass EVERYTHING and then let the courts throw out the frivilous stuff. What a waste of time, and even more money since court costs can be astronomical.
This doesn't even raise the problem of issues like people patenting something in HOPES that it becomes an industry standard and only when it is well entrenched - THEN do they say - I HAVE THE PATENT!!! Um, isn't the whole idea that anyone can come up with idea prove that the need for the patent is dumb?
While the PTO was origionally started as a great idea, over the past two decades things have just gotten out of control. Software and Business Methods are something that are just so unreasonable to patent that the PTO needs to either go back and decide:
1- this is something that will have to be SERIOUSLY researched before a patent is issued, OR
2- These are just things that CAN'T be patented
Good luck to them, because either way, they have a big problem facing them.
One of the largest problems with the ATX design however (at least for the argument of this article) is the size of the motherboard itself (no pun intended). I mean, even if you said - let me build my own case, you are limited by the size of the MoBo you have.
From what I am reading from this article is that the writer wants to pursue as whole new motherboard design, lets call it MAT - for Mini AT. With this MAT design, you would be able to still have the current expandabiliy of the desktop, but have it in a smaller system.
Look at the bulk of current systems - you have a side mounted MoBo. If MAT kept this, BUT was able to use this double sided printed - you could take much of the depth of you case out. The height might not change much. Or you could keep the same depth, but change the height, amd move much of the stuff (like the power supply) to the front where you just vacated much of the MoBo. This would result in a case that is slightly wider than what we see now, shorter, and still just as deep.
What I envision when I am thinking about what the auther is talking about is to take the MoBo and do a top mounted design (you will see why in a bit). The processor and most of the chips would reside on the side of the MoBo that faces UP. You would mount your cards on the other side (probably same size cards). Your power supply and drives could be mounted at the bottom of the system, under the cards. The main issue would be venting - and with that, I would propose vents along the TOP back of the system, with the MoBo doing most of the channeling of air. It would direct air in a way that it would have to go to the front of the case, OVER the MoBo and then out the back - this would HOPEFULLY displace the rising air off of the CPU and other chips. You could use a number of fans to input air from the lower side of the system. Overall, you would end up with a wider, but possibly shorter and not nearly a long front to back.
This would be a very interesting project to undertake. But while making a case would probably be easy to do OR get done, making a MoBo that would fit to these standards is probably beyond the range of most people who are reading this.
The other problem with this is als expandablity. I mean, we are not just talking about a small computer. If we wanted that we would just all get these little computers and be happy with it. But we want a small computer that STILL enjoys the benefits of being and expandable system. You don't get that with a Laptop.
Ugly? That depends on your point of view. I happen to find the Benz / LR Defender / OLD Toyota Land Cruiser Boxy look kind of cool. Much better than things like the Vehicross.
Don't forget, we now live in a society (US I mean) where SUVs are everywhere, none are off road capable, and most are areodynamic, which is pointless considering how crappy their gas milage is AND that they are not designed for speed.
-RonB
Re:Very few people need an SUV.
on
The Ultimate S.U.V.
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The point of this is not like the Soccer Mom SUV's sold in America. This is a real expiditionary vehicle that is designed for real work uses. This particular SUV was designed to transport useful scientific equipment to where it needs to go, which are usually places that cars and regular SUVs can't go.
I agree, most people don't need SUVs. Hell, most SUVs hardly ever have a drop of dirt on them. But this is slightly different.
I am not sure I agree with you on the playing games part. I beta tested during a Christmas rush for Origin one year (got my name on Wing Commander III PSX), and while I thought playing games and getting paid would be fun, there is nothing worse than playing a game all day that:
1- you are tired of playing
2- you don't like to play (or already beat on another system)
3- you have to play the same section OVER AND OVER AND OVER again to make sure you can continually reproduce the error you just got
Finding cheat codes in games sound very similar, but even more tedious, because you have to sit there and enter:
00000000000, 00000000001, 00000000002, 00000000003...
or look over:
27ae7fbc 287aeef2 28fedd19 c1927efb
Not much fun.
And that didn't even take into account that whole DMCA angle.
Ron Blancarte
They Dropped their Calc division for this?!?!
on
Mid-Air Messaging?
·
· Score: 0
Like I have read in some of the posts here, this is a cute technology, but honestly, what does this do for us? How is this really useful?
I get that it could work on some level as augmented reality - you walk into your bosses office and when you do, the adjenda for the meeting you are about to hear is spoken to you via your phone. But this seems to be more of a toy than anything. I don't see this being part of everyday life.
IMHO, HP would be better served in making the next great calculator. They really changed the calculator market with their 48 series calculators, why not keep that up?
Would that MasterCard commercial be something like this:
HomeMade Rocket - $250,000
FireSuit - $400
Helment, Gloves - $60
Blowing yourself up like the first tested Mercury Launch and winning the 2001 Darwin Award - PRICELESS
There are somethings money can't... blah blah blah
Slashdot Mirror
Cool - while ESPN, CNN/SI and Fox are breaking down the game, PBS will be breaking down who spent their 2.5 Million per 30 seconds the best. If the game is not at all interesting, this could be the best thing to tune to after the game.
Besides, sometimes things like herding cats just has to be panned.
RonB
People like you and I see something like this and think - I would have done this that or the other - probably with a great deal of success toward getting away with the crime. Hell, look at the Texas 7 that escaped about a year ago. I thought "If I were them, I would have split up and not hung together" But what did they do? They stuck together and all got caught together.
The first thing that should tip you off is that we all know better than to resort to crime. These people don't and thus stories like these come to pass.
You want a story about criminal stupidity - read this article in the Lawrence Journal-World about two Kansas football players who stole a credit card, and used it to order a pizza - DELEVERED.
RonB
Ultimate TV was a nice system, but honestly, was it that great of a system? What did is present for the consumer beyond dual record capability and that nice cutesy added content on the side of the screen? But was that really that useful? I mean dual tuners - how often was that made use of to record two shows at the same time? And as far as their enhanced content, I don't realy think that the regular TV watching world is ready for that. Some ABC/ESPN Shows already use their Enhanced TV content (dual TV show/web show), and the use of that system isn't that high (compared with the number of viewers of these shows).
And finally, I also think that Microsoft is really out classed in this market by the big boys of home audio/video. I wonder if they really understand what it will take for them to break into the market? We are not just talking about making a superior product to what is out there, but you also have to get the consumers to actually buy these products. The A/V community is VERY hard to convince of good products. And when you make a bad product or two, they won't forget about it (see seriously overrated Bose).
RonB
CS programs at schools are not out to end colaboration with students. They are aiming to produce students who know how to program. In the real world YES, you can just copy the code directly from someone else, but what does that teach you? Nothing. Well how to copy/paste.
I mean, we talked about this today in class, if a guy gets a degree and makes it out of school riding the coattails of others his degree is worthless. Once he is out in the real world, he also drags down everyone else who has the same degree from the same school because employeers will think - Guys from school x don't know jack.
CS departements are not evil, but they are trying to uphold the principles of school. Don't misinterpret actions such as these as some sort of action to "keep people down".
-RonB
Why? Two words:
COURT COSTS.
In doing this you would have SOOOOOOO many court battles that most companies would just build a court room in their HQ just to save travel time.
The problem is that too much fluff is making it through now, why would passing everything be better?
While this article is really funny to read, it just shows the problems that are now going on at the PTO. There are two main problems - the first being what this article points out - that the agents are not doing enough research to make good judgement. It makes you wonder how much of a background in these particular fields the patent agents have?
The other problem is that the PTO has gotten to the point where people are actually rewarded for issuing as many patents as possible. This is a system that really has to be reviewed. It has gotten the PTO to the point where they basically pass EVERYTHING and then let the courts throw out the frivilous stuff. What a waste of time, and even more money since court costs can be astronomical.
This doesn't even raise the problem of issues like people patenting something in HOPES that it becomes an industry standard and only when it is well entrenched - THEN do they say - I HAVE THE PATENT!!! Um, isn't the whole idea that anyone can come up with idea prove that the need for the patent is dumb?
While the PTO was origionally started as a great idea, over the past two decades things have just gotten out of control. Software and Business Methods are something that are just so unreasonable to patent that the PTO needs to either go back and decide:
1- this is something that will have to be SERIOUSLY researched before a patent is issued, OR
2- These are just things that CAN'T be patented
Good luck to them, because either way, they have a big problem facing them.
One of the largest problems with the ATX design however (at least for the argument of this article) is the size of the motherboard itself (no pun intended). I mean, even if you said - let me build my own case, you are limited by the size of the MoBo you have.
From what I am reading from this article is that the writer wants to pursue as whole new motherboard design, lets call it MAT - for Mini AT. With this MAT design, you would be able to still have the current expandabiliy of the desktop, but have it in a smaller system.
Look at the bulk of current systems - you have a side mounted MoBo. If MAT kept this, BUT was able to use this double sided printed - you could take much of the depth of you case out. The height might not change much. Or you could keep the same depth, but change the height, amd move much of the stuff (like the power supply) to the front where you just vacated much of the MoBo. This would result in a case that is slightly wider than what we see now, shorter, and still just as deep.
What I envision when I am thinking about what the auther is talking about is to take the MoBo and do a top mounted design (you will see why in a bit). The processor and most of the chips would reside on the side of the MoBo that faces UP. You would mount your cards on the other side (probably same size cards). Your power supply and drives could be mounted at the bottom of the system, under the cards. The main issue would be venting - and with that, I would propose vents along the TOP back of the system, with the MoBo doing most of the channeling of air. It would direct air in a way that it would have to go to the front of the case, OVER the MoBo and then out the back - this would HOPEFULLY displace the rising air off of the CPU and other chips. You could use a number of fans to input air from the lower side of the system. Overall, you would end up with a wider, but possibly shorter and not nearly a long front to back.
This would be a very interesting project to undertake. But while making a case would probably be easy to do OR get done, making a MoBo that would fit to these standards is probably beyond the range of most people who are reading this.
-RonB
The other problem with this is als expandablity. I mean, we are not just talking about a small computer. If we wanted that we would just all get these little computers and be happy with it. But we want a small computer that STILL enjoys the benefits of being and expandable system. You don't get that with a Laptop.
-RonB
Ugly? That depends on your point of view. I happen to find the Benz / LR Defender / OLD Toyota Land Cruiser Boxy look kind of cool. Much better than things like the Vehicross.
Don't forget, we now live in a society (US I mean) where SUVs are everywhere, none are off road capable, and most are areodynamic, which is pointless considering how crappy their gas milage is AND that they are not designed for speed.
-RonB
The point of this is not like the Soccer Mom SUV's sold in America. This is a real expiditionary vehicle that is designed for real work uses. This particular SUV was designed to transport useful scientific equipment to where it needs to go, which are usually places that cars and regular SUVs can't go.
I agree, most people don't need SUVs. Hell, most SUVs hardly ever have a drop of dirt on them. But this is slightly different.
Keep up to date. LOTR was #1 Friday.
RonB
I am not sure I agree with you on the playing games part. I beta tested during a Christmas rush for Origin one year (got my name on Wing Commander III PSX), and while I thought playing games and getting paid would be fun, there is nothing worse than playing a game all day that:
1- you are tired of playing
2- you don't like to play (or already beat on another system)
3- you have to play the same section OVER AND OVER AND OVER again to make sure you can continually reproduce the error you just got
Finding cheat codes in games sound very similar, but even more tedious, because you have to sit there and enter:
00000000000, 00000000001, 00000000002, 00000000003...
or look over:
27ae7fbc 287aeef2 28fedd19 c1927efb
Not much fun.
And that didn't even take into account that whole DMCA angle.
Ron Blancarte
Like I have read in some of the posts here, this is a cute technology, but honestly, what does this do for us? How is this really useful?
I get that it could work on some level as augmented reality - you walk into your bosses office and when you do, the adjenda for the meeting you are about to hear is spoken to you via your phone. But this seems to be more of a toy than anything. I don't see this being part of everyday life.
IMHO, HP would be better served in making the next great calculator. They really changed the calculator market with their 48 series calculators, why not keep that up?
RonB
I have asked you nicely once. Do not make me ask you nicely again.
Maybe it is also a case like DAT where the big man(ie Movie industry), is just keeping this down? RonB
Would that MasterCard commercial be something like this:
... blah blah blah
HomeMade Rocket - $250,000
FireSuit - $400
Helment, Gloves - $60
Blowing yourself up like the first tested Mercury Launch and winning the 2001 Darwin Award - PRICELESS
There are somethings money can't