If your non-Apple music player acts as a USB mass storage device, simply navigate into your iTunes Music Library with the Finder, then drag and drop the files to your music player. (Personally, I use rsync to keep my iTunes library backed up to my house fileserver, and to also allow me to play the music from my Linux workstation).
If you're looking for non top-40 stuff, eMusic is a good deal less expensive and has been DRM free since it started. I've not used iTMS since they stopped jHymn from working - fortunately, eMusic has *completely* filled the gap.
The only disadvantage of eMusic is you pay a monthly fee rather than a fee per track so it's not for everyone, but you only have to buy one album's worth per month for it to work out cheaper.
So you are less dead if you happen to be killed in a car that gets run over by a plane, than in the aircraft itself?
A fatal accident is a fatal accident. It was absolutely counted in the airline accident statistics as a fatal accident. It wasn't caused by the design of the airfield - it was caused mostly by an error by the flight crew (as was the earlier runway overrun accident). It's so wrong to say SouthWest has had no fatal accidents that it isn't even wrong.
Here is the *official* NTSB report for the most recent accident - notice that if you go to the NTSB website, and select injury severity 'fatal' and airline 'SouthWest', it comes up. The NTSB *definitely* count it as a fatal airline accident. Note - Injuries: 1 Fatal, 12 Minor.
NTSB Identification: DCA06MA009. The docket is stored in the Docket Management System (DMS). Please contact Records Management Division Scheduled 14 CFR Part 121: Air Carrier operation of SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO Accident occurred Thursday, December 08, 2005 in Chicago, IL Aircraft: Boeing 737-700, registration: N471WN Injuries: 1 Fatal, 12 Minor, 103 Uninjured.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.
A Southwest Airline B737-700, flight number 1248, slid off the runway at Chicago Midway Airport. The flight was from BWI to Midway. There was snow at the time of the accident. The flight was delayed from leaving BWI due to weather and held for 35 minutes before landing at Midway. Upon landing at Midway the airplane slid of the runway and went through a barrier fence and onto a roadway. There were 98 passengers onboard and 5 crew members on board. An emergency evacuation was done and no injuries have been reported. There are prelim reports of one ground fatality and 12 other ground injuries.
A probable cause has not yet been issued by the NTSB, but there were some reported procedural deviations by the crew which are likely to be listed as a factor when the final probable cause is reported.
There are plenty of embedded microprocessors around that do NOT expect DDR2 speeds. Many digital circuits simply don't need a 2GHz space heater and run just fine with a 2MHz Z80 or equivalent (indeed, the Z80 is still manufactured and popular in its 'classic' 40 pin DIL form. I have one on my work table that was manufactured less than 6 months ago). Many many products use chips of this sort of class.
Just because there's a clamour for ever faster (and hotter) chips in PCs and servers, it does not follow that the same is true of an embedded computer. If a 4MHz processor works for a particular application, there is absolutely no benefit in using something that 'expects DDR2'. Normal 70ns static RAM and flash chips are sold by the millions because they are cheap, electronically simple to interface, and low speed circuits are much cheaper and easier to lay out on a PCB. You don't need DDR2 on a weather station embedded computer or washing machine.
Many microcontrollers like the Atmega can interface with external memory (even though they have some internal flash and RAM).
Southwest have NOT had zero accidents. They've had at least two runway overruns in the last three or four years (one of them with fatalities, and the other was just a few yards from being fatal since the aircraft nearly hit a gas station).
OpenVMS reaching end of support? Since when? Last time I looked it was still very much being developed and maintained on Itanic and axp platforms. Only on the VAX platform is it reaching end of support (which is probably still a few years off).
It's all about "user experience". I don't want an experience from using the OS - if I'm having an "experience", the OS is getting in my way. This is I think, user-interface wise, what's wrong with all Microsoft software - they want you to have an "experience" (and indeed, various MS marketdroids never shut up about "user experience").
Not only that, at least about a year ago when I last tried SFU, it was like being blasted back in time and using ISC UNIX in 1993 (and that was a horrible experience even back then). Cygwin is just miles better - it's unfortunate that the cygwin people can't make an NT subsystem, the interface being closed and propreitary.
We could stop cutting down large swathes of forests for a start.
The landfilled paper will rot and methane and CO2 will be released (which is a worse problem). If you want to do something with the paper it's best to burn it and actually get some energy out, rather than let it decompose in a landfill.
Better still, someone else mentioned switchgrass - cellulosic ethanol is the way forward for ethanol, not ethanol from corn. Fortunately, the feedstock for cellulosic ethanol can be any invasive weed that can be grown on land that's marginal for agriculture and won't require tons of fertilizer.
"I Suck At Math" doesn't usually mean (I hope!) innumerate. People with normal literacy skills are no more equipped to write War and Peace than people with normal numeracy skills are equipped to do differential calculus. However, the ability to compose meaningful email messages with correct grammar does not require the author to have an English degree any more than 99.99% of jobs require mathematical skill beyond basic algebra learned as a 14 year old.
With a cable modem or ADSL line you'll have no SLA. It'll be "if it breaks, we'll fix it when we get around to it, possibly within three working days". With a T1 or similar line you'll get a service level agreement for a guaranteed rapid fix. If you get DOSsed, you won't just get thrown off the service, they'll work with you to stop the DOS attack etc.
Also, contention - with ADSL or cable you'll be sharing that bandwidth with perhaps as many as 50 other users. A T1 will be uncontended.
It's also expected that T1 users will be heavy bandwidth users, which is reflected in the price.
The EU isn't asking for the software to be opened, merely the protocols. It's not too much to ask for a company convicted of abusing its monopoly position.
_Nothing_ in Rightpondia used the S-100 bus. All the Z80 machines available here had a memory mapped framebuffer - the Spectrum had a memory mapped frame buffer, as did the Amstrad CPC lineup. Indeed I don't think there was any British computer that did it the way you say.
No, even back then, SRAM used much less power. Static RAM constructs each memory cell out of six complimentary MOSFET transistors (and did so back then; I have some Toshiba static RAM of that vintage and that's exactly how it works, and it has a quiescent current that's a fraction of DRAM of the same vintage).
Each DRAM memory cell consists of a capacitor and transistor. Each SRAM cell consists of six complimentary MOSFETs. This is why SRAM is more expensive - six transistors per cell rather than one transistor and one capacitor. SRAM is also generally direct addressed, and therefore has more pins on the package which adds to the expense (but removes the need for some of the glue logic between the CPU and the memory). These six transistors use vastly less power because:
- you don't need to charge the capacitor - you don't need to continuously keep recharging that capcitor (i.e. DRAM refresh) - complimentary MOSFETs (CMOS) *only* uses power when changing state (due to 'crowbaring' - in a complimentary NMOS/PMOS pair, both transistors will briefly be conducting when the state of the gate is changing). When just holding a memory value, the current usage is utterly trivial - leakage currents measured in picoamps. This is why even in the early 80s, static RAM was used for battery backed nonvolatile memory: the quiescent current of the device was miniscule, which couldn't be said for DRAM. Even in a running system, the majority of RAM is just keeping state.
Many dynamic RAMs were also complex to power too - the popular 4116 DRAM required no less than 4 power rails (+5v, -5v, 12v and GND) - which meant the computer needed some kind of internal switch mode power supply to supply these voltages. Static RAM of early 80s vintage were all single 5 volt supply. This also added to the current draw of DRAM of that period, when you consider the losses in the required power supply.
The Z80 was no more of a kludge than the 6502. It was merely binary compatible with the 8080, the design was a clean sheet electronically (and eliminated many of the problems with the 8080, including the complex power supply required for the 8080, and providing built in dynamic RAM refresh so computers could be constructed inexpensively using DRAM). The optimizations taken with the Z80 were merely different to the 6502 - the Z80 traded off operations per clock for a comprehensive instruction set to keep code small, and the 6502 traded off complexity for being able to do lots of small instructions quickly. The result was both chips actually executed at around the same speed (the 6502 was always rated about no more than 1/3rd of the clock speed of the equivalent Z80), except the Z80 had a definite advantage when it came to code size. It also had a distinct advantage when making a computer designed around the Z80, because the Z80 had built in DRAM refresh, as well as a separate 16 bit I/O space which meant you could use the entire memory map for memory. (It also made bank switching much easier, too, at an electronic level, and I/O glue logic can be much simpler with a separate I/O space since address decoding can be simplified. It's no coincidence that Z80 based systems tended to be considerably less expensive too, certainly on this side of the pond).
You can't say the Z80 was inferior because some designers just substituted an 8080 for the Z80, without using the features of the chip such as built in DRAM refresh. Systems actually designed around the Z80 didn't have any of the drawbacks or odd screen memory access issues of which you speak.
Yes - definitely. Since I'm building a Z80 single board computer project as well as doing things with my old Spectrums, this sort of thing is quite fresh in my mind:-)
I only recently played Wheelie - I always remember "Boy Wander" in Skool Daze writing 'I LOVE WHEELIE!' on the blackboards. But Wheelie is incredibly addictive (and sometimes frustratingly hard). I last played it on an evening last week on my rubber keyed beast:-)
Also rubber keyboard mats if yours has worn out. I still frequently use my Spectrum (well, ahem, one of my FOUR Spectrums - a rubber keyed 48K, a Spectrum+, a toast rack 128, and a bare board I use for testing hardware) because they are still a lot of fun. These days, you can download most of the software from World of Spectrum. On a rainy day, it's good fun to pull out the Speccy, download a game onto my laptop, and use 'playtzx' to turn my laptop into the world's most expensive Spectrum datacorder and load a game onto the machine.
Yeah, it was a shame that MGT didn't have the oompfh (financial, I suspect) to get the Coupe out a couple of years earlier - it was the logical progression from the Spectrum, and much better than Amstrad's later Spectrum offerings.
I've never even seen a Coupe in the flesh, unfortunately.
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It's not Apple's AAC. You know what AAC's usual name is?
MP4.
An iPod is an MP4 player. Anything that plays AAC is an MP4 player. My Linux box plays MP4 files, and plays stuff from my iTunes library just fine.
If your non-Apple music player acts as a USB mass storage device, simply navigate into your iTunes Music Library with the Finder, then drag and drop the files to your music player. (Personally, I use rsync to keep my iTunes library backed up to my house fileserver, and to also allow me to play the music from my Linux workstation).
If you're looking for non top-40 stuff, eMusic is a good deal less expensive and has been DRM free since it started. I've not used iTMS since they stopped jHymn from working - fortunately, eMusic has *completely* filled the gap.
The only disadvantage of eMusic is you pay a monthly fee rather than a fee per track so it's not for everyone, but you only have to buy one album's worth per month for it to work out cheaper.
A fatal accident is a fatal accident. It was absolutely counted in the airline accident statistics as a fatal accident. It wasn't caused by the design of the airfield - it was caused mostly by an error by the flight crew (as was the earlier runway overrun accident). It's so wrong to say SouthWest has had no fatal accidents that it isn't even wrong.
Here is the *official* NTSB report for the most recent accident - notice that if you go to the NTSB website, and select injury severity 'fatal' and airline 'SouthWest', it comes up. The NTSB *definitely* count it as a fatal airline accident. Note - Injuries: 1 Fatal, 12 Minor.
A probable cause has not yet been issued by the NTSB, but there were some reported procedural deviations by the crew which are likely to be listed as a factor when the final probable cause is reported.
USB attached RS232 ports cost trivial amounts of money and are available from virtually any computer store.
There are plenty of embedded microprocessors around that do NOT expect DDR2 speeds. Many digital circuits simply don't need a 2GHz space heater and run just fine with a 2MHz Z80 or equivalent (indeed, the Z80 is still manufactured and popular in its 'classic' 40 pin DIL form. I have one on my work table that was manufactured less than 6 months ago). Many many products use chips of this sort of class.
Just because there's a clamour for ever faster (and hotter) chips in PCs and servers, it does not follow that the same is true of an embedded computer. If a 4MHz processor works for a particular application, there is absolutely no benefit in using something that 'expects DDR2'. Normal 70ns static RAM and flash chips are sold by the millions because they are cheap, electronically simple to interface, and low speed circuits are much cheaper and easier to lay out on a PCB. You don't need DDR2 on a weather station embedded computer or washing machine.
Many microcontrollers like the Atmega can interface with external memory (even though they have some internal flash and RAM).
You have to break out the soldering iron and build it yourself :-)
Southwest have NOT had zero accidents. They've had at least two runway overruns in the last three or four years (one of them with fatalities, and the other was just a few yards from being fatal since the aircraft nearly hit a gas station).
OpenVMS reaching end of support? Since when? Last time I looked it was still very much being developed and maintained on Itanic and axp platforms. Only on the VAX platform is it reaching end of support (which is probably still a few years off).
Cellulosic ethanol is using the cellulose, not the sucrose, so the availability of sucrose is irrelevant in that particular process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol
The fact that there isn't switchgrass beer is irrelevent because the process is entirely different.
It's all about "user experience". I don't want an experience from using the OS - if I'm having an "experience", the OS is getting in my way. This is I think, user-interface wise, what's wrong with all Microsoft software - they want you to have an "experience" (and indeed, various MS marketdroids never shut up about "user experience").
NT's security model is more granular than SElinux? How so?
Not only that, at least about a year ago when I last tried SFU, it was like being blasted back in time and using ISC UNIX in 1993 (and that was a horrible experience even back then). Cygwin is just miles better - it's unfortunate that the cygwin people can't make an NT subsystem, the interface being closed and propreitary.
We could stop cutting down large swathes of forests for a start.
The landfilled paper will rot and methane and CO2 will be released (which is a worse problem). If you want to do something with the paper it's best to burn it and actually get some energy out, rather than let it decompose in a landfill.
Better still, someone else mentioned switchgrass - cellulosic ethanol is the way forward for ethanol, not ethanol from corn. Fortunately, the feedstock for cellulosic ethanol can be any invasive weed that can be grown on land that's marginal for agriculture and won't require tons of fertilizer.
"I Suck At Math" doesn't usually mean (I hope!) innumerate. People with normal literacy skills are no more equipped to write War and Peace than people with normal numeracy skills are equipped to do differential calculus. However, the ability to compose meaningful email messages with correct grammar does not require the author to have an English degree any more than 99.99% of jobs require mathematical skill beyond basic algebra learned as a 14 year old.
It's not the speed.
With a cable modem or ADSL line you'll have no SLA. It'll be "if it breaks, we'll fix it when we get around to it, possibly within three working days". With a T1 or similar line you'll get a service level agreement for a guaranteed rapid fix. If you get DOSsed, you won't just get thrown off the service, they'll work with you to stop the DOS attack etc.
Also, contention - with ADSL or cable you'll be sharing that bandwidth with perhaps as many as 50 other users. A T1 will be uncontended.
It's also expected that T1 users will be heavy bandwidth users, which is reflected in the price.
Shouldn't the headline read the "Wii is weeing on the competition?"
I still can't help thinking of the machine as the Nintendo Piss.
100 millitons? That's not much at all. Or did you really mean MT rather than mT?
The EU isn't asking for the software to be opened, merely the protocols. It's not too much to ask for a company convicted of abusing its monopoly position.
_Nothing_ in Rightpondia used the S-100 bus. All the Z80 machines available here had a memory mapped framebuffer - the Spectrum had a memory mapped frame buffer, as did the Amstrad CPC lineup. Indeed I don't think there was any British computer that did it the way you say.
No, even back then, SRAM used much less power. Static RAM constructs each memory cell out of six complimentary MOSFET transistors (and did so back then; I have some Toshiba static RAM of that vintage and that's exactly how it works, and it has a quiescent current that's a fraction of DRAM of the same vintage).
Each DRAM memory cell consists of a capacitor and transistor. Each SRAM cell consists of six complimentary MOSFETs. This is why SRAM is more expensive - six transistors per cell rather than one transistor and one capacitor. SRAM is also generally direct addressed, and therefore has more pins on the package which adds to the expense (but removes the need for some of the glue logic between the CPU and the memory). These six transistors use vastly less power because:
- you don't need to charge the capacitor
- you don't need to continuously keep recharging that capcitor (i.e. DRAM refresh)
- complimentary MOSFETs (CMOS) *only* uses power when changing state (due to 'crowbaring' - in a complimentary NMOS/PMOS pair, both transistors will briefly be conducting when the state of the gate is changing). When just holding a memory value, the current usage is utterly trivial - leakage currents measured in picoamps. This is why even in the early 80s, static RAM was used for battery backed nonvolatile memory: the quiescent current of the device was miniscule, which couldn't be said for DRAM. Even in a running system, the majority of RAM is just keeping state.
Many dynamic RAMs were also complex to power too - the popular 4116 DRAM required no less than 4 power rails (+5v, -5v, 12v and GND) - which meant the computer needed some kind of internal switch mode power supply to supply these voltages. Static RAM of early 80s vintage were all single 5 volt supply. This also added to the current draw of DRAM of that period, when you consider the losses in the required power supply.
The Z80 was no more of a kludge than the 6502. It was merely binary compatible with the 8080, the design was a clean sheet electronically (and eliminated many of the problems with the 8080, including the complex power supply required for the 8080, and providing built in dynamic RAM refresh so computers could be constructed inexpensively using DRAM). The optimizations taken with the Z80 were merely different to the 6502 - the Z80 traded off operations per clock for a comprehensive instruction set to keep code small, and the 6502 traded off complexity for being able to do lots of small instructions quickly. The result was both chips actually executed at around the same speed (the 6502 was always rated about no more than 1/3rd of the clock speed of the equivalent Z80), except the Z80 had a definite advantage when it came to code size. It also had a distinct advantage when making a computer designed around the Z80, because the Z80 had built in DRAM refresh, as well as a separate 16 bit I/O space which meant you could use the entire memory map for memory. (It also made bank switching much easier, too, at an electronic level, and I/O glue logic can be much simpler with a separate I/O space since address decoding can be simplified. It's no coincidence that Z80 based systems tended to be considerably less expensive too, certainly on this side of the pond).
You can't say the Z80 was inferior because some designers just substituted an 8080 for the Z80, without using the features of the chip such as built in DRAM refresh. Systems actually designed around the Z80 didn't have any of the drawbacks or odd screen memory access issues of which you speak.
Yes - definitely. Since I'm building a Z80 single board computer project as well as doing things with my old Spectrums, this sort of thing is quite fresh in my mind :-)
The BBC *did* have 80 column text - MODE 0 and MODE 6.
I only recently played Wheelie - I always remember "Boy Wander" in Skool Daze writing 'I LOVE WHEELIE!' on the blackboards. But Wheelie is incredibly addictive (and sometimes frustratingly hard). I last played it on an evening last week on my rubber keyed beast :-)
Rwap services sells brand new (made in 2007) keyboard membranes for Spectrums for about 8 quid.
http://www.rwapservices.co.uk/
Also rubber keyboard mats if yours has worn out.
I still frequently use my Spectrum (well, ahem, one of my FOUR Spectrums - a rubber keyed 48K, a Spectrum+, a toast rack 128, and a bare board I use for testing hardware) because they are still a lot of fun. These days, you can download most of the software from World of Spectrum. On a rainy day, it's good fun to pull out the Speccy, download a game onto my laptop, and use 'playtzx' to turn my laptop into the world's most expensive Spectrum datacorder and load a game onto the machine.
Yeah, it was a shame that MGT didn't have the oompfh (financial, I suspect) to get the Coupe out a couple of years earlier - it was the logical progression from the Spectrum, and much better than Amstrad's later Spectrum offerings.
I've never even seen a Coupe in the flesh, unfortunately.