The error in your logic is that it would cost the telcos anything more if you are using their data plan. The investment, at least here in Europe, has long since been done to build up both GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 3G networks. It does not cost the telcos a penny more for you to use the network, but the real cost comes from customer retention: reporting, billing, logging and archiving of network usage (mandatory since 9/11) and such.
As soon as you sign up, you become a cost to the operator. So I think it is quite fair that with a flat rate plan, you pay regardless of your network usage. If you don't like that, have a plan that's based on network usage and pay the premium for that. It's called product segmenting and the price is based on perceived value, not the actual cost of producing the service.
I have had the same kind of problems a few times. I store all my stuff on a server with RAID5, but there have been a couple of times when transferring music from the server (via SMB) to MP3 player (via USB) has corrupted files. I never solved the problem as the original files were intact so I did not go through the effort. However, after reading the article I just might do something about it as I got a bit more worried about the data integrity of my lifetime personal file collection that I store on the server.
Actually you should see what Samsung Electronics did a few years back. They used to have the same kind of silo organization that Sony has, but the management decided to break the structure in order to add internal co-operation. The results were great and Samsung came out of the Asian financial crisis as one of the most innovative businesses. Wired has a nice story about it.
PSP might be nice hardware, but until it gets the really fun games, people won't care. All I've heard is that the DS games are really fun, whilst the PSP games are a bit dull.
I, for one, bought PSP for its media capabilities. I tend to always carry around both PSP and an MP3 player so I decided to get a player with 60G disk and USB OTG support. That way I can easily carry around all my relevant music and 20 gigs of AVC movies (ripped from DVDs I already own). Of course, I have some games also, but the priority has been using PSP to watch videos as I commute quite a bit because of my work.
PS. I also have DS, but it is for my daughter so she can play Nintendogs:-). I think there isn't that much overlap with DS and PSP as they are clearly targeted at a different market segments, just like their traditional console counterparts.
Even the much-hated here Minidisc, sure it's DRM, but you have to consider the times: 1991. It was the only portable, recordable digital media around. And the players were tiny. Next to them, any walkman or discman looked like the dinosaurs they were. It was not until iPod in 2001 that MD was dethroned in my view.
And I still own a Minidisc player besides my iRiver (iHP-120 w/ Rockbox firmware). ATRAC3 has better sound quality than MP3 w/ similar bitrate and my Minidisc player plays 50+ hours on one charge. There are some solid state MP3 players that can match the play time, but only HD player even nearly as capable is from Sony (the new NW-HD5 series and later). I think that will be my next portable audio player as newer iRiver models are not that good and iPod has shorter battery life.
AMD will be shipping their virtualization aware server chips in Q1 2006 according to this article. Given the technological edge AMD has over Intel at the moment in the server space, I would guess that virtualization will run better on AMD hardware as the memory usage pattern will benefit from integrated memory controller and HyperTransport, especially with multicore chips.
Actually it's more like a JIT compiler you have in the Java world. Thus, it's not an emulator, it's a compiler that compiles non-native PPC binary instructions to native IA-32 code.
They could have their partitions running in modern mainframe environment first (the original stuff was from IBM so this is a no-brainer as IBM's mainframes are really well backward compatible, even on word length issues and such), then add Linux to the mix. After that, porting on Linux/x86(-64) would have been trivial.
This has been part of IBM's strategy for a while: run Linux from mainframe to the cheapest possible x86 hardware. The benefit? Single unified programming environment lets customers gradually migrate applications to hardware of choice. It's not that unusual to see Linux on zSeries as it makes perfect sense for consolidation in cases where VMWare ESX Server just does not cut it. The bottom line? Efficient IT operations management when system administration is focused on one operative environment (+ some mandatory Windows backoffice stuff).
I wanted to have a quiet setup so I decided to build a diskless MyhtTV frontend box. That way the only component that really needs efficient cooling is the CPU and the noise level is quite low, when compared to DVR boxes available in Europe (DVB based DVR systems).
Of course you need a server for this kind of setup, but you can have it in your cellar/closet/somewhere where noise isn't the problem. As an added bonus you'll have all the movies, music and recordings available from anywhere, anytime. I actually have my server on 24/7 so I can listen to music via Ampache from work and my other house.
As someone who has been forced to do some Symbian programming in the past, I can tell you that Symbian is not the right platform for efficient software development. From that perspective, going with Linux or Windows CE is a wise decision. And even more important, Windows and Linux have fairly large software base that can be easily ported to mobile devices' limited API functionality. Well, more easily than to Symbian at least.
Why do you make an assumption that a database backend must be relational one? A lot of systems designed to, a) store vast amount of data b) fast retrieve data, do not use RDBMS as the backend as it tends to suck for tasks common in archival, digital asset management and maybe even configuration management. They use file/directory based indices. It really kills performance when tree-like data (read: directory structure and branched source) is forced into relational model. Add some metadata tagging to that and you'll see some horrible performance when the server is spending it's time matching data via crossref tables.
As long as Mac OS X is locked to Apple hardware, it is not a true alternative to Windows and Linux (or *BSD for that matter) that happen to run on commodity hardware. Unless Apple will sell their X86 hardware at Dell prices, there will not be competition. Also, the crowd using free (as in speech) operating systems on their computers are not likely to use closed operating system, let alone closed hardware... Just a thought.
I think the biggest difference (and this comes from personal experience w/ Fedora and RH before that and Debian) is that Debian is rock solid. I personally cannot recommend any other distro than Debian for servers. It's also very nice for setting up a minimalistic desktop as I do for my nfsrooted HTPC boxen. I've tried to do something similar with other distributions, but have always gone back to Debian as it just works for that kind of stuff.
And I almost forgot, as I take it for granted nowadays, apt is simply the best packaging system there is. The first thing I do with my Fedora systems is to install apt w/ ATrpms:-)
The diskless setup was fairly easy using Debian: Debian Diskless. However, the actual kernel configuration was initially a pain as I used 2.6.9 vanilla kernel w/ LIRC backported manually and IVTV drivers manually compiled for the PVR-250. What I'd suggest is to do a minimal local setup first using something like Fedora Core 3 as it should support the hardware out-of-the-box and MythTV is available from ATrpms. Then copy the working installation over to a NFS share, configure dhcpd on the server to support PXE, copy the kernel and possible initrd images to the tftpboot directory and that's about it. Please note that nfsroot support must be compiled into the client kernel and the NIC of the client must support PXE booting. That is something missing from cheap motherboards.
I have a diskless MythTV setup w/ Hauppauge PVR-250, DVD drive and 5.1 decoder. It really is excellent as you basically only have one piece of hardware for all your media needs. And as I boot from a server using PXE, the MythTV frontend is also silent (all the DVR STBs I've tried produce more noise).
I have built my own media station using MythTV. I have a server in another room and the station boots from the server using PXE. It's silent and has huge amount of storage available without having a local hard disk. The only annoyance with the setup is slow ethernet (I'm using 100Mbit wired ethernet at the moment) but gigabit ethernet is cheap these days and I'm planning to upgrade my home network to use that.
Yes, I totally agree. The actual tracker servers were located in the Netherlands (and trackers would have no visible effect in the traffic figures anyway), but rumours running wild in IRC seems to have scared kids away from P2P.
I myself don't see this as absolutely bad thing as a number of teenagers I know via relatives etc. already use P2P to obtain anything they need. It has become really casual copying and people do not even think they're committing anything illegal when they download software using torrents. In some cases the Finnish copyright law permits copying stuff for personal use (music and movies), but downloading pirated software is always illegal.
Just today I convinced a relative to legally download OpenOffice instead of pirating copy of MS Office from emule and I think that is the way to go in the long run -- do not pirate software if there is a free alternative available.
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The error in your logic is that it would cost the telcos anything more if you are using their data plan. The investment, at least here in Europe, has long since been done to build up both GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 3G networks. It does not cost the telcos a penny more for you to use the network, but the real cost comes from customer retention: reporting, billing, logging and archiving of network usage (mandatory since 9/11) and such.
As soon as you sign up, you become a cost to the operator. So I think it is quite fair that with a flat rate plan, you pay regardless of your network usage. If you don't like that, have a plan that's based on network usage and pay the premium for that. It's called product segmenting and the price is based on perceived value, not the actual cost of producing the service.
I have had the same kind of problems a few times. I store all my stuff on a server with RAID5, but there have been a couple of times when transferring music from the server (via SMB) to MP3 player (via USB) has corrupted files. I never solved the problem as the original files were intact so I did not go through the effort. However, after reading the article I just might do something about it as I got a bit more worried about the data integrity of my lifetime personal file collection that I store on the server.
Maybe you should familiarize with Protected Media Path in Windows Vista, Output Trust Authorities in particular.
I want to install Flash, but it is not available for 64-bit Linux.
Actually you should see what Samsung Electronics did a few years back. They used to have the same kind of silo organization that Sony has, but the management decided to break the structure in order to add internal co-operation. The results were great and Samsung came out of the Asian financial crisis as one of the most innovative businesses. Wired has a nice story about it.
PSP might be nice hardware, but until it gets the really fun games, people won't care. All I've heard is that the DS games are really fun, whilst the PSP games are a bit dull.
:-). I think there isn't that much overlap with DS and PSP as they are clearly targeted at a different market segments, just like their traditional console counterparts.
I, for one, bought PSP for its media capabilities. I tend to always carry around both PSP and an MP3 player so I decided to get a player with 60G disk and USB OTG support. That way I can easily carry around all my relevant music and 20 gigs of AVC movies (ripped from DVDs I already own). Of course, I have some games also, but the priority has been using PSP to watch videos as I commute quite a bit because of my work.
PS. I also have DS, but it is for my daughter so she can play Nintendogs
A flamebait? I was speaking as a long time (10 yrs) Windows user and developer :-)
So it seems they are using Windows. I think it's quite common to overlook all warnings after working with Windows for some time.
Even the much-hated here Minidisc, sure it's DRM, but you have to consider the times: 1991. It was the only portable, recordable digital media around. And the players were tiny. Next to them, any walkman or discman looked like the dinosaurs they were. It was not until iPod in 2001 that MD was dethroned in my view.
And I still own a Minidisc player besides my iRiver (iHP-120 w/ Rockbox firmware). ATRAC3 has better sound quality than MP3 w/ similar bitrate and my Minidisc player plays 50+ hours on one charge. There are some solid state MP3 players that can match the play time, but only HD player even nearly as capable is from Sony (the new NW-HD5 series and later). I think that will be my next portable audio player as newer iRiver models are not that good and iPod has shorter battery life.
AMD will be shipping their virtualization aware server chips in Q1 2006 according to this article. Given the technological edge AMD has over Intel at the moment in the server space, I would guess that virtualization will run better on AMD hardware as the memory usage pattern will benefit from integrated memory controller and HyperTransport, especially with multicore chips.
Actually it's more like a JIT compiler you have in the Java world. Thus, it's not an emulator, it's a compiler that compiles non-native PPC binary instructions to native IA-32 code.
They could have their partitions running in modern mainframe environment first (the original stuff was from IBM so this is a no-brainer as IBM's mainframes are really well backward compatible, even on word length issues and such), then add Linux to the mix. After that, porting on Linux/x86(-64) would have been trivial.
This has been part of IBM's strategy for a while: run Linux from mainframe to the cheapest possible x86 hardware. The benefit? Single unified programming environment lets customers gradually migrate applications to hardware of choice. It's not that unusual to see Linux on zSeries as it makes perfect sense for consolidation in cases where VMWare ESX Server just does not cut it. The bottom line? Efficient IT operations management when system administration is focused on one operative environment (+ some mandatory Windows backoffice stuff).
Even better, they could put in Symbian and the bootup time would be 2 minutes like with Nokia's 9500 Communicator.
I wanted to have a quiet setup so I decided to build a diskless MyhtTV frontend box. That way the only component that really needs efficient cooling is the CPU and the noise level is quite low, when compared to DVR boxes available in Europe (DVB based DVR systems).
Of course you need a server for this kind of setup, but you can have it in your cellar/closet/somewhere where noise isn't the problem. As an added bonus you'll have all the movies, music and recordings available from anywhere, anytime. I actually have my server on 24/7 so I can listen to music via Ampache from work and my other house.
As someone who has been forced to do some Symbian programming in the past, I can tell you that Symbian is not the right platform for efficient software development. From that perspective, going with Linux or Windows CE is a wise decision. And even more important, Windows and Linux have fairly large software base that can be easily ported to mobile devices' limited API functionality. Well, more easily than to Symbian at least.
Why do you make an assumption that a database backend must be relational one? A lot of systems designed to, a) store vast amount of data b) fast retrieve data, do not use RDBMS as the backend as it tends to suck for tasks common in archival, digital asset management and maybe even configuration management. They use file/directory based indices. It really kills performance when tree-like data (read: directory structure and branched source) is forced into relational model. Add some metadata tagging to that and you'll see some horrible performance when the server is spending it's time matching data via crossref tables.
As long as Mac OS X is locked to Apple hardware, it is not a true alternative to Windows and Linux (or *BSD for that matter) that happen to run on commodity hardware. Unless Apple will sell their X86 hardware at Dell prices, there will not be competition. Also, the crowd using free (as in speech) operating systems on their computers are not likely to use closed operating system, let alone closed hardware... Just a thought.
You haven't been working for these guys, now have you? :-)
I think the biggest difference (and this comes from personal experience w/ Fedora and RH before that and Debian) is that Debian is rock solid. I personally cannot recommend any other distro than Debian for servers. It's also very nice for setting up a minimalistic desktop as I do for my nfsrooted HTPC boxen. I've tried to do something similar with other distributions, but have always gone back to Debian as it just works for that kind of stuff.
:-)
And I almost forgot, as I take it for granted nowadays, apt is simply the best packaging system there is. The first thing I do with my Fedora systems is to install apt w/ ATrpms
Regards,
Mikko.
The diskless setup was fairly easy using Debian: Debian Diskless. However, the actual kernel configuration was initially a pain as I used 2.6.9 vanilla kernel w/ LIRC backported manually and IVTV drivers manually compiled for the PVR-250. What I'd suggest is to do a minimal local setup first using something like Fedora Core 3 as it should support the hardware out-of-the-box and MythTV is available from ATrpms. Then copy the working installation over to a NFS share, configure dhcpd on the server to support PXE, copy the kernel and possible initrd images to the tftpboot directory and that's about it. Please note that nfsroot support must be compiled into the client kernel and the NIC of the client must support PXE booting. That is something missing from cheap motherboards.
I have a diskless MythTV setup w/ Hauppauge PVR-250, DVD drive and 5.1 decoder. It really is excellent as you basically only have one piece of hardware for all your media needs. And as I boot from a server using PXE, the MythTV frontend is also silent (all the DVR STBs I've tried produce more noise).
I have built my own media station using MythTV. I have a server in another room and the station boots from the server using PXE. It's silent and has huge amount of storage available without having a local hard disk. The only annoyance with the setup is slow ethernet (I'm using 100Mbit wired ethernet at the moment) but gigabit ethernet is cheap these days and I'm planning to upgrade my home network to use that.
Yes, I totally agree. The actual tracker servers were located in the Netherlands (and trackers would have no visible effect in the traffic figures anyway), but rumours running wild in IRC seems to have scared kids away from P2P.
I myself don't see this as absolutely bad thing as a number of teenagers I know via relatives etc. already use P2P to obtain anything they need. It has become really casual copying and people do not even think they're committing anything illegal when they download software using torrents. In some cases the Finnish copyright law permits copying stuff for personal use (music and movies), but downloading pirated software is always illegal.
Just today I convinced a relative to legally download OpenOffice instead of pirating copy of MS Office from emule and I think that is the way to go in the long run -- do not pirate software if there is a free alternative available.
Actually I think the traffic has dropped because Finreactor got busted last Tuesday. It seems to have lowered the total Ficix traffic over 1 Gbps...
Well, actually Windows does page out unused portions of kernel.