I think its also important to point out that while even though the money is all eventually going to the same root sources, the competition among the little guys at least makes them compete on features, if they are not competing on price. I mean there has been almost zero innovation in the phone system. Call waiting and auto redialing that they charge you ridiculous fees for? An intern probably could have written those programs into the switches in a week or two. (Ok, I admit have no idea what I am talking about here as far as technical details of the phone system go, but come on now, how hard could it have been to add a redialing feature or call waiting feature- does it really justify a 75 cent fee per use or a 3 dollar subscription fee each month?). Now look at cellphones... the quality is still pretty weak, but the amount of features that you get included, such as caller id, call waiting, etc... plus voicemail, and now web access, for the same or even cheaper prices shows how bad you are getting ripped off. Then... when you think you that cell providers are the good guys that are doing their utmost to keep consumers happy, look at VOIP (voice over IP) phones. For half the cost, you get the free long distance, and tons of minutes (moreso than the wireless guys) all the above features and more cool things like call forwarding, phone numbers you can take with you from other providers, and other features (cant recall off the top of my head). The phone companies are a government-like entity, slow, beaurucratic (ask those who had to wait 6 months for a tech to come and install DSL at their house) and unwilling to adapt to change- the status quo is just fine thank you. But... the old bells will not really change, because as was mentioned before, all the money eventually flows back to them anyway.
destroying it? you are aware its a big rock right? and pretty much all a bomb will do is move a couple of rocks from point A to point B in hopes that somewhere among that debris is water. Ive seen similar sentiments in a few posts now, and I hope everyone realizes that the moon, while smaller than the earth, is still what most would consider really f****** big in non scientific terms. This bomb is going to have zero impact on the moon, and the non-business as usual will continue on the moon. I am sure any damage this bomb does will be orders of magnitude smaller than meteors that crash into it.
I hear this argument alot, but it makes me think- Do you really plan on analyzing all the code on your computer that is open source? Do you even rely on the fact that someone else will? If someone opened the source to Windows tommorrow, could you really count on people to scrutinize all 10 million lines of code? Even if someone does, you have to just rely on their expertise in finding any potential bugs in it. This auditing process is to me not a whole lot better or more thorough than what goes on inside MS's offices, or SETI's labs.
Well in this case, I dont see obsolesence as a bad thing... its not like you wont be able to buy the PS2 for what you bought it for- to play PS2 games. They are just trying to bolster sales a bit by beefing up the home entertainment aspect of the machine- probably to test the waters for future major models (PS3), and convince those still on the fence into buying one. If they start coming out with PS2 Version2 only games, then I will see obsolesence becomming a problem. But Sony knows better than that, they are not Microsoft.
One thing I would really like to see is better use of RAM. With power user's systems frequently containing 512mb-2GB of ram, cant we re-optimize our computing architecture to take advantage of this and store more programs in ram? That way when I start up IE ten times a day every_day, it will come up blazingly fast? Same with word, dev tools, etc... yeah there are Ram disk programs out there, but how about we make this a more fundamental part of the OS?
most people nowadays only use two drives. One HD, and one DVD/CD Combo drive. People like you and me, can just go out and buy an add in card to run our cool RAID systems and whatnot. Give it time, serial ATA is still pretty new and niche.
While the electronics and computer equipment (IE navigation equipment) have made strides in the past 30 years, what is really needed to improve aircraft is materials. And there have not been any major revolutions in material engineering in the past 30 years. Its not like we have new superplastics we could build the bodies out of with twice the strength and half the weight for the same cost. The changes have been evolutionary. Same thing with engines. Sure improvements have been made, but its still an engine based on the same concepts engine's have been using for a long time. There is a reason they havent updated the design, and its not laziness- it hasnt been worth it. The Concorde is generally regarded as a failure in the airline industry that was only put into production for French national pride. It cant fly over land due to sonic boom's (which severely limits its market), and eats fuel like a hummer. Airline travel is prohibitively costly as it is, people arent willing en masse to shorten their trips and pay a premium for it. In short, it will be extremely unlikely for us to see supersonic flight being tried again for the near future.
Ok, we were all perfect kids when we were younger, and *never* stretched, left out, changed, or manipulated the truth in any way, let alone lied (and definitely never told our parents everything was going 'good' after we just got a 72 on a test, because we vowed to do better on the next one to make up for it, so need to mention it), but this may be shocking, *some* kids do do this, and get lazy about doing homework, and could use the parental guidance. I think this is a great idea. The authentication could use a little work, but all in all this is giving your parents a daily report card. The only reason I see that report cards are once a quarter is to keep administrative overhead low- a system like this allows almost real time progress reports. This IS how technology should be used in the classroom. If he thinks it is giving him hell, then guess what- it is working- he is being motivated to work harder. I would be interested to see if grades rise or fall over the remainder of the year after this.
yeah I agree. I mean in my college computer intrfacing class it was absolute cake to hook a circuit up to a serial port and send data back and forth. I decided to play with a USB port about a year ago to see if I could do similar/more things. It seemed nearly impossible to just pick it up from a hobbyists point of view. the specs were huge and complex. I for one will really miss the serial and parallel ports. and the ps/2 ports just work. they are as plug and play as it gets.
Why dont you explain what you mean by 'database' first. A database can mean different things. I am not sure if you want a complete database application, front end and all, or if you just want a database design- A UML model or E-R diagram, from which SQL DDL can be created. (or perhaps by open source you meant SQL code to Create a database). Your requirements are kind of blurry to me. Doing something like this should not really be all that difficult though. If you have a developer look at the kinds of data you are trying to store, and the relationships between those data (in depth knowledge is not required of what the data actually means, though I guess it helps) a developer should be able to come up with a Data model and front end relatively easy.
If you can not understand why Open Office needs to open Word files perfectly, then you may as well get used to staring at those cubicle walls and getting used to that funky smell, since it will take a severe lack of judgement on your manager's part for you to get promoted above a coding monkey.
well, thats true but come on now, were talking about battlefield equipment. you would have to be shooting at something on an astronomical scale of distance before you had to start worrying about your laser going astray. its irrelevant for the light infrantry uses they are talking about.
well... I can see some advantages- first and foremost being that you dont have to compensate for gravity ( bullets are subject to accelerating towards earth at 9.8m/s^2 just like everything else- over long distances, this is a factor) and readjust your scope to be accurate at different distances. Also, I would imagine there would be no lead time involved in using a laser weapon... So essentially, if its in your crosshairs, youll hit that target. Also, in semiautomatic type uses, you wont have to worry about recoil. It kind of reminds me of taking the art of cooking and reducing it to a fast food level- anyone would be able to shoot pretty well. I dont see how they could feasibly make a laser rifle into a package the size of a standard rifle for an infantry man to use, but in a machine gun type support role I could see it useful (thing sci-fi type red laser beam mowing down a line of advancing troops- no recoil means greater accuracy). That is getting a little sci-fi though. I would imagine a laser rifle would also be capable of shooting accurately at long distances, greater than those of conventional rifles, again because of the lack of the gravity problem. Those are just my thoughts on what *could* be. not what is.
I am going to have to disagree here. From what I have seen, Google is not a company with huge (IE potentially disastrous) type dreams of putting search engine capability into your refrigerator. As such, they do not need IPO type cash to finance their operations. Google is very focused on being a search company, and while it has branched out into research, catalog indexing, etc... it has all fit into its main strength- searching. When I think of companies going public, I see CEO's dreaming of taking their chain of 15 stores and going nationwide, or a manufacturer that wants to go into retail. I am not Google's CEO, so I could be dead wrong on this, but based on their past behavior, I would be surprised if Google went this route. They just seem too level headed, and judging from their extensive R+D, not hurting for cash.
"They really aren't concerned so much with enthusiasts... the percentage of people who over clock in the total PC market is very small (they just speak loudly online)."
I agree with you, but I think its important to point out that these guys tend to be system builders and people who recommend systems to others. Keeping them happy is important. They not only speak loudly, but influence alot of other people's purchases. Especially in the case of a white-box shop builder, who purchases the same amount of hardware as a small corporation, you dont want to piss these guys off with your practices to the point they go to the competition. Im not saying that Intel doing this will piss them off, just that I think they are a larger part of marketing strategies than you would think.
I know Iraq's military is a bit lacking compared to the US... but do you really think Iraq's technology is so far behind they have no idea where a 20 mile wide column of tanks is? I mean come on, someone can pick up a phone and make a call to do that.
youve gotten some good replies already, but I just want to add that these are Front Side Bus speeds that we are talking about... so peripherals and such which are still stuck sharing the slow lane (and at this point its like comparing a congested single lane road to a 6 lane interstate). Increasing your FSB and your mem to a faster grade will give you performance increases, but nothing drastic, and nothing youll see in 'daily' usage- I think at this point the main bottleneck in opening word or loading windows are your hard disks. I think the really cool thing about this though is that chipmakers are finally trying to even the playing field between the busses and the processor speeds. Ok, well maybe 'even' is a strong word, but at least trying to get the busses to keep pace. It was only a few years ago that we were at a 66mhz bus- and that bus speed had lasted about 2 years (If I recall correctly, its been awhile... these are rough figures). Now bus speeds are increasing every few months, and soon we will have high speed busses to connect peripherals to.
Call me crazy... but I thought that the whole point of Rambus was that it was much lower latency.... which gave the P4 higher framerates in some apps like Q3A when it was first released- due to its excellent memory subsystem.
I think it should be noted that slashdot only reports the news from submissions. The article existed before it made the front page of slashdot, and people read it before it was on the front page of slashdot. Additionally, there are many other articles on the new architecture and this is not the first. I mean its not like the guys at ARS are the first to hear about this stuff.
I wouldnt go that far. Corel was pretty much dead as it was. It would have helped MS a great deal more to leave the 'competition' in place and let it get its 8% marketshare so it could tell the DOJ about how its fragile market dominance could topple at any second. If thats true... then MS should start to look at itself as an Operating System and Software company, and not a Window's company, and port Office to Linux and make its own linux Distro. Sounds crazy? Yeah it does. But I can guarantee that Joe Schmoe wont mind trying linux out if MS backs it. Put on top of that fat service contracts for support and apple as the only niche player... and things work out well.
man... cant you find something more recent than that? in my closet I have a bunch of old p133's just laying around... I guess if youre network is small, a 486 is ok... but that seems a little extreme.
I see what youre saying... and luckily for everyone there is a law protecting against- and its called negligence. However, I do not feel your bank analogy is fair. First of all, at any given point, the bank vault can not be accessed by anyone anywhere. Lets say that everyone had access to this bankvault, and its shut tight and good to go... but its there for every mind in the world to prod at, pick at, find holes in, etc... I think that yeah, at some point, it would be attempted to be cracked open, and someone would be successful and make off w/ the goods. However, bank vaults are essentially containers, and as such are not all that complex. A better example would be something like New York or Paris's sewer system. An extremely complex labryinth that has been added on to over the years with many ad-hoc patches, pieces that are forgotten about or unused but still connected to the main system, etc... that there is no chance that any single person or the group that runs it as a whole knows every detail of. Now lets say that some piece of this sewer runs under the United Nations building or something of that importance, and from under there has the ability of being able to sneak a bomb down there and blow the whole building up. That is a more accurate depiction of the challenges faced in securing systems. You can secure every manhole, weld every sewer grate shut, but you find one storm drain that leads into the main system and everything is potentially compromised. I think that is alot closer to the situation we see everyday. I mean yeah, you can close the obvious holes, (I see your door open and cardboard box analogy the equivalent of leaving a guest account open and having post-it notes of userid's and passwords laying around) and if those are open then march in the lawyers, but otherwise, I think what we really need is a new way to design programs so holes can not sneak in.
Wouldnt having a flashing visible light that transmits data be a pretty big security hole? Wouldnt it be ridiculously easy to just tap into the signal. It seems to me this would create another wireless-type mess.
Still, the possibilities for data broadcasting seem pretty cool if they could ever get the distances to increase, but even now... distributing video across an office campus or something could use this tech for a low cost.
oops, well I only read the ARS article (seems like a better source than the 'Honolulu Times' ) and it only mentions 'megaprime', not 'megacam'... I guess its really not a big deal either way.
Slashdot Mirror
I think its also important to point out that while even though the money is all eventually going to the same root sources, the competition among the little guys at least makes them compete on features, if they are not competing on price. I mean there has been almost zero innovation in the phone system. Call waiting and auto redialing that they charge you ridiculous fees for? An intern probably could have written those programs into the switches in a week or two. (Ok, I admit have no idea what I am talking about here as far as technical details of the phone system go, but come on now, how hard could it have been to add a redialing feature or call waiting feature- does it really justify a 75 cent fee per use or a 3 dollar subscription fee each month?). Now look at cellphones... the quality is still pretty weak, but the amount of features that you get included, such as caller id, call waiting, etc... plus voicemail, and now web access, for the same or even cheaper prices shows how bad you are getting ripped off. Then... when you think you that cell providers are the good guys that are doing their utmost to keep consumers happy, look at VOIP (voice over IP) phones. For half the cost, you get the free long distance, and tons of minutes (moreso than the wireless guys) all the above features and more cool things like call forwarding, phone numbers you can take with you from other providers, and other features (cant recall off the top of my head). The phone companies are a government-like entity, slow, beaurucratic (ask those who had to wait 6 months for a tech to come and install DSL at their house) and unwilling to adapt to change- the status quo is just fine thank you. But... the old bells will not really change, because as was mentioned before, all the money eventually flows back to them anyway.
destroying it? you are aware its a big rock right? and pretty much all a bomb will do is move a couple of rocks from point A to point B in hopes that somewhere among that debris is water. Ive seen similar sentiments in a few posts now, and I hope everyone realizes that the moon, while smaller than the earth, is still what most would consider really f****** big in non scientific terms. This bomb is going to have zero impact on the moon, and the non-business as usual will continue on the moon. I am sure any damage this bomb does will be orders of magnitude smaller than meteors that crash into it.
I hear this argument alot, but it makes me think- Do you really plan on analyzing all the code on your computer that is open source? Do you even rely on the fact that someone else will? If someone opened the source to Windows tommorrow, could you really count on people to scrutinize all 10 million lines of code? Even if someone does, you have to just rely on their expertise in finding any potential bugs in it. This auditing process is to me not a whole lot better or more thorough than what goes on inside MS's offices, or SETI's labs.
Well in this case, I dont see obsolesence as a bad thing... its not like you wont be able to buy the PS2 for what you bought it for- to play PS2 games. They are just trying to bolster sales a bit by beefing up the home entertainment aspect of the machine- probably to test the waters for future major models (PS3), and convince those still on the fence into buying one. If they start coming out with PS2 Version2 only games, then I will see obsolesence becomming a problem. But Sony knows better than that, they are not Microsoft.
One thing I would really like to see is better use of RAM. With power user's systems frequently containing 512mb-2GB of ram, cant we re-optimize our computing architecture to take advantage of this and store more programs in ram? That way when I start up IE ten times a day every_day, it will come up blazingly fast? Same with word, dev tools, etc... yeah there are Ram disk programs out there, but how about we make this a more fundamental part of the OS?
most people nowadays only use two drives. One HD, and one DVD/CD Combo drive. People like you and me, can just go out and buy an add in card to run our cool RAID systems and whatnot. Give it time, serial ATA is still pretty new and niche.
While the electronics and computer equipment (IE navigation equipment) have made strides in the past 30 years, what is really needed to improve aircraft is materials. And there have not been any major revolutions in material engineering in the past 30 years. Its not like we have new superplastics we could build the bodies out of with twice the strength and half the weight for the same cost. The changes have been evolutionary. Same thing with engines. Sure improvements have been made, but its still an engine based on the same concepts engine's have been using for a long time. There is a reason they havent updated the design, and its not laziness- it hasnt been worth it. The Concorde is generally regarded as a failure in the airline industry that was only put into production for French national pride. It cant fly over land due to sonic boom's (which severely limits its market), and eats fuel like a hummer. Airline travel is prohibitively costly as it is, people arent willing en masse to shorten their trips and pay a premium for it. In short, it will be extremely unlikely for us to see supersonic flight being tried again for the near future.
Ok, we were all perfect kids when we were younger, and *never* stretched, left out, changed, or manipulated the truth in any way, let alone lied (and definitely never told our parents everything was going 'good' after we just got a 72 on a test, because we vowed to do better on the next one to make up for it, so need to mention it), but this may be shocking, *some* kids do do this, and get lazy about doing homework, and could use the parental guidance. I think this is a great idea. The authentication could use a little work, but all in all this is giving your parents a daily report card. The only reason I see that report cards are once a quarter is to keep administrative overhead low- a system like this allows almost real time progress reports. This IS how technology should be used in the classroom. If he thinks it is giving him hell, then guess what- it is working- he is being motivated to work harder. I would be interested to see if grades rise or fall over the remainder of the year after this.
yeah I agree. I mean in my college computer intrfacing class it was absolute cake to hook a circuit up to a serial port and send data back and forth. I decided to play with a USB port about a year ago to see if I could do similar/more things. It seemed nearly impossible to just pick it up from a hobbyists point of view. the specs were huge and complex. I for one will really miss the serial and parallel ports. and the ps/2 ports just work. they are as plug and play as it gets.
Why dont you explain what you mean by 'database' first. A database can mean different things. I am not sure if you want a complete database application, front end and all, or if you just want a database design- A UML model or E-R diagram, from which SQL DDL can be created. (or perhaps by open source you meant SQL code to Create a database). Your requirements are kind of blurry to me. Doing something like this should not really be all that difficult though. If you have a developer look at the kinds of data you are trying to store, and the relationships between those data (in depth knowledge is not required of what the data actually means, though I guess it helps) a developer should be able to come up with a Data model and front end relatively easy.
If you can not understand why Open Office needs to open Word files perfectly, then you may as well get used to staring at those cubicle walls and getting used to that funky smell, since it will take a severe lack of judgement on your manager's part for you to get promoted above a coding monkey.
well, thats true but come on now, were talking about battlefield equipment. you would have to be shooting at something on an astronomical scale of distance before you had to start worrying about your laser going astray. its irrelevant for the light infrantry uses they are talking about.
well... I can see some advantages- first and foremost being that you dont have to compensate for gravity ( bullets are subject to accelerating towards earth at 9.8m/s^2 just like everything else- over long distances, this is a factor) and readjust your scope to be accurate at different distances. Also, I would imagine there would be no lead time involved in using a laser weapon... So essentially, if its in your crosshairs, youll hit that target. Also, in semiautomatic type uses, you wont have to worry about recoil. It kind of reminds me of taking the art of cooking and reducing it to a fast food level- anyone would be able to shoot pretty well. I dont see how they could feasibly make a laser rifle into a package the size of a standard rifle for an infantry man to use, but in a machine gun type support role I could see it useful (thing sci-fi type red laser beam mowing down a line of advancing troops- no recoil means greater accuracy). That is getting a little sci-fi though. I would imagine a laser rifle would also be capable of shooting accurately at long distances, greater than those of conventional rifles, again because of the lack of the gravity problem. Those are just my thoughts on what *could* be. not what is.
"A Google IPO is inevitable."
I am going to have to disagree here. From what I have seen, Google is not a company with huge (IE potentially disastrous) type dreams of putting search engine capability into your refrigerator. As such, they do not need IPO type cash to finance their operations. Google is very focused on being a search company, and while it has branched out into research, catalog indexing, etc... it has all fit into its main strength- searching. When I think of companies going public, I see CEO's dreaming of taking their chain of 15 stores and going nationwide, or a manufacturer that wants to go into retail. I am not Google's CEO, so I could be dead wrong on this, but based on their past behavior, I would be surprised if Google went this route. They just seem too level headed, and judging from their extensive R+D, not hurting for cash.
"They really aren't concerned so much with enthusiasts... the percentage of people who over clock in the total PC market is very small (they just speak loudly online)."
I agree with you, but I think its important to point out that these guys tend to be system builders and people who recommend systems to others. Keeping them happy is important. They not only speak loudly, but influence alot of other people's purchases. Especially in the case of a white-box shop builder, who purchases the same amount of hardware as a small corporation, you dont want to piss these guys off with your practices to the point they go to the competition. Im not saying that Intel doing this will piss them off, just that I think they are a larger part of marketing strategies than you would think.
I know Iraq's military is a bit lacking compared to the US... but do you really think Iraq's technology is so far behind they have no idea where a 20 mile wide column of tanks is? I mean come on, someone can pick up a phone and make a call to do that.
youve gotten some good replies already, but I just want to add that these are Front Side Bus speeds that we are talking about... so peripherals and such which are still stuck sharing the slow lane (and at this point its like comparing a congested single lane road to a 6 lane interstate). Increasing your FSB and your mem to a faster grade will give you performance increases, but nothing drastic, and nothing youll see in 'daily' usage- I think at this point the main bottleneck in opening word or loading windows are your hard disks. I think the really cool thing about this though is that chipmakers are finally trying to even the playing field between the busses and the processor speeds. Ok, well maybe 'even' is a strong word, but at least trying to get the busses to keep pace. It was only a few years ago that we were at a 66mhz bus- and that bus speed had lasted about 2 years (If I recall correctly, its been awhile... these are rough figures). Now bus speeds are increasing every few months, and soon we will have high speed busses to connect peripherals to.
Call me crazy... but I thought that the whole point of Rambus was that it was much lower latency.... which gave the P4 higher framerates in some apps like Q3A when it was first released- due to its excellent memory subsystem.
I think it should be noted that slashdot only reports the news from submissions. The article existed before it made the front page of slashdot, and people read it before it was on the front page of slashdot. Additionally, there are many other articles on the new architecture and this is not the first. I mean its not like the guys at ARS are the first to hear about this stuff.
I wouldnt go that far. Corel was pretty much dead as it was. It would have helped MS a great deal more to leave the 'competition' in place and let it get its 8% marketshare so it could tell the DOJ about how its fragile market dominance could topple at any second. If thats true... then MS should start to look at itself as an Operating System and Software company, and not a Window's company, and port Office to Linux and make its own linux Distro. Sounds crazy? Yeah it does. But I can guarantee that Joe Schmoe wont mind trying linux out if MS backs it. Put on top of that fat service contracts for support and apple as the only niche player... and things work out well.
man... cant you find something more recent than that? in my closet I have a bunch of old p133's just laying around... I guess if youre network is small, a 486 is ok... but that seems a little extreme.
I see what youre saying... and luckily for everyone there is a law protecting against- and its called negligence. However, I do not feel your bank analogy is fair. First of all, at any given point, the bank vault can not be accessed by anyone anywhere. Lets say that everyone had access to this bankvault, and its shut tight and good to go... but its there for every mind in the world to prod at, pick at, find holes in, etc... I think that yeah, at some point, it would be attempted to be cracked open, and someone would be successful and make off w/ the goods. However, bank vaults are essentially containers, and as such are not all that complex. A better example would be something like New York or Paris's sewer system. An extremely complex labryinth that has been added on to over the years with many ad-hoc patches, pieces that are forgotten about or unused but still connected to the main system, etc... that there is no chance that any single person or the group that runs it as a whole knows every detail of. Now lets say that some piece of this sewer runs under the United Nations building or something of that importance, and from under there has the ability of being able to sneak a bomb down there and blow the whole building up. That is a more accurate depiction of the challenges faced in securing systems. You can secure every manhole, weld every sewer grate shut, but you find one storm drain that leads into the main system and everything is potentially compromised. I think that is alot closer to the situation we see everyday. I mean yeah, you can close the obvious holes, (I see your door open and cardboard box analogy the equivalent of leaving a guest account open and having post-it notes of userid's and passwords laying around) and if those are open then march in the lawyers, but otherwise, I think what we really need is a new way to design programs so holes can not sneak in.
Wouldnt having a flashing visible light that transmits data be a pretty big security hole? Wouldnt it be ridiculously easy to just tap into the signal. It seems to me this would create another wireless-type mess.
Still, the possibilities for data broadcasting seem pretty cool if they could ever get the distances to increase, but even now... distributing video across an office campus or something could use this tech for a low cost.
oops, well I only read the ARS article (seems like a better source than the 'Honolulu Times' ) and it only mentions 'megaprime', not 'megacam'... I guess its really not a big deal either way.
well actually... its called 'megaprime' according to the article...