CFLs aren't a drop in replacement for incandescent bulbs. Using CFLs with dimmers is dangerous(and will extremely shorten their lives). Using CFLs in sockets controlled by a TRIAC is a bad idea, the bulbs will pulse very slowly(maybe once an hour) and it will extremely shorten the life of the bulb. Ceiling fans with remotes will usually use TRIACs.
http://sound.westhost.com/articles/incandescent.htm points out a lot of problems with CFLs.
Used correctly, CFLs will save some power, but blindly replacing bulbs is a really bad idea.
Most CFLs are a fire hazard when used with dimmers(even when dimmer is set to maximum)
Most CFLs have a power factor of 0.5. A device with a power factor of 0.5 means the device uses twice the rated power. Residential power users don't usually pay for the power needed to correct for a low power factor.
You can find CFL bulbs that overcome these limitations, but it's unlikely you will find them in a store near you. If you really want to be green, buy florescent lamps where you don't have to throw out the ballast and bulb at the same time and don't use more light than you need.
I hate the ribbons, at least as they are in 2007. The idea isn't terrible, but they definitely threw the baby out with the bath water. Whenever I use 2007 I spend half my time searching for some option that I knew haw to use in previous versions.
Besides the brain-drain from old office versions, Office 2007's ribbon GUI is significantly more buggy. Anytime you break the standard GUI it's likely going to hose stuff, but they didn't seem to do much testing at all. Try opening Word or Excel, then remote-desktoping into that machine with a different resolution, then logging back in on the real machine. All the title bars and tops of ribbons will be smashed into each other and unclickable.
At work I have to use Outlook, which doesn't suffer from the smashed GUI problem... yet.
I think the OP's point has been completely lost. Apple, Dell, and HP design/sell "real hardware", and microsoft designs/sells peripherals.
I believe the original point was that microsoft has never attempted any serious hardware development; so comparing microsoft's supposed failure to design "simple hardware" to Apple's attempt to design "real hardware" is stupid.
Generally the hardware is designed well by every company; it's the software where things fall down. I have several Apple and Microsoft Keyboards and Mice.
Of my peripherals that are at least 2yrs old that should still be supported:
1xUSB MS mouse = support officially discontinued(3 out of 5 buttons work with default driver).
1xUSB Apple mouse = supported (but only 1 has button)
2xUSB Apple Keyboards = supported (but new Macs/PCs no longer support the power-button on the keyboard to power on when turned off)
All in all, a pretty pathetic amount of support. Microsoft drops support for their own USB mice(you can still find 3rd party drivers to enable all 5 buttons). Apple didn't officially drop support, but no longer provides the needed circuitry on their motherboards to power-up a computer via a USB keyboard's power button(I'm wondering if this is so they use less power when turned off).
Yeesh, I was hoping I could point to something to say you were wrong, but after looking through everything I can find on Obama's support of high-speed rail it looks like you are right... This is just going to add another $8billion to the money-pit that is Amtrak.
The US really needs a good national transport system, but this isn't it.
Apple has pulled this off a couple times now... While MS has failed a couple times now. I remember: win16->win32, win32->win64, Debian 32bit->Debian 64bit, Mac68k16->Mac68k32, Mac68k->MacPPC, Mac9->Mac10, MacPPC32->MacPPC64, MacPPC->MacIntel, and MacIntel32->MacIntel64.
Successfully pulling off an architecture switch seems to mainly come down to planning.
Carbon was released/announced years before OSX shipped. Make sure people know what you are keeping from the old arch.
Old programs/libraries/code should die sometimes. Don't plan on taking it all with you. A good culling may be what is needed.
Fat binaries are a MUST!
Win32 and Win64 didn't seem to be planned very well, and Linux64 seemed to have been planned by too many people. Most of Apple's changes have been smooth...mostly.
I meant that I always run my RAM at less than it's highest rated speed(motherboard to). Overclocking can show you the limits of your system, but really isn't for day-to-day stuff. If you are going to overclock anything in normal operation I'd say ONLY overclock your CPU. When you are overclocking multiple components it's nearly impossible to find problems(your motherboard is a LOT of components).
Anyone else have RAM modules degrade over time? I've never seen this.
I always buy faster modules than I'm actually using. I usually test the system with memtest at a higher frequency than what it's going to run. My last build overclocked to [2.7Ghz CPU, 1066 FSB, 1066/CL7 DDR3] with memtest still reporting no errors; I run it at [2.1Ghz, 800, 800/CL7](a.k.a stock speed).
Your wording is interesting... You talk like you have never tried to put a monetary value to human life.
If you actually think human-life is priceless then how do you live with yourself in this world? Globally, the value of a human-life seems to be largely a product of nationality and personal wealth.
The point wasn't that small volumes of liquid aren't dangerous, but that banning them is idiotic. For one, there is no way to actually stop people from having liquids on a plane. Secondly, you can use anything to bring down a plane; the 911 highjackers used boxcutters.
To get back to retchdog's point; banning liquids has cost several hundreds of millions of dollars. What have we gotten for that money? Has banning liquids made it any harder for you to bring down a plane?
That's exactly what he's talking about when he mention the Apple apologists.
What is "exactly what he's talking about"?
So, what part of putting a special chip in the headphones to prevent unauthorized devices is not DRM?
The shuffle's control scheme is a stupid-design and vendor-lock-in, but it's not DRM... Lets try some analogies(as much as I hate them. Do you think that Apple implemented DRM in XCode because it wasn't designed to run on Windows(which is the de-facto OS)? Is the btfs kernel driver using DRM because it is only being developed for Linux?
DRM is ADDED purely to limit the usefulness of a product. DRM is only enforceable with stupid laws. Designs that limit usefulness are not necessarily DRM.
No-brainers are sometimes met with hostility. When it's truly something new that the older staff didn't know much about (i.e. version control or SCM), then it's not threatening. True no-brainers like routine backups and basic security can be very threatening. Suggesting someone's baby is flawed is always dangerous.
At least Baby Boomers had a well defined enemy to fear... it's not like the US is any safer today. Now, if we get nuked, we have no idea who to nuke back.
Wow... fanatics like you make it hard to have a conversation about why DRM is bad. This looks like a stupid design choice, possibly meant to lock out 4th-party manufacturers, but it's not DRM.
As the GP wrote, there are legitimate reasons for locking out 3rd-parties, such as keeping people from making cheap knock-offs. This problem involves physical products and solves a real-world problem.
DRM doesn't solve any real-world problems...
You need to keep in mind what kind of wireless network is available.
My school dropped 802.11b a year ago (only 802.11g now), so some devices(i.e. Sony Mylo Com-1) simply can't see the network. The network is secured via 802.1x/WPA2, so some devices that can connect don't have the software to authenticate(i.e. Sony PSP).
Borrow a friend's iPod Touch and see if it fits the bill. It's the obvious choice to me unless you require Flash.
I was excited about building an active SATA multiplexer... but this is just dumb. I did something similar a long time ago with IDE drives; instead of powering one drive down I had the switch attached to jumper positions so that the switch controlled master/slave.
I think Sony might be best off ditching the pocket-computer idea and focusing PURELY on gaming. If Sony released a PSP2 with roughly the same specs, but with a revamped controls(touch screen or second stick), no UMD drive, and 3G similar to the Kindle they could make up some serious ground. I'd love a portable multi-player console. The DS almost did it right with WiFi... but there aren't many WiFi enabled games and configuring WiFi on the DS isn't as idiot proof as it needed to be.
It certainly seems like you are right. I wouldn't consider buying a PSP without the ability to mod it... but that might change. Cell-phones and the iPod-Touch have better browsers, better mp3 players, and better software in general than you are going to get with a modded PSP. I don't think this is a good thing for Sony... Even with piracy a click-away some of us avoid it, and less PSPs(even modded) is less potential game sales.
I've had a modded DS since near launch and haven't pirated any games ( I've bought at least a dozen ). The PSP situation is different in that UMD is a stupid because it creates load times... it's sad when the pirated version of the game plays better than the legit version. This was the same on the XBox with it's crappy DVD-ROM.
I'm just wondering where the "unacceptable" and "not acceptable" from the blurb came from. The article repeatedly says the Macbook's display is acceptable. I think 'timothy' needs to read articles before accepting stories.
The simpad is just an overgrown Newton with a newer screen. No wonder the simpad failed miserably, the simpad is 25% faster than the newton and released 3 years later...
the iPod Toch 2 has a speaker and can use the mic in apple's headset http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB770
For games the iPod touch 2 is better since they clocked the CPU/GPU ~20% higher
Disk doublers were much more effective in the 1990s because a lower percentage of the data was already compressed. Disk doublers will do little but add overhead if you are storing movies, music, and pictures. Even some executable code is stored with compression now (JARs come to mind).
if you read the article they are talking about is the disparity that is growing between CPU speed and access to memory. The stacked memory they are talking about is shoving the physical CPU dies and RAM chips closer together(in the same package) so that you can have a LOT more interconnects(less wire to screw things up). Build up a huge stack of these and you have supercomputer cluster WITH fast access to all memory in the stack. For infomatic applications you need random access to any bit of memory in the entire array and this might do it for them. The biggest problem is heat dissipation...
The other options I see are creating some kind of super giant shared buffered RAM pool that has high latency but great throughput and then sticking as many cores as they can on a single motherboard(1000+), or for a wizard to find some caching algorithm that will let them stay on commodity hardware(a.k.a. use those extra cores to figure out what you are going to need and optimize for it).
I did link to the wrong mouse... mine is the "Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer USB and PS/2 compatible" which looks nearly identical to the "Intellimouse Optical". If I remember correctly the Optical is quite a bit smaller though.
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CFLs aren't a drop in replacement for incandescent bulbs. Using CFLs with dimmers is dangerous(and will extremely shorten their lives). Using CFLs in sockets controlled by a TRIAC is a bad idea, the bulbs will pulse very slowly(maybe once an hour) and it will extremely shorten the life of the bulb. Ceiling fans with remotes will usually use TRIACs. http://sound.westhost.com/articles/incandescent.htm points out a lot of problems with CFLs.
Used correctly, CFLs will save some power, but blindly replacing bulbs is a really bad idea.
You can find CFL bulbs that overcome these limitations, but it's unlikely you will find them in a store near you. If you really want to be green, buy florescent lamps where you don't have to throw out the ballast and bulb at the same time and don't use more light than you need.
You really find the ribbon faster? wow.
I hate the ribbons, at least as they are in 2007. The idea isn't terrible, but they definitely threw the baby out with the bath water. Whenever I use 2007 I spend half my time searching for some option that I knew haw to use in previous versions.
Besides the brain-drain from old office versions, Office 2007's ribbon GUI is significantly more buggy. Anytime you break the standard GUI it's likely going to hose stuff, but they didn't seem to do much testing at all. Try opening Word or Excel, then remote-desktoping into that machine with a different resolution, then logging back in on the real machine. All the title bars and tops of ribbons will be smashed into each other and unclickable.
At work I have to use Outlook, which doesn't suffer from the smashed GUI problem... yet.
I think the OP's point has been completely lost. Apple, Dell, and HP design/sell "real hardware", and microsoft designs/sells peripherals.
I believe the original point was that microsoft has never attempted any serious hardware development; so comparing microsoft's supposed failure to design "simple hardware" to Apple's attempt to design "real hardware" is stupid.
Generally the hardware is designed well by every company; it's the software where things fall down. I have several Apple and Microsoft Keyboards and Mice.
Of my peripherals that are at least 2yrs old that should still be supported:
1xUSB MS mouse = support officially discontinued(3 out of 5 buttons work with default driver).
1xUSB Apple mouse = supported (but only 1 has button)
2xUSB Apple Keyboards = supported (but new Macs/PCs no longer support the power-button on the keyboard to power on when turned off)
All in all, a pretty pathetic amount of support. Microsoft drops support for their own USB mice(you can still find 3rd party drivers to enable all 5 buttons). Apple didn't officially drop support, but no longer provides the needed circuitry on their motherboards to power-up a computer via a USB keyboard's power button(I'm wondering if this is so they use less power when turned off).
Yeesh, I was hoping I could point to something to say you were wrong, but after looking through everything I can find on Obama's support of high-speed rail it looks like you are right... This is just going to add another $8billion to the money-pit that is Amtrak.
The US really needs a good national transport system, but this isn't it.
Successfully pulling off an architecture switch seems to mainly come down to planning.
Win32 and Win64 didn't seem to be planned very well, and Linux64 seemed to have been planned by too many people. Most of Apple's changes have been smooth...mostly.
I meant that I always run my RAM at less than it's highest rated speed(motherboard to). Overclocking can show you the limits of your system, but really isn't for day-to-day stuff. If you are going to overclock anything in normal operation I'd say ONLY overclock your CPU. When you are overclocking multiple components it's nearly impossible to find problems(your motherboard is a LOT of components).
Anyone else have RAM modules degrade over time? I've never seen this.
I always buy faster modules than I'm actually using. I usually test the system with memtest at a higher frequency than what it's going to run. My last build overclocked to [2.7Ghz CPU, 1066 FSB, 1066/CL7 DDR3] with memtest still reporting no errors; I run it at [2.1Ghz, 800, 800/CL7](a.k.a stock speed).
Your wording is interesting... You talk like you have never tried to put a monetary value to human life.
If you actually think human-life is priceless then how do you live with yourself in this world? Globally, the value of a human-life seems to be largely a product of nationality and personal wealth.
The point wasn't that small volumes of liquid aren't dangerous, but that banning them is idiotic. For one, there is no way to actually stop people from having liquids on a plane. Secondly, you can use anything to bring down a plane; the 911 highjackers used boxcutters.
To get back to retchdog's point; banning liquids has cost several hundreds of millions of dollars. What have we gotten for that money? Has banning liquids made it any harder for you to bring down a plane?
That's exactly what he's talking about when he mention the Apple apologists.
What is "exactly what he's talking about"?
So, what part of putting a special chip in the headphones to prevent unauthorized devices is not DRM?
The shuffle's control scheme is a stupid-design and vendor-lock-in, but it's not DRM... Lets try some analogies(as much as I hate them. Do you think that Apple implemented DRM in XCode because it wasn't designed to run on Windows(which is the de-facto OS)? Is the btfs kernel driver using DRM because it is only being developed for Linux?
DRM is ADDED purely to limit the usefulness of a product. DRM is only enforceable with stupid laws. Designs that limit usefulness are not necessarily DRM.
No-brainers are sometimes met with hostility. When it's truly something new that the older staff didn't know much about (i.e. version control or SCM), then it's not threatening. True no-brainers like routine backups and basic security can be very threatening. Suggesting someone's baby is flawed is always dangerous.
At least Baby Boomers had a well defined enemy to fear... it's not like the US is any safer today. Now, if we get nuked, we have no idea who to nuke back.
Wow... fanatics like you make it hard to have a conversation about why DRM is bad. This looks like a stupid design choice, possibly meant to lock out 4th-party manufacturers, but it's not DRM. As the GP wrote, there are legitimate reasons for locking out 3rd-parties, such as keeping people from making cheap knock-offs. This problem involves physical products and solves a real-world problem. DRM doesn't solve any real-world problems...
This could be fixed in-software. The bleed-through only happens when there is a bright pixel behind it... just make those pixels black.
You might even be able to create some neat effects with it(i.e. ring the logo with light shining through the body).
You need to keep in mind what kind of wireless network is available.
My school dropped 802.11b a year ago (only 802.11g now), so some devices(i.e. Sony Mylo Com-1) simply can't see the network. The network is secured via 802.1x/WPA2, so some devices that can connect don't have the software to authenticate(i.e. Sony PSP).
Borrow a friend's iPod Touch and see if it fits the bill. It's the obvious choice to me unless you require Flash.
I was excited about building an active SATA multiplexer... but this is just dumb. I did something similar a long time ago with IDE drives; instead of powering one drive down I had the switch attached to jumper positions so that the switch controlled master/slave.
Sata Hub (but not a switch)-> http://www.cooldrives.com/sahub5muussi.html
I think Sony might be best off ditching the pocket-computer idea and focusing PURELY on gaming. If Sony released a PSP2 with roughly the same specs, but with a revamped controls(touch screen or second stick), no UMD drive, and 3G similar to the Kindle they could make up some serious ground. I'd love a portable multi-player console. The DS almost did it right with WiFi... but there aren't many WiFi enabled games and configuring WiFi on the DS isn't as idiot proof as it needed to be.
It certainly seems like you are right. I wouldn't consider buying a PSP without the ability to mod it... but that might change. Cell-phones and the iPod-Touch have better browsers, better mp3 players, and better software in general than you are going to get with a modded PSP. I don't think this is a good thing for Sony... Even with piracy a click-away some of us avoid it, and less PSPs(even modded) is less potential game sales.
I've had a modded DS since near launch and haven't pirated any games ( I've bought at least a dozen ). The PSP situation is different in that UMD is a stupid because it creates load times... it's sad when the pirated version of the game plays better than the legit version. This was the same on the XBox with it's crappy DVD-ROM.
I'm just wondering where the "unacceptable" and "not acceptable" from the blurb came from. The article repeatedly says the Macbook's display is acceptable. I think 'timothy' needs to read articles before accepting stories.
Blah!
The simpad is just an overgrown Newton with a newer screen. No wonder the simpad failed miserably, the simpad is 25% faster than the newton and released 3 years later...
the iPod Toch 2 has a speaker and can use the mic in apple's headset http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB770 For games the iPod touch 2 is better since they clocked the CPU/GPU ~20% higher
Disk doublers were much more effective in the 1990s because a lower percentage of the data was already compressed. Disk doublers will do little but add overhead if you are storing movies, music, and pictures. Even some executable code is stored with compression now (JARs come to mind).
if you read the article they are talking about is the disparity that is growing between CPU speed and access to memory. The stacked memory they are talking about is shoving the physical CPU dies and RAM chips closer together(in the same package) so that you can have a LOT more interconnects(less wire to screw things up). Build up a huge stack of these and you have supercomputer cluster WITH fast access to all memory in the stack. For infomatic applications you need random access to any bit of memory in the entire array and this might do it for them. The biggest problem is heat dissipation...
The other options I see are creating some kind of super giant shared buffered RAM pool that has high latency but great throughput and then sticking as many cores as they can on a single motherboard(1000+), or for a wizard to find some caching algorithm that will let them stay on commodity hardware(a.k.a. use those extra cores to figure out what you are going to need and optimize for it).
I'd put my money on them finding a wizard.
I did link to the wrong mouse... mine is the "Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer USB and PS/2 compatible" which looks nearly identical to the "Intellimouse Optical". If I remember correctly the Optical is quite a bit smaller though.
Anyhoo, I'm not the only one who has had this problem http://www.vistax64.com/vista-hardware-devices/39944-intellimouse-explorer-usb-no-vista-support.html