Great article, go read it, even if you normally don't!!
Why did these kids won? The other teams were probably so nerdy, they didn't even know tampons existed.:-) I think OB together with Hooters (RTA) should give these guys a scholarship.
The most fascinating (or humilating) thing of this competition is of course that finally they won because their engineering was just on par, but then their technical documentation was superior over all the others. Kudos to their teachers!!
Also, when wood is under compression, it's a LOT harder to ignite. Take a look at any older (+75 years) building after a fire - the wood main beams will be charred
Your observation is right, but the reason is different. When a thick beam starts to burn, the charcoal that forms itself on the outside will start to protect the inner wood from burning, as soon as it is more then 5 cm / 2 inches thich. Charcoal is funny enough a fire retardent.
As an example, in most (probably all) countries, steel structures must be protected against fire, which is normally done with plaster, concrete, etc. However, at least in Holland, the building code allows you to wrap the steel in 5 or more cm of wood instead.
So back to your 75+ year old house. What protects those beams against the fire is the fact that the pieces of wood used are much thicker than the current 2x6 studs. Or the current "construction beams" that are just strips of plywood with some wood laminated at the ends.
We always talk here about the "Windows tax" when you buy a Dell, Gateway, etc. However, do you get your G5 cheaper, when you don't plan to use OS-X? I checked the store at apple.com, but I don't see that as a configurable option.
Although it seems that Linus got the best possible "Apple tax" rebate....:-)
I know that Americans are full of "bigger is better", but this is the limit. From the article: "Only orders of 1 million or more units will be accepted". As if there are no third world countries that can use less then a million $100 boxes!!
Probably the only countries that could absorb a million PCs in a single deal are China, India, Russia, USA (alphabetical order). Looking at the rates of literacy (USA rock bottom), this is probably also the order of "third-world-ness".
OK, back to the main topic. Aiming only for +1M$ deals, this can only result in deals with countries like China (from the article), the country that just bought IBMs PC division. If those folks in China can make all those ThinkPads, why would they need a "charity type" 100 bucks PC project.
... but the announcement was so widely anticipated and so widely reported...
Funny example was a discussion last night with my wife, who's absolutely not interested in computers or techies stuff, probably even doesn't know what an iPod is. She asked if I had heard recently from one of my friends, where I told her I had just that day emailed with him about the new Apple. Where her reply was "Yes I know, that small one... from Steve Jobs!!". After the big smile implying "hey, you didn't expect that from me" (which was true:-), she admitted that the miniMac had been reported on BBC world service, which she watches every day. Talking about "widely reported"....
I've been myself the victim of an identity theft, so I know what I'm talking about. But I still believe that when people get angry about organisations using SSN's, and they get stolen, the problem is really the other way round. It's not the issue that someone knows my social security number, the problem lies in the fact that shops, companies, organisations, etc. consider the fact that you know your SSN as a proof of identity.
I don't care whoever knows my SSN, I do care that a cellphone shop gives a subscription to "just someone" because he can provide that number. That's stupid. Those retailers should be more carefull!! Like "Sir, we will look up your telephone number in the phone book and call you back tomorrow lunchtime, to ask you some questions", that kind of stuff. But no, because they want to do business NOW, they give you on the spot a $1000 credit card (like Home Depot or Sears does), just because you can show a driver license (faked in a few minutes) and an SSN.
An SSN should be an easy identifier, nothing more than that. Like an ISBN number, but then for humans. Who wants to keep ISBN's secret? It's just dumb that the knowledge of an SSN is considered a proof of identity.
Just bought (also Canada) a handsomely equipped Shuttle (AMD 64 3000+, 1 Gig, 80 Gig, DVD-R, no WiFi), so that sounds comparable to your Mac Mini config. And I paid also little above CAD 1000. I know you can buy a 500 bucks (400 US) PC, but then "you get what you pay for". So, even in Canadian dollars, I think this mini Mac is decently priced.
Anyway, if you're so serious about it being too expensive in Canada, Apple luckily made it small enough that you can just buy one at Fry's and take it home (in your coat pocket:). It's even cheap enough that you don't have to pay duties on it when bringing it back home.
My only concern with this Mini Mac next to my monitor and keyboard would be that I would be so tempted to put my beer mug on it. It really looks like a thick coaster.... the bad news being of course that the beer will warm up pretty quickly:-).
Of course, after everyone does that there is no "fast" in this any more, but it will be too late to be sorry.
Not true. Take the check-in machines at airports as an example. I haven't yet encountered the situation that I had to wait for a machine to become available. Normally, less than half are in use. And I won't see that changing when more people are going to use them. It is so much cheaper to add 20 machines than to add even a few "human" check-in counters.
and Shuttle, both of which I found looking kind of cheap
It depends on the models, some I like, some I don't, but the big problem with Shuttle is always that it looks OK until you mount an optical drive. How to match the material and color they use for their frontplates?? I personally think Shuttle should create something that I would call "bare-bone Plus", which means: include a matching DVD/CDRW.
There is one exception, and I bought that one myself two weeks ago, which is the SN85G4, an AMD64 model. I added a black OEM (Pioneer) DVD, which had no logo's at all, and the combination looks very classy. But of course, YMMV.....
I fully agree. I really hate it when even a single pixel is black or brigth. Last week I bought a new 17" LCD, Samsung, and through IMHO clever purchasing and probably a lot of luck, I got one with all pixels OK. The clever purchasing consisted of not buying Samsung's cheapest model, but paying 30 bucks more for their mid-range one. They have three models all in the same series. According to Samsung, the model I choose has better specs, but my guess is that they just make one model, and then at Quality Control they decide which ones become the low-end, which mid and which the high-end models. So I would also expect that the ones with pixel defects end up in the low-end bin. Probably the same is true for notebooks.
It would be much nicer if they would take out the "lottery" element. Just tell the customer: "this one 400 bucks, 4 pixels dead", "that one 440, 1 pixel dead" and "that one $470, all pixels OK".
I hear people complain about their client software all the time. Crashes, too slow, etc. Do they even still make devices that act like hard drives?
Yes, last week I bought the Creative MuVo Slim and it works just like that, drag and drop. I didn't even bother to install the client software. I understand all Creative MP3 players still work this way. And according to all reviewers, the sound quality is the best there is.
If you don't like the white then you've got the limited edition black with red dial version out right now as an alternative.
It's so funny, I remember how I, as a teenager, painted everything (my alarm clock, my bike, etc.) in a combination of matte black with glossy red. Thought that was very cool, which it problably was, because that clock was before its paintjob white and orange. That was ugly then, that is in my taste ugly now. L'histoire se repete, because we just had / still have a wave of orange design (Abba revival, Hooters?:-), but when I painted my clock and bike, it were the early 70's. So this new:) U2 iPod, yeah, real modern color scheme by Apple....
We've gone from making bigger bombs to smaller, more precise ones.
Mmmm, let's take Iraq as an example. Looking at the number of killed US soldiers, vs the number of killed Iraqi soldiers, it seems that the Iraqi weapons were way more precise:-). Seriously, I don't buy that "precise bombing" of the US army. How many Iraqi's were killed in Felluja?
Slashdot Mirror
Great article, go read it, even if you normally don't!!
:-) I think OB together with Hooters (RTA) should give these guys a scholarship.
Why did these kids won? The other teams were probably so nerdy, they didn't even know tampons existed.
The most fascinating (or humilating) thing of this competition is of course that finally they won because their engineering was just on par, but then their technical documentation was superior over all the others. Kudos to their teachers!!
Your observation is right, but the reason is different. When a thick beam starts to burn, the charcoal that forms itself on the outside will start to protect the inner wood from burning, as soon as it is more then 5 cm / 2 inches thich. Charcoal is funny enough a fire retardent.
As an example, in most (probably all) countries, steel structures must be protected against fire, which is normally done with plaster, concrete, etc. However, at least in Holland, the building code allows you to wrap the steel in 5 or more cm of wood instead.
So back to your 75+ year old house. What protects those beams against the fire is the fact that the pieces of wood used are much thicker than the current 2x6 studs. Or the current "construction beams" that are just strips of plywood with some wood laminated at the ends.
We always talk here about the "Windows tax" when you buy a Dell, Gateway, etc. However, do you get your G5 cheaper, when you don't plan to use OS-X? I checked the store at apple.com, but I don't see that as a configurable option.
.... :-)
Although it seems that Linus got the best possible "Apple tax" rebate
Just like Windows NT and therefore W2K, XP, etc. was developed by ex-VMS engineers.
I know that Americans are full of "bigger is better", but this is the limit. From the article: "Only orders of 1 million or more units will be accepted". As if there are no third world countries that can use less then a million $100 boxes!!
Probably the only countries that could absorb a million PCs in a single deal are China, India, Russia, USA (alphabetical order). Looking at the rates of literacy (USA rock bottom), this is probably also the order of "third-world-ness".
OK, back to the main topic. Aiming only for +1M$ deals, this can only result in deals with countries like China (from the article), the country that just bought IBMs PC division. If those folks in China can make all those ThinkPads, why would they need a "charity type" 100 bucks PC project.
Mind boggling....
Could you please post a link to this fragment? ....
Oops, just saw the link to macworld a few postings before.
Comment on my own message. It only shows the motherboard. Anybody that has posted "disassembly" pictures?
Here are pictures of the inside.
I do the same as parent. Works great. In my case its only 450 bytes shell scripting:
/tmp/ifconfig.new /tmp/ifconfig.old /tmp/ifconfig.new /tmp/ifconfig.new /tmp/ifconfig.old > /dev/null 2>&1 /dev/null /tmp/ifconfig.new /tmp/ifconfig.new /tmp/ifconfig.`date +%Y-%m-%d`
#!/bin/sh
mv
ifconfig -a | grep -v errors | grep -v collisions >
if diff
then
# ifconfig the same
echo "dummy statement" >
else
# ifconfig changed
mail -s "DHCP address changed" me@domain.com <
cp
fi
I'm sure this could be done more elegantly, but it works for me already for 3 years.
Anybody that has seen pictures of the internals??
Funny example was a discussion last night with my wife, who's absolutely not interested in computers or techies stuff, probably even doesn't know what an iPod is. She asked if I had heard recently from one of my friends, where I told her I had just that day emailed with him about the new Apple. Where her reply was "Yes I know, that small one ... from Steve Jobs!!". After the big smile implying "hey, you didn't expect that from me" (which was true :-), she admitted that the miniMac had been reported on BBC world service, which she watches every day. Talking about "widely reported"....
I don't care whoever knows my SSN, I do care that a cellphone shop gives a subscription to "just someone" because he can provide that number. That's stupid. Those retailers should be more carefull!! Like "Sir, we will look up your telephone number in the phone book and call you back tomorrow lunchtime, to ask you some questions", that kind of stuff. But no, because they want to do business NOW, they give you on the spot a $1000 credit card (like Home Depot or Sears does), just because you can show a driver license (faked in a few minutes) and an SSN.
An SSN should be an easy identifier, nothing more than that. Like an ISBN number, but then for humans. Who wants to keep ISBN's secret? It's just dumb that the knowledge of an SSN is considered a proof of identity.
Anyway, if you're so serious about it being too expensive in Canada, Apple luckily made it small enough that you can just buy one at Fry's and take it home (in your coat pocket :). It's even cheap enough that you don't have to pay duties on it when bringing it back home.
My only concern with this Mini Mac next to my monitor and keyboard would be that I would be so tempted to put my beer mug on it. It really looks like a thick coaster .... the bad news being of course that the beer will warm up pretty quickly :-).
Not true. Take the check-in machines at airports as an example. I haven't yet encountered the situation that I had to wait for a machine to become available. Normally, less than half are in use. And I won't see that changing when more people are going to use them. It is so much cheaper to add 20 machines than to add even a few "human" check-in counters.
It depends on the models, some I like, some I don't, but the big problem with Shuttle is always that it looks OK until you mount an optical drive. How to match the material and color they use for their frontplates?? I personally think Shuttle should create something that I would call "bare-bone Plus", which means: include a matching DVD/CDRW.
There is one exception, and I bought that one myself two weeks ago, which is the SN85G4, an AMD64 model. I added a black OEM (Pioneer) DVD, which had no logo's at all, and the combination looks very classy. But of course, YMMV.....
It would be much nicer if they would take out the "lottery" element. Just tell the customer: "this one 400 bucks, 4 pixels dead", "that one 440, 1 pixel dead" and "that one $470, all pixels OK".
And the washing machine made womans lib possible.
That's why she was exported to Las Vegas. :-)
Yes, last week I bought the Creative MuVo Slim and it works just like that, drag and drop. I didn't even bother to install the client software. I understand all Creative MP3 players still work this way. And according to all reviewers, the sound quality is the best there is.
It's so funny, I remember how I, as a teenager, painted everything (my alarm clock, my bike, etc.) in a combination of matte black with glossy red. Thought that was very cool, which it problably was, because that clock was before its paintjob white and orange. That was ugly then, that is in my taste ugly now. L'histoire se repete, because we just had / still have a wave of orange design (Abba revival, Hooters? :-), but when I painted my clock and bike, it were the early 70's. So this new :) U2 iPod, yeah, real modern color scheme by Apple....
Mmmm, let's take Iraq as an example. Looking at the number of killed US soldiers, vs the number of killed Iraqi soldiers, it seems that the Iraqi weapons were way more precise :-). Seriously, I don't buy that "precise bombing" of the US army. How many Iraqi's were killed in Felluja?
There goes my karma down the drain .....
The amount of lights is going up here (the Netherlands) as well [...]
/. Amsterdam's red light district???
Is there any way we can
Ehhh, you're right!! Just like the Google cache. It's just that I got (most of) the images by just waiting long enough.
I'm not super familiar with OS-X, but IMHO essential for the use as a tablet, does OS-X allow you to switch to portrait mode?