I agree!! Throw in a Linux disk with your favorite distribution (doesn't really matter which one), accept all defaults and your "update" is ready to go.....
OK, with various arguments you can pull up the lifetime of a car, maybe even up to 10,000 hours. (Similar arguments can be found for that poor lightbulb). But as was mentioned already, that car only keeps running so long (?) with a lot of spare parts. And still those 10,000 car hours are one tenth of what/. people are expecting of their LCD screen. Where that car costs 50-100 times more than the same screen. And coming back to my base point, 10-50,000 times more than a lightbulb. Just for the same durability.
it will still die or at least dim after a few thousand hours of use
But you probably find it acceptable that your car goes to the landfill after 2-3000 hours of usage. And many cellphones get trown away within two years.
Anyway, a lightbulb is not doing much more than those few thousand hours, so if the OLED is cheap enough, then a lifetime of a few thousand hours will be OK. At least for many applications that are not "on" 24/7.
Those 100,000 hours were not achieved "at once". I remember when I worked 10 years ago for an LCD manufacturer, how many problems there were initially with durability. Those things need a bit of time.
It's in this context always nice to ask people: "What do you think lasts longer, a car or a lightbulb". The answer is nearly always "a car" allthough it is more or less the same. Let's assume a car drives 100,000 miles, at 50 mph, that makes a lifetime of just 2000 hours. Which isn't much....
Taking the photocamera industry as a reference, AFAICR 50% of camera's are sold to people "who expect their first one". And those cameara's are used like hell for the first year, then a little and after 3-6 years mainly stay on the shelves. That's why Fuji couple of years back marketed "special baby film". The only special thing was ofcourse the packaging in lots of pink. I expect that with "personal webpages" things will be pretty similar. At least my own experience shows the same, huge amounts of newborns, some vacation stuff and nothing much else.
Coming back to the question of "1% quality", for the parents and grand parents it's 100% quality. For everybody else it's just an ugly wurm in too expense clothes from baby Gap.:-) And I would encourage it when they put those pictures on a web page, because otherwise they attach six or so multi-mega-pixel JPEGs as attachments to an email.
Card readers are like guns or software. They can be used by bad people in bad ways, but that doesn't make them bad.
Ehhhh, what??? Yes I agree with the card reader and software part of the story. But can someone please explain how guns can ever be used in good ways. And don't give me the crap about guns being invented for shooting at dart boards.
... because it spent more time than initially planned studying rocks and soil along the way...
Mmmm, sounds like walking the dog.... sniffing here a bit, peeing there a bit, etc. Maybe a vet should be included in the design team.:-)
I have written this type of software in the past. And it is pretty complex, because the 3D data you get is so damn unreliable. However, the Spirit has one advantage, on Earth a lake or other piece of water looks for a vision system exactly the same as a nice flat piece of tarmac. "Let's go there, no bumpy rocks"!! Don't think they have yet to cope with that problem on Mars.....
The large Sun servers (in the past max 72/104 CPUs, now with upto 144/208 cores), are indeed SMP single image. Although most of our (oops, yes I work for Sun:-) customers configure them in multiple smaller domains.
And yes, those Opteron servers are definitely cool. Mmm, I have to take a peek at the current employee discount levels....
Good point!! The US has gone very much down the drain on that topic in the last few years. Especially if you have to "live" on that little corner of Cuba.... Mmmm, isn't it funny that the only allowed Cuban "vacation" from the US is in a obligatory orange jumpsuit?
This a good example of modern times: "digital is better" and it reminds me of those Nikon, Canon, etc. ads in the early eighties about their lenses being designed "with computers". So then they should be better, yeah.....
If you need a 5 ms delay, why not simply use an RC circuit (for the new kids on the block: that's a resistor and capacitor) and if you really want to "go digital", a simple 50 cents 78xx or 40xx counter chip would have done the trick. Mmm, but if you're grown up only knowing that you need a computer to play music, than you can expect this type of overkill.
Anyway, I still love projects like these, even when they are done already thousands times before.
Hey, enough of their customers are so non-tech savvy that they will be conned into buying whole new computers.
Knowing the average Dell user, there are easier ways to accomplish that: Just heard the story of someone who told that her old computer was broken because of a virus, so she bought a new one....:-). Friend of mine picked up the old one of course and just installed a non-Windows OS.
Anyway, this guys mod is pretty basic and doesn't involve tinkering with the "brain" of the OnStar box in any way. All he did was to solder a serial connection onto the GPS board and then disconnect that board from the OnStar system.
I couldn't figure out from his description whether he did, but it should be possible to tap onto the serial signal and still keep the OnStar connected and functioning. I don't know if that Motorola protocol is a two-directional protocol, but normally with GPS protocols (like with NMEA) the unit just sends it's data over the wires, not listening to any input.
If you take a NMEA GPS unit and you just connect the TxD (from the GPS' point of view) and the GND wires you can read the lat/long with your laptop. Because you don't send any info to the GPS, that TxD signal can go to many listeners. Been there, done that!!
So, in case of the 5V logic of the Motorola OnCore, you maybe have to add one or two diode's, but it should probably be possible to tap off the GPS signal, leaving the OnStar system functioning as it was before.
You can think of a practical situation where the location on your cell will be used against you?
And anyway, 50% of cell-phone conversations start with "hey John, I'm now on the 69 at King's and I think it will take me 20 more minutes to get...." or something similar. At least that's what I normally overhear on airports, in trains, etc.
Which reminds me of those awfully ugly vests/shirts/'whatever you call it', they have their staff wear. It really shows off that it was made by the lowest bidder, probably for 56 cents each, or somethink like that. Anyway, for me enough reason (plus couple of others) to avoid Walmart wherever possible.
... capable of playing Windows Media (TM) Audio ("WMA") files such as a WMA-compliant MP3 player...
Do I see here a suspicious link between Redmond and Arkansas? Because I'm now pretty sure that WMA stands for "Wal-Mart Audio":-). And I was still thinking that Walmart was part of the OpenSource community with their Lindows PCs.......
It looks better than the previous scheme, which charged a fixed amount per megabyte of storage.
The setting: I'm in Toronto considering if I should go out in the cold again to revisit that electronics store I was a few hours ago, to buy a fresh 100-stack of CDRs.
The confusion: I don't know what the previous scheme was, but I don't understand how it could even be worse than this one.
The problem: I regularly buy CDRs to backup my PC, I buy harddisks to store music in MP3 format, however I have all that music as legal CDs on my bookshelf. I even copy those MP3 files to a USB stick.
The madness: So I don't care if charging happens by the megabyte, as a percentage of the purchage price, or even by the pitch of the singers voice:-). It seems that I just have to pay, because others use the same stuff for illegal practices. It's like putting a levy on cars to cover the costs of bank roberies, because cars are used as getaway vehicles.
This just doesn't make sense!! Another reason not to become Canadian citizen (one of my current options). Not that moving south of the border would be a better option. You USA folks invented the RIAA, which includes the invention of all the lawyers that make things like RIAA and CPCC possible.......
Slashdot Mirror
Wrong link, by you are right: here and here.
Besides, updating an MS machine really is easy.
I agree!! Throw in a Linux disk with your favorite distribution (doesn't really matter which one), accept all defaults and your "update" is ready to go.....
OK, with various arguments you can pull up the lifetime of a car, maybe even up to 10,000 hours. (Similar arguments can be found for that poor lightbulb). But as was mentioned already, that car only keeps running so long (?) with a lot of spare parts. And still those 10,000 car hours are one tenth of what /. people are expecting of their LCD screen. Where that car costs 50-100 times more than the same screen. And coming back to my base point, 10-50,000 times more than a lightbulb. Just for the same durability.
... like giving away free stuff along with other things ...
:-)
Ahhh, like AOL disks. Maybe that is the future business model for SCO. Get a free Linux license with your PC Magazine....
it will still die or at least dim after a few thousand hours of use
But you probably find it acceptable that your car goes to the landfill after 2-3000 hours of usage. And many cellphones get trown away within two years.
Anyway, a lightbulb is not doing much more than those few thousand hours, so if the OLED is cheap enough, then a lifetime of a few thousand hours will be OK. At least for many applications that are not "on" 24/7.
Those 100,000 hours were not achieved "at once". I remember when I worked 10 years ago for an LCD manufacturer, how many problems there were initially with durability. Those things need a bit of time.
It's in this context always nice to ask people: "What do you think lasts longer, a car or a lightbulb". The answer is nearly always "a car" allthough it is more or less the same. Let's assume a car drives 100,000 miles, at 50 mph, that makes a lifetime of just 2000 hours. Which isn't much....
Taking the photocamera industry as a reference, AFAICR 50% of camera's are sold to people "who expect their first one". And those cameara's are used like hell for the first year, then a little and after 3-6 years mainly stay on the shelves. That's why Fuji couple of years back marketed "special baby film". The only special thing was ofcourse the packaging in lots of pink. I expect that with "personal webpages" things will be pretty similar. At least my own experience shows the same, huge amounts of newborns, some vacation stuff and nothing much else.
:-) And I would encourage it when they put those pictures on a web page, because otherwise they attach six or so multi-mega-pixel JPEGs as attachments to an email.
Coming back to the question of "1% quality", for the parents and grand parents it's 100% quality. For everybody else it's just an ugly wurm in too expense clothes from baby Gap.
Card readers are like guns or software. They can be used by bad people in bad ways, but that doesn't make them bad.
Ehhhh, what??? Yes I agree with the card reader and software part of the story. But can someone please explain how guns can ever be used in good ways. And don't give me the crap about guns being invented for shooting at dart boards.
... because it spent more time than initially planned studying rocks and soil along the way ...
.... sniffing here a bit, peeing there a bit, etc. Maybe a vet should be included in the design team. :-)
Mmmm, sounds like walking the dog
I have written this type of software in the past. And it is pretty complex, because the 3D data you get is so damn unreliable. However, the Spirit has one advantage, on Earth a lake or other piece of water looks for a vision system exactly the same as a nice flat piece of tarmac. "Let's go there, no bumpy rocks"!! Don't think they have yet to cope with that problem on Mars.....
The large Sun servers (in the past max 72/104 CPUs, now with upto 144/208 cores), are indeed SMP single image. Although most of our (oops, yes I work for Sun :-) customers configure them in multiple smaller domains.
And yes, those Opteron servers are definitely cool. Mmm, I have to take a peek at the current employee discount levels....
Linux runs a 512 CPU supercomputer at NASA
Are you talking here 512 CPU SMP or more a Beowulf or similar. Two rather different animals....
... speech ain't exactly free lately either ...
.... Mmmm, isn't it funny that the only allowed Cuban "vacation" from the US is in a obligatory orange jumpsuit?
Good point!! The US has gone very much down the drain on that topic in the last few years. Especially if you have to "live" on that little corner of Cuba
That's because this is a NYT article. Please give everyone 30 minutes to complete their registration form.
/.-ers are reading the articles before posting. I don't think so...... :)
But then you assume
This a good example of modern times: "digital is better" and it reminds me of those Nikon, Canon, etc. ads in the early eighties about their lenses being designed "with computers". So then they should be better, yeah.....
If you need a 5 ms delay, why not simply use an RC circuit (for the new kids on the block: that's a resistor and capacitor) and if you really want to "go digital", a simple 50 cents 78xx or 40xx counter chip would have done the trick. Mmm, but if you're grown up only knowing that you need a computer to play music, than you can expect this type of overkill.
Anyway, I still love projects like these, even when they are done already thousands times before.
Apparently the authorities didn't think this was quite so funny so they sent him another letter containing a picture of some handcuffs.
Mmmm, I think they thought it funny, but they just raised the bar a little.....
Hey, enough of their customers are so non-tech savvy that they will be conned into buying whole new computers.
:-). Friend of mine picked up the old one of course and just installed a non-Windows OS.
Knowing the average Dell user, there are easier ways to accomplish that: Just heard the story of someone who told that her old computer was broken because of a virus, so she bought a new one....
Ahhh, but I didn't say that posters should use "real names" :-).
Posted by "dacarr": I ignore AC's. Use your real name.
:-)
Mmmmm, ever heard about a guy or girl with the name "Dacarr"?
Anyway, this guys mod is pretty basic and doesn't involve tinkering with the "brain" of the OnStar box in any way. All he did was to solder a serial connection onto the GPS board and then disconnect that board from the OnStar system.
I couldn't figure out from his description whether he did, but it should be possible to tap onto the serial signal and still keep the OnStar connected and functioning. I don't know if that Motorola protocol is a two-directional protocol, but normally with GPS protocols (like with NMEA) the unit just sends it's data over the wires, not listening to any input.
If you take a NMEA GPS unit and you just connect the TxD (from the GPS' point of view) and the GND wires you can read the lat/long with your laptop. Because you don't send any info to the GPS, that TxD signal can go to many listeners. Been there, done that!!
So, in case of the 5V logic of the Motorola OnCore, you maybe have to add one or two diode's, but it should probably be possible to tap off the GPS signal, leaving the OnStar system functioning as it was before.
You can think of a practical situation where the location on your cell will be used against you?
And anyway, 50% of cell-phone conversations start with "hey John, I'm now on the 69 at King's and I think it will take me 20 more minutes to get...." or something similar. At least that's what I normally overhear on airports, in trains, etc.
no protective clothing available
Which reminds me of those awfully ugly vests/shirts/'whatever you call it', they have their staff wear. It really shows off that it was made by the lowest bidder, probably for 56 cents each, or somethink like that. Anyway, for me enough reason (plus couple of others) to avoid Walmart wherever possible.
... capable of playing Windows Media (TM) Audio ("WMA") files such as a WMA-compliant MP3 player ...
:-). And I was still thinking that Walmart was part of the OpenSource community with their Lindows PCs.......
Do I see here a suspicious link between Redmond and Arkansas? Because I'm now pretty sure that WMA stands for "Wal-Mart Audio"
It looks better than the previous scheme, which charged a fixed amount per megabyte of storage.
:-). It seems that I just have to pay, because others use the same stuff for illegal practices. It's like putting a levy on cars to cover the costs of bank roberies, because cars are used as getaway vehicles.
.......
The setting: I'm in Toronto considering if I should go out in the cold again to revisit that electronics store I was a few hours ago, to buy a fresh 100-stack of CDRs.
The confusion: I don't know what the previous scheme was, but I don't understand how it could even be worse than this one.
The problem: I regularly buy CDRs to backup my PC, I buy harddisks to store music in MP3 format, however I have all that music as legal CDs on my bookshelf. I even copy those MP3 files to a USB stick.
The madness: So I don't care if charging happens by the megabyte, as a percentage of the purchage price, or even by the pitch of the singers voice
This just doesn't make sense!! Another reason not to become Canadian citizen (one of my current options). Not that moving south of the border would be a better option. You USA folks invented the RIAA, which includes the invention of all the lawyers that make things like RIAA and CPCC possible
And for those not mastering French, click here to get to the maps. Especially the 3D modeling part is pretty cool.
This is the Paris web-site, mentioned in the article:
b ruit/default.ASP
http://www.paris.fr/FR/Environnement/bruit/carto_