But maybe if they had been doing those in the first place they wouldn't be patching it now.
Have you ever worked on a large software project? No matter what you do, if your code is large, complex, and used extensively, there will be security flaws that need patching. There is no process or technique that can provide the same level of testing as 600 million users and (at least) several thousand individuals working to break your product.
Indeed, security vunerabilities have dropped in severity and number with Microsoft products developed after the security push began (Windows Server 2003, XP SP2, IIS 6, etc.). But patches will always be a part of Windows.
And, remember, WMF has existed since the 3.x days - this code is at least 10 years old, and it was likely developed in an age where Windows didn't even have a TCP/IP stack.
Only an Apple or AMD fanboy would call the most successful PC processor over the last five years a "mistake". Northwood was - and still is - one of the most competitive processors ever released. For over two years, P4 was absolutely killing Athlon XP - it's only with Athlon 64 that AMD caught up (and with Prescott that they moved ahead).
You can call Prescott a "mistake", in that it had power issues and didn't scale as Intel anticipated, but even then you're on shaky ground - while Prescott may not be appropriate for notebooks, it still makes a fine workstation/desktop CPU, and on Intel's 65nm process, it has little trouble reaching clocks in the 4.4-5.0GHz range.
Are you a commuter? If you are, then you would probably realize the value of having a device that is less cumbersome to use than even the smallest laptop(and the battery lasts a bit longer too).
Nokia already sells an internet tablet that is small and light, and it has a range of capabilities that the Sony reader won't offer. Of course, it doesn't have the awesome display.
If you had bothered to actually read my post rather than label me a "Microsoft-fanboy" based on a single quote, then you would realize that I acknowledged Microsoft's responsibility to ensure that they ship a quality product. Indeed, everything in the XBOX 360 was manufactured by someone other than Microsoft.
However, my post stands - while you can fault Microsoft for shipping a poor PSU, the grandparent's point that Microsoft can't be trusted because they cannot design a power supply is simply incorrect. If anything, the PSU issue indicates a lack of QA, not a lack of design prowess.
Moreover, without real data it is impossible to determine exactly how much of a problem the power supply actually is. Power supplies are complex devices, and even with good QA they are one of the most failure-prone components of any system.
Once again, Slashdot never ceases to amaze by moderating a Microsoft-trashing post to the roof.
When I recieved my 2005fpw, it had one dead subpixel. Dell replaced it without question, they cross-shipped, and they even paid for the return shipping.
I am no fan of Dell's crapware-loaded computers, but their LCDs rock - I got an LG Philips (same as the Cinema 20" Display) in an LG-designed and manufactured monitor (check the UL cert number) for $380.
If you are looking for a new monitor, the 2005fpw is one of the best buys on the market. 1680x1050, USB 2.0 ports, S-Video/DVI/VGA/Composite in, PIP, and a great picture.
When the monitor is switched off, the power supply to this subsystem is cut as well (and apparently it is not powered from the PC USB bus).
I have a Dell 2005fpw and the USB ports continue to function (and have power) when the monitor is off. Perhaps the new 30" monitor will function correctly.
A while ago people where pointing out that Dell was selling "the same" display as the Apple for the 20" but sooo much cheaper.
Yeah, it seemed to be using the same Panel but the backlight is different and I had a chance to compare both the Apple and the Dell and the Apple IMO looked better, brighter (I am writing it on that one right now).
Actually, AnandTech found the color rendition on the 2005fpw to be slightly better than the 20" Cinema display. I looked at both side-by-side and found the difference to be negligable.
The Apple display certainly looks cooler. But the 2005fpw is height-adjustable, can do portrait mode, has VGA/S-Video/Composite inputs in addition to DVI, does PIP and POP, and costs $300+ less.
1) It's not cost efficient, even when compared to wind. Wind and other renewables have recieved extensive subsidies that lower the price per kilowatt hour. Morover, wind is only cost effective at sites with semi-reliable medium-speed winds - and, as demand for wind power increases, the best available sites are used up and wind operators must use less coss-effective sites. Moreover, wind power sites are often not convenient to where power is needed - meaning greater losses in power transmission when compared to more mobile energy sources.
Nuclear power is similar in cost to coal power; this has been established from a 35+ year history of extensive production in the US. Nuclear provides more than 20% of our power already in the US, second only to coal.
2) It's dangerous. (That's a really good article, by the way. It should be required reading for anyone commenting on this Slashdot story.)
Dangerous compared to what? With all the "near misses" and accidents, nuclear power has resulted in fewer fatalities per kilowatt-hour than coal, hydro, or natural gas.
Describing nuclear power as dangerous is like describing air travel as dangerous - while accidents are absolutely possible and have certainly happened (and will likely continue to happen), serious accidents are infrequent enough in occurence that the technology, overall, is extremely safe. Nuclear power simply has not killed very many people in its 52-year history.
Rumor has it that flat-rate fees for unlimited traffic are coming (to FInland) in 2006 and the prices will be around 20 euros a month.
T-Mobile has had unlimited GPRS (now EDGE) for over four years in the US for $20 a month. Sprint offers unlimited 1xRTT/EV-DO for $15 a month.
You clearly don't understand or care to understand the US wireless market. Actually go and compare prices between the US and Europe - we consistantly pay less per minute, are never charged for calling customer care (as you sometimes are in Europe), generally get unlimited night/weekend calling, and frequently get unlimited calling to other phones on the same network.
This myth is pervasive on Slashdot, but it hasn't been true for years.
then introduce the XBox 360, again sans Media Center functionality
While the 360 doesn't record TV (nor would you expect it to), it does function as a high-definition media-center extender that allows you to veiw and control your Media Center PC.
That's $35 more than £30, but it's still pretty affordable. And the price will only drop as demand increases - there's just not that much in an ATSC IRD.
Typical Slashdot piss-on-Microsoft attitude. Microsoft likely had no part in designing the power brick; for one, they don't have the expertise to design an active-PFC swtiched-mode high-wattage power supply.
Now, we can certainly fault Microsoft for not testing their vendor's product sufficently, but the fact is that 95% of XBOX 360s are chugging along perfectly fine.
This is a piece of consumer electronics. Do you consider a DVD player to be broken if you have to lay the cables in just the right way?
Does a DVD player have 500+ million logic transistors? A high-clocked triple-core PowerPC CPU and a high-clocked ATI GPU?
High-end computers use lots of power. They have for some time now. You would never put a high-end gaming PC in an enclosed space.
The XBOX 360 manual makes it abundantly clear that the system needs ventilation. Certainly, some of the problems have been caused by incorrectly attached heatsinks, fan failures, or defective power supplies. But, you know what? At my former company, about 1 in 20 of the NVIDIA Quadro cards we purchased were defective - generally because the heatsink shim prevented adequete die contact. It's not easy to dissipate 200W+ in a box significantly smaller than a traditional PC.
The good thing about having an external brick for the 360 is that it will become smaller and more efficent as time goes on.
Microsoft has the biggest blogging presence of any corporation, and I can say that their blogs are working extremely well. Channel 9 (http://channel9.msdn.com/ in particular is very successful. The video interviews and real-world feedback from the developers is really helping Microsoft connect better with its users - note the recent Firefox "Genuine" plugin and WMV plugins, Firefox compatibility with MSN projects, and a bigger push towards standards. Moreover, blogging has raised much more enthusiasm for Vista - hearing from the kernel devs how heap management has been improved or from the audio team about how audio mixing and performance are better really makes it clear what the product is and what it will mean.
You really can't beat the Seasonic S12 series. Extremely low noise (silent for most purposes under normal conditions), clean power, high-efficency (less heat / wasted power), active PFC (easier on the power lines), auto 120/240 voltage.
The S12 comes in a 330W version that should be fine for your PC. It runs around $55-$65 on the 'Egg or other online stores.
Pair it with a nice case (Antec 3000SLK or perhaps P180), a decent CPU heatsink (Scythe Ninja, Zalman, or a number of others), and a decent mobo/GPU (no fan), and a nice drive (Samsung is the best, Maxtor/Seagate/WD FDB drives can be pretty quiet as well), and you have a nice quiet system.
Disclaimer: I don't particularly care if AMD or Intel has the best technology. I know Slashdot is all about going with the groupthink, but what is with all these AMD fanboys and their awful wordplay on "Leap Ahead"? Have any of you even read one word about what this new marketing campaign is designed to announce and promote? Read up on the technology behind Intel's 2006 chips, namely Yonah, Merom and Conroe. The facts don't lie. By perofrmance per watt and even by absolute performance, despite sticking with 32-bit technology, Intel is going to trounce AMD in 2006 in both mobile, desktop, and server markets.
That's not by any means a certainty. While I have personally used Intel's "Next Generation Microarchitecture", let me tell you - Athlon 64 F stepping is no slouch and it is going to ramp very fast. Intel's NGA is so impressive because Prescott was such a flop.
Moreover, there are no facts that can or cannot lie. Intel has - as of yet - shipped nothing but a few engineering samples. When we see real parts with real availablility, maybe we can compare. But right now all the Intel fanboys can do is compare Intel's as-of-yet unreleased parts to AMD parts that are already shipping. And even then, Intel isn't looking so great - 5% faster than 6-month-old AMD64 parts isn't going to be impressive.
Intel is announcing completely redesigned processors, and essentally all AMD is going to do is push the clockrate of their current designs. Here are some links to back up these claims.
F stepping introduces major optimizations, DDR2 support, and faster HT. AMD will ship 65nm parts in 2006, which will lower power usage. AMD64 scales extremely well - with DDR2, faster HT, 65nm, and higher clocks, F stepping will have no problem remaining compeitive with inte's NGA.
I certainly agree for the graphics drivers (there's already a control panel!), but I find NVIDIA's audio utilities to be excellent - they provide functionality (Equalizer, LFE cutoff point, detailed speaker config, sound environment setup) that's useful and notably absent from the default mixer.
You can actually do this already with Windows Server 2003, but with Longhorn Server you can install a "Core" server that has a 500MB footprint and no GUI:
To complex? Compared to what? This is a BMW not some american car. Germans may suck as human beings but they know how to make cars. Cars that actually just bloody work instead of needing to be fixed every ten miles.
Oh, so that's why Consumer Reports surveys indicate significantly higher failure rates for BMW and VW than for Ford and GM - and more than double the failure rates of Honda, Subaru, or Toyota.
"It's simple: Nintendo is the only true next gen machine. You could even argue they are leap frogging this 1.5 version generation entirely."
Spoken like a true fanboy. Nintendo isn't "Ahead" or "Behind", they aren't even in the competition. Nintendo has made it clear that the Revolution targets a different market than the PS3 or 360. It has a radically different controller and isn't focused on performance.
Most reports claim that the Revolution will have 128M of memory. Apparently, the Revolution is internally very similar to the Gamecube, but clocked higher.
The Gamecube was an excellent system. I own one. But serious third-party support evaporated once developers began to realize that Nintendo is targeting a completely different market.
Everything that Nintendo has said about the Revolution, from the downplaying of the specifications to the unique controller to the silence about the launch date - indicates that the Revolution won't compete with the 360 or the PS3. Nintendo doesn't want it to.
Only time will tell whether Nintendo made the right move.
"Nintendo does a lot of things right, but one of the things important to me is their commitment to keeping consoles small and quiet. the gamecube is tiny and the revolution will be even smaller. I like being able to enjoy the sound of a game without a leafblower sized fan in the background."
I hate to break it to you, but the 'Cube is damned noisy. Perhaps the second-rev hardware fixed that (while taking away component video, of course), but the first-gen 'Cube is damn annoying. Early PS2 revs are considerably quieter, the more recent PS2 revs are nearly silent, and the slim PS2 is fanless.
Not to mention that the 'Cube makes an annoying noise while reading discs.
People don't understand why Toyota is investing so much money in Hybrid Synergy Drive. They look at the efficency gains and say, "This doesn't make economic sense".
Unlike Honda's IMA, HSD is the future of the transmission. Don't get me wrong - IMA is a great technology that boosts performance and reduces consumption, but it is a small step from the conventional design of a vehicle.
HSD is the future of the transmission because it is less complex. HSD has fewer gears and fewer mechanical components than either an automatic or a manual transmission.
HSD replaces the following components: - Auto Transmission / Clutch + Gearbox - Starter Motor - Alternator - Power steering pump and valves
HSD has a conventional gas engine (using Otto or Miller cycle), a power split device (A simple planetary gearset), two motor/generators (MG1 and MG2), an electronic power steering motor and AC compressor, a battery, and an electronic control system.
HSD is described as a continuously-variable transmission system, but unlike most CVT systems, HSD doesn't use a cone and a belt and doesn't use hydraulics.
The Prius is one of the most reliable vehicles on the road (and the most reliable vehicle in its class), according to Consumer Reports. This is because the vehicle has replaced mechanical components with electronic components.
In the long run, electronic components will drop in price at a faster rate than mechanical components. Hoses, valves, and precision machining is going to be almost as expensive as it is today in 10 years. The expensive components in HSD (primarily the battery and inverter) are going to be dramatically cheaper.
Toyota is serious about hybrid technology because, in the long run, HSD is cheaper than a conventional transmission.
"what can a Linux port offer that's more desirable than what they get out of the box"
An operating system that doesn't suck? Palm OS was decent in 1996, but today I want an OS that doesn't randomly freeze, that doesn't randomly reboot and that allows me to run more application at once.
Slashdot Mirror
But maybe if they had been doing those in the first place they wouldn't be patching it now.
Have you ever worked on a large software project? No matter what you do, if your code is large, complex, and used extensively, there will be security flaws that need patching. There is no process or technique that can provide the same level of testing as 600 million users and (at least) several thousand individuals working to break your product.
Indeed, security vunerabilities have dropped in severity and number with Microsoft products developed after the security push began (Windows Server 2003, XP SP2, IIS 6, etc.). But patches will always be a part of Windows.
And, remember, WMF has existed since the 3.x days - this code is at least 10 years old, and it was likely developed in an age where Windows didn't even have a TCP/IP stack.
The Pentium 4 was a mistake
Only an Apple or AMD fanboy would call the most successful PC processor over the last five years a "mistake". Northwood was - and still is - one of the most competitive processors ever released. For over two years, P4 was absolutely killing Athlon XP - it's only with Athlon 64 that AMD caught up (and with Prescott that they moved ahead).
You can call Prescott a "mistake", in that it had power issues and didn't scale as Intel anticipated, but even then you're on shaky ground - while Prescott may not be appropriate for notebooks, it still makes a fine workstation/desktop CPU, and on Intel's 65nm process, it has little trouble reaching clocks in the 4.4-5.0GHz range.
Are you a commuter? If you are, then you would probably realize the value of having a device that is less cumbersome to use than even the smallest laptop(and the battery lasts a bit longer too).
Nokia already sells an internet tablet that is small and light, and it has a range of capabilities that the Sony reader won't offer. Of course, it doesn't have the awesome display.
If you had bothered to actually read my post rather than label me a "Microsoft-fanboy" based on a single quote, then you would realize that I acknowledged Microsoft's responsibility to ensure that they ship a quality product. Indeed, everything in the XBOX 360 was manufactured by someone other than Microsoft.
However, my post stands - while you can fault Microsoft for shipping a poor PSU, the grandparent's point that Microsoft can't be trusted because they cannot design a power supply is simply incorrect. If anything, the PSU issue indicates a lack of QA, not a lack of design prowess.
Moreover, without real data it is impossible to determine exactly how much of a problem the power supply actually is. Power supplies are complex devices, and even with good QA they are one of the most failure-prone components of any system.
Once again, Slashdot never ceases to amaze by moderating a Microsoft-trashing post to the roof.
When I recieved my 2005fpw, it had one dead subpixel. Dell replaced it without question, they cross-shipped, and they even paid for the return shipping.
I am no fan of Dell's crapware-loaded computers, but their LCDs rock - I got an LG Philips (same as the Cinema 20" Display) in an LG-designed and manufactured monitor (check the UL cert number) for $380.
If you are looking for a new monitor, the 2005fpw is one of the best buys on the market. 1680x1050, USB 2.0 ports, S-Video/DVI/VGA/Composite in, PIP, and a great picture.
When the monitor is switched off, the power supply to this subsystem is cut as well (and apparently it is not powered from the PC USB bus).
I have a Dell 2005fpw and the USB ports continue to function (and have power) when the monitor is off. Perhaps the new 30" monitor will function correctly.
A while ago people where pointing out that Dell was selling "the same" display as the Apple for the 20" but sooo much cheaper.
Yeah, it seemed to be using the same Panel but the backlight is different and I had a chance to compare both the Apple and the Dell and the Apple IMO looked better, brighter (I am writing it on that one right now).
Actually, AnandTech found the color rendition on the 2005fpw to be slightly better than the 20" Cinema display. I looked at both side-by-side and found the difference to be negligable.
The Apple display certainly looks cooler. But the 2005fpw is height-adjustable, can do portrait mode, has VGA/S-Video/Composite inputs in addition to DVI, does PIP and POP, and costs $300+ less.
1) It's not cost efficient, even when compared to wind.
Wind and other renewables have recieved extensive subsidies that lower the price per kilowatt hour. Morover, wind is only cost effective at sites with semi-reliable medium-speed winds - and, as demand for wind power increases, the best available sites are used up and wind operators must use less coss-effective sites. Moreover, wind power sites are often not convenient to where power is needed - meaning greater losses in power transmission when compared to more mobile energy sources.
Nuclear power is similar in cost to coal power; this has been established from a 35+ year history of extensive production in the US. Nuclear provides more than 20% of our power already in the US, second only to coal.
2) It's dangerous. (That's a really good article, by the way. It should be required reading for anyone commenting on this Slashdot story.)
Dangerous compared to what? With all the "near misses" and accidents, nuclear power has resulted in fewer fatalities per kilowatt-hour than coal, hydro, or natural gas.
Describing nuclear power as dangerous is like describing air travel as dangerous - while accidents are absolutely possible and have certainly happened (and will likely continue to happen), serious accidents are infrequent enough in occurence that the technology, overall, is extremely safe. Nuclear power simply has not killed very many people in its 52-year history.
Rumor has it that flat-rate fees for unlimited traffic are coming (to FInland) in 2006 and the prices will be around 20 euros a month.
T-Mobile has had unlimited GPRS (now EDGE) for over four years in the US for $20 a month. Sprint offers unlimited 1xRTT/EV-DO for $15 a month.
You clearly don't understand or care to understand the US wireless market. Actually go and compare prices between the US and Europe - we consistantly pay less per minute, are never charged for calling customer care (as you sometimes are in Europe), generally get unlimited night/weekend calling, and frequently get unlimited calling to other phones on the same network.
This myth is pervasive on Slashdot, but it hasn't been true for years.
then introduce the XBox 360, again sans Media Center functionality
While the 360 doesn't record TV (nor would you expect it to), it does function as a high-definition media-center extender that allows you to veiw and control your Media Center PC.
Firefly
As much as I loved Firefly, the ratings were bad and it only appealed to a very limited audience. Even Serenity was a commercial flop.
Firefly might have worked as a show on cable, but it didn't have the ratings to be on broadcast television.
Network execs aren't in business to broadcast the best shows, they just want the shows that make the most money.
Set top boxes cost from as little as £30 for terrestrial thus meaning those 70 million analogue TVs will be good for years to come.
c tId=2104191&cp=&pg=1&y=6&x=2&kw=hdtv+tuner&s=A-Sto rePrice-RSK&parentPage=search
Exactly! This article description is hugely misleading. There is no need for new television sets - using converter boxes has been the plan all along.
Indeed, you can already purchase ATSC recievers for as little as $90:
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?produ
That's $35 more than £30, but it's still pretty affordable. And the price will only drop as demand increases - there's just not that much in an ATSC IRD.
They failed a simple power brick...
Typical Slashdot piss-on-Microsoft attitude. Microsoft likely had no part in designing the power brick; for one, they don't have the expertise to design an active-PFC swtiched-mode high-wattage power supply.
Now, we can certainly fault Microsoft for not testing their vendor's product sufficently, but the fact is that 95% of XBOX 360s are chugging along perfectly fine.
This is a piece of consumer electronics. Do you consider a DVD player to be broken if you have to lay the cables in just the right way?
Does a DVD player have 500+ million logic transistors? A high-clocked triple-core PowerPC CPU and a high-clocked ATI GPU?
High-end computers use lots of power. They have for some time now. You would never put a high-end gaming PC in an enclosed space.
The XBOX 360 manual makes it abundantly clear that the system needs ventilation. Certainly, some of the problems have been caused by incorrectly attached heatsinks, fan failures, or defective power supplies. But, you know what? At my former company, about 1 in 20 of the NVIDIA Quadro cards we purchased were defective - generally because the heatsink shim prevented adequete die contact. It's not easy to dissipate 200W+ in a box significantly smaller than a traditional PC.
The good thing about having an external brick for the 360 is that it will become smaller and more efficent as time goes on.
Yes, but AFAIK it runs just fine on WOW64. As do most Windows applications that don't have Win16 baggage.
Microsoft has the biggest blogging presence of any corporation, and I can say that their blogs are working extremely well. Channel 9 (http://channel9.msdn.com/ in particular is very successful. The video interviews and real-world feedback from the developers is really helping Microsoft connect better with its users - note the recent Firefox "Genuine" plugin and WMV plugins, Firefox compatibility with MSN projects, and a bigger push towards standards. Moreover, blogging has raised much more enthusiasm for Vista - hearing from the kernel devs how heap management has been improved or from the audio team about how audio mixing and performance are better really makes it clear what the product is and what it will mean.
You really can't beat the Seasonic S12 series. Extremely low noise (silent for most purposes under normal conditions), clean power, high-efficency (less heat / wasted power), active PFC (easier on the power lines), auto 120/240 voltage.
The S12 comes in a 330W version that should be fine for your PC. It runs around $55-$65 on the 'Egg or other online stores.
Pair it with a nice case (Antec 3000SLK or perhaps P180), a decent CPU heatsink (Scythe Ninja, Zalman, or a number of others), and a decent mobo/GPU (no fan), and a nice drive (Samsung is the best, Maxtor/Seagate/WD FDB drives can be pretty quiet as well), and you have a nice quiet system.
Check out http://silentpcreview.com/
Disclaimer: I don't particularly care if AMD or Intel has the best technology. I know Slashdot is all about going with the groupthink, but what is with all these AMD fanboys and their awful wordplay on "Leap Ahead"? Have any of you even read one word about what this new marketing campaign is designed to announce and promote? Read up on the technology behind Intel's 2006 chips, namely Yonah, Merom and Conroe. The facts don't lie. By perofrmance per watt and even by absolute performance, despite sticking with 32-bit technology, Intel is going to trounce AMD in 2006 in both mobile, desktop, and server markets.
That's not by any means a certainty. While I have personally used Intel's "Next Generation Microarchitecture", let me tell you - Athlon 64 F stepping is no slouch and it is going to ramp very fast. Intel's NGA is so impressive because Prescott was such a flop.
Moreover, there are no facts that can or cannot lie. Intel has - as of yet - shipped nothing but a few engineering samples. When we see real parts with real availablility, maybe we can compare. But right now all the Intel fanboys can do is compare Intel's as-of-yet unreleased parts to AMD parts that are already shipping. And even then, Intel isn't looking so great - 5% faster than 6-month-old AMD64 parts isn't going to be impressive.
Intel is announcing completely redesigned processors, and essentally all AMD is going to do is push the clockrate of their current designs. Here are some links to back up these claims.
F stepping introduces major optimizations, DDR2 support, and faster HT. AMD will ship 65nm parts in 2006, which will lower power usage. AMD64 scales extremely well - with DDR2, faster HT, 65nm, and higher clocks, F stepping will have no problem remaining compeitive with inte's NGA.
"I don't want a freaking systray app for NVidia,"
I certainly agree for the graphics drivers (there's already a control panel!), but I find NVIDIA's audio utilities to be excellent - they provide functionality (Equalizer, LFE cutoff point, detailed speaker config, sound environment setup) that's useful and notably absent from the default mixer.
You can actually do this already with Windows Server 2003, but with Longhorn Server you can install a "Core" server that has a 500MB footprint and no GUI:
e r_Gets_Modular/1126826261
http://www.betanews.com/article/Next_Windows_Serv
To complex? Compared to what? This is a BMW not some american car. Germans may suck as human beings but they know how to make cars. Cars that actually just bloody work instead of needing to be fixed every ten miles.
Oh, so that's why Consumer Reports surveys indicate significantly higher failure rates for BMW and VW than for Ford and GM - and more than double the failure rates of Honda, Subaru, or Toyota.
"It's simple: Nintendo is the only true next gen machine. You could even argue they are leap frogging this 1.5 version generation entirely."
Spoken like a true fanboy. Nintendo isn't "Ahead" or "Behind", they aren't even in the competition. Nintendo has made it clear that the Revolution targets a different market than the PS3 or 360. It has a radically different controller and isn't focused on performance.
Most reports claim that the Revolution will have 128M of memory. Apparently, the Revolution is internally very similar to the Gamecube, but clocked higher.
The Gamecube was an excellent system. I own one. But serious third-party support evaporated once developers began to realize that Nintendo is targeting a completely different market.
Everything that Nintendo has said about the Revolution, from the downplaying of the specifications to the unique controller to the silence about the launch date - indicates that the Revolution won't compete with the 360 or the PS3. Nintendo doesn't want it to.
Only time will tell whether Nintendo made the right move.
"Nintendo does a lot of things right, but one of the things important to me is their commitment to keeping consoles small and quiet. the gamecube is tiny and the revolution will be even smaller. I like being able to enjoy the sound of a game without a leafblower sized fan in the background."
I hate to break it to you, but the 'Cube is damned noisy. Perhaps the second-rev hardware fixed that (while taking away component video, of course), but the first-gen 'Cube is damn annoying. Early PS2 revs are considerably quieter, the more recent PS2 revs are nearly silent, and the slim PS2 is fanless.
Not to mention that the 'Cube makes an annoying noise while reading discs.
People don't understand why Toyota is investing so much money in Hybrid Synergy Drive. They look at the efficency gains and say, "This doesn't make economic sense".
Unlike Honda's IMA, HSD is the future of the transmission. Don't get me wrong - IMA is a great technology that boosts performance and reduces consumption, but it is a small step from the conventional design of a vehicle.
HSD is the future of the transmission because it is less complex. HSD has fewer gears and fewer mechanical components than either an automatic or a manual transmission.
HSD replaces the following components:
- Auto Transmission / Clutch + Gearbox
- Starter Motor
- Alternator
- Power steering pump and valves
HSD has a conventional gas engine (using Otto or Miller cycle), a power split device (A simple planetary gearset), two motor/generators (MG1 and MG2), an electronic power steering motor and AC compressor, a battery, and an electronic control system.
HSD is described as a continuously-variable transmission system, but unlike most CVT systems, HSD doesn't use a cone and a belt and doesn't use hydraulics.
The Prius is one of the most reliable vehicles on the road (and the most reliable vehicle in its class), according to Consumer Reports. This is because the vehicle has replaced mechanical components with electronic components.
In the long run, electronic components will drop in price at a faster rate than mechanical components. Hoses, valves, and precision machining is going to be almost as expensive as it is today in 10 years. The expensive components in HSD (primarily the battery and inverter) are going to be dramatically cheaper.
Toyota is serious about hybrid technology because, in the long run, HSD is cheaper than a conventional transmission.
"what can a Linux port offer that's more desirable than what they get out of the box"
An operating system that doesn't suck? Palm OS was decent in 1996, but today I want an OS that doesn't randomly freeze, that doesn't randomly reboot and that allows me to run more application at once.