"They can do this under the cover of "it's to prevent illegal copies of Windows""
No, they can't. If they did, the DOJ would bitchslap them again. Microsoft was convicted of forcing OEMs to buy Windows licenses and any sort of behavior along these lines would be illegal.
God, why the hell are we still using C strings? More generally, why are we even using a low-level language at all for non-performance-critical applictions?
"even when it technically is not, particularly in the realm of audio"
How not? Perhaps DAT can't compare to professional analog reel-to-reel systems, but there are many modern digital systems that match or exceed the dynamic range and frequency response of any analog audio recording system.
"God cannot both provide you with free will *AND* not allow you to fuck up."
Why not? If you claim that God has the ability to know the future (as most do), then the game is up already. God already knows what choices we are going to make.
If God doesn't know what choices we will make, he's not "all knowing". If he knows what we're going to do but can't create us so that we don't, he's not "all powerful". If he knows what we're going to do and can create us in a way that we won't do it, then he is not the kind, loving god that you claim.
You can't have it both ways. Either God doesn't have the *ability* to elimiate evil or he doesn't have the *will* to eliminate evil.
It's just plain stupid to call Wikipedia a "failure".
In 2 years, it has gone from the 10,000th most visited site on the net to the 200th. There are over 400,000 English articles and almost 25 edits every minute.
Wikipedia *is* the largest encyclopedia in the world.
Everyone likes to complain about Wikipedia's "reliability". They miss the point of Wikipedia altogether - Wikipedia isn't supposed to be a primary source, it's supposed to be a reference. It's a place where a casual user can find information about a wide range of topics. Some of that information may be inaccurate or biased, but so what? All sources are biased and no source is free from inaccuracies. CNN frequently makes horrendous mistakes. Just look at their tech articles. The WSJ recommended a homeopathic medication (a.k.a. water) for the flu on their "Top ways to avoid the flu" list, just below hand washing. Britanica is ripe with errors and bias.
Wikipedia is an experiment. Guess what, so is democracy. I've seen first hand how uninformed and confused voters are (particularly in the US, but also worldwide). But we live in a representative democracy because we don't have anything better. We believe in a limited free market because, despite all of its flaws, we don't have anything better.
Wikipedia is the best resource we have. Complaining that it is too open is like complaining that democracy is too open. The uninformed can edit, and the uninformed can vote. Is it really any different?
"The newest of these cards require a 480 watt power supply and spare hard drive power dongle to boot."
No, they don't. The slightly-lower-clocked 6800GT only requires a 300W PSU and one Molex connector.
NVIDIA overstated the power requirements for the 6800 Ultra because they wanted to account for those "480W" power supplies that only put out 10A at 12V. A decent 350W power supply (Antec, for example) puts out 16-25A at 12V.
In reality, the 6800 Ultra requires around 50W, only about 10W more than the Radeon 9800XT.
Not correct. Although Celerons are busted P4s, the Xeon is a different CPU.
The P4 (currently "Northwood" or "Prescott") cores and the Xeon cores (currently "Gallatin" or "Prestonia") are different. They have the same basic design (Northwood ~ Gellatin, Prescott ~ Prestonia) but the Xeon has additional L3 cache and a different layout. The P4 "Extreme Edition" is based on the Xeon.
Also note that the Opteron ("SledgeHammer") and Athlon 64 ("ClawHammer"/"Newcastle"/"Winchester") are different cores.
Verizon's CDMA2000 1x EV-DO service is available in certain areas right now (14 cities), and it's going nationwide next year.
It's ~400kbps with decent (~200ms) latency. When you aren't in a EV-DO area, it drops back to the ~80kbps 1xRTT standard, still with decent (~500ms) latency.
$80 a month for unlimited data. You can get a discount if you are using it with a PDA and not a PC.
"Airbus receives Launch Aid in the form of interest based LOANS."
They are not LOANS at all. Airbus's Launch aid "loans" must only be paid back if Airbus sells a certain number of aircraft - you admit this in your post. Of course, these quotas are set unreasonably high and thus Airbus has *not* paid back *any* of it's launch aid "loans".
"Umm, no, Mr Coward. It's called Gentoo. Install with Anaconda, type emerge mythtv. You now have MythTv, wasn't that hard? Use genkernel to compile your kernel if you're lazy, and now you have the drivers for your mpeg card and all that fun stuff.
Oh, wait, there's a new version of MythTV?! And you also want to upgrade the other programs just for the hell of it?! It's called "emerge sync && emerge -uDv world". Now your system is completely up to date. Now try and tell me that's hard."
IT IS HARD!!!!
You don't get it, do you? Just "install Gentoo with Anaconda". Well, first, you have to download it, then you have to burn the disc properly, then you have to set your system to boot off of the disc, then you have to go through the install procedure.
You lost 50% of people with this stage. Most people don't know how to burn an ISO, let alone set their system to boot off of a CD or install an OS. Don't say it's easier than the Windows, install, either - it may be, but most people *don't* install Windows - it comes with their PC.
Let's go on.
"emerge mythtv"
Emerge mythtv. Sounds easy, right? It would be if you knew what a shell is, how to use "su", how to do "emerge sync", what mirror selection is.
Hell, PEOPLE DON'T UPDATE THEIR WINDOWS SYSTEMS. They see the bubble come up with "new updates" and they just ignore it.
Something like 50% of VCRs don't have the clock set.
You somehow expect these people to download an OS, burn it, set it up, install Myth, and configure it?
MCE is preinstalled and preconfigured. You go to the store, say you want a Media Center PC, fork out $1600, and walk home with a functioning system. You take it out of the box, follow the color coded set-up chart (hooking up the keyboard/mouse, monitor, and cable/antenna), press "power", and double click on the media center icon.
How is that *at all* comparable with "download and install an OS (possibly over dial-up), use a package manager to download and install MythTV, and edit some config files"?
"Yes the DRM is very damning, as of right now I am stuck copying these drm-ms files onto my laptop and playing them through this windows operating system, how dare they. Completly unacceptable, and I thank you soo much for bringing that up even though the main article mentions nothing about it."
DVR-MS files usually don't have DRM at all. The broadcast flag (in the VBI) must be set before MCE uses *any* DRM. So far, I haven't seen a single program with the broadcast flag set. Not even Pay-Per-View on DirecTV.
"This whole MCE thing doesn't sound particularly impressive to me. I wrote a simple recording app in about a month that wakes the machine up automatically and supports more than one tuner at a time. And I only worked on those projects in my spare time."
You don't get it, do you?
Of all of the operating systems out there, there is only one that works correctly, out of the box or with a simple driver installation, on 95% of PC hardware.
That's why Windows is successful. It's certainly not security, usability, or functionality.
You have to ask yourself, why is McDonalds successful? Their food is certainly second rate. McDonalds is successful because:
1: It's a known quantity 2: It's everywhere
That's why Windows is successful. People know what they are getting, and it works with just about every PC.
So, when you say, "I hacked together something that does 1/10th of what Media Center does", you don't get it.
It's not about being able to use more than one tuner. It's not about waking the computer. It's not about an application that does what *you* need it to do. It's about an application that does what it's supposed to do, out of the box.
When I installed Meida Center Edition, there was no configuration SNAFU. I installed the drivers off the CD for my ATI tuner card ($72 on Newegg), attached my Microsoft remote ($38), and clicked on the "media center" icon. I was greeted with a nice setup wizard that walked me through setting up channel changing (I use a DirecTV reciever with an IR blaster), setting up the guide info, choosing the right input, etc.
That's it. No config files, no crap. I push the sleep button on my remote - the computer goes to sleep. It wakes at the right time, records, and goes back to sleep.
It warns me when I'm about to shut down if there is a recording in progress.
Everything just works. There's no configuration, no tweaking, no "hacking up a system that works". I didn't have to spend 45 minues screwing with acpid to get suspend working, I didn't have to set up Myth, I didn't have to find some way to get the computer to wake on time and integrate it with Myth.
It worked the first time, it works now. It's good enough.
Finding a local restaurant is difficult. And you don't know what you're going to get. Finding a McDonalds is easy, and you know exactly what you're getting.
Microsoft doesn't have to be "great". It just has to be "good enough".
Same as plasma above, except failure mode is pixels stuck on or less frequently off."
Not quite. Dead or stuck pixels are usually caused by manufacturing defects, not age. If it's perfect when you get it, it will probably be perfect in 10 years.
"Plus about $150-$600/year for bulbs, depending on how much TV you watch--and my wife likes to have the TV on while she's home by herself."
At 4000 hours a bulb (for a good projector), assuming it's on 24 hours a day, you'll go through 2-3 bulbs a year.
12 hours a day is a more realistic usage profile. That's more like 1 bulb a year.
Many projectors have a lower brightness mode that
". Buy a plasma TV. It'll last a year if you're lucky."
That's bull. Plasmas do have documented lifetime issues, but we're talking about 10-20 years - not 1. Newer plasmas don't have problems at all.
"That's why the particle filter and the catalytic converter is used in diesel cars."
You can't use a catalytic converter with a diesel in the US because we have sulfur in our diesel. The sulfur emissions destroy the catalytic converter and render it inoperable.
Even with a catalytic converter, diesels emit far more NOx than the Prius, particularly during startup and in cold weather conditions.
Remember, the THS is about 800lbs. That includes the engine, the batteries, the drivetrain, and the motor. The motor plus the batteries are probably less than the 289lbs for the diesel + automatic transmission.
The 1.6L Citroen C4 HDi is 110HP. Not bad considering the torque curve of diesels, but it probably doesn't have the acceleration of the Prius.
"An automatic transaxle with a lockup torque converter has about an 18% loss between the crank and the drive wheels"
Even modern locking torque converters don't lock unless the driver maintains a farily constant speed. They aren't all that effective in stop-and-go driving.
"It has an engine turning a generator which makes the electricity to turn an electric motor."
Not quite. The HSD links both the electric motor and the gas motor directly to the drive system - with a single fixed gear ratio. The vehicle is driven by the electric motor, the gas engine, or both.
At low RPM, the electric motor allows the car to accelerate reasonably well (the crappy part of the gas engine's torque curve is offset by the electric motor's torque curve). At higher RPM, the engine drives the wheels directly, bypassing the gas > electric > power conversion altogether.
"I don't think the unorthodox drivetrain is the main factor that makes the Prius so efficient, I think it's mainly the fact that it's a small, light, aerodynamic car without much horsepower."
The Prius is larger and more powerful than a Geo Metro. It's similar in size to a VW Jetta.
If you are comparing to a Metro, the Insight is a better comparison - it consistantly gets 65+ MPG.
"Tapwave is trying to do something very similar with a Palm OS-based device. They included two SD slots, some 3D acceleration hardware, and a button layout that's suited towards gaming."
The Tapwave doesn't actaually have 3D acceleration - it relies on software.
The Tapwave is a nice device, but it has failed because it's expensive and it doesn't have strong 3rd party support. It also doesn't have the weight of a company like Microsoft or Sony standing behind it.
It was $375 - quite a bit more than the PSP. Keep in mind, however, that Dell is making a profit on the unit while Sony is selling the PSP for a loss.
It's clearly not optimized for gaming. But, here's the lowdown.
The screen is VGA (640x480) with a 3:4 aspect ratio. It's quite a bit higher in res than the PSP screen.
The unit has WiFi, like the PSP, but it also has bluetooth for connecting to a mobile phone.
It doesn't need expensive memory sticks. You can use either CF-based (up to 8GB flash, or use a microdrive like the iPod Mini) or SD-based (up to 2GB flash) media. You can use both slots at once.
The unit has a faster processor than the PSP (Intel PXA270 @ 612MHz) and it has a good 3D accelerator (Intel 2700G - based on the PowerVR core used in the Dreamcast, with 16MB of memory - 4 times more than the PSP).
Battery life is only around 2.5 hours, but that's with wireless on, the processor set to full speed, and the brightness set to the maximum.
The unit has 64MB of main memory - 8 times more than the PSP. It's an ARM core, like the DS, GBA, Pocket PCs, Palm OS devices, and 100s of other products.
Thanks to the PXA270 and the 2700G, the unit has no problem playing back DIVX/XVID movies at VGA resolution. You can download the trailers off of the Divx website and play them right on the unit without conversion - and they look great.
The Axim isn't really a Dell product at all - it's produced by a company called HTC. HTC also produces many of the iPaqs.
Microsoft could absolutely own the mobile market. Here's how:
1: Call up HTC and ask for a unit with these specs
- VGA touchscreen - Intel PXA270 + Intel 2700G platform - 64MB SDRAM, 64MB flash, 16MB VRAM - 2 SD slots - WiFi - A game optimized case & buttons
Since the device is based on existing hardware and could simply be a modification of an existing Pocket PC, design time would be short and the unit could be on store shelves in quantity by next Christmas.
2: Develop an OS to run on the system based on Windows CE. Since similar hardware platforms already run Windows CE, there isn't a lot of work to be done there. Microsoft already has a compact DirectX framework that works with the Intel 2700G, they already have the OS, they already have a media player. All they need is a nice UI to tie everything together and a SDK to make development easy.
3: Ship the SDK. Get game development going. The SDK should make it easy to port XBox games - not a huge problem given the fact that WinCE has a similar API to Windows and the fact that the unit runs a variant of DirectX.
4: Launch. If Dell can make a profit at $375, Microsoft loses only about $110 on each unit at $200 (assuming that Dell's profit is $10, that Microsoft is charging $20 for the WinCE license, that the cradle costs $10, that the Bluetooth chip costs $10, and that Dell's "free" shipping costs $5.)
Regardless, here's what we see:
- Microsoft launches a product that is largely compatible with the XBox. Call it the XBox pocket.
- The unit has comparable graphics to the PSP, plus a better screen, enhanced video/audio playback, a touchscreen, and better battery life.
- Microsoft ships the unit with IE for Windows CE, plus an organizer that syncronizes with Outlook.
- Microsoft ships the unit with Windows Media Player 10. The unit plays Windows Media files, MP3s, and even WMA-DRM files purchased online.
- Microsoft ships a cable that allows the unit to link to the XBox. The device already has a USB client port (for connection to a PC) and the XBox controller ports are USB.
- Users can download games from XBox Live or purchase them at a place in a retail store. Games have DRM (of course) and are loaded onto SD cards. A 1GB SD card holds 16 games (at 64MB each - plenty of space with careful programming) and is only around $80.
" The gas mileage you can get with a hybrid is far less than what you can get with a good diesel engine."
That's because we measure mileage using miles/gallon, and *diesel has more energy per gallon than gasoline*. About 30% more, in fact. That's like saying that a P-M is better than an Athlon 64 because it gets more work done "per clock". That's not the unit you need to be evaluating.
"Unfortunately the stigma in the US over "diesel" prevents them from being brought over here."
It's not the stigma, it's the envrionment. Even "clean" diesel engines rank horribly on particulate, NOx, and other nasty emissions.
The Prius *wasn't* designed to get the best gas mileage period. It was designed to reduce emissions *and* get good fuel economy. The Prius actually burns gas when it doesn't have to so that the catalytic converter stays hot (it doesn't work otherwise).
"Hybrids are a bad idea, twice the weight (batteries, two motors), half the interior room."
That's bullshit. The entire THSD - including the batteries and motor - is around 800lbs. This is *easily* offset by the fact that the Prius doesn't need a wasteful transmission. You might be able to save 400lbs using a vehicle with a manual transmission, but that's not really comparable to the automatic Prius, is it?
Oh, and your precious diesel cars? They weigh more than their gasoline counterparts because diesel engines need stronger components (much higher compression).
And, half the interior room? What kind of crap is that? The batteries in the Prius don't take up much room at all - and the engine compartment isn't any bigger than the one on any other medium-small car.
"Diesel-engined cars have been getting 50+ MPG for years and years."
The Prius hits 50mpg in real-world testing, too, with fuel that has 30% less energy than diesel.
"He was saying that the US And the UK are not using FIOS and instead trying to squeeze the most use out of the current telephone and cable networks."
It seems you missed my point altogether.
FIOS is Verizon's (a major US telco) name for fiber-to-the-premises. They are paying $2.5 billion to pursue a rather agressive rollout schedule throughout 2005.
Verizon can't 'not use FIOS' because FIOS is their brand for FTTP services.
Slashdot Mirror
"They can do this under the cover of "it's to prevent illegal copies of Windows""
No, they can't. If they did, the DOJ would bitchslap them again. Microsoft was convicted of forcing OEMs to buy Windows licenses and any sort of behavior along these lines would be illegal.
" Maybe so you can put two drives on one controller?
Yes."
No. SATA only supports one drive per channel.
God, why the hell are we still using C strings? More generally, why are we even using a low-level language at all for non-performance-critical applictions?
"even when it technically is not, particularly in the realm of audio"
How not? Perhaps DAT can't compare to professional analog reel-to-reel systems, but there are many modern digital systems that match or exceed the dynamic range and frequency response of any analog audio recording system.
"God cannot both provide you with free will *AND* not allow you to fuck up."
Why not? If you claim that God has the ability to know the future (as most do), then the game is up already. God already knows what choices we are going to make.
If God doesn't know what choices we will make, he's not "all knowing". If he knows what we're going to do but can't create us so that we don't, he's not "all powerful". If he knows what we're going to do and can create us in a way that we won't do it, then he is not the kind, loving god that you claim.
You can't have it both ways. Either God doesn't have the *ability* to elimiate evil or he doesn't have the *will* to eliminate evil.
"FIVE POUNDS A MONTH"
I don't buy it. T-Mobile and Vodafone don't offer anything anywhere near that price. Show me the provider.
It's just plain stupid to call Wikipedia a "failure".
In 2 years, it has gone from the 10,000th most visited site on the net to the 200th. There are over 400,000 English articles and almost 25 edits every minute.
Wikipedia *is* the largest encyclopedia in the world.
Everyone likes to complain about Wikipedia's "reliability". They miss the point of Wikipedia altogether - Wikipedia isn't supposed to be a primary source, it's supposed to be a reference. It's a place where a casual user can find information about a wide range of topics. Some of that information may be inaccurate or biased, but so what? All sources are biased and no source is free from inaccuracies. CNN frequently makes horrendous mistakes. Just look at their tech articles. The WSJ recommended a homeopathic medication (a.k.a. water) for the flu on their "Top ways to avoid the flu" list, just below hand washing. Britanica is ripe with errors and bias.
Wikipedia is an experiment. Guess what, so is democracy. I've seen first hand how uninformed and confused voters are (particularly in the US, but also worldwide). But we live in a representative democracy because we don't have anything better. We believe in a limited free market because, despite all of its flaws, we don't have anything better.
Wikipedia is the best resource we have. Complaining that it is too open is like complaining that democracy is too open. The uninformed can edit, and the uninformed can vote. Is it really any different?
GP: "I don't know about you Americans but my side of the Pacific"
P: "I don't know where you live, but it is not West- or Northern Europe."
Last time I checked, Europe was seperated from the US by the *Atlantic* ocean.
"The newest of these cards require a 480 watt power supply and spare hard drive power dongle to boot."
No, they don't. The slightly-lower-clocked 6800GT only requires a 300W PSU and one Molex connector.
NVIDIA overstated the power requirements for the 6800 Ultra because they wanted to account for those "480W" power supplies that only put out 10A at 12V. A decent 350W power supply (Antec, for example) puts out 16-25A at 12V.
In reality, the 6800 Ultra requires around 50W, only about 10W more than the Radeon 9800XT.
" Hell no! Steam makes it impossible to sell HL2 once you completed it."
Not true. You are welcome to sell your Steam account. Many people *do* sell Steam accounts on eBay.
" since all 3 cpus use the same core"
Not correct. Although Celerons are busted P4s, the Xeon is a different CPU.
The P4 (currently "Northwood" or "Prescott") cores and the Xeon cores (currently "Gallatin" or "Prestonia") are different. They have the same basic design (Northwood ~ Gellatin, Prescott ~ Prestonia) but the Xeon has additional L3 cache and a different layout. The P4 "Extreme Edition" is based on the Xeon.
Also note that the Opteron ("SledgeHammer") and Athlon 64 ("ClawHammer"/"Newcastle"/"Winchester") are different cores.
Verizon's CDMA2000 1x EV-DO service is available in certain areas right now (14 cities), and it's going nationwide next year.
It's ~400kbps with decent (~200ms) latency. When you aren't in a EV-DO area, it drops back to the ~80kbps 1xRTT standard, still with decent (~500ms) latency.
$80 a month for unlimited data. You can get a discount if you are using it with a PDA and not a PC.
"Airbus receives Launch Aid in the form of interest based LOANS."
They are not LOANS at all. Airbus's Launch aid "loans" must only be paid back if Airbus sells a certain number of aircraft - you admit this in your post. Of course, these quotas are set unreasonably high and thus Airbus has *not* paid back *any* of it's launch aid "loans".
IE6 passes with flying colors:
IE6 / XP SP2
The Browser Security Test is finished. Please find the results below:
High Risk Vulnerabilities 0
Medium Risk Vulnerabilities 0
Low Risk Vulnerabilities 0
"Umm, no, Mr Coward. It's called Gentoo. Install with Anaconda, type emerge mythtv. You now have MythTv, wasn't that hard? Use genkernel to compile your kernel if you're lazy, and now you have the drivers for your mpeg card and all that fun stuff.
Oh, wait, there's a new version of MythTV?! And you also want to upgrade the other programs just for the hell of it?! It's called "emerge sync && emerge -uDv world". Now your system is completely up to date.
Now try and tell me that's hard."
IT IS HARD!!!!
You don't get it, do you? Just "install Gentoo with Anaconda". Well, first, you have to download it, then you have to burn the disc properly, then you have to set your system to boot off of the disc, then you have to go through the install procedure.
You lost 50% of people with this stage. Most people don't know how to burn an ISO, let alone set their system to boot off of a CD or install an OS. Don't say it's easier than the Windows, install, either - it may be, but most people *don't* install Windows - it comes with their PC.
Let's go on.
"emerge mythtv"
Emerge mythtv. Sounds easy, right? It would be if you knew what a shell is, how to use "su", how to do "emerge sync", what mirror selection is.
Hell, PEOPLE DON'T UPDATE THEIR WINDOWS SYSTEMS. They see the bubble come up with "new updates" and they just ignore it.
Something like 50% of VCRs don't have the clock set.
You somehow expect these people to download an OS, burn it, set it up, install Myth, and configure it?
MCE is preinstalled and preconfigured. You go to the store, say you want a Media Center PC, fork out $1600, and walk home with a functioning system. You take it out of the box, follow the color coded set-up chart (hooking up the keyboard/mouse, monitor, and cable/antenna), press "power", and double click on the media center icon.
How is that *at all* comparable with "download and install an OS (possibly over dial-up), use a package manager to download and install MythTV, and edit some config files"?
It's not.
"Yes the DRM is very damning, as of right now I am stuck copying these drm-ms files onto my laptop and playing them through this windows operating system, how dare they. Completly unacceptable, and I thank you soo much for bringing that up even though the main article mentions nothing about it."
DVR-MS files usually don't have DRM at all. The broadcast flag (in the VBI) must be set before MCE uses *any* DRM. So far, I haven't seen a single program with the broadcast flag set. Not even Pay-Per-View on DirecTV.
"This whole MCE thing doesn't sound particularly impressive to me. I wrote a simple recording app in about a month that wakes the machine up automatically and supports more than one tuner at a time. And I only worked on those projects in my spare time."
You don't get it, do you?
Of all of the operating systems out there, there is only one that works correctly, out of the box or with a simple driver installation, on 95% of PC hardware.
That's why Windows is successful. It's certainly not security, usability, or functionality.
You have to ask yourself, why is McDonalds successful? Their food is certainly second rate. McDonalds is successful because:
1: It's a known quantity
2: It's everywhere
That's why Windows is successful. People know what they are getting, and it works with just about every PC.
So, when you say, "I hacked together something that does 1/10th of what Media Center does", you don't get it.
It's not about being able to use more than one tuner. It's not about waking the computer. It's not about an application that does what *you* need it to do. It's about an application that does what it's supposed to do, out of the box.
When I installed Meida Center Edition, there was no configuration SNAFU. I installed the drivers off the CD for my ATI tuner card ($72 on Newegg), attached my Microsoft remote ($38), and clicked on the "media center" icon. I was greeted with a nice setup wizard that walked me through setting up channel changing (I use a DirecTV reciever with an IR blaster), setting up the guide info, choosing the right input, etc.
That's it. No config files, no crap. I push the sleep button on my remote - the computer goes to sleep. It wakes at the right time, records, and goes back to sleep.
It warns me when I'm about to shut down if there is a recording in progress.
Everything just works. There's no configuration, no tweaking, no "hacking up a system that works". I didn't have to spend 45 minues screwing with acpid to get suspend working, I didn't have to set up Myth, I didn't have to find some way to get the computer to wake on time and integrate it with Myth.
It worked the first time, it works now. It's good enough.
Finding a local restaurant is difficult. And you don't know what you're going to get. Finding a McDonalds is easy, and you know exactly what you're getting.
Microsoft doesn't have to be "great". It just has to be "good enough".
"3. Buy an LCD TV.
Same as plasma above, except failure mode is pixels stuck on or less frequently off."
Not quite. Dead or stuck pixels are usually caused by manufacturing defects, not age. If it's perfect when you get it, it will probably be perfect in 10 years.
"Plus about $150-$600/year for bulbs, depending on how much TV you watch--and my wife likes to have the TV on while she's home by herself."
At 4000 hours a bulb (for a good projector), assuming it's on 24 hours a day, you'll go through 2-3 bulbs a year.
12 hours a day is a more realistic usage profile. That's more like 1 bulb a year.
Many projectors have a lower brightness mode that
". Buy a plasma TV.
It'll last a year if you're lucky."
That's bull. Plasmas do have documented lifetime issues, but we're talking about 10-20 years - not 1. Newer plasmas don't have problems at all.
"That's why the particle filter and the catalytic converter is used in diesel cars."
You can't use a catalytic converter with a diesel in the US because we have sulfur in our diesel. The sulfur emissions destroy the catalytic converter and render it inoperable.
Even with a catalytic converter, diesels emit far more NOx than the Prius, particularly during startup and in cold weather conditions.
Remember, the THS is about 800lbs. That includes the engine, the batteries, the drivetrain, and the motor. The motor plus the batteries are probably less than the 289lbs for the diesel + automatic transmission.
The 1.6L Citroen C4 HDi is 110HP. Not bad considering the torque curve of diesels, but it probably doesn't have the acceleration of the Prius.
"An automatic transaxle with a lockup torque converter has about an 18% loss between the crank and the drive wheels"
Even modern locking torque converters don't lock unless the driver maintains a farily constant speed. They aren't all that effective in stop-and-go driving.
"It has an engine turning a generator which makes the electricity to turn an electric motor."
Not quite. The HSD links both the electric motor and the gas motor directly to the drive system - with a single fixed gear ratio. The vehicle is driven by the electric motor, the gas engine, or both.
At low RPM, the electric motor allows the car to accelerate reasonably well (the crappy part of the gas engine's torque curve is offset by the electric motor's torque curve). At higher RPM, the engine drives the wheels directly, bypassing the gas > electric > power conversion altogether.
"I don't think the unorthodox drivetrain is the main factor that makes the Prius so efficient, I think it's mainly the fact that it's a small, light, aerodynamic car without much horsepower."
The Prius is larger and more powerful than a Geo Metro. It's similar in size to a VW Jetta.
If you are comparing to a Metro, the Insight is a better comparison - it consistantly gets 65+ MPG.
"Tapwave is trying to do something very similar with a Palm OS-based device. They included two SD slots, some 3D acceleration hardware, and a button layout that's suited towards gaming."
The Tapwave doesn't actaually have 3D acceleration - it relies on software.
The Tapwave is a nice device, but it has failed because it's expensive and it doesn't have strong 3rd party support. It also doesn't have the weight of a company like Microsoft or Sony standing behind it.
I just got my Dell Axim x50v. It's a Pocket PC.
It was $375 - quite a bit more than the PSP. Keep in mind, however, that Dell is making a profit on the unit while Sony is selling the PSP for a loss.
It's clearly not optimized for gaming. But, here's the lowdown.
The screen is VGA (640x480) with a 3:4 aspect ratio. It's quite a bit higher in res than the PSP screen.
The unit has WiFi, like the PSP, but it also has bluetooth for connecting to a mobile phone.
It doesn't need expensive memory sticks. You can use either CF-based (up to 8GB flash, or use a microdrive like the iPod Mini) or SD-based (up to 2GB flash) media. You can use both slots at once.
The unit has a faster processor than the PSP (Intel PXA270 @ 612MHz) and it has a good 3D accelerator (Intel 2700G - based on the PowerVR core used in the Dreamcast, with 16MB of memory - 4 times more than the PSP).
Battery life is only around 2.5 hours, but that's with wireless on, the processor set to full speed, and the brightness set to the maximum.
The unit has 64MB of main memory - 8 times more than the PSP. It's an ARM core, like the DS, GBA, Pocket PCs, Palm OS devices, and 100s of other products.
Thanks to the PXA270 and the 2700G, the unit has no problem playing back DIVX/XVID movies at VGA resolution. You can download the trailers off of the Divx website and play them right on the unit without conversion - and they look great.
The Axim isn't really a Dell product at all - it's produced by a company called HTC. HTC also produces many of the iPaqs.
Microsoft could absolutely own the mobile market. Here's how:
1: Call up HTC and ask for a unit with these specs
- VGA touchscreen
- Intel PXA270 + Intel 2700G platform
- 64MB SDRAM, 64MB flash, 16MB VRAM
- 2 SD slots
- WiFi
- A game optimized case & buttons
Since the device is based on existing hardware and could simply be a modification of an existing Pocket PC, design time would be short and the unit could be on store shelves in quantity by next Christmas.
2: Develop an OS to run on the system based on Windows CE. Since similar hardware platforms already run Windows CE, there isn't a lot of work to be done there. Microsoft already has a compact DirectX framework that works with the Intel 2700G, they already have the OS, they already have a media player. All they need is a nice UI to tie everything together and a SDK to make development easy.
3: Ship the SDK. Get game development going. The SDK should make it easy to port XBox games - not a huge problem given the fact that WinCE has a similar API to Windows and the fact that the unit runs a variant of DirectX.
4: Launch. If Dell can make a profit at $375, Microsoft loses only about $110 on each unit at $200 (assuming that Dell's profit is $10, that Microsoft is charging $20 for the WinCE license, that the cradle costs $10, that the Bluetooth chip costs $10, and that Dell's "free" shipping costs $5.)
Regardless, here's what we see:
- Microsoft launches a product that is largely compatible with the XBox. Call it the XBox pocket.
- The unit has comparable graphics to the PSP, plus a better screen, enhanced video/audio playback, a touchscreen, and better battery life.
- Microsoft ships the unit with IE for Windows CE, plus an organizer that syncronizes with Outlook.
- Microsoft ships the unit with Windows Media Player 10. The unit plays Windows Media files, MP3s, and even WMA-DRM files purchased online.
- Microsoft ships a cable that allows the unit to link to the XBox. The device already has a USB client port (for connection to a PC) and the XBox controller ports are USB.
- Users can download games from XBox Live or purchase them at a place in a retail store. Games have DRM (of course) and are loaded onto SD cards. A 1GB SD card holds 16 games (at 64MB each - plenty of space with careful programming) and is only around $80.
Any thoughts?
" The gas mileage you can get with a hybrid is far less than what you can get with a good diesel engine."
That's because we measure mileage using miles/gallon, and *diesel has more energy per gallon than gasoline*. About 30% more, in fact. That's like saying that a P-M is better than an Athlon 64 because it gets more work done "per clock". That's not the unit you need to be evaluating.
"Unfortunately the stigma in the US over "diesel" prevents them from being brought over here."
It's not the stigma, it's the envrionment. Even "clean" diesel engines rank horribly on particulate, NOx, and other nasty emissions.
The Prius *wasn't* designed to get the best gas mileage period. It was designed to reduce emissions *and* get good fuel economy. The Prius actually burns gas when it doesn't have to so that the catalytic converter stays hot (it doesn't work otherwise).
"Hybrids are a bad idea, twice the weight (batteries, two motors), half the interior room."
That's bullshit. The entire THSD - including the batteries and motor - is around 800lbs. This is *easily* offset by the fact that the Prius doesn't need a wasteful transmission. You might be able to save 400lbs using a vehicle with a manual transmission, but that's not really comparable to the automatic Prius, is it?
Oh, and your precious diesel cars? They weigh more than their gasoline counterparts because diesel engines need stronger components (much higher compression).
And, half the interior room? What kind of crap is that? The batteries in the Prius don't take up much room at all - and the engine compartment isn't any bigger than the one on any other medium-small car.
"Diesel-engined cars have been getting 50+ MPG for years and years."
The Prius hits 50mpg in real-world testing, too, with fuel that has 30% less energy than diesel.
That's the cool part - the $35 service *is* the business-class service. I don't know what the TOS is, though.
"He was saying that the US And the UK are not using FIOS and instead trying to squeeze the most use out of the current telephone and cable networks."
It seems you missed my point altogether.
FIOS is Verizon's (a major US telco) name for fiber-to-the-premises. They are paying $2.5 billion to pursue a rather agressive rollout schedule throughout 2005.
Verizon can't 'not use FIOS' because FIOS is their brand for FTTP services.