The main reason.. according to a couple of sites I read.. is if something fails on the shuttle while it as at the ISS, they can get home in the "lifeboat". If it fails while they are at Hubble, they are skrewed.
This gives me an interesting idea... Would it be possible to place a soyuez capsule in orbit right next to the hubble or even attach it to the hubble?
That being said, it brings up concerns that such a device isn't carried with the shuttle on ALL shuttle missions. The capsule itself is really quite tiny, and would be able to transport the crew back to earth in the event of shuttle problems - plus, all of the crew execpt the pilot could return via. the capsule, preventing another columbia-like disaster.
Or there's even the option of sending several dozen empy re-entry capsules into varous orbits above earth so that at least one would be able to dock with the shuttle and safely evacuate the crew no matter what orbit the shuttle happened to be in (as mentioned earlier, the ISS is impssible to get to from hubble's orbit).
Please take me seriously. The electriconic engineers which design these products are no idiots. They choose the right tool for the job, and I'm certain that almost all of them are well acquainted with Linux.
However, it seems that embedded Windows CE is winning the embedded devices race - by quite a good margin. Now, there is no big reason for embedded devices to share a common operating system (as 95% of the PCs in the world now do), but Windows still comes out on top.
Let this be a lesson. There is a reason why Windows is winning this race, and it has absolutely nothing to do with market-dominance. Windows CE must be a hell of a lot easier and practical to intergrate into embedded devices.
This is especially apparent in the fact that embedded linux costs nothing. If linux and CE were equally good, linux would be the natural choice. But CE must have some sort of edge.
Don't get me wrong, an embedded OS will always offer advantages over "traditional" electronics, but right now it seems that CE offers more advantages. (Linux has its advantages too, specifically, networking, as shown in the proliferation of Linux in consumer routers)
i hope this can be a lesson to all of the Linux zealots. I really want Linux to succeed, but the attitude of the linux community simply prevents that - it is true that even IF linux were superior to Windows in all respects, we still might not see it on the desktop for a long time. However, the same does NOT hold true for embedded devices. Right now, microsoft has a better produce, and the only people the Linux developers can blame for this are themselves.
That being said, I will say that I've used Linux pretty extensively, run Windows XP on my PC, but the only true OS in my heart right now is OS X.
Because the more expensive model loses some of its edge. Remember, they are trying to make a profit.
Also, the difference in pricing forsuch large quantities as sun buys may be much larger than the price difference seen by consumers. Also, $10 per machine * 10,000 machines = $100,000. Not exactly chump change, especially when you consider Sun's revenues these days.
Voodoo PC also makes a very similar laptop. I wouldn't be surprised if the weren't from the same OEM.
They list battery life as 3+ Hours
Even if it manages only HALF of that under normal usage, it's still better than most.
This is most likely due to the power-saving technology present in the Athlon 64 (which, interestingly enough, is also present in the desktop versions of the chip, and is supported on virtually all motherboards). From what I understand of it, it's similar in concept to Intel Speedstep.
Unfortunately, I couldn't test it out on my Athlon 64 desktop, because WinXP refuses to install a specialized processor driver on non-laptops.
That being said, i'll stick with the same setup i've used for quite some time. AMD Desktop. Apple Notebook.
What they don't realize is that these drugs take away your personality - they take away everything that makes you "you", and transforms you into the person that your parents want you to be.
Execpt it doesn't work. You do begin to hate yourself. Once it wears off, you can't help but think about how antisocial you have become. But you are powerless to remedy the situation.
Depression is common too. One excellent explination to this that I've heard is that the medications stimulate the areas of the brain that make you more aware of long-term rewards and benefits. This is what helps you focus. It also can have a very negative effect. For example: "Damn, I failed a test. Now i'm not going to get into college. Then i'll never be able to get a job. I'm a failure"
or
"My girlfriend just dumped me! No girl will ever like me!"
But then again, maybe you shouldn't listen to me. I've got a ton of work to do tonight, and it's already 11PM, and I'm browsing/. Sigh..... the irony
Actually, they will, but not for the reason's you're thinking about.
This isn't really about tracking/tracing. It's about authentication and verification. If you are accused of doing something illegal via. email (which you didn't), this will be a VERY handy tool in your defense.
I could only see it being tracable if enormous quantities of mail were being sent, in which case, you would either a) Not care about privacy. It's hard to be private with 10,000 recipients b) Be doing something illegal. Yes. Mr. Spammer. I mean you.
Most likely, the educational branch will not go anywhere.
Lego had robotics kits YEARS before mindstorms even existed. My middle school had two IBM PCs (the original PC) each with a specialized Lego I/O board, and a programming language not unlike BASIC.
Even once Mindstorms was released, it hasn't really seen much use in the classroom due to the nature of the RCX and the software.
In the classroom, portability isn't a huge issue (imagine having to recharge the batteries for 10-odd RCXes every night?), but educational value is. The motors / input devices interface directly to a "Control module" which is connected to a Windows PC via. USB - the PC does all the thinking, and interprets a BASIC-like language. In doing this, schools don't have to put up with the RCX and IR towers, and get to teach the kids basic programming skills at the same time (the language is much more powerful than the Mindstorms interface, and much easier than NQC). As an added bonus, it supports up to 6 simultaneous inputs and outputs as opposed to 3 on the RCX.
Like I said, Lego has been doing this for years. Mindstorms was a mere spinoff of it... way too many schools use it for Lego to discontinue it; they would completely lose their reputation among educators if they completely shut down their educational division.
Simply put, don't worry. Lego robotics will be around for a long time to come. They've been around since before 1986, and I see no reason why they won't continue to be around to years to come.
Hmm... this sounds awfuly similar to an awful mistake made in the past. Spain reluctantly sends Columbus to America. Before you know it, they've colonized much of central/south America. This leads to a series of wars which has yet to end.
Seriously. If you look back, every war to this date can be traced back to some form of colonization or another.
Even the war in Iraq can be traced back to colonization. As the European empires are beginning to implode on top of each other, WWI breaaks out. Once it's over, the empires are desparate to keep what little land they have left, and hastily write the Versailles Treaty which causes WWII, sets borders in the arab states (creating political instability in Iraq and Iran), and prompts for the creation of Israel.
It seems that now we've learned our lesson, and that the countries of the world are not willing to expand or colonize. They know the consequenses all too well. Sure, war will always happen, but I just can't see the US, china, or India becoming expansionist nations.
Now we bring another planet into the equation. Mars will soon become the next fronteir. Bush wants it to belong to America.
Just as it was Europe's destiny to colonize America, it seems like it will become our destiny to colonize Mars. If the Earth's population continues to explode at the current rate, the survival of our race may depend on an interplanetary colony in the future.
Do you see the dilema we have? If America colonizes Mars, we will create a conflict which may never be ended. If we don't, another country will. Either way, the world will fight over the control of Mars.
It's sad to think that our future seems destined to hold both great discovery and great war.
As I predicted in a past comment, Apple is indeed using the Hitachi 4gb microdrive. The drive should be hitting shelves sometime next week - there are one or two online retailers who claim to have it now.
What's more interesting, though, is its price. The lowest price I could find for a 4gb microdrive was well over $500 - TWICE that of the iPod mini.
If the drive in the iPod is the same thing being sold by Hitachi (ie. it still has a CF connector), you could get this for half-price. Digital camera users would love this...
This seems to disqualify the notion that the mini is too expensive. I'd say that it's too cheap for Apple to be making any money on it at all. Even IF apple could get the drives for around $200 each, which is the lowest realistic price possible, you've got to remember that there's a lot more stuff in an iPod than the hard drive and Apple still needs to make a profit.
Could the mini just be a loss-leader to promite the iTMS
First, I want to say that I am completely objected to frivolous lawsuits. (The SCO Lawsuit is frivolous - they have no right to charge users to run linux before they have won in court)
Now that I've made that clear, I want to say that I completely support TiVo in this decision. The Dish Network PVRs are complete rip-offs of TiVo, right down to the design of their remote (they even took Tivo's trademark yellow pause button!). Dish Network is clearly and obviously trying to cut in on TiVo's business, and has been recently offering free PVRs to new subscribers. TiVo has every reason to be worried that their designs are being stolen. They rightfully own the patent, and the Dish PVR is a direct rip-off on TiVo; I believe that this is a fair use of the American patent system.
That being said, I can't say much in favor of Echostar. They have been known for their cutthroat business practices (most of which do very little to benefit the company itself), and the entire company is disorganized. Just look at forums around the 'net. You will find hordes of people who all hate echostar. I should know. I subscribe to their service. Over the past year, the quality of video streamed to my house has gotten poorer and poorer as they decrease the mpeg bitrate (on some channels, pixelation is VERY obvious). Fortunately for me, I've had very few other problems with the service, and haven't had to deal much with the company... so I see no reason to switch to DirecTV. But if the opportunity presents itself, I might switch.
This isn't the first time Echostar has been in legal trouble. They seem to have a bad history of lawsuits, patent-infringments, and tons of FCC violations. Hell... their CEO is also a professional gambler.
I may as well add here that I've used the Dish PVR. It does highly resemble TiVo, but lacks its ease of use.
I also own a panasonic time-slip DVD recorder, and I can safely say that it is quite different than Tivo's time-warp feature. It comes much closer to resembling a fancy VCR than a PVR.
Prior art probably won't be an issue. Sure, most of the geeks claim it was possible back in '96, but in all practicality, it wasn't possible with consumer-grade hardware. A Pentium-100 simply lacked the power to record and play NTSC resolution video simultaneously... not to mention that you'd fill up that 2gb hard drive very very quickly. The only thing I can think of that would allow such a "Time-Warp" would be the Amiga video Toaster; those date way back farther than '96.
As many of you know, the "Classic" iPod models used a PCMCIA hard drive which accounted for their size and shape. As time progressed, the other "guts" of the pod got smaller, and the 2nd and 3rd generation iPods were skinnier than their predecessors. However, for all practical purposes, the iPod will not shrink until Apple chooses another type of storage. It's somewhat ironic that apple chose the PCMCIA hard drive because they were standardized, commodity items which could be used off the shelf without any R&D. But due the iPod's success, most PCMCIA drives in existance today are in iPods - this also allowed Toshiba to develop larger and cheaper drives permitting the 30gb model. Ironic, huh?
Now, the iPod mini is another story. It's MUCH smaller than a PCMCIA card. Since there is almost zero chance that Apple developed their own drive (they have never developed any form of storage mechanism. ever.), chances are that the iPod mini uses a Hitachi (formerly IBM) Microdrive - it's the only thing small enough to fit inside the chasis. FYI, the Microdrive is a hard-drive in a CompactFlash form factor (but can be rewritten many more times than CompactFlash and is much faster. Power comsumption is very low (which is good). From what I hear too, they're pretty darn durable).
Now, I hear everyone complaining about the high cost of the new iPod, but when you look at the cost of the parts, you see where the cost comes from. Right now, Hitachi is the only maker of Microdrives (from what I'm reading, they won't even be availible to the public 'til the 16th). One of these will set you back $600.
That's right, the player costs LESS than half of the cost of the only hard drive small enough to fit inside it. Now, I don't dobut that apple has tremendous purchasing power, but I don't see how on earth they are managing to make a profit on these things. There are other components inside the iPod other than the Hard Drive.
On the bright side, this will increase demand for microdrives, bringing down prices, and bringing in larger drives (good news for photographers!)
Could this just be a "loss-leader" to promote sales at iTunes?
It could be done with AppleScript under OS X. Simply tell itunes to play a given song, tell any old sound recording app to dump the computer's sound output to a WAV, convert to MP3 using LAME, and then grab the song's info via. AppleScript and put it into an ID3
The downside here is that you're losing quality encoding to MP3 (remember that AAC is also lossy). Unfortunately, there is no way to preserve full-quality without retaining the original file format.
Either way, I frown upon this sort of piracy. $.99 is pretty darn cheap (Note here that I have no objection to using this to play your OWN files under linux if it is the operating system of your choice. Just keep it to yourself)
Boot off of knoppix CD, but place your home folder on your USB key. Knoppix readily supports this, and in most instances will automatically detect the key and the home folder without any special paramaters.
An even bigger plus is that you probably won't need much more than a 32mb key for day-to-day use.
Even though I am not an astronomer, I can appreciate the effects of light pollution. After being shown a video on light pollution when visiting an observatory, I came to realize what a terrible problem this is for the urban and suburban areas of the world.
It became more apparent after visiting Kauai, HI for a week not long after seeing the video. The island is inhabited, but just barely, and is only supported by the tourist population. The island is composed mostly of small villages spaced roughly 15 miles apart. After 6pm, the entire island appears deserted, as the tourists return to their resorts, and the (few) locals go home. It was about 8 o'clock, and I was driving on the road. The first thing you notice is how DARK everything is. The sky really IS black and you can see all the stars (but not nearly as good as my other experience - see below). Anyhow, you could tell when you were approaching another car in the opposing direction about 5 minutes before you acutally passed it due to the change in color of the sky.
"Wow. It looks like there's a big village ahead. Maybe THAT one will have a supermarket..."
5 minutes later...
"Damn. It's just a BMW"
Last summer, for the first time in my life, I had the chance to view the milky way with my naked eyes for the first time in my life. It was in the middle of nowhere in upstate NY - at least 15 miles from the nearest trace of civilization, and is an experience I will keep with me for the rest of my life. It was the last day of a small trek with several of my friends, and the first day with no clouds in the sky. The magnificence of it is too great to describe with words. It is something which I believe that every person must experience at some time in his life. We stood there, silent for what seemed like an eternity and yet also like a fleeting moment. We would have laid down and slept atop the hill in the clearing had it not been for a pesky group of bears...
Go. Go outdoors. Get away into the mddle of nowhere. Spend some time. Get to know yourself. Look up.
Visual effects are NOT necessarily computer-generated images.
Sure, the Matrix movies had tons of CG, but were lacking in the more 'traditional' effects department. The sets weren't up to par, costuming was unoriginal, and there were no new cinematic techniques which actually added to the film. In fact, the effects were incredibly obvious.
On the other hand, ROTK did not rely exclusively on computers, and built scale-models, and used 'old-fashioned' camera techniques such as forced perspective which was brilliantly used to make the hobbits appear 3 feet tall - not once during all 3 films did I dobut that they were actually 3 feet tall. Lighting was perfect, and the times where WETA resorted to CG were perfect (read: Gollum).
I hope this is a lesson to future filmmakers not to over-use computers in film production. The old-fashioned stuff looks so much better!
Based upon the final photographs, I honestly could easily mistake this for a 'real' Apple product.
This quality of this is WAY above the normal case-modding job. Not only does it add style, it adds functionality and usability by adding the handles and front USB ports.
In addition, the motherboard looks like it's UPSIDE DOWN. This could have a serious impact upon the cooling of the processor. See here for a picture of the back of the REAL cube.
A minor sidenote: How on earth did he drill the holes in the side panels? They are definitely not pre-drilled as shown by the pattern of holes around the cutouts for the power button, CD drive, and USB hub.
All in all, while I held nothing against the original design of the Cube, and I absolutely hate the design of the G5, this mod-job is very impressive, and I like it a lot. Kudos.
I'm not sure that everyone here understands that the Athlon 64 up until now has been mostly limited to lower-end professional workstations (by low-end, I'm talking $2500+; ).
This is probably the first affordable Athlon 64 PC. $1200 is VERY a very reasonable price to pay when the processor alone costs $475. Considering that, the high-performance RAM, the higher-end hard drive, and the relatively good Graphics card, most people would gladly shell out $1200.
Of course, I won't because of E-machines' horrible reputation for cheap power supplies and poor service.
Also, to those who say that there isn't a market for a 64-bit chip without a 64-bit desktop, I tell you to take a look at Apple's G5. Even on a legacy 32-bit OS, it whoops any other processor out there. The Athlon 64 does the same.
The building I was working in over the summer (a school) was undergoing major rennovations. Completely new electrical system, phone system, new cielings, etc.
The day after the construction started (two days after the students left for the summer), we walked in to the building to find to our horror what looked like a war-zone. The cielings had been removed with a sledgehammer. Bits of drywall everywhere. The network and phone wires were hanging, supporting the old lighting fixtures. We knew then that the network cabling was garbage, and removed it all, but kept the phone system, thinking that if the new system was delayed, the offices would still have their old phones.
The summer passed. Lots of bad stuff happened in the building aside from that first day. Long story short, we were able to tie up the old phone lines. Only one had been broken. It's the day before school opens, and the new phones aren't installed yet - thank God we saved the old system. We go to plug in the controller for the PBX, and are greeted with a sound not unlike a gunshot, as flames lept out of the cabinet and power supply. (My guess is that the noise came from the surge surpressor which recoiled several feet as a result of the large bang, and was smoldering).
Fearing the worst, we replace the surge supressor, grab an extension cord, and try another outlet. Lo and behold, the phones work perfectly (one line had a bit of static on it). School opened without a hitch.
Also during that project, we had our T1 DSUs/CSUs nearly destroyed. We were never told that the concrete wall they were mounted on was having several holes cut in it for HVAC. We arrive to find our equipment buried in bits of concrete and a large hole directly above the board (a sledgehammer was used). Amazingly, after being shaken out, they too worked fine.
Slashdot Mirror
The main reason.. according to a couple of sites I read.. is if something fails on the shuttle while it as at the ISS, they can get home in the "lifeboat". If it fails while they are at Hubble, they are skrewed.
This gives me an interesting idea... Would it be possible to place a soyuez capsule in orbit right next to the hubble or even attach it to the hubble?
That being said, it brings up concerns that such a device isn't carried with the shuttle on ALL shuttle missions. The capsule itself is really quite tiny, and would be able to transport the crew back to earth in the event of shuttle problems - plus, all of the crew execpt the pilot could return via. the capsule, preventing another columbia-like disaster.
Or there's even the option of sending several dozen empy re-entry capsules into varous orbits above earth so that at least one would be able to dock with the shuttle and safely evacuate the crew no matter what orbit the shuttle happened to be in (as mentioned earlier, the ISS is impssible to get to from hubble's orbit).
What's next? Are we now going to find out that the rocks being analyzed by Spirit are actually from earth?
Please take me seriously. The electriconic engineers which design these products are no idiots. They choose the right tool for the job, and I'm certain that almost all of them are well acquainted with Linux.
However, it seems that embedded Windows CE is winning the embedded devices race - by quite a good margin. Now, there is no big reason for embedded devices to share a common operating system (as 95% of the PCs in the world now do), but Windows still comes out on top.
Let this be a lesson. There is a reason why Windows is winning this race, and it has absolutely nothing to do with market-dominance. Windows CE must be a hell of a lot easier and practical to intergrate into embedded devices.
This is especially apparent in the fact that embedded linux costs nothing. If linux and CE were equally good, linux would be the natural choice. But CE must have some sort of edge.
Don't get me wrong, an embedded OS will always offer advantages over "traditional" electronics, but right now it seems that CE offers more advantages. (Linux has its advantages too, specifically, networking, as shown in the proliferation of Linux in consumer routers)
i hope this can be a lesson to all of the Linux zealots. I really want Linux to succeed, but the attitude of the linux community simply prevents that - it is true that even IF linux were superior to Windows in all respects, we still might not see it on the desktop for a long time. However, the same does NOT hold true for embedded devices. Right now, microsoft has a better produce, and the only people the Linux developers can blame for this are themselves.
That being said, I will say that I've used Linux pretty extensively, run Windows XP on my PC, but the only true OS in my heart right now is OS X.
Or he's just very very European.
Because the more expensive model loses some of its edge. Remember, they are trying to make a profit.
Also, the difference in pricing forsuch large quantities as sun buys may be much larger than the price difference seen by consumers. Also, $10 per machine * 10,000 machines = $100,000. Not exactly chump change, especially when you consider Sun's revenues these days.
Voodoo PC also makes a very similar laptop. I wouldn't be surprised if the weren't from the same OEM.
They list battery life as 3+ Hours
Even if it manages only HALF of that under normal usage, it's still better than most.
This is most likely due to the power-saving technology present in the Athlon 64 (which, interestingly enough, is also present in the desktop versions of the chip, and is supported on virtually all motherboards). From what I understand of it, it's similar in concept to Intel Speedstep.
Unfortunately, I couldn't test it out on my Athlon 64 desktop, because WinXP refuses to install a specialized processor driver on non-laptops.
That being said, i'll stick with the same setup i've used for quite some time. AMD Desktop. Apple Notebook.
Yes. A 400mb slashdotting will put an end to just about anything.
Amen to that. I could not agree more with you.
/. Sigh..... the irony
What they don't realize is that these drugs take away your personality - they take away everything that makes you "you", and transforms you into the person that your parents want you to be.
Execpt it doesn't work. You do begin to hate yourself. Once it wears off, you can't help but think about how antisocial you have become. But you are powerless to remedy the situation.
Depression is common too. One excellent explination to this that I've heard is that the medications stimulate the areas of the brain that make you more aware of long-term rewards and benefits. This is what helps you focus. It also can have a very negative effect. For example:
"Damn, I failed a test. Now i'm not going to get into college. Then i'll never be able to get a job. I'm a failure"
or
"My girlfriend just dumped me! No girl will ever like me!"
But then again, maybe you shouldn't listen to me. I've got a ton of work to do tonight, and it's already 11PM, and I'm browsing
Actually, they will, but not for the reason's you're thinking about.
This isn't really about tracking/tracing. It's about authentication and verification. If you are accused of doing something illegal via. email (which you didn't), this will be a VERY handy tool in your defense.
I could only see it being tracable if enormous quantities of mail were being sent, in which case, you would either
a) Not care about privacy. It's hard to be private with 10,000 recipients
b) Be doing something illegal. Yes. Mr. Spammer. I mean you.
Most likely, the educational branch will not go anywhere.
Lego had robotics kits YEARS before mindstorms even existed. My middle school had two IBM PCs (the original PC) each with a specialized Lego I/O board, and a programming language not unlike BASIC.
Even once Mindstorms was released, it hasn't really seen much use in the classroom due to the nature of the RCX and the software.
In the classroom, portability isn't a huge issue (imagine having to recharge the batteries for 10-odd RCXes every night?), but educational value is. The motors / input devices interface directly to a "Control module" which is connected to a Windows PC via. USB - the PC does all the thinking, and interprets a BASIC-like language. In doing this, schools don't have to put up with the RCX and IR towers, and get to teach the kids basic programming skills at the same time (the language is much more powerful than the Mindstorms interface, and much easier than NQC). As an added bonus, it supports up to 6 simultaneous inputs and outputs as opposed to 3 on the RCX.
Like I said, Lego has been doing this for years. Mindstorms was a mere spinoff of it... way too many schools use it for Lego to discontinue it; they would completely lose their reputation among educators if they completely shut down their educational division.
Simply put, don't worry. Lego robotics will be around for a long time to come. They've been around since before 1986, and I see no reason why they won't continue to be around to years to come.
Yes. Let's colonize mars.
Hmm... this sounds awfuly similar to an awful mistake made in the past. Spain reluctantly sends Columbus to America. Before you know it, they've colonized much of central/south America. This leads to a series of wars which has yet to end.
Seriously. If you look back, every war to this date can be traced back to some form of colonization or another.
Even the war in Iraq can be traced back to colonization. As the European empires are beginning to implode on top of each other, WWI breaaks out. Once it's over, the empires are desparate to keep what little land they have left, and hastily write the Versailles Treaty which causes WWII, sets borders in the arab states (creating political instability in Iraq and Iran), and prompts for the creation of Israel.
It seems that now we've learned our lesson, and that the countries of the world are not willing to expand or colonize. They know the consequenses all too well. Sure, war will always happen, but I just can't see the US, china, or India becoming expansionist nations.
Now we bring another planet into the equation. Mars will soon become the next fronteir. Bush wants it to belong to America.
Just as it was Europe's destiny to colonize America, it seems like it will become our destiny to colonize Mars. If the Earth's population continues to explode at the current rate, the survival of our race may depend on an interplanetary colony in the future.
Do you see the dilema we have? If America colonizes Mars, we will create a conflict which may never be ended. If we don't, another country will. Either way, the world will fight over the control of Mars.
It's sad to think that our future seems destined to hold both great discovery and great war.
A new epoch is about to begin.
This raises the question of weather or not we should even fool with the weather.
Many recent studies have shown that humans may not be a significant cause of global warming.
If this isn't our fault do we have the right or the responsibility to alter the course of nature?
If we screw this up, the consequenses will be chatastrophic.
As I predicted in a past comment, Apple is indeed using the Hitachi 4gb microdrive. The drive should be hitting shelves sometime next week - there are one or two online retailers who claim to have it now.
What's more interesting, though, is its price. The lowest price I could find for a 4gb microdrive was well over $500 - TWICE that of the iPod mini.
If the drive in the iPod is the same thing being sold by Hitachi (ie. it still has a CF connector), you could get this for half-price. Digital camera users would love this...
This seems to disqualify the notion that the mini is too expensive. I'd say that it's too cheap for Apple to be making any money on it at all. Even IF apple could get the drives for around $200 each, which is the lowest realistic price possible, you've got to remember that there's a lot more stuff in an iPod than the hard drive and Apple still needs to make a profit.
Could the mini just be a loss-leader to promite the iTMS
First, I want to say that I am completely objected to frivolous lawsuits. (The SCO Lawsuit is frivolous - they have no right to charge users to run linux before they have won in court)
Now that I've made that clear, I want to say that I completely support TiVo in this decision. The Dish Network PVRs are complete rip-offs of TiVo, right down to the design of their remote (they even took Tivo's trademark yellow pause button!). Dish Network is clearly and obviously trying to cut in on TiVo's business, and has been recently offering free PVRs to new subscribers. TiVo has every reason to be worried that their designs are being stolen. They rightfully own the patent, and the Dish PVR is a direct rip-off on TiVo; I believe that this is a fair use of the American patent system.
That being said, I can't say much in favor of Echostar. They have been known for their cutthroat business practices (most of which do very little to benefit the company itself), and the entire company is disorganized. Just look at forums around the 'net. You will find hordes of people who all hate echostar. I should know. I subscribe to their service. Over the past year, the quality of video streamed to my house has gotten poorer and poorer as they decrease the mpeg bitrate (on some channels, pixelation is VERY obvious). Fortunately for me, I've had very few other problems with the service, and haven't had to deal much with the company... so I see no reason to switch to DirecTV. But if the opportunity presents itself, I might switch.
This isn't the first time Echostar has been in legal trouble. They seem to have a bad history of lawsuits, patent-infringments, and tons of FCC violations. Hell... their CEO is also a professional gambler.
I may as well add here that I've used the Dish PVR. It does highly resemble TiVo, but lacks its ease of use.
I also own a panasonic time-slip DVD recorder, and I can safely say that it is quite different than Tivo's time-warp feature. It comes much closer to resembling a fancy VCR than a PVR.
Prior art probably won't be an issue. Sure, most of the geeks claim it was possible back in '96, but in all practicality, it wasn't possible with consumer-grade hardware. A Pentium-100 simply lacked the power to record and play NTSC resolution video simultaneously... not to mention that you'd fill up that 2gb hard drive very very quickly. The only thing I can think of that would allow such a "Time-Warp" would be the Amiga video Toaster; those date way back farther than '96.
As many of you know, the "Classic" iPod models used a PCMCIA hard drive which accounted for their size and shape. As time progressed, the other "guts" of the pod got smaller, and the 2nd and 3rd generation iPods were skinnier than their predecessors. However, for all practical purposes, the iPod will not shrink until Apple chooses another type of storage. It's somewhat ironic that apple chose the PCMCIA hard drive because they were standardized, commodity items which could be used off the shelf without any R&D. But due the iPod's success, most PCMCIA drives in existance today are in iPods - this also allowed Toshiba to develop larger and cheaper drives permitting the 30gb model. Ironic, huh?
Now, the iPod mini is another story. It's MUCH smaller than a PCMCIA card. Since there is almost zero chance that Apple developed their own drive (they have never developed any form of storage mechanism. ever.), chances are that the iPod mini uses a Hitachi (formerly IBM) Microdrive - it's the only thing small enough to fit inside the chasis. FYI, the Microdrive is a hard-drive in a CompactFlash form factor (but can be rewritten many more times than CompactFlash and is much faster. Power comsumption is very low (which is good). From what I hear too, they're pretty darn durable).
Now, I hear everyone complaining about the high cost of the new iPod, but when you look at the cost of the parts, you see where the cost comes from. Right now, Hitachi is the only maker of Microdrives (from what I'm reading, they won't even be availible to the public 'til the 16th). One of these will set you back $600.
That's right, the player costs LESS than half of the cost of the only hard drive small enough to fit inside it. Now, I don't dobut that apple has tremendous purchasing power, but I don't see how on earth they are managing to make a profit on these things. There are other components inside the iPod other than the Hard Drive.
On the bright side, this will increase demand for microdrives, bringing down prices, and bringing in larger drives (good news for photographers!)
Could this just be a "loss-leader" to promote sales at iTunes?
It could be done with AppleScript under OS X. Simply tell itunes to play a given song, tell any old sound recording app to dump the computer's sound output to a WAV, convert to MP3 using LAME, and then grab the song's info via. AppleScript and put it into an ID3
The downside here is that you're losing quality encoding to MP3 (remember that AAC is also lossy). Unfortunately, there is no way to preserve full-quality without retaining the original file format.
Either way, I frown upon this sort of piracy. $.99 is pretty darn cheap (Note here that I have no objection to using this to play your OWN files under linux if it is the operating system of your choice. Just keep it to yourself)
Easy solution to this:
Boot off of knoppix CD, but place your home folder on your USB key. Knoppix readily supports this, and in most instances will automatically detect the key and the home folder without any special paramaters.
An even bigger plus is that you probably won't need much more than a 32mb key for day-to-day use.
Mod parent up!
Even though I am not an astronomer, I can appreciate the effects of light pollution. After being shown a video on light pollution when visiting an observatory, I came to realize what a terrible problem this is for the urban and suburban areas of the world.
It became more apparent after visiting Kauai, HI for a week not long after seeing the video. The island is inhabited, but just barely, and is only supported by the tourist population. The island is composed mostly of small villages spaced roughly 15 miles apart. After 6pm, the entire island appears deserted, as the tourists return to their resorts, and the (few) locals go home. It was about 8 o'clock, and I was driving on the road. The first thing you notice is how DARK everything is. The sky really IS black and you can see all the stars (but not nearly as good as my other experience - see below). Anyhow, you could tell when you were approaching another car in the opposing direction about 5 minutes before you acutally passed it due to the change in color of the sky.
"Wow. It looks like there's a big village ahead. Maybe THAT one will have a supermarket..."
5 minutes later...
"Damn. It's just a BMW"
Last summer, for the first time in my life, I had the chance to view the milky way with my naked eyes for the first time in my life. It was in the middle of nowhere in upstate NY - at least 15 miles from the nearest trace of civilization, and is an experience I will keep with me for the rest of my life. It was the last day of a small trek with several of my friends, and the first day with no clouds in the sky. The magnificence of it is too great to describe with words. It is something which I believe that every person must experience at some time in his life. We stood there, silent for what seemed like an eternity and yet also like a fleeting moment. We would have laid down and slept atop the hill in the clearing had it not been for a pesky group of bears...
Go. Go outdoors. Get away into the mddle of nowhere. Spend some time. Get to know yourself. Look up.
Let me get this off of my head at once:
Visual effects are NOT necessarily computer-generated images.
Sure, the Matrix movies had tons of CG, but were lacking in the more 'traditional' effects department. The sets weren't up to par, costuming was unoriginal, and there were no new cinematic techniques which actually added to the film. In fact, the effects were incredibly obvious.
On the other hand, ROTK did not rely exclusively on computers, and built scale-models, and used 'old-fashioned' camera techniques such as forced perspective which was brilliantly used to make the hobbits appear 3 feet tall - not once during all 3 films did I dobut that they were actually 3 feet tall. Lighting was perfect, and the times where WETA resorted to CG were perfect (read: Gollum).
I hope this is a lesson to future filmmakers not to over-use computers in film production. The old-fashioned stuff looks so much better!
This is VERY well-done and impressive.
Based upon the final photographs, I honestly could easily mistake this for a 'real' Apple product.
This quality of this is WAY above the normal case-modding job. Not only does it add style, it adds functionality and usability by adding the handles and front USB ports.
In addition, the motherboard looks like it's UPSIDE DOWN. This could have a serious impact upon the cooling of the processor. See here for a picture of the back of the REAL cube.
A minor sidenote: How on earth did he drill the holes in the side panels? They are definitely not pre-drilled as shown by the pattern of holes around the cutouts for the power button, CD drive, and USB hub.
All in all, while I held nothing against the original design of the Cube, and I absolutely hate the design of the G5, this mod-job is very impressive, and I like it a lot. Kudos.
Having been a loyal iTunes user for quite some time...
Yeah.... two months can seem like "quite some time" to some of us. Especially windows users like the poster.
I'm sure this would be a great idea, but one important fact remains: It's friggin' expensive as it is.
Yes, that's right. As of now, it's cheaper to fly from NY to Boston thank to take the train.
Until the cost drops down, driving is still going to remain more attractive.
I'm not sure that everyone here understands that the Athlon 64 up until now has been mostly limited to lower-end professional workstations (by low-end, I'm talking $2500+; ).
This is probably the first affordable Athlon 64 PC. $1200 is VERY a very reasonable price to pay when the processor alone costs $475. Considering that, the high-performance RAM, the higher-end hard drive, and the relatively good Graphics card, most people would gladly shell out $1200.
Of course, I won't because of E-machines' horrible reputation for cheap power supplies and poor service.
Also, to those who say that there isn't a market for a 64-bit chip without a 64-bit desktop, I tell you to take a look at Apple's G5. Even on a legacy 32-bit OS, it whoops any other processor out there. The Athlon 64 does the same.
This story won't be posted again next week...
The building I was working in over the summer (a school) was undergoing major rennovations. Completely new electrical system, phone system, new cielings, etc.
The day after the construction started (two days after the students left for the summer), we walked in to the building to find to our horror what looked like a war-zone. The cielings had been removed with a sledgehammer. Bits of drywall everywhere. The network and phone wires were hanging, supporting the old lighting fixtures. We knew then that the network cabling was garbage, and removed it all, but kept the phone system, thinking that if the new system was delayed, the offices would still have their old phones.
The summer passed. Lots of bad stuff happened in the building aside from that first day. Long story short, we were able to tie up the old phone lines. Only one had been broken. It's the day before school opens, and the new phones aren't installed yet - thank God we saved the old system. We go to plug in the controller for the PBX, and are greeted with a sound not unlike a gunshot, as flames lept out of the cabinet and power supply. (My guess is that the noise came from the surge surpressor which recoiled several feet as a result of the large bang, and was smoldering).
Fearing the worst, we replace the surge supressor, grab an extension cord, and try another outlet. Lo and behold, the phones work perfectly (one line had a bit of static on it). School opened without a hitch.
Also during that project, we had our T1 DSUs/CSUs nearly destroyed. We were never told that the concrete wall they were mounted on was having several holes cut in it for HVAC. We arrive to find our equipment buried in bits of concrete and a large hole directly above the board (a sledgehammer was used). Amazingly, after being shaken out, they too worked fine.