Speaking of Medicare, the state-run health care program, I think it is important to note that it has an extremely low overhead compared to private insurers and hospitals. People have a tendency to automatically assume efficiency in private organizations over public ones, but it isn't necessarily the case:
Also, you mention a number of other assumptions which can be controlled. Office hours could be controlled to be extensive (the public system could do better, providing hours that are less profitable but in the best interests of the people, such as dual shifts of doctors), could provide designated research dollars, paperwork is already a nightmare and gets constantly lost between all of the various organizations (could be single-sourced), and quality can be controlled through policy and metrics (just like any private organization). Price could be significantly less (as shown by the overhead above... no marketing dollars wasted, better spreading of dollars provided)
You can actually save yourself a lot of trouble by learning the shortcut keys. Ctrl-L will give you the address bar for a URL. Ctrl-K will give you the search box.
I think the benefit of companies operating in major urban areas is fairly obvious: their employees want things to do besides work [gasp]. I'm not sure about you, but if all I had to do after work and on the weekends is stare at some cows wandering by, I'd get pretty bored and my work would certainly suffer because of it.
Urban areas attract better talent because the employee actually likes being there. Also, because there is a larger pool of talent in urban areas, it is significantly easier to recruit new talent to your company. If one person decides to leave, there is a whole pool of people in the area with similar talents and skills.
Best part is, Vienna is not really very close at all to the District, and is the last Metro train stop on the track heading west out from DC. A lot of contractors' headquarters do work in this area, but maybe it was just the only place that RedHat could handle the rent.
Actually, my Firefox 0.9 no longer sucessfully blocks all popups from sites, specifically the washingtonpost.com. Not all popups make it through, but they are using some other script for loading some of them which bypasses Firefox pop-up blocking.
It also often causes the browser window to lose focus on both the main washingtonpost window and the popup ad and settle focus on another random Firefox window that is open on my system.
I wasn't trying to make the Pocket PC platform into some evil beast. The point is: Palm OS runs its programs IN PLACE. Palm OS does not make an execution copy of the program. No delineation is made between permenant and temporary memory. Windows CE seperates its memory space into storage and memory space. As you point out, this certainly does offer some more features from the Palm OS abilities.
But the fact is: the Palm OS's method is more efficient in terms of memory usage. By not creating an execution copy, it does not need to have nearly as much RAM as a Pocket PC device.
In your example, you proved exactly the point I made. When you execute a program, the memory usage of your device raised, just like a PC's would when a program was executed. No, the entire program is not loaded into memory at once. The _executable_ part of the program is however. Data elements can be accessed as needed just like a PC. On a Palm, memory usage does not raise when a program is running. It is running inside the RAM already allocated to storing the program. A copy of data is never made to support the execution of the program in the Palm OS.
However, the Palm OS structure creates very important restrictions. It cannot execute a program off of a memory card because it is not in its internal RAM and therefore is not addressable by the kernel. Windows CE of course can do this since it creates a copy of the application in RAM for execution just like a PC running an application off of disk.
I wasn't trying to piss anyone off, but was clearing up the information in another post, which said that Windows CE programs were bloated and thats why they need more RAM. This is not the case (necessarily); its the difference in ideologies between the platforms.
Windows CE definitely has the edge in terms of expandibility and may certainly take the lead over Palm's when the processors are powerful enough to handle this difference in architecture (and once their interfaces have been made more suited to the screen size... a whole seperate issue).
I agree with you the way Palm OS works is becoming severely outdated; the need for multitasking on a portable device is here, and Palm OS still lacks that ability. But Palm's certainly do have the edge in terms of RAM usage, interaction and interface design.
The one very important difference between Windows CE and Palm OS is that Windows CE works much like any other version of Windows. Files are loaded off of disk (in this case, a flash disk) and into memory to execute. Palm OS, on the other hand, designed for PDAs, knew that the actual files would be stored in memory on the device anyways, so it executes the program in place, with no need for additional RAM to load a copy of the program into.
That is why Palm's do not need the same enourmous RAM banks that CE machines have.
I stand corrected. Should have looked it up instead of reciting from memory. Do you have a reference for the claim that its clocked down to 145Mhz?
Re:Please, enough already: Check out the link!
on
Ogg/Vorbis on Palm OS
·
· Score: 1
In my understanding, it is the added DSP chip that allows Sony CLIE's with the 66Mhz DragonBalls to play MP3s. It has very little to do with the main processor because the CLIE can play music at the same time as you do other things, but the Palm OS 4.0 and earlier lack the ability to multitask.
But yes, it may be possible, if Sony has released information on the DSP and how to access it, to write an OGG player for the CLIE series using its DSP.
But the point is that 33Mhz-66Mhz Motorola chips probably lack sufficient horsepower to decode MP3's or OGG's at any significant bitrate.
Please, enough already: Check out the link!
on
Ogg/Vorbis on Palm OS
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Let's clear up some things to stop the inundation of amazingly stupid posts. This software DOES NOT work on Palm's running OS 4 or below. It only runs on the new Tungsten T, which uses a 200Mhz ARM processor, and runs OS 5.0. The Tungsten T also includes expansion for memory cards, and has a headphone jack, making it quite useful for music. In fact, Palm is expected to release some sort of MP3 player for the device, but did not include one because it was not something "the target audience wanted."
So please no more of the "wow, decoding music with a 33Mhz processor would never work," "wow, I can hold two songs in my 8MB of RAM," etc., etc. comments. You are right, the old Palms WILL NEVER play music files; it is simply infeasible.
The newest full-size Mercedes S600 sedan does just this with Doppler radar. It can adjust its speed within any bounds to the car in front of it and can control both brakes and accelerator.
Of course, it also has a V12 and costs $115K, but hey, at least the technology is there.
Something I noticed when I read this article a few weeks ago in the actual paper magazine. This guy is one of the researchers of the circles, but unlike many, actually tries to recreate every crop circle submission they here about:
- PS Ever created one yourself?
- CA Oh yes. We've tried all sorts of things to replicate the features of the unexplained 20 percent. But we simply can't.
I've heard a lot of cynicism here, but what is the explanation here? That he is an idiot that can't discern the advanced techniques of 20% of the pranksters, or is there more to it??
On the Mac Support site, I found a post that detailed a method to convert your.Mac trail account to an email-only account. It looks like this would take care of the problem of having to pay if you only use email:
----------- (login at www.mac.com, go to the support screen and select email in the help section at the bottom left of the screen):
Converting your.Mac trial account to an email-only account
IMPORTANT: If you choose to convert your trial account to an email-only account, all your data files on Apple's servers (except for email messages) will be removed. Other.Mac services, such as iDisk, HomePage, Backup, and Virex, are not accessible to email-only accounts.
To convert your trial account to email-only, go to www.mac.com. Click Account in the.Mac menu bar, then click the Email Account Management button. Enter the member name and password of the trial account you'd like to convert, then click Convert.
Print your account information for future reference, then click Continue. ------
The poster on the support board mentioned that while the instructions are available, this process does not yet work, but hopefully this functionality is coming soon, as it would erase many of the complaints people here have about the change to a paid service.
Re:Throbbing Icon question
on
KDE 2.2 Tagged
·
· Score: 0
Think before you say something like that. All you need to do is turn the option off if you don't like it. For most people, it helps alot, and it never gets in my way when loading a large number of programs at once.
Oh geez... all those Sparc's I have in my house. Wait.... I don't have any. Not much of a desktop OS. Yeah, only companies have Sparc's pretty much. Make sense to have to have a serial number.
Well, maybe we should have stuck to black and white televisions too. Or maybe just moving picture cinemas.
The point is progress, and DVD cannot become the standard unless people use it. The quality is much increased, and the disc is much less susceptible to damage.
If you dislike progress, I'd have to question why you are a slashdot reader. Technology is _moving forward_, and DVD is definitely part of that path.
I've heard some comments in the Ars Technica forum about some DVD's losing their sync between video and audio? Is that still happening, has anyone here noticed, or was that just maybe some problems in the initial release corrected now?
Who really cares anymore? If he wants to threaten us with a later code release, thats pretty passe; he's made it quite a while on his own. I mean if thats what the Open Source community is all about... threatening people with the things that should have always been there, its not quite the great community I always thought it was.
RMS made a lot of good points in a clear and concise way. I agree with every point he made on his analysis of the Apple license, which I can't say happens very much.
Slashdot Mirror
Speaking of Medicare, the state-run health care program, I think it is important to note that it has an extremely low overhead compared to private insurers and hospitals. People have a tendency to automatically assume efficiency in private organizations over public ones, but it isn't necessarily the case:
n tentid=47343
OVERHEAD:
Medicare: 2.1% of premium
Private insurer (large group): 12%
Private insurer (small group): 22%
Private insurer (individual): 30%
http://www.healthleaders.com/news/feature1.php?co
Also, you mention a number of other assumptions which can be controlled. Office hours could be controlled to be extensive (the public system could do better, providing hours that are less profitable but in the best interests of the people, such as dual shifts of doctors), could provide designated research dollars, paperwork is already a nightmare and gets constantly lost between all of the various organizations (could be single-sourced), and quality can be controlled through policy and metrics (just like any private organization). Price could be significantly less (as shown by the overhead above... no marketing dollars wasted, better spreading of dollars provided)
You can actually save yourself a lot of trouble by learning the shortcut keys. Ctrl-L will give you the address bar for a URL. Ctrl-K will give you the search box.
Hope this helps.
I think the benefit of companies operating in major urban areas is fairly obvious: their employees want things to do besides work [gasp]. I'm not sure about you, but if all I had to do after work and on the weekends is stare at some cows wandering by, I'd get pretty bored and my work would certainly suffer because of it.
Urban areas attract better talent because the employee actually likes being there. Also, because there is a larger pool of talent in urban areas, it is significantly easier to recruit new talent to your company. If one person decides to leave, there is a whole pool of people in the area with similar talents and skills.
Best part is, Vienna is not really very close at all to the District, and is the last Metro train stop on the track heading west out from DC. A lot of contractors' headquarters do work in this area, but maybe it was just the only place that RedHat could handle the rent.
Really, do we need a software bug for that to happen? This is Slashdot after all.
Actually, my Firefox 0.9 no longer sucessfully blocks all popups from sites, specifically the washingtonpost.com. Not all popups make it through, but they are using some other script for loading some of them which bypasses Firefox pop-up blocking.
It also often causes the browser window to lose focus on both the main washingtonpost window and the popup ad and settle focus on another random Firefox window that is open on my system.
I wasn't trying to make the Pocket PC platform into some evil beast. The point is: Palm OS runs its programs IN PLACE. Palm OS does not make an execution copy of the program. No delineation is made between permenant and temporary memory. Windows CE seperates its memory space into storage and memory space. As you point out, this certainly does offer some more features from the Palm OS abilities.
But the fact is: the Palm OS's method is more efficient in terms of memory usage. By not creating an execution copy, it does not need to have nearly as much RAM as a Pocket PC device.
In your example, you proved exactly the point I made. When you execute a program, the memory usage of your device raised, just like a PC's would when a program was executed. No, the entire program is not loaded into memory at once. The _executable_ part of the program is however. Data elements can be accessed as needed just like a PC. On a Palm, memory usage does not raise when a program is running. It is running inside the RAM already allocated to storing the program. A copy of data is never made to support the execution of the program in the Palm OS.
However, the Palm OS structure creates very important restrictions. It cannot execute a program off of a memory card because it is not in its internal RAM and therefore is not addressable by the kernel. Windows CE of course can do this since it creates a copy of the application in RAM for execution just like a PC running an application off of disk.
I wasn't trying to piss anyone off, but was clearing up the information in another post, which said that Windows CE programs were bloated and thats why they need more RAM. This is not the case (necessarily); its the difference in ideologies between the platforms.
Windows CE definitely has the edge in terms of expandibility and may certainly take the lead over Palm's when the processors are powerful enough to handle this difference in architecture (and once their interfaces have been made more suited to the screen size... a whole seperate issue).
I agree with you the way Palm OS works is becoming severely outdated; the need for multitasking on a portable device is here, and Palm OS still lacks that ability. But Palm's certainly do have the edge in terms of RAM usage, interaction and interface design.
The one very important difference between Windows CE and Palm OS is that Windows CE works much like any other version of Windows. Files are loaded off of disk (in this case, a flash disk) and into memory to execute. Palm OS, on the other hand, designed for PDAs, knew that the actual files would be stored in memory on the device anyways, so it executes the program in place, with no need for additional RAM to load a copy of the program into.
That is why Palm's do not need the same enourmous RAM banks that CE machines have.
I stand corrected. Should have looked it up instead of reciting from memory. Do you have a reference for the claim that its clocked down to 145Mhz?
In my understanding, it is the added DSP chip that allows Sony CLIE's with the 66Mhz DragonBalls to play MP3s. It has very little to do with the main processor because the CLIE can play music at the same time as you do other things, but the Palm OS 4.0 and earlier lack the ability to multitask.
But yes, it may be possible, if Sony has released information on the DSP and how to access it, to write an OGG player for the CLIE series using its DSP.
But the point is that 33Mhz-66Mhz Motorola chips probably lack sufficient horsepower to decode MP3's or OGG's at any significant bitrate.
Let's clear up some things to stop the inundation of amazingly stupid posts. This software DOES NOT work on Palm's running OS 4 or below. It only runs on the new Tungsten T, which uses a 200Mhz ARM processor, and runs OS 5.0. The Tungsten T also includes expansion for memory cards, and has a headphone jack, making it quite useful for music. In fact, Palm is expected to release some sort of MP3 player for the device, but did not include one because it was not something "the target audience wanted."
So please no more of the "wow, decoding music with a 33Mhz processor would never work," "wow, I can hold two songs in my 8MB of RAM," etc., etc. comments. You are right, the old Palms WILL NEVER play music files; it is simply infeasible.
I've got an idea! Why don't you just chalk up the whopping large registration fee and buy the program!? Wow, that's a novel thought.
The newest full-size Mercedes S600 sedan does just this with Doppler radar. It can adjust its speed within any bounds to the car in front of it and can control both brakes and accelerator.
Of course, it also has a V12 and costs $115K, but hey, at least the technology is there.
Mercedes USA S600 website
A click on the Features > Feature Spotlight > Distronic will give you a video overview of the functionality.
Something I noticed when I read this article a few weeks ago in the actual paper magazine. This guy is one of the researchers of the circles, but unlike many, actually tries to recreate every crop circle submission they here about:
- PS Ever created one yourself?
- CA Oh yes. We've tried all sorts of things to replicate the features of the unexplained 20 percent. But we simply can't.
I've heard a lot of cynicism here, but what is the explanation here? That he is an idiot that can't discern the advanced techniques of 20% of the pranksters, or is there more to it??
On the Mac Support site, I found a post that detailed a method to convert your .Mac trail account to an email-only account. It looks like this would take care of the problem of having to pay if you only use email:
.Mac trial account to an email-only account
.Mac services, such as iDisk, HomePage, Backup, and Virex, are not accessible to email-only accounts.
.Mac menu bar, then click the Email Account Management button. Enter the member name and password of the trial account you'd like to convert, then click Convert.
-----------
(login at www.mac.com, go to the support screen and select email in the help section at the bottom left of the screen):
Converting your
IMPORTANT: If you choose to convert your trial account to an email-only account, all your data files on Apple's servers (except for email messages) will be removed. Other
To convert your trial account to email-only, go to www.mac.com. Click Account in the
Print your account information for future reference, then click Continue.
------
The poster on the support board mentioned that while the instructions are available, this process does not yet work, but hopefully this functionality is coming soon, as it would erase many of the complaints people here have about the change to a paid service.
Think before you say something like that. All you need to do is turn the option off if you don't like it. For most people, it helps alot, and it never gets in my way when loading a large number of programs at once.
Why don't you actually read the information!! The movie is downloaded to your computer, then unlocked when you want it, then played.
Oh geez... all those Sparc's I have in my house. Wait.... I don't have any. Not much of a desktop OS. Yeah, only companies have Sparc's pretty much. Make sense to have to have a serial number.
Well, maybe we should have stuck to black and white televisions too. Or maybe just moving picture cinemas.
The point is progress, and DVD cannot become the standard unless people use it. The quality is much increased, and the disc is much less susceptible to damage.
If you dislike progress, I'd have to question why you are a slashdot reader. Technology is _moving forward_, and DVD is definitely part of that path.
I've heard some comments in the Ars Technica forum about some DVD's losing their sync between video and audio? Is that still happening, has anyone here noticed, or was that just maybe some problems in the initial release corrected now?
Thanks
Who really cares anymore? If he wants to threaten us with a later code release, thats pretty passe; he's made it quite a while on his own. I mean if thats what the Open Source community is all about... threatening people with the things that should have always been there, its not quite the great community I always thought it was.
RMS made a lot of good points in a clear and concise way. I agree with every point he made on his analysis of the Apple license, which I can't say happens very much.
Thanks RMS for clearing up where the APSL stands!