While I am not a fan of porn I can assure you that almost none of it is currently "rendered" and frankly from what little I have seen the last thing anybody really wants is higher resolution porn. In that category of video even HD maybe a step too far.
That depends on the market. If we are talking about the PC/Laptop market once integrated graphics are good enough at 1080p it is game over. In the workstation market I would agree with you. Even photorealisim may not be worth the cost. Also that depends on A class games being optimized for the PC and not just console ports. The way I see the future is this. nVidia goes for the Supercomputer, workstation, and embedded markets. Their biggest product in numbers and revenue will be the Tegra line if they are lucky. ATI and Intel duke it out in the X86 market with integrated GPUs and they will be on the die. Intel and ATI will see their market share shrink in the mass market because they can not complete with ARM+GPU in speed vs cost vs power use. as Smartbooks, tablets, nettops, and Smartphones move more and more into the PC space. I could be totally wrong and probably am but it is as good as a guess as any.
Well pumping the brakes was never the best way to stop a car. The best way to stop a car was to apply almost enough bake pressure to skid but not quite enough to skid. Pumping is sort of a lowest common demonator way to teach people how not to skid out of control. Not the best way but often the best that people can do and on ice without studded tires or chains it is about the best anyone can do at all. I actually got very good at this. I got so good that I had issues taking my MSF course. In the course they wanted me to lock the rear wheel to show that it took longer skidding than it did when not skidding. I just couldn't make myself do it. But I sure could stop fast. I doubt that the ABS made the accident any worse than a none ABS car would have. The problem isn't that the tech can cause problems the problem is that people can become too dependent on the the tech so they can not solve the problem. Using the ABS as an example. If a wheel sensor fails and you are without ABS you should not have a terrible issue because no the car is no harder to stop than a car without ABS. The problem is that not many people know how to stop a non ABS car well. Training now must cover now to use the automated systems as well as how to deal with the manual backup systems. Of course you will use the manual systems very rarely so your experience base will be very low. The end result is that a none critical system can now cause a critical problem unless you greatly increase training. The other issue comes from manpower reduction. Not really an issue when talking about a car but I big problem when you are talking about systems like Airliners. An old pro airliner from the 1940s of 50s might have a flight crew of a pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer, navigator, and radio operator. A modern airliner now flies with a crew of two! When things go wrong they can get real busy real fast.
Of course they have the luxury and right. The iPhone isn't the only smartphone on the market. You can get a Blackberry, S60, WinMo, Android, or Palm WebOS device. When you have options and it is not enforced by law then it is no long a "rights" issue. It is just a product selection issue.
And yes if you really think that it is a bad idea because customers will not buy the phone then you can say that Apple is being dumb because they will loose sales. That I have no problem with. It is this idea that you have the right to tell a company what it must sell is what drives me nuts. It is dumb as saying that a health food store must sell Coke products because people want them! Go to a different store. As I said if Apple every starts using the DMCA to take down jailbreak sites then I will say it is a rights issue. I will even say that Apple claiming that jailbreaking doesn't rate an exception under the DMCA is a rights issue. But Apple deciding what it will and will not sell in it's store is no different than a health food store not wanting to carry candybars or you local grocery store not carrying Penthouse in the magazine rack. Next you will be saying that Apple Stores should carry Windows 7!
I would call it an informed opinion. He has been working on the Centaur for a number of years and knows what types of issues they are still having. The Falcon 9 has 9 engines on the first stage and 27 on the Falcon Heavy. As he put says it isn't going to be easy to get all that plumbing working at the same time. He has actually talked with the SpaceX folks since there pad is right next to where his last shot was.
Dudes this was an informal talk between friends he had with me. It was not a formal criticism and frankly he hopes they do well. I swear you guys are way too "sensitive" on this board. As I said he is also a big Space fan is hopping that all goes well for them. He was just pointing out areas where he has seen problems in a very mature system like the Centaur.
Do the majority of the customers like it? Would you have bought the ijuggle boobies app? Do you feel that you are missing something by not owning it? Would you be outraged at a store that decided not carry cigs? Same thing. I don't really mind people saying that it is a bad idea. What bothers me is when they claim censorship and that rights are involved. No their not. Now with the DCMA and things of that nature they are involved but this is just their choice. Do I think it is a good thing to try and limit the junk apps? Yes I do.
I am not sure that the x86 ISA can match the ARM in the speed to power use race for the same price. Also who cares if it runs x86 code. I am talking about servers here not a desktop. I guess you could run a SAN off Windows but their really isn't a good reason to. BSD and Linux are both very good at running SANs, Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLLite, and Firebird. An Omap3, Omap4, and or Tegra2 will be more than powerful enough for a lot of tasks. They are powerful enough to run a PBX, Database server, or Intranet server, or SAN in many small to medium businesses. None of these tasks require x86 compatibility. For the desktop you could use such devices as clients. You could run Browsers, OpenOffice, email clients, and any of a number of other applications "nativity" and then use RDS to run any Windows Apps you may need. The only down side right now is the lack of Flash for these devices but even that may change soon. For some places this would be a great solution. Not everywhere for sure but I can see it working. Also since your Internet access would be through a Unix like OS and on a none X86 ISA the none targeted security risks are a lot lower since your setup will not share many of the same exploits as the masses.
BTW I commend your stand on morality and ethics. I agree if I was asked to do such a think I would like to think that I would ask them to document the request and then say not just no but hell no and let them know that I will be going to ACLU and the press with documentation of this plan.
There is ARM on the low end. The new ARM chips are getting faster and faster and compete well with the Atom right now for speed and blow them away for power consumption. I would love to see an OMAP4 or Tegra 2 ITX board with enough sims slots for a few gigs of ram and a few SATA connectors. Would make a great little NAS, SAN, or even small database server.
The right, the left, and the feds are all agreeing on something... They are going to be skinned alive and rolled in rock salt if they go to court soon. As Bender would say,"There boned" Sad thing is I bet the IT flunkies take the brunt of it and not the school admins. What really bothers me is what made them think this was OK?
You joke but think about it. Odds the it department has access to the student database that probably includes pictures. You know when school starts so set your targets notebook to log when they go online. If they go online between 6:00 am and 7:30 am turn on the webcam. If they are online after 10:00 PM turn on the webcam. And.....
But theora still isn't good enough. "As it currently stands, the Theora decoder plays 640×360 24fps at slightly more than 100% speed on average. This isn’t quite good enough to call it “real time”, since some frames take longer than the allotted time to decode," This is from your link. And for H.264 "A future Entropy Wave project will likely add support for these acceleration units which would allow the performance of the Theora decoder to be similar to TI’s MPEG-4 codec, which can do 800×480 playback (possibly more?)."
I really want to see Theora win but unless it can be better than h.264 it will not. And being philosophically better will just not cut it I fear.
You can complain all you like but if you bought an iPhone you are just making noise. Apple has controlled the iPhone since day one so nobody bought one without knowledge. If you want to say that you feel that Apples policy is hurting sales that is fine. I don't have any problem with people not liking the policy and not buying the product. What I have a problem with is people calling it censorship, taking about their rights, and or just making noise aka buying an iphone and buying apps but still whining about the policy. Guess what if you are buying stuff from apple you are saying that it is OK much louder than you whining about it being wrong. Hey I don't own an iPhone I own an Android phone because I don't like AT&Ts policies. I voted with my cash. Frankly I don't care that Apple is not selling these apps. They are nothing but trash throw aways. The Developers are upset because they can not make a fast buck on these trash apps. If they really want to create this then just make a web app that works for the iphone.
This is no battle over freedom. It is a battle over making money with trash.
Complain about the ATCA treaty if you want to fight for rights. That is all about censorship and the stripping of peoples rights!
"Apple has filed comments [eff.org] with the US Copyright Office saying that jailbreaking is and should remain a criminal act. So it actually is their position that you should go to jail for enabling "your" iPhone to run apps they don't approve." Now that is evil, wrong, and infringes on ones freedom. Apple has every right to not support jail broken devices but to forbid you from jail breaking a phone is just evil. However it is also different than controlling what goes into the app store which is what this story is all about. I agree with you on that count which is why I also bought an android phone.
I don't have a problem with saying you do not like this policy. You have every right to not like this policy but. It isn't a violation of your rights. It isn't censorship. It isn't immoral. And don't buy an iPhone then complain about how your rights are being violated. Those are all just silly.
Censorship is when the government controls what you can and can not publish.
Is a book publisher choosing to not publish a book because it is bad censorship? Not at all. That is a choice the company makes. Drop using things like censorship and rights about what can and can not go into the app store. Now if apple every uses the DMCA to take down jailbreaks then you may use the terms censorship and rights without a single complaint from me. Heck I will even chime in on your side.
Then don't buy the iPhone. It really is that simple. I find it so odd when people find that others are doing what they want they cry censorship. Just don't buy the iPhone. If enough people don't buy it then they will change their policy or go out of business. Post about how outraged you are on Slashdot will do nothing since there is no law that says they can't do it. But I will bite on your little parallel... "Here's a parallel - imagine if you bought a Sony DVD player, and it only allowed you to watch movies that Sony approved of, and blocked its rivals' movies from playing on it. " Ok imagine a game console that only plays games that the console maker approves.... Gee that is like all of them and has been for since people stopped buying the Atari 2600. The 2600 was "free" because it used all off the shelf parts and had no OS. You seem to think this is a new situation but it is IDENTICAL to the one we have had with game consoles for decades.
"how many sales are they missing because of these China-like rules?" Probably none at all. Or not enough that it matters.
China like rules? Please if you don't like it don't buy an iPhone. Apple is just using it's freedom of choice. It is their store and they can choose to carry what they want. Every time I see a story like this about how upset people are I just have to giggle. The developers will stay with the iPhone as long as they are making money. People will buy the iPhone as long as they can get the apps they want. For Apple to have "China like rules" they would be throwing people in jail for writing the apps for android that they don't like. Right now they are no different that a tee shirt shop that doesn't want to carry tee shirts pro KKK shirts. Call me when their sales start dropping.
I am an android user. I have one of the least popular phones the Samsung Moment. I just don't see this problem. The big problem is the multitude of OS versions running around but hopefully that will change soon. Right now I go to the app store pick an app and use it. It really does work pretty well. Screen sizes? well we deal with that on PC now so that isn't a show stopper. This is a tempest in a tea cup right now but it could be an issue in the future if they don't get things working.
I am hopeful but I talked to a friend of mine about the falcon 9. He is worried about the reliable of the system. I take his worries very seriously because he is an engineer on the Centaur program aka he is a real rocket scientists. He is also a space nut so he is really looking forward to the test launch and is hoping it goes well.
Slashdot Mirror
While I am not a fan of porn I can assure you that almost none of it is currently "rendered" and frankly from what little I have seen the last thing anybody really wants is higher resolution porn.
In that category of video even HD maybe a step too far.
That depends on the market.
If we are talking about the PC/Laptop market once integrated graphics are good enough at 1080p it is game over. In the workstation market I would agree with you.
Even photorealisim may not be worth the cost. Also that depends on A class games being optimized for the PC and not just console ports.
The way I see the future is this.
nVidia goes for the Supercomputer, workstation, and embedded markets. Their biggest product in numbers and revenue will be the Tegra line if they are lucky.
ATI and Intel duke it out in the X86 market with integrated GPUs and they will be on the die.
Intel and ATI will see their market share shrink in the mass market because they can not complete with ARM+GPU in speed vs cost vs power use. as Smartbooks, tablets, nettops, and Smartphones move more and more into the PC space.
I could be totally wrong and probably am but it is as good as a guess as any.
Well pumping the brakes was never the best way to stop a car. The best way to stop a car was to apply almost enough bake pressure to skid but not quite enough to skid. Pumping is sort of a lowest common demonator way to teach people how not to skid out of control. Not the best way but often the best that people can do and on ice without studded tires or chains it is about the best anyone can do at all.
I actually got very good at this. I got so good that I had issues taking my MSF course. In the course they wanted me to lock the rear wheel to show that it took longer skidding than it did when not skidding. I just couldn't make myself do it. But I sure could stop fast.
I doubt that the ABS made the accident any worse than a none ABS car would have.
The problem isn't that the tech can cause problems the problem is that people can become too dependent on the the tech so they can not solve the problem.
Using the ABS as an example. If a wheel sensor fails and you are without ABS you should not have a terrible issue because no the car is no harder to stop than a car without ABS. The problem is that not many people know how to stop a non ABS car well.
Training now must cover now to use the automated systems as well as how to deal with the manual backup systems. Of course you will use the manual systems very rarely so your experience base will be very low.
The end result is that a none critical system can now cause a critical problem unless you greatly increase training.
The other issue comes from manpower reduction.
Not really an issue when talking about a car but I big problem when you are talking about systems like Airliners.
An old pro airliner from the 1940s of 50s might have a flight crew of a pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer, navigator, and radio operator. A modern airliner now flies with a crew of two!
When things go wrong they can get real busy real fast.
I would just not buy that brand of car.
Any sensor failure should result in the ABS just turning it's self off.
Ring.. Ring... your wake up call is here. Apple has one one the top smart phones on the market. They sold over 24 MILLION iphones in 2009 putting them in the number 3 spot in world wide smartphone sales.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/02/23/gartner_apples_iphone_was_no_3_worldwide_smartphone_in_2009.html
Some niche!
Of course they have the luxury and right. The iPhone isn't the only smartphone on the market. You can get a Blackberry, S60, WinMo, Android, or Palm WebOS device.
When you have options and it is not enforced by law then it is no long a "rights" issue. It is just a product selection issue.
And yes if you really think that it is a bad idea because customers will not buy the phone then you can say that Apple is being dumb because they will loose sales. That I have no problem with.
It is this idea that you have the right to tell a company what it must sell is what drives me nuts.
It is dumb as saying that a health food store must sell Coke products because people want them! Go to a different store.
As I said if Apple every starts using the DMCA to take down jailbreak sites then I will say it is a rights issue. I will even say that Apple claiming that jailbreaking doesn't rate an exception under the DMCA is a rights issue.
But Apple deciding what it will and will not sell in it's store is no different than a health food store not wanting to carry candybars or you local grocery store not carrying Penthouse in the magazine rack. Next you will be saying that Apple Stores should carry Windows 7!
I would call it an informed opinion. He has been working on the Centaur for a number of years and knows what types of issues they are still having.
The Falcon 9 has 9 engines on the first stage and 27 on the Falcon Heavy. As he put says it isn't going to be easy to get all that plumbing working at the same time.
He has actually talked with the SpaceX folks since there pad is right next to where his last shot was.
Dudes this was an informal talk between friends he had with me. It was not a formal criticism and frankly he hopes they do well.
I swear you guys are way too "sensitive" on this board. As I said he is also a big Space fan is hopping that all goes well for them. He was just pointing out areas where he has seen problems in a very mature system like the Centaur.
Do the majority of the customers like it?
Would you have bought the ijuggle boobies app? Do you feel that you are missing something by not owning it?
Would you be outraged at a store that decided not carry cigs?
Same thing. I don't really mind people saying that it is a bad idea. What bothers me is when they claim censorship and that rights are involved.
No their not.
Now with the DCMA and things of that nature they are involved but this is just their choice.
Do I think it is a good thing to try and limit the junk apps? Yes I do.
I am not sure that the x86 ISA can match the ARM in the speed to power use race for the same price.
Also who cares if it runs x86 code. I am talking about servers here not a desktop. I guess you could run a SAN off Windows but their really isn't a good reason to. BSD and Linux are both very good at running SANs, Apache, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLLite, and Firebird. An Omap3, Omap4, and or Tegra2 will be more than powerful enough for a lot of tasks. They are powerful enough to run a PBX, Database server, or Intranet server, or SAN in many small to medium businesses.
None of these tasks require x86 compatibility.
For the desktop you could use such devices as clients. You could run Browsers, OpenOffice, email clients, and any of a number of other applications "nativity" and then use RDS to run any Windows Apps you may need. The only down side right now is the lack of Flash for these devices but even that may change soon.
For some places this would be a great solution.
Not everywhere for sure but I can see it working.
Also since your Internet access would be through a Unix like OS and on a none X86 ISA the none targeted security risks are a lot lower since your setup will not share many of the same exploits as the masses.
BTW I commend your stand on morality and ethics. I agree if I was asked to do such a think I would like to think that I would ask them to document the request and then say not just no but hell no and let them know that I will be going to ACLU and the press with documentation of this plan.
There is ARM on the low end. The new ARM chips are getting faster and faster and compete well with the Atom right now for speed and blow them away for power consumption.
I would love to see an OMAP4 or Tegra 2 ITX board with enough sims slots for a few gigs of ram and a few SATA connectors.
Would make a great little NAS, SAN, or even small database server.
Thank you for playing whats my crime. And now you get a 20 year all expense paid vacation.
I think we would go no farther back than the steam age. Really most of that information is still in paper books.
I think you didn't understand. I am not letting the IT folks off the hook. I just don't want to see the administrators get off the hook.
The right, the left, and the feds are all agreeing on something...
They are going to be skinned alive and rolled in rock salt if they go to court soon.
As Bender would say,"There boned"
Sad thing is I bet the IT flunkies take the brunt of it and not the school admins.
What really bothers me is what made them think this was OK?
You joke but think about it. Odds the it department has access to the student database that probably includes pictures.
You know when school starts so set your targets notebook to log when they go online.
If they go online between 6:00 am and 7:30 am turn on the webcam. If they are online after 10:00 PM turn on the webcam.
And.....
But theora still isn't good enough.
"As it currently stands, the Theora decoder plays 640×360 24fps at slightly more than 100% speed on average. This isn’t quite good enough to call it “real time”, since some frames take longer than the allotted time to decode,"
This is from your link.
And for H.264
"A future Entropy Wave project will likely add support for these acceleration units which would allow the performance of the Theora decoder to be similar to TI’s MPEG-4 codec, which can do 800×480 playback (possibly more?)."
I really want to see Theora win but unless it can be better than h.264 it will not. And being philosophically better will just not cut it I fear.
You can complain all you like but if you bought an iPhone you are just making noise. Apple has controlled the iPhone since day one so nobody bought one without knowledge.
If you want to say that you feel that Apples policy is hurting sales that is fine.
I don't have any problem with people not liking the policy and not buying the product.
What I have a problem with is people calling it censorship, taking about their rights, and or just making noise aka buying an iphone and buying apps but still whining about the policy. Guess what if you are buying stuff from apple you are saying that it is OK much louder than you whining about it being wrong.
Hey I don't own an iPhone I own an Android phone because I don't like AT&Ts policies. I voted with my cash. Frankly I don't care that Apple is not selling these apps. They are nothing but trash throw aways. The Developers are upset because they can not make a fast buck on these trash apps. If they really want to create this then just make a web app that works for the iphone.
This is no battle over freedom. It is a battle over making money with trash.
Complain about the ATCA treaty if you want to fight for rights. That is all about censorship and the stripping of peoples rights!
"Apple has filed comments [eff.org] with the US Copyright Office saying that jailbreaking is and should remain a criminal act. So it actually is their position that you should go to jail for enabling "your" iPhone to run apps they don't approve."
Now that is evil, wrong, and infringes on ones freedom. Apple has every right to not support jail broken devices but to forbid you from jail breaking a phone is just evil. However it is also different than controlling what goes into the app store which is what this story is all about.
I agree with you on that count which is why I also bought an android phone.
Are you really feeling the pinch because of the lack of a giggle boob app?
Get an android phone and write your own.
I don't have a problem with saying you do not like this policy.
You have every right to not like this policy but.
It isn't a violation of your rights.
It isn't censorship.
It isn't immoral.
And don't buy an iPhone then complain about how your rights are being violated.
Those are all just silly.
Censorship is when the government controls what you can and can not publish.
Is a book publisher choosing to not publish a book because it is bad censorship?
Not at all.
That is a choice the company makes. Drop using things like censorship and rights about what can and can not go into the app store.
Now if apple every uses the DMCA to take down jailbreaks then you may use the terms censorship and rights without a single complaint from me. Heck I will even chime in on your side.
Then don't buy the iPhone. It really is that simple.
I find it so odd when people find that others are doing what they want they cry censorship.
Just don't buy the iPhone. If enough people don't buy it then they will change their policy or go out of business.
Post about how outraged you are on Slashdot will do nothing since there is no law that says they can't do it.
But I will bite on your little parallel...
"Here's a parallel - imagine if you bought a Sony DVD player, and it only allowed you to watch movies that Sony approved of, and blocked its rivals' movies from playing on it. "
Ok imagine a game console that only plays games that the console maker approves....
Gee that is like all of them and has been for since people stopped buying the Atari 2600. The 2600 was "free" because it used all off the shelf parts and had no OS.
You seem to think this is a new situation but it is IDENTICAL to the one we have had with game consoles for decades.
"how many sales are they missing because of these China-like rules?"
Probably none at all. Or not enough that it matters.
China like rules? Please if you don't like it don't buy an iPhone. Apple is just using it's freedom of choice. It is their store and they can choose to carry what they want.
Every time I see a story like this about how upset people are I just have to giggle. The developers will stay with the iPhone as long as they are making money. People will buy the iPhone as long as they can get the apps they want.
For Apple to have "China like rules" they would be throwing people in jail for writing the apps for android that they don't like. Right now they are no different that a tee shirt shop that doesn't want to carry tee shirts pro KKK shirts.
Call me when their sales start dropping.
I am an android user. I have one of the least popular phones the Samsung Moment.
I just don't see this problem. The big problem is the multitude of OS versions running around but hopefully that will change soon.
Right now I go to the app store pick an app and use it. It really does work pretty well.
Screen sizes? well we deal with that on PC now so that isn't a show stopper.
This is a tempest in a tea cup right now but it could be an issue in the future if they don't get things working.
I am hopeful but I talked to a friend of mine about the falcon 9.
He is worried about the reliable of the system. I take his worries very seriously because he is an engineer on the Centaur program aka he is a real rocket scientists. He is also a space nut so he is really looking forward to the test launch and is hoping it goes well.