I worked out a solution (sort of) to this problem for my Father.
For his last birthday I wanted to get him a digital picture frame, since so many of the pictures that the rest of the family is taking are digital. I also wanted it to be something he could just plug in and "forget about". Requiring zero maintenance from him.
I looked around a bit and got a Kodak
- It has built in WiFi (he already had DSL, so all I needed to do was install a WiFi Router, which was good since he needed a router between him and the internet anyway:) ). - It can be set to display a Flicker or Kodak Gallery account automatically.
I set him up with a Kodak Gallery account (he doesn't even use it, but its so I can manage it) and set the picture frame for his network, and to show the Galleries of all his friends when it boots up.
Now all I need to do is share an album with him (or modify the pictures in an album I've already shared), and they instantly appear on his frame.
Just in case the WiFi goes out, I also loaded some "default" pictures onto the local memory, but things have been good for the past 6 months or so (actually this reminds me, he's been complaining when I talked to him on the phone that there aren't any new pictures:) ).
I think it can also be set to upload/download files between a computer and itself, but that would have meant me setting up a server to connect to his computer before it is updated, and I needed a more remote solution.:)
If the problem there is infrastructure, it makes me wonder whatever happened to WiMax? Isn't that supposed to address exactly the situation you describe?
One would almost get the impression that we dislike broadband which does not come from a government-regulated monopoly.
No, we just like out TV better than our Internet.
Some of the frequency blocks that were bought, in order to deploy WiMax solutions, are currently occupied until the changeover to Digital Broadcasting actually happens.
Once that frequency range is open, hopefully Verizon (and the other players) will move quickly to start deploying actual products, I mean, they could have everything ready to go now, and merely be waiting until the June cut over date when the frequency is free to turn everything on and start offering WiMax come July (although I wouldn't bet on it).
Something like that, but not perfectly symmetrically. While x86_64 is well-enough established that it would be inconvenient for Intel to have to go back to x86 and build a new, non-derivative extension with similar capabilities, it would be less of a problem for them than AMD losing the rights to use x86-anything.
Like heck.
It would force both AMD and Intel to pull their chips temporarily.
The only thing Intel could sell is the Atom (32 bit only), and the original version of the Core (again, 32 bit only).
Yeah... they'd still have a product to sell on the market, but a staggering amount of their products (most of the Core line) would simply stop.
Likewise AMD would still have the Geode and other chips to sell, but their desktop/server line would have to stop.
MS would probably continue okay (I hear Win7 runs okay on the Atom and old Core processors), but it would mean that we'd be back at 32bit limits for things like memory.
The groups that would be hurt the most (beyond AMD and Intel)? Computer retailers like Dell and Apple (whose products would have to be redesigned), and the American computer economy as a whole (I'm sure you'll be able to find AMD and Intel chips made in China that would keep shuffling off the assembly line just fine).
True, I hadn't thought about the other stories they could tell (The War, Book's Story).
Perhaps what American TV needs is more "planned" shows.
Babylon 5 was designed with a 5 year story arc (crammed into 4 years when cancelled and then expanded back out luke-warm when renewed and messed with on TNT).
Lost may have been designed for a set story, but they never knew how long it was going to last before it was cancelled, so its tough to properly pace shows. Now that a set ending is planned (and agreed on from the networks), the pacing for the episodes has improved dramatically (more story, less filler trying to stretch the story to fill however many seasons it takes).
Likewise as another poster pointed out, the US version of Life On Mars has produced more episodes of mediocre quality than the entire BBC run, and with less of the story arc told.
Most of the rest of the world has shows pitched that are designed to run a season or two, and then its done. Planned story arc ends, end of story, thats it.
In the US, stations tend to milk anything that interests people until it finally either looses popularity, costs too much to produce (usually because of rising cost of contracts), or the stars leave it (and sometimes even beyond). Instead, the closest the US produces is the "mini-series" taking 4-6 hours to tell the story (and we've also seen fewer and fewer of those produced).
I'd also add that unlike Chris Charter, J.J. Abrams seems to have a plan of where the show is going, and has learned a lot about pacing payouts for story arcs from working on Lost.
With Fringe it isn't anywhere near as critical to follow along every week or miss what's going on, but there is a definite overall arc that is building up and that is starting to become very interesting.
Even with a TiVo, I'm willing to sit through a short break. When it got to 3-4 minutes (or 15 minutes out of an hour show), it started to really add up to time saved.
One of the things I'm noticing is that I pay more attention to adds on Hulu or ABC's website (why can't ABC just use Hulu like the other networks?)
Short ads don't break the frame as much and still keep you immersed in the show. Heck, short enough ads run in the time it would take you to fast forward through the usual longer ad block.
If they are so willing nowadays to give sci-fi a better shot if it has strong online following and such, why has Firefly not been revived? We Browncoats are about as rabid of fans as a show could ever hope for.
Because they'd be very unlikely to get the cast back together what with Summer Glau, Nathan Fillion, and Adam Baldwin pulling in paychecks on Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Castle and Chuck respectively.
They'd probably be able to do a spinoff but I'm not sure how/who they'd follow for it but Firefly can't get revived even if they wanted to. The fact that they gave T:TSCC a second season actually shows that they are willing to let shows grow. I very much doubt Fringe will be cancelled (I hear it was bringing in very strong ratings). I wish they hadn't let it go on hiatus for so long though, I had just gotten into it a week or two before and caught up on-line (thank you Hulu), so I'm trying to wait patiently for it to come back.:)
You are absolutely correct that MS, Sony and Nintendo are all using the PowerPC architecture in their consoles (hence the reason people say IBM was the one who really "won" this generation), but MS is using the PowerPC chip as each of its cores in its multi-core design. Increasing its power while keeping the same architecture would mean increasing the number of PowerPC cores, or increasing the core's efficiency (either through design or clock speed). I thought one of the reasons that Apple left
Nintendo is irrelevant to this discussion since I believe they could easily bump the current Wii's specs considering how "underpowered" most consider their design compared to the PS3 and 360.
Sony is using the PowerPC chip as the main core to handle scheduling of the Cell's SPUs (the PPE), but most of the heavy lifting for the PS3 is accomplished in threads for the SPUs. Upping the speed and number of the SPUs should translate into a bump in speed (or increasing the number of Cell chips used), all of which could be done without directly affecting the need to significantly change the PPE.
As it is existing PS3s only use six of the eight SPUs on a Cell due to initial poor yeilds with one SPU reserved for the OS, increased yields would probably put an extra SPU available to developers. IBM has also announced that it is going to be moving the Cell to a 45nm Fab and has announced quite a few roadmap improvements to the existing architecture without requiring a huge amount of design for a whole new platform.
I also suspect that because the Cell is a new architecture with much longer "legs" they can design the PS4 as an incremental improvement over the PS3. Essentially a PS3 with a faster Cell and perhaps a full compliment of cores, more memory, throw in a possibly better graphics chip.
If they follow this strategy (which is very likely) then:
1) The PS4 would probably need a shorter development cycle since it would be an "evolutionary" hardware increase similar to spec-ing out a new PC, not a "revolutionary" increase like going from the PS2 to the PS3.
2) The PS4 would probably be able to have direct backward compatibility "built in" similar to the PS2 supporting PS1 hardware.
3) Any expertise a company gained with PS3 programming would be directly applicable to the PS4.
Nintendo's Wii2 should be fine from a hardware standpoint (bump the specs a bit more, maybe include low end HD graphics, but keep things "lite"). MS on the other hand have saddled themselves with a multi-core PowerPC architecture, that even Apple was moving aware from in their competition with MS. Which it may have worked for this generation of console, I wonder how expandable the design would be for the NEXT generation.
Given that pirates seem to prefer to operate in coastal waters not patrolled by a nation with a powerful navy, I disagree.
Why is the last major news we keep hearing about piracy usually around Africa and South East Asia?
Should the U.S. (or any country) violate another countries territorial waters to "root out" piracy?
At a certain point China will probably start patrolling the pacific in larger force which will both hurt piracy there, and put it into conflict with Russia and the U.S..
I'm not sure who is going to "clean up" Africa. I don't see any major world power with both the clout and the inclination to do much to help the people who live there, let alone protect the coast of countries that can't protect it themselves.
Not sure about their current offerings, but the old Palm III I had (and my current Clie which is ~6-7 years old) sync to Palms desktop.
From there its pretty easy to get your contacts and notepad information into simple comma or tab delimited format. From there you should be able to import the information into your "new" contact and notepad programs.
I'm assuming that To-Do lists and Calender information is less critical, and doesn't need to be retained.
As for any individual applications, get ready to migrate to something else. Keeping your data is important, keeping your apps might not be realistic.
I don't follow this part of your reasoning. A nine-year-old can hold onto a PSP. A nine-year-old can watch the trailer for the scat film Hungry Bitches on a PSP. But wouldn't you want to shield a nine-year-old from what has come to be called "2 Girls 1 Cup"?
Bluntly, most adults can remove something from the possession of a nine-year-old, either through brute force (rip it out of their hands), intimidation (threaten them with grounding), or reasoning (I'm your parent, you have to trust me to know what's right for you).
If none of these approaches work with a nine-year-old then you have problems.
On the other hand, if none of those methods work anymore then either your child has grown to the point those methods no longer work.
Depending on the actual age of the child, you might have failfailed as a parent and can no longer exert influence on your child, or you might have simply failed at recognizing when your child needs to make their own decisions, and that you can no longer shield them from all of their choices.
I think current controls usually use Rating levels to control access.
It sounds like the proposed law wants to allow parents to also either restrict specific titles, or to add time based access controls (no gaming after kids get home from school until they are done with homework and get parent to "unlock" console?)
Unless she hit the power switch on the "power strip" and not the computer, I'm not sure why the UPS would kick in.
This of course points the way toward the already installed "red button" on most computers:
- The power button on the computer. - The power button on the power-strip (unless there is a UPS:) ). - The power button on the monitor (less effective, since the speakers will keep blaring).
The page you link to is over two years, and even the links on it to the nightly build is stale.
I just downloaded the VMWare image, uncompressed it, and "executed" the.vmx file. Fusion (v2.01) immediately loaded the VM, mentioned that it was an older version and asked if I wanted to update it. I chose "no" since I have no idea what hardware support has changed.
VM booted from "cold start" to Desktop in ~12-13 seconds. I'm amazed at how responsive the VM is.
Its a bit spartan from an eye candy perspective, but thats to be expected. What there is though is rather impressive.
Slashdot Mirror
I worked out a solution (sort of) to this problem for my Father.
For his last birthday I wanted to get him a digital picture frame, since so many of the pictures that the rest of the family is taking are digital. I also wanted it to be something he could just plug in and "forget about". Requiring zero maintenance from him.
I looked around a bit and got a Kodak
- It has built in WiFi (he already had DSL, so all I needed to do was install a WiFi Router, which was good since he needed a router between him and the internet anyway :) ).
- It can be set to display a Flicker or Kodak Gallery account automatically.
I set him up with a Kodak Gallery account (he doesn't even use it, but its so I can manage it) and set the picture frame for his network, and to show the Galleries of all his friends when it boots up.
Now all I need to do is share an album with him (or modify the pictures in an album I've already shared), and they instantly appear on his frame.
Just in case the WiFi goes out, I also loaded some "default" pictures onto the local memory, but things have been good for the past 6 months or so (actually this reminds me, he's been complaining when I talked to him on the phone that there aren't any new pictures :) ).
I think it can also be set to upload/download files between a computer and itself, but that would have meant me setting up a server to connect to his computer before it is updated, and I needed a more remote solution. :)
Good idea, but most mobile internet Terms of Service specifically prohibit using it as a "replacement for a landline" (WTF?)
Some even throttle you back (for a month or so) if they've seen too much traffic on one tower for too long.
No, we just like out TV better than our Internet.
Some of the frequency blocks that were bought, in order to deploy WiMax solutions, are currently occupied until the changeover to Digital Broadcasting actually happens.
Once that frequency range is open, hopefully Verizon (and the other players) will move quickly to start deploying actual products, I mean, they could have everything ready to go now, and merely be waiting until the June cut over date when the frequency is free to turn everything on and start offering WiMax come July (although I wouldn't bet on it).
New episodes of Doctor Who? (at some point)
No access to Hulu?
Love of wrestling?
Like heck.
It would force both AMD and Intel to pull their chips temporarily.
The only thing Intel could sell is the Atom (32 bit only), and the original version of the Core (again, 32 bit only).
Yeah ... they'd still have a product to sell on the market, but a staggering amount of their products (most of the Core line) would simply stop.
Likewise AMD would still have the Geode and other chips to sell, but their desktop/server line would have to stop.
MS would probably continue okay (I hear Win7 runs okay on the Atom and old Core processors), but it would mean that we'd be back at 32bit limits for things like memory.
The groups that would be hurt the most (beyond AMD and Intel)? Computer retailers like Dell and Apple (whose products would have to be redesigned), and the American computer economy as a whole (I'm sure you'll be able to find AMD and Intel chips made in China that would keep shuffling off the assembly line just fine).
I don't know, to me the best answer to the article's question ("what other things are woefully inadequate on Apple's popular handheld?") was:
- Choice of Wireless provider
That it went together with their other products of the time? WinME and WinNT?
"Yes! You too can harness the speed of WIndows across our whole Family of products! CE-ME-NT!"
True, I hadn't thought about the other stories they could tell (The War, Book's Story).
Perhaps what American TV needs is more "planned" shows.
Babylon 5 was designed with a 5 year story arc (crammed into 4 years when cancelled and then expanded back out luke-warm when renewed and messed with on TNT).
Lost may have been designed for a set story, but they never knew how long it was going to last before it was cancelled, so its tough to properly pace shows. Now that a set ending is planned (and agreed on from the networks), the pacing for the episodes has improved dramatically (more story, less filler trying to stretch the story to fill however many seasons it takes).
Likewise as another poster pointed out, the US version of Life On Mars has produced more episodes of mediocre quality than the entire BBC run, and with less of the story arc told.
Most of the rest of the world has shows pitched that are designed to run a season or two, and then its done. Planned story arc ends, end of story, thats it.
In the US, stations tend to milk anything that interests people until it finally either looses popularity, costs too much to produce (usually because of rising cost of contracts), or the stars leave it (and sometimes even beyond). Instead, the closest the US produces is the "mini-series" taking 4-6 hours to tell the story (and we've also seen fewer and fewer of those produced).
I'd also add that unlike Chris Charter, J.J. Abrams seems to have a plan of where the show is going, and has learned a lot about pacing payouts for story arcs from working on Lost.
With Fringe it isn't anywhere near as critical to follow along every week or miss what's going on, but there is a definite overall arc that is building up and that is starting to become very interesting.
yes, but I like these "commercial lite" times.
Even with a TiVo, I'm willing to sit through a short break. When it got to 3-4 minutes (or 15 minutes out of an hour show), it started to really add up to time saved.
One of the things I'm noticing is that I pay more attention to adds on Hulu or ABC's website (why can't ABC just use Hulu like the other networks?)
Short ads don't break the frame as much and still keep you immersed in the show. Heck, short enough ads run in the time it would take you to fast forward through the usual longer ad block.
Because they'd be very unlikely to get the cast back together what with Summer Glau, Nathan Fillion, and Adam Baldwin pulling in paychecks on Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Castle and Chuck respectively.
They'd probably be able to do a spinoff but I'm not sure how/who they'd follow for it but Firefly can't get revived even if they wanted to. The fact that they gave T:TSCC a second season actually shows that they are willing to let shows grow. I very much doubt Fringe will be cancelled (I hear it was bringing in very strong ratings). I wish they hadn't let it go on hiatus for so long though, I had just gotten into it a week or two before and caught up on-line (thank you Hulu), so I'm trying to wait patiently for it to come back. :)
No! Think of the terrorists!
Heck, lets compromise ...
Think of the Children-Terrorists!
You are absolutely correct that MS, Sony and Nintendo are all using the PowerPC architecture in their consoles (hence the reason people say IBM was the one who really "won" this generation), but MS is using the PowerPC chip as each of its cores in its multi-core design. Increasing its power while keeping the same architecture would mean increasing the number of PowerPC cores, or increasing the core's efficiency (either through design or clock speed). I thought one of the reasons that Apple left
Nintendo is irrelevant to this discussion since I believe they could easily bump the current Wii's specs considering how "underpowered" most consider their design compared to the PS3 and 360.
Sony is using the PowerPC chip as the main core to handle scheduling of the Cell's SPUs (the PPE), but most of the heavy lifting for the PS3 is accomplished in threads for the SPUs. Upping the speed and number of the SPUs should translate into a bump in speed (or increasing the number of Cell chips used), all of which could be done without directly affecting the need to significantly change the PPE.
As it is existing PS3s only use six of the eight SPUs on a Cell due to initial poor yeilds with one SPU reserved for the OS, increased yields would probably put an extra SPU available to developers. IBM has also announced that it is going to be moving the Cell to a 45nm Fab and has announced quite a few roadmap improvements to the existing architecture without requiring a huge amount of design for a whole new platform.
I also suspect that because the Cell is a new architecture with much longer "legs" they can design the PS4 as an incremental improvement over the PS3. Essentially a PS3 with a faster Cell and perhaps a full compliment of cores, more memory, throw in a possibly better graphics chip.
If they follow this strategy (which is very likely) then:
1) The PS4 would probably need a shorter development cycle since it would be an "evolutionary" hardware increase similar to spec-ing out a new PC, not a "revolutionary" increase like going from the PS2 to the PS3.
2) The PS4 would probably be able to have direct backward compatibility "built in" similar to the PS2 supporting PS1 hardware.
3) Any expertise a company gained with PS3 programming would be directly applicable to the PS4.
Nintendo's Wii2 should be fine from a hardware standpoint (bump the specs a bit more, maybe include low end HD graphics, but keep things "lite").
MS on the other hand have saddled themselves with a multi-core PowerPC architecture, that even Apple was moving aware from in their competition with MS. Which it may have worked for this generation of console, I wonder how expandable the design would be for the NEXT generation.
Not to mention in G.I. Joe vs. Cobra, most of Cobra is wearing Blue, and still got smacked down on a regular basis.
Given that pirates seem to prefer to operate in coastal waters not patrolled by a nation with a powerful navy, I disagree.
Why is the last major news we keep hearing about piracy usually around Africa and South East Asia?
Should the U.S. (or any country) violate another countries territorial waters to "root out" piracy?
At a certain point China will probably start patrolling the pacific in larger force which will both hurt piracy there, and put it into conflict with Russia and the U.S..
I'm not sure who is going to "clean up" Africa. I don't see any major world power with both the clout and the inclination to do much to help the people who live there, let alone protect the coast of countries that can't protect it themselves.
Perhaps we should have another party devoted to things like preserving an individuals Liberties.
Maybe we can call them Libertarians or something.
Too bad there isn't such a party for people to support.
Not sure about their current offerings, but the old Palm III I had (and my current Clie which is ~6-7 years old) sync to Palms desktop.
From there its pretty easy to get your contacts and notepad information into simple comma or tab delimited format. From there you should be able to import the information into your "new" contact and notepad programs.
I'm assuming that To-Do lists and Calender information is less critical, and doesn't need to be retained.
As for any individual applications, get ready to migrate to something else. Keeping your data is important, keeping your apps might not be realistic.
Bluntly, most adults can remove something from the possession of a nine-year-old, either through brute force (rip it out of their hands), intimidation (threaten them with grounding), or reasoning (I'm your parent, you have to trust me to know what's right for you).
If none of these approaches work with a nine-year-old then you have problems.
On the other hand, if none of those methods work anymore then either your child has grown to the point those methods no longer work.
Depending on the actual age of the child, you might have failfailed as a parent and can no longer exert influence on your child, or you might have simply failed at recognizing when your child needs to make their own decisions, and that you can no longer shield them from all of their choices.
I think current controls usually use Rating levels to control access.
It sounds like the proposed law wants to allow parents to also either restrict specific titles, or to add time based access controls (no gaming after kids get home from school until they are done with homework and get parent to "unlock" console?)
If its a "handheld" that you "need to shield your child from" take it from your child's hands.
If they are big enough to hold onto the device, you are obviously mistaken that they need to be shielded from it.
If you CAN hold onto the device long enough to hit the power button, then you might be correct, but will now have to "discuss it" with your child.
Unless she hit the power switch on the "power strip" and not the computer, I'm not sure why the UPS would kick in.
This of course points the way toward the already installed "red button" on most computers:
- The power button on the computer. :) ).
- The power button on the power-strip (unless there is a UPS
- The power button on the monitor (less effective, since the speakers will keep blaring).
The page you link to is over two years, and even the links on it to the nightly build is stale.
I just downloaded the VMWare image, uncompressed it, and "executed" the .vmx file. Fusion (v2.01) immediately loaded the VM, mentioned that it was an older version and asked if I wanted to update it. I chose "no" since I have no idea what hardware support has changed.
VM booted from "cold start" to Desktop in ~12-13 seconds. I'm amazed at how responsive the VM is.
Its a bit spartan from an eye candy perspective, but thats to be expected. What there is though is rather impressive.
I for one would like to welcome our new Sri-Lankan postulated overlords of the Uncanny Valley.