Yes, it's only $50 cheaper. The thing is this: the $300 iPod is the best seller of the lot. Cost/GB is an important factor, yes, but even if the iPod was only 1GB it would still have a lot going for it over the competing players.
The people who are obsessed with space have already bought iPods. Or, in other words, amongst leading edge people the iPod has become a trailing trend. So the next question is how to break not into the marketplace of people who are tech-savvy, but rather the larger group of less-technically-inclined-but-still-wanting-to-be- cool crowd. In marketing speak, the alphas have all bought an iPod and made it popular: the time has come to focus upon the rest of the crowd.
Amongst this crowd, there is needed some method of comparision that is, at its very heart, impossible to calculate. Comparing $300/15GB with $500/40GB is a mathematical affair. What is needed is exactly the reverse. Apple does this with colors. Guy A buys a green one, guy B buys a blue one: they can both argue over which color is better without having to get into that inevitable Alpha-male dick contest over whose is bigger. That is why there is no 2GB version. The question when you decide to buy one of these is color, not model.
Or, in other words, Apple has once again found a clever way to shift the didatic from discussing the merits of their product to discussing the aesthetics of it. Ain't marketing cool?
-Brett
Re:I used to have a laser 128k...
on
First Computers
·
· Score: 1
Put it into some graphics mode...what exactly happens?
I used to have a laser 128k...
on
First Computers
·
· Score: 1
You just plugged it into a tv and you were up and running. Sort of an early portable. And even cooler, if you didn't have a system disk in it when it started up, you could just start programming in basic. I've still got it somewhere. Damn thing still works. Take that, modern hardware!
It's a nice idea, but far simpler to rasterize the characters one time to a buffer, and then use them as 2d-textures. Then it's easier to code, optimize, and tweak said textures/characters if you don't like how they look. It eats memory, but that's one thing there's plenty of on modern graphics cards.
Expose is certainly frickin' cool. I don't know if the upgrade's worth $129, but since I got my copy for $20, it's a steal. All the various bugfixes and whatnot are certainly nice as well.
Apple's managed to get back to the lead of the desktop os pack. The question is, where do we go from here?
Filesystem metadata is a must, but give 'em another version or two. After that, I really don't know. Any ideas?
I'm a big fan of Robert Zubrin's book...
on
The Case for the Moon
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
"The Case for Mars", which makes the arguement that we should ignore the moon and instead head on out to the fourth planet.
His arguements: 1) In terms of energy, it's easier to go to Mars from LEO than the moon. (Takes longer, though.) 2) Mars is a more interesting destination: because it has an atmosphere, a lot of engineering obstacles are solved because you can do all sorts of nifty engineering tricks to steal resources from the air. 3) The moon is dead, and has always been dead. Mars, on the other hand, perhaps even once supported life. With effort on our part, perhaps it could again.
Slightly simpler than that. An old friend of Lucas', first name Stevie, had an investment in an alternate dvd standard known as Divx, which died a slow, horrible death. Stevie, not wanting to kill his own tech, never released his male-Lara Croft movies on DVD, and got his good pal Georgie to keep his space opera off as well.
That is, until recently, when Stevie finally saw the writing on the wall and said "#(*$ it."
Which results in nifty new merchandise for you, the loyal consumer. Go forth! Buy shiny round things!
It's slightly simpler than that...the Windows version of the iPod/iTunes uses Fat32 as a disk format. Not HFS+.
If you get a new iPod and want to use it across both platforms, format it for PC. Then you can use it on either system interchangeably. Best way to go, as it makes it into a nifty portable external hard drive as well. It's how I've got mine set up.
1) Most modern nanotech is fixed, a.k.a. it comes with batteries that cannot be replaced. Once the device runs out of power, it dies.
2) The long-term theory is to create self-replicating, self-powering nanobots, which solves problem #1 and #2 at the same time. If you can produce a single one, then all you need is a tub of oil/whatever energy source and raw materials. Drop one in, come back ten hours later, and you're good to go. It's like drug research: making that first pill is a PITA, but after that duplication brings the price down.
3) Depends on the application. Most of this stuff doesn't really need to move, though. It's more of a shotgun approach to solving a problem (throw the nanites in the area) rather than a highly-targeted solution.
Re the rest: quantum computers have yet to show up conventional machines: should we give up research on them?
I've still got a Saturn V kit in my closet (just checked, and yes that's what it is). It's about halfway built, but apparently has survived the past five years fine. Is it really worth anything?
On the other hand, I now seem to have more than enough time on my hands to finish it. Maybe I'll bust out the ole' glue tube out again. And put some in a bag.
The injunction also forbids Willis and Griffin from owning or managing any business that advertises over the internet for 10 years.
After 1 January, the state's anti-spam laws will get tougher and will also allow private individuals to sue spammers and collect damages of up to $1,000 per e-mail.
That's a nice pair of little clauses there.
The problem is that these guys were a perfect case: a pair of California spammers spamming people inside California using California computers. Methinks jurisdiction is going to be much more interesting when they try to go after out-of-state/country people. If they do so.
However, it does send a nice message to the bastards. And if just one of 'em decides to not hit that 'send 50 million emails' button, that's a little win for the Internet. We gotta be happy with that, 'cause the government (as usual) is gonna keep the money to itself.
The $131 million in box office is the amount of money forked over to the theatre. They keep about half and pass the rest on to the distributor (read: studio) which takes half again before the producers get their share. So, a more realistic number is about $43 million dollars to the producers. From the $120 million it cost to make it, they've got a ways yet to go.
Granted, when overseas, video/dvd and cable sales come in, they should be in the black.
In addition, it creates a water pathway from 1500 miles inside of China to any place in the world. Chongking, the largest city in the world, is now a seaport!
Well, you may be pro-dam, but the hard-line enviromentalists are against dams for ecosystem reasons. From a politican's standpoint, if you don't have their support, there's little point supporting building them because they'll still attack you come election time for destroying the enviroment.
That being said, I'm glad got the chance to visit the ThreeGorges before they destroy them.
Slashdot Mirror
I wrote a petition a while back to get that added to OS X, but it never seemed that anything came of it. W00t!
Yes, it's only $50 cheaper. The thing is this: the $300 iPod is the best seller of the lot. Cost/GB is an important factor, yes, but even if the iPod was only 1GB it would still have a lot going for it over the competing players.
- cool crowd. In marketing speak, the alphas have all bought an iPod and made it popular: the time has come to focus upon the rest of the crowd.
The people who are obsessed with space have already bought iPods. Or, in other words, amongst leading edge people the iPod has become a trailing trend. So the next question is how to break not into the marketplace of people who are tech-savvy, but rather the larger group of less-technically-inclined-but-still-wanting-to-be
Amongst this crowd, there is needed some method of comparision that is, at its very heart, impossible to calculate. Comparing $300/15GB with $500/40GB is a mathematical affair. What is needed is exactly the reverse. Apple does this with colors. Guy A buys a green one, guy B buys a blue one: they can both argue over which color is better without having to get into that inevitable Alpha-male dick contest over whose is bigger. That is why there is no 2GB version. The question when you decide to buy one of these is color, not model.
Or, in other words, Apple has once again found a clever way to shift the didatic from discussing the merits of their product to discussing the aesthetics of it. Ain't marketing cool?
-Brett
Put it into some graphics mode...what exactly happens?
...and man that thing was badass.
You just plugged it into a tv and you were up and running. Sort of an early portable. And even cooler, if you didn't have a system disk in it when it started up, you could just start programming in basic. I've still got it somewhere. Damn thing still works. Take that, modern hardware!
10 PRINT "(little brother) SUCKS!!!"
20 GOTO 10
Good times.
It's a nice idea, but far simpler to rasterize the characters one time to a buffer, and then use them as 2d-textures. Then it's easier to code, optimize, and tweak said textures/characters if you don't like how they look. It eats memory, but that's one thing there's plenty of on modern graphics cards.
Ahh, but it was the first generic Hollywood car chase.
At least in Vegas you get alcohol. Damn election day prohibition laws.
For those of you interested in the above, go here, click on "ADC Hardware Purchase Program Store," and drool away.
-Brett
Expose is certainly frickin' cool. I don't know if the upgrade's worth $129, but since I got my copy for $20, it's a steal. All the various bugfixes and whatnot are certainly nice as well.
Apple's managed to get back to the lead of the desktop os pack. The question is, where do we go from here?
Filesystem metadata is a must, but give 'em another version or two. After that, I really don't know. Any ideas?
"The Case for Mars", which makes the arguement that we should ignore the moon and instead head on out to the fourth planet.
His arguements:
1) In terms of energy, it's easier to go to Mars from LEO than the moon. (Takes longer, though.)
2) Mars is a more interesting destination: because it has an atmosphere, a lot of engineering obstacles are solved because you can do all sorts of nifty engineering tricks to steal resources from the air.
3) The moon is dead, and has always been dead. Mars, on the other hand, perhaps even once supported life. With effort on our part, perhaps it could again.
Anyways, go to the Mars Direct site.
-Brett
Slightly simpler than that. An old friend of Lucas', first name Stevie, had an investment in an alternate dvd standard known as Divx, which died a slow, horrible death. Stevie, not wanting to kill his own tech, never released his male-Lara Croft movies on DVD, and got his good pal Georgie to keep his space opera off as well.
That is, until recently, when Stevie finally saw the writing on the wall and said "#(*$ it."
Which results in nifty new merchandise for you, the loyal consumer. Go forth! Buy shiny round things!
It's slightly simpler than that...the Windows version of the iPod/iTunes uses Fat32 as a disk format. Not HFS+.
If you get a new iPod and want to use it across both platforms, format it for PC. Then you can use it on either system interchangeably. Best way to go, as it makes it into a nifty portable external hard drive as well. It's how I've got mine set up.
-Brett
1) Most modern nanotech is fixed, a.k.a. it comes with batteries that cannot be replaced. Once the device runs out of power, it dies.
2) The long-term theory is to create self-replicating, self-powering nanobots, which solves problem #1 and #2 at the same time. If you can produce a single one, then all you need is a tub of oil/whatever energy source and raw materials. Drop one in, come back ten hours later, and you're good to go. It's like drug research: making that first pill is a PITA, but after that duplication brings the price down.
3) Depends on the application. Most of this stuff doesn't really need to move, though. It's more of a shotgun approach to solving a problem (throw the nanites in the area) rather than a highly-targeted solution.
Re the rest: quantum computers have yet to show up conventional machines: should we give up research on them?
I've still got a Saturn V kit in my closet (just checked, and yes that's what it is). It's about halfway built, but apparently has survived the past five years fine. Is it really worth anything?
On the other hand, I now seem to have more than enough time on my hands to finish it. Maybe I'll bust out the ole' glue tube out again. And put some in a bag.
(inhales deeply)
-Brett
The injunction also forbids Willis and Griffin from owning or managing any business that advertises over the internet for 10 years.
After 1 January, the state's anti-spam laws will get tougher and will also allow private individuals to sue spammers and collect damages of up to $1,000 per e-mail.
That's a nice pair of little clauses there.
The problem is that these guys were a perfect case: a pair of California spammers spamming people inside California using California computers. Methinks jurisdiction is going to be much more interesting when they try to go after out-of-state/country people. If they do so.
However, it does send a nice message to the bastards. And if just one of 'em decides to not hit that 'send 50 million emails' button, that's a little win for the Internet. We gotta be happy with that, 'cause the government (as usual) is gonna keep the money to itself.
You gotta love a man who has to get a book made just to know what he owns.
Just tell 'em the station's located at one of the corners of the earth. That should keep 'em busy for a while. ;-)
Nah...God uses a mac and is tired of waiting for Office support, so he 'urges' the Israeli government to sue to help fix his problem.
Now, if only he was into gaming. Of course, that would mean that the Bungie aquisition was the work of the devil...
The $131 million in box office is the amount of money forked over to the theatre. They keep about half and pass the rest on to the distributor (read: studio) which takes half again before the producers get their share. So, a more realistic number is about $43 million dollars to the producers. From the $120 million it cost to make it, they've got a ways yet to go.
Granted, when overseas, video/dvd and cable sales come in, they should be in the black.
-Brett
Maybe, but there's some things I wouldn't do to a cow.
With 30-35 million people, Chongqing is the largest municipality in the world. Most people have never heard of it.
-Brett
In addition, it creates a water pathway from 1500 miles inside of China to any place in the world. Chongking, the largest city in the world, is now a seaport!
-Brett
Well, you may be pro-dam, but the hard-line enviromentalists are against dams for ecosystem reasons. From a politican's standpoint, if you don't have their support, there's little point supporting building them because they'll still attack you come election time for destroying the enviroment.
That being said, I'm glad got the chance to visit the Three Gorges before they destroy them.
This thing is big. Really big.
-Brett
A lot of people forget that if you're one in a million, there's a thousand people just like you in both China and India.
Somewhere, hopefully, a bunch of patent lawyers are groaning.
Your own damn fault, guys. You got greedy.
There's only so many people you can harass at the party before you won't get invited to the next ball. Have fun suing each other out of existance.