If the jets are used to gain lift until you're to altitude and then turned off to glide, it's much the same thing as the towed gliders that need to be pulled up with a plane- you're just producing something with enough thrust and light enough to carry with you on the glider- if they're running it all the time, it becomes a jet propelled microlight, and anybody with enough know-how can do that one anyhow.
If you don't have about 50 million or so to do it, you're not going to get the manufacturing capacity to make the motors (They just typically don't make electrics quite that powerful yet...yet...) or the batteries, etc.
It's NOT as simple as all you say or there'd be the same story with autos- the engines we have today aren't anywhere near efficient as they could be. There's a market opportunity there too- but you don't see it either. It's not for want of ability to do it...
One resource that ATI doesn't have enough of is time. They don't have a lot of manpower dedicated to the Linux drivers so there's less effort put into fixing things like this- they're worrying more about piling new exposed features (which is also desired as well...). If there were open source drivers, there'd be a good chance someone like myself would fix the problem in question (I can do this sort of thing, I used to work on the FIRST set of open source Accelerated Drivers (Utah-GLX), which is why I've got a G3 Mac given me by John Carmack (Still in my possession), I've loads of acquaintances from out of Loki Games, and I'm doing work for Linux Game Publishing.)- because I've the skills and I have the time and desire to see it fixed- and the only reason why I've time is that it's a blocker for me to use this laptop I'm posting with as a development machine.
You missed one IMPORTANT detail in this- the documentation to drive the chip is NOT covered under Export Regulations. Only the drivers their OEMS bundle WITH the cards, any technical documentation talking to algos, AND the chip itself are covered by Export Regulations. They don't have a need to restrict the SDK info for that reason.
Once you understand that, this becomes more of a businessman trying to "protect" purported IP type thing.
It's the most security oriented. Funny...a crypto chip vendor spurning the most security oriented OS developers' desires for unfettered acces, etc. No personal info should need to be given to a vendor unless he's entering into a sales relationship with them. Honestly- too much risk of Identity Theft through this sort of thing.
Seriously, I'd have to agree with him on this one- and I'm from the Linux camp and would be driving sales into that segment very shortly. I'd be making a big stink about it too. And what's sad about all these vendors is that they're doing nothing but pissing off the people that'd be helping them sell chips.
In reality, the vendors are doing this because idiot IP lawyers tell them to do so. There should be no IP revealed in the systems interfaces to a device. It should be the silicon equivalent to an API. If there is IP honestly revealed, then you've got something new, and the patent itself should be sufficient to protect it. If you're trying to hide a design flaw by not revealing info- don't. You should design devices with interfaces that make sense and are system safe or can be made so with the right device driver code.
Keeping it secretive helps nobody in reality. For example, ATI's drivers work adequately on the desktop space but are less performant on at least part of the laptop line under Linux- because of a design/coding flaw in the closed source drivers. I can't reccomend anyone get a laptop with an ATI based display because they just don't seem to work as well. If someone had source code and technical data access they could most likely fix the problems in question- unless the chip had a design hickey. Even then, unless it's something that would compromise security, it should be able to be coded around- Windows drivers can do Sideport memory correctly, why can't the Linux support do the same thing?
At any rate, I believe I've drifted from the conversation... Yes Theo's got a niche play- but in the segment that Hifn's in, it's an important one all the same.
COMPLETELY FAIL TO MENTION THAT PSP's PLAY MOVIES!!!
It could be because the capability to play movies on the PSP is limited to the media format to which it mainly is available. If the ability to play movies, etc. was such a big deal then the GP2X should really wail on the PSP and DS because it's nearly twice as powerful AND plays movies. Not to rag on the GP2X (because I'm probably going to get one soon...), but it's not in the same class as a PSP or DS in sales, etc.
Besides, I strongly suspect that the DS could be made to play movies in the same fashion as the GP2X does (via SD card) with a player firmware cartrige with a SD slot in the cartridge body- the reason why you don't see that is because it's less desireable to have that sort of thing and there's better MPEG2/4 players out there if you're going to watch movies.
In reality, movie playback is secondary to overall gameplay for most consumers, no matter what you think- because that's how the market has actually spoken.
They get into a RAFTLOAD of trouble if you report it to the Federal Reserve Board. When shown the regs, the bank branches immediately back down and make the funds available- don't ever let a branch manager tell you that he can't remove the hold as he has the authority to do so. As it stands, they (at least the managers, and I do believe the tellers have one such as that as well) have clauses in their employment agreements when you hire on that you agree that it's a terminatable offense if you involve the bank in a brouhaha such as this- even the whiff of one will typically get the branch manager fired on the spot, not being able to work in that line of business ever again. They're told they're supposed to 100% understand the depository regulations, etc. as it's a legal requirement for them to work in that business- failing to comply is a big nasty deal and the Fed's acted on it before in the past.
Any time they place a 5-day hold on a Government check, get the branch manager to take the thing right off as soon as you see it.
It's in violation of Federal Depository Regulations (The one that governs check cashing, etc.) to place a hold on a Government check- per the regulations, they are to be treated as if the check was a CASH transaction.
It's a violation of Federal law for them to do it and any fees incurred by this hold are due back to you including any fees the people you pay end up charging you, etc. I've had BofA branch managers stand toe to toe with me on that one, only to back down when shown a copy of the actual regs from the Fed website.
They know the regs, even going so far as to being balsy enough to try to palm off things that aren't in the regs as being "per Federal Depository Regulations"- and I've had to jam it down their throats repeatedly. Again, it's a good thing I'm shifting my banking elsewhere; this BS is just one more good reason.
BofA's the "merger" of NationsBank and Bank of America. BofA before this merger was the entity that was the pioneering bank that came up with MICR, etc. BofA after the merger started instituting the policies and practices that made me leave NationsBank for BofA back when I got married and made a joint checking account back some 9 years ago- almost immediately after the deal went down, the rules changed to be just like NationsBank's. You can see who was the top in that merger- and it wasn't BofA. They're NationsBank, just not in name.
In reality, those jobs, outsourced, never QUITE seem to produce the results they think they do.
They always cost more in time, opportunity costs, or actual cash.
Point in fact:
The contract job I'm doing has me writing a Linux system's wrapper library to make their drivers look more normal to Linux developers. They also have a foreign contractor in India developing a similar interface as a kernel module.
I'm getting about 3 times what this guy's getting paid per hour. The tasks in question are comparable in effort to do- and the guy's not an idiot.
I'm into testing on an alpha and trying to figure out where the performance bottlenecks are. He's still not got anything properly working yet.
He started before me by several weeks. I'm where I am in only 4 weeks of 50 hour work weeks- in another set of the same, it'll very likely be a releasable product in the case of my work.
Offshoring doesn't always produce the results you think it will- and in many cases it causes bad will. In a time where companies like Dell, who were one of the first to offshore work, are publicly bringing the work back into the states because it was actually the same end cost with better results to outsource it to places in Oklahoma and similar- the PHB types at BofA are offshoring stuff to India, thinking it'll save them money. Short term, it might. Long term, it's going to cost them all of that savings and possibly more. I'd not want to use a bank that thinks it's okay to outsource any of it's functions to a foreign country that's been known to have it's employees mis-use personal info for personal gain- good thing I've been working on going elsewhere for my banking needs.
But it's even better if you can afford the business line relationship. 5 fixed IP's- they do NOTHING to impair your use thereof so long it's not illegal. With the consumer service plans, you agree not to host servers (this includes things like hosting Quake4, etc.) and they get to dictate a few other things to you. This translates into $99/month because they make you go with the 15/2Mbps or higher service offering at that point- but if you can spend it, it's worth it unless you can afford plunking the cash down on a fractional T3.
The didn't consult their lawyers, they consulted the lawyers of the people they're entering into an agreement with- a formula for disaster. That's what the brouhaha is all about. That's what Debian-legal isn't happy about this- the developers did something that nobody in their right minds would do under any other circumstances. They went and listend to the advice of "opposing" counsel on a contract- the side making the agreement.
If you think this is a good idea, you might want to talk with my lawyer on a contract that I'm going to bind you to. Be more than happy to give you access to him, even- just don't be pissed off at me when I've screwed you out of a lot of time and possibly money.
A lawyer should be consulted on a license- NOT a developer. It's a legal matter, not a coding matter.
There's a legal gotcha on the Java license that SPI, being the legal interface for the Debian project, that if things go wrong, they'd have to absorb and deal with. Without SPI, each of the devs involved with the project would be held individually liable for potentially millions of dollars each (And that is exactly what is possible with the new licensing from Sun on Java).
Do you now see WHY devs shouldn't be the final call on a license?
As long as their laws are worded the way they are, the Police is in Trouble as is the Minister of Justice who ordered the raid. The only reason why they fired up the Bay where they did was to get it back up before the brouhaha was settled.
Basicly, as long as the police are conducting an legitimate investigation you don't get anything.
According to the Swedish news coverage, there is some legitimate doubts as to whether it was a legitimate investigation or not. Their laws don't make linking to infingements an illegality. As such, since The Pirate Bay didn't host anything that is illegal per Swedish law. Now, it gets even better than this. According to people over there the national police happen to keep whingeing about not having enough manpower, etc. to enforce problems like drug trafficing, etc. and little gets done about real problems- but they can muster 50(!) people to "bust" a place that doesn't do anything illegal per their laws as a result of pressure being put on them from MPAA and others in the US. It's my understanding that there's a lot of people pissed about it over there right now.
Magnetic media still can hold the ghost of bits held over a couple of overwrites- and that takes time.
Drilling a hole(s) in the media or slagging it takes less of it and is dead certain to fubar what was on it.
That's how the DoD and other serious government agency types declassify something computerized holding data that is classified Top Secret- you typically don't have time to erase it the right way when in a critical situation so you hit the drives with a thermite bomb, puncture it, etc.
We already HAD a third catagory- "portable". We also had "handheld", but both of the catagories faded into obscurity because of marketing wonks that thought they were pase.
The display being bigger doesn't consume much more than the 15" displays on other laptops. The LCD consumes little, and the backlights might be a little longer and consume more power- but it's minimal compared to the CPU and disk consumption rates (And in the case of this laptop, the GPU rate as well...).
The big complaint I've got about the new Intel Core offerings is that it's not really 64-bit and I need that- and battery life is only part of the equation. Overall capabilities are also paramount for me. So far, the Intel laptop offerings give well enough on the battery front, but don't give as well as the AMD equivalents computationally. Your mileage may vary on that one.
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If the jets are used to gain lift until you're to altitude and then turned off to glide, it's much the same thing as the towed gliders that need to be pulled up with a plane- you're just producing something with enough thrust and light enough to carry with you on the glider- if they're running it all the time, it becomes a jet propelled microlight, and anybody with enough know-how can do that one anyhow.
If you don't have about 50 million or so to do it, you're not going to get the manufacturing capacity to make the motors (They just typically don't make electrics quite that powerful yet...yet...) or the batteries, etc.
It's NOT as simple as all you say or there'd be the same story with autos- the engines we have today aren't anywhere near
efficient as they could be. There's a market opportunity there too- but you don't see it either. It's not for want
of ability to do it...
You had it right the first time...
One resource that ATI doesn't have enough of is time. They don't have a lot of manpower dedicated to the Linux drivers so there's less effort put into fixing things like this- they're worrying more about piling new exposed features (which is also desired as well...). If there were open source drivers, there'd be a good chance someone like myself would fix the problem in question (I can do this sort of thing, I used to work on the FIRST set of open source Accelerated Drivers (Utah-GLX), which is why I've got a G3 Mac given me by John Carmack (Still in my possession), I've loads of acquaintances from out of Loki Games, and I'm doing work for Linux Game Publishing.)- because I've the skills and I have the time and desire to see it fixed- and the only reason why I've time is that it's a blocker for me to use this laptop I'm posting with as a development machine.
I know I was...
I mean, what if they rushed it out, like they did with Daikatana...
...you probably ought to switch to the Rocket Launcher instead. Better effective range, same sort of splash damage...
Context is everything in this sort of thing.
You missed one IMPORTANT detail in this- the documentation to drive the chip is NOT covered under Export Regulations.
Only the drivers their OEMS bundle WITH the cards, any technical documentation talking to algos, AND the chip itself
are covered by Export Regulations. They don't have a need to restrict the SDK info for that reason.
Once you understand that, this becomes more of a businessman trying to "protect" purported IP type thing.
It's the most security oriented. Funny...a crypto chip vendor spurning the most security oriented
OS developers' desires for unfettered acces, etc. No personal info should need to be given to a
vendor unless he's entering into a sales relationship with them. Honestly- too much risk of Identity
Theft through this sort of thing.
Seriously, I'd have to agree with him on this one- and I'm from the Linux camp and would be driving
sales into that segment very shortly. I'd be making a big stink about it too. And what's sad about
all these vendors is that they're doing nothing but pissing off the people that'd be helping them
sell chips.
In reality, the vendors are doing this because idiot IP lawyers tell them to do so. There should
be no IP revealed in the systems interfaces to a device. It should be the silicon equivalent to
an API. If there is IP honestly revealed, then you've got something new, and the patent itself
should be sufficient to protect it. If you're trying to hide a design flaw by not revealing info-
don't. You should design devices with interfaces that make sense and are system safe or can be made
so with the right device driver code.
Keeping it secretive helps nobody in reality. For example, ATI's drivers work adequately on the
desktop space but are less performant on at least part of the laptop line under Linux- because of
a design/coding flaw in the closed source drivers. I can't reccomend anyone get a laptop with an
ATI based display because they just don't seem to work as well. If someone had source code and
technical data access they could most likely fix the problems in question- unless the chip had a
design hickey. Even then, unless it's something that would compromise security, it should be
able to be coded around- Windows drivers can do Sideport memory correctly, why can't the Linux
support do the same thing?
At any rate, I believe I've drifted from the conversation... Yes Theo's got a niche play- but
in the segment that Hifn's in, it's an important one all the same.
It could be because the capability to play movies on the PSP is limited to the media format to which it mainly is available.
If the ability to play movies, etc. was such a big deal then the GP2X should really wail on the PSP and DS because it's nearly
twice as powerful AND plays movies. Not to rag on the GP2X (because I'm probably going to get one soon...), but it's not
in the same class as a PSP or DS in sales, etc.
Besides, I strongly suspect that the DS could be made to play movies in the same fashion as the GP2X does (via SD card) with
a player firmware cartrige with a SD slot in the cartridge body- the reason why you don't see that is because it's less desireable
to have that sort of thing and there's better MPEG2/4 players out there if you're going to watch movies.
In reality, movie playback is secondary to overall gameplay for most consumers, no matter what you think- because that's how
the market has actually spoken.
Yeah, instead of it being grey, it's brown...
They can- but a 3D accelerator's MUCH more complicated to push than a WiFi card.
They get into a RAFTLOAD of trouble if you report it to the Federal Reserve Board. When shown the regs, the bank branches immediately back down and make the funds available- don't ever let a branch manager tell you that he can't remove the hold as he has the authority to do so.
As it stands, they (at least the managers, and I do believe the tellers have one such as that as well) have clauses in their employment agreements when you hire on that you agree that it's a terminatable offense if you involve the bank in a brouhaha such as this- even the whiff of one will typically get the branch manager fired on the spot, not being able to work in that line of business ever again. They're told they're supposed to 100% understand the depository regulations, etc. as it's a legal requirement for them to work in that business- failing to comply is a big nasty deal and the Fed's acted on it before in the past.
Any time they place a 5-day hold on a Government check, get the branch manager to take
the thing right off as soon as you see it.
It's in violation of Federal Depository Regulations (The one that governs check cashing, etc.) to place a hold
on a Government check- per the regulations, they are to be treated as if the check was a CASH
transaction.
It's a violation of Federal law for them to do it and any fees incurred by this hold are due back to you
including any fees the people you pay end up charging you, etc. I've had BofA branch managers stand toe
to toe with me on that one, only to back down when shown a copy of the actual regs from the Fed website.
They know the regs, even going so far as to being balsy enough to try to palm off things that aren't in
the regs as being "per Federal Depository Regulations"- and I've had to jam it down their throats
repeatedly. Again, it's a good thing I'm shifting my banking elsewhere; this BS is just one more good
reason.
BofA's the "merger" of NationsBank and Bank of America. BofA before this merger was the entity that was the pioneering
bank that came up with MICR, etc. BofA after the merger started instituting the policies and practices that made
me leave NationsBank for BofA back when I got married and made a joint checking account back some 9 years ago- almost
immediately after the deal went down, the rules changed to be just like NationsBank's. You can see who was the top
in that merger- and it wasn't BofA. They're NationsBank, just not in name.
In reality, those jobs, outsourced, never QUITE seem to produce the results they think they do.
They always cost more in time, opportunity costs, or actual cash.
Point in fact:
The contract job I'm doing has me writing a Linux system's wrapper library to make their drivers look more normal to Linux developers.
They also have a foreign contractor in India developing a similar interface as a kernel module.
I'm getting about 3 times what this guy's getting paid per hour.
The tasks in question are comparable in effort to do- and the guy's not an idiot.
I'm into testing on an alpha and trying to figure out where the performance bottlenecks are.
He's still not got anything properly working yet.
He started before me by several weeks.
I'm where I am in only 4 weeks of 50 hour work weeks- in another set of the same, it'll
very likely be a releasable product in the case of my work.
Offshoring doesn't always produce the results you think it will- and in many cases it causes
bad will. In a time where companies like Dell, who were one of the first to offshore work,
are publicly bringing the work back into the states because it was actually the same end
cost with better results to outsource it to places in Oklahoma and similar- the PHB types
at BofA are offshoring stuff to India, thinking it'll save them money. Short term, it might.
Long term, it's going to cost them all of that savings and possibly more. I'd not want to
use a bank that thinks it's okay to outsource any of it's functions to a foreign country
that's been known to have it's employees mis-use personal info for personal gain- good
thing I've been working on going elsewhere for my banking needs.
But it's even better if you can afford the business line relationship. 5 fixed IP's- they do NOTHING to impair your use thereof so long it's not illegal. With the consumer service plans, you agree not to host servers (this includes things like hosting Quake4, etc.) and they get to dictate a few other things to you. This translates into $99/month because they make you go with the 15/2Mbps or higher service offering at that point- but if you can spend it, it's worth it unless you can afford plunking the cash down on a fractional T3.
The didn't consult their lawyers, they consulted the lawyers of the people they're entering into an agreement with- a formula for disaster. That's what the brouhaha is all about. That's what Debian-legal isn't happy about this- the developers did something that nobody in their right minds would do under any other circumstances. They went and listend to the advice of "opposing" counsel on a contract- the side making the agreement.
If you think this is a good idea, you might want to talk with my lawyer on a contract that I'm going to bind you to. Be more than happy to give you access to him, even- just don't be pissed off at me when I've screwed you out of a lot of time and possibly money.
Here's a hint:
A lawyer should be consulted on a license- NOT a developer. It's a legal matter, not a coding matter.
There's a legal gotcha on the Java license that SPI, being the legal interface for the Debian
project, that if things go wrong, they'd have to absorb and deal with. Without SPI, each of
the devs involved with the project would be held individually liable for potentially millions
of dollars each (And that is exactly what is possible with the new licensing from Sun on Java).
Do you now see WHY devs shouldn't be the final call on a license?
If Debian makes an "oops" on a licensing item, they might not "still be there".
That's what all this brouhaha is about.
It's because they consulted with Sun's lawyers instead on this that there's an issue.
As long as their laws are worded the way they are, the Police is in Trouble as is the Minister of Justice who ordered the raid. The only reason why they fired up the Bay where they did was to get it back up before the brouhaha was settled.
According to the Swedish news coverage, there is some legitimate doubts as to whether it was a legitimate investigation or not. Their laws don't make linking to infingements an illegality. As such, since The Pirate Bay didn't host anything that is illegal per Swedish law. Now, it gets even better than this. According to people over there the national police happen to keep whingeing about not having enough manpower, etc. to enforce problems like drug trafficing, etc. and little gets done about real problems- but they can muster 50(!) people to "bust" a place that doesn't do anything illegal per their laws as a result of pressure being put on them from MPAA and others in the US. It's my understanding that there's a lot of people pissed about it over there right now.
Magnetic media still can hold the ghost of bits held over a couple of overwrites- and that takes time.
Drilling a hole(s) in the media or slagging it takes less of it and is dead certain to fubar what was on it.
That's how the DoD and other serious government agency types declassify something computerized holding data that is classified Top Secret- you typically don't have time to erase it the right way when in a critical situation so you hit the drives with a thermite bomb, puncture it, etc.
We already HAD a third catagory- "portable". We also had "handheld", but both of the catagories faded into obscurity because of marketing wonks that thought they were pase.
Here's a hint for you...
The display being bigger doesn't consume much more than the 15" displays on other laptops. The LCD consumes little, and the backlights might be a little longer and consume more power- but it's minimal compared to the CPU and disk consumption rates (And in the case of this laptop, the GPU rate as well...).
The big complaint I've got about the new Intel Core offerings is that it's not really 64-bit and I need that- and battery life is only part of the equation. Overall capabilities are also paramount for me. So far, the Intel laptop offerings give well enough on the battery front, but don't give as well as the AMD equivalents computationally. Your mileage may vary on that one.