The problem with this thinking is that you have to provide those affirmative defenses to prosecution in Court with these laws in place.
Do YOU happen to have tens of thousands burning in your pocket for that sort of thing? You don't? Oh, too bad. Guess you'll get a public defender and get the crapshoot that may/may not put you in prison. What? You don't think you'll be put to the test with this law? Think again.
Okay, so far you're on the money there- $389 is close enough to that that I can believe rebates or sale prices (Always try to get the best deal, folks...;-) ). But those critical parts you mention only take you so far. Without a good motherboard, power supply, and case, coupled with a suitable monitor do you have a "gaming rig".
Let's do those numbers, shall we?
Asus P5KE Motherboard - $160 Antec Solo Case - $100 Antec TruePower 500W -$120
Heh... And we've not even got to the HD, DVD, or display yet and we've pretty much doubled your stated amount and are sitting somewhere around $769 for that much and we're not even done with the rig.
If you've got parts lying around, your $350's a reasonable statement. If you don't, your gaming rig will not perform as well or last long without doing the other things I mention- scrimping on parts always has a cost associated with it. Doing that ends up rising the price to closer to $1000. Somewhere between 800-1100 before it's all said and done.
Having said this, it's not as bad as the GP poster made it out to be. I certainly don't think it's all that and a bag of chips too- but it definitely was worth the $20 I paid for the thing. I'm looking forward to getting the next episodes, myself.
What the OP was referring to was the fact that this device is spartan in comparison to the ARMv6 and ARMv7 cores that're available and about to show up for use- they weren't implying in the slightest that the XScale wasn't ARM.
I don't think the OP was referring to that they weren't ARM. They're an OLD ARM variant that's occasionally painful to use.
ARMv6 and ARMv7 derived systems are much nicer devices, esp. if you're using one that includes the FP, SIMD, Jazelle, and other feature sets provided in these cores. With XScale, you get an ARM5TE core. With these you're getting an ARM6TE or an ARM7TE capable device. Which would YOU rather work with?
ARM's used all over the place. Mostly in embedded work.
Just because YOU don't get to deal with it doesn't mean it exists or that it's not pervasive. Roughly 1/3-1/2 the mobile phones out there (Just not the smart phones yet, perversely...) use it. It's used in mission critical systems where you need an armored POSIX compliant OS but don't need "real-time" support like LynxOS provides. It's used all over the place in telecom for monitoring and analysis (I should know, I work for one of the primary players in that game on contract right at the moment...)
If my recollection is correct (and it may not be...), only the Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 core designs are superscalar in nature, and only the A9 is out-of-order.
As it stands, though, the A8 seems to be in a position to paste most of the ARM11 derived designs (Which are awesome to begin with...), being something on the order of twice as fast per clock without any appreciable power consumption increase- based off the comparisons made so far. An A9 will be even faster.
They've been trying and failing since at least 2003...
Where it didn't go over in a major grocery store chain with select Disney titles down in Austin, TX.
Followed up by another distinct failure in the US in 2004 in which they simultaneously released Noel to the Flexiplay and the theaters- and caused a revolt in the theater circuit where the movie didn't get much of any traction.
Followed up by a distinct failure in Japan in 2005.
I foresee another embarrassing failure on the horizon for them and for Staples.
Indeed, this is the case- and that's what most people, even the sharesellers, don't seem to get.
There's a set of specific obligations that a BoD and the Company Execs have to everything- sometimes it's to the shareholders, sometimes it's to the company. Some of the obligations end up overlapping, sometimes they're at odds and you have to actually consider the company, it's employees, etc. FIRST.
Only in the short term. When you use the share value for the only metric and the only way to extract value out of your investment in a company, all you have is sharesellers which precipitates things that are clearly unsustainable and while they increase short term valuation, they eventually deep-six the company or actually lower the shareholder value over time.
I suspect that selling to MS would have been one of those "conflicting" goals type things.
Because it's already largely done. Angstrom's not focusing on the form factor right at the moment (though you COULD use it...), Debian's not geared for it, and so forth.
Besides, it was a suggestion, not a requirement. If you want to use something else, just knock yourself out- it IS an open system, you know.
All it'll take is a Linux derived version of the thing- considering that most OGG players are software based, all it'll take is an ARM Linux distribution and the source will be quickly ported from the Maemo or Ubuntu Mobile trees if needed (not that this will be the case...).
Heh... Odds are, it's got the same performance profile in that regard, to the OMAP3 devices. And they're delivering that sort of muscle to the prototypes we're seeing from those devices- with estimated 10 hour operating times on a charge.
OTA is Over The Air. It is an explicit term that refers to the PAL/NTSC signals sent via traditional video broadcast or the over the airwaves ATSC signal.
It does not cover for pay services such as Cable or Satellite which were delivered with DRM in place of sorts in many cases. My statement is applying to what was ORIGINALLY Television and what most people are used to. For those services, they didn't HAVE DRM (until now, that is...;-) ) and people expect a certain level of service ability (like TIVO/DVD-R/VCR record time-shift...)- which was taken away just now on the ATSC feeds because someone insisted that they needed this ability, even though they really weren't entitled to it by the laws and past jurisprudence.
If that's the case, why did you drop it after "months" of work? Because it was no longer fun? If the rules didn't preclude the camera design, it should have been accepted or at least you could have gotten (and given us) a reason WHY the person was being unreasonable about it. As it stands, all it sounds like to the public with what we're reading is that you encountered a small bit of resistance of a bureaucratic nature within the judging org, decided it was un-fun at that point, took your marbles and went home.
From that perspective, it does, unfortunately, look childish. I'm not accusing you of that mind- it's just that it looks that without any other details forthcoming from you or the X Prize people.
If the camera wasn't going to work under the rules, then either the team didn't pay attention to them (Sorry guys, I don't care HOW hard you worked on it- if it wasn't to spec on the rules, it's not there and it shouldn't be allowed...) or they didn't try hard enough to negotiate on things.
Just because the stuff they put all their efforts into wasn't working out because of beuracracy, they're just going to give up.
I don't think fact bears you out here actually. The 7/7 attacks notwithstanding, many of the attacks and foiled attacks have been fairly amateurish (thankfully!). These guys really could benefit from some quality info on how to kill en masse.
Considering that we've not really zoomed the people behind the September 11th attacks yet, is it really a good idea to presume we're stopping any of the real plans or are these groups with amateurish attempts more than a distraction to keep us all busy while they plan and execute the real deal?
Unfortunately, you will not get this as a choice in most cases. They've slapped EULAs on the machines themselves- you don't use Windows, at the minimum they will flat-out not support you. If you don't accept the EULA, in some cases, they've verbiage stating that the vendor won't take just Windows back- they will only take the whole machine back. (Gives a sideways nasty look in HP's direction...)
Blithely saying just return the EULA isn't going to work.
Saving money is all well and good- but when it contributes to the problem, unless you just simply can't swing the "extra expense" you should probably be doing DIY instead where you're not adding to their sales figures- which is what happens when you buy a unit, even if you return it because of the way their accounting for this stuff is done.
Considering that they've tied acceptance of the machine (warranty and all) with the acceptance of the Windows Vista EULA with recent machines...
In the end, you're NOT helping things by buying the Windows machine. If you're not running Windows and they're not selling bare machines or ones with your OS of choice on it you're not really their customer- even though you're buying the machine. If you've no choice (no funds, no buying options...) this is a lesser of two evils thing- it's okay.
It's not so okay if you've got a choice. Sure it's cheaper- but each purchase of Windows or a Windows application is a VOTE with your dollars for MORE of the same crap.
That's not analogous. This was there to preclude copying content provided by the cartels via video tape. There's no MacroVision over the air waves (until now, that is...) and hasn't been for years. The GP poster wasn't stating that DRM hasn't been around or that an otherwise completely legit tool for cleaning up the video on dodgy VHS-C and Beta camcorder tapes would strip out the MacroVision crap. What he was referring to was the DRM that just got applied that precludes even RECORDING OTA television that just got inflicted on MS customers- something they've been able to do since the first consumer VCRs came out.
Considering that NT 4 was less resource intensive than 2000 or XP, I call bullshit.
I've dealt with machines from NT4 forward that met those criteria and none of them were responsive in the sense of what most people would call it without at LEAST 128Mb of RAM, and we won't get into the CPU which isn't the same CPU that one would be talking about in the Geode GX2 that is in the OLPC.
The Geode in question probably would compare to the slowest PII- this is because while it's clock is about 500MHz and has about the same class of core, the FSB is locked to 66MHz, which is up from the 33MHz that the predecessor ran at. This was done to allow the thing to run "at full speed without L2 Cache against PC-100 memory" in the case of the GX1 as a cost and power saving measure. Unfortunately, it also crippled it's overall performance and suitability for anything past a media kiosk type setup in a mall. The Geode in the OLPC is suitable to task and performs nicely enough with the purpose built software- but XP will be this lurching horror on these things overall, without some serious mods done to it.
Considering that the key architects left the OLPC project to start up a company to implement many of the hardware ideas in the commercial space at the same general pricing as what the OLPC was gunning for, I think that this will end up happening.
I think the whole project's been doomed for some time now, as much from Microsoft's and Intel's meddling as the fact that they've lost their way somewhere along the way. (If you're going to MS and one of the stated goals is being able to learn from code and all, you've obviously lost your focus- there's no other way to describe that, and stating that "the countries were wanting Windows" is garbage...especially in light of the fact that the thing needs an EOLed version of it that has nothing really in common other than the ABI to even RUN "Windows" in the first place...)
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The problem with this thinking is that you have to provide those affirmative defenses to prosecution in Court with these laws in place.
Do YOU happen to have tens of thousands burning in your pocket for that sort of thing? You don't? Oh, too bad. Guess you'll get a public defender and get the crapshoot that may/may not put you in prison. What? You don't think you'll be put to the test with this law? Think again.
Quite a few people, actually. Let's do retail numbers on the system you're describing...
;-) ). But those critical parts you mention only take you so far. Without a good motherboard, power supply, and case, coupled with a suitable monitor do you have a "gaming rig".
8800GT w/512 Mb DDR2 - $180
E7200 Core Duo @ 2.53 GHz - $139
OCZ Low-Latency DDR2 2Gb - $70
Okay, so far you're on the money there- $389 is close enough to that that I can believe rebates or sale prices (Always try to get the best deal, folks...
Let's do those numbers, shall we?
Asus P5KE Motherboard - $160
Antec Solo Case - $100
Antec TruePower 500W -$120
Heh... And we've not even got to the HD, DVD, or display yet and we've pretty much doubled your stated amount and are sitting somewhere around $769 for that much and we're not even done with the rig.
If you've got parts lying around, your $350's a reasonable statement. If you don't, your gaming rig will not perform as well or last long without doing the other things I mention- scrimping on parts always has a cost associated with it. Doing that ends up rising the price to closer to $1000. Somewhere between 800-1100 before it's all said and done.
Within an audience, it can be.
Having said this, it's not as bad as the GP poster made it out to be. I certainly don't think it's all that and a bag of chips too- but it definitely was worth the $20 I paid for the thing. I'm looking forward to getting the next episodes, myself.
You got modded "informative"?
YES, the XScale is an ARMv5TE type core.
What the OP was referring to was the fact that this device is spartan in comparison to the ARMv6 and ARMv7 cores that're available and about to show up for use- they weren't implying in the slightest that the XScale wasn't ARM.
I don't think the OP was referring to that they weren't ARM. They're an OLD ARM variant that's occasionally painful to use.
ARMv6 and ARMv7 derived systems are much nicer devices, esp. if you're using one that includes the FP, SIMD, Jazelle, and other feature sets provided in these cores. With XScale, you get an ARM5TE core. With these you're getting an ARM6TE or an ARM7TE capable device. Which would YOU rather work with?
ARM's used all over the place. Mostly in embedded work.
Just because YOU don't get to deal with it doesn't mean it exists or that it's not pervasive. Roughly 1/3-1/2 the mobile phones out there (Just not the smart phones yet, perversely...) use it. It's used in mission critical systems where you need an armored POSIX compliant OS but don't need "real-time" support like LynxOS provides. It's used all over the place in telecom for monitoring and analysis (I should know, I work for one of the primary players in that game on contract right at the moment...)
Not all of them come with out-of-order.
If my recollection is correct (and it may not be...), only the Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 core designs are superscalar in nature, and only the A9 is out-of-order.
As it stands, though, the A8 seems to be in a position to paste most of the ARM11 derived designs (Which are awesome to begin with...), being something on the order of twice as fast per clock without any appreciable power consumption increase- based off the comparisons made so far. An A9 will be even faster.
They've been trying and failing since at least 2003...
Where it didn't go over in a major grocery store chain with select Disney titles down in Austin, TX.
Followed up by another distinct failure in the US in 2004 in which they simultaneously released Noel to the Flexiplay and the theaters- and caused a revolt in the theater circuit where the movie didn't get much of any traction.
Followed up by a distinct failure in Japan in 2005.
I foresee another embarrassing failure on the horizon for them and for Staples.
Indeed, this is the case- and that's what most people, even the sharesellers, don't seem to get.
There's a set of specific obligations that a BoD and the Company Execs have to everything- sometimes it's to the shareholders, sometimes it's to the company. Some of the obligations end up overlapping, sometimes they're at odds and you have to actually consider the company, it's employees, etc. FIRST.
Only in the short term. When you use the share value for the only metric and the only way to extract value out of your investment in a company, all you have is sharesellers which precipitates things that are clearly unsustainable and while they increase short term valuation, they eventually deep-six the company or actually lower the shareholder value over time.
I suspect that selling to MS would have been one of those "conflicting" goals type things.
Because it's already largely done. Angstrom's not focusing on the form factor right at the moment (though you COULD use it...), Debian's not geared for it, and so forth.
Besides, it was a suggestion, not a requirement. If you want to use something else, just knock yourself out- it IS an open system, you know.
All it'll take is a Linux derived version of the thing- considering that most OGG players are software based, all it'll take is an ARM Linux distribution and the source will be quickly ported from the Maemo or Ubuntu Mobile trees if needed (not that this will be the case...).
Patience...
Pandora comes...and it is looking like it's going to largely deliver on the "promises" it makes.
Heh... Odds are, it's got the same performance profile in that regard, to the OMAP3 devices. And they're delivering that sort of muscle to the prototypes we're seeing from those devices- with estimated 10 hour operating times on a charge.
OTA is Over The Air. It is an explicit term that refers to the PAL/NTSC signals sent via traditional video broadcast or the over the airwaves ATSC signal.
;-) ) and people expect a certain level of service ability (like TIVO/DVD-R/VCR record time-shift...)- which was taken away just now on the ATSC feeds because someone insisted that they needed this ability, even though they really weren't entitled to it by the laws and past jurisprudence.
It does not cover for pay services such as Cable or Satellite which were delivered with DRM in place of sorts in many cases. My statement is applying to what was ORIGINALLY Television and what most people are used to. For those services, they didn't HAVE DRM (until now, that is...
If that's the case, why did you drop it after "months" of work? Because it was no longer fun? If the rules didn't preclude the camera design, it should have been accepted or at least you could have gotten (and given us) a reason WHY the person was being unreasonable about it. As it stands, all it sounds like to the public with what we're reading is that you encountered a small bit of resistance of a bureaucratic nature within the judging org, decided it was un-fun at that point, took your marbles and went home.
From that perspective, it does, unfortunately, look childish. I'm not accusing you of that mind- it's just that it looks that without any other details forthcoming from you or the X Prize people.
That kind of was my impression.
If the camera wasn't going to work under the rules, then either the team didn't pay attention to them (Sorry guys, I don't care HOW hard you worked on it- if it wasn't to spec on the rules, it's not there and it shouldn't be allowed...) or they didn't try hard enough to negotiate on things.
Just because the stuff they put all their efforts into wasn't working out because of beuracracy, they're just going to give up.
Like you said, AC, nice...
Considering that we've not really zoomed the people behind the September 11th attacks yet, is it really a good idea to presume we're stopping any of the real plans or are these groups with amateurish attempts more than a distraction to keep us all busy while they plan and execute the real deal?
Unfortunately, you will not get this as a choice in most cases. They've slapped EULAs on the machines themselves- you don't use Windows, at the minimum they will flat-out not support you. If you don't accept the EULA, in some cases, they've verbiage stating that the vendor won't take just Windows back- they will only take the whole machine back. (Gives a sideways nasty look in HP's direction...)
Blithely saying just return the EULA isn't going to work.
Saving money is all well and good- but when it contributes to the problem, unless you just simply can't swing the "extra expense" you should probably be doing DIY instead where you're not adding to their sales figures- which is what happens when you buy a unit, even if you return it because of the way their accounting for this stuff is done.
Considering that they've tied acceptance of the machine (warranty and all) with the acceptance of the Windows Vista EULA with recent machines...
In the end, you're NOT helping things by buying the Windows machine. If you're not running Windows and they're not selling bare machines or ones with your OS of choice on it you're not really their customer- even though you're buying the machine. If you've no choice (no funds, no buying options...) this is a lesser of two evils thing- it's okay.
It's not so okay if you've got a choice. Sure it's cheaper- but each purchase of Windows or a Windows application is a VOTE with your dollars for MORE of the same crap.
That's not analogous. This was there to preclude copying content provided by the cartels via video tape. There's no MacroVision over the air waves (until now, that is...) and hasn't been for years. The GP poster wasn't stating that DRM hasn't been around or that an otherwise completely legit tool for cleaning up the video on dodgy VHS-C and Beta camcorder tapes would strip out the MacroVision crap. What he was referring to was the DRM that just got applied that precludes even RECORDING OTA television that just got inflicted on MS customers- something they've been able to do since the first consumer VCRs came out.
They're in more danger from the Government and the people enforcing these laws than they are from the real criminals.
Heh... RIIIGHT.
Considering that NT 4 was less resource intensive than 2000 or XP, I call bullshit.
I've dealt with machines from NT4 forward that met those criteria and none of them were responsive in the sense of what most people would call it without at LEAST 128Mb of RAM, and we won't get into the CPU which isn't the same CPU that one would be talking about in the Geode GX2 that is in the OLPC.
The Geode in question probably would compare to the slowest PII- this is because while it's clock is about 500MHz and has about the same class of core, the FSB is locked to 66MHz, which is up from the 33MHz that the predecessor ran at. This was done to allow the thing to run "at full speed without L2 Cache against PC-100 memory" in the case of the GX1 as a cost and power saving measure. Unfortunately, it also crippled it's overall performance and suitability for anything past a media kiosk type setup in a mall. The Geode in the OLPC is suitable to task and performs nicely enough with the purpose built software- but XP will be this lurching horror on these things overall, without some serious mods done to it.
Considering that the key architects left the OLPC project to start up a company to implement many of the hardware ideas in the commercial space at the same general pricing as what the OLPC was gunning for, I think that this will end up happening.
I think the whole project's been doomed for some time now, as much from Microsoft's and Intel's meddling as the fact that they've lost their way somewhere along the way. (If you're going to MS and one of the stated goals is being able to learn from code and all, you've obviously lost your focus- there's no other way to describe that, and stating that "the countries were wanting Windows" is garbage...especially in light of the fact that the thing needs an EOLed version of it that has nothing really in common other than the ABI to even RUN "Windows" in the first place...)