At any rate. A lot of "technical" folk will say, let's use NAT! And that will work for maybe a few years, maybe a decade or so, but then eventually that will break down. Finally, people will just shrug their shoulders and say, "Well, I guess it's finally time we switched over to IPv6." IPv6 is indeed the solution, but we've first got to do every other solution just because for some reason that's who we are.
Actually, NAT"s been around for what, 2 decades now? IPv4 would've been exhausted before the millennium otherwise.
The big thing with IPv6 is that it doesn't solve everything. Everyone has overhyped it as the magic sword that does everything, when it doesn't.
Case in point - everything will again have their own IP address and you don't have to use stuff like STUN or other things because end-to-end connectivity is guaranteed. False, since firewalls are still around, and just because both ends can see each other doesn't mean they can talk to each other.
Then there's the "guilty PC" problem that the content creators oh-so-love. It's hard to identify people from PCs now because so many devices share a single IP address. But when that single IP means a single device, it's a heck of a lot easier.
Then there's NAT. Which is a WONDERFUL technology when you want to isolate your network numbering from someone else. You know, like how you can have a networking using 10/8 or other static IPs and they talk to the gateway and all that. And when your ISP decides to give you a new IP address, your work pretty much is zero?
Well, with IPv6 right now, if your ISP changes your prefix, have fun resetting the configuration of everything to use that new prefix. Hope the auto-discovery picks everything up and maybe things will work. If not, have fun debugging. And while NATv6 is defined, many places (e.g., Linux) refuse to accept it. I mean, is it so bad that my internal network... works? And if my ISP gives me a new prefix I do diddly squat like right now? Or that I don't have to remember what the IP is of the PC next to me is after it's prefix changes?
Then again, tell ISPs that they should inspect the QoS bits in an IPv6 packet header to determine how to charge for it. If it's set to high priority, well, $$$ for that packet. That'll see really fast rollouts when they realize they can charge for packets that set the QoS bit other than low priority low effort.
The real test of a SteamBox is whether you can quit Steam, access the underlying OS and install other software. AFAIK that is eminently possible under SteamOS - whether Steam Boxes will be locked down is unknown (it would be a mistake).
In other words, if you can get at the kernel, get root, you've just made SteamBox great with cheaters.
Yes, cheaters.
Because if you have access to root, you can load kernel modules, and if you can do that, rootkitting your SteamBox to isolate VAC from your cheats becomes a trivial matter. And nothing Valve can do about it because any checks VAC does for cheats can be hidden away because you have kernel access and can lock out VAC. Even if VAC was kernel implemented doesn't mean you can't isolate it from the kernel.
So yeah, we have that problem.
The other issue with SteamBox is well, it's $550 for an i3?! Given it has to last as long as say, a console (let's be generous and say It has to last 5 years). Are you telling me a SteamBox with an i3 will last that long? Or are we going to run into what happened 4 years ago where people complained the Xbox360 and PS3 were holding back PC games because of their old graphics processors? Except now you're going to have to support some guy who paid more than an Xbone with Kinect and got the wimpiest system and still expects to play at 1080p?
Or are you going to have to spend more than a PS4, Xbone, and 5 years worth of PS+ and Live Gold to get a system to last that long?
Or have to spend money every year upgrading your SteamBox?
These people bought it because it was hyped as a next-gen console that was also a PC so they bought the one that cost the least because why spend more when a PS4 or Xbone was cheaper?
That's still pretty much the case; the difference today is that some people make, or try to make, their living off playing & broadcasting their gameplay. This means they need to be able to run the latest games at the highest specs, record and livestream all at the same time without missing a beat.
Most live streams barely do VGA quality, never mind 1080p. And most video cards can do 1080p quite easily, so even if you live stream, 1080p is the max other people are going to see. Gaming on a 10 4K monitor setup with a honking fast video card? Yeah, you're awesome, but everyone watching you won't notice the difference between your awesome setup and someone gaming on a 24" 1080p monitor.
However for the adjustment to be accepted for computer integrated eye wear, society needs to make a greater moral adjustment. That being all about who people really are versus who they pretend to be and how they adjust that for various social interactions. So greater acceptance of what is normal behaviour but is publicly denied as being so.
There's the rub - what is normal? Is a lesbian/gay couple walking down the street normal? In a lot of places it is, but there are a lot of places where it isn't, and a surreptitious photo of it can be devastating, especially in small towns.
Nevermind narcissists and psychopaths. Just normal life isn't normal.
Would using a strip club be normal? Would you want your name and photo of you doing so plastered over the Internet? What about gun and ammo stores? What about someone using an abortion clinic (even if it was just to get information)? What about using a public bathroom (anywhere - bar, restaurant, office, etc)? (Hell, it's actually illegal for employers to actually have a surveillance camera anywhere where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, like a bathroom)
These are normal, legitimate and legal activities, but I don't think patrons would like, nor appreciate these activities to be broadcasted through the world.
And the problem with society is the morals to not want to know and peek into the lives of people who do these things isn't there. We're pretty much all voyeuristic to some extent - we're curious.
The real problem isn't Glass, it's Glassholes and the general public. Society just isn't respectful enough of others. Sure just because you can, and it allows you, doesn't mean you should. (We have enough problems with people who over-share online, and a whole pile of lawsuits over photos have occurred lately).
Their entire argument seems to revolve around the assumption that the only reason someone might want to own or wear Google Glass is to surreptitiously take pictures or video of them. There's a much smaller contingent that looks at its current form-factor and screams: "NERRRRRD!!!". But by far and large, the anti-Glass hate comes from the: "You're wearing that thing to take pictures of me, Me, ME!!!". That level of arrogance and narcissism both astounds and confounds me.
I know right? I mean, why are they so worked up that Google decided to use facial recognition on photos uploaded?
I mean, no one got worked up over the NSA spying on them, right? So who cares if the spies are government, or your neighbours, or anyone else? I mean, you're in public, your data is public, so who cares if it's recorded for all posterity? And tagged with you. I mean, having the information that you were tagged leaving a gun store to buy some ammo would publicly give you an alibi should your wife get shot, right?
Face it - the real reason is that Google's going to use it to track people who AREN'T the people the Glass users are taking photos of. I mean, having Google accidentally know you were leaving a strip club can't possibly hurt you in any way, right?
Finally - the other opposition to Glass comes from Glass users themselves. Why do you think the world "Glasshole" is now well known? Because self-important idiots who have it start using them in VERY inappropriate ways just to say "Look, I have Glass!". These ways involve things that people would otherwise not even bother doing with their cellphones. Or, why is it that Google has to come up with a list of basic common sense recommendations on using Glass? Because these idiots are basically ruining any chance of mass acceptance because the public ends up believing Glass owners are assholes (i.e., Glassholes) who cannot behave properly in public, and not only make a fool of themselves, but given their propensity to do idiotic things, are likely to act out and do things considered very inappropriate.
Or, how about a Glass user entering a public bathroom? You know, employers have been sued for having cameras in places people would have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Seems like a great way to bypass those issues if they hand their employees Glass and oh, happen to monitor them from time to time.
Granted, it can have some good. Imagine there were more Glass users out there, and the three most recent public mass shootings might not have happened, because those shooters would've been captured amassing stockpiles of weapons or behaving oddly as captured by random Glass users. So maybe the authorities could perhaps keep track of those potentially unstable users.
Will I, as a PC gamer, be able to play online with my console playing buddies? I will literally throw money at the Rockstar offices over this.
There are many significant issues with this, actually. And it's not about linking up PSN, Xbox Live and whatever other systems together. (That's the easy part!)
The biggest issue is the disparity in controls. Secondary is disparity in graphics - every system renders the same thing slightly differently, and you can easily bet there will be tons of exploits for glitches on each platform to gain an advantage. Like a spot may cause a framerate drop on Xbox One, making it a good spot to get an advantage. Or likewise other similar problem spots on other platforms. Engineering these out is extremely difficult and can turn an otherwise fun evening of gaming into a frustrating mess.
(On a PC, things are generally varied enough that glitches like these aren't super exploitable).
Yes, there is a.us, but no one uses it. Even US governmental entities don't use.us or.gov most of the time; lots of town governments and other entities have.com or.org domains for some dumb reason. In Arizona for instance, the DMV (they call it MVD) website is "servicearizona.com". WTF? It should be something like mvd.az.gov.us. But I guess they think that's too hard for idiots to remember. In this age of Google (and other search engines), websites don't need to be that easy to remember; if you don't remember your state's motor vehicle department website, it's easy to google it.
It IS too hard for idiots to remember. Basically, if you don't have a.com, your only means of being found is Google. (And we all know how Google can be fickle).
People automatically assume.com on everything, so much so that even Netscape will try a lookup of "www." what-you-typed ".com" just in case. (Yes, Netscape).
Service Arizona sounds like a governmental portal site - which through a bunch of advertising everyone probably will just type servicearizona.com out of habit as a one-stop shop to do all your state government tasks.
They'd definitely not remember service.az.us or something like that. Hell, they'll probably complain as to why their web address is so hard to remember.
Oh, and don't forget Google plays a part of this, since SEO has made it so domains and such get a better match. "Service Arizona" will have a better match as servicearizona.com or service-Arizona.com than service.az.us. It's why every site now puts the page title in the URL even though it's completely unnecessary since the ID is embedded in the link. It matches better on Google.
except in Europe crime has gone down even farther, and they have even stricter gun laws. so how can you be right and wrong at the same time?
Or take Canada. Over the period of a month, there have been 3 separate mass shootings in the US, and one in Canada.
In the US, they're calling for more regulations (which is going to be impossible - there's already a 1:1 ratio of guns and population), Canada has around 1/30th as many (or 1/3rd as many per capita).
The shooting in Canada didn't lead to calls to regulate guns - it was understood the shooter was pretty much a loony extremist, and the victim's families (all police officers) are boing publicly memorialized today.
The problem is not guns, it's gun culture. Canada just has less of it.
And the NRA's claim that mass shootings end earlier when more citizens are armed? Well, I have one question - will you sacrifice your life to protect a stranger? (Not counting when it's your occupation to do so - i.e., LEO, firefighter, etc). Would you, as Joe Random Citizen, willingly put yourself in harm's way (and maybe even in legal trouble) to shoot the armed gunman threatening someone you have no feelings towards, and no relation?
(Most people would if it was their family members being threatened, but some random average stranger giving the ultimate sacrifice to protect some other random average stranger? No doubt there will be a few, but I don't think arming them contributes significantly)
As for legal trouble, I mean if you miss and injure the guy - maybe permanently.
Sadly I have to agree. All the strips that have been around for a while are on auto-pilot, coasting along on their fame. The creators are putting zero effort into them.
Probably an effect of the decline of newspapers - comic strips were often syndicated and a chunk of payment. Because newspapers are in trouble (which I find sad - there's something to be said of glancing at the news you didn't bother caring about to at least broaden one's horizone), they're cutting their comics. And reduced circulations mean lower payments as well.
It won't surprise me that these artists aren't making as much as they once were, and are having to cut back, which mean that they're often working second jobs, which means less time to spend on the comic.
Sure, many of these comics are online, but they don't really pay all that much online. Plus the relative difficulty in getting a comic page's worth of comics (because they've all got different syndicators) and websites means well, visits are few. At least, without paying - many will email you the comics if you pay for the service.
Either AT&T is incompetent, or (quite possibly) the Canadian carriers are gouging.
FYI - carriers don't make money on regular subscriptions. Instead, ROAMING charges fuel the profits. And they're HUGE profits - think $/minute for a phone call, 5 cents per kB (not kiB) not including headers, etc. (At 5c/kB, that's $50/MB)
In fact, if you ever wondered why Telus and Bell (Canadian carriers, who normally did CDMA) installed 3G HSPA equipment 5 years ago... it's because Bell was a huge Olympic sponsor. And with athletes and visitors coming to Canada, they will most likely be carrying GSM/3GPP phones. And whose network would THOSE roam on? Rogers, who didn't sponsor the Olympics.
So Bell would be sponsoring the Olympics, but Rogers would be picking up the massive profits from roaming visitors. Naturally that needed to be fixed which is why Telus/Bell (who share equipment) rolled out HSPA equipment post-haste so they could at least get at that roaming profit. Given they have 1x equipment normally, the sensible plan would've been to just install LTE equipment when it became available.
So yeah, Canada carriers DO gouge, and your data was probably charged at an "innocent" rate of pennies per kB. $750 for 50MB would be 1.5 cents/kB.
I have a BofA credit card in California. I went to Seattle for the weekend and BofA blocked my credit card. BofA is terrible. I'm going to Europe in a few days. I called them to tell them I'm traveling. I don't have high expectations that they won't block my card again. I have other cards.
The thing is, the blocking is automatic, but the unblocking is not.
When you call your bank, what really happens usually is they make a note in your file "XXX is travelling to YYY between AA/BB/CC and DD/EE/FF".
The fraud detector is typically a neural network trained in your purchases. If you make a purchase, that neural network determines if it fits with the pattern of your shopping. If it doesn't, it throws an exception. It's up to someone working to determine if that exception Is valid or not.
Of course, if you have any quantity of cards doing this on a daily basis, it's easy to miss the fact someone may have a valid legitimate reason for the card being used where it shouldn't be normally and they forget to see it in their file.
It baffles me how this is possible. For example: "John Winborn, chief information officer for the Cowboys, said that at the Thanksgiving Day game against Oakland, nearly 19,000 fans at one time were connected to the stadium's Wi-Fi network through cellphones and other mobile devices. Over the course of the game, more than 32,000 fans connected." Wifi only has about 10 channels right? So at least a couple thousand devices per channel at one time. A stadium (including seating) is only about 600 feet long and wide, how many cells can that really be divided into?
Enterprise APs let you control the amount of power that's used for the transmitter. If you're going to serve 10,000 users, each AP can really only handle around 20-50 users before it starts to get crowded.
In an enterprise installation, what they do is the limit the transmit power and use more directional antennas to ensure the cell size is small enough that only that many people can really see the AP, and a neighboring AP will handle the cell next to it.
I use the term "cell" because it's similar to what cellphone providers do.
And sometimes the cells are small that the transmit power is severely cut down.
Consumer APs are generally set to the highest possible power that the hardware was designed for, so as to cast a strong signal everywhere using one AP. This is good for home use, but is not what you want for enterprise use as you don't want max power - you want controllable power to reduce the range so not too many people can associate with the AP at a time.
Or why they have split radios and AP controllers - because you need a lot of radios (especially in the spectator area) but not a lot of transmit power so not too many people actually connect at once.
Those who keep good records used to get the $5 back from their boss, just charging it to the card they charge the rest of the trip expenses to. Who did this suck for? The kids who were traveling on vacation... yep, WiFi is the entertainment system that keeps you from getting bored at the airport.
Still billed back to the boss - generally falls under reasonable expenses.
As for kids - well, they don't NEED WiFi to be entertained. Sure it's easy to stick 'em in front of Netflix or something, but half the time they're just using apps that work just fine without WiFi.
Either that, or their phone has a data connection that can be used in place of WiFi.
Then again, I've seen airports do interesting things with their wifi - "freemium" being the most common. Yes, freemium WiFi. Basically they give you anywhere from 30-45 minutes a day for free, then charge extra for more time (or give up a pile of personal information to double the time)..
This is a flaw, but it requires both ends use vulnerable OpenSSL versions. Which means your day-to-day life may or may not be affected that much.
I mean, if you use iOS, OS X, or Windows, you're more than likely NOT using OpenSSL on the client side (except say, if you use Firefox on Windows) - since Apple and Microsoft have their own SSL implementations. If you have an Android phone or tablet, then yes, it's quite likely an issue, and while both are popular, people generally don't use them that much for data (iOS traffic, after 7 years, has finally dropped to below 50% of all mobile traffic out there, despite Android outselling iOS by a huge margin). And nevermind the oddball Linux user.
So the real question is, how many people really ARE affected?
Heartbleed affects everyone because it exposes server secrets irrespective of the client side. But this vulnerability is only really present if both ends use OpenSSL.
The 3000 km is about 1864 miles. So, how long does it usually take you to rack up that mileage?
The average car in the US travels approximately 20,000 miles/year. It's generally what they base warranties on and other things like leases.Some drive more, some drive less, but 20,000 average has held up for a long time now. (When you see those "160,000 mile/8 year power train warranty" - guess what!)
A battery that gets you 1800 miles per change would therefore require 11 changes a year, or just over a month's average driving.
You better hope that they have a regular battery in there and use the primary cell (yes, it's not recharging) as a range extender for those few trips that exceed the secondary cell capacity.
In this case, it'll be slightly better than those cars like the BMW and Volt that are primarily electric but tow a gas generator with them to offer extended range operations. This one keeps the existing simple low-maintenance electric drivetrain without having to add all the gas engine support components to the car.
Riddle me this batman... UV light breaks down plastic, I've witnessed it every time I restore a car, or an old computer. All the plastic becomes brittle, breaks down, and eventually crumbles to plastic dust... Why doesn't this happen to the plastic in the ocean -- and everywhere else?
Most of the plastic IS the dust - the big plastic garbage patch is made up of really tiny pellets after the big chunks have broken down.
And what's happening looks like the plastic is breaking down and the pieces are starting to glob together forming some strange multi-material piece of plastic.
Of course, once the dust gets small enough, the breakdown has to happen by UV only. In a big chunk, the plastic becomes brittle and the wave action helps break it down further, but once it's dust, it's too small for mechanical breakdown.
As far as I'm concerned, the console "went away" when they came out with driveless units. All those PSP games I had bought? Useless.
So the only PSPs of interest to my family were used early models. Way to do yourself out of sales, Sony. Again. Now they're doing the same kind of thing with the PS4. PS2, PS3 titles? Nope, won't run. Customer? Nope, won't buy.:)
The PSP pretty much died out when the Vita came out - I didn't know they were still selling them. I didn't see hide nor hair of a PSP since the Vita release (2012), people were talking about how Sony kept last generation around for ages while forgetting the PSP disappeared practically instantly (usually in comparison with how the Xbox original disappeared when the Xbos360 came out).
Of course, they also talk about how "standards friendly" Sony is, ignoring the PSP's memory stick and UMD drive, and the very-proprietary Vita memory cards that cost 2-3 times as much as a micro SD card. Or the proprietary USB cable (thankfully the new Vita Slims use micro-USB).
Sony's handhelds were everything the home consoles weren't - proprietary everywhere.
Heck, the PS4 this generation is funny - everyone loves to tout how "DRM free" it is over the Xbone. Yet the Xbone's DRM scheme had real advantages in ways neither Microsoft, Sony, Valve or others have. Like the ability to potentially resell games. Or share games (Steam now lets you share your entire library, but only one person at a time can use it).
Sure what we gained was the ability to share discs. But digital downloads seem to be the way forward so there's no more discs to share.
No, the Xbone wasn't perfect - the 24 hour requirement was idiotic, and the one-time-use discs were potentially stupid as well, but we threw away the good with the bad. We could've had the nice features of sharing and reselling for digital downloads AND kept the disc sharing and reselling alive.
So now Sony's selling digital downloads of many games for the same price. And they're locked to you.
If people don't want to pay for police, then so be it.
Except those who complain about it and not pay, generally get very angry when they happen to need it.
Like the case where the neighbours paid for fire service (outside of a serviced area) while the guy who saved the money by not paying for the service watched his house burned down. The firemen protected the houses that their services were paid for, while the guy who didn't begged and pleaded.
I really don't see why they just don't abandon the whole "watch video in your web browser" scenario. Since Netflix only supports paying customers, it isn't really much to expect that people will download an app/application to play the videos. They already have apps for Android, iOS, Windows, XBox 360/One, Playstation 3/4, Wii (U), a bunch of apps integrated into various smart TVs. There's probably a few that I'm missing here. I don't know why they just wouldn't require that you install an application to view videos on Mac, Windows 7, or Linux. If the Linux client was a pre-compiled binary, it could probably be made reasonably secure against people trying to copy content. At least as secure as a DVD or BluRay anyway.
Well, the thinking goes, there'll be an App For That(tm).
As in, web pages will become a thing of the past. First it's Netflix/Vudu/Flixster/etc. Next will be the YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch and other sites will have their own apps to watch the videos in.
Then you go to Google and it'll ask you to install their app to search the web and eventually, it'll be like it is on mobile where you're constantly asked to install the app to get more from the site.
See Steam. See iTunes. See the web as an app-distribution mechanism instead of a content distribution mechanism.
As far as I can see, that solves my infotainment "needs." What exactly am I missing out on?
This.
My car was made in 2002, the "in car entertainment" was also constructed in 2002, it was made by a company called Garrett and the model number is GT2540R. It's a turbocharger, attached to an SR20DE engine and six speed manual transmission. That's entertainment, the joy of the drive.
If you dont enjoy driving, it's time for you to start saving for the Google autonomous car which you can outfit with your garish curved, oversized 4K TV to watch Days Of Our Lives on.
The problem is, you're just one customer of the system. There are others who buy the same car who have different needs. Satellite radio for those where 3G streaming isn't available, overruns their plans, or other reasons. Navigation that's locally based for similar reasons.
Then there are reversing cams (so useful for the rear blind spot...).
As for not wanting to drive - well, the problem is most people don't want to drive - think people WANT to sit in traffic for an hour each way getting to/from work? And yes, autonomous cars are very exciting for that reason - not having to be stuck in traffic bored. Why do you think people are texting/playing games/yakking on their cellphones?
The problem is, fundamentally, North America is designed for cars. Unlike Europe which was designed for slower modes of transportation and thus remained widely accessible without cars, North Americans NEED to drive. In Europe, you don't need to - you can get around the city, between cities, between countries even without a car - between busses (both local and non), subways, taxis, cheap flights, there's a plethora of options to take to get from point A to point B. In North America, not so much, so you have to take the car. This also boils down to the relative skill level - in Europe the drivers are MUCH better drivers - even though they don't seem to obey traffic laws or lane markings, the number of accidents is comparatively low. In North America, you'd have gridlock due to accidents if people behaved similarly.
And I'm fairly certain even drivers who love to drive would skip the drive if they could for the commute and talk alternative modes. Even the most fun car in the world becomes boring sitting in gridlock each way.
People like guns because they happen to like guns. Some people like golf, basketball, big trucks, or a whole host of other stuff without worrying about their mainhood.
Just a lot of Americans happen to like guns - it's about 1 gun per person in the US. In many other countries, it's far lower - in Canada, it's about 1 gun per 3 people (there is approximately 1/30th the number of guns in Canada, despite being approximately 1/10th the population of the US).
Of course, the gun-violence rate is also about 1/30th that of the US, just there are a lot less guns in Canada than in the US so the per-capita rate is lower, too.
So it's a lot more complex than "people love guns".
The real talk is not those who love guns, but to figure out a way to keep guns from those who have nefarious purposes, because THOSE are the ones giving the law-abiding gun owners (and even the gun nuts) a bad name when they shoot up a school or the general public.
(And yes, in Canada we have our own share of gun crazies, a cyclist was shot while riding along a major highway in a rural area.). Funny enough, no one really talks about controlling guns every time it happens since we have somewhat sane gun laws. It's usually about how a failure in the system ended up giving guns to the wrong person. Go figure.
I wonder what this will do for the long-term viability of the car though...in regards to repairing it. If I have a 1998 Honda civic DX I know I can find parts for the windshield wiper assembly.
If I have a model 1.5.14b (mod alpha) Tesla S with options XYZ... do I need this wingding or that one for the rear-view mirror? Repair shops are going to hate this game.
At the same time...knowing the battery, motor, and other major components are the same is a huge win for the same question. Frankly the car industry revamping cars every freaking year is beyond stupid. Why is a 3000 pound, immensely complex, expensive piece of machinery rebuilt every year? To tweak a fender and include the radio buttons it should have had last year?
As usual...go Tesla. I just hope they have a good compatibility matrix for the upgraded components.
Per law, every part must be available for 10 years following the discontinuation of said model (or I presume, compatible upgrades that can be retrofitted).
But it may surprise you that a lot of the Model S I'm told is actually standard parts from other cars - e.g., the steering column is, IIRC, provided by Mercedes.
Other small bits and bobs like windshield wiper motors and assemblies I would have a hard time believing are Tesla-specific, and generally just a unit that's COTS.
As for platforms, even the big manufacturers generally only update the entire platform once a half-decade or less - each model year is a tweak or revamp of a basic design that's kept constant. Sure the screw holes change, but the basic chassis is the same, it's all the stuff around it that differs.
Of course, the major benefit of an electric car is that it's a vastly simplified drivetrain, so components that do fail, there are less of them, and the big ones are generally solid state ones that are highly reliable (the only real thing moving is the motor shaft to the wheels).
Even in Europe, where fuel prices are about 50% higher than in Canada (EUR 1.50/litre vs. CAD$1.50/litre), and electricity prices much higher, the electric aspect still saves money on the maintenance side, purely because there's so little to actually.. maintain. It's like going from a tube based computer to a transistor one.
What my experience shows is that DRAM costs less, yields a better performance increase, and most importantly is plug-and-play. Obviously, different machines and operational workloads will affect results, but if SSD performance is not plug-and-play, the value proposition for many users is greatly diminished.
It's really in knowing where the bottlenecks are in the system.
In an old PC, or even a recent one using say, an old Atom processor, SSDs don't increase performance because the CPU is the bottleneck - the entire system is slow to begin with so the CPU is basically chewing through code while the disk is busy fetching data.
In more modern systems, the CPU is fast enough that there's not enough extra work for it that it ends up waiting on the disk.
DRAM is always the best fix especially if the main reason the system is slow is thrashing (in which case the CPU is basically idle because it has to wait for the data to come off disk and any runnable tasks don't run for long periods because they too need to swap in). An SSD can hide this issue because swapping does a lot of small I/O, so IOPS saves the day.
DRAM, of course, fixes the root cause - the system is doing too much for the memory load.
Of course, if your doing something that hits the disk a lot, an SSD helps because most apps pause and block while doing disk I/O, so having the SSD respond quickly makes life a lot more bearable. Especially if the disk cache starts ballooning and forcing apps to swap out.
Good bye source compatibility. We hardly knew ye. First Windows, and now OSX. I am still maintaining applications that are built crossplatform (Windows/Mac/Linux, with unified GUI look) but it's getting harder every year and, by the looks of it, will be impossible soon. Which means that an individual developer (like myself) or a smaller shop would have to choose one big player/OS vendor and stick with it. That increases risk and makes small players that much less viable (while, of course, helping the big ones consolidate user base and profit). Funny how the world works.
You can still use C. In fact, because they all use LLVM internally, Obj-C, Swift and C code can be combined together in a single program.
So your cross-platform code will be in C, while your UI code can be in either Obj-C or Swift, your choice.
Swift gets its speedups from optimizations that are based on restricting what you can do in a language. It's why you can implement the same code in C and Fortran, and the Fortran version will run faster because the Fortran compiler can be more aggressive as there are certain things you can do in C that aren't allowed in Fortran (aliasing for example - where you can have overlapping arrays. Not allowing this means the compiler has freedom to choose how to execute the loops).
The nice thing is, Apple finally gives choice - you no longer are restricted to Obj-C. Swift gets full citizenship status.
Why is Apple throwing at us the same flat-UI nonsense that Microsoft has been trying to cram down our throats?
Because many of the mainstream press are fawning over flat, and declaring any UI that hasn't changed significantly in 2 years as "dull, outdated, boring".
Given Apple's general reluctance to change the UI (some things have changed, but most of the look of Aqua hasn't in nearly 15 years), well, people were calling OS X "outdated" and "needing a refresh to feel new". iOS was a particular victim of it, not having changed significantly appearance wise. Media were calling it outdated and "stuck in the past" while flatness was the new hotness and that "Apple needs to change it up or they're going to lose people to the new shiny".
And one of the problems is the media form a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
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Actually, NAT"s been around for what, 2 decades now? IPv4 would've been exhausted before the millennium otherwise.
The big thing with IPv6 is that it doesn't solve everything. Everyone has overhyped it as the magic sword that does everything, when it doesn't.
Case in point - everything will again have their own IP address and you don't have to use stuff like STUN or other things because end-to-end connectivity is guaranteed. False, since firewalls are still around, and just because both ends can see each other doesn't mean they can talk to each other.
Then there's the "guilty PC" problem that the content creators oh-so-love. It's hard to identify people from PCs now because so many devices share a single IP address. But when that single IP means a single device, it's a heck of a lot easier.
Then there's NAT. Which is a WONDERFUL technology when you want to isolate your network numbering from someone else. You know, like how you can have a networking using 10/8 or other static IPs and they talk to the gateway and all that. And when your ISP decides to give you a new IP address, your work pretty much is zero?
Well, with IPv6 right now, if your ISP changes your prefix, have fun resetting the configuration of everything to use that new prefix. Hope the auto-discovery picks everything up and maybe things will work. If not, have fun debugging. And while NATv6 is defined, many places (e.g., Linux) refuse to accept it. I mean, is it so bad that my internal network ... works? And if my ISP gives me a new prefix I do diddly squat like right now? Or that I don't have to remember what the IP is of the PC next to me is after it's prefix changes?
Then again, tell ISPs that they should inspect the QoS bits in an IPv6 packet header to determine how to charge for it. If it's set to high priority, well, $$$ for that packet. That'll see really fast rollouts when they realize they can charge for packets that set the QoS bit other than low priority low effort.
In other words, if you can get at the kernel, get root, you've just made SteamBox great with cheaters.
Yes, cheaters.
Because if you have access to root, you can load kernel modules, and if you can do that, rootkitting your SteamBox to isolate VAC from your cheats becomes a trivial matter. And nothing Valve can do about it because any checks VAC does for cheats can be hidden away because you have kernel access and can lock out VAC. Even if VAC was kernel implemented doesn't mean you can't isolate it from the kernel.
So yeah, we have that problem.
The other issue with SteamBox is well, it's $550 for an i3?! Given it has to last as long as say, a console (let's be generous and say It has to last 5 years). Are you telling me a SteamBox with an i3 will last that long? Or are we going to run into what happened 4 years ago where people complained the Xbox360 and PS3 were holding back PC games because of their old graphics processors? Except now you're going to have to support some guy who paid more than an Xbone with Kinect and got the wimpiest system and still expects to play at 1080p?
Or are you going to have to spend more than a PS4, Xbone, and 5 years worth of PS+ and Live Gold to get a system to last that long?
Or have to spend money every year upgrading your SteamBox?
These people bought it because it was hyped as a next-gen console that was also a PC so they bought the one that cost the least because why spend more when a PS4 or Xbone was cheaper?
Most live streams barely do VGA quality, never mind 1080p. And most video cards can do 1080p quite easily, so even if you live stream, 1080p is the max other people are going to see. Gaming on a 10 4K monitor setup with a honking fast video card? Yeah, you're awesome, but everyone watching you won't notice the difference between your awesome setup and someone gaming on a 24" 1080p monitor.
There's the rub - what is normal? Is a lesbian/gay couple walking down the street normal? In a lot of places it is, but there are a lot of places where it isn't, and a surreptitious photo of it can be devastating, especially in small towns.
Nevermind narcissists and psychopaths. Just normal life isn't normal.
Would using a strip club be normal? Would you want your name and photo of you doing so plastered over the Internet? What about gun and ammo stores? What about someone using an abortion clinic (even if it was just to get information)? What about using a public bathroom (anywhere - bar, restaurant, office, etc)? (Hell, it's actually illegal for employers to actually have a surveillance camera anywhere where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, like a bathroom)
These are normal, legitimate and legal activities, but I don't think patrons would like, nor appreciate these activities to be broadcasted through the world.
And the problem with society is the morals to not want to know and peek into the lives of people who do these things isn't there. We're pretty much all voyeuristic to some extent - we're curious.
The real problem isn't Glass, it's Glassholes and the general public. Society just isn't respectful enough of others. Sure just because you can, and it allows you, doesn't mean you should. (We have enough problems with people who over-share online, and a whole pile of lawsuits over photos have occurred lately).
I know right? I mean, why are they so worked up that Google decided to use facial recognition on photos uploaded?
I mean, no one got worked up over the NSA spying on them, right? So who cares if the spies are government, or your neighbours, or anyone else? I mean, you're in public, your data is public, so who cares if it's recorded for all posterity? And tagged with you. I mean, having the information that you were tagged leaving a gun store to buy some ammo would publicly give you an alibi should your wife get shot, right?
Face it - the real reason is that Google's going to use it to track people who AREN'T the people the Glass users are taking photos of. I mean, having Google accidentally know you were leaving a strip club can't possibly hurt you in any way, right?
Finally - the other opposition to Glass comes from Glass users themselves. Why do you think the world "Glasshole" is now well known? Because self-important idiots who have it start using them in VERY inappropriate ways just to say "Look, I have Glass!". These ways involve things that people would otherwise not even bother doing with their cellphones. Or, why is it that Google has to come up with a list of basic common sense recommendations on using Glass? Because these idiots are basically ruining any chance of mass acceptance because the public ends up believing Glass owners are assholes (i.e., Glassholes) who cannot behave properly in public, and not only make a fool of themselves, but given their propensity to do idiotic things, are likely to act out and do things considered very inappropriate.
Or, how about a Glass user entering a public bathroom? You know, employers have been sued for having cameras in places people would have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Seems like a great way to bypass those issues if they hand their employees Glass and oh, happen to monitor them from time to time.
Granted, it can have some good. Imagine there were more Glass users out there, and the three most recent public mass shootings might not have happened, because those shooters would've been captured amassing stockpiles of weapons or behaving oddly as captured by random Glass users. So maybe the authorities could perhaps keep track of those potentially unstable users.
There are many significant issues with this, actually. And it's not about linking up PSN, Xbox Live and whatever other systems together. (That's the easy part!)
The biggest issue is the disparity in controls. Secondary is disparity in graphics - every system renders the same thing slightly differently, and you can easily bet there will be tons of exploits for glitches on each platform to gain an advantage. Like a spot may cause a framerate drop on Xbox One, making it a good spot to get an advantage. Or likewise other similar problem spots on other platforms. Engineering these out is extremely difficult and can turn an otherwise fun evening of gaming into a frustrating mess.
(On a PC, things are generally varied enough that glitches like these aren't super exploitable).
It IS too hard for idiots to remember. Basically, if you don't have a .com, your only means of being found is Google. (And we all know how Google can be fickle).
People automatically assume .com on everything, so much so that even Netscape will try a lookup of "www." what-you-typed ".com" just in case. (Yes, Netscape).
Service Arizona sounds like a governmental portal site - which through a bunch of advertising everyone probably will just type servicearizona.com out of habit as a one-stop shop to do all your state government tasks.
They'd definitely not remember service.az.us or something like that. Hell, they'll probably complain as to why their web address is so hard to remember.
Oh, and don't forget Google plays a part of this, since SEO has made it so domains and such get a better match. "Service Arizona" will have a better match as servicearizona.com or service-Arizona.com than service.az.us. It's why every site now puts the page title in the URL even though it's completely unnecessary since the ID is embedded in the link. It matches better on Google.
Or take Canada. Over the period of a month, there have been 3 separate mass shootings in the US, and one in Canada.
In the US, they're calling for more regulations (which is going to be impossible - there's already a 1:1 ratio of guns and population), Canada has around 1/30th as many (or 1/3rd as many per capita).
The shooting in Canada didn't lead to calls to regulate guns - it was understood the shooter was pretty much a loony extremist, and the victim's families (all police officers) are boing publicly memorialized today.
The problem is not guns, it's gun culture. Canada just has less of it.
And the NRA's claim that mass shootings end earlier when more citizens are armed? Well, I have one question - will you sacrifice your life to protect a stranger? (Not counting when it's your occupation to do so - i.e., LEO, firefighter, etc). Would you, as Joe Random Citizen, willingly put yourself in harm's way (and maybe even in legal trouble) to shoot the armed gunman threatening someone you have no feelings towards, and no relation?
(Most people would if it was their family members being threatened, but some random average stranger giving the ultimate sacrifice to protect some other random average stranger? No doubt there will be a few, but I don't think arming them contributes significantly)
As for legal trouble, I mean if you miss and injure the guy - maybe permanently.
Probably an effect of the decline of newspapers - comic strips were often syndicated and a chunk of payment. Because newspapers are in trouble (which I find sad - there's something to be said of glancing at the news you didn't bother caring about to at least broaden one's horizone), they're cutting their comics. And reduced circulations mean lower payments as well.
It won't surprise me that these artists aren't making as much as they once were, and are having to cut back, which mean that they're often working second jobs, which means less time to spend on the comic.
Sure, many of these comics are online, but they don't really pay all that much online. Plus the relative difficulty in getting a comic page's worth of comics (because they've all got different syndicators) and websites means well, visits are few. At least, without paying - many will email you the comics if you pay for the service.
FYI - carriers don't make money on regular subscriptions. Instead, ROAMING charges fuel the profits. And they're HUGE profits - think $/minute for a phone call, 5 cents per kB (not kiB) not including headers, etc. (At 5c/kB, that's $50/MB)
In fact, if you ever wondered why Telus and Bell (Canadian carriers, who normally did CDMA) installed 3G HSPA equipment 5 years ago... it's because Bell was a huge Olympic sponsor. And with athletes and visitors coming to Canada, they will most likely be carrying GSM/3GPP phones. And whose network would THOSE roam on? Rogers, who didn't sponsor the Olympics.
So Bell would be sponsoring the Olympics, but Rogers would be picking up the massive profits from roaming visitors. Naturally that needed to be fixed which is why Telus/Bell (who share equipment) rolled out HSPA equipment post-haste so they could at least get at that roaming profit. Given they have 1x equipment normally, the sensible plan would've been to just install LTE equipment when it became available.
So yeah, Canada carriers DO gouge, and your data was probably charged at an "innocent" rate of pennies per kB. $750 for 50MB would be 1.5 cents/kB.
The thing is, the blocking is automatic, but the unblocking is not.
When you call your bank, what really happens usually is they make a note in your file "XXX is travelling to YYY between AA/BB/CC and DD/EE/FF".
The fraud detector is typically a neural network trained in your purchases. If you make a purchase, that neural network determines if it fits with the pattern of your shopping. If it doesn't, it throws an exception. It's up to someone working to determine if that exception Is valid or not.
Of course, if you have any quantity of cards doing this on a daily basis, it's easy to miss the fact someone may have a valid legitimate reason for the card being used where it shouldn't be normally and they forget to see it in their file.
Enterprise APs let you control the amount of power that's used for the transmitter. If you're going to serve 10,000 users, each AP can really only handle around 20-50 users before it starts to get crowded.
In an enterprise installation, what they do is the limit the transmit power and use more directional antennas to ensure the cell size is small enough that only that many people can really see the AP, and a neighboring AP will handle the cell next to it.
I use the term "cell" because it's similar to what cellphone providers do.
And sometimes the cells are small that the transmit power is severely cut down.
Consumer APs are generally set to the highest possible power that the hardware was designed for, so as to cast a strong signal everywhere using one AP. This is good for home use, but is not what you want for enterprise use as you don't want max power - you want controllable power to reduce the range so not too many people can associate with the AP at a time.
Or why they have split radios and AP controllers - because you need a lot of radios (especially in the spectator area) but not a lot of transmit power so not too many people actually connect at once.
Still billed back to the boss - generally falls under reasonable expenses.
As for kids - well, they don't NEED WiFi to be entertained. Sure it's easy to stick 'em in front of Netflix or something, but half the time they're just using apps that work just fine without WiFi.
Either that, or their phone has a data connection that can be used in place of WiFi.
Then again, I've seen airports do interesting things with their wifi - "freemium" being the most common. Yes, freemium WiFi. Basically they give you anywhere from 30-45 minutes a day for free, then charge extra for more time (or give up a pile of personal information to double the time)..
This is a flaw, but it requires both ends use vulnerable OpenSSL versions. Which means your day-to-day life may or may not be affected that much.
I mean, if you use iOS, OS X, or Windows, you're more than likely NOT using OpenSSL on the client side (except say, if you use Firefox on Windows) - since Apple and Microsoft have their own SSL implementations. If you have an Android phone or tablet, then yes, it's quite likely an issue, and while both are popular, people generally don't use them that much for data (iOS traffic, after 7 years, has finally dropped to below 50% of all mobile traffic out there, despite Android outselling iOS by a huge margin). And nevermind the oddball Linux user.
So the real question is, how many people really ARE affected?
Heartbleed affects everyone because it exposes server secrets irrespective of the client side. But this vulnerability is only really present if both ends use OpenSSL.
The average car in the US travels approximately 20,000 miles/year. It's generally what they base warranties on and other things like leases .Some drive more, some drive less, but 20,000 average has held up for a long time now. (When you see those "160,000 mile/8 year power train warranty" - guess what!)
A battery that gets you 1800 miles per change would therefore require 11 changes a year, or just over a month's average driving.
You better hope that they have a regular battery in there and use the primary cell (yes, it's not recharging) as a range extender for those few trips that exceed the secondary cell capacity.
In this case, it'll be slightly better than those cars like the BMW and Volt that are primarily electric but tow a gas generator with them to offer extended range operations. This one keeps the existing simple low-maintenance electric drivetrain without having to add all the gas engine support components to the car.
Most of the plastic IS the dust - the big plastic garbage patch is made up of really tiny pellets after the big chunks have broken down.
And what's happening looks like the plastic is breaking down and the pieces are starting to glob together forming some strange multi-material piece of plastic.
Of course, once the dust gets small enough, the breakdown has to happen by UV only. In a big chunk, the plastic becomes brittle and the wave action helps break it down further, but once it's dust, it's too small for mechanical breakdown.
The PSP pretty much died out when the Vita came out - I didn't know they were still selling them. I didn't see hide nor hair of a PSP since the Vita release (2012), people were talking about how Sony kept last generation around for ages while forgetting the PSP disappeared practically instantly (usually in comparison with how the Xbox original disappeared when the Xbos360 came out).
Of course, they also talk about how "standards friendly" Sony is, ignoring the PSP's memory stick and UMD drive, and the very-proprietary Vita memory cards that cost 2-3 times as much as a micro SD card. Or the proprietary USB cable (thankfully the new Vita Slims use micro-USB).
Sony's handhelds were everything the home consoles weren't - proprietary everywhere.
Heck, the PS4 this generation is funny - everyone loves to tout how "DRM free" it is over the Xbone. Yet the Xbone's DRM scheme had real advantages in ways neither Microsoft, Sony, Valve or others have. Like the ability to potentially resell games. Or share games (Steam now lets you share your entire library, but only one person at a time can use it).
Sure what we gained was the ability to share discs. But digital downloads seem to be the way forward so there's no more discs to share.
No, the Xbone wasn't perfect - the 24 hour requirement was idiotic, and the one-time-use discs were potentially stupid as well, but we threw away the good with the bad. We could've had the nice features of sharing and reselling for digital downloads AND kept the disc sharing and reselling alive.
So now Sony's selling digital downloads of many games for the same price. And they're locked to you.
Except those who complain about it and not pay, generally get very angry when they happen to need it.
Like the case where the neighbours paid for fire service (outside of a serviced area) while the guy who saved the money by not paying for the service watched his house burned down. The firemen protected the houses that their services were paid for, while the guy who didn't begged and pleaded.
Well, the thinking goes, there'll be an App For That(tm).
As in, web pages will become a thing of the past. First it's Netflix/Vudu/Flixster/etc. Next will be the YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch and other sites will have their own apps to watch the videos in.
Then you go to Google and it'll ask you to install their app to search the web and eventually, it'll be like it is on mobile where you're constantly asked to install the app to get more from the site.
See Steam. See iTunes. See the web as an app-distribution mechanism instead of a content distribution mechanism.
The problem is, you're just one customer of the system. There are others who buy the same car who have different needs. Satellite radio for those where 3G streaming isn't available, overruns their plans, or other reasons. Navigation that's locally based for similar reasons.
Then there are reversing cams (so useful for the rear blind spot...).
As for not wanting to drive - well, the problem is most people don't want to drive - think people WANT to sit in traffic for an hour each way getting to/from work? And yes, autonomous cars are very exciting for that reason - not having to be stuck in traffic bored. Why do you think people are texting/playing games/yakking on their cellphones?
The problem is, fundamentally, North America is designed for cars. Unlike Europe which was designed for slower modes of transportation and thus remained widely accessible without cars, North Americans NEED to drive. In Europe, you don't need to - you can get around the city, between cities, between countries even without a car - between busses (both local and non), subways, taxis, cheap flights, there's a plethora of options to take to get from point A to point B. In North America, not so much, so you have to take the car. This also boils down to the relative skill level - in Europe the drivers are MUCH better drivers - even though they don't seem to obey traffic laws or lane markings, the number of accidents is comparatively low. In North America, you'd have gridlock due to accidents if people behaved similarly.
And I'm fairly certain even drivers who love to drive would skip the drive if they could for the commute and talk alternative modes. Even the most fun car in the world becomes boring sitting in gridlock each way.
Just a lot of Americans happen to like guns - it's about 1 gun per person in the US. In many other countries, it's far lower - in Canada, it's about 1 gun per 3 people (there is approximately 1/30th the number of guns in Canada, despite being approximately 1/10th the population of the US).
Of course, the gun-violence rate is also about 1/30th that of the US, just there are a lot less guns in Canada than in the US so the per-capita rate is lower, too.
So it's a lot more complex than "people love guns".
The real talk is not those who love guns, but to figure out a way to keep guns from those who have nefarious purposes, because THOSE are the ones giving the law-abiding gun owners (and even the gun nuts) a bad name when they shoot up a school or the general public.
(And yes, in Canada we have our own share of gun crazies, a cyclist was shot while riding along a major highway in a rural area.). Funny enough, no one really talks about controlling guns every time it happens since we have somewhat sane gun laws. It's usually about how a failure in the system ended up giving guns to the wrong person. Go figure.
Per law, every part must be available for 10 years following the discontinuation of said model (or I presume, compatible upgrades that can be retrofitted).
But it may surprise you that a lot of the Model S I'm told is actually standard parts from other cars - e.g., the steering column is, IIRC, provided by Mercedes.
Other small bits and bobs like windshield wiper motors and assemblies I would have a hard time believing are Tesla-specific, and generally just a unit that's COTS.
As for platforms, even the big manufacturers generally only update the entire platform once a half-decade or less - each model year is a tweak or revamp of a basic design that's kept constant. Sure the screw holes change, but the basic chassis is the same, it's all the stuff around it that differs.
Of course, the major benefit of an electric car is that it's a vastly simplified drivetrain, so components that do fail, there are less of them, and the big ones are generally solid state ones that are highly reliable (the only real thing moving is the motor shaft to the wheels).
Even in Europe, where fuel prices are about 50% higher than in Canada (EUR 1.50/litre vs. CAD$1.50/litre), and electricity prices much higher, the electric aspect still saves money on the maintenance side, purely because there's so little to actually.. maintain. It's like going from a tube based computer to a transistor one.
It's really in knowing where the bottlenecks are in the system.
In an old PC, or even a recent one using say, an old Atom processor, SSDs don't increase performance because the CPU is the bottleneck - the entire system is slow to begin with so the CPU is basically chewing through code while the disk is busy fetching data.
In more modern systems, the CPU is fast enough that there's not enough extra work for it that it ends up waiting on the disk.
DRAM is always the best fix especially if the main reason the system is slow is thrashing (in which case the CPU is basically idle because it has to wait for the data to come off disk and any runnable tasks don't run for long periods because they too need to swap in). An SSD can hide this issue because swapping does a lot of small I/O, so IOPS saves the day.
DRAM, of course, fixes the root cause - the system is doing too much for the memory load.
Of course, if your doing something that hits the disk a lot, an SSD helps because most apps pause and block while doing disk I/O, so having the SSD respond quickly makes life a lot more bearable. Especially if the disk cache starts ballooning and forcing apps to swap out.
You can still use C. In fact, because they all use LLVM internally, Obj-C, Swift and C code can be combined together in a single program.
So your cross-platform code will be in C, while your UI code can be in either Obj-C or Swift, your choice.
Swift gets its speedups from optimizations that are based on restricting what you can do in a language. It's why you can implement the same code in C and Fortran, and the Fortran version will run faster because the Fortran compiler can be more aggressive as there are certain things you can do in C that aren't allowed in Fortran (aliasing for example - where you can have overlapping arrays. Not allowing this means the compiler has freedom to choose how to execute the loops).
The nice thing is, Apple finally gives choice - you no longer are restricted to Obj-C. Swift gets full citizenship status.
Because many of the mainstream press are fawning over flat, and declaring any UI that hasn't changed significantly in 2 years as "dull, outdated, boring".
Given Apple's general reluctance to change the UI (some things have changed, but most of the look of Aqua hasn't in nearly 15 years), well, people were calling OS X "outdated" and "needing a refresh to feel new". iOS was a particular victim of it, not having changed significantly appearance wise. Media were calling it outdated and "stuck in the past" while flatness was the new hotness and that "Apple needs to change it up or they're going to lose people to the new shiny".
And one of the problems is the media form a self-reinforcing feedback loop.