Actually, computers have lost lots of dedicated processing units because it just wasn't worth doing in dedicated hardware, that's where for example softmodems (aka winmodems) came from. And with GPUs going from fixed pipelines to programmable shader units, they too have gone the other way.
It's cyclical - going from specialized to general to specialized, etc.
Early computers used character generator chips - specialized processors that took ASCII(ish) inputs and generated the onscreen information. This evolved into chips handling video accelleration with sprites and all that.
Then we evolved into putting ti back in the processor and using video as a mere framebuffer - so we can have nice higher resolution graphics. We could scale framebuffer cards to impressive resolutions when we don't have to worry about dedicated hardware (sprites basically moved to complete software support). Then Windows came out and video specialization happened again with 2D accelleration (usually BitBlt).
Then we added 3D, which we initially did in software and migrated to hardware, and video, which went from postage sized QVGA or less to full screen HD.
And now today's video card isn't just a mere framebuffer like it was in the 90s, it's a full fledged specialized vector PC, doing stuff that once was in dedicated hardware blocks into general programs it runs to do what the hardware does. So even though we've specialized the video card, the video generalized and now we're writing code for it.
it's a cycle. Specialized blocks are replaced by more general ones which then spawn more specialized blocks that are replaced...
On a laptop though -- what does the Kinect give that a touch screen can't do better
There aren't many touch-screen PCs out there - there's a few all-in-ones that have touch screens, but they all come with mice. Heck, Apple got patents on such stuff for probably half a decade or more, and nothing's come of it.
Touch interfaces suck on a PC. If it's a desktop, your going to hold your hand up the whole time you're interacting with it? After a few minutes, your arm's going to get tired and then what? Stop using the computer? Then try accessing the screen when an elbow is on the table.
Laptops are slightly better, but sitll suffer from the same problem (it's why Apple decided the touch interface is best impemented using the acres of touchpad space on the laptop (seriously - what's with non-Apple laptops having itty-bitty touchpads? You could almost measure Apple's in acres).
Add Kinect to a laptop, and while your fingers are on the home row you can flick the cursor about (great for those apps that don't hide the mouse cursor when typing), or maybe scroll using finger gestures while keeping your hands on the home row.
I'm skeptical of online dating as well but I'm at a loss for what's better these days. I'm not into the bar/clubbing scene, so cross that off the list. I've always maintained boundaries at work and refuse to date co-workers. What does that leave? I've tried activity groups (hiking clubs and the like) but most of the people who attend those are already paired off. Church may be an option for some people but the median age at my church is around 60 so that's not going to work either.
So no bars/clubs and work. That still leaves hobbies - don't you have any? There's plenty of social activities for every hobby.
Like to write FOSS code? Attend some conferences - there's only like a 100 of them a year and you'll meet lots of people. Don't dismiss them though - just like finding a job, networking can find you a suitable partner interested in the same stuff as well.
Into other things like reading books? Try book clubs.
Every hobby has some social element to it - even if you prefer to be stuck in front of a computer all day, there are get-togethers for those people.
And really, if you can't imagine going to such events, volunteer your skills - perhaps you'll bump into someone there.
And don't ignore the paired off folks - networking is king and they may very well know other people.
Good riddance Rambus, all of us will be glad when you are gone.
Funny, Sony hasn't announced the PS4 yet.
Rambus RDRAM is in the most popular console to date, and is also in a current gen console. The PS2 (world's bestselling cnnsole) has 32MB of RDRAM (the same stuff you guys had to fork 3x the $$$ over).
The PS3 includes 256MB of XDR-DRAM, which is it's successor using multi-level signalling (much like how MLC flash stores data) to transfer 2 bits every clock edge.
So singlehandedly, gamers are keeping Rambus alive.
And it's quite possible that Sony's PS4 will use Rambus memory as well. Which will sell millions and have people claiming how much better it is than the Wii-U and Xbox Next. Thus keeping Rambus alive for another 7-8 years.
It's about variety of products in all aspects of consumption. US has less variety, because it's population is more oriented to economizing than to enjoying life. Of all the products Americans tend to choose the cheapest and the competition is heavily shifted to the lowering the price, instead of other qualities.
I wouldn't say that. The US has amazing numbers and varieties of things. It's why people shop in the US - the number of things available is so immense.
It's more of a cultural thing I believe. Europeans may simply read more newspapers and stuff because of cultural norms, so the variety and coverage of magazines is a lot better. Most of the computer and videogame ones carry discs purely because it's been the traditional way of spreading software around (especially given how the Internet can suck with high fees, slow speeds and low caps). And perhaps because of this, online newspapers aren't a huge thing (though WWAN tablets might change carrying around newsprint and magazines). In the US, the general view is magazines suck - cost a lot, outdated news, etc, and everyone just goes online for their news.
Heck, in Canada, online shopping really... sucks. It's perhaps the big reason why retail B&M stores tend to be doing well still. Even sites like Amazon are but a pale imitation to the US site. Could be a social thing - Americans like buying online because of price, choice and not having to interact with people. Canadians get screwed on price (it usually costs same as store or more with shipping), like spending time with others and view the whole online thing as somewhat alienating.
I hope they make it have fine enough resolution it will work for challenged people.
It could.
One of the interesting things about Kinect is that it has two VGA imagers - an IR one (for depth) and an RGB one (for visuals). The problem is that the Xbox360's USB port can't handle the data required so the IR imager is only generating QVGA images. The end result of this is fine details like hands are resolved only into well, blocks. It's why there are no finger gestures - there's insufficient depth information to figure out the fingers.
(The Xbox360 can theoretically do 30MB/sec through the USB port, but it's nowhere near that (it's roughly half). 1 VGA imager produces 0.3MB of information, at 30FPS, that's 9MB/sec. If both ran at VGA, you're talking about 18MB/sec for imaging information, plus we need 4 audio channels).
The PC should be able to handle 2x VGA imagers, maybe even higher res imagers which should get you even more detailed depth imaging and be able to pick finer details. Even at VGA Kinect should be able to pick the general shape of the hand.
HTC makes all of their premium Android phones in Taiwan. The workplace standards are of course much higher there compared to Mainland China. Samsung, on the other hand uses a number of factories, including ones in South Korea and China to make their flagship Galaxy SII phones.
I just checked my Galaxy Nexus. It says "Made in China", so I'm guessing it's probably a safe assumption it's made at Foxconn.
And while HTC's premium flagship phones are made in Taiwan, I'd guess most of the rest of them are made in Foxconn (for every flagship, there's probably dozens more of the lowend phones sold).
I don't think it's an unsavory or wasteful business environment when a company stock price "fluctuates sharply on its successes and failures in patent litigation and licensing."
That, and millions of gamers around the world financed these lawsuits. And I doubt Rambus will be going out of business anytime soon, as millions more gamers will continue to finance Rambus.
(The PS2 has 32MB of RDRAM, back in the days when RDRAM DIMMs were horrendously overpriced. The PS3 has 256MB of XDR-DRAM, it's successor). I'm guessing the stock will shoot up again should Sony again pick Rambus technology for the PS4.
Maybe the FBI doesn't want to shut it down, though- by passively monitoring, they can determine where the next gathering point will be. If they were to shut it down, another method of communication (not as readily intercepted) would be used rather quickly.
Exactly.
Reframe it this way - did people stop pirating music once the RIAA sued Napster? No, they moved onwards to Gnutella, Bittorrent and other P2P mechanisms. In fact, killing Napster make the alternatives more popular and even harder to stop. Taking down Bittorrent trackers just made more private ones spring up.
So only idiots shut down stuff that they can easily monitor. If people are rioting, don't shut down Facebook, instead glean intel from it. Shut down facebook and that intel would get posted elsewhere, Don't shut it down and people will post it right in front of you.
I'm not giving away all my information on Facebook to the public. I keep things contained to people I actually know for a reason. Of course even then, I barely post much of anything because there are too many people on there. The fact of the matter though is that I didn't add the FBI to my friends list so they'd damn well better not be viewing my private information. It's not for them to have. I've specifically taken the steps MULTIPLE TIMES (thanks for constantly changing that Facebook, you assholes) to keep the information private.
The problem is, you posted the information. An old adage from the early days goes "never put online what you don't want the world to know".
You fell for the "privacy" settings. There is no such thing, because honestly everyone else can get easy access to that information.
Think about it - who benefits from people posting information on their website? Facebook/Google/etc. all benefit because it's useful for mining and marketing. How do you get the public to post their whole lives online? You implement "privacy" settings, giving them privacy theatre - because once it's online, it can't be taken off.
Hell, I'm sure Facebook, Google, etc. would hand over lots of information if the FBI posed as advertisers and bought a few ads.
And as long as someone else can see it, they can post it. Expecting Facebook to keep stuff private from reposts/retweets is just as good as emails that can only be read by one person.
There is only one "privacy" setting. And it's "everything you post is public". If you mark your post as "Only Me" - why bother putting it online? If it's "Only friends" then you're counting on them to not broadcast it to THEIR friends and so on (i.e., it's public).
You don't read the same reviews I do, on Amazon... "This thing was DOA out of the box..." "This lasted 30 days and then died..." etc.
To be honest, most of those are probably lies. While it's true some are damaged during shipping, it's far more likely that:
* The user bought it, disliked it, and wanted a refund but couldn't get one (remember, you can leave an Amazon review without buying it from Amazon). The only recourse is to break it and claim DOA or "it broke".
* The user bought it, but it had a defect that isn't covered under warranty (e.g., dead pixel) or replacement under the store's terms, so you claim it DOA to exchange it.
* The user mistreats his equipment - e.g., drops it, gets it wet, etc, leading to shorter than normal service lives
Most of my stuff lasts way beyond its warranty - it only starts failing within extended warranty terms. Heck, I'm still using an iPod from 2006 that gets me around 2 hours of battery, still. But others I know are constantly breaking their gadgets and are noticably rougher on them. Even people who are normally good sometimes make errors - putting DVRs and cableboxes inside enclosed cabinetry, for example, or hard drive camcorders dangling from neckstraps whilst on.
It all depends.
Of the genuine failures, I can attest that it's usually the power supply that's the issue - wall warts are built to a price and usually with inferior components (except on more "premium" goods where the manufacturer may decide to invest in higher quality wall warts). Those things go out of regulation so easily that leads to the connected equipment failure (usually by getting flaky/crashing/hanging/resetting).
Take a $20 item - and it's probably cost $10 to make, which mean its parts probably have to total $5 and under BOM. Of that $5, probably only 50 cents goes towards the adapter, and the factory behind the adapter is still making a good profit. You can bet there's probably some overtaxed part in there, cheap capacitors, etc.
Still, we had a visitor to our local Astronomy club explain the one oversight which may ultimately doom Opportunity - dust build up on the Solar Panels. Next probe will probably have a little robotic arm and brush to sweep itself off now and then.
For a probe that lasts 90 days, the extra weight and complexity of a wiper arm probably isn't justified. And martian soil is very fine - even if you could wipe it, you'd more than likely just cause scratches in the surface that'll embed the dust into it anyhow, so wiping does little and consumes too much power.
Curiousity, which launched in November, has an RTG because it needs a lot of power and the heat's reused to keep the system warm. But it's also built for a far longer mission (1 year?) than Sojourner (30 days) or Spirit/Opporunity (90 days) were.
The bad news is that residents of Wilmington NC will soon see TV channels disappearing as the devices broadcast over existing stations. (The distant stations from neighboring cities.)
Actually, that's what keeping whitespace devices (which have been talked about for years prior to the digital TV transition) from taking off - how to keep from interfering with regular TV.
The initial proposal was to simply have the devices scan for free channels, but that lead to the hidden node effect (just because you can't detect it doesn't mean that someone in your transmission range can't detect it).
The next proposal was a GPS receiver and a database lookup. Which had the chicken-and-egg problem - you need to get online to get the free channel list, but you can't get online until you get on a free channel. Google proposed to run this database (for free), and proposals were made to have that database available in offline form so devices could embed it in. But then there are "freshness" problems.
The current solution seems to be manually mapping out the free channels, and isolating the devices to within the surveyed geographic area. But of course, that's led to the current very slow deployment of white space devices. On the plus side, it means there's a very low chance of interference (it's been surveyed) and if a new station wants in, the existing devices can be updated to not use the channel over the air, while new channels get the new updated channel list on setup.
The problem is not how Socialist (look up the word, it has a different meaning outside of the US) Canada is or has been in the past - its how incredibly Right Wing our current Conservative government is. Yes, somehow my fellow Canadian citizens were STUPID enough to elect the worst politician this country has ever seen into a majority government. I don't expect that is going to get any better until (sadly) a lot of the older generation dies off (as people get older they tend to be more conservative and we have a big bubble of older citizens etc). Harper does whatever the fuck he wants, taking his lead from whatever his masters in the Republican party tell him to do.
Harper's actually a brilliant politician. If you look at him carefully, he says what people want to hear, then dismisses what they don't by couching it terms they want to hear. At the same time, he discredits his opposition using brilliant words that people want to hear. Everything else he buries.
Think about it. Right now, we have the whole pipeline thing in BC. Harper has couched it in "JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS" and "EVIL AMERICAN ECOTERRORISTS". And that's all he's saying, ignoring that the oil companies he's backing are majority owned by international interests. So the big story is how all the eco groups are foreign funded.
It's also how his attack ads work - making us fearful of the party leaders.
Quite brilliant because the people lap it up.
Final example - cutting of corporate tax to BELOW the US (!). The funny thing about that is all the US companies are effectively subsidized because they have to pay at least the US tax rate, so low Canadian tax rates mean that the US goverment is getting revenue from the companies that weren't paying anything before. So the Canadian taxpayer is helping the US. (Nevermind the whole John Deere (?) thing where he handed them a bailout, and they promptly shut down the factory to relocate to the US). Again, all couched in "JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS"
Brilliant policitian. Just not someone who governs well.
I know I am feeding the trolls but what Schmidt said had nothing to do with marketshare at all, his remark was this: "there are literally so many manufacturers who are working so hard to distribute Android phones globally, that whether you like ICS or not, and again I like it a great deal, you will want to develop for that platform"... Gee, someone wanting to make a platform that people want to develop apps for... How dare he!
Actually, Eric Schmidt was referring to the question on why on Android, apps are ported to it from iOS rather than Android apps going the other way (though there have been a few - Dolphin HD, for example).
Basically, he means ICS will take over the world and developers would code for it because it has greater marketshare rahter than iOS.
Of course, it's CEO talk so a bit exaggerated, since well, it took a year for a release of Android to become the majority (Froyo was released in 2009, and became the majority in 2010. Gingerbread was released in 2010 and became the majority (55%) in 2011. ICS was released in 2011, and will become majority by late 2012 (at which point a new release of Android would be out). Ignoring Honeycomb as even ICS beats it right now.
The other point is well, money. Having marketshare means nothing if people don't buy, and alas, it seems people on iOS buy, while Android users seem to go for free or pirate. Or, as one avid Android user I know does, he builds it himself - because Android is open source so he insists that all apps he uses on Android must be open source.
I will say this though - ICS fixes a LOT of Android problems.
The reason for the high rate of defection is not because Android is not as good as iOS, but rather because so many people pick up free (on a two year contract) low end Android devices and those really tend to be very bad.
Google has done such a great job of showing people what a great platform Android is that people start to think that every Android handset is like a Galaxy S. Many people are still picking up no-name-brand Chinese specials running an outdated version of Android and cursing their decision everyday. Not every Android device is a Galaxy S2... and consumers need to realise that.
Two reasons for that.
First, confusing naming. Samsung Galaxy S 2. Is that possibly a Samsung Galaxy Slide? Or a Samsung Galaxy S blah? I had a look over the holidays, and all the free/penny smartphones from Samsung were all beginning with "Samsung Galaxy S" but were NOT the flagship phone. Unless you're paying attention (and don't realize that no, the phone you want is NOT on sale), you're gonna pick up some freebie Android thinking it was on sale. Or you saw an ad, but don't remember the name other than "Galaxy". Well, the first phone the guy behind the counter will show you is the free one, not the one for $200.
And the second reason is - there's a TON of android phones out there. Some were even advertising Android 2.2! Ignoring ICS, that's already one version old and on contract.
And these aren't noname chinese free specials. These are ones by Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG. Given the cell store doesn't have anything other than those for Android phones, but rows upon rows of them... most of them are just shitty ones. And most will walk out assuming they bought the "cool" one they saw in the ad.
In the end, the worst part is there's maybe 20 Android phones all free, and the flagships at $200+ (of which there are maybe 5 or so). So a clueless consumer will assume they walked out with a good Android phone on the cheap.
Hell, I'm sure people walk in being told to buy a Galaxy Nexus and end up with some other Samsung POS Android Galaxy S something.
And it's done on a per-IP basis, not a per-household or per-account basis. Since you get (at least) 2 dynamic IPs per Shaw Internet account, all you have to do is separate your "normal" traffic from your "excessive" traffic.
That's unusual. Shaw's throttling is actually applied per-modem, so the entire modem is throttled, not IP (it's easier to do because the CMTS can do it rather than have an upstream router do it). People have split their traffic/changed MACs etc and have verified that their internet stays throttled on Shaw.
That said, Shaw still does do throttling, but they've stopped expanding the program since it was discovered in 2009 or so. Places that already have a DPI system will still suffer, those that don't, won't.
Apple would love to occupy the corporate and public sector desktop market. It would mean vast amounts of guaranteed income every year.
But at what cost? Corporate purchases, and by extension government ones, tend to be ones that generate lots of revenue, but have tiny margins as people drive to lower the bottom line cost. Even the server market, considered to be a high-margin part of corporate IT is still subjected to shrinking margins.
Apple simply isn't interested in that market because the purchasers can be quite demanding and unwilling to pay for it. Apple's more than happy to let HP/Dell/etc fight it out on the race to the bottom and continue to enjoy the much fatter margins they're currently earning.
After all, Dell ships easily 10 times the number of computers Apple does, but in the end the profit Dell makes on computers is very similar to what Apple makes on computers.
It's also why Apple lacks an entrant in the sub-$500 PC market, or why their Mac Mini wouldn't fit in (still need monitor and keyboard, for example). Or why Apple went "ultraportable PC" with the Macbook Air instead of trying to do a netbook.
I dont suppose that you've considered that Safari gets broken first and fastest because there are a lot of undiscovered exploits, due largely to the fact that no-one targets safari as a browser due to low usage. Pwn2Own requires an entirely new exploit (otherwise I'm sure IE would be down in a number of nanoseconds)
Possible, but given it's Pwn2Own, the machine you "pwned" is the machine you win.
And given in the past you had a choice of Macbook Pro (OS X), a Sony Vaio (Windows) and sometihng else (for Linux), and had the ability to choose what computer you wanted, what would you go for?
Most would go for the Macbook purely because it's a nice decent machine that happens to look and function great (and runs Windows and Linux). If I had a series of exploits that worked on all three platforms, I'd go after the Mac first just to win that over a Sony. Then I'd go for the Sony next (if it wasn't for the crapware, at least they're nice looking machines).
Once that was won, people concentrated on the next machine that was second on their list, etc. Smart contestants go after the computer no one is breaking in as they have a greater chance of winning a free computer.
And despite the/. crowd chanting "FUNCTION FIRST, not form", most people seem to consistently go for the Macs.
Given the machines are all around the same value, perhaps a fairer comparison would be if everyone of them was a Macbook Pro or so, running the OS of choice (after all, Windows and Linux run great on a Macbook Pro - I know Ubuntu has a EFI installer that boots natively).
And that all was correct until a few months ago. The new Positive Train Control requirements connect IP/Ethernet to the vital logic (mostly output only... but it's not like there's diodes on the Ethernet connection.
They do make "data diodes" actually - it separates the "classified" network from the "unclassified" network, but allows some traffic to pass through. Data can flow from the unclassified network, but is blocked from the reverse.
It's basically a firewall with application-level smarts and DPI - so a classified PC can see file shares on the unclassified network, but the reverse isn't possible. Ditto stuff like FTPing files into the classified network, but preventing uploading files the other way and such.
Handy if you want to allow say, Windows Updates through and that's it.
Sure, a virus could get in if someone pulled it in, but it couldn't get out (if the traffic doesn't meet one of the existing filters, it's blocked).
You are talking about unofficial chinese app stores? Is that your point of comparison?
In China, AOSP based Androids outnumber official Androids. There are few ways for AOSP Androids to get apps (SlideME, GetJar, AppsLib) and they have few apps compared to Google Market (which they can't get).
So instead, these people set up unofficial Chinese marketplaces because they aren't well served (can't get Market apps, other app stores are pretty useless to them) and they serve up all sorts of apps, including pirated ones.
I have no idea, but frankly I don't blame Google for protecting access to its Google Market and Google stock apps. If Android tablets and smartphones don't meet certain fairly basic criteria, they don't get to use the Google Market and standard apps. In that case, they're free to use some alternate market, and there are plenty of them. Google has no obligation to support non-standard Android builds with the official Market app and official apps. It's not like it's very hard to use a different app market on Android, and there are plenty of alternatives to the stock Google apps.
Yeah. So why aren't Android developers using the alternative marketplaces also?
Both SlideME and Amazon have paltry numbers of apps compared to Google, and most developers don't make APKs available via their website (even free ones), they leave you a crappy QR code and leave it at that.
It becomes a Google problem because these devices are all marketed as "Android" which people believe have half a billion apps in it (or so), but then they get 'em and realize that all the cool apps their friends have they can't get. Then it's "Android sucks - they claim it's half a billion apps but all I see is 10,000".
So it's no wonder people pirate the marketplace. Or pirate the apps themselves.
Android without the Market is more or less just an app-less environment.
Given the obvious competence level of these admins, do you think they knew how to make ntpdate work as a non-root user?
Ya, neither do I. And yes, they were logging in as root....with a shared public/private key set. Note: BOTH private AND public keys were shared amongst all 500 servers.
Because ssh keys are more secure, don't you know.
And none could figure out the "hard" ssh command line option to run a command...? (ssh can run rsh-like).
Then again, I'd shudder to think what the shell script owuld look like. Probably 500 lines starting with "ssh".
I'm surprised they didn't have some hokey user account whose sole purpose was on login to run ntpdate and kick you off.
Heck, perhaps given that iPhone users use the most data, Apple's simply waiting for carriers to beef up their data networks so there won't be a complete meltdown when the iPhone starts supporting LTE. So all your LTE users right now - enjoy the speed while it lasts. When the iPhone with LTE is released, it might be wise to switch to 3G...
That, and there's a lack of LTE+voice chipsets out there - there are LTE chipsets, and voice chipsets, but no combined ones, so that's more board space. Qualcomm is supposed to release a LTE+voice+(3G/2G) chip later this year, though. And it's pentaband 3G, so perhaps T-Mobile gets to experience the fun of having to upgrade its network as iPhones start consuming 3G data.
Talking about Canadian Media companies, for TV, there's Shaw Media and Bell Media (they bought the stations owned by defunct CanWest Global). So all the non-US channels are either independent stations, or owned by Shaw or Bell. (Bell owns Discovery channels, Shaw owns History, I don't know who owns A&E, etc). Hell, Rogers probably owns something that I'm just not watching.
So the big telecommunications companies own the "entire stack" - from programming and TV stations to final delivery.
And hell, remember how much trouble the FCC gave Comcast for NBC? That was still going on when Canwest Global imploded and Shaw/Bell/etc bought over the station assets. All done, while the FCC/DOJ/FTC were still deciding on whether to let Comcast get just NBC.
I'm surprised no one's renamed the CRTC yet. It's really just a Rogers, Bell, Telus and Shaw front group.
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It's cyclical - going from specialized to general to specialized, etc.
Early computers used character generator chips - specialized processors that took ASCII(ish) inputs and generated the onscreen information. This evolved into chips handling video accelleration with sprites and all that.
Then we evolved into putting ti back in the processor and using video as a mere framebuffer - so we can have nice higher resolution graphics. We could scale framebuffer cards to impressive resolutions when we don't have to worry about dedicated hardware (sprites basically moved to complete software support). Then Windows came out and video specialization happened again with 2D accelleration (usually BitBlt).
Then we added 3D, which we initially did in software and migrated to hardware, and video, which went from postage sized QVGA or less to full screen HD.
And now today's video card isn't just a mere framebuffer like it was in the 90s, it's a full fledged specialized vector PC, doing stuff that once was in dedicated hardware blocks into general programs it runs to do what the hardware does. So even though we've specialized the video card, the video generalized and now we're writing code for it.
it's a cycle. Specialized blocks are replaced by more general ones which then spawn more specialized blocks that are replaced ...
There aren't many touch-screen PCs out there - there's a few all-in-ones that have touch screens, but they all come with mice. Heck, Apple got patents on such stuff for probably half a decade or more, and nothing's come of it.
Touch interfaces suck on a PC. If it's a desktop, your going to hold your hand up the whole time you're interacting with it? After a few minutes, your arm's going to get tired and then what? Stop using the computer? Then try accessing the screen when an elbow is on the table.
Laptops are slightly better, but sitll suffer from the same problem (it's why Apple decided the touch interface is best impemented using the acres of touchpad space on the laptop (seriously - what's with non-Apple laptops having itty-bitty touchpads? You could almost measure Apple's in acres).
Add Kinect to a laptop, and while your fingers are on the home row you can flick the cursor about (great for those apps that don't hide the mouse cursor when typing), or maybe scroll using finger gestures while keeping your hands on the home row.
So no bars/clubs and work. That still leaves hobbies - don't you have any? There's plenty of social activities for every hobby.
Like to write FOSS code? Attend some conferences - there's only like a 100 of them a year and you'll meet lots of people. Don't dismiss them though - just like finding a job, networking can find you a suitable partner interested in the same stuff as well.
Into other things like reading books? Try book clubs.
Every hobby has some social element to it - even if you prefer to be stuck in front of a computer all day, there are get-togethers for those people.
And really, if you can't imagine going to such events, volunteer your skills - perhaps you'll bump into someone there.
And don't ignore the paired off folks - networking is king and they may very well know other people.
Funny, Sony hasn't announced the PS4 yet.
Rambus RDRAM is in the most popular console to date, and is also in a current gen console. The PS2 (world's bestselling cnnsole) has 32MB of RDRAM (the same stuff you guys had to fork 3x the $$$ over).
The PS3 includes 256MB of XDR-DRAM, which is it's successor using multi-level signalling (much like how MLC flash stores data) to transfer 2 bits every clock edge.
So singlehandedly, gamers are keeping Rambus alive.
And it's quite possible that Sony's PS4 will use Rambus memory as well. Which will sell millions and have people claiming how much better it is than the Wii-U and Xbox Next. Thus keeping Rambus alive for another 7-8 years.
I wouldn't say that. The US has amazing numbers and varieties of things. It's why people shop in the US - the number of things available is so immense.
It's more of a cultural thing I believe. Europeans may simply read more newspapers and stuff because of cultural norms, so the variety and coverage of magazines is a lot better. Most of the computer and videogame ones carry discs purely because it's been the traditional way of spreading software around (especially given how the Internet can suck with high fees, slow speeds and low caps). And perhaps because of this, online newspapers aren't a huge thing (though WWAN tablets might change carrying around newsprint and magazines). In the US, the general view is magazines suck - cost a lot, outdated news, etc, and everyone just goes online for their news.
Heck, in Canada, online shopping really ... sucks. It's perhaps the big reason why retail B&M stores tend to be doing well still. Even sites like Amazon are but a pale imitation to the US site. Could be a social thing - Americans like buying online because of price, choice and not having to interact with people. Canadians get screwed on price (it usually costs same as store or more with shipping), like spending time with others and view the whole online thing as somewhat alienating.
It could.
One of the interesting things about Kinect is that it has two VGA imagers - an IR one (for depth) and an RGB one (for visuals). The problem is that the Xbox360's USB port can't handle the data required so the IR imager is only generating QVGA images. The end result of this is fine details like hands are resolved only into well, blocks. It's why there are no finger gestures - there's insufficient depth information to figure out the fingers.
(The Xbox360 can theoretically do 30MB/sec through the USB port, but it's nowhere near that (it's roughly half). 1 VGA imager produces 0.3MB of information, at 30FPS, that's 9MB/sec. If both ran at VGA, you're talking about 18MB/sec for imaging information, plus we need 4 audio channels).
The PC should be able to handle 2x VGA imagers, maybe even higher res imagers which should get you even more detailed depth imaging and be able to pick finer details. Even at VGA Kinect should be able to pick the general shape of the hand.
I just checked my Galaxy Nexus. It says "Made in China", so I'm guessing it's probably a safe assumption it's made at Foxconn.
And while HTC's premium flagship phones are made in Taiwan, I'd guess most of the rest of them are made in Foxconn (for every flagship, there's probably dozens more of the lowend phones sold).
That, and millions of gamers around the world financed these lawsuits. And I doubt Rambus will be going out of business anytime soon, as millions more gamers will continue to finance Rambus.
(The PS2 has 32MB of RDRAM, back in the days when RDRAM DIMMs were horrendously overpriced. The PS3 has 256MB of XDR-DRAM, it's successor). I'm guessing the stock will shoot up again should Sony again pick Rambus technology for the PS4.
Exactly.
Reframe it this way - did people stop pirating music once the RIAA sued Napster? No, they moved onwards to Gnutella, Bittorrent and other P2P mechanisms. In fact, killing Napster make the alternatives more popular and even harder to stop. Taking down Bittorrent trackers just made more private ones spring up.
So only idiots shut down stuff that they can easily monitor. If people are rioting, don't shut down Facebook, instead glean intel from it. Shut down facebook and that intel would get posted elsewhere, Don't shut it down and people will post it right in front of you.
The problem is, you posted the information. An old adage from the early days goes "never put online what you don't want the world to know".
You fell for the "privacy" settings. There is no such thing, because honestly everyone else can get easy access to that information.
Think about it - who benefits from people posting information on their website? Facebook/Google/etc. all benefit because it's useful for mining and marketing. How do you get the public to post their whole lives online? You implement "privacy" settings, giving them privacy theatre - because once it's online, it can't be taken off.
Hell, I'm sure Facebook, Google, etc. would hand over lots of information if the FBI posed as advertisers and bought a few ads.
And as long as someone else can see it, they can post it. Expecting Facebook to keep stuff private from reposts/retweets is just as good as emails that can only be read by one person.
There is only one "privacy" setting. And it's "everything you post is public". If you mark your post as "Only Me" - why bother putting it online? If it's "Only friends" then you're counting on them to not broadcast it to THEIR friends and so on (i.e., it's public).
To be honest, most of those are probably lies. While it's true some are damaged during shipping, it's far more likely that:
* The user bought it, disliked it, and wanted a refund but couldn't get one (remember, you can leave an Amazon review without buying it from Amazon). The only recourse is to break it and claim DOA or "it broke".
* The user bought it, but it had a defect that isn't covered under warranty (e.g., dead pixel) or replacement under the store's terms, so you claim it DOA to exchange it.
* The user mistreats his equipment - e.g., drops it, gets it wet, etc, leading to shorter than normal service lives
Most of my stuff lasts way beyond its warranty - it only starts failing within extended warranty terms. Heck, I'm still using an iPod from 2006 that gets me around 2 hours of battery, still. But others I know are constantly breaking their gadgets and are noticably rougher on them. Even people who are normally good sometimes make errors - putting DVRs and cableboxes inside enclosed cabinetry, for example, or hard drive camcorders dangling from neckstraps whilst on.
It all depends.
Of the genuine failures, I can attest that it's usually the power supply that's the issue - wall warts are built to a price and usually with inferior components (except on more "premium" goods where the manufacturer may decide to invest in higher quality wall warts). Those things go out of regulation so easily that leads to the connected equipment failure (usually by getting flaky/crashing/hanging/resetting).
Take a $20 item - and it's probably cost $10 to make, which mean its parts probably have to total $5 and under BOM. Of that $5, probably only 50 cents goes towards the adapter, and the factory behind the adapter is still making a good profit. You can bet there's probably some overtaxed part in there, cheap capacitors, etc.
For a probe that lasts 90 days, the extra weight and complexity of a wiper arm probably isn't justified. And martian soil is very fine - even if you could wipe it, you'd more than likely just cause scratches in the surface that'll embed the dust into it anyhow, so wiping does little and consumes too much power.
Curiousity, which launched in November, has an RTG because it needs a lot of power and the heat's reused to keep the system warm. But it's also built for a far longer mission (1 year?) than Sojourner (30 days) or Spirit/Opporunity (90 days) were.
Actually, that's what keeping whitespace devices (which have been talked about for years prior to the digital TV transition) from taking off - how to keep from interfering with regular TV.
The initial proposal was to simply have the devices scan for free channels, but that lead to the hidden node effect (just because you can't detect it doesn't mean that someone in your transmission range can't detect it).
The next proposal was a GPS receiver and a database lookup. Which had the chicken-and-egg problem - you need to get online to get the free channel list, but you can't get online until you get on a free channel. Google proposed to run this database (for free), and proposals were made to have that database available in offline form so devices could embed it in. But then there are "freshness" problems.
The current solution seems to be manually mapping out the free channels, and isolating the devices to within the surveyed geographic area. But of course, that's led to the current very slow deployment of white space devices. On the plus side, it means there's a very low chance of interference (it's been surveyed) and if a new station wants in, the existing devices can be updated to not use the channel over the air, while new channels get the new updated channel list on setup.
Harper's actually a brilliant politician. If you look at him carefully, he says what people want to hear, then dismisses what they don't by couching it terms they want to hear. At the same time, he discredits his opposition using brilliant words that people want to hear. Everything else he buries.
Think about it. Right now, we have the whole pipeline thing in BC. Harper has couched it in "JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS" and "EVIL AMERICAN ECOTERRORISTS". And that's all he's saying, ignoring that the oil companies he's backing are majority owned by international interests. So the big story is how all the eco groups are foreign funded.
It's also how his attack ads work - making us fearful of the party leaders.
Quite brilliant because the people lap it up.
Final example - cutting of corporate tax to BELOW the US (!). The funny thing about that is all the US companies are effectively subsidized because they have to pay at least the US tax rate, so low Canadian tax rates mean that the US goverment is getting revenue from the companies that weren't paying anything before. So the Canadian taxpayer is helping the US. (Nevermind the whole John Deere (?) thing where he handed them a bailout, and they promptly shut down the factory to relocate to the US). Again, all couched in "JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS"
Brilliant policitian. Just not someone who governs well.
Actually, Eric Schmidt was referring to the question on why on Android, apps are ported to it from iOS rather than Android apps going the other way (though there have been a few - Dolphin HD, for example).
Basically, he means ICS will take over the world and developers would code for it because it has greater marketshare rahter than iOS.
Of course, it's CEO talk so a bit exaggerated, since well, it took a year for a release of Android to become the majority (Froyo was released in 2009, and became the majority in 2010. Gingerbread was released in 2010 and became the majority (55%) in 2011. ICS was released in 2011, and will become majority by late 2012 (at which point a new release of Android would be out). Ignoring Honeycomb as even ICS beats it right now.
The other point is well, money. Having marketshare means nothing if people don't buy, and alas, it seems people on iOS buy, while Android users seem to go for free or pirate. Or, as one avid Android user I know does, he builds it himself - because Android is open source so he insists that all apps he uses on Android must be open source.
I will say this though - ICS fixes a LOT of Android problems.
Two reasons for that.
First, confusing naming. Samsung Galaxy S 2. Is that possibly a Samsung Galaxy Slide? Or a Samsung Galaxy S blah? I had a look over the holidays, and all the free/penny smartphones from Samsung were all beginning with "Samsung Galaxy S" but were NOT the flagship phone. Unless you're paying attention (and don't realize that no, the phone you want is NOT on sale), you're gonna pick up some freebie Android thinking it was on sale. Or you saw an ad, but don't remember the name other than "Galaxy". Well, the first phone the guy behind the counter will show you is the free one, not the one for $200.
And the second reason is - there's a TON of android phones out there. Some were even advertising Android 2.2! Ignoring ICS, that's already one version old and on contract.
And these aren't noname chinese free specials. These are ones by Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG. Given the cell store doesn't have anything other than those for Android phones, but rows upon rows of them... most of them are just shitty ones. And most will walk out assuming they bought the "cool" one they saw in the ad.
In the end, the worst part is there's maybe 20 Android phones all free, and the flagships at $200+ (of which there are maybe 5 or so). So a clueless consumer will assume they walked out with a good Android phone on the cheap.
Hell, I'm sure people walk in being told to buy a Galaxy Nexus and end up with some other Samsung POS Android Galaxy S something.
Well, DMCA notices have been sent to sites carrying the 3D shapefiles to have them removed, so ...
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/04/the-next-napster-copyright-questions-as-3d-printing-comes-of-age.ars
But at what cost? Corporate purchases, and by extension government ones, tend to be ones that generate lots of revenue, but have tiny margins as people drive to lower the bottom line cost. Even the server market, considered to be a high-margin part of corporate IT is still subjected to shrinking margins.
Apple simply isn't interested in that market because the purchasers can be quite demanding and unwilling to pay for it. Apple's more than happy to let HP/Dell/etc fight it out on the race to the bottom and continue to enjoy the much fatter margins they're currently earning.
After all, Dell ships easily 10 times the number of computers Apple does, but in the end the profit Dell makes on computers is very similar to what Apple makes on computers.
It's also why Apple lacks an entrant in the sub-$500 PC market, or why their Mac Mini wouldn't fit in (still need monitor and keyboard, for example). Or why Apple went "ultraportable PC" with the Macbook Air instead of trying to do a netbook.
Possible, but given it's Pwn2Own, the machine you "pwned" is the machine you win.
And given in the past you had a choice of Macbook Pro (OS X), a Sony Vaio (Windows) and sometihng else (for Linux), and had the ability to choose what computer you wanted, what would you go for?
Most would go for the Macbook purely because it's a nice decent machine that happens to look and function great (and runs Windows and Linux). If I had a series of exploits that worked on all three platforms, I'd go after the Mac first just to win that over a Sony. Then I'd go for the Sony next (if it wasn't for the crapware, at least they're nice looking machines).
Once that was won, people concentrated on the next machine that was second on their list, etc. Smart contestants go after the computer no one is breaking in as they have a greater chance of winning a free computer.
And despite the /. crowd chanting "FUNCTION FIRST, not form", most people seem to consistently go for the Macs.
Given the machines are all around the same value, perhaps a fairer comparison would be if everyone of them was a Macbook Pro or so, running the OS of choice (after all, Windows and Linux run great on a Macbook Pro - I know Ubuntu has a EFI installer that boots natively).
They do make "data diodes" actually - it separates the "classified" network from the "unclassified" network, but allows some traffic to pass through. Data can flow from the unclassified network, but is blocked from the reverse.
It's basically a firewall with application-level smarts and DPI - so a classified PC can see file shares on the unclassified network, but the reverse isn't possible. Ditto stuff like FTPing files into the classified network, but preventing uploading files the other way and such.
Handy if you want to allow say, Windows Updates through and that's it.
Sure, a virus could get in if someone pulled it in, but it couldn't get out (if the traffic doesn't meet one of the existing filters, it's blocked).
In China, AOSP based Androids outnumber official Androids. There are few ways for AOSP Androids to get apps (SlideME, GetJar, AppsLib) and they have few apps compared to Google Market (which they can't get).
So instead, these people set up unofficial Chinese marketplaces because they aren't well served (can't get Market apps, other app stores are pretty useless to them) and they serve up all sorts of apps, including pirated ones.
Yeah. So why aren't Android developers using the alternative marketplaces also?
Both SlideME and Amazon have paltry numbers of apps compared to Google, and most developers don't make APKs available via their website (even free ones), they leave you a crappy QR code and leave it at that.
It becomes a Google problem because these devices are all marketed as "Android" which people believe have half a billion apps in it (or so), but then they get 'em and realize that all the cool apps their friends have they can't get. Then it's "Android sucks - they claim it's half a billion apps but all I see is 10,000".
So it's no wonder people pirate the marketplace. Or pirate the apps themselves.
Android without the Market is more or less just an app-less environment.
And none could figure out the "hard" ssh command line option to run a command ...? (ssh can run rsh-like).
Then again, I'd shudder to think what the shell script owuld look like. Probably 500 lines starting with "ssh".
I'm surprised they didn't have some hokey user account whose sole purpose was on login to run ntpdate and kick you off.
Heck, perhaps given that iPhone users use the most data, Apple's simply waiting for carriers to beef up their data networks so there won't be a complete meltdown when the iPhone starts supporting LTE. So all your LTE users right now - enjoy the speed while it lasts. When the iPhone with LTE is released, it might be wise to switch to 3G...
That, and there's a lack of LTE+voice chipsets out there - there are LTE chipsets, and voice chipsets, but no combined ones, so that's more board space. Qualcomm is supposed to release a LTE+voice+(3G/2G) chip later this year, though. And it's pentaband 3G, so perhaps T-Mobile gets to experience the fun of having to upgrade its network as iPhones start consuming 3G data.
Actually, it's even worse.
Talking about Canadian Media companies, for TV, there's Shaw Media and Bell Media (they bought the stations owned by defunct CanWest Global). So all the non-US channels are either independent stations, or owned by Shaw or Bell. (Bell owns Discovery channels, Shaw owns History, I don't know who owns A&E, etc). Hell, Rogers probably owns something that I'm just not watching.
So the big telecommunications companies own the "entire stack" - from programming and TV stations to final delivery.
And hell, remember how much trouble the FCC gave Comcast for NBC? That was still going on when Canwest Global imploded and Shaw/Bell/etc bought over the station assets. All done, while the FCC/DOJ/FTC were still deciding on whether to let Comcast get just NBC.
I'm surprised no one's renamed the CRTC yet. It's really just a Rogers, Bell, Telus and Shaw front group.