In CBS's defense, it is a new technology. They started developing it two years ago as a showcase technology specifically for this Superbowl.
You could really see its potential in the one play where the Raven's running back appeared to throw the football across the goal line. They were able to rotate around him and see both when he dropped the ball and whether he was across the goal line at the time. Doubling or tripling the number of cameras next year (as well as using higher quality cameras) and you'll probably see it on every replay. Heck, in a couple of years, it will probably be installed in every NFL stadium, and it will probably make instant replay much more effective.
On the other hand, using it on Steven Tyler during the halftime show was just wrong. At least they didn't use it on Brittany Spears. --
I don't think anybody has mentioned this so far, so I will.
There is a group at Lawrence Livermore National Lab that is working on a totally new MagLev system. It is called
Inductrak. What is unique about this system is that it uses totally passive technology.
It works by lining the center of the track with passive copper coils and lining the bottom of the train with Hallbach magnets. These Hallbach magnets have two interesing properties. One, they create a sinusoidally varying magnetic field, and two, the poles are aligned so that the magnetic field above the cabinet (i.e. where the passengers are) completely cancels out. What this means is that as the sinusoidally varying field passes over the passive coils, the coils create a repulsive field, but only so long as the train is moving. When the train slows down to below a few miles an hour, it will settle back down on the normal tracks.
The people who are developing this system are now working on a scale model with NASA for possible use in rocket launches.
But the real upshot to this sort of system, as opposed to the system mentioned in the article (Dynamic EM) or other such systems (Superconducting EM) is that the levitation system does not require precice computer control. With either of the other systems, a contol failure could cause a fatal accident. With Inductrack, the worst case scinario is a propulsion failure, in which case the train would simply continue floating until it slows down enough to land on the rails again.
The control issue is one of the major problems that have held back the deployment of large scale MagLev systems for decades. I think that this passive technology is probably going to prove to be the way to go. (IMHO, YMMV, etc.) --
Au contraire. Apple did change the case design. They removed a lot of metal from inside the original Bondi blue (and first generation fruit-flavored) iMacs. The case is more round and bulbous than the original iMac, it was just subtle enough that nobody would notice unless you sat two next to each other. This change came about with the release of the first DV iMacs (DVD-ROM and Firewire). Quick rule of thumb: if an iMac has a slot loading CD or DVD drive, it has no fan. --
This is correct. I found a
link that talks about Qwest's deployment of vDSL that it aquired with US West. They are currently holding back deployment some to bring their costs down to the point where they are actually making money on the service.
I remember hearing a US West executive talking about the service on the radio (some NPR show, I think) a while back. As near as I could tell, only one "channel" was coming down your line at any time (no tape one channel, watch annother possibilities). It did have one kinda cool feature, when the phone rang, the Caller ID info would appear on your TV. --
I'll be the first to admit that I don't fully understand the deep inner workings of OSes, but it seems to me that someone could just come along and modify Mach/Darwin to work on another PPC system, and then the Aqua UI, which is propritary, would still run on top of it.
Jason Haas of LinuxPPC
hinted
at an open standard for PPC motherboards in a recent/. article. What is to stop IBM from producing cheap PPC motherboards with fast G3 and G4(without Altivec, which is Motorola exclusive) processors.
It seems to me that this might once again open the doors for cloners, without Apple having to support each individual hardware setup. You can get your own customized version of Mach/Darwin for your hardware, and if you want it, for $130, you can get a professionally crafted UI, and the ability to run large ammounts of existing Mac software.
This seems like a much better cloning setup than Apple had before. Cloners would not have to wait for Apple to support new hardware, and Apple would not have to bear the development costs for many different varieties of PPC hardware. People can opt for the cheaper clone hardware that may be more difficult to set up, or go for the more costly, fully integrated setups from Apple (like the iMac, which is a great machine for the casual user).
You know, as a materials engineer, I always find it interesting that a soon as a new material comes on the market it is immediately made into a golf club. I have a professor who is working on a project to create the ultimate steel for making a sword for the purpose of slaying dragons. He is planning on making one sword and auctioning it off and then making golf clubs with the new steel.
Anyway, that said, just because a new material makes a good golf club doesn't make it a good choice for a laptop enclosure. The primary advantage of the amorphous metals (LiquidMetal is a trade name) in golf clubs is their ability to store elastic energy. The alloys themselves are denser than titanium (translation => heavier laptop), these alloys are more expensive than titanium, and there is the problem of beryllium being toxic. Plus, titanium forms a protective oxide that makes it corrosion resistant, whereas beryllium oxide is even more toxic than beryllium metal.
The fact that beryllium is toxic is really the killer. Even though you would have to grind the case up and inhale it for it to kill you (eventually, mabye 10-20 years down the road), the public perception that it is toxic would cause serious problems for Apple. --
Slashdot Mirror
You could really see its potential in the one play where the Raven's running back appeared to throw the football across the goal line. They were able to rotate around him and see both when he dropped the ball and whether he was across the goal line at the time. Doubling or tripling the number of cameras next year (as well as using higher quality cameras) and you'll probably see it on every replay. Heck, in a couple of years, it will probably be installed in every NFL stadium, and it will probably make instant replay much more effective.
On the other hand, using it on Steven Tyler during the halftime show was just wrong. At least they didn't use it on Brittany Spears.
--
There is a group at Lawrence Livermore National Lab that is working on a totally new MagLev system. It is called Inductrak. What is unique about this system is that it uses totally passive technology.
It works by lining the center of the track with passive copper coils and lining the bottom of the train with Hallbach magnets. These Hallbach magnets have two interesing properties. One, they create a sinusoidally varying magnetic field, and two, the poles are aligned so that the magnetic field above the cabinet (i.e. where the passengers are) completely cancels out. What this means is that as the sinusoidally varying field passes over the passive coils, the coils create a repulsive field, but only so long as the train is moving. When the train slows down to below a few miles an hour, it will settle back down on the normal tracks.
The people who are developing this system are now working on a scale model with NASA for possible use in rocket launches.
But the real upshot to this sort of system, as opposed to the system mentioned in the article (Dynamic EM) or other such systems (Superconducting EM) is that the levitation system does not require precice computer control. With either of the other systems, a contol failure could cause a fatal accident. With Inductrack, the worst case scinario is a propulsion failure, in which case the train would simply continue floating until it slows down enough to land on the rails again.
The control issue is one of the major problems that have held back the deployment of large scale MagLev systems for decades. I think that this passive technology is probably going to prove to be the way to go. (IMHO, YMMV, etc.)
--
Will it run Darwin ? If it can, then would it be possible to run Aqua on top of that?
Let's face it, at its core, MacOS X is another Unix distro (albeit not Linux)
That would bring a whole new meaning to the term Mac-in-the-box.
--
Au contraire. Apple did change the case design. They removed a lot of metal from inside the original Bondi blue (and first generation fruit-flavored) iMacs. The case is more round and bulbous than the original iMac, it was just subtle enough that nobody would notice unless you sat two next to each other. This change came about with the release of the first DV iMacs (DVD-ROM and Firewire). Quick rule of thumb: if an iMac has a slot loading CD or DVD drive, it has no fan.
--
This is correct. I found a link that talks about Qwest's deployment of vDSL that it aquired with US West. They are currently holding back deployment some to bring their costs down to the point where they are actually making money on the service.
I remember hearing a US West executive talking about the service on the radio (some NPR show, I think) a while back. As near as I could tell, only one "channel" was coming down your line at any time (no tape one channel, watch annother possibilities). It did have one kinda cool feature, when the phone rang, the Caller ID info would appear on your TV.
--
Oh, that's just a myth. The legend is that it was an Italian architect who had his eyes gouged out. In any case, it didn't happen.
--
I'll be the first to admit that I don't fully understand the deep inner workings of OSes, but it seems to me that someone could just come along and modify Mach/Darwin to work on another PPC system, and then the Aqua UI, which is propritary, would still run on top of it.
Jason Haas of LinuxPPC hinted at an open standard for PPC motherboards in a recent /. article. What is to stop IBM from producing cheap PPC motherboards with fast G3 and G4(without Altivec, which is Motorola exclusive) processors.
It seems to me that this might once again open the doors for cloners, without Apple having to support each individual hardware setup. You can get your own customized version of Mach/Darwin for your hardware, and if you want it, for $130, you can get a professionally crafted UI, and the ability to run large ammounts of existing Mac software.
This seems like a much better cloning setup than Apple had before. Cloners would not have to wait for Apple to support new hardware, and Apple would not have to bear the development costs for many different varieties of PPC hardware. People can opt for the cheaper clone hardware that may be more difficult to set up, or go for the more costly, fully integrated setups from Apple (like the iMac, which is a great machine for the casual user).
Am I out of my skull?
--
Anyway, that said, just because a new material makes a good golf club doesn't make it a good choice for a laptop enclosure. The primary advantage of the amorphous metals (LiquidMetal is a trade name) in golf clubs is their ability to store elastic energy. The alloys themselves are denser than titanium (translation => heavier laptop), these alloys are more expensive than titanium, and there is the problem of beryllium being toxic. Plus, titanium forms a protective oxide that makes it corrosion resistant, whereas beryllium oxide is even more toxic than beryllium metal. The fact that beryllium is toxic is really the killer. Even though you would have to grind the case up and inhale it for it to kill you (eventually, mabye 10-20 years down the road), the public perception that it is toxic would cause serious problems for Apple.
--