I randomly chose black as my skin colour for the game. At some point, some Euro kid ran up to me and yelled "NEGER!" which I thought was pretty hilarious given that (a) he has no clue what colour I really am, and (b) we're talking about a made-up land full of midgets and Spocks.
I have to say though that's the one and only time where I've heard anything inflammatory (apart from the usual juvenile Southparkian humour) and I rather suspect he was doing it to provoke.
Treo smartphones and PocketPC phones can hold decent chunks of music, and have builtin phones. You can even get SSH and Remote Desktop clients for them.
I check out PDAs from time to time to see what the latest is. But the thing they never have is a DVI port. I'd like to plonk down the PDA, plug in a keyboard and monitor, and use it as a PC -- if only to act as a thin client to a beefier application server.
Re:This wouldn't surprise me....
on
iCell in the Works?
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Which would you rather have? An iPod, or a phone with an iPod built in?
I'm holding off buying an iPod cos I want a phone with a decent integrated mp3 player. (So far the thing that's holding me back is that it's still cheaper to buy separate devices.)
I don't want to carry around a zillion gizmos, each with their own quirky interfaces, cables, memory formats, sync apps, drivers etc.
Actually when it really comes down to it, what I really want is to have my PC with me at all times, in a form factor round about that of a phone. But that's a few decades off, even assuming anyone wants to build one.
If Apple is planning to increase the range of devices around its "digital hub", and so benefits from being able to offer more seamless interoperation, is it time that Microsoft got into the hardware business and started building MS PCs?
I like TV for entertainment, but it's not much good for disseminating knowledge.
Entertainment is devoid of ideas and knowledge? Do you never watch documentaries? You don't watch the news? On September 11th, you turned on your radio to see what was going on?
Perhaps you really do watch only vacuous TV. Even if that's the case, that doesn't mean there isn't good programming out there too.
Uncle Sam's solution? 'Yes, the very same federal government that is cutting back on college loans and food stamps will soon be issuing TV vouchers' - $1.5 billion to help U.S. households buy new digital TV equipment."
I think this undervalues television. It is a means of communication that reaches more citizens than any other. Yes, education is more important, and yes, there's lots of crap on the telly, but TV is still an important medium by which ideas and knowledge can be disseminated.
I hope somewhere a bean counter is totting up two columns: "Revenues from patent litigation" and "Losses from patent litigation". Hopefully this will be roughly a zero-sum and will make people realise that everyone except patent lawyers loses from patent litigation.
We don't need administrative or legal solutions to this, though they're nice.
What we need is application sandboxing; that is, restrict an application's access to system resources when it runs (think chroot jails but on a much grander scale). The key to this (as with any security system) will be to balance security with usability, i.e. not make it so anal that you can't actually do anything. You'll still have ignorant users, but at least they will opt into insecurity rather than inherit it by default.
Crucially, this is something we nerds can do for ourselves and not rely on others whose agendas are opaque.
Yahoo auctions (remember them?) had a system whereby an auction would be extended by 5 minutes past the most recent bid. This would kill sniping to a large extent. I can only assume that eBay have done the maths and decided they will make more money by allowing more auctions to be sniped than fewer items to sell for more.
I bought a PC recently. Part of the justification was that I would finally get round to setting up a Linux desktop and configure it just the way I want.
But all the distros I've tried so far have had hardware issues that I consider pretty fundamental to a desktop. RedHat - getting nvidia graphics installed to run Doom3. SuSE - intermittent sound and wifi issues. Ubuntu - screen resolution issues, sound issues, unremembered wifi config. (Knoppix is next, fingers crossed.)
I can solve all of these, by getting down and hacking the config files, but the fact that these mature and well-backed distros don't Just Work illustrates the fact that getting a Linux desktop distro to work is a non-trivial job, and I'm not surprised PC manufacturers aren't interested in doing it and supporting it.
I don't know what the answer is - some of these distros are backed by big companies. It's a shame IBM didn't do a distro when they had a hardware division, I think it'll takes someone who does software and hardware (like Apple) to really get it right, sell you a machine that just works.
I haven't switched fully because my PC is loud when on, and SUSE Linux won't suspend properly.
Seriously.
I have yet to be convinced that desktop linux isn't fundamentally lacking in such areas of day to day usability.
Installation was horrible (multi-day) also because of the customary hardware issues (specifically, USB audio issues, wifi drivers, both of which still only work intermittently and seemingly at random).
Once installed, my top two complaints are
1. There are far too many utilities installed. I want the best one of each. Yes, it may be that everyone's definition of best is different, but I don't see Apple developing 10 versions of iTunes. There must be one that is good enough for most people.
2. It's nigh impossible to find where in the menu system to configure the thing you're trying to configure. (Again hampered by the fact that there seem to be 10 subtly different utilities that might do what you want.)
I may try another distro, but essentially this is my usual experience of trying to move to desktop Linux, so I only try once a year or so.
I'm sure it'll get there eventually though, probably when the distros shake out and we're left with the ones with focus.
Moreover, she wrote, The Onion and its Web site are free, so the seal is not being used for commercial purposes.
The first thing I get when you go to the Onion's site is a full-screen ad. So, there is money being made. Just because it's free doesn't mean it's not commercial.
At random I caught an interesting debate on BBC24 between 4 MEPs. They were discussing the need for nuclear power. There was an interesting claim by the Finnish chap that nuclear power produces no carbon output. The German Green countered that this was ignoring the carbon cost of plant construction, maintenance, production of rods, waste disposal, decommissioning, etc. Her general point was that those who argue that nuclear power is cheap and efficient ignore the overheads and invisible costs.
Another interesting point made was that the alternatives proposed by the anti-nuclear position have no chance of being developed and deployed on a sufficient scale and in time to meet the Kyoto targets. The greens countered that they were also trying to address the demand side of the energy problem, unlike the nuclear lobby who seek only to replace existing supply.
The device I want is an i/o box for a media server. Feature wishlist:
. <$200 so I can buy several for various rooms . wifi (maybe with base station capabilities) . screen (large enough to host a menu system) . enough grunt to play streamed audio, and possibly video . audio out . video out (maybe) . expandable storage . as small as possible . rechargeable battery and mains . linux/homebrew SDK
Something like a cross between an iPod, a remote control, and an Airport Express with AirTunes.
The idea is that I have my central media server but can use the console as an output and to control it (select what I want to listen to without a separate remote).
The PSP was so close, it fails on the last of the above conditions.
If we could get these sats small enough, it might be possible to deploy a GPS system for Mars in one or two launches.
OT... something I've been wondering about, with regard to long-range communication with satellites: we know how to do networks now, why aren't we peppering space with small node probes that travel away from Earth (i.e. aren't orbital satellites) but keep in touch with eachother and so can route the data from real science probes back to us from further and further out?
I suppose the number of nodes required would grow at the same order as the volume of a sphere (assuming we want to spray them in all directions) but we actually probably only want to send them out in specific directions.
Having multiple DRM mechanisms pisses consumers off, because they can't play their iTunes-bought songs on a Creative MP3 player.
I think that the only way to get a single, universal DRM mechanism is to make encoding free - if content producers can restrict their content for free, then they will do it. So long as they have to pay a royalty, then (barring monopolies) there will be competing DRM technologies, and so a universal DRM standard will be hindered.
Therefore I hope that there is never an open source royalty-free DRM system.
In the UK there is a software system called Mosaic which collates various sources of demographic information and allows you then to find out what kinds of people live at a particular address.
Slashdot Mirror
I randomly chose black as my skin colour for the game. At some point, some Euro kid ran up to me and yelled "NEGER!" which I thought was pretty hilarious given that (a) he has no clue what colour I really am, and (b) we're talking about a made-up land full of midgets and Spocks.
I have to say though that's the one and only time where I've heard anything inflammatory (apart from the usual juvenile Southparkian humour) and I rather suspect he was doing it to provoke.
Treo smartphones and PocketPC phones can hold decent chunks of music, and have builtin phones. You can even get SSH and Remote Desktop clients for them.
I check out PDAs from time to time to see what the latest is. But the thing they never have is a DVI port. I'd like to plonk down the PDA, plug in a keyboard and monitor, and use it as a PC -- if only to act as a thin client to a beefier application server.
These guys are approaching what I want, though it's not as small as I like, and isn't a phone or camera.
Which would you rather have? An iPod, or a phone with an iPod built in?
I'm holding off buying an iPod cos I want a phone with a decent integrated mp3 player. (So far the thing that's holding me back is that it's still cheaper to buy separate devices.)
I don't want to carry around a zillion gizmos, each with their own quirky interfaces, cables, memory formats, sync apps, drivers etc.
Actually when it really comes down to it, what I really want is to have my PC with me at all times, in a form factor round about that of a phone. But that's a few decades off, even assuming anyone wants to build one.
If Apple is planning to increase the range of devices around its "digital hub", and so benefits from being able to offer more seamless interoperation, is it time that Microsoft got into the hardware business and started building MS PCs?
Or is that what the Xbox is?
Not another fucking CmdrTaco post. That guy sucks. All he ever does is whine and complain.
I like TV for entertainment, but it's not much good for disseminating knowledge.
Entertainment is devoid of ideas and knowledge? Do you never watch documentaries? You don't watch the news? On September 11th, you turned on your radio to see what was going on?
Perhaps you really do watch only vacuous TV. Even if that's the case, that doesn't mean there isn't good programming out there too.
Uncle Sam's solution? 'Yes, the very same federal government that is cutting back on college loans and food stamps will soon be issuing TV vouchers' - $1.5 billion to help U.S. households buy new digital TV equipment."
I think this undervalues television. It is a means of communication that reaches more citizens than any other. Yes, education is more important, and yes, there's lots of crap on the telly, but TV is still an important medium by which ideas and knowledge can be disseminated.
I hope somewhere a bean counter is totting up two columns: "Revenues from patent litigation" and "Losses from patent litigation". Hopefully this will be roughly a zero-sum and will make people realise that everyone except patent lawyers loses from patent litigation.
film = noun/verb/adjective?
documents = plural noun/verb?
software = noun/adjective?
creation = noun/verb?
I'm just saying it took my brain a few passes to find the verb!
Had trouble parsing the article title... four nouns! Gak!
I read on a rumour site that they're going to switch the whole lineup to PowerPC.
We don't need administrative or legal solutions to this, though they're nice.
What we need is application sandboxing; that is, restrict an application's access to system resources when it runs (think chroot jails but on a much grander scale). The key to this (as with any security system) will be to balance security with usability, i.e. not make it so anal that you can't actually do anything. You'll still have ignorant users, but at least they will opt into insecurity rather than inherit it by default.
Crucially, this is something we nerds can do for ourselves and not rely on others whose agendas are opaque.
Yahoo auctions (remember them?) had a system whereby an auction would be extended by 5 minutes past the most recent bid. This would kill sniping to a large extent. I can only assume that eBay have done the maths and decided they will make more money by allowing more auctions to be sniped than fewer items to sell for more.
I dual boot into Windows 2k. I've had no hardware issues whatsoever.
I bought a PC recently. Part of the justification was that I would finally get round to setting up a Linux desktop and configure it just the way I want.
But all the distros I've tried so far have had hardware issues that I consider pretty fundamental to a desktop. RedHat - getting nvidia graphics installed to run Doom3. SuSE - intermittent sound and wifi issues. Ubuntu - screen resolution issues, sound issues, unremembered wifi config. (Knoppix is next, fingers crossed.)
I can solve all of these, by getting down and hacking the config files, but the fact that these mature and well-backed distros don't Just Work illustrates the fact that getting a Linux desktop distro to work is a non-trivial job, and I'm not surprised PC manufacturers aren't interested in doing it and supporting it.
I don't know what the answer is - some of these distros are backed by big companies. It's a shame IBM didn't do a distro when they had a hardware division, I think it'll takes someone who does software and hardware (like Apple) to really get it right, sell you a machine that just works.
I haven't switched fully because my PC is loud when on, and SUSE Linux won't suspend properly.
Seriously.
I have yet to be convinced that desktop linux isn't fundamentally lacking in such areas of day to day usability.
Installation was horrible (multi-day) also because of the customary hardware issues (specifically, USB audio issues, wifi drivers, both of which still only work intermittently and seemingly at random).
Once installed, my top two complaints are
1. There are far too many utilities installed. I want the best one of each. Yes, it may be that everyone's definition of best is different, but I don't see Apple developing 10 versions of iTunes. There must be one that is good enough for most people.
2. It's nigh impossible to find where in the menu system to configure the thing you're trying to configure. (Again hampered by the fact that there seem to be 10 subtly different utilities that might do what you want.)
I may try another distro, but essentially this is my usual experience of trying to move to desktop Linux, so I only try once a year or so.
I'm sure it'll get there eventually though, probably when the distros shake out and we're left with the ones with focus.
Not sure why this was posted to slashdot... it's just another phone.
The one you want is the N91, which has 802.11g wi-fi.
The first thing I get when you go to the Onion's site is a full-screen ad. So, there is money being made. Just because it's free doesn't mean it's not commercial.
Another interesting point made was that the alternatives proposed by the anti-nuclear position have no chance of being developed and deployed on a sufficient scale and in time to meet the Kyoto targets. The greens countered that they were also trying to address the demand side of the energy problem, unlike the nuclear lobby who seek only to replace existing supply.
The device I want is an i/o box for a media server. Feature wishlist:
. <$200 so I can buy several for various rooms
. wifi (maybe with base station capabilities)
. screen (large enough to host a menu system)
. enough grunt to play streamed audio, and possibly video
. audio out
. video out (maybe)
. expandable storage
. as small as possible
. rechargeable battery and mains
. linux/homebrew SDK
Something like a cross between an iPod, a remote control, and an Airport Express with AirTunes.
The idea is that I have my central media server but can use the console as an output and to control it (select what I want to listen to without a separate remote).
The PSP was so close, it fails on the last of the above conditions.
If we could get these sats small enough, it might be possible to deploy a GPS system for Mars in one or two launches.
OT... something I've been wondering about, with regard to long-range communication with satellites: we know how to do networks now, why aren't we peppering space with small node probes that travel away from Earth (i.e. aren't orbital satellites) but keep in touch with eachother and so can route the data from real science probes back to us from further and further out?
I suppose the number of nodes required would grow at the same order as the volume of a sphere (assuming we want to spray them in all directions) but we actually probably only want to send them out in specific directions.
Hmm... their real website seems to be slashdotted:
http://www.ua-corp.com/
...the perfect architecture for OS/2.
Having multiple DRM mechanisms pisses consumers off, because they can't play their iTunes-bought songs on a Creative MP3 player.
I think that the only way to get a single, universal DRM mechanism is to make encoding free - if content producers can restrict their content for free, then they will do it. So long as they have to pay a royalty, then (barring monopolies) there will be competing DRM technologies, and so a universal DRM standard will be hindered.
Therefore I hope that there is never an open source royalty-free DRM system.
In the UK there is a software system called Mosaic which collates various sources of demographic information and allows you then to find out what kinds of people live at a particular address.
c ards/story/0,1456,1529921,00.html) or swing voters (http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,142 8612,00.html)
This is used by marketing departments and political parties to target their attention at those most likely to be responsive, e.g. the uneducated and poor (http://money.guardian.co.uk/creditanddebt/credit
(Positive uses of such systems, if there are any, don't seem to get any media attention.)
According to the PDF downloadable from this page it is available in Sweden also:
http://www.appliedgeographic.com/mosaic.html
The principles involved could inform the system you are building.