...we have Daikatana. It was completed, but never came close to returning the investment.
On a somewhat related note, more money is easily blown yearly by movies studios producing crap movies than what the tech industry loses on their flops.
Let's hope the actual landers make it safely to the surface of Mars, so these models don't end up being sad reminders of the science that could have been.
Some predictions are slightly humorous because of their absurdity, so I guess there is some "value" in that. However the list is so massive that they will at least get a small percentage of their predictions right. What's the point in that?
One factor I didn't see in the article is bandwidth. What does a "click" mean? Normally it means navigating to (ie transferring from the server to their PC) new content. As bandwidth has increased, which includes everything from server performance and internet infrastructure to the final mile, the delay until that new content is available at the client has decreased, meaning that clicks are lest costly time-wise now.
So as the penalty of clicking on a link has reduced, the tolerance to clicking has gone up.
This should be a huge factor in the 3-click rule, which I don't remember seeing in the article.
The summary is not quite accurate. According to the article practically the entire notebook was reused, not just some "old LCDs". They more or less converted the (old but unused) notebooks' form factor into a wooden frame layout and added a $30 WiFi PCMCIA card. I would assume they removed the keyboard, battery and CD-ROM / floppy drive, but kept all of the rest of an already whole sytem. So they would be saving far more than just the cost of a new LCD per unit.
Also, purchasing a couple hundred old but unused notebooks of one specific model in bulk is hardly dumpster diving.
Yes, they were able to undercut the competition by utilizing a rare low-cost resource, thus "suceeding" in an existing market. But how does that translate into future business success now that they have to compete on a level playing ground with their competitors?
What about wrist watches? Most all Casio digital watches are probably derived from the same base "OS" (term used as loosely as in article). If so I'm sure there are billions of that "OS" in consumer devices as well.
Certainly not. There are at least two very good reasons the rest of the world (ie, not just the US) is not jumping up and down about this:
1) No new groundbreaking technology is being produced. We see no space plane, no new propulsion system, or anything that wasn't fundamentally engineered almost a half a century ago.
2) Motive, Motive, Motive.
If anything this stunt provides indication of just how huge the chasm is between the People and the Communists. People of China get rice and a bicycle, government officials get medal for getting the Motherland in the international news.
Kuala Lumpur has the tallest skyscraper in the world. Does that National Achievement make it any better to be the average Malaysian, compared to being the average Britain, American or German?
China has put a man in space. Does that make it any better to be Chinese?
Not if your machine is a notebook with a mobile processor, like the AMD Athlon XP-M. They reduce their clock speed when idle, so the lower the load the lower the power consumption.
Also, processors do not generate nearly as much heat cycling NOPs compared to pulsing electrons throughout the entire chip when performing actual logic. The heat is what does the damage.
There is a huge difference between building on more rudimentary technology, and "enhancing" technology that already meets the required specifications. Your analogy is like saying that inventing the automobile was easy because horse drawn carriages already existed ("US space programme was based on German technology"), while the better analogy for the Chinese space program would be the creation of a new Car company in the 21st century, when automobile design is extremely well understood and working models can be studied that already meet all the design specifications. There is no comparison.
How is this different from several people playing multiplayer Pocket Quake over WiFi, simulating in parallel a virtual 3D environment on their Pocket PCs?
The performance of a 206 mhz ARM (or XScale) processor is not remotely close to the that of an x86 processor running at the same speed. ARM is RISC, has a very small cache, no math coprocessor, etc, etc.
Why is the higher bandwidth needed for voice communication, which is when you are holding the device to the side of your head? Shouldn't the phone be smart enough to fall back on some slower connectivity for voice, and only use the higher speed network for data access? At least you aren't holding the thing next to your brain when you are surfing the web or using it for PDA / laptop connectivity, which is when the bandwidth is needed.
Dan East
Re:Athlon 64 Notebooks ready too
on
Athlon 64 Debuts
·
· Score: 1
Seems too many moderators are 1) not reading comments with a score less than two, and 2) not reading comments unless they were made within thirty minutes of when the article was posted.
Note also that the leftmost laptop appears to be made by Arima Computer Corporation, whose current production model is better known as the eMachines m5310. eMachines has made a very strong entry into the notebook market with that first model, and it appears they are trying to keep to the forefront by supporting the cutting-edge CPU.
You're exactly right. It is far better to be completely ignorant of technology advances when they do not involve 100% of "humankind" during the development process.
I am not one of the few dozen humans to ever leave our atmosphere, therefore space travel is not interesting. Just because you don't get personal benefit from it doesn't mean it is not interesting or news-worthy.
How is this different from Yahoo Yellow Pages ( http://yp.yahoo.com )? I've been using that service for half a decade. It searches by zipcode / address as well.
US households adopted the internet in mass quantity years before it was prolific in most countries that now lead with broadband access. It was that switch from government and educational internet access to massive general consumer use that popularized the www, reduced internet access costs, dramatically reduced the cost of PC hardware, and provided capital to drive technological advances in everything from CPUs to HDDs.
Simply put, it is easier to set up a modernized network from scratch than to modernize a legacy network and try and get consumers to upgrade. How many of us have ethernet 10 Base-T hubs in our homes because 100 Base-T didn't exist when we set up our LAN? I haven't rushed out and bought a new hub, even though I could use the bandwidth. The same basic thing is happening with internet access in the US.
Of course the population distribution in the US doesn't help the situation either.
Slashdot Mirror
...we have Daikatana. It was completed, but never came close to returning the investment.
On a somewhat related note, more money is easily blown yearly by movies studios producing crap movies than what the tech industry loses on their flops.
Dan East
In what way would this proof be applied outside the realm of the mathematica and theory?
Grand Unified Theory? Time Travel? Big Crunch?
Dan East
Let's hope the actual landers make it safely to the surface of Mars, so these models don't end up being sad reminders of the science that could have been.
Dan East
Sounds a bit like the Beale Papers.
Dan East
When the heck is Boxing day, as mentioned on beagle2.com?
It's very annoying when a date is referred to by the holiday that happens to fall on it, even when it's a holiday I'm familiar with.
Dan East
Some predictions are slightly humorous because of their absurdity, so I guess there is some "value" in that. However the list is so massive that they will at least get a small percentage of their predictions right. What's the point in that?
Dan East
One factor I didn't see in the article is bandwidth. What does a "click" mean? Normally it means navigating to (ie transferring from the server to their PC) new content. As bandwidth has increased, which includes everything from server performance and internet infrastructure to the final mile, the delay until that new content is available at the client has decreased, meaning that clicks are lest costly time-wise now.
So as the penalty of clicking on a link has reduced, the tolerance to clicking has gone up.
This should be a huge factor in the 3-click rule, which I don't remember seeing in the article.
Dan East
The summary is not quite accurate. According to the article practically the entire notebook was reused, not just some "old LCDs". They more or less converted the (old but unused) notebooks' form factor into a wooden frame layout and added a $30 WiFi PCMCIA card. I would assume they removed the keyboard, battery and CD-ROM / floppy drive, but kept all of the rest of an already whole sytem. So they would be saving far more than just the cost of a new LCD per unit.
Also, purchasing a couple hundred old but unused notebooks of one specific model in bulk is hardly dumpster diving.
Yes, they were able to undercut the competition by utilizing a rare low-cost resource, thus "suceeding" in an existing market. But how does that translate into future business success now that they have to compete on a level playing ground with their competitors?
Dan East
What about wrist watches? Most all Casio digital watches are probably derived from the same base "OS" (term used as loosely as in article). If so I'm sure there are billions of that "OS" in consumer devices as well.
Dan East
Slashdot's modding is really going downhill. 98 posts, many of which are ontopic and informative, are still modded 1.
Now here we have an offtopic post, totally devoted to why Sitefinder sucks, that is modded 5 - the highest modded post at this time.
Dan East
Certainly not. There are at least two very good reasons the rest of the world (ie, not just the US) is not jumping up and down about this:
1) No new groundbreaking technology is being produced. We see no space plane, no new propulsion system, or anything that wasn't fundamentally engineered almost a half a century ago.
2) Motive, Motive, Motive.
If anything this stunt provides indication of just how huge the chasm is between the People and the Communists. People of China get rice and a bicycle, government officials get medal for getting the Motherland in the international news.
Kuala Lumpur has the tallest skyscraper in the world. Does that National Achievement make it any better to be the average Malaysian, compared to being the average Britain, American or German?
China has put a man in space. Does that make it any better to be Chinese?
Dan East
Not if your machine is a notebook with a mobile processor, like the AMD Athlon XP-M. They reduce their clock speed when idle, so the lower the load the lower the power consumption.
Also, processors do not generate nearly as much heat cycling NOPs compared to pulsing electrons throughout the entire chip when performing actual logic. The heat is what does the damage.
Dan East
There is a huge difference between building on more rudimentary technology, and "enhancing" technology that already meets the required specifications. Your analogy is like saying that inventing the automobile was easy because horse drawn carriages already existed ("US space programme was based on German technology"), while the better analogy for the Chinese space program would be the creation of a new Car company in the 21st century, when automobile design is extremely well understood and working models can be studied that already meet all the design specifications. There is no comparison.
Dan East
How is this different from several people playing multiplayer Pocket Quake over WiFi, simulating in parallel a virtual 3D environment on their Pocket PCs?
Pocket Quake is almost 3 years old.
Dan East
The performance of a 206 mhz ARM (or XScale) processor is not remotely close to the that of an x86 processor running at the same speed. ARM is RISC, has a very small cache, no math coprocessor, etc, etc.
Dan East
Geez. Come on moderators, follow the links before you mod.
Dan East
Why is the higher bandwidth needed for voice communication, which is when you are holding the device to the side of your head? Shouldn't the phone be smart enough to fall back on some slower connectivity for voice, and only use the higher speed network for data access? At least you aren't holding the thing next to your brain when you are surfing the web or using it for PDA / laptop connectivity, which is when the bandwidth is needed.
Dan East
Seems too many moderators are 1) not reading comments with a score less than two, and 2) not reading comments unless they were made within thirty minutes of when the article was posted.
Dan East
It looks like OEMS will be rolling out notebooks with the new CPU right off:
Photo of Athlon 64 notebooks
Note also that the leftmost laptop appears to be made by Arima Computer Corporation, whose current production model is better known as the eMachines m5310. eMachines has made a very strong entry into the notebook market with that first model, and it appears they are trying to keep to the forefront by supporting the cutting-edge CPU.
Unofficial eMachines Notebook forum.
Dan East
You're exactly right. It is far better to be completely ignorant of technology advances when they do not involve 100% of "humankind" during the development process.
Dan East
I am not one of the few dozen humans to ever leave our atmosphere, therefore space travel is not interesting. Just because you don't get personal benefit from it doesn't mean it is not interesting or news-worthy.
Dan East
How is this different from Yahoo Yellow Pages ( http://yp.yahoo.com )? I've been using that service for half a decade. It searches by zipcode / address as well.
Dan East
Take a look at the urls for the first 3 pages and use your imagination. :)
The Voice of Murphy
Despite how badly my interview with Yeager concluded, I feel strangely relieved. I don't feel nearly so bad that...
Dan East
The signup page at BlueBottle currently reads:
New account sign-ups have been temporarily disabled - For
further information, please contact support@bluebottle.com.
Dan East
US households adopted the internet in mass quantity years before it was prolific in most countries that now lead with broadband access. It was that switch from government and educational internet access to massive general consumer use that popularized the www, reduced internet access costs, dramatically reduced the cost of PC hardware, and provided capital to drive technological advances in everything from CPUs to HDDs.
Simply put, it is easier to set up a modernized network from scratch than to modernize a legacy network and try and get consumers to upgrade. How many of us have ethernet 10 Base-T hubs in our homes because 100 Base-T didn't exist when we set up our LAN? I haven't rushed out and bought a new hub, even though I could use the bandwidth. The same basic thing is happening with internet access in the US.
Of course the population distribution in the US doesn't help the situation either.
Dan East