I saw it last night in 3D on a 4K projector and it looked phenomenal! I can understand why seeing it in 2D would be a lot less appealing since it was made for 3D. I'll likely see it again soon in 3D on an IMAX screen. It will be interesting to compare IMAX with the 4K projector. I also had a perfect seat in the theater. My only complaint is the theater didn't have a really good sound setup to match the picture.
With film, 24fps often drives me nuts, but the digital projector looked awesome.
On mine, the turn by turn navigation is right-on. Charging works just fine plugging it into my desktop computer's USB port. My biggest beef so far is that the PPTP VPN won't stay up more than a few minutes.
I imagine that the rough edges will be fixed since it's a major new release.
When I first read about this that was the first thing that came into my mind as well. Elsewhere I found another post where a permanent fix should be available on December 11th, which is the day that the bug will re-appear.
I certainly don't believe in them, but my late grandfather did and used dowsing rods to find a spot to drill a well after previous attempts failed. He struck an artesian well, though it should also be noted that the spot he picked also happened to stay green during the summer. Sometimes it comes down to just dumb luck.
The problem comes when you download those files and make the video your neighbor is watching unwatchable or make another person's game unplayable. Bulk downloads do not require real-time traffic and should be treated as such. You may want it now but a bit of a slowdown isn't going to affect you too much, especially when it only kicks in when there's congestion caused by you.
I'd opt for FIOS as well, but right now I have the choice of cable or sucky DSL.
Even back when I had residential I regularly saw well over 1MB/second with Comcast, but I was paying for 16/3 at the time. I now have 16/3 business and almost always see all of my bandwidth available with bursts over 20Mbps. I think my segment may be lightly loaded though (plus the main Comcast head-end complex is just up the street from me). I regularly get 2MB/sec.
I totally agree. If I'm gaming and my connection slows to a crawl because my neighbor decides to bittorrent 50GB of data I would be pretty pissed. Traffic management is a must for a smooth running network. For the 5% who use 90% of the bandwidth and demand no throttling it just makes life miserable to the 95% who aren't abusing the bandwidth. If you want non-throttled bandwidth, get a business account.
I myself have a Comcast business account and am quite pleased with it. The level of service is much better and the customer service is night and day compared to residential, but then again, I'm paying $90/month for my connection. Then again, I never really had much of a problem with my residential account for the most part, I mostly wanted a static IP and the ability to run servers.
All ISPs oversubscribe their networks because otherwise it would cost far too much for them to be competitive. If there's congestion, which packets should be dropped? The casual user or the user running huge bittorrents? Bandwidth is a limited resource.
The best solution would be if applications properly marked the packets as bulk, time sensitive, etc, but that isn't the case, and instead other less optimal methods must be used.
DOCSIS 3 will hopefully help, but it will be a while before it's available everywhere.
I think Netbooks and low-end notebooks really forced Microsoft to go back and optimize things since they can no longer assume people will have the latest and greatest hardware. I can't compare it with Vista since I've never used Vista but it is definitely an improvement over XP. I was surprised that the memory usage didn't increase all that much over XP. Besides the task bar, hibernate is vastly improved and it feels a lot more responsive. The wireless issues with XP vanished and things just seem to work. The UI is also improved in many small ways but they add up to make a more usable desktop.
I basically left it running Windows since once in a while it is useful to have a Windows system since sometimes there's software I need to use that isn't available on Linux. I also don't have to mess around trying to get everything to work properly like wireless, bluetooth, VPN, etc. which can be problematic depending on the hardware.
If I want to work on Linux on my netbook I have the NX client installed so I can access my Linux box any time I feel like it, almost as if it were running locally. This way I basically have a fast Linux system available to me anywhere I have a net connection. It's like having a 12GB quad core I7 monster at my fingertips in a netbook form factor. And NX makes remote access a dream, much better than VNC or remote X, even on slow connections. For when I do drop to the CLI, I have Cygwin installed.
Since I haven't used Windows much I figured I'd play with it. I'd set it to dual boot but the 60GB hard drive is too small for that.
It came with Windows XP Home which worked (except for hibernate issues) and I got the Windows 7 Ultimate RC for free and decided to play with it.
I may try installing Linux on it later. I'd love to get a 120GB or larger SSD for it but it's too expensive to justify right now and there's few manufacturers of hard drives for my netbook (it takes a 1.8" ZIF drive).
For my general needs on my netbook, Windows is fine. I need it for web, email, viewing photos and VPN access. For web access, I use Chrome which is snappier than Firefox and better using screen real-estate at the low resolution (1024x600) than Firefox is. My netbook is mostly just to play with and not for serious work.
For my desktop, it's Linux, and most of my time is spent with my desktop.
I actually upgraded from XP Home to Windows 7 Ultimate on my HP Mini Netbook (using an Atom N270). I was very pleasantly surprised at how well it runs. It actually feels smoother than XP and is generally quite usable, even with the slow 60GB hard drive. Then again, I also have 2GB of RAM installed, but the memory usage only went up maybe 100MB. Note that I am a Linux junkie and all of my other computers run Linux.
Feit is the sound of the bulbs frying their electronics, that Fffft sound. I've had nothing but trouble with Feit bulbs. I've bought other bulb brands and had no problems whatsoever. I even have dimmable CFL bulbs in some places that work quite well.
I recently switched my HP Mini netbook from XP to the 7 RC. I have found that some things are just more stable. Hibernate, for example, seems to work a lot better and works faster. It's much improved over XP. It's definitely been more stable and it's a number of little things I notice that are improvements, besides the improved task bar.
Memory wise, Windows 7 Ultimate it doesn't seem to use much more than what I was using with XP Home. If anything, the memory management feels like its improved quite a bit.
A lot of the little things in XP that bugged me seem to be fixed. Wireless and networking now always work when coming out of hibernate.
The only thing that bothers me is that I can no longer initiate a drive self test using the smartmontools.
Now I can't compare to Vista, since I've never run it. My primary OS is Linux.
That's not to say it isn't without its warts. Installing my printer (an HP Laserjet 4M Plus) requires 15 minutes of waiting to get the list of printer drivers.
Controlling DC motors for electric vehicles is still a complex operation, even if it is simpler than AC motors (depends on the type of DC motor). They are also typically less efficient unless one goes for a brushless motor, which is expensive since it requires a large permanent magnet. The brushes also wear out over time. They also generate a lot more EMI and are not as efficient. They also generally aren't that great at regenerative braking compared to an AC motor. AC motors work quite well in this respect. Controlling the speed of an AC motor is much simpler since it is simply a matter of the AC frequency.
There are many reasons not to put the motors in the wheels. For one, there's not much space for gear reduction in the wheels. Low speed electric motors are typically much less efficient. Two, there's the extra mass in the wheels which causes a lot of handling issues. Think of going over bumps, where now you add all this extra mass to the wheel. This puts a lot more stress on the tire and all the extra inertia will have a negative impact. There's a reason for alloy wheels other than just looks. Third, keeping dirt and water out of the motors is more complex, particularly if they're air cooled. This is much less of a problem if the motor is located in the body of the vehicle. If water cooled then one must run coolant hoses to the wheels. It's just a lot cheaper and easier to use axles to provide power to the wheels with a single motor and differential. A differential works quite well without any complex control mechanisms to try and distribute the power evenly.
DC motors are typically used by DIY electric vehicle builders, but commercial builders typically opt for AC.
I actually asked a fellow I know who works at Tesla about wheel motors. He basically said it's a bad idea from a performance and handling point of view. The additional weight in the wheels makes the suspension less effective and means that the effect of going over a bump will be a lot harsher. Besides, he said it also would add a lot to the cost since now instead of one motor you need two or four, as well as two or four inverters and a lot more complicated control software. This also would add more weight since each motor needs its own set of magnets and housing. Cooling can also be a problem. It's much cheaper to just use a differential and axles which typically have very little loss with the advantage that the weight is shifted to the car body. It also makes it easy to do things like water cooling for the motor. I suppose one could still use multiple motors located in the body and use axles to get rid of all of the mass in the wheels, but it still adds a lot of unnecessary complexity to the control system and additional cost and less reliability.
I think they actually did try and get rid of ethanol since it usually only helps old cars. They showed that the new gasoline formulations were better and produced less pollution but the use of an oxygenate is mandated by the federal government (think of all those corn growing states). MTBE was banned after it was shown it tends to leak from tanks and pollute groundwater and the alternative was ethanol. As I understand it, the oxygenates only really help carborated cars anyway, and there's not many of those on the road any more.
You should be able to find an inexpensive jet direct card somewhere. I should see if I can just set things up so it will use my Linux box as a print server.
The annoying thing is that Vista provided drivers for my printer, though I don't have Vista to copy the drivers from.
I have a Laserjet 4/4M Plus with the duplex unit, extra paper tray and Postscript support. It works like a charm still though sadly it looks like Windows 7 dropped support for this printer. Thankfully Linux still supports it.
It's made by Samsung and works with Verizon. I paid $200 for it with a discount. It also includes a GPS antenna which is needed for the 911 service. It will handle up to 3 simultaneous phone calls and one reserved for 911 and I can give priority to certain phone numbers. It does not provide EVDO service, but I don't really need it at home. I can also take it with me as long as there is an Ethernet port for Internet access.
Without it I get very spotty service since my house has a metal roof and chicken wire behind stucco walls.
With modern cell phones the answer is yes. All modern cell phones are required to report their location when calling 911. Even without GPS capability they can get fairly accurate location information by triangulation with cell towers. I don't know about other carriers, but with Verizon even my crappy phone from 5 years ago had location support for 911.
That would be true if you are using an antiquated analog cordless phone. My old digital 900MHz cordless phones connected to my land line (which uses VOIP through Comcast) sounds worlds better than any cell phone. There is little difference between my cordless phone and my corded phone.
On the other hand I had a nightmare of a time getting a clear signal with my cell phone due to the construction of my house. I finally had to break down and buy a pico-cell for it just so I could get a clear connection and so my battery would not be dead if I forgot to charge my phone every night. Even with the picocell (which works very well) the voice quality of my land line is vastly superior and I have far less trouble understanding the person at the other end.
Even bulk traffic should have some QoS enabled. I.e. under congestion http traffic should have higher priority over bittorrent with the possible exception of large http file transfers. Someone actively surfing the web should not be impacted as much as someone downloading a torrent or ISO image during times of congestion. I would argue that http traffic is more time sensitive than torrent traffic.
Actually some of these 32-bit processors are pretty easy to design hardware around, and many also contain the I/O pins for low-level stuff as well, usually in the form of programmable GPIO lines. A POS system would typically have several peripherals such as a credit card reader, a scanner, a printer for receipts, a display and a method of opening the cash drawer and maybe a scale. Most of these interfaces use something like serial or USB, though a touch screen display might also require a cheap graphics chip. Only something like opening the cash drawer would require a GPIO line and maybe the lock which could easily be handled by the built-in GPIO. A PIC or 8-bit processor might be used in some of the peripherals, but even there Atmel makes some simple 32-bit microcontrollers that aren't all that different than PIC in terms of I/O and are also cheap.
Other battery technologies have less problems than lead-acid batteries. I'm not hearing of a massive number of premature failures of the Prius battery in Southern California, for example. Given that they test the car in all sorts of weather conditions I'm sure the Volt will do fine.
Also note that the battery chemistry is likely different than that of laptop batteries. A friend of mine who works at Tesla said their batteries are designed more towards long life and performance rather than high capacity. He said there's three factors for lithium batteries, performance, longevity and capacity. Choose two of the three.
An electric heater draws far less power than the electric motor. There will be some reduction in mileage but probably no more than a few %. My Prius uses an electric heater in addition to heat from the ICE. The heater probably doesn't draw much more, if not less, than the electric AC in my car.
The biggest problem is that battery capacity suffers when the temperature is low.
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I saw it last night in 3D on a 4K projector and it looked phenomenal! I can understand why seeing it in 2D would be a lot less appealing since it was made for 3D. I'll likely see it again soon in 3D on an IMAX screen. It will be interesting to compare IMAX with the 4K projector. I also had a perfect seat in the theater. My only complaint is the theater didn't have a really good sound setup to match the picture.
With film, 24fps often drives me nuts, but the digital projector looked awesome.
-Aaron
On mine, the turn by turn navigation is right-on. Charging works just fine plugging it into my desktop computer's USB port. My biggest beef so far is that the PPTP VPN won't stay up more than a few minutes.
I imagine that the rough edges will be fixed since it's a major new release.
When I first read about this that was the first thing that came into my mind as well. Elsewhere I found another post where a permanent fix should be available on December 11th, which is the day that the bug will re-appear.
I certainly don't believe in them, but my late grandfather did and used dowsing rods to find a spot to drill a well after previous attempts failed. He struck an artesian well, though it should also be noted that the spot he picked also happened to stay green during the summer. Sometimes it comes down to just dumb luck.
The problem comes when you download those files and make the video your neighbor is watching unwatchable or make another person's game unplayable. Bulk downloads do not require real-time traffic and should be treated as such. You may want it now but a bit of a slowdown isn't going to affect you too much, especially when it only kicks in when there's congestion caused by you.
I'd opt for FIOS as well, but right now I have the choice of cable or sucky DSL.
Even back when I had residential I regularly saw well over 1MB/second with Comcast, but I was paying for 16/3 at the time. I now have 16/3 business and almost always see all of my bandwidth available with bursts over 20Mbps. I think my segment may be lightly loaded though (plus the main Comcast head-end complex is just up the street from me). I regularly get 2MB/sec.
I totally agree. If I'm gaming and my connection slows to a crawl because my neighbor decides to bittorrent 50GB of data I would be pretty pissed. Traffic management is a must for a smooth running network. For the 5% who use 90% of the bandwidth and demand no throttling it just makes life miserable to the 95% who aren't abusing the bandwidth. If you want non-throttled bandwidth, get a business account.
I myself have a Comcast business account and am quite pleased with it. The level of service is much better and the customer service is night and day compared to residential, but then again, I'm paying $90/month for my connection. Then again, I never really had much of a problem with my residential account for the most part, I mostly wanted a static IP and the ability to run servers.
All ISPs oversubscribe their networks because otherwise it would cost far too much for them to be competitive. If there's congestion, which packets should be dropped? The casual user or the user running huge bittorrents? Bandwidth is a limited resource.
The best solution would be if applications properly marked the packets as bulk, time sensitive, etc, but that isn't the case, and instead other less optimal methods must be used.
DOCSIS 3 will hopefully help, but it will be a while before it's available everywhere.
Also missing is Windows NT 3.1, 3.5 and 3.51
I think Netbooks and low-end notebooks really forced Microsoft to go back and optimize things since they can no longer assume people will have the latest and greatest hardware. I can't compare it with Vista since I've never used Vista but it is definitely an improvement over XP. I was surprised that the memory usage didn't increase all that much over XP. Besides the task bar, hibernate is vastly improved and it feels a lot more responsive. The wireless issues with XP vanished and things just seem to work. The UI is also improved in many small ways but they add up to make a more usable desktop.
I basically left it running Windows since once in a while it is useful to have a Windows system since sometimes there's software I need to use that isn't available on Linux. I also don't have to mess around trying to get everything to work properly like wireless, bluetooth, VPN, etc. which can be problematic depending on the hardware.
If I want to work on Linux on my netbook I have the NX client installed so I can access my Linux box any time I feel like it, almost as if it were running locally. This way I basically have a fast Linux system available to me anywhere I have a net connection. It's like having a 12GB quad core I7 monster at my fingertips in a netbook form factor. And NX makes remote access a dream, much better than VNC or remote X, even on slow connections. For when I do drop to the CLI, I have Cygwin installed.
Since I haven't used Windows much I figured I'd play with it. I'd set it to dual boot but the 60GB hard drive is too small for that.
It came with Windows XP Home which worked (except for hibernate issues) and I got the Windows 7 Ultimate RC for free and decided to play with it.
I may try installing Linux on it later. I'd love to get a 120GB or larger SSD for it but it's too expensive to justify right now and there's few manufacturers of hard drives for my netbook (it takes a 1.8" ZIF drive).
For my general needs on my netbook, Windows is fine. I need it for web, email, viewing photos and VPN access. For web access, I use Chrome which is snappier than Firefox and better using screen real-estate at the low resolution (1024x600) than Firefox is. My netbook is mostly just to play with and not for serious work.
For my desktop, it's Linux, and most of my time is spent with my desktop.
I actually upgraded from XP Home to Windows 7 Ultimate on my HP Mini Netbook (using an Atom N270). I was very pleasantly surprised at how well it runs. It actually feels smoother than XP and is generally quite usable, even with the slow 60GB hard drive. Then again, I also have 2GB of RAM installed, but the memory usage only went up maybe 100MB. Note that I am a Linux junkie and all of my other computers run Linux.
Feit is the sound of the bulbs frying their electronics, that Fffft sound. I've had nothing but trouble with Feit bulbs. I've bought other bulb brands and had no problems whatsoever. I even have dimmable CFL bulbs in some places that work quite well.
I recently switched my HP Mini netbook from XP to the 7 RC.
I have found that some things are just more stable. Hibernate, for example, seems to work a lot better and works faster. It's much improved over XP. It's definitely been more stable and it's a number of little things I notice that are improvements, besides the improved task bar.
Memory wise, Windows 7 Ultimate it doesn't seem to use much more than what I was using with XP Home. If anything, the memory management feels like its improved quite a bit.
A lot of the little things in XP that bugged me seem to be fixed. Wireless and networking now always work when coming out of hibernate.
The only thing that bothers me is that I can no longer initiate a drive self test using the smartmontools.
Now I can't compare to Vista, since I've never run it. My primary OS is Linux.
That's not to say it isn't without its warts. Installing my printer (an HP Laserjet 4M Plus) requires 15 minutes of waiting to get the list of printer drivers.
Controlling DC motors for electric vehicles is still a complex operation, even if it is simpler than AC motors (depends on the type of DC motor). They are also typically less efficient unless one goes for a brushless motor, which is expensive since it requires a large permanent magnet. The brushes also wear out over time. They also generate a lot more EMI and are not as efficient. They also generally aren't that great at regenerative braking compared to an AC motor. AC motors work quite well in this respect. Controlling the speed of an AC motor is much simpler since it is simply a matter of the AC frequency.
There are many reasons not to put the motors in the wheels. For one, there's not much space for gear reduction in the wheels. Low speed electric motors are typically much less efficient. Two, there's the extra mass in the wheels which causes a lot of handling issues. Think of going over bumps, where now you add all this extra mass to the wheel. This puts a lot more stress on the tire and all the extra inertia will have a negative impact. There's a reason for alloy wheels other than just looks. Third, keeping dirt and water out of the motors is more complex, particularly if they're air cooled. This is much less of a problem if the motor is located in the body of the vehicle. If water cooled then one must run coolant hoses to the wheels. It's just a lot cheaper and easier to use axles to provide power to the wheels with a single motor and differential. A differential works quite well without any complex control mechanisms to try and distribute the power evenly.
DC motors are typically used by DIY electric vehicle builders, but commercial builders typically opt for AC.
http://www.electric-cars-are-for-girls.com/electric-car-motors-ac-vs-dc.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_motor#Comparison_of_motor_types
http://ezinearticles.com/?Electric-Vehicle-Motor-For-Conversion---DC-Motor-Or-AC-Motor&id=2892806
http://www.zeva.com.au/tech.php?section=motors
I actually asked a fellow I know who works at Tesla about wheel motors. He basically said it's a bad idea from a performance and handling point of view. The additional weight in the wheels makes the suspension less effective and means that the effect of going over a bump will be a lot harsher. Besides, he said it also would add a lot to the cost since now instead of one motor you need two or four, as well as two or four inverters and a lot more complicated control software. This also would add more weight since each motor needs its own set of magnets and housing. Cooling can also be a problem. It's much cheaper to just use a differential and axles which typically have very little loss with the advantage that the weight is shifted to the car body. It also makes it easy to do things like water cooling for the motor. I suppose one could still use multiple motors located in the body and use axles to get rid of all of the mass in the wheels, but it still adds a lot of unnecessary complexity to the control system and additional cost and less reliability.
I think they actually did try and get rid of ethanol since it usually only helps old cars. They showed that the new gasoline formulations were better and produced less pollution but the use of an oxygenate is mandated by the federal government (think of all those corn growing states). MTBE was banned after it was shown it tends to leak from tanks and pollute groundwater and the alternative was ethanol. As I understand it, the oxygenates only really help carborated cars anyway, and there's not many of those on the road any more.
You should be able to find an inexpensive jet direct card somewhere. I should see if I can just set things up so it will use my Linux box as a print server.
The annoying thing is that Vista provided drivers for my printer, though I don't have Vista to copy the drivers from.
I try and not use the PS driver since it is incredibly slow if there are any pictures in the image and instead use PCL.
I have a Laserjet 4/4M Plus with the duplex unit, extra paper tray and Postscript support. It works like a charm still though sadly it looks like Windows 7 dropped support for this printer. Thankfully Linux still supports it.
It's made by Samsung and works with Verizon. I paid $200 for it with a discount. It also includes a GPS antenna which is needed for the 911 service. It will handle up to 3 simultaneous phone calls and one reserved for 911 and I can give priority to certain phone numbers. It does not provide EVDO service, but I don't really need it at home. I can also take it with me as long as there is an Ethernet port for Internet access.
Without it I get very spotty service since my house has a metal roof and chicken wire behind stucco walls.
With modern cell phones the answer is yes. All modern cell phones are required to report their location when calling 911. Even without GPS capability they can get fairly accurate location information by triangulation with cell towers. I don't know about other carriers, but with Verizon even my crappy phone from 5 years ago had location support for 911.
That would be true if you are using an antiquated analog cordless phone. My old digital 900MHz cordless phones connected to my land line (which uses VOIP through Comcast) sounds worlds better than any cell phone. There is little difference between my cordless phone and my corded phone.
On the other hand I had a nightmare of a time getting a clear signal with my cell phone due to the construction of my house. I finally had to break down and buy a pico-cell for it just so I could get a clear connection and so my battery would not be dead if I forgot to charge my phone every night. Even with the picocell (which works very well) the voice quality of my land line is vastly superior and I have far less trouble understanding the person at the other end.
Even bulk traffic should have some QoS enabled. I.e. under congestion http traffic should have higher priority over bittorrent with the possible exception of large http file transfers. Someone actively surfing the web should not be impacted as much as someone downloading a torrent or ISO image during times of congestion. I would argue that http traffic is more time sensitive than torrent traffic.
Actually some of these 32-bit processors are pretty easy to design hardware around, and many also contain the I/O pins for low-level stuff as well, usually in the form of programmable GPIO lines. A POS system would typically have several peripherals such as a credit card reader, a scanner, a printer for receipts, a display and a method of opening the cash drawer and maybe a scale. Most of these interfaces use something like serial or USB, though a touch screen display might also require a cheap graphics chip. Only something like opening the cash drawer would require a GPIO line and maybe the lock which could easily be handled by the built-in GPIO. A PIC or 8-bit processor might be used in some of the peripherals, but even there Atmel makes some simple 32-bit microcontrollers that aren't all that different than PIC in terms of I/O and are also cheap.
Other battery technologies have less problems than lead-acid batteries. I'm not hearing of a massive number of premature failures of the Prius battery in Southern California, for example. Given that they test the car in all sorts of weather conditions I'm sure the Volt will do fine.
Also note that the battery chemistry is likely different than that of laptop batteries. A friend of mine who works at Tesla said their batteries are designed more towards long life and performance rather than high capacity. He said there's three factors for lithium batteries, performance, longevity and capacity. Choose two of the three.
An electric heater draws far less power than the electric motor. There will be some reduction in mileage but probably no more than a few %. My Prius uses an electric heater in addition to heat from the ICE. The heater probably doesn't draw much more, if not less, than the electric AC in my car.
The biggest problem is that battery capacity suffers when the temperature is low.