I don't know what computer you are using, but I do know that every computer in my house goes from a power on to a useful application running state in less then 60 seconds (providing nothing exceptional happens, like a disconnection from the Internet or new hardware). I use a quick-POST BIOS (2.5 seconds); WinXP takes about 25 seconds to boot to my desktop (Barton 2500+, 512MB RAM dual-channel DDR, 80GB WD "Special Edition" 8MB cache). For my Linux desktop (same machine), since I have to log in, it is harder to measure, but the logon: prompt comes up in about 35 seconds (kudzu and ntpd are the killers in speed here). KDE takes another 10 seconds to start.
On both platforms, Mozilla Firebird is up in about a second; Kmail takes almost 2 seconds to start, and gaim takes however long it takes to log in to my MSN account (it's always slower then my other three). In any case, 60 seconds flat gives me a usable desktop with three applications (not including Kwin, Kicker, etc.). If I disable ntpd and kudzu, I can be up in 32 seconds.
But does anyone actually turn their computer off any more? Suspend and power managment make actual boot times irrelevent for me. As soon as ACPI S3 (Suspend-to-RAM) works for Linux[*], I'll be in heaven. You can thank Microsoft for the recent decrease in boot times, btw: Microsoft talked to a lot of users and found out that boot times were more annoying to them then basically anything else, so they started working with hardware (meaning motherboard, mostly) manufacturers to speed up boot times. No more triple-counting RAM checks, indeed.
Of course, boot times aren't really a recent affair. My sister's Athlon 700 (256MB; 5400 RPM Maxtor drive) comes up in about 45 seconds; the K6-2 I use as a proxy (if I remember correctly, since it's been about 2 months since I've booted it) comes up in 45 seconds too (more time in BIOS, less in OS loading, since it's just loading to a Linux command line and automatically logs in).
[*] Does this work in 2.6.0-testx? I've been meaning to download them, but have not had time. I remember that the ACPI devel said it was basically impossible on 2.4.x, and that he wasn't even going to try...
Well, let me make you aware of one place: Tennessee. I pay 8.5% tax on groceries, and 9.5% tax on everything else. (I believe the state is 6.25% and 7.25% respectively; the other part is municipal taxes)
This reminds me exactly of the arguments going on 10 years ago, in response to Microsoft's efforts to make the desktop more useable: "But using a computer is hard! I would expect any interface utilizing the power of my computer to be difficult to learn."
Funny how things change, isn't it? The blender people will come around on the UI eventually. Or it will die. Making something more user friendly never hurts a piece of software, as long as all the original functionality is retained.
You might want to brush up on your Constitutional reading there, buddy. There are four paths for an amendment to be ratified -- granted, only two of them have been used, but all four are possible: 1) Passed by 2/3 of Congress -> Ratified by 3/4 of states' legislatures 2) Introduced by 2/3 of states -> Ratified by 3/4 of states' legislatures 3) Passed by 2/3 of Congress -> Constutional Convention, 3/4 of states' delegations 4) Introduced by 2/3 of states -> Constitutional Convention, 3/4 of states' delegations. So, there are two methods of dissolving the federal government where the federal government isn't even involved. Plus, remember -- Congress is voted from the people, so if it got to the point where the feds were so bad that the public would support government dissolution, the public could (and would) vote in people who felt the same way.
Intel's roadmaps don't have the Xeon moving to a 800Mhz FSB (that's 200Mhz QDR, for you picky folks) for a while. Right now it is at 533Mhz (133 QDR), and it will move to 667Mhz (166 QDR), but evidentally Intel doesn't think the 800Mhz FSB is stable enough to move their server processors. And it's a shame too, since that bandwidth is shared in the P4s case, and it could really, really use the extra bandwidth. Actually, 24 * 133 == 3192, so you will probably see a 3.2Ghz Xeon, but it won't be the same 3.2Ghz as the desktop processors. And you certainly won't see the same performance improvement that you see out of moving 3.0 -> 3.2 as you do on the desktop.
P2P realizes the two facts that you obviously don't: 1) Not everyone uses their Internet connection 24 hours per da 2) Most people don't need hard drive space these days (i.e. storage is cheap)
Combine these two developments, and you have a lot of upload bandwidth sitting idle. I would argue that P2P becomes MORE effective, not less, as you move to legitimate files, because people are more likely to leave it running when they aren't afraid of the RIAA/MPAA tracing their connection down. Since ISPs have been reluctant heretofore to ban P2P traffic (after all, it is a driving factor for adoption of high-speed Internet access), all those hours people are sleeping with a P2P program open is free downloads for the rest of us.
There are valid complaints against P2P (untrusted incoming executable data, very high latency, no centralized validation of data, etc.) Use them instead of the bandwidth non-issue if you don't like P2P.
You can't, and frankly it's none of your business since it's the ISP server that got hacked.
The hell it isn't! We're not talking about a lost service here -- we're talking about lost confidential data. What if he were to access his online banking account or credit card account while his ISP was sitting on its ass and the feds weren't working? He could lose his entire net worth in a matter of minutes. And you would tell him it's none of his business? Definitely cause for a lawsuit, but none of his business definitely is the wrong answer.
Firewire and "many other things" aren't on a seperate bus. Any time you have RAID on your motherboard, it is on the PCI bus (excluding Intel's ICH4R/5R, but those have another problem -- limited by Intel's backwards 266MB/s of north-south bridge interconnect bus bandwidth, which PCI Express will fix...). Any new technology that hasn't been integrated into the south bridge yet (think Serial ATA here) -- you guessed it, PCI bus. Heck, many older chipsets USED the PCI bus to connect the south bridge to the north bridge! By going to a point-to-point bus to replace PCI, you get a lot of good things done (which, had you read the article, you would have known): 1) Easier wiring on the motherboard (less pins, less wires -- the old serial vs. parallel problem) 2) More available bandwidth and EASY extention (just drop another wire -- I believe the standard supports up to 32 as of now, which (besides being an ungodly amount of bandwidth anyway) isn't even a hard limit -- there is no reason it can't be further extended) 3) A standard bus for a lot of things (not only PCI, but PCI Express can be used to connect any peripheral with it's own dedicated bus (think 10Gb Ethernet, Firewire 800, Serial ATA RAID, UW-SCSI), it can connect north bridge to south bridge, etc.) All those devices on "another bus" are on dedicated links to the south bridge, and every single one of them is different. PCI Express can standardize the link and make it much easier to manufacture the boards and much quicker to add in new tech. 4) Clearing up the IRQ situation by removing sideband interrupts and going straight to message-interrupts 5) PCI compatibility, both at the slot layer (for x1 slots) and at the OS layer (though enhanced PCI Express support may be required for some things; this isn't entirely clear yet)
There are two parts to reading. One is looking quickly and then replying. The other is understanding. Appearently, you've mastered one. Maybe, one day, for all our sakes, you'll get the second as well.
It occurs to me that the FCC is kind of bound by that same Constitutional definition you speak of (or whatever. I doubt the word open even occurs in the Constitution: [leer@gremlac constitution]$ cat constitution | grep -i open | wc -l
2 Oops. It occurs twice. One in the 11th amendment, one in the definition of treason. Odd.) Anyway, it's not defined. The rules that govern openness are a hodgepodge of regulatory acts that have never before had to deal with data per se; instead, they've dealt with telephone and telegraph communications, and are (as such) fairly application specific. By nationalizing the Internet, you'd force those rules to be codified, which (in the current political climate) would definitely be a detrimental outcome to privacy and copyright rights (to name just a couple of the Bad Things (TM) that would happen). The trick instead is to force a delay of numeration of actual rights until such time as the technology is better understood and people lose fascination with the new technology aspect of the problem and start applying common sense to the rules.
In any case, once a technology comes under direct government control it becomes immediately subjectable to government pork-barrel politics and righteous right-wingers (look at these morally bankrupt people!) and overzealous liberals (what about the children?!), etc, who want to regulate it. Which is easier to control -- an Internet infrastructure paid for with tax dollars and maintained by the federal government, or the current system whereby private enterprise runs the whole shebang?
Finally, we have the salient point that private enterprise is always more efficient at this sort of thing then a government is. I think everyone can agree that government departments that start out small with a specific mission quickly balloon to titanic proportions, wasting resources everywhere and leaking money like a firehose leaks water. Governments that have tried to control the technology directly (Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany are two of the most prominent examples that come to mind) really haven't made out too well in that whole survival game.
So, in other words, why would you want the government to control the Internet at this point? It would kill a burgeoning resource of technological innovation and subject it to easier regulation, it would be an inefficent use of both your money and mine, and it would start a trend of government controlled technologies that would leave an impression on America for a while, if not forever. I think this century has proved that a market economy is the best way for innovation and progress to continue expediently. Any step to control this new tool, even under the guise of providing a useful service to Americans, must not be allowed to happen.
Who defines free and open? All the companies that provide backbone data service are (to my knowledge) publically held companies; they are subject to regulation from the FCC and the federal government. They aren't "publically unaccountable". And, all-in-all, they do a fairly good job of moving bits from place to place. Why should we induce the inherent inefficiencies of a government buracracy in to this equation? There are already publically accessable computers available for those who can't afford internet access -- go to virtually any public library in the country; the government provides special funds for computers with Internet access (encumbered by restrictions, true, but funds are still provided). As far as I'm concerned, this is enough "information infrastructure" already.
Right. So we should congratuate nVidia for producing a card that has worse image quality when not specifically optimized for a application? Doesn't this show that the default optimizations are, in fact, already reducing image quality? For more comparison, I suggest you go to any one of the reviews of R9700 vs. FX5800 and check the image quality comparisons versus the DX9 reference software renderer.
Doom 3 uses extensive DX9 features, such as stencil shadowing and shader programs. NO cards prior to NV3x and R3xx had those features. Sure, you may be able to PLAY Doom 3 on a lesser card, but you certainly won't be getting the full experience (or more then a few frames per second, most likely)
There is a better way. In math classes, I find myself typing notes in calculator syntax. It doesn't matter WHICH calculator syntax, so long as you know what you mean. I got real good at type fnInt(x^2,x,0,1) versus.... well, you know, what that means. And if your bud knows the syntax too, it makes it a lot easier to do problems over AIM and e-mail;-)
Besides math, the majority of everything else can be easily typed. History is particularly easy, because you don't even need to type it. Google 'period_of_history' -> copy -> paste. Done. Play Counterstrike.
...I am surprised that BitTorrent was the only P2P program mentioned by our friends at the BBC. I mean come on, IRC ring a bell?
Sure does. But IRC isn't automated P2P: you download from one person at a time, there is no centralized source for searches, etc. So, technically, it's "peer-to-peer" in the English sense of the word, but "server/client" in the technological sense.
The problem is that it's not the same at all. The Matrix is a work of fiction. Sorry to break it to you, but it is. As such, it's meant to be -- this may be hard -- entertaining. An entertaining story for cinema and an entertaining story in a book are also two entirely different and not exactly agreeable animals. 90% of the people in the world never even consider philosophy at all. So if this is an entertaining story which just happens to bring those philosophical ideas to those people, what, exactly, is wrong with that?
Get off your high horse, buddy. It gets awfully lonely up there after a while.
Re:This can only be countered with...
on
Easter Humor
·
· Score: 1
I tried this out with the Catholic schoolgirls, but damn if they didn't only want to talk about sex.
>...nforce2 motherboard with Athlon is the best performance/$ (get two SIMMs for dual channel to work).
Dude, I don't think you're going to get very far using those SIMMs with your brand-new Athlon XP....
The chip will not be released to September. These numbers will be obsolete by then, because not only will the actual silicon have changed, but the common applications run will probably have changed quite a bit as well.
I consider these numbers completely meaningless. It's amazing that the chip can be competitive at all when it won't be released for another six months -- it just makes me more excited for its potential once it is finally released on the desktop.
"Internet Explorer". i.e. something to explore the internet. Duh. My six-year-old cousin can figure that one out.
As far as Microsoft Outlook goes, it is only partially an e-mail client. It's also a groupware application. It keeps your appointments, to-do list, and (coincidentally) e-mail. It keeps you on the "look out" for new stuff coming in (e-mail) and then notifies you about other things (a lookout in the traditional sense). So it may not be immediately obvious, but it could easily be inferred from virtually any sentence with context (except the ubiquious one on Slashdot, i.e. "Outlook sux0rz"). Now, consider Thunderbird. "I went to check my e-mail in Thunderbird." If I *didn't* know what Thunderbird meant, I would probably think they drove somewhere in their nice muscle car and got on a computer to check their e-mail. I don't know what I'd think if some said "Sent it to my firebird."
Naming at least 50% of the battle here, folks. Think of something original that implies contextual meaning.
No, it's more like 200 copyrighted songs downloaded x average cost of an <B>album</B> (not a single) x average speed of a CD-RW drive (what, 24x these days) x number of minutes said drives are used on average x number of users on all major P2P services (ignoring duplicates and people not violating copyright).
Ever seen the "no limits" maps on War3? Playing 6 vs 6 with each person having over 300 units doesn't even introduce lag (at least, not network lag, but your video slows down a bit at the auto-detected graphics settings). That's 3600 units. Maybe a bit shy of the Helm's Deep battle with, what, 10,000+? But it gives the same feeling (same order of magnitude).
Slashdot Mirror
Depends on the type of pr0n, I guess...
OT: KMail is including virtual folders (named 'Search Folders' in KDE 3.2/KMail 1.6 (or that's the plan, anyway)
Erm, coulumb/second * hour == coulumb * (the consant) hour/second, or coulumb * 3600. You can use either, bud.
I don't know what computer you are using, but I do know that every computer in my house goes from a power on to a useful application running state in less then 60 seconds (providing nothing exceptional happens, like a disconnection from the Internet or new hardware). I use a quick-POST BIOS (2.5 seconds); WinXP takes about 25 seconds to boot to my desktop (Barton 2500+, 512MB RAM dual-channel DDR, 80GB WD "Special Edition" 8MB cache). For my Linux desktop (same machine), since I have to log in, it is harder to measure, but the logon: prompt comes up in about 35 seconds (kudzu and ntpd are the killers in speed here). KDE takes another 10 seconds to start.
On both platforms, Mozilla Firebird is up in about a second; Kmail takes almost 2 seconds to start, and gaim takes however long it takes to log in to my MSN account (it's always slower then my other three). In any case, 60 seconds flat gives me a usable desktop with three applications (not including Kwin, Kicker, etc.). If I disable ntpd and kudzu, I can be up in 32 seconds.
But does anyone actually turn their computer off any more? Suspend and power managment make actual boot times irrelevent for me. As soon as ACPI S3 (Suspend-to-RAM) works for Linux[*], I'll be in heaven. You can thank Microsoft for the recent decrease in boot times, btw: Microsoft talked to a lot of users and found out that boot times were more annoying to them then basically anything else, so they started working with hardware (meaning motherboard, mostly) manufacturers to speed up boot times. No more triple-counting RAM checks, indeed.
Of course, boot times aren't really a recent affair. My sister's Athlon 700 (256MB; 5400 RPM Maxtor drive) comes up in about 45 seconds; the K6-2 I use as a proxy (if I remember correctly, since it's been about 2 months since I've booted it) comes up in 45 seconds too (more time in BIOS, less in OS loading, since it's just loading to a Linux command line and automatically logs in).
[*] Does this work in 2.6.0-testx? I've been meaning to download them, but have not had time. I remember that the ACPI devel said it was basically impossible on 2.4.x, and that he wasn't even going to try...
Well, let me make you aware of one place: Tennessee. I pay 8.5% tax on groceries, and 9.5% tax on everything else. (I believe the state is 6.25% and 7.25% respectively; the other part is municipal taxes)
This reminds me exactly of the arguments going on 10 years ago, in response to Microsoft's efforts to make the desktop more useable:
"But using a computer is hard! I would expect any interface utilizing the power of my computer to be difficult to learn."
Funny how things change, isn't it? The blender people will come around on the UI eventually. Or it will die. Making something more user friendly never hurts a piece of software, as long as all the original functionality is retained.
You might want to brush up on your Constitutional reading there, buddy. There are four paths for an amendment to be ratified -- granted, only two of them have been used, but all four are possible:
1) Passed by 2/3 of Congress -> Ratified by 3/4 of states' legislatures
2) Introduced by 2/3 of states -> Ratified by 3/4 of states' legislatures
3) Passed by 2/3 of Congress -> Constutional Convention, 3/4 of states' delegations
4) Introduced by 2/3 of states -> Constitutional Convention, 3/4 of states' delegations.
So, there are two methods of dissolving the federal government where the federal government isn't even involved. Plus, remember -- Congress is voted from the people, so if it got to the point where the feds were so bad that the public would support government dissolution, the public could (and would) vote in people who felt the same way.
Intel's roadmaps don't have the Xeon moving to a 800Mhz FSB (that's 200Mhz QDR, for you picky folks) for a while. Right now it is at 533Mhz (133 QDR), and it will move to 667Mhz (166 QDR), but evidentally Intel doesn't think the 800Mhz FSB is stable enough to move their server processors. And it's a shame too, since that bandwidth is shared in the P4s case, and it could really, really use the extra bandwidth. Actually, 24 * 133 == 3192, so you will probably see a 3.2Ghz Xeon, but it won't be the same 3.2Ghz as the desktop processors. And you certainly won't see the same performance improvement that you see out of moving 3.0 -> 3.2 as you do on the desktop.
P2P realizes the two facts that you obviously don't:
1) Not everyone uses their Internet connection 24 hours per da
2) Most people don't need hard drive space these days (i.e. storage is cheap)
Combine these two developments, and you have a lot of upload bandwidth sitting idle. I would argue that P2P becomes MORE effective, not less, as you move to legitimate files, because people are more likely to leave it running when they aren't afraid of the RIAA/MPAA tracing their connection down. Since ISPs have been reluctant heretofore to ban P2P traffic (after all, it is a driving factor for adoption of high-speed Internet access), all those hours people are sleeping with a P2P program open is free downloads for the rest of us.
There are valid complaints against P2P (untrusted incoming executable data, very high latency, no centralized validation of data, etc.) Use them instead of the bandwidth non-issue if you don't like P2P.
The hell it isn't! We're not talking about a lost service here -- we're talking about lost confidential data. What if he were to access his online banking account or credit card account while his ISP was sitting on its ass and the feds weren't working? He could lose his entire net worth in a matter of minutes. And you would tell him it's none of his business? Definitely cause for a lawsuit, but none of his business definitely is the wrong answer.
Firewire and "many other things" aren't on a seperate bus. Any time you have RAID on your motherboard, it is on the PCI bus (excluding Intel's ICH4R/5R, but those have another problem -- limited by Intel's backwards 266MB/s of north-south bridge interconnect bus bandwidth, which PCI Express will fix...). Any new technology that hasn't been integrated into the south bridge yet (think Serial ATA here) -- you guessed it, PCI bus. Heck, many older chipsets USED the PCI bus to connect the south bridge to the north bridge! By going to a point-to-point bus to replace PCI, you get a lot of good things done (which, had you read the article, you would have known):
1) Easier wiring on the motherboard (less pins, less wires -- the old serial vs. parallel problem)
2) More available bandwidth and EASY extention (just drop another wire -- I believe the standard supports up to 32 as of now, which (besides being an ungodly amount of bandwidth anyway) isn't even a hard limit -- there is no reason it can't be further extended)
3) A standard bus for a lot of things (not only PCI, but PCI Express can be used to connect any peripheral with it's own dedicated bus (think 10Gb Ethernet, Firewire 800, Serial ATA RAID, UW-SCSI), it can connect north bridge to south bridge, etc.) All those devices on "another bus" are on dedicated links to the south bridge, and every single one of them is different. PCI Express can standardize the link and make it much easier to manufacture the boards and much quicker to add in new tech.
4) Clearing up the IRQ situation by removing sideband interrupts and going straight to message-interrupts
5) PCI compatibility, both at the slot layer (for x1 slots) and at the OS layer (though enhanced PCI Express support may be required for some things; this isn't entirely clear yet)
There are two parts to reading. One is looking quickly and then replying. The other is understanding. Appearently, you've mastered one. Maybe, one day, for all our sakes, you'll get the second as well.
It occurs to me that the FCC is kind of bound by that same Constitutional definition you speak of (or whatever. I doubt the word open even occurs in the Constitution:
[leer@gremlac constitution]$ cat constitution | grep -i open | wc -l
2
Oops. It occurs twice. One in the 11th amendment, one in the definition of treason. Odd.) Anyway, it's not defined. The rules that govern openness are a hodgepodge of regulatory acts that have never before had to deal with data per se; instead, they've dealt with telephone and telegraph communications, and are (as such) fairly application specific. By nationalizing the Internet, you'd force those rules to be codified, which (in the current political climate) would definitely be a detrimental outcome to privacy and copyright rights (to name just a couple of the Bad Things (TM) that would happen). The trick instead is to force a delay of numeration of actual rights until such time as the technology is better understood and people lose fascination with the new technology aspect of the problem and start applying common sense to the rules.
In any case, once a technology comes under direct government control it becomes immediately subjectable to government pork-barrel politics and righteous right-wingers (look at these morally bankrupt people!) and overzealous liberals (what about the children?!), etc, who want to regulate it. Which is easier to control -- an Internet infrastructure paid for with tax dollars and maintained by the federal government, or the current system whereby private enterprise runs the whole shebang?
Finally, we have the salient point that private enterprise is always more efficient at this sort of thing then a government is. I think everyone can agree that government departments that start out small with a specific mission quickly balloon to titanic proportions, wasting resources everywhere and leaking money like a firehose leaks water. Governments that have tried to control the technology directly (Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany are two of the most prominent examples that come to mind) really haven't made out too well in that whole survival game.
So, in other words, why would you want the government to control the Internet at this point? It would kill a burgeoning resource of technological innovation and subject it to easier regulation, it would be an inefficent use of both your money and mine, and it would start a trend of government controlled technologies that would leave an impression on America for a while, if not forever. I think this century has proved that a market economy is the best way for innovation and progress to continue expediently. Any step to control this new tool, even under the guise of providing a useful service to Americans, must not be allowed to happen.
Who defines free and open? All the companies that provide backbone data service are (to my knowledge) publically held companies; they are subject to regulation from the FCC and the federal government. They aren't "publically unaccountable". And, all-in-all, they do a fairly good job of moving bits from place to place. Why should we induce the inherent inefficiencies of a government buracracy in to this equation? There are already publically accessable computers available for those who can't afford internet access -- go to virtually any public library in the country; the government provides special funds for computers with Internet access (encumbered by restrictions, true, but funds are still provided). As far as I'm concerned, this is enough "information infrastructure" already.
Right. So we should congratuate nVidia for producing a card that has worse image quality when not specifically optimized for a application? Doesn't this show that the default optimizations are, in fact, already reducing image quality? For more comparison, I suggest you go to any one of the reviews of R9700 vs. FX5800 and check the image quality comparisons versus the DX9 reference software renderer.
Doom 3 uses extensive DX9 features, such as stencil shadowing and shader programs. NO cards prior to NV3x and R3xx had those features. Sure, you may be able to PLAY Doom 3 on a lesser card, but you certainly won't be getting the full experience (or more then a few frames per second, most likely)
There is a better way. In math classes, I find myself typing notes in calculator syntax. It doesn't matter WHICH calculator syntax, so long as you know what you mean. I got real good at type fnInt(x^2,x,0,1) versus.... well, you know, what that means. And if your bud knows the syntax too, it makes it a lot easier to do problems over AIM and e-mail ;-)
Besides math, the majority of everything else can be easily typed. History is particularly easy, because you don't even need to type it. Google 'period_of_history' -> copy -> paste. Done. Play Counterstrike.
Sure does. But IRC isn't automated P2P: you download from one person at a time, there is no centralized source for searches, etc. So, technically, it's "peer-to-peer" in the English sense of the word, but "server/client" in the technological sense.
... you geeks don't get any and are uncomfortable with the social rave scene doesn't mean the majority of their viewing audience is.
Get off your high horse, buddy. It gets awfully lonely up there after a while.
I tried this out with the Catholic schoolgirls, but damn if they didn't only want to talk about sex.
Horny bitches
> ...nforce2 motherboard with Athlon is the best performance/$ (get two SIMMs for dual channel to work).
Dude, I don't think you're going to get very far using those SIMMs with your brand-new Athlon XP....
The chip will not be released to September. These numbers will be obsolete by then, because not only will the actual silicon have changed, but the common applications run will probably have changed quite a bit as well.
I consider these numbers completely meaningless. It's amazing that the chip can be competitive at all when it won't be released for another six months -- it just makes me more excited for its potential once it is finally released on the desktop.
"Internet Explorer".
i.e. something to explore the internet. Duh. My six-year-old cousin can figure that one out.
As far as Microsoft Outlook goes, it is only partially an e-mail client. It's also a groupware application. It keeps your appointments, to-do list, and (coincidentally) e-mail. It keeps you on the "look out" for new stuff coming in (e-mail) and then notifies you about other things (a lookout in the traditional sense). So it may not be immediately obvious, but it could easily be inferred from virtually any sentence with context (except the ubiquious one on Slashdot, i.e. "Outlook sux0rz"). Now, consider Thunderbird. "I went to check my e-mail in Thunderbird." If I *didn't* know what Thunderbird meant, I would probably think they drove somewhere in their nice muscle car and got on a computer to check their e-mail. I don't know what I'd think if some said "Sent it to my firebird."
Naming at least 50% of the battle here, folks. Think of something original that implies contextual meaning.
No, it's more like
200 copyrighted songs downloaded x
average cost of an <B>album</B> (not a single) x
average speed of a CD-RW drive (what, 24x these days) x
number of minutes said drives are used on average x
number of users on all major P2P services (ignoring duplicates and people not violating copyright).
That's about $2bn, doncha think?
Ever seen the "no limits" maps on War3? Playing 6 vs 6 with each person having over 300 units doesn't even introduce lag (at least, not network lag, but your video slows down a bit at the auto-detected graphics settings). That's 3600 units. Maybe a bit shy of the Helm's Deep battle with, what, 10,000+? But it gives the same feeling (same order of magnitude).