I believe Marcy is quoted as saying that 95% of the stars being observed have not been found to have "Hot Jupiters". I forget which article it appeared in: NY Times or Washington Post or some other one I read. It would suggest however, a 5% SUCCESS RATE in finding "Hot Jupiters" in local "average" Sunlike stars. Given all the other, non-Hot Jupiter planetary systems (The Solar System would NOT be detected using Marcy's technique), One can safely conclude that a higher percentage of Average Stars will have Planetary systems of one sort or another, perhaps even MORE than stars without planetary systems.
Subscriber Numbers for WebTV are VERY suspect. In early 1997, WebTV's claimed subcriber group was MUCH higher than was indicated in their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission when Microsoft bought them out.
Is this 700,000 settop boxes sold or an actual 700,000 settop boxes connected and set up? There is a difference.
"have you ever heard of [WebTV] Crashing? I haven't."
WebTV settop boxes don't crash, they "fail". They either don't connect to the WebTV Server or they just don't work, period. My impression is that a certain percentage of WebTV settop boxes develop problems within a few months. The WebTV Plus (Second Generation) boxes have been particularly problematic with their WebTV controlled hard drives (yes these can "crash"). The WebTV boxes do not have an operating system in the PC sense. The first generation WebTV box MUST be connected to the WebTV Server to do anything. I'm not sure about the Plus Units since they are equiped with TV Tuners that appear to be able to work without the unit being connected to the server. But the plus, too must be connected to the WebTV Server in order to access the internet.
There was some speculation that a Third Generation WebTV box would have Windows CE, but no third generation box has been introduced yet. It has been over a year and a half since the WebTV Plus was introduced which came out only a year after the original WebTV settop box was first rolled out. My own opinion is that Microsoft introduced the WebTV Plus in order to counter the introduction of the RCA Netchannel Box in late 1997 which died a merciful early death in 1998. Since no serious competition has arisen since, Microsoft has not upgraded the service. Many of the promised updates to WebTV made prior to Microsoft have yet to be realized. Personal Java was promised in 1997 but later dropped. Real Audio was not updated after 3.0. The WebTV service is essentially unchanged since late 1997. A few video related features have been added to the Plus box in 1998 like sending a video still through Email as well as TV related features but enhancements to WebTV's internet access have not been made since 1997.
The WebTV SYSTEM has crashed on at least two occasions. In December, 1997, in what has been referred to as the "Christmas crash" and again in late June and/or early July 1998. More people were attempting to sign up and get connected for the first time than the registration server could handle and caused the entire system to crash on both occasions.
Oh yes, the WebTV servers run on Solaris according to the best information I can get. Microsoft evidently did want WebTV to switch to NT, but it appears that has not happened yet. Sort of like the situation with Hotmail.
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I believe Marcy is quoted as saying that 95% of
the stars being observed have not been found to
have "Hot Jupiters". I forget which article it
appeared in: NY Times or Washington Post or some
other one I read. It would suggest however,
a 5% SUCCESS RATE in finding "Hot Jupiters" in
local "average" Sunlike stars. Given all the
other, non-Hot Jupiter planetary systems
(The Solar System would NOT be detected using
Marcy's technique), One can safely conclude that
a higher percentage of Average Stars will have
Planetary systems of one sort or another, perhaps
even MORE than stars without planetary systems.
Subscriber Numbers for WebTV are VERY suspect.
In early 1997, WebTV's claimed subcriber group
was MUCH higher than was indicated in their
filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission when Microsoft bought them out.
Is this 700,000 settop boxes sold or an actual
700,000 settop boxes connected and set up?
There is a difference.
"have you ever heard of [WebTV] Crashing? I haven't."
WebTV settop boxes don't crash, they "fail".
They either don't connect to the WebTV Server
or they just don't work, period. My impression
is that a certain percentage of WebTV settop
boxes develop problems within a few months.
The WebTV Plus (Second Generation) boxes have
been particularly problematic with their WebTV
controlled hard drives (yes these can "crash").
The WebTV boxes do not have an operating system
in the PC sense. The first generation WebTV box
MUST be connected to the WebTV Server to do
anything. I'm not sure about the Plus Units since
they are equiped with TV Tuners that appear to be
able to work without the unit being connected to
the server. But the plus, too must be connected to
the WebTV Server in order to access the
internet.
There was some speculation that a Third Generation
WebTV box would have Windows CE, but no third
generation box has been introduced yet. It has
been over a year and a half since the WebTV Plus
was introduced which came out only a year after
the original WebTV settop box was first rolled
out. My own opinion is that Microsoft introduced
the WebTV Plus in order to counter the
introduction of the RCA Netchannel Box in late
1997 which died a merciful early death in 1998.
Since no serious competition has arisen since,
Microsoft has not upgraded the service.
Many of the promised updates to WebTV made
prior to Microsoft have yet to be
realized. Personal Java was promised in 1997
but later dropped. Real Audio was not updated
after 3.0. The WebTV service is essentially
unchanged since late 1997. A few video related
features have been added to the Plus box in 1998
like sending a video still through Email as well
as TV related features but enhancements to
WebTV's internet access have not been made since
1997.
The WebTV SYSTEM has crashed on at least two
occasions. In December, 1997, in what has been
referred to as the "Christmas crash" and again in
late June and/or early July 1998. More people
were attempting to sign up and get connected for
the first time than the registration server could
handle and caused the entire system to crash on
both occasions.
Oh yes, the WebTV servers run on Solaris according
to the best information I can get. Microsoft
evidently did want WebTV to switch to NT, but
it appears that has not happened yet. Sort of
like the situation with Hotmail.