The region isn't going to matter if their internal infrastructure manages the clusters (and that's what they are - cloud 'clusters' ) are all 'centrally managed', and that management structure is what failed.
Managers manage. You can be the best sysadmin or programmer in the world, but if your program or IT dept. manager is a tool, driving things into the ground, you're basically wasting your efforts.
As a manager, you still have to deal with that, but you're enabled to a greater degree to allow (and enable) others to get things done. As a manager, your job is largely to listen to your managers and employees, and to play middle man, doing what you can to keep your managers off your employees' backs so they can get their job done. If you fail in that last one - and allow your managers to get on the case of your subordinates - you fail in an epic fashion. There is no way they will ever trust you again, once you have cast them to the wolves. It's your job, as a manager, to take responsibility for their failures as well as their successes.
There's really only reason: because, every year, some dipshit has to ask an inane question on Slashdot, and, barring any other inane news for the year, this question is available.
Why does Europe cling to socialism? Why does China cling to social imperialism? Why does Africa cling to poverty?
We used to keep drives for the first days of Spring and take them outside and hit them with a sledge. But that's too likely to result in injury, particularly with the glass in drives these days.
So now, we keep them in a shipping box until the first days of Spring. Then we take them out and shoot them. A.45 will totally destroy the platter if shot from the top; a.30 caliber rifle round will mostly punch through but effectively destroy the platter. Best of all is a shotgun slug, which has the tenacity to punch all the way through, every time. 00 buckshot from a 3" magnum shell is pretty fun, too. (Wear eye protection and stand at a distance!)
To claim that a tablet can't be rectangular with rounded corners and a border? Dear lord, that's just ridiculous.
How is it rediculous? Gutenberg made rectangularly bound pamphlets with hard covers, ink on the pages and bound in the center, and look what that did for him - nothing. Right?
"Mr. Anderson. What good is music, if you can not hear?"
I'd not put it past the music/movie industry, or the government censors they support, to try to make it a felony to "broadcast" to music you haven't paid for.
Yeah, giving mobile phones IPv6 addresses makes a lot of sense. A 'no brainer', maybe. All new 'embedded' type consumer devices should be IPv6 only, IMO. It completely avoids most of the problems associated with IPv6 on so-called legacy IPv4 networks:
* there are no legacy applications * the likelihood of connecting, directly, with anything on IPv4 that does not support IPv6 is drastically lowered * there is little to no legacy hardware to support.
Of course, this would require the handsets and other 'embedded' devices to actually support IPv6. I don't know if that's the case, yet.
... which is all readily available in one fashion or another. The hard work has been done; someone would just need to piece it together with this new software.
* Temperature and humidity sensors: http://www.digitemp.com/ * Windage: http://nslu2windsensor.sfe.se/ * Roll it all together with ballistics calculation: http://sourceforge.net/projects/balcomp/
That said, it's not like windage, temperature, and humidity really come into play all that much at under 200 yards. I suspect the software and servo precision at that range would be more of a contributing factor.
The hard part, I think, would be integrating the camera with a good scope, allowing for 'automatic' zooming. (Something like this, probably: http://www.opticsbestbuy.com/ELCAN-DigitalHunter-Digital-Rifle-Scope-ELDH1.html). But with a scope like that, you'd really not need an external BDC anyway (except for humidity and wind, I suppose). Still, even without humidity or wind, something like this would give an inexperienced but steady shooter twice, maybe 3 times the effective range. I'm sure the same would go for a 'terminator' robot.
Then, you'd need to work out some rudimentary logic for scanning, polling, etc. of the scope so your field of view is large enough to actually detect the target, and I suspect you'd be 'golden'. (A better setup would probably be to have two, independent but potentially syncronizable sensors next to each other; one would be for scanning (ie you'd not notice it moving) and the other would have the rifle, which, upon target recognition, would use the 'sensor' data to lock in the trajectory.)
Anyway, like I said: the hard work has been done now. Building the device would be relatively easy and someone with, say, a background in a technical field (a competent engineer type) could piece it together in a handful of dedicated weekends, I suspect.
Your parents were right, and you got lucky during the late 90s with a boom brought on by a number of things:
1) The President reduced the input/sequestering of oil into the national petroleum preserve, allowing it to diminish. This led to that $0.99/gallon gasoline we (mostly) all remember fondly (in part). 2) OPEC produced a lot and had lower prices (possibly as a result of Bush Srs aggressive war in Iraq, I don't really recall). 3) An entirely new industry was getting off the ground floor - information technology/computers. For the better part of a decade - until offshoring started and the dotcom bubble burst - there was nothing but growth in the economy (largely due to IT industry, both the useless and the useful).
Truth be told, things have been on a decline since the late 1960s, economically. That's when we started earnest 'aggressive' wars, quickly followed in the 70s by destroying domestic "working man" jobs by sending them elsewhere, replacing them with clerical jobs at a less-than-parity rate. The US economy has been on a steady decline for the better part of 10 years, now, and it'd have been much longer had it not been for the fortune of high technology development.
Unless there's another major technological breakthrough in something that will revolutionize daily life (automotive or energy technology, maybe), I'd count on it continuing the decline (particularly with sellout parasites like we've got at the helm in charge). Even then, you've got to contend with all the innovation getting eaten up by the larger companies and hidden, for fear of it disrupting their cash cow and market value.
I'd not be surprised if energy is the "next big thing", but I think China will get there first. The anational corporations like GE and GM very well hop on that bandwagon, too - but only when they can no longer fleece people for existing fares.
There are those that argue that's bad for us. In the short term, perhaps it is, but as more of the world achieves our standard of living, there are more consumers for our goods as well. Long term, raising up your neighbors only helps you.
No, it doesn't.
(See, I can do meaningless platitudes, as well.)
We've been pumping trillions of dollars into Mexico for decades for economic stability purposes. Mexico is no better off now than it was 50 years ago (arguably, much worse). There are other factors involved (as well as other examples).
"helping your neighbors only helps you" when there is an overseeing governance which prevents your neighbor from becoming stronger than you, and then taking what's your's for their own. The culture in, say, China, is not like it is here in the US. We may not lose our ability, and they may not overtly overtake us overtly as they come to par, but when they're at even footing you can bet they'll throw their weight around more effectively and with more effort than we have in the past. We'll lose that fight, because as a country, we've lost the edge for such conflict (emotionally, economically, culturally... we're done).
The problem in the US is that the means of producing a quality of life has left the country, as if it had all been destroyed by war, for the better part of a generation. There is more rebuilding necessary here than had there been a protracted 10-year war: entire industries, not just regions, are simply "gone", off-shored to other countries. What isn't gone has been largely marginalized to the point of severe specialization, with so few people familiar enough with the trade that passing it on to the next shift/generation becomes difficult.
Hell, we've even outsourced a lot of R&D - the only thing which really kept things booming during the 90s on the production side of things. What's being created anew in America these days? There are a couple small incremental changes still happening, pharma is still seeing advancement, and there's always IT... but other than that, it seems most industries are in a "maintenance" mode, and have been for some time. (Meanwhile, innovation is occurring apace in other countries with respect to building trades, technology, industry, etc.)
There is not a dearth of people in the US who still have the "get 'r done" mentality. The problem is that these people have been culturally and economically marginalized by the efforts of 'companies'. We currently have the lowest per-capita employment since the early Reagan administration, and it's still dropping (this was in the 'news' today, as if it wasn't evident to those looking about). There are many, many people - men, mostly, because they're the ones losing their jobs most often - who have exhausted their will to find a job, simply because there are none. If you were to give them the opportunity, many, many would work.
With Dynamics GP 2008, at least, "Run this program as administrator" did not work for whatever reason. Due to the scale of the install (small) it made more sense to just give the users administrative rights.
I buy produce at a farmer's market (or directly from the farmer/rancher, when possible) because:
1) the quality is better 2) I can actually inspect the production facilities in many cases 3) the prices are actually usually lower 4) there is a community surrounding farmer's markets
None of these things apply unless, of course, you consider Apple products to be of quality - then you can ascribe it to the Apple Store. (And how local is that, exactly?)
And this says nothing for, say, bath towels, utility knives, and so on...
The only 'local' stores I've seen are tradesmen and trinket/novelty/interest sales shops that are fringe enough that they can (have to) charge exhorbinant rates to stay in business, and where a 'tactile' benefit is gained by looking at the device (eg. a bike) in person.
I think we'll be surprised how many Windows apps will run on Windows 8 with just a recompile - or for that matter, just running through the.NET CLR. MS appeared to be pushing this way, one way or another, since the "Microsoft Java" days for application development, and their programming frameworks improving significantly along the way... it's not MSVC++6 anymore...
On the phone, I think the value Windows will provide will be:
* Real Outlook * OneNote * Modern security models * More mature kernel with proper memory protection, etc. * Adaptability/utility to the person who actually wants to use the device
Basically, it'll be what Windows Mobile should've been 5 years ago, and what Windows Phone isn't. At least, that's my theory.
Yeah, but an SSD of usable size and decent performance is $250 or more. ANd you probably need more RAM, too, if that helps perf much at all (outside of direct intentional access). So you're looking at $400+ to upgrade a 5-year-old machine (or really, anything with DDR2).
Are you from 1999? Software developers stopped assuming users have admin access a few years after XP hit the scene.
Bullshit - unless you mean "sometime after right now" when you say "a few years after XP". There are still a lot of new programs which do not work properly w/o Admin rights.
Hell, even MS Dynamics 2008 required Administrator rights to run (can't recall if it was local or domain , at the moment, but I do recall that allowing everyone access to run the program didn't do the trick).
There is no such thing as "bulletproof glass". Usually, what you have is a combination of two things:
* a polymer and glass layered sheet * of a specific thickness and ply count
For instance, most 'bulletproof glass' is just rated for pistol calibers (as I believe bank teller glass tends to be). Rifle calibers will punch right through. I think you'll need something close to 6" or so to withstand a shot or two from a 30 caliber, high velocity rifle (eg. think mostly anything from WWII, 7.62 NATO, 7.62R, etc.). A.50 Browning is likely to put a nice 'little' pock in such a plate. I wouldn't stand on the other side voluntarily.
And, with all frangible materials, with repeated impacts they will start to be less effective at fulfilling their role.
I believe there's a new polymer/glass/transparent aluminum glass out there, too, but they're all variations on the same theme.
An appropriate title would be "engineer" - and no, I don't mean in the 'officious legal meaning of the word', either.
Scientists deal with the abstract properties of elemental components. The pure scientific process is somewhat boring and repetitive, IMO. Lots of wrote memorization, result interpretation, and dealing in absolute numbers with.0001 variance.
Engineers typically deal with the results of science to produce a usable, practical device. They use scientific concepts and practices, but it isn't creating or discovering anything 'new'.
"Inventor" would also be appropriate, maybe moreso, as it seems to sit somewhere between "engineer" - someone who deals with what is known to make something of utility - and "scientist" - someone who looks outside the known - because an inventor must do a bit of both: they look at what is known, but also consider what is unknown, trying to fill the gap between knowledge and application. In these cases, playing hard and fast with numbers for the purpose of applicability, or skipping numbers outright with some planned demolitions to test real-world applicability (all that really matters for things used in the real world) is the way to go.
I don't think "tablets" are going to die outright, but I do think they're a passing fad (much in the same way as most things, including the "HPCs" in the early 2000s or Palms or anything else leading up to now).
Basically, like the netbook, they're a stepping stone.
Netbooks proved that such a small, mobile - yet featureful - platform was possible. Tablets are now proving that the touchscreen UI is possible to maintain and useful to people (or, at least, we'll see that in a financial quarter or two, I suspect). Smartphones are doing the same thing too, really: the only difference is porn and other movies are better on your tablet.:P
Personally, I think we're about 2-5 years away from a 'device convergence'. We've got the smartphones, tablets, netbooks, desktops, etc. - and we've got a number of devices which play between the lines (Google's 'laptop', thinclients, tablets with attachable keyboards, etc.)
How long until we're seeing a "computer" for sale from a major manufacturer which is fully componentized for modular use? By that I mean something like:
* at its most reduced, it's a smartphone. * it can be inserted into the back of a larger display, making it a tablet * it can then be clipped to a keyboard chassis and used as a netbook * it can be dropped in a station, giving it discreet graphics, added storage and more RAM - allowing your contacts, games, etc. to still be available and playable on a "different device/platform".
Honestly, I suspect Apple is moving this direction right now, with the rumor that OSX is on its last legs, the popularity of games on Apple's store, and so on. Each of these things have been more-or-less implemented, by one hardware manufacturer or another, in the past couple of years on their own (dual video chips on Lenovo laptops, the detachable/clip screens on a couple netbooks, the perpetual 'laptop dock', etc.) and improvements in x86-64 mobile processors/architecture/bios makes such a prospect all the more realizable. If a company were to mass-produce such a 'platform' I have no doubt it'd be immensely popular with geeks ("we can put windows/os x/linux/android on it") and consumers ('ooo another apple product') alike.
Why would it be a problem? I haven't looked at the specs on these yet, but some of the sandforce based MLCs have MTBFs of a million years and can handle something like 100 years of constant writing.
Slashdot Mirror
The region isn't going to matter if their internal infrastructure manages the clusters (and that's what they are - cloud 'clusters' ) are all 'centrally managed', and that management structure is what failed.
Managers manage. You can be the best sysadmin or programmer in the world, but if your program or IT dept. manager is a tool, driving things into the ground, you're basically wasting your efforts.
As a manager, you still have to deal with that, but you're enabled to a greater degree to allow (and enable) others to get things done. As a manager, your job is largely to listen to your managers and employees, and to play middle man, doing what you can to keep your managers off your employees' backs so they can get their job done. If you fail in that last one - and allow your managers to get on the case of your subordinates - you fail in an epic fashion. There is no way they will ever trust you again, once you have cast them to the wolves. It's your job, as a manager, to take responsibility for their failures as well as their successes.
There's really only reason: because, every year, some dipshit has to ask an inane question on Slashdot, and, barring any other inane news for the year, this question is available.
Why does Europe cling to socialism?
Why does China cling to social imperialism?
Why does Africa cling to poverty?
No, seriously. It's for the slashdot quota.
We used to keep drives for the first days of Spring and take them outside and hit them with a sledge. But that's too likely to result in injury, particularly with the glass in drives these days.
So now, we keep them in a shipping box until the first days of Spring. Then we take them out and shoot them. A .45 will totally destroy the platter if shot from the top; a .30 caliber rifle round will mostly punch through but effectively destroy the platter. Best of all is a shotgun slug, which has the tenacity to punch all the way through, every time. 00 buckshot from a 3" magnum shell is pretty fun, too. (Wear eye protection and stand at a distance!)
To claim that a tablet can't be rectangular with rounded corners and a border? Dear lord, that's just ridiculous.
How is it rediculous? Gutenberg made rectangularly bound pamphlets with hard covers, ink on the pages and bound in the center, and look what that did for him - nothing. Right?
"Mr. Anderson. What good is music, if you can not hear?"
I'd not put it past the music/movie industry, or the government censors they support, to try to make it a felony to "broadcast" to music you haven't paid for.
Clearly that will not be a problem for most of the people on this site.
Yeah, giving mobile phones IPv6 addresses makes a lot of sense. A 'no brainer', maybe. All new 'embedded' type consumer devices should be IPv6 only, IMO. It completely avoids most of the problems associated with IPv6 on so-called legacy IPv4 networks:
* there are no legacy applications
* the likelihood of connecting, directly, with anything on IPv4 that does not support IPv6 is drastically lowered
* there is little to no legacy hardware to support.
Of course, this would require the handsets and other 'embedded' devices to actually support IPv6. I don't know if that's the case, yet.
... which is all readily available in one fashion or another. The hard work has been done; someone would just need to piece it together with this new software.
* Temperature and humidity sensors: http://www.digitemp.com/
* Windage: http://nslu2windsensor.sfe.se/
* Roll it all together with ballistics calculation: http://sourceforge.net/projects/balcomp/
That said, it's not like windage, temperature, and humidity really come into play all that much at under 200 yards. I suspect the software and servo precision at that range would be more of a contributing factor.
The hard part, I think, would be integrating the camera with a good scope, allowing for 'automatic' zooming. (Something like this, probably: http://www.opticsbestbuy.com/ELCAN-DigitalHunter-Digital-Rifle-Scope-ELDH1.html). But with a scope like that, you'd really not need an external BDC anyway (except for humidity and wind, I suppose). Still, even without humidity or wind, something like this would give an inexperienced but steady shooter twice, maybe 3 times the effective range. I'm sure the same would go for a 'terminator' robot.
Then, you'd need to work out some rudimentary logic for scanning, polling, etc. of the scope so your field of view is large enough to actually detect the target, and I suspect you'd be 'golden'. (A better setup would probably be to have two, independent but potentially syncronizable sensors next to each other; one would be for scanning (ie you'd not notice it moving) and the other would have the rifle, which, upon target recognition, would use the 'sensor' data to lock in the trajectory.)
Anyway, like I said: the hard work has been done now. Building the device would be relatively easy and someone with, say, a background in a technical field (a competent engineer type) could piece it together in a handful of dedicated weekends, I suspect.
Your parents were right, and you got lucky during the late 90s with a boom brought on by a number of things:
1) The President reduced the input/sequestering of oil into the national petroleum preserve, allowing it to diminish. This led to that $0.99/gallon gasoline we (mostly) all remember fondly (in part).
2) OPEC produced a lot and had lower prices (possibly as a result of Bush Srs aggressive war in Iraq, I don't really recall).
3) An entirely new industry was getting off the ground floor - information technology/computers. For the better part of a decade - until offshoring started and the dotcom bubble burst - there was nothing but growth in the economy (largely due to IT industry, both the useless and the useful).
Truth be told, things have been on a decline since the late 1960s, economically. That's when we started earnest 'aggressive' wars, quickly followed in the 70s by destroying domestic "working man" jobs by sending them elsewhere, replacing them with clerical jobs at a less-than-parity rate. The US economy has been on a steady decline for the better part of 10 years, now, and it'd have been much longer had it not been for the fortune of high technology development.
Unless there's another major technological breakthrough in something that will revolutionize daily life (automotive or energy technology, maybe), I'd count on it continuing the decline (particularly with sellout parasites like we've got at the helm in charge). Even then, you've got to contend with all the innovation getting eaten up by the larger companies and hidden, for fear of it disrupting their cash cow and market value.
I'd not be surprised if energy is the "next big thing", but I think China will get there first. The anational corporations like GE and GM very well hop on that bandwagon, too - but only when they can no longer fleece people for existing fares.
There are those that argue that's bad for us. In the short term, perhaps it is, but as more of the world achieves our standard of living, there are more consumers for our goods as well. Long term, raising up your neighbors only helps you.
No, it doesn't.
(See, I can do meaningless platitudes, as well.)
We've been pumping trillions of dollars into Mexico for decades for economic stability purposes. Mexico is no better off now than it was 50 years ago (arguably, much worse). There are other factors involved (as well as other examples).
"helping your neighbors only helps you" when there is an overseeing governance which prevents your neighbor from becoming stronger than you, and then taking what's your's for their own. The culture in, say, China, is not like it is here in the US. We may not lose our ability, and they may not overtly overtake us overtly as they come to par, but when they're at even footing you can bet they'll throw their weight around more effectively and with more effort than we have in the past. We'll lose that fight, because as a country, we've lost the edge for such conflict (emotionally, economically, culturally... we're done).
The problem in the US is that the means of producing a quality of life has left the country, as if it had all been destroyed by war, for the better part of a generation. There is more rebuilding necessary here than had there been a protracted 10-year war: entire industries, not just regions, are simply "gone", off-shored to other countries. What isn't gone has been largely marginalized to the point of severe specialization, with so few people familiar enough with the trade that passing it on to the next shift/generation becomes difficult.
Hell, we've even outsourced a lot of R&D - the only thing which really kept things booming during the 90s on the production side of things. What's being created anew in America these days? There are a couple small incremental changes still happening, pharma is still seeing advancement, and there's always IT... but other than that, it seems most industries are in a "maintenance" mode, and have been for some time. (Meanwhile, innovation is occurring apace in other countries with respect to building trades, technology, industry, etc.)
There is not a dearth of people in the US who still have the "get 'r done" mentality. The problem is that these people have been culturally and economically marginalized by the efforts of 'companies'. We currently have the lowest per-capita employment since the early Reagan administration, and it's still dropping (this was in the 'news' today, as if it wasn't evident to those looking about). There are many, many people - men, mostly, because they're the ones losing their jobs most often - who have exhausted their will to find a job, simply because there are none. If you were to give them the opportunity, many, many would work.
I think they're going to change their naming convention.
Microsoft Windows: Desktops
Microsoft Server {Advanced, Enterprise, etc.}: Servers
Microsoft Embedded: platform for everything else, including Xboxes.
People don't really hate Windows. What they hate is crappy software. MS has improved that department a great deal in the past 5 years.
With Dynamics GP 2008, at least, "Run this program as administrator" did not work for whatever reason. Due to the scale of the install (small) it made more sense to just give the users administrative rights.
I buy produce at a farmer's market (or directly from the farmer/rancher, when possible) because:
1) the quality is better
2) I can actually inspect the production facilities in many cases
3) the prices are actually usually lower
4) there is a community surrounding farmer's markets
None of these things apply unless, of course, you consider Apple products to be of quality - then you can ascribe it to the Apple Store. (And how local is that, exactly?)
And this says nothing for, say, bath towels, utility knives, and so on...
The only 'local' stores I've seen are tradesmen and trinket/novelty/interest sales shops that are fringe enough that they can (have to) charge exhorbinant rates to stay in business, and where a 'tactile' benefit is gained by looking at the device (eg. a bike) in person.
I think we'll be surprised how many Windows apps will run on Windows 8 with just a recompile - or for that matter, just running through the .NET CLR. MS appeared to be pushing this way, one way or another, since the "Microsoft Java" days for application development, and their programming frameworks improving significantly along the way... it's not MSVC++6 anymore...
On the phone, I think the value Windows will provide will be:
* Real Outlook
* OneNote
* Modern security models
* More mature kernel with proper memory protection, etc.
* Adaptability/utility to the person who actually wants to use the device
Basically, it'll be what Windows Mobile should've been 5 years ago, and what Windows Phone isn't. At least, that's my theory.
Yeah, but an SSD of usable size and decent performance is $250 or more. ANd you probably need more RAM, too, if that helps perf much at all (outside of direct intentional access). So you're looking at $400+ to upgrade a 5-year-old machine (or really, anything with DDR2).
Are you from 1999? Software developers stopped assuming users have admin access a few years after XP hit the scene.
Bullshit - unless you mean "sometime after right now" when you say "a few years after XP". There are still a lot of new programs which do not work properly w/o Admin rights.
Hell, even MS Dynamics 2008 required Administrator rights to run (can't recall if it was local or domain , at the moment, but I do recall that allowing everyone access to run the program didn't do the trick).
There is no such thing as "bulletproof glass". Usually, what you have is a combination of two things:
* a polymer and glass layered sheet
* of a specific thickness and ply count
For instance, most 'bulletproof glass' is just rated for pistol calibers (as I believe bank teller glass tends to be). Rifle calibers will punch right through. I think you'll need something close to 6" or so to withstand a shot or two from a 30 caliber, high velocity rifle (eg. think mostly anything from WWII, 7.62 NATO, 7.62R, etc.). A .50 Browning is likely to put a nice 'little' pock in such a plate. I wouldn't stand on the other side voluntarily.
And, with all frangible materials, with repeated impacts they will start to be less effective at fulfilling their role.
I believe there's a new polymer/glass/transparent aluminum glass out there, too, but they're all variations on the same theme.
An appropriate title would be "engineer" - and no, I don't mean in the 'officious legal meaning of the word', either.
Scientists deal with the abstract properties of elemental components. The pure scientific process is somewhat boring and repetitive, IMO. Lots of wrote memorization, result interpretation, and dealing in absolute numbers with .0001 variance.
Engineers typically deal with the results of science to produce a usable, practical device. They use scientific concepts and practices, but it isn't creating or discovering anything 'new'.
"Inventor" would also be appropriate, maybe moreso, as it seems to sit somewhere between "engineer" - someone who deals with what is known to make something of utility - and "scientist" - someone who looks outside the known - because an inventor must do a bit of both: they look at what is known, but also consider what is unknown, trying to fill the gap between knowledge and application. In these cases, playing hard and fast with numbers for the purpose of applicability, or skipping numbers outright with some planned demolitions to test real-world applicability (all that really matters for things used in the real world) is the way to go.
Nevermind the "funny".
The osborne could be used to:
1) generally type
2) process words
3) enter spreadsheets
4) compute data
5) analyze data
6) anything involving programming
IE, it was actually pretty useful as a computer.
The iphone/pad/whatever:
1) play angry birds
2) watch hulu
3) chat/IM (sorta)
4) consume other content
A better comparison to the ipad would be to early Pong and/or color televisions. It does win there, but not as a general computing device.
I don't think "tablets" are going to die outright, but I do think they're a passing fad (much in the same way as most things, including the "HPCs" in the early 2000s or Palms or anything else leading up to now).
Basically, like the netbook, they're a stepping stone.
Netbooks proved that such a small, mobile - yet featureful - platform was possible. Tablets are now proving that the touchscreen UI is possible to maintain and useful to people (or, at least, we'll see that in a financial quarter or two, I suspect). Smartphones are doing the same thing too, really: the only difference is porn and other movies are better on your tablet. :P
Personally, I think we're about 2-5 years away from a 'device convergence'. We've got the smartphones, tablets, netbooks, desktops, etc. - and we've got a number of devices which play between the lines (Google's 'laptop', thinclients, tablets with attachable keyboards, etc.)
How long until we're seeing a "computer" for sale from a major manufacturer which is fully componentized for modular use? By that I mean something like:
* at its most reduced, it's a smartphone.
* it can be inserted into the back of a larger display, making it a tablet
* it can then be clipped to a keyboard chassis and used as a netbook
* it can be dropped in a station, giving it discreet graphics, added storage and more RAM - allowing your contacts, games, etc. to still be available and playable on a "different device/platform".
Honestly, I suspect Apple is moving this direction right now, with the rumor that OSX is on its last legs, the popularity of games on Apple's store, and so on. Each of these things have been more-or-less implemented, by one hardware manufacturer or another, in the past couple of years on their own (dual video chips on Lenovo laptops, the detachable/clip screens on a couple netbooks, the perpetual 'laptop dock', etc.) and improvements in x86-64 mobile processors/architecture/bios makes such a prospect all the more realizable. If a company were to mass-produce such a 'platform' I have no doubt it'd be immensely popular with geeks ("we can put windows/os x/linux/android on it") and consumers ('ooo another apple product') alike.
What's wrong with playboy.com or domai.com, from a security perspective?
Why would it be a problem? I haven't looked at the specs on these yet, but some of the sandforce based MLCs have MTBFs of a million years and can handle something like 100 years of constant writing.
Here's a guess as to why it won't be able to be leveraged: it's written for FreeBSD 4 or something similarly archaic.