I have Sunblade 100, from which I write this comment. From my experience, this machine is by a factor 4 (yes, four) time slower than a new Athlon XP 1.9... And it costs much much more.
If it wasn't for endianness compatibility with existing binary data, I wouldn't be using it.
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As people pointed out, IPaq is not a feeble machine, it is far more powerful than Gameboy - and on gameboy one could make stupidly cool demos with all the graphics, but on the other hand it's just rubbish enough a few people (and not hundres) can make something cool.
Why boycotxp.com? Any bussiness is and should be free to set the prices however they like! The only exception are public services (water, electricity, health service) and Microsoft, thank god, hasn't reached that status, yet. So, if you don't like XP's price, don't use it!
Hawking certainly is in a position shared by few to talk about the intersection of human intellect and technology.
Not really... Hawking is a scientific celeberity, which does not neccessarily meam that he is a good scientist, nor does it mean that he can speak about other fields of human endeavour.
most of the money in really expensive satellite goes into making it a system that provides a lot of backup options if something goes wrong. i.e. if it stops communicating with the earth, the satelline will try several things, like spinning itself round, etc. to reestablish communications. You can't provide this kind of systems on a budget satellite so if you loose it, that is nothing you can do but say: oh, i was budget. Secondly, a large fraction of the cost of real satellites goes into salaries of top engineers and into space electronics - a simple opamp costs ten times the one on the earth - just because you can be sure it is going to work.
Don't get me wrong, I truly belive this is a great idea and a lot of fresh ideas might come up, but people who build "proper" satellites are not wasting their money, it is a commercial enterprise after all...
Not on communication satellites but also cheap telescopes! People have been using baloons so far, but such wing can take you much higher! For a fractions of the cost of a satellite and there is nothing above you.
Yep, you are absolutelly right, I could put together a cheap x-terminal out of an old 486, or even simpler buy an old Tektronix, and I can get new pentium machine for the price of PS2+linux kit.
But, the only useful things I do with computer at home is write a latex document every now and then, check my email and surf a bit. I could do all this with a 486 as well, couldn't I? Why do I want to have a kinky gnome desktop when it really isn't that much more *useful* than twm? Because it's fun.
Admittedly, we all use good machines because they are fun. And I think hacking a PS2 would be fun. You could write incredible demos using its powerful graphics or try to run N64 emulator on it. (Remember what people did with commodore 64 - today you can stretch hardware to that extend, simply because dirty trick wouldn't work your neighbour's machine; PS2 would be a chance to do some real messing on a chip level again...)
Aside from that, hardly any pinball machines make money in todays world. Think about where the majority of p'ball machines end up, honky tonk pubs, and shit. Definitely not a money maker.
Not that very true as it sounds. Admittedly the industry seems to have various ideas on what the future of the pinball should be, Williams is very keen on Pinball 2000 concept, which is half video-arcade half pinball, while Stern has produced a few very, very fine "classical concept" games.
Yeah, porn is great, but I was just about to get a cable modem, when they told me, no servers WHATSOEVER allowed, i.e. they explicitly prohibited http and ftp, but it was sort of implied that if they get you running a BBS or a hotline server they kill your children. Of course, you can get that a cable with server allowance but that COSTS.
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I have Sunblade 100, from which I write this comment. From my experience, this machine is by a factor 4 (yes, four) time slower than a new Athlon XP 1.9... And it costs much much more.
If it wasn't for endianness compatibility with existing binary data, I wouldn't be using it.
Really, this would also teach us that some key are COMPLETELLY USELESS, such as Caps-Lock, INSERT and SCroll -lock!
only to be told:
.NET Passport does not support the Web browsing software you are using. Please use supported browsing software such as Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 or later, or Netscape Navigator versions 4.08-4.82.
.NET Passport using Netscape Navigator 6.1. We take security seriously and are working with Netscape to resolve these issues as soon as possible so that .NET Passport can support Netscape Navigator 6.1. Until that time, please use supported browsing software. We apologize for this inconvenience and thank you for your patience.
Unfortunately, Microsoft®
If you use Netscape Navigator 6.1: due to possible data security issues, you cannot currently access
Quite amazing.
As people pointed out, IPaq is not a feeble machine, it is far more powerful than Gameboy - and on gameboy one could make stupidly cool demos with all the graphics, but on the other hand it's just rubbish enough a few people (and not hundres) can make something cool.
Why boycotxp.com? Any bussiness is and should be free to set the prices however they like! The only exception are public services (water, electricity, health service) and Microsoft, thank god, hasn't reached that status, yet. So, if you don't like XP's price, don't use it!
...import filters for Word, Wordperfect, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.
Surely not Wordperfect! It's not a Microsoft product!!!
Hawking certainly is in a position shared by few to talk about the intersection of human intellect and technology.
Not really... Hawking is a scientific celeberity, which does not neccessarily meam that he is a good scientist, nor does it mean that he can speak about other fields of human endeavour.
most of the money in really expensive satellite goes into making it a system that provides a lot of backup options if something goes wrong. i.e. if it stops communicating with the earth, the satelline will try several things, like spinning itself round, etc. to reestablish communications. You can't provide this kind of systems on a budget satellite so if you loose it, that is nothing you can do but say: oh, i was budget. Secondly, a large fraction of the cost of real satellites goes into salaries of top engineers and into space electronics - a simple opamp costs ten times the one on the earth - just because you can be sure it is going to work.
Don't get me wrong, I truly belive this is a great idea and a lot of fresh ideas might come up, but people who build "proper" satellites are not wasting their money, it is a commercial enterprise after all...
Not on communication satellites but also cheap telescopes! People have been using baloons so far, but such wing can take you much higher! For a fractions of the cost of a satellite and there is nothing above you.
Yep, you are absolutelly right, I could put together a cheap x-terminal out of an old 486, or even simpler buy an old Tektronix, and I can get new pentium machine for the price of PS2+linux kit. But, the only useful things I do with computer at home is write a latex document every now and then, check my email and surf a bit. I could do all this with a 486 as well, couldn't I? Why do I want to have a kinky gnome desktop when it really isn't that much more *useful* than twm? Because it's fun. Admittedly, we all use good machines because they are fun. And I think hacking a PS2 would be fun. You could write incredible demos using its powerful graphics or try to run N64 emulator on it. (Remember what people did with commodore 64 - today you can stretch hardware to that extend, simply because dirty trick wouldn't work your neighbour's machine; PS2 would be a chance to do some real messing on a chip level again...)
Aside from that, hardly any pinball machines make money in todays world. Think about where the majority of p'ball machines end up, honky tonk pubs, and shit. Definitely not a money maker.
Not that very true as it sounds. Admittedly the industry seems to have various ideas on what the future of the pinball should be, Williams is very keen on Pinball 2000 concept, which is half video-arcade half pinball, while Stern has produced a few very, very fine "classical concept" games.
It is my goverment's responsibility to allow me to use any browse I want
Well, You CAN access the site with (virtually) any browser! You CAN'T user features requiring authentication if you don't have a MS product!
Yeah, porn is great, but I was just about to get a cable modem, when they told me, no servers WHATSOEVER allowed, i.e. they explicitly prohibited http and ftp, but it was sort of implied that if they get you running a BBS or a hotline server they kill your children. Of course, you can get that a cable with server allowance but that COSTS.