"Opensource is back to the days when you could FIX your tv, replace parts of your washingmachine, tune your own car. I can't really think of any product outside computers that I am not allowed to mess around with to my hearts content."
For some of those things, you still can find user servicable components. Washing machines are still quite mechanical and most of those parts can be purchased at your local Sears Service Center. I pass one everyday myself and they sure are busy all the time.
If you want, you can still tune your automobile, I know of more then a few guys that purchase replacement computers and on the 'Speed' channel there is this show that runs every week that shows you the step by step process of replacing the computer in your car or truck, hooking a laptop or other PC up to that computer and then modifying the settings on that vehicle computer.
As for the television, that's a tough one. I mean, if you have all of the equipment and skills to test, diagnose and perhaps even fabricate replacement electronics components, I suppose you could work on your TV yourself and I quite certain that there are some people out there that do that on a regular basis.
If you really wanted to, it is VERY possible for you to do all of those things with cars, washing machines and even televisions. However, you would rather claim that it is simply impossible to do and write if off as something that saddens you. That's fine, it's your choice to do that.
Just like it's Intel's choice to protect their products 'secrets' by releasing proprietary drivers.
You have nothing supporting what will happen tomorrow. Intel isn't likely going to go out of busines anytime in the next ten years. I doubt that Nvidia will either.
If they do, then why would I want to get 'full functionality' out of one of their 5 to 10 year old video cards when I would be able to buy a new video card for a small spot of money and get drivers to support my latest hardware?
Are you still using a 10 to 15 year old Hercules graphics card as your primary graphics adapter? With that card, have you slapped on a 3DFX Monster II, 3D Accelerator for which to play the 'latest' 3D Games?
That's right, if you wanted to play the latest 3D games, you couldn't use that combination anymore, neither of those pieces of hardware support any of the advanced 3D Graphics features demanded by modern 3D games.
So, again tell me why I should be concerned if Nvidia or Intel went of business and I had a 5 to 10 year old piece of equipment that won't run most of the modern software that I want to run?
...using the Nvidia driver at all? If you don't like that they won't produce an Open Source Driver, why 'give in' and use anything besides the Open Source 'nv' driver?
If you don't use any Nvidia hardware, then why should you even care beyond simply choosing not to purchase anything with Nvidia's name on it? All that does is take up time that you could be using to better the Open Source drivers that you are using.
"The company has no interest in writing any more (it's a discontinued product) and yet the still-useful hardware cannot work with any current OS. Because of some ridiculous desire to keep an obsolete trade secret or two."
Possibly obsolete, possibly 'borrowed' from a competitor. You and I simply cannot say. That hardware manufacturer could still be using those 'possibly obsolete' aspects in their latest components. If by releasing that as open source it could compromise their business model, then they are making a sound business decision.
Do you have any secrets you want to keep secret, or do you believe fully in open source and make sure that everyone knows everything about you in order to help you make yourself better?
"Open drivers are better than proprietary ones because there are no disadvantages..."
I know of the advantages and to be honest, in this case those advantages aren't as important as protecting the commercial viability of Nvidia, a company that I feel produces some of best 3D graphics hardware on the market. From consumer to industrial 3D hardware, they are one of the best.
I do know of at least one disadvantage to Open Source drivers. The 'nv' drivers, for instance, suck majorly and the only reason that the Open Source ATI drivers are decent is because ATI has been heavily involved in their development.
"Imagine, years from now, that Intel has died, and Linux has died."
I can only imagine that happening if the globe experiences a HUGE catastrophe. It would also take many, many years for each of those to 'disappear'. By that time, the 'Centrino' laptop you suggest would still be around would be so old as to be quite likely unusable. By that time we could all be using 256-bit CPUs or some Quantum-based CPU.
What is this 'cool' thing that someone may want to do with a 50 year old laptop, that likely doesn't work anymore. Do you do 'cool' things with mini-computers from the 70's? That's right, the hardware is so limited that it is all but useless. (Note, I am not saying it IS useless, just that it is darn close to being useless...)
Because I didn't mess with Linux kernel 2.6 yet and if I wanted to use Linux kernel 2.6, then I would have made do with what was available to me, which would have meant no 3D. Then, when Nvidia release the driver, I would have downloaded it and be happy.
I understand that Nvidia got that driver out fairly quick, considering that the 'Live' version of Linux kernel 2.6 hadn't been official for even 6 months. So what's the big deal? If Nvidia wanted to, they could have simply never released a Linux kernel 2.6 version of their driver. That's their free choice to make.
The right for people and corporations to keep their software proprietary or to open it up and freely give it away is the strength of True Freedom and Capitalism.
Intel can do what they want. They are the owners of their hardware designs and the drivers to make that hardware function.
If it's so sad that Intel is going to provide proprietary drivers, do you get sad everytime you get into your automobile? (The computer under your hood mosty likely uses proprietary drivers to interface with the autmobile.)
There is room for both open and closed software in this world. I for one envision a world where the Operating System is wide open with all the tools one needs to make whatever changes they wish to it and to develop whatever they want to on it. If hardware manufacturers want to keep some or all of their drivers 'secret' that's fine, let them. If application developers want to keep their 'Whiz-Bang 2.0' application proprietary, let them.
Believe whatever you want. I have and still use quite a large amount of both proprietary and open source software and in some cases, the open source software is better, in other cases, the proprietary software is better, even for the same task.
What needs to end are silly proprietary APIs put into an OS by particular vendors to allow their other applications to run like the dickens while making competitor's applications less capable.
Drivers for the Alpha version of Windows or the MacOSX version of PPC for the Nvidia graphics card...
Oh, that's right, there isn't a market for Nvidia to make/sell cards for those markets...
We know as a general rule that the number of Linux users running on x86 hardware is tiny in comparison to the number of Windows users and we also know that the number of PPC and Alpha Linux users are even smaller then that... That's why. It's pretty simply economics.
Get your head out of the "New Economy" world it is living in and take a better look at reality. If there isn't a market for your product or service, then the product or service won't sell no matter how much you attempt to sell it to someone. If the market for your product is so tiny that you have just a 10,000 outside of the mainstream market of 20 to 30 million, then you have to charge those 10,000 an insane amount of money just to make back your research and development costs. Which makes supporting/selling to that tiny market a waste of time more then anything else.
I definately agree that diagnosing computer problems is something can take years of experience and can become quite instinctual, part of that is having a good long-term memory and being able to put into memory the results of previous diagnostic work.
The other truth I wish to share is that you MUST under ALL circumstances get things a Salesperson says to you in WRITING before agreeing to purchase ANYTHING. I work as a Purchasing Agent primarily and I tell you what... Salespeople are often far worse then mythical Genies, they will twist everything you say and turn your own purchase orders against you if you don't have them worded just right and don't cover all the bases as well...
A Centrino system is nothing special...
on
AMD Back in the Black
·
· Score: 3, Informative
...all you need to slap 'Centrino' onto a laptop is the following...
A Pentium IV Mobility Processor
A Particular Intel Mainboard Chipset
Intel's WiFi Internal Card
I also believe that it needs a certain Graphics processor, also from Intel.
The 'Centrino' label is nothing spectacular. It is just another marketing line that 'creates' a new Intel Line without really engineering a whole new line. The whole 'Centrino' line is a marketing thing to get people excited about mobile computing and is designed to get people out and buying laptop computers. It gives people a sense of having 'teh' best laptop, even if they really don't have the best laptop.
Really, which would you rather have...
An HP Laptop with a Mobil Pentium IV, Wireless Access and a 3D Graphics Chip?
or...
An HP Laptop Equipped with Centrino Technology?
They are both basically the same thing, one just has a shorter 'catchy' name attached to it, nothing more, nothing less.
"Independent Film is about the only category where there is cool new stuff. The entertainment industry of today is exactly like the auto industry of the 1970s, and the Japanese are about to buy the whole thing for about 4c on the dollar. Independent Film is a diamond mine of originality and creativity. There are Independent Film series that are masterpieces of contemporary thought and literature, as well as fantastically capable demonstrations of state-of-the-art Independent Film Making. Nothing else can even begin to compete."
Just remember that the next time you are walking by, or driving by an 'Art' Movie Theatre or an 'Independent Film' Theatre. If you want mainstream movies, hit a 'Star Theatre' or a 'United Artists' Theatre. If you want a Film, take yourself to the local 'Art' Theatre.
In the meantime quit your whining about only Anime having any worth. Where I live, we have a very nice Art Theatre and a sweet 'Alternative' Video Rental place that not only has all of the 'Big Blockbuster Hollywood' movies, but also carries a HUGE selection of 'B' movies, Independent Films and LOCALLY produced movies, one of which had even used that video store as a backdrop for the opening on the movie...
It's cool going in there and seeing a few of the "VideoHound" props that were used to temporarily dress up the video store for the Film. It's a great place that has been in business for a large number of years and will continue to be in business for as long as I can imagine.
You want good films, start supporting your local Art Theatre and Alternative Video Rental shop. Not only will you be "Fighting Globalism" by keeping your money in your community, but you will also be "Fighting Artistic Oppression" by supporting the last stalwart defenders of Free Thought and Unique Ideas.
Toss your cynism out the window, open your eyes and witness the changes you can actually make.
The book you need is pusblished specifically for and has the name of the college you are attending plastered all over the cover?
Sure, the book might be identical to a book used at another college half-way across the country, but it might actually have been designed by the faculty of the department that I am taking the course in. Which means that while I might find one with an 'identical' cover save the college name, the book might have mildly altered content on several pages and chapters just to confound someone that might look for the book on the Internet...
In the automotive industry being off by that 'gigantic' mile of a discrepancy can be the difference between an entirely safe system or a potentially dangerous event just waiting to happen.
Anything from rubbing away the lining of important wires or hoses, different stress locations resulting in tear apart pieces that shouldn't be tear apart can happen by being off by that much...
0.86mm might at well be 3 feet off. A part that comes out that far off is nothing but scrap material. (Well at least in our area of automotive work.)
In some circles using an Nvidia card does make you an outcast. Of course, those circles have a great deal in commong with extreme religious zealots, thusly making them some of the most judgemental and often irrational people to deal with.
Which is entirely to bad as some of what that group of does is extremely interesting and they have a tremendous number of things that they can contribute to greater society, but their extremely narrow views puts them at odds with the greater majority of society. Due to this, they actually go against what it means to be 'open'.
A good example is the UI programmer Mosfet, if I am remembering the name correctly, making it 'impossible' to compile his/her code on Redhat due to his/her philosophical leanings. It's really to bad since that that software is pretty darn cool and it would be really great if it was actually Open Source instead of partially Open Source due to zealous philosophical views.
...that they are stretching their collective brain power by using the 'limited' capabilities of the provided tools for completing the task at hand.
If the goal was simply to have fun and not bother with stretching their minds, then why not just hand them fully completed robots built by MIT Robotics Students for the competition?
I don't know about gears at this time, but you can buy just about anything else you might want for a HUGE number of projects without having to pay insane amounts of money to have items machined for you. As long as you stick to 'standard' items, you will be more then fine.
That's less of an issue in a vehicle when you are sitting side by side with someone in seats designed to face your body forward. Personally, I rarely look at the person beside me in the vehicle, unless I am at a stoplight.
Have you ever noticed that your eyes can be drawn to a screen, particularly one that has moving images on it? A large portion of the populace has this 'issue', a driver that is having a conversation is more likely to be keeping his/her eyes on the road then a driver that has a screen of moving images close by in the periphery of their vision.
Personally, I have some trouble with going to places that have televisions on in the background, my eyes are constantly drawn to them, even taking me out of conversations, it's not something I enjoy and is one of the reasons that I rarely watch television at home, I like to focus on the things that are in front of me and it is difficult to do that with the distraction of television.
I can see it being just as distracting to have a passenger with a laptop or other moving image device directly in my peripheral vision. Now, if there is some kind of 'curtain' that keeps the device from my view, that's okay with me. However, who wants to really risk damaging their delicate electronic device by having it fly off your lap when the driver slams on the breaks?
Really, what's the huge deal? The driver's job is to keep the vehicle on the road and going from point A to point B as safely as possible.
I have seen some real morons driving around the state I live in, fiddling with their cell phone, playing with the radio and many other things. I have also witnessed a number of accidents because some nut was to busy doing everything else instead of driving their car.
I say kudos to legislation that will force drivers to drive, instead of fiddling with all of their electronic gadgets. I am also a little guilty of that myself, I have a cell phone and I really should be using one of those hands free devices and I do intend on getting one.
Ooooh... ipods for the Philistines!!!
on
Rumors of Mini iPods
·
· Score: 0, Troll
...and unwashed masses that aren't 'rear-conscious' enough to spend the exhorbinant fees attached to the full-size ipods...
I don't a hoot whether it has wheels, legs, cameras or trained monkeys along with it. I am only interested in seeing it succeed.
I also wasn't talking about or asking about the mision the craft is undertaking, I am asking about whether or not something that appears to have been so poorly constructed would stand a chance to survive and with the odds attributed to its survival by the BBC, should it have even been sent in the first place?
A failure is worse then waiting on launching the probe, testing it further and spending more money on making the design better.
A failure is an instant loss of money, time, talent and potential scientific discovery. A more expensive 'guaranteed' landing provides a much better chance of success, which is far better then simply lighting a giant pile of money on fire, which even an 'on the cheap' approach costs when failure occurs.
...the BBC is painting the Beagle probe, why did they send it to Mars to begin with? By the way this article on the probe's capabilities is written, I would never consider sending the device to Mars, let alone to the local supermarket.
Either someone dropped the ball and sent an ill-conceived and poorly desined ball of crud probe to Mars, or the BBC is attempting to create some kind of sensationalism in its reporting of this piece.
Does anybody will know what the truth of the matter is?
...people should be completely free to do with as they please. On the other hand, I have seen to many people that weren't tech savvy fall for the ole 'unlock the magic' spiel that someone sold them on regarding some 'el-cheapo' board that they picked up.
There are some people that you can just tell needed that computer to bring a little bit of joy into their life and barely had the money to do much else then get that computer and when you have to tell them that they are out of luck, it's not a great feeling.
...the poor sap that can barely afford to spend the extra money on the 'value' board, you listen to someone's spiel about how you can 'unlock' the 'magic' or something and you end up frying your once perfectly good, yet low-spec'd board and are stuck having to go back to your old parts, if those aren't fried as well.
Anyway, joking aside, I did see a boatload of them on the shelves while out shopping last week... They were right there with all the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel DVD Sets.
Slashdot Mirror
"Opensource is back to the days when you could FIX your tv, replace parts of your washingmachine, tune your own car. I can't really think of any product outside computers that I am not allowed to mess around with to my hearts content."
For some of those things, you still can find user servicable components. Washing machines are still quite mechanical and most of those parts can be purchased at your local Sears Service Center. I pass one everyday myself and they sure are busy all the time.
If you want, you can still tune your automobile, I know of more then a few guys that purchase replacement computers and on the 'Speed' channel there is this show that runs every week that shows you the step by step process of replacing the computer in your car or truck, hooking a laptop or other PC up to that computer and then modifying the settings on that vehicle computer.
As for the television, that's a tough one. I mean, if you have all of the equipment and skills to test, diagnose and perhaps even fabricate replacement electronics components, I suppose you could work on your TV yourself and I quite certain that there are some people out there that do that on a regular basis.
If you really wanted to, it is VERY possible for you to do all of those things with cars, washing machines and even televisions. However, you would rather claim that it is simply impossible to do and write if off as something that saddens you. That's fine, it's your choice to do that.
Just like it's Intel's choice to protect their products 'secrets' by releasing proprietary drivers.
So really, what's the problem here?
You have nothing supporting what will happen tomorrow. Intel isn't likely going to go out of busines anytime in the next ten years. I doubt that Nvidia will either.
If they do, then why would I want to get 'full functionality' out of one of their 5 to 10 year old video cards when I would be able to buy a new video card for a small spot of money and get drivers to support my latest hardware?
Are you still using a 10 to 15 year old Hercules graphics card as your primary graphics adapter? With that card, have you slapped on a 3DFX Monster II, 3D Accelerator for which to play the 'latest' 3D Games?
That's right, if you wanted to play the latest 3D games, you couldn't use that combination anymore, neither of those pieces of hardware support any of the advanced 3D Graphics features demanded by modern 3D games.
So, again tell me why I should be concerned if Nvidia or Intel went of business and I had a 5 to 10 year old piece of equipment that won't run most of the modern software that I want to run?
If you don't use any Nvidia hardware, then why should you even care beyond simply choosing not to purchase anything with Nvidia's name on it? All that does is take up time that you could be using to better the Open Source drivers that you are using.
"The company has no interest in writing any more (it's a discontinued product) and yet the still-useful hardware cannot work with any current OS. Because of some ridiculous desire to keep an obsolete trade secret or two."
Possibly obsolete, possibly 'borrowed' from a competitor. You and I simply cannot say. That hardware manufacturer could still be using those 'possibly obsolete' aspects in their latest components. If by releasing that as open source it could compromise their business model, then they are making a sound business decision.
Do you have any secrets you want to keep secret, or do you believe fully in open source and make sure that everyone knows everything about you in order to help you make yourself better?
"Open drivers are better than proprietary ones because there are no disadvantages..."
I know of the advantages and to be honest, in this case those advantages aren't as important as protecting the commercial viability of Nvidia, a company that I feel produces some of best 3D graphics hardware on the market. From consumer to industrial 3D hardware, they are one of the best.
I do know of at least one disadvantage to Open Source drivers. The 'nv' drivers, for instance, suck majorly and the only reason that the Open Source ATI drivers are decent is because ATI has been heavily involved in their development.
"Imagine, years from now, that Intel has died, and Linux has died."
I can only imagine that happening if the globe experiences a HUGE catastrophe. It would also take many, many years for each of those to 'disappear'. By that time, the 'Centrino' laptop you suggest would still be around would be so old as to be quite likely unusable. By that time we could all be using 256-bit CPUs or some Quantum-based CPU.
What is this 'cool' thing that someone may want to do with a 50 year old laptop, that likely doesn't work anymore. Do you do 'cool' things with mini-computers from the 70's? That's right, the hardware is so limited that it is all but useless. (Note, I am not saying it IS useless, just that it is darn close to being useless...)
Because I didn't mess with Linux kernel 2.6 yet and if I wanted to use Linux kernel 2.6, then I would have made do with what was available to me, which would have meant no 3D. Then, when Nvidia release the driver, I would have downloaded it and be happy.
I understand that Nvidia got that driver out fairly quick, considering that the 'Live' version of Linux kernel 2.6 hadn't been official for even 6 months. So what's the big deal? If Nvidia wanted to, they could have simply never released a Linux kernel 2.6 version of their driver. That's their free choice to make.
The right for people and corporations to keep their software proprietary or to open it up and freely give it away is the strength of True Freedom and Capitalism.
Seriously, what makes it so sad?
Intel can do what they want. They are the owners of their hardware designs and the drivers to make that hardware function.
If it's so sad that Intel is going to provide proprietary drivers, do you get sad everytime you get into your automobile? (The computer under your hood mosty likely uses proprietary drivers to interface with the autmobile.)
There is room for both open and closed software in this world. I for one envision a world where the Operating System is wide open with all the tools one needs to make whatever changes they wish to it and to develop whatever they want to on it. If hardware manufacturers want to keep some or all of their drivers 'secret' that's fine, let them. If application developers want to keep their 'Whiz-Bang 2.0' application proprietary, let them.
Believe whatever you want. I have and still use quite a large amount of both proprietary and open source software and in some cases, the open source software is better, in other cases, the proprietary software is better, even for the same task.
What needs to end are silly proprietary APIs put into an OS by particular vendors to allow their other applications to run like the dickens while making competitor's applications less capable.
Sitting in front of the Television?
Joining in some Sport?
What kind of activity do you do for entertainment value brings value or creates something of value?
If you really felt that way, why are you even reading a Slashdot story that is accessible from the 'Gaming/Gamer' section of Slashdot?
Why would you read or even post to Slashdot for that matter? What kind of value canone really take away from posting something to Slashdot?
Drivers for the Alpha version of Windows or the MacOSX version of PPC for the Nvidia graphics card...
Oh, that's right, there isn't a market for Nvidia to make/sell cards for those markets...
We know as a general rule that the number of Linux users running on x86 hardware is tiny in comparison to the number of Windows users and we also know that the number of PPC and Alpha Linux users are even smaller then that... That's why. It's pretty simply economics.
Get your head out of the "New Economy" world it is living in and take a better look at reality. If there isn't a market for your product or service, then the product or service won't sell no matter how much you attempt to sell it to someone. If the market for your product is so tiny that you have just a 10,000 outside of the mainstream market of 20 to 30 million, then you have to charge those 10,000 an insane amount of money just to make back your research and development costs. Which makes supporting/selling to that tiny market a waste of time more then anything else.
I definately agree that diagnosing computer problems is something can take years of experience and can become quite instinctual, part of that is having a good long-term memory and being able to put into memory the results of previous diagnostic work.
The other truth I wish to share is that you MUST under ALL circumstances get things a Salesperson says to you in WRITING before agreeing to purchase ANYTHING. I work as a Purchasing Agent primarily and I tell you what... Salespeople are often far worse then mythical Genies, they will twist everything you say and turn your own purchase orders against you if you don't have them worded just right and don't cover all the bases as well...
A Pentium IV Mobility Processor
A Particular Intel Mainboard Chipset
Intel's WiFi Internal Card
I also believe that it needs a certain Graphics processor, also from Intel.
The 'Centrino' label is nothing spectacular. It is just another marketing line that 'creates' a new Intel Line without really engineering a whole new line. The whole 'Centrino' line is a marketing thing to get people excited about mobile computing and is designed to get people out and buying laptop computers. It gives people a sense of having 'teh' best laptop, even if they really don't have the best laptop.
Really, which would you rather have...
An HP Laptop with a Mobil Pentium IV, Wireless Access and a 3D Graphics Chip?
or...
An HP Laptop Equipped with Centrino Technology?
They are both basically the same thing, one just has a shorter 'catchy' name attached to it, nothing more, nothing less.
"Independent Film is about the only category where there is cool new stuff. The entertainment industry of today is exactly like the auto industry of the 1970s, and the Japanese are about to buy the whole thing for about 4c on the dollar. Independent Film is a diamond mine of originality and creativity. There are Independent Film series that are masterpieces of contemporary thought and literature, as well as fantastically capable demonstrations of state-of-the-art Independent Film Making. Nothing else can even begin to compete."
Just remember that the next time you are walking by, or driving by an 'Art' Movie Theatre or an 'Independent Film' Theatre. If you want mainstream movies, hit a 'Star Theatre' or a 'United Artists' Theatre. If you want a Film, take yourself to the local 'Art' Theatre.
In the meantime quit your whining about only Anime having any worth. Where I live, we have a very nice Art Theatre and a sweet 'Alternative' Video Rental place that not only has all of the 'Big Blockbuster Hollywood' movies, but also carries a HUGE selection of 'B' movies, Independent Films and LOCALLY produced movies, one of which had even used that video store as a backdrop for the opening on the movie...
It's cool going in there and seeing a few of the "VideoHound" props that were used to temporarily dress up the video store for the Film. It's a great place that has been in business for a large number of years and will continue to be in business for as long as I can imagine.
You want good films, start supporting your local Art Theatre and Alternative Video Rental shop. Not only will you be "Fighting Globalism" by keeping your money in your community, but you will also be "Fighting Artistic Oppression" by supporting the last stalwart defenders of Free Thought and Unique Ideas.
Toss your cynism out the window, open your eyes and witness the changes you can actually make.
The book you need is pusblished specifically for and has the name of the college you are attending plastered all over the cover?
Sure, the book might be identical to a book used at another college half-way across the country, but it might actually have been designed by the faculty of the department that I am taking the course in. Which means that while I might find one with an 'identical' cover save the college name, the book might have mildly altered content on several pages and chapters just to confound someone that might look for the book on the Internet...
In the automotive industry being off by that 'gigantic' mile of a discrepancy can be the difference between an entirely safe system or a potentially dangerous event just waiting to happen.
Anything from rubbing away the lining of important wires or hoses, different stress locations resulting in tear apart pieces that shouldn't be tear apart can happen by being off by that much...
0.86mm might at well be 3 feet off. A part that comes out that far off is nothing but scrap material. (Well at least in our area of automotive work.)
In some circles using an Nvidia card does make you an outcast. Of course, those circles have a great deal in commong with extreme religious zealots, thusly making them some of the most judgemental and often irrational people to deal with.
Which is entirely to bad as some of what that group of does is extremely interesting and they have a tremendous number of things that they can contribute to greater society, but their extremely narrow views puts them at odds with the greater majority of society. Due to this, they actually go against what it means to be 'open'.
A good example is the UI programmer Mosfet, if I am remembering the name correctly, making it 'impossible' to compile his/her code on Redhat due to his/her philosophical leanings. It's really to bad since that that software is pretty darn cool and it would be really great if it was actually Open Source instead of partially Open Source due to zealous philosophical views.
If the goal was simply to have fun and not bother with stretching their minds, then why not just hand them fully completed robots built by MIT Robotics Students for the competition?
I don't know about gears at this time, but you can buy just about anything else you might want for a HUGE number of projects without having to pay insane amounts of money to have items machined for you. As long as you stick to 'standard' items, you will be more then fine.
The web-site is www.mcmaster.com
Good hunting!
That's less of an issue in a vehicle when you are sitting side by side with someone in seats designed to face your body forward. Personally, I rarely look at the person beside me in the vehicle, unless I am at a stoplight.
Have you ever noticed that your eyes can be drawn to a screen, particularly one that has moving images on it? A large portion of the populace has this 'issue', a driver that is having a conversation is more likely to be keeping his/her eyes on the road then a driver that has a screen of moving images close by in the periphery of their vision.
Personally, I have some trouble with going to places that have televisions on in the background, my eyes are constantly drawn to them, even taking me out of conversations, it's not something I enjoy and is one of the reasons that I rarely watch television at home, I like to focus on the things that are in front of me and it is difficult to do that with the distraction of television.
I can see it being just as distracting to have a passenger with a laptop or other moving image device directly in my peripheral vision. Now, if there is some kind of 'curtain' that keeps the device from my view, that's okay with me. However, who wants to really risk damaging their delicate electronic device by having it fly off your lap when the driver slams on the breaks?
Really, what's the huge deal? The driver's job is to keep the vehicle on the road and going from point A to point B as safely as possible.
I have seen some real morons driving around the state I live in, fiddling with their cell phone, playing with the radio and many other things. I have also witnessed a number of accidents because some nut was to busy doing everything else instead of driving their car.
I say kudos to legislation that will force drivers to drive, instead of fiddling with all of their electronic gadgets. I am also a little guilty of that myself, I have a cell phone and I really should be using one of those hands free devices and I do intend on getting one.
I don't a hoot whether it has wheels, legs, cameras or trained monkeys along with it. I am only interested in seeing it succeed.
I also wasn't talking about or asking about the mision the craft is undertaking, I am asking about whether or not something that appears to have been so poorly constructed would stand a chance to survive and with the odds attributed to its survival by the BBC, should it have even been sent in the first place?
A failure is worse then waiting on launching the probe, testing it further and spending more money on making the design better.
A failure is an instant loss of money, time, talent and potential scientific discovery. A more expensive 'guaranteed' landing provides a much better chance of success, which is far better then simply lighting a giant pile of money on fire, which even an 'on the cheap' approach costs when failure occurs.
Either someone dropped the ball and sent an ill-conceived and poorly desined ball of crud probe to Mars, or the BBC is attempting to create some kind of sensationalism in its reporting of this piece.
Does anybody will know what the truth of the matter is?
There are some people that you can just tell needed that computer to bring a little bit of joy into their life and barely had the money to do much else then get that computer and when you have to tell them that they are out of luck, it's not a great feeling.
...the poor sap that can barely afford to spend the extra money on the 'value' board, you listen to someone's spiel about how you can 'unlock' the 'magic' or something and you end up frying your once perfectly good, yet low-spec'd board and are stuck having to go back to your old parts, if those aren't fried as well.
I love using goto statements...
Anyway, joking aside, I did see a boatload of them on the shelves while out shopping last week... They were right there with all the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel DVD Sets.
Good luck...