I've had a Last.fm account since the Audioscrobbler days, and I can honestly tell you Pandora is leaps and bounds ahead in the quality of its recommendations.
Last.fm and all the other social network based sites are nearly worthless on account of the multitude of people whose musical tastes are all over the board. They flood the database with linkages that have absolutely no commonality
For my playlist dominated mostly by Jazz, Classical, Electronica, and Bossanova, with only a few 90's alt rock songs thrown in, I get top 10 recommendations that include Weezer, Incubus, RATM, Flaming Lips, Creed, and (what do you know.. *roll*) Dave Matthews.
Pandora, on the other hand, offers me fascinating new bands that I've never ever heard, and whose styles are completely in tune with what I enjoy.
ASUS, one of Sony's main notebook manufacturers (Sony doesn't make their own laptops), already make use of carbon fiber chassis in some of their own ultraportable/thin-and-light models, which have been available in North America for a few years.
One particular model I have is from their M6 series, which has since been replaced by their updated Z70 series, both with CF chassis.
What's even better is that since ASUS notebooks aren't sold retail, they come at nearly half the price for similar functionality, performance, and aesthetic quality as a comparable Sony.
The most noticable positive change you can bring to your Windows setup is to install one of the many shells out there that replace the Explorer interface.
Among your choices are the popular Litestep, GeoShell, Aston, bb4win variants, and others.
bblean, a lite variant of bb4win with integrated window skinning, has been my favorite for a long time. Its menu-based customization makes it fairly easy for newbies to configure, while the plugins and scripting options provide for limitless functionality.
Benchmarks show it having exceptional gaming and rendering performance. The overclocked Pentium M even beats out the Pentium 4EE and AthlonFX-55, with the stock version still holding its own very well
It's somewhat lackluster in multimedia content creation, though, as it does not yet support SSE3
The reason you don't see them much is because many are rebranded by the resellers. Those not rebranded (the ASUS Ensemble line) suffer from lack of major marketing.
While large manufacturers build machines on exclusive designs from resellers like Dell, IBM, HP, Sony, etc., many of these same manufacturers have thier own branded designs available through smaller resellers.
These manufacturer designs are cheaper because they are often sold unbranded. They also experience shorter timespans between hardware revisions because they don't have to wait for those exclusive design specs from resellers, and thus often have the latest components in their models months ahead of those from the major resellers.
ASUS, one of the largest manufacturers in Asia, supplies Apple with Powerbooks, iPod shuffle & minis, Sony with many of their laptops, and have been an on-and-off builder for IBM in the past (there was a report in March of ASUS in major talks with Lenovo to be their supplier in the future), among other famous names. This is one of the many well-kept secrets in the laptop industry.
ASUS has seen their own laptop line more than double in sales since last year, mainly due to word of mouth between computer enthusiasts venturing into the laptop market.
Major manufacturers who supply brand name resellers as well as popular specialty shops:
Some resellers (VoodooPC, Falcon Northwest, Hypersonic, ABS, and Alienware among others) add some paint and a label (and, like good captalists, at least $500 to the pricetag) to these machines to come up with their own specialty models. Many other less visible resellers (MWave, Discountlaptops, ISTNC, Proportable, and others) sell the exact same machines unbranded in customizable barebone configurations for incredibly low prices.
As computer enthusiasts ditch their unwieldy desktops for portable solutions, we will find manufacturer brands becoming more and more visible to the general public, and large brands will have even more competition.
I would guess that a significant amount of this is due to the increasing number of colleges (and even some highschools) that require students to have laptops.
Is it just my complete incomprehension of optics, or does it seem like this would only work at an absolute viewing distance.
I mean, look at any object in front of you -- pull your head back, and it covers up less of the background; lean forward, and it covers up more of the background.
Look at the photoshopped representation in the article. Imagine taking a few steps back. It wouldn't match any more
How do we compensate for multiple viewers at different distances?
Yes, but desperate people will fund themselves with whatever they can get their hands on.
Perhaps with the decline of diamond prices, we will see an increase in the slave trade(still, after all these years), or drugs, or whatever else they have on hand that they can exploit.
It's kinda like gun control -- even if you take away the aides, the violence, hostility, and greed still remain, and people still find ways to do what they intend to do.
I remember seeing this before
on
The Diamond Age
·
· Score: 3, Informative
It dealt with the technology behind these diamond presses.
As I remember, they were still having trouble with microscopic CO2 bubbles being trapped in the formed diamonds, which made the product pretty much worthless.
Slashdot Mirror
Nope, Sager is just another rebrander like Alienware. They mainly use Clevo manufactured systems, but have sold rebranded Uniwills as well.
I've had a Last.fm account since the Audioscrobbler days, and I can honestly tell you Pandora is leaps and bounds ahead in the quality of its recommendations.
Last.fm and all the other social network based sites are nearly worthless on account of the multitude of people whose musical tastes are all over the board. They flood the database with linkages that have absolutely no commonality
For my playlist dominated mostly by Jazz, Classical, Electronica, and Bossanova, with only a few 90's alt rock songs thrown in, I get top 10 recommendations that include Weezer, Incubus, RATM, Flaming Lips, Creed, and (what do you know.. *roll*) Dave Matthews.
Pandora, on the other hand, offers me fascinating new bands that I've never ever heard, and whose styles are completely in tune with what I enjoy.
ASUS, one of Sony's main notebook manufacturers (Sony doesn't make their own laptops), already make use of carbon fiber chassis in some of their own ultraportable/thin-and-light models, which have been available in North America for a few years.
One particular model I have is from their M6 series, which has since been replaced by their updated Z70 series, both with CF chassis.
What's even better is that since ASUS notebooks aren't sold retail, they come at nearly half the price for similar functionality, performance, and aesthetic quality as a comparable Sony.
Check out www.asus.com for online reseller links
The most noticable positive change you can bring to your Windows setup is to install one of the many shells out there that replace the Explorer interface.
Among your choices are the popular Litestep, GeoShell, Aston, bb4win variants, and others.
bblean, a lite variant of bb4win with integrated window skinning, has been my favorite for a long time. Its menu-based customization makes it fairly easy for newbies to configure, while the plugins and scripting options provide for limitless functionality.
GamePC.com did a review of it back in march
Benchmarks show it having exceptional gaming and rendering performance. The overclocked Pentium M even beats out the Pentium 4EE and AthlonFX-55, with the stock version still holding its own very well
It's somewhat lackluster in multimedia content creation, though, as it does not yet support SSE3
in both energy and processing efficiency
GamePC benchmarksClock for clock, the P-M is faster and uses less power.
ASUS notebooks are widely available in the USA.
The reason you don't see them much is because many are rebranded by the resellers. Those not rebranded (the ASUS Ensemble line) suffer from lack of major marketing.
www.discountlaptops.com
www.istnc.com
www.powernotebooks.com
www.c9tech.com
www.agearnotebooks.com
www.proportable.com
are just a FEW of the many USA based online resellers who offer ASUS laptops.
I applaud your double entendre, for it speaks the truth -- in more ways than one.
Assuming that resources and buying power is a fixed amount[...]
Incorrect assumption
While large manufacturers build machines on exclusive designs from resellers like Dell, IBM, HP, Sony, etc., many of these same manufacturers have thier own branded designs available through smaller resellers.
These manufacturer designs are cheaper because they are often sold unbranded. They also experience shorter timespans between hardware revisions because they don't have to wait for those exclusive design specs from resellers, and thus often have the latest components in their models months ahead of those from the major resellers.
ASUS, one of the largest manufacturers in Asia, supplies Apple with Powerbooks, iPod shuffle & minis, Sony with many of their laptops, and have been an on-and-off builder for IBM in the past (there was a report in March of ASUS in major talks with Lenovo to be their supplier in the future), among other famous names. This is one of the many well-kept secrets in the laptop industry.
ASUS has seen their own laptop line more than double in sales since last year, mainly due to word of mouth between computer enthusiasts venturing into the laptop market.
Major manufacturers who supply brand name resellers as well as popular specialty shops:
ASUS
Mitac
Uniwill
Clevo
Compal
Some resellers (VoodooPC, Falcon Northwest, Hypersonic, ABS, and Alienware among others) add some paint and a label (and, like good captalists, at least $500 to the pricetag) to these machines to come up with their own specialty models. Many other less visible resellers (MWave, Discountlaptops, ISTNC, Proportable, and others) sell the exact same machines unbranded in customizable barebone configurations for incredibly low prices.
As computer enthusiasts ditch their unwieldy desktops for portable solutions, we will find manufacturer brands becoming more and more visible to the general public, and large brands will have even more competition.
for shame
I would guess that a significant amount of this is due to the increasing number of colleges (and even some highschools) that require students to have laptops.
Is it just my complete incomprehension of optics, or does it seem like this would only work at an absolute viewing distance.
I mean, look at any object in front of you -- pull your head back, and it covers up less of the background; lean forward, and it covers up more of the background.
Look at the photoshopped representation in the article. Imagine taking a few steps back. It wouldn't match any more
How do we compensate for multiple viewers at different distances?
Seriously.
What can you do? Camouflaging your equipment isn't going to make the way you handle and treat those items any more inconspicuous.
And trying to fight them off will get you hurt or your equipment damaged.
You can only run, and the faster you are the better.
Either that, or stop carrying so much expensive shit around
WELL: In that case, we should make..
A Convoy!!
or two.
Wow! So, we'll get to knock down doors and scream "Go, go, go!" while the hospital workers look at you like you're stupid.
Extra points if the blanks you're firing makes your ranger buddy in front of you jump!
And, maybe we have realistic muscle flexing in front of the cute Iraqi nurses?
Realistic AI like that'll add some time to the dev process..
Yes, but desperate people will fund themselves with whatever they can get their hands on.
Perhaps with the decline of diamond prices, we will see an increase in the slave trade(still, after all these years), or drugs, or whatever else they have on hand that they can exploit.
It's kinda like gun control -- even if you take away the aides, the violence, hostility, and greed still remain, and people still find ways to do what they intend to do.
on NOVA a few years back..
It dealt with the technology behind these diamond presses.
As I remember, they were still having trouble with microscopic CO2 bubbles being trapped in the formed diamonds, which made the product pretty much worthless.
Pretty cool how much the process has improved.
40 years of middle school...
Arrrrrgh!
That's 33% more, which makes it even sweeter!
Anything popular and in short supply (either from limited production or local prohibition) will create a demand that pirates will readily fulfill.
Soon, there will be Mad Galaxy Disease!
... matter.
Then, all the non-affected galaxies will organize a boycott of imported
No.
:) ]
Doesn't the Nomad have features that the iPod doesn't have?
Like FM tuner and recording?
[and there's also the anti-yuppie factor
have they isolated the genes that will make me hung like one?
do we really have to wear clown makeup?