I think that the hard drive is the most overlooked upgrade for a "power user". If at all possible, go out and pick up a 15krpm Ultra SCSI hard drive and controller for the boot partition. Use that slow ATA crap for storage of non-performance type stuff.
18 or 36 gig drives aren't exactly too expensive given the performance that they offer.
The good thing about Linux patches is that they are cumulative whereas Windows likes to start over (for the most part) every couple years with a fresh, untested system. Microsoft, with all of their billions, don't even offer hackers an incentive to find bugs in a pre-release version. If they did this, their security and corporate image would be improved.
There's lots of cool things to do with Bluetooth but nobody'll implement it because they're all dumb.
1) Cell phone "submissiveness" - an establishment (like a movie theater or a school) installs a device that causes your BT-enabled phone to shutthehellup. When this happens, the phone beeps once to notify the user of the situation. The user can opt out if he/she wishes.
2) Tire pressures - to go along with our RFID license plates, our tires could tell our cell phones (or the dashboard) if they are low on pressure.
3) Coupons - a person's cell phone (once again) could be configured to receive (or not) coupons at the grocery store upon entering.
4) Wireless peripherals - the biggest usability problem with PCs these days is the rats nest behind (or on top of, in front of) the damn things. Holy shit... Some of you know what I'm talking about. This is crazy.
Sure - it was all a nice thought and some of it even made it (I have a wireless keyboard that could have used the BT standard but didn't for WHO KNOWS what reason) but now we've got wireless-serial-attached-SCSI and every other damn wireless specification coming. Great!
What the industry needs is an independent board to regulate this stuff. Intel doesn't like Firewire so they codevelop USB. Great! If we had a board that could pick a standard, we wouldn't be stuck with this cruft. Don't get me wrong - I'm all about having freedom but it would be nice if the industry said, "we like this standard - go ahead and develop that other crap but we will only endorse this".
Sure - Intel does have clout but you still have to buy a separate USB cable for that iPod (usually a second trip to the store, too).
Here's a related video showing the RFID capability now installed into tires. Note that the manufacturer is programming the VIN number into the tires. It is only a matter of time before you will not be able to get tires installed without them programming the VIN number.
Before you get your panties in a knot, please note that modern license plates were originally designed so that they could be OCR'ed. They currently use this at the borders here in the US.
I've been wondering why some company like this doesn't create a "network appliance" specification for all of us to hack on. It would be nice if I could just go buy a Netgear router and roll my own Linux installation. I purchased a Toshiba Magnia SG10 some time ago when they were a couple hundred bucks during the end-of-life period. For a 566mhz Celeron with an honest-to-goodness hard drive and switch on the back, it was hard to go wrong. I immediately wiped the stock Linux OS and rolled FreeBSD on there.
Wouldn't it be MORE profitable for companies like the aforementioned Netgear to do this? What am I not seeing? Centaur: help us out!
You can't teach an old dog new tricks. I've tried to force myself but that has not succeeded.
Just use IE?
I'd like to help the community and I could actually install mozilla on several dozen of the PCs that I administer but the curve is too high for non-geeks. I will continue to use IE and endorse it with this kind of response.
Is there a mozilla variant out there that mimicks the look and feel of IE yet? Jokes aside, I really hate installing mozilla only to uninstall it everytime because it simply doesn't work with my old habits.
What if you got a leak in the middle of the night?
Build the case like a tub - the cables come out of the top. If you do it properly, you could integrate a slot into the lid so that the cables can pass through in a discreet/elegant fashion.
I like the idea of liquid cooling but I also like simple systems. There's too much complexity here. So...
I've often pondered creating a sealed aluminum case with integrated heatsink. Stick the components in and fill it with dielectric oil in order to create a huge, passive heat sink (like a big transformer or whatever). Thoughts? I almost got around to this but stopped after submerging an old hard drive in some dielectric - if you seal the breating hole, it works fine (I believe the hole is there to relieve pressure differentials caused by changes in altitude so it should be fine in a stationary location).
Provided that the dielectric has good enough heat transfer, this should work, no?
STM recently announced that they are entering the production phase for PRAM, or phase-change memory. This is important because PRAM is nonvolatile and has the potential to be written and read much faster than flash. There will come a day when DRAM will go away and we'll be left with extremely fast and simple NVRAM for main memory and possibly even archival storage. It'd be really great if there was only ONE memory in a system. At this point, most high-performance CPUs are mostly cache memory anyway.
I work for a company that owned a bunch of Dell C600 laptops. There was an issue where IBM-branded hard drives would overheat and fail. We had many models with Hitachi drives and they never exhibited this problem.
I realize that Hitachi has purchased IBM's Travelstar line but this is beside the point:
Where does this insulated heat wind up? Probably in vital components like the hard drive. They should just change the name of the PC from "laptop" to "mobile". Problem solved.
See Intel's Personal Server concept for more information. The bottom line is that we'll all likely being carrying around a replica of our data and operating environment and, like in Soviet Russia, a "dumb terminal" will LOG ONTO YOU. It won't matter what PC you are sitting at - it will look and feel just like your own.
Also - the 40 inches is made of up of very small tiles. Samsung recently announced a 17" single-panel OLED - the world's largest ever. The Epson piece pales in comparison to this. Samsung could tile their device as well and get something equally as large, or larger.
Largest bottleneck in any modern system. If you've never had the opportunity to use a 15krpm (or something faster) system, do it now. It flies... I don't care if it is Windows or what... it doesn't matter when you've got usable bandwidth to the biggest chunk of storage out there.
I only really work in terminal appart from web browsing.
Repeat after me... ONE PERCENTER.
If we are to see an open-source desktop, then we need an option for this behavior to act exactly like Windows because the majority of people have cut/copy/paste in their DNA at this stage in the game.
Its okay to copy this functionality. It isn't like it is a Microsoft innovation.
The solution to piracy is never going to find success in copy protection.
It already has.
Right now, it is easy to pirate a CD because there were no anti-piracy measures implemented when the format was developed. The installed base has become too large to ignore so CDs are still distributed today. But then Apple came through with iTunes and all-of-a-sudden, we've got a new format that is gaining ground while the old stand-by is losing ground. When the old format has lost enough ground, the industry will drop it as a supported format and we'll be stuck with the new.
Everyone on/. can see this coming but the general public could give a rat's ass, for the most part. They can still play their unprotected MP3s with their iPod so they could care less. However, they when they won't be able to create unprotected MP3s from unprotected CDs, they will finally see what's going on. But it will be too late. Of course, it will still be possible to make unprotected recordings using the "analog hole" that we all know and love.
Other than my DVD player and my PC, I no longer own any native CD player device. It isn't necessary anymore. This is what the industry has been waiting for.
Slashdot Mirror
Homer: Trying is the first step towards failure.
I think that the hard drive is the most overlooked upgrade for a "power user". If at all possible, go out and pick up a 15krpm Ultra SCSI hard drive and controller for the boot partition. Use that slow ATA crap for storage of non-performance type stuff.
18 or 36 gig drives aren't exactly too expensive given the performance that they offer.
Mirror here. This would seem like a no-brainer for the editors. But they couldn't care less, it seems.
NetStumbler has had GPS-WiFi mapping for some time now. This is not new.
The good thing about Linux patches is that they are cumulative whereas Windows likes to start over (for the most part) every couple years with a fresh, untested system. Microsoft, with all of their billions, don't even offer hackers an incentive to find bugs in a pre-release version. If they did this, their security and corporate image would be improved.
But they're a monopoly, so what do they care?
There's lots of cool things to do with Bluetooth but nobody'll implement it because they're all dumb.
1) Cell phone "submissiveness" - an establishment (like a movie theater or a school) installs a device that causes your BT-enabled phone to shutthehellup. When this happens, the phone beeps once to notify the user of the situation. The user can opt out if he/she wishes.
2) Tire pressures - to go along with our RFID license plates, our tires could tell our cell phones (or the dashboard) if they are low on pressure.
3) Coupons - a person's cell phone (once again) could be configured to receive (or not) coupons at the grocery store upon entering.
4) Wireless peripherals - the biggest usability problem with PCs these days is the rats nest behind (or on top of, in front of) the damn things. Holy shit... Some of you know what I'm talking about. This is crazy.
Sure - it was all a nice thought and some of it even made it (I have a wireless keyboard that could have used the BT standard but didn't for WHO KNOWS what reason) but now we've got wireless-serial-attached-SCSI and every other damn wireless specification coming. Great!
What the industry needs is an independent board to regulate this stuff. Intel doesn't like Firewire so they codevelop USB. Great! If we had a board that could pick a standard, we wouldn't be stuck with this cruft. Don't get me wrong - I'm all about having freedom but it would be nice if the industry said, "we like this standard - go ahead and develop that other crap but we will only endorse this".
Sure - Intel does have clout but you still have to buy a separate USB cable for that iPod (usually a second trip to the store, too).
Here's a related video showing the RFID capability now installed into tires. Note that the manufacturer is programming the VIN number into the tires. It is only a matter of time before you will not be able to get tires installed without them programming the VIN number.
More infor here.
Before you get your panties in a knot, please note that modern license plates were originally designed so that they could be OCR'ed. They currently use this at the borders here in the US.
I've been wondering why some company like this doesn't create a "network appliance" specification for all of us to hack on. It would be nice if I could just go buy a Netgear router and roll my own Linux installation. I purchased a Toshiba Magnia SG10 some time ago when they were a couple hundred bucks during the end-of-life period. For a 566mhz Celeron with an honest-to-goodness hard drive and switch on the back, it was hard to go wrong. I immediately wiped the stock Linux OS and rolled FreeBSD on there.
Wouldn't it be MORE profitable for companies like the aforementioned Netgear to do this? What am I not seeing? Centaur: help us out!
Jokes aside...
You can't teach an old dog new tricks. I've tried to force myself but that has not succeeded.
Just use IE?
I'd like to help the community and I could actually install mozilla on several dozen of the PCs that I administer but the curve is too high for non-geeks. I will continue to use IE and endorse it with this kind of response.
Elitism at its finest.
Is there a mozilla variant out there that mimicks the look and feel of IE yet? Jokes aside, I really hate installing mozilla only to uninstall it everytime because it simply doesn't work with my old habits.
Sigh...
Norton?
What if you got a leak in the middle of the night?
Build the case like a tub - the cables come out of the top. If you do it properly, you could integrate a slot into the lid so that the cables can pass through in a discreet/elegant fashion.
I like the idea of liquid cooling but I also like simple systems. There's too much complexity here. So...
I've often pondered creating a sealed aluminum case with integrated heatsink. Stick the components in and fill it with dielectric oil in order to create a huge, passive heat sink (like a big transformer or whatever). Thoughts? I almost got around to this but stopped after submerging an old hard drive in some dielectric - if you seal the breating hole, it works fine (I believe the hole is there to relieve pressure differentials caused by changes in altitude so it should be fine in a stationary location).
Provided that the dielectric has good enough heat transfer, this should work, no?
Its only a matter of time.
(and congrats to the rest of the people that shorted SCOX stock prior to the fall... talk about an easy buck)
I always stop my "Linux conversion" when I get to the point where I have to choose Gnome or KDE (or both).
STM recently announced that they are entering the production phase for PRAM, or phase-change memory. This is important because PRAM is nonvolatile and has the potential to be written and read much faster than flash. There will come a day when DRAM will go away and we'll be left with extremely fast and simple NVRAM for main memory and possibly even archival storage. It'd be really great if there was only ONE memory in a system. At this point, most high-performance CPUs are mostly cache memory anyway.
I work for a company that owned a bunch of Dell C600 laptops. There was an issue where IBM-branded hard drives would overheat and fail. We had many models with Hitachi drives and they never exhibited this problem.
I realize that Hitachi has purchased IBM's Travelstar line but this is beside the point:
Where does this insulated heat wind up? Probably in vital components like the hard drive. They should just change the name of the PC from "laptop" to "mobile". Problem solved.
See Intel's Personal Server concept for more information. The bottom line is that we'll all likely being carrying around a replica of our data and operating environment and, like in Soviet Russia, a "dumb terminal" will LOG ONTO YOU. It won't matter what PC you are sitting at - it will look and feel just like your own.
I used to have "dsg@hotmail.com" - I was one of the first users. The spam was phenomenal. I haven't looked back since dumping that one.
Also - the 40 inches is made of up of very small tiles. Samsung recently announced a 17" single-panel OLED - the world's largest ever. The Epson piece pales in comparison to this. Samsung could tile their device as well and get something equally as large, or larger.
Hard Drive
Largest bottleneck in any modern system. If you've never had the opportunity to use a 15krpm (or something faster) system, do it now. It flies... I don't care if it is Windows or what... it doesn't matter when you've got usable bandwidth to the biggest chunk of storage out there.
"Moderately critical" is like saying that the personal responsible for this will be "moderately killed".
I only really work in terminal appart from web browsing.
Repeat after me... ONE PERCENTER.
If we are to see an open-source desktop, then we need an option for this behavior to act exactly like Windows because the majority of people have cut/copy/paste in their DNA at this stage in the game.
Its okay to copy this functionality. It isn't like it is a Microsoft innovation.
The solution to piracy is never going to find success in copy protection.
/. can see this coming but the general public could give a rat's ass, for the most part. They can still play their unprotected MP3s with their iPod so they could care less. However, they when they won't be able to create unprotected MP3s from unprotected CDs, they will finally see what's going on. But it will be too late. Of course, it will still be possible to make unprotected recordings using the "analog hole" that we all know and love.
It already has.
Right now, it is easy to pirate a CD because there were no anti-piracy measures implemented when the format was developed. The installed base has become too large to ignore so CDs are still distributed today. But then Apple came through with iTunes and all-of-a-sudden, we've got a new format that is gaining ground while the old stand-by is losing ground. When the old format has lost enough ground, the industry will drop it as a supported format and we'll be stuck with the new.
Everyone on
Other than my DVD player and my PC, I no longer own any native CD player device. It isn't necessary anymore. This is what the industry has been waiting for.