Altivec was Motorola's trade name for the expanded instruction set, which Apple marketed as the Velocity Engine. IBM called Altivec VMX (when it was incorporated in the 970), but Altivec is the name that stuck and it's what everyone uses when referring to the technology.
Since I have yet to see this system in action (but plan to go to an Apple Store today or tomorrow incidentally), I cannot definitively refute this critique, but I do imagine the store would provide a paper receipt to the customer if so requested. This wireless scheme is being used to make purchases happen more quickly for the convenience of the store and customers. You do have a valid point about the possibility of the email getting misrouted due to a variety of possible causes (mistakes in email entries at the counter, spam filters, etc.), but while it's quite conceivable the customer's copy could get lost Apple's pretty proficient in its customer data management. Plus, I imagine an iPod or other product purchased in this manner gets logged as an online Apple Store purchase would, so the customer would have easy access to the receipt online as well.
As I said before, if the 1st Amendment were repealed, we would still have free speech since nowhere else in the Constitution is any power granted to the government to restrict those freedoms embodied in the said amendment.
Our right to free expression is a human right - an inalienable right - that no government can justly deprive - but without explicit acknowledgment by government of that right, our capacity to exercise those liberties could easily be curtailed. Here are two additional responses to your statement: 1) The federal government has enough difficulty not encroaching on our enumerated rights as is; 2) The Constitution does have at least three explicit proscriptions on government (no suspension of habeus corpus, no expost facto laws and no bills of attainder), and if the Constitution had had only those proscriptions on government and no others, people would have assuredly contended those were the only inherent protections offered to the citizenry by the Constitution.
I believe, if you check, most (if not all) state governments have constitutions that protect many of the same liberties embodied in the Federal Bill of Rights.
Yes, they certainly do offer protections, which is why I mentioned that Federalist argument that I thought closely aligned with yours. However, as I explained, states can be just as injurious to civil rights and liberties as the federal government. Without federal action (reconstruction, civil rights legislation), civil rights in this country would have remained in abysmal condition - obviously state protections of liberties were insufficient. James Madison, great architect of our Constitution, even argued for the inclusion of language within the Bill of Rights that would have "prohibited the states from interfering with their citizens' freedom of speech, religion, and conscience." According to Encarta, in fact, this proposed alteration to the Bill of Rights was prized by Madison above all his other proposals. The greatest framer of the Constitution drafted the Bill of Rights, and he would have checked the states therein had the Senate not rejected his suggestion. Thus, I can reasonably assert Madison would be on my side in this debate. (As an interesting aside, did you know Madison originally wanted to incorporate the Bill of Rights into the body of the Constitution?)
The fact that you state the amendments "did come in handy," means you concede the point, albeit in an understated way - the Bill of Rights have not just come in handy, they have been indispensable to the protection of our rights at all levels of government. I cannot even conceive of a legal instrument that could serve in the same capacity as the Bill of Rights. Without the first ten amendments to the Constitution, I doubt the Senate would even have been debating the constitutionality of the Patriot Act whatsoever.
If you read the commentary (see.sig), you can see that some founders were of the opinion that a bill of rights would do just that, deny or disparge other rights retained by the people (the states). I really wish they hadn't ratified the bill of rights. They are redundant to the effect of saying that if the first amendment would be repealed, we would no longer have free speech, free press, etc. We would still have those freedoms as no branch of government is given the power to restrict those freedoms.
Whoa now, you actually wish the country had not created the Bill of Rights? Back during the ratification debate some Federalists argued a Bill of Rights for the federal constitution would be unnecessary or superfluous because the individual states already protected people's rights - a contention similar to what you're suggesting. Yet, through the march of time American jurisprudence has shown such views to be false.
First of all, if there had been no Bill of Rights as the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the Constitution itself would not have been ratified by the states; instead we'd be left with the Articles and the impotent national government it provided. More importantly, with that statement you are either ignoring or ignorant of the important role the Bill of Rights has played throughout American history. Our rights to speech, religion, press and assembly would have been seriously undermined by local, state and federal governments had we not had a foundational document to point to, one which expressly recognized those rights. The same argument applies just as well regarding the fifth and sixth amendments. Profoundly important decisions concerning our inalienable have been decided in the people's favor solely on the basis of the Bill of Rights protections. When one studies American jurisprudence one realizes this to be true - especially upon recognizing the pivotal role the 14th Amendment's Due Process clause had on the extension of the Bill of Rights to the states by way of Due Process clause incorporation. (Standard Disclaimer: Although I link to Wiki for convenience, I do not consider it a reliable source.)
There is something definitely wrong with your Mac. I suggest you do an Archive and Install of the OS. It will cure most every software ill. If, after performing that step, you're still getting performance, it's most likely a hardware issue.
Perhaps the artificial shortage will be beneficial to those individuals who are planning on purchasing the system just for the sake of purchasing it. Hopefully it will cause a portion of M$'s target audience to reconsider facilitating the company's near monopolization of yet another market.
This content filter of mine is very simple, yet I have never gotten around to writing it. It would look for the keywords "John Dvorak" and "Apple" or "Mac" and simply block indiscriminately every page fitting the description. I would proceed to sell it as donationware for $5 USD and make a mint from the generosity of fellow Mac users who also cannot stand the continual drivel emanating from the keyboard of John C. Dvorak. For, try as I may, I can never bring myself to treat his worthless flame-bait missives merely as pieces of humor. Of course, to my chagrin, his "Apple to make Intel PCs" prediction finally came to pass. I suppose, as Sam Sneed quipped, "the sun shines on a dog's tail sometimes."
The House of Representatives actually has the capacity (that it routinely exercises) to make motions rejecting non-germane amendments to bills. In contrast, the Senate, which prefers to leave individual Senators as unencumbered as possible, lacks such a provision. And unfortunately, once riders are attached to reconciliation bills, they are likely there to stay unless the bill dies in conference (which happens often enough). For everyone's edification, it should be noted that pieces of Patriot Act II (a.k.a. the "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003") were passed in a similarly surreptitious fashion by way of a Senate spending bill.
Yeah, [b]exactly[/b] the same thing happened to me too, at my local post office (in Southern California). The clerk offered to accept the card if I would sign it on the spot, which didn't make a whole lot of sense from a security point of view. But that's government for you. . .
I'm Disappointed in Fellow Contributors
on
The Slurpee at 40
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
By now I would have expected to see at least one thread on the unsanitary conditions Slurpees are likely in at time of purchase due to the general environment (7/11) and said store's average patrons. 7/11 is the only class of food establishment to have received a C health inspection rating (in So. Cal) without being shut down. And there's always something mildly disturbing to me about the fact that most of the "counter space" in 7/11 food aisles consist of the tops of waste receptacles. So am I truly more of a germaphobe than most?
The iPod shipped October 23, 2001. This other patent was filed May 2002.
Should not all fevered speculation over this issue cease due to the salient fact of the parent post, of which many of us were quite aware? The iPod itself, which has remained essentially consistent in interface from day one, serves as prior art. It is not as if anyone can contest the iPod's date of market origin. So where's the beef?
Right - wikipedia is a fine proof of concept, but the heavy lifting required to maintain it is very taxing, especially for more controversial subject matter. Pages that have gone through consistent development for the last six months can be fundamentally altered with a single click, rendering all of that combined labor worthless unless and until the change is reverted. Of course, I also don't think the way to resolve this type of shortcoming is through heavy-handed impositions from above. Some of the more extreme proposals of stable versioning would essentially defeat the purpose of the Wiki format. Yet, there clearly needs to be some bolstering of the peer review/validation system.
A system of mandated citations would ostensibly be helpful and desirable, but there are at least three significant problems with such an approach: 1) there is a lot of information out there that is not easily referenced by external sources; 2) citations would often be fabricated; 3) citations can take too long to research and commit to writing, thereby discouraging the open interchange of information. The second point has already been addressed; to me the first point is more important. There are a host of obscure and esoteric subjects that are not well covered by mainstream sources. Covering those branches of information is one of the manifest purposes of Wikipedia. If contributors have to find citations for every point put down, an automatic constriction of certain classes of content will occur. Finally, concerning the third point, even when there is external material to cite, finding and citing that material may well be too labor intensive to expend on an open, free enterprise that contains no guarantee of any sort against corruption. When I add material to pages, I usually do not have the time or inclination to go out of my way procuring citations in a scholarly format, as I would in an academic setting.
The article description claims this idea was sold to the English through the promise that it would replace other forms of identification. Speaking as one of those "evil" Americans, I must say that I would not want the US to create a national ID that would incorporate/obviate other forms of identification. It's already bad enough that so many places (like schools) use the US social security card number as a form of public identification, which is something the social security administration specifically warned against. That situation is improving, however. But if one's social security card, passport and driver's license were combined into one, the negatives would far outweigh the positives.
If the US were to adopt a universal ID like the one advocated for England, I could only predict a security nightmare. Rest assured that calls for a US national ID will be on the lips of so many politicians if (when) there is another terrorist attack. Yet, far from improving the situation, a national ID would make the US less secure. For one, a national ID would greatly simplify the counterfeiting process. And for another, thieves would reap infinitely greater illicit rewards for stealing wallets. I'm glad the English are rejecting their proposal. (Really scare derivative thought: a global ID! EEK!)
I have not been able to reach the link to this so-called iPod killer over at virginelectronics.com. Were they/.ed? My traceroute dies on the 15th hop. How can Virigin expect to beat Apple when they cannot keep their online storefront open? Or perhaps Jobs has developed the power to project his RDF in such a way that he can discriminately decimate web servers at will.
I value your informative reply, David, but many of your assumptions do not apply to my case. The account we had was only trusted to two people, myself and a person I trust with my life. We are a Mac-only group. We observed all the safe Internet practices, and I changed the password on the account frequently. But due to the high profile nature of the account, it was targeted. One hacking attempt was successful. Not too long thereafter we learned AOL had disabled our account and escalated the matter to a special security team. We never heard the details about the attempted hack, except for the fact that AOL heard about it before it happened.
Beyond that, an acquaintance from years back mentioned that AOL used (uses?) terrifically weak encryption (16 bit?) to secure its password file, and that standard accounts are therefore susceptible to simple, brute force cracks. I was so disgusted by these claims that from that point on I encouraged people to get off AOL. I have no idea if it was true, or if any of that applies to today, but it seemed plausible given my experience. In any case, I know opening up securID is a great step for those dependent upon AOL, but I have little love for the company or its services.
In addition to being used internally by AOL, securID was offered to some regular users who were targeted by hackers. Like an organization I work for. The securID token is smaller than the average pager, having no buttons, only a display with a string of numbers that would alternate every 30 seconds or so. The biggest shortcoming of the system is that the battery did eventually die, and there was no easy way to replace it. That meant the account in question had to be unbound from the token. And it took a long time to find a rep that could actually handle that request. (Not that that was too big of a deal, since my organization only kept its AOL account alive for legacy purposes.) In terms of use, however, the token was not obtrusive at all. No additional client software was required. Upon sign on, a securID window was presented prompting the user for the key. Otherwise, it was transparent.
The big question is, is AOL's true motivation for offering this to regular customers just to compensate for the service's renowned terrible security?
I don't know how much the current PS2 is retailing for in Europe, but if the PStwo is going to cost 99GBP ($177) or 150EU ($184), then it sounds like it would be at least $150 or more. I don't currently own a PS2; only a price reduction would get me to consider it. I imagine only a price drop to $99 would get me to consider purchasing another console of this generation. And I imagine Sony is likely targeting people like me.
From the Q&A article, Lucas provides this insight:
"Well, the film only came out to be 25 or 30 percent of what I wanted it to be." They said, "What are you talking about?" So finally, I stopped saying that, but if you read any interviews for about an eight- or nine-year period there, it was all about how disappointed I was and how unhappy I was and what a dismal experience it was. You know, it's too bad you need to get kind of half a job done and never get to finish it. So this was my chance to finish it.
If it were only a third of what he wanted, then I'm absolutely sure that the Second Special Edition has not compensated for the missing 70%. What in the world could Lucas be talking about? If he's telling the truth, then may we indeed infer that the prequels equal another 30% in his mind? And the logical consequence of that inference is that he is toying with episodes VII, VIII and IX! Now I don't think that will come to pass, but what else could those remarks mean?
Some additional thoughts on the subject:
Usually, when I try to improve upon some art form I've created, I end up obsessing and eventually screwing it up completely. (I'm not really drawing an analogy here, or am I?)
I like the fact that they replaced Boba's voice with Jango's, since they committed themselves to it in the prequels.
Most important prequels question: Will they figure out a way to erase that damnable mitichlorians BS? The Force should not be constrained to biological constructs, IMO.
Schwartz's blog may not be representative of the general corporate attitude at Sun, but he comes across as bitter and even hostile. Perhaps he is just a passionate believer in his company's work, but his whiney tone smacks of unprofessionalism. I'm not particularly well versed on the continuing saga that is Sun, but should not product performance be speaking for itself? In any case, if they have achieved something noteworthy with this "32-way" chip, I hope they figure out a way to make it useful. This MPR Paper on the processor may be of interest to some.
Re:IBM also says Screw you to intel
on
A History of PowerPC
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Parent AC asks,
Does this mean that ALL next-generation consoles (next Gamebuce, PS3 and Xbox2) will use a IBM chip?
It has been known for some time that the PS3 would based on the IBM "Cell" project, which is some sort of Power derivative (a.k.a. PPC). So yes, as far as anyone knows, the next generation consoles will all be powered by the PPC. With Generation 5 (G5) and beyond, it looks like the PowerPC Revolution may finally be closer to reality.:-)
Unfortunately, it will not do wonders for Firefox's name recognition if most of its users decide on proprietary appellations. Let's try to increase mindshare by sticking to its official name, and as an added benefit we'll always know to which browser we're referring! Just MHO.
I purchased a CompUSA extended warranty for my second generation 10GB iPod, too. When there was an issue with it, it was a real bitch trying to get the store to honor the terms of the replacement guarantee they originally promised. Thankfully, I was able to finally mount the iPod and restore it. CompUSA deserves its negative reputation, unfortunately.
Slashdot Mirror
Altivec was Motorola's trade name for the expanded instruction set, which Apple marketed as the Velocity Engine. IBM called Altivec VMX (when it was incorporated in the 970), but Altivec is the name that stuck and it's what everyone uses when referring to the technology.
Since I have yet to see this system in action (but plan to go to an Apple Store today or tomorrow incidentally), I cannot definitively refute this critique, but I do imagine the store would provide a paper receipt to the customer if so requested. This wireless scheme is being used to make purchases happen more quickly for the convenience of the store and customers. You do have a valid point about the possibility of the email getting misrouted due to a variety of possible causes (mistakes in email entries at the counter, spam filters, etc.), but while it's quite conceivable the customer's copy could get lost Apple's pretty proficient in its customer data management. Plus, I imagine an iPod or other product purchased in this manner gets logged as an online Apple Store purchase would, so the customer would have easy access to the receipt online as well.
The fact that you state the amendments "did come in handy," means you concede the point, albeit in an understated way - the Bill of Rights have not just come in handy, they have been indispensable to the protection of our rights at all levels of government. I cannot even conceive of a legal instrument that could serve in the same capacity as the Bill of Rights. Without the first ten amendments to the Constitution, I doubt the Senate would even have been debating the constitutionality of the Patriot Act whatsoever.
First of all, if there had been no Bill of Rights as the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the Constitution itself would not have been ratified by the states; instead we'd be left with the Articles and the impotent national government it provided. More importantly, with that statement you are either ignoring or ignorant of the important role the Bill of Rights has played throughout American history. Our rights to speech, religion, press and assembly would have been seriously undermined by local, state and federal governments had we not had a foundational document to point to, one which expressly recognized those rights. The same argument applies just as well regarding the fifth and sixth amendments. Profoundly important decisions concerning our inalienable have been decided in the people's favor solely on the basis of the Bill of Rights protections. When one studies American jurisprudence one realizes this to be true - especially upon recognizing the pivotal role the 14th Amendment's Due Process clause had on the extension of the Bill of Rights to the states by way of Due Process clause incorporation. (Standard Disclaimer: Although I link to Wiki for convenience, I do not consider it a reliable source.)
There is something definitely wrong with your Mac. I suggest you do an Archive and Install of the OS. It will cure most every software ill. If, after performing that step, you're still getting performance, it's most likely a hardware issue.
Perhaps the artificial shortage will be beneficial to those individuals who are planning on purchasing the system just for the sake of purchasing it. Hopefully it will cause a portion of M$'s target audience to reconsider facilitating the company's near monopolization of yet another market.
This content filter of mine is very simple, yet I have never gotten around to writing it. It would look for the keywords "John Dvorak" and "Apple" or "Mac" and simply block indiscriminately every page fitting the description. I would proceed to sell it as donationware for $5 USD and make a mint from the generosity of fellow Mac users who also cannot stand the continual drivel emanating from the keyboard of John C. Dvorak. For, try as I may, I can never bring myself to treat his worthless flame-bait missives merely as pieces of humor. Of course, to my chagrin, his "Apple to make Intel PCs" prediction finally came to pass. I suppose, as Sam Sneed quipped, "the sun shines on a dog's tail sometimes."
The House of Representatives actually has the capacity (that it routinely exercises) to make motions rejecting non-germane amendments to bills. In contrast, the Senate, which prefers to leave individual Senators as unencumbered as possible, lacks such a provision. And unfortunately, once riders are attached to reconciliation bills, they are likely there to stay unless the bill dies in conference (which happens often enough). For everyone's edification, it should be noted that pieces of Patriot Act II (a.k.a. the "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003") were passed in a similarly surreptitious fashion by way of a Senate spending bill.
Yeah, [b]exactly[/b] the same thing happened to me too, at my local post office (in Southern California). The clerk offered to accept the card if I would sign it on the spot, which didn't make a whole lot of sense from a security point of view. But that's government for you. . .
By now I would have expected to see at least one thread on the unsanitary conditions Slurpees are likely in at time of purchase due to the general environment (7/11) and said store's average patrons. 7/11 is the only class of food establishment to have received a C health inspection rating (in So. Cal) without being shut down. And there's always something mildly disturbing to me about the fact that most of the "counter space" in 7/11 food aisles consist of the tops of waste receptacles. So am I truly more of a germaphobe than most?
Should not all fevered speculation over this issue cease due to the salient fact of the parent post, of which many of us were quite aware? The iPod itself, which has remained essentially consistent in interface from day one, serves as prior art. It is not as if anyone can contest the iPod's date of market origin. So where's the beef?
A system of mandated citations would ostensibly be helpful and desirable, but there are at least three significant problems with such an approach: 1) there is a lot of information out there that is not easily referenced by external sources; 2) citations would often be fabricated; 3) citations can take too long to research and commit to writing, thereby discouraging the open interchange of information. The second point has already been addressed; to me the first point is more important. There are a host of obscure and esoteric subjects that are not well covered by mainstream sources. Covering those branches of information is one of the manifest purposes of Wikipedia. If contributors have to find citations for every point put down, an automatic constriction of certain classes of content will occur. Finally, concerning the third point, even when there is external material to cite, finding and citing that material may well be too labor intensive to expend on an open, free enterprise that contains no guarantee of any sort against corruption. When I add material to pages, I usually do not have the time or inclination to go out of my way procuring citations in a scholarly format, as I would in an academic setting.
Dude, if you're posting to Slashdot you should know that the name of the company is Apple, not "Mac."
If the US were to adopt a universal ID like the one advocated for England, I could only predict a security nightmare. Rest assured that calls for a US national ID will be on the lips of so many politicians if (when) there is another terrorist attack. Yet, far from improving the situation, a national ID would make the US less secure. For one, a national ID would greatly simplify the counterfeiting process. And for another, thieves would reap infinitely greater illicit rewards for stealing wallets. I'm glad the English are rejecting their proposal. (Really scare derivative thought: a global ID! EEK!)
The drives don't seem too cost effective to me. But maybe server drivers are that much more expensive. I wouldn't know.
I have not been able to reach the link to this so-called iPod killer over at virginelectronics.com. Were they /.ed? My traceroute dies on the 15th hop. How can Virigin expect to beat Apple when they cannot keep their online storefront open? Or perhaps Jobs has developed the power to project his RDF in such a way that he can discriminately decimate web servers at will.
Beyond that, an acquaintance from years back mentioned that AOL used (uses?) terrifically weak encryption (16 bit?) to secure its password file, and that standard accounts are therefore susceptible to simple, brute force cracks. I was so disgusted by these claims that from that point on I encouraged people to get off AOL. I have no idea if it was true, or if any of that applies to today, but it seemed plausible given my experience. In any case, I know opening up securID is a great step for those dependent upon AOL, but I have little love for the company or its services.
The big question is, is AOL's true motivation for offering this to regular customers just to compensate for the service's renowned terrible security?
I don't know how much the current PS2 is retailing for in Europe, but if the PStwo is going to cost 99GBP ($177) or 150EU ($184), then it sounds like it would be at least $150 or more. I don't currently own a PS2; only a price reduction would get me to consider it. I imagine only a price drop to $99 would get me to consider purchasing another console of this generation. And I imagine Sony is likely targeting people like me.
Some additional thoughts on the subject:
Usually, when I try to improve upon some art form I've created, I end up obsessing and eventually screwing it up completely. (I'm not really drawing an analogy here, or am I?)
I like the fact that they replaced Boba's voice with Jango's, since they committed themselves to it in the prequels.
Most important prequels question: Will they figure out a way to erase that damnable mitichlorians BS? The Force should not be constrained to biological constructs, IMO.
Schwartz's blog may not be representative of the general corporate attitude at Sun, but he comes across as bitter and even hostile. Perhaps he is just a passionate believer in his company's work, but his whiney tone smacks of unprofessionalism. I'm not particularly well versed on the continuing saga that is Sun, but should not product performance be speaking for itself? In any case, if they have achieved something noteworthy with this "32-way" chip, I hope they figure out a way to make it useful. This MPR Paper on the processor may be of interest to some.
It has been known for some time that the PS3 would based on the IBM "Cell" project, which is some sort of Power derivative (a.k.a. PPC). So yes, as far as anyone knows, the next generation consoles will all be powered by the PPC. With Generation 5 (G5) and beyond, it looks like the PowerPC Revolution may finally be closer to reality. :-)
Unfortunately, it will not do wonders for Firefox's name recognition if most of its users decide on proprietary appellations. Let's try to increase mindshare by sticking to its official name, and as an added benefit we'll always know to which browser we're referring! Just MHO.
I purchased a CompUSA extended warranty for my second generation 10GB iPod, too. When there was an issue with it, it was a real bitch trying to get the store to honor the terms of the replacement guarantee they originally promised. Thankfully, I was able to finally mount the iPod and restore it. CompUSA deserves its negative reputation, unfortunately.