I have a 1st gen ipod nano and it works really well with Rockbox.
To completely avoid Apple, you could always get an Archos media player. They are fantastic. I rescued a JukeboxMulitmedia 20 from getting thrown out, as the former owner replaced it with an ipod. I think I got the better end of that deal...
"Stealth" aircraft are quiet. I get buzzed by B2s rather frequently, since they are based only 90 miles from me. With four big, fully enclosed engines, the B2 is surprisingly quiet given how big it is.
1) Guaranteed support. Supporting linux users running proprietary closed source software is REALLY hard. With proprietary UNIX operating systems, the developers *knew* what was going to be on the boxes their software was deployed on. Only enterprise grade desktop linux can do this today, and its just as expensive, if not moreso than a UNIX OS. The problem is that a "regular" grade desktop linux *might* also run the software you need, but you cannot predict how it will run. This is a support nightmare, and if you are an admin or helpdesk rep, then you know very well that users lie.
2) Accountability. There are certifications and accountability scenarios that many people don't think about. If you cannot predict how a program will run because it is running in an unsupported environment, you cannot trust the program. If you cannot trust the program, you can't trust its output, thus you cannot trust the results of your work.
3) Siemens PLM Software released their NX CAD/CAM/CAE package on linux, and it was a nightmare to get working right off the bat. It was a kludgy port of one of their UNIX versions, probably Solaris. I ended up writing documentation on how to resolve some installation, runtime, and video issues for that. Just because something is UNIX-y doesn't mean you can snap your fingers and watch it magically work on linux.
Where have I been the past decade? In some of the most influential aerospace and aircraft design firms in the world, actually.
Yes, the video performance of the Quadros is undeniably fantastic. I even use retired Quadros in my home machines. Not every engineer needs a POWER based machine, of course. Many engineers could do just fine with a Windows box. But, serious CATIA work, meshing, and analysis were impossible to do on Windows machines; they simply couldn't touch the AIX boxes when you needed to run something that would require more than 3GB of RAM. Right now, Cessna Aircraft is still using POWER based machines for a very large portion of their CATIA work, although they were starting to transition to Windows boxes. Everyone there who supports CATIA and ENOVIA has a POWER workstation.
Now that Windows and the x86 CPU family has gotten with the program, they have barged their way into the engineering computing world. Cheap multicore processors and cheap operating system licensing makes the decision today to use Windows PCs a no-brainer. Now that Windows boxes can do what the AIX boxes have been able to do for a long time, the cheaper Windows boxes are finding their use on engineering desktops, and software developers are writing for Windows. But the point is that this is a very recent development. As of 2005, it was *impossible* for me to do the work I needed to do on a Windows box; the technology (hardware and software) *did not exist.* Price/performance is irrelevant if performance is zero; if a box can't do the work you need it to do, it doesn't matter that it was cheaper than some other box.
This is a huge blow to scientific and engineering computing. I know of thousands of POWER based Intellistations at several aerospace companies. CAD and finite element analysis software runs on these boxes, usually CATIA, NASTRAN, and some CFD codes. Engineering modeling and simulation software has been running on AIX for a while. Only now are Windows boxes near the performance that engineers need. The only good that might come of this is that hopefully the surplus market will be flooded with POWER based Intellistations and AIX CDs.
Yes, I'm well aware. I stayed FAR away from the DaimlerChrysler vehicles, they were nothing like their ancestors. I've had many real Mercedes vehicles in my day, and the only car I trust as much is a Volvo.
"For the first time in more than 20 years, I've thought about looking for a new car somewhere besides a Toyota lot. Competitors (even North American ones) have come a long way in the last few years. They now offer the kind of quality and reliability I expect in a car, so there's a lot less reason to pay premium bucks to Toyota."
I see you have never driven a European car before. I can't understand why anyone would pay "premium bucks" to Toyota, a company that built its name by making very simple econoboxes. Quality? Drive an old Mercedes. I have a 36 year old Mercedes sports car with about 175k miles on it, and there are Toyotas that *today* do not have the features that car has. Modern quality? Drive a Volvo. The S60s are incredibly well built cars using an excellent engine designed in collaboration with Porsche and has been refined over the past 15 years.
Toyota is a company that is all about profit, go to one of the European carmakers if you want something that actually is worth the money you spend on it.
I have a Silicon Graphics Iris Indigo that keeps chugging along. The original 420MB 3.5" SCSI hard drive is still in it, along with an added 1.2GB drive. The bigger drive was added 15 years ago as a precautionary measure when the original drive started doing exactly what you described. It sounds like a chainsaw to this day and is LOUD. But today, 15 years after it started being really loud, it still works great.
Yeah, I have friends in the DOJ that got a phone call, because the guy who replaced me was trying to get away with working on his OPT time while he voluntarily left grad school.
Alternately, make them lay you off so you can collect unemployment while looking for a better job.
I worked for a small engineering R&D firm that conveniently ignored federal labor laws. They would *always* give jobs to foreign workers, because they would accept less money. Over the time I was there, I was given more and more responsibility that was above and beyond both my job description and pay rate. Yeah, they refused to give me a salary, I was an hourly worker. So they start realizing that I know I'm more valuable, and they hire a foreign grad student (who doesn't have a work visa mind you) and I'm supposed to train him. I saw the writing on the wall and knew this guy was supposed to replace me. I didn't care much about training him. Sure enough, as soon as he "knew enough" I got canned, with two days notice. Yes, they were asshats, and I was glad to be gone. But I refused to quit because the market for engineering/IT jobs sucks around here, and I wasn't in a position to move. So by firing me I got unemployment benefits to keep me afloat while looking for more work. It took four months before I got something. I ended up getting a job at a large, highly profitable consumer electronics company nearby, make twice the money, have a salary, amazing benefits, and I like my work.
My moral of the story is if you employer is being a jerk, stick it out, make them fire you rather than voluntarily quitting. Its not a good time to be job hunting.
Garmin and Navteq have had this out for a while...there is a radio receiver in some Garmin GPS units that receives traffic reports and will automatically create detour routes around traffic, accidents, or even construction.
This is why rather than buying new consumer hardware, I get decommissioned commercial and enterprise grade hardware for myself. Why? It "just works."
I bought a Sun E6500 and E4500 used, and when I looked at the log files for them, they were turned on once when they were originally purchased, and then shutdown once when three of the eight PPSs on the 6500 croaked several years later. The company that had it before me didn't even notice that they were running the system with two blown power supplies until the third blew.
Switches? I use 3Com superstack 100Mb switches pulled from a company that upgraded to gigabit.
GPS? While not exactly commercial or enterprise, I try to track down used or overhauled Garmin GPSMAP aviation units. They are nearly indestructible and I've never seen one fail. I own a 195 and 496. The case of the 195 is pressurized and filled with nitrogen to protect the internal components.
#include #include int main() {
printf("Searching for stuff the user isn't supposed to have...\n");
sleep(30);
printf("Illegal material found! Seize computer and arrest owner!\n");
return 0; }
Yes, which is why I support my community wireless ISP where I live, and why I'm a customer. We directly uplink to cogent (pause for jokes), and the ISP itself is customer friendly, a huge supporter of FOSS, and prides itself on simply providing Internet connectivity. There is no messing around with users' traffic. Internet connectivity the way its supposed to be.
Losing a USB stick in a car park is nowhere near as cool as the old days of losing a station wagon full of tapes. But would be even better is losing a station wagon full of tapes at a car park.
Only the people who love having slow media players use VLC. Sure, it works decently well as media player, but not for slower boxes. Mplayer is MUCH faster. I can play 720p xvid files back on a 300MHz G3 in Mplayer without trouble. VLC on the other hand completely craps itself. Heck, my main media playback computer is a P3-667 that uses mplayer and plays everything.
The DOJ doesn't operate in fiscal years, the companies (the ones that took losses from industrial espionage and illegal exports) do operate in fiscal years though.
...are now the central states. As backwards as some people might think a place like Kansas is, the Constitution is strongly repsected here. As much as we might dislike Fred Phelps, we respect his free speech rights. Even though the governor vetoed a concealed-carry bill, the state congress overturned her veto. In a surprising move afterwards, the governor allowed Class 3 firearms possession (machine guns, explosives, etc.). Criminal trials are speedy (even if the lawyers and juries are stupid). Privacy is generally well respected, the police don't generally bother anyone. Heck, I even openly carried a handgun downtown at night, a policeman walking towards me noticed, simply made eye contact, nodded acknowledgement, and moved on. The first legal brewery to open in Kansas after prohibition was repealed is in the city I live in. Laugh at Kansas for having challenged evolution (by the way, we don't teach creatonism or ID here), but we'll be the ones laughing when your papers are being examined and your car is being rummaged through by a government agent because he decided he would pull over and search all the beige cars that day.
As strange as Kansas may be in some area, it is by far the most free place I've ever been.
I'm not arguing against deformation, I'm arguing about *how* the deformation takes place and *what* deforms. Clearly, newer vehicles are better at this due to the prevalence of finite element modeling and dynamic analysis. It is entirely possible to design and optimize the defomation of a car in a collision. Engineering time, compute time, materials, all factor into a higher cost, a cost that a lot of people can't afford, and a cost that slims the profit margins of many automakers. The manufacturers have to put a price tag on the safety of the passengers in their cars, and they have to weigh that against how much money they make off the sales and service of those cars. I know people don't believe that something like that is impossible, but most people aren't engineers.
The Volvo 940 vs. Renault Modus wasn't exactly a scientific test either. The Modus weighs 500 pounds more than the 940.
I fail to see how rural America is a specific case. Look at a map, the land area is enormous, and the infrastructure incredibly complex. Millions of cars driving around in rural America every second, and none of them going slower than 65mph, many going 70-80mph. How many people are going that fast in the middle of a city? You brought up the necessity to dissipate kinetic energy, that v^2 term gets to be quite nasty at highway speeds when compared to city speeds.
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Would the FBI then say "All your base are belong to U.S.?"
I have a 1st gen ipod nano and it works really well with Rockbox.
To completely avoid Apple, you could always get an Archos media player. They are fantastic. I rescued a JukeboxMulitmedia 20 from getting thrown out, as the former owner replaced it with an ipod. I think I got the better end of that deal...
"Stealth" aircraft are quiet. I get buzzed by B2s rather frequently, since they are based only 90 miles from me. With four big, fully enclosed engines, the B2 is surprisingly quiet given how big it is.
See: Boeing 787.
The issues are as follows:
1) Guaranteed support. Supporting linux users running proprietary closed source software is REALLY hard. With proprietary UNIX operating systems, the developers *knew* what was going to be on the boxes their software was deployed on. Only enterprise grade desktop linux can do this today, and its just as expensive, if not moreso than a UNIX OS. The problem is that a "regular" grade desktop linux *might* also run the software you need, but you cannot predict how it will run. This is a support nightmare, and if you are an admin or helpdesk rep, then you know very well that users lie.
2) Accountability. There are certifications and accountability scenarios that many people don't think about. If you cannot predict how a program will run because it is running in an unsupported environment, you cannot trust the program. If you cannot trust the program, you can't trust its output, thus you cannot trust the results of your work.
3) Siemens PLM Software released their NX CAD/CAM/CAE package on linux, and it was a nightmare to get working right off the bat. It was a kludgy port of one of their UNIX versions, probably Solaris. I ended up writing documentation on how to resolve some installation, runtime, and video issues for that. Just because something is UNIX-y doesn't mean you can snap your fingers and watch it magically work on linux.
Where have I been the past decade? In some of the most influential aerospace and aircraft design firms in the world, actually.
Yes, the video performance of the Quadros is undeniably fantastic. I even use retired Quadros in my home machines. Not every engineer needs a POWER based machine, of course. Many engineers could do just fine with a Windows box. But, serious CATIA work, meshing, and analysis were impossible to do on Windows machines; they simply couldn't touch the AIX boxes when you needed to run something that would require more than 3GB of RAM. Right now, Cessna Aircraft is still using POWER based machines for a very large portion of their CATIA work, although they were starting to transition to Windows boxes. Everyone there who supports CATIA and ENOVIA has a POWER workstation.
Now that Windows and the x86 CPU family has gotten with the program, they have barged their way into the engineering computing world. Cheap multicore processors and cheap operating system licensing makes the decision today to use Windows PCs a no-brainer. Now that Windows boxes can do what the AIX boxes have been able to do for a long time, the cheaper Windows boxes are finding their use on engineering desktops, and software developers are writing for Windows. But the point is that this is a very recent development. As of 2005, it was *impossible* for me to do the work I needed to do on a Windows box; the technology (hardware and software) *did not exist.* Price/performance is irrelevant if performance is zero; if a box can't do the work you need it to do, it doesn't matter that it was cheaper than some other box.
This is a huge blow to scientific and engineering computing. I know of thousands of POWER based Intellistations at several aerospace companies. CAD and finite element analysis software runs on these boxes, usually CATIA, NASTRAN, and some CFD codes. Engineering modeling and simulation software has been running on AIX for a while. Only now are Windows boxes near the performance that engineers need. The only good that might come of this is that hopefully the surplus market will be flooded with POWER based Intellistations and AIX CDs.
Yes, I'm well aware. I stayed FAR away from the DaimlerChrysler vehicles, they were nothing like their ancestors. I've had many real Mercedes vehicles in my day, and the only car I trust as much is a Volvo.
"For the first time in more than 20 years, I've thought about looking for a new car somewhere besides a Toyota lot. Competitors (even North American ones) have come a long way in the last few years. They now offer the kind of quality and reliability I expect in a car, so there's a lot less reason to pay premium bucks to Toyota."
I see you have never driven a European car before. I can't understand why anyone would pay "premium bucks" to Toyota, a company that built its name by making very simple econoboxes. Quality? Drive an old Mercedes. I have a 36 year old Mercedes sports car with about 175k miles on it, and there are Toyotas that *today* do not have the features that car has. Modern quality? Drive a Volvo. The S60s are incredibly well built cars using an excellent engine designed in collaboration with Porsche and has been refined over the past 15 years.
Toyota is a company that is all about profit, go to one of the European carmakers if you want something that actually is worth the money you spend on it.
I have a Silicon Graphics Iris Indigo that keeps chugging along. The original 420MB 3.5" SCSI hard drive is still in it, along with an added 1.2GB drive. The bigger drive was added 15 years ago as a precautionary measure when the original drive started doing exactly what you described. It sounds like a chainsaw to this day and is LOUD. But today, 15 years after it started being really loud, it still works great.
Yeah, I have friends in the DOJ that got a phone call, because the guy who replaced me was trying to get away with working on his OPT time while he voluntarily left grad school.
Believe it or not, you can't just bring a 1W radio transmitter with you everywhere.
Alternately, make them lay you off so you can collect unemployment while looking for a better job.
I worked for a small engineering R&D firm that conveniently ignored federal labor laws. They would *always* give jobs to foreign workers, because they would accept less money. Over the time I was there, I was given more and more responsibility that was above and beyond both my job description and pay rate. Yeah, they refused to give me a salary, I was an hourly worker. So they start realizing that I know I'm more valuable, and they hire a foreign grad student (who doesn't have a work visa mind you) and I'm supposed to train him. I saw the writing on the wall and knew this guy was supposed to replace me. I didn't care much about training him. Sure enough, as soon as he "knew enough" I got canned, with two days notice. Yes, they were asshats, and I was glad to be gone. But I refused to quit because the market for engineering/IT jobs sucks around here, and I wasn't in a position to move. So by firing me I got unemployment benefits to keep me afloat while looking for more work. It took four months before I got something. I ended up getting a job at a large, highly profitable consumer electronics company nearby, make twice the money, have a salary, amazing benefits, and I like my work.
My moral of the story is if you employer is being a jerk, stick it out, make them fire you rather than voluntarily quitting. Its not a good time to be job hunting.
Garmin and Navteq have had this out for a while...there is a radio receiver in some Garmin GPS units that receives traffic reports and will automatically create detour routes around traffic, accidents, or even construction.
AGPS over cell phone networks is atrociously inaccurate and cannot be trusted for true position fixes.
This is why rather than buying new consumer hardware, I get decommissioned commercial and enterprise grade hardware for myself. Why? It "just works."
I bought a Sun E6500 and E4500 used, and when I looked at the log files for them, they were turned on once when they were originally purchased, and then shutdown once when three of the eight PPSs on the 6500 croaked several years later. The company that had it before me didn't even notice that they were running the system with two blown power supplies until the third blew.
Switches? I use 3Com superstack 100Mb switches pulled from a company that upgraded to gigabit.
GPS? While not exactly commercial or enterprise, I try to track down used or overhauled Garmin GPSMAP aviation units. They are nearly indestructible and I've never seen one fail. I own a 195 and 496. The case of the 195 is pressurized and filled with nitrogen to protect the internal components.
#include
#include
int main()
{
printf("Searching for stuff the user isn't supposed to have...\n");
sleep(30);
printf("Illegal material found! Seize computer and arrest owner!\n");
return 0;
}
Yes, which is why I support my community wireless ISP where I live, and why I'm a customer. We directly uplink to cogent (pause for jokes), and the ISP itself is customer friendly, a huge supporter of FOSS, and prides itself on simply providing Internet connectivity. There is no messing around with users' traffic. Internet connectivity the way its supposed to be.
The act of doing a really bad job of gramming.
Losing a USB stick in a car park is nowhere near as cool as the old days of losing a station wagon full of tapes. But would be even better is losing a station wagon full of tapes at a car park.
Only the people who love having slow media players use VLC. Sure, it works decently well as media player, but not for slower boxes. Mplayer is MUCH faster. I can play 720p xvid files back on a 300MHz G3 in Mplayer without trouble. VLC on the other hand completely craps itself. Heck, my main media playback computer is a P3-667 that uses mplayer and plays everything.
The DOJ doesn't operate in fiscal years, the companies (the ones that took losses from industrial espionage and illegal exports) do operate in fiscal years though.
...are now the central states. As backwards as some people might think a place like Kansas is, the Constitution is strongly repsected here. As much as we might dislike Fred Phelps, we respect his free speech rights. Even though the governor vetoed a concealed-carry bill, the state congress overturned her veto. In a surprising move afterwards, the governor allowed Class 3 firearms possession (machine guns, explosives, etc.). Criminal trials are speedy (even if the lawyers and juries are stupid). Privacy is generally well respected, the police don't generally bother anyone. Heck, I even openly carried a handgun downtown at night, a policeman walking towards me noticed, simply made eye contact, nodded acknowledgement, and moved on. The first legal brewery to open in Kansas after prohibition was repealed is in the city I live in. Laugh at Kansas for having challenged evolution (by the way, we don't teach creatonism or ID here), but we'll be the ones laughing when your papers are being examined and your car is being rummaged through by a government agent because he decided he would pull over and search all the beige cars that day.
As strange as Kansas may be in some area, it is by far the most free place I've ever been.
I can't speak for most Volvo drivers, but I thoroughly enjoy making BMW drivers eat my turbocharged five cylinder engine's dust.
Err...yes, I have seen that video.
I'm not arguing against deformation, I'm arguing about *how* the deformation takes place and *what* deforms. Clearly, newer vehicles are better at this due to the prevalence of finite element modeling and dynamic analysis. It is entirely possible to design and optimize the defomation of a car in a collision. Engineering time, compute time, materials, all factor into a higher cost, a cost that a lot of people can't afford, and a cost that slims the profit margins of many automakers. The manufacturers have to put a price tag on the safety of the passengers in their cars, and they have to weigh that against how much money they make off the sales and service of those cars. I know people don't believe that something like that is impossible, but most people aren't engineers.
The Volvo 940 vs. Renault Modus wasn't exactly a scientific test either. The Modus weighs 500 pounds more than the 940.
I fail to see how rural America is a specific case. Look at a map, the land area is enormous, and the infrastructure incredibly complex. Millions of cars driving around in rural America every second, and none of them going slower than 65mph, many going 70-80mph. How many people are going that fast in the middle of a city? You brought up the necessity to dissipate kinetic energy, that v^2 term gets to be quite nasty at highway speeds when compared to city speeds.