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User: Doppler00

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  1. in certain applications... on Was Thomas Edison Right about DC Power? · · Score: 1

    Yes this is good in certain applications. I could imagine places like homes and server rooms having this. The conversion from 120V AC to DC at every device is pretty ineffecient. Having one large AC->DC converter would probably be much better. For one, you could locate the device outside. A majority of the heat generated by servers is from the power supplies. However, you would still need DC->DC converters which waste heat too, although I don't think it's that much.

    For home use, just imagine getting rid of all those ugly AC power adapters for everything! You could have much smaller DC plugs and fit 20 ports on one outlet.

    For industrial settings, you still need AC. It's just the best way to distribute power to things like motors and high power AC systems (120, 208, 240, 480V, etc...)

  2. Re:Those Component Costs are off on PlayStation 3 Not So Much Delayed? · · Score: 1

    Of course the claims are off. They were done by Merrill Lynch. I'm curious how a financial firm is qualified to estimate the cost of a piece of consumer electronic hardware? There is absolutely no way they can know how much it will cost Sony to purchase and build the components.

  3. Re:sheesh... on Anti-virus Vendors Eye Cell Phones · · Score: 1

    Okay, these two suggestions are not very useful.

    First, the whole point of bluetooth is that you can discover other phones. If you leave it off by default then if you want to send someone your contact information or a picture, you have to go through the phone config and turn it back on. And then you have to have your friend do the same thing. So, you just added what's potentially 5 extra minutes to the processes of exchanging contact information. And before you say, "oh just give them your number", contact information can include everything, such as address, phone, name, birthday, business card, etc...

    And not opening e-mail on your cellphone? Why not? I like being able to check my e-mail when I'm away from my computer. Why give up this capability?

    The main solution here is this: To install new software on the phone, it should have to originate from a trusted, pre-authorized PC. All other requests should be ignored. Problem solved.

  4. Re:I've heard that one before... on Moore's Law Staying Strong Through 30nm · · Score: 1

    You have to realize, these are the same people in Silicon Valley who have seen their real-estate values go up 20% year over year for the last five years. They like believing that things only go up exponentially without any leveling off.

  5. Re:I remember my first scanner on Pen-Sized Color Scanner Reviewed · · Score: 1

    How can you scan a notebook if the camera focuses at infinity? You definitely need a macro mode on the camera, although scannig pages with a camera makes more sense than a silly pen you wave across the paper.

  6. already dual fuel vehicles on RX-8 Hydrogen RE a Dual Fuel Car · · Score: 3, Informative

    There are already a lot of duel fuel propane/LNG/gasoline trucks out there. Most of the places I've seen them though only fill them up with gasoline. Also, the tank for the LNG fills up about a quarter of the truck bed in the back. Same problem, although worse with hydrogen. Since hydrogen naturally doesn't have as much energy densities at similar pressure you have two choices: Make the tank even bigger, or compress the gas to a ridiculusly high pressure. Both choices have their own associated problems.

  7. Re:Wacom board on Are Vertical Mice The Next Ergonomic Trend? · · Score: 1

    I second this, I use a wacom tablet at work (not art related). The problem with most ergonomic recomendations is that they will just go out and buy something that says "ergonomic" on it for $30. I tried a trackball for awhile and it hurt my wrist more than a mouse did. I think most companies are just too cheap to purchase tablets because they cost so much more, but it's well worth the money 100%.

  8. Re:Some suggestions on NSA Data Mining Much Larger Than Reported · · Score: 1

    Come on are you serious? I hate it when people say you can do "such and such" with a 486 or even a 386. It's 2005! There are enough Pentium II and Pentium III class computers just being tossed in dumpsters, why would you even waste your time tyring to get VoIP working on a 386?

    How could you get VoIP to work on a 386 anyway? From what I remember, even getting a 16 bit sound card to work at all on that class of computer is a miracle in itself. Let alone, a full TCP/IP stack, and all the handshaking running in the background.

  9. Re:Quick Summary on File-Sharing Winners and Losers of 2005 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Let's correct this shall we:

    Winners: People who don't want to pay for music or movies and would rather steal them.
    Losers: Businesses who have a right to sell their products under the protection of copyright laws.
    Biggest Losers: The average consumer who has to deal with excessive DRM because of the "winners" above.

    Thank you. Now let's see how many replies I get about how the U.S. copyright system is flawed, and big businesses take artists money.

  10. Re:Pfft on Are Americans Addicted to Technology? · · Score: 1

    Hey, I like my feature laden cell phone. With google available to me anywhere I can answer even the most esotoric trivia questions that come up in a conversation. It's also a great time filler for those times of bordom, I can read through the news, check weather, etc. Just because something is "feature-laden" to you, and you don't understand how to use the features, doesn't mean that other people don't appreciate it.

    And what do you have against people with excessive hair in their nose? They need to look fashionable too!

  11. Google strategy.... on Guido Goes Google · · Score: 2, Funny

    #google strategy
    while(stock > 400):
        for company in buyoutlist:
            company.purchase()
            spend_money()
        for phd in smart_people_list:
            phd.hire()

        release_cool_google_tool()

    (might be syntax errors in this, I work with so many languages I get confused myself)

  12. Re:the only thing that matters is on ATI's All-In-Wonder 2006 · · Score: 1

    Man, don't even suggest that. Now you're just giving people ideas to write a linux virtual machine that runs entirely on the GPU. Actually, that sounds pretty cool....

  13. Re:Apple and Microsoft on Vista's Graphics To Be Moved Out of the Kernel · · Score: 1

    "Gentoo automates a lot of the difficulty of installing fonts"

    Did I just hear that? Gentoo AUTOMATES things? I tell you what, I spent 4 hours one day trying to install Gentoo and it was a nightmare. No thanks. Not worth my time. I want a Linux distro that works "out of the box", even if I had to pay for it.

  14. Re:Apple and Microsoft on Vista's Graphics To Be Moved Out of the Kernel · · Score: 1

    X11's ugly fonts is absolutely the #1 reason I won't use Linux for my desktop machine. I have yet to use a distro that gets fonts right. I know patents, blah blah blah. You know what, I'm not cheap, it's worth $100 to me to have an OS with readable text.

  15. Re:Is this going to slow down graphics performance on Vista's Graphics To Be Moved Out of the Kernel · · Score: 1

    If windows GUI becomes as slow as anything on the Linux side us gamers are screwed. But maybe that is Microsoft's plan, to make every go out and buy an X-Box because games no longer run fast enough on the PC anymore.

  16. Re:Congrats...now what to do with it? on Linux Boots on Treo 650 · · Score: 1

    I hate it when my only option to access code on a server is to SSH and be forced to use some antiquited version of vi, the keyboard mappings are broken half the time.

    Now VNC on a PDA, that's cool.

  17. Re:I'm still skeptical of the $100 laptop on Slashback: Quinn, iBackups, Wikipedia · · Score: 1

    Manufacturing semiconductors is HARD.
    Umm... complex, yes, hard? no. Actually, just look at the per/unit cost of the chip. That's all that matters. If it is a $100 computer it doesn't need to be a high end Pentium M. There are many CPU's out there that are faaar chaeper. If you can make a CPU for $5/chip then that's how much it costs. Create a BOM for the laptop and add everything up. You do realize they manufacture tens of billions of semiconductors every year right? And there are alread fabs all over the world, they only need to be retooled for this product like they would for any other or use an existing set of ICs.

    How are these things going to get onto the internet?
    This is a very, very good point. The only way that makes sense is through a cellphone network or maybe a few localized hotspots, but I doubt this will happen. Heck, they can't even do this right in the U.S. let alone the third world. If it costs $70/month for data services on cellphone networks in the U.S. with existing infrastructure, you can imagine the cost it would be to build out new networks and maintain them in poorer countries where people will not pay that installation cost.

  18. Re:Nanotechnology? on Nanotechnology Gets Finer · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't consider this nanotechnology myself. I mean, it is still using the same lithography process they have been using for decades, just scaled down moreso. Nanotechnology should really be defined as the ability to shape things on the molecular level with precise detail. That is, can they build a single transistor using just component atoms? That's much more impressive than shining a light through a retical and getting your resulting chip (or however they do it, actually, it's still very impressive considering how many layers they produce and the accuracy involved).

  19. Re:I'd like to see this go to a jury. on First RIAA Lawsuit to Head to Trial · · Score: 1

    I've never understood why it costs "$xxx,xxx" dollars for legal fees. If they are honestly that much, why not defend yourself? Are lawyers really all that smart? If you already have a college education and can think for yourself, why not defend yourself? Is $200k to a laywer vs. $500k to a corporation if you lose really any different? You would have to declare bankrupcy either way.

    I don't believe it is right that you must have to hire a lawyer to defend yourself. There is something wrong with the legal system if a reasonably educated person can't defend themself without shelling out cash to a lawyer. What gives?

  20. Re:My mom's terrible experience with these croooks on Consumer Strikes Back at Crooked Online Retailer · · Score: 1

    I have to agree. I use Bank of America and a feature of my debit card is specifically that it has zero liability protection for fraud. My guess is that if I ever need a new debit card number, I can easily get a new card without effecting the bank account #.

    I just refuse to get a credit card out of principle. I have enough money, why would I need to borrow any from a company? Oh, to "build my credit". Well, I think that phrase is overstated and used as an excuse to spend debt.

  21. Re:Two 1600x1200? on Time Saving Linux Desktop Tips? · · Score: 1

    you're one of those people who has like a dozen tool bars in their web browser aren't you?

  22. Re:Two 1600x1200? on Time Saving Linux Desktop Tips? · · Score: 1

    Of course it wouldn't work. One of the monitors needs to be at least 16:10 aspect ratio for the full movie experience. A 24" widescreen would do just fine. Or, if you have the desk space, a 80" DLP would work too.

  23. Re:overhead on Firefox 3D Canvas FPS Engine · · Score: 1

    Yes, maybe one out of 100 programmers _may_ be able to beat a compiler at optimization. It's more important to get that one out of a hundred people to contribute those techniques to the compiler itself so more people benifit. It's just too time consuming to teach everyone low level assembly and there are just too many traps you can easily fall into.

    With FPGA's I don't think anyone would seriously consider doing their own layout, cell by cell, for a design. The task would be nearly imossible, there is no way you can beat the compiler because it is capable of trying thousands of layout combinations and choosing the one that is most optimal. Do modern C compilers do this? Run the code with different configurations to choose the most optimal one?

  24. Re:PS3 Suggestion on Unleashing the Power of the Cell Broadband Engine · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Waaaaiiit a minute. This is the same DRM the heck out of everything Sony we are talking about here right? There is no chance they are going to allow a linux distribution to run easily on this platform. They are probably encrypting everything like Microsoft is doing with the XBox360.

    People keep forgetting that Sony and Microsoft are in absolutely no way interested in providing you with a cheap computing platform for your linux cluster endevours at their loss. They make money off of selling games for these things. If people find ways of loading their own software on these boxes you better beleive they are going to start filing lawsuits. Not that I agree with that, but that will be what happened.

  25. Re:Lifestyle on Canada Moves to Keep Skilled Workers · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Wow, that's not saying very much. If you look at a map, the northern most part of California is about 42.0 degrees north. The southern most part of Ontario is about 41.9 degrees north. It would be more fair to say some parts of Ontario are the same latitude as Oregon.