65 months isn't very long in the space industry. Think about how long it takes for probes to get to Mars or Saturn. There are plenty of Earth based telescopes, many of them better than the hubble now, that can be used until a NEW space based one is launched. It's not like we'll have no images until we have a new telescope in space.
How about quantum optical? We can design an infinite number of layers, each layer of the disc existing in a different universe. The only trouble might be accidently overwriting some other guys data in another universe.
My understanding is that CD-RW and DVD-RW doesn't use an "organic" dye, but relies on some physical property of an alloy to determine a one/zero. Are CDRW even more or less susceptible to aging?
I recently starting going through some of my old CDR's and I noticed that 3 of my 4 CDROM drives had trouble reading a certain disc. I try a 4th drive (DVD+RW), and it reads it just fine. My guess is this means that the disc is starting to die, and now would be a good time to back it up again.
1 x IEEE 1394 port, 1 x PCMCIA Slot (TypeII) , 1 x LAN Jack (RJ-45) , 1 x Headphone/Speaker-out, 1 x MIC-in 1 x External VGA port, 1 x Modem Jack (RJ-11), 1 x Built-in MIC
Did they forget to list it, or do they really think a notebook without a USB port would actually sell?
That the government is going to pocket the $10 per system, while people continue to throw the computers in the trash because it's not worth their time/effort? I know that's not how it's supposed to work, but that's likely what is going to happen here. Leave it to representatives to find more ways to tax us.
BTW, I have two old monitors that I plan on paying to recycle pretty soon instead of irresponsibly throwing them in the dump. But I don't expect the government to tell me I need to pay a fee upfront to do this.
And really how toxic are the components that are in printed circuit boards anyway? Yes they use lead in the solder (for the next yew years), but there really isn't that much used all together. Most of the toxic stuff is the chemicals that go into production of these boards.
My point is that you can POTENTIALLY do more with a PDA. After all, you can (potentially) write a C program, compile it, and run it on your PDA. It is a general-purpose processing machine. You can not do that on your mobile phone because it is not.
My cellphone (Nokia 3660) is a general-purpose processing machine though. It runs Symbian OS. If you don't want to program in java, you can always use C if you really want to.
I really think the main stumbling block for PDA input is the lack of creativity of the end user. They always expect a "QWERTY" style keyboard, in fact, manufactures have even gone to great lengths to include useless QWERTY thumb keyboards in the devices.
Other than voice, which can be impracticle in some situations (in public?), there are several more input methods that could be created, but there would be too much reluctance from the end user to learn something new, something radically different from what they are used to. For example, the T9 onscreen keyboard for PDA's is much more efficient than the onscreen QWERTY layout, but I always see people use the QWERTY layout instead. They just are unaware, or are unwilling to learn something else.
My mobile phone IS a PC. I can do about as much or more with my cellphone as I could with my first 486.
A PDA doesn't need a "killer" app. There are many applications for PDA's. What's the problem though? Lack of an internet connection! What good is a device that is stand alone and unable to communicate with the world? This is why my cellphone is so much more useful than a PDA. I can send e-mail, browse webpages, etc. You cannot do that without a use anywhere internet connection on a PDA.
PDA's do have one advantage over cellphones: input method. I know a lot of people think handwriting recognition is "inefficient" but if you actually use it regularrly 30WPM is not uncommon.
These things are real security threat. Might want to check the back of your computer before you use it. Better yet, switch to a USB keyboard, not sure if they make USB key loggers yet.
Does this mean they can also read any information we post on forms that use the GET method instead of POST? Since GET encodes the form information in the URL, by recording these URL's that would be the same as tapping a phone conversation.
I'm talking about the option of real encryption, that is, encrypted on your end, and only decrypted on the recievers end. My guess is that it is probably decrypted at your cellphone provider before it is rerouted out. Thus, it's completely insecure unless you trust your cellphone provider or your government not to illegally/immorally spy on you.
Do you use a cordless phone when you call customer support for billing questions? If so, you are using an unencrypted wireless technology -- personally, I prefer to use an encrypted online connection.
That brings up an interesting question regarding cellphones. Why are cellphone conversations unencrypted? It seems it would be trivial to create an industry standard for encrypted communications. The federal government would have a huge fit though as it would make tapping calls impossible. I sense a conspiracy...
All my bills are payed online automatically when they are due except for one. My utility company sends me a bill and they offer online bill pay for a $3 "convience" fee. So, if they really would rather employ someone $8/hour to open all those envelopes and read my ugly handwriting on the check, that's fine by me. A $0.37 stamp is a lot cheaper for me.
I think SD cards are a bit too small also, except maybe in the use of cellphones. What is so wrong with compact flash? If they are going to keep decreasing the size of the memory cards, we won't have any increases in capacity. I for one would rather have a 8GB CF memory card in my camera, than a 512MB fingertip sized memory card.
And Sony, please stop already trying to produce your proprietary memory cards. No one cares about your cards and you are frustrating consumers.
And once EA becomes the only provider of sports games, they will probably freeze gameplay, and only add insignificant features every year.
Essentially, you will probably be paying $50/year just for new stats (which could have easily been downloaded from the internet if they wanted provide that).
Note: I don't play any sports games, so I don't really understand why someone would buy versions 2003,2004,2005 of the same game for the same console. Can someone explain this?
I'm just amazed and amused by all these comments that you people are posting. There is absolutely no point in saying how Dvorak is impracticle, not faster, not better, to expensive to switch over, and other such comments until you have actually TYPED using the dvorak layout yourself. Until you have actually used dvorak, at a proficiency level equal to that of qwerty, there is no point in giving your opinion on the benefits of qwerty or the shortcomings of dvorak.
It took me less than 2 weeks to learn many years ago, and I'm still able to type QWERTY, when needed.
If someone could cite a modern study (something more recent than 1970?) of dvorak vs. qwerty I'd like to see it.
Going from $40 in 1980, to $55 in 2000 is just a result of inflation. Actually you get a lot more for your money, in graphics, game content, not necessarily gameplay though.
Microsoft doesn't come close to dominating the video game industry. I mean, people want variety, and if there was only one company that made video games, it would be pretty boring. It's not like a video game is something like Excel, where people want standard file formats and don't care if the program changes year to year. With games, you expect a new experience when they release a new game (of course, it's debatable that companies ever come out with truly new games).
I just got the 20" LCD from Dell at work. I really like the ability to turn it 90 degrees. I have quite a few programs that are simply easier to use in that mode. However... it came with a DEAD PIXEL so I have this ugly red pixel staring me in the face for the next few years:(
Since it's my work PC I can't really complain, but if I paid $600 for one of these to use at home I'd want to return it. I've actually seen similar defects in CRT screens, but not nearly as often.
There probably isn't a market for it, but it would be cool if you could get a 20" plasma screen designed for use with computers. This would combine the best qualities of LCD's and CRT's.
What happens when the advertisers figure out what's going on with adblock and they start hosting ads that looks like:
http://cnn.com/saibjkb26234/istc6d23.gif
If the name of the ad is randomly generated, you would have a hard time blocking just the adds without also resorting to blocking all images at this website. It would be almost impossible to block text based ads.
Wow, I think this is awsome! I'm sick of seing that wasted space on my title bar. I wish more programs could look like this. Isn't using Mozilla/Netscape/Firefox all about being different anyway?
Tuxracer held my attention for about 60 seconds then I quit. At best, it's maybe slightly less fun than a mini-game on a console.
And developing a game has little to do with what platform you are building it for. You assume you have a decent game engine available. The real work is in the art, gameplay, maps, graphics, etc...
You also need strong leader ship to put a game together. Someone to tie in multiple disciplines together to form a game. You can't just have a bunch of linux hackers come together in an IRC room every night and come out with the next blockbuster video game.
If you read that link you just posted, the reply explains how RAID0 is still faster than RAID1. You forgot that if command queueing is used along with caching, that RAID0 should read the data just as fast, on average. I haven't done a random seek benchmark yet, I should probably try that.
There is no reason why RAID0 should increase latency compared to a single drive though. For those who don't really care about redundancy (make regular backups onto other drives), RAID0 is nice because you have twice the space of RAID1.
Slashdot Mirror
and somehow it was modded:
(Score:5, Insightful)
How can you get modded that much for saying a generic uninsightful sentence with bad spelling?
65 months isn't very long in the space industry. Think about how long it takes for probes to get to Mars or Saturn. There are plenty of Earth based telescopes, many of them better than the hubble now, that can be used until a NEW space based one is launched. It's not like we'll have no images until we have a new telescope in space.
How about quantum optical? We can design an infinite number of layers, each layer of the disc existing in a different universe. The only trouble might be accidently overwriting some other guys data in another universe.
My understanding is that CD-RW and DVD-RW doesn't use an "organic" dye, but relies on some physical property of an alloy to determine a one/zero. Are CDRW even more or less susceptible to aging?
I recently starting going through some of my old CDR's and I noticed that 3 of my 4 CDROM drives had trouble reading a certain disc. I try a 4th drive (DVD+RW), and it reads it just fine. My guess is this means that the disc is starting to die, and now would be a good time to back it up again.
1 x IEEE 1394 port, 1 x PCMCIA Slot (TypeII) , 1 x LAN Jack (RJ-45) , 1 x Headphone /Speaker-out, 1 x MIC-in
1 x External VGA port, 1 x Modem Jack (RJ-11), 1 x Built-in MIC
Did they forget to list it, or do they really think a notebook without a USB port would actually sell?
That the government is going to pocket the $10 per system, while people continue to throw the computers in the trash because it's not worth their time/effort? I know that's not how it's supposed to work, but that's likely what is going to happen here. Leave it to representatives to find more ways to tax us.
BTW, I have two old monitors that I plan on paying to recycle pretty soon instead of irresponsibly throwing them in the dump. But I don't expect the government to tell me I need to pay a fee upfront to do this.
And really how toxic are the components that are in printed circuit boards anyway? Yes they use lead in the solder (for the next yew years), but there really isn't that much used all together. Most of the toxic stuff is the chemicals that go into production of these boards.
My point is that you can POTENTIALLY do more with a PDA. After all, you can (potentially) write a C program, compile it, and run it on your PDA. It is a general-purpose processing machine. You can not do that on your mobile phone because it is not.
My cellphone (Nokia 3660) is a general-purpose processing machine though. It runs Symbian OS. If you don't want to program in java, you can always use C if you really want to.
I really think the main stumbling block for PDA input is the lack of creativity of the end user. They always expect a "QWERTY" style keyboard, in fact, manufactures have even gone to great lengths to include useless QWERTY thumb keyboards in the devices.
Other than voice, which can be impracticle in some situations (in public?), there are several more input methods that could be created, but there would be too much reluctance from the end user to learn something new, something radically different from what they are used to. For example, the T9 onscreen keyboard for PDA's is much more efficient than the onscreen QWERTY layout, but I always see people use the QWERTY layout instead. They just are unaware, or are unwilling to learn something else.
I disagree with your analysis.
My mobile phone IS a PC. I can do about as much or more with my cellphone as I could with my first 486.
A PDA doesn't need a "killer" app. There are many applications for PDA's. What's the problem though? Lack of an internet connection! What good is a device that is stand alone and unable to communicate with the world? This is why my cellphone is so much more useful than a PDA. I can send e-mail, browse webpages, etc. You cannot do that without a use anywhere internet connection on a PDA.
PDA's do have one advantage over cellphones: input method. I know a lot of people think handwriting recognition is "inefficient" but if you actually use it regularrly 30WPM is not uncommon.
...one of these?
These things are real security threat. Might want to check the back of your computer before you use it. Better yet, switch to a USB keyboard, not sure if they make USB key loggers yet.
Does this mean they can also read any information we post on forms that use the GET method instead of POST? Since GET encodes the form information in the URL, by recording these URL's that would be the same as tapping a phone conversation.
I'm talking about the option of real encryption, that is, encrypted on your end, and only decrypted on the recievers end. My guess is that it is probably decrypted at your cellphone provider before it is rerouted out. Thus, it's completely insecure unless you trust your cellphone provider or your government not to illegally/immorally spy on you.
Do you use a cordless phone when you call customer support for billing questions? If so, you are using an unencrypted wireless technology -- personally, I prefer to use an encrypted online connection.
That brings up an interesting question regarding cellphones. Why are cellphone conversations unencrypted? It seems it would be trivial to create an industry standard for encrypted communications. The federal government would have a huge fit though as it would make tapping calls impossible. I sense a conspiracy...
All my bills are payed online automatically when they are due except for one. My utility company sends me a bill and they offer online bill pay for a $3 "convience" fee. So, if they really would rather employ someone $8/hour to open all those envelopes and read my ugly handwriting on the check, that's fine by me. A $0.37 stamp is a lot cheaper for me.
I think SD cards are a bit too small also, except maybe in the use of cellphones. What is so wrong with compact flash? If they are going to keep decreasing the size of the memory cards, we won't have any increases in capacity. I for one would rather have a 8GB CF memory card in my camera, than a 512MB fingertip sized memory card.
And Sony, please stop already trying to produce your proprietary memory cards. No one cares about your cards and you are frustrating consumers.
For about $0.50/pen I can buy a sharpie and label the disc myself.
Unless you have some kind of a business where you need semi-professional looking CD's, I don't see the point of this other than a "cool" factor.
Let's do some more math here:
divide by: 2592000 (30 days)
Cap on 8Mbit/sec = 500GB
You're connection used for 30 days at 1.5Mbit/sec = 474GBytes
I think I'd rather have the 8Mbit/sec with the cap than have an uncapped rate at 1.5Mb/sec. Besides, would I actually use it 24 hours/day?
If my calculation is wrong, please correct me (btw, 1024MB = 1GB)
And once EA becomes the only provider of sports games, they will probably freeze gameplay, and only add insignificant features every year.
Essentially, you will probably be paying $50/year just for new stats (which could have easily been downloaded from the internet if they wanted provide that).
Note: I don't play any sports games, so I don't really understand why someone would buy versions 2003,2004,2005 of the same game for the same console. Can someone explain this?
I'm just amazed and amused by all these comments that you people are posting. There is absolutely no point in saying how Dvorak is impracticle, not faster, not better, to expensive to switch over, and other such comments until you have actually TYPED using the dvorak layout yourself. Until you have actually used dvorak, at a proficiency level equal to that of qwerty, there is no point in giving your opinion on the benefits of qwerty or the shortcomings of dvorak.
It took me less than 2 weeks to learn many years ago, and I'm still able to type QWERTY, when needed.
If someone could cite a modern study (something more recent than 1970?) of dvorak vs. qwerty I'd like to see it.
Going from $40 in 1980, to $55 in 2000 is just a result of inflation. Actually you get a lot more for your money, in graphics, game content, not necessarily gameplay though.
Microsoft doesn't come close to dominating the video game industry. I mean, people want variety, and if there was only one company that made video games, it would be pretty boring. It's not like a video game is something like Excel, where people want standard file formats and don't care if the program changes year to year. With games, you expect a new experience when they release a new game (of course, it's debatable that companies ever come out with truly new games).
I just got the 20" LCD from Dell at work. I really like the ability to turn it 90 degrees. I have quite a few programs that are simply easier to use in that mode. However... it came with a DEAD PIXEL so I have this ugly red pixel staring me in the face for the next few years :(
Since it's my work PC I can't really complain, but if I paid $600 for one of these to use at home I'd want to return it. I've actually seen similar defects in CRT screens, but not nearly as often.
There probably isn't a market for it, but it would be cool if you could get a 20" plasma screen designed for use with computers. This would combine the best qualities of LCD's and CRT's.
What happens when the advertisers figure out what's going on with adblock and they start hosting ads that looks like:
http://cnn.com/saibjkb26234/istc6d23.gif
If the name of the ad is randomly generated, you would have a hard time blocking just the adds without also resorting to blocking all images at this website. It would be almost impossible to block text based ads.
Wow, I think this is awsome! I'm sick of seing that wasted space on my title bar. I wish more programs could look like this. Isn't using Mozilla/Netscape/Firefox all about being different anyway?
Tuxracer held my attention for about 60 seconds then I quit. At best, it's maybe slightly less fun than a mini-game on a console.
And developing a game has little to do with what platform you are building it for. You assume you have a decent game engine available. The real work is in the art, gameplay, maps, graphics, etc...
You also need strong leader ship to put a game together. Someone to tie in multiple disciplines together to form a game. You can't just have a bunch of linux hackers come together in an IRC room every night and come out with the next blockbuster video game.
If you read that link you just posted, the reply explains how RAID0 is still faster than RAID1. You forgot that if command queueing is used along with caching, that RAID0 should read the data just as fast, on average. I haven't done a random seek benchmark yet, I should probably try that.
There is no reason why RAID0 should increase latency compared to a single drive though. For those who don't really care about redundancy (make regular backups onto other drives), RAID0 is nice because you have twice the space of RAID1.