The US doesn't have separate trackage for passenger & freight traffic or very advanced signaling systems.
Thus US rail passenger vehicles must be built to withstand impact with freight trains. Other nations have a far greater percentage of passenger-only track including many dedicated lines. Also in many nations the rail infrastructure has been continuously modernized resulting in more sophisticated switching and control system.
Amtrak inherited its system after decades of private neglect and was originally a way to prevent the various passenger rail services in the US from individually being shut down or sliding into bankruptcy. That passenger rail still survives in the US at all after decades of far less support then virtually every other transportation medium speaks to its tenacity and durability. Unfortunately Amtrak has always been stuck with conflicting missions and starved for infrastructure (again, much of what it began with was already obsolete or decrepit; upgrades, replacements and refurbishments have always been piecemeal and/or minimal.) That and impressively bad management.
Another problem has been the extraordinarily high strength requirement has been set by the US's Federal Railroad Administration which results in US rail passenger cars being at a minimum of twice as heavy as every other nation's. A result is that there is literally no other market for US vehicles thus tried & proven designs from other nations can't be used in the USA. Spanish, Swedish, German, etc. - none of their highly successful trains can now be imported into the US due to the FRA's unique requirements.
Thus when folks point out the curiosity of Amtrak hiring the consortium of Alstom/Bombardier to design & build the Acela instead of buying a successful somethingelse model they're ignoring that the somethingelses simply aren't allowed to run in the US on an ongoing basis. After license and redesign fees it would have cost more to convert an existing train then to just design & build one to Amtrak's (& the FRA's) unique requirements, which is what was done.
Of course now Amtrak & Alstom/Bombardier are mired in suits and counter-suits, ignoring the mediation structures built into their contracts and publicly blaming each other for the problems the Acela is facing. Amtrak claims the Acela doesn't meet specifications and was delivered late. Alstom/Bombardier claim Amtrak wasn't timely in providing specifications and making design decisions, many of the problems are with features Alstom/Bombardier advised against, and that Amtrak is running the vehicles on substandard track & caternary against Alstom/Bombardier's recommendations.
Of course much of this could have been avoided had the usual process of building a test train, running it ragged for a year, then dissembling it to examine it for understanding of it's rail performance, maintenance characteristics, wear patterns, practical experiance, then refining the design before going into production been followed. Indeed reexamination of the original train's evaluation appears to show the precursors of many of the problems now appearing on the Acela.
Instead however Amtrak ordered 20 trains in one design/build package (and now claims it'll never order another.) Thus as each trainset was built it was manufactured slightly differently from the ones before as experience was applied and improvements made. This now gives Amtrak 20 subtly different trainsets and no further application of the lessons learned nor incentive on the designer/manufacturer to refine the vehicle.
Whatever the case the losers are the citizens of the US & Canada. Why Canada? It turns out the money Amtrak used to purchase Acela Express was from a $1 billion low-interest loan from the Export Development Corp. of Canada. Yep, if Amtrak goes belly-up not only will the US public be out but also the Canadians. As you can imagine the prospect of a US quasi-governmental agency going belly-up and forfeiting on it's debts to Canada doesn't play well north of the border
Ironically there is a widely rumored proposal in Canada for investing CA$3-billion to improve train service in the Quebec City to Windsor corridor (incl. Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and possibly Kingston). The "VIAFast" upgrade is expected to take advantage of trains like Bombardier's newly (re)announced turbo train as well as track-swapping with CPR & CNR to create a dedicated passenger rail route. Indeed there's even renewed interest in a new high-speed Calgary-Edmonton corridor route to serve that rapidly growing part of the country.
Anyway, now you know why the US is stuck with slow trains: Inheritance, lack of investment, political game playing, lousy management, and extreme requirements. On the other hand neighbors in much the same situation are instead expanding their rail systems in logical yet ambitious ways. Makes me think of the tortiose & the hare...
How hard would it be to send a message back to the boxes that have some code red or similar virus. Basically you ask my web server for c:/scripts/something, you get a Windows message back informing you in no uncertain terms that your box is infected and the OS needs to be reinstalled.
Somebody already did this last year. It was a java app that sat on a box minding it's own business. If Nimda tried to infect it then a popup would be sent to the attacking machine along with a URL containing directions on how to clean up the problem.
Unfortunately I blew away the machine I used for that yesterday and for the life of me can't quickly Google up the app, doubtless somebody here will recognize it. It was good stuff, even reported numbers, easy to verify for security, etc.
Ultimately, what you have is a cool VM technology that runs exclusively on Windows machines that are.NET enabled (Windows XP comes with the.NET runtime installed).
.NET isn't Windows only - see Ximain's Mono project:
The Mono Project is a community initiative to develop an open source, Linux-based version of the Microsoft.NET development platform. Incorporating key.NET compliant components, including a C# compiler, a Common Language Runtime just-in-time compiler, and a full suite of class libraries, the Mono Project will enable developers to create.NET applications and run them on Windows or any Mono-supported platform, including Linux and Unix. Besides greatly improving the efficiency of development in the open source world, the Mono Project will allow the creation of operating-system-independent programs.
Also.NET isn't pre-installed on Windows XP, its an optionial download. In MS's own words
Microsoft.NET Framework
The.NET Framework is a new feature of Windows. Applications built using the.NET Framework are more reliable and secure. You need to install the.NET Framework only if you have software that requires it.
Apple just Open Sourced their Rendevous code, see the recent/. story on that here. Rendevous is an implementation of Zeroconf which is which is, in a larger sense, what you're looking for.
Also note that MS isn't the only folks supplying UPnP, Intel also developed a lot which is now Open Sourced.
Re:What's with the attitude?
on
New MP3 Portables
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
I don't own either, and am not likely likely to.
However you really should look up the current specs. The latest model iPods do offer more then the Yepp, FireWire and USB 2.0 are about tied for market penetraton (their speeds are essentially identical right now though FireWire is going faster RSN), and most agree that the iPod interface & software integration are the best on the market.
While everyone is welcome to choose whatever fits their needs best the iPod is a remarkably good value bang-for-the-buck, particularly in the latest revisions. Comparing iPod Rev. A specs with the latest Yepp isn't particularly valid unless price is also listed (iPods have gotten cheaper quite quickly.)
If, after evaluation, you would like to obtain a license to develop or distribute assemblies incorporating the FireWire Reference Platform or modifications, please download and print this Implementation License, complete according to the attached checklist and mail two original signed Implementation License forms to the Software Licensing address on the checklist. Your license will become effective when signed by Apple.
Toronto used to have a system where one could call a number for each stop and get the schedule. Unfortunately the system wasn't Y2K-compliant and wasn't felt worth fixing, is now discontinued.
Boston is promising displays with each vehicle's location and estimated time until arrival on it's new "Silver Line" Bus Rapid Transit route. According to the FAQ on the special Silver Line website:
The T's state-of-the-art Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) will improve mobility, safety, efficiency, and customer service by collecting real-time data transmitted from Silver Line vehicles. On-board sensors will monitor fuel level, odometer reading, destination signs, and other indicators. Using Global Positioning System satellites, ITS will track precisely bus locations, enabling the T's command center to respond to changing route conditions. ITS will transmit real-time information to digital message boards and smart kiosks at Silver Line Stations.
While the line opened up a few weeks ago I don't know if the message boards and kiosks are up and running yet.
A great source of information and discussion on urban transit is the newsgroup misc.transport.urban-transit (also readable through Google.) There you'll find a collection of very knowledgable (and sometimes not so) folks sharing and debating information on systems & proposals around the world.
Technically when you're talking about unix you're referring to a trademarked owned by Open Group but practically we mean posix compliance and os x does a pretty decent job at this.
We're giving this blowhard kid waaay too much attention but actually MacOS X is a legitimate user of the Unix trademark. The Open Group did a press release about it awhile ago and you can see Apple listed here
MacOS X is Unix. It is technically. It is legally. It is functionially. Indeed it's the best-selling commercial Unix out there.
That some poor dork confused GUI or lack of or X Windows or whatever as "Unix" is between he and his doubtless depressed compsci faculty.
Well, this may not be what you expected but MacOS X seems to being well. It's clearly a Unix, is now on more desktops then any other commercial Unix, looking to move further into servers, etc.
For those interested in oo-language derivitives for teaching another popular one is Squeak. Just as Logo is Lisp-derived Squeak is Smalltalk-derived.
Small, portable, virtual-machine based, simple enough for kids to get started (and excited on) it's powerful enough for 'real stuff'. Check out the FAQ based on a Squeak Swiki.
Oh, and as Logo had Seymor Papert as 'the guy' behind it Squeak had Alan Kay who did lots of early work on 3D graphics, ARPAnet, windowing interfaces, modern oo programming, and inventor of the Dynabook.
I hand-held a buddy a few years ago through getting his robo-mower. He likes it, mostly.
Arguments in the robo-mowers favor were that he has a simple small yard, few obstructions (house, two trees, sometimes car in driveway, never any toys, kids, pets, etc.) His land is fairly private so there was little fear of the mower being robo-napped. The biggest feature was he has little time at home, a passion for gadgets, and grass 'stuff' triggers his allergies.
Those pointed out the mower does a moderately good job. It doesn't hurt anything but it's coverage isn't optimized, once done following the perimeter it pretty much goes on random and trundles around the yard without any apparent strategy. Thus while the drunk walk does eventually cover all of the yard it's also quite inefficient at doing so, may mow the same spot a dozen times while the wedge next to it remains untouched for a long time.
'Course efficiency isn't all that important as long as he's not the one out there doing this all. And as long as it is sunny out the mower just keeps going on its own so he usually simply puts it out on a sunny morning and comes home after work to find the yard clipped & reclipped. Pop the 'bot back in the garage and the lawn is ready for the weekend.
However, he is in a particularly good situation for the mower. The theft concern would be a big one for most folks; the fear of some bored kids coming along and "liberating" the 'bot. There's also the point his yard is absurdly simple with few obstructions, nothing that the 'bot could ever accidentally mow-over. Also his yard is sunny, small, and the grass is never allowed to get tall.
Cost-wise it's pretty much a trade-off. So far the mower is competitive with having a lawn crew come by once a week. On the other hand they'd also edge the walk, fertilize, leaf-blow, etc. Should the mower last another season or two without repairs it'll have justified itself mostly. Should something break, well, it's not like the lawnmower-repair/bait-shop down the street knows how to fix one of these...
My own parents go the lawn-crew route and are quite happy. Dad isn't up to mowing the yard and they do a mostly good job. The lawn always looks great; unfortunately they've damaged trees by nicking their bark regularly and occasionally over-edge and take out the garden border plants. On the plus side they keep it all looking like a golf-course, don't mind putting away a forgotten sprinkler and hose, take care of the leaves in the fall.
In another buddies case he went with an old fashioned push mower when his gas one died. He says the effort is about the same, while the gas mower had powered wheels it took a lot of effort to maneuver so overall there was little effort change in the mowing. However he says it's a lot nicer following the snickity-snick of the mechanical then the roar, dust, and fumes of the gas one.
As to no-lawn - in some cases that's an option but in many it's not. There are often local laws about keeping up one's property and the hassle and ill-will of being different may not be worth it. Also the effort and cost of a more 'natural' look is often about the same as the green desert. Finally resale value of a house is greater with the traditional grass lawn then with other more eco-friendly or labor-saving alternatives.
Oh, and the old hire-a-kid? I tried that at my old house - none were interested. Nobody I know has any kids in their neighborhoods interested either. One acquaintance did tell a story of a new-to-the-neighborhood kid coming by asking but as his dad had just bought the house with the money from a large & very dubious job-injury claim the fellow declined.
One I recall from early net days was a browser plug-in for viewing a web directory (Yahoo!?) as a 3D flythrough environment, like lots of other neat Apple demos it's long gone without a trace. Another still in MacOS 9 is the smart text handling - the ability to click on a text string and have an appropriate handler come up for it: web, address, phone number, etc. Or "summarizing" a selected stretch of text via Sherlock.
Anyone else have any favorite past Apple Mac-based technologies? Promised, demo'd, here-and-gone, whatever? Anyone know of a site detailing the MacOS-tech graveyard?
Brandt thinks his material should be ranked higher because it's more relevant.
To his agenda perhaps.
However Google isn't used by most folks as a directory - it's a search engine. It simply pulls up entries according to a formula (see pigeonrank for the inside scoop) and gives those back. No bias beyond what smart webmasters can impart, no artificial clustering, etc.
If Google were to start doing as Brandt wants it would quickly run into endless battles, loose it's searching edge, become just another pay(or agenda)-for-play roadkill.
Brandt thinks his material should be ranked higher because it's more relevant.
To his agenda perhaps.
However Google isn't used by most folks as a directory - it's a search engine. It simply pulls up entries according to a formula (see pigeonrank for the inside scoop) and gives those back. No bias beyond what smart webmasters can impart, no artificial clustering, etc.
If Google were to start doing as Brandt wants it would quickly run into endless battles, loose it's searching edge, become just another pay(or agenda)-for-play roadkill.
No thanks.
Re:First they came for the Indians...
on
Shop Till It Drops
·
· Score: 3, Informative
If you're going to quote from Pastor Niemöller at least get it right:
First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.
From the creator of the award-winning Web site that USA Today calls "hilarious," Fast Company hails as "pure lunacy," and The New York Times calls "unfair to Argentina," comes ECONOMY OF ERRORS, the book that asks:
Did you know that truly loyal employees are increasingly rare, and can be sold to other companies at attractive prices?
Do you agree that in a tight labor market, managers should be allowed to slap employees pretty much whenever they want?
Have you ever cleared space for yourself on an airplane by turning to the stranger next to you and shouting, 'Good God! One of us is going to be sick in your seat!'?
If your answer to any of these questions was, "I didn't realize Alan Greenspan ties interest rates to his cholesterol level," you should definitely buy ECONOMY OF ERRORS.
WHAT'S INSIDE:
Typo Causes Companies to Merde
Kmart Gives Shoplifter Refunds
Interviews with Bill Gates, Roger Clemens, and classical rapper Yo Yo Ma Big Thang
Right - iMac didn't come with a floppy. Or other removable media. If you wanted that you had to buy it seperately.
Was that a bad thing? Well the iMac was the best selling PC for several years running so apparently not.
BTW - If someone's gonna cough up a grand or more US$ for an iMac they can budget in the external media or printer or whatever, and apparently they did.
Be honest about what your product can do. Be honest about what it can't. Be honest about any bugs or misfeatures in your product.
Keep customers informed about your product. Allow customers to inform each other. Give customers space and tools to work together. Give customers (indirect) access to developers and vice-versa.
Document everything you can. What you don't explicitly document provide good search tools for (those user-forums quickly build up lots of valuable information.) Code samples, vendors, release notes, manual corrections - get it all out there.
Let folks know your product development roadmap. If it changes let them know that too. Make it clear when & where you're willing to collaborate on development. Makes sure prices & licenses are fair and reasonable.
Make technical support a priority. Hire good competent folks. Give them good tools. Make it possible for issues to move from tier to tier of support easily and efficiently. Never leave a customer stranded. Only collect customer information once in a call (we're in technology admit - how hard is it to hand off a customer record?!)
Finally, watch out for "spin" or "expectations management". Don't treat customers like idiots but consider them as partners (and not like Microsoft considers it's "partners".) Teat folks well and they'll remember it; screw 'em and you'll pay, if not now eventually (look at CA.)
Developer specific? Get lots of code samples out: Real ones, useful ones, ones that show off your product. Don't have ridiculous requirements. Give folks a really low-cost way of checking out your product before committing.
Killing the floppy with the iMac was another (great that they killed it - absolutely stupid that they didn't *replace* it).
They did replace the floppy - with networking. The iMac shipped with fast & easy networking built in, either via ethernet or dial-up. Thus between reading CD's and networking it's trvial to get material on & off of an iMac. Later iDisk was rolled out to make it even easier. Now that iMacs ship with CD burners standard it's plain trivial.
For those that really have a burning need for a floppy drive then they either shouldn't get an iMac or need to budget for an external floppy drive/superdrive/whatever. However for the target iMac audience that wasn't an issue: Few of them had any collection of must-read floppies and those with knew what they were buying. Saddling the rest of us with a dusty drive port wasn't needed and yeah, lots of us never missed it.
ps. I've a styrofoam cooler of Mac floppies in the basement, never needed to read any of them on the iMac. Ok, looked longingly at the "After Dark: Star Trek Edition" one once but then recalled how buggy AD was, didn't look back.
Is there any way to run OS X on an emulator under Linux? I've thought about porting some of my software to OS X, but I'm not ready to give up precious desk space to yet another box just yet. But being able to run OS X in an VMware-esque environment would be perfect. Any solutions out there for doing that yet?
Well, you can always run the Open Source "Darwin" core of MacOS X on an appropriate x86 box. However as to running MacOS X with all the goodies - I'm betting unlikely except on Mac-like hardware (some old Apple-licensed hardware can be coaxed to run MacOS X and I've heard of a virtualized MacOS environment under Linux PPC running on Mac hardware.).
The reason for not-on-generic-PC-hardware is that while Apple dumped their required-to-run ROMs years ago (it's been about 5 years since the switch from hardware to OS-component "New World ROMs") their machines boot off of Open Firmware and use Apple-designed North & South Bridges, memory subsystems, etc. not to mention using PPC CPUs. Thus tools like VMware are simply emulating the wrong hardware from boot to bus to processor.
Would it be possible to create an emulator? Probably. The same as BIOS and other vendor's chipsets have been reverse-engineered I suppose one could do the same for Macs, even to emulating a PPC. Certainly VirtualPC does so quite elegantly on the Mac side for x86 OS's. The question comes down to market support and it's simply not there.
My own advice would be to bite the bullet and get a Mac - bang for the buck they're decent buys and they do come with a full development environment. That way you know that what you're working with is really going to work/not-work on a Mac and isn't just a figment of your particular emulator.
Slashdot Mirror
Thus US rail passenger vehicles must be built to withstand impact with freight trains. Other nations have a far greater percentage of passenger-only track including many dedicated lines. Also in many nations the rail infrastructure has been continuously modernized resulting in more sophisticated switching and control system.
Amtrak inherited its system after decades of private neglect and was originally a way to prevent the various passenger rail services in the US from individually being shut down or sliding into bankruptcy. That passenger rail still survives in the US at all after decades of far less support then virtually every other transportation medium speaks to its tenacity and durability. Unfortunately Amtrak has always been stuck with conflicting missions and starved for infrastructure (again, much of what it began with was already obsolete or decrepit; upgrades, replacements and refurbishments have always been piecemeal and/or minimal.) That and impressively bad management.
Another problem has been the extraordinarily high strength requirement has been set by the US's Federal Railroad Administration which results in US rail passenger cars being at a minimum of twice as heavy as every other nation's. A result is that there is literally no other market for US vehicles thus tried & proven designs from other nations can't be used in the USA. Spanish, Swedish, German, etc. - none of their highly successful trains can now be imported into the US due to the FRA's unique requirements.
Thus when folks point out the curiosity of Amtrak hiring the consortium of Alstom/Bombardier to design & build the Acela instead of buying a successful somethingelse model they're ignoring that the somethingelses simply aren't allowed to run in the US on an ongoing basis. After license and redesign fees it would have cost more to convert an existing train then to just design & build one to Amtrak's (& the FRA's) unique requirements, which is what was done.
Of course now Amtrak & Alstom/Bombardier are mired in suits and counter-suits, ignoring the mediation structures built into their contracts and publicly blaming each other for the problems the Acela is facing. Amtrak claims the Acela doesn't meet specifications and was delivered late. Alstom/Bombardier claim Amtrak wasn't timely in providing specifications and making design decisions, many of the problems are with features Alstom/Bombardier advised against, and that Amtrak is running the vehicles on substandard track & caternary against Alstom/Bombardier's recommendations.
Of course much of this could have been avoided had the usual process of building a test train, running it ragged for a year, then dissembling it to examine it for understanding of it's rail performance, maintenance characteristics, wear patterns, practical experiance, then refining the design before going into production been followed. Indeed reexamination of the original train's evaluation appears to show the precursors of many of the problems now appearing on the Acela.
Instead however Amtrak ordered 20 trains in one design/build package (and now claims it'll never order another.) Thus as each trainset was built it was manufactured slightly differently from the ones before as experience was applied and improvements made. This now gives Amtrak 20 subtly different trainsets and no further application of the lessons learned nor incentive on the designer/manufacturer to refine the vehicle.
Whatever the case the losers are the citizens of the US & Canada. Why Canada? It turns out the money Amtrak used to purchase Acela Express was from a $1 billion low-interest loan from the Export Development Corp. of Canada. Yep, if Amtrak goes belly-up not only will the US public be out but also the Canadians. As you can imagine the prospect of a US quasi-governmental agency going belly-up and forfeiting on it's debts to Canada doesn't play well north of the border
Ironically there is a widely rumored proposal in Canada for investing CA$3-billion to improve train service in the Quebec City to Windsor corridor (incl. Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and possibly Kingston). The "VIAFast" upgrade is expected to take advantage of trains like Bombardier's newly (re)announced turbo train as well as track-swapping with CPR & CNR to create a dedicated passenger rail route. Indeed there's even renewed interest in a new high-speed Calgary-Edmonton corridor route to serve that rapidly growing part of the country.
Anyway, now you know why the US is stuck with slow trains: Inheritance, lack of investment, political game playing, lousy management, and extreme requirements. On the other hand neighbors in much the same situation are instead expanding their rail systems in logical yet ambitious ways. Makes me think of the tortiose & the hare...
Unfortunately I blew away the machine I used for that yesterday and for the life of me can't quickly Google up the app, doubtless somebody here will recognize it. It was good stuff, even reported numbers, easy to verify for security, etc.
Also .NET isn't pre-installed on Windows XP, its an optionial download. In MS's own words
Also note that MS isn't the only folks supplying UPnP, Intel also developed a lot which is now Open Sourced.
Rendevous & Zeroconf information:
-
IETF Zero Configuration Networking (Zeroconf) Group
-
IETF Zeroconf on Apple Rendezvous and Zeroconf
-
Apple's Customer-pitch for Rendezvous
-
Apple's Developer-pitch for Rendezvous
Here's an earlier Apple implementation called SLP (RFC 2608) also used by Novell:Finally, for completeness here is UPnP:
-
IETF Zero Configuration Networking (Zeroconf) Group
-
IETF Zeroconf on Apple Rendezvous and Zeroconf
-
Apple's Customer-pitch for Rendezvous
-
Apple's Developer-pitch for Rendezvous
Here's an overview of earlier Apple implementation called SLP (RFC 2608) also used by Novell:Finally, for completeness here is UPnP:
However you really should look up the current specs. The latest model iPods do offer more then the Yepp, FireWire and USB 2.0 are about tied for market penetraton (their speeds are essentially identical right now though FireWire is going faster RSN), and most agree that the iPod interface & software integration are the best on the market.
While everyone is welcome to choose whatever fits their needs best the iPod is a remarkably good value bang-for-the-buck, particularly in the latest revisions. Comparing iPod Rev. A specs with the latest Yepp isn't particularly valid unless price is also listed (iPods have gotten cheaper quite quickly.)
Firewire is free:
Boston is promising displays with each vehicle's location and estimated time until arrival on it's new "Silver Line" Bus Rapid Transit route. According to the FAQ on the special Silver Line website:
While the line opened up a few weeks ago I don't know if the message boards and kiosks are up and running yet.A great source of information and discussion on urban transit is the newsgroup misc.transport.urban-transit (also readable through Google.) There you'll find a collection of very knowledgable (and sometimes not so) folks sharing and debating information on systems & proposals around the world.
We're giving this blowhard kid waaay too much attention but actually MacOS X is a legitimate user of the Unix trademark. The Open Group did a press release about it awhile ago and you can see Apple listed here
MacOS X is Unix. It is technically. It is legally. It is functionially. Indeed it's the best-selling commercial Unix out there.
That some poor dork confused GUI or lack of or X Windows or whatever as "Unix" is between he and his doubtless depressed compsci faculty.
Dismissed. Go get some education amnd come back if it sticks.
Small, portable, virtual-machine based, simple enough for kids to get started (and excited on) it's powerful enough for 'real stuff'. Check out the FAQ based on a Squeak Swiki.
Oh, and as Logo had Seymor Papert as 'the guy' behind it Squeak had Alan Kay who did lots of early work on 3D graphics, ARPAnet, windowing interfaces, modern oo programming, and inventor of the Dynabook.
Arguments in the robo-mowers favor were that he has a simple small yard, few obstructions (house, two trees, sometimes car in driveway, never any toys, kids, pets, etc.) His land is fairly private so there was little fear of the mower being robo-napped. The biggest feature was he has little time at home, a passion for gadgets, and grass 'stuff' triggers his allergies.
Those pointed out the mower does a moderately good job. It doesn't hurt anything but it's coverage isn't optimized, once done following the perimeter it pretty much goes on random and trundles around the yard without any apparent strategy. Thus while the drunk walk does eventually cover all of the yard it's also quite inefficient at doing so, may mow the same spot a dozen times while the wedge next to it remains untouched for a long time.
'Course efficiency isn't all that important as long as he's not the one out there doing this all. And as long as it is sunny out the mower just keeps going on its own so he usually simply puts it out on a sunny morning and comes home after work to find the yard clipped & reclipped. Pop the 'bot back in the garage and the lawn is ready for the weekend.
However, he is in a particularly good situation for the mower. The theft concern would be a big one for most folks; the fear of some bored kids coming along and "liberating" the 'bot. There's also the point his yard is absurdly simple with few obstructions, nothing that the 'bot could ever accidentally mow-over. Also his yard is sunny, small, and the grass is never allowed to get tall.
Cost-wise it's pretty much a trade-off. So far the mower is competitive with having a lawn crew come by once a week. On the other hand they'd also edge the walk, fertilize, leaf-blow, etc. Should the mower last another season or two without repairs it'll have justified itself mostly. Should something break, well, it's not like the lawnmower-repair/bait-shop down the street knows how to fix one of these...
My own parents go the lawn-crew route and are quite happy. Dad isn't up to mowing the yard and they do a mostly good job. The lawn always looks great; unfortunately they've damaged trees by nicking their bark regularly and occasionally over-edge and take out the garden border plants. On the plus side they keep it all looking like a golf-course, don't mind putting away a forgotten sprinkler and hose, take care of the leaves in the fall.
In another buddies case he went with an old fashioned push mower when his gas one died. He says the effort is about the same, while the gas mower had powered wheels it took a lot of effort to maneuver so overall there was little effort change in the mowing. However he says it's a lot nicer following the snickity-snick of the mechanical then the roar, dust, and fumes of the gas one.
As to no-lawn - in some cases that's an option but in many it's not. There are often local laws about keeping up one's property and the hassle and ill-will of being different may not be worth it. Also the effort and cost of a more 'natural' look is often about the same as the green desert. Finally resale value of a house is greater with the traditional grass lawn then with other more eco-friendly or labor-saving alternatives.
Oh, and the old hire-a-kid? I tried that at my old house - none were interested. Nobody I know has any kids in their neighborhoods interested either. One acquaintance did tell a story of a new-to-the-neighborhood kid coming by asking but as his dad had just bought the house with the money from a large & very dubious job-injury claim the fellow declined.
Riiight - Laptop, GPS, onboard baby-cam, Jeep Cherokee, can't afford Windows...
Political question, pure and simple.
One I recall from early net days was a browser plug-in for viewing a web directory (Yahoo!?) as a 3D flythrough environment, like lots of other neat Apple demos it's long gone without a trace. Another still in MacOS 9 is the smart text handling - the ability to click on a text string and have an appropriate handler come up for it: web, address, phone number, etc. Or "summarizing" a selected stretch of text via Sherlock.
Anyone else have any favorite past Apple Mac-based technologies? Promised, demo'd, here-and-gone, whatever? Anyone know of a site detailing the MacOS-tech graveyard?
To his agenda perhaps.
However Google isn't used by most folks as a directory - it's a search engine. It simply pulls up entries according to a formula (see pigeonrank for the inside scoop) and gives those back. No bias beyond what smart webmasters can impart, no artificial clustering, etc.
If Google were to start doing as Brandt wants it would quickly run into endless battles, loose it's searching edge, become just another pay(or agenda)-for-play roadkill.
No thanks.
To his agenda perhaps.
However Google isn't used by most folks as a directory - it's a search engine. It simply pulls up entries according to a formula (see pigeonrank for the inside scoop) and gives those back. No bias beyond what smart webmasters can impart, no artificial clustering, etc.
If Google were to start doing as Brandt wants it would quickly run into endless battles, loose it's searching edge, become just another pay(or agenda)-for-play roadkill.
No thanks.
Right - iMac didn't come with a floppy. Or other removable media. If you wanted that you had to buy it seperately.
Was that a bad thing? Well the iMac was the best selling PC for several years running so apparently not.
BTW - If someone's gonna cough up a grand or more US$ for an iMac they can budget in the external media or printer or whatever, and apparently they did.
Keep customers informed about your product. Allow customers to inform each other. Give customers space and tools to work together. Give customers (indirect) access to developers and vice-versa.
Document everything you can. What you don't explicitly document provide good search tools for (those user-forums quickly build up lots of valuable information.) Code samples, vendors, release notes, manual corrections - get it all out there.
Let folks know your product development roadmap. If it changes let them know that too. Make it clear when & where you're willing to collaborate on development. Makes sure prices & licenses are fair and reasonable.
Make technical support a priority. Hire good competent folks. Give them good tools. Make it possible for issues to move from tier to tier of support easily and efficiently. Never leave a customer stranded. Only collect customer information once in a call (we're in technology admit - how hard is it to hand off a customer record?!)
Finally, watch out for "spin" or "expectations management". Don't treat customers like idiots but consider them as partners (and not like Microsoft considers it's "partners".) Teat folks well and they'll remember it; screw 'em and you'll pay, if not now eventually (look at CA.)
Developer specific? Get lots of code samples out: Real ones, useful ones, ones that show off your product. Don't have ridiculous requirements. Give folks a really low-cost way of checking out your product before committing.
They did replace the floppy - with networking. The iMac shipped with fast & easy networking built in, either via ethernet or dial-up. Thus between reading CD's and networking it's trvial to get material on & off of an iMac. Later iDisk was rolled out to make it even easier. Now that iMacs ship with CD burners standard it's plain trivial.
For those that really have a burning need for a floppy drive then they either shouldn't get an iMac or need to budget for an external floppy drive/superdrive/whatever. However for the target iMac audience that wasn't an issue: Few of them had any collection of must-read floppies and those with knew what they were buying. Saddling the rest of us with a dusty drive port wasn't needed and yeah, lots of us never missed it.
ps. I've a styrofoam cooler of Mac floppies in the basement, never needed to read any of them on the iMac. Ok, looked longingly at the "After Dark: Star Trek Edition" one once but then recalled how buggy AD was, didn't look back.
Well, you can always run the Open Source "Darwin" core of MacOS X on an appropriate x86 box. However as to running MacOS X with all the goodies - I'm betting unlikely except on Mac-like hardware (some old Apple-licensed hardware can be coaxed to run MacOS X and I've heard of a virtualized MacOS environment under Linux PPC running on Mac hardware.).
The reason for not-on-generic-PC-hardware is that while Apple dumped their required-to-run ROMs years ago (it's been about 5 years since the switch from hardware to OS-component "New World ROMs") their machines boot off of Open Firmware and use Apple-designed North & South Bridges, memory subsystems, etc. not to mention using PPC CPUs. Thus tools like VMware are simply emulating the wrong hardware from boot to bus to processor.
Would it be possible to create an emulator? Probably. The same as BIOS and other vendor's chipsets have been reverse-engineered I suppose one could do the same for Macs, even to emulating a PPC. Certainly VirtualPC does so quite elegantly on the Mac side for x86 OS's. The question comes down to market support and it's simply not there.
My own advice would be to bite the bullet and get a Mac - bang for the buck they're decent buys and they do come with a full development environment. That way you know that what you're working with is really going to work/not-work on a Mac and isn't just a figment of your particular emulator.