Yes pay movie, but I do pay for cable TV ($50) and still get bombarded with commercials. Yes satellite radio is commercial free, but not all stations.
I pay taxes and tolls, yet there are still advertisements on the highway. Granted many are probably installed on private property.
Free with ads may be the new model, but the old one has certainly been updated with "you pay far less because ads cover some portion of the cost (aka profit)".
Re:Wireless Digital Monitor
on
USB To Go Wireless
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I'd rather skip the details, but 802.xx devices don't seem to "mount" the same at least in windows. I'm sure software can be written to do this, but I do not sure I want a browswer to handle a high-resolution camera. Again, software could be written.
As you pointed out, I'm lazy. My goal with technology is to make my life easier. Why plug stuff in when the device can just sit on my desk. Both iPod and memory card readers etc.
Wireless video connections to monitors would make wall mount TV's much easier. By stict definition I'm sure you can say it is a computer, but MPEG decoders are not high-end anymore. Your camera phone has one, albiet not great.
These are ideas to improve devices. If you don't want them nor see the value, the wired version will be around for a long time (think Xbox 360 controllers).
How many things in life would we not have if we always had to justify things ahead of time? I for one would like a wireless USB connection so that I could do time-lapse webcam shots from my deck. I can plug it in for power, but I'm not running a line (ethernet or USB) for that. In addition, wireless cameras seem over priced.
I could come up with numerous connections. Cablebox to PC for extra data storage from my PVR (assume HDTV bandwidth could be sustained). Wireless memory card readers, iPod/MP3/PDA sync'ing.
As other pointed out, wireless video to the monitor when MPEG-like quality is sufficient. Have a decoder built into the display.
And yes, I'm not sure about wireless keyboards for desktops, but my HTPC (home theater pc) was wireless as I don't want to sit near the 100in screen. Oh and now the PC is in a different room...
These are uses I have right now. Just wait until we get more resources...
Should Sony be responsible for my 5 year old LCD monitor then? Give me a break, you cannot possibly expect a company to keep hiring people to support old stuff. Oh and why was SP2 a free download then?
True, except their DRM policies only allow Computer -> iPod sync. I bring my iPod to work, I cannot sync it with my computer there eventhough there are no DRM files on it. Therefore, DRM does get in the way regardless of the music. It is so annoying, that if you're not careful, it will sync my computer at work to the iPod and therefore clear it out. Otherwise I agree with you.
This is what I do for a living. On any modern motherboard, there are a few DC-to-DC regulators. Latest Intel designs use up to 6 phases (consider it parallel sources) that covert 12V to ~1.3V. I wondered myself why they don't covert from 5V as 1.2/5 is easier than 1.3/12. However, the input power to the CPU etc is the same regardless of the input voltage of the converter (5 or 12). However, as most EE know, the higher gate voltage you can supply to an NMOS, the harder you turn it on and the lower the on resistance is. Therefore, we use 12V because that gives us about 12V of gate drive and therefore more efficiency in the DC conversion as less power is expended as heat in the NMOS power FETs. (Although they still can run at 100C easily).
However, in notebooks, we usually work on 3.3-5V but these CPUs and other regulators are dealing with less power.
One possible solution is 12->5->Vcore conversion and the efficiency may even be higher. However, motherboard manufactures, who operate on like 15% margines, are not willing to pay for more components (obviously). Note: 3.3V is about the practical lower limit for DC-DC IC's as the process technologies and effect gate voltages of the output stage would be worse at lower supplies voltages.
With care, we can obtain >90% conversion efficiency at 12V. Also at 12V, the motherboard does not need to handle as high of current (trace thickness) and that lowers inductance and other side effects. Also, PCI-express is 3.3 - 12V only.
How about people with a 22in+ widescreen LCD monitor? (I guess some of those are 1050). Obviously this isn't dirt cheap, but a 50in 1080p DLP is around $2k. 2 years ago, the 720p was around $3k. Check fat wallet, LCD TVs are getting cheaper too. Given this is slashdot, I find it hard to believe people haven't pick up on the trend - things get cheaper.
Although I hate copy protection too, HDCP on the monitor is no big deal. It is the SOURCES that suck. Either way, I still find it amazing, given this is supposed to be a tech related site, how many people hate HDTV. Yes I hate the way FOX over compresses things, but otherwise the difference is HUGE. Those that can't see the improvement, well I'm sorry for your poor vision.
I agree. From my understand, the word resolution refers to limit where you can pick out different objects (aka, you can resolve two points of light). If I make a screen really really big, but you stand close to it, you can easily resolve even a 1,000 megapixel screen.
This is similar to what many refer to as the "screen door" effect on LCD projection TVs. The gap between pixels is much smaller than a pixel but many can still make out that gap even on 1080p TVs.
Therefore, the parent post to my comment was correct when indicating you need viewing distance to figure out the limit. The width/size of the angle of light entering your eye will determine at a give distance whether or not you can resolve two different objects or pixels.
Have you seen the pay as you go for Verizon? Since it is not a safe assumption that anyone can us any service, one is better off with a plan than pay as you go if you use your phone for any amount of talking. So your cell phone analogy holds true as long as you don't really use it.
As for printer ink, that's why I buy new printers and not refills.
Electric razor for over 3 years...
I will agree with you on the average person looks short term rather than long term. However, the article didn't seem to be clear about the costs or if it was even offered to them to buy it out right. My point was that neither side is the "good guy".
I briefly read the article. It sounds like the software stopped working because of an intentional hook in the code that says you have to keep paying. If Hoboken agreed fine. However, my point is that people want to BUY stuff now. Hoboken should not have been renting the software while paying for the hardware.
Paying for support when something BREAKS is one thing. Paying to keep using it for an arbitrary reason of "lets pay the developers more" doesn't seem right either.
Seems similar to paying for a service contract on your car. If you opt out, that shouldn't mean your car stops working. Granted we're talking about a license (aka contract) and Hoboken can sign what ever they like. Doesn't make that kind of product any more noble.
I thought one of the purposes for this flash memory was increased speed. 5MB/s doesn't cut it. However, your point, very similar to a post above, still holds true.
I thought we only worry about efficiency when the energy supply is low? Granted I wouldn't want a huge piece of equipment, but considering how much thermal energy is in the air during the summer, cost is what I'm worried about more than efficiency.
One thing that seems to be over looked in all of this is actual economics. MPAA says they need to pay the directors etc big bucks to work. Fine, do that. One problem, I don't want to pay that much for the final product. The MPAA is an organized monopoly. My company doesn't have that luxary. If it costs us too much to make a chip, our competitor will do it for less and we'll be out of business. It is that simple. Think Dell.
I'm not saying copying movies is the best thing to do, but don't bitch to me that you have to pay your out-of-wack bills either. $5 is what I'll pay to see a movie. If $5 * #_of_tickets isn't enough money for your $200M movie, that is not my problem. Don't cry to me about ticket sales decreasing while ticket prices are increasing. Supply and demand is not balanced so fix your business model.
If Nicole Kidman wants $20M per movie and that blows the budget, don't hire her. She'll adjust too after being unemployed like many Americans (or Australians).
Actually, I think you have it completely wrong. Firing poor bad employees shows that you know what is going on and will not tolerate BS. More often than not, the complaints I hear from people are almost always do to a boss who will not act firmly. This means protecting good employees and FIRING the ones who are not up to par. Yeah you can spin it as the managers fault for hiring the person, but if you wanted to avoid that, you'd still have an idiot working with you. I enjoy my free time and therefore do not want to have to fix all their crap. Been there, done that. People lie, cheat, and steal, but once you figure it out, FIX THE SITUATION!
If a total asshole tells you something that is obviously not true, that you'd be the idiot for not applying your own common sense. My common sense tells me we don't know shit about what is going on and that there are defintely ways we can improve, but just bashing SUVs is such naive comment.
You're not serious about that analogy right? I would agree if you're comparing some massive weapon or soemthing hitting a very specific part of earth may end the planet as we know it. And I may even agree with you if you hit earth with an object with an equally as large/dense object things would change. What I was saying, and you obviously didn't get, is that we don't have enough experience or know-how to understand all the effects in our highly complex environment. The Earth goes through changes on its own. We could trigger one or alter one, but we just don't know. So I disagree with everyone one who has taken a side. Smog sucks, SUVs suck, but I have to get on with my life with what we have...that's plain economics.
At the same time, I guess you don't believe things such as ice ages and other natural climate changes either. I don't argue whether humans are creating global warming or not. There is data going both ways. If there is data that suggests a particular event or substance can hurt the environment, than I'll support any policy that works towards eliminating it. That said, I still find it hard to believe that humans, as powerful as they can be, can alter a planet in such a limited time scale. Earth is measured in millions and billions of years, yet all the items you and other lists as killing the planet have only been around say 200 years. There's a few orders of magnitude difference in those.
I'll spend more money protecting the environment when activist realize the sky isn't falling and I'm not going to buy a freakin camel for transportation because we ignored economics and just drop everything harmful. And no, I don't drive an SUV. My car gets around 25 MPG (measured from its display).
Funny that you metnion this. I installed Windows XP Media Center on a PC and had the same experience. The only reason I needed my Asus CD was to get the RAID chip's drivers.
MCE was by far the easiest install. I didn't even have to google or tweak anything. Seems easier than your linux install...go figure.
That said, Vista is in beta - problems are not news for me.
Considering I work in the power supplies (DC to DC converters), sounds like your issue was hardware related. Not sure how this has to do with Win2k Vs. Linux. And as an FYI, my first win2k ran on an old AMD 1GHz that previous had win 98. My first machine was a 386 12MHz. I'm not old, but I'm not young either. By the way, I know about the explorer thing - you have to completely wait for it boot up. Howver, the last time my power went out, I did not have to do a fsck on the machine to get it back up.
No system is perfect. Try explaining why linux cannot restart on its own while windows can to an old lady. Yeah I know about defragmenting the HDD, but my mother has no idea what a block size is nor should she!
Why is that all you linux people think that free OS solves the world's computing problems?
I don't use linux because the hardware support and software seem like they are in alpha/beta debug stages rather than full time production. My computers are supposed to be set it and forget it. I don't use computers for the sake of computing, my computers are used to accomplish a goal - HDTV, regular TV, web crap, digital pictures etc. They are media machines. I have the same expectations of my PC as I do for my Xbox 360, receiver, DVD player, TV, etc. They are just supposed to work. Linux may be easier to install, but I'm not going to write my own drivers or recompile the kernel just to get MythTV working. That, my linux friends, is why us 'dumb' users stick with windows. It works and Win2k and on has *NEVER* crashed for me.
I'm still not convinced the lense is to be blamed for the poor color fidelity. Granted I'm optics expert, but even a cheap piece of plastic can be clear. I agree about sharp/crisp images will be impossible with these cheap lenses, but the color is absolutely horrible. I may experiment with my Nikon D50 and see what happens with clear plastic blocking the lense (not sure if this even relates). Either way, I'm willing to bet that the image may not be sharp any more, but I bet the color will be 1,000x better than any cell phone camera now.
I believe the sensor has extremely poor dynamic range and simply cannot capture RGB evenly. Once that gets better, then I would start engineering better lenses.
None of this makes any sense to me. Xbox 360 current has component or composite outputs via a switch on their connector. This implies that the contacts on the back of the unit has all of the outputs but switches some on and off (you probably cannot view composite and component on two different tv's at the same time). This also implies that they have a D-to-A converter since all the games and video are digital to start with. It would, therefore, require less hardware to pipe out the digital. However, there they would have to add the HDCP crap (hint read ATI and nVidia's class action lawsuit).
There would be no need to scalars but rather a down conversion to 480i for regular TVs. It would be really smart of MS to save CPU power (heat energy) if if down res'd the games themselves if they dectect a non-HD TV hooked up. They could, I do not know.
So, upgrading the Xbox from composite to component is cheap not because of analog-to-analog, but becasue the signal is already there - just tap into it. Keep in mind that most graphic cards with DVI ports today have DVI-I meaning they do both digital and analog. It doesn't cost you any more to get the digital or the analog output as long as you make the right electrical connections. This could have been done on both the 360 and PS3.
Either way, it sounds like Sony and MS are trying to save money where they can. If they can avoid the HDCP chip and the royalities that go along with that, they are going to do that. I just hope there is some way with the HD-DVD drive MS will release for the 360 will now allow HDMI/DVI - the images are digital and my LCD projector is digital. No need for me to have an analog link between the two.
$5k is what I hear is the replacement costs of the batteries in hybrids. Since there really is no equivalent costs on say a honda civic, you need to factor that in when determining the econimics of a hybrid. At $2.75 per gallon and aprox 30MPG for a civic, that's about 50k miles of driving the civic gets at the same cost of just those batteries. At $5k more expensive, that's another 50k miles of driving. I did the calculation on an older post that shows somewhat of the expected costs of both vehicles.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes pay movie, but I do pay for cable TV ($50) and still get bombarded with commercials. Yes satellite radio is commercial free, but not all stations.
I pay taxes and tolls, yet there are still advertisements on the highway. Granted many are probably installed on private property.
Free with ads may be the new model, but the old one has certainly been updated with "you pay far less because ads cover some portion of the cost (aka profit)".
I'd rather skip the details, but 802.xx devices don't seem to "mount" the same at least in windows. I'm sure software can be written to do this, but I do not sure I want a browswer to handle a high-resolution camera. Again, software could be written.
As you pointed out, I'm lazy. My goal with technology is to make my life easier. Why plug stuff in when the device can just sit on my desk. Both iPod and memory card readers etc.
Wireless video connections to monitors would make wall mount TV's much easier. By stict definition I'm sure you can say it is a computer, but MPEG decoders are not high-end anymore. Your camera phone has one, albiet not great.
These are ideas to improve devices. If you don't want them nor see the value, the wired version will be around for a long time (think Xbox 360 controllers).
How many things in life would we not have if we always had to justify things ahead of time? I for one would like a wireless USB connection so that I could do time-lapse webcam shots from my deck. I can plug it in for power, but I'm not running a line (ethernet or USB) for that. In addition, wireless cameras seem over priced.
I could come up with numerous connections. Cablebox to PC for extra data storage from my PVR (assume HDTV bandwidth could be sustained). Wireless memory card readers, iPod/MP3/PDA sync'ing.
As other pointed out, wireless video to the monitor when MPEG-like quality is sufficient. Have a decoder built into the display.
And yes, I'm not sure about wireless keyboards for desktops, but my HTPC (home theater pc) was wireless as I don't want to sit near the 100in screen. Oh and now the PC is in a different room...
These are uses I have right now. Just wait until we get more resources...
Should Sony be responsible for my 5 year old LCD monitor then? Give me a break, you cannot possibly expect a company to keep hiring people to support old stuff. Oh and why was SP2 a free download then?
True, except their DRM policies only allow Computer -> iPod sync. I bring my iPod to work, I cannot sync it with my computer there eventhough there are no DRM files on it. Therefore, DRM does get in the way regardless of the music. It is so annoying, that if you're not careful, it will sync my computer at work to the iPod and therefore clear it out. Otherwise I agree with you.
This is what I do for a living. On any modern motherboard, there are a few DC-to-DC regulators. Latest Intel designs use up to 6 phases (consider it parallel sources) that covert 12V to ~1.3V. I wondered myself why they don't covert from 5V as 1.2/5 is easier than 1.3/12. However, the input power to the CPU etc is the same regardless of the input voltage of the converter (5 or 12). However, as most EE know, the higher gate voltage you can supply to an NMOS, the harder you turn it on and the lower the on resistance is. Therefore, we use 12V because that gives us about 12V of gate drive and therefore more efficiency in the DC conversion as less power is expended as heat in the NMOS power FETs. (Although they still can run at 100C easily).
However, in notebooks, we usually work on 3.3-5V but these CPUs and other regulators are dealing with less power.
One possible solution is 12->5->Vcore conversion and the efficiency may even be higher. However, motherboard manufactures, who operate on like 15% margines, are not willing to pay for more components (obviously). Note: 3.3V is about the practical lower limit for DC-DC IC's as the process technologies and effect gate voltages of the output stage would be worse at lower supplies voltages.
With care, we can obtain >90% conversion efficiency at 12V. Also at 12V, the motherboard does not need to handle as high of current (trace thickness) and that lowers inductance and other side effects. Also, PCI-express is 3.3 - 12V only.
Do you really think they expected this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F64VfRnmIcM
How about people with a 22in+ widescreen LCD monitor? (I guess some of those are 1050). Obviously this isn't dirt cheap, but a 50in 1080p DLP is around $2k. 2 years ago, the 720p was around $3k. Check fat wallet, LCD TVs are getting cheaper too. Given this is slashdot, I find it hard to believe people haven't pick up on the trend - things get cheaper.
Although I hate copy protection too, HDCP on the monitor is no big deal. It is the SOURCES that suck. Either way, I still find it amazing, given this is supposed to be a tech related site, how many people hate HDTV. Yes I hate the way FOX over compresses things, but otherwise the difference is HUGE. Those that can't see the improvement, well I'm sorry for your poor vision.
I agree. From my understand, the word resolution refers to limit where you can pick out different objects (aka, you can resolve two points of light). If I make a screen really really big, but you stand close to it, you can easily resolve even a 1,000 megapixel screen.
This is similar to what many refer to as the "screen door" effect on LCD projection TVs. The gap between pixels is much smaller than a pixel but many can still make out that gap even on 1080p TVs.
Therefore, the parent post to my comment was correct when indicating you need viewing distance to figure out the limit. The width/size of the angle of light entering your eye will determine at a give distance whether or not you can resolve two different objects or pixels.
Have you seen the pay as you go for Verizon? Since it is not a safe assumption that anyone can us any service, one is better off with a plan than pay as you go if you use your phone for any amount of talking. So your cell phone analogy holds true as long as you don't really use it.
As for printer ink, that's why I buy new printers and not refills.
Electric razor for over 3 years...
I will agree with you on the average person looks short term rather than long term. However, the article didn't seem to be clear about the costs or if it was even offered to them to buy it out right. My point was that neither side is the "good guy".
I briefly read the article. It sounds like the software stopped working because of an intentional hook in the code that says you have to keep paying. If Hoboken agreed fine. However, my point is that people want to BUY stuff now. Hoboken should not have been renting the software while paying for the hardware.
Paying for support when something BREAKS is one thing. Paying to keep using it for an arbitrary reason of "lets pay the developers more" doesn't seem right either.
Seems similar to paying for a service contract on your car. If you opt out, that shouldn't mean your car stops working. Granted we're talking about a license (aka contract) and Hoboken can sign what ever they like. Doesn't make that kind of product any more noble.
I thought one of the purposes for this flash memory was increased speed. 5MB/s doesn't cut it. However, your point, very similar to a post above, still holds true.
I thought we only worry about efficiency when the energy supply is low? Granted I wouldn't want a huge piece of equipment, but considering how much thermal energy is in the air during the summer, cost is what I'm worried about more than efficiency.
Oddly enough, the smart guys in movies always seem to have british accents...go figure.
One thing that seems to be over looked in all of this is actual economics. MPAA says they need to pay the directors etc big bucks to work. Fine, do that. One problem, I don't want to pay that much for the final product. The MPAA is an organized monopoly. My company doesn't have that luxary. If it costs us too much to make a chip, our competitor will do it for less and we'll be out of business. It is that simple. Think Dell.
I'm not saying copying movies is the best thing to do, but don't bitch to me that you have to pay your out-of-wack bills either. $5 is what I'll pay to see a movie. If $5 * #_of_tickets isn't enough money for your $200M movie, that is not my problem. Don't cry to me about ticket sales decreasing while ticket prices are increasing. Supply and demand is not balanced so fix your business model.
If Nicole Kidman wants $20M per movie and that blows the budget, don't hire her. She'll adjust too after being unemployed like many Americans (or Australians).
Actually, I think you have it completely wrong. Firing poor bad employees shows that you know what is going on and will not tolerate BS. More often than not, the complaints I hear from people are almost always do to a boss who will not act firmly. This means protecting good employees and FIRING the ones who are not up to par. Yeah you can spin it as the managers fault for hiring the person, but if you wanted to avoid that, you'd still have an idiot working with you. I enjoy my free time and therefore do not want to have to fix all their crap. Been there, done that. People lie, cheat, and steal, but once you figure it out, FIX THE SITUATION!
If a total asshole tells you something that is obviously not true, that you'd be the idiot for not applying your own common sense. My common sense tells me we don't know shit about what is going on and that there are defintely ways we can improve, but just bashing SUVs is such naive comment.
You're not serious about that analogy right? I would agree if you're comparing some massive weapon or soemthing hitting a very specific part of earth may end the planet as we know it. And I may even agree with you if you hit earth with an object with an equally as large/dense object things would change. What I was saying, and you obviously didn't get, is that we don't have enough experience or know-how to understand all the effects in our highly complex environment. The Earth goes through changes on its own. We could trigger one or alter one, but we just don't know. So I disagree with everyone one who has taken a side. Smog sucks, SUVs suck, but I have to get on with my life with what we have...that's plain economics.
At the same time, I guess you don't believe things such as ice ages and other natural climate changes either. I don't argue whether humans are creating global warming or not. There is data going both ways. If there is data that suggests a particular event or substance can hurt the environment, than I'll support any policy that works towards eliminating it. That said, I still find it hard to believe that humans, as powerful as they can be, can alter a planet in such a limited time scale. Earth is measured in millions and billions of years, yet all the items you and other lists as killing the planet have only been around say 200 years. There's a few orders of magnitude difference in those.
I'll spend more money protecting the environment when activist realize the sky isn't falling and I'm not going to buy a freakin camel for transportation because we ignored economics and just drop everything harmful. And no, I don't drive an SUV. My car gets around 25 MPG (measured from its display).
Funny that you metnion this. I installed Windows XP Media Center on a PC and had the same experience. The only reason I needed my Asus CD was to get the RAID chip's drivers.
MCE was by far the easiest install. I didn't even have to google or tweak anything. Seems easier than your linux install...go figure.
That said, Vista is in beta - problems are not news for me.
Considering I work in the power supplies (DC to DC converters), sounds like your issue was hardware related. Not sure how this has to do with Win2k Vs. Linux. And as an FYI, my first win2k ran on an old AMD 1GHz that previous had win 98. My first machine was a 386 12MHz. I'm not old, but I'm not young either. By the way, I know about the explorer thing - you have to completely wait for it boot up. Howver, the last time my power went out, I did not have to do a fsck on the machine to get it back up. No system is perfect. Try explaining why linux cannot restart on its own while windows can to an old lady. Yeah I know about defragmenting the HDD, but my mother has no idea what a block size is nor should she!
Why is that all you linux people think that free OS solves the world's computing problems?
I don't use linux because the hardware support and software seem like they are in alpha/beta debug stages rather than full time production. My computers are supposed to be set it and forget it. I don't use computers for the sake of computing, my computers are used to accomplish a goal - HDTV, regular TV, web crap, digital pictures etc. They are media machines. I have the same expectations of my PC as I do for my Xbox 360, receiver, DVD player, TV, etc. They are just supposed to work. Linux may be easier to install, but I'm not going to write my own drivers or recompile the kernel just to get MythTV working. That, my linux friends, is why us 'dumb' users stick with windows. It works and Win2k and on has *NEVER* crashed for me.
I'm still not convinced the lense is to be blamed for the poor color fidelity. Granted I'm optics expert, but even a cheap piece of plastic can be clear. I agree about sharp/crisp images will be impossible with these cheap lenses, but the color is absolutely horrible. I may experiment with my Nikon D50 and see what happens with clear plastic blocking the lense (not sure if this even relates). Either way, I'm willing to bet that the image may not be sharp any more, but I bet the color will be 1,000x better than any cell phone camera now.
I believe the sensor has extremely poor dynamic range and simply cannot capture RGB evenly. Once that gets better, then I would start engineering better lenses.
None of this makes any sense to me. Xbox 360 current has component or composite outputs via a switch on their connector. This implies that the contacts on the back of the unit has all of the outputs but switches some on and off (you probably cannot view composite and component on two different tv's at the same time). This also implies that they have a D-to-A converter since all the games and video are digital to start with. It would, therefore, require less hardware to pipe out the digital. However, there they would have to add the HDCP crap (hint read ATI and nVidia's class action lawsuit).
There would be no need to scalars but rather a down conversion to 480i for regular TVs. It would be really smart of MS to save CPU power (heat energy) if if down res'd the games themselves if they dectect a non-HD TV hooked up. They could, I do not know.
So, upgrading the Xbox from composite to component is cheap not because of analog-to-analog, but becasue the signal is already there - just tap into it. Keep in mind that most graphic cards with DVI ports today have DVI-I meaning they do both digital and analog. It doesn't cost you any more to get the digital or the analog output as long as you make the right electrical connections. This could have been done on both the 360 and PS3.
Either way, it sounds like Sony and MS are trying to save money where they can. If they can avoid the HDCP chip and the royalities that go along with that, they are going to do that. I just hope there is some way with the HD-DVD drive MS will release for the 360 will now allow HDMI/DVI - the images are digital and my LCD projector is digital. No need for me to have an analog link between the two.
$5k is what I hear is the replacement costs of the batteries in hybrids. Since there really is no equivalent costs on say a honda civic, you need to factor that in when determining the econimics of a hybrid. At $2.75 per gallon and aprox 30MPG for a civic, that's about 50k miles of driving the civic gets at the same cost of just those batteries. At $5k more expensive, that's another 50k miles of driving. I did the calculation on an older post that shows somewhat of the expected costs of both vehicles.