Actually, the headling IS wrong, rumblin'rabbit. The use of the term "nanotubes" is incorrect. These are nanowires (that's what the field, and the article itself, call them). These aren't "tubes" in that they aren't hollow; the difference is not at all trivial.
Why the hell are COLLEGE students citing encyclopedias in papers in the first place? That's what you do for those papers in sixth grade on why Tony Hawk is awesome or whatever, but if you're older than 14, you shouldn't be citing an encyclopedia (or *pedia) of any sort. That's just a sign of poor research skills.
Snakes on a Plane is an "airline disaster" movie of sorts. It might push people already apprehensive about flying over the edge, or it might end up scaring kids who happen to glance at the video, or the person watching might panic. It's not terribly unreasonable to keep such movies off the plane.
So everyone knows about blood diamonds? Can anyone here shed light about other gems? A lot of sapphires come from war-torn Sri Lanka, for example, so they could be "blood sapphires," right? I mean, other gems are worth a lot, too. Why couldn't they be used to finance wars? Do any other countries have other gemstone mines (emerald, ruby, jade, sapphire, onyx, amethyst, peridot, etc...) filled with slaves and slave corpses?
There is no such thing as an "iPod killer". iPod is here to stay.
You're obviously oblivious to the last 20 years of consumer electronics history. Remember the Walkman? Yeah, that was "here to stay" too. This might not be the "iPod killer," and "iPod killer" might be a stupid phrase, but your second statement is myopic.
Right. Apple produces the Lisa and everyone says "dumb Apple, what a dud."
Microsoft produces Windows 1.0 and Windows 2.0 and everyone says "Got to admire Microsoft, they stick to it until they get it right."
That's true, because if there's one thing I get way too much of around here, it's Microsoft-loving and Apple-bashing.
They didn't say it'd be an action adventure series. I can think of several variants that might be possible.
Soap Opera (a Desperate Moisture Farmers, if you will): Uncle Owen has a two-year-long fling with one of the members of that cantina band down at Mos Eisley. Aunt Veru kills their neighbor Chuck when she finds out he's the one that sexually assaulted their droids a few years ago. Luke knows about her crime, but he knows if he turns her in he'll have to live with Owen and that creepy bassoon player Owen's sleeping with...what should Luke do? Stay tuned! Sitcom: Here's a sample episode - Luke steals Owen's speeder to go shoot womprats out at Beggar's Canyon with Biggs. While they go to pick up the womprat carcasses, someone steals the speeder (uh oh!). Luke scrambles to find a replacement speeder before his uncle finds out, and builds one out of sand, scrap metal, and Bigg's droid girlfriend She3PO. It doesn't fool Owen, and Luke gets in trouble. It turns out Owen stole the speeder back and didn't tell Luke...just to teach him a lesson! See? Comedy and a lesson. TV gold. Crime Drama - Before they were moisture farmers, Owen and Veru were gumshoes, private eyes, solving crimes on Tatooine the non-existent police didn't care about. They always get their man - why? Their ace in the hole, Luke. He's like Monk with moxie, Encyclopedia Brown with blond hair and a killer smile. Watch out when the team takes on their toughest adversary: TK-421! They searched for him at his post, but he wasn't there. Where could he be? Stay tuned!
See? The list is endless. I'm sure it'll be great, and that there'll be a million stories to tell. I didn't even get to the part where they catch Luke finding Wookie porn on Owen's computer. Oh, the hijinks that ensue!
I can help with alternatives in the Windows world. I've never used MythTV. In Windows there is:
GB-PVR - FREE, easy to install, includes media functions like photos/music/other vides/etc.., works well with current tuners, easy to install plug-ings but not open-source, not very pretty (if the wife-acceptance factor matters), the PVR software I currently use SageTV - kind of expensive, the included media functions kind of suck, can easily install plugins (but I totally fucked up my trial install while installing one plugin), was unstable when I tried it, slows down sometimes due to resource usage, I guess MeedioTV - haven't tried this since last August but at the time it was borderline terrible, resource-hog, crashed a lot, wouldn't stop recording when I exited live TV (causing my hard drive to quickly fill up)...these problems may not exist anymore; it does look nice, though BeyondTV - expensive if you want media functions, works great with plug-ins, a little slow sometimes, intelligently selects recordings, high WAF MediaPortal - I've never tried it, but it's also free and I think open-source, from what I hear it's somewhat of a resource hog, I can't say much more Windows MCE - never tried it, never will.
If I was building a HTPC, I'd use Linux, 'cause it's highly customizable since you can strip it down the way you need it. I think Windows is totally inappropriate for HTPCs especially 'cause of all that DRM shit.
From the last point in your post it seems you have little to no experience in Windows-based HTPCs, given that your statement is based on exactly one piece of software: MCE. I can't think of one non-MCE piece of Windows PVR software that uses "all that DRM shit" on their files. Not one, and I've used most everything for Windows at one point or another except MCE. MediaPortal, GB-PVR, MeedioTV, BeyondTV, SageTV...none have DRM on their files. None. And they're all Windows-based.
The use stems from the fact that while Moore's Law has been surprisingly accurate in predicting the miniaturization of silicon-based circuits.
That's also somewhat inaccurate. Since around the mid 80's, the international semiconductor consortium (I don't remember the exact name) set their technology targets to fall on the Moore's Law line. It was sort of their goal from that point on. So, it's really only "surprisingly accurate" up until the 80's; from that point on it's really just "expected."
Yes and no. Yes, it's true that Moore's Law is not a "law" as such, but when people speak of "hitting the limit of Moore's Law" or "the end of Moore's Law" they are almost always referring to a physical limitatation to the trend of increasing transistor density and switching speeds. It's easier to say "the limit of Moore's Law" than "the regime where transistor density cannot be increased appreciably without a radical change in current semiconductor processing technology."
Re:Perhaps they can make it possible to configure
on
MythTV 0.19 Released
·
· Score: 1
You might consider GB-PVR. Windows-based, easy to set up, and free (though not open-source). The software's skins are lacking, so if the wife-acceptance factor is critical, that might hurt. All in all, I've been happy with it. There are some significant problems (priority lists are hard to set up, automatically interrupts live recording to start a scheduled recording without prompting you...something that always seems to happen during important live events like the Super Bowl, etc...) but it's certainly good for what it is. It also has media functions built in, and I've had no problems playing/ripping DVDs. I'm sure Myth is more customizable, but GB-PVR is certainly not too bad for the lack of effort involved.
Papers pay to have access to Reuters or AP wire feeds. They aren't free. In that way, the papers are compensating the copyright holders. If Google is listing thesea papers' articles for free without their permission then it's not really hypocricy.
Of course, it's easier to jump the gun and yell at the newspapers. I agree that this lawsuit is not in their best interests as an industry, but your specific point is quite ridiculous.
...their actions would result in an economic death penalty.
How about a real one?
So you equate a sentence for spamming with a sentence used on serial murderers and the like? What even happened to that whole "let the punishment fit the crime" doctrine? I think the financial penalty along with any possible jail time is plenty.
Okay, but for that analogy to work you have to contend that consumers are married to Sony. Which they aren't. At least, I hope not, or that'd be one weird-ass wedding. I guess the best man would be a Walkman.
Nanotubes have a very tough road before used in electronics, for several reasons. 1) Producing nanotubes of consistent chirality has proved very very difficult. Chirality is how "twisted" the nanotube is (chemists, I know that's a poor description), and depending on the nature of the chirality the nanotube can be semiconducting or metallic to different degrees. If you produce a huge amount of nanotubes but not all are semiconducting, or they're semiconducting but with different electronic properties because they aren't the exact same chirality, you have a humongous probem. 2) Producing long tubes has also been a major problem, although this one has made a lot more progress than the consistent chirality probem. 3) Difficulties with integrating nanotubes into solution processing mechanisms. Using nanotubes with silicon would inevitably cause a clash in fundamental production schemes (between "top-down" and "bottom-up") that can not be resolved in an economically desirable manner.
Unfortunately, lots of people think of computing as the jetliner industry. Jetliner speeds kept increasing for a long time, but they've plateaued because the costs and other factors (like sonic booms) of producing faster jets made them economically disadvantageous. So that's why commercial jets today are just as fast as they were in 1974. Same thing could happen to computers. I hope not, but it's an interesting comparison.
Here is an article from two years ago with an expected timetable for chip process width that exactly matches what we have seen since then: 90 nm in 2004, 65 nm in 2005-2006 and 45 nm in 2007-2008. There really isn't anything exciting about this press release from NEC.
The reason chip process widths exactly match those numbers is because those are specific targets set by an international semiconductor processing consortium. It is what the industry hopes to achieve by certain dates, not what they expect to just happen by certain dates. In other words, they didn't sit and think "Hmm...I guess the way things are going we'll hit 90nm in 2004. Ho hum." They thought, "Fuck, we'd better get our asses in gear to meet the 90nm goal in 2004." I think that effort is worth mentioning since it is not trivial to move to a different processing scale.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, the headling IS wrong, rumblin'rabbit. The use of the term "nanotubes" is incorrect. These are nanowires (that's what the field, and the article itself, call them). These aren't "tubes" in that they aren't hollow; the difference is not at all trivial.
Why the hell are COLLEGE students citing encyclopedias in papers in the first place? That's what you do for those papers in sixth grade on why Tony Hawk is awesome or whatever, but if you're older than 14, you shouldn't be citing an encyclopedia (or *pedia) of any sort. That's just a sign of poor research skills.
So I guess on 2/14 you'll be spending the night mounting your hard drive? Inserting your floppy disk? ?
How could Time pick such a self-absorbed, idiotic loser as Person of the Year?
Snakes on a Plane is an "airline disaster" movie of sorts. It might push people already apprehensive about flying over the edge, or it might end up scaring kids who happen to glance at the video, or the person watching might panic. It's not terribly unreasonable to keep such movies off the plane.
So everyone knows about blood diamonds? Can anyone here shed light about other gems? A lot of sapphires come from war-torn Sri Lanka, for example, so they could be "blood sapphires," right? I mean, other gems are worth a lot, too. Why couldn't they be used to finance wars? Do any other countries have other gemstone mines (emerald, ruby, jade, sapphire, onyx, amethyst, peridot, etc...) filled with slaves and slave corpses?
There is no such thing as an "iPod killer". iPod is here to stay.
You're obviously oblivious to the last 20 years of consumer electronics history. Remember the Walkman? Yeah, that was "here to stay" too. This might not be the "iPod killer," and "iPod killer" might be a stupid phrase, but your second statement is myopic.
So that's where Sameer ended up after Initech burned down.
Right. Apple produces the Lisa and everyone says "dumb Apple, what a dud." Microsoft produces Windows 1.0 and Windows 2.0 and everyone says "Got to admire Microsoft, they stick to it until they get it right."
That's true, because if there's one thing I get way too much of around here, it's Microsoft-loving and Apple-bashing.
They didn't say it'd be an action adventure series. I can think of several variants that might be possible.
Soap Opera (a Desperate Moisture Farmers, if you will): Uncle Owen has a two-year-long fling with one of the members of that cantina band down at Mos Eisley. Aunt Veru kills their neighbor Chuck when she finds out he's the one that sexually assaulted their droids a few years ago. Luke knows about her crime, but he knows if he turns her in he'll have to live with Owen and that creepy bassoon player Owen's sleeping with...what should Luke do? Stay tuned!
Sitcom: Here's a sample episode - Luke steals Owen's speeder to go shoot womprats out at Beggar's Canyon with Biggs. While they go to pick up the womprat carcasses, someone steals the speeder (uh oh!). Luke scrambles to find a replacement speeder before his uncle finds out, and builds one out of sand, scrap metal, and Bigg's droid girlfriend She3PO. It doesn't fool Owen, and Luke gets in trouble. It turns out Owen stole the speeder back and didn't tell Luke...just to teach him a lesson! See? Comedy and a lesson. TV gold.
Crime Drama - Before they were moisture farmers, Owen and Veru were gumshoes, private eyes, solving crimes on Tatooine the non-existent police didn't care about. They always get their man - why? Their ace in the hole, Luke. He's like Monk with moxie, Encyclopedia Brown with blond hair and a killer smile. Watch out when the team takes on their toughest adversary: TK-421! They searched for him at his post, but he wasn't there. Where could he be? Stay tuned!
See? The list is endless. I'm sure it'll be great, and that there'll be a million stories to tell. I didn't even get to the part where they catch Luke finding Wookie porn on Owen's computer. Oh, the hijinks that ensue!
I can help with alternatives in the Windows world. I've never used MythTV. In Windows there is:
GB-PVR - FREE, easy to install, includes media functions like photos/music/other vides/etc.., works well with current tuners, easy to install plug-ings but not open-source, not very pretty (if the wife-acceptance factor matters), the PVR software I currently use
SageTV - kind of expensive, the included media functions kind of suck, can easily install plugins (but I totally fucked up my trial install while installing one plugin), was unstable when I tried it, slows down sometimes due to resource usage, I guess
MeedioTV - haven't tried this since last August but at the time it was borderline terrible, resource-hog, crashed a lot, wouldn't stop recording when I exited live TV (causing my hard drive to quickly fill up)...these problems may not exist anymore; it does look nice, though
BeyondTV - expensive if you want media functions, works great with plug-ins, a little slow sometimes, intelligently selects recordings, high WAF
MediaPortal - I've never tried it, but it's also free and I think open-source, from what I hear it's somewhat of a resource hog, I can't say much more
Windows MCE - never tried it, never will.
If I was building a HTPC, I'd use Linux, 'cause it's highly customizable since you can strip it down the way you need it. I think Windows is totally inappropriate for HTPCs especially 'cause of all that DRM shit.
From the last point in your post it seems you have little to no experience in Windows-based HTPCs, given that your statement is based on exactly one piece of software: MCE. I can't think of one non-MCE piece of Windows PVR software that uses "all that DRM shit" on their files. Not one, and I've used most everything for Windows at one point or another except MCE. MediaPortal, GB-PVR, MeedioTV, BeyondTV, SageTV...none have DRM on their files. None. And they're all Windows-based.
The use stems from the fact that while Moore's Law has been surprisingly accurate in predicting the miniaturization of silicon-based circuits.
That's also somewhat inaccurate. Since around the mid 80's, the international semiconductor consortium (I don't remember the exact name) set their technology targets to fall on the Moore's Law line. It was sort of their goal from that point on. So, it's really only "surprisingly accurate" up until the 80's; from that point on it's really just "expected."
Yes and no. Yes, it's true that Moore's Law is not a "law" as such, but when people speak of "hitting the limit of Moore's Law" or "the end of Moore's Law" they are almost always referring to a physical limitatation to the trend of increasing transistor density and switching speeds. It's easier to say "the limit of Moore's Law" than "the regime where transistor density cannot be increased appreciably without a radical change in current semiconductor processing technology."
You might consider GB-PVR. Windows-based, easy to set up, and free (though not open-source). The software's skins are lacking, so if the wife-acceptance factor is critical, that might hurt. All in all, I've been happy with it. There are some significant problems (priority lists are hard to set up, automatically interrupts live recording to start a scheduled recording without prompting you...something that always seems to happen during important live events like the Super Bowl, etc...) but it's certainly good for what it is. It also has media functions built in, and I've had no problems playing/ripping DVDs. I'm sure Myth is more customizable, but GB-PVR is certainly not too bad for the lack of effort involved.
More importantly, there's a Reality TV Magazine? What the hell?
Papers pay to have access to Reuters or AP wire feeds. They aren't free. In that way, the papers are compensating the copyright holders. If Google is listing thesea papers' articles for free without their permission then it's not really hypocricy.
Of course, it's easier to jump the gun and yell at the newspapers. I agree that this lawsuit is not in their best interests as an industry, but your specific point is quite ridiculous.
This isn't about Google caching newspaper articles, so yes, it's a different issue.
I have faced the inevitable and sewn "Google" into the tag on my underwear.
Puts a whole new spin on the "I'm Feeling Lucky" search, eh?
So who has a link to the Google cache of the article?
I think the name is a little weird. Wasn't MacBook the guy that guy in that one play that British dude wrote? "Lay On, MacBook."
...their actions would result in an economic death penalty.
How about a real one?
So you equate a sentence for spamming with a sentence used on serial murderers and the like? What even happened to that whole "let the punishment fit the crime" doctrine? I think the financial penalty along with any possible jail time is plenty.
Okay, but for that analogy to work you have to contend that consumers are married to Sony. Which they aren't. At least, I hope not, or that'd be one weird-ass wedding. I guess the best man would be a Walkman.
Nanotubes have a very tough road before used in electronics, for several reasons.
1) Producing nanotubes of consistent chirality has proved very very difficult. Chirality is how "twisted" the nanotube is (chemists, I know that's a poor description), and depending on the nature of the chirality the nanotube can be semiconducting or metallic to different degrees. If you produce a huge amount of nanotubes but not all are semiconducting, or they're semiconducting but with different electronic properties because they aren't the exact same chirality, you have a humongous probem.
2) Producing long tubes has also been a major problem, although this one has made a lot more progress than the consistent chirality probem.
3) Difficulties with integrating nanotubes into solution processing mechanisms. Using nanotubes with silicon would inevitably cause a clash in fundamental production schemes (between "top-down" and "bottom-up") that can not be resolved in an economically desirable manner.
Unfortunately, lots of people think of computing as the jetliner industry. Jetliner speeds kept increasing for a long time, but they've plateaued because the costs and other factors (like sonic booms) of producing faster jets made them economically disadvantageous. So that's why commercial jets today are just as fast as they were in 1974. Same thing could happen to computers. I hope not, but it's an interesting comparison.
Here is an article from two years ago with an expected timetable for chip process width that exactly matches what we have seen since then: 90 nm in 2004, 65 nm in 2005-2006 and 45 nm in 2007-2008. There really isn't anything exciting about this press release from NEC.
The reason chip process widths exactly match those numbers is because those are specific targets set by an international semiconductor processing consortium. It is what the industry hopes to achieve by certain dates, not what they expect to just happen by certain dates. In other words, they didn't sit and think "Hmm...I guess the way things are going we'll hit 90nm in 2004. Ho hum." They thought, "Fuck, we'd better get our asses in gear to meet the 90nm goal in 2004." I think that effort is worth mentioning since it is not trivial to move to a different processing scale.