I think the problem is that OpenBSD just isn't all that popular.
What they need to do is form a subsidiary for their (wildly) product product, OpenSSH. I bet it would have no trouble supporting itself. But supporting an entire OS on the basis of one popular remote shell program, which is more commonly used on other platforms anyways, doesn't make a lot of sense.
I'm extremely annoyed that the fed. gov. doesn't just set up a website for e-filing itself. It would save taxpayers and the government millions of dollars on paper forms and processing. It's a clear case of intentional government waste in order to create business opportunities for tax preparation services. Even my humble state of New Mexico has a simple, government run web form for me to file my taxes online. It's not rocket science.
My business scheme for next year is to start printing my own paper tax forms, then sue the govt. for sending them out and competing with my "private industry."
I've never understood how mesh wireless makes any sense. Can you really imagine google's traffic all coming into their datacenter wirelessly? How would you like to be the next hop over passing data to/from them through your laptop? Wireless networks are almost always built on top of wired networks. For instance, the wired networks that connect cellphone towers to the world. The wired infrastructure is really cheap when you think how much revenue it will bring in over the years. I only wish we had municipal fiber, instead of a company to whom I will forever pay over $1000 / year and yet never own anything. It's "their" network, even though I pay the bills.
I'd like to see the day where one pays for Data in and out -- nothing more. You get all of your services (TV, phone, internet, etc.) over one line. Heh. Like that'll ever happen.
I already get TV, phone, and Internet over one line, the Comcast cable line. Is that somehow not what you meant?
"It is increasingly clear that, when it comes to bridging the 'digital divide' between rich and poor, the mobile phone, not the personal computer, has the most potential."
Maybe, but I know I spend a *lot* more time on the computer than the phone, for both work and leisure.
Besides, unlike a cellphone, the crank-powered laptop is very useful even with no infrastructure - you can store an entire library of information on it. (I realize it won't have a lot of storage, but the entire Bible is only 4 MB in plaintext).
This is how I see it, If I have something to say, or do, that I am asshamed of, then I need to fix that problem.
It's not about being ashamed, it's about protecting myself from other people's wrongheaded judgements of my beliefs:) Would those personal beliefs get in the way of working with people anyways? I think not; since they're not relevant I don't go into them at work.
Besides, I am *not* necessarily willing to stand behind everything I say online. Sometimes I exaggerate for the sake of clarity, or even play devil's advocate because I want to be convinced of something. Thus I do not literally believe everthing I write.
Finally, I reserve the right to change over time... a right which other people frequently will not grant. I don't necessarily want to be held to something I wrote on usenet 15 years ago.
The article is dumb. 100 times as strong as skeletal muscle is a statement with no meaning unless you specify what exactly you mean;
A couple other issues: what's the response time of the metal muscle type? Heating up and cooling off strips of metal sounds very slow to me.
Second, does it scale? Maybe one strand of this metal pulls 100x compared to one strand of muscle, but can a big bundle of metal fibers be heated and cooled that way?
Another way to think about it, if you design a switch to last 1000 cycles with 99.99% probability, it will probably last 10 times that long with 99% probability. (I made up the numbers but you get the point.)
This is the same reason I prefer an 80,000 mile powertrain warranty over a 40,000 mile warranty when buying a car - not because any modern car is likely to last under 80,000 miles, but because I figure the one with the longer warranty is more likely to go 150,000+.
I guarantee you that in a corporation this large, the beancounters have already run through the numbers plenty of times to decide that this is their most economically viable course of action.
Would those be the same beancounters who decided the rootkit CD protection scheme was a swell idea? Or who failed to head off the iPod, even with a massive head start? Your argument is simply that Sony can do no wrong. I don't buy it.
Imagine being able to keep one disc in a portable DVD player and be able to choose from three, six or as many as ten different DVDs all on one disc.
That's what laptops with hard drives are for... no removable media required.
Of course, it only works because "they" slipped up on DVD copy protection... a mistake I doubt they'll soon repeat on Blu-Ray/HD-DVD (despite the prevailing wisdom here on/.).
Sure, but that doesn't mean flash will peter out before optical media does.
I know I'm rooting for flash. It's so much more reliable, has no moving parts, and is untainted by the content industries. As the parent pointed out, current trends wouldn't have to continue very long for flash to take over. Optical has been a dog of slow growth and bad reliability.
I don't rely on the computer for anything analog at all; it's connected to the stereo with an SPDIF optical cable.
That said, I don't obsess about extreme sample rates at all. My daughter can hear jangling keys that I cannot, so even 20khz frequencies (44.1Khz sampling) are probably excessive for me.
You're so right, I'll take it even one further... why would Microsoft even want a services division? Right now all Microsoft does is sit back and collect license fees, what could be better than that? They keep looking and looking for somewhere to make 80%+ profit margin like they do on their Office and Windows divisions. It ain't gonna happen. They'll never find a business better than what they have now, which is to make something once and sell it millions of times over.
The idea that there is "no next big thing" is challenging conventional wisdom, which is that there is. You think there is, so does most everybody including me.
But there is really no insight in reiterating the conventional wisdom. Why do we think there will be a next big thing? More importantly, what will it be and when will it arrive?
In my opinion, progress is almost inevitable in the long run (barring extinction). But that isn't really the point if you're worrying about pursuing research or choosing a career.
The bandwidth cost is insignificant. At serverbeach.com, for instance, you get 2000 GB/mo for $119. Say a lossless compressed CD is 400 MB (which is generous). That works out to 2.4 cents of bandwidth per album. Given that an album costs $10 on iTunes (doesn't it?), 2 cents is nothing.
Remember, any sampling (including CD audio) is lossy.
It's too bad the current convention is for downloaded files to be of lower quality than CDs. There's no inherent reason that should be true. We have plenty of bandwith for lossless compression of CD or DVD audio these days. Even fairly mundane sound cards support 24 bit samples at 96 KHz and 7 channels. That puts CD audio (16 bit/44.1 KHz/2 channel) to shame... if you think it matters, which I don't.
For some curious reason these types of discussions are never accompanied by actual tests. An office mate of mine was curious, so he produced a pair of CDs. One had WAVs copied straight from CD, the other had the same files after a WAV->mp3->WAV conversion (I forget the bitrate but it was at least 128 kbit/s). Neither of us could reliably detect any difference so I quit worrying about it.
Hmm, the Boeing 777 requires up to 15000 feet for takeoff (see page 8) depending on flaps, takeoff elevation, and loadout. So you're right, 15000 feet isn't so absurd at all. Though at some point, why not just taxi the plane to your destination?
No, I think you're underestimating mainstream acceptance for serious applications:
The big airlines now charge a $10 or more service fee to book flights by phone or at the counter, because they expect you to do it by Internet (saving them money).
64% of Americans research cars on the Internet before buying one
In fact, today riding on the plane I sat next to an old man who uses email to communicate with his kids while on his worldwide travels. The kicker? He doesn't own a computer or know how to use one. He writes his email in longhand, then asks around until he finds somebody to type it in and sent it off, wherever he is. He says this method is faster than mail and more reliable and accessible(!) than getting an international phone connection from remote locations.
Which apps will it run? Will it be anything that will ADD to the experience?
My guess? Firefox, for one. The final chapter on what should constitute a "home computer" is not yet written. That's why Microsoft wants to own the livingroom.
Besides, this is Alienware we're talking about. The whole point is you pay through the nose for your dream computer. There's something wrong if Alienware has no more quality control than Packard Bell (or whoever else makes crap PCs these days).
I thought that too until I read this book. In fact, Al Qaeda is an actual, formal organization dating back at least to the early 90s with a central staff and certain rites of induction. And apparently they're quite selective. Which is not to say that all the jihadis are Al Qaeda members.
There is a very strict and narrow definition of "Enemy Combatant". The term is defined in the geneva convention. Part of the definition is controlled by the government, wears identification (the reason for "Dog Tags") and a standardized Uniform.
Does that mean we can't complain when the militants kidnapbehead or burn the American civilians contracting in Iraq?
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What they need to do is form a subsidiary for their (wildly) product product, OpenSSH. I bet it would have no trouble supporting itself. But supporting an entire OS on the basis of one popular remote shell program, which is more commonly used on other platforms anyways, doesn't make a lot of sense.
I'm extremely annoyed that the fed. gov. doesn't just set up a website for e-filing itself. It would save taxpayers and the government millions of dollars on paper forms and processing. It's a clear case of intentional government waste in order to create business opportunities for tax preparation services. Even my humble state of New Mexico has a simple, government run web form for me to file my taxes online. It's not rocket science.
My business scheme for next year is to start printing my own paper tax forms, then sue the govt. for sending them out and competing with my "private industry."
I've never understood how mesh wireless makes any sense. Can you really imagine google's traffic all coming into their datacenter wirelessly? How would you like to be the next hop over passing data to/from them through your laptop? Wireless networks are almost always built on top of wired networks. For instance, the wired networks that connect cellphone towers to the world. The wired infrastructure is really cheap when you think how much revenue it will bring in over the years. I only wish we had municipal fiber, instead of a company to whom I will forever pay over $1000 / year and yet never own anything. It's "their" network, even though I pay the bills.
Besides, unlike a cellphone, the crank-powered laptop is very useful even with no infrastructure - you can store an entire library of information on it. (I realize it won't have a lot of storage, but the entire Bible is only 4 MB in plaintext).
Besides, I am *not* necessarily willing to stand behind everything I say online. Sometimes I exaggerate for the sake of clarity, or even play devil's advocate because I want to be convinced of something. Thus I do not literally believe everthing I write.
Finally, I reserve the right to change over time... a right which other people frequently will not grant. I don't necessarily want to be held to something I wrote on usenet 15 years ago.
Second, does it scale? Maybe one strand of this metal pulls 100x compared to one strand of muscle, but can a big bundle of metal fibers be heated and cooled that way?
This is the same reason I prefer an 80,000 mile powertrain warranty over a 40,000 mile warranty when buying a car - not because any modern car is likely to last under 80,000 miles, but because I figure the one with the longer warranty is more likely to go 150,000+.
Of course, it only works because "they" slipped up on DVD copy protection... a mistake I doubt they'll soon repeat on Blu-Ray/HD-DVD (despite the prevailing wisdom here on /.).
I know I'm rooting for flash. It's so much more reliable, has no moving parts, and is untainted by the content industries. As the parent pointed out, current trends wouldn't have to continue very long for flash to take over. Optical has been a dog of slow growth and bad reliability.
That said, I don't obsess about extreme sample rates at all. My daughter can hear jangling keys that I cannot, so even 20khz frequencies (44.1Khz sampling) are probably excessive for me.
You're so right, I'll take it even one further... why would Microsoft even want a services division? Right now all Microsoft does is sit back and collect license fees, what could be better than that? They keep looking and looking for somewhere to make 80%+ profit margin like they do on their Office and Windows divisions. It ain't gonna happen. They'll never find a business better than what they have now, which is to make something once and sell it millions of times over.
$29!? What are they smoking? They must be letting the movie theaters set DVD prices these days.
But there is really no insight in reiterating the conventional wisdom. Why do we think there will be a next big thing? More importantly, what will it be and when will it arrive?
In my opinion, progress is almost inevitable in the long run (barring extinction). But that isn't really the point if you're worrying about pursuing research or choosing a career.
The bandwidth cost is insignificant. At serverbeach.com, for instance, you get 2000 GB/mo for $119. Say a lossless compressed CD is 400 MB (which is generous). That works out to 2.4 cents of bandwidth per album. Given that an album costs $10 on iTunes (doesn't it?), 2 cents is nothing.
It's too bad the current convention is for downloaded files to be of lower quality than CDs. There's no inherent reason that should be true. We have plenty of bandwith for lossless compression of CD or DVD audio these days. Even fairly mundane sound cards support 24 bit samples at 96 KHz and 7 channels. That puts CD audio (16 bit/44.1 KHz/2 channel) to shame... if you think it matters, which I don't.
For some curious reason these types of discussions are never accompanied by actual tests. An office mate of mine was curious, so he produced a pair of CDs. One had WAVs copied straight from CD, the other had the same files after a WAV->mp3->WAV conversion (I forget the bitrate but it was at least 128 kbit/s). Neither of us could reliably detect any difference so I quit worrying about it.
Anyways, I certainly hope CDs are commercially viable forever. All forseeable future commercial media for music are inferior, due to DRM.
For the lazy, the linked video shows a user shuffling around photos on a virtual desktop using a touch screen, so it is highly relevant.
Hmm, the Boeing 777 requires up to 15000 feet for takeoff (see page 8) depending on flaps, takeoff elevation, and loadout. So you're right, 15000 feet isn't so absurd at all. Though at some point, why not just taxi the plane to your destination?
In fact, today riding on the plane I sat next to an old man who uses email to communicate with his kids while on his worldwide travels. The kicker? He doesn't own a computer or know how to use one. He writes his email in longhand, then asks around until he finds somebody to type it in and sent it off, wherever he is. He says this method is faster than mail and more reliable and accessible(!) than getting an international phone connection from remote locations.
Besides, this is Alienware we're talking about. The whole point is you pay through the nose for your dream computer. There's something wrong if Alienware has no more quality control than Packard Bell (or whoever else makes crap PCs these days).
I thought that too until I read this book. In fact, Al Qaeda is an actual, formal organization dating back at least to the early 90s with a central staff and certain rites of induction. And apparently they're quite selective. Which is not to say that all the jihadis are Al Qaeda members.