When I originally "designed" (I use the term loosely since evolved is more accurate)
Heh. I've just been outside reading ``Emergence'' by Steven Johnson, and there is a part about Slashdot.org, and how it ``evolved''. Kind of an interesting time coincidence:-)
iriver ifp players (ifp-700/800) have all the features in the article (similar size too), run for 40 hours on a single AA (NiMH) battery and feature USB2:-)
I think the niche is that my flash based player plays music for ~40 hours on a single AA charge (NiMH), weights only ~60 grams (with battery) and is not much bigger than the battery itself (ie: smaller than ipod mini). Oh, and it has 1gig (ie: plenty of music for the day- or in my case a whole week).
(It also plays OGG, MP3, WMA, and comes with FM radio, line-in recording, mic recording, etc.)
Oh, and it servives falls without any issues (I wonder how many people would feel comfortable about dropping an ipod...)
I don't want to sound like an advertisement (heh!) but I'm talking about iFP-799 from iriver.
Of course, some brick and mortar stores are now instituting 15% restocking fees...
That is the reason I'll never buy anything from CompUSA ever again.
I got a LAN web-cam from them a few months ago, and found out at home that you need an activex control to even see still images, and that the max resolution is 320x240! (nowhere on the box does it say that the resolution is that crappy). Anyway, returning the camera left me almost $40 short because of that 14% fee.
Well, for that $40, they lost me for life; not to mention the fact that I try to tell everyone about how bad CompUSA is...
Ha! A company that lets a consultant near ``Top Secret'' data doesn't deserve to have that top secret data.
I used to work for a financial company (bank) that wouldn't allow newly hired employees to even enter their `sensitive' data center... and consultants didn't get (any!) network access until after a 6 week background check.
Heh. exactly what I was thinking. By 2010, Microsoft may just be forced to not sell Windows2000 or Office2000... and instead concentrate on their line of NewWindows and NewOffice product lines.
Well, Bill Joy isn't as simplistic as that. If you hear one of his speaches, he makes a very good point for his arguments.
With a knife you can kill a few people. Fine. With a nuclear bomb, you can kill many, but YOU CAN CONTROL it! (not everyone has access nor capability to build a bomb) With every nut-case in the world being able to engineer viruses on their personal computers, you have the capability to wipe out the world... but this time, there is no control.
I think their idea is that 99% of the population who use computers don't need anything beyond cell phone computing power.
ie: 99% of the population at best only surf the net, or check/send e-mail. once in a _long_ while, some of them may need to use something like Word, or Excel. That's it. For 99% of the population, a cell phone already provides enough computation power.
For the 1% who like to be able to play games (well, latest games), or do scientific research, there is always the cheap powerful desktop.
The _only_ computationally intensive thing I can think of an average person may do on a computer is play DVDs, but with proper hardware, even that's not very CPU taxing.
I had a totally different exeprience (with a $700 iPAQ no less!)
I now see them as an expensive replacement for paper, which will run out of batteries just when you need them (ie: outside need some phone number in an emergency.)
Right now this iPAQ is gathering dust, and I carry around a much lighter and much easier to handle print-out of my phone-book:-)
What I did found useful is a flash based MP3 player (small ones). If only it had a clock, it would be a perfect device. I already use it every hour of every day (nearly).
I wonder if virus writters know the damage they do...
What damage are you talking about?
I think viruses do more to strengthen the software business than cheap powerful and unbreakable software does.
ie: Imagine someone who doesn't know a thing about computers, being able to go out and get a computer system, set it up, and have 0 problems with it. That would put 99% of I.T. businesses out of business!
Slashdot Mirror
DOOMIII :-)
When I originally "designed" (I use the term loosely since evolved is more accurate)
:-)
Heh. I've just been outside reading ``Emergence'' by Steven Johnson, and there is a part about Slashdot.org, and how it ``evolved''. Kind of an interesting time coincidence
amm... you haven't used P2P have you?
I got everything to work (gentoo on amd64) without any issues (gcc3.4, 2.6.7-mm kernel, X, etc., and ut2004 :-)
Tell your friend to visit IRC: irc.freenode.org, channel #gentoo-amd64
Most problems usually have simple fixes.
Who needs a GUI? mplayer (no gui) works great :-)
I have a solution: make it illegal for companies to own patents.
iriver ifp players (ifp-700/800) have all the features in the article (similar size too), run for 40 hours on a single AA (NiMH) battery and feature USB2 :-)
I think the niche is that my flash based player plays music for ~40 hours on a single AA charge (NiMH), weights only ~60 grams (with battery) and is not much bigger than the battery itself (ie: smaller than ipod mini). Oh, and it has 1gig (ie: plenty of music for the day- or in my case a whole week).
(It also plays OGG, MP3, WMA, and comes with FM radio, line-in recording, mic recording, etc.)
Oh, and it servives falls without any issues (I wonder how many people would feel comfortable about dropping an ipod...)
I don't want to sound like an advertisement (heh!) but I'm talking about iFP-799 from iriver.
the iFP-700/800 series from iriver has USB2.0 (as well as 1gig flash memory)
Of course, some brick and mortar stores are now instituting 15% restocking fees...
That is the reason I'll never buy anything from CompUSA ever again.
I got a LAN web-cam from them a few months ago, and found out at home that you need an activex control to even see still images, and that the max resolution is 320x240! (nowhere on the box does it say that the resolution is that crappy). Anyway, returning the camera left me almost $40 short because of that 14% fee.
Well, for that $40, they lost me for life; not to mention the fact that I try to tell everyone about how bad CompUSA is...
Ha! A company that lets a consultant near ``Top Secret'' data doesn't deserve to have that top secret data.
I used to work for a financial company (bank) that wouldn't allow newly hired employees to even enter their `sensitive' data center... and consultants didn't get (any!) network access until after a 6 week background check.
and... the most important feature for all the AMD64 users: support for 32bit opengl apps! ...we can all finally play quake3 on Linux!
Heh. exactly what I was thinking. By 2010, Microsoft may just be forced to not sell Windows2000 or Office2000... and instead concentrate on their line of NewWindows and NewOffice product lines.
Heh. I was just thinking exactly that.
From the packbot products page it seems all they got are military appliations.
I think the situation will get much worse before it gets better...
Fired... out of a cannon... into the sun.
...when in fact the true rules of the universe never change
Wouldn't that be a ``rule'' in itself?
Hey, this is not as bad as it sounds.
:-)
ie: get a blank DVD, buy an "8-hour" movie DVD for $5 or so. Rip, Burn, etc., and you've got yourself a DVD movie for ~$6
Probably more convinient (and better quality) than BT, then burn...
Judging by the quality of laptop CD-RW drives they produce, you can't spell Matsushita without...
Well, Bill Joy isn't as simplistic as that. If you hear one of his speaches, he makes a very good point for his arguments.
With a knife you can kill a few people. Fine. With a nuclear bomb, you can kill many, but YOU CAN CONTROL it! (not everyone has access nor capability to build a bomb) With every nut-case in the world being able to engineer viruses on their personal computers, you have the capability to wipe out the world... but this time, there is no control.
Too bad it's hard to post on slashdot with all caps... Damn lameness filter!
I think their idea is that 99% of the population who use computers don't need anything beyond cell phone computing power.
ie: 99% of the population at best only surf the net, or check/send e-mail. once in a _long_ while, some of them may need to use something like Word, or Excel. That's it. For 99% of the population, a cell phone already provides enough computation power.
For the 1% who like to be able to play games (well, latest games), or do scientific research, there is always the cheap powerful desktop.
The _only_ computationally intensive thing I can think of an average person may do on a computer is play DVDs, but with proper hardware, even that's not very CPU taxing.
I had a totally different exeprience (with a $700 iPAQ no less!)
:-)
I now see them as an expensive replacement for paper, which will run out of batteries just when you need them (ie: outside need some phone number in an emergency.)
Right now this iPAQ is gathering dust, and I carry around a much lighter and much easier to handle print-out of my phone-book
What I did found useful is a flash based MP3 player (small ones). If only it had a clock, it would be a perfect device. I already use it every hour of every day (nearly).
I wonder if virus writters know the damage they do...
What damage are you talking about?
I think viruses do more to strengthen the software business than cheap powerful and unbreakable software does.
ie: Imagine someone who doesn't know a thing about computers, being able to go out and get a computer system, set it up, and have 0 problems with it. That would put 99% of I.T. businesses out of business!
Well, if they call him a prankster, it doesn't make him look evil enough...
...Well, he worked there until 1999, so he probably got lots and lots of discouted copies of Win98. And why should he pay full price for WinXP?
Also, did anyone notice how getting a Mac automatically makes one a rebel?