There are no laws against violation of your privacy. In fact, you don't have a right to privacy. There are large companies out there that collect all sorts of information about you (SSN, demographics, profile, etc.) and sell it to anyone who is willing to pay. The law in question only covers financial institutions and only requires them to have a policy for protecting data.
Anyway, I don't see your point. The real problem with identity theft is that banks are not performing due diligence when extending credit and processing transactions. That is what allows identity theft to happen. All it takes to obtain credit is a name, an SSN, an address, and a phone number. All it takes to take money out of someone's account is an account number -- which is printed at the bottom of every check. Think about it next time you write a check to someone. A free e-mail account has far more security against unauthorized access than a typical checking account.
Bullshit. I looked at the law, it's purely a regulatory change. There is no actual change in the electrical requirements, just different requirements for certification and labeling and such. The actual rules didn't change, and they are using standard IEC rules, which is the same thing almost every other country requires. In short: new appliances are not any more or less safe than old ones.
Actually, AOL will offer their service for next to nothing. Just call in and ask to cancel. They will offer like $5 a month if you choose to stay on -- without any commitment or anything. Of course, why anyone would want to use AOL is beyond me.
Uh, dude, it's obvious pandering to the consumer electronics industry. Any electrical appliances made since the 60s are just as safe as anything made today. The requirements haven't changed. The Japanese have a similar law for cars, too. Ostensibly, it's for emissions/fuel economy purposes. In reality, manufacturing a new car causes several times more emissions than using an inefficient one, so it's simply to boost Toyota's bottom line.
$1000 Blu-ray players are mostly targeted at high-end applications, not really the mass market. I don't think the PS3 will be competing in that arena. Plus, I'm sure the prices will drop to $400 or so by the time it gets released.
To help deal with understaffing during busy times, hire a few of those know-it-all 14-year-olds (they have to be working age to legally hire them), and pay them $6/hour to unpack boxes and move equipment.
Don't know how your district is, but some of them require competitive bids to buy a stapler, much less hire someone. I now have the strong belief that American schools suck mainly because of the corruption and red tape imposed by the local officials.
Oh, really? Even given the nice case designs that Apple puts out, I don't think people are paying $2500 for a PowerMac just because it has a nice-looking aluminum case. If you don't think OS X is a major selling point, you've never used a Mac.
Look on Newegg. Maybe not $50, but you can get a gig of no-name memory for around $60. Corsair ValueSelect is $70 or so. Corsair is a pretty good manufacturer, last I checked.
In case you haven't heard, that niche is already occupied by a rather large company called Microsoft. Competing with the 800-pound gorilla of the OS industry is not a good idea for Apple, unless they want to be the next BeOS or DR-DOS.
Well, the whole trick to business is knowing which customers should get the finger. The whole "the customer is always right" BS will get you bankrupt in a hurry. Let's see, apple can make $1500 off a few million people if they sell computers. Or they can make $20 off of a few thousand geeks if they sell Mac OS by itself. Which do you think they will choose?
I don't think you have a goddamn clue as to how the Internet actually works. Your scheme is equivalent to plugging all of the users into a single Ethernet segment. Wireless network cards typically run at 11 Mbps. Let's say you have 100,000 users. That's about 110 bits per second per user. I don't think such a network would be very useful.
So, care to name a range of frequencies that is not being used for anything? If it's not scarce, why does a chunk of spectrum go for hundreds of millions of bucks when it's auctioned off? I mean, if there is a ton of spectrum out there, why would that be the market rate?
Spread spectrum or not, the maximum amount of bandwidth available from a chunk of spectrum is finite. There is an upper, theoretical maximum on the available bandwidth, and most current modulation schemes come close to that maximum. You can't squeeze out any more. This means spectrum _is_ a scarce resource.
You are making some bad assumptions. In general, there is no correlation between what your neighbor wants to download and what you want to download. Your neighbor might be looking at gay porn, using MSN search, and reading Fox News. You might want to read CNN, use BitTorrent, and search using Google. If you don't believe me, share out your DSL line to your neighbors, use a transparent proxy, and verify that it doesn't do jack shit. Caching only works when you do it for a large group of users with similar habits; it never works for small groups of random people.
It's exactly the same, just with a bigger number of central offices. As I said, these days the CO might just be on a telephone pole outside your house. This would be equivalent to your cluster of neighbors. Of course, the clusters would have to be interconnected somehow, which would then make the system similar to the existing phone network.
If you've actually done this, you will find out what a horrible idea it is when you connect two of the devices together and set something on fire. It is a _really_ bad idea to do this, since most devices are designed to run from an isolated power supply. They often take a 20V power supply and use it to create two 12V rails, with the ground being the midpoint. Connect a single-supply device to this which uses 0V as its ground rail, and you will short things out.
Just so you know, this is precisely why engineers specify weird connectors for power supplies these days. It cuts down quite a bit on RMAs. You would be surprised how many people think it's OK to plug in an adapter from another device, with blatant disregard for voltage, polarity, and type of adapter (AC vs. DC).
Round the voltage to the nearest volt and go with that. The tolerances on those things are like +/- 40%. I bet the 7.3V adapter is putting out 15V when it's unloaded and 5V when outputting rated current. The odd voltage ratings are used to discourage the use of universal adapters, the device will always have a regulator inside.
Are you an idiot or do you not have a clue? A zener diode has to obey ohm's law just like anything else. Therefore, a 7V zener diode or regulator chip with an amp flowing through it (barely enough to charge an ipod) would be dissipating 7W, and the iPod would be receiving only 5W.
A 12VAC bus would be pointless and stupid. You would be wasting just as much power as with DC, without any benefits whatsoever. In fact, the transformers would cost more because they would require high-current windings on both sides, with more turns on both to achieve the required inductances.
Completely wrong. An ideal transformer has 100% efficiency. A real transformer has some nonideal effects, but a well-constructed one generally has >98% efficiency. A REALLY good switching power supply can get maybe 90% efficiency, in reality it's more like 60% with typical supplies.
The thing you are noticing (adapters getting warm) is losses from inefficient transformers. A switcher is less efficient when it's on, but it can shut off completely with no load. A cheap transformer will waste a lot of power. This is mainly because the things are designed without any consideration for efficiency, to drive the cost as low as possible. An improved adapter wouldn't even cost significantly more (maybe 50 cents more), so legislation might be a good idea in this area.
If a network could be constructed to take advantage of this phenomenon, it could have some pretty cool performance.
This network already exists. It's called 'the Internet' or 'the phone system'. It takes advantage of the fact that people generally live in buildings, which are generally located in cities right next to each other. This permits building a central office, and running a cable from the central office to each building or group of buildings, from where it is distributed to individual subscribers. Interesting, huh?
In case you aren't terribly familiar with how the phone system actually operates, I can give a brief description based on the latest technology. The thing now is to use the existing copper (for SHDSL) or new fiber to run fat lines to remote DSLAMs and narrowband switches. These can be mounted on a telephone pole or in an outdoor cabinet, where they are branched out to a group of houses. This minimizes the number of pairs that need to run from the CO to each subscriber and increases available bandwidth in the phone network. Sounds exactly like your plan, doesn't it?
The CPU power isn't the problem. The pipes are the problem. You can't transfer information magically, it has to travel through copper, fiber, or electromagnetic spectrum. Copper and fiber are expensive, for obvious reasons. Radio spectrum is also scarce and expensive, not to mention severely limited. As you can see, the capital investment required to run thousands of miles of fiber is ridiculously large. The centralized backbone system exists simply because it is the cheapest option -- it's easier to run one fat pipe than 100 million small ones. The issues with routing and processing power are insignificant and easily avoidable compared to the main obstacle.
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There are no laws against violation of your privacy. In fact, you don't have a right to privacy. There are large companies out there that collect all sorts of information about you (SSN, demographics, profile, etc.) and sell it to anyone who is willing to pay. The law in question only covers financial institutions and only requires them to have a policy for protecting data.
Anyway, I don't see your point. The real problem with identity theft is that banks are not performing due diligence when extending credit and processing transactions. That is what allows identity theft to happen. All it takes to obtain credit is a name, an SSN, an address, and a phone number. All it takes to take money out of someone's account is an account number -- which is printed at the bottom of every check. Think about it next time you write a check to someone. A free e-mail account has far more security against unauthorized access than a typical checking account.
Bullshit. I looked at the law, it's purely a regulatory change. There is no actual change in the electrical requirements, just different requirements for certification and labeling and such. The actual rules didn't change, and they are using standard IEC rules, which is the same thing almost every other country requires. In short: new appliances are not any more or less safe than old ones.
Actually, AOL will offer their service for next to nothing. Just call in and ask to cancel. They will offer like $5 a month if you choose to stay on -- without any commitment or anything. Of course, why anyone would want to use AOL is beyond me.
Uh, dude, it's obvious pandering to the consumer electronics industry. Any electrical appliances made since the 60s are just as safe as anything made today. The requirements haven't changed. The Japanese have a similar law for cars, too. Ostensibly, it's for emissions/fuel economy purposes. In reality, manufacturing a new car causes several times more emissions than using an inefficient one, so it's simply to boost Toyota's bottom line.
$1000 Blu-ray players are mostly targeted at high-end applications, not really the mass market. I don't think the PS3 will be competing in that arena. Plus, I'm sure the prices will drop to $400 or so by the time it gets released.
To help deal with understaffing during busy times, hire a few of those know-it-all 14-year-olds (they have to be working age to legally hire them), and pay them $6/hour to unpack boxes and move equipment.
Don't know how your district is, but some of them require competitive bids to buy a stapler, much less hire someone. I now have the strong belief that American schools suck mainly because of the corruption and red tape imposed by the local officials.
Oh, really? Even given the nice case designs that Apple puts out, I don't think people are paying $2500 for a PowerMac just because it has a nice-looking aluminum case. If you don't think OS X is a major selling point, you've never used a Mac.
Look on Newegg. Maybe not $50, but you can get a gig of no-name memory for around $60. Corsair ValueSelect is $70 or so. Corsair is a pretty good manufacturer, last I checked.
Dude, look at the prices. You can buy a gig of PC3200 for like $50 these days. It's incredibly cheap.
In case you haven't heard, that niche is already occupied by a rather large company called Microsoft. Competing with the 800-pound gorilla of the OS industry is not a good idea for Apple, unless they want to be the next BeOS or DR-DOS.
Can't they do both?
Not without killing off Mac as a platform. Competing with Dell is definitely not a position apple wants to be in.
Well, the whole trick to business is knowing which customers should get the finger. The whole "the customer is always right" BS will get you bankrupt in a hurry. Let's see, apple can make $1500 off a few million people if they sell computers. Or they can make $20 off of a few thousand geeks if they sell Mac OS by itself. Which do you think they will choose?
I don't think you have a goddamn clue as to how the Internet actually works. Your scheme is equivalent to plugging all of the users into a single Ethernet segment. Wireless network cards typically run at 11 Mbps. Let's say you have 100,000 users. That's about 110 bits per second per user. I don't think such a network would be very useful.
So, care to name a range of frequencies that is not being used for anything? If it's not scarce, why does a chunk of spectrum go for hundreds of millions of bucks when it's auctioned off? I mean, if there is a ton of spectrum out there, why would that be the market rate?
Spread spectrum or not, the maximum amount of bandwidth available from a chunk of spectrum is finite. There is an upper, theoretical maximum on the available bandwidth, and most current modulation schemes come close to that maximum. You can't squeeze out any more. This means spectrum _is_ a scarce resource.
Wow, you _are_ an idiot.
You are making some bad assumptions. In general, there is no correlation between what your neighbor wants to download and what you want to download. Your neighbor might be looking at gay porn, using MSN search, and reading Fox News. You might want to read CNN, use BitTorrent, and search using Google. If you don't believe me, share out your DSL line to your neighbors, use a transparent proxy, and verify that it doesn't do jack shit. Caching only works when you do it for a large group of users with similar habits; it never works for small groups of random people.
It's exactly the same, just with a bigger number of central offices. As I said, these days the CO might just be on a telephone pole outside your house. This would be equivalent to your cluster of neighbors. Of course, the clusters would have to be interconnected somehow, which would then make the system similar to the existing phone network.
If you've actually done this, you will find out what a horrible idea it is when you connect two of the devices together and set something on fire. It is a _really_ bad idea to do this, since most devices are designed to run from an isolated power supply. They often take a 20V power supply and use it to create two 12V rails, with the ground being the midpoint. Connect a single-supply device to this which uses 0V as its ground rail, and you will short things out.
Just so you know, this is precisely why engineers specify weird connectors for power supplies these days. It cuts down quite a bit on RMAs. You would be surprised how many people think it's OK to plug in an adapter from another device, with blatant disregard for voltage, polarity, and type of adapter (AC vs. DC).
Round the voltage to the nearest volt and go with that. The tolerances on those things are like +/- 40%. I bet the 7.3V adapter is putting out 15V when it's unloaded and 5V when outputting rated current. The odd voltage ratings are used to discourage the use of universal adapters, the device will always have a regulator inside.
Are you an idiot or do you not have a clue? A zener diode has to obey ohm's law just like anything else. Therefore, a 7V zener diode or regulator chip with an amp flowing through it (barely enough to charge an ipod) would be dissipating 7W, and the iPod would be receiving only 5W.
A 12VAC bus would be pointless and stupid. You would be wasting just as much power as with DC, without any benefits whatsoever. In fact, the transformers would cost more because they would require high-current windings on both sides, with more turns on both to achieve the required inductances.
Completely wrong. An ideal transformer has 100% efficiency. A real transformer has some nonideal effects, but a well-constructed one generally has >98% efficiency. A REALLY good switching power supply can get maybe 90% efficiency, in reality it's more like 60% with typical supplies.
The thing you are noticing (adapters getting warm) is losses from inefficient transformers. A switcher is less efficient when it's on, but it can shut off completely with no load. A cheap transformer will waste a lot of power. This is mainly because the things are designed without any consideration for efficiency, to drive the cost as low as possible. An improved adapter wouldn't even cost significantly more (maybe 50 cents more), so legislation might be a good idea in this area.
If a network could be constructed to take advantage of this phenomenon, it could have some pretty cool performance.
This network already exists. It's called 'the Internet' or 'the phone system'. It takes advantage of the fact that people generally live in buildings, which are generally located in cities right next to each other. This permits building a central office, and running a cable from the central office to each building or group of buildings, from where it is distributed to individual subscribers. Interesting, huh?
In case you aren't terribly familiar with how the phone system actually operates, I can give a brief description based on the latest technology. The thing now is to use the existing copper (for SHDSL) or new fiber to run fat lines to remote DSLAMs and narrowband switches. These can be mounted on a telephone pole or in an outdoor cabinet, where they are branched out to a group of houses. This minimizes the number of pairs that need to run from the CO to each subscriber and increases available bandwidth in the phone network. Sounds exactly like your plan, doesn't it?
The CPU power isn't the problem. The pipes are the problem. You can't transfer information magically, it has to travel through copper, fiber, or electromagnetic spectrum. Copper and fiber are expensive, for obvious reasons. Radio spectrum is also scarce and expensive, not to mention severely limited. As you can see, the capital investment required to run thousands of miles of fiber is ridiculously large. The centralized backbone system exists simply because it is the cheapest option -- it's easier to run one fat pipe than 100 million small ones. The issues with routing and processing power are insignificant and easily avoidable compared to the main obstacle.
What a fucktard.