Unfortunately the prior art inventor Eolas has their own patents we should be afraid of.
According to this, they say they patented the use of plugins in browsers. Imagine the effect on projects like Mozilla if they were to press their claim.
Also, they claim that another patent "covers image space collision detection technology believed to be currently in widespread use throughout the computer game industry."
To me, the biggest problem with payphones was a bad user interface.
To use them you need change. If payphones had a credit card slot on them, I think they would be a lot more useful. Of course the industry trys to convince me that prepaid calling cards are the answer, but then I have to juggle multiple incompatible cards, each one with some time on them.
If payphones could accept some form of credit or rechargeable debit card, it would eliminate another expense of running them, the cost of removing the change from them. Of course, I'm sure that repairing them is also a major expense.
Similarly, who still uses the outragously priced phones in hotels (other than to call 800 numbers)? The hotels priced the "service" out of usefullness with their 500% mark up. In fact, running phone lines to each room, having a phone in each room, and having a computerized switchboard is probably much less expensive than providing television and cable services to each room, yet those services are almost always free.
Artificial diamonds most certaintly do not "look wrong".
According to the NOVA program "Diamond Deception" originally broadcast on 2/01/2000, "These synthetic diamonds are such good copies of the real thing that they not only have the identical atomic structure but can even replicate their flaws."
Obviously you don't own a TiVO. And probably don't work in high tech. I know of at least 10 people that own a TiVO. Some own two.
My wife didn't see the point either. Then we got one. And our life changed. I no longer channel surf. I watch what I want when I want to. TV is much more interesting than it used to be for me. I have always hated commercials.
People said that computers were overpriced when the first came out ($2000 back in 1982 for an Apple II+ with 48k of ram). Did that make them worthless?
Finally, I can think of little I would rather not do than camp with your family every weekend for the summer. This is a website for geeks. Get with the tech.
The way you interact with televisions may be archaic. But I have a TiVO!
Gee, Slashdot is 12 in human years...
on
Slashdot Turns 5
·
· Score: 1
Considering the internet (universe) has only been around for 33 years (see here for details), that would make slashdot something like 12 in human years.
Put another way, Slashdot has been around for 15% of the total time of the internet. What did people do before slashdot? Probably were a lot more involved in usenet news (before spam).
And what does that mean for the future of slashdot? Now that its highly saturated and ad driven, the pioneers will move on. Will it continue to be the hip, anti-corporate, nerd web site we know and love? Only time will tell.
Congrats, slashdot, hope to see you in another 5 years
In an ironic twist, just as we are starting to understand the mechanisms of evolution, CNN.com reports that Cobb county, Georgia's second largest school district, has passed a resolution allowing the teaching of alternate views of the origins of life (aka creationism).
According to Michael Gray, a Cobb high school junior "I had to do a term paper about evolution and there were just things that I could disprove or have alternate reasons for." This is exciting news. This junior in high school can disprove parts of the theory of evolution. Next, we'll have grade schoolers disproving the laws of physics.
I believe that Voodoo's lack of a single card to support 2D and 3D was a serious flaw.
I personally held off from buying a new system several months until a card came out that had both (I still am running that original TNT card).
The idea of running a separate board just for 3D never made much sense from a consumer perspective. Sure, you will get some early adopters, but clearly it wasn't sustainable in the long run. This seems to be an engineering solution to a marketing problem.
Marketer: We need to sell a card that is easy to use.
Engineer: The 2D boards out there already work well, if we integrate them on our 3D boards it will make our boards more expensive. Plus, people will have to throw away perfectly good 2D hardware every time they upgrade.
Marketer: Huh?
.
.
.
Go out of business.
Using the number of lines of source code in a distribution to tell you how important some code is compared to others is wrong.
Althought the kernel might not be the majority of the code in a Linux operating system, it is the most complex and hardest to write. Code complexity/difficulty cannot be measured by the number of lines of source.
If writing a kernel were easy, we would have seen GNU 10 years ago. However, despite the best efforts of the FSF, we still have not seen Hurd.
Also, how about using the amount of CPU time the user spends in different sections of code? I would think that the kernel would win this metric easily.
I agree with others that this is simply a pathetic attempt to grab publicity for GNU.
I can't help thinking this will end up like Mystery Men or The Tick, where lower grade super heros sit around in diners and talk about how they would have saved the day if they had the chance.
Microsoft suggests users view hidden codes in every document they open. In Word 2002, the latest version, that can be done by selecting tools, options, then checking the "field codes" box. Many companies, however, use such codes for legitimate and harmless purposes.
In unrelated news, beef processors are asking all their customers to check their products for bacteria before eating. Just take a sample down to a local lab to be tested, and wait four to six weeks. The beef processors aren't responsible for meat going bad while waiting for test results.
Microsoft. What insecurity to you want to exploit tomorrow?
Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and -
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [Pause] These go to eleven.
Re:Why did Apache 2.0 need to break compatibility?
on
Sites Rejecting Apache 2?
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Threading a server can significantly increase performance. That is why many if not all commercial web servers are threaded (including IPlanet/NES and IIS).
Threaded programming is more difficult than non-threaded programming (just like mod-perl programming is more difficult that plain perl programming). Usually, it is because globals are used. Web servers are typically easier to thread (because each transaction doesn't usually interfere with others).
A single threaded server takes one request at a time, processes it, and then takes another request. The way Apache got around this was to have multiple processes, each which could take requests.
The problem is one of scale. While it is possible to have 1000 people simultaniously hit your web site at the same instance, it is unlikely that you will have 1000 processes running to take their requests. So some users have to wait. But is is possible to have a small number of processes with 1000 threads available to take requests.
Threads reduce memory useage. For example, each process has to load the code for the executable into memory, which multithreaded processes share. Also, if there is server file caching, mutiple threads can share the cache, but multiple processes can't.
Also threads can make more efficient use of resources. Lets say your application connects to a database on the back end (which is probably multithreaded, by the way). Lets also suppose that some transactions take longer than others. The first problem in a non-threaded application that each process has to have its own database connections. They cannot be shared between processes. Also, each process has to first wait for the tcp connection, then wait for the database to respond, then wait for the data to be sent out. While they are waiting, they cannot process other requests. The problem is that all the processes could block on the database doing long connections, while other requests that might not even require database connections wait. In a threaded model (with enough threads), many transactions can be started, while only the ones that actually have to do database connections block on the database.
Finally, threaded programs are more efficient in a multi-processor enviornment. These days, more and more servers have more than one processor. Because each thread can run on a separate processor, you can more efficiently use the hardware.
Threading is the way of the future. That is why Java caught on on the server side. Because it supports threading in the language (something that C or C++ don't do). The Apache writters were looking towards the future, not at the past.
Ultimately, this seems like a very good idea. Many people don't read instructions until something breaks. Also, wouldn't it be nice to have the instructions integrated into the object, so when it breaks, you can always find them?
However, imbedding a processor, power supply, and sensors into parts seems cost prohibative at this point.
As a step towards this, instructions could be included on a CD instead of a printed booklet. This would allow animations, three dimensional representation of parts, and sound.
Another option would be to imbed an externally powered chip into items, which would have content in some standard format, for display on a handheld or desktop unit. Everyone would have an instruction reader lying around (perhaps being the same device as an EBook reader).
However we make instructions better in the future, one thing is certain: It will cost manufacturers money to implement. Many manufacturers seem to put no money or thought into instructions (poor translations, parts that don't apply to the product that was bought, bad illustrations). So unless manufacturers see a reason to spend money, we are stuck with garbage.
The FBI is bloated with procedure. It needs to slim down.
As a citizen and taxpayer, I believe the FBI should have the best computer security people available. Not the best computer security people who are physically fit, or meet other non-important criteria to computer security. Physical fitness has nothing to do with computer ability. It is like saying in order for me to be a FBI agent, I need to be good looking. Even though being good looking may be very important if I ever get interviewed for the evening news, it won't help me do my job.
The government does have a responsibility to safeguard its secrets and protect itself, so I don't mind the background check.
Take, for example, the Olympic decathlon. There are 10 events, all of which are in the Olympics as other events. Do decathloners set world records in each of those 10 events? Could they even compete with other Olympic athletes in individual events? The answer is no. In order for a decathloner to develop the broad skills useful in all 10 events, he or she cannot become an expert in any particular event.
It is not acceptable to have computer security agents that don't know what a buffer overflow is, because they were busy learning how to fire a gun.
We are increasingly moving towards specialization in science. Someone said that a scientist today has only slight knowledge of things outside his or her field, but deep understanding of his or her specialty. The FBI must shed some procedural weight if it wants the best computer security possible. Otherwise, we will lose the fight against cyber-terrorism.
I wonder what slashdot's percentages are....
on
Netscape 7.0 is Out
·
· Score: 3, Funny
I would be very interested to know what slashdot's browser percentages are.
My guess it goes something like...
64% IE (silent majority)
20% Mozilla (loud minority)
10% Opera (for people who like to browse really fast)
5% Konquerer (hey, it came with my distro)
3% Lynx (for people who just can't get enough command lines)
(yeah, it adds up to 102%. The editors can't spell, either)
Sam and Max hit the road again. Score a major victory for geek love everywhere.
I have conned my wife into playing video games occasionally. She hated Diablo (too stressful when the monsters keep coming at her). She didn't understand Civ (oh, you created a city, isn't that nice). She liked the Sims but it was short lived (wow, this is way too much like real life).
The games she has always loved are LucasArts Adventures. She loved Day of the Tentacle (which featured you playing three different characters, time travel, evil tentacles, etc). She really loved Grim Fandango (a good 3d adventure, featuring a wonderful swing music soundtrack, and lots of funny puzzles as you travel through the art deco land of the dead). But probably her favorite was Sam and Max. The humor really did it for her.
Sam and Max is the only game that she not only played all the way through with me, but has asked about a sequel.
In these days of game cloning (how many first person shooters do we really need?), it is wonderful to see a clone of a game that my wife can love. Now if it only dispensed tuna flavored treats for my cat....
This announcement is very important for one reason. Competition. Intel has had the CPU lead since the April release of the 2.4 GHz Pentium 4. The June release of the Athlon 2200 had to be a disappointment for AMD, since it not only was slower than the Pentium, but also had very little overclocking possibilities, which should have been possible due to the move from.18 to.13 micron production process. The only thing that the 2200 had going for it was price.
This was a serious problem for AMD and for competition in the CPU market. The Athlon line has always promised leading edge performance. It was key to legitimizing AMD as not just a low cost knock off of Intel, but competition where the margins are, at the top end.
Now AMD has regained if not a lead, then at least parity with Intel. And what is more important, several reviewers are saying there is a large overclocking potential with the 2400 and 2600 (The 2600 runs by default at 2.13GHz, and AnandTech overclocked to 2.4 and Tom's hardware overclocked to 2.6GHz, but only for a short time). What this means is that there is headroom in the design for much faster processors.
One thing to remember is that this is not only important for the desktop (where one could successfully argue that all this speed is overkill). This also effects the Linux server market, where this speed is needed.
Without serious competition at the top end, Intel produces slower, more expensive products. Competition is the key force driving the CPU market, and we have all benefited. Except maybe Intel's profits.
I have been researching Hybrids for the last year. U am also currently driving a Honda Accord. Here is what I have come up with.
The Honda Insight is an engineering wonder. Everything is designed to be light. The word on the street is that this car will be discontinued at the end of this year [www.businessreport.com]. And if you have kids forget it, as it is only a two seater and doesn't have an airbag cutoff switch.
The Toyota Prius is an interesting car. Advantages are that it is SULEV (at least in California), and that it can run off the electric battery without the engine running (at speeds lower than 30 mph). Disadvantages I saw on my test drive was that the first one I tried wouldn't start cause the battery had drained (don't know if it was a stupid dealer or design flaw). Also, I didn't like the center mounted speedometer or the weird shift (mounted on the dashboard). Finally, the Prius uses small low rolling resistiance tires, which people are complaining about. According to one post I saw, someone said they had to change tires at 14,000 miles. And since the tires are both small and low rolling resistiance, they are hard to find. Also, during my test drive, it seemed that the gas engine was revving really high at speeds of 40 to 50 mph. Another small nit is that the breaking is non-linear (it seems rather grippy when you press hard).
Finally, I have been considering the Hybrid Civic. I have test driven this car twice, and I really like it. It seems to drive really well. Although it has low total horsepower, it acheived that horsepower at lower rpm, meaning that the accelleration felt pretty normal. The tires are bigger than the Prius, and it feels very much like a normal car. It is also quiet because the bottom of the car is insulated for better aerodynamics. One disadvantage is that, at $21,000 sticker price, this car is about $3000 over the price of a comparably equiped Civic.
After driving all three of these, I am going with the Hybrid Civic.
The IRS recently has announced a $2000 deduction for hybrid cars [detnews.com]
Also, if you are interested in enviornmental issues, check out [www.greenercars.com]. It has green ratings for all the cars mentioned.
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunately the prior art inventor Eolas has their own patents we should be afraid of.
According to this, they say they patented the use of plugins in browsers. Imagine the effect on projects like Mozilla if they were to press their claim.
Also, they claim that another patent "covers image space collision detection technology believed to be currently in widespread use throughout the computer game industry."
Trying to use slashdot as a cheap way to do a patent search.
At least that is what the aliens told me.
To me, the biggest problem with payphones was a bad user interface.
To use them you need change. If payphones had a credit card slot on them, I think they would be a lot more useful. Of course the industry trys to convince me that prepaid calling cards are the answer, but then I have to juggle multiple incompatible cards, each one with some time on them.
If payphones could accept some form of credit or rechargeable debit card, it would eliminate another expense of running them, the cost of removing the change from them. Of course, I'm sure that repairing them is also a major expense.
Similarly, who still uses the outragously priced phones in hotels (other than to call 800 numbers)? The hotels priced the "service" out of usefullness with their 500% mark up. In fact, running phone lines to each room, having a phone in each room, and having a computerized switchboard is probably much less expensive than providing television and cable services to each room, yet those services are almost always free.
Cell phones solve both problems quite nicely.
Artificial diamonds most certaintly do not "look wrong".
According to the NOVA program "Diamond Deception" originally broadcast on 2/01/2000, "These synthetic diamonds are such good copies of the real thing that they not only have the identical atomic structure but can even replicate their flaws."
Obviously you don't own a TiVO. And probably don't work in high tech. I know of at least 10 people that own a TiVO. Some own two.
My wife didn't see the point either. Then we got one. And our life changed. I no longer channel surf. I watch what I want when I want to. TV is much more interesting than it used to be for me. I have always hated commercials.
People said that computers were overpriced when the first came out ($2000 back in 1982 for an Apple II+ with 48k of ram). Did that make them worthless?
Finally, I can think of little I would rather not do than camp with your family every weekend for the summer. This is a website for geeks. Get with the tech.
The way you interact with televisions may be archaic. But I have a TiVO!
Considering the internet (universe) has only been around for 33 years (see here for details), that would make slashdot something like 12 in human years.
Put another way, Slashdot has been around for 15% of the total time of the internet. What did people do before slashdot? Probably were a lot more involved in usenet news (before spam).
And what does that mean for the future of slashdot? Now that its highly saturated and ad driven, the pioneers will move on. Will it continue to be the hip, anti-corporate, nerd web site we know and love? Only time will tell. Congrats, slashdot, hope to see you in another 5 years
In an ironic twist, just as we are starting to understand the mechanisms of evolution, CNN.com reports that Cobb county, Georgia's second largest school district, has passed a resolution allowing the teaching of alternate views of the origins of life (aka creationism).
According to Michael Gray, a Cobb high school junior "I had to do a term paper about evolution and there were just things that I could disprove or have alternate reasons for." This is exciting news. This junior in high school can disprove parts of the theory of evolution. Next, we'll have grade schoolers disproving the laws of physics.
I believe that Voodoo's lack of a single card to support 2D and 3D was a serious flaw.
I personally held off from buying a new system several months until a card came out that had both (I still am running that original TNT card).
The idea of running a separate board just for 3D never made much sense from a consumer perspective. Sure, you will get some early adopters, but clearly it wasn't sustainable in the long run. This seems to be an engineering solution to a marketing problem.
Marketer: We need to sell a card that is easy to use.
Engineer: The 2D boards out there already work well, if we integrate them on our 3D boards it will make our boards more expensive. Plus, people will have to throw away perfectly good 2D hardware every time they upgrade.
Marketer: Huh?
.
.
.
Go out of business.
Using the number of lines of source code in a distribution to tell you how important some code is compared to others is wrong.
Althought the kernel might not be the majority of the code in a Linux operating system, it is the most complex and hardest to write. Code complexity/difficulty cannot be measured by the number of lines of source.
If writing a kernel were easy, we would have seen GNU 10 years ago. However, despite the best efforts of the FSF, we still have not seen Hurd.
Also, how about using the amount of CPU time the user spends in different sections of code? I would think that the kernel would win this metric easily.
I agree with others that this is simply a pathetic attempt to grab publicity for GNU.
I can't help thinking this will end up like Mystery Men or The Tick, where lower grade super heros sit around in diners and talk about how they would have saved the day if they had the chance.
Microsoft. What insecurity to you want to exploit tomorrow?
Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and -
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don't know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [Pause] These go to eleven.
See IMDB This is Spinal Tap for more...
Threading a server can significantly increase performance. That is why many if not all commercial web servers are threaded (including IPlanet/NES and IIS).
Threaded programming is more difficult than non-threaded programming (just like mod-perl programming is more difficult that plain perl programming). Usually, it is because globals are used. Web servers are typically easier to thread (because each transaction doesn't usually interfere with others).
A single threaded server takes one request at a time, processes it, and then takes another request. The way Apache got around this was to have multiple processes, each which could take requests.
The problem is one of scale. While it is possible to have 1000 people simultaniously hit your web site at the same instance, it is unlikely that you will have 1000 processes running to take their requests. So some users have to wait. But is is possible to have a small number of processes with 1000 threads available to take requests.
Threads reduce memory useage. For example, each process has to load the code for the executable into memory, which multithreaded processes share. Also, if there is server file caching, mutiple threads can share the cache, but multiple processes can't.
Also threads can make more efficient use of resources. Lets say your application connects to a database on the back end (which is probably multithreaded, by the way). Lets also suppose that some transactions take longer than others. The first problem in a non-threaded application that each process has to have its own database connections. They cannot be shared between processes. Also, each process has to first wait for the tcp connection, then wait for the database to respond, then wait for the data to be sent out. While they are waiting, they cannot process other requests. The problem is that all the processes could block on the database doing long connections, while other requests that might not even require database connections wait. In a threaded model (with enough threads), many transactions can be started, while only the ones that actually have to do database connections block on the database.
Finally, threaded programs are more efficient in a multi-processor enviornment. These days, more and more servers have more than one processor. Because each thread can run on a separate processor, you can more efficiently use the hardware.
Threading is the way of the future. That is why Java caught on on the server side. Because it supports threading in the language (something that C or C++ don't do). The Apache writters were looking towards the future, not at the past.
Ultimately, this seems like a very good idea. Many people don't read instructions until something breaks. Also, wouldn't it be nice to have the instructions integrated into the object, so when it breaks, you can always find them?
However, imbedding a processor, power supply, and sensors into parts seems cost prohibative at this point.
As a step towards this, instructions could be included on a CD instead of a printed booklet. This would allow animations, three dimensional representation of parts, and sound.
Another option would be to imbed an externally powered chip into items, which would have content in some standard format, for display on a handheld or desktop unit. Everyone would have an instruction reader lying around (perhaps being the same device as an EBook reader).
However we make instructions better in the future, one thing is certain: It will cost manufacturers money to implement. Many manufacturers seem to put no money or thought into instructions (poor translations, parts that don't apply to the product that was bought, bad illustrations). So unless manufacturers see a reason to spend money, we are stuck with garbage.
The FBI is bloated with procedure. It needs to slim down.
As a citizen and taxpayer, I believe the FBI should have the best computer security people available. Not the best computer security people who are physically fit, or meet other non-important criteria to computer security. Physical fitness has nothing to do with computer ability. It is like saying in order for me to be a FBI agent, I need to be good looking. Even though being good looking may be very important if I ever get interviewed for the evening news, it won't help me do my job.
The government does have a responsibility to safeguard its secrets and protect itself, so I don't mind the background check.
Take, for example, the Olympic decathlon. There are 10 events, all of which are in the Olympics as other events. Do decathloners set world records in each of those 10 events? Could they even compete with other Olympic athletes in individual events? The answer is no. In order for a decathloner to develop the broad skills useful in all 10 events, he or she cannot become an expert in any particular event.
It is not acceptable to have computer security agents that don't know what a buffer overflow is, because they were busy learning how to fire a gun.
We are increasingly moving towards specialization in science. Someone said that a scientist today has only slight knowledge of things outside his or her field, but deep understanding of his or her specialty. The FBI must shed some procedural weight if it wants the best computer security possible. Otherwise, we will lose the fight against cyber-terrorism.
I would be very interested to know what slashdot's browser percentages are.
My guess it goes something like...
64% IE (silent majority)
20% Mozilla (loud minority)
10% Opera (for people who like to browse really fast)
5% Konquerer (hey, it came with my distro)
3% Lynx (for people who just can't get enough command lines)
(yeah, it adds up to 102%. The editors can't spell, either)
Sam and Max hit the road again. Score a major victory for geek love everywhere.
I have conned my wife into playing video games occasionally. She hated Diablo (too stressful when the monsters keep coming at her). She didn't understand Civ (oh, you created a city, isn't that nice). She liked the Sims but it was short lived (wow, this is way too much like real life).
The games she has always loved are LucasArts Adventures. She loved Day of the Tentacle (which featured you playing three different characters, time travel, evil tentacles, etc). She really loved Grim Fandango (a good 3d adventure, featuring a wonderful swing music soundtrack, and lots of funny puzzles as you travel through the art deco land of the dead). But probably her favorite was Sam and Max. The humor really did it for her.
Sam and Max is the only game that she not only played all the way through with me, but has asked about a sequel.
In these days of game cloning (how many first person shooters do we really need?), it is wonderful to see a clone of a game that my wife can love. Now if it only dispensed tuna flavored treats for my cat....
The document write is missing an end parenthesis.
Oh well. Back to the drawing board.
This announcement is very important for one reason. Competition. Intel has had the CPU lead since the April release of the 2.4 GHz Pentium 4. The June release of the Athlon 2200 had to be a disappointment for AMD, since it not only was slower than the Pentium, but also had very little overclocking possibilities, which should have been possible due to the move from .18 to .13 micron production process. The only thing that the 2200 had going for it was price.
This was a serious problem for AMD and for competition in the CPU market. The Athlon line has always promised leading edge performance. It was key to legitimizing AMD as not just a low cost knock off of Intel, but competition where the margins are, at the top end.
Now AMD has regained if not a lead, then at least parity with Intel. And what is more important, several reviewers are saying there is a large overclocking potential with the 2400 and 2600 (The 2600 runs by default at 2.13GHz, and AnandTech overclocked to 2.4 and Tom's hardware overclocked to 2.6GHz, but only for a short time). What this means is that there is headroom in the design for much faster processors.
One thing to remember is that this is not only important for the desktop (where one could successfully argue that all this speed is overkill). This also effects the Linux server market, where this speed is needed.
Without serious competition at the top end, Intel produces slower, more expensive products. Competition is the key force driving the CPU market, and we have all benefited. Except maybe Intel's profits.
I have been researching Hybrids for the last year. U am also currently driving a Honda Accord. Here is what I have come up with. The Honda Insight is an engineering wonder. Everything is designed to be light. The word on the street is that this car will be discontinued at the end of this year [www.businessreport.com]. And if you have kids forget it, as it is only a two seater and doesn't have an airbag cutoff switch. The Toyota Prius is an interesting car. Advantages are that it is SULEV (at least in California), and that it can run off the electric battery without the engine running (at speeds lower than 30 mph). Disadvantages I saw on my test drive was that the first one I tried wouldn't start cause the battery had drained (don't know if it was a stupid dealer or design flaw). Also, I didn't like the center mounted speedometer or the weird shift (mounted on the dashboard). Finally, the Prius uses small low rolling resistiance tires, which people are complaining about. According to one post I saw, someone said they had to change tires at 14,000 miles. And since the tires are both small and low rolling resistiance, they are hard to find. Also, during my test drive, it seemed that the gas engine was revving really high at speeds of 40 to 50 mph. Another small nit is that the breaking is non-linear (it seems rather grippy when you press hard). Finally, I have been considering the Hybrid Civic. I have test driven this car twice, and I really like it. It seems to drive really well. Although it has low total horsepower, it acheived that horsepower at lower rpm, meaning that the accelleration felt pretty normal. The tires are bigger than the Prius, and it feels very much like a normal car. It is also quiet because the bottom of the car is insulated for better aerodynamics. One disadvantage is that, at $21,000 sticker price, this car is about $3000 over the price of a comparably equiped Civic. After driving all three of these, I am going with the Hybrid Civic. The IRS recently has announced a $2000 deduction for hybrid cars [detnews.com] Also, if you are interested in enviornmental issues, check out [www.greenercars.com]. It has green ratings for all the cars mentioned.