I don't mean to troll, but I'm afraid that you've been misled. As has been previously discussed here on/., Microsoft's financial filings show that they lose money in every single division except for Windows and Office. They then use the extreme profits to prop up other ventures they may decide to persue. I believe it was shown that XP Pro could be sold for $35 a copy and MS would still make an above average profit on it. Consider that you can't get a copy for less than $200 (and that's OEM), and it gives you an idea of just how badly most of MS's divisions are bleeding cash.
They are. I used to own a CF-41 and I still have a (P150 =)) CF-61. it's impossible to kill the things, Panasonic used to like demoing them by running over them with SUVs. the only desing flaw I've seen on any is with the 61's actually. they had a motorized cd tray that ejected from under the keyboard, and the eject button had a hard point facing up... toward the screen. I've seen several of these machines that had something put on top of them, and that was the end of that LCD.
Saying I remember it would be an understatement. I wasted more hours than I'd like to think about playing that game:) and it was *THE* first 256 color VGA game made. plus Access' RealSound tech was unbelievable. Fully digitized sound effects and voice through the PC speaker! An incredible game both gameplay wise and technically for its time.
What worries me most is the personel that are going to be staffing these labs. I don't know about the situation elsewhere, but the "IT" people in my local school district (which has something like 50k students) are the most incompetent people I have ever met. At one of the high schools in town, for example, one of the admins for some reason took offense to the kids taking the balls out of their mice for a minute or two to clean the rollers since they were skipping. So how does she solve this problem, nevermind that it's contrived to begin with? She superglues the balls inside the mice. Yes, you read that right. There are still boxes of useless mice in storage at that school from this fiasco.
The sad thing is, this isn't an all that out of the ordinary occurence around here. So yes, I love linux, I think it'd be great for kids to learn it in school... but if you have a moron for an admin, I wouldn't be surprised if the kids got nothing done because the admin neglected to set things up properly. Oh well, hopefully in the cases where this does get implemented it'll be because of school IT people that know what they're doing, not school boards pushing for lower costs.
Really, it has more to do with the fact that there isn't a whole lot of interest from the japanese or germans. Honda and BMW, for example, are both far more interested in open wheel and touring car racing, as they can do research that can actually be applied to real street cars, unlike NASCAR's "stock" racing. Toyota's the only import that's shown any interest whatsoever, running the Celica in a dash series and also making inroads to participating in the truck series. Honestly, I think it has more to do with the fact that none of the importers have any interest in building, what for them, is a very large car, just to compete in NASCAR.
Depends on your definition of "major" touring car series. the speed channel world touring car series and the british touring car series both run cars that are race prepared versions of the street cars.
interesting note on Group N rally cars - these cars actually perform poorer than the street cars in some cases due to the strict regulations placed on these cars. Check out the latest issue of Sport Compact Car for the exact numbers.
Personally, I'd argue that all NASCAR does for the street car is to help sell a few more midsize sedans. The cars are so remote from being anywhere near streetable that calling it "stock car" racing is the biggest joke running. I've often wondered if Chevy would sell any of those boats they call the Monte Carlo if it didn't run in NASCAR.
actually, it's a play on my last name, which people tend to mispronounce as "Slacker." The fact that it describes me perfectly is mere cooincidence. =)
besides, it's 1:30 in the morning and I'm supposed to be working on a paper that's due tommorow, I figured it'd be easier to get some slashdotter to explain it to me in a paragraph or so rather than have to speed read through a 5 page paper online and MAYBE get the point, but more likely, miss it completely.
My largest (technology oriented) complaints with nascar are the ancient technology used in the engines (pushrod V8's, what is this the 1950's?)
Welcome to yet another popular element of american racing - the tendency be regulated toward outdated technology. Don't expect NASCAR to change this anytime soon either. Hell, they may be incredibly fast, but NHRA dragsters in almost every division are so technologically dated it's incredible. The import divisions are about the only exceptions, but that's not the series' bread and butter, either.
Not to mention the fact that the pressure on them during a pit stop is immense. Competition is so tight that a second or less in the pits could make the difference in winning the race.
I'd have to agree that the mental game is a huge part of what makes racing racing, and any form of racing takes a special set of talents that might be worthless in another form. That said, if you were to ask me to rank the different forms of racing, NASCAR and its brethren would be among the lower rungs, simply because they run almost exclusively oval tracks. After watching a good touring car race or rally race, NASCAR feels mind numblingly boring as a spectator
Actually, that said, I've always kind of found it interesting that oval track racing has only managed to really find any popularity in America, while the rest of the world has always been far more interested in road course racing.
While my interest in motorsports lies more with rally and road course racing, I believe you're misled if you believe that NASCAR drivers aren't very well compensated. Albeit, earnings are based more upon performance than most american sports, but they are the best paid drivers of any motorsport in the US. Cart and IRL are the only other American racing divisions with anywhere near the financial fortitude of NASCAR, but with nowhere near the popularity. (or number of events, with # of events == greater opportunity to earn more winnings). Internationally, I'd venture a guess that only F1 and maybe WRC drivers make more.
Just what is game theory? I saw the headline and assumed the story was about yet-another-games-programming-course, but a cursory skimming of the article suggests that it's a branch of social science. I'm curious, anyone care to clear this up for me?
I read the headline and thought "Wow, that's the coolest thing I've seen in a while." Then I read the article and it took only the words "stored on a protected portion of the hard drive" for me to become severely disapointed. This would be awesome if it were embedded as a ROM, but as a HD partition, it's usefulness is questionable at best. In short, if your HD dies, you're still up the creek, much like you would have been without this technology.
Except that the current version won't run with the AMD chips. The 64 bit XP that's out now is for the Itanium chip structure (IA-64) which is a totally different chip for AMD's x86-64 structure. Basically, Intel threw out all the old chip design for the new structure, while AMD is focusing on expanding the current structure to run native 64 bit. there's a big difference there. so in short, no, it's not just AMD's problem.
Here's the thing, Palladium is unlikely to stop you from copying music from your own physical media and onto your computer. Nobody WANTS to stop you from doing that.
Frankly, I find that hard to believe. If you've been following the DRM, you'd have to take into account that every DRM scheme to date has been aimed at preventing users from making any copies whatsoever, which I would say, is a pretty clear violation of fair use. CSS was created to stop you from making any copy of a DVD. CD copy protection schemes (music) are even more horrendous, often times preventing the *original* from working properly in some people's players. Now, given MS's own attempts at DRM along with the history of DRM in general, don't you think MS would just love to have a way to make the previous generation of Windows simply cease working at an arbitrary date, forcing users to buy a new lisence every n months?
And as I recall, Linux doesn't come with a proper manual either. You get a bunch of online help files that come with each program or, if that doesn't suffice, how-to's and online forums. And if you want to know how to do something, you have to look for it. This information is in Windows' online help, as that's where I learned it from, just as I'd have to search through the help files if I wanted to know about feature XYZ in KDE. You have to spend a little *GASP!* time and effort learning how to do things. Just because it's user friendly doesn't mean every little feature is going to jump out at you screaming "use me!"
hmm. interesting, I wasn't aware of that. The two main US variations tend to be backslash right above the return on keyboards with smaller return keys and backslash stuck up between the equals key and backspace on the ones with large return keys.
but then again I'm constantly seeing new (usually dumb) variations of keyboards coming in at work. for a while, putting a series of power-control buttons in the same block as the home/end keys was popular with manufacturors, and the bane of my existence every time I accidently hit the blasted sleep button =)
idiots like me who find it more convenient to reach for the \ key right next above the enter key than to reach all the way up next to the backspace. =)
I think I've been the only one to say this that I've seen, but the Caps Lock actually can be useful for something other than pissing others off. Try working on an app using either W32 API or DirectX without a caps lock sometimes and you'll see what I mean. after about the 50th ALL_CAPS_WINDOWS_CONSTANT you'll be begging for the key:)
Actually, the windows key can do something useful, it's just most people don't realize it does more than "bring up the start menu at the worst possible moment."
Just a few examples: Windows-D brings up the desktop, Windows-R, the run dialog, Windows-E opens up a my computer window, Windows-Break opens a system properties window.There are more, but those are the ones that are (to me) most useful.
Slashdotters love to tell newbs to RTFM, but don't expect them to do so themselves before bitching about the stupidity of something.
I use both *nix and windows on a regular basis, and even windows has some cool functions built-in for the power users out there, it's just that the power users often miss them because they can't be bothered to look for them "because it's windows"
Well, first off, look at the at the name of the alt key. Alt. As in alternate. kinda explains why you'd use it only in combinations with other keys.
As for the F keys comment, I guess you're not a *nix user then, since it makes for a quick, easy way to switch between console sessions.
All I can say is a couple of sessions of W32 programming (yeah yeah, evil, I know) would cure you of the belief that the caps lock key is evil as holding down the shift key while trying to type YET_ANOTHER_WINDOWS_CONSTANT gets more than a little annoying. As for the PgUp/PgDn block, same argument really, it makes hacking at code much easier... except for the insert key. I can agree with you there:)
slightly OT but along the same lines, but did anyone else happen to catch the 10 min or so segment CNN did on "information warfare" during yet another War on Iraq show last night?
I have to admit, I was pretty amused that from a glance at the monitors they let CNN tape, you could that the machines were all running Win 95. And the army rep did everything short of wave his arms in the air in a mystical manner while showing off the army's (again, Win9x, GUI based) port scanner to the interviewer.
The register article and this CNN piece help me sleep easier at night, knowing that our military has such 1337 h4x0r5 working for them...
Slashdot Mirror
They are. I used to own a CF-41 and I still have a (P150 =)) CF-61. it's impossible to kill the things, Panasonic used to like demoing them by running over them with SUVs. the only desing flaw I've seen on any is with the 61's actually. they had a motorized cd tray that ejected from under the keyboard, and the eject button had a hard point facing up... toward the screen. I've seen several of these machines that had something put on top of them, and that was the end of that LCD.
Saying I remember it would be an understatement. I wasted more hours than I'd like to think about playing that game :) and it was *THE* first 256 color VGA game made. plus Access' RealSound tech was unbelievable. Fully digitized sound effects and voice through the PC speaker! An incredible game both gameplay wise and technically for its time.
What worries me most is the personel that are going to be staffing these labs. I don't know about the situation elsewhere, but the "IT" people in my local school district (which has something like 50k students) are the most incompetent people I have ever met. At one of the high schools in town, for example, one of the admins for some reason took offense to the kids taking the balls out of their mice for a minute or two to clean the rollers since they were skipping. So how does she solve this problem, nevermind that it's contrived to begin with? She superglues the balls inside the mice. Yes, you read that right. There are still boxes of useless mice in storage at that school from this fiasco.
The sad thing is, this isn't an all that out of the ordinary occurence around here. So yes, I love linux, I think it'd be great for kids to learn it in school... but if you have a moron for an admin, I wouldn't be surprised if the kids got nothing done because the admin neglected to set things up properly. Oh well, hopefully in the cases where this does get implemented it'll be because of school IT people that know what they're doing, not school boards pushing for lower costs.
Really, it has more to do with the fact that there isn't a whole lot of interest from the japanese or germans. Honda and BMW, for example, are both far more interested in open wheel and touring car racing, as they can do research that can actually be applied to real street cars, unlike NASCAR's "stock" racing. Toyota's the only import that's shown any interest whatsoever, running the Celica in a dash series and also making inroads to participating in the truck series. Honestly, I think it has more to do with the fact that none of the importers have any interest in building, what for them, is a very large car, just to compete in NASCAR.
Depends on your definition of "major" touring car series. the speed channel world touring car series and the british touring car series both run cars that are race prepared versions of the street cars.
interesting note on Group N rally cars - these cars actually perform poorer than the street cars in some cases due to the strict regulations placed on these cars. Check out the latest issue of Sport Compact Car for the exact numbers.
Personally, I'd argue that all NASCAR does for the street car is to help sell a few more midsize sedans. The cars are so remote from being anywhere near streetable that calling it "stock car" racing is the biggest joke running. I've often wondered if Chevy would sell any of those boats they call the Monte Carlo if it didn't run in NASCAR.
actually, it's a play on my last name, which people tend to mispronounce as "Slacker." The fact that it describes me perfectly is mere cooincidence. =)
besides, it's 1:30 in the morning and I'm supposed to be working on a paper that's due tommorow, I figured it'd be easier to get some slashdotter to explain it to me in a paragraph or so rather than have to speed read through a 5 page paper online and MAYBE get the point, but more likely, miss it completely.
Not to mention the fact that the pressure on them during a pit stop is immense. Competition is so tight that a second or less in the pits could make the difference in winning the race.
Thanks for the information =)
For once, I feel slightly smarter after reading slashdot instead of feeling like someone has attempted a lobotamy on me with a vacuum cleaner.
I'd have to agree that the mental game is a huge part of what makes racing racing, and any form of racing takes a special set of talents that might be worthless in another form. That said, if you were to ask me to rank the different forms of racing, NASCAR and its brethren would be among the lower rungs, simply because they run almost exclusively oval tracks. After watching a good touring car race or rally race, NASCAR feels mind numblingly boring as a spectator
Actually, that said, I've always kind of found it interesting that oval track racing has only managed to really find any popularity in America, while the rest of the world has always been far more interested in road course racing.
While my interest in motorsports lies more with rally and road course racing, I believe you're misled if you believe that NASCAR drivers aren't very well compensated. Albeit, earnings are based more upon performance than most american sports, but they are the best paid drivers of any motorsport in the US. Cart and IRL are the only other American racing divisions with anywhere near the financial fortitude of NASCAR, but with nowhere near the popularity. (or number of events, with # of events == greater opportunity to earn more winnings). Internationally, I'd venture a guess that only F1 and maybe WRC drivers make more.
Just what is game theory? I saw the headline and assumed the story was about yet-another-games-programming-course, but a cursory skimming of the article suggests that it's a branch of social science. I'm curious, anyone care to clear this up for me?
I read the headline and thought "Wow, that's the coolest thing I've seen in a while." Then I read the article and it took only the words "stored on a protected portion of the hard drive" for me to become severely disapointed. This would be awesome if it were embedded as a ROM, but as a HD partition, it's usefulness is questionable at best. In short, if your HD dies, you're still up the creek, much like you would have been without this technology.
Except that the current version won't run with the AMD chips. The 64 bit XP that's out now is for the Itanium chip structure (IA-64) which is a totally different chip for AMD's x86-64 structure. Basically, Intel threw out all the old chip design for the new structure, while AMD is focusing on expanding the current structure to run native 64 bit. there's a big difference there. so in short, no, it's not just AMD's problem.
Frankly, I find that hard to believe. If you've been following the DRM, you'd have to take into account that every DRM scheme to date has been aimed at preventing users from making any copies whatsoever, which I would say, is a pretty clear violation of fair use. CSS was created to stop you from making any copy of a DVD. CD copy protection schemes (music) are even more horrendous, often times preventing the *original* from working properly in some people's players. Now, given MS's own attempts at DRM along with the history of DRM in general, don't you think MS would just love to have a way to make the previous generation of Windows simply cease working at an arbitrary date, forcing users to buy a new lisence every n months?
And as I recall, Linux doesn't come with a proper manual either. You get a bunch of online help files that come with each program or, if that doesn't suffice, how-to's and online forums. And if you want to know how to do something, you have to look for it. This information is in Windows' online help, as that's where I learned it from, just as I'd have to search through the help files if I wanted to know about feature XYZ in KDE. You have to spend a little *GASP!* time and effort learning how to do things. Just because it's user friendly doesn't mean every little feature is going to jump out at you screaming "use me!"
hmm. interesting, I wasn't aware of that. The two main US variations tend to be backslash right above the return on keyboards with smaller return keys and backslash stuck up between the equals key and backspace on the ones with large return keys.
but then again I'm constantly seeing new (usually dumb) variations of keyboards coming in at work. for a while, putting a series of power-control buttons in the same block as the home/end keys was popular with manufacturors, and the bane of my existence every time I accidently hit the blasted sleep button =)
idiots like me who find it more convenient to reach for the \ key right next above the enter key than to reach all the way up next to the backspace. =)
I think I've been the only one to say this that I've seen, but the Caps Lock actually can be useful for something other than pissing others off. Try working on an app using either W32 API or DirectX without a caps lock sometimes and you'll see what I mean. after about the 50th ALL_CAPS_WINDOWS_CONSTANT you'll be begging for the key :)
Actually, the windows key can do something useful, it's just most people don't realize it does more than "bring up the start menu at the worst possible moment."
Just a few examples: Windows-D brings up the desktop, Windows-R, the run dialog, Windows-E opens up a my computer window, Windows-Break opens a system properties window.There are more, but those are the ones that are (to me) most useful.
Slashdotters love to tell newbs to RTFM, but don't expect them to do so themselves before bitching about the stupidity of something. I use both *nix and windows on a regular basis, and even windows has some cool functions built-in for the power users out there, it's just that the power users often miss them because they can't be bothered to look for them "because it's windows"
Well, first off, look at the at the name of the alt key. Alt. As in alternate. kinda explains why you'd use it only in combinations with other keys.
:)
As for the F keys comment, I guess you're not a *nix user then, since it makes for a quick, easy way to switch between console sessions.
All I can say is a couple of sessions of W32 programming (yeah yeah, evil, I know) would cure you of the belief that the caps lock key is evil as holding down the shift key while trying to type YET_ANOTHER_WINDOWS_CONSTANT gets more than a little annoying. As for the PgUp/PgDn block, same argument really, it makes hacking at code much easier... except for the insert key. I can agree with you there
slightly OT but along the same lines, but did anyone else happen to catch the 10 min or so segment CNN did on "information warfare" during yet another War on Iraq show last night?
I have to admit, I was pretty amused that from a glance at the monitors they let CNN tape, you could that the machines were all running Win 95. And the army rep did everything short of wave his arms in the air in a mystical manner while showing off the army's (again, Win9x, GUI based) port scanner to the interviewer.
The register article and this CNN piece help me sleep easier at night, knowing that our military has such 1337 h4x0r5 working for them...