Making chipsets is quite expensive and it is quite common to make one chipset and control the features handed out to people with software. Pay more and they turn on more features. Many companies do this with a wide range of product. I even recall watching a technician upgrade a line printer from 300lpm to 600lpm by pulling out a link.
Any company that depends on a mechanism like this to control their revenue will be mighty pissed at anyone that bypasses the mechanism and turns on all the features.
Whether you want to call this tracking or identification is just fiddling with semantics. You could equally say that a license plate does not provide identification, just tracking. As soon as it gives a way to link to some data base then there is no difference.
Tyre ids will be tracked by tyre vendors for insurance/warrantee purposes. Just add a license plate reader and the connection between the tyres and the license is made. Once there is a tie up between the tyre ids and the vehicle you have identification.
Men will nail anything and the women really control sexual interactions. The cost of mating is far lower for men than for women therefore women are far more choosy.
After years of honing their bribery^h^h^h^h^hlobbying skills, don't for a second believe that the megacorps would leave government selection to anything as random as citizen voters.
Andd why dump them in the Pacific? After taking US nukes and other toxic waste for decades, why would the Pacific want US government stinking up the joint too?
I had a look at an EEEPC a few days ago. This thing barely runs Linux. It will really suck trying to run XP. As for Office..... well maybe it is theoretically possible, but not something you'd really want to do.
Perhaps nothing will undermine Windows as much as EEE PC. The Linux version has been quite popular. The Windows version is more expensive and will suck. That must get people wondering....
If you're designing electronics, then you have to design stuff that complies with standards etc. If you design flying cars then you need to comply with FAA etc regulations.
Engineering a viable flying car is far beyond making one unit that can fly, it also involves establishing safe flying practices etc: in other words, full system thinking.
Patenting the bomb could be almost as good as world peace. 1.Patent bomb. 2. Wait until Dick Tater builds own bomb. 2. Send cease and desist notices. 3. Dick Tater ignores these. 4. Send planes full of lawyers. 5. Dick Tater shoots lawyers. 6. Good enough result.
"I predict flying cars by year 2000^h^h^h^h2010^h^h^h^h2020". Prediction is the easy bit. Actually engineering a flying car or space elevator or whatever is the hard bit. There are a lot of very significant obstacles to overcome.
The old well worn bridge analogy: In theory it's pretty easy to built a bridge, but you need to only look at the Tacoma Narrows bridge to see that engineering a viable structure takes a bit more than str theory is prettSame deal with a space elevator. The theory is pretty straightforward, but the actual engineering to make a reliable structure is something else.
Those arts students getting an easy ride will become advertising people etc in a few years time who will also seem to be getting an easy ride. It won't be fair then either.
Basically, if you can't handle the unfairness while you're a student then you probably won't handle the unfairness when you're an engineer.
If you're just going to complain and have a terrible life, well then it was better to find out while you are a student.
For every Linux desktop or server there are many embedded Linux devices such as cell phones etc.
The reason Linux is used on these devices is nothing to do with fun (the typical user never sees Linux). Free is important, but the most important bit is that it is very easy and fast to do development in Linux relative to just about anything competitive.
Linux has accessible, readable source that is pretty well documented. The development tools are excellent quality and highly productive. There's a huge variety of different drivers, file systems, connectivity & debugging methoods.
I've done a lot of development in both Linux and Windows CE and the Linux development is many times more productive.
These things really matter when you're trying to get a product shipped on time. For most vendors, time to market is the most important measure.
The traditional way to design antennas is pretty old and relies on some pretty straight forward theory that has been around for a long time. All you need for a computer is s slide rule.
Modern model-based antenna design is a lot different and a lot more challenging. For example, building a 5-band antenna for a cell phone defies straight forward dipole etc design. People are increasingly doing very different stuff. For example, the guys over at http://www.physics.otago.ac.nz/ are using genetic algorithms linked with an electromagnetic modelling package to design antennas. Some of the shapes look pretty wierd.
Low-level protection is fine, so long as you know it is low level. Low level protection is dine for stopping the casual snooper.
Around the world there are millions of low-level padlocks etc that will stop most petty thieves but will not deter serious thieves. Most houses have pickable locks that anyone could learn to pick, but yet most locks still serve their purpose.
The only real issue is if peeople buy these devices and think they're getting Fort Knox level security and essentially use a two-dollar padlock to secure a bank.
It's the so-called "software stack": all the GUI + framework. That's where the fragmentation occurs.
It's also the binary specs. Most phones are ARM and the ARM binary stuff is only recently settling down. There are tens of different models of Linux phones. Sure, you could run console apps on these but GUI ones are far from standardised. That measn no "write once, run anywhere".
I don't need the history lesson. I was there. There were a lot of different MSDOS machines out there before IBM's emerged as the dominant, and only, architecture. I programmed a few myself and had to deal with the differences.
The standard MSDOS interface was completely useless for dealing with hardware (eg. the screen and keyboard), so you'd have to bypass MSDOS and access hardware directly. That worked, but was not portable across machines. Some machines also came with special BIOS and BIOS extensions which also were not portable. IBM made the difference and stopped this fragmentation.
The Linux phone space is currently very fragmented and needs a big player to help bring it together. Without commonality, there will be no portable 3rd party apps etc (like there are for Symbian phones etc).
Taking a page from the history books, the Linux phone space is currently where MSDOS computers were in the pre-IBM compatable days. Before IBM came along and made a standardised platform, MSDOS programs were very clunky and typically not portable between different MSDOS machines. What made the difference was when IBM made their PC and people started cloning it. That is what really kick started the whole PC era.
Having one big player can really help to make a standardised effort.
Slashdot Mirror
if(contribution_of_lobbiests_impacted > 100000000)
do_something();
else
ignore_poor_people();
Most people are more than happy with XP and have no desire for Vista.
Then there's also the emerging market of the Eee PC style lower end devices. XP can run on these, but not Vista.
If I was an MS shareholder I'd be asking HTF MS marketing got so out of step with the market.
The sun is very hot except at night.
Any company that depends on a mechanism like this to control their revenue will be mighty pissed at anyone that bypasses the mechanism and turns on all the features.
Tyre ids will be tracked by tyre vendors for insurance/warrantee purposes. Just add a license plate reader and the connection between the tyres and the license is made. Once there is a tie up between the tyre ids and the vehicle you have identification.
http://www.stupid.com/stat/XRAY.html
All you need is to be able to track the tyre ids.
What's the point of http://www.gatesfoundation.org/ if it is not to buy good karma for Bill and MS?
Men will nail anything and the women really control sexual interactions. The cost of mating is far lower for men than for women therefore women are far more choosy.
Andd why dump them in the Pacific? After taking US nukes and other toxic waste for decades, why would the Pacific want US government stinking up the joint too?
Perhaps nothing will undermine Windows as much as EEE PC. The Linux version has been quite popular. The Windows version is more expensive and will suck. That must get people wondering....
You didn't mention what else went on in the interaction. Was she twirling around in a short skirt? Winking? Jiggling her tits at you?
Engineering a viable flying car is far beyond making one unit that can fly, it also involves establishing safe flying practices etc: in other words, full system thinking.
Patenting the bomb could be almost as good as world peace.
1.Patent bomb.
2. Wait until Dick Tater builds own bomb.
2. Send cease and desist notices.
3. Dick Tater ignores these.
4. Send planes full of lawyers.
5. Dick Tater shoots lawyers.
6. Good enough result.
The old well worn bridge analogy: In theory it's pretty easy to built a bridge, but you need to only look at the Tacoma Narrows bridge to see that engineering a viable structure takes a bit more than str theory is prettSame deal with a space elevator. The theory is pretty straightforward, but the actual engineering to make a reliable structure is something else.
where it just means "containing carbon". This is very confusing for the average USA Today reader who thinks that organic == life.
But it's still slashdot.
Basically, if you can't handle the unfairness while you're a student then you probably won't handle the unfairness when you're an engineer.
If you're just going to complain and have a terrible life, well then it was better to find out while you are a student.
The reason Linux is used on these devices is nothing to do with fun (the typical user never sees Linux). Free is important, but the most important bit is that it is very easy and fast to do development in Linux relative to just about anything competitive.
Linux has accessible, readable source that is pretty well documented. The development tools are excellent quality and highly productive. There's a huge variety of different drivers, file systems, connectivity & debugging methoods.
I've done a lot of development in both Linux and Windows CE and the Linux development is many times more productive.
These things really matter when you're trying to get a product shipped on time. For most vendors, time to market is the most important measure.
Now this exactly the sort of bias that this thing finds: republic vs democratic, yin vs yang, sucks vs blows.
Modern model-based antenna design is a lot different and a lot more challenging. For example, building a 5-band antenna for a cell phone defies straight forward dipole etc design. People are increasingly doing very different stuff. For example, the guys over at http://www.physics.otago.ac.nz/ are using genetic algorithms linked with an electromagnetic modelling package to design antennas. Some of the shapes look pretty wierd.
Around the world there are millions of low-level padlocks etc that will stop most petty thieves but will not deter serious thieves. Most houses have pickable locks that anyone could learn to pick, but yet most locks still serve their purpose.
The only real issue is if peeople buy these devices and think they're getting Fort Knox level security and essentially use a two-dollar padlock to secure a bank.
It's also the binary specs. Most phones are ARM and the ARM binary stuff is only recently settling down. There are tens of different models of Linux phones. Sure, you could run console apps on these but GUI ones are far from standardised. That measn no "write once, run anywhere".
The standard MSDOS interface was completely useless for dealing with hardware (eg. the screen and keyboard), so you'd have to bypass MSDOS and access hardware directly. That worked, but was not portable across machines. Some machines also came with special BIOS and BIOS extensions which also were not portable. IBM made the difference and stopped this fragmentation.
Taking a page from the history books, the Linux phone space is currently where MSDOS computers were in the pre-IBM compatable days. Before IBM came along and made a standardised platform, MSDOS programs were very clunky and typically not portable between different MSDOS machines. What made the difference was when IBM made their PC and people started cloning it. That is what really kick started the whole PC era.
Having one big player can really help to make a standardised effort.