One of the problems with "Free Software" are the take, take, take folk. Ultimately if you value something you should support it, either financially by direct payment or by recognising that it needs money (eg putting up with ads).
To give you those "free roads" you drive on, the government charges you taxes. To give out free services, charities accept contributions.
I doubt many of the gimme,gimme, free software takers actually develop anything substantial or contribute anything, apart from annoyance.
Perhaps with time people will mature in their outlook and freely contribute better than they do now: "Hey I like service x or software y. Here's $20 to say thanks!". This is not yet happening but perhaps it will one day.
Single chip x86: Geode etc are a crap idea. The idea has been done to death and has never caught on. There's no real benefit in them. In the past there was some appeal in x86 because of good, cheap compilers etc. Now there's gcc for everything this advantage has long since disappeared.
ARM, and at a push MIPS, PowerPC and SH4 own this space. x86 needs to offer something huge to get back in the game.
"So Mr CEO, instead of letting the employees do something useful and making the shareholders some money you have them running around in pixel land kicking rocks? Even Microsoft and Zune makes more sense than that!"
A "brick" is a device that cannot be resored to original functionality. There is a difference.
Many/most devices have a "low level monitor" that supports reflashing the firmware. If that low level monitor gets hosed then you have a big problem (break out the JTAG cables etc).
Of course technical terms get bandied about by pseudo-nerds which does confuse things.
The kind of "Freedom" you guys enjoy in the USA has been earned. You had a great consitution and proper personal freedoms but you let various people scare you into shredding that constitution and those freedoms.
You'd think that a gold medal achieved by cheating would feel a bit tinny, but I guess the prestige,pressure and potential $$proffits$$ from endorsements etc do motivate people to cheat.
Yes, they come from observation and modelling nature and trying to explain how and why stuff works. Our understanding is, and always has been, incomplete and under refinement. We continually refine these laws as we progress.
For example: "stuff falls down" becomes a description of gravity which might one day become something about strings wor whatever, when that is probperly figured out. "Human flight is impossible" because "heavier than air flight is impossible" which then became laws of aeronautics and one day might morph into something else.
Most companies, like most people, will take what they can. Only the law limits what most companies/people would take. Is it morally right that some have so much, and continue to take, while some have so little and seem to have less each day? It should not be like that, but it is.
Scientific studies that tell people what is actually being monitored are pretty broken because telling people about the monitoring is likely to impact behaviour.
Far more often, these places will tell you about one thing, but actually be monitoring something completely different. eg. They might say they're monitoring whether peaople eat more from square vs round plates when in fact they're monitoring if people eat more (or say the taste is better) when the the menu has fancy French names.
Many companies collect usage stats for many products. These are very useful for the ongoing design of the product or assessing impact of changes etc. By knowing typical usage patterns the engineers can better formulate optimisations or prioritise development tasks.
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To give you those "free roads" you drive on, the government charges you taxes. To give out free services, charities accept contributions.
I doubt many of the gimme,gimme, free software takers actually develop anything substantial or contribute anything, apart from annoyance.
Perhaps with time people will mature in their outlook and freely contribute better than they do now: "Hey I like service x or software y. Here's $20 to say thanks!". This is not yet happening but perhaps it will one day.
that leaves just me!
responded to my own online dating ad. Do you think I know I'm not a cute bisexual chick with DD-boobs?
ARM, and at a push MIPS, PowerPC and SH4 own this space. x86 needs to offer something huge to get back in the game.
It's a longitudinal wave.
Post AC!
"So Mr CEO, instead of letting the employees do something useful and making the shareholders some money you have them running around in pixel land kicking rocks? Even Microsoft and Zune makes more sense than that!"
Many/most devices have a "low level monitor" that supports reflashing the firmware. If that low level monitor gets hosed then you have a big problem (break out the JTAG cables etc).
Of course technical terms get bandied about by pseudo-nerds which does confuse things.
The kind of "Freedom" you guys enjoy in the USA has been earned. You had a great consitution and proper personal freedoms but you let various people scare you into shredding that constitution and those freedoms.
THis is only worth anything so long as MS does not "innovate" and "extend" the protocol and break compatability.
Where do you draw the line between a computer tech snooping a hard drive and an ISP tech monitoring your email/downloads?
Ten minutes to fix the DVD. Five days to go through your media looking for bank info, pictures of the missus to post on www.lonelyhearts.com etc.
I talked to a guy called Sgt. Foo King Liarski.
Laser printer. Once rendered the batteries never go flat.
When they say 6000 years, they're rounding the numbers: 6000 years plus or minus 4500 million.
That would also void warrantees according to the Toshiba website.
You'd think that a gold medal achieved by cheating would feel a bit tinny, but I guess the prestige,pressure and potential $$proffits$$ from endorsements etc do motivate people to cheat.
Didn't Zune get number 1 last year? What's for 2008? Silverlight?
For example: "stuff falls down" becomes a description of gravity which might one day become something about strings wor whatever, when that is probperly figured out. "Human flight is impossible" because "heavier than air flight is impossible" which then became laws of aeronautics and one day might morph into something else.
Even microwave ovens use 2.4G. There are so many different comms using 2.4G it is suprising anything works.
Spin-meisters supreme!
Far more often, these places will tell you about one thing, but actually be monitoring something completely different. eg. They might say they're monitoring whether peaople eat more from square vs round plates when in fact they're monitoring if people eat more (or say the taste is better) when the the menu has fancy French names.
So what if anonymous stats are collected?
like the Spice Girls' birthdays