Interesting watching the modding.... troll to insightful. I guess it depends on when the NASA fanboys read it.
The reason I said China is threefold:
(1) They don't have a huge and resistant big-vehicle culture. The biggest problem in USA is getting people to give up their huge SUVs and people movers and accept smaller cars. Any car would be a major step forward for most Chinese families, even a tiny battery car that only does 20 miles at 30pmh. This opens up a huge bottom-end market that is easy to expand from.
(2)China already has a booming electric vehicle industry with electric hub bicycles. This forms a strong basis to move forward from.
(3) They don't have a huge existing infrastructure, but are building it now. That makes it far easier to incorporate electric vehicle support without obsoleting gas stations etc (a move that would be lobbied to dead in the USA by all the gas supply companies).
The major limiting factor in x86 space is not fab cost but patents. Intel and AMD are hardly going to hand out free passes to compete in x86. It is far easier for most suppliers to work with something like ARM or PowerPC which are far more suited to better licensing deals.
Both Intel and AMD seem to keep going through many wild gyrations that don't seem to make long term sense. For instance, both got into the mobile CPU business (Au1000 and XScale) and baled out.
However, the change to outsorcing fab does make sense. Having inhouse manufacturing was critical to success in the 1980s and 1990s, but is no longer so. These days it is relatively easy to get your chips made elsewhere and not have to worry about huge capital outlay and fab lines going obsolete. It makes sense to get get someone else to do this for you.
FUSE is pretty cool as a file system extender and development system because it allows development of file systems in user space. FUSE-based file systems can use all sorts of calls that the kernel cannot and can be debugged with regular gdb (unlike the kernel).
I think though that the original comment was not concerned with this but with the legal issues of kernel vs application space. The Linux license states that it is OK to run closed apps with Linux. As such, the Linux license is distinct from the standard GPL which makes no mention. Thus, you really have to say that the Linux license is no longer GPL, but is GPL-based.
However this can get rather silly. If you muddy the distinction between apps and OS because it is all code, then why stop there? Why not include data too? After all, different data causes different code execution. Data like spread sheets are stuffed with macros etc which are really just code.
Current silicon-based PV really sucks as a general purpose power source because you need so much high qualility energy input to make the stuff. For a quick illustration, lets just use a 10 year energy payback number.
To achieve a goal of getting to 10% of PV power in one year, you'd need to put in 10% * 10 = 100% of current electrical power. That would require first doubling existing electrical generation capacity. Even a 2% PV goal requires 20% of current generation capacity which is still way too high (and 2% per year is hardly going to make any significant inroads - it would not even address growth).
Clearly PV will only ever work with a huge mindshift that goes away from curent silicon-based strategies to a new silicon-based strategy, or radically different strategy, with a far better payback. There are alternatives, but they lack funding and support eg. http://masseynews.massey.ac.nz/2007/Press_Releases /04-04-07.html This is not the only such different approach - there have been quite a few through the years.
The major labs are still focussed on silicon and high performance and fighting over conversion efficiency rather than $/W which is the important measurement for general usage. Until $/W is targetted as a primaray goal, these technologies will get nowhere useful.
Perhaps it is telling that many major oil companies (BP, Shell and others), with a vested interest in preserving the status quo, are directing a significant portion of the industry research.
C'mon folks how are the people that put together complicated systems like the shuttle that, after 25 years, only flies once in a blue moon ever going to come out with a practical car for everyday use.
Nor will a practical new car come out of Detroit who just use lobbying to replace innovation.
A real car for the masses is far more likely to come out of China.
This problem is nothing new to phones, electronics and software.
Company A patents technology X, but has no interest in making a product that has technology X plus feature Y. Company B would like to make a product with technology X and feature Y, but is stumped by the patent. Result: the world never gets an X+Y product.
This is not just theoretical. I work in a field knee deep in patents and I see this sort of nonsense all the time.
Unless some presidential scandal can be hyped to attract more eyeballs than reality shows then nobody will really care. Look at the OJ trial and Clinton's impeachment. Both were boring as hell and choked up the airwaves.
Bush and his cronies have outlied Clinton (about stuff that really matters, not just a few cum-stains and cigars), out-Watergated Nixon with all the destruction of evidence and used the US and world's resources + the lives of many innocents to further his own business goals. Surely there's enough plot in there to do something?
Want to impeach Bush? Find a good script writer first!
Sure 768k is underspeed for some purposes, but that's plenty fast for most people's day to day usage: web, email and a bit of youtube. 768k is a huge step up from dial up.
I understand that there's some sort of desire to level the playing field because, on average, women have a physical disadvantage vs men and by making a category for women we provide an opportunity for women to compete too.
However gender is not the only way in which people are physcially disadvantaged. Why is there no classification for "nerdy little runts" to give them a break too? About the only place this happens is in sports like weightlifting and boxing where there are divisions based on body weight.
Most people that buy iPhone will be Windows users. iPhone does not have IE. It has Safari, so it is important to get more people used to the idea that Safari is a real web browser. Without that, many people will have a mental block that iPhone does not have IE.
Even if Linus completely loved GPL3, there are considerable barriers to changing Linux to GPL3.
Remember folks that Linux is the result of contributions by thousands of people (one of whom happens to be Linus). Those contributions have been made under GPL2. The only person that can change the licensing is the contributor. The rights to assign licensing have not been signed over to Linus so he has no authority to change the licensing on all Linux code.
Unless someone can come up with a clean way to address this issue, Linux will continue under GPL2 regardless of whether or not GPL3 is better.
If you're badly shot up etc, there's a good chance you'll be operating in a survival mode wired into your head during caveman days. Like that, a bear is going to be seen as a danger, not a cuddly thing.
Slashdot Mirror
The reason I said China is threefold:
(1) They don't have a huge and resistant big-vehicle culture. The biggest problem in USA is getting people to give up their huge SUVs and people movers and accept smaller cars. Any car would be a major step forward for most Chinese families, even a tiny battery car that only does 20 miles at 30pmh. This opens up a huge bottom-end market that is easy to expand from.
(2)China already has a booming electric vehicle industry with electric hub bicycles. This forms a strong basis to move forward from.
(3) They don't have a huge existing infrastructure, but are building it now. That makes it far easier to incorporate electric vehicle support without obsoleting gas stations etc (a move that would be lobbied to dead in the USA by all the gas supply companies).
In case you drop your laptop in a black hole.
Both Intel and AMD seem to keep going through many wild gyrations that don't seem to make long term sense. For instance, both got into the mobile CPU business (Au1000 and XScale) and baled out.
However, the change to outsorcing fab does make sense. Having inhouse manufacturing was critical to success in the 1980s and 1990s, but is no longer so. These days it is relatively easy to get your chips made elsewhere and not have to worry about huge capital outlay and fab lines going obsolete. It makes sense to get get someone else to do this for you.
I think though that the original comment was not concerned with this but with the legal issues of kernel vs application space. The Linux license states that it is OK to run closed apps with Linux. As such, the Linux license is distinct from the standard GPL which makes no mention. Thus, you really have to say that the Linux license is no longer GPL, but is GPL-based.
However this can get rather silly. If you muddy the distinction between apps and OS because it is all code, then why stop there? Why not include data too? After all, different data causes different code execution. Data like spread sheets are stuffed with macros etc which are really just code.
To achieve a goal of getting to 10% of PV power in one year, you'd need to put in 10% * 10 = 100% of current electrical power. That would require first doubling existing electrical generation capacity. Even a 2% PV goal requires 20% of current generation capacity which is still way too high (and 2% per year is hardly going to make any significant inroads - it would not even address growth).
Clearly PV will only ever work with a huge mindshift that goes away from curent silicon-based strategies to a new silicon-based strategy, or radically different strategy, with a far better payback. There are alternatives, but they lack funding and support eg. http://masseynews.massey.ac.nz/2007/Press_Releases /04-04-07.html This is not the only such different approach - there have been quite a few through the years.
The major labs are still focussed on silicon and high performance and fighting over conversion efficiency rather than $/W which is the important measurement for general usage. Until $/W is targetted as a primaray goal, these technologies will get nowhere useful.
Perhaps it is telling that many major oil companies (BP, Shell and others), with a vested interest in preserving the status quo, are directing a significant portion of the industry research.
Nor will a practical new car come out of Detroit who just use lobbying to replace innovation.
A real car for the masses is far more likely to come out of China.
iphone. Probably easier to use than a Mac.
Company A patents technology X, but has no interest in making a product that has technology X plus feature Y. Company B would like to make a product with technology X and feature Y, but is stumped by the patent. Result: the world never gets an X+Y product.
This is not just theoretical. I work in a field knee deep in patents and I see this sort of nonsense all the time.
Unless some presidential scandal can be hyped to attract more eyeballs than reality shows then nobody will really care. Look at the OJ trial and Clinton's impeachment. Both were boring as hell and choked up the airwaves.
Bush and his cronies have outlied Clinton (about stuff that really matters, not just a few cum-stains and cigars), out-Watergated Nixon with all the destruction of evidence and used the US and world's resources + the lives of many innocents to further his own business goals. Surely there's enough plot in there to do something?
Want to impeach Bush? Find a good script writer first!
Sure 768k is underspeed for some purposes, but that's plenty fast for most people's day to day usage: web, email and a bit of youtube. 768k is a huge step up from dial up.
You list "does not look like a native app" as a Safari disadvantage. This is surely an advantage.
I doubt Apple is snubbing MS because of IE. I expect Apple would be more than happy if nobody ever ran IE on a Mac again.
However gender is not the only way in which people are physcially disadvantaged. Why is there no classification for "nerdy little runts" to give them a break too? About the only place this happens is in sports like weightlifting and boxing where there are divisions based on body weight.
Most people that buy iPhone will be Windows users. iPhone does not have IE. It has Safari, so it is important to get more people used to the idea that Safari is a real web browser. Without that, many people will have a mental block that iPhone does not have IE.
Remember folks, we don't own the world. We're just borrowing it from our children.
With better lenses we might see that this is a dup. These were reported in the media, and slashdot, a year or so back.
Just change the font color to white on white.
Remember folks that Linux is the result of contributions by thousands of people (one of whom happens to be Linus). Those contributions have been made under GPL2. The only person that can change the licensing is the contributor. The rights to assign licensing have not been signed over to Linus so he has no authority to change the licensing on all Linux code.
Unless someone can come up with a clean way to address this issue, Linux will continue under GPL2 regardless of whether or not GPL3 is better.
Well it would be if people paid to flog him.
When presidential candidates are debating about evolution you really must wonder how enlightened the masses really are.
Sure we'll all work together for a rosier future.
It is even sadder that prestigious organisations like MIT stoop this low too.
If you're badly shot up etc, there's a good chance you'll be operating in a survival mode wired into your head during caveman days. Like that, a bear is going to be seen as a danger, not a cuddly thing.
By the same reasoning, that users don't RTFA, they cannot reliably tell anything and should therefore notbe allowed to assign any tags.
It is hard to make a case that tagging is good except for dupes. Either tagging is inherently broken as a concept or it isn't and dupe is a valid tag.
Reformat and reinstall the internet.
zunePhone!