We can take it that you are not [a Linux advocate]? That's too bad.
Why is that too bad? Must everyone be a Linux advocate?
Most people like having a choice up front and then many choices after install.
I would say YOU like having lots of choices. The average PC user? I'm highly skeptical. I don't think they want to choose between Windows, Apple, or umpteen Linux distros. As it happens, they're not even presented with this choice, so it's just hypothetical. But I doubt your average guy off the street would be happier to walk into Best Buy and see the same computer for sale with six different operating systems on it, and be asked which one he would like. He wants to just buy the computer and take it home. Same thing with software - he doesn't want to choose between different browsers, different office suites, etc etc. He wants to just run THE program that does the task at hand.
Nobody I know argues that Ms-Windows is so much better as to be "worth" what it costs. Instead, if they use Windows, they argue that they need it because some software they need runs only there.
How is that not better? If I can do everything I need to with Windows, and I cannot with Linux, I would certainly say Windows is a better OS for me. You could argue that that's not because of the OS but because of people who aren't writing the Linux software I need, but that would strike me as splitting hairs.
I think you're overly optimistic in your characterization of the ads. I doubt they would be just for upgrading your OS and installed software. I think they would be for Cialis, Chevy, Drano, Jell-O, Puppy Chow, personal injury lawyers, real estate, TV shows, and anything else you've ever seen advertising for. If they're going to sell ads, they'll want to sell them to as many people as possible.
Kind of randomly picked from among the several dozen posts saying this same thing to reply to. As I thought about this, I realized it's very likely the record labels are planning to stop producing CDs, period. They will only offer DRM-ed music, so that they have the option of sueing anybody who exercizes their fair use rights which are denied them by the DMCA. This is something that could convince me to become a pirate.
I don't know about that. Blu-ray is easy to say and easy to remember. HD-DVD, unless you know what all the letters stand for, is not easy to remember; and it's not easy to say no matter what. When you and I hear or see it, we know what it is. When the uninitiated hear it, it might just sound like a jumble of letters. I recently had a conversation with my technically literate father where we argued for a few minutes before I realized that while we were saying "DVR" he was thinking of DVD-R. A name itself doesn't have to convey anything about the product as long as the marketing and advertising is successful in associating that name with the product's identity or benefits. If they can do that, then the more distinctive and memorable the name, the better. HD-DVD just sounds like every other technical acronym out there.
Film also really lends itself to literary tropes like symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony. This kind of thinking is just not possible (or at least very difficult) without prevalent access to technology.
It's hard to think about symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony without access to technology? This might be the dumbest thing I've read on/., and that is really saying something.
Isn't it possible this was a slow, fragile, poorly-designed system that got rewritten? It sounds to me like the fact that it got rewritten probably had more to do with the solution than the fact that it became a web service.
Are you expecting the news channel to rat them out, or do you think the Marshal service will subpoena them for the names? You noticed they spoke anonymously, right?
I wonder what its real world applications could be?
Telepresence. How effective it would be is in question, but the guy could lecture his class (and answer questions, etc) from hundreds of miles away, presumably with much greater "fidelity" than videoconferencing. Obviously this isn't cost effective now, except for the fact that he was going to build the robot anyway, but who knows how cheap it could be in the future.
They're becoming more and more popular. Offhand I know Saturn offers them on many vehicles, and I think many if not all the hybrids have CVTs. I just saw a commercial for one out of the corner of my eye a couple of days ago, but I'm not sure what it was for. Some mid-size sedan or another. Also most motor scooters use CVTs I think.
On the other hand, if we actually start building breeder reactors and reprocessing used fuel, then we can decrease our fuel input by something like three orders of magnitude, which will make nuclear actually quite clean;
There's the problem of weapons-grade material lying around though, which obviously the terrorists would immediately come for. Think of the children, man!
I'm no expert, but if I'm not mistaken turbines like to run at a constant RPM most of the time. This wouldn't be well suited to most driving in the US. On the plus side they can handle a wide variety of fuels (meaning many different weights of petroleum distillates, not that you can fuel it with banana peels).
A gasoline engine is what, 25% efficient on a good day? An electric motor can be 90% efficient even without superconductors.
That 90% probably doesn't account for the losses starting with actual source of energy. That would probably be coal in the US. Include energy loss in the power plant, and transmission and charging losses, and it's no longer at 90%. I know power plants are more efficient than cars, but how much more? Are they at 50%, 80%? I'm sure a coal power plant/battery car is more efficient than a gas car, but I don't know how much more.
You think the only reason kids don't get killed by cars in mass numbers is because they're listening for them? Actually there's this thing inside the car that can help prevent that from happening. It's called the DRIVER. I regularly have the opportunity to mow down many children in my neighborhood, and believe me the reason I fail to is not because they're so quick to get out my way.
I have no idea how clueless you are. For one thing, it wasn't clear that you were talking about the performance of "the" JVM, as you said "Java". Java, as we know, is not the same thing as the JVM. Secondly, my point is that even if the performance of the JVM is substantially worse than that of a C++ executable (even 50-100% worse) it probably will have NO effect on the performance of most applications most of the time. If someone tells me that Java is 5-10% slower than native compilation, my response is "OK, but so what?" If someone tells me it's 500-1000% slower (ie slow enough to make a real difference), my response is "I don't believe you." So yeah, Java may very well be slower most of the time, but IMO that just isn't relevant.
The question is, who cares? If database traffic (fetching, not db server processing) is 75% of the app's time, what does it matter how fast the rest of the code is? Substitute whatever else your app spends its time doing, unless it's processor-bound. Choice of language simply will not have an effect on performance. Pick your language based on what you know how to do, what you would like to learn, what your other apps are written in, just don't do it based on performance. I don't recall ever needing to optimize anything besides database calls in business software. That doesn't mean I've never done it, but it hasn't happened often enough to stand out.
Wouldn't all those same arguments apply to driving while drunk or high? I think most people believe that driving drunk is a significant hazard, while so far there's a very high level of skepticism about driving while talking on the phone. My belief is that the difference between the two is a matter of consistency. Nobody, or almost nobody, can compensate for being drunk (reduced reaction time, judgment, etc). I've found that I can mostly compensate for the distraction of a cell phone call if I concentrate on it. This makes me think that lots of people could do the same but they just don't think about it.
I've browsed the links on this discussion as well as done some googling, and it seems most or all of these systems are designed to work with the CD changer input. What about factory systems with a CD changer but no auxiliary input? I went to the site you referenced, but my vehicle won't work with their stuff. There's probably a way to do it with the XM input (since we don't use XM) but I would be in deep doo-doo if I broke the stereo. Got any thoughts on that? The stero stuff, not the doo-doo.
You're suggesting that people who fall prey to a phishing scam generally end up homeless? Firstly, do you have anything other than wild speculation to back that up? Secondly, do you have any logical or empirical reason to think that phishing scams tend to affect people before they've had children rather than after? Once you have kids, if you're later deselected then it doesn't matter - you've already been fit enough to pass on your genes.
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I think you're overly optimistic in your characterization of the ads. I doubt they would be just for upgrading your OS and installed software. I think they would be for Cialis, Chevy, Drano, Jell-O, Puppy Chow, personal injury lawyers, real estate, TV shows, and anything else you've ever seen advertising for. If they're going to sell ads, they'll want to sell them to as many people as possible.
Kind of randomly picked from among the several dozen posts saying this same thing to reply to. As I thought about this, I realized it's very likely the record labels are planning to stop producing CDs, period. They will only offer DRM-ed music, so that they have the option of sueing anybody who exercizes their fair use rights which are denied them by the DMCA. This is something that could convince me to become a pirate.
Reference?
I don't know about that. Blu-ray is easy to say and easy to remember. HD-DVD, unless you know what all the letters stand for, is not easy to remember; and it's not easy to say no matter what. When you and I hear or see it, we know what it is. When the uninitiated hear it, it might just sound like a jumble of letters. I recently had a conversation with my technically literate father where we argued for a few minutes before I realized that while we were saying "DVR" he was thinking of DVD-R. A name itself doesn't have to convey anything about the product as long as the marketing and advertising is successful in associating that name with the product's identity or benefits. If they can do that, then the more distinctive and memorable the name, the better. HD-DVD just sounds like every other technical acronym out there.
Sure they'll blame someone. But I'm curious how you expect them to find out who these marshals are.
Isn't it possible this was a slow, fragile, poorly-designed system that got rewritten? It sounds to me like the fact that it got rewritten probably had more to do with the solution than the fact that it became a web service.
LOL a pilot on the no-fly list! That is so rich!
Are you expecting the news channel to rat them out, or do you think the Marshal service will subpoena them for the names? You noticed they spoke anonymously, right?
They're becoming more and more popular. Offhand I know Saturn offers them on many vehicles, and I think many if not all the hybrids have CVTs. I just saw a commercial for one out of the corner of my eye a couple of days ago, but I'm not sure what it was for. Some mid-size sedan or another. Also most motor scooters use CVTs I think.
Manual version redlines at 9000, not 8000. Not sure about the automatic.
I'm no expert, but if I'm not mistaken turbines like to run at a constant RPM most of the time. This wouldn't be well suited to most driving in the US. On the plus side they can handle a wide variety of fuels (meaning many different weights of petroleum distillates, not that you can fuel it with banana peels).
You think the only reason kids don't get killed by cars in mass numbers is because they're listening for them? Actually there's this thing inside the car that can help prevent that from happening. It's called the DRIVER. I regularly have the opportunity to mow down many children in my neighborhood, and believe me the reason I fail to is not because they're so quick to get out my way.
It was gold, dog. Not stone. :-)
I have no idea how clueless you are. For one thing, it wasn't clear that you were talking about the performance of "the" JVM, as you said "Java". Java, as we know, is not the same thing as the JVM. Secondly, my point is that even if the performance of the JVM is substantially worse than that of a C++ executable (even 50-100% worse) it probably will have NO effect on the performance of most applications most of the time. If someone tells me that Java is 5-10% slower than native compilation, my response is "OK, but so what?" If someone tells me it's 500-1000% slower (ie slow enough to make a real difference), my response is "I don't believe you." So yeah, Java may very well be slower most of the time, but IMO that just isn't relevant.
The question is, who cares? If database traffic (fetching, not db server processing) is 75% of the app's time, what does it matter how fast the rest of the code is? Substitute whatever else your app spends its time doing, unless it's processor-bound. Choice of language simply will not have an effect on performance. Pick your language based on what you know how to do, what you would like to learn, what your other apps are written in, just don't do it based on performance. I don't recall ever needing to optimize anything besides database calls in business software. That doesn't mean I've never done it, but it hasn't happened often enough to stand out.
Wouldn't all those same arguments apply to driving while drunk or high? I think most people believe that driving drunk is a significant hazard, while so far there's a very high level of skepticism about driving while talking on the phone. My belief is that the difference between the two is a matter of consistency. Nobody, or almost nobody, can compensate for being drunk (reduced reaction time, judgment, etc). I've found that I can mostly compensate for the distraction of a cell phone call if I concentrate on it. This makes me think that lots of people could do the same but they just don't think about it.
I've browsed the links on this discussion as well as done some googling, and it seems most or all of these systems are designed to work with the CD changer input. What about factory systems with a CD changer but no auxiliary input? I went to the site you referenced, but my vehicle won't work with their stuff. There's probably a way to do it with the XM input (since we don't use XM) but I would be in deep doo-doo if I broke the stereo. Got any thoughts on that? The stero stuff, not the doo-doo.
You're suggesting that people who fall prey to a phishing scam generally end up homeless? Firstly, do you have anything other than wild speculation to back that up? Secondly, do you have any logical or empirical reason to think that phishing scams tend to affect people before they've had children rather than after? Once you have kids, if you're later deselected then it doesn't matter - you've already been fit enough to pass on your genes.