Well if the "self-contained" part means anything, then this does not apply to XHTML. Because even the stylesheet is usually a separate file, plus images, etc. So this only really applies to Office style stuff, and only from MS it seems (since OOo-Files are also archives containing several files, even if only text).
This may be true for technical people, but what about others? Why should only programmers find it interesting to work on hard problems, and not economists? And even if tax experts would rather charge you for filling our your tax forms, what about students of economics or law? This is really comes down to one of the major problems with OSS: Only (well, mostly) technically-minded people work on them, and hardly anybody from other fields. But you need those people, and not only for designing icons and such things, but also their input on how things should be done.
This isn't about the bandwidth, at least not primarily. The problem is paying the people for doing the editing, etc. Also, getting something published in a scientific journal is a quality criterion. If everything was "put on the net", you wouldn't be able to tell if something really was accepted for publication by an editor and reviewers, or somebody just modified their torrent... Another aspect is that of journals being archival. You want those papers to be available forever basically, so relying even on Google or archive.org probably isn't such a great idea.
There's also the Terratec Noxon, which can play mp3s from a server in the (W)LAN or directly from teh intarweb. It's ugly as hell, and the display really sucks - but the sound quality is not bad.
I'd imagine the fact that the Federal Chancellor's office gave permission to conduct what could be considered espionage would be enough
They didn't. They only gave them permission to work on personal data, and didn't care where they got the data from. Other than that, the Austrian government wasn't involved in this. I doubt this could lead to any problems whatsoever...
Good point, but at least in my case, there isn't a lot of noise in my flat. So it makes sense to also have a silent computer. Plus, the computer makes these high-pitched noises that are much more of a nuisance than, say, traffic noise from the street. So I agree with you, but I think that people who like silent computers will tend to also look for low noise with the other things they buy.
I was not saying that my taste it what should set the standards. But from the people I talk to, and from the things I read, it seems that I'm not the only one.
And for the puking: Yes, I (slightly) exagerated. But I have yet to see a good looking PC laptop. I guess what I like most about the Powerbook design is that it looks good without looking too polished or "posh". That's what I don't like about the Porsche designs somebody else pointed out. And apart from that, the PB is also engineered very well (quiet, doesn't get too hot, etc.).
I hate to say it, but perhaps being the perfect geek isn't everybody's ultimate goal in life. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I start valueing good design and thought put into things. I also value the fact that my computers now are almost perfectly silent - I don't want to sit next to an open case with whirring harddisks and fans anymore. A silent and well-designed computer serves me much better than one that has 100 times the power - that I'm not using anyway.
I just ordered the parts to build a PC, and the hardest part was finding a case that didn't look like crap. I wasn't successful.
This is really interesting. Since I've seen (and eventually bought;) an Apple Powerbook, all those black plastic PC laptops make me want to puke. They just look like total crap. And even when companies like Samsung try to copy the Apple look, the results look ugly. Same with desktops. Why can't somebody come up with a decent design? And why are the Apple guys able to just get it right? And not just once, but most of their stuff looks really amazing. It's not like there aren't any designers out there...
Ok, I understand why specific documents would be sealed. But the way I read this, all of the documents related to those cases are. Plus, this is about patents, which should be public anyway, right?
What would be a reason to seal these documents? I mean, what reason would the court accept to do that? I thought all court documents had to be public (IANAL, obviously;).
Porting things to the GPU often involves "refactoring" them so that they use those aspects of the cards that are fast. You would be surprised what can be done with textures and vertex shaders - they're not confined to producing pretty images. There are libraries for dealing with sparse matrices on GPUs, etc.
Well I know a lot of people doing such research with consumber cards. The whole point is that the methods they develop will work on affordable hardware. The days when you needed an SGI to do any serious volume visualization are over, fortunately...
This may not do much for games, but for scientific applications, especially visualization of large datasets, this is great. The visualization community has been using the advances made for gaming over the last years, and it's amazing what you can now do on the GPU: flow simulation, interactive visualization of large volumetric datasets with complex transfer functions, shading, etc. For these applications, the more memory, the better.
But that would be done at a much lower voltage. Stepping down from 110 to, say, 11 volts (to make it easier) would mean the power supply would only draw about 15 Amps from the mains (if it was 100% efficient). So that should be doable.
But the question is, how do they get rid of all the heat that must be generated in the battery?
Slashdot Mirror
This may be true for technical people, but what about others? Why should only programmers find it interesting to work on hard problems, and not economists? And even if tax experts would rather charge you for filling our your tax forms, what about students of economics or law?
This is really comes down to one of the major problems with OSS: Only (well, mostly) technically-minded people work on them, and hardly anybody from other fields. But you need those people, and not only for designing icons and such things, but also their input on how things should be done.
This isn't about the bandwidth, at least not primarily. The problem is paying the people for doing the editing, etc. Also, getting something published in a scientific journal is a quality criterion. If everything was "put on the net", you wouldn't be able to tell if something really was accepted for publication by an editor and reviewers, or somebody just modified their torrent ...
Another aspect is that of journals being archival. You want those papers to be available forever basically, so relying even on Google or archive.org probably isn't such a great idea.
There's also the Terratec Noxon, which can play mp3s from a server in the (W)LAN or directly from teh intarweb. It's ugly as hell, and the display really sucks - but the sound quality is not bad.
And let that witty comment go to waste? Never ...
They didn't. They only gave them permission to work on personal data, and didn't care where they got the data from.
Other than that, the Austrian government wasn't involved in this. I doubt this could lead to any problems whatsoever
Most Austrians hate Arnie since he called Austria a "socialist state". Also, his stance on the death penalty isn't very popular over here ...
Good point, but at least in my case, there isn't a lot of noise in my flat. So it makes sense to also have a silent computer. Plus, the computer makes these high-pitched noises that are much more of a nuisance than, say, traffic noise from the street.
So I agree with you, but I think that people who like silent computers will tend to also look for low noise with the other things they buy.
I was not saying that my taste it what should set the standards. But from the people I talk to, and from the things I read, it seems that I'm not the only one.
And for the puking: Yes, I (slightly) exagerated. But I have yet to see a good looking PC laptop. I guess what I like most about the Powerbook design is that it looks good without looking too polished or "posh". That's what I don't like about the Porsche designs somebody else pointed out. And apart from that, the PB is also engineered very well (quiet, doesn't get too hot, etc.).
I said most ... ;)
I hate to say it, but perhaps being the perfect geek isn't everybody's ultimate goal in life.
Maybe I'm just getting old, but I start valueing good design and thought put into things. I also value the fact that my computers now are almost perfectly silent - I don't want to sit next to an open case with whirring harddisks and fans anymore. A silent and well-designed computer serves me much better than one that has 100 times the power - that I'm not using anyway.
This is really interesting. Since I've seen (and eventually bought
Same with desktops. Why can't somebody come up with a decent design? And why are the Apple guys able to just get it right? And not just once, but most of their stuff looks really amazing. It's not like there aren't any designers out there
Ok, I understand why specific documents would be sealed. But the way I read this, all of the documents related to those cases are.
Plus, this is about patents, which should be public anyway, right?
What would be a reason to seal these documents? I mean, what reason would the court accept to do that? I thought all court documents had to be public (IANAL, obviously ;).
But they only complained after the story had made it to Slashdot - three times in two days.
Porting things to the GPU often involves "refactoring" them so that they use those aspects of the cards that are fast. You would be surprised what can be done with textures and vertex shaders - they're not confined to producing pretty images. There are libraries for dealing with sparse matrices on GPUs, etc.
Well I know a lot of people doing such research with consumber cards. The whole point is that the methods they develop will work on affordable hardware. The days when you needed an SGI to do any serious volume visualization are over, fortunately ...
This may not do much for games, but for scientific applications, especially visualization of large datasets, this is great. The visualization community has been using the advances made for gaming over the last years, and it's amazing what you can now do on the GPU: flow simulation, interactive visualization of large volumetric datasets with complex transfer functions, shading, etc.
For these applications, the more memory, the better.
I think the explanation is CowboyNeal ...
Because you don't just want any old domain, but the ones that are most often visited by mistake.
But that would be done at a much lower voltage. Stepping down from 110 to, say, 11 volts (to make it easier) would mean the power supply would only draw about 15 Amps from the mains (if it was 100% efficient). So that should be doable.
But the question is, how do they get rid of all the heat that must be generated in the battery?
It's three times the power, but the increase is only twice the original power. 1x+2x=3x ...
We don't need this crap, we have BatMax!
So you're saying that all Canadians are scroungers?