Actually, IBM made it a point of making it an open system when they released the IBM PC in 1980, because at the time, the Apple II family (][ and later the ][plus) were the clear leaders, in both business and education markets. With the rest of the 'PC' manufacturers market shared by dozens of other companies with products ranging from the KIM to expensive S100 based systems.
IBM wanted and needed support from other companies. Apple had the clear lead in both software with Visicalc, Flight Simulator, Pinball Construction Set, Utopia Software, Logo, etc. and in hardware with the Graphics Tablet, inexpensive floppy drives ($495), Game Paddles etc. While Apple provided open documentation, including listings of the ROM code in the Red Book, prototype cards to build your own boards, and languages, (Assembler, Pascal, Fortran... ) they never released rights to the system. My speculation is that the two Steves likely would have given most of the rights away, but their VC partner 'Mike' Markkula, made the decision not to, because he was rightfully trying to protect his investment.
IBM by opening up the system together with the power of their name brand ("Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM"), allowed them to compete with Apple. Luckily Bills dad was an attorney and likely contributed to or wrote the licensing agreement for MS-DOS that the renegade IBM PC division signed. IBMs failure to buy the ownership of the OS from Bill Gates was their biggest mistake, but it did ensure that the 'PC' would be the clear market leader. Unfortunately for IBM, in the long run it didn't turn out to be the 'IBM' branded version of the PC.
The earlier press release / NY Time$$$ article (4/3/2006) of the Mitsubishi laser display gave this info...
The display uses standard Red, Blue and Green lasers. The delay is trying to improve on the color of the green, and possibly find a way to eliminate the frequency doubling crystal needed for green solid state lasers.
Power savings were due to being able to pulse the LEDs for low light pixels or even shut them off completely for black pixels, instead of blocking the light as is done with LCD technologies. This also improves the contrast.
Cost savings are because they can use a plastic screen instead of glass, as is currently required in LCD and Plasma units. And solid state lasers will last theoretically longer than the HDTV technology, reducing Ownership cost with no expensive replacement bulbs needed as curent DLP displays do.
Additional benefits...
This also means that they can have a display that is lighter weight and doesn't need a large steel frame. This will allow them to eliminate the traditional 2 inch border around the display allowing for a picture that goes almost to the edge, and make wall mounting much more practical.
All of this sounds great, but time will tell if this technology goes to 11 or not.
Moral of the story for people on a budget is........ WAIT and WAIT some more.
1) A firewall configured to block access from the work bench to the rest of your network, but still allow it to the internet (optionally with site or rate limiting) for patches etc. 2) Ice Cube trays to hold the different sized small screws in order from dissassembly of things like notebooks. 3) A small sized system connected to a wall mount LCD to read manuals from CD, PDFs or web HTML. 4) A POTS line for modems -Sadly still occasionally needed. 5) Large flash drive for holding critcal utilities, when the system won't read external media. 6) Cheat sheet for startup key shortcuts for various manufacturers & OS. Entering CMOS on an old gateway. Boot into open firmware on a Mac. Password recovery on a Cisco, etc. 7) A procedure and system to log actual time spent on the repair. Assuming that one is billing or accountable for their time. 8) The ability to process credit cards. This enables one to get a deposit BEFORE upgrading a machine that is too old to cost effectively upgrade. 9) A security system and procedures to minimise the possibility or your customers machines and data falling into someone elses hands.
Regardless of how much merit thier software has or doesn't. It could be free and it wouldn't be worth dealing with their abusive policies and obnoxious corporate greed.
They are the worst company in this world to deal with, based upon numerous interactions with them. Here's one example, I ordered a copy of Quark, received one for the wrong OS, tried to return the still sealed copy and they wouldn't authorize the return! And I was an authorized Quark dealer.
I'd rather buy software from Microsoft, and I'm a Mac fan. I'm generally a nice guy but I hope they get what they deserve. Let em rot.
For a good strategy based board game, that minimises the use of dice, my favorie for many years is a board game based upon building, merging and takovers of hotel chains, and acquiring the majority stockolder positions. The game is a cross between monopoly and risk. The game is based both on positioning on the board, and one's shrewdness at buying, building and merging at the appropiate times. The winner is the one with the most money at the end of a game.
The game is appropiately called Acquire. It was originally released as one of the 3M bookshelf games. It was considered the best of their set of games by many people. It is still available from Avalon Hill.
For a good board game reference site with lots of pictures and user ratings etc. try www.boardgamegeek.com
1) Limit their access to their boxes using a good VPN solution. Limit their access to your secure network components to just the specific ports needed, using both source and destination IPs with a stateful firewall and good access lists.
2) Reduce their need for access. Build the servers boxes on VMware to allow you to grow the hardware without costly reinstalls by them. Costly is defined here as your $$$ and your labor. You keep a backup of the machine before they mess it up, and it also lets then do trial upgrades using real data on a clone of the server. Restore it easily.
3) Monitor it to the max. Catch their problems before they do. Save the day. Enable SNMP within the LAN, set up thresholds and alerts. Then correctly install a real IDS solution on your network. Be Big Brother on your Network
Be Proactive, by building IPsec VPNs, VLAN's with Firewalls, Monitoring & IDS for inspection, And using VMware where possible can provide many of the solutions.
Remember it is your network, and it may be your job when it all hits the fan, and It may also be your promotion when you save the day.
Apple offers a solution..
on
Quieting Your G5?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Apple Computer sells the XtremeMac Xrack Pro 12U Enclosed Rack to solve the sound problem, be functional and look nice in the process.
It offers many nice features, Acoustically engineered to reduce server noise by 75%, Heavy Duty Casters for complete portability, Engineered for positive airflow, Ideal for Audio/Video creative environments, Integrated cable management system, Built-in 6-outlet power distribution, Platinum finish, etc....
While designed for a 21" tall stack of loud Xservers, The PowerMac G5 is only 20.1" tall. It seems to have everything one could want, except possibly a low price.
Apple Computer has an exclusive on this. It is listed under Server Accessories at the Apple Store for only $1799.00
The best tech support, bar none come from Adtran the maker of CSU,s DSU's.
They offer a Toll FREE suppport phone number, which usually gets routed to a knowledgable tech in less than 5 minutes! And I have even had a tech help me with a Cisco router configuration to fix the problem.
In the last 20 Years I havent found anyone that can top them. When I spec an external CSU it is ALWAYS Adtran, because their tech support is the absolute best.
Second runner up goes to the small company Slim Devices, www. slimdevices.com maker of an incredible ethernet based MP3 Player. No 800 number, but prompt responses to emails again with an eagerness to get the problem resolved.
If a small company like SlimDevices can provide good tech support why can't others?
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Actually, IBM made it a point of making it an open system when they released the IBM PC in 1980, because at the time, the Apple II family (][ and later the ][plus) were the clear leaders, in both business and education markets. With the rest of the 'PC' manufacturers market shared by dozens of other companies with products ranging from the KIM to expensive S100 based systems.
IBM wanted and needed support from other companies. Apple had the clear lead in both software with Visicalc, Flight Simulator, Pinball Construction Set, Utopia Software, Logo, etc. and in hardware with the Graphics Tablet, inexpensive floppy drives ($495), Game Paddles etc. While Apple provided open documentation, including listings of the ROM code in the Red Book, prototype cards to build your own boards, and languages, (Assembler, Pascal, Fortran... ) they never released rights to the system. My speculation is that the two Steves likely would have given most of the rights away, but their VC partner 'Mike' Markkula, made the decision not to, because he was rightfully trying to protect his investment.
IBM by opening up the system together with the power of their name brand ("Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM"), allowed them to compete with Apple. Luckily Bills dad was an attorney and likely contributed to or wrote the licensing agreement for MS-DOS that the renegade IBM PC division signed. IBMs failure to buy the ownership of the OS from Bill Gates was their biggest mistake, but it did ensure that the 'PC' would be the clear market leader. Unfortunately for IBM, in the long run it didn't turn out to be the 'IBM' branded version of the PC.
The display uses standard Red, Blue and Green lasers. The delay is trying to improve on the color of the green, and possibly find a way to eliminate the frequency doubling crystal needed for green solid state lasers.
Power savings were due to being able to pulse the LEDs for low light pixels or even shut them off completely for black pixels, instead of blocking the light as is done with LCD technologies. This also improves the contrast.
Cost savings are because they can use a plastic screen instead of glass, as is currently required in LCD and Plasma units. And solid state lasers will last theoretically longer than the HDTV technology, reducing Ownership cost with no expensive replacement bulbs needed as curent DLP displays do.
Additional benefits... This also means that they can have a display that is lighter weight and doesn't need a large steel frame. This will allow them to eliminate the traditional 2 inch border around the display allowing for a picture that goes almost to the edge, and make wall mounting much more practical.
All of this sounds great, but time will tell if this technology goes to 11 or not. ........
Moral of the story for people on a budget is
WAIT and WAIT some more.
1) A firewall configured to block access from the work bench to the rest of your network, but still allow it to the internet (optionally with site or rate limiting) for patches etc.
2) Ice Cube trays to hold the different sized small screws in order from dissassembly of things like notebooks.
3) A small sized system connected to a wall mount LCD to read manuals from CD, PDFs or web HTML.
4) A POTS line for modems -Sadly still occasionally needed.
5) Large flash drive for holding critcal utilities, when the system won't read external media.
6) Cheat sheet for startup key shortcuts for various manufacturers & OS. Entering CMOS on an old gateway. Boot into open firmware on a Mac. Password recovery on a Cisco, etc.
7) A procedure and system to log actual time spent on the repair. Assuming that one is billing or accountable for their time.
8) The ability to process credit cards. This enables one to get a deposit BEFORE upgrading a machine that is too old to cost effectively upgrade.
9) A security system and procedures to minimise the possibility or your customers machines and data falling into someone elses hands.
They are the worst company in this world to deal with, based upon numerous interactions with them. Here's one example, I ordered a copy of Quark, received one for the wrong OS, tried to return the still sealed copy and they wouldn't authorize the return! And I was an authorized Quark dealer.
I'd rather buy software from Microsoft, and I'm a Mac fan. I'm generally a nice guy but I hope they get what they deserve. Let em rot.
For a good strategy based board game, that minimises the use of dice, my favorie for many years is a board game based upon building, merging and takovers of hotel chains, and acquiring the majority stockolder positions. The game is a cross between monopoly and risk. The game is based both on positioning on the board, and one's shrewdness at buying, building and merging at the appropiate times. The winner is the one with the most money at the end of a game.
The game is appropiately called Acquire. It was originally released as one of the 3M bookshelf games. It was considered the best of their set of games by many people. It is still available from Avalon Hill.
For a good board game reference site with lots of pictures and user ratings etc. try www.boardgamegeek.com
When saying NO isn't a valid answer...
1) Limit their access to their boxes using a good VPN solution. Limit their access to your secure network components to just the specific ports needed, using both source and destination IPs with a stateful firewall and good access lists.
2) Reduce their need for access. Build the servers boxes on VMware to allow you to grow the hardware without costly reinstalls by them. Costly is defined here as your $$$ and your labor. You keep a backup of the machine before they mess it up, and it also lets then do trial upgrades using real data on a clone of the server. Restore it easily.
3) Monitor it to the max. Catch their problems before they do. Save the day. Enable SNMP within the LAN, set up thresholds and alerts. Then correctly install a real IDS solution on your network. Be Big Brother on your Network
Be Proactive, by building IPsec VPNs, VLAN's with Firewalls, Monitoring & IDS for inspection, And using VMware where possible can provide many of the solutions.
Remember it is your network, and it may be your job when it all hits the fan, and
It may also be your promotion when you save the day.
Apple Computer sells the XtremeMac Xrack Pro 12U Enclosed Rack to solve the sound problem, be functional and look nice in the process.
, , , , ,
It offers many nice features,
Acoustically engineered to reduce server noise by 75%,
Heavy Duty Casters for complete portability
Engineered for positive airflow
Ideal for Audio/Video creative environments
Integrated cable management system
Built-in 6-outlet power distribution
Platinum finish, etc....
While designed for a 21" tall stack of loud Xservers, The PowerMac G5 is only 20.1" tall. It seems to have everything one could want, except possibly a low price.
Apple Computer has an exclusive on this. It is listed under Server Accessories at the Apple Store for only $1799.00
The best tech support, bar none come from Adtran the maker of CSU,s DSU's.
They offer a Toll FREE suppport phone number, which usually gets routed to a knowledgable tech in less than 5 minutes! And I have even had a tech help me with a Cisco router configuration to fix the problem.
In the last 20 Years I havent found anyone that can top them. When I spec an external CSU it is ALWAYS Adtran, because their tech support is the absolute best.
Second runner up goes to the small company Slim Devices, www. slimdevices.com maker of an incredible ethernet based MP3 Player. No 800 number, but prompt responses to emails again with an eagerness to get the problem resolved.
If a small company like SlimDevices can provide good tech support why can't others?