They do take advantage of the cardbus slot, but yes are 33Mhz. I see no performance difference between an AGP 32MX on a G4 tower 500 G4 vs My PowerBook G3 (upgraded to 550G4) with the card I have been beta testing for villagetronic for two months now.
Still, games, visuals are a lot faster on my cinema display on the left (32MB card commented on here) and my onboard 8MB ATI adapted on the right. Both displays are 17" Apple displays. I CAN, hook up two displays to the card using an ADC splitter or DVi splitter and just use virtual desktop software to use the real estate from both monitors.
Margi also makes a PCMCIA card that works with many displays I beleive their offerings are Matrox based. It's not as high end as this card coming out though.
Charter's Pipeline Tier Service is misleading in several ways:
1)The bronze service (256kb) which I have neither uploads or downloads ANY FASTER than the Silver 512kb - Gold 768kb - or Platinum 1mb -
Workers / installers also make people think that is MEGABYTE AND KILOBYTE it is megabit and kilobit - they advertise the service with a k when it should be with a kbps or kb - but front desk people will often say "You should upgrade to the 1 megabyte service"
The way I have tested this is by hooking my Aiport BaseStation up to both - I used his (neighbor's) service, he used my service for a week. We both use Peer to Peer and both download a considerable amount of images and software updates. We also both upload to eBay a lot. There is a considerable sized class action action lawsuit in Greenville against Charter, this is one of the many things mentioned as a grievance in the suit.
2)They advertise on the Pipeline website that a Mac with a 601 PPC or higher is able to have the service. They install free ethernet cards (ISA,PCI, PCMCIA) in most every Wintel but won't install an AAUI adapter (on some Macs) or something like a PCMCIA card on the PowerBook 1400. They also tell my customers that I have sold 7300's (604e/180 processor) to, even if they have G3 upgrades that they won't even ALLOW then to get on Pipeline claiming it doesn't meet spec, when one can can view this message on their site: Pipeline Requirements
They also are under investigation for charging the bogus "line maintenance fee" - which they tell you if you don't have they will charge you to fix your cable, when technically (although not by law) they are a municipality/utility and must include line maintenance in costs.
The Patriot Act had good intentions but has the effect of erasing a lot our rights.
Think of how a technology like this could be pushed by the insurance and government law enforcement agencies in the future.
Insurance companies could require that all new car windsheilds and rear view mirrors, all TVs, all laptops have this "camera LCD" installed. Then if we also have cars, houses, etc... that have networks required for software as Oracle CEO Larry Ellison sees it, I suppose the "device" (wisndshield, TV, laptop) once reported stolen would email a picture of the theif to the police and the owner. What a boom to forensics! But what a total erasing of privacy.
Then I suppose this could be hacked and teens could REALLY get REAL live webcams of "certain activities" from TVs in bedrooms. Hotels would monitor sleeping activities. Insurance companies monitor driving habits. (already tried with GPS in Alamo rental cars)
Are you using that cell phone without a hands free?
Are you smoking and not telling the insurance company?
I heard (Cingular exec at MacWorld Expo after a conference) the ulterior (or underlying) motive for this is to spur new phone sales. Because of the proliferation of cell phone numbers - and the growing length - people cannot possibly remember the long numbers... at the least the average person. So, that means you have to buy a new phone; one that is fancy and will store lots of data, one that ISN'T free. Cell phone manufacturers are pushing this just as much as cell providers are.
I am relatively stuck with Cingular because my phone number is the same as the Apple Computer 1-800 number, except with my area code. It has become my gimmick to help people remember me who I can't hand out a business card to. ( I simply say my number is Dah Dah Dah APPLE) That said, I have made sure that all my friends and family got cell phones long ago from AT&T, Verizon, etc and chose the last four numbers as 2775 as well - so if I ever am forced to switch (until this passes) I have options. However, since Bellsouth Mobility became Cingular I have been very satisfied with them and have even been able to become a service distributor because I have, over the last year, been able to sell 20+ T68i cellphones to my customers.
Very Old but Powerful for its time.. & still a
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Implementing VisiCalc
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· Score: 2, Insightful
But why do they need new computers to waste taxpayer money when they have GREAT educational tools already. Apple II programs were very diverse and VERY well written. A graphic for flash cards & teaching how to tell time can only be so ornate before it becomes bloated with too much "eye candy" - Reader Rabbit Chotzky is no better than MECC Ciriculum on the Apple II. Plus where else are kids going to learn Turtle?
I actually wish a lot of schools would just buy older Apple II's and then use eBay as a source for programs. I run these programs through emulation on my iMac and they really are perfect for the purpose.
I think one of the most innovative ideas for a universal remote was Griffin's demo of the PodMate Remote control.
Basically it converted tones into infrared signals. Unfortunately Apple asked that they drop development.
At MacWorld Expo January 2002, they used an iPod to control a Sony TV and Home Stereo system.
Now, they have released the exact same addon for the iPaq.
Does anyone know where or how to obtain a signal conversion from tone to IR?
I know that this is the same way the Macintosh TV worked. One cound take the "IR eye" from that and plug it into ANY onboard Macintosh motherboard sound connection and then use a Sony remote control to turn the unit on and control the Apple CD player or Apple Video Player.
I have a friend that has beta tested this card. It is a little slower but the processor compliment and the fact that it can just integrate into a G4 or x86 tower that's already installed make it a great proposition:
Portable printers such as the
Canon BJC 55-85 series seem to be very durable, very connectable, cross platform printers. Either by adapter or their multi port (irDa on all) and either Parallel or USB they will fit on most any computer or PDA. Apple even made a variant of this printer; the Stylewriter 2200. They are quite attractive too and actually make decent desktop printers. They match the PowerBook styling.
Even HP's Portables in the 300 series aren't bad + they use the most common inkjet cart HP made.
The only disadvantage is they are slow and to use any of them other than the i90 Canon and the new HP 350cB you have to use GIMP if you want to run them on OS X.
Libraries are increasingly becoming the same way across the country as they are here; named after someone who donates "some" money to it.
And none of the librarians there are government employees, they all work for the private college that I attend.
And just as somehow I was modded offtopic, so are you - this was concerning public libraries (which the government (sorry, taxpayers) pay to employ ) A minority of libraries that are open to the public are private.
To the other post, how would increasing technology (and decreasing million dollar architectural costs) cost the poor anything? How would free "library based" internet access cost "the poor" anything?
The other post also failed to address why we have to have multimillion dollar facilities. I am in no way against libraries. I am against wasteful, excessive spending.
And by the way, the "poor" you would find are NOT the ones using libraries anyway, so check your figures. The average person in a public library is an educated, high upper middle income person, or home educated Christian kids with their mother getting books for the week. Besides, is your library card free? Most cards I know are at least $15 annually. What poor person pays to read? lol!!
Libraries have become nothing more than monuments to the community prominent.
Do you really need multimillion dollar facilities to house books?
I am the first to agree a book is better than a monitor screen, but it's time to get current and cut government costs. If books in libraries were distributed via network or if the libraries also offered community WiFi, wouldn't that be more useful, less costly?
Our local community has raised taxes this year for the cost of 8 new libraries. There was nothing wrong with the old facilities. They just weren't ornate and weren't named after a politician or a prominent community figure. We now pay a "library fee" of $23 annually. Great, now I pay $23 so a local real estate mogul and a politician can appear
to love children and get free advertising for their "ventures".
To relate to the topic and segue:
What these librarians don't understand is that they are not elected officials, they are GOVERNMENT PAID and are suppose to be unbiased in political opinion. I agree with their fight for non censorship, but most of the trash they are asking to "keep" shouldn't be there. Notice, I didn't say shouldn't be produced, I said should not be distributed in a forum where children under 21 are the main customer.
Buy a new Mac & install 10.2.4
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Legacy-Free PCs
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· Score: 1, Informative
This is the truest way IMHO for a legacy free computer.
That said, if you buy a unit that can boot into OS9 you can run just about everything Apple has ever made (even Apple I hardware and software) and just about everything any third party has ever made through some sort of adapter (PCI to nubus adapters even exist) - I don't know of a single thing other than the previous () hardware or software (natively or through emulation) that can't run on dual boot Mac.
All that said, the newest Macs are completely legacy free with both code (even though underpinned with BSD/Unix) and hardware. (USB/Firewire/Bluetooth/WiFi/Etc)
I don't know of any PC that can use EVERYTHING EVERYTHING EVER MADE for the brand.
I'm sure Yahoo can figure out a sinister way to "make money once again" for their search engine like they have found so lucrative for their personals and auctions.
Has anyone ever bought anything by Yahoo auctions? I have. And while I know how to shop wisely there now, that doesn't mean there have been lessons learned. Look at the Apple/Macintosh section right now. More than 1/2 of the auctions there are fake/scams/illegal. Fake - just plainly don't have a 17" PowerBook (a lot of auctions have been selling them since January!) Apple OS Updates (illegal to redistribute) Presale auctions = ponsy schemes & finally there's just junk sellers - most of what I receive is in poor condition or not as described. I have even won an auction on Yahoo that used my own picture I had for the same thing on eBay. Just happened I needed it for the internal part and it was cheap enough. Yahoo allows this fraud in order to collect auction fees.
It's the same way in the personals section. There are obvious "fake personals" there to harvest the "innocent" email addresses to spam them with pRon and HGH and ViaVoice for that matter. Some personals have models pictures or are an 11 on a scale from 1-10 and say they have sex on the first date. C'mon! -- Not that, it's the kind of girl I'm looking for anyway;)
I think Yahoo will figure out a way similar to these, like allowing pRon sites or spammers to have some sort of way of paying or meta tagging themselves to the top.
I really honor Google Integrity for weeding the majority of that crap out.
Exactly, I liken this to a "new mafia" that has arisen in the tech sector.
Instead of working hard and being creative, companies (and individuals) have chosen to litigate with crooked lawyers. These lawyers (think Johnny Cochran type) aren't creative, aren't smart, they are simply crooks. It's almost like they advertise and recruit through high profile cases such as this. Juries, Judges, and the public at large are being taken advantage of the same way the mafia takes advantage of an industry or commodity. In this case and cases such as Bezos being able to patent every type of transaction that uses a mouse click, and in most cases, the entire Microsoft Apple/Netscape trials, the judicial systems knowledge of the small details are taken advantage of.
I agree with you, this will have the effect, if successful, of invalidating the technology (JPEG) - a new standard will arise. I am both happy and concerned that it may be Sony though. They have the muscle and marketting/liscensing power to make a new standard adopted very quickly. However, they also tend get all googly eyed when they have the opportunity to make something proprietary and be the SOLE distributer or patent/copyright/license holder.
There used to a note on the "staff listings" page inside every Cosmoplitan Magazine.
"Models that appear in this magazine may have certain features enhanced or exagerated. The pictures in this magazine should be construed as fantasy imagery only."
The layout department for Sports Illustrated was on I think the "Best Damn Sports Show Period" saying that most of the swimsuit models legs are elongated and breast "bubbled" after the shoot with PowerBook G4s on spot and then further at headquarters. He made a joke saying that Niki Taylor was so short and they wanted her on a two page wide spread. So, they lengthened her legs. If she were real, she'd me Yao Ming's sister!
Re:It's not really price fixing....not really
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LCD Price Fixing?
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· Score: 4, Informative
Samsung and Sharp (and their co owned LG Philips and ChiMei subsidaries) are the largest manufacturers of LCDs. Both Samsung and Sharp also make the largest number of consumer availible LCD TV/Monitors. They also use the same screen, contrary to some posts here. There's hardly a LCD TV out there that doesn't have a laptop screen counterpart, or at the least, a LCD monitor counterpart.
Prices are being somewhat fixed as the LCD industry is "getting their commodity while they can" much as the memory industry did years ago. The memory industry has learned that volume is the better equation, thus, the low memory prices. OLEDs will change this because they are much cheaper to produce, much brighter and much thinner. Kodak already has OLEDs with Palm soon to follow in a new color Zire from ramblings on the net as well as Apple computer for a new device yet to be announced.
Irregardless of whether you believe in the Bible or not - the passage of placing stumbling blocks before others applies to your comment.
I am first to agree with you that more people need to take responsibility for their actions. But, if Paypal placed a stumbling block before the weak knowingly then they SHOULD be made to stop by those of us who know better or by laws that protect the gambling week.
This was a good thing because it exposed eBay to bad debt as well since they now own Paypal. I was under the impression that they dropped it as a condition of buying Paypal anyway.
I have read a lot of posts about people who have gotten screwed on Paypal. I have twice, and I have "won" once of three times concerning trouble with them. I look at it this way, I make a lot of money thropugh Paypal = better than 80% of all my eBay payments are made through them. I don't qualify, nor do I care to qualify for a more expensive merchant account.
Websites like www.paypalwarning.com are run by loonies who don't know how to conduct themselves. If I was a local business who knew the webmaster/author of that site I would nver do business with him. Some people are going to have problems. Some people can absorb a few blows and turn the other cheek and be happy, others have to be miserable and get mad at the referees, still others have to sue the event staff because they didn't have a good time.
Again, these are sort of silly examples, but do illustrate potential.
So what if the average vehicle gets corrosion, it's not because of the vehicle, it's a special paint that's already developed. Instead of using that special paint on say a Porsche Cheyenne and spending $120,000, the military for their next vehicle is getting GM to custom design a military vehicle, already spending several million in research without even a prototype to show for it.
Why can't the military mod current items. There is a consumer protection that is military grade for almost everything I know. If it's not consumer then it's corporate grade. Take for example laptops that are made for electrical companies that CAN withstand shock or electromag shock. The only government agency I know has done this; the police departments. A lot have in recent years used baseball radars and Panasonic Toughbooks. (that was an article in my local paper a while back). Why? Budget. The military is seeing budget cuts too, but is still so bloated that money is just handed out to researchers like Halloween candy. Whereas, police departments, have seen DRASTIC cuts based on new support levels for additional personnel.
nevermind the fact that the MPAA and the RIAA are backing it
The RIAA and MPAA get the same bashing here that republicans and religous posters do. Not everything these two entities do is bad.
I can see how this legislation could be misinterpretted often as seperation of church and state and free speech is. That said, the actual law is for stopping cable theives. The RIAA backs it because of the digital music channels, the MPAA backs it because of HBO(et al). Cable piracy is NOTHING like file sharing services. If you hook yourself up illegally to cable TV, there is no "other side" to the arguement. File Sharing on the other hand has another side - the first and foremost exposure and ease of use + less corporate dependency + you at least pay something in some way or another for the access to the networks in P2P.
I'm not sure of the ethical or moral implications of creating LIFE to be slaves to tasks or for slaughter. I suppose the dolphins in iRaq and cows/chickens already fit this bill, but we don't create them, rather; herd and domesticate them. Isn't this somewhat the premise behind The Matrix and Planet Of Apes? We create or domesticate animals/machines that are sensiant beings, they catch on that they are slaves, form a "god complex" themselves and then rebel. Who's to say these "organisms" don't gain or already have conciousness?
Related, I would like to see bioluminesence be developed in the lab. Think of the energy savings of a bioluminescent light source that fed on algae in self contained ball kind of like sea monkeys.
We had a local Centre Stage showing of this last summer and it was great. I loved it. I didn't find the one you are referring to with John Ritter as entertaining because I think this was written geniusly to be "live only" experience.
Re:Unproven = untrustworthy = low SAT scores!
on
Synthetic Vision
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· Score: 1
No, I didn't contradict myself and how I got modded offtopic is beyond me.
I said the military SHOULD be like Apple. The iPod had a lot of "unprovens" & "unknowns" about it BEFORE its introduction. Time proved that it was good venture. The military would find that most things are this way if they are manufactured with precision and quality (as Apple does) I have posted that the military is often like Sony. They think because an item is proven or has the facts behind it that it is superior means it's the best to use. MiniDisc Memory Stick and Beta (possibly DVD+RW) are all examples of superior technology that proves that.
Apple often pushes the envelope with unproven and untested perception, but ALWAYS manufactures with high quality and precision, not just with components but design effieciency. Why can't the military save John & Susie Q Taxpayer a few bucks and do the same?
As for the scenario, actually I would choose the untested laser for my weapon, because it might give me the upper hand. Just as in the PC World, I know there are other proven options and other ways to get things done; as well as backup, if I need it. The military rarely tests multiple devices, instead; one that has been researched and developed on a 10 year process. By the time it reaches troops hands, it borders on being commercially availible anyway.
This can pose a problem. What if the iRaqis were to just use EyeTreks, GPS, WiFi, and an iPaq and be able to do this? They would have the technology that we plan to spend millions in research on and not have for 5 years! When our implementation was ready, they would have an even more powerful, much more scalable and open platform.
Re:Unproven = untrustworthy = low SAT scores!
on
Synthetic Vision
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· Score: 1
I suppose I could say that Apple customers aren't typical civilians.
You do raise a good point, but the military also doesn't have to reinvent the wheel everytime they want to do something. Like Apple, even more so, Sony, the military has this weird desire to make everything from scratch or make it proprietary. While understanding that helps security and reliability, it also adds immensely to cost and "adoption through practicality"
Also, I think a good measure of durability and reliability IS the consumer market. If I am military enlisted I tend to take care of my equipment because I know it's not mine and that I will catch hell if I break it. Consumers, on the other hand, have little regard; drop things in water, and ultimately abuse things, which "test things to their limits." Let's not forget that there are consumers in sandstorms, high wind, snow, rain, fights, dirty environments, are "trained" too.
Re:Unproven = untrustworthy = low SAT scores!
on
Synthetic Vision
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· Score: 1, Offtopic
That is a false analogy (Unproven = untrustworthy).
The Apple iPod is a good example.
Untested waters for Apple, Apple not "well received" by entire PC population, different, semi-unpopular connection scheme, new type of hard drive never released on mass consumer scale- low profit margin market - what else could have been more unproven about the iPod? It has become one of the most critically acclaimed gadgets of the past two years and is made to a very high quality (typical Apple, but always exceptions) standard.
Your analogy would earn you a low SAT and fits in with my signature, read below:)
Re:Hrmmm... my thoughts too
on
Synthetic Vision
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I was wondering the same thing, because, sandstorms provide stealth for the opposition particularly iRaqis I would imagine.. If all the troops or a recon just relied on this he wouldn't be able to see the enemy pointing a bazooka straight at him.
I also don't see much of the devlopment phase for this. Aren't real time Satellite images already availible? Isn't an iPaq strong enough to decode/decipher/function for this purpose? And aren't the Olympus EyeTrek Glassessmall enough for such a purpose?
Slashdot Mirror
They do take advantage of the cardbus slot, but yes are 33Mhz. I see no performance difference between an AGP 32MX on a G4 tower 500 G4 vs My PowerBook G3 (upgraded to 550G4) with the card I have been beta testing for villagetronic for two months now.
Still, games, visuals are a lot faster on my cinema display on the left (32MB card commented on here) and my onboard 8MB ATI adapted on the right. Both displays are 17" Apple displays. I CAN, hook up two displays to the card using an ADC splitter or DVi splitter and just use virtual desktop software to use the real estate from both monitors.
Margi also makes a PCMCIA card that works with many displays I beleive their offerings are Matrox based. It's not as high end as this card coming out though.
1)The bronze service (256kb) which I have neither uploads or downloads ANY FASTER than the Silver 512kb - Gold 768kb - or Platinum 1mb -
Workers / installers also make people think that is MEGABYTE AND KILOBYTE it is megabit and kilobit - they advertise the service with a k when it should be with a kbps or kb - but front desk people will often say "You should upgrade to the 1 megabyte service"
The way I have tested this is by hooking my Aiport BaseStation up to both - I used his (neighbor's) service, he used my service for a week. We both use Peer to Peer and both download a considerable amount of images and software updates. We also both upload to eBay a lot. There is a considerable sized class action action lawsuit in Greenville against Charter, this is one of the many things mentioned as a grievance in the suit.
2)They advertise on the Pipeline website that a Mac with a 601 PPC or higher is able to have the service. They install free ethernet cards (ISA,PCI, PCMCIA) in most every Wintel but won't install an AAUI adapter (on some Macs) or something like a PCMCIA card on the PowerBook 1400. They also tell my customers that I have sold 7300's (604e/180 processor) to, even if they have G3 upgrades that they won't even ALLOW then to get on Pipeline claiming it doesn't meet spec, when one can can view this message on their site: Pipeline Requirements
They also are under investigation for charging the bogus "line maintenance fee" - which they tell you if you don't have they will charge you to fix your cable, when technically (although not by law) they are a municipality/utility and must include line maintenance in costs.
32MB GforceMX PC CARD
The Patriot Act had good intentions but has the effect of erasing a lot our rights.
Think of how a technology like this could be pushed by the insurance and government law enforcement agencies in the future.
Insurance companies could require that all new car windsheilds and rear view mirrors, all TVs, all laptops have this "camera LCD" installed. Then if we also have cars, houses, etc ... that have networks required for software as Oracle CEO Larry Ellison sees it, I suppose the "device" (wisndshield, TV, laptop) once reported stolen would email a picture of the theif to the police and the owner. What a boom to forensics! But what a total erasing of privacy.
Then I suppose this could be hacked and teens could REALLY get REAL live webcams of "certain activities" from TVs in bedrooms. Hotels would monitor sleeping activities. Insurance companies monitor driving habits. (already tried with GPS in Alamo rental cars) Are you using that cell phone without a hands free?
Are you smoking and not telling the insurance company?
Truely 1984 wasn't satire!
I am relatively stuck with Cingular because my phone number is the same as the Apple Computer 1-800 number, except with my area code. It has become my gimmick to help people remember me who I can't hand out a business card to. ( I simply say my number is Dah Dah Dah APPLE) That said, I have made sure that all my friends and family got cell phones long ago from AT&T, Verizon, etc and chose the last four numbers as 2775 as well - so if I ever am forced to switch (until this passes) I have options. However, since Bellsouth Mobility became Cingular I have been very satisfied with them and have even been able to become a service distributor because I have, over the last year, been able to sell 20+ T68i cellphones to my customers.
I actually wish a lot of schools would just buy older Apple II's and then use eBay as a source for programs. I run these programs through emulation on my iMac and they really are perfect for the purpose.
Basically it converted tones into infrared signals. Unfortunately Apple asked that they drop development.
At MacWorld Expo January 2002, they used an iPod to control a Sony TV and Home Stereo system.
Now, they have released the exact same addon for the iPaq.
Does anyone know where or how to obtain a signal conversion from tone to IR?
I know that this is the same way the Macintosh TV worked. One cound take the "IR eye" from that and plug it into ANY onboard Macintosh motherboard sound connection and then use a Sony remote control to turn the unit on and control the Apple CD player or Apple Video Player.
The Dual G4 Linux card:
Found here
Even HP's Portables in the 300 series aren't bad + they use the most common inkjet cart HP made.
The only disadvantage is they are slow and to use any of them other than the i90 Canon and the new HP 350cB you have to use GIMP if you want to run them on OS X.
And none of the librarians there are government employees, they all work for the private college that I attend.
And just as somehow I was modded offtopic, so are you - this was concerning public libraries (which the government (sorry, taxpayers) pay to employ ) A minority of libraries that are open to the public are private.
To the other post, how would increasing technology (and decreasing million dollar architectural costs) cost the poor anything? How would free "library based" internet access cost "the poor" anything?
The other post also failed to address why we have to have multimillion dollar facilities. I am in no way against libraries. I am against wasteful, excessive spending.
And by the way, the "poor" you would find are NOT the ones using libraries anyway, so check your figures. The average person in a public library is an educated, high upper middle income person, or home educated Christian kids with their mother getting books for the week. Besides, is your library card free? Most cards I know are at least $15 annually. What poor person pays to read? lol!!
Do you really need multimillion dollar facilities to house books?
I am the first to agree a book is better than a monitor screen, but it's time to get current and cut government costs. If books in libraries were distributed via network or if the libraries also offered community WiFi, wouldn't that be more useful, less costly?
Our local community has raised taxes this year for the cost of 8 new libraries. There was nothing wrong with the old facilities. They just weren't ornate and weren't named after a politician or a prominent community figure. We now pay a "library fee" of $23 annually. Great, now I pay $23 so a local real estate mogul and a politician can appear to love children and get free advertising for their "ventures".
To relate to the topic and segue:
What these librarians don't understand is that they are not elected officials, they are GOVERNMENT PAID and are suppose to be unbiased in political opinion. I agree with their fight for non censorship, but most of the trash they are asking to "keep" shouldn't be there. Notice, I didn't say shouldn't be produced, I said should not be distributed in a forum where children under 21 are the main customer.
That said, if you buy a unit that can boot into OS9 you can run just about everything Apple has ever made (even Apple I hardware and software) and just about everything any third party has ever made through some sort of adapter (PCI to nubus adapters even exist) - I don't know of a single thing other than the previous () hardware or software (natively or through emulation) that can't run on dual boot Mac.
All that said, the newest Macs are completely legacy free with both code (even though underpinned with BSD/Unix) and hardware. (USB/Firewire/Bluetooth/WiFi/Etc)
I don't know of any PC that can use EVERYTHING EVERYTHING EVER MADE for the brand.
Has anyone ever bought anything by Yahoo auctions? I have. And while I know how to shop wisely there now, that doesn't mean there have been lessons learned. Look at the Apple/Macintosh section right now. More than 1/2 of the auctions there are fake/scams/illegal. Fake - just plainly don't have a 17" PowerBook (a lot of auctions have been selling them since January!) Apple OS Updates (illegal to redistribute) Presale auctions = ponsy schemes & finally there's just junk sellers - most of what I receive is in poor condition or not as described. I have even won an auction on Yahoo that used my own picture I had for the same thing on eBay. Just happened I needed it for the internal part and it was cheap enough. Yahoo allows this fraud in order to collect auction fees.
It's the same way in the personals section. There are obvious "fake personals" there to harvest the "innocent" email addresses to spam them with pRon and HGH and ViaVoice for that matter. Some personals have models pictures or are an 11 on a scale from 1-10 and say they have sex on the first date. C'mon! -- Not that, it's the kind of girl I'm looking for anyway ;)
I think Yahoo will figure out a way similar to these, like allowing pRon sites or spammers to have some sort of way of paying or meta tagging themselves to the top.
I really honor Google Integrity for weeding the majority of that crap out.
Instead of working hard and being creative, companies (and individuals) have chosen to litigate with crooked lawyers. These lawyers (think Johnny Cochran type) aren't creative, aren't smart, they are simply crooks. It's almost like they advertise and recruit through high profile cases such as this. Juries, Judges, and the public at large are being taken advantage of the same way the mafia takes advantage of an industry or commodity. In this case and cases such as Bezos being able to patent every type of transaction that uses a mouse click, and in most cases, the entire Microsoft Apple/Netscape trials, the judicial systems knowledge of the small details are taken advantage of.
I agree with you, this will have the effect, if successful, of invalidating the technology (JPEG) - a new standard will arise. I am both happy and concerned that it may be Sony though. They have the muscle and marketting/liscensing power to make a new standard adopted very quickly. However, they also tend get all googly eyed when they have the opportunity to make something proprietary and be the SOLE distributer or patent/copyright/license holder.
"Models that appear in this magazine may have certain features enhanced or exagerated. The pictures in this magazine should be construed as fantasy imagery only."
The layout department for Sports Illustrated was on I think the "Best Damn Sports Show Period" saying that most of the swimsuit models legs are elongated and breast "bubbled" after the shoot with PowerBook G4s on spot and then further at headquarters. He made a joke saying that Niki Taylor was so short and they wanted her on a two page wide spread. So, they lengthened her legs. If she were real, she'd me Yao Ming's sister!
Prices are being somewhat fixed as the LCD industry is "getting their commodity while they can" much as the memory industry did years ago. The memory industry has learned that volume is the better equation, thus, the low memory prices. OLEDs will change this because they are much cheaper to produce, much brighter and much thinner. Kodak already has OLEDs with Palm soon to follow in a new color Zire from ramblings on the net as well as Apple computer for a new device yet to be announced.
I am first to agree with you that more people need to take responsibility for their actions. But, if Paypal placed a stumbling block before the weak knowingly then they SHOULD be made to stop by those of us who know better or by laws that protect the gambling week.
This was a good thing because it exposed eBay to bad debt as well since they now own Paypal. I was under the impression that they dropped it as a condition of buying Paypal anyway.
I have read a lot of posts about people who have gotten screwed on Paypal. I have twice, and I have "won" once of three times concerning trouble with them. I look at it this way, I make a lot of money thropugh Paypal = better than 80% of all my eBay payments are made through them. I don't qualify, nor do I care to qualify for a more expensive merchant account.
Websites like www.paypalwarning.com are run by loonies who don't know how to conduct themselves. If I was a local business who knew the webmaster/author of that site I would nver do business with him. Some people are going to have problems. Some people can absorb a few blows and turn the other cheek and be happy, others have to be miserable and get mad at the referees, still others have to sue the event staff because they didn't have a good time.
iPod Armor jacket
Again, these are sort of silly examples, but do illustrate potential.
So what if the average vehicle gets corrosion, it's not because of the vehicle, it's a special paint that's already developed. Instead of using that special paint on say a Porsche Cheyenne and spending $120,000, the military for their next vehicle is getting GM to custom design a military vehicle, already spending several million in research without even a prototype to show for it.
Why can't the military mod current items. There is a consumer protection that is military grade for almost everything I know. If it's not consumer then it's corporate grade. Take for example laptops that are made for electrical companies that CAN withstand shock or electromag shock. The only government agency I know has done this; the police departments. A lot have in recent years used baseball radars and Panasonic Toughbooks. (that was an article in my local paper a while back). Why? Budget. The military is seeing budget cuts too, but is still so bloated that money is just handed out to researchers like Halloween candy. Whereas, police departments, have seen DRASTIC cuts based on new support levels for additional personnel.
The RIAA and MPAA get the same bashing here that republicans and religous posters do. Not everything these two entities do is bad.
I can see how this legislation could be misinterpretted often as seperation of church and state and free speech is. That said, the actual law is for stopping cable theives. The RIAA backs it because of the digital music channels, the MPAA backs it because of HBO(et al). Cable piracy is NOTHING like file sharing services. If you hook yourself up illegally to cable TV, there is no "other side" to the arguement. File Sharing on the other hand has another side - the first and foremost exposure and ease of use + less corporate dependency + you at least pay something in some way or another for the access to the networks in P2P.
Related, I would like to see bioluminesence be developed in the lab. Think of the energy savings of a bioluminescent light source that fed on algae in self contained ball kind of like sea monkeys.
I said the military SHOULD be like Apple. The iPod had a lot of "unprovens" & "unknowns" about it BEFORE its introduction. Time proved that it was good venture. The military would find that most things are this way if they are manufactured with precision and quality (as Apple does) I have posted that the military is often like Sony. They think because an item is proven or has the facts behind it that it is superior means it's the best to use. MiniDisc Memory Stick and Beta (possibly DVD+RW) are all examples of superior technology that proves that.
Apple often pushes the envelope with unproven and untested perception, but ALWAYS manufactures with high quality and precision, not just with components but design effieciency. Why can't the military save John & Susie Q Taxpayer a few bucks and do the same?
As for the scenario, actually I would choose the untested laser for my weapon, because it might give me the upper hand. Just as in the PC World, I know there are other proven options and other ways to get things done; as well as backup, if I need it. The military rarely tests multiple devices, instead; one that has been researched and developed on a 10 year process. By the time it reaches troops hands, it borders on being commercially availible anyway.
This can pose a problem. What if the iRaqis were to just use EyeTreks, GPS, WiFi, and an iPaq and be able to do this? They would have the technology that we plan to spend millions in research on and not have for 5 years! When our implementation was ready, they would have an even more powerful, much more scalable and open platform.
You do raise a good point, but the military also doesn't have to reinvent the wheel everytime they want to do something. Like Apple, even more so, Sony, the military has this weird desire to make everything from scratch or make it proprietary. While understanding that helps security and reliability, it also adds immensely to cost and "adoption through practicality"
Also, I think a good measure of durability and reliability IS the consumer market. If I am military enlisted I tend to take care of my equipment because I know it's not mine and that I will catch hell if I break it. Consumers, on the other hand, have little regard; drop things in water, and ultimately abuse things, which "test things to their limits." Let's not forget that there are consumers in sandstorms, high wind, snow, rain, fights, dirty environments, are "trained" too.
The Apple iPod is a good example.
Untested waters for Apple, Apple not "well received" by entire PC population, different, semi-unpopular connection scheme, new type of hard drive never released on mass consumer scale- low profit margin market - what else could have been more unproven about the iPod? It has become one of the most critically acclaimed gadgets of the past two years and is made to a very high quality (typical Apple, but always exceptions) standard.
Your analogy would earn you a low SAT and fits in with my signature, read below :)
I also don't see much of the devlopment phase for this. Aren't real time Satellite images already availible? Isn't an iPaq strong enough to decode/decipher/function for this purpose? And aren't the Olympus EyeTrek Glassessmall enough for such a purpose?