At the 2008 CES dozens of ARM "netbooks" running Linux were displayed and a big hit at the show. They were produced on ARM and Linux because Intel didn't have Atom yet so no cheap x86 processor with any horsepower, and Microsoft charged $89 for XP.
$89 as the wholesale price - the OEM price - for XP?
Quoted for purchases of 10,000 units? 100,000? A million? To put this in perspective, the brand-name Win 7 netbook has already broken the $300 price point. HP Mini 210-1010NR 10.1-Inch Black Netbook
So you ask what killed the Arm Netbook?
Sales.
No one in big box retail fought longer and harder to make a go of Linux than WalMart.
Nothing came of it.
Walmart.com currently lists 111 laptops, 48 desktops, all Windows, and all but a bare handful running Win 7 Home Premium.
What I find most surprising - and significant - is the disappearance of the netbook from WalMart's retail shelves.
Down to a lone Dell Nickelodeon branded laptop for kids.
As for the hope that a company like WalMart would pick this up and sell it for $100 or less
WalMart needs product to fill 2500 stores.
Hivision's site doesn't quote a retail price. It doesn't quote a wholesale price.
Their English language contacts use Hotmail and Skype. The company has been around for about ten years. Mostly they seem to make digital photo frames and Win CE netbooks.
One day you might handle lots of distraction at the level of a fighter pilot, but the next day have the flu or you're hung over. Whatever happened to equality in the eyes of the law, justice is blind and other such misguided populist notions?
The essence of impairment is that you don't know how badly you are impaired. That is why it is reasonable to adopt a rule that offers a good margin of safety for everyone on the road.
It seems, contrary to what many thought, that as people get better off they have less kids. For a long time population catastrophe was predicted to happen worst and first in industrial nations
You'll find a very good and very revealing set of charts here: Index Mundi
Take the money and invest it or save it. One day you will need it and the market for this shit isn't liquid - meaning, you won't be able to sell the thing to another sucker when you really have to.
People are so stupid with their money. No wonder we have these economic problems.
The hacker bent over his keyboard is a boon to society while the couch potato leaning waayy back is a drain.
Meanwhile, he introduces the iPad while leaning back in an easy chair and telling us how easy it is to buy and consume web pages, music, movies, books from the iTunes store. And it's all DRM infested...
The production costs for the Galactica mini-series in 2003 was $10 million dollars. Battlestar Galactica
Ultimately, it's the couch potato who pays the bill.
While the hacker is only a small part of the creative process. He doesn't write the script or story. He doesn't compose or perform the score.
Yes, it's a defect in the Flash player, and it's one of the reasons why using Flash video players might not be a great idea if you have a viable alternative.
Freescale is bringing Adobe Flash Player 10.1 to its ARM based i.MX platforms, enabling the creation of consumer products running either the Linux or Android operating systems. Smartbooks, smartphones, netbooks and other Internet-centric consumer products based on the i.MX51 family of processors will be able to access full H.264 video playback when accessing rich content built with the Flash Platform, including HD and SD video from sites such as YouTube.Collaboration For Flash Player 10.1 on Freescale i.MX
I'm not the first to say this, and I certainly won't be the last, but this sort of copy protection nonsense is just another reason I'll be cracking games that I've paid for.
There is no point in cracking a game - no point in pirating a game - when essential content and services are only available online - after your account is validated and payment clears through Master Card.
In the United States, we'll shoot at helicopters with actual people in them.
If you are wanted for the murder of eight in Virginia - or think adding "Cop Killer" to your rap sheet is worth a mod up to +4.
Childs admitted that when he took a job flying the state's MedFlight helicopter, he didn't expect to face the threat of small-arms fire very often. Last week, the state police helicopter he was flying took seven rounds from a high-powered rifle. The shots came while Childs was attempting to help police locate Christopher Speight, who authorities believe killed eight people Tuesday in a deadly rampage in Appomattox County. Checking out the exterior of the helicopter, he noticed the fuel tank had been hit by one of the rounds. In all, seven shots hit the chopper, damaging the underbelly, the fuel tank and one of the rotors. Childs is no stranger to violence. His daughter, Heidi, a Virginia Tech student, was killed in Montgomery County in August with her boyfriend, David Metzler. That crime has not been solved.
I guess people are pirating Office to run on their netbooks - who in their right mind is going to spend $250 to $300 on the netbook, then turn around and throw down another $100 to $300 for Office?
The geek quotes list for Office and forgets every other legitimate distribution channel known to man.
The volume license agreement that supports Microsoft's Home User program. The $60 Ultimate Steal for anyone with student ID. Office Home sold retail boxed with a three seat license.
What Windows-only software lacks a reasonable open-source or Linux equivalent and would also be useful on a netbook?
iTunes. Games.
H.264 hardware-accelerated video.
D2D, Gog.com and Steam all have a deep back list of games ready for play on the XP and Win 7 netbook.
The Windows buyer can chose from the best of both worlds - everything in proprietary and closed source, everything in free and open source.
The fact that they have conceded to continue selling xp on netbooks is the major reason they haven't been shut out of the growing netbook segment entirely.
Just for fun, try this:
Search Google Shopping for ARM netbook. {about 200 hits]
Search Google Shopping for Windows 7 SE Netbook. [about 9,000 hits]
Many of the games I bough in 90's are too scratched, lost somewhere along the years or do not work with current operating systems and are unplayable now. Doesn't bother me too much, theres great new games now.
There are also distributors like Gog.com which repackage old games for your new operating system.
You might find a solution on your own - but for $5 -$15 its scarcely worth the trouble.
So what would be the problem with showing an actual ssh "access denied" or "someone is doing something nasty" message? I'm sure the actors are going to be able to tell you what's going on,
It takes too long and your dialogue is reduced to unintelligible techno-babble. It's fan service for the geek and there is not much money to made in that.
Slashdot Mirror
At the 2008 CES dozens of ARM "netbooks" running Linux were displayed and a big hit at the show. They were produced on ARM and Linux because Intel didn't have Atom yet so no cheap x86 processor with any horsepower, and Microsoft charged $89 for XP.
$89 as the wholesale price - the OEM price - for XP?
Quoted for purchases of 10,000 units? 100,000? A million? To put this in perspective, the brand-name Win 7 netbook has already broken the $300 price point. HP Mini 210-1010NR 10.1-Inch Black Netbook
So you ask what killed the Arm Netbook?
Sales.
No one in big box retail fought longer and harder to make a go of Linux than WalMart.
Nothing came of it.
Walmart.com currently lists 111 laptops, 48 desktops, all Windows, and all but a bare handful running Win 7 Home Premium.
What I find most surprising - and significant - is the disappearance of the netbook from WalMart's retail shelves.
Down to a lone Dell Nickelodeon branded laptop for kids.
It could just be that WalMart's customers are finding other products more compelling: Kodak Zi8 Aqua Pocket 1080p Video Camera $180.
As for the hope that a company like WalMart would pick this up and sell it for $100 or less
WalMart needs product to fill 2500 stores.
Hivision's site doesn't quote a retail price. It doesn't quote a wholesale price.
Their English language contacts use Hotmail and Skype. The company has been around for about ten years. Mostly they seem to make digital photo frames and Win CE netbooks.
One day you might handle lots of distraction at the level of a fighter pilot, but the next day have the flu or you're hung over.
Whatever happened to equality in the eyes of the law, justice is blind and other such misguided populist notions?
In 1999 the USAF had 4,200 fighter pilots. Military Fighter Pilot.
In 2006 the US had 203 million licensed drivers. Licensed Drivers by Age and Gender, 2006
The essence of impairment is that you don't know how badly you are impaired. That is why it is reasonable to adopt a rule that offers a good margin of safety for everyone on the road.
Rule G (1915)
It seems, contrary to what many thought, that as people get better off they have less kids. For a long time population catastrophe was predicted to happen worst and first in industrial nations
You'll find a very good and very revealing set of charts here: Index Mundi
Live long and prosper and birth rates go down.
Take the money and invest it or save it. One day you will need it and the market for this shit isn't liquid - meaning, you won't be able to sell the thing to another sucker when you really have to.
People are so stupid with their money. No wonder we have these economic problems.
The collector may not get rich.
But he can have a lot of fun along the way - and he just might take a lot of folks with him. Sci-Fi's No. 1 Fanboy, Forrest J Ackerman, Dies at 92
Frankly, it doesn't matter if it happens to OS X. What matters is that it could become the standard going forward
The geek has been touting the net appliance - the thin client for the home user for fifteen years.
Now he has what he thought he wanted and now he knows its price.
The hacker bent over his keyboard is a boon to society while the couch potato leaning waayy back is a drain.
Meanwhile, he introduces the iPad while leaning back in an easy chair and telling us how easy it is to buy and consume web pages, music, movies, books from the iTunes store. And it's all DRM infested...
The production costs for the Galactica mini-series in 2003 was $10 million dollars. Battlestar Galactica
Ultimately, it's the couch potato who pays the bill.
While the hacker is only a small part of the creative process. He doesn't write the script or story. He doesn't compose or perform the score.
Flash Player 10.1 hardware acceleration for video and graphics
Flash is proprietary I'd like to see it fade into oblivion.
It isn't going to happen any time soon.
Flash has supported H.264 since Flash Player 9 in 2007.
Flash Player 10.1 supports H.264 video hardware decoding on desktop and mobile devices and hardware (GPU) graphics rendering on mobile devices
Flash Player 10.1 hardware acceleration for video and graphics, Flash Player 10.1 Beta 2 - Downloads
Freescale is bringing Adobe Flash Player 10.1 to its ARM based i.MX platforms, enabling the creation of consumer products running either the Linux or Android operating systems.
Smartbooks, smartphones, netbooks and other Internet-centric consumer products based on the i.MX51 family of processors will be able to access full H.264 video playback when accessing rich content built with the Flash Platform, including HD and SD video from sites such as YouTube. Collaboration For Flash Player 10.1 on Freescale i.MX
So, if you beat up somebody, you'll probably get less jail time than refreshing a website several times using a script?
In the American federal system:
Crimes of violence are almost always prosecuted at the state and local level.
Crimes that undermine interstate commerce can often only be successfully investigated and prosecuted by the federal government.
"Interstate commerce" to an eighteenth century mind had a much broader meaning than "trade."
It meant all the connecting links that held a society of continental dimensions together.
The federal government simply can't ignore systematic attacks on transportation networks. Communication networks.
That is why the hammer comes down.
I'm not the first to say this, and I certainly won't be the last, but this sort of copy protection nonsense is just another reason I'll be cracking games that I've paid for.
There is no point in cracking a game - no point in pirating a game - when essential content and services are only available online -
after your account is validated and payment clears through Master Card.
In the United States, we'll shoot at helicopters with actual people in them.
If you are wanted for the murder of eight in Virginia - or think adding "Cop Killer" to your rap sheet is worth a mod up to +4.
Childs admitted that when he took a job flying the state's MedFlight helicopter, he didn't expect to face the threat of small-arms fire very often.
Last week, the state police helicopter he was flying took seven rounds from a high-powered rifle.
The shots came while Childs was attempting to help police locate Christopher Speight, who authorities believe killed eight people Tuesday in a deadly rampage in Appomattox County.
Checking out the exterior of the helicopter, he noticed the fuel tank had been hit by one of the rounds.
In all, seven shots hit the chopper, damaging the underbelly, the fuel tank and one of the rotors.
Childs is no stranger to violence. His daughter, Heidi, a Virginia Tech student, was killed in Montgomery County in August with her boyfriend, David Metzler. That crime has not been solved.
Pilot of downed police helicopter cites 'divine intervention'P>
I guess people are pirating Office to run on their netbooks - who in their right mind is going to spend $250 to $300 on the netbook, then turn around and throw down another $100 to $300 for Office?
The geek quotes list for Office and forgets every other legitimate distribution channel known to man.
The volume license agreement that supports Microsoft's Home User program. The $60 Ultimate Steal for anyone with student ID. Office Home sold retail boxed with a three seat license.
What Windows-only software lacks a reasonable open-source or Linux equivalent and would also be useful on a netbook?
iTunes. Games.
H.264 hardware-accelerated video.
D2D, Gog.com and Steam all have a deep back list of games ready for play on the XP and Win 7 netbook.
The Windows buyer can chose from the best of both worlds -
everything in proprietary and closed source, everything in free and open source.
The fact that they have conceded to continue selling xp on netbooks is the major reason they haven't been shut out of the growing netbook segment entirely.
Just for fun, try this:
Search Google Shopping for ARM netbook. {about 200 hits]
Search Google Shopping for Windows 7 SE Netbook. [about 9,000 hits]
There are also distributors like Gog.com which repackage old games for your new operating system.
You might find a solution on your own - but for $5 -$15 its scarcely worth the trouble.
As Windows XP is phased out and the cost of bundling Windows 7 rises, manufacturers will be looking for a cheap and easily maintainable netbook OS
Walmart.com currently stocks 125 Win 7 laptops. Fifty Win 7 desktops.*
The retailer is looking for sales.
Which Windows and Win 7 have proven they can deliver. Top Operating System Share Trend
This isn't rocket science.
The buyer sees the Win 7 Atom netbook on sale with a 10' screen and a 250 GB hard drive.
What to fill it with?
He has tons of Windows software at home which will load and run without a problem.
Software he knows.
Software he uses. Software he likes.
_____
* But only two netbooks in stores. That's a fast fade-out even by Walmart standards.
Some places produce real works of literature and others crank out pulp-fiction.
But which is likely to prove more enduring and more memorable?
The Library of America has published two anthologies of crime noir, two or three volumes each of Hammett and Chandler.
Three volumes of Philip K. Dick. One of Lovecraft. A two volume anthology of American horror tales since Poe.
It rubs pretty much everyone at Slashdot the wrong way so why don't we all chip in to create a mirror site or something based outside the US?
How to you propose to do this without exposing every contributor to prosecution for violation of US export controls?
0.90 to 1.02 isn't particularly impressive. 0.00 to 5.71 is.
Do they count all of us who bought computers with Windows 7 pre-installed and then deleted it?
Does the geek count the beta testers who drove Win 7 past Linux no later than August of last year?
Does he count all the close-out deals on the Vista PC that qualified for the free upgrade to Win 7?
Net Applications publishes web-based stats.
Real users accessing real sites.
Heavily trafficked sites like Amazon, ESPN, Google - and Mozilla.
You don't boot into another OS to access the headline news from Fox.
So what would be the problem with showing an actual ssh "access denied" or "someone is doing something nasty" message? I'm sure the actors are going to be able to tell you what's going on,
It takes too long and your dialogue is reduced to unintelligible techno-babble. It's fan service for the geek and there is not much money to made in that.
They use a car that is appropriate to the scene. They should do the same thing for ovens, sandwiches, furniture, and computers.
In Wall-E, the Autopilot has to work the controls manually. He can't communicate with Go-4 by a secure wireless link.
Why?
Because the audience needs to know that he is breaking the rules. They need to know that he was never wholly trusted.
But they can't read his mind.
Eve and Wall-E in turn are trusted because they can't disguise what they feel.
Exposition is dull.
If you can drive the story forward with simple visual and audio clues and do it in seconds you are ahead of the game.
We have public health care in Norway and I see far fewer problems than in the US...
The population of Norway is about 5 million. The population of metro New York City, 19 million. The U.S., 300 million.
The List of Hospitals in Norway wouldn't fill a single printed page.
Mathematically, half of us are of below median intelligence, after all.
That tells me nothing unless the difference has some practical significance.
If the machine can maintain itself it doesn't need the IT guy with his above average IQ.
If it can't maintain itself, the machine may need the guy with the wrench more than he needs the guy with the pocket protector.
2) Hard to reach buttons.
Yes, it looks cool, but it's about as sensible as putting the gear stick behind the driver's seat.
Not entirely true.
Sometimes you want to prevent mistakes.
You want to force the user to think about what he is about to do. Because all sales are final.
So you introduce arbitrary barriers and complications.
Star Trek:TOS Court-Martial, 1967 is a textbook example of what can go wrong.
To jettison the forward sensor pod the Captain flicks an unmarked switch that looks and feels exactly like the others built into the arm of his chair.
The odds that he'll fire the damn thing off by accident sometime in his career are probably no worse than 1 in 4.