The inflatable rogallo wing IS the permanent wing. There is no hard fixed wing. They were making these things a few years back. There's no "additional" anything besides my idea of keeping the wing inflated with hot air from the drive engine as opposed to a permanent helium fill.
--the banks will just up fees and/or interest rates to cover any additional expenses. There's no way the bosses and sharholders will lose a penny on the deal, even if they have to pay royalties on these patents eventually. Banks are the primary reason this particular style, the western central banking and fiat currency economic system, with the patents, exist, they could care less what it costs you as joe consumer, because taken as a whole, they control the money supply and you don't. If the patents affect all banks, then it affects all the people, they just pass the costs on as part of doing business.
Want a change? Use cash and barter as much as possible and stopping buying into high tech just because it exists and is new and shiny. Geeks are the worst when it comes to that, every new way to do something different using a gadget they adopt and promote, whether it's a good idea or not. And geeks were the ones who lobbied for getting software patented in the first place, it wasn't joe schmoo mechanic down at the shop or suzy hairdresser. Want to blame someone for geek troubles like these patents, blame the geeks, the programmers with huge dollar signs in their eyes way back when who demanded this patent protection for their vague intangible "products" and also demanded no liability for their products. They got it, the system obliged them, now it's tough noogies, you can't go back 40 years or whatever and change it. Demanding above and beyond what other industries get came back to bite them, as it was predicted a long time ago. It's not like this wasn't anticipated and warned against, but the warners back then got called "luddite" and other things, like they were "anti technology" or "anti progress". Nope, that was never it, just you can't tell a geek ANYTHING because they are born with hard coded DNA that says they are always correct and anyone else is an idiot.
what goes around comes around. Geeks and geek companies embraced the sytem with open arms, profitted from it, now they notice they need to have a lawyer hard wired to them, kept on a leash just to do anything. If they are so smart, why did they let it happen in the first place?
The geek community needs a little soul searching on this one and to drop down off their "insulted and shocked" high horse. Yes, it's changed with open source, but it doesn't eliminate past historical reality, they asked and begged for this situation we have now, and the politicians and PHBs obliged them.. They are trying to close the barn door after the horse got out, not a real long term smooth move it appears..
And the next major geek FUBAR that will hit? Over zealous false intellectual righteousness with how "safe" nanotech and bioengineering are, and that will make patent fiascos look tame by comparison. Add in overwhelming and pervasive RF pollution, another huge case of serious denial. And you know why? Same huge dollar signs in the eyes that the original wizard programmers had, that's why. Obfuscate and ignore potential long term problems in exchange for leetness and bigbucks today.
I like the idea of the inflatable rogallo wing configuration. It's a balloon type deal shaped like a hang gliders wing, provides IIRC more than half the lift required. Originally I think they were helium filled, but I am thinking, suppose the engine had an integral air compressor, and used heat from the engine to pre heat the air going to inflate the wing. That would provide a lot of lift just like a hot air balloon, and eliminate the helium cost. Once inflated a pressure adjusted valve would automagically open and release some cooler air and add in more hot air from the engine to maintain optimal lift, that and the forward motion over the inflated wing gives all the lift required.. Even in the event of "catastrophic" engine failure, you would still have some decent lift left, and could glide to an emergency landing,much better than a normal fixed wing craft with an all of a sudden huge dead weight on the nose. Plus, it would be a lot more steerable than a parachute just hanging off a fixed wing, so you would have better choice on your emergency landing area.
friend of mine had a truck he bought used "as is, where is". It looked good and was driveable and the price was right so he bought it. turned out to be not such a bargain after all. A week later it started having problems, he'd fix one thing then another, yada yada, within a few weeks it was totally croaked sitting in the garage, needed thousands in repairs and beaucoup man hours labor to get it right(what he told me later). He snapped at one point, just lost it. He pushed it out into the yard and took a literal sledge hammer, one he normally used as a splitting maul for firewood, and creamed the living snot out of that truck until he couldn't swing the sledge any longer. Wasn't a window left, a light, an undented piece of sheet metal, nothing, T-totaled.
I thought it was pretty funny, as the guy was a professional mechanic!
As to computers, no, they've always worked for me or I made them at least work well enough that it wasn't too bad. Most of mine though have been *macs*. The one and only exception that I have that was annoying was this compaq,it's still sitting in the junk pile. Nice and shiny and functional at first,then I got some piece of bad ram and it just fubared any functionaltiy of the machine, it refuses to boot now, nothing. It was fine before I "upgraded it", and yes, I was careful with static putting in the Ram. After the new stick of RAM install, it booted for 60 seconds with a weird screen, then blanked out, useless ever since. No idea what's wrong with it, won't boot with the original RAM either. Not gonna drop one more penny on the thing. And to top it off it was a nice one I had given my GF,so I'm just being Mr. Nice Guy and upping her RAM for her, but N-O-O-O-O, so I had to fork over my spare machine to her so she would at least have something and she STILL reminds me "I killed her computer" occassionally.
grumble,
hmm, maybe I SHOULD haul it out and blast it with the 12 bore... hmmm
say his views are flat out wrong, yet in your sig you push a lame targeted to 8 year olds fantasy *load*? Huh?
Well, to each their own, maybe Harry can wave his magic wand for you and create all the software you'll ever need! Hey, it might work! Just keep believing.
...about running knoppix or any of the other live cds? Easy enough for them to run XP when it's not connected to the internet for games or whathaveyou,and therefore avoid exploits, and when they want to surf, have them boot up a knoppix. Really, an easy enough solution to that sort of problem. Not sure what sort of machine they have, but just recently, like two weeks ago when I gave away an older machine to a kid with no computer,I've run knoppix down to a pentium 1 level Iit's a 166 machine) and only 32 megs ram and it still worked, slow but once loaded after a few minutes it was zippy enough. It's not even supposed to work at that level but I tried it anyway just for grins. Anything above that with a reasonable amount of RAM and it's quite speedy. And as to useability,really, how is it much different from a windows OS, down in bottom left corner is a big K start menu,mash that, slide around, pick an app, works. About the same as any other OS with a GUI.
--just a suggestion is all, no biggee, but avoiding holiday (or any other day) headaches is a good thing, IMO. Linux, especially from a live cd, is just not that hard or different from windows unless you are a power user, and these folks sound like non power users, so the learning curve is probably identical, so you might as well start with something a little more secure.
..."no static" on the regular phone line. Some kind of high definitioin TV? Ha! Double Ha! If the best you can get is a scosh over 28.8, I doubt that 90% of the people or so in the US would be able to get clear reasonable definition TV, even if they have some sort of xDSL on the telcos marginal wire. Not on the copper that's out there now, it's cheap crap. The telcos are cheap except for a few limited markets. I've been using POTS since they didn't come with a freaking dial on the machine, and they have always talked big, delivered cheap, charged heavy,and always. They gradually add in new features,and heavily add in new fees, and the big breakup forced some good changes, but it's been kicking and screaming all the way, while promising the moon, the stars, a milkshake and a new pony.
10%, sure, places that have redundant and highly competetive broadband markets, ie, the top 100 or so major urban areas. The rest of the nation? Ain't seeing it,my opinion, we'll see better wireless networks and P2P ad hoc streaming/mesh networks/whatever from actual users before they actually build robust wired solutions,cable or fiber or whathaveyou, it's just vastly cheaper and easier to implement. Tv over that then? Sure, possible. Tv over bottom rung dsl and 40 year old copper that's still up all over by the thousands of miles? Huh? And most folks in that 90% of what I will term the "higher tech near blackout area" that actually care to have decent TV beyond whatever any OTA they might have already run a satellite dish to get it, it's installed and works and is cheap and for most purposes doesn't interfere with the already too expensive for what you get phone bill. I mean, they give away the hardware now by the multiple room setup it's that cheap. Let's see the wired telcos compete with that.
So, the wireless guys, I can see it *somewhat* happening IF they really add enough to their backends to handle it,for the massive increase in bandwith, because it'll make a few bit torrent trackers look like a dialup dynapic webhost, ie, "small". Good quality TV real time is whole nuther ball game from the web, and it's there already called "cable" and it's put where they are going to put it like a decade ago, it's not expanding all that much. Wired,from the entrenched telcos? Having to actually install decent wires or lit fiber of some flavor to every abode? Nope, market buzz speak to keep their stock share prices up. They can't do it on their stuff, only in limited places. Proof is in the pudding you can buy now, if they could they would be offering killer SDSL everywhere for cheap, and they ain't, are they? It's the Telco equivalent of flying cars articles in 1950s popular mechanics magazine. Watching Tv on the cellphone? Contrary to popular PR spokesweasel beliefs, the US isn't Japan and 7/8ths of the nation doesn't climb onto a commuter train every day for hours to go to work, we drive cars, meaning they won't be watching TV on their cellphones for x-hours a day to kill time, especially if it's pay by the minute or some noise like that.
..of the big bucks planetary controllers ongoing efforts to terrorise people into accepting the demise of the free internet, and, well, "free" in general as in freedoms. They want to create such "terrorism" fear that people accept any loss of their freedoms in order to be "secure".
I mean, really, how many hundreds of times now since 9-11 have we had "LOOKOUT, dangerous tarists sneaking up on you, they are gonna do this and that and the other thing, but our fearless leaders have called this magenta alert so now plz pass the new homeland enabling act law and cough up a few hundred billion more for our esteemed business colleagues and..." and nothing happens except they pass the homeland enabling act and transfer your money into the pockets of already billionaires. sweet deal for them!.
They still manage to keep passing law after law after law, by invoking the magical word "Terrorism".
hegelian dialectic at work and proof again that if they keep pushing it through the mainstream and "embedded" newsaganda drivel the globalist goons will get what they want, which is to get the various peoples to "demand" to lose their freedoms. It's a double win for those megalomaninac turkeys.
The best defense is to laugh at them, call their bluff, refuse to cooperate, call them liars to their face whenever they push that horse crap, and use the tools we have now to further spread the truth and to resist any efforts to squelch that..
9-11 was a controlled inside job like the Reichstagg fire, yet most people still accept the governments wild freeking tin foil hat conspiracy theory on it, with no questions asked.. Sure it was a conspiracy,no one denies that, and part of that conspiracy was western white guys in black business suits and high ranking dot mil "officers" looking for that retirement "consultant" dot mil industrial complex contract.
The evidence is out there, and they have already been proven to be chronic serial liars. How many decades went past before people finally understood that pearl harbor was allowed to go down to get the US into WW2 faster? How many decades went past before the truth about the so called "gulf of tonkin" attacks became known? How long before they admitted reality about agent orange, and now gulf war syndrome and when will they admit DU is a WMD? when will the mainstream news sources actually do their freeking JOBS?
answer=NEVER
This is the same mass peoples fake out routine, and the big bucks media is always involved, because at the tippy top levels in the mass media, it's controlled by globalist technofeudalists who cooperate with these schemes and are part of the coverups. The give the orders and it flows downstream. Same as in so called "government" FUD RULES THERE.
Here is a reminder from past editor at the NYT John Swainston at his retirement speech, pay attention to this:
"The business of the journalist is to destroy truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are tools and vassals for rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
He went on to say: "There is not such thing at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone."
...if you got a new computer with it preinstalled, and once you hooked to the net you decided (for obvious reasons) that you still liked the computer but hated the pre installation and wanted that *portion* of your money back.
It's time software that was allowed on the internet came with a default warranty as to suitability for purpose. They advertise it as "get on the internet and browse and get email", but you cannot adequately get on the internet and browse without getting owned. I think there's a major class action there. The software industry as a whole has gotten away with no warranties for too long now, the industry is mature enough to deal with it, especially some company that has made more than a trillion on it along with their partners in scams, the box vendors who have forced this unsuitable product on an unsuspecting public.
Whether or not a customer can read the EULA is not exactly the point,it's part of it but not the main point, it's the bogus "nothing is our fault" fine print in the EULA that's the real question.
Here's a nice scenario, you need a camccorder. Buy a cheap box with it preinstalled, even agree to the Eula on tape. Hook to the internet, videotape and screen capture what happens. Take the box then to three independent whitebox shops have them state what has happened to the box with the various malwares and whatnot. Use that evidence to challenge the "not my fault, as is, no suitability for purpose, etc" provisions of the EULA "license". I think it should be taken all the way. The various companies want to patent their products, profit from them, they should have normal minimum warranty laws apply. If you get damaged-your box gets hosed-that's above and beyond replacement costs, especially if you are a business trying to use it, and you can also show (which should be easy) that it's industrial monopolistic collusion that has allowed it to happen.
I'd really like to see something like that happen, shakeup the entire IP patent and EULA and whatnot "law" situation.
Right now the EULA merely states in many and diverse ways the old "caveat emptor" which dog don't legally hunt in any other product situation. The ruling in the article merely makes it somewhat easier for the person to read that they are still in a cybersnakeoil "caveat emptor" situation.
and it's an accurate assessment, but not everyone out there is an ISP, and if theirs don't deal with the Spam problem, the users are stuck trying to cobjob their own automagical miracle multiple software apps complex IT spam solution at home, OR, use something as simple as tbirds or mozs spam filter, which works good enough to at least keep it down to a manageable size. Or is spam filtering only for the "IT elite"? How long do we poor non_ISP and non pro sysadmin plebians need to wait for ya'all to deal with the Spam then? How long has it been again?
If it is really hurting the ISPs, then it's in their best interest to do something about it, but they seem to not be doing that very much. Or would you rather all those millions of regular ole surfin folks just eat the spam until such a time in the mysterious future as the web "professionals" actually do something about it? Speaking as joe internet consumer, I am tired of waiting for the "IT Network ISP professionals" to "handle" it, because they haven't "handled it", not in the general sense.
As such it's NOT "useless" at all to run a personal spam filter, it's the only thing the millions of spam deluged people have currently,and at least we can use some end user app that's easy to set up and configure. But becauae it's not the single magic silver bullet, we shouldn't use it?
Some ISPs have made an attempt to "stop spam", or their upstreams, but most haven't, and the overall results are still dismal, else we wouldn't be having these spam-problem discussions every other day, and it wouldn't be a global annoyance and cost and complexity headache problem.
Now if the poor ISPs want to pay their users, take a penny off what they pay for an account per spam, something like that, maybe that will get their attention, but most ISPs just let the slop through. Why? Don't ask me, I ain't one of them guys, but spam filters have been around awhile now, no idea why they aren't more widely used at every point on the internet. Spam shouldn't make it past the first hop, IMO, or at least most of it.
The so called "elected government", this regime so far.
Starting a war based on completely false public utterances by public officials,utterances claimed as 100% fact at the time of congressional "authorisation" for war, but proven a total lie, thereby killing Americans unlawfully. Having insider knowledge of a "terrorist attack" going down on US soil and keeping that knowledge hidden,allowing the attack to continue, also ordering lesser ranking officials to help in the coverup, and generally obfuscating a lot of the facts of the case. Treason, malfeasance in office, murder, accessory to murder, theft of government services, accessory to theft of government services, willful destruction of public property, and etc, a large potential list that is being ignored mainly
Diebold, who's owner is on record as having stated he would "deliver" the Ohio vote, and other known researchable anecdotals about his company and techs, including the revelations from the california case and what is starting to be squeezed out in Ohio slowly but surely
Helping to maintain these same exact above treasonus and so called "elected" officials in "power" by conspiring to hack the elections in various areas both in advance and during and after the fact of public voting through insecure by design, not by accident but by design, electronic voting machines, and attempting to keep that hacking hidden from the public and official oversight and regulatory bodies, and coordinating that through an entrenched political party's high level officials
treason, accessory, malfeasance, accessory to murder, theft of government services, destruction of government property with destroyed or altered vote records, and etc,and quite a few more
You minimise and ignore and over-trivialise quite a lot of the publically available evidence that has been uncovered so far. A small fine is an obvious payoff and a continuance of this massive junta hijacking and political takeover and coverup
There's way, WAY more than enough for several different grand jury investigations to go forward, yet none are, because the junta will not "investigate" itself willingly or adequately,(please, the 9-11 commission was a big fat joke) nor will it tolerate lesser political office efforts, they can be coerced and co-opted by higher level authority who have shown zero compunction about using massive ultra violence to get their way on any issue. None. There's your reason for this. They kill people daily, have killed in the past, will continue to kill in the future, and that is why so many people who might be so inclined are afraid to go forward with these various cases, it's a pretty severe actual bona fide physical risk, even if you might be a lower level official who's job it might be to investigate such matters throughly. People aren't stupid when it comes to such matters. Much easier to announce a small joke fine and say "case closed, nothing to see here, move along now".
Because I default open a browser and the email anyway, and I most always used netsacpe communicator in the past so it's about the same thing.. I don't really see much difference in having one app open or two. What I would like to know (don't have thunderbird so I can't check) what is the cpu and memory footprint between moz suite, or having firefox and tbird open at the same time? Is there really much difference in speed and memory usage?
when you are trying to rollout a new desktop, give them a hundred dollars and some slack. Say "yes, we know you might have to learn as few new things, but give it an honest try for a little while, and here's a bonus to help pay for your personal training".
Cash talks, market speak BS boss orders walk.
People are at YOUR work because they want to MAKE MONEY, not because it's a hobby for them, you are asking them to keep doing their jobs they are doing now PLUS learn an all new system to them (most likely), so pay them for it, at least something. A little extra, a bonus. What cash you now don't ship to Redmond, shoot them a little bone for their efforts. Cash really perks people up and gives them a little enthusiasm, because humans are stubborn and they don't like to change. Grease the wheels of inertia a little. You pay your sales weasels bonuses for a "good job" above and beyond, same with all the other PHBs,so do it with the rank and file grunts, too.
Recognize that humans are humans and you are putting them out-even if it's for their own good and the companys own good in the medium and long term. they don't really understand that, they understand "this much work daily and NOW I have to relearn all this crap and..." You get the picture. Pay them for new things they have to do.
And technically, I don't think you can beat a live CD distro with a stick for a transition period, even if it's just setting up a few generic boxes with it running in the break room in advance of the switch, let them play with it before they are under pressure to produce on it. Give them free CD install disks they can take home and put on their own machines if they want to, the same stuff you will be running at work. That can't hurt either and is certainly cheap enough to do.
The most telling thing to me about the story is (I am speculating now but it's at least marginally logical) that they had to outsource the anti spyware remedy programming expertise all the way to purchasing a specialty company (its developers). That says to me they actually hadn't a clue of how to go about it in-house, but you know they probably tried, and therefore probably failed at it..not really awe inspiring consider the rep and cred they constantly try to maintain as the worlds premier software company. I see it as an embarassment for them, but they will spin it to look like a "shrewd business move" or something and legions of PHB will go along with that.
It's still needed though, that I will grant. About time and stuff. Seems like some time back they also bought an antivir company which they will be charging for IIRC.
I've posted this several times before, it's NUTS to do microsofts job for them while they are sharpening their knives for Linux. It's nuts to port a free open source browser, apps, anything. Let them stew in their own buggy insecure juices, let the viruses take them down.
WHY you would want to give MS a free skate, do their job for them unpaid, un appreciated and knowing they are out to sink you anyway no matter wehat you do "nice" for them, while they make billions and are doing everything they can to destroy Linux is beyond me. Imagine if there wasn't a firefox browser on windows for people to switch to because IE is so insecure? Instead they would be FORCED to SERIOUSLY consider the entire Linux package deal instead of the cob job "fix" that an app like firefox brings. It's a crutch, a well intentioned but misguided enabling measure like buying an alky a six pack because he's got the shakes.
It's not a "bridge" to open source, it's a freeking relatively mostly poorer people open source subsidised welcome mat for MS to keep doing what they have been doing for 20 years, and that is to SCREW EVERYONE THEY CAN AND LAUGH ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK.
It's like "here Mr. Burglar, my schedule for when I'm not at home, and the key is under the mat, now you promise to not ROB ME BLIND, right?"
Uh huh, yep, that'll work out. And just wait, someone will find and deploy the mother of all worms or viruses and it'll run on something like firefox on windows then open source and linux will be guilty by association and lose all the mindshare they have built up. Short sighted, IMO. LET the PHBses desktop machines get completely hosed, with no fix or open source crutch savior there to help them and you would see mass migration and support for Linux. Keep throwing MS a *free* get out of responsibility-jail card and they will keep taking it.
Thanks for the input! Besides slow, how did you find the OS in general terms? Good/fair/ teh suck, great? I am liking the concept of a simpler and more no brainer distro myself, there's just so many of them to try out, and I have to mail order them because of being on dialup, etc. And for the older machines of course.
..you can buy them. They make both solar shingles and total roofing systems, where the panels ARE the roof, not something that bolts TO the roof. You save on not needing to buy a normal roof, then slapping panels up there. They've been out for several years now. You can get them included into your house note as well, GMAC was one of the first big lenders to do that. Now they are not heinlein cheap, but cheap enough when you can deduct the cost of the normal roof from the equation, PLUS you know exactly what your electric is going to cost you from them for the next decades, something the local grid supplied won't and can't tell you. They currently could be very cost competetive if you could predict what the bill will be for normal juice 5-10 years down the road. I think there's only one electric company in the US now that will offer you a ten year contract, and THEY do it with green power. All the rest you are on a month to month and what the PSC let's them charge, and if it gets bad enough, they'll let them up the rates considerably, and in a short time frame. Politically unpopular or not, it has happened a lot in the past few years around the country..Utility bill sticker shock is a reality, unless you PURCHASE your power for an understood rate and price upfront,with solar or wind, etc, as opposed to leasing your piece of the grid infrastructure month to month forever and never to be paid off and pay as you go for wattage use and hope it doesn't get too expensive in the future, the way it is now. That's all you have with grid-only juice, you have a religious "hope" the price will stay the same or not rise much, you have no guarantees or contract on pricing except for very, very short time frames.
...who only makes a few cents a sale net in his company for their major product.
He's a pretty successful millionaire.
so you see, you can make a lot of dollars per sale, (a high end CPU chip) or just a little bit and have a lot of sales (quite a few less expensive PV cells),, and either way makes you wealthy.
He sells gallons of gas and diesel at a flock of stations he owns. He's definetly "in" to making loot on oil products. Profit is very small per gallon but once you realise you can sell umpteen thousands of gallons a month, well, you can see where that would lead. Fatcity it's called.
He also owns what is probably the largest or one of the largest solar installations in north georgia. And it's because he knows the stuff works, wanted it, and put some of his loot where his mouth is. And now enjoys it. He's very happy with it.
I know this because it's where I used to live,the man was my boss, and I took care of that PV installation for 4 years.
It's also not a coincidence that some of the largest petroleum companies are manufacturing solar, they are after all in the "energy" business, and it doesn't matter to them where tyour dollars come from, as long as they get some of them, because they know you want "energy".
with that said, no idea if Intel would do it, I doubt it though, too far from their core business and zero expertise in it most likely.
In general terms, my loot long term would be more on wind gennys for mass production bulk grid supply,. MUCH easier and cheaper to make. I like BOTH, own both,solar and wind, but until there are some more significant breakthroughs, wind power will be getting cheaper/faster moreso than solar PV, although for personal joe homeowner residential uses, peoples rooftops, PV panels are definetly the way to go. No moving parts, very little maintenance once setup, and everyone has a roof already sitting there, and it's scalable from one panel on up as you feel like it.
admit it's 2004 almost 5, not 1994, that hard drives are huge now,and come redundant easily, getting a gig or more of ram is most affordable, cpus are hundreds of times faster than they used to be a decade ago, and that distros are starting to come on DVDs now so that they fit, and then realise the only solution to that SO hell and package management fooferall is to put all the files an app needs inside the app itself, so you can then stick the app wherever the heck you want to put it and it will "just work"?
Just a guess, I've been roundly criticised in the past for uttering that heresy because of upgrade issues..despite almost everyone actually concerned about immediate upgrades having high speed broadband now as well....
..there's the gee whizz cool factor too. Some businesses are just too neat to go under easy, and will most likely always be around. IBM would have to major league screwup a dozen decisions in a row to go under, whereas MS will eventually start having it's lunch money taken away by open source. It's inevitable now. MS has peaked IMO.
MS makes the x box and some plastic disks with XP and an office app on them, whereas IBM makes ultra megasized liquid cooled nitro burning sooperdooper clusters with gigs of terrafloppies and other impressive sounding tech factoids. Which is cooler and more bitchin? Both companies got engineers, sales, PR and management, but which is really more impressive in it's overall historical corporate accomplishments? And which is more likely to keep on accomplishing serious new stuff that is most practical, long term? If you were an investor or analyst advising someone, where would you stash your cash given the choice of one or the other?
I thought it was a good review, and it fits with the demographics of extreme tech, but it is not a review for "average windows users wanting to switch", for the simple reason your test machines are sort of pretty high endish and don't reflect what most humans have currently. On slashdot and extreme tech those specs are normal, back in meatspace reality I doubt they are, seriously doubt it. It needs to be tested on a box with an older processor and only 128 megs ram (or 64 for that matter) for instance. There are millions and millions of machines out there that are still in daily home and office use with the cheapo vendor industry standard lowest common denominator amount of ram installed (typical four ram slots, one stick installed deal to keep retail prices low) and that have never been upgraded.
I'd fart in your general direction, but don't want to waste the methane on a lout. You have to be at least moron class to get the benefits, and you fail it.
ooo, my feelings are hurt by an anonymous coward...oooo, he called me a bad name I am so chagrined, I promise to change my ways instantly based on your detailed analysis and recommendations
...a new and shiny version of the WebTV! Browse, email, media, type letters, and I know you can IRC and IM on them as well. Same deal as this new computer from AMD at any electronic gadget store, plus you got a big screen if you want it, your home TV!
Really, with those specs and "features", I'd rather get a used webtv for 25$ someplace and hook it to the bigscreen box and sit on the couch and surf..
Slashdot Mirror
The inflatable rogallo wing IS the permanent wing. There is no hard fixed wing. They were making these things a few years back. There's no "additional" anything besides my idea of keeping the wing inflated with hot air from the drive engine as opposed to a permanent helium fill.
--the banks will just up fees and/or interest rates to cover any additional expenses. There's no way the bosses and sharholders will lose a penny on the deal, even if they have to pay royalties on these patents eventually. Banks are the primary reason this particular style, the western central banking and fiat currency economic system, with the patents, exist, they could care less what it costs you as joe consumer, because taken as a whole, they control the money supply and you don't. If the patents affect all banks, then it affects all the people, they just pass the costs on as part of doing business.
Want a change? Use cash and barter as much as possible and stopping buying into high tech just because it exists and is new and shiny. Geeks are the worst when it comes to that, every new way to do something different using a gadget they adopt and promote, whether it's a good idea or not. And geeks were the ones who lobbied for getting software patented in the first place, it wasn't joe schmoo mechanic down at the shop or suzy hairdresser. Want to blame someone for geek troubles like these patents, blame the geeks, the programmers with huge dollar signs in their eyes way back when who demanded this patent protection for their vague intangible "products" and also demanded no liability for their products. They got it, the system obliged them, now it's tough noogies, you can't go back 40 years or whatever and change it. Demanding above and beyond what other industries get came back to bite them, as it was predicted a long time ago. It's not like this wasn't anticipated and warned against, but the warners back then got called "luddite" and other things, like they were "anti technology" or "anti progress". Nope, that was never it, just you can't tell a geek ANYTHING because they are born with hard coded DNA that says they are always correct and anyone else is an idiot.
what goes around comes around. Geeks and geek companies embraced the sytem with open arms, profitted from it, now they notice they need to have a lawyer hard wired to them, kept on a leash just to do anything. If they are so smart, why did they let it happen in the first place?
The geek community needs a little soul searching on this one and to drop down off their "insulted and shocked" high horse. Yes, it's changed with open source, but it doesn't eliminate past historical reality, they asked and begged for this situation we have now, and the politicians and PHBs obliged them.. They are trying to close the barn door after the horse got out, not a real long term smooth move it appears..
And the next major geek FUBAR that will hit? Over zealous false intellectual righteousness with how "safe" nanotech and bioengineering are, and that will make patent fiascos look tame by comparison. Add in overwhelming and pervasive RF pollution, another huge case of serious denial. And you know why? Same huge dollar signs in the eyes that the original wizard programmers had, that's why. Obfuscate and ignore potential long term problems in exchange for leetness and bigbucks today.
I like the idea of the inflatable rogallo wing configuration. It's a balloon type deal shaped like a hang gliders wing, provides IIRC more than half the lift required. Originally I think they were helium filled, but I am thinking, suppose the engine had an integral air compressor, and used heat from the engine to pre heat the air going to inflate the wing. That would provide a lot of lift just like a hot air balloon, and eliminate the helium cost. Once inflated a pressure adjusted valve would automagically open and release some cooler air and add in more hot air from the engine to maintain optimal lift, that and the forward motion over the inflated wing gives all the lift required.. Even in the event of "catastrophic" engine failure, you would still have some decent lift left, and could glide to an emergency landing,much better than a normal fixed wing craft with an all of a sudden huge dead weight on the nose. Plus, it would be a lot more steerable than a parachute just hanging off a fixed wing, so you would have better choice on your emergency landing area.
friend of mine had a truck he bought used "as is, where is". It looked good and was driveable and the price was right so he bought it. turned out to be not such a bargain after all. A week later it started having problems, he'd fix one thing then another, yada yada, within a few weeks it was totally croaked sitting in the garage, needed thousands in repairs and beaucoup man hours labor to get it right(what he told me later). He snapped at one point, just lost it. He pushed it out into the yard and took a literal sledge hammer, one he normally used as a splitting maul for firewood, and creamed the living snot out of that truck until he couldn't swing the sledge any longer. Wasn't a window left, a light, an undented piece of sheet metal, nothing, T-totaled.
I thought it was pretty funny, as the guy was a professional mechanic!
As to computers, no, they've always worked for me or I made them at least work well enough that it wasn't too bad. Most of mine though have been *macs*. The one and only exception that I have that was annoying was this compaq,it's still sitting in the junk pile. Nice and shiny and functional at first,then I got some piece of bad ram and it just fubared any functionaltiy of the machine, it refuses to boot now, nothing. It was fine before I "upgraded it", and yes, I was careful with static putting in the Ram. After the new stick of RAM install, it booted for 60 seconds with a weird screen, then blanked out, useless ever since. No idea what's wrong with it, won't boot with the original RAM either. Not gonna drop one more penny on the thing. And to top it off it was a nice one I had given my GF,so I'm just being Mr. Nice Guy and upping her RAM for her, but N-O-O-O-O, so I had to fork over my spare machine to her so she would at least have something and she STILL reminds me "I killed her computer" occassionally.
grumble,
hmm, maybe I SHOULD haul it out and blast it with the 12 bore... hmmm
say his views are flat out wrong, yet in your sig you push a lame targeted to 8 year olds fantasy *load*? Huh?
Well, to each their own, maybe Harry can wave his magic wand for you and create all the software you'll ever need! Hey, it might work! Just keep believing.
...about running knoppix or any of the other live cds? Easy enough for them to run XP when it's not connected to the internet for games or whathaveyou,and therefore avoid exploits, and when they want to surf, have them boot up a knoppix. Really, an easy enough solution to that sort of problem. Not sure what sort of machine they have, but just recently, like two weeks ago when I gave away an older machine to a kid with no computer,I've run knoppix down to a pentium 1 level Iit's a 166 machine) and only 32 megs ram and it still worked, slow but once loaded after a few minutes it was zippy enough. It's not even supposed to work at that level but I tried it anyway just for grins. Anything above that with a reasonable amount of RAM and it's quite speedy. And as to useability,really, how is it much different from a windows OS, down in bottom left corner is a big K start menu,mash that, slide around, pick an app, works. About the same as any other OS with a GUI.
--just a suggestion is all, no biggee, but avoiding holiday (or any other day) headaches is a good thing, IMO. Linux, especially from a live cd, is just not that hard or different from windows unless you are a power user, and these folks sound like non power users, so the learning curve is probably identical, so you might as well start with something a little more secure.
..."no static" on the regular phone line. Some kind of high definitioin TV? Ha! Double Ha! If the best you can get is a scosh over 28.8, I doubt that 90% of the people or so in the US would be able to get clear reasonable definition TV, even if they have some sort of xDSL on the telcos marginal wire. Not on the copper that's out there now, it's cheap crap. The telcos are cheap except for a few limited markets. I've been using POTS since they didn't come with a freaking dial on the machine, and they have always talked big, delivered cheap, charged heavy,and always. They gradually add in new features,and heavily add in new fees, and the big breakup forced some good changes, but it's been kicking and screaming all the way, while promising the moon, the stars, a milkshake and a new pony.
10%, sure, places that have redundant and highly competetive broadband markets, ie, the top 100 or so major urban areas. The rest of the nation? Ain't seeing it,my opinion, we'll see better wireless networks and P2P ad hoc streaming/mesh networks/whatever from actual users before they actually build robust wired solutions,cable or fiber or whathaveyou, it's just vastly cheaper and easier to implement. Tv over that then? Sure, possible. Tv over bottom rung dsl and 40 year old copper that's still up all over by the thousands of miles? Huh? And most folks in that 90% of what I will term the "higher tech near blackout area" that actually care to have decent TV beyond whatever any OTA they might have already run a satellite dish to get it, it's installed and works and is cheap and for most purposes doesn't interfere with the already too expensive for what you get phone bill. I mean, they give away the hardware now by the multiple room setup it's that cheap. Let's see the wired telcos compete with that.
So, the wireless guys, I can see it *somewhat* happening IF they really add enough to their backends to handle it,for the massive increase in bandwith, because it'll make a few bit torrent trackers look like a dialup dynapic webhost, ie, "small". Good quality TV real time is whole nuther ball game from the web, and it's there already called "cable" and it's put where they are going to put it like a decade ago, it's not expanding all that much. Wired,from the entrenched telcos? Having to actually install decent wires or lit fiber of some flavor to every abode? Nope, market buzz speak to keep their stock share prices up. They can't do it on their stuff, only in limited places. Proof is in the pudding you can buy now, if they could they would be offering killer SDSL everywhere for cheap, and they ain't, are they? It's the Telco equivalent of flying cars articles in 1950s popular mechanics magazine. Watching Tv on the cellphone? Contrary to popular PR spokesweasel beliefs, the US isn't Japan and 7/8ths of the nation doesn't climb onto a commuter train every day for hours to go to work, we drive cars, meaning they won't be watching TV on their cellphones for x-hours a day to kill time, especially if it's pay by the minute or some noise like that.
I mean, really, how many hundreds of times now since 9-11 have we had "LOOKOUT, dangerous tarists sneaking up on you, they are gonna do this and that and the other thing, but our fearless leaders have called this magenta alert so now plz pass the new homeland enabling act law and cough up a few hundred billion more for our esteemed business colleagues and..." and nothing happens except they pass the homeland enabling act and transfer your money into the pockets of already billionaires. sweet deal for them!.
They still manage to keep passing law after law after law, by invoking the magical word "Terrorism".
hegelian dialectic at work and proof again that if they keep pushing it through the mainstream and "embedded" newsaganda drivel the globalist goons will get what they want, which is to get the various peoples to "demand" to lose their freedoms. It's a double win for those megalomaninac turkeys.
The best defense is to laugh at them, call their bluff, refuse to cooperate, call them liars to their face whenever they push that horse crap, and use the tools we have now to further spread the truth and to resist any efforts to squelch that..
9-11 was a controlled inside job like the Reichstagg fire, yet most people still accept the governments wild freeking tin foil hat conspiracy theory on it, with no questions asked.. Sure it was a conspiracy,no one denies that, and part of that conspiracy was western white guys in black business suits and high ranking dot mil "officers" looking for that retirement "consultant" dot mil industrial complex contract.
The evidence is out there, and they have already been proven to be chronic serial liars. How many decades went past before people finally understood that pearl harbor was allowed to go down to get the US into WW2 faster? How many decades went past before the truth about the so called "gulf of tonkin" attacks became known? How long before they admitted reality about agent orange, and now gulf war syndrome and when will they admit DU is a WMD? when will the mainstream news sources actually do their freeking JOBS?
answer=NEVER
This is the same mass peoples fake out routine, and the big bucks media is always involved, because at the tippy top levels in the mass media, it's controlled by globalist technofeudalists who cooperate with these schemes and are part of the coverups. The give the orders and it flows downstream. Same as in so called "government" FUD RULES THERE.
Here is a reminder from past editor at the NYT John Swainston at his retirement speech, pay attention to this:
"The business of the journalist is to destroy truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are tools and vassals for rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
He went on to say: "There is not such thing at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone."
...if you got a new computer with it preinstalled, and once you hooked to the net you decided (for obvious reasons) that you still liked the computer but hated the pre installation and wanted that *portion* of your money back.
It's time software that was allowed on the internet came with a default warranty as to suitability for purpose. They advertise it as "get on the internet and browse and get email", but you cannot adequately get on the internet and browse without getting owned. I think there's a major class action there. The software industry as a whole has gotten away with no warranties for too long now, the industry is mature enough to deal with it, especially some company that has made more than a trillion on it along with their partners in scams, the box vendors who have forced this unsuitable product on an unsuspecting public.
Whether or not a customer can read the EULA is not exactly the point,it's part of it but not the main point, it's the bogus "nothing is our fault" fine print in the EULA that's the real question.
Here's a nice scenario, you need a camccorder. Buy a cheap box with it preinstalled, even agree to the Eula on tape. Hook to the internet, videotape and screen capture what happens. Take the box then to three independent whitebox shops have them state what has happened to the box with the various malwares and whatnot. Use that evidence to challenge the "not my fault, as is, no suitability for purpose, etc" provisions of the EULA "license". I think it should be taken all the way. The various companies want to patent their products, profit from them, they should have normal minimum warranty laws apply. If you get damaged-your box gets hosed-that's above and beyond replacement costs, especially if you are a business trying to use it, and you can also show (which should be easy) that it's industrial monopolistic collusion that has allowed it to happen.
I'd really like to see something like that happen, shakeup the entire IP patent and EULA and whatnot "law" situation.
Right now the EULA merely states in many and diverse ways the old "caveat emptor" which dog don't legally hunt in any other product situation. The ruling in the article merely makes it somewhat easier for the person to read that they are still in a cybersnakeoil "caveat emptor" situation.
and it's an accurate assessment, but not everyone out there is an ISP, and if theirs don't deal with the Spam problem, the users are stuck trying to cobjob their own automagical miracle multiple software apps complex IT spam solution at home, OR, use something as simple as tbirds or mozs spam filter, which works good enough to at least keep it down to a manageable size. Or is spam filtering only for the "IT elite"? How long do we poor non_ISP and non pro sysadmin plebians need to wait for ya'all to deal with the Spam then? How long has it been again?
If it is really hurting the ISPs, then it's in their best interest to do something about it, but they seem to not be doing that very much. Or would you rather all those millions of regular ole surfin folks just eat the spam until such a time in the mysterious future as the web "professionals" actually do something about it? Speaking as joe internet consumer, I am tired of waiting for the "IT Network ISP professionals" to "handle" it, because they haven't "handled it", not in the general sense.
As such it's NOT "useless" at all to run a personal spam filter, it's the only thing the millions of spam deluged people have currently,and at least we can use some end user app that's easy to set up and configure. But becauae it's not the single magic silver bullet, we shouldn't use it?
Some ISPs have made an attempt to "stop spam", or their upstreams, but most haven't, and the overall results are still dismal, else we wouldn't be having these spam-problem discussions every other day, and it wouldn't be a global annoyance and cost and complexity headache problem.
Now if the poor ISPs want to pay their users, take a penny off what they pay for an account per spam, something like that, maybe that will get their attention, but most ISPs just let the slop through. Why? Don't ask me, I ain't one of them guys, but spam filters have been around awhile now, no idea why they aren't more widely used at every point on the internet. Spam shouldn't make it past the first hop, IMO, or at least most of it.
The so called "elected government", this regime so far.
Starting a war based on completely false public utterances by public officials,utterances claimed as 100% fact at the time of congressional "authorisation" for war, but proven a total lie, thereby killing Americans unlawfully. Having insider knowledge of a "terrorist attack" going down on US soil and keeping that knowledge hidden,allowing the attack to continue, also ordering lesser ranking officials to help in the coverup, and generally obfuscating a lot of the facts of the case. Treason, malfeasance in office, murder, accessory to murder, theft of government services, accessory to theft of government services, willful destruction of public property, and etc, a large potential list that is being ignored mainly
Diebold, who's owner is on record as having stated he would "deliver" the Ohio vote, and other known researchable anecdotals about his company and techs, including the revelations from the california case and what is starting to be squeezed out in Ohio slowly but surely
Helping to maintain these same exact above treasonus and so called "elected" officials in "power" by conspiring to hack the elections in various areas both in advance and during and after the fact of public voting through insecure by design, not by accident but by design, electronic voting machines, and attempting to keep that hacking hidden from the public and official oversight and regulatory bodies, and coordinating that through an entrenched political party's high level officials
treason, accessory, malfeasance, accessory to murder, theft of government services, destruction of government property with destroyed or altered vote records, and etc,and quite a few more
You minimise and ignore and over-trivialise quite a lot of the publically available evidence that has been uncovered so far. A small fine is an obvious payoff and a continuance of this massive junta hijacking and political takeover and coverup
There's way, WAY more than enough for several different grand jury investigations to go forward, yet none are, because the junta will not "investigate" itself willingly or adequately,(please, the 9-11 commission was a big fat joke) nor will it tolerate lesser political office efforts, they can be coerced and co-opted by higher level authority who have shown zero compunction about using massive ultra violence to get their way on any issue. None. There's your reason for this. They kill people daily, have killed in the past, will continue to kill in the future, and that is why so many people who might be so inclined are afraid to go forward with these various cases, it's a pretty severe actual bona fide physical risk, even if you might be a lower level official who's job it might be to investigate such matters throughly. People aren't stupid when it comes to such matters. Much easier to announce a small joke fine and say "case closed, nothing to see here, move along now".
Because I default open a browser and the email anyway, and I most always used netsacpe communicator in the past so it's about the same thing.. I don't really see much difference in having one app open or two. What I would like to know (don't have thunderbird so I can't check) what is the cpu and memory footprint between moz suite, or having firefox and tbird open at the same time? Is there really much difference in speed and memory usage?
when you are trying to rollout a new desktop, give them a hundred dollars and some slack. Say "yes, we know you might have to learn as few new things, but give it an honest try for a little while, and here's a bonus to help pay for your personal training".
Cash talks, market speak BS boss orders walk.
People are at YOUR work because they want to MAKE MONEY, not because it's a hobby for them, you are asking them to keep doing their jobs they are doing now PLUS learn an all new system to them (most likely), so pay them for it, at least something. A little extra, a bonus. What cash you now don't ship to Redmond, shoot them a little bone for their efforts. Cash really perks people up and gives them a little enthusiasm, because humans are stubborn and they don't like to change. Grease the wheels of inertia a little. You pay your sales weasels bonuses for a "good job" above and beyond, same with all the other PHBs,so do it with the rank and file grunts, too.
Recognize that humans are humans and you are putting them out-even if it's for their own good and the companys own good in the medium and long term. they don't really understand that, they understand "this much work daily and NOW I have to relearn all this crap and..." You get the picture. Pay them for new things they have to do.
And technically, I don't think you can beat a live CD distro with a stick for a transition period, even if it's just setting up a few generic boxes with it running in the break room in advance of the switch, let them play with it before they are under pressure to produce on it. Give them free CD install disks they can take home and put on their own machines if they want to, the same stuff you will be running at work. That can't hurt either and is certainly cheap enough to do.
The most telling thing to me about the story is (I am speculating now but it's at least marginally logical) that they had to outsource the anti spyware remedy programming expertise all the way to purchasing a specialty company (its developers). That says to me they actually hadn't a clue of how to go about it in-house, but you know they probably tried, and therefore probably failed at it..not really awe inspiring consider the rep and cred they constantly try to maintain as the worlds premier software company. I see it as an embarassment for them, but they will spin it to look like a "shrewd business move" or something and legions of PHB will go along with that.
It's still needed though, that I will grant. About time and stuff. Seems like some time back they also bought an antivir company which they will be charging for IIRC.
It should be the scum stock exchanges will settle with the scum software patent guy. They are both scummy, in many and diverse ways.
I've posted this several times before, it's NUTS to do microsofts job for them while they are sharpening their knives for Linux. It's nuts to port a free open source browser, apps, anything. Let them stew in their own buggy insecure juices, let the viruses take them down.
WHY you would want to give MS a free skate, do their job for them unpaid, un appreciated and knowing they are out to sink you anyway no matter wehat you do "nice" for them, while they make billions and are doing everything they can to destroy Linux is beyond me. Imagine if there wasn't a firefox browser on windows for people to switch to because IE is so insecure? Instead they would be FORCED to SERIOUSLY consider the entire Linux package deal instead of the cob job "fix" that an app like firefox brings. It's a crutch, a well intentioned but misguided enabling measure like buying an alky a six pack because he's got the shakes.
It's not a "bridge" to open source, it's a freeking relatively mostly poorer people open source subsidised welcome mat for MS to keep doing what they have been doing for 20 years, and that is to SCREW EVERYONE THEY CAN AND LAUGH ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK.
It's like "here Mr. Burglar, my schedule for when I'm not at home, and the key is under the mat, now you promise to not ROB ME BLIND, right?"
Uh huh, yep, that'll work out. And just wait, someone will find and deploy the mother of all worms or viruses and it'll run on something like firefox on windows then open source and linux will be guilty by association and lose all the mindshare they have built up. Short sighted, IMO. LET the PHBses desktop machines get completely hosed, with no fix or open source crutch savior there to help them and you would see mass migration and support for Linux. Keep throwing MS a *free* get out of responsibility-jail card and they will keep taking it.
Thanks for the input! Besides slow, how did you find the OS in general terms? Good/fair/ teh suck, great? I am liking the concept of a simpler and more no brainer distro myself, there's just so many of them to try out, and I have to mail order them because of being on dialup, etc. And for the older machines of course.
..you can buy them. They make both solar shingles and total roofing systems, where the panels ARE the roof, not something that bolts TO the roof. You save on not needing to buy a normal roof, then slapping panels up there. They've been out for several years now. You can get them included into your house note as well, GMAC was one of the first big lenders to do that. Now they are not heinlein cheap, but cheap enough when you can deduct the cost of the normal roof from the equation, PLUS you know exactly what your electric is going to cost you from them for the next decades, something the local grid supplied won't and can't tell you. They currently could be very cost competetive if you could predict what the bill will be for normal juice 5-10 years down the road. I think there's only one electric company in the US now that will offer you a ten year contract, and THEY do it with green power. All the rest you are on a month to month and what the PSC let's them charge, and if it gets bad enough, they'll let them up the rates considerably, and in a short time frame. Politically unpopular or not, it has happened a lot in the past few years around the country..Utility bill sticker shock is a reality, unless you PURCHASE your power for an understood rate and price upfront,with solar or wind, etc, as opposed to leasing your piece of the grid infrastructure month to month forever and never to be paid off and pay as you go for wattage use and hope it doesn't get too expensive in the future, the way it is now. That's all you have with grid-only juice, you have a religious "hope" the price will stay the same or not rise much, you have no guarantees or contract on pricing except for very, very short time frames.
...who only makes a few cents a sale net in his company for their major product.
He's a pretty successful millionaire.
so you see, you can make a lot of dollars per sale, (a high end CPU chip) or just a little bit and have a lot of sales (quite a few less expensive PV cells),, and either way makes you wealthy.
He sells gallons of gas and diesel at a flock of stations he owns. He's definetly "in" to making loot on oil products. Profit is very small per gallon but once you realise you can sell umpteen thousands of gallons a month, well, you can see where that would lead. Fatcity it's called.
He also owns what is probably the largest or one of the largest solar installations in north georgia. And it's because he knows the stuff works, wanted it, and put some of his loot where his mouth is. And now enjoys it. He's very happy with it.
I know this because it's where I used to live,the man was my boss, and I took care of that PV installation for 4 years.
It's also not a coincidence that some of the largest petroleum companies are manufacturing solar, they are after all in the "energy" business, and it doesn't matter to them where tyour dollars come from, as long as they get some of them, because they know you want "energy".
with that said, no idea if Intel would do it, I doubt it though, too far from their core business and zero expertise in it most likely.
In general terms, my loot long term would be more on wind gennys for mass production bulk grid supply,. MUCH easier and cheaper to make. I like BOTH, own both,solar and wind, but until there are some more significant breakthroughs, wind power will be getting cheaper/faster moreso than solar PV, although for personal joe homeowner residential uses, peoples rooftops, PV panels are definetly the way to go. No moving parts, very little maintenance once setup, and everyone has a roof already sitting there, and it's scalable from one panel on up as you feel like it.
"Ok, so what the hell do we do about SO hell? "
admit it's 2004 almost 5, not 1994, that hard drives are huge now,and come redundant easily, getting a gig or more of ram is most affordable, cpus are hundreds of times faster than they used to be a decade ago, and that distros are starting to come on DVDs now so that they fit, and then realise the only solution to that SO hell and package management fooferall is to put all the files an app needs inside the app itself, so you can then stick the app wherever the heck you want to put it and it will "just work"?
Just a guess, I've been roundly criticised in the past for uttering that heresy because of upgrade issues..despite almost everyone actually concerned about immediate upgrades having high speed broadband now as well....
..there's the gee whizz cool factor too. Some businesses are just too neat to go under easy, and will most likely always be around. IBM would have to major league screwup a dozen decisions in a row to go under, whereas MS will eventually start having it's lunch money taken away by open source. It's inevitable now. MS has peaked IMO.
MS makes the x box and some plastic disks with XP and an office app on them, whereas IBM makes ultra megasized liquid cooled nitro burning sooperdooper clusters with gigs of terrafloppies and other impressive sounding tech factoids. Which is cooler and more bitchin? Both companies got engineers, sales, PR and management, but which is really more impressive in it's overall historical corporate accomplishments? And which is more likely to keep on accomplishing serious new stuff that is most practical, long term? If you were an investor or analyst advising someone, where would you stash your cash given the choice of one or the other?
I thought it was a good review, and it fits with the demographics of extreme tech, but it is not a review for "average windows users wanting to switch", for the simple reason your test machines are sort of pretty high endish and don't reflect what most humans have currently. On slashdot and extreme tech those specs are normal, back in meatspace reality I doubt they are, seriously doubt it. It needs to be tested on a box with an older processor and only 128 megs ram (or 64 for that matter) for instance. There are millions and millions of machines out there that are still in daily home and office use with the cheapo vendor industry standard lowest common denominator amount of ram installed (typical four ram slots, one stick installed deal to keep retail prices low) and that have never been upgraded.
I'd fart in your general direction, but don't want to waste the methane on a lout. You have to be at least moron class to get the benefits, and you fail it.
ooo, my feelings are hurt by an anonymous coward...oooo, he called me a bad name I am so chagrined, I promise to change my ways instantly based on your detailed analysis and recommendations
...a new and shiny version of the WebTV! Browse, email, media, type letters, and I know you can IRC and IM on them as well. Same deal as this new computer from AMD at any electronic gadget store, plus you got a big screen if you want it, your home TV!
Really, with those specs and "features", I'd rather get a used webtv for 25$ someplace and hook it to the bigscreen box and sit on the couch and surf..