The IP of the baseband chips Infineon makes (GSM, 3G radio) most definitely does not belong to Apple.
Infineon also sells the same chips to Samsung and Nokia. As one of the parents wrote, Apple may be their highest profile customer, but it certainly isn't their biggest.
Good to hear that you enjoyed your stay here - and even took the time to take classes!
The City of Munich has a population of about 1.36M, not counting the surrounding municipalities that are often connected to the S-Bahn and hard to tell apart from the actual city.
The city administration has about 30,000 employees. That might seem a lot, but Munich provides many services that often are outsourced in other cities, e.g. garbage disposal. There are many Bavarian state agencies located in Munich, but these are completely separate. I don't know your background, but keep in mind that generally speaking, European cities keep many more people employed in the public sector compared to cities in the US.
I don't know why there are so many separate IT departments - probably a mixture of grown stucture and bad planning.
Imagine going to Walmart, and your shopping buggy automatically tells the clerk how much money you owe! Well, that might be a ways off, but it's possible.
Ways off?
German retail giant Metro Group have been testing RFID checkouts since 2006 in their "Future Store".
Last I heard, they were waiting for RFID tags to get cheaper, so you could put them even on low-cost food items.
Coincidentally, a similar program was started in Germany just this week. Owners of old cars can get 2500 Euros for scraping them, but there are strings attached:
1. The old car has to be at least 9 years old.
2. It has to have been registered to the current owner for at least a year.
3. You have to buy a new or a year-old car (so called "Jahreswagen") and it has to meet a certain emission class (Euro 4).
Of course the hope is that most people will buy a German car; the German car makers had to face a sharp decline in sales, too, if not as bad as the Big Three. The budget for the program is 1.5 billion Euros and experts estimate that it might cause 300,000 additional car sales.
Who cares about the decoder? 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo can handle the decoding without breaking a sweat.
That's nice and well when we're talking about desktop systems. But think about MythTV media center PCs - if you could combine an Atom CPU and a passively cooled nVidia or AMD GPU, a super-silent, HDTV capable home-grown set-top box would be possible.
Of course, an OpenCL encoder would help, too, for this kind of setup - broadcast TV encoding, for example.
It's the latter: a single API + kernel language for any GPU. Because both NVIDIA and AMD are represented in the contributor list, it actually has a chance of being adopted.
According to heise.de (in German), nVidia says that OpenCL applications will run seamlessly on any gpus with a CUDA-compliant driver. Does anyone know if that applies to the proprietary Linux drivers?
If this really takes off, how long until the hardworking people from the x.264 or VLC or ffmpeg or mplayer projects can write a H.264/AVC decoder that uses the GPU?
...and utilizes MPEG2 and ExAC (custom audio coding standard) as compression algorithms.
I ask myself, what exactly is the advantage for China then? If they use MPEG2 vor video compression, they still have to pay royalties if they want to sell those players anywhere outside China.
According to this, an MPEG2 decoder has a one-time licensing fee of $2.50. I couldn't find anything about the DVD standard itself - does anybody know how much the total license fee for a DVD player is?
I predict MS is going to start suing like a motherfucker and linux is going to go away.
I think you forget one tiny little thing: IBM is one of the biggest investors in Linux, having pumped several billion Dollars into the development of and services around Linux.
And even compared to Microsoft, IBM is the 800 pound Gorilla in the patent league.
Of course I don't know wether IBM really would through its weight behind Linux - but neither does MS, and I don't think they are willing to take that risk.
Wow, I've read many comments in this thread, and I have to say, I'm a little dumbfounded.
Is it really that bad with US women and diamonds?
I really don't want to be inflammatory or condescending, but I've never known women here in Germany (or other European countries I've been to) being so obsessed with getting a diamond ring for their engagement. I myself have a girlfriend who doesn't wear jewelry at all, but also just about everybody I know who is engaged or married has a rather simple silver or gold ring. And yes, I guess many of them could afford a diamond ring if they really wanted to.
We also have DeBeers' "Diamonds are forever" TV ads over here, but it seems they aren't as succesful with their campaign as they appear to be in the US.
Again, I really don't want this to be yout typical "Europe is better than US"/. comment. Just tell me:
Is it really that bad with US women as you might think after reading this thread? Or did I just miss the other side because they weren't modded up or didn't voice their opinion?
So, DVD Jon is going into business to *sell* DRM?! And possibly at the expense of Apple?
That sound your just heard is thousands of Slashdotter heads asploding.
I guess that warm, fuzzy feeling you get when slashdotters applaud you for having cracked yet another DRM scheme doesn't pay your bills or buy you food. Selling DRM, on the other hand, might do that.
It seems DVD Jon is not an anti-DRM ideologist - he just cracked CSS etc. for the sake of it - because he could. Maybe somebody has more insight as to his motivations?
Re:2 F's down, 1 to go!
on
Futurama Returns
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· Score: -1, Troll
First Family Guy, then Futurama. Where's Firefly?
As much as I would like to see new Firefly episodes, I don't think the show would be the same after Joss Whedon killed off both Wash and the Sheperd in the "Serenity" movie.
15 of the the top 20 most liveable counties are in the EU.
That does not seem entirely correct - I only count 12:
Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, UK, France, Austria, Italy, and Germany.
Three other countries are European, but not members of the EU:
- Norway (they are afraid that the EU would want some of their oil money, and probably rightly so)
- Iceland (never joined, don't know why)
- Switzerland (neutrality above everything - but they are rather tightly coupled economically, if not politically)
Here in teh EU, we already have those Energy Usage labels for things like fridges and washing machines - you know, the rainbow colored stickers that are mandatory for every such item sold, ranging from A (or A+) to F for power consumption and energy efficiency.
Why not introduce them for TVs, DVD players etc.? Probably most people don't really care about power consumption in standby mode, but I bet at least the tier 1 vendors would hate it when their 3000 Euro HDTV has a fat ugly "D" slapped on.
Factually wrong. On the German webstore, the $1,999 model doesn't sell for 2,499 Euros, but for 2,099 Euros, which is 1,809.48 Euros plus tax (or $2,182.78 plus tax).
Hm, I could swear that the frontpage picture on apple.de said "from 2499" a few hours ago when I looked - the store wasn't available at that time.
Furthermore, this article suggests I wasn't the only one who saw this.
However, false alarm. Nothing to see here, move along.
What bugs me a bit is the huge price difference between the US and European webstores.
For example, the new MacBook is $1999 in the US. With 16% VAT added and a few bucks thrown in for good measure, that should make an even 2000 Euros here in Germany. But the announced price in the webstore is 2499 Euros - where do the extra 499 Euros come from?
I suspect this may just be a "custom firmware" issue, which probably can be overcome by reflashing the phone {and I know someone who can do this for me}. Which network are you on?
My network is e-plus, one of the smaller providers here in Germany. Good thing is, they don't do any branding of the hardware they give you - no custom menues, no crippled functionality. In fact, that is one of the reasons why I chose them when I needed a new contract earlier this year.
Vodafone are on of the worst offenders in that department, AFAIK. I'd really go with the firmware flashing; if you can get it cheap, it's definitely worth it.
Well, my S-E K750i can use any MP3, WAV or MID files as ringtones. And I can transfer them via Bluetooth OBEX or USB. If you can't do that with your phone, you've been roally screwed over by your phone company.
On a side note, my phone even works as a decent MP3 player - sure, not in the iPod league, but it came for free with the phone and only one gadget to carry in my pocket.
Shows again that the different parts of Sony don't have that much in common - especially not the S-E phone joint venture and the evil media company.
Now grant it, the 1/4 mile distance will limit some of the speeds, but in theory, someone could hit 100+ mph and slow back down to 5 mph before they hit the next scanner, thus the overall time spent going the 1/4 mile could still be same time spent for going that distance as it would if you simply went the speed limit.
Yeah, you could really stick it to the man that way... but somehow, this would contradict the reason for speeding, which is going somewhere fast(er), isn't it?
Personally, I don't really like the idea that some companies now are big enough to try to extort a mid-sized country. If I were South Korea, I'd really be worried what other global players might do in a few years time.
I guess this is one of the reasons why the European Union exists. One country alone, if it isn't a really big one like the US, is simply too small a market to matter to the global players if you annoy them too much. AFAIK, Microsoft never threatened to withdraw their products from the European market during the antitrust proceedings there.
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The IP of the baseband chips Infineon makes (GSM, 3G radio) most definitely does not belong to Apple.
Infineon also sells the same chips to Samsung and Nokia. As one of the parents wrote, Apple may be their highest profile customer, but it certainly isn't their biggest.
Good to hear that you enjoyed your stay here - and even took the time to take classes!
The City of Munich has a population of about 1.36M, not counting the surrounding municipalities that are often connected to the S-Bahn and hard to tell apart from the actual city.
The city administration has about 30,000 employees. That might seem a lot, but Munich provides many services that often are outsourced in other cities, e.g. garbage disposal. There are many Bavarian state agencies located in Munich, but these are completely separate. I don't know your background, but keep in mind that generally speaking, European cities keep many more people employed in the public sector compared to cities in the US.
I don't know why there are so many separate IT departments - probably a mixture of grown stucture and bad planning.
Well, the article is about the woes of the linux migration. The blog post it refers to also mentions the positive aspects...
Well, I guess I can't salvage this one.
OP here. I have to defend kdawson this time - he just posted what I submitted.
Myself, I'm certainly no Microsoft shill - I'm a Linux proponent, and interested in the LiMux project because I live in Munich.
If the title seems overly negative, I apologize - I'm no native speaker and might have chosen the wrong words.
Imagine going to Walmart, and your shopping buggy automatically tells the clerk how much money you owe! Well, that might be a ways off, but it's possible.
Ways off?
German retail giant Metro Group have been testing RFID checkouts since 2006 in their "Future Store".
Last I heard, they were waiting for RFID tags to get cheaper, so you could put them even on low-cost food items.
Coincidentally, a similar program was started in Germany just this week. Owners of old cars can get 2500 Euros for scraping them, but there are strings attached:
1. The old car has to be at least 9 years old.
2. It has to have been registered to the current owner for at least a year.
3. You have to buy a new or a year-old car (so called "Jahreswagen") and it has to meet a certain emission class (Euro 4).
Of course the hope is that most people will buy a German car; the German car makers had to face a sharp decline in sales, too, if not as bad as the Big Three. The budget for the program is 1.5 billion Euros and experts estimate that it might cause 300,000 additional car sales.
Who cares about the decoder? 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo can handle the decoding without breaking a sweat.
That's nice and well when we're talking about desktop systems. But think about MythTV media center PCs - if you could combine an Atom CPU and a passively cooled nVidia or AMD GPU, a super-silent, HDTV capable home-grown set-top box would be possible.
Of course, an OpenCL encoder would help, too, for this kind of setup - broadcast TV encoding, for example.
It's the latter: a single API + kernel language for any GPU. Because both NVIDIA and AMD are represented in the contributor list, it actually has a chance of being adopted.
According to heise.de (in German), nVidia says that OpenCL applications will run seamlessly on any gpus with a CUDA-compliant driver. Does anyone know if that applies to the proprietary Linux drivers?
If this really takes off, how long until the hardworking people from the x.264 or VLC or ffmpeg or mplayer projects can write a H.264/AVC decoder that uses the GPU?
You could notify the authors (and copyright holders) of BusyBox.
Unlike Linus, they are pretty strict on companies infringing on the GPL, and have sued (and won) several times.
Take a look at gpl-violations.org or google "busybox gpl violation" for more information.
...and utilizes MPEG2 and ExAC (custom audio coding standard) as compression algorithms.
I ask myself, what exactly is the advantage for China then? If they use MPEG2 vor video compression, they still have to pay royalties if they want to sell those players anywhere outside China.According to this, an MPEG2 decoder has a one-time licensing fee of $2.50. I couldn't find anything about the DVD standard itself - does anybody know how much the total license fee for a DVD player is?
And even compared to Microsoft, IBM is the 800 pound Gorilla in the patent league.
Of course I don't know wether IBM really would through its weight behind Linux - but neither does MS, and I don't think they are willing to take that risk.
But it was mostly the Reds doing the murdering, not the supposed "good" guys.
That is probably the case, but I didn't imply that it was the other way around - nor did the GP, if I read his post correctly.
The posting doesn't really say wether the people getting killed are North Korean, South Korean or American.
North Korea is still at war with South Korea. The border is militarized far more than the Berlin wall.
I fully agree. But I have to add something:
As I understand it, there are still people getting killed now and then.
The border between East and West Germany also had its victims. 1065 people werde killed along the border and the Berlin Wall until 1989. (source)
Wow, I've read many comments in this thread, and I have to say, I'm a little dumbfounded.
/. comment. Just tell me:
Is it really that bad with US women and diamonds?
I really don't want to be inflammatory or condescending, but I've never known women here in Germany (or other European countries I've been to) being so obsessed with getting a diamond ring for their engagement. I myself have a girlfriend who doesn't wear jewelry at all, but also just about everybody I know who is engaged or married has a rather simple silver or gold ring. And yes, I guess many of them could afford a diamond ring if they really wanted to.
We also have DeBeers' "Diamonds are forever" TV ads over here, but it seems they aren't as succesful with their campaign as they appear to be in the US.
Again, I really don't want this to be yout typical "Europe is better than US"
Is it really that bad with US women as you might think after reading this thread? Or did I just miss the other side because they weren't modded up or didn't voice their opinion?
It seems DVD Jon is not an anti-DRM ideologist - he just cracked CSS etc. for the sake of it - because he could. Maybe somebody has more insight as to his motivations?
15 of the the top 20 most liveable counties are in the EU. That does not seem entirely correct - I only count 12:
Luxembourg, Sweden, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, UK, France, Austria, Italy, and Germany.
Three other countries are European, but not members of the EU:
- Norway (they are afraid that the EU would want some of their oil money, and probably rightly so)
- Iceland (never joined, don't know why)
- Switzerland (neutrality above everything - but they are rather tightly coupled economically, if not politically)
Here's an idea:
Here in teh EU, we already have those Energy Usage labels for things like fridges and washing machines - you know, the rainbow colored stickers that are mandatory for every such item sold, ranging from A (or A+) to F for power consumption and energy efficiency.
Why not introduce them for TVs, DVD players etc.? Probably most people don't really care about power consumption in standby mode, but I bet at least the tier 1 vendors would hate it when their 3000 Euro HDTV has a fat ugly "D" slapped on.
Furthermore, this article suggests I wasn't the only one who saw this.
However, false alarm. Nothing to see here, move along.
What bugs me a bit is the huge price difference between the US and European webstores.
For example, the new MacBook is $1999 in the US. With 16% VAT added and a few bucks thrown in for good measure, that should make an even 2000 Euros here in Germany. But the announced price in the webstore is 2499 Euros - where do the extra 499 Euros come from?
Don't get your hopes up - .de is under jurisdiction of DENIC, not ICANN.
And DENIC doesn't even allow 2-digit domains. There are a few exceptions (like ix.de) that were registered before DENIC adoptef this policy.
Vodafone are on of the worst offenders in that department, AFAIK. I'd really go with the firmware flashing; if you can get it cheap, it's definitely worth it.
Huh?
Well, my S-E K750i can use any MP3, WAV or MID files as ringtones. And I can transfer them via Bluetooth OBEX or USB. If you can't do that with your phone, you've been roally screwed over by your phone company.
On a side note, my phone even works as a decent MP3 player - sure, not in the iPod league, but it came for free with the phone and only one gadget to carry in my pocket.
Shows again that the different parts of Sony don't have that much in common - especially not the S-E phone joint venture and the evil media company.
Personally, I don't really like the idea that some companies now are big enough to try to extort a mid-sized country. If I were South Korea, I'd really be worried what other global players might do in a few years time.
I guess this is one of the reasons why the European Union exists. One country alone, if it isn't a really big one like the US, is simply too small a market to matter to the global players if you annoy them too much. AFAIK, Microsoft never threatened to withdraw their products from the European market during the antitrust proceedings there.