Verified. I tried a couple of random domains, that were reported as availble by Network Solution. GoDaddy reported the same domain 30 seconds later as taken.
The fact that you can download mp3s from amazon.com is probably due to the fact that computer speakers have become such a low-end commodity that vendors can't convince anyone to "upgrade" to DRM-enabled models.
Wanna bet? When I build my "dream" computer 3-1/2 years ago, I got an Audigy 2 sound card. It appears that the digital audio outputs are disabled if you are trying to play some restricted hi-def audio files (not MP3, though). So, if you went high-end and run your computer to an amp with digital inputs, you simply cannot listen to some music. The sad thing is that the people most likely to care about hi-def audio are the ones most likely to switch to an all-digital setup. Yet another reason to stick to analog speakers.
There is a grain of truth in what you say, but let's put things in perspective:
The US will NOT shut GPS off. Soooo many thing depend on it, including US airlines. If GPS service were disrupted, there is a posibility of one or more airline accidents, with a death toll in the hundreds. No president would risk that kind of collateral damage.
The other thing is that, yes, US citizens all pay for the GPS system. But, you can buy a $100 GPS and never have a monthly charge for using it. There is a lot to be said for that.
My main point was that competition to the current GPS will make very little revenue, so why not open them up for free to everybody? There are a few specialized applications that might pay, including aircraft and survey use, but that is the extreme minority. If Uncle Hans wants to use a navigation system to route from Paris to Milan, GPS is good enough, and no credit card required.
So, why develop Glonass and Galileo? I can see it as a way to get your own that the US doesn't control, and as a way to have a little nationalistic pride. But, if you charge for something that somebody else gives away for free, you are doomed to fail unless you offer something a LOT better. Since regular US GPS is plenty good enough for driving directions & the like, I do not see a huge market for the pay services.
Now, if these competing systems are being developed for their respecitve militaries, I can understand that. But, why not give it away to the civillians for free? Obviously the monetary income will not be that great (maybe almost nothing). Also, giving it away for free will foster a lot of good will, as well as a "let's show the Americans up" type of mentality. So, in the end, people in Europe are more likely to use GPS over Galileo just because of cost.
But they have a choice about using. Lots of people also go "off grid". Any homeowner can do it, if they want to put their money where their mouth is. It costs tens of thouseands of dollars, though.
I am no fan of Bush, but I do not blame him for my favorite football team loosing, a receeding hair line, and my beer going flat. How many power plants up and running right now were planned, approved, and built in the last eight years? Are coal-plants something new? And even if Gore had won, things would not be THAT much different. Keep in mind that the power companies are there to make money. If they are driven out of business, that is a bad thing. If they have to double their prices, that is also a bad thing for the consumer. Changes that the power companies have to make must be done gradually in order to spread out the economic impact. CO2 emissions are nothing new. It has been happening for over a century. While it is important to fix things long-term (10 years or mroe), it does not have to be done overnight.
Agreed. If you buy something made from dead trees, you can keep it forever and still use it in 20 years, sell it on e-bay, loan it to friends/relatives. Also, dead trees do not need batteries (as long as you have enough light), never go obsolete, and you can still use it even if the publisher goes belly-up.
Is it just me, or is this his worst presentation in a while? I think that I missed last year's, but I remember thinking that a couple of his presentations were quite original. There is the one where he based his entire presentation on an optical-illusion picture (three years ago, as I recall), and one where his presentation was based on the default Red Had screensaver collection (two years ago, if I am not mistaken). I had always thought that listening to him present one of these would be kind of like geek-stand-up-comedy. This one was downright plain by comparison.
t has one particular feature, optionally installed, that allows access to your drive from the Internet at large, and this one feature limits the filetypes you can share.
Sooo, if I want to buy one to use as a server to allow all of my relatives to get pictures of the family and such, it will work. If I throw in an MPG of my son playing soccer, oooops... denied.
Wow. What a great feature.
Point is, it still sucks. Arbitrary limits based on the file extentions are stupid and pointless.
I am probably dating myself, but M.U.L.E had one of the catchiest tunes that I ever heard. The actual intrument sounds weren't all that great, but what do you expect from a Commodore 64?
How you English say, I one more time-a unclog my nose in your direction, sons of a window-dresser! So, you think you could out-clever us French folk with your silly acrobat-creating about programming behavior! I wave my private parts at your aunties, you heaving lot of second-hand electric donkey bottom biters.
who cares if you copy a CD that you're allowed to copy?
Do you not really know? People who either: 1) do not know better (too many of those) or 2) people who do not care and are just looking for a scapegoat.
I explicitly stated that it was NOT authoritative. But then I checked the Wikipedia entry on energy density and found that lithium batteries are reasonably close (within a factor of 2) of some explosives.
Don't be too hard on them for that. Batteries exploding is still very rare. When it happens, it makes the news. The odds of any person's phone exploding is extremely low. The odds of that happening during the 10 minutes a week when they are filling up is negligible.
I have read (note that I am not a chemist) that the energy density of a lithium battery is close to that of the explosive in a grenade. The difference is that the grenade releases its energy all at one, while a lithium battery deliveres it a little at a time over hours/days (if all goes well).
Note that I said energy density. This takes into account the volume, and cell phone batteries are rather small. So a cell phone battery will have a lot less energy than a grenade, just because it is smaller.
The energy density of some explosives is about twice (when compared on terms of weight, not volume) that of a Lithium-ion battery. Once you add the weight of the metal around the explosive, it seems reasonable.
I got one of the first consumer-grade NAS boxes (D-Link DSM-G600). It has been pretty rock-solid for me, although rather slow.
Quite honestly, for occasional (weekly or so) backup, you could use ANY NAS box. The only thing that I would recommend is to get something that supports SMB so that you can use any OS you want to connect to it. Some units (like the DS-101) use a proprietary protocol where you have to use a driver (Windows only, of course) to talk to it. Avoid those.
If your useage model is to turn the unit on, back everything up, and then turn it off, you could use any decent box out there. On the other hand, if you want to leave the box on 24/7, here is a list of other things to look for:
* Must be able to spin down the hard drive (a lot of NAS's don't do this) * Reasonable fan noise (better if the fan is temperature-controller) (smaller fans make more noise)
Everything else is optional. For weekly backups, performance might not matter a lot (especially if you do the backup overnight). For daily use, you will want something fast. Gigabit is a nice. Jumbo frames is nicer. RAID is also nice, but not really necessary for a backup that is used once per week (what are the odds of your NAS drive dying at the same time as your desktop drive?). For 24/7 use, however, RAID would be very nice to have. Do you want something that can complete FTP and torrent download for you? Some do that. Do you want an FTP server? Some do that. Do you want something that can be a media server? Some do that (with varying levels of success). What level of user-access control do you want? I find that the network sections of Tom's Hardware to have a lot of great reviews.
As others have mentioned, you can also build your own PC to do this, possibly even with parts that you have lying around. The only problem with this is that it will be a lot larger, and probably take more power than a pre-made NAS box. It might also be more expensive if you have to buy everything, but if you can recycle parts that you have lying around, you could save a bundle. Pick your poison.
Also, don't put too much faith in user reviews. Any idiot can post a review. Some of the comments that I enjoyed for my DS-G600: * You cannot pop in a NTFS drive and have it just work (duh, NAS runs linux) * You cannot take the drive out and mount it in a windows box (same as above) * Performance is slow (this is a NAS, not a USB hard drive) You have to maintain reasonable expectations for a NAS. A lot of negative reviews were for people who exptected too much.
Don't do that. Jusy boycott the big labels (the ones that support the RIAA). There are still lots if indie labels out there that are consumer friendly.
I also happen to find that the music is better, too.
And if there is a marketplace that has desperately needed real innovation, this is it. Apple made smart phones sexy and usable, I'd like to see what happens next.
Hopefully, an environment where hackers are encouraged, rather than punished.
The one thing that would really make a Gphone a must-have is if it has the following: * Decent size and battery life * Decent display * Rock-solid performance as a phone * Open architecture, so that lots of people can make add-ons. * Add ons should not have the ability to take down the whole phone if it crashes (rock-solid performance as a phone, no matter what software you load on it).
If it can achieve all of this at a decent price, it will be a winner.
I also hope that it will attract a lot of open-source geeks. When my owned a Palm, I was rather distressed at the environment. Any fool who could code 1K of code felt like they were entitled to big bucks for their tiny contribution. There was a LOT of shareware, and almost no freeware. And a lot of the shareware was crap. Hopefully the Gphone will be different.
Wow. You basicly have to ask permission from the company before you can use their products. It is not a matter of "if" this would happen, but more a matter of "when." If you give big companies powers like they, they WILL eventually abuse them.
I would describe myself as more of a casual gamer, but crap like this (and what happened with Bioshock) makes me want to completely avoid PC gaming entirely and stick just with consoles. My Gamecube will happily play any game I stick into it, without requiring an internet connection.
I recently re-played my old copy of Fallout (great game, BTW). I would have been completely pissed if I couldn't play it because of some sort of hare-braned activation scheme. What happens if you want to pull out your copy of Orange Box and play it ten years from now? Will you be able to?
You are assuming that the "copenhagen interpretation" is correct. To me, the "branching universe" stuff is a load of bollox (sorry, sci-fi writers). There are other interpretations that do not require an infinite number of infinite universes.
To me, the speed of sound does not enter into it since the signal is an ELECTRICAL signal. If you dunk the speaker in water, then the speed of sound in water is increased. That will change the response of the speaker, but the wavelength of the signal in the cable is the same.
You don't have to believe me, but I have the master's degree in electrical engineering.
You are absolutely correct. However, this article is about the effects of the cable. Speaker design is much more complicated, and beyond the scope of this slashdot posting.
Slashdot Mirror
Which GPS's have this? I got a Garmin StreetPilot 530 (around $400 a year ago), and it does NOT do anything like this.
Verified. I tried a couple of random domains, that were reported as availble by Network Solution. GoDaddy reported the same domain 30 seconds later as taken.
Very dirty indeed.
There is a grain of truth in what you say, but let's put things in perspective:
The US will NOT shut GPS off. Soooo many thing depend on it, including US airlines. If GPS service were disrupted, there is a posibility of one or more airline accidents, with a death toll in the hundreds. No president would risk that kind of collateral damage.
The other thing is that, yes, US citizens all pay for the GPS system. But, you can buy a $100 GPS and never have a monthly charge for using it. There is a lot to be said for that.
My main point was that competition to the current GPS will make very little revenue, so why not open them up for free to everybody? There are a few specialized applications that might pay, including aircraft and survey use, but that is the extreme minority. If Uncle Hans wants to use a navigation system to route from Paris to Milan, GPS is good enough, and no credit card required.
So, why develop Glonass and Galileo? I can see it as a way to get your own that the US doesn't control, and as a way to have a little nationalistic pride. But, if you charge for something that somebody else gives away for free, you are doomed to fail unless you offer something a LOT better. Since regular US GPS is plenty good enough for driving directions & the like, I do not see a huge market for the pay services.
Now, if these competing systems are being developed for their respecitve militaries, I can understand that. But, why not give it away to the civillians for free? Obviously the monetary income will not be that great (maybe almost nothing). Also, giving it away for free will foster a lot of good will, as well as a "let's show the Americans up" type of mentality. So, in the end, people in Europe are more likely to use GPS over Galileo just because of cost.
But they have a choice about using. Lots of people also go "off grid". Any homeowner can do it, if they want to put their money where their mouth is. It costs tens of thouseands of dollars, though.
Agreed. If you buy something made from dead trees, you can keep it forever and still use it in 20 years, sell it on e-bay, loan it to friends/relatives. Also, dead trees do not need batteries (as long as you have enough light), never go obsolete, and you can still use it even if the publisher goes belly-up.
Dead trees FTW.
Is it just me, or is this his worst presentation in a while? I think that I missed last year's, but I remember thinking that a couple of his presentations were quite original. There is the one where he based his entire presentation on an optical-illusion picture (three years ago, as I recall), and one where his presentation was based on the default Red Had screensaver collection (two years ago, if I am not mistaken). I had always thought that listening to him present one of these would be kind of like geek-stand-up-comedy. This one was downright plain by comparison.
Sooo, if I want to buy one to use as a server to allow all of my relatives to get pictures of the family and such, it will work. If I throw in an MPG of my son playing soccer, oooops... denied.
Wow. What a great feature.
Point is, it still sucks. Arbitrary limits based on the file extentions are stupid and pointless.
I am probably dating myself, but M.U.L.E had one of the catchiest tunes that I ever heard. The actual intrument sounds weren't all that great, but what do you expect from a Commodore 64?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.U.L.E.
Awesome game, awesome music.
I explicitly stated that it was NOT authoritative. But then I checked the Wikipedia entry on energy density and found that lithium batteries are reasonably close (within a factor of 2) of some explosives.
Don't be too hard on them for that. Batteries exploding is still very rare. When it happens, it makes the news. The odds of any person's phone exploding is extremely low. The odds of that happening during the 10 minutes a week when they are filling up is negligible.
I have read (note that I am not a chemist) that the energy density of a lithium battery is close to that of the explosive in a grenade. The difference is that the grenade releases its energy all at one, while a lithium battery deliveres it a little at a time over hours/days (if all goes well).
Note that I said energy density. This takes into account the volume, and cell phone batteries are rather small. So a cell phone battery will have a lot less energy than a grenade, just because it is smaller.
A quick google search turned up this link. Search down for the word "grenade": http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2007/2/28/20539/1486
OK. I admit that this is not an authoritative source. But, look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density
The energy density of some explosives is about twice (when compared on terms of weight, not volume) that of a Lithium-ion battery. Once you add the weight of the metal around the explosive, it seems reasonable.
I got one of the first consumer-grade NAS boxes (D-Link DSM-G600). It has been pretty rock-solid for me, although rather slow.
Quite honestly, for occasional (weekly or so) backup, you could use ANY NAS box. The only thing that I would recommend is to get something that supports SMB so that you can use any OS you want to connect to it. Some units (like the DS-101) use a proprietary protocol where you have to use a driver (Windows only, of course) to talk to it. Avoid those.
If your useage model is to turn the unit on, back everything up, and then turn it off, you could use any decent box out there. On the other hand, if you want to leave the box on 24/7, here is a list of other things to look for:
* Must be able to spin down the hard drive (a lot of NAS's don't do this)
* Reasonable fan noise (better if the fan is temperature-controller) (smaller fans make more noise)
Everything else is optional. For weekly backups, performance might not matter a lot (especially if you do the backup overnight). For daily use, you will want something fast. Gigabit is a nice. Jumbo frames is nicer. RAID is also nice, but not really necessary for a backup that is used once per week (what are the odds of your NAS drive dying at the same time as your desktop drive?). For 24/7 use, however, RAID would be very nice to have. Do you want something that can complete FTP and torrent download for you? Some do that. Do you want an FTP server? Some do that. Do you want something that can be a media server? Some do that (with varying levels of success). What level of user-access control do you want? I find that the network sections of Tom's Hardware to have a lot of great reviews.
As others have mentioned, you can also build your own PC to do this, possibly even with parts that you have lying around. The only problem with this is that it will be a lot larger, and probably take more power than a pre-made NAS box. It might also be more expensive if you have to buy everything, but if you can recycle parts that you have lying around, you could save a bundle. Pick your poison.
Also, don't put too much faith in user reviews. Any idiot can post a review. Some of the comments that I enjoyed for my DS-G600:
* You cannot pop in a NTFS drive and have it just work (duh, NAS runs linux)
* You cannot take the drive out and mount it in a windows box (same as above)
* Performance is slow (this is a NAS, not a USB hard drive)
You have to maintain reasonable expectations for a NAS. A lot of negative reviews were for people who exptected too much.
I also happen to find that the music is better, too.
The one thing that would really make a Gphone a must-have is if it has the following:
* Decent size and battery life
* Decent display
* Rock-solid performance as a phone
* Open architecture, so that lots of people can make add-ons.
* Add ons should not have the ability to take down the whole phone if it crashes (rock-solid performance as a phone, no matter what software you load on it).
If it can achieve all of this at a decent price, it will be a winner.
I also hope that it will attract a lot of open-source geeks. When my owned a Palm, I was rather distressed at the environment. Any fool who could code 1K of code felt like they were entitled to big bucks for their tiny contribution. There was a LOT of shareware, and almost no freeware. And a lot of the shareware was crap. Hopefully the Gphone will be different.
Well, the one thing that you WON'T get with other laptops in this price class is small size.
The Eee is targeted at people who want a laptop that will dissapear inside a purse or small pocket of a backpack.
Yes, you can get a LOT more power for the same money, but you will have to lug it around.
Wow. You basicly have to ask permission from the company before you can use their products. It is not a matter of "if" this would happen, but more a matter of "when." If you give big companies powers like they, they WILL eventually abuse them.
I would describe myself as more of a casual gamer, but crap like this (and what happened with Bioshock) makes me want to completely avoid PC gaming entirely and stick just with consoles. My Gamecube will happily play any game I stick into it, without requiring an internet connection.
I recently re-played my old copy of Fallout (great game, BTW). I would have been completely pissed if I couldn't play it because of some sort of hare-braned activation scheme. What happens if you want to pull out your copy of Orange Box and play it ten years from now? Will you be able to?
Oh noes! People complain that XP was insecure by default. Then, they fix this, and you complain that it makes your life a little more difficult?
Taking advantage of the insecurity of XP is kind of like taking advnatage of a bug. Don't complain when it goes away.
You are assuming that the "copenhagen interpretation" is correct. To me, the "branching universe" stuff is a load of bollox (sorry, sci-fi writers). There are other interpretations that do not require an infinite number of infinite universes.
To me, the speed of sound does not enter into it since the signal is an ELECTRICAL signal. If you dunk the speaker in water, then the speed of sound in water is increased. That will change the response of the speaker, but the wavelength of the signal in the cable is the same.
You don't have to believe me, but I have the master's degree in electrical engineering.
You are absolutely correct. However, this article is about the effects of the cable. Speaker design is much more complicated, and beyond the scope of this slashdot posting.