Why are you so worried about this? We already have laws mandating clear, trackable identification of automobiles via license plates. In fact, we must actively register our vehicles for this purpose. Optical scans of license plate numbers are already in place in many cities for ticketing red-light infractions, speeding, and emissions monitoring. This is all much more sinister that any potential misuse of RFIDs in tires that are designed to track failures. Big brother is already watching.
BTW - I feel that Firestone was made a scapegoat for the bigger problem of oversized vehicles riding on underinflated passenger tires driven by a poorly trained populace.
"At my work where the Windows users are running Visual Studio and developing an MMC plug-in they tend to get a week or so between crashes or some incapacitating system failure."
Bollocks.
I've been a full time C++ developer of real-time control software for NT and 2000 for over 10 years now, and I've never had a blue-screen on my development box or my 10 test boxes. I use Visual Studio, VTune, Bounds Checker and several other intrusive debugging tools. It is usually about 4-6 months between reboots on these boxes. Usually to apply patches. (The IT guys complain because I often stay logged in for that whole time).
And I can count on one hand (that would be = 5) the number of times that I've had to give a box a hard reset to recover the OS from an application failure. We've never had blue screens on any production tool (numbering several thousand) that were not caused by faulty memory. blue screen = bad memory or video hardware
You are exactly right. In addition, most people underestimate the role that Visual Basic played in the adoption of COM. It was the glue. COM programming absolutety stinks with C/C++, but VB made COM trivial.
According to Microsoft, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition first shipped for Itanium in August of 2001. (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/evaluati on/faq.asp)
They also claim that AMD64 support will be included with Server 2003 SP1, shipping later this year, along with 64-bit SQL Server 2003. (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winhec/eyeonwinhec/ 64bit.mspx)
That being said, I agree that most of us have no need for 64 bit apps, and most software vendors will find no need to port their apps to 64 bit for a very long time. Exactly how is MS Office going to benefit from 64 bit execution?
When the PC world went from 16 bit to 32 bit, nearly all apps had exceeded the 64K segment limit. In contrast, most apps today do not approach the 2GB limit. Sure some database, CAD, etc, will benefit immediately. But most software publishers will ignore 64-bit until 80% of desktops have the new processors -- 5 to 10 years from now.
Oh please. In a typical 2000 square foot home, a conventional air conditioning unit will move 48,000 BTU/hour, or nearly 15kW of heat. Another 0.2kW would hardly be perceptable, let alone problematic.
Actually, WinCE and XP Embedded are quite prevalent in embedded process control. In the semiconductor industry, XP Embedded is the most common choice for new platform development. It has advantages over tradition RTOS in terms of data management and intergration with factory systems, which is vital in high-precision process control. In fact, XP Embedded is often coupled with real-time extensions to provide motion control on the same equipment.
How are the K-6 teachers going to make use of Linux workstations when 99.99% of the educational software out there is Windows only. I'm not talking about business apps but specialty apps written for the education sector. Most K-6 schools are using computer based learning tools to give students that are above or below average a change to learn at their own pace. Reading labs, math labs, science labs, etc. This stuff just isn't widely available for anything but Windows and Mac. I guess they're stuck with coloring digital pictures, surfing the web, and Potato Guy.
Actually, that set cannot resolve a full 1920 vertical lines. It can do about 1300 according to folks who have the equipment to test such things. Still that's the about the best among all the consumer grade direct view tubes out there, and better than most rear projection sets. I think the F38310 is by far the best HDTV direct view set for the money.
You don't have to "shell out more money" to do this. It is basic WSH stuff. The only hard part here is knowing the LDAP COM interface. In this case, the resource kit is simply an online book.
That demonstration was funded by Sinclair corp. (who owns a large number of broadcast stations in urban markets), and it was, as you said, several years ago. Since then, new generations of ATSC decoding chips have arrived (one was demonstrated at that same show) that significantly reduce the amount of multi-path interference.
In addition, 8VSB transmits up to 50% further at the same power levels, which benefits sub-urban and rural viewers.
This was a dead issue within two months after that NAB demonstration. The ATSC standard exists, and is quite workable.
It's fine to sit around and complain about the current state of DTV rollout, but I think it's unfair to say the FCC bungled it.
DTV is a classic chicken and egg problem. No one want's to buy set without content. No one wants to broadcast without viewers. No one wants to make equipment without buyers.
One can argue that we'll never want better picture quality so why the government push, but the transition to digital would have happened anyway. Without the ATSC standard, what we would have gotten was our over-the-air analog TV system would have slowly died, replaced by a hybrid satellite/cable system that is not free, and lends itself to monopoly given the high cost of entry. No more local TV news. More nationalization of commerce due to restricted access to local advertizing.
Standards are important, and ATSC is the most advanced digital TV standard in the world. Manufacturers, broadcasters and viewers are finally starting to realize the benefits in 2002 with the majority of network prime time available in HD, and 85% percent of homes within DTV boradcast areas, and nearly all major cable companies now committed to HD distribution within 6 months.
My friends are starting to purchase equipment based on my experience as an early adopter two years ago. They love the picture quality - better DVD, and MUCH better than satellite or digital cable.
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Why are you so worried about this? We already have laws mandating clear, trackable identification of automobiles via license plates. In fact, we must actively register our vehicles for this purpose. Optical scans of license plate numbers are already in place in many cities for ticketing red-light infractions, speeding, and emissions monitoring. This is all much more sinister that any potential misuse of RFIDs in tires that are designed to track failures. Big brother is already watching.
BTW - I feel that Firestone was made a scapegoat for the bigger problem of oversized vehicles riding on underinflated passenger tires driven by a poorly trained populace.
"At my work where the Windows users are running Visual Studio and developing an MMC plug-in they tend to get a week or so between crashes or some incapacitating system failure."
Bollocks.
I've been a full time C++ developer of real-time control software for NT and 2000 for over 10 years now, and I've never had a blue-screen on my development box or my 10 test boxes. I use Visual Studio, VTune, Bounds Checker and several other intrusive debugging tools. It is usually about 4-6 months between reboots on these boxes. Usually to apply patches. (The IT guys complain because I often stay logged in for that whole time).
And I can count on one hand (that would be = 5) the number of times that I've had to give a box a hard reset to recover the OS from an application failure. We've never had blue screens on any production tool (numbering several thousand) that were not caused by faulty memory. blue screen = bad memory or video hardware
You are exactly right. In addition, most people underestimate the role that Visual Basic played in the adoption of COM. It was the glue. COM programming absolutety stinks with C/C++, but VB made COM trivial.
According to Microsoft, Windows XP 64-Bit Edition first shipped for Itanium in August of 2001. (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/evaluati on/faq.asp)
/ 64bit.mspx)
They also claim that AMD64 support will be included with Server 2003 SP1, shipping later this year, along with 64-bit SQL Server 2003. (http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winhec/eyeonwinhec
That being said, I agree that most of us have no need for 64 bit apps, and most software vendors will find no need to port their apps to 64 bit for a very long time. Exactly how is MS Office going to benefit from 64 bit execution?
When the PC world went from 16 bit to 32 bit, nearly all apps had exceeded the 64K segment limit. In contrast, most apps today do not approach the 2GB limit. Sure some database, CAD, etc, will benefit immediately. But most software publishers will ignore 64-bit until 80% of desktops have the new processors -- 5 to 10 years from now.
Oh please. In a typical 2000 square foot home, a conventional air conditioning unit will move 48,000 BTU/hour, or nearly 15kW of heat. Another 0.2kW would hardly be perceptable, let alone problematic.
Actually, WinCE and XP Embedded are quite prevalent in embedded process control. In the semiconductor industry, XP Embedded is the most common choice for new platform development. It has advantages over tradition RTOS in terms of data management and intergration with factory systems, which is vital in high-precision process control. In fact, XP Embedded is often coupled with real-time extensions to provide motion control on the same equipment.
How are the K-6 teachers going to make use of Linux workstations when 99.99% of the educational software out there is Windows only. I'm not talking about business apps but specialty apps written for the education sector. Most K-6 schools are using computer based learning tools to give students that are above or below average a change to learn at their own pace. Reading labs, math labs, science labs, etc. This stuff just isn't widely available for anything but Windows and Mac. I guess they're stuck with coloring digital pictures, surfing the web, and Potato Guy.
Actually, that set cannot resolve a full 1920 vertical lines. It can do about 1300 according to folks who have the equipment to test such things. Still that's the about the best among all the consumer grade direct view tubes out there, and better than most rear projection sets. I think the F38310 is by far the best HDTV direct view set for the money.
You don't have to "shell out more money" to do this. It is basic WSH stuff. The only hard part here is knowing the LDAP COM interface. In this case, the resource kit is simply an online book.
That demonstration was funded by Sinclair corp. (who owns a large number of broadcast stations in urban markets), and it was, as you said, several years ago. Since then, new generations of ATSC decoding chips have arrived (one was demonstrated at that same show) that significantly reduce the amount of multi-path interference.
In addition, 8VSB transmits up to 50% further at the same power levels, which benefits sub-urban and rural viewers.
This was a dead issue within two months after that NAB demonstration. The ATSC standard exists, and is quite workable.
It's fine to sit around and complain about the current state of DTV rollout, but I think it's unfair to say the FCC bungled it. DTV is a classic chicken and egg problem. No one want's to buy set without content. No one wants to broadcast without viewers. No one wants to make equipment without buyers. One can argue that we'll never want better picture quality so why the government push, but the transition to digital would have happened anyway. Without the ATSC standard, what we would have gotten was our over-the-air analog TV system would have slowly died, replaced by a hybrid satellite/cable system that is not free, and lends itself to monopoly given the high cost of entry. No more local TV news. More nationalization of commerce due to restricted access to local advertizing. Standards are important, and ATSC is the most advanced digital TV standard in the world. Manufacturers, broadcasters and viewers are finally starting to realize the benefits in 2002 with the majority of network prime time available in HD, and 85% percent of homes within DTV boradcast areas, and nearly all major cable companies now committed to HD distribution within 6 months. My friends are starting to purchase equipment based on my experience as an early adopter two years ago. They love the picture quality - better DVD, and MUCH better than satellite or digital cable.