This does not bode well for those of us who just paid top dollar for the last generation of AGP cards
Let me get this straight, you're whining about obsolescence in the graphics card market? What planet or cave are you from? Leapfrogging happens...what, at least twice a year? New GPUs, different VRAM technology, faster PCI bus interfaces...it's old news, and by now anyone who buys a top of the line card should full well know it's going to be next week's "1" on the benchmark scales and worth half as much as it was when they bought it.
In fact, anyone who has bought -any- computer components in the last 30 years should know this, including the people who bought Apple Lisas(Helloooo, $6k down the toilet!)
By all means though, don't stop- if you did, the graphics card market would probably implode, as you're no doubt single-handedly funding the R&D efforts, and those of us buying 1-2 'generations' back want to keep seeing the not-so-latest, not-so-greatest drop in price;-)
There's an old legal saying- never ask a question you don't already know the answer to.
The company is so confident about Solaris' speed that officials repeatedly offered to challenge Linux on benchmarks in the coming months.
Now, usually companies don't make such bets unless they're well hedged. So, perhaps running some benchmarks against the preview versions of 10(the article mentions most of 10 is available already to update subscribers) might be a nice idea, to see what's got Sun so cocky, instead of just saying "oh. Solaris is crap"(which is at least partially wrong anyway).
Turns out the comic book writers put more thought into it that you would have first thought!
Except for that little bit where her body(the size of a ten year old kid) generates enough power to turn her arm into a super-duper-ionized-plasma cutter, that seems able to instantly cut through/smash anything...
The best Motorcyclists can go places and do things no 4, 6 or 8 wheeled vehicle could ever do in a million years.
I'd like to see you ford a 6 foot deep riverbed, at 20mph. I'd like to see you scale a 45 degree rock face.
Point is, there are conditions suited for the various vehicles, and I don't think the darpa trail is going to be set up for motorcycles/dirt bikes. I also think finding a path is a lot easier for a truck or ATV than it is for a motorcycle; the cyclist has to worry about getting his front tire trapped; with tires almost twice the size and diameter, a truck doesn't, even if it doesn't have special tires.
I also find it rather hard to believe they've come up with a system that can balance a motorcycle on slippery trails- riders can stop, put out a foot, whatever- this thing can't..and if it falls over, it's -screwed-. I think you're very right about rider skill. I don't see how the thing could do even half the stuff I've seen riders do, and a ton of it falls well outside of "ride the bike sitting down". Wheelies and jumps, etc...
DARPA won't disclose the exact route of the Grand Challenge until two hours before the race March 13; it has promised a rigorous route that will include rocks, gullies and streams.
Some of the world's best dirtbike riders wouldn't be able to easily cross stuff your average Land Rover or Land Cruiser would laugh at. I think the team with [what looks like] the 6-wheeled ATV stands the best chance, at least from a vehicle-choice perspective. Those things are amazing in terms of what they can cross- some of them even float and can ford -rivers- using the tires as paddlewheels.
Description of the pickup truck entry:Two tons of steel rolled forward and made a jerky left out of a parking lot in Morgan Hill. It gained speed and settled into a lane. It followed a curve to an intersection. It stopped. Then it turned right and continued down the road.
Probably stands a better chance(and has better fuel economy than the 6-wheeler- though a MUCH higher center of gravity), but taking a trip through suburbia hardly qualifies as suitable testing grounds for what DARPA has described...and depending on the truck, it might not stand up to the abuse. A jeep(or, a Land Cruiser, or a Land Rover) would have been a much better idea than a pickup truck, which really isn't designed for off-roading.
Even the guys who do insane things with their jeeps and whatnot come fully equipped. Air suspensions. Winches. Huge tanks of air or compressors to re-seat the giant tires(did I mention giant tires?:-)
I can also think of a lot better things to spend money on than that giant LCD display they put in the truck's passenger side; that thing has got to be what, 21"? The money would have been much better spent on the truck itself. It's all fun and games until that rock takes out your transfer case and your truck's transmission rips itself to pieces.
... the OS X system is just so fucking sweet though
Exactly. It's like putting a VW Bug engine into a mid-60's porsche. Not only is it not going to work right(and LinuxPPC doesn't work nearly as well, just on a features basis, as OS X), but it'll be slow and everyone who sees it will just stare at you- and if they're not polite enough, demand to know why you did it.
Even Robin Malda uses OS X!
Who cares? Slashdot is hardly an example of technical prowess; in fact, it's rotting(HTML 3?!?). The FAQ hasn't been touched since '99, and they have yet to rise to the challenge of solving any of the problems they themselves created(slashdotting for example). From what I've heard(several OSDN sales people worked where I used to work), Malda got wined and dined by one company after another hoping he'd either post about them or endorse their products. Absolutely no integrity.
4'33"[azstarnet.com], otherwise as the Silent Sonata, was written by composer John Cage. A pianist would enter onto the stage and sit at a piano for a timed interval of four minutes and thirty-three seconds. During this period, the normally insignificant ambient noise of the audience and environment became the music itself. Of most interest, while there were no written notes for the piece, the performance produces a different sound each and every time.
...and secretly everyone thought "What the fuck was that? I just PAID for that?", but were too embarrassed to admit they got duped, so in a hurry, they thought up some shit about getting to listen to the audience. Which we do at every performance anyway, usually when some fucktard thinks it's really necessary to go "WOOOOO!" as everyone else shuts up. If you want to toss instruments out to the audience and say "hey, play something and then pass it on!", not only would you truly have an audience-based musical performance, you'd get some acting to boot, as any doctors in the place went insane just thinking about how unsanitary the whole thing was.
...and this is why the "art" world has gone insane. I could take a bathroom sink from the dump, and put it in an art gallery. Then sit back and watch as people talked about how existential it was, how it conveyed the notion of the drudgery of every day life, blah blah(see, I can make up shit that sounds just like an art critic, on the spot). And yes, I've actually seen this in an art gallery. It's bullshit. It's "I'm too lazy or untalented to come up with something", not "vision" or "talent". Same thing goes for the morons who throw(literally) paint at a canvas. They deserve to be working in some diner bussing tables, not sipping wine and eating cheese explaining their "inner rage" or some bullshit like that.
To call 4:33 of silence a "sonata", to call John Cage a "composer", is an insult to musicians and composers everywhere. It's called a -scam-, folks.
As for the silence bits- they're there because a lot of albums have silent tracks that last for a short bit to space tracks out. It's the sign of a mastering company that doesn't know what the shit they're doing, because you can accomplish the same thing with the CD's TOC(table of contents).
I think by default Apple users don't care about market share. In fact, my experience is that they abhor market share and extol the "uniqueness" and individuality that comes from being an Apple user.
Actually, I just don't care about market share, with either Linux or the Macintosh. I settle for showing people(who show interest) some of the neat things about my powerbook and OS X. I'm very reserved about recommending it for someone, and there's no point in trying to get someone to switch- they have to want to, otherwise, it'll never meet their expectations.
I mean, not any geek could hack on a purple box.
Are you talking about SGI? If so, that'd be indigo, not purple- and one of the first Unixes I was exposed to was Irix on an old Indigo(IP12 with the "Song and Dance" graphics card, not nearly enough ram, and I think maybe 1-2GB of disk- but man, it could do some nifty graphics for the time, and it was an OLD system by the time I got my hands on it!)
People say OS X is the first unix desktop-friendly unix(ie, no command-line necessary), and they're dead wrong- SGI had them beat by almost ten years with Irix.
PS:hard core SGI people started on brown computers, not "purple" ones. Why Indigo, by the way? Well, the color supposedly perfectly matches Lotus Coachworks's Indigo paint(one of the top SGI execs owned a Indigo Lotus Espirit Turbo- guy had taste...)
You'll never understand...
on
Hack Your Car
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· Score: 1
In what way is transporting oneself from point A to point B "awesome"?
Easy.
It is when, at the hands of a car you love from the sound of the exhaust to the way the fenders flare, with the windows down and the wind through your hair, the sun on your arms...you approach a corner, heel-toe downshift matching revs perfectly so the car's balance is not disturbed- and smoothly turn in and add just the right throttle...all done out of instinct born from experience, rather than calculated thought. The turbo whistles, the engine roars, the tires sing... as ten thousand pieces of metal, rubber and plastic struggle, half trying to push you right off the curve with acceleration, and half keeping you on it.
For a few seconds, everything- you, your 3600lb hunk of flying metal, the road- all work together in perfect harmony, and you're the conductor. You sail through the corner like the very hand of god guided you, and the only thing you can think about is the road that lies in front of you while the pit of your stomach says to your brain, "bravo!"
Tree huggers...
on
Hack Your Car
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· Score: 2, Interesting
The article states that some of these hacked cars are violating state emissions standards.
And you know what? Their numbers are so small, and the cars aren't THAT far off(proper power requires engines be in good shape!) that this is a non-issue. What's an issue is the millions of trucks, trains and ships burning high-sulfur diesel fuel...or the clowns who drive around with their cars belching blue smoke. Then there are the SUVs which of course are nearly exempt from emissions testing! Don't get me started about the coal burning power plants...
Optimum power is achieved on a slightly richer than perfect fuel ratio, and yes, that will cause a modified car to go over the limits set by the state emissions tests. However, under most other conditions, the cars are fine emissions-wise.
Sorry, but the tree-huggers have gone too far in many cases; they're yapping not just about SUVs but they expect everyone else to turn in their cars and drive Honda Insights. It's disgusting. As a result of all this, so many awesome cars can't be brought to the states simply because they don't meet our emissions tests...even though they'd represent a tiny fraction of the cars on the road, possibly be driven less than average...not to mention, more likely to be kept in excellent condition(ie, not get left burning oil for a year or two until it finally explodes). But no-sir, you're.01% over on the HC's, you can't register that! No sir, your car's manufacturer didn't go through full EPA testing! Even worse, homebuilt cars are coming under increasingly strict reg's too; in some states, it's getting to be virtually impossible to have your own home-built car, because you can't get it to pass inspection.
Lastly, lots of chips pass emissions specifications(not just the gas-station test) just fine- the problem is that the certification process is very expensive, so not every tuner can afford to do it.
Unless you have a turbo car...
on
Hack Your Car
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· Score: 1
For the price of a generic EPROM, you could easily get mechanical upgrades that enhances your car even more than the EPROM
Except that for $400-ish, I purchased a chip for my '91 turbo Audi. Stock it makes 217hp, now it makes more like 280, and it's faster than the V6 biturbo S4(1999-2003).
In fact, it was faster than all current Audi production vehicles until this year, when the RS6 V8 biturbo(450hp) and new S4(340hp V8) came out. For about another $1.5k or so, I can get about 330hp(new turbo and other bits) and since my car's lighter than a new S4 by quite a bit, it'd be faster yet again(save the RS6).
For turbocharged cars(and some supercharged), a chip often yields sizable performance gains and is -excellent- value for the money. However, careful selection is necessary- in this case, the programmer is very well known in the Audi community and people had been running his specific chip for about 10 years(it's a 13 year old car, after all!)
Or you could buy a first-gen 17" Powerbook for about $2500, spend $100 and upgrade it to a gig of ram, and ignore the screen resolution since there isn't a mobile graphics card on the planet that can drive a display for a first-person shooter at either system's native resolution anyway. 802.11g, Bluetooth...it's even courteous enough to turn down the screen and backlight the keyboard for you if you switch off the lights. The whole thing is about half the height and 2 pounds lighter- with the AC adapter, which fits in your pocket. Even cranking away, the highest internal temp I've recorded is about 140 degrees; the fan comes on periodically and cools it right quick. Average temps are about 120 with it sitting on the rug or similar insulator; 100 on a cool table. Also nice- sitting in a meeting, minding its own business, it'll last a good 5-6 hours on the battery. Did I mention the DVI out and dual-head display(it'll drive virtually any monitor plus the builtin screen, both at full color).
The second-generation 17" is still $3k and change, but has a better graphics card, faster processor, and supports USB2 among other things.
I just played the UT 2004 demo on my 1st-gen 17" powerbook. It's awesome...
Taking its cue from its American counterpart, the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) has begun the hunt for music file swappers.
Next up: Sun rises, sun sets.
Anyone else getting really tired of reading about *IAA? We're all well aware of the issues involved, I don't really see the need for this to be front page material nearly every day.
Let's have some priorities, please. Like our daily SCO story...siiigh. It's times like these that I wish we had voting rights like Kuro5hin, because every morning I load slashdot, I have trouble telling whether it's actually new news, or the same 2-3 topics over and over.
I wouldn't read e-books either if they have this same problem with no-word-wrap.
Maybe you need a browser that handles text files better, my friend...because Safari wraps it just fine. Hardly "insightful" of you to point out a bug in your own browser; after all, it would word-wrap a big long string of HTML, now wouldn't it?
On a side-note, it's better than those websites which insist on using a quarter of your screen because the designer's too stupid to make a layout that works at any screen width....
drop my Zaurus or laptop and I'll cry, drop my book and I'll just pick it back up
No kiddin', really? If I drop a $20 calculator, I'm not going to be upset much either...but if I drop my HP48GX(hasn't been made in years, cost a couple hundred $), I'm gonna be pissed. Similarly, if I had a rare book that was leather-bound, gilded, etc...and then went and spilled something on it...it'd be even worse.
It makes one wonder what we, and other space agencies, might see coming out off NASA
Hmm, how about the image enhancement software for CCD's that they've been sitting on for years...
Looking through their list of "problems", seems to be mostly self-imposed or over-exaggerated problems. Like indemnifying the US government- the GPL already -does- that...then there's the bit about not endorsing things(which explains the proliferation of "space" pens and "developed by NASA" foam pillows/mattresses).
doesn't have to be isolated or small...
on
RFID Tags For The Rich
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· Score: 5, Insightful
If you lived in a small, isolated, town, the shopkeepers there would know far more about you than these corporations will ever be able to milk from audit trails.
Small, isolated? Try 1 block from downtown financial center. Not a high-end clothes shop, either. No sir- a deli.
I started stopping there for a egg/bacon/cheese bagel, and on the second day- the woman looked at me and said "egg bacon cheese bagel, and an OJ, right?" Third day, i got a warm greeting and I knew she still remembered. This isn't a small place- it's directly across from South Station, and opposite One Financial Center. A lot of construction-guy types from the Big Dig and area renovation go there, as do limo drivers and local/state cops. The place is almost always bustling, and I've seen other customers get the same recognition.
All of this just goes to show that if you want to be successful, it's all about establishing a relationship with the customer, and that's the job of the sales person. It can't be automated, because if the customer sniffs that- they suddenly realize they're just a sheep of hundreds and they're not impressed in the slightest beyond the gee-gaw gadgetry of it all.
Who do you think will establish more long-term relationships at a high-end clothier- the salesperson with this palm thingy who does the in-person version of "let me pull up your records", or the salesperson who turns around, recognizes an important customer, and says, "Ah, Mr. Jones! Good to see you again. How did the alterations work on your dinner jacket?"
I wonder how much power could be obtained from the highways and biways of America? All those cars racing over millions of little generators all day long should produce a pretty goo amount of electricity, I'd imagine.
No, because the highway doesn't flex; the tires do. Since it doesn't move, there is no work done. There is a very small amount of heat imparted on the roadway, but not very much. OK, so maybe you make the highway segmented, and use the weight of the car? Ok, the car still has to climb up to the next slab. There are two kinds of people: those who know the laws of thermodynamics are absolute, and those who think the laws don't apply to -their- pet theory.
In order for your idea to work, the highway would have to flex; it'd be like trying to run in the sand. Ever tried running in the sand? It's hard work if the sand is soft. Ever tried to -bike- in soft sand? It's damn near impossible. Etc.
A pity that Duracell seems to not be interested in putting these testers on their batteries or in their packaging anymore
I'd guess it's because people weren't as stupid as the battery companies thought they were. Most people know full well the strip works by heating up, and that wastes the power of the battery.
On top of that, it's redundant; most consumer devices have battery gauges, the gauge can't be used when it's in the device, and when it runs out- you usually either have spares, or a quick trip to the quik-mart fixes the problem. That means that something that cost money to put on the battery was now raising the cost on the shelf versus the competition, or eating into the profit margin.
Not to mention, non-rechargeable batteries are useless to most product designers, because the devices are way too a)small and b)power hungry.
Erm, the old Soviet Union (no jokes please) used to play these kinds of stunt all the time, adding people to pictures where they weren't there, and removing them when they were. Airbrushing and other techniques date back to Stalin, and probably earlier.
Actually, the KGB tended to prefer actually kidnapping you, drugging you, and actually sitting you down at a titty bar.
It's a lot easier than airbrushing someone out, and impossible to disprove(whereas the airbrushed photos were usually very obviously airbrushed).
Fortunately, the Article mentions how this is mainly designed to appeal to PHB's who think that because a company is good (or arguably the best) at making cars, the laptop bearing their name is good, or arguably the best
And it shows just how ignorant some people are to think that Ferrari builds the best cars. They don't, in part because there is no such thing as "the best car". It doesn't help that they're unreliable, grossly under-equipped with features, often handle like a bar of soap, have atrocious build quality, impossible to service(much less find someone TO service them), and grossly, grossly overpriced. Witness the rebirth of supercar/sports car companies in the last 10 years.
Fastest? No. McLaren has had that for quite some time. Best techno-gee-gaws? Nissan Skyline, hands down. Best autobahn machine, aka, groundcoverer? Take your pick between the Audi RS6(450hp) or the BMW M5('only' 400hp), or the Merc S600(then there's also the Bentley Arnage Turbo). Best daily sports car? Porsche 911 twin turbo(AWD, extensive dealership network, loads of creature comforts). Best go-cart type? My personal favorite is the Caterham Super 7, but there's the Lotus Elise and the Noble(which is probably the fastest closed-wheel car around a track you can find). Best "gotta move a bunch of stuff" vehicle? Ask anyone in the UK, it's the Ford Transit(the funny super-tall van that's started to pop up here in the US). So on etc.
Further, all it takes is determination to beat Ferrari; there's absolutely nothing about being Italian that makes you build a better car. Ask Henry Ford- when Ferrari refused to sell out to him no matter what the price, he told his staff "beat Ferrari", and the Ford GT40 was born. It slaughtered Ferrari, and everything else. And just think...it's baaaack!(and you can even buy one yourself now, and they're downright gorgeous. I saw it at the NY auto show a year or two back, and there was a -huge- crowd of people just staring, and staring, and staring...)
Even other Italian companies did Ferrari in handily- the Detomaso is a perfect example. Near identical construction, nice Italian design...but a huge 5.7l big-block chevy V8 in back. So, you could pretty much find anyone to work on it, and there's enough room around the engine that you could practically climb in with it. No "drop the engine to remove the sparkplug" nonsense here.
Whenever I see a newish Ferrari on the road, I yawn. When I see an older one with racing history, that's slightly more interesting, but still somewhat yawn-inspiring.
And also proved how many users aren't running any anti-virus at all.
Actually, we have the antivirus companies mostly to blame for this one; they discovered it wasn't enough to sell people the software(and that coming up with new features to get upgrades was difficult), but they had to lock them into updates too; pure corporate greed. Instead, people either don't realize they're no longer getting updates, or they think the older definitions will work just fine. I tell people either to update their subscription, or to use a mailer other than Outlook if possible and run any of the various free virus scanning tools(McAfee and Trend for example both have free web-based scanners) on a regular basis or whenever the system starts doing weird stuff.
Lastly- some vendors dragged their feet. McAfee took almost 2-3 days to release "regular" definitions which could either be downloaded to your proxy server and then deployed to all your clients...or downloaded by clients automatically. Until they did it, you had to download special "extra" definition files, put them in certain folders, etc. Ie, impossible for the end-user, and a pain in the ass for small businesses without the tools to deploy stuff like that easily automatically.
Therefore, it's not a far stretch to assume that the 50,000 to 75,000 machines that are still infected by MyDoom.A or MyDoom.B will catch DoomJuice with a 100% infection ratio.
Except for all the systems behind firewalls that got infected because they got the virus via email...
Right now, this patch seems to not have much of a payload.
Who said anything about it being a patch? Ok, so maybe it is- but "not much of a payload" doesn't mean much, since a compressed diff can be very small...
By the way- off-topic rant, McAfee's corporate software sucks. You can run a mirror of their definitions, but you need Windows Server to do it(2k or 2003). You can deploy sitewide policies, but you need to build it into the installer and any further changes require an overblown management system that needs Windows Server AND MS SQL Server. it gets better- unlike NAV and others, you can't do email scanning on anything except Outlook(NAV has supported POP/IMAP scanning via proxy for years). And the best part? If you get a virus alert from the on-access scan, the user can't click any of the action buttons, because get this- and I swear, this was straight from the mouth of a McAfee rep- "they'll always click ignore to make it go away". "So why did you also disable the delete and quarantine buttons as well?!?" NAV and others let you restrict what option set the user gets(so they can delete, but not ignore...or do whatever). Last but not least, their support is mostly based out of india.
Does this mean we can now replace those lines and let the air out of the SCO tires?
Such a move wouldn't be very smart, even if it was technically possible. SCO could easily argue that "those evil linux people removed it because they knew it was infringing code".
It's much better to leave it in, and show a little patience for the legal system. Believe it or not, the Linux community really isn't getting hurt all that much in the corporate marketplace according to surveys I've seen...and the non-corporate linux user base certainly couldn't give a hoot.
I still say this would be a whole lot easier if kernel developers stood up for their work and reputations by doing whatever they can in their respective legal systems(imagine, lawsuits in 30 countries. The RIAA would be proud). So far, all we've seen is a lot of (amusing, but pointless in a court of law) hot air from Linus.
Compared to today's digital timepieces, old-fashioned, sweep-hand watches are pathetic one-trick ponies.
Not really. They're two-trick ponies; they tell me the time and the date. Last time I checked, "timepiece" meant "something that tells time".
Digital-watch wearers can check temperature, altitude, and the time in Tokyo, play tunes and games, and send messages.
None of which matters. I don't give a crap about the temperature, because it's moot; if I'm too cold or too hot, my body will tell me, and I'm usually smart enough to, based on time of day, season, location etc...figure out what I'm gonna need to wear(I may even, gasp, open the door and stick my head outside to see for myself). I don't give a crap about altitude, because honestly, that doesn't really mean anything to me, unless it comes on the news that anything under 1000 ft ASL is going to flood within the hour because the whole antarctic shelf just collapsed. I certainly don't give a crap about the time in Tokyo, because if I needed to know that sort of thing on a regular basis, I'd know what the differential is, and be able to do the rather easy math(anyone that can't do addition/subtraction for number under 30 needs serious help). In the meantime, I'll guess that they're approximately 12 hours behind EST since they're on the opposite side of the world.
In fact, the only reason I need a timepiece- since I(and most other people) can tell roughly what time of day it is...is because we need to be at certainly places at certain very specific times, where guessing isn't appropriate. The date function is small because we only need to look at it once a day, maybe twice, to remind ourselves. Form, meet function. So pardon me while I buy the nice, simple analog timepiece that looks nice(and will look nice for at least another 100 years) while you buy your stupid little toy that will break in 5 years(it'll be out of style in 6 months, if you're lucky). Were electric analog timepieces an improvement? Not really. Manual wind, I can sync to my computer, or even a radio program. But my electric analog watch needs battery replacement every year or so, and since it only comes out on special occasions, it's nearly always dead.
I have the same objection to cameraphones. I want my phone to do 3 things. a)let me find a number for someone I know b)let me know when someone is calling c)let me make calls.
Notice nowhere in there was "annoy coworkers with polyphonic ringtones." Or "take pictures"(I use my camera to take pictures, and they look 1000x better than anything any cameraphone will ever produce). Or "tell me the weather". I haven't even bothered to use the AIM functions, or SMS. I use my phone for one thing- telephone calls.
I once mentored for the middle school science olympiad. Mind you, these kids are supposed to be the brightest of the bunch- the kids who enjoy science and thinking on their feet. "Okay, you guys have until 3pm to finish this practice". (loooong pause) "Um, we don't have any watches on." "There's a clock right there on the wall." (blank stares.) "Um...we don't know how to read those kinds of clocks". How pathetic is that?
Slashdot Mirror
Let me get this straight, you're whining about obsolescence in the graphics card market? What planet or cave are you from? Leapfrogging happens...what, at least twice a year? New GPUs, different VRAM technology, faster PCI bus interfaces...it's old news, and by now anyone who buys a top of the line card should full well know it's going to be next week's "1" on the benchmark scales and worth half as much as it was when they bought it.
In fact, anyone who has bought -any- computer components in the last 30 years should know this, including the people who bought Apple Lisas(Helloooo, $6k down the toilet!)
By all means though, don't stop- if you did, the graphics card market would probably implode, as you're no doubt single-handedly funding the R&D efforts, and those of us buying 1-2 'generations' back want to keep seeing the not-so-latest, not-so-greatest drop in price ;-)
There's an old legal saying- never ask a question you don't already know the answer to.
The company is so confident about Solaris' speed that officials repeatedly offered to challenge Linux on benchmarks in the coming months.
Now, usually companies don't make such bets unless they're well hedged. So, perhaps running some benchmarks against the preview versions of 10(the article mentions most of 10 is available already to update subscribers) might be a nice idea, to see what's got Sun so cocky, instead of just saying "oh. Solaris is crap"(which is at least partially wrong anyway).
8.When you plug the keyboard in, the bloody thing crashes!
Except for that little bit where her body(the size of a ten year old kid) generates enough power to turn her arm into a super-duper-ionized-plasma cutter, that seems able to instantly cut through/smash anything...
I'd like to see you ford a 6 foot deep riverbed, at 20mph. I'd like to see you scale a 45 degree rock face.
Point is, there are conditions suited for the various vehicles, and I don't think the darpa trail is going to be set up for motorcycles/dirt bikes. I also think finding a path is a lot easier for a truck or ATV than it is for a motorcycle; the cyclist has to worry about getting his front tire trapped; with tires almost twice the size and diameter, a truck doesn't, even if it doesn't have special tires.
I also find it rather hard to believe they've come up with a system that can balance a motorcycle on slippery trails- riders can stop, put out a foot, whatever- this thing can't..and if it falls over, it's -screwed-. I think you're very right about rider skill. I don't see how the thing could do even half the stuff I've seen riders do, and a ton of it falls well outside of "ride the bike sitting down". Wheelies and jumps, etc...
From the article:
DARPA won't disclose the exact route of the Grand Challenge until two hours before the race March 13; it has promised a rigorous route that will include rocks, gullies and streams.
Some of the world's best dirtbike riders wouldn't be able to easily cross stuff your average Land Rover or Land Cruiser would laugh at. I think the team with [what looks like] the 6-wheeled ATV stands the best chance, at least from a vehicle-choice perspective. Those things are amazing in terms of what they can cross- some of them even float and can ford -rivers- using the tires as paddlewheels.
Description of the pickup truck entry:Two tons of steel rolled forward and made a jerky left out of a parking lot in Morgan Hill. It gained speed and settled into a lane. It followed a curve to an intersection. It stopped. Then it turned right and continued down the road.
Probably stands a better chance(and has better fuel economy than the 6-wheeler- though a MUCH higher center of gravity), but taking a trip through suburbia hardly qualifies as suitable testing grounds for what DARPA has described...and depending on the truck, it might not stand up to the abuse. A jeep(or, a Land Cruiser, or a Land Rover) would have been a much better idea than a pickup truck, which really isn't designed for off-roading.
Even the guys who do insane things with their jeeps and whatnot come fully equipped. Air suspensions. Winches. Huge tanks of air or compressors to re-seat the giant tires(did I mention giant tires? :-)
I can also think of a lot better things to spend money on than that giant LCD display they put in the truck's passenger side; that thing has got to be what, 21"? The money would have been much better spent on the truck itself. It's all fun and games until that rock takes out your transfer case and your truck's transmission rips itself to pieces.
Exactly. It's like putting a VW Bug engine into a mid-60's porsche. Not only is it not going to work right(and LinuxPPC doesn't work nearly as well, just on a features basis, as OS X), but it'll be slow and everyone who sees it will just stare at you- and if they're not polite enough, demand to know why you did it. Even Robin Malda uses OS X!
Who cares? Slashdot is hardly an example of technical prowess; in fact, it's rotting(HTML 3?!?). The FAQ hasn't been touched since '99, and they have yet to rise to the challenge of solving any of the problems they themselves created(slashdotting for example). From what I've heard(several OSDN sales people worked where I used to work), Malda got wined and dined by one company after another hoping he'd either post about them or endorse their products. Absolutely no integrity.
...and secretly everyone thought "What the fuck was that? I just PAID for that?", but were too embarrassed to admit they got duped, so in a hurry, they thought up some shit about getting to listen to the audience. Which we do at every performance anyway, usually when some fucktard thinks it's really necessary to go "WOOOOO!" as everyone else shuts up. If you want to toss instruments out to the audience and say "hey, play something and then pass it on!", not only would you truly have an audience-based musical performance, you'd get some acting to boot, as any doctors in the place went insane just thinking about how unsanitary the whole thing was.
...and this is why the "art" world has gone insane. I could take a bathroom sink from the dump, and put it in an art gallery. Then sit back and watch as people talked about how existential it was, how it conveyed the notion of the drudgery of every day life, blah blah(see, I can make up shit that sounds just like an art critic, on the spot). And yes, I've actually seen this in an art gallery. It's bullshit. It's "I'm too lazy or untalented to come up with something", not "vision" or "talent". Same thing goes for the morons who throw(literally) paint at a canvas. They deserve to be working in some diner bussing tables, not sipping wine and eating cheese explaining their "inner rage" or some bullshit like that.
To call 4:33 of silence a "sonata", to call John Cage a "composer", is an insult to musicians and composers everywhere. It's called a -scam-, folks.
As for the silence bits- they're there because a lot of albums have silent tracks that last for a short bit to space tracks out. It's the sign of a mastering company that doesn't know what the shit they're doing, because you can accomplish the same thing with the CD's TOC(table of contents).
Actually, I just don't care about market share, with either Linux or the Macintosh. I settle for showing people(who show interest) some of the neat things about my powerbook and OS X. I'm very reserved about recommending it for someone, and there's no point in trying to get someone to switch- they have to want to, otherwise, it'll never meet their expectations.
I mean, not any geek could hack on a purple box.
Are you talking about SGI? If so, that'd be indigo, not purple- and one of the first Unixes I was exposed to was Irix on an old Indigo(IP12 with the "Song and Dance" graphics card, not nearly enough ram, and I think maybe 1-2GB of disk- but man, it could do some nifty graphics for the time, and it was an OLD system by the time I got my hands on it!)
People say OS X is the first unix desktop-friendly unix(ie, no command-line necessary), and they're dead wrong- SGI had them beat by almost ten years with Irix.
PS:hard core SGI people started on brown computers, not "purple" ones. Why Indigo, by the way? Well, the color supposedly perfectly matches Lotus Coachworks's Indigo paint(one of the top SGI execs owned a Indigo Lotus Espirit Turbo- guy had taste...)
Easy.
It is when, at the hands of a car you love from the sound of the exhaust to the way the fenders flare, with the windows down and the wind through your hair, the sun on your arms...you approach a corner, heel-toe downshift matching revs perfectly so the car's balance is not disturbed- and smoothly turn in and add just the right throttle...all done out of instinct born from experience, rather than calculated thought. The turbo whistles, the engine roars, the tires sing... as ten thousand pieces of metal, rubber and plastic struggle, half trying to push you right off the curve with acceleration, and half keeping you on it.
For a few seconds, everything- you, your 3600lb hunk of flying metal, the road- all work together in perfect harmony, and you're the conductor. You sail through the corner like the very hand of god guided you, and the only thing you can think about is the road that lies in front of you while the pit of your stomach says to your brain, "bravo!"
And you know what? Their numbers are so small, and the cars aren't THAT far off(proper power requires engines be in good shape!) that this is a non-issue. What's an issue is the millions of trucks, trains and ships burning high-sulfur diesel fuel...or the clowns who drive around with their cars belching blue smoke. Then there are the SUVs which of course are nearly exempt from emissions testing! Don't get me started about the coal burning power plants...
Optimum power is achieved on a slightly richer than perfect fuel ratio, and yes, that will cause a modified car to go over the limits set by the state emissions tests. However, under most other conditions, the cars are fine emissions-wise.
Sorry, but the tree-huggers have gone too far in many cases; they're yapping not just about SUVs but they expect everyone else to turn in their cars and drive Honda Insights. It's disgusting. As a result of all this, so many awesome cars can't be brought to the states simply because they don't meet our emissions tests...even though they'd represent a tiny fraction of the cars on the road, possibly be driven less than average...not to mention, more likely to be kept in excellent condition(ie, not get left burning oil for a year or two until it finally explodes). But no-sir, you're .01% over on the HC's, you can't register that! No sir, your car's manufacturer didn't go through full EPA testing! Even worse, homebuilt cars are coming under increasingly strict reg's too; in some states, it's getting to be virtually impossible to have your own home-built car, because you can't get it to pass inspection.
Lastly, lots of chips pass emissions specifications(not just the gas-station test) just fine- the problem is that the certification process is very expensive, so not every tuner can afford to do it.
Except that for $400-ish, I purchased a chip for my '91 turbo Audi. Stock it makes 217hp, now it makes more like 280, and it's faster than the V6 biturbo S4(1999-2003).
In fact, it was faster than all current Audi production vehicles until this year, when the RS6 V8 biturbo(450hp) and new S4(340hp V8) came out. For about another $1.5k or so, I can get about 330hp(new turbo and other bits) and since my car's lighter than a new S4 by quite a bit, it'd be faster yet again(save the RS6).
For turbocharged cars(and some supercharged), a chip often yields sizable performance gains and is -excellent- value for the money. However, careful selection is necessary- in this case, the programmer is very well known in the Audi community and people had been running his specific chip for about 10 years(it's a 13 year old car, after all!)
Or you could buy a first-gen 17" Powerbook for about $2500, spend $100 and upgrade it to a gig of ram, and ignore the screen resolution since there isn't a mobile graphics card on the planet that can drive a display for a first-person shooter at either system's native resolution anyway. 802.11g, Bluetooth...it's even courteous enough to turn down the screen and backlight the keyboard for you if you switch off the lights. The whole thing is about half the height and 2 pounds lighter- with the AC adapter, which fits in your pocket. Even cranking away, the highest internal temp I've recorded is about 140 degrees; the fan comes on periodically and cools it right quick. Average temps are about 120 with it sitting on the rug or similar insulator; 100 on a cool table. Also nice- sitting in a meeting, minding its own business, it'll last a good 5-6 hours on the battery. Did I mention the DVI out and dual-head display(it'll drive virtually any monitor plus the builtin screen, both at full color).
The second-generation 17" is still $3k and change, but has a better graphics card, faster processor, and supports USB2 among other things.
I just played the UT 2004 demo on my 1st-gen 17" powerbook. It's awesome...
Next up: Sun rises, sun sets.
Anyone else getting really tired of reading about *IAA? We're all well aware of the issues involved, I don't really see the need for this to be front page material nearly every day.
Let's have some priorities, please. Like our daily SCO story...siiigh. It's times like these that I wish we had voting rights like Kuro5hin, because every morning I load slashdot, I have trouble telling whether it's actually new news, or the same 2-3 topics over and over.
Maybe you need a browser that handles text files better, my friend...because Safari wraps it just fine. Hardly "insightful" of you to point out a bug in your own browser; after all, it would word-wrap a big long string of HTML, now wouldn't it?
On a side-note, it's better than those websites which insist on using a quarter of your screen because the designer's too stupid to make a layout that works at any screen width....
drop my Zaurus or laptop and I'll cry, drop my book and I'll just pick it back up
No kiddin', really? If I drop a $20 calculator, I'm not going to be upset much either...but if I drop my HP48GX(hasn't been made in years, cost a couple hundred $), I'm gonna be pissed. Similarly, if I had a rare book that was leather-bound, gilded, etc...and then went and spilled something on it...it'd be even worse.
Hmm, how about the image enhancement software for CCD's that they've been sitting on for years...
Looking through their list of "problems", seems to be mostly self-imposed or over-exaggerated problems. Like indemnifying the US government- the GPL already -does- that...then there's the bit about not endorsing things(which explains the proliferation of "space" pens and "developed by NASA" foam pillows/mattresses).
Small, isolated? Try 1 block from downtown financial center. Not a high-end clothes shop, either. No sir- a deli.
I started stopping there for a egg/bacon/cheese bagel, and on the second day- the woman looked at me and said "egg bacon cheese bagel, and an OJ, right?" Third day, i got a warm greeting and I knew she still remembered. This isn't a small place- it's directly across from South Station, and opposite One Financial Center. A lot of construction-guy types from the Big Dig and area renovation go there, as do limo drivers and local/state cops. The place is almost always bustling, and I've seen other customers get the same recognition.
All of this just goes to show that if you want to be successful, it's all about establishing a relationship with the customer, and that's the job of the sales person. It can't be automated, because if the customer sniffs that- they suddenly realize they're just a sheep of hundreds and they're not impressed in the slightest beyond the gee-gaw gadgetry of it all.
Who do you think will establish more long-term relationships at a high-end clothier- the salesperson with this palm thingy who does the in-person version of "let me pull up your records", or the salesperson who turns around, recognizes an important customer, and says, "Ah, Mr. Jones! Good to see you again. How did the alterations work on your dinner jacket?"
No, because the highway doesn't flex; the tires do. Since it doesn't move, there is no work done. There is a very small amount of heat imparted on the roadway, but not very much. OK, so maybe you make the highway segmented, and use the weight of the car? Ok, the car still has to climb up to the next slab. There are two kinds of people: those who know the laws of thermodynamics are absolute, and those who think the laws don't apply to -their- pet theory.
In order for your idea to work, the highway would have to flex; it'd be like trying to run in the sand. Ever tried running in the sand? It's hard work if the sand is soft. Ever tried to -bike- in soft sand? It's damn near impossible. Etc.
I'd guess it's because people weren't as stupid as the battery companies thought they were. Most people know full well the strip works by heating up, and that wastes the power of the battery.
On top of that, it's redundant; most consumer devices have battery gauges, the gauge can't be used when it's in the device, and when it runs out- you usually either have spares, or a quick trip to the quik-mart fixes the problem. That means that something that cost money to put on the battery was now raising the cost on the shelf versus the competition, or eating into the profit margin.
Not to mention, non-rechargeable batteries are useless to most product designers, because the devices are way too a)small and b)power hungry.
Actually, the KGB tended to prefer actually kidnapping you, drugging you, and actually sitting you down at a titty bar.
It's a lot easier than airbrushing someone out, and impossible to disprove(whereas the airbrushed photos were usually very obviously airbrushed).
And it shows just how ignorant some people are to think that Ferrari builds the best cars. They don't, in part because there is no such thing as "the best car". It doesn't help that they're unreliable, grossly under-equipped with features, often handle like a bar of soap, have atrocious build quality, impossible to service(much less find someone TO service them), and grossly, grossly overpriced. Witness the rebirth of supercar/sports car companies in the last 10 years.
Fastest? No. McLaren has had that for quite some time. Best techno-gee-gaws? Nissan Skyline, hands down. Best autobahn machine, aka, groundcoverer? Take your pick between the Audi RS6(450hp) or the BMW M5('only' 400hp), or the Merc S600(then there's also the Bentley Arnage Turbo). Best daily sports car? Porsche 911 twin turbo(AWD, extensive dealership network, loads of creature comforts). Best go-cart type? My personal favorite is the Caterham Super 7, but there's the Lotus Elise and the Noble(which is probably the fastest closed-wheel car around a track you can find). Best "gotta move a bunch of stuff" vehicle? Ask anyone in the UK, it's the Ford Transit(the funny super-tall van that's started to pop up here in the US). So on etc.
Further, all it takes is determination to beat Ferrari; there's absolutely nothing about being Italian that makes you build a better car. Ask Henry Ford- when Ferrari refused to sell out to him no matter what the price, he told his staff "beat Ferrari", and the Ford GT40 was born. It slaughtered Ferrari, and everything else. And just think...it's baaaack!(and you can even buy one yourself now, and they're downright gorgeous. I saw it at the NY auto show a year or two back, and there was a -huge- crowd of people just staring, and staring, and staring...)
Even other Italian companies did Ferrari in handily- the Detomaso is a perfect example. Near identical construction, nice Italian design...but a huge 5.7l big-block chevy V8 in back. So, you could pretty much find anyone to work on it, and there's enough room around the engine that you could practically climb in with it. No "drop the engine to remove the sparkplug" nonsense here.
Whenever I see a newish Ferrari on the road, I yawn. When I see an older one with racing history, that's slightly more interesting, but still somewhat yawn-inspiring.
Actually, we have the antivirus companies mostly to blame for this one; they discovered it wasn't enough to sell people the software(and that coming up with new features to get upgrades was difficult), but they had to lock them into updates too; pure corporate greed. Instead, people either don't realize they're no longer getting updates, or they think the older definitions will work just fine. I tell people either to update their subscription, or to use a mailer other than Outlook if possible and run any of the various free virus scanning tools(McAfee and Trend for example both have free web-based scanners) on a regular basis or whenever the system starts doing weird stuff.
Lastly- some vendors dragged their feet. McAfee took almost 2-3 days to release "regular" definitions which could either be downloaded to your proxy server and then deployed to all your clients...or downloaded by clients automatically. Until they did it, you had to download special "extra" definition files, put them in certain folders, etc. Ie, impossible for the end-user, and a pain in the ass for small businesses without the tools to deploy stuff like that easily automatically.
Therefore, it's not a far stretch to assume that the 50,000 to 75,000 machines that are still infected by MyDoom.A or MyDoom.B will catch DoomJuice with a 100% infection ratio.
Except for all the systems behind firewalls that got infected because they got the virus via email...
Right now, this patch seems to not have much of a payload.
Who said anything about it being a patch? Ok, so maybe it is- but "not much of a payload" doesn't mean much, since a compressed diff can be very small...
By the way- off-topic rant, McAfee's corporate software sucks. You can run a mirror of their definitions, but you need Windows Server to do it(2k or 2003). You can deploy sitewide policies, but you need to build it into the installer and any further changes require an overblown management system that needs Windows Server AND MS SQL Server. it gets better- unlike NAV and others, you can't do email scanning on anything except Outlook(NAV has supported POP/IMAP scanning via proxy for years). And the best part? If you get a virus alert from the on-access scan, the user can't click any of the action buttons, because get this- and I swear, this was straight from the mouth of a McAfee rep- "they'll always click ignore to make it go away". "So why did you also disable the delete and quarantine buttons as well?!?" NAV and others let you restrict what option set the user gets(so they can delete, but not ignore...or do whatever). Last but not least, their support is mostly based out of india.
Such a move wouldn't be very smart, even if it was technically possible. SCO could easily argue that "those evil linux people removed it because they knew it was infringing code".
It's much better to leave it in, and show a little patience for the legal system. Believe it or not, the Linux community really isn't getting hurt all that much in the corporate marketplace according to surveys I've seen...and the non-corporate linux user base certainly couldn't give a hoot.
I still say this would be a whole lot easier if kernel developers stood up for their work and reputations by doing whatever they can in their respective legal systems(imagine, lawsuits in 30 countries. The RIAA would be proud). So far, all we've seen is a lot of (amusing, but pointless in a court of law) hot air from Linus.
Cars are made of hundreds of thousands of parts and hundreds of materials. Cars are not designed to build things, much less themselves.
Ergo...stupid example.
Not really. They're two-trick ponies; they tell me the time and the date. Last time I checked, "timepiece" meant "something that tells time".
Digital-watch wearers can check temperature, altitude, and the time in Tokyo, play tunes and games, and send messages.
None of which matters. I don't give a crap about the temperature, because it's moot; if I'm too cold or too hot, my body will tell me, and I'm usually smart enough to, based on time of day, season, location etc...figure out what I'm gonna need to wear(I may even, gasp, open the door and stick my head outside to see for myself). I don't give a crap about altitude, because honestly, that doesn't really mean anything to me, unless it comes on the news that anything under 1000 ft ASL is going to flood within the hour because the whole antarctic shelf just collapsed. I certainly don't give a crap about the time in Tokyo, because if I needed to know that sort of thing on a regular basis, I'd know what the differential is, and be able to do the rather easy math(anyone that can't do addition/subtraction for number under 30 needs serious help). In the meantime, I'll guess that they're approximately 12 hours behind EST since they're on the opposite side of the world.
In fact, the only reason I need a timepiece- since I(and most other people) can tell roughly what time of day it is...is because we need to be at certainly places at certain very specific times, where guessing isn't appropriate. The date function is small because we only need to look at it once a day, maybe twice, to remind ourselves. Form, meet function. So pardon me while I buy the nice, simple analog timepiece that looks nice(and will look nice for at least another 100 years) while you buy your stupid little toy that will break in 5 years(it'll be out of style in 6 months, if you're lucky). Were electric analog timepieces an improvement? Not really. Manual wind, I can sync to my computer, or even a radio program. But my electric analog watch needs battery replacement every year or so, and since it only comes out on special occasions, it's nearly always dead.
I have the same objection to cameraphones. I want my phone to do 3 things. a)let me find a number for someone I know b)let me know when someone is calling c)let me make calls.
Notice nowhere in there was "annoy coworkers with polyphonic ringtones." Or "take pictures"(I use my camera to take pictures, and they look 1000x better than anything any cameraphone will ever produce). Or "tell me the weather". I haven't even bothered to use the AIM functions, or SMS. I use my phone for one thing- telephone calls.
I once mentored for the middle school science olympiad. Mind you, these kids are supposed to be the brightest of the bunch- the kids who enjoy science and thinking on their feet. "Okay, you guys have until 3pm to finish this practice". (loooong pause) "Um, we don't have any watches on." "There's a clock right there on the wall." (blank stares.) "Um...we don't know how to read those kinds of clocks". How pathetic is that?