There are several companies manufacturing roofing shingles, faux slate and metal roofing panels which are coated with PV material. Unless they're picky about the color of the shingles (or it's a historical area which insists on Real Slate (tm) ) then you CAN get a solar roof put on.
I should mention that these do tend to be a little more expensive. Hopefully the printable solar stuff will bring the price down considerably and offset this.
Leaving my pc powered 24/7, I typically start seeing disk errors pop up after around 3 years. I replace it when it a.) fails or b.) generates SMART errors.
I currently run many machines in the 300-500 MHz range in a manufacturing environment. They typically run 64-128MB of memory. These ARE in the class of the PIC and I can tell you they are quite functional... Now, I wouldn't want to do development work on them on a regular basis. What's finally driving us to replace them are compatibility issues with the server backend.
It would allow them to do the construction at a shipyard inside a manufacturing environment, stamp out many copies with all the resourced needed right at hand, then send them to where they are needed.
for what it's worth, the Enterprise was overhauled a few years back... and they replaced the 8 smaller reactors with 2 larger reactors, to bring it up to the same equipment standard as the Nimitz class. (I know this because I live within a few miles of Newport News Shipyard, where they did the work).
I still have to support DOS software. This particular software won't run under Windows XP compatability mode because of low level memory calls that get blocked by the OS. While copies of MS-DOS 6.22 are still available, if you look, this is a easy to obtain solution (corporate Logistics department doesn't seem to believe in ebay...)
If you click through some of the links on the Folding@Home site, you'll find that they were originally using Nvidia processors; but, found they got much higher performance with their code on the ATI processors. Therefore they decided to concentrate their efforts on ATI.
They can't drop their claims against Linux now. It's gone too far. To drop the claim would be to say they sued everyone for no cause and wasted the court's time (the courts would not look kindly upon that). It would be handing the various companies a guaranteed win on all the counter suits, which aren't likely to go away just because SCO says, "Oops, our mistake. We did not mean to inconvenience you. Please pretend this never happened." They're in for the long haul, and are undoubtedly going to be trounced, torn apart and their management held legally responsible for making fraudulent claims.
I'm responsible for just under 50 production (as in manufacturing) machines that run Win98. Why? Because we're using legacy apps that WILL NOT RUN under Windows XP. I've had to prove to two different IT people that this code won't run in Windows XP, when they say "Windows XP has a Windows 95 emulation." Some people just don't get it...
Anyway, all of this code is scheduled for upgrade; but, it's going to be 2008 before the project is complete. Until then, there will be Win98 machines on my network.
The guys who design the consumer stuff are not the same people (or division for that matter) who design the server stuff. They'v different target markets with different expectations. Consumers typically never open their box once they get it from the OEM. (/. crowd not withstanding.)
By the way, your describing Dell too. Optiplex business machines have easy tool-less access, swing out power supply, removable drive cages, etc.
1) There is no way in hell Microsoft would document their API to the level necessary to allow Apple to duplicate it.
The API is documented -- how do you think programmers write apps that work in the OS. There are undocumented portions; but, as Cringley points out, Apple has had access to the full API via cross licensing since 1997.
2) It's blatantly obvious he doesn't understand precisely what Wine is. Remember: Wine Is Not an Emulator. It's a built-from-scratch implementation of the Windows API.
Your partially right... Wine is not an emulator. It's also sadly incomplete. Still beta 0.9.xx I believe. Without access and support it is never going to be complete because Microsoft keeps portions of the API a moving target; and, buries portions.
His idea actually has merit if you think about it; Microsoft might actually support such a move. They could drop support of the Apple specific version of Office, lowering development cost. They could increase sales of Office, Exchange, etc. And they could re-coup lost Windows revenue through licensing fees paid by Apple for continued access to the API and development support.
I already don't watch broadcast TV or cable, as it is now. If I hear of a show that's worth watching, I'll just order the DVD's from Blockbuster or Netflix. Yeah, that means I'm seeing it 6 to 12 months late; and, in some ways they are winning -- I'm paying to watch it. I am getting to watch, commercial free, digital quality, and on my schedule.
You are correct on the first point, there's no barrier to entry. A plain vanilla install usually works. Try updating something though...
On Windows, I run the firefox 1.5 update installer and it simply works.
On Suse 9.3, I perform the firefox 1.5 update, per the instructions on the firefox site (yes, I RTFM); and, firefox was broken. I'm a developer, I figured out what went wrong.
My wife's been using linux for 3 years now; and, I guarantee she would have given up in frustration before she could figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The documentation wouldn't have been much help to her.
And your machine meets my minimum spec except for memory. If you can live with the disk swapping, then... Well, it's a matter of opinion really; and, you are correct that 128MB is enough.
Keeping in mind my WinXP Pro machine has four development environments on it, tools, various DAQ boards for dev work, Office Pro, MSDE SQL server, and so on (loaded for bear).... the machine is using around 400MB immediately after boot, idle, with only Outlook running on the desktop. Most machines won't have this much loaded at boot time.
I have found that 128 MB results in disk swapping and 256MB reduces disk swapping significantly. Since I do work with data acquisition and controls stuff, I hate to see the machines pause while swapping memory, when they should be closing a valve somewhere...
That's what bothers me about Vista. Microsoft isn't doing the typical and listing ludicrous minimum specs... They're saying you need a fairly powerful CPU and GPU pair with 1GB or more (preferably ECC) memory.
Microsoft has always published ludicrous minimum hardware requirements. There was a rule of thumb I picked up somewhere that simply said, at a minimum, double any hardware requirements provided by Microsoft.
At 233 MHz and 128MB of memory, WinXP is effectively un-usable. I wouldn't run it on anything less than a 500 MHz PIII and 256MB of memory.
I don't know about Windows 2... But I have quite a few DOS and Windows 3 apps, which we use in-house, that continue to run on Windows XP. What doesn't work is usually because of problems with a particular third party hardware driver, which I have come up with work arounds for. Yes, I'm still actively using QuickBasic 4.5, Microsoft C 5.1, Visual C 1.5, and LabWindows 2.2 supporting old software. We are converting stuff to Visual Studio 6, Visual Studio 2005 and LabView 8 platforms, slowly.
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I should mention that these do tend to be a little more expensive. Hopefully the printable solar stuff will bring the price down considerably and offset this.
Leaving my pc powered 24/7, I typically start seeing disk errors pop up after around 3 years. I replace it when it a.) fails or b.) generates SMART errors.
I currently run many machines in the 300-500 MHz range in a manufacturing environment. They typically run 64-128MB of memory. These ARE in the class of the PIC and I can tell you they are quite functional... Now, I wouldn't want to do development work on them on a regular basis. What's finally driving us to replace them are compatibility issues with the server backend.
oops, apparently I was wrong... this may have been planned at one point but didnt' happen. So much for local knowledge...
It would allow them to do the construction at a shipyard inside a manufacturing environment, stamp out many copies with all the resourced needed right at hand, then send them to where they are needed.
for what it's worth, the Enterprise was overhauled a few years back... and they replaced the 8 smaller reactors with 2 larger reactors, to bring it up to the same equipment standard as the Nimitz class. (I know this because I live within a few miles of Newport News Shipyard, where they did the work).
Just grab the bag labelled "Turkey" since they're decendants...
You could conclude: They taste like chicken.
Dolly's dead. It'd have to be Dolly's clone...
I still have to support DOS software. This particular software won't run under Windows XP compatability mode because of low level memory calls that get blocked by the OS. While copies of MS-DOS 6.22 are still available, if you look, this is a easy to obtain solution (corporate Logistics department doesn't seem to believe in ebay...)
If you click through some of the links on the Folding@Home site, you'll find that they were originally using Nvidia processors; but, found they got much higher performance with their code on the ATI processors. Therefore they decided to concentrate their efforts on ATI.
They can't drop their claims against Linux now. It's gone too far. To drop the claim would be to say they sued everyone for no cause and wasted the court's time (the courts would not look kindly upon that). It would be handing the various companies a guaranteed win on all the counter suits, which aren't likely to go away just because SCO says, "Oops, our mistake. We did not mean to inconvenience you. Please pretend this never happened." They're in for the long haul, and are undoubtedly going to be trounced, torn apart and their management held legally responsible for making fraudulent claims.
Anyway, all of this code is scheduled for upgrade; but, it's going to be 2008 before the project is complete. Until then, there will be Win98 machines on my network.
is this AMD admitting that their Geode and Turion processors aren't really that efficient?
By the way, your describing Dell too. Optiplex business machines have easy tool-less access, swing out power supply, removable drive cages, etc.
Nice case. How many fps does it score running Doom?
The API is documented -- how do you think programmers write apps that work in the OS. There are undocumented portions; but, as Cringley points out, Apple has had access to the full API via cross licensing since 1997.
2) It's blatantly obvious he doesn't understand precisely what Wine is. Remember: Wine Is Not an Emulator. It's a built-from-scratch implementation of the Windows API.
Your partially right... Wine is not an emulator. It's also sadly incomplete. Still beta 0.9.xx I believe. Without access and support it is never going to be complete because Microsoft keeps portions of the API a moving target; and, buries portions.
His idea actually has merit if you think about it; Microsoft might actually support such a move. They could drop support of the Apple specific version of Office, lowering development cost. They could increase sales of Office, Exchange, etc. And they could re-coup lost Windows revenue through licensing fees paid by Apple for continued access to the API and development support.
I already don't watch broadcast TV or cable, as it is now. If I hear of a show that's worth watching, I'll just order the DVD's from Blockbuster or Netflix. Yeah, that means I'm seeing it 6 to 12 months late; and, in some ways they are winning -- I'm paying to watch it. I am getting to watch, commercial free, digital quality, and on my schedule.
On Windows, I run the firefox 1.5 update installer and it simply works.
On Suse 9.3, I perform the firefox 1.5 update, per the instructions on the firefox site (yes, I RTFM); and, firefox was broken. I'm a developer, I figured out what went wrong.
My wife's been using linux for 3 years now; and, I guarantee she would have given up in frustration before she could figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The documentation wouldn't have been much help to her.
With carbon nanotube fiber backing and this new adhesive, you'll have a duct tape that will last forever and be able to lift a car!!!
You're killing me. MY EYES! MY EYESsss!!!!
Keeping in mind my WinXP Pro machine has four development environments on it, tools, various DAQ boards for dev work, Office Pro, MSDE SQL server, and so on (loaded for bear) .... the machine is using around 400MB immediately after boot, idle, with only Outlook running on the desktop. Most machines won't have this much loaded at boot time.
I have found that 128 MB results in disk swapping and 256MB reduces disk swapping significantly. Since I do work with data acquisition and controls stuff, I hate to see the machines pause while swapping memory, when they should be closing a valve somewhere...
That's what bothers me about Vista. Microsoft isn't doing the typical and listing ludicrous minimum specs... They're saying you need a fairly powerful CPU and GPU pair with 1GB or more (preferably ECC) memory.
At 233 MHz and 128MB of memory, WinXP is effectively un-usable. I wouldn't run it on anything less than a 500 MHz PIII and 256MB of memory.
I don't know about Windows 2... But I have quite a few DOS and Windows 3 apps, which we use in-house, that continue to run on Windows XP. What doesn't work is usually because of problems with a particular third party hardware driver, which I have come up with work arounds for. Yes, I'm still actively using QuickBasic 4.5, Microsoft C 5.1, Visual C 1.5, and LabWindows 2.2 supporting old software. We are converting stuff to Visual Studio 6, Visual Studio 2005 and LabView 8 platforms, slowly.