It's a lot easier and cheaper to make failure-tolerant software if you're looking at system functionality on a cluster/datacentre level than it is to ensure all your hardware is bulletproof. Hardware will fail - it's up to the intelligence of the overlaid systems to mitigate that.
God yes - I was half expecting it to be in the list myself. My parents still have our old one, I wouldn't guarantee it works now, but it might be amusing to try.
My first intro to PC's that was - I broke our DOS install no end of times trying to "fix" things.:) 32Mb hard-card upgraded(I seem to remember it was called). How were we ever supposed to fill -that-?
Given the actual content of their review, I'm very surprised they didn't pull the drive and have a stroll around the filesystem. They've pretty much toasted the warranty as it is, anyway.
Hmm. Surely, applying logic to the scenario, it's -easier- to work on a bug engine? Air cooled means no water sloshing around to corrode or make a mess, and less mechanicals to break...
I do wonder occasionally - I would have though mechanics were logical people, given the faultfinding I suspect they have to do on a regular basis.
From the high-res press shots available I say no. No extra button marked, no LED, no alleged "functions" written on the F-keys. S'all good.
I'd imagine they figured with an extra 18 keys available at the side they didn't feel the need to screw up the normal functionality of the rest. Hells, maybe they've even been listening to customer feedback about F-lock.;)
He -did- say it was an estimate.:) Anyways, going from what I last paid to fill up (81.9p/litre), and running through google calculator and xe.com for gallons and dollars respectively, I come out with $5.62/gal. Funtastic, isn't it. (And yes, I'm -very- bitter that it's mostly tax)
Er. Okay, that vid's quite, quite fucked up. Granted a goldfish doesn't exactly have many braincells to bang together, but that's really rather disturbing.
Quick back-of the braincell calculation says no. Running at 2500rpm max, on a 60cm dia tyre, my (admittedly ropey) maths chuck out a travelling speed around 175 mph. Granted, that's full whack, and ignoring stuff like air resitance and the other minor niggles present in the real world. Most of the electric concepts I've seen have hub-mounted engines directly attached - it's mechanically the easiest solution, lets you have a skateboard mechanical platform so you've lots of freedom in body design, and IIRC the only major downside is an increase in unspring weight on the hubs (can affect the ride somewhat).
If you can get a 22" LCD for a reasonable cost that'll actually do a decent spectrum of resolutions, and at a decent DPI too, then yes, fair enough, CRT's are good to die. But that's not now. Between usable real-estate for windows usage, the odd resolution-switch for an especially demanding game, and the occasional need to edit an obscenely high-resolution image, my CRT's cannot be beat. To hell with the weight and power consumption. As I'm assuming has been said before: cold, dead hands...
Am I alone in completely missing the launch of The Matrix Online? (not that it's much of a loss, but hey...) I remember alot of gumph a while back about concepts, but seem to have missed launch-fanfare entirely.
I heartily concur on your latter statement - Burnout 3 was the surprise hit when I bought a PS2 for our house. It gets alot of milage on crash junctions (the puzzle value), and winner-stays-on multiplayer road rage. I think it's the fact that it's a very arcadey control feel, pick-up-and-play, and if you crash out, most of the time it doesn't matter or can be a bonus.
And yes, it does tend to bring out a certain evil twinkle in the eyes...;)
Linux has grassroots geek support - if J. Random Techie wants a device driver for his Foo Industries Bar-O-Matic 3000, there's a chance he'll be able to write one. This doesn't directly explain the comparative stabilities of the various setups, but bear in mind that, if there's a fault with a Windows driver then it gets passed back to a company relying on possibly-incorrect interfacing docs to make their product, whereas if J. Techie has problems with his driver he can poke and prod the underlying infrastructure with comparative ease to fix the problems.
Would be a very easy way to perform a denial-of-service against an authorised user, unfortunately - find who you want locked offline, clone their MAC, and simply spew crap against the access point till it gets the hump and closes the door on that MAC addy.
Given that they're attacking an access-point in use in this case (with validated clients connected), all they need do is snarf the MAC of a good client, wait till they disconnect, and they can reconfigure their card to present a perfectly valid address. Finding the WEP key is the harder bit.
Why keep the human in the loop? Implant RFID-esque tags in the floor by the dropoff points, and install a reader loop on underside of the forklift. If he really needs more accuracy between dropoffs, they could sprinkle a grid of the things at a 2ft spacing or somesuch.
A slightly different direction on the Hydrogen economy: You still have the commuter vehicles, yes, but why does the H2 have to be piped through a new and expensive infrastucture? You've the first option of using preexisting gas stations (now literally just "gas") - consumers fill up as normal, or you go for an even better decentralised system* where every house with solar panels simply electrolyses water to make Hydrogen. People then fill up in their own garage.
If numerically practical, the thought of that makes me -very- happy indeed.
*Disclaimer: I haven't run the numbers on this one, so I have no idea of the -current- real-world practicality.
For what it's worth, I reckon Google might've had the upper hand in this under UK law too - this guy signed an NDA (often entertainingly restrictive) and then posted information about company practices online. If the NDA covered the information released, no matter how minimally impacting it was, they have every right to can him for breach of contract.
(IANAL, but I make it up and noone seems to notice...)
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It's a lot easier and cheaper to make failure-tolerant software if you're looking at system functionality on a cluster/datacentre level than it is to ensure all your hardware is bulletproof.
Hardware will fail - it's up to the intelligence of the overlaid systems to mitigate that.
Because:
a) It's turned off, as they want performance.
b) It doesn't apply to the other big heat-maker, the drives.
It's also a lot easier to cool and recirculate air, than to properly clean, (de)humidify and cool external air on the fly.
God yes - I was half expecting it to be in the list myself.
:)
My parents still have our old one, I wouldn't guarantee it works now, but it might be amusing to try.
My first intro to PC's that was - I broke our DOS install no end of times trying to "fix" things.
32Mb hard-card upgraded(I seem to remember it was called). How were we ever supposed to fill -that-?
Given the actual content of their review, I'm very surprised they didn't pull the drive and have a stroll around the filesystem. They've pretty much toasted the warranty as it is, anyway.
Hmm.
Surely, applying logic to the scenario, it's -easier- to work on a bug engine?
Air cooled means no water sloshing around to corrode or make a mess, and less mechanicals to break...
I do wonder occasionally - I would have though mechanics were logical people, given the faultfinding I suspect they have to do on a regular basis.
From the high-res press shots available I say no.
;)
No extra button marked, no LED, no alleged "functions" written on the F-keys.
S'all good.
I'd imagine they figured with an extra 18 keys available at the side they didn't feel the need to screw up the normal functionality of the rest.
Hells, maybe they've even been listening to customer feedback about F-lock.
Want one now, dammit.
Gah. I got all that process right, except for the initial price. 91.9p/litre, I mean.
$6.31/US Gal.
He -did- say it was an estimate. :)
Anyways, going from what I last paid to fill up (81.9p/litre), and running through google calculator and xe.com for gallons and dollars respectively, I come out with $5.62/gal.
Funtastic, isn't it.
(And yes, I'm -very- bitter that it's mostly tax)
Er.
Okay, that vid's quite, quite fucked up.
Granted a goldfish doesn't exactly have many braincells to bang together, but that's really rather disturbing.
Yeah, you're not the only one.
Had a brief glorious image of Rutan pulling another Cool Piece Of Tech(tm) from underneath his hat.
Anyone know what they're doing after SSO, btw, aside from Branson's stuff? They seem to have gone into stealth mode again.
*applause*
Quick back-of the braincell calculation says no.
Running at 2500rpm max, on a 60cm dia tyre, my (admittedly ropey) maths chuck out a travelling speed around 175 mph.
Granted, that's full whack, and ignoring stuff like air resitance and the other minor niggles present in the real world.
Most of the electric concepts I've seen have hub-mounted engines directly attached - it's mechanically the easiest solution, lets you have a skateboard mechanical platform so you've lots of freedom in body design, and IIRC the only major downside is an increase in unspring weight on the hubs (can affect the ride somewhat).
If you can get a 22" LCD for a reasonable cost that'll actually do a decent spectrum of resolutions, and at a decent DPI too, then yes, fair enough, CRT's are good to die.
But that's not now.
Between usable real-estate for windows usage, the odd resolution-switch for an especially demanding game, and the occasional need to edit an obscenely high-resolution image, my CRT's cannot be beat. To hell with the weight and power consumption. As I'm assuming has been said before: cold, dead hands...
Badly.
Say what?
Am I alone in completely missing the launch of The Matrix Online? (not that it's much of a loss, but hey...)
I remember alot of gumph a while back about concepts, but seem to have missed launch-fanfare entirely.
I heartily concur on your latter statement - Burnout 3 was the surprise hit when I bought a PS2 for our house. It gets alot of milage on crash junctions (the puzzle value), and winner-stays-on multiplayer road rage.
;)
I think it's the fact that it's a very arcadey control feel, pick-up-and-play, and if you crash out, most of the time it doesn't matter or can be a bonus.
And yes, it does tend to bring out a certain evil twinkle in the eyes...
Linux has grassroots geek support - if J. Random Techie wants a device driver for his Foo Industries Bar-O-Matic 3000, there's a chance he'll be able to write one.
This doesn't directly explain the comparative stabilities of the various setups, but bear in mind that, if there's a fault with a Windows driver then it gets passed back to a company relying on possibly-incorrect interfacing docs to make their product, whereas if J. Techie has problems with his driver he can poke and prod the underlying infrastructure with comparative ease to fix the problems.
Well, given the long turnaround times, and the... frankly alien logic sometimes applied, I can quite legitimately assume Mars...
Would be a very easy way to perform a denial-of-service against an authorised user, unfortunately - find who you want locked offline, clone their MAC, and simply spew crap against the access point till it gets the hump and closes the door on that MAC addy.
Given that they're attacking an access-point in use in this case (with validated clients connected), all they need do is snarf the MAC of a good client, wait till they disconnect, and they can reconfigure their card to present a perfectly valid address.
Finding the WEP key is the harder bit.
But imagine the seek times!
Why keep the human in the loop?
Implant RFID-esque tags in the floor by the dropoff points, and install a reader loop on underside of the forklift.
If he really needs more accuracy between dropoffs, they could sprinkle a grid of the things at a 2ft spacing or somesuch.
A slightly different direction on the Hydrogen economy:
You still have the commuter vehicles, yes, but why does the H2 have to be piped through a new and expensive infrastucture?
You've the first option of using preexisting gas stations (now literally just "gas") - consumers fill up as normal, or you go for an even better decentralised system* where every house with solar panels simply electrolyses water to make Hydrogen.
People then fill up in their own garage.
If numerically practical, the thought of that makes me -very- happy indeed.
*Disclaimer: I haven't run the numbers on this one, so I have no idea of the -current- real-world practicality.
For what it's worth, I reckon Google might've had the upper hand in this under UK law too - this guy signed an NDA (often entertainingly restrictive) and then posted information about company practices online.
If the NDA covered the information released, no matter how minimally impacting it was, they have every right to can him for breach of contract.
(IANAL, but I make it up and noone seems to notice...)
This is starting to get old.
Anyone care to explain why Europe tends to be the second-class citizen for practically all tech releases?
*miffed*