That image technology has been around forever. Just watch an episode of CSI.
That's actually not as whacked as it first seems.
You *can* improve the resolution or quality of an image if you have a video stream to process. It may be possible that Creative is doing something similar with the audio stream.
I doubt it would produce output more accurate than from an compressed CD source, but it's conceivable that they found a way to make it sound significantly better than a "standard" lossy format decoder.
It not quite as simple as leeching and rebranding. Debian isn't what makes Ubuntu good, it's what makes the system gel as a whole, IMO. What makes it good is the enormous focus on the user-experience, and the responsiveness of the developers. That's not so much about pretty icons, but about usability and stability ( and some automagic hardware support - Debian? I think not!;-) ).
I'm not really involved with Ubuntu, but I submitted a bug report for a package that was sent upstream to Gnome - not Debian. They're not officially binary compatible, many many packages are different, and they offer the changes back to Debian. Remember also that Mandriva (ex-Mandrake) was originally a Red Hat "based" distro once.
Wasn't the US talking about MORE regulation the Internet, just the other day? I mean, damn near every porn site already has their disclaimers about age and whatever regulation the US imposed, and now they're talking about censoring porn between consenting adults too. Most of the more crazy stuff comes out the EU or Asia or South America already anyway. And this yet US sites like ogrish.com will happily show you people being beheaded.
Porn aside, US laywers are wetting themselves with anticipation to sue anyone online. P2P has only *just* survived thanks to American media corporations getting carried away with busting children and grandmothers. You want to outlaw encrypted VOIP communications so you can tap them. Your corporations happily support the likes of China with their firewall and filtering systems. Even your general IT and software instrustries are stagnating thanks to legal and ethical woes.
Some other nations *are* questionable in their intentions, but don't try to pretend that US corporations and legislators are all about freedom on the 'net.
He's talking about the browser plugin that (normally) ships with the JRE (which ships with the J2SE). The JRE is there, but apparently nobody makes a JVM environment for Itanium that includes the plugin.
RTFA. Redhat EL 3. IBM servers (OK, but which kind?) The whole article smells fishy to me.
* 2 weeks to install to SAP standards? Hmm. How about 1 day to install Linux, and the rest is setting up SAP and testing? 2 days to install on Windows? How much testing was included there, eh? * "Software updates had to be manually installed to ensure SAP certification." So that's like, rpm -Uvh the_update.rpm. The HORROR! * "We asked the customer to do a diagnostic test and the customer never responded, so it was impossible for us to address the issue," Mr McLaren says. Most folks who are serious about making it work would probably get back to them when having these problems. Almost sounds like some geek personalities were the problem, not Linux.
RedHat, IBM and SAP are all cool about running this setup - but the IT department of this consumer electronics distribution company can't handle it effectively? I think I can see where the problem is...
The cynic in me suspects they got a VERY good deal from MS for publicising this move.
That's a bugger, but still, web-browser applets != applications. If they offer the J2SE for Itanium, you should be good to go with anything other than browser applets. Java applications should run just fine, and even stand-alone applets should be runnable with the Java appletviewer.
I know. That's the real-world problem and possibly where the IT culture kicks in. IT (geek/9 types often can't or won't stand up to the PHBs who can't see past the promises they (or the sales department) have made...
IT is still a relatively new thing, so hopefully PHBs will learn not just about what IT can do, but about what IT needs to work efficiently. They wouldn't tell the production staff to forget about QA 'cause the deadline is tight, so why should they tell that to IT?
In an ideal world, much of that would be handled by appropriate documentation. In the real world, it gets harder...
We like to call ourselves professionsals, but compare our jobs to that of, say, a mechanical engineer. An engineer who jumps on the lathe and starts welding without designing and documenting what he's doing is little more than a skilled craftsman IMO - same for most of us IT guys. There's little to evaluate and test against when something goes wrong later, and the next guy to face your work has to reverse-engineer it before actually doing his job.
The "intimate knowledge" should be written as explicitly a possible, and common workarounds can be put in a cookbook format. Some things - like the political stuff - probably has to be passed word-of-mouth though. We all know about the ongoing costs of IT, and how big an issue maintanence is, so even 1 afternoon a week to write it up is worthwhile in the long term. The problem is pretty common in IT, but IMO it's not good enough (I'm not perfect either). It's a cultural issue, I think... too much hacking and "getting it done" and not enough planning and documentation.
I set up a University print server with lpd, netatalk, and samba 5 years ago and had no significant problems. I'm currently running a cups and samba print server in a company and have no problems at all.
Maybe Samba isn't your problem. As they say, a bad tradesman blames his tools.
Are you kidding? It's exactly the way to advance the space program!
Go to any engineering school and tell 'em the next space program intake will be full of Asian hotties with PhDs and just try to stop them excelling. People only do great things for two reasons - ego, and sex. I've done engineering, and believe me, these guys *would* go into space to get laid.
Personally, I thought the storyline was pretty good... but then many people have issues with the whole ghost thing and the future thing and whatever. There's nothing graphics or CGI related in a bad storyline anyway, as most movies seem to have problems with that.
Annual yields are around: Soybean: 40 to 50 US gal/acre Rapeseed: 110 to 145 US gal/acre Mustard: 140 US gal/acre Jatropha: 175 US gal/acre Palm oil: 650 US gal/acre Algae: 10,000 to 20,000 US gal/acre
For reference, one 42 gallon barrel of crude produces 9 gallons of dinosaur diesel (and about 19 gallons of petrol), so 1 acre of Algae farming could replace around 2000 barrels of oil. Sounds good, but the US uses 20 million barrels each day.
I think Algae farming will be the new hotness for the coming decade.
You'd need at least a chance of survival to keep things humming. I'm not sure I'd sign up for a *known* suicide mission, but I'd sign up for a *probable* suicide mission. Even if it's experimental stuff, but maybe with a schedule of automated supply ships until things got established (eg, tooling, agroculture) or the funding got cancelled.
A room full of smelly guys is bad, but I think we'd develop means of washing. Maybe the sand showers used in some movies, or perhaps just more effective recycling techniques. Maybe we'd find enough water-ice (or something close and processable) to make it a non-issue. We'd need enough women to go around too. None of that movie-style 5 guys and the hero gets the only girl - the guys would probably kill each other. Some of the ladies would probably get pregnant at some point too... but that'd be good research...
Anyway, yeh, as a fit and intelligent 30 year old fella with no dependants, I'd sign up in an instant. People like us would accept the risks.
A closed cycle design doesn't look too bad, realatively. Similar amount of grunt as the Shuttle's main thrusters too. Open cycle is more efficient, but wouldn't be environmentally acceptable.
The final classification is the gas-core engine. This is a modification to the liquid-core design which uses rapid circulation of the fluid to create a toroidal pocket of gaseous uranium fuel in the middle of the reactor, surrounded by hydrogen. In this case the fuel does not touch the reactor wall at all, so temperatures could reach several tens of thousands of degrees, which would allow specific impulses of 3000 to 5000 lbfs/lb (30 to 50 kNs/kg). In this basic design, the "open cycle", the losses of nuclear fuel would be difficult to control, which has led to studies of the "closed cycle" or nuclear light bulb engine, where the gasseous nuclear fuel is contained in a super-high-temperature quartz container, over which the hydrogen flows. The closed cycle engine actually has much more in common with the solid-core design, but this time limited by the critical temperature of quartz instead of the fuel stack. Although less efficient than the open-cycle design, the closed-cycle design is expected to deliver a rather respectable specific impulse of about 1500-2000 lbfs/lb (15-20 kNs/kg).
I see your point, but I wouldn't have handled it that way. Instead of reversing the software and "fixing" Windows, I'd work with the vendors to fix the applications, and offer those patches via WindowsUpdate.
My PC is also made of Big Name components, and I don't have glitches and weirdness. I'm using Linux so I still have usability issues, but OS X should be able to have the best of both worlds.
Firstly, they simply don't need to support every piece of hardware out there, just the most popular current stuff... The reality is that most folks are using components from a small number of vendors, eg, Nvidia, ATI, Intel, AMD, Via, SiS, Realtek. Most of the rest adhears to one standard or another.
OK, you *need* good 3D on MacOS X, so let Nvidia and ATI do video drivers, give Via and Intel interface specs for any tricky northbridges or whatever, spec a couple of common network drivers, say Intel, Realtek, 3Com, and you're done. Much will already be handled by the kernel anyway.
Look at Solaris x86 or Be. They're not mass marketed, and they're not trying to be all things to all men (like Linux does) but on the limited "official" hardware they work just fine. As long as people accept they're taking their chances with non-spec or out-dated hardware, it's all good. And if people want they security of *knowing* it'll Just Work, they can pay for it.
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That image technology has been around forever. Just watch an episode of CSI.
That's actually not as whacked as it first seems.
You *can* improve the resolution or quality of an image if you have a video stream to process. It may be possible that Creative is doing something similar with the audio stream.
I doubt it would produce output more accurate than from an compressed CD source, but it's conceivable that they found a way to make it sound significantly better than a "standard" lossy format decoder.
It not quite as simple as leeching and rebranding. Debian isn't what makes Ubuntu good, it's what makes the system gel as a whole, IMO. What makes it good is the enormous focus on the user-experience, and the responsiveness of the developers. That's not so much about pretty icons, but about usability and stability ( and some automagic hardware support - Debian? I think not! ;-) ).
I'm not really involved with Ubuntu, but I submitted a bug report for a package that was sent upstream to Gnome - not Debian. They're not officially binary compatible, many many packages are different, and they offer the changes back to Debian. Remember also that Mandriva (ex-Mandrake) was originally a Red Hat "based" distro once.
Wasn't the US talking about MORE regulation the Internet, just the other day? I mean, damn near every porn site already has their disclaimers about age and whatever regulation the US imposed, and now they're talking about censoring porn between consenting adults too. Most of the more crazy stuff comes out the EU or Asia or South America already anyway. And this yet US sites like ogrish.com will happily show you people being beheaded.
Porn aside, US laywers are wetting themselves with anticipation to sue anyone online. P2P has only *just* survived thanks to American media corporations getting carried away with busting children and grandmothers. You want to outlaw encrypted VOIP communications so you can tap them. Your corporations happily support the likes of China with their firewall and filtering systems. Even your general IT and software instrustries are stagnating thanks to legal and ethical woes.
Some other nations *are* questionable in their intentions, but don't try to pretend that US corporations and legislators are all about freedom on the 'net.
...didn't have enough money.
He's talking about the browser plugin that (normally) ships with the JRE (which ships with the J2SE). The JRE is there, but apparently nobody makes a JVM environment for Itanium that includes the plugin.
RTFA. Redhat EL 3. IBM servers (OK, but which kind?) The whole article smells fishy to me.
* 2 weeks to install to SAP standards? Hmm. How about 1 day to install Linux, and the rest is setting up SAP and testing? 2 days to install on Windows? How much testing was included there, eh?
* "Software updates had to be manually installed to ensure SAP certification." So that's like, rpm -Uvh the_update.rpm. The HORROR!
* "We asked the customer to do a diagnostic test and the customer never responded, so it was impossible for us to address the issue," Mr McLaren says. Most folks who are serious about making it work would probably get back to them when having these problems. Almost sounds like some geek personalities were the problem, not Linux.
RedHat, IBM and SAP are all cool about running this setup - but the IT department of this consumer electronics distribution company can't handle it effectively? I think I can see where the problem is...
The cynic in me suspects they got a VERY good deal from MS for publicising this move.
That's a bugger, but still, web-browser applets != applications. If they offer the J2SE for Itanium, you should be good to go with anything other than browser applets. Java applications should run just fine, and even stand-alone applets should be runnable with the Java appletviewer.
I know. That's the real-world problem and possibly where the IT culture kicks in. IT (geek/9 types often can't or won't stand up to the PHBs who can't see past the promises they (or the sales department) have made...
IT is still a relatively new thing, so hopefully PHBs will learn not just about what IT can do, but about what IT needs to work efficiently. They wouldn't tell the production staff to forget about QA 'cause the deadline is tight, so why should they tell that to IT?
In an ideal world, much of that would be handled by appropriate documentation. In the real world, it gets harder...
We like to call ourselves professionsals, but compare our jobs to that of, say, a mechanical engineer. An engineer who jumps on the lathe and starts welding without designing and documenting what he's doing is little more than a skilled craftsman IMO - same for most of us IT guys. There's little to evaluate and test against when something goes wrong later, and the next guy to face your work has to reverse-engineer it before actually doing his job.
The "intimate knowledge" should be written as explicitly a possible, and common workarounds can be put in a cookbook format. Some things - like the political stuff - probably has to be passed word-of-mouth though. We all know about the ongoing costs of IT, and how big an issue maintanence is, so even 1 afternoon a week to write it up is worthwhile in the long term. The problem is pretty common in IT, but IMO it's not good enough (I'm not perfect either). It's a cultural issue, I think... too much hacking and "getting it done" and not enough planning and documentation.
I set up a University print server with lpd, netatalk, and samba 5 years ago and had no significant problems. I'm currently running a cups and samba print server in a company and have no problems at all.
Maybe Samba isn't your problem. As they say, a bad tradesman blames his tools.
Are you kidding? It's exactly the way to advance the space program!
Go to any engineering school and tell 'em the next space program intake will be full of Asian hotties with PhDs and just try to stop them excelling. People only do great things for two reasons - ego, and sex. I've done engineering, and believe me, these guys *would* go into space to get laid.
Personally, I thought the storyline was pretty good... but then many people have issues with the whole ghost thing and the future thing and whatever. There's nothing graphics or CGI related in a bad storyline anyway, as most movies seem to have problems with that.
So it's in the realm of doable, even without everyone having to give up SUVs and drive a Smart everywhere. Nice.
Indeed. Farmers are always bitching about their existing markets, so go grow some Biodiesel instead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel
Annual yields are around:
Soybean: 40 to 50 US gal/acre
Rapeseed: 110 to 145 US gal/acre
Mustard: 140 US gal/acre
Jatropha: 175 US gal/acre
Palm oil: 650 US gal/acre
Algae: 10,000 to 20,000 US gal/acre
For reference, one 42 gallon barrel of crude produces 9 gallons of dinosaur diesel (and about 19 gallons of petrol), so 1 acre of Algae farming could replace around 2000 barrels of oil. Sounds good, but the US uses 20 million barrels each day.
I think Algae farming will be the new hotness for the coming decade.
As I understand it, "MySQL" 5 will support all that stuff... It looks like a development of SAP-DB with some MySQL branding and usability added.
If it costs $1.49 to avoid colon cancer checkups, I'm all for it!
The real question is, who was on the "panel"? 7 engineers? 7 rocket scientests? 7 management experts? Or 7 career politicians?
Dude, get a diesel.
You'd need at least a chance of survival to keep things humming. I'm not sure I'd sign up for a *known* suicide mission, but I'd sign up for a *probable* suicide mission. Even if it's experimental stuff, but maybe with a schedule of automated supply ships until things got established (eg, tooling, agroculture) or the funding got cancelled.
A room full of smelly guys is bad, but I think we'd develop means of washing. Maybe the sand showers used in some movies, or perhaps just more effective recycling techniques. Maybe we'd find enough water-ice (or something close and processable) to make it a non-issue. We'd need enough women to go around too. None of that movie-style 5 guys and the hero gets the only girl - the guys would probably kill each other. Some of the ladies would probably get pregnant at some point too... but that'd be good research...
Anyway, yeh, as a fit and intelligent 30 year old fella with no dependants, I'd sign up in an instant. People like us would accept the risks.
A closed cycle design doesn't look too bad, realatively. Similar amount of grunt as the Shuttle's main thrusters too. Open cycle is more efficient, but wouldn't be environmentally acceptable.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Thermal_Rocke t
The final classification is the gas-core engine. This is a modification to the liquid-core design which uses rapid circulation of the fluid to create a toroidal pocket of gaseous uranium fuel in the middle of the reactor, surrounded by hydrogen. In this case the fuel does not touch the reactor wall at all, so temperatures could reach several tens of thousands of degrees, which would allow specific impulses of 3000 to 5000 lbfs/lb (30 to 50 kNs/kg). In this basic design, the "open cycle", the losses of nuclear fuel would be difficult to control, which has led to studies of the "closed cycle" or nuclear light bulb engine, where the gasseous nuclear fuel is contained in a super-high-temperature quartz container, over which the hydrogen flows. The closed cycle engine actually has much more in common with the solid-core design, but this time limited by the critical temperature of quartz instead of the fuel stack. Although less efficient than the open-cycle design, the closed-cycle design is expected to deliver a rather respectable specific impulse of about 1500-2000 lbfs/lb (15-20 kNs/kg).
So, jets are no good at high altitude. Carrying two-part fuel is heavy and inefficient. Chemical rockets are dangerous.
Guess it's time to look harder at alternatives? Maybe a gas-core nuclear thermal rocket for launch, with a reactor + ion drive once in space.
I see your point, but I wouldn't have handled it that way. Instead of reversing the software and "fixing" Windows, I'd work with the vendors to fix the applications, and offer those patches via WindowsUpdate.
I have written a device driver... :-)
My PC is also made of Big Name components, and I don't have glitches and weirdness. I'm using Linux so I still have usability issues, but OS X should be able to have the best of both worlds.
Later versions of PDF seem to support transparency and translucency... sounds like hard work though. There's a couple of notes about clipping paths in PS too. http://www.answers.com/topic/transparency-in-graph ic-files
Why's this even a big deal?
Firstly, they simply don't need to support every piece of hardware out there, just the most popular current stuff... The reality is that most folks are using components from a small number of vendors, eg, Nvidia, ATI, Intel, AMD, Via, SiS, Realtek. Most of the rest adhears to one standard or another.
OK, you *need* good 3D on MacOS X, so let Nvidia and ATI do video drivers, give Via and Intel interface specs for any tricky northbridges or whatever, spec a couple of common network drivers, say Intel, Realtek, 3Com, and you're done. Much will already be handled by the kernel anyway.
Look at Solaris x86 or Be. They're not mass marketed, and they're not trying to be all things to all men (like Linux does) but on the limited "official" hardware they work just fine. As long as people accept they're taking their chances with non-spec or out-dated hardware, it's all good. And if people want they security of *knowing* it'll Just Work, they can pay for it.