And Windows XP isn't so fast when you're emulating it on a CPU that could barely run it natively very well (if it were native to this architecture)
I know that Mac users often lose touch with developments on the other side of the fence, but this is simply incorrect. You can run Windows XP on a 300MHz with 128MB of RAM computer. A 900MHz G3 (which is faster clock-for-clock than a Pentium III) could easily run XP if it were ported natively. Not that anyone would!
You'll still have to wait forever just to boot Mac OS X on PearPC. I wouldn't exactly call their emulation speed "usable" at this time. It's more of a proof-of-concept. It may get better, but there are some challenging problems emulating PPC on x86 (or indeed any architecture on any other architecture with fewer GPRs).
Why on earth would I want a closed source browser that contains Adware when I can have an open source browser that has more features (with easily installed extensions) for free? Opera works great on my Nokia, but I don't think I'll be installing their desktop software any time soon.
Could this be the business model of the future? Announce a technology and write a standard, wait for a competitor to develop it, then buy that competitor and market their work?!
I quite agree. We replaced the lawn in our backgarden with a patio area adjacent to the house and some steps up (it's on a hill) to an area of decking surrounded by bushes, gravel, woodchip, and so on. It looks much better and is much easier to maintain than some browny-yellowy grass rectangle (which is the colour most lawns end up during the summer months).
I hope they integrate the bookmark sorting extension into Firefox 1.1, since it doesn't appear to be in 1.0. I hate to be pedantic, but bookmark sorting really is useful and rather important for many people, and whilst I know Firefox goes with the attitude that as little as possible superfluous functionality should be included as possible and left to extensions, many users can't be bothered to install them, and besides, sorting bookmarks ranks up there with "Printing" for me.
It doesn't surprise me. Broadband really does change the way you use the Internet, and indeed the computer. No-longer do you have to dial up (or dialing up is automatic and takes seconds), the Internet is just "there" whenever you want to access information.
I have always used the Internet too much, but I definitely notice it has changed the way several of my friends and relations have used their computers.
Just being able to search for something on Google whenever you want, without worrying about people potentially trying to phone you or your minutes running out or your phone line getting hung up is a major boon to trying to write a document or even just read the news.
No, the reason the X-Box has been so successful is because of marketing - people think it's a good games console (and it is). Modding consoles is still a "minority sport", modders themselves accounting for a relatively small portion of total sales.
Okay then, perhaps not a Celeron. They perform terribly anyway. What about an AMD-based system? This is from newegg.com, who are usually pretty good, or so I've been told (I'm not actually in America, so I don't usually find bargains in dollars):
A grand total of about $200. This isn't much more. People who buy things just because they have money burning a hole in their pocket are fools, considering they could wait another month and buy something about 3 times as powerful.
How long has the XBox hardware remained the same now? When they were released, sure, they were a bargain for 733MHz/64MB, but I can go and buy dirt cheap components and build a 2GHz Celeron with 256MB of RAM and video on the motherboard for the same kind of money. Isn't that better value than this?
It may run Linux at the bottom, but what of the GUI? Most likely it's some kind of memory mapped framebuffer, because you don't need anything more advanced than this for a mobile phone (although that may no longer be true with all the 3D games coming out, but I don't see a particularly rich interface on this phone in the marketing pictures).
Have the company released the api specification for the application that runs on top of the kernel and powers the phone's interface, so that developers can create new software that integrates with the phone? Without that, the phone is more proprietary in many ways than Symbian, Palm or PocketPC.
Remember that you can be quite clever here, since in general, most people seem to reckon that running a proprietary closed-source application on top of a GPL kernel isn't a violation of the license. So they can keep the source code for the GUI under wraps for as long as they want.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for using Linux in embedded devices, especially if there are Dollars or Euros or Yen going towards kernel.org to support this kind of work. But really, it's not a big deal from an end user's perspective, or indeed a Slashdot geek's perspective.
As a sidenote, haven't Nokia proved that freakish form factors don't actually sell? How am I supposed to look at the screen whilst typing a text message or e-mail on this phone?
Because it takes considerable time to develop an embedded system, writing drivers for custom hardware and software to run on top to connect up all the bits. Typically things like the kernel version would be set in stone at the begining of the project, and not upgraded for fear of causing problems or moving deadlines. It's much easier to develop for a stationary rather than a moving target.
Well, HTTP works over TCP/IP, not UDP/IP or ICMP/IP. For the majority of Internet traffic, TCP/IP is an accurate description of the underlying protocol. DNS is the only thing used regularly these days that runs over UDP/IP, something like >75% of traffic on transatlantic links is TCP, only 14% UDP.
That monitor has a claimed 12ms response time, which is equivilent to 83Hz (1 / 0.012s), which is as good as if not better than most CRTs out there, although some people claim to be able to see flicker right up to 85Hz (although much of the time I think the problem is about 5cm behind the eye, not in the eye itself).
I can see flicker at 70Hz, but I can usually get on with 75Hz or 80Hz. I hate CRTs anyway, wouldn't touch them unless forced to nowadays. The geometry and sharpness of an LCD more than make up for any ghosting you see when playing FPS, which I hardly notice even with a 20ms screen.
I'm moderated Troll for this? I love Wikipedia and have contributed to it on and off when I have the time. If you take the time to read properly, my comments are positive, not a negative!.
Does Wikipedia claim to be "authoritative" anywhere? The Internet has led to a variety of totally new media over the last couple of decades. Perhaps we should treat an "open content encyclopedia" as something conceptually different from a "traditional encyclopedia", in the same way a blog is different from a paper diary or an e-mail is different from a "snail mail".
Each of these evolved from older print-based media, but each of them have a slightly different "dynamic".
It's blindingly obvious to anyone who has clicked the numerous "Edit" links on a Wikipedia page that Wikipedia is fundamentally different to a print-based Encyclopedia Britannica or Encarta. What this doesn't mean is that it's useless or pointless or should be discounted as a source. It should just be treated in an appropriate way given what it is.
Slashdot Mirror
An interesting question for you, then: If this happened, would your next purchase be a new G6 Mac (or whatever) or a Pentium 5?
You'll still have to wait forever just to boot Mac OS X on PearPC. I wouldn't exactly call their emulation speed "usable" at this time. It's more of a proof-of-concept. It may get better, but there are some challenging problems emulating PPC on x86 (or indeed any architecture on any other architecture with fewer GPRs).
Erm, you shouldn't come to a stop on highway on-ramps...
Why on earth would I want a closed source browser that contains Adware when I can have an open source browser that has more features (with easily installed extensions) for free? Opera works great on my Nokia, but I don't think I'll be installing their desktop software any time soon.
Could this be the business model of the future? Announce a technology and write a standard, wait for a competitor to develop it, then buy that competitor and market their work?!
Exactly how would you do open source tech support?
I quite agree. We replaced the lawn in our backgarden with a patio area adjacent to the house and some steps up (it's on a hill) to an area of decking surrounded by bushes, gravel, woodchip, and so on. It looks much better and is much easier to maintain than some browny-yellowy grass rectangle (which is the colour most lawns end up during the summer months).
Quite, I'm all in favour of a theme park maximising throughput and by consequence reducing waiting time.
Pity about your (non-)scalable server ;)
No, I use Gentoo myself, I was just surprised to see it in a "production server" setting.
Mozilla.org is running Gentoo?
COMMENT RETRACTED. There appears to be a "Sort by Name" option on the right click menu. Firefox is now the perfect browser!
I hope they integrate the bookmark sorting extension into Firefox 1.1, since it doesn't appear to be in 1.0. I hate to be pedantic, but bookmark sorting really is useful and rather important for many people, and whilst I know Firefox goes with the attitude that as little as possible superfluous functionality should be included as possible and left to extensions, many users can't be bothered to install them, and besides, sorting bookmarks ranks up there with "Printing" for me.
Would that be the FAT32 lady?
It doesn't surprise me. Broadband really does change the way you use the Internet, and indeed the computer. No-longer do you have to dial up (or dialing up is automatic and takes seconds), the Internet is just "there" whenever you want to access information.
I have always used the Internet too much, but I definitely notice it has changed the way several of my friends and relations have used their computers.
Just being able to search for something on Google whenever you want, without worrying about people potentially trying to phone you or your minutes running out or your phone line getting hung up is a major boon to trying to write a document or even just read the news.
No, the reason the X-Box has been so successful is because of marketing - people think it's a good games console (and it is). Modding consoles is still a "minority sport", modders themselves accounting for a relatively small portion of total sales.
Okay then, perhaps not a Celeron. They perform terribly anyway. What about an AMD-based system? This is from newegg.com, who are usually pretty good, or so I've been told (I'm not actually in America, so I don't usually find bargains in dollars):
AMD Duron 1.8GHz: $53
PCCHIPS M825G V9.2A: $37
Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM: $48
V-DATA 184 Pin 128M DDR PC-2700: $22
SAMSUNG 16X DVD Drive: $25
Linkworld Case: $13
A grand total of about $200. This isn't much more. People who buy things just because they have money burning a hole in their pocket are fools, considering they could wait another month and buy something about 3 times as powerful.
How long has the XBox hardware remained the same now? When they were released, sure, they were a bargain for 733MHz/64MB, but I can go and buy dirt cheap components and build a 2GHz Celeron with 256MB of RAM and video on the motherboard for the same kind of money. Isn't that better value than this?
It may run Linux at the bottom, but what of the GUI? Most likely it's some kind of memory mapped framebuffer, because you don't need anything more advanced than this for a mobile phone (although that may no longer be true with all the 3D games coming out, but I don't see a particularly rich interface on this phone in the marketing pictures).
Have the company released the api specification for the application that runs on top of the kernel and powers the phone's interface, so that developers can create new software that integrates with the phone? Without that, the phone is more proprietary in many ways than Symbian, Palm or PocketPC.
Remember that you can be quite clever here, since in general, most people seem to reckon that running a proprietary closed-source application on top of a GPL kernel isn't a violation of the license. So they can keep the source code for the GUI under wraps for as long as they want.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for using Linux in embedded devices, especially if there are Dollars or Euros or Yen going towards kernel.org to support this kind of work. But really, it's not a big deal from an end user's perspective, or indeed a Slashdot geek's perspective.
As a sidenote, haven't Nokia proved that freakish form factors don't actually sell? How am I supposed to look at the screen whilst typing a text message or e-mail on this phone?
Because it takes considerable time to develop an embedded system, writing drivers for custom hardware and software to run on top to connect up all the bits. Typically things like the kernel version would be set in stone at the begining of the project, and not upgraded for fear of causing problems or moving deadlines. It's much easier to develop for a stationary rather than a moving target.
Well, HTTP works over TCP/IP, not UDP/IP or ICMP/IP. For the majority of Internet traffic, TCP/IP is an accurate description of the underlying protocol. DNS is the only thing used regularly these days that runs over UDP/IP, something like >75% of traffic on transatlantic links is TCP, only 14% UDP.
That monitor has a claimed 12ms response time, which is equivilent to 83Hz (1 / 0.012s), which is as good as if not better than most CRTs out there, although some people claim to be able to see flicker right up to 85Hz (although much of the time I think the problem is about 5cm behind the eye, not in the eye itself).
I can see flicker at 70Hz, but I can usually get on with 75Hz or 80Hz. I hate CRTs anyway, wouldn't touch them unless forced to nowadays. The geometry and sharpness of an LCD more than make up for any ghosting you see when playing FPS, which I hardly notice even with a 20ms screen.
I'm moderated Troll for this? I love Wikipedia and have contributed to it on and off when I have the time. If you take the time to read properly, my comments are positive, not a negative!.
Does Wikipedia claim to be "authoritative" anywhere? The Internet has led to a variety of totally new media over the last couple of decades. Perhaps we should treat an "open content encyclopedia" as something conceptually different from a "traditional encyclopedia", in the same way a blog is different from a paper diary or an e-mail is different from a "snail mail".
Each of these evolved from older print-based media, but each of them have a slightly different "dynamic".
It's blindingly obvious to anyone who has clicked the numerous "Edit" links on a Wikipedia page that Wikipedia is fundamentally different to a print-based Encyclopedia Britannica or Encarta. What this doesn't mean is that it's useless or pointless or should be discounted as a source. It should just be treated in an appropriate way given what it is.