Make the damn thing so that we can cut it to a desired size and easily control it without needing an expensive built-in or external controller and everyone who builds arcade cabinets will finally have dynamic marquees that looks almost as real as the real thing.
LCD panels may be more bright, but you can't easily cut that. Normal marquees may be backlit but it's not quite the same as LCD.
Plus, we'll be able to have slightly rounded dynamic marquees, instead of being limited to flat ones like with LCD.
Why would you drop the multi-touch screen? You are on the go, your complete computer is with you but just with a smaller display and a touch interface.
When it's "docked", you use your regular, big LCD display, your full-size keyboard and your mouse/trackpad. As for the I/O, either all wireless and/or via the dock connector.
All computer manufacturers would need to make their own wish-list, then sit down with the others and come up with some sorts of standards for the parts.
Given that there's a lot of different laptops available, I would assume a list of form-factors based on current LCD sizes (8.9", 11.6", 13.3", 15", 17", 21"), with options depending on the case size for compact or full-size keyboards, 1.8" and 2.5" bays for SATA hard drives, swapable GPU, standard batteries sizes, etc.
Then add bonuses like having hard drive and optical bays required to have all connectors for either SATA or batteries, meaning you could ditch the optical drive and put a 2nd or 3rd battery in your laptop, or go for a RAID setup.
Grades could be given on the laptops depending on the number of standards they follow.
Oh, you mean like an iPhone or an iPod touch? It's still your full computer but it's also pocketable. At your desk, it connects wirelessly to your screen, keyboard, mouse, etc. Just wait a few years. I'd bet Apple already has prototypes of such things in their labs, somewhere.
You can't seriously compare a space-wasting AXT tower with most products made by Apple. Or compare oranges with oranges and use the Mac Pro as the Apple product to compare against your ATX tower.
The smaller and more portable you get, the more customs the parts are. Even then, changing the RAM in the new Mac mini is extremely easy, no tools required.
[...] it will be a vassal who brings a large number of eyeballs to the table...
Shrek: Well, actually, that would be a giant. Now ogres, oh, they're much worse! They'll make a suit from your freshly peeled skin; they'll shave your liver; squeeze the jelly from your eyes! Actually, it's quite good on toast.
Canada was leading, about a decade ago. Then companies stopped investing in new infrastructure and let things stagnate... And we still pay probably more than you do. And we have monthly caps too, which accounts for both download+upload added up together.
Adding 100 would have been something a human would have done. It was the next model in the series, so it's current_model+=1. There's nothing more mechanical and logical then to add only one to a model number.
But 5 mbps means 5 megabits per second, not 5 megabytes per second. What you have is probably a 40 mbps connection, which is 8 times faster than what passes for "high-speed" in north america.
The fact that the Mac mini server has a case a bit different from the non-server Mac mini, the fact that they designed it to use two hard drives instead of just not including the optical drive makes me believe it was their plan all along. Those who need power will use Mac Pros, otherwise for small businesses it's overkill.
The Mac mini server could have used an external power supply with two power inputs, however, to match real-world server requirements.
A speed of 5 mbps is probably the average high-speed connection, at least in a lot of rural areas of Canada. However, at around 500 kilobytes per second, assuming a DivX file of 700 megabytes, it means 1400 seconds (about 24 minutes) if your connection is peaking 100% of the time. A lot of ISPs throttle P2P and torrents, some inject "disconnection" packets to disrupt the transfers, some lower the non-standard-ports connection speeds during the day.
In short, most people won't be able to get a movie in 6 to 12 minutes. However, commercial services such as iTunes and Netflix allow for real-time streaming since you get the data in progressive order instead of out-of-order like P2P/torrents. ISPs also don't throttle the commercial services because then we can complain. I usually get near 600 kilobytes per second downloads from the iTunes Store.
First of all, what is know as "high-speed" in north america (both Canada and USA) is far slower than what is known as "high-speed" in europe. You might be able to download a movie in a few minutes, but when you have to wait from 2 to 12 hours before you can start watching a movie, you'll choose legal streams instead.
Unfortunately, the selection of Netflix Canada is so bad that so far it's not even worth the 7.99$CAD they're asking for. Hopefully, the selection will get better in a while. I hate these limited licensing deals, our internet providers are also our content providers so they do everything they can to block any kind of competition. Free markets at work? I wish. Time for the CRTC to disappear.
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Cobra!!!
All I'm asking for is an interface that can be used by hobbyists with a low-cost micro-controller.
There's quite a few projects about dynamic arcade cabinet marquees on Arcade Controls forums.
Screw USB, let's use DVI or DisplayPort.
Make the damn thing so that we can cut it to a desired size and easily control it without needing an expensive built-in or external controller and everyone who builds arcade cabinets will finally have dynamic marquees that looks almost as real as the real thing.
LCD panels may be more bright, but you can't easily cut that. Normal marquees may be backlit but it's not quite the same as LCD.
Plus, we'll be able to have slightly rounded dynamic marquees, instead of being limited to flat ones like with LCD.
Why would you drop the multi-touch screen? You are on the go, your complete computer is with you but just with a smaller display and a touch interface.
When it's "docked", you use your regular, big LCD display, your full-size keyboard and your mouse/trackpad. As for the I/O, either all wireless and/or via the dock connector.
They used to be, but not anymore.
Looks easy to me.
All computer manufacturers would need to make their own wish-list, then sit down with the others and come up with some sorts of standards for the parts.
Given that there's a lot of different laptops available, I would assume a list of form-factors based on current LCD sizes (8.9", 11.6", 13.3", 15", 17", 21"), with options depending on the case size for compact or full-size keyboards, 1.8" and 2.5" bays for SATA hard drives, swapable GPU, standard batteries sizes, etc.
Then add bonuses like having hard drive and optical bays required to have all connectors for either SATA or batteries, meaning you could ditch the optical drive and put a 2nd or 3rd battery in your laptop, or go for a RAID setup.
Grades could be given on the laptops depending on the number of standards they follow.
Oh, you mean like an iPhone or an iPod touch? It's still your full computer but it's also pocketable. At your desk, it connects wirelessly to your screen, keyboard, mouse, etc. Just wait a few years. I'd bet Apple already has prototypes of such things in their labs, somewhere.
You can't seriously compare a space-wasting AXT tower with most products made by Apple. Or compare oranges with oranges and use the Mac Pro as the Apple product to compare against your ATX tower.
The smaller and more portable you get, the more customs the parts are. Even then, changing the RAM in the new Mac mini is extremely easy, no tools required.
Shrek: Well, actually, that would be a giant. Now ogres, oh, they're much worse! They'll make a suit from your freshly peeled skin; they'll shave your liver; squeeze the jelly from your eyes! Actually, it's quite good on toast.
Damn Slashdot and its "no editing allowed" forums. I forgot to close the link tag in my post above and now I can't fix it.
Most nerds I know still have their own websites, or at least are members of very specialized website forums such as ArcadeControls. But regular people and most family members have Facebook accounts.
Canada was leading, about a decade ago. Then companies stopped investing in new infrastructure and let things stagnate... And we still pay probably more than you do. And we have monthly caps too, which accounts for both download+upload added up together.
Adding 100 would have been something a human would have done. It was the next model in the series, so it's current_model+=1. There's nothing more mechanical and logical then to add only one to a model number.
Netflix Canada may be working just fine, but their selection is so poor at the moment that it's not even worth bothering with it.
But 5 mbps means 5 megabits per second, not 5 megabytes per second. What you have is probably a 40 mbps connection, which is 8 times faster than what passes for "high-speed" in north america.
You don't want to know how pissed the alpha centauriettes really are.
Why am I always without mod points when I need them? +1 funny to you, sir.
The fact that the Mac mini server has a case a bit different from the non-server Mac mini, the fact that they designed it to use two hard drives instead of just not including the optical drive makes me believe it was their plan all along. Those who need power will use Mac Pros, otherwise for small businesses it's overkill.
The Mac mini server could have used an external power supply with two power inputs, however, to match real-world server requirements.
A speed of 5 mbps is probably the average high-speed connection, at least in a lot of rural areas of Canada. However, at around 500 kilobytes per second, assuming a DivX file of 700 megabytes, it means 1400 seconds (about 24 minutes) if your connection is peaking 100% of the time. A lot of ISPs throttle P2P and torrents, some inject "disconnection" packets to disrupt the transfers, some lower the non-standard-ports connection speeds during the day.
In short, most people won't be able to get a movie in 6 to 12 minutes. However, commercial services such as iTunes and Netflix allow for real-time streaming since you get the data in progressive order instead of out-of-order like P2P/torrents. ISPs also don't throttle the commercial services because then we can complain. I usually get near 600 kilobytes per second downloads from the iTunes Store.
Hulu 2.0: The Search for More Money*
With apologies to Mel Brooks.
First of all, what is know as "high-speed" in north america (both Canada and USA) is far slower than what is known as "high-speed" in europe. You might be able to download a movie in a few minutes, but when you have to wait from 2 to 12 hours before you can start watching a movie, you'll choose legal streams instead.
Unfortunately, the selection of Netflix Canada is so bad that so far it's not even worth the 7.99$CAD they're asking for. Hopefully, the selection will get better in a while. I hate these limited licensing deals, our internet providers are also our content providers so they do everything they can to block any kind of competition. Free markets at work? I wish. Time for the CRTC to disappear.
It seems it still applies to the USA only. You can probably blame region-based content licensing for all these artificial limitations.