How fast are these processors getting lately! It just seems odd that a few years ago a jump in processor speed or architecture actually meant something significant. But lately I haven't been noticing this phenomenon as much. Clock speeds are skyrocketing at the same if not greater rate than in previous years but applications seem to demand proportionatly less cycles as time goes on. In 95 a computer could barely keep up with the demands for more memory, cpu speed and whatnot by programs making many computers unusable after about a year. Now we see in a years time improvements in opening photoshop a few seconds quicker than before. Please dont flame this post saying that IA64 is meant for high end servers and workstations, I realize this, but is advancement in clock speed and architecture really as important a step as it used to be.
As far as I've seen recently, the majority of bootleg movies didn't come from a videotaped recording, but rather from award screener dvds instead. This law should have came in effect back in the hayday of bootleg VHSs when bootleggers relied on taping of the bigscreen. Back in the day you defintitely knew it was recorded in a theater, you could even hear babies crying in the background at times.
By saying "You are aware that 99.999999% of musicians make their money by having full-time day jobs" you are automatically conceding they are not musicians. At the very best they are unemployed musicians. Hell I consider myself a musician when Im in the shower, you don't see me attending the Grammys do you... As for the recorded musicians that don't get their cut, I could care less about the few bands here and there trying to eek out a few cents from records, good luck and die trying eh. True it happens, but the whole point is the majority of music stolen from P2P services are not from these small indie bands or these unemployed musicians (a lot of these bands would not mind the extra publicity offered by file sharing); rather, the majority of the music that is stolen off of file sharing services are (note this carefully) "successful" commercial musicians. Do you honestly think the RIAA is suing on your behalf, honest joe schmoe in a virtually unknown band? Survey the targeted demographic of who the RIAA is trying to control, ask them if they ever heard of your band, or even of a handful of relatively "successful" indie bands. Chances are, you'd be rather disappointed at your ultimate lack of notarity in the grand scheme of things. Who do you think the RIAA is fighting for, certainly not you; they are suing for every Britney, Madonna, Metallica, whatever out there that can turnover a lot of volume merchanidise, sell videos, etc. So before you attack me and shameless attempt to promote your band, think about what you are saying.
How is fixing your computer wasting time? If anything your computer lets you do things a hell of a lot faster than if you had to do it with a calculator or god forbid in with a paper anc pencil. Computers do have errors now and then and like all things occasionally break down, unless someone designs a crashproof bugproof computer, that will do all tasks you need it to do (internet, e-mail, word processing, whatnot). Its an unavoidable existence.
That is like saying eating is a waste of time because it prevents me from doing things I need to do. Whereas in reality, logic would show you it is what allows you to do things you do.
A CD may physically (in raw materials) cost the companies only a nickel to produce but then again you have numerous things go into determing the price of any average CD.
For instance packaging (cover art/photography/printing), distribution, promotion, studio time, support staff, the artists themselves and countless other expenditures must be taken into account.
Not only that, there is also quite a markup for buying a record store such as Tower or Sam Goody, the markup is usually around 5+ dollars per CD. If you don't believe me, just look at how much Amazon can sell new CD's for and still turn a profit.
I'm not saying the industry itself is generating a lot of money, it surely is, but it is a business after all, and businesses are supposed to earn money, they are not charities. I certainly do not believe that the artists are recieving the short end of the stick either. When was the last time you saw them "struggling."
I feel no pity for the artists, the RIAA, or the music industry, but at the same time can't uphold the attitude that blatent thievery is justified because we deem it ill gotten or not of equitable trade value.
In the end, the only real losers are the little people stuck in the middle. The janitor or secretary working at EMI being laid off to keep up beefy profits for the investor (the general consuming public), or the mom and pop record stores inability to compete with price slashing tactics og larger chains...
Re:india is going to be real strong: something to
on
Joining the Global Village
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
No issue is quite as one sided as you make it appear. It is true that the United States has become slower to change, happily grumbling along as the world's unchallenged and unrivaled superpower. And it is true that many speculate the rise of nations such as China or India to rival superpower status. However, most Americans would cringe at the methods of their advancement tactic. India for example has those who are spectacularly wealthly, and enough "middle class" to possibly outnumber the entirety of the US, however, the disparity of wealth distribution is staggering creating a per capita income substanially lower than developed nations. This is exactly why these nations have been deemed as "developing nations." Millions still live in what the west would consider impoverished conditions and many more in conditions not so much better off. With rapid globalization, labor (technical or otherwise) has been diverted to the lowest bidder, namely India and China. By burning through human capital, India and nations similar to India are able to compete with larger nations. But at what human price?
Contrasting this situation is the United State's early run in with Japan's ultra modern and efficient sttel and car industry. Japanese competition was very much that, competition. The products made were of high quality, and cheaper or if not comparable prices to domestic products. Japanese corporations did not succeed by implementing substandard labor practices (as deemed by the UN human rights), they fought with more efficient technology, buisness practices, and market savvy.
How can any nation compete on such an economic plane. Without a substantial percentage of the population participating in the economic activities of the nation, a rise to a position of a superpower would leave little room for human rights improvements. An economy that produces materials and good which many of its own citizens cannot buy is not one deemed for any long term stable growth. Furthermore such economic situations tend to cause political instabilities and resulting market scares.
This analysis fails to regard private and political institutions and religious factionalizations within India, but is just a gist of what I am alluding to.
The promise of a better India doesn't scare me, just the idea of the future one.
Yes its DRM crap, blah blah blah, helping Microsofts evil empire, but in the end WMA is useful for certain purposes. For starters WMA is really small (sizewize) for a relatively small perceivable difference in quality (as compared to mp3 or vorbis). Many people, such as myself who has yet convinced themselves of the need of a $300 metrosexual harddrive on steroids still rely on limited flash memory to hold our muzak. Personally I have about 10 albums in WMA fit onto a 256 SD card to play on my pocketpc (far more useful than an ipod) True the WMA codec distorts certain frequencies (making equalizers useless) and is by definition, a lossy format but for all normal listening purposes (non of those wankers who say an LP sounds better than a CD) its perfectly usable, the percieved differences in sound quality are quite acceptable. Whats more is ease of ripping CD's in windows media player; I make sure to rip in 256 mp3 as well, but for portables where every kb counts, wma just makes sense.
For $400 bucks Maxtor offers a 300gb portable backup hard drive, and $200 for a 120gb version. The idea of a network file server backup is nice but probably missing the mark with its targeted consumers. I would imagine most lay people would rather just plug something into the USB port of their computers rather than messing around with networking and whatnot.
Battery research is focusing heavily on lithium chemistries, so much so that one could presume that all portable devices will be powered with lithium-ion batteries in the future. In many ways, lithium-ion is superior to nickel and lead-based chemistries and the applications for lithium-ion batteries are growing as a result.
lithium-ion has not yet fully matured and is being improved continuously. New metal and chemical combinations are being tried every six months to increase energy density and prolong service life. The improvements in longevity after each change will not be known for a few years.
A lithium-ion battery provides 300-500 discharge/charge cycles. The battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible. Instead, charge the battery more often or use a larger battery. There is no concern of memory when applying unscheduled charges.
Although lithium-ion is memory-free in terms of performance deterioration, batteries with fuel gauges exhibit what engineers refer to as "digital memory". Here is the reason: short discharges with subsequent recharges do not provide the periodic calibration needed to synchronize the fuel gauge with the battery's state-of-charge. A deliberate full discharge and recharge every 30 charges corrects this problem. Letting the battery run down to the cut-off point in the equipment will do this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate. (Read more in 'Choosing the right battery for portable computing', Part Two.)
Aging of lithium-ion is an issue that is often ignored. lithium-based batteries have a lifetime of 2-3 years. The clock starts ticking as soon as the battery comes off the manufacturing line. The capacity loss manifests itself in increased internal resistance caused by oxidation. Eventually, the cell resistance will reach a point where the pack can no longer deliver the stored energy, although the battery may still contain ample charge.
The speed by which lithium-ion ages is governed by temperature and state-of-charge. Figure 1 illustrates the capacity loss as a function of these two parameters.
Figure 1: Permanent capacity loss of lithium-ion as a function of temperature and charge level. High charge levels and elevated temperatures hasten permanent capacity loss. Improvements in chemistry have increased the storage performance of lithium-ion batteries.
There are no remedies to restore lithium-ion once worn out. A momentarily improvement in performance is noticeable when heating up the battery. This lowers the internal resistance but the condition reverts back to its former state with the temperature drops.
If possible, store the battery in a cool place at about a 40% state-of-charge. Some reserve charge is needed to keep the battery and its protection circuit operational during prolonged storage. The most harmful combination is full charge at high temperature. This is the case when placing a cell phone or spare battery in a hot car. Running a laptop computer on the mains has a similar temperature problem. While the battery is kept fully charged, the inside temperature during operation rises to 45C (113F).
Removing the battery from the laptop when running on fixed power protects the battery from heat but some battery and laptop manufacturers caution against it. They say that dust and moisture accumulating inside the battery casing could damage the laptop. The dealers will be happy to provide you with a new pack when a replacement is needed a little sooner.
A large number of lithium-ion batteries for cell phones are being discarded under the warranty return policy. Some failed batteries are sent to service centers or the manufacturer, where they are refurbished. Studies show that 80%-90% of the returned batteries can be repaired and returned to service.
Some lithium-ion batteries fail due to excessive low discharge. If discharged below 2.5 volts per cell, the i
Toshiba should release sub-1-inch hard drives in 2004, with samples on view at Las Vegas' giant CES trade show in January.
The move could herald a move to a smaller form-factor for Apple's market-leading iPod music player, as Toshiba produces the 1.8-inch drives currently used in that product. Reducing iPod size would still be limited by that of the product's battery-pack, however.
Toshiba has furnished no further details of the drive, although industry sources say that Toshiba and several other companies, including Matsushita are developing drives with 0.8-inch or 0.7-inch diameter platters. That's smaller than the CompactFlash form-factor Microdrive produced by Hitachi, which is based on a 1-inch platter, and less than half the size of the 1.8-inch drive used in the iPod.
It can't be a true Apple product if you don't have to sacrifice your first born for it... I just don't believe it. I may eat these words later, but for a 115USD a 1-2gb player that is smaller than the current ipod? Flash memory is certainly not that cheap, and as for hard disks, even a used microdrive goes for more than that. Start throwing in Li-ion cells, LCDs, apple's usual cosmetic frills and you've got $$$ just piling up. Buying in bulk will surely reduce costs but what kind of profit are we talking here catering to the low end, this seems too unlike apple?
These are typical of any area undergoing modernization. It is kind of elitest for anyone to say that they lacked planning. (even though they are) Just look at the United States when it was undergoing its telecommunications boom in the early 1900s; (wired one not the wireless kind) countless phone, telegraph, power and who knows what else lines were strung all over the place.
This is just what happens, planners can't always be expected to accomodate for the booms of a volatile industry, the private sector is pretty resilient, it will work to help itself in the quickest most efficient (not necessarily pretty) way possible. Once the government has had time to catch up and realize the ensuing chaos, then they can work to make everything nice and orderly again without disrupting the oh so important rapid expansionary growth shown in these industries.
I don't really see your argument, a power assist device with 4 wheels or treads could be easily made to do 360 degree turns, as for concrete, very few construction sites use wheelbarrows to transport concrete, or anything in as large a scale to make these gyroscope balanced gadgets to be economically effective. Most construction sites will use overhead cranes to transport and set large materials and use concrete pumping trucks to transport large amounts of concrete to areas usually inacessible by standard cement trucks. That's how they make a lot of inground pools nowadays.
The wheelbarrow is the useful old fashioned way for doing things, but the solutions to the answer you are looking for have already been found. Let's not reinvent the wheel because it simply looks cooler.
People are gettin nostalgic of 1984 computer books... Man I was born in 1984. I'm getting too old for this, gotta move to Florida put on my white golf shoes and accidentally vote for Bush again.
With the reception that my AT&T mmode phone has, tracking me by that thing is not going to be easy. I know that in DC my phone dies in the lobby of many buildings and is pretty spotty in many areas (subways, basements, parks). And even if the system does manage to get a signal, the accuracy of the system still leaves much to be desired if you are in a dense metropolitan area.
Dean Kamen mades some useful inventions in his time, but the segway just doesn't seem to meet his list of impressive accolades such as the stair climbing wheelchair and dialysis equipment. Now the military has plans to convert this thing into a militray robot, the idea seems a bit too odd to work.
As wonderful as the segway may be for paved sidewalks of the United States, these things are far too slow and bulky to be of much use on the battlefield. Using two large wheels, even with gyroscopic assist, is a bad idea for something that should be as adaptable as a battlefield robot.
We realized that wheels were a bad solution to handling varied terrain (hence tanks have treads) a long time ago, why is it suddenly fashionable again? Have the laws of physics suddenly changed? The next step in technology should involve robots with legs (similar to insects for most stable configuration). Though not nearly as efficient as wheels on flat terrain it is quite possibly the most adaptable form of locomotion.
Here are my thoughts on the problem at hand. I do not think we need to introduce these ideas of risk sharing, or economic morality into the argument to get to the core of the dilemma. The only real question worth answering is the question of "Why buy when I can get something for free?" must be answered. Some consumers, such as myself, are willing to buy CD's from places like Amazon (used or new for a modest amount) after listening to the albums on a subscription service (Rhapsody). Many would ask why do that when you can go on Kazaa, IRC, or one of the various other sources to get the same music for no expense at all. The main reason why I personally stopped downloading music was because the sources were unreliable, inconsistent (tags, lengths, bitrates), or just downright slow.
Some of you may balk at my reasoning and its understandable, just as I may like Aerosmith while you prefer U2, different people will value different things. But what does the average American consumer value? I personally did not believe saving a few bucks was worth the time and effort in trying to find artists that I liked and attempt to keep up with all the new material that is released by any of the newer artists. I disclaim though that I generally like music which is considered mainstream, nothing too obscure, so my adoption of the on demand Rhapsody service are somewhat biased, but I believe they are biased much in the same way that the general target audience for record companies are so my arguments should hold merit.
Undoubtedly, there will always be an eclectic niche to fill for those indie/underground music that will not be touched by mainstream outlets, but that is not the point of discussion. These niche players make up a minimal porportion of the RIAA's income, hense disposable. Looking at places like Kazaa, and Morpheus where the majority of oridinary people (not slashdotters) acquire their music, most of these libraries are not so widely out of the realm of mainstream distribution as many previous posts may have you believe. A lot of these libraries are filled with easy recognizable chart topping artists.
But why buy CD's, honestly, I don't buy CD's to help the starving artists. Nor do I feel particularly upset that I am filling the coffers of the RIAA. I buy the CD's for myself, I buy it for the material good, not really the songs on them. This is what some, myself included find displeasing with services like itunes which makes the user pay to download songs. What exactly am I getting with my 99 cents a song they are charging? The satisfaction that I am a law abiding citizen??? For me that incentive doesn't quite cut it to not go to kazaa. For this reason I believe unlimited services like Rhapsody which lets you listen on demand (the entire song) from a vast library of music is superior. I consider such a system a way for paying for a service rather than just music. These services similar to that of XM radio, or cable TV. Yes I could probably search for it and find it elsewhere, but why bother with the effort when the work is already done and the prices so reasonable. I can hear pretty much anything i want, find it easily, see related artists, all in CD quality. (The system would work even better if more labels signed in on the service)
Quite frankly, I barely ever play the CD's I buy anymore, I just rip them and transfer them to my ipaq, then the CD is returned to its slot on the CD rack and retired until who knows when. I can see some of you out there reading this rolling your eyes, asking how does this relate to the people who have already made up their minds to pay nothing? Well it doesn't but it does show that the situation is not a lost cause. The companies have various ways to increase customer satisfaction in order to win these unconvinced people over.
The problem all deals with incentives to the consumer. There are two major ways record companies can react to these demand for incentives.
The first is a postive approach to increase the value of the goods they produce. After al
Slashdot Mirror
This will make those group orgies that much more interesting.
How fast are these processors getting lately! It just seems odd that a few years ago a jump in processor speed or architecture actually meant something significant. But lately I haven't been noticing this phenomenon as much. Clock speeds are skyrocketing at the same if not greater rate than in previous years but applications seem to demand proportionatly less cycles as time goes on. In 95 a computer could barely keep up with the demands for more memory, cpu speed and whatnot by programs making many computers unusable after about a year. Now we see in a years time improvements in opening photoshop a few seconds quicker than before. Please dont flame this post saying that IA64 is meant for high end servers and workstations, I realize this, but is advancement in clock speed and architecture really as important a step as it used to be.
As far as I've seen recently, the majority of bootleg movies didn't come from a videotaped recording, but rather from award screener dvds instead. This law should have came in effect back in the hayday of bootleg VHSs when bootleggers relied on taping of the bigscreen. Back in the day you defintitely knew it was recorded in a theater, you could even hear babies crying in the background at times.
By saying "You are aware that 99.999999% of musicians make their money by having full-time day jobs" you are automatically conceding they are not musicians. At the very best they are unemployed musicians. Hell I consider myself a musician when Im in the shower, you don't see me attending the Grammys do you... As for the recorded musicians that don't get their cut, I could care less about the few bands here and there trying to eek out a few cents from records, good luck and die trying eh. True it happens, but the whole point is the majority of music stolen from P2P services are not from these small indie bands or these unemployed musicians (a lot of these bands would not mind the extra publicity offered by file sharing); rather, the majority of the music that is stolen off of file sharing services are (note this carefully) "successful" commercial musicians. Do you honestly think the RIAA is suing on your behalf, honest joe schmoe in a virtually unknown band? Survey the targeted demographic of who the RIAA is trying to control, ask them if they ever heard of your band, or even of a handful of relatively "successful" indie bands. Chances are, you'd be rather disappointed at your ultimate lack of notarity in the grand scheme of things. Who do you think the RIAA is fighting for, certainly not you; they are suing for every Britney, Madonna, Metallica, whatever out there that can turnover a lot of volume merchanidise, sell videos, etc. So before you attack me and shameless attempt to promote your band, think about what you are saying.
How is fixing your computer wasting time? If anything your computer lets you do things a hell of a lot faster than if you had to do it with a calculator or god forbid in with a paper anc pencil. Computers do have errors now and then and like all things occasionally break down, unless someone designs a crashproof bugproof computer, that will do all tasks you need it to do (internet, e-mail, word processing, whatnot). Its an unavoidable existence.
That is like saying eating is a waste of time because it prevents me from doing things I need to do. Whereas in reality, logic would show you it is what allows you to do things you do.
A CD may physically (in raw materials) cost the companies only a nickel to produce but then again you have numerous things go into determing the price of any average CD.
For instance packaging (cover art/photography/printing), distribution, promotion, studio time, support staff, the artists themselves and countless other expenditures must be taken into account.
Not only that, there is also quite a markup for buying a record store such as Tower or Sam Goody, the markup is usually around 5+ dollars per CD. If you don't believe me, just look at how much Amazon can sell new CD's for and still turn a profit.
I'm not saying the industry itself is generating a lot of money, it surely is, but it is a business after all, and businesses are supposed to earn money, they are not charities. I certainly do not believe that the artists are recieving the short end of the stick either. When was the last time you saw them "struggling."
I feel no pity for the artists, the RIAA, or the music industry, but at the same time can't uphold the attitude that blatent thievery is justified because we deem it ill gotten or not of equitable trade value.
In the end, the only real losers are the little people stuck in the middle. The janitor or secretary working at EMI being laid off to keep up beefy profits for the investor (the general consuming public), or the mom and pop record stores inability to compete with price slashing tactics og larger chains...
No issue is quite as one sided as you make it appear. It is true that the United States has become slower to change, happily grumbling along as the world's unchallenged and unrivaled superpower. And it is true that many speculate the rise of nations such as China or India to rival superpower status. However, most Americans would cringe at the methods of their advancement tactic. India for example has those who are spectacularly wealthly, and enough "middle class" to possibly outnumber the entirety of the US, however, the disparity of wealth distribution is staggering creating a per capita income substanially lower than developed nations. This is exactly why these nations have been deemed as "developing nations." Millions still live in what the west would consider impoverished conditions and many more in conditions not so much better off. With rapid globalization, labor (technical or otherwise) has been diverted to the lowest bidder, namely India and China. By burning through human capital, India and nations similar to India are able to compete with larger nations. But at what human price?
Contrasting this situation is the United State's early run in with Japan's ultra modern and efficient sttel and car industry. Japanese competition was very much that, competition. The products made were of high quality, and cheaper or if not comparable prices to domestic products. Japanese corporations did not succeed by implementing substandard labor practices (as deemed by the UN human rights), they fought with more efficient technology, buisness practices, and market savvy.
How can any nation compete on such an economic plane. Without a substantial percentage of the population participating in the economic activities of the nation, a rise to a position of a superpower would leave little room for human rights improvements. An economy that produces materials and good which many of its own citizens cannot buy is not one deemed for any long term stable growth. Furthermore such economic situations tend to cause political instabilities and resulting market scares.
This analysis fails to regard private and political institutions and religious factionalizations within India, but is just a gist of what I am alluding to.
The promise of a better India doesn't scare me, just the idea of the future one.
Yes its DRM crap, blah blah blah, helping Microsofts evil empire, but in the end WMA is useful for certain purposes. For starters WMA is really small (sizewize) for a relatively small perceivable difference in quality (as compared to mp3 or vorbis). Many people, such as myself who has yet convinced themselves of the need of a $300 metrosexual harddrive on steroids still rely on limited flash memory to hold our muzak. Personally I have about 10 albums in WMA fit onto a 256 SD card to play on my pocketpc (far more useful than an ipod) True the WMA codec distorts certain frequencies (making equalizers useless) and is by definition, a lossy format but for all normal listening purposes (non of those wankers who say an LP sounds better than a CD) its perfectly usable, the percieved differences in sound quality are quite acceptable. Whats more is ease of ripping CD's in windows media player; I make sure to rip in 256 mp3 as well, but for portables where every kb counts, wma just makes sense.
For $400 bucks Maxtor offers a 300gb portable backup hard drive, and $200 for a 120gb version. The idea of a network file server backup is nice but probably missing the mark with its targeted consumers. I would imagine most lay people would rather just plug something into the USB port of their computers rather than messing around with networking and whatnot.
Maxtor One Touch
"How to prolong lithium-based batteries
Battery research is focusing heavily on lithium chemistries, so much so that one could presume that all portable devices will be powered with lithium-ion batteries in the future. In many ways, lithium-ion is superior to nickel and lead-based chemistries and the applications for lithium-ion batteries are growing as a result.
lithium-ion has not yet fully matured and is being improved continuously. New metal and chemical combinations are being tried every six months to increase energy density and prolong service life. The improvements in longevity after each change will not be known for a few years.
A lithium-ion battery provides 300-500 discharge/charge cycles. The battery prefers a partial rather than a full discharge. Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible. Instead, charge the battery more often or use a larger battery. There is no concern of memory when applying unscheduled charges.
Although lithium-ion is memory-free in terms of performance deterioration, batteries with fuel gauges exhibit what engineers refer to as "digital memory". Here is the reason: short discharges with subsequent recharges do not provide the periodic calibration needed to synchronize the fuel gauge with the battery's state-of-charge. A deliberate full discharge and recharge every 30 charges corrects this problem. Letting the battery run down to the cut-off point in the equipment will do this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate. (Read more in 'Choosing the right battery for portable computing', Part Two.)
Aging of lithium-ion is an issue that is often ignored. lithium-based batteries have a lifetime of 2-3 years. The clock starts ticking as soon as the battery comes off the manufacturing line. The capacity loss manifests itself in increased internal resistance caused by oxidation. Eventually, the cell resistance will reach a point where the pack can no longer deliver the stored energy, although the battery may still contain ample charge.
The speed by which lithium-ion ages is governed by temperature and state-of-charge. Figure 1 illustrates the capacity loss as a function of these two parameters.
Figure 1: Permanent capacity loss of lithium-ion as a function of temperature and charge level.
High charge levels and elevated temperatures hasten permanent capacity loss. Improvements in chemistry have increased the storage performance of lithium-ion batteries.
There are no remedies to restore lithium-ion once worn out. A momentarily improvement in performance is noticeable when heating up the battery. This lowers the internal resistance but the condition reverts back to its former state with the temperature drops.
If possible, store the battery in a cool place at about a 40% state-of-charge. Some reserve charge is needed to keep the battery and its protection circuit operational during prolonged storage. The most harmful combination is full charge at high temperature. This is the case when placing a cell phone or spare battery in a hot car. Running a laptop computer on the mains has a similar temperature problem. While the battery is kept fully charged, the inside temperature during operation rises to 45C (113F).
Removing the battery from the laptop when running on fixed power protects the battery from heat but some battery and laptop manufacturers caution against it. They say that dust and moisture accumulating inside the battery casing could damage the laptop. The dealers will be happy to provide you with a new pack when a replacement is needed a little sooner.
A large number of lithium-ion batteries for cell phones are being discarded under the warranty return policy. Some failed batteries are sent to service centers or the manufacturer, where they are refurbished. Studies show that 80%-90% of the returned batteries can be repaired and returned to service.
Some lithium-ion batteries fail due to excessive low discharge. If discharged below 2.5 volts per cell, the i
What Affleck and J-Lo did for the silver screen, Shatner will do in the record buisness...
Neverhtheless, Shatner is a comedic genius, especially if he is being serious!
btw I forgot to include this link Macworld UK - One inch hard drives
Here's an excerpt for lazy people.
Toshiba should release sub-1-inch hard drives in 2004, with samples on view at Las Vegas' giant CES trade show in January.
The move could herald a move to a smaller form-factor for Apple's market-leading iPod music player, as Toshiba produces the 1.8-inch drives currently used in that product. Reducing iPod size would still be limited by that of the product's battery-pack, however.
Toshiba has furnished no further details of the drive, although industry sources say that Toshiba and several other companies, including Matsushita are developing drives with 0.8-inch or 0.7-inch diameter platters. That's smaller than the CompactFlash form-factor Microdrive produced by Hitachi, which is based on a 1-inch platter, and less than half the size of the 1.8-inch drive used in the iPod.
Rite Aid or Genovese? maybe a Duane Reed....
It can't be a true Apple product if you don't have to sacrifice your first born for it... I just don't believe it. I may eat these words later, but for a 115USD a 1-2gb player that is smaller than the current ipod? Flash memory is certainly not that cheap, and as for hard disks, even a used microdrive goes for more than that. Start throwing in Li-ion cells, LCDs, apple's usual cosmetic frills and you've got $$$ just piling up. Buying in bulk will surely reduce costs but what kind of profit are we talking here catering to the low end, this seems too unlike apple?
These are typical of any area undergoing modernization. It is kind of elitest for anyone to say that they lacked planning. (even though they are) Just look at the United States when it was undergoing its telecommunications boom in the early 1900s; (wired one not the wireless kind) countless phone, telegraph, power and who knows what else lines were strung all over the place.
o k/ R0112.shtml
This is just what happens, planners can't always be expected to accomodate for the booms of a volatile industry, the private sector is pretty resilient, it will work to help itself in the quickest most efficient (not necessarily pretty) way possible. Once the government has had time to catch up and realize the ensuing chaos, then they can work to make everything nice and orderly again without disrupting the oh so important rapid expansionary growth shown in these industries.
http://www.albionmich.com/history/histor_notebo
Big government sucks!
I don't really see your argument, a power assist device with 4 wheels or treads could be easily made to do 360 degree turns, as for concrete, very few construction sites use wheelbarrows to transport concrete, or anything in as large a scale to make these gyroscope balanced gadgets to be economically effective. Most construction sites will use overhead cranes to transport and set large materials and use concrete pumping trucks to transport large amounts of concrete to areas usually inacessible by standard cement trucks. That's how they make a lot of inground pools nowadays.
The wheelbarrow is the useful old fashioned way for doing things, but the solutions to the answer you are looking for have already been found. Let's not reinvent the wheel because it simply looks cooler.
People are gettin nostalgic of 1984 computer books... Man I was born in 1984. I'm getting too old for this, gotta move to Florida put on my white golf shoes and accidentally vote for Bush again.
With the reception that my AT&T mmode phone has, tracking me by that thing is not going to be easy. I know that in DC my phone dies in the lobby of many buildings and is pretty spotty in many areas (subways, basements, parks). And even if the system does manage to get a signal, the accuracy of the system still leaves much to be desired if you are in a dense metropolitan area.
Dean Kamen mades some useful inventions in his time, but the segway just doesn't seem to meet his list of impressive accolades such as the stair climbing wheelchair and dialysis equipment. Now the military has plans to convert this thing into a militray robot, the idea seems a bit too odd to work. As wonderful as the segway may be for paved sidewalks of the United States, these things are far too slow and bulky to be of much use on the battlefield. Using two large wheels, even with gyroscopic assist, is a bad idea for something that should be as adaptable as a battlefield robot. We realized that wheels were a bad solution to handling varied terrain (hence tanks have treads) a long time ago, why is it suddenly fashionable again? Have the laws of physics suddenly changed? The next step in technology should involve robots with legs (similar to insects for most stable configuration). Though not nearly as efficient as wheels on flat terrain it is quite possibly the most adaptable form of locomotion.
Here are my thoughts on the problem at hand. I do not think we need to introduce these ideas of risk sharing, or economic morality into the argument to get to the core of the dilemma. The only real question worth answering is the question of "Why buy when I can get something for free?" must be answered. Some consumers, such as myself, are willing to buy CD's from places like Amazon (used or new for a modest amount) after listening to the albums on a subscription service (Rhapsody). Many would ask why do that when you can go on Kazaa, IRC, or one of the various other sources to get the same music for no expense at all. The main reason why I personally stopped downloading music was because the sources were unreliable, inconsistent (tags, lengths, bitrates), or just downright slow.
Some of you may balk at my reasoning and its understandable, just as I may like Aerosmith while you prefer U2, different people will value different things. But what does the average American consumer value? I personally did not believe saving a few bucks was worth the time and effort in trying to find artists that I liked and attempt to keep up with all the new material that is released by any of the newer artists. I disclaim though that I generally like music which is considered mainstream, nothing too obscure, so my adoption of the on demand Rhapsody service are somewhat biased, but I believe they are biased much in the same way that the general target audience for record companies are so my arguments should hold merit.
Undoubtedly, there will always be an eclectic niche to fill for those indie/underground music that will not be touched by mainstream outlets, but that is not the point of discussion. These niche players make up a minimal porportion of the RIAA's income, hense disposable. Looking at places like Kazaa, and Morpheus where the majority of oridinary people (not slashdotters) acquire their music, most of these libraries are not so widely out of the realm of mainstream distribution as many previous posts may have you believe. A lot of these libraries are filled with easy recognizable chart topping artists.
But why buy CD's, honestly, I don't buy CD's to help the starving artists. Nor do I feel particularly upset that I am filling the coffers of the RIAA. I buy the CD's for myself, I buy it for the material good, not really the songs on them. This is what some, myself included find displeasing with services like itunes which makes the user pay to download songs. What exactly am I getting with my 99 cents a song they are charging? The satisfaction that I am a law abiding citizen??? For me that incentive doesn't quite cut it to not go to kazaa. For this reason I believe unlimited services like Rhapsody which lets you listen on demand (the entire song) from a vast library of music is superior. I consider such a system a way for paying for a service rather than just music. These services similar to that of XM radio, or cable TV. Yes I could probably search for it and find it elsewhere, but why bother with the effort when the work is already done and the prices so reasonable. I can hear pretty much anything i want, find it easily, see related artists, all in CD quality. (The system would work even better if more labels signed in on the service)
Quite frankly, I barely ever play the CD's I buy anymore, I just rip them and transfer them to my ipaq, then the CD is returned to its slot on the CD rack and retired until who knows when. I can see some of you out there reading this rolling your eyes, asking how does this relate to the people who have already made up their minds to pay nothing? Well it doesn't but it does show that the situation is not a lost cause. The companies have various ways to increase customer satisfaction in order to win these unconvinced people over.
The problem all deals with incentives to the consumer. There are two major ways record companies can react to these demand for incentives.
The first is a postive approach to increase the value of the goods they produce. After al