the possibilities are endless what could happen when you locked a bunch of roombas, some cardea segway-style bots, some aibos and and some humanoid robots in your house.
From Sunday Best Buy will be selling this a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S111 for $500. There is a rebate involved though, unfortunately. Specs:
15" XGA TFT active-matrix display with 1024 x 768 resolution
40.0GB EIDE hard drive (4200 rpm)
Intel® Extreme Graphics with 16-64MB DVMA shared video memory; S-video TV-out
i.LINK (IEEE 1394) port and 3 high-speed USB 2.0 ports for fast digital video, audio and data transfer
Integrated 10/100Base-TX Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector; V.92 high-speed modem
Weighs 6.6 lbs. and measures 1.5" thin for portable power; lithium-ion battery and AC adapter
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (SP2) operating system preinstalled; software package included with RecordNow!, InterVideo WinDVD 5 with SRS TruSurround XT technology
Paul di Filippo had a nice story a couple of years ago about this exact topic: And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon. Basically, ubiquitous deployment of UWB, MEMs, and protocols within all household devices lead to a breakout around 2040 or so...
The Volition Bug was launched anonymously from a site somewhere in a Central Asian republic. It propagated wirelessly among all the WiFi-communicating chipped objects, installing new directives in their tiny brains, directives that ran covertly in parallel with their normal factory-specified functions. Infected objects now sought to link their processing power with their nearest peers, often achieving surprising levels of Turingosity, and then to embark on a kind of independent communal life. Of course, once the Volition Bug was identified, antiviral defenses--both hardware and software--were attempted against it. But VB mutated ferociously, aided and abetted by subsequent hackers
Basically, every household now has to deal with annoying situations where random household devices clump together in big WiFi clusterfucks, get some low-grade intelligence going, and then try to escape like runaway pets.
But when the narrator's iPod, Cuisinart, LifeQuilt, and vacuum get together with his girlfriend, it all goes pear-shaped...
Trust. And several well functioning sales channels.
Enterprises don't trust Apple. They certainly don't trust Jobs. And Apple's specialized sales channels (*not* Best Buy!), such as they are, are withering away and exist in a state of seemingly perpetual cold war with Apple. Which in recent years has been moving as quickly as it can to a Dell/Gateway direct sales with boutique model that only alienates them further.
My friend, I was online and programming on a Unix machine the day the Morris Worm took it down along with a big chunk of the Internet running BSD (the ancestor of OSX). If OpenBSD can be exploited (and it has!) then your magic incantation of "Unix! Unix!" carries about as much significance as the utterations of a shaman. Do you even know anything about epidemiology? Why not go look up the words "Prevalence", and "Incidence" and then get back to me.
Take a look at Mac unit sales and dollar volume sales from 5 years ago, and from the mid-90s. Then take a look at total PC industry unit sales and dollar volume figures. Then get back to me.
Also, the fact that Apple was rrefreshing their stagnant line of G4s for G5s (and in fact the channel dried up for G4s for almost an entire quarter) created a dead cat bounce.
don't complain at the cheap security that lets your PC get buried under an avalanche of trojans and spyware..
I think you're being complacent. If the Macintosh installed base ever goes above 3% again then you will start to see viruses, trojans, and other nastiness. With a marketshare so low, Macintosh exploits are not culturally profitable for kiddies to create, and cannot reproduce because the Macintosh herd is so diffuse. Exploit propagation on connected networks is really a function of platform density.
I'd have to buy add an Audigy to the PC to get that kind of functionality.
If you think that then you are missing out on one of the best sound cards of recent years: Via's Envy24. My Envy 24 HT-S does up to 192 KHz, has optical digital in and out, bit perfect output, ASIO support, 7.1 channels, and cost me $20.
Your Game History Is Less Than Accurate
on
Top 10 Apple Flops
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
where do you think Sims (SimCity) and Tetris came from?
But there's a bigger issue in that Apple has been one of the most consistently strident anti-options expensing companies in Silicon Valley. This is because Apple has always engaged in massive year-on-year dilution of outstanding stock. It's one reason the Apple share price has been so crappy for years. And one reason why Apple's "profits" are less than the full monty.
If Apple had expensed options last year it would have had to knock down its profits by a third. And it would have lost money in each of the previous three years. If Apple did something *useful* with its cash on hand, like invest in acquisiton growth or share buybacks, then it would be useful. Tech companies holding on to that much money as dead cash is just silly.
Now, why don't you go off and check your fucking facts and stop trying to substitute profanities for information because, subconsciously, you're over-compensating for what you know at your heart is a tenuous grip on what you are actually talking about.
Does the quality of a product determine it's company's size?
Many people try to classify Apple as a luxury niche producer: a Ferrari, a Morgan. This is simple not true; Apple always was a volume vendor (in fact, once upon a time it was the world's largest PC volume vendor). It is still trying to be a volume vendor. In that kind of market, being late, failing to adequately fill your sales channels, and pissing off your dedicated channel vendors is a recipe for disaster. Apple has done all that.
the year-old article
It's predictions of the near-future were a little off. But its analysis of the past 25 years was pretty spot on. You know by lazily discounting the main thesis of an argument because of some speculative minor points is quite regressive. Apple has had minor run-ups in its fortunes before - they rarely last more than 12-18 months...
the only measure of success for a public corporation is whether it makes money.
Actually, it's all about returns for shareowners. And barring short-lived run-ups in Apple's stock that generally last 12-18 months, owning Apple stock over the past 25 years has been one of the consistently worst long major tech positions you can find. But it's a great stock to short on the way down! Actually, given inflation, shorting on the way down is the only way you could have made a decent return on Apple!
Don't forget the II GS. That was a killer machine with sound processing to die for. When it was released it made the available Macs look a bit weak (I think all there was available was the 128/512K models, the Mac Plus, and the Lisa/MacXL). All monochrome, very dull, totally unexpandable. Very pricey!
People who say that Apple's rot began when Jobs was fired miss the point. Jobs had managed to convince the execs (both regulars and the people who replaced him) that the II line was dead as a dodo and they should focus on the Mac. So Apple did, basically letting their mindshare evaporate within the personal and education markets. Apple had an extremely strong position but managed the transition to Mac very badly, or in fact failed to manage it at all. The II died from neglect.
One reason lots of other companies that emerged as PC makers in the 80s went on to massively outgrow Apple (think, Compaq...) is that they managed their transition from the 8/16 bit IBM PC through lots of architecture and CPU generations without suddenly dropping support for their existing customer base or alientating them completely. That kind of demonstrated lack of commitment to preserve existing relationships is why so many companies and purchasers found and find it hard to trust Apple, or to believe that its direction or strategy will endure past a few quarters.
Apple has always had problems as a company splitting its focus between different product lines. Witness the prolonged dullness and fading away of the Mac line the past few years as the iPod has obsessed the one-track-mind of Jobs.
The best thing for Apple the *computer* company right now might be to spin off or float iPod as a separate division, much as 3Com spun off Palm. use the massive cash raised to do something exciting for the computer line like, I don't know, buy Sun or something! Apple would then be selling both low-end, mid-range, and high-end Unix products!
Or given undercurrent of US regulatory resistance to Lenovo's purchase of IBM's PC business, why not buy that? An Apple-IBM PC combination would easily pass regulatory hurdles, and uniting two premium brands might work quite well. And of course, the ironic denoument would be priceless.
Slashdot Mirror
For more, check this.
I can't wait for my toaster, microwave, cordless telephone, stereo receiver and PC to form some sort of Voltron-like super tech."
Check this.
From Sunday Best Buy will be selling this a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S111 for $500. There is a rebate involved though, unfortunately. Specs:
15" XGA TFT active-matrix display with 1024 x 768 resolution
40.0GB EIDE hard drive (4200 rpm)
Intel® Extreme Graphics with 16-64MB DVMA shared video memory; S-video TV-out
i.LINK (IEEE 1394) port and 3 high-speed USB 2.0 ports for fast digital video, audio and data transfer
Integrated 10/100Base-TX Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector; V.92 high-speed modem
Weighs 6.6 lbs. and measures 1.5" thin for portable power; lithium-ion battery and AC adapter
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 (SP2) operating system preinstalled; software package included with RecordNow!, InterVideo WinDVD 5 with SRS TruSurround XT technology
It's not like the Roomba wanted privacy.
Are you *sure* about that?
But when the narrator's iPod, Cuisinart, LifeQuilt, and vacuum get together with his girlfriend, it all goes pear-shaped...
The ultimate in home automation...
Oh yes.
What exactly do they have that is exciting?
Trust. And several well functioning sales channels.
Enterprises don't trust Apple. They certainly don't trust Jobs. And Apple's specialized sales channels (*not* Best Buy!), such as they are, are withering away and exist in a state of seemingly perpetual cold war with Apple. Which in recent years has been moving as quickly as it can to a Dell/Gateway direct sales with boutique model that only alienates them further.
Have you EVER heard of UNIX security?
My friend, I was online and programming on a Unix machine the day the Morris Worm took it down along with a big chunk of the Internet running BSD (the ancestor of OSX). If OpenBSD can be exploited (and it has!) then your magic incantation of "Unix! Unix!" carries about as much significance as the utterations of a shaman. Do you even know anything about epidemiology? Why not go look up the words "Prevalence", and "Incidence" and then get back to me.
The 65816 got its doors blown off in the speed race by the end of the 1980s.
Yes, the 65816 had limited headroom. CISC gone mad. But there were other, better descendents of the 6502 available then, and now...
The StrongARM architecture, which powers the iPod and a lot of other cool PDAs (and also powered the Newton), is basically a souped-up lineal descendent of the 6502. Surprised?
The 6502 series was 8-bit
The StrongARM architecture, which powers the iPod and a lot of other cool PDAs (and also powered the Newton), is basically a souped-up lineal descendent of the 6502. Surprised?
Just the thought of giving that one 32 bit registers and calling it a day, is not a pleasant thought.
The StrongARM architecture, which powers the iPod and a lot of other cool PDAs, is basically a souped-up lineal descendent of the 6502. Surprised?
Other than the minor detail that it probably would be a far worse hack than the 8086/186/286/386 instruction set.
The StrongARM architecture, which powers the iPod and a lot of other cool PDAs, is basically a souped-up lineal descendent of the 6502. Surprised?
you call that "fading away?"
Take a look at Mac unit sales and dollar volume sales from 5 years ago, and from the mid-90s. Then take a look at total PC industry unit sales and dollar volume figures. Then get back to me.
Also, the fact that Apple was rrefreshing their stagnant line of G4s for G5s (and in fact the channel dried up for G4s for almost an entire quarter) created a dead cat bounce.
don't complain at the cheap security that lets your PC get buried under an avalanche of trojans and spyware..
I think you're being complacent. If the Macintosh installed base ever goes above 3% again then you will start to see viruses, trojans, and other nastiness. With a marketshare so low, Macintosh exploits are not culturally profitable for kiddies to create, and cannot reproduce because the Macintosh herd is so diffuse. Exploit propagation on connected networks is really a function of platform density.
I'd have to buy add an Audigy to the PC to get that kind of functionality.
If you think that then you are missing out on one of the best sound cards of recent years: Via's Envy24. My Envy 24 HT-S does up to 192 KHz, has optical digital in and out, bit perfect output, ASIO support, 7.1 channels, and cost me $20.
where do you think Sims (SimCity) and Tetris came from?
SimCity? First released in 1987 on Commodore 64 (first demo in 1985!). Re-released in 1989 simultaneously on PC and Mac. Also released in 1989 for Amiga, Spectrum/Timex-Sinclair, Amstrad, and Atari ST.
Tetris? First implemented on Electronica 60 (PDP-11 clone!) in 1985. Ported to IBM PC during 1986 and circulated. Ported to Apple II and Commodore 64 in 1986. Spectrum Holobyte commercial re-release on IBM PC in 1986.
Oh really? Consistently? Going from Apple's own investor relations information, I find the following:
2004
Net Sales:$8,279m
Net Income:$279m
2003
Net Sales:$6,207m
Net Income:$69m
2002
Net Sales:$5,742m
Net Income:$65m
2001
Net Sales:$5,363m
Net Income:-$25m (LOSS)
2000
Net Sales:$7,983m
Net Income:$786m
But there's a bigger issue in that Apple has been one of the most consistently strident anti-options expensing companies in Silicon Valley. This is because Apple has always engaged in massive year-on-year dilution of outstanding stock. It's one reason the Apple share price has been so crappy for years. And one reason why Apple's "profits" are less than the full monty.If Apple had expensed options last year it would have had to knock down its profits by a third. And it would have lost money in each of the previous three years. If Apple did something *useful* with its cash on hand, like invest in acquisiton growth or share buybacks, then it would be useful. Tech companies holding on to that much money as dead cash is just silly.
Now, why don't you go off and check your fucking facts and stop trying to substitute profanities for information because, subconsciously, you're over-compensating for what you know at your heart is a tenuous grip on what you are actually talking about.
Does the quality of a product determine it's company's size?
Many people try to classify Apple as a luxury niche producer: a Ferrari, a Morgan. This is simple not true; Apple always was a volume vendor (in fact, once upon a time it was the world's largest PC volume vendor). It is still trying to be a volume vendor. In that kind of market, being late, failing to adequately fill your sales channels, and pissing off your dedicated channel vendors is a recipe for disaster. Apple has done all that.
the year-old article
It's predictions of the near-future were a little off. But its analysis of the past 25 years was pretty spot on. You know by lazily discounting the main thesis of an argument because of some speculative minor points is quite regressive. Apple has had minor run-ups in its fortunes before - they rarely last more than 12-18 months...
Market share is just not that important.
If you really believe that then you and the Amiga people have a lot to talk about...
the only measure of success for a public corporation is whether it makes money.
Actually, it's all about returns for shareowners. And barring short-lived run-ups in Apple's stock that generally last 12-18 months, owning Apple stock over the past 25 years has been one of the consistently worst long major tech positions you can find. But it's a great stock to short on the way down! Actually, given inflation, shorting on the way down is the only way you could have made a decent return on Apple!
don't even get me started on the Apple //c.
Don't forget the II GS. That was a killer machine with sound processing to die for. When it was released it made the available Macs look a bit weak (I think all there was available was the 128/512K models, the Mac Plus, and the Lisa/MacXL). All monochrome, very dull, totally unexpandable. Very pricey!
People who say that Apple's rot began when Jobs was fired miss the point. Jobs had managed to convince the execs (both regulars and the people who replaced him) that the II line was dead as a dodo and they should focus on the Mac. So Apple did, basically letting their mindshare evaporate within the personal and education markets. Apple had an extremely strong position but managed the transition to Mac very badly, or in fact failed to manage it at all. The II died from neglect.
One reason lots of other companies that emerged as PC makers in the 80s went on to massively outgrow Apple (think, Compaq...) is that they managed their transition from the 8/16 bit IBM PC through lots of architecture and CPU generations without suddenly dropping support for their existing customer base or alientating them completely. That kind of demonstrated lack of commitment to preserve existing relationships is why so many companies and purchasers found and find it hard to trust Apple, or to believe that its direction or strategy will endure past a few quarters.
Apple has always had problems as a company splitting its focus between different product lines. Witness the prolonged dullness and fading away of the Mac line the past few years as the iPod has obsessed the one-track-mind of Jobs.
The best thing for Apple the *computer* company right now might be to spin off or float iPod as a separate division, much as 3Com spun off Palm. use the massive cash raised to do something exciting for the computer line like, I don't know, buy Sun or something! Apple would then be selling both low-end, mid-range, and high-end Unix products!
Or given undercurrent of US regulatory resistance to Lenovo's purchase of IBM's PC business, why not buy that? An Apple-IBM PC combination would easily pass regulatory hurdles, and uniting two premium brands might work quite well. And of course, the ironic denoument would be priceless.
they have produced the best browser in the history of computing
I prefer Classic Mozilla. FireFox is too dumbed down for my taste. YMMV.