(I'm getting the dual-core, super drive, 2G memory, 160G drive configuration.)
You BTO'ed it. Apple takes FOREVER to do a BTO. Aside from paying double or triple for RAM and HDD upgrades, you also have to wait way-the-hell too long for the damned thing to arrive.
I stand corrected. I even googled it and found information about USB's "bulk" and "isochronous" modes.
I was also wrong in thinking that isochronous mode was the method of data/device stacking that Firewire does. USB still won't do that, and that's where the speed gains are.
The Wikipedia article is slightly misleading, as many reports of "in-progress" Firewire designs (some working, some just on paper) go back as far as 1987 at Apple. The project was in a functional state (with a prototype) by 1989. It was introduced at Comdex in 1993 (as noted in the Wikipedia article), then released as a final spec and working reference implementation in 1995.
USB is not designed to compete with Firewire anyway. Instead, it was designed in an effort to bring something similar to Apple Desktop Bus to the PC.
USB2 is crap compared to FW400. And here's why - Firewire has an isochronous mode. USB (any speed) does not. Here's an example:
USB version: You have 2 devices: A scanner and a hard drive. Both use USB to connect to a host system. The scanner is a "USB 1.1" (1.5 MBps) device. The hard drive is a "USB 2.0" (60 MBps) device. Both are connected to the same bus. USB basically divides the bus according to time slots. There are 2 devices, so there are 2 time slots in this setup. The host can handle 60MBps communication in each time slot. Time slot 1 goes to the scanner. It transfers its data at 1.5 MBps (peak). Time slot 2 belongs to the HDD. It transfers its data at 60 MBps (peak). This will continue for as long as these devices need to use the bus. Overall bus speed for this setup is 30.75 MBps (peak). Adding more "USB 2.0" devices will raise the average, adding more "USB 1.x" devices will lower the average rate.
Firewire version: You have 2 devices: A scanner (yes, you can get FW scanners) and a HDD. Both use Firewire 400 to connect to a host system. There's no difference in max throughput, except the scanner is obviously going to use less bandwidth than the HDD. Both are connected to the same bus. Firewire also divides according to time slots, but it has an "overflow" handling mechanism. There are 2 devices, so there are 2 time slots. The host can handle 50 MBps communication in each time slot. Time slot 1 belongs to the scanner. It transfers data at (for consistency's sake) 1.5 MBps. Time slot 2 belongs to the HDD. It transfers data at 50 MBps, and notifies the host that it's going to need as much bandwidth as it can get. The average speed for this round is 25.75 MBps (slower than USB, but these "time slots" are fractions of a second). But the rate isn't going to stay consistent like USB's rate does. Time slot 1 goes to the scanner again, and it transfers its next 1.5 MBps (it's a very slow device I guess). The host recognizes that there's spare bandwidth this time and asks the HDD (which registered itself as a "bandwidth hog" in its first communication to the host) to fill the rest of the 48.5 MBps remaining in this slot. Time slot 2 goes to the HDD again. It transfers a full 50 MBps. Average transfer for this turn is 50 MBps. Average for both turns is 37.875 MBps. Now we're way faster than USB will ever be. And the increases keep racking up, turn after turn.
That says nothing of the fact that Firewire is capable of peer-to-peer (as you mentioned) which requires it to use a "smart" host controller (real, actual hardware, rather than a software host handled by the CPU). Both of those things speed FW up even more and make it much less taxing on your computer's CPU.
It's really a difference in what they were intended to do. USB was Intel's answer to Apple's ADB. Firewire is Apple's "SCSI++". They really aren't competing until you get to things like HDD's, and there are legitimate reasons for both USB and Firewire in that sort of device.
it's _completely_ about the processor...then... It could be AMD as well
So it's not the processor. AMD processors aren't Intel processors. It is not the processor.
suddenly compatibility with my hundreds of PC games, applications and utilities becomes possible
AHA! So now we get to the real reason. Functionality. You have software you want to run. Apple makes (very nice) hardware that will run it.
And your final comments there are pretty accurate. Apple makes "the whole widget". Period. IBM was trying to do the same, but made a poor attempt at it and ended up being the designer of an open system. It turned into the "wild west" of computing. Now we're growing out of that "wild west" phase and we're looking for something more refined. Something that "just works". Something that is designed as a "whole widget". And Apple still makes them. It's not that Apple was wrong to do what they did, it's just that it wasn't time to do it yet.
Green tea gives me heart palpitations. "Healthier" my ass. And no, it doesn't matter if it's the bottled kind or fresh brewed. I get all jittery and have chest pains for the next 20+ hours. Red Bull (and other drinks with taurine) do the same. I think it's an allergy. It's certainly not the caffeine, since I drink tons of Mountain Dew and Coke without any such effects.
It seems most of North America, Central America, the Carribean, East and SE Asia, Australia, the South Pacific, and West Africa uses a period. Europe, South America, South and East Africa, the French part of Canada, and a few traitorous places in Central American and the Carribean use a comma. Since the "period" group includes China and India, I would hazard a guess that more people in the world use the period rather than the comma.
I wonder how it feels for a European when he realizes that he's out of step with the majority of the world on this point (pun intended) after being so right-and-righteous about the whole "metric" thing...
I don't think she's from the USA. She called it "maths". 'Round these here parts, we call it "math". "Maths" is a much more english/aussie term. Technically, though, it's correct.
We also have something called "context", from which we can decide which one of the meanings is to be used at any given time.
In the context of the original comment (about a self-contained binary unit, in this case a "black box" driver) I decided that Binary Large OBject was the proper definition of BLOB. It fits all of the definitions of a BLOB. It's binary. It's large (remember, it's originally a database term - where "normal" is a 32-bit integer, a BLOB can be quite large). And it's an object (a self-contained unit).
You seem to have decided a different definition was the correct one, though I'm not sure how a gelatinous mass could equate to binary data.
"It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his own step." - Jeremiah, circa 650 B.C. (Jeremiah 10:23) "Man has dominated man to his injury." - Solomon, circa 1000 B.C. (Ecclesiastes 8:9)
But if it was required (by legal or technological means), then you couldn't call it "FOSS", as it would be neither free nor open. True freedom requires that you allow someone to close the source if you want. True openness requires that you make the system open enough for someone to add a closed BLOB driver.
BTW, "binary BLOB" makes about as much sense as "ATM machine".
"Sega" never had the same synonymous-with-videogames status in this part of the world. At the company's peak, it meant (at best) "that other video game system that you bought your kid because you were too cheap to buy a real Nintendo".
"Playstation" has come close, but there are a good number of adults that, when asked "Who makes the Playstation?", answer "Nintendo." They finally figured out that not all games were "Nintendo", but the advancement stopped there. Somehow, all video game systems are still made by Nintendo. It really has to burn Sony's ass when they hear it, too. They were so close. And now Nintendo is using the DS to take it back.
I did that at Best Buy for a while (they're the only place that bothers to ask in this area). They quit asking "Can I have your phone number?" They instead ask "What is your phone number?" It caught me off guard the first time, because you can't just say "no" to that question. The clerk looked puzzled when I said "A number that isn't found in your marketing database." I was paying by credit card anyway, so it's not like they couldn't get it if they really wanted it. I'm just not going to give them any help.
There's a massive difference between the level of panic that drives resolutions to environmental issues and the level of panic that drives resolutions to copyright/trademark/patent issues.
Environmental dangers cause loss of life. This induces a survival-instinct reaction, and can be violent. This is taken very seriously by the powers that be, since violence can topple them if it becomes widespread and targetted at them.
Intellectual property dangers cause loss of entertainment. This induces a whiny, "I'm entitled" reaction that is taken much less seriously since whine only goes well with cheese, both of which are enjoyed by the ruling elite.
I was interviewed 3 times on the phone, then sent an informational brochure about being a "Nielsen family" (I live alone). They called about 10 times trying to set up an appointment to install their equipment. I never answered or called back.
Apparently (according to the brochure), you have to have every TV tuner in your house wired to a central Nielsen box. It connects to an internal, standard connector in your TV sets (won't work for me, I have an EyeTV 500), and the central box "phones home" periodically to report what each TV has been watching. It requires a POTS connection (not VoIP!) that does not have a fax or modem on the line, making it incompatible with a home Asterisk server (something I have planned).
It's a permanent installation. If you move out of the house, they request that you send them your new address so they can install a new box at your new house, and they also try to sign up the new owner of your old house as a "Nielsen family".
As for sample size, their brochure said that approximately 1 in 10,000 households has a Nielsen box. I don't know if that's adjusted for houses that used to have one but were torn down and had a subdivision built on the land. I would assume they know how many units phone home to them and could divide by the census bureau's household statistics (thereby taking care of the torn-down-house issue).
My thoughts on counting watchers would be something more along the lines of American Idol. "If you liked this show, call 1-800-###-#### and enter code #### to vote." Or, since they're greedy, maybe that should be a 1-900 number. Then you'd think twice before voting for a show you kinda-liked-but-not-really.
It's the choice of me. For TV my choices are: 1) buy TV equipment, put up with ads, or 2) buy TV equipment, put up with ads, and pay a monthly bill.
It doesn't take a genius to see that one of those options is probably pretty retarded for someone who watches as little as I do. My TV is primarily a Nintendo screen. After that, a movie screen. After that, a means to get The Tube. After that, a means to get local weather forecasts and warnings (the area I live in has frequent storms of varying strength during spring, summer, and fall).
ATSC rules. I just wish they'd up the transmitter wattages by about a factor of 2.
I picked up Earthbound at Best Buy for $5.99 when they were trying to make room for N64 stuff (mid-1997). They had tons of 'em and the boxes were big and took up a bunch of valuable shelf space.
I have the cart, "manual" (it's really a strategy guide), and box, all in good condition.
In fact, I have. I work for a company (name withheld on purpose, since I'm gonna slam our competition and some former employees) that makes billing software for ISP's and other telecom service companies (including phone companies).
And I would just like to take a moment to back up your assertion that it's not simple. Not in the least.
Also, more on the topic at hand (Sprint's crappy billing system), I would like to point out that they buy that system from Amdocs. We've hired several ex-Amdocs people in the last year (their local office imploded and dumped a bunch of workers into the job market) and we've fired them all (except for one guy who quit). They've been nearly universally incompetent, so it doesn't surprise me that the software is crap. Our system isn't all rosy, but it was actually getting worse under the direction of the ex-Amdocs guys.
UPS charges $10 to even show up, much less take a package anywhere for you. And how much more would you pay to guarantee it gets there? And how much more to get it there sometime this century?
It sounds like extortion, but in reality, it's more like anal rape.
is in line with what you'd expect from beta software, especially since the last bugs you find are the kind of crazy tiny 'soak-test' memory leaks that tend to come out when you play the game constantly for 8 hours w/o rebooting
I wish EA would "soak-test" their shit. I have a nearly unplayable Madden '07 that crashes reliably after 45 minutes of game time (roughly at the end of the 3rd quarter or the beginning of the 4th), menus not included. It locks hard enough to disable the reset button, in fact. And it makes a really annoying buzz.
Best of all, Best Buy wouldn't give me my money back. Faggots.
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a Nov 29 ship date (why?)
You answered your own question:
(I'm getting the dual-core, super drive, 2G memory, 160G drive configuration.)
You BTO'ed it. Apple takes FOREVER to do a BTO. Aside from paying double or triple for RAM and HDD upgrades, you also have to wait way-the-hell too long for the damned thing to arrive.
The Rock has big boobs, and he was in Doom.
I stand corrected. I even googled it and found information about USB's "bulk" and "isochronous" modes.
I was also wrong in thinking that isochronous mode was the method of data/device stacking that Firewire does. USB still won't do that, and that's where the speed gains are.
The Wikipedia article is slightly misleading, as many reports of "in-progress" Firewire designs (some working, some just on paper) go back as far as 1987 at Apple. The project was in a functional state (with a prototype) by 1989. It was introduced at Comdex in 1993 (as noted in the Wikipedia article), then released as a final spec and working reference implementation in 1995.
USB is not designed to compete with Firewire anyway. Instead, it was designed in an effort to bring something similar to Apple Desktop Bus to the PC.
USB2 is crap compared to FW400. And here's why - Firewire has an isochronous mode. USB (any speed) does not. Here's an example:
USB version:
You have 2 devices: A scanner and a hard drive. Both use USB to connect to a host system. The scanner is a "USB 1.1" (1.5 MBps) device. The hard drive is a "USB 2.0" (60 MBps) device. Both are connected to the same bus. USB basically divides the bus according to time slots. There are 2 devices, so there are 2 time slots in this setup. The host can handle 60MBps communication in each time slot. Time slot 1 goes to the scanner. It transfers its data at 1.5 MBps (peak). Time slot 2 belongs to the HDD. It transfers its data at 60 MBps (peak). This will continue for as long as these devices need to use the bus. Overall bus speed for this setup is 30.75 MBps (peak). Adding more "USB 2.0" devices will raise the average, adding more "USB 1.x" devices will lower the average rate.
Firewire version:
You have 2 devices: A scanner (yes, you can get FW scanners) and a HDD. Both use Firewire 400 to connect to a host system. There's no difference in max throughput, except the scanner is obviously going to use less bandwidth than the HDD. Both are connected to the same bus. Firewire also divides according to time slots, but it has an "overflow" handling mechanism. There are 2 devices, so there are 2 time slots. The host can handle 50 MBps communication in each time slot. Time slot 1 belongs to the scanner. It transfers data at (for consistency's sake) 1.5 MBps. Time slot 2 belongs to the HDD. It transfers data at 50 MBps, and notifies the host that it's going to need as much bandwidth as it can get. The average speed for this round is 25.75 MBps (slower than USB, but these "time slots" are fractions of a second). But the rate isn't going to stay consistent like USB's rate does. Time slot 1 goes to the scanner again, and it transfers its next 1.5 MBps (it's a very slow device I guess). The host recognizes that there's spare bandwidth this time and asks the HDD (which registered itself as a "bandwidth hog" in its first communication to the host) to fill the rest of the 48.5 MBps remaining in this slot. Time slot 2 goes to the HDD again. It transfers a full 50 MBps. Average transfer for this turn is 50 MBps. Average for both turns is 37.875 MBps. Now we're way faster than USB will ever be. And the increases keep racking up, turn after turn.
That says nothing of the fact that Firewire is capable of peer-to-peer (as you mentioned) which requires it to use a "smart" host controller (real, actual hardware, rather than a software host handled by the CPU). Both of those things speed FW up even more and make it much less taxing on your computer's CPU.
It's really a difference in what they were intended to do. USB was Intel's answer to Apple's ADB. Firewire is Apple's "SCSI++". They really aren't competing until you get to things like HDD's, and there are legitimate reasons for both USB and Firewire in that sort of device.
You just proved the GP's point.
...then... It could be AMD as well
it's _completely_ about the processor
So it's not the processor. AMD processors aren't Intel processors. It is not the processor.
suddenly compatibility with my hundreds of PC games, applications and utilities becomes possible
AHA! So now we get to the real reason. Functionality. You have software you want to run. Apple makes (very nice) hardware that will run it.
And your final comments there are pretty accurate. Apple makes "the whole widget". Period. IBM was trying to do the same, but made a poor attempt at it and ended up being the designer of an open system. It turned into the "wild west" of computing. Now we're growing out of that "wild west" phase and we're looking for something more refined. Something that "just works". Something that is designed as a "whole widget". And Apple still makes them. It's not that Apple was wrong to do what they did, it's just that it wasn't time to do it yet.
Green tea gives me heart palpitations. "Healthier" my ass. And no, it doesn't matter if it's the bottled kind or fresh brewed. I get all jittery and have chest pains for the next 20+ hours. Red Bull (and other drinks with taurine) do the same. I think it's an allergy. It's certainly not the caffeine, since I drink tons of Mountain Dew and Coke without any such effects.
Wikipedia, as usual, has the answers.
It seems most of North America, Central America, the Carribean, East and SE Asia, Australia, the South Pacific, and West Africa uses a period. Europe, South America, South and East Africa, the French part of Canada, and a few traitorous places in Central American and the Carribean use a comma. Since the "period" group includes China and India, I would hazard a guess that more people in the world use the period rather than the comma.
I wonder how it feels for a European when he realizes that he's out of step with the majority of the world on this point (pun intended) after being so right-and-righteous about the whole "metric" thing...
I don't think she's from the USA. She called it "maths". 'Round these here parts, we call it "math". "Maths" is a much more english/aussie term. Technically, though, it's correct.
We also have something called "context", from which we can decide which one of the meanings is to be used at any given time.
In the context of the original comment (about a self-contained binary unit, in this case a "black box" driver) I decided that Binary Large OBject was the proper definition of BLOB. It fits all of the definitions of a BLOB. It's binary. It's large (remember, it's originally a database term - where "normal" is a 32-bit integer, a BLOB can be quite large). And it's an object (a self-contained unit).
You seem to have decided a different definition was the correct one, though I'm not sure how a gelatinous mass could equate to binary data.
"It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his own step." - Jeremiah, circa 650 B.C. (Jeremiah 10:23)
"Man has dominated man to his injury." - Solomon, circa 1000 B.C. (Ecclesiastes 8:9)
So... a "binary binary large object". Kinda like an "automated teller machine machine".
The USA has RICO, but good luck making that stick to anyone who pays lobbyists in DC.
But if it was required (by legal or technological means), then you couldn't call it "FOSS", as it would be neither free nor open. True freedom requires that you allow someone to close the source if you want. True openness requires that you make the system open enough for someone to add a closed BLOB driver.
BTW, "binary BLOB" makes about as much sense as "ATM machine".
"Sega" never had the same synonymous-with-videogames status in this part of the world. At the company's peak, it meant (at best) "that other video game system that you bought your kid because you were too cheap to buy a real Nintendo".
"Playstation" has come close, but there are a good number of adults that, when asked "Who makes the Playstation?", answer "Nintendo." They finally figured out that not all games were "Nintendo", but the advancement stopped there. Somehow, all video game systems are still made by Nintendo. It really has to burn Sony's ass when they hear it, too. They were so close. And now Nintendo is using the DS to take it back.
I did that at Best Buy for a while (they're the only place that bothers to ask in this area). They quit asking "Can I have your phone number?" They instead ask "What is your phone number?" It caught me off guard the first time, because you can't just say "no" to that question. The clerk looked puzzled when I said "A number that isn't found in your marketing database." I was paying by credit card anyway, so it's not like they couldn't get it if they really wanted it. I'm just not going to give them any help.
What's a "churc"?
There's a massive difference between the level of panic that drives resolutions to environmental issues and the level of panic that drives resolutions to copyright/trademark/patent issues.
Environmental dangers cause loss of life. This induces a survival-instinct reaction, and can be violent. This is taken very seriously by the powers that be, since violence can topple them if it becomes widespread and targetted at them.
Intellectual property dangers cause loss of entertainment. This induces a whiny, "I'm entitled" reaction that is taken much less seriously since whine only goes well with cheese, both of which are enjoyed by the ruling elite.
I was interviewed 3 times on the phone, then sent an informational brochure about being a "Nielsen family" (I live alone). They called about 10 times trying to set up an appointment to install their equipment. I never answered or called back.
Apparently (according to the brochure), you have to have every TV tuner in your house wired to a central Nielsen box. It connects to an internal, standard connector in your TV sets (won't work for me, I have an EyeTV 500), and the central box "phones home" periodically to report what each TV has been watching. It requires a POTS connection (not VoIP!) that does not have a fax or modem on the line, making it incompatible with a home Asterisk server (something I have planned).
It's a permanent installation. If you move out of the house, they request that you send them your new address so they can install a new box at your new house, and they also try to sign up the new owner of your old house as a "Nielsen family".
As for sample size, their brochure said that approximately 1 in 10,000 households has a Nielsen box. I don't know if that's adjusted for houses that used to have one but were torn down and had a subdivision built on the land. I would assume they know how many units phone home to them and could divide by the census bureau's household statistics (thereby taking care of the torn-down-house issue).
My thoughts on counting watchers would be something more along the lines of American Idol. "If you liked this show, call 1-800-###-#### and enter code #### to vote." Or, since they're greedy, maybe that should be a 1-900 number. Then you'd think twice before voting for a show you kinda-liked-but-not-really.
It's the choice of me. For TV my choices are:
1) buy TV equipment, put up with ads, or
2) buy TV equipment, put up with ads, and pay a monthly bill.
It doesn't take a genius to see that one of those options is probably pretty retarded for someone who watches as little as I do. My TV is primarily a Nintendo screen. After that, a movie screen. After that, a means to get The Tube. After that, a means to get local weather forecasts and warnings (the area I live in has frequent storms of varying strength during spring, summer, and fall).
ATSC rules. I just wish they'd up the transmitter wattages by about a factor of 2.
You're kidding... right?
I picked up Earthbound at Best Buy for $5.99 when they were trying to make room for N64 stuff (mid-1997). They had tons of 'em and the boxes were big and took up a bunch of valuable shelf space.
I have the cart, "manual" (it's really a strategy guide), and box, all in good condition.
In fact, I have. I work for a company (name withheld on purpose, since I'm gonna slam our competition and some former employees) that makes billing software for ISP's and other telecom service companies (including phone companies).
And I would just like to take a moment to back up your assertion that it's not simple. Not in the least.
Also, more on the topic at hand (Sprint's crappy billing system), I would like to point out that they buy that system from Amdocs. We've hired several ex-Amdocs people in the last year (their local office imploded and dumped a bunch of workers into the job market) and we've fired them all (except for one guy who quit). They've been nearly universally incompetent, so it doesn't surprise me that the software is crap. Our system isn't all rosy, but it was actually getting worse under the direction of the ex-Amdocs guys.
The only question that I thought was hard was 'Do I like Kirk or do I like Picard?' - "Wierd Al" Yancovic, White and Nerdy
UPS charges $10 to even show up, much less take a package anywhere for you. And how much more would you pay to guarantee it gets there? And how much more to get it there sometime this century?
It sounds like extortion, but in reality, it's more like anal rape.
is in line with what you'd expect from beta software, especially since the last bugs you find are the kind of crazy tiny 'soak-test' memory leaks that tend to come out when you play the game constantly for 8 hours w/o rebooting
I wish EA would "soak-test" their shit. I have a nearly unplayable Madden '07 that crashes reliably after 45 minutes of game time (roughly at the end of the 3rd quarter or the beginning of the 4th), menus not included. It locks hard enough to disable the reset button, in fact. And it makes a really annoying buzz.
Best of all, Best Buy wouldn't give me my money back. Faggots.