Up until this previous December, I had as my only computer an Emachines 500i. It had its original 10gb drive and (put on your jealousy hate) a full 128mb of RAM. I replaced it with another Emachine that I bought for next to nothing. I always ran stripped down Linux distros on it and the speed of it surprised everyone who used it. It still works fine, I just don't turn it on anymore.
According to the page you linked, the average cost per KWh is approximately 9 cents (and I, as a lucky New Yorker, pay almost 24 cents). The average consumption is much higher. According to this page, the average usage per year is 10,215 KWh per year, or roughly 28 per day.. thus, if you're using only 9 per day, you're significantly below the national average. According to my electric bill, I use 3 KWh per day.
Evolutionary "theory," for example, has a substantial quantity of data that suggests the general notion is true. But string theory, at least in the scientific community, does not maintain the same support that most other "theories" have. There are, rather, a number of prominent physisists who believe string "theory" doesn't deserve the theoretical status it has obtained (or at least that's what I've been led to believe).
The question I have, therefore, how was the "theory" part conferred?
The for profit lab reports the test is accurate 90 percent of the time. Even after an independent study is performed, I'm still not sure I'd trust the accuracy. Controlled tests (where subjects are directed to steal an object) are very different than real world scenarios. Regardless, I suspect that, like polygraph tests, courts will eventually rule the outcome of such a procedure is not admissable evidence.
Military grade GPS hardware is accurate to within a few centimeters as well. Consumer equipment isn't, but this isn't due to technical limitations of the satelites. Much of the equipment has been upgraded in recent years, too. Signals were originally intentionally inaccurate because the military didn't want Kim Jong Il to have a $99 missle guidance system. Recent upgrades have allowed the military to distort signals based upon geography: selectively, certain "hostile" areas are subject to this distortion.
Sun called: they want their dumb terminals idea back.
The market has repeatedly shown that there is no interest in the concept of remote software or slimmed down computers. People really do like their personal computers. I had thought Microsoft understood this well, though it looks as if I've now been proven wrong. Are customers asking for this?
With the latest Intel processor, a pair of 6800's in SLI, two HD's in a RAID setup (plus a third disk for extensive storage), and a pair of optical drives, it almost seems plausible that one might need that kind of power.
More likely, however, is that it's being done for bragging rights. Dodge, for example, put the Viper into production, even though the small margins add very little to their ledger. The reason was that it lifted the brand up as a whole; other models, as horrible as they are, became a little more cool through association.
As an undergraduate, I took a marketing class and the professor once told us an interesting story. He had, for a while, operated a successful mail-order catalouge. One product that sold well was a small plastic contraption that quickly cored and sliced an apple into smaller pieces. He sold it for $4.
One month he sent the catalouge off to the printer and, due to the printer's mistake, a 1 was added to the price. When the customers received the catalouge, the price was therefore $14.
He, of course, expected to sell very few of them that quarter. To his surprise, sales of that product tripled.
At $4, customers percieved it as cheap and not worthwhile. At $14, they thought it was a very different product, though in reality it was the same piece of plastic.
As a general rule, if you charge too little, people won't percieve your services as worthwhile. You should, however, think of offering promotions: charge $40 per hour, but tell people that's discounted from the normal $60 (due to a special one month promotion for new customers). Or make something else up. Be creative.
This is why manufacturers often like rebates so much: they trick people into thinking they're purchasing a $400 product for $200, even if the device itself is really only worth $200. Some people see through this and realize what BS it is... but most, however, do not.
My suggestion: hire a team of trained monkeys to print out the existing e-mails and manually type them back into gmail.
Or, if that doesn't sound appealing, here's a better idea:
AOL Mail supports IMAP. Gmail supports POP3. Download Mozilla Thunderbird (or some other e-mail client) and set up two accounts for it (the gmail and AOL). The one application will then allow him to receive all his old AOL e-mails and any new e-mail that may be sent to his new gmail account.
Don't cancel the AOL account right away. Have him start by sending all new emails from gmail, even if they are received by AOL. Within two or three months, all his contacts should be sending mail to the new address.
For reference, the AOL Incoming Mail Server (IMAP) is imap.aol.com (port 143). By default, POP3 is not enabled in gmail. To turn it on, click "settings" from the main in-box page and then "forwarding and POP"
I have a similar machine, only with less RAM (500 mhz Celeron, 128 mb, 10 gig HD). I've tried a number of different installations on it, including Gentoo, and thus far I've had the most positive experience with Ubuntu.
I have half the RAM, so I'm not sure if my experience will be similar to yours; I will note, however, that recent versions of KDE and GNOME are too "featured" to operate at a decent speed.
With Ubuntu I did a "custom" (with Hoary) or "server" install (with Warty) and loaded up a minimal install. From there I added Fluxbox and a small variety of other applications. It's still not a "fast" machine, though it performs adequately. On boot, it uses approx. 35 MB of RAM. After Firefox, XMMS, and Abiword are loaded (with their required libraries, of course), it'll start to hit the swap, and that's where a noticable slowdown occurs.
I wonder what will happend with all the OS/2 code? IBM should publish it and make it public. Maybe someone can use parts of it in non-commercial ways (so M$ does not exploit it).
I would love for IBM to publish the source for OS/2, but it won't happen for two reasons:
Because OS/2 was written in conjuction with Microsoft, I'm sure the original agreement with MS prohibits this sort of action (and MS would never agree to it now, especially as the two aren't nearly as cozy as they once were).
Companies that still use OS/2 would apply pressure against such an action if IBM even considered it. The code hasn't been through the same review that Linux has been subjected to, and I'm sure there's an exploit or two in there that could be readily discovered if the code were available (think: "if you ever want us to purchase your services again, don't open-source it").
The transition from OS 9.x to OS X was far more important than the transition from PPC to x86 will be. While the former was not at all transparent to the average user, the latter most definitely will be.
Everyone knew OS X was coming, and every major application had a version released either at the time of OS X's release, or shortly thereafter.
Except Quark. People were forced to continue to use the OS 9 version, and it was during this period that Adobe took the lead. They took far too much time to release a new version. This time around, at least according to Apple, compiling a new version can be done within days. And I'm sure Quark will still manage to blow it.
Any person with less-than honorable intentions won't do so from the comforts of their own home.
They're going to haul their laptop, equiped with Wi-Fi, to some random unsecured access point on the far side of town and do it there. In a situation like that, logs are almost entirely useless.
A new building was recently put up on the south-west corner of Central Park (the Time-Warner building). The top floors are residential, and the top two floors sold for a combined 44 million dollars (making it the most expensive Manhattan real estate purchase ever). A STUDIO apartment in the building sold for over 1 million dollars.
The mid-section is all commercial space, and the bottom 3 floors are for stores. Samsung has a massive "showcase" on the third floor that's open 5 days a week. I went in there one day and it was really cool. They had cell-phones and laptops that were Asian-market only, and they had some massive LCD TV's.
Know what they sell there? Nothing. All you can do is walk in and look around. There's a ton of salespeople, but they don't actually sell anything. You can ask lots of questions, but can't buy a thing.
Their intention was to raise awareness of their brand and, while I'm not sure how they're measuring it, I'm sure they can justify the massive cost of the lease (probably around 40k per month). Nintendo can do the same thing. If they sell a few Game Cubes while they're at it, so much the better.
I registered my domain with GoDaddy (see sig) and I use their economy plan (except I'm paying month to month, so it's $3.95 per month). Thus far I've been extremely pleased with the service I've received.
Each account supports PHP and they provide 1 MySQL database (1 doesn't sound like a lot, but you can have unlimited tables, so it's plenty). You can use the combo to set up a "member" area. There's a ton of scripts on the web for a PHP/MySQL user authentication system, in case you can't or don't want to code.
My point with this is that it's not the kernel that's making GNU/Linux systems crawl on older hardware. It's the newer versions of GNOME and KDE.
You're entirely correct. I'm currently running Ubuntu, but when I first installed it I was apalled at the speed (or lack thereof; it's not my slow processor that was to blame, but rather the 128mb of installed RAM). I tore it off and did a custom minimal install, with only fluxbox and a few other select applications installed.
The system now runs well, even with the lack of RAM. Usually I'll only have XMMS and Firefox open, and between the two I don't have to hit the swap too much. My concern, though, is that Linux, while acceptable now, will take the bloat route that KDE and GNOME have.
As a proud owner of a Celeron 500mhz machine, I must express my concern.
The problem, I think, is that developers tend to be people who love computers. And people who love computers tend to have nice rigs, just as people who enjoy cars tend to spend a disproportionatly large amount of their income on cars (ever see the parking lot at a lan party--complete with people pulling multi-thousand dollar machines out of the hatch of a Hyundai?).
Perhaps Linux needs more developers from third world nations; the kid from a rural village with intermitant electricity getting his hands on an old, but useful machine and learning that he, too, can tell it to do all sorts of things!
PC Magazine published an review yesterday of a Dell XPS system with a dual-core processor. The price, at $3999 is high, though that setup includes "extras" like a pair of TV tuners and a 20 inch LCD.
They claimed it's available now (and even provide an "e-value" for it), but I was unable to find it anywhere on Dell's site.
Total Price: $658, free shipping included. Add in an extra $200 for a PCI-Express video card and, at $858, it's comparatively inexpensive. It's not an excellent machine, I understand that; and, while I'm willing to pay a premium for a better machine, I don't expect the premium to be more than 10-20 percent more.
Let's say a brotha is about to finish grad school, and will therefore have an unprecedented amount of free time in which to game (after years of living with a Celeron 500).
He looks around and notices he can purchase a nifty Dell with a 19 inch flat screen and a nice graphics card for $700. Then he notices that a comparable machine from a vendor that sells Athlon 64's is typically double the price!
Is there anyone out there selling AMD gaming rigs that are "affordable?"
The Guardian recently published an article that claims Google has "jumped the shark." The author's contention is that Yahoo! has caught up to Google in nearly aspect, and have surpassed them in several areas.
Yahoo was an early investor in Google! From an article on last year's IPO:
Also due for a big payoff are Yahoo and America Online Inc., which were early Google investors. Yahoo is selling 549,888 shares; AOL will unload 867,149, according to the filing. At $121.50 per share, Yahoo would collect $67 million, while AOL, part of Time Warner Inc., would reap $105 million.
Slashdot Mirror
Up until this previous December, I had as my only computer an Emachines 500i. It had its original 10gb drive and (put on your jealousy hate) a full 128mb of RAM. I replaced it with another Emachine that I bought for next to nothing. I always ran stripped down Linux distros on it and the speed of it surprised everyone who used it. It still works fine, I just don't turn it on anymore.
According to the page you linked, the average cost per KWh is approximately 9 cents (and I, as a lucky New Yorker, pay almost 24 cents). The average consumption is much higher. According to this page, the average usage per year is 10,215 KWh per year, or roughly 28 per day .. thus, if you're using only 9 per day, you're significantly below the national average. According to my electric bill, I use 3 KWh per day.
Evolutionary "theory," for example, has a substantial quantity of data that suggests the general notion is true. But string theory, at least in the scientific community, does not maintain the same support that most other "theories" have. There are, rather, a number of prominent physisists who believe string "theory" doesn't deserve the theoretical status it has obtained (or at least that's what I've been led to believe).
The question I have, therefore, how was the "theory" part conferred?
The for profit lab reports the test is accurate 90 percent of the time. Even after an independent study is performed, I'm still not sure I'd trust the accuracy. Controlled tests (where subjects are directed to steal an object) are very different than real world scenarios. Regardless, I suspect that, like polygraph tests, courts will eventually rule the outcome of such a procedure is not admissable evidence.
Military grade GPS hardware is accurate to within a few centimeters as well. Consumer equipment isn't, but this isn't due to technical limitations of the satelites.
Much of the equipment has been upgraded in recent years, too. Signals were originally intentionally inaccurate because the military didn't want Kim Jong Il to have a $99 missle guidance system. Recent upgrades have allowed the military to distort signals based upon geography: selectively, certain "hostile" areas are subject to this distortion.
The market has repeatedly shown that there is no interest in the concept of remote software or slimmed down computers. People really do like their personal computers. I had thought Microsoft understood this well, though it looks as if I've now been proven wrong. Are customers asking for this?
More likely, however, is that it's being done for bragging rights. Dodge, for example, put the Viper into production, even though the small margins add very little to their ledger. The reason was that it lifted the brand up as a whole; other models, as horrible as they are, became a little more cool through association.
As an undergraduate, I took a marketing class and the professor once told us an interesting story. He had, for a while, operated a successful mail-order catalouge. One product that sold well was a small plastic contraption that quickly cored and sliced an apple into smaller pieces. He sold it for $4.
One month he sent the catalouge off to the printer and, due to the printer's mistake, a 1 was added to the price. When the customers received the catalouge, the price was therefore $14.
He, of course, expected to sell very few of them that quarter. To his surprise, sales of that product tripled.
At $4, customers percieved it as cheap and not worthwhile. At $14, they thought it was a very different product, though in reality it was the same piece of plastic.
As a general rule, if you charge too little, people won't percieve your services as worthwhile. You should, however, think of offering promotions: charge $40 per hour, but tell people that's discounted from the normal $60 (due to a special one month promotion for new customers). Or make something else up. Be creative.
This is why manufacturers often like rebates so much: they trick people into thinking they're purchasing a $400 product for $200, even if the device itself is really only worth $200. Some people see through this and realize what BS it is ... but most, however, do not.
Or, if that doesn't sound appealing, here's a better idea:
AOL Mail supports IMAP. Gmail supports POP3. Download Mozilla Thunderbird (or some other e-mail client) and set up two accounts for it (the gmail and AOL). The one application will then allow him to receive all his old AOL e-mails and any new e-mail that may be sent to his new gmail account.
Don't cancel the AOL account right away. Have him start by sending all new emails from gmail, even if they are received by AOL. Within two or three months, all his contacts should be sending mail to the new address.
For reference, the AOL Incoming Mail Server (IMAP) is imap.aol.com (port 143). By default, POP3 is not enabled in gmail. To turn it on, click "settings" from the main in-box page and then "forwarding and POP"
I have half the RAM, so I'm not sure if my experience will be similar to yours; I will note, however, that recent versions of KDE and GNOME are too "featured" to operate at a decent speed.
With Ubuntu I did a "custom" (with Hoary) or "server" install (with Warty) and loaded up a minimal install. From there I added Fluxbox and a small variety of other applications. It's still not a "fast" machine, though it performs adequately. On boot, it uses approx. 35 MB of RAM. After Firefox, XMMS, and Abiword are loaded (with their required libraries, of course), it'll start to hit the swap, and that's where a noticable slowdown occurs.
I would love for IBM to publish the source for OS/2, but it won't happen for two reasons:
Everyone knew OS X was coming, and every major application had a version released either at the time of OS X's release, or shortly thereafter.
Except Quark. People were forced to continue to use the OS 9 version, and it was during this period that Adobe took the lead. They took far too much time to release a new version. This time around, at least according to Apple, compiling a new version can be done within days. And I'm sure Quark will still manage to blow it.
They blew it last time around. They had a wonderful product, but you can only screw your customers so many times before they start to get mad.
They're going to haul their laptop, equiped with Wi-Fi, to some random unsecured access point on the far side of town and do it there. In a situation like that, logs are almost entirely useless.
A new building was recently put up on the south-west corner of Central Park (the Time-Warner building). The top floors are residential, and the top two floors sold for a combined 44 million dollars (making it the most expensive Manhattan real estate purchase ever). A STUDIO apartment in the building sold for over 1 million dollars.
The mid-section is all commercial space, and the bottom 3 floors are for stores. Samsung has a massive "showcase" on the third floor that's open 5 days a week. I went in there one day and it was really cool. They had cell-phones and laptops that were Asian-market only, and they had some massive LCD TV's.
Know what they sell there? Nothing. All you can do is walk in and look around. There's a ton of salespeople, but they don't actually sell anything. You can ask lots of questions, but can't buy a thing.
Their intention was to raise awareness of their brand and, while I'm not sure how they're measuring it, I'm sure they can justify the massive cost of the lease (probably around 40k per month). Nintendo can do the same thing. If they sell a few Game Cubes while they're at it, so much the better.
Whoa!
Each account supports PHP and they provide 1 MySQL database (1 doesn't sound like a lot, but you can have unlimited tables, so it's plenty). You can use the combo to set up a "member" area. There's a ton of scripts on the web for a PHP/MySQL user authentication system, in case you can't or don't want to code.
From A to J. Lisp starts with an L.
Therefore, according to the summary... no.
You're entirely correct. I'm currently running Ubuntu, but when I first installed it I was apalled at the speed (or lack thereof; it's not my slow processor that was to blame, but rather the 128mb of installed RAM). I tore it off and did a custom minimal install, with only fluxbox and a few other select applications installed.
The system now runs well, even with the lack of RAM. Usually I'll only have XMMS and Firefox open, and between the two I don't have to hit the swap too much. My concern, though, is that Linux, while acceptable now, will take the bloat route that KDE and GNOME have.
The problem, I think, is that developers tend to be people who love computers. And people who love computers tend to have nice rigs, just as people who enjoy cars tend to spend a disproportionatly large amount of their income on cars (ever see the parking lot at a lan party--complete with people pulling multi-thousand dollar machines out of the hatch of a Hyundai?).
Perhaps Linux needs more developers from third world nations; the kid from a rural village with intermitant electricity getting his hands on an old, but useful machine and learning that he, too, can tell it to do all sorts of things!
They claimed it's available now (and even provide an "e-value" for it), but I was unable to find it anywhere on Dell's site.
Bottom Line: it's fast. Real fast.
Sytem Includes:
- 3ghz Intel Pentium 4
- 512mb RAM
- 80gb 7200 RPM HD
- CD-RW
- 19 inch Ultrasharp digital LCD
Total Price: $658, free shipping included. Add in an extra $200 for a PCI-Express video card and, at $858, it's comparatively inexpensive. It's not an excellent machine, I understand that; and, while I'm willing to pay a premium for a better machine, I don't expect the premium to be more than 10-20 percent more.Let's say a brotha is about to finish grad school, and will therefore have an unprecedented amount of free time in which to game (after years of living with a Celeron 500).
He looks around and notices he can purchase a nifty Dell with a 19 inch flat screen and a nice graphics card for $700. Then he notices that a comparable machine from a vendor that sells Athlon 64's is typically double the price!
Is there anyone out there selling AMD gaming rigs that are "affordable?"
The Guardian recently published an article that claims Google has "jumped the shark." The author's contention is that Yahoo! has caught up to Google in nearly aspect, and have surpassed them in several areas.