Even using something akin to RAID, so you store the same data across several machines, you've still got the risk that switching off PCs will cause data to be temporarily unavailable.
Leaving a hundred PCs switched on just to get some extra disk space isn't going to be eco-friendly or cost effective. You can build a several terabyte file server very cheaply these days.
As for many people in the UK who were at school in the 1980s, my first gaming experience was Granny's Garden on a BBC Micro. This was approximately 1983, so I'd have been 5 or 6 years old. It was a few years before home computers and consoles became commonplace, and the UK government had just started to really push computing into schools.
Dan
Yeah yeah yeah.... but really this does seem wrong. If it was really a Boeing concept it must have been under a different name, or perhaps kept a closely guarded secret.
I hadn't heard of the "Sky Commuter" before so I googled:
"sky commuter" Boeing which returns 1,830 pages, most of which refer to the eBay auction. Other attempts to find out about this concept vehicle came to nothing.
Is this fake?
Also see the other post above about the seller building full size model aircraft for a living... seems a bit suspect to me.
Further to the other responses on this - I think you're also omitting something else from your calculations - the cost of your own time.
With a Mini, you buy it and plug it in.
With a home built system, you have to make a plan, source all the parts, build it, and in this case hack about with the OS to get it to install. All this is going to take you time, and I doubt many people consider that their own time is free.
Shouldn't that be "contain" not "conduct" viruses? The use of the word conduct makes me thing the video is telling the virus what to do, or something. Or is it conduct like lightning? Still not a great analogy.
The article is almost bad with it's talk of video being a "conduit" for viruses.
The paragraph order could use some improvement, the paragraph with the 18 hours bit should really be higher up, before they start mentioning recording to standard DVDs at all.
Maybe the author didn't fully understand the news when deconstructing the press release. To be honest I get the impression that even tech journos are having a hard time understanding the HD-DVD/Blu-ray formats, so it's no wonder uptake is slow and people are sticking to what they know (i.e. DVD) for now.
Yes, they are talking about Blu-Ray disks, which is what the bulk of the article is about. It's only further down that it's mentioned (almost in passing) that these players can also write HD content to standard DVDs.
For me this is interesting as there's not currently an affordable way of storing HD content (such as from a HD camcorder via HDMI) in a manner that is easily played back on a HD TV. Other than sticking a PC next to your TV, and that doesn't look too great in the living room.
No doubt these things will cost a small fortune though. What would be nice would be a DVD recorder that can write HD content to a standard DVD, with non of the expensive Blu-Ray stuff. That's surely got to be possible?
I second this. I've used both OpenOffice and NeoOffice on my Mac, and while I commend the efforts to produce an open source office suite, they both have a long way to go to match the performance, ease of use and superb interface in iWorks '08 (which was well worth the money).
In '95 I had a Cyrix 5x86 running at 100MHz. A DOS player could play MP3s fine but Winamp on Windows struggled, so I assumed 100MHz was about the threshold for MP3 playback on generic hardware (the custom hardware in iPods runs at less than 100MHz, but that doesn't count).
Of course this was a Cyrix chip and you were using a PowerPC, so it's possibly apples/oranges. The MP3 decoding software probably makes a big difference too.
This was the plot of an Arthur C. Clarke novel. I forget the title. But the first ship to arrive was a 'seeder ship' which somehow grew the humans. Still, there was a full colony in place by the time the FSOL ship arrived, with original Earth-born humans, later on.
I had much the same experience. It wasn't that different to my experience with Active Worlds back in 1996. With the advances in graphics hardware and internet bandwidth, I expected a lot more.
Why not stick to consoles for games, and keep the PC or Mac as a workstation? PC gaming is very expensive given the need to constantly upgrade the system. In some cases the upgrade will cost more than an actual console.
Added to the argument is the fact that consoles are now surpassing PCs for gaming in terms of graphics performance - or at least you will need a very expensive PC to compete.
So by keeping a console for games playing, you can happily run Linux, OS X, or whatever else you choose and still enjoy cutting edge games. To me it makes a lot more sense than lobbying games manufacturers to produce games for your particular OS.
With the exception of Skype, aren't most of these things possible on phones already either as pre-bundled applications or as Java downloads?
I suppose the really critical thing (rather than the application and content) is that there will be no per-data fee, it's a one off monthly cost as with broadband. Internet on the go with a broadband price plan.
When I read the thing about talking via WordPad, I assumed he was using some sort of remote desktop client such as VNC. I've had conversations using Notepad with other VNC users of the same server in the past.
I got the impression it was 3D, using the alternating left/right images technique (and LCD shuttered glasses). The first few seconds of the video gives that impression anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
What if the PCs are switched off?
Even using something akin to RAID, so you store the same data across several machines, you've still got the risk that switching off PCs will cause data to be temporarily unavailable.
Leaving a hundred PCs switched on just to get some extra disk space isn't going to be eco-friendly or cost effective. You can build a several terabyte file server very cheaply these days.
Dan
As for many people in the UK who were at school in the 1980s, my first gaming experience was Granny's Garden on a BBC Micro. This was approximately 1983, so I'd have been 5 or 6 years old. It was a few years before home computers and consoles became commonplace, and the UK government had just started to really push computing into schools. Dan
Yeah yeah yeah.... but really this does seem wrong. If it was really a Boeing concept it must have been under a different name, or perhaps kept a closely guarded secret.
I hadn't heard of the "Sky Commuter" before so I googled:
"sky commuter" Boeing
which returns 1,830 pages, most of which refer to the eBay auction. Other attempts to find out about this concept vehicle came to nothing.
Is this fake?
Also see the other post above about the seller building full size model aircraft for a living... seems a bit suspect to me.
Dan
I'm not sure that "most" people have a surplus of time? But then... your average Slashdot reader might ;)
Further to the other responses on this - I think you're also omitting something else from your calculations - the cost of your own time.
With a Mini, you buy it and plug it in.
With a home built system, you have to make a plan, source all the parts, build it, and in this case hack about with the OS to get it to install. All this is going to take you time, and I doubt many people consider that their own time is free.
Shouldn't that be "contain" not "conduct" viruses? The use of the word conduct makes me thing the video is telling the virus what to do, or something. Or is it conduct like lightning? Still not a great analogy.
The article is almost bad with it's talk of video being a "conduit" for viruses.
Dan
The paragraph order could use some improvement, the paragraph with the 18 hours bit should really be higher up, before they start mentioning recording to standard DVDs at all.
Maybe the author didn't fully understand the news when deconstructing the press release. To be honest I get the impression that even tech journos are having a hard time understanding the HD-DVD/Blu-ray formats, so it's no wonder uptake is slow and people are sticking to what they know (i.e. DVD) for now.
Dan
Yes, they are talking about Blu-Ray disks, which is what the bulk of the article is about. It's only further down that it's mentioned (almost in passing) that these players can also write HD content to standard DVDs.
For me this is interesting as there's not currently an affordable way of storing HD content (such as from a HD camcorder via HDMI) in a manner that is easily played back on a HD TV. Other than sticking a PC next to your TV, and that doesn't look too great in the living room.
No doubt these things will cost a small fortune though. What would be nice would be a DVD recorder that can write HD content to a standard DVD, with non of the expensive Blu-Ray stuff. That's surely got to be possible?
Dan
I second this. I've used both OpenOffice and NeoOffice on my Mac, and while I commend the efforts to produce an open source office suite, they both have a long way to go to match the performance, ease of use and superb interface in iWorks '08 (which was well worth the money).
I also found this surprising.
In '95 I had a Cyrix 5x86 running at 100MHz. A DOS player could play MP3s fine but Winamp on Windows struggled, so I assumed 100MHz was about the threshold for MP3 playback on generic hardware (the custom hardware in iPods runs at less than 100MHz, but that doesn't count).
Of course this was a Cyrix chip and you were using a PowerPC, so it's possibly apples/oranges. The MP3 decoding software probably makes a big difference too.
This was the plot of an Arthur C. Clarke novel. I forget the title. But the first ship to arrive was a 'seeder ship' which somehow grew the humans. Still, there was a full colony in place by the time the FSOL ship arrived, with original Earth-born humans, later on.
Orbital velocity? They are suborbital flights only.
I had much the same experience. It wasn't that different to my experience with Active Worlds back in 1996. With the advances in graphics hardware and internet bandwidth, I expected a lot more.
Why not stick to consoles for games, and keep the PC or Mac as a workstation? PC gaming is very expensive given the need to constantly upgrade the system. In some cases the upgrade will cost more than an actual console.
Added to the argument is the fact that consoles are now surpassing PCs for gaming in terms of graphics performance - or at least you will need a very expensive PC to compete.
So by keeping a console for games playing, you can happily run Linux, OS X, or whatever else you choose and still enjoy cutting edge games. To me it makes a lot more sense than lobbying games manufacturers to produce games for your particular OS.
With the exception of Skype, aren't most of these things possible on phones already either as pre-bundled applications or as Java downloads?
I suppose the really critical thing (rather than the application and content) is that there will be no per-data fee, it's a one off monthly cost as with broadband. Internet on the go with a broadband price plan.
When I read the thing about talking via WordPad, I assumed he was using some sort of remote desktop client such as VNC. I've had conversations using Notepad with other VNC users of the same server in the past.
I got the impression it was 3D, using the alternating left/right images technique (and LCD shuttered glasses). The first few seconds of the video gives that impression anyway.