The 'Star Trek Ideal' is actually 'Go put on your red shirt while I get a few condoms from Bones at the dispensary. Be ready to beam down in the landing party in five minutes.'
I'm sorry. I just can't view the mushy crap after 'the original series' as Star Trek. Let's be honest: it's ChickFlick Trek.
It's the difference between a moron who is easily avoided by taking a number of precautions that any reasonably intelligent person can take, and a evil force that will reach deep into your life to fuck you completely over, no matter what you try to do.
Obviously I think there is a difference. You seem to subscribe to the romantic notion that the former (the moron) is 'more bad' in some way, or that for some sick reason you admire the latter.
Yet again, another innovation that Microsoft 'stole' from others. Larry Ellison's army of marketers pioneered in the area of vaporware. Microsoft just followed in their footsteps. They aren't even as good at being slimy marketers as Oracle.
I'm not disagreeing that it's a new area and there aren't tools for it at this point in time. Pure 'clockless' and 'not-all-totally-syncronous' are two different things, though.
An annoying example from my past was when a 'glitch' problem was found in a complex TTL circuit I designed, and the boss wouldn't let me do it right, i.e. back the clocking out another layer and syncronize something that shouldn't have been left hanging on the edge. The boss insisted I just throw a fricking cap across the signal to get rid of the glitch. Bleah! Sucky kludge!
Analog folks count in 'linear' and 'unsaturated signal' issues all the time. Granted, most logic and digital circuit designers aren't prepared to work at that level...
Do you remember "PentiumIV will make Internet faster" marketing campaign?
That's right up there with the 'Algore claim he invented the internet' urban folklore, and of similar discussion value.
If you've ever tried to connect to an even nominally multimedia-rich web site on a 386 or 486 box that has a broadband connection, you know what I mean.
Yes, I know. But I thought some topic drift would be good to introduce, and why not drift off to something cool like 4-pin embedded controllers?
This is supposed to be about Microprocessors in 2004, and by volume, most of them are still either 4 or 8 bit parts, in the real world we live in (a world which differs from the fantasy world that people who've mastered the phillips screwdriver and 'built their own computer from scratch' live in, mind you)
In clockless designs signals change whenever they want in a sense
Huh? Free Will for silicon?
Not very likely. Stuff will be designed to work. Just because timing issues become different doesn't mean they cease to be a concern. Also, the 'noisiest' time in a lot of saturated logic circuits is the big 'thump' when the syncronous clock changes state.
The original poster spoke of purchasing an alternative product to the iPod. There's really no polar opposite here at all, though.
'Popular' is one of those tricky words. I remember the club scene when the 'coolest' people in the New Wave scene had the first Sony 'Walkman' players back in about 1979. Snobby rich chicks for the most part. iPod seems very, very similar. Same as it ever was. A lotta bullshit, to be blunt.
From a pin-count point-of-view, some of the 'clockless' micros from Microchip are pretty cool. They even have a PIC or two in a four pin package now.
The parts have a regular syncronous clock inside, and are termed 'clockless' because they run on an internal RC clock and thus have no exterior 'clock' pins, and so aren't what is being referred to here. But from a hardware-hacker's point of view that's what first came to mind. Who'd have thought the processor could one day masquerade as a bridge rectifier??
Take a logic course, or read up a little on the topic. There isn't one exact opposite option to the iPod. One can even boycott Apple products and have some pretty nice gear, if one so wishes.
'everybody' is buying iPods mostly in TV commercials, as far as I can tell. I don't know a single person who has one.
And I wonder what prevents general havoc-makers from cutting the cord and making off with the key. To sit across the street at an outside table at the coffee bar and watch the poor fool with his 'card' fumble around.
I've lost count of the number of manufacturer support and other websites that required logins for no good reason, didn't work and as a result were useless.
Actually, for a skinflint vendor who wants to fend off expensive tech support queries, a poorly designed website that it's difficult/impossible to log onto is probably a tremendous cost saver. Thus it's by no means 'useless.'
Slashdot Mirror
The 'Star Trek Ideal' is actually 'Go put on your red shirt while I get a few condoms from Bones at the dispensary. Be ready to beam down in the landing party in five minutes.'
I'm sorry. I just can't view the mushy crap after 'the original series' as Star Trek. Let's be honest: it's ChickFlick Trek.
It's the difference between a moron who is easily avoided by taking a number of precautions that any reasonably intelligent person can take, and a evil force that will reach deep into your life to fuck you completely over, no matter what you try to do.
Obviously I think there is a difference. You seem to subscribe to the romantic notion that the former (the moron) is 'more bad' in some way, or that for some sick reason you admire the latter.
Just calling you on some bullshit.
The mafia beats the shit out of the convenience store owner if he doesn't buy his stock through their distributors.
Time to shuck off some romantic notions, guy.
You're thinking of North Dakota.
Considering they were a 'current' band when I was buying their albums on the LP format in 1982, you're probably correct.
I hope you included a clickable ad banner, with a warm friendly 'Fuck You' graphic, at the top of each page of the email message.
Part of my interest in P2P is sticking it to the man,
My, what a cute little ReBeL!!
Why did you post all that musty old class-war drivel here?
Shouldn't you be out selling your newspaper?
Yet again, another innovation that Microsoft 'stole' from others. Larry Ellison's army of marketers pioneered in the area of vaporware. Microsoft just followed in their footsteps. They aren't even as good at being slimy marketers as Oracle.
I'm not disagreeing that it's a new area and there aren't tools for it at this point in time. Pure 'clockless' and 'not-all-totally-syncronous' are two different things, though.
An annoying example from my past was when a 'glitch' problem was found in a complex TTL circuit I designed, and the boss wouldn't let me do it right, i.e. back the clocking out another layer and syncronize something that shouldn't have been left hanging on the edge. The boss insisted I just throw a fricking cap across the signal to get rid of the glitch. Bleah! Sucky kludge!
Analog folks count in 'linear' and 'unsaturated signal' issues all the time. Granted, most logic and digital circuit designers aren't prepared to work at that level...
Do you remember "PentiumIV will make Internet faster" marketing campaign?
That's right up there with the 'Algore claim he invented the internet' urban folklore, and of similar discussion value.
If you've ever tried to connect to an even nominally multimedia-rich web site on a 386 or 486 box that has a broadband connection, you know what I mean.
Yes, I know. But I thought some topic drift would be good to introduce, and why not drift off to something cool like 4-pin embedded controllers?
This is supposed to be about Microprocessors in 2004, and by volume, most of them are still either 4 or 8 bit parts, in the real world we live in (a world which differs from the fantasy world that people who've mastered the phillips screwdriver and 'built their own computer from scratch' live in, mind you)
Yer right. Heck, Sun and IBM's 64-bit boxes don't even run Windoze. And everybody knows Windoze is the ONLY future desktop...
(actually, Microsoft and others are kinda banking on the general purpose 'desktop' ceasing to exist before long)
In clockless designs signals change whenever they want in a sense
Huh? Free Will for silicon?
Not very likely. Stuff will be designed to work. Just because timing issues become different doesn't mean they cease to be a concern. Also, the 'noisiest' time in a lot of saturated logic circuits is the big 'thump' when the syncronous clock changes state.
The original poster spoke of purchasing an alternative product to the iPod. There's really no polar opposite here at all, though.
'Popular' is one of those tricky words. I remember the club scene when the 'coolest' people in the New Wave scene had the first Sony 'Walkman' players back in about 1979. Snobby rich chicks for the most part. iPod seems very, very similar. Same as it ever was. A lotta bullshit, to be blunt.
From a pin-count point-of-view, some of the 'clockless' micros from Microchip are pretty cool. They even have a PIC or two in a four pin package now.
The parts have a regular syncronous clock inside, and are termed 'clockless' because they run on an internal RC clock and thus have no exterior 'clock' pins, and so aren't what is being referred to here. But from a hardware-hacker's point of view that's what first came to mind. Who'd have thought the processor could one day masquerade as a bridge rectifier??
Take a logic course, or read up a little on the topic. There isn't one exact opposite option to the iPod. One can even boycott Apple products and have some pretty nice gear, if one so wishes.
'everybody' is buying iPods mostly in TV commercials, as far as I can tell. I don't know a single person who has one.
Or you could put a PayPal link on the web page and they could get the CD for two or three bucks via HTTP.
It just doesn't make much sense to bemoan the lack of common p-to-p data transfer as if it's blocking a whole font of knowledge from flowing.
I'm not a customer for this stuff anyway.
Smoking/Pets Fee:
Fee for smoking in a vehicle or carrying pets without a pet carrier is $200.
We have a large black dog, who weighs ~85 pounds. The back seat of a passenger vehicle is an appropriately-sized pet carrier for her.
And I wonder what prevents general havoc-makers from cutting the cord and making off with the key. To sit across the street at an outside table at the coffee bar and watch the poor fool with his 'card' fumble around.
Is there really an 'exact opposite' on the market?
I think 'exact' and 'opposite' are pretty heavy-duty terms that you're using inappropriately here.
Of course that locks out a lot of people who otherwise might have downloaded the audio -- homeschoolers, etc.
How does it lock anybody out? You know of a lot of people who are snail-mail deprived who you can't send a CD on request?
I've lost count of the number of manufacturer support and other websites that required logins for no good reason, didn't work and as a result were useless.
Actually, for a skinflint vendor who wants to fend off expensive tech support queries, a poorly designed website that it's difficult/impossible to log onto is probably a tremendous cost saver. Thus it's by no means 'useless.'
Well, there's also the traditional Apple army-of-zealots.
(look out! I.B.M. is gonna get ya!)