a) When Intel says "new level of... reliability", maybe it means they thought about this problem when they designed the drive.
b) When they say "NAND flash", maybe it means they're not using the cheapest MLC memory as mentioned in that scary wikipedia article.
c) When their datasheet says "Minimum useful life of five years, assuming 20Gb/day of writing", maybe they got those numbers from real engineers, with degrees.
d) When their datasheet also says, "Should the host system attempt to exceed 20 GB writes per day by a large margin for an extended period, the drive will enable the endurance management feature to adjust write performance, this feature enables the device to have, at a minimum, a five year useful life", maybe they were really really paranoid about saying 'five years' because they know people will start class-action lawsuits if it doesn't work out.
So, um, how this even got greenlighted in 2009 is beyond me. It's like 1999 called wanting its flash-myths thread back.
If the disk was 16cm and started reading from the outer edge, inwards then copying it would be an expensive proposition for most people.
Changing the size of the hole in the middle won't help much because it doesn't raise the cost - there'll be some CD plant somewhere who'll see that as a marketing opportunity.
OTOH, even a major manufacturer would have a hard time justifying a plant to produce special-size CD burners.
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The great thing about SSDs is that when they die you only lose a few cells, not the entire thing.
Also, they verify their writes and tell you when they're no longer able to comply.
All in all, they're far better than an HD, even in death.
Before we start, let me make a prediction: You never asked about the MTBF of your hard disk, right...?
http://www.intel.com/design/flash/NAND/mainstream/
a) When Intel says "new level of ... reliability", maybe it means they thought about this problem when they designed the drive.
b) When they say "NAND flash", maybe it means they're not using the cheapest MLC memory as mentioned in that scary wikipedia article.
c) When their datasheet says "Minimum useful life of five years, assuming 20Gb/day of writing", maybe they got those numbers from real engineers, with degrees.
d) When their datasheet also says, "Should the host system attempt to exceed 20 GB writes per day by a large margin for an extended period, the drive will enable the endurance management feature to adjust write performance, this feature enables the device to have, at a minimum, a five year useful life", maybe they were really really paranoid about saying 'five years' because they know people will start class-action lawsuits if it doesn't work out.
So, um, how this even got greenlighted in 2009 is beyond me. It's like 1999 called wanting its flash-myths thread back.
Show me a manufacturer which makes a drive which simultaneously:
a) Competes with hard drives for speed
b) Uses the cheapest possible MLC memory in it
Grandparent is correct: If you're not clever enough to figure out if this will be a problem, you shouldn't be a programmer.
Scary thought: Hard drives don't last forever either....
Not all references can be valid all the time. There has to be a way to check if a reference is valid or not and NULL is as good a way as any.
The debate should be about:
a) Whether dereferencing null bombs or throws an exception.
b) Whether a language should have dangling pointers (ie. invalid but non-null).
Pretty pointless - separating the aluminum from the oxygen will require the same amount of energy you got from the hydrogen.
Ummmm, DRM doesn't work. I thought we'd established that.
DRM only ever hurts the paying customers. After they've been stung a few times it makes the pirate offerings more attractive. Downward spiral.
The best way to make money is to, um, listen to the customers instead of dictating to them. The RIAA thinks this is crazy talk so they'll sink.
They fixed the "Messenger isn't annoying enough" problem, that certainly makes it a must-have for me.
Can I plug mine? I just finished version 1.0 and I'll be uploading it later today (as soon I get some web pages done...)
Check it out on Monday morning: http://www.topaz3d.com/
It doesn't even have a Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_ESP
.Net, Silverlight, .... all will pass.
Yeah, that's what I meant by "doesn't fit".
If the disk was 16cm and started reading from the outer edge, inwards then copying it would be an expensive proposition for most people.
Changing the size of the hole in the middle won't help much because it doesn't raise the cost - there'll be some CD plant somewhere who'll see that as a marketing opportunity.
OTOH, even a major manufacturer would have a hard time justifying a plant to produce special-size CD burners.
...they had custom media, sure, but they didn't make it expensive enough to clone/copy.
Simple: Stop putting games on a media which can be copied in any home PC.
Make game CDs a bit bigger or something so they don't fit in a standard drive for recording.
PS: "Spain"? Oh, sure, Spain is a major international cause of lost profit. Not. Spain has a sensible law regarding copyright, that's all.
The Ion was announced, like, two weeks ago and might not even be available in volume yet.
Intel is working on a replacement for the 945 - google for "Intel gn40". It'll do 1080HD video, etc.
Why would anybody want a touch screen on their desktop? Screens are hard enough to keep clean without actually touching them. Ick!
PS: And why on earth is the OS listed as "Genuine Windows XP Home"? Is there any other sort of Windows XP Home?
Just so you know ... EeePC 1000 keyboards are only 10% smaller than normal size.
ie. Everybody *except* the people they tell us they want to listen to.
It's all the lies that really bug me.
"Ilustrado, su idea es intrigante y deseo inscribirme en su boletin, por favor"
While you're at it, look up the difference between "lose" and "loose"...
It's a fluff piece, written to make fanbois and PHBs think Microsoft has finally seen the light, that things are finally going to be secure.
(they've got an important OS launch coming up...)
Micropayment? Not gonna happen, because:
a) To make it work all payments would have to be through a single entity.
b) Nobody in the money business wants somebody else to be in control of micropayments. As soon as one springs up, everybody else starts attacking it.
Wouldn't it make more sense to just not bother. For sheer impracticality, space elevator is one of the silliest ideas ever.
Who cares about Acid3?
It only tests things that most web sites will never need.
"Probable cause" is a lot more flexible than you might think.
>"...they heard a scream inside"
Better watch your TV with headphones then.
Did anybody point out that text files are easy to edit? Lines can be altered, removed or even added to them!