Uh, the thing is pictured with a keyboard, although it shouldn't prove too taxing to imagine using a USB keyboard/mouse on it.
And as to the Vanna White comment . . . obviously, you haven't risen high enough in the IT industry to have had to make a presentation to management, have you?:^)
This is a reference design, not a finished product. Similar to vaporware - think of it as "smokeware":^)
4-64GB RAM (that's GigaBYTEs, not GigaBITs). Not a server, so I'm not sure I see why you'd want more than 4GB RAM - but I'll admit that 640K isn't enough for everyone, so I'm sure the price differential will be based on memory costs.
There's an Ubunto/ARM distro - IF (as I've commented elsewhere) they provide access to the firmware I'm sure a well-experienced UNIX engineer should be able to install that for you, otherwise I'd say stick with the pre-packaged OS. ARM/PROM-based OS's (embedded systems, in essence) are not quite what your average Linux users is used to.
1024x600 - yeah, that's kinda dorky, but I suppose they wanted a specific aspect ratio on their finished product.
So lemme get this straight - you've never used, say, a clipboard, right? Or are you generally just not a fan of the tablet PC form-factor? Incidentally, tablet PC's aren't generally a first choice for data-entry tasks - typing on an on-screen keyboard is generally a painful exercise at best and considerably slower than typing on a decent keyboard in any event. Tablets are designed as a highly portable data presentation device - using handwriting recognition software, they make a decent data capture device (e.g., handwritten notes) - but for data entry, get yourself a clerk and a desktop PC with a good keyboard. The right tool for the right job.
This thing looks exactly like what I've been looking for, except for the "auto-on" bit (which I take to mean OS in firmware). If there's a mechanism for me to flash my own OS, I'm a happy man (see: SheevaPlug). If it's in EEPROM, fine. If OTOH it's in ROM, well - I don't care if they DO let me add software to a local hard drive, I'll wait for the next guy's offering. The hardware is a really good match to what I want, and I'll handle my own software.
It's easy enough to fix. Install gconf-editor using 'yum'.
Apps->nautilus->preferences: Always Use Browser (check for browser, uncheck for spatial).
Also easy enough to configure different menu/desktop/panel launchers to let you choose on the fly if you prefer. Not exactly a huge issue, except for those who are impressed by out-of-the-box default configurations (personally, I tend to customizemy desktop - you know, wallpaper, screensavers, window decorations, default behaviors, etc.).
I'm sure they're just opensourcing the bits of Sun's portfolio that they didn't want - sort of a cheap and easy way to divest themselves of responsibility for code and products they didn't want when they took over Sun.
Rest assured, any bits they feel will help them make Oracle an even more ubiquitous player in the database niche of IT will not see the light of day any time soon. Frankly, I'm surprised they haven't killed MySQL yet (although they may have plans for it; and the fact that it was previously open-source may make it impossible for them to truly kill it).
Anybody here trust Oracle? I mean, I've worked with their products before, and while I don't want to say anything denigrating or derogatory about them here I'm just glad that's worked with before (past tense) and not work with (present tense).
Y'see, Earth has this atmosphere thing going on, with all sorts of interdependent and highly delicate living things. An Earth/Apophis impact would release the eqivalent of detonating gigatons of TNT, and all us poor, frail things that depend on the atmosphere and/or the hydrosphere would be pretty much boned.
Now good ol' Luna, on the other hand . . . well, what's one more half-mile wide crater amidst the regolith, eh? I mean, not even an atmosphere to disperse a superheated shock wave - just a big crater, surrounded by smaller craters where the ejecta came back down on the moon's surface. Not even a whisper of sound! Just a miniscule flash (to we living, air-breathing types), easily missed. No real 'delta-v' for our moon, no funky tides here on Terra, nada. Now, I'll bet every astronomer with so much as a spyglass would be watching when it happens, and I'm sure there'd be spectacular photographs of the event, but aside from that it'd be a major non-event.
Einstein's theories of relativity basically start by saying something to the effect of "Let us assume the speed of light to be the fastest anything can travel. If we assume this, then..."
Sounds like this guy's saying "Let us assume the speed of light is not necessarily the fastest anything can travel. If we assume this, then..."
The reason for Einstein's initial assumption is that we have never to date observed anything which has moved faster than light. Then again, would we know such a thing if we observed it, and have we actively looked for such a thing? If so, how have we looked?
Wow, maybe that's why I haven't won the Powerball lottery - the future abhors the prospect of me being rich! Oh, well...if my wife and kids are out to make sure I'm never rich, why should the future be any different?
They still have many engineering challenges to complete before the LHC can start looking for the Higgs Boson.
Assuming it exists. After all, this is an experiment designed to determine the accurace of a theory, not to confirm it.
Of course, I believe they'll find it. My wife goes to 'mass' every weekend; I'm assuming that's where Higgs particles come from? I wouldn't know, as I haven't gone. You could describe me as 'massless'.:)
Uh, just to ask - why does anybody think there are nightly builds of Insecure Exploder?
Firefox, Opera, Safari - sure, these guys are in active development, frequently introducing new or improved functionality to their products. Ditto for most FOSS products.
MicroSoft, OTOH, uses a proprietary closed-source model of software as the basis for their business practices. Within that model, development on any product takes place when there's a fiscal incentive to do so; otherwise, existing (revenue-generating) products are left alone to do what they do best - generate revenue.
Is there a good business-case reason for MicroSoft to invest in continuous, nightly development of a product which is not sold directly but rather included in the purchase of another product (MS-Windows)? Is Insecure Exploder so vital a part of their OS that it will represent a deal-breaker for the huge number of enterprises which have implemented and continue to implement MicroSoft technologies?
If you feel that you don't have a choice but to purchase whatever they produce for your consumption, I suppose you could go get a big "PWNED" tattooed on your forehead. Must suck, working for the major Hollywood studios but getting neither fame nor money.
Me, I'll give 'em my money when I want, to get what I want the way I want it - or I'll spend my hard-earned somewhere else. Frankly, I'm partial to scotch.
In which case, it's the city/county's fault for not having a mechanism in place to prevent abuses. Still have to agree with them taking it down until they're technically prepared to bring it up correctly, and I still don't see how this is newsworthy.
Although - if they intend to offer an unsecured wifi hotspot, they can't possibly hope to prevent abuses. I don't care if they install the Great Firewall of China, if they permit unauthenticated access they're opening the door to abuse. Even if they catch MAC address 00:01:02:03:04:05 using BT and TOR to download Jenna Jameson flix, just how do they plan to stop it? Ban that MAC? Hey, look - now someone at MAC 00:01:02:03:04:06 is BT'ing that same JJ flick over TOR. I wonder if the two computer users see each other every time one of them passes a mirror?
This leaves what they've (seem to have) tried to avoid - having to register users and that in turn means having to secure their website somehow. Maybe the way Iowa 'secures' the wifi they provide at some rest areas along the interstate - your initial web surf after connecting to wifi is redirected to their local site where you're notified of a one-hour time limit. After that, you can surf for an hour at the end of which their proxy breaks your connectivity for twenty-three hours (unless you spoof your MAC address and reconnect - but I would never do that;^).
The town had ONE, count 'em, ONE wireless router left unsecured for public use - by the courthouse. They weren't providing an 802.11n wifi computing mushroom over the city, it was ONE wifi router left open. I'm quite sure that the city still has use of that item of hardware, which I'm quite sure is still connected to the same internet in the same way using the same equipment connected to the same Internet Service Provider it was before. I'm sure all they did was to secure their wifi hotspot. I might choose to do the same if I were running an open wifi hotspot and got a takedown notice from the Mafiaa.
I don't think the existence of an open wifi hotspot was a matter voted into existence by the people of Coshocton, OH, nor do I think it came to be as a result of a lawful mandate. Somebody decided it could be kind of nice, opened it up, smiled broadly at the general sense of doing something good, and was unceremoniously educated into the potential issues connected with what I'm sure somebody thought was a simple idea. "Hey, I turned this on, I can turn this off if there's a problem" sure beats "I think I'll get the city involved in a deep-pockets lawsuit over something which isn't our responsibility".
Now, if the presence of an open wifi hotspot were something the citizens had voted for, or even if there was a city budget entry specifying funds to support an open wifi hotspot, that'd be one thing (and turning it off would be a very difficult proposition at that point). Not the case here. To quote Lieutenant Starbuck, "I can turn you on, I can turn you off". I guess in this case, Cy was left "off".
First off, they're competing against themselves. All I have to do is not rush out and buy the PPV event on cable, waiting instead for the Blu-Ray release. If I'm really interested in being cheap, I'll wait for it to be broadcast on one of the premium channels like Home Porn Office or Skinemax. It isn't like I have to have this - it's not like a home (nice terrible analogy there, by the way).
Second off, they're only selling entertainment. They're in direct competition with casinos, libraries, public parks, concerts...
Finally, They're competing against each other. If Fox (for example) imposes this requirement on all PPV releases but Warner Brothers doesn't...ah, but you see where I'm going, yes?
Relax, tvarisch - the free market is far more powerful than you seem to think.
Now, if they were manufacturing and selling, say, electricity, or potable water, or natural gas, heating oil, gasoline, diesel fuel . . . then I might be inclined to agree with your statements. Even the telephone has moved from the "nice to have" list onto the "need to have" list.
I don't think anybody needs "Glitter". Even "(substitute favorite recent movie name here)" is on my nice-to-have list, not my need-to-have list. They make. They sell. I buy (or not). Economic pressure. Capitalism.
I don't shop at Wal-Mart for example, even when they manage to have what I want at the best price. I disapprove strongly of their business practices and I vote with my wallet. I know that I haven't hurt Wal-Mart, but I also know I'm not alone. Collectively we haven't hurt Wal-Mart, but we have made them aware of us. They sell. I buy (or not). Economic pressure. Capitalism.
Are you saying that economic pressure is ineffective? Or that there is no such thing as economic pressure? Or is it simply that you don't believe in capitalism?
Wow - all those millions of consumers who've been misled all these years . . . thinking they could vote with their wallets.
Given that Blu-Ray/DVD/MP4 streams can all be ripped digitally without resorting to analog (with all the quality degradation that brings) - and given that somebody with sufficient skill and equipment to use the analog hole probably also has the skills and equipment to rip digital video without resorting to analog techniques - who cares?
Besides, if Hollyweird's streamed content breaks my TV, I'll just (A) Sue, (B) Vote with my wallet, and (C) Sue. Even if (A) and (C) are eliminated from the list, I'm pretty sure a lot of the cash-spending public will employ option (B).
Which reminds me - do they really have anything to offer which makes this kind of tradeoff worth it? I'll admit that occasionally something really worthwhile comes out of Tinseltown, but not that often IMHO; and even then I think I'll be okay waiting a few extra weeks and buying physical media rather than letting some nameless, faceless entity screw with the firmware in my home electronics.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say Mr. Stross is the one who seems to be missing the point.
If I want education, I'll watch Science/Discovery/History . . . better yet, I'll read a book. When I want entertainment, I want entertainment. Obviously, I'm not alone in feeling that Star Trek/Babylon 5/Firefly et. al. provide that.
Slashdot Mirror
And as to the Vanna White comment . . . obviously, you haven't risen high enough in the IT industry to have had to make a presentation to management, have you? :^)
4-64GB RAM (that's GigaBYTEs, not GigaBITs). Not a server, so I'm not sure I see why you'd want more than 4GB RAM - but I'll admit that 640K isn't enough for everyone, so I'm sure the price differential will be based on memory costs.
There's an Ubunto/ARM distro - IF (as I've commented elsewhere) they provide access to the firmware I'm sure a well-experienced UNIX engineer should be able to install that for you, otherwise I'd say stick with the pre-packaged OS. ARM/PROM-based OS's (embedded systems, in essence) are not quite what your average Linux users is used to.
1024x600 - yeah, that's kinda dorky, but I suppose they wanted a specific aspect ratio on their finished product.
This thing looks exactly like what I've been looking for, except for the "auto-on" bit (which I take to mean OS in firmware). If there's a mechanism for me to flash my own OS, I'm a happy man (see: SheevaPlug). If it's in EEPROM, fine. If OTOH it's in ROM, well - I don't care if they DO let me add software to a local hard drive, I'll wait for the next guy's offering. The hardware is a really good match to what I want, and I'll handle my own software.
And fork you too, Monty/Sun/Oracle.
Apps->nautilus->preferences: Always Use Browser (check for browser, uncheck for spatial).
Also easy enough to configure different menu/desktop/panel launchers to let you choose on the fly if you prefer. Not exactly a huge issue, except for those who are impressed by out-of-the-box default configurations (personally, I tend to customize my desktop - you know, wallpaper, screensavers, window decorations, default behaviors, etc.).
Rest assured, any bits they feel will help them make Oracle an even more ubiquitous player in the database niche of IT will not see the light of day any time soon. Frankly, I'm surprised they haven't killed MySQL yet (although they may have plans for it; and the fact that it was previously open-source may make it impossible for them to truly kill it).
Anybody here trust Oracle? I mean, I've worked with their products before, and while I don't want to say anything denigrating or derogatory about them here I'm just glad that's worked with before (past tense) and not work with (present tense).
SO . . . their website was /.'ed, eh?
Karma to burn, baby! But I'm not off-topic - how'd you think I got the 'funny' that used to be there?
My, my, my!
with a tall glass of frosty piss!
Now good ol' Luna, on the other hand . . . well, what's one more half-mile wide crater amidst the regolith, eh? I mean, not even an atmosphere to disperse a superheated shock wave - just a big crater, surrounded by smaller craters where the ejecta came back down on the moon's surface. Not even a whisper of sound! Just a miniscule flash (to we living, air-breathing types), easily missed. No real 'delta-v' for our moon, no funky tides here on Terra, nada. Now, I'll bet every astronomer with so much as a spyglass would be watching when it happens, and I'm sure there'd be spectacular photographs of the event, but aside from that it'd be a major non-event.
Sounds like this guy's saying "Let us assume the speed of light is not necessarily the fastest anything can travel. If we assume this, then..."
The reason for Einstein's initial assumption is that we have never to date observed anything which has moved faster than light. Then again, would we know such a thing if we observed it, and have we actively looked for such a thing? If so, how have we looked?
Wow, maybe that's why I haven't won the Powerball lottery - the future abhors the prospect of me being rich! Oh, well...if my wife and kids are out to make sure I'm never rich, why should the future be any different?
If you disagree, feel free to mod me up!
Assuming it exists. After all, this is an experiment designed to determine the accurace of a theory, not to confirm it.
Of course, I believe they'll find it. My wife goes to 'mass' every weekend; I'm assuming that's where Higgs particles come from? I wouldn't know, as I haven't gone. You could describe me as 'massless'. :)
Firefox, Opera, Safari - sure, these guys are in active development, frequently introducing new or improved functionality to their products. Ditto for most FOSS products.
MicroSoft, OTOH, uses a proprietary closed-source model of software as the basis for their business practices. Within that model, development on any product takes place when there's a fiscal incentive to do so; otherwise, existing (revenue-generating) products are left alone to do what they do best - generate revenue.
Is there a good business-case reason for MicroSoft to invest in continuous, nightly development of a product which is not sold directly but rather included in the purchase of another product (MS-Windows)? Is Insecure Exploder so vital a part of their OS that it will represent a deal-breaker for the huge number of enterprises which have implemented and continue to implement MicroSoft technologies?
Me, I'll give 'em my money when I want, to get what I want the way I want it - or I'll spend my hard-earned somewhere else. Frankly, I'm partial to scotch.
Although - if they intend to offer an unsecured wifi hotspot, they can't possibly hope to prevent abuses. I don't care if they install the Great Firewall of China, if they permit unauthenticated access they're opening the door to abuse. Even if they catch MAC address 00:01:02:03:04:05 using BT and TOR to download Jenna Jameson flix, just how do they plan to stop it? Ban that MAC? Hey, look - now someone at MAC 00:01:02:03:04:06 is BT'ing that same JJ flick over TOR. I wonder if the two computer users see each other every time one of them passes a mirror?
This leaves what they've (seem to have) tried to avoid - having to register users and that in turn means having to secure their website somehow. Maybe the way Iowa 'secures' the wifi they provide at some rest areas along the interstate - your initial web surf after connecting to wifi is redirected to their local site where you're notified of a one-hour time limit. After that, you can surf for an hour at the end of which their proxy breaks your connectivity for twenty-three hours (unless you spoof your MAC address and reconnect - but I would never do that ;^).
They just ask for a few billion dollars in TARP money.
I don't think the existence of an open wifi hotspot was a matter voted into existence by the people of Coshocton, OH, nor do I think it came to be as a result of a lawful mandate. Somebody decided it could be kind of nice, opened it up, smiled broadly at the general sense of doing something good, and was unceremoniously educated into the potential issues connected with what I'm sure somebody thought was a simple idea. "Hey, I turned this on, I can turn this off if there's a problem" sure beats "I think I'll get the city involved in a deep-pockets lawsuit over something which isn't our responsibility".
Now, if the presence of an open wifi hotspot were something the citizens had voted for, or even if there was a city budget entry specifying funds to support an open wifi hotspot, that'd be one thing (and turning it off would be a very difficult proposition at that point). Not the case here. To quote Lieutenant Starbuck, "I can turn you on, I can turn you off". I guess in this case, Cy was left "off".
Second off, they're only selling entertainment. They're in direct competition with casinos, libraries, public parks, concerts...
Finally, They're competing against each other. If Fox (for example) imposes this requirement on all PPV releases but Warner Brothers doesn't...ah, but you see where I'm going, yes?
Relax, tvarisch - the free market is far more powerful than you seem to think.
Now, if they were manufacturing and selling, say, electricity, or potable water, or natural gas, heating oil, gasoline, diesel fuel . . . then I might be inclined to agree with your statements. Even the telephone has moved from the "nice to have" list onto the "need to have" list.
I don't think anybody needs "Glitter". Even "(substitute favorite recent movie name here)" is on my nice-to-have list, not my need-to-have list. They make. They sell. I buy (or not). Economic pressure. Capitalism.
I don't shop at Wal-Mart for example, even when they manage to have what I want at the best price. I disapprove strongly of their business practices and I vote with my wallet. I know that I haven't hurt Wal-Mart, but I also know I'm not alone. Collectively we haven't hurt Wal-Mart, but we have made them aware of us. They sell. I buy (or not). Economic pressure. Capitalism.
Wow - all those millions of consumers who've been misled all these years . . . thinking they could vote with their wallets.
Besides, if Hollyweird's streamed content breaks my TV, I'll just (A) Sue, (B) Vote with my wallet, and (C) Sue. Even if (A) and (C) are eliminated from the list, I'm pretty sure a lot of the cash-spending public will employ option (B).
Which reminds me - do they really have anything to offer which makes this kind of tradeoff worth it? I'll admit that occasionally something really worthwhile comes out of Tinseltown, but not that often IMHO; and even then I think I'll be okay waiting a few extra weeks and buying physical media rather than letting some nameless, faceless entity screw with the firmware in my home electronics.
If I want education, I'll watch Science/Discovery/History . . . better yet, I'll read a book. When I want entertainment, I want entertainment. Obviously, I'm not alone in feeling that Star Trek/Babylon 5/Firefly et. al. provide that.