Car engines are not interchangeable parts. Operating systems are. A better analogy would be that the Chevy dealer shouldn't be allowed to force you to pay $1000 for a stereo system when you know you can have an even better aftermarket system installed for $200.
If they can afford to sell me the laptop for $300 AND pay Microsoft $45, it stands to reason that they could afford to sell me the laptop for $255 without Windows. It's as simple as that.
Right... just try buying a new laptop without Windows preinstalled... it seriously limits your choices! In fact, it's usually cheaper to buy a laptop on sale and throw away the Windows license than it is to buy one without Windows preinstalled!
Where is this Afghanistan where Osama Bin Laden is helping to fight the Russians, and why should I care? Gee, I don't know... do you think that perhaps countries at risk of being taken over by militants might eventually have an effect on you? They might even interrupt American Idol with a special news report about the attacks, and that would be a tragedy for you!
You prefer the system wherein every time some batshit crazy guy opens fire in a crowd, the legislature immediately drops everything it is doing and starts screaming for a ban on current weapon-of-choice by the current batshit crazy guy? I said don't change the laws and don't change the security procedures (they wouldn't need to change if you were being proactive instead of reactive in the first place). I didn't say you shouldn't mourn the dead and injured or that you shouldn't take rational measures to increase security. Just like the Army is always preparing to fight the last war, Homeland Security is always devoting the majority of it's time and energy to thwarting the last attack, on the theory that terrorist always repeat any successful method used! This is not a rational response.
They are talking about using cellphone CPUs, e.g. ARM, which have much better performance/power characteristics than X86. Not about using the cellphones themselves.
If they are small enough and cheap enough, you can use massive redundancy to get around the reliability problem. Just stop doing what the Space Shuttle currently does: "One out of the seven computers got a different answer, so we scrubbed the mission."
Also, if reliability is an issue, a voting cluster of hundreds of small, cheap CPUs may be both cheaper and more reliable than a few expensive mil-spec CPUs... especially since MIL-spec are generally 10 years behind state-of-the-art by the time they are approved.
Right, that's why porcupines became extinct many years ago because sticking quills into bears' noses when they are trying to eat you only pisses the bears off!
There are over a billion Muslims in the world. There is a 1/6 chance of any randomly selected person being Muslim. Last I checked, Timothy McVeigh and Ted Kozinski were not Muslim. I had Christians, Muslims, and Jews at my wedding... we got along then, and 10 years later we are still getting along!
If you have easy access to explosives, you probably SHOULD be inspected more closely, don't you think? Of course it is only a matter of time before we get an "ass bomber" smart enough to lock themself in the lavatory before attempting to light the fuse.
First of all I would like to express my condolences to all the victims of this senseless act of brutality. Second, I would like to express my respect for the mature manner in which the Russians handled this. I've always said regarding the US that we have reached maturity as a society only when someone can commit an atrocity and no laws or procedures need to change as a result. Terrorism is all about getting a reaction; if you react to the terrorists, then the terrorist have won.
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Car engines are not interchangeable parts. Operating systems are. A better analogy would be that the Chevy dealer shouldn't be allowed to force you to pay $1000 for a stereo system when you know you can have an even better aftermarket system installed for $200.
If they can afford to sell me the laptop for $300 AND pay Microsoft $45, it stands to reason that they could afford to sell me the laptop for $255 without Windows. It's as simple as that.
Office Depot doesn't have a restocking fee as long as you return everything originally in the box within 7 days.
Shame on YOU for still buying the overpriced crap that Sony now markets... and yes, I can still remember when Sony made good equipment.
Actually, it is a Sicilian stereotype... and Northern Italians have a much dimmer view of Sicilians than Americans do! Prego.
Right... just try buying a new laptop without Windows preinstalled... it seriously limits your choices! In fact, it's usually cheaper to buy a laptop on sale and throw away the Windows license than it is to buy one without Windows preinstalled!
Recent research shows that the Bubonic Plague was the world's greenest disease!
Duh... if you take the time to actually RTFA, how can you possibly get first post???
Where is this Afghanistan where Osama Bin Laden is helping to fight the Russians, and why should I care? Gee, I don't know... do you think that perhaps countries at risk of being taken over by militants might eventually have an effect on you? They might even interrupt American Idol with a special news report about the attacks, and that would be a tragedy for you!
You prefer the system wherein every time some batshit crazy guy opens fire in a crowd, the legislature immediately drops everything it is doing and starts screaming for a ban on current weapon-of-choice by the current batshit crazy guy? I said don't change the laws and don't change the security procedures (they wouldn't need to change if you were being proactive instead of reactive in the first place). I didn't say you shouldn't mourn the dead and injured or that you shouldn't take rational measures to increase security. Just like the Army is always preparing to fight the last war, Homeland Security is always devoting the majority of it's time and energy to thwarting the last attack, on the theory that terrorist always repeat any successful method used! This is not a rational response.
They are talking about using cellphone CPUs, e.g. ARM, which have much better performance/power characteristics than X86. Not about using the cellphones themselves.
A valid point -- end-to-end encryption in both directions is required. Meaning the calls to always use https actually make sense.
If they are small enough and cheap enough, you can use massive redundancy to get around the reliability problem. Just stop doing what the Space Shuttle currently does: "One out of the seven computers got a different answer, so we scrubbed the mission."
Also, if reliability is an issue, a voting cluster of hundreds of small, cheap CPUs may be both cheaper and more reliable than a few expensive mil-spec CPUs... especially since MIL-spec are generally 10 years behind state-of-the-art by the time they are approved.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of planes full of iPhones!
Right, that's why porcupines became extinct many years ago because sticking quills into bears' noses when they are trying to eat you only pisses the bears off!
How badly does Facebook's password encryption suck if a man-in-the-middle attack can easily steal everybody's password?
This sounds like an ad for (and makes about as much sense as) the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.
Wouldn't they have to wait about 10,000 years for the radiation to drop to low enough levels to re-enter the ruins?
And some of us just really LIKE getting felt out by TSA agents!
Buddhist claim there is no God, then they spin their prayer wheels and put prayer flags in the wind... prayers to WHOM?
There are over a billion Muslims in the world. There is a 1/6 chance of any randomly selected person being Muslim. Last I checked, Timothy McVeigh and Ted Kozinski were not Muslim. I had Christians, Muslims, and Jews at my wedding... we got along then, and 10 years later we are still getting along!
Potential life-threatening emergencies are handled differently than potential data loss... who would have thought?
If you have easy access to explosives, you probably SHOULD be inspected more closely, don't you think? Of course it is only a matter of time before we get an "ass bomber" smart enough to lock themself in the lavatory before attempting to light the fuse.
First of all I would like to express my condolences to all the victims of this senseless act of brutality. Second, I would like to express my respect for the mature manner in which the Russians handled this. I've always said regarding the US that we have reached maturity as a society only when someone can commit an atrocity and no laws or procedures need to change as a result. Terrorism is all about getting a reaction; if you react to the terrorists, then the terrorist have won.