I like Penrose tilings as the next guy (actually even more, since I wrote my PhD dissertation about it). However it's besides the point of TFA. The fact it isn't mentioned it's simply because it's irrelevant. Science isn't about fanboysm.
Because it's one of the several possible tiling, and it's not exclusive. In other words, there are other tilings that fit specific type of quasicrystals. There is no reason to pick Penrose's one. What has been found in TFA, is more general. In fact the tiling in this system is very different from any other, since it is somewhat an hybrid between a conventional quasicrystal and a crystal. Why are you all so obsessed with Penrose's tiling?
Quote: "CPUs get cheaper because they get physically smaller, and thus require less silicon."
Totally wrong. CPUs are cheaper not because they use less silicon. The die (the actual chip, without the encasing) of an Intel Core Duo is about the same size of that of the original Pentium. What drove the prices down is the new scalable processes in place in manufacturer nanofabrication facilities. Back in the day fabrication was done in 4 inches wafers, with a yield a much lower die per wafer ratio. Today's 12 inch wafer allows the production of more dies per wafer.
The cost of silicon has nothing to do with it. Silicon is one of the most abundant elements, and also easily available (read: cheap).
The process of making smaller features is only a small fraction of the problem in producing 25nm (or smaller) Si-based electronics. Left aside quantum effects, which start to dominate at length scales smaller than 10nm, stability and electrical leakage through the gate are the most significant problems. When Intel went from 65nm to 45 nm, it wasn't just a "shrinking" process, but an all new use of materials design had to be used to deal with the gate current leakage. In simple words, the silicon oxide insulator was just too thin not to leak. The new metal high-K (Hafnium-based) is the major step that allowed those chip to be made. This research is good, but it solves only a small fraction of the difficulties the electronics industry faces in dealing with Moore's law.
You can really learn any language and you should pick one depending on your interest (learning something you have no interest is both pointless and useless). However for any language, what is really important is how you learn it. Lot's of people claim to know languages, when in fact they know a few scattered words (I have interviewed people with "fluent" Italian according to the CV that didn't really know the language at all). How you learn the language is crucial. A good instructor is a good start, followed by a good program that doesn't give you only the basics to pass the exam, but a real grasp of the language. Then the REAL way to get fluent is top spend time in that country, living with the locals. The language is more than a dictionary, it's a cultural combination of factors that go beyond memorization and practice, and involve social interaction. You might not find it useful per se as an engineer, but also learning how engineers live and work in other country may teach you better ways to do your work. All this is way more important than which language to pick.
It's safe for the laptop (doesn't etch plastics and glass), and it's commonly use as a disinfectant in hospitals. It's a nice cleaning agent too against grease. Finally it makes the surface you are cleaning hydrophilic, so it repels water. You can buy it in any pharmacy-drug store. Of course don't spray it directly on the PC, but on a cotton cloth. I do this for every PC with dirty keyboards I am forced to work on.
Handspring was bought again by Palm, at the time Handspring presented the very first Treo 600. Jeff Hawkins, and Donna Dubinksy were again rehired in the main management. So you can say Palm rehired Handspring's folks back, but it seems that was pretty irrelevant in determining the current state of Palm. Blame poor management for that, in particular the current (Ed Colligan) and past CEOs, for total lack of ideas.
And I am sure Amazon is so stupid to stock only the version that in principle should sell well, and not the one that actually sells well. If the Linux version is sold out, that means there is demand for it. Why then don't they stock more of the Linux version? Is it because they rather stock the more "popular" Windows version?
Bah....
Must be something typical of NZ. In the US, Linux versions are sold out (check Amazon). while there is plenty available with XP. In addition (reading reviews from real users), Linux version works out of the box, while there is nothing useful in the default installation of XP.
It'd be interesting to know what are such things you believe being "wrong".
Please name such models. The eeePC 900 (and soon also the eeePC 901, powered by Intel Atom) cost more than 500$. The only cheaper one is the MSI wind, which comes with an HD instead of SSD.
Portability. It's the same argument that people made back in the days when laptops were not ubiquitous. You can get a cheaper more powerful desktop, so why do you want to buy a laptop? Same here, scaled to new ultraportable devices.
The ASUS eeePC is currently selling like hotcakes, and the price range is currently in the neighborhood of 400-500$. Your argument has been around for quite a while ("I can get a full featured laptop for the same money"). The problem is this laptop isn't a regular laptop, but a new category of devices. Something you can carry easily, light, and robust. Dell isn't foolish, after the success of the eeePC, the HP mini-note and new devices coming from MSI, they want to make sure of their presence in that growing market.
So yes, you can get something bigger for similar money. But you get a all different device. Exactly like the MacBook Air (why spending so much for something slower than a regular Mackbook?) these are new devices, for people who value portability over added features.
In addition, if these devices run Linux natively (as they pretty much all do, in addition to WinXP), you get a modern fast OS, without you having to do anything to it, it simply work out of the box. In fact some people say that the Linux version are for those unexperienced, considering how easy they are to maintain.... Can you say the same about the crap-loaded $500 cheap "conventional" laptops?
Nobody said Impress is not easy to use. The problem is simply compatibility. I am sure you have tried to use a presentation done with Impress with PPT and viceversa. Does it look the same? No. Let's not even consider if you have media in your presentation (I use scientific animations in mine) and it's a huge set of problems.
I have nothing against Impress. But on the opposite of OOo.org Writer, which does a pretty good job in terms of compatibility, Impress really could use more polish.
We are not talking about upgrades here, but new purchases. If you are using XP in your current PC than you are perfectly right. But if in a 2008 brand new PC computer I will get an old OS, than you are wrong, because I am not upgrading to anything. 2008 hardware needs a properly designed 2008 OS.
... to see a 7 years old OS making the news because it will be extended to 10 years! It's like saying Ford extending the life of their 1965 sedan into the 2010. I mean it works, but I wouldn't define it as an achievement of human progress.
The cost of supporting Xandros is zero. ASUS basically outsourced the support to community-based forums (such as http://www.eeeuser.com/). How much cheaper can you go?
The WinXP version will retail for 399USD. This includes the SD card and an extra mouse. As far as I know the retail price for the 4G linux version is 399USD. So I am struggling to understand the economy here, provided that the Linux is (supposedly) free. Is actually MS paying to get XP in these things? Or is Xandros license actually more expensive than WinXP license?
Please, help me to understand...
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I like Penrose tilings as the next guy (actually even more, since I wrote my PhD dissertation about it). However it's besides the point of TFA. The fact it isn't mentioned it's simply because it's irrelevant. Science isn't about fanboysm.
Because it's one of the several possible tiling, and it's not exclusive. In other words, there are other tilings that fit specific type of quasicrystals. There is no reason to pick Penrose's one. What has been found in TFA, is more general. In fact the tiling in this system is very different from any other, since it is somewhat an hybrid between a conventional quasicrystal and a crystal. Why are you all so obsessed with Penrose's tiling?
Quote: "CPUs get cheaper because they get physically smaller, and thus require less silicon." Totally wrong. CPUs are cheaper not because they use less silicon. The die (the actual chip, without the encasing) of an Intel Core Duo is about the same size of that of the original Pentium. What drove the prices down is the new scalable processes in place in manufacturer nanofabrication facilities. Back in the day fabrication was done in 4 inches wafers, with a yield a much lower die per wafer ratio. Today's 12 inch wafer allows the production of more dies per wafer. The cost of silicon has nothing to do with it. Silicon is one of the most abundant elements, and also easily available (read: cheap).
The process of making smaller features is only a small fraction of the problem in producing 25nm (or smaller) Si-based electronics. Left aside quantum effects, which start to dominate at length scales smaller than 10nm, stability and electrical leakage through the gate are the most significant problems. When Intel went from 65nm to 45 nm, it wasn't just a "shrinking" process, but an all new use of materials design had to be used to deal with the gate current leakage. In simple words, the silicon oxide insulator was just too thin not to leak. The new metal high-K (Hafnium-based) is the major step that allowed those chip to be made. This research is good, but it solves only a small fraction of the difficulties the electronics industry faces in dealing with Moore's law.
You can really learn any language and you should pick one depending on your interest (learning something you have no interest is both pointless and useless). However for any language, what is really important is how you learn it. Lot's of people claim to know languages, when in fact they know a few scattered words (I have interviewed people with "fluent" Italian according to the CV that didn't really know the language at all). How you learn the language is crucial. A good instructor is a good start, followed by a good program that doesn't give you only the basics to pass the exam, but a real grasp of the language. Then the REAL way to get fluent is top spend time in that country, living with the locals. The language is more than a dictionary, it's a cultural combination of factors that go beyond memorization and practice, and involve social interaction. You might not find it useful per se as an engineer, but also learning how engineers live and work in other country may teach you better ways to do your work. All this is way more important than which language to pick.
It's safe for the laptop (doesn't etch plastics and glass), and it's commonly use as a disinfectant in hospitals. It's a nice cleaning agent too against grease. Finally it makes the surface you are cleaning hydrophilic, so it repels water. You can buy it in any pharmacy-drug store. Of course don't spray it directly on the PC, but on a cotton cloth. I do this for every PC with dirty keyboards I am forced to work on.
Handspring was bought again by Palm, at the time Handspring presented the very first Treo 600. Jeff Hawkins, and Donna Dubinksy were again rehired in the main management. So you can say Palm rehired Handspring's folks back, but it seems that was pretty irrelevant in determining the current state of Palm. Blame poor management for that, in particular the current (Ed Colligan) and past CEOs, for total lack of ideas.
Interesting, I wasn't aware of the existence of Firefox 1.8.....
And I am sure Amazon is so stupid to stock only the version that in principle should sell well, and not the one that actually sells well. If the Linux version is sold out, that means there is demand for it. Why then don't they stock more of the Linux version? Is it because they rather stock the more "popular" Windows version? Bah....
Must be something typical of NZ. In the US, Linux versions are sold out (check Amazon). while there is plenty available with XP. In addition (reading reviews from real users), Linux version works out of the box, while there is nothing useful in the default installation of XP. It'd be interesting to know what are such things you believe being "wrong".
When user see that they can get more with less money, it's a difficult deal to resist...
"As soon as the "average joe" gets his hands on one and realize it won't play his video games, he's going to take it back and that's that."
Of course your claim is very well unsupported by strong sells of eeePC, with no returns. I wonder who's your average joe...
Please name such models. The eeePC 900 (and soon also the eeePC 901, powered by Intel Atom) cost more than 500$. The only cheaper one is the MSI wind, which comes with an HD instead of SSD.
Portability. It's the same argument that people made back in the days when laptops were not ubiquitous. You can get a cheaper more powerful desktop, so why do you want to buy a laptop? Same here, scaled to new ultraportable devices.
The ASUS eeePC is currently selling like hotcakes, and the price range is currently in the neighborhood of 400-500$. Your argument has been around for quite a while ("I can get a full featured laptop for the same money"). The problem is this laptop isn't a regular laptop, but a new category of devices. Something you can carry easily, light, and robust. Dell isn't foolish, after the success of the eeePC, the HP mini-note and new devices coming from MSI, they want to make sure of their presence in that growing market.
So yes, you can get something bigger for similar money. But you get a all different device. Exactly like the MacBook Air (why spending so much for something slower than a regular Mackbook?) these are new devices, for people who value portability over added features.
In addition, if these devices run Linux natively (as they pretty much all do, in addition to WinXP), you get a modern fast OS, without you having to do anything to it, it simply work out of the box. In fact some people say that the Linux version are for those unexperienced, considering how easy they are to maintain.... Can you say the same about the crap-loaded $500 cheap "conventional" laptops?
The XO has exactly the same type of pie menu to switch from one application to another. Nothing new.
Nobody said Impress is not easy to use. The problem is simply compatibility. I am sure you have tried to use a presentation done with Impress with PPT and viceversa. Does it look the same? No. Let's not even consider if you have media in your presentation (I use scientific animations in mine) and it's a huge set of problems. I have nothing against Impress. But on the opposite of OOo.org Writer, which does a pretty good job in terms of compatibility, Impress really could use more polish.
The results will be easily available at 99 cents on iTunes. Of course, if it involves video, it will go for 1.99 cents.
Here's an example where you might still need Widows, especially for a mobile device such as the eeepc: PowerPoint. OOo Impress sucks hard.
I never meant to say that Vista IS the replacement. For me Linux is.
Quote: "they could have gradually improved XP". Question for you: Did they really?
We are not talking about upgrades here, but new purchases. If you are using XP in your current PC than you are perfectly right. But if in a 2008 brand new PC computer I will get an old OS, than you are wrong, because I am not upgrading to anything. 2008 hardware needs a properly designed 2008 OS.
... to see a 7 years old OS making the news because it will be extended to 10 years! It's like saying Ford extending the life of their 1965 sedan into the 2010. I mean it works, but I wouldn't define it as an achievement of human progress.
The cost of supporting Xandros is zero. ASUS basically outsourced the support to community-based forums (such as http://www.eeeuser.com/). How much cheaper can you go?
The WinXP version will retail for 399USD. This includes the SD card and an extra mouse. As far as I know the retail price for the 4G linux version is 399USD. So I am struggling to understand the economy here, provided that the Linux is (supposedly) free. Is actually MS paying to get XP in these things? Or is Xandros license actually more expensive than WinXP license? Please, help me to understand...
Yes, using conventional e-beam lithography.