Not ONE fucking article I've read has said the guy was an MS employee. Not one, and I've read 4. He could have been at Redmond stocking the bloody vending machines for god's sake, or attending a seminar, or ANYTHING.
This is sensationalised, biased, "news" at it's worst. I can't believe this got past the editors.
What would happen if say, I was talking and expressing myself by moving my hands and arms as I was walking through the door? My shape would not be constant, so would the door have to continuously adjust? If it wasn't fast enough, would I end up bashing it?
Having the sliding parts so close to the body leaves very little room for error.
Australia's broadband doesn't suck, Australia's telephone infrastructure sucks (thanks for nothing Tel$tra). If you're lucky enough to have a clean phone line, without a RIM, non-ADSL CMUX or Minimux, loading coil or pair gain, and your exchange has a non-Tel$tra DSLAM, you can get pretty good broadband speeds. I'm on a 12Mbit down / 1Mbit up plan with iiNet for $49.99 a month, but because of line quality I can only get about 3.5MBit down / 850Mbit up. Other providers like Internode have similar or better packages.
I really feel for you guys on RIMs and whatnot:( .
However, through the cookies scheme, I'm the only one not getting paid.
Yes, you are getting paid. You get to use the website. Unless of course you'd like to pay for each time you click on a hyperlink?
Hosting a large website can be expensive, so I don't really object to SOME advertising / cookies. As long as the information is reasonably harmless to me, and the ads not too intrusive, I consider it fair.
I don't know, say on the bus (about half the buses around here don't have AC)? Sitting in an unairconditioned cafe? Hell, if I was a salesperson at someone's unairconditioned house it'd probably be close to that temperature INSIDE, and I'd want to use my laptop.
There are a lot of reasons why I would need something that operates in those temperatures (which I don't consider to be a big ask), and I doubt some of these hotter models are up to the task (some of the cooler ones might be). If all I could do with my laptop was use it in an office, I might as well buy a Mac Mini, carry it with me, and borrow a monitor at the other end.
If you want noise to be less of a problem, buy a nice pair of headphones and use them at your computer. You'll be able to hear sounds and music better, and they'll cut out a lot of other background noise (people talking, outside noise) which will help you concentrate. You'll also be able to listen to whatever like at whatever volume you like without disturbing anyone.
It's a cheap and easy solution, and until silent PCs are perfected it's what I'll be using.
Some of those laptops are real toasters judging by the thermal tests there. The Toshiba Tecra is 45.6C under the base and exhaust air is 43C. Wouldn't want that sitting on my lap too long. Cooler models would probably yield increased battery life as well (more efficiency, less energy loss to powering fans).
One thing I'd like to see taken into account in these types of tests is how hot laptops such as this perform outside the lab. In Australia, 37C temps are not uncommon outdoors during summer. If this Tecra tested that high in a lab, how will it hold up outside in that kind of heat? I mean, half the benefit of having a laptop is being able to use it outside the nice, comfortably AC'ed office. If I got BSODs due to thermal problems, I'd be pissed.
It's even more extravagant when you consider that the Australian dollar is worth 76 US cents (not great but not enough to justify that markup), and that Taiwan, where most of this stuff is made, is a hell of a lot closer to Australia (and therefore less expensive to ship to) than it is America.
Then again, the US is a far bigger purchaser of this sort of stuff, so they probably get a bulk purchase discount or something.
Back to the VHS Vs. Betamax days eh? If there's one thing that war proved, it's that technical sophistication is irrelevant: mindshare is what matters. If nobody's using it, it doesn't matter if it has the prettiest widgets.
That said, one nice thing about this format war is that there doesn't have to be a loser. It's fairly easy to handle multiple formats in software (note the number of redundant music formats), unlike hardware which is usually impossible. If the process of reading RSS tags or Atom tags is made transparent to the user, who cares who wins?
they continue making progress with the bug fixes. For me, FF is feature packed enough. I'd prefer to see some more work on the update facilities and performance when running on Linux (fix the RAM usage and crashes please). I like FF because it's light, I don't want more bloatware.
The FF team need to remember that we can switch back to IE, or to Opera or something else, just as easily as we switched to FF. Many FF users aren't in it to snub MS (they're both free browsers, it's not like they lose money), they're using it cause it's a safer, more stable product. The second that changes, I and many like me go elsewhere.
They slashed the funds last night pre-flight Zero hour nine a.m. And something else will fall off by then I miss the earth so much I risk my life The tech is out of date On such a priceless flight
And I think it's gonna be a long long time Till NASA comes around again to find They don't have funds to get my back to home Oh no no no I'm a shuttle man Shuttle man, 107 cameras but no rescue mode
ISS ain't the kind of place to sit for weeks In fact it's cold as hell And Atlantis might not work if you did And all this budget I don't understand It's just my job five days a week A shuttle man, a shuttle man
That's all they got? 120 people across all those nations?
Those kind of figures won't even slow warez down. When I was in school there were probably ten people in my IT classes that were heavily into warez. That was in class, in one school, in one state of Australia. And yet across nearly a dozen nations they bagged only 120?
Calling this a major victory is like saying World War Two was won by wiping out one squad of SS troops. They got a long way to go before they even start making waves, particular with the good old fashioned way of exchanging CDs amongst peers which is particularly hard to stop.
A long, long time ago... I can still remember How those zombies used to make me smile. And I knew if they had a chance That they would make me crap my pants, And, maybe, I'd be happy for a while.
But february made me shiver With every copy Id delivered. Bad news on the Usenets; What happened to my killfests?
I can't remember if I cried When a zombie took me from behind, I checked that fucking room ten times, The day that Id died.
So bye-bye, Mr Developer guy, My new system isn't ready, So the frame rates are dry. Those good old boys were enjoying Far Cry, Singing "in this game, give a headshot, they die", In this game give a headshot, they die.
Did you get the flashlight mod, Cause your character's a dumbass sod, Has to always let one go? Do you believe these zombies spawn, Repetition, boy it makes you yawn, And can you teach me how to save and load?
Well, I know I put a bullet in him, It went in right above his chin, But you need five more to use, And that means that you lose,
I was a lonely teenage fraggin' fuck With a with a pr0n collection of Kirsten Kreuk, But I knew I was out of luck The day that Id died.
I started singin', "bye-bye, Mr Developer guy." My new system isn't ready, So the frame rates are dry. Those good old boys were enjoying Far Cry, Singing "in this game, give a headshot, they die", In this game give a headshot, they die.
not broadband penetration. Broadband technology may matter to us nerds, but half the population of the UK doesn't use the net. I imagine many other countries are the same. These people need to get on the net by any means necessary, so a nice cheap dialup connection is a very good idea, even if it is slow. Once they get used to the idea, then perhaps they'll move up to broadband.
It's important for society in the long run to encourage technological laggards to get connected. Increasing the speed of already connected users is great, but is less significant.
to get some pictures that aren't taken from a skewed perspective? Is this supposed to make me trip out or something?
Also, by this "RSS integrated into the heart of Longhorn" thing, I assume this was a typo and meant to say IE 7? Why would I want RSS being built into the operating system? MS gets enough flak for building IE in, now they're repeating their mistakes?
It'd be interesting to read Longhorn RSS headlines though: "14 New Critical Updates Available..." "2 Hacking Attempts Blocked!" "967 Hacking Attempts Succeeded!" "Estimated time to next BSOD: 3 hours 16 minutes" "Windows Piracy is Wrong!" The only thing that could make it worse is if it used Clippy.
Check out the table. Notice how the licencing end dates run out at the end of this year for OEMs and next year for system builders? Longhorn has to fill that spot or the contracts need to be renegotiated.
at least MS can be glad they're not running Linux instead.
Why doesn't MS try a subscription based scheme? A small amount for installation of the OS, and then a renewal fee each year? For some business it would be profitable, and MS would have less of a need to keep rolling out software to replace what works.
Slashdot Mirror
Not ONE fucking article I've read has said the guy was an MS employee. Not one, and I've read 4. He could have been at Redmond stocking the bloody vending machines for god's sake, or attending a seminar, or ANYTHING.
This is sensationalised, biased, "news" at it's worst. I can't believe this got past the editors.
What would happen if say, I was talking and expressing myself by moving my hands and arms as I was walking through the door? My shape would not be constant, so would the door have to continuously adjust? If it wasn't fast enough, would I end up bashing it?
Having the sliding parts so close to the body leaves very little room for error.
Australia's broadband doesn't suck, Australia's telephone infrastructure sucks (thanks for nothing Tel$tra). If you're lucky enough to have a clean phone line, without a RIM, non-ADSL CMUX or Minimux, loading coil or pair gain, and your exchange has a non-Tel$tra DSLAM, you can get pretty good broadband speeds. I'm on a 12Mbit down / 1Mbit up plan with iiNet for $49.99 a month, but because of line quality I can only get about 3.5MBit down / 850Mbit up. Other providers like Internode have similar or better packages.
:( .
I really feel for you guys on RIMs and whatnot
However, through the cookies scheme, I'm the only one not getting paid.
Yes, you are getting paid. You get to use the website. Unless of course you'd like to pay for each time you click on a hyperlink?
Hosting a large website can be expensive, so I don't really object to SOME advertising / cookies. As long as the information is reasonably harmless to me, and the ads not too intrusive, I consider it fair.
I don't know, say on the bus (about half the buses around here don't have AC)? Sitting in an unairconditioned cafe? Hell, if I was a salesperson at someone's unairconditioned house it'd probably be close to that temperature INSIDE, and I'd want to use my laptop.
There are a lot of reasons why I would need something that operates in those temperatures (which I don't consider to be a big ask), and I doubt some of these hotter models are up to the task (some of the cooler ones might be). If all I could do with my laptop was use it in an office, I might as well buy a Mac Mini, carry it with me, and borrow a monitor at the other end.
If you want noise to be less of a problem, buy a nice pair of headphones and use them at your computer. You'll be able to hear sounds and music better, and they'll cut out a lot of other background noise (people talking, outside noise) which will help you concentrate. You'll also be able to listen to whatever like at whatever volume you like without disturbing anyone.
It's a cheap and easy solution, and until silent PCs are perfected it's what I'll be using.
Some of those laptops are real toasters judging by the thermal tests there. The Toshiba Tecra is 45.6C under the base and exhaust air is 43C. Wouldn't want that sitting on my lap too long. Cooler models would probably yield increased battery life as well (more efficiency, less energy loss to powering fans).
One thing I'd like to see taken into account in these types of tests is how hot laptops such as this perform outside the lab. In Australia, 37C temps are not uncommon outdoors during summer. If this Tecra tested that high in a lab, how will it hold up outside in that kind of heat? I mean, half the benefit of having a laptop is being able to use it outside the nice, comfortably AC'ed office. If I got BSODs due to thermal problems, I'd be pissed.
It's even more extravagant when you consider that the Australian dollar is worth 76 US cents (not great but not enough to justify that markup), and that Taiwan, where most of this stuff is made, is a hell of a lot closer to Australia (and therefore less expensive to ship to) than it is America.
Then again, the US is a far bigger purchaser of this sort of stuff, so they probably get a bulk purchase discount or something.
No, I didn't mean to imply that completely.
;) .
Please tell me you didn't really mean to imply that all technical sophistication has nothing to do with user functionality and ergonomics
You don't think the people who code the web browsers might have an opinion too?
Whether or not IE supports a standard has a big bearing on uptake. Look how much more widespread jpeg is to png.
Back to the VHS Vs. Betamax days eh? If there's one thing that war proved, it's that technical sophistication is irrelevant: mindshare is what matters. If nobody's using it, it doesn't matter if it has the prettiest widgets.
That said, one nice thing about this format war is that there doesn't have to be a loser. It's fairly easy to handle multiple formats in software (note the number of redundant music formats), unlike hardware which is usually impossible. If the process of reading RSS tags or Atom tags is made transparent to the user, who cares who wins?
I thought the US had the corner on the market for the most retarded copyright laws, but the Australians have surged into the lead with this ruling.
;) .
Our retarded copyright laws are actually yours. You guys convinced our government to adopt them in exchange for that Free Trade Agreement.
Thanks for nothing
Why, thankyou good sir :) .
Thanks for the tip, sounds like something to look forward to. I might give the nightlies a go and do a bit of beta testing.
I guess if I want stability I should give them some feedback.
they continue making progress with the bug fixes. For me, FF is feature packed enough. I'd prefer to see some more work on the update facilities and performance when running on Linux (fix the RAM usage and crashes please). I like FF because it's light, I don't want more bloatware. The FF team need to remember that we can switch back to IE, or to Opera or something else, just as easily as we switched to FF. Many FF users aren't in it to snub MS (they're both free browsers, it's not like they lose money), they're using it cause it's a safer, more stable product. The second that changes, I and many like me go elsewhere.
With apologies to Elton John's Rocket Man:
They slashed the funds last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine a.m.
And something else will fall off by then
I miss the earth so much I risk my life
The tech is out of date
On such a priceless flight
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
Till NASA comes around again to find
They don't have funds to get my back to home
Oh no no no I'm a shuttle man
Shuttle man, 107 cameras but no rescue mode
ISS ain't the kind of place to sit for weeks
In fact it's cold as hell
And Atlantis might not work if you did
And all this budget I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week
A shuttle man, a shuttle man
And I think it's gonna be a long long time...
That's all they got? 120 people across all those nations? Those kind of figures won't even slow warez down. When I was in school there were probably ten people in my IT classes that were heavily into warez. That was in class, in one school, in one state of Australia. And yet across nearly a dozen nations they bagged only 120? Calling this a major victory is like saying World War Two was won by wiping out one squad of SS troops. They got a long way to go before they even start making waves, particular with the good old fashioned way of exchanging CDs amongst peers which is particularly hard to stop.
with apologies to Mr Don McLean;
A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How those zombies used to make me smile.
And I knew if they had a chance
That they would make me crap my pants,
And, maybe, I'd be happy for a while.
But february made me shiver
With every copy Id delivered.
Bad news on the Usenets;
What happened to my killfests?
I can't remember if I cried
When a zombie took me from behind,
I checked that fucking room ten times,
The day that Id died.
So bye-bye, Mr Developer guy,
My new system isn't ready,
So the frame rates are dry.
Those good old boys were enjoying Far Cry,
Singing "in this game, give a headshot, they die",
In this game give a headshot, they die.
Did you get the flashlight mod,
Cause your character's a dumbass sod,
Has to always let one go?
Do you believe these zombies spawn,
Repetition, boy it makes you yawn,
And can you teach me how to save and load?
Well, I know I put a bullet in him,
It went in right above his chin,
But you need five more to use,
And that means that you lose,
I was a lonely teenage fraggin' fuck
With a with a pr0n collection of Kirsten Kreuk,
But I knew I was out of luck
The day that Id died.
I started singin',
"bye-bye, Mr Developer guy."
My new system isn't ready,
So the frame rates are dry.
Those good old boys were enjoying Far Cry,
Singing "in this game, give a headshot, they die",
In this game give a headshot, they die.
Australia Slashdotters: call the DFAT hotline on 1300 555 135 to check on any friends or relatives you might have in London.
not broadband penetration. Broadband technology may matter to us nerds, but half the population of the UK doesn't use the net. I imagine many other countries are the same. These people need to get on the net by any means necessary, so a nice cheap dialup connection is a very good idea, even if it is slow. Once they get used to the idea, then perhaps they'll move up to broadband.
It's important for society in the long run to encourage technological laggards to get connected. Increasing the speed of already connected users is great, but is less significant.
to get some pictures that aren't taken from a skewed perspective? Is this supposed to make me trip out or something?
Also, by this "RSS integrated into the heart of Longhorn" thing, I assume this was a typo and meant to say IE 7? Why would I want RSS being built into the operating system? MS gets enough flak for building IE in, now they're repeating their mistakes?
It'd be interesting to read Longhorn RSS headlines though:
"14 New Critical Updates Available..."
"2 Hacking Attempts Blocked!"
"967 Hacking Attempts Succeeded!"
"Estimated time to next BSOD: 3 hours 16 minutes"
"Windows Piracy is Wrong!"
The only thing that could make it worse is if it used Clippy.
Windows 2003 only replaces server versions of 2000. To replace desktop versions of 2000, use XP. 2003 is really what should have been "XP Server".
Here's the MS product roadmap: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh; %5Bln%5D;LifeWin
You might find it useful. Scroll down to the end for XP. The dates are 2006 for end of Mainstream support and 2011 for Extended.
It has to be released then according to MS: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default .mspx
Check out the table. Notice how the licencing end dates run out at the end of this year for OEMs and next year for system builders? Longhorn has to fill that spot or the contracts need to be renegotiated.
at least MS can be glad they're not running Linux instead.
Why doesn't MS try a subscription based scheme? A small amount for installation of the OS, and then a renewal fee each year? For some business it would be profitable, and MS would have less of a need to keep rolling out software to replace what works.