I do understand that, I actually work for the maker of the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train), it still is not feasible in most parts of the U.S. and this would be one of those cases.
See you need a train that is covering vast distances with few to no extra stops to make it even close to worthwhile. Otherwise you will never get to top speeds and it is all a waste.
The current trains can get you to those same locations in about an hour/hour and a half. To spend $27B to save an hour (not even really) when the average motorist sits in traffic for at least that now is silly. I'm not saying we shouldn't build NEW rails or when repairs are done to existing systems with an eye towards higher speeds... but honestly we don't need 200+MPH trains in America right now, we just need solid commuter lines throughout America.
Yes, but see the reason I stated it the way I did is because there are companies... REAL companies not like these two dickheads that exist right now in America, in these cities, that can create whole rail systems traditionally that are ridiculously efficient and no funding is put towards it. Yet, some nutjobs with no actual experience make some wild claims about a "solar" rail system and people are willing to throw money at it by the bucketfuls and it will go nowhere and waste a lot of tax dollars.
How about removing this stupid eco crap and just invest in regular railways, not high-speed which our infrastructure cannot support? They are still very fast, and with as many stops as they will be making this proposed train or any other will never get above 40-60MPH which is what we have now!
Once we get the basic infrastructure and lines worked out, THEN, make the second phase be boosting speeds and infrastructure where it makes sense based on the data from the number of years in phase 1.
Which is why this is such a farce to anyone familiar with trains. I just wish places like/. could resist "news" like this that hits all the other less intelligent sites on teh toobz.
I work for a train company, and not only are most of your concerns accurate there are quite a few *more* even.
f) Infrastructure. To get to those speeds you need to replace the entire rail system. Concrete railroad ties, carefully planned/banked track, etc. g) HVAC on the trains themselves. Cooling is massive. h-z) If I wanted to go on.
Maintenence costs would be prohibitive. Guaranteed. But if they can manage federal funding (they won't) they will soak up a never-ending stream of cash for upkeep.
This is one of the dumber ideas I have seen make this much press this quickly. People are so blindly interested in anything billed as "eco" or "green or "solar" that common sense goes right out the window. Trains are about as efficient a means of transportation as possible *right now*, how about going after the real areas of waste and inefficiency?
I work for one of the larger light-rail/commuter train companies and we already have a line in PHX... I think this idea is a total pie-in-the-sky dream only. Now maybe working in conjunction with what we already have in place to supply all or most of the energy running the existing system from solar would be a better use of money and resources.
Trains are already efficient and the sheer amount of subsystems they are not accounting for is staggering. Best of luck to them, I'm not fearing for my job.
No, you are wrong. I have the system... I'm typing on it. When I remote in a box in the lower-right is there before I log in (at the ctrl-alt-del screen) and there are no options or pulldowns or menus of any kind
Once into windows there is nothing. if I go to Microsofts site and try to validate it takes me to a purchase page only.
Or, people like me that have a valid license yet "Windows Genuine Advantage" reports is illegal. That's a great customer experience right there... especially since nowhere does it let me dispute or have it fixed... just a link to buy software I already bought. (Win XP Pro SP2)
I remember sitting and being blown away by the first media from Project Offset. It consisted of like 3 dude's in a garage and was miles beyond anything out at the time. Then all kinds of money got thrown in and here I sit quite a few years later with nothing.
My guess is it is the next DNF. I hope not, but DNF has taught me the valuable lesson to just give up now and hope for the best at some point.
I think I've already been pretty clear here, you're a little late to the party.
Who the fuck said anything about a competitor e-ink product? I'm talking about a product from someone like Asus, Acer, or Apple that is a small tablet that can do many things including eBooks in a similar form-factor. Color, touch, backlit, etc.
Stick with your "value" priced e-Ink with all the greyscale goodness and flicker refresh you want... $500 to the end consumer in one chunk is silly no matter what you *could* afford.
We'll see. The device is marketed to college kids and some other strange market that apparently they believe exists but for some reason weren't a Kindle 2 customer.
They NEED to do this type of pricing structure because they have no ready market.
A subsidized model makes sense for college kids because they know that that segment will be buying textbooks (over a couple years), most likely use it recreationaly for reading periodicals/magazines/newspaper, AND they would be generating immediate revenue for the NYTimes who referred to it as an "experiment" in the press conference today.
You'd pick up older folks who are traditional newspaper subscribers who would otherwise ignore this device, and they could potentially turn into easy customers because they don't need to be tech wizards to get content or involve a PC.
The rest would just be odd small segments. They can still offer them at $489 all day long as an unsubsidized purchase for businesses or those who want to buy it outright *and* offer a partially subsidized model for the others.
To pigeonhole a device like this is silly, you need mass adoption for this to take off quickly before competitors step in and knock it out of relevance. Which is what I believe will happen and force this move to then get back some market share. Again, we'll see... I don't have a crystal ball, just a lot of experience in this area.
At least we are on the same page now. (oof bad pun). The issue is that yes, at $15/mo. they would not be making the entire amount for themselves... but what they do is use a small portion of the profits from all of the other sales generated in that 2 years to both cover their costs, content providers contract costs, and still make a profit at the same time getting more out there.
This is how cell phone companies work, I used to work for one and know them well. The subsidize $200-250 on every phone and most are 2yr. contracts. They do not make all of that back even in those two years. They do make it back from overages, extra features, downloads, etc. and the assumption that most people will keep the phone past 2 years on the nose which is almost pure profit then.
I'm not proposing some radical new paradigm, it is widely used in many markets. I guarantee the Kindle goes this way in the near future. We shall see.
Wow, you sure have your "jump-to-conclusion" mat out don't you?
I have no financial difficulties, especially not for a difference of ~$300. That's not the issue here.
You see for $200 for the device (subsidized) and the 15/mo. which I am *GETTING* a subscription to something for (say the NYTimes), is much different than $500 up front *AND* 15/mo.
Your logic fails terribly. It's not just me I'm thinking about either but the average customer. That's like saying, "fuck it, charge me full retail for my cell phone ~$250-500 *AND* charge me the standard monthly rate!" Who in the hell would want that? What incentive is there?
I'll never get why people somehow think it is their duty to give the maximum amount of money for a product/service as if it is some badge of honor. It's not about what you or I *can* afford it's about being realistic and getting some value for money. The whole device is a lock-in with the only option to pour money in for any utility, to offer a small amount of utility in the initial price would ease customers in. That's why Jeebus invented astroglide.
Umm, I was pretty clear there. Partially subsidized pricing with subscription. $200 for the unit and a $10-15/mo. 2yr. contract required. That breaks Amazon even in 2yrs. not including all of the other purchases users would make in 2 years on top of that, which would easily pay the Times, Amazon, and content providers and bolster the adoption rate.
I was totally ready to pre-order one, until that price showed up on Amazon. Seriously, $489?? Wallet was put firmly back in the pocket.
I was willing to forgive the greyscale only issue, but I know the natural evolution will require color. Many textbooks and even newspapers fail without color to distinguish things. I was willing to sign up for a $10-15/month subscription to something like the Times to get one for say $200... I am not about to spend almost $500 up front to then have to pay $10-15 for every subscription and $10 per book.
The pricing model is just screwed up right now, I have a feeling it will get sorted out in short order or it will get killed swiftly by the first solid tablet... even if it is from Apple. My money would go to a multipurpose tablet for around $500 easily, not for a black & white ebook reader.
No, not even close... but good try. The components of a Chevy and a Mercedes are not even remotely the same. I don't care how you lay out an Intel C2D and an Intel P45 board your are not going to achieve anything beyond a cosmetic difference.
Stick to a reference design or get creative and results will be identical. Sorry, thanks for playing.
Well, because before hipsters and "cool" kids flocked to Macs they were amazing at... Image processing and the like. Imagine a cell CPU with say 8 cores or so and CUDA with an additional ton of cores all churning out amazing shit like Pixars latest flick or handling massive RAW files and tons of filters.
See, then fine, have your commodity Intel crap for the in-the-know crowd. Ever notice how the "pro" lines are anything but since the switch to Intel? Well, probably not because actually doing the things that made Apple what they are has become a thing of the past.
The other thing you and others miss is that Apple has complete control over the OS so many perceived shortcomings of Cell could have been worked on at a low level and made to be massive assets.
Apple made a mistake (*gasp* yes they are capable of it) by ditching IBM when it did. Now that IBM has an amazing chip in the Cell processor, Apple has the same Intels as every other PC. PowerPC was what made Apples so great for a number of applications and uses, they've lost that now.
They bought up PA Semi but I think that was a flailing effort that may or may not pay off... even if it does it would most likely only affect small subsystems and things like the iPod/iPhone.
The Cell chip coupled with the CUDA tech from NVDA would have catapulted them lightyears ahead of standard PCs. Hey, everyone makes mistakes.
Nope, not even close. Apple *designs* or works with manufacturers to create custom *designed* boards and hardware but they build nothing. They are the same chips and chipsets as Dell, which actually does the same thing and custom *designs* their gear just like Apple.
Seriously I would give my business to the vendors and hardware manufacturers who are committed to America. Force the equipment to be made here, with U.S. labor start to finish and supported by U.S. labor until the contract expires.
You want to get the country back on track, rather than just giving handouts force the change to happen with the money already being spent.
That said, I would ensure it is heavy on virtualization and solid blade servers/chassis. A nod needs to be given to "green-ness" and every effort to create the absolute best all around solution for the money.
I hate when just because something is government numbers like $500MILLION (half a BILLION dollars) is looked at like chicken scratch. It is a lot of money, more than many have to build data centers that do as much of not more. Stop acting like everything in government HAS to cost so damn much and it will!
I remember eagerly awaiting my CheapBytes disk of Red Hat 5.2 around 1998 and then spending a week or so getting everything installed and working on a way underpowered "server" that had a bunch of SCSI drives and very little RAM and it became a LAMP server and ran PostNuke to run a fairly successful Playstation 2 game review website all hosted from my home and with dyndns since we had no real static IP.
Here's the problem: I have a Wii, I mostly refuse to buy any games for it beyond light/party games because I'm so tired of trying to play a serious game with my only controls being silly waggles and arm motions that never even correlate to the action.
I'm fine with the easy and loose control for party games, but make a proper controller or use the classic/gamecube controller for those of us who like the console but want a real game experience. I'd like to buy Dead Rising, Madworld, NHL 09, etc. but won't because of the control issue.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, if your controls are geared to light/casual games then of course that will prevail.
One very large state school and one mid-sized private school and I can honestly say that the entire thing could be put online and with better results.
The notion of "college" is something most people who have never been there or who were there years ago seem to place in high regard. It simply isn't that way anymore. Kid's don't care for much but to sit behind a laptop or PC screen and IM/Web Surf anyhow in class. Very little discussion or interplay happens outside of the computers even *IN* classrooms and dorms. (well in dorms a bit more physical interaction occurs)
College is a sham now, ridiculously expensive antiquated textbooks, ridiculously expensive, cramped, and sub-standard living conditions (the last university I worked for started putting kids rooms in the floors kitchenettes... no shit), wasted time and effort to go to a classroom where most everything is disseminated (Powerpoint) and worked on on computers.
It is as obsolete as physical media and just as physical media no one wants to let go and embrace the change. I actually agree with the 2020 guess, and hope it happens.
Us damn geeks, we screw ourselves (well mainly because we live in parent's basement, et al) all the time with this garbage. See if we didn't slobber all over ourselves to wait in line for days to pay top dollar for shit then companies wouldn't rape us.
Calm down, eat a dorito, keep your current 14.4k/ISDN/DSL/CABLE/T# connection and IGNORE this. Please. If there is no interest they will LOWER the price of it, up the regular speed, or do away totally with the idea... all are GOOD things. By jumping in blindly in a rabid fervor all you do is ensure every internet provider will charge... wait for it... $150 for their unlimited service. Why wouldn't they? Ugh, for a group who is so collectively smart we sure are dumb.:)
Slashdot Mirror
I do understand that, I actually work for the maker of the Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train), it still is not feasible in most parts of the U.S. and this would be one of those cases.
See you need a train that is covering vast distances with few to no extra stops to make it even close to worthwhile. Otherwise you will never get to top speeds and it is all a waste.
The current trains can get you to those same locations in about an hour/hour and a half. To spend $27B to save an hour (not even really) when the average motorist sits in traffic for at least that now is silly. I'm not saying we shouldn't build NEW rails or when repairs are done to existing systems with an eye towards higher speeds... but honestly we don't need 200+MPH trains in America right now, we just need solid commuter lines throughout America.
Yes, but see the reason I stated it the way I did is because there are companies... REAL companies not like these two dickheads that exist right now in America, in these cities, that can create whole rail systems traditionally that are ridiculously efficient and no funding is put towards it. Yet, some nutjobs with no actual experience make some wild claims about a "solar" rail system and people are willing to throw money at it by the bucketfuls and it will go nowhere and waste a lot of tax dollars.
How about removing this stupid eco crap and just invest in regular railways, not high-speed which our infrastructure cannot support? They are still very fast, and with as many stops as they will be making this proposed train or any other will never get above 40-60MPH which is what we have now!
Once we get the basic infrastructure and lines worked out, THEN, make the second phase be boosting speeds and infrastructure where it makes sense based on the data from the number of years in phase 1.
Which is why this is such a farce to anyone familiar with trains. I just wish places like /. could resist "news" like this that hits all the other less intelligent sites on teh toobz.
I work for a train company, and not only are most of your concerns accurate there are quite a few *more* even.
f) Infrastructure. To get to those speeds you need to replace the entire rail system. Concrete railroad ties, carefully planned/banked track, etc.
g) HVAC on the trains themselves. Cooling is massive.
h-z) If I wanted to go on.
Maintenence costs would be prohibitive. Guaranteed. But if they can manage federal funding (they won't) they will soak up a never-ending stream of cash for upkeep.
This is one of the dumber ideas I have seen make this much press this quickly. People are so blindly interested in anything billed as "eco" or "green or "solar" that common sense goes right out the window. Trains are about as efficient a means of transportation as possible *right now*, how about going after the real areas of waste and inefficiency?
I work for one of the larger light-rail/commuter train companies and we already have a line in PHX... I think this idea is a total pie-in-the-sky dream only. Now maybe working in conjunction with what we already have in place to supply all or most of the energy running the existing system from solar would be a better use of money and resources.
Trains are already efficient and the sheer amount of subsystems they are not accounting for is staggering. Best of luck to them, I'm not fearing for my job.
No, you are wrong. I have the system... I'm typing on it. When I remote in a box in the lower-right is there before I log in (at the ctrl-alt-del screen) and there are no options or pulldowns or menus of any kind
Once into windows there is nothing. if I go to Microsofts site and try to validate it takes me to a purchase page only.
Or, people like me that have a valid license yet "Windows Genuine Advantage" reports is illegal. That's a great customer experience right there... especially since nowhere does it let me dispute or have it fixed... just a link to buy software I already bought. (Win XP Pro SP2)
I fap to midget porn using this little app called "Safari" and there was no warning at all that I could be subjected to such horrors, and hairy palms.
That would be awesome if true. I can only hope they are holding it as an ace up the sleeve for something like that.
If they wait more than a year from now it will lose the amazing advantage it has in graphics and engine and fall into the same abyss DNF did.
I remember sitting and being blown away by the first media from Project Offset. It consisted of like 3 dude's in a garage and was miles beyond anything out at the time. Then all kinds of money got thrown in and here I sit quite a few years later with nothing.
My guess is it is the next DNF. I hope not, but DNF has taught me the valuable lesson to just give up now and hope for the best at some point.
DNF -> Open source please.
I think I've already been pretty clear here, you're a little late to the party.
Who the fuck said anything about a competitor e-ink product? I'm talking about a product from someone like Asus, Acer, or Apple that is a small tablet that can do many things including eBooks in a similar form-factor. Color, touch, backlit, etc.
Stick with your "value" priced e-Ink with all the greyscale goodness and flicker refresh you want... $500 to the end consumer in one chunk is silly no matter what you *could* afford.
We'll see. The device is marketed to college kids and some other strange market that apparently they believe exists but for some reason weren't a Kindle 2 customer.
They NEED to do this type of pricing structure because they have no ready market.
A subsidized model makes sense for college kids because they know that that segment will be buying textbooks (over a couple years), most likely use it recreationaly for reading periodicals/magazines/newspaper, AND they would be generating immediate revenue for the NYTimes who referred to it as an "experiment" in the press conference today.
You'd pick up older folks who are traditional newspaper subscribers who would otherwise ignore this device, and they could potentially turn into easy customers because they don't need to be tech wizards to get content or involve a PC.
The rest would just be odd small segments. They can still offer them at $489 all day long as an unsubsidized purchase for businesses or those who want to buy it outright *and* offer a partially subsidized model for the others.
To pigeonhole a device like this is silly, you need mass adoption for this to take off quickly before competitors step in and knock it out of relevance. Which is what I believe will happen and force this move to then get back some market share. Again, we'll see... I don't have a crystal ball, just a lot of experience in this area.
At least we are on the same page now. (oof bad pun). The issue is that yes, at $15/mo. they would not be making the entire amount for themselves... but what they do is use a small portion of the profits from all of the other sales generated in that 2 years to both cover their costs, content providers contract costs, and still make a profit at the same time getting more out there.
This is how cell phone companies work, I used to work for one and know them well. The subsidize $200-250 on every phone and most are 2yr. contracts. They do not make all of that back even in those two years. They do make it back from overages, extra features, downloads, etc. and the assumption that most people will keep the phone past 2 years on the nose which is almost pure profit then.
I'm not proposing some radical new paradigm, it is widely used in many markets. I guarantee the Kindle goes this way in the near future. We shall see.
Wow, you sure have your "jump-to-conclusion" mat out don't you?
I have no financial difficulties, especially not for a difference of ~$300. That's not the issue here.
You see for $200 for the device (subsidized) and the 15/mo. which I am *GETTING* a subscription to something for (say the NYTimes), is much different than $500 up front *AND* 15/mo.
Your logic fails terribly. It's not just me I'm thinking about either but the average customer. That's like saying, "fuck it, charge me full retail for my cell phone ~$250-500 *AND* charge me the standard monthly rate!" Who in the hell would want that? What incentive is there?
I'll never get why people somehow think it is their duty to give the maximum amount of money for a product/service as if it is some badge of honor. It's not about what you or I *can* afford it's about being realistic and getting some value for money. The whole device is a lock-in with the only option to pour money in for any utility, to offer a small amount of utility in the initial price would ease customers in. That's why Jeebus invented astroglide.
Umm, I was pretty clear there. Partially subsidized pricing with subscription. $200 for the unit and a $10-15/mo. 2yr. contract required. That breaks Amazon even in 2yrs. not including all of the other purchases users would make in 2 years on top of that, which would easily pay the Times, Amazon, and content providers and bolster the adoption rate.
It will happen. But thanks for playing.
I was totally ready to pre-order one, until that price showed up on Amazon. Seriously, $489?? Wallet was put firmly back in the pocket.
I was willing to forgive the greyscale only issue, but I know the natural evolution will require color. Many textbooks and even newspapers fail without color to distinguish things. I was willing to sign up for a $10-15/month subscription to something like the Times to get one for say $200... I am not about to spend almost $500 up front to then have to pay $10-15 for every subscription and $10 per book.
The pricing model is just screwed up right now, I have a feeling it will get sorted out in short order or it will get killed swiftly by the first solid tablet... even if it is from Apple. My money would go to a multipurpose tablet for around $500 easily, not for a black & white ebook reader.
No, not even close... but good try. The components of a Chevy and a Mercedes are not even remotely the same. I don't care how you lay out an Intel C2D and an Intel P45 board your are not going to achieve anything beyond a cosmetic difference.
Stick to a reference design or get creative and results will be identical. Sorry, thanks for playing.
Well, because before hipsters and "cool" kids flocked to Macs they were amazing at... Image processing and the like. Imagine a cell CPU with say 8 cores or so and CUDA with an additional ton of cores all churning out amazing shit like Pixars latest flick or handling massive RAW files and tons of filters.
See, then fine, have your commodity Intel crap for the in-the-know crowd. Ever notice how the "pro" lines are anything but since the switch to Intel? Well, probably not because actually doing the things that made Apple what they are has become a thing of the past.
The other thing you and others miss is that Apple has complete control over the OS so many perceived shortcomings of Cell could have been worked on at a low level and made to be massive assets.
Apple made a mistake (*gasp* yes they are capable of it) by ditching IBM when it did. Now that IBM has an amazing chip in the Cell processor, Apple has the same Intels as every other PC. PowerPC was what made Apples so great for a number of applications and uses, they've lost that now.
They bought up PA Semi but I think that was a flailing effort that may or may not pay off... even if it does it would most likely only affect small subsystems and things like the iPod/iPhone.
The Cell chip coupled with the CUDA tech from NVDA would have catapulted them lightyears ahead of standard PCs. Hey, everyone makes mistakes.
Nope, not even close. Apple *designs* or works with manufacturers to create custom *designed* boards and hardware but they build nothing. They are the same chips and chipsets as Dell, which actually does the same thing and custom *designs* their gear just like Apple.
Take off the rose colored glasses please.
Seriously I would give my business to the vendors and hardware manufacturers who are committed to America. Force the equipment to be made here, with U.S. labor start to finish and supported by U.S. labor until the contract expires.
You want to get the country back on track, rather than just giving handouts force the change to happen with the money already being spent.
That said, I would ensure it is heavy on virtualization and solid blade servers/chassis. A nod needs to be given to "green-ness" and every effort to create the absolute best all around solution for the money.
I hate when just because something is government numbers like $500MILLION (half a BILLION dollars) is looked at like chicken scratch. It is a lot of money, more than many have to build data centers that do as much of not more. Stop acting like everything in government HAS to cost so damn much and it will!
I remember eagerly awaiting my CheapBytes disk of Red Hat 5.2 around 1998 and then spending a week or so getting everything installed and working on a way underpowered "server" that had a bunch of SCSI drives and very little RAM and it became a LAMP server and ran PostNuke to run a fairly successful Playstation 2 game review website all hosted from my home and with dyndns since we had no real static IP.
Here's the problem: I have a Wii, I mostly refuse to buy any games for it beyond light/party games because I'm so tired of trying to play a serious game with my only controls being silly waggles and arm motions that never even correlate to the action.
I'm fine with the easy and loose control for party games, but make a proper controller or use the classic/gamecube controller for those of us who like the console but want a real game experience. I'd like to buy Dead Rising, Madworld, NHL 09, etc. but won't because of the control issue.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, if your controls are geared to light/casual games then of course that will prevail.
One very large state school and one mid-sized private school and I can honestly say that the entire thing could be put online and with better results.
The notion of "college" is something most people who have never been there or who were there years ago seem to place in high regard. It simply isn't that way anymore. Kid's don't care for much but to sit behind a laptop or PC screen and IM/Web Surf anyhow in class. Very little discussion or interplay happens outside of the computers even *IN* classrooms and dorms. (well in dorms a bit more physical interaction occurs)
College is a sham now, ridiculously expensive antiquated textbooks, ridiculously expensive, cramped, and sub-standard living conditions (the last university I worked for started putting kids rooms in the floors kitchenettes... no shit), wasted time and effort to go to a classroom where most everything is disseminated (Powerpoint) and worked on on computers.
It is as obsolete as physical media and just as physical media no one wants to let go and embrace the change. I actually agree with the 2020 guess, and hope it happens.
Us damn geeks, we screw ourselves (well mainly because we live in parent's basement, et al) all the time with this garbage. See if we didn't slobber all over ourselves to wait in line for days to pay top dollar for shit then companies wouldn't rape us.
Calm down, eat a dorito, keep your current 14.4k/ISDN/DSL/CABLE/T# connection and IGNORE this. Please. If there is no interest they will LOWER the price of it, up the regular speed, or do away totally with the idea... all are GOOD things. By jumping in blindly in a rabid fervor all you do is ensure every internet provider will charge... wait for it... $150 for their unlimited service. Why wouldn't they? Ugh, for a group who is so collectively smart we sure are dumb. :)