That was my point, not to change WMs. Just as OSX is unified, so should Linux. Not all Linux, and not even a single distro, make it optional. If I, joe user, wants the default personal desktop install I get a single UI. period. It does not have to be all of the others mashed into one, it can be it's own system which is capable of calling the needed libraries in the background (Gnome, KDE, etc.) so nothing truly changes programatically as far as apps are concerned, just the user.
Is it a big job? yep. I fully understand the ramifications of what I am saying, again I too have been with Linux for over a decade. 12 of its 16 years.
Advanced users could easily select an advanced install and choose a true setup with full blown X, WM, DE, etc. OSX has Linux beat in a lot of areas and most of them boil down to the UI and usability. To deny Linux is failing in this area is folly.
This is exactly what is so frustrating about Linux. You've never ACTUALLY tried it, but your sure you're right. *smacks forehead*
Yes, it is as simple to install as clicking on it in add/remove in FC/Ubuntu/whatever and 9 times out of 10 your window borders will disappear and the average user is then screwed.
I did not place my entire reasoning on simply installing Compiz, nice try at a straw man argument. *I'VE* never had a problem with lots of shit in Linux, because I can fix it... so by your logic that means if YOU personally aren't affected, then there is no problem. Exactly my point. People have different hardware, software, needs, likes, dislikes, and on and on and you have to cater to all of them somehow in an OS... that is part of it. Well, *I* can see just fine so screw accessibility options and magnifiers and screen readers! I mean 95-97.5% (I love how you got so specific with fake percentages) of the population CAN SEE JUST FINE, so why even bother?
That depends, from the angle you are talking about yes you are correct. However, go ahead and have a user install Compiz. Then when they lose their borders, and other "irrelevant" things needed to use the environment see how important it is. Sure, when shit works perfectly no one needs to know or care, but when there is an issue, prepare to dig through all of those layers to resolve it... and for the average Joe that's like asking them to do their own dentistry. Hell, even installing a program requires the user understand about desktop environments. Again, this is the kind of stuff that needs worked on. Not for you and me, but for a true desktop OS. Look at OSX, do people need to be concerned with 20 choices in each area of UI? Nope, it just works.
Yeah, no. FAIL. Rooting requires a failure on the user side, meaning YOU have control over it. A driver from a company that you have no option but to just trust with your safety is a different story. You go ahead and accept the one of 30,000 ways you can get screwed on a Windows box, I'll stick the the few (which I can control) on mine.
Truthfully, I hear this a lot, but it has never affected me. I do mainly stick to Gnome and Gnome-based apps, but I use Amarok, K3B, and a few other KDE apps and have never had any trouble with copy/paste. I will say that it is an issue that needs addressed, along with a number of other UI and UI unification issues. All the levels of abstraction are great at times, but in reality it does make for a mess that is too complex for the average user.
I never understand why we have to insist on having X, a desktop environment, AND a window manager for average desktop systems. I would absolutely kill for an all-in-one system geared for home use. No choice, no thousand and one options. I also wouldn't mind a distro to be tuned for at most 4 users at once.
CUPS is pretty good for printing now, however sharing printers is a bit of a mess (moreso than it needs to be). Wireless has come a long way, I have one laptop that is not supported well but the rest work fine... as for wireless USB I have no idea.
If anything, pop in an Ubuntu 7.04 LiveCD and give it a shot, it won't hurt anything and you can at least see the current state of things. HTH
A few months back (after over 12 years with Linux) I finally took the plunge and went Linux-only on my main home PC. I went with Ubuntu 7.04 simply for the basic completeness and fair stability. There are some of the same glaring issues that have plagued Linux since 12 years ago which is so damn frustrating I can't even begin to explain it, there are still some big unification/usability flaws, but the one thing I don't miss at all? Shit like this. A video driver opening a hole that I can't see or close that could cause my computer to be wrecked.
The iron is as hot as it has ever been for Linux, I just wish one distro would come out with something truly amazing and awe-inspiring in the next round of releases to capitalize on the current attitude towards Windows. From what I've seen the big players are just continuing on with incremental upgrades, little to no art or polish, and nothing really newsworthy... I'm just hoping someone has a big ace in their sleeve. Maybe Redhat, PCLOS is growing fast, and my personal darkhorse that I've been pulling for: PC-BSD and their PBI packages, amazing! If only Ubuntu or someone would get something similar.
I have worked with many women in IT over my 14 years, and with the exception of *1* they all were inferior in knowledge and skills. I know it is anecdotal and just my experience but it is what it is. I'm not talking about minor deficiencies either, but huge, glaring gaps in knowledge/skills. In college anytime I had a female in my group for a project they tended to have to be carried through. The one skilled one could work circles around anyone I've ever worked with in Unix and scripting. FWIW. (I have no problem with women in IT, and this post is not meant to be negative just my personal experience)
Maybe in one or two systems, but would you want to manage that on a large scale? I wouldn't. My data center has over 400 servers in it (Windows and Solaris) Plus a huge SAN, I couldn't imagine adding yet more complexity and possible failure points. Even sealed water-cooling systems tend to need servicing and refilling at some point, and a failure could be catastophic. No thanks, but maybe in smaller data centers or server rooms.
Again, you are the type who has fallen into this trap and silly mindset. Stop reading the "extreeeme!!1! OC" websites and just think about what you are saying. You are making my point. A videocard that requires watercooling means it is that inefficient or newly designed that it hasn't matured. As the chip process matures you see die sizes shrink and power and heat output reduced.
You have jumped into a card that is not mature and not produced as efficiently as it could be. The G71 didn't have any temperature sensing, adjustable fans, etc. So ultimately you are paying *extra* to correct a production flaw or shortcoming. Nvidia abandoned the G71 after squeezing as much profit out of it as they could possibly get from folks like yourself, and then replaced it with the GS which came in $100 less and placed with it and at lower temps.
Please, people, step away from the benchmarks and use the ultimate benchmarking tool... your brain.
No, it isn't... that's my point. What it proves is that the technology itself has reached a final limit to stability, sound output, speed, and usefulness. The hard drive has endured in basically the same form for 20+years, it is proven to be one of the slowest subsystems in a modern computer... all the water cooling in the world cannot help that.
Solid-State drives are arriving, have lightning fast access times, MTBF is becoming less of an issue, and prices are coming down.
You are the exact type of person foolish enough to buy into the hype and believe this is important or needed. FAIL.
This plays out every time exactly the same way and yet people fall for it every time. Just like SLi, water cooling is unnecessary. It is and has been used for bleeding edge performance *before* the technology is really at that level and certainly before the software is. If you wait 6month's to a year the hardware catches up, doesn;t need water cooling and around that time software begins to emerge that utilizes the new technology. So for 6 months you gain the ability to say oooh look at my watercooled setup that does nothing except maybe pump out high synthetic benchmarks since nothing utilizes it yet. Same with SLi.
No developer is going to produce for a market that may be 1% of the total market. Once the technology reaches mainstream use (which watercooling and SLi never will) they then begin to utilize it. This has gone on since the days of mainframes, and continues in cycles right up until today... when will people learn?
Stories like this one echo the fairly unknown movie "Idiocracy" with truly scary accuracy. I can't stress enough how people should watch this movie, not just for some serious reason but because it is a decent film, will offer some laughs and then at then end you lose your smile because you realize it's all damn near true.
Go watch Idiocracy, then buy an AD supported phone, play ad supported videogames, watch AD supported movies, and drink AD supported water, it's got electrolytes!
The corporate, bland, image-only crap being "produced" as music these days. It's pretty amazing but real artists and bands are flourishing right now.
What is killing music, and videogames, is the desire to mimic Hollywood, as if that were some sort of holy grail. Hollywood is in the shitter, and so are these other forms of mass-produced, soul-less junk.
Indie films that then become popular rake in cash, while standard crap aims for one or two big opening weekends and could care less about longevity or staying power. Same for current "music." There is a reason Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon is still in top charts, or Bob Marley, or Clapton/Dylan/Zepplin etc.
I seem to have a collection of NOFX CD's from when I was in H.S. until today that I have bought and they have never been on TV, MTV, or Radio. Sigur Ros, Ben Harper, Tinariwen, and on and on.
Look at Jack Johnson, he showed how people today still will buy and can appreciate a solid singer/songwriter beyond just one hit. John Mayer to some extent as well.
The entire system needs a "reset" rather than a guy shouting "This is why I'm hot" over and over or "my lip gloss is hot" and managing to own 4 Bentley's and a "Crib" maybe we could just get back to MUSIC!
It only makes sense, which is why America will A. Never do it or B. Manage to screw it up so badly that each panel ends up costing tax payers $4,000 *and* a tax increase. It is such a simple and advantageous idea that would benefit everyone involved from top to bottom... that doesn't happen often.
I have a lot of interest in green computing and sustainability and Germany and Japan are two countries leading the way, so it doesn't surprise me. I wasn't aware of it though, so thanks for sharing!
Is why every building/house isn't required to have at least one solar panel on the roof. I could care less about their efficiency, or the ability to run my whole house on them, but the relative low cost and huge amount of energy would benefit everyone. Give people a tax break like they do for weatherproofing your home and make it mandatory.
Full systems to run a home only cost $10k-15k, and single fairly large panels and the needed wiring are ~$1k without batteries or other complexity.
It would also bring down the costs and fund better efficiency and research due to the increased demand. Then some people would be more likely to add a few more or go fully solar, while others don't have to do anything more. It's a win-win. And yes, $1k is a lot for some, but I'd rather see energy co's and the government spending here than in forcing and subsidizing grandparents to get digital TV converters.
I sold my turbo'd Focus for a 2006 Scion xA in 2005 just to realize some savings in fuel costs, then when things went even higher I was feeling pretty good about the little bugger. I thought I'd miss a lot from the performance/power side of things but honestly it's grown on me. I don't think I could go back to less than 35MPG, and it has become a past time to see how much I can get (44MPG is my best so far). I get the same or better mileage as a Prius, paid ~$8,000 less than a Prius, and have no battery or complexities to worry about.
Now for this plug in vehicle. I am a strong believer that any company who can bring back the $10k new car will clean up. My father works for GM and I know it can be done, but has been squashed just about every step of the way. If this vehicle could get to $10k (even 11k) and include the battery fee for the first year, then I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
I have a odd car dealer by my house that sells replica's and oddballs of all sorts (Once I almost bought a Delorean there) and they have been selling the Mercedes smart cars. People are flying in from all over the country daily for them and the waiting list is up to 18 months right now. The price? $60,000. Honestly, people are dying to drop 60 g's for a tiny smart car like this one... the market is there at any price, but for mass adoption and disruption of the market $10k would be it.
like other than the anal-rape price of the hardware+subscription? I mean 'cuz otherwise it's the bee's knees.
I can't see many Jane and Joe Sixpacks buying a Tivo, they will most likely go with their cable/satelite provider's DVR option if any at all. Now, make the Tivo a free device (or say $99) and then charge $12.95/mo. and I bet more people would care and buy into it.
Tivo's problem has been their inability to evolve and stay competitive, they easily could do it... they just haven't.
Honestly I think we are probably the only two people who still understand the fundamentals.
Just because a certain CPU is the fastest in it's class and the RAM I'm using is also, doesn;t mean they are in sync... add to that the RAM timings and you can be wasting 10-20% of your CPU's speed. So if your Uber CPU is 20% faster than mine on paper, our systems end up being 100% equal and many times the slower one becomes faster.
I really wish some hardware site would actually take the time to highlight this instead of making people believe that all you have to do is OC your CPU to the max and then try to eek out the lowest timings possible from your RAM to build a "fast" system. It drives me crazy.
Apple isn't even immune to it with their new C2D Macbook Pro's. Only one of them is in sync between the processor and RAM. It amazes me.
I have been a system builder for over 12 years, and my home PC still happily runs IDE drives. Why? because of the low overhead. SATA is rarely faster and the CPU usage is much higher. I build my personal systems to waste as few clock cycles and be as in sync as possible between CPU, memory, and FSB. People are always amazed at how my "older" systems beat the hell out of their newer ones that have no regard to tight timings and tons of wasted cycles.
Just because you can buy any CPU, MB, and supported RAM doesn;t mean you are building an efficient system... and that is a (sadly) lost art in the rigs people build today. Add to that the complete stupidity of some of the "Overclockers" and their complete lack of understanding in this area and you have so much misinformation online it is just silly.
If your CPU is waiting more than it is hitting then you can have all the Uber leet gear in the world and my "poor" box with IDE drives will still smoke it.
You're welcome to disagree... however you will find that you are wrong. There is a finite limitation to the system that Surface uses that is a result of the technology used. I'm not interested in arguing about it, I'm quite familiar with the technologies in play here.
There is a big difference between multiple simultaneous inputs and multiple inputs.
The future of Linux is in Ubuntu's hands. I don't care what your favorite distro is, that is the case. OSes like PCBSD are showing how the focus on the complete package (not just a kernel) is where it is at. OS X has proven this, and Ubuntu is a step behind in this regard.
Save the flames, I've heard them all before and could care less, when we finally get enough people to wake up and begin to work in this frame of mind Linux will be unstoppable. You need a solid foundation, and at least a basic blue-print to build a house worth living in and adding on to. Feel free to disagree, I just don't care after seeing the same issues for over 12 years.
Like they needed to start even younger. Conspiracy theorists get your tinfoil hats a-ready, could this be a ploy to make more on drugs? But, hey, education is education and it is all beneficial even if we American's find T-n-A more offensive than gunplay and death. I'm just waiting for the first "noob" video on youtube from one, or REAL Nigerian scams from Nigeria.:)
I agree they do charge a premium, but think about actual costs of me building a new desktop: $200 for the monitor, $80 for a case, $150 for RAM, $175 for HDD, $250 for CPU, $200 for MB, $50 DVDRW, $500 GPU. and at least another $100-200 for misc. So at the end of the day I'd have ~$1700-1800 not including my time, or anything else. I've guestimated the prices but I have been a system builder for over 15 years so they are pretty close when factoring in matching features and not just buying the cheapest gear. It isn't portable, and it requires more power and space.
Believe me it is really took this last update from Apple to even have me take notice of their computers, but how can you beat an LED LCD and santa rosa plus all the other goodies? I couldn't touch an LED LCD for a desktop for near the price I listed.
I think you've missed some things then, because even the most die-hard Linux fan can't deny some of the seamless features. Like syncing with a Bluetooth phone and sending over all of your contacts. It is so slick and simple in OS X it will make a grown man cry. The interoperability between apps, and the unified experience is hard to deny. I understand that there are some cons to OS X too, I am not an MAC fan myself so it is pretty crazy for me to even be thinking of going to a Macbook Pro.
As simple as it would be, the one thing I never understand is why no one creates an intelligent system for dealing with the battery when it is plugged in for long periods of time (desktop replacement use).
How hard is it to detect the charge state of the battery and once full, bypass it, sending the power only to the laptop... Then have it intelligently condition itself as needed instead of the "dumb" way it is handled now?
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That was my point, not to change WMs. Just as OSX is unified, so should Linux. Not all Linux, and not even a single distro, make it optional. If I, joe user, wants the default personal desktop install I get a single UI. period. It does not have to be all of the others mashed into one, it can be it's own system which is capable of calling the needed libraries in the background (Gnome, KDE, etc.) so nothing truly changes programatically as far as apps are concerned, just the user.
Is it a big job? yep. I fully understand the ramifications of what I am saying, again I too have been with Linux for over a decade. 12 of its 16 years.
Advanced users could easily select an advanced install and choose a true setup with full blown X, WM, DE, etc. OSX has Linux beat in a lot of areas and most of them boil down to the UI and usability. To deny Linux is failing in this area is folly.
This is exactly what is so frustrating about Linux. You've never ACTUALLY tried it, but your sure you're right. *smacks forehead*
Yes, it is as simple to install as clicking on it in add/remove in FC/Ubuntu/whatever and 9 times out of 10 your window borders will disappear and the average user is then screwed.
I did not place my entire reasoning on simply installing Compiz, nice try at a straw man argument. *I'VE* never had a problem with lots of shit in Linux, because I can fix it... so by your logic that means if YOU personally aren't affected, then there is no problem. Exactly my point. People have different hardware, software, needs, likes, dislikes, and on and on and you have to cater to all of them somehow in an OS... that is part of it. Well, *I* can see just fine so screw accessibility options and magnifiers and screen readers! I mean 95-97.5% (I love how you got so specific with fake percentages) of the population CAN SEE JUST FINE, so why even bother?
Christ.
That depends, from the angle you are talking about yes you are correct. However, go ahead and have a user install Compiz. Then when they lose their borders, and other "irrelevant" things needed to use the environment see how important it is. Sure, when shit works perfectly no one needs to know or care, but when there is an issue, prepare to dig through all of those layers to resolve it... and for the average Joe that's like asking them to do their own dentistry. Hell, even installing a program requires the user understand about desktop environments. Again, this is the kind of stuff that needs worked on. Not for you and me, but for a true desktop OS. Look at OSX, do people need to be concerned with 20 choices in each area of UI? Nope, it just works.
Yeah, no. FAIL. Rooting requires a failure on the user side, meaning YOU have control over it. A driver from a company that you have no option but to just trust with your safety is a different story. You go ahead and accept the one of 30,000 ways you can get screwed on a Windows box, I'll stick the the few (which I can control) on mine.
Truthfully, I hear this a lot, but it has never affected me. I do mainly stick to Gnome and Gnome-based apps, but I use Amarok, K3B, and a few other KDE apps and have never had any trouble with copy/paste. I will say that it is an issue that needs addressed, along with a number of other UI and UI unification issues. All the levels of abstraction are great at times, but in reality it does make for a mess that is too complex for the average user.
I never understand why we have to insist on having X, a desktop environment, AND a window manager for average desktop systems. I would absolutely kill for an all-in-one system geared for home use. No choice, no thousand and one options. I also wouldn't mind a distro to be tuned for at most 4 users at once.
CUPS is pretty good for printing now, however sharing printers is a bit of a mess (moreso than it needs to be). Wireless has come a long way, I have one laptop that is not supported well but the rest work fine... as for wireless USB I have no idea.
If anything, pop in an Ubuntu 7.04 LiveCD and give it a shot, it won't hurt anything and you can at least see the current state of things. HTH
A few months back (after over 12 years with Linux) I finally took the plunge and went Linux-only on my main home PC. I went with Ubuntu 7.04 simply for the basic completeness and fair stability. There are some of the same glaring issues that have plagued Linux since 12 years ago which is so damn frustrating I can't even begin to explain it, there are still some big unification/usability flaws, but the one thing I don't miss at all? Shit like this. A video driver opening a hole that I can't see or close that could cause my computer to be wrecked.
The iron is as hot as it has ever been for Linux, I just wish one distro would come out with something truly amazing and awe-inspiring in the next round of releases to capitalize on the current attitude towards Windows. From what I've seen the big players are just continuing on with incremental upgrades, little to no art or polish, and nothing really newsworthy... I'm just hoping someone has a big ace in their sleeve. Maybe Redhat, PCLOS is growing fast, and my personal darkhorse that I've been pulling for: PC-BSD and their PBI packages, amazing! If only Ubuntu or someone would get something similar.
I have worked with many women in IT over my 14 years, and with the exception of *1* they all were inferior in knowledge and skills. I know it is anecdotal and just my experience but it is what it is. I'm not talking about minor deficiencies either, but huge, glaring gaps in knowledge/skills. In college anytime I had a female in my group for a project they tended to have to be carried through. The one skilled one could work circles around anyone I've ever worked with in Unix and scripting. FWIW. (I have no problem with women in IT, and this post is not meant to be negative just my personal experience)
Maybe in one or two systems, but would you want to manage that on a large scale? I wouldn't. My data center has over 400 servers in it (Windows and Solaris) Plus a huge SAN, I couldn't imagine adding yet more complexity and possible failure points. Even sealed water-cooling systems tend to need servicing and refilling at some point, and a failure could be catastophic. No thanks, but maybe in smaller data centers or server rooms.
Again, you are the type who has fallen into this trap and silly mindset. Stop reading the "extreeeme!!1! OC" websites and just think about what you are saying. You are making my point. A videocard that requires watercooling means it is that inefficient or newly designed that it hasn't matured. As the chip process matures you see die sizes shrink and power and heat output reduced.
You have jumped into a card that is not mature and not produced as efficiently as it could be. The G71 didn't have any temperature sensing, adjustable fans, etc. So ultimately you are paying *extra* to correct a production flaw or shortcoming. Nvidia abandoned the G71 after squeezing as much profit out of it as they could possibly get from folks like yourself, and then replaced it with the GS which came in $100 less and placed with it and at lower temps.
Please, people, step away from the benchmarks and use the ultimate benchmarking tool... your brain.
No, it isn't... that's my point. What it proves is that the technology itself has reached a final limit to stability, sound output, speed, and usefulness. The hard drive has endured in basically the same form for 20+years, it is proven to be one of the slowest subsystems in a modern computer... all the water cooling in the world cannot help that.
Solid-State drives are arriving, have lightning fast access times, MTBF is becoming less of an issue, and prices are coming down.
You are the exact type of person foolish enough to buy into the hype and believe this is important or needed. FAIL.
This plays out every time exactly the same way and yet people fall for it every time. Just like SLi, water cooling is unnecessary. It is and has been used for bleeding edge performance *before* the technology is really at that level and certainly before the software is. If you wait 6month's to a year the hardware catches up, doesn;t need water cooling and around that time software begins to emerge that utilizes the new technology. So for 6 months you gain the ability to say oooh look at my watercooled setup that does nothing except maybe pump out high synthetic benchmarks since nothing utilizes it yet. Same with SLi.
No developer is going to produce for a market that may be 1% of the total market. Once the technology reaches mainstream use (which watercooling and SLi never will) they then begin to utilize it. This has gone on since the days of mainframes, and continues in cycles right up until today... when will people learn?
Stories like this one echo the fairly unknown movie "Idiocracy" with truly scary accuracy. I can't stress enough how people should watch this movie, not just for some serious reason but because it is a decent film, will offer some laughs and then at then end you lose your smile because you realize it's all damn near true.
Go watch Idiocracy, then buy an AD supported phone, play ad supported videogames, watch AD supported movies, and drink AD supported water, it's got electrolytes!
The corporate, bland, image-only crap being "produced" as music these days. It's pretty amazing but real artists and bands are flourishing right now.
What is killing music, and videogames, is the desire to mimic Hollywood, as if that were some sort of holy grail. Hollywood is in the shitter, and so are these other forms of mass-produced, soul-less junk.
Indie films that then become popular rake in cash, while standard crap aims for one or two big opening weekends and could care less about longevity or staying power. Same for current "music." There is a reason Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon is still in top charts, or Bob Marley, or Clapton/Dylan/Zepplin etc.
I seem to have a collection of NOFX CD's from when I was in H.S. until today that I have bought and they have never been on TV, MTV, or Radio. Sigur Ros, Ben Harper, Tinariwen, and on and on.
Look at Jack Johnson, he showed how people today still will buy and can appreciate a solid singer/songwriter beyond just one hit. John Mayer to some extent as well.
The entire system needs a "reset" rather than a guy shouting "This is why I'm hot" over and over or "my lip gloss is hot" and managing to own 4 Bentley's and a "Crib" maybe we could just get back to MUSIC!
It only makes sense, which is why America will A. Never do it or B. Manage to screw it up so badly that each panel ends up costing tax payers $4,000 *and* a tax increase. It is such a simple and advantageous idea that would benefit everyone involved from top to bottom... that doesn't happen often.
I have a lot of interest in green computing and sustainability and Germany and Japan are two countries leading the way, so it doesn't surprise me. I wasn't aware of it though, so thanks for sharing!
Is why every building/house isn't required to have at least one solar panel on the roof. I could care less about their efficiency, or the ability to run my whole house on them, but the relative low cost and huge amount of energy would benefit everyone. Give people a tax break like they do for weatherproofing your home and make it mandatory.
Full systems to run a home only cost $10k-15k, and single fairly large panels and the needed wiring are ~$1k without batteries or other complexity.
It would also bring down the costs and fund better efficiency and research due to the increased demand. Then some people would be more likely to add a few more or go fully solar, while others don't have to do anything more. It's a win-win. And yes, $1k is a lot for some, but I'd rather see energy co's and the government spending here than in forcing and subsidizing grandparents to get digital TV converters.
I sold my turbo'd Focus for a 2006 Scion xA in 2005 just to realize some savings in fuel costs, then when things went even higher I was feeling pretty good about the little bugger. I thought I'd miss a lot from the performance/power side of things but honestly it's grown on me. I don't think I could go back to less than 35MPG, and it has become a past time to see how much I can get (44MPG is my best so far). I get the same or better mileage as a Prius, paid ~$8,000 less than a Prius, and have no battery or complexities to worry about.
Now for this plug in vehicle. I am a strong believer that any company who can bring back the $10k new car will clean up. My father works for GM and I know it can be done, but has been squashed just about every step of the way. If this vehicle could get to $10k (even 11k) and include the battery fee for the first year, then I'd buy one in a heartbeat.
I have a odd car dealer by my house that sells replica's and oddballs of all sorts (Once I almost bought a Delorean there) and they have been selling the Mercedes smart cars. People are flying in from all over the country daily for them and the waiting list is up to 18 months right now. The price? $60,000. Honestly, people are dying to drop 60 g's for a tiny smart car like this one... the market is there at any price, but for mass adoption and disruption of the market $10k would be it.
like other than the anal-rape price of the hardware+subscription? I mean 'cuz otherwise it's the bee's knees.
I can't see many Jane and Joe Sixpacks buying a Tivo, they will most likely go with their cable/satelite provider's DVR option if any at all. Now, make the Tivo a free device (or say $99) and then charge $12.95/mo. and I bet more people would care and buy into it.
Tivo's problem has been their inability to evolve and stay competitive, they easily could do it... they just haven't.
Honestly I think we are probably the only two people who still understand the fundamentals.
Just because a certain CPU is the fastest in it's class and the RAM I'm using is also, doesn;t mean they are in sync... add to that the RAM timings and you can be wasting 10-20% of your CPU's speed. So if your Uber CPU is 20% faster than mine on paper, our systems end up being 100% equal and many times the slower one becomes faster.
I really wish some hardware site would actually take the time to highlight this instead of making people believe that all you have to do is OC your CPU to the max and then try to eek out the lowest timings possible from your RAM to build a "fast" system. It drives me crazy.
Apple isn't even immune to it with their new C2D Macbook Pro's. Only one of them is in sync between the processor and RAM. It amazes me.
I have been a system builder for over 12 years, and my home PC still happily runs IDE drives. Why? because of the low overhead. SATA is rarely faster and the CPU usage is much higher. I build my personal systems to waste as few clock cycles and be as in sync as possible between CPU, memory, and FSB. People are always amazed at how my "older" systems beat the hell out of their newer ones that have no regard to tight timings and tons of wasted cycles.
Just because you can buy any CPU, MB, and supported RAM doesn;t mean you are building an efficient system... and that is a (sadly) lost art in the rigs people build today. Add to that the complete stupidity of some of the "Overclockers" and their complete lack of understanding in this area and you have so much misinformation online it is just silly.
If your CPU is waiting more than it is hitting then you can have all the Uber leet gear in the world and my "poor" box with IDE drives will still smoke it.
You're welcome to disagree... however you will find that you are wrong. There is a finite limitation to the system that Surface uses that is a result of the technology used. I'm not interested in arguing about it, I'm quite familiar with the technologies in play here.
There is a big difference between multiple simultaneous inputs and multiple inputs.
The future of Linux is in Ubuntu's hands. I don't care what your favorite distro is, that is the case. OSes like PCBSD are showing how the focus on the complete package (not just a kernel) is where it is at. OS X has proven this, and Ubuntu is a step behind in this regard.
Save the flames, I've heard them all before and could care less, when we finally get enough people to wake up and begin to work in this frame of mind Linux will be unstoppable. You need a solid foundation, and at least a basic blue-print to build a house worth living in and adding on to. Feel free to disagree, I just don't care after seeing the same issues for over 12 years.
Like they needed to start even younger. Conspiracy theorists get your tinfoil hats a-ready, could this be a ploy to make more on drugs? But, hey, education is education and it is all beneficial even if we American's find T-n-A more offensive than gunplay and death. I'm just waiting for the first "noob" video on youtube from one, or REAL Nigerian scams from Nigeria. :)
I agree they do charge a premium, but think about actual costs of me building a new desktop: $200 for the monitor, $80 for a case, $150 for RAM, $175 for HDD, $250 for CPU, $200 for MB, $50 DVDRW, $500 GPU. and at least another $100-200 for misc. So at the end of the day I'd have ~$1700-1800 not including my time, or anything else. I've guestimated the prices but I have been a system builder for over 15 years so they are pretty close when factoring in matching features and not just buying the cheapest gear. It isn't portable, and it requires more power and space.
Believe me it is really took this last update from Apple to even have me take notice of their computers, but how can you beat an LED LCD and santa rosa plus all the other goodies? I couldn't touch an LED LCD for a desktop for near the price I listed.
I think you've missed some things then, because even the most die-hard Linux fan can't deny some of the seamless features. Like syncing with a Bluetooth phone and sending over all of your contacts. It is so slick and simple in OS X it will make a grown man cry. The interoperability between apps, and the unified experience is hard to deny. I understand that there are some cons to OS X too, I am not an MAC fan myself so it is pretty crazy for me to even be thinking of going to a Macbook Pro.
As simple as it would be, the one thing I never understand is why no one creates an intelligent system for dealing with the battery when it is plugged in for long periods of time (desktop replacement use).
How hard is it to detect the charge state of the battery and once full, bypass it, sending the power only to the laptop... Then have it intelligently condition itself as needed instead of the "dumb" way it is handled now?