Maybe Dell changing their policies to a lesser number of configuration options will end up hurting them even more.
I really couldn't care who makes a computer, as long as it's quality and I can configure it the way I want to. My last two notebook computers have been Dell's - only becuase Dell enables me to get almost exactly what I was looking for (and with a serial port too!). If they gave me less options, I might buy a ThinkPad or an HP - or the way things are going, maybe even a MacBook pro. That new 1920 x 1600 LCD Backlit screen looks nice.
Absolutely beautiful card. I recall playing DOOM using the wavetable sampling for the MIDI channels opposed to the aweful MIDI FM synthesis so many cards had at the time. The card seemed to perform 'smoother'. I also remember multiple sounds playing at the same time worked really well. The real-time channel mixing (in doom) gave you a bit of a 3d feel. I also used to connect my piano to the GUS and did a lot of neat MIDI stuff. What an awesome card. I don't have much from my DOS/Win3.11 days of computing, but I still have the GUS CD-ROM with all the cool demos and wav files (you don't need a GUS to play this back, because it is full of recordings from GUS hardware), etc. I always thought that was a killer product. I was never so excited over computer hardware ever.
I have this device - I loaded it with about 120 CD-Roms of info (i was trying to make an online archive) - it KILLED all my files! (Raid 1) - I will take your advice an update the firmware. It really disappointed me!
I'm not an avionics engineer - however, even in a small hotel I service, we keep the guest network and the hotel/admin network seperate. The only common hardware is the AC power and the modem that has a/28 assigned to it.
If distributors could invisibly/digitally watermark the video that gets legally downloaded with a user-id/serial number-that could make people think twice about distributing the video freely to others/thereby potentially eliminating the need for DRM. The video would be traceable to the original consumer. I guess it's possible a video file could be 'leaked' accidentally and it could cause a lot of trouble for the consumer/distributor. My guess is that anyone who is willing to pay for a download would likely NOT participate in redistributing the file - but I'm too naive and too much of an optimist at times maybe!
I buy sheet music online - the site only allows you to print to a physical printer NOT a PDF recorder (it also prints my full name on the sheet music). I'm sure there is someone who is smart enough out there to bypass this, I've thought about it (for the technical challenge) but really I'm probably just to lazy to even try.
I didn't read the article - I've heard a few stories about things recently being filmed in HD. Why I am unclear about is, haven't we had HD capturing technology for a long time (if you had the money?) For instance, I'm certain that a lot of imaging arrays that NASA use are already HD, when I mean 'already' - I mean well before the average joe goes to circuit city and buys an LCD HD display. What am I missing here? Shouldn't we have already tonnes of HD footage?
Did any of these audiophiles ever consider the stuff they are buying at times is likely more expensive than the stuff they used to record whatever they are listening to? I sincerely doubt that anyone is using a $7,000 microphone cable in the studio connected to the mixer/recorder/computer/whatever. I knew a guy would bought cables that were flat and made of silver. They were about $300/foot. I always get a laugh when on the 'high-end' recievers that the gold jack on the back on the unit simply ties into a standard tin-lead trace on the circuit board!!!!
I run my own ISP - I supply high-speed to my residence via my own service AND the cable company. I like the redundancy. Yes - my ISP can have problems too (very rare, but I'm the first to admit it can happen)! I also like to keep an eye on the 'competitions' performance.
A lot can be done with DOCSIS 3.0 over cable. As long as your connection is consistenly fast and reliable (and you're happy) who cares if it's fiber or not? I'm around fibre connections all day while at work (long-haul to other ISPs) I suppose I'm used to it, where many are not. Other than the connection being fibre, at the end of the day it's pretty much all the same as long as your are happy with your connection. As time moves on and things get upgraded, I have no doubt that fibre to the home will be the way everyone will/should connect in the coming years.
WiMAX is the way to go. WiFi isn't truley designed for long-range mobile access. Yes, I have seen plenty of WiFi mobile solutions, but in reality they just aren't reliable. WiMAX mini-PCI cards in notebooks is definately where we'll be at in a couple of years. Metropolitan area broadband deployment over WiFi is simply not the best solution, and is backwards thinking in my opinion. WiFi should stay at home and the work place for private networks and small hotspots. There is no reason why license free WiMAX can't be implemented. A licensed approach (although it involves the -evil- telco's typically) would be of higher quality of service (presumably) - but the cost of broadband is really not very high if it is implemented by responsible companies that haven't gone too greedy.
E-mail is becoming increasingly difficult day by day to deliver as there are a variety of spam filtering techniques used on the recieving party. Simply setting up an SMTP server no longer cuts it, there is much that needs to be done including continous monitoring on shared SMTP servers. If there was no spam, (administratively) there would be no problem.
If you are running a simple SMTP server on a cheap DSL or cable connection, chances are your reverse DNS lookup isn't going to match your intended host name. Most ISPs won't do a custom reverse DNS lookup name entry on a cheap connection.
It's the high-intensity blue LEDs that are the main problem. If the vendors stuck with the good old green, diffused LEDs we would be okay mostly. I find for the bright blue led's putting some electrical tape (white) over them makes a diffused sort of light that is less irritating. In my server room I used to get blinded. I have a 8 port ethernet power controller - it has blue led's all over the darn thing. You look at it, and you get momentarily 'spot blinded'.
Way too many LED's - computer in the bed room?....Forget about it! Last night I unplugged everything in a zombie sleep-walk way because the leds were getting to me - no time for a 'safe shutdown' I was tired!!
Minimal is the way to go - LEDs on RAID drive bays? Naturally! I like the promise superswap trays because at a glance you know everything is 'okay' - but they don't use any blue leds, which is very nice.
I think T1's have a very steady latency of about ~5ms (end to end) of the T1 circuit (yes, yes, I know there are other factors). Also they can send and recieve the full 1.54 Mbps in both directions with out affecting layer 2 latency. They use two pairs of wire opposed to 1 pair for DSL. (Waring! Uncomfirmed!......) I think DSL must use some sort of TDMA scheme to move data pseudo full-duplex, where T1 has a send pair and a recieve pair. I do know that if I max out the DSL connection (upstream) the latency gets really messed up, where the T1 seems to be more steady and predictable. I sell DSL, Fibre and T1's where my office is at a fraction of the cost of what the Telco sells it for (T1's, not the DSL - the DSL is too competitive. I have a fair number of T1 clients despite the nature of businesses in the area and only word-of-mouth advertising. There is still a place for T1's today and for the next few years. It's difficult to explain the cost difference to potential clients - they just don't get it. I feel I'm offering them a great price for a T1 (often 1/3rd the normal price) but they still think it's high.
Another note, T1's have a longer reach, and the telco's support installing T1 repeaters. DSL repeater products exist but they are not widly used.
Basically, if I was a geek and fibre wasn't an option... I'd want a DSL for my surfin' and a T1 for my servin'. Bonded T1 is nice too. Setup a router between the DSL and T1 so when you are trying to access IP's on your T1 circuit from your DSL, your packets don't traverse the Internet (wasting your bandwidth).
I **hate** hearing people bitch about their DSL prices and speeds on slashdot. DSL is generally a cheap-o service. You get what you pay for. I used to spend about ~$1900/month when I wasn't an ISP and subscribed to fibre from another ISP. I have a small company, and don't have a big budget or anything. I did have a business case for it, yet it was still (and still is) a lot of coin for an operation the size of my company (I have 4 guys working for me) but did (and do) I ever sleep better at night. The SLA's and reliability of the fibre are the best option if you can afford it. Our building got hit by lightning two years ago - did that ever screw stuff up (damaged a lot of equipment) - yes everything was well grounded. The fiber was completely unaffected (glass, not metal!!!) another big benefit... plus fiber is (typically) not affected by rain. I do know that the fibre circuit is a bunch of fiber cables 'fused' together, essentially one long continous piece of glass from my business to the telco CO office. (no connections to go faulty as a result of the fusing) - unless there is a backhoe in the neighbourhood - today there was one and my skin crawled.
The other thing is, the telcos definately charge more for T1 circuits as they are geared strictly for business - I do not know of anyone at all (friends, business contacts, etc) that has a T1 at home (except me!-didn't mean to be a show off here!!!) - it's too much money. T1's here come with a 4 hour MTTR (mean time to repair) where DSL service for business has 48 hour MTTR, and residential has 72 hour MTTR. If you're at home (and you're not a geek) you don't really need to send a lot of data normally, so DSL is a fitting option. Everyone (generally) seems to be a consumer, not a publisher. Yes, I know there are some that do need to send quickly however, I have to say, you are (presently) a very few. Also, as far as the MTTR, if you DSL goes down at home, usually it's not the end of the world, but if it goes out at your work!, wow, no e-mail and the office is in chaos.
Bonded DSL is another option, take 2 dsl circuits, aggregate their upstream (and downstream) and you pretty much have the upstream of a T1! The best bonded DSL solutions are the ones your ISP can offer you, the do-it-yourself layer 3 with some 'magic' router stuff doesn't work very well for most apps, (like vpn).
By the way, if you're going to troll this post (looking for flaws in what I've said) I'm not trying to write a
Dual-monitors definately save time - I've been using a dual setup since Windows 2000 had native support. Hi your monitor up in the ceiling of your office - when the audit is over, break out the display again!
Anyone see the discovery channel Supervolaco edu-doc-drama show last year, or two years ago. I thought it was really frightening what the yellowstone volcano could do to the planet. It's too bad we are basically powerless to do anything about this massive 'caldera' --- not the linux type.
GPS uses ~1.6Ghz not 100 Mhz - sounds is often measuered in khz - I don't know much about sonar, but I know gps definately doesn't work under water (I tried!) Zip-loc bag and reciever!:)
Slashdot Mirror
that's hilarious!
Maybe Dell changing their policies to a lesser number of configuration options will end up hurting them even more. I really couldn't care who makes a computer, as long as it's quality and I can configure it the way I want to. My last two notebook computers have been Dell's - only becuase Dell enables me to get almost exactly what I was looking for (and with a serial port too!). If they gave me less options, I might buy a ThinkPad or an HP - or the way things are going, maybe even a MacBook pro. That new 1920 x 1600 LCD Backlit screen looks nice.
Absolutely beautiful card. I recall playing DOOM using the wavetable sampling for the MIDI channels opposed to the aweful MIDI FM synthesis so many cards had at the time. The card seemed to perform 'smoother'. I also remember multiple sounds playing at the same time worked really well. The real-time channel mixing (in doom) gave you a bit of a 3d feel. I also used to connect my piano to the GUS and did a lot of neat MIDI stuff. What an awesome card. I don't have much from my DOS/Win3.11 days of computing, but I still have the GUS CD-ROM with all the cool demos and wav files (you don't need a GUS to play this back, because it is full of recordings from GUS hardware), etc. I always thought that was a killer product. I was never so excited over computer hardware ever.
Duct-tape the camera. Done.
I have this device - I loaded it with about 120 CD-Roms of info (i was trying to make an online archive) - it KILLED all my files! (Raid 1) - I will take your advice an update the firmware. It really disappointed me!
I'm not an avionics engineer - however, even in a small hotel I service, we keep the guest network and the hotel/admin network seperate. The only common hardware is the AC power and the modem that has a /28 assigned to it.
I tried holding the printout up to the computer screen to scan it into photoshop. For some reason that didn't work.
I buy sheet music online - the site only allows you to print to a physical printer NOT a PDF recorder (it also prints my full name on the sheet music). I'm sure there is someone who is smart enough out there to bypass this, I've thought about it (for the technical challenge) but really I'm probably just to lazy to even try.
Iridium charges 1.49/minute. I own an iridium phone - it works great.
I didn't read the article - I've heard a few stories about things recently being filmed in HD. Why I am unclear about is, haven't we had HD capturing technology for a long time (if you had the money?) For instance, I'm certain that a lot of imaging arrays that NASA use are already HD, when I mean 'already' - I mean well before the average joe goes to circuit city and buys an LCD HD display. What am I missing here? Shouldn't we have already tonnes of HD footage?
Did any of these audiophiles ever consider the stuff they are buying at times is likely more expensive than the stuff they used to record whatever they are listening to? I sincerely doubt that anyone is using a $7,000 microphone cable in the studio connected to the mixer/recorder/computer/whatever. I knew a guy would bought cables that were flat and made of silver. They were about $300/foot. I always get a laugh when on the 'high-end' recievers that the gold jack on the back on the unit simply ties into a standard tin-lead trace on the circuit board!!!!
U Don't Play packets
I run my own ISP - I supply high-speed to my residence via my own service AND the cable company. I like the redundancy. Yes - my ISP can have problems too (very rare, but I'm the first to admit it can happen)! I also like to keep an eye on the 'competitions' performance. A lot can be done with DOCSIS 3.0 over cable. As long as your connection is consistenly fast and reliable (and you're happy) who cares if it's fiber or not? I'm around fibre connections all day while at work (long-haul to other ISPs) I suppose I'm used to it, where many are not. Other than the connection being fibre, at the end of the day it's pretty much all the same as long as your are happy with your connection. As time moves on and things get upgraded, I have no doubt that fibre to the home will be the way everyone will/should connect in the coming years.
WiMAX is the way to go. WiFi isn't truley designed for long-range mobile access. Yes, I have seen plenty of WiFi mobile solutions, but in reality they just aren't reliable. WiMAX mini-PCI cards in notebooks is definately where we'll be at in a couple of years. Metropolitan area broadband deployment over WiFi is simply not the best solution, and is backwards thinking in my opinion. WiFi should stay at home and the work place for private networks and small hotspots. There is no reason why license free WiMAX can't be implemented. A licensed approach (although it involves the -evil- telco's typically) would be of higher quality of service (presumably) - but the cost of broadband is really not very high if it is implemented by responsible companies that haven't gone too greedy.
E-mail is becoming increasingly difficult day by day to deliver as there are a variety of spam filtering techniques used on the recieving party. Simply setting up an SMTP server no longer cuts it, there is much that needs to be done including continous monitoring on shared SMTP servers. If there was no spam, (administratively) there would be no problem. If you are running a simple SMTP server on a cheap DSL or cable connection, chances are your reverse DNS lookup isn't going to match your intended host name. Most ISPs won't do a custom reverse DNS lookup name entry on a cheap connection.
This could be FUD - but I'm pretty sure for 4.9 G you need a license and it's reserved for 'public safety' use only.
It's the high-intensity blue LEDs that are the main problem. If the vendors stuck with the good old green, diffused LEDs we would be okay mostly. I find for the bright blue led's putting some electrical tape (white) over them makes a diffused sort of light that is less irritating. In my server room I used to get blinded. I have a 8 port ethernet power controller - it has blue led's all over the darn thing. You look at it, and you get momentarily 'spot blinded'. Way too many LED's - computer in the bed room?....Forget about it! Last night I unplugged everything in a zombie sleep-walk way because the leds were getting to me - no time for a 'safe shutdown' I was tired!! Minimal is the way to go - LEDs on RAID drive bays? Naturally! I like the promise superswap trays because at a glance you know everything is 'okay' - but they don't use any blue leds, which is very nice.
I think T1's have a very steady latency of about ~5ms (end to end) of the T1 circuit (yes, yes, I know there are other factors). Also they can send and recieve the full 1.54 Mbps in both directions with out affecting layer 2 latency. They use two pairs of wire opposed to 1 pair for DSL. (Waring! Uncomfirmed!......) I think DSL must use some sort of TDMA scheme to move data pseudo full-duplex, where T1 has a send pair and a recieve pair. I do know that if I max out the DSL connection (upstream) the latency gets really messed up, where the T1 seems to be more steady and predictable. I sell DSL, Fibre and T1's where my office is at a fraction of the cost of what the Telco sells it for (T1's, not the DSL - the DSL is too competitive. I have a fair number of T1 clients despite the nature of businesses in the area and only word-of-mouth advertising. There is still a place for T1's today and for the next few years. It's difficult to explain the cost difference to potential clients - they just don't get it. I feel I'm offering them a great price for a T1 (often 1/3rd the normal price) but they still think it's high. Another note, T1's have a longer reach, and the telco's support installing T1 repeaters. DSL repeater products exist but they are not widly used. Basically, if I was a geek and fibre wasn't an option... I'd want a DSL for my surfin' and a T1 for my servin'. Bonded T1 is nice too. Setup a router between the DSL and T1 so when you are trying to access IP's on your T1 circuit from your DSL, your packets don't traverse the Internet (wasting your bandwidth). I **hate** hearing people bitch about their DSL prices and speeds on slashdot. DSL is generally a cheap-o service. You get what you pay for. I used to spend about ~$1900/month when I wasn't an ISP and subscribed to fibre from another ISP. I have a small company, and don't have a big budget or anything. I did have a business case for it, yet it was still (and still is) a lot of coin for an operation the size of my company (I have 4 guys working for me) but did (and do) I ever sleep better at night. The SLA's and reliability of the fibre are the best option if you can afford it. Our building got hit by lightning two years ago - did that ever screw stuff up (damaged a lot of equipment) - yes everything was well grounded. The fiber was completely unaffected (glass, not metal!!!) another big benefit... plus fiber is (typically) not affected by rain. I do know that the fibre circuit is a bunch of fiber cables 'fused' together, essentially one long continous piece of glass from my business to the telco CO office. (no connections to go faulty as a result of the fusing) - unless there is a backhoe in the neighbourhood - today there was one and my skin crawled. The other thing is, the telcos definately charge more for T1 circuits as they are geared strictly for business - I do not know of anyone at all (friends, business contacts, etc) that has a T1 at home (except me!-didn't mean to be a show off here!!!) - it's too much money. T1's here come with a 4 hour MTTR (mean time to repair) where DSL service for business has 48 hour MTTR, and residential has 72 hour MTTR. If you're at home (and you're not a geek) you don't really need to send a lot of data normally, so DSL is a fitting option. Everyone (generally) seems to be a consumer, not a publisher. Yes, I know there are some that do need to send quickly however, I have to say, you are (presently) a very few. Also, as far as the MTTR, if you DSL goes down at home, usually it's not the end of the world, but if it goes out at your work!, wow, no e-mail and the office is in chaos. Bonded DSL is another option, take 2 dsl circuits, aggregate their upstream (and downstream) and you pretty much have the upstream of a T1! The best bonded DSL solutions are the ones your ISP can offer you, the do-it-yourself layer 3 with some 'magic' router stuff doesn't work very well for most apps, (like vpn). By the way, if you're going to troll this post (looking for flaws in what I've said) I'm not trying to write a
Dual-monitors definately save time - I've been using a dual setup since Windows 2000 had native support. Hi your monitor up in the ceiling of your office - when the audit is over, break out the display again!
I'm convinced it's a trend these days to build names around clever sounding acronyms and not the reverse. It seems like 'cheating' to me.
I thought the same - but the point being illustrated was still freaky.
Anyone see the discovery channel Supervolaco edu-doc-drama show last year, or two years ago. I thought it was really frightening what the yellowstone volcano could do to the planet. It's too bad we are basically powerless to do anything about this massive 'caldera' --- not the linux type.
GPS uses ~1.6Ghz not 100 Mhz - sounds is often measuered in khz - I don't know much about sonar, but I know gps definately doesn't work under water (I tried!) Zip-loc bag and reciever! :)
Better get the laser etched iPod saying 'THIS IS THE FLIGHT RECORDER', otherwise they will be going thru a lot of music.
My information for UK is a little out of date - but it wasn't like that a short while ago - I'm sure you will agree. Australia is pretty bad too.