Since Microsoft doesn't make hardware they'd either need to convince motherboard manufacturers to do it or buy one.
In order to get windows in such a small space they'll have to custom build it for each set of hardware. You're not going to get decent resolution since there won't be room to store the video driver (unless it's onboard video). And besides which Windows takes so much CPU it'd slow down the boot of the actual OS.
The advantages of Linux in this case is that it's easily customized for size and speed, with a minimalist GUI you wouldn't have to borrow so many CPU cycles from the boot process. Oh, also, it doesn't cost anything.
You're right, there's an awful lot to be said about designing your OS to work perfectly on a limited hardware set over designing your OS to usually work somewhat well on most hardware.
I wonder how long before Microsoft start shipping an embedded Windows version.... Probably as soon as they can get vista to fit in 1gb of flash memory, make it boot instantly, be cheap, and not be a POS...
It's one thing to have your OS die and you've got to reboot. It's another if your motherboard dies and you've got to buy another.
I'm actually amazed it isn't more than 85%. Perhaps they did that just to make it look like it was real...
Censored doesn't necessarily mean blocked, it might mean changed.
But yeah, whenever I see something that says "Chinese people like their government" that either screams "the government is lying", "people don't know anything different", or "the people who disagree are dead or in jail"
Really though, why should even Microsoft care? They haven't cared about standards in the past, what's changed? If they put something out that they deem worthy to submit to a standards organization do you really think they'll just give it up if it's declined?
This is the company that makes an Office Suite that isn't compatible with older versions of itself. (Or different versions, as the case is with Mac Office)
Microsoft is mostly unpredictable. The only predictable things about them are a) they will do almost anything to make more money and retain their near-monopoly (and it has to be near-monopoly because if it was an actual monopoly it'd be broken up*) b) they will do whatever they want without regard to anyone else (including their own customers, who are, for the most part, locked in).
* yes, I know, MS has been declared a monopoly and nothing happened, but as long as they SEEM like they're not being entirely monopolistic not enough people will complain.
Those big squarish light swtitches that take up almost the whole plate, along with their electrical outlet counterparts, and anything else in that form factor are patented by Leviton under the name "Decora". All the other styles are probably also patented. Since there's patents on STYLES of power switches it's going to be difficult to make a blanket patent.
I invented something a little while back when I was 13 or so. I was listening to a radio show about some astronomical event as I was going to sleep. They were talking about some photos, and they said we should go to their website and look at them. Well as I was 13, and it was after bed time on a school night I didn't have access to the internet so I just had to try to imagine what it looked like from their descriptions. Suddenly it dawned on me, what if you embedded a small screen in the radio? That way the radio station could send images over another frequency, you could even use the feed from the radio show's webcam when there wasn't any images to show. After about a minute of thinking about how useful this device would be I realized I'd just invented the television, again...
I'm pretty sure I've re-invented other stuff, I just can't remember what at the moment.
You're right, just flagging them as spam is not harmful. Nor is it especially useful either. The use comes when you use filters to redirect messages marked as spam to another place, for example: oblivion.
If your mail filters are set to delete all messages marked in this way (expecting them all to be spam), then you'll just lose all those emails.
Perhaps a better way to do it would be to return nothing to any request made, but make note of the domain it was made from and send a message to the recipient of the message (if the request includes this), root@domain, mailmaster@domain, webmaster@domain, and any other common aliases saying that the service has been discontinued.
Smaller? Smaller devices need LESS resolution, not more. If you really can't tell the difference between a 27in 420i SDTV and a 42in 1080p HDTV then yeah, you need new glasses. Think of it like looking through a standard glass window vs. looking through a frosted glass window. During the Oscars my brother was commenting on how you could see people's veins, I guessed that this was because the stage lights were so bright the usable light penetrated into the skin more. I think makeup people haven't adapted to the intricacies that HDTV can show. (You can see even a single stray hair that's fallen across someone's face, or each individual bubble and leaf in a scene with a babbling brook)
I totally agree, since I've been able to afford cable and netflix there's hardly anything I torrent. The only things I torrent are things I can't get in these manners, like Dr. Who and Torchwood. Now, granted it is being shown here, but not in the correct order, or on time. If I'm going to carry on a conversation with people on the internet about either of these shows I've got to keep up to date, I have to watch them when they're first aired. So I have to download them.
However, if I didn't have a DVR I'd probably download more, for two reasons. 1) I like being able to watch things when I feel like it, not when they want me to. 2) I like being able to skip commercials. I guess it'll be a while before commercial paid TV is finally replaced by another model. It's already happening occasionally, the special commercial free presentations are usually sponsored by a very select few commercials, usually one at the beginning and one at the end, occasionally a short break in the middle. If there were more of those I probably wouldn't care as much.
Democracy is literally two wolves and one lamb voting on what's for dinner? Don't you mean figuratively? 'Cause, if not, that'd be pretty amusing to watch...
Analog TV broadcasts are not going to be around much longer. Congress signed the execution order for February 17, 2009. After that there'll be a large portion of frequencies that are no longer in use.
It's like having the really big fat guy in the seat next to you on the airplane getting up to use the restroom and not coming back.
Not to mention that it's not just the death toll that should worry people. Someone who survives until their 80 in bed with leukemia isn't really living a wonderful life.
I say we send all the people who made this article possible to work in nuclear facilities with less than perfect safety ratings...
Yeah, most people forget that HDs have relatively short average lifespans. And that word "average" is important, it means that while one disk may survive 30 years in a high use database server, another may fail after one day in a very low use backup server. (Some die after an hour)
Flash memory's lifespan seems to be a little more consistent, thus predictable, thus you can have a replacement ready when it does.
Of course, the biggest factor is that a 1TB flash drive is going to be significantly more expensive than a 1TB HD. Put 30 of them in a RAID and factor in the cost of replacing them when they fail, it's still probably cheaper to go with fast TB drives, even factoring in their replacement cost.
It's not like you pair the devices by just sitting there. You have to have both devices in your hand (one hand, not both) and shake them. This is going to be incredibly difficult, if not almost completely impossible, to duplicate. You'd be better off trying to crack whatever key it is they generate.
If I want Satellite (internet) I have one choice. Umm, are you sure about that? If you can view the southern sky you should be able to use Skycasters, Dish Network or DirecPC (and probably others, I only bother with satellite for TV). Those three, at least, are two-way (ie, no phone line for upstream bandwidth). That's why I put internet in parentheses. Yeah, I know that there is more for TV, but nobody was talking about TV
Satellite sucks in many ways (south facing, no obstructions, weather dependant, wind-caused misalignment, etc.) For TV it's really not bad. The only times I can't get a good signal is when there is a strong thunderstorm. Again, that's only for TV. I don't know about how well it works for internet. I avoid satellite for internet due to their "fair access" policies (read some, basically if you use the connection for anything besides viewing text websites your connection gets throttled down to dialup speeds. Why even bother?) and latency (I need responsive ssh). Again, who said anything about TV?
With some good sources I can get a sustained speed of around 500KB/s (yes bytes) I have Comcast at home (only option) and often I can download at 800KB/s. At work I we use a local company that does wireless (have to build a $5,000 tower to get access) and that gets reliable 350KB/s (up and down) with extremely low latency. It even works well in thunderstorms (this is Central Florida, so strong thunderstorms are common). If I wasn't renting I'd switch to them. In many places there's only one choice per connection type.
The problem is that while, in theory, they all get you to the same Internet they are not the same product. They are similar products.
If I want Cable I have one choice and one choice only. If I want DSL I have only one choice. If I want Satellite (internet) I have one choice. Cable seems to be the best because it's already got the high bandwidth cable and most of the equipment in place for high speeds. DSL is problematic in that it's extremely sensitive to distance. Satellite sucks in many ways (south facing, no obstructions, weather dependant, wind-caused misalignment, etc.) Cable has the potential to blow the rest of them out of the water if there wasn't this tinkering.
With some good sources I can get a sustained speed of around 500KB/s (yes bytes), I average around 200. This is awesome, but it could be so much better. Toss some competition ito the waters and see how things flourish. Why is it that telecommunication lines (telephone, satellite, cable, etc.) are not public infrastructure like roads and highways are?
I see a few problems with this post. First off moderations top out at +5, and this is clearly a +500 post. Secondly there is a limited selection of categories, "Insightful" is just the best choice available: there's no "absofreakinlutely!" There's no visible "clone user and place clones in high government office" button. Once these things are rectified, I think this post would be the event favorite for the "best post ever" award. It would definitely be in the running for the Miss SlashdotPost Universe competition.
This is one of those posts that they should make copies of, freeze a few of them in carbonite as backups for future generations, broadcast several into space in all directions under various encodings and frequencies, make into posters, and finally amend to the constitution in several places, just to make sure it's noticed...
The Internet is the Internet. It's not my internet, it's not your internet, and it definitely isn't Comcast's internet.
The only problem is explaining that if (ok, when) they lose the password, you won't be able to crack it. Ever. Not really. It's quite easy: "That's the whole point!"
And besides, not entirely true:
Q: We use TrueCrypt in a corporate environment. Is there a way for an administrator to reset a password when a user forgets it?
A: There is no "back door" implemented in TrueCrypt. However, there is a way to "reset" a TrueCrypt volume password/keyfile. After you create a volume, backup its header (select Tools -> Backup Volume Header) before you allow a non-admin user to use the volume. Note that the volume header (which is encrypted with a header key derived from a password/keyfile) contains the master key with which the volume is encrypted. Then ask the user to choose a password, and set it for him/her (Volumes -> Change Volume Password); or generate a user keyfile for him/her. Then you can allow the user to use the volume and to change the password/keyfiles without your assistance/permission. In case he/she forgets his/her password or loses his/her keyfile, you can "reset" the volume password/keyfiles to your original admin password/keyfiles by restoring the volume header (Tools -> Restore Volume Header). I actually had someone ask me for something like this at work. Now I have something to tell them. (And something to suggest to our security department, we're currently using various encryptions for the various OSs we support, ugly).
Vista is better than XP in a lot of ways. It's more stable, it's more secure (though the default is to be too secure to the point of being paranoid about it's own built-in functions, but that can be turned off). The compatibility problems will become less after a few months, and if you're buying a new computer it shouldn't be a problem (they should not be selling computers with incompatible HW with Vista pre-installed. The ability to run a program as an administrator without having to log out and log in AS the administrator is really nifty, like sudo.
Vista is the result of Microsoft realizing that POSIX based OSs are the future (as well as the past, ironically). The new security and access model is much closer to that of POSIX. They have also, for almost the first time ever, incorporated technologies and practices not actually invented at Microsoft (I say almost because they have done so in the past, though it usually felt like an afterthought, USB for example).
The lack of drivers will disappear (in other words, the drivers will appear) as soon as the HW companies get their act together. The program incompatibility will also disappear. It's similar to the transition from OS 9 and OS X, or from PPC to Intel. (save for the HW incompatibility, which is more like switching to Linux).
On a scale of 1 - 100 with 1 being a rock you dug out of your garden and 100 being an OS that reads your mind and does exactly what you want it to almost before you know you want it to do that. XP is a 7 and Vista is a 10 (Linux being a 75, OS X being an 80, Win 98SE is a 6, ME is a 5, 98 a 4, and 95 a 3). So, in the grand scheme of things Vista still sucks, but if I were forced to use Windows I'd use Vista over anything.
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Since Microsoft doesn't make hardware they'd either need to convince motherboard manufacturers to do it or buy one.
In order to get windows in such a small space they'll have to custom build it for each set of hardware. You're not going to get decent resolution since there won't be room to store the video driver (unless it's onboard video). And besides which Windows takes so much CPU it'd slow down the boot of the actual OS.
The advantages of Linux in this case is that it's easily customized for size and speed, with a minimalist GUI you wouldn't have to borrow so many CPU cycles from the boot process. Oh, also, it doesn't cost anything.
You're right, there's an awful lot to be said about designing your OS to work perfectly on a limited hardware set over designing your OS to usually work somewhat well on most hardware.
It's one thing to have your OS die and you've got to reboot. It's another if your motherboard dies and you've got to buy another.
I'm actually amazed it isn't more than 85%. Perhaps they did that just to make it look like it was real...
Censored doesn't necessarily mean blocked, it might mean changed.
But yeah, whenever I see something that says "Chinese people like their government" that either screams "the government is lying", "people don't know anything different", or "the people who disagree are dead or in jail"
Nah, I figure Hawking is like a Dalek. eh-leh-VATE!!!
Really though, why should even Microsoft care? They haven't cared about standards in the past, what's changed? If they put something out that they deem worthy to submit to a standards organization do you really think they'll just give it up if it's declined?
This is the company that makes an Office Suite that isn't compatible with older versions of itself. (Or different versions, as the case is with Mac Office)
Microsoft is mostly unpredictable. The only predictable things about them are a) they will do almost anything to make more money and retain their near-monopoly (and it has to be near-monopoly because if it was an actual monopoly it'd be broken up*) b) they will do whatever they want without regard to anyone else (including their own customers, who are, for the most part, locked in).
* yes, I know, MS has been declared a monopoly and nothing happened, but as long as they SEEM like they're not being entirely monopolistic not enough people will complain.
Those big squarish light swtitches that take up almost the whole plate, along with their electrical outlet counterparts, and anything else in that form factor are patented by Leviton under the name "Decora". All the other styles are probably also patented. Since there's patents on STYLES of power switches it's going to be difficult to make a blanket patent.
I invented something a little while back when I was 13 or so. I was listening to a radio show about some astronomical event as I was going to sleep. They were talking about some photos, and they said we should go to their website and look at them. Well as I was 13, and it was after bed time on a school night I didn't have access to the internet so I just had to try to imagine what it looked like from their descriptions. Suddenly it dawned on me, what if you embedded a small screen in the radio? That way the radio station could send images over another frequency, you could even use the feed from the radio show's webcam when there wasn't any images to show. After about a minute of thinking about how useful this device would be I realized I'd just invented the television, again...
I'm pretty sure I've re-invented other stuff, I just can't remember what at the moment.
You're right, just flagging them as spam is not harmful. Nor is it especially useful either. The use comes when you use filters to redirect messages marked as spam to another place, for example: oblivion.
If your mail filters are set to delete all messages marked in this way (expecting them all to be spam), then you'll just lose all those emails.
Perhaps a better way to do it would be to return nothing to any request made, but make note of the domain it was made from and send a message to the recipient of the message (if the request includes this), root@domain, mailmaster@domain, webmaster@domain, and any other common aliases saying that the service has been discontinued.
Smaller? Smaller devices need LESS resolution, not more. If you really can't tell the difference between a 27in 420i SDTV and a 42in 1080p HDTV then yeah, you need new glasses. Think of it like looking through a standard glass window vs. looking through a frosted glass window. During the Oscars my brother was commenting on how you could see people's veins, I guessed that this was because the stage lights were so bright the usable light penetrated into the skin more. I think makeup people haven't adapted to the intricacies that HDTV can show. (You can see even a single stray hair that's fallen across someone's face, or each individual bubble and leaf in a scene with a babbling brook)
I totally agree, since I've been able to afford cable and netflix there's hardly anything I torrent. The only things I torrent are things I can't get in these manners, like Dr. Who and Torchwood. Now, granted it is being shown here, but not in the correct order, or on time. If I'm going to carry on a conversation with people on the internet about either of these shows I've got to keep up to date, I have to watch them when they're first aired. So I have to download them.
However, if I didn't have a DVR I'd probably download more, for two reasons. 1) I like being able to watch things when I feel like it, not when they want me to. 2) I like being able to skip commercials. I guess it'll be a while before commercial paid TV is finally replaced by another model. It's already happening occasionally, the special commercial free presentations are usually sponsored by a very select few commercials, usually one at the beginning and one at the end, occasionally a short break in the middle. If there were more of those I probably wouldn't care as much.
Yeah, because it'd just be sooooo difficult to block...
Or tubes!
Democracy is literally two wolves and one lamb voting on what's for dinner? Don't you mean figuratively? 'Cause, if not, that'd be pretty amusing to watch...
Analog TV broadcasts are not going to be around much longer. Congress signed the execution order for February 17, 2009. After that there'll be a large portion of frequencies that are no longer in use.
It's like having the really big fat guy in the seat next to you on the airplane getting up to use the restroom and not coming back.
Not to mention that it's not just the death toll that should worry people. Someone who survives until their 80 in bed with leukemia isn't really living a wonderful life.
I say we send all the people who made this article possible to work in nuclear facilities with less than perfect safety ratings...
Yeah, most people forget that HDs have relatively short average lifespans. And that word "average" is important, it means that while one disk may survive 30 years in a high use database server, another may fail after one day in a very low use backup server. (Some die after an hour)
Flash memory's lifespan seems to be a little more consistent, thus predictable, thus you can have a replacement ready when it does.
Of course, the biggest factor is that a 1TB flash drive is going to be significantly more expensive than a 1TB HD. Put 30 of them in a RAID and factor in the cost of replacing them when they fail, it's still probably cheaper to go with fast TB drives, even factoring in their replacement cost.
T-Mobile is the best unless you routinely travel outside major metropolitan areas.
But then again, who the hell goes to Kansas anyway?
It's not like you pair the devices by just sitting there. You have to have both devices in your hand (one hand, not both) and shake them. This is going to be incredibly difficult, if not almost completely impossible, to duplicate. You'd be better off trying to crack whatever key it is they generate.
The problem is that while, in theory, they all get you to the same Internet they are not the same product. They are similar products.
If I want Cable I have one choice and one choice only. If I want DSL I have only one choice. If I want Satellite (internet) I have one choice. Cable seems to be the best because it's already got the high bandwidth cable and most of the equipment in place for high speeds. DSL is problematic in that it's extremely sensitive to distance. Satellite sucks in many ways (south facing, no obstructions, weather dependant, wind-caused misalignment, etc.) Cable has the potential to blow the rest of them out of the water if there wasn't this tinkering.
With some good sources I can get a sustained speed of around 500KB/s (yes bytes), I average around 200. This is awesome, but it could be so much better. Toss some competition ito the waters and see how things flourish. Why is it that telecommunication lines (telephone, satellite, cable, etc.) are not public infrastructure like roads and highways are?
I see a few problems with this post. First off moderations top out at +5, and this is clearly a +500 post. Secondly there is a limited selection of categories, "Insightful" is just the best choice available: there's no "absofreakinlutely!" There's no visible "clone user and place clones in high government office" button. Once these things are rectified, I think this post would be the event favorite for the "best post ever" award. It would definitely be in the running for the Miss SlashdotPost Universe competition.
This is one of those posts that they should make copies of, freeze a few of them in carbonite as backups for future generations, broadcast several into space in all directions under various encodings and frequencies, make into posters, and finally amend to the constitution in several places, just to make sure it's noticed...
The Internet is the Internet. It's not my internet, it's not your internet, and it definitely isn't Comcast's internet.
And besides, not entirely true: Q: We use TrueCrypt in a corporate environment. Is there a way for an administrator to reset a password when a user forgets it?
A: There is no "back door" implemented in TrueCrypt. However, there is a way to "reset" a TrueCrypt volume password/keyfile. After you create a volume, backup its header (select Tools -> Backup Volume Header) before you allow a non-admin user to use the volume. Note that the volume header (which is encrypted with a header key derived from a password/keyfile) contains the master key with which the volume is encrypted. Then ask the user to choose a password, and set it for him/her (Volumes -> Change Volume Password); or generate a user keyfile for him/her. Then you can allow the user to use the volume and to change the password/keyfiles without your assistance/permission. In case he/she forgets his/her password or loses his/her keyfile, you can "reset" the volume password/keyfiles to your original admin password/keyfiles by restoring the volume header (Tools -> Restore Volume Header). I actually had someone ask me for something like this at work. Now I have something to tell them. (And something to suggest to our security department, we're currently using various encryptions for the various OSs we support, ugly).
Vista is better than XP in a lot of ways. It's more stable, it's more secure (though the default is to be too secure to the point of being paranoid about it's own built-in functions, but that can be turned off). The compatibility problems will become less after a few months, and if you're buying a new computer it shouldn't be a problem (they should not be selling computers with incompatible HW with Vista pre-installed. The ability to run a program as an administrator without having to log out and log in AS the administrator is really nifty, like sudo.
Vista is the result of Microsoft realizing that POSIX based OSs are the future (as well as the past, ironically). The new security and access model is much closer to that of POSIX. They have also, for almost the first time ever, incorporated technologies and practices not actually invented at Microsoft (I say almost because they have done so in the past, though it usually felt like an afterthought, USB for example).
The lack of drivers will disappear (in other words, the drivers will appear) as soon as the HW companies get their act together. The program incompatibility will also disappear. It's similar to the transition from OS 9 and OS X, or from PPC to Intel. (save for the HW incompatibility, which is more like switching to Linux).
On a scale of 1 - 100 with 1 being a rock you dug out of your garden and 100 being an OS that reads your mind and does exactly what you want it to almost before you know you want it to do that. XP is a 7 and Vista is a 10 (Linux being a 75, OS X being an 80, Win 98SE is a 6, ME is a 5, 98 a 4, and 95 a 3). So, in the grand scheme of things Vista still sucks, but if I were forced to use Windows I'd use Vista over anything.
Sure, can you get rid of the monopolies we have running our government?
Somehow I doubt it...
We use Google apps at the place I work and it's great. Gmail, search, maps, etc.
:P
Of course, I work AT Google...