The i-RAM only uses SATA for data interface... if I recall, SATA is limited to about 150 MB/sec. Raptor speed is 72 MB/sec. Where is the 6x coming from?
Other bottlenecks are sure to limit this (CPU, etc).
Until I see a way to make this actually very useful (other than having one modern game on it to get better fps), there's no way I would buy at that price.
That's why you don't back up entire systems online. You back up only the necessary data. Database contents, unretrieved emails (under a size threshold), Human Resources records (might be required by law in your state...).
A media company I worked for actually used to send media files via Fedex to its backup facility, since that was far cheaper than the extra bandwidth for online transfer would have cost.
The important aspect of this position being created is not who benefits from, but who is harmed by, the piracy.
The Department of Commerce is concerned with stopping the flood of bootlegs, to increase revenues for American commerce.
And from the article, it seems that they created the post to lean on other governments to prosecute piracy, not to prosecute piracy itself.
Prosecution of piracy here will still be handled by the relevant FBI department, although I expect coordination with the new office. The FBI gathers the intelligence, the Piracy Czar liasons with the State Department and the public, the State Department leans on foreign governments.
Mostly, though, it's a PR position. Hey look, we're doing something about the New Red Menace! And the trade deficit!
"That's right, they [US Govt] bend over and take large cash injections up the rear from the corrupt media industry"
Not to nitpick, but the media industry is not corrupt. They are using legal channels to maximize their profits, which is totally justifiable.
It is the politicians (and their organizations) that are corrupt: they accept bribes in exchange for choosing corporate interests over the public good.
The purpose of creating this office is to bring it to the attention of the public and the international community that
(1) Piracy is costing US Corporations a lot of money
(2) China promised to fight harder against piracy
(3) We're going to hold them to their promise; we are serious, darn it
(4) Doing this is good for the economy
There's a bit of spin related to (4). To the less-discerning reader, TFA implies that almost half of the trade deficit arises from IP piracy in China. Lets see:
$618 bn deficit
$250 bn lost sales
90% of music and movies in China are pirated (oh-so-close to "90% of music and movies are pirated in China")
Goal is to eliminate Chinese piracy of IP
Holy cow, we can cut the deficit almost in half if we eliminate Chinese piracy!!!
Also implied is "The deficit wouldn't be this bad if it weren't for those meddling Chinese Pirates!!!"
I see your point, we do not want to fight this battle on their terms. We definitely don't want to fight it with their sensationalist labels.
The spin machine makes it very difficult to fight this at all...
The key I think is to make enough noise framing the question the right way, so that our labels supercede theirs. Rebrand it from a Family Values (tm) debate to a Personal Rights (tm) debate.
You are right about the effects of being on the fringe to one's credibility. And I agree that no (or possibly slow, thought out) action by Congress would be a good thing in this instance.
But, I would much rather that I am branded and dismissed for a far-left opinion, than someone else's just-left-of-center opinion being branded and dismissed as being a wingnut liberal.
Unfortunately, people are often swayed by what they hear the most. So if we don't speak up against censorship, then it will eventually be considered alright by most people.
I have to disagree a bit. Alarmism is one of the best ways to bring something to the attention of the masses. Loudspoken advocates on the fringe can slowly shift "centrist" perceptions and values towards that fringe, which is what I believe has been happening with social politics in the US over the past few years.
My politics have remained pretty constant over the past decade, but where I used to be considered a moderate, my values are now considered quite liberal. Especially with regard to censorship.
I would like to set up an authentication system for incoming calls. If you know me, then I'll have given you the three-digit code necessary to get through to my land line. If you don't have the code, you get sent to a three-minute outgoing message.
Let's see how fast it takes telemarketers to realize that it's not cost-effective to call me.
Agreed. But, complacency is a bad road to walk down... eventually, draconian measures may be enacted under the radar if we don't constantly fight for our rights.
No, the Periodic Acid Table of the Elements was created in the 70s, man. It's main differentiating features are the tye-dye color scheme and the fact that the galaxy background spins.
No, but add some tye-dye effects to the new periodic table and have it slowly wpin to Hendrix and you might be able to call it the Periodic Acid Table of the Elements.
It's also sort of like the movie "American Pie" except that there's no hot exchange student.
"One time, at chemistry camp..."
Seriously though, I agree that this chart is much more intuitive than the old one. For example, on the old chart, it is not intuitive at all that were Sodium (far left of the chart) to lose one electron, it would have the same electron state as Neon (far right).
That said, the word "Periodic" in "Periodic Table of the Elements" explicitly states the cyclical nature of the table.
I see the new chart as similar to taking a Mercator projection and gluing it onto a globe. It's just a seamless version of the same thing.
Gates understands that some tasks cannot be satisfactorily outsourced, for performance issues, political issues, or otherwise.
The issue here is the bottom line. A continued glut of CS grads will allow Microsoft to continue rolling over aging (read: more expensive) employees in those positions.
I would not be surprised to see entry-level CS employment and salaries begin to rise above inflation in the next 10 years.
Besides, where does most innovation come from? Entrenched employees, code factories, or fresh grads?
Unfortunately, once side effect of government-owned infrastructure will be slower uptake of new techs. There is much much more to comm infrastructure than just the cables, and I cannot imagine government would do a good job of managing the rest of the system.
If the Pentagon and the FBI cannot handle creation of a good enterprise network, I'd hate to see how any government agency handles a large comm backbone.
"If it takes more energy to make ethanol than it produces, then removing the subsidy will not help. Ethanol production will make only serve to tighten oil supplies even more than they already are and drive up the cost of energy for all of us. Simply put, it is a waste of time, money, and (most importantly) energy."
That's a big if, sir. Until we approach maximum efficiency in ethanol production, this point is invalid. Technology will find a way.
Also, I infer from your post that the cost of energy is based upon how it affects your wallet. There are many real, if intangible, costs associated with energy production that fail to get mentioned. Atmospheric pollution, ecosystem destruction, groundwater pollution -- these are all examples of costs that are not reflected, but may affect your life more than you know it.
Your ideas definitely have merit, especially reducing or eliminating subsidization of highway systems.
However, I think there are a couple of things that have possible been overlooked.
1) If private companies are to fund infrastructure creation, how is right-of-way for land use determined? This goes back to the issue of seizure of private land for public benefit.
2) There is a huge barrier to entry for companies that would want to enter the mass transit market, simply because more extensive infrastructure is needed before the public would choose to use the system. In addition, the operating costs are likely higher. Given today's corporate environment (c'mon, fix those numbers this quarter!!!), I'm not sure how many companies would choose to enter a market that would take years to get a decent (if any) return on investment.
3) The environmental costs of different systems are basically neglected. Environmental quality is a public good that is hard to assign values to. Would the government bill these companies for the pollutants they produce? Or for noise or light pollution?
4) Federal highway subsidies definitely affect fuel use, but they were a product of the auto industry lobbying the Eisenhower (and others) administration. If both the federal and state governments were to stop, the automakers and fuel companies would need to pick up the slack. I believe this would lead to a collapse of the economy.
I think the best way to handle this would be to preferentially subsidize more environmentally friendly programs, such as train and bus lines. This has the added advantage of allowing the market to steer growth to preferred areas -- for example, near train stations. Over time, the mass transit industry could take most of the market share from the auto industry, but slowly enough to mediate some of the economic problems.
Keeping it simple refers to not using uber-elite syntactical structures and vocabulary with far to many unnecessary modifiers to elucidate a point when it is just as easy to say it cleanly and simply.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh wait... It's that width of 800 cutting off the "Next" link.
This is why a width of 800 is unacceptable for web pages.
What article?
m l [wired.com]
Summary: 95 words Article: 157 words
Is any Slashdot Games reader unaware of the gaming culture in Korea? Was there anything informative in this article?
How about a link to an article that actually has some content (and possibly some research figures):
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.08/korea.ht
The only thing today's article has that the previous one doesn't is, "Hey, this could be America!"
The i-RAM only uses SATA for data interface... if I recall, SATA is limited to about 150 MB/sec. Raptor speed is 72 MB/sec. Where is the 6x coming from?
Other bottlenecks are sure to limit this (CPU, etc).
Until I see a way to make this actually very useful (other than having one modern game on it to get better fps), there's no way I would buy at that price.
That's why you don't back up entire systems online. You back up only the necessary data. Database contents, unretrieved emails (under a size threshold), Human Resources records (might be required by law in your state...).
A media company I worked for actually used to send media files via Fedex to its backup facility, since that was far cheaper than the extra bandwidth for online transfer would have cost.
No, this is like the local Chamber of Commerce agreeing to support the mayor's cronies to have him appoint a special PR guy.
This PR guy will make a lot of noise, and ask the Police Departments of other towns to stop their residents from shoplifting from local stores.
And any document written over 6,000 years ago was obviously planted by God to test our faith.
The important aspect of this position being created is not who benefits from, but who is harmed by, the piracy.
The Department of Commerce is concerned with stopping the flood of bootlegs, to increase revenues for American commerce.
And from the article, it seems that they created the post to lean on other governments to prosecute piracy, not to prosecute piracy itself.
Prosecution of piracy here will still be handled by the relevant FBI department, although I expect coordination with the new office. The FBI gathers the intelligence, the Piracy Czar liasons with the State Department and the public, the State Department leans on foreign governments.
Mostly, though, it's a PR position. Hey look, we're doing something about the New Red Menace! And the trade deficit!
"That's right, they [US Govt] bend over and take large cash injections up the rear from the corrupt media industry"
Not to nitpick, but the media industry is not corrupt. They are using legal channels to maximize their profits, which is totally justifiable.
It is the politicians (and their organizations) that are corrupt: they accept bribes in exchange for choosing corporate interests over the public good.
The purpose of creating this office is to bring it to the attention of the public and the international community that
(1) Piracy is costing US Corporations a lot of money
(2) China promised to fight harder against piracy
(3) We're going to hold them to their promise; we are serious, darn it
(4) Doing this is good for the economy
There's a bit of spin related to (4). To the less-discerning reader, TFA implies that almost half of the trade deficit arises from IP piracy in China. Lets see:
$618 bn deficit
$250 bn lost sales
90% of music and movies in China are pirated
(oh-so-close to "90% of music and movies are pirated in China")
Goal is to eliminate Chinese piracy of IP
Holy cow, we can cut the deficit almost in half if we eliminate Chinese piracy!!!
Also implied is "The deficit wouldn't be this bad if it weren't for those meddling Chinese Pirates!!!"
Paramedics of yesteryear will recall a special way of trying to stimulate a stopped heart into beating through vagus nerve stimulation.
Distension of the rectal sphincter stimulates the vagus nerve; latex gloves come in very handy when trying to revive a heart attack victim.
I see your point, we do not want to fight this battle on their terms. We definitely don't want to fight it with their sensationalist labels.
The spin machine makes it very difficult to fight this at all...
The key I think is to make enough noise framing the question the right way, so that our labels supercede theirs. Rebrand it from a Family Values (tm) debate to a Personal Rights (tm) debate.
You are right about the effects of being on the fringe to one's credibility. And I agree that no (or possibly slow, thought out) action by Congress would be a good thing in this instance.
But, I would much rather that I am branded and dismissed for a far-left opinion, than someone else's just-left-of-center opinion being branded and dismissed as being a wingnut liberal.
Unfortunately, people are often swayed by what they hear the most. So if we don't speak up against censorship, then it will eventually be considered alright by most people.
I have to disagree a bit. Alarmism is one of the best ways to bring something to the attention of the masses. Loudspoken advocates on the fringe can slowly shift "centrist" perceptions and values towards that fringe, which is what I believe has been happening with social politics in the US over the past few years.
My politics have remained pretty constant over the past decade, but where I used to be considered a moderate, my values are now considered quite liberal. Especially with regard to censorship.
I would like to set up an authentication system for incoming calls. If you know me, then I'll have given you the three-digit code necessary to get through to my land line. If you don't have the code, you get sent to a three-minute outgoing message.
Let's see how fast it takes telemarketers to realize that it's not cost-effective to call me.
Agreed. But, complacency is a bad road to walk down... eventually, draconian measures may be enacted under the radar if we don't constantly fight for our rights.
Current law holds theaters, not employees, liable for checking the IDs of its patrons.
In most states, stores AND their employees, are legally liable for checking IDs of patrons purchasing tobacco or alcohol.
Which case is more similar to the video game industry?
No, the Periodic Acid Table of the Elements was created in the 70s, man. It's main differentiating features are the tye-dye color scheme and the fact that the galaxy background spins.
No, but add some tye-dye effects to the new periodic table and have it slowly wpin to Hendrix and you might be able to call it the Periodic Acid Table of the Elements.
It's also sort of like the movie "American Pie" except that there's no hot exchange student.
"One time, at chemistry camp..."
Seriously though, I agree that this chart is much more intuitive than the old one. For example, on the old chart, it is not intuitive at all that were Sodium (far left of the chart) to lose one electron, it would have the same electron state as Neon (far right).
That said, the word "Periodic" in "Periodic Table of the Elements" explicitly states the cyclical nature of the table.
I see the new chart as similar to taking a Mercator projection and gluing it onto a globe. It's just a seamless version of the same thing.
From an employer's perspective:
Gates understands that some tasks cannot be satisfactorily outsourced, for performance issues, political issues, or otherwise.
The issue here is the bottom line. A continued glut of CS grads will allow Microsoft to continue rolling over aging (read: more expensive) employees in those positions.
I would not be surprised to see entry-level CS employment and salaries begin to rise above inflation in the next 10 years.
Besides, where does most innovation come from? Entrenched employees, code factories, or fresh grads?
Exactly. The duopoly will decrease the chance of landline high-speed service being extended to less dense areas.
Another concern is the perception that only two companies competing for services is a decent competitive environment. It's not.
No significant change in services or pricing will happen unless government enables entry of more competitors.
Absolutely.
Unfortunately, once side effect of government-owned infrastructure will be slower uptake of new techs. There is much much more to comm infrastructure than just the cables, and I cannot imagine government would do a good job of managing the rest of the system.
If the Pentagon and the FBI cannot handle creation of a good enterprise network, I'd hate to see how any government agency handles a large comm backbone.
"If it takes more energy to make ethanol than it produces, then removing the subsidy will not help. Ethanol production will make only serve to tighten oil supplies even more than they already are and drive up the cost of energy for all of us. Simply put, it is a waste of time, money, and (most importantly) energy."
That's a big if, sir. Until we approach maximum efficiency in ethanol production, this point is invalid. Technology will find a way.
Also, I infer from your post that the cost of energy is based upon how it affects your wallet. There are many real, if intangible, costs associated with energy production that fail to get mentioned. Atmospheric pollution, ecosystem destruction, groundwater pollution -- these are all examples of costs that are not reflected, but may affect your life more than you know it.
Your ideas definitely have merit, especially reducing or eliminating subsidization of highway systems.
However, I think there are a couple of things that have possible been overlooked.
1) If private companies are to fund infrastructure creation, how is right-of-way for land use determined? This goes back to the issue of seizure of private land for public benefit.
2) There is a huge barrier to entry for companies that would want to enter the mass transit market, simply because more extensive infrastructure is needed before the public would choose to use the system. In addition, the operating costs are likely higher. Given today's corporate environment (c'mon, fix those numbers this quarter!!!), I'm not sure how many companies would choose to enter a market that would take years to get a decent (if any) return on investment.
3) The environmental costs of different systems are basically neglected. Environmental quality is a public good that is hard to assign values to. Would the government bill these companies for the pollutants they produce? Or for noise or light pollution?
4) Federal highway subsidies definitely affect fuel use, but they were a product of the auto industry lobbying the Eisenhower (and others) administration. If both the federal and state governments were to stop, the automakers and fuel companies would need to pick up the slack. I believe this would lead to a collapse of the economy.
I think the best way to handle this would be to preferentially subsidize more environmentally friendly programs, such as train and bus lines. This has the added advantage of allowing the market to steer growth to preferred areas -- for example, near train stations. Over time, the mass transit industry could take most of the market share from the auto industry, but slowly enough to mediate some of the economic problems.
Keeping it simple refers to not using uber-elite syntactical structures and vocabulary with far to many unnecessary modifiers to elucidate a point when it is just as easy to say it cleanly and simply.
Does this mean we'll need to hire English majors to work someplace besides the company cafeteria.