Didn't Quark run a bunch of ads that maligned Adobe's product and basically made Quark come off like a bunch of insecure jerks?
When you have to insult your competition, you insinuate that you are losing to them. Sun looks like they are losing to Dell, which they may very well be, I don't know. But this ad campaign cements that idea.
Apparently we have fallen on the bad side of moderation here. Sorry to drag you down.
I appreciate your argument, but I just don't see that as the way things are going. Phones are becoming the central device in personal accessories. They contain the key technology that has driven almost all new tech in the last 5 years: communication. Now, you are able to talk to your friends anywhere you go, send them an email from wherever you are, or take a picture and let them see what you are seeing (albeit in VGA and through a cheap lens). These are things people didn't even realize they wanted to do until the technology became available. If operators lower the cost of packets, such services will become even more popular.
People already want to take their music with them. They have since Sony brought out the Walkman years ago. The features necessary to playback music are pretty light, comparatively. It's a matter of increasing the audio out abilities of the phone (I'm simplifying, of course), and you've got yourself a media-playing phone. These already exist in some markets, and I don't see the momentum stopping.
The primary thing holding back this particular convergence is lack of storage, but as we saw earlier Flash memory is becoming more abundant than ever. Removable memory is also getting very large, so carrying around your media isn't going to be a hassle.
I also see phones becoming cheaper (price per feature) and the cost of a cellphone/media player is going to be a better value than two separate devices. It's going to come, and I don't think that staggered technology improvements are going to hold back the convergence products.
It is a dumb idea to bet against the convergence of personal digital accessories. If Steve Jobs really thinks people are going to buy two devices when one will do, his calculated risk is not calculating enough.
There are a lot of people who say they only want a phone that only does phone stuff. But those phones are losing ground to cell phones that are as powerful as the first Apollo onboard computers. You simply won't be able to buy a cell phone that doesn't come with some level of multimedia support. The top of the line phones will feature full-blown MP3 players (duly locked down with DRM) whether or not Apple wants to jump into the fray. The bottom of the line phones will not be as feature rich, but they will have cameras and good screens, not to mention moderately performing audio.
So you can carry one device that plays your music well, acts as a cellular phone, and can be your email address away from the computer. Or you can have two devices clipped to your belt.
Minimalism in form with maximalism in functionality is the new black. Sleek and cool. Not clunky and lame.
First, the move to Intel will not impact their sales negatively. It will irritate some current Mac owners because of the loss of compatibility. Eventually those faithful will stop fighting the tide and buy into Intel/Apple.
Apple's operating system will come full of DRM. The industry is moving in that direction, and Intel is incorporating it in their designs, so Apple would have been left out in the cold (and not where the content providers are) if they didn't make the switch. Now that they will make it, DRM will be a big part of their next OS.
Apple will continue to move into areas where they have little expertise but seem to be a good fit. Cell phones, (more) portable music players, and other gadgets which can help spread the Apple brand. They will stay away from the medical industry, auto industry (though they may seek partnerships to get iPod technology into cars), and overseas shipping (for the time being).
Apple's future is bright, but they need to focus on keeping their products tightly controlled. They can't start branding everything they see and expect to keep a good focus and positive revenue stream. They will continue to focus on music, but probably start looking into video as well.
Their OS will remain a non-commodity item. You will be able to buy the OS off the shelf, but it will only run on Apple-branded computers. Hardware selection will be limited as well, but for the user experience, such a scheme will benefit the end users.
What is a tech bench used for? (I don't know, I'm asking.)
I have a "tech chair", but that's just a fancy name for my chair. It has casters and can go up and down at the press of a lever. It also leans back, but I can prevent that movement by a little latch on the side of the chair. The tech chair also swivels.
But back to your question: What's on my tech bench? Me. And sometimes people who come in while I'm not here, but I don't like that very much.
There are only 116 programs listed in the tviv database. Contrast this with 3500 programs in the TV Tome website.
The only appeal that this may have is that it is a wiki so users can update as they see fit. Unfortunately, most of the time, you get what you pay for.
First, it's on a desktop system with a desktop CPU running really fast. Getting 5us interrupt latencies is not a difficult feat for an RTOS. Yes, it may beat Windows XP's latencies, but on a desktop OS, latency isn't typically a big deal (does XP even claim to be realtime?).
Second, what are the limitations? How does RTLinux handle priority inversion? How does it stack up to something like OSE-RTOS or GreenHills? Just how preemptible are those ISRs?
And finally, what is the performance penalty? Just because you are servicing interrupts at lightning quick speed, it doesn't mean you get a boost in speed. It may mean you have to lower the priority of many system services.
I am skeptical of RTLinux's claims, though the numbers seem to be in order. Maybe it is just their actions in the past (FSMLabs) that has colored my opinion of them.
Mostly because they are created through heavy-element fusion (Ca and U in the case of Uub) and the resulting element decays into lower-atomic number elements in microseconds.
So we would need to find some place hospitable for fusion (maybe the Sun) and full of heavy elements (maybe not the Sun).
Atoms compose elements. A material that is composed of only one type of atom is called an element. Atoms are measured by the number of protons make up their nucleus. This number is called its "atomic number". Hydrogen has 1 proton in its nucleus, Helium has 2, and the count goes up from there.
Now, we have identified all elements from 1 proton-nuclei (Hydrogen) through 112 proton-nuclei (Ununbium).
It is theoretically possible that there are other elements that exist in space that we haven't found yet. They would have to be larger than 112 protons per nucleus, though. In our surrounding vacinity, it is highly unlikely that we would find something like that.
HAYABUSA's mission: to bring back samples from an asteroid and investigate the mysteries of the birth of the solar system.
And I am sufficiently unimpressed by NASA's inability to even piggyback a rover with this. There is so much science to do that doesn't have to do with rocketry, that doesn't have to do with sending people into space, that doesn't have to do with spending billions on a boondoggle space program that is more concerned with keeping certain government vendors in the money rather than actually getting real science done.
Mars Rovers: Good NASA Space Shuttle: Bad NASA Hubble ST: Good NASA ISS: NASA can't even send people up there to rendezvous
I'm sure someone will want to say "what about that big ol' comet we blasted with our satellite. Did we get any samples back? Did we get anything new except maybe a little more practice at aiming our missiles? Not really.
Hayabusa looks like it's going to be headed back to Earth with samples. Real science. I just wish it were Americans at the leading edge of scientific space exploration.
I am not sold on this. It is too small and costs too much. But I guess if I was driving 55 in my convertible, I'd be able to hear the playback over my car stereo crystal clear.
The article is about twice the length of the writeup, with most of the content simply cut and pasted into the writeup.
It would be nice to have more information about this. I wonder what China's plans are as to space, and whether their centralized government will be able to make better progress than the American system. Then again, beauracracy is beauracracy, so I don't have high hopes on China getting much further than developing extra-long range rockets.
In Firefox, the linked website is wider than the screen. Did anyone try it with IE?
As far as it goes, Black Tuesday is only a means for hackers to learn vulnerabilities in Windows by analyzing the dropped bits. It's very infrequent that an exploit is released before the updates are.
Windows is sure to have many problems, but if hackers are only willing to investigate changed bits and then attack not-yet updated systems, then not putting any updates out will keep those hackers at bay.
I don't think they should do this. Security through obscurity is very temporary. But I understand the reasoning behind not giving hackers hints. Maybe Microsoft's next update release will make things really good.
I'm not sure it's about money. From the article, it seems more that they aren't sure what they are going to do about the fuel tank assembly facility which was damaged during the storm. Unfortunately, the article didn't mention whether they would rebuild the facility or just push off any repairs indefinitely.
Now, I believe that they are going to put off the repairs indefinitely. They will probably let Hubble die gracefully and just focus on the next space telescope mission (Webb).
I'm down on NASA a lot. I think they are an unfocused government agency that is spread too thin and doing things out of the realm of their league. In that criticism, I am very unsatisfied with the shuttle program. I think that sending people into space is a complete waste of time and money for NASA. They have ceased to learn anything except that they are more and more afraid of flying every time they go up. Space travel should be a private enterprise, possibly assisted by government funds, but essentially researched and implemented by private companies.
But NASA should be around doing research. They should be at the forefront of space science. Part of this is the establishment of space telescopes. And so Hubble falls right in line with this mission. The more information NASA can gather about the universe, the more all of us benefit. The more they spend on pure research, the faster everyone (including private enterprise) can benefit and that pushes space travel forward.
"Know anyone who uses Windows Messenger as their instant messaging client? Me neither."
That's strange, because I don't know anyone who doesn't. Except for a new guy who uses Trillian, but he'll come around when he gets tired of fighting the firewall.
PC World seems to be in a kind of limbo. It's not technical enough for anyone serious about computers, and it's way over the head of anyone who isn't familiar with computers. I guess that makes it prime reading material for CIOs.
But seriously folks. I was at the bookstore the other day and picked up a Computer Shopper. When did this new thin format happen? What happened to 500 pages of advertisements?
I wonder why Slashdot never gets any links to Dr. Dobbs Journal.
It looks pretty neat, but I can't play it because it requires QuickTime. Personal prejudice, I know, but both QT and Real have proven to me in the past that they aren't willing to work and play nicely with others.
Does anyone have a sample saved in wav or mp3 format?
I don't care much for the whole pre-announcing subplot here, but I think that making this kind of discovery is great.
It's better than suspending tadpoles in a ziplock bag for an hour and then spending three days worrying about destroying all the evidence on re-entry.
So the question is what is the composition of these bodies? Are they rich in any materials that we may find useful to harvest in the future? If so, how can we get up there and bring those materials back?
The thing that gets me about the Cartoon Network, and the reason I don't watch it (besides the fact that I'm an adult), is that it replays the same episode over and over ad nauseum. I suppose the episodes update week by week, but that's hardly fast enough.
This is why I like network television rather than cable. The shows are spaced out so that you don't get the same show twice in one week (except for syndicated shows, but that's not really a concern for primetime), and the shows do not repeat themselves until the next season at the earliest.
Which all makes this latest streaming content thing all the more attractive. Now I can watch the episodes I want without having to actually watch the channel. I don't know how they will make any money off of advertisers, but that's not my problem.
Slashdot Mirror
Didn't Quark run a bunch of ads that maligned Adobe's product and basically made Quark come off like a bunch of insecure jerks?
When you have to insult your competition, you insinuate that you are losing to them. Sun looks like they are losing to Dell, which they may very well be, I don't know. But this ad campaign cements that idea.
Apparently we have fallen on the bad side of moderation here. Sorry to drag you down.
I appreciate your argument, but I just don't see that as the way things are going. Phones are becoming the central device in personal accessories. They contain the key technology that has driven almost all new tech in the last 5 years: communication. Now, you are able to talk to your friends anywhere you go, send them an email from wherever you are, or take a picture and let them see what you are seeing (albeit in VGA and through a cheap lens). These are things people didn't even realize they wanted to do until the technology became available. If operators lower the cost of packets, such services will become even more popular.
People already want to take their music with them. They have since Sony brought out the Walkman years ago. The features necessary to playback music are pretty light, comparatively. It's a matter of increasing the audio out abilities of the phone (I'm simplifying, of course), and you've got yourself a media-playing phone. These already exist in some markets, and I don't see the momentum stopping.
The primary thing holding back this particular convergence is lack of storage, but as we saw earlier Flash memory is becoming more abundant than ever. Removable memory is also getting very large, so carrying around your media isn't going to be a hassle.
I also see phones becoming cheaper (price per feature) and the cost of a cellphone/media player is going to be a better value than two separate devices. It's going to come, and I don't think that staggered technology improvements are going to hold back the convergence products.
It is a dumb idea to bet against the convergence of personal digital accessories. If Steve Jobs really thinks people are going to buy two devices when one will do, his calculated risk is not calculating enough.
There are a lot of people who say they only want a phone that only does phone stuff. But those phones are losing ground to cell phones that are as powerful as the first Apollo onboard computers. You simply won't be able to buy a cell phone that doesn't come with some level of multimedia support. The top of the line phones will feature full-blown MP3 players (duly locked down with DRM) whether or not Apple wants to jump into the fray. The bottom of the line phones will not be as feature rich, but they will have cameras and good screens, not to mention moderately performing audio.
So you can carry one device that plays your music well, acts as a cellular phone, and can be your email address away from the computer. Or you can have two devices clipped to your belt.
Minimalism in form with maximalism in functionality is the new black. Sleek and cool. Not clunky and lame.
First, the move to Intel will not impact their sales negatively. It will irritate some current Mac owners because of the loss of compatibility. Eventually those faithful will stop fighting the tide and buy into Intel/Apple.
Apple's operating system will come full of DRM. The industry is moving in that direction, and Intel is incorporating it in their designs, so Apple would have been left out in the cold (and not where the content providers are) if they didn't make the switch. Now that they will make it, DRM will be a big part of their next OS.
Apple will continue to move into areas where they have little expertise but seem to be a good fit. Cell phones, (more) portable music players, and other gadgets which can help spread the Apple brand. They will stay away from the medical industry, auto industry (though they may seek partnerships to get iPod technology into cars), and overseas shipping (for the time being).
Apple's future is bright, but they need to focus on keeping their products tightly controlled. They can't start branding everything they see and expect to keep a good focus and positive revenue stream. They will continue to focus on music, but probably start looking into video as well.
Their OS will remain a non-commodity item. You will be able to buy the OS off the shelf, but it will only run on Apple-branded computers. Hardware selection will be limited as well, but for the user experience, such a scheme will benefit the end users.
What is a tech bench used for? (I don't know, I'm asking.)
I have a "tech chair", but that's just a fancy name for my chair. It has casters and can go up and down at the press of a lever. It also leans back, but I can prevent that movement by a little latch on the side of the chair. The tech chair also swivels.
But back to your question: What's on my tech bench? Me. And sometimes people who come in while I'm not here, but I don't like that very much.
There are only 116 programs listed in the tviv database. Contrast this with 3500 programs in the TV Tome website.
The only appeal that this may have is that it is a wiki so users can update as they see fit. Unfortunately, most of the time, you get what you pay for.
First, it's on a desktop system with a desktop CPU running really fast. Getting 5us interrupt latencies is not a difficult feat for an RTOS. Yes, it may beat Windows XP's latencies, but on a desktop OS, latency isn't typically a big deal (does XP even claim to be realtime?).
Second, what are the limitations? How does RTLinux handle priority inversion? How does it stack up to something like OSE-RTOS or GreenHills? Just how preemptible are those ISRs?
And finally, what is the performance penalty? Just because you are servicing interrupts at lightning quick speed, it doesn't mean you get a boost in speed. It may mean you have to lower the priority of many system services.
I am skeptical of RTLinux's claims, though the numbers seem to be in order. Maybe it is just their actions in the past (FSMLabs) that has colored my opinion of them.
Mostly because they are created through heavy-element fusion (Ca and U in the case of Uub) and the resulting element decays into lower-atomic number elements in microseconds.
So we would need to find some place hospitable for fusion (maybe the Sun) and full of heavy elements (maybe not the Sun).
Atoms compose elements. A material that is composed of only one type of atom is called an element. Atoms are measured by the number of protons make up their nucleus. This number is called its "atomic number". Hydrogen has 1 proton in its nucleus, Helium has 2, and the count goes up from there.
Now, we have identified all elements from 1 proton-nuclei (Hydrogen) through 112 proton-nuclei (Ununbium).
It is theoretically possible that there are other elements that exist in space that we haven't found yet. They would have to be larger than 112 protons per nucleus, though. In our surrounding vacinity, it is highly unlikely that we would find something like that.
I am impressed by the Japanese mission:
HAYABUSA's mission: to bring back samples from an asteroid and investigate the mysteries of the birth of the solar system.
And I am sufficiently unimpressed by NASA's inability to even piggyback a rover with this. There is so much science to do that doesn't have to do with rocketry, that doesn't have to do with sending people into space, that doesn't have to do with spending billions on a boondoggle space program that is more concerned with keeping certain government vendors in the money rather than actually getting real science done.
Mars Rovers: Good NASA
Space Shuttle: Bad NASA
Hubble ST: Good NASA
ISS: NASA can't even send people up there to rendezvous
I'm sure someone will want to say "what about that big ol' comet we blasted with our satellite. Did we get any samples back? Did we get anything new except maybe a little more practice at aiming our missiles? Not really.
Hayabusa looks like it's going to be headed back to Earth with samples. Real science. I just wish it were Americans at the leading edge of scientific space exploration.
Yep. It's about a tenth of the current big iPods, but only a third cheaper.
I probably should have been more specific.
Treat hardware really roughly and it will break.
I am not sold on this. It is too small and costs too much. But I guess if I was driving 55 in my convertible, I'd be able to hear the playback over my car stereo crystal clear.
I wasn't aware that the technical limitations of Apple products ever became an issue for the Apple loyal.
But if limits like that aren't your thing, I'm sure another phone just like it, except cheaper and without the limitation, will be available shortly.
With storage capacity becoming a big issue on the newer, more powerful cell phones, this flash memory comes in at just the right time.
For everyone who wants to buy Apple, this type of memory will be very nice for your Rokr. For everyone else, it'll be nice for your MP3 player phones.
The article is about twice the length of the writeup, with most of the content simply cut and pasted into the writeup.
It would be nice to have more information about this. I wonder what China's plans are as to space, and whether their centralized government will be able to make better progress than the American system. Then again, beauracracy is beauracracy, so I don't have high hopes on China getting much further than developing extra-long range rockets.
In Firefox, the linked website is wider than the screen. Did anyone try it with IE?
As far as it goes, Black Tuesday is only a means for hackers to learn vulnerabilities in Windows by analyzing the dropped bits. It's very infrequent that an exploit is released before the updates are.
Windows is sure to have many problems, but if hackers are only willing to investigate changed bits and then attack not-yet updated systems, then not putting any updates out will keep those hackers at bay.
I don't think they should do this. Security through obscurity is very temporary. But I understand the reasoning behind not giving hackers hints. Maybe Microsoft's next update release will make things really good.
Honestly, I don't know. Until now, no one's used Trillian on the network. It just doesn't get any of the guy's accounts online.
When he tries with MSN Messenger, he has no problem. And when he circumvents the firewall, it works great.
Any ideas?
I'm not sure it's about money. From the article, it seems more that they aren't sure what they are going to do about the fuel tank assembly facility which was damaged during the storm. Unfortunately, the article didn't mention whether they would rebuild the facility or just push off any repairs indefinitely.
Now, I believe that they are going to put off the repairs indefinitely. They will probably let Hubble die gracefully and just focus on the next space telescope mission (Webb).
It is absolutely frustrating.
I'm down on NASA a lot. I think they are an unfocused government agency that is spread too thin and doing things out of the realm of their league. In that criticism, I am very unsatisfied with the shuttle program. I think that sending people into space is a complete waste of time and money for NASA. They have ceased to learn anything except that they are more and more afraid of flying every time they go up. Space travel should be a private enterprise, possibly assisted by government funds, but essentially researched and implemented by private companies.
But NASA should be around doing research. They should be at the forefront of space science. Part of this is the establishment of space telescopes. And so Hubble falls right in line with this mission. The more information NASA can gather about the universe, the more all of us benefit. The more they spend on pure research, the faster everyone (including private enterprise) can benefit and that pushes space travel forward.
"Know anyone who uses Windows Messenger as their instant messaging client? Me neither."
That's strange, because I don't know anyone who doesn't. Except for a new guy who uses Trillian, but he'll come around when he gets tired of fighting the firewall.
PC World seems to be in a kind of limbo. It's not technical enough for anyone serious about computers, and it's way over the head of anyone who isn't familiar with computers. I guess that makes it prime reading material for CIOs.
But seriously folks. I was at the bookstore the other day and picked up a Computer Shopper. When did this new thin format happen? What happened to 500 pages of advertisements?
I wonder why Slashdot never gets any links to Dr. Dobbs Journal.
It looks pretty neat, but I can't play it because it requires QuickTime. Personal prejudice, I know, but both QT and Real have proven to me in the past that they aren't willing to work and play nicely with others.
Does anyone have a sample saved in wav or mp3 format?
I don't care much for the whole pre-announcing subplot here, but I think that making this kind of discovery is great.
It's better than suspending tadpoles in a ziplock bag for an hour and then spending three days worrying about destroying all the evidence on re-entry.
So the question is what is the composition of these bodies? Are they rich in any materials that we may find useful to harvest in the future? If so, how can we get up there and bring those materials back?
Yes, if the alternative was to be "unrepentantly immature", "undiscerningly simple", "wet behind the ears"
I'd just like to point out that it is the afternoon on Saturday in Australia.
Please carry on with your flaming.
The thing that gets me about the Cartoon Network, and the reason I don't watch it (besides the fact that I'm an adult), is that it replays the same episode over and over ad nauseum. I suppose the episodes update week by week, but that's hardly fast enough.
This is why I like network television rather than cable. The shows are spaced out so that you don't get the same show twice in one week (except for syndicated shows, but that's not really a concern for primetime), and the shows do not repeat themselves until the next season at the earliest.
Which all makes this latest streaming content thing all the more attractive. Now I can watch the episodes I want without having to actually watch the channel. I don't know how they will make any money off of advertisers, but that's not my problem.