Insightful? Geesh, someone read the article please. The 'phone' has builtin wifi and bluetooth radios too. So, to spell it out, it'll have a TCP/IP stack and IIRC it also already has a VOIP client kit installed but not sure if it's Skype compatible.
no way, any good MediaCenterPC will have a builtin WAP and be running something like LTSP serving up KnopMyth frontends and Knoppix boot images. Sure you can have your laptop but why not pick up a $150 thin client and $150 17" flatpanel to put on the coffee table. Don't feel like firing up the 60" HDTV and sound system? Fire up a KnopMyth frontend on the coffee table and watch transcoded versions of your HDTV shows, videos, etc. Want email, browsing, etc, fire up Knoppix mounting persistent/home folders from the LinMCE server.
I mean if you are going to put that kind of money into a home theater system, have a mediaCenter PC built that'll give you more than DVR capabilities. Most of the tech is already there, though it resides outside of the Microsoft world.
Here in the US, it seems that one can't purchase a higher end laptop without getting MS-MCE pre-installed. Some associates want to purchase a new high end laptop with MS-WXP so they can install a WAMP stack on it and a few other things. From what they've found, most laptops with 2GB RAM, larger HDs, etc are only available with MS-MCE and that won't run some of the standard Microsoft products( MS-IIS, MS-Access, etc ) without a bunch of fiddling around, if at all. Atleast that's what I heard from their purchasing person.
So it seems like MS-MCE is doing well in that many OEMs are getting good marketing kickbacks for putting it on higher end products. IMO, this seems like a direct attempt to limit Apples laptop growth.
if any of the large OEMs start making these, they won't be using our favorite OS and customizing it. They'll have to use Microsoft Windows( probably the MediaCenter version ). You might laugh but I had just spoke with a former HP project manager a few weeks ago and he told me how he had two projects which leveraged Linux as the base OS but when he brought in the marketing guys for the product release, they canned the projects. You see, the 'financial' impact these two projects would have on the 'profits' of some other Microsoft based product was too great. When I mentioned that the Microsoft based products were not even in the same market/sector, he said that the finanical impact wasn't due to lost sales but in licensing costs and other 'income' from those products( marketing dollars? ).
So you probably have a few more years run with your current kit.
Now THAT is funny. If anything, I'd be VERY surprised if Vista was not another petry dish for virus's and the likes. But hey, it could happen. After all, the company brought you The Trustworthy Computing Initiative in Jan 2002( http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,49826,00 .html ) and look what that resulted in. And wasn't Windows 2K the most secure Windows ever( or was it XP? ). Don't forget that every OS shipment since Windows 3.1 it was claimed that it was written from the ground up for some popular buzzword of the moment. Yet, we find out that the WFM bug was a hold over from code originating in Windows 3.x...
Denial? I don't think so. Scared? Pleease. Customers, friends and relatives are black and blue from failed Microsoft promises over the years. But hey, the marketing techniques are interesting. Like this PR bit about "black hats" being challenged to find holes in Vista. Funny how the product never speaks for itself.
This is a marketing stunt to make people feel safer if they used Vista.
And how do you think the 'security experts' think of Microsoft after they had the guy fired for opposing Microsofts view a year or two ago? It's all marketing, just like most public statements from and about Microsoft. IMO.
from the article and tagline of this thread: "Symbian remains by far the top mobile device OS, according to Canalys, with a 67 percent share, well ahead of second-place Windows Mobile, with 15 percent of the market."
Why the switch from comparing smartphone OS's to the state of "mobile devices"?
There is enough in the article to make it look like valid research but this is a blatant flaw IMO. Most of the article is about smartphones except where it goes and switches to comparing marketshare of mobile devices. We all know that in the mobile device market, Microsoft has recorded about $10 billion in losses to 'win' that market. It is very interesting that it is used in this article to provide a 'low blow' to the prospects of Motorola and others in the smartphone market using Linux...
So, seeing that Linux is actually the #2 smartphone OS instead of Microsoft Windows, the article should have read more like it was a foregone conclusion that Motorola's use of Linux was going to be a win for Motorola and its shareholders.
It's amazing how one little bit of misleading information can change a story if not tarnish the perception one walks away with. But this is a CLASSIC ZiffDavis trick, one prefected in the OS/2 vs Windows war of the early 1990's. Notice how the last sections/paragraph(s) of the story end in such a way to put doubt in all that was laid out for you in the beginning of the story? This is CLASSIC ZiffDavis, or should I say classic Microsoft marketing.
how about using CF and a CF->IDE adapter for desktops and hang the adapter off the IDE bus. CF based PCcard adapters in laptops maybe? You can do this today and IIRC, CF cards have builtin wear leveling. move your/boot onto this for quicker boots and/or put your swap here and have quicker restores from hibernates.
I tell you, Bill is "retiring" from Microsoft but not from growing them larger. While is wife is off saving the worlds children, Bill will be brainwashing them with Windows and other Microsoft Software crack.
There was that deal with AMD the brought about that little anti-Linux box( forget the name ).
He may not call it One Windows Laptop Per Child, it might not be called One Flexgo Per Child either but rest assured, Bill Gates is NOT RETIRING. Windows is being threatend by Linux and OSS and there's not way he or Balmer will rest until their job is done and there nothing but Windows. IMO.
I think you have it correct. Microsoft is losing customers when those customers THINK they need GNU/Linux under any or all of AMP( of LAMP ) so they're installing LAMP. The kicker is that after finding how reliable, secure, and inexpensive LAMP is, they realize they have a very cheap platform to 'try' other things on... "Hey Bob, grab that old Exchange server from storage and see what you can do with this Scalix thing I just read about". And Windows withers in the wings.
well, when I heard from a consultant that he knows of a few businesses who are using wiki's for software configuration management, I knew that the Windows software development market was still pretty screwed up. When I asked why they wouldn't use CVS or Subversion at the very least, he said that they are using a wiki because that is what they know....
So don't be surprised to find many a Windows shop using wiki's just for uploading MS-DOC files or other silly things.
Who the fuck said Bush killed off the hybrids? Gawd it's like talking with an 10 year old.
How many of those hybrids were American made? And let me see, the one American made hybrid on the market is an SUV and even its hybrid system is licensed from Toyota.
same here but without facts, those theories are/were just that, theories. I did not just pretend they were all wrong, just theories without enough proof that they were valid. You probably don't believe Microsoft prevents OEMs from shipping Linux based product too. Consiracy theory is what I hear over and over. It's bull and I've heard product managers from companies like HP saying what really happens.
So, things changed for me in the 2000/2001 period when I started looking at converting a car to an EV but instead purchased a hybrid( Prius ). I researched the heck out of that before purchasing. Then I saw George Bush take office and within 6 months he terminated the US Federally supported Hybrid Program and created a hydrogen fuelcell program. After researching this and seeing how far out it really it looked like a ploy to keep hybrids out of Americans hands. Remember how he mocked Gore on Hybrids? I do. Anyways, he then started feeding tax money to the auto industry to tote his hydrogen line, it was pretty obvious that something was going on. And it had nothing to do with capitalism. I also heard how the early hybrids had D-cell batteries due to patent restrictions but the US Toyota Prius model didn't. Then the Toyota/Panasonic lawsuit and eventually word that future Prius's would still have prismatic NiMH battery packs due to some 'settlement' in the lawsuit. I tried to do some investigations into the patent and found Ovonics, GM, and the oil industry involved... Still a conspiracy theory?
Sorry but there are just too many facts pointing to the oil industry, US gov( under Bush ), and auto industry wanting to keep their gravy train running as long as they can and at any costs. It's not unlike how Microsoft will lose over $8 billion over 10 years on their embedded Windows( WinCE ) just to keep companies like Palm from growing up to threaten their cash cow, Windows. They are doing the same with their Xbox because they don't want the PlayStation to become the media center for the home. It threatens Windows. And Bush helped Microsoft out there also by having his AG force another handslapping settlement.
Regardless, calling everything a conspiracy theory because you don't agree with it is just cheap. And I'm getting sick of hearing this from the ignorant. I got the same shit from neophites in the 90's when Microsoft was buying off the press and competition protecting their monopoly. They did it to OS/2, they did it to JAVA, they did it to Netscape, and they are doing it to Linux.
But if you've had your head in the sand for 40+ years and still don't know how any of this works, sounds like holding up the "conspiracy theory" sign is just a 'spinal cord' reaction. And there ain't no learn'n gunna happen here.
Sounds like the same response one would get if they brought up the old WMDs in Iraq issues. What I've found is that those who just pull out the "conspiracy theory" card tend to live their lives on more faith than fact.
Got something other than your 'belief' that there's nothing to this?
Interesting but Tenergy and Supreme just don't sound like brand names I'd bet my EV business on. Then again, all this could mean is that one or two Chinese companies are still making unlicensed NiMH batteries but are not selling enough to make it worth Cabasys to send lawyers after them. Yet.
I think that the results Cabasys has had on what the biggest battery makers is more telling of what's going on here than one example of a guy named Adam Duskes selling batteries from Canada. Good try though.
LoB
this toy is cheaper and comes with radio controls
on
Hydrogen Powered Toy Car
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
It's a dream that's been pursued for years by governments, energy companies and automakers so far without success: Mass-producing affordable electric-powered cars that spew nothing from their tailpipes. So Jada Toys decided to start small. Really small....yada yada yada....
The article quoted: "Public awareness and education are the first steps toward commercialization," said Horizon founder Taras Wankewycz, 32. "We want to make sure this technology gets adapted globally."
what bull. This is just a ploy to delay the use of existing, disruptive, technologies while the oil industry cranks out as much profits as it can.
Go see "Who Killed the Electric Car" and read this on how the oil industry won't let battery makers build NiMH batteries large enough for EVs:
I guess next the auto industry is going to start advertising that these prove that fuelcell vehicles are going to be here real soon now.
I find it funny that the press will 'bang' on the Tesla for costing 80,000 but they'll show those $1,000,000 hydrogen fuelcell vehicles without mentioning the cost.:-/
I guess it's all in days work of keeping the public naive.
they don't have to be, they are designed to protect the Windows monopoly. And in that case, they HAVE been successful. Where's Palm? Palm is a good example here since it too was just a small company in a small segment with a small device. Palm and their handhelds were branching out and there is no way that something other than a Windows product could do this without endangering the Windows 'economy'.
Look at Apples recent numbers. Sales of Macs are up too and alot of that has to do with the acceptance of the iPod the Apple brand. Not to mention how well they work together. This is a threat to the Windows monopoly and must be stopped. Who cares if they'll lose a few billion dollars, they are protecting a productline which brings in 10's of billions in profit every quarter.
When Palm had 80% marketshare, did Micrsoft come out with Access for Palm? No, they came out with Access for Windows CE. Speaking of Windows CE, that product has lost Microsoft almost $10 billion already and has had only one profitable quarter. Again, the idea is to keep any possible competition to Windows from growing up.
So this supposed copycat "iPod killer" is nothing more than the typical attempt by Microsoft to protect Windows profits. Nothing new and nothing more. IMO.
1995 all over again? Maybe they'll get some ZiffDavis authors to write about how Apple is dead now that MS-zune is coming out. It worked once before... well, it almost worked but it did knock Apple out of the game for about 6-8 years.
And remember, Balmer told investors that they're taking another couple of billion out of the Windows profit machine to spend on other segments. They could start giving these things away with boxes of Vista or in cereal boxes saying to Fed Regulators that they're expecting profits from online purchases...
These guys have all kinds of anti-competitive tricks up their sleeves.
Cobasys forced Toyota/Panasonic(T/P) into a restrictive license after T/P chemically 'fixed' the Cobasys NiMH design and the courts/arbitrator didn't see this new design as being different from Cobasys's patented NiMH design. The resulting license restricts T/P from making any NiMH batteries worth using in either PHEV or BEV vehicles.
IMO, it's protectionism and market manipulation at the expense of profits but for the goal of attempted control of EV markets worldwide.
Let's see if the Japanese pull the Li-ion 'rabbit' out of their hat and on the way out the door with PHEVs, give Cobasys the one finger salute.
Well, I'd read about this years ago and originally, it was the oil industry owned the patent on NiMH after purchase from Ovonics. Then, recently( "Who Killed the Electric Car" ) stated that General Motors purchased a 51% stake in Ovonics and therefore their NiMH patent after which Texico purchased GMs stake in Ovonics. Now what you pointed out shows that Ovonics created a subsidiary called Cobasys but I do not see where they have a 50/50 owership in the patent.
I had read that Toyota/Panasonic 'won' this case because their original license for the NiMH said that they ahd to use only consumer sized( D-cell ) batteries when the NiMH tech is used in vehicles predominantly powered by electric power. The story goes they showed the Toyota Hybrid System(THS) is only 49% electric powered and 51% Internal Combustion Engine(ICE) powered.
WTF was Texico doing going after Panasonic for making prismatic cells? Why were they restricting the size of the cells when used in electric vehicles? And if they were so bent on making money off this tech they they should not have made everything look like they were trying to hinder its use and the original owner of the EV1 and majority patent holder( GM ) shouldn't be looking like an enemy to fuel efficiency. Heck, the same week that Toyota had the US press in Japan watching Prius's come of the same assembly line as the Camry and 3 other models, GM made a press release saying hybrid technology is bad for the US because it distracts us from the future which is hydrogen fuelcells.
So, if it quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, looks like a duck. It's a freak'n duck. IMO.
It is doubtful that a clearance would be limited to just one program so maybe Bush/Cheney are protecting prying eyes from 'seeing' what else is going on. And even if there is a one-to-one clearance system enacted, it would be likely that all the other 'things' going on behind the scenes of the US Laws are tied together via a few or the one "decider".
As much as I dislike NiMH due to their rapid self-discharge rate, they look like a safer bet for automobiles.
Unfortunately the oil industry owns the patent on NiMH and has already attempted to shut down Toyotas use of the battery tech. Lucky for Toyota that the Prius currently is 49% electric and 51% ICE powered. This is because the license for NiMH only allows upto "D"-cell sized batteries when used in vehicles predominantly powered by electric power.
So, if you want to make an electric vehicle with NiMH batteries, you're going to lose alot of space between all those D-cell batteries you'll need. IMO.
You are correct, OEMs could do this but they won't because Microsoft will threaten to 're-evaluate' their licensing contracts, etc if they do install Linux VMs. I just heard from a former HP manager that he's seen 2 Linux projects terminated because of how they would have financially effected other Microsoft Windows based productlines. And this happened after 2000 and Microsoft had already been found guilty of using its monopoly in operating systems to limit competition.
It could happen outside of the large OEMs though since they're not getting much, if any, break from Microsoft Windows licensing.
Slashdot Mirror
Insightful? Geesh, someone read the article please. The 'phone' has builtin wifi and bluetooth radios too. So, to spell it out, it'll have a TCP/IP stack and IIRC it also already has a VOIP client kit installed but not sure if it's Skype compatible.
LoB
no way, any good MediaCenterPC will have a builtin WAP and be running something like LTSP serving up KnopMyth frontends and Knoppix boot images. Sure you can have your laptop but why not pick up a $150 thin client and $150 17" flatpanel to put on the coffee table. Don't feel like firing up the 60" HDTV and sound system? Fire up a KnopMyth frontend on the coffee table and watch transcoded versions of your HDTV shows, videos, etc. Want email, browsing, etc, fire up Knoppix mounting persistent /home folders from the LinMCE server.
I mean if you are going to put that kind of money into a home theater system, have a mediaCenter PC built that'll give you more than DVR capabilities. Most of the tech is already there, though it resides outside of the Microsoft world.
LoB
Here in the US, it seems that one can't purchase a higher end laptop without getting MS-MCE pre-installed. Some associates want to purchase a new high end laptop with MS-WXP so they can install a WAMP stack on it and a few other things. From what they've found, most laptops with 2GB RAM, larger HDs, etc are only available with MS-MCE and that won't run some of the standard Microsoft products( MS-IIS, MS-Access, etc ) without a bunch of fiddling around, if at all. Atleast that's what I heard from their purchasing person.
So it seems like MS-MCE is doing well in that many OEMs are getting good marketing kickbacks for putting it on higher end products. IMO, this seems like a direct attempt to limit Apples laptop growth.
LoB
if any of the large OEMs start making these, they won't be using our favorite OS and customizing it. They'll have to use Microsoft Windows( probably the MediaCenter version ). You might laugh but I had just spoke with a former HP project manager a few weeks ago and he told me how he had two projects which leveraged Linux as the base OS but when he brought in the marketing guys for the product release, they canned the projects. You see, the 'financial' impact these two projects would have on the 'profits' of some other Microsoft based product was too great. When I mentioned that the Microsoft based products were not even in the same market/sector, he said that the finanical impact wasn't due to lost sales but in licensing costs and other 'income' from those products( marketing dollars? ).
So you probably have a few more years run with your current kit.
LoB
Now THAT is funny. If anything, I'd be VERY surprised if Vista was not another petry dish for virus's and the likes. But hey, it could happen. After all, the company brought you The Trustworthy Computing Initiative in Jan 2002( http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,49826,00 .html ) and look what that resulted in. And wasn't Windows 2K the most secure Windows ever( or was it XP? ). Don't forget that every OS shipment since Windows 3.1 it was claimed that it was written from the ground up for some popular buzzword of the moment. Yet, we find out that the WFM bug was a hold over from code originating in Windows 3.x...
Denial? I don't think so. Scared? Pleease. Customers, friends and relatives are black and blue from failed Microsoft promises over the years. But hey, the marketing techniques are interesting. Like this PR bit about "black hats" being challenged to find holes in Vista. Funny how the product never speaks for itself.
LoB
BINGO, you win!
This is a marketing stunt to make people feel safer if they used Vista.
And how do you think the 'security experts' think of Microsoft after they had the guy fired for opposing Microsofts view a year or two ago? It's all marketing, just like most public statements from and about Microsoft. IMO.
LoB
from the article and tagline of this thread:
9 750 ) in its smartphones, it catapulted Linux to became the #2 mobile phone OS, behind Symbian. All the other smartphone manufacturers in the Linux camp built the numbers up even further.
"Symbian remains by far the top mobile device OS, according to Canalys, with a 67 percent share, well ahead of second-place Windows Mobile, with 15 percent of the market."
Why the switch from comparing smartphone OS's to the state of "mobile devices"?
There is enough in the article to make it look like valid research but this is a blatant flaw IMO. Most of the article is about smartphones except where it goes and switches to comparing marketshare of mobile devices. We all know that in the mobile device market, Microsoft has recorded about $10 billion in losses to 'win' that market. It is very interesting that it is used in this article to provide a 'low blow' to the prospects of Motorola and others in the smartphone market using Linux...
From what I had heard/read( http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS8804000399.html ), when DoCoMo, in 2004, started using Linux( http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=1
So, seeing that Linux is actually the #2 smartphone OS instead of Microsoft Windows, the article should have read more like it was a foregone conclusion that Motorola's use of Linux was going to be a win for Motorola and its shareholders.
It's amazing how one little bit of misleading information can change a story if not tarnish the perception one walks away with. But this is a CLASSIC ZiffDavis trick, one prefected in the OS/2 vs Windows war of the early 1990's. Notice how the last sections/paragraph(s) of the story end in such a way to put doubt in all that was laid out for you in the beginning of the story? This is CLASSIC ZiffDavis, or should I say classic Microsoft marketing.
LoB
how about using CF and a CF->IDE adapter for desktops and hang the adapter off the IDE bus. CF based PCcard adapters in laptops maybe? You can do this today and IIRC, CF cards have builtin wear leveling. move your /boot onto this for quicker boots and/or put your swap here and have quicker restores from hibernates.
LoB
I tell you, Bill is "retiring" from Microsoft but not from growing them larger. While is wife is off saving the worlds children, Bill will be brainwashing them with Windows and other Microsoft Software crack.
There was that deal with AMD the brought about that little anti-Linux box( forget the name ).
But then, then there was Flexgo ( http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/flexgo/default.mspx ) at WinHec and THAT should have been obvious to the press what was going on there.
He may not call it One Windows Laptop Per Child, it might not be called One Flexgo Per Child either but rest assured, Bill Gates is NOT RETIRING. Windows is being threatend by Linux and OSS and there's not way he or Balmer will rest until their job is done and there nothing but Windows. IMO.
LoB
I think you have it correct. Microsoft is losing customers when those customers THINK they need GNU/Linux under any or all of AMP( of LAMP ) so they're installing LAMP. The kicker is that after finding how reliable, secure, and inexpensive LAMP is, they realize they have a very cheap platform to 'try' other things on... "Hey Bob, grab that old Exchange server from storage and see what you can do with this Scalix thing I just read about". And Windows withers in the wings.
LoB
well, when I heard from a consultant that he knows of a few businesses who are using wiki's for software configuration management, I knew that the Windows software development market was still pretty screwed up. When I asked why they wouldn't use CVS or Subversion at the very least, he said that they are using a wiki because that is what they know....
So don't be surprised to find many a Windows shop using wiki's just for uploading MS-DOC files or other silly things.
LoB
Who the fuck said Bush killed off the hybrids? Gawd it's like talking with an 10 year old.
How many of those hybrids were American made? And let me see, the one American made hybrid on the market is an SUV and even its hybrid system is licensed from Toyota.
End of this waste of my time.
LoB
same here but without facts, those theories are/were just that, theories. I did not just pretend they were all wrong, just theories without enough proof that they were valid. You probably don't believe Microsoft prevents OEMs from shipping Linux based product too. Consiracy theory is what I hear over and over. It's bull and I've heard product managers from companies like HP saying what really happens.
So, things changed for me in the 2000/2001 period when I started looking at converting a car to an EV but instead purchased a hybrid( Prius ). I researched the heck out of that before purchasing. Then I saw George Bush take office and within 6 months he terminated the US Federally supported Hybrid Program and created a hydrogen fuelcell program. After researching this and seeing how far out it really it looked like a ploy to keep hybrids out of Americans hands. Remember how he mocked Gore on Hybrids? I do. Anyways, he then started feeding tax money to the auto industry to tote his hydrogen line, it was pretty obvious that something was going on. And it had nothing to do with capitalism. I also heard how the early hybrids had D-cell batteries due to patent restrictions but the US Toyota Prius model didn't. Then the Toyota/Panasonic lawsuit and eventually word that future Prius's would still have prismatic NiMH battery packs due to some 'settlement' in the lawsuit. I tried to do some investigations into the patent and found Ovonics, GM, and the oil industry involved... Still a conspiracy theory?
Sorry but there are just too many facts pointing to the oil industry, US gov( under Bush ), and auto industry wanting to keep their gravy train running as long as they can and at any costs. It's not unlike how Microsoft will lose over $8 billion over 10 years on their embedded Windows( WinCE ) just to keep companies like Palm from growing up to threaten their cash cow, Windows. They are doing the same with their Xbox because they don't want the PlayStation to become the media center for the home. It threatens Windows. And Bush helped Microsoft out there also by having his AG force another handslapping settlement.
Regardless, calling everything a conspiracy theory because you don't agree with it is just cheap. And I'm getting sick of hearing this from the ignorant. I got the same shit from neophites in the 90's when Microsoft was buying off the press and competition protecting their monopoly. They did it to OS/2, they did it to JAVA, they did it to Netscape, and they are doing it to Linux.
But if you've had your head in the sand for 40+ years and still don't know how any of this works, sounds like holding up the "conspiracy theory" sign is just a 'spinal cord' reaction. And there ain't no learn'n gunna happen here.
LoB
Sounds like the same response one would get if they brought up the old WMDs in Iraq issues. What I've found is that those who just pull out the "conspiracy theory" card tend to live their lives on more faith than fact.
Got something other than your 'belief' that there's nothing to this?
LoB
Interesting but Tenergy and Supreme just don't sound like brand names I'd bet my EV business on. Then again, all this could mean is that one or two Chinese companies are still making unlicensed NiMH batteries but are not selling enough to make it worth Cabasys to send lawyers after them. Yet.
I think that the results Cabasys has had on what the biggest battery makers is more telling of what's going on here than one example of a guy named Adam Duskes selling batteries from Canada. Good try though.
LoB
It's a dream that's been pursued for years by governments, energy companies and automakers so far without success: Mass-producing affordable electric-powered cars that spew nothing from their tailpipes. So Jada Toys decided to start small. Really small....yada yada yada....
L XKGY5&P=7
n try&authorid=51&blogid=104
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=
The article quoted:
"Public awareness and education are the first steps toward commercialization," said Horizon founder Taras Wankewycz, 32. "We want to make sure this technology gets adapted globally."
what bull. This is just a ploy to delay the use of existing, disruptive, technologies while the oil industry cranks out as much profits as it can.
Go see "Who Killed the Electric Car" and read this on how the oil industry won't let battery makers build NiMH batteries large enough for EVs:
http://www.evworld.com/blogs/index.cfm?page=bloge
LoB
I guess next the auto industry is going to start advertising that these prove that fuelcell vehicles are going to be here real soon now.
:-/
I find it funny that the press will 'bang' on the Tesla for costing 80,000 but they'll show those $1,000,000 hydrogen fuelcell vehicles without mentioning the cost.
I guess it's all in days work of keeping the public naive.
LoB
they don't have to be, they are designed to protect the Windows monopoly. And in that case, they HAVE been successful. Where's Palm? Palm is a good example here since it too was just a small company in a small segment with a small device. Palm and their handhelds were branching out and there is no way that something other than a Windows product could do this without endangering the Windows 'economy'.
Look at Apples recent numbers. Sales of Macs are up too and alot of that has to do with the acceptance of the iPod the Apple brand. Not to mention how well they work together. This is a threat to the Windows monopoly and must be stopped. Who cares if they'll lose a few billion dollars, they are protecting a productline which brings in 10's of billions in profit every quarter.
When Palm had 80% marketshare, did Micrsoft come out with Access for Palm? No, they came out with Access for Windows CE. Speaking of Windows CE, that product has lost Microsoft almost $10 billion already and has had only one profitable quarter. Again, the idea is to keep any possible competition to Windows from growing up.
So this supposed copycat "iPod killer" is nothing more than the typical attempt by Microsoft to protect Windows profits. Nothing new and nothing more. IMO.
LoB
1995 all over again? Maybe they'll get some ZiffDavis authors to write about how Apple is dead now that MS-zune is coming out. It worked once before... well, it almost worked but it did knock Apple out of the game for about 6-8 years.
And remember, Balmer told investors that they're taking another couple of billion out of the Windows profit machine to spend on other segments. They could start giving these things away with boxes of Vista or in cereal boxes saying to Fed Regulators that they're expecting profits from online purchases...
These guys have all kinds of anti-competitive tricks up their sleeves.
LoB
Sorry for the 2nd post but I found this blog and it pretty much explains ALOT:
n try&authorid=51&blogid=104
http://www.evworld.com/blogs/index.cfm?page=bloge
Cobasys forced Toyota/Panasonic(T/P) into a restrictive license after T/P chemically
'fixed' the Cobasys NiMH design and the courts/arbitrator didn't see this new
design as being different from Cobasys's patented NiMH design. The resulting license
restricts T/P from making any NiMH batteries worth using in either PHEV or BEV vehicles.
IMO, it's protectionism and market manipulation at the expense of profits but for the
goal of attempted control of EV markets worldwide.
Let's see if the Japanese pull the Li-ion 'rabbit' out of their hat and on the way
out the door with PHEVs, give Cobasys the one finger salute.
LoB
Well, I'd read about this years ago and originally, it was the oil industry owned the patent on NiMH after purchase from Ovonics. Then, recently( "Who Killed the Electric Car" ) stated that General Motors purchased a 51% stake in Ovonics and therefore their NiMH patent after which Texico purchased GMs stake in Ovonics. Now what you pointed out shows that Ovonics created a subsidiary called Cobasys but I do not see where they have a 50/50 owership in the patent.
t m
What I did find was another reference to the court case Toyota and Panasonic got into with regards to putting prismatic NiMH cells in the Toyota Hybrids. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0308-09.h
I had read that Toyota/Panasonic 'won' this case because their original license for the NiMH said that they ahd to use only consumer sized( D-cell ) batteries when the NiMH tech is used in vehicles predominantly powered by electric power. The story goes they showed the Toyota Hybrid System(THS) is only 49% electric powered and 51% Internal Combustion Engine(ICE) powered.
WTF was Texico doing going after Panasonic for making prismatic cells? Why were they restricting the size of the cells when used in electric vehicles? And if they were so bent on making money off this tech they they should not have made everything look like they were trying to hinder its use and the original owner of the EV1 and majority patent holder( GM ) shouldn't be looking like an enemy to fuel efficiency. Heck, the same week that Toyota had the US press in Japan watching Prius's come of the same assembly line as the Camry and 3 other models, GM made a press release saying hybrid technology is bad for the US because it distracts us from the future which is hydrogen fuelcells.
So, if it quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, looks like a duck. It's a freak'n duck. IMO.
LoB
it does seem like more and more school systems are going to Apple again.
LoB
It is doubtful that a clearance would be limited to just one program so maybe Bush/Cheney are protecting prying eyes from 'seeing' what else is going on. And even if there is a one-to-one clearance system enacted, it would be likely that all the other 'things' going on behind the scenes of the US Laws are tied together via a few or the one "decider".
LoB
Unfortunately the oil industry owns the patent on NiMH and has already attempted to shut down Toyotas use of the battery tech. Lucky for Toyota that the Prius currently is 49% electric and 51% ICE powered. This is because the license for NiMH only allows upto "D"-cell sized batteries when used in vehicles predominantly powered by electric power.
So, if you want to make an electric vehicle with NiMH batteries, you're going to lose alot of space between all those D-cell batteries you'll need. IMO.
LoB
You are correct, OEMs could do this but they won't because Microsoft will threaten to 're-evaluate' their licensing contracts, etc if they do install Linux VMs. I just heard from a former HP manager that he's seen 2 Linux projects terminated because of how they would have financially effected other Microsoft Windows based productlines. And this happened after 2000 and Microsoft had already been found guilty of using its monopoly in operating systems to limit competition.
It could happen outside of the large OEMs though since they're not getting much, if any, break from Microsoft Windows licensing.
LoB