it is probably price. Intel is building Atoms on 45nm processes right along with their top of the line desktop and server CPUs instead of how they used to do it. So, they are using expensive wafer space for very low cost products and they have to do this to be a player in this segment. they probably charge more than 2x the cost of a single core Atom for the dual-core Atom so like the old Celeron BP6 days, you can sometimes get a huge bang for less bucks depending on how you mix the tech.
there has been much work on battery technology in the last decade and even some companies blocking some of that tech from getting used in EVs, but progress is happening. Jumping to a 500 mile range is a huge leap and will likely require a break-through design to achieve it. What comes to mind is that in the EV market, there is really only one breakthrough required to make the EV a game changer. Under the guidance of the GW Bush in 2001 and for the following eight years, they were pushing hydrogen with the fervor of Charlie Brown pushing the Great Pumpkin. Unfortunately, they hydrogen gimmick required at least three breakthrough technologies to be viable as a system for consumer based vehicles.
If only we had the same kind of vicious backing of this one attempt to improve batteries as we had when the Oil Administration was pushing hydrogen. Even if it isn't successful, we'd probable end up with a more educated public instead of a public still thinking "The Great Pumpkin" was going to rise. I still hear people talk about hydrogen fuelcell based cars as if it's just around the corner.
well said and I'd spend a mod point if it meant it'd count, as in something like: ( Score:5, Insightful:25 ). It's just screwy that not only can a Judge vacate a jury verdict in these kinds of cases but they can also release convicted criminals as in when some evidence comes forward which they think was relevant. No retrial required.
So I wonder why the bank didn't try to get wiped, every server and router the email traveled though. I know, the answer is because they are morons or else they would have have allowed any confidential information sent via email unless it was encrypted.
no, the question is why is ANY confidential information being sent via email because email is not a secure transfer medium. Everything in email is in the open unless there is an encryption mechanism used and we know that was not the case here. These idiots were sending confidential data via email and that is a total dumb-ass move.
They got a judge to harm an innocent bystander and the bank pays no penalty for sending confidential info in the clear. WTF? I have had my tax preparing firm repeatedly try to email me my tax data even after I told them repeatedly that email is not a secure way to send anything with confidential information.
I sure hope this bank gets slapped with a class action or something for being so stupid for what they did with the data and another law suit for how they tried to clean it up.
I'm pretty sure they've already financed the Tesla Roadster since it's in production now and IIRC, that loan was to get an EV sedan out and under $50,000. From what I can tell from the/. posting, this looks like a whine more than anything else. I mean really, an investor had a tax shelter corporation? oooooowwwww
FYI, Microsoft uses NV to save it hundreds of millions in taxes by saying they product the products there when all they do is burn the CDs there.
Probably some Right Wing cry baby or the oil industry behind the article so read it with a grain of salt.
so are you saying that they will start working for the schools to help support Windows on the children's devices? Or are you trying to show that some people know how to keep their Windows based computers running?
I know alot of people in this country who know how to fix windows and keep it running for a few years. But, I know more who don't and have to rely on someone else to help them. I've also seen many of them pay out about $250 each time to have Windows "fixed", others have just purchased new computer when theirs "got slow". A couple of times I was told that they were told their hard drive was bad and in atleast one of those cases, I verified this wasn't the case beforehand but the husband wanted to trust his "computer expert" instead of me. I told him he just needed to reinstall Windows.
The point is, on an embedded learning device like the OLPC was/is trying to be, getting a general purpose user interface, like Windows, out of the way is far better and using a more robust OS like Linux under it make far more sense and cents.
because the idea for the OLPC software was to have the "desktop" get out of the way ASAP and let the application/Activity software be the learning tool. They built it so that instead of a file manager an a dozen ways of finding or saving files they built a queue called a Journal. It's designed as a learning tool not to learn the OS but to learn what the Activities are designed to teach. This also goes along way toward simplifying much of the software too.
When you throw Windows on there you've got a half dozen ways just top find a file to open it and the same goes for ways to create and figure out where to save the files to. And on top of that you've got all the other software Microsoft thinks they should have on there which has nothing to do with learning how to learn. Touch any of those things when you're not supposed to and you've got a kid crying because his/her computer doesn't work the way he/she was shown it was supposed to work.
Back to the OLPC method and you'll also have kids becoming skilled at the simple get-out-of-the-way "desktop" as they've spent 3 or so years using it and the few who take to software development have a good chance of learning how to tweak and fix stuff. Simple things but it's all there for them and it's kept to a very task specific/oriented design.
FYI, Microsoft fears that any kind of success with a computer slightly resembling a regular computer is a threat to Windows and a threat to lose people to being locked into only knowing Windows. After all, when you saw Microsoft's example of XP on the OLPC, they NEVER showed any of the open source OLPC SUGAR Activities or any of the eToys. It was all about getting kids to learn the Windows desktop and all the junk which goes with that even when we are talking about children. Primary grade level school children. They would probably end up spending their entire first year with the device just learning MS Explorer, My Computer, My Documents, 'File-Save', 'Save-As' and all the "Do you really want to do XXXXX?" dialog boxes.
proprietary software on such a learning tool keeps it a mystery and probably will keep them afraid to do even simple things for fear of it locking up or breaking and requiring someone else to reinstall the software. Then, it's poof, magically fixed by a reinstallation and the feeling that you shouldn't do whatever you did to "cause this" again.
come on now, "the world's first four-screen laptop", really? Those 3 little touchscreens are so small, I had to look at the pictures a 2nd time to see where the screens were because I was looking at the one large one we think about when we talk about a laptop screen. So then my old Thinkpad was a dual screen because there was a tiny LCD above the keyboard?
is there really a consumer level need for a dual screen tablet? On top of that, if you look at the costs of netbooks, the screen and touchscreen are a huge expense when you look at netbooks in the sub $300 range. I really think what we have here is Microsoft marketing attempting to pump up their falling brand name by making a device they can show "pushing" windows from one screen to the next screen. In the real world, it's just not going to cut it except for those Microsoft lemmings who buy everything with Microsofts name on it. You know, you people with the Zune.
And FYI, Microsoft is doing a lot of marketing to get the netbook segment pushed into the low-end laptop segment and that includes setting hardware limits on what is considered an MS Windows capable netbook and what pricing they'll give for Windows 7. Those low end, low power devices are a threat to Microsoft because Windows still does not scale down below the low-end laptop segment very well at all and they don't want to be in the sub $300 pricing segment or want it around.
Also, it was mentioned that the fear of Microsoft by OEM vendors and manufacturers is leading them to leave Linux off the desktop and laptops and go for the devices sector. So unless Asus shows some balls and starts shipping netbooks and more with Linux preloaded, it's still a case of the MS MiB coming in and threatening, coercing, and/or paying vendors to not work with that "L" word.
Asus has already been visited by the MS MiB and from a quick search, I really didn't see Garmin putting up the "L" word. But, I would be willing to bet that they have already been visited by the MS MiB regarding their use of that "L"-word software.
Not sure if you caught it but a few months ago, the head of one of the worlds largest manufacturing association said that his members fear Microsoft when asked about their work with Linux. MS MiB's at work.
the problem here is that Microsoft's best customers, those clueless fools who fall for these malvertisements are the same people who will get sick of paying over $200 a shot to have someone fix their computer and after 2 or 3 times will jump ship to the Mac. I've already seen this so I can see why this has Microsoft concerned.
These computer illiterates are the same people who just keeping using what is preloaded and what's on retail store shelves because they are already afraid of the computer and their only comfort is that they know what a few icons look like on Windows so they don't want to look at anything else. But when their computers keep falling to pieces and they keep hearing more and more about Apple and even hear things about this stuff called Linux, they find that cutting their losses and getting a Mac isn't so scary because they already have an iPod and others around them might have a Mac too. Linux might be around them but it's more likely buried so they don't know it or the geeks running it are not hanging out or talking about it to these neophytes.
I also wonder if the problem doesn't have something to do with selling advertising on BING and Microsoft's inability to figure out a way to block the bad stuff. Microsoft wants to use multimedia based ads while Google sticks to the simple text base ads which are tough to use to scare people with.
whatever happens it doesn't really bother me since those getting suckered into getting their systems whacked need an education one way or another so I could care less if Microsoft succeeds at this. Just as long as bandwidth stays high enough to still get stuff done.
but how will random people with the same appreciation for jump suits find you at a hotel? It'll only work if the hotel looks like a big box on wheels. It's a lifestyle baby, nobody said it was done because it was easy.;-)
RV'ing is when you put on a one-piece jump suit, throw all your stuff in a big box on wheels and drive up any hill you can find at the slowest speed possible and still be considered moving. If you see a place where you can park your big box, you pull over and most likely others, also wearing one-piece jump suits, will pull over too. You all make drinks and talk about each others big box, your next big box, and the box that got away.
in the Windows world, you'll hear that the processor runs on Windows all over the place. They've been trained that Windows is the end all, be all, and center of the universe so the concept of "it runs on Windows" is their world. Talk about a CPU and _it_ runs on Windows is the norm. They really don't know how to think about it without Windows at the center or in a hierarchy of the hardware->OS->applications. They can't imagine a world without Windows. Combine that with software people and marketing people with no clue of hardware and you get "processor X doesn't run on Windows"
wasn't there recently a story saying how Windows Mobile was pretty much dead at v6.5 and that Windows 7 was to be its replacement in 2 years? I saw this once and only once and was surprised to even see it because it does not sound like something Microsoft would want out there yet. Two years is a long time and pre-announcing the end of Windows Mobile would cause many OEMs to look for something else right away. Maybe this is why we're hearing that HTC is moving Android up the stack and Windows Mobile is getting pushed aside for newer models?
And don't forget that the ARM guy said they had people working at Microsoft. I would have a hard time believing it had to do with WinCE. So it appears they do not have anything other than WinCE on ARM in anyway ready for general consumption, if you consider WinCE ready. Microsoft is 100% reactionary in their tactics and rely 100% on FUD and PR tactics in the initial attack on a segment they are entering. From what I heard, Windows 7 still has a larger footprint than Windows XP but still much smaller of a footprint than Vista. Because it is still larger than WinXP, you have to wonder how they'll compete with Linux which is already smaller than WinXP and far far more capable than WinCE. But two years is a very long time.
After reading how Gates and Ballmer will not let their children or spouses use Apple iPhones or iPods and that latest bit about a Microsoft employee taking Ballmers picture with an iPhone at an MS group hug...well you just have to know where the first few thousands in sales will come from now don't you. They probably have an old-Zune recycling/crushing machine so people who actually want a Zune can't get a low cost used one. That is how they work right? he he
Slashdot Mirror
it is probably price. Intel is building Atoms on 45nm processes right along with their top of the line desktop and server CPUs instead of how they used to do it. So, they are using expensive wafer space for very low cost products and they have to do this to be a player in this segment. they probably charge more than 2x the cost of a single core Atom for the dual-core Atom so like the old Celeron BP6 days, you can sometimes get a huge bang for less bucks depending on how you mix the tech.
LoB
there has been much work on battery technology in the last decade and even some companies blocking some of that tech from getting used in EVs, but progress is happening. Jumping to a 500 mile range is a huge leap and will likely require a break-through design to achieve it. What comes to mind is that in the EV market, there is really only one breakthrough required to make the EV a game changer. Under the guidance of the GW Bush in 2001 and for the following eight years, they were pushing hydrogen with the fervor of Charlie Brown pushing the Great Pumpkin. Unfortunately, they hydrogen gimmick required at least three breakthrough technologies to be viable as a system for consumer based vehicles.
If only we had the same kind of vicious backing of this one attempt to improve batteries as we had when the Oil Administration was pushing hydrogen. Even if it isn't successful, we'd probable end up with a more educated public instead of a public still thinking "The Great Pumpkin" was going to rise. I still hear people talk about hydrogen fuelcell based cars as if it's just around the corner.
LoB
well said and I'd spend a mod point if it meant it'd count, as in something like: ( Score:5, Insightful:25 ).
It's just screwy that not only can a Judge vacate a jury verdict in these kinds of cases but they can also release convicted criminals as in when some evidence comes forward which they think was relevant. No retrial required.
LoB
So I wonder why the bank didn't try to get wiped, every server and router the email traveled though. I know, the answer is because they are morons or else they would have have allowed any confidential information sent via email unless it was encrypted.
LoB
no, the question is why is ANY confidential information being sent via email because email is not a secure transfer medium. Everything in email is in the open unless there is an encryption mechanism used and we know that was not the case here. These idiots were sending confidential data via email and that is a total dumb-ass move.
They got a judge to harm an innocent bystander and the bank pays no penalty for sending confidential info in the clear. WTF? I have had my tax preparing firm repeatedly try to email me my tax data even after I told them repeatedly that email is not a secure way to send anything with confidential information.
I sure hope this bank gets slapped with a class action or something for being so stupid for what they did with the data and another law suit for how they tried to clean it up.
LoB
I'm pretty sure they've already financed the Tesla Roadster since it's in production now and IIRC, that loan was to get an EV sedan out and under $50,000. From what I can tell from the /. posting, this looks like a whine more than anything else. I mean really, an investor had a tax shelter corporation? oooooowwwww
FYI, Microsoft uses NV to save it hundreds of millions in taxes by saying they product the products there when all they do is burn the CDs there.
Probably some Right Wing cry baby or the oil industry behind the article so read it with a grain of salt.
LoB
so are you saying that they will start working for the schools to help support Windows on the children's devices? Or are you trying to show that some people know how to keep their Windows based computers running?
I know alot of people in this country who know how to fix windows and keep it running for a few years. But, I know more who don't and have to rely on someone else to help them. I've also seen many of them pay out about $250 each time to have Windows "fixed", others have just purchased new computer when theirs "got slow". A couple of times I was told that they were told their hard drive was bad and in atleast one of those cases, I verified this wasn't the case beforehand but the husband wanted to trust his "computer expert" instead of me. I told him he just needed to reinstall Windows.
The point is, on an embedded learning device like the OLPC was/is trying to be, getting a general purpose user interface, like Windows, out of the way is far better and using a more robust OS like Linux under it make far more sense and cents.
LoB
because the idea for the OLPC software was to have the "desktop" get out of the way ASAP and let the application/Activity software be the learning tool. They built it so that instead of a file manager an a dozen ways of finding or saving files they built a queue called a Journal. It's designed as a learning tool not to learn the OS but to learn what the Activities are designed to teach. This also goes along way toward simplifying much of the software too.
When you throw Windows on there you've got a half dozen ways just top find a file to open it and the same goes for ways to create and figure out where to save the files to. And on top of that you've got all the other software Microsoft thinks they should have on there which has nothing to do with learning how to learn. Touch any of those things when you're not supposed to and you've got a kid crying because his/her computer doesn't work the way he/she was shown it was supposed to work.
Back to the OLPC method and you'll also have kids becoming skilled at the simple get-out-of-the-way "desktop" as they've spent 3 or so years using it and the few who take to software development have a good chance of learning how to tweak and fix stuff. Simple things but it's all there for them and it's kept to a very task specific/oriented design.
FYI, Microsoft fears that any kind of success with a computer slightly resembling a regular computer is a threat to Windows and a threat to lose people to being locked into only knowing Windows. After all, when you saw Microsoft's example of XP on the OLPC, they NEVER showed any of the open source OLPC SUGAR Activities or any of the eToys. It was all about getting kids to learn the Windows desktop and all the junk which goes with that even when we are talking about children. Primary grade level school children. They would probably end up spending their entire first year with the device just learning MS Explorer, My Computer, My Documents, 'File-Save', 'Save-As' and all the "Do you really want to do XXXXX?" dialog boxes.
LoB
proprietary software on such a learning tool keeps it a mystery and probably will keep them afraid to do even simple things for fear of it locking up or breaking and requiring someone else to reinstall the software. Then, it's poof, magically fixed by a reinstallation and the feeling that you shouldn't do whatever you did to "cause this" again.
LoB
thinking of a big one of these:
http://www.amazing1.com/Graphics/T4181.gif
LoB
definitely and it surprises me they're willing to go down that path.
LoB
come on now, "the world's first four-screen laptop", really? Those 3 little touchscreens are so small, I had to look at the pictures a 2nd time to see where the screens were because I was looking at the one large one we think about when we talk about a laptop screen. So then my old Thinkpad was a dual screen because there was a tiny LCD above the keyboard?
LoB
so that's why the prices jumped and the hardware jumped when they started loading Microsoft Windows XP on them. I had no idea.
LoB
but you would not want the battery needed to power it and the GPU needed to drive it.
LoB
is there really a consumer level need for a dual screen tablet? On top of that, if you look at the costs of netbooks, the screen and touchscreen are a huge expense when you look at netbooks in the sub $300 range. I really think what we have here is Microsoft marketing attempting to pump up their falling brand name by making a device they can show "pushing" windows from one screen to the next screen. In the real world, it's just not going to cut it except for those Microsoft lemmings who buy everything with Microsofts name on it. You know, you people with the Zune.
And FYI, Microsoft is doing a lot of marketing to get the netbook segment pushed into the low-end laptop segment and that includes setting hardware limits on what is considered an MS Windows capable netbook and what pricing they'll give for Windows 7. Those low end, low power devices are a threat to Microsoft because Windows still does not scale down below the low-end laptop segment very well at all and they don't want to be in the sub $300 pricing segment or want it around.
At Microsoft, smoke and mirrors is job #1.
LoB
where was this "finger" when Microsoft forced their CEO to apologizes for showing Linux on an ARM based ASUS device at Computex this year?
http://blogs.computerworld.com/microsoft_strikes_back_at_linux_netbook_push
Also, it was mentioned that the fear of Microsoft by OEM vendors and manufacturers is leading them to leave Linux off the desktop and laptops and go for the devices sector. So unless Asus shows some balls and starts shipping netbooks and more with Linux preloaded, it's still a case of the MS MiB coming in and threatening, coercing, and/or paying vendors to not work with that "L" word.
LoB
I still do not know where you are going with this Garmin thread regarding getting visited by the MS MiB people or the customers?
It's great that Garmin is standing up to MS at this time and hope they can continue to do so for a very long time.
LoB
Asus has already been visited by the MS MiB and from a quick search, I really didn't see Garmin putting up the "L" word. But, I would be willing to bet that they have already been visited by the MS MiB regarding their use of that "L"-word software.
Not sure if you caught it but a few months ago, the head of one of the worlds largest manufacturing association said that his members fear Microsoft when asked about their work with Linux. MS MiB's at work.
LoB
do it and you get visited by the MS MiB and so do your customers.
LoB
the problem here is that Microsoft's best customers, those clueless fools who fall for these malvertisements are the same people who will get sick of paying over $200 a shot to have someone fix their computer and after 2 or 3 times will jump ship to the Mac. I've already seen this so I can see why this has Microsoft concerned.
These computer illiterates are the same people who just keeping using what is preloaded and what's on retail store shelves because they are already afraid of the computer and their only comfort is that they know what a few icons look like on Windows so they don't want to look at anything else. But when their computers keep falling to pieces and they keep hearing more and more about Apple and even hear things about this stuff called Linux, they find that cutting their losses and getting a Mac isn't so scary because they already have an iPod and others around them might have a Mac too. Linux might be around them but it's more likely buried so they don't know it or the geeks running it are not hanging out or talking about it to these neophytes.
I also wonder if the problem doesn't have something to do with selling advertising on BING and Microsoft's inability to figure out a way to block the bad stuff. Microsoft wants to use multimedia based ads while Google sticks to the simple text base ads which are tough to use to scare people with.
whatever happens it doesn't really bother me since those getting suckered into getting their systems whacked need an education one way or another so I could care less if Microsoft succeeds at this. Just as long as bandwidth stays high enough to still get stuff done.
LoB
but how will random people with the same appreciation for jump suits find you at a hotel? It'll only work if the hotel looks like a big box on wheels. It's a lifestyle baby, nobody said it was done because it was easy. ;-)
LoB
RV'ing is when you put on a one-piece jump suit, throw all your stuff in a big box on wheels and drive up any hill you can find at the slowest speed possible and still be considered moving. If you see a place where you can park your big box, you pull over and most likely others, also wearing one-piece jump suits, will pull over too. You all make drinks and talk about each others big box, your next big box, and the box that got away.
LoB
in the Windows world, you'll hear that the processor runs on Windows all over the place. They've been trained that Windows is the end all, be all, and center of the universe so the concept of "it runs on Windows" is their world. Talk about a CPU and _it_ runs on Windows is the norm. They really don't know how to think about it without Windows at the center or in a hierarchy of the hardware->OS->applications. They can't imagine a world without Windows. Combine that with software people and marketing people with no clue of hardware and you get "processor X doesn't run on Windows"
LoB
wasn't there recently a story saying how Windows Mobile was pretty much dead at v6.5 and that Windows 7 was to be its replacement in 2 years? I saw this once and only once and was surprised to even see it because it does not sound like something Microsoft would want out there yet. Two years is a long time and pre-announcing the end of Windows Mobile would cause many OEMs to look for something else right away. Maybe this is why we're hearing that HTC is moving Android up the stack and Windows Mobile is getting pushed aside for newer models?
And don't forget that the ARM guy said they had people working at Microsoft. I would have a hard time believing it had to do with WinCE. So it appears they do not have anything other than WinCE on ARM in anyway ready for general consumption, if you consider WinCE ready. Microsoft is 100% reactionary in their tactics and rely 100% on FUD and PR tactics in the initial attack on a segment they are entering. From what I heard, Windows 7 still has a larger footprint than Windows XP but still much smaller of a footprint than Vista. Because it is still larger than WinXP, you have to wonder how they'll compete with Linux which is already smaller than WinXP and far far more capable than WinCE. But two years is a very long time.
LoB
After reading how Gates and Ballmer will not let their children or spouses use Apple iPhones or iPods and that latest bit about a Microsoft employee taking Ballmers picture with an iPhone at an MS group hug...well you just have to know where the first few thousands in sales will come from now don't you. They probably have an old-Zune recycling/crushing machine so people who actually want a Zune can't get a low cost used one. That is how they work right? he he
LoB