In my experience CRT units get blurry, misconverge and/or just fail after a couple of years - this LCD monitor has held up far better than any of the CRT units I've owned in the past.
The whole point of the UMPC is that it's a real x86 PC that fits in your, admittedly rather large, pocket.
The Newton is a PDA. Can you run Photoshop on it? No. Watch video? Not really. Store all your pr0n^C^C holiday snaps? No. If you want to do any of those things (like I do) then the Newton scores -1, the UMPC is +5
At the moment they're good at different tasks. If you want a PDA, buy a PDA. If you're after a PC that fits on your pocket, buy a UMPC (or a Vaio UX, or OQO, or...)
I used my Vaio C1F for many years, I also used a variety of Psion/PocketPC/Palm devices. The C1F I upgraded and want a replacement for, the PDAs were gathering dust pretty much as soon as they arrived home - for me a simple pocket diary works better than a PDA, as it doesn't require batteries, doesn't erase all your data, is smaller, and way cheaper. At the end of the day though, everyone's different.
In the UK we call these systems ANPR (automatic number plate recognition), and here they're already deployed in large numbers by private companies and the government/police.
On my average commute to work (~10 miles suburban England) I pass through five fixed government ANPR catchplates (tinfoilhat theory: officially to monitor traffic flow rates, but reputedly linked back to our intelligence organisations), two Trafficmaster ANPR catchplates (a private traffic monitoring company) and a number of petrol/gas station systems too - for example the local Sainsbury's supermarket petrol/gas station has them installed by each pump, and you can actually see the plates as they get recognised by the system behind the counter - according to stickers plastered over the pumps they're apparently "automatically checked against a Police database as you drive up to the pump". The police may also be out and about with their portable ANPR setup which talks to the vehicle licensing and taxation systems.
Additionally ANPR is also used for camera based speed monitoring and automatic fine generation over a baseline using a system called SPECS
Incidentally, according to wikipedia every car trip in the UK is now recorded by an ANPR system.
Individually owned and run systems probably aren't much of a threat to civil liberties anyway, it's when that information is networked and shared that things start to get scary... It's too probably far late to worry about this here in the UK anyway:(
Simple solution - immediately before you upgrade a major component, run: sysprep -nosidgen
You have the choice of running with existing settings or running mini-setup if you're running XP SP2. The only thing I can't recall is what effect that'll have on activation...
Otherwise the only other thing you'll have problems with is changing the underlying HAL from ACPI to non-ACPI.
Would it be possible for ATI/AMD to produce GPUs for the latest CPU sockets (AM2/SoF)? That way you could just configure a system based on the performance you need - if you need more GPU power just load the sockets up with GPUs instead of CPUs. I know one company already makes AMD socket co-processors, any reason this couldn't be done with GPUs too?
Obviously you'll need somewhere to actually dump the video signal, but there's no reason that I can see for not providing a DVI socket on the mobo?
You'll also need some nice fast memory, but if you have a fair amount of on-die cache you could mitigate problems I suspect. HT would be better than PCIe/Crossfire/SLI from a bandwidth perspective wouldn't it?
From what I recall the NDA doesn't stop you from writing code in your spare time - so even if you've been assimilated by the Borg, you can still code and share useful utils in your spare time should you wish.
Anyway useful tools do escape Redmond from time to time, so hopefully the (Sys|Win)Internals stuff isn't going to disappear anytime soon. Heck it's even possible that they'll bundle it all with the next reskit release. *fingers crossed*
Your point about performance on multi-threaded vs single-threaded apps is well taken, and understood - however the original article was about replacing an existing dual-core x 2 system with something offering a similar number of cores, and commenting on the high cost of a Woodcrest solution to that design brief - I was just suggesting that there could be non-Intel options out there that might offer a better bang per buck ratio;)
Although the reviews of Core2 seem pretty compelling so far remember that AMD isn't out of the game just yet.
Their K8L looks interesting, and that's quad-core. According to TheInquirer benchmarks are starting to trickle out, so there must be a few engineering samples floating around - I'm guessing that means production might happen sooner than you'd think.
Of course Apple might introduce a loss-leader high-end box as a stop-gap, in low volumes;)
BPI contact details. If you feel strongly about this, how about writing to them to let them know? Try and keep it polite though, as I suspect that flames aren't likely to flow up the org-chart;)
Thanks:) As it happens I'm aware you can drive the T220/221 with one DVI channel - but then you can't actually use the full resolution of the panel. Since pretty much the only reason to buy it is the high resolution this would be... how shall I put it... marginally sub-optimal;)
As the a/c has mentioned, 1920x1200 out of a single DVI channel requires a reduced blanking interval. Should be OK since you're using an LCD which doesn't need the flyback time, but as I understand it, it's officially still out-of-spec. So, it's possible that it won't be supported by the graphics card and/or another display device - in other words, whilst you may be able to, you can't guarantee you will be able to get 1920x1200 out of a single channel, which was my (somewhat incautiously worded) original point. The DVI v1.0 specifies 5% blanking interval, so that's what's guaranteed to work, anything else, well YMMV...
With desktop panels the connection interface is the limiting factor. Single-link DVI is maxed out @ 1920x1080 (HD), and using analog connections to a digital display would be suboptimal. DVI dual-link reaches 2048×1536, but you're still well short of your 5500x3200 target.
If you want high-res, then there's the 22" IBM T220/221 which had a native resolution of 3840x2400. It used four DVI channels, but unfortunately the max refresh rate was still limited to only 48Hz...
Actually in many cases people do consent to these things, but without realising it - that "consent" is buried in the EULA of the apparently legitimate software they've just installed.
Also, as I understand it, porn sites are often good places to find malware. If you've clicked that you are over 18, you've basically given them your consent for adult content - so if there's malware there...
The fact that some of these companies are operating openly in countries like the US implies that they're not unduly concerned about any legal ramifications either.
I had another call from a user, apparently he tried turning on their computer this morning but all he could get was a "sad Mac". I asked the user what they'd last been doing, and as usual was told "nothing unusual" - that's always the give away;)
After booting from their System CD the problem became apparent: They had twenty-six folders, all with alphabetical names - "A", "B", "C" etc, and each of those folders contained the relevant files - in other words "S" contained "system enabler" etc.
I couldn't quite see how that had happened, so I asked him. The answer? Apparently it was "untidy" having all those files scattered across the disk - so he'd "tidied his computer", by manually moving everything into those folders alphabetically...
After re-installing his system software, and explaining that the computer needed those files in those places in order to find them, it all worked perfectly once more - what odds!
Customer rang in, complaining that her mouse pointer kept disappearing.
After discounting the usual problems, I was temporarily at a loss for what to try next... Until the customer said: "My arm hurts!" "Why?" I asked thinking perhaps it was because she was holding the telephone or something. Hah, I wish!
Turns out the reason her arm hurt was because she was holding the mouse against the screen of her Performa 5200. After I explained that you were supposed to put the mouse on the desk to use it both problems neatly resolved themselves - and all within the 9 minutes I was allocated;)
...that by 2012 Google won't be able to ship products on time.
Why? Well MS appears to have serious problems making things happen now, but it didn't used to. So, what's changed? Clearly not the recent defections - until very recently these folks were still at MS. I suspect that the people who actually made things happen left sometime around 2001/2002, and the folks that are leaving now might be the cause of the current problems at Redmond.
Actually failing WGA will still allow critical updates to be downloaded, according to this kb article at least:
"Note The Automatic Updates feature is not affected by the WGA validation check. Therefore, you can use the Automatic Updates feature to make sure that you receive critical Windows updates."
They also have some useful forum posts about how to resolve issues in their WGA activation forum
I can fully understand that you'd be annoyed though...
Does anyone else find it ironic that...
on
WinFS Gets the Axe
·
· Score: 1
Marketing slogan: Try our new perpendicular "Gary Glitter" drives from HGST - they're perfect for those moments when you just can't destroy your data fast enough.
Not that I'm bitter about those 60GXPs or anything;)
I think Google, and everyone else for that matter is missing a minor point - of course IE7 doesn't have much by way of drop down options - that's because it's still in beta.
I think you'd have every right to complain if it RTM'd with one search provider, but that's not the case, yet;)
Slashdot Mirror
Haven't tried them myself, so watch out for viruses etc, but here's a coral cached forum post @ doom9 linking mirrors etc: Download mirrors
As far as I can recall all Core2 CPUs are 64bit.
;)
The xnnnn E parts lack virtualization though, not to be confused with the Ennnn parts which are Allendale server chips with virtualization.
OK, I can see why people are confused now
In my experience CRT units get blurry, misconverge and/or just fail after a couple of years - this LCD monitor has held up far better than any of the CRT units I've owned in the past.
;)
Ahh the perils of the small sample size
Tech specs for MDGRAPE-3
The whole point of the UMPC is that it's a real x86 PC that fits in your, admittedly rather large, pocket.
The Newton is a PDA. Can you run Photoshop on it? No. Watch video? Not really. Store all your pr0n^C^C holiday snaps? No. If you want to do any of those things (like I do) then the Newton scores -1, the UMPC is +5
At the moment they're good at different tasks. If you want a PDA, buy a PDA. If you're after a PC that fits on your pocket, buy a UMPC (or a Vaio UX, or OQO, or...)
I used my Vaio C1F for many years, I also used a variety of Psion/PocketPC/Palm devices. The C1F I upgraded and want a replacement for, the PDAs were gathering dust pretty much as soon as they arrived home - for me a simple pocket diary works better than a PDA, as it doesn't require batteries, doesn't erase all your data, is smaller, and way cheaper. At the end of the day though, everyone's different.
In the UK we call these systems ANPR (automatic number plate recognition), and here they're already deployed in large numbers by private companies and the government/police.
:(
On my average commute to work (~10 miles suburban England) I pass through five fixed government ANPR catchplates (tinfoilhat theory: officially to monitor traffic flow rates, but reputedly linked back to our intelligence organisations), two Trafficmaster ANPR catchplates (a private traffic monitoring company) and a number of petrol/gas station systems too - for example the local Sainsbury's supermarket petrol/gas station has them installed by each pump, and you can actually see the plates as they get recognised by the system behind the counter - according to stickers plastered over the pumps they're apparently "automatically checked against a Police database as you drive up to the pump". The police may also be out and about with their portable ANPR setup which talks to the vehicle licensing and taxation systems.
Additionally ANPR is also used for camera based speed monitoring and automatic fine generation over a baseline using a system called SPECS
Incidentally, according to wikipedia every car trip in the UK is now recorded by an ANPR system.
Individually owned and run systems probably aren't much of a threat to civil liberties anyway, it's when that information is networked and shared that things start to get scary... It's too probably far late to worry about this here in the UK anyway
Simple solution - immediately before you upgrade a major component, run:
sysprep -nosidgen
You have the choice of running with existing settings or running mini-setup if you're running XP SP2. The only thing I can't recall is what effect that'll have on activation...
Otherwise the only other thing you'll have problems with is changing the underlying HAL from ACPI to non-ACPI.
See: MS sysprep kb article and more usefully Killian's sysprep guide
Would it be possible for ATI/AMD to produce GPUs for the latest CPU sockets (AM2/SoF)? That way you could just configure a system based on the performance you need - if you need more GPU power just load the sockets up with GPUs instead of CPUs. I know one company already makes AMD socket co-processors, any reason this couldn't be done with GPUs too?
Obviously you'll need somewhere to actually dump the video signal, but there's no reason that I can see for not providing a DVI socket on the mobo?
You'll also need some nice fast memory, but if you have a fair amount of on-die cache you could mitigate problems I suspect. HT would be better than PCIe/Crossfire/SLI from a bandwidth perspective wouldn't it?
From what I recall the NDA doesn't stop you from writing code in your spare time - so even if you've been assimilated by the Borg, you can still code and share useful utils in your spare time should you wish.
Anyway useful tools do escape Redmond from time to time, so hopefully the (Sys|Win)Internals stuff isn't going to disappear anytime soon. Heck it's even possible that they'll bundle it all with the next reskit release. *fingers crossed*
Your point about performance on multi-threaded vs single-threaded apps is well taken, and understood - however the original article was about replacing an existing dual-core x 2 system with something offering a similar number of cores, and commenting on the high cost of a Woodcrest solution to that design brief - I was just suggesting that there could be non-Intel options out there that might offer a better bang per buck ratio ;)
Although the reviews of Core2 seem pretty compelling so far remember that AMD isn't out of the game just yet.
;)
Their K8L looks interesting, and that's quad-core. According to TheInquirer benchmarks are starting to trickle out, so there must be a few engineering samples floating around - I'm guessing that means production might happen sooner than you'd think.
Of course Apple might introduce a loss-leader high-end box as a stop-gap, in low volumes
BPI contact details. If you feel strongly about this, how about writing to them to let them know? Try and keep it polite though, as I suspect that flames aren't likely to flow up the org-chart ;)
Thanks :) As it happens I'm aware you can drive the T220/221 with one DVI channel - but then you can't actually use the full resolution of the panel. Since pretty much the only reason to buy it is the high resolution this would be... how shall I put it... marginally sub-optimal ;)
As the a/c has mentioned, 1920x1200 out of a single DVI channel requires a reduced blanking interval. Should be OK since you're using an LCD which doesn't need the flyback time, but as I understand it, it's officially still out-of-spec. So, it's possible that it won't be supported by the graphics card and/or another display device - in other words, whilst you may be able to, you can't guarantee you will be able to get 1920x1200 out of a single channel, which was my (somewhat incautiously worded) original point. The DVI v1.0 specifies 5% blanking interval, so that's what's guaranteed to work, anything else, well YMMV...
With desktop panels the connection interface is the limiting factor. Single-link DVI is maxed out @ 1920x1080 (HD), and using analog connections to a digital display would be suboptimal. DVI dual-link reaches 2048×1536, but you're still well short of your 5500x3200 target.
If you want high-res, then there's the 22" IBM T220/221 which had a native resolution of 3840x2400. It used four DVI channels, but unfortunately the max refresh rate was still limited to only 48Hz...
...is anyone planning to create a trusted blacklist server and an extension for utilizing it in (say) Firefox?
Fully agree, and I didn't mean to imply otherwise.
At the end of the day, malware is malware, and I'd be more than happy to see all purveyors of it bankrupted and/or in jail.
I do think that ISPs should be doing more to prevent its spread though.
Actually in many cases people do consent to these things, but without realising it - that "consent" is buried in the EULA of the apparently legitimate software they've just installed.
Also, as I understand it, porn sites are often good places to find malware. If you've clicked that you are over 18, you've basically given them your consent for adult content - so if there's malware there...
The fact that some of these companies are operating openly in countries like the US implies that they're not unduly concerned about any legal ramifications either.
I had another call from a user, apparently he tried turning on their computer this morning but all he could get was a "sad Mac". I asked the user what they'd last been doing, and as usual was told "nothing unusual" - that's always the give away ;)
After booting from their System CD the problem became apparent: They had twenty-six folders, all with alphabetical names - "A", "B", "C" etc, and each of those folders contained the relevant files - in other words "S" contained "system enabler" etc.
I couldn't quite see how that had happened, so I asked him. The answer? Apparently it was "untidy" having all those files scattered across the disk - so he'd "tidied his computer", by manually moving everything into those folders alphabetically...
After re-installing his system software, and explaining that the computer needed those files in those places in order to find them, it all worked perfectly once more - what odds!
Customer rang in, complaining that her mouse pointer kept disappearing.
;)
After discounting the usual problems, I was temporarily at a loss for what to try next... Until the customer said: "My arm hurts!" "Why?" I asked thinking perhaps it was because she was holding the telephone or something. Hah, I wish!
Turns out the reason her arm hurt was because she was holding the mouse against the screen of her Performa 5200. After I explained that you were supposed to put the mouse on the desk to use it both problems neatly resolved themselves - and all within the 9 minutes I was allocated
...that by 2012 Google won't be able to ship products on time.
Why? Well MS appears to have serious problems making things happen now, but it didn't used to. So, what's changed? Clearly not the recent defections - until very recently these folks were still at MS. I suspect that the people who actually made things happen left sometime around 2001/2002, and the folks that are leaving now might be the cause of the current problems at Redmond.
According to the US Coast Guard NAVCEN site DGPS has:
"availability of 99.7% per month"
Now, assuming my math doesn't suck, that means that for 129 minutes a month it won't work... Those could be a very exciting few minutes!
Actually failing WGA will still allow critical updates to be downloaded, according to this kb article at least:
" Note The Automatic Updates feature is not affected by the WGA validation check. Therefore, you can use the Automatic Updates feature to make sure that you receive critical Windows updates."
They also have some useful forum posts about how to resolve issues in their WGA activation forum
I can fully understand that you'd be annoyed though...
...they've recycled an old Intel codename ;)
Anyone remember the old Pentium III?
Marketing slogan: Try our new perpendicular "Gary Glitter" drives from HGST - they're perfect for those moments when you just can't destroy your data fast enough.
;)
Not that I'm bitter about those 60GXPs or anything
I think Google, and everyone else for that matter is missing a minor point - of course IE7 doesn't have much by way of drop down options - that's because it's still in beta.
;)
I think you'd have every right to complain if it RTM'd with one search provider, but that's not the case, yet