I wish I had mod points to up your funny score... For years in the late 80's and early 90's, I was dumb enough to call Microsoft customer support on occasion. It was a 100% waste of time, a truly unbelievable record of failed customer support. Then I discovered that the Dell customer support guys knew practically everything about Windows and it's popular applications, and they'd answer just about any technical question you had. I suspect they did more Microsoft support than Dell hardware support. All that ended when Dell fired their US based support staff and off-shored support to India. Now days, I just run Ubuntu. If I need support, I just use Google. I'm sure Windows users are also quite helpful on the web, but I have to say I absolutely love the community support hovering around Ubuntu.
I suspect that Vista may be the result of Microsoft's aging. In the 90's, when the core of XP was built (NT back then - I was a big fan), Microsoft was growing at an insane pace. Much of the best talent (the kind Google gets now days) went to Microsoft. With that kind of success, XP was a natural result. With the web bust, and with the best talent often going elsewhere, and with Bill Gates effectively retired, Vista may be the natural result. I'm not sure I'd hold my breath waiting for Vista to become as good as XP.
It'll be interesting to see just what programming platform is supported. Google's Android supports a Java variant, but you can easily go under the hood and port native C applications. I'd give you 10-to-1 odds that Steve Jobs isn't going to let anyone have shell access, nor program at the same level his developers do. He'll give us some virtual machine crap that makes porting existing open-source apps impossible, and keeps you from doing anything cooler than writing games. No way he's giving us access to the phone databases, or iTunes databases. Frankly, I'm so tired of Steve's crap that I've abandoned Apple, and encourage others to abandon them as well.
I have no idea how you got modded off-topic... Anyway, my phone got borked on one of the prior updates. This Apple hostility towards simple 3rd party apps has me really steamed. I've joined the Android effort, and it may take a year or two, but no way is Apple going to have the better phone OS in 2010. Without the 3rd party apps, it's not even in the lead today. Morons...
Oh, well... hibernation's always been a problem for me. It worked for me under Feisty, but n card still causes problems, especially if you enable OpenGL. All Core Duos are native 64-bit machines, as are all recent AMD processors. I'd be very surprised if you have a 32-bit only processor.
I'll bet you've got an ATI video card, just like me. ATI's been a real problem for Linux... they still keep their damned hardware secret, and it's a PITA to write drivers for them. I'll also bet you tried to install Ubuntu Feisty. It was possible to install Feisty on a 9400 with an ATI card, but it took a hack during the install. Gusty Gibbon installed on my 9400 with an ATI card out-of-the-box. I would recommend that you try it again. Definitely go for the x64 version, IMO. Then, be sure to do 'sudo apt-get upgrade', since Gusty Gibbon is a bit unstable out-of-the-box. Also, check out Automatix after the install, and assuming you're like most/.-ers, you'll want to install some additional packages. Check out the Perfect Server page for some good advice on upgrades.
Dell laptops have been poor for Linux in the past, but not as bad as Compaq and HP. Dell's problem is the configurability, as you say. HP and Compaq had no excuse. However, I hear good things for Linux are in the works, especially now that Dell ships Ubuntu on some models. We hackers can whine all we want, but ATI loves to ignore us. Apparently Dell whined, and ATI is listening, though I have yet to see ATI lift one damned finger, other than to issue a press release. They claim they've seen the light. HP apparently took notice, as well, and may start testing their laptops for Linux compatibility.
I'm totally with you on the support. Dell blew it big-time earlier this decade by firing all their legendary support staff and moving support to India. My company no longer buys support contracts, and our sister company buys HPs instead, with support contracts. There's a fairly new "gold" support level which I hear is nice, but we bought it for a couple machines, and since there's been no hardware problems, we haven't had any need to call. Consensus seems to be to drop it. The problem for Dell is that they sell the machines, and don't bother to mention that a poor home user will be stuck in purgatory if there's any problem he can't handle. The Indian support team is literally less than worthless - they waste your time without providing any value. It's better not to have any support, do regular backups, and throw the machine in the trash the first time it has a problem of any kind.
That said, my current Dell Inspiron 9400 is the best laptop I've ever owned... it's Core Duo and 2 gig rock, and I have yet to have a single OS crash, but I run Linux. For the first time ever, I told management I'm happy with my current machine, and don't need a new one in 2008... maybe in 2009. At $1,250, I can't complain about the price. I think that's the real difference between Apple and Dell: Apple has real people involved with you and your purchase, and real people are expensive. Dell just makes great hardware at great prices.
I think the article is only arguing that the Dell hardware is nicer, not cheaper, nor a better overall computer. I can believe it. The iMacs look to me like they could use a face-lift soon. They seem a bit clunky for an Apple product. Dell simply has them beat on style. I think the brains at Apple have been off designing phones and iPods lately, not iMacs.
Well said. The February rumor probably got the article listed on/., but while the phone is far from vapor-ware, February is. The phone still needs a lot of work. On the positive side, we hackers are busy figuring out what to do with these phones before they're ever released. I want one bad.
I hear you. It's not the "new" American way, though. It's been that way since I entered the work force full time in '86. The problems at Circuit City are that stupid people got into positions of power (kinda like some governments close to home lately). This kind of thing is more common than bombs exploding in Baghdad. I'm surprised it made it onto the main Slashdot page.
Yes, coal is only popular close to where it's mined. It costs more to ship it than to mine it if you're not on the East Coast. California burns natural gas, which is eco-friendly, but not cheap (I personally think this is a good idea). There are two huge clouds of smog perpetually over two parts of the world. One is over China, the other is over the East Coast, because of all that damned coal we burn. Check out Global Dimming. The sad news is that when we finally give up coal (probably because we're feeling a bit warm), the Earth's temperature will rise sharply. "
Thanks for the web site. It computes the break-even point for installing solar panels at home, and plugging in $1/watt makes it all work out quite well. I'll have to keep track of this link. However, from what I read, coal is still cheaper to burn for power in utility plants. I read that it costs utilities between $0.01 and $0.02 per KWh to produce when burning coal, even when taking the cost of the plant into account.
This is a huge milestone. However, the summary gets a couple things wrong: First, $1/watt panels aren't "cheaper than coal". Large coal consumers buy 2,000 pounds of coal for $50. Burn that in a crappy Bush-endorsed power station, and utilities can print money at $0.07/KWh. That's why coal is the #1 enemy in the global warming battle - not oil. The $1/watt goal makes solar utility power feasible in areas that currently have excellent sunshine (say southern CA), and expensive fuel (say natural gas). It's a huge step, but not the last step.
The second error in the summary is the current price. The company claims they could sell $1/watt panels, but with 100% of their production for 2008 already purchased, what are the odds they're selling their stuff 4X below market value? Not a chance. The revolution's happening, but it will take a while.
Very insightful post. It's sad to see so many/.-ers posting from out-of-date ignorance, but hey, it's/., and they're allowed. This particular car sounds like a winner to me. I'd have signed up right now if I lived in CA. The hybrid electric plug-ins coming down the pipe will have it all, range, power, and cost effectiveness. I just hope my 300ZX holds out a couple more years so I can upgrade to a sporty hybrid-plug-in.
These batteries can also be used for plug-in hybrids. Because they can be recharged many times without degrading compared to normal Li-on batteries, the total cost of ownership for a battery that is good for only 20 miles should be lower than other batteries. A normal Li-on battery dies after 50-100K miles, and represents over half of the value of the car in most cases. These new batteries last the life of the car, and in smaller configurations could be quite affordable. It's a really big step in the right direction. With even a 20 mile range, these batteries could dramatically reduce our country's dependence on oil.
I've measured this over the years at various times. I just did it again on my Intel Core Duo laptop. Here's what I found for our product: With object reference size of 32-bits, running in 64-bit mode, memory usage was 1111.2 meg, and runtime was 2:22. With 64-bit pointers, it ran in 2:25, and 1873.2 meg. Compiled in 32-bit mode and 32-bit pointers, it ran in 2:25, and used 1111.2 meg.
So, at least for Core Duo for our product, 64-bit vs 32-bit has minimal impact on speed, and a huge impact on memory usage. Good to know... I'm surprised I didn't see more of a speed improvement with the memory-saving mode (32-bit object references), but it probably has to due with details of the cache design.
You make an excellent point. I'm a Gutsy user at the moment, and I also was expecting more. Feisty had set my expectations high. Two thoughts: First, Feisty was released in April '07. Even followed by Gutsy, that makes '07 a banner year for Linux, IMO. Second, '07 is the year of 64-bit pervasive computing. I personally hope to never purchase a 32-bit machine or OS again, and hope not to live to see the 64/128 transition. I think this transition is one reason for displeasure with the new OSes. Typical apps that use to run in 100 meg now take 150 or more, and run 10-20%slower, simply because they're 64-bit (except for mine). And talk about disappointment, I know tons of guys who were led to believe that 64-bit machines would be 2X faster. Twice the data width means twice the throughput, right? Sales guys basically suck. Even programming language designers have been caught with their pants down... mixing 64 and 32-bit pointers sucks or is impossible in all top-ten, and most make it impossible to represent 4 billion objects with 32-bit object handles, including C++, C#, the JVM (not Java), and D.
I heard a great story about why Microsoft is forcing all future OS versions to be 64-bit only. Apparently, only the 64-bit modes of Intel/AMD CPUs are capable of enforcing DRM effectively. HD-DVD content will only be released to 64-bit versions of Windows. You gotta love the future.
All of the leading candidates in the two major parties, have up to now, supported increased executive power, supported spending huge amounts of money on the war, supported increased surveillance of domestic citizens, etc.
I recommend that you read "The Audacity of Hope". There are a few good candidates.
And every time, American voters (the ones who bother to show up at the polls) vote overwhelmingly in favor of the status quo.
Arrrgh! You got me there. However, I do hereby declare that I "give a fuck". Many of us do, on both sides of the political spectrum.
Ha ha!! So, what has Bush Junior accomplished according to plan? His approval rating is so low that he has nothing left to lose, so I totally get the indifference, but again, what has gone according to plan? And... remember, your post was moderated "informative", so please... inform.
Ok... Bush != conservative. Frankly, calling Bush a conservative is an insult to conservatives I admire. I'm from a family of mostly Republicans. Lately, we're mostly Democrats, simply because of Bush Junior. Bush Senior is my favorite president during my lifetime. I've seen an interesting stratification... most conservatives I admire want someone other than Bush at this point. Some, however, are incapable of believing a Republican president could be in any way less than fantastic in every way. I call them "glass eaters". A "glass eater" is any Republican or Democrat who can't accept the possibility of a bad president from their party, someone who would rather eat glass than admit the truth.
Sorry about this post, but I just love the freedom to post my email: bill@billrocks.org. That feels really good. Unfortunately, it requires truly draconian measures - challenge/response filter for Evolution. Spam pretty much never gets through. My spam box, however, is a true Pandora's Box... I'm just waiting for someone to piss me off enough, and then if I'm feeling vindictive, perhaps I'll forward it's contents to them:-P
Excuse me... is this the Arguing Room:-) I actually have some mod points for a change, but I need another category for great-grandparent. He's neither flame-bait nor informative, nor off-topic. He just doesn't have a cell phone. Let's face it, we slash-dotters are weird. There should be a weird category:-)
Er... no. Not anymore, though you would have been right a couple years ago. For example, these guys make a next-generation battery that basically doesn't explode or burn, even in a car crash. They aren't the only ones... a an awesome generation of new batteries is right on the horizon. I expect these batteries to usher in the age of plug-in hybrids, if not actual electric cars.
I could be totally wrong about this, but I think this camera only detects radioactive material that is near critical mass. The instrument would send out a pulse of neutrons at cargo entering the country, and wait for an echo. If there is any bomb-grade uranium in near-critical concentrations, the neutron pulse should trigger a lot of reactions, which hopefully this camera would detect. I suspect it's still hard to detect the material, unless it's really close to critical, but I really don't know.
Here's a funny story I heard about this technology. Since NAFTA, we import all kinds of things from Mexico. A truck carrying rebar set off a detector. Apparently, somewhere in Mexico, there's a uranium rich iron-ore mine (or a clever Mexican with a new way to dispose of radioactive waste). We asked them to stop shipping radioactive rebar to the US.
Slashdot Mirror
I wish I had mod points to up your funny score... For years in the late 80's and early 90's, I was dumb enough to call Microsoft customer support on occasion. It was a 100% waste of time, a truly unbelievable record of failed customer support. Then I discovered that the Dell customer support guys knew practically everything about Windows and it's popular applications, and they'd answer just about any technical question you had. I suspect they did more Microsoft support than Dell hardware support. All that ended when Dell fired their US based support staff and off-shored support to India. Now days, I just run Ubuntu. If I need support, I just use Google. I'm sure Windows users are also quite helpful on the web, but I have to say I absolutely love the community support hovering around Ubuntu.
I suspect that Vista may be the result of Microsoft's aging. In the 90's, when the core of XP was built (NT back then - I was a big fan), Microsoft was growing at an insane pace. Much of the best talent (the kind Google gets now days) went to Microsoft. With that kind of success, XP was a natural result. With the web bust, and with the best talent often going elsewhere, and with Bill Gates effectively retired, Vista may be the natural result. I'm not sure I'd hold my breath waiting for Vista to become as good as XP.
It'll be interesting to see just what programming platform is supported. Google's Android supports a Java variant, but you can easily go under the hood and port native C applications. I'd give you 10-to-1 odds that Steve Jobs isn't going to let anyone have shell access, nor program at the same level his developers do. He'll give us some virtual machine crap that makes porting existing open-source apps impossible, and keeps you from doing anything cooler than writing games. No way he's giving us access to the phone databases, or iTunes databases. Frankly, I'm so tired of Steve's crap that I've abandoned Apple, and encourage others to abandon them as well.
I have no idea how you got modded off-topic... Anyway, my phone got borked on one of the prior updates. This Apple hostility towards simple 3rd party apps has me really steamed. I've joined the Android effort, and it may take a year or two, but no way is Apple going to have the better phone OS in 2010. Without the 3rd party apps, it's not even in the lead today. Morons...
Oh, well... hibernation's always been a problem for me. It worked for me under Feisty, but n card still causes problems, especially if you enable OpenGL. All Core Duos are native 64-bit machines, as are all recent AMD processors. I'd be very surprised if you have a 32-bit only processor.
I'll bet you've got an ATI video card, just like me. ATI's been a real problem for Linux... they still keep their damned hardware secret, and it's a PITA to write drivers for them. I'll also bet you tried to install Ubuntu Feisty. It was possible to install Feisty on a 9400 with an ATI card, but it took a hack during the install. Gusty Gibbon installed on my 9400 with an ATI card out-of-the-box. I would recommend that you try it again. Definitely go for the x64 version, IMO. Then, be sure to do 'sudo apt-get upgrade', since Gusty Gibbon is a bit unstable out-of-the-box. Also, check out Automatix after the install, and assuming you're like most /.-ers, you'll want to install some additional packages. Check out the Perfect Server page for some good advice on upgrades.
Dell laptops have been poor for Linux in the past, but not as bad as Compaq and HP. Dell's problem is the configurability, as you say. HP and Compaq had no excuse. However, I hear good things for Linux are in the works, especially now that Dell ships Ubuntu on some models. We hackers can whine all we want, but ATI loves to ignore us. Apparently Dell whined, and ATI is listening, though I have yet to see ATI lift one damned finger, other than to issue a press release. They claim they've seen the light. HP apparently took notice, as well, and may start testing their laptops for Linux compatibility.
I'm totally with you on the support. Dell blew it big-time earlier this decade by firing all their legendary support staff and moving support to India. My company no longer buys support contracts, and our sister company buys HPs instead, with support contracts. There's a fairly new "gold" support level which I hear is nice, but we bought it for a couple machines, and since there's been no hardware problems, we haven't had any need to call. Consensus seems to be to drop it. The problem for Dell is that they sell the machines, and don't bother to mention that a poor home user will be stuck in purgatory if there's any problem he can't handle. The Indian support team is literally less than worthless - they waste your time without providing any value. It's better not to have any support, do regular backups, and throw the machine in the trash the first time it has a problem of any kind.
That said, my current Dell Inspiron 9400 is the best laptop I've ever owned... it's Core Duo and 2 gig rock, and I have yet to have a single OS crash, but I run Linux. For the first time ever, I told management I'm happy with my current machine, and don't need a new one in 2008... maybe in 2009. At $1,250, I can't complain about the price. I think that's the real difference between Apple and Dell: Apple has real people involved with you and your purchase, and real people are expensive. Dell just makes great hardware at great prices.
I think the article is only arguing that the Dell hardware is nicer, not cheaper, nor a better overall computer. I can believe it. The iMacs look to me like they could use a face-lift soon. They seem a bit clunky for an Apple product. Dell simply has them beat on style. I think the brains at Apple have been off designing phones and iPods lately, not iMacs.
Well said. The February rumor probably got the article listed on /., but while the phone is far from vapor-ware, February is. The phone still needs a lot of work. On the positive side, we hackers are busy figuring out what to do with these phones before they're ever released. I want one bad.
I hear you. It's not the "new" American way, though. It's been that way since I entered the work force full time in '86. The problems at Circuit City are that stupid people got into positions of power (kinda like some governments close to home lately). This kind of thing is more common than bombs exploding in Baghdad. I'm surprised it made it onto the main Slashdot page.
I agree 100%. We really need to implement a carbon-credit system.
Yes, coal is only popular close to where it's mined. It costs more to ship it than to mine it if you're not on the East Coast. California burns natural gas, which is eco-friendly, but not cheap (I personally think this is a good idea). There are two huge clouds of smog perpetually over two parts of the world. One is over China, the other is over the East Coast, because of all that damned coal we burn. Check out Global Dimming. The sad news is that when we finally give up coal (probably because we're feeling a bit warm), the Earth's temperature will rise sharply.
"
Thanks for the web site. It computes the break-even point for installing solar panels at home, and plugging in $1/watt makes it all work out quite well. I'll have to keep track of this link. However, from what I read, coal is still cheaper to burn for power in utility plants. I read that it costs utilities between $0.01 and $0.02 per KWh to produce when burning coal, even when taking the cost of the plant into account.
This is a huge milestone. However, the summary gets a couple things wrong: First, $1/watt panels aren't "cheaper than coal". Large coal consumers buy 2,000 pounds of coal for $50. Burn that in a crappy Bush-endorsed power station, and utilities can print money at $0.07/KWh. That's why coal is the #1 enemy in the global warming battle - not oil. The $1/watt goal makes solar utility power feasible in areas that currently have excellent sunshine (say southern CA), and expensive fuel (say natural gas). It's a huge step, but not the last step.
The second error in the summary is the current price. The company claims they could sell $1/watt panels, but with 100% of their production for 2008 already purchased, what are the odds they're selling their stuff 4X below market value? Not a chance. The revolution's happening, but it will take a while.
I know you wanted first post, so I don't blame you for not reading TFA. However, you got it 100% wrong. Better luck next first-post.
Very insightful post. It's sad to see so many /.-ers posting from out-of-date ignorance, but hey, it's /., and they're allowed. This particular car sounds like a winner to me. I'd have signed up right now if I lived in CA. The hybrid electric plug-ins coming down the pipe will have it all, range, power, and cost effectiveness. I just hope my 300ZX holds out a couple more years so I can upgrade to a sporty hybrid-plug-in.
These batteries can also be used for plug-in hybrids. Because they can be recharged many times without degrading compared to normal Li-on batteries, the total cost of ownership for a battery that is good for only 20 miles should be lower than other batteries. A normal Li-on battery dies after 50-100K miles, and represents over half of the value of the car in most cases. These new batteries last the life of the car, and in smaller configurations could be quite affordable. It's a really big step in the right direction. With even a 20 mile range, these batteries could dramatically reduce our country's dependence on oil.
I've measured this over the years at various times. I just did it again on my Intel Core Duo laptop. Here's what I found for our product: With object reference size of 32-bits, running in 64-bit mode, memory usage was 1111.2 meg, and runtime was 2:22. With 64-bit pointers, it ran in 2:25, and 1873.2 meg. Compiled in 32-bit mode and 32-bit pointers, it ran in 2:25, and used 1111.2 meg.
So, at least for Core Duo for our product, 64-bit vs 32-bit has minimal impact on speed, and a huge impact on memory usage. Good to know... I'm surprised I didn't see more of a speed improvement with the memory-saving mode (32-bit object references), but it probably has to due with details of the cache design.
You make an excellent point. I'm a Gutsy user at the moment, and I also was expecting more. Feisty had set my expectations high. Two thoughts: First, Feisty was released in April '07. Even followed by Gutsy, that makes '07 a banner year for Linux, IMO. Second, '07 is the year of 64-bit pervasive computing. I personally hope to never purchase a 32-bit machine or OS again, and hope not to live to see the 64/128 transition. I think this transition is one reason for displeasure with the new OSes. Typical apps that use to run in 100 meg now take 150 or more, and run 10-20%slower, simply because they're 64-bit (except for mine). And talk about disappointment, I know tons of guys who were led to believe that 64-bit machines would be 2X faster. Twice the data width means twice the throughput, right? Sales guys basically suck. Even programming language designers have been caught with their pants down... mixing 64 and 32-bit pointers sucks or is impossible in all top-ten, and most make it impossible to represent 4 billion objects with 32-bit object handles, including C++, C#, the JVM (not Java), and D.
I heard a great story about why Microsoft is forcing all future OS versions to be 64-bit only. Apparently, only the 64-bit modes of Intel/AMD CPUs are capable of enforcing DRM effectively. HD-DVD content will only be released to 64-bit versions of Windows. You gotta love the future.
I recommend that you read "The Audacity of Hope". There are a few good candidates.
Arrrgh! You got me there. However, I do hereby declare that I "give a fuck". Many of us do, on both sides of the political spectrum.
Ha ha!! So, what has Bush Junior accomplished according to plan? His approval rating is so low that he has nothing left to lose, so I totally get the indifference, but again, what has gone according to plan? And... remember, your post was moderated "informative", so please... inform.
Ok... Bush != conservative. Frankly, calling Bush a conservative is an insult to conservatives I admire. I'm from a family of mostly Republicans. Lately, we're mostly Democrats, simply because of Bush Junior. Bush Senior is my favorite president during my lifetime. I've seen an interesting stratification... most conservatives I admire want someone other than Bush at this point. Some, however, are incapable of believing a Republican president could be in any way less than fantastic in every way. I call them "glass eaters". A "glass eater" is any Republican or Democrat who can't accept the possibility of a bad president from their party, someone who would rather eat glass than admit the truth.
Sorry about this post, but I just love the freedom to post my email: bill@billrocks.org. That feels really good. Unfortunately, it requires truly draconian measures - challenge/response filter for Evolution. Spam pretty much never gets through. My spam box, however, is a true Pandora's Box... I'm just waiting for someone to piss me off enough, and then if I'm feeling vindictive, perhaps I'll forward it's contents to them :-P
Excuse me... is this the Arguing Room :-) I actually have some mod points for a change, but I need another category for great-grandparent. He's neither flame-bait nor informative, nor off-topic. He just doesn't have a cell phone. Let's face it, we slash-dotters are weird. There should be a weird category :-)
Er... no. Not anymore, though you would have been right a couple years ago. For example, these guys make a next-generation battery that basically doesn't explode or burn, even in a car crash. They aren't the only ones... a an awesome generation of new batteries is right on the horizon. I expect these batteries to usher in the age of plug-in hybrids, if not actual electric cars.
I could be totally wrong about this, but I think this camera only detects radioactive material that is near critical mass. The instrument would send out a pulse of neutrons at cargo entering the country, and wait for an echo. If there is any bomb-grade uranium in near-critical concentrations, the neutron pulse should trigger a lot of reactions, which hopefully this camera would detect. I suspect it's still hard to detect the material, unless it's really close to critical, but I really don't know.
Here's a funny story I heard about this technology. Since NAFTA, we import all kinds of things from Mexico. A truck carrying rebar set off a detector. Apparently, somewhere in Mexico, there's a uranium rich iron-ore mine (or a clever Mexican with a new way to dispose of radioactive waste). We asked them to stop shipping radioactive rebar to the US.