The only answer you can possible give is to get a supported Linux distro particularly for a production environment. Try Redhat or SuSE they are both fully supported distros although like a Microsoft OS you are going to pay.
I know it is galling to pay for support licenses when you as the administrator feel you can do the job just as well. Be that as it may but this is the reality of corporations, they need to have someone to point the finger at. Make sure it is not you.
On a side note point out to management that for peace of mind you would recommend (do some homework here) a particular supported distro or distros(s) (the better approach since not all eggs are in the one basket) for all production and even desktop environments. To add a sweetener which could save a considerable amount of money (management loves this) suggest that a corresponding free distro be used on non-production machines. (example CentOS to Redhat or OpenSuSE to SuSE). In this case it is very easy to move a Test machine to Production.
To just come out and say we want XXXX (name your favorate Linux distro) without a support contract being available will definitely result in your company being dragged into the Microsoft lock-in environment. It is also to very good idea to train your manager but before you do please do your homework. You must have all arguments in place and who knows you may find that the Microsoft Solution is actually better (yikes did I say that?) but a very good counter is "vendor locking" (many managers don't seem to understand the ramifications of this though) for a short term dubious gain. If you don't feel comfortable with this type of consulting then find someone who does (see Redhat and Novell to name two) and if done properly everyone thinks you and your manager are heroes. If not then I suggest you dust off your CV.
Yes you are right you can get crossover products however in a work environment you must have properly licensed software or software that is acceptable to the company. If not then you risk your Organisation being heavily fined and the offending person(s) being fired or even facing a hefty fine. VMware is a licensed product as are many Microsoft products and while I would not see this on a home PC (sticks fingers in ears and stares at ceiling) putting any of these products on a work PC requires payment for licenses.
Most companies specify Microsoft products on their work computers and you have no choice but to comply or face disciplinary action. Some companies like the one I work for (over 100,000 employees) are much more flexible and have allowed Linux PC's and 16% of the work force (mainly technical) have taken this up. The criteria is you must be able to to do your job within the Organisation. For some this is easy for other it is more difficult (like myself, thank goodness for "Cygwin") because of certain security software which is Microsoft centric although we do have some who are working on this. Fortunately it is mandatory that a web page must work in both Firefox and IE6 (IE7 is not supported although it does work).
I have both a work computer with XP (Vista is not allowed) and my own laptop with Fedora 7 which is very useful for testing purposes since it keeps me comfortable with using, trouble shooting and testing the Redhat versions of Linux (Xen works well for this). It must be noted that I would not recommend Fedora for a beginner since it does have its issues which are easy for me to fix but not that easy for others. While I have never used Ubuntu every review I have read says that this is the best for most people who want Linux on their PC/Laptop (we use PCLinuxOS on some of our work PC's), but even so for a work computer you must have what your work dictates. For home well that is your choice and Fedora 7 (no dual boot either) works for me.
Now, the PS3 has fairly slow processors, just a lot of them. To use 7 threads to get the power out of it is not only difficult, sometimes impossible given an algorithm or game.
What do you mean by slow? The PS3 Cell runs at 3.2GHz for the PowerPC core as do the 7 SPE's. The Xbox360 triple core also runs at 3.2GHz.
As far as writing GTA IV I am not privy to the design principles of the game and I seriously doubt that you are. One of the major issues between the Xbox360 and the PS3 is the Xbox360's lack of hard disk for game usage and also the fact that the PS3 has a much larger media disk (Blu-ray is 25GB single layer and 50GB double layer) compared to the 7GB double layer DVD (yes I was surprised by that to).
It would be interesting if the main issue is not the PS3 but the Xbox360 and I am quite sure if this was the case Microsoft would be bending over backwards to make sure that any issues are ironed out. For GTA IV to come out first on the Xbox360 could be a win for Microsoft but on the other hand when the PS3 one came out and if was significantly better then I am quite sure developers will start to jump ship so it makes a lot of sense to have the release come out for both platforms at the same time and have the play and graphics similar.
The above is conjecture but I can't see "Take Two" doing the dirty on Sony since they have done so well from that company unless (and it would eventually be found out) they were bribed to make the game look bad on the PS3.
The Roman engineers had a very good grasp of civil engineering and maths since a good deal of knowledge was got from Greece and improved on. They did not just build as strong as possible and hang the expense since a bridge building project still had to be paid and accounted for by the province it was being built in unless it was of a strategic nature where the cost would be shared. Much like how our modern societies work.
You did not mention slaves and that is good since most of the Roman roads and bridges were actually built by the armed forces under direction of Roman engineers and in many ways brought great prosperity to the provinces. On a side note the Romans also invented reinforced concrete which is not that much different to what we use today, it is just we have better reinforcing materials than what was available to the Romans.
The differences between the old Roman structures compared to modern ones is we have better materials to use which can result in larger and longer spanning structures while the Romans used the "arch" which had limited spanning capabilities but excellent flexibility and stability.
Cutting corners on a project can save money but the potential loss of life in the event of a failure normally results in very severe penalties if convicted (in ancient Rome this was no exception either) although that is not to say some unscrupulous people won't try.
Yes you can get sensors that will detect the slightest tilting or swaying of critical piers but the problem is that many bridges are designed to tilt and sway to a certain tolerance otherwise a ridged bridge would just crack under a small tremor or ever a surge of water. You would have to have sensors like this on all bridges and take into account the design tolerances of the bridge. You could do this cheaply in a country that has only a few bridges but when you have thousands of major bridges this is going to get expensive and you also have to take into account false alarms.
Unfortunately in the worst case scenario the bridge did close itself but it did it in a manner that caused people on the bridge to die. People who were lucky not to be on the bridge at the time of the collapse were safe although I would be quite sure they would be shocked. Even if the bridge had gates and they operated it would not help the people who were already on the bridge.
Taking into account all the factors that can cause a disaster is just about impossible. While it is possible to design something that is nearly disaster proof it can't be done with 100% confidence, because there are things that can occur that can be outside of the original design plan. Two simple examples are designing for a category 4 hurricane and then getting hit with a category 6 or designing for a richtor 5 earthquake and then getting hit with a richtor 7 earthquake.
All that can be done is to have a flexible disaster prevention (eg. periodic bridge checks which actually were done) and a rescue program in place which from what I read about was quite good although to some who lost friends and relatives maybe not good enough. I would leave that to the investigation committee to comment on this.
The problem with any disaster is it normally happens with little or no warning and sometimes so quickly people just cannot get out of the way. The question of "it could have been prevented" is rather mute after it has happened.
I am under no illusion that many companies (including Microsoft) do break the law, the problem is for the "Law" to prosecute them. This can be very difficult when the company in question has a bevy (or collusion if you like) of high priced lawyers to interpret and argue the law in such a way it benefits the company. It is this part which is frustrating to people who to them feel like the "Law" is unfair.
The "Law" is not unfair it is "impartial" and in many ways set by "precedent". What does this mean? Well I would assume most readers of Slashdot have a tendency to think "literally", the "Law" on the other hand thinks in "legalise" and the two modes of thinking are almost incomprehensible to each other. If you want a good example of this try to read a modern patent although be warned that you may get a headache trying to understand it even if the topic is in your field of expertise.
Another issue with "Law" is the language of the law which is in "Legalise" and the language of the country. English is not the easiest language to interpret properly since there are so many ways of saying something and so many ways of misinterpreting it, particularly if you come from a different cultural background and speak a different Language. This is one topic I am going to keep out of since this is how most of the major wars started.
There is a huge difference between breaking the law and working within the legal framework of the law and big companies are masters of this (actually this has been going on for thousands of years). Doing business at the edge of the law is IMHO morally and/or ethically corrupt however the words "morals" and "ethics" which IMHO should be basic human strengths rarely enter into "Law" or even "ruthless" business practice. It must be noted that some companies do try to bring ethnics and morals into their business dealings but a company is made of many people and some don't have any issues with what they perceive as "bending the law" in pursuit of profits/domination even though it may be ethically and/or morally wrong.
Every now and then the bounds of the Law are crossed and the Company who crosses them do get prosecuted, Again what can seem unreasonable to some is when the "Law" is perceived as too lenient. I know it is very frustrating to some but at least the "Law" does work and without it we would have anarchy and believe me you would not want that.
Have I explained this well? I don't think I have but then I am not a Lawyer (thank goodness) or an Orator. I am appalled by some of the things Microsoft does and refuse to buy their products (this article is posted from Firefox running under Fedora 7 on my laptop). This gives me a moral (smug if you like) sense of justice but it still does not solve the problems of the world.
I don't think we can call this "government corruption" although we may like to believe it because this is a very serious charge and if proven and a conviction is made then someone is looking at a serious fine or jail time. Like it or not Microsoft or any viable company has to work within the constraints of the countries laws, however a powerful company also has a "group" of lawyers on retainer who will have insight into that countries laws and can use this knowledge to benefit that company without actually breaking the law.
It may surprise many but many high level managers actually like and respect Microsoft and actually think they are doing the right thing to recommend Microsoft products. Most managers rarely look at the moral aspect of a company although in a twist many managers think that their company must be "a paragon of virtue" and employees are encouraged (well maybe told) to take "Standards of Business Conduct" courses within the organisation. I am quite sure that Microsoft insists their employees do this as well but when it comes to sales then as long as the law is not actually broken then to them this is "normal business practice" and "morals and integrity" fly out the window.
I would hazard a guess that while Microsoft is worried about the adoption of Open Source around the world it would be pulling out all stops without actually breaking the law to prevent any US state or council from taking up Open Source. So it is not surprising to me that Massachusetts now has the "right" people pushing for a Microsoft "proprietry" Standard under the guise of being open. After all the people pushing for this may genuinely believe (cough!) they are doing the right thing.
The Xbox had the same storage space as the PS2.
This one is not true the Xbox had a 8GB disk drive (http://www.xbreporter.com/xbox_system_specificati ons.php) but a modded Xbox could take a much bigger drive. The PS2 could take a 40GB add-on disk drive although from what I can gather it wasn't really supported.
The PS3 has a BluRay drive that supports 25GB for single layer discs and 50GB for dual layer discs.
If you want conformation type "PS3 Specifications" in any search engine or read any electronics or HI-Fi store catalogue.
The Xbox 360 has a standard dual layer DVD drive that supports 3.5GB for single layers discs and 7GB for dual layer discs.
This does seem odd since a single layer DVD is 4.7GB and a Dual Layer is 9.4GB. If this is true then what is being done (DRM anyone?) with the spare capacity. The URL I found was http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEFpFlZApk tdrRCUeP.php and there are many others.
I am just curious on why you are looking at Amazon for the best game sellers. Why don't you try http://www.vgchartz.com/ the site is much more informative at least you can have a reasonable amount of confidence that the figures are fairly correct. Oh on a different note please don't use the site to compare the DS against the consoles you should compare it against the PSP which for those that are interested is 45M (DS) to 22M (PSP). Surprisingly for some this is actually very good for both hand held devices since both Nintendo and Sony are doing very well with their respective hand-held's.
It must be noted that what does well in Japan may not do well in the US and vice-versa but these markets are tiny compared to the rest of the world which actually has a much bigger market potential.
Yawn! Oh come on how many times to we have to read this.
The PS3 actually has more games than the Wii, Xbox, Xbox360 put together if you take into account PS1 and PS2 games and it will smooth and upscale them to 1080p if you have a HDTV that has that resolution. Granted the current lineup of native PS3 games is relatively small (over 30 I think) but over time it will grow.
I don't know that may people who can afford all the PS3 games much less the the same number of Wii or even Xbox360 games so just saying there aren't that many games for the PS3 is just trolling. You would get a better response from me if you said "There aren't enough native games on the PS3 I like at the moment". Then I would fully agree with you but then again I can say the same from my perspective about the games for the Xbox360 and Wii as well.
Too expensive means to many that "you can't afford it". My simple answer to that is buy something you can afford. But please take into account game prices. If you want to really save money buy a PS2, there are a huge amount of games for it and it is still supported with new games still coming out for it.
If you really want a PS3 then I suggest looking around you may pick one up reasonably cheaply, retailers do actually deal if you are not in a hurry. Since the PS3 will also smooth and upscale PS1/2 games to HDTV standards you really don't have to wait for native PS3 games to enjoy a PS3. I only have one PS3 game (Oblivion) which keeps me entertained (got to get some sleep) but I have many PS2 games that I own and can even buy that I can really enjoy as well.
I also suggest you look at http://www.vgchartz.com/ and look at console sales to date, 10.2M (Xbox360), 9.88M (Wii) and 4.1M (PS3). Looks like the PS3 is going downhill but overall sales of a console don't mean much without taking games (take a look at the top games in Japan and the US) and services into account as well. If you use the charts properly (align launches) you will see the purchase numbers of the PS3 is almost tracking the Xbox360. The Wii is actually an exception but since it is almost 2.5 times cheaper than the PS3 it is no wonder that it has sold more quickly but the question remains will most of the people who buy a Wii actually buy many games?
For those people who can't be bothered at looking at game sales (July 2007):
Japan
1 Wii "Mario Party 8" 278,426
2 PS3 "Everybodys Golf 5" 184,354
3 DS "Taiko Drum Master DS" 89,666
4 DS "Its a Wonderful World" 86,906
5 PS2 "Powerful Pro Baseball 14" 49,217
USA
1 PS2 "Guitar Hero Encore Rocks the 80s" 374,519
2 Xbox360 "NCAA Football 08" 106,293
3 DS "Pokemon Diamond / Pearl" 97,663
4 Wii "Wii Sports" 95,171
5 Xbox360 "NASCAR 08" 70,159
I live in Australia and Linux is making quite serious inroads into the server market. The problem with the Desktop is you normally get a MS Operating System and unless you really want to go to a lot of trouble you pay the Microsoft Tax.
The company I work for (over 100,000) has over 16% (most technical) of their desktops running under Linux. Why we don't have more is the Company has a very good contact with Microsoft but at the moment the policy is "No Vista!".
Actually where you are seeing a huge switch to Linux is in India http://in.rediff.com/money/2007/aug/02linux.htm and the Asian market is looking very seriously at this. I know some people say that the Asian market is rife with piracy for MS Windows but now it is just as easy and legal to burn a Linux DVD than a MS Windows DVD (the cost is the same and no hassles from the cops), the problem is marketing and that is happening as well.
As far as MAC's go I think the market will always be small. The interface is nice and the OS is great (it's Unix after-all) but you end up paying for lots of things. Of course you could put on freeware such as Open Office but you can do that with Linux as well (normally by default) and if you really want a "Wow" interface Linux has Beryl. The Asian market, China and Russia seem to think that Linux in one form or another is great. It saves them billions.
I am now waiting for "But what about games?". Well if game developers want to pass up on a billion dollar market then that is their prerogative. The problem for game developers is DRM and how do you stop piracy which is not that easy to do under Linux. Actually many people will buy a good game if there is value adding but a mediocre game normally gets pirated.
Re:Geeks do- everyone else doesn't.
on
The DRM Scorecard
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· Score: 3, Informative
Looked for the smiley but you are wrong (should have stayed with "Windows"):-).
The company would have to go after IBM and Toshiba as well since they along with Sony developed the Cell Broadband engine. This is almost like taking a pen knife and attacking a fully grown tiger because if Sony looses then IBM is next and I am sure that the IBM legal team will get heavily involved with this. The only wild card is Microsoft who would love for Sony to loose this but they now have to be very carefully because of the Immersion funding coming to light.
From what I remember, Texas is a preferred place for Patent Trolls to litigate.
If you can call the pianola (like a piano but with a punched hole reader) prior art then I guess you can call generating music from a DNA sequence prior art. All you need is a sampling speed and to assign a frequency to each DNA sequence. Actually it is more complex than that since you would have to assign a sound level and possibly the length of time you can hold at the frequency. There I think I have got the gist of how to do this without reading the patent although I have to stress I am not a musician.
If the "music" player/concept is patented and it is now (sigh!) then what about the music or DNA sequence? After all music and lyrics are Copyright and if memory serves me this is for a fairly long time so we should all Copyright our DNA (err music and lyrics) so that anyone who listens to our personal music has to pay us royalties. I even think the Music industry would be interested in this. This should be fun in a law court, think DRM at it's most ludicrous.
Surprisingly Microsoft does sort of support Open Source http://www.codeplex.com/ but mainly source that only compiles or works on their applications and in the majority of cases DirectX. If you are a good programmer that has a good familiarity with MS languages and also Linux/Unix languages particularly with regard to porting the DirectX calls to X11 then it is possible to port MS Open Source code.
Actually in some of cases it is easier to see what the MS centric source does then all you need is to pick an appropriate language or languages on Linux/Unix that will let you duplicate what the software does. Of course you take a chance on infringing Copyright, but your code will be different. Actually the best way is for the original writer of the MS centric software to actually do the porting and in many ways they really do the Open Source Community and themselves a great service.
Actually I can remember the 1970's with Defender and Donkey Kong and a good player was fascinating to watch but times do change and fighters became popular to play and watch particularly if you get a skilled player but while a 2 to 10 minute game may attract a large audience it definitely won't hold them for very long. The same is true even today.
I am a fan of RPG's and Adventure games and I cannot see an audience watching someone play theses type of games although maybe a quick glance. For the person controlling the game I am sure if they enjoy it I know I do, but I can't imagine an audience watching someone playing Oblivion (as an example) who is just out to collect all the plants, I picture the commentary like:
"Yes he has found a blood plant and! No he could not pick it oh the humanity! Wait he has found another one and "Yes" he has picked it. Now he has found another one and "yes" he has picked it and..... ZZZZ".
Of course the Thieves Guild quests could be more interesting. "Now audience we want absolute quiet since a great deal of concentration is required to open up this very hard lock"! "Oops he has just been apprehended by the Watch what should he do?"
1) Pay the fine?
2) Go to jail?
3) Fight?
We could go back to the first Super Mario Brothers games with - err no, how about Metroid or Zelda? well I leave those up to your imagination. As for Wii sports it may be family fun but for a large audience?:-)
Can't speak for the Xbox360 although from what I can gather the upscaling is done on a chip (can anyone add to this) unlike the PS3's which is done in software, however the PS3 does IMHO a really excellent job of smoothing and upconverting DVD's to 720p, 1080i and 1080p (configurable) via HDMI and depending on your HDTV you can really pick the difference. You only get Standard Definition out if you use component cables though. Do a Google search for "ps3 firmware 1.8" to get more info (1.9 is the latest firmware).
I assume you are talking about Holographic Versatile Disk (HVD for short) or Tapestry Media. All I can say is don't hold your breath since a cheap HVD recorder/player is approx US$18,000 and the media (write once) is well over US$100 and that is OEM prices. The holographic market is not aimed at the movie or game industry (at least not yet) it is aimed at the backup and storage market which is worth billions.
The problem is picking what the next great format will be but you are right Microsoft'll still find a way to scratch it though.:-)
Well you could down load Hero's avi's onto you PSP and then playback via your PS3 then via HDMI or component with smoothing and uponversion to 720p, 1080i or 1080p resolution. An easier way would be to get the AVI's and convert them to PS3 format (do a google search for "PS3 avi files") then you can watch Hero's on your HDTV rather than your PC screen. It will cost you the time to download the Hero's avi files and possibly $29 for the converter software and of course a PS3 and a HDTV.
A media centre could do the same thing but how much is a media centre that will smooth and upconvert avi/mp4 files to a HDTV?
If this is designed to stop thieves then it is a poor way of doing it since it is going to inconvenience legitimate purchasers. Basically a thief will steal the ipod and sell it to some sucker in the pub rather than keep it. If you use the IMEI code in a mobile as an analogy it is actually possible to change the number (try using Google with "imei unlock" - you will get over a million hits) however the average thief does not have the facilities to do this so he will sell the mobile as soon as possible.
When I read the article I was struck how this this technique was not that novel or even innovative since this technique is really all about what to do when two supposed mating devices detect that their codes do not match (sort of like modern car keys) and for this they get a patent? Talk about obvious but then again it appears you can get a patent on just about anything in the US. Sorry I did not look at the actual patent, I don't really want a headache since all patents are written in legalese which is not really compatible to a professional engineers thought processes.
You left out the "IMHO" but I think you got modded unfairly. However from my personal perspective the only games I like on the Wii are Zelda and later on "Metroid" which to me is not a great incentive to buy the console considering we have to pay AU$399 (US$342) in Australia and most games are in the AU$99 (US$85) mark and will stay that price while PS3 and Xbox360 games actually drop by 30% to 50% after 3 to 4 months. I am quite sure the people in Europe and the UK would agree with me on this.
I can't remember when I last purchased and EA game since I am not into sporting games and I do have quite a lot of PS1 and PS2 games as well as 10 Gamecube games and none of them are made by EA. Still if people like EA games that is their prerogative.
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The only answer you can possible give is to get a supported Linux distro particularly for a production environment. Try Redhat or SuSE they are both fully supported distros although like a Microsoft OS you are going to pay.
I know it is galling to pay for support licenses when you as the administrator feel you can do the job just as well. Be that as it may but this is the reality of corporations, they need to have someone to point the finger at. Make sure it is not you.
On a side note point out to management that for peace of mind you would recommend (do some homework here) a particular supported distro or distros(s) (the better approach since not all eggs are in the one basket) for all production and even desktop environments. To add a sweetener which could save a considerable amount of money (management loves this) suggest that a corresponding free distro be used on non-production machines. (example CentOS to Redhat or OpenSuSE to SuSE). In this case it is very easy to move a Test machine to Production.
To just come out and say we want XXXX (name your favorate Linux distro) without a support contract being available will definitely result in your company being dragged into the Microsoft lock-in environment. It is also to very good idea to train your manager but before you do please do your homework. You must have all arguments in place and who knows you may find that the Microsoft Solution is actually better (yikes did I say that?) but a very good counter is "vendor locking" (many managers don't seem to understand the ramifications of this though) for a short term dubious gain. If you don't feel comfortable with this type of consulting then find someone who does (see Redhat and Novell to name two) and if done properly everyone thinks you and your manager are heroes. If not then I suggest you dust off your CV.
Yes you are right you can get crossover products however in a work environment you must have properly licensed software or software that is acceptable to the company. If not then you risk your Organisation being heavily fined and the offending person(s) being fired or even facing a hefty fine. VMware is a licensed product as are many Microsoft products and while I would not see this on a home PC (sticks fingers in ears and stares at ceiling) putting any of these products on a work PC requires payment for licenses.
Most companies specify Microsoft products on their work computers and you have no choice but to comply or face disciplinary action. Some companies like the one I work for (over 100,000 employees) are much more flexible and have allowed Linux PC's and 16% of the work force (mainly technical) have taken this up. The criteria is you must be able to to do your job within the Organisation. For some this is easy for other it is more difficult (like myself, thank goodness for "Cygwin") because of certain security software which is Microsoft centric although we do have some who are working on this. Fortunately it is mandatory that a web page must work in both Firefox and IE6 (IE7 is not supported although it does work).
I have both a work computer with XP (Vista is not allowed) and my own laptop with Fedora 7 which is very useful for testing purposes since it keeps me comfortable with using, trouble shooting and testing the Redhat versions of Linux (Xen works well for this). It must be noted that I would not recommend Fedora for a beginner since it does have its issues which are easy for me to fix but not that easy for others. While I have never used Ubuntu every review I have read says that this is the best for most people who want Linux on their PC/Laptop (we use PCLinuxOS on some of our work PC's), but even so for a work computer you must have what your work dictates. For home well that is your choice and Fedora 7 (no dual boot either) works for me.
Now, the PS3 has fairly slow processors, just a lot of them. To use 7 threads to get the power out of it is not only difficult, sometimes impossible given an algorithm or game.
What do you mean by slow? The PS3 Cell runs at 3.2GHz for the PowerPC core as do the 7 SPE's. The Xbox360 triple core also runs at 3.2GHz.
As far as writing GTA IV I am not privy to the design principles of the game and I seriously doubt that you are. One of the major issues between the Xbox360 and the PS3 is the Xbox360's lack of hard disk for game usage and also the fact that the PS3 has a much larger media disk (Blu-ray is 25GB single layer and 50GB double layer) compared to the 7GB double layer DVD (yes I was surprised by that to).
It would be interesting if the main issue is not the PS3 but the Xbox360 and I am quite sure if this was the case Microsoft would be bending over backwards to make sure that any issues are ironed out. For GTA IV to come out first on the Xbox360 could be a win for Microsoft but on the other hand when the PS3 one came out and if was significantly better then I am quite sure developers will start to jump ship so it makes a lot of sense to have the release come out for both platforms at the same time and have the play and graphics similar.
The above is conjecture but I can't see "Take Two" doing the dirty on Sony since they have done so well from that company unless (and it would eventually be found out) they were bribed to make the game look bad on the PS3.
The Roman engineers had a very good grasp of civil engineering and maths since a good deal of knowledge was got from Greece and improved on. They did not just build as strong as possible and hang the expense since a bridge building project still had to be paid and accounted for by the province it was being built in unless it was of a strategic nature where the cost would be shared. Much like how our modern societies work.
You did not mention slaves and that is good since most of the Roman roads and bridges were actually built by the armed forces under direction of Roman engineers and in many ways brought great prosperity to the provinces. On a side note the Romans also invented reinforced concrete which is not that much different to what we use today, it is just we have better reinforcing materials than what was available to the Romans.
The differences between the old Roman structures compared to modern ones is we have better materials to use which can result in larger and longer spanning structures while the Romans used the "arch" which had limited spanning capabilities but excellent flexibility and stability.
Cutting corners on a project can save money but the potential loss of life in the event of a failure normally results in very severe penalties if convicted (in ancient Rome this was no exception either) although that is not to say some unscrupulous people won't try.
Yes you can get sensors that will detect the slightest tilting or swaying of critical piers but the problem is that many bridges are designed to tilt and sway to a certain tolerance otherwise a ridged bridge would just crack under a small tremor or ever a surge of water. You would have to have sensors like this on all bridges and take into account the design tolerances of the bridge. You could do this cheaply in a country that has only a few bridges but when you have thousands of major bridges this is going to get expensive and you also have to take into account false alarms.
Unfortunately in the worst case scenario the bridge did close itself but it did it in a manner that caused people on the bridge to die. People who were lucky not to be on the bridge at the time of the collapse were safe although I would be quite sure they would be shocked. Even if the bridge had gates and they operated it would not help the people who were already on the bridge.
Taking into account all the factors that can cause a disaster is just about impossible. While it is possible to design something that is nearly disaster proof it can't be done with 100% confidence, because there are things that can occur that can be outside of the original design plan. Two simple examples are designing for a category 4 hurricane and then getting hit with a category 6 or designing for a richtor 5 earthquake and then getting hit with a richtor 7 earthquake.
All that can be done is to have a flexible disaster prevention (eg. periodic bridge checks which actually were done) and a rescue program in place which from what I read about was quite good although to some who lost friends and relatives maybe not good enough. I would leave that to the investigation committee to comment on this.
The problem with any disaster is it normally happens with little or no warning and sometimes so quickly people just cannot get out of the way. The question of "it could have been prevented" is rather mute after it has happened.
I am under no illusion that many companies (including Microsoft) do break the law, the problem is for the "Law" to prosecute them. This can be very difficult when the company in question has a bevy (or collusion if you like) of high priced lawyers to interpret and argue the law in such a way it benefits the company. It is this part which is frustrating to people who to them feel like the "Law" is unfair.
The "Law" is not unfair it is "impartial" and in many ways set by "precedent". What does this mean? Well I would assume most readers of Slashdot have a tendency to think "literally", the "Law" on the other hand thinks in "legalise" and the two modes of thinking are almost incomprehensible to each other. If you want a good example of this try to read a modern patent although be warned that you may get a headache trying to understand it even if the topic is in your field of expertise.
Another issue with "Law" is the language of the law which is in "Legalise" and the language of the country. English is not the easiest language to interpret properly since there are so many ways of saying something and so many ways of misinterpreting it, particularly if you come from a different cultural background and speak a different Language. This is one topic I am going to keep out of since this is how most of the major wars started.
There is a huge difference between breaking the law and working within the legal framework of the law and big companies are masters of this (actually this has been going on for thousands of years). Doing business at the edge of the law is IMHO morally and/or ethically corrupt however the words "morals" and "ethics" which IMHO should be basic human strengths rarely enter into "Law" or even "ruthless" business practice. It must be noted that some companies do try to bring ethnics and morals into their business dealings but a company is made of many people and some don't have any issues with what they perceive as "bending the law" in pursuit of profits/domination even though it may be ethically and/or morally wrong.
Every now and then the bounds of the Law are crossed and the Company who crosses them do get prosecuted, Again what can seem unreasonable to some is when the "Law" is perceived as too lenient. I know it is very frustrating to some but at least the "Law" does work and without it we would have anarchy and believe me you would not want that.
Have I explained this well? I don't think I have but then I am not a Lawyer (thank goodness) or an Orator. I am appalled by some of the things Microsoft does and refuse to buy their products (this article is posted from Firefox running under Fedora 7 on my laptop). This gives me a moral (smug if you like) sense of justice but it still does not solve the problems of the world.
I don't think we can call this "government corruption" although we may like to believe it because this is a very serious charge and if proven and a conviction is made then someone is looking at a serious fine or jail time. Like it or not Microsoft or any viable company has to work within the constraints of the countries laws, however a powerful company also has a "group" of lawyers on retainer who will have insight into that countries laws and can use this knowledge to benefit that company without actually breaking the law.
It may surprise many but many high level managers actually like and respect Microsoft and actually think they are doing the right thing to recommend Microsoft products. Most managers rarely look at the moral aspect of a company although in a twist many managers think that their company must be "a paragon of virtue" and employees are encouraged (well maybe told) to take "Standards of Business Conduct" courses within the organisation. I am quite sure that Microsoft insists their employees do this as well but when it comes to sales then as long as the law is not actually broken then to them this is "normal business practice" and "morals and integrity" fly out the window.
I would hazard a guess that while Microsoft is worried about the adoption of Open Source around the world it would be pulling out all stops without actually breaking the law to prevent any US state or council from taking up Open Source. So it is not surprising to me that Massachusetts now has the "right" people pushing for a Microsoft "proprietry" Standard under the guise of being open. After all the people pushing for this may genuinely believe (cough!) they are doing the right thing.
The PS2 had a standard dual layer DVD drive that supported 4GB for single layer discs and 8GB for dual layer discs.2 _DVD-9_games
i ons.php) but a modded Xbox could take a much bigger drive. The PS2 could take a 40GB add-on disk drive although from what I can gather it wasn't really supported.
k tdrRCUeP.php and there are many others.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_
The Xbox had the same storage space as the PS2.
This one is not true the Xbox had a 8GB disk drive (http://www.xbreporter.com/xbox_system_specificat
The PS3 has a BluRay drive that supports 25GB for single layer discs and 50GB for dual layer discs.
If you want conformation type "PS3 Specifications" in any search engine or read any electronics or HI-Fi store catalogue.
The Xbox 360 has a standard dual layer DVD drive that supports 3.5GB for single layers discs and 7GB for dual layer discs.
This does seem odd since a single layer DVD is 4.7GB and a Dual Layer is 9.4GB. If this is true then what is being done (DRM anyone?) with the spare capacity. The URL I found was http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEFpFlZAp
I am just curious on why you are looking at Amazon for the best game sellers. Why don't you try http://www.vgchartz.com/ the site is much more informative at least you can have a reasonable amount of confidence that the figures are fairly correct. Oh on a different note please don't use the site to compare the DS against the consoles you should compare it against the PSP which for those that are interested is 45M (DS) to 22M (PSP). Surprisingly for some this is actually very good for both hand held devices since both Nintendo and Sony are doing very well with their respective hand-held's.
It must be noted that what does well in Japan may not do well in the US and vice-versa but these markets are tiny compared to the rest of the world which actually has a much bigger market potential.
Yawn! Oh come on how many times to we have to read this.
The PS3 actually has more games than the Wii, Xbox, Xbox360 put together if you take into account PS1 and PS2 games and it will smooth and upscale them to 1080p if you have a HDTV that has that resolution. Granted the current lineup of native PS3 games is relatively small (over 30 I think) but over time it will grow.
I don't know that may people who can afford all the PS3 games much less the the same number of Wii or even Xbox360 games so just saying there aren't that many games for the PS3 is just trolling. You would get a better response from me if you said "There aren't enough native games on the PS3 I like at the moment". Then I would fully agree with you but then again I can say the same from my perspective about the games for the Xbox360 and Wii as well.
Too expensive means to many that "you can't afford it". My simple answer to that is buy something you can afford. But please take into account game prices. If you want to really save money buy a PS2, there are a huge amount of games for it and it is still supported with new games still coming out for it.
If you really want a PS3 then I suggest looking around you may pick one up reasonably cheaply, retailers do actually deal if you are not in a hurry. Since the PS3 will also smooth and upscale PS1/2 games to HDTV standards you really don't have to wait for native PS3 games to enjoy a PS3. I only have one PS3 game (Oblivion) which keeps me entertained (got to get some sleep) but I have many PS2 games that I own and can even buy that I can really enjoy as well.
I also suggest you look at http://www.vgchartz.com/ and look at console sales to date, 10.2M (Xbox360), 9.88M (Wii) and 4.1M (PS3). Looks like the PS3 is going downhill but overall sales of a console don't mean much without taking games (take a look at the top games in Japan and the US) and services into account as well. If you use the charts properly (align launches) you will see the purchase numbers of the PS3 is almost tracking the Xbox360. The Wii is actually an exception but since it is almost 2.5 times cheaper than the PS3 it is no wonder that it has sold more quickly but the question remains will most of the people who buy a Wii actually buy many games?
For those people who can't be bothered at looking at game sales (July 2007):
Japan
1 Wii "Mario Party 8" 278,426
2 PS3 "Everybodys Golf 5" 184,354
3 DS "Taiko Drum Master DS" 89,666
4 DS "Its a Wonderful World" 86,906
5 PS2 "Powerful Pro Baseball 14" 49,217
USA
1 PS2 "Guitar Hero Encore Rocks the 80s" 374,519
2 Xbox360 "NCAA Football 08" 106,293
3 DS "Pokemon Diamond / Pearl" 97,663
4 Wii "Wii Sports" 95,171
5 Xbox360 "NASCAR 08" 70,159
I live in Australia and Linux is making quite serious inroads into the server market. The problem with the Desktop is you normally get a MS Operating System and unless you really want to go to a lot of trouble you pay the Microsoft Tax.
The company I work for (over 100,000) has over 16% (most technical) of their desktops running under Linux. Why we don't have more is the Company has a very good contact with Microsoft but at the moment the policy is "No Vista!".
Actually where you are seeing a huge switch to Linux is in India http://in.rediff.com/money/2007/aug/02linux.htm and the Asian market is looking very seriously at this. I know some people say that the Asian market is rife with piracy for MS Windows but now it is just as easy and legal to burn a Linux DVD than a MS Windows DVD (the cost is the same and no hassles from the cops), the problem is marketing and that is happening as well.
As far as MAC's go I think the market will always be small. The interface is nice and the OS is great (it's Unix after-all) but you end up paying for lots of things. Of course you could put on freeware such as Open Office but you can do that with Linux as well (normally by default) and if you really want a "Wow" interface Linux has Beryl. The Asian market, China and Russia seem to think that Linux in one form or another is great. It saves them billions.
I am now waiting for "But what about games?". Well if game developers want to pass up on a billion dollar market then that is their prerogative. The problem for game developers is DRM and how do you stop piracy which is not that easy to do under Linux. Actually many people will buy a good game if there is value adding but a mediocre game normally gets pirated.
Looked for the smiley but you are wrong (should have stayed with "Windows") :-).
c k.htm however eventually they do get cracked.
Locks in many forms have been around for a very long time http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllo
The company would have to go after IBM and Toshiba as well since they along with Sony developed the Cell Broadband engine. This is almost like taking a pen knife and attacking a fully grown tiger because if Sony looses then IBM is next and I am sure that the IBM legal team will get heavily involved with this. The only wild card is Microsoft who would love for Sony to loose this but they now have to be very carefully because of the Immersion funding coming to light.
From what I remember, Texas is a preferred place for Patent Trolls to litigate.
If you can call the pianola (like a piano but with a punched hole reader) prior art then I guess you can call generating music from a DNA sequence prior art. All you need is a sampling speed and to assign a frequency to each DNA sequence. Actually it is more complex than that since you would have to assign a sound level and possibly the length of time you can hold at the frequency. There I think I have got the gist of how to do this without reading the patent although I have to stress I am not a musician.
If the "music" player/concept is patented and it is now (sigh!) then what about the music or DNA sequence? After all music and lyrics are Copyright and if memory serves me this is for a fairly long time so we should all Copyright our DNA (err music and lyrics) so that anyone who listens to our personal music has to pay us royalties. I even think the Music industry would be interested in this. This should be fun in a law court, think DRM at it's most ludicrous.
Surprisingly Microsoft does sort of support Open Source http://www.codeplex.com/ but mainly source that only compiles or works on their applications and in the majority of cases DirectX. If you are a good programmer that has a good familiarity with MS languages and also Linux/Unix languages particularly with regard to porting the DirectX calls to X11 then it is possible to port MS Open Source code.
Actually in some of cases it is easier to see what the MS centric source does then all you need is to pick an appropriate language or languages on Linux/Unix that will let you duplicate what the software does. Of course you take a chance on infringing Copyright, but your code will be different. Actually the best way is for the original writer of the MS centric software to actually do the porting and in many ways they really do the Open Source Community and themselves a great service.
Actually I can remember the 1970's with Defender and Donkey Kong and a good player was fascinating to watch but times do change and fighters became popular to play and watch particularly if you get a skilled player but while a 2 to 10 minute game may attract a large audience it definitely won't hold them for very long. The same is true even today.
I am a fan of RPG's and Adventure games and I cannot see an audience watching someone play theses type of games although maybe a quick glance. For the person controlling the game I am sure if they enjoy it I know I do, but I can't imagine an audience watching someone playing Oblivion (as an example) who is just out to collect all the plants, I picture the commentary like:
..... ZZZZ".
:-)
"Yes he has found a blood plant and! No he could not pick it oh the humanity! Wait he has found another one and "Yes" he has picked it. Now he has found another one and "yes" he has picked it and
Of course the Thieves Guild quests could be more interesting. "Now audience we want absolute quiet since a great deal of concentration is required to open up this very hard lock"! "Oops he has just been apprehended by the Watch what should he do?"
1) Pay the fine?
2) Go to jail?
3) Fight?
We could go back to the first Super Mario Brothers games with - err no, how about Metroid or Zelda? well I leave those up to your imagination. As for Wii sports it may be family fun but for a large audience?
Can't speak for the Xbox360 although from what I can gather the upscaling is done on a chip (can anyone add to this) unlike the PS3's which is done in software, however the PS3 does IMHO a really excellent job of smoothing and upconverting DVD's to 720p, 1080i and 1080p (configurable) via HDMI and depending on your HDTV you can really pick the difference. You only get Standard Definition out if you use component cables though. Do a Google search for "ps3 firmware 1.8" to get more info (1.9 is the latest firmware).
I assume you are talking about Holographic Versatile Disk (HVD for short) or Tapestry Media. All I can say is don't hold your breath since a cheap HVD recorder/player is approx US$18,000 and the media (write once) is well over US$100 and that is OEM prices. The holographic market is not aimed at the movie or game industry (at least not yet) it is aimed at the backup and storage market which is worth billions.
:-)
The problem is picking what the next great format will be but you are right Microsoft'll still find a way to scratch it though.
Well you could down load Hero's avi's onto you PSP and then playback via your PS3 then via HDMI or component with smoothing and uponversion to 720p, 1080i or 1080p resolution. An easier way would be to get the AVI's and convert them to PS3 format (do a google search for "PS3 avi files") then you can watch Hero's on your HDTV rather than your PC screen. It will cost you the time to download the Hero's avi files and possibly $29 for the converter software and of course a PS3 and a HDTV.
A media centre could do the same thing but how much is a media centre that will smooth and upconvert avi/mp4 files to a HDTV?
If this is designed to stop thieves then it is a poor way of doing it since it is going to inconvenience legitimate purchasers. Basically a thief will steal the ipod and sell it to some sucker in the pub rather than keep it. If you use the IMEI code in a mobile as an analogy it is actually possible to change the number (try using Google with "imei unlock" - you will get over a million hits) however the average thief does not have the facilities to do this so he will sell the mobile as soon as possible.
When I read the article I was struck how this this technique was not that novel or even innovative since this technique is really all about what to do when two supposed mating devices detect that their codes do not match (sort of like modern car keys) and for this they get a patent? Talk about obvious but then again it appears you can get a patent on just about anything in the US. Sorry I did not look at the actual patent, I don't really want a headache since all patents are written in legalese which is not really compatible to a professional engineers thought processes.
You left out the "IMHO" but I think you got modded unfairly. However from my personal perspective the only games I like on the Wii are Zelda and later on "Metroid" which to me is not a great incentive to buy the console considering we have to pay AU$399 (US$342) in Australia and most games are in the AU$99 (US$85) mark and will stay that price while PS3 and Xbox360 games actually drop by 30% to 50% after 3 to 4 months. I am quite sure the people in Europe and the UK would agree with me on this.
I can't remember when I last purchased and EA game since I am not into sporting games and I do have quite a lot of PS1 and PS2 games as well as 10 Gamecube games and none of them are made by EA. Still if people like EA games that is their prerogative.