Despite what a lot of posters believe, I have found most cops to be reasonable people. Imagine yourself in their shoes. They have to deal with all sorts of people, ranging from ordinary folks to violent criminals to self-righteous politicians. So one of the things they have to do is quickly size up who they are dealing with as a matter of survival. It is important to recognize this and act in a way that shows them that you are a reasonable person and not a threat or self-important jerk.
They are not experts in the law, but are charged with enforcing it. When in doubt, they may feel the need to take you to the station and let their bosses sort out the problem. How you act has a great deal of influence on this decision.
Just like most of us, they are working stiffs and have bosses. They are expected to do what the bosses tell (or don't tell) them to do. Arresting you is a lot of work and they would rather just resolve the issue and move on.
They are tasked with protection and when they see things that may be threatening, they attempt to address it. Usually it is a boss or Homeland Security training that says "watch out for photographers". So the guy is just doing what he was told.
When I have been approached, I act respectful, ask what his concern is, then ask if I may open my camera bag and show him the document that indicates to me that I may photograph. They appreciate my understanding and upon reviewing the docs, we always come to agreement.
This is not some stupid them-vs-us argment. If you handle this right, you educate them (a good thing) and/or yourself. If we all did this, life would be easier for all of us.
Reading these posts is quite entertaining, but upon reflection you can clearly see that our industry uses poor choices in naming things.
Click on the desktop. Since the computer sits on a desk, why did they call it a desktop?
Press the Start Button. Is that the button that starts the computer (power button)?
"Drag your CD to the trashcan" - New Mac users either question this or you hear a loud thunk a CD hits the real trashcan.
Confusion between the monitor and computer. Why does the monitor even have a power button on the front? Shouldn't it get power from the PC? Actually, the old IBM mono display from the original IBM PC did just that. One power switch for all. A good idea that went away.
It's great having a laugh, but sometimes it seems like our industry doesn't really make much of an attempt to name things clearly. When was the last time you saw a power switch clearly marked "power"?
I think the problem is giving computers to students when teachers have no real experience with the technology. But if you think about this like a business, you might get more bank-for-the-buck by putting PCs on the teachers desk to automate their work. As an example, if you drive roll call from a database, and have the teacher click non-attendees, the server can send an e-mail to the parents notifying them that the student is absent. Teacher e-mail, discussion groups, etc. might reduce the administrative workload in the school, allowing the teacher to focus on teaching. It can also be used to share information on students.
Such systems would cause teachers to learn about using PCs as a useful tool with their peers, rather than put them into a position where they are embarrassed by the kids that know more than they do. Over time, this will raise the overall skills of the teachers, who will find application for PCs better than a group of slashdotters (self included). You have to start with people who run the system if you want to make a difference.
I'd suggest a Linux (or other open source platform) running a SQL database and web server. The idea would be to have a web-based application so any PC or other web device could be used on the system. Once in place, schools could use Windows, Macs or Linux. As long as it has a web browser, any computer could work, including boot-from-CD boxes and thin clients.
one of the reasons I got a Panasonic DMP-BD30 is it does NOT have an ethernet connection. You download firmware updates and burn them to CD-ROM. That means I will have a library of all the firmware updates and can revert to a previous version. I leave it to you guys to figure out the advantages.
Its a great player, BTW. Freakin fast.
Constant changes in HD market confuses consumers
on
Bad Signs For Blu-ray
·
· Score: 1
Frankly, HD TV kinda sucks. Here in the USA, cable TV is highly compressed and is horrible. Our only options for high quality is Blu-Ray and uncompressed over-the-air broadcast.
Usually, I cannot stand to watch HDTV because I see all the compression artifacts and macro blocks. Most people donâ(TM)t realize anything is wrong. If I point out the macro blocks, they see them too and it spoils the experience for them. I believe most people donâ(TM)t know the difference between a SD signal, compressed HD and uncompressed HD. They buy a HD-TV and believe they are seeing HD.
Consumers donâ(TM)t know what Blu-Ray is, and given the above, how do you sell a higher priced player and media? They know what a higher price is, but the âoeadvantagesâ are invisible to them. So they are making the right decision â" for them.
But my SD TV just died, so itâ(TM)s time for me to make the jump to HDTV.
In 1982, I knew HD flat screens were coming, but would be expensive. I purchased an RCA 50â projection TV, hoping it would last long enough for things to stabilize and for prices to drop. I didnâ(TM)t expect it to take 26 years.
At that time, VHS ruled but was facing competition from RCAâ(TM)s video disk (non-optical) and LaserDisc. LDâ(TM)s were best, but really expensive. I went with RCAâ(TM)s video disk. LaserDisc won that battle, but lost the war when DVD appeared. I wonder if the Blu-Ray victory over HD-DVD will be the same.
When I made the jump to HD, I was thinking about the Oppo DVD player with its great upscaling to 1080p. But Panasonic has a Blu-Ray player that upscales and is only $160 more than the Oppo, so I went for it. I hope the upscaler works good enough, and I hope Blu-Ray disks drop in price.
I avoided Sony due to their policies and the whole rootkit issue. Besides, the Sony Blu-Ray players donâ(TM)t meet the final spec, and Panasonic does. How can Sony be so screwed up?
Since Blu-Ray supports MPEG-2, some Blu-Ray disks are actually MPEG-2 videos, and not using higher quality codecs. To me, this is peeing in the pool, and could hurt Blu-Ray in the long run. If a new competitor appears (and China is said to be developing one that doesnâ(TM)t require the high royalties of Blu-Ray) then we might see a new format kill Blu-Ray, just like DVD killed LaserDisc.
So the question becomes: Will Blu-Ray prices drop BEFORE the next competitor arrives with cheap players?
I have noticed I get a lot of attention when I use my pro glass (Nikon 17-55 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8) in public. Frankly, that's huge glass and quite understandable when I have two very large cameras.
I've had security guards approach me. But I've never had any problem, because I always try to strike a friendly conversation with them. I ask for details about the policy. I point out that I understand that they are following the policy set by their boss, and have to in order to keep their job. If it is private property, I usually turn off my camera and comply (it is their property).
But, if it is public property, I point out that their boss is unaware of the law, that I can indeed photograph, and the boss could get in trouble if they try to stop me. But I don't want to cause problems for the guard. I then offer to stop taking photographs until the guard has left. That way he has done his job and his boss doesn't get into trouble. Works nearly every time.
But when it doesn't, here's the trick:
1 - display the image on the camera. 2 - place your finger on the 'delete' button. 3 - at the same time, have your finger on the "off" switch. 4 - give the camera a slight shake, as if you just hit the delete button (but don't delete). 5 - at the same time, hit the off switch. 6 - say "there you go".
The screen goes blank, and he thinks you deleted the pictures. He's happy. We're all happy.
Notice I did NOT say I would delete the picture.
Practice this a few times and you'll be able to get out of a jam easily. If they ask about other pictures, mash the "play" button, and ask "do you see any other pictures?" Since the camera is off, they won't see any.
If they get to me before I get to shoot, I ask who is in charge of press relations. Most people are generally very easy to deal with as long as YOU are easy to deal with, and very friendly.
>> My wife (the worlds worst technophobe) lost the password to her blog.
Since you know that, I'm sure you made a paper copy of the password.
>> Today I discovered that the alternate email address for the account is not only an deliverable address it's an invalid domain altogether.
Ouch. Good thing you've got that password written down.
>> So fuck Google and the Chinese Death Squads that use them. Fuck them all.
Uhh... Seems to me you've fucked yourself.
This is unfortunate, but you've not taken the correct precautions, and now want to blame Google. I'd ask for my money back.
Oh yeah... its a free service.
So, a free service that tries to protect their users ends up pissing off someone who doesn't bother to keep a copy of their password, and have an invalid email address on file.
You might Google "displaced anger". On second thought, you might prefer using Microsoft Live Search.
A ring light will reflect into the camera lens. This is because it falls into the "family of angles". If you use a copy stand to hold the camera and book, and place two lights at a 45 degree angle, the reflections fall outside the family of angles. I'd suggest using a macro lens for its ability to focus at close distances and for its flat-field. Most lenses focus on a curved field and you will have difficulty getting the center and edges in focus at the same time.
I created a 4 hour video on building boats. I sell probably 30 a year. An online video rental site bought a legal copy and now rents my video out at $15 per week. Ok, so they showed you where the market is. Why don't you beat them at their own game by renting the video? Your's will always be "fresher" and you can add value in other ways.
So instead of complaining about it, you should realize there is not much of a market for an $80 video, but there is for a $15/week rental. You should thank them for that.
Additional value can come from providing links to building material suppliers, discussion site, blog, etc. Build it so the renters will get more from you than anyone else. And some of the suppliers might pay you to advertise on your site or DVD.
I'm sure it seems evil to you, but not to a lot of engineers that use this stuff. In the old days, we spent $6000 or more on 3D graphics cards. Along comes nVidia with the Quadro cards at really affordable prices. They achieve this by using components that work for both gamers and engineers. So rather than spreading the cost of chip development across a somewhat small number of users, nVidia creates a do-all chip and can spread the development costs across a much larger community. We don't mind paying the extra costs of higher quality components, more RAM and application-specific drivers.
The only other business model I see working is for nVidia to charge separately for the CAD drivers, which would reduce the cost of the hardware. But that creates a huge problem with pirating. So it's not unreasonable to view the Quadro product line as a card + software package, with the card itself acting as a copy protection device. And I'm OK with that, because it is non-intrusive. Anytime I need a new driver, I can download it.
It's easier to get the boss to pay for the card when I get a new workstation than to justify the purchase of drivers. So their business model works fine for professional use.
With both GM and Toyota working on this (among others), I expect the timeline sequence will go in this order.
1 - Driverless Option: Mostly used on freeways for long trips and commuting. Debug phase. Ability to draft for long distances provide great fuel mileage.
2 - Driverless preferred: All but a few streets and parking garages support driverless mode. Becomes a required feature on all cars.
3 - Driverless pervasive: No need to drive at all. Self guiding/self parking picks you up at the door like a cab. Complaints about human driven cars begin.
4 - Mobile Living Room launched: No ability to be human driven, except in service mode. Human driven cars become disruptive to flow/comfort/safety. Drinks spilled == congressman called.
5 - Human driven cars banned.
6 - software vs. hardware: Lawyers argue who is at fault in the mysterious crashes of GM/Microsoft cars, which killed millions in the AM commute.
"The computer performance would just gradually slow down until the car just simply stopped responding, usually with the gas pedal down, and would just drive off into the bush until we pulled the plug."
Whatever issues the software guys had, the hardware control guys are the real story. They designed a machine that they KNEW would run out of control with potentially deadly results. If it had run over someone, these guys would surely be arrested for manslaughter. Now imagine they can't "pull the plug" because they dropped the remote control, AA batteries died, got out of range, etc. Now you have a out of control truck heading for that group of Boy Scout hikers, a highway or other contestants.
Who the hell was supervising these students? I want to make sure I don't hire anyone from THAT school.
I have a 1985 GMC pickup truck for sale, with very little rust. I'm quite certain that you don't want to see it go to Google, so I wanted to give you a chance to pick it up for the low low price of only $6 million. It's capable of hauling large loads. Imagine yourself hauling Balmer's broken chairs, piles of money or boxes of Vista to the the dump. Better hurry, because the Google guys are coming buy this afternoon.
Check or Cash would be fine. No Microsoft stock, please.
>> Says Jennifer Pariser, the head of litigation for Sony BMG: 'When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.
Trying to convince me to steal?
So, it's OK for Sony to put a root kit on my PC, but it's stealing if I take a CD that I paid for and make a backup copy of the data (music) on my computer. Hmmm...
If I can't "rip" it to my iPod, then I don't need the CD. Problem solved for both of us, and I'll just keep my money. If I wanted to "steal", I wouldn't bother giving them any money in the first place.
I look forward to Sony Management describing this new "plan" to the shareholders.
Bush: We've go to do something to get rid of all those dangerous hackers.
Vader: Perhaps we could post a video showing them how to make a dangerous weapon that they would accidentally use on themselves.
Jobs: Hmmm... there's a dangerous laser in DVD burners.
Gates: Yeah, let's hope that works better than your plan to make them all deaf with your stupid iPod, or get them run over walking across the street, playing with their iPhone.
While there are good engineering reasons for Apple's design decision, as well as income reasons, I wonder if Apple plans to take advantage of the future battery replacement to offer firmware/hardware upgrades. Since we all agree that AT&T's EDGE is painfully slow, and the phone appears to lack the hardware for HSDPA, perhaps Apple will offer an upgrade.
Of course, Apple has trained all of us iPod users to keep chargers at home, work and in the car, and to expect high-priced battery replacement. And they have trained us not to expect any form of upgrades.
The real question I have is WHY? Why does the iPhone NEED a driver? My Nikon D200 plugs into any computer (W2k, XP, XP64, Linux, OS X) and just works. The apps i've written talk to the device through usb, no device driver needed. Perhaps I'm missing something here that a brighter person will point out. Could it be that Apple want's to create a poor experience in Windows, like their complete disregard for the user interface in iTunes/Win?
I'm one of those guys who needs >4GB for CAD and FEA, so I'm running XP64 on a workstation with 16GB RAM. I have yet to see an app that won't work on XP64. I'm sure they exist, and I'm sure there's lots of drivers that don't work - I just haven't seen the problem. And I fully expected to see lots of issues. So it's much better than I'd expected.
My iPod failed again, so I'm on my third replacement. I won't be considering an iPhone any time soon. The need to send it in for battery replacement is so stupid. Imagine being without your phone for 1 to 3 weeks while that goes on... I'm assuming that amount of time, since that's what my iPod experience has been.
iPhone does run an os named 'OS X' but that doesn't mean it has anything in common with the Darwin-based OS X running on the Macs. Just because Microsoft calls several products 'Windows' doesn't mean they share much (if any) code.
>> Back in the 1980s, when consumer electronics came from Japan, the Japanese makers were frantically trying to automated enough to keep their labor costs down.
>> Now everybody has those long lines of low-paid women in some low-wage area.
First, it's not a bad thing to provide employment for people. You might recall the auto unions terrified that robots would replace workers. So using people to assemble things is not a bad thing.
It's actually pretty difficult to make an automated machine that can assemble parts. Some of the ones we have cost nearly $1 million. At that price, we can only afford to use them where the product doesn't change, and/or there are serious hazards to having a human do the job.
Since motherboards change a lot, using automated equipment would add delays, increase capital expense, and require a highly skilled team to keep them running. If you put 20 robots in a continuous line, a failure of one shuts down the line. If you only get 3 failures per year per robot, your line is down 60 times per year. You can retrain humans quickly, and they adapt quickly to design changes. Humans are a good thing...
You'll see a lot of humans in a Toyota plant. They were never automated, just well run and well managed.
I'm one of those 2% users - I run 3D CAD and FEA engineering apps. You'd think when you pay $20K for applications, it would take advantage of 64 bit multi-processor systems, since that stuff has been around for over 10 years, right? Every version of Windows NT since July 1993 has supported multi-processor systems.
I just got a new HP XW workstation - quad core Xeon, 16 GB RAM, 3 SCSI 320 drives. It's quite the hot rod. But my CAD system isn't much faster, since it only taxes one core. Worse, my FEA package is only 32-bit, so it can't use more than 2GB of RAM.
Meanwhile, I'm writing this on a 6 year old Athlon XP 2000 (1.6 Ghz) and 512 MB RAM, Windows 2000, Office 97. Believe it or not - _most_ of the time it doesn't feel any slower. The newer software sucks up all the added CPU power.
I do find that a faster single or dual core CPU does make a difference. But if you really want speed, get any modern CPU and run old software on it. The cheapest Athlon 64 running Windows NT 4 and Office 97 will freakin' fly.
It took 10 years for 32-bit apps to become mainstream after the introduction of the 386. Now that we have multi-core 64-bit systems, with 64-bit Operating Systems, I wonder how long it will take for our apps to catch up.
Slashdot Mirror
Despite what a lot of posters believe, I have found most cops to be reasonable people. Imagine yourself in their shoes. They have to deal with all sorts of people, ranging from ordinary folks to violent criminals to self-righteous politicians. So one of the things they have to do is quickly size up who they are dealing with as a matter of survival. It is important to recognize this and act in a way that shows them that you are a reasonable person and not a threat or self-important jerk.
They are not experts in the law, but are charged with enforcing it. When in doubt, they may feel the need to take you to the station and let their bosses sort out the problem. How you act has a great deal of influence on this decision.
Just like most of us, they are working stiffs and have bosses. They are expected to do what the bosses tell (or don't tell) them to do. Arresting you is a lot of work and they would rather just resolve the issue and move on.
They are tasked with protection and when they see things that may be threatening, they attempt to address it. Usually it is a boss or Homeland Security training that says "watch out for photographers". So the guy is just doing what he was told.
When I have been approached, I act respectful, ask what his concern is, then ask if I may open my camera bag and show him the document that indicates to me that I may photograph. They appreciate my understanding and upon reviewing the docs, we always come to agreement.
This is not some stupid them-vs-us argment. If you handle this right, you educate them (a good thing) and/or yourself. If we all did this, life would be easier for all of us.
Reading these posts is quite entertaining, but upon reflection you can clearly see that our industry uses poor choices in naming things.
Click on the desktop. Since the computer sits on a desk, why did they call it a desktop?
Press the Start Button. Is that the button that starts the computer (power button)?
"Drag your CD to the trashcan" - New Mac users either question this or you hear a loud thunk a CD hits the real trashcan.
Confusion between the monitor and computer. Why does the monitor even have a power button on the front? Shouldn't it get power from the PC? Actually, the old IBM mono display from the original IBM PC did just that. One power switch for all. A good idea that went away.
It's great having a laugh, but sometimes it seems like our industry doesn't really make much of an attempt to name things clearly. When was the last time you saw a power switch clearly marked "power"?
Yes. Yes, you will....
So that suggests the YOU are the ideal backup. Could you kindly provide longevity statistics of your relatives so we can compute MTBF?
I think the problem is giving computers to students when teachers have no real experience with the technology. But if you think about this like a business, you might get more bank-for-the-buck by putting PCs on the teachers desk to automate their work. As an example, if you drive roll call from a database, and have the teacher click non-attendees, the server can send an e-mail to the parents notifying them that the student is absent. Teacher e-mail, discussion groups, etc. might reduce the administrative workload in the school, allowing the teacher to focus on teaching. It can also be used to share information on students.
Such systems would cause teachers to learn about using PCs as a useful tool with their peers, rather than put them into a position where they are embarrassed by the kids that know more than they do. Over time, this will raise the overall skills of the teachers, who will find application for PCs better than a group of slashdotters (self included). You have to start with people who run the system if you want to make a difference.
I'd suggest a Linux (or other open source platform) running a SQL database and web server. The idea would be to have a web-based application so any PC or other web device could be used on the system. Once in place, schools could use Windows, Macs or Linux. As long as it has a web browser, any computer could work, including boot-from-CD boxes and thin clients.
Might this be a worthy application of our time?
one of the reasons I got a Panasonic DMP-BD30 is it does NOT have an ethernet connection. You download firmware updates and burn them to CD-ROM. That means I will have a library of all the firmware updates and can revert to a previous version. I leave it to you guys to figure out the advantages.
Its a great player, BTW. Freakin fast.
Frankly, HD TV kinda sucks. Here in the USA, cable TV is highly compressed and is horrible. Our only options for high quality is Blu-Ray and uncompressed over-the-air broadcast.
Usually, I cannot stand to watch HDTV because I see all the compression artifacts and macro blocks. Most people donâ(TM)t realize anything is wrong. If I point out the macro blocks, they see them too and it spoils the experience for them. I believe most people donâ(TM)t know the difference between a SD signal, compressed HD and uncompressed HD. They buy a HD-TV and believe they are seeing HD.
Consumers donâ(TM)t know what Blu-Ray is, and given the above, how do you sell a higher priced player and media? They know what a higher price is, but the âoeadvantagesâ are invisible to them. So they are making the right decision â" for them.
But my SD TV just died, so itâ(TM)s time for me to make the jump to HDTV.
In 1982, I knew HD flat screens were coming, but would be expensive. I purchased an RCA 50â projection TV, hoping it would last long enough for things to stabilize and for prices to drop. I didnâ(TM)t expect it to take 26 years.
At that time, VHS ruled but was facing competition from RCAâ(TM)s video disk (non-optical) and LaserDisc. LDâ(TM)s were best, but really expensive. I went with RCAâ(TM)s video disk. LaserDisc won that battle, but lost the war when DVD appeared. I wonder if the Blu-Ray victory over HD-DVD will be the same.
When I made the jump to HD, I was thinking about the Oppo DVD player with its great upscaling to 1080p. But Panasonic has a Blu-Ray player that upscales and is only $160 more than the Oppo, so I went for it. I hope the upscaler works good enough, and I hope Blu-Ray disks drop in price.
I avoided Sony due to their policies and the whole rootkit issue. Besides, the Sony Blu-Ray players donâ(TM)t meet the final spec, and Panasonic does. How can Sony be so screwed up?
Since Blu-Ray supports MPEG-2, some Blu-Ray disks are actually MPEG-2 videos, and not using higher quality codecs. To me, this is peeing in the pool, and could hurt Blu-Ray in the long run. If a new competitor appears (and China is said to be developing one that doesnâ(TM)t require the high royalties of Blu-Ray) then we might see a new format kill Blu-Ray, just like DVD killed LaserDisc.
So the question becomes: Will Blu-Ray prices drop BEFORE the next competitor arrives with cheap players?
And so begin, the Linux wars...
I have noticed I get a lot of attention when I use my pro glass (Nikon 17-55 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8) in public. Frankly, that's huge glass and quite understandable when I have two very large cameras.
I've had security guards approach me. But I've never had any problem, because I always try to strike a friendly conversation with them. I ask for details about the policy. I point out that I understand that they are following the policy set by their boss, and have to in order to keep their job. If it is private property, I usually turn off my camera and comply (it is their property).
But, if it is public property, I point out that their boss is unaware of the law, that I can indeed photograph, and the boss could get in trouble if they try to stop me. But I don't want to cause problems for the guard. I then offer to stop taking photographs until the guard has left. That way he has done his job and his boss doesn't get into trouble. Works nearly every time.
But when it doesn't, here's the trick:
1 - display the image on the camera.
2 - place your finger on the 'delete' button.
3 - at the same time, have your finger on the "off" switch.
4 - give the camera a slight shake, as if you just hit the delete button (but don't delete).
5 - at the same time, hit the off switch.
6 - say "there you go".
The screen goes blank, and he thinks you deleted the pictures. He's happy. We're all happy.
Notice I did NOT say I would delete the picture.
Practice this a few times and you'll be able to get out of a jam easily. If they ask about other pictures, mash the "play" button, and ask "do you see any other pictures?" Since the camera is off, they won't see any.
If they get to me before I get to shoot, I ask who is in charge of press relations. Most people are generally very easy to deal with as long as YOU are easy to deal with, and very friendly.
>> My wife (the worlds worst technophobe) lost the password to her blog.
Since you know that, I'm sure you made a paper copy of the password.
>> Today I discovered that the alternate email address for the account is not only an deliverable address it's an invalid domain altogether.
Ouch. Good thing you've got that password written down.
>> So fuck Google and the Chinese Death Squads that use them. Fuck them all.
Uhh... Seems to me you've fucked yourself.
This is unfortunate, but you've not taken the correct precautions, and now want to blame Google. I'd ask for my money back.
Oh yeah... its a free service.
So, a free service that tries to protect their users ends up pissing off someone who doesn't bother to keep a copy of their password, and have an invalid email address on file.
You might Google "displaced anger". On second thought, you might prefer using Microsoft Live Search.
A ring light will reflect into the camera lens. This is because it falls into the "family of angles". If you use a copy stand to hold the camera and book, and place two lights at a 45 degree angle, the reflections fall outside the family of angles. I'd suggest using a macro lens for its ability to focus at close distances and for its flat-field. Most lenses focus on a curved field and you will have difficulty getting the center and edges in focus at the same time.
And please let us know where you parked the car, containing your laptop.
Could you leave it there overnight?
So instead of complaining about it, you should realize there is not much of a market for an $80 video, but there is for a $15/week rental. You should thank them for that.
Additional value can come from providing links to building material suppliers, discussion site, blog, etc. Build it so the renters will get more from you than anyone else. And some of the suppliers might pay you to advertise on your site or DVD.
I'm sure it seems evil to you, but not to a lot of engineers that use this stuff. In the old days, we spent $6000 or more on 3D graphics cards. Along comes nVidia with the Quadro cards at really affordable prices. They achieve this by using components that work for both gamers and engineers. So rather than spreading the cost of chip development across a somewhat small number of users, nVidia creates a do-all chip and can spread the development costs across a much larger community. We don't mind paying the extra costs of higher quality components, more RAM and application-specific drivers. The only other business model I see working is for nVidia to charge separately for the CAD drivers, which would reduce the cost of the hardware. But that creates a huge problem with pirating. So it's not unreasonable to view the Quadro product line as a card + software package, with the card itself acting as a copy protection device. And I'm OK with that, because it is non-intrusive. Anytime I need a new driver, I can download it. It's easier to get the boss to pay for the card when I get a new workstation than to justify the purchase of drivers. So their business model works fine for professional use.
With both GM and Toyota working on this (among others), I expect the timeline sequence will go in this order.
1 - Driverless Option: Mostly used on freeways for long trips and commuting. Debug phase. Ability to draft for long distances provide great fuel mileage.
2 - Driverless preferred: All but a few streets and parking garages support driverless mode. Becomes a required feature on all cars.
3 - Driverless pervasive: No need to drive at all. Self guiding/self parking picks you up at the door like a cab. Complaints about human driven cars begin.
4 - Mobile Living Room launched: No ability to be human driven, except in service mode. Human driven cars become disruptive to flow/comfort/safety. Drinks spilled == congressman called.
5 - Human driven cars banned.
6 - software vs. hardware: Lawyers argue who is at fault in the mysterious crashes of GM/Microsoft cars, which killed millions in the AM commute.
From TFA:
"The computer performance would just gradually slow down until the car just simply stopped responding, usually with the gas pedal down, and would just drive off into the bush until we pulled the plug."
Whatever issues the software guys had, the hardware control guys are the real story. They designed a machine that they KNEW would run out of control with potentially deadly results. If it had run over someone, these guys would surely be arrested for manslaughter. Now imagine they can't "pull the plug" because they dropped the remote control, AA batteries died, got out of range, etc. Now you have a out of control truck heading for that group of Boy Scout hikers, a highway or other contestants.
Who the hell was supervising these students? I want to make sure I don't hire anyone from THAT school.
We could gain traffic by posting boobs or covering other subjects, but that would distract us from our real focus. And it would drive you guys away
Well, that depends on who's boobs you post.
Dear Mr. Gates,
I have a 1985 GMC pickup truck for sale, with very little rust. I'm quite certain that you don't want to see it go to Google, so I wanted to give you a chance to pick it up for the low low price of only $6 million. It's capable of hauling large loads. Imagine yourself hauling Balmer's broken chairs, piles of money or boxes of Vista to the the dump. Better hurry, because the Google guys are coming buy this afternoon.
Check or Cash would be fine. No Microsoft stock, please.
Ken
>> Says Jennifer Pariser, the head of litigation for Sony BMG: 'When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.
Trying to convince me to steal?
So, it's OK for Sony to put a root kit on my PC, but it's stealing if I take a CD that I paid for and make a backup copy of the data (music) on my computer. Hmmm...
If I can't "rip" it to my iPod, then I don't need the CD. Problem solved for both of us, and I'll just keep my money. If I wanted to "steal", I wouldn't bother giving them any money in the first place.
I look forward to Sony Management describing this new "plan" to the shareholders.
Bush: We've go to do something to get rid of all those dangerous hackers.
Vader: Perhaps we could post a video showing them how to make a dangerous weapon that they would accidentally use on themselves.
Jobs: Hmmm... there's a dangerous laser in DVD burners.
Gates: Yeah, let's hope that works better than your plan to make them all deaf with your stupid iPod, or get them run over walking across the street, playing with their iPhone.
While there are good engineering reasons for Apple's design decision, as well as income reasons, I wonder if Apple plans to take advantage of the future battery replacement to offer firmware/hardware upgrades. Since we all agree that AT&T's EDGE is painfully slow, and the phone appears to lack the hardware for HSDPA, perhaps Apple will offer an upgrade.
Of course, Apple has trained all of us iPod users to keep chargers at home, work and in the car, and to expect high-priced battery replacement. And they have trained us not to expect any form of upgrades.
The real question I have is WHY? Why does the iPhone NEED a driver? My Nikon D200 plugs into any computer (W2k, XP, XP64, Linux, OS X) and just works. The apps i've written talk to the device through usb, no device driver needed. Perhaps I'm missing something here that a brighter person will point out. Could it be that Apple want's to create a poor experience in Windows, like their complete disregard for the user interface in iTunes/Win?
I'm one of those guys who needs >4GB for CAD and FEA, so I'm running XP64 on a workstation with 16GB RAM. I have yet to see an app that won't work on XP64. I'm sure they exist, and I'm sure there's lots of drivers that don't work - I just haven't seen the problem. And I fully expected to see lots of issues. So it's much better than I'd expected.
My iPod failed again, so I'm on my third replacement. I won't be considering an iPhone any time soon. The need to send it in for battery replacement is so stupid. Imagine being without your phone for 1 to 3 weeks while that goes on... I'm assuming that amount of time, since that's what my iPod experience has been.
iPhone does run an os named 'OS X' but that doesn't mean it has anything in common with the Darwin-based OS X running on the Macs. Just because Microsoft calls several products 'Windows' doesn't mean they share much (if any) code.
>> Back in the 1980s, when consumer electronics came from Japan, the Japanese makers were frantically trying to automated enough to keep their labor costs down.
>> Now everybody has those long lines of low-paid women in some low-wage area.
First, it's not a bad thing to provide employment for people. You might recall the auto unions terrified that robots would replace workers. So using people to assemble things is not a bad thing.
It's actually pretty difficult to make an automated machine that can assemble parts. Some of the ones we have cost nearly $1 million. At that price, we can only afford to use them where the product doesn't change, and/or there are serious hazards to having a human do the job.
Since motherboards change a lot, using automated equipment would add delays, increase capital expense, and require a highly skilled team to keep them running. If you put 20 robots in a continuous line, a failure of one shuts down the line. If you only get 3 failures per year per robot, your line is down 60 times per year. You can retrain humans quickly, and they adapt quickly to design changes. Humans are a good thing...
You'll see a lot of humans in a Toyota plant. They were never automated, just well run and well managed.
I'm one of those 2% users - I run 3D CAD and FEA engineering apps. You'd think when you pay $20K for applications, it would take advantage of 64 bit multi-processor systems, since that stuff has been around for over 10 years, right? Every version of Windows NT since July 1993 has supported multi-processor systems.
I just got a new HP XW workstation - quad core Xeon, 16 GB RAM, 3 SCSI 320 drives. It's quite the hot rod. But my CAD system isn't much faster, since it only taxes one core. Worse, my FEA package is only 32-bit, so it can't use more than 2GB of RAM.
Meanwhile, I'm writing this on a 6 year old Athlon XP 2000 (1.6 Ghz) and 512 MB RAM, Windows 2000, Office 97. Believe it or not - _most_ of the time it doesn't feel any slower. The newer software sucks up all the added CPU power.
I do find that a faster single or dual core CPU does make a difference. But if you really want speed, get any modern CPU and run old software on it. The cheapest Athlon 64 running Windows NT 4 and Office 97 will freakin' fly.
It took 10 years for 32-bit apps to become mainstream after the introduction of the 386. Now that we have multi-core 64-bit systems, with 64-bit Operating Systems, I wonder how long it will take for our apps to catch up.