For what it's worth, Briggs and Stratton doesn't actually manufacture lawn mowers. It's a small-engine manufacturer, whose products are frequently used in cheaper lawn mowers.
It's the same idea, but one step removed: keep the upscale product from competing with the manufacturers who buy your components.
Average usually refers to mean [answers.com], as you're probably aware, but you're also right that people tend to be pretty loose with the definition.
They're not being "pretty loose" with the definition. There is no mathematical definition of the term; only linguistic ones, and linguistic definitions are somewhat arbitrary, and sometimes conflicting, as the dictionary entry proves.
...in OS X uses a sharper acceleration curve than on Windows. Nudge the mouse, and the pointer moves a couple of pixels. Jerk it the same distance, and it'll fly across a hi-def Cinema display. It can actually move much faster than the Windows pointer.
It's a matter of re-learning your hand-eye-mouse coordination. If the USB Overdrive behavior were the default, millions of graphic artists, and anyone who needs fine control, would cry out in anguish.
Hondas are no more "plastic" than any other car these days. You'll find plastic bumper covers and door handles on any Buick, Ford, Toyota, Jeep or Nissan.
GM, during the '90s, was the leader in plastic cars, with plastic side panels on the Saturn and the TransSport/Lumina minivans. (Both of which certainly were "cheap and not durable.")
Particulary a camera phone, or GPS-enabled phone.... you don't see a use for things like that? Why would you want to shoot down the notion before you even investigate? Believe me, they will waste your tax money one way or the other
Are you seriously suggesting that law enforcement gather evidence using a cameraphone? I'd much rather have my tax money "wasted" on giving agents the actual tools (GPS receivers, telephoto-lens cameras, maybe a laptop) they need, not gimmicky RadioShack all-in-one gadgets.
"What do you mean, send out a crime scene photographer? Don't you have a cell phone?"
Did it ever occur to you that maybe email and the web are not the source of the problem?
I'd like to believe (I don't, but I'd like to) that the FBI is composed of professionals who don't goof off all day. Don't play Solitaire, don't play online poker, don't google naked chicks, don't forward virus warnings or stories of gangsters driving around with their headlights off.
I'd like to believe that any FBI agent doing this for significant portions of his/her workday would be warned, punished, and fired.
Now, I don't really believe that, but I do believe that any such employee, government or otherwise, will be goofing off whether you give him or her a company email address or not.
The keyword here is "support." Apple does not "support" running Windows, or any OS besides Mac OS X, on its hardware. Why they chose this route is very easy to understand.
When Apple designed the MacIntel architecture, it started with a clean sheet of paper, including only the hardware and firmware that would be useful to a Mac OS customer. The result was a simple, legacy-free design that avoids much of the baggage that the x86 world has carried for over 20 years.
To support Windows, Apple would have to include a legacy BIOS layer, VGA BIOS, and who knows what else. This would complicate the hardware from the get-go. Second, Apple would have to either A) License Windows from Microsoft, and include it with every Macintel (a very expensive proposition) or B) answer dozens of AppleCare calls from users as they try to install WinXP, configure appropriate drivers, and get a registration key (also a very expensive proposition, especially for a company that does not already have Windows-trained call center techs.
I know of no mainstream vendors who support home users with a dual-boot configuration. And very few will support even corporate customers who dual-boot.
Virtually everyone accused of terrorism in the United States in the past quarter-century has had little or nothing in the way of an "estate" or "next of kin." If anything, they have an incentive to avoid any permanent ties. Even if there were a married-with-children terrorist, I doubt concern for his family's financial liability would deter him or her from incurring large debts.
(See: Ted Kaczynski, the Oklahoma City guys, the World Trade Center truckbomb guys, and the September 11 guys.)
It probably won't matter, unless you can somehow convince them that the new Ma Bell will somehow result in increased profanity and nudity on television. But in theory, the FCC has some authority in this matter.
What they did have was something that's been dropped - service. You needed a phone installed, it was done, and done quickly. Have a problem? Fixed. Need to talk to someone about an issue? There was someone on the end of the line. Compare that today's "advantages". Need a phone installed? Wait a week or two. Got a problem with your line? Maybe they'll get around to fixing it in the next month. Have a problem with your bill, or need to talk to someone about an issue with your phone service? Welcome to the support hell of pushing buttons, listening to recorded messages, pushing more buttons, and maybe at the end of it you'll get to talk to someone who may speak English.
In my experience, the local Bell/Baby Bell company hasn't changed much. Before the breakup, it wasn't particularly prompt when it came to service or installation calls. Oh, they'd show up, and they'd fix your issues, but on their own schedule. Not much has changed now.
Same thing with service. I can get customer service about as easily as I could then, 24/7/365. They speak clear American English, and have been among the more polite and patient drones I've talked to.
Removeable covers. They cost next to nothing; I replace the screen cover every 6 months or so (so, about once per 'phone).
Ahh, I see. Instead of being unreadable because of the scratches, they're unreadable because of the glare, and the air bubbles that work their way under the vinyl.
Have you heard of keylock? It's not a "knock code", nor even a "lock code"; it's a combination of two keys, of which one is the key you'd press anyway to start finding a number.
That's exactly what the poster was referring to. If you like it, great. You're welcome to it. I despise it.
Umm. Whut? They put some lovely DSPs in there so it doesn't matter. I speak very softly into the 'phone, but it still picks up everything I say. We're not living in the 1950s.
"Umm Whut?" is exactly what you say. Because not only do those omnidirectional microphones pick up everything you say, but every bit of environmental noise as well. In a noisy environment (and seriously, does anyone use a mobile phone anywhere quiet?) the DSPs are so busy filtering out background noise that they chop up the actual voice beyond recognition.
Since when is bigger better? And every clamshell I've ever seen is larger even when folded than my Nokia, so...
Bigger phones mean larger screens and keypads. Every Nokia I've seen is bigger than my V60, yet still has a cramped keypad with no spacing between buttons.
I've had a mobile since '97, getting a new one every 12-18 months or so
I'm sure you do. Last year my Dad finally dunked his battered three-year-old StarTAC in the toilet. His replacement Nokia candybar was replaced within six months because the exposed keypad came off completly. (Yes, he does use a case.) The replacement's keypad also came off. He decided not to bother replacing it; the keypad is now held in place by transparent tape.
Really, you can't "teach" children to critically analyze scientific theory. Psychologists believe* that children before adolescence can't even understand the kind of abstract thought, and some never develop that level of cognition.
Students presented with any kind of "critical reasoning curriculum" will rapidly develop a disdain for any material. "This is all bunk, anyway, the teacher said so. We'll just memorize it for the test, because we'll never use it in real life."
Grade school is probably not the place for that kind of instruction. If someone needs to understand the nature of scientific reasoning, they'll learn it in college.
*As with all branches of the sciences, psychology is a developing field of knowledge, and subject to many conflicting viewpoints. Do not take any psychological theory as absolute fact. This disclaimer brought to you by the Slashdot Bored of Edjoocashun.
Apple never bought Pixar. Pixar was an independent company until it was purchased by Disney this year. Nor does Apple own Renderman; it's still a Pixar product.
Apple is debt-free, or very nearly so. Being able to pay for R&D without having to issue bonds is great for a technology company. The technology sector is fond of boom-bust cycles; get caught in a bust with a large debt load, and you're sunk. Whenever the next iPod-type idea comes along, Apple will be able to pour money into it without hesitation.
For similar reasons, Microsoft also had a huge cash stockpile. Theirs was, IIRC, several times the size of Apple's today. They were forced to pay a dividend, because no conceivable expense could ever call for such a horde.
"First, not all computers have the necessary card slot. ( Apple's iBooks and new MacBook Pro laptops come to mind.) Second, a mobile router can accommodate machines with no wireless features at all -- like desktop computers -- thanks to standard Ethernet network jacks on the back. (The Kyocera has four, the Junxion two and the Top Global one.)"
And, if I am crazy enough to do that (or I need to share with a business unit), I can plug the card into my laptop and turn on internet connection sharing with my laptop's WiFi adapter.
What if said business unit does not feel like having to follow you around to use the connection? Or doesn't want to have it's Internet connection interrupted when you go to lunch?
If you're an average Joe, a good PC will make a good web/email/file server. But if you're a corporate IT department, and your server runs anything "mission critical," then you get a purpose-built server. Which should have, depending on your specific requirements:
- Blinkenlights. Not pretty neon-and-blue-LED light shows, but honest-to-god diagnostic lights for disks, NICs, and CPUs. On the front, where you can see them.
- Hot-swappable everything. Every component, from individual CPUs to the power supplies, should be redundant, and designed in such a way that it can be removed and replaced without shutting down the machine. (Though some servers are less robust)
- Monitoring software. If a fan, disk, memory module, or power supply is on the way out, something should blink a light, send an automatic email, and (possibly) call the vendor for a service call should anything go wrong.
And of course, a a sturdy case, effective cooling, and ECC memory.
Safari doesn't and can't run applications. It only decompresses archives. The proof-of-concept travels by ZIP archive, which Safari will automatically open.
Problem being, the ZIP archive's payload can be a trojan, and decompressing it exposes that trojan to the user.
IBM didn't invent anything new here. Rather, they proved that photolithography--the same technology used to build chips for decades--will continue to yield faster chips for the foreseeable future. In other words, silicon hasn't "hit the wall" just yet.
IBM Microelectronics doesn't have a monopoly over photolithography. They couldn't get a patent if they tried--there's prior art going back about half a century. In other words, it's good news for IBM, Intel, AMD, Texas Instruments, Micron, Freescale, Agere, Samsung, Fujitsu, and anyone else building chips.
But feel free to wave the POWER flag if you like. It's a nice architecture.
The Classic OS was a lot like its contemporary, Windows 98. It could be amazingly stable, or ridiculously unreliable, depending on configuration. And by "configuration," I mean "extension set."
A properly administered OS 8/9 Macintosh could remain up for weeks at a time. An improperly administered one would crash ever hour.
Using this for 8 hours a day? Imagine how tired your arms, your wrists would be!
Yeah, it's much healthier to hold your hands rigid in the same position, and use your fingers to perform the same short motions repeatedly for eight hours a day.
Don't make me to spell it out in anatomical detail.
I don't know about you, but I have five fingers on each of my hands. That gives me up to five points of contact for the screen (one of which is opposable to the other four) while leaving the other hand free.
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For what it's worth, Briggs and Stratton doesn't actually manufacture lawn mowers. It's a small-engine manufacturer, whose products are frequently used in cheaper lawn mowers.
It's the same idea, but one step removed: keep the upscale product from competing with the manufacturers who buy your components.
Average usually refers to mean [answers.com], as you're probably aware, but you're also right that people tend to be pretty loose with the definition.
They're not being "pretty loose" with the definition. There is no mathematical definition of the term; only linguistic ones, and linguistic definitions are somewhat arbitrary, and sometimes conflicting, as the dictionary entry proves.
The Wikipedia article goes into more detail.
Average = (arithmetic) mean only by custom, not by definition.
...in OS X uses a sharper acceleration curve than on Windows. Nudge the mouse, and the pointer moves a couple of pixels. Jerk it the same distance, and it'll fly across a hi-def Cinema display. It can actually move much faster than the Windows pointer.
It's a matter of re-learning your hand-eye-mouse coordination. If the USB Overdrive behavior were the default, millions of graphic artists, and anyone who needs fine control, would cry out in anguish.
...Ken Olsen's quote was referring not to PCs, but to computers literally "in the home"-- what we now call the "Smart house" idea.
Hondas are no more "plastic" than any other car these days. You'll find plastic bumper covers and door handles on any Buick, Ford, Toyota, Jeep or Nissan.
GM, during the '90s, was the leader in plastic cars, with plastic side panels on the Saturn and the TransSport/Lumina minivans. (Both of which certainly were "cheap and not durable.")
But Honda?
Particulary a camera phone, or GPS-enabled phone.... you don't see a use for things like that? Why would you want to shoot down the notion before you even investigate? Believe me, they will waste your tax money one way or the other
Are you seriously suggesting that law enforcement gather evidence using a cameraphone? I'd much rather have my tax money "wasted" on giving agents the actual tools (GPS receivers, telephoto-lens cameras, maybe a laptop) they need, not gimmicky RadioShack all-in-one gadgets.
"What do you mean, send out a crime scene photographer? Don't you have a cell phone?"
Did it ever occur to you that maybe email and the web are not the source of the problem?
I'd like to believe (I don't, but I'd like to) that the FBI is composed of professionals who don't goof off all day. Don't play Solitaire, don't play online poker, don't google naked chicks, don't forward virus warnings or stories of gangsters driving around with their headlights off.
I'd like to believe that any FBI agent doing this for significant portions of his/her workday would be warned, punished, and fired.
Now, I don't really believe that, but I do believe that any such employee, government or otherwise, will be goofing off whether you give him or her a company email address or not.
The keyword here is "support." Apple does not "support" running Windows, or any OS besides Mac OS X, on its hardware. Why they chose this route is very easy to understand.
When Apple designed the MacIntel architecture, it started with a clean sheet of paper, including only the hardware and firmware that would be useful to a Mac OS customer. The result was a simple, legacy-free design that avoids much of the baggage that the x86 world has carried for over 20 years.
To support Windows, Apple would have to include a legacy BIOS layer, VGA BIOS, and who knows what else. This would complicate the hardware from the get-go. Second, Apple would have to either A) License Windows from Microsoft, and include it with every Macintel (a very expensive proposition) or B) answer dozens of AppleCare calls from users as they try to install WinXP, configure appropriate drivers, and get a registration key (also a very expensive proposition, especially for a company that does not already have Windows-trained call center techs.
I know of no mainstream vendors who support home users with a dual-boot configuration. And very few will support even corporate customers who dual-boot.
Virtually everyone accused of terrorism in the United States in the past quarter-century has had little or nothing in the way of an "estate" or "next of kin." If anything, they have an incentive to avoid any permanent ties. Even if there were a married-with-children terrorist, I doubt concern for his family's financial liability would deter him or her from incurring large debts.
(See: Ted Kaczynski, the Oklahoma City guys, the World Trade Center truckbomb guys, and the September 11 guys.)
http://www.fcc.gov/contacts.html
It probably won't matter, unless you can somehow convince them that the new Ma Bell will somehow result in increased profanity and nudity on television. But in theory, the FCC has some authority in this matter.
I think it did survive, but he decided to replace it anyway.
Mine also survived, and (after soaking it with Lysol) I continued to use it for about three months before I replaced it.
Sarcasm, people. The lowest form of wit, but more than most Slashdotters can muster.
What they did have was something that's been dropped - service. You needed a phone installed, it was done, and done quickly. Have a problem? Fixed. Need to talk to someone about an issue? There was someone on the end of the line. Compare that today's "advantages". Need a phone installed? Wait a week or two. Got a problem with your line? Maybe they'll get around to fixing it in the next month. Have a problem with your bill, or need to talk to someone about an issue with your phone service? Welcome to the support hell of pushing buttons, listening to recorded messages, pushing more buttons, and maybe at the end of it you'll get to talk to someone who may speak English.
In my experience, the local Bell/Baby Bell company hasn't changed much. Before the breakup, it wasn't particularly prompt when it came to service or installation calls. Oh, they'd show up, and they'd fix your issues, but on their own schedule. Not much has changed now.
Same thing with service. I can get customer service about as easily as I could then, 24/7/365. They speak clear American English, and have been among the more polite and patient drones I've talked to.
Removeable covers. They cost next to nothing; I replace the screen cover every 6 months or so (so, about once per 'phone).
Ahh, I see. Instead of being unreadable because of the scratches, they're unreadable because of the glare, and the air bubbles that work their way under the vinyl.
Have you heard of keylock? It's not a "knock code", nor even a "lock code"; it's a combination of two keys, of which one is the key you'd press anyway to start finding a number.
That's exactly what the poster was referring to. If you like it, great. You're welcome to it. I despise it.
Umm. Whut? They put some lovely DSPs in there so it doesn't matter. I speak very softly into the 'phone, but it still picks up everything I say. We're not living in the 1950s.
"Umm Whut?" is exactly what you say. Because not only do those omnidirectional microphones pick up everything you say, but every bit of environmental noise as well. In a noisy environment (and seriously, does anyone use a mobile phone anywhere quiet?) the DSPs are so busy filtering out background noise that they chop up the actual voice beyond recognition.
Since when is bigger better? And every clamshell I've ever seen is larger even when folded than my Nokia, so...
Bigger phones mean larger screens and keypads. Every Nokia I've seen is bigger than my V60, yet still has a cramped keypad with no spacing between buttons.
I've had a mobile since '97, getting a new one every 12-18 months or so
I'm sure you do. Last year my Dad finally dunked his battered three-year-old StarTAC in the toilet. His replacement Nokia candybar was replaced within six months because the exposed keypad came off completly. (Yes, he does use a case.) The replacement's keypad also came off. He decided not to bother replacing it; the keypad is now held in place by transparent tape.
Really, you can't "teach" children to critically analyze scientific theory. Psychologists believe* that children before adolescence can't even understand the kind of abstract thought, and some never develop that level of cognition.
Students presented with any kind of "critical reasoning curriculum" will rapidly develop a disdain for any material. "This is all bunk, anyway, the teacher said so. We'll just memorize it for the test, because we'll never use it in real life."
Grade school is probably not the place for that kind of instruction. If someone needs to understand the nature of scientific reasoning, they'll learn it in college.
*As with all branches of the sciences, psychology is a developing field of knowledge, and subject to many conflicting viewpoints. Do not take any psychological theory as absolute fact. This disclaimer brought to you by the Slashdot Bored of Edjoocashun.
past purchases of Pixar
Apple never bought Pixar. Pixar was an independent company until it was purchased by Disney this year. Nor does Apple own Renderman; it's still a Pixar product.
Apple is debt-free, or very nearly so. Being able to pay for R&D without having to issue bonds is great for a technology company. The technology sector is fond of boom-bust cycles; get caught in a bust with a large debt load, and you're sunk. Whenever the next iPod-type idea comes along, Apple will be able to pour money into it without hesitation.
For similar reasons, Microsoft also had a huge cash stockpile. Theirs was, IIRC, several times the size of Apple's today. They were forced to pay a dividend, because no conceivable expense could ever call for such a horde.
"First, not all computers have the necessary card slot. ( Apple's iBooks and new MacBook Pro laptops come to mind.) Second, a mobile router can accommodate machines with no wireless features at all -- like desktop computers -- thanks to standard Ethernet network jacks on the back. (The Kyocera has four, the Junxion two and the Top Global one.)"
And, if I am crazy enough to do that (or I need to share with a business unit), I can plug the card into my laptop and turn on internet connection sharing with my laptop's WiFi adapter.
What if said business unit does not feel like having to follow you around to use the connection? Or doesn't want to have it's Internet connection interrupted when you go to lunch?
If you're an average Joe, a good PC will make a good web/email/file server. But if you're a corporate IT department, and your server runs anything "mission critical," then you get a purpose-built server. Which should have, depending on your specific requirements:
- Blinkenlights. Not pretty neon-and-blue-LED light shows, but honest-to-god diagnostic lights for disks, NICs, and CPUs. On the front, where you can see them.
- Hot-swappable everything. Every component, from individual CPUs to the power supplies, should be redundant, and designed in such a way that it can be removed and replaced without shutting down the machine. (Though some servers are less robust)
- Monitoring software. If a fan, disk, memory module, or power supply is on the way out, something should blink a light, send an automatic email, and (possibly) call the vendor for a service call should anything go wrong.
And of course, a a sturdy case, effective cooling, and ECC memory.
Safari doesn't and can't run applications. It only decompresses archives. The proof-of-concept travels by ZIP archive, which Safari will automatically open.
Problem being, the ZIP archive's payload can be a trojan, and decompressing it exposes that trojan to the user.
IBM didn't invent anything new here. Rather, they proved that photolithography--the same technology used to build chips for decades--will continue to yield faster chips for the foreseeable future. In other words, silicon hasn't "hit the wall" just yet.
IBM Microelectronics doesn't have a monopoly over photolithography. They couldn't get a patent if they tried--there's prior art going back about half a century. In other words, it's good news for IBM, Intel, AMD, Texas Instruments, Micron, Freescale, Agere, Samsung, Fujitsu, and anyone else building chips.
But feel free to wave the POWER flag if you like. It's a nice architecture.
Of course its news. Stories of Western hostages being beheaded are big news in the US media as well, but videos of the act are never broadcast.
That's the distinction between reporting on violence, and glorifying it.
The Classic OS was a lot like its contemporary, Windows 98. It could be amazingly stable, or ridiculously unreliable, depending on configuration. And by "configuration," I mean "extension set."
A properly administered OS 8/9 Macintosh could remain up for weeks at a time. An improperly administered one would crash ever hour.
Using this for 8 hours a day? Imagine how tired your arms, your wrists would be!
Yeah, it's much healthier to hold your hands rigid in the same position, and use your fingers to perform the same short motions repeatedly for eight hours a day.
Don't make me to spell it out in anatomical detail.
I don't know about you, but I have five fingers on each of my hands. That gives me up to five points of contact for the screen (one of which is opposable to the other four) while leaving the other hand free.