Mislabeling was honestly my first thought too - I was stunned that a 1W laser could be had for only $80 or so. Not sure what the threshold is for burning/mw, but I got a decent red mark on my hand from 1-2 sec of exposure to a (supposedly) ~800mw one in the markets. They were lithium-powered, as far as I could tell - standard 123A.
As for my ~100mw blue one, I'm pretty sure it's the full output (or at least close) - the observed luminance matches pretty close to the specs for a similar laser on the wickedlasers.com site. I was hitting buildings in downtown Shanghai from a river cruise with relative ease.
I was in China a few months back, and these were being sold for 150RMB for a 500mw ($15) 400-500 RMB (about $70-$80) for a 1000mw version, and about 700 RMB for a 2000mw.
The salesmen in the markets demonstrated them by lighting matches with the 1000mw green ones from several feet away. Amazing. I bought a 100mw blue one for the equivalent of $9, hoping I'd be less likely to blind myself with that.
After reading this, I decided to go check my ATT account, and I was able to downgrade just fine from the 1500 text plan for $15 to the 1000 text plan for $10.
So...if you want it, better go and get it before they update their site. iMessage is about to dramatically lower my billed texts anyway.
Doesn't seem to me that this is about the "internet" at all. Its about economics. For the ICANN.
Say there are 10,000 international corporations who will pay to immortalize their brand name as a TLD.
10,000 corporations x $185,000 application fee per corporation = $1,850,000,000, or nearly 2 billion USD.
Personally, I'd royally screw the internet for $2 billion. It appears ICANN would too.
Perhaps those most likely to use Linux are not buying pre-built machines in the first place? Though Linux certainly shouldn't be pushed into the "Enthusiast OS" corner, I think that the market for pre-installed Linux on any mainstream manufacturers' machine is pretty darn small in the first place.
Yes, but in the instance of bruteforce, it is all about PERCIEVED strength, in which case the bruteforce attack must include numbers as well as letters, increasing possible combinations from the attack side to 36*36*36. So while the ACTUAL combinations may drop, the POSSIBLE combinations increase.
From experience with my Macbook Pro, I can say that the majority of the heat actually seems to come from the graphics chip, not the cpu. Not a scientific study, but when I clock the GPU up to full strength under XP, it gets MIGHTY hot in a hurry (and the fans hit hyper speed.) It is possible that the added heat this observer is noticing is actually from Vista's graphical "junk."
So the heat is probably less about some sort of power management issue or "Vista beta problem #XXX" but more from the fact that it is making more pretty lines on the screen than before. And the fact that the Macbook Pro is just plain HOT all the time (even as I am typing this, it is outstandingly warm).
I am SO TIRED of all this DRM crap. Everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - has some sort of incompatible, misconfigured, hard-to-use "Rights Management" software/encryption/whatever. DVDs have CSS, Displays have HDCP, Music has Fairplay/WMP, and the list continues. Is any of this really designed to "protect the product"? No! It is designed to protect the profit margin of the record/film company. None of the aformentioned technologies were designed with the end-user in mind. Did anybody at Microsoft/URGE even sit down and think about whether or not their customers really wanted to be tied yet another proprietary format that works only with a certain manufacturer's proprietary player? Lets face it, the iPod/iTunes interface only works because the iPod's particular proprietary format has become not-so-proprietary because more than half of the Audio Players out there are iPods, and can use Fairplay'd songs.
Here is what I want. An easy-to-use, universal encryption scheme everyone can agree on. Make it burnable. Make it sharable. Make it brain-dead simple. Make all of the record companes pledge their unwavering support. Heck, Make it 4096-bit RSA if you really want to. Then make it easy to use, and have all new audio players - Apple, Dell, Creative, MS, etc - support it. Then drop the price to 49 cents a song and $5.99 a record, and watch your profits SOAR. Why would they soar? Because at those prices, with those features, and those major names backing it, nobody would really feel like hunting on a Gnutella network for a decent-quality version of their favorite John Tesh song. People would willingly buy the audio player they liked, because they could use their songs on all of them. Illegal song sharing would largely dry up. Record companies would be happy. OEMs would be happy. I would be happy.
This is not the first time a superior gaming system has been offered at a superior (or outrageous, in this case) price. Remember the Neo-Geo? That thing had blazing arcade-style graphics for $599 when Nintendo had a far less capable - but much cheaper - NES system at $199 (if I remember correctly). The NES blew the Neo-Geo away! Why? Because the average gamer SIMPLY CANNOT JUSTIFY $600 on a system alone. Many of us gamers are used to getting a system, controller, 4 games, and any other miscellaneous items for that sort of cash. Sony's major miscalculation is believing that gamers look at the capabilities of the system alone. Gamers actually look at how much fun they can have with a given system AND how much that system costs, THEN how awesome the graphics and specs are. $400 is really the high top end of what the majority of gamers will spend on one system, which is why you dont see the 360 slumping a whole lot. $600 is simply out of reach for many gamers.
Slashdot Mirror
Mislabeling was honestly my first thought too - I was stunned that a 1W laser could be had for only $80 or so. Not sure what the threshold is for burning/mw, but I got a decent red mark on my hand from 1-2 sec of exposure to a (supposedly) ~800mw one in the markets. They were lithium-powered, as far as I could tell - standard 123A.
As for my ~100mw blue one, I'm pretty sure it's the full output (or at least close) - the observed luminance matches pretty close to the specs for a similar laser on the wickedlasers.com site. I was hitting buildings in downtown Shanghai from a river cruise with relative ease.
I was in China a few months back, and these were being sold for 150RMB for a 500mw ($15) 400-500 RMB (about $70-$80) for a 1000mw version, and about 700 RMB for a 2000mw.
The salesmen in the markets demonstrated them by lighting matches with the 1000mw green ones from several feet away. Amazing. I bought a 100mw blue one for the equivalent of $9, hoping I'd be less likely to blind myself with that.
True, but it's ATT. I've grown to be a little gun-shy.
After reading this, I decided to go check my ATT account, and I was able to downgrade just fine from the 1500 text plan for $15 to the 1000 text plan for $10. So...if you want it, better go and get it before they update their site. iMessage is about to dramatically lower my billed texts anyway.
Doesn't seem to me that this is about the "internet" at all. Its about economics. For the ICANN. Say there are 10,000 international corporations who will pay to immortalize their brand name as a TLD. 10,000 corporations x $185,000 application fee per corporation = $1,850,000,000, or nearly 2 billion USD. Personally, I'd royally screw the internet for $2 billion. It appears ICANN would too.
1....2....3....4....5.
And here I was all excited about some awesome revival of Celebrity Deathmatch!
Perhaps those most likely to use Linux are not buying pre-built machines in the first place? Though Linux certainly shouldn't be pushed into the "Enthusiast OS" corner, I think that the market for pre-installed Linux on any mainstream manufacturers' machine is pretty darn small in the first place.
they ate the database.
Considering that the name "Zune" translates to "FUCK" in Hebrew... Not joking. http://herenot.livejournal.com/29371.html
Buy stock in Symantec!
In other news: iTunes changes their pricing scheme from $.99 a song to $.0002 per musical note. Tax not included.
Yes, but in the instance of bruteforce, it is all about PERCIEVED strength, in which case the bruteforce attack must include numbers as well as letters, increasing possible combinations from the attack side to 36*36*36. So while the ACTUAL combinations may drop, the POSSIBLE combinations increase.
From experience with my Macbook Pro, I can say that the majority of the heat actually seems to come from the graphics chip, not the cpu. Not a scientific study, but when I clock the GPU up to full strength under XP, it gets MIGHTY hot in a hurry (and the fans hit hyper speed.)
It is possible that the added heat this observer is noticing is actually from Vista's graphical "junk."
So the heat is probably less about some sort of power management issue or "Vista beta problem #XXX" but more from the fact that it is making more pretty lines on the screen than before. And the fact that the Macbook Pro is just plain HOT all the time (even as I am typing this, it is outstandingly warm).
Britain devalues the pound.
...millions of emo kids go sit in the corner and cry.
Selling 1000TB bacteria-laden refrigerator, Firewire + USB, $200 obo.
But what we all really want to know is: What is the status of the infamous PaperClipMan(tm)?
And you thought Blaster.W32 was bad for PCs...
I agree. That post is quite on-topic.
Moderator Police!
But does it run Windows?
In the US Government, IPV6 transitions YOU!
I am SO TIRED of all this DRM crap. Everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - has some sort of incompatible, misconfigured, hard-to-use "Rights Management" software/encryption/whatever. DVDs have CSS, Displays have HDCP, Music has Fairplay/WMP, and the list continues. Is any of this really designed to "protect the product"? No! It is designed to protect the profit margin of the record/film company.
None of the aformentioned technologies were designed with the end-user in mind. Did anybody at Microsoft/URGE even sit down and think about whether or not their customers really wanted to be tied yet another proprietary format that works only with a certain manufacturer's proprietary player? Lets face it, the iPod/iTunes interface only works because the iPod's particular proprietary format has become not-so-proprietary because more than half of the Audio Players out there are iPods, and can use Fairplay'd songs.
Here is what I want. An easy-to-use, universal encryption scheme everyone can agree on. Make it burnable. Make it sharable. Make it brain-dead simple. Make all of the record companes pledge their unwavering support. Heck, Make it 4096-bit RSA if you really want to. Then make it easy to use, and have all new audio players - Apple, Dell, Creative, MS, etc - support it. Then drop the price to 49 cents a song and $5.99 a record, and watch your profits SOAR. Why would they soar? Because at those prices, with those features, and those major names backing it, nobody would really feel like hunting on a Gnutella network for a decent-quality version of their favorite John Tesh song. People would willingly buy the audio player they liked, because they could use their songs on all of them. Illegal song sharing would largely dry up. Record companies would be happy. OEMs would be happy. I would be happy.
Just my (slightly more than) 2 cents.
This is not the first time a superior gaming system has been offered at a superior (or outrageous, in this case) price. Remember the Neo-Geo? That thing had blazing arcade-style graphics for $599 when Nintendo had a far less capable - but much cheaper - NES system at $199 (if I remember correctly). The NES blew the Neo-Geo away! Why? Because the average gamer SIMPLY CANNOT JUSTIFY $600 on a system alone. Many of us gamers are used to getting a system, controller, 4 games, and any other miscellaneous items for that sort of cash.
Sony's major miscalculation is believing that gamers look at the capabilities of the system alone. Gamers actually look at how much fun they can have with a given system AND how much that system costs, THEN how awesome the graphics and specs are. $400 is really the high top end of what the majority of gamers will spend on one system, which is why you dont see the 360 slumping a whole lot. $600 is simply out of reach for many gamers.
In Soviet Russia, Vista delays YOU.