Yeah that's only part of the puzzle. It's easy to grab the NMEA info and parse it to produce the coordinates. Plotting them on to a map is a different thing. You got to have both the map data and a way to plot those according to the map's datum. Nice to see ths support, although it's just a serial connection....nothing special except maybe the parsing of the data. I noticed he's using Python which would be perfect for just this thing!
Cool. When I get an extra thousand bucks I'll go get one (gotta have a BIG CF card too.....)...but I won't put Linux on it until later. I need a map program. Pocket Streets 2002 kicks major booty since it's one of the few that has nice looking maps and now GPS support. Linux has little chance of supporting decent looking maps like in Pocket Streets becuase of the copyright issues that most mapping programs have. There may be ones out there, but I haven't seend any yet. Map programs are something I'd pay for on Linux. Imagine I am running a windows laptop and it blue screens when I am lost! ARGH!
Easy! I want a free (speach and beer) graphics viewer and editor. I would like to use a PEN to draw instead of a mouse. When I am bored, I can doodle with it and make doodles that may be worth something. Many MANY uses for this type of thing.
What may even be cooler is if someone could put a zoomed in portion of the graphic your editing on the Pocket PC screen and the full size one on the regular CRT (of course this is while it's connected via active sync) and I edit the zoomed in one and see the changes on the full sized one....cool eh? I think someone did this with one of the color pda's out there, but I am not sure which one.
Yet another STUPID port! Except for the ability to say yes that is a web server in my pocket and no I am NOT happy to see you....I see no point (well, not much of one anyway). How come they can't port useful things like gtk and the GIMP to WinCE? I would do it except I would NOT be the guy to take this as a learning C project!:) But seriously, I would pay for a WinCE version of the Gimp! All other graphics editors on WinCE suck. I would buy a Compaq Ipaq.....but until there's sync and all pim support for either Linux or Windows, I will NOT run Linux on a iPaq.
What they have invented was a single molecule inverter, not a nor gate. a inverter or NOT gate if you want a different name, inverts the 1 to a 0 on the other side (from 5 v to 0 v in TTL). A NOR gate is a OR gate with an inverter on the output of the OR gate.
And I agree. But sometimes these critical things can go down. You are also in the minority. Whle there are many companies who want to go "paperless" many have not. We have rooms dedicated to files and files. Granted, many of our letters are processed by benefits of the network and mainframe, many aren't. Simple thank you for your donation letter(I work in a college....the development office get's many donations and I supposed they may type a letter too), documenting what your doing to fix a problem if you are the guy fixing it, and many other uses I can't think of for the moment, but I am sure plain old users have plenty of things they can do without using the network.
Now I AGREE that networks let you get work done too. I also agree that networks are critical to most every company. That's not the issue. The issue is that there's alway something you can do without a network.
You ever had a boss that makes you check off a sheet of things that run on a automated schedule or write down everything that you may end up typing anyway? Ever wonder why companies have files full of printouts from a mainframe stored off site? You guessed it! PARANOIA! You have GOT to be paranoid when dealing with your company data because it's the company's life! All of the things that seem stupid are done for a reason. You can always glean data needed to type a personal type of letter from a printout. Also, networks haven't been around for all that long when you think about it. PC's have been around for 20 years. PC's were used for LOTS of stuff before networks were even thought of! I disagree that you could do NOTHING without a network. There's ALWAYS something to do. Clean out old crap out of your desk, CLEAN your desk, sweep the floor, suck the dustbunnies out from under your desk, wash your coffee cup out, chat with your cube mates about things other then your kids baseball games...all of this could be considered as WORK! WORK is not classified as ONLY things done on computers for god's sake! Unless you work in a hospital and are working on a patient who needs the help of another DR that you are talking to over a internet connection, your whole world won't end if you loose the network (Oh, except if it's YOUR JOB to keep it going!....Way to go dude your forgot to put that closet on a UPS or forgot to plan for enough power on the breaker feeding your closet.....:) ).
Running all apps over the network via a Xserver sounds like something every one would want, unless they count when the network goes down! The older your network is, the more apt that switches, hubs, patch panels and the like will fail. Notice I said WILL not MIGHT! Do you have the same powerline protection in all of youre patch closets that you do in the computer room? DO you have a UPS in every patch closet? When power outages happen and they do, the patch closet hardware gets hit hard.
Also, X is chatty as we all know. If your network is already chatty, imagine running X over a 10 Megabit connection! My point is that desktops are over powered. They are supposed to be. If your ran all programs on the server, you are going to need a even more expensive server with scads of ram. With the desktops and some storage on the network via Network Attached Storage or a Storage Array Network, a few servers and a production system (Database, webserving...etc etc...) and you have a complete system that even if the infrastructure is down, is still useful. When the network goes, the users can still type up a letter, do a spreadsheet...etc etc. They may have to save to harddisk and print and move it to the server later, but at least that time was not wasted. User older equipment DOES make sense though. If the user's ain't bitching about the computer being slow, then why replace it??
You have good points and bad points here. Sometimes we hate having to get a hold of the consultant for stuff we already know how to do. If you as a consultant have a problem doing your job (fixing and setting things up for the customer, whether the customer is at fault or not is your job) then you should not be a consultant. How many office idiots screw up their Win98 machines? Is it a pain? Yes but if everything worked all of the time, then we would not need you (think about it....if a system never went down, always worked....the need would not be perceived, even though you are doing or had done an excellent job, because nothing ever goes down!). Good sysadmins are an insurance policy. They assure that things are backed up, setup correctly and all of that PM(Preventative Maintence) stuff that the user never see's gets done. This way you/they can actually add more things and do more stuff since your not busy putting fires out all freakin day.
We have a Mainframe Systems consultant who maintains the system for us. We also have the head tech support person who heads up tech support on mainframe mostly, but can do some server things and definitely work with a DB. They both have all the passwords and access needed. If one screws something up and the other fixes it, they generally will figure out that they weren't supposed to do whatever they did. Also, even though you have a root password on a machine does not mean you own it. The user/institution does own the machine and depending on what level of support you are to give (from just handholding to doing everything except the actually work it gets used for) depends on whether the password is given out. That's not decided by you. If you have it in a contract and the institution signs it, well then it's in stone that they don't get root. Expect to be called for silly things at all hours of the day (especially if your the only sysadmin with the password). Controlled root access can be useful. Especially if it's just to add a user or clear a print queue....do you REALLY want to be called at 4 am for that?
High Tech Note Passers....shyeah right! Have these folks EVER used a IR port on one of these? If the desks are separated as they should be, then this won't be a problem. I see more of a problem in letting Cybiko's or wireless ethernet cards in class!:) Cybiko's have a built in peer to peer network!
This is VERY funny!:) I bet Database's not being updated is the primary reason that DSL is not available in more places. According to all of the sites I have been to for DSL, I am too far away from the switch. For all I know, I may be in range of DSL. They only DSL in my area now though is Ameritech and as far as I know they are PPPoE and I WILL not use that stuff. Roadrunner works well enough for me and I don't need or want or have the time to run my own mail and web servers. I run enough of those at work!
It's too bad to see Bluetooth struggling to get out of the gates as I think the concept is right on the money. Imagine the ability to have your palm synchronize simply by entering the same room as your PC. Or your notebook to hop onto the LAN automatically when you enter your office. Or seamlessly having all the devices in your home networked without cables? A Bluetooth-enabled thermostat or burglar alarm could be configured easily from your PC without any wires. You could set your VCR to record "Seinfeld" from your desktop or (even better) from work using a browser. All without a single wire! I think there's a huge market for this type of technology, I hope Bluetooth can be rescued!
All of what you said CAN be done with 802.11b there just needs to be programs written to do it. Bluetooth is nice, but the range of 802.11b has it beat. It would be nice if you can adjust the power level on the 802.11b access point so that the range could be controlled better (Set it up to only cover 20 feet instead of the default and it would be exactly like bluetooth).
Yeah that's true(about the pocketability and cases....where are they?). And I see 3 inchers more easily being integrated into a Handheld. I'd be MORE interested in a 3 inch format based on DVD tech. 1-2 gig in something that size would be nice, but then I think the Microdrives are already more reliable (can't be scratched as easily, but there is the mechanical aspect to those too).
What I want to know is what happened to the real good CD players that could read scratched disks. One day when I was still in college we found a CD laying in the street and it was all scratched and everything. We took it back to the rooming house we were staying in and slipped it into the CD player and it worked great! Try that with one in Best Buy today! (well, the normal cheap ones....not the mega expensive ones)
I presume you can't spell or add. All I care about is price per MB. Regular 5 In CD-R's have 3 inchers beat any day! It costs TWICE as much or more! Proportionally (spelled right!) too! Ok, Here's the pricewatch prices:
50 PK 3 inch CD-R's = $60 (found by typing 3 in CDR in search string.....not even listed when clicking Media)
50 PK 5 inch = $8 (found by clicking media, then 50 PK CD-R)
Granted, I would NOT trust anything much under 15-18 bucks per 50 PK to burn at anything but 1-2x with any consistency, even if it was 18 bucks it would be cheaper! Per disk even!
3 in with above price = 60/50 = $1.20 per disk.
5 in with above price = 8/50 = $0.16 per disk
5 in with good quality = 18/50 = $0.36 per disk
Now, price per MB
3 in price per MB = 1.20/180 = rounds up to about a penny per MB
5 in price per MB =.16/650 = Not even a penny per MB it's about.0002 per MB
5 in quality per MB =.36/650 = Not even a penny again.....about.0005 per MB.
Now, I know that the 3 inchers are DEFINITELY cheaper then solid state memory devices such as CF, MMC, SD or Smart Media, but they ain't cheaper then 5 inchers! Now if you WANT to pay $0.50 to $1.00 per 5 inch disk, go right ahead! I won't stop you!;) I don't buy the cheapest disks either for 5 inchers, but I don't spend $0.50 to $1.00 either, at least not at the moment! I have some ULTRA cheapies and they won't burn at 8 x at all. Throttle them down to 1-2x and they work fine. I don't loose data and those are the ones I use for little one offs. So cheap I can throw them away and it would not bother me. I just DO not find the need to spend mega bucks on a CD just to assure that it burns at a high speed or whatever. I don't have a burn proof drive anyway, so whether it takes 8 minutes or 20 to burn a disk my computer's still tied up. I also don't waste too much money on RW's yet. When they start to be as cheap as all CD-R's AND can be read in every CD player I own (I don't buy new drives or players every freakin year either...), I will STAY AWAY!
I have noticed that this Service Pack must break more then that! My MIME types are all fouled up and don't at ALL match what is in the OS (Folder Options, File Types tab). I do notice a HUGE amount of so what replies in here. Maybe this is because Apple has yet to release a Quicktime player for Linux??:) Can we say Sorenson Codec?:) I personally think Microsoft is at fault here. They may have the market,but they have no right to foul things up. My bet is in ten years you will see a book by titled "How to Drive a Monopoly Into the Ground!", by Bill Gates!:)
Only if you actualy wasted money on a 250 meg Zip Drive!;)
When the Zip 250 came out, CD-R's were already cheaper then Zip Disks. In fact, have Zip's ever came down in price? Last I checked, Zips still cost about the same as they did when they came out (they are MAYBE a few dollars cheaper, but no where near where they should be!) and it's VERY hard to find any Zips other then Iomega's (unless you go to like Best Buy and scrape off the dust on some of the Fuji's on the back shelf!;)) I mean I HAVE a Zip Drive (a 100 Megger), but after I got a CD-RW drive I saw zero point in getting a Zip 250, or more Zip Disks. Iomega could have and should have had something, but their prices are too high and the bump they made wasn't big enough. Zips COULD have replaced the floppy, but, alas, it looks like either nothing will, or CD's or DVD's will (more likely that CD's will now). Zip Drives are dead in my opinion!
But with a width of at least 3 inches, reduced battery life compared to most others(since CDs tend to be power suckers) and 3 inch CDs that are not exactly common in the US to buy, will it take off?
-Henry
You call yourself a geek? When was the last time you were to a computer store? They are everywhere here in the cowtown that is Columbus, OH! While I agree with you it ain't common to BUY them, I see plenty of them rotting on the shelves!:)
650 Meg is worth carrying the bigger player. I signed up to be considered for the beta test cuz I never have done anything like this before, and I would like to add my input. If it's free it will be even better.
The 3 inch CD only holds about 85 megs more then a Zip disk. I can buy 50 650 Meggers for about half the price of a 3 incher, so why bother? The only thing I can think of is that they'd be nice to drop a 3 incher into a letter or card with a bunch of images on them to send it to grandparents who would like to see pics of their grandchild a bit more. While the size is nice, I don't see why they'd go that way. 2 inches is not much to save! Now if they could build a 3 inch CD player that fits into, or onto a handheld I'd be more interested, but for a portable player, maybe not. If I am selected to beta test, it will still be a neat toy to play with!
I thought this happened months ago as someone esle has already pointed out. Wireless netowrks always should have been treated like a regular network because that's all it is. While, even at my work I would not be afraid of this (Secure your host systems as well as you can so that you can minimize risk. Use SSH and other similar things for being secure on your regular network and you should be fine.). Home users should not have much to worry about if they are relative newbies, or knowing what they are doing (newbies are too fearful to type in anything such as bank card info and stuff....techies already knew it wasn't secure and will hide the appropriate stuff). All in all, they sky isn't falling. It's just something that you already should have worried about from the start!:)
Actually, I have a better idea......include a secured copy of the e-version with every book. Companies put all kinds of CD's, msot of which are useless. Why not put the exact same thign so if you want to carry 3 UNLEASHED! books you don't get a hernia! Plus you get the same experience, but you don't have to carry the freakin book around all day. OH, Microsoft Reader with clear type looks fuzzy to me.
Yeah but compaq could probably afford to do something like that. They've been around alot longer then companies like Pets.com and etoys.com. Etoys spent money on court cost's and lawyer fees as well when they tried to sue etoy.com. Some companies CAN afford these chairs. It's not a total barometer for everyone, just for companies who should have used the VC for their business gols instead of perks. Case in point, the hospital my wife had a surgery in about a year or so ago had Aerons for the nurses at the nurse station. Same thing with the hospital my nephew was born in. Do you really think that it costs the hospital 5 bucks for an asprin? That's what they charge the insurance companies.
I saw a show on either Food TV or the Travel Channel about a dot com's office. I was a totally renovated warehouse with opulant solid stainless steel garage doors used to separate a party room into a conference room, they had a kitchen that THE COMPANY, not the employees, stocked with everything you needed. Peanut Butter and Jelly, Cavier, cappucino, steaks, bakery style cookies, every kind of pop imagineable, penguin mints, spaghetti....basically a fully stocked kitchen with everyhing under the sun. Honestly when have you EVER been able to do much more cooking then warming up something in the microwave on a lunch break just due to time contraints alone!? They employees would come in when they pleased, they had a room full of arcade games, air hockey, pool and foosball. It was stupid! where was the server room? I bet they had MEGA ridiculous sized server's with no regard for budgetary concerns. They made the small project that we are undergoing here look cheap! Most DotComs were smaller then ONE building on our campus, yet we have a yearly budget much less then the total they spent! I am finally getting a new chair (not an Aeron). The chair I am currently sitting on it probably about 15-20 years old. Not only did most Dot Coms have a LOUSY business plan, they spent money like Microsoft yet they didn't have Microsoft style money. I'd expect to see this kind of stuff at Microsoft because they can afford it, but at a START UP??!?!?!?
Like I tell my boss with a printer we run and someone else makes the files: As long as we have some part, no matter how small, we have to fix their CRAP! Microsoft will have to just deal wit it! You are running a BETA and not a final product. Just because it works on the beta means SQUAT! The whole idea is bad. If they at least let you install a driver, even if it's in their list, then I have no problem with letting you know there may be a problem with the driver. Just so long as they don't scare the crap out of new users...unfortunately that's what this will do! The new user will have something that worked under 98 and they will try it on XP and it does not work. They will want something else but my neighbor who has just gotten his computer will not have any choice. He'll have to get a Mac I guess to have something easy to manage. Linux would not be easy for him as easy as it is for us. As much as I hate to say it, Microsoft's software, at least for home users, is decent, easy to use, and unless you try to do things like heavy multitasking or web serving, it performs quite well. Stability isn't as important for home users (although, I think it is) as it is for business or techies. Is this an excuse to not make XP better? NO! But I see this causing MAJOR problems for home users and they will complain....loudly!
You know why? I have a Permedia 2. Yeah I know, it's old, but it's paid for and as soon as I can afford to dump it, I will. I am not a 3D gamer. The Permedia does fine on most of the stuff I play. I use the last driver for it that 3DLabs released. Well, it's not WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) certified. I guess it means I have to upgrade it since, by my guess, Microsoft won't let me use this driver. 3DLabs no longer is releasing drivers for it. I know I was planning on getting rid of this card, but that's not the point. The point is Microsoft DOESN'T know best. If they did, they'd have done a better job with the Driver section of Windows Update. Has anyone EVER downloaded a driver from there?....I here CRICKETS!!!! I have never had ANYTHING come up in there. Not even a LPT driver or anything. Not ONE of my devices use a driver that's on the Windows CD. I have to use a generic video driver until I get the proper one installed, the modem driver does load, but it doesn't work and I have a Multimedia Keyboard I use that I had to load the driver for too. If I installed ANY MS OS and it recognized most (I'd say I would be happy with 90 percent) of my devices and got the right, most current driver for it, well, then I would say fine. But if it did that, then they wouldn't need this mumbo jumbo.
Does Linux bitch when I install my decidedly non standard Sound Card driver for my Aureal?? Nope! So Windows should not either.
I only ever bought one version of Windows (95 cuz I HATED 3.11 that came with my Pentium 100). Since thern I have been fortunate. I got 98 with my current machine which has a new brain (everything from my old Pentium 450 except MB, CPU and heatsink which have been all been replaced with a Duron 700, matching heatsink and ASUS A7V MB), and I won a copy of Windows ME in the launch contest for Windows ME. I had my CD one day before the launch. With Linux I have bought Caldera 2.3, a slew of Cheapbytes CD's, RedHat 7.1 and then I have downloaded various distros....Debian, Redhat and Slackware. Total spent on Linux, counting blank CD's, about 70 bucks (30 times 2 and about 10 bucks on blank CD's). For the 96 copy, I paid approximately 90 bucks (plus or minus 10 bucks). So, I spent more on Windows, especially since you consider the 98 I got with my machine was probably rolled into the cost of it. That said, I usually try to buy every other version of my current favorite Distro, RedHat. Missed 7. 0 and have not bought 7.1, but I may wait since it's been rumored, and denied by Red Hat that there's a beta floating around. Maybe they are trying to hype up things for 8.0??? (new GCC 3.X and other things....)
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Yeah that's only part of the puzzle. It's easy to grab the NMEA info and parse it to produce the coordinates. Plotting them on to a map is a different thing. You got to have both the map data and a way to plot those according to the map's datum. Nice to see ths support, although it's just a serial connection....nothing special except maybe the parsing of the data. I noticed he's using Python which would be perfect for just this thing!
Cool. When I get an extra thousand bucks I'll go get one (gotta have a BIG CF card too.....)...but I won't put Linux on it until later. I need a map program. Pocket Streets 2002 kicks major booty since it's one of the few that has nice looking maps and now GPS support. Linux has little chance of supporting decent looking maps like in Pocket Streets becuase of the copyright issues that most mapping programs have. There may be ones out there, but I haven't seend any yet. Map programs are something I'd pay for on Linux. Imagine I am running a windows laptop and it blue screens when I am lost! ARGH!
Easy! I want a free (speach and beer) graphics viewer and editor. I would like to use a PEN to draw instead of a mouse. When I am bored, I can doodle with it and make doodles that may be worth something. Many MANY uses for this type of thing.
What may even be cooler is if someone could put a zoomed in portion of the graphic your editing on the Pocket PC screen and the full size one on the regular CRT (of course this is while it's connected via active sync) and I edit the zoomed in one and see the changes on the full sized one....cool eh? I think someone did this with one of the color pda's out there, but I am not sure which one.
Yet another STUPID port! Except for the ability to say yes that is a web server in my pocket and no I am NOT happy to see you....I see no point (well, not much of one anyway). How come they can't port useful things like gtk and the GIMP to WinCE? I would do it except I would NOT be the guy to take this as a learning C project! :) But seriously, I would pay for a WinCE version of the Gimp! All other graphics editors on WinCE suck. I would buy a Compaq Ipaq.....but until there's sync and all pim support for either Linux or Windows, I will NOT run Linux on a iPaq.
What they have invented was a single molecule inverter, not a nor gate. a inverter or NOT gate if you want a different name, inverts the 1 to a 0 on the other side (from 5 v to 0 v in TTL). A NOR gate is a OR gate with an inverter on the output of the OR gate.
Now I AGREE that networks let you get work done too. I also agree that networks are critical to most every company. That's not the issue. The issue is that there's alway something you can do without a network.
You ever had a boss that makes you check off a sheet of things that run on a automated schedule or write down everything that you may end up typing anyway? Ever wonder why companies have files full of printouts from a mainframe stored off site? You guessed it! PARANOIA! You have GOT to be paranoid when dealing with your company data because it's the company's life! All of the things that seem stupid are done for a reason. You can always glean data needed to type a personal type of letter from a printout. Also, networks haven't been around for all that long when you think about it. PC's have been around for 20 years. PC's were used for LOTS of stuff before networks were even thought of! I disagree that you could do NOTHING without a network. There's ALWAYS something to do. Clean out old crap out of your desk, CLEAN your desk, sweep the floor, suck the dustbunnies out from under your desk, wash your coffee cup out, chat with your cube mates about things other then your kids baseball games...all of this could be considered as WORK! WORK is not classified as ONLY things done on computers for god's sake! Unless you work in a hospital and are working on a patient who needs the help of another DR that you are talking to over a internet connection, your whole world won't end if you loose the network (Oh, except if it's YOUR JOB to keep it going!....Way to go dude your forgot to put that closet on a UPS or forgot to plan for enough power on the breaker feeding your closet.....:) ).
Also, X is chatty as we all know. If your network is already chatty, imagine running X over a 10 Megabit connection! My point is that desktops are over powered. They are supposed to be. If your ran all programs on the server, you are going to need a even more expensive server with scads of ram. With the desktops and some storage on the network via Network Attached Storage or a Storage Array Network, a few servers and a production system (Database, webserving...etc etc...) and you have a complete system that even if the infrastructure is down, is still useful. When the network goes, the users can still type up a letter, do a spreadsheet ...etc etc. They may have to save to harddisk and print and move it to the server later, but at least that time was not wasted. User older equipment DOES make sense though. If the user's ain't bitching about the computer being slow, then why replace it??
We have a Mainframe Systems consultant who maintains the system for us. We also have the head tech support person who heads up tech support on mainframe mostly, but can do some server things and definitely work with a DB. They both have all the passwords and access needed. If one screws something up and the other fixes it, they generally will figure out that they weren't supposed to do whatever they did. Also, even though you have a root password on a machine does not mean you own it. The user/institution does own the machine and depending on what level of support you are to give (from just handholding to doing everything except the actually work it gets used for) depends on whether the password is given out. That's not decided by you. If you have it in a contract and the institution signs it, well then it's in stone that they don't get root. Expect to be called for silly things at all hours of the day (especially if your the only sysadmin with the password). Controlled root access can be useful. Especially if it's just to add a user or clear a print queue....do you REALLY want to be called at 4 am for that?
Gork!
This is VERY funny! :) I bet Database's not being updated is the primary reason that DSL is not available in more places. According to all of the sites I have been to for DSL, I am too far away from the switch. For all I know, I may be in range of DSL. They only DSL in my area now though is Ameritech and as far as I know they are PPPoE and I WILL not use that stuff. Roadrunner works well enough for me and I don't need or want or have the time to run my own mail and web servers. I run enough of those at work!
All of what you said CAN be done with 802.11b there just needs to be programs written to do it. Bluetooth is nice, but the range of 802.11b has it beat. It would be nice if you can adjust the power level on the 802.11b access point so that the range could be controlled better (Set it up to only cover 20 feet instead of the default and it would be exactly like bluetooth).
What I want to know is what happened to the real good CD players that could read scratched disks. One day when I was still in college we found a CD laying in the street and it was all scratched and everything. We took it back to the rooming house we were staying in and slipped it into the CD player and it worked great! Try that with one in Best Buy today! (well, the normal cheap ones....not the mega expensive ones)
50 PK 3 inch CD-R's = $60 (found by typing 3 in CDR in search string.....not even listed when clicking Media)
50 PK 5 inch = $8 (found by clicking media, then 50 PK CD-R)
Granted, I would NOT trust anything much under 15-18 bucks per 50 PK to burn at anything but 1-2x with any consistency, even if it was 18 bucks it would be cheaper! Per disk even!
3 in with above price = 60/50 = $1.20 per disk.
5 in with above price = 8/50 = $0.16 per disk
5 in with good quality = 18/50 = $0.36 per disk
Now, price per MB
3 in price per MB = 1.20/180 = rounds up to about a penny per MB .16/650 = Not even a penny per MB it's about .0002 per MB .36/650 = Not even a penny again.....about .0005 per MB.
5 in price per MB =
5 in quality per MB =
Now, I know that the 3 inchers are DEFINITELY cheaper then solid state memory devices such as CF, MMC, SD or Smart Media, but they ain't cheaper then 5 inchers! Now if you WANT to pay $0.50 to $1.00 per 5 inch disk, go right ahead! I won't stop you! ;) I don't buy the cheapest disks either for 5 inchers, but I don't spend $0.50 to $1.00 either, at least not at the moment! I have some ULTRA cheapies and they won't burn at 8 x at all. Throttle them down to 1-2x and they work fine. I don't loose data and those are the ones I use for little one offs. So cheap I can throw them away and it would not bother me. I just DO not find the need to spend mega bucks on a CD just to assure that it burns at a high speed or whatever. I don't have a burn proof drive anyway, so whether it takes 8 minutes or 20 to burn a disk my computer's still tied up. I also don't waste too much money on RW's yet. When they start to be as cheap as all CD-R's AND can be read in every CD player I own (I don't buy new drives or players every freakin year either...), I will STAY AWAY!
I have noticed that this Service Pack must break more then that! My MIME types are all fouled up and don't at ALL match what is in the OS (Folder Options, File Types tab). I do notice a HUGE amount of so what replies in here. Maybe this is because Apple has yet to release a Quicktime player for Linux?? :) Can we say Sorenson Codec? :) I personally think Microsoft is at fault here. They may have the market,but they have no right to foul things up. My bet is in ten years you will see a book by titled "How to Drive a Monopoly Into the Ground!", by Bill Gates! :)
5" CD-R's (74 min)on a 50 Pack Spindle = $18.00
Prices obtained on cdroutlet.com
Now which one is cheaper???? Even if the 5 inchers costed more, it would STILL be cheaper!
185 MB x 50 = 9,250 MB
650 MB x 50 = 32,500 MB
When the Zip 250 came out, CD-R's were already cheaper then Zip Disks. In fact, have Zip's ever came down in price? Last I checked, Zips still cost about the same as they did when they came out (they are MAYBE a few dollars cheaper, but no where near where they should be!) and it's VERY hard to find any Zips other then Iomega's (unless you go to like Best Buy and scrape off the dust on some of the Fuji's on the back shelf! ;)) I mean I HAVE a Zip Drive (a 100 Megger), but after I got a CD-RW drive I saw zero point in getting a Zip 250, or more Zip Disks. Iomega could have and should have had something, but their prices are too high and the bump they made wasn't big enough. Zips COULD have replaced the floppy, but, alas, it looks like either nothing will, or CD's or DVD's will (more likely that CD's will now). Zip Drives are dead in my opinion!
But with a width of at least 3 inches, reduced battery life compared to most others(since CDs tend to be power suckers) and 3 inch CDs that are not exactly common in the US to buy, will it take off? -Henry
You call yourself a geek? When was the last time you were to a computer store? They are everywhere here in the cowtown that is Columbus, OH! While I agree with you it ain't common to BUY them, I see plenty of them rotting on the shelves! :)
The 3 inch CD only holds about 85 megs more then a Zip disk. I can buy 50 650 Meggers for about half the price of a 3 incher, so why bother? The only thing I can think of is that they'd be nice to drop a 3 incher into a letter or card with a bunch of images on them to send it to grandparents who would like to see pics of their grandchild a bit more. While the size is nice, I don't see why they'd go that way. 2 inches is not much to save! Now if they could build a 3 inch CD player that fits into, or onto a handheld I'd be more interested, but for a portable player, maybe not. If I am selected to beta test, it will still be a neat toy to play with!
I thought this happened months ago as someone esle has already pointed out. Wireless netowrks always should have been treated like a regular network because that's all it is. While, even at my work I would not be afraid of this (Secure your host systems as well as you can so that you can minimize risk. Use SSH and other similar things for being secure on your regular network and you should be fine.). Home users should not have much to worry about if they are relative newbies, or knowing what they are doing (newbies are too fearful to type in anything such as bank card info and stuff....techies already knew it wasn't secure and will hide the appropriate stuff). All in all, they sky isn't falling. It's just something that you already should have worried about from the start! :)
Actually, I have a better idea......include a secured copy of the e-version with every book. Companies put all kinds of CD's, msot of which are useless. Why not put the exact same thign so if you want to carry 3 UNLEASHED! books you don't get a hernia! Plus you get the same experience, but you don't have to carry the freakin book around all day. OH, Microsoft Reader with clear type looks fuzzy to me.
Yeah but compaq could probably afford to do something like that. They've been around alot longer then companies like Pets.com and etoys.com. Etoys spent money on court cost's and lawyer fees as well when they tried to sue etoy.com. Some companies CAN afford these chairs. It's not a total barometer for everyone, just for companies who should have used the VC for their business gols instead of perks. Case in point, the hospital my wife had a surgery in about a year or so ago had Aerons for the nurses at the nurse station. Same thing with the hospital my nephew was born in. Do you really think that it costs the hospital 5 bucks for an asprin? That's what they charge the insurance companies.
I saw a show on either Food TV or the Travel Channel about a dot com's office. I was a totally renovated warehouse with opulant solid stainless steel garage doors used to separate a party room into a conference room, they had a kitchen that THE COMPANY, not the employees, stocked with everything you needed. Peanut Butter and Jelly, Cavier, cappucino, steaks, bakery style cookies, every kind of pop imagineable, penguin mints, spaghetti....basically a fully stocked kitchen with everyhing under the sun. Honestly when have you EVER been able to do much more cooking then warming up something in the microwave on a lunch break just due to time contraints alone!? They employees would come in when they pleased, they had a room full of arcade games, air hockey, pool and foosball. It was stupid! where was the server room? I bet they had MEGA ridiculous sized server's with no regard for budgetary concerns. They made the small project that we are undergoing here look cheap! Most DotComs were smaller then ONE building on our campus, yet we have a yearly budget much less then the total they spent! I am finally getting a new chair (not an Aeron). The chair I am currently sitting on it probably about 15-20 years old. Not only did most Dot Coms have a LOUSY business plan, they spent money like Microsoft yet they didn't have Microsoft style money. I'd expect to see this kind of stuff at Microsoft because they can afford it, but at a START UP??!?!?!?
Like I tell my boss with a printer we run and someone else makes the files: As long as we have some part, no matter how small, we have to fix their CRAP! Microsoft will have to just deal wit it! You are running a BETA and not a final product. Just because it works on the beta means SQUAT! The whole idea is bad. If they at least let you install a driver, even if it's in their list, then I have no problem with letting you know there may be a problem with the driver. Just so long as they don't scare the crap out of new users...unfortunately that's what this will do! The new user will have something that worked under 98 and they will try it on XP and it does not work. They will want something else but my neighbor who has just gotten his computer will not have any choice. He'll have to get a Mac I guess to have something easy to manage. Linux would not be easy for him as easy as it is for us. As much as I hate to say it, Microsoft's software, at least for home users, is decent, easy to use, and unless you try to do things like heavy multitasking or web serving, it performs quite well. Stability isn't as important for home users (although, I think it is) as it is for business or techies. Is this an excuse to not make XP better? NO! But I see this causing MAJOR problems for home users and they will complain....loudly!
Does Linux bitch when I install my decidedly non standard Sound Card driver for my Aureal?? Nope! So Windows should not either.
I only ever bought one version of Windows (95 cuz I HATED 3.11 that came with my Pentium 100). Since thern I have been fortunate. I got 98 with my current machine which has a new brain (everything from my old Pentium 450 except MB, CPU and heatsink which have been all been replaced with a Duron 700, matching heatsink and ASUS A7V MB), and I won a copy of Windows ME in the launch contest for Windows ME. I had my CD one day before the launch. With Linux I have bought Caldera 2.3, a slew of Cheapbytes CD's, RedHat 7.1 and then I have downloaded various distros....Debian, Redhat and Slackware. Total spent on Linux, counting blank CD's, about 70 bucks (30 times 2 and about 10 bucks on blank CD's). For the 96 copy, I paid approximately 90 bucks (plus or minus 10 bucks). So, I spent more on Windows, especially since you consider the 98 I got with my machine was probably rolled into the cost of it. That said, I usually try to buy every other version of my current favorite Distro, RedHat. Missed 7. 0 and have not bought 7.1, but I may wait since it's been rumored, and denied by Red Hat that there's a beta floating around. Maybe they are trying to hype up things for 8.0??? (new GCC 3.X and other things....)