Microsoft is counting on Windows Media Center being the "next big thing"
What's so big about a 'media center'? All it is is tv/stereo in a different package. Being able to watch moving pictures was once big, now it's not. Being able to listen to sound over long distances w/o paying the telco was once big, now it's not. Being able to watch TV was once big, not it's not. Being able to own your own computer was once big, now it's commonplace, as is being able to time shift media broadcasts. How is a 'media center' so revolutionary over what we already have other than the marketing and the needs of a company to find the 'next big thing'? To me it's like saying the new 2005 Ford is the biggest thing out since the 2004 Ford.
What really impressed me, long ago, was the work of Kurt Gödel, in proving how sufficiently powerful formal deductive systems are provably incomplete. So far I haven't heard of any new mathematical innovations that have fixed it. That, in some interpretations, shows the problems a rational thinking being has in dealing with self referance, once's place in the universe, which, I suspect, gets psychologically projected outward as some supreme being - and, being human, all too often ends up as an ego domination game. I.e., proclaiming "God says such and such", is just a deflected way of saying, "I say such and such". Anyway, what character people attribute to God does have an effect on their behavior in the world, whether we treat each other with empathy or as enemies, etc. It's a very big subject with a long history, and way too many highly educated people today treat it with a cartoonish misinformed caracterization, which is probably patterened from popular media bashing as well.
Even in Math, proof involves an agreed upon set of axioms
Amen. Even the learned writer of the US declaration of Independence fell back upon, "We hold these truths to be self-evident". Everybody has to start somewhere, and the pseudo-scientific religion bashing people who poo-poo faith are as grating as the bible-thumpers.
Bankrupt to the CEO's million dollar tropical mansion that is.
It happens all the time - some group buys a business w/ leveraged funding, extracts a fortune for themselves while running the business into the ground.
It's like when little kids in the 3-6yo range walk up to a video game that's in attract mode and start playing with the joystick - a lot of times they'll think they're actually playing the game when it's just the demo running.
I can take speaker output and patch it through my digital recorder.
Or, since the output to the sound system is some interface standard, you can just capture the stream there still digital. Something like vsound w/ realplay.
Out of touch, basically;) Anyway, when ppl start griping about cell phone brain cancer someone should smack them with a bluetooth headset and tell 'em to stfu.
You could easily change the hours:minutes:seconds system to decimal hours like they did for navigation . For instance, instead of 11 hours, 50 minutes and 25 seconds - it'd be 11.84027777 o'clock.
Forget the tin-foil hat stuff - the only two solutions are either shield the head or place the transmitter in a relatively remote location. Cell phone manufactueres need only create a phone in two pieces with the high power rf part seperate from the handset. You could place the rf unit only a short distance away (like the back window of your car or on top of the cube wall) and field strength drops dramatically. Link between the handset and the rf unit can be wired or something like bluetooth but will likely be manufacturer proprietary. Forget the science, just sell what people want, whether their wants are based on facts or not.
Why spend money fixing bugs that aren't a big deal?
And why fix bugs when they can be left in as an incentive to purchase the next upgrade when it's available?
Basically, "big deal" bugs are the ones that show up during the flashy presentation to corporate purchasing decision makers. The ones "not worth fixing" are the aggravating ones the employees have to live with after the big purchase.
Make sure your monitor supports "sync on green" and an adapter will work. I had trouble with a Sun workstation and adapter with a KDS monitor because Sun uses composite sync and the PC monitor uses seperate H and V sync.
Anyway, last year I noticed SGI stuff going for bargain prices and since it had been a dream machine since 1992 I picked up an Indigo (teal) off ebay for $100, complete with a 19" monitor - shipping was $50, and then picked up a purple Indigo. It's a beautiful desktop with anime wallpaper, transparent aterm windows and is nice for working w/ blender stuff altho rendering jobs get sent to a newer machine.
Since Msft successfully proved in federal court that 'the browser is the OS' or tried to prove something to that effect - anyway, the next step is to ban the OS and get a real educational system.
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Microsoft is counting on Windows Media Center being the "next big thing"
What's so big about a 'media center'? All it is is tv/stereo in a different package. Being able to watch moving pictures was once big, now it's not. Being able to listen to sound over long distances w/o paying the telco was once big, now it's not. Being able to watch TV was once big, not it's not. Being able to own your own computer was once big, now it's commonplace, as is being able to time shift media broadcasts. How is a 'media center' so revolutionary over what we already have other than the marketing and the needs of a company to find the 'next big thing'? To me it's like saying the new 2005 Ford is the biggest thing out since the 2004 Ford.
What really impressed me, long ago, was the work of Kurt Gödel, in proving how sufficiently powerful formal deductive systems are provably incomplete. So far I haven't heard of any new mathematical innovations that have fixed it. That, in some interpretations, shows the problems a rational thinking being has in dealing with self referance, once's place in the universe, which, I suspect, gets psychologically projected outward as some supreme being - and, being human, all too often ends up as an ego domination game. I.e., proclaiming "God says such and such", is just a deflected way of saying, "I say such and such". Anyway, what character people attribute to God does have an effect on their behavior in the world, whether we treat each other with empathy or as enemies, etc. It's a very big subject with a long history, and way too many highly educated people today treat it with a cartoonish misinformed caracterization, which is probably patterened from popular media bashing as well.
Even in Math, proof involves an agreed upon set of axioms
Amen. Even the learned writer of the US declaration of Independence fell back upon, "We hold these truths to be self-evident". Everybody has to start somewhere, and the pseudo-scientific religion bashing people who poo-poo faith are as grating as the bible-thumpers.
they're getting barrels of salt pork and crackers. That oughtta be enough for any crew, arrrr!
Bankrupt to the CEO's million dollar tropical mansion that is.
It happens all the time - some group buys a business w/ leveraged funding, extracts a fortune for themselves while running the business into the ground.
jeez, a 'pun'dit is NOT someone who makes puns.
We've had replacements for tin-foil hats for some time now, not only more effective, but w/o the crackpot factor!
That was true in 1998 but now you're way out of date:
A survey by Thomson First Call put analysts' average estimates at earnings of 39 cents a share on revenue of $2.42 billion.
In the fourth quarter of last year, the Seattle online merchant earned 17 cents a share on $1.95 billion in revenue.
It's like when little kids in the 3-6yo range walk up to a video game that's in attract mode and start playing with the joystick - a lot of times they'll think they're actually playing the game when it's just the demo running.
How about when Federico Faggin first powered it up.
I hope it's after noon - I have an important 10 o'clock meeting that morning.
most corporate customers think "Database" = "Oracle" and never really go out there to investigate the alternatives.
That's what marketeers call successful 'branding', just like when they ask for a kleenex.
I can take speaker output and patch it through my digital recorder.
Or, since the output to the sound system is some interface standard, you can just capture the stream there still digital. Something like vsound w/ realplay.
then 6666 would be doubly evil since it has two runs of 3 consecutive 6's. But man, I need to get one of those Jesus VISA cards ;)
don't keep anything you want to pass on stored on Yahoo! Next problem?
Where the hell have you been?
;)
Out of touch, basically
Anyway, when ppl start griping about cell phone brain cancer someone should smack them with a bluetooth headset and tell 'em to stfu.
look for sun_netscape (netscape 7) in /usr/dt/bin/
You could easily change the hours:minutes:seconds system to decimal hours like they did for navigation . For instance, instead of 11 hours, 50 minutes and 25 seconds - it'd be 11.84027777 o'clock.
Forget the tin-foil hat stuff - the only two solutions are either shield the head or place the transmitter in a relatively remote location. Cell phone manufactueres need only create a phone in two pieces with the high power rf part seperate from the handset. You could place the rf unit only a short distance away (like the back window of your car or on top of the cube wall) and field strength drops dramatically. Link between the handset and the rf unit can be wired or something like bluetooth but will likely be manufacturer proprietary. Forget the science, just sell what people want, whether their wants are based on facts or not.
Well, that's coffee's not going to heat itself.
Yes - even McD is outsourcing the drive-through.
Why spend money fixing bugs that aren't a big deal?
And why fix bugs when they can be left in as an incentive to purchase the next upgrade when it's available?
Basically, "big deal" bugs are the ones that show up during the flashy presentation to corporate purchasing decision makers. The ones "not worth fixing" are the aggravating ones the employees have to live with after the big purchase.
Vice-President is the top politician for NASA
Yes, I can remember when Space Head Dan Quayle introduced John Glenn as "my fellow astronaught".
Or $10 for an adapter.
Make sure your monitor supports "sync on green" and an adapter will work. I had trouble with a Sun workstation and adapter with a KDS monitor because Sun uses composite sync and the PC monitor uses seperate H and V sync.
Anyway, last year I noticed SGI stuff going for bargain prices and since it had been a dream machine since 1992 I picked up an Indigo (teal) off ebay for $100, complete with a 19" monitor - shipping was $50, and then picked up a purple Indigo. It's a beautiful desktop with anime wallpaper, transparent aterm windows and is nice for working w/ blender stuff altho rendering jobs get sent to a newer machine.
Since Msft successfully proved in federal court that 'the browser is the OS' or tried to prove something to that effect - anyway, the next step is to ban the OS and get a real educational system.