I'd guess he's using a Windows flavor. Unfortunately MS supports only up to 4gigs of memory up through XP on non-server OSes. Vista has different levels of memory support based on the edition you get (8gigs on Home Basic, more support as you go up from there).
I'd say the motherboards available support just the right amount of memory as it relates to Windows, or maybe its the other way around...
Its 50x 30" displays, its not about the display so much as the cluster of 18 computers/video cards working together. That sets each individual computer at rendering just under 3 displays each. An easy feat in and of itself. Now getting it to work syncronously with 17 other computers... thats neat.
I am curious: what would you do if you added another monitor?
As I added monitors, I slowly started to raise the sensitivity as I started having to move the cursor greater distances. This is sometimes a problem on older mice with lower resolutions as i can't get the sensitivity high enough.
Current Opteron users can also upgrade to eight-cores just by replacing their current dual-core Opterons with two quad-core Opterons.
Of course, Intel is also rushing out a similar solution, in the form of their V8 programme. So, it is a race to see which company will be the first to release an 8-core platform. They talk of putting two quad cores on existing dual core systems to get 8 core platform. This was done over a year ago on Intel quad cpus. That race was over long before the article.
Some models of Xeons run at 1066 and 1333. Just off the specs on the article I'd say they released those Xeon CPUs as desktop model on the LGA775 socket. The larger cache, higher bus speed, thermal design and Smart Cache match up to the Xeon E51xx and E53xx.
The university that I attended issued student IDs that were usable as ATM cards with a bank that the school had set up to do that with. It worked fine but that was with just one bank that they had worked out some deal with. Its probably more difficult to work it out for multiple banks and allowing fair and equal access to all banks.
Dell customer service has always been good for me. I even recieved three calls from them to verify that I was happy with my XPS laptop (no not marketing calls, no mention of new products or anything, they asked if i was happy with the system and if there was anything they could do or any questions i may have had concerning the system and thats it, end of call since i was happy and had no problems).
On other occasions I have called them concerning some Latitude models for and a Optiplex, the call took no more then 20 seconds to route. The support was perfect, quick diagnosis, and then they send out a tech to replace the some parts.
One unfortunate occasion, I recieved someone else's Inspiron laptop. When I called support the service was horrible and i had to be rerouted twice just to let them know the box was misdelivered and follow up on any steps to get their box back to them or to its intended destination. I sat on hold, I got connected to the wrong people, and sat on hold some more then got rerouted to another department.
From all of this I will never buy an Inspiron or any of the economy models. The first thing you hit when you get to support is which model are you calling about... after which you get directed to the level of service you paid for.
The UMPC dies. And no one notices. I own a Sony UX280. I take pride in noone noticing it when I walk about. I wear a wind breaker or jacket which is plenty to cover the belt strap in which it is stored and transported. It looks really dorky when its visible. Its just small enough to hide and to most people that observe me using it they assume its some overly large hand held gaming device like a PSP or a small video player.
Perhaps part of making something popular in the market is its visibility in the public eye. Those iPod white headphones and the iPods themselves are easily spotted and have a cool, trendy image to them.
Where I work nearly everyone has a laptop, regardless of the need to take work home or not. I think people need to feel important and look like they take their work home, either in a briefcase or a laptop. I work downtown and theres lots of suits and the briefcase makes people feel all self important. Its practically part of the "dress for success" motto.
As for its utility vs other devices, I can carry out all tasks in normal usage of windows applications with internet connectivity. I can't type as fast as on a full laptop, but its no less of a performance loss than typing emails on a pda or cell phone.
These devices just don't have the professional or trendy image to make it in the market place. I believe MIDs will go much further than UMPCs.
How do I right-click to get a context menu with my fingers?
I see this as better implemented as multiple mouse-like input devices than touchscreen implementation. You're also limited by viewing this from a mouse perspective, one with multiple buttons even. It won't be intuitive to integrate in all the functionalities that exist currently, but noone when they first use a mouse finds it exceptionally intuitive. We won't know till we really try to tackle the problem.
Hmm, what with games where you're a ball and roll around collecting junk that sticks to you, theres no end to what new games may take form in... soon to come:
I would just like to have a second mouse cursor if I have a second mouse attached, and apps designed to allow me to do those crazy things with a second cursor. Large touch screens would be nice, but whats really affordablenow are multiple mice. Heck even if apps didn't have any special support for extra mice it would still be nice to have a second mouse cursor. Is there no demand for this sort of functionality in a productivity environment as opposed to the creativity type environments? I keep hoping with each iteration of Windows that support for multiple mouse cursors will be native.
But other experts say those conclusions are wrong, arguing that the productivity improvement estimates are too high and that using two monitors side by side would likely be a better productivity booster than one larger monitor.
Two monitors is great if you're a coder, having code on one screen and output or reference/manuals on another, but how often are you dragging and dropping if you're coding? Copy, cut, and paste, mapped to mouse buttons is what I use.
However whenever I'm looking at an excel file, more than 1 monitors never has helped me when the data was all on one sheet. Higlighting areas of cells and dragging and dropping in an excel context is more useful than dragging and dropping in a file management context.
Sadly, where I work the people actually using excel on a regular basis have all gone and requested tiny laptops that are far too small to be useful, its some craze amoungst our business analysts that want to be able to take their work home every day. They should try getting their work done at work instead of taking it home. Which brings up another point...
Touchpad or mouse. Standard mouse or mouse with programable buttons. I say mouse > touchpad but which would improve efficiency more, a mouse with more buttons, or a bigger screen? I'm partial to the mouse with more buttons myself.
a single large monitor or dual displays -- could help workers, depending on what they do
I agree, but I sure would like a 30" monitor to accompany my 17" widescreen laptop... time to slip this study into the company mailing list heh heh.
Being bored at work, I took up using the Dvorak keyboard layout. My passwords however retain the same unconcious keyboard patterns as they did on a standard keyboard. Without even thinking of what my password is I can type it. For a while I didn't even know my own passwords were... this proved to be a problem when i had to check email and wasn't at my computer. But it definately ends the shoulder surfing for passwords.
I ended up typing my passwords a few times in notepad and memorized the gibberish that is my password now. Other than that I'd have to be trying to know what my fingers are pressing when i go into password mode.
I found out at work today and was filled with a sense of disbelief that I liken to the feeling I had when I woke up on 9/11 and heard about the terrorist attacks. Theres something about national icons disapearing forever that... hurts.
The point is that card readers are not obsolete. A laptop with a card reader is more versatile.
Ideally one would plug their camera or other device directly into a computer, but more often I'm asked to move data off the devices without a cable for friends/co-workers. I've not met anyone that actually carries around their USB cable when they're on a day excursion or visiting. Usually they leave it plugged into their PC. I personally would not walk around with all my cables in my pocket when i go to a friend's.
Back to the laptop, a built-in card reader is something I look for in a laptop after cpu/memory/hdd, its almost as important as DVD/CD drive. USB is something I take for granted as available.
Seriously, does anybody ever use the card readers that come bundled with laptops now? Isn't this sort of thing obsoleted with USB and thumb drives?
Quite the contrary
I've yet to see many cameras, mp3 players, cell phones or pdas that have a USB ports to plug thumb drives into. The cell phones I use either use miniSD or transflash memory, both come with SD card adaptors. My mp3 player at worst doubles as a card reader for my pc besides being able to play music off the memory. I'm thankful that my dell laptop came with an SD card reader. I use it to empty my SD cards when they're full.
As for thumb drives... they prove to be mostly useless, carrying around unaccessible data. The only use for it I see is to make it bootable and put linux on it for when i have to use someone else's laptop or pc. No laptop or pc... no use.
Slashdot Mirror
When I lived in the US I knew of no other alternative to online auctions other than Ebay. Other sites lacked a decent seller or buyer user base.
In Australia however, not a week goes by at the office that there isn't a box from www.graysonline.com.au that one coworker or another has gotten.
At least in Australia there are acceptable alternatives to Ebay with sellers and buyers within the same country.
...Photoshop on an Athlon 64...
I'd guess he's using a Windows flavor. Unfortunately MS supports only up to 4gigs of memory up through XP on non-server OSes. Vista has different levels of memory support based on the edition you get (8gigs on Home Basic, more support as you go up from there).
I'd say the motherboards available support just the right amount of memory as it relates to Windows, or maybe its the other way around...
Its 50x 30" displays, its not about the display so much as the cluster of 18 computers/video cards working together. That sets each individual computer at rendering just under 3 displays each. An easy feat in and of itself. Now getting it to work syncronously with 17 other computers... thats neat.
As I added monitors, I slowly started to raise the sensitivity as I started having to move the cursor greater distances. This is sometimes a problem on older mice with lower resolutions as i can't get the sensitivity high enough.
Of course, Intel is also rushing out a similar solution, in the form of their V8 programme. So, it is a race to see which company will be the first to release an 8-core platform. They talk of putting two quad cores on existing dual core systems to get 8 core platform. This was done over a year ago on Intel quad cpus. That race was over long before the article.
Some models of Xeons run at 1066 and 1333. Just off the specs on the article I'd say they released those Xeon CPUs as desktop model on the LGA775 socket. The larger cache, higher bus speed, thermal design and Smart Cache match up to the Xeon E51xx and E53xx.
The university that I attended issued student IDs that were usable as ATM cards with a bank that the school had set up to do that with. It worked fine but that was with just one bank that they had worked out some deal with. Its probably more difficult to work it out for multiple banks and allowing fair and equal access to all banks.
Dell customer service has always been good for me. I even recieved three calls from them to verify that I was happy with my XPS laptop (no not marketing calls, no mention of new products or anything, they asked if i was happy with the system and if there was anything they could do or any questions i may have had concerning the system and thats it, end of call since i was happy and had no problems).
On other occasions I have called them concerning some Latitude models for and a Optiplex, the call took no more then 20 seconds to route. The support was perfect, quick diagnosis, and then they send out a tech to replace the some parts.
One unfortunate occasion, I recieved someone else's Inspiron laptop. When I called support the service was horrible and i had to be rerouted twice just to let them know the box was misdelivered and follow up on any steps to get their box back to them or to its intended destination. I sat on hold, I got connected to the wrong people, and sat on hold some more then got rerouted to another department.
From all of this I will never buy an Inspiron or any of the economy models. The first thing you hit when you get to support is which model are you calling about... after which you get directed to the level of service you paid for.
Perhaps part of making something popular in the market is its visibility in the public eye. Those iPod white headphones and the iPods themselves are easily spotted and have a cool, trendy image to them.
Where I work nearly everyone has a laptop, regardless of the need to take work home or not. I think people need to feel important and look like they take their work home, either in a briefcase or a laptop. I work downtown and theres lots of suits and the briefcase makes people feel all self important. Its practically part of the "dress for success" motto.
As for its utility vs other devices, I can carry out all tasks in normal usage of windows applications with internet connectivity. I can't type as fast as on a full laptop, but its no less of a performance loss than typing emails on a pda or cell phone.
These devices just don't have the professional or trendy image to make it in the market place. I believe MIDs will go much further than UMPCs.
Reminds me of this Mac commercial.
... You like your iPhone better than me... don't you DAVE?
Add some lasers and a short circuit and we're onto something here. Maybe some blue ray lasers striped from blue ray players?
I see this as better implemented as multiple mouse-like input devices than touchscreen implementation. You're also limited by viewing this from a mouse perspective, one with multiple buttons even. It won't be intuitive to integrate in all the functionalities that exist currently, but noone when they first use a mouse finds it exceptionally intuitive. We won't know till we really try to tackle the problem.
Hmm, what with games where you're a ball and roll around collecting junk that sticks to you, theres no end to what new games may take form in... soon to come:
Dumpster Diving!
I would just like to have a second mouse cursor if I have a second mouse attached, and apps designed to allow me to do those crazy things with a second cursor. Large touch screens would be nice, but whats really affordable now are multiple mice. Heck even if apps didn't have any special support for extra mice it would still be nice to have a second mouse cursor. Is there no demand for this sort of functionality in a productivity environment as opposed to the creativity type environments? I keep hoping with each iteration of Windows that support for multiple mouse cursors will be native.
I don't speak your crazy moon language.
However whenever I'm looking at an excel file, more than 1 monitors never has helped me when the data was all on one sheet. Higlighting areas of cells and dragging and dropping in an excel context is more useful than dragging and dropping in a file management context.
Sadly, where I work the people actually using excel on a regular basis have all gone and requested tiny laptops that are far too small to be useful, its some craze amoungst our business analysts that want to be able to take their work home every day. They should try getting their work done at work instead of taking it home. Which brings up another point...
Touchpad or mouse. Standard mouse or mouse with programable buttons. I say mouse > touchpad but which would improve efficiency more, a mouse with more buttons, or a bigger screen? I'm partial to the mouse with more buttons myself.
I agree, but I sure would like a 30" monitor to accompany my 17" widescreen laptop... time to slip this study into the company mailing list heh heh.
It will be a series of tubes
Being bored at work, I took up using the Dvorak keyboard layout. My passwords however retain the same unconcious keyboard patterns as they did on a standard keyboard. Without even thinking of what my password is I can type it. For a while I didn't even know my own passwords were... this proved to be a problem when i had to check email and wasn't at my computer. But it definately ends the shoulder surfing for passwords.
I ended up typing my passwords a few times in notepad and memorized the gibberish that is my password now. Other than that I'd have to be trying to know what my fingers are pressing when i go into password mode.
I found out at work today and was filled with a sense of disbelief that I liken to the feeling I had when I woke up on 9/11 and heard about the terrorist attacks. Theres something about national icons disapearing forever that... hurts.
The point is that card readers are not obsolete. A laptop with a card reader is more versatile.
Ideally one would plug their camera or other device directly into a computer, but more often I'm asked to move data off the devices without a cable for friends/co-workers. I've not met anyone that actually carries around their USB cable when they're on a day excursion or visiting. Usually they leave it plugged into their PC. I personally would not walk around with all my cables in my pocket when i go to a friend's.
Back to the laptop, a built-in card reader is something I look for in a laptop after cpu/memory/hdd, its almost as important as DVD/CD drive. USB is something I take for granted as available.
Seriously, does anybody ever use the card readers that come bundled with laptops now? Isn't this sort of thing obsoleted with USB and thumb drives?
Quite the contrary
I've yet to see many cameras, mp3 players, cell phones or pdas that have a USB ports to plug thumb drives into. The cell phones I use either use miniSD or transflash memory, both come with SD card adaptors. My mp3 player at worst doubles as a card reader for my pc besides being able to play music off the memory. I'm thankful that my dell laptop came with an SD card reader. I use it to empty my SD cards when they're full.
As for thumb drives... they prove to be mostly useless, carrying around unaccessible data. The only use for it I see is to make it bootable and put linux on it for when i have to use someone else's laptop or pc. No laptop or pc... no use.