No, USB is NOT going to go away. That's not the point.
One big point is that, in a few years, your music will probably be on something better/different. In all probability, the music that you listen to, will only be on a couple different devices (maybe even one). Or, do you like using different devices like a cassette player, a phonograph player, a compact disk player, an MP3 player, and (since we're talking about it) a USB stick??? For most people, the answer is going to be, "no", and most people would probably want their music to be on as few devices as possible. Yes, USB devices will still be around, but you'll probably have transferred the music to some better medium/device (which might not work in a car with a USB port, but would work with an aux port).
In all probablity, you won't want to use music on a USB stick in a few years (although, if you're stuck with a car with a USB port, you'll be stuck with it, much like people were stuck with cars with 8-track tape players).
An aux port, low-tech as it is, means that you'll be able to use whatever media device du-jour exists in a few years. With a USB port, you're probably screwed.
It's good to see VW using the standard instead of going with the trend and putting ipod adaptors in, like BMW did.
This really isn't much better than what BMW did.
The problem is that cars tend to last 10++ years (or so I'd hope), while 10++ years is several lifetimes for computer equipment. In a few years, there will probably be something much better/faster than USB2, which will probably go the way of serial ports.
I'm not saying that no one will use USB2 -- it's that there will probably be something much better/faster, much of what you buy then will be using this newer interface, and so it'll be harder to find USB2 equipment. Look at it this way: you can still get cars with cassette tape players, but how many of you still use cassette tapes???
BMW's much-less publicized Aux input option is really a better choice, as that should have a much longer useful lifetime. Yes, it's low-tech, and doesn't integrate playlists with the car, but it won't have the (likely) short useful lifetime of the ipod adapter or USB2 interface.
I'm not saying MythTV doesn't have its benefits, but it certainly isn't a replacement for my TiVo.
While I certainly agree with what you say, TiVo doing stuff like this is why I'm not buying more TiVo boxes. I've been thinking about buying a TiVo DVD recorder, but I think I'll buy a plain DVD recorder instead.
I've built a couple of MythTV boxes and, while they are NOWHERE near as nice as a TiVo (not even close), they're good enough for me.
I'm going to vote with my wallet, and TiVo isn't going to get any more of my money.
And for the strong monsters, you *need* the cooperation.
Definitely. On the "Thunderhead Keep" mission, going solo (with NPC henchmen) is NOT an option. Near the end of this mission, you're in a fort with two open gates, and two sets of catapults. Several groups of monsters attack the fortress, and you've got to defend it (actually, your goal is to keep a certain NPC King alive, and kill a nasty monster boss, but it basically amounts to defending the fort). Two groups of players have got to defend the two gates, two other players must man the catapults (one for each gate), and two other (player) monks have got to heal the players at the gates (well, the monks aren't strictly necessary, but they make this difficult mission much easier). You just can't do this mission without close co-operation (whereas many/most missions can be done solely with NPCs).
I'm not trying to be insulting or anything, but I am really curious: can't you just look at the DSL/cable modem? Ours is often unused, and so the lights don't blink. If I see blinking lights when no is using the LAN, I get a little paranoid (e.g., spyware, viruses, etc.).;-) If the lan is slow, checking the blinking lights is one of the first things I do (I should just check the throughput page on the router, but that requires an SVG plugin, which is currently broken on my system;-( ).
Well, if you use cruddy routers, you get what you deserve.
You need to use a router that does load-balancing and/or bandwidth limiting (in the worst case, you could just assign a very low priority to bittorrent traffic). There have been a lot of ranting/raving on these recently on slashdot.
Since it's named "Vores Oel", I'd guess it's an ale.
Given the recipe's, umm, "attention to detail", perhaps the name is some ancient corruption of "Pore's Oil", which is what some people might call it, after "filling in the missing bits".;-)
(And I won't rant on the sad lack of sanitization....)
The "Save to my web" feature is really cool. I'm going to try it out.
If you're talking about the "My Saved Copy" feature, you really need to check out the Firefox extension called, "Scrapbook". That's got to be one of the top ten most useful fx extensions.
The way that every single zone is an instance is Guild Wars is the worst feature of the game.
That's a matter of personal preference. While you don't have contact with other players, it does mean that YOU get to complete the quest, at YOUR (or your party's) own pace, without competing with other groups and/or without standing in line.
Zone repopulation can be an issue, but I haven't found it to be a problem. While I'm only halfway through GW, it's rare that I have to go through more than two zones (maybe 3 in rare cases) to do a quest. If you're complaining about having to go through the same zone again and again, to do quests, you're going about it wrong: you don't collect a quest, do it, collect the next quest, do that, etc.. You should collect as many quests as possible, and then do as many as you can in the same zone. I've found GW to be very fun this way. Admittedly, however, there are some quests that do require repetitive zone slogging -- the "Minaar's trilogy" being the worst one that I've found.
(Granted, I'm only halfway through GW, but I've yet to see a single quest that requires more than two or so zones. 3-7???? Have you heard of teleporting to the nearest town? Or, are you going for the bonus increases you get for staying away from towns as long as possible, and killing lots of monsters?)
For the first few days each player will be limited to grouping with 1-3 other people.
The first part of the game teaches you about the game interface, and the world in general, and so I don't think the lack of player interaction there is a problem (although obviously you do). Once the beginning player gets past a certain point, there are a couple of beginning quests that encourage/require team play (although admittedly limited to just you and one other player). Once you get beyond the beginning/intro world, your max party size increases.
(Also, even if you are in the introductory world, you can still interact with other players in the various towns -- you're only limited by the number of players in a particular town/district.)
(And a number of players apparently can't type, and so they don't say a lot anyway....)
There's a large gaming market of people like me - people who want to game ~5-10 hrs/week, which isn't enough time to become expert at a game, and who want to have fun without treating a game like a job. I have a job - that's what I'm escaping with the game. I also don't want to subscribe to a damned game.
There's always Guild Wars. No PKs, fairly easy-to-learn, and no monthly fees. Quests can be 1-2 hours or less in length (even less if you've done them before).
Of course, people problems still exist. Some noobs leave your group at the first sign of trouble, and some people are just too full of themselves (I saw one monk leave because some of the group, "were too stupid to deserve him", or something like that). Some quests can be done with NPC henchmen, and so, if your friends aren't around and you can't get enough people to form a group, that's a possibility (henchmen are always available, but some quests are just too hard with only henchmen).
this will result in you using about 1/8 the electricity to get the same light, but drop the heat output from lighting - a major contributor to household heat - to virtually nil.
What bulbs are these? While the CF bulbs are great for saving energy, all of the ones I've seen still put out a significant amount of heat. Perhaps, not quite as much as an incandescent, but they're still way too hot to touch (IMO).
I am starting to wonder if these PC fires might be due to the "exploding capacitor" problem from that era (where the Taiwan company that stole (and miscopied) the recipe for making capacitors, which then, after 5 years or so, pop, spilling eletrolyte all over a running PC motherboard).
Well, the "exploding capacitors" that I've seen, are really more along the lines of "leaky capacitors" (hey, given the choice between "leaky" and "exploding", which one do you think people are going to use?;-). The electolyte slowly leaks out and dries out to a light brown crusty substance. No explosions, there.
However, depending upon the capacitor's purpose, changing the capcitance (or changing the capacitor into a "not-quite-a-capacitor"), could also have Very Bad Effects.;-(
Another (rare?) possibility is hairline cracks/fractures in surface-mount components (possibly caused by the way the device is soldered to the board, IIRC). Some years back, I ran into a web page that had some pretty detailed descriptions of surface-mount component failure modes. In some cases, surface-mount capacitors (I think) could pass some phenomenal amounts of current in some failure mode, easily burning an hole and possibly causing a fire. Very Scary Stuff. Unfortunately, the site that had the page took it down and started charging people to see it.
(Soon after I saw that, a co-worker's laptop got Real Hot, and something burned a nasty hole in the bottom, and scorched a piece of desk, too, I think. I always assumed that it was some kind of surface-mounted device failure, but that was just a wild guess on my part.)
Still waiting for a handheld calculator as powerful as mathematica.
Out of curiousity, why wouldn't a laptop computer do (with either the real Mathematica, or something "free" like Maxima)? (Aside from the sheer coolness factor, that is?)
As cool as a "portable mathematica" would be, I can't see the market for such a device being very large (i.e., no one would make any money off it, unless it was very expensive, and then it would not sell well, due to competition from laptops).
(Side note: free, text-only versions of Maxima was, at one time, available for the handheld Sharp Zaurus.)
Flat panel monitors are now affordable. Just last week I noticed a 17 inch had fallen into the 200$ mark. This was pretty much the selling point for me and I suspect many others.
For those people looking for these deals, note that both 1024x768 and 1280x1024 monitors are falling into this price range (although, IIRC, the 1024x768 ones sometimes fall even lower -- into the $150-$200 range). Make sure that you get the one you really want.;-)
(Also, good 1600x1200 monitors sometimes fall into the $600+tax+S&H range.)
Slashdot Mirror
Biometrics is a bad idea, if for no other reason than thieves will chop off body parts: Malaysia car thieves steal finger
Someone please mod this up!
One big point is that, in a few years, your music will probably be on something better/different. In all probability, the music that you listen to, will only be on a couple different devices (maybe even one). Or, do you like using different devices like a cassette player, a phonograph player, a compact disk player, an MP3 player, and (since we're talking about it) a USB stick??? For most people, the answer is going to be, "no", and most people would probably want their music to be on as few devices as possible. Yes, USB devices will still be around, but you'll probably have transferred the music to some better medium/device (which might not work in a car with a USB port, but would work with an aux port).
In all probablity, you won't want to use music on a USB stick in a few years (although, if you're stuck with a car with a USB port, you'll be stuck with it, much like people were stuck with cars with 8-track tape players).
An aux port, low-tech as it is, means that you'll be able to use whatever media device du-jour exists in a few years. With a USB port, you're probably screwed.
This really isn't much better than what BMW did.
The problem is that cars tend to last 10++ years (or so I'd hope), while 10++ years is several lifetimes for computer equipment. In a few years, there will probably be something much better/faster than USB2, which will probably go the way of serial ports.
I'm not saying that no one will use USB2 -- it's that there will probably be something much better/faster, much of what you buy then will be using this newer interface, and so it'll be harder to find USB2 equipment. Look at it this way: you can still get cars with cassette tape players, but how many of you still use cassette tapes???
BMW's much-less publicized Aux input option is really a better choice, as that should have a much longer useful lifetime. Yes, it's low-tech, and doesn't integrate playlists with the car, but it won't have the (likely) short useful lifetime of the ipod adapter or USB2 interface.
That just reinforces what he said: it needs to go away.
If hardly anyone uses it, why have it? Why not just get rid of it (move it into a sub-menu, as he suggested), and reclaim precious screen realestate?
I've built a couple of MythTV boxes and, while they are NOWHERE near as nice as a TiVo (not even close), they're good enough for me.
I'm going to vote with my wallet, and TiVo isn't going to get any more of my money.
Definitely. On the "Thunderhead Keep" mission, going solo (with NPC henchmen) is NOT an option. Near the end of this mission, you're in a fort with two open gates, and two sets of catapults. Several groups of monsters attack the fortress, and you've got to defend it (actually, your goal is to keep a certain NPC King alive, and kill a nasty monster boss, but it basically amounts to defending the fort). Two groups of players have got to defend the two gates, two other players must man the catapults (one for each gate), and two other (player) monks have got to heal the players at the gates (well, the monks aren't strictly necessary, but they make this difficult mission much easier). You just can't do this mission without close co-operation (whereas many/most missions can be done solely with NPCs).
Guild Wars rules! ;-)
For those people using Psi:
You will get SSL cert warnings, but you can get rid of them via the "Ignore SSL warnings" checkbox (but do so at your own risk!).
(Well, I suppose you could, but I reeeally recommend that you not do that. ;-)
<rofl>
I'm not trying to be insulting or anything, but I am really curious: can't you just look at the DSL/cable modem? Ours is often unused, and so the lights don't blink. If I see blinking lights when no is using the LAN, I get a little paranoid (e.g., spyware, viruses, etc.). ;-) If the lan is slow, checking the blinking lights is one of the first things I do (I should just check the throughput page on the router, but that requires an SVG plugin, which is currently broken on my system ;-( ).
You need to use a router that does load-balancing and/or bandwidth limiting (in the worst case, you could just assign a very low priority to bittorrent traffic). There have been a lot of ranting/raving on these recently on slashdot.
Given the recipe's, umm, "attention to detail", perhaps the name is some ancient corruption of "Pore's Oil", which is what some people might call it, after "filling in the missing bits". ;-)
(And I won't rant on the sad lack of sanitization ....)
If you're talking about the "My Saved Copy" feature, you really need to check out the Firefox extension called, "Scrapbook". That's got to be one of the top ten most useful fx extensions.
That's a matter of personal preference. While you don't have contact with other players, it does mean that YOU get to complete the quest, at YOUR (or your party's) own pace, without competing with other groups and/or without standing in line.
Zone repopulation can be an issue, but I haven't found it to be a problem. While I'm only halfway through GW, it's rare that I have to go through more than two zones (maybe 3 in rare cases) to do a quest. If you're complaining about having to go through the same zone again and again, to do quests, you're going about it wrong: you don't collect a quest, do it, collect the next quest, do that, etc.. You should collect as many quests as possible, and then do as many as you can in the same zone. I've found GW to be very fun this way. Admittedly, however, there are some quests that do require repetitive zone slogging -- the "Minaar's trilogy" being the worst one that I've found.
(Granted, I'm only halfway through GW, but I've yet to see a single quest that requires more than two or so zones. 3-7???? Have you heard of teleporting to the nearest town? Or, are you going for the bonus increases you get for staying away from towns as long as possible, and killing lots of monsters?)
The first part of the game teaches you about the game interface, and the world in general, and so I don't think the lack of player interaction there is a problem (although obviously you do). Once the beginning player gets past a certain point, there are a couple of beginning quests that encourage/require team play (although admittedly limited to just you and one other player). Once you get beyond the beginning/intro world, your max party size increases.
(Also, even if you are in the introductory world, you can still interact with other players in the various towns -- you're only limited by the number of players in a particular town/district.)
(And a number of players apparently can't type, and so they don't say a lot anyway ....)
There's always Guild Wars. No PKs, fairly easy-to-learn, and no monthly fees. Quests can be 1-2 hours or less in length (even less if you've done them before).
Of course, people problems still exist. Some noobs leave your group at the first sign of trouble, and some people are just too full of themselves (I saw one monk leave because some of the group, "were too stupid to deserve him", or something like that). Some quests can be done with NPC henchmen, and so, if your friends aren't around and you can't get enough people to form a group, that's a possibility (henchmen are always available, but some quests are just too hard with only henchmen).
What bulbs are these? While the CF bulbs are great for saving energy, all of the ones I've seen still put out a significant amount of heat. Perhaps, not quite as much as an incandescent, but they're still way too hot to touch (IMO).
What's wrong with the Garmin PDAs? They run PalmOS, have a free devkit, and free compilers are available for PalmOS.
... and low-tech thieves can just take the easy way out: chop off the finger.
Then what do networked washing machines fall under??? ;-)
No, I'm not kidding. Google it. Here's one such match (from 2003, no less): http://panasonic.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/dat a.dir/en030716-3/en030716-3.html
Well, the "exploding capacitors" that I've seen, are really more along the lines of "leaky capacitors" (hey, given the choice between "leaky" and "exploding", which one do you think people are going to use? ;-). The electolyte slowly leaks out and dries out to a light brown crusty substance. No explosions, there.
However, depending upon the capacitor's purpose, changing the capcitance (or changing the capacitor into a "not-quite-a-capacitor"), could also have Very Bad Effects. ;-(
Another (rare?) possibility is hairline cracks/fractures in surface-mount components (possibly caused by the way the device is soldered to the board, IIRC). Some years back, I ran into a web page that had some pretty detailed descriptions of surface-mount component failure modes. In some cases, surface-mount capacitors (I think) could pass some phenomenal amounts of current in some failure mode, easily burning an hole and possibly causing a fire. Very Scary Stuff. Unfortunately, the site that had the page took it down and started charging people to see it.
(Soon after I saw that, a co-worker's laptop got Real Hot, and something burned a nasty hole in the bottom, and scorched a piece of desk, too, I think. I always assumed that it was some kind of surface-mounted device failure, but that was just a wild guess on my part.)
"Virtual PC"
I'm serious, although I won't go into the merits of buying a mini and then running Virtual PC on it. ;-)
Out of curiousity, why wouldn't a laptop computer do (with either the real Mathematica, or something "free" like Maxima)? (Aside from the sheer coolness factor, that is?)
As cool as a "portable mathematica" would be, I can't see the market for such a device being very large (i.e., no one would make any money off it, unless it was very expensive, and then it would not sell well, due to competition from laptops).
(Side note: free, text-only versions of Maxima was, at one time, available for the handheld Sharp Zaurus.)
For those people looking for these deals, note that both 1024x768 and 1280x1024 monitors are falling into this price range (although, IIRC, the 1024x768 ones sometimes fall even lower -- into the $150-$200 range). Make sure that you get the one you really want. ;-)
(Also, good 1600x1200 monitors sometimes fall into the $600+tax+S&H range.)
They're all huddled around (what they think to be) "My Precious" .... ;-)