I don't know where everyone is getting this "now the ads are everywhere and unskippable!" rumor.
I've had exactly the experience described by the parent. Most Blu-Ray titles are as stuffed with ads as Barack Obama's office is stuffed with copies of the Koran.
It appears that this is essentially the same setup as those dodgy Chinese handhelds loaded with a bunch of hacked and remixed NES ROMs.
So why didn't anyone else think of this before? It's perfect; put together this ultra-cheap but still highly programmable hardware with some efficiently-designed educational software, and you've got something that can, despite having a tiny fraction of the OLPC's specs, still make a big, positive impact on kids in the developing world.
If this project is managed right, it could end up doing the OLPC's mission for it and then some.
Is industrial development and research at a point now where we don't have to worry about suddenly discovering an airborne carcinogenic byproduct from the reaction in about 10 years?
If this is both safe and effective, it's a major breakthrough.
If Apple ever does offer an iPhone with a physical keyboard, it won't be a new version of the phone, and it definitely won't have hinges, slides, or latches.
It will be an accessory. Most likely a minimalist Bluetooth-based slab that you set out on the desk.
Before Apple had announced the SDK, an iPhone Nano might have been a possibility. The mockups of an abbreviated Apple Touch interface floating around hint at the plausibility of getting the basics of the iPhone UI into a smaller package.
Post-SDK, however, there's no way that's going to happen. The varying hardware feature set (camera, microphone, etc.) between the iPhone and iPod Touch are already diverse enough to make software marketing a bit dicey, but I can't see Apple introducing a major new variation to the UI for smaller screens along with a whole new set of targeting constraints for developers.
Perhaps there is yet one way an iPhone Nano could exist: No App Store compatibility.
The obviousness of some of the colloquial expressions protected under trademark in the US is sometimes quite surprising. Dish soap marketers, for instance, must be careful in how they describe the effective concentration of their product, because "a little goes a long way(tm)" is a trademark of P&G group.
"Well now I bought this game for my grandson thinking it was just about good ol' wholesome gangland killing. And then I find out that the game actually has... sex in it!"
I forget the source, but I'm basically paraphrasing the real complaint of some grandmother I recall reading back when the scandal broke. How we can live in a world where the dramatization of taking human life is considered fine but the dramatization of creating it is considered perverted and dirty is simply beyond my comprehension.
I presume you do realize Blizzard's banning abilities only extend to WoW and that they can't actually ban you from real life?
The software was found not to violate any copyrights. It's not illegal. It only violates Blizzard's terms of service. They're free to ban your account for using the bot, but that's all.
Even if this story began as a typo, I don't think a $10 laptop is a pie in the sky.
The key here is to rethink our expectations for a laptop versus what the developing world actually needs. The OLPC, for example, is a beautiful machine, but its capabilities are honestly far beyond a baseline which would still make a huge impact on schoolkids living in poverty.
Imagine something like the following:
- Reflective, passive-matrix black and white screen
- Low-end (ARM9-based?) system on a chip
- 256 meg flash-based hard drive
- Custom, miniscule Linux distro consisting mostly of a web browser
- Big, old-style NiCd batteries
- 1995-style trackball
- Wired network adapter; USB host with optional wi-fi addon
With some creative engineering, I could imagine this sort of system getting down to the $tens, and with the kind of mass production you'd need to get this to many millions of kids, I think an ultimate $10 pricetag is completely doable.
Of course, I'm not actually a product engineer, so perhaps a real one could tighten up my specs (or dash my unrealistic idealism on the rocks).
We need to overcome the irrational fear of computer-controlled cars implicit in such jokes, or we'll never be ready for what promises to be the most important breakthrough in transportation in its history.
Yes, desktop computers running Windows can get viruses. They are good at it. But that's why Windows isn't used for mission-critical applications, and why planes don't crash into lakes every week and your bank doesn't forget how much money is in your account every now and then.
A properly-designed, computer-controlled car will be outfitted with hardened and redundant systems with a proper hierarchy of graceful degradation in emergency situations. It will be safer than entrusting driving to distractable, emotional humans.
The N-series would be absolutely excellent if it had a well-designed PIM suite (and by well-designed, I mean not a poorly-designed, hacked together, proof-of-concept, "oh yes there is a PIM suite" sort of PIM suite).
As it stands, the only real alternatives are the iPod Touch (which is very nice but can't do Flash and has no camera or mic) or a stodgy Palm device (do they still even make non-phone devices?). Nokia has the superior hardware, but alas the software just isn't nearly as versatile without a quality PIM.
Gadgets â" Buy a case of pantihose, paint some black splotches on it and you're there
Now hold on a moment there. How are you going to get an awesome shifting splotch cloth without any of Dr. Manhattan's advances in practical particle physics?
I'd been getting a string of +5 comments for awhile and then I got 15, had a drought of insightfulness and fell back to 5, then got modded up some more and got 10.
More than that, this is about big business interests always trumping the rights of the individual.
From Jammie Thomas having to spend the rest of her life in debt for depriving the recording industry of $20 worth of revenue, to the EU's three-strikes-you're-out rule where the mere accusation of copyright violation can result in your ejection from modern society and being forced to live your life decades in the past before consumer internet access, this makes perfect sense. In fact, it's nothing.
The confidentiality of your viewing records? Your personal privacy? Meaningless as long as it conflicts with Viacom's interests.
There are some fine examples of successful park and rides in Chicago.
Look no further than the inbound I-90 during rush hour: While creeping along at five miles per hour near Cumberland, you can take the Cumberland exit, drive two minutes, pull into the garage, and board a train within five.
There's nothing quite like relaxing on the train while it speeds past the idle vehicles on its median track.
Still, it's not exactly like you clicked a banner with a lame attempt at a bouncing, fake window telling you your DNS software was in immediate need of a fix and that this combination patch and shopping buddy would fix it.
Getting paid to make a recommendation that you believe in, and fully disclosing the compensation, is one thing.
Getting paid to make a recommendation that you wouldn't normally make is another, as is failing to disclose compensation.
When I give a friend a Netflix referral code, for instance, it's because I recommend the service to people anyway, and I'm totally upfront that their using my code is going to ship me out a free disc from my queue. I don't consider this "being good"; I consider it the bare minimum of responsibility.
Despite some waffle words here and there, it's good to see someone of rank in the US DOD stepping up to answer serious questions from real techies.
The fact that Lt. Col. Bircher went the extra mile and answered even more questions, often quite in detail, is laudable. More should follow his example.
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I don't know where everyone is getting this "now the ads are everywhere and unskippable!" rumor.
I've had exactly the experience described by the parent. Most Blu-Ray titles are as stuffed with ads as Barack Obama's office is stuffed with copies of the Koran.
It appears that this is essentially the same setup as those dodgy Chinese handhelds loaded with a bunch of hacked and remixed NES ROMs.
So why didn't anyone else think of this before? It's perfect; put together this ultra-cheap but still highly programmable hardware with some efficiently-designed educational software, and you've got something that can, despite having a tiny fraction of the OLPC's specs, still make a big, positive impact on kids in the developing world.
If this project is managed right, it could end up doing the OLPC's mission for it and then some.
Is industrial development and research at a point now where we don't have to worry about suddenly discovering an airborne carcinogenic byproduct from the reaction in about 10 years?
If this is both safe and effective, it's a major breakthrough.
If Apple ever does offer an iPhone with a physical keyboard, it won't be a new version of the phone, and it definitely won't have hinges, slides, or latches.
It will be an accessory. Most likely a minimalist Bluetooth-based slab that you set out on the desk.
Before Apple had announced the SDK, an iPhone Nano might have been a possibility. The mockups of an abbreviated Apple Touch interface floating around hint at the plausibility of getting the basics of the iPhone UI into a smaller package.
Post-SDK, however, there's no way that's going to happen. The varying hardware feature set (camera, microphone, etc.) between the iPhone and iPod Touch are already diverse enough to make software marketing a bit dicey, but I can't see Apple introducing a major new variation to the UI for smaller screens along with a whole new set of targeting constraints for developers.
Perhaps there is yet one way an iPhone Nano could exist: No App Store compatibility.
The obviousness of some of the colloquial expressions protected under trademark in the US is sometimes quite surprising. Dish soap marketers, for instance, must be careful in how they describe the effective concentration of their product, because "a little goes a long way(tm)" is a trademark of P&G group.
"Well now I bought this game for my grandson thinking it was just about good ol' wholesome gangland killing. And then I find out that the game actually has... sex in it!"
I forget the source, but I'm basically paraphrasing the real complaint of some grandmother I recall reading back when the scandal broke. How we can live in a world where the dramatization of taking human life is considered fine but the dramatization of creating it is considered perverted and dirty is simply beyond my comprehension.
I presume you do realize Blizzard's banning abilities only extend to WoW and that they can't actually ban you from real life?
The software was found not to violate any copyrights. It's not illegal. It only violates Blizzard's terms of service. They're free to ban your account for using the bot, but that's all.
Even if this story began as a typo, I don't think a $10 laptop is a pie in the sky.
The key here is to rethink our expectations for a laptop versus what the developing world actually needs. The OLPC, for example, is a beautiful machine, but its capabilities are honestly far beyond a baseline which would still make a huge impact on schoolkids living in poverty.
Imagine something like the following:
- Reflective, passive-matrix black and white screen
- Low-end (ARM9-based?) system on a chip
- 256 meg flash-based hard drive
- Custom, miniscule Linux distro consisting mostly of a web browser
- Big, old-style NiCd batteries
- 1995-style trackball
- Wired network adapter; USB host with optional wi-fi addon
With some creative engineering, I could imagine this sort of system getting down to the $tens, and with the kind of mass production you'd need to get this to many millions of kids, I think an ultimate $10 pricetag is completely doable.
Of course, I'm not actually a product engineer, so perhaps a real one could tighten up my specs (or dash my unrealistic idealism on the rocks).
I read the usernames so I know what to digg, you insensitive clod!
We need to overcome the irrational fear of computer-controlled cars implicit in such jokes, or we'll never be ready for what promises to be the most important breakthrough in transportation in its history.
Yes, desktop computers running Windows can get viruses. They are good at it. But that's why Windows isn't used for mission-critical applications, and why planes don't crash into lakes every week and your bank doesn't forget how much money is in your account every now and then.
A properly-designed, computer-controlled car will be outfitted with hardened and redundant systems with a proper hierarchy of graceful degradation in emergency situations. It will be safer than entrusting driving to distractable, emotional humans.
(Score: -26721 Diggs, Funny)
The N-series would be absolutely excellent if it had a well-designed PIM suite (and by well-designed, I mean not a poorly-designed, hacked together, proof-of-concept, "oh yes there is a PIM suite" sort of PIM suite).
As it stands, the only real alternatives are the iPod Touch (which is very nice but can't do Flash and has no camera or mic) or a stodgy Palm device (do they still even make non-phone devices?). Nokia has the superior hardware, but alas the software just isn't nearly as versatile without a quality PIM.
How about the fact that it has a great UI paradigm and a consistent install base and is perhaps even fun to develop for?
And maybe you don't want to go through the Apple content approval system?
"You, Too, Could Be Dr. Manhattan in 10 to 12 Seconds in the Large Hadron Collider"
Now hold on a moment there. How are you going to get an awesome shifting splotch cloth without any of Dr. Manhattan's advances in practical particle physics?
I thought quantity was based on your karma.
I'd been getting a string of +5 comments for awhile and then I got 15, had a drought of insightfulness and fell back to 5, then got modded up some more and got 10.
More than that, this is about big business interests always trumping the rights of the individual.
From Jammie Thomas having to spend the rest of her life in debt for depriving the recording industry of $20 worth of revenue, to the EU's three-strikes-you're-out rule where the mere accusation of copyright violation can result in your ejection from modern society and being forced to live your life decades in the past before consumer internet access, this makes perfect sense. In fact, it's nothing.
The confidentiality of your viewing records? Your personal privacy? Meaningless as long as it conflicts with Viacom's interests.
There are some fine examples of successful park and rides in Chicago.
Look no further than the inbound I-90 during rush hour: While creeping along at five miles per hour near Cumberland, you can take the Cumberland exit, drive two minutes, pull into the garage, and board a train within five.
There's nothing quite like relaxing on the train while it speeds past the idle vehicles on its median track.
Still, it's not exactly like you clicked a banner with a lame attempt at a bouncing, fake window telling you your DNS software was in immediate need of a fix and that this combination patch and shopping buddy would fix it.
Can I mod you +1, Flamebait?
I don't know what to say now that parent has been modded interesting...
Getting paid to make a recommendation that you believe in, and fully disclosing the compensation, is one thing.
Getting paid to make a recommendation that you wouldn't normally make is another, as is failing to disclose compensation.
When I give a friend a Netflix referral code, for instance, it's because I recommend the service to people anyway, and I'm totally upfront that their using my code is going to ship me out a free disc from my queue. I don't consider this "being good"; I consider it the bare minimum of responsibility.
Despite some waffle words here and there, it's good to see someone of rank in the US DOD stepping up to answer serious questions from real techies.
The fact that Lt. Col. Bircher went the extra mile and answered even more questions, often quite in detail, is laudable. More should follow his example.
Wait a second, are you the author of those electrical engineering romance paperbacks I've been reading?