Hours per dollar is an excellent measurement.
If the game has a predefined mission (most FPS) a good measurement is if you can play through the game without losing your temper or caving in. One game that promised high playability was Tomb Raider Anniversary - but at one point (elevator before lava caves) it becomes tough and complex enough that only the best could finish it. So if you manage to actually finish the game, that's a good measurement of quality since finisheing a game gives the player a sense of accomplishment. Unlike the sense of utter failure he experiences if unable to finish (which should give a healthy negative score).
An example of a game with a very high h/$ score must be Unreal Tournament 2004. I still play the bugger, still try out new maps and still burn a couple of hours a week playing a relaxing onslought against the bots. I'd say the $/h ratio is somewhere in the area
You are both right and wrong there.
1) The table UI relied on a stylus up to the point when the UMPC was introduced. At that point, Microsoft changed their guidelines about the TPC platform, allowinf for low-resolution screens (e.g. 800x600) and touch-panels instead of digitizers.
2) Correct - this has always been the fallacy of the TPC platform. To implement a groundbreaking hardware interface and accompany it with a interface built around a model 1968 input method is like incorporating the Ford Edsel into the space shuttle replacement program.
Your addressing of points:
1) No, they would be going for a hybrid. A touch-only interface renders the device half-useless, as you won't write much or draw using your finger, regardless of how much you use that pencil-sharpener on it. If you go with touch-only, you will have an oversized iPhone that will be the biggest flop since the square wheel.
2) You are just fishing here.
Your uses for a tablet:
1) Yes and no - depending on the resolution, colour gamut and amount of reflection, the device might range from piss poor to fairly good. It will however never match reading from a matte surface like e-paper (or regular paper).
2) No. As a PMP, a tablet will be way too big. Most people I know wouldn't even go with a iPod Touch, but rather with a nano. Size matters, and a PMP shouldn't be noticed, only heard.
3) You don't need a tablet for a browser - you can already do that with almost any home appliance that has an ethernet interface. To recreate the tablet as some über-browser is daft. And pricey.
And a little research wouldn't have hurt. The Dell XT2 XFR starts at $3599. The Lenovo X-series tablet starts at $1879 ($1509 with rebate). The Electrovaya Scribbler slate is at $2049. The Motion Computing J3400 starts at $2299.
So your $1000 mark is way off.
I do however expect Apple to price their iSlate/iTablet/iWhatever well below $1000. Apple, unlike Microsoft, hasn't just got the task of winning new ground, they also have the task of catching up where Microsoft actually was ahead. And in handwriting recognition, Microsoft is way ahead of Apple, and unless Apple recently acquired ParaGraph, Paragon or any other HWR software developer, I'd say they have a challenge to meet they didn't even foresee.
But, that's just speculation, and will be revealed at the end of the month.
Personally, I look forward to see what Microsoft has in store.
Um... and you think the parts just happen to exist in their usable form in the earths crust, eh?
We just dig up a usable wind turbine ?
Not so.
The carbon footprint of making one 60m high wind turbine is approximately the same as the carbon footprint said wind turbine will save in fossil fuel in its lifetime. The addition of pollutants like solvents, heavy metals and other bi-products adds insult to injury.
Best of all is that these products are all finite resources as well.
So which heap do you want to dig from ?
And with 2 bugs per line on average, your simple watchamacallit-program of 10000 lines still contains 200 severe bugs....
Oh, and by the way - valgrind doesn't find all memory leaks, so grow up, put your hand in front of your mouth, slap face, and stop calling people idiots.
We had a case up here of a police officer shooting a plane behind the car, and then claiming that the car was travelling almost 400KM/h.
As it looks to me, that judgement is in effect creating a blanket permission to officers to "make up" speeding tickets without having the tickets challenged.
Heavily stupid sentence.
Since my bank requires the gadget to be used not only at logon time but also whenever I request a transfer of money to a new entity, as well as a 4-digit pass code puched in via mouse, I'd say the hackers may have a rather tough time trying to dig me debt-trench deeper than it already is.
Although they may have a laugh browsing my accounts, that won't help them a bit.
A non-militant country with no physical borders has no natural enemies.
And all of this story isn't about the gov.t. covering up shit, it's about the leaders of the bank wanting their own shit covered up.
The minister of education stepped forward in a newsbroadcase and said that although it was obviously a criminal matter, it's still an ethical question on because of the gravity of the matter, wether the nation hasn't the right to know - despite laws that say otherwise.
[disclaimer]I'm not educated in the field of child-care[/disclaimer]
I'd think that very much depends on how you apply corporal punishment in line with what you say to the child and how you generally treat it.
Normally, I wouldn't use corporal punishment on children - and I don't, as a rule. But I'm also very careful not "threaten" the children with idle threats. (Idle threats seem too common with many parents - "behave or you won't get dinner/supper/etc").
I do however - when needed, use threats (finish choirs or lose something of value) - and I make sure I always stand by them.
In the odd case of obscure profanity displayed by a child, it does get whacked on the cheek. It's very rare, and as such, does have its intended effect.
The previous poster says "It causes...
A complete lack of corporal punishment (much like in Sweden where it's strictly forbidden by law) will, (and has already had) the effect that individuals that already have problems with authority will have no measure about what's allowable and what's not, since every misdemeanour, no matter what degree will always result in the same - a "rather boring lecture" by the parent/guardian. The net effect is that you get individuals that have a lesser sense of rights and wrongs.
I'm not saying that I'm pro corporal punishment (I want it avoided as long as possible), but I do see the need for it at times to sensibly draw a line.
Isn't it lovely when the text on
I would have thought that "geekdom" ment more than this
What you really meant to say is:
Today we have the skill and the know-how to make crap look like it will last, worth the hefty pricetag and novel enough that you must have it.
Of course said crap will rarely last much longer than the warranty period...
My Vadem Clio C-1050 built in 1999 is still used on a daily basis. Still the original LiIon battery, and still works like a champ.
My Commodore Amigas, built in the '87 (A500), and '92 (A600, A1200) still get regular use.
My Sinclair ZX81 (1981, 1KB RAM, 16KB Expansion) is fired up about twice a year.
My oldest laptop is the Nec PC-8201A, which still does several days on four AA-cells.
They just don't make them like they used to, that's for sure
1) Yes, of course I have, and No, it's not the holy grail you were looking for. KDE isn't the X-Server, it's a layer _on_top_ of the Xserver, which brings us to the next point
2) Remove the network layer from the X-Server, combine and compact the GDI to focus on speed and simplicity. The GDI should worry ONLY on how to actually talk to the graphics hardware, not how to communicate to some remote client. For what it's worth, Apple and to some rather large extent, Microsoft, are doing it right. This part at least.
3) Big, sluggish, unneccessarily complex X-Server (and to an extent too many choices of desktops).
What Linux _NEEDS_ is to cut down on old fat. Streamlining the X-Server (or writing a new one from scratch) that actually worries about the graphics aspect and ignores backwards compatibility with awkward graphics-transport protocols - focuses on speed and simplicity.
Of course you can do all of what you can in MacOS and Windows on a Linux box - at least as far as the eye-candy goes, but at the cost of speed and fuctionality - which really isn't what Linux needs, not since it used to be the speediest kid on the block.
The X-Server was already a dinosaur in the 90's, and it still is, since it doesn't matter for how long you polish a turd, it'll still be one when your'e over.
I lived in Sweden, which at the time didn't have any public internet on offer. I got a couple of boxes of diskettes mailed from a friend of mine who lived in anouther country. If I remember correctly, the kernel version was 0.98.
I installed it, used it and havn't really looked back since, until 2002/2003 I defected to Apple. They have a monolithic GDI. Something Linux sorely lacks.
The X-Server has lived its lifetime. It's time to kill it off, and bring something that actually brings the Linux graphical front end into the present time. (And before you bash me, no, servers should NOT be running a graphics server)
That depends wholly on the scope you set.
Apple most definitely has a monopoly on the Apple platform. Every machine comes pre-installed with a fixed set of applications, and the user is locked-in to use said set wether he likes it or not. You can't get rid of the apps (f.ex. QuickTime) although you may choose to ignore them. Much in the same way as IE binds into Windows.
The tidal change experienced on the Firefox download day and the resulting usage of Firefox clearly demonstrates that although IE still exists on the Windows machines, it's in no position to claim a monopoly.
This is a battle that should be won by who produces the best quality, not by who produces the largest group of moronic lawyers running their errands for them.
One more reason not to join the EU.
No that I'd classify Microsoft as any kind of favorite, but get real already folks.
If Microsoft should disband IE from Windows, then the same should go for Apple with Safari, ASUS with Mozilla on their Eee PC and any other vendor that creates a preference for a browser.
And, for the bigger picture, the same should go for any application distributed with the operating system.
And, lastly, any operating system distributed with a computer should be disbanded and sold separately.
So what about cellphones ? Of course, with the multitude of operating systems for cellphones on the market, the same should apply there.
Etc, etc, etc....
Let's get real for a moment - consumers in general have no longing to build and brew their own PC/cellphone/PDA/whatever.. None at all. They want a solution, and they want it to work.
These anti-competitive lawsuits are starting to borderline on ridiculous. Opera has the same competitive environment on the PC as it has on the Mac and on Linux and FreeBSD. They choose to compete on the market, they know the stakes beforehand, and if their product turns up sour, they shouldn't be allowed to file suit.
Cobol programmers are down in the dumps.
