Right now, Minecraft saves worlds by making a huge tree of directories that stores individual data chunks in various sub-directories. Even though the total amount of data is small (my server is only about 10 megs), any time a copy needs to be made to backup or test, it takes an eternity because there are literally over 10,000 files on the disk.

I'm hopelessly in love with the game, but with the frequent software updates, there is also a need for frequent backups to make sure I don't lose all the work of everyone on the server.

So, where's the part where you explain why it's not going to happen? AT&T had branding all over their phones before the iPhone came around, so what makes you think Verizon would be unwilling to make the same concession? As far as hardware is concerned, if they go with a combined CDMA/GSM chip, it's likely that the cost to buy the chips from the supplier will be nearly the same, or negligibly higher (~$1-2). For that price, they get access to close to half of the US cell phone market that they didn't have previously. Seems like a good deal to me. If history is any indicator, most of Apple's partners eventually concede to Apple's way of doing business (see: everything in the iTunes store).

This shouldn't be surprising to anyone. Software (or firmware, if you want to make the distinction) has been used to control fans on GPUs, CPUs, northbridges and plenty of other components for many, many years. I think people don't think about the alternative: putting hardware exclusively in charge of fan control. If you choose the hardware method, there is just as much chance of it becoming fucked up due to lack of testing, poor design choices, etc. However, if you ship a million units with faulty hardware, that means you have a million broken units and there is no choice but to recall/replace them. If you use software and you fuck it up, you can patch it, saving your customers the time and hassle of having to return their product or being stuck without a solution for an extended period of time, and at the same time saving your company from potentially devastating financial losses. Frankly, I think all parties benefit with a software solution.

Details:

AT&T (per usual)
$15/mo for 250 MB or$30/mo for unlimited
Free use of AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots
Uses GSM Micro SIMs and will work with any GSM provider that has these cards, all models are "unlocked" and not bound to a carrier

I have both an iPhone and a MacBook and I use and love both everyday. However, I've never thought to myself, "how great would it be to have a 10-inch iPhone?" After watching the live coverage for the last hour, that's basically all this is. The OS and UI are basically the same, just upscaled and optimized in some places for the larger screen. As far as I can tell, there are none of the clever innovations that are typically present in a new Apple product. The only people that I can see this thing appealing to would be people that have a strong fascination for touch screens and people that don't feel that they can properly lounge about with a laptop (as exemplified by Steve Jobs lounging in a love seat during the presentation). I think the only obvious application would be as an ebook reader (side note: I nearly had a fit when they decided to reuse the term iBook to brand their ebooks). The presentation still isn't done so there isn't a word on price, but if it can't come within range of the Kindle and similar devices, I'd say this thing is purely novelty.

A quick look at the Windows Media Player 12 Wikipedia page indicates that h.264 in an MP4 container (and by extension, a renamed M4V) plays fine in the current version of WMP that ships with Win 7. However, the post says that Handbrake dropped DivX and XviD, which were only given support in the latest version of WMP as well. So really, Handbrake has never supported native WMP formats before WMP 12, unless more was dropped than just DivX and XviD (I'm too lazy to do the research).

The Motorola Droid is a Verizon exclusive and Verizon is CDMA.

I was really hoping this was going to be a fully programmable system that would allow a programmer to dynamically elevate arbitrary parts of the screen, but it seems to be completely static, so I don't really see the point. Ultimately, what I think people would want for devices like an iPhone would be to have fully dynamic "buttons" that are programmed using the windowing/widget API so that you maintain the application-specific dynamic UI that makes devices like the iPhone awesome while adding the tactile feedback that so many people seem to enjoy. I think the requisite of a pneumatic or hydraulic pumping system would make it extremely difficult to get something like this into a small package, though. Maybe there's a material that will expand suitably from electrical stimulation rather than pneumatics.

The really great news about this card is that it's relatively inexpensive compared to what most top end cards cost at launch. The 5870 is going for $380 just about everywhere, while typical high-end cards launch closer to $500. I hope this is an indication that prices will drop across the board and therefore affect the low end, as well. As far as better graphics getting in to SFF PCs, we've long since left the realm of the "sane" when it comes to thermal requirements on decent graphics chips, but if you poke around, there are some compact, passively-cooled solutions that might not perform as well, but would definitely be considered acceptable by most people.

echo "Cowboy Neal" | wall
would let you share the wealth with everyone!

Why is it irrational to fear guns? They have the potential to hurt people, whether intentionally or unintentionally. If I pointed a loaded gun at your head and promised you that I wouldn't pull the trigger, would you not feel nervous anyway? You don't know if I adhere to gun safety rules. You don't know if I'm malicious. It's silly to be afraid of beetles because beetles can't do anything to you, even if they tried. People with guns can hurt you _without_ even trying if they don't know what they're doing, and you can't trust an arbitrary person on the street to know how to handle a fire arm in a safe fashion.

I think it's important to recognize that this philosophical divide regarding binary drivers has collateral damage as exemplified here. Personally, the debate seems rather petty in the grand scheme of FOSS, but if something like this is legitimately keeping a potentially huge software title from making it to the platform, then I think some attitudes need to be adjusted a bit. At the end of the day, a platform is only as good as the software that runs on it.

Welcome to the free market. If you think the pricing structure is unfair, don't buy it. If enough people feel the way that you do, they won't buy it either and Blizzard will change the pricing structure. I'm tired of hearing this ridiculous argument. If people are willing to pay, then the price is fair! That's how this system works.

If you would bother to read a few paragraphs from the Wikipedia article, you'd understand a little better what they've accomplished. They promised a $100k electric sports car that would perform comparably to a $100k gasoline sports car (sub-4 second 0-60 time, less than 13 second quarter mile, although top speed is a little weak at 125 mph) and delivered 600 of them. Oh and by the way, they go about 240 miles on one charge, which is much farther than any other electric vehicle, so there must be something to this "efficiency" thing. So who's being duped here? The people who bought it got what they were promised and now the investors are seeing profits.

If you think what makes electric cars more efficient is just the batteries, you're pretty off base. A lot of the same things that make gasoline cars efficient have to be re-done for an electric version. For example, since the entire drive train and power system are completely different, it has to be designed in such a way to fit in the chassis properly and keep the car's weight balanced, otherwise you get undesirable handling characteristics. Electric cars use a completely different type of transmission. The Roadster originally used a 2-speed, but then changed (and retrofitted existing cars) to a single speed that shaved 1.7 seconds off its 0-60 time, which is a huuuuuuuge amount. There are cooling and ventilation issues that needed to be solved. There is software that monitors and adjusts a zillion parameters all the time to keep from wasting power. So no, it's not as simple as just having better batteries, even though that is a major factor in efficiency.

Honestly, you sound like someone that doesn't know the first thing about automobiles, physics, or anything mechanical, but you're choosing to troll the one company in the US that's coming anywhere close to walking the walk with regard to electric vehicles.

I disagree. I think it absolutely puts pressure on major car makers because Tesla has proven (with a fraction of the capital and manufacturing resources) that manufacturing a viable electric car is not only possible, but profitable. What this does is make the consumer ask, "what the hell is wrong with all these big companies with more money and more manufacturing infrastructure? Why can't they do this and make these cars at 10x the volume and half the price?" The end result is the devaluation of the brands of the major manufacturers because they look incompetent when faced with Tesla's results, and rightfully so. Now that Tesla has shown profitability, there is no excuse anymore for the major manufacturers not to get their acts together.