If you RTFA you'll see they intentionally limited the Intel guy to 1 socket. What fun would it be if he ran it on an 8-way server in the lab that you couldn't even buy in real life?

In 1998, 2002, 2007 and 2008, there were zero US airline fatalities. No Boeing jetliner operated by a US airline has had a fatal crash since 9/11. None of the fly-by-wire Airbus models (A320 and later) operated by a US airline have ever had a fatal crash, not even the one that had to land in the Hudson River after a bird strike.

Keep in mind, these vehicles are piloted by trained professionals and inspected by engineers multiple times a day, and have backup systems for everything. If we built cars like airplanes you would have to have two engines and two braking systems in every vehicle just in case the first one failed in traffic. You would also need an FAA approved flight plan just to travel to the grocery store.

It has been proven that a car with ABS brakes can stop faster than the old "pump the brakes rapidly" method. So, when you need to stop fast, feel free to mash your foot to the floor as hard as possible and let the ABS brakes do their thing. I know it creates that funky pulsing sensation as the brakes pulse hundreds of times per second, but it truly can stop faster than you can by pumping. Don't try to second-guess the automatic systems... just let them do their job and hopefully prevent an accident.

I'd rather be able to charge things with standard USB ports, cables, backup batteries, etc, as they were intended, than charge with Apple-approved chargers 2x as fast.

That sounds nice until you consider that it takes almost 8 hours to fully charge an iPad over a USB port. I'd rather plug it in for 5 hours to the Apple charger than wait so long.

Is there a practical reason that the iPhone / iPod cannot be recharged and / or synced via a simple USB mico connector interface?

Yes... Profit!

No, actually, if you RTFA, the iPhone has 2 charging modes - one uses 500ma, which is the upper-limit of a standard USB port, and a quick-charging mode which uses 1000ma. The iPhone needs to do a power negotiation to determine if the port is capable of providing 1000ma of power. This requires some signaling.

So, in an effort to provide a superior product that can charge twice as fast from a wall charger, but won't fry your computer by drawing too much power from it's computer port, Apple put some logic in the iPhone and some corresponding resistors in their charger.

Or, naw, you're right, Apple just wants to charge everyone for everything...

i hate when manufacturers do crap like this to keep peripherals locked into a more profitable licensing agreement. Apples tendency toward total control is one of the things i don't like about them.

It's also possible, you know, that Apple wants to make sure your several hundred dollar iThingie just doesn't get fried by a USB charger that doesn't put out the right power signal.

Yawn... These are sales from January to June - before the iPhone 4 was released. People were intentionally holding off purchases because they knew iPhone 4 was coming out. Wake me up if they outsell iPhones for the next 6 months.

This is a great comment, and reflects my deepest regrets about the Obama administration. Obama had a brief chance, when he was first elected, to wipe the slate clean, fire the federal reserve chairman, and start doing real investigations into the war and financial crimes that were perpetrated by Bush, Cheney, Greenspan, and Bernanke.

Instead, he decided to give them a pass in order to not be divisive politically. What has he gotten in return for this? Absolutely nothing. The Republicans still filibuster every vote and are determined to run our economy into the ground even further so that they may run him out of office in 2012.

By not standing up for what is right, he has just proven to the American people it doesn't really matter who you elect. The bad guys will ruin your country and the good guys will give nice speeches while they just stand aside and let the bad guys ruin your country.

I firmly believe that if we had real criminal investigations into the last administration, people would not be so willing to vote R in the 2010 midterms. Instead we get circus show trials of 2 corrupt dems, Rangel and Waters, that will ensure a Republican victory.

I'm not denying climate change, far from it, I am saying that there are aspects of it that smell of bad science, and the demonisation of skepticism is a very dangerous precedent. I'm sick of the whole debate honestly, but one thing I know for certain: climate scientists, a while ago and ever since, bought into the politics of the debate, and as far as I'm concerned they can go fuck themselves

Translation: you're not denying climate change because that would make you sound unreasonable, considering the vast amount of evidence, so instead you'll perform an ad-hominem attack on the messengers. This is a standard tactic of climate deniers.

I guess some people harbour angry feelings towards him for releasing that military video - something along the lines of loose lips might sink ships. I think more good than harm came from releasing the video, but I can see where it strikes a nerve with some people.

To me, this highlights the crux of the problem with Slashdot - moderators with a political agenda. Just because some Slashdot readers might have a negative opinion of his previous work releasing the helicopter videos because their politics don't agree with him, they downvote a potentially interesting story. Whether you agree with his agenda or not, you have to admit it would be an interesting interview.

Now I fully expect this comment to get down-modded by the exact same people that down-modded the interview in the first place.

Slashdot over the years has turned from a forum that used to house excellent discussions to a tyranny of the majority - democracy at it's worst where any few idiocracy wannabes with mod points can make sure your post never gets read, not because it is an unworthy post, but because they don't personally agree with it.

But Apple insists on offering no price breaks, they insist on going through iTunes to activate the stupid things, they insist on going through their company for any sort of new application installation (yes yes, I know about the court case and jail breaking), and currently they insist on using AT&T.

You just said earlier that a $500 iPad + $400 ruggedized case ($900 total) replaces a $5500 toughbook. That sounds like a great discount to me.

Regarding your wireless issues - Get Verizon Myfi's on your business plan and put them in every cruiser, connected to the cigarette lighter so they battery never runs out. Use Wifi iPads - problem solved. The cruisers have full wireless access using your existing Verizon business plan and you save $130 each on the iPads because you don't have to buy the 3G version.

Also, regarding your third problem of iTunes activations - corporate administrators can activate and deploy Exchange, Wireless, and VPN configurations to devices remotely. Apple has some great tools to do this. You can even deploy updates to all your devices through your Exchange server. You don't need iTunes to do this.

Well, kind of - I love Gauntlet. It's really a lot different because the aliens can come from any direction also above or below you, so they quite often have the element of surprise. There also aren't really monster generators, except there are some biomass you have to burn with a flamethrower or a mining laser.

But yeah, it's kinda like Gauntlet in space...

Sounds like it would make a great game!

If done right, it could be an awesome game. If a great development team could channel rage against past employers, maniacal bosses, and crazy deadlines into a Postal style rampage game it could be awesome.

Sadly, in order to have the material necessary to create a game like this, the working conditions would have to be so intolerable as to insure that any such game would be terrible, thus, it will probably never happen unless a bunch of disgruntled developers form their own indie studio to create it.

In fact, I think DudeBro 2 just might be something similar, made by some industry veterans. I can't wait for more games parodying the industry in general.

Yet when you come to examine it the original affluent society was none other than the hunter's - in which all the people's material wants were easily satisfied.

If by "all people's material wants" you mean plenty of furs, bones to make tools out of, and lots of meat to eat, and a life expectancy of 30, then yes, everyone's wants were satisfied. If, on the other hand, your wants consist of hot and cold running water, sewer treatment, medical care, police, firemen, roads, transportation, and a life expectancy of 80, I would suspect a great deal of wants were not met by a hunter-gatherer society.

I love these Luddites that claim everything would be great if we would just go back to living in caves or tents somewhere in the woods. Why don't they try it themselves for a few months first and tell us how it is?

Those benefits do sound extremely nice, however, keep in mind what Sony-Ericsson is - a failing mobile technology company that is currently getting their lunch eaten by Apple. Does giving most employees 10 weeks off per year, 6 months paternity leave, etc, make them better able to compete against US companies like Apple that give their employees only 2-4 weeks off per year?

I can see that yes, in a perfect world, every father would like 6 months off to help raise their newborn, but what happens if that father is an engineer in a critical position 3 months before the launch of a new smartphone? Do you just say "sorry guys, we'll release the phone next year after Jens gets back from paternity leave"?