OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/21667/Episode_13_What_Apple_Gives_Microsoft_Takes_Away Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:36:47 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com Turrican II is the best game EVAR! http://osnews.com/thread?368551 http://osnews.com/thread?368551 I loved my Amiga 500!

Am I right ;) ? Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:14:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (kragil) Comments RE: Turrican II is the best game EVAR! http://osnews.com/thread?368552 http://osnews.com/thread?368552
I loved my Amiga 500!

Am I right ;) ?


OMG, I had completely forgotten about Turrican II. I had a lowly Amstrad CPC 6128, but it was available on that and it was great! Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Chicken Blood) Comments What does the S stand for Kroc? http://osnews.com/thread?368556 http://osnews.com/thread?368556 Perhaps it stands for Suck it? Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tyrione) Comments iPhone 3G S http://osnews.com/thread?368561 http://osnews.com/thread?368561 Let me guess - you're applying for a position at "The Inquirer"?? Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (FurryOne) Comments RE: iPhone 3G S http://osnews.com/thread?368562 http://osnews.com/thread?368562 No, it's just a reference to that unfunny cartoon; the one about the bizarre creature with boxing gloves who abuses people that send him emails. Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (testman) Comments RE[2]: iPhone 3G S http://osnews.com/thread?368567 http://osnews.com/thread?368567 The cartoon definitely Sucked. Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Buck) Comments RE[3]: iPhone 3G S http://osnews.com/thread?368572 http://osnews.com/thread?368572 I also did not get the point of the cartoon. Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:35:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (moondevil) Comments RE: What does the S stand for Kroc? http://osnews.com/thread?368574 http://osnews.com/thread?368574 you're obviously not a fan but strongbad never was that funny to begin with,

TROGDOR!!! Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (stabbyjones) Comments I for one http://osnews.com/thread?368580 http://osnews.com/thread?368580 appreciate the joke. Trogdor is a classic ;)
Lighten up people, it's just a phone ;) Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Ultimatebadass) Comments RE[4]: iPhone 3G S http://osnews.com/thread?368583 http://osnews.com/thread?368583 It might be an aquired taste. I find the cartoons on homestarrunner.com amusing anyway.

Check out a few more and maybe they'll grow on you. ;) Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:09:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (japh) Comments Can't wait for EU Windows 7 http://osnews.com/thread?368592 http://osnews.com/thread?368592 "Microsoft returns the volley with their decision to remove IE completely from Windows 7 in Europe"....actually the EU's politicians decided to remove IE from Windows, not Microsoft's engineers. Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:27:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (rrife) Comments RE[4]: iPhone 3G S http://osnews.com/thread?368609 http://osnews.com/thread?368609 Wait... You're looking for a point in a cartoon? What do you work for the Edutainment Council? I suppose you'll tell me next that your fifth grader didn't learn any math from Halo.

You have to be a bit surreal, silly & sophisticated in order to really like it. Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Bill Shooter of Bul) Comments Mac OS X winning the gaming market over Windows? http://osnews.com/thread?368610 http://osnews.com/thread?368610 Come on!
That is just ridiculous, it would be like saying gaming on Linux is better than on Windows because of Linux running 64 bit nice for years.

Simply look at the available games and after that look at benchmarks of games running on 64 bit Windows with more RAM. Most games don't really use the extra RAM so far, so at this time you hardly gain performance and in the _future_ well as pointed out if you have a Windows Version there is no problem to legally get the 64 bit version and install more RAM if needed.

And to be honest installing 64 vs. buying a new PC that won't properly run most of your games is not really an option for a "gamer" -- being none myself but knowing some who play a lot. Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:15:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (mat69) Comments RE: Mac OS X winning the gaming market over Windows? http://osnews.com/thread?368611 http://osnews.com/thread?368611 Yes, that was a misguided line of reasoning by myself. However, that said, one still has to wonder how the gaming market is going to react to increased pressure to move beyond the 4GB barrier, and the extra hurdles that entails.

Personally, I gave up gaming on a PC years ago (and moved to a Mac) after the pace of things all became too impractical for me, it could only possibly be worse now. Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc) Comments @Kroc & Tom regarding batteries http://osnews.com/thread?368616 http://osnews.com/thread?368616 the last time you 2 were praising apple for their "innovative" concept of the mac pro I posted a picture of a dec cpu-riser

today i can only provide you with a link (except you can wait till the weekend ;) ) and some words:

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/rebuilding-laptop-battery

As Li-ion batteries need special "care and feeding", you will find a circuit board within the battery pack, Wires will go from the circuit board to each cell junction so that the voltages can be monitored. Also, there will be a thermistor and a thermal circuit breaker within the pack.


these extra-wires are used for balancing/equalizing and are a must for every lithium pack with a serial configuration. and it has been done since lithium-batteries exist

as for the battery-life:
i get 5+h out of my 1 year old t400 with the 6-cell pack
with the 9-cell pack it will be 7+h
and now take a good look at the apple-hp: they have increased the capacity by 40% to get the 7+h runtime

they are again selling old technology as something completely new and innovative
and people believe it... Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:23:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (smashIt) Comments RE: @Kroc & Tom regarding batteries http://osnews.com/thread?368618 http://osnews.com/thread?368618 It’s hard to deny their marketing is particularly good. When they want us to take note of something we do. Now if we had the benefit of knowing what everybody else was doing with such clarity it would be easier to compare. *Most* manufacturers ship complete crap though and don’t put any effort into improving.

The Apple battery is lithium-polymer, and folded into sheets instead of normal round cells. Apple do take old ideas, but I still see at least some innovation being put on top of it, as well as the boldness (good or bad) that they make decisions with (dropping replaceable batteries).

Is there any other major set of laptops that come without replaceable batteries, and yet have up to 8 hrs runtime? Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:58:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc) Comments Does not Compute http://osnews.com/thread?368625 http://osnews.com/thread?368625 Facts:
1) The "S is for sucks" link is a Flash movie.
2) The article was posted by Kroc.
3) Kroc never uses flash because he hates it.

Ergo: this post is an axiomatic contradiction and the universe will be destroyed. Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Chicken Blood) Comments RE: Does not Compute http://osnews.com/thread?368626 http://osnews.com/thread?368626 Unfortunately I am reduced to using the Wii to view Flash content, as it’s built in so it may as well be used. And I am aware that other people do happen to have Flash and will be able to view the content ;) Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:17:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc) Comments RE: Can't wait for EU Windows 7 http://osnews.com/thread?368627 http://osnews.com/thread?368627 Quite the opposite. They want MS to offer a choice between different browsers, they don't want MS to remove IE entirely. Removing IE was an initiative from MS to minimize the damage. Offering the users a choice would be much worse for them.

See http://www.h-online.com/open/EU-vs-Microsoft-Windows-7-to-be-releas... Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:30:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Ars Vivendi) Comments RE[2]: @Kroc & Tom regarding batteries http://osnews.com/thread?368635 http://osnews.com/thread?368635
The Apple battery is lithium-polymer, and folded into sheets instead of normal round cells. Apple do take old ideas, but I still see at least some innovation being put on top of it, as well as the boldness (good or bad) that they make decisions with (dropping replaceable batteries).


LiPoly have always been briks. LiIon are the round cells.
and LiPoly have a lower Wh/kg than LiIon, though they would only make sense if your volume-constraints are tighter than those for weight
and i hope apple this time is using high-quality cells, because LiPolys are realy dangerous

Is there any other major set of laptops that come without replaceable batteries, and yet have up to 8 hrs runtime?


besides the dell adamo i can't think of any laptop with a build-in battery Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (smashIt) Comments Itanium http://osnews.com/thread?368674 http://osnews.com/thread?368674 Itanium is _not_ x86. At all. Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (CrLf) Comments RE[3]: @Kroc & Tom regarding batteries http://osnews.com/thread?368709 http://osnews.com/thread?368709 Thanks, will note your comments in the next podcast.

On the Adamo, Engadget say: "Dell promises upwards of five hours of battery life in the Adamos, and while it's true that the system is built for humming along at low levels, it doesn't get anywhere close to that in our testing. Most of the time, we managed to squeeze about two and a half hours out of the Adamo -- and we're talking basic tasks like document editing and web browsing."Edited 2009-06-16 07:18 UTC Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Kroc) Comments RE[2]: Can't wait for EU Windows 7 http://osnews.com/thread?368720 http://osnews.com/thread?368720 Microsoft did a similar stunt with the Windows version without media player.
The effect was that they didn't have to let the competition in, since that windows version wasn't really popular (for obvious reasons).

Now they're trying to do the same thing again. Formally complying to the EU verdict, while ignoring the intent. Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:37:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (japh) Comments RE[4]: @Kroc & Tom regarding batteries http://osnews.com/thread?368734 http://osnews.com/thread?368734
On the Adamo, Engadget say:


i know this review and i'm pretty sure that they f--kedup the powermanagement (or vista was indexing the hell out of the ssd)
the adamo has a 40Wh LiPoly battery (sounds familiar?) which would result in a powerconsumption of 16W
my t400 with normal harddrive and a not-so-lowpower cpu has a normal operation at 8-9WEdited 2009-06-16 11:07 UTC Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:06:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (smashIt) Comments RE: Itanium http://osnews.com/thread?368866 http://osnews.com/thread?368866 Yeah. I just heard that part of the podcast and was going to post that too.

Itaniums have their own instruction set named IA64. This is entirely different from AMD's upgraded x86 which is named x86-64 (and used to be AMD64 before Intel followed along).

The Itanium 1 had a very crappy x86 instruction decoder included so that it could run existing code. Badly. As I recall the 733 Itanium-1 is about as fast as a 400 MHz Pentium III running x86 code.

The Itanium 2 and later went to a software decoding/recompile solution (similar to what Transmeta was doing) which was actually much much faster at x86 code.

I happen to be a fan of the Itanium instruction set. I especially like predicated instructions and I think they are cool. And who doesn't like having a huge pile of registers? Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:45:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (zlynx) Comments