Ummm, "all with a precision of half a fraction of an inch" is still just a fraction of an inch. All that sentence shows is that a dumb writer is trying to make his message stronger by saying something that actually doesn't make any sense.
Besides, doesn't NASA do most, if not all of their work with metric now? I know the Canadians do. And since the robot is Canadian made, wouldn't the proper and more precise terminology would be more along the lines: "all the precision of .5mm of control?"
/former news producer
//stickler for proper copy, use of English
Of course - more MS hate from gizmodo.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that $200+ difference has more to do with the difference in form factor, screen size & hard drive, NOT the operating system:
Current $299 EEE 2G PC
Linux
7" screen
512 Ram
2GB hard drive
Upcoming $499 EEE 900 PC
XP or Linux
8.9" screen
? RAM
12GB hard drive
So are people paying $200 more *just* for XP? NO. Please gizmodo, be a little more truthful in your posts.
@hoofdpijn:
Most sunny states, like Florida and California, have laws that prohibit HOA's from setting rules against solar tech & installation. Here's one interesting case from FL.
@makanai:
You make some great points, especially on the pros/con of 'eco-tech.'
Maybe some of my experience can give you a handle on tangible and economic benefits solar power can be for business & personal use. Last year, my company decided to cut our electric use by 50% before the year end of 2008. I'm in charge of this effort. Since we're a market leading architectural firm, and we have engineers, architects & contractors at hand, we wanted to go with some of the most advanced technologies and ideas out there.
I detail our expansion at our website: [www.jbdg.com]
In combination with a 'first of it's kind on the market' HVAC improvement, office efficiency improvements, and a 10kw solar array with 4900 amp hour battery backup, we may even surpass our 50% goals this summer.
For us as a company, we're using our facilities as a sort of technology sandbox, to demonstrate new products to our clients and show that they have a good ROI and ease of maintenance. In terms of client interest, our $93k investment into solar has already paid back.
Since we have relatively frequent power outages that last several days at a time, our battery backup capabilities have already more than paid themselves off in our being able to sustain productivity of our architects. (We lose well over $50k a day in revenue during power outages. Last year, we had an 8 day outage in within Seattle's city limits.)
All of that not withstanding, the simple ROI for our solar project, with battery backup, is 7-10 years. Depending on situations and outside factors, like ours, true ROI can be within months.
@N@tedog:
Nearly all solar panels have a life expectancy of at least 30 years. Many have warranties that last that long. While it's an assumption, I believe this solar roofing material carries this same warranty. If you're re-roofing to start out with, the purchase of this product covers two separate uses.
Accounting wise, I'd separate the cost of a conventional new roof from the purchase price to calculate the ROI on the solar aspect of the product. In a business, that'd be considered improvement/maintenance of existing capital.
With that in mind, the increase in price for a roofing product that includes electrical generation, it'll pay back in less time, ~5 years.
For peeps who don't know - all of the 'voices' of the robots are entirely artificial, and created by synthesizers.
Also, there is a secret website for this movie. [buynlarge.com]
They're the manufactures of Wall-E in the movie, and appear to be a benevolent super-company similar to Resident Evil's Umbrella Corporation.
My favorite part of the website is their Core Values, under "Our Company.' I've seen too many mission statements that sound just like it.
I love the hype Apple generates with their little shows like this. It seems like they pull these false 'updates' like this just enough to keep their name in the headlines of the tech blogs.
If Dell did the exact same thing before every product update, they'd be criticized and would most likely lose money overall from the lost sales during their ordering 'outage.'
In Washington State, it's illegal to have uncovered lights that are above your standard headlights. I imagine many states have similar laws. Drivers who have 'KC' lights on their roll bar have to keep then covered while driving here.
Also, another law statss is that drivers can only have 1 set of auxiliary lights on while driving on state highways - so even if it were legal, there's no using this at the same time as fog lights. Found that one out the hard way a couple years back.
@MINI Driver: It affects the MS office suite for the past decade? You must have forgotten about office 2003, XP, & 2000. Other than onenote for 2003, it's only an issue with the latest suite.
The question is: why would anyone place their primary outlook files onto the home server? I understand letting it backup your local outlook files, which it does perfectly and without issue. The only problem is when you host the files remotely and then edit the remote file through the program. It's not designed to be an exchange server.
My previous comment still stands. There is a problem with NAS capabilities for a few programs. They need to fix it asap. But for Gizmodo to claim in their headline that MS says "users not to write to server or use media managers" is just yellow journalism. The problems are limited to a handful of programs, and only under select conditions (multiple hard drives, remote editing within the programs). For automated backups and restoration of local PCs or Macs, along with all other functionality WHS has no corruption issues. Giz should put that in their post.
I for one like daylight saving time. If it weren't in place, we'd have the sunrise a bit past 4 am here in Seattle, during June. SUNRISE, 4AM.
Sigh - nothing more than the typical Gizmodo MS bashing. If any of you bothered to read their release, it only involves these programs when editing backed up files directly on the Home Server.
"• Windows Vista Photo Gallery
• Windows Live Photo Gallery
• Microsoft Office OneNote 2007
• Microsoft Office OneNote 2003
• Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
• Microsoft Money 2007
• SyncToy 2.0 Beta
• Intuit QuickBooks
• uTorrent
Windows Home Server-based computers that have a single hard drive are not affected by this issue, nor are Windows Home Server Computer Backup and Restore capabilities, Health Monitoring, and Remote Access functionality."
So, lets see, there are *no* issues with computer backup and restore, and it only causes issues when you edit your backed up files from 9 specific programs. Since when has it ever been a good idea to work directly with and edit your backed up files?
I agree it's an important issue to take care of, but it's fairly easy to avoid. Giz should make note that it only affects a small number of programs, versus their sweeping insinuations that all of the user's data could be lost at any moment.
@Out2gtcha: Not all of these belong to bachelors. I'd like to point out that I sent in the closeups and wideshot of the one keyboard. It belonged to a woman who worked at my office. An interior designer none-the-less. Unfortunately her personality matched her workspace.
Why no comparison to the tablet features in a Vista based tablet? I'd like to see a handwriting recognition comparison/showdown.
Cool mod, but I need more backup power than that. Here's how I backup my PC.
Can someone explain the benefits of this device over just getting a Windows Home Server? From what I understand, WHS has fully compatibility with Mac's 'time machine' function and has about 10x's more functionality of this, including a form of RAID to protect files.
Why don't you give us an actual side-by-side MBP benchmark for the battery life instead of taking Apple's word for it? If you believed them, you'd also think the Air lasts at least 5 hours, even though in reality, you're lucky to get 2 hours.
@thebear91: I think your calcs/conversion for UPS power is wrong. 1500 amp-hours is the equivalent to a large number of deep-cycle batteries tied together. I believe you are thinking of the measurement of Volt-Amps, which most UPS makers (APC) use.
/has 2000 lbs of battery backup - 2900 amp hours @ 96 volts
@daftrok:
My media area:
1. Onkyo Receiver
2. Plasma TV
3. Wii
4. PS3
5. Xbox
6. XM mifi
7. LED lighting
8. Sat TV box
9. DVD player
10. Media Center PC
11. Cable Router
12. Home Server
13. Slingbox
Of course it takes two dedicated 20 amp circuits to power that, so I can't plug in one power strip like this, but you can see how it can be needed.
I'm wanting to add an external HD to the Sat TV box.
Workstation at work:
2 desktops, 2 24' monitors, lavalamp, regular lamp, PC speakers, printer, router, XM mifi, battery charger, cell phone charger, space heater.
@Inepsa: Get an Asus G2S - better specs, $1000 less.
*double yawn*
I hate all this pure, unadulterated Apple hype. Nine times out of ten, it ends up being nothing and you guys end up looking like fools. Even if it is an update to the MBP, it'll still be overpriced and under classed by laptops from other manufactures. Like the Asus G2S.
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