gnaffle

58 ms·

541.
by gnaffle 15y ago
I'm not downvoting you, but you're implying that the difference between hardware and software rendering is irrelevant which it certainly is not. What's interesting is not only how fast the graphics are rendered, but the graphics performance
542.
by gnaffle 15y ago
I agree that it probably would not make a big difference, but since there _have_ been reports of interference, the FAA errs on the side of safety, IMO for good reason. My main point was that it's not an either-or thing that so many commente
543.
by gnaffle 15y ago
Thank you, this was a nice podcast series. Added to my recommendations. :)
544.
by gnaffle 15y ago
..yet you enjoy the fruits of the "better safe than sorry" safety charade every time you board an airplane. NASA has some studies on RF interference (linked from Wikipedia) if you're interested in reading up on it. Even if it doesn't cause
545.
by gnaffle 15y ago
I'm pretty sure about that, given that the same author has been quite harsh on the FAA about other issues (such as crew rest time). Edit: http://www.salon.com/2008/01/04/askthepilot259/ - hardly what I would call propaganda.
546.
by gnaffle 15y ago
It might be that he is referring to Doppler VOR ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHF_omnidirectional_range ), although I'm not sure how this effects interference scenarios.
547.
by gnaffle 15y ago
I guess I've been lucky with airports. What do you do for 1,5 hours in security? Standing in line, or is it the security check that takes so much time?
548.
by gnaffle 15y ago
How many airports make you spend an hour or two going through security? When flying, I usually spend an hour or two in total at the airport, but that includes check-in, security, waiting for and boarding plane, then de-planing and sometimes
549.
by gnaffle 15y ago
3. Consumer electronics are not a big threat to air safety, but they can (and have, see Wikipedia article / NASA study) interfered with airplane navigation instruments. Since it's much more likely that 1 out of 100 or 300 active devices wil
550.
by gnaffle 15y ago
Lithium Ion batteries are allowed on planes as well. Is this conclusive proof that they can't damage the plane if they catch on fire? All decisions are trade-offs, banning laptops and cellphones today would probably bankrupt the airlines si
551.
by gnaffle 15y ago
I found this to be a good introduction: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html
552.
by gnaffle 15y ago
Like Siracusa said, Jobs picked the wrong guy: http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/42 http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/43 (Edit: I could go on for several pages to point out the books flaws, but this podcast does a good job of it.) Do you really t
553.
by gnaffle 15y ago
Well, the text talks about NeXT first, and then suddenly talks about MacOS. When he says that Apple used _some_ of NeXTs software and goes on to talk about the kernel, it seems like he gets it wrong and doesn't really understand what OS X w
554.
by gnaffle 15y ago
I think the gist of it rather seems to be that the lack of technical knowledge means that there's a lot of insights into Steve Jobs thinking that isn't there because Isaacson doesn't know which questions to ask and what stuff to research. A
555.
by gnaffle 15y ago
Does he, though? He's sort of saying that they evolved the existing system instead of jumping to a new one, but AFAIK OS X was NeXT with a compatibility layer, prettier GUI and some other changes. Saying that anyone upgrading from OS 9 woul
556.
by gnaffle 15y ago
I think it's a bit difficult to explain this to someone that isn't experiencing it as a problem. It's similar to the way some people react to DLP projectors with color wheels ("rainbow effect") while some don't. People are sensitive do diff
557.
by gnaffle 15y ago
I do agree it's interesting to think about. The decision to not have a battery cover was a controversial one, and probably one that was not taken lightly. I'd be wrong to say that this isn't a compromise, but they thought a clean and thinne
558.
by gnaffle 15y ago
I'll try to explain the difference. Without a battery cover to hide them, I think those logos need to be there. It certainly seems like they have put thought into the placement, font size etc. Given the constraints, the designers did the be
559.
by gnaffle 15y ago
Not sure what point you are trying to make. Do you disagree with what I said, or do you think this text (or the Apple logo) is any proof that I'm wrong?
560.
by gnaffle 15y ago
They sweat the details, but sadly not enough. I guess there might be some great designers in many other companies. The big problem, of course, is that they don't get the resources to do great work. That was true of the Apple pre Steve Jobs
561.
by gnaffle 15y ago
I don't think so. It's a rip off when they copy everything, and copy it badly. For instance, the keyboard design on the Mac has "separated" keys because it's needed to give better structural support to the unibody frame. It's not just a "co
562.
by gnaffle 15y ago
For me, the main difference is whether they made something _better_ than the original and innovated in the process. Apple did this with many of their products.
563.
by gnaffle 15y ago
The green iSight light predates the unibody MacBook Pros. At some point they changed it from a visible hole to small invisible ones. Those laptops still had the sleep-light on the "opening button" in front (this button and the self-hiding m
564.
by gnaffle 15y ago
Agreed. Regardless of whether it's fair to be whining or not, Canonical loses if they alienate their core user group. Just look at how gradually Apple is refining the OSX desktop. If OSX had gone from the classic desktop to IOS/Springboard
565.
by gnaffle 15y ago
I'm an old Debian and Ubuntu user. I moved to Ubuntu for my desktop since I could install it and it would just work, with a sane enough GUI. With each new release the previous years, they've made design decisions that I don't like. While it
566.
by gnaffle 15y ago
I think you're spot on. Microsoft seems almost obsessed on demoing and talking about these lofty products, the Surface is another example. Real artists ship, as someone said.. What's interesting is that while Apple had the perfect pitch for
567.
by gnaffle 15y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-version_programming It's used in Airbus planes, for instance. Of course, it's useless if the specification is wrong, and the assumption that the differing versions will fail in different ways seems to not ho
568.
by gnaffle 15y ago
Even the original MacBook Air was cheap compared to the competition when it was released, from what I recall, about a $1000 cheaper than a similar Fujitsu-Siemens laptop (both non-SSD models). The funny thing, of course, was that many peopl
569.
by gnaffle 15y ago
The article does mention that you can find cheaper alternatives. The point is that other manufacturers have problems competing with Apple in the premium market. Will Apple lower the price on the iPad? They will, if they can without compromi
570.
by gnaffle 15y ago
To measure airspeed I guess something has to have air flowing through it or past it, and that something would be susceptible to icing. That said, current pitot have very good ice protection, and AF447 was an extreme example with a known pro

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