epobirs

Aren't these the same people who were sued by Roger Avary, the co-writer of 'Pulp Fiction', becuase he claimed to have had the idea first, despite variations on the theme going back to the 8-bit era? And didn't this series already tank on the previous generation of hardware?

Actually, the problem here is not in any major OS or file system. They already have all they need to use setor and cluster arrangements to best accomodate SSD specs.

The real problem is that the current gen of SSD devices look like run of the mill SATA/PATA drives tot he systems. They were designed this way so they'd work with no special support required. The downside is that what works best for spining platter drives isn't the best use of flash memory.

The major newthing to arise from this is an industry standard for the recognition of SSD devices conencted where a hard drive or optical drive is currently expected. The OS support on the file system level will be a minor patch once the system knows about the difference.

So, no warning in large letters on the box, saying: WARNING! Lark's Vomit!

Now it just needs another USB port for a game controller and some emulators...

Brodie, perhaps you aren't old enough to remember 1984 but I am. Word processors were the primary application driving PC sales. For someone still limping along on a typewriter to be seen as delivering a grand vision of the future is one of the great literary hoaxes of the era. (Harlan Ellison still uses a typewriter but he has never been a futurist either, outside of those Chevy Geo commericals.) The fact is, Gibson knew pretty much nothing about computers or networking. Thats why his version of the online world is so utterly removed from anything like reality, giving us endless moronic depictions of hacking in film and TV ever since. Gibson wasn't writing his deeply considered conception of the future. He was just making stuff up, which he has not been shy about admitting. He didn't have any insights about the internet that weren't covered better by others years earlier, such as John Brunner's 'Shockwave Rider.' ('Stand on Zanzibar' and 'The Sheep Look Up' are also very worth reading despite their age.) Although Brunner didn't see the rise of the cheap PC, he had a pretty good take on the ubiquitous network's effect on culture. This is the book in which the term worm, as in malware, was coined. Something that has had far more realization than the goofy metaphor of Gibson's cyberspace. 'Neuromancer' was a decent SF novel but given far more acclaim than it deserves. (It isn't even the first SF novel to use that title.)

Predicting the Internet in the 70s was a notable thing. Doing it in 1984, when much of it was already coming together, not so much.

I fail to see the wonder of 'Pattern Recognition.' By halfway through the book I wanted somebody in a Michelin Man costume to give the lead character a fatal heart attack and let the tedious exercise end.

Stephenson has a history as a coder and genuinely understands what he is writing about while still being a fine writer. That creates a big attraction for those of us in the audience who know the difference.

BTW, Stephenson's next novel, 'Anathem,' is coming out in September. It's a 900+ page doorstop of a book, so that is why it's been a long time coming.

William Gibson? You have to be kidding. Gibson is a culture watcher, not a technology watcher. Neuromancer was written on a typewriter. Gibson bought his first computer, an Apple ][c after that book became a big success.

Sterling is a good technology writer, when writing about the here and now. His non-fiction is much better than his fiction. But he hasn't much of a track record for predicting the future with any accuracy to any greater degree than the average SF reader.

Stephenson I would travel a bit to hear. Despite his 'free tanks!' pleading for Linux, he's a very interesting speaker.

The guy has been doing it for real longer than most Rock Band player have been alive. Of course this does little to engage him. For him to get deeply into Rock Band would be like a man with a harem of great beauties hiding out in the bathroom to masturbate to newspaper lingerie ads.

This should be the rickroll for every outbreak of severe fanboyism in a forum.

Andrew, I doubt Apple went to the trouble of putting a different controller in the unit. All it takes is a ROM string match if you wish to make a device exclusive to a specific product range. That is part of the customization options OEMs offer in their reference designs.

Jeff nailed. Apple did nothing but package an off the shelf item. The same factory producing Apple's drive is likely making minor variants for numerous other companies.

It's the same for most consumer network equipment. Companies like Linksys and Netgear do very little real R&D. They primarily take an OEM offering and customize it.