主题：【欣赏】2004年最佳电脑电子产品 -- Highway
下面是美国《Popular Science》杂志评选的2004年最佳电脑电子产品，您看看有没有道理。
[SIZE=3]Intel Express Chipsets[/SIZE]
PCs get some AV guts: A cheap yet powerful replacement for sound and video cards
Your PC will be the hub of home entertainment; it’ll rule your digital life. So goes the tired promise, anyway. While processors have gotten predictably faster, the capabilities of integrated audio and video chips and peripheral component interconnect (PCI) buses―the devices that connect auxiliary cards to the CPU―have lagged behind. We’ve been left fantasizing about affordable machines that can sling HD video and 7.1-channel surround sound. Intel issued a wake-up call in the form of supporting chipsets with onboard AV capabilities, code-named Grantsdale (officially the 915) and Alderwood (the 925), that work hand-in-glove with Pentium processors to deliver faster peripheral and memory-access performance. Suddenly it’s possible to turn your PC into a powerful HD-video recorder without shelling out for add-on cards. And because the supernerds in pink and purple bunnysuits scrimped on pricey silicon, you’ll find these chipsets in sub-$800 machines.
The boon for serious gamers and videographers is that these clever wafers support PCI Express, a robust serial bus that moves expansion-card data twice as fast as ever before. It also allows for dedicated two-way traffic, which makes it possible, for example, to capture and edit HD video at the same time―and to make good on that old promise.
[SIZE=3]Sharp Actius MP30[/SIZE]
The slimmest, lightest laptop with an optical drive
The Actius MP30 is the first no-compromise ultralight notebook. By ditching the removable drive bay found in most laptops and smartly condensing the MP30’s innards, Sharp was able to squeeze an optical drive into its less-than-three-pound magnesium body. The cool-running, energy-efficient 1.6GHz processor eliminates the need for bulky fans―freeing up room for a battery with 4.6 hours of juice. And the instant-on technology lets you watch DVDs and play music without waiting for Windows to boot up.
? 40GB
? 10.4-inch LCD screen
? $1,900
[SIZE=3]NVIDIA Scalable Link Interface[/SIZE]
Dual graphics cards let your screen keep up with, or even exceed, your gaming abilities
You’re barely hanging on in Doom 3, when suddenly the graphics start reassembling themselves pixel by pixel. The screen is playing catch-up with the game. Bang-bang, you’re dead. Blame your computer’s lone graphics card; it doesn’t have the oomph to process the pixels before they’re due on screen. NVIDIA’s Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology, however, chains two graphics cards together to pump out up to twice as many pixels per second. Live or die, you win.
[SIZE=3]HP LightScribe Labeling System[/SIZE]
Sorry, Sharpie: the laser just upstaged you
Labeling discs has long been a tedious task involving adhesives and printers and ink-stained fingers. LightScribe is the first CD- and DVD-writing technology that burns images and labels directly onto your discs with the same kind of laser used to write data and media.
[SIZE=3]Logitech QuickCam Orbit[/SIZE]
You can squirm, twitch, or fidget all you want, but this little rubbernecker has got you covered
Employing facial-tracking algorithms and a swiveling lens, the Orbit is the first webcam that automatically follows the face of its user. But it wasn’t always so family-friendly. Early on, after the Orbit’s designers crammed the low-friction gears, a CCD sensor and built-in microphone into its spherical housing, the cam developed the rude habit of staring down the blouse of an office assistant. The software now homes in on eyes as well as skin tones. No word on whether the wardrobe has changed.
? 30 frames per second at 640 x 480
? 1.3-megapixel stills
? $130
[SIZE=3]Matrix Semiconductor 3-D Memory[/SIZE]
Towers of memory reduce the cost of chips
Standard memory chips store data on a single layer of bits, but require multiple layers of wire, stacked vertically, to move information. Matrix’s Integrated Circuits have multiple layers of polysilicon bits, which double as storage and wiring. This setup squeezes several times as many bits per square area, and makes the chips easier to build and cheaper to manufacture. Mattel’s Juice Box portable media player (shown above; $70) uses 3-D circuits for its memory cards.
[SIZE=3]SkypeOut[/SIZE]
Pay-as-you-go VoIP to any phone in the world
Skype，Until now, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) has been an all-or-nothing proposition: Pay monthly to call anyone, or make free calls from your PC―but only to other VoIP users. SkypeOut allows you to call most any cellphone or land line at cellphone-call quality or better for between 2 and 10 cents a minute, charged against a prepaid account. Next up is SkypeIn, which will allow any VoIP, landline or mobile to call you using Skype’s network.
以前在Microcenter见过一款，后来好像他们也不进货了
发信人: ragtime (ragtime), 信区: Living
标 题: 其实voip的最大用处是
发信站: Unknown Space - 未名空间 (Wed Jan 12 14:41:01 2005) WWW-POST
给国内亲友办一个你自己区号内的。这样她有一个美国号码，你们互相打就是本
地电话。
至于自己这里用，既不是最便宜的，也不是最可靠的，没多少价值。
voip肯定不能取代手机，和有线电话比也不占多少好处，比如从可靠性和发传真
的角度考虑。
试试VOIP的冲动！
VoIP是用网络骨干来替换如AT&T之类的传统电话骨干, 将电话信号转换成IP-based Package. 局端或客户端的配置是传统电话PBX还是VoIP PBX与用户使用座机或手机没有关系.
另外, 现在VoIP用做电话还行, 传真可就差了. 讲电话稍有Delay还行, 传真就会变成一团糊.
既然thunder兄，顺便谢一声，把我在mit发的文转过来了，看来我得解释一下。
电话backbone（骨干网）是IP网，传说中的电话骨干网和internet骨干网是一回事。也就是说，电话的信号在进入骨干网之前就被电话公司就变成了IP包。这次转变完成了好几年了。因为它完全由电话公司完成，跟客户没有直接关系，所以很多人不了解。现在骨干网里最新趋势是mpls，从packet switching进到label switching。其实也就和virtual circuit switching差不多。
最新这一波voip不是这回事。这一波voip直接从客户端就是IP，连从客户到电话公司那段电话线都省了，直接走isp。把声音变成IP包的步骤直接由客户电话完成。当然啦，为了让客户不必重新买这种voip电话，可以接着用他现有电话设备，就出现了一种叫电话转换器（terminal/telephone adaptor, or TA）的东西。那么把声音的电信号转成IP包的事就由TA来做了。
因为直接跟客户有关，那么客户当然就会和他的其他电话来比较功能和价格再决定要不要用voip。手机肯定是不能代替的。虽然有带wifi的voip电话，但是只能在wifi hotspot里用。至于普通电话嘛，有一件事肯定是做不到的，那就是停电了还能打电话。普通电话的电是由电话公司用自己的系统通过电话线提供的，不受照明电影响。voip设备都要靠照明电来供电，所以停电了自然玩不转。所以就我来说，还是要手机+普通电话。voip只是用来玩罢了，再说碰巧也不是我自己掏腰包。
至于传真，或者调制解调器（就是“猫”。卫星电视接收器里的解码确认机制或者家庭保安系统等等都有用）不工作的原因，是因为voip的声音采样和压缩是针对人的声音设计的，对嘀嘀嘟嘟不太适用所以会有失真。另一头解码的时候就会产生错误。解决办法也是现成的，采用高保真的编码技术或者传真专用编码技术就行了。所以不是根本问题，只不过现在市场上的产品对这些支持不多。相信过一段时间就会有好转。