That "warm" sound is distortion. Some listeners may like it, but from a quality/reproduction standpoint it is most definitely a bad thing. If record companies really are selling vinyl again, they're probably just trying to make a quick buck on nostalgic idiots who are actually dumb enough to buy vinyl records in 2008. Even the record companies realize that online distribution is the next big thing.
Most of the problems with CDs and digital audio can be blamed on poor compression and the loudness war. I'm really sick of hearing the same old rants from vinyl fanboys... why is this even worthy of Slashdot's front page?
Oh, and technically speaking, vinyl has a finite bitrate. Once you get down to the molecular level, that is... so I'll have no more of this "vinyl has infinite quality" nonsense.
Er, they're comparing the iMac to Dell's XPS One, which is an all-in-one system like the iMac. with most PCs, yes, you'd have a valid point, but in this particular case they both have the built-in monitor issue, upgrade limitations, etc. The comparison is fair.
Why even bother discussing something so silly? I cringed when I first saw the commerical for the XPS one... it's another bad idea from Apple that's now spreading around the market. With the obvious exception of laptops/tablets, all-in-one computers are garbage. they're hard to upgrade, hard to repair (if necessary) and a complete waste of a monitor.
I mean, honestly, who's going to buy a piece of proprietary Dell crap? Only Apple can trick people into paying a premium for that.
As far as I'm concerned, the XPS one has no market. Anyone hunting for a desktop PC is going to want a standard box for half the price, and be able to re-use major components (like the monitor) later. If someone wants to pay for an all-in-one setup, they're just going to get the Mac, since they probably have more money than sense anyway.
Whoever came up with the XPS One at Dell really didn't think it through that well.
I can't stand it when teachers or professors prohibit Wikipedia as a source of accurate information. Of course it's subject to vandalism and other issues, but so is any other source. That is why all research should make use of multiple sources. If something is incorrect in an article, a good researcher will find discrepancies with other info.
Even when it's not allowed as a direct source, Wikipedia is always a great first stop to find more information about something.
I find that using a chalkboard/whiteboard usually makes for much better presentations. Having to write things out forces the presenter to explain more thoroughly and be conservative about how much is put up on the wall versus how much he/she actually explains. It holds the audience's attention better.
Overhead projectors are generally well-used, too, but not when they're just a substitute for PowerPoint. They're good for solving problems and adding to pre-printed graphics (like a graphing plane, for instance), especially in larger lecture halls. I've also had professors who use overheads (or just Word and an LCD projector) to scroll along concise notes to help both the listeners and lecturer to keep on-track without relying on a display to actually convey the information. This also provides an easy way to add visual aids without resorting to PowerPoint.
Yes, the presenter is at fault for bad PP presentations, but the PowerPoint "model" makes it much easier to screw things up.
I just wish something would kill Powerpoint, already. It's a worthless app designed around an ineffective method to distribute information. Slide-based presentations are boring as hell and don't help viewers absorb a damn thing. It's a total waste of time. In school, the use of Powerpoint by a teacher/professor usually indicates that they're a crappy instructor.
I wish people would respect their audience's time and make an effort instead of giving half-assed lectures with Powerpoint.
...And when students/employees are given the task of making and giving PPT presentations... UGH. What, you're so lazy that you have to delegate your already-subpar work to your subordinates?
Leave it to the W3C to shit all over an existing standard and introduce/promote a new one for no apparent reason. Why do people even listen to these assclowns?
Just because vinyl CAN sound better doesn't mean it always will. The audiophile market can have their preference, but the general population isn't going to care about the difference in quality, especially when considering the relative durability of CDs and the ease with which they can be ripped.
You can argue that the CD is dying, but of all things, vinyl sure as hell isn't going to be what replaces it.
Stupid vinyl trolls are annoying as hell, by the way.
This should be nice... IMAP would allow me to use real mail clients on both of my systems (which have two OSes each) without having to deal with lost messages or that "leave it on the server" mess.
Last time I used KOffice, it messed up the letter spacing and made my paper hard to read when printed. If they fixed that, I'd probably use it. I'm still using M$ office because I just can't stand using OpenOrifice.
The same thing happened at my high school... a student stole ten Mac G5s (back when these were still pretty new) from the digital animation classroom, but was busted when a teacher found them up for sale on fleabay. He was over 18, too, so they threw the book at him.
The "universal fence" factor is yet another reason I hate fleabay... not to mention the scams, and all the other BS that goes on that eBay won't do anything about.
Not to mention OEM sales for businesses, which aren't huge compared to desktops, but growing nonetheless.
And, the fact that Apple has its own brick-and-mortar retail stores all over certainly helps skew the statistics in their favor. A good portion of people looking for Dell/HP/Gateway know to look online for a deal.
I second this motion. I've been using this driver for the dual-boot configurations of both of my systems, and it's worked flawlessly.
I use a separate/home partition, and used TweakUI to re-map the My Documents folder in windows to match. (Well, mydocs is actually/home/l4m3r/Documents, so I don't have to look at all those hidden folders in my home directory when using Windoze.)...This is assuming you're using XP. If you've got Vista, I think you're pretty much SOL as far as ext2 goes.
A few manufacturers already make something like this- neat SD cards with a USB "tail" on them, built right into the card. it's not a full connector, just the flat, plastic part with the contacs, and it has a foldable "sheath" that allows the SD card to have the normal dimensions when the USB connector is not in use.
This way, it fits in the camera (or whatever) and can be plugged into any computer with no hassle whatsoever. It seems like a pretty good all-around solution if you ask me.
I think it'd be better to just pick an existing standard than to create yet another new one.
If something like this were widely used in Windows, the "package" system used by many linux distros wouldn't be so incomprehensible to the typical user. And, when people find out how much more free (libre) software there is on the Linux side, there would actually be a reason to switch.
The only issue I see here are with licensing. There is a ton of free windoze software out there, but a lot of it has strings attached.
And, as mentioned, there's the security issue. Packages would have to be validated in some way. I don't think that trusting the maintainers would work so well like it does for Debian.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, let's roll out another new standard for no reason at all when most of the web still hasn't caught up to the last one.
I can't be the only one who thinks the W3C is annoying as hell...
That "warm" sound is distortion. Some listeners may like it, but from a quality/reproduction standpoint it is most definitely a bad thing. If record companies really are selling vinyl again, they're probably just trying to make a quick buck on nostalgic idiots who are actually dumb enough to buy vinyl records in 2008. Even the record companies realize that online distribution is the next big thing.
Most of the problems with CDs and digital audio can be blamed on poor compression and the loudness war. I'm really sick of hearing the same old rants from vinyl fanboys... why is this even worthy of Slashdot's front page?
Oh, and technically speaking, vinyl has a finite bitrate. Once you get down to the molecular level, that is... so I'll have no more of this "vinyl has infinite quality" nonsense.
Er, they're comparing the iMac to Dell's XPS One, which is an all-in-one system like the iMac. with most PCs, yes, you'd have a valid point, but in this particular case they both have the built-in monitor issue, upgrade limitations, etc. The comparison is fair.
Why even bother discussing something so silly? I cringed when I first saw the commerical for the XPS one... it's another bad idea from Apple that's now spreading around the market. With the obvious exception of laptops/tablets, all-in-one computers are garbage. they're hard to upgrade, hard to repair (if necessary) and a complete waste of a monitor.
I mean, honestly, who's going to buy a piece of proprietary Dell crap? Only Apple can trick people into paying a premium for that.
As far as I'm concerned, the XPS one has no market. Anyone hunting for a desktop PC is going to want a standard box for half the price, and be able to re-use major components (like the monitor) later. If someone wants to pay for an all-in-one setup, they're just going to get the Mac, since they probably have more money than sense anyway.
Whoever came up with the XPS One at Dell really didn't think it through that well.
With a runaway defense budget like ours, I'd say the mac is a perfect fit!
It's a matter of preference, really. A lot of people (especially non-geek types) prefer a more full-featured OS. Others prefer something lighter.
:)
It's nice to have a choice.
I can't stand it when teachers or professors prohibit Wikipedia as a source of accurate information. Of course it's subject to vandalism and other issues, but so is any other source. That is why all research should make use of multiple sources. If something is incorrect in an article, a good researcher will find discrepancies with other info.
Even when it's not allowed as a direct source, Wikipedia is always a great first stop to find more information about something.
Why would you need HD content on a device with a 320 x 240 screen?
I find that using a chalkboard/whiteboard usually makes for much better presentations. Having to write things out forces the presenter to explain more thoroughly and be conservative about how much is put up on the wall versus how much he/she actually explains. It holds the audience's attention better.
Overhead projectors are generally well-used, too, but not when they're just a substitute for PowerPoint. They're good for solving problems and adding to pre-printed graphics (like a graphing plane, for instance), especially in larger lecture halls. I've also had professors who use overheads (or just Word and an LCD projector) to scroll along concise notes to help both the listeners and lecturer to keep on-track without relying on a display to actually convey the information. This also provides an easy way to add visual aids without resorting to PowerPoint.
Yes, the presenter is at fault for bad PP presentations, but the PowerPoint "model" makes it much easier to screw things up.
I just wish something would kill Powerpoint, already. It's a worthless app designed around an ineffective method to distribute information. Slide-based presentations are boring as hell and don't help viewers absorb a damn thing. It's a total waste of time. In school, the use of Powerpoint by a teacher/professor usually indicates that they're a crappy instructor.
I wish people would respect their audience's time and make an effort instead of giving half-assed lectures with Powerpoint.
...And when students/employees are given the task of making and giving PPT presentations... UGH. What, you're so lazy that you have to delegate your already-subpar work to your subordinates?
Leave it to the W3C to shit all over an existing standard and introduce/promote a new one for no apparent reason. Why do people even listen to these assclowns?
Just because vinyl CAN sound better doesn't mean it always will. The audiophile market can have their preference, but the general population isn't going to care about the difference in quality, especially when considering the relative durability of CDs and the ease with which they can be ripped.
You can argue that the CD is dying, but of all things, vinyl sure as hell isn't going to be what replaces it.
Stupid vinyl trolls are annoying as hell, by the way.
This should be nice... IMAP would allow me to use real mail clients on both of my systems (which have two OSes each) without having to deal with lost messages or that "leave it on the server" mess.
I can get my wife one of these, and not worry about her having sex with it while I'm not home!
"At least it's not OpenOffice!"
Last time I used KOffice, it messed up the letter spacing and made my paper hard to read when printed. If they fixed that, I'd probably use it. I'm still using M$ office because I just can't stand using OpenOrifice.
Of course! Legislation is a great way to fix anything!
The same thing happened at my high school... a student stole ten Mac G5s (back when these were still pretty new) from the digital animation classroom, but was busted when a teacher found them up for sale on fleabay. He was over 18, too, so they threw the book at him.
The "universal fence" factor is yet another reason I hate fleabay... not to mention the scams, and all the other BS that goes on that eBay won't do anything about.
Not to mention OEM sales for businesses, which aren't huge compared to desktops, but growing nonetheless.
And, the fact that Apple has its own brick-and-mortar retail stores all over certainly helps skew the statistics in their favor. A good portion of people looking for Dell/HP/Gateway know to look online for a deal.
I second this motion. I've been using this driver for the dual-boot configurations of both of my systems, and it's worked flawlessly.
/home partition, and used TweakUI to re-map the My Documents folder in windows to match. (Well, mydocs is actually /home/l4m3r/Documents, so I don't have to look at all those hidden folders in my home directory when using Windoze.) ...This is assuming you're using XP. If you've got Vista, I think you're pretty much SOL as far as ext2 goes.
I use a separate
Ugh, now it's going to be that much harder to make friends. :'(
There is something hilarious about the fact that this was posted to Slashdot.
The RIAA is usually (more) rabid about defending guitar tabs and such... I honestly find it funny, in a pathetic sort of way.
Come on, guys. The vast majority of rock music uses the same few chords. They're not secrets. There's really no use in trying to hide them!
And, why does the RIAA always try to squelch those who are interested in learning guitar? Don't they need a steady influx of "talent" to exploit?
A few manufacturers already make something like this- neat SD cards with a USB "tail" on them, built right into the card. it's not a full connector, just the flat, plastic part with the contacs, and it has a foldable "sheath" that allows the SD card to have the normal dimensions when the USB connector is not in use.
This way, it fits in the camera (or whatever) and can be plugged into any computer with no hassle whatsoever. It seems like a pretty good all-around solution if you ask me.
I think it'd be better to just pick an existing standard than to create yet another new one.
If something like this were widely used in Windows, the "package" system used by many linux distros wouldn't be so incomprehensible to the typical user. And, when people find out how much more free (libre) software there is on the Linux side, there would actually be a reason to switch.
The only issue I see here are with licensing. There is a ton of free windoze software out there, but a lot of it has strings attached.
And, as mentioned, there's the security issue. Packages would have to be validated in some way. I don't think that trusting the maintainers would work so well like it does for Debian.
He needs to learn the wonders of sharpies. Or better yet, how to hide the ugly router, cable modem, and power devices under his desk.