What with the new ST:Ent Challenge with the fans essentially paying for the production of a new season. This allows the broadcasters to provide the content without requiring prime-time advertising. Easily allowing the episodes to be made available online.
The only problem I would imagine is the actors royalty payments which DRM (god forbid) or a subscription based system could account for.
I am massively in favour of funding even $50 for the ability to fund a new season and be able to download it when I want to view it.
Hopefully Paramount will look into this option if they go ahead with ST:Ent S5!
I think you underestimate the number of polygons it would take to render a window.
Depending on the implementation - if the window contents are generated as a texture beforehand (utilising CPU time) and passed to graphics card then yes - a few triangles will do it.
On the other hand if the windows are drawn using OpenGL - every single bit of text on a window must be triangulated and depending on the size of the characters this can be a large number even for 1 or 2 characters - let alone a full webpage!!
Implentation is the key here - to gain total advantage of the OpenGL - everything must be drawn in it requiring a very good card. This would keep the system responsive fast and allow the CPU to get on with some real work.
using the texture method the CPU must render textures for each window - lot's of texture RAM needed here - think of movie playback here - a very high speed bus needed to push 30 frames per second rendered at about 3M Pixels (okay with GL Scaling, 1M pixels)...
Your $30 card GeForce MX with 16MB RAM isn't going to cut the mustard here.
I think if the movie companies did not stagger release dates you wouldn't have anywhere near the problem that exists.
For example a new film Oceans 12 is released in the US, but here in the UK it isn't released until February!
I want to watch the film now. If it were released I would pay £10 for myself and partner to go along. However to fulfil my desire I am now forced with the only alternative of downloading the movie now via bittorrent and watching that instead, chances are I probably won't see it in the cinema, but if it's good I'll buy the DVD (probably a US Imported one too).
Same goes for DVD releases. If they released the DVD shortly after the cinema releases many people would just buy it instead of downloading it.
They want people to revisit the cinema to rack up their profits - Dream on... A trip to the cinema is an entire evening and if I'm going to spend that time at the cinema, I'd rather see another film!
Their profiteering is the "bittorrent problem". Cut waiting times and they'll see more profits through less piracy.
I don't see any problem with allowing MS to bundle Windows Media Player. I'm sure aspects of it are used all over the place, e.g. Thumbnail previews of videos, descriptions and summaries in the properties tags. If they want to provide all this functionality they are either going to have to allow:
A) 3rd party providers to provide this information for the OS B) To have a cut down version of media player which cannot play movies by itself but serves this info.
I'd rather have neither and I'm sure Microsoft don't want 3rd party applications providing information for their summary boxes as they might be buggy etc and cause exceptions...
Airbus don't want people to use other peoples Engines in their aircraft because Airbus don't think it is safe to do so. Is that a monopoly???
This is a fake. They've spelled numerous items wrong including Folkestone (spelled "Folkstone"), McMillan nurses I'm fairly sure is spelled MacMillan Nurses.
The seller has no feedback (but this would probably be expected) yet no proof that the item is for sale by Eurotunnel.
Who says this guys hasn't taken two photographs of it and placed it on eBay for a laugh??
I have a fairly large collection of CDs and I listen to them at home - but I also like to listen to them at work. What I have done is convert my favourite CDs into OGG and put them on my work computer. These are not shared and only for my use (100% legal as these are a one-off backup for my own use). However recently I purchased Massive Attack 100th Window which has this copy protection crap on it. Result - I cannot listen to this CD in work and hence listen to it much less often.
I do not intend to buy any more CDs which have been copy protected as I simply view them as a waste of my money as I listen to them significantly less than my other non-protected versions.
A small sound proof box with a microphone inside, when the baby makes, a noise a discreet light should flash at the top indicating attention is required!
As developers, we have ultimate control over how easy a particular application should be to use. Making an application easy to use widens the user base therefore becoming a cymbiotic relationship between users (who want easy to use applications) and developers (who want a large user base).
As a mission goal developers should strive to make sure applications they develop are as easy to use as possible.
This is certainly a goal in the Windows world, unfortunately not yet so widespread in the Linux world.
Finally I have realised why Microsoft has been combining the browser with the OS. Two remove the notion of a browser and hence removing the possibility of IE being dethroned, since no "browser" means no "browser war".
I think everyone here is missing the point. Everyone is comparing Slackware to Mandrake/Redhat etc, but the main reason why I use it is to install the absolute basic libraries required to get a Linux system going and then compile the latest KDE, Mozilla, OpenOffice, Kernel and stuff like lirc so everything is remote controlled. The result is a Linux which is fast (takes 20 seconds to boot), looks good, easy to use and only fits in a partition of less than *1GB*. You don't get the bloat that you get with other distros.
Another advantage as noted earlier is editing config files. When you install hotplug USB or lirc or any other daemon which needs to go in an 'rc' statup file it is really easy in Slackware - simply add the command! Using most distributions today you have to try and fight some kind of configuration program or alternatively break the rc files which get overwritten next time you use the 'easy to use' configurator!
Have you thought about using Ada95 - It is cross platform with compilers on most OSes and can be written procedural *or* OO.
It has lot's of constraints so you can't hang yourself like in C with array out of bounds stuff. It has very good exception handling and is easy to learn.
The university I go to taught this language in 1st and 2nd year and then only in 3rd did they introduce us to Java!
I think the problem is actually that ordinary people may mistake these products as being written by SGI.
This is a big problem with SGI as they have no control over the content and any of the products could be damaging to SGI's reputation.
Someone I know reckons that Mobile Phone Radiation is the cause of CJD - It's difficult to argue against him - anybody want to provide some ammunition???
Slashdot Mirror
I was wondering about this earlier today.
What with the new ST:Ent Challenge with the fans essentially paying for the production of a new season. This allows the broadcasters to provide the content without requiring prime-time advertising. Easily allowing the episodes to be made available online.
The only problem I would imagine is the actors royalty payments which DRM (god forbid) or a subscription based system could account for.
I am massively in favour of funding even $50 for the ability to fund a new season and be able to download it when I want to view it.
Hopefully Paramount will look into this option if they go ahead with ST:Ent S5!
I think you underestimate the number of polygons it would take to render a window.
Depending on the implementation - if the window contents are generated as a texture beforehand (utilising CPU time) and passed to graphics card then yes - a few triangles will do it.
On the other hand if the windows are drawn using OpenGL - every single bit of text on a window must be triangulated and depending on the size of the characters this can be a large number even for 1 or 2 characters - let alone a full webpage!!
Implentation is the key here - to gain total advantage of the OpenGL - everything must be drawn in it requiring a very good card. This would keep the system responsive fast and allow the CPU to get on with some real work.
using the texture method the CPU must render textures for each window - lot's of texture RAM needed here - think of movie playback here - a very high speed bus needed to push 30 frames per second rendered at about 3M Pixels (okay with GL Scaling, 1M pixels)...
Your $30 card GeForce MX with 16MB RAM isn't going to cut the mustard here.
I think if the movie companies did not stagger release dates you wouldn't have anywhere near the problem that exists.
For example a new film Oceans 12 is released in the US, but here in the UK it isn't released until February!
I want to watch the film now. If it were released I would pay £10 for myself and partner to go along. However to fulfil my desire I am now forced with the only alternative of downloading the movie now via bittorrent and watching that instead, chances are I probably won't see it in the cinema, but if it's good I'll buy the DVD (probably a US Imported one too).
Same goes for DVD releases. If they released the DVD shortly after the cinema releases many people would just buy it instead of downloading it.
They want people to revisit the cinema to rack up their profits - Dream on... A trip to the cinema is an entire evening and if I'm going to spend that time at the cinema, I'd rather see another film!
Their profiteering is the "bittorrent problem". Cut waiting times and they'll see more profits through less piracy.
I don't see any problem with allowing MS to bundle Windows Media Player. I'm sure aspects of it are used all over the place, e.g. Thumbnail previews of videos, descriptions and summaries in the properties tags. If they want to provide all this functionality they are either going to have to allow:
A) 3rd party providers to provide this information for the OS
B) To have a cut down version of media player which cannot play movies by itself but serves this info.
I'd rather have neither and I'm sure Microsoft don't want 3rd party applications providing information for their summary boxes as they might be buggy etc and cause exceptions...
Airbus don't want people to use other peoples Engines in their aircraft because Airbus don't think it is safe to do so. Is that a monopoly???
This is a fake. They've spelled numerous items wrong including Folkestone (spelled "Folkstone"), McMillan nurses I'm fairly sure is spelled MacMillan Nurses.
The seller has no feedback (but this would probably be expected) yet no proof that the item is for sale by Eurotunnel.
Who says this guys hasn't taken two photographs of it and placed it on eBay for a laugh??
News? Yes, but not of a sale, but of a scam.
I have a fairly large collection of CDs and I listen to them at home - but I also like to listen to them at work. What I have done is convert my favourite CDs into OGG and put them on my work computer. These are not shared and only for my use (100% legal as these are a one-off backup for my own use). However recently I purchased Massive Attack 100th Window which has this copy protection crap on it. Result - I cannot listen to this CD in work and hence listen to it much less often.
I do not intend to buy any more CDs which have been copy protected as I simply view them as a waste of my money as I listen to them significantly less than my other non-protected versions.
...The Second SuperPower
This just reminds me of when Nasa spend billions on designing a biro which would work in space.
The russians however... they used a pencil.
In response, the Post Office has also decreed that the protocols POP3, SMTP and IMAP should also be banned in an attempt to win back loss revenue.
The solution:
A small sound proof box with a microphone inside, when the baby makes, a noise a discreet light should flash at the top indicating attention is required!
As developers, we have ultimate control over how easy a particular application should be to use. Making an application easy to use widens the user base therefore becoming a cymbiotic relationship between users (who want easy to use applications) and developers (who want a large user base).
As a mission goal developers should strive to make sure applications they develop are as easy to use as possible.
This is certainly a goal in the Windows world, unfortunately not yet so widespread in the Linux world.
Finally I have realised why Microsoft has been combining the browser with the OS. Two remove the notion of a browser and hence removing the possibility of IE being dethroned, since no "browser" means no "browser war".
I think everyone here is missing the point. Everyone is comparing Slackware to Mandrake/Redhat etc, but the main reason why I use it is to install the absolute basic libraries required to get a Linux system going and then compile the latest KDE, Mozilla, OpenOffice, Kernel and stuff like lirc so everything is remote controlled. The result is a Linux which is fast (takes 20 seconds to boot), looks good, easy to use and only fits in a partition of less than *1GB*. You don't get the bloat that you get with other distros.
Another advantage as noted earlier is editing config files. When you install hotplug USB or lirc or any other daemon which needs to go in an 'rc' statup file it is really easy in Slackware - simply add the command! Using most distributions today you have to try and fight some kind of configuration program or alternatively break the rc files which get overwritten next time you use the 'easy to use' configurator!
Probably long enough to occupy at least two rolls of toilet paper.
Clearly, these people have never heard of video/dvd rental...
Have you thought about using Ada95 - It is cross platform with compilers on most OSes and can be written procedural *or* OO. It has lot's of constraints so you can't hang yourself like in C with array out of bounds stuff. It has very good exception handling and is easy to learn. The university I go to taught this language in 1st and 2nd year and then only in 3rd did they introduce us to Java!
I think the problem is actually that ordinary people may mistake these products as being written by SGI.
This is a big problem with SGI as they have no control over the content and any of the products could be damaging to SGI's reputation.
Someone I know reckons that Mobile Phone Radiation is the cause of CJD - It's difficult to argue against him - anybody want to provide some ammunition???