Ah, you've discovered our brilliant form of counter-espionage. Hollywood floods the planet with ridiculous stereotypes and bizarre portrayals of American society as part of a disinformation campaign to fool foreign powers. You and I might simply roll our eyes at a bad movie, but two invasion attempts were aborted due to concerns about the throngs of gun-toting mobsters and "masked avengers" in every American city. Several terror plots fell apart as the organizers became convinced that they had been overheard by CIA surveillance satellites bristling with parabolic microphones. And thousands of PRC agents wasted nearly five years trying futilely to "hack the Gibson."
After experiencing a few, I can say that I've started to get a sense of euphoria after I listen to them. More to the point, I'm just really glad the damn noise stopped.
Seconded. I've yet to get an iPhone, but I've got a friend who picked up a couple 4s right when they came out. He couldn't be happier. Even though they do lose some signal with the right grip, in daily use they drop fewer calls and have better sound quality than Blackberries/Palms/other phones he's used. So it's hard for him to get too worked up about this issue.
And American phone subsidies notwithstanding, it's a $600 device. If you care about your phone, buy a freaking case or bumper already! And/or a bluetooth headset. You don't have to be that kid sitting in Starbucks showing off just how spendy a phone your parents bought you.
3D video is nothing more than two 2D videos which alternate every other frame. It's trivial to create or decode; in fact, there are several ways you can do it:
Put the left and right frames next to each other into one big video frame, or...
Interleave the left and right frames into one stream with twice the frame rate, or...
Multiplex the two streams into one file, or...
Store the streams as two separate files.
You can actually encode and watch 3D video today, if you have the hardware. The only reasons you're not seeing tons of pirated 3D video is because the hardware is still relatively rare, the files are naturally larger than 2D versions, and player software makers (VideoLAN et al.) haven't agreed on which particular method listed above to standardize. As soon as there's a common format that works in popular players, pirated 3D video will be all over the place.
But any studio execs who thought 3D video would somehow end piracy would have to be complete idiots.
Even the far smaller Predator can carry up to 750 pounds and stay aloft for at least 40 hours. Though I guess you could still throw in a bunch of Spikes and still have a nice Macross Missile Massacre.
Well, the Big Four music labels wanted to lock down their music. As a result the popularity of the iPod threatened to give Apple a monopoly on music sales. Then the labels were put in the embarrassing position of having to promote DRM-free music to stay in control of their own industry.
So it's only fitting that Verizon, who originally refused the iPhone because they couldn't lock it down enough, now has to promote an even more open platform to stay in the Smartphone market.
Apparently the best way to open up an industry is to just wait for the big corporations to paint themselves into a corner.
except, of course, for output devices like monitors and projectors, where the number of physical pixels really does matter.
Your monitor isn't an exception, it just has sufficient bandwidth to display uncompressed video. It other words, "perfect" bit rate.
And bit rate isn't the whole story; the method of compression has a tremendous effect on video quality. 1920x1080 30p ATSC takes the same amount of bandwidth as 480i NTSC. 320x240 24p uncompressed RGB video is about the same bit rate as Blu-Ray. If marketers pushed bit rate instead of resolution, we'd just have huge files with lousy compression.
There are just too many variables to say that video quality comes down to one specific dimension. Resolution, bit rate, and compression algorithm are all important, and picking the right combination for your specific content is even more so.
The problem is getting onto, or off of, really fast-moving sidewalks. One person trips, next thing you know you have a pile of bodies and all injured.
Want to set up a sequence of them that all are separated by even 5 mph difference (and that's plenty fast)? Good luck managing it. That's as wide as a 3-lane highway.
Got someone trying to carry groceries, or a couple bags? Whoops, even more trouble balancing. Here we go again...
It fell apart the moment people even started imagining the basic problems with people trying to use it on a larger scale. Hell, look at Asimov's discussion of the topic (The Caves of Steel) talking about the immense problems that happened when someone tripped and fell onto the strips.
Actually, the cooler high-speed moving walkways in use today expand to the sides and contract again to create low- and high-speed areas. It's the same concept as a river being fast through narrow regions and slow when it widens out.
Yet, the failure of the PSP Go suggest the exact opposite; some people like their physical media.
No, the PSP Go flopped because it was an utter ripoff. Imagine if Valve had bundled Steam with their own line of gaming PCs, so if you wanted to use the service you needed to buy a new gaming rig, which was locked from playing any non-Steam games, and just to insult you a bit more they charged a ~50% premium over equivalent hardware.
That describes the PSP Go's failings: It cost more than the regular PSP, and you had to re-buy every game you wanted to play on it. Even if you were a new buyer and didn't care about backwards compatibility, you still paid a premium for the PSP Go and you couldn't borrow games from friends. Why would you buy a console that costs more and does less?
The iPhone/iPod Touch, on the other hand, has a enormous game market. The difference is that Apple doesn't punish you for downloading apps.
I am an American, and I can't seem to go two weeks without hearing some blowhard blaming the country's problems on "lazy immigrants who refuse to learn our national language". If anyone points out that most other countries aren't trying to enforce a sole national language, they usually claim that America is in a unique situation; that no other country on the planet has to deal with job-seeking immigrants "the way we do", and the discussion goes downhill from there.
I'm not against America, just against the far-right American Exceptionalists whose chauvinism and fear-mongering seem to prevent any social progress or reasoned debate.
So will browsers start supporting vertical address bars, in addition to left-to-right and right-to-left?
Sorry to editorialize, but it's amazing how worked up the Americans and French get over the intrusion of foreign languages, considering they've done more than anyone to change how the rest of the world speaks and writes.
I freely admit it was a poor example, though it varies from prefecture to prefecture. But if we're being pedantic, quite a few countries also make exceptions to their laws if the "perpetrator" is close in age to the "victim", so there are actually many more countries that would, for example, not criminalize sex between a thirteen year old and a sixteen or seventeen year old.
But the point is that there isn't a simple notion of "adult" and "child" that is consistent worldwide, and humans reach sexual and mental maturity at varying ages, so saying "sex with a 13-year-old is pedophilia" is a political statement, not a moral one.
I thought that a patent was still permitted if (1) it is tied to a particular machine or apparatus, or (2) it transforms a particular article into a different state or thing. It's hard to believe that a drug or gene couldn't meet those qualifications if a piece of software can.
Not to say that I'm in favor of these patents, mind you.
If you were in Japan, Spain, or about 20 other countries, 13 would be above the age of consent. Sweden is 15, which is about the worldwide average. Above 16 is the exception.
And regarding the wide pedo-brush that people like to smear these laws with, dangerous pedophiles don't care about consent or laws in general. There's very little correlation, in fact, between state-enforced moral laws and the amount of child rape, sexual abuse, or teen pregnancies. These laws mostly end up turning early-maturing teenagers into "sex offenders" with a life-long criminal record.
So yes, the criminality of under-18s having sex is very much a political issue and not a universal moral constant.
It's actually a diabolical plot by Apple to force people to buy cases and thus reduce the number of warranty claims Apple has to process.
I have to wonder who buys a $600 piece of hardware (before subsidy), carries it around in their trousers, and yet is offended by the notion of protecting it in any way.
It's another dancing pigs scenario. As soon as you let average users bypass the Apple store, social engineering attacks pop up that walk idiots through compromising their own devices. Then the media blames the problem on Apple, and the lowly techs of world are left to clean up the mess.
I'm as much in favor of free software as the next guy, but having done my share of tech support I can't blame Apple for their walled garden approach. If a $99 code signing certificate means I don't have to be on call day and night for family and friends, it's damn well worth it.
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Ah, you've discovered our brilliant form of counter-espionage. Hollywood floods the planet with ridiculous stereotypes and bizarre portrayals of American society as part of a disinformation campaign to fool foreign powers. You and I might simply roll our eyes at a bad movie, but two invasion attempts were aborted due to concerns about the throngs of gun-toting mobsters and "masked avengers" in every American city. Several terror plots fell apart as the organizers became convinced that they had been overheard by CIA surveillance satellites bristling with parabolic microphones. And thousands of PRC agents wasted nearly five years trying futilely to "hack the Gibson."
Microsoft must be doing a bang-up job then, because when I'm in Windows it doesn't matter if I'm using 3 or 10000 processors.
After experiencing a few, I can say that I've started to get a sense of euphoria after I listen to them. More to the point, I'm just really glad the damn noise stopped.
I must admit that at first this seemed incredibly obvious, so I thought "no shit!"
But then I started reading TFA and found it was really quite surprising. So now I'm thinking "no shit?"
I have to credit Dr. Gordon for researching the shit out of what seems on its face a shitty subject. He's really the shit in my book.
(And now I must apologize to the non-native English speakers.)
Next article: Privacy flaws In Public Streaking Expose Users
Seconded. I've yet to get an iPhone, but I've got a friend who picked up a couple 4s right when they came out. He couldn't be happier. Even though they do lose some signal with the right grip, in daily use they drop fewer calls and have better sound quality than Blackberries/Palms/other phones he's used. So it's hard for him to get too worked up about this issue.
And American phone subsidies notwithstanding, it's a $600 device. If you care about your phone, buy a freaking case or bumper already! And/or a bluetooth headset. You don't have to be that kid sitting in Starbucks showing off just how spendy a phone your parents bought you.
3D video is nothing more than two 2D videos which alternate every other frame. It's trivial to create or decode; in fact, there are several ways you can do it:
You can actually encode and watch 3D video today, if you have the hardware. The only reasons you're not seeing tons of pirated 3D video is because the hardware is still relatively rare, the files are naturally larger than 2D versions, and player software makers (VideoLAN et al.) haven't agreed on which particular method listed above to standardize. As soon as there's a common format that works in popular players, pirated 3D video will be all over the place.
But any studio execs who thought 3D video would somehow end piracy would have to be complete idiots.
Eat some shrimp; you'll feel better.
Even the far smaller Predator can carry up to 750 pounds and stay aloft for at least 40 hours. Though I guess you could still throw in a bunch of Spikes and still have a nice Macross Missile Massacre.
Well, the Big Four music labels wanted to lock down their music. As a result the popularity of the iPod threatened to give Apple a monopoly on music sales. Then the labels were put in the embarrassing position of having to promote DRM-free music to stay in control of their own industry.
So it's only fitting that Verizon, who originally refused the iPhone because they couldn't lock it down enough, now has to promote an even more open platform to stay in the Smartphone market.
Apparently the best way to open up an industry is to just wait for the big corporations to paint themselves into a corner.
except, of course, for output devices like monitors and projectors, where the number of physical pixels really does matter.
Your monitor isn't an exception, it just has sufficient bandwidth to display uncompressed video. It other words, "perfect" bit rate.
And bit rate isn't the whole story; the method of compression has a tremendous effect on video quality. 1920x1080 30p ATSC takes the same amount of bandwidth as 480i NTSC. 320x240 24p uncompressed RGB video is about the same bit rate as Blu-Ray. If marketers pushed bit rate instead of resolution, we'd just have huge files with lousy compression.
There are just too many variables to say that video quality comes down to one specific dimension. Resolution, bit rate, and compression algorithm are all important, and picking the right combination for your specific content is even more so.
The problem is getting onto, or off of, really fast-moving sidewalks. One person trips, next thing you know you have a pile of bodies and all injured.
Want to set up a sequence of them that all are separated by even 5 mph difference (and that's plenty fast)? Good luck managing it. That's as wide as a 3-lane highway.
Got someone trying to carry groceries, or a couple bags? Whoops, even more trouble balancing. Here we go again...
It fell apart the moment people even started imagining the basic problems with people trying to use it on a larger scale. Hell, look at Asimov's discussion of the topic (The Caves of Steel) talking about the immense problems that happened when someone tripped and fell onto the strips.
Actually, the cooler high-speed moving walkways in use today expand to the sides and contract again to create low- and high-speed areas. It's the same concept as a river being fast through narrow regions and slow when it widens out.
Well, we need a prefix that sounds cool and references the people who would hold power—in this case, anyone with HTTP access. I suggest "Hypercracy".
Yet, the failure of the PSP Go suggest the exact opposite; some people like their physical media.
No, the PSP Go flopped because it was an utter ripoff. Imagine if Valve had bundled Steam with their own line of gaming PCs, so if you wanted to use the service you needed to buy a new gaming rig, which was locked from playing any non-Steam games, and just to insult you a bit more they charged a ~50% premium over equivalent hardware.
That describes the PSP Go's failings: It cost more than the regular PSP, and you had to re-buy every game you wanted to play on it. Even if you were a new buyer and didn't care about backwards compatibility, you still paid a premium for the PSP Go and you couldn't borrow games from friends. Why would you buy a console that costs more and does less?
The iPhone/iPod Touch, on the other hand, has a enormous game market. The difference is that Apple doesn't punish you for downloading apps.
Don't believe him. He obviously works for them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-only_movement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toubon_Law
I am an American, and I can't seem to go two weeks without hearing some blowhard blaming the country's problems on "lazy immigrants who refuse to learn our national language". If anyone points out that most other countries aren't trying to enforce a sole national language, they usually claim that America is in a unique situation; that no other country on the planet has to deal with job-seeking immigrants "the way we do", and the discussion goes downhill from there.
I'm not against America, just against the far-right American Exceptionalists whose chauvinism and fear-mongering seem to prevent any social progress or reasoned debate.
So will browsers start supporting vertical address bars, in addition to left-to-right and right-to-left?
Sorry to editorialize, but it's amazing how worked up the Americans and French get over the intrusion of foreign languages, considering they've done more than anyone to change how the rest of the world speaks and writes.
No, I'm pretty sure he's using the generally accepted definition.
I freely admit it was a poor example, though it varies from prefecture to prefecture. But if we're being pedantic, quite a few countries also make exceptions to their laws if the "perpetrator" is close in age to the "victim", so there are actually many more countries that would, for example, not criminalize sex between a thirteen year old and a sixteen or seventeen year old.
But the point is that there isn't a simple notion of "adult" and "child" that is consistent worldwide, and humans reach sexual and mental maturity at varying ages, so saying "sex with a 13-year-old is pedophilia" is a political statement, not a moral one.
I thought that a patent was still permitted if (1) it is tied to a particular machine or apparatus, or (2) it transforms a particular article into a different state or thing. It's hard to believe that a drug or gene couldn't meet those qualifications if a piece of software can.
Not to say that I'm in favor of these patents, mind you.
If you were in Japan, Spain, or about 20 other countries, 13 would be above the age of consent. Sweden is 15, which is about the worldwide average. Above 16 is the exception.
And regarding the wide pedo-brush that people like to smear these laws with, dangerous pedophiles don't care about consent or laws in general. There's very little correlation, in fact, between state-enforced moral laws and the amount of child rape, sexual abuse, or teen pregnancies. These laws mostly end up turning early-maturing teenagers into "sex offenders" with a life-long criminal record.
So yes, the criminality of under-18s having sex is very much a political issue and not a universal moral constant.
It's actually a diabolical plot by Apple to force people to buy cases and thus reduce the number of warranty claims Apple has to process.
I have to wonder who buys a $600 piece of hardware (before subsidy), carries it around in their trousers, and yet is offended by the notion of protecting it in any way.
Wow, they are more evolved.
You're too late. They have been overthrown by the wood-chip-based overlords.
It's another dancing pigs scenario. As soon as you let average users bypass the Apple store, social engineering attacks pop up that walk idiots through compromising their own devices. Then the media blames the problem on Apple, and the lowly techs of world are left to clean up the mess.
I'm as much in favor of free software as the next guy, but having done my share of tech support I can't blame Apple for their walled garden approach. If a $99 code signing certificate means I don't have to be on call day and night for family and friends, it's damn well worth it.