Funny. There's sort of a Slashdot effect at play here, where somebody self-selects their friends to the point they lose the ability to form a non-biased statistical idea of what a typical person is like. Streaming movies and TV is an option for a small percentage of the population, and most of THOSE have no desire to do it regularly. The vast majority (I'm sure 95%+, probably 99%+) of those under-40 get all or the vast majority of their TV shows off the... TV.
And I'm dropping from six clear analog channels to three really clear and three boxy stuttering 'kaleidoscope' digital channels. NBC and FOX, for instance, are nearly unwatchable via digital.
Anecdotally, it seems to effect people both ways. We'd have to see a study to get real results. The FCC may have done one, but I wouldn't trust it.
That may not be a fair comparison, because the quality of the signal at a given strength is not necessarily the same between ATV and DTV. In other words, the savings in gigawatts is coming at the price of cutting off service to outlying areas. That could have been done with analog.
I've heard that many times, but never seen an actual reliable source for that information. I'm not arguing, but do you have a source? Is this most transmission, all, or just some? I'd like to read up.
I'm concerned, because I only get OTA signals, and they're currently far worse with digital.
Step back a distance, emotionally, and look at your post, compared to his. If you're honest, you'll realize that your post is much more deserving of a 'fanboi' moniker.
And yet, at the same time, it's inaccurate to compare features that are enabled on a default installation of IE with an add-on enhanced Firefox, since very few add-ons make it to the majority of Firefox installations. I have a variety of add-ons installed, for instance, but don't have ClearClick.
The models may be different enough that completely fair comparisons can't be made.
This is, of course, not bullshit, at least in my experience.
Geez, get a little perspective. I wouldn't have said it if I didn't experience the phenomenon. When reception is good, digital is far superior. When reception is poor, analog is far superior. Ghosting is MUCH preferable to frozen blocks and stuttering audio.
Nope, the coupons weren't welfare. They were compensation. FCC enforced an expense on the public, made billions of dollars. Part of that is going back to the citizenry that supposedly 'owns' the airways.
Digital broadcasts in the United States are much, much better than their analog equivalents. You won't be getting HDTV with one of these converter boxes, but you'll be getting the SD sub-channel, which has the advantage over analog of zero static.
That's because the digital signal simply breaks when static is encountered, as opposed to analog which degrades gracefully. Digital transmission does provide a lovely image, often better than cable, but only when the signal is strong; analog has a far wider reach, which is very important for anybody not in the middle of a city.
That's the theory, but I'm not sure it's an improvement in practice. I think it's like file indexing in the background to improve search... it certainly makes search faster, but not quite enough to make up for the constant churn and slowdown. A hundred processes that improve your speed, that each slow your computer down by 0.5%... ever worked in a business that implemented so many profit-increasing plans that they lost money?
Flash is proprietary, but it's very close to being a standard video format despite that. I would bet 75% or more of internet streaming video is in that format.
What is another good standardized streaming video format? MPEG and several others are decent, but don't necessary stream well. A download-then-play format won't work. Quicktime just sucks from top to bottom. There's other solutions that are free and standard (the BBC's format, isn't there? And the one being done by the OGG people?), but I'm sure they're installed on less than one in a thousand pcs.
Any way you cut it, though, using Silverlight is a bad idea for everyone but Microsoft.
I don't know Python, but the grandparent post seemed to indicate there was a syntax bug because of the presence of a tab in place of spaces. This means that two programs can, visually, be absolutely identical and yet not behave consistently? Who would design a language like that?
I've been programming a lot in Actionscript 3.0 (the backend scripting language for the newest version of flash). This is basically a refined version of javascript, and I have to say it is the most pleasing language to program in I've touched in quite a while.
I think that breaking projects into two levels is often the way to go. Write the crucial, high-speed, massive-volume bits in C or C++, test them thoroughly, and then write the rest of the app (in which performance doesn't matter and reliability and ease of programming is key) in a high-level scripting language.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that the two fields don't have a strong influence on each other. I think part of the reason we've stalled out on some fundamental physics problems is that we haven't ironed out the philosophical underpinnings of them.
A historic moment, that happens every four years of the child's life. Has the world changed so much that whatever solution they used in 2004 won't work any more?
Interesting that the majority of replies agree with me, but the post was still moderated -1, troll. I think that the way slashdot moderation works, if a comment ever drops to -1, it drops off most people's view... so it sticks at that level.
I voted against Obama, because I think his political views are nonsense. Even so, I would never claim that this was corruption. Any appointee is going to have a history, investments, and contacts in their related field, because that's pretty much why they're being appointed in the first place. All this means is that proper procedures and disclosures need to be followed in order to ensure that corruption doesn't happen.
Yeah, all he really needed to do was just buy one game... ChronoTrigger for the DS. He would have come back from his trip thinking the DS was the best thing ever.
And realize that it may be far safer for your child to spend a few hours chatting online than to go play in the neighborhood park.
There is no 'safe' or 'unsafe' distinction. There are only degrees of danger. Going to school entails a risk, as does spending time at home, as does crossing the distance between the two. All you can do is take reasonable precautions, eliminate the worst risks, and teach your kids how to handle the moderate risks. The study indicates that the internet is not a severe risk, and that's a GOOD thing.
Slashdot Mirror
Funny. There's sort of a Slashdot effect at play here, where somebody self-selects their friends to the point they lose the ability to form a non-biased statistical idea of what a typical person is like. Streaming movies and TV is an option for a small percentage of the population, and most of THOSE have no desire to do it regularly. The vast majority (I'm sure 95%+, probably 99%+) of those under-40 get all or the vast majority of their TV shows off the... TV.
And I'm dropping from six clear analog channels to three really clear and three boxy stuttering 'kaleidoscope' digital channels. NBC and FOX, for instance, are nearly unwatchable via digital.
Anecdotally, it seems to effect people both ways. We'd have to see a study to get real results. The FCC may have done one, but I wouldn't trust it.
That may not be a fair comparison, because the quality of the signal at a given strength is not necessarily the same between ATV and DTV. In other words, the savings in gigawatts is coming at the price of cutting off service to outlying areas. That could have been done with analog.
I'm concerned, because I only get OTA signals, and they're currently far worse with digital.
Step back a distance, emotionally, and look at your post, compared to his. If you're honest, you'll realize that your post is much more deserving of a 'fanboi' moniker.
Or, 'fanboy', if we want to use English.
And yet, at the same time, it's inaccurate to compare features that are enabled on a default installation of IE with an add-on enhanced Firefox, since very few add-ons make it to the majority of Firefox installations. I have a variety of add-ons installed, for instance, but don't have ClearClick.
The models may be different enough that completely fair comparisons can't be made.
If there was ever a game that didn't need to be in HD, Spore is it.
This is, of course, not bullshit, at least in my experience.
Geez, get a little perspective. I wouldn't have said it if I didn't experience the phenomenon. When reception is good, digital is far superior. When reception is poor, analog is far superior. Ghosting is MUCH preferable to frozen blocks and stuttering audio.
Nope, the coupons weren't welfare. They were compensation. FCC enforced an expense on the public, made billions of dollars. Part of that is going back to the citizenry that supposedly 'owns' the airways.
Digital broadcasts in the United States are much, much better than their analog equivalents. You won't be getting HDTV with one of these converter boxes, but you'll be getting the SD sub-channel, which has the advantage over analog of zero static.
That's because the digital signal simply breaks when static is encountered, as opposed to analog which degrades gracefully. Digital transmission does provide a lovely image, often better than cable, but only when the signal is strong; analog has a far wider reach, which is very important for anybody not in the middle of a city.
That's the theory, but I'm not sure it's an improvement in practice. I think it's like file indexing in the background to improve search... it certainly makes search faster, but not quite enough to make up for the constant churn and slowdown. A hundred processes that improve your speed, that each slow your computer down by 0.5%... ever worked in a business that implemented so many profit-increasing plans that they lost money?
Well, I want it to do the first, respond to the remote. The other examples are all points of annoyance and possible failure.
Flash is proprietary, but it's very close to being a standard video format despite that. I would bet 75% or more of internet streaming video is in that format.
What is another good standardized streaming video format? MPEG and several others are decent, but don't necessary stream well. A download-then-play format won't work. Quicktime just sucks from top to bottom. There's other solutions that are free and standard (the BBC's format, isn't there? And the one being done by the OGG people?), but I'm sure they're installed on less than one in a thousand pcs.
Any way you cut it, though, using Silverlight is a bad idea for everyone but Microsoft.
I don't know Python, but the grandparent post seemed to indicate there was a syntax bug because of the presence of a tab in place of spaces. This means that two programs can, visually, be absolutely identical and yet not behave consistently? Who would design a language like that?
I've been programming a lot in Actionscript 3.0 (the backend scripting language for the newest version of flash). This is basically a refined version of javascript, and I have to say it is the most pleasing language to program in I've touched in quite a while.
I think that breaking projects into two levels is often the way to go. Write the crucial, high-speed, massive-volume bits in C or C++, test them thoroughly, and then write the rest of the app (in which performance doesn't matter and reliability and ease of programming is key) in a high-level scripting language.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that the two fields don't have a strong influence on each other. I think part of the reason we've stalled out on some fundamental physics problems is that we haven't ironed out the philosophical underpinnings of them.
A historic moment, that happens every four years of the child's life. Has the world changed so much that whatever solution they used in 2004 won't work any more?
It'll be broadcast free over the air. Give each classroom a TV. Why deal with the internet?
Interesting that the majority of replies agree with me, but the post was still moderated -1, troll. I think that the way slashdot moderation works, if a comment ever drops to -1, it drops off most people's view... so it sticks at that level.
SELL SELL SELL!!!
And best wishes for Mr. Job's health in the future.
But, SELL SELL SELL!
Which leads to an interesting effect: Those that think government is generally harmful, stay out of government.
Government self-selects busybodies.
Facts don't slow you down, eh?
I voted against Obama, because I think his political views are nonsense. Even so, I would never claim that this was corruption. Any appointee is going to have a history, investments, and contacts in their related field, because that's pretty much why they're being appointed in the first place. All this means is that proper procedures and disclosures need to be followed in order to ensure that corruption doesn't happen.
Yeah, all he really needed to do was just buy one game... ChronoTrigger for the DS. He would have come back from his trip thinking the DS was the best thing ever.
And realize that it may be far safer for your child to spend a few hours chatting online than to go play in the neighborhood park.
There is no 'safe' or 'unsafe' distinction. There are only degrees of danger. Going to school entails a risk, as does spending time at home, as does crossing the distance between the two. All you can do is take reasonable precautions, eliminate the worst risks, and teach your kids how to handle the moderate risks. The study indicates that the internet is not a severe risk, and that's a GOOD thing.