"....people might be far more concerned about being killed in a 9/11 repeat (5000 people) rather than in an automobile accident (~20,000 p/yr), despite the latter being far more of a risk....."
False analogy and I'm far from the first one to describe it. Auto deaths are unconnected events and in many cases the person killed is at fault.
If 5,000 people were to die in a coordinated sequence of auto accidents, all within a few minutes of each other, and it was demonstrably clear that a small group of individuals had brought this about, it would create as much panic (if not far more) than 9/11 did.
Taxing and regulating our economy into the trillions (while China and India burn coal live crazy) so that perhaps "global warming" can be reduced in the 2080's = timely and prescient
Throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at the likes of T. Boone Pickens so that by 2030, your groceries will be delivered to the store by a windmill-powered Peterbilt = thoughtful and effective stewardship
Drilling for oil now so we'll have it in 2015 = insane, fascist fantasies of Chimpy McBushitler and the Rethuglicans
Please get your mind right - this is slashdot, after all.
"it will be many years before we see any benefit from it"
Are there any policy proposals coming from the Democrats which will result in a reduction of oil prices over the next five years? If so please explain the mechanism by which that result will come to pass.
Carry a mini voice recorder in my backpack or briefcase.
Upon encountering a cellphoneassclown, ask politely that the shouting cease.
If it does, issue resolved.
If it does not, extract the recorder and pointedly switch it on, aiming it at the cellphoneassclown.
Estimated success rate 80-90% in my experience.
Re:Great things will happen in the next 50 years
on
NASA Turns 50
·
· Score: 1
Ever hear Burt Rutan talk about NASA? He's careful to pronounce it as "Nay-Say".
Re:Space shuttle is a problem
on
NASA Turns 50
·
· Score: 1
Is your comparison based on operating costs only, or does it include amortized design costs? If it's the latter that may not be fair to the Saturn V, which would have to spread its R&D costs over only thirteen launches (two unmanned, ten Apollos, and Skylab), while the shuttle has had over 120.
"Like it or not, the movie going public likes CG-fest blockbusters"
If the only thing on the menu at any restaurant was fried Alpo on toast, sooner or later those who don't like dog food would select themselves out of the market, and restaurateurs would proclaim, "like it or not, our customers love dog food".
"I've explained HD vs dvd this way. In H. Potter chamber of secrets in the scene where he fights the basilisk. If you can't see how many zits HP has on his face under the makeup then HD would let you."
Golly, why didn't anyone tell me this before?? On my way to Best Buy right n
As I type this, I'm listening to music stored on a portable HDD (laptop drive in a self powered enclosure). 250 GB and it's 4.5" x 3" X 0.5" I could store all seven years of STTNG in full DVD resolution on two of these - one in each pants pocket, no station wagon required.
"I'll take the usually significantly cheaper DVD version 9 times out of 10."
Me too. Especially considering that I have four fixed and three portable devices that can play vanilla DVD's. (not counting ripping them to xvid for viewing on my Palm TX).
Assuming I wanted to upgrade, I'd have to upgrade everything or else watch my discs only in one location.
the cost/GB of HDD's. I can buy 750 GB of SATA storage now for the cost of 125 GB worth of BD-RW blanks, and plug it in to any USB2 port I want.
For the same cost, I can get a 250 GB USB laptop drive in a self powered enclosure that fits in a shirt pocket.
I can only imagine what these 400 GB disks will cost when they hit the market, and what HDD's will cost by then.
.....once you have a BD player, are you going to buy a DVD or a BD of the latest movie.....
If it was my only player, I probably would buy the Blu-ray. But in our household we have a DVD player in the living room, another in the family room, another in the bedroom, a portable (DVD and Divx) player, and a DVD player in the back seat of the van. (Not counting the three PC's that play DVD's)
I doubt if I would buy a Blu-ray disk which is playable in only 20% of the places I might want to watch it.
"Pelosi did our republic a great disservice when she said that "Impeachment is off the table." Impeachment isn't a matter of convenience or political expediency, it is a matter of congressional Duty."
Apparently the idea is to impeach Bush and Cheney -- so that the Speaker of the House, that living profile in courage, can be sworn in as President.
"They are perfectly good people who CAN'T TELL THE DIFFERENCE. They are not deaf - they just don't care. And more and more people are like that."
This may be true, but it doesn't have anything to do with the movement from vinyl to CD.
Back in the day, most listening to non-live music was either via:
Mono AM radio played through a four-inch speaker under the dash of a car;
Hand held radios with a 2-inch speaker and/or a 39c mono earphone; or
a $65 fold-out "hi-fi" with ceramic needle from Sears.
The quality of sound reproduction available to the unlimited budget audiophile has probably increased since the '70s, but the quality of sound reproduction in mass-market equipment has gone up exponentially. So the idea that there was a sort of Vinyl Augustan Age of music connoisseurship is hard to sustain.
Slashdot Mirror
"....people might be far more concerned about being killed in a 9/11 repeat (5000 people) rather than in an automobile accident (~20,000 p/yr), despite the latter being far more of a risk....."
False analogy and I'm far from the first one to describe it. Auto deaths are unconnected events and in many cases the person killed is at fault.
If 5,000 people were to die in a coordinated sequence of auto accidents, all within a few minutes of each other, and it was demonstrably clear that a small group of individuals had brought this about, it would create as much panic (if not far more) than 9/11 did.
"The same tree-huggers telling me gasoline is bad are telling me that batteries are bad too."
In that case, your choice is either (1) walk or bike everywhere or (2) find a new set of people to listen to.
Admittedly it's still a far cry from $500, but I just priced this:
powernotebooks.com - 1920x1200 17", Intel Duo 2.1ghz, 3GB Corsair RAM, NVidia 8600GT 512, 160 G HDD - $1,524
In which "failure to pass bunches of laws and spend taxpayer's money" is equated with "being oblivious to"
Gee Kohath, didn't you get the memo?
Taxing and regulating our economy into the trillions (while China and India burn coal live crazy) so that perhaps "global warming" can be reduced in the 2080's = timely and prescient
Throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at the likes of T. Boone Pickens so that by 2030, your groceries will be delivered to the store by a windmill-powered Peterbilt = thoughtful and effective stewardship
Drilling for oil now so we'll have it in 2015 = insane, fascist fantasies of Chimpy McBushitler and the Rethuglicans
Please get your mind right - this is slashdot, after all.
"it will be many years before we see any benefit from it"
Are there any policy proposals coming from the Democrats which will result in a reduction of oil prices over the next five years? If so please explain the mechanism by which that result will come to pass.
What works for me is this:
Carry a mini voice recorder in my backpack or briefcase.
Upon encountering a cellphoneassclown, ask politely that the shouting cease.
If it does, issue resolved.
If it does not, extract the recorder and pointedly switch it on, aiming it at the cellphoneassclown.
Estimated success rate 80-90% in my experience.
Ever hear Burt Rutan talk about NASA? He's careful to pronounce it as "Nay-Say".
Is your comparison based on operating costs only, or does it include amortized design costs? If it's the latter that may not be fair to the Saturn V, which would have to spread its R&D costs over only thirteen launches (two unmanned, ten Apollos, and Skylab), while the shuttle has had over 120.
"Like it or not, the movie going public likes CG-fest blockbusters"
If the only thing on the menu at any restaurant was fried Alpo on toast, sooner or later those who don't like dog food would select themselves out of the market, and restaurateurs would proclaim, "like it or not, our customers love dog food".
Still better than Vista. Do you have ANY IDEA how many UAC's I have to click through to open up the @!@_(*!#!@ Necronomicon??
"I've explained HD vs dvd this way. In H. Potter chamber of secrets in the scene where he fights the basilisk. If you can't see how many zits HP has on his face under the makeup then HD would let you."
Golly, why didn't anyone tell me this before?? On my way to Best Buy right n
As I type this, I'm listening to music stored on a portable HDD (laptop drive in a self powered enclosure). 250 GB and it's 4.5" x 3" X 0.5" I could store all seven years of STTNG in full DVD resolution on two of these - one in each pants pocket, no station wagon required.
"I'll take the usually significantly cheaper DVD version 9 times out of 10." Me too. Especially considering that I have four fixed and three portable devices that can play vanilla DVD's. (not counting ripping them to xvid for viewing on my Palm TX). Assuming I wanted to upgrade, I'd have to upgrade everything or else watch my discs only in one location.
the cost/GB of HDD's. I can buy 750 GB of SATA storage now for the cost of 125 GB worth of BD-RW blanks, and plug it in to any USB2 port I want. For the same cost, I can get a 250 GB USB laptop drive in a self powered enclosure that fits in a shirt pocket. I can only imagine what these 400 GB disks will cost when they hit the market, and what HDD's will cost by then.
If it was my only player, I probably would buy the Blu-ray. But in our household we have a DVD player in the living room, another in the family room, another in the bedroom, a portable (DVD and Divx) player, and a DVD player in the back seat of the van. (Not counting the three PC's that play DVD's)
I doubt if I would buy a Blu-ray disk which is playable in only 20% of the places I might want to watch it.
Apparently the idea is to impeach Bush and Cheney -- so that the Speaker of the House, that living profile in courage, can be sworn in as President.
Have I got it right??
This may be true, but it doesn't have anything to do with the movement from vinyl to CD.
Back in the day, most listening to non-live music was either via:
Mono AM radio played through a four-inch speaker under the dash of a car;
Hand held radios with a 2-inch speaker and/or a 39c mono earphone; or
a $65 fold-out "hi-fi" with ceramic needle from Sears.
The quality of sound reproduction available to the unlimited budget audiophile has probably increased since the '70s, but the quality of sound reproduction in mass-market equipment has gone up exponentially. So the idea that there was a sort of Vinyl Augustan Age of music connoisseurship is hard to sustain.