The D/A converter in Apple products are terrible. If you go to any of the DIY audio forums, people scream about the lack of a digital out on Apple devices. The line level on Apple devices is also very low, requiring extra amplification to get a decent signal. They make some very good D/A converters now relatively cheap (under $100) but they aren't iPod small... So most people with good HiFi end up having some sort of dedicated Media PC or USB reader hooked up to a decent D/A converter, and then to their amp.
And before you start in on Tubes and analog... yes yes... there are Analog junkies. But not everyone that's into HiFi is entirely sold on Tubes and analog. Recent innovations in Solid state circuitry have resulted in a lot of amazing solid state amps that are incredibly cheap. I don't think the old school tube guys will every believe it, but I think Tubes raining supreme is on the way out.
Give me a break. The iPhone connector is designed specifically to not be compatible with anything else on the market so apple can charge other companies that want to use it for the privilege. You can't even find the positive and negative pins on the phone, hook up alligator clips and charge it. The connector has a resistor and cap across several pins so the phone can detect if it's a real iPhone connector and it will literally reject the cable if it doesn't detect these components in the signal. There is no purpose in those components being there other than to enforce their patents.
Every point you make can be done with USB. You can transfer streaming audio and video via usb, you can certainly use it to control the volume of an iPod. In fact, the iPods connector is larger, analog and transfers far less data than a modern USB connector could. It is, without question, an inferior connector. If the connector were so superior, why isn't anyone designing their phones to work off the same connection? No one seems bothered about breaching any of apples other patents...
The problem with your argument is, including a human increases the cost of the mission by and order of magnitude. If something goes wrong on an unmanned mission, you can scrap it and try again and still get away with spending less. I want to send humans to... but lets not make excuses. We need to send humans because that's the entire point of space exploration... WE need to travel to other planets. Not our robotic proxies.
What will the result be? Amazon will fade as all those consumers move to sites where they don't have to pay California's already ridiculous sales tax. Eventually the rest of the states will demand amazon pay up... and they will fade into obscurity. At least, up until now, they were collecting taxes from amazons earnings. In the end California will collect NOTHING as the company people place their orders with will be in Canada, Mexico, or somewhere else.
But you're wrong... it doesn't work. The current mouse/keyboard only works when sitting at a desk. Try it on your couch and you're screwed. The Gamepad works on the couch but is severely limited in its function. We need the easy of use of one with the advanced functionality of the other. And this is just 1 component. Sounds like valve wants to look at more than just keyboards...
Block lists don't work. The lists are overly broad and include a lot of ranges that are clearly not an entity you need to be worried about. Also, it's unlikely that the content holders would do their own research... it's going to be outsourced contractors that clearly would know the value in swapping out IPs.
All this is neither here nor there... the big problem is your kids in school and then he's not... and you have to find childcare. Not only that, but THE ENTIRE COUNTRY has a giant break from school at the same approximate time. So the price of childcare skyrockets during that break. Summer break is idiotic and should be done away with on that premise alone. If school is supposed to prepare you for the working world, why not give kids 3 to 6 weeks vacation time a year at let them use it as they see fit just like their parents? A kid that's doing better in school could earn more, just like a real job. Oh wait... the teachers union controls our schools, so we can't ever makes changes. I forgot. My bad.
If that's true, plug your ipod into your computer and navigate to its flash drive and re-arrange the files... oh wait.. you can't? Oh that's right, they store your entire media collection in a giant encrypted file so you can't move it from device to device, or access it in any other meaningful way.
Now buy some MP3s from amazon... or anywhere else for that matter. Looky there... MP3 files, you can move around, give to your kids, etc... etc... Seems like Apple IS the correct target for such a lawsuit.
Last time I tried to go into an iPod and copy music off of it, it was even less accessible than music that had DRM on it. So... thanks Steve Jobs... for "freeing" my music.
Or it's my media PC, has 3 terabytes of storage, 16 gig of memory, 6 core CPU, fancy GPU, water cooled, and I don't have to pay for cable anymore because of it.
I have to deal with Oracle every day. They operate much like a company that I used to work for... ATT. ATT is so large, so ubiquitous, their profits so untouchable, that they just don't give a shit anymore. They don't need to. To address a problem, ATT creates a new department, at the expense of millions of dollars. Often that new department does something as trivial as copy data from one system to another. Hiring a team of 10 people to do manual data entry all day every day is easier/cheaper than paying developers to do it right.
Knowing what I know of Oracle, I'm sure that the "Mal-ware investigatory department" sent in form 24b-FF with a priority level 3 as soon as they knew about the issue. That form was received by a "Critical patch program director" who then scheduled the appropriate conference calls and meetings to discuss who would head up, design, testing, implementation, cost projections, etc... Once the team was assembled 2hr meetings with catered lunch were scheduled daily to discuss progress and adjusted cost projections. Now that the patch has been released, they will enter a post patch analysis of self aggrandizing back patting.
You can't get rid of Oracle. They are the ATT of Databases. Everyone is stuck with them, they know it, we just have to bend over and hope they use lube.
And this has what to do with the entirely new, not in production yet coprocessors that don't have any drivers for Windows, much less linux yet? They're talking about an entirely new chip that will be geared towards handling large amounts of video in a server environment. NOT your $100 graphics card. I'd imagine what they are going to produce will go into server farms with custom made software.
Is this Gene activated when I do the dishes or put my close in the hamper? Because I'm getting told it does by my wife and... oh I was just told I've used up my "internet" for the day...
So what? Fuck them. They STOLE the content from the very people that recorded it in most cases. Have you ever read about what happened to John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival? Read that shit and then come back here and tell me there's anything wrong with pirating a CCR song. One of the greatest musicians of the 60's and 70's didn't record a song for over 20 years for fear of legal reprisals from his former label. They sued him for sounding like himself! Let the fuckers burn. It's the least they deserve.
You're a tool. There is no difference between the Democrat and Republican parties. Keep falling for this horseshit idea that one of the parties is "Evil" and the other is "Good" and you'll just keep perpetuating the same old fucking nonsense that's been going on for 100 years now. Obama invaded MORE countries than Bush did for fucks sake. He ordered the assassination of a US citizen without trial. He ordered the death of Bin Laden after he was already in custody. They executed the guy in front of his family then dumped him in the ocean. Democrats and Republicans work together toward the same goal: POWER
No one has successfully transmitted information faster than the speed of light with quantum entanglement. Quantum entanglement has its uses, even in communications, but faster than light communications is not one of them.
Antimatter is identical to normal matter in all regards except charge. It obeys the same laws as normal matter and even weighs the same. You'd also need to carry an equivalent amount of reaction mass (normal matter) to react it with. It would be similar to chemical rockets of today.. You'd be sitting on a giant bomb that would have to perform perfectly for hundreds of years... good luck.
They weren't created, and they didn't come from "nothing" as you put it. The laws of thermodynamics applied inside the singularity that... and I'm struggling for proper terminology here.. "became" the universe. Are there other physical laws that we do not yet understand? Of course. But the laws of thermodynamics and relativity will always apply. Science can not make the impossible possible. No matter how advanced it is.
If your belief in God hinges on the particulars of how specieces developed in history, I'd say the real problem is how weak your faith is. People throughout history have had to endure far more crushing scientific findings that "the earth is more than 10k years old" which isn't even stated in the bible. How about a Heliocentric solar system? Germs? Cells? If I remember correctly the first time they found sperm under a microscope it was rather catastrophic to the idea of conception.
Fuck prevailing law. Seriously. You think that just because it's always been it always has to be? The parties over. Content owners had their run and got incredibly rich while they could. Back in the 1800s people in Canada made a fortune chopping up ice from their frozen lakes late into the spring and summer, packing it in straw and shipping it south. They made a fortune from rich people living in the south and the Caribbean. Then someone invented the freezer. Oh snap.
And before you get all high and mighty and tell us, well this is different, there are artists involved... no there are not. The people making money off the content in question here are doing EVEN LESS work than the people that shipped ice south. At least that was hard and had technical challenges. I'm a musician, I've worked with hundreds, if not thousands of other musicians. The vast vast majority of us make very little if any money playing music. We do it because it's a blast. The record companies use us to open for their acts, charge us ridiculous prices for copyrighted sheet music, to use studio time, it's all a sham. The only people making money are the record companies and ticket master and a very very very small minority of musicians. I bet if you talked to some of your favorite bands you'd find out they make far less than you thought. Record companies buy them clothes, rent them cars, all to make them "appear" wealthy. And if you think playing a large show makes you money? Fuck no. I've played shows where part of the contract was that WE THE BAND had to buy 100 tickets and sell them on our own. We had to pay to play the damned show. But that's the only way ticket master will let you in. In return you get exposure and maybe, just maybe, get to meet the headlining act and pick their brains if they're worth a shit.
They don't have control anymore. I can distribute my music any way I fucking want. If people want to download it for free, fine... it's costing me a hell of a lot less than back when I had to pay $20k in studio time and then another $5k to get CDs pressed. Now I can pop MP3s onto a website... or advertise a show just about anywhere for free... Ticket master still has a cast iron grip on all the large venues but that'll change. And as far as robbing the recording industry? Do it. They more than deserve it.
The electronic device ban has been kept in place at the airlines request... so they can sell you the bullshit back-of-the-seat movie/map thing for $30/flight. Now they are realizing that everyone's ignoring the damned rule so now they want to sell in-flight wifi and will ban cellular traffic "because it's dangerous"
If a 747 could be brought down by some random device I bought at best buy, I think terrorists would have a lot easier of a time doing their jobs.
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The D/A converter in Apple products are terrible. If you go to any of the DIY audio forums, people scream about the lack of a digital out on Apple devices. The line level on Apple devices is also very low, requiring extra amplification to get a decent signal. They make some very good D/A converters now relatively cheap (under $100) but they aren't iPod small... So most people with good HiFi end up having some sort of dedicated Media PC or USB reader hooked up to a decent D/A converter, and then to their amp.
And before you start in on Tubes and analog... yes yes... there are Analog junkies. But not everyone that's into HiFi is entirely sold on Tubes and analog. Recent innovations in Solid state circuitry have resulted in a lot of amazing solid state amps that are incredibly cheap. I don't think the old school tube guys will every believe it, but I think Tubes raining supreme is on the way out.
Give me a break. The iPhone connector is designed specifically to not be compatible with anything else on the market so apple can charge other companies that want to use it for the privilege. You can't even find the positive and negative pins on the phone, hook up alligator clips and charge it. The connector has a resistor and cap across several pins so the phone can detect if it's a real iPhone connector and it will literally reject the cable if it doesn't detect these components in the signal. There is no purpose in those components being there other than to enforce their patents.
Every point you make can be done with USB. You can transfer streaming audio and video via usb, you can certainly use it to control the volume of an iPod. In fact, the iPods connector is larger, analog and transfers far less data than a modern USB connector could. It is, without question, an inferior connector. If the connector were so superior, why isn't anyone designing their phones to work off the same connection? No one seems bothered about breaching any of apples other patents...
The problem with your argument is, including a human increases the cost of the mission by and order of magnitude. If something goes wrong on an unmanned mission, you can scrap it and try again and still get away with spending less. I want to send humans to... but lets not make excuses. We need to send humans because that's the entire point of space exploration... WE need to travel to other planets. Not our robotic proxies.
What will the result be?
Amazon will fade as all those consumers move to sites where they don't have to pay California's already ridiculous sales tax. Eventually the rest of the states will demand amazon pay up... and they will fade into obscurity. At least, up until now, they were collecting taxes from amazons earnings. In the end California will collect NOTHING as the company people place their orders with will be in Canada, Mexico, or somewhere else.
But you're wrong... it doesn't work. The current mouse/keyboard only works when sitting at a desk. Try it on your couch and you're screwed. The Gamepad works on the couch but is severely limited in its function. We need the easy of use of one with the advanced functionality of the other. And this is just 1 component. Sounds like valve wants to look at more than just keyboards...
Block lists don't work. The lists are overly broad and include a lot of ranges that are clearly not an entity you need to be worried about. Also, it's unlikely that the content holders would do their own research... it's going to be outsourced contractors that clearly would know the value in swapping out IPs.
All this is neither here nor there... the big problem is your kids in school and then he's not... and you have to find childcare. Not only that, but THE ENTIRE COUNTRY has a giant break from school at the same approximate time. So the price of childcare skyrockets during that break. Summer break is idiotic and should be done away with on that premise alone. If school is supposed to prepare you for the working world, why not give kids 3 to 6 weeks vacation time a year at let them use it as they see fit just like their parents? A kid that's doing better in school could earn more, just like a real job. Oh wait... the teachers union controls our schools, so we can't ever makes changes. I forgot. My bad.
If that's true, plug your ipod into your computer and navigate to its flash drive and re-arrange the files... oh wait.. you can't? Oh that's right, they store your entire media collection in a giant encrypted file so you can't move it from device to device, or access it in any other meaningful way.
Now buy some MP3s from amazon... or anywhere else for that matter. Looky there... MP3 files, you can move around, give to your kids, etc... etc... Seems like Apple IS the correct target for such a lawsuit.
Last time I tried to go into an iPod and copy music off of it, it was even less accessible than music that had DRM on it. So... thanks Steve Jobs... for "freeing" my music.
"The bottle has been donated to a Shetland museum"
Well, at least he didn't open it.
Does it matter? an Ugly GUI is kind of defeating it's own purpose isn't it?
Or it's my media PC, has 3 terabytes of storage, 16 gig of memory, 6 core CPU, fancy GPU, water cooled, and I don't have to pay for cable anymore because of it.
I have to deal with Oracle every day. They operate much like a company that I used to work for... ATT. ATT is so large, so ubiquitous, their profits so untouchable, that they just don't give a shit anymore. They don't need to. To address a problem, ATT creates a new department, at the expense of millions of dollars. Often that new department does something as trivial as copy data from one system to another. Hiring a team of 10 people to do manual data entry all day every day is easier/cheaper than paying developers to do it right.
Knowing what I know of Oracle, I'm sure that the "Mal-ware investigatory department" sent in form 24b-FF with a priority level 3 as soon as they knew about the issue. That form was received by a "Critical patch program director" who then scheduled the appropriate conference calls and meetings to discuss who would head up, design, testing, implementation, cost projections, etc... Once the team was assembled 2hr meetings with catered lunch were scheduled daily to discuss progress and adjusted cost projections. Now that the patch has been released, they will enter a post patch analysis of self aggrandizing back patting.
You can't get rid of Oracle. They are the ATT of Databases. Everyone is stuck with them, they know it, we just have to bend over and hope they use lube.
Because it makes my $2k powerhouse computer running a super geeky OS look like something made by Vtech.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81hhVZULnhL._AA1500_.jpg
And this has what to do with the entirely new, not in production yet coprocessors that don't have any drivers for Windows, much less linux yet? They're talking about an entirely new chip that will be geared towards handling large amounts of video in a server environment. NOT your $100 graphics card. I'd imagine what they are going to produce will go into server farms with custom made software.
Is this Gene activated when I do the dishes or put my close in the hamper? Because I'm getting told it does by my wife and... oh I was just told I've used up my "internet" for the day...
So what? Fuck them. They STOLE the content from the very people that recorded it in most cases. Have you ever read about what happened to John Fogerty and Creedence Clearwater Revival? Read that shit and then come back here and tell me there's anything wrong with pirating a CCR song. One of the greatest musicians of the 60's and 70's didn't record a song for over 20 years for fear of legal reprisals from his former label. They sued him for sounding like himself! Let the fuckers burn. It's the least they deserve.
You're a tool. There is no difference between the Democrat and Republican parties. Keep falling for this horseshit idea that one of the parties is "Evil" and the other is "Good" and you'll just keep perpetuating the same old fucking nonsense that's been going on for 100 years now. Obama invaded MORE countries than Bush did for fucks sake. He ordered the assassination of a US citizen without trial. He ordered the death of Bin Laden after he was already in custody. They executed the guy in front of his family then dumped him in the ocean. Democrats and Republicans work together toward the same goal: POWER
No one has successfully transmitted information faster than the speed of light with quantum entanglement. Quantum entanglement has its uses, even in communications, but faster than light communications is not one of them.
Antimatter is identical to normal matter in all regards except charge. It obeys the same laws as normal matter and even weighs the same. You'd also need to carry an equivalent amount of reaction mass (normal matter) to react it with. It would be similar to chemical rockets of today.. You'd be sitting on a giant bomb that would have to perform perfectly for hundreds of years... good luck.
There were plenty of things that obviously traveled faster than the speed of sound prior to humans doing it. The earth being a good example.
They weren't created, and they didn't come from "nothing" as you put it. The laws of thermodynamics applied inside the singularity that... and I'm struggling for proper terminology here.. "became" the universe. Are there other physical laws that we do not yet understand? Of course. But the laws of thermodynamics and relativity will always apply. Science can not make the impossible possible. No matter how advanced it is.
If your belief in God hinges on the particulars of how specieces developed in history, I'd say the real problem is how weak your faith is. People throughout history have had to endure far more crushing scientific findings that "the earth is more than 10k years old" which isn't even stated in the bible. How about a Heliocentric solar system? Germs? Cells? If I remember correctly the first time they found sperm under a microscope it was rather catastrophic to the idea of conception.
Fuck prevailing law. Seriously. You think that just because it's always been it always has to be? The parties over. Content owners had their run and got incredibly rich while they could. Back in the 1800s people in Canada made a fortune chopping up ice from their frozen lakes late into the spring and summer, packing it in straw and shipping it south. They made a fortune from rich people living in the south and the Caribbean. Then someone invented the freezer. Oh snap.
And before you get all high and mighty and tell us, well this is different, there are artists involved... no there are not. The people making money off the content in question here are doing EVEN LESS work than the people that shipped ice south. At least that was hard and had technical challenges. I'm a musician, I've worked with hundreds, if not thousands of other musicians. The vast vast majority of us make very little if any money playing music. We do it because it's a blast. The record companies use us to open for their acts, charge us ridiculous prices for copyrighted sheet music, to use studio time, it's all a sham. The only people making money are the record companies and ticket master and a very very very small minority of musicians. I bet if you talked to some of your favorite bands you'd find out they make far less than you thought. Record companies buy them clothes, rent them cars, all to make them "appear" wealthy. And if you think playing a large show makes you money? Fuck no. I've played shows where part of the contract was that WE THE BAND had to buy 100 tickets and sell them on our own. We had to pay to play the damned show. But that's the only way ticket master will let you in. In return you get exposure and maybe, just maybe, get to meet the headlining act and pick their brains if they're worth a shit.
They don't have control anymore. I can distribute my music any way I fucking want. If people want to download it for free, fine... it's costing me a hell of a lot less than back when I had to pay $20k in studio time and then another $5k to get CDs pressed. Now I can pop MP3s onto a website... or advertise a show just about anywhere for free... Ticket master still has a cast iron grip on all the large venues but that'll change. And as far as robbing the recording industry? Do it. They more than deserve it.
The electronic device ban has been kept in place at the airlines request... so they can sell you the bullshit back-of-the-seat movie/map thing for $30/flight. Now they are realizing that everyone's ignoring the damned rule so now they want to sell in-flight wifi and will ban cellular traffic "because it's dangerous"
If a 747 could be brought down by some random device I bought at best buy, I think terrorists would have a lot easier of a time doing their jobs.