On the other hand, if you make a game too bad, people will pirate it jut to laugh, I am sure there are a few pirate "Big Rigs: Over the road racing" copies available.
But the most effective way to prevent piracy is to take all copies of the game and lock them up in a safe or to just never release it - I'm sure there are no pirate "Duke Nukem Forever" copies available.
Game 2 is practically given away at $10-25 (or perhaps even "free" (as in beer). But it has a "enhancements" that you can download free (custom avatar, upgrades, etc). Each enhancement is $5 or so. As the game continues, updates, upgrades continue to roll out each $5 (or whatever).
WHAT is the draw of a "PirateBay" version, other than knowing you're just being a cheap thief by "stealing" it?
Getting the complete game at once?
Also, it's OK if the updates are sensible and so on, but under this scheme the manufacturer will most likely try to release tons of minimal updates so that it could take even more money than the $75 for the first option. The companies hate to lower the price for any reason. You'd hope that if some part of the production costs was reduced then some of the saving would be passed to the customers, for example, a download version is cheaper to make (no need to make the CD and box, hip it to wherever it is sold etc), so it should be sold cheaper, but that is not always the case.
This is like the gas stations in my country. When the price of oil/gas increases, the price of gas to the customers increases immediately with the stations explaining that they do not ave any reserves of the cheaper gasoline. Fair enough. However, when the price of oil decreases, the price of gas to the customer stays the same because suddenly the stations now have huge reserves of the more expensive gas.
We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S....
Oh, and in my country there is no unlimited data plan for cellphones. And I don't have a phone with Android, I have Nokia N93.
And FM radio is still good for me. When the station starts some boring talk show I can just listen to a tape.
My tape collection outnumbers my CD and (most likely) MP3 collections, so I'm kinda "locked-in" to cassettes, since if I borrow a record and copy it, I copy it to cassette, because I can play it everywhere (I have a few tape decks at home, a tape deck in my car and a walkman, all quite high quality). And I have a tape deck in my car because I have a lot of tapes.
Cassettes are not inconvenient to me, and the sound quality is high enough (most of the time I cannot hear any difference between a CD and a TDK SA tape with Dolby B NR).
I finally bought a car tape deck with Dolby B and C NR and chrome/metal tape support, so I'm good:)
Even though I have a lot of tapes, radio is still good. I can just turn it on and not worry about what songs are playing (my favorite radio station mostly plays the songs I like), also, I hear news on it. Also, it plays music I do not have, so I hear new (to me, the station usually plays older songs) songs.
I do, when I don't feel like searching for artists and so on, I can just turn on the radio, tune to my favorite station and let it play while I am doing something else. Also, there are some songs that I can only hear on radio because I do not know the artist or title. I can tape those songs, but to do that I also have to listen to radio.
Also, radio is great in a car, when I am not in control of the playlist I think less about what song I would like to hear now and more about driving. Tapes are also useful especially since I do not fast forward or rewind them, so I put in a tape and it plays for 60-90 minutes.
But only one geek is needed among the circle of friends. For example, I could create such a site and all of my friends could use it.
The way I see it, facebook is useful if you want to find new (or long lost) friends, but if you just want to keep in touch with a fixed list of people, there are better ways.
Can't you create a (password + optional SSL protected) website for posting those updates? Hosting is cheap these days and it does not look like you would use a lot of hard drive space and/or bandwidth. The hosting company is also less likely to sell your data to advertisers.
<font size = "2mm"> * option a) warranty does not cover consumable items, such as batteries and oil. * option b) battery is considered "bad" when it has less than 10% of the original capacity. </font>
Anyway, how is it with laptops and their batteries. I have seen laptops with 5 year warranty, but if you used that laptop outside (with no AC power) a lot, the battery would wear out quite a bit in 5 years.
It would be interesting to see how heavy the trolleybus would be and how fast it would accelerate if it had to carry its fuel (batteries) to have the same range as the bus.
And maybe someday electric cars will be able to replace gas/diesel cars, but not now. And it will probably first happen with trucks and taxis - as soon as it starts being more profitable to use electric vehicles the companies will do so.
As it is today, fossil fuel cars have some advantages that electrics cannot match - the fuel tank is big enough to drive 600-1000km, it does not leak (current batteries self discharge over time) so you can fill it up and it will last a long time if you are using the car infrequently, it can stay empty, partially full or full for as long as needed with no negative side effects at an temperature that can normally be found in a car (-35C to +50C for example) and usually lasts as long as the car does (if it develops a small hole, it can be patched). Its size does not depend on the rate the fuel is consumed. It can be filled in a few minutes, but only at a special place, OTOH, you can carry a small amount of fuel in a separate container for emergencies.
On the other hand, batteries age and decrease in capacity, that depends on the charge level, temperature, whether it is charged as soon as possible vs deep cycle, number of cycles. And if laptop batteries are any indication, then car batteries will need to be replaced more often (this in and of itself may not be a big drawback). Also, the amount of energy the battery provides depends on the power produced and age (so your 200km range will become 150km after a while, then 100, then 50 etc). A battery self discharges, so you will need to charge the car every so often (but not too often because the battery may wear out faster) even if you are not using it. It can be charged at a lot of places, but the process is much slower. Fast charging stations will deal with huge amounts of power and I wouldn't want to be near one if some short circuit or overcharge (you thought exploding laptop batteries were bad, wait until a 100kWh battery blows up).
Maybe some time in the future the problems with batteries will be solved, but as it is now, they suck. Gasoline cars also sucked some time after they were introduced.
Last I heard the min mileage for these things was about 40mi per charge.
New batteries or old? For example, my laptop worked for ~3 hours 30 minutes on battery when new. Now (5 years later) it only holds maybe 30 minutes, so at some point there was a 3h, 2h, 1h capacities. Gas tank on a regular car does not shrink with time (well, LPG tanks can "shrink" because they accumulate water, drain the water and you have the original capacity back).
And people would probably charge the cars more often (normalized for range) than refilling gas tanks. Refilling a tank is fast and you can do it even if you ran out of gas (go to a fuel station, ask somebody else on the road etc), but recharging car batteries without the car will probably be difficult (due to their weight).
Uncrackable DRM is not possible for non-interactive media. That's why there are laws such as the DMCA to (hopefully) prevent people from cracking the DRM.
I know what DRM is. Now if you want to talk semantics, imagine you own a work that you want to put on your website, so you encrypt it so that only your friends and family can view it, with your special viewer.
This is not DRM. If you want to make the information accessible to selected group of people, you can just share the encryption key with them. DRM starts when you want to simultaneously allow your friends to access the content, but also not allow them to copy it and upload to some other site. And this cannot be done. The friend in question can always point a camera at the screen and then upload the recorded video. Hollywood tries to come up with an unbreakable DRM, see how successful they are...
Also, if this was before high speed internet, and you shared the content on film, audio and VHS tapes, floppy disks (for text) or paper? Your friends could still make copies, broadcast the media on radio or TV (if they had access) or just show it to everyone whether you like it or not.
Not distributed enough for you? Imagine a Linux based computer like OLPC targeted for kids. Your company distributes Open Source/Public Domain works under DRM to ensure that your users only run software that's up-to-date, reviewed, and covered under your support contract. Now this company can't do business in Brazil.
Open source software cannot have DRM. Why? Simple, if I have the source code, I can just remove the DRM. You can use hardcoded checks for updates if you want to, but that can also be patched, especially with access to source code.
Also, you can refuse support if the software is not up to date or not covered under the contract.
SSL does not help you if the server, not the man-in-the-middle, wants to rip you off, for example, if the server was hacked.
But SSL was not designed for that etc etc.
Anyway, all is great if the software and the protocol work as intended (i.e. there are no bugs). If there are bugs in the software (or worse, in the protocol) then it could all fall apart. Some time ago somebody managed to create new SSL certificates that appeared to be signed by the CA (IIRC it was done by kinda-cracking md5 using a cluster of PS3s). Until everybody dropped all certificates that used md5, hackers could create genuine looking certificates. Imagine if somebody managed to break Bitcoin, but instead of publishing it or reporting the bug he just used it to get the money.
I'll read the tech report, it does not look like having a lot of math, so I just might understand it.
However, it is software, and software has bugs. At least it is easier to authenticate a physical item, also it is easier to make it difficult to copy. If this software works as intended, great, but what if, say, people start using it and then someone finds a way to copy the coins? What if he posts it on the internet, like all DRM cracks are posted?
At least with paper money, in addition to the knowledge of how it is made, you need special materials and hardware, all of which is tracked by the government (especially if it is useful only in printing money - the special inks and printing plates for example).
How about instead of exercising I'll just use some other form of energy. After all, human muscles are only 18-26% efficient.
On the other hand, maybe not, a horse and carriage could be better (and would be more "natural"), maybe everyone should sell their cars and buy horses?
If you think climate has not already changed, go outside and take a good look.
Is Greenland a desert already? Last time I heard it was green (hence the name)...
Oh, by the way, when it's unusually cold it's just weather, when it's unusually hot it's either Global Warming or again, just weather (because Global Warming is supposed to incrase the temperatures by ~1C per 100 years and not 10C per year). But there is certainly no Global Cooling when it's -35C outside.
Why not take the bicycle instead?
It's tiring to ride a bicycle, especially with ~10kg of bought products hanging one one side, especially uphill. How about something that can provide energy instead of that energy being provided by me (a quite inefficient CO2 producing engine). Oh, look, an internal combustion engine, great. Hmm... now it's not tiring anymore, but still unstable, and quite dangerous if the road is even a bit slippery. How about 4 wheels instead of 2? Now that's much better. Still, I get wet when it's raining, how about a roof over my head? Look, I now have a car.
...buying plastic junk...
Plastics are bad - they do not rot fast enough. Paper is bad - trees are cut to produce it.
Ok, can I have my metal bag now, or is metal also bad?
No. One great reason for the case to change if people started acting rationally. If Russia or some other national-level foe wipes out the US, there's really little reason to counterattack. Revenge, btw, isn't a good reason.
The point is that you keep the possibility of MAD regardless of who strikes first. If, say, some nation believed that they can take out the US too fast for them to retaliate, the nation might try to do so. If they know that even if they cover the entire of US with nuclear bombs, the submarines can still return the favor, they might reconsider.
How many of the pirates would buy the game/app/movie/song if it was not available as a free download?
That's the question the analysts should answer. Piracy is 3:1 or 10:1 to copies sold is because a pirated copy is free, so, by the laws of economics, there is higher demand for it. It does not mean that everyone who pirated would have bought it for, say, $10. It also does not mean that everyone, who bought it for $10 would have bought it for $100.
Also, paying online sometimes is a PITA. Compare this:
Piracy: 1. Oh, I want x 2. Go to some site 3. Search for x 4. If not found and you have not exhausted the list of sites, go to step 2. 5. Start the download, do something else while it is still downloading 6. Done.
Buying (for whatever amount): 1. Oh, I want x 2. Go to some site 3. Search for x 4. If it's not available to your country and you have not exhausted your list of sites that might sell it, go to step 2. 5. Decide if the price is worth it, there is no option of downloading, trying it and deleting if you don't like it. 6. Check to see if you have enough money in your internet card. 7. If yes, goto step 9. If no, transfer some money from your other account. 8. If time now is between 18:00 and 08:00, wait until 08:00 of the next workday for the transfer to complete, otherwise wait ~15 minutes if you both accounts are at the same bank. 9. Pay. 10. After the order is processed (time needed: a few seconds to a few days), if x is available for download, start the download and do something else while it is downloading. If x is not available for download wait 1 week - 1 month for the disc to arrive in mail. 11. Done
See, even if you exclude the fact that piracy is cheaper, piracy still remains faster and easier.
And a huge screen (for example, in a cinema) is more wasted to me - either I sit far enough to see the whole screen without needing to turn my head and see crap resolution or I sit near enough to see every detail, but on only a part of the screen. That's why, to me, dpi is more important than just size.
Not much use to me, my 21" CRT monitor only supports up to 2048x1536 and that at only 75Hz.
So, the ideal screen for 4K is 25 feet (google says it's 300 inches) or 240 x 180 inch. So that makes it ~17 dpi (4096px/240in). Too low. With good, ~300dpi screen you would only need 20.48 x 15.36 inch screen, or 25.6 inch diagonal, doable, but probably nobody makes monitors with that high resolution. CRT is probably more doable than LCD though and nobody likes CRTs because you can't place several monitors one behind the other without taking a huge amount of space..
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Steam is OK, I bought some games on it before they started ripping off the EU customers (that include me).
Maybe they couldn't do a good (bad?) enough job?
On the other hand, if you make a game too bad, people will pirate it jut to laugh, I am sure there are a few pirate "Big Rigs: Over the road racing" copies available.
But the most effective way to prevent piracy is to take all copies of the game and lock them up in a safe or to just never release it - I'm sure there are no pirate "Duke Nukem Forever" copies available.
Game 2 is practically given away at $10-25 (or perhaps even "free" (as in beer). But it has a "enhancements" that you can download free (custom avatar, upgrades, etc). Each enhancement is $5 or so. As the game continues, updates, upgrades continue to roll out each $5 (or whatever).
WHAT is the draw of a "PirateBay" version, other than knowing you're just being a cheap thief by "stealing" it?
Getting the complete game at once?
Also, it's OK if the updates are sensible and so on, but under this scheme the manufacturer will most likely try to release tons of minimal updates so that it could take even more money than the $75 for the first option.
The companies hate to lower the price for any reason. You'd hope that if some part of the production costs was reduced then some of the saving would be passed to the customers, for example, a download version is cheaper to make (no need to make the CD and box, hip it to wherever it is sold etc), so it should be sold cheaper, but that is not always the case.
This is like the gas stations in my country. When the price of oil/gas increases, the price of gas to the customers increases immediately with the stations explaining that they do not ave any reserves of the cheaper gasoline. Fair enough. However, when the price of oil decreases, the price of gas to the customer stays the same because suddenly the stations now have huge reserves of the more expensive gas.
add RSS and you get the notifications. But to each his own I suppose.
Home:
pandora.
Car:
android + pandora
Could be nice, but:
Dear Pandora Visitor,
We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. ...
Oh, and in my country there is no unlimited data plan for cellphones. And I don't have a phone with Android, I have Nokia N93.
And FM radio is still good for me. When the station starts some boring talk show I can just listen to a tape.
My tape collection outnumbers my CD and (most likely) MP3 collections, so I'm kinda "locked-in" to cassettes, since if I borrow a record and copy it, I copy it to cassette, because I can play it everywhere (I have a few tape decks at home, a tape deck in my car and a walkman, all quite high quality). And I have a tape deck in my car because I have a lot of tapes.
Cassettes are not inconvenient to me, and the sound quality is high enough (most of the time I cannot hear any difference between a CD and a TDK SA tape with Dolby B NR).
I finally bought a car tape deck with Dolby B and C NR and chrome/metal tape support, so I'm good :)
Even though I have a lot of tapes, radio is still good. I can just turn it on and not worry about what songs are playing (my favorite radio station mostly plays the songs I like), also, I hear news on it. Also, it plays music I do not have, so I hear new (to me, the station usually plays older songs) songs.
Who even listens to terrestrial radio anymore?
I do, when I don't feel like searching for artists and so on, I can just turn on the radio, tune to my favorite station and let it play while I am doing something else. Also, there are some songs that I can only hear on radio because I do not know the artist or title. I can tape those songs, but to do that I also have to listen to radio.
Also, radio is great in a car, when I am not in control of the playlist I think less about what song I would like to hear now and more about driving. Tapes are also useful especially since I do not fast forward or rewind them, so I put in a tape and it plays for 60-90 minutes.
But only one geek is needed among the circle of friends. For example, I could create such a site and all of my friends could use it.
The way I see it, facebook is useful if you want to find new (or long lost) friends, but if you just want to keep in touch with a fixed list of people, there are better ways.
Can't you create a (password + optional SSL protected) website for posting those updates? Hosting is cheap these days and it does not look like you would use a lot of hard drive space and/or bandwidth. The hosting company is also less likely to sell your data to advertisers.
150,000 miles/10 year warranty*
<font size = "2mm">
* option a) warranty does not cover consumable items, such as batteries and oil.
* option b) battery is considered "bad" when it has less than 10% of the original capacity.
</font>
Anyway, how is it with laptops and their batteries. I have seen laptops with 5 year warranty, but if you used that laptop outside (with no AC power) a lot, the battery would wear out quite a bit in 5 years.
It would be interesting to see how heavy the trolleybus would be and how fast it would accelerate if it had to carry its fuel (batteries) to have the same range as the bus.
And maybe someday electric cars will be able to replace gas/diesel cars, but not now. And it will probably first happen with trucks and taxis - as soon as it starts being more profitable to use electric vehicles the companies will do so.
As it is today, fossil fuel cars have some advantages that electrics cannot match - the fuel tank is big enough to drive 600-1000km, it does not leak (current batteries self discharge over time) so you can fill it up and it will last a long time if you are using the car infrequently, it can stay empty, partially full or full for as long as needed with no negative side effects at an temperature that can normally be found in a car (-35C to +50C for example) and usually lasts as long as the car does (if it develops a small hole, it can be patched). Its size does not depend on the rate the fuel is consumed. It can be filled in a few minutes, but only at a special place, OTOH, you can carry a small amount of fuel in a separate container for emergencies.
On the other hand, batteries age and decrease in capacity, that depends on the charge level, temperature, whether it is charged as soon as possible vs deep cycle, number of cycles. And if laptop batteries are any indication, then car batteries will need to be replaced more often (this in and of itself may not be a big drawback). Also, the amount of energy the battery provides depends on the power produced and age (so your 200km range will become 150km after a while, then 100, then 50 etc). A battery self discharges, so you will need to charge the car every so often (but not too often because the battery may wear out faster) even if you are not using it.
It can be charged at a lot of places, but the process is much slower. Fast charging stations will deal with huge amounts of power and I wouldn't want to be near one if some short circuit or overcharge (you thought exploding laptop batteries were bad, wait until a 100kWh battery blows up).
Maybe some time in the future the problems with batteries will be solved, but as it is now, they suck. Gasoline cars also sucked some time after they were introduced.
Last I heard the min mileage for these things was about 40mi per charge.
New batteries or old? For example, my laptop worked for ~3 hours 30 minutes on battery when new. Now (5 years later) it only holds maybe 30 minutes, so at some point there was a 3h, 2h, 1h capacities. Gas tank on a regular car does not shrink with time (well, LPG tanks can "shrink" because they accumulate water, drain the water and you have the original capacity back).
And people would probably charge the cars more often (normalized for range) than refilling gas tanks. Refilling a tank is fast and you can do it even if you ran out of gas (go to a fuel station, ask somebody else on the road etc), but recharging car batteries without the car will probably be difficult (due to their weight).
Uncrackable DRM is not possible for non-interactive media. That's why there are laws such as the DMCA to (hopefully) prevent people from cracking the DRM.
I know what DRM is. Now if you want to talk semantics, imagine you own a work that you want to put on your website, so you encrypt it so that only your friends and family can view it, with your special viewer.
This is not DRM. If you want to make the information accessible to selected group of people, you can just share the encryption key with them. DRM starts when you want to simultaneously allow your friends to access the content, but also not allow them to copy it and upload to some other site. And this cannot be done. The friend in question can always point a camera at the screen and then upload the recorded video. Hollywood tries to come up with an unbreakable DRM, see how successful they are...
Also, if this was before high speed internet, and you shared the content on film, audio and VHS tapes, floppy disks (for text) or paper? Your friends could still make copies, broadcast the media on radio or TV (if they had access) or just show it to everyone whether you like it or not.
Not distributed enough for you? Imagine a Linux based computer like OLPC targeted for kids. Your company distributes Open Source/Public Domain works under DRM to ensure that your users only run software that's up-to-date, reviewed, and covered under your support contract. Now this company can't do business in Brazil.
Open source software cannot have DRM. Why? Simple, if I have the source code, I can just remove the DRM.
You can use hardcoded checks for updates if you want to, but that can also be patched, especially with access to source code.
Also, you can refuse support if the software is not up to date or not covered under the contract.
SSL does not help you if the server, not the man-in-the-middle, wants to rip you off, for example, if the server was hacked.
But SSL was not designed for that etc etc.
Anyway, all is great if the software and the protocol work as intended (i.e. there are no bugs). If there are bugs in the software (or worse, in the protocol) then it could all fall apart. Some time ago somebody managed to create new SSL certificates that appeared to be signed by the CA (IIRC it was done by kinda-cracking md5 using a cluster of PS3s). Until everybody dropped all certificates that used md5, hackers could create genuine looking certificates. Imagine if somebody managed to break Bitcoin, but instead of publishing it or reporting the bug he just used it to get the money.
I'll read the tech report, it does not look like having a lot of math, so I just might understand it.
However, it is software, and software has bugs. At least it is easier to authenticate a physical item, also it is easier to make it difficult to copy. If this software works as intended, great, but what if, say, people start using it and then someone finds a way to copy the coins? What if he posts it on the internet, like all DRM cracks are posted?
At least with paper money, in addition to the knowledge of how it is made, you need special materials and hardware, all of which is tracked by the government (especially if it is useful only in printing money - the special inks and printing plates for example).
How about instead of exercising I'll just use some other form of energy. After all, human muscles are only 18-26% efficient.
On the other hand, maybe not, a horse and carriage could be better (and would be more "natural"), maybe everyone should sell their cars and buy horses?
If you think climate has not already changed, go outside and take a good look.
Is Greenland a desert already? Last time I heard it was green (hence the name)...
Oh, by the way, when it's unusually cold it's just weather, when it's unusually hot it's either Global Warming or again, just weather (because Global Warming is supposed to incrase the temperatures by ~1C per 100 years and not 10C per year). But there is certainly no Global Cooling when it's -35C outside.
Why not take the bicycle instead?
It's tiring to ride a bicycle, especially with ~10kg of bought products hanging one one side, especially uphill. How about something that can provide energy instead of that energy being provided by me (a quite inefficient CO2 producing engine). Oh, look, an internal combustion engine, great. Hmm... now it's not tiring anymore, but still unstable, and quite dangerous if the road is even a bit slippery. How about 4 wheels instead of 2? Now that's much better. Still, I get wet when it's raining, how about a roof over my head? Look, I now have a car.
...buying plastic junk...
Plastics are bad - they do not rot fast enough.
Paper is bad - trees are cut to produce it.
Ok, can I have my metal bag now, or is metal also bad?
No. One great reason for the case to change if people started acting rationally. If Russia or some other national-level foe wipes out the US, there's really little reason to counterattack. Revenge, btw, isn't a good reason.
The point is that you keep the possibility of MAD regardless of who strikes first. If, say, some nation believed that they can take out the US too fast for them to retaliate, the nation might try to do so. If they know that even if they cover the entire of US with nuclear bombs, the submarines can still return the favor, they might reconsider.
How many of the pirates would buy the game/app/movie/song if it was not available as a free download?
That's the question the analysts should answer. Piracy is 3:1 or 10:1 to copies sold is because a pirated copy is free, so, by the laws of economics, there is higher demand for it. It does not mean that everyone who pirated would have bought it for, say, $10. It also does not mean that everyone, who bought it for $10 would have bought it for $100.
Also, paying online sometimes is a PITA. Compare this:
Piracy:
1. Oh, I want x
2. Go to some site
3. Search for x
4. If not found and you have not exhausted the list of sites, go to step 2.
5. Start the download, do something else while it is still downloading
6. Done.
Buying (for whatever amount):
1. Oh, I want x
2. Go to some site
3. Search for x
4. If it's not available to your country and you have not exhausted your list of sites that might sell it, go to step 2.
5. Decide if the price is worth it, there is no option of downloading, trying it and deleting if you don't like it.
6. Check to see if you have enough money in your internet card.
7. If yes, goto step 9. If no, transfer some money from your other account.
8. If time now is between 18:00 and 08:00, wait until 08:00 of the next workday for the transfer to complete, otherwise wait ~15 minutes if you both accounts are at the same bank.
9. Pay.
10. After the order is processed (time needed: a few seconds to a few days), if x is available for download, start the download and do something else while it is downloading. If x is not available for download wait 1 week - 1 month for the disc to arrive in mail.
11. Done
See, even if you exclude the fact that piracy is cheaper, piracy still remains faster and easier.
No IMAX theater in my country, but Wikipedia says there are some in Poland, maybe someday I'll visit it.
And a huge screen (for example, in a cinema) is more wasted to me - either I sit far enough to see the whole screen without needing to turn my head and see crap resolution or I sit near enough to see every detail, but on only a part of the screen. That's why, to me, dpi is more important than just size.
With good, ~300dpi screen
make that 200dpi...
Not much use to me, my 21" CRT monitor only supports up to 2048x1536 and that at only 75Hz.
So, the ideal screen for 4K is 25 feet (google says it's 300 inches) or 240 x 180 inch. So that makes it ~17 dpi (4096px/240in). Too low. With good, ~300dpi screen you would only need 20.48 x 15.36 inch screen, or 25.6 inch diagonal, doable, but probably nobody makes monitors with that high resolution. CRT is probably more doable than LCD though and nobody likes CRTs because you can't place several monitors one behind the other without taking a huge amount of space..