If you'd actually used the CD Burning engine of iTunes, you'd be aware that the mp3 CD option will only burn tracks that are already in mp3 format. Any purchased tunes (m4p) or tunes you've ripped in AAC format (m4a) will not appear on an iTunes mp3 CD, despite the fact they might be in the playlist you are burning - it might make sense to convert them, but iTunes will not do any temporary data conversion for this purpose*.
The data CD option will allow m4a tracks to be included, but since they are in AAC format, most mp3 CD players can't read them. You can change your preferred ripping format, and convert m4a songs to mp3 format pretty easily with a right-click menu, but protected files can't be altered.
*: The latest version of iTunes has a feature for the iPod Shuffle that allows conversion of high-bitrate files to lower-bitrate files during the transfer to the Shuffle, but I don't believe it changes the actual format for them.
My take is that the high initial cost of the game is somewhat based on the desire to quickly recoup development costs, but I think there is a second reason, as well.
I think a significant factor in charging $50 or so for a game with a subscription fee is that they expect that many users will purchase the game, play it for a month or two, and quit, thereby depriving them of future income. These users (I've done this with 2 MMORPGs: UO and FFXI) do not have the time or patience to stick with a game as labor-intensive as an MMORPG, and without a high initial investment, would cost the game companies more than they were worth.
It probably also helps to offset the costs associated with power gamers, who play for 12 hours or more per day, and use more resources than their subscription fee can offset.
Basically, the companies want everyone to pay $50 up-front, $13-15/month, and play for 2-3 hours per day - in other words, just enough to make adequate progress to justify paying the fee for another month, but not really any more than that.
I don't know - how many BitTorrent users are members of Nielsen or Arbitron families? If most (or all) of the people who have already seen the show are not included in the ratings in the first place (like me), and we are telling our friends to watch the show (again, like me), I don't see how that could have any kind of negative impact on ratings.
I'd think, with all the bad press that Walmart has gotten for how it treats its employees, you'd be aware that a Walmart cashier would probably make significantly less than $10 for five minute's work - which would equate to $120/hour...
Realistically, $10/hour seems to be a little high...
I do a lot of driving between Austin and Waxahachie (just south of Dallas) on I-35 in April and May. This is the same highway that the proposed super-duper-highway will parallel, and I have driven in more than my share of torrential rainstorms on that highway with extremely limited visibility.
Texas isn't always hot and sunny by any measurement. Austin has had about 52 inches of rain this year, about 7.5 inches of that during April and May (compare that to less than 1 inch during the same period in El Paso, or 4.5 inches in Seattle).
Too true. It is a clear-cut violation of the 5th Amendment, but the Supremes don't seem to care about enforcing the Bill of Rights' restrictions against governmental excesses nearly as much as they are in enforcing order, even if that means blatantly ignoring the real laws being violated by the government.
You seem to be making 2 assumptions that may not be valid:
1) That other people are responsible for figuring out what you mean. The reality is that when you send a message, it is your responsibility to ensure that the communication is clear.
and
2) That other people will find your errors (grammatical, typographical, etc.) but be able to correctly interpret the underlying message. The reality is that other people might look at your errors and make invalid "corrections" based on their own assumptions, possibly to the point of grossly misinterpreting the actual message you intended to send. Even worse, in some of these cases, the recipient may take action based on the incorrect interpretation, which could cost a company quite a bit more expense than it would have incurred for the 20 seconds you cite to proofread the message.
If the communication itself is part of your job, then it is important that you communicate clearly. Obviously, this doesn't mean that a simple "yes" to a clear question is a problem, but if the communication requires complete sentences, then why not spend the 20 seconds to check them?
I don't think the Dems should just roll over and play dead, but with the exception of Supreme Court nominees (whose impact will be felt long after Bush's second term expires), they should probably not filibuster or do anything other than vote their consciences. If the GOP passes a bunch of bad bills where the votes are entirely cut on party lines, then the consequences for those votes will fall squarely on the heads of the people who pushed for them.
This way, the Democrats can't be accused of obstructionism, but their hands will still be clean (unlike the last few years, where the Dems abdicated their role as the opposition and gave Bush the PATRIOT Act and authority to wage war on Iraq for no reason - votes that didn't help Kerry distinguish himself from Bush)
You forget that the rights you currently possess have been granted to you by society. You do not have a right to steal, kill people, practice poligamy, snort cocaine, spread child pornography, and other crimes. Your city may choose to grant you other rights, like specify what you can and can not do with your property. The city might require that you mow your front lawn on a regular basis, clean the sidewalk, keep your house paint looking good, provide access to wheelchaired people, etc. The "civil rights" you now take for granted were likewise granted by society's approval. Giving them to blacks was also granted in like manner, by recognizing them as human beings and thus equal to the white race before the law. But these rights do not just come out of thin are; they are a representation of the moral code of our society and are not unchanging. They can come and go and they will, for blacks, for whites, and for gays.
I see the problem here! I would like to point out that your particular view of where our rights come from is not applicable to the question of American rights.
The issue of rights is a complex one, and some societies do, in fact, work on the principle that the rights of the individual are explicitly granted by the state, and (this is the important distinction) that which is not permitted is disallowed.
America is a bit different. From the "inalienable rights" referenced in the Declaration of Independence to the considerably more binding text of the 9th Amendment to the US constitution - "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." - the American tradition is that all rights not explicitly prohibited are allowed. They weren't "granted" by society, they are inherent, and can only be removed by specific legislative action. In other words, you are wrong.
As to the heart of your argument, I didn't find the "I get disgusted" argument compelling when used to explain why interracial relationships should be looked down upon or legally barred, and I don't find it any more compelling now.
You don't like gay people? Tough. In a fair society (which we may have proven we aren't any longer), you should have to come up with a reasonable and compelling argument to bar behavior you don't like. Appeals to a personal sense of distaste or the commands of Zeus, Thor, Ra, the Easter Bunny or YHWH do not meet that standard. Sorry.
Speaking as a "HUGE U2 fan"(but not a complete sucker), I think it's underwhelming.
It's only the 20GB model (my current iPod is nearly full @ 40GB), the red wheel looks ugly, and I already have every U2 album and a bunch of their CD singles in my collection and on my iPod, so the Digital Box Set would have about 1 song I want and can't find on CD (and that's assuming that "A Celebration" will be included).
So this appears to be aimed at U2 fans who not only don't have all that many albums in their collection, they'd be better off if they didn't own any U2 albums, so as to get the maximum value for their iPod purchase.
George Clooney proved beyond a doubt that he cannot do dark, brooding and border line psychotic.
I thought he proved that he could do a credible job at exactly that in "From Dusk 'Til Dawn". I place the blame for "Batman and Robin" squarely on the shoulders of Joel Schumacher and Akiva Goldsman. Clooney shouldn't be held responsible for being unable to turn a turd into gold.
The number 1 complaint I hear from musicians who sign to small labels is that the label did nothing to promote their music. Here's a label that's spending $60,000 to get a song on the air. What's wrong with that?
I don't know, perhaps the fact that the label isn't actually spending their own money, but rather putting that charge on a list of recoupable expenses to be charged back to the artist? What evidence do they have that that kind of expenditure would result in a boost in royalties that would more than offset the expense?
If Avril has approved that kind of "promotional expense" in advance, then I guess it's her choice, but I fear that the record execs are doing this behind the artists' backs at the same time they're touting how the artist is getting "amazing airplay". The record execs don't care, since it's not their money, and maybe they can even get the musicians to give them a bonus based on their performance, which would go straight into their nose candy fund.
If NEC says you can't do it, maybe it's because you can't do it reliably; that seems to be the case here. I would question the feasibility of taking hardware designed for single-layer disks and using it for dual-layer burns, and indeed the article points out (in broken, babelfished English, but as best I can tell) that the resulting drives are flaky at best.
That's about right - I work for a rival DVD+RW manufacturer, and we did a DL firmware upgrade project that got scotched specifically because the OPUs that NEC used were not able to work reliably with the DL firmware. While all of our drives were good, only about 50% of NEC's worked perfectly with the upgrade.
That's true, to some extent. Hardware manufacturers are relying on the software vendors to fully fix this potential issue.
Basically, the way the new DL media works, it can only be properly read on a set-top device if both layers are written to. So if the data being written is significantly less than the full 8.5GB (as in 1-3 GB, and yes, this is wasteful, but if you buy a spindle of DL media and you end up needing to burn a small disc...) the software can either:
1.) figure out how to split the recording evenly, and spread it across that way (but there is a limit to how small the data area can be from the hub) or
2.) Write normally on one layer, and pad the other layer out with blank data.
Either way works fine, and it shouldn't be an issue if you mostly use DL media when SL media is too small for your project.
Should be about right - when my company was testing DL firmware for one of its drives, the media costs dropped to $25 per disc (from $50), so a final cost of $5-$8 should be about right, and it's in the range where people who are willing to pay a slight premium over SL +R discs won't feel too gouged.
Well, I can't speak for the carton you have, but the Blue Bunny web site certainly says that all of their "No Sugar Added" Ice Creams featuring Splenda do contain sorbitol and/or lactitol. Check the ingredients list, and/or note the presence of a "Sugar Alcohols" line under the "Total Carbohydrates"
I have yet to see a single product that contains Splenda with that warning unless it also contains sugar alcohols, but many products do have both. It unfairly gives Splenda a bad name.
I wonder if even all 5 million ended up downloaded.
I noticed a problem with the Music Store near the end of the promotion - I had several credits from caps, and I tried to use them up, but the downloads aborted before they were complete. No big deal, that bug had bothered me for a while, but I could always eventually get the songs downloaded.
This last batch of songs, however, was different. At some point, the Music Store decided that I had successfully downloaded all the songs, but only one of them actually completed.
So now, I'm out those songs and my credits. I have written to Apple, but their response is glacially slow, and it's pretty much impossible to get a human being to respond, so I'm probably SOL.
I call BS! Sure, sorbitol (and maltitol) have a tendency to cause severe (not mild, I don't care what it says on the package) diarrhea, and it doesn't require what a normal person would consider an excessive dose, either. Some of the sugar-free products on the market can have a strong effect with little more than one serving's worth.
Having said that, there are absolutely no links between Splenda (a.k.a. Sucralose) and such side-effects. I guarantee that any problems you or anyone you know suffered from a product containing sucralose were from the massive levels of sugar alcohols (the aforementioned sorbitol, maltitol, lactitol) that food manufacturers insist on putting into their products, despite the possibility of horrible discomfort.
In my experience, the shuffle on the iPod is anything but perfect. For that particular play list, if I try to sync my iPod and it clears out the "Last Time Played" info (an iTunes for Windows bug), it seems to want to play the same songs much more often than a truly random shuffle would. I also notice groupings - it's not unusual to have 3 out of 7 songs be from the same artist and/or album(with over 7000 songs, that's unusual), either playing two songs in a row, or more commonly, every other song.
To be fair, if the smart playlist is set-up to only play songs that haven't been played, it does keep good track of that in the iPod - it's only synchronization issues with my PC that have interfered with that. I never hear any repeats if the iPod is on its own.
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If you'd actually used the CD Burning engine of iTunes, you'd be aware that the mp3 CD option will only burn tracks that are already in mp3 format. Any purchased tunes (m4p) or tunes you've ripped in AAC format (m4a) will not appear on an iTunes mp3 CD, despite the fact they might be in the playlist you are burning - it might make sense to convert them, but iTunes will not do any temporary data conversion for this purpose*.
The data CD option will allow m4a tracks to be included, but since they are in AAC format, most mp3 CD players can't read them. You can change your preferred ripping format, and convert m4a songs to mp3 format pretty easily with a right-click menu, but protected files can't be altered.
*: The latest version of iTunes has a feature for the iPod Shuffle that allows conversion of high-bitrate files to lower-bitrate files during the transfer to the Shuffle, but I don't believe it changes the actual format for them.
My take is that the high initial cost of the game is somewhat based on the desire to quickly recoup development costs, but I think there is a second reason, as well.
I think a significant factor in charging $50 or so for a game with a subscription fee is that they expect that many users will purchase the game, play it for a month or two, and quit, thereby depriving them of future income. These users (I've done this with 2 MMORPGs: UO and FFXI) do not have the time or patience to stick with a game as labor-intensive as an MMORPG, and without a high initial investment, would cost the game companies more than they were worth.
It probably also helps to offset the costs associated with power gamers, who play for 12 hours or more per day, and use more resources than their subscription fee can offset.
Basically, the companies want everyone to pay $50 up-front, $13-15/month, and play for 2-3 hours per day - in other words, just enough to make adequate progress to justify paying the fee for another month, but not really any more than that.
Oh, if only I had mod points for that!
I don't know - how many BitTorrent users are members of Nielsen or Arbitron families? If most (or all) of the people who have already seen the show are not included in the ratings in the first place (like me), and we are telling our friends to watch the show (again, like me), I don't see how that could have any kind of negative impact on ratings.
I'd think, with all the bad press that Walmart has gotten for how it treats its employees, you'd be aware that a Walmart cashier would probably make significantly less than $10 for five minute's work - which would equate to $120/hour...
Realistically, $10/hour seems to be a little high...
I got your back on this one.
I do a lot of driving between Austin and Waxahachie (just south of Dallas) on I-35 in April and May. This is the same highway that the proposed super-duper-highway will parallel, and I have driven in more than my share of torrential rainstorms on that highway with extremely limited visibility.
Texas isn't always hot and sunny by any measurement. Austin has had about 52 inches of rain this year, about 7.5 inches of that during April and May (compare that to less than 1 inch during the same period in El Paso, or 4.5 inches in Seattle).
Well, in late '89, I paid $250 for 2MB, so Moore's law would put the figure he quoted at '90 or '91. Not too far off.
Too true. It is a clear-cut violation of the 5th Amendment, but the Supremes don't seem to care about enforcing the Bill of Rights' restrictions against governmental excesses nearly as much as they are in enforcing order, even if that means blatantly ignoring the real laws being violated by the government.
You seem to be making 2 assumptions that may not be valid:
1) That other people are responsible for figuring out what you mean. The reality is that when you send a message, it is your responsibility to ensure that the communication is clear.
and
2) That other people will find your errors (grammatical, typographical, etc.) but be able to correctly interpret the underlying message. The reality is that other people might look at your errors and make invalid "corrections" based on their own assumptions, possibly to the point of grossly misinterpreting the actual message you intended to send. Even worse, in some of these cases, the recipient may take action based on the incorrect interpretation, which could cost a company quite a bit more expense than it would have incurred for the 20 seconds you cite to proofread the message.
If the communication itself is part of your job, then it is important that you communicate clearly. Obviously, this doesn't mean that a simple "yes" to a clear question is a problem, but if the communication requires complete sentences, then why not spend the 20 seconds to check them?
I think Tommy Chong might feel a little bit less positive about Ashcroft's tenure.
I see your point, and I agree, sort-of.
I don't think the Dems should just roll over and play dead, but with the exception of Supreme Court nominees (whose impact will be felt long after Bush's second term expires), they should probably not filibuster or do anything other than vote their consciences. If the GOP passes a bunch of bad bills where the votes are entirely cut on party lines, then the consequences for those votes will fall squarely on the heads of the people who pushed for them.
This way, the Democrats can't be accused of obstructionism, but their hands will still be clean (unlike the last few years, where the Dems abdicated their role as the opposition and gave Bush the PATRIOT Act and authority to wage war on Iraq for no reason - votes that didn't help Kerry distinguish himself from Bush)
I see the problem here! I would like to point out that your particular view of where our rights come from is not applicable to the question of American rights.
The issue of rights is a complex one, and some societies do, in fact, work on the principle that the rights of the individual are explicitly granted by the state, and (this is the important distinction) that which is not permitted is disallowed.
America is a bit different. From the "inalienable rights" referenced in the Declaration of Independence to the considerably more binding text of the 9th Amendment to the US constitution - "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." - the American tradition is that all rights not explicitly prohibited are allowed. They weren't "granted" by society, they are inherent, and can only be removed by specific legislative action. In other words, you are wrong.
As to the heart of your argument, I didn't find the "I get disgusted" argument compelling when used to explain why interracial relationships should be looked down upon or legally barred, and I don't find it any more compelling now.
You don't like gay people? Tough. In a fair society (which we may have proven we aren't any longer), you should have to come up with a reasonable and compelling argument to bar behavior you don't like. Appeals to a personal sense of distaste or the commands of Zeus, Thor, Ra, the Easter Bunny or YHWH do not meet that standard. Sorry.
Speaking as a "HUGE U2 fan"(but not a complete sucker), I think it's underwhelming.
It's only the 20GB model (my current iPod is nearly full @ 40GB), the red wheel looks ugly, and I already have every U2 album and a bunch of their CD singles in my collection and on my iPod, so the Digital Box Set would have about 1 song I want and can't find on CD (and that's assuming that "A Celebration" will be included).
So this appears to be aimed at U2 fans who not only don't have all that many albums in their collection, they'd be better off if they didn't own any U2 albums, so as to get the maximum value for their iPod purchase.
Weird.
I thought he proved that he could do a credible job at exactly that in "From Dusk 'Til Dawn". I place the blame for "Batman and Robin" squarely on the shoulders of Joel Schumacher and Akiva Goldsman. Clooney shouldn't be held responsible for being unable to turn a turd into gold.
I don't know, perhaps the fact that the label isn't actually spending their own money, but rather putting that charge on a list of recoupable expenses to be charged back to the artist? What evidence do they have that that kind of expenditure would result in a boost in royalties that would more than offset the expense?
If Avril has approved that kind of "promotional expense" in advance, then I guess it's her choice, but I fear that the record execs are doing this behind the artists' backs at the same time they're touting how the artist is getting "amazing airplay". The record execs don't care, since it's not their money, and maybe they can even get the musicians to give them a bonus based on their performance, which would go straight into their nose candy fund.
Look again. The changelog hasn't been updated, but the new version for download is 0.1.0.
That's about right - I work for a rival DVD+RW manufacturer, and we did a DL firmware upgrade project that got scotched specifically because the OPUs that NEC used were not able to work reliably with the DL firmware. While all of our drives were good, only about 50% of NEC's worked perfectly with the upgrade.
Caveat flasher, as it were!
Basically, the way the new DL media works, it can only be properly read on a set-top device if both layers are written to. So if the data being written is significantly less than the full 8.5GB (as in 1-3 GB, and yes, this is wasteful, but if you buy a spindle of DL media and you end up needing to burn a small disc...) the software can either:
Either way works fine, and it shouldn't be an issue if you mostly use DL media when SL media is too small for your project.
Should be about right - when my company was testing DL firmware for one of its drives, the media costs dropped to $25 per disc (from $50), so a final cost of $5-$8 should be about right, and it's in the range where people who are willing to pay a slight premium over SL +R discs won't feel too gouged.
Well, I can't speak for the carton you have, but the Blue Bunny web site certainly says that all of their "No Sugar Added" Ice Creams featuring Splenda do contain sorbitol and/or lactitol. Check the ingredients list, and/or note the presence of a "Sugar Alcohols" line under the "Total Carbohydrates"
I have yet to see a single product that contains Splenda with that warning unless it also contains sugar alcohols, but many products do have both. It unfairly gives Splenda a bad name.
Was I the only one who read that as "Mozilla Thompson"?
Yes, apparently, I was...
I guess if she's the mother of your children, then it should be OK that you'd still L to F her, right?
I wonder if even all 5 million ended up downloaded.
I noticed a problem with the Music Store near the end of the promotion - I had several credits from caps, and I tried to use them up, but the downloads aborted before they were complete. No big deal, that bug had bothered me for a while, but I could always eventually get the songs downloaded.
This last batch of songs, however, was different. At some point, the Music Store decided that I had successfully downloaded all the songs, but only one of them actually completed.
So now, I'm out those songs and my credits. I have written to Apple, but their response is glacially slow, and it's pretty much impossible to get a human being to respond, so I'm probably SOL.
I call BS! Sure, sorbitol (and maltitol) have a tendency to cause severe (not mild, I don't care what it says on the package) diarrhea, and it doesn't require what a normal person would consider an excessive dose, either. Some of the sugar-free products on the market can have a strong effect with little more than one serving's worth.
Having said that, there are absolutely no links between Splenda (a.k.a. Sucralose) and such side-effects. I guarantee that any problems you or anyone you know suffered from a product containing sucralose were from the massive levels of sugar alcohols (the aforementioned sorbitol, maltitol, lactitol) that food manufacturers insist on putting into their products, despite the possibility of horrible discomfort.
In my experience, the shuffle on the iPod is anything but perfect. For that particular play list, if I try to sync my iPod and it clears out the "Last Time Played" info (an iTunes for Windows bug), it seems to want to play the same songs much more often than a truly random shuffle would. I also notice groupings - it's not unusual to have 3 out of 7 songs be from the same artist and/or album(with over 7000 songs, that's unusual), either playing two songs in a row, or more commonly, every other song.
To be fair, if the smart playlist is set-up to only play songs that haven't been played, it does keep good track of that in the iPod - it's only synchronization issues with my PC that have interfered with that. I never hear any repeats if the iPod is on its own.