Will you have the choice of either or plan? To opt out?
I can't see ANY REASON why not.
Can you choose from something other than one monopolistic cable company that only serves your area?
Does this have anything at all to do with Ala Carte, or were you just wanting to complain about this completely off-topic issue? If you currently have one monopolistic cable company, this isn't going to change it. It's not going to force you to pay for service from them, and it's not going to prevent you from switching to satellite TV as many people have.
I see this only increasing the price of your overall bill if you want to keep the same amount of channels you already had.
I can't imagine anyone subscribing Ala Carte to all the channels I get, in various foreign languages, crazy various special-interest channels, etc. Really now, who would want to pay to get ALL of these if you could eliminate a few and save money?
That would only work in combination with an all-you-can-watch package, unless you want to turn the TV industry into the movie industry.
How much is an episode worth? With commercials in it, it's worth precisely zero to me. Maybe HBO could switch to a PPV model, but the rest are out of luck.
iTunes TV show sales only work because they already have massive free distribution. As soon as people have to pay $0.05 to "change the channel" (so to speak), people will stop being introduced to new shows. You could make trailers available, or a free episode, but that wouldn't capture anywhere near as many viewers as the current model. Lots of shows (reality shows?) have viewers only because they are practically free. If people had to pay $0.01 to watch, something like "The Late Late Show" would be completely doomed, whereas since it's effectively free, people just leave it on, and half-watch it once in a while...
A DVR can be worked-in to the Ala Carte model quite easily, but if people have to pay for every show, cable TV will turn into nothing but a low-cost, high-volume version of Netflix. That's not entirely bad, but it will become a monoculture, eliminating TV as we know it, for more, and cheaper movies.
However, the 'gotcha' is that it requires a cable box (or some other intelligent device) to do it. Customers that rely simply on cable ready TV's/VCRs would not be able to do it.
Cable companies are already pushing digital cable... HARD. They are going to great lengths to kill-off analog cable. I don't see anyone without a cable box in 5 years, because of OnDemand, DVRs, HDTV, and being cheaper for the company.
So, that gotcha is (almost) a non-issue. They'd love to have one more excuse to (damn-near) force you to rent a box for every TV.
I don't see it being offered with the possibility to save you money on your cable bill, though.
You're missing the point. Sure, it will require a bit more labor and possibly equipment, but you'll directly save around $0.50 per month for every one of those cable channels that you don't recieve. Pretty soon, you've got the 20 channels you want for $10, plus $5/mo rental on the digital cable box. They won't let it be quite that cheap of course, but even in the worst case, you can save a lot of money if you aren't subscribed to 80+ channels you couldn't care less about.
The second is the risk of a genetically-modified strain escaping into the wild and replacing natural strains.
Many GM seeds have been designed so that the crops will not produce seeds, and so, can't reproduce in the wild. This does pretty well eliminate the possibility of it spreading.
From memory, I think that the feedstock cost is responsible for at least 60-70% of the final cost of biodiesel,
That leads to a complicated question. People are generally opposed to eating genetically modified plants, but how about if they were designed and grown to more effeciently produce biodiesel? Would there still be throngs of protestors?
As I see it, there are only two real long-term solutions:
* Mandatory Conservation
* Massive Water Grid Project
Umm, you don't see rising prices as a way to naturally curb water usage, without rationing? You don't see desalination as a long-term solution to water shortages? You don't see grey-water systems? You don't see better water recycling? You don't see collecting the annual LA floodwaters, rather than letting them run-off to the ocean (no "grid")? I could go on if I wanted to waste more of my time, but I think you get the point.
As for a water grid, I'd have to say that's what we already have. Using rivers, dams, etc., several states share water as needed. Electricity, unlike water, flows up-hill easily, so I'd like to find out how you are going to make any kind of economical "water grid".
Sea water does have a tendency to corrode pipes, and a submarine isn't exactly the best place for materials that tolerate salt, or for regular maintenance of pipes in the walls.
Besides that, these are nuclear subs we are talking about, and they can produce more fresh water than they know what to do with. Why they are using waterless urinals is a good question.
That has got to be the stupidest rationalization I've heard. Even the scientists yelling about global warming don't claim this is evidence of it, but an exception.
You're just making up your own theories to suit yourself.
When scientists worry about global warming on earth, they're not just griping about the arrival of spring!
Actually, they often are.
The scientists commenting on global warming like to talk about record high tempuratures, and still increasing, but they like to omit that they're also finding certain years with below-normal tempuratures as well.
That's 40 cm less I have to drive to get to the beach.
Not unless the areas that are currently sea-level are all at a perfect 45 degree angle. Since the angle is generally much less than that, it will move much more than 40cm inland. Most of the places I go to the beach, if the water was 10cm higher, it would cover perhaps 10meters more beach, and flood numerous beachfront businesses, homes, etc.
Not that I'm worried... Personally, I think you'd have to be an idiot to build there to begin with.
A trackball on the right (or left) side of the unit is completely out of the way of your hands. In the center, it is more likely to get in the way, particularly if you aren't a touch-typist, but possibly even then...
It's not just a question of preference: in general, the center mounted trackball under the space bar tests out well in usability tests, better than side-mounted trackballs or trackpads.
Feel free to point-out those usability tests in question. I would like to see how one comes to that conclusion.
If the trackball is right under the spacebar, you don't contort your hands at all, you just move them down a little. Some of them are designed to be used with thumbs, others, with your index fingers, and some can be used either way.
No, no, no. You (and a few others) are simply not understanding what I've been talking about. You don't have to contort your hands to REACH the trackball... of course not... You have to contort your hands to actually USE the trackball.
With a trackball on the sides, you wrap your hand around the edge of the notebook, making it a much more natural position to hold your hand. Having it in the middle means you have to hold your hand flat, with your thumb elevated moving the trackball, which is very uncomfortable. It's so uncomfortable that people generally don't use a center trackball that way, but instead have their hand floating over the trackball, with no support.
But more than that, are issues of clicking... Just try to imagine how you are going to hold a mouse button down while dragging a window, icon, etc. As with a touchpad, you generally end up having to ball-up your hand into an awkard fist to hold the button and still use another finger to move the trackball. With the left mouse button to the left of the trackball, you have to hold your index finger on the button, while you curl your thumb under your palm so you can move the trackball at the same time. Macs, with one button, reduce that issue slightly, but not by much at all.
If they had the mouse buttons on the right side of the trackball, it would be far easier to use. Of course, you lose the ambidexterous advantage, and you might as well move it to the right side to be even more comfortable for right-handed use.
They could possibly make a left-handed model as well, or lefties should learn to use the mouse with their right hand. Tell me, how exactly do you use the numpad on the right side of the keyboard?
Not to sound insensitive, but making 99% of users miserable, so that 1% is just slightly less miserable, is very poor design.
The most striking difference between the PowerBooks and the PC portables was the presence of a built-in trackball and its position on the case. Other manufacturers included trackballs (or other pointing devices), but they were often placed in awkward positions.
I'll call BS on that!
I'll admit it is somewhat a matter of personal preference, but I liked having a trackball on the right-side of the unit much more than in the center of the unit. Being near the edge of the unit allows you to bend your hand around it, making it almost feel like a normal thumb-operated trackball.
The center-mounted trackball necessitated the same terrible hand contortions you're familiar with due to notebook touchpads. I can certainly imagine it was a real pain for left-handed users, but you can't always make everything ambidexterous, and comfortable.
I'd pay thousands of dollars if I could get a modern notebook with a fairly normal keyboard and side-mounted trackball, like I had on my old 20MHz Compaq notebook.
A motor is electric, an engine uses some other sort of fuel.
Not true. The two are not used at all consistently.
Another poster already mentioned the most common motorcycle, and motorcity. How about "motor cars", "General Motors", "Outboard motors", "Motor Oil", etc.?
Why is it when I have four or five platers in a drive, that any one failure can cause a 100% data loss?
What are you talking about? I've never had a problem on one platter lead of 100% data loss. As a matter of fact, I can't remember the last time I had any problems with a specific platter... It's always the heads or electronics that fail.
Short of practically building two complete drives in one, they can't have redundant independent systems like you want, so why don't you just buy two big cheap drives, and setup a RAID array for yourself? Then you get both performance and data protection.
When o when will we have solid state long time memory in our computers without moving parts?
Just as soon as you're willing to pay 100Xs more for the option. You can do it right now if you want... I had a PC running on just 32MB of compactflash several years ago.
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The free-market. Isn't that quite obvious?
I can't see ANY REASON why not.
Does this have anything at all to do with Ala Carte, or were you just wanting to complain about this completely off-topic issue? If you currently have one monopolistic cable company, this isn't going to change it. It's not going to force you to pay for service from them, and it's not going to prevent you from switching to satellite TV as many people have.
I can't imagine anyone subscribing Ala Carte to all the channels I get, in various foreign languages, crazy various special-interest channels, etc. Really now, who would want to pay to get ALL of these if you could eliminate a few and save money?
That would only work in combination with an all-you-can-watch package, unless you want to turn the TV industry into the movie industry.
How much is an episode worth? With commercials in it, it's worth precisely zero to me. Maybe HBO could switch to a PPV model, but the rest are out of luck.
iTunes TV show sales only work because they already have massive free distribution. As soon as people have to pay $0.05 to "change the channel" (so to speak), people will stop being introduced to new shows. You could make trailers available, or a free episode, but that wouldn't capture anywhere near as many viewers as the current model. Lots of shows (reality shows?) have viewers only because they are practically free. If people had to pay $0.01 to watch, something like "The Late Late Show" would be completely doomed, whereas since it's effectively free, people just leave it on, and half-watch it once in a while...
A DVR can be worked-in to the Ala Carte model quite easily, but if people have to pay for every show, cable TV will turn into nothing but a low-cost, high-volume version of Netflix. That's not entirely bad, but it will become a monoculture, eliminating TV as we know it, for more, and cheaper movies.
Cable companies are already pushing digital cable... HARD. They are going to great lengths to kill-off analog cable. I don't see anyone without a cable box in 5 years, because of OnDemand, DVRs, HDTV, and being cheaper for the company.
So, that gotcha is (almost) a non-issue. They'd love to have one more excuse to (damn-near) force you to rent a box for every TV.
You're missing the point. Sure, it will require a bit more labor and possibly equipment, but you'll directly save around $0.50 per month for every one of those cable channels that you don't recieve. Pretty soon, you've got the 20 channels you want for $10, plus $5/mo rental on the digital cable box. They won't let it be quite that cheap of course, but even in the worst case, you can save a lot of money if you aren't subscribed to 80+ channels you couldn't care less about.
My sister was once bitten by a moose.
In other news, thousands of nerds listed their boxes of old legos on ebay today, now knowing their collections are worth thousands each.
Many GM seeds have been designed so that the crops will not produce seeds, and so, can't reproduce in the wild. This does pretty well eliminate the possibility of it spreading.
That leads to a complicated question. People are generally opposed to eating genetically modified plants, but how about if they were designed and grown to more effeciently produce biodiesel? Would there still be throngs of protestors?
What does everyone think?
Not in cold climates. At the very least you need an insulated and heated tank so it doesn't turn into gel.
It can't be used in METAL piping. Big difference there.
There are numerous types of materials that pipes can be made of, which will stand-up to salt very well.
Umm, you don't see rising prices as a way to naturally curb water usage, without rationing? You don't see desalination as a long-term solution to water shortages? You don't see grey-water systems? You don't see better water recycling? You don't see collecting the annual LA floodwaters, rather than letting them run-off to the ocean (no "grid")? I could go on if I wanted to waste more of my time, but I think you get the point.
As for a water grid, I'd have to say that's what we already have. Using rivers, dams, etc., several states share water as needed. Electricity, unlike water, flows up-hill easily, so I'd like to find out how you are going to make any kind of economical "water grid".
Sea water does have a tendency to corrode pipes, and a submarine isn't exactly the best place for materials that tolerate salt, or for regular maintenance of pipes in the walls.
Besides that, these are nuclear subs we are talking about, and they can produce more fresh water than they know what to do with. Why they are using waterless urinals is a good question.
Didn't you know... That's why most people keep house-plants around.
That's interesting, because last I checked, both countries are right near THE OCEAN, which has more than just a little water available.
That has got to be the stupidest rationalization I've heard. Even the scientists yelling about global warming don't claim this is evidence of it, but an exception.
You're just making up your own theories to suit yourself.
Actually, they often are.
The scientists commenting on global warming like to talk about record high tempuratures, and still increasing, but they like to omit that they're also finding certain years with below-normal tempuratures as well.
Not unless the areas that are currently sea-level are all at a perfect 45 degree angle. Since the angle is generally much less than that, it will move much more than 40cm inland. Most of the places I go to the beach, if the water was 10cm higher, it would cover perhaps 10meters more beach, and flood numerous beachfront businesses, homes, etc.
Not that I'm worried... Personally, I think you'd have to be an idiot to build there to begin with.
A trackball on the right (or left) side of the unit is completely out of the way of your hands. In the center, it is more likely to get in the way, particularly if you aren't a touch-typist, but possibly even then...
Feel free to point-out those usability tests in question. I would like to see how one comes to that conclusion.
No, no, no. You (and a few others) are simply not understanding what I've been talking about. You don't have to contort your hands to REACH the trackball... of course not... You have to contort your hands to actually USE the trackball.
With a trackball on the sides, you wrap your hand around the edge of the notebook, making it a much more natural position to hold your hand. Having it in the middle means you have to hold your hand flat, with your thumb elevated moving the trackball, which is very uncomfortable. It's so uncomfortable that people generally don't use a center trackball that way, but instead have their hand floating over the trackball, with no support.
But more than that, are issues of clicking... Just try to imagine how you are going to hold a mouse button down while dragging a window, icon, etc. As with a touchpad, you generally end up having to ball-up your hand into an awkard fist to hold the button and still use another finger to move the trackball. With the left mouse button to the left of the trackball, you have to hold your index finger on the button, while you curl your thumb under your palm so you can move the trackball at the same time. Macs, with one button, reduce that issue slightly, but not by much at all.
If they had the mouse buttons on the right side of the trackball, it would be far easier to use. Of course, you lose the ambidexterous advantage, and you might as well move it to the right side to be even more comfortable for right-handed use.
They could possibly make a left-handed model as well, or lefties should learn to use the mouse with their right hand. Tell me, how exactly do you use the numpad on the right side of the keyboard?
Not to sound insensitive, but making 99% of users miserable, so that 1% is just slightly less miserable, is very poor design.
Have you ever used one? You would have to have GIANT hands to hit the trackball while typing.
I'll call BS on that!
I'll admit it is somewhat a matter of personal preference, but I liked having a trackball on the right-side of the unit much more than in the center of the unit. Being near the edge of the unit allows you to bend your hand around it, making it almost feel like a normal thumb-operated trackball.
The center-mounted trackball necessitated the same terrible hand contortions you're familiar with due to notebook touchpads. I can certainly imagine it was a real pain for left-handed users, but you can't always make everything ambidexterous, and comfortable.
I'd pay thousands of dollars if I could get a modern notebook with a fairly normal keyboard and side-mounted trackball, like I had on my old 20MHz Compaq notebook.
Sometimes progress, isn't...
Not true. The two are not used at all consistently.
Another poster already mentioned the most common motorcycle, and motorcity. How about "motor cars", "General Motors", "Outboard motors", "Motor Oil", etc.?
What are you talking about? I've never had a problem on one platter lead of 100% data loss. As a matter of fact, I can't remember the last time I had any problems with a specific platter... It's always the heads or electronics that fail.
Short of practically building two complete drives in one, they can't have redundant independent systems like you want, so why don't you just buy two big cheap drives, and setup a RAID array for yourself? Then you get both performance and data protection.
Just as soon as you're willing to pay 100Xs more for the option. You can do it right now if you want... I had a PC running on just 32MB of compactflash several years ago.