If you compare the price of an iPod to a 200 GB hard drive, it seems to me that for storing video footage it's the most stupid solution ever. An exteral USB or Firewire case and a couple of 200 GB drives would have been: - cheaper - faster (I don't think the IPod comes even close to a 7200 RPM drive) - able to store a lot more data
I should think that portability is a factor. Sure, you can get 200 gig hard drives for that cost, but you have to plug those into the wall for power. Not good if you're working in remote locations with a PowerBook. By using the iPod, you can power the drive from the laptop. Maximum portability, minimum trouble. Granted, you can get a 80GB bus-powered 2.5" drive instead, but you can't listen to music while you're transporting that.:-) *assuming there's any space left on the drive for music...
If they'd left it under Windows, can you imagine what some of the Land Warrior messages would be?
"You appear to be shooting a building. Would you like some assistance?"
"You have moved out of your designated combat zone. Please re-authenticate before continuing."
"Error: Order for airstrike not understood. Auto-correcting to airstrip. Construction team has been despached.
"Local radio broacast is incompatible with wireless systems. Please reconfigure before attempting contact with Command & Control."
"Critical Security Alert #25: system may be hacked by outside forces by sending a basic script through the Active Directory port. A patch will be available shortly."
Here's hoping they have a bit more sense this time around.
Once you buy the gift certificate, its value and redemption are your responsibility, which you promptly hand off to someone else. Since Apple gets the money when the gift certificate is bought, they shouldn't care what happens to it inbetween purchase and redemption.
There's even a clause on the last page listed above: 11. Apple is not responsible for lost or stolen gift certificates or allowances. If you have any questions, please visit Apple iTunes Music Store Customer Service at http://www.info.apple.com/usen/itunes/musicstore.h tml.
Also from that last page comes these: 3. Access to, redemption of gift certificates and allowances, or purchases, from, and use of products purchased on, the iTunes Music Store, is subject to acceptance of its Terms of Service presented at the time of redemption or purchase, and found at http://www.info.apple.com/usen/itunes/terms.html 8. If your order exceeds the amount of your gift certificate or allowance, you must establish an iTunes Music Store customer account and pay for the balance with a credit card.
...however you will need to at least establish an iTunes store ID, or the store can't customize (encrypt) the song for your use only.
An article from last year says the price for the current top of the heap, the NEC Earth Simlator, cost roughly $350 million to build, and IBM's ASCI White, another contendor, was around $110 million.
Hassan Aref, Dean of Engineers at Virginia Tech, answered a lot of questions about the setup of the computer during a 20 minute interview last month. Go to the Your Mac Life archives page and pull down the MP3 or AAC archive of the Sep 10 show. The interview itself is 1:15-1:35.
This is all correct. The AutoStart-9805 Worm used the feature to automatically run the worm program and spread to other Macs. Since then Apple has defaulted this feature to *OFF*.
Why make it a QuickTime setting? Because back then QuickTime was the only thing using the feature. Even today very few programs use it, if any.
Dell has merely announced that they will release a portable music player and an internet music service. I can't find details on them anywhere. Until I see details on the capabilities and standards for both of them, I'm reserving judgement.
Plus, if Apple gets the iTunes for Windows stuff out in October as rumored, then Dell may still appear behind the times once they actually ship product.
I don't believe the "Mac Only" aspect of the iTunes Music Store was a contractual one. I believe it was a technical one.
When Apple released the Windows version of the iPod, they leveraged the MusicMatch application to work as the connection to the PC. But since the Music Store operates entirely through iTunes, MusicMatch doesn't cut it. Apple must be working on a full version of iTunes for Windows, and needed the extra time to make it work as well as the Mac version.
But most of this we already knew or predicted. Apple said Windows support would be out at the end of the year when they introduced the service last June.
For those interested in a lot of FAQs about the project, I'd recommend a visit to Your Mac Life, the weekly net radio program about Macs. Their Sep 10 show has a half-hour interview with Hassan Aref, the Dean in charge of the school and the project. Much useful info.
The HDD that Sony is shipping in Spring 2004 is only 40 gigs. That should be enough for localized game storage, like Final Fantasy XI and EverQuest, but may not be used for much else. In comparison, the 120 gig drive in the PSX would be used to record and save TV programs, like TiVo does.
I'm wondering how many days it'll take until someone hacks a 200 gig or larger drive into it...
Words from the B5 community: All of the live-action footage has indeed been filmed in widescreen, so it is possible to eventually get widescreen versions out on DVD and the like. However, the CGI was done full-frame. On the bad side, that means all of the CGI would have to be re-rendered for widescreen release. On the good side, all of the CGI elements have been archived, so it's a fairly simple process to open the files, move a few elements around to take advantage of the wider screen, and render it all again. Newer render farms could do it faster, cheaper, and better than the original ones, too! The effect might be something akin to comparing the original B5 pilot movie with the Special Edition released a year or two ago. On another front would be the possible extra content. I don't recall any mention from JMS about desires concerning extra content, but he would want to be directly involved in such, which could be a substantial amount of time. Warner might issue such discs with just the bare episodes, however, similar to how Paramount is releasing the Star Trek episodes on DVD. On the third front, though, is the viability. An earlier response mentioned the sudden stop of the Warner Home Video tapes. Now that the show will be on somewhere that raises its public presence again, sales of the tapes could pick up. Such sales would probably have a direct bearing on whether WHV would be willing to put the series on DVD. In the near term, though, a DVD release would be just the current full-frame form, probably with little or no extra content. A widescreen release isn't likely until the number of widescreen/HDTV sets in the market dramatically increases. All in all, the chances of seeing episodes on DVD are probably most directly related to VHS sales (and SFC broadcast ratings). So the best things you can do to promote DVD releases, weird as it sounds, would be to BUY THE VHS TAPES! and WATCH THE SFC BROADCASTS!
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It makes one wonder. If the muggers had gotten the iPod, would they have had any clue about its contents? Would they even have plugged it in?
Think of how many times a thug has fenced some piece of storage technology without ever realizing the value of the files on it...
If you compare the price of an iPod to a 200 GB hard drive, it seems to me that for storing video footage it's the most stupid solution ever. An exteral USB or Firewire case and a couple of 200 GB drives would have been:
:-)
- cheaper
- faster (I don't think the IPod comes even close to a 7200 RPM drive)
- able to store a lot more data
I should think that portability is a factor. Sure, you can get 200 gig hard drives for that cost, but you have to plug those into the wall for power. Not good if you're working in remote locations with a PowerBook. By using the iPod, you can power the drive from the laptop. Maximum portability, minimum trouble.
Granted, you can get a 80GB bus-powered 2.5" drive instead, but you can't listen to music while you're transporting that.
*assuming there's any space left on the drive for music...
If they'd left it under Windows, can you imagine what some of the Land Warrior messages would be?
"You appear to be shooting a building. Would you like some assistance?"
"You have moved out of your designated combat zone. Please re-authenticate before continuing."
"Error: Order for airstrike not understood. Auto-correcting to airstrip. Construction team has been despached.
"Local radio broacast is incompatible with wireless systems. Please reconfigure before attempting contact with Command & Control."
"Critical Security Alert #25: system may be hacked by outside forces by sending a basic script through the Active Directory port. A patch will be available shortly."
Here's hoping they have a bit more sense this time around.
Much like Bill Gates' apocryphal line from 1981?
"640k of RAM should be enough for anyone."
Once you buy the gift certificate, its value and redemption are your responsibility, which you promptly hand off to someone else. Since Apple gets the money when the gift certificate is bought, they shouldn't care what happens to it inbetween purchase and redemption.
There's even a clause on the last page listed above:
11. Apple is not responsible for lost or stolen gift certificates or allowances. If you have any questions, please visit Apple iTunes Music Store Customer Service at http://www.info.apple.com/usen/itunes/musicstore.
Also from that last page comes these:
3. Access to, redemption of gift certificates and allowances, or purchases, from, and use of products purchased on, the iTunes Music Store, is subject to acceptance of its Terms of Service presented at the time of redemption or purchase, and found at http://www.info.apple.com/usen/itunes/terms.html
An article from last year says the price for the current top of the heap, the NEC Earth Simlator, cost roughly $350 million to build, and IBM's ASCI White, another contendor, was around $110 million.
Hassan Aref, Dean of Engineers at Virginia Tech, answered a lot of questions about the setup of the computer during a 20 minute interview last month. Go to the Your Mac Life archives page and pull down the MP3 or AAC archive of the Sep 10 show. The interview itself is 1:15-1:35.
This is all correct.
The AutoStart-9805 Worm used the feature to automatically run the worm program and spread to other Macs. Since then Apple has defaulted this feature to *OFF*.
Why make it a QuickTime setting? Because back then QuickTime was the only thing using the feature. Even today very few programs use it, if any.
Dell has merely announced that they will release a portable music player and an internet music service. I can't find details on them anywhere. Until I see details on the capabilities and standards for both of them, I'm reserving judgement.
Plus, if Apple gets the iTunes for Windows stuff out in October as rumored, then Dell may still appear behind the times once they actually ship product.
Rumor is that Apple has moved up their release of iTunes for Windows from December to October. Stay tuned!
I don't believe the "Mac Only" aspect of the iTunes Music Store was a contractual one. I believe it was a technical one.
When Apple released the Windows version of the iPod, they leveraged the MusicMatch application to work as the connection to the PC. But since the Music Store operates entirely through iTunes, MusicMatch doesn't cut it. Apple must be working on a full version of iTunes for Windows, and needed the extra time to make it work as well as the Mac version.
But most of this we already knew or predicted. Apple said Windows support would be out at the end of the year when they introduced the service last June.
For those interested in a lot of FAQs about the project, I'd recommend a visit to Your Mac Life, the weekly net radio program about Macs. Their Sep 10 show has a half-hour interview with Hassan Aref, the Dean in charge of the school and the project. Much useful info.
The HDD that Sony is shipping in Spring 2004 is only 40 gigs. That should be enough for localized game storage, like Final Fantasy XI and EverQuest, but may not be used for much else. In comparison, the 120 gig drive in the PSX would be used to record and save TV programs, like TiVo does.
I'm wondering how many days it'll take until someone hacks a 200 gig or larger drive into it...
Words from the B5 community: All of the live-action footage has indeed been filmed in widescreen, so it is possible to eventually get widescreen versions out on DVD and the like. However, the CGI was done full-frame. On the bad side, that means all of the CGI would have to be re-rendered for widescreen release. On the good side, all of the CGI elements have been archived, so it's a fairly simple process to open the files, move a few elements around to take advantage of the wider screen, and render it all again. Newer render farms could do it faster, cheaper, and better than the original ones, too! The effect might be something akin to comparing the original B5 pilot movie with the Special Edition released a year or two ago. On another front would be the possible extra content. I don't recall any mention from JMS about desires concerning extra content, but he would want to be directly involved in such, which could be a substantial amount of time. Warner might issue such discs with just the bare episodes, however, similar to how Paramount is releasing the Star Trek episodes on DVD. On the third front, though, is the viability. An earlier response mentioned the sudden stop of the Warner Home Video tapes. Now that the show will be on somewhere that raises its public presence again, sales of the tapes could pick up. Such sales would probably have a direct bearing on whether WHV would be willing to put the series on DVD. In the near term, though, a DVD release would be just the current full-frame form, probably with little or no extra content. A widescreen release isn't likely until the number of widescreen/HDTV sets in the market dramatically increases. All in all, the chances of seeing episodes on DVD are probably most directly related to VHS sales (and SFC broadcast ratings). So the best things you can do to promote DVD releases, weird as it sounds, would be to BUY THE VHS TAPES! and WATCH THE SFC BROADCASTS!