First they wiped out my Super Mario 64 DS save game. And after a stern talk they wipe out Wario Ware Touched the very next day. Wario lost all the toy games as well - which they especially liked.
The twin girls are 4 years old. At least my 6 year old son knows how to avoid my save games.
I guess they should be a tiny bit more intimidated by technology. I need to make sure my Windows boxen files are properly protected from deletion...
With everyone having their tools calibrated and marked in English units does make a difference.
Merely learning new units of measure is the easy part. It just takes time.
But if all your tools and machines use the old units it may be impossible to create products with metric units. Thus you can't just force the change. And new tools with new units won't fit your existing tools and machines. So you would need a double set of them.
With the amount of producing industry in the US, it looks like a very long road to change to metric.
Just use digital images of the books in their shelves. If you have books hidden behind other books or in boxes, it's faster to browse the images. You generally have an idea where the book might be and can check the relevant images....maybe I should try that myself...
At least here in Finland you can't just change the price of a product by changing the barcode. The cash register uses the original EAN/UPC barcodes of the product to identify it and checks its database for the current price. A new barcode would show up as an unidentified product.
And switching barcodes is rather difficult, as the barcode is part of the product packaging. A sticker would look quite suspicious (although they do exist). And since the cash register always shows the product name, a switched code would display the name of the original product.
The returned recycle bottle receipt might be one exception. I think it encodes the sum of the returned bottles, and the cash register could accept custom versions. (It also might just use unique codes generated by the recycled bottle collector machine.)
> No built in support for turning MP3 to bookmarkable AAC's
The podcasts are bookmarkable automatically. Also on the iPod (after its update). They just enabled the same functionality as in audiobooks for any podcast file.
I really enjoy podcasts. There really isn't any interesting programming here in Finland and with three kids it's pretty impossible to tune in at some weekly schedule.
I also recently got an iPod Mini. This part is essential. A portable media player that is. I only listen to podcasts when "travelling". On my way to work, lunch breaks, walks, etc... Listening while at the computer doesn't really work for me. Can't focus.
Now I can get interesting programming and listen to it any time I get a few minutes free.
I feel I've been given a chance to experience good entertainment in a both new (internet) and old (audio/radio) way. Excellent value.
The problem with fractal image compression is the required processing power and uneven results. Some images compress a lot less than others while still consuming cycles. This results in a bad user experience.
As a generic image compression algorithm fractal compression just falls short. When jpeg2000 can't challenge jpg, fractals don't have a chance.
More expensive games?
on
Xbox 2 for $400?
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
New Xbox games are currently about 60 euros (~80$) here in Finland. It feels to be pretty close to the limit anyone is willing to pay for a new game around here.
I talked with an optician who convinced me I would sacrifice some of my vision when I get older.
I'm now 33 with about -4.0 in both eyes. I can read a book without glasses. LASIK (or similar) would most likely give me good vision, but as I get older my ability to focus will degrade. Meaning I would most likely need two pair of glasses - one for reading and another pair for general use. Without the operation I should manage with just this pair as I get older.
"Are you _really_ that uncomfortable with your glasses?", he asked.
> If you think jpeg200 offers compression, then you missed the fif format completely.
Last time I checked (around october -01) LuraTech had the only actually usable fractal compression product: LuraWave.
While the images shown are impressive (better than classic JPEGs anyway) and the fractal zoom is neat - fractal compression has not (yet) turned out to be very usable. And it seems unlikely to be usable for generic image compression. Building a general purpose fractal image compression/decompression engine has turned out to be quite difficult: The results (of compression) vary a lot and it requires a lot of processing power during compression. Research on fractal compression seems to have slowed down quite a lot since the 90s. Some links.
Wavelets (used by JPEG2000) are much easier to implement and provide more predictable results in speed and compression results. Progressive coding is also a very usable feature (with wavelets it provides the best possible image with the data already transferred).
They (MusicNet) could just run the servers in the US and accept credit cards. Granted the service might be slower, but I'm pretty happy with the services that aren't in Europe. (I live in Finland.)
Of course setting up a full local service using local currency with local banks with a help desk speaking my native language might have a better chance of being successful.
DivX (from Project Mayo) is based on MPEG-4 and will at some point be fully MPEG-4 compliant. It still needs more features but the existing features are according to MPEG-4.
What is DivX Forum discussion about.avi
MS-MPEG4 is - of course - a different take on MPEG-4 with a different feature set.
Slashdot Mirror
Mod parent up. Sounds to me, that IE+Bingbar just recognizes the use of _a_ search engine and adds relevance to the clicked results.
Oh man I hear you.
First they wiped out my Super Mario 64 DS save game. And after a stern talk they wipe out Wario Ware Touched the very next day. Wario lost all the toy games as well - which they especially liked.
The twin girls are 4 years old. At least my 6 year old son knows how to avoid my save games.
I guess they should be a tiny bit more intimidated by technology. I need to make sure my Windows boxen files are properly protected from deletion...
With everyone having their tools calibrated and marked in English units does make a difference.
Merely learning new units of measure is the easy part. It just takes time.
But if all your tools and machines use the old units it may be impossible to create products with metric units. Thus you can't just force the change. And new tools with new units won't fit your existing tools and machines. So you would need a double set of them.
With the amount of producing industry in the US, it looks like a very long road to change to metric.
(But that's just my thoughts from Finland.)
It's free, secure, easy to use and runs off a thumb drive.
Changing passwords isn't really a big deal when using KeePass.
Well DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU *cough* UUUUUUUUH!
Just use digital images of the books in their shelves. If you have books hidden behind other books or in boxes, it's faster to browse the images. You generally have an idea where the book might be and can check the relevant images. ...maybe I should try that myself...
The one I heard was:
"1 = 2, for very large values of 1"
The ISP. Which in the end means you, the customer
Or the government. Depends on the country.
And if the government is paying, then it's money that won't be used for schools, hospitals...
I recently purchased a new MS keyboard with the fingerprint scanner.
With 5 family members and Windows XP, it's working fabulously at home.
I wouldn't change my door locks to fingerprint scanners, but for a home computer used by the family it's great.
At least here in Finland you can't just change the price of a product by changing the barcode. The cash register uses the original EAN/UPC barcodes of the product to identify it and checks its database for the current price. A new barcode would show up as an unidentified product.
And switching barcodes is rather difficult, as the barcode is part of the product packaging. A sticker would look quite suspicious (although they do exist). And since the cash register always shows the product name, a switched code would display the name of the original product.
The returned recycle bottle receipt might be one exception. I think it encodes the sum of the returned bottles, and the cash register could accept custom versions. (It also might just use unique codes generated by the recycled bottle collector machine.)
> No built in support for turning MP3 to bookmarkable AAC's
The podcasts are bookmarkable automatically. Also on the iPod (after its update). They just enabled the same functionality as in audiobooks for any podcast file.
I also recently got an iPod Mini. This part is essential. A portable media player that is. I only listen to podcasts when "travelling". On my way to work, lunch breaks, walks, etc... Listening while at the computer doesn't really work for me. Can't focus.
Now I can get interesting programming and listen to it any time I get a few minutes free.
I feel I've been given a chance to experience good entertainment in a both new (internet) and old (audio/radio) way. Excellent value.
A good place to start: PodcastAlley
The problem with fractal image compression is the required processing power and uneven results. Some images compress a lot less than others while still consuming cycles. This results in a bad user experience.
As a generic image compression algorithm fractal compression just falls short. When jpeg2000 can't challenge jpg, fractals don't have a chance.
New Xbox games are currently about 60 euros (~80$) here in Finland. It feels to be pretty close to the limit anyone is willing to pay for a new game around here.
Well... most languages dont. Try editing recorded speech. It's not that easy to separate words.
Depending on who is talking, skipping pauses between sentences is also common. Especially when reading aloud.
I talked with an optician who convinced me I would sacrifice some of my vision when I get older.
I'm now 33 with about -4.0 in both eyes. I can read a book without glasses. LASIK (or similar) would most likely give me good vision, but as I get older my ability to focus will degrade. Meaning I would most likely need two pair of glasses - one for reading and another pair for general use. Without the operation I should manage with just this pair as I get older.
"Are you _really_ that uncomfortable with your glasses?", he asked.
I guess I wasn't.
...funnier each time. A few more times and I need replacement abs. Oh wait, you probably need to have some first...
Last time I checked (around october -01) LuraTech had the only actually usable fractal compression product: LuraWave.
While the images shown are impressive (better than classic JPEGs anyway) and the fractal zoom is neat - fractal compression has not (yet) turned out to be very usable. And it seems unlikely to be usable for generic image compression. Building a general purpose fractal image compression/decompression engine has turned out to be quite difficult: The results (of compression) vary a lot and it requires a lot of processing power during compression. Research on fractal compression seems to have slowed down quite a lot since the 90s. Some links.
Wavelets (used by JPEG2000) are much easier to implement and provide more predictable results in speed and compression results. Progressive coding is also a very usable feature (with wavelets it provides the best possible image with the data already transferred).
They (MusicNet) could just run the servers in the US and accept credit cards. Granted the service might be slower, but I'm pretty happy with the services that aren't in Europe. (I live in Finland.)
Of course setting up a full local service using local currency with local banks with a help desk speaking my native language might have a better chance of being successful.
DivX (from Project Mayo) is based on MPEG-4 and will at some point be fully MPEG-4 compliant. It still needs more features but the existing features are according to MPEG-4. .avi
What is DivX
Forum discussion about
MS-MPEG4 is - of course - a different take on MPEG-4 with a different feature set.