speakers convert these digital quanta into discrete positions of a cone
Your loudspeakers' cones move continuously (after all, they are analog devices). To do otherwise would imply that they can instantly move from one position to another - and disclaimers aside, I think that we all know what that would mean!
(My pendantism aside, your post was kind of funny)
Auto shops are generally dependent on the decisions of auto manufacturers.
Auto shops repair the cars that the manufacturers design and build.
All the independent manufacturers who are dependent on Walmart have no choice about the their fate.
WalMart buys products from the independent manufactuers.
In health care, the big insurance companies make or break private practices.
Insurance companies pay the bills.
In each of those cases, there is a direct link to another business. In the case of Google and the websites that they rank, the relationship is quite tenuous. In the context of this thread, the parent to your post is correct - by having to rely on Google's pageranking system so much that it can make or break your business (particularly break), it reveals a weakness in the business model. It's gaming the system, except that the system doesn't reveal exactly how it works, so that rather than putting effort into designing a business and web site that maintains a high page rank by virtue of its "real" utility and popularity, the effort ends up going into tricking the system into believing that the web site is more valuable than it actually is.
The examples you gave are more symbiotic than parasitic. The business model suggested by the parent to your post is more parasitic than symbiotic.
The auto shops are symbiotic because if cars from a particular manufacturer can't be repaired anywhere but at the dealer, new car sales may begin to slump.
WalMart's suppliers are symbiotic because obviously both WalMart and its suppliers make money from the goods that they sell.
Even the insurance company and the doctor are symbiotic - if enough doctors don't accept an insurance company's payments, then the insurance company will have a hard time finding customers.
Can the big guys exert leverage? Of course. But the big guys have to deal with a lot of little guys...and the little guys have the ability to work together for their own good.
What might be more accurate would be a medical practice that invents patient cases in order to fraudulently bill Medicare. They rely on those fraudulent billings to stay in business. They are gaming the system. If Medicare doesn't catch on, but changes the way that the paperwork is handled, the practice can changethe way they bill, continuing their flawed business model. They are completely dependent upon Medicare - if the system changes enough, then the practice is done for. And, of course, if they get caught, they go to jail (and the practice is out of business). That's the sort of parasitic behavior that businesses who game Google are displaying...of course, gaming Google isn't illegal. Who knows, maybe it isn't even unethical. But I don't think that it's a smart business model, either.
I still recall reading the article in Wired magazine a few months back. A company approached them with an offer to provide them perfect diamond wafers (produced at less then $5/wafer) and Intel did not take the offer because they have not gotten their full investment back on the silicon. So given that they refused to have an easy method of increasing their processor spead by a very big number, it is not surprising that they still haven't gotten 64 bit over AMD
Yeah, dude, I remember hearing on Art Bell's show about this guy who made a carburator that could get something like 100 miles per gallon in a Lincoln Continental. He took it to all the big auto manufacturers, but they were so tied up with the big oil companies that they turned him down. He threatened to take it to the Japanese car makers and HE DISAPPEARED! It's like the cold fusion technology that the government got from aliens that they're keeping at Area 51...if they let it out, then the oil companies will go out of business. Since the oil companies contribute so much to the politicians, the politicians aren't going to give out that technology. SO WE'RE STILL DEPENDENT ON OIL!!!
Man, I hear you. I'll bet that Intel has some kind of connection to the silicon industry and they're just keeping us tied to slow chips so that the silicon wafer makers won't go out of business. It's all a conspiracy. I'm so glad that Art Bell is back. I really miss Miss Cleo, too.
Pretty dang close to the argument-losing Nazi comparison. And casting Tivo's opt-out-able anonymous usage surveys to the holocaust either extraordinarily overstates the Tivo issue or tragically minimalizes the holocaust - you pick. As an AC pointed out, it's comparisons like this that makes people shake their heads and decide that people like you are just paranoid - maybe you are and maybe you aren't, but I don't think that Martin Niemoller would have intended for your misquote of his testimony to the US Congress to be so trivalized.
Incidentally, the (correct) quote, from the Congressional Record, is:
When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church -- and there was nobody left to be concerned.
1) Play DVDs. More advanced features than standalone players, such as bookmarking (that allows you to skip that pesky 'forced' content), multiregion playback etc.
But lower video and audio quality than a dedicated solution, assuming that you're spending the same amount of money on your DVD system as you are on your HTPC. And that's even with S-Video.
2) Play games on a big TV with decent 5.1 sound.
True, but only on an HDTV screen. I'm not sure that I want to sit through a session of Half Life on a TV set. The 5.1 sound would be nice, though.
3) Play MP3s from a central server through your stereo.
That seems valid to me, although there are certainly cheaper ways to do it.
4) Used by people with high end projectors to deinterlace video signals.
Not. People with high end projectors use something like one of the deinterlacers from Faroudja. The video output from a PC doesn't begin to approach the limits of a high-end projector system.
Any Bluetooth-enabled cell phone can send the picture to another Bluetooth-enabled device. I do that with my Nokia 3650 to my PC and my Tungsten T3. It's not as fast as USB, but given the size of the images, it doesn't much matter. For that matter, the 3650 also has an IR port, so I can send stuff to my notebook or T3 that way, too! The phone was even subsidized.
If I (as an individual) was caught dumping poison into YOUR drinking water, I'd be in jail for attempted murder.
If a corporation dumps toxic waste into a public water system, they can be fined.
In theory, the officers could be locked up, but that doesn't happen much in practice.
Corporations are treated as people, but they don't run the same risks that people do.
How do you lock up a corporation? The only thing that you can do to a corporation is take money from it. Now, you can punish the executives behind the corporation by putting them into jail. It does, in fact, happen fairly often in practice. Consider the ongoing Enron debacle. Would you suggest that a corporation be punished by, say, closing the doors for good? That seems a tad counterproductive, in that we then have to pick up the tab for the unemployment of all of the workers, people whose only mistake was working for a company that committed a crime. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!
Oh, and corporations are not treated like people. This whole idea of corporations==person simply is not true. As one of the partners in a limited liability corporation, I can tell you that we have to jump through many more hoops and are subject to much more regulation than a corporeal person. And the consequences for breaking those rules have penalties that apply to both the company and the partners.
It's WebTV!!!!! No, really! Think about it...you can surf the Internet...ON YOUR TV! How cool is that? It's the killer app for television! They'll sell millions! I can't wait for the IPO!!!
The violation of privacy is that they collect and keep the personal information in the first place.
I raise the bullshit flag. I've got a couple of those "discount" cards. It wasn't even in fine print where the agreement said that they would collect marketing data. And even if it wasn't in the agreement, I would have assumed that they were collecting the data. Obtaining and using the card is voluntary, so if you don't want to share your shopping information with the store (and whomever else they might want to share it with), then just don't get one.
Not even a bootloader problem. I don't have a floppy in my computer. The kernel complains, then moves on. I guess I could edit the error out, but no harm, no foul.
Re:Building A Low-Budget TiVo Substitute?
on
Build Your Own PVR
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· Score: 1
There was an Ask Slashdot on this very topic not so long ago:
Yes, but the gentleman who built the one in this article most definitely didn't have a low budget. $800? Talk about diminishing returns!
Bullshit. The return system is automated. You're a moron.
What the heck is going on here? An AC actually using an apostrophe correctly? Has Hell frozen over? Has Microsoft embraced Linux? Has SCO dismissed their suit? Has Timothy renounced dupes?
Good heavens, much more of this and we'll start expecting proper grammar and spelling in all the comments...why, maybe even from the/. staff as well!
I planned on just throwing them on eBay, should I keep them?
Put them on Ebay. Depending upon the configuration, they sell for between $40 and $150. There's a pretty thriving market for them, even if the shipping runs to around $30. I have three Ultra 1's and two SS20's that run 'round the clock as an ftp server, mail server, domain server and web server, with all but one running Aurora Linux (the other runs Solaris 9). Even with a lot of traffic, they work just fine.
Pffft. I've had a cell phone for something like 7 or 8 years. It doesn't give me any stress. It's not a leash for my boss to keep track of me, it's not a 24/7 contact device and it causes me absolutely no stress. It's a tool...just like a hammer. It's great for calling my wife at home when I'm at the grocery store because I found something tasty that might be good for dinner. It's handy for traveling because the people who have my number can find me in an emergency. And speaking of emergencies, well, duh.
Now, I'm not saying that a cell phone might stress you out...I'm sure that it does, because you're not using it right. But it doesn't stress me out and I'm not going to eliminate it from my life. I do have to say, though, that if a cell phone is the biggest stress-causer in your life, then you don't have much to complain about!
It's chic to hate the SUV, but I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times that my Ford Explorer has gotten me (or, better put, others) out of trouble, mostly from people driving their front wheel drive econoboxes in the snow like it was the Indy 500. I know that I'm in the minority, but a small resort town in the mountains requires some sort of four wheel drive vehicle with a little bit of oomph. There's no way that a small passenger car is going to get through the roads after an overnight, two foot snowstorm. And even after the roads are plowed, they're still incredibly treacherous. And don't get me started on how in the world I'll get up to service a microwave link at the top of the mountain in a Subaru Justy.
I think that US companies have used Ireland as an entry point into the EU for longer than the Euro has been around. Perhaps it's because of a (relatively) low-cost labor force and a business-friendly government.
As to English-speaking, I won't make any snide comments since my ancestors emigrated to the US from Scotland and Wales and were more than capable of tearing the language to verbal shreds.
Just a little addendum on the language. Mac is scottish, Mc is Irish. Both from the Gaelic roots. When the britons and normans came in, it switched to O' for their language (middle english) for "of". So, Darl McBride is "Darl, son of Bride" whereas Darl O'Assbag would be "Darl, of Assbag".
I'm with you on Darl of Assbag, but the Mac vs. Mc thing isn't correct. Both can be of Irish or Scottish origin. "O" is Irish. I know that it must seem pedantic or anal retentive or something, but "Mc" is an abbreviation of "Mac". I got all of this drilled into my head by my grandfather. He claimed that we are descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, allegedly the founder of clan MacNeill. Except that we spell it McNeil. And I guess there are a gazillion other ways to spell it. We must be like the Smiths of Scotland.
You know, punch cards really do work. It's a simple system, it's anonymous, reasonably resistant to tampering and really easy to use. I'm no Luddite, but I just don't see the need to implement a complicated technical solution to a problem that may not exist...and to do it quickly. I've voted with punch cards since 1980. I just don't see what's so difficult about lining up the stylus with the hole next to the candidate's name and pushing it all the way down!
I have to admit that since the last election, I do look closely at the punch card to make sure that the holes are cleanly punched. My feeling is that it's an extremely important civic duty and calls for a bit of care and attention on the part of the voter.
Slashdot Mirror
Your loudspeakers' cones move continuously (after all, they are analog devices). To do otherwise would imply that they can instantly move from one position to another - and disclaimers aside, I think that we all know what that would mean!
(My pendantism aside, your post was kind of funny)
-h-
Auto shops repair the cars that the manufacturers design and build.
All the independent manufacturers who are dependent on Walmart have no choice about the their fate.
WalMart buys products from the independent manufactuers.
In health care, the big insurance companies make or break private practices.
Insurance companies pay the bills.
In each of those cases, there is a direct link to another business. In the case of Google and the websites that they rank, the relationship is quite tenuous. In the context of this thread, the parent to your post is correct - by having to rely on Google's pageranking system so much that it can make or break your business (particularly break), it reveals a weakness in the business model. It's gaming the system, except that the system doesn't reveal exactly how it works, so that rather than putting effort into designing a business and web site that maintains a high page rank by virtue of its "real" utility and popularity, the effort ends up going into tricking the system into believing that the web site is more valuable than it actually is.
The examples you gave are more symbiotic than parasitic. The business model suggested by the parent to your post is more parasitic than symbiotic.
The auto shops are symbiotic because if cars from a particular manufacturer can't be repaired anywhere but at the dealer, new car sales may begin to slump.
WalMart's suppliers are symbiotic because obviously both WalMart and its suppliers make money from the goods that they sell.
Even the insurance company and the doctor are symbiotic - if enough doctors don't accept an insurance company's payments, then the insurance company will have a hard time finding customers.
Can the big guys exert leverage? Of course. But the big guys have to deal with a lot of little guys...and the little guys have the ability to work together for their own good.
What might be more accurate would be a medical practice that invents patient cases in order to fraudulently bill Medicare. They rely on those fraudulent billings to stay in business. They are gaming the system. If Medicare doesn't catch on, but changes the way that the paperwork is handled, the practice can changethe way they bill, continuing their flawed business model. They are completely dependent upon Medicare - if the system changes enough, then the practice is done for. And, of course, if they get caught, they go to jail (and the practice is out of business). That's the sort of parasitic behavior that businesses who game Google are displaying...of course, gaming Google isn't illegal. Who knows, maybe it isn't even unethical. But I don't think that it's a smart business model, either.
-h-
Yeah, dude, I remember hearing on Art Bell's show about this guy who made a carburator that could get something like 100 miles per gallon in a Lincoln Continental. He took it to all the big auto manufacturers, but they were so tied up with the big oil companies that they turned him down. He threatened to take it to the Japanese car makers and HE DISAPPEARED! It's like the cold fusion technology that the government got from aliens that they're keeping at Area 51...if they let it out, then the oil companies will go out of business. Since the oil companies contribute so much to the politicians, the politicians aren't going to give out that technology. SO WE'RE STILL DEPENDENT ON OIL!!!
Man, I hear you. I'll bet that Intel has some kind of connection to the silicon industry and they're just keeping us tied to slow chips so that the silicon wafer makers won't go out of business. It's all a conspiracy. I'm so glad that Art Bell is back. I really miss Miss Cleo, too.
~h~
Incidentally, the (correct) quote, from the Congressional Record, is:
When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church -- and there was nobody left to be concerned.
-h-
Indeed I have. It's the "Stereo Review" of the online video community.
But lower video and audio quality than a dedicated solution, assuming that you're spending the same amount of money on your DVD system as you are on your HTPC. And that's even with S-Video.
2) Play games on a big TV with decent 5.1 sound.
True, but only on an HDTV screen. I'm not sure that I want to sit through a session of Half Life on a TV set. The 5.1 sound would be nice, though.
3) Play MP3s from a central server through your stereo.
That seems valid to me, although there are certainly cheaper ways to do it.
4) Used by people with high end projectors to deinterlace video signals.
Not. People with high end projectors use something like one of the deinterlacers from Faroudja. The video output from a PC doesn't begin to approach the limits of a high-end projector system.
5) Confirm your geekiness.
No argument there.
-h-
-h-
If a corporation dumps toxic waste into a public water system, they can be fined.
In theory, the officers could be locked up, but that doesn't happen much in practice.
Corporations are treated as people, but they don't run the same risks that people do.
How do you lock up a corporation? The only thing that you can do to a corporation is take money from it. Now, you can punish the executives behind the corporation by putting them into jail. It does, in fact, happen fairly often in practice. Consider the ongoing Enron debacle. Would you suggest that a corporation be punished by, say, closing the doors for good? That seems a tad counterproductive, in that we then have to pick up the tab for the unemployment of all of the workers, people whose only mistake was working for a company that committed a crime. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face!
Oh, and corporations are not treated like people. This whole idea of corporations==person simply is not true. As one of the partners in a limited liability corporation, I can tell you that we have to jump through many more hoops and are subject to much more regulation than a corporeal person. And the consequences for breaking those rules have penalties that apply to both the company and the partners.
-h-
-h-
I raise the bullshit flag. I've got a couple of those "discount" cards. It wasn't even in fine print where the agreement said that they would collect marketing data. And even if it wasn't in the agreement, I would have assumed that they were collecting the data. Obtaining and using the card is voluntary, so if you don't want to share your shopping information with the store (and whomever else they might want to share it with), then just don't get one.
-h-
They didn't use an obsolete UltraSparc chip?
Not even a bootloader problem. I don't have a floppy in my computer. The kernel complains, then moves on. I guess I could edit the error out, but no harm, no foul.
Yes, but the gentleman who built the one in this article most definitely didn't have a low budget. $800? Talk about diminishing returns!
What the heck is going on here? An AC actually using an apostrophe correctly? Has Hell frozen over? Has Microsoft embraced Linux? Has SCO dismissed their suit? Has Timothy renounced dupes?
Good heavens, much more of this and we'll start expecting proper grammar and spelling in all the comments...why, maybe even from the
Are you nuts??? It can handle a lot of traffic, but not a deluge of biblical proportions!
-h-
Put them on Ebay. Depending upon the configuration, they sell for between $40 and $150. There's a pretty thriving market for them, even if the shipping runs to around $30. I have three Ultra 1's and two SS20's that run 'round the clock as an ftp server, mail server, domain server and web server, with all but one running Aurora Linux (the other runs Solaris 9). Even with a lot of traffic, they work just fine.
-h-
Amen, brother!!!
Now, I'm not saying that a cell phone might stress you out...I'm sure that it does, because you're not using it right. But it doesn't stress me out and I'm not going to eliminate it from my life. I do have to say, though, that if a cell phone is the biggest stress-causer in your life, then you don't have much to complain about!
-h-
It's chic to hate the SUV, but I don't have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times that my Ford Explorer has gotten me (or, better put, others) out of trouble, mostly from people driving their front wheel drive econoboxes in the snow like it was the Indy 500. I know that I'm in the minority, but a small resort town in the mountains requires some sort of four wheel drive vehicle with a little bit of oomph. There's no way that a small passenger car is going to get through the roads after an overnight, two foot snowstorm. And even after the roads are plowed, they're still incredibly treacherous. And don't get me started on how in the world I'll get up to service a microwave link at the top of the mountain in a Subaru Justy.
-h-
As to English-speaking, I won't make any snide comments since my ancestors emigrated to the US from Scotland and Wales and were more than capable of tearing the language to verbal shreds.
-h-
I'm with you on Darl of Assbag, but the Mac vs. Mc thing isn't correct. Both can be of Irish or Scottish origin. "O" is Irish. I know that it must seem pedantic or anal retentive or something, but "Mc" is an abbreviation of "Mac". I got all of this drilled into my head by my grandfather. He claimed that we are descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, allegedly the founder of clan MacNeill. Except that we spell it McNeil. And I guess there are a gazillion other ways to spell it. We must be like the Smiths of Scotland.
-h-
Take a look at his web site...he's nuttier than a bottle of Planter's Peanuts!
-h-
I have to admit that since the last election, I do look closely at the punch card to make sure that the holes are cleanly punched. My feeling is that it's an extremely important civic duty and calls for a bit of care and attention on the part of the voter.
-h-
-h-