Actually, I was in an Electronics Boutique about two weeks ago attempting to play with the demo unit when it completely locked up. When I hit the reset button (which is quite prominently placed on the front of the kiosk) I got an error quite similar to the one shown on HardOCP. My friends andI had quite a laugh, and left without wanting to buy an XBOX. It is NOT an urban myth.
(1) Library acquisitions are and must be governed by local community standards.
This I agree with. Any public library has a limited budget with which to aquire materials. Local community standards and policies generally indicate the types of materials a library will purchase, since one of the goals of any public library is to serve the community. A responsible library will attempt to meet its community's needs. But it does so only infsofar as it has a limited budget and a limited amount of shelf space. A library with an infinite amount of money and storage space would have every work (pornographic or not) on its shelves. Librarians do not view themselves as the defenders of community standards. To prevent access to information is the antithisis of everything that librarians stand for.
In addition, the internet is a non-physical medium. Yes, it requires PCs and bandwidth and ISPs to access, and these cost money. That assertion I cannot argue with. But each visit to a web page does not take up shelf space, require cataloging, and eventually need replacement. Librarians do not need to wade through the millions of web pages to find the worthy few to take up space in their local library. They can have them all for the price of a PC and a connection to the internet.
Therefore, point three does not follow from one and two. The job of a librarian is not to restrict access to information, but rather to promote it. The selection of materials is not done to enforce arbitrary local standards, but rather to meet the interests of a community. In the case of the internet, this selection does not need to be done to the preclusion of other materials.
Ever wonder why the F-117 (the "stealth fighter") is composed of flat panels, all at odd angles? For purposes of stealth aircraft, corners are bad ju-ju.
I realize that this is off topic, but I felt I had to respond...
The f-117, and all of its flat panels are actually based on the "hopeless diamond" design. It is a very angular geometrical shape that is completely invisible to radar. The math behind it was developed by some german scientist.
When placed in a radar test chamber, the f-117 completely disappears. In fact, one of the sticking points in the development of the F-117 was figuring out how to hide the radar cross-section of the pilot's head through the window of the plane. The solution... Coat the window with a transparent film of gold.
So, to sum up, the F-117 design was not due to lack of computing power, but rather the mathematics of stealth.
As an American, I am surprised by the reaction to this. "It's a very dangerous weapon...It has the potential for human rights abuse...Think of all the crimes that will occur because of it." Yet we live in a country where guns are probably as prevelant as televisions. If guns don't have the potential for abuse, nothing does.
I, for one, appreciate a non-lethal alternative on both the legal and non-legal sides of the coin. Is it possible that law enforcement would be less hesitant to use these weapons than guns? Sure. But the person on the other end would also be less dead. And on the other side of the legal arena, I would much rather be held up at taser-point than at gun-point.
Legally, I would suspect that unjustified use of these weapons would be considered assault and battery, which should be enough of a deterrent to keep people from going around zapping each other for "fun."
I don't know why I'm even bothering to reply to this story. Although I'm not quite cynical enough to believe that the parents of the slain children are only out for money. Rather, to retain my faith in humanity, I have to believe that they are out for revenge. They want to hurt somebody, to make them pay for what happened to their children.
Since civil litigation is the only legal form of revenge that we have in this country, and money is the only penalty, it makes perfect sense that the entertianment industry is the target of this litigation.
They can't sue the kid because he is one, a kid, and two, pleading insanity. They can't sue the kid's parents because thay don't have enough money to make the litigation seem worth it. So they sue movie and game companies.
I really suspect that the parents did not come up with this plan on their own. The quote from the lawyer in the article was telling enough. "We want to hurt..." It would not suprise me one bit if this very enterprising lawyer went to the families and told them how they can get revenge for the deaths of their children. How they can make those bad, evil companies that produce all that trash without any regard for the effects it produces in right-thinking, upstanding children pay for their actions.
But I digress... It has been an increasing legal trend since the 60s to sue companies for anything and everything. And the legal system has played right along. In the name of increasing social conciousness, we have dimmed it. We have taken the right to be responsible away from the individual, and instead burdened corporations with the responsibility to be right.
I really dislike DIVX, which makes me believe that they would be shady enough to make the following argument:
DIVX is a pay-per-view format. Once the disk has been watched once, the consumer has recieved his or her money's worth. At this point, DIVX's obligation to the consumer ends. If the consumer had wanted to watch the movie again, he or she would have had to "purchase" the movie again, and therefore, DIVX owes the consumer nothing.
They might be forced to give refunds on all of the "Silver" disks that they had activated, but I suspect that very few disks have been converted to silver in the first place.
However, by using the already designed but not used double layer DVD Actually, dual-layer DVD is used quite often. I'd say half of my movie collection arrived on dual-layer DVD. I'm going to be impressed when DVD-18 (dual-layer, double sided) arrives.
I have not experienced the interlacing on TND. However, I did have some trouble with a copy of Ninja Scroll. The audio track gradually wandered out of sync with the video, and *lots* of pixelization was present in various scenes.
I contacted Manga, the publisher, and they sent me a new copy, along with a t-shirt. The new copy is absolutely flawless.
It appears that some discs have buggy encoding, which causes problems on some players. I believe that this is simply a learning stage associated with the *relatively* new technology. When problems do occur, the companies involved seem to be very anxious to correct the problems and to make the consumer happy.
I for one am very happy with DVD, and continue to be impressed by the new releases.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, I was in an Electronics Boutique about two weeks ago attempting to play with the demo unit when it completely locked up. When I hit the reset button (which is quite prominently placed on the front of the kiosk) I got an error quite similar to the one shown on HardOCP. My friends andI had quite a laugh, and left without wanting to buy an XBOX. It is NOT an urban myth.
This I agree with. Any public library has a limited budget with which to aquire materials. Local community standards and policies generally indicate the types of materials a library will purchase, since one of the goals of any public library is to serve the community. A responsible library will attempt to meet its community's needs. But it does so only infsofar as it has a limited budget and a limited amount of shelf space. A library with an infinite amount of money and storage space would have every work (pornographic or not) on its shelves. Librarians do not view themselves as the defenders of community standards. To prevent access to information is the antithisis of everything that librarians stand for.
In addition, the internet is a non-physical medium. Yes, it requires PCs and bandwidth and ISPs to access, and these cost money. That assertion I cannot argue with. But each visit to a web page does not take up shelf space, require cataloging, and eventually need replacement. Librarians do not need to wade through the millions of web pages to find the worthy few to take up space in their local library. They can have them all for the price of a PC and a connection to the internet.
Therefore, point three does not follow from one and two. The job of a librarian is not to restrict access to information, but rather to promote it. The selection of materials is not done to enforce arbitrary local standards, but rather to meet the interests of a community. In the case of the internet, this selection does not need to be done to the preclusion of other materials.
David Garrett
I realize that this is off topic, but I felt I had to respond...
The f-117, and all of its flat panels are actually based on the "hopeless diamond" design. It is a very angular geometrical shape that is completely invisible to radar. The math behind it was developed by some german scientist.
When placed in a radar test chamber, the f-117 completely disappears. In fact, one of the sticking points in the development of the F-117 was figuring out how to hide the radar cross-section of the pilot's head through the window of the plane. The solution... Coat the window with a transparent film of gold.
So, to sum up, the F-117 design was not due to lack of computing power, but rather the mathematics of stealth.
--David Garrett
I, for one, appreciate a non-lethal alternative on both the legal and non-legal sides of the coin. Is it possible that law enforcement would be less hesitant to use these weapons than guns? Sure. But the person on the other end would also be less dead. And on the other side of the legal arena, I would much rather be held up at taser-point than at gun-point.
Legally, I would suspect that unjustified use of these weapons would be considered assault and battery, which should be enough of a deterrent to keep people from going around zapping each other for "fun."
Dave
If they give you time to wind up, they deserve to get hit. - Lynn McDowell
Since civil litigation is the only legal form of revenge that we have in this country, and money is the only penalty, it makes perfect sense that the entertianment industry is the target of this litigation.
They can't sue the kid because he is one, a kid, and two, pleading insanity. They can't sue the kid's parents because thay don't have enough money to make the litigation seem worth it. So they sue movie and game companies.
I really suspect that the parents did not come up with this plan on their own. The quote from the lawyer in the article was telling enough. "We want to hurt..." It would not suprise me one bit if this very enterprising lawyer went to the families and told them how they can get revenge for the deaths of their children. How they can make those bad, evil companies that produce all that trash without any regard for the effects it produces in right-thinking, upstanding children pay for their actions.
But I digress... It has been an increasing legal trend since the 60s to sue companies for anything and everything. And the legal system has played right along. In the name of increasing social conciousness, we have dimmed it. We have taken the right to be responsible away from the individual, and instead burdened corporations with the responsibility to be right.
DIVX is a pay-per-view format. Once the disk has been watched once, the consumer has recieved his or her money's worth. At this point, DIVX's obligation to the consumer ends. If the consumer had wanted to watch the movie again, he or she would have had to "purchase" the movie again, and therefore, DIVX owes the consumer nothing.
They might be forced to give refunds on all of the "Silver" disks that they had activated, but I suspect that very few disks have been converted to silver in the first place.
David Garrett
Actually, dual-layer DVD is used quite often. I'd say half of my movie collection arrived on dual-layer DVD. I'm going to be impressed when DVD-18 (dual-layer, double sided) arrives.
David Garrett
David Garrett
I have not experienced the interlacing on TND. However, I did have some trouble with a copy of Ninja Scroll. The audio track gradually wandered out of sync with the video, and *lots* of pixelization was present in various scenes.
I contacted Manga, the publisher, and they sent me a new copy, along with a t-shirt. The new copy is absolutely flawless.
It appears that some discs have buggy encoding, which causes problems on some players. I believe that this is simply a learning stage associated with the *relatively* new technology. When problems do occur, the companies involved seem to be very anxious to correct the problems and to make the consumer happy.
I for one am very happy with DVD, and continue to be impressed by the new releases.