The switch from black and white TV was an easy sell: color looks better. The switch (in progress...) from SD to HD is an easy sell: bigger/sharper looks better. But I have a hard time believing that everything could/should be in 3d. Action movies? Sure. Sports? Sure. But drama? Sitcoms? News?
What I notice 3d mostly being used for is "gimmick shots" in movies where some object deliberately leaps out at you. I've never seen a movie where 3d offered some consistent, ever-present visual benefit.
In response to concerns that there's very little consumer need/demand for 3D TV, many proponents try to draw parallels to HDTV's slow adoption: that we just need to shove it out into the marketplace in order to attract enough early content and viewers to create the critical mass necessary for widespread acceptance. But I think that's an unfair comparison. HDTV was an "easy sell" to consumers: big screens + sharp picture. The slow adaption was mostly due to provider, network, and regulatory BS. 3D TV probably won't be hindered (much) in those areas. It'll be convincing people that they want it.
The only thing more saddening about the US being so far behind on this stuff is the fact that here in Canada, we'll be even one or two years behind them. Probably thanks to CRTC bureaucracy and bilingual nonsense. And once we get it, there will be nothing on except CBC, because the US programming that we all want to see will be roadblocked by licensing restrictions in Canada. Just like hulu, pandora, etc...
Bottom line: in 4 years we'll be lucky enough to watch low-res, DRM'd "Beachcomber" reruns on our phones.
For normal activities (surfing, vids, nav, etc) 1ghz is overkill. The biggest beneficiary of all that CPU and GPU power is gaming. But without multitouch, gaming will be terribly restricted. So WTF am I supposed to play on this thing -- 3D, HD whack-a-mole?
While rhetoric like "betraying user trust" and "eroding customer confidence" make for great fodder on sites like slashdot, the sad truth is that Ma and Pa Sixpack are oblivious to all of this. As long as their dusty old Dell still gets onto the intarweb, they're happy. They just click "OK" every time the systems asks them anything, and don't really care WTF windows update does.
Something about RMS's stance rubs me the same way that Bush administration politics does:
- The "you're either with us or against us" attitude. - The desire to impose his morals and politics on others "for their own good" -- whether they want it or not. - The doublespeak used to twist and redefine concepts like "freedom".
I certainly appreciate some of the stuff that RMS is trying to accomplish, but I wish he'd go about it in a different way. Or is that not possible?
The last time I used a sound card was the Soundblaster Live, at least 4 years ago. Back when SB Live + VIA 686 chipset = hard disk errors. Due to driver hassles and the fact that onboard sound was finally up to snuff, I ditched Creative and have been using onboard sound ever since. Performance nuts claim that onboard sound overhead eats up a couple percent of your CPU, but this hasn't been a perceptible loss to me. Note that I'm only hooked up to a couple mid-quality speakers and a sub. If I was doing surround sound with spdif or opticial or whatnot, I might consider using an Audigy. Maybe.
A PDA loaded with the right software is a good choice.
- Get online via WiFi (pref. built-in) and a competent browser (Opera is much nicer than Pocket IE) - Navigate using GPS (either built-in or CF or bluetooth) - Get a big honking SD or CF card and use it for music instead of the ipod - Watch movies on it - Play games on it - Use SD or CF to grab photos from your camera - Consider (1) extended battery (2) multiple batteries (3) solar recharger - For bonus points, get a quad-band GSM smartphone so you can make phone calls from almost anywhere
I have a Dell Axim x51V, an HP ipaq HW6950, and a few Pharos devices. Any of those would do the trick.
Their comparison chart calls the utstarcom f1000 a "vonage" phone, but in reality it's a regular SIP phone. Works great with asterisk or any other SIP-friendly service.
So this must mean that Germany has solved all of their problems with child porn, identity theft, extortion, and all of the other shady activities that can happen online, right?
Because there's no way that they'd place corporate trademark and copyright issues ahead of the safety and security of their citizens, would they? On the taxpayer's dime, too?
Hi-def in games is essential in the near future because plumetting prices have encouraged many people to buy big, HD TV's. They need/want HD games for three reasons: (1) Standard-def looks poor on a digital (non-CRT) HD screen, because it has to be scaled to the HD unit's native resolution (2) On a big (40"+) screen, a game's graphical flaws (low poly count, low-detail textures, etc) are glaringly visible, and (3) In order to justify the $$ that they spent on their new HDTV's, owners want to know that all of their equipment (PVR, DVD, game consoles, etc) are showing HD content.
This is not about open standards. This is classic double-speak, in the Orwellian tradition. This is saying "we are opening up the Xbox 360" when what they are *really* saying is "we have the Xbox 360 and we would like all other companies to open their products up to it." He's painting MS as the good guy and backhandedly saying it's everybody else's fault if they don't want to make products that conform to MS's vision.
Not quite. The XB360 already works with competitors products. He just doesn't want third parties to deliberately *close* their products to XB360 interop. That seems fair.
For the same reason that DVD's are: because publishers demand it. TBH, publishers would be very relucant to produce content for the xb360 (or sony, or nintendo) if the manufacturer didn't let them play their little lets-gouge-consumers-who-live-in-different-countri es game.
Most of the negative reaction here is due to the statement "Microsoft wants to turn developers into designers", but if you read the article, Microsoft didn't say that. Some industry analyst just pulled that out of his ass.
What this new stuff really does is *disconnects* the UI design from the source code, so that a designer can use one tool to work on the UI while a progammer uses visual studio to put some code behind it.
So rather than "turning designers into developers", it really "lets designers and developers work together better". Or something like that.
Slashdot Mirror
Okay slashdotters, deadline is Jan 27 to think up some good quotes based on "No X. Less Y than a Z. Lame." Winner whores beaucoup karma. Or not.
The switch from black and white TV was an easy sell: color looks better.
The switch (in progress...) from SD to HD is an easy sell: bigger/sharper looks better.
But I have a hard time believing that everything could/should be in 3d. Action movies? Sure. Sports? Sure. But drama? Sitcoms? News?
What I notice 3d mostly being used for is "gimmick shots" in movies where some object deliberately leaps out at you. I've never seen a movie where 3d offered some consistent, ever-present visual benefit.
In response to concerns that there's very little consumer need/demand for 3D TV, many proponents try to draw parallels to HDTV's slow adoption: that we just need to shove it out into the marketplace in order to attract enough early content and viewers to create the critical mass necessary for widespread acceptance. But I think that's an unfair comparison. HDTV was an "easy sell" to consumers: big screens + sharp picture. The slow adaption was mostly due to provider, network, and regulatory BS. 3D TV probably won't be hindered (much) in those areas. It'll be convincing people that they want it.
The only thing more saddening about the US being so far behind on this stuff is the fact that here in Canada, we'll be even one or two years behind them. Probably thanks to CRTC bureaucracy and bilingual nonsense. And once we get it, there will be nothing on except CBC, because the US programming that we all want to see will be roadblocked by licensing restrictions in Canada. Just like hulu, pandora, etc...
Bottom line: in 4 years we'll be lucky enough to watch low-res, DRM'd "Beachcomber" reruns on our phones.
For normal activities (surfing, vids, nav, etc) 1ghz is overkill. The biggest beneficiary of all that CPU and GPU power is gaming. But without multitouch, gaming will be terribly restricted. So WTF am I supposed to play on this thing -- 3D, HD whack-a-mole?
No LTE. Less space than a drobo. Meh.
It was midichlorians. Happy now?
I'm in a hotel in Dubai right now, and they're shafting me US$30 per day for internet access. Slow, censored internet access at that!
While rhetoric like "betraying user trust" and "eroding customer confidence" make for great fodder on sites like slashdot, the sad truth is that Ma and Pa Sixpack are oblivious to all of this. As long as their dusty old Dell still gets onto the intarweb, they're happy. They just click "OK" every time the systems asks them anything, and don't really care WTF windows update does.
Something about RMS's stance rubs me the same way that Bush administration politics does:
- The "you're either with us or against us" attitude.
- The desire to impose his morals and politics on others "for their own good" -- whether they want it or not.
- The doublespeak used to twist and redefine concepts like "freedom".
I certainly appreciate some of the stuff that RMS is trying to accomplish, but I wish he'd go about it in a different way. Or is that not possible?
The last time I used a sound card was the Soundblaster Live, at least 4 years ago. Back when SB Live + VIA 686 chipset = hard disk errors. Due to driver hassles and the fact that onboard sound was finally up to snuff, I ditched Creative and have been using onboard sound ever since. Performance nuts claim that onboard sound overhead eats up a couple percent of your CPU, but this hasn't been a perceptible loss to me. Note that I'm only hooked up to a couple mid-quality speakers and a sub. If I was doing surround sound with spdif or opticial or whatnot, I might consider using an Audigy. Maybe.
A PDA loaded with the right software is a good choice.
- Get online via WiFi (pref. built-in) and a competent browser (Opera is much nicer than Pocket IE)
- Navigate using GPS (either built-in or CF or bluetooth)
- Get a big honking SD or CF card and use it for music instead of the ipod
- Watch movies on it
- Play games on it
- Use SD or CF to grab photos from your camera
- Consider (1) extended battery (2) multiple batteries (3) solar recharger
- For bonus points, get a quad-band GSM smartphone so you can make phone calls from almost anywhere
I have a Dell Axim x51V, an HP ipaq HW6950, and a few Pharos devices. Any of those would do the trick.
Their comparison chart calls the utstarcom f1000 a "vonage" phone, but in reality it's a regular SIP phone. Works great with asterisk or any other SIP-friendly service.
Michael J. Copps is either faking it or has deliberately stopped taking his medication.
If a had a conscience, I probably wouldn't be playing GTA.
Anyone got a dead cat?
There might be one inside this box...
This Russian-created rootkit is smart enough to recognize known anti-rootkit tools and hide from them.
:P
Does this mean that in Soviet Russia, rootkits detect y... Bah, nevermind. Too easy.
So this must mean that Germany has solved all of their problems with child porn, identity theft, extortion, and all of the other shady activities that can happen online, right?
Because there's no way that they'd place corporate trademark and copyright issues ahead of the safety and security of their citizens, would they? On the taxpayer's dime, too?
Do you think Asterisk would still be successful if he didn't hang around with that fat guy who fell into the potion cauldron when he was a baby?
Hi-def in games is essential in the near future because plumetting prices have encouraged many people to buy big, HD TV's. They need/want HD games for three reasons: (1) Standard-def looks poor on a digital (non-CRT) HD screen, because it has to be scaled to the HD unit's native resolution (2) On a big (40"+) screen, a game's graphical flaws (low poly count, low-detail textures, etc) are glaringly visible, and (3) In order to justify the $$ that they spent on their new HDTV's, owners want to know that all of their equipment (PVR, DVD, game consoles, etc) are showing HD content.
In Soviet Russia, ads click you? (sorry)
MS defends our privacy rights, meanwhile the GPL 3 is undemocratic. I think there's an 'in soviet russia' joke in here somewhere...
This is not about open standards. This is classic double-speak, in the Orwellian tradition. This is saying "we are opening up the Xbox 360" when what they are *really* saying is "we have the Xbox 360 and we would like all other companies to open their products up to it." He's painting MS as the good guy and backhandedly saying it's everybody else's fault if they don't want to make products that conform to MS's vision.
Not quite. The XB360 already works with competitors products. He just doesn't want third parties to deliberately *close* their products to XB360 interop. That seems fair.
For the same reason that DVD's are: because publishers demand it. TBH, publishers would be very relucant to produce content for the xb360 (or sony, or nintendo) if the manufacturer didn't let them play their little lets-gouge-consumers-who-live-in-different-countri es game.
Most of the negative reaction here is due to the statement "Microsoft wants to turn developers into designers", but if you read the article, Microsoft didn't say that. Some industry analyst just pulled that out of his ass.
What this new stuff really does is *disconnects* the UI design from the source code, so that a designer can use one tool to work on the UI while a progammer uses visual studio to put some code behind it.
So rather than "turning designers into developers", it really "lets designers and developers work together better". Or something like that.