TV is moving off of the VHF band as the eventual HDTV revolution takes place. But what's stopping Acme Wireless from saying, "Hey, only channels 4,6, and 10 are being used in this area. Why don't we add some sort of auto-sensing feature to broadband wireless equiptment and start using parts of VHF today..." and then asking the FCC for help? Then, when the machinery starts hopping packets to other routers that are close to other television markets, it switches to another unused set of frequencies.
I'm just thinking of a solution like that little channel button on 2.4ghz wireless phones.
Technically infeasable?
If it worked, it'd be a hella way to jumpstart nationwide wireless Internet via the VHF band now and not a decade or two from now.
"inefficient use of bandwidth" keeps coming up in the comments I've read, but honestly, which is worse... producing several (hundred/thousand/million) copies of (insert favorite movie here) on Beta... VHS... LaserDisc... DVD... Blu Ray...
or storing it digitally at a central location... "wasting bandwidth? If you can watch a movie through VOD in DVD quality, then why buy the DVD unless you're definitely going to be watching the content more than a few times?
I have a very small DVD collection, with just over a dozen discs. This time around, I'm much more careful about which movies I buy or ask for as gifts because of the huge assortment of VHS tapes I have sitting around the house that were never watched more than two or three times. What can I do with the old VHS tapes? Sooner or later, nobody's going to want them, even if I could manage to shuffle them off to someone on eBay.
Think about it. Obsolete mediums are worse than an old pop can because you really can't recycle an old VHS tape, AFAIK.
I'm not saying that the idea of specialized movie mediums should be killed off, but if the last 20 years are any indication, Blu Ray discs aren't going to be the last stop in terms of movie software sales.
After reading through most of these comments, I can't help but notice the huge chunk of people who feel Lynx is the best browser ever and that Flash and whatnot aren't worthy of being used. Sure, we could just look at plain Jane HTML pages, but why? Maybe Lynx is great for you, but that doesn't mean I should be using it too.
If Lynx were so great, why are "Internet-enabled" cell phones (WAP?) such a complete market failure?
Anyways... would magazines be better if they were text-only? Would school textbooks convey information better without pictures?
We could've stuck with using black and white TV instead of color, and now this newfangled HDTV. But sometimes progression forward is not only necessary, but also serves to enhance the presentation of information.
People want to see animations and colors.* Plain text is boring.
I'm sure this'll get a reply or two that say Flash is web blasphemy, but so is a lot of the junk on (cable) TV. That doesn't mean that something good can't be found, like a documentary on the History channel, for example.
Maybe you missed my point. Charge the same price for a digital-only copy of something that can be had physically? That's my beef, in simplified form.
I have a feeling Apple isn't going to be making much from this deal (not that they should), nor are the artists (which ultimately should). I guess the burden of proof falls between the parties involved.
But I have a feeling the artists are probably contractually obligated NOT to cry uncle for being ripped off.
I have no problem paying $1 per track, ONLY if I know for a fact that the artist is getting 60% of the money. This is more than reasonable, and fuck everyone who thinks otherwise.
It costs 50 to print a 4x6 image with iPhoto's Kodak printing service... a unique, PHYSICAL printout. Yet it's assumed that music from this service will be $1 per (EASILY REPLICATED) digital track.
Today, major studio DVDs are 480p. They're also around 7GB, and store movies about 2 hours long.
Assuming my math isn't flawed and that webpage is correct... why does Sony's BluRay recorder only save 4 hours of 480p with 23GB of space to play with? Shouldn't it be able to record around 6 hours of 480p with 23GB?
Furthermore, MPEG-2 is pure crap compared to a nicely encoded MPEG-4 movie. Why they'd revamp the media but stick with a bad codec is strange, is it not?
On top of all that, real blow is the fact that this can't even record more than an hour of 1080i, or so it seems.
I know where you're going with this... but I haven't heard any stories of people being locked up in prison for copyright infringement.
Perhaps you can show me a few cases where people have been sentenced to long prison terms... longer than say an average rape conviction.../devil's advocate
While I realize you were probably joking when you made this post, I firmly believe that even people on AOL know what an MP3 is, and how to get them. This new offering isn't anything new... it's AOL/TW's version of PressPlay.
With that aside...
When AOL offers a service that lets me not only burn their complete library, coupled with unrestricted use of said songs for portables such as iPods... then... and only then... will they have a money-maker.
I bet there are thousands, if not millions, who would pay a monthly fee for that... especially if they knew they could have the song they're looking for, complete with a clean ID3 tag, all with a single click. They woudn't have to download five versions of the same song on Kazaa or Gnutella just to find one that isn't corrupted (on purpose... by you-know-who) or borked (due to user-error at the time of the rip).
I suppose the big record labels understand this, yet don't care. They're going to take this piecemeal approach to online music, giving an inch here and there... instead of going for what we all want, now.
First Microsoft eliminated all of their security problems last February, and now they're cleaning up Hotmail!
Wonders never cease! Microsoft is on a roll!
Give me a break.
Redmond, WA (AP) - Just when you thought Microsoft couldn't be any more consumer-friendly, the company which produces Windows, the de-facto standard in desktop computing, manages to surprise everyone by announcing the inclusion of RedHat with every copy of WindowsXP sold.
Steve Ballmer, President and Chief Executive Officer for Microsoft Corporation, spoke to reporters this afternoon in a press conference at Microsoft's headquarters located in Redmond, Washington. Ballmer enthusiastically addressed the crowd, stating, "[N]ow, slashdotters can have the best of both worlds, all in one box, all at one price!"
Ballmer then went on to dance around, screaming, "Yeah!" at the top of his lungs, clearly attempting to create a stir with those in attendance.
Photoshop pastes it's own self-generated icon in the files resource fork. That's completely separate from what I'm referencing. In this case, the Finder builds a thumbnail icon based on the file, and doesn't update it's resource fork.
force local number portability and free-access to numbers across all telecommunication modes, including cellular, POTS, and the upcoming VoIP stampede.
I can't believe that when you switch providers, you lose your phone number. It is just as annoying as being locked into a one year contract with a cell provider that sucks ass (Alltel) then being penalized ($200) for trying to get out from under their organized crime ring.
Venting aside...:)...cell providers are already rocking the boat. My generation, the under-25 crowd, would rather have an apartment with no local (wired) telephone service and a cell phone than have vice versa or both. Like it or not, the local telecos are going to have to deal with this shift, and as quickly as possible. Not every bell owns a cell network.
With all that said, I'd like to stress this as well... combine VoIP with 802.11 and you have a potentially huge threat to the current teleco infastructure, both on the cellular AND wired level. Once meshed Metro Area Networks (MANs) start to reach stability, the only entity controling the network would be the FCC, not a telecommunications company.
an error in Finder. Clicking a graphic file with a preview icon automatically generated by the Finder still refuses to look "selected" as typical icons do. Normally, when you click an icon, it'll go 25% darker. This doesn't happen to thumbnailed graphics.
NEW YORK (AP) - The market winked it's eye today at Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) as shares of the fast-food conglomerate shot up 1.68% today upon a report directly linking a reduction of colon cancer in their loyal consumer base with the food served at the variety of restaraunts under their corporate umbrella, including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC. Further boosting the stock this Monday, the company reported earnings that were on target with previous estimates, and a strong indication Goldman Sachs plans on raising the stocks rating from from a "Buy" to a "Strong Buy."
From what I've noticed... when it comes to computer systems in academia, those who know the most about computers actually feared. Oddly enough, this is a huge swath of computer users. At the bottom, we have those who have a firm understanding of the "start" menu in windows. Middle of the range are the kids who know what DHCP does. At the top, we have those who compile their own linux kernel in their spare time. Where am I going with this? There's a strange hypocritical mentality going on that says students are supposed to know how to use computers, yet aren't allowed to use them.
"No child is to be left behind, technologically. Everyone needs to know how to use a computer for jobs in the real world," they say. But if they dare apply that knowledge, or even attempt to use the computers their (parents) tax money pays for, they're quickly shunned and told they're using something "inappropriately." Or, gasp, without supervision!
Perhaps that's an over-generalization, but nevertheless, in my experience, that assessment has held true to this day. Quite frankly, it pisses me off. Fortunately, this applies more to local school districts as opposed to colleges and universities.
Nevertheless, here's another dose of reality for those still paying attention to this thread. Someone dropped a virus on our high school computer network right before summer break. Instead of wiping all of the hard drives over the summer and starting from scratch, they bought new computers. Their old computers were little over a year old. They bought about fifty new units. This was three years ago.
Worse... my parents now have to pay $300 for every sport my little brother plays. Don't pay? Can't be on the team. How wonderful is that?
Slashdot Mirror
Where are HDTV signals going to be? Just curious...
TV is moving off of the VHF band as the eventual HDTV revolution takes place. But what's stopping Acme Wireless from saying, "Hey, only channels 4,6, and 10 are being used in this area. Why don't we add some sort of auto-sensing feature to broadband wireless equiptment and start using parts of VHF today..." and then asking the FCC for help? Then, when the machinery starts hopping packets to other routers that are close to other television markets, it switches to another unused set of frequencies.
I'm just thinking of a solution like that little channel button on 2.4ghz wireless phones.
Technically infeasable?
If it worked, it'd be a hella way to jumpstart nationwide wireless Internet via the VHF band now and not a decade or two from now.
Thoughts?
"inefficient use of bandwidth" keeps coming up in the comments I've read, but honestly, which is worse... producing several (hundred/thousand/million) copies of (insert favorite movie here) on Beta... VHS... LaserDisc... DVD... Blu Ray...
or storing it digitally at a central location... "wasting bandwidth? If you can watch a movie through VOD in DVD quality, then why buy the DVD unless you're definitely going to be watching the content more than a few times?
I have a very small DVD collection, with just over a dozen discs. This time around, I'm much more careful about which movies I buy or ask for as gifts because of the huge assortment of VHS tapes I have sitting around the house that were never watched more than two or three times. What can I do with the old VHS tapes? Sooner or later, nobody's going to want them, even if I could manage to shuffle them off to someone on eBay.
Think about it. Obsolete mediums are worse than an old pop can because you really can't recycle an old VHS tape, AFAIK.
I'm not saying that the idea of specialized movie mediums should be killed off, but if the last 20 years are any indication, Blu Ray discs aren't going to be the last stop in terms of movie software sales.
If I type 'noclip' in the console, will this let me walk through walls? If so... I want one! :)
Thank you.
Are there any WAPs out there which have a built-in VPN server?
Just curious...
Did the humor go completely over your head?
After reading through most of these comments, I can't help but notice the huge chunk of people who feel Lynx is the best browser ever and that Flash and whatnot aren't worthy of being used. Sure, we could just look at plain Jane HTML pages, but why? Maybe Lynx is great for you, but that doesn't mean I should be using it too.
If Lynx were so great, why are "Internet-enabled" cell phones (WAP?) such a complete market failure?
Anyways... would magazines be better if they were text-only? Would school textbooks convey information better without pictures?
We could've stuck with using black and white TV instead of color, and now this newfangled HDTV. But sometimes progression forward is not only necessary, but also serves to enhance the presentation of information.
People want to see animations and colors.* Plain text is boring.
I'm sure this'll get a reply or two that say Flash is web blasphemy, but so is a lot of the junk on (cable) TV. That doesn't mean that something good can't be found, like a documentary on the History channel, for example.
*Pop-ups don't count.
Wait.... d'oh. :)
If you're using Photoshop for OS X, make sure you don't let Photoshop save it's own image thumbnails to the resource fork.
That alone will save ~20% at times.
Maybe you missed my point. Charge the same price for a digital-only copy of something that can be had physically? That's my beef, in simplified form.
:(
I have a feeling Apple isn't going to be making much from this deal (not that they should), nor are the artists (which ultimately should). I guess the burden of proof falls between the parties involved.
But I have a feeling the artists are probably contractually obligated NOT to cry uncle for being ripped off.
I have no problem paying $1 per track, ONLY if I know for a fact that the artist is getting 60% of the money. This is more than reasonable, and fuck everyone who thinks otherwise.
Yeah, yeah... I'm flamebaiting... I'm sure.
MP3s have ID3 tags.
Do AAC files have their own little chunk of code dedicated to name and track information?
It costs 50 to print a 4x6 image with iPhoto's Kodak printing service... a unique, PHYSICAL printout. Yet it's assumed that music from this service will be $1 per (EASILY REPLICATED) digital track.
Does anyone else see the bullshit in this?
Here's something I caught from this...
Today, major studio DVDs are 480p. They're also around 7GB, and store movies about 2 hours long.
Assuming my math isn't flawed and that webpage is correct... why does Sony's BluRay recorder only save 4 hours of 480p with 23GB of space to play with? Shouldn't it be able to record around 6 hours of 480p with 23GB?
Furthermore, MPEG-2 is pure crap compared to a nicely encoded MPEG-4 movie. Why they'd revamp the media but stick with a bad codec is strange, is it not?
On top of all that, real blow is the fact that this can't even record more than an hour of 1080i, or so it seems.
I predict a crack will be released around July 4th 2004, with a 5-day window.
Place your bets! Information wants to be free!
And we all know someone who uses Linux will feel disenfranchised by the lack of a "licensed" player!
I know where you're going with this... but I haven't heard any stories of people being locked up in prison for copyright infringement.
/devil's advocate
Perhaps you can show me a few cases where people have been sentenced to long prison terms... longer than say an average rape conviction...
While I realize you were probably joking when you made this post, I firmly believe that even people on AOL know what an MP3 is, and how to get them. This new offering isn't anything new... it's AOL/TW's version of PressPlay.
With that aside...
When AOL offers a service that lets me not only burn their complete library, coupled with unrestricted use of said songs for portables such as iPods... then... and only then... will they have a money-maker.
I bet there are thousands, if not millions, who would pay a monthly fee for that... especially if they knew they could have the song they're looking for, complete with a clean ID3 tag, all with a single click. They woudn't have to download five versions of the same song on Kazaa or Gnutella just to find one that isn't corrupted (on purpose... by you-know-who) or borked (due to user-error at the time of the rip).
I suppose the big record labels understand this, yet don't care. They're going to take this piecemeal approach to online music, giving an inch here and there... instead of going for what we all want, now.
God Bless American greed.
Hey, I have an i705 with palm.net and I love it... you insensitive clod!
I mean, Code Red is just a user error. Same with the Nimba worm and blue screens of death.
They aren't exploits and flaws... they're FEATURES!
What a bunch of bullocks.
First Microsoft eliminated all of their security problems last February, and now they're cleaning up Hotmail!
Wonders never cease! Microsoft is on a roll!
Give me a break.
Redmond, WA (AP) - Just when you thought Microsoft couldn't be any more consumer-friendly, the company which produces Windows, the de-facto standard in desktop computing, manages to surprise everyone by announcing the inclusion of RedHat with every copy of WindowsXP sold.
Steve Ballmer, President and Chief Executive Officer for Microsoft Corporation, spoke to reporters this afternoon in a press conference at Microsoft's headquarters located in Redmond, Washington. Ballmer enthusiastically addressed the crowd, stating, "[N]ow, slashdotters can have the best of both worlds, all in one box, all at one price!"
Ballmer then went on to dance around, screaming, "Yeah!" at the top of his lungs, clearly attempting to create a stir with those in attendance.
CowboyNeil could not be reached for comment.
Photoshop pastes it's own self-generated icon in the files resource fork. That's completely separate from what I'm referencing. In this case, the Finder builds a thumbnail icon based on the file, and doesn't update it's resource fork.
force local number portability and free-access to numbers across all telecommunication modes, including cellular, POTS, and the upcoming VoIP stampede.
:) ...cell providers are already rocking the boat. My generation, the under-25 crowd, would rather have an apartment with no local (wired) telephone service and a cell phone than have vice versa or both. Like it or not, the local telecos are going to have to deal with this shift, and as quickly as possible. Not every bell owns a cell network.
I can't believe that when you switch providers, you lose your phone number. It is just as annoying as being locked into a one year contract with a cell provider that sucks ass (Alltel) then being penalized ($200) for trying to get out from under their organized crime ring.
Venting aside...
With all that said, I'd like to stress this as well... combine VoIP with 802.11 and you have a potentially huge threat to the current teleco infastructure, both on the cellular AND wired level. Once meshed Metro Area Networks (MANs) start to reach stability, the only entity controling the network would be the FCC, not a telecommunications company.
Imagine if Vonage made an 802.11 cell phone.
Food for thought.
an error in Finder. Clicking a graphic file with a preview icon automatically generated by the Finder still refuses to look "selected" as typical icons do. Normally, when you click an icon, it'll go 25% darker. This doesn't happen to thumbnailed graphics.
NEW YORK (AP) - The market winked it's eye today at Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM) as shares of the fast-food conglomerate shot up 1.68% today upon a report directly linking a reduction of colon cancer in their loyal consumer base with the food served at the variety of restaraunts under their corporate umbrella, including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC. Further boosting the stock this Monday, the company reported earnings that were on target with previous estimates, and a strong indication Goldman Sachs plans on raising the stocks rating from from a "Buy" to a "Strong Buy."
(end)
From what I've noticed... when it comes to computer systems in academia, those who know the most about computers actually feared. Oddly enough, this is a huge swath of computer users. At the bottom, we have those who have a firm understanding of the "start" menu in windows. Middle of the range are the kids who know what DHCP does. At the top, we have those who compile their own linux kernel in their spare time. Where am I going with this? There's a strange hypocritical mentality going on that says students are supposed to know how to use computers, yet aren't allowed to use them.
"No child is to be left behind, technologically. Everyone needs to know how to use a computer for jobs in the real world," they say. But if they dare apply that knowledge, or even attempt to use the computers their (parents) tax money pays for, they're quickly shunned and told they're using something "inappropriately." Or, gasp, without supervision!
Perhaps that's an over-generalization, but nevertheless, in my experience, that assessment has held true to this day. Quite frankly, it pisses me off. Fortunately, this applies more to local school districts as opposed to colleges and universities.
Nevertheless, here's another dose of reality for those still paying attention to this thread. Someone dropped a virus on our high school computer network right before summer break. Instead of wiping all of the hard drives over the summer and starting from scratch, they bought new computers. Their old computers were little over a year old. They bought about fifty new units. This was three years ago.
Worse... my parents now have to pay $300 for every sport my little brother plays. Don't pay? Can't be on the team. How wonderful is that?