Why can't they make the plastic for the disc out something hard as, say, polycarbonate (used in sunglasses). If you need a softer material near the recording medium then they could do a layer of polycarbonate on the surface so at least it won't scratch as easily.
Wouldn't it be simpler to put a cheap cartrige case around the disk, ensuring that nothing ever comes into contact with it?
Sure, it might seem like it would take up more shelf space, but since such a scheme would let you do away with the "jewel cases" we store CD's in now, it would be a wash, wouldn't it?
Just think of it as a case which you don't need to remove the media from.
I have no comment on your opinion of DRM one way or the other, but I would just like to point out that your sig file ("You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.") is the smartest goddamn thing I've seen posted on Slashdot in months.
The real question is, why is a communist dictatorship's choice of operating systems considered news around here?
It kind of reminds me of the old parody of MTV News, which reported on a massive tropical killing thousands in the South Pacific and how it would impact Bon Jovi's tour schedule.
There are not many Mac gamers, but there are a few. I can play World of Warcraft on a PC side-by-side on the same server with my Mac-playing friends, and can use my iBook to play it when I'm away from home, therefore WoW wins until something better comes along which works on both PC's and Macs.
Too bad. There's a lot that I like about City of Heroes, but I'm only going to pay the monthly fee on one game at a time.
NCSoft does not appear to share Blizzard's enthusiasm for reaching the Mac market, and they won't see a dime from me until that changes.
"Yeah, yeah... I'll grudgingly admit we made some bad moves in the past, but you're going to be thilled with the stuff we are about to do!!! Just you wait and see! I... Love... This... CompanyYEEEAH!"
What exactly do you do with a Mac mini that you can't get any visual output from, especially one with a lifespan of two hours? It seems pointless to make it mobile.
Wireless network games? Find the server before the batteries die?
Here's a thought: You use a mini at an office and at home. With a two-hour battery, there's no need to power it down when you relocate it. Just put it to sleep, unplug it, and go.
Honestly, anybody who can't think of at least three situations off the top of their head where it might be useful for certain people to have a battery option must have very limited imaginations.
I'll finally be able to play GTA while I'm driving.
In my neighborhood, people have been playing GTA while driving for years.
The street sign in my front yard has been replaced three times so far.
I'm planning on putting up a privacy fence made of nice cedar this summer, and one critical step the preservation of my new fence will be to put several "decorative" boulders out along the curb.
On-screen credits are pretty meaningless anyway. Nobody really cares about them other than the families of the cast and crew.
This is the Internet age. They should have all the production credits on a central industry-owned (or guild-owned) database somewhere, and get rid of on-screen credits entirely. They are obsolete.
Scrolling the names of people on the screen makes about as much sense as having every CD album begin with a recording of a voice reading a list of the band members and studio employees.
I've stopped watching professional and even college basketball because there are no artists left, only spoiled children hammering each other out of the way.
Spoken like somebody who somehow managed to miss every single game featuring either Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett.
It wasn't trying to explain away all of the bad movies he liked.
I was only explaining why he tends to go easier than most critics on any movie with J-Lo in it. He's often an insightful reviewer with a great deal of knowledge about cinema art and history, but he's also a chubby old horn-dog.... which is perfectly fine, but worth remembering when you read his reviews.
The problem with Rotten Tomoatoes is that they do nothing to distinguish between the real critics and the so-called "quote whores."
Meaning that really bad movies can easilly get a "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes by stuffing the media with glowing reviews they bought and paid for.
The real important question when it comes to Revenge of the Sith is, "what did David Manning think of it?";)
even if there's a few films where you wonder what he was thinking (like his positive review of "Anaconda").
Roger Eberts single film credit is that he co-wrote a Sid Meyer soft-porn movie called "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls." The man really likes boobies.
That's important to remember whenever he reviews any movie featuring Jenifer Lopez. He raved about The Cell, and gave Gigli three and a half stars out of five.
Ah, but with pop music today, a kid who downloads a top-ten song will be utterly sick of it in a month, so you are really back to five bucks of value for the entire collection.
If he downloads another batch a month later, that's another five bucks, I s'pose.
If I sold my Mustang to you could I get sued by Ford for it?
If copyright law covered the distribution of Ford Mustangs, then yes.
Since copyright law applies to songs, and not to physical objects like cars, your comparison is not analogous.
Copyright law is a government-mandated monopoly right to distribute composed works. If you don't like it you can (and should) lobby to have the law changed, but until then it's the law of the land.
The RIAA doesn't sue downloaders. They sue people who upload music.
Okay, so they can claim damages $5 per person who they can prove downloaded your uploads, perhaps with the cost split evenly between the uploader and the downloader, to be completely fair.
They could sue for more as punative damages, I suppose, but they can't claim any more damage than that, since that is now what the market value of unlimited downloading has become.
(Unfortunately, that's not entirely true. $5 only buys you the right to listen for a month, not download and keep. Therefore the true "damages" they can claim are still a buck per song upload. Even so, it's a hell of a lot less than they are claiming... and they would have to prove that each download was an actual person illegally getting the song from you, not just their law firm downloading the same track 6,000 times.)
Now if I can just get somebody to teach me to remember to close my italics tags, or at least hit the damned preview button before posting, I'd be doing great.:P
But it does give us an opportunity to discuss Apple's retail stores and how that are more than just "stores"... [insert all kinds of stuff which small PC stored used to do before the massive chains pushed them out of the market...]
It's not that Apple Stores are "more than" stores. It's that most computer warehouses are less.
Try this sometime: Walk in to a CompUSA, Best Buy, Fry's, Microcenter, whatever... Ask a question about a relatively new technology to which you already know the answer. Assuming you get anybody to tell you anything about it, you will be stunned at the kind of misinformation which that kid in the snappy uniform vest will sling at you while pretending to know what he's talking about. Feign ignorance... let him keep talking and see how deep the rabbit hole goes. Sometimes it's really astonishing.
Now consider that every one of your most clueless relatives who come in and ask for advice about which printer to buy, the differences between digital cameras, the various speeds of USB, etc., are all getting "advice" from these shockingly ignorant boobs.
No wonder they call you at 11:30 at night needing your help to get a scanner driver to work with their version of Windows. When they try to learn things themselves, from people who sell this crap for a living and therefore must know something about it, they get guided into a labyrinth of bogosity which they are unlikely to ever find their way out of.
The problem is that PC's have reached the razor-thin price margins of consumer electronics, but not the simplicity. Your grandpa can eventually figure out a VCR or a microwave, but when it comes to the computer, he needs help. That's why those absurd "learn how to use a computer" CD's which you keep seeing infomercials for haven't gone away yet.
This is a place where Apple has two advantages:
1. It's slightly easier for a n00b to learn (although that gap has closed slightly... and the number of people who lack computer literacy is slowly declining).
2. The margins are fat enough that they don't mind spending a few bucks giving free training and troubleshooting advice in fancy shopping-mall stores.
Now can we close the three in Minnesota, so I can skate around the local sales tax when ordering from the Apple Store online?... er... I mean... so I can declare the sales taxes myself when I file, as I always do when ordering products through the mail or Internet, in full compliance with current laws, rather than having the tax added to the purchase price right away?
USB only is generally cheaper than Firewire, but we are talking about the Mac mini here, and I've generally found that Macs enjoy much more stable performace with drives on the firewire bus than on USB. The ability to use FW instead of USB2 is well worth the $30 premium in my book.
Slashdot Mirror
In other news, it appears that Wal-Mart used to rent out DVD's.
Why can't they make the plastic for the disc out something hard as, say, polycarbonate (used in sunglasses). If you need a softer material near the recording medium then they could do a layer of polycarbonate on the surface so at least it won't scratch as easily.
Wouldn't it be simpler to put a cheap cartrige case around the disk, ensuring that nothing ever comes into contact with it?
Sure, it might seem like it would take up more shelf space, but since such a scheme would let you do away with the "jewel cases" we store CD's in now, it would be a wash, wouldn't it?
Just think of it as a case which you don't need to remove the media from.
I have no comment on your opinion of DRM one way or the other, but I would just like to point out that your sig file ("You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.") is the smartest goddamn thing I've seen posted on Slashdot in months.
The real question is, why is a communist dictatorship's choice of operating systems considered news around here?
It kind of reminds me of the old parody of MTV News, which reported on a massive tropical killing thousands in the South Pacific and how it would impact Bon Jovi's tour schedule.
Sony really only needs to add one accessory to the Playstation line-up to guarantee a win.
Or Steve Nash of the Suns for that matter.
Word.
This could get expensive.
Not for me. Not cross-platform == not interested.
There are not many Mac gamers, but there are a few. I can play World of Warcraft on a PC side-by-side on the same server with my Mac-playing friends, and can use my iBook to play it when I'm away from home, therefore WoW wins until something better comes along which works on both PC's and Macs.
Too bad. There's a lot that I like about City of Heroes, but I'm only going to pay the monthly fee on one game at a time.
NCSoft does not appear to share Blizzard's enthusiasm for reaching the Mac market, and they won't see a dime from me until that changes.
Come on it's an obvious sign of lecherous heterosexual deviance.
Except for those who go out of their way to point out that they are "just doing it to look at the girl's butts" by posting stuff like that.
They are probably closet gays in most cases.
Just sayin' is all.
This has always been Balmer's M.O.
"Yeah, yeah... I'll grudgingly admit we made some bad moves in the past, but you're going to be thilled with the stuff we are about to do!!! Just you wait and see! I... Love... This... CompanyYEEEAH!"
What exactly do you do with a Mac mini that you can't get any visual output from, especially one with a lifespan of two hours? It seems pointless to make it mobile.
Wireless network games? Find the server before the batteries die?
Here's a thought: You use a mini at an office and at home. With a two-hour battery, there's no need to power it down when you relocate it. Just put it to sleep, unplug it, and go.
Honestly, anybody who can't think of at least three situations off the top of their head where it might be useful for certain people to have a battery option must have very limited imaginations.
I'll finally be able to play GTA while I'm driving.
In my neighborhood, people have been playing GTA while driving for years.
The street sign in my front yard has been replaced three times so far.
I'm planning on putting up a privacy fence made of nice cedar this summer, and one critical step the preservation of my new fence will be to put several "decorative" boulders out along the curb.
On-screen credits are pretty meaningless anyway. Nobody really cares about them other than the families of the cast and crew.
This is the Internet age. They should have all the production credits on a central industry-owned (or guild-owned) database somewhere, and get rid of on-screen credits entirely. They are obsolete.
Scrolling the names of people on the screen makes about as much sense as having every CD album begin with a recording of a voice reading a list of the band members and studio employees.
I've stopped watching professional and even college basketball because there are no artists left, only spoiled children hammering each other out of the way.
Spoken like somebody who somehow managed to miss every single game featuring either Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett.
man creating civ3 AND shooting porn in the off hours?
LOL.
Russ Meyer, not Sid. Thanks for catching that.
It wasn't trying to explain away all of the bad movies he liked.
... which is perfectly fine, but worth remembering when you read his reviews.
I was only explaining why he tends to go easier than most critics on any movie with J-Lo in it. He's often an insightful reviewer with a great deal of knowledge about cinema art and history, but he's also a chubby old horn-dog.
The problem with Rotten Tomoatoes is that they do nothing to distinguish between the real critics and the so-called "quote whores."
;)
Meaning that really bad movies can easilly get a "fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes by stuffing the media with glowing reviews they bought and paid for.
The real important question when it comes to Revenge of the Sith is, "what did David Manning think of it?"
even if there's a few films where you wonder what he was thinking (like his positive review of "Anaconda").
Roger Eberts single film credit is that he co-wrote a Sid Meyer soft-porn movie called "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls." The man really likes boobies.
That's important to remember whenever he reviews any movie featuring Jenifer Lopez. He raved about The Cell, and gave Gigli three and a half stars out of five.
I believe the word that applies would be: "Keeper."
Ah, but with pop music today, a kid who downloads a top-ten song will be utterly sick of it in a month, so you are really back to five bucks of value for the entire collection.
If he downloads another batch a month later, that's another five bucks, I s'pose.
If I sold my Mustang to you could I get sued by Ford for it?
If copyright law covered the distribution of Ford Mustangs, then yes.
Since copyright law applies to songs, and not to physical objects like cars, your comparison is not analogous.
Copyright law is a government-mandated monopoly right to distribute composed works. If you don't like it you can (and should) lobby to have the law changed, but until then it's the law of the land.
The RIAA doesn't sue downloaders. They sue people who upload music.
Okay, so they can claim damages $5 per person who they can prove downloaded your uploads, perhaps with the cost split evenly between the uploader and the downloader, to be completely fair.
They could sue for more as punative damages, I suppose, but they can't claim any more damage than that, since that is now what the market value of unlimited downloading has become.
(Unfortunately, that's not entirely true. $5 only buys you the right to listen for a month, not download and keep. Therefore the true "damages" they can claim are still a buck per song upload. Even so, it's a hell of a lot less than they are claiming... and they would have to prove that each download was an actual person illegally getting the song from you, not just their law firm downloading the same track 6,000 times.)
Now if I can just get somebody to teach me to remember to close my italics tags, or at least hit the damned preview button before posting, I'd be doing great. :P
But it does give us an opportunity to discuss Apple's retail stores and how that are more than just "stores"... [insert all kinds of stuff which small PC stored used to do before the massive chains pushed them out of the market...]
It's not that Apple Stores are "more than" stores. It's that most computer warehouses are less.
Try this sometime: Walk in to a CompUSA, Best Buy, Fry's, Microcenter, whatever... Ask a question about a relatively new technology to which you already know the answer. Assuming you get anybody to tell you anything about it, you will be stunned at the kind of misinformation which that kid in the snappy uniform vest will sling at you while pretending to know what he's talking about. Feign ignorance... let him keep talking and see how deep the rabbit hole goes. Sometimes it's really astonishing.
Now consider that every one of your most clueless relatives who come in and ask for advice about which printer to buy, the differences between digital cameras, the various speeds of USB, etc., are all getting "advice" from these shockingly ignorant boobs.
No wonder they call you at 11:30 at night needing your help to get a scanner driver to work with their version of Windows. When they try to learn things themselves, from people who sell this crap for a living and therefore must know something about it, they get guided into a labyrinth of bogosity which they are unlikely to ever find their way out of.
The problem is that PC's have reached the razor-thin price margins of consumer electronics, but not the simplicity. Your grandpa can eventually figure out a VCR or a microwave, but when it comes to the computer, he needs help. That's why those absurd "learn how to use a computer" CD's which you keep seeing infomercials for haven't gone away yet.
This is a place where Apple has two advantages:
1. It's slightly easier for a n00b to learn (although that gap has closed slightly... and the number of people who lack computer literacy is slowly declining).
2. The margins are fat enough that they don't mind spending a few bucks giving free training and troubleshooting advice in fancy shopping-mall stores.
Now can we close the three in Minnesota, so I can skate around the local sales tax when ordering from the Apple Store online? ... er... I mean... so I can declare the sales taxes myself when I file, as I always do when ordering products through the mail or Internet, in full compliance with current laws, rather than having the tax added to the purchase price right away?
(whew!)
USB only is generally cheaper than Firewire, but we are talking about the Mac mini here, and I've generally found that Macs enjoy much more stable performace with drives on the firewire bus than on USB. The ability to use FW instead of USB2 is well worth the $30 premium in my book.