To start the fire of the moonlanding conspiracy flame war (that will inevitably start somewhere in this thread), here goes -
The two NASA instruments are designed to layover images and data readings where the landers and equipment are or are thought to be. Whether through some fancy electronic trickery/photoshop, or they built a scale model that hangs in front of the lenses at adjustable distances, or some other kooky theory. [sidebar] Perhaps the ISRO could snap a few photos of the sites in question to prove, yes or no, that we've been there and end this conspiracy.[/sidebar]
The actual projects by NASA are the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M^3), here, and the Mini Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini-SAR), here.
Congratulations to the ISRO! This really is a great achievement. Plus, my ulterior motive being that I hope to see a Space Race reignited.
Easy now. If you look at the details of the images, all of the pictures that have been release have been taken with the Narrow Angle Camera MDIS camera. Details here. The NAC takes black & white photos. In order to get color photos, the pictures need to be taken with the Wide Angle Camera.
IANARS, but I would think they are waiting until they are in orbit before they deploy the WAC, probably due to power requirements. I could be wrong though.
The problem I have with this argument is that it assumes that high capacity flash memory will be cheaper and easier to reproduce in the huge quantities that Hollywood/Movie studios need, than the optical formats.
Consider how commercial CD/DVD/BD's are made: create a master disc, then stamp out x discs, which are then automatically decorated, packaged, and cased. Pennies per disc (ex. content) in manufacturing costs. And prices for BD-ROM production will come down, just as they did for CD-ROM and DVD-ROM.
Compare that to flash chips, while highly automated, is more complicated. There is no "Master" image that is physically etched into flash memory. After its produced and packaged onto a board, then it gets loaded with the proper firmware. In this case, you would need something that can transfer ~50GB (for the sake of debate, the exact same codecs/settings for the a/v files) as quickly as possible, and do it several million times with Six Sigma precision. This step alone will take much, much longer than producing the discs.
All that said, I still believe that it would be nice to use flash or a type of flash exchange for video rental at a local store, especially if they could get the transfer rates up, meaning the wait time is low. Downloading files at home that size still takes too long for the masses, so the 'bandwidth' of Netflix/Blockbuster with Blu-ray movies is still faster than most users broadband connection.
Visit one of the Great Lakes states and you will see that they over contribute to the population. Fat people breeding with fat people. This is how you end up with 4'6" 5th graders weighing more than me, granted I'm on the skinny side, 27y, 5'11" 165lbs. I think they just realize that if they want to get laid, their standards...change. And I mean the truely fat people, not the husky ones.
For an annecdotal study, simply visit a non-upper class mall in your neighborhood and sit in the food court for 30min. Grotesquely obese will rapidly become average, shifting your bell curve a good 50+ lbs to the right, and skinny becoming the left-side outliers.
I'm sure that if you removed the (qualified) medical reasons, the generally husky/bigger, but not fat, people, merely the margin of error would change. Americans are overweight with many just plain old FAT!
If you want to do a hardware hack, then there's plenty of posts here already. This is probably way too much work and you'll probably need a few cases worth of dead trees, but you may be able to print out your old code, then just scan it with OCR software on your Mac. Granted it would be in OSX, not the emulator, but its a start. Of course, you'd still need the old computer plus a printer for it. I don't remember if the Amstrads had printers (I had a C64), so that might been an ever rarer find than the floppy drive.
eBay has 2 listings for the needed floppy drives, here and here, but they aren't cheap.
I'm going to assume that you are looking for a referenced scientific/academic study which will tell you what's best for your eyes. And to that I have no answer. But I do have some anecdotal personal history and a few thoughts.
Call me old, but I've always preferred Grey lettering on a Navy background ala Word Perfect 5.1. At least when working on documents where graphics and colors are unimportant. I still keep Word configured that way to today. People accustomed to Black on White think I'm weird(er) for using it that way.
Or when I'm using a terminal, I usually setup a Green on Black color scheme, but Amber text would also be nostalgic. Even a shade of Grey on Black for an alternate nostalgia. SunOS was Black on Grey
My question(s) to you, what are you working on? Is it code? In an IDE or xterm? Do you have multi-color themes, like in an IDE? Or graphic design with lots of colors at once, in which a medium grey is usually standard? Working in a brightly lit, fluorescent bulb cubicle, an office with natural light, a basement with incandescent lights, or a dark room lit only by the neon/led/ccd bulbs of your case mods? These variables could effect your decision as much as anything else.
I think the best way for you to figure it out 'scientifically' is to come up with 5-10 combinations, try them each day at work for 1-2 weeks, and record your thoughts in a journal every hour or so. "Is this comfortable to look at? How's my eye strain? Can I reliably read what I'm doing? etc." Then pick your 2 favorites and try them each for a week straight, again making notes. Then decide on one. You can find what works for you over the long hours. I'm certain that my preference is different from yours. Obviously, you'll need to pick colors with higher contrast to each other, as Lime Green text on a Lemon Yellow background would probably be a difficult setting to get much done in.
Seriously, look his profile and you'll see 4, yes FOUR, comments over 6 years. I don't post that often, but I do read/. often. 1 Submission for 4 comments? Not a bad ratio.
My On-Topic comments have all been covered by others, Get a Desktop, Webcams, Lockable cabinets, Leave your personal laptop at home, let the company handle it, etc.
Makes me wonder if he just got kicked from one of the other sites... Or that his (personal) laptop is behind a work firewall blocking slashdot... Or that he was an arrogant jerk in the office that's about to get his comeuppance in the cube farm...
I agree. With a similar skill set, I came to a similar decision about 4 years ago. Did I enjoy learning all those now obsolete things? Definitely, but eventually I realized that other careers didn't require a skillset overhaul every 3-5y. I also realize the older I get, the less time I have to invest in eventual obsolecence because my priorities have changed.
What did I change to, you may ask? Sales. Yes, I have to learn about new products when they come out, but the underlying selling skills are the same. Its certainly a people-oriented position that isn't for everyone here on/., but I enjoy it. Plus, you get in the right field, say chemicals, logistics, or manufacturing, and there's still lots of technology to learn about to keep the geek in you happy.
I still like keeping up with Tech News, but I'm glad I'm not in the trenches anymore.
Agreed! I'm in NW Ohio, have iTunes 7.6, and downloaded the new LOST episode Friday morning...and Friday afternoon...and into the evening! Usually, it takes 20-25 min for the 500MB file, but not Friday; somewhere around the 6h mark. It was downloading between 15-20kbps, with a spike to 80kbps here and there. But YouTube videos were loading at their normal 300kbps+ rates.
Perhaps some of the iTunes/Akamai servers are in India? The 3 fiber pipes that were cut last week would certainly slow things down.
All societies are discriminatory in some form or another, especially when dealing with majority and minority groups. The USA is no exception. However examples abroad are just as easy to find, currently and throughout history. It could be based on race, Black v. White, White v. Black, Arab v. White, Asian v. White, etc.; on nationality (which has started more than one battle in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia over time) Anglos v. Francos, Romans v. Normans, Koreans v. Japanese, etc.; on region, Basques v. Catalians, Brits v. Scots, etc.; on religion (far more discriminatory than any other catagory despite their respective teachings), Protestant v. Catholic, Catholic v. Orthodox, Jewish v. Christian, Islam v. Christianity, Sunni v. Shiite, Buddhism v. Confucianism, etc.; on gender, male v. female; on Age, GetOffMyLawn!, twentysomethings v. fortysomethings, etc.. There's not really a modern society that's not racist.
Blacks are not the largest minority in the USA any longer, that title belongs to our Hispanic population; and they are doing ok, often with a language barrier to overcome. The number of poor white people is higher than the poor black population, but a smaller percentage of the white population. Poor white people tend to live in rural areas, while poor black people tend to live in urban areas, making it far easier to notice. Plus our media enjoys playing up the poor urban black population. The stereotypical, urban ghetto, high school dropout, drug using/dealing, single mother working 2 jobs, with 2+ children is a media favorite. Although the media loves a certain celebrity family, who could be given the stereotypical 'white trash' label with recent events, underage pregnancy, insanity, and so on; although they're rich, not poor. And the mom is writing a book on parenting...
It would be interesting to calculate the debt load, excluding home mortgage, of the average white middle class person in the US, comparing it against assets and wages, and then concluding that most are far poorer than they realize. Especially if a Credit line is called in. Is the white person be better off, or is it merely an example of access to credit? Which should not be the case as they do not ask for race on credit card applications.
Hi urdak. Yes, I am American, but I agree with you. And yes, most Americans (95%+ I'd say) have a very American-centric view of the globe. That is very unfortunate and annoying. I wish all Americans spoke 2+ languages and had a better understanding of the globe, but they don't. Its just part of our country's culture and history, for better or worse. Different argument for a different thread though. I have an International Business degree, some fluency in French and Spanish, live near the Canadian border, and spent time in Quebec; I'm trying to spend more time abroad, but my job is keeping me here in the US...grrr... I did leave out the world traveler and foreigner-buying-USA-discs points of view, but those stats are difficult to find and are a small percentage compared to American's buying Region 1 discs.
Region coding is certainly a PITA, no argument there, but you do state that solutions, legal or not, are readily available to unlock players. And eBay + FedEx I'm sure is cheaper than a plane ticket; especially with the decline in our dollar. The technical spec doesn't require it, but studios' business models depend on it. Again, certainly not defending Region coding, just stating a fact. You are right about the reasons for Region Codes, greedy bastards in Hollywood, distribution control, and price control. HD-DVD is region-free, good, and Blu-ray has 3 regions, not good but better than the 7 of DVD. I'd love to see no region locking on anything, or to compromise, only on movies newer than 3 years, but that'll never happen. They have to be greedy bastards and release the uber-special-directors-cut-nth-anniversary set with special packaging and 30-sec of newly discovered extra footage. That's Hollywood for you.
Look, I'm no advocate for DRM. Personally, DRM is pointless. If they want to crack down on piracy, go after the street vendors peddling screeners for $3. But once again, DRM on commercial discs is completely up to the discs author. DVD, Blu-ray, and HD-DVD is the realm of discussion, all 3 of which have available DRM. Digital download DRM is a similar, but different argument, of which I say use standards and no DRM.
If Joe Sixpack has 200 legal Region 1 DVDs, chances are good that if he's moving to Region 2 and taking the discs, he's taking his player and tv too. Certainly this is a <1% factor in the big picture of DVD sales. The ads that cannot be skipped are certainly annoying, especially the "You wouldn't steal..." ones. And again, why they're there falls back to the discs author. Don't like commercials on the DVD, don't buy the disc. Not sure if the disc has commercials, wait a week, check some forums, then decide. If your kids won't leave you alone until you buy it for them, well, you decide, you're the parent.
Digital Downloads are more complicated. Sure, when you buy stuff from iTMS, you're locked to iPods. What about MS's PlaysForSure? That worked well for customers. Sony Connect? Nope. Walmart? No. Amazon, some. Physical Examples: Laserdisc, Cassette Tapes, VHS/Betamax, DAT, MiniDisc, $FavObsoleteFormatHere. Early adopters of technology frequently get screwed as the market develops and their product, physical or digital, becomes obsolete. At least with music, burn a CD and rerip it if you are so concerned about FairPlay/DRM. There are three solutions 1) Not participate, i.e. don't buy any media, physical or digital, 2) Accept the rules of the vendor lock-in and hope it is compatible in the future, or 3) Buy the physical media (DVD or CD), Rip it to the format you're most comfortable with (MP3, MP4, etc.). Duplicity, yes; time-consuming, yes; convenient, only for geeks, but getting better.
Look at the link. HD-DVD may be manufactured by Toshiba, but the software on the discs, HDi, is an MS thing. Or here is another link. The fact in question is reference point 24 under the "Attempts to avoid a format war." In this case, Toshiba = hardware development, Microsoft = software development. Even though royalties are involved with Blu-ray, the consortium decided Java was the way to go and didn't want to deal with Microsoft and HDi.
I'm not defending them, but there are worse companies than Sony, and personally Microsoft is worse. Rootkit this, proprietary that, ad nauseum... Have you used Windows? Sony does have some nice products. This looks neat. Expensive, sure, and plenty of geeks around here I'm sure could build a 'better' one, but still for a non-geek with money, probably a solid purchase. prompt for comments about the MacMini, EyeTV, MythTV, box in the basement/closet/garage, with 2TB of RAID5, 4GB RAM, *NIX flavor of the day, etc... Like I said, for the non-geeks with money.
Fellow geeks, the only people who really care about DRM (on movies) is us geeks. Joe Sixpack just wants the disc to work when they put it in the player. Since we seem to debate DRM at least weekly, Here is a chart comparing the two plus SD-DVD. If you notice, ALL THREE have DRM. So the argument of HD-DVD having better/no DRM is pointless. Any of the formats can be DRM free if the author of the disc allows it.
Notable facts:
DRM: AACS-128 on Both; BD+, ROM-Mark optional on Blu-ray
Larger aperture on Blu-ray, allowing for the higher capacity
3 layer HD-DVD is v2.0 spec, 3 x 17GB = 51GB, currently unknown compatibility
Max bitrates (total, audio, video) are higher on Blu-ray
DD+ and Dolby TrueHD are mandatory on HD-DVD, optional on Blu-ray
HD-DVD is region free; Blu-ray has 3 regions; SD-DVD has 7 regions
Microsoft's HDi in HD-DVD vs. Sun's BD-J in Blu-ray
LG has a player that supports both discs but is expensive
Blu-ray discs are hard-coated
Most people I know that have an HDTV are quite satisfied with an upconverting DVD player and SD-DVDs. They're cheaper to buy at $BIGBOXRETAIL, look good enough scaled, and sound great. For most, DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 are good enough for their setups. Even with the DD+/DTS-HD/TrueHD/DTS-HD Master, unless you have better speakers (think bought seperately, not a home-theater-in-a-box), you probably won't notice the difference in codecs.
Also interesting to note how many geeks here are praising HD-DVD even though its an MS product. Isn't MS = Bad? Did I miss the MS = Good decision? Is it the lesser of two evils? Subjective, so you decide for yourself.
The US has 3.65x population, 27.5x geographical area, and 3.125x number of states of Germany. Each of the 50 states has different cultures, heritages, housing situations, language dialects, expectations for roles of government, access to public transportation, history, etc. The larger numbers complicate things. Our State ID cards correlate more closely to EU National ID cards. What if the EU said that you needed a EUROZONE ID card which would replace your German one? It would never happen. The seperatists and nationalists would freak out and something would get blown up.
If there's one thing Americans tend to agree on is a distrust of Washington DC. We already have State ID cards for everyday uses, Social Security IDs (for a program that will be bankrupt long before my generation benefits from it), and a National Passport for use when travelling out of the country. What exactly does a National ID accomplish? Police, federal agencies, military, etc. already have access to the state databases. Its merely a move to centralize authority with a bunch of politicians in DC and their Contractor friends looking for more handout projects. Just the next step in an Orwellian empire.
Honest question... what's your source for those stats? I don't disagree with any point except the military one. Spending would need to drop for that to happen, unless you're counting active duty population, which continues a relative decline. Spanish speakers will continue to increase, especially in southern areas, but I see it plateauing as the largest minority.
Ok, so I don't disagree with the community service aspect of the punishment, but 100h/500h seems very excessive, especially when 'real' criminals may receive 10h-25h for something far more dangerous to the human community.
Hot Coffee was stupid and way overblown. Watch an episode of CSI where they're investigating illicit drug users, brothels, or any other controversial 'sin' crime. Far more explicit with a greater audience of viewers. And as liberal as Hollywood tends to be, they would certainly object to being told what to write and what not to write. Would you like the gov't auditing your source code annually, checking for comments and other things Queen Hilary & crew deem problematic? If you think all the good programming jobs are leaving the country now, wait until this crap happens.
Those last two points also lump together with expansion of the federal gov't. The money required for her little audit team would be in the millions to have any noticable impact. Plus all the surveillance equipment that would need to be purchased and installed. Probably somethign like a National ID Card linked against a database of restricted games. (The states don't like the National ID Card idea.) The continuance of building a 1984 society. Plus this doesn't tackle teenagers buying R-rated movies or parents choosing to buy (or just not caring) products for their children. Just a small population segment buying relatively small amounts of product, compared to tv & movies anyways.
And what would happen if some kook like Thompson was appointed czar of this new department of entertainment regulation? His opinion of acceptable standards differs greatly from mine which differs greatly from yours.
If you don't do anything to provoke the officer(s) to use the taser, then you won't be tasered. If you do get tasered and are innocent, then I guess you'll be getting an apology and probably some money. But if you're resisting arrest, or breaking some other law and not cooperating, you deserve to be tasered, billy clubed, shot, etc. Police should err on the side of public safety and they need the proper tools for enforcement. When you scale statistics to country populations, 1 in 1,000,000 odds start appearing more, especially with today's media. The UN is good for a number of functions, but policing and enforcement has never been a strong suit.
Now that jackass in Utah probably didn't deserve to be tasered for speeding, but he brought it on himself by getting out of his truck, challenging an officer, waving his arms, and having an attitude. Dude, it was a construction zone and you got busted. You're 28; I'm sure you've driven through one construction zone and seen the signs since you got your drivers license. Pay the ticket.
If Apple would have gone with VZW, there would be x(iPhones sold) more VZW customers. My opinion of VZW would remain the same: Poor service, locked down handsets, and high fees for things that are simple on other carriers. If I had to use an iPhone and choose between AT&T and VZW, I would choose ATT; see previous sentence for why (although whoever has better coverage depends completely on where you live). Those two companies already compete with similar products and services in the same market. I have not seen prices come down and service quality go up, just more "latest & greatest" handsets with worse battery life. The best Motorola, MotoFone, in years won't even come out here because all it is a phone. Every national carrier has exclusive phones, yet only the GSM-based handsets can be taken to a competitors network (excluding the iPhone). I'm not hearing anyone complain about the Samsung Juke being locked to VZW or the LG Fuzic being locked to Sprint. There's nothing, except govt services, that doesn't have a competitor or a comparable choice. I'd be hard pressed to find anything where I don't have a choice. Doctors, yes. Pet Food, yes. Autos, yes. Rx, 98% yes. Clothes, yes. Electronics, yes. Concrete, yes. Lumber, yes. Fuel, yes. Groceries, yes. Books, yes. Banking, yes. Govt services, no. (That last one makes for an interesting debate for some other forum.)
This isn't the 1920s when there was still limited choices and you could choose any color paint, as long as it was black, to paraphrase Henry Ford. And even then, he still had suppliers, including Goodyear and Standard Oil. And those Anti-Trust laws you are referring to have worked extremely well to prevent any one company from dominating the tech industry. Nothing like getting your Office Suite from a different company as your Operating System. **cough, cough** [sidebar] Personally, OSX or *BSD, OpenOffice; I know/. will mix in Linux and the various other OS & Office packages, just saying, mainstream users. You know, the ones who's password you have to unlock every week because they can't remember their Pet's name plus 01. [/sidebar]
Personal choice will always be yours, whether you want an iPhone or not, Organic groceries or not, an SUV or a Mini, etc. etc. Consumers have more choice and quality today than ever in the history of man. Though I do like your argument about content delivery companies bundling certain packages only with specific services. That I see as collusion and anti-competitive, but a different argument from the cell industry. Mainly because of laws granting a local monopoly to the last mile provider combined with asinine HOA rules prohibiting dishes. About the only way to "get back at" your cable comapny is to turn off your service, and few are willing to do that. Satellite radio is an interesting market and I had XM for a while. But I didn't need it and I can still listen to my team on AM/FM. Most of the shows I listened to, I can grab the podcast or the stream, my choice.
RE: AC... I figured Germany would have near 100% GSM coverage by each carrier, I just didn't know where to look on the.de sites to find a coverage map. And yes, most American plans still pull incoming calls from your minutes. My plan from Nextel allows free Incoming calls, but I do pay more for that "feature."
Perhaps its just my viewpoint as an American, but this seems like Vodafone is complaining because they are not the exclusive carrier (and can't charge for every little thing) and the iPhone falls under a different style plan, like here in the States. Remember, Vodafone is Verizon Wireless's largest shareholder and if Vodafone is anything like their American counterpart, they'll use every dirty trick in the book, to screw both their customer and their competition. I bet that Apple has enough lawyers on staff/contract to ensure that this type of sales agreement is compliant with Germany law.
The phone seems to be programmed (according to the article anyways...anyone have specific details?) to only use the T-Mobile network while in Germany. That should mean that while in Germany, it won't roam on Vodafone's, or anyone else's, network, thus allowing Vodafone to bill DT for the roaming agreement/charges, regardless of whether or not the customer has roaming included in their plan. Although I could be completely off, its really just a guess. I have used VZW phones in the past where it will have 0-10% of signal instead of switching to a competing (roaming) CDMA tower in sight. No, I can't hear you now.
As for "the use of the device being limited to certain fees within T-Mobile's subscription offerings." Perhaps they've setup a plan similar to AT&T/Cingular here where a number of charges that are typically a "per X" fee are instead a "flat rate" fee. They don't expand on it and I don't understand German (just English, French, and Spanish) to read the T-Mobile website for futher contract details; just a rate comparison box that's similar enough to the AT&Ts plans to understand. Vodafone doesn't want to compete against a non-standard, consumer friendly plan. VZW here wants you to pay for everything you can do with your phone. I'm surprised you don't get commercials while dialing from or to VZW handsets...oh...right...crappy pop ringers...
Magazines are declining for the same reasons as newspapers, readers are going online daily, hourly, etc. Quality articles and objective reviews have been replaced by lots of pictures, advertisements (well, more than ever), and "non-objective" reviews. Some will argue that last point, but seriously...aside from the games you know will be lousy, everything else is usually in the 6.5-8.0 range. Statistical Bell Curve..yeah yeah, kinda defeats the purpose of a 10-point scale.
Remember Next Generation? I had a subscription for a very long time, quality articles, in-depth reviews along with caption reviews, interviews with developers and company execs, extensive trade show coverage. Thankfully, its back as www.next-gen.biz . Even PC Gamer was pretty good back in the day. I still have a few 3.5" floppies around with demos on them and a stack of demo CDs (including one with the Halo E3 video, ah...what could have been). I stopped that subscription when the discs started containing fewer demos on them, everything got a 80% or better rating, % of ad-content rose, my 56k connection went broadband (thus eliminating the reason I needed the demo CDs), and the net sites improved.
Additionally, many of us older gamers who bought subscriptions to GamePro, EGM, PCGamer, etc. were still young when we had 'unlimited' free time to spend playing games for hours at a time, memorizing articles and cheat codes, highlight the games we wanted in the Funcoland ad, and dream about winning those "Ultimate Gaming Rig, 52"TV, D-VHS, Stereo Sound, big speakers, 4 Systems, 100+ Games, etc." advertisement contests where you just needed to solve successively more difficult puzzles. We've grown up and have higher priorities which take time, so we just look for concise reviews, user opinions, and aggregators like gamerankings.com, assuming we're still playing games. Newer gamers can always remember IGN.com, 1Up.com, Gamespot.com, [insert your fav game site here], etc., but give a cursory glance through the magazines in the store, thinking "I read this X months ago." or "I have the full strategy guide at home."
Is there a fix for gaming mags? No. People will always buy magazines from newstands, especially at the airport/subway terminals, the publishers will just need to adjust their circulation accordingly. Game websites will continue to grow and be purchased by conglomerates, for better or worse.
as an AC commented, I merely meant the actual speakers. Yes, most mainstream audio cards have supported 5.1 for years, but no one outside of my gaming friends runs more than 2 speakers, sometimes a subwoofer.
What specifically is holding them back? Are they looking for some kind of subsidy from Apple, or something? OpenGL is standard and well documented. HID is standard. CoreAudio is fairly new for audio programming. TCP/IP standard stacks for netplay. XCode is a decent IDE. I agree that graphics cards are certainly behind PC versions, but I'm not sure what can be done about that. Any geek seriously into gaming is already going to have a 2+button USB mouse to plug in. And that B.S. question about an Apple console...pointless.
"wow, gaming is incredibly important, we should do something with gaming". And then we'll say, "OK, here are three things you could do to make that better"...
Three things that could be better, but do already function, yet you're not using them.
"We'd love it if they would get serious about it. But they never have, and can't even follow trough on any of their commitments for game developers."
Perhaps this is because the developers Apple has been more interested in move systems worth $4k+ and develop software packages at $1k+. The systems people buy for themselves are not the uber-equipped MacPros, but the iMacs and MacBooks, at least numbers-wise.
People who want to develop games for Mac need to think more like a console developer: 1) Here's a standard set of tools. 2) Here's a limited range of hardware. 3) Here's a growing market of people looking for games, both simple and advanced. Gabe and Valve have chosen to develop on the "cutting edge" for the advanced players, which means DX10, fancy Audio engines (for the 5% of users who have more than a 2.1 setup), support for Physics coprocessors, and as much bandwidth as the graphics card allows, all of which means Windows only. Nothing wrong with that, gotta make money somehow. The Mac gaming market is there, they just don't want to participate. And how many hardcore gamers of Valve's target market only have a Mac? No PC, PS2/3, Xbox, 360, etc. They'll get their gaming fix somehow.
Slashdot Mirror
To start the fire of the moonlanding conspiracy flame war (that will inevitably start somewhere in this thread), here goes -
The two NASA instruments are designed to layover images and data readings where the landers and equipment are or are thought to be. Whether through some fancy electronic trickery/photoshop, or they built a scale model that hangs in front of the lenses at adjustable distances, or some other kooky theory. [sidebar] Perhaps the ISRO could snap a few photos of the sites in question to prove, yes or no, that we've been there and end this conspiracy.[/sidebar]
The actual projects by NASA are the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M^3), here, and the Mini Synthetic Aperture Radar (Mini-SAR), here.
Congratulations to the ISRO! This really is a great achievement. Plus, my ulterior motive being that I hope to see a Space Race reignited.
Easy now. If you look at the details of the images, all of the pictures that have been release have been taken with the Narrow Angle Camera MDIS camera. Details here. The NAC takes black & white photos. In order to get color photos, the pictures need to be taken with the Wide Angle Camera.
IANARS, but I would think they are waiting until they are in orbit before they deploy the WAC, probably due to power requirements. I could be wrong though.
The problem I have with this argument is that it assumes that high capacity flash memory will be cheaper and easier to reproduce in the huge quantities that Hollywood/Movie studios need, than the optical formats.
Consider how commercial CD/DVD/BD's are made: create a master disc, then stamp out x discs, which are then automatically decorated, packaged, and cased. Pennies per disc (ex. content) in manufacturing costs. And prices for BD-ROM production will come down, just as they did for CD-ROM and DVD-ROM.
Compare that to flash chips, while highly automated, is more complicated. There is no "Master" image that is physically etched into flash memory. After its produced and packaged onto a board, then it gets loaded with the proper firmware. In this case, you would need something that can transfer ~50GB (for the sake of debate, the exact same codecs/settings for the a/v files) as quickly as possible, and do it several million times with Six Sigma precision. This step alone will take much, much longer than producing the discs.
All that said, I still believe that it would be nice to use flash or a type of flash exchange for video rental at a local store, especially if they could get the transfer rates up, meaning the wait time is low. Downloading files at home that size still takes too long for the masses, so the 'bandwidth' of Netflix/Blockbuster with Blu-ray movies is still faster than most users broadband connection.
and you know its bad when the Coral Cache is running slower than the nearly slashdotted forum itself. 3100+ users right now in the official forum.
For an annecdotal study, simply visit a non-upper class mall in your neighborhood and sit in the food court for 30min. Grotesquely obese will rapidly become average, shifting your bell curve a good 50+ lbs to the right, and skinny becoming the left-side outliers.
I'm sure that if you removed the (qualified) medical reasons, the generally husky/bigger, but not fat, people, merely the margin of error would change. Americans are overweight with many just plain old FAT!
eBay has 2 listings for the needed floppy drives, here and here, but they aren't cheap.
Call me old, but I've always preferred Grey lettering on a Navy background ala Word Perfect 5.1. At least when working on documents where graphics and colors are unimportant. I still keep Word configured that way to today. People accustomed to Black on White think I'm weird(er) for using it that way.
Or when I'm using a terminal, I usually setup a Green on Black color scheme, but Amber text would also be nostalgic. Even a shade of Grey on Black for an alternate nostalgia. SunOS was Black on Grey
My question(s) to you, what are you working on? Is it code? In an IDE or xterm? Do you have multi-color themes, like in an IDE? Or graphic design with lots of colors at once, in which a medium grey is usually standard? Working in a brightly lit, fluorescent bulb cubicle, an office with natural light, a basement with incandescent lights, or a dark room lit only by the neon/led/ccd bulbs of your case mods? These variables could effect your decision as much as anything else.
I think the best way for you to figure it out 'scientifically' is to come up with 5-10 combinations, try them each day at work for 1-2 weeks, and record your thoughts in a journal every hour or so. "Is this comfortable to look at? How's my eye strain? Can I reliably read what I'm doing? etc." Then pick your 2 favorites and try them each for a week straight, again making notes. Then decide on one. You can find what works for you over the long hours. I'm certain that my preference is different from yours. Obviously, you'll need to pick colors with higher contrast to each other, as Lime Green text on a Lemon Yellow background would probably be a difficult setting to get much done in.
My On-Topic comments have all been covered by others, Get a Desktop, Webcams, Lockable cabinets, Leave your personal laptop at home, let the company handle it, etc.
Makes me wonder if he just got kicked from one of the other sites... Or that his (personal) laptop is behind a work firewall blocking slashdot... Or that he was an arrogant jerk in the office that's about to get his comeuppance in the cube farm...
I agree. With a similar skill set, I came to a similar decision about 4 years ago. Did I enjoy learning all those now obsolete things? Definitely, but eventually I realized that other careers didn't require a skillset overhaul every 3-5y. I also realize the older I get, the less time I have to invest in eventual obsolecence because my priorities have changed.
/., but I enjoy it. Plus, you get in the right field, say chemicals, logistics, or manufacturing, and there's still lots of technology to learn about to keep the geek in you happy.
What did I change to, you may ask? Sales. Yes, I have to learn about new products when they come out, but the underlying selling skills are the same. Its certainly a people-oriented position that isn't for everyone here on
I still like keeping up with Tech News, but I'm glad I'm not in the trenches anymore.
Agreed! I'm in NW Ohio, have iTunes 7.6, and downloaded the new LOST episode Friday morning...and Friday afternoon...and into the evening! Usually, it takes 20-25 min for the 500MB file, but not Friday; somewhere around the 6h mark. It was downloading between 15-20kbps, with a spike to 80kbps here and there. But YouTube videos were loading at their normal 300kbps+ rates.
Perhaps some of the iTunes/Akamai servers are in India? The 3 fiber pipes that were cut last week would certainly slow things down.
All societies are discriminatory in some form or another, especially when dealing with majority and minority groups. The USA is no exception. However examples abroad are just as easy to find, currently and throughout history. It could be based on race, Black v. White, White v. Black, Arab v. White, Asian v. White, etc.; on nationality (which has started more than one battle in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia over time) Anglos v. Francos, Romans v. Normans, Koreans v. Japanese, etc.; on region, Basques v. Catalians, Brits v. Scots, etc.; on religion (far more discriminatory than any other catagory despite their respective teachings), Protestant v. Catholic, Catholic v. Orthodox, Jewish v. Christian, Islam v. Christianity, Sunni v. Shiite, Buddhism v. Confucianism, etc.; on gender, male v. female; on Age, GetOffMyLawn!, twentysomethings v. fortysomethings, etc.. There's not really a modern society that's not racist.
Blacks are not the largest minority in the USA any longer, that title belongs to our Hispanic population; and they are doing ok, often with a language barrier to overcome. The number of poor white people is higher than the poor black population, but a smaller percentage of the white population. Poor white people tend to live in rural areas, while poor black people tend to live in urban areas, making it far easier to notice. Plus our media enjoys playing up the poor urban black population. The stereotypical, urban ghetto, high school dropout, drug using/dealing, single mother working 2 jobs, with 2+ children is a media favorite. Although the media loves a certain celebrity family, who could be given the stereotypical 'white trash' label with recent events, underage pregnancy, insanity, and so on; although they're rich, not poor. And the mom is writing a book on parenting...
It would be interesting to calculate the debt load, excluding home mortgage, of the average white middle class person in the US, comparing it against assets and wages, and then concluding that most are far poorer than they realize. Especially if a Credit line is called in. Is the white person be better off, or is it merely an example of access to credit? Which should not be the case as they do not ask for race on credit card applications.
Agreed... Being poor has nothing to do with your race/creed/color/etc. Of all the typos throughout the day... Mod parent up.
Hi urdak. Yes, I am American, but I agree with you. And yes, most Americans (95%+ I'd say) have a very American-centric view of the globe. That is very unfortunate and annoying. I wish all Americans spoke 2+ languages and had a better understanding of the globe, but they don't. Its just part of our country's culture and history, for better or worse. Different argument for a different thread though. I have an International Business degree, some fluency in French and Spanish, live near the Canadian border, and spent time in Quebec; I'm trying to spend more time abroad, but my job is keeping me here in the US...grrr... I did leave out the world traveler and foreigner-buying-USA-discs points of view, but those stats are difficult to find and are a small percentage compared to American's buying Region 1 discs.
Region coding is certainly a PITA, no argument there, but you do state that solutions, legal or not, are readily available to unlock players. And eBay + FedEx I'm sure is cheaper than a plane ticket; especially with the decline in our dollar. The technical spec doesn't require it, but studios' business models depend on it. Again, certainly not defending Region coding, just stating a fact. You are right about the reasons for Region Codes, greedy bastards in Hollywood, distribution control, and price control. HD-DVD is region-free, good, and Blu-ray has 3 regions, not good but better than the 7 of DVD. I'd love to see no region locking on anything, or to compromise, only on movies newer than 3 years, but that'll never happen. They have to be greedy bastards and release the uber-special-directors-cut-nth-anniversary set with special packaging and 30-sec of newly discovered extra footage. That's Hollywood for you.
Look, I'm no advocate for DRM. Personally, DRM is pointless. If they want to crack down on piracy, go after the street vendors peddling screeners for $3. But once again, DRM on commercial discs is completely up to the discs author. DVD, Blu-ray, and HD-DVD is the realm of discussion, all 3 of which have available DRM. Digital download DRM is a similar, but different argument, of which I say use standards and no DRM.
If Joe Sixpack has 200 legal Region 1 DVDs, chances are good that if he's moving to Region 2 and taking the discs, he's taking his player and tv too. Certainly this is a <1% factor in the big picture of DVD sales. The ads that cannot be skipped are certainly annoying, especially the "You wouldn't steal..." ones. And again, why they're there falls back to the discs author. Don't like commercials on the DVD, don't buy the disc. Not sure if the disc has commercials, wait a week, check some forums, then decide. If your kids won't leave you alone until you buy it for them, well, you decide, you're the parent.
Digital Downloads are more complicated. Sure, when you buy stuff from iTMS, you're locked to iPods. What about MS's PlaysForSure? That worked well for customers. Sony Connect? Nope. Walmart? No. Amazon, some. Physical Examples: Laserdisc, Cassette Tapes, VHS/Betamax, DAT, MiniDisc, $FavObsoleteFormatHere. Early adopters of technology frequently get screwed as the market develops and their product, physical or digital, becomes obsolete. At least with music, burn a CD and rerip it if you are so concerned about FairPlay/DRM. There are three solutions 1) Not participate, i.e. don't buy any media, physical or digital, 2) Accept the rules of the vendor lock-in and hope it is compatible in the future, or 3) Buy the physical media (DVD or CD), Rip it to the format you're most comfortable with (MP3, MP4, etc.). Duplicity, yes; time-consuming, yes; convenient, only for geeks, but getting better.
Look at the link. HD-DVD may be manufactured by Toshiba, but the software on the discs, HDi, is an MS thing. Or here is another link. The fact in question is reference point 24 under the "Attempts to avoid a format war." In this case, Toshiba = hardware development, Microsoft = software development. Even though royalties are involved with Blu-ray, the consortium decided Java was the way to go and didn't want to deal with Microsoft and HDi.
I'm not defending them, but there are worse companies than Sony, and personally Microsoft is worse. Rootkit this, proprietary that, ad nauseum... Have you used Windows? Sony does have some nice products. This looks neat. Expensive, sure, and plenty of geeks around here I'm sure could build a 'better' one, but still for a non-geek with money, probably a solid purchase. prompt for comments about the MacMini, EyeTV, MythTV, box in the basement/closet/garage, with 2TB of RAID5, 4GB RAM, *NIX flavor of the day, etc... Like I said, for the non-geeks with money.
Notable facts:
- DRM: AACS-128 on Both; BD+, ROM-Mark optional on Blu-ray
- Larger aperture on Blu-ray, allowing for the higher capacity
- 3 layer HD-DVD is v2.0 spec, 3 x 17GB = 51GB, currently unknown compatibility
- Max bitrates (total, audio, video) are higher on Blu-ray
- DD+ and Dolby TrueHD are mandatory on HD-DVD, optional on Blu-ray
- HD-DVD is region free; Blu-ray has 3 regions; SD-DVD has 7 regions
- Microsoft's HDi in HD-DVD vs. Sun's BD-J in Blu-ray
- Stand-alone component manufacturers: HD-DVD: 5; Blu-ray: 5
- LG has a player that supports both discs but is expensive
- Blu-ray discs are hard-coated
Most people I know that have an HDTV are quite satisfied with an upconverting DVD player and SD-DVDs. They're cheaper to buy at $BIGBOXRETAIL, look good enough scaled, and sound great. For most, DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 are good enough for their setups. Even with the DD+/DTS-HD/TrueHD/DTS-HD Master, unless you have better speakers (think bought seperately, not a home-theater-in-a-box), you probably won't notice the difference in codecs.Also interesting to note how many geeks here are praising HD-DVD even though its an MS product. Isn't MS = Bad? Did I miss the MS = Good decision? Is it the lesser of two evils? Subjective, so you decide for yourself.
So this is late to the discussion, but anyways...
The US has 3.65x population, 27.5x geographical area, and 3.125x number of states of Germany. Each of the 50 states has different cultures, heritages, housing situations, language dialects, expectations for roles of government, access to public transportation, history, etc. The larger numbers complicate things. Our State ID cards correlate more closely to EU National ID cards. What if the EU said that you needed a EUROZONE ID card which would replace your German one? It would never happen. The seperatists and nationalists would freak out and something would get blown up.
If there's one thing Americans tend to agree on is a distrust of Washington DC. We already have State ID cards for everyday uses, Social Security IDs (for a program that will be bankrupt long before my generation benefits from it), and a National Passport for use when travelling out of the country. What exactly does a National ID accomplish? Police, federal agencies, military, etc. already have access to the state databases. Its merely a move to centralize authority with a bunch of politicians in DC and their Contractor friends looking for more handout projects. Just the next step in an Orwellian empire.
Honest question... what's your source for those stats? I don't disagree with any point except the military one. Spending would need to drop for that to happen, unless you're counting active duty population, which continues a relative decline. Spanish speakers will continue to increase, especially in southern areas, but I see it plateauing as the largest minority.
Ok, so I don't disagree with the community service aspect of the punishment, but 100h/500h seems very excessive, especially when 'real' criminals may receive 10h-25h for something far more dangerous to the human community.
Hot Coffee was stupid and way overblown. Watch an episode of CSI where they're investigating illicit drug users, brothels, or any other controversial 'sin' crime. Far more explicit with a greater audience of viewers. And as liberal as Hollywood tends to be, they would certainly object to being told what to write and what not to write. Would you like the gov't auditing your source code annually, checking for comments and other things Queen Hilary & crew deem problematic? If you think all the good programming jobs are leaving the country now, wait until this crap happens.
Those last two points also lump together with expansion of the federal gov't. The money required for her little audit team would be in the millions to have any noticable impact. Plus all the surveillance equipment that would need to be purchased and installed. Probably somethign like a National ID Card linked against a database of restricted games. (The states don't like the National ID Card idea.) The continuance of building a 1984 society. Plus this doesn't tackle teenagers buying R-rated movies or parents choosing to buy (or just not caring) products for their children. Just a small population segment buying relatively small amounts of product, compared to tv & movies anyways.
And what would happen if some kook like Thompson was appointed czar of this new department of entertainment regulation? His opinion of acceptable standards differs greatly from mine which differs greatly from yours.
If you don't do anything to provoke the officer(s) to use the taser, then you won't be tasered. If you do get tasered and are innocent, then I guess you'll be getting an apology and probably some money. But if you're resisting arrest, or breaking some other law and not cooperating, you deserve to be tasered, billy clubed, shot, etc. Police should err on the side of public safety and they need the proper tools for enforcement. When you scale statistics to country populations, 1 in 1,000,000 odds start appearing more, especially with today's media. The UN is good for a number of functions, but policing and enforcement has never been a strong suit.
Now that jackass in Utah probably didn't deserve to be tasered for speeding, but he brought it on himself by getting out of his truck, challenging an officer, waving his arms, and having an attitude. Dude, it was a construction zone and you got busted. You're 28; I'm sure you've driven through one construction zone and seen the signs since you got your drivers license. Pay the ticket.
If Apple would have gone with VZW, there would be x(iPhones sold) more VZW customers. My opinion of VZW would remain the same: Poor service, locked down handsets, and high fees for things that are simple on other carriers. If I had to use an iPhone and choose between AT&T and VZW, I would choose ATT; see previous sentence for why (although whoever has better coverage depends completely on where you live). Those two companies already compete with similar products and services in the same market. I have not seen prices come down and service quality go up, just more "latest & greatest" handsets with worse battery life. The best Motorola, MotoFone, in years won't even come out here because all it is a phone. Every national carrier has exclusive phones, yet only the GSM-based handsets can be taken to a competitors network (excluding the iPhone). I'm not hearing anyone complain about the Samsung Juke being locked to VZW or the LG Fuzic being locked to Sprint. There's nothing, except govt services, that doesn't have a competitor or a comparable choice. I'd be hard pressed to find anything where I don't have a choice. Doctors, yes. Pet Food, yes. Autos, yes. Rx, 98% yes. Clothes, yes. Electronics, yes. Concrete, yes. Lumber, yes. Fuel, yes. Groceries, yes. Books, yes. Banking, yes. Govt services, no. (That last one makes for an interesting debate for some other forum.)
/. will mix in Linux and the various other OS & Office packages, just saying, mainstream users. You know, the ones who's password you have to unlock every week because they can't remember their Pet's name plus 01. [/sidebar]
.de sites to find a coverage map. And yes, most American plans still pull incoming calls from your minutes. My plan from Nextel allows free Incoming calls, but I do pay more for that "feature."
This isn't the 1920s when there was still limited choices and you could choose any color paint, as long as it was black, to paraphrase Henry Ford. And even then, he still had suppliers, including Goodyear and Standard Oil. And those Anti-Trust laws you are referring to have worked extremely well to prevent any one company from dominating the tech industry. Nothing like getting your Office Suite from a different company as your Operating System. **cough, cough** [sidebar] Personally, OSX or *BSD, OpenOffice; I know
Personal choice will always be yours, whether you want an iPhone or not, Organic groceries or not, an SUV or a Mini, etc. etc. Consumers have more choice and quality today than ever in the history of man. Though I do like your argument about content delivery companies bundling certain packages only with specific services. That I see as collusion and anti-competitive, but a different argument from the cell industry. Mainly because of laws granting a local monopoly to the last mile provider combined with asinine HOA rules prohibiting dishes. About the only way to "get back at" your cable comapny is to turn off your service, and few are willing to do that. Satellite radio is an interesting market and I had XM for a while. But I didn't need it and I can still listen to my team on AM/FM. Most of the shows I listened to, I can grab the podcast or the stream, my choice.
RE: AC... I figured Germany would have near 100% GSM coverage by each carrier, I just didn't know where to look on the
Perhaps its just my viewpoint as an American, but this seems like Vodafone is complaining because they are not the exclusive carrier (and can't charge for every little thing) and the iPhone falls under a different style plan, like here in the States. Remember, Vodafone is Verizon Wireless's largest shareholder and if Vodafone is anything like their American counterpart, they'll use every dirty trick in the book, to screw both their customer and their competition. I bet that Apple has enough lawyers on staff/contract to ensure that this type of sales agreement is compliant with Germany law.
The phone seems to be programmed (according to the article anyways...anyone have specific details?) to only use the T-Mobile network while in Germany. That should mean that while in Germany, it won't roam on Vodafone's, or anyone else's, network, thus allowing Vodafone to bill DT for the roaming agreement/charges, regardless of whether or not the customer has roaming included in their plan. Although I could be completely off, its really just a guess. I have used VZW phones in the past where it will have 0-10% of signal instead of switching to a competing (roaming) CDMA tower in sight. No, I can't hear you now.
As for "the use of the device being limited to certain fees within T-Mobile's subscription offerings." Perhaps they've setup a plan similar to AT&T/Cingular here where a number of charges that are typically a "per X" fee are instead a "flat rate" fee. They don't expand on it and I don't understand German (just English, French, and Spanish) to read the T-Mobile website for futher contract details; just a rate comparison box that's similar enough to the AT&Ts plans to understand. Vodafone doesn't want to compete against a non-standard, consumer friendly plan. VZW here wants you to pay for everything you can do with your phone. I'm surprised you don't get commercials while dialing from or to VZW handsets...oh...right...crappy pop ringers...
Remember Next Generation? I had a subscription for a very long time, quality articles, in-depth reviews along with caption reviews, interviews with developers and company execs, extensive trade show coverage. Thankfully, its back as www.next-gen.biz . Even PC Gamer was pretty good back in the day. I still have a few 3.5" floppies around with demos on them and a stack of demo CDs (including one with the Halo E3 video, ah...what could have been). I stopped that subscription when the discs started containing fewer demos on them, everything got a 80% or better rating, % of ad-content rose, my 56k connection went broadband (thus eliminating the reason I needed the demo CDs), and the net sites improved.
Additionally, many of us older gamers who bought subscriptions to GamePro, EGM, PCGamer, etc. were still young when we had 'unlimited' free time to spend playing games for hours at a time, memorizing articles and cheat codes, highlight the games we wanted in the Funcoland ad, and dream about winning those "Ultimate Gaming Rig, 52"TV, D-VHS, Stereo Sound, big speakers, 4 Systems, 100+ Games, etc." advertisement contests where you just needed to solve successively more difficult puzzles. We've grown up and have higher priorities which take time, so we just look for concise reviews, user opinions, and aggregators like gamerankings.com, assuming we're still playing games. Newer gamers can always remember IGN.com, 1Up.com, Gamespot.com, [insert your fav game site here], etc., but give a cursory glance through the magazines in the store, thinking "I read this X months ago." or "I have the full strategy guide at home."
Is there a fix for gaming mags? No. People will always buy magazines from newstands, especially at the airport/subway terminals, the publishers will just need to adjust their circulation accordingly. Game websites will continue to grow and be purchased by conglomerates, for better or worse.
as an AC commented, I merely meant the actual speakers. Yes, most mainstream audio cards have supported 5.1 for years, but no one outside of my gaming friends runs more than 2 speakers, sometimes a subwoofer.
People who want to develop games for Mac need to think more like a console developer: 1) Here's a standard set of tools. 2) Here's a limited range of hardware. 3) Here's a growing market of people looking for games, both simple and advanced. Gabe and Valve have chosen to develop on the "cutting edge" for the advanced players, which means DX10, fancy Audio engines (for the 5% of users who have more than a 2.1 setup), support for Physics coprocessors, and as much bandwidth as the graphics card allows, all of which means Windows only. Nothing wrong with that, gotta make money somehow. The Mac gaming market is there, they just don't want to participate. And how many hardcore gamers of Valve's target market only have a Mac? No PC, PS2/3, Xbox, 360, etc. They'll get their gaming fix somehow.