In 1999 I may have guessed they'd be hurting in 5 years, but not out of it. In 2003 I'd have left such predictions alone. It's not going to be a popular view here, but IMO they've gone from "cheap and not worth it" like Cyrix to "cheaper but good enough."
Personally I like to get an Intel system that's dated enough to be within a sane price range, but still fairly close to the top, then coast for a few years, though I have owned AMD-based systems too.
I used to not mind so much for 10-15 years, but now I'm absolutely sick of it. It seems like a miserable, pointless, inevitable end. No matter how well you do, sooner or later a dozen guys are going to shoot at you at once and you go down, or some guy you can't even see is hundreds of yards away and gets you in an inattentive moment, or any variation of the factors. If it's single player, you get to go back to your last save point and retry and retry and retry and retry the spot you died, failing in slightly different ways until you finally clear it - so you can go die somewhere else.
I don't know... I used to love the genre, and I won't attack it or the gamers who play it - it's just another game type. But personally after seeing so much of it it just strikes me as a kind of perverse VR meat grinder. Kill kill kill kill kill kill die respawn kill kill kill kill die respawn repeat. I'm so burned out on that basic gameplay mechanic that I don't get pleasure from dying in game OR killing the other guys.
Since we Canadians already pay a levy on blank media to offset piracy losses and pay royalties, it's pretty much impossible to commit piracy upon North American media even if we wanted to.
Now, apparently none of this money has found its way back to artists not surprisingly, but that just means that the government is stealing from the artists and media buyers.
Now if they want to ban any unauthorized reproduction, they can drop all the levies and then I guess we can talk, but until then, it would be blatantly illegal to charge a levy that does nothing for us - so we pay the royalties and still cannot make copies.
I know the smell he's talking about. When I took welding I liked the smell given off by molten/vaporizing/burning steel (and I suppose some of the residues on it...)
But really, I guess that's what airlock pressurization systems smell like. What are the odds they were welded at some point in their construction then not ground down and finished up tidily inside? If you just "cracked a window" and took a sniff, you'd smell all the air in your room flying out into space.:p
Since Mussolini, there have been many conflicting definitions of the term fascism. Former Columbia University Professor Robert O. Paxton has written that:
Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."[11]
Paxton further defines fascism's essence as:...a sense of overwhelming crisis beyond reach of traditional solutions; 2. belief ones group is the victim, justifying any action without legal or moral limits; 3. need for authority by a natural leader above the law, relying on the superiority of his instincts; 4. right of the chosen people to dominate others without legal or moral restraint; 5. fear of foreign `contamination."[12]
As a Canadian, when they kidnapped Maher Arar and tortured him for a year that was plenty to put the US on my avoid list. For anyone who didn't follow that, he is a civillian who was found innocent, and the poster boy for "extraordinary rendition."
I'm just afraid that if I fly somewhere else there will be a neccesary stop in the states - and basically they've shown that once you enter their territory, all of your human rights are forefeit. It's ironic that I would potentially visit North Korea because at least they would be concerned about not making tourists disappear when everyone's watching them. USA is too big a trading partner though, so they can apparently get away with the odd kidnapping and torture from time to time.
From about 1996 onward I decided putting my picture, name, or address on the Internet was a reckless idea and stopped. Now I manage a handful of pseudonyms and assume the net as a whole is one place when I share personal data. I try not to offer enough pieces to positively identify me within about 500km....but then there are those who post all their personal photos to facebook and so on, so I guess they'll learn the hard way and make an example for the rest of us - like the guy whose boss found a pic of him at a party in a fairy costume! haha...
Very cool... I guess this effect isn't just for Titanium anymore!...that is, if he can find a way to choose the colour on other metals at some point...
Truth. It's either 4chan or other *chan anonymous (image)boards. I'm betting this happened because they got such a kick out of Fox's news report on "Anonymous: The Internet Hate Machine" (which was actually pretty funny...) Before then, "anonymous" knew they were a mass of disorganized individuals. Now that they were publically labelled as a dangerous hacker group, one of them probably thought it would be fun to throw his/her/their weight around and try to rally the masses - which is usually met with resistance from the rest anyway....truthfully, nothing will probably come of it, but I bet they scared some scientologists, so it was a successful trolling in that sense at least.
First off, I still love to use Wikipedia as a resource. I have been calling it into question more and more though as edits made without first reading a thousand page guide on Wiki syntax are reverted or doggedly criticized for markup despite matching the format of the original article, and even if they're correct, they'll more likely than not be reverted or defaced by self-appointed guardians of a given article who refuse to let any differing views be presented. Pick any controversial topic and watch as it flip-flops back and forth and whole sections sprout up and vanish mysteriously overnight.
It's better than nothing, and probably better than an encyclopedia (certainly is on average,) but article quality is affected by many behind the scenes actions, some balanced, others not so much. Some articles you simply won't find a consensus on and what they say depends on when you visit them.:/
I work in IT all day, then come home and use the PC all night, taking breaks to play video games. I have all kinds of brutal RSIs mostly in my wrists and elbows. I have never had carpal tunnel syndrome though - go figure. I guess I just don't hold my hands like that...
Thanks for telling me how to think as always,/....
Clearly this isn't "ready for prime time" yet, but I like the idea. Just think - if the PSP did this, you could blow through menus without even repositioning your hands or even interrupting button presses. On the DS it's so annoying when a game is made for "press a few buttons, dig out the stylus, tap something, put it away, press more buttons, take out the stylus..." etc. I also had a problem with occlusion playing Ouendan / Elite Beat Agents on DS - you get a fraction of a second to hit a marker that shows up anywhere on screen, but if you're not holding the pen at the top, your fingers will block the screen and you'll miss unless you've memorized the level beforehand....of course having finger shadows on the game screen could be annoying, but it could be tweaked down to a single cursor or dynamic number of cursors. Bravo! No more nasty hand cramps from holding tablets weirdly in one hand while writing with the other for hours on end!
Um, if a Windows system sleeps it's the same thing... The progress bar is only for when it hibernates, which a Macbook does too (try sleeping it then yank out the battery, it's neat!) but to tell a Mac to hibernate, you have to hack it first, where in Windows you click "enable hibernation" in the power settings.
But it's funny you should mention Macbooks since I was going to mention that if you boot up and hold down "T" (I think) the laptop will boot up as an external FireWire drive instead of loading the whole OS. Pretty slick stuff... even useful if it did it with USB...
Fair enough. I was thinking along the lines of PC100 (I really don't have ANY these days) or stranger types like Rambus DRAM. I've never heard of a tech carrying a toolbox of RAM for testing, though maybe you should if you make housecalls... ultimately my issue was with this portrayal as a "common and simple" problem when it's really neither. A simple problem would be like... two hard drives jumpered as master; not a rare problem that can manifest as any of a few different parts failing.
But you're right, it wouldn't be that hard to stock a set of RAM for 95% of systems.
At first glance I thought it would be a good story - I see corrupt self-taught incompetent "geeks for hire" all the time charging insane rates and screwing up people's PCs. It is a real problem, but when people don't know to look for certification, or even agree one one cert, that's what happens. I say this as someone who is yet uncertified, but we need some kind of standard! (I'm just lucky enough to have had my abilities and 20 years experience recognized and been hired into an IT department...)
Then I watched the video. From the very first seconds they're indiscriminately villainizing any geeks and poking fun at procedures they don't understand "omg! They LISTEN to a PC? What could that accomplish?" It sounds like they're just frustrated and want to lash out. Thanks guys, sting the whole profession why don't you?
Some of the techs they tested (Nerds on Site) were flat wrong - if the hard drive were dead, the PC would still boot, post, then inform you. Bad RAM is seriously hard to test though - I wouldn't say the bad motherboard diagnoses were far off as ram, CPU and mobo problems often manifest the same. If you can't run a RAM test program or happen to have every speed and variety of RAM in your pocket for testing, then there's not a lot you can do... of course if you're not certain you shouldn't state it definitively or charge for the PARTS - but time and work are fair game.
This whole thing stinks because it's half sensationalist hype and half sad truth, but overall I'd say it hurts the industry they way they pitched it.
In my experience, a RAM failure can manifest as RAM, CPU, or motherboard. Sometimes even as bad sectors on the hard drive (not really bad, but if the PC sees the data in a corrupted way then...)
Yeah. I've seen one or two ram failures in about 20 years of working on PCs.
Quite informative... now it makes sense why an audiophile would pay extra to have it, even if the effect would be for all intents and purposes unnoticable.
I'm not so sure shielding is uncalled for though - maybe from mains current, but I've grown so used to hearing "pop-pop-bzzzzzzzzzzzz-b-b-b-b-b-b-bip" as my cel phone communicates with the tower that I almost filter it out subconsciously. On some systems it's loudly audible even when the amp is turned off. Though I'd imagine most of the quiet 60Hz background hum on some systems would be more a supply voltage to a cheap amp issue though...
I would NOT consider myself an audiophile. In fact, most of my music is in *gasp* MP3! (eew ick! Get it off! Yuck!) (Then again, much isn't offered for sale here so... no real choice!)
Then again, I still notice a significant improvement between different grades of gear. I can hear the difference between 96kps and 128kps on music that doesn't exactly push the algorithm to its limits - it's just that unless I hear the original back-to-back with the MP3, the MP3 will usually suffice.
ANYWAY... background out of the way...
I would love to build a listening/theatre room some day with a decent AC line conditioner, heavy sound insulation, and properly positioned speakers. I'm not even the kind to go out and splurge on a $100 cable, but the vast majority of home stereo setups are far sub-optimal. Speakers are arranged in whatever weird layout they fit, some rooms have irregular accoustics like a picture window on the left and open air behind, often things buzz when cranked up past normal volume. Unshielded over-length cables run in a tangle behind the stereo and pick up EM interference...
I guess the matter is that I'm not a purist who NEEDS everything done right - but I know how to do a system that's well above par, and by no means does it have to be crushingly expensive - just thought out a little bit. To that end, I would definitely build a listening/theatre room. I would not buy a $10,000 amp much less $7000 cables. Honestly, I'd probably get a $300 amp and $10 cables or if I wanted to do it right, $10-20 WORTH of cable, and some appropriate ends for it. It takes like... 5 minutes with a soldering iron to make a set of "Monster"-quality cables.
Don't even get me started on Monsters... I'm an IT guy - if I need a cable of a certain spec, I get the cable, I get the ends, and I make it. It takes about as little soldering skill as one could usefully have....and all those demos in hifi shops (well, Future Shop here) prove is that a nice shielded $100 3' Monster cable yields better video than a $10 15' generic cable looped around next to a power transformer...
The only real improvements I see from hi-fi cables are: - Heavy gauge wire. - RF Shielding - this can be as simple as being wrapped in foil. It's not rocket science. - Gold-plated connectors. These look nice, but I find they make little difference and on digital connections they're just retarded - the ones and zeroes are already pretty unambiguous. Protip: Gold is expensive, but the amount they use to plate cables is actually very cheap. If you did it yourself in gold leaf (don't try...) it'd probably cost about 5 cents. We're talking incredibly small amounts here so making the cables more expensive is a joke. They probably won't corrode though... if you have a problem with that? I certainly don't on my cables from 10-15 years ago. Oh that's right - they're either chromed or stainless steel so they don't corrode anyway! - Oxygen free? - Interesting... I suppose in theory they could carry a larger max load? I say BS but by all means prove me wrong...
At first it sounded worrying, especially with the recent WGA outage and subsequent OS failures....but it sounds like it's squarely aimed at businesses, so what's the big deal? It's a way for businesses with poorly tracked licenses to go legit without penalty. Nice - we could use that at work probably.
They generally don't care about the home user since that's not where 200 copies of Windows slip through the cracks...
Look up lighthouse batteries, and maybe lighthouse battery thefts. These batteries can last a very long time with huge power output - they also put off huge amounts of heat, and sometimes ridiculous amounts of radiation, especially when they sit around discarded and rusting out, or are torn open by metal scavengers....it's scary stuff, but was the first thing I thought of when I read radioisotope battery......of course these would be safer - I'm thinking Americium as a source as it's very energetic but relatively safe and controllable. Tritium would just be begging for a rupture in one in a million units if you ask me. Don't get me wrong - I like Tritium - I have some in a glowing keychain and a set of handgun sights and it's quite safe. Negligible radiation outside of either product. But enough to generate useful energy could be quite harmful if released into a poorly ventilated area (car, bedroom) and then inhaled.
It's funny you should say that. My PSP and my OOOOLD Sony Clie PDA both play unencrypted MP3s without a problem, in spite of Sony Music loading on outlandish DRM to prevent ripping their CDs.
Outside of MiniDisc, I've really yet to see Sony build crappy inhibiting DRM into their electronics products, and I have a ton of their stuff... Sometimes you have something like MagicGate or ATRAC3 supported on my PDA for example, but that's just an option.
I find you generally just need to know overall and simultaneous (instantaneous?) ratios. My TV has a 3000:1 contrast ratio (if it showed a white screen then a black screen...) and an 800:1 instantaneous ratio (on any given frame.) It slightly brightens and darkens the backlight so its overall dynamic range is greater than the range at any given instant.
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In 1999 I may have guessed they'd be hurting in 5 years, but not out of it. In 2003 I'd have left such predictions alone.
It's not going to be a popular view here, but IMO they've gone from "cheap and not worth it" like Cyrix to "cheaper but good enough."
Personally I like to get an Intel system that's dated enough to be within a sane price range, but still fairly close to the top, then coast for a few years, though I have owned AMD-based systems too.
I used to not mind so much for 10-15 years, but now I'm absolutely sick of it.
It seems like a miserable, pointless, inevitable end. No matter how well you do, sooner or later a dozen guys are going to shoot at you at once and you go down, or some guy you can't even see is hundreds of yards away and gets you in an inattentive moment, or any variation of the factors. If it's single player, you get to go back to your last save point and retry and retry and retry and retry the spot you died, failing in slightly different ways until you finally clear it - so you can go die somewhere else.
I don't know... I used to love the genre, and I won't attack it or the gamers who play it - it's just another game type. But personally after seeing so much of it it just strikes me as a kind of perverse VR meat grinder. Kill kill kill kill kill kill die respawn kill kill kill kill die respawn repeat. I'm so burned out on that basic gameplay mechanic that I don't get pleasure from dying in game OR killing the other guys.
Since we Canadians already pay a levy on blank media to offset piracy losses and pay royalties, it's pretty much impossible to commit piracy upon North American media even if we wanted to.
Now, apparently none of this money has found its way back to artists not surprisingly, but that just means that the government is stealing from the artists and media buyers.
Now if they want to ban any unauthorized reproduction, they can drop all the levies and then I guess we can talk, but until then, it would be blatantly illegal to charge a levy that does nothing for us - so we pay the royalties and still cannot make copies.
I know the smell he's talking about. When I took welding I liked the smell given off by molten/vaporizing/burning steel (and I suppose some of the residues on it...)
:p
But really, I guess that's what airlock pressurization systems smell like. What are the odds they were welded at some point in their construction then not ground down and finished up tidily inside? If you just "cracked a window" and took a sniff, you'd smell all the air in your room flying out into space.
Actually I found one that fits a bit better...
...a sense of overwhelming crisis beyond reach of traditional solutions; 2. belief ones group is the victim, justifying any action without legal or moral limits; 3. need for authority by a natural leader above the law, relying on the superiority of his instincts; 4. right of the chosen people to dominate others without legal or moral restraint; 5. fear of foreign `contamination."[12]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism
From the article:
Since Mussolini, there have been many conflicting definitions of the term fascism. Former Columbia University Professor Robert O. Paxton has written that:
Fascism may be defined as a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victim-hood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion."[11]
Paxton further defines fascism's essence as:
As a Canadian, when they kidnapped Maher Arar and tortured him for a year that was plenty to put the US on my avoid list. For anyone who didn't follow that, he is a civillian who was found innocent, and the poster boy for "extraordinary rendition."
I'm just afraid that if I fly somewhere else there will be a neccesary stop in the states - and basically they've shown that once you enter their territory, all of your human rights are forefeit. It's ironic that I would potentially visit North Korea because at least they would be concerned about not making tourists disappear when everyone's watching them. USA is too big a trading partner though, so they can apparently get away with the odd kidnapping and torture from time to time.
From about 1996 onward I decided putting my picture, name, or address on the Internet was a reckless idea and stopped. ...but then there are those who post all their personal photos to facebook and so on, so I guess they'll learn the hard way and make an example for the rest of us - like the guy whose boss found a pic of him at a party in a fairy costume! haha...
Now I manage a handful of pseudonyms and assume the net as a whole is one place when I share personal data. I try not to offer enough pieces to positively identify me within about 500km.
Very cool... I guess this effect isn't just for Titanium anymore! ...that is, if he can find a way to choose the colour on other metals at some point...
Truth. ...truthfully, nothing will probably come of it, but I bet they scared some scientologists, so it was a successful trolling in that sense at least.
It's either 4chan or other *chan anonymous (image)boards.
I'm betting this happened because they got such a kick out of Fox's news report on "Anonymous: The Internet Hate Machine" (which was actually pretty funny...) Before then, "anonymous" knew they were a mass of disorganized individuals. Now that they were publically labelled as a dangerous hacker group, one of them probably thought it would be fun to throw his/her/their weight around and try to rally the masses - which is usually met with resistance from the rest anyway.
First off, I still love to use Wikipedia as a resource. I have been calling it into question more and more though as edits made without first reading a thousand page guide on Wiki syntax are reverted or doggedly criticized for markup despite matching the format of the original article, and even if they're correct, they'll more likely than not be reverted or defaced by self-appointed guardians of a given article who refuse to let any differing views be presented. Pick any controversial topic and watch as it flip-flops back and forth and whole sections sprout up and vanish mysteriously overnight.
:/
It's better than nothing, and probably better than an encyclopedia (certainly is on average,) but article quality is affected by many behind the scenes actions, some balanced, others not so much. Some articles you simply won't find a consensus on and what they say depends on when you visit them.
I work in IT all day, then come home and use the PC all night, taking breaks to play video games.
I have all kinds of brutal RSIs mostly in my wrists and elbows. I have never had carpal tunnel syndrome though - go figure. I guess I just don't hold my hands like that...
Tags: retarded, bassackwards
/. ...
...of course having finger shadows on the game screen could be annoying, but it could be tweaked down to a single cursor or dynamic number of cursors. Bravo! No more nasty hand cramps from holding tablets weirdly in one hand while writing with the other for hours on end!
Thanks for telling me how to think as always,
Clearly this isn't "ready for prime time" yet, but I like the idea. Just think - if the PSP did this, you could blow through menus without even repositioning your hands or even interrupting button presses. On the DS it's so annoying when a game is made for "press a few buttons, dig out the stylus, tap something, put it away, press more buttons, take out the stylus..." etc. I also had a problem with occlusion playing Ouendan / Elite Beat Agents on DS - you get a fraction of a second to hit a marker that shows up anywhere on screen, but if you're not holding the pen at the top, your fingers will block the screen and you'll miss unless you've memorized the level beforehand.
Um, if a Windows system sleeps it's the same thing... The progress bar is only for when it hibernates, which a Macbook does too (try sleeping it then yank out the battery, it's neat!) but to tell a Mac to hibernate, you have to hack it first, where in Windows you click "enable hibernation" in the power settings.
But it's funny you should mention Macbooks since I was going to mention that if you boot up and hold down "T" (I think) the laptop will boot up as an external FireWire drive instead of loading the whole OS. Pretty slick stuff... even useful if it did it with USB...
Fair enough. I was thinking along the lines of PC100 (I really don't have ANY these days) or stranger types like Rambus DRAM.
I've never heard of a tech carrying a toolbox of RAM for testing, though maybe you should if you make housecalls... ultimately my issue was with this portrayal as a "common and simple" problem when it's really neither. A simple problem would be like... two hard drives jumpered as master; not a rare problem that can manifest as any of a few different parts failing.
But you're right, it wouldn't be that hard to stock a set of RAM for 95% of systems.
At first glance I thought it would be a good story - I see corrupt self-taught incompetent "geeks for hire" all the time charging insane rates and screwing up people's PCs. It is a real problem, but when people don't know to look for certification, or even agree one one cert, that's what happens. I say this as someone who is yet uncertified, but we need some kind of standard! (I'm just lucky enough to have had my abilities and 20 years experience recognized and been hired into an IT department...)
Then I watched the video. From the very first seconds they're indiscriminately villainizing any geeks and poking fun at procedures they don't understand "omg! They LISTEN to a PC? What could that accomplish?" It sounds like they're just frustrated and want to lash out. Thanks guys, sting the whole profession why don't you?
Some of the techs they tested (Nerds on Site) were flat wrong - if the hard drive were dead, the PC would still boot, post, then inform you. Bad RAM is seriously hard to test though - I wouldn't say the bad motherboard diagnoses were far off as ram, CPU and mobo problems often manifest the same. If you can't run a RAM test program or happen to have every speed and variety of RAM in your pocket for testing, then there's not a lot you can do... of course if you're not certain you shouldn't state it definitively or charge for the PARTS - but time and work are fair game.
This whole thing stinks because it's half sensationalist hype and half sad truth, but overall I'd say it hurts the industry they way they pitched it.
In my experience, a RAM failure can manifest as RAM, CPU, or motherboard. Sometimes even as bad sectors on the hard drive (not really bad, but if the PC sees the data in a corrupted way then...)
Yeah. I've seen one or two ram failures in about 20 years of working on PCs.
Quite informative... now it makes sense why an audiophile would pay extra to have it, even if the effect would be for all intents and purposes unnoticable.
I'm not so sure shielding is uncalled for though - maybe from mains current, but I've grown so used to hearing "pop-pop-bzzzzzzzzzzzz-b-b-b-b-b-b-bip" as my cel phone communicates with the tower that I almost filter it out subconsciously. On some systems it's loudly audible even when the amp is turned off. Though I'd imagine most of the quiet 60Hz background hum on some systems would be more a supply voltage to a cheap amp issue though...
I would NOT consider myself an audiophile. In fact, most of my music is in *gasp* MP3! (eew ick! Get it off! Yuck!) (Then again, much isn't offered for sale here so... no real choice!)
Then again, I still notice a significant improvement between different grades of gear. I can hear the difference between 96kps and 128kps on music that doesn't exactly push the algorithm to its limits - it's just that unless I hear the original back-to-back with the MP3, the MP3 will usually suffice.
ANYWAY... background out of the way...
I would love to build a listening/theatre room some day with a decent AC line conditioner, heavy sound insulation, and properly positioned speakers. I'm not even the kind to go out and splurge on a $100 cable, but the vast majority of home stereo setups are far sub-optimal. Speakers are arranged in whatever weird layout they fit, some rooms have irregular accoustics like a picture window on the left and open air behind, often things buzz when cranked up past normal volume. Unshielded over-length cables run in a tangle behind the stereo and pick up EM interference...
I guess the matter is that I'm not a purist who NEEDS everything done right - but I know how to do a system that's well above par, and by no means does it have to be crushingly expensive - just thought out a little bit. To that end, I would definitely build a listening/theatre room. I would not buy a $10,000 amp much less $7000 cables. Honestly, I'd probably get a $300 amp and $10 cables or if I wanted to do it right, $10-20 WORTH of cable, and some appropriate ends for it. It takes like... 5 minutes with a soldering iron to make a set of "Monster"-quality cables.
Don't even get me started on Monsters... ...and all those demos in hifi shops (well, Future Shop here) prove is that a nice shielded $100 3' Monster cable yields better video than a $10 15' generic cable looped around next to a power transformer...
I'm an IT guy - if I need a cable of a certain spec, I get the cable, I get the ends, and I make it. It takes about as little soldering skill as one could usefully have.
The only real improvements I see from hi-fi cables are:
- Heavy gauge wire.
- RF Shielding - this can be as simple as being wrapped in foil. It's not rocket science.
- Gold-plated connectors. These look nice, but I find they make little difference and on digital connections they're just retarded - the ones and zeroes are already pretty unambiguous. Protip: Gold is expensive, but the amount they use to plate cables is actually very cheap. If you did it yourself in gold leaf (don't try...) it'd probably cost about 5 cents. We're talking incredibly small amounts here so making the cables more expensive is a joke. They probably won't corrode though... if you have a problem with that? I certainly don't on my cables from 10-15 years ago. Oh that's right - they're either chromed or stainless steel so they don't corrode anyway!
- Oxygen free? - Interesting... I suppose in theory they could carry a larger max load? I say BS but by all means prove me wrong...
At first it sounded worrying, especially with the recent WGA outage and subsequent OS failures. ...but it sounds like it's squarely aimed at businesses, so what's the big deal? It's a way for businesses with poorly tracked licenses to go legit without penalty. Nice - we could use that at work probably.
They generally don't care about the home user since that's not where 200 copies of Windows slip through the cracks...
Ok, I looked it up and it was harder to find than I thought. Here's what I meant:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator
http://www.bellona.no/bellona.org/english_import_area/international/russia/navy/northern_fleet/incidents/31767
Very clearly not something that would be approved for everyday civilian use!
Look up lighthouse batteries, and maybe lighthouse battery thefts. ...it's scary stuff, but was the first thing I thought of when I read radioisotope battery... ...of course these would be safer - I'm thinking Americium as a source as it's very energetic but relatively safe and controllable. Tritium would just be begging for a rupture in one in a million units if you ask me. Don't get me wrong - I like Tritium - I have some in a glowing keychain and a set of handgun sights and it's quite safe. Negligible radiation outside of either product. But enough to generate useful energy could be quite harmful if released into a poorly ventilated area (car, bedroom) and then inhaled.
These batteries can last a very long time with huge power output - they also put off huge amounts of heat, and sometimes ridiculous amounts of radiation, especially when they sit around discarded and rusting out, or are torn open by metal scavengers.
It's funny you should say that. My PSP and my OOOOLD Sony Clie PDA both play unencrypted MP3s without a problem, in spite of Sony Music loading on outlandish DRM to prevent ripping their CDs.
Outside of MiniDisc, I've really yet to see Sony build crappy inhibiting DRM into their electronics products, and I have a ton of their stuff... Sometimes you have something like MagicGate or ATRAC3 supported on my PDA for example, but that's just an option.
As I see it if these ever become widespread, it'd be like using a newer Mac...
Sit down at it, tear off a piece of electrical tape, and slap it over the mandatory webcam because OFF MEANS OFF AND UNPLUG IS NOT AN OPTION.
I find you generally just need to know overall and simultaneous (instantaneous?) ratios.
My TV has a 3000:1 contrast ratio (if it showed a white screen then a black screen...) and an 800:1 instantaneous ratio (on any given frame.) It slightly brightens and darkens the backlight so its overall dynamic range is greater than the range at any given instant.