Wow, if someone can patent something like this then I'm going to run down to the local US Patent Office and get the one for doors! Then everbody will have to pay royalties on their doors to me!;) -Antipop
Oh really? What makes you think this, when it obvious to anyone with half a brain that Open Source is a better way of writing and distributing software? Let's say that PGP was closed source and owned by PGP, Inc. Do you think that this bug would have even been discovered? If it had, how long would it take PGP, Inc. to release a fix? Alternatively, how long will it take the Open Source community to release a fix?
You're right: no one is accountable for Open Source screwups. Now look at the other side, What does Microsoft do every time a new bug is found in Outlook? They first deny it's existence, then when it becomes a major problem, they issue a press release telling users to not open attachments and if you're lucky, a few weeks later a patch is released. Or maybe it won't be fixed until Service Pack 23, which will be out Real Soon Right Now.
I'm sick of every time one bug is discovered in an Open Source program all the Micro$oft devotees jump on it to prove their point for propreitary software. How many bugs did MS admit to having in Windows 2000? 16,000? Maybe they'll get around to it in the next Service Pack.
Because laptops tend to be twice as expensive with half the performance. Not everybody can afford a $2000 P3/500 laptop, but can a $1200 desktop with the same, if not better performance. That's always been my experience with portables. -Antipop
First off, the 1/8 to 1/8 solution requires an analogue intermediary stage which leads to signal degredation [i.e., MP3 (digital) -> audio out (analogue) -> ATRAC (digital)]
When I record MP3s to my MD, I notice no lose in sound quality. I do see your point, soundcards built in to the motherboard introduce extra noise as do sub-quality 1/8->1/8 cables but this is a problem with any device that deals with an analog source.
The Toslink approach avoids the analogue stage but since MP3's are already compressed, I don't want compress them again with ATRAC ?!?
Like I said above, I haven't noticed any quality loses with recording MP3s. Do they sound as good as if I had recorded from a CD? No, but this is the MP3 compressions fault, not ATRACs. Do not toss MD out the window just because it's compressed. -Antipop
I really don't care for the MD music format, CD is better, no loss of quality, same digital sound.
It's kind of ironic that my MDs, which are supposed to be inferior quality to CD because they're compressed, sound tons better than the actual CD. I guess it's because Sony and Sharp aren't putting out crap MD players/recorders.
WHen pushing it as an audio format it has to go uphill against CD and it only offers size and durability as advantages (CDs are pretty durable) and it costs more.
MD has pretty much taken over Japan. Almost everyone has at least one and it has eclipsed CD sales. I would like to see the same thing happen in the US, but Sony seems oblivious to the oppurtunity that it has. You pass up size like it doesn't matter. I can tell you that sticking a portable MD, earbuds, and 3 MDs (222 minutes of music) is very, very convenient. Try doing the same with CDs. Durability is also important, and CDs are not durable. Try this: throw your CD around the room 10 times, use it for a hockey puck in your driveway, and scratch the bottom with a knife for good measure. Is your CD usable? If you did the same with an MD, would it be? Last, MD is not expensive. Sure, portable/components cost more than most portable CD players (for now), but the discs themselves sell for less than $2. The players are also 10x better in quality than any CD player I've ever owned. -Antipop
This is very true. The cat has been let out of the bag and no army of lawyers or greedy corporate CEOs can stop it. Other sharing networks like gnutella and Freenet are also impossible to shutdown. -Antipop
Are we going to blame everything on Napster? It seems like it. Soon we'll see "Rapist says Napster contributed to crime" on/.. Next time I rob a bank or something I'm going to blame Napster. That way I'll have the RIAA backing me with an army of lawyers in my case. -Antipop
I would have though that MD would have been a compelling product to place against the zip-drive.
This question comes up quite often on alt.music.minidisc, and from what I remember, they do exist. I don't recall exactly why they were not good, but a quick search on Deja will answer your question.
Now there are tons of digital products where MD would be perfect, like cameras.. It's about time. When can I get an MP3 that uses MD?
You don't need an MP3 player that uses MD! Portable MD players/recorders have the ability to record from any source, whether an analog headphone jack or an optical TOSLINK. Just get a $2 1/8 to 1/8 miniplug cable from Radioshack and record your MP3s to your MD. It takes a bit longer than just copying the files to a MP3 player, but the sound quality of MD is phenomally better than the portable MP3 players I've heard. -Antipop
OK, except that you're 14 now, and you would have been about 9 when you started on BASIC. You undoubtedly have a longer attention span, better disciplined mental abilities, and other advantages that you didn't have at 9.
The original post said that his kids were 11-13, not 9. My point is that BASIC has its limitations, why would you want to stunt a young programmer by giving him a language that is not powerful enough? A 12 or 13 year old can certainly learn a language like C/C++ with no other programming experience, one of my friends has done it. I have heard that Python is a wonderful language for beginners, and it is also very powerful, maybe this is a better alternative to C? -Antipop
Most of the engineers I know are also musicians...
The connection between music and math is very, very close. Music, like you said, is based entirely on math. Every programmer that I hang out with at my school is a musician that plays at least one instrument, most of them two or three. I personally play both the guitar and clarinet. -Antipop
I agree. Limiting your kids with a simple language is killing it before it ever got started. Show them C/C++ and get them started with simple programs. Then show them how to make GTK+/QT to keep it interesting. Making cool-looking programs is important to keep them interested. "Hello world!" isn't very impressive, but a GTK+ one that does the same thing is more so. -Antipop
No, no! Teaching HTML is not a good way to start. Yes it's simple and easy to learn and the results are instant and pretty, but do you actually learn much about programming? No! I've done HTML for about 3 years now and can say that HTML is great for what it does (mainly, format text) but the things learned in HTML cannot be applied to most other languages. None of it applies to C/C++, Perl, Python, or hell, even BASIC.
Just because it's a quick and easy way into programming does not mean it's a good idea. -Antipop
I agree. I started learning BASIC in the third grade and it didn't do me much good. Sure, playing around in it is fun at first, but when you want to actually write a program that you can use, forget it.
I'm 14 now and am coding in C++. I love C++ because my programs can be much more powerful than anything I had ever dreamed of doing in BASIC when I was little. More importantly, the concepts you learn in a language like C/C++ can easily be applied to other languages, unlike BASIC where I had to unlearn many things. For example, GOTO loops are common in BASIC but everyone knows that they are bad programming practice.
C/C++ is not especially hard for kids like some people believe. I haven't had any more trouble with it than I did with BASIC or HTML. No matter what language you choose to teach them, the concepts of loops, objects, and other things will still be there, the syntax will just be different. -Antipop
Wouldn't be interesting if companies "unofficially" came up with viruses like this to advertise their web site in hope of boosting hits? With the tactics some of the porn sites use, I wouldn't be surprised if it became more common for sites to use the latest Outlook bug to spread the news about their site. -Antipop
Re:The true conspiricy
on
Nuke The Moon
·
· Score: 1
You must be right, over the last few days I've taken to sleeping upside down and avoiding sunlight whenever possible. Every few hours I also get the sudden urge to log on to Etrade and buy more MSFT.... -Antipop
Re:My rio was getting bored
on
Nuke The Moon
·
· Score: 1
No Rio for me, minidisc is/the/ way to listen GIS:)! I agree with PanZ, you guys need to record more often and longer shows so I don't get sick of listening to the same episodes over and over again. -Antipop
On both of my computers, I use dining room tables to keep all my crap in place:). They work great, lots of room and if you need more space just pull out a leaf. They're also a lot cheaper than most computer desks (goto a garage sale) and built a lot better than those particle board peices of crap they sell everywhere. Be sure to get an adjustable chair, it helps a lot with the keyboard arrangement. I've also found that the wooden stackable block things (don't know what they're called) can be stacked to the side of, underneath, or on top of the table to organize CDs, floppies, books, or whatever. You can drill a hole in the back of them and put printers and stereos in them too. -Antipop
Slashdot Mirror
Wow, if someone can patent something like this then I'm going to run down to the local US Patent Office and get the one for doors! Then everbody will have to pay royalties on their doors to me! ;)
-Antipop
Open Source cannot work. It won't work.
Oh really? What makes you think this, when it obvious to anyone with half a brain that Open Source is a better way of writing and distributing software? Let's say that PGP was closed source and owned by PGP, Inc. Do you think that this bug would have even been discovered? If it had, how long would it take PGP, Inc. to release a fix? Alternatively, how long will it take the Open Source community to release a fix?
You're right: no one is accountable for Open Source screwups. Now look at the other side, What does Microsoft do every time a new bug is found in Outlook? They first deny it's existence, then when it becomes a major problem, they issue a press release telling users to not open attachments and if you're lucky, a few weeks later a patch is released. Or maybe it won't be fixed until Service Pack 23, which will be out Real Soon Right Now.
I'm sick of every time one bug is discovered in an Open Source program all the Micro$oft devotees jump on it to prove their point for propreitary software. How many bugs did MS admit to having in Windows 2000? 16,000? Maybe they'll get around to it in the next Service Pack.
-Antipop
why not just get a laptop?
Because laptops tend to be twice as expensive with half the performance. Not everybody can afford a $2000 P3/500 laptop, but can a $1200 desktop with the same, if not better performance. That's always been my experience with portables.
-Antipop
First off, the 1/8 to 1/8 solution requires an analogue intermediary stage which leads to signal degredation [i.e., MP3 (digital) -> audio out (analogue) -> ATRAC (digital)]
When I record MP3s to my MD, I notice no lose in sound quality. I do see your point, soundcards built in to the motherboard introduce extra noise as do sub-quality 1/8->1/8 cables but this is a problem with any device that deals with an analog source.
The Toslink approach avoids the analogue stage but since MP3's are already compressed, I don't want compress them again with ATRAC ?!?
Like I said above, I haven't noticed any quality loses with recording MP3s. Do they sound as good as if I had recorded from a CD? No, but this is the MP3 compressions fault, not ATRACs. Do not toss MD out the window just because it's compressed.
-Antipop
I really don't care for the MD music format, CD is better, no loss of quality, same digital sound.
It's kind of ironic that my MDs, which are supposed to be inferior quality to CD because they're compressed, sound tons better than the actual CD. I guess it's because Sony and Sharp aren't putting out crap MD players/recorders.
WHen pushing it as an audio format it has to go uphill against CD and it only offers size and durability as advantages (CDs are pretty durable) and it costs more.
MD has pretty much taken over Japan. Almost everyone has at least one and it has eclipsed CD sales. I would like to see the same thing happen in the US, but Sony seems oblivious to the oppurtunity that it has. You pass up size like it doesn't matter. I can tell you that sticking a portable MD, earbuds, and 3 MDs (222 minutes of music) is very, very convenient. Try doing the same with CDs. Durability is also important, and CDs are not durable. Try this: throw your CD around the room 10 times, use it for a hockey puck in your driveway, and scratch the bottom with a knife for good measure. Is your CD usable? If you did the same with an MD, would it be? Last, MD is not expensive. Sure, portable/components cost more than most portable CD players (for now), but the discs themselves sell for less than $2. The players are also 10x better in quality than any CD player I've ever owned.
-Antipop
This is very true. The cat has been let out of the bag and no army of lawyers or greedy corporate CEOs can stop it. Other sharing networks like gnutella and Freenet are also impossible to shutdown.
-Antipop
Are we going to blame everything on Napster? It seems like it. Soon we'll see "Rapist says Napster contributed to crime" on /.. Next time I rob a bank or something I'm going to blame Napster. That way I'll have the RIAA backing me with an army of lawyers in my case.
-Antipop
I would have though that MD would have been a compelling product to place against the zip-drive.
This question comes up quite often on alt.music.minidisc, and from what I remember, they do exist. I don't recall exactly why they were not good, but a quick search on Deja will answer your question.
Now there are tons of digital products where MD would be perfect, like cameras.. It's about time. When can I get an MP3 that uses MD?
You don't need an MP3 player that uses MD! Portable MD players/recorders have the ability to record from any source, whether an analog headphone jack or an optical TOSLINK. Just get a $2 1/8 to 1/8 miniplug cable from Radioshack and record your MP3s to your MD. It takes a bit longer than just copying the files to a MP3 player, but the sound quality of MD is phenomally better than the portable MP3 players I've heard.
-Antipop
OK, except that you're 14 now, and you would have been about 9 when you started on BASIC. You undoubtedly have a longer attention span, better disciplined mental abilities, and other advantages that you didn't have at 9.
The original post said that his kids were 11-13, not 9. My point is that BASIC has its limitations, why would you want to stunt a young programmer by giving him a language that is not powerful enough? A 12 or 13 year old can certainly learn a language like C/C++ with no other programming experience, one of my friends has done it. I have heard that Python is a wonderful language for beginners, and it is also very powerful, maybe this is a better alternative to C?
-Antipop
Most of the engineers I know are also musicians...
The connection between music and math is very, very close. Music, like you said, is based entirely on math. Every programmer that I hang out with at my school is a musician that plays at least one instrument, most of them two or three. I personally play both the guitar and clarinet.
-Antipop
I agree. Limiting your kids with a simple language is killing it before it ever got started. Show them C/C++ and get them started with simple programs. Then show them how to make GTK+/QT to keep it interesting. Making cool-looking programs is important to keep them interested. "Hello world!" isn't very impressive, but a GTK+ one that does the same thing is more so.
-Antipop
No, no! Teaching HTML is not a good way to start. Yes it's simple and easy to learn and the results are instant and pretty, but do you actually learn much about programming? No! I've done HTML for about 3 years now and can say that HTML is great for what it does (mainly, format text) but the things learned in HTML cannot be applied to most other languages. None of it applies to C/C++, Perl, Python, or hell, even BASIC.
Just because it's a quick and easy way into programming does not mean it's a good idea.
-Antipop
I agree. I started learning BASIC in the third grade and it didn't do me much good. Sure, playing around in it is fun at first, but when you want to actually write a program that you can use, forget it.
I'm 14 now and am coding in C++. I love C++ because my programs can be much more powerful than anything I had ever dreamed of doing in BASIC when I was little. More importantly, the concepts you learn in a language like C/C++ can easily be applied to other languages, unlike BASIC where I had to unlearn many things. For example, GOTO loops are common in BASIC but everyone knows that they are bad programming practice.
C/C++ is not especially hard for kids like some people believe. I haven't had any more trouble with it than I did with BASIC or HTML. No matter what language you choose to teach them, the concepts of loops, objects, and other things will still be there, the syntax will just be different.
-Antipop
Wouldn't be interesting if companies "unofficially" came up with viruses like this to advertise their web site in hope of boosting hits? With the tactics some of the porn sites use, I wouldn't be surprised if it became more common for sites to use the latest Outlook bug to spread the news about their site.
-Antipop
You must be right, over the last few days I've taken to sleeping upside down and avoiding sunlight whenever possible. Every few hours I also get the sudden urge to log on to Etrade and buy more MSFT....
-Antipop
No Rio for me, minidisc is /the/ way to listen GIS :)! I agree with PanZ, you guys need to record more often and longer shows so I don't get sick of listening to the same episodes over and over again.
-Antipop
On both of my computers, I use dining room tables to keep all my crap in place :). They work great, lots of room and if you need more space just pull out a leaf. They're also a lot cheaper than most computer desks (goto a garage sale) and built a lot better than those particle board peices of crap they sell everywhere. Be sure to get an adjustable chair, it helps a lot with the keyboard arrangement. I've also found that the wooden stackable block things (don't know what they're called) can be stacked to the side of, underneath, or on top of the table to organize CDs, floppies, books, or whatever. You can drill a hole in the back of them and put printers and stereos in them too.
-Antipop