hehe, there's a Lisa sitting on a shelf right behind me... next to a Spartacus. Funny how Apple-only companies turn get a high-factor-WOW effect when they display their old hardware, whereas if it's PC hardware the place just looks like a dump:)
Well, thanks for the info! I was pretty sure I had read about Apple closing its Irish prod. unit, and having it stirred a memory of two (my first Apple//c was built there).
Apple closed its Ireland production unit last year, IIRC.
Things have changed a lot with Apple recently. Being the admin in an all-Mac company (~70 machines), I can tell you the overall quality, whilst still being very nice compared to most PC hardware, is sometimes quite poor compared to the old days. Furthermore, here in Europe, the support has become a real nightmare (still not to the level HP has reached, ultra-low that is), which really makes me wonder about the price-tag "justification" we once had.
Many of those who dislike the US government and it's policies, including Arabs, don't have much malice towards the US people...
Yes, I'm fully aware of that and I don't personnaly hold a grudge against every single citizen of the USA, nor do most inhabitants of this planet, hopefully. But does the majority of US-Americans make the distinction between, say, Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people and Bin Laden? Not from what I've heard and read in recent times, including (unfortunately) from rather "important" persons I happen to know. Heck, most believe Saddam and Bin Laden are/were the Laurel & Hardy of the Middle East, even though these two were sworn ennemies (OBL stated Saddam was an 'infidel', oppressor of the Chiites). When you see a US soldier screaming to a wounded Iraqi woman to "fuck off with the rest of them who attacked his country", or when Rumsfeld claims he's at the head of the "greatest coalition in the history of mankind" (and comparing the effort with those of the crusades, ahem), or when the US troops get orders to secure an oil minister and oil fields rather than keeping museums from being looted, there's good reasons to believe the USA has gone over the top when it comes to ignorance, propaganda and brutality. Please give me, in those circumstances, any reason to respect the USA? Between a fascist government and an ignorant, brutal and gullible population, what's so good to be proud about? Who wants his/her country to become "that"? When US-Americans bullshit the rest of the world brandishing their so-called freedom, even though they've long forgotten about it, solely for the profit of a very few, don't you detect a slight descrepancy in the 'plan'? I do.
What I meant was more like a lot of people wouldn't mind seeing the US-Americans having their asses kicked properly, having their country suffer the same burden they have imposed upon so many defenseless civilians over the past 40 years, and see their way of life being replaced with an alienated, mercantile one that has nothing to bring them apart from cholesterol.
Would the nuking of say, Washington DC, be such a bad thing? If you ask around (I mean OUTSIDE the USA), you'll probably find a majority of people thinking it would, actually, be a positive thing.
You see, you americans have played the world game so stupidly recently with your imperialist manners you've managed to make about 5.5 Billion ennemies, not even counting the ones from within your country. The USA seem to enjoy being the thug and pimp of the planet, and they're going to pay a very, very high price for pissing on everybody else's doorstep.
When your people will be begging for food and jobs (I mean, more than you actually got) after the collapse of your debt-ridden economy, you won't find many friends around to help you, not anymore. And we'll all be looking down at you, as you lie in the graves you're digging now.
so long, yankees. Hope you guys get your act together soon, for it may all blow up in your face sooner than you can expect.
Exactly what I'm thinking. My trusty old Celeron with a GeForce 2MX does everything I want for my line of work (sysadmin/webdesign), but it chokes on most recent games. A good console (I'm thinking about a Game Cube or a PS2) would be cheaper in the long run since they usually last for quite awhile, with huge amounts of games designed just for your platform.
Of course, it doesn't beat the latest FPS on a bigass PC, but if you have limited funds it's a good idea... and console games are cool too:)
Perhaps the manufacturer of said cards thought that, perhaps, blind persons would like to play cards with "normal" (I hate this word) people? I've seen "dual purpose" cards in the past, both printed and Braille-embossed.
To a disabled person it is very important to be able to live a life as normal as possible, so anything that can make them feel less handicaped is a good thing. Gee, just having a cast on one of your limbs will make you realize how bad everything is when you can't use both your arms and legs, so imagine how it can be if you can't hear or see anything...
What about screen/artpad combos such as Wacom's Cintiq line of products? Or imagine the possibilities with public booths? Or on laptops?
I think we'll come up with more and more applications for two-way devices in the future, as the technology evolves. It won't replace a scanner, but it'll certainly find itself useful somehow.
The Concorde had received several upgrades since it came in service, such as wing modifications to reduce drag. This page retraces the plane's history and technology in details. I'm also aware of a complete cockpit avionics overhaul (CRT screens etc.) in the early 90's that doesn't seem to be listed in the page.
Nevertheless, supersonic flight sucks way too much fuel to be cost-effective enough to offer attracive fares, that's why we're gonna see more super-carriers like the A380 as soon as more airports can manage the passenger load.
Being a citizen of Geneva, I can tell you the tax software (GEtax) is a POS full of calculation errors. I filled my tax declaration with it and then by hand, and found errors that would have made me pay at least 15% more tax in the electronic version (doesn't let you fill in all the deducible items, among other bugs). The error is known by the tax office but they never informed anybody of it openly.
Furthermore, this system's purpose is only to make the input easier, there's no transmission of electronic documents since you end up printing the whole thing to send it. Still better than manual input (which field do I fill in?), but there's still work to do.
Otherwise, it's a nice change from the previous system that required you to have MS Excel and then sending the floppy containing your data - I guess having at least 40% of the floppies infected with some virus decided them to change the system (I did complain that I found weird that I had to buy an expensive piece of foreign and buggy software to fill my tax declaration...).
The sad thing is our dear Federal administration recently (about a year ago) signed a 5 years contract with MS for the renewal of the whole IT infrastructure. Scary!
Indeed, if you drive for 300 miles in a shitty car, it'll take time and your ass will hurt. Similarly , with a shitty lawyer your case will take longer and there's great chances your ass will hurt as well, although not for the same reasons;-)
"Or chips in two people's brains (one monitoring input and one controlling output) so that one of the people is basically experiencing and controlling the other body. I could see a lot of market for THAT for government, celebrities, and big business...want to go somewhere but you don't want to have to be followed by bodygards? Use a puppet body so no matter what happens to the body, you're still safe at home."
I suggest you read Neal Stephenson's "Interface", co-written by Frederick George. It's about a politician running for president getting a brain implant after a stroke. I'm not telling any more:)
It's a good read which raises some issues that are not so far-fetched in regard of recent biochips development.
Sadly, it is also the book containing the largest amount of typos I've ever witnessed, almost one each page! It seems to be recurent with Stephenson's book; weird. Anybody else noticed this?
" I do not beleive there are international laws to regulate such practices - but IANAL."
IANAL either, but I do know there's the World Trade Organisation which regulates such practices, of which both the USA and China are members.
I wonder how one could prove it's anti-competitive since the only competition (Linux) is free. But I guess it could be considered dumping, which is illegal.
"I can't see this particular power-grab standing up in your Supreme Court if it comes to that. You lucky people."
Well, I'd be worried about that too since the Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft admin is placing its own ultra-conservative/pro-big-business people at the supreme court. Remember these judges are nominated, not elected, and can't be easily removed. This scary administration is working at putting its 'agents' in important seats that'll still be there after eventual elections (watch for that one too, my bet is they'll try to cancel them for 'security' reasons or some similar excuse). They'll be here for a longtime, enough to mold the whole system at will until they own it entirely.
Also don't believe the opinion polls. A friend of mine used to work in a big opinion polls institute, and told me they would systematicaly bias the results depending on who was paying for the survey. If the Republicans were paying (a lot) to know whether their actions pleased the populace, they'd call up people in neighborhoods known for their conservative voting habits, etc. Now, opinion polls are known to influence, or brainwash, the average Joe Sixpack (remember something about the last presidential election?). Tell him, through the usual media outlets, that 70% of his folks think, for example, that war is a good idea. Well, Joe will simply assume that if 70% of the population thinks so, it sure must be right! Remember, Joe doesn't want to think different by fear of being labeled as such, therefore losing his sacred, hard-earned, social status. Why do you think he likes SUVs? Because some ads on tv and in the press claimed that 70% of his peers thought it was good. Eh. It's a bit more complicated than that but you get the basic idea, the scariest part being that *it works*.
I'm not an American, nor do I live in the Corporate Republic of America, but I begin to feel a certain chill down my spine which reminds me of some parts of the Cold War which I wouldn't rate as 'cheerfuly entertaining'. This bunch of crackpots are sitting on top of the largest stockpile of Weapons Of Mass Destruction(TM), threatening 'hot' countries like North Korea like highschool thugs, pissing off most of Europe and most of all bypassing the U.N., thus putting in jeopardy 60 years of efforts to prevent the human race from anihilating itself with its own stupidity and greed.
All that because they want Saddam's oil, so they can say 'fuck you' to the Saudis, who are known fundamentalists actively supporting the Palestinians and other terrorist groups around the world, like in Chechnya. But taking this oil will piss off the Russians too, who have built and exploit the Iraqi oil extraction and refining infrastructure and are already suffering hugely from the embargo. I don't like the smell of this recipe, it smells of money and blood.
I believe we have reasons to worry. All of us. Again.:/
Presuming of course that they want you there. Maybe they look on the americans the way we look on the mexicans.
We have more respect for Mexicans. Americans are more seen like primitive, aggressive and ignorant fuckwits and it ain't getting any better. Most 14 year-olds here have more general culture than an American out of college.
OTOH, there are more and more Americans who give up their "americanism" (or even their US citizenship), ashamed by the USA's internal and foreign politics. I don't blame them.
As usual, watch your mouth when travelling abroad as your government's opinions may very well be extremely unpopular where you're going, even if you're not at war with us.
Should you want to become a Swiss citizen, here's what you gotta do:
-move to Switzerland -meet a Swiss citizen to marry -wait for 5 years (or is it 10 now?)to get your citizenship. Don't divorce right away, otherwise you may lose the passport.
Very few places let foreigners vote (local stuff only), but once you got the passport you'll vote 7-12 times a year. Check this post for more info on how we vote.
I own a Zyxel 642R router and you CAN block the external telnet/http/tftp/whatever port you want through filters to setup in the admin (telnet) interface. And it's also clearly indicated in the manual that you MUST change the password after setting it up for the first time. I agree the setup of this particular one isn't easy for your regular joe user.
The 642M/ME (bridges with a DHCP pool of max 4 addresses) series are a bit more limited but have a web interface that can be reasonably tweaked.
So far I've never had a problem with this series of Zyxel ADSL modems/bridges/routers. The only truly shitty one from them was the 630 series that connects to USB and pumps way too much power for most motherboards to work properly (gets all the power from the USB port, no external power supply).
The 650 series I'm unfamilar with, but they have a more complete function set than the previous, with now UPNP for those who need it and true port forwarding too. They have a web interface and can be tweaked quite seriously.
If you're too stupid to read the first page of the manual, perhaps getting a permanent Net connection isn't the best thing for you. Now if the gear was installed by a pro, there's no excuse for NOT changing the admin password...
It certainly brings the community together... I mean, the *whole* community has to gather in one place! Perhaps a good idea for small villages, but I don't see the concept scaling too well for places like Zürich (1+ Million ppl) or Geneva (450.000)...
Glarus is a tiny state with only a few tiny towns and moutain villages. No wonder they don't see the need to get rid of the Landsgemeinde (public voting). Ticino has anonymous voting... better be, it's almost Italy there:)
I personally don't recall the storage capacity of a DVD, but I thought it was lower than that, on the order of 5 GB
You're wrong. Well, you're right if you're talking about DVD-R which has a maximum capacity of 4.7GB but pressed DVDs can contain a LOT more (up to 17GB), considering they can be multilayered and double-sided whereas DVD-Rs are only SL/SS (Single Side/Single Layer).
Here's a table representing the various combinations and respective capacities (googled the info from this page):
DVD-5 (SS/SL): 4.38 gig (4.7G) of data, over 2 hours of video
DVD-9 (SS/DL): 7.95 gig (8.5G), about 4 hours of video
DVD-10 (DS/SL): 8.75 gig (9.4G), about 4.5 hours of video
DVD-14 (DS/ML): 12.33 gig (13.24G), about 6.5 hours of video
DVD-18 (DS/DL): 15.90 gig (17G), over 8 hours of video
DVD-RAM (SS/SL): 2.40 gig (2.58G)
DVD-RAM (DS/SL): 4.80 gig (5.16G)
As you can see, we'll have to wait a bit more for a solid-state competitor to the DVD...
Slashdot Mirror
hehe, there's a Lisa sitting on a shelf right behind me... next to a Spartacus. Funny how Apple-only companies turn get a high-factor-WOW effect when they display their old hardware, whereas if it's PC hardware the place just looks like a dump :)
Well, thanks for the info! I was pretty sure I had read about Apple closing its Irish prod. unit, and having it stirred a memory of two (my first Apple //c was built there).
I'm happy to be wrong on that one!
Apple closed its Ireland production unit last year, IIRC.
Things have changed a lot with Apple recently. Being the admin in an all-Mac company (~70 machines), I can tell you the overall quality, whilst still being very nice compared to most PC hardware, is sometimes quite poor compared to the old days. Furthermore, here in Europe, the support has become a real nightmare (still not to the level HP has reached, ultra-low that is), which really makes me wonder about the price-tag "justification" we once had.
Cheers,
max
Many of those who dislike the US government and it's policies, including Arabs, don't have much malice towards the US people...
Yes, I'm fully aware of that and I don't personnaly hold a grudge against every single citizen of the USA, nor do most inhabitants of this planet, hopefully. But does the majority of US-Americans make the distinction between, say, Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people and Bin Laden? Not from what I've heard and read in recent times, including (unfortunately) from rather "important" persons I happen to know. Heck, most believe Saddam and Bin Laden are/were the Laurel & Hardy of the Middle East, even though these two were sworn ennemies (OBL stated Saddam was an 'infidel', oppressor of the Chiites). When you see a US soldier screaming to a wounded Iraqi woman to "fuck off with the rest of them who attacked his country", or when Rumsfeld claims he's at the head of the "greatest coalition in the history of mankind" (and comparing the effort with those of the crusades, ahem), or when the US troops get orders to secure an oil minister and oil fields rather than keeping museums from being looted, there's good reasons to believe the USA has gone over the top when it comes to ignorance, propaganda and brutality. Please give me, in those circumstances, any reason to respect the USA? Between a fascist government and an ignorant, brutal and gullible population, what's so good to be proud about? Who wants his/her country to become "that"? When US-Americans bullshit the rest of the world brandishing their so-called freedom, even though they've long forgotten about it, solely for the profit of a very few, don't you detect a slight descrepancy in the 'plan'? I do.
What I meant was more like a lot of people wouldn't mind seeing the US-Americans having their asses kicked properly, having their country suffer the same burden they have imposed upon so many defenseless civilians over the past 40 years, and see their way of life being replaced with an alienated, mercantile one that has nothing to bring them apart from cholesterol.
Remember, you can't eat money.
Cheers,
max
We don't need no stinkin' firewall. We got the Asteroid Belt, your packets will be lost in the collisions...
I think the White House's new domain should be uranus.gov as to limit the lag when the cowboys in charge are looking for their heads...
Cheers,
max
Would the nuking of say, Washington DC, be such a bad thing? If you ask around (I mean OUTSIDE the USA), you'll probably find a majority of people thinking it would, actually, be a positive thing.
You see, you americans have played the world game so stupidly recently with your imperialist manners you've managed to make about 5.5 Billion ennemies, not even counting the ones from within your country. The USA seem to enjoy being the thug and pimp of the planet, and they're going to pay a very, very high price for pissing on everybody else's doorstep.
When your people will be begging for food and jobs (I mean, more than you actually got) after the collapse of your debt-ridden economy, you won't find many friends around to help you, not anymore. And we'll all be looking down at you, as you lie in the graves you're digging now.
so long, yankees. Hope you guys get your act together soon, for it may all blow up in your face sooner than you can expect.
Cheers,
max
Exactly what I'm thinking. My trusty old Celeron with a GeForce 2MX does everything I want for my line of work (sysadmin/webdesign), but it chokes on most recent games. A good console (I'm thinking about a Game Cube or a PS2) would be cheaper in the long run since they usually last for quite awhile, with huge amounts of games designed just for your platform.
:)
Of course, it doesn't beat the latest FPS on a bigass PC, but if you have limited funds it's a good idea... and console games are cool too
Perhaps the manufacturer of said cards thought that, perhaps, blind persons would like to play cards with "normal" (I hate this word) people? I've seen "dual purpose" cards in the past, both printed and Braille-embossed.
To a disabled person it is very important to be able to live a life as normal as possible, so anything that can make them feel less handicaped is a good thing. Gee, just having a cast on one of your limbs will make you realize how bad everything is when you can't use both your arms and legs, so imagine how it can be if you can't hear or see anything...
What about screen/artpad combos such as Wacom's Cintiq line of products? Or imagine the possibilities with public booths? Or on laptops?
I think we'll come up with more and more applications for two-way devices in the future, as the technology evolves. It won't replace a scanner, but it'll certainly find itself useful somehow.
Cheers,
max
The Concorde had received several upgrades since it came in service, such as wing modifications to reduce drag. This page retraces the plane's history and technology in details. I'm also aware of a complete cockpit avionics overhaul (CRT screens etc.) in the early 90's that doesn't seem to be listed in the page.
Nevertheless, supersonic flight sucks way too much fuel to be cost-effective enough to offer attracive fares, that's why we're gonna see more super-carriers like the A380 as soon as more airports can manage the passenger load.
Cheers,
max
No wonder your teacher won't move for you if you're putting Mussolini's death during WW1...
:)
Hint: look for the other world war
Better get your timeline straight, boy! Or you may never get that password!
Does this mean it's also the end of the iBrator as well?
:) They don't all like the new iMac, it reminds them that anal probe thingie...
I know of many women who'll be disapointed
You don't know any better. There aren't any plan9 users left. Thank gods.
"Hey Bob, I finally slammed that big fly that's been buzzing on-and-off my sandwich all day!"
"Why do I get a 404 on the project's page? Bob?"
Being a citizen of Geneva, I can tell you the tax software (GEtax) is a POS full of calculation errors. I filled my tax declaration with it and then by hand, and found errors that would have made me pay at least 15% more tax in the electronic version (doesn't let you fill in all the deducible items, among other bugs). The error is known by the tax office but they never informed anybody of it openly.
Furthermore, this system's purpose is only to make the input easier, there's no transmission of electronic documents since you end up printing the whole thing to send it. Still better than manual input (which field do I fill in?), but there's still work to do.
Otherwise, it's a nice change from the previous system that required you to have MS Excel and then sending the floppy containing your data - I guess having at least 40% of the floppies infected with some virus decided them to change the system (I did complain that I found weird that I had to buy an expensive piece of foreign and buggy software to fill my tax declaration...).
The sad thing is our dear Federal administration recently (about a year ago) signed a 5 years contract with MS for the renewal of the whole IT infrastructure. Scary!
Cheers,
max
Indeed, if you drive for 300 miles in a shitty car, it'll take time and your ass will hurt. Similarly , with a shitty lawyer your case will take longer and there's great chances your ass will hurt as well, although not for the same reasons ;-)
"Or chips in two people's brains (one monitoring input and one controlling output) so that one of the people is basically experiencing and controlling the other body. I could see a lot of market for THAT for government, celebrities, and big business...want to go somewhere but you don't want to have to be followed by bodygards? Use a puppet body so no matter what happens to the body, you're still safe at home."
:)
I suggest you read Neal Stephenson's "Interface", co-written by Frederick George. It's about a politician running for president getting a brain implant after a stroke. I'm not telling any more
It's a good read which raises some issues that are not so far-fetched in regard of recent biochips development.
Sadly, it is also the book containing the largest amount of typos I've ever witnessed, almost one each page! It seems to be recurent with Stephenson's book; weird. Anybody else noticed this?
Cheers,
max
" I do not beleive there are international laws to regulate such practices - but IANAL."
IANAL either, but I do know there's the World Trade Organisation which regulates such practices, of which both the USA and China are members.
I wonder how one could prove it's anti-competitive since the only competition (Linux) is free. But I guess it could be considered dumping, which is illegal.
Cheers,
Max
"I can't see this particular power-grab standing up in your Supreme Court if it comes to that. You lucky people."
:/
Well, I'd be worried about that too since the Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft admin is placing its own ultra-conservative/pro-big-business people at the supreme court. Remember these judges are nominated, not elected, and can't be easily removed. This scary administration is working at putting its 'agents' in important seats that'll still be there after eventual elections (watch for that one too, my bet is they'll try to cancel them for 'security' reasons or some similar excuse). They'll be here for a longtime, enough to mold the whole system at will until they own it entirely.
Also don't believe the opinion polls. A friend of mine used to work in a big opinion polls institute, and told me they would systematicaly bias the results depending on who was paying for the survey. If the Republicans were paying (a lot) to know whether their actions pleased the populace, they'd call up people in neighborhoods known for their conservative voting habits, etc. Now, opinion polls are known to influence, or brainwash, the average Joe Sixpack (remember something about the last presidential election?). Tell him, through the usual media outlets, that 70% of his folks think, for example, that war is a good idea. Well, Joe will simply assume that if 70% of the population thinks so, it sure must be right! Remember, Joe doesn't want to think different by fear of being labeled as such, therefore losing his sacred, hard-earned, social status. Why do you think he likes SUVs? Because some ads on tv and in the press claimed that 70% of his peers thought it was good. Eh. It's a bit more complicated than that but you get the basic idea, the scariest part being that *it works*.
I'm not an American, nor do I live in the Corporate Republic of America, but I begin to feel a certain chill down my spine which reminds me of some parts of the Cold War which I wouldn't rate as 'cheerfuly entertaining'. This bunch of crackpots are sitting on top of the largest stockpile of Weapons Of Mass Destruction(TM), threatening 'hot' countries like North Korea like highschool thugs, pissing off most of Europe and most of all bypassing the U.N., thus putting in jeopardy 60 years of efforts to prevent the human race from anihilating itself with its own stupidity and greed.
All that because they want Saddam's oil, so they can say 'fuck you' to the Saudis, who are known fundamentalists actively supporting the Palestinians and other terrorist groups around the world, like in Chechnya. But taking this oil will piss off the Russians too, who have built and exploit the Iraqi oil extraction and refining infrastructure and are already suffering hugely from the embargo. I don't like the smell of this recipe, it smells of money and blood.
I believe we have reasons to worry. All of us. Again.
max
Presuming of course that they want you there. Maybe they look on the americans the way we look on the mexicans.
We have more respect for Mexicans. Americans are more seen like primitive, aggressive and ignorant fuckwits and it ain't getting any better. Most 14 year-olds here have more general culture than an American out of college.
OTOH, there are more and more Americans who give up their "americanism" (or even their US citizenship), ashamed by the USA's internal and foreign politics. I don't blame them.
As usual, watch your mouth when travelling abroad as your government's opinions may very well be extremely unpopular where you're going, even if you're not at war with us.
Cheers,
max
Should you want to become a Swiss citizen, here's what you gotta do:
-move to Switzerland
-meet a Swiss citizen to marry
-wait for 5 years (or is it 10 now?)to get your citizenship. Don't divorce right away, otherwise you may lose the passport.
Very few places let foreigners vote (local stuff only), but once you got the passport you'll vote 7-12 times a year. Check this post for more info on how we vote.
Cheers,
max
I own a Zyxel 642R router and you CAN block the external telnet/http/tftp/whatever port you want through filters to setup in the admin (telnet) interface. And it's also clearly indicated in the manual that you MUST change the password after setting it up for the first time. I agree the setup of this particular one isn't easy for your regular joe user.
The 642M/ME (bridges with a DHCP pool of max 4 addresses) series are a bit more limited but have a web interface that can be reasonably tweaked.
So far I've never had a problem with this series of Zyxel ADSL modems/bridges/routers. The only truly shitty one from them was the 630 series that connects to USB and pumps way too much power for most motherboards to work properly (gets all the power from the USB port, no external power supply).
The 650 series I'm unfamilar with, but they have a more complete function set than the previous, with now UPNP for those who need it and true port forwarding too. They have a web interface and can be tweaked quite seriously.
If you're too stupid to read the first page of the manual, perhaps getting a permanent Net connection isn't the best thing for you. Now if the gear was installed by a pro, there's no excuse for NOT changing the admin password...
Cheers,
max
It certainly brings the community together... I mean, the *whole* community has to gather in one place! Perhaps a good idea for small villages, but I don't see the concept scaling too well for places like Zürich (1+ Million ppl) or Geneva (450.000)...
:)
Glarus is a tiny state with only a few tiny towns and moutain villages. No wonder they don't see the need to get rid of the Landsgemeinde (public voting). Ticino has anonymous voting... better be, it's almost Italy there
Still got a red passport?
Cheers,
max
You're wrong. Well, you're right if you're talking about DVD-R which has a maximum capacity of 4.7GB but pressed DVDs can contain a LOT more (up to 17GB), considering they can be multilayered and double-sided whereas DVD-Rs are only SL/SS (Single Side/Single Layer).
Here's a table representing the various combinations and respective capacities (googled the info from this page):
DVD-5 (SS/SL): 4.38 gig (4.7G) of data, over 2 hours of video
DVD-9 (SS/DL): 7.95 gig (8.5G), about 4 hours of video
DVD-10 (DS/SL): 8.75 gig (9.4G), about 4.5 hours of video
DVD-14 (DS/ML): 12.33 gig (13.24G), about 6.5 hours of video
DVD-18 (DS/DL): 15.90 gig (17G), over 8 hours of video
DVD-RAM (SS/SL): 2.40 gig (2.58G)
DVD-RAM (DS/SL): 4.80 gig (5.16G)
As you can see, we'll have to wait a bit more for a solid-state competitor to the DVD...
Cheers,
max