| "The party is regarded as falling on the left in the Canadian political spectrum."
The party is regarded as the Communist Party of Canada. "Falling on the left" is a gross understatement.
Be aware that in a Parliamentary system, only bills tabled by the governing party are treated seriously. It's very, very rare that a "private members'" bill such as this ever gets any traction. These are usually political exercises by opposition parties who hold no real hope of having it passed.
Actually, their new Bravia line of LCD TVs is outstanding quality wise. Unfortunately, they're still way overpriced.
And I don't understand this statement: But because we can now use our own LCD panels, we can limit the price fall of LCD TVs to around 15 pct in the year to March.
It sounds like they're saying that since they now make their own LCD panels, they can limit future price erosion. Do they think they're the only game in town?
Paramount just announced support for Blu-ray with Warner expected to follow suit sometime this week. Universal will be forced to announce support shortly thereafter.
It's all over folks -- HD-DVD is deader than dead.
So it was travelling between 4500-9000 mph. Now, considering that the speed of sound on a standard day at sea level is around 750 mph, shouldn't there have been a pretty serious sonic boom?
More detailed article in the Wall Street Journal. Note that the article states that this deal is non-exclusive. There is nothing preventing these studios from also announcing support for Blu-ray in future.
Studios Strike HD-DVD Deals For Holiday 2005
By SARAH MCBRIDE and PHRED DVORAK Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL November 29, 2004; Page B1
With holiday shoppers gobbling up millions of popular DVDs over the weekend, Toshiba Corp. and three major movie studios are expected Monday to announce plans to make new high-definition DVDs available by Christmas 2005.
According to people familiar with the matter, the studios -- including Viacom Inc.'s Paramount, General Electric Co.'s Universal Studios, and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. -- are planning to release up to two dozen titles each in time for next year's holiday season in the so-called HD-DVD format that is backed by a group of Toshiba-led partners.
The move shows that Hollywood is getting serious about moving ahead with the "next generation" DVD format, which it so far has been reluctant to embrace. The new discs promise super-sharp resolution and bonus interaction features when played on high-definition televisions and via new high-definition DVD players. But the discs are especially appealing to the studios because they use super-secure copy protection that makes them less vulnerable to piracy than today's easily copied standard DVDs.
Today's announcement gives the Toshiba group a leg up, for the time being, in a burgeoning format war over the next-generation of DVDs. Sony Corp. has spearheaded a rival technology called Blu-ray, which it is pushing hard in part because its technology for the current generation of DVDs mostly lost out to Toshiba's -- with very little Sony technology winding up in today's standard DVDs. And in the early 1980s, its Betamax technology for videocasettes lost out to Victor Co. of Japan Ltd.'s VHS format.
Hoping to avoid another failure, Sony has been aggressively lining up partners for its Blu-ray format. At this point, the earliest that movies could be issued in the Blu-ray format would be 2006. Still, Blu-ray has far more manufacturers and consumer-electronics partners on board than the Toshiba group. And Blu-ray discs can hold far more material than HD DVD, allowing studios that distribute TV shows, for example, to pack more episodes on a single disc, or to throw in more bonus features.
Despite today's announcement by Toshiba, Blu-ray remains a strong contender. Firmly in its camp: Sony's powerhouse Columbia Pictures, along with the studio it is in the process of acquiring, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. And the deals Toshiba is making with studios aren't exclusive -- the same studios could also make software deals with Blu-ray.
All studios are anxious to avoid another Betamax/VHS-style format war, however, because they don't want to confuse consumers by releasing their movies in many similar-looking disc formats -- or annoy them if the format they choose is off the market in a couple of years. Studio executives say it would be best if one technology scored a clear win over the other or if the two camps could compromise so both new versions could play on the same player.
Although millions of Americans have yet to buy even a standard DVD player, Hollywood has been plotting the next generation of DVD for years. Until recently, studios figured they should delay the next generation for as long as they could, maximizing sales in the current format. But the studios have been speeding up their plans lately as sales of standard DVD players have tapered off. Amid signs that piracy is cutting into sales far more than predicted, the studios also reason that they should move more quickly toward the new technology because of its superior antipiracy features.
Thus, the studios want to get started making next-generation DVD a hot product for next Christmas and beyond. Such efforts are typically slow to bulid; the first year DVD players came out,
They are mandating that the player have the *ability* to decode this codec not that all media use this codec. The vast majority of Blu-ray DVDs will still be mpeg 2.
I believe that this announcement is the result of Microsoft pressure to include the codec. MSFT announced a Windows native driver for HD-DVD but did not commit to doing one for Blu-ray. How long now before MSFT announces that yes indeed, they will now provide a native driver for Blu-ray too?
I wrote a shareware timezone application (WorldClock) where I allow the user to click on a map of the world and get the local times in that area.
You would not believe the number of (abusive) emails I have received over Kashmir. You try to explain that the map highlights reflect timezone boundaries and not political boundaries but they just don't care. They are all blind to reason when it comes to anything to do with Kashmir.
Anyone know the rules about shorting an IPO? I believe they are given a bit of breathing space before they can be shorted -- 30 days comes to mind. Anyone know for sure?
At these prices, I think this stock will be ripe for plucking.
All those people calling the RIAA a bunch of morons, or greedy pigs, or idiot businessmen don't know what the hell they're talking about. The RIAA knows *exactly* what it's doing.
Understand that the RIAA wants all digital download systems to fail. Period. Why? Because digital downloads will make most music labels (in the long run) obsolete. You think it's an accident that legal downloading of music has taken so long to get off the ground? The only reason they're allowing any digital downloads at all is the threat of legislation -- they don't want to fight the government. But they need to slow this iTunes thing down pronto before it gets too far out of hand. And the best way to do this is to raise prices.
Wasted an hour of my life last night watching this (ok, 3/4 hour -- I couldn't stand to watch any longer) and you better effing believe this is not Blade Runner. It stuns me beyond belief that they would try to distance themselves from a truly intelligent scifi movie when all they have to offer is this steaming pile of crap.
I hear Time Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber are doing the music. A snippet of the script has already leaked to the net:
Setting: Stern of ship as it sails West into the sunset.
Scene MCLXXXVIII (Frodo stands on stool so he can be seen over stern of ship.)
FRODO SINGS:
Mem'ry All alone in the Shire I can smile at the old days Life was beautiful then I remember The time I knew what happiness was Let the mem'ry live again
(Gandalf, stage left)
GANDALF SINGS:
Don't cry for me, Middle Earth The truth is I never left you All through my wild days My mad existence I kept my promise Don't keep your distance
(Chorus of elves, dwarves and men start dancing a-la Can-Can, stage right.)
CHORUS SINGS:
Frodo Baggins, Superstar How tall are you, what have you sacrificed? Frodo Baggins, Superstar Do you think you're gay as they say you are?
These are all great ideas. In fact, the current Enterprise show's *concept* isn't a bad idea either. It's not a lack of setting that's killing this franchise. It's a total lack of show running talent that's killing this franchise.
Get rid of the hacks and bring in people who know about character and plot development and who know how to write interesting stories and who know how to run an interesting show and you'd get lots and lots of people watching Star Trek again.
Where do I even start? New home for humanity. Unprecedented Scientific discovery. Easy access to the asteroids ($trillion apiece in ore!). Tech jobs at home. Youngsters inspired to go into science and engineering. Plentiful fusion fuel (this will be important in the next 10-20 years). I could go on.
Let's break this down, shall we?
New home for humanity. How many of you out there would even consider living in the middle of a desert here on Earth? Now add the fact that you can't breath the air, that it's prohibitively cold, and that you will get the occasional wind-storm that will almost literally blow you off the planet. How many of you want to live there now? That's what I thought.
Unprecedented Scientific discovery. You mean like the work that unmanned robots like Spirit is currently performing? Why do we need to send men to do a robot's work? And what scientific discovery? There is no new science that will result in exploiting a new planet. New exploration and construction techniques maybe (much like the settlement of the Americas) but new science?
Easy access to the asteroids ($trillion apiece in ore!). Mining the asteroid belt would be prohibitively expensive even from a Mars base. The cost of getting this ore to Earth would make even a chunk of rusty iron more expensive than palladium. Probably *much* more expensive than palladium.
Tech jobs at home. Why? Why would a sparse Mars colony create *any* jobs at home?
Youngsters inspired to go into science and engineering. Yeah, I'll give you this one. But there are much cheaper ways to do this.
Plentiful fusion fuel (this will be important in the next 10-20 years). This makes no sense whatsoever. What fusion fuel? Hydrogen? Just turn on the tap, pour yourself a glass, and apply electricity. Why go to Mars!?
I believe the phrase you're looking for is 'op-ed' as in 'opinion-editorial'. Used to describe articles in newspapers that express a point of view usually opposing the paper's official editorial stance and published opposite the editorial page.
This is neither an 'opt-ed' piece nor an 'op-ed' piece. It's just a column.
Microsoft has long maintained a 'slush fund' in order to 'filter' their steady quarterly rise. They move money in and out of this fund as required; they move money in when they exceed expectations in a given quarter, and move money out when they under-perform. They have long been criticised by analysts for this practice and I believe the SEC has even investigated them.
It is my belief that this flat quarter has a lot to do with the accounting scandals of recent memory. Microsoft is probably phasing out the slush fund and cleaning up their accounting practices because of increased regulatory pressure.
The Inquirer should avoid market analysis and stick to what they do best... ummm... which is what exactly?
Slashdot Mirror
| "The party is regarded as falling on the left in the Canadian political spectrum."
The party is regarded as the Communist Party of Canada. "Falling on the left" is a gross understatement.
Be aware that in a Parliamentary system, only bills tabled by the governing party are treated seriously. It's very, very rare that a "private members'" bill such as this ever gets any traction. These are usually political exercises by opposition parties who hold no real hope of having it passed.
Actually, their new Bravia line of LCD TVs is outstanding quality wise. Unfortunately, they're still way overpriced.
And I don't understand this statement: But because we can now use our own LCD panels, we can limit the price fall of LCD TVs to around 15 pct in the year to March.
It sounds like they're saying that since they now make their own LCD panels, they can limit future price erosion. Do they think they're the only game in town?
Paramount just announced support for Blu-ray with Warner expected to follow suit sometime this week. Universal will be forced to announce support shortly thereafter.
It's all over folks -- HD-DVD is deader than dead.
Morgan should have gotten a nom for Woken Furies. Broken Angels is utter dreck.
I refuse to use anything newer than version 5 of Acrobat. They completely and totally fucked up the product after this release.
Why is that every time I read one of these stories I am reminded of Kornbluth's wonderful story The Marching Morons?
If this continues, Kornbluth will be revealed as a prophet and the idiots will indeed be running America. Maybe they already are?
Well, if the streak is 100-200 metres and the exposure is 1/20 second, this means that the object was travelling:
100 m = 100 * 3.3 * 20 * 60 * 60 / 5280 = 4500 mph
200 m = 200 * 3.3 * 20 * 60 * 60 / 5280 = 9000 mph
So it was travelling between 4500-9000 mph. Now, considering that the speed of sound on a standard day at sea level is around 750 mph, shouldn't there have been a pretty serious sonic boom?
More detailed article in the Wall Street Journal. Note that the article states that this deal is non-exclusive. There is nothing preventing these studios from also announcing support for Blu-ray in future.
Studios Strike HD-DVD Deals For Holiday 2005
By SARAH MCBRIDE and PHRED DVORAK
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 29, 2004; Page B1
With holiday shoppers gobbling up millions of popular DVDs over the weekend, Toshiba Corp. and three major movie studios are expected Monday to announce plans to make new high-definition DVDs available by Christmas 2005.
According to people familiar with the matter, the studios -- including Viacom Inc.'s Paramount, General Electric Co.'s Universal Studios, and Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. -- are planning to release up to two dozen titles each in time for next year's holiday season in the so-called HD-DVD format that is backed by a group of Toshiba-led partners.
The move shows that Hollywood is getting serious about moving ahead with the "next generation" DVD format, which it so far has been reluctant to embrace. The new discs promise super-sharp resolution and bonus interaction features when played on high-definition televisions and via new high-definition DVD players. But the discs are especially appealing to the studios because they use super-secure copy protection that makes them less vulnerable to piracy than today's easily copied standard DVDs.
Today's announcement gives the Toshiba group a leg up, for the time being, in a burgeoning format war over the next-generation of DVDs. Sony Corp. has spearheaded a rival technology called Blu-ray, which it is pushing hard in part because its technology for the current generation of DVDs mostly lost out to Toshiba's -- with very little Sony technology winding up in today's standard DVDs. And in the early 1980s, its Betamax technology for videocasettes lost out to Victor Co. of Japan Ltd.'s VHS format.
Hoping to avoid another failure, Sony has been aggressively lining up partners for its Blu-ray format. At this point, the earliest that movies could be issued in the Blu-ray format would be 2006. Still, Blu-ray has far more manufacturers and consumer-electronics partners on board than the Toshiba group. And Blu-ray discs can hold far more material than HD DVD, allowing studios that distribute TV shows, for example, to pack more episodes on a single disc, or to throw in more bonus features.
Despite today's announcement by Toshiba, Blu-ray remains a strong contender. Firmly in its camp: Sony's powerhouse Columbia Pictures, along with the studio it is in the process of acquiring, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. And the deals Toshiba is making with studios aren't exclusive -- the same studios could also make software deals with Blu-ray.
All studios are anxious to avoid another Betamax/VHS-style format war, however, because they don't want to confuse consumers by releasing their movies in many similar-looking disc formats -- or annoy them if the format they choose is off the market in a couple of years. Studio executives say it would be best if one technology scored a clear win over the other or if the two camps could compromise so both new versions could play on the same player.
Although millions of Americans have yet to buy even a standard DVD player, Hollywood has been plotting the next generation of DVD for years. Until recently, studios figured they should delay the next generation for as long as they could, maximizing sales in the current format. But the studios have been speeding up their plans lately as sales of standard DVD players have tapered off. Amid signs that piracy is cutting into sales far more than predicted, the studios also reason that they should move more quickly toward the new technology because of its superior antipiracy features.
Thus, the studios want to get started making next-generation DVD a hot product for next Christmas and beyond. Such efforts are typically slow to bulid; the first year DVD players came out,
RTFA people.
They are mandating that the player have the *ability* to decode this codec not that all media use this codec. The vast majority of Blu-ray DVDs will still be mpeg 2.
I believe that this announcement is the result of Microsoft pressure to include the codec. MSFT announced a Windows native driver for HD-DVD but did not commit to doing one for Blu-ray. How long now before MSFT announces that yes indeed, they will now provide a native driver for Blu-ray too?
I wrote a shareware timezone application (WorldClock) where I allow the user to click on a map of the world and get the local times in that area.
You would not believe the number of (abusive) emails I have received over Kashmir. You try to explain that the map highlights reflect timezone boundaries and not political boundaries but they just don't care. They are all blind to reason when it comes to anything to do with Kashmir.
Anyone know the rules about shorting an IPO? I believe they are given a bit of breathing space before they can be shorted -- 30 days comes to mind. Anyone know for sure?
At these prices, I think this stock will be ripe for plucking.
Bullcrap.
Most of those movies were made by Katzenberg who left Disney for Dreamworks SKG (he's the 'K') because of -- yes, you guessed it -- Eisner.
All those people calling the RIAA a bunch of morons, or greedy pigs, or idiot businessmen don't know what the hell they're talking about. The RIAA knows *exactly* what it's doing.
Understand that the RIAA wants all digital download systems to fail. Period. Why? Because digital downloads will make most music labels (in the long run) obsolete. You think it's an accident that legal downloading of music has taken so long to get off the ground? The only reason they're allowing any digital downloads at all is the threat of legislation -- they don't want to fight the government. But they need to slow this iTunes thing down pronto before it gets too far out of hand. And the best way to do this is to raise prices.
Yeah, they're dumb all right. Dumb as a fox.
Well, there goes another conspiracy theory. I guess Microsoft isn't behind Baystar after all.
Well, I just saw ST2 and I don't care what technology they used to create it -- it's a steaming pile of crap. Crap in, crap out.
BTW, I really enjoyed the fun and campy original.
Fine. I think Google should comply immediately with this complaint and deny GMail use to any UK resident.
Problem solved.
To those suggesting that they should have called it Moogle:
Registrant
Domain Deluxe
GPO 7628
Central,
HK
Registrar..: IARegistry.com (http://www.iaregistry.com)
MOOGLE.COM
Created on..............: 05-May-2001
Expires on..............: 05-May-2004
Administrative Contact:
Deluxe, Domain sales1@domaindeluxe.com
Domain Deluxe
GPO 7628
Central, HK
+852.9102.8527
Technical Contact:
Deluxe, Domain sales1@domaindeluxe.com
Domain Deluxe
GPO 7628
Central, HK
+852.9102.8527
Name servers for this domain:
NS1.BLACKCAB.COM 64.40.99.7
NS2.BLACKCAB.COM 64.40.102.7
If you're tempted to upgrade, read the 'new issues' section first:
h tm l#new-issues
http://mozilla.org/releases/mozilla1.7b/README.
The 'Web services are not working in Mozilla 1.7 Beta' is a major show-stopper for me.
This is not a 'Blade Runner'
Wasted an hour of my life last night watching this (ok, 3/4 hour -- I couldn't stand to watch any longer) and you better effing believe this is not Blade Runner. It stuns me beyond belief that they would try to distance themselves from a truly intelligent scifi movie when all they have to offer is this steaming pile of crap.
I hear Time Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber are doing the music. A snippet of the script has already leaked to the net:
Setting: Stern of ship as it sails West into the sunset.
Scene MCLXXXVIII
(Frodo stands on stool so he can be seen over stern of ship.)
FRODO SINGS:
Mem'ry
All alone in the Shire
I can smile at the old days
Life was beautiful then
I remember
The time I knew what happiness was
Let the mem'ry live again
(Gandalf, stage left)
GANDALF SINGS:
Don't cry for me, Middle Earth
The truth is I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Don't keep your distance
(Chorus of elves, dwarves and men start dancing a-la Can-Can, stage right.)
CHORUS SINGS:
Frodo Baggins, Superstar
How tall are you, what have you sacrificed?
Frodo Baggins, Superstar
Do you think you're gay as they say you are?
I think it was the 192.168. part.
Kudos!
It's been a long time since I've chuckled, guffawed, and generally LOL'd at a post on Slashdot. Actually brought up a tear or two...
These are all great ideas. In fact, the current Enterprise show's *concept* isn't a bad idea either. It's not a lack of setting that's killing this franchise. It's a total lack of show running talent that's killing this franchise.
Get rid of the hacks and bring in people who know about character and plot development and who know how to write interesting stories and who know how to run an interesting show and you'd get lots and lots of people watching Star Trek again.
Where do I even start? New home for humanity. Unprecedented Scientific discovery. Easy access to the asteroids ($trillion apiece in ore!). Tech jobs at home. Youngsters inspired to go into science and engineering. Plentiful fusion fuel (this will be important in the next 10-20 years). I could go on.
Let's break this down, shall we?
New home for humanity. How many of you out there would even consider living in the middle of a desert here on Earth? Now add the fact that you can't breath the air, that it's prohibitively cold, and that you will get the occasional wind-storm that will almost literally blow you off the planet. How many of you want to live there now? That's what I thought.
Unprecedented Scientific discovery. You mean like the work that unmanned robots like Spirit is currently performing? Why do we need to send men to do a robot's work? And what scientific discovery? There is no new science that will result in exploiting a new planet. New exploration and construction techniques maybe (much like the settlement of the Americas) but new science?
Easy access to the asteroids ($trillion apiece in ore!). Mining the asteroid belt would be prohibitively expensive even from a Mars base. The cost of getting this ore to Earth would make even a chunk of rusty iron more expensive than palladium. Probably *much* more expensive than palladium.
Tech jobs at home. Why? Why would a sparse Mars colony create *any* jobs at home?
Youngsters inspired to go into science and engineering. Yeah, I'll give you this one. But there are much cheaper ways to do this.
Plentiful fusion fuel (this will be important in the next 10-20 years). This makes no sense whatsoever. What fusion fuel? Hydrogen? Just turn on the tap, pour yourself a glass, and apply electricity. Why go to Mars!?
I could go on. You might have to.
BusinesWeek Online has an opt-ed piece...
I believe the phrase you're looking for is 'op-ed' as in 'opinion-editorial'. Used to describe articles in newspapers that express a point of view usually opposing the paper's official editorial stance and published opposite the editorial page.
This is neither an 'opt-ed' piece nor an 'op-ed' piece. It's just a column.
Microsoft has long maintained a 'slush fund' in order to 'filter' their steady quarterly rise. They move money in and out of this fund as required; they move money in when they exceed expectations in a given quarter, and move money out when they under-perform. They have long been criticised by analysts for this practice and I believe the SEC has even investigated them.
... ummm ... which is what exactly?
It is my belief that this flat quarter has a lot to do with the accounting scandals of recent memory. Microsoft is probably phasing out the slush fund and cleaning up their accounting practices because of increased regulatory pressure.
The Inquirer should avoid market analysis and stick to what they do best