Would somebody go out there and read Galbraith the riot act? (fuming)
Look, people who do serious photo editing work don't do it on laptop displays. They usually use big 24" and larger monitors the display colors correctly and sport on-monitor controls to adjust the display color temperature very precisely. Why isn't Galbraith using the 24" Apple LED Cinema Display?
You're a pretty uncommon user, unless you're interested in really low-end models.
Because Apple's marketshare is around 78% of the entire portable music market, that still means the potential market for music in Apple Lossless format is still huge anyway.
Interestingly, while the second generation and the upcoming third generation Toyota Prius may look like an environmental statement, once you see it in person and note you can fold down the rear seats to get a HUGE rear cargo area, the snickering stops.:-) And best of all, the Prius has surprisingly roomy rear seating area, too.
If you're willing to limit yourself to around 70-80 km (43 to 49 miles) in all-electric mode, the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) will meet most of the criteria you want. Say hello to the 2012 Toyota Prius with the PHEV battery pack option.:-)
Alas, you won't get that with an all-electric vehicle unless there is a MAJOR breakthrough in battery technology.
The vehicle you described is more appropriate to a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, which may be able to travel as much as 800 km (500 miles) on a single tank of gasoline.
I think the primary market will be plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) by 2015, NOT all electric vehicles.
I cite the following reasons:
1) Since the vast majority of commuting is relatively short range, the all-electric range of a PHEV of around 43 to 49 miles (70-80 km) is not such a big issue.
2) With a PHEV, you don't need a big battery pack like you do with an all-electric vehicle.
3) Since PHEVs are an extension of the now-mature hybrid vehicle technology developed by Toyota and Ford, it also means way lower development costs.
Given that today's gasoline engines have very low emissions anyway, a PHEV backed up by a small gasoline engine is what will be common by 2015.
Interestingly, in my opinion if the record companies start offering lossless format downloads it will NOT be in FLAC.
The reason is simple: the number of portable media players that support FLAC "out of the box" is very small indeed. Meanwhile, given Apple's total market dominance with the iPod models and the fact every iPod (except the shuffle) built in the last 3-4 years support Apple Lossless "out of the box," the potential market for Apple Lossless files is HUGE.
I would agree except with portable media players reaching 16 and 32 GB of flash memory storage and hard disk based portable media players reaching 80 GB or higher, that limitation is not as bad as you think.
For example, the Apple Lossless format compresses music to about half the size of the original Compact Disc encoding, which is around 325 MB for a 74-minute album. With 16 GB flash memory portable music players getting fairly common, that means you can fit at least 30 Apple Lossless encoded albums and still leave space 6 GB left over for other media file downloads.
Interestingly, for commercial downloadable music, we may see a movement towards using 256 kbps VBR AAC.
Besides Apple offering their music now eventually through the iTunes Plus section of the iTunes Music Store in 256 kbps VBR format, many of the newer non-Apple portable music players now support non-DRM'd AAC files, so the market for AAC music is a lot larger than you think. I would not be surprised within a year the Amazon MP3 Download store will add the option for the music to be downloaded in AAC format.
However, for the Ogg formats and FLAC to really succeed you need "out of the box" (e.g., no need to download and install firmware updates) support from Apple, Creative, Microsoft, Samsung, SanDisk SANSA and Sony, which is essentially almost the entire marketshare for medium to high-end portable music players.
Indeed, if the record companies decide to offer lossless compression for downloadable music, they will likely go with the Apple Lossless format first, with good reason: just about every iPod out there built in the last 3-4 years besides the shuffle support the Apple Lossless format "out of the box," and given Apple's complete dominance in the portable music player market, the potential market for music in Apple Lossless format is gigantic.
The Ogg formats won't succeed until the Apple iPod and the portable media players from Creative, Microsoft, Philips, Samsung, SanDisk SANSA and Sony support it "out of the box" (this means the user doesn't need to download and install firmware updates to get Ogg media support). This also applies to the Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) format, too.
(It should be noted that while the Cowon portable media players support the Ogg formats "out of the box," their marketshare is way too small to support wide acceptance of the format.)
Interestingly, if the record companies decide to start offering downloadable music in a lossless format, they will likely support Apple Lossless first, with good reason: most iPods besides the shuffle support the Apple Lossless format, and given the iPod's gigantic marketshare, there is a viable market for music in this format.
I believe smoking a joint not only does your body absorb the THC from the marijuana, but also all the other chemicals from the burning of the marijuana, most of which aren't safe to absorb into the body. That's why tobacco smoking is so dangerous--your body absorbs a long list of poisonous chemicals.
Even a drop of blood can show how much THC is in your bloodstream fairly quickly, and if the THC level exceeds certain limits, say hello to the gray-bar motel!
1) Can we get the marijuana so it's not loaded with potentially lethal additives? Remember the Paraquat scare from the early 1980's as the Mexican government sprayed anywhere marijuana grew with Paraquat, an extremely toxic herbicide?
2) Can we grow marijuana with a standardized level of THC for medicinal purposes? (Given modern agricultural research, that should be a cinch to do.)
3) Can we "smoke" marijuana in a way that won't cause side effects akin to tobacco smoking? This will probably rule out smoking a joint, and would probably require an FDA-approved medicial bong.
The problem we're actually facing is not a lack of food - food is going to waste in some areas while people starve in other areas.
AMEN!!
If you look at the 20th Century history of mass famines, they all happened for two reasons: political actions and a state of war in the region.
Take for example China. There were mass famines from 1927 to 1949 as China suffered through a civil war between the Nationalists and Communists and the Japanese invasion of China in 1937-1945, which hurt food production and distribution. China suffered another mass famine from 1958 to 1961 as the Greap Leap Forward plan of misguided political policies caused serious shortfalls in food production.
According to experts 30 years ago, the was simply no way we could produce enough food for 5 billion people. Now we're doing it for 7. These professional pessimists have always underestimated mankind's ability to change, adapt, and solve problems. They've always underestimated our capacity to make things happen.
And we can grow even MORE food with new technology. I remember reading in Popular Science the idea of growing food in a number of 13-14 story tall greenhouse towers, where you can literally harvest food in highly controlled conditions multiple times per year! Imagine being able to get freshly-harvested grains and vegetables locally-grown literally year-round.
It may be increasing for the next couple of thousand years, but we're forgetting that by geologic time standards, Earth currently is actually in a pretty cool period in terms of temperature.
Scientists who have studied very old rocks with its fossil counts and noted that around 40-45 million years ago, there was a very large increase in temperatures on the planet, resulting in most of the planet being like a "hothouse" jungle. It's actually preferable to have warmer temperatures because this means longer food growing seasons in many parts of the world. Falling into an Ice Age would be a disaster for humankind since that shortens food growing seasons, triggering off potential mass starvation from lack of food (even with our modern food preservation technology).
What strikes me about the interface - the pad where you can scroll up or down with your thumb - is that it still isn't as easy as the clickwheel on an iPod.
In fact, that's what makes the non-touchscreen iPod nano and classic models so good--the Click Wheel interface is a masterful piece of interface design and Apple has patent rights on it probably through at least 2020. I own a 3G iPod nano (8 GB model) and Click Wheel interface simple and easy to use.
I would agree on that--Windows Vista was designed specifically to run on faster CPU's.
However, the rise of netbooks running Intel's new Atom CPU has forced Microsoft to change things. That's why Microsoft extensively re-wrote the OS code so Windows 7 runs well even on Atom-based netbooks.
And one more thing: Microsoft has made it a priority that Windows 7 will actually work well on a netbook computer. That right there could be really bad news for Linux at least in the short run.
Actually not. The initial release of Windows Vista was terrible, but with the release of Service Pack 1, they eliminated a lot of the performance issues. Also, by the time SP1 came out, driver support was ENORMOUSLY improved, so today Windows Vista enjoys support of most of the current computer hardware out there.
What Linux needs right now is a singular, easy-to-use (by end user!) program that can manage multimedia files on the computer AND a portable music player. In short, create the Linux equivalent of Windows Media Player 11, including the ability to play media files inside the program and easy copying of media files to a portable media player and file management on the portable media player itself. Since most non-Apple portable media players can use Windows Media Player 11 to copy files to the player, there is a standardized method that will work with players from Creative, Samsung, SanDisk SANSA, and Sony.
Fortunately, from beta user test reports Windows 7 will be a LOT faster, thanks to the fact Microsoft designed it so it runs well even on the emerging class of netbooks. When Windows 7 finally ships probably around September-October 2009 time frame, you will see many new netbooks switch to Windows 7.
Microsoft is getting beaten down by Apple at the high end and by Linux on the netbook space.
That is actually not completely correct. While the early netbooks did run Linux, most current netbooks you can buy run Windows XP, and will eventually run Windows 7. Meanwhile, the poor economy will drive people back to (surprisingly) Windows-based systems, especially when you can get a well-loaded system loaded Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1) for around US$500 to US$700 retail including a 19" 1440x900 widescreen monitor.
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Would somebody go out there and read Galbraith the riot act? (fuming)
Look, people who do serious photo editing work don't do it on laptop displays. They usually use big 24" and larger monitors the display colors correctly and sport on-monitor controls to adjust the display color temperature very precisely. Why isn't Galbraith using the 24" Apple LED Cinema Display?
Actually, given the general sound quality of most portable music players when listening through headphones, using a lossless format is overkill.
You can get by with 192 to 256 kbps variable bit rate MP3, AAC or WMA formats even with a good quality in-ear headphone.
You're a pretty uncommon user, unless you're interested in really low-end models.
Because Apple's marketshare is around 78% of the entire portable music market, that still means the potential market for music in Apple Lossless format is still huge anyway.
Interestingly, while the second generation and the upcoming third generation Toyota Prius may look like an environmental statement, once you see it in person and note you can fold down the rear seats to get a HUGE rear cargo area, the snickering stops. :-) And best of all, the Prius has surprisingly roomy rear seating area, too.
If you're willing to limit yourself to around 70-80 km (43 to 49 miles) in all-electric mode, the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) will meet most of the criteria you want. Say hello to the 2012 Toyota Prius with the PHEV battery pack option. :-)
Alas, you won't get that with an all-electric vehicle unless there is a MAJOR breakthrough in battery technology.
The vehicle you described is more appropriate to a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, which may be able to travel as much as 800 km (500 miles) on a single tank of gasoline.
I think the primary market will be plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) by 2015, NOT all electric vehicles.
I cite the following reasons:
1) Since the vast majority of commuting is relatively short range, the all-electric range of a PHEV of around 43 to 49 miles (70-80 km) is not such a big issue.
2) With a PHEV, you don't need a big battery pack like you do with an all-electric vehicle.
3) Since PHEVs are an extension of the now-mature hybrid vehicle technology developed by Toyota and Ford, it also means way lower development costs.
Given that today's gasoline engines have very low emissions anyway, a PHEV backed up by a small gasoline engine is what will be common by 2015.
Interestingly, in my opinion if the record companies start offering lossless format downloads it will NOT be in FLAC.
The reason is simple: the number of portable media players that support FLAC "out of the box" is very small indeed. Meanwhile, given Apple's total market dominance with the iPod models and the fact every iPod (except the shuffle) built in the last 3-4 years support Apple Lossless "out of the box," the potential market for Apple Lossless files is HUGE.
Lossless still uses too much disk space.
I would agree except with portable media players reaching 16 and 32 GB of flash memory storage and hard disk based portable media players reaching 80 GB or higher, that limitation is not as bad as you think.
For example, the Apple Lossless format compresses music to about half the size of the original Compact Disc encoding, which is around 325 MB for a 74-minute album. With 16 GB flash memory portable music players getting fairly common, that means you can fit at least 30 Apple Lossless encoded albums and still leave space 6 GB left over for other media file downloads.
Interestingly, for commercial downloadable music, we may see a movement towards using 256 kbps VBR AAC.
Besides Apple offering their music now eventually through the iTunes Plus section of the iTunes Music Store in 256 kbps VBR format, many of the newer non-Apple portable music players now support non-DRM'd AAC files, so the market for AAC music is a lot larger than you think. I would not be surprised within a year the Amazon MP3 Download store will add the option for the music to be downloaded in AAC format.
However, for the Ogg formats and FLAC to really succeed you need "out of the box" (e.g., no need to download and install firmware updates) support from Apple, Creative, Microsoft, Samsung, SanDisk SANSA and Sony, which is essentially almost the entire marketshare for medium to high-end portable music players.
Indeed, if the record companies decide to offer lossless compression for downloadable music, they will likely go with the Apple Lossless format first, with good reason: just about every iPod out there built in the last 3-4 years besides the shuffle support the Apple Lossless format "out of the box," and given Apple's complete dominance in the portable music player market, the potential market for music in Apple Lossless format is gigantic.
The Ogg formats won't succeed until the Apple iPod and the portable media players from Creative, Microsoft, Philips, Samsung, SanDisk SANSA and Sony support it "out of the box" (this means the user doesn't need to download and install firmware updates to get Ogg media support). This also applies to the Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) format, too.
(It should be noted that while the Cowon portable media players support the Ogg formats "out of the box," their marketshare is way too small to support wide acceptance of the format.)
Interestingly, if the record companies decide to start offering downloadable music in a lossless format, they will likely support Apple Lossless first, with good reason: most iPods besides the shuffle support the Apple Lossless format, and given the iPod's gigantic marketshare, there is a viable market for music in this format.
I believe smoking a joint not only does your body absorb the THC from the marijuana, but also all the other chemicals from the burning of the marijuana, most of which aren't safe to absorb into the body. That's why tobacco smoking is so dangerous--your body absorbs a long list of poisonous chemicals.
There's an easy way: a pin-prick blood test.
Even a drop of blood can show how much THC is in your bloodstream fairly quickly, and if the THC level exceeds certain limits, say hello to the gray-bar motel!
But there's other issues we need to consider:
1) Can we get the marijuana so it's not loaded with potentially lethal additives? Remember the Paraquat scare from the early 1980's as the Mexican government sprayed anywhere marijuana grew with Paraquat, an extremely toxic herbicide?
2) Can we grow marijuana with a standardized level of THC for medicinal purposes? (Given modern agricultural research, that should be a cinch to do.)
3) Can we "smoke" marijuana in a way that won't cause side effects akin to tobacco smoking? This will probably rule out smoking a joint, and would probably require an FDA-approved medicial bong.
The problem we're actually facing is not a lack of food - food is going to waste in some areas while people starve in other areas.
AMEN!!
If you look at the 20th Century history of mass famines, they all happened for two reasons: political actions and a state of war in the region.
Take for example China. There were mass famines from 1927 to 1949 as China suffered through a civil war between the Nationalists and Communists and the Japanese invasion of China in 1937-1945, which hurt food production and distribution. China suffered another mass famine from 1958 to 1961 as the Greap Leap Forward plan of misguided political policies caused serious shortfalls in food production.
According to experts 30 years ago, the was simply no way we could produce enough food for 5 billion people. Now we're doing it for 7. These professional pessimists have always underestimated mankind's ability to change, adapt, and solve problems. They've always underestimated our capacity to make things happen.
And we can grow even MORE food with new technology. I remember reading in Popular Science the idea of growing food in a number of 13-14 story tall greenhouse towers, where you can literally harvest food in highly controlled conditions multiple times per year! Imagine being able to get freshly-harvested grains and vegetables locally-grown literally year-round.
It may be increasing for the next couple of thousand years, but we're forgetting that by geologic time standards, Earth currently is actually in a pretty cool period in terms of temperature.
Scientists who have studied very old rocks with its fossil counts and noted that around 40-45 million years ago, there was a very large increase in temperatures on the planet, resulting in most of the planet being like a "hothouse" jungle. It's actually preferable to have warmer temperatures because this means longer food growing seasons in many parts of the world. Falling into an Ice Age would be a disaster for humankind since that shortens food growing seasons, triggering off potential mass starvation from lack of food (even with our modern food preservation technology).
What strikes me about the interface - the pad where you can scroll up or down with your thumb - is that it still isn't as easy as the clickwheel on an iPod.
In fact, that's what makes the non-touchscreen iPod nano and classic models so good--the Click Wheel interface is a masterful piece of interface design and Apple has patent rights on it probably through at least 2020. I own a 3G iPod nano (8 GB model) and Click Wheel interface simple and easy to use.
I would agree on that--Windows Vista was designed specifically to run on faster CPU's.
However, the rise of netbooks running Intel's new Atom CPU has forced Microsoft to change things. That's why Microsoft extensively re-wrote the OS code so Windows 7 runs well even on Atom-based netbooks.
And one more thing: Microsoft has made it a priority that Windows 7 will actually work well on a netbook computer. That right there could be really bad news for Linux at least in the short run.
Actually not. The initial release of Windows Vista was terrible, but with the release of Service Pack 1, they eliminated a lot of the performance issues. Also, by the time SP1 came out, driver support was ENORMOUSLY improved, so today Windows Vista enjoys support of most of the current computer hardware out there.
What Linux needs right now is a singular, easy-to-use (by end user!) program that can manage multimedia files on the computer AND a portable music player. In short, create the Linux equivalent of Windows Media Player 11, including the ability to play media files inside the program and easy copying of media files to a portable media player and file management on the portable media player itself. Since most non-Apple portable media players can use Windows Media Player 11 to copy files to the player, there is a standardized method that will work with players from Creative, Samsung, SanDisk SANSA, and Sony.
Fortunately, from beta user test reports Windows 7 will be a LOT faster, thanks to the fact Microsoft designed it so it runs well even on the emerging class of netbooks. When Windows 7 finally ships probably around September-October 2009 time frame, you will see many new netbooks switch to Windows 7.
Microsoft is getting beaten down by Apple at the high end and by Linux on the netbook space.
That is actually not completely correct. While the early netbooks did run Linux, most current netbooks you can buy run Windows XP, and will eventually run Windows 7. Meanwhile, the poor economy will drive people back to (surprisingly) Windows-based systems, especially when you can get a well-loaded system loaded Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1) for around US$500 to US$700 retail including a 19" 1440x900 widescreen monitor.