Apple ships with iTunes, and most Linux distros include a media player.
They'll never do this type of fine here in the USA for the reasons you stated. Besides, given the state of Linux, connecting with a portable media player is not that easy for many newbie users.
We don't even need to go to another country to find extremely salty water where life still exists even today. I can cite two places where high-salt concentrations still harbor life, namely the former salt evaporating ponds owned by Cargill west of Fremont, CA at the south end of San Francisco Bay and the Great Salt Lake--you can find things like brine shrimp and a long list of microbes living in these waters!
Great, except for one thing: pinball machines are very expensive to maintain due to the large number of mechanical parts in a pinball machine. I've seen one taken apart and they are very close to a Rube Goldberg device in terms of mechanical complexity.
That would be true up till recently, but recent advancements in Li-On technology have pretty much solved the battery overheating issue. That now makes it possible for the next-generation Toyota Prius running on its battery pack alone to go as much as 70 km (circa 43 miles) on a full charge before the gasoline engine "assists" in extra power and charging the battery.
But what could make plug-in hybrids even MORE interesting is the availability of carbon-nanotube supercapacitor battery packs after 2012-2013 time frame, which could make it possible to extend the battery-only range to as far as 90 km (56 miles).
As a member of the Kaiser Permanente HMO, I actually asked why Kaiser will only allow their prescriptions to be sold through their own pharmacies. The pharmarcist specifically said they want to ensure that the pills being prescribed were legitimate and try to avoid as much as possible the problem that plagued a number of drug store chains in the past, namely selling prescription pills that were actually fakes.
It makes you wonder if some really smart cyberterrorist linked to al-Qaeda may have managed to figure out how to disable these undersea cables by remote control. That's why the problem appeared primarily in the Middle East.
If I remember correctly, XMPP was developed specifically end the stupid war between various instant messaging systems (remember some years ago AOL IM had its own system, Windows Messenger had its own system, and so on). Hopefully, within a few years everybody will be using XMPP so people who are on AOL IM can "talk" to people on Yahoo! Messenger and other proprietary chat clients.
I've used Google Mail (GMail) and it's actually not really that special in comparison with other online email systems except for the generous circa 2.7 GB of online storage. If they can tweak the interface of Yahoo! Mail just a bit for faster performance it could be a really good online email program.
I think because Google owns 70+ percent share of the Internet search engine market, Microsoft adding Yahoo! will pass even EU muster, though I think Microsoft may spin off a small number of Yahoo! subsidiaries to satisfy EU regulators.
Hotmail has been really bad in the past but the current version of Microsoft Live! Hotmail is actually pretty good. I think Microsoft--if they want good PR--should keep Yahoo! running as a separate subsidiary instead of integrating it into Microsoft itself
...The costs will be exorbitant because even if we activated all that "dark fiber," we still won't be be able to reach many rural areas. We're not like Japan, South Korea or much of Europe, where the sheer population density on a per square area basis makes it economically viable to wire everyone up on landline broadband despite the exorbitant initial cost.
To reach rural areas here in the USA, we have to go to a wireless solution, especially in hilly to mountainous regions. This is where new technologies such as WiMAX becomes useful to avoid the very expensive "last mile" connection issues.
I agree! The Nintendo Wii has redefined gaming consoles because the revolutionary Wiimote allows for a more realistic style of game play. The Wii Sports game that comes with the Wii demonstrates why this console is so popular.
Fact is is many who own cars won't give them up in the US, even if a good commuter transit system exists.
I have to disagree on that!! Look at Chicago's METRA and Philadelphia's SEPTA systems--ridership is good because the commuter rail lines reach places most desired by commuters. Problem is, getting right-of-way for real heavy commuter rail is expensive even if you use old railroad ROW. Light rail systems cost less on a per-mile basis to build and if you look the example of Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority in California, they've managed to build a quite substantial system that covers a large fraction of Santa Clara Valley.
...Microsoft MUST start its wide beta program within the next few months. That could indicate we may see the first wide beta release out probably around late March to early April of this year.
Fortunately, if you're a Comcast subscriber the new Tru2way standard will allow you to plug in a DVD recorder unit into a digital cable set-top box and record a show directly onto the disk. Expect products based on Tru2way to arrive the second half of 2008.
While I would agree on more use of hemp, decriminalizing marijuana is not such a good idea, given the well-known health effects of marijuana smoking.
However, using more hemp does have a cost, especially in running into the issues of agricultural use (finding arable land, getting water, fertilizing plants, warding off pests, etc.), all of which aren't cheap. I'd rather go with growing oil-laden algae (which can be done even with brackish or seawater!) if you want a potentially large, easily-processed form of biomass for diesel fuel, heating oil, kerosene and ethanol.
1) Given the extreme volatility of the Middle East--especially if Iran is edging closer to building "gunbarrel" style U235-based nuclear weapons, in spite of a number of claims to the contrary--that might not be a good idea. 2) Here's the problem: much of the world depends on the American presence for its defense. This is especially critical in Asia, where China well on its way to becoming a major military power. 3) You can forget about fiber to every home except in urban areas--we're not South Korea or Japan, where the high population density makes the idea economically practical. 4) Removing the income limit on SS/Medicare taxes would be a BAD idea, because that would encourage high-income Americans to move their income offshore--legal or not! 5) I'd offer major tax incentives to build and develop next-generation solar power arrays based on nanotechnology. However, wind farms might not be such a good idea given the big problems with NIMBYism we've run into lately, unless you want your wind farms out in the far reaches of the Great Plains (and all the attendent issues of long-range power transmission). 6) I'd fund primarily trolley systems and light rail, systems that are relatively easy to implement. Commuter passenger rail systems would only be limited to areas where railroad right-of-way already exists. Also, I'd fund larger buses for express bus service on busy corridors. 7) I'd create a commission to look into the issues of various universal health care plans, and make sure we have one that addresses the problem of health care rationing. 8) I'd be real careful about any increased regulation of any financial market--make sure you don't create something that causes more problems than it solves (e.g., too much regulation of home lending could essentially shut out too many first-time home buyers for the wrong reasons). 9) If you put a cap on APR, you will also have to tighten requirements for getting a credit card in the first place. 10) Large science projects should be collaborative projects handled by specially-created agencies. In fact, it's likely that the first human voyage to Mars could end up with collaboration of every major space agency in the world, mostly due to the extreme cost involved (we're talking something that could cost US$50 billion or more in 2008 dollars).
If you use high-bitrate AAC, MP3 or WMA format (256 kbps VBR or higher), the sound quality is actually very good, with very little difference compared to the original CD. And with many portable music players sporting 60 to 160 GB of hard disk storage, you can use lossless formats such as Apple Lossless or FLAC to get CD sound quality.
By the way, there is a low-cost method of improving CD sound quality: High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD), which can be played back on the majority of modern CD players. Full HDCD decoding is often available on many console players. I've heard HDCD-encoded discs and they usually sound really good, with surprisingly clear treble sound.
1) Because of physical contact, both the disc and record needle will wear out.
2) Setting up the record player can be an extremely finicky operation, especially in terms of levelling the player and setting up the tonearm (geometry of tonearm, geometry of cartridge mounting, tracking force and anti-skating force).
3) You have to deal with the sometimes very finicky nature of tonearm cartridges, especially moving-coil cartridges that need a special booster amp.
4) You have to deal with issues of wow and flutter, turntable rumble, warped records and off-center records.
5) You have to clean both the record and needle on a regular basis.
6) You have to deal with proper resonance isolation to keep the bass sound from interfering with proper tracking (a lot of higher-end players weight a lot for this reason).
7) The signal-to-noise ratio at best on a record is about 65-67 dB, compared to 90+ dB for a CD.
8) Because of size of LP discs, storage of large collections can be a problem unless you have lots of shelving space.
And you wonder why LP's will nowadays remain a niche product.
Question though--are they mark-sense ballots akin to the Scantron sheets used for SAT and ACT college entrance exams? If they are and the ballots are filled out by permanent-ink markers, it's very difficult to get election count fraud because mark-sense ballots can be both machine and hand-counted easily.
We'll get faster connections, but that download cap will the reason why we'll have to get our high-definition movies on Blu-ray disc or PPV viewing through satellite or cable TV for now.
I would agree with your sentiments, but many Internet Service Providers are putting in capacity limits on how much you can download per month, and that will kibosh any idea of a VC-1 or AVC encoded 1080p 48 fields/second movie.
Besides:
1997 The huge size of a an audio song encoded in either raw au or mp3 format (about 5 MB!) will make it too daunting for people to download full CD tracks
Because "Lossy" compression audio files in MP3, AAC or WMA format are still relatively small, about 7-8 MB for a four minute song in 256 kilobits per second minimum variable bit rate, once even 1.5 mbps ADSL broadband became widely available you could download near-CD quality albums easily (it made iTunes Music Store possible). Downloading a movie is quite something else, though; for example, a 45-minute episode from DL.TV encoded in low-resolution format for video iPods is nearly 200 megabytes in size!
The huge size of a two hour movie encoded in either VC-1 or AVC format (about 30 GB!) will make it too daunting for people to download full HD movies unless they have something along the line of Verizon's FIOS but at even higher speeds (maybe 70 megabits/second download speeds or higher!). Even if you live in South Korea or Japan, where 50+ mbps download speeds are available, it's still more or less an overnight download.
I agree, especially now that the Blu-ray consortium has finalized the Profile 1.1 specification for stand-alone players and Profile 2.0 specification for data network-enabled players. This will allow chipmakers to start the process of using the latest integrated circuit technology to reduce the size of the circuit board for Blu-ray players, which will dramatically cut production costs in the long run.
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Apple ships with iTunes, and most Linux distros include a media player.
They'll never do this type of fine here in the USA for the reasons you stated. Besides, given the state of Linux, connecting with a portable media player is not that easy for many newbie users.
We don't even need to go to another country to find extremely salty water where life still exists even today. I can cite two places where high-salt concentrations still harbor life, namely the former salt evaporating ponds owned by Cargill west of Fremont, CA at the south end of San Francisco Bay and the Great Salt Lake--you can find things like brine shrimp and a long list of microbes living in these waters!
Great, except for one thing: pinball machines are very expensive to maintain due to the large number of mechanical parts in a pinball machine. I've seen one taken apart and they are very close to a Rube Goldberg device in terms of mechanical complexity.
That would be true up till recently, but recent advancements in Li-On technology have pretty much solved the battery overheating issue. That now makes it possible for the next-generation Toyota Prius running on its battery pack alone to go as much as 70 km (circa 43 miles) on a full charge before the gasoline engine "assists" in extra power and charging the battery.
But what could make plug-in hybrids even MORE interesting is the availability of carbon-nanotube supercapacitor battery packs after 2012-2013 time frame, which could make it possible to extend the battery-only range to as far as 90 km (56 miles).
As a member of the Kaiser Permanente HMO, I actually asked why Kaiser will only allow their prescriptions to be sold through their own pharmacies. The pharmarcist specifically said they want to ensure that the pills being prescribed were legitimate and try to avoid as much as possible the problem that plagued a number of drug store chains in the past, namely selling prescription pills that were actually fakes.
It makes you wonder if some really smart cyberterrorist linked to al-Qaeda may have managed to figure out how to disable these undersea cables by remote control. That's why the problem appeared primarily in the Middle East.
If I remember correctly, XMPP was developed specifically end the stupid war between various instant messaging systems (remember some years ago AOL IM had its own system, Windows Messenger had its own system, and so on). Hopefully, within a few years everybody will be using XMPP so people who are on AOL IM can "talk" to people on Yahoo! Messenger and other proprietary chat clients.
I've used Google Mail (GMail) and it's actually not really that special in comparison with other online email systems except for the generous circa 2.7 GB of online storage. If they can tweak the interface of Yahoo! Mail just a bit for faster performance it could be a really good online email program.
I think because Google owns 70+ percent share of the Internet search engine market, Microsoft adding Yahoo! will pass even EU muster, though I think Microsoft may spin off a small number of Yahoo! subsidiaries to satisfy EU regulators.
Hotmail has been really bad in the past but the current version of Microsoft Live! Hotmail is actually pretty good. I think Microsoft--if they want good PR--should keep Yahoo! running as a separate subsidiary instead of integrating it into Microsoft itself
...The costs will be exorbitant because even if we activated all that "dark fiber," we still won't be be able to reach many rural areas. We're not like Japan, South Korea or much of Europe, where the sheer population density on a per square area basis makes it economically viable to wire everyone up on landline broadband despite the exorbitant initial cost.
To reach rural areas here in the USA, we have to go to a wireless solution, especially in hilly to mountainous regions. This is where new technologies such as WiMAX becomes useful to avoid the very expensive "last mile" connection issues.
I agree! The Nintendo Wii has redefined gaming consoles because the revolutionary Wiimote allows for a more realistic style of game play. The Wii Sports game that comes with the Wii demonstrates why this console is so popular.
Fact is is many who own cars won't give them up in the US, even if a good commuter transit system exists.
I have to disagree on that!! Look at Chicago's METRA and Philadelphia's SEPTA systems--ridership is good because the commuter rail lines reach places most desired by commuters. Problem is, getting right-of-way for real heavy commuter rail is expensive even if you use old railroad ROW. Light rail systems cost less on a per-mile basis to build and if you look the example of Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority in California, they've managed to build a quite substantial system that covers a large fraction of Santa Clara Valley.
...Microsoft MUST start its wide beta program within the next few months. That could indicate we may see the first wide beta release out probably around late March to early April of this year.
Fortunately, if you're a Comcast subscriber the new Tru2way standard will allow you to plug in a DVD recorder unit into a digital cable set-top box and record a show directly onto the disk. Expect products based on Tru2way to arrive the second half of 2008.
While I would agree on more use of hemp, decriminalizing marijuana is not such a good idea, given the well-known health effects of marijuana smoking.
However, using more hemp does have a cost, especially in running into the issues of agricultural use (finding arable land, getting water, fertilizing plants, warding off pests, etc.), all of which aren't cheap. I'd rather go with growing oil-laden algae (which can be done even with brackish or seawater!) if you want a potentially large, easily-processed form of biomass for diesel fuel, heating oil, kerosene and ethanol.
Comments:
1) Given the extreme volatility of the Middle East--especially if Iran is edging closer to building "gunbarrel" style U235-based nuclear weapons, in spite of a number of claims to the contrary--that might not be a good idea.
2) Here's the problem: much of the world depends on the American presence for its defense. This is especially critical in Asia, where China well on its way to becoming a major military power.
3) You can forget about fiber to every home except in urban areas--we're not South Korea or Japan, where the high population density makes the idea economically practical.
4) Removing the income limit on SS/Medicare taxes would be a BAD idea, because that would encourage high-income Americans to move their income offshore--legal or not!
5) I'd offer major tax incentives to build and develop next-generation solar power arrays based on nanotechnology. However, wind farms might not be such a good idea given the big problems with NIMBYism we've run into lately, unless you want your wind farms out in the far reaches of the Great Plains (and all the attendent issues of long-range power transmission).
6) I'd fund primarily trolley systems and light rail, systems that are relatively easy to implement. Commuter passenger rail systems would only be limited to areas where railroad right-of-way already exists. Also, I'd fund larger buses for express bus service on busy corridors.
7) I'd create a commission to look into the issues of various universal health care plans, and make sure we have one that addresses the problem of health care rationing.
8) I'd be real careful about any increased regulation of any financial market--make sure you don't create something that causes more problems than it solves (e.g., too much regulation of home lending could essentially shut out too many first-time home buyers for the wrong reasons).
9) If you put a cap on APR, you will also have to tighten requirements for getting a credit card in the first place.
10) Large science projects should be collaborative projects handled by specially-created agencies. In fact, it's likely that the first human voyage to Mars could end up with collaboration of every major space agency in the world, mostly due to the extreme cost involved (we're talking something that could cost US$50 billion or more in 2008 dollars).
Besides, portable music is the Big Thing.
If you use high-bitrate AAC, MP3 or WMA format (256 kbps VBR or higher), the sound quality is actually very good, with very little difference compared to the original CD. And with many portable music players sporting 60 to 160 GB of hard disk storage, you can use lossless formats such as Apple Lossless or FLAC to get CD sound quality.
By the way, there is a low-cost method of improving CD sound quality: High Definition Compatible Digital (HDCD), which can be played back on the majority of modern CD players. Full HDCD decoding is often available on many console players. I've heard HDCD-encoded discs and they usually sound really good, with surprisingly clear treble sound.
I think people forget these problems with LP's:
1) Because of physical contact, both the disc and record needle will wear out.
2) Setting up the record player can be an extremely finicky operation, especially in terms of levelling the player and setting up the tonearm (geometry of tonearm, geometry of cartridge mounting, tracking force and anti-skating force).
3) You have to deal with the sometimes very finicky nature of tonearm cartridges, especially moving-coil cartridges that need a special booster amp.
4) You have to deal with issues of wow and flutter, turntable rumble, warped records and off-center records.
5) You have to clean both the record and needle on a regular basis.
6) You have to deal with proper resonance isolation to keep the bass sound from interfering with proper tracking (a lot of higher-end players weight a lot for this reason).
7) The signal-to-noise ratio at best on a record is about 65-67 dB, compared to 90+ dB for a CD.
8) Because of size of LP discs, storage of large collections can be a problem unless you have lots of shelving space.
And you wonder why LP's will nowadays remain a niche product.
Question though--are they mark-sense ballots akin to the Scantron sheets used for SAT and ACT college entrance exams? If they are and the ballots are filled out by permanent-ink markers, it's very difficult to get election count fraud because mark-sense ballots can be both machine and hand-counted easily.
We'll get faster connections, but that download cap will the reason why we'll have to get our high-definition movies on Blu-ray disc or PPV viewing through satellite or cable TV for now.
I would agree with your sentiments, but many Internet Service Providers are putting in capacity limits on how much you can download per month, and that will kibosh any idea of a VC-1 or AVC encoded 1080p 48 fields/second movie.
Besides:
1997
The huge size of a an audio song encoded in either raw au or mp3 format (about 5 MB!) will make it too daunting for people to download full CD tracks
Because "Lossy" compression audio files in MP3, AAC or WMA format are still relatively small, about 7-8 MB for a four minute song in 256 kilobits per second minimum variable bit rate, once even 1.5 mbps ADSL broadband became widely available you could download near-CD quality albums easily (it made iTunes Music Store possible). Downloading a movie is quite something else, though; for example, a 45-minute episode from DL.TV encoded in low-resolution format for video iPods is nearly 200 megabytes in size!
The huge size of a two hour movie encoded in either VC-1 or AVC format (about 30 GB!) will make it too daunting for people to download full HD movies unless they have something along the line of Verizon's FIOS but at even higher speeds (maybe 70 megabits/second download speeds or higher!). Even if you live in South Korea or Japan, where 50+ mbps download speeds are available, it's still more or less an overnight download.
I agree, especially now that the Blu-ray consortium has finalized the Profile 1.1 specification for stand-alone players and Profile 2.0 specification for data network-enabled players. This will allow chipmakers to start the process of using the latest integrated circuit technology to reduce the size of the circuit board for Blu-ray players, which will dramatically cut production costs in the long run.