Re:A real boom for this reason:
on
The New Boom
·
· Score: 1
One of the big problems that held back land line-based broadband was either the enormous cost of hardwiring cable TV connections to every household (necessary for cable broadband) or the fact DSL didn't work beyond 12,000 from the telephone central switching office. However, with more and more residential communities getting cable TV and new technologies like DSLAM that tremendously expand the reach of DSL beyond the 12,000 feet limit from the central switching office has allowed a huge growth in broadband usage, especially in the past 3-4 years.
With broadband, the online multimedia experience gets tremendously richer, and complex sites that need quick access such as eBay actually become easy to use.
A real boom for this reason:
on
The New Boom
·
· Score: 1
Technology has finally caught up to what the Internet promised.
This is especially true for broadband access. With prices of ADSL dropping, cable modem access getting faster and faster, more and more people getting access to land line-based broadband, and soon the USA getting wireless broadband technologies of various types, the promise of the Internet is finally being fulfilled. Indeed, Apple's iTunes Music Store would not have been possible without widespread broadband availability.
Except for one thing: most paid-download music sites already use the Windows Media Audio format. And most non-Apple portable music players support DRM-protected.WMA files, too.
Google will have to either 1) support Apple's DRM-protected AAC format, 2) support Microsoft's DRM-protected WMA format, or 3) create its own DRM-protected format and convince portable music player makers to support Google's own format.
We do know that the Earth's climate has undergone some pretty wild swings in temperature by looking at the fossil record. I believe that just after the dinosaurs finally became extinct there was a period of very high temperatures, which led to an explosion of life all over the planet during that time.
In fact, a likely far better barometer of the Earth's climate is to look at sunspot level in the last 400 years. We do know that for nearly 100 years spanning the 17th and 18th Centuries there were NO reports of sunspots, which almost perfectly coincided with the "Little Ice Age" that caused very low winter temperatures in Europe (the Thames River through London froze over in the winter almost regularly).
I think what will happen is that as the technology to grow oil-bearing algae matures, we will get our oil-based products from the processing of these algae (e.g., diesel fuel, heating oil, kerosene, and possibly gasoline, with the "waster product" processed further into animal feed and ethanol fuel). Several companies are seriously looking at this process and the switchover to algae-based oil products could start happening by early the next decade.
Re:Disney died when they fired Roy
on
Disney Buys Pixar
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
However, this merger sounds like that Roy Disney is backing Steve Jobs to get it done.
Unlike Michael Eisner (who seemed to have alienated most everybody at Disney), Robert Iger--who has far better relations with Roy Disney--wants to mend fences to save the company, and if that includes a merger with Pixar, so be it.
This merger could put John Lasseter in overall charge of all Disney animation divisions, and that could set the stage for a major revival of Disney animated features and TV shows.
John Lasseter saves Disney Animation.
on
Disney Buys Pixar
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I think what will happen is that we will see John Lasseter take overall control of all Disney animation divisions.
This is actually a GREAT idea, because the hallmark of Pixar is the great storytelling of their movies. Lasseter could even help Disney revive traditional animation at Disney, too.
I think people forget that unlike Michael Eisner, Robert Iger tries to be as much hands off as possible, letting each Disney division run by their own managers. This means Mr. Lasseter will have free reign to rebuild Disney's animation tradition. (big thumbs up)
This is what Richard C. Hoagland--despite the fact I think most of his theories are bunk--has legitimately asked the question in regards to the dust captured by the Stardust mission.
Imagine what would have happened if the parachute failed to deploy and Stardust crashed at 300-400 mph into the Utah desert--it could have spill its contents and the potential of an scary scenario out of The Andromeda Strain could end up being frightening reality.
This seems to have little to do with any anti-piracy efforts from the record labels and much more to do with the wide-spread availability of legal markets for digital music for the first time.
What has changed the entire equation is the enormous success of Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store working in conjunction with the iTunes program. By pricing singles at 99 cents US per song and US$9.90 per album, this has actually benefited a lot of artists because not only does this cut down on music piracy, but it has actually provided a decent revenue stream for a lot of lesser-known artists.
The speed of most newer computers is so ridiculously fast compared to just a couple of years ago that the processor just doesn't matter to the average PC buyer. Most people want to read their email, surf the web and store their digital photos.
That's true if you're running mostly business apps or surfing the Internet. But with people editing multimedia files downloaded from digital still cameras and/or MiniDV/MicroDV camcorders, such file editing does require quite a lot of CPU power. For example, if you want to do things like color, brightness and contrast adjustments, not to mention removing things like scratches and dust from old images scanned into the computer using a program like Paint Shop Pro, you definitely want a faster computer because these image-editing programs do use a lot of CPU time to process the image.
I think what has made AMD such a competitor is that ever since they rolled out the original Athlon CPU in 1999 with its far more modern CPU core design than its Intel competitors, AMD has demonstrated that you don't need ridiculous clock speeds to get superior performance.
It's more a case of an efficient CPU core, more efficient access to L1 and L2 on-die cache memory, and now on-die memory controller that has given AMD CPU's major performance leaps. For example, my home computer runs an AMD Thunderbird-core Athlon CPU running at 1.4 GHz; it will handily beat out the final generation of Intel Pentium III's running at the same clock speed, and in fact even compares very well with the early generations of the Intel Pentium 4 CPU's.
Only one thing though: we have no record of Franklin fathering any illegitimate children while he was in France. And the letters between him and his female friends in France show that he not likely engaged in any serious sexual activity, unlike the early days when Franklin admitted in his own writings that he frequented prostitutes quite a lot (which explains why he fathered an illegitimate son).
What I find interesting is that unlike the younger person (who was definitely a philanderer and fathered a son out of wedlock), the older Ben Franklin never really engaged in sexual relationships with women. We know this from the letters he wrote during his time in France during the Revolutionary War.
One of the big advantages of biodiesel fuel is that it burns far more cleanly than regular petroleum-based diesel.
For one thing, you don't have diesel particulates from a diesel engine running biodiesel fuel, which contributes to far lower harmful exhaust emissions. Also, biodiesel probably doesn't have the high level of sulfur compounds found in petroleum-based diesel fuel; that means longer life for every component in the exhaust system.
Actually, today's dual-layer DVD recorder computer drives can play everything except Blu-Ray/HD-DVD discs, depending on the software you have running.:-)
Currently, no non-CRT RPTV supports 1080p input through HDMI.:-( But I expect those to arrive within the next year or so, which will allow Blu-Ray players to run full 1080p resolution (which nothing short of breathtaking if you've seen it).
But the biggest thing in Blu-Ray's favor is the huge amount of industry support on both hardware and software side. Just look at who is supporting Blu-Ray technology on the hardware side:
Hitachi LG Electronics Mitsubishi Panasonic Pioneer Samsung Sony
...And that's pretty much most of the best-known non-CRT RPTV manufacturers.
One the software side, the support of:
20th Century Fox Walt Disney Company Warner Home Video
...Means access to three truly massive libraries of films and TV shows that can be released on Blu-Ray format. For example, this could mean eventual release of all six Star Wars films and the three Lord of the Rings movies in Blu-Ray format (who wouldn't want to see these movies at 1920x1080p resolution?).
2. Blu-Ray's native resolution in 1920x1080 progressive scan, with players currently capable of 720p/1080i video output through HDMI now and 1080p output through HDMI within the next year of so.
Until there is a combo hd-dvd/blu-ray player, they can take their discs and go pound salt.
You might get your wish sooner than you think. I've heard both Plextor and Samsung are working on such drive mechanisms and we could see them by the end of Summer 2006.
Because Blu-Ray and HD-DVD media can use the same drive trays, I expect by the end of 2006 to see a player that supports both formats; it won't be cheap (my guess is about US$850-US$900) but not having to choose between formats is great.
I think an important thing nowadays is that with third party authorities like the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the USA and the European New Car Assessment Programme authorities in Europe doing safety testing, even small cars are getting substantially safer than before.
Take for example the very small Renault Modus now on sale in Europe. Because the Modus was subject to EuroNCAP crash test certification, the car is actually quite safe and would probably do well in IIHS crash tests, which include offset frontal crash and side impact crash from an object simulating a SUV or light truck.
I do know that the current Honda Civic sedan has gotten a Gold certification from the IIHS, which would be the equivalent of getting almost all five-star crash ratings test from the EuroNCAP authorities; this is proof that Honda has done its homework in building small cars that does an excellent job in protecting its occupants.
The cost of the tanks will very likely render this uneconomical.
I disgree. We're not talking the need for massive-sized tanks like those used at oil refineries to store petroleum products. The tanks for oil-yielding algae production would be about the size of tanks already in use by the commercial beer-brewing industry.
There are already serious research into producing certain types of algae in special vertical tanks that could refined into motor fuels (biodiesel and possibly kerosene). Because these algae are a true renewable resource just as long as they're fed water (including possibly seawater) and carbon monoxide, we could put up such production facilities almost anywhere on Earth.
A big benefit of refining these oil-yielding algae into biodiesel fuel and kerosene is that the "waste" from the refining can be processed further into either animal feed, plant fertilizer or even into ethanol fuel! That right there solves a lot of problems with feeding farm animals and fertilizing crops, and ethanol produced is enough to tremendously extend the availability of fuel for gasoline-powered engines (since most gasoline-powered engines can be simply modified to run as high as 50% gasoline/50% ethanol mixes).
However, with large-scale production of algae that could produce substitutes for many petroleum products, that could change a lot of things.
Imagine hundreds--if not thousands--of these production facilities all over the USA. They will grow the special algae in special vertical tanks, which means the production facilities won't impinge on valuable arable farmland. These algae could be refined into biodiesel fuel and possibly kerosene fuel, which means a potentially unlimited source of fuel for motor vehicles and jet-powered airplanes. A very nice benefit is that the "waste" from this refining can be processed further into animal feed, plant fertilizer or ethanol fuel for motor vehicles!:-)
In short, science has outrun the fear-mongers again.
Not necessarily. Recent articles in a number of magazines mentioned that if we do make biodiesel fuel on a large scale it will be done using certain types of oil-yielding algae in special vertical tanks that won't impinge on valuable arable farmland. The benefits of such production is that not only do you get biodiesel fuel, but the waste from the processing can be processed further into animal feed and/or ethanol fuel!:-)
Imagine hundreds--perhaps thousands--of these biodiesel production facilities all over the USA. We will end up with a massive source of biodiesel fuel that--because its production is distributed all over the USA--won't be affected by weather disasters like what happened last year when hurricanes Katrina and Rita severely damaged oil production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.
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One of the big problems that held back land line-based broadband was either the enormous cost of hardwiring cable TV connections to every household (necessary for cable broadband) or the fact DSL didn't work beyond 12,000 from the telephone central switching office. However, with more and more residential communities getting cable TV and new technologies like DSLAM that tremendously expand the reach of DSL beyond the 12,000 feet limit from the central switching office has allowed a huge growth in broadband usage, especially in the past 3-4 years.
With broadband, the online multimedia experience gets tremendously richer, and complex sites that need quick access such as eBay actually become easy to use.
Technology has finally caught up to what the Internet promised.
This is especially true for broadband access. With prices of ADSL dropping, cable modem access getting faster and faster, more and more people getting access to land line-based broadband, and soon the USA getting wireless broadband technologies of various types, the promise of the Internet is finally being fulfilled. Indeed, Apple's iTunes Music Store would not have been possible without widespread broadband availability.
Except for one thing: most paid-download music sites already use the Windows Media Audio format. And most non-Apple portable music players support DRM-protected .WMA files, too.
Google will have to either 1) support Apple's DRM-protected AAC format, 2) support Microsoft's DRM-protected WMA format, or 3) create its own DRM-protected format and convince portable music player makers to support Google's own format.
We do know that the Earth's climate has undergone some pretty wild swings in temperature by looking at the fossil record. I believe that just after the dinosaurs finally became extinct there was a period of very high temperatures, which led to an explosion of life all over the planet during that time.
In fact, a likely far better barometer of the Earth's climate is to look at sunspot level in the last 400 years. We do know that for nearly 100 years spanning the 17th and 18th Centuries there were NO reports of sunspots, which almost perfectly coincided with the "Little Ice Age" that caused very low winter temperatures in Europe (the Thames River through London froze over in the winter almost regularly).
I think what will happen is that as the technology to grow oil-bearing algae matures, we will get our oil-based products from the processing of these algae (e.g., diesel fuel, heating oil, kerosene, and possibly gasoline, with the "waster product" processed further into animal feed and ethanol fuel). Several companies are seriously looking at this process and the switchover to algae-based oil products could start happening by early the next decade.
However, this merger sounds like that Roy Disney is backing Steve Jobs to get it done.
Unlike Michael Eisner (who seemed to have alienated most everybody at Disney), Robert Iger--who has far better relations with Roy Disney--wants to mend fences to save the company, and if that includes a merger with Pixar, so be it.
This merger could put John Lasseter in overall charge of all Disney animation divisions, and that could set the stage for a major revival of Disney animated features and TV shows.
I think what will happen is that we will see John Lasseter take overall control of all Disney animation divisions.
This is actually a GREAT idea, because the hallmark of Pixar is the great storytelling of their movies. Lasseter could even help Disney revive traditional animation at Disney, too.
I think people forget that unlike Michael Eisner, Robert Iger tries to be as much hands off as possible, letting each Disney division run by their own managers. This means Mr. Lasseter will have free reign to rebuild Disney's animation tradition. (big thumbs up)
This is what Richard C. Hoagland--despite the fact I think most of his theories are bunk--has legitimately asked the question in regards to the dust captured by the Stardust mission.
Imagine what would have happened if the parachute failed to deploy and Stardust crashed at 300-400 mph into the Utah desert--it could have spill its contents and the potential of an scary scenario out of The Andromeda Strain could end up being frightening reality.
This seems to have little to do with any anti-piracy efforts from the record labels and much more to do with the wide-spread availability of legal markets for digital music for the first time.
What has changed the entire equation is the enormous success of Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store working in conjunction with the iTunes program. By pricing singles at 99 cents US per song and US$9.90 per album, this has actually benefited a lot of artists because not only does this cut down on music piracy, but it has actually provided a decent revenue stream for a lot of lesser-known artists.
The speed of most newer computers is so ridiculously fast compared to just a couple of years ago that the processor just doesn't matter to the average PC buyer. Most people want to read their email, surf the web and store their digital photos.
That's true if you're running mostly business apps or surfing the Internet. But with people editing multimedia files downloaded from digital still cameras and/or MiniDV/MicroDV camcorders, such file editing does require quite a lot of CPU power. For example, if you want to do things like color, brightness and contrast adjustments, not to mention removing things like scratches and dust from old images scanned into the computer using a program like Paint Shop Pro, you definitely want a faster computer because these image-editing programs do use a lot of CPU time to process the image.
I think what has made AMD such a competitor is that ever since they rolled out the original Athlon CPU in 1999 with its far more modern CPU core design than its Intel competitors, AMD has demonstrated that you don't need ridiculous clock speeds to get superior performance.
It's more a case of an efficient CPU core, more efficient access to L1 and L2 on-die cache memory, and now on-die memory controller that has given AMD CPU's major performance leaps. For example, my home computer runs an AMD Thunderbird-core Athlon CPU running at 1.4 GHz; it will handily beat out the final generation of Intel Pentium III's running at the same clock speed, and in fact even compares very well with the early generations of the Intel Pentium 4 CPU's.
Only one thing though: we have no record of Franklin fathering any illegitimate children while he was in France. And the letters between him and his female friends in France show that he not likely engaged in any serious sexual activity, unlike the early days when Franklin admitted in his own writings that he frequented prostitutes quite a lot (which explains why he fathered an illegitimate son).
What I find interesting is that unlike the younger person (who was definitely a philanderer and fathered a son out of wedlock), the older Ben Franklin never really engaged in sexual relationships with women. We know this from the letters he wrote during his time in France during the Revolutionary War.
One of the big advantages of biodiesel fuel is that it burns far more cleanly than regular petroleum-based diesel.
For one thing, you don't have diesel particulates from a diesel engine running biodiesel fuel, which contributes to far lower harmful exhaust emissions. Also, biodiesel probably doesn't have the high level of sulfur compounds found in petroleum-based diesel fuel; that means longer life for every component in the exhaust system.
Actually, today's dual-layer DVD recorder computer drives can play everything except Blu-Ray/HD-DVD discs, depending on the software you have running. :-)
But the biggest thing in Blu-Ray's favor is the huge amount of industry support on both hardware and software side. Just look at who is supporting Blu-Ray technology on the hardware side:
Hitachi
LG Electronics
Mitsubishi
Panasonic
Pioneer
Samsung
Sony
One the software side, the support of:
20th Century Fox
Walt Disney Company
Warner Home Video
I think Blu-Ray will win the end for two reasons:
1. Most of the Hollywood studios back Blu-Ray.
2. Blu-Ray's native resolution in 1920x1080 progressive scan, with players currently capable of 720p/1080i video output through HDMI now and 1080p output through HDMI within the next year of so.
Until there is a combo hd-dvd/blu-ray player, they can take their discs and go pound salt.
You might get your wish sooner than you think. I've heard both Plextor and Samsung are working on such drive mechanisms and we could see them by the end of Summer 2006.
Because Blu-Ray and HD-DVD media can use the same drive trays, I expect by the end of 2006 to see a player that supports both formats; it won't be cheap (my guess is about US$850-US$900) but not having to choose between formats is great.
I think an important thing nowadays is that with third party authorities like the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the USA and the European New Car Assessment Programme authorities in Europe doing safety testing, even small cars are getting substantially safer than before.
Take for example the very small Renault Modus now on sale in Europe. Because the Modus was subject to EuroNCAP crash test certification, the car is actually quite safe and would probably do well in IIHS crash tests, which include offset frontal crash and side impact crash from an object simulating a SUV or light truck.
I do know that the current Honda Civic sedan has gotten a Gold certification from the IIHS, which would be the equivalent of getting almost all five-star crash ratings test from the EuroNCAP authorities; this is proof that Honda has done its homework in building small cars that does an excellent job in protecting its occupants.
The cost of the tanks will very likely render this uneconomical.
I disgree. We're not talking the need for massive-sized tanks like those used at oil refineries to store petroleum products. The tanks for oil-yielding algae production would be about the size of tanks already in use by the commercial beer-brewing industry.
Don't laugh.
There are already serious research into producing certain types of algae in special vertical tanks that could refined into motor fuels (biodiesel and possibly kerosene). Because these algae are a true renewable resource just as long as they're fed water (including possibly seawater) and carbon monoxide, we could put up such production facilities almost anywhere on Earth.
A big benefit of refining these oil-yielding algae into biodiesel fuel and kerosene is that the "waste" from the refining can be processed further into either animal feed, plant fertilizer or even into ethanol fuel! That right there solves a lot of problems with feeding farm animals and fertilizing crops, and ethanol produced is enough to tremendously extend the availability of fuel for gasoline-powered engines (since most gasoline-powered engines can be simply modified to run as high as 50% gasoline/50% ethanol mixes).
However, with large-scale production of algae that could produce substitutes for many petroleum products, that could change a lot of things.
:-)
Imagine hundreds--if not thousands--of these production facilities all over the USA. They will grow the special algae in special vertical tanks, which means the production facilities won't impinge on valuable arable farmland. These algae could be refined into biodiesel fuel and possibly kerosene fuel, which means a potentially unlimited source of fuel for motor vehicles and jet-powered airplanes. A very nice benefit is that the "waste" from this refining can be processed further into animal feed, plant fertilizer or ethanol fuel for motor vehicles!
In short, science has outrun the fear-mongers again.
Not necessarily. Recent articles in a number of magazines mentioned that if we do make biodiesel fuel on a large scale it will be done using certain types of oil-yielding algae in special vertical tanks that won't impinge on valuable arable farmland. The benefits of such production is that not only do you get biodiesel fuel, but the waste from the processing can be processed further into animal feed and/or ethanol fuel! :-)
Imagine hundreds--perhaps thousands--of these biodiesel production facilities all over the USA. We will end up with a massive source of biodiesel fuel that--because its production is distributed all over the USA--won't be affected by weather disasters like what happened last year when hurricanes Katrina and Rita severely damaged oil production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.
Remember, there are over 44,000 sales tax jurisdictions on all 50 states, and betweeen:
1. Trying to figure out where the buyer is located to get the exact right sales tax level.
2. Trying to disperse the sales tax revenue back to the local jurisdiction.