I think the concerns about the HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray formats may be true in the past, but now that TDK has developed a new, nearly-scratchproof plastic for optical discs, when Blu-Ray arrives in the USA in 2006 they won't need the disk caddy protection that Blu-Ray discs sold in Japan need now.
As such, since both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray can use essentially an improved variant of the DVD+/-R drive mechanism, who's to say that by the end of 2006 a company like Plextor would offer a combo drive that supports both formats using ATA-100 or Serial ATA interfaces? That would mean by 2007 we would see console players from a number of companies that play back either format, meaning there is no real advantage to either format.
DRM primarily for HD-DVD/Blu-Ray players.
on
CNET's HDTV World
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· Score: 1
I think the issue with DRM primarily applies for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray high-definition DVD formats, where (for obvious reasons) copy protection is mandatory.
As such, when you get the new 1920x1080 progressive scan rear-projection TV's, make sure they have HDMI inputs (which support DRM controls), because I expect that's how HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players will connect to TV's at full resolution.
The reason is simple: the arrival of 1080p rear-projection TV's (and soon front digital projectors) that sport 1920x1080 resolution (you can get them from Samsung NOW and soon from Sony) and the impending arrival of HD-DVD/Blu-Ray high-definition DVD's that take advantage of 1080p resolution.
Once that combination becomes widely available by middle to late 2006, you'll get picture quality on home TV's that--while it might not have the absolute resolution of film--will have consistently good brightess, consistently good sharpness, and excellent color quality. 1920x1080 is essentially the same resolution used on digital cameras used for theatrical movies; that means movies like Star Wars Episodes II and III will look at home pretty much exactly what George Lucas saw in the final theatrical digital master.
Now you know why Hollywood is nervous--the last reason for why you want to see a movie in a theater is gone.
However, the arrival of 1920x1080 progressive-scan rear-projection TV's this Fall and the impending arrival of HD-DVD/Blu-Ray high-definition DVD's that take advantage of 1920x1080 progressive-scan resolution will pretty much erase the picture quality advantage of large screening rooms. After all, 1920x1080p is the same resolution used for digitally-recorded theatrical movies such as Star Wars Episodes II and III.
Given all the hassles of watching a movie in a theater (high ticket prices, high concession prices, subpar picture and sound quality in most projection rooms, and just way too many rude moviegoers), small wonder why Hollywood is dreading the 1080p RPTV/high-definition DVD combo for home use.
I would like to see Apple incorporate an AM/FM tuner into future iPod models.
The reason is simple: a lot of people listen to radio stations while going on jogs, walks or bicycle rides using radio-only portable devices. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple does offer radio tuner capability for the iPod within 18 months.
Because very few people know how the exploit actually works, I don't think we'll see a security issue in the very near future.
If you have Automatic Updates running in Windows XP (which the Security Center in Windows XP wants you to do), once Microsoft releases the IE patch it will be automatically installed on your system (or at least notified automatically of the update).
I expect the patch to be ready probably with the next week or so, since Microsoft takes browser security very seriously nowadays; the company has a number of times released new security patches outside of their normal second Tuesday of every month release dates if the security issue is a serious one.
I can understand your concerns but the Mars Society (which has a lot of space engineers as part of this interest group) has been studying the very issues of how to get humans to Mars safely and living on that planet for a year or more in a single spacecraft.
Thanks to advances in very small (and very safe!) pebble-bed nuclear reactor technology in the last 20 years, with a concerted multinational effort we could build a spacecraft powered by descendants of the NERVA nuclear rocket engine tested during the 1960's to early 1970's. Because such engines run at very low power for long periods of time that will eventually mean extraordinarily fast transit times between Earth and Mars; under the right conditions the travel time will be no more than six weeks, vastly shorter than the 6-9 months more normal means of transit require. With only six weeks transit time, it also means a vastly less expensive design for crew habitation, since we no longer have to factor in the needs of the astronaut crew for a 6-9 month trip.
Once on Mars, the lander will likely sport a small pebble-bed nuclear reactor to provide power--probably enough not only to power the lander's crew habitation module but also provide power to extract liquid water from beneath the surface of Mars.
If we take Mars Society founder Robert Zubrin's Mars Direct ideal and combine it with a nuclear rocket engine, we could see such a mission done as early as 2020.
As an MX500 user myself, what I do is use a twist-tie and tie up a length of cable on the mouse to reduce wire tangling. The majority of users don't NEED the full length of the mouse cable anyway.
I saw the press release from Logitech over this mouse and frankly, the feature bloat borders on overkill, to say the least.
I mean, the Logitech MX5xx series mouse pointer (I use an MX500) already has the screen navigation capability that covers most users, and its tracking accuracy is good enough for every user except very hard-core gamers. I don't think most users want to have new email warning and IM chat control capabilities built into the mouse pointer itself, though I do agree that the power control features are useful given the new mouse pointer is a coreless mouse.
...It still does not support paid-subscription Podcasting.:-(
There are a lot of people that want to be download radio talk shows produced by Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks using iTunes' Podcast support feature instead of the custom software provided by Premiere Radio Networks. I wouldn't be surprised that before the end of this year there will be an update to iTunes 5 that will support paid subscription Podcast downloads, which could open the door for a lot of radio shows to be downloaded via iTunes to your computer. After, if iTunes supports paid download of music, why not paid download of radio shows in Podcast format?
Actually not. Remember, Windows NT 3.5x and 4.0 versions did support the full functionality of the Pentium Pro in true WIN32 API mode, so the Pentium Pro wasn't really a complete failure (it was the choice for server machines for quite a while).
Besides, the Pentium Pro CPU core design became the basis for the Pentium II, Pentium III and Celeron CPU's.
I think the best solution is to essentially start imposing excise taxes on automobiles based on physical size and engine displacement like they do in Europe and Japan.
As such, this will quickly encourage people to buy far more economical cars. Fortunately, thanks to modern automotive technology today's B-segment (as it's known in Europe) small cars are no longer death traps with no power, thanks to better engine technology and the European New Car Assessment Programme (EuroNCAP) crash test certifications. Take for example the Honda Fit/Jazz five door hatchback, a model sold in most of the world (and coming to the USA and Canada Spring 2006); the Fit/Jazz sports an amazing amount of interior space for such a physically small car, yet has very good passenger safety protection, decent protection for pedestrians in case of frontal impact, excellent fuel economy with the i-DSI 1.4-liter engine and good performance with very good fuel economy with the VTEC 1.5-liter engine. This explains why the Fit became Japan's #1 selling car recently and why the Jazz (Fit's name in Europe) became very popular with European drivers. When the Fit arrives in the USA next spring, I expect very strong sales, especially when the four-door sedan version arrives (probably in early calendar year 2007).
I think the biggest reason why DVD's succeeded was the fact DVD discs could use improved versions of the same optical drive mechanisms used by Compact Disc and CD-ROM drives, which meant tremendous economies of scale.
Because Blu-Ray discs when they finally reach the US market in Spring 2006 will essentially use an improved version of current DVD optical drive mechanisms, that means backward compatibility, a major issue for many users of the latest technology.
...Mostly because 1) we will soon see a new generation of Blu-Ray media that doesn't need a caddy to protect the disc itself and 2) Blu-Ray's higher storage capacity in recordable form is highly-desirable for computer users who manipulate a lot of multimedia data (large-sized digital still images and full-motion video in digital format).
By the way, in many ways the whole Dolby Digital versus DTS arguement is kind of moot, mostly because if properly mastered Dolby Digital sounds just as good as DTS (ever hear the sound quality from the Star Wars prequel DVD's?).
Having using Maxthon since version 1.14 (they're now up to Version 1.3.3), I actually really like this program, mostly because they include a lot of stuff in the program such as the very nice AD Hunter function that blocks most popups, popunders, Flash animation ads, many online ads in general and even ActiveX objects! Since running Maxthon I've had very little (if any) spyware/adware loaded on my system.:-) Also, Maxthon includes mouse gestures, which makes even a cheap two-button plus scroll wheel mouse very useful in web page navigation.
If you've seen the Internet Explorer 7.0 betas it appears Microsoft pinched a lot of ideas from Maxthon, that's to be sure.
Excuse me, but thanks to modern communications technology, the President can easily contact anyone in the world from anywhere in the world, which means he can have what amounts to a full function White House anywhere he goes. During President Bush's stay at his ranch near Crawford, TX, I'm sure the White House Communications Office moved in a full communications suite that can do everything from calling ordinary people on landline links to full command of the military in event of nuclear attack. Besides, I'm sure that they parked both Air Force One (VC-25A) and the National Airborne Operations Center (E-4B) planes as close to Crawford, TX as possible for use for any contingency.
Maybe this might be the very chance to maybe do what could be the greatest engineering project of the 21st Century: replace New Orleans and carve out a new, safer outlet for the Mississippi River.
It could be breathtakingly expensive (maybe as much as US$3 trillion in 2005 dollars), but it may be worth it if not only do we get a city that will be far less flood-prone to both the rising Mississippi Rive and the the occasional hurricane, but also a completely new, state-of-the-art shipping port that could be the biggest and most advanced in the world.
You folks can mod me down as Troll and Flamebait all you want, but frankly, a large number of Americans are sick and tired of the blatantly Leftist views coming from prominent people in the movie industry. As such, many American moviegoers are doing a de facto boycott of movies, probably a good reason why movie attendence is substantially down this year.
I blame the whole schism between the movie industry and many Americans on the blantantly political "documentary" (a word I use highly advisedly) Fahrenheit 9/11. Strongly supported by most of the movie industry and Democratic Party politicians, the movie invokes the type of fact manipulation that would have done the producers of films like Triumph of the Will and Der Ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew) proud, to say the least. Also, look at how Mel Gibson got denounced by the movie industry for producing The Passion of the Christ; yet despite all the denounciations, this movie made an amazing US$600 million worldwide in first-run theatrical release, even more amazing considering that the total production and marketing costs was around US$50 million!
In short, I think the movie industry need to stop making political statements in public so often (and interjecting a lot of it into the plot of the movie itself). They already lost a good number of moviegoers due to this trend, and pretty soon the movie industry will wonder why a lot of movies aren't making money in US theatrical release anymore.
I think you forget that Scaled Composites did a lot of the research and engineering work for the McDonnell-Douglas Delta Clipper and Lockheed-Martin VentureStar programs.
While of course these projects were not completely successful, it did teach Scaled Composites a lot about spacecraft design; I think Burt Rutan's company has the engineering knowledge to eventually build their own private spacecraft that could reach even the International Space Station at substantially less cost than the proposed Kliper spacecraft that the Russians and Europeans will jointly develop.
What I find interesting about Windows 95...
on
Windows 95 Turns 10
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· Score: 2, Interesting
...is the fact the basic interface design pioneered by that OS has not really changed dramatically even with the release of Windows XP. After all, Windows XP's Luna interface has the majority of the look and feel of Windows 95, especially the Taskbar with its Start button on the left side, a tray area showing all active programs, and a right side area showing a list of running accillary programs.
This is why everyone will be very interested in seeing how Windows Vista runs, because I think Microsoft will come up with a totally new look and feel for Windows XP's successor.
I bet that within two years we'll have drives that can read/write both HD-DVD and Blu-ray.
I say earlier than that! Given how fast optical drive technology has advanced in the last few years a combo HD-DVD/Blu-Ray reader drive that uses either ATA-100 or Serial ATA interfaces could be out as early as late 2006, with recorder drives coming out soon afterwards.
Why so early? Mostly because both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs can use the same drive tray system used by CD recorders and DVD+R/DVD-R recorders. It's only a matter of incorporating the right electronics and proper laser unit for the whole scheme to work.
...Before Google does use the Gecko rendering engine developed by the Mozilla Foundation and turn GDS into a full-blown web browser. They are almost there doing one with GDS 2.0 anyway.
nVidia-based graphics cards are quite good nowadays but do be aware that a lot of the newer cards do not support AGP 4x (e.g., 1.5V AGP) ports. You want to be very careful about this, especially if you install nVidia-based graphics cards on older systems.
I also think VESA is doing this so they could support 1920x1200 resolution video running in non-interlaced mode easier. I believe that 1080-line progressive-scan 16:9 aspect ratio HDTV has this resolution (though someone here please correct me on this if necessary).
This is the real future of the car. Millions and millions of loud, junky, polluting, giant stupid and ugly half-broken SUVs. All driven by guys with no money and serious attitude problems.
Not necessarily. You forget we could institute automobile recycling/salvaging programs that could take all those fuel-inefficient SUV's and recover all the scrap metal, glass, etc. and use those recovered materials to build new, more fuel efficient cars. Why do you think in much of Europe there are laws in regards to recycling parts from automobiles?
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I think the concerns about the HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray formats may be true in the past, but now that TDK has developed a new, nearly-scratchproof plastic for optical discs, when Blu-Ray arrives in the USA in 2006 they won't need the disk caddy protection that Blu-Ray discs sold in Japan need now.
As such, since both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray can use essentially an improved variant of the DVD+/-R drive mechanism, who's to say that by the end of 2006 a company like Plextor would offer a combo drive that supports both formats using ATA-100 or Serial ATA interfaces? That would mean by 2007 we would see console players from a number of companies that play back either format, meaning there is no real advantage to either format.
I think the issue with DRM primarily applies for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray high-definition DVD formats, where (for obvious reasons) copy protection is mandatory.
As such, when you get the new 1920x1080 progressive scan rear-projection TV's, make sure they have HDMI inputs (which support DRM controls), because I expect that's how HD-DVD and Blu-Ray players will connect to TV's at full resolution.
The reason is simple: the arrival of 1080p rear-projection TV's (and soon front digital projectors) that sport 1920x1080 resolution (you can get them from Samsung NOW and soon from Sony) and the impending arrival of HD-DVD/Blu-Ray high-definition DVD's that take advantage of 1080p resolution.
Once that combination becomes widely available by middle to late 2006, you'll get picture quality on home TV's that--while it might not have the absolute resolution of film--will have consistently good brightess, consistently good sharpness, and excellent color quality. 1920x1080 is essentially the same resolution used on digital cameras used for theatrical movies; that means movies like Star Wars Episodes II and III will look at home pretty much exactly what George Lucas saw in the final theatrical digital master.
Now you know why Hollywood is nervous--the last reason for why you want to see a movie in a theater is gone.
However, the arrival of 1920x1080 progressive-scan rear-projection TV's this Fall and the impending arrival of HD-DVD/Blu-Ray high-definition DVD's that take advantage of 1920x1080 progressive-scan resolution will pretty much erase the picture quality advantage of large screening rooms. After all, 1920x1080p is the same resolution used for digitally-recorded theatrical movies such as Star Wars Episodes II and III.
Given all the hassles of watching a movie in a theater (high ticket prices, high concession prices, subpar picture and sound quality in most projection rooms, and just way too many rude moviegoers), small wonder why Hollywood is dreading the 1080p RPTV/high-definition DVD combo for home use.
I would like to see Apple incorporate an AM/FM tuner into future iPod models.
The reason is simple: a lot of people listen to radio stations while going on jogs, walks or bicycle rides using radio-only portable devices. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple does offer radio tuner capability for the iPod within 18 months.
Because very few people know how the exploit actually works, I don't think we'll see a security issue in the very near future.
If you have Automatic Updates running in Windows XP (which the Security Center in Windows XP wants you to do), once Microsoft releases the IE patch it will be automatically installed on your system (or at least notified automatically of the update).
I expect the patch to be ready probably with the next week or so, since Microsoft takes browser security very seriously nowadays; the company has a number of times released new security patches outside of their normal second Tuesday of every month release dates if the security issue is a serious one.
I can understand your concerns but the Mars Society (which has a lot of space engineers as part of this interest group) has been studying the very issues of how to get humans to Mars safely and living on that planet for a year or more in a single spacecraft.
Thanks to advances in very small (and very safe!) pebble-bed nuclear reactor technology in the last 20 years, with a concerted multinational effort we could build a spacecraft powered by descendants of the NERVA nuclear rocket engine tested during the 1960's to early 1970's. Because such engines run at very low power for long periods of time that will eventually mean extraordinarily fast transit times between Earth and Mars; under the right conditions the travel time will be no more than six weeks, vastly shorter than the 6-9 months more normal means of transit require. With only six weeks transit time, it also means a vastly less expensive design for crew habitation, since we no longer have to factor in the needs of the astronaut crew for a 6-9 month trip.
Once on Mars, the lander will likely sport a small pebble-bed nuclear reactor to provide power--probably enough not only to power the lander's crew habitation module but also provide power to extract liquid water from beneath the surface of Mars.
If we take Mars Society founder Robert Zubrin's Mars Direct ideal and combine it with a nuclear rocket engine, we could see such a mission done as early as 2020.
As an MX500 user myself, what I do is use a twist-tie and tie up a length of cable on the mouse to reduce wire tangling. The majority of users don't NEED the full length of the mouse cable anyway.
I saw the press release from Logitech over this mouse and frankly, the feature bloat borders on overkill, to say the least.
I mean, the Logitech MX5xx series mouse pointer (I use an MX500) already has the screen navigation capability that covers most users, and its tracking accuracy is good enough for every user except very hard-core gamers. I don't think most users want to have new email warning and IM chat control capabilities built into the mouse pointer itself, though I do agree that the power control features are useful given the new mouse pointer is a coreless mouse.
...It still does not support paid-subscription Podcasting. :-(
There are a lot of people that want to be download radio talk shows produced by Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks using iTunes' Podcast support feature instead of the custom software provided by Premiere Radio Networks. I wouldn't be surprised that before the end of this year there will be an update to iTunes 5 that will support paid subscription Podcast downloads, which could open the door for a lot of radio shows to be downloaded via iTunes to your computer. After, if iTunes supports paid download of music, why not paid download of radio shows in Podcast format?
Actually not. Remember, Windows NT 3.5x and 4.0 versions did support the full functionality of the Pentium Pro in true WIN32 API mode, so the Pentium Pro wasn't really a complete failure (it was the choice for server machines for quite a while).
Besides, the Pentium Pro CPU core design became the basis for the Pentium II, Pentium III and Celeron CPU's.
I think the best solution is to essentially start imposing excise taxes on automobiles based on physical size and engine displacement like they do in Europe and Japan.
As such, this will quickly encourage people to buy far more economical cars. Fortunately, thanks to modern automotive technology today's B-segment (as it's known in Europe) small cars are no longer death traps with no power, thanks to better engine technology and the European New Car Assessment Programme (EuroNCAP) crash test certifications. Take for example the Honda Fit/Jazz five door hatchback, a model sold in most of the world (and coming to the USA and Canada Spring 2006); the Fit/Jazz sports an amazing amount of interior space for such a physically small car, yet has very good passenger safety protection, decent protection for pedestrians in case of frontal impact, excellent fuel economy with the i-DSI 1.4-liter engine and good performance with very good fuel economy with the VTEC 1.5-liter engine. This explains why the Fit became Japan's #1 selling car recently and why the Jazz (Fit's name in Europe) became very popular with European drivers. When the Fit arrives in the USA next spring, I expect very strong sales, especially when the four-door sedan version arrives (probably in early calendar year 2007).
I think the biggest reason why DVD's succeeded was the fact DVD discs could use improved versions of the same optical drive mechanisms used by Compact Disc and CD-ROM drives, which meant tremendous economies of scale.
Because Blu-Ray discs when they finally reach the US market in Spring 2006 will essentially use an improved version of current DVD optical drive mechanisms, that means backward compatibility, a major issue for many users of the latest technology.
...Mostly because 1) we will soon see a new generation of Blu-Ray media that doesn't need a caddy to protect the disc itself and 2) Blu-Ray's higher storage capacity in recordable form is highly-desirable for computer users who manipulate a lot of multimedia data (large-sized digital still images and full-motion video in digital format).
By the way, in many ways the whole Dolby Digital versus DTS arguement is kind of moot, mostly because if properly mastered Dolby Digital sounds just as good as DTS (ever hear the sound quality from the Star Wars prequel DVD's?).
Having using Maxthon since version 1.14 (they're now up to Version 1.3.3), I actually really like this program, mostly because they include a lot of stuff in the program such as the very nice AD Hunter function that blocks most popups, popunders, Flash animation ads, many online ads in general and even ActiveX objects! Since running Maxthon I've had very little (if any) spyware/adware loaded on my system. :-) Also, Maxthon includes mouse gestures, which makes even a cheap two-button plus scroll wheel mouse very useful in web page navigation.
If you've seen the Internet Explorer 7.0 betas it appears Microsoft pinched a lot of ideas from Maxthon, that's to be sure.
Excuse me, but thanks to modern communications technology, the President can easily contact anyone in the world from anywhere in the world, which means he can have what amounts to a full function White House anywhere he goes. During President Bush's stay at his ranch near Crawford, TX, I'm sure the White House Communications Office moved in a full communications suite that can do everything from calling ordinary people on landline links to full command of the military in event of nuclear attack. Besides, I'm sure that they parked both Air Force One (VC-25A) and the National Airborne Operations Center (E-4B) planes as close to Crawford, TX as possible for use for any contingency.
Maybe this might be the very chance to maybe do what could be the greatest engineering project of the 21st Century: replace New Orleans and carve out a new, safer outlet for the Mississippi River.
It could be breathtakingly expensive (maybe as much as US$3 trillion in 2005 dollars), but it may be worth it if not only do we get a city that will be far less flood-prone to both the rising Mississippi Rive and the the occasional hurricane, but also a completely new, state-of-the-art shipping port that could be the biggest and most advanced in the world.
And no, I'm not kidding about this either.
You folks can mod me down as Troll and Flamebait all you want, but frankly, a large number of Americans are sick and tired of the blatantly Leftist views coming from prominent people in the movie industry. As such, many American moviegoers are doing a de facto boycott of movies, probably a good reason why movie attendence is substantially down this year.
I blame the whole schism between the movie industry and many Americans on the blantantly political "documentary" (a word I use highly advisedly) Fahrenheit 9/11. Strongly supported by most of the movie industry and Democratic Party politicians, the movie invokes the type of fact manipulation that would have done the producers of films like Triumph of the Will and Der Ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew) proud, to say the least. Also, look at how Mel Gibson got denounced by the movie industry for producing The Passion of the Christ; yet despite all the denounciations, this movie made an amazing US$600 million worldwide in first-run theatrical release, even more amazing considering that the total production and marketing costs was around US$50 million!
In short, I think the movie industry need to stop making political statements in public so often (and interjecting a lot of it into the plot of the movie itself). They already lost a good number of moviegoers due to this trend, and pretty soon the movie industry will wonder why a lot of movies aren't making money in US theatrical release anymore.
I think you forget that Scaled Composites did a lot of the research and engineering work for the McDonnell-Douglas Delta Clipper and Lockheed-Martin VentureStar programs.
While of course these projects were not completely successful, it did teach Scaled Composites a lot about spacecraft design; I think Burt Rutan's company has the engineering knowledge to eventually build their own private spacecraft that could reach even the International Space Station at substantially less cost than the proposed Kliper spacecraft that the Russians and Europeans will jointly develop.
...is the fact the basic interface design pioneered by that OS has not really changed dramatically even with the release of Windows XP. After all, Windows XP's Luna interface has the majority of the look and feel of Windows 95, especially the Taskbar with its Start button on the left side, a tray area showing all active programs, and a right side area showing a list of running accillary programs.
This is why everyone will be very interested in seeing how Windows Vista runs, because I think Microsoft will come up with a totally new look and feel for Windows XP's successor.
I bet that within two years we'll have drives that can read/write both HD-DVD and Blu-ray.
I say earlier than that! Given how fast optical drive technology has advanced in the last few years a combo HD-DVD/Blu-Ray reader drive that uses either ATA-100 or Serial ATA interfaces could be out as early as late 2006, with recorder drives coming out soon afterwards.
Why so early? Mostly because both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs can use the same drive tray system used by CD recorders and DVD+R/DVD-R recorders. It's only a matter of incorporating the right electronics and proper laser unit for the whole scheme to work.
...Before Google does use the Gecko rendering engine developed by the Mozilla Foundation and turn GDS into a full-blown web browser. They are almost there doing one with GDS 2.0 anyway.
nVidia-based graphics cards are quite good nowadays but do be aware that a lot of the newer cards do not support AGP 4x (e.g., 1.5V AGP) ports. You want to be very careful about this, especially if you install nVidia-based graphics cards on older systems.
I also think VESA is doing this so they could support 1920x1200 resolution video running in non-interlaced mode easier. I believe that 1080-line progressive-scan 16:9 aspect ratio HDTV has this resolution (though someone here please correct me on this if necessary).
This is the real future of the car. Millions and millions of loud, junky, polluting, giant stupid and ugly half-broken SUVs. All driven by guys with no money and serious attitude problems.
Not necessarily. You forget we could institute automobile recycling/salvaging programs that could take all those fuel-inefficient SUV's and recover all the scrap metal, glass, etc. and use those recovered materials to build new, more fuel efficient cars. Why do you think in much of Europe there are laws in regards to recycling parts from automobiles?