Smashes text to 5% and images downto 20% to speed-up loading. If you're not familiar with the concept, try Opera Browser and turn on the "turbo" mode - does the same thing as my ISP does but not as fast.
>>>you're the sort of user that needs educating
(1) I typed my post before I had breakfast, so it's understandable why I made the "run" typo (and didn't take time to check for errors as I rushed off to work).
(2) 99% of users are as you described (need educating) and why they won't abandon the Windows system they are used to. And in some cases, won't even move from Win XP to Win 7.
>>>Facebook is advertisers dream with its extremely targeted advertising system
I thought Facebook and other sites like it were still losing money hand-over-fist. THAT is what caused the last crash - when people realized these companies were not earning any money, and quickly fled the stock, leaving to the Clinton-era downward tumble.
And this time I bet traditional media like magazines & newspapers & online e-zines will also disappear. Some will survive; most will not.
The whole 1900s-era system of making billions from mass media (magazines, radio, tv) is collapsing as the "masses" fragment and go in different directions across the web. Look at TV ratings - a top show in the 70s used to be watched by 40% of America. Now it's downto 7-8% with nets like CW scrapping the bottom at only 1%.
The other ~95% of americans are doing something else. Things are bad. (For them. Good for us.)
If the RIAA and MPAA became outlawed "cartels" by Congress, then so too would other legit organizations like IEEE, ASME, ISO, the Underwriters Laboratory, and so on. (Also such an act would probably violate the first amendment right to assembly.)
Note the forming a cartel is still illegal. It's why the record companies were sued ~10 years ago - for price fixing of CDs, restriction of trade, and forced to issue refunds back to customers (I and other family members received ~$20 checks).
My main beef with Linux is it just doesn't execute software properly:
- Doesn't connect to my ISP most of the time - If it does manage to connect, it doesn't run the compression software - It does run Atari Stella or NES emulator software (half the ROMs refuse to load) - Refuses to install Flash - Refuses to accept the Cole.2K codec packs - Doesn't run Word docs properly
Linux is a nice experiment but it runs about as poorly as Amiga OS (i.e. hard to find proper software).
"Corporatism" for short. Government leaders and Corporate leaders working together. (whispers) It's also what Mussolini created in his country. (normal voice). Anyway this comes as no surprise to me. Democrats are just like Republicans, but instead of military they work with Hollywood, recording studios, and celebrities.
Democrats have sold-out to the Authors Guild, SAG, MPAA, and RIAA.
And this is why I feel no guilt taking product from these corporations. They bought special privileges from government that they don't deserve to get, rarely pay any taxes on their profit ("what profit? Avatar lost money"), screw the writers/actors that work for them by not paying residuals, and eat-out at the substance of our citizens in onerous life-destroying lawsuits. If they produce a DVD or CD that's good, I'll buy it, but I feel no qualms about downloading everything else for free.
If it were up to me, every corporate license would be immediately revoked. Let them operate as regular companies without the immunity (aka golden parachutes) afforded by limited liability.
>>>I can also see that a single payer system would be good for the welfare of the entire nation
Yeah because "single payer" sure has worked for the School system. The US has the smartest kids in the world. And Amtrak and the USPS and the SSI Retirement System (all deep, deep in debt).
Also I hate monopolies - even if said monopoly is government run. It takes away freedom of choice (where you want to invest your dollars). The solution to our health problems is not a monopoly - the solution is to create a system like Food Stamps for the Poor, but for healthcare. Everyone buys their own food and health with their own money - except for the bottom ~5% who lack the money.
Yeah those are the things my Commodore used with Xmodem, Ymodem, and Zmodem to verify a file downloaded correctly. And yet, sometimes, the file still got corrupted and passed all the checksums. So I have little faith in them, or computers in general.
That would be great, if the government had not given Comcast/Verizon an exclusive monopoly (or duopoly). And then decided not to regulate them. Choice - we don't haze it.
>>>100% voter turn out has put us in a far better position than the US is in.
I hope that was sarcasm. The US doesn't have a blacklist to block internet cites, or games that cannot be purchased by citizens due to government-imposed censorship, or artists getting arrested because they DREW two kids having sex (no victim == no crime). I used to think AU was a free country, but I don't anymore. Where's the free speech if you can't speak freely?
Mandatory voting just means you have the typical American voting. And I know You know what the typical American is like. (A BBC Reporter asked, "Name a country that starts with U" and 90% of americans said, "Uhhh..... can't think of one.") No let's NOT have mandatory voting - let the people who don't care stay home, rather than force them to show up and flip a switch for the Incumbent.
You've seen how easy it is to hack supposedly "secure" software like Windows, OS X, Linux, Firefox, and so on. I don't know why you believe Voting Software is any different.
As for hand-counting/verifications, newspapers do that all the time. After the Florida election, USE Today, New York Times, and several other newspapers flocked to the scene and hand-counted the ballots, followed by a report to the citizens ("Gore lost because of votes in western R-dominated counties"). Now how would they do that with software? There's no way to verify it. No way to detect tampering.
Give me paper - thousands of pounds of it - something that can not be easily disposed of, or tampered with, without leaving a trail. ("I saw a guy shredding ballots - here's the confetti." versus "The bits flipped but we don't know because there's no trace of tampering.")
>>>So copyright holder should be able to fight to protect their ideas?
Sure. Lock them in a safe, and guard it with a gun. They certainly have that right but AFTER the idea is released voluntarily, they have no "right" to not have it copied or shared. They only have a temporary monopoly Privilege, which society can take away any time it desires.
>>>Online voting, if it were done right, would give me much more confidence than any number of safeguards you might put on a physical chain of custody.
Hardly. If I wanted to steal an election, it's easier to flip a few bits and give myself 1 million extra votes, then to move around a couple thousand pounds of paper. Also the latter would probably make me get caught.
It means only people who CARE about the election, and likely did actual research, are casting ballots. The rest are just re-electing the same damn idiot, because they recognize the name - like visiting McDonalds because you're afraid to try something new. (I know - I did the same thing when I was 20 and stupid.)
>>>because [almost every] person with copyrights get ripped off by their publisher
Fixed.
>>>every creator should lose
I never said that. Strawman argument. I said that copyright is claimed to protect artists' income, but that claim is false. It does nothing of the sort but only protects the Megacorps' income. i.e. Copyright does not work.
>>>the "good" guys being stainless, righteous, wonderful and adorable beings and the "bad" guys as loathsome bastards with no morals or regard for anyone but themselves
This happens in history too. (All too often everything is depicted really black-and-white.) The WW2 allies were hardly virtuous, even though they are shown to be like angels on earth.
- a lot of the Nazi propaganda was simply copied from the Allies' example during WW1. The Allies set the example; Hitler copied. - fire-bombing of innocent civilians (why was it necessary to set FIRE to cities? Just use regular bombs.) - blowing-up of dams that drowned villagers - imprisonment of those who were anti-war (in violation of free speech rights) - and throwing minority Americans into camps for the crime of having german/japanese grandparents. Plus taking their property and giving it to whites - outright theft that was never returned.
And: I see I was modded 'troll' for speaking the truth to power, since people don't want to hear the truth. People want to believe the lie that the Americans and British were flawless and we should call them the "greatest generation" even though they suppressed Jews, blacks, and women..... and ignored Constitutional Law to boot.
>>>So what happens when all subchannels have an increase in movement at the same time?
The viewer sees pixelation and/or macroblocking for a brief second.
>>>SDTV receivers can't decode the HDTV stream and downscale it.
Not true. They can downscale it just fine. The "secondary stream" is sent in a more robust state with extra error correction. i.e. If the HDTV signal is lost, the receiver can "fall back" to the SD signal. Also the low-def signal is not a separate stream but simply part of the overall HD signal (like how FM Stereo can fall back to FM Monoaural).
>>>what happened to existing receivers when the stations switched from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 AVC?
Nothing. Europe developed DTV later than the US so they chose MPEG4 right from the beginning.
Yes really. If you don't believe me, turn off "file paging" (control panel-system props-performance-virtual memory), and try to watch youtube using nothing but RAM. It won't work. In fact you probably won't be able to load Firefox.
>>>It was my second console game after I had played out Super Mario Bros. When did "Those were the days." become "Damn, I feel old."?
You always remember your first (and second). 1 - Combat 2 - Breakout 3 - Space Invaders Those were my first video games. Those were the days known as the 70s ("I love the nightlife - I love to boogie.") I am older then you.;-)
Never owned an NES. I bought a Commodore instead. Then a 32-bit Amiga which made NES look... well, 8 bit. My next upgrade was the PS2.
So Nintendo's learning from Disney and Lucas and the record companies - just rerelease old stuff in new formats to make more money. Brilliant.
>>>Nothing has changed from that version
Good! I hate when people mess with masterpieces. Ya know, like making characters shoot first, or inserting lame CGI creatures, or pointlessly upgrading graphics that were already perfect. - Better to keep everything intact like was done with the Sega Collection (one of my favorite discs).
>>>there were like 3 things you could do to get it for free from nintendo
I bought a Gamecube and the Zelda Collection came for free, which I then sold for about $60. So basically I paid $39 for the Cube.:-)
"After Nintendo decided not to have Philips create a CD add-on to the Super Nintendo....." -wikipedia.
.....Philips and Sony took their R&D and developed it into a new console called the Playstation, leaving Nintendo 64 and Gamecube in a distant second place.
I'd sooner: (a) Use the Gameboy Player w/ my Gamecube. (b) Use the o-scope to play old vector games like Asteroids, which really aren't as good on regular displays.
Like his ending: "About Craig - Craig is getting towards the end of a PhD in experimental nanotechnology. Arguably he might be finished by now if it weren't for all the crap described on this blog."
I bought the Legend of Zelda Collection, which included two NES titles and two N64 titles, and the only one I truly liked was Ocarina of Time because of the elaborate back story and time travel elements. (I was unimpressed with Wind Waker too.)
And yet this series has rabid fans. Maybe I just don't like puzzles. (shrug) Maybe I'll try the Super NES' Link to the Past next.
Slashdot Mirror
>>>not just about tearing down the bad guys; its about building up the good guys.
What good guys? (Not musicians but things I care about - like movies, TV shows, and books.)
>>>"Compression software"?
Smashes text to 5% and images downto 20% to speed-up loading. If you're not familiar with the concept, try Opera Browser and turn on the "turbo" mode - does the same thing as my ISP does but not as fast.
>>>you're the sort of user that needs educating
(1) I typed my post before I had breakfast, so it's understandable why I made the "run" typo (and didn't take time to check for errors as I rushed off to work).
(2) 99% of users are as you described (need educating) and why they won't abandon the Windows system they are used to. And in some cases, won't even move from Win XP to Win 7.
>>>Facebook is advertisers dream with its extremely targeted advertising system
I thought Facebook and other sites like it were still losing money hand-over-fist. THAT is what caused the last crash - when people realized these companies were not earning any money, and quickly fled the stock, leaving to the Clinton-era downward tumble.
And this time I bet traditional media like magazines & newspapers & online e-zines will also disappear. Some will survive; most will not.
The whole 1900s-era system of making billions from mass media (magazines, radio, tv) is collapsing as the "masses" fragment and go in different directions across the web. Look at TV ratings - a top show in the 70s used to be watched by 40% of America. Now it's downto 7-8% with nets like CW scrapping the bottom at only 1%.
The other ~95% of americans are doing something else.
Things are bad. (For them. Good for us.)
If the RIAA and MPAA became outlawed "cartels" by Congress, then so too would other legit organizations like IEEE, ASME, ISO, the Underwriters Laboratory, and so on. (Also such an act would probably violate the first amendment right to assembly.)
Note the forming a cartel is still illegal. It's why the record companies were sued ~10 years ago - for price fixing of CDs, restriction of trade, and forced to issue refunds back to customers (I and other family members received ~$20 checks).
My main beef with Linux is it just doesn't execute software properly:
- Doesn't connect to my ISP most of the time
- If it does manage to connect, it doesn't run the compression software
- It does run Atari Stella or NES emulator software (half the ROMs refuse to load)
- Refuses to install Flash
- Refuses to accept the Cole.2K codec packs
- Doesn't run Word docs properly
Linux is a nice experiment but it runs about as poorly as Amiga OS (i.e. hard to find proper software).
"Corporatism" for short. Government leaders and Corporate leaders working together. (whispers) It's also what Mussolini created in his country. (normal voice). Anyway this comes as no surprise to me. Democrats are just like Republicans, but instead of military they work with Hollywood, recording studios, and celebrities.
Democrats have sold-out to the Authors Guild, SAG, MPAA, and RIAA.
And this is why I feel no guilt taking product from these corporations. They bought special privileges from government that they don't deserve to get, rarely pay any taxes on their profit ("what profit? Avatar lost money"), screw the writers/actors that work for them by not paying residuals, and eat-out at the substance of our citizens in onerous life-destroying lawsuits. If they produce a DVD or CD that's good, I'll buy it, but I feel no qualms about downloading everything else for free.
If it were up to me, every corporate license would be immediately revoked. Let them operate as regular companies without the immunity (aka golden parachutes) afforded by limited liability.
>>>I can also see that a single payer system would be good for the welfare of the entire nation
Yeah because "single payer" sure has worked for the School system. The US has the smartest kids in the world. And Amtrak and the USPS and the SSI Retirement System (all deep, deep in debt).
Also I hate monopolies - even if said monopoly is government run. It takes away freedom of choice (where you want to invest your dollars). The solution to our health problems is not a monopoly - the solution is to create a system like Food Stamps for the Poor, but for healthcare. Everyone buys their own food and health with their own money - except for the bottom ~5% who lack the money.
Had this happened on Bush's watch, he'd be excoriated (and deservedly so). But Obama? Not at all.
>>>never heard of checksums.
Yeah those are the things my Commodore used with Xmodem, Ymodem, and Zmodem to verify a file downloaded correctly. And yet, sometimes, the file still got corrupted and passed all the checksums. So I have little faith in them, or computers in general.
>>>you need to find a new ISP.
That would be great, if the government had not given Comcast/Verizon an exclusive monopoly (or duopoly). And then decided not to regulate them.
Choice - we don't haze it.
>>>100% voter turn out has put us in a far better position than the US is in.
I hope that was sarcasm. The US doesn't have a blacklist to block internet cites, or games that cannot be purchased by citizens due to government-imposed censorship, or artists getting arrested because they DREW two kids having sex (no victim == no crime). I used to think AU was a free country, but I don't anymore. Where's the free speech if you can't speak freely?
Mandatory voting just means you have the typical American voting. And I know You know what the typical American is like. (A BBC Reporter asked, "Name a country that starts with U" and 90% of americans said, "Uhhh..... can't think of one.") No let's NOT have mandatory voting - let the people who don't care stay home, rather than force them to show up and flip a switch for the Incumbent.
Sure. Yep. Right.
You've seen how easy it is to hack supposedly "secure" software like Windows, OS X, Linux, Firefox, and so on. I don't know why you believe Voting Software is any different.
As for hand-counting/verifications, newspapers do that all the time. After the Florida election, USE Today, New York Times, and several other newspapers flocked to the scene and hand-counted the ballots, followed by a report to the citizens ("Gore lost because of votes in western R-dominated counties"). Now how would they do that with software? There's no way to verify it. No way to detect tampering.
Give me paper - thousands of pounds of it - something that can not be easily disposed of, or tampered with, without leaving a trail. ("I saw a guy shredding ballots - here's the confetti." versus "The bits flipped but we don't know because there's no trace of tampering.")
>>>So copyright holder should be able to fight to protect their ideas?
Sure.
Lock them in a safe, and guard it with a gun. They certainly have that right but AFTER the idea is released voluntarily, they have no "right" to not have it copied or shared. They only have a temporary monopoly Privilege, which society can take away any time it desires.
>>>Online voting, if it were done right, would give me much more confidence than any number of safeguards you might put on a physical chain of custody.
Hardly.
If I wanted to steal an election, it's easier to flip a few bits and give myself 1 million extra votes, then to move around a couple thousand pounds of paper. Also the latter would probably make me get caught.
Low turnouts are good.
It means only people who CARE about the election, and likely did actual research, are casting ballots. The rest are just re-electing the same damn idiot, because they recognize the name - like visiting McDonalds because you're afraid to try something new. (I know - I did the same thing when I was 20 and stupid.)
>>>because [almost every] person with copyrights get ripped off by their publisher
Fixed.
>>>every creator should lose
I never said that. Strawman argument. I said that copyright is claimed to protect artists' income, but that claim is false. It does nothing of the sort but only protects the Megacorps' income. i.e. Copyright does not work.
>>>the "good" guys being stainless, righteous, wonderful and adorable beings and the "bad" guys as loathsome bastards with no morals or regard for anyone but themselves
This happens in history too. (All too often everything is depicted really black-and-white.) The WW2 allies were hardly virtuous, even though they are shown to be like angels on earth.
- a lot of the Nazi propaganda was simply copied from the Allies' example during WW1. The Allies set the example; Hitler copied.
- fire-bombing of innocent civilians (why was it necessary to set FIRE to cities? Just use regular bombs.)
- blowing-up of dams that drowned villagers
- imprisonment of those who were anti-war (in violation of free speech rights)
- and throwing minority Americans into camps for the crime of having german/japanese grandparents. Plus taking their property and giving it to whites - outright theft that was never returned.
And:
I see I was modded 'troll' for speaking the truth to power, since people don't want to hear the truth. People want to believe the lie that the Americans and British were flawless and we should call them the "greatest generation" even though they suppressed Jews, blacks, and women..... and ignored Constitutional Law to boot.
>>>So what happens when all subchannels have an increase in movement at the same time?
The viewer sees pixelation and/or macroblocking for a brief second.
>>>SDTV receivers can't decode the HDTV stream and downscale it.
Not true. They can downscale it just fine. The "secondary stream" is sent in a more robust state with extra error correction. i.e. If the HDTV signal is lost, the receiver can "fall back" to the SD signal. Also the low-def signal is not a separate stream but simply part of the overall HD signal (like how FM Stereo can fall back to FM Monoaural).
>>>what happened to existing receivers when the stations switched from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 AVC?
Nothing. Europe developed DTV later than the US so they chose MPEG4 right from the beginning.
>>>Really?
Yes really. If you don't believe me, turn off "file paging" (control panel-system props-performance-virtual memory), and try to watch youtube using nothing but RAM. It won't work. In fact you probably won't be able to load Firefox.
>>>It was my second console game after I had played out Super Mario Bros. When did "Those were the days." become "Damn, I feel old."?
You always remember your first (and second). ;-)
1 - Combat
2 - Breakout
3 - Space Invaders
Those were my first video games. Those were the days known as the 70s ("I love the nightlife - I love to boogie.") I am older then you.
Never owned an NES.
I bought a Commodore instead.
Then a 32-bit Amiga which made NES look... well, 8 bit. My next upgrade was the PS2.
>>>Super Mario All-Stars on disc form for 29.99
So Nintendo's learning from Disney and Lucas and the record companies - just rerelease old stuff in new formats to make more money. Brilliant.
>>>Nothing has changed from that version
Good! I hate when people mess with masterpieces. Ya know, like making characters shoot first, or inserting lame CGI creatures, or pointlessly upgrading graphics that were already perfect. - Better to keep everything intact like was done with the Sega Collection (one of my favorite discs).
>>>there were like 3 things you could do to get it for free from nintendo
I bought a Gamecube and the Zelda Collection came for free, which I then sold for about $60. So basically I paid $39 for the Cube. :-)
"After Nintendo decided not to have Philips create a CD add-on to the Super Nintendo....." -wikipedia.
I'd sooner:
(a) Use the Gameboy Player w/ my Gamecube.
(b) Use the o-scope to play old vector games like Asteroids, which really aren't as good on regular displays.
Like his ending: "About Craig - Craig is getting towards the end of a PhD in experimental nanotechnology. Arguably he might be finished by now if it weren't for all the crap described on this blog."
I bought the Legend of Zelda Collection, which included two NES titles and two N64 titles, and the only one I truly liked was Ocarina of Time because of the elaborate back story and time travel elements. (I was unimpressed with Wind Waker too.)
And yet this series has rabid fans.
Maybe I just don't like puzzles.
(shrug)
Maybe I'll try the Super NES' Link to the Past next.
True but since most computers don't have enough RAM, it gets buffered to the hard drive (virtual ram).