Yeah, it is. - In a free country the Citizen owning the shop can ban any damn thing he wants to ban, just as I can invite your into my home, but ban you from wearing shoes.
It already IS free. You only need to be a royalty for MPEG2 or 4 video codecs if you earn more than 1 million gross, which means consumers and small companies (like VideoLAN (VLC) and WinAmp) can use it free of charge.
Good observation. A wiser course would be for MPEG to say, "From this point forward, MPEG2 shall be free of charge." - That would essentially kill Google's attempt to shoehorn VP8, because manufacturers would not want to abandon a current standard that every device can read, and has no cost.
Free MPEG2 would also be a great benefit for the Free TV stations (US, Canada, Mexico) - they'd save a lot of money in royalty fees and instead be able to hire more people to create new content.
But WebM looks no better than MPEG2. So I think I'll pass, just as I have no plans to switch from Bluray to HD-DVD. I prefer upgrades, not lateral shifts.
>>>The goal of streamlined taxes is not to have other states tax you.
Yeah actually it is. For example New York State wants to collect sales tax from my Amazon purchases, even though I don't live there. They don't have any right to tax me, a foreign citizen, anymore than Canada can tax me. .
>>>It is to make a system clear enough to allow any retailer to tax you for your state.
That already exists. If I buy online from a company that is in Maryland (example: jcpenney.com) then I get taxed. If I buy from a company not inside Maryland (amazon.com), then I don't get taxed. Simple as that.
The point is that, circa 2000, consumers had a choice between Super High Quality audio formats (SACD/DVD-A) and poor-quality MP3s squeezed down to 32k or 64k to fit in tiny, primitive 5 GB players. They chose the poorer quality, and the high-quality formats became as irrelevant as Betmax.
- "It seems rather important to note that according to the government's own data, we already technically achieved 98% third generation high speed wireless coverage last year."
Billboard started including E-music sales and youtube listens in the early 2000s. Nielsen started including online TV views as part of their 7-day viewing stats in 2007. I guess New York Times is just more conservative and slower to change?
Why the DOD spending is certainly high, and we should immediately end all wars and foreign bases, it is dwarfed by other programs. The top 3 most-costly programs on the US Treasury:
Social Security Medicare Medicaid
Worse: The return on SSI is negative. Someone retiring this year at 68, based upon their years left of life, will only get back 80% of what they originally paid in. (Source: CNN.com)
>>>And when they have control they will sue you if your try to install Linux.
I'd find the CEO's home and shoot him in the head. Down with tyrants, whether they are government or corporate. (And no death is not something to be feared - we all reach that destination.)
>>>Why is it that every time an initiative is launched to modernize the country and bring us up to speed with the other countries that have far surpassed the US, people cry foul? Why do they never do that when, oh I don't know, a WAR is about to be launched? >>>
I have protested against every president for the last 20 years. Your claim "you were silent" is false for both me and most of my friends (remember the "Bush is a murderer" or "Patriot Act is Big Brother" posters?). Nice try at a strawman argument though, even though its obviously false.
As for THIS specific 4G idea, I protest not because of the policy, but because of the physics. There's simply not enough room for the Radio spectrum to support ~350 million people at anything above 1 megabit/s. It's the equivalent of trying to run Interstate 80's traffic down a single lane road..... even in rural areas, it will overload and slow to a crawl.
Also worth noting the second half of point #4... SA-CD vs. DVD-audio war - both lost and people went to free downloadable MP3s instead.
People eschewed quality (surround sound SACD or DVD-A) in favor of plain-jane stereo MP3 that sizzles due to compression. I wouldn't be surprised if they did the same thing with MPEG2, choosing it because it's free-of-charge, and not waste time with the VP8 or MPEG4 codecs that never seem to work.
>>>Fuck Sony's [hot gamer girls] and [Japanese models]
That's better.
>>>I will NEVER buy anything with the Sony brand name. No matter how cheap.
Agreed. Provisionally. I'd buy a second PS2 if it dropped to $50 (like the PSone was). The PS2 and PS1 combined had a nice library which I'll probably still be playing 30 years from now. Plus it's the only console that had the complete Final Fantasy Collection from 1 through 12 (part 5 and 6 being my favorites) - that alone makes it worth owning for gaming hobbyists/collectors.
Yes buying this T-shirt to support a worthy cause. Although I'd rather have the hot woman wearing the T-shirt! (sung to tune of How much For the Doggie in the Window)
How much is that blondie in the T-shirt? (wolf whistle) The one with the bouncy chest How much is that blondie in the T-shirt? (oh yeah!) I do hope that blondie's for sale
I must take a trip to Southern Sweden And leave my poor sweetheart alone If she has a vibe, she won't be lonesome And I'll give the blondie a good home.
Precisely. BTW you only listed the main channels. Don't you also get sub-channels like the Movie channel, RetroTV, MyNetTV, and so on? So that'd be around 14 channels you get, totally free.
And they'd all but disappear if the Obama FCC "turn-off television" Broadband plan went through.
Well I googled it. POTS copper line leads into 95% of Alaskan homes, mainly due to FDR's universal service fund subsidizing the lines. In other words - you were waaaaay off.
AMONG the states means the 4G wireless that crosses state lines, not commerce inside the state. The Supreme Court has said that several times over the last decade, such as when they struck down the Congressional law forbidding guns within one mile of schools. (They didn't buy the "guns pass over borders" argument.)
It does not include the local Mom&Pop celltower located at the corner of Main and King street, Glendive Montana. THAT jurisdiction, like all internal state matters, falls to the Member State Legislature's control. If that body determines "Yes mom and pop can put a cell tower in that location," the Union government has no authority to overrule them and put an ATT cell tower instead.
>>>MPEG-2 can't stream any decent video at an Internet-friendly bandwidth.
Neither can VP8. (bah Dah dum). Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week.;-)
But seriously: I disagree. ABC's HD stations stream two HDTV channels at just ~7 Mbit/s using MPEG2. The quality looks good to me, and would fit down my DSL.
I object to the Streamlined Sales Tax movement based upon an old, old, old argument:
"No taxation without representation." No state has a right to tax me unless I have a voice in their legislature to say, "I think the tax is too high." Of course if my body enters that Foreign state, then of course I am subject to their laws/juris diction, but as long as I stay outside they have no more right to tax me, then does China or the European Union.
From The Frakkin' Article: "Amazon, with $25 billion in sales last year, has operated the Irving center since 2006. It argues that a subsidiary company owned the center."
If that's true, then it's not amazon who owes the sales tax, but the other company who owns the warehouse. Whichever "citizen" has physical presence inside a Member State is the one who falls under their juris diction and owes the cash. The warehouse owner should pay up.
And here's the alternate view: âoeAmazon.com was asked to play by the same rules and has responded by eliminating hundreds of Texas jobs,â said Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the Alliance for Main Street Fairness in Washington, D.C. âoeAmazon could have chosen to collect the sales tax as Texas retailers do, but instead they opted to protect their special sales tax loophole to the detriment of hardworking families.â Amazon has been involved in similar battles in states including New York and North Carolina.
I have protested against every president for the last 20 years. Your claim "you were silent" is false for both me and most of my friends (remember the "Bush is a nazi" or "Bush is a murderer" posters?). Nice try at a strawman argument though, even though its obviously false.
As for THIS specific 4G idea, I protest not because of the policy, but because of the physics. There's simply not enough room for the Radio spectrum to support ~350 million people at anything above 1 megabit/s. It's the equivalent of trying to run Interstate 80 down a single lane road..... even in rural areas, it will overload and slow to a crawl.
I've read the FCC's plan, and it would all-but-kill the Free TV that poor, unemployed, and ~50 million other americans currently rely upon (i.e. the FCC would sell-off the remaining channels). In exchange these people will be offered 4G internet plans that most cannot afford, and which cannot replace the television they lost, because of 5 GB caps.
From free to ~$600 a year. Not the kind of offer I would expect from a Democrat.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, it is.
- In a free country the Citizen owning the shop can ban any damn thing he wants to ban, just as I can invite your into my home, but ban you from wearing shoes.
>>>make the CODEC royalty free for consumers
It already IS free. You only need to be a royalty for MPEG2 or 4 video codecs if you earn more than 1 million gross, which means consumers and small companies (like VideoLAN (VLC) and WinAmp) can use it free of charge.
>>>They're clearly making some crap/free encoder
Good observation. A wiser course would be for MPEG to say, "From this point forward, MPEG2 shall be free of charge." - That would essentially kill Google's attempt to shoehorn VP8, because manufacturers would not want to abandon a current standard that every device can read, and has no cost.
Free MPEG2 would also be a great benefit for the Free TV stations (US, Canada, Mexico) - they'd save a lot of money in royalty fees and instead be able to hire more people to create new content.
But WebM looks no better than MPEG2. So I think I'll pass, just as I have no plans to switch from Bluray to HD-DVD. I prefer upgrades, not lateral shifts.
>>>The goal of streamlined taxes is not to have other states tax you.
Yeah actually it is. For example New York State wants to collect sales tax from my Amazon purchases, even though I don't live there. They don't have any right to tax me, a foreign citizen, anymore than Canada can tax me.
.
>>>It is to make a system clear enough to allow any retailer to tax you for your state.
That already exists. If I buy online from a company that is in Maryland (example: jcpenney.com) then I get taxed. If I buy from a company not inside Maryland (amazon.com), then I don't get taxed. Simple as that.
You're both wrong.
ABC's HD stations stream two HDTV channels at just ~7 Mbit/s using MPEG2. The quality looks great.
(whoosh)
The point is that, circa 2000, consumers had a choice between Super High Quality audio formats (SACD/DVD-A) and poor-quality MP3s squeezed down to 32k or 64k to fit in tiny, primitive 5 GB players. They chose the poorer quality, and the high-quality formats became as irrelevant as Betmax.
Yeah you're wrong.
IBM used PPC technology in all three chips that they designed for Nintendo Wii, Sony PS3, and Xbox 360.
Right. The dialup customer would want an unlimited line, which costs $10 where I live.
Here's an interesting link:
"Why Obama's 98% Wireless Goal Is Empty Rhetoric"
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Why-Obamas-98-Wireless-Goal-Is-Empty-Rhetoric-112429
- "It seems rather important to note that according to the government's own data, we already technically achieved 98% third generation high speed wireless coverage last year."
Billboard started including E-music sales and youtube listens in the early 2000s. Nielsen started including online TV views as part of their 7-day viewing stats in 2007. I guess New York Times is just more conservative and slower to change?
Why the DOD spending is certainly high, and we should immediately end all wars and foreign bases, it is dwarfed by other programs. The top 3 most-costly programs on the US Treasury:
Social Security
Medicare
Medicaid
Worse: The return on SSI is negative. Someone retiring this year at 68, based upon their years left of life, will only get back 80% of what they originally paid in. (Source: CNN.com)
>>>And when they have control they will sue you if your try to install Linux.
I'd find the CEO's home and shoot him in the head.
Down with tyrants, whether they are government or corporate.
(And no death is not something to be feared - we all reach that destination.)
>>>Why is it that every time an initiative is launched to modernize the country and bring us up to speed with the other countries that have far surpassed the US, people cry foul? Why do they never do that when, oh I don't know, a WAR is about to be launched?
>>>
I have protested against every president for the last 20 years. Your claim "you were silent" is false for both me and most of my friends (remember the "Bush is a murderer" or "Patriot Act is Big Brother" posters?). Nice try at a strawman argument though, even though its obviously false.
As for THIS specific 4G idea, I protest not because of the policy, but because of the physics. There's simply not enough room for the Radio spectrum to support ~350 million people at anything above 1 megabit/s. It's the equivalent of trying to run Interstate 80's traffic down a single lane road..... even in rural areas, it will overload and slow to a crawl.
Also worth noting the second half of point #4... SA-CD vs. DVD-audio war - both lost and people went to free downloadable MP3s instead.
People eschewed quality (surround sound SACD or DVD-A) in favor of plain-jane stereo MP3 that sizzles due to compression. I wouldn't be surprised if they did the same thing with MPEG2, choosing it because it's free-of-charge, and not waste time with the VP8 or MPEG4 codecs that never seem to work.
>>>Fuck Sony's [hot gamer girls] and [Japanese models]
That's better.
>>>I will NEVER buy anything with the Sony brand name. No matter how cheap.
Agreed.
Provisionally.
I'd buy a second PS2 if it dropped to $50 (like the PSone was). The PS2 and PS1 combined had a nice library which I'll probably still be playing 30 years from now. Plus it's the only console that had the complete Final Fantasy Collection from 1 through 12 (part 5 and 6 being my favorites) - that alone makes it worth owning for gaming hobbyists/collectors.
But PS3? PSPx? Nah.
Yes buying this T-shirt to support a worthy cause. Although I'd rather have the hot woman wearing the T-shirt! (sung to tune of How much For the Doggie in the Window)
How much is that blondie in the T-shirt? (wolf whistle)
The one with the bouncy chest
How much is that blondie in the T-shirt? (oh yeah!)
I do hope that blondie's for sale
I must take a trip to Southern Sweden
And leave my poor sweetheart alone
If she has a vibe, she won't be lonesome
And I'll give the blondie a good home.
>>>I'd be pissed if they disconnect free TV.
Precisely. BTW you only listed the main channels. Don't you also get sub-channels like the Movie channel, RetroTV, MyNetTV, and so on? So that'd be around 14 channels you get, totally free.
And they'd all but disappear if the Obama FCC "turn-off television" Broadband plan went through.
>>>5-7% of it.
Well I googled it. POTS copper line leads into 95% of Alaskan homes, mainly due to FDR's universal service fund subsidizing the lines. In other words - you were waaaaay off.
>>>"Commerce Clause,"
AMONG the states means the 4G wireless that crosses state lines, not commerce inside the state. The Supreme Court has said that several times over the last decade, such as when they struck down the Congressional law forbidding guns within one mile of schools. (They didn't buy the "guns pass over borders" argument.)
It does not include the local Mom&Pop celltower located at the corner of Main and King street, Glendive Montana. THAT jurisdiction, like all internal state matters, falls to the Member State Legislature's control. If that body determines "Yes mom and pop can put a cell tower in that location," the Union government has no authority to overrule them and put an ATT cell tower instead.
>>>MPEG-2 can't stream any decent video at an Internet-friendly bandwidth.
Neither can VP8. (bah Dah dum). Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week. ;-)
But seriously: I disagree. ABC's HD stations stream two HDTV channels at just ~7 Mbit/s using MPEG2. The quality looks good to me, and would fit down my DSL.
I object to the Streamlined Sales Tax movement based upon an old, old, old argument:
"No taxation without representation." No state has a right to tax me unless I have a voice in their legislature to say, "I think the tax is too high." Of course if my body enters that Foreign state, then of course I am subject to their laws/juris diction, but as long as I stay outside they have no more right to tax me, then does China or the European Union.
From The Frakkin' Article: "Amazon, with $25 billion in sales last year, has operated the Irving center since 2006. It argues that a subsidiary company owned the center."
If that's true, then it's not amazon who owes the sales tax, but the other company who owns the warehouse. Whichever "citizen" has physical presence inside a Member State is the one who falls under their juris diction and owes the cash. The warehouse owner should pay up.
And here's the alternate view:
âoeAmazon.com was asked to play by the same rules and has responded by eliminating hundreds of Texas jobs,â said Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the Alliance for Main Street Fairness in Washington, D.C. âoeAmazon could have chosen to collect the sales tax as Texas retailers do, but instead they opted to protect their special sales tax loophole to the detriment of hardworking families.â Amazon has been involved in similar battles in states including New York and North Carolina.
>>>why don't people cry foul?
I have protested against every president for the last 20 years. Your claim "you were silent" is false for both me and most of my friends (remember the "Bush is a nazi" or "Bush is a murderer" posters?). Nice try at a strawman argument though, even though its obviously false.
As for THIS specific 4G idea, I protest not because of the policy, but because of the physics. There's simply not enough room for the Radio spectrum to support ~350 million people at anything above 1 megabit/s. It's the equivalent of trying to run Interstate 80 down a single lane road..... even in rural areas, it will overload and slow to a crawl.
But at what cost?
I've read the FCC's plan, and it would all-but-kill the Free TV that poor, unemployed, and ~50 million other americans currently rely upon (i.e. the FCC would sell-off the remaining channels). In exchange these people will be offered 4G internet plans that most cannot afford, and which cannot replace the television they lost, because of 5 GB caps.
From free to ~$600 a year. Not the kind of offer I would expect from a Democrat.