QuickTime can do 2 pass VBR MPEG4 encoding. The problem/great part about quicktime is it give you a shitload(TM) of possible encoders. Unless you know what your doing there are all sorts of ways to fuck it up. QuickTime is still the most capable and clean looking compressed video I've seen if you use it properly.
"He did it with ATI a couple of years ago when they had a press release slip out days in advance of MacWorld expo. Apple refused to sell the ATI cards they had prepped for the new Macs."
Which is bullshit. I'm sick of losing stuff because Steve Job's is pissed off at Company B for this or that. I mean, isn't just a little bit TOO pissy. Why is punishing his customers for what a rumor web site did?
I'll admit it. I'm a total Apple Geek. I salivate over these events. And I'm really pissed about not being able to see it live. We always watch the event here with all our co-workers over lunch and have a grand time. It's like apple geek superbowl. This sucks!
That sort of ideal doesn't really work in the real world. Our clients use IE, as does about 94% of their customers. While I personally still write web standard code, I have to write CSS and HTML that is a lot more complex to make sure it works on IE. It would take a lot less time if everything worked like Firefox or Safari, but the client is paying the bills. They don't care about our nobel goal of making obsolete browsers shrink into the background. Heck, they don't care about version numbers either. I'd be happy just to get rid of IE 5.5 users.
The point is, the client pays the bills, which pays my pay check, which gives me food, shelter, and video games. If you call that coddling, you must be independently wealthy. Of course we code for IE. Just don't do it on your personal site.:P
People said no will buy a $3500 monitor back when the 23" CInema Display came out. Obiviously someone bought it. I even know a few who did. While I admit, this seems to be pushing the boundaries of what someone may pay for a monitor, I do think there are people who will buy it. Video Editing Suites will probably have one in each master suite. I could see it as a master video monitor for the client to look at while they sit on the other side of the room in their plush leather couch (video suites are nice and usually full of a million or so dollars worth of equipment and furniture, at least the nicer ones I've seen.). They may not reflect a huge number, but it does start making the technology available to those who would use it. Hopefully bring down the price after it's been on the market for awhile. Early adopters almost always get the premium price.
Looks like they finally fixed the Flash keyUp command. This caused a lot of panic when I made a rock 'em sock 'em robots game in Flash. It would detect keyDown, but not keyUp. Pretty stupid. I guess it's been a known issue since the beta. I wasn't happy hearing that they released it as 1.0 with the bug still there.
AAC is an open standard. The DRM that Apple uses (made) is their own. I think they were open to licensing the DRM model for ACC. I seem to remeber reading something like that.
The ACC files I make with iTunes from ripping other CDs are DRM free.
If the Macintosh OS ever became dominant, the tables would turn
I hope the tables do turn, and the Mac becomes the dominant OS. I can imagine a worse world with Macs on peoples desktops and Linux on our workstations and severs.
You'd need less than the typical 20" CRT. I;ve got one of those giants on my work machine. It's starting to look like an old 70's muscle car next to these slick sexy LCD products.
Speaking as a web developer, I say it's a poor company that only codes for one browser. I know I wouldn't have it and our clients wouldn't either. Any web developer that codes for one browser type is unprofessional and and cheating their client in my opinion.
Ooo... One of my best video game childhood memories was buying and 8-pack (still in glass bottles then) of Moutain Dew and renting Actraiser and playing it all night and well into the next morning. Detrimined to beat the game before I had to return it the next day. Rental periods were smaller back then.
Something about that game that just made you want to keep going.
So I just got back for seeing Star War Episode II: Attack of the Clones. So, what did I think of it? I guess it's hard to sum up. Let me at least say this, it does make up for some of Episode I's deficiencies. But what is it about these new Star Wars movies that feels so foreign? Both sets of movies had great special effects. Both sets had questionable acting. Setting the film critic in me aside, there was just no joy in this movie. As with Episode I, Attack of the Clones "sounds good on paper," but something is missing.
Story wise, the original Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope if I must) had it locked up. The tale is classic and had all the underpinnings of an epic. It's Greek mythology style story of young normal lad that would ascend to greatness had a charm and innocence all it's own. Add a colorful cast of characters, some great special effects (even now if you ask me), a plot that isn't overly complicated and you have a movie that's interesting, original, and just plain fun. Not to mention epic making and the one of the most influential films of all time. The Empire Strikes Back just plain kicked ass. It was a proper continuation of the Star Wars story and left you wanting more. Return of the Jedi should've been our first hint at where the saga would take us. Jedi started to tell us that Star Wars was for kids. Ewoks saving the galaxy is just not a good way to end an epic, you know. Although I always felt Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker's final showdown made up for a lot of Jedi's problems. Still, it did make Star Wars feel like a kids movie and thus it sorta tarnished the series as a whole.
I know a lot of us hard-core fans were kids when we saw the original trilogy, but does that really make it a kid's movie? I think not. Kids are smarter than we think. They know when you are talking down to them. I'm sure George Lucas he was giving his audience (children) what he thought they wanted. But I think what he missed is that kids wanted an adult world. As a kid, when I saw Star Wars, I didn't feel like I was watching a kid's movie. If anything, I felt like I was invited to see an adult movie with my parents. That made it more special. Kids want to see an adult world that isn't boring like their teacher's or parent's. They want an adult world that's fun and exciting. Something that makes them feel like they can do whatever they want when they grow up. This why most of us in the so-called "Generation X" (I prefer Generation X-Wing) really live our lives differently from our parents. We are not Ward Cleaver. We still play video games. We still eat pizza for breakfast. We still have our imagination. We still have fun because we saw that we could do whatever we wanted when we got older. We could still have fun and excitement when we got older. Do we owe that to Star Wars? I think so. At least, that's what Star Wars has meant to me. I wonder if these new Star Wars movies will mean that much to the new generation? Or will they sit it next to the Power Rangers as their youthful entertainment.
Although Episode II had much less of the kiddy feel to it that Episode I had, it still felt like they were holding back punches. Don't want to upset the parents who brought their children. But is that the problem? Is it too much of a kiddy feel with Star Wars losing it's core audience? Is it just bad storytelling? Is it bad directing? Not completely. These things certainly didn't help, but I noticed something when watching a few scenes of R2-D2 and C3PO. Watching them made me feel like I was watching Star Wars again. It felt right. So is it the characters that make Episode I and II seem so foreign? Definitely. Even Ewoks couldn't kill the Star Wars feel of Return of the Jedi. So what's Episode I and II missing? I'll tell you.
Han Solo
That's right. Han Fucking Solo. There is just no character like him in the current movies cast. Han Solo's character added some color to the drab boring Jedi. Sarcasm to the whimsical droids. The smack down to whiney little upstarts that ask him what that flashing is. Han Solo represents the fun that is missing from the current Star Wars line up. Without him (or a character like him) to bring the rest of the cast alive, it just doesn't feel like Star Wars.
Conclusions So did I hate this film? No. It was a much better film than Episode I. It does show that Lucas has at least tried to listen to the fans. Maybe Episode III will be more like the Star Wars I remember. It does make me want to look at the series as a whole when they are all completed. There were things I didn't like, but things I did. I did like seeing Yoda lay down some serious force powers, but I don't know if I care for a Muppet flying around fighting a light-saber battle. If he can do that, why does he need a cane? My girlfriend said, "why doesn't he just sit still and use the force to move his light saber?" Now that would've been cool! How come my girlfriend can think of that, but not George Lucas? The whole Jango Fett and Boba Fett dealy was just carrying the whole family thing too far. It just felt like the story was shoe horned between Episode I and the original trilogy. The story was very disjointed. But does that mean you shouldn't go see it? No. For one, the effects are incredible. The only way you'll see them in full glory is in a movie theater. And secondly, The Matrix Reloaded teaser trailer is worth the price of admission alone.
I agree. The iPod holds days worth of music as opposed to hours. Bringing along more discs makes the unit less portable with every disc. A stack or two of discs is like bringing multiple units along in terms of size. I like using my iPod for travel. While listening to it in a car, you don't have to fumble around for discs and killing yourself in accident. I bring the pod to work too. I don't have to decide what kind of music I want to listen to before the day and grab a bunch of stuff. There's enough room on the iPod for a big variety. Playlists take the place of discs in terms of music mixes. Playlists also make good use of resources. If I reference a song multiple times from different playlists, it doesn't duplicate the song.
I guess I just really like the iPod. Big storage, small space, and battery life that just keeps going, plus it's easy to recharge. To me, the iPod IS portable music.
-- are there any iTunes users here who can tell me what it does if you rip a CD when you're not connected to the net?
It pretty much just give you a generic set of names. You can hand type in everything if you want. It also stores that info so if you stick that disc in again, it'll come up with the information you entered.
This is what the cube should have been. I remember when the rumors were flying on that one. My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw the price. The Cube would've been successful if they would have had a price below $1,000.
I'd say Summer is a long way from Feburary. They simply can't wait that long. If they don't upgrade the G4 line, the iMacs will kill off G4 desktop sales since iMacs are only slightly slower, but loads cheaper.
Besides, the G4 Apollo chip is ready to go. They could at least break the Ghz barrier with the G4 line. Then in summer annouce the new G5 towers.
Would a true audiophile use a compressed digital format though? At this price range, this device is targeting two groups.
1. Gadget geeks with loads of cash.
2. Audiophiles who demand the best.
These are smaller markets. It's hard to imagine a true audiophile who listens to most of his/her music in MP3 format. These are the people who complain that CD's are still missing something. They may be fine for most people, but if we are talking abut "most" people, then "most" people don't spend "$1500" on a piece of stereo equipment.
Immoral or not, I laughed my ass off when I first beat an innocent pedistrian to death with a club. It's almost so ridculous, that it's like cartoon violence. You'd have to be a freak to get off on that in real life.
Why are movie studios so worried about priacy of DVDs? The DVD market exploded on to the scene. I for one haven't seen too much priacy in this format. I also purchase movies at a rate I never thought possible. I don't see priacy becoming that big of deal. There's just something about DVDs that make them so collectable.
According to the manual, the control plug seperates in the middle so that if/when you yank your controller, the whole system doesn't come crashing down. It's says the Xbox could hurt small children. So it's a sort of quick release. At 10 pounds, I'd say it could kill small children.
Halo is lots of fun, but after getting Metal Gear Solid 2, I really wonder why I got this box...
Slashdot Mirror
QuickTime can do 2 pass VBR MPEG4 encoding. The problem/great part about quicktime is it give you a shitload(TM) of possible encoders. Unless you know what your doing there are all sorts of ways to fuck it up. QuickTime is still the most capable and clean looking compressed video I've seen if you use it properly.
It includes OS X 10.3 and iLife.
"He did it with ATI a couple of years ago when they had a press release slip out days in advance of MacWorld expo. Apple refused to sell the ATI cards they had prepped for the new Macs."
Which is bullshit. I'm sick of losing stuff because Steve Job's is pissed off at Company B for this or that. I mean, isn't just a little bit TOO pissy. Why is punishing his customers for what a rumor web site did?
I'll admit it. I'm a total Apple Geek. I salivate over these events. And I'm really pissed about not being able to see it live. We always watch the event here with all our co-workers over lunch and have a grand time. It's like apple geek superbowl. This sucks!
That sort of ideal doesn't really work in the real world. Our clients use IE, as does about 94% of their customers. While I personally still write web standard code, I have to write CSS and HTML that is a lot more complex to make sure it works on IE. It would take a lot less time if everything worked like Firefox or Safari, but the client is paying the bills. They don't care about our nobel goal of making obsolete browsers shrink into the background. Heck, they don't care about version numbers either. I'd be happy just to get rid of IE 5.5 users.
:P
The point is, the client pays the bills, which pays my pay check, which gives me food, shelter, and video games. If you call that coddling, you must be independently wealthy. Of course we code for IE. Just don't do it on your personal site.
People said no will buy a $3500 monitor back when the 23" CInema Display came out. Obiviously someone bought it. I even know a few who did. While I admit, this seems to be pushing the boundaries of what someone may pay for a monitor, I do think there are people who will buy it. Video Editing Suites will probably have one in each master suite. I could see it as a master video monitor for the client to look at while they sit on the other side of the room in their plush leather couch (video suites are nice and usually full of a million or so dollars worth of equipment and furniture, at least the nicer ones I've seen.). They may not reflect a huge number, but it does start making the technology available to those who would use it. Hopefully bring down the price after it's been on the market for awhile. Early adopters almost always get the premium price.
It works for crack.
Looks like they finally fixed the Flash keyUp command. This caused a lot of panic when I made a rock 'em sock 'em robots game in Flash. It would detect keyDown, but not keyUp. Pretty stupid. I guess it's been a known issue since the beta. I wasn't happy hearing that they released it as 1.0 with the bug still there.
Anyone interested can check out the game here:
http://www.ek-g.com/holiday/robofight/index.html
AAC is an open standard. The DRM that Apple uses (made) is their own. I think they were open to licensing the DRM model for ACC. I seem to remeber reading something like that.
The ACC files I make with iTunes from ripping other CDs are DRM free.
If the Macintosh OS ever became dominant, the tables would turn
I hope the tables do turn, and the Mac becomes the dominant OS. I can imagine a worse world with Macs on peoples desktops and Linux on our workstations and severs.
You'd need less than the typical 20" CRT. I;ve got one of those giants on my work machine. It's starting to look like an old 70's muscle car next to these slick sexy LCD products.
Speaking as a web developer, I say it's a poor company that only codes for one browser. I know I wouldn't have it and our clients wouldn't either. Any web developer that codes for one browser type is unprofessional and and cheating their client in my opinion.
Ooo... One of my best video game childhood memories was buying and 8-pack (still in glass bottles then) of Moutain Dew and renting Actraiser and playing it all night and well into the next morning. Detrimined to beat the game before I had to return it the next day. Rental periods were smaller back then.
Something about that game that just made you want to keep going.
This is my review from: http://www.instantcool.com/reviews/scifi/star_wars 2.php
So I just got back for seeing Star War Episode II: Attack of the Clones. So, what did I think of it? I guess it's hard to sum up. Let me at least say this, it does make up for some of Episode I's deficiencies. But what is it about these new Star Wars movies that feels so foreign? Both sets of movies had great special effects. Both sets had questionable acting. Setting the film critic in me aside, there was just no joy in this movie. As with Episode I, Attack of the Clones "sounds good on paper," but something is missing.
Story wise, the original Star Wars (Episode IV: A New Hope if I must) had it locked up. The tale is classic and had all the underpinnings of an epic. It's Greek mythology style story of young normal lad that would ascend to greatness had a charm and innocence all it's own. Add a colorful cast of characters, some great special effects (even now if you ask me), a plot that isn't overly complicated and you have a movie that's interesting, original, and just plain fun. Not to mention epic making and the one of the most influential films of all time. The Empire Strikes Back just plain kicked ass. It was a proper continuation of the Star Wars story and left you wanting more. Return of the Jedi should've been our first hint at where the saga would take us. Jedi started to tell us that Star Wars was for kids. Ewoks saving the galaxy is just not a good way to end an epic, you know. Although I always felt Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker's final showdown made up for a lot of Jedi's problems. Still, it did make Star Wars feel like a kids movie and thus it sorta tarnished the series as a whole.
I know a lot of us hard-core fans were kids when we saw the original trilogy, but does that really make it a kid's movie? I think not. Kids are smarter than we think. They know when you are talking down to them. I'm sure George Lucas he was giving his audience (children) what he thought they wanted. But I think what he missed is that kids wanted an adult world. As a kid, when I saw Star Wars, I didn't feel like I was watching a kid's movie. If anything, I felt like I was invited to see an adult movie with my parents. That made it more special. Kids want to see an adult world that isn't boring like their teacher's or parent's. They want an adult world that's fun and exciting. Something that makes them feel like they can do whatever they want when they grow up. This why most of us in the so-called "Generation X" (I prefer Generation X-Wing) really live our lives differently from our parents. We are not Ward Cleaver. We still play video games. We still eat pizza for breakfast. We still have our imagination. We still have fun because we saw that we could do whatever we wanted when we got older. We could still have fun and excitement when we got older. Do we owe that to Star Wars? I think so. At least, that's what Star Wars has meant to me. I wonder if these new Star Wars movies will mean that much to the new generation? Or will they sit it next to the Power Rangers as their youthful entertainment.
Although Episode II had much less of the kiddy feel to it that Episode I had, it still felt like they were holding back punches. Don't want to upset the parents who brought their children. But is that the problem? Is it too much of a kiddy feel with Star Wars losing it's core audience? Is it just bad storytelling? Is it bad directing? Not completely. These things certainly didn't help, but I noticed something when watching a few scenes of R2-D2 and C3PO. Watching them made me feel like I was watching Star Wars again. It felt right. So is it the characters that make Episode I and II seem so foreign? Definitely. Even Ewoks couldn't kill the Star Wars feel of Return of the Jedi. So what's Episode I and II missing? I'll tell you.
Han Solo
That's right. Han Fucking Solo. There is just no character like him in the current movies cast. Han Solo's character added some color to the drab boring Jedi. Sarcasm to the whimsical droids. The smack down to whiney little upstarts that ask him what that flashing is. Han Solo represents the fun that is missing from the current Star Wars line up. Without him (or a character like him) to bring the rest of the cast alive, it just doesn't feel like Star Wars.
Conclusions
So did I hate this film? No. It was a much better film than Episode I. It does show that Lucas has at least tried to listen to the fans. Maybe Episode III will be more like the Star Wars I remember. It does make me want to look at the series as a whole when they are all completed. There were things I didn't like, but things I did. I did like seeing Yoda lay down some serious force powers, but I don't know if I care for a Muppet flying around fighting a light-saber battle. If he can do that, why does he need a cane? My girlfriend said, "why doesn't he just sit still and use the force to move his light saber?" Now that would've been cool! How come my girlfriend can think of that, but not George Lucas? The whole Jango Fett and Boba Fett dealy was just carrying the whole family thing too far. It just felt like the story was shoe horned between Episode I and the original trilogy. The story was very disjointed. But does that mean you shouldn't go see it? No. For one, the effects are incredible. The only way you'll see them in full glory is in a movie theater. And secondly, The Matrix Reloaded teaser trailer is worth the price of admission alone.
I agree. The iPod holds days worth of music as opposed to hours. Bringing along more discs makes the unit less portable with every disc. A stack or two of discs is like bringing multiple units along in terms of size. I like using my iPod for travel. While listening to it in a car, you don't have to fumble around for discs and killing yourself in accident. I bring the pod to work too. I don't have to decide what kind of music I want to listen to before the day and grab a bunch of stuff. There's enough room on the iPod for a big variety. Playlists take the place of discs in terms of music mixes. Playlists also make good use of resources. If I reference a song multiple times from different playlists, it doesn't duplicate the song.
I guess I just really like the iPod. Big storage, small space, and battery life that just keeps going, plus it's easy to recharge. To me, the iPod IS portable music.
-- are there any iTunes users here who can tell me what it does if you rip a CD when you're not connected to the net?
It pretty much just give you a generic set of names. You can hand type in everything if you want. It also stores that info so if you stick that disc in again, it'll come up with the information you entered.
If Slashdot allowed moderation of articles themselves, I think Katz's would be labeled as Flambait.
You will never seen a Microsoft or AOL exec talking about how cool the their companies or products are...
p eg
Yeah, sure.
http://www.instantcool.com/video/dancemonkeyboy.m
This is what the cube should have been. I remember when the rumors were flying on that one. My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw the price. The Cube would've been successful if they would have had a price below $1,000.
I'd say Summer is a long way from Feburary. They simply can't wait that long. If they don't upgrade the G4 line, the iMacs will kill off G4 desktop sales since iMacs are only slightly slower, but loads cheaper.
Besides, the G4 Apollo chip is ready to go. They could at least break the Ghz barrier with the G4 line. Then in summer annouce the new G5 towers.
Would a true audiophile use a compressed digital format though? At this price range, this device is targeting two groups.
1. Gadget geeks with loads of cash.
2. Audiophiles who demand the best.
These are smaller markets. It's hard to imagine a true audiophile who listens to most of his/her music in MP3 format. These are the people who complain that CD's are still missing something. They may be fine for most people, but if we are talking abut "most" people, then "most" people don't spend "$1500" on a piece of stereo equipment.
Immoral or not, I laughed my ass off when I first beat an innocent pedistrian to death with a club. It's almost so ridculous, that it's like cartoon violence. You'd have to be a freak to get off on that in real life.
Why are movie studios so worried about priacy of DVDs? The DVD market exploded on to the scene. I for one haven't seen too much priacy in this format. I also purchase movies at a rate I never thought possible. I don't see priacy becoming that big of deal. There's just something about DVDs that make them so collectable.
I was speaking visualistically-wise. MGS2 shows the PS2 has the power to keep up with the Xbox.
According to the manual, the control plug seperates in the middle so that if/when you yank your controller, the whole system doesn't come crashing down. It's says the Xbox could hurt small children. So it's a sort of quick release. At 10 pounds, I'd say it could kill small children.
Halo is lots of fun, but after getting Metal Gear Solid 2, I really wonder why I got this box...
Oh yeah, for DOA3!
Mmmm... Kasumi....
Extensive playtesting before release isnt that important - you can always release the patch later if the game turns out buggy..
Assuming you have an Internet connection.