What I'd like to see, would be devices that knew how to talk to each other, whereby I can get an all in one device, or the seperate systems, and it wouldn't make any difference. I personally imagine all of this on Gigabit, and talking with something similar to Apple's Zeroconf (used to be called rendezvous, but I'm pretty sure it's got a new name now). Imagine a TV that advertised that it could accept audio or video streams, a DVD player that offered out video, a stereo that offered audio streams, speakers that would accept audio input, a wifi remote control that could find all of these devices and now wouldn't need a 8 year old child to program it;) It's definitely doable, I just don't think it's in the interests of the electronics manufacturers to go there yet...
The parent brings up VAT (or AVT as it is known in France) which stands for Value Added Tax. He's right to point it out, because many luxury goods cost much more in Europe than they do in the U.S. In France, the AVT is 19% (imagine having to pay 19% sales tax on DVD players, TVs, etc.). It's a very valid point, however the basic cost of living is much cheaper here than in the U.S. Fresh baked loaves of bread can be had for 20 cents. Bottles of wine for 2 or 3 dollars. Going out, you aren't expected to tip the bartender a dollar for every drink, and you won't pay 8-10 bucks for a single drink at the bar. Top shelf resteraunts are just as expensive, but the quality of food you get at your average resteraunt blows away what you're used to getting in the U.S. And, to top it all of, as a way of subsidizing resteraunts in France, most employees get these vouchers called 'Ticket Resteraunt' that cost $4.50 each and have a face value of $9.00, which is just perfect for lunch at a resteraunt. Most resteraunts have lunch 'menus' (think of it as a gourmet version of McDonald's #2) that typically consist of something equivalent to a steak, a glass of wine, and an after dinner coffee at this price range. (For an additional buck or two, they throw in dessert.)
But, of course, for the geeks who want to know about the gadgets. I just bought a 120GB hard drive and it cost me 80 Euro. Blank DVDs are around 50-60 cents a piece (as opposed to the 25 cents thats starting to be common in the U.S.) SFF computers will run you about 320 Euro, and yes, these all include tax, and are all a little bit more than you pay in the U.S.
Music is much more expensive (unless you shop iTunes Europe), and DVDs definitely run a little more expensive, though the bargain bins get to be as low as 3.00 each. All in all, I make less then I did in the U.S., but I live as comfortably, and I travel a lot more. (I've been to Spain, Ireland, and Italy already this year.)
Well, that's France for you... A bit off topic, but maybe of interest to see what it's like to live over here...
Living in France...
on
Vive La Loafing!
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I know it's kind of cynical, but I live in France, and this isn't vry counter-culture at all. There's a continuous struggle between those who try to take advantage of the system from the bottom (the "lazy" ones), and those who are trying to take advantage from the top (what we usually term "evil corporations"). The French are working on equitable treatment all around, and for the most part they get it. (36 hour work weeks, I get 7 weeks of paid vacation a year, great social care/ health insurace, and no, the taxes are almost exactly what I paid in the United States. They're only very sharp once you get to the 150,000 and up range.) The downside is that there are many who take advantage of this to try and bilk the system. I'm glad to be here, because they do right by me, and I try to do right by them, but the worst of the lot are really making things terrible for the companies that are trying to do the right thing, and aren't "evil".
Re:Uses existing signal and price is right.
on
RGB to become RGBCMY
·
· Score: 1
Did I miss something?
Most definitely. This is just like all of the customized MP3 decoders that came out that were supposed to "enrich" the sound by adding in the lost harmonics. They didn't fare so well because, ultimately, it was just a manufactured enhancement, and it can't compete with the real thing. This is like turning your amplifier up to eleven.
I know I'm paranoid, but that doesn't mean they're not out to get me. I sometimes wonder about the delays with IPv6. It's got built-in point to point encryption that can be enabled by default at the IP level, rather than having to support it at the application level. It would make any point-to-point connections secure, and I'm afraid we'll start seeing government mandated proxies so that wiretapping can be insured. Unfortunately, as soon as that happend, we will have lost...
Google could well be denied the use of Gmail as a trademark
It's not gonna happen. The Gmail trademark is useless to the other companies, because there's already public name recognition with Google. The only reason they're trying to grab it is so they can try and cash in and sell the trademark to Google. It's a form of legalized blackmail...
I'm not so impressed with Rare any more. I'm sure they must have lost whatever talent they have, because they haven't had a good game since the N64 days. Granted, I think Conker's Bad Fur day had one of the best stories I've ever seen in a video game. (Showing that dealing with human follies, and depth of emotion can provide immense depth to what was otherwise a dick and fart joke platformer.) I'd like to know what happened to the studio that came out with the Banjo and Kazooie series, and Goldeneye...
I'm of so many minds about this. Yes, we needed to know in order to fix this process. I'm glad no one tried to pass the buck. I'm disappointed that it took so long to figure this out.
I hope that we can use this as evidence the next time someone says, "Oh please, somebody thinkg of the children.. ehrm.. astronauts!" We know know what caused the problem, and we can avoid it in the future.
On the other hand, I'm already looking forward to the privatization os space, because I think the days of NASA are declining. For as great an agency as it is, it's got a terrible public opinionation...
Sukoushi veut dire 'un peu'. (Sukoushi means 'a little'.) No, you're absolutely right, there, reading Japanese is much more difficult. I was talking about gaining the confidence to speak, and the ability to converse with native speakers. In French, for example, you have 'moi', 'moins', 'moine', and 'mois'. To an American, they all sound almost exactly the same, and context is needed to decipher which, while the French can distinguish them on sound alone. (After awhile, an American will as well, but it definitely takes time.) The same is true for 'rue' and 'roue'... Not to mention, learning the French 'r'.
As am I. You should try French, it's worse. Japanese doesn't have some of the really disgusting tenses and conjugation that French does, and the pronunciation is much easier. (At least for American speakers, the French wouldn't agree) Watashiwa nihongoga scoshi wakarimaska. (Terrible spelling, I know...)
Talk about PVR done right. I've been a big fan of Tivo, and if I hadn't moved out of Tivo land (USA), you wouldn't be able to pry mine from my cold, dead hands, but this is very tantalizing. It doesn't put restrictions on you, instead trusting you to do what you should. You can put your DVDs to the hard drive so you have a DVD jukebox, it's based on open source, and there's a developer version. (Though I must admit, I wish their program was OS, I think there's room for both types of software.) Hell, if nothing else, just buying the device and installing MythTV on it would work, if you wished. The whole built-in webserver, CD-ripping capabilities, and it starts at $800! I'm going to send them an email to see if it works with PAL tuners...
In some ways, I think this is neat. Dynamic recompilation is starting to become necessary in a lot of software (SQL, for databases, the code for emulation, hell just providing a scripting language for customizing your software would make use of this.)
On the other hand, I've been kind of jaded by lots of little projects that didn't end up doing too much. Who knows? This could become another Sqlite (An invaluable tool in my toolkit that allows anyone to incorporate a very full-featured database into their code, with all of the code in the public domain. [As soon as I have something to contribute back, I will, but it's hard to do, since they do such great work, and quickly, too.])
I'm gonna give this a try, and keep my fingers crossed...
No, silly, it's a Taupe alert this week. The alert scale goes from Taupe, to off-white, then to Vanilla, and bone. You've got to learn to tell these colors apart!
It must have Jar-Jar, because people don't seem to want to work at LucasArts any more. They lost Tim Schafer, noted for "work on Day of The Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango" who's currently doing work on Psychonauts. (I'm eagerly anticipating this.)
I'm of the opinion that LusArts ditched what they were good at so they could try to milk the Star Wars franchise. Whatever happened to DOTT, and Loom, and Full Throttle? I used to eagerly await LucasArts new releases, and nowadays it's YASWG (Yet Another Star Wars Game)...
France, though it's not so easy to come here. (I was lucky enough to get a temporary contract, so I worked my ass off and they were so happy with my work that they brought me over. At this point, I have an unrestricted work permit, and even if I were to lose my job, I could still find another, or go on unemployment if necessary.)
If you want to try a European country, Ireland is one of the easiest at this point, though if you have any ancestry to call upon, that country usually becomes easier.
I've heard that Japan is pretty easy to go to (besides being like Mecca:), and if nothing else, there's a demand there for native english speakers for teaching english.
I thought this whole country was a free speech zone. Didn't you?
It's been obvious for some time now that this is no longer the case. I've moved out of the country because of this. I still keep up on politics, and vote to try and make a difference, but, at this time, I have no desire to live in the country I grew up so proud of.
make the protocol open, and people will re-write it to exclude the copyrights.
And well they should. I'm not saying that copyright should go away, or anything quite so dramatic, but as soon as you have a system whereby it's possible to physically limit free speech, you no longer have free speach. (Yay free speech zones!). Let the judicial system do what it's supposed to do, prosecute those who deserve to be prosecuted, and stay away from any new forms of enslavement like this...
It's not so limited. There's tons of space, and out of the all of this bandwidth we only get a few hundred megahertz of ungoverened bandwidth. I'm looking forward to UWB, as it is a (from what I understand) a low/no intereference solution that uses pulse transmissions (pulses are, by definition, all frequencies at once) to get around the issues with the governed spectrum...
Re:Life After Doom?
on
Life After Doom
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· Score: 0, Redundant
To be completely correct, there would be no "life after doom."
Leave a 2x4 in the middle of the road to act as a vigilante speed bump.
Lobby your local government to have a speed bump installed.
Both of these things will solve the speeding problem. Installing black boxes in cars will not solve the speeding problem. You don't need a black box to see the skid marks on the road, and they don't prevent drivers from going to fast. (Unless maybe you advocate mandatory speed restriction, and little RFID boxes to broadcast local speeds.)
My favorite game art is from Slashdot The Game (C)(TM). It comes with many different gameplay modes. For those who like camping in hidden places, theres snipe mode, where you constantly hit refresh, and then paste in a carefully prepared post as soon as a new story shows up. For those who are into party games, there's the mode where you say something slightly incendiary, or misguided, and try to see how many people you can get involved in the conversation. And, of course, there's always my favorite, try to post something witty or insightful to see how high a score you can get...:)
Sorry to say, but this is where the Patriot Act will come into play. You'll be marked as a "domestic terrorist" (basically anyone violating federal law) in no time, and then it's Go Directly To Jail, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200.
Let me just say that I want to be one of the first to start doing some homebrew coding on this. I imagine it would work wonderfully as a double-function PDA/Gameboy. What with the Wifi, Blutooth, touch screen, and the ability to scroll a web page across the two screens, I can't wait to get at it...
Slashdot Mirror
What I'd like to see, would be devices that knew how to talk to each other, whereby I can get an all in one device, or the seperate systems, and it wouldn't make any difference. I personally imagine all of this on Gigabit, and talking with something similar to Apple's Zeroconf (used to be called rendezvous, but I'm pretty sure it's got a new name now). Imagine a TV that advertised that it could accept audio or video streams, a DVD player that offered out video, a stereo that offered audio streams, speakers that would accept audio input, a wifi remote control that could find all of these devices and now wouldn't need a 8 year old child to program it ;) It's definitely doable, I just don't think it's in the interests of the electronics manufacturers to go there yet...
The parent brings up VAT (or AVT as it is known in France) which stands for Value Added Tax. He's right to point it out, because many luxury goods cost much more in Europe than they do in the U.S. In France, the AVT is 19% (imagine having to pay 19% sales tax on DVD players, TVs, etc.). It's a very valid point, however the basic cost of living is much cheaper here than in the U.S. Fresh baked loaves of bread can be had for 20 cents. Bottles of wine for 2 or 3 dollars. Going out, you aren't expected to tip the bartender a dollar for every drink, and you won't pay 8-10 bucks for a single drink at the bar. Top shelf resteraunts are just as expensive, but the quality of food you get at your average resteraunt blows away what you're used to getting in the U.S. And, to top it all of, as a way of subsidizing resteraunts in France, most employees get these vouchers called 'Ticket Resteraunt' that cost $4.50 each and have a face value of $9.00, which is just perfect for lunch at a resteraunt. Most resteraunts have lunch 'menus' (think of it as a gourmet version of McDonald's #2) that typically consist of something equivalent to a steak, a glass of wine, and an after dinner coffee at this price range. (For an additional buck or two, they throw in dessert.)
But, of course, for the geeks who want to know about the gadgets. I just bought a 120GB hard drive and it cost me 80 Euro. Blank DVDs are around 50-60 cents a piece (as opposed to the 25 cents thats starting to be common in the U.S.) SFF computers will run you about 320 Euro, and yes, these all include tax, and are all a little bit more than you pay in the U.S.
Music is much more expensive (unless you shop iTunes Europe), and DVDs definitely run a little more expensive, though the bargain bins get to be as low as 3.00 each. All in all, I make less then I did in the U.S., but I live as comfortably, and I travel a lot more. (I've been to Spain, Ireland, and Italy already this year.)
Well, that's France for you... A bit off topic, but maybe of interest to see what it's like to live over here...
I know it's kind of cynical, but I live in France, and this isn't vry counter-culture at all. There's a continuous struggle between those who try to take advantage of the system from the bottom (the "lazy" ones), and those who are trying to take advantage from the top (what we usually term "evil corporations"). The French are working on equitable treatment all around, and for the most part they get it. (36 hour work weeks, I get 7 weeks of paid vacation a year, great social care/ health insurace, and no, the taxes are almost exactly what I paid in the United States. They're only very sharp once you get to the 150,000 and up range.) The downside is that there are many who take advantage of this to try and bilk the system. I'm glad to be here, because they do right by me, and I try to do right by them, but the worst of the lot are really making things terrible for the companies that are trying to do the right thing, and aren't "evil".
Did I miss something?
Most definitely. This is just like all of the customized MP3 decoders that came out that were supposed to "enrich" the sound by adding in the lost harmonics. They didn't fare so well because, ultimately, it was just a manufactured enhancement, and it can't compete with the real thing. This is like turning your amplifier up to eleven.
Oz as an MMO setting!? I'm not sure I could stomach the prison rape scenes necessary for levelling up... ;)
I know I'm paranoid, but that doesn't mean they're not out to get me. I sometimes wonder about the delays with IPv6. It's got built-in point to point encryption that can be enabled by default at the IP level, rather than having to support it at the application level. It would make any point-to-point connections secure, and I'm afraid we'll start seeing government mandated proxies so that wiretapping can be insured. Unfortunately, as soon as that happend, we will have lost...
Google could well be denied the use of Gmail as a trademark
It's not gonna happen. The Gmail trademark is useless to the other companies, because there's already public name recognition with Google. The only reason they're trying to grab it is so they can try and cash in and sell the trademark to Google. It's a form of legalized blackmail...
Answer: no This is quite redundant, it's just so that you get a reply message so you know the topic has been updated...
I'm not so impressed with Rare any more. I'm sure they must have lost whatever talent they have, because they haven't had a good game since the N64 days. Granted, I think Conker's Bad Fur day had one of the best stories I've ever seen in a video game. (Showing that dealing with human follies, and depth of emotion can provide immense depth to what was otherwise a dick and fart joke platformer.) I'd like to know what happened to the studio that came out with the Banjo and Kazooie series, and Goldeneye...
I'm of so many minds about this. Yes, we needed to know in order to fix this process. I'm glad no one tried to pass the buck. I'm disappointed that it took so long to figure this out.
I hope that we can use this as evidence the next time someone says, "Oh please, somebody thinkg of the children.. ehrm.. astronauts!" We know know what caused the problem, and we can avoid it in the future.
On the other hand, I'm already looking forward to the privatization os space, because I think the days of NASA are declining. For as great an agency as it is, it's got a terrible public opinionation...
Sukoushi veut dire 'un peu'. (Sukoushi means 'a little'.) No, you're absolutely right, there, reading Japanese is much more difficult. I was talking about gaining the confidence to speak, and the ability to converse with native speakers. In French, for example, you have 'moi', 'moins', 'moine', and 'mois'. To an American, they all sound almost exactly the same, and context is needed to decipher which, while the French can distinguish them on sound alone. (After awhile, an American will as well, but it definitely takes time.) The same is true for 'rue' and 'roue'... Not to mention, learning the French 'r'.
As am I. You should try French, it's worse. Japanese doesn't have some of the really disgusting tenses and conjugation that French does, and the pronunciation is much easier. (At least for American speakers, the French wouldn't agree) Watashiwa nihongoga scoshi wakarimaska. (Terrible spelling, I know...)
Talk about PVR done right. I've been a big fan of Tivo, and if I hadn't moved out of Tivo land (USA), you wouldn't be able to pry mine from my cold, dead hands, but this is very tantalizing. It doesn't put restrictions on you, instead trusting you to do what you should. You can put your DVDs to the hard drive so you have a DVD jukebox, it's based on open source, and there's a developer version. (Though I must admit, I wish their program was OS, I think there's room for both types of software.) Hell, if nothing else, just buying the device and installing MythTV on it would work, if you wished. The whole built-in webserver, CD-ripping capabilities, and it starts at $800! I'm going to send them an email to see if it works with PAL tuners...
In some ways, I think this is neat. Dynamic recompilation is starting to become necessary in a lot of software (SQL, for databases, the code for emulation, hell just providing a scripting language for customizing your software would make use of this.)
On the other hand, I've been kind of jaded by lots of little projects that didn't end up doing too much. Who knows? This could become another Sqlite (An invaluable tool in my toolkit that allows anyone to incorporate a very full-featured database into their code, with all of the code in the public domain. [As soon as I have something to contribute back, I will, but it's hard to do, since they do such great work, and quickly, too.])
I'm gonna give this a try, and keep my fingers crossed...
mysterious color purple alert
No, silly, it's a Taupe alert this week. The alert scale goes from Taupe, to off-white, then to Vanilla, and bone. You've got to learn to tell these colors apart!
BTW - shamelessly cribbed from SNL
It must have Jar-Jar, because people don't seem to want to work at LucasArts any more. They lost Tim Schafer, noted for "work on Day of The Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango" who's currently doing work on Psychonauts. (I'm eagerly anticipating this.)
I'm of the opinion that LusArts ditched what they were good at so they could try to milk the Star Wars franchise. Whatever happened to DOTT, and Loom, and Full Throttle? I used to eagerly await LucasArts new releases, and nowadays it's YASWG (Yet Another Star Wars Game)...
France, though it's not so easy to come here. (I was lucky enough to get a temporary contract, so I worked my ass off and they were so happy with my work that they brought me over. At this point, I have an unrestricted work permit, and even if I were to lose my job, I could still find another, or go on unemployment if necessary.)
If you want to try a European country, Ireland is one of the easiest at this point, though if you have any ancestry to call upon, that country usually becomes easier.
I've heard that Japan is pretty easy to go to (besides being like Mecca :), and if nothing else, there's a demand there for native english speakers for teaching english.
I thought this whole country was a free speech zone. Didn't you?
It's been obvious for some time now that this is no longer the case. I've moved out of the country because of this. I still keep up on politics, and vote to try and make a difference, but, at this time, I have no desire to live in the country I grew up so proud of.
make the protocol open, and people will re-write it to exclude the copyrights.
And well they should. I'm not saying that copyright should go away, or anything quite so dramatic, but as soon as you have a system whereby it's possible to physically limit free speech, you no longer have free speach. (Yay free speech zones!). Let the judicial system do what it's supposed to do, prosecute those who deserve to be prosecuted, and stay away from any new forms of enslavement like this...
It's not so limited. There's tons of space, and out of the all of this bandwidth we only get a few hundred megahertz of ungoverened bandwidth. I'm looking forward to UWB, as it is a (from what I understand) a low/no intereference solution that uses pulse transmissions (pulses are, by definition, all frequencies at once) to get around the issues with the governed spectrum...
To be completely correct, there would be no "life after doom."
You've played id games before, huh?
There are two things you should do in this case.
Both of these things will solve the speeding problem. Installing black boxes in cars will not solve the speeding problem. You don't need a black box to see the skid marks on the road, and they don't prevent drivers from going to fast. (Unless maybe you advocate mandatory speed restriction, and little RFID boxes to broadcast local speeds.)
My favorite game art is from Slashdot The Game (C)(TM). It comes with many different gameplay modes. For those who like camping in hidden places, theres snipe mode, where you constantly hit refresh, and then paste in a carefully prepared post as soon as a new story shows up. For those who are into party games, there's the mode where you say something slightly incendiary, or misguided, and try to see how many people you can get involved in the conversation. And, of course, there's always my favorite, try to post something witty or insightful to see how high a score you can get... :)
Sorry to say, but this is where the Patriot Act will come into play. You'll be marked as a "domestic terrorist" (basically anyone violating federal law) in no time, and then it's Go Directly To Jail, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200.
Let me just say that I want to be one of the first to start doing some homebrew coding on this. I imagine it would work wonderfully as a double-function PDA/Gameboy. What with the Wifi, Blutooth, touch screen, and the ability to scroll a web page across the two screens, I can't wait to get at it...