The problem, IMO, is that episodic television tends to dumb down the content. Having a sequential story, IMO does raise it to a higher level as it does allow a more complex and intertwined story. And IMO, yes, it really does raise it to a higher level when done well. Reducing TV, or keeping TV reduced to simplified stories, is an insult to the watchers, especially if few to no episodes have a meaningful impact on those following it.
Each episode of B5 can be watched on its own and watched in sequence as well.
Yes, there will be unknown bits but that doesn't mean the episode itself isn't relevant on its own without watching other parts.
Shows like 24 and Alias have proven that prime time TV audiences are willing to accept a continuing story. I've watched three episodes of Alias, and despite not knowing certain bits, I didn't feel punished for not having seen previous episodes.
I guess it shows that a monkey can be an editor. I think monkeys take food as currency, so it would be easy for the rest of us to pay them off to accept our ad-story like Roland Pimp'nquialle does.
Companies definitely should be held responsible for the data they hold, and the costs incurred by their mistakes.
But a driver that broke no law other than being at the wrong place at the wrong time shouldn't, and isn't necessarily held responsible. In the US, it really depends on the state.
Oh, gee. The guy is using microcontroller based hardware and yet has a computer to handle the feed timing. Programming serial I/O working under Linux is educational, but for this project, completely unnecessary, I think.
The only advantage I see is that it requires less hardware (outside of a computer, which the computer is a lot), no buttons or programming needed to allow a user to set a clock and set the feed time(s).
The system costs a lot, in part because the market is small. They aren't expecting John Q. Walmart buyer, or a Chevy or Toyota owner to buy these, they are expecting to sell it to the wealthy, the people that wouldn't blink at the cost of a Ford GT40 or Lamborghini or the cost of the clothing in fashion magazines.
The article doesn't state how much storage that extra $73k gets. Per drive, the storage for this system itself doesn't cost much more than an Xserve RAID.
I think the problem is people try to self-justify distributing copies which they aren't legally entitled to, and the same goes for the downloaders. As far as I'm concerned, if something isn't worth paying the asking price, it's not worth having.
Just because it can be done doesn't mean it is a legal or ethical thing to do. On the flip side, I don't like what the RIAA is doing either.
Patents are denied all the time. What often happens is that the applicants re-apply several times. Part of it is that there was a Congressionally mandated review time (I think three or six months from application) where it must be accepted or denied before the deadline. When the backlog gets to be too much, they just deny a bunch of them. Then those denied re-apply. I think the USPTO gets a part of the application fees too, so more money for them for each re-application.
This is from a former prof of mine that holds a few patents.
I doubt that any of the 1U servers have a built-in network switch, it looks like a 16 port switch there.
Not all servers need a fast CPU. File servers serving a 100Mbps connection can get away with a slot-A Athlon or a PIII. Database servers are a different matter, but it depends on how intense the work is, and how fast of a network connection it has.
Laptops usually look better than that. Well, not the 2" thick laptops maybe, but even those don't resort to lit acrylic fans (yet). To the unkowledgeable eye, it really would look like a bomb too.
Steering wheels make sense for racing games. They are still sold. It is one of those things that I don't think make sense when crammed into another style computer input device. Yeah, you can do it with a keyboard (no space!) and mouse but it doesn't make sense. A mouse isn't as intuitive as a steering input. A keyboard is less so as pushing a button isn't an analog input, but steering direction is analog.
But I guess it doesn't matter as realistic driving physics is outside of the gaming industry's grasp.
I still think plasmas and LCDs are too expensive from a college student perspective. Plasmas are probably too large unless you get a 30" model, if they exist.
For a couple years in college, I just had a TV tuner in my computer, with a VCR acting as the real tuner with a good remote.
How can they get away with this BS? It's like those computer stores that 'cash discount' their prices... Play on words to get around rules that prevent them from jacking up the price because you wanna pay by credit card...
I am with the previous poster. Credit cards are a convenience for the customer, in which the business is charged about 3% for Visa or Mastercard, another percent or two for Discover, which is yet another fee. They make businesses pay for it because they knew the cards wouldn't take off if customers had to pay the fee.
In a retail environment where net profit may be a few percent because of all the expenses, it pays to do this if they can to be more competitive.
I thought there was hardware to give truly random numbers, it just reads the noise in silicon.
A random error in a digital number doesn't seem to bode well. Might as well stick to analog for those needs, because one of the benefits of digital processing is that transmission and storage errors can be correctable provided proper correction algorithm, and computations can be re-run.
HD displays make DVDs look better too though. Even if you never get ATSC or HD discs, having a progressive scan display is a handy improvement, reducing screen flicker and all.
I think the difference here is that TVs haven't advanced much, and most people seem only accustomed to needing a new TV every 20 years. Some of those people are eager to pay a lot more money to replace their cars every three years, even though the actual improvement between cars is far less vs. switching from a 480i set to an HD set. Cars easily last 15+ years, so wear & tear really isn't an excuse.
The article says it is a plan to attract high-tech professionals. That would potentially increase their tax base.
Also:
"Many residents would want to keep higher-speed connections, said Bertolini, and would pay a fee for that. The county wants to avoid using tax dollars for the project."
I don't see how clock scaling is the problem being surmounted.
Fab technology is allowing companies to put down so many transistors that there are no effective ways to use them on a single core, to the point that a second core would be a better use of transistors. It isn't just Intel. AMD, IBM, Sun, Mot/Freescale and others are going or have gone dual core, and Sony IBM, etc. is going beyond that with Cell.
I'd save the images, but the flickr site displays the images as flash objects. The Muckromedia plug-in doesn't directly allow saving them, unless I save the entire page.
The other thing that occurred to me, is why do they feel like they have to upgrade? Why can't they stick with the version they have?
One way software companies keep the "herd" in check is by introducing new features in such a way that it changes the file format, even if those features aren't used. That way, people that wouldn't otherwise upgrade would feel compelled to do so to read those files sent by people that own the new version.
The ATSC PCI board I had supported NTSC too. Only the half-assed designs don't have backward compatibility. I need to get one before all the designs sold enforce the broadcast flag.
You are right that it will work on other sets. There only needs to be a means to scale the image. Most set-top tuners scale with at most a switch setting, and PC video cards scale automatically.
I wish that people wouldn't try to make a new broken file distribution system. If I wanted a broken file distribution that didn't work well in the real world, I'd use bittorrent.
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The problem, IMO, is that episodic television tends to dumb down the content. Having a sequential story, IMO does raise it to a higher level as it does allow a more complex and intertwined story. And IMO, yes, it really does raise it to a higher level when done well. Reducing TV, or keeping TV reduced to simplified stories, is an insult to the watchers, especially if few to no episodes have a meaningful impact on those following it.
Each episode of B5 can be watched on its own and watched in sequence as well.
Yes, there will be unknown bits but that doesn't mean the episode itself isn't relevant on its own without watching other parts.
Shows like 24 and Alias have proven that prime time TV audiences are willing to accept a continuing story. I've watched three episodes of Alias, and despite not knowing certain bits, I didn't feel punished for not having seen previous episodes.
Compete? On free? How does that pay for the service? Panhandlers at the door?
I can do without usenet. I can do without the myriad IM protocols too, I don't use any of them. I don't think either will go away though.
I guess it shows that a monkey can be an editor. I think monkeys take food as currency, so it would be easy for the rest of us to pay them off to accept our ad-story like Roland Pimp'nquialle does.
I don't think the two necessarily connect.
Companies definitely should be held responsible for the data they hold, and the costs incurred by their mistakes.
But a driver that broke no law other than being at the wrong place at the wrong time shouldn't, and isn't necessarily held responsible. In the US, it really depends on the state.
Oh, gee. The guy is using microcontroller based hardware and yet has a computer to handle the feed timing. Programming serial I/O working under Linux is educational, but for this project, completely unnecessary, I think.
The only advantage I see is that it requires less hardware (outside of a computer, which the computer is a lot), no buttons or programming needed to allow a user to set a clock and set the feed time(s).
The system costs a lot, in part because the market is small. They aren't expecting John Q. Walmart buyer, or a Chevy or Toyota owner to buy these, they are expecting to sell it to the wealthy, the people that wouldn't blink at the cost of a Ford GT40 or Lamborghini or the cost of the clothing in fashion magazines.
The article doesn't state how much storage that extra $73k gets. Per drive, the storage for this system itself doesn't cost much more than an Xserve RAID.
I think the problem is people try to self-justify distributing copies which they aren't legally entitled to, and the same goes for the downloaders. As far as I'm concerned, if something isn't worth paying the asking price, it's not worth having.
Just because it can be done doesn't mean it is a legal or ethical thing to do. On the flip side, I don't like what the RIAA is doing either.
Patents are denied all the time. What often happens is that the applicants re-apply several times. Part of it is that there was a Congressionally mandated review time (I think three or six months from application) where it must be accepted or denied before the deadline. When the backlog gets to be too much, they just deny a bunch of them. Then those denied re-apply. I think the USPTO gets a part of the application fees too, so more money for them for each re-application.
This is from a former prof of mine that holds a few patents.
Don't pay list prices.
I was looking in the Best Buy flyer today and they have maybe ten CDs at $10, another ten at $12.
If you only liked a couple tracks, you can sample online with many stores.
I doubt that any of the 1U servers have a built-in network switch, it looks like a 16 port switch there.
Not all servers need a fast CPU. File servers serving a 100Mbps connection can get away with a slot-A Athlon or a PIII. Database servers are a different matter, but it depends on how intense the work is, and how fast of a network connection it has.
As far as I'm concerned, the US government is turning a blind eye to Microsoft's activities, effectively being a blank check to do anything they want.
BTW: 1/2 of all workers on the Airbus A380 project are USA workers.
Laptops usually look better than that. Well, not the 2" thick laptops maybe, but even those don't resort to lit acrylic fans (yet). To the unkowledgeable eye, it really would look like a bomb too.
Steering wheels make sense for racing games. They are still sold. It is one of those things that I don't think make sense when crammed into another style computer input device. Yeah, you can do it with a keyboard (no space!) and mouse but it doesn't make sense. A mouse isn't as intuitive as a steering input. A keyboard is less so as pushing a button isn't an analog input, but steering direction is analog.
But I guess it doesn't matter as realistic driving physics is outside of the gaming industry's grasp.
I still think plasmas and LCDs are too expensive from a college student perspective. Plasmas are probably too large unless you get a 30" model, if they exist.
For a couple years in college, I just had a TV tuner in my computer, with a VCR acting as the real tuner with a good remote.
How can they get away with this BS? It's like those computer stores that 'cash discount' their prices... Play on words to get around rules that prevent them from jacking up the price because you wanna pay by credit card...
I am with the previous poster. Credit cards are a convenience for the customer, in which the business is charged about 3% for Visa or Mastercard, another percent or two for Discover, which is yet another fee. They make businesses pay for it because they knew the cards wouldn't take off if customers had to pay the fee.
In a retail environment where net profit may be a few percent because of all the expenses, it pays to do this if they can to be more competitive.
I thought there was hardware to give truly random numbers, it just reads the noise in silicon.
A random error in a digital number doesn't seem to bode well. Might as well stick to analog for those needs, because one of the benefits of digital processing is that transmission and storage errors can be correctable provided proper correction algorithm, and computations can be re-run.
HD displays make DVDs look better too though. Even if you never get ATSC or HD discs, having a progressive scan display is a handy improvement, reducing screen flicker and all.
I think the difference here is that TVs haven't advanced much, and most people seem only accustomed to needing a new TV every 20 years. Some of those people are eager to pay a lot more money to replace their cars every three years, even though the actual improvement between cars is far less vs. switching from a 480i set to an HD set. Cars easily last 15+ years, so wear & tear really isn't an excuse.
The Firefox ad was slow in coming. They raised the money very quickly but there was no word on what happened to it for a couple months.
The article says it is a plan to attract high-tech professionals. That would potentially increase their tax base.
Also:
"Many residents would want to keep higher-speed connections, said Bertolini, and would pay a fee for that. The county wants to avoid using tax dollars for the project."
I don't see how clock scaling is the problem being surmounted.
Fab technology is allowing companies to put down so many transistors that there are no effective ways to use them on a single core, to the point that a second core would be a better use of transistors. It isn't just Intel. AMD, IBM, Sun, Mot/Freescale and others are going or have gone dual core, and Sony IBM, etc. is going beyond that with Cell.
I'd save the images, but the flickr site displays the images as flash objects. The Muckromedia plug-in doesn't directly allow saving them, unless I save the entire page.
The other thing that occurred to me, is why do they feel like they have to upgrade? Why can't they stick with the version they have?
One way software companies keep the "herd" in check is by introducing new features in such a way that it changes the file format, even if those features aren't used. That way, people that wouldn't otherwise upgrade would feel compelled to do so to read those files sent by people that own the new version.
You will need seperate cards for ATSC and NTSC.
The ATSC PCI board I had supported NTSC too. Only the half-assed designs don't have backward compatibility. I need to get one before all the designs sold enforce the broadcast flag.
You are right that it will work on other sets. There only needs to be a means to scale the image. Most set-top tuners scale with at most a switch setting, and PC video cards scale automatically.
Given that it's on its third or fourth season, 24 is closer to 48 now.
I wish that people wouldn't try to make a new broken file distribution system. If I wanted a broken file distribution that didn't work well in the real world, I'd use bittorrent.