Agreed about Pixar, but I think I like Pixar films because of the people behind it, namely John Lasciter (I know I just butchered his name) and Steve Jobs. They know how to tell a good story and believe quality comes first. Pixar without those two probably wouldn't be the Pixar we know and love.
Quality creative projects are, in the end, often about people, ideas and creativity, and not a particular mechanization of the process. Knowing the motions is simply not creative work.
One of the things they did is Pixar often didn't just simply hire people that knew how to use certain bits of software. Often, they hired people creative and talented in what you might consider "old medium" (non-computer), these artists and animators were trained to the software.
P.S. The ability to manage people has nothing to do with one's school or even GPA.
Right on.
It takes a certain talent, skill, spirit or what have you to juggle everything properly when managing. It also needs to be backed up with hard work.
Some of the most talented people of this kind often drops out of college, for various reaons. Mind you, college is important for a lot of people, it just isn't for everyone. Anyhow, the president of the company that makes Lear jets wouldn't be qualified to start work there, but he formed the company from the ground up, he had the knack of knowing who to hire and what to do.
I forgot to point out that I do understand that Pakistan is quite a bit of a different country, pricing and availability is vastly different. The previous post was pointing out that you can too get a _good_ presentation projector for much less than what was linked to.
I wish I knew how to get older computer hardware to less wealthy and even impovershed countries that could use them, I think I might even have a spare video card of what they are using.
$15,000 USD is probably for a home theater projector or a very bright, very high resolution presentation projector.
Also, local supplies can't compare to the variety available on the internet.
I bought a 1300 lumen XGA projector, built by NEC, for $2300, and the colors are pretty nice. Granted, it was refurbished, but competing units new aren't too much more, Panasonic has one available for $2500 at some sellers, it lists for $4000. These aren't one of those cheesy overhead panels either.
The CDW unit you linked to is 7700 lumens, which is _very_ bright, for a lot of uses, 2000 is plenty. I thnk that Sanyo can be had quite a bit cheaper elsewhere, CDW tends to be pretty expensive.
While projects enhancing the flexibility of open source should be encouraged, I wouldn't expect that anyone would really want to use this to watch movies.
You won't necessarily win your case. I _think_ Cali has had a pretty decent track record of having their eco-laws upheld, even in Federal courts, against the "big three" auto makers.
Also, the point is, you don't build on property that you know is _constantly_ shifting. Sadly, beach front owners don't seem to understand that, and somehow they also expect the government to bail them out of the problems they dig themselves into.
Beach front building is just one example of people vainly frittering away natural resources.
Re:Cool...but an old concept
on
Water Computing
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· Score: 2
I know a guy that builds machines with "air logic". I don't think it is that different of a concept, both are fluids, although one is liquid, the other gasseous.
I think this air logic allowed him to run a machine in hazardous material atmospheres, where any risk of electrical components causing a spark was unacceptable. It was mostly for manufacturing and control.
I had one roomate that would get little violent, very mad and lot profane if someone called while he was playing StarCraft and wanted to talk to him. Needless to say, the girlfriend he had is no longer his girlfriend.
I hope they are doing this one better than that poor Tomb Raider movie. Jon Voight's daughter, whatever is her name,
One minute of searching on IMDB.com would have revealed it was Angelina Jolie.
just did not have large enough boobs to be Lara Croft.
I'm not sure one can have Lara Croft's video game cleavage could translate onto live action without looking like a joke, which the game character's cleavage looked comical enough as it is. I think they'd need a porn star with absurd implants to pull that one off on the big screen.
who's going to pay $100 more for a northbdirge when they can get another 500MHz added to their CPU for the same price, with much more impact?
Part of the issue was raised in a post a couple parents down, is if the CPU is starved for data, the extra clock speed won't do jack. And those that want the max performance would pay more for the fastest CPU AND get the most cache rather than trading off on cost factors.
For this very reason, I understand that one can get RISC workstations that have as much as 8MB of cache on die, on the processor card or next to the CPU somehow.
So, any additional cache would have to be hooked up to the CPU directly to possibly produce results, and that's out of chipset designer's hands.
Basically, if you want more on-die cache, that was in Xeon territory, where you pay a lot of money for a chip with the circuitry built-in, but I'm sure Xeons weren't available in 8MB L2s built-in.
Because the processor card idea seems to have been abandoned by Intel, recent iterations if Xeons max out at 512k L2. Cartridged PIII Xeons seem to be still available new with 1M and 2M iterations, with 700 and 900 MHz clocks.
And if the "eyewitness" is one that watches 24-7, unfailingly, always wakeful, always truthful? That is the camera....it never sleeps, or gets tired or hungry...it just keeps coming and coming, and it will never stop (given an ocassional replacement). It is the =Terminator= of witnesses...and I want it on my side.
Will it really be on your side? Do you have any assurance that the videos won't be forged? Do we really need big brother keeping law abiding citizens under his thumbs? I bet there are other unintended consequences that have yet to be considered even by the likes of Orwell, Gilliam and gang.
I also happens to be legal to record the image of anything, by still or moving pictures, that happens in a public setting.
I read about a recent case where people put "panty cams" on staircases and escalators to catch whatever shows up under skirts. These people were sued but the case went in their favor because it was in a public place where people had no expectation of privacy.
The problem with that is that I'm _certain_ that the people wearing skirts, particularly women, _aren't_ expecting to have their delicates photographed in such a manner in a public place.
No-one would buy this software there at full price as it's simply not affordable. With the pirated versions people gain knowledge and skills that can get them jobs everywhere in the world!
Exactly how did these people that can't afford software manage to find hardware to run it on? Did they steal it?
If all they got were four folks and 1,000 CD, then they weren't trying *at all*.
I think it must have been a "show".
I understand China performs a show whenever Western companies complain of copyright violations during critical negotiations of some sort, just round up and destroy a bunch of fake goods hoping that the West accept their claim that they are trying.
It sounds to me like someone is making payoffs to prevent a *real* bust.
My question is, if you gave a CD with this on it to a fabrication facility for distrobution, would they be able to reproduce that with the stamping hardware?
I am pretty sure they can, if they can make the glass master or whatever they use to press the pits into the CD.
I didn't think about integrating so many different functions into one HTPC, but I guess it can be done. I wouldn't run any analog sound through a PC though, the "SR" type links on the other devices can probably be controlled through the PC.
I did buy a darn nice NEC XGA LCD presentation projector refurbed for $2200. It happens to be pretty bright, I get a 11' diagonal screen and I can still turn on a light if I need to. I think one can get a _very_ nice HT setup for $5000 easy if you stick to the basic in terms of functionality and still keep up quality that is hard to rival.
The hard to rival part is quite true for me as I even know some people that have a TV/VCR combo where the screen was as wide as the VHS slot.
TIVO was a risk that first year. You coulda bought a 600 dollar paperweight. It's still a risk, in fact
As long as there is a subscriber base, it should still work. I don't own a box, the biggest problem I have with TiVo is that, IIRC, it requires that subscription to operate. I think it was Replay that allows it to operate without a subscription, so it is at least more usable should the service end
As for HD sets, I really don't think it matters as much as if nothing else, it can serve as a progressive scan DVD display. Given how much people complain about the quality of broadcast entertainment, they just might forget about it.
>>The argument being made that users aren't cheap skates, they will pay for good software.Users, including me, will pay for good software up to and no further than the point when equivalent, if not better, freeware/open source/[insert other it's-free license here] software comes along.I need that runs under Linux.
You definitely have a point, but for areas where there are a lot of wireless networks, implementing many of the suggestions make it annoying enough for the typical hacker where it is easier to move on to the next target.
A guy I know had a wireless network appear in his building one day... and it wasn't his... it belonged to another company in the same building.
He periodically sent pages to their printer that said in big letters, "The wireless network is insecure! Please secure your wireless network!"
I think that is funny.
I think that this might be the best way to warn of security issues. Certainly not contact them directly, if you don't identify yourself, they don't believe your credibility, if you do ID yourself, you open yourself up to liability, and any traceable method of contacting them is bad.
They still won't be happy, but happiness is rarely a response you get from anyone whose ignorance is blown.
FF CG rendering was good, but IMO, the motion sucked. Half the time the humans were stiff mannequins. I also thought that none of them had effective cheek muscles.
I think a lot of widescreen video projectors and plasma displays use resolutions in that general area.
It isn't "standard" such that you'd normally see it as an offered option on most computers, as mentioned elsewhere, you can get the video software called Powerstrip to customize your resolution.
There are config bits that prevent that. The PIC dies even have a metal layer over the copy protect config bit from deliberate resetting.
PIC security isn't the best, they can all be breached with a few different techniques, supposedly with a few hundred dollars of parts and labor. Sometimes people use some special method of overloading the Vpp pin so that the bond wire overheats and melts - that wire is needed in some of the bypass methods.
I bet that HD-DVD and this blue laser DVD are going to flop for putting a single movie on because the human eye isn't that presise.
Come on. There will be enough home projection systems, front and rear projection, that will be able to resolve most of that resolution.
One can take advantage of it by buying a bigger / better set (which the HD crowd has already done) and not sitting too far from the screen. Filling up a wider angle in the eye makes it easier to be immersed in the film, as opposed to watching a 17" TV from 13 feet away.
Have you ever watched a movie from a film projector at the local movie theater? Motion film is often regarded as having a resolution equal to or higher than 1080i, and I can see the film grain just fine, even from the back of the theater.
I have heard stories where video projector salesmen claimed that 800x600 computer resolutions are too precise. Pansies.
1080i has a 1920x1080 resolution, interlaced, which can be upconverted to progressive.
Not all "HD Ready" sets can resolve every pixel, but there are some that do, more will come. Some new computer monitors are that way alread, heck, Apple's studio LCD monitor has higher resolution than 1080p.
I don't expect HD-DVD to take off wildly very soon, it will be a strong niche market like LD was.
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Agreed about Pixar, but I think I like Pixar films because of the people behind it, namely John Lasciter (I know I just butchered his name) and Steve Jobs. They know how to tell a good story and believe quality comes first. Pixar without those two probably wouldn't be the Pixar we know and love.
Quality creative projects are, in the end, often about people, ideas and creativity, and not a particular mechanization of the process. Knowing the motions is simply not creative work.
One of the things they did is Pixar often didn't just simply hire people that knew how to use certain bits of software. Often, they hired people creative and talented in what you might consider "old medium" (non-computer), these artists and animators were trained to the software.
P.S. The ability to manage people has nothing to do with one's school or even GPA.
Right on.
It takes a certain talent, skill, spirit or what have you to juggle everything properly when managing. It also needs to be backed up with hard work.
Some of the most talented people of this kind often drops out of college, for various reaons. Mind you, college is important for a lot of people, it just isn't for everyone. Anyhow, the president of the company that makes Lear jets wouldn't be qualified to start work there, but he formed the company from the ground up, he had the knack of knowing who to hire and what to do.
I forgot to point out that I do understand that Pakistan is quite a bit of a different country, pricing and availability is vastly different. The previous post was pointing out that you can too get a _good_ presentation projector for much less than what was linked to.
I wish I knew how to get older computer hardware to less wealthy and even impovershed countries that could use them, I think I might even have a spare video card of what they are using.
$15,000 USD is probably for a home theater projector or a very bright, very high resolution presentation projector.
Also, local supplies can't compare to the variety available on the internet.
I bought a 1300 lumen XGA projector, built by NEC, for $2300, and the colors are pretty nice. Granted, it was refurbished, but competing units new aren't too much more, Panasonic has one available for $2500 at some sellers, it lists for $4000. These aren't one of those cheesy overhead panels either.
The CDW unit you linked to is 7700 lumens, which is _very_ bright, for a lot of uses, 2000 is plenty. I thnk that Sanyo can be had quite a bit cheaper elsewhere, CDW tends to be pretty expensive.
While projects enhancing the flexibility of open source should be encouraged, I wouldn't expect that anyone would really want to use this to watch movies.
You won't necessarily win your case. I _think_ Cali has had a pretty decent track record of having their eco-laws upheld, even in Federal courts, against the "big three" auto makers.
Also, the point is, you don't build on property that you know is _constantly_ shifting. Sadly, beach front owners don't seem to understand that, and somehow they also expect the government to bail them out of the problems they dig themselves into.
Beach front building is just one example of people vainly frittering away natural resources.
I know a guy that builds machines with "air logic". I don't think it is that different of a concept, both are fluids, although one is liquid, the other gasseous.
I think this air logic allowed him to run a machine in hazardous material atmospheres, where any risk of electrical components causing a spark was unacceptable. It was mostly for manufacturing and control.
I had one roomate that would get little violent, very mad and lot profane if someone called while he was playing StarCraft and wanted to talk to him. Needless to say, the girlfriend he had is no longer his girlfriend.
I hope they are doing this one better than that poor Tomb Raider movie. Jon Voight's daughter, whatever is her name,
One minute of searching on IMDB.com would have revealed it was Angelina Jolie.
just did not have large enough boobs to be Lara Croft.
I'm not sure one can have Lara Croft's video game cleavage could translate onto live action without looking like a joke, which the game character's cleavage looked comical enough as it is. I think they'd need a porn star with absurd implants to pull that one off on the big screen.
who's going to pay $100 more for a northbdirge when they can get another 500MHz added to their CPU for the same price, with much more impact?
Part of the issue was raised in a post a couple parents down, is if the CPU is starved for data, the extra clock speed won't do jack. And those that want the max performance would pay more for the fastest CPU AND get the most cache rather than trading off on cost factors.
For this very reason, I understand that one can get RISC workstations that have as much as 8MB of cache on die, on the processor card or next to the CPU somehow.
So, any additional cache would have to be hooked up to the CPU directly to possibly produce results, and that's out of chipset designer's hands.
Basically, if you want more on-die cache, that was in Xeon territory, where you pay a lot of money for a chip with the circuitry built-in, but I'm sure Xeons weren't available in 8MB L2s built-in.
Because the processor card idea seems to have been abandoned by Intel, recent iterations if Xeons max out at 512k L2. Cartridged PIII Xeons seem to be still available new with 1M and 2M iterations, with 700 and 900 MHz clocks.
And if the "eyewitness" is one that watches 24-7, unfailingly, always wakeful, always truthful? That is the camera....it never sleeps, or gets tired or hungry...it just keeps coming and coming, and it will never stop (given an ocassional replacement). It is the =Terminator= of witnesses...and I want it on my side.
Will it really be on your side? Do you have any assurance that the videos won't be forged? Do we really need big brother keeping law abiding citizens under his thumbs? I bet there are other unintended consequences that have yet to be considered even by the likes of Orwell, Gilliam and gang.
I also happens to be legal to record the image of anything, by still or moving pictures, that happens in a public setting.
I read about a recent case where people put "panty cams" on staircases and escalators to catch whatever shows up under skirts. These people were sued but the case went in their favor because it was in a public place where people had no expectation of privacy.
The problem with that is that I'm _certain_ that the people wearing skirts, particularly women, _aren't_ expecting to have their delicates photographed in such a manner in a public place.
No-one would buy this software there at full price as it's simply not affordable. With the pirated versions people gain knowledge and skills that can get them jobs everywhere in the world!
Exactly how did these people that can't afford software manage to find hardware to run it on? Did they steal it?
If all they got were four folks and 1,000 CD, then they weren't trying *at all*.
I think it must have been a "show".
I understand China performs a show whenever Western companies complain of copyright violations during critical negotiations of some sort, just round up and destroy a bunch of fake goods hoping that the West accept their claim that they are trying.
It sounds to me like someone is making payoffs to prevent a *real* bust.
"you could buy a pack of 25-cent generic CDRs, print little pine trees and snowmen on them, and use them as Xmas ornaments."
'You could also buy a pack of 1-cent generic sheets of paper, print little pine trees and snowmen on them, and use them as Xmas ornaments.'
But it wouldn't be sparkly or cool! Given the common $0.99 deals for 100 generic CDs, I think it might be cheaper than prints.
My question is, if you gave a CD with this on it to a fabrication facility for distrobution, would they be able to reproduce that with the stamping hardware?
I am pretty sure they can, if they can make the glass master or whatever they use to press the pits into the CD.
I totally agree.
I didn't think about integrating so many different functions into one HTPC, but I guess it can be done. I wouldn't run any analog sound through a PC though, the "SR" type links on the other devices can probably be controlled through the PC.
I did buy a darn nice NEC XGA LCD presentation projector refurbed for $2200. It happens to be pretty bright, I get a 11' diagonal screen and I can still turn on a light if I need to. I think one can get a _very_ nice HT setup for $5000 easy if you stick to the basic in terms of functionality and still keep up quality that is hard to rival.
The hard to rival part is quite true for me as I even know some people that have a TV/VCR combo where the screen was as wide as the VHS slot.
TIVO was a risk that first year. You coulda bought a 600 dollar paperweight. It's still a risk, in fact
As long as there is a subscriber base, it should still work. I don't own a box, the biggest problem I have with TiVo is that, IIRC, it requires that subscription to operate. I think it was Replay that allows it to operate without a subscription, so it is at least more usable should the service end
As for HD sets, I really don't think it matters as much as if nothing else, it can serve as a progressive scan DVD display. Given how much people complain about the quality of broadcast entertainment, they just might forget about it.
>>The argument being made that users aren't cheap skates, they will pay for good software.Users, including me, will pay for good software up to and no further than the point when equivalent, if not better, freeware/open source/[insert other it's-free license here] software comes along.I need that runs under Linux.
The problem is, If you really had a 4 meter wide screen, then you'd be complaining about the poor quality that a lot of downloads seem to have.
Remember, no network is completely secure
You definitely have a point, but for areas where there are a lot of wireless networks, implementing many of the suggestions make it annoying enough for the typical hacker where it is easier to move on to the next target.
A guy I know had a wireless network appear in his building one day... and it wasn't his... it belonged to another company in the same building.
He periodically sent pages to their printer that said in big letters, "The wireless network is insecure! Please secure your wireless network!"
I think that is funny.
I think that this might be the best way to warn of security issues. Certainly not contact them directly, if you don't identify yourself, they don't believe your credibility, if you do ID yourself, you open yourself up to liability, and any traceable method of contacting them is bad.
They still won't be happy, but happiness is rarely a response you get from anyone whose ignorance is blown.
FF CG rendering was good, but IMO, the motion sucked. Half the time the humans were stiff mannequins. I also thought that none of them had effective cheek muscles.
I think a lot of widescreen video projectors and plasma displays use resolutions in that general area.
It isn't "standard" such that you'd normally see it as an offered option on most computers, as mentioned elsewhere, you can get the video software called Powerstrip to customize your resolution.
There are config bits that prevent that. The PIC dies even have a metal layer over the copy protect config bit from deliberate resetting.
PIC security isn't the best, they can all be breached with a few different techniques, supposedly with a few hundred dollars of parts and labor. Sometimes people use some special method of overloading the Vpp pin so that the bond wire overheats and melts - that wire is needed in some of the bypass methods.
I bet that HD-DVD and this blue laser DVD are going to flop for putting a single movie on because the human eye isn't that presise.
Come on. There will be enough home projection systems, front and rear projection, that will be able to resolve most of that resolution.
One can take advantage of it by buying a bigger / better set (which the HD crowd has already done) and not sitting too far from the screen. Filling up a wider angle in the eye makes it easier to be immersed in the film, as opposed to watching a 17" TV from 13 feet away.
Have you ever watched a movie from a film projector at the local movie theater? Motion film is often regarded as having a resolution equal to or higher than 1080i, and I can see the film grain just fine, even from the back of the theater.
I have heard stories where video projector salesmen claimed that 800x600 computer resolutions are too precise. Pansies.
1080i has a 1920x1080 resolution, interlaced, which can be upconverted to progressive.
Not all "HD Ready" sets can resolve every pixel, but there are some that do, more will come. Some new computer monitors are that way alread, heck, Apple's studio LCD monitor has higher resolution than 1080p.
I don't expect HD-DVD to take off wildly very soon, it will be a strong niche market like LD was.