granted that word and excel were practically taken from other suites
Word is a junk product as far as I am concened, but Excel 1.0 was clearly superior to the competition when it came out for the Mac. I know several people who dumped their PCs running Lotus after working with Excal. Of course they switched back when Excel came out for Windows.
Unfortunately Microsoft's market position has effectively quashed any attempts to displace Excel as the standard spreadsheet. There was a time when Wingz was better than Excel, and Lotus had a very interesting product for OS/2 for a while. This is very bad as far as I am concerned because Excel is really oriented more towards business users than I would like - which makes it harder to use for the scientific and engineering applications I am involved in.
Actually, it is applies to 12" singles FIRST, other companies have already expressed interest.
If I was running a company that produced music CD's I would certainly express an interest in a new copy protection technology, regardless of whether or not I plan to use the technology in the immediate future.
Where would doctors be today without the engineers who created their fine steel surgical instruments, without the physicists who designed and built x-ray machines and CAT scanners,
It is very unlikely that anything useful is going to come out of research in high energy physics. You are not going to be building scapels out of top quarks, nor are you going to be using the Higgs Boson to power a hospital.
The same money spent on biochemistry or biophysics (i.e. protein folding,. soft matter physics) work is far more likely to benefit humanity.
Didn't anyone even read the posting or article that it referred to before putting thisstuff up on slashdot???
1. This is not a copyright system, it's a copy protection system.
2. It doesn't prevent people from playing CD's in analog players altogether. The music available in two forms on the CD, one inteneded for traditional CD players in a copy protected format, and one for PC's, also copy protected.
3. This only applies to 12 cm CD singles produced in Japan.
And then on the browser side, which do you support? If you work at the sharp end, there are many incompatability issues. If you role out your own tested/debugged browser, you may as well roll out a dedicated client.
If you want a fat client, you use tools like Flash, Applets or ActiveX so that your code is running in a standardized container. You also get automated deployment.
If the research is in the area of high energy physics, then I can see why there may be a lack of interest in funding.
While R&D based on pure intellectual curiosity is wonderful, it also seems to me that one can satisfy curiosity AND work in a field like biochemistry that has a much larger chance to benefit society.
They were violating a civil contract, which is different.
I guess you are not a lawyer. While you may have violated a civil contract if you uncapped a modem, the fact is that you ALSO broke criminal laws. For example Texas has several state laws that include penalties of up to 6 months in jail for theft of cable services.
If I walk into a store and shoplift, say $500 worth of merchandise and get caught the consequences can include a felony conviction.
The fact is that what these people did was just as severe a crime. Now maybe the concept of the FBI actually making the arrest bothers some people, but in reality is that any different from the local or state police making the arrest? Probably not, in fact I would expect that the FBI would be a lot more professional about the whole thing.
Indian workers are much better than American workers.
Conclusion:
India should beat the crap out of America in software development.
Actuality:
America outsources a percentage of it's development work to India, but American is still by far the world leader in software development.
Reason: (my opinion)
India has never been able to implement anything like a market economy. Rather it struggles with the largest and most inefficient form of socialism imaginable. Time and again efforts to make India into a modern economy have foundered on the shoals of the world's largest, most corrupt bureaucracy.
You either lie, or you're stupid. It's very easy to buy a computer without Windows installed.
READ WHAT I SAID.
I did not claim that it is impossible to buy a computer without Windows installed.
What I said was that
it is impossible to buy the overwhelming majority of computers models without getting Windows shoved down your throat. This fact is what eliminates free choice by consumers.
The fact is that if I want a computer without Windows my choice is SEVERELY limited. Suppose I want that nice Sony laptop with the 16 LCD"? Can't get it without Windows. Ditto a Gateway or a Dell or almost any other brand. Sure I can get one of a few WalMart models, or I can build my own. Or I can maybe get a Dell server model. But the FACT is that my choice is severely limited.
Real choice in the computer market? I can have just about any computer I want SO LONG AS I PAY FOR WINDOWS TOO.
Don't tell me that users have choice. That's HORSE MANURE.
OK, call up Gateway and try to get them to sell you a computer without Windows pre-installed. Can't do it, can you? Or try running over to Best Buy and getting a computer without Windows on it.
Or try buying a Sony laptop without Windows installed on it.
The fact is that consumers do not and will not have a choice until the have the freedom to purchase any computer they want WITHOUT Windows installed on it.
Right now Microsoft has the market sewn up with these pre-installs to the point where consumers do not have a choice.
Like Hell. Markup is NOT the same thing as profit.
Profit is equal to revenues minus the cost of manufacturing and minus the cost of sales admin and R&D. Markup is the increase percentage of cost of goods (i.e. manufacturing cost) to reach the selling price.
Most businesses have to have 80% markup to just break even. In the US the average business makes about 10% profit on a 80-100% markup.
Do you think I can buy a computer cable for $5 from Tiawan, mark it up and 100% and sell it to you for $10 and make a 100% profit? No friggin way. I still have to pay inventory carrying costs, rent on the warehouse, salaries and benefits of my bookkeeper and shipping clerks, taxes and so on.
What Microsoft has to do is sell their product at a price that is about 7 times what their manufacturing, sale, admin and R&D cost is to achieve an 86% profit. If we assume that their sales,admin,R&D costs are essentially the same as their manufacturing cost (typical for most companies), that means Microsoft's markup is 1400%, or fourteen times what the typical US business markup is.
Microsoft has been, and continues to be the most profitable (as a percentage of sales) large organization in the world. Major products like Windows with it's 86% profit exceed any other known large scale product in profitability. And that includes products like cocaine sold by drug cartels that only averages a 50% profit margin, and the patented pharmaceuticals that people on this site whine about so much.
THE ONLY CONCIEVEABLE WAY THAT MICROSOFT CAN MANTAIN SUCH PROFITS IS THROUGH PRICE GOUGING MADE POSSIBLE BY A MONOPOLY.
But they are not "random access" like a hard drive.
Of course they are. Random access means that I can access data directly without having to read the entire volume preceding as in a sequential access device.
In fact, one of the standard performance tests that labs run on CD-ROM drives is called the 'random access test'.
Here is a product spec from Plextor that also lists 'random access time':
http://www.plextor.be/english/products/px40max.h tm l
If CD-ROM drives aren't random access devices why do the manufacturers and testing labs list specs for this??????
You can use `dd` to read and write to any part of a hard drive. Can you do this to CD-RW or DVD-R+R? No.
I use dd all the time to verify CDs that I burn.
Packet writng software like DirectCD and the Linux UDF patch lets you use a DVD+/-RW, CD-RW OR DVD-RAM drive exactly like you would a floppy or hard drive. There is also a DVD tools package for Linux that lets you format a DVD+RW drive as any file system, although some are not good choices because of the limited number of R/W cycles this media supports.
Think of it this way: Rewritable != random-access
That's what I said originally. A tape drive is RW, that does not make it random access. Likewise a CD-ROM may not be RW, but it sure is random access. If it wasn't, you would not be able to read data from the end of the track without reading the entire disk first.
As far as DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM, the primary differences are in the low level formats, not in how the data is accessed. CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM support packet writing, so are capable of random access reading AND writing. I can format a DVD+RW drive in any file system I want, just like I can a hard drive. The primary advantage of DVD+RAM is that it is capable of more R/W cycles than is DVD+RW.
Since CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R are WORM media, packet writing is not possible (you can't overwrite an entry in file block allocation table). That still doesn't prevent random access though - multisession drives allow writing at arbitrary, previously unwritten areas.
And of course ALL of these optical drives are capable of reading data at addressable locations, just like a hard disk.
RAM -- able to Read and Write -- as opposed to ROM (Read Only Memory).
Boink!!
RAM = Random Access Memory (any CD, DVD, DRAM) SAM = Sequential Access Memory (tape drives) ROM = Read Only Memory (ie. CD-ROM) WORM = Write Once Read Many (like CD-R) WOM = Write Only Memory (i.e./dev/null)
Often the term RAM is used for Read-Write random access memory because one of the other common acronyms is not appropriate i.e. ROM. In reality RAM can be applied to any device that allows random access to the stored data, i.e. a CD-ROM is also RAM. This is why the terminology CD-RW is used, NOT CD-RAM.
Unfortunately some pointy-haired idiot decided to use the term DVD-RAM for what is really a DVD-RW format. This is a mistake (Pioneer BAD).
Yes, but Microsoft has already been convicted in the US for using their monopoly power to stifle competition. I think that this conviction in itself makes news of similar suits in other juristictions and other technologies quite understandable.
Personally I feel as a computer professional that Microsoft's monopoly has done a lot to prevent new ideas and technologies from reaching the market, and has in fact hurt the IT industry considerably. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to me that the remidies that are in place are sufficient to reverse this damage.
Perhaps the EU will be more succesful at coming up with a solution. I hope so.
Offer the ex-employer two rates - the doubled rate if they pay above the table (taxes, 1099 etc)- Or - The rate discounted by a third if its paid in cash
NEVER do that. This gives the ex-employer the ability to hand you over to the IRS.
When you work for any employer, you should present yourself to your employer as a professional. In return your should expect treatment as a professional. If you don't get it, you should decline to continue your relationship with your employer.
If a former employer called me for help I would eveluate the request using the criterea:
1. Would helping my former employer violate any agreements I have signed with my current employer?
2. Did the former employer live up to their obligations to me as an employee, and treat me as a professional?
3. Did my employment contract with my former employer include any provision that I provide such services?
If 1&2 or 3 are satisfied I would fax the person a standard consulting contract with my hourly rates. On receipt of a signed contract I would then perform the requested services.
What you don't say is whether you are supporting online sales of the products, or if this is just a brochure site.
If it's just the latter, all you need is some static html and a little templating. Certainly no database. I also don't understand why you want to change from asp. It's certainly more than adaquate for this job.
Therefore, the statement of pure facts is not protected. If you say 1+3 = 5 that's not an opinion, it's downright wrong.
Pure fact is very often a hard thing to come by. Sure, there are some things that are generally accepted, like 1+1=2. But how about Darwinism? The evidence is overwhelming, however political forces in the US are often succesful at denying Darwinism as fact. If free speach is not absolute, wouldn't the presentation of Darwinism be in danger from these forces?
There have been a number of scientific studies that claim to have found racial differences in intelligence. Most people reject these studies as flawed or biased one way or another, however what is the pure fact here? What does the German government take as a position in this regard? If I put up a web site in Germany presenting such reselts, and then presented opinions based on these results how would the German government react? Is Germany finding itself an arbiter of what a fact is when the reality is that there is a contorvesy in the scientific community over what the facts actually are?
There are not many things in this world that are accepted as absolute truth. Certain mathematical propositions are widely accepted as 'probably true' even though they have not been proven as such. Kurt Goedel proved that not all true theorems are provable within the confines of a self-consistent mathematical system. What if we assume that something is true, and later it is proven false? How does that get sorted out in a system where stating something is false when it is generally accepted as true is a crime?
The restriction of free speach is a very tricky business, and it must be handled very carefully, In the US there are a few things that are forbidden, such as child pornography. Even such subjects that appear on the surface to be beyond any criticism occasionally give rise to contreversy.
I own a DVD-Audio player that has digital outputs, however I don't use them because I have a few DVD-Audios that are encoded at a 192KHz bit rate that my amp can't handle.
DVD-Audio diske sound is audibly superior to any CD I have heard, and not just marginally; in particular the audio stage is much smoother and well-defined because of the presence of a center channel. I am less impressed by the effects of a rear channel - at least with the current state of the art. Audiphiles have long been aware of the 'hole in the middle' in a conventional stereo system - this is gone with these new formats.
As far as copy protection, both SACD and DVD-Audio come with ripable alternative formats - SACD has a CD layer, and DVD-Audio disks have a conventional DVD format audio layer. Since it takes a good deal of stereo equipment to do justice to DVD-Audio I am currently happy with the lesser formats for my other uses - car stereo, PC playback at work, etc.
I do agree with the article's assertion that labelling as to the copyability of DVD's, SACD's etc. is important, and should be required by law. Buyers should be making informed choices. I would also like to see some sort of requirement that fair use rights are protected (one generation copy support, for example) as part of any copyright legislation.
Ultimately of course I expect that any copy protection scheme will be defeated - for example bootleg ROMs for SACD players could quite clearly defeat watermark requirements.
It seems to me that the lifecycle cost of any particular application will vary markedly on the particulars of the situation. The concept that you can say xyz has a lower TCO than abc is so dependent on the particulars of the situation you cannot make generalizations.
Slashdot Mirror
granted that word and excel were practically taken from other suites
Word is a junk product as far as I am concened, but Excel 1.0 was clearly superior to the competition when it came out for the Mac. I know several people who dumped their PCs running Lotus after working with Excal. Of course they switched back when Excel came out for Windows.
Unfortunately Microsoft's market position has effectively quashed any attempts to displace Excel as the standard spreadsheet. There was a time when Wingz was better than Excel, and Lotus had a very interesting product for OS/2 for a while. This is very bad as far as I am concerned because Excel is really oriented more towards business users than I would like - which makes it harder to use for the scientific and engineering applications I am involved in.
Actually, it is applies to 12" singles FIRST, other companies have already expressed interest.
If I was running a company that produced music CD's I would certainly express an interest in a new copy protection technology, regardless of whether or not I plan to use the technology in the immediate future.
Where would doctors be today without the engineers who created their fine steel surgical instruments, without the physicists who designed and built x-ray machines and CAT scanners,
It is very unlikely that anything useful is going to come out of research in high energy physics. You are not going to be building scapels out of top quarks, nor are you going to be using the Higgs Boson to power a hospital.
The same money spent on biochemistry or biophysics (i.e. protein folding,. soft matter physics) work is far more likely to benefit humanity.
Didn't anyone even read the posting or article that it referred to before putting thisstuff up on slashdot???
1. This is not a copyright system, it's a copy protection system.
2. It doesn't prevent people from playing CD's in analog players altogether. The music available in two forms on the CD, one inteneded for traditional CD players in a copy protected format, and one for PC's, also copy protected.
3. This only applies to 12 cm CD singles produced in Japan.
And then on the browser side, which do you support? If you work at the sharp end, there are many incompatability issues. If you role out your own tested/debugged browser, you may as well roll out a dedicated client.
If you want a fat client, you use tools like Flash, Applets or ActiveX so that your code is running in a standardized container. You also get automated deployment.
If the research is in the area of high energy physics, then I can see why there may be a lack of interest in funding.
While R&D based on pure intellectual curiosity is wonderful, it also seems to me that one can satisfy curiosity AND work in a field like biochemistry that has a much larger chance to benefit society.
They were violating a civil contract, which is different.
I guess you are not a lawyer. While you may have violated a civil contract if you uncapped a modem, the fact is that you ALSO broke criminal laws. For example Texas has several state laws that include penalties of up to 6 months in jail for theft of cable services.
If I walk into a store and shoplift, say $500 worth of merchandise and get caught the consequences can include a felony conviction.
The fact is that what these people did was just as severe a crime. Now maybe the concept of the FBI actually making the arrest bothers some people, but in reality is that any different from the local or state police making the arrest? Probably not, in fact I would expect that the FBI would be a lot more professional about the whole thing.
Premise:
w ww.vedamsbooks.com/no18921.htmc om/news/ads/1994/AD942153.htmlc om/news/ads/1994/AD942153.html
Indian workers are much better than American workers.
Conclusion:
India should beat the crap out of America in software development.
Actuality:
America outsources a percentage of it's development work to India, but American is still by far the world leader in software development.
Reason: (my opinion)
India has never been able to implement anything like a market economy. Rather it struggles with the largest and most inefficient form of socialism imaginable. Time and again efforts to make India into a modern economy have foundered on the shoals of the world's largest, most corrupt bureaucracy.
http://www.vedamsbooks.com/no18921.htm
http://
http://www.aegis.
http://www.aegis.
You either lie, or you're stupid. It's very easy to buy a computer without Windows installed.
READ WHAT I SAID.
I did not claim that it is impossible to buy a computer without Windows installed.
What I said was that
it is impossible to buy the overwhelming majority of computers models without getting Windows shoved down your throat. This fact is what eliminates free choice by consumers.
The fact is that if I want a computer without Windows my choice is SEVERELY limited. Suppose I want that nice Sony laptop with the 16 LCD"? Can't get it without Windows. Ditto a Gateway or a Dell or almost any other brand. Sure I can get one of a few WalMart models, or I can build my own. Or I can maybe get a Dell server model. But the FACT is that my choice is severely limited.
Real choice in the computer market? I can have just about any computer I want SO LONG AS I PAY FOR WINDOWS TOO.
Don't tell me that users have choice. That's HORSE MANURE.
Consumers do have a choice at present
OK, call up Gateway and try to get them to sell you a computer without Windows pre-installed. Can't do it, can you? Or try running over to Best Buy and getting a computer without Windows on it.
Or try buying a Sony laptop without Windows installed on it.
The fact is that consumers do not and will not have a choice until the have the freedom to purchase any computer they want WITHOUT Windows installed on it.
Right now Microsoft has the market sewn up with these pre-installs to the point where consumers do not have a choice.
A lot of businesses have that much markup.
Like Hell. Markup is NOT the same thing as profit.
Profit is equal to revenues minus the cost of manufacturing and minus the cost of sales admin and R&D. Markup is the increase percentage of cost of goods (i.e. manufacturing cost) to reach the selling price.
Most businesses have to have 80% markup to just break even. In the US the average business makes about 10% profit on a 80-100% markup.
Do you think I can buy a computer cable for $5 from Tiawan, mark it up and 100% and sell it to you for $10 and make a 100% profit? No friggin way. I still have to pay inventory carrying costs, rent on the warehouse, salaries and benefits of my bookkeeper and shipping clerks, taxes and so on.
What Microsoft has to do is sell their product at a price that is about 7 times what their manufacturing, sale, admin and R&D cost is to achieve an 86% profit. If we assume that their sales,admin,R&D costs are essentially the same as their manufacturing cost (typical for most companies), that means Microsoft's markup is 1400%, or fourteen times what the typical US business markup is.
Microsoft has been, and continues to be the most profitable (as a percentage of sales) large organization in the world. Major products like Windows with it's 86% profit exceed any other known large scale product in profitability. And that includes products like cocaine sold by drug cartels that only averages a 50% profit margin, and the patented pharmaceuticals that people on this site whine about so much.
THE ONLY CONCIEVEABLE WAY THAT MICROSOFT CAN MANTAIN SUCH PROFITS IS THROUGH PRICE GOUGING MADE POSSIBLE BY A MONOPOLY.
But they are not "random access" like a hard drive.
n t/ random.asp
h tm l
Of course they are. Random access means that I can access data directly without having to read the entire volume preceding as in a sequential access device.
In fact, one of the standard performance tests that labs run on CD-ROM drives is called the 'random access test'.
Here is a link to a description of one such test:
http://www.etestinglabs.com/bi/cont1999/1999pri
Here is a product spec from Plextor that also lists 'random access time':
http://www.plextor.be/english/products/px40max.
If CD-ROM drives aren't random access devices why do the manufacturers and testing labs list specs for this??????
You can use `dd` to read and write to any part of a hard drive. Can you do this to CD-RW or DVD-R+R? No.
I use dd all the time to verify CDs that I burn.
Packet writng software like DirectCD and the Linux UDF patch lets you use a DVD+/-RW, CD-RW OR DVD-RAM drive exactly like you would a floppy or hard drive. There is also a DVD tools package for Linux that lets you format a DVD+RW drive as any file system, although some are not good choices because of the limited number of R/W cycles this media supports.
Think of it this way:
Rewritable != random-access
That's what I said originally. A tape drive is RW, that does not make it random access. Likewise a CD-ROM may not be RW, but it sure is random access. If it wasn't, you would not be able to read data from the end of the track without reading the entire disk first.
As far as DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM, the primary differences are in the low level formats, not in how the data is accessed. CD-RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM support packet writing, so are capable of random access reading AND writing. I can format a DVD+RW drive in any file system I want, just like I can a hard drive. The primary advantage of DVD+RAM is that it is capable of more R/W cycles than is DVD+RW.
Since CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R are WORM media, packet writing is not possible (you can't overwrite an entry in file block allocation table). That still doesn't prevent random access though - multisession drives allow writing at arbitrary, previously unwritten areas.
And of course ALL of these optical drives are capable of reading data at addressable locations, just like a hard disk.
But they were also parties to fraud as well...
Only if they go along with the proposition. If you just make the offer they could turn you in with no risk to themselves.
RAM -- able to Read and Write -- as opposed to ROM (Read Only Memory).
/dev/null)
Boink!!
RAM = Random Access Memory (any CD, DVD, DRAM)
SAM = Sequential Access Memory (tape drives)
ROM = Read Only Memory (ie. CD-ROM)
WORM = Write Once Read Many (like CD-R)
WOM = Write Only Memory (i.e.
Often the term RAM is used for Read-Write random access memory because one of the other common acronyms is not appropriate i.e. ROM. In reality RAM can be applied to any device that allows random access to the stored data, i.e. a CD-ROM is also RAM. This is why the terminology CD-RW is used, NOT CD-RAM.
Unfortunately some pointy-haired idiot decided to use the term DVD-RAM for what is really a DVD-RW format. This is a mistake (Pioneer BAD).
Remember, it's not a crime to have a monopoly.
Yes, but Microsoft has already been convicted in the US for using their monopoly power to stifle competition. I think that this conviction in itself makes news of similar suits in other juristictions and other technologies quite understandable.
Personally I feel as a computer professional that Microsoft's monopoly has done a lot to prevent new ideas and technologies from reaching the market, and has in fact hurt the IT industry considerably. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to me that the remidies that are in place are sufficient to reverse this damage.
Perhaps the EU will be more succesful at coming up with a solution. I hope so.
Offer the ex-employer two rates - the doubled rate if they pay above the table (taxes, 1099 etc)- Or - The rate discounted by a third if its paid in cash
NEVER do that. This gives the ex-employer the ability to hand you over to the IRS.
When you work for any employer, you should present yourself to your employer as a professional. In return your should expect treatment as a professional. If you don't get it, you should decline to continue your relationship with your employer.
If a former employer called me for help I would eveluate the request using the criterea:
1. Would helping my former employer violate any agreements I have signed with my current employer?
2. Did the former employer live up to their obligations to me as an employee, and treat me as a professional?
3. Did my employment contract with my former employer include any provision that I provide such services?
If 1&2 or 3 are satisfied I would fax the person a standard consulting contract with my hourly rates. On receipt of a signed contract I would then perform the requested services.
If not, I would decline.
If it ain't broke, get the hell out of there and DO NOT fix it.
Yes, and if the caveman hadn't realized that cooking his meat was better than eating it raw, we wouldn't have had the invention of fire.
Times change. Microsoft's way of doing business is like eating raw meat all the time.
Ten product categories, each with 8-10 products?
What you don't say is whether you are supporting online sales of the products, or if this is just a brochure site.
If it's just the latter, all you need is some static html and a little templating. Certainly no database. I also don't understand why you want to change from asp. It's certainly more than adaquate for this job.
And I guess this is why I run BIND 9...
Thank god I have my own copy!
Internet cannot be censured. When will these pinheads learn this simple fact?
a. It's censored, not censured.
b. You certainly can censor the internet.
Therefore, the statement of pure facts is not protected. If you say 1+3 = 5 that's not an opinion, it's downright wrong.
Pure fact is very often a hard thing to come by. Sure, there are some things that are generally accepted, like 1+1=2. But how about Darwinism? The evidence is overwhelming, however political forces in the US are often succesful at denying Darwinism as fact. If free speach is not absolute, wouldn't the presentation of Darwinism be in danger from these forces?
There have been a number of scientific studies that claim to have found racial differences in intelligence. Most people reject these studies as flawed or biased one way or another, however what is the pure fact here? What does the German government take as a position in this regard? If I put up a web site in Germany presenting such reselts, and then presented opinions based on these results how would the German government react? Is Germany finding itself an arbiter of what a fact is when the reality is that there is a contorvesy in the scientific community over what the facts actually are?
There are not many things in this world that are accepted as absolute truth. Certain mathematical propositions are widely accepted as 'probably true' even though they have not been proven as such. Kurt Goedel proved that not all true theorems are provable within the confines of a self-consistent mathematical system. What if we assume that something is true, and later it is proven false? How does that get sorted out in a system where stating something is false when it is generally accepted as true is a crime?
The restriction of free speach is a very tricky business, and it must be handled very carefully, In the US there are a few things that are forbidden, such as child pornography. Even such subjects that appear on the surface to be beyond any criticism occasionally give rise to contreversy.
I own a DVD-Audio player that has digital outputs, however I don't use them because I have a few DVD-Audios that are encoded at a 192KHz bit rate that my amp can't handle.
DVD-Audio diske sound is audibly superior to any CD I have heard, and not just marginally; in particular the audio stage is much smoother and well-defined because of the presence of a center channel. I am less impressed by the effects of a rear channel - at least with the current state of the art. Audiphiles have long been aware of the 'hole in the middle' in a conventional stereo system - this is gone with these new formats.
As far as copy protection, both SACD and DVD-Audio come with ripable alternative formats - SACD has a CD layer, and DVD-Audio disks have a conventional DVD format audio layer. Since it takes a good deal of stereo equipment to do justice to DVD-Audio I am currently happy with the lesser formats for my other uses - car stereo, PC playback at work, etc.
I do agree with the article's assertion that labelling as to the copyability of DVD's, SACD's etc. is important, and should be required by law. Buyers should be making informed choices. I would also like to see some sort of requirement that fair use rights are protected (one generation copy support, for example) as part of any copyright legislation.
Ultimately of course I expect that any copy protection scheme will be defeated - for example bootleg ROMs for SACD players could quite clearly defeat watermark requirements.
It seems to me that the lifecycle cost of any particular application will vary markedly on the particulars of the situation. The concept that you can say xyz has a lower TCO than abc is so dependent on the particulars of the situation you cannot make generalizations.