Are these writeable?? If not, rule out smart card replacement. Also, if these were to replace credit card mag strips, why not capture the transaction past the reader and then re-transmit??
Any technology designed to help bypass scratches in the Media would inevitly make the cards easier to clone or fake. The would need to be less precise to compensate, hence your copy needs to be less precise. (Again, error correction defeats the purpose of the card. They have to shine laser light through at several angles, or expect the pattern to be less precise, most likely both.)
How would on-line ordering work?? Do I need a reader in my PC?? For those of you who say yes, reach over and get that mag strip reader out of your PC. Riiiiight....
I would guess that it would take 2-3 Years before cloning these cards is an option (Well, as much of an option as cloning mag strips) but thefts and fraud will still be happening in the interim. If I can record the transmitted pattern upstream, I can figure out how to re-transmit that pattern. If these cards have any of the conveniences we have become used to, like numbers printed on the card for online ordering, they are inherently insecure anyway, and Laser-Whoozie crypto won't help.
I can see some ways how this could be far more insecure than the current system. If there is a centralized database for authentication of these speckle patterns, there is a single point of attack. Also, there is a centralized location to watch for all transactions to take place.
This might make card duping harder, but not impossible. Also, the CC companies won't like the fact that these keys are totally "Random" and unduplicatible for them as well. Never expect a CEO to understand, "If you can duplicate them, so can other people." Hence, they will have a means of duplicating any particular token (or be unsuccessful), and it doesn't take long for that information to make it out into the wild.
Perfect Crypto??? Right over there next to my perpetual motion machine.
We began a company Intranet about a year ago, coding only for IE 5.5 and up. XHTML with CSS, etc...
Furgettaboutit. When we needed to support some Macs and make the site Mozilla compliant, it was easy. But you cannot be IE 5+ compliant and standards compliant at the same time. IE5 for Mac, don't get me started.
Blaming the innocent bystanders in the browser wars is ludicrous. The fixes to the errors he points out are not "standards compliancy" issues, but bad tags. The developer didn't check the tag because it did what he wanted it to do... Is that his fault??
Furthermore, we all know that "Web Developers" and "HTML Designers" includes a community that is 75% whackos who are not programmers, and not really that computer literate. (Of course I don't mean you...) Most of them have never learned how to properly scan an image, much less code clean HTML.
Your new song, "Lesbian porn full britney DiVX:)" should get downloaded from Gnutella at an alarming rate....
That said, getting your band heard is all about exposure, you wanna make it national, tour. In the ~7 years I played for a living, we toured over 100 days a year every year. Eventually we got to open for bands like The Police, Adam Ant, etc... This was where we got HUGE exposure.
On a final note, I'll quote Pat MacDonald's B-Side of life:
"Once I got lucky I had a band We had a song it got to number three Made lots of money Made lots of friends Had lots of pretty people hanging 'round me
Now all I want Is a place to hide To feel safe from the chaos outside A cold refrigerator A warm bed A place where noone will stick a gun to my head
We had the keys to the city But the rooms it did unlock Were full of overpriced portraits Engaged in cheap small talk
I buy my dinner at the 7-11 I eat it in the kitchen while I watch TV I like my free time and I love my wife I'm happy living on th B-Side of life."
~Jason "Once your face is public property there's no place to hide, it's either tele-crucifixion or tele-suicide."
Until we stop framing these discussions in the guise of moral values, and nebulous concepts such as freedom, (depending on your income you are at least 28% a slave) J.SP. will continue to listen to the *AA groups. Why??
*AA argument #1: "Were losing money right and left, and that will take the economy straight down the *itter"
*AA argument two: "It's stealing. Don't ask me if stealing is wrong, read the Bible" - H. Rosen
*AA argument #3: (This is recent, and really an example of how slimy these people are. -ed.) "These networks are being used by terrorists."
Don't appeal to their common sense, appeal to their fear. The geek community really does a poor job of scare-mongering.
It is a matter of access to technology and public safety. If terrorists (teehee) knock out the local cable company, how would you get news and information??
Consider DirecTV where you often need an antenna for getting local stations, how do you do this without a tuner??
Consider the destitute that cannot afford cable. If TV's were shipping without tuners, we would most likely be in a situation where welfare would have to consider cable a "necessity". (See Canada)
This is more than a technical issue, it is a social issue as well.
Reason: Your application is seriously fudged up. Just looking at the compiler output I can see it could have been programmed better by pre-pubescent baboons. Thank you for using Microsoft products.
Stack Trace: System.application.monopoly.apply: Not valid Monopoly already applied. System.errors.confuse: Error message retrieved System.slander.billg: "Satan" is depricated, use "Saint" instead. System.export.HTML: (Password:Admin) could not be sent to microsoft.com, please turn off Zone Alarm.
So, as the ruler evolved into the slide-rule it became easier to use?? I have noticed that VCR's keep getting more complex. Gone are the days of VCR Plus being a big item, and the interfaces are becoming more and more streamlined with less hand holding.
Jason's Rule #1: Any sufficiently mature application develops a CLI. It is necessary for scripting and automation. MS has even gone to Wscript which would give the knowledgable CLI access to most everything on the machine.
Jason's Rule #2: The less you change input devices, the more efficient you will be. The movement from keyboard to mouse is currently the greatest waster of productivity. A study undertaken by several newspapers found that most typo's (from touch typists) came within 15 keystrokes of moving from the mouse to the keyboard.
Jason's Rule #3: Simple to use, simple uses. The UI for a word processor is very different from the UI for an MP3 player. Now, we have iPod's wich are extrememly user friendly MP3 players. We also have standalone word processors. The iPod has what, 4 buttons?? Now design a word processor with those 4 buttons.
A computer runs both. Any UI that does great working with a word processor will be complex for an MP3 player, and the reverse is also true.
Jason's Rule #4: Any sufficiently useful application or method will be marketed as a standalone hardware based device.
Right now, you could get WebTV, an Archos MP3 player, and a playstation and satisfy most home computer users needs, for less than the price of a PC. This will only become more commonplace. I doubt if anyone will even be using a "computer" as we know it. They will have organizers, MP# players, etc.
The real key is to not allow legislation cripple what can be done by a standalone piece of consumer electronics, this will only lead to the PC being a necessity for using all of these devices. (Like it is today.)
EEEK! Just use an internal TV card with WinDVR or some other recording software. I'll admit that I have nbever tried to dub back to tape after this, but with compression from a straight screen capture, I can't tell how Muckrovision would survive...
Magnetic damage to CD's DVD's?? Hunh?? No, you HD is vulnerable to Magnetic damage because it is a magnetic storage medium.
The material that "holds" the data in most audio CD's is usually aluminum, and the way that the data is stored is through "pits" or tiny holes in the media. Other types of CD's use dye layers to "expose" these pits, and still others use gold and other substrates to hold the data. As such, most CD's are basically immune to magnetic fields unless they are *extremely* powerful. There are other types of CD's that do use magnetics (the Magneto-Optical CD for one) that could theoretically be affected, but it would need a far higher strength magnetic field for a long period of time than you would probably have. It is improbable that you would come into contact with these media in a music library (unless perhaps they are CD master pressings which are used to actually make the CD's at the factory).
I have no Idea what you think a "True History" wold be on a non write once media type. Do you mean like a Journal in a File System?? Not needed due to the unchanging nature of the write once media. History as far as backups?? Well, write once means it can't be overwritten, so properly stored it could concievably hold the history of a file system much better than a Tape backup that gets overwritten every third week.
DVDr is great for archives that do not need to be accessed often, and are more convenient that using 7 CD's for the same purpose. Law and Real Estate firms can use them for storing scanned contracts, Graphic Artists can use them for storing large layouts, or an entire portfolio.
Goes to prove, don't believe everything you read on Slashdot.
I work for a newspaper where we have just completed a cost comparison for CD based systems to DVD based systems. We have a large Image archive that was outgrowing our second 100 CD jukebox. Our quandry, should the new Jukebox be DVD or CD based.
4.1GB per disc (with double sided support not looking promising...) at 100 DVDs = 411 GB storage 100 CDs = 65GB storage. (roughly)
Our first look was at the costs associated. The Price difference between a DVD Jukebox and a CD jukebox was not insignificant, but was not a breaker. The writers have come down in price, and the Media is expensive, but not prohibitively so. So, from a simple cost perspective, the system was feasable.
However, when working with provided demo models, we found a 25% CHANCE OF BURNING A COASTER, with the write times being ridiculously slow. We then recalculated for the extra media expense and extended staffing. (The admin would need to keep a longer watch less often, but the CDs could be burned during the BU guys shift, now they will go past.)
With the addition of two hours employee time and planning for the purchase of 10% more media, the costs of DVD were slightly more. Then the vendor called, the DVD jukebox requires new switching Software that runs some $5,000.00.
So, we looked for used CD jukeboxes, found one for almost 1/2 the price of the hardware alone, and it still works with our old software.
Now, we did all of these calculations based on price per MB, and condidering the the DVD system has 7x the storage space, that also means it is 7x the cost. I feel confident that when we revisit this upgrade in 2 years the prices will be dramatically lower and the quality will be better. I still think you can't beat a $50 CDR and 0.20 media costs.
Unless you work for a company that enjoys having the latest and greatest (OOOH! I can access the SAN from my PocketPC with wireless.) I think you'd be better off sticking with the tried and true methods, wait for the writing SW to get more stable and wait for the standards to crystalize.
01 - That's my two bits 01110110 - That's the Byte I took out of "Crime" Hammy
I'll agree... I was intrigued by OS2 warp, much like everyone else, but with all of the Win95 installs I was doing after the initial launch, I had several copies of Win95 (warezed) and still have yet to come across that warezed OS2 disc...
I loaded windows.
The same goes for my linux boxen. Replace a $50 piece of hardware that won't work with Linux, or install that warezed XP Home... Not the same situation with you paying $200 to support a $50 piece of hardware.
Oddly enough, with WPA here and in effect, there is actually a downside to having a legit copy of Windows. My corporate version has no WPA, just that same CD key as always. I would never buy a home edition and deal with WPA. First and formost, I cahnge hardware too often while testing for clients. Having to call MS each time is not an option.
Had microsoft really been vigilant about protecting it's IP, They would have far less (valuable) IP to protect.
Figure in too the difference in table speeds between new and worn cloth (New 130, worn by 12 games 100...) Now take into account rail irregularities etc...
I don't notice washed out colors on my GBA after the install of the Afterburner... curious where you might get that notion.
The colors look "lit" as in viewable, so the red is red and not Maroon, but other than that I can only assume that you are judging by the photos circulating.
The Afterburner project shows that it is relatively easy to add at least a frontlight, which is a workaround made more difficult by Nintendo's refusal to use a backlit LCD in the first place.
From what I understand, the backlight relies on the LCD being semi-transparent, since the GBA LCD is not, a frontlight had to be devised. he key is to get a light source and then a distributor of that light. With a backlight, you put in a CCD and a diffuser. Assuming that this would raise the Price of a GBA to $150, (Price of a GBA and Afterburner + a little to pay the sweatshop laborers) users of the GBA have already voted with their feet and said the extra cost is worth it.
Why couldn't Nontendo release a Lit and Unlit version??
Also, Adam(?) over at Triton Labs knew next to nothing about LCD lighting a year ago. If you look over the pages at his site, It was about 6-8 months ago that he discovered a backlight wouldn't work for the reasons described above. So, in 6 months, he designed, manufactured, and shipped this kit, but for Nintendo it would have been "impossible".
Also, with the manufacture of so many 1600x1200 LCD's 22" diag. fully backlit, why couldnt have Nintendo used a 3" diag LCD with a backlight again?? They are already using an LCD... The backlight is that much an issue??
You must also think that Un-integrating IE is just as technically unfeasable as MS has been saying.
I installed mine, have three small air bubbles and some smudges at the edge of the screen. (OOPS!) The picture still kicks the s*** out of the unlit.
Big RECCOMMENDATION:
The directions reccommend putting the top cushion back on before applying the AR film. Don't. Had to redo mine twice, and that's where the air bubbles got in.
Playing your GBA without an Afterburner is like renting VHS tapes. Sure, it works, but you know there's something better out there.
From the press release: "Perhaps as important as the distribution itself is the apparent pooling of marketing muscle and a division of the world into areas where each distribution has relative strength: TurboLinux in Asia, SuSE in Europe, Conectiva in Latin America and the rest of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, and Caldera in North America."
Caldera is popular in America?? They are the only company to consistantly send me 20+ copies of their distro. I throw out the CD's and keep the cases.
Caldera Irritation #1: Caldera Preview Release - Get real, y'all ain't Windows or Apple, your preview release is all software I can download... Never the less, they sent two "Preview Editions" before 2.0, and 3 before 3.0. (4 before 4.0??)
Caldera Irritation #2: Lizard and Clint - Caldera has the absolute worst configuration utility on the planet. I am used to YAST, and Yast was not that bad in beta. I also hated that stupid desktop manager, I think it was Clint or Glint, yuck.
I must say, when I saw the per-seat license, I stopped considering Caldera a possibility.
Watch Part 1 and then 4,5,6. (***k Roman numerals). There are quite a few continuity lapses. Granted, there's still two more episodes to go, but this will probably exasperate the situation, not improve it.
Besides, how do you explain to the kids that the effects keep getting worse?? "Daddy, why do they fly those crappy looking X-wings instead of the Mega-fly 2000??" (Available in toy stores now.)
I still cannot help but think of TPM as having the same relevance as loving home movies of Hitler. "Anakin's soooo cute. I wnt to marry him and commit genocide, blow up planets, serve an evil emperor, and kill my employees with my mind at whim."
Quite frankly, each successive movie has gotten lighter and lighter. No real dark forces, just cutesy and cuddly. Return of the Jedi was littered with those ***king Ewoks, and for the first 45 minutes they comprised our heroes "Dire Peril". The rest was faceless StormTroopers (who got done away with so comically they lost the ability to frighten) and Giant tanks who could be demolished by Evolved Himilayan Cats.
Another great factor to consider is that there have been soooo many news stories pointing out that Spider-Man made so much money, it must be a good movie. The same logic applied to Cannonball Run, and Police Academy II.
Before AOtC even hit the theatres there were numerous reports that SM would do better, and our gullible public snapped it up. (Heck, even I downloaded the thing.)
Screw it all, I'm going to see Blade II. (Downloaded that and NOW I want to see it in theatres....)
So, you're a power user (need for faster computer) and you never use more that 256 megs of ram?? Increasing the FSB might yield good performance, but at the severe costs of stability. Not to metion there are quite a few gotchas to running RAm at faster that designed speeds.
Now, using such minute mounts of ram, and boasting the need for a 3.4 GHZ processor, perhaps you are doing some really intense compiling?? (Still couldn't hurt to have X-tra ram)
You are obviously not running Windows, or the memory leaks alone would have you over 256 in a heart beat. 2000 and XP both can suck up 256 MB RAM on boot. They swap alot of that out, but that degrades performance. Please don't tell me you spend all of that to get the CPU overclocked and still use Virtual Memory??
Now, most overclockers are Gamers. Gamers can benefit from better drives and a raid controller more than a fast CPU. But, they also would find 256MB RAM to be restrictive too.
I personally think you don't know what you're talking about, and probably have no earthly idea what kind of RAM your machine uses. Now, you can come back and tell me you're running Linux, console only and need that 3.4GHz CPU for Seti-A-Home, but that just mkakes you a sap.
Also, if you really run a *NIX and don't use more than 256 MB RAM, why not use that 500 Bucks to get yourself a real computer. Refurbed RS/6000's and Sun Ultra's, Sun Blades, O2's, etc can all be found at great prices, and should outperform any Intel shitbox on the market.
My analysis, save the 500 Bucks and get a Raid, or some fast drives, Cable Internet, or any of 100 things that might get your tasks done faster. But the Overclockers out there have become nothing more than MHZ freaks who like to boast about "How many MHZ they can squeeze out of a P4 2.2". And if that's the case, save up for aq 29-36" monitor. that really wow's 'em when the visit the Geek Kingdom.
But hey, give me some of the ways you actually use your computer. Maybe you do really need that 3.4GHZ with 256MB ram. I would love to hear how having more than 256MB won't help. (All of mine at home are 512 or greater.)(Yep, even the old Sparc 20)
Plus all of our legacy CD-RW drives should make adopting a new proprietary format with less capacity seem ludicrous.
They've been hyping DataPlay for years now, even prior to the widespread use of CD-R's. I remember a spokesman for the company talking about how DataPlay discs could be sold for 50-75 cents each. (Yes, cents) At the time this was cheaper that CD-R media.
I'm not sure that the numbers quoted in that article are correct. It may be cheaper than compact flash for $20, but that's a bunch of money for write-once media.
Stick with the cheap storage medium, human brain. There's alot of it out there, and hardly anyone uses theirs.
The reason they don't have that feature, is they want to force you to sit through all of the Copyright info, and watch all of their trailers. As a father with a one year old who loves snow white, I can tell you that 3 minutes of FF'ding through DVD Garbage annoys me.
Slashdot Mirror
You're welcome.
Are these writeable?? If not, rule out smart card replacement. Also, if these were to replace credit card mag strips, why not capture the transaction past the reader and then re-transmit??
Any technology designed to help bypass scratches in the Media would inevitly make the cards easier to clone or fake. The would need to be less precise to compensate, hence your copy needs to be less precise. (Again, error correction defeats the purpose of the card. They have to shine laser light through at several angles, or expect the pattern to be less precise, most likely both.)
How would on-line ordering work?? Do I need a reader in my PC?? For those of you who say yes, reach over and get that mag strip reader out of your PC. Riiiiight....
I would guess that it would take 2-3 Years before cloning these cards is an option (Well, as much of an option as cloning mag strips) but thefts and fraud will still be happening in the interim. If I can record the transmitted pattern upstream, I can figure out how to re-transmit that pattern. If these cards have any of the conveniences we have become used to, like numbers printed on the card for online ordering, they are inherently insecure anyway, and Laser-Whoozie crypto won't help.
I can see some ways how this could be far more insecure than the current system. If there is a centralized database for authentication of these speckle patterns, there is a single point of attack. Also, there is a centralized location to watch for all transactions to take place.
This might make card duping harder, but not impossible. Also, the CC companies won't like the fact that these keys are totally "Random" and unduplicatible for them as well. Never expect a CEO to understand, "If you can duplicate them, so can other people." Hence, they will have a means of duplicating any particular token (or be unsuccessful), and it doesn't take long for that information to make it out into the wild.
Perfect Crypto??? Right over there next to my perpetual motion machine.
Hammy
MY bandwidth just went to turning the plasma ball off... Ho Hum.
~Ham
I know the story...
We began a company Intranet about a year ago, coding only for IE 5.5 and up. XHTML with CSS, etc...
Furgettaboutit. When we needed to support some Macs and make the site Mozilla compliant, it was easy. But you cannot be IE 5+ compliant and standards compliant at the same time. IE5 for Mac, don't get me started.
Blaming the innocent bystanders in the browser wars is ludicrous. The fixes to the errors he points out are not "standards compliancy" issues, but bad tags. The developer didn't check the tag because it did what he wanted it to do... Is that his fault??
Furthermore, we all know that "Web Developers" and "HTML Designers" includes a community that is 75% whackos who are not programmers, and not really that computer literate. (Of course I don't mean you...) Most of them have never learned how to properly scan an image, much less code clean HTML.
~Jason
Your new song, "Lesbian porn full britney DiVX :)" should get downloaded from Gnutella at an alarming rate....
That said, getting your band heard is all about exposure, you wanna make it national, tour. In the ~7 years I played for a living, we toured over 100 days a year every year. Eventually we got to open for bands like The Police, Adam Ant, etc... This was where we got HUGE exposure.
On a final note, I'll quote Pat MacDonald's B-Side of life:
"Once I got lucky
I had a band
We had a song it got to number three
Made lots of money
Made lots of friends
Had lots of pretty people hanging 'round me
Now all I want
Is a place to hide
To feel safe from the chaos outside
A cold refrigerator
A warm bed
A place where noone will stick a gun to my head
We had the keys to the city
But the rooms it did unlock
Were full of overpriced portraits
Engaged in cheap small talk
I buy my dinner at the 7-11
I eat it in the kitchen while I watch TV
I like my free time and I love my wife
I'm happy living on th B-Side of life."
~Jason
"Once your face is public property there's no place to hide, it's either tele-crucifixion or tele-suicide."
Americans can be swayed in three ways:
1. It's good for the economy.
2. It's in the bible.
3. It will keep us safe.
Until we stop framing these discussions in the guise of moral values, and nebulous concepts such as freedom, (depending on your income you are at least 28% a slave) J.SP. will continue to listen to the *AA groups. Why??
*AA argument #1:
"Were losing money right and left, and that will take the economy straight down the *itter"
*AA argument two:
"It's stealing. Don't ask me if stealing is wrong, read the Bible" - H. Rosen
*AA argument #3:
(This is recent, and really an example of how slimy these people are. -ed.)
"These networks are being used by terrorists."
Don't appeal to their common sense, appeal to their fear. The geek community really does a poor job of scare-mongering.
My.02
It is a matter of access to technology and public safety. If terrorists (teehee) knock out the local cable company, how would you get news and information??
Consider DirecTV where you often need an antenna for getting local stations, how do you do this without a tuner??
Consider the destitute that cannot afford cable. If TV's were shipping without tuners, we would most likely be in a situation where welfare would have to consider cable a "necessity". (See Canada)
This is more than a technical issue, it is a social issue as well.
~Hammy
Hmmm, wouldn't the syntax be monopoly.apply(.NET)
/"
Class is Monopoly, action is apply.
"Runtime Error in
Reason: Your application is seriously fudged up. Just looking at the compiler output I can see it could have been programmed better by pre-pubescent baboons. Thank you for using Microsoft products.
Stack Trace:
System.application.monopoly.apply: Not valid Monopoly already applied.
System.errors.confuse: Error message retrieved
System.slander.billg: "Satan" is depricated, use "Saint" instead.
System.export.HTML: (Password:Admin) could not be sent to microsoft.com, please turn off Zone Alarm.
~Hammy
So, as the ruler evolved into the slide-rule it became easier to use?? I have noticed that VCR's keep getting more complex. Gone are the days of VCR Plus being a big item, and the interfaces are becoming more and more streamlined with less hand holding.
Jason's Rule #1: Any sufficiently mature application develops a CLI. It is necessary for scripting and automation. MS has even gone to Wscript which would give the knowledgable CLI access to most everything on the machine.
Jason's Rule #2: The less you change input devices, the more efficient you will be. The movement from keyboard to mouse is currently the greatest waster of productivity. A study undertaken by several newspapers found that most typo's (from touch typists) came within 15 keystrokes of moving from the mouse to the keyboard.
Jason's Rule #3: Simple to use, simple uses. The UI for a word processor is very different from the UI for an MP3 player. Now, we have iPod's wich are extrememly user friendly MP3 players. We also have standalone word processors. The iPod has what, 4 buttons?? Now design a word processor with those 4 buttons.
A computer runs both. Any UI that does great working with a word processor will be complex for an MP3 player, and the reverse is also true.
Jason's Rule #4: Any sufficiently useful application or method will be marketed as a standalone hardware based device.
Right now, you could get WebTV, an Archos MP3 player, and a playstation and satisfy most home computer users needs, for less than the price of a PC. This will only become more commonplace. I doubt if anyone will even be using a "computer" as we know it. They will have organizers, MP# players, etc.
The real key is to not allow legislation cripple what can be done by a standalone piece of consumer electronics, this will only lead to the PC being a necessity for using all of these devices. (Like it is today.)
Ho Hum.
EEEK! Just use an internal TV card with WinDVR or some other recording software. I'll admit that I have nbever tried to dub back to tape after this, but with compression from a straight screen capture, I can't tell how Muckrovision would survive...
Hammy
Magnetic damage to CD's DVD's?? Hunh?? No, you HD is vulnerable to Magnetic damage because it is a magnetic storage medium.
The material that "holds" the data in most audio CD's is usually aluminum, and the way that the data is stored is through "pits" or tiny holes in the media. Other types of CD's use dye layers to
"expose" these pits, and still others use gold and other substrates to hold the data. As such, most CD's are basically immune to magnetic fields unless they are *extremely* powerful. There are
other types of CD's that do use magnetics (the Magneto-Optical CD for one) that could theoretically be affected, but it would need a
far higher strength magnetic field for a long period of time than you would probably have. It is improbable that you would come into
contact with these media in a music library (unless perhaps they are CD master pressings which are used to actually make the CD's at the
factory).
I have no Idea what you think a "True History" wold be on a non write once media type. Do you mean like a Journal in a File System?? Not needed due to the unchanging nature of the write once media. History as far as backups?? Well, write once means it can't be overwritten, so properly stored it could concievably hold the history of a file system much better than a Tape backup that gets overwritten every third week.
DVDr is great for archives that do not need to be accessed often, and are more convenient that using 7 CD's for the same purpose. Law and Real Estate firms can use them for storing scanned contracts, Graphic Artists can use them for storing large layouts, or an entire portfolio.
Goes to prove, don't believe everything you read on Slashdot.
Hammy
I work for a newspaper where we have just completed a cost comparison for CD based systems to DVD based systems. We have a large Image archive that was outgrowing our second 100 CD jukebox. Our quandry, should the new Jukebox be DVD or CD based.
4.1GB per disc (with double sided support not looking promising...) at 100 DVDs = 411 GB storage
100 CDs = 65GB storage. (roughly)
Our first look was at the costs associated. The Price difference between a DVD Jukebox and a CD jukebox was not insignificant, but was not a breaker. The writers have come down in price, and the Media is expensive, but not prohibitively so. So, from a simple cost perspective, the system was feasable.
However, when working with provided demo models, we found a 25% CHANCE OF BURNING A COASTER, with the write times being ridiculously slow. We then recalculated for the extra media expense and extended staffing. (The admin would need to keep a longer watch less often, but the CDs could be burned during the BU guys shift, now they will go past.)
With the addition of two hours employee time and planning for the purchase of 10% more media, the costs of DVD were slightly more. Then the vendor called, the DVD jukebox requires new switching Software that runs some $5,000.00.
So, we looked for used CD jukeboxes, found one for almost 1/2 the price of the hardware alone, and it still works with our old software.
Now, we did all of these calculations based on price per MB, and condidering the the DVD system has 7x the storage space, that also means it is 7x the cost. I feel confident that when we revisit this upgrade in 2 years the prices will be dramatically lower and the quality will be better. I still think you can't beat a $50 CDR and 0.20 media costs.
Unless you work for a company that enjoys having the latest and greatest (OOOH! I can access the SAN from my PocketPC with wireless.) I think you'd be better off sticking with the tried and true methods, wait for the writing SW to get more stable and wait for the standards to crystalize.
01 - That's my two bits
01110110 - That's the Byte I took out of "Crime"
Hammy
I'll agree... I was intrigued by OS2 warp, much like everyone else, but with all of the Win95 installs I was doing after the initial launch, I had several copies of Win95 (warezed) and still have yet to come across that warezed OS2 disc...
I loaded windows.
The same goes for my linux boxen. Replace a $50 piece of hardware that won't work with Linux, or install that warezed XP Home... Not the same situation with you paying $200 to support a $50 piece of hardware.
Oddly enough, with WPA here and in effect, there is actually a downside to having a legit copy of Windows. My corporate version has no WPA, just that same CD key as always. I would never buy a home edition and deal with WPA. First and formost, I cahnge hardware too often while testing for clients. Having to call MS each time is not an option.
Had microsoft really been vigilant about protecting it's IP, They would have far less (valuable) IP to protect.
Hammy
Figure in too the difference in table speeds between new and worn cloth (New 130, worn by 12 games 100...) Now take into account rail irregularities etc...
Ain't the brain amazing...
No, they're done alienating their customers, now their alienating the merchants...
I don't notice washed out colors on my GBA after the install of the Afterburner... curious where you might get that notion.
The colors look "lit" as in viewable, so the red is red and not Maroon, but other than that I can only assume that you are judging by the photos circulating.
The Afterburner project shows that it is relatively easy to add at least a frontlight, which is a workaround made more difficult by Nintendo's refusal to use a backlit LCD in the first place.
From what I understand, the backlight relies on the LCD being semi-transparent, since the GBA LCD is not, a frontlight had to be devised. he key is to get a light source and then a distributor of that light. With a backlight, you put in a CCD and a diffuser. Assuming that this would raise the Price of a GBA to $150, (Price of a GBA and Afterburner + a little to pay the sweatshop laborers) users of the GBA have already voted with their feet and said the extra cost is worth it.
Why couldn't Nontendo release a Lit and Unlit version??
Also, Adam(?) over at Triton Labs knew next to nothing about LCD lighting a year ago. If you look over the pages at his site, It was about 6-8 months ago that he discovered a backlight wouldn't work for the reasons described above. So, in 6 months, he designed, manufactured, and shipped this kit, but for Nintendo it would have been "impossible".
Also, with the manufacture of so many 1600x1200 LCD's 22" diag. fully backlit, why couldnt have Nintendo used a 3" diag LCD with a backlight again?? They are already using an LCD... The backlight is that much an issue??
You must also think that Un-integrating IE is just as technically unfeasable as MS has been saying.
~Jason M.
I installed mine, have three small air bubbles and some smudges at the edge of the screen. (OOPS!) The picture still kicks the s*** out of the unlit.
Big RECCOMMENDATION:
The directions reccommend putting the top cushion back on before applying the AR film. Don't. Had to redo mine twice, and that's where the air bubbles got in.
Playing your GBA without an Afterburner is like renting VHS tapes. Sure, it works, but you know there's something better out there.
Hammy.
Why have them all flash red?? Just randomize them. You could even make it so for any intersection they all turn green yellow and red simultaneously.
The real trick is to turn them blue...
The second one was Robert Heinlein.
From the press release: "Perhaps as important as the distribution itself is the apparent pooling of marketing muscle and a division of the world into areas where each distribution has relative strength: TurboLinux in Asia, SuSE in Europe, Conectiva in Latin America and the rest of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world, and Caldera in North America."
Caldera is popular in America?? They are the only company to consistantly send me 20+ copies of their distro. I throw out the CD's and keep the cases.
Caldera Irritation #1: Caldera Preview Release - Get real, y'all ain't Windows or Apple, your preview release is all software I can download... Never the less, they sent two "Preview Editions" before 2.0, and 3 before 3.0. (4 before 4.0??)
Caldera Irritation #2: Lizard and Clint - Caldera has the absolute worst configuration utility on the planet. I am used to YAST, and Yast was not that bad in beta. I also hated that stupid desktop manager, I think it was Clint or Glint, yuck.
I must say, when I saw the per-seat license, I stopped considering Caldera a possibility.
Jason
Get QNX! http://www.qnx.com
Watch Part 1 and then 4,5,6. (***k Roman numerals). There are quite a few continuity lapses. Granted, there's still two more episodes to go, but this will probably exasperate the situation, not improve it.
Besides, how do you explain to the kids that the effects keep getting worse?? "Daddy, why do they fly those crappy looking X-wings instead of the Mega-fly 2000??" (Available in toy stores now.)
I still cannot help but think of TPM as having the same relevance as loving home movies of Hitler. "Anakin's soooo cute. I wnt to marry him and commit genocide, blow up planets, serve an evil emperor, and kill my employees with my mind at whim."
Quite frankly, each successive movie has gotten lighter and lighter. No real dark forces, just cutesy and cuddly. Return of the Jedi was littered with those ***king Ewoks, and for the first 45 minutes they comprised our heroes "Dire Peril". The rest was faceless StormTroopers (who got done away with so comically they lost the ability to frighten) and Giant tanks who could be demolished by Evolved Himilayan Cats.
ICK!
Jason
nothing4sale.org
Another great factor to consider is that there have been soooo many news stories pointing out that Spider-Man made so much money, it must be a good movie. The same logic applied to Cannonball Run, and Police Academy II.
Before AOtC even hit the theatres there were numerous reports that SM would do better, and our gullible public snapped it up. (Heck, even I downloaded the thing.)
Screw it all, I'm going to see Blade II. (Downloaded that and NOW I want to see it in theatres....)
Hammy
nothing4sale.org
So, you're a power user (need for faster computer) and you never use more that 256 megs of ram?? Increasing the FSB might yield good performance, but at the severe costs of stability. Not to metion there are quite a few gotchas to running RAm at faster that designed speeds.
Now, using such minute mounts of ram, and boasting the need for a 3.4 GHZ processor, perhaps you are doing some really intense compiling?? (Still couldn't hurt to have X-tra ram)
You are obviously not running Windows, or the memory leaks alone would have you over 256 in a heart beat. 2000 and XP both can suck up 256 MB RAM on boot. They swap alot of that out, but that degrades performance. Please don't tell me you spend all of that to get the CPU overclocked and still use Virtual Memory??
Now, most overclockers are Gamers. Gamers can benefit from better drives and a raid controller more than a fast CPU. But, they also would find 256MB RAM to be restrictive too.
I personally think you don't know what you're talking about, and probably have no earthly idea what kind of RAM your machine uses. Now, you can come back and tell me you're running Linux, console only and need that 3.4GHz CPU for Seti-A-Home, but that just mkakes you a sap.
Also, if you really run a *NIX and don't use more than 256 MB RAM, why not use that 500 Bucks to get yourself a real computer. Refurbed RS/6000's and Sun Ultra's, Sun Blades, O2's, etc can all be found at great prices, and should outperform any Intel shitbox on the market.
My analysis, save the 500 Bucks and get a Raid, or some fast drives, Cable Internet, or any of 100 things that might get your tasks done faster. But the Overclockers out there have become nothing more than MHZ freaks who like to boast about "How many MHZ they can squeeze out of a P4 2.2". And if that's the case, save up for aq 29-36" monitor. that really wow's 'em when the visit the Geek Kingdom.
But hey, give me some of the ways you actually use your computer. Maybe you do really need that 3.4GHZ with 256MB ram. I would love to hear how having more than 256MB won't help. (All of mine at home are 512 or greater.)(Yep, even the old Sparc 20)
~Jason
Plus all of our legacy CD-RW drives should make adopting a new proprietary format with less capacity seem ludicrous.
They've been hyping DataPlay for years now, even prior to the widespread use of CD-R's. I remember a spokesman for the company talking about how DataPlay discs could be sold for 50-75 cents each. (Yes, cents) At the time this was cheaper that CD-R media.
I'm not sure that the numbers quoted in that article are correct. It may be cheaper than compact flash for $20, but that's a bunch of money for write-once media.
Stick with the cheap storage medium, human brain. There's alot of it out there, and hardly anyone uses theirs.
Jason
The reason they don't have that feature, is they want to force you to sit through all of the Copyright info, and watch all of their trailers. As a father with a one year old who loves snow white, I can tell you that 3 minutes of FF'ding through DVD Garbage annoys me.
(That's why I rip 'em to VCD...)
Jason