Prediction: MS is going to start giving their OS away in no more then 5 years (Remember Don said it first!)
Yep, on the same day they say their OS is free they start charging per use. Here, have a copy of Windows XP++2007 if you actually want to use it you'll have to pay us...
Hehe, actually there were quite a few games for the Jaguar and Jaguar CD. Remember Aliens Vs. Predator? Sure it was slow and clunky but what wasn't back then (excluding Neo-Geo which was out of the reach of most people). The controllers suck on the Jaguar, but the overlay feature is kind of cool. It had potential, but like I said, Atari wasn't in a position to market/sell it.
It had 3 processors, Tom, Jerry and a 68000. Tom and Jerry were 32 bit RISC processors with 64 bit registers and the video processor was 64 bit. So, in reality it was a "loosely defined" 64 bit system.
I agree. The Dreamcast is/was the best console ever designed. Second in line would be the Atari Jaguar, though Atari had marketing/retail problems... The Dreamcast was one of those "ahead of their times" systems. I also own a Genesis which, again, was the best system in its day, in fact, IIRC, it out sold Nintendo for awhile. Too bad Sony had to let everyone and their brother write crap games for the Playstation or the Dreamcast would still be around. Anyway, I now own a Gamecube and GBA, just bought Sonic Advance and Sonic Battle last weekend.
BTW, I'm 32 and play Pokemon, though not very much and mainly because my 11 year old nephew plays it and we can battle.:)
I don't see it as helping mail carriers. First of all, what percentage of mail carriers walk their route? Secondly, how many mail carriers only work for 1 hour? The batteries are only good for 1 hour, people always seem to forget this fact. Not many mail carriers work within an acceptable distance to the post office to make this viable. They could cart their Segway to the neighborhood, hop on and cruise the streets. This really wouldn't save time because the majority of time is spent stuffing the mail box. Here's a test for ya next time the mail carrier is in your neighbor (driving the truck) walk the route they take and see who wins within a mile. Unless there's only 1 or 2 houses per block (common only in rural neighborhoods) the mail carrier will lose even though they are driving a vehicle because they have to stop and stuff each mailbox... Not to mention, some people actually like footing it for the great excercise. I wish I could excercise and get paid for it.
BTW, my dad's a mail carrier who drives a jeep and works an 8 hour shift within a couple of miles radius, this would only hinder him because he wouldn't be able to carry a few hundred pounds of mail with him.
I think 99.9% of people would agree that breaking a misdemeanor traffic law is not sufficient to consider a person a "criminal."
Yes, but the laws were placed there for a reason. If you weren't stopped for traffic violations then why have traffic laws at all? It's the police officer's JOB to pull you over. Just as much as it's a cashiers job to take your money for products you buy. Besides, in pulling over people for petty crimes such as a burnt out tail light they may find a more serious infraction such as a warrant for that persons arrest. Again, this is being proactive which is a good thing. How many felonies have been or could be prevented because of being arrested/detained due to other "pettier" violations?
Food for thought, what if it were still legal to smoke on airplanes? Would it have been suspicious then if a flight attendant smelled/heard/saw a match being lit?
BOT (Back On Topic), sorry, should have pointed that out in my post...
I didn't say "if you don't like it go somewhere else!", I said "if you want Communism go somewhere else" there is a huge difference.
U.S. Constitution Article 1, Section 8
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
Patents aren't used to protect an idea -- they're used as legal gotchas by companies to attempt to discourage competition.
I'm lost here, please describe to me the difference...
Actually, that's a very loose analogy... Copying a DVD/CD/CD-ROM/tape/etc... for the sake of making yourself a copy that you normally wouldn't buy is quite a bit different than making copies to sell. Sure, if you wouldn't buy it because it's too expensive, or very hard to get, or you just don't like the manufacturer then they aren't, technically, "losing" money on your copy. But, if you turn around and sell 100 copies on the street then they are losing money. Since these $100 players are being sold consumers are spending money to buy DVD players. That money is going to China, or wherever, and not to the holders of the patents. If, for example, APEX sold 1000 DVD players at $100 and Philips sold 100 DVD players at $120 how much money did Phillips make (12,000 Gross)? If APEX actually paid a license for DVD for say $20 per player now how much money does Philips make (12,000 + 20,000 = 32,000)? APEX is, in effect, stealing $20,000 from Philips. And Philips has lost $20,000...
Well, maybe you shouldn't be breaking the law so much. Police don't tend to pull people over for no reason, though there are exceptions.
Microsoft being a Monopoly is not a bad thing. It just proves that being the most successful in your field will set you above the rest. The problem with Microsoft is the use of their Monopolistic power. If Microsoft used this power to innovate and actually help consumers would it be a bad thing? Until something better comes along (more consumer friendly, cheaper, prettier, etc...) MS will stay on top. Before you spout off that I'm pro-Microsoft nothing could be further from the truth. I don't buy MS products anymore, I use Linux, Solaris and OSF at work, OS X on my Powerbook, Palm OS on my Visor and play games on my GCN, my home Windows 98 box hasn't been powered on in over 6 months. Now, if everyone did as my family Microsoft wouldn't be a Monopoly now would it? So get out there and buy non-MS products, MS didn't become a Monopoly by taking a nap...
Why does someone always bring this sort of thing up?
Because people see "this sort of thing" as an annoyance -- and most people feel that law enforcement spends too much time enforcing things like traffic laws, and not enough time chasing down criminals. Admittedly, this feeling is usually heightened when you're the person being pulled over...
Man, people are really clueless... Define "criminal"! -- One that has committed or been legally convicted of a crime -- Well, damn, having a broken tail light is against the law. Breaking the law therefore makes you a criminal. If somone were to rearend you and die because of the broken tail light would you then not be a murderer? I guess then the cop pulling you over is being proactive rather than reactive which is what PREVENTS accidents/crimes...
Anyway, BOT, the US is a Capatilistic society, if you want Communism go somewhere else. Patents are put into place to protect corporations as well as consumers. If we didn't have patents, or didn't enforce patents, then nothing would get innovated. We wouldn't have cures for common diseases and even less common diseases. Would we have Celexa, Paxil, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, etc... if every company were able to make Prozac? Since Prozac is patented other companies wanting to compete in the SSRI market needed to create there own "imitation", in doing so they've created, in some ways, better medications (less side-effects)...
If these Chinese "knock-off" artists want to legally compete with DVD then they should invent a better standard (20GB discs, blue-laser, etc...) instead of "ripping off" the REAL developers. OTOH, corporations (Sony, Phillips, Pioneer, et.al.) shouldn't "rip off" consumers with overly high prices...
Since when is sitting on my couch and clicking 'buy now' inconvenient?
When you can't order up Debbie Does Dallas from your couch...
I have Time Warner cable and their PPV selection is pretty limited. Only 4 movies or so available at one time at half hour intervals. These movies are also available sooner at the local rental store. They are also, conveniently, "formatted to fit my television" as if they know what TV I own and that I'd rather watch widescreen versions of movies. Oh yeah, and I also very seldom get 5.1 digital sound. And what about those extras? I do, on occassion, buy a PPV if it's something I don't really care about, or it's late at night and I don't want to go out in a blizzard. I also get the added benefit of renting video games at the rental store that I can't, yet, get via cable.
Disposable discs is as bad an idea as DiVX... Isn't there enough sh*t polluting our environment as it is? I have a family of 3 and we already produce more garbage per week than will fit in the garbage can, almost 25% of which is junk mail including AOL discs. I'm not about to shell out money for something that I'm going to throw away. I tend to buy a lot of DVDs, currently have about 400. Yes, I've got quite a few "duds", but I can give these to family members, friends, or even sell them on e-bay. They are meant to last 25 years and barring any accidental scratching or breaking they won't end up in the trash heap for quite some time...
My last name is Nex, my dog's name is Nex...What's the sudden, corporate fascination with the word "Nex" now days? Nexium, Nexcare, now this... If people actually knew where Nex originated from they wouldn't be buying medication with the name Nex in it, that's for damn sure. Pull out your Latin to English dictionary and look it up...
Very true. Especially since this is a single eye device. I would think anything longer than a couple of minutes would result in a major headache. Of course, I haven't tried one, but from experiences with telescopes and gun sites using both eyes while focusing through a monocle tends to cause eye fatigue quite quickly, at least for me. Closing one eye would help but would defeat the primary purpose of the device.
Probably the least intrusive approach would be a direct projection on the retina, but who's going to buy a device that projects light into your eye??? This would have a similar effect as eye "floaties" which are visible but can be easily ignored since you can't technically focus on them and, being so small, are nearly transparent...
Reminds me of a time way back in high school. I saw some guy driving with a laptop, somehow, balanced on his steering wheel. And this was back before laptops were fashionable. Talk about an accident waiting to happen.
Talk about the future of geekdom...Xybernaut + Segway...
I'm waiting for the day when we have head mounted HUDs which detect head movement while driving. If your head deviates more than 1 degree off center your car automatically pulls to the side of the road and shuts itself off. Hey, they already have crude versions for truckers falling asleep... Only a matter of time.
Yes, thankfully for the world, at least at this time, the majority of intelligent people use their brains for good instead of evil. What if Einstein grew up in a trailer house with a crack whore mom and a pimp daddy?* He could have easily used his intelligence for more evil purposes (the US government accounts for some evilness).
Criminals tend toward the lower end of the IQ scale.** Since they almost always end up tipping off the athorities in some way they get caught. Remember, you're only a criminal if you get caught...
* Not meant to offend people living in trailer houses, whores, crack addicts or pimps.
** Not meant to offend criminals. Some criminals are intelligent.
First off, define "gun nut"! My guess this will be a biased, uneducated, liberal definition.
Secondly, getting back on target, he made the point that once a criminal always a criminal. He just used guns as an example not an analogy. Before spouting off troll inducing posts maybe you should use that mass between your ears to properly analyze what's posted here.
Back on point, people get all warm and fuzzy when new laws, meant to hinder criminals, are introduced. They forget, however, that with an intent to commit a crime laws are meaningless. Lets take drugs as an example (no, I'm not a "drug nut"), your local crack dealer doesn't give a rats ass if he sells a rock to a 21 year old or a 12 year old. One being a minor would impose a greater penalty but pales in comparison to selling crack in the first place. So, if, say, a foreign criminal wants to encrypt data above 40bits in Windows to send/receive illegal documentation. He/she isn't going to be worried about the EULA, encryption export laws, registering Windows, or even purchasing Windows legally for that matter, etc... Since there isn't really anyway to track pirated software in the first place limiting the exportation is completely worthless (unless the government wants an easier way to break encryption on persons _legally_ using the software).
If you're intent on holding up a bank are you really going to concern yourself with the legality of where the gun you're using came from? "Crap, I really wanted to hold up a bank today, but I can't legally get a gun so I guess it's back to work as usual"!
That's pretty amazing. I, personally, like to have a choice when I go shopping. I own 4 TVs, all are different brands. I own a Powerbook because, in my opinion, it's the best laptop on the market. As for Sony, I do like some of their portable electronics. If asked what camcorder to buy I would say Sony. As for consumer electronics Sony is the only product that has given me problems (DVD player/LD player/tv) so I wouldn't suggest buying that line. Competition is about choice. Without it we wouldn't have "Car of the Year", "best in show", etc... Life would be pretty dull...
Not too much of a hassle, but then it really depends on what state you live in (physically, not mentally). I live in Minnesota so I have to pay a boat load of state tax as well as federal. I was 1099 for a couple of years and didn't mind it since I was able to write off computer books, equipment, etc... April did hit hard because I didn't save any money during the year but that's what "cash advances" are for, right?:)
There are a lot of little things that can get tricky depending on your state. Things like writing off mileage and such can get hairy, or you could just take the lazy route and not write that off as I did then you don't have to worry as much come audit time. Of course if you are driving 100 miles a day to different sites then keeping track of your mileage would give you a little tax break. I had a desk so I couldn't write mileage off to my main employer and I only went on site 4 or 5 times a year within 20 miles so the $5 I would have been able to write off wasn't worth the hassle of keeping track of my mileage.
Uhm, except when you call every store within a 75 mile radius and all of them are sold out. You then go online and find that all the online retailers are sold out. Then you hop on over to Ebay where you may or may not get the product you bid on even if you do win then what is your option? Yes, this is the story of the GameCube in the Twin Cities area (Minnesota, USA for the International folks). For those familiar with MN I called every Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Target, Electronics Beautique, Funcoland, K-mart, Sam Goody, and a few others that I've forgotten, from New Ulm to Elk River to White Bear Lake and back down to Farmington, not a single GameCube in stock. I finally got one less than a week ago from a new shipment to Circuit City, each CC got 20 in and after an hour only 6 were left (well five after my purchase). X-boxes? 10 - 15 on the shelf everywhere... PS2s? 5 - 10 on the shelf everywhere.
So, this is very regional specific since people are claiming the opposite in other areas of the country.
Plus, I couldn't find any indication in this story as to what their "sales" figures are for, are these retail or wholesale sales? There's a huge difference. My guess is wholesale, and this figure is only, ahem, slightly scewed towards who can produce the most units in the least amount of time since every box made is pre-sold to a store somewhere. As for actual retail sales that's anyone's guess at the moment. I'm sure someone will be compiling this data sometime after Christmas.
To recap, X-boxes are available everywhere in the Twin Cities area which would equate to a few thousand units not sold to consumers yet sold to the stores inventory, are these counted as sold?
Yes, there is a conversion process if the film was recorded Anamorphically. To test this on a 4:3 TV set your DVD player to 16:9 and play an anamorphic movie. The picture will be taller than normal, now put in a non-anamorphic movie (without changing your player setting), ether widescreen or standard, the picture will look normal. Put the anamorphic movie back in and change the players setting to 4:3 or standard output and it will convert the anamorphic picture to 4:3.
Maximum resolution of a DVD is, indeed, 720x480, this is what's recorded to the DVD. It gets quite complicated as for what's actually displayed on the TV because we are dealing with an analog signal which is moving and, most often, interlaced. The DVD will output all 720 horizontal lines, but what's actually displayed on the TV is closer to 640 horizontal lines. And this varies quite a bit depending on the DVD player's quality.
For more information than you'd probably care to have on the subject check out this link:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidres.htm
I, personally, like this statement:
The clear winner when it comes to audio is the Xbox. While Dolby Pro Logic
II support is great, it isn't widely supported by most of today's receivers
and lacks many of the benefits of Dolby Digital 5.1.
That's total BS, they (AnandTech), obviously, don't know anything about audio standards, especially considering they didn't spend any time on this subject. What benefit does DD 5.1 have over DPL II? I guess being an older standard and having more support could be considered a benefit... DPL II completely revamps the DPL standard. DPL had quite a few limitations, only 4 channel, rear channel had a very limited bandwidth, etc... DPL II fixes all of these shortcomings and provides something DD does not, low latency. I don't know how the X-box handles the latency issue, if it even does. Dolby intended DD to be used for pre-recorded material where latency isn't a problem but when you're dynamically creating audio it's big issue. From the specs I've seen the max sync speed of DD is 30/fps, and any FPS die hard will tell you that 30/fps just isn't going to cut it when trying to frag your opponents. DPL II, OTOH, is around 60/fps which is all the faster a TV can sync to anyway. So, what this means is, unless X-box does some nifty tricks with the audio it isn't syncing to the video. IOTW, when your missle hits the wall there's a half second delay before you hear it. This is fine if the wall is 550 feet away but not when it's right in front of you.
Have you tried S-Video or even Composite video? It sounds like a timeing issue, but I'm not an expert. Try a different cable, maybe intereference, the "Flipper" chip was actually made by Artx not ATI, some of the engineering may have come from ATI, though.
Not so. Look at the back of a DVD, if it states "Enhanced for 16:9" then the image stored on the disc is Anamorphic. When scenes are filmed there is a special lens that can be fitted to the camera (Anamorphic lens) that compacts a 16:9 (720x480) aspect ratio to 4:3 (640x480). If you were to view this on a 4:3 screen it would look "smushed". Some producers merely mask the top and bottom of the lens to produce a widescreen image, in this case you are actually losing resolution because you're only using the middle portion of the film. True Anamorphic uses the entire frame. If you go into your DVD setup screen you should have 3 video settings (16:9 standard, 16:9 widescreen, 4:3 standard). If you have an HDTV capable widescreen monitor the DVD player outputs exactly what's on the disc. If the monitor is not HDTV capable the DVD player will stretch the image before sending it. If, like me, you have a 4:3 monitor the DVD player stretches the image out then shrinks it to 640px wide then sends it out. A lot of the older 1st and 2nd gen DVD players didn't do this so well and that's why Laserdics looked better than a lot of DVD transfers on a 4:3 monitor. As DVD players matured the converting algorithms improved.
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Yep, on the same day they say their OS is free they start charging per use. Here, have a copy of Windows XP++2007 if you actually want to use it you'll have to pay us...
Hehe, actually there were quite a few games for the Jaguar and Jaguar CD. Remember Aliens Vs. Predator? Sure it was slow and clunky but what wasn't back then (excluding Neo-Geo which was out of the reach of most people). The controllers suck on the Jaguar, but the overlay feature is kind of cool. It had potential, but like I said, Atari wasn't in a position to market/sell it.
It had 3 processors, Tom, Jerry and a 68000. Tom and Jerry were 32 bit RISC processors with 64 bit registers and the video processor was 64 bit. So, in reality it was a "loosely defined" 64 bit system.
Well, I own a Sega Nomad, so there. :p
I was too poor to buy the Master System, CD or 32X or Saturn for that matter, but would have it I had the money...
I'm building a collection of console hardware, that I actually play.
I agree. The Dreamcast is/was the best console ever designed. Second in line would be the Atari Jaguar, though Atari had marketing/retail problems... The Dreamcast was one of those "ahead of their times" systems. I also own a Genesis which, again, was the best system in its day, in fact, IIRC, it out sold Nintendo for awhile. Too bad Sony had to let everyone and their brother write crap games for the Playstation or the Dreamcast would still be around. Anyway, I now own a Gamecube and GBA, just bought Sonic Advance and Sonic Battle last weekend.
:)
BTW, I'm 32 and play Pokemon, though not very much and mainly because my 11 year old nephew plays it and we can battle.
I don't see it as helping mail carriers. First of all, what percentage of mail carriers walk their route? Secondly, how many mail carriers only work for 1 hour? The batteries are only good for 1 hour, people always seem to forget this fact. Not many mail carriers work within an acceptable distance to the post office to make this viable. They could cart their Segway to the neighborhood, hop on and cruise the streets. This really wouldn't save time because the majority of time is spent stuffing the mail box. Here's a test for ya next time the mail carrier is in your neighbor (driving the truck) walk the route they take and see who wins within a mile. Unless there's only 1 or 2 houses per block (common only in rural neighborhoods) the mail carrier will lose even though they are driving a vehicle because they have to stop and stuff each mailbox... Not to mention, some people actually like footing it for the great excercise. I wish I could excercise and get paid for it.
BTW, my dad's a mail carrier who drives a jeep and works an 8 hour shift within a couple of miles radius, this would only hinder him because he wouldn't be able to carry a few hundred pounds of mail with him.
Yes, but the laws were placed there for a reason. If you weren't stopped for traffic violations then why have traffic laws at all? It's the police officer's JOB to pull you over. Just as much as it's a cashiers job to take your money for products you buy. Besides, in pulling over people for petty crimes such as a burnt out tail light they may find a more serious infraction such as a warrant for that persons arrest. Again, this is being proactive which is a good thing. How many felonies have been or could be prevented because of being arrested/detained due to other "pettier" violations?
Food for thought, what if it were still legal to smoke on airplanes? Would it have been suspicious then if a flight attendant smelled/heard/saw a match being lit?
BOT (Back On Topic), sorry, should have pointed that out in my post...
I didn't say "if you don't like it go somewhere else!", I said "if you want Communism go somewhere else" there is a huge difference.
U.S. Constitution Article 1, Section 8
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
Patents aren't used to protect an idea -- they're used as legal gotchas by companies to attempt to discourage competition.
I'm lost here, please describe to me the difference...
Actually, that's a very loose analogy... Copying a DVD/CD/CD-ROM/tape/etc... for the sake of making yourself a copy that you normally wouldn't buy is quite a bit different than making copies to sell. Sure, if you wouldn't buy it because it's too expensive, or very hard to get, or you just don't like the manufacturer then they aren't, technically, "losing" money on your copy. But, if you turn around and sell 100 copies on the street then they are losing money. Since these $100 players are being sold consumers are spending money to buy DVD players. That money is going to China, or wherever, and not to the holders of the patents. If, for example, APEX sold 1000 DVD players at $100 and Philips sold 100 DVD players at $120 how much money did Phillips make (12,000 Gross)? If APEX actually paid a license for DVD for say $20 per player now how much money does Philips make (12,000 + 20,000 = 32,000)? APEX is, in effect, stealing $20,000 from Philips. And Philips has lost $20,000...
Well, maybe you shouldn't be breaking the law so much. Police don't tend to pull people over for no reason, though there are exceptions.
Microsoft being a Monopoly is not a bad thing. It just proves that being the most successful in your field will set you above the rest. The problem with Microsoft is the use of their Monopolistic power. If Microsoft used this power to innovate and actually help consumers would it be a bad thing? Until something better comes along (more consumer friendly, cheaper, prettier, etc...) MS will stay on top. Before you spout off that I'm pro-Microsoft nothing could be further from the truth. I don't buy MS products anymore, I use Linux, Solaris and OSF at work, OS X on my Powerbook, Palm OS on my Visor and play games on my GCN, my home Windows 98 box hasn't been powered on in over 6 months. Now, if everyone did as my family Microsoft wouldn't be a Monopoly now would it? So get out there and buy non-MS products, MS didn't become a Monopoly by taking a nap...
Because people see "this sort of thing" as an annoyance -- and most people feel that law enforcement spends too much time enforcing things like traffic laws, and not enough time chasing down criminals. Admittedly, this feeling is usually heightened when you're the person being pulled over...
Man, people are really clueless... Define "criminal"! -- One that has committed or been legally convicted of a crime -- Well, damn, having a broken tail light is against the law. Breaking the law therefore makes you a criminal. If somone were to rearend you and die because of the broken tail light would you then not be a murderer? I guess then the cop pulling you over is being proactive rather than reactive which is what PREVENTS accidents/crimes...
Anyway, BOT, the US is a Capatilistic society, if you want Communism go somewhere else. Patents are put into place to protect corporations as well as consumers. If we didn't have patents, or didn't enforce patents, then nothing would get innovated. We wouldn't have cures for common diseases and even less common diseases. Would we have Celexa, Paxil, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, etc... if every company were able to make Prozac? Since Prozac is patented other companies wanting to compete in the SSRI market needed to create there own "imitation", in doing so they've created, in some ways, better medications (less side-effects)...
If these Chinese "knock-off" artists want to legally compete with DVD then they should invent a better standard (20GB discs, blue-laser, etc...) instead of "ripping off" the REAL developers. OTOH, corporations (Sony, Phillips, Pioneer, et.al.) shouldn't "rip off" consumers with overly high prices...
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/auto/article/0,12543, 195004,00.html
Ooops, this is off-topic
Since when is sitting on my couch and clicking 'buy now' inconvenient?
When you can't order up Debbie Does Dallas from your couch...
I have Time Warner cable and their PPV selection is pretty limited. Only 4 movies or so available at one time at half hour intervals. These movies are also available sooner at the local rental store. They are also, conveniently, "formatted to fit my television" as if they know what TV I own and that I'd rather watch widescreen versions of movies. Oh yeah, and I also very seldom get 5.1 digital sound. And what about those extras? I do, on occassion, buy a PPV if it's something I don't really care about, or it's late at night and I don't want to go out in a blizzard. I also get the added benefit of renting video games at the rental store that I can't, yet, get via cable.
Disposable discs is as bad an idea as DiVX... Isn't there enough sh*t polluting our environment as it is? I have a family of 3 and we already produce more garbage per week than will fit in the garbage can, almost 25% of which is junk mail including AOL discs. I'm not about to shell out money for something that I'm going to throw away. I tend to buy a lot of DVDs, currently have about 400. Yes, I've got quite a few "duds", but I can give these to family members, friends, or even sell them on e-bay. They are meant to last 25 years and barring any accidental scratching or breaking they won't end up in the trash heap for quite some time...
How about C Octothorpe?
hehe, that's a good one...
My last name is Nex, my dog's name is Nex...What's the sudden, corporate fascination with the word "Nex" now days? Nexium, Nexcare, now this... If people actually knew where Nex originated from they wouldn't be buying medication with the name Nex in it, that's for damn sure. Pull out your Latin to English dictionary and look it up...
Very true. Especially since this is a single eye device. I would think anything longer than a couple of minutes would result in a major headache. Of course, I haven't tried one, but from experiences with telescopes and gun sites using both eyes while focusing through a monocle tends to cause eye fatigue quite quickly, at least for me. Closing one eye would help but would defeat the primary purpose of the device.
Probably the least intrusive approach would be a direct projection on the retina, but who's going to buy a device that projects light into your eye??? This would have a similar effect as eye "floaties" which are visible but can be easily ignored since you can't technically focus on them and, being so small, are nearly transparent...
Reminds me of a time way back in high school. I saw some guy driving with a laptop, somehow, balanced on his steering wheel. And this was back before laptops were fashionable. Talk about an accident waiting to happen.
Talk about the future of geekdom...Xybernaut + Segway...
I'm waiting for the day when we have head mounted HUDs which detect head movement while driving. If your head deviates more than 1 degree off center your car automatically pulls to the side of the road and shuts itself off. Hey, they already have crude versions for truckers falling asleep... Only a matter of time.
Yes, thankfully for the world, at least at this time, the majority of intelligent people use their brains for good instead of evil. What if Einstein grew up in a trailer house with a crack whore mom and a pimp daddy?* He could have easily used his intelligence for more evil purposes (the US government accounts for some evilness).
Criminals tend toward the lower end of the IQ scale.** Since they almost always end up tipping off the athorities in some way they get caught. Remember, you're only a criminal if you get caught...
* Not meant to offend people living in trailer houses, whores, crack addicts or pimps.
** Not meant to offend criminals. Some criminals are intelligent.
Boy, some people are really clueless!
First off, define "gun nut"! My guess this will be a biased, uneducated, liberal definition.
Secondly, getting back on target, he made the point that once a criminal always a criminal. He just used guns as an example not an analogy. Before spouting off troll inducing posts maybe you should use that mass between your ears to properly analyze what's posted here.
Back on point, people get all warm and fuzzy when new laws, meant to hinder criminals, are introduced. They forget, however, that with an intent to commit a crime laws are meaningless. Lets take drugs as an example (no, I'm not a "drug nut"), your local crack dealer doesn't give a rats ass if he sells a rock to a 21 year old or a 12 year old. One being a minor would impose a greater penalty but pales in comparison to selling crack in the first place. So, if, say, a foreign criminal wants to encrypt data above 40bits in Windows to send/receive illegal documentation. He/she isn't going to be worried about the EULA, encryption export laws, registering Windows, or even purchasing Windows legally for that matter, etc... Since there isn't really anyway to track pirated software in the first place limiting the exportation is completely worthless (unless the government wants an easier way to break encryption on persons _legally_ using the software).
If you're intent on holding up a bank are you really going to concern yourself with the legality of where the gun you're using came from? "Crap, I really wanted to hold up a bank today, but I can't legally get a gun so I guess it's back to work as usual"!
That's pretty amazing. I, personally, like to have a choice when I go shopping. I own 4 TVs, all are different brands. I own a Powerbook because, in my opinion, it's the best laptop on the market. As for Sony, I do like some of their portable electronics. If asked what camcorder to buy I would say Sony. As for consumer electronics Sony is the only product that has given me problems (DVD player/LD player/tv) so I wouldn't suggest buying that line. Competition is about choice. Without it we wouldn't have "Car of the Year", "best in show", etc... Life would be pretty dull...
Not too much of a hassle, but then it really depends on what state you live in (physically, not mentally). I live in Minnesota so I have to pay a boat load of state tax as well as federal. I was 1099 for a couple of years and didn't mind it since I was able to write off computer books, equipment, etc... April did hit hard because I didn't save any money during the year but that's what "cash advances" are for, right? :)
There are a lot of little things that can get tricky depending on your state. Things like writing off mileage and such can get hairy, or you could just take the lazy route and not write that off as I did then you don't have to worry as much come audit time. Of course if you are driving 100 miles a day to different sites then keeping track of your mileage would give you a little tax break. I had a desk so I couldn't write mileage off to my main employer and I only went on site 4 or 5 times a year within 20 miles so the $5 I would have been able to write off wasn't worth the hassle of keeping track of my mileage.
Uhm, except when you call every store within a 75 mile radius and all of them are sold out. You then go online and find that all the online retailers are sold out. Then you hop on over to Ebay where you may or may not get the product you bid on even if you do win then what is your option? Yes, this is the story of the GameCube in the Twin Cities area (Minnesota, USA for the International folks). For those familiar with MN I called every Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Target, Electronics Beautique, Funcoland, K-mart, Sam Goody, and a few others that I've forgotten, from New Ulm to Elk River to White Bear Lake and back down to Farmington, not a single GameCube in stock. I finally got one less than a week ago from a new shipment to Circuit City, each CC got 20 in and after an hour only 6 were left (well five after my purchase). X-boxes? 10 - 15 on the shelf everywhere... PS2s? 5 - 10 on the shelf everywhere.
So, this is very regional specific since people are claiming the opposite in other areas of the country.
Plus, I couldn't find any indication in this story as to what their "sales" figures are for, are these retail or wholesale sales? There's a huge difference. My guess is wholesale, and this figure is only, ahem, slightly scewed towards who can produce the most units in the least amount of time since every box made is pre-sold to a store somewhere. As for actual retail sales that's anyone's guess at the moment. I'm sure someone will be compiling this data sometime after Christmas.
To recap, X-boxes are available everywhere in the Twin Cities area which would equate to a few thousand units not sold to consumers yet sold to the stores inventory, are these counted as sold?
Yes, there is a conversion process if the film was recorded Anamorphically. To test this on a 4:3 TV set your DVD player to 16:9 and play an anamorphic movie. The picture will be taller than normal, now put in a non-anamorphic movie (without changing your player setting), ether widescreen or standard, the picture will look normal. Put the anamorphic movie back in and change the players setting to 4:3 or standard output and it will convert the anamorphic picture to 4:3.
For more information than you'd probably care to have on the subject check out this link:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/vidres.htm
That's total BS, they (AnandTech), obviously, don't know anything about audio standards, especially considering they didn't spend any time on this subject. What benefit does DD 5.1 have over DPL II? I guess being an older standard and having more support could be considered a benefit... DPL II completely revamps the DPL standard. DPL had quite a few limitations, only 4 channel, rear channel had a very limited bandwidth, etc... DPL II fixes all of these shortcomings and provides something DD does not, low latency. I don't know how the X-box handles the latency issue, if it even does. Dolby intended DD to be used for pre-recorded material where latency isn't a problem but when you're dynamically creating audio it's big issue. From the specs I've seen the max sync speed of DD is 30/fps, and any FPS die hard will tell you that 30/fps just isn't going to cut it when trying to frag your opponents. DPL II, OTOH, is around 60/fps which is all the faster a TV can sync to anyway. So, what this means is, unless X-box does some nifty tricks with the audio it isn't syncing to the video. IOTW, when your missle hits the wall there's a half second delay before you hear it. This is fine if the wall is 550 feet away but not when it's right in front of you.
NE1 have more information on this?
Have you tried S-Video or even Composite video? It sounds like a timeing issue, but I'm not an expert. Try a different cable, maybe intereference, the "Flipper" chip was actually made by Artx not ATI, some of the engineering may have come from ATI, though.
Not so. Look at the back of a DVD, if it states "Enhanced for 16:9" then the image stored on the disc is Anamorphic. When scenes are filmed there is a special lens that can be fitted to the camera (Anamorphic lens) that compacts a 16:9 (720x480) aspect ratio to 4:3 (640x480). If you were to view this on a 4:3 screen it would look "smushed". Some producers merely mask the top and bottom of the lens to produce a widescreen image, in this case you are actually losing resolution because you're only using the middle portion of the film. True Anamorphic uses the entire frame. If you go into your DVD setup screen you should have 3 video settings (16:9 standard, 16:9 widescreen, 4:3 standard). If you have an HDTV capable widescreen monitor the DVD player outputs exactly what's on the disc. If the monitor is not HDTV capable the DVD player will stretch the image before sending it. If, like me, you have a 4:3 monitor the DVD player stretches the image out then shrinks it to 640px wide then sends it out. A lot of the older 1st and 2nd gen DVD players didn't do this so well and that's why Laserdics looked better than a lot of DVD transfers on a 4:3 monitor. As DVD players matured the converting algorithms improved.
DVD output:
16:9 "Enhanced/Anamorphic" 720x480p
16:9 "Widescreen" 640x480p "masked"
4:3 "Standard" 640x480p
I hope this makes sense...