Actually, there are a lot of reasons to buy HDTV now, not the least of which is the fact that HDTV-ready sets cost about the same as high-end standard definition TVs of two or three years ago, so if you're planning to spend $1k or more on your next TV, you're not going to avoid getting an HD set.
That being said, the set is one of the smallest costs of an HD setup. There are the obvious costs, the TV set, and $250 for a progressive-scan dvd player (or significantly more if you want a region-free one). But then come the non-obvious costs... the new receiver that can switch component video, the $125/m video cables, the HD OTA receiver if you want to receive HD content off the air, the HD satellite receiver and dish to get your hbo and showtime, and the list goes on, dependant on your installation.
In short, I recommend for anybody buying a 32" or larger TV today to get an HD set, but I don't recommend purchasing HD signal unless you're willing to spend four or five thousand dollars in miscellaneous crap in order to make the opening sequence of CSI look really damned cool.
As I matter of fact, I have looked at my credit report, and while it doesn't show whether or not you've paid in full, some of them do show things like 'current balance' and 'highest balance'. While it doesn't indicate that I always pay in full, the fact that I have a number of revolving charge accounts, all indicating $0 current balances and non-zero highest balances seems like a fairly strong indicator that I'm either a person who pays his bills in full each month.
As for credit card limit raises, it's a bit hard to say. I carry two American Express cards, and while AMEX doesn't tell you what your limit is, neither of them has ever denied, despite some extremely large purchases. The closest to a problem they've ever given me was them sending me a new card because of suspected fraud which actually consisted of the expenses associated with unplanned travel.
My VISA just had its limit increased without my asking last week (which actually annoyed me, since they cancelled my old card to upgrade me from gold to platinum, something I didn't give a fuck about), and it's tended to get an increase about once a year, same as my MasterCard.
As far as other credit goes, my car is financed at a whopping 0.0%, so there's not even a potential for interest profit unless I fail to pay them, which seems unlikely given the fact that I didn't finance that much money.
This influx of credit, combined with the fact that as of December 2002 I had an 810 FICO score, tells me that credit card companies are perfectly happy scraping 2% of a couple grand a month, and likely prefer it to chasing around people who will likely default on their accounts if they lose their job, or have large unexpected expenses.
I'm also one of those people who pays their bills in full every month. If I'm a "deadbeat", then why does it seem that every single credit card company on the planet is fighting to get my business? Why do I never get turned down on credit applications? I mean... if your theory was true, wouldn't I have a harder time getting a line of credit than the guy who pays $800 in minimum payments every month? Wouldn't I have a lower credit rating?
Yes, there are companies that like dealing with the dregs of the earth, but there are a lot more companies that prefer a reliable profit to the huge likelihood of default which occurs with people who don't pay their bills each month.
I can't believe people haven't realized how evil google is!
I mean, it archives your website!! (unless you add headers or robots.txt directives telling it otherwise)
It sets a cookie!! (unless you don't accept the cookie)
It records searches and user inquiries!! There's no possible use for this. Except perhaps creating a record of searches which were clearly successful, and those that were not, so as to improve the service.
It records all data infinitely!! Again, there's NO possible legitimate and useful application for this, except the improvement of the service. Google must know this: improvements will not be tolerated!
They hire spooks Everybody knows that once you've worked for the NSA you've undergone mental hypnotraining that turns you into an evil government controlled assassin. seriously!
Google's toolbar is spyware! Assuming of course by spyware you mean 'software that you voluntarily and deliberately use, with the full knowledge that you're giving data back to google'
Google controls the results that google gives! Imagine that, the nerve of a search engine service giving RESULTS based on unspecified criteria. Surely they should open their precise ranking algorithm to the public. After all, nobody would steal it and create a knockoff if they had such knowledge, now would they?
In short folks, google must be stopped! hmmm... now where did my medication go again....
That wouldn't bother me so much, I carry a few cards from different issuers, so it's unlikely to happen to all of them at once.
And it'd certainly be a hell of a lot less annoying than what AT&T Universal Card just pulled on me last week. They upgraded me to a platinum card without asking me (I didn't want or need the upgrade, the old credit limit was already more than I'll ever need). This made it so everything that was auto-billing to the old card suddenly needed to be changed. Oddly enough, I changed them to bill to American Express instead of the VISA.
Then the most annoying part of all, when I called to activate my card, instead of just being a computerized thing, they had a person answer the phone, and that person tried to sell me additional services.
Honestly, if the credit card companies are willing to inconvenience their customers on the incorrect theory that I care whether my cards are gold or platinum, why shouldn't they inconvenience me to keep my card safe? Hell, I'd actually be appreciative of that.
Well, I'm betting that they checked to see if those 2.2 million cards had a stastically differing fraud rate, or statistically irregular purchasing patterns (an unusual percentage had bought some porn or something) Not a perfect system, but it'll give you an idea if somebody is trying to get $50 out of every card.
actually, they'd prefer if you pay your bill. they get approximately a 2% cut of everything you spend, so if you charge $2k a month, they're making $40/mo off of you right there.
They'd much rather have that, then the risk that you'll NEVER give back the money. Especially since the only thing they can really do if you don't pay is ask again and again if you'll please pay.
damn... that thing is nice. It's almost exactly what I was looking to get my sister for her birthday. If it included S/PDIF out and 802.11b networking, I'd have been willing to plunk down up to $500 for it. Does anybody know of a device that has those features?
Admittedly, it's the best device I've seen so far.
Just a note: lots of people are saying 'those mp3s are mine and legal'. And some of might even be telling the truth. Here's the thing, Palladium is unlikely to stop you from copying music from your own physical media and onto your computer. Nobody WANTS to stop you from doing that.
What they want to stop is sharing that collection with the world via Kazaa, Gnutella, WinMX, or what not. Palladium will make it far more feasible for content manufacturers to allow you to have a copy of the music on your computer, and to burn a cd for yourself without allowing you to give it away to millions of people.
After all, nobody cares about people giving music to friends, even the record company executives realize that's a sales booster. However, Giving music to millions of people needs to become socially and technologically unacceptable.
It's far too easy to completely share thousands of multimedia files with millions of people who have no right to do so, and the content owners are persecuted for attempting to enforce their rights via copyright. It's also become clear that there's a large population of people who believe it is acceptable to steal if they can do it without leaving their homes.
Yes, it's terrible that fair use rights are being hurt, but it's even worse that consumers feel that one of their rights is the right to rape corporations, simply because they're corporations. Those mp3s on your hard drive aren't fair use. Those divx copies of lord of the rings aren't fair use either.
Until this problem of massive theft is solved, expect content owners to keep raising the hurdles. If you want it to stop, then stop stealing, get your friends and family to stop stealing, and then you'll find that these restrictions will not be implemented, because there will be no need.
That's odd. I bought the mac version for the exact same price as the comparable PC version, and I got a rebate for one state product, for electronic federal filing with my mac version.
It's not entirely a foolish idea. There's a bakery near the Everest Base Camp that's been in business for at least five or six years.
The 100 person per year figure you cited is approximately how many people successfully summit a year. There's a large number of people who go part way and give up, and significantly more than that who don't want to climb Everest at all, but are just trekking in Sagarmatha National Park.
How would you feel if I managed to get our currancy to stop saying "In God We Trust" and start saying "Trust Buddha's Knowledge", or "Praise Allah"? Or if I got the official text of the pledge of allegience to say 'one nation, under allah, the most merciful, the most gracious'?
I think that it's safe to say that popular opinion would demand that text be removed immediately, on the same argument that was used to remove the mandatory speaking of under god from the pledge.
There have been two cases recently where websites have requested the removal of modules from CPAN.
Is there anybody who didn't see this coming?
The companies spend time and money making websites that are designed to help further their corporate goals, cross-promote products and services, and possibly act as a vehicle for third-party advertising. If somebody is making a product which is designed specifically to circumvent the reasons why you're providing the website, then of course you should ask them to stop.
Here's a news flash: TV Guide will eventually stop giving you free screen-scraped guide data. The map sites will stop giving you screen-scraped maps. And so on, and so forth.
If you want to do this on your own, nobody will stop you, but if you make it simple for thousands of people to use a company's resources while providing no benefit to that organization, you should expect that they'll ask you to stop.
I sincerely hope that you're wrong about that being the impetus for the shunning of Matt. If that's all it was, somebody needs to unknot their cock, apologize, and get back to work.
That's pretty damned obvious, but since your post was moderated as insightful, I'll reply.
ECC is unneccessary if you use your computer to listen to mp3s, download porn and play counterstrike. If you're using your computer for important tasks however, ECC corrects single bit errors which occur more often than you realize (most of your bits aren't very important, so you don't usually notice), and it also detects multi-bit errors, thus preventing data corruption that could otherwise go unnoticed.
Multi-bit errors with ECC will generate a non-maskable interrupt, which will purposefully take your machine down, rather than allowing you to continue with unreliable memory.
On a high-end server, every single data path runs ECC, so no data can be accidentally modified, ever. On PCs, it's generally considered acceptable just to ECC the memory, since PCs rarely are engaged in ultra-critical applications.
That's MS only. Usually the word size is defined as the number of bits that a CPU can process at one time, so most computers today have a 32 bit word, and a few high-end machines have 64 bit words.
If you're smart with your email address, you won't get that much spam.
This is absolutely untrue. My email address is public because it's on technical mailing lists that are required as part of my job. It's in whois records that are required as part of my job. It's in the emails that I sent to clients, who then forward them out of my reach.
It's only easy to keep your email address from spammers if your email address has no business value. And changing a business email address is nearly impossible to do, since there's always a client who will have your old address on record.
Slashdot Mirror
That being said, the set is one of the smallest costs of an HD setup. There are the obvious costs, the TV set, and $250 for a progressive-scan dvd player (or significantly more if you want a region-free one). But then come the non-obvious costs... the new receiver that can switch component video, the $125/m video cables, the HD OTA receiver if you want to receive HD content off the air, the HD satellite receiver and dish to get your hbo and showtime, and the list goes on, dependant on your installation.
In short, I recommend for anybody buying a 32" or larger TV today to get an HD set, but I don't recommend purchasing HD signal unless you're willing to spend four or five thousand dollars in miscellaneous crap in order to make the opening sequence of CSI look really damned cool.
As for credit card limit raises, it's a bit hard to say. I carry two American Express cards, and while AMEX doesn't tell you what your limit is, neither of them has ever denied, despite some extremely large purchases. The closest to a problem they've ever given me was them sending me a new card because of suspected fraud which actually consisted of the expenses associated with unplanned travel.
My VISA just had its limit increased without my asking last week (which actually annoyed me, since they cancelled my old card to upgrade me from gold to platinum, something I didn't give a fuck about), and it's tended to get an increase about once a year, same as my MasterCard.
As far as other credit goes, my car is financed at a whopping 0.0%, so there's not even a potential for interest profit unless I fail to pay them, which seems unlikely given the fact that I didn't finance that much money.
This influx of credit, combined with the fact that as of December 2002 I had an 810 FICO score, tells me that credit card companies are perfectly happy scraping 2% of a couple grand a month, and likely prefer it to chasing around people who will likely default on their accounts if they lose their job, or have large unexpected expenses.
Yes, there are companies that like dealing with the dregs of the earth, but there are a lot more companies that prefer a reliable profit to the huge likelihood of default which occurs with people who don't pay their bills each month.
I mean, it archives your website!! (unless you add headers or robots.txt directives telling it otherwise)
It sets a cookie!! (unless you don't accept the cookie)
It records searches and user inquiries!! There's no possible use for this. Except perhaps creating a record of searches which were clearly successful, and those that were not, so as to improve the service.
It records all data infinitely!! Again, there's NO possible legitimate and useful application for this, except the improvement of the service. Google must know this: improvements will not be tolerated!
They hire spooks Everybody knows that once you've worked for the NSA you've undergone mental hypnotraining that turns you into an evil government controlled assassin. seriously!
Google's toolbar is spyware! Assuming of course by spyware you mean 'software that you voluntarily and deliberately use, with the full knowledge that you're giving data back to google'
Google controls the results that google gives! Imagine that, the nerve of a search engine service giving RESULTS based on unspecified criteria. Surely they should open their precise ranking algorithm to the public. After all, nobody would steal it and create a knockoff if they had such knowledge, now would they?
In short folks, google must be stopped! hmmm... now where did my medication go again....
And it'd certainly be a hell of a lot less annoying than what AT&T Universal Card just pulled on me last week. They upgraded me to a platinum card without asking me (I didn't want or need the upgrade, the old credit limit was already more than I'll ever need). This made it so everything that was auto-billing to the old card suddenly needed to be changed. Oddly enough, I changed them to bill to American Express instead of the VISA.
Then the most annoying part of all, when I called to activate my card, instead of just being a computerized thing, they had a person answer the phone, and that person tried to sell me additional services.
Honestly, if the credit card companies are willing to inconvenience their customers on the incorrect theory that I care whether my cards are gold or platinum, why shouldn't they inconvenience me to keep my card safe? Hell, I'd actually be appreciative of that.
Well, I'm betting that they checked to see if those 2.2 million cards had a stastically differing fraud rate, or statistically irregular purchasing patterns (an unusual percentage had bought some porn or something) Not a perfect system, but it'll give you an idea if somebody is trying to get $50 out of every card.
They'd much rather have that, then the risk that you'll NEVER give back the money. Especially since the only thing they can really do if you don't pay is ask again and again if you'll please pay.
Admittedly, it's the best device I've seen so far.
What they want to stop is sharing that collection with the world via Kazaa, Gnutella, WinMX, or what not. Palladium will make it far more feasible for content manufacturers to allow you to have a copy of the music on your computer, and to burn a cd for yourself without allowing you to give it away to millions of people.
After all, nobody cares about people giving music to friends, even the record company executives realize that's a sales booster. However, Giving music to millions of people needs to become socially and technologically unacceptable.
Yes, it's terrible that fair use rights are being hurt, but it's even worse that consumers feel that one of their rights is the right to rape corporations, simply because they're corporations. Those mp3s on your hard drive aren't fair use. Those divx copies of lord of the rings aren't fair use either.
Until this problem of massive theft is solved, expect content owners to keep raising the hurdles. If you want it to stop, then stop stealing, get your friends and family to stop stealing, and then you'll find that these restrictions will not be implemented, because there will be no need.
hey buddy... ummm... what sort of bribe would it take to get an iTunes version?
That's odd. I bought the mac version for the exact same price as the comparable PC version, and I got a rebate for one state product, for electronic federal filing with my mac version.
Honestly, what is it with slashdot, square pegs and round holes?
The 100 person per year figure you cited is approximately how many people successfully summit a year. There's a large number of people who go part way and give up, and significantly more than that who don't want to climb Everest at all, but are just trekking in Sagarmatha National Park.
I think that it's safe to say that popular opinion would demand that text be removed immediately, on the same argument that was used to remove the mandatory speaking of under god from the pledge.
The companies spend time and money making websites that are designed to help further their corporate goals, cross-promote products and services, and possibly act as a vehicle for third-party advertising. If somebody is making a product which is designed specifically to circumvent the reasons why you're providing the website, then of course you should ask them to stop.
Here's a news flash: TV Guide will eventually stop giving you free screen-scraped guide data. The map sites will stop giving you screen-scraped maps. And so on, and so forth.
If you want to do this on your own, nobody will stop you, but if you make it simple for thousands of people to use a company's resources while providing no benefit to that organization, you should expect that they'll ask you to stop.
i saw a plasma tv that wants to be free.
I sincerely hope that you're wrong about that being the impetus for the shunning of Matt. If that's all it was, somebody needs to unknot their cock, apologize, and get back to work.
ECC is unneccessary if you use your computer to listen to mp3s, download porn and play counterstrike. If you're using your computer for important tasks however, ECC corrects single bit errors which occur more often than you realize (most of your bits aren't very important, so you don't usually notice), and it also detects multi-bit errors, thus preventing data corruption that could otherwise go unnoticed.
Multi-bit errors with ECC will generate a non-maskable interrupt, which will purposefully take your machine down, rather than allowing you to continue with unreliable memory.
On a high-end server, every single data path runs ECC, so no data can be accidentally modified, ever. On PCs, it's generally considered acceptable just to ECC the memory, since PCs rarely are engaged in ultra-critical applications.
P.S. You're a fucking retard.
See here.
man, you're still on a 16-bit platform? painful. somebody send this man a pentium!
It's only easy to keep your email address from spammers if your email address has no business value. And changing a business email address is nearly impossible to do, since there's always a client who will have your old address on record.
After all, you get to talk to new people and offer them exciting opportunities!
you're a fucking crank and a jackass. at least you know it, though.