Re:I think my first ARM device was a Gameboy Advan
on
Pocket Wars and Cores
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· Score: 4, Interesting
Acorn machines were incredible for their time. Their GUI had concepts that have only been realised in mass market GUIs just recently, the flexibility of their OS and their advanced typographical features were many years ahead of their time. Things like the save dialog for a new file having an icon of the file that you could give a name to and then drag that icon to a folder to save it there (rather than having to navigate to the folder in the dialog). Built in BASIC in ROM (most of the OS in ROM, so boot times were on the order of seconds). I could go on...
The main advantage to 24-bit files is not so much the lower noise floor or increased dynamic range, but rather audio streams using a 24-bit word size generally are at a higher sample rate than 44.1kHz. 48kHz and 96kHz are more commonly used with 24-bit audio.
Apple already have their own lossless audio compression, Apple Lossless or ALAC that works in a very similar fashion to FLAC. It already supports 24-bit word sizes. Apple Lossless is used, for instance, to compress the streaming music sent to the AirPort Express.
Re:Voice recognition has been around since years!
on
Talking To Computers?
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· Score: 3, Funny
I was using voice commands in 7.5.5 (maybe 8?). The Conversation went something like this:
"Open Macintosh Aich Dee" Finder window opens... "Open Documents Folder"... "Open Applications Folder"... "Open Photoshop"
and at this point there was a loud voice from the other side of the cube wall "Open the fucking thing yourself!"
It's this exact reason that voice control of office computers isn't quite ready for prime time, even more than 10 years down the track...
Using highly redundant storage, my 100GB image library would cost $14 per month. Using the reduced redundancy storage, I'd be looking at $9.30 per month.
That's not a bad idea - looking at current pricing and my ~100GB library of RAW images, S3 would cost me between $10 and $15 per month, depending on how many 9's of reliability I want. $120-$180 per year for that level of storage and reliability isn't too bad and it has a fantastic ROI against, say, a $2k tape drive and tapes.
Now my only problem is data caps here in Oz, counting uploads and downloads. I've got 120GB per month, but that is 50GB to be used between midday and midnight and 70GB to be used in the wee small hours...
OK. so the mass of the moon is, oh about 7.346 x 10^22kg that's approximately 73459000000000000000 tonnes. If we extract, say, 1 million tonnes of stuff from the moon, that's about 1.3 x 10^-17 %, also known as a poofteenth of a percent. According to my calculations, this will be enough to move the moon further away from us by about 4.76 x 10^-11 metres or approximately the diameter of a hydrogen atom.
Not because it so powerful that no one wanted an upgrade, but because both MS and Sony blew a huge amount of money this generation and the next generation will cost just as much to develop.
They can now either: -sit back and collect money or -risk several billion launching a new console
I think it's obvious why they are in no hurry.
They're still going to be releasing a PS4, don't doubt that. At that stage the PS3 will become like the PS2 is now - a budget console. There will still be games developed for it, there will still be significant sales of the hardware, it just won't be the flagship console.
Sony sat back and saw how well the PS2 had done over it's nearly 10 year life (or, it's 5-6 year life at the time the PS3 was released) and saw that if they planned to be selling these things for a decade then there were certain design decisions that made sense right at the start.
When the PS2 came along, people dropped the PS1 like a hot potato. When the PS3 came along, the PS2 was (and still is) sold.
I can now go in and buy (here in Australia) a PS2 console for less than $100. This is a console that cost over $800 when it was new and has been on sale continuously for something like 10 years (didn't it come out in Japan in 2000?)
Sony are actively working on a PS4, and when it's released they will be priced at a premium, just like every other generation was, and Sony will continue to sell the PS3 (and possibly the PS2 as well now it's a commodity item) alongside it.
Now, to get back on topic - when the original PSP was released, it had (has) the processing power of the PS2 in a handheld package (maybe not 1:1, but definitely in the same league) and shared enough of the architecture that it was then very easy to port PS2 games to the PSP. Sony have learned from this and the PSP2 will be doing exactly the same thing...
I can guarantee that this is not going to happen for exactly the same reason that Apple, whilst supporting a right-click context sensitive menu, discourage developers from using the context menu as the only place where those menu options can be found - discoverability and intuitiveness.
Apple will add these multitouch guestures, but the signature single button on iOS devices isn't going anywhere. Sure, were it to vanish, experienced users of the platform will adapt pretty quickly, but new users will be left out in the cold.
Of the major consoles, the PS3 is probably the most open to begin with. At first there was OtherOS - sure, Sony pulled it which was a pretty stupid thing to do, but it was there right from the start. Next - Sony made it trivial to upgrade the hard drive in the unit - two screws and an off-the-shelf laptop drive and you're done. Sony allowed for content that was purchased under one account to be downloaded on up to five consoles - for instance, I could go to a mate's house, log in with my PSN ID, re-download a game I'd already purchased at home and play it on my mate's PS3. PSN - free online access. Compare to, say, Xbox Live.
Sony had some pretty serious DRM built into the console so you couldn't run pirated software, what's wrong with that?
I bought a PS3 and part of the appeal was the fact that if I was playing online with it, everyone had the same version of the same software. No wallhacks or aimbots,
I was annoyed at Sony's removal of OtherOS, but more from a point of view that it removed something that was there when I bought the console, not because I ever used it once.
Also, with this lawsuit, you'll note that Sony isn't suing for damages, they're just trying to have the information removed from being publicly accessible.
I honestly don't know how they do it. And then in this thread I've also been pointed to http://www.goodluckbuy.com/ which seems to be a similar deal, only they list prices in AUD if you want...
Re: DX - don't expect everything you buy to be exactly as advertised - read the comments threads. Don't expect much in the way of customer support too - it never hurts to try, but sometimes you won't get very far... Take it for what it's worth!
Yet, by them making a big deal about it, and them complaining how cheap stuff is online, that's like the perfect endorsement for online shopping. Idiots!
The retailers in Australia collect GST from us (the consumer) and pay it to the Government. The Australian Government has no control over retailers overseas and can not compel them to pay any tax at all.
All Australian retailers (online and physical) have exactly the same taxes to collect and pay to the Government.
Overseas retailers don't, if the Government wanted to collect GST for amounts less than $100 in one transaction, they would need to have EVERY SINGLE parcel from overseas held in customs for the end recipient to collect after paying the required amount of GST (and any other duties applicable)
The Government aren't holding off on collecting this GST because they're being nice to us. They're not collecting it as it would cost more than the GST collected to have the necessary infrastructure to actually collect it. They'd be losing money in red tape just to collect tiny amounts of GST.
The real problem is importers and wholesalers charging excessive prices for goods that are identical to those available overseas. As an example, the RRP of a particular Canon DSLR camera here in Australia is $3600. I can get exactly the same camera on eBay from Hong Kong for less than $2300 including shipping.
How can it cost more to ship a single item into Australia than it costs (per unit item) to bring in a whole container full? It doesn't. What else makes up the price difference then? Exchange rate? Not these days... GST? Nope, that's only 10%...
When I can purchase something from overseas for quite literally half the retail price here in Australia, then add a bit of shipping and it's still significantly cheaper, I'd actually be happy to pay another 10% on top as it's STILL cheaper than purchasing the item here in Oz.
This leads to the situation of some large brand names - Canon and Nikon spring to mind, that take advantage of their market position to do everything they can to kill the grey market. If you buy, for example, a Canon DSLR here in Australia, if it's a grey market import (ie, not imported directly by Canon Australia) then Canon will not only refuse to service it under warranty (fair enough I suppose as the product doesn't have an international warranty) but they will actively refuse to perform any work on it whatsoever, even if you want to pay to have it serviced. If it's not an Oz serial number they simply will not touch it.
Now, this is a big deal as I can get a Canon EOS 5D MkII camera body in the USA for $2499 (I'm assuming for the purpose of this exercise that $1AUD = $1USD) Were I to purchase that very same camera here in Australia, from Canon, for $3599. If I were to turn to eBay instead and get one from Hong Kong, I can get this very same camera for $2300 with free shipping.
There have even been times where if you wanted a mid-range or high-end MacBook Pro, it'd be cheaper to fly to the USA, walk into an Apple store, buy the computer and fly home than it would have been to purchase the same machine here in Australia.
The pattern to really high local prices seems to be when the parent company controls the importation and distribution, we all get reamed.
Could they make things revenue neutral by... i. Implementing an tax on overseas purchases and, ii. Lowering the GST so things are neutral as before?
Either lowering the percentage, or perhaps exempting some more items to make it a bit more progressive?
The thing is, even though the retailers are blowing a storm about all this, something like less than 3% of all purchases were made online in Australia over the Christmas break and less than 1% of all purchases were from an overseas retailer. To mess with something as complex and far-reaching as the GST for this miniscule amount would be more trouble than it's worth.
Bingo! This is exactly why they don't collect GST on purchases from overseas, and why when you buy something big, they do hold it in customs till you cough up.
The Government exempting online purchases with less than $100 GST collectable isn't because they're all warm and fuzzy and want to give us a good deal. It's because it would cost more than the GST amount to collect it.
I haven't checked the prices, but DealExtreme http://dealextreme.com/ has some insane prices. Every price you see on the site there is in USD and INCLUDES international shipping anywhere in the world. I think the only way they can do it is by being subsidised by the Chinese Government.
I've quite literally bought items off that site for a couple of dollars and had them turn up in my post box 7-10 days later. I'm amazed, so much so that when I've had issues with the products (and at those prices you can't honestly expect it to be 100%) that it would cost me more to return it than it would to purchase another one. They seem to realise this though and it's only in extreme cases that you need to return defective or incorrect items...
And, I've bought HDMI cables from there before - digital cables are digital cables (for sensible lengths anyway) and my PS3 is working perfectly in 1080p to my LCD TV and has been for a couple of years now.
The problem is it isn't the consumers who really pay the tax, it's the retailers. How exactly do you propose that the government tax overseas retailers.
Now you need to be careful with your definitions here - I know what you mean though... The consumer does end up paying the GST as they're the end user of the good or service. This GST is collected by the retailer at the point of purchase and paid to the Government. (input credits not withstanding etc...)
What they're proposing is that Customs will hold any imported goods and levy a 10% GST on them before you're allowed to receive them.
There's a very good reason why the Government doesn't do this already, and it's not because they want to give consumers a break. It's simply too much administrative overhead to collect less than $100 worth of GST on a single transaction.
So, what the retailers are wishing for isn't even really good for the Government as it's another layer of red tape and paperwork on EVERY single package that enters the country. It they thought they could make money adding GST onto these purchases, they would have done so already.
So, they're removing the historically accurate and contextually appropriate word from a classic piece of literature to protect "the children" from reading a word that they're probably hearing a couple of times a minute on MTV (or whatever the kids of today consume for music videos)
Agreed - transcoding is dodgy at best and downright unusable at worst.
I have a quad-xeon machine doing my transcoding - it flies through the task without hardly breaking a sweat... As long as I watch a media file from start to finish.
Don't try to rewind or fast-forward the media. Even pausing and resuming it can be a problem.
This is using PMS as well as a couple of other options. In the end I've completely given up with realtime transcoding and am now using some software that has a front end to do an offline conversion of mkv to mp4.
Yet another thing that Sony have dropped the ball on is DivX support - there's even official support for DivX in the PS3's OS, but since DivX was updated to use mkv as it's container format last year... nothing!
Slashdot Mirror
Acorn machines were incredible for their time. Their GUI had concepts that have only been realised in mass market GUIs just recently, the flexibility of their OS and their advanced typographical features were many years ahead of their time. Things like the save dialog for a new file having an icon of the file that you could give a name to and then drag that icon to a folder to save it there (rather than having to navigate to the folder in the dialog). Built in BASIC in ROM (most of the OS in ROM, so boot times were on the order of seconds). I could go on...
The main advantage to 24-bit files is not so much the lower noise floor or increased dynamic range, but rather audio streams using a 24-bit word size generally are at a higher sample rate than 44.1kHz. 48kHz and 96kHz are more commonly used with 24-bit audio.
Apple already have their own lossless audio compression, Apple Lossless or ALAC that works in a very similar fashion to FLAC. It already supports 24-bit word sizes. Apple Lossless is used, for instance, to compress the streaming music sent to the AirPort Express.
I was using voice commands in 7.5.5 (maybe 8?). The Conversation went something like this:
"Open Macintosh Aich Dee" ... ...
Finder window opens...
"Open Documents Folder"
"Open Applications Folder"
"Open Photoshop"
and at this point there was a loud voice from the other side of the cube wall "Open the fucking thing yourself!"
It's this exact reason that voice control of office computers isn't quite ready for prime time, even more than 10 years down the track...
Here's hoping that of all things, cut and paste in the comment box finally works once more.
Here's hoping that of all things, cut and paste in the comment box finally works once more.
yep, looks like it does.
Now, here's also hoping that hitting the preview button doesn't take 20-30 seconds to display the preview...
Nope, 19 seconds from hitting the preview button and getting a spinner until something happened. Seriously, what's going on?
Why don't the PCs at your work have the free Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats installed?
Using highly redundant storage, my 100GB image library would cost $14 per month. Using the reduced redundancy storage, I'd be looking at $9.30 per month.
Pricing from Amazon S3
That's not a bad idea - looking at current pricing and my ~100GB library of RAW images, S3 would cost me between $10 and $15 per month, depending on how many 9's of reliability I want. $120-$180 per year for that level of storage and reliability isn't too bad and it has a fantastic ROI against, say, a $2k tape drive and tapes.
Now my only problem is data caps here in Oz, counting uploads and downloads. I've got 120GB per month, but that is 50GB to be used between midday and midnight and 70GB to be used in the wee small hours...
Can you upload RAW files to Flickr?
OK. so the mass of the moon is, oh about 7.346 x 10^22kg that's approximately 73459000000000000000 tonnes. If we extract, say, 1 million tonnes of stuff from the moon, that's about 1.3 x 10^-17 %, also known as a poofteenth of a percent.
According to my calculations, this will be enough to move the moon further away from us by about 4.76 x 10^-11 metres or approximately the diameter of a hydrogen atom.
"PS3 is so powerful it's going to last 10 years"
Oh it will last 10 years alright.
Not because it so powerful that no one wanted an upgrade, but because both MS and Sony blew a huge amount of money this generation and the next generation will cost just as much to develop.
They can now either:
-sit back and collect money
or
-risk several billion launching a new console
I think it's obvious why they are in no hurry.
They're still going to be releasing a PS4, don't doubt that. At that stage the PS3 will become like the PS2 is now - a budget console.
There will still be games developed for it, there will still be significant sales of the hardware, it just won't be the flagship console.
Sony sat back and saw how well the PS2 had done over it's nearly 10 year life (or, it's 5-6 year life at the time the PS3 was released) and saw that if they planned to be selling these things for a decade then there were certain design decisions that made sense right at the start.
When the PS2 came along, people dropped the PS1 like a hot potato. When the PS3 came along, the PS2 was (and still is) sold.
I can now go in and buy (here in Australia) a PS2 console for less than $100. This is a console that cost over $800 when it was new and has been on sale continuously for something like 10 years (didn't it come out in Japan in 2000?)
Sony are actively working on a PS4, and when it's released they will be priced at a premium, just like every other generation was, and Sony will continue to sell the PS3 (and possibly the PS2 as well now it's a commodity item) alongside it.
Now, to get back on topic - when the original PSP was released, it had (has) the processing power of the PS2 in a handheld package (maybe not 1:1, but definitely in the same league) and shared enough of the architecture that it was then very easy to port PS2 games to the PSP. Sony have learned from this and the PSP2 will be doing exactly the same thing...
I can guarantee that this is not going to happen for exactly the same reason that Apple, whilst supporting a right-click context sensitive menu, discourage developers from using the context menu as the only place where those menu options can be found - discoverability and intuitiveness.
Apple will add these multitouch guestures, but the signature single button on iOS devices isn't going anywhere. Sure, were it to vanish, experienced users of the platform will adapt pretty quickly, but new users will be left out in the cold.
Of the major consoles, the PS3 is probably the most open to begin with.
At first there was OtherOS - sure, Sony pulled it which was a pretty stupid thing to do, but it was there right from the start.
Next - Sony made it trivial to upgrade the hard drive in the unit - two screws and an off-the-shelf laptop drive and you're done.
Sony allowed for content that was purchased under one account to be downloaded on up to five consoles - for instance, I could go to a mate's house, log in with my PSN ID, re-download a game I'd already purchased at home and play it on my mate's PS3.
PSN - free online access. Compare to, say, Xbox Live.
Sony had some pretty serious DRM built into the console so you couldn't run pirated software, what's wrong with that?
I bought a PS3 and part of the appeal was the fact that if I was playing online with it, everyone had the same version of the same software. No wallhacks or aimbots,
I was annoyed at Sony's removal of OtherOS, but more from a point of view that it removed something that was there when I bought the console, not because I ever used it once.
Also, with this lawsuit, you'll note that Sony isn't suing for damages, they're just trying to have the information removed from being publicly accessible.
Re: Safari and Slashdot disabling copy/paste - I've noticed this too and it's crap. Any idea what's going on there?
I honestly don't know how they do it. And then in this thread I've also been pointed to http://www.goodluckbuy.com/ which seems to be a similar deal, only they list prices in AUD if you want...
Re: DX - don't expect everything you buy to be exactly as advertised - read the comments threads. Don't expect much in the way of customer support too - it never hurts to try, but sometimes you won't get very far... Take it for what it's worth!
Yet, by them making a big deal about it, and them complaining how cheap stuff is online, that's like the perfect endorsement for online shopping. Idiots!
The retailers in Australia collect GST from us (the consumer) and pay it to the Government.
The Australian Government has no control over retailers overseas and can not compel them to pay any tax at all.
All Australian retailers (online and physical) have exactly the same taxes to collect and pay to the Government.
Overseas retailers don't, if the Government wanted to collect GST for amounts less than $100 in one transaction, they would need to have EVERY SINGLE parcel from overseas held in customs for the end recipient to collect after paying the required amount of GST (and any other duties applicable)
The Government aren't holding off on collecting this GST because they're being nice to us. They're not collecting it as it would cost more than the GST collected to have the necessary infrastructure to actually collect it. They'd be losing money in red tape just to collect tiny amounts of GST.
The real problem is importers and wholesalers charging excessive prices for goods that are identical to those available overseas.
As an example, the RRP of a particular Canon DSLR camera here in Australia is $3600. I can get exactly the same camera on eBay from Hong Kong for less than $2300 including shipping.
How can it cost more to ship a single item into Australia than it costs (per unit item) to bring in a whole container full? It doesn't. What else makes up the price difference then? Exchange rate? Not these days... GST? Nope, that's only 10%...
You've nailed this one.
When I can purchase something from overseas for quite literally half the retail price here in Australia, then add a bit of shipping and it's still significantly cheaper, I'd actually be happy to pay another 10% on top as it's STILL cheaper than purchasing the item here in Oz.
This leads to the situation of some large brand names - Canon and Nikon spring to mind, that take advantage of their market position to do everything they can to kill the grey market. If you buy, for example, a Canon DSLR here in Australia, if it's a grey market import (ie, not imported directly by Canon Australia) then Canon will not only refuse to service it under warranty (fair enough I suppose as the product doesn't have an international warranty) but they will actively refuse to perform any work on it whatsoever, even if you want to pay to have it serviced. If it's not an Oz serial number they simply will not touch it.
Now, this is a big deal as I can get a Canon EOS 5D MkII camera body in the USA for $2499 (I'm assuming for the purpose of this exercise that $1AUD = $1USD)
Were I to purchase that very same camera here in Australia, from Canon, for $3599. If I were to turn to eBay instead and get one from Hong Kong, I can get this very same camera for $2300 with free shipping.
Well-respected USA online store: http://www.adorama.com/ICA5DM2.html
Canon Australia: http://www.canon.com.au/en-AU/For-You/Digital-Cameras/EOS-Digital-SLR-Cameras/5D
There have even been times where if you wanted a mid-range or high-end MacBook Pro, it'd be cheaper to fly to the USA, walk into an Apple store, buy the computer and fly home than it would have been to purchase the same machine here in Australia.
The pattern to really high local prices seems to be when the parent company controls the importation and distribution, we all get reamed.
Could they make things revenue neutral by...
i. Implementing an tax on overseas purchases and,
ii. Lowering the GST so things are neutral as before?
Either lowering the percentage, or perhaps exempting some more items to make it a bit more progressive?
The thing is, even though the retailers are blowing a storm about all this, something like less than 3% of all purchases were made online in Australia over the Christmas break and less than 1% of all purchases were from an overseas retailer. To mess with something as complex and far-reaching as the GST for this miniscule amount would be more trouble than it's worth.
Bingo! This is exactly why they don't collect GST on purchases from overseas, and why when you buy something big, they do hold it in customs till you cough up.
The Government exempting online purchases with less than $100 GST collectable isn't because they're all warm and fuzzy and want to give us a good deal. It's because it would cost more than the GST amount to collect it.
I haven't checked the prices, but DealExtreme http://dealextreme.com/ has some insane prices.
Every price you see on the site there is in USD and INCLUDES international shipping anywhere in the world.
I think the only way they can do it is by being subsidised by the Chinese Government.
I've quite literally bought items off that site for a couple of dollars and had them turn up in my post box 7-10 days later. I'm amazed, so much so that when I've had issues with the products (and at those prices you can't honestly expect it to be 100%) that it would cost me more to return it than it would to purchase another one. They seem to realise this though and it's only in extreme cases that you need to return defective or incorrect items...
And, I've bought HDMI cables from there before - digital cables are digital cables (for sensible lengths anyway) and my PS3 is working perfectly in 1080p to my LCD TV and has been for a couple of years now.
The problem is it isn't the consumers who really pay the tax, it's the retailers. How exactly do you propose that the government tax overseas retailers.
Now you need to be careful with your definitions here - I know what you mean though... The consumer does end up paying the GST as they're the end user of the good or service. This GST is collected by the retailer at the point of purchase and paid to the Government. (input credits not withstanding etc...)
What they're proposing is that Customs will hold any imported goods and levy a 10% GST on them before you're allowed to receive them.
There's a very good reason why the Government doesn't do this already, and it's not because they want to give consumers a break. It's simply too much administrative overhead to collect less than $100 worth of GST on a single transaction.
So, what the retailers are wishing for isn't even really good for the Government as it's another layer of red tape and paperwork on EVERY single package that enters the country. It they thought they could make money adding GST onto these purchases, they would have done so already.
So, they're removing the historically accurate and contextually appropriate word from a classic piece of literature to protect "the children" from reading a word that they're probably hearing a couple of times a minute on MTV (or whatever the kids of today consume for music videos)
Agreed - transcoding is dodgy at best and downright unusable at worst.
I have a quad-xeon machine doing my transcoding - it flies through the task without hardly breaking a sweat... As long as I watch a media file from start to finish.
Don't try to rewind or fast-forward the media. Even pausing and resuming it can be a problem.
This is using PMS as well as a couple of other options. In the end I've completely given up with realtime transcoding and am now using some software that has a front end to do an offline conversion of mkv to mp4.
Yet another thing that Sony have dropped the ball on is DivX support - there's even official support for DivX in the PS3's OS, but since DivX was updated to use mkv as it's container format last year... nothing!
...
2: Three Ethernet ports, so it can do some complicated firewalling/IDS/IPS/content filtering/NAT.
If you've got a PS3 with three ether ports, it's worth quite a large amount of money as it's a prototype.
All shipping PS3s have one wired gigabit Ethernet port and one 802.11g wifi adapter.
All of the other things you mention there would potentially have been possible with OtherOS as it was before Sony removed it.