How many man-years did people spend downloading movies and videos with Limewire, back in the day, with old, slow DSL or -- gasp -- dialup?
What do you suppose their incentive was?
Meanwhile, somewhere in Korea or China or Los Angelos is a blackmarket DVD fab, stamping out bootlegged DVDs by the pallet. The folks who run that facility would surely like a slice of the Blu-Ray pie, too.
Man buys computer, is shocked to learn that it is more complicated than a toaster. His complaints fall upon deaf ears at Slashdot.
There's a good lot of folks around playing Blu-Ray movies just fine on PCs (please note: I'm not one of them[1]). And the key to it is having decent drivers (perhaps the video drivers provided by HP are shit -- it's very common for OEM drivers to be absolute crap), along with HDCP-compatible hardware along the whole chain.
You say your video card supports HDMI, and another poster says the 9600 supports HDCP (I know my 9800GT does, which is damn near the same card). But does your monitor support HDCP?
According to Wikipedia's article on HDMI, it may not: "In the U.S., HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) support is a standard feature on digital TVs while in the PC industry it can depend on the specific model. The first computer monitors with HDCP support started being released in 2005 and by February 2006 a dozen different models had been released."
HDCP isn't anything terribly new, it's just new to PCs. I had an old Sony 32" CRT TV with a DVI input which supported HDCP just fine, whereas only my most recent computer monitor (a 24" Asus LCD) supports HDCP.
[1]: One of these days, I'm going to set up the PS3 with some manner of Linux, and see about setting up its Blu-Ray drive as an iSCSI target so I can see about playing Blu-Ray movies over the network. One of these days...
Working roads sound like a benefit, to me, and that's exactly what the tax is supposed to pay for.
(Please be aware that I'm somewhat playing devil's advocate here; I have no desire, at all, to ever live in a world where my personal vehicle is subject to continuous tracking.)
While I agree with your general point, there's one thing I think you're missing:
Smaller wheels tend to make road wear worse, not better. Bigger/wider tires/wheels spread the load (whatever that load is) out over a greater area.
It's like the difference between a 20 ounce framing hammer, and a 20 ounce mallet. Same weight, same basic design, and the one with the most contact area does the least amount of damage.
Personally, I am wondering. What the hell is wrong with Vista? I know it sucks since I suffer using it but it simply feels so hard to describe. What made Vista suck?
I really am not sure.
A couple of years ago, I heard all about how bad Vista would suck. I'm traditionally a Linux user, and had a good working Linux desktop machine before most folks had even heard of Teh Intarweb, but my laptop (a 4-year-old Inspiron 6000) ran XP for business reasons. Also, I make a fair bit of cash doing odd Windows work on the side.
So, when Vista got released, I figured: Well, if it's so horrible, then I should get myself a copy and use it, so I can at least understand how to fix it when it breaks for my clients.
I picked up a copy of Vista Business, and did a clean install with it on my laptop.
And guess what? It worked fine. Out of the box, it figured out how to deal with my hardware in a very sane fashion (including the winmodem, the SD card reader, the Bluetooth module, the Intel 802.11a/b/g wireless, and the ATI x300 graphics), and presented me with a working computer in short order.
It wasn't slow. It wasn't hoggy. It worked fine, flashy Aero interface and all.
I eventually did turn off Superfetch[1], because I found that it made bad decisions because of the wide variety of software that I run and that it was faster without it. And I ended up replacing most of the drivers, because I'm a control freak that way. But it worked.
I ran that Vista install until the public beta of Windows 7 hit the streets, and then I did a clean install of that. It, also, just worked. (Is still working, in fact.)
Nothing all that special about the computer: 2 gigs of RAM, slow hard drive, 1920x1200 display, 1.83GHz Pentium M.
*shrug*
I think the biggest problem with Vista is that everyone (including layfolk) had been hearing all about just how horrible it was supposed to be, long before it was even released. I submit that this has more to do with people being human, than any technical problem with the system.
[1]: My wife's computer also runs Vista, and it also works fine. I even left Superfetch turned on for her, because her usage is typical (read: predictable) enough that it's faster with it enabled.
Does anyone have a working link, for those of us who are in the US?
The doesn't affect me much, really -- Pandora still works fine for me as long as I'm in the US. But it's inspiring to me to read about the new and interesting in which American companies find to conspire against other countries.
So - I want to read the note. Someone post it, archive it, or something, so we USians can start arguing about who to boycott next.
It just rings all of the phones of my choosing, and if someone answers one of them, it talks to me: "You have a call from [caller's name]. Press 1 to answer, 2 to send to voice mail, 3 to listen in on the voice mail, or 4 to accept and record the call."
Since neither my home answering machine nor my cell phone's voice mail know how to dial 1, calls don't get terminated if voice mail (or whatever) answers inappropriately. It'd work the same way with a Gizmo SIP extension, if I'd ever bothered to set one up . . .
I don't remember if this was the default behavior, or something that I had to set up with Google Voice, but it works just fine for me.
You're exactly right, though my reference to the P38 was intentionally and selectively vague. I knew that those familiar with the can opener would understand plainly what I meant, and I hoped that a little discussion the matter would enlighten other people to this useful little tool better than I could in my simple dialogue.
I think my vagueness worked. Thanks for helping out.
Not everyone here on Slashdot is a low-level hardware geek. But I, for one, am a very good high-level hardware geek (please note that I didn't say "PC hardware").
I can interface high-level things in ways that make you low-level people turn befuddled and feeble.
It's good that you know something about building a switch-mode power supply -- I don't. And it's good that I know how to take that thing that your switch-mode power supply is delivering current to, and do something useful with it that you didn't intend.
I couldn't do my stuff without you guys building things for me to work with, but that doesn't mean that I'm not filling an important role that you [aren't|don't want to|can't].
Can't change MAC addresses? "Clone MAC address" is a pretty common feature in the stock firmware of a number of common consumer-grade home routers. Are there special editions available in your locality?
What barbaric state is this? (I only want to know so that if I ever find myself driving around in those parts, I know to get gas before I get into that state, to drive only on local, non-Federally funded roads, and to avoid stopping for everything but urination. Vote with your bladder, I say.)
It doesn't seem that it could possibly cause more pressure than it already has. The trip up should be a relief for that window.
Though, personally, I don't think the knob would be liberated until the orbiter was heated during the next reentry...and that's probably not the best time for one to be out of their seat, picking bits out of the dashboard of a space shuttle.
I've replaced the plugs in a 3.4l Chevy, and I tell you this: Taking loose the mounts at the top/front of the motor and working the engine forward was the easy part. It's just two bolts, and then you just sort of tug on the motor with your hands (it's pretty well balanced), and - voila - you've got room to work.
After that, came the hard part: Removing 12 year old spark plugs, which were factory-installed 190k miles ago.
What if we could tell the Big One was coming in the next decade but had the technology to loose its destruction at a time of our choosing?
Then folks would be ready for it, just like OP said.
How would such a thing be done?
RTFA.
Where would everyone go?
Vacation.
What about those refuse to leave?
Give them video cameras, clean water, some canned goods, and a P38.
Are there temporary measures that could improve structural stability for 24 hours?
Yes. Tape the windows, close the doors. Remove things from shelves. And avoid doing this in dry season or rainy season, whichever is worse for the upper layers of the crust.
What about people who couldn't afford them?
Help them.
How would insurers decide to react?
They'd act like cowardly children with solid cherry desks, country club memberships, a trophy wife, and a new German car, just like they do any other time something expensive happens.
How would the specifics of the release be affected by politics?
Poorly. Just as every other case where a politician gets involved.
If there were a way to control where the greatest damage would occur, how would it be chosen?
Whatever's cheapest.
Who would choose?
Maps. And clinical, heartless engineers.
Would the people in the way have a say?
They had a say when they elected the government.
What kind of legal liability would those involved at different levels have?
Who cares? If we can print enough money to bail out the economy, we can print enough to cover everyone's ass in a man-made Teh Big One.
Imagine your shutter button broke, and Panasonic refused to fix it because you "voided the warranty" by using a different battery.
Imagine your LCD develops missing lines due to a poor connection, and Panasonic refused to fix it because you "voided the warranty" by using a different battery.
Imagine that one of the bearings in the autofocus optics has gone all sloppy and the camera won't focus anymore, and Panasonic refused to fix it because you "voided the warranty" by using a different battery.
Maybe he has to turn off the home LAN/WLAN, his big screen TV and not run the dryer or microwave but it's almost certainly possible for him to stay at or below his generation capacity unless it's the dead of the night.
If the sun is still up, what's the point of having electricity if all that stuff is turned off? (And, no - "running the fridge" doesn't count. Fridge contents have been insured against power outages on every policy I've ever had, and ice is cheap and available.)
It would be really easy for you to be trying to draw 4kW while your system could only make 3kW, which would probably result in relatively nasty results.
Haven't you heard? They've got these new-fangled current-limiting devices. I heard a wizard -- I mean, an electrician -- talking about them the other day. I think he called them "fuses." He also said something about working on a new invention called a "circuit breaker," but he wouldn't tell me what it was supposed to do.
*ahem*
We could even get fancy, and build a device that automatically breaks the circuit when the voltage drops too low (which is really just a simple way of measuring current availability vs. usage). The cheapshit inverter in my work truck does this nicely. It'd even be fairly simple: Power goes out on a nice sunny day, PV system can't keep up with the load, and drops out. Mr. Homeowner then simply turns off the electric drier, tells the kids not to use the microwave and the TV at the same time, and pushes the reset button. If load gets to high (and voltage drops sufficiently), it cuts out again.
I do question the utility of such a system, on the basis that I've only experienced meaningful power outages during occasions when it is decidedly NOT nice OR sunny. And if it goes out during the day, who cares anyway? You've still got light. *shrug*
Ah, but wait: I got modded down as "flamebait," while you got your anonymous musings modded up. Perhaps, then, anonymous postings do have merit, and you're not a fuckwad afterall.
So: Allow me to suggest that you're still wrong, and that anonymous posting is considered useful and beneficial by the community.
Right. I agree with each of your points: JBOD doesn't imply any sort of RAID. However, software raid does imply JBOD.
That you have tires does not imply that they're mounted on a car. However, if you have a car, it's implied that it has tires.
I'm not quite sure that most people would think of "loopback-monted files" as JBOD, either (unless they were working on the md bits in the kernel or something). Which is why I used it as a counterexample. It's such a corner case that nobody sane would call it JBOD (even if, in Unix, everything is just a file anyway).
At the end of the day, there are no practical or common examples of "Software RAID" existing without JBOD that I can think of, which is why I still continue to say that "software RAID" implies JBOD so strongly that it is redundant.
It's a minor point. Hardly even worth discussing. But I still believe it to be true. I mean, if you walked around saying "Yeah, I just got a new car, AND it has tires," everyone within earshot would look at you funny -- of course the car has tires. Like saying "Yeah, I just got my new 5TB software RAID array up running AND it's JBOD" -- of course your RAID array spans a bunch of disks. What else would it span? Punch cards? Paper tape? CD-R? Come on.
Slashdot Mirror
Naw, you failed.
I didn't address bigger vs. smaller vehicles. I addressed bigger vs. smaller wheels.
Try again.
How many man-years did people spend downloading movies and videos with Limewire, back in the day, with old, slow DSL or -- gasp -- dialup?
What do you suppose their incentive was?
Meanwhile, somewhere in Korea or China or Los Angelos is a blackmarket DVD fab, stamping out bootlegged DVDs by the pallet. The folks who run that facility would surely like a slice of the Blu-Ray pie, too.
News flash:
Man buys computer, is shocked to learn that it is more complicated than a toaster. His complaints fall upon deaf ears at Slashdot.
There's a good lot of folks around playing Blu-Ray movies just fine on PCs (please note: I'm not one of them[1]). And the key to it is having decent drivers (perhaps the video drivers provided by HP are shit -- it's very common for OEM drivers to be absolute crap), along with HDCP-compatible hardware along the whole chain.
You say your video card supports HDMI, and another poster says the 9600 supports HDCP (I know my 9800GT does, which is damn near the same card). But does your monitor support HDCP?
According to Wikipedia's article on HDMI, it may not: "In the U.S., HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) support is a standard feature on digital TVs while in the PC industry it can depend on the specific model. The first computer monitors with HDCP support started being released in 2005 and by February 2006 a dozen different models had been released."
HDCP isn't anything terribly new, it's just new to PCs. I had an old Sony 32" CRT TV with a DVI input which supported HDCP just fine, whereas only my most recent computer monitor (a 24" Asus LCD) supports HDCP.
[1]: One of these days, I'm going to set up the PS3 with some manner of Linux, and see about setting up its Blu-Ray drive as an iSCSI target so I can see about playing Blu-Ray movies over the network. One of these days...
AND you get NO benefit from it
Working roads sound like a benefit, to me, and that's exactly what the tax is supposed to pay for.
(Please be aware that I'm somewhat playing devil's advocate here; I have no desire, at all, to ever live in a world where my personal vehicle is subject to continuous tracking.)
While I agree with your general point, there's one thing I think you're missing:
Smaller wheels tend to make road wear worse, not better. Bigger/wider tires/wheels spread the load (whatever that load is) out over a greater area.
It's like the difference between a 20 ounce framing hammer, and a 20 ounce mallet. Same weight, same basic design, and the one with the most contact area does the least amount of damage.
Personally, I am wondering. What the hell is wrong with Vista? I know it sucks since I suffer using it but it simply feels so hard to describe. What made Vista suck?
I really am not sure.
A couple of years ago, I heard all about how bad Vista would suck. I'm traditionally a Linux user, and had a good working Linux desktop machine before most folks had even heard of Teh Intarweb, but my laptop (a 4-year-old Inspiron 6000) ran XP for business reasons. Also, I make a fair bit of cash doing odd Windows work on the side.
So, when Vista got released, I figured: Well, if it's so horrible, then I should get myself a copy and use it, so I can at least understand how to fix it when it breaks for my clients.
I picked up a copy of Vista Business, and did a clean install with it on my laptop.
And guess what? It worked fine. Out of the box, it figured out how to deal with my hardware in a very sane fashion (including the winmodem, the SD card reader, the Bluetooth module, the Intel 802.11a/b/g wireless, and the ATI x300 graphics), and presented me with a working computer in short order.
It wasn't slow. It wasn't hoggy. It worked fine, flashy Aero interface and all.
I eventually did turn off Superfetch[1], because I found that it made bad decisions because of the wide variety of software that I run and that it was faster without it. And I ended up replacing most of the drivers, because I'm a control freak that way. But it worked.
I ran that Vista install until the public beta of Windows 7 hit the streets, and then I did a clean install of that. It, also, just worked. (Is still working, in fact.)
Nothing all that special about the computer: 2 gigs of RAM, slow hard drive, 1920x1200 display, 1.83GHz Pentium M.
*shrug*
I think the biggest problem with Vista is that everyone (including layfolk) had been hearing all about just how horrible it was supposed to be, long before it was even released. I submit that this has more to do with people being human, than any technical problem with the system.
[1]: My wife's computer also runs Vista, and it also works fine. I even left Superfetch turned on for her, because her usage is typical (read: predictable) enough that it's faster with it enabled.
Agreed.
And then, just wait until the individual counties within those states get involved.
Does anyone have a working link, for those of us who are in the US?
The doesn't affect me much, really -- Pandora still works fine for me as long as I'm in the US. But it's inspiring to me to read about the new and interesting in which American companies find to conspire against other countries.
So - I want to read the note. Someone post it, archive it, or something, so we USians can start arguing about who to boycott next.
Why bother with Skype, if you've already got Google Voice, a cell phone, and Gizmo?
Google Voice doesn't have that problem.
It just rings all of the phones of my choosing, and if someone answers one of them, it talks to me: "You have a call from [caller's name]. Press 1 to answer, 2 to send to voice mail, 3 to listen in on the voice mail, or 4 to accept and record the call."
Since neither my home answering machine nor my cell phone's voice mail know how to dial 1, calls don't get terminated if voice mail (or whatever) answers inappropriately. It'd work the same way with a Gizmo SIP extension, if I'd ever bothered to set one up . . .
I don't remember if this was the default behavior, or something that I had to set up with Google Voice, but it works just fine for me.
Why did you read the article? Nobody else does.
No whoosh needed.
You're exactly right, though my reference to the P38 was intentionally and selectively vague. I knew that those familiar with the can opener would understand plainly what I meant, and I hoped that a little discussion the matter would enlighten other people to this useful little tool better than I could in my simple dialogue.
I think my vagueness worked. Thanks for helping out.
Different strokes for different folks.
Not everyone here on Slashdot is a low-level hardware geek. But I, for one, am a very good high-level hardware geek (please note that I didn't say "PC hardware").
I can interface high-level things in ways that make you low-level people turn befuddled and feeble.
It's good that you know something about building a switch-mode power supply -- I don't. And it's good that I know how to take that thing that your switch-mode power supply is delivering current to, and do something useful with it that you didn't intend.
I couldn't do my stuff without you guys building things for me to work with, but that doesn't mean that I'm not filling an important role that you [aren't|don't want to|can't].
It takes all kinds -- be nice.
Timothy, oh most respect-worthy of Slashdot editors:
Here's a shot in the dark: Didn't you just describe GM's Onstar service?
And, if not -- didn't you just describe a good secretary?
Perhaps the thing you want isn't so far-fetched afterall.
Can't change MAC addresses? "Clone MAC address" is a pretty common feature in the stock firmware of a number of common consumer-grade home routers. Are there special editions available in your locality?
What barbaric state is this? (I only want to know so that if I ever find myself driving around in those parts, I know to get gas before I get into that state, to drive only on local, non-Federally funded roads, and to avoid stopping for everything but urination. Vote with your bladder, I say.)
It doesn't seem that it could possibly cause more pressure than it already has. The trip up should be a relief for that window.
Though, personally, I don't think the knob would be liberated until the orbiter was heated during the next reentry...and that's probably not the best time for one to be out of their seat, picking bits out of the dashboard of a space shuttle.
I've replaced the plugs in a 3.4l Chevy, and I tell you this: Taking loose the mounts at the top/front of the motor and working the engine forward was the easy part. It's just two bolts, and then you just sort of tug on the motor with your hands (it's pretty well balanced), and - voila - you've got room to work.
After that, came the hard part: Removing 12 year old spark plugs, which were factory-installed 190k miles ago.
I think he was talking about this, which has something to do with this.
Hope this helps.
Bing!
Glau
Portman
Geller
And the lameness filter says I have too few characters per line! Go Taco, go!
You asked...
What if we could tell the Big One was coming in the next decade but had the technology to loose its destruction at a time of our choosing?
Then folks would be ready for it, just like OP said.
How would such a thing be done?
RTFA.
Where would everyone go?
Vacation.
What about those refuse to leave?
Give them video cameras, clean water, some canned goods, and a P38.
Are there temporary measures that could improve structural stability for 24 hours?
Yes. Tape the windows, close the doors. Remove things from shelves. And avoid doing this in dry season or rainy season, whichever is worse for the upper layers of the crust.
What about people who couldn't afford them?
Help them.
How would insurers decide to react?
They'd act like cowardly children with solid cherry desks, country club memberships, a trophy wife, and a new German car, just like they do any other time something expensive happens.
How would the specifics of the release be affected by politics?
Poorly. Just as every other case where a politician gets involved.
If there were a way to control where the greatest damage would occur, how would it be chosen?
Whatever's cheapest.
Who would choose?
Maps. And clinical, heartless engineers.
Would the people in the way have a say?
They had a say when they elected the government.
What kind of legal liability would those involved at different levels have?
Who cares? If we can print enough money to bail out the economy, we can print enough to cover everyone's ass in a man-made Teh Big One.
No, it's not more grey.
Imagine your shutter button broke, and Panasonic refused to fix it because you "voided the warranty" by using a different battery.
Imagine your LCD develops missing lines due to a poor connection, and Panasonic refused to fix it because you "voided the warranty" by using a different battery.
Imagine that one of the bearings in the autofocus optics has gone all sloppy and the camera won't focus anymore, and Panasonic refused to fix it because you "voided the warranty" by using a different battery.
Maybe he has to turn off the home LAN/WLAN, his big screen TV and not run the dryer or microwave but it's almost certainly possible for him to stay at or below his generation capacity unless it's the dead of the night.
If the sun is still up, what's the point of having electricity if all that stuff is turned off? (And, no - "running the fridge" doesn't count. Fridge contents have been insured against power outages on every policy I've ever had, and ice is cheap and available.)
It would be really easy for you to be trying to draw 4kW while your system could only make 3kW, which would probably result in relatively nasty results.
Haven't you heard? They've got these new-fangled current-limiting devices. I heard a wizard -- I mean, an electrician -- talking about them the other day. I think he called them "fuses." He also said something about working on a new invention called a "circuit breaker," but he wouldn't tell me what it was supposed to do.
*ahem*
We could even get fancy, and build a device that automatically breaks the circuit when the voltage drops too low (which is really just a simple way of measuring current availability vs. usage). The cheapshit inverter in my work truck does this nicely. It'd even be fairly simple: Power goes out on a nice sunny day, PV system can't keep up with the load, and drops out. Mr. Homeowner then simply turns off the electric drier, tells the kids not to use the microwave and the TV at the same time, and pushes the reset button. If load gets to high (and voltage drops sufficiently), it cuts out again.
I do question the utility of such a system, on the basis that I've only experienced meaningful power outages during occasions when it is decidedly NOT nice OR sunny. And if it goes out during the day, who cares anyway? You've still got light. *shrug*
Ah, but wait: I got modded down as "flamebait," while you got your anonymous musings modded up. Perhaps, then, anonymous postings do have merit, and you're not a fuckwad afterall.
So: Allow me to suggest that you're still wrong, and that anonymous posting is considered useful and beneficial by the community.
Right. I agree with each of your points: JBOD doesn't imply any sort of RAID. However, software raid does imply JBOD.
That you have tires does not imply that they're mounted on a car. However, if you have a car, it's implied that it has tires.
I'm not quite sure that most people would think of "loopback-monted files" as JBOD, either (unless they were working on the md bits in the kernel or something). Which is why I used it as a counterexample. It's such a corner case that nobody sane would call it JBOD (even if, in Unix, everything is just a file anyway).
At the end of the day, there are no practical or common examples of "Software RAID" existing without JBOD that I can think of, which is why I still continue to say that "software RAID" implies JBOD so strongly that it is redundant.
It's a minor point. Hardly even worth discussing. But I still believe it to be true. I mean, if you walked around saying "Yeah, I just got a new car, AND it has tires," everyone within earshot would look at you funny -- of course the car has tires. Like saying "Yeah, I just got my new 5TB software RAID array up running AND it's JBOD" -- of course your RAID array spans a bunch of disks. What else would it span? Punch cards? Paper tape? CD-R? Come on.