I'm getting really tired of hyper-speed, super cheap drives that fail after a year. I've got 100's of gigs of media (ripped DVDs, ripped CDs, etc. etc.) that DO NOT need incredible latency or access speed numbers. Give me 5400 RPM drives (or slower!) that run cool and reliably! I'd imagine that most users are in the same boat. If you need a 200G drive, it's not because you need 200G for applications and games. It's because of media.
Capacity, yes. Increase that. Reliability, yes. Improve that. But hard drive speed is a grossly overrated and mostly unneeded attribute.
I guess I naively thought that the speed of electrons in a wire was roughly the same as the speed of light, or at least "nearly" the speed of light. Can someone explain what the real advantage is?
There will always be some percentage of humans that crave power. We can never get to a state where everyone has everything they need/want because those who have power would have to relinquish it, and that isn't going to happen.
I don't think that's true. I flew into Boston's Logan on a very foggy night, looking out the window, I couldn't see the ground until literally a moment before the wheels touched down. After we landed, the pilot came on the PA to say that the landing was done entirely on autopilot. I'm not sure why he felt the need to share that with the passengers, but it was interesting none the less.
It makes me wonder why they havent instituted some sort of anti-hijack system that would auto-pilot the plane to a military airport or something. Pilot radios for help, enters a code on the panel, ground does the same... and instantly, all cockpit controls are locked out unless the pilot unlocks them. Autopilot then takes the plane to a "safe" location. Seems like it would be fairly easy. If the system failed, the worst case would likely be a plane full of people landing safely at an airport that they didn't intend to go to.
I believe he was refering to a recent comment by President Bush where he used the "hard work" "working hard' circular reasoning to make a bad situation seem good to idiots.
What you meant to say is that his staff used the circular reasoning to make the bad situation seem good to him. GWB was just passing that on...
Fine. And I still say "big deal". It's very nice, but nothing new. My roomies in college 17 years ago were building autonomous vehicles with Motorolla CPUs Ohhh... it can go around a bush. And Ohhh... up shallow stairs.
No doubt it's neat. And if I'd built it, I'd be showing it off to everyone I know. But it is not a new idea, nor a new execution of an older idea. It's just a rehash of stuff that's already out there and that others have already done.
Before the video gets slashdotted, here's a summary: A 6 wheeled, 3 axle remote control car goes down some stairs with VERY shallow height, it does around some bushes, and back up the stairs. It really is rather unspectactular. There's a variety of off-the-shelf remote control vehicles that can do the same thing... probably better.
... to DRM'd music! Seriously people. The way to stop digital restrictions management from crippling the media you buy is to NOT BUY IT unless it's free and in the clear with NO DRM.
The thing is, the only people who are really interested in seeing the sixth movie (or third, depending on how you count) in the Star Wars saga are those that have seen the other five movies
Yea, like my 5 year-old. He LOVES the other movies and he KNOWS this one is coming out. I'm going to go see it first and just hope that it's not too gruesome for him to handle.
Otherwise, this may be my first (of many I'm sure) declarations of "No, you can't go see that movie."
Mine is (sayeth he while he sits here reading and posting on Slashdot).
I've never quite understood the mindset of trying to squeeze every last penny out of an online purchase. Sure, getting a deal is usually a good thing. But come on, the back flips people go through to save a few bucks is downright silly. All of the comparisons, coupon hunting, etc, takes time. Time you can't get back and time you can't spend doing something else.
Next time you spend an hour trying to save $2 on a DVD, you really need to stop and think about what your time is worth.
If that's not the case then I hope you never listen to MP3 or WMA files.
I find 228kbps MP3 encoded with LAME to be a reasonable compromise for "on the go" music (car, headphones, etc.). But I spend too much time actually listening to music, not just as background, for anything other than the best possible format available.
What really pisses me off about the whole state of the music industry is that -I- am the person they should be bending over backwards to keep. I love music. I spend a lot of money on music, both recorded music and live. Instead they focus their energy on pimpley dorks sharing songs of the latest marketing project of the week (don't kid yourself... they're not bands anymore... they're record company marketing projects).
Ah well. One day the big record companies will have imploded and the obituary will read "If they'd just given people what they wanted for a reasonable price, not this DRM'd hyper-lossy crap they're pushing now..."
I bought and downloaded some.wmv baseball game footage from MLB.com (last year's playoff games). They even advertised that I could "burn it to CD!". This is the first time I've bought anything like that, so I'm figuring "Great! I'll be able to make a VCD of it.". Wrong. The things are so heavily DRM'd that even the fast-forward buttons are disabled.
Oh, and yes, I can burn the files to CD... as data. But I can't do a damn thing with them. I still need to be at my internet enabled PC so it can check for authorization any time I want to watch them.
I figured I'd give iTunes a try having read that their DRM isn't nearly as draconian. Well, it's basically the same issues though not to the same extent. And the sound quality sucks.
Fooled me twice... shame on me.
I hope the media companies hear this loud and clear... I will GLADLY buy high-quality un-DRM'd content. Let me repeat that... GLADLY. That means lossless compression for audio and DVD quality for video. They need to figure out their distribution model. I find it hard to believe that manufacturing discs and paying for shipping and retail overhead is a better cost model than allowing download. But for now, I will continue to buy CDs and DVDs because I can then rip the content and have the high-quality un-DRM'd files that I'm looking for. OR, they could increase their profit margin by allowing the same thing as a data transfer.
I'd say, that the chance of this happening to us, therefore is increased by a factor of 8 million.
No. The chance of this happening to us has not changed in the slightest.
The only thing that's changed is that we tweaked our bogus calculations which estimate the chances of this happening to us. The odds are exactly what they were before.
I'll bet the general public isn't even aware of the previous Mars rovers.
Don't kid yourself. They're hardly aware of THESE rovers. I'll bet if you were to ask 100 people at random "when did the most recent pair of Mars rovers stop working?", I'll bet no more than 10 would be able to tell you that they're actually still working.
If my free 3 month trial of XM radio has taught me anything (I bought a car), there is a lot of music out there I don't care for.
Your glass is half empty, mine is half full. If having XM has taught ME anything is that there is a lot music out there that I don't care for, but a whole lot that I DO care for. Sure, I'm probably only interested in less than 10% of the stations and of those only a fraction of the songs I hear do I really like, but that's still a HUGE number of artists that I wasn't aware of that I've been checking out in more detail.
Cut out the middleman as well - when you buy the new DVD, there's just a bit that flips on for your account, and you have access to the global copy.
Oh, don't get me wrong. I agree completely with what you said. That would be far better than practically infinite storage. But I have absolutely ZERO faith that the media industry will ever come to their senses enough to allow it in such a simple and non-obtrusive way. They will ALWAYS be trying to control it one way or another (see DVD region coding as an example of how they just won't be able to keep from messing with it). I would be extremely surprised if we ever get to the ideal that you mentioned. Plus, I don't like the idea of needing to have perfect network relability in order to view/hear said media. I don't mind taking some personal responsibility for managing "my" archive myself.
So in the meantime, I'll have to be satisfied when storage capacity gets to the point that I can have access to the the media that I own (or, as the media companies like to say "purchased limited rights to") anytime, anywhere.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm getting really tired of hyper-speed, super cheap drives that fail after a year. I've got 100's of gigs of media (ripped DVDs, ripped CDs, etc. etc.) that DO NOT need incredible latency or access speed numbers. Give me 5400 RPM drives (or slower!) that run cool and reliably! I'd imagine that most users are in the same boat. If you need a 200G drive, it's not because you need 200G for applications and games. It's because of media.
Capacity, yes. Increase that. Reliability, yes. Improve that. But hard drive speed is a grossly overrated and mostly unneeded attribute.
-S
I guess I naively thought that the speed of electrons in a wire was roughly the same as the speed of light, or at least "nearly" the speed of light. Can someone explain what the real advantage is?
-S
Maybe I'll get some work done today for a change.
-S
No, don't worry. By definition, you're not getting screwed.
There will always be some percentage of humans that crave power. We can never get to a state where everyone has everything they need/want because those who have power would have to relinquish it, and that isn't going to happen.
-S
I don't think that's true. I flew into Boston's Logan on a very foggy night, looking out the window, I couldn't see the ground until literally a moment before the wheels touched down. After we landed, the pilot came on the PA to say that the landing was done entirely on autopilot. I'm not sure why he felt the need to share that with the passengers, but it was interesting none the less.
It makes me wonder why they havent instituted some sort of anti-hijack system that would auto-pilot the plane to a military airport or something. Pilot radios for help, enters a code on the panel, ground does the same... and instantly, all cockpit controls are locked out unless the pilot unlocks them. Autopilot then takes the plane to a "safe" location. Seems like it would be fairly easy. If the system failed, the worst case would likely be a plane full of people landing safely at an airport that they didn't intend to go to.
-S
What you meant to say is that his staff used the circular reasoning to make the bad situation seem good to him. GWB was just passing that on...
Or maybe that is what you said.
-S
... the planning board of Provincetown hires architect to design additional grade school buildings...
Fine. And I still say "big deal". It's very nice, but nothing new. My roomies in college 17 years ago were building autonomous vehicles with Motorolla CPUs Ohhh... it can go around a bush. And Ohhh... up shallow stairs.
No doubt it's neat. And if I'd built it, I'd be showing it off to everyone I know. But it is not a new idea, nor a new execution of an older idea. It's just a rehash of stuff that's already out there and that others have already done.
-S
Before the video gets slashdotted, here's a summary: A 6 wheeled, 3 axle remote control car goes down some stairs with VERY shallow height, it does around some bushes, and back up the stairs. It really is rather unspectactular. There's a variety of off-the-shelf remote control vehicles that can do the same thing... probably better.
-S
... to DRM'd music! Seriously people. The way to stop digital restrictions management from crippling the media you buy is to NOT BUY IT unless it's free and in the clear with NO DRM.
-S
Silenced?
Ah, man! Thanks jerks. You'd think I could get on here without major spoilers. That's almost as bad as the Ken Jennings thing.
Sheesh.
-S
Yea, like my 5 year-old. He LOVES the other movies and he KNOWS this one is coming out. I'm going to go see it first and just hope that it's not too gruesome for him to handle.
Otherwise, this may be my first (of many I'm sure) declarations of "No, you can't go see that movie."
-S
Mine is (sayeth he while he sits here reading and posting on Slashdot).
I've never quite understood the mindset of trying to squeeze every last penny out of an online purchase. Sure, getting a deal is usually a good thing. But come on, the back flips people go through to save a few bucks is downright silly. All of the comparisons, coupon hunting, etc, takes time. Time you can't get back and time you can't spend doing something else.
Next time you spend an hour trying to save $2 on a DVD, you really need to stop and think about what your time is worth.
-S
I find 228kbps MP3 encoded with LAME to be a reasonable compromise for "on the go" music (car, headphones, etc.). But I spend too much time actually listening to music, not just as background, for anything other than the best possible format available.
What really pisses me off about the whole state of the music industry is that -I- am the person they should be bending over backwards to keep. I love music. I spend a lot of money on music, both recorded music and live. Instead they focus their energy on pimpley dorks sharing songs of the latest marketing project of the week (don't kid yourself... they're not bands anymore... they're record company marketing projects).
Ah well. One day the big record companies will have imploded and the obituary will read "If they'd just given people what they wanted for a reasonable price, not this DRM'd hyper-lossy crap they're pushing now..."
-S
I did stop. I thought that's what I'd said.
-S
... fool me twice, shame on me.
.wmv baseball game footage from MLB.com (last year's playoff games). They even advertised that I could "burn it to CD!". This is the first time I've bought anything like that, so I'm figuring "Great! I'll be able to make a VCD of it.". Wrong. The things are so heavily DRM'd that even the fast-forward buttons are disabled.
I bought and downloaded some
Oh, and yes, I can burn the files to CD... as data. But I can't do a damn thing with them. I still need to be at my internet enabled PC so it can check for authorization any time I want to watch them.
I figured I'd give iTunes a try having read that their DRM isn't nearly as draconian. Well, it's basically the same issues though not to the same extent. And the sound quality sucks.
Fooled me twice... shame on me.
I hope the media companies hear this loud and clear... I will GLADLY buy high-quality un-DRM'd content. Let me repeat that... GLADLY. That means lossless compression for audio and DVD quality for video. They need to figure out their distribution model. I find it hard to believe that manufacturing discs and paying for shipping and retail overhead is a better cost model than allowing download. But for now, I will continue to buy CDs and DVDs because I can then rip the content and have the high-quality un-DRM'd files that I'm looking for. OR, they could increase their profit margin by allowing the same thing as a data transfer.
-S
No. The chance of this happening to us has not changed in the slightest.
The only thing that's changed is that we tweaked our bogus calculations which estimate the chances of this happening to us. The odds are exactly what they were before.
-S
Don't kid yourself. They're hardly aware of THESE rovers. I'll bet if you were to ask 100 people at random "when did the most recent pair of Mars rovers stop working?", I'll bet no more than 10 would be able to tell you that they're actually still working.
-S
"This image is from the rover's rear hazard-avoidance camera"
What, are they worried about something sneaking up on it from behind?
-S
Or maybe the Universe reached its own "escape velocity" during the big bang.
-S
Your glass is half empty, mine is half full. If having XM has taught ME anything is that there is a lot music out there that I don't care for, but a whole lot that I DO care for. Sure, I'm probably only interested in less than 10% of the stations and of those only a fraction of the songs I hear do I really like, but that's still a HUGE number of artists that I wasn't aware of that I've been checking out in more detail.
-S
Once again, he was right. (At least about the former part. The later part goes without saying)
-S
Oh, don't get me wrong. I agree completely with what you said. That would be far better than practically infinite storage. But I have absolutely ZERO faith that the media industry will ever come to their senses enough to allow it in such a simple and non-obtrusive way. They will ALWAYS be trying to control it one way or another (see DVD region coding as an example of how they just won't be able to keep from messing with it). I would be extremely surprised if we ever get to the ideal that you mentioned. Plus, I don't like the idea of needing to have perfect network relability in order to view/hear said media. I don't mind taking some personal responsibility for managing "my" archive myself.
So in the meantime, I'll have to be satisfied when storage capacity gets to the point that I can have access to the the media that I own (or, as the media companies like to say "purchased limited rights to") anytime, anywhere.
-S