If the trailers are any indication, then this "performance capture" technology has a long way to go. The background animation is fantastic, but the characters look wooden, stiff, and completely lacking emotion. I find the animation style they've created to be very uninvolving and distracting (if those two things can coexist).
The central servers are installed on unpatched, open Windows computers and use RAS (Remote Access Server) to connect to the voting machines through telephone lines. Since RAS is not adequately protected
To the average American (and that means average poll worker), that paragraph reads like this:
The blah are installed on blah, blah Windows computers and use blahblah to connect to the voting machines through telephone lines. Since blah is not adequately blah...
Yea, but they were simple to fix. It was those little button contacts on the PCB inside that seemed to fail. Tape a little shim on top of it (or even a couple of layers of tape would work) and you were good to go for another few months.
A while back there was a/. post and/or article that had a "phishing or real" test. There were several test emails, some of which were legit, some were phishing.
Does anyone know where that test is? I'd like to forward it to some friends/family.
NO! X10 is a communication protocol. X10.com is a company that sells (mostly) X10-based equipment. You know, X10.com is a company that had lots of lots of pop-up and pop-under ads touting the wonders of secretly recording video of women. I hate it that they effectively hijacked the technology and have seemingly convinced the public, through their scummy advertising tactics, that X10 the protocol equals X10.com the company.
As amazing as Hubble has been, I fail to see how dumping huge sums of money into keeping it going is worth it if we can dump similar sums of money into earth-based technology with better results.
Well, no. MP3 can certainly sound better than FM. That's not at all what I'm saying. FM plus MP3 is lower quality than FM. FM plus a crappy tuner plus MP3 is lower quality still.
There's not a damn thing I can do about the FM source. It is what it is. MP3 is lossy, but it can be OK if treated carefully. So the other link in that chain that I can do something about if I want to record FM is the tuner. That's all I'm saying. Just because FM source sucks and MP3 sucks doesn't mean that I should ignore the FM tuner if I want the highest quality possible. The problems in the chain are cumulative.
No kidding. That's why I added "as far as FM goes". Yea, it's not good. Everyone knows that. But I want it to be as good as it can be. There's no point if the audio section of this product, including the tuner, further degrades the sound quality from what is possible from FM (bad as it may be from the start).
None of the reviews I've seen have really addressed the quality of the tuner section. It's abilities are rather pointless if the tuner doesn't have very good quality. I currently use a Cambridge Audio 640T if I need to record anything of importance off of FM. The sound quality is top notch (as far as FM goes), and the tuner is very sensitive.
Now I wouldn't expect the RadioSHARK to have the sound quality of a high-end dedicated tuner, but where does it stand? Is it great for convenience only or does it actually deliver the goods as far as sound quality goes.
Then again, I don't expect that any technology that relies on compressed audio (mp3) to have sound quality as a primary design goal.
One simple, old fashioned, mechanical failure and you've got uncontrolled acceleration.
Well, no. My point was that if such a failure happens, the inability to stop the vehicle would also mean simultaneous failures of systems which could also stop the car such as brakes and transmission.
Bottom line. The driver didn't know enough to pop the thing into neutral.
Every one of these stories about "uncontrolled acceleration" and "out of control" cars is exactly one thing... A driver who doesn't know what the heck they're doing. No brakes? They're stronger than the engine. How about just shifting into neutral? Even an automatic transmision has that option.
Sorry. I just don't believe these stores as anything other than driver's fabrications to cover their own ineptness. It would take a multiple simultaneous failure of unrelated systems to make this happen.
Why is our government allowed to use.com addresses? They're not a company, for-profit or otherwise. I know there are virtually no real restirctions on who can get.com,.org, etc., but isn't.gov for United States Government departments and agencies?
What I don't get out of any of the reports I've read is how severe of an eruption is possible here. Could it be massive like the big one that blew the side off of the mountain or are we in for a little puff (or as little as little can be on a volcanic scale)? Or do they just not know?
This is different from the usual Slashdot interview because we're asking you to submit questions through the New Voters Project site instead of as comments attached to this post
President Bush and Senator Kerry, what are you going to do about the literacy problem in this country, particularly as it relates to people who post to Slashdot and can't read simple instructions in the article?
I've actually thought about doing this myself, though to a lesser extent. Rip the DVD, capture the Guido/Han scene from the laserdisc, replace. Repeat as necessary for pathetic musical numbers, excessive celebrations, and extraneous characters.
Yes, I'm sure someone will do a fantastic professional job of it.
Personally I have the only digital version released up till now -- the laserdisc version
Laserdisc is not digital. It's analog. Well, the picture is anyway. Some laserdiscs had digital sound though.
I have the original Star Wars laserdiscs. The good ones. And a really nice laserdisc player. And a 50" DLP rear-projection TV. And you know what? They look like crap. Compared to a well-mastered DVD, there is absolutely no comparison. Poor shadow detail, chroma noise, etc.
Am I disapointed that I'm not going to get the version of these movies that saw in the theater in the 70's? Absolutely. But I am looking forward to seeing them on DVD. The bad look of the laserdisc is to me, at this point anyway, far more important than the tweaks Georgie boy has done. They're just not very watchable on laserdisc given current state-of-the-art reproduction.
I have DirecTV HD. Part of the HD package allows me to get the HD feed of CBS from New York. I also get HD from my local CBS affiliate via over-the-air (OTA) antenna.
There is quite a difference in quality. Make no mistake, they both look great, but the signal over DirecTV is far more compressed. There's more compression artifacts, less detail, and a generally softer picture.
It's great that DirecTV is taking the lead in HD... and this will only accelerate my desire to pick up a DirecTV-HD-TiVo... but I hope they take quality very seriously rather than just trying to stuff as many HD channels in their bandwidth as possible, damn the consequences.
One indication of the going rate for zombie PCs comes from a June 11 posting on SpecialHam.com, an electronic forum for spammers.
And you guys didn't put that link in the main Slashdot article?!?!?! Oh come on! If there's a site that deserves to be slashdotted, that one must be it.
Slashdot Mirror
Repeat after me. "It's just a game".
Sheesh
-S
If the trailers are any indication, then this "performance capture" technology has a long way to go. The background animation is fantastic, but the characters look wooden, stiff, and completely lacking emotion. I find the animation style they've created to be very uninvolving and distracting (if those two things can coexist).
Great idea. Lousy execution.
-S
Probably just Marvin messing with them.
-S
I'd love to be his speech writer. Take a speech. Sprinkle liberally (pun intended) with "um" and "uh". Instant Bush speech. How hard was that?
-S
To the average American (and that means average poll worker), that paragraph reads like this:
The blah are installed on blah, blah Windows computers and use blah blah to connect to the voting machines through telephone lines. Since blah is not adequately blah...
Seriously. Is this a surprise to anyone?
-S
Yea, but they were simple to fix. It was those little button contacts on the PCB inside that seemed to fail. Tape a little shim on top of it (or even a couple of layers of tape would work) and you were good to go for another few months.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
-S
Godzilla has fallen.
A while back there was a /. post and/or article that had a "phishing or real" test. There were several test emails, some of which were legit, some were phishing.
Does anyone know where that test is? I'd like to forward it to some friends/family.
-S
Or so you can find out how good (or bad) your "good quality" printer is.
-S
NO! X10 is a communication protocol. X10.com is a company that sells (mostly) X10-based equipment. You know, X10.com is a company that had lots of lots of pop-up and pop-under ads touting the wonders of secretly recording video of women. I hate it that they effectively hijacked the technology and have seemingly convinced the public, through their scummy advertising tactics, that X10 the protocol equals X10.com the company.
-S
As amazing as Hubble has been, I fail to see how dumping huge sums of money into keeping it going is worth it if we can dump similar sums of money into earth-based technology with better results.
-S
There's not a damn thing I can do about the FM source. It is what it is. MP3 is lossy, but it can be OK if treated carefully. So the other link in that chain that I can do something about if I want to record FM is the tuner. That's all I'm saying. Just because FM source sucks and MP3 sucks doesn't mean that I should ignore the FM tuner if I want the highest quality possible. The problems in the chain are cumulative.
-S
No kidding. That's why I added "as far as FM goes". Yea, it's not good. Everyone knows that. But I want it to be as good as it can be. There's no point if the audio section of this product, including the tuner, further degrades the sound quality from what is possible from FM (bad as it may be from the start).
-S
Now I wouldn't expect the RadioSHARK to have the sound quality of a high-end dedicated tuner, but where does it stand? Is it great for convenience only or does it actually deliver the goods as far as sound quality goes.
Then again, I don't expect that any technology that relies on compressed audio (mp3) to have sound quality as a primary design goal.
-S
Well, no. My point was that if such a failure happens, the inability to stop the vehicle would also mean simultaneous failures of systems which could also stop the car such as brakes and transmission.
Bottom line. The driver didn't know enough to pop the thing into neutral.
-S
Every one of these stories about "uncontrolled acceleration" and "out of control" cars is exactly one thing... A driver who doesn't know what the heck they're doing. No brakes? They're stronger than the engine. How about just shifting into neutral? Even an automatic transmision has that option.
Sorry. I just don't believe these stores as anything other than driver's fabrications to cover their own ineptness. It would take a multiple simultaneous failure of unrelated systems to make this happen.
-S
Why is our government allowed to use .com addresses? They're not a company, for-profit or otherwise. I know there are virtually no real restirctions on who can get .com, .org, etc., but isn't .gov for United States Government departments and agencies?
-S
What I don't get out of any of the reports I've read is how severe of an eruption is possible here. Could it be massive like the big one that blew the side off of the mountain or are we in for a little puff (or as little as little can be on a volcanic scale)? Or do they just not know?
-S
HAN SHOOTS FIRST!!!!
This is different from the usual Slashdot interview because we're asking you to submit questions through the New Voters Project site instead of as comments attached to this post
President Bush and Senator Kerry, what are you going to do about the literacy problem in this country, particularly as it relates to people who post to Slashdot and can't read simple instructions in the article?
-S
I've actually thought about doing this myself, though to a lesser extent. Rip the DVD, capture the Guido/Han scene from the laserdisc, replace. Repeat as necessary for pathetic musical numbers, excessive celebrations, and extraneous characters.
Yes, I'm sure someone will do a fantastic professional job of it.
-S
Laserdisc is not digital. It's analog. Well, the picture is anyway. Some laserdiscs had digital sound though.
I have the original Star Wars laserdiscs. The good ones. And a really nice laserdisc player. And a 50" DLP rear-projection TV. And you know what? They look like crap. Compared to a well-mastered DVD, there is absolutely no comparison. Poor shadow detail, chroma noise, etc.
Am I disapointed that I'm not going to get the version of these movies that saw in the theater in the 70's? Absolutely. But I am looking forward to seeing them on DVD. The bad look of the laserdisc is to me, at this point anyway, far more important than the tweaks Georgie boy has done. They're just not very watchable on laserdisc given current state-of-the-art reproduction.
-S
we could use this one at my work... :(
Time to move out of France, dude.
I have DirecTV HD. Part of the HD package allows me to get the HD feed of CBS from New York. I also get HD from my local CBS affiliate via over-the-air (OTA) antenna.
There is quite a difference in quality. Make no mistake, they both look great, but the signal over DirecTV is far more compressed. There's more compression artifacts, less detail, and a generally softer picture.
It's great that DirecTV is taking the lead in HD... and this will only accelerate my desire to pick up a DirecTV-HD-TiVo... but I hope they take quality very seriously rather than just trying to stuff as many HD channels in their bandwidth as possible, damn the consequences.
-S
One indication of the going rate for zombie PCs comes from a June 11 posting on SpecialHam.com, an electronic forum for spammers.
And you guys didn't put that link in the main Slashdot article?!?!?! Oh come on! If there's a site that deserves to be slashdotted, that one must be it.
-S