I can spend 10G on a film camera and some glass. And don't get me started on medium format prices!
As for newspapers, we used digital imaging back in '92 to circumvent the darkroom process at my college newspaper, and you'd never know the difference. IIRC, we scanned at about 1300dpi - well within the range of the lowliest digicam nowadays.
There are still areas where the "old" methods are better - and can be more fun for hobbiests. Heck, I like manual drafting too, but you won't see my architectural drawings going out in india ink on vellum!
Those would be, what, 8x10 images with a 150line screen? I'd sure hope that a good 6MP camera would produce good results.
BTW - for most applications, this is effectively 35mm resolution or better. You won't convince me it can replace medium format, but then I'd expect to be able to make larger prints from my 6x7 images. And, though a totally different beast, it won't make me throw out my TechPan stash.
Right now, I'm waiting for a digital F-mount body to take over the place of my F4s, but it's going to have to be pretty noise free. Noisy ccd's really bother me for some reason...even more than golf-ball sized grain. Kind of like being able to watch TV with analog snow isn't as bad as the artifacts on some of the high-compression DirecTV channels.
Actually, no. First, you're unlikely to see a Hassleblad with 1600 speed film. Second, resolution on current good color films is between 125 and 150 lp/mm, or (60x125)x(90x125)=84.4MP+ in a 3:2 format (most are square or 6x7, but 6x9 gives a one-to-one comparison). And third, have you seen high-ISO photos with CCD sensors? Noise-city. Not that high speed films are better, but you're not going to find any "wow that's georgeous" handheld night shots with the ISO set at 800.
I do like the full frame sensors, though, as they aren't trying to pack a zillion sensors into a small space, like my Minolta X50. The noise as anything but 50ISO is horrendous. Also, it means you preserve the (shallow) depth of field you can get with bright optics.
I wont't vote for someone who says the same thing every day in the face of changing information. Our president can not admit that anything he does is/was wrong or ill-informed. He hsa been described as listened to all side of a debate, and then choosing a course of action, but I have yet to see him actually swayed by a position contrary to his own, regardless of evidence.
Then again, I suppose if you agree with his platfor positions, he's the perfect candidate. I happen to disagree with many of tehm, so - like the GP, I'd probably vote for a bagel. (I like mine with cream cheese, no lox)
I find in interesting that many people have asked for Dan Rather to resign after believing and publicizing memos which have been found to be forged, but the same people have no problem with the President invading a country on (what we now presume is) faulty intellegence which may have been cherry picked to support his desire to begin military action. Double standard? That's the way I see it. BTW - I think CBS WAS wrong to publicize the papers just to get a headline scoop.
Oh, and for the record, there was a way that the US could have had hard data that Iraq was producing chemical WMD. Unfortunately, the program is highly classified, and the mention of its exstance might jeopardize its future operational effectiveness - as is the case with many ongoing CIA prgrams. Before we invaded, I believed that this might have been a smoking gun. Based on the reactions of several international governements, and our own governmental information, I do NOT believe we had that data, and our jusification was based on softer intellegence.
Not have a child if you can't afford it? You insensitive clod!
Seriously, though, most folks never consider the financial implications of children. They're damned expensive. Personally, I think there should be a tax on children rather than a tax break/credit. They add expense to the society, not reduce it. I don't mind kicking in for the "public good," but it irked me that people with lots of kids didn't have to foot at least an equivalent part of the bill. Now I have a child, and take the deduction, and the credit, but I still think the system makes no sense. And yes, I'd be willing to pay extra for my child to have better schools, roads, parks, and whatnot. Of course, I'm only having one, because that's all I can afford.
If this were a possiblility, I would not hire women to work for me. In a professional office of 2-3 people, payroll is about 75-85% of gross receipts. Having to replace a single worker for a year and still pay the replaced worker would put my payroll over 100% of gross receipts. It's very hard to run a successful business that way.
Claims have almost nothing to do with rates or lawyers. The states have significanlty vaying laws on liability, but the overall tide of insurance premiums is independent of those laws. The sucess and failure of the investments insurance companies make with your premiums determines the rates more than actual losses due to insured claims.
Do I think some reform is necessary? Sure. So I think there are bloodsucking lawyers out there who work the system? Sure. Are your premiums going to rise exponentially if the bond market goes into the shitter? Absolutely. If the bond lmarket takes off, will we see insurance companies selling products below costs? Yup.
I hate the system as much as the next guy, but there are truly legitimate claims and there are fraudulent claims, and until you can get juries to see the difference, all the laws you write will hurt more of the former than the latter.
(I happen to pay a very large liability insurance premium for the professional services I offer - over 25% of my GROSS billings the first year in business. I have a stake in reform, but I don't see the end-user value in most of the proposals offered.)
Useless question. The answer is "I'm not in favor of reinstituting the draft, but as Commander in Chief, I must do what is necessary to ensure the safety of our democracy, our people, and our way of life. As your President I will (or will continue to) make the hard choices that are required of the office with both prudence and utmost care.
The better question is, "How do you propose to work within the bounds of voluntary military service to accomplish your military goals."
It will get just as mealy-mouthed an answer as the one I stated above, but it at least offers the opportunity to offer solutions to the manpower problem wihtout them having to dance around the touchy draft issue.
Of course, if there is a draft, it should be truly random, with no exclusions save total mental incompetance. National Guard? Sorry, son, we're bumping you to active duty. Desk job in the military already? Sorry, maam, here's a pair of boots and a pack...you leave for North Vietnam at 0500. Jenna, get your ass out of bed, you deploy next week. Oh, and Sky, you'd better finish surfing, 'cause you're headed to Basic in three days.
In the next four years we will see the appointment of possibly (2) new Supreme Court justices. My question to the candidates is this: Please illustrate the two most important issues you would like to see revisited and overturned, and - without naming names - would your first and second choices for new Supreme Court Justices agree or disagree with the positions you've just described.
Don't worry, there's no surplus of $50,000 houses here in the US. Anywhere close to a population center with a growing economy your entry level house will start at about 3 times that, and about 6 times that around larger cities. New housing is ranging from $90/sf to $200/sf in the suburbs (read: old farm land an hour from where you work), to $400+/sf for city dwellers.
Unless he was talking about mobile homes, which are poorly constructed trailers sitting on unreinforced masonry piers and anchored to the ground with 3cm wide x 1mm thk straps. You've probably seen them blowing around the fields and marshes in the recent news clips from Florida and Alabama. They start about $12,000US and peak out around $60,000US.
Absolutley. Just look how quickly private aircraft have become commonplace. The costs have come down so much that practically anyone can afford one.
Seriously, though, even if the laws of physics weren't against it the insurance industry and governmental regulations would s#!+can the prospect of readily available space travel.
Besides, ready access to space is a tool for terrorism, and you are unpatriotic to even suggest such a possibility;-)
Foolishness all around. It all gets down to who has the cash to get things done. There is no lobby for teenage girls with a crush on[name your favorite celibrity hunk] so new legislation will sail though in the name of patriotism. Guns, on the otherhand, are one of the hobbies of choice for many well placed and well-funded individuals, and therefor will be preserved at all cost, even if it means allowing effectively useless bans becoming law.
The gp is somewhat correct - a dedicated, patient group of individuals can take out a sitting US president. Would flash mobs help? Maybe, but they're probably not a critical part of the plan. Someone willing to die for the cause would be far more useful. But it's hard to outlaw those people and make them go away, since there's no way of determining who is a candidate for a suicide bomber AND get them a life/death sentence for it (yet).
Note that the current president probably need not fear from an assaination attempt, as he is probably the best recruitment tool the terrorists have had in many, many years. Put yourself in their shoes - it's far easier to stoke religeous ferver if there is a devil with a face and a name. I'm sure that George W. stirs up, for them, the same feelings that Osama or the late Ayatollah Khomeini does for the US.
Not so sure what you consider to be expensive for single layer media. I just picked up a 50 pack of inkjet printable, Ritek 8x +R discs for under $30.
I'll admit that isn't the traditional free-after-rebate thta we're all used to for crappy CD-Rs, but $0.60 a disc with a near-zero coaster rate in a printable product counts as darned cheap to me.
BTW - I'm using a 2500 and a 2500A in my two machines with burners. The only readability issues I've had are with RW discs in non-recordable drives and consumer players.
Oh yeah, that's a good idea (not). If the broadcasters could sell their bandwidth (did they get it for free to begin with, or is the goverment now a wholesaler?) they'd drop television. Why bother, if you can make even more money with less work by reselling to cell providers?
As for TVs, you can bet they aren't going to give you any subsidies unless there's an ATSC only tuner (over the air standard) and ZERO external inputs. OTherwise, they'd be subsidizing cable and satellite interests. You get that fancy cable box for free 'cause you're dropping $80/mo on cable services. For $1000/yr they can afford to "give" you an $80 decoder. Heck, the satellites will give you a DVR, too, cause they're charging almost as much AND they've found out that DVR users are more likely to order pay-per-view events (since you can time shift them). However, you'll notice that DTV isn't currently giving out HDTivos, since they're a bit too expensive to cover.
Actually, WalMart is now carrying a 30" (or 32", can't remember) 16:9 direct view CRT HD television with integrated HD tuner for both ATSC and QAM (cable) for just under $800.
I looked and its not on their website, but I saw it in person last weekend at a B&M in the 67th TV market area (we're just 30-40 miles from bumf*ck nowhere)
Still pricey, I can't argue, but they are coming down quite a bit from the $5,500 + $2000 (monitor+decoder) of just 4 years ago.
Hmmm, that means we can have persistant banner ads for ALL our television viewing! Four borders can easily support 8 ads ALL THE TIME. And with ad rotation, we'll sell time in the traditional 30 seconds chunks. Thanks...this will be GREAT!
Actually, once the transition takes place, your cable company will be forced to carry the digital channels. Right now, they get to choose which version to redistribute under the Must Carry rules.
The "windfall" you speak of will be akin to spitting into the ocean. That is, unless you can figure out a way to auction off spectrum worth 7 Trillion dollars, payable today...in which case you've got a great idea. I just hope I can get over the $1000/mo mobile phone bill it'll take to make that kind of cash outlay feasable.
Yes, because we need another governmental agency. Hey, let's make it a cabinet level agency - we don't have enough of those yet!
These sound like consumer products (software programs for consumers), how about giving it to an existing branch. Sure, you're adding workload, but there's no need to add an additional full political structure when one already exists.
As for the FCC...until either Michael Powell gets a backbone or they throw him out and get someone with real sense and a working set of balls, you can forget about them doing anything remotely usefull.
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I can spend 10G on a film camera and some glass. And don't get me started on medium format prices!
As for newspapers, we used digital imaging back in '92 to circumvent the darkroom process at my college newspaper, and you'd never know the difference. IIRC, we scanned at about 1300dpi - well within the range of the lowliest digicam nowadays.
There are still areas where the "old" methods are better - and can be more fun for hobbiests. Heck, I like manual drafting too, but you won't see my architectural drawings going out in india ink on vellum!
Those would be, what, 8x10 images with a 150line screen? I'd sure hope that a good 6MP camera would produce good results.
BTW - for most applications, this is effectively 35mm resolution or better. You won't convince me it can replace medium format, but then I'd expect to be able to make larger prints from my 6x7 images. And, though a totally different beast, it won't make me throw out my TechPan stash.
Right now, I'm waiting for a digital F-mount body to take over the place of my F4s, but it's going to have to be pretty noise free. Noisy ccd's really bother me for some reason...even more than golf-ball sized grain. Kind of like being able to watch TV with analog snow isn't as bad as the artifacts on some of the high-compression DirecTV channels.
Actually, no. First, you're unlikely to see a Hassleblad with 1600 speed film. Second, resolution on current good color films is between 125 and 150 lp/mm, or (60x125)x(90x125)=84.4MP+ in a 3:2 format (most are square or 6x7, but 6x9 gives a one-to-one comparison). And third, have you seen high-ISO photos with CCD sensors? Noise-city. Not that high speed films are better, but you're not going to find any "wow that's georgeous" handheld night shots with the ISO set at 800.
I do like the full frame sensors, though, as they aren't trying to pack a zillion sensors into a small space, like my Minolta X50. The noise as anything but 50ISO is horrendous. Also, it means you preserve the (shallow) depth of field you can get with bright optics.
I wont't vote for someone who says the same thing every day in the face of changing information. Our president can not admit that anything he does is/was wrong or ill-informed. He hsa been described as listened to all side of a debate, and then choosing a course of action, but I have yet to see him actually swayed by a position contrary to his own, regardless of evidence.
Then again, I suppose if you agree with his platfor positions, he's the perfect candidate. I happen to disagree with many of tehm, so - like the GP, I'd probably vote for a bagel. (I like mine with cream cheese, no lox)
I find in interesting that many people have asked for Dan Rather to resign after believing and publicizing memos which have been found to be forged, but the same people have no problem with the President invading a country on (what we now presume is) faulty intellegence which may have been cherry picked to support his desire to begin military action. Double standard? That's the way I see it. BTW - I think CBS WAS wrong to publicize the papers just to get a headline scoop.
Oh, and for the record, there was a way that the US could have had hard data that Iraq was producing chemical WMD. Unfortunately, the program is highly classified, and the mention of its exstance might jeopardize its future operational effectiveness - as is the case with many ongoing CIA prgrams. Before we invaded, I believed that this might have been a smoking gun. Based on the reactions of several international governements, and our own governmental information, I do NOT believe we had that data, and our jusification was based on softer intellegence.
Kerry: "President Bush has very nice hair."
Bush: "Senator Kerry has a very firm handshake."
Not have a child if you can't afford it? You insensitive clod!
Seriously, though, most folks never consider the financial implications of children. They're damned expensive. Personally, I think there should be a tax on children rather than a tax break/credit. They add expense to the society, not reduce it. I don't mind kicking in for the "public good," but it irked me that people with lots of kids didn't have to foot at least an equivalent part of the bill. Now I have a child, and take the deduction, and the credit, but I still think the system makes no sense. And yes, I'd be willing to pay extra for my child to have better schools, roads, parks, and whatnot. Of course, I'm only having one, because that's all I can afford.
If this were a possiblility, I would not hire women to work for me. In a professional office of 2-3 people, payroll is about 75-85% of gross receipts. Having to replace a single worker for a year and still pay the replaced worker would put my payroll over 100% of gross receipts. It's very hard to run a successful business that way.
Claims have almost nothing to do with rates or lawyers. The states have significanlty vaying laws on liability, but the overall tide of insurance premiums is independent of those laws. The sucess and failure of the investments insurance companies make with your premiums determines the rates more than actual losses due to insured claims.
Do I think some reform is necessary? Sure. So I think there are bloodsucking lawyers out there who work the system? Sure. Are your premiums going to rise exponentially if the bond market goes into the shitter? Absolutely. If the bond lmarket takes off, will we see insurance companies selling products below costs? Yup.
I hate the system as much as the next guy, but there are truly legitimate claims and there are fraudulent claims, and until you can get juries to see the difference, all the laws you write will hurt more of the former than the latter.
(I happen to pay a very large liability insurance premium for the professional services I offer - over 25% of my GROSS billings the first year in business. I have a stake in reform, but I don't see the end-user value in most of the proposals offered.)
Useless question. The answer is "I'm not in favor of reinstituting the draft, but as Commander in Chief, I must do what is necessary to ensure the safety of our democracy, our people, and our way of life. As your President I will (or will continue to) make the hard choices that are required of the office with both prudence and utmost care.
The better question is, "How do you propose to work within the bounds of voluntary military service to accomplish your military goals."
It will get just as mealy-mouthed an answer as the one I stated above, but it at least offers the opportunity to offer solutions to the manpower problem wihtout them having to dance around the touchy draft issue.
Of course, if there is a draft, it should be truly random, with no exclusions save total mental incompetance. National Guard? Sorry, son, we're bumping you to active duty. Desk job in the military already? Sorry, maam, here's a pair of boots and a pack...you leave for North Vietnam at 0500. Jenna, get your ass out of bed, you deploy next week. Oh, and Sky, you'd better finish surfing, 'cause you're headed to Basic in three days.
In the next four years we will see the appointment of possibly (2) new Supreme Court justices. My question to the candidates is this: Please illustrate the two most important issues you would like to see revisited and overturned, and - without naming names - would your first and second choices for new Supreme Court Justices agree or disagree with the positions you've just described.
Don't worry, there's no surplus of $50,000 houses here in the US. Anywhere close to a population center with a growing economy your entry level house will start at about 3 times that, and about 6 times that around larger cities. New housing is ranging from $90/sf to $200/sf in the suburbs (read: old farm land an hour from where you work), to $400+/sf for city dwellers.
Unless he was talking about mobile homes, which are poorly constructed trailers sitting on unreinforced masonry piers and anchored to the ground with 3cm wide x 1mm thk straps. You've probably seen them blowing around the fields and marshes in the recent news clips from Florida and Alabama. They start about $12,000US and peak out around $60,000US.
Absolutley. Just look how quickly private aircraft have become commonplace. The costs have come down so much that practically anyone can afford one.
;-)
Seriously, though, even if the laws of physics weren't against it the insurance industry and governmental regulations would s#!+can the prospect of readily available space travel.
Besides, ready access to space is a tool for terrorism, and you are unpatriotic to even suggest such a possibility
Marketing Exec Two: Brilliant!
Did anyone else instantly think of the current crop of Guiness commercials here in the states?
Foolishness all around. It all gets down to who has the cash to get things done. There is no lobby for teenage girls with a crush on[name your favorite celibrity hunk] so new legislation will sail though in the name of patriotism. Guns, on the otherhand, are one of the hobbies of choice for many well placed and well-funded individuals, and therefor will be preserved at all cost, even if it means allowing effectively useless bans becoming law.
The gp is somewhat correct - a dedicated, patient group of individuals can take out a sitting US president. Would flash mobs help? Maybe, but they're probably not a critical part of the plan. Someone willing to die for the cause would be far more useful. But it's hard to outlaw those people and make them go away, since there's no way of determining who is a candidate for a suicide bomber AND get them a life/death sentence for it (yet).
Note that the current president probably need not fear from an assaination attempt, as he is probably the best recruitment tool the terrorists have had in many, many years. Put yourself in their shoes - it's far easier to stoke religeous ferver if there is a devil with a face and a name. I'm sure that George W. stirs up, for them, the same feelings that Osama or the late Ayatollah Khomeini does for the US.
Yeah, but just think how good the 650MB DiVX rips will be!
*ducks*
Of course they come back. Imagine how bad it could be if they didn't, and REALLY pissed God off!
Not so sure what you consider to be expensive for single layer media. I just picked up a 50 pack of inkjet printable, Ritek 8x +R discs for under $30.
I'll admit that isn't the traditional free-after-rebate thta we're all used to for crappy CD-Rs, but $0.60 a disc with a near-zero coaster rate in a printable product counts as darned cheap to me.
BTW - I'm using a 2500 and a 2500A in my two machines with burners. The only readability issues I've had are with RW discs in non-recordable drives and consumer players.
Oh yeah, that's a good idea (not). If the broadcasters could sell their bandwidth (did they get it for free to begin with, or is the goverment now a wholesaler?) they'd drop television. Why bother, if you can make even more money with less work by reselling to cell providers?
As for TVs, you can bet they aren't going to give you any subsidies unless there's an ATSC only tuner (over the air standard) and ZERO external inputs. OTherwise, they'd be subsidizing cable and satellite interests. You get that fancy cable box for free 'cause you're dropping $80/mo on cable services. For $1000/yr they can afford to "give" you an $80 decoder. Heck, the satellites will give you a DVR, too, cause they're charging almost as much AND they've found out that DVR users are more likely to order pay-per-view events (since you can time shift them). However, you'll notice that DTV isn't currently giving out HDTivos, since they're a bit too expensive to cover.
I guess DSS has overtaken the traditional larger dishes. The big ones used to be referred to as the WV state flower, 'cause they were everywhere.
They didn't create the land either, but the taxes I pay on that land DO fund the local schools and roads.
You don't have to create something to make money off of it. Kind of like SCO.
Actually, WalMart is now carrying a 30" (or 32", can't remember) 16:9 direct view CRT HD television with integrated HD tuner for both ATSC and QAM (cable) for just under $800.
I looked and its not on their website, but I saw it in person last weekend at a B&M in the 67th TV market area (we're just 30-40 miles from bumf*ck nowhere)
Still pricey, I can't argue, but they are coming down quite a bit from the $5,500 + $2000 (monitor+decoder) of just 4 years ago.
Hmmm, that means we can have persistant banner ads for ALL our television viewing! Four borders can easily support 8 ads ALL THE TIME. And with ad rotation, we'll sell time in the traditional 30 seconds chunks. Thanks...this will be GREAT!
Actually, once the transition takes place, your cable company will be forced to carry the digital channels. Right now, they get to choose which version to redistribute under the Must Carry rules.
For you, the transition will be quite a help.
The "windfall" you speak of will be akin to spitting into the ocean. That is, unless you can figure out a way to auction off spectrum worth 7 Trillion dollars, payable today...in which case you've got a great idea. I just hope I can get over the $1000/mo mobile phone bill it'll take to make that kind of cash outlay feasable.
Yes, because we need another governmental agency. Hey, let's make it a cabinet level agency - we don't have enough of those yet!
These sound like consumer products (software programs for consumers), how about giving it to an existing branch. Sure, you're adding workload, but there's no need to add an additional full political structure when one already exists.
As for the FCC...until either Michael Powell gets a backbone or they throw him out and get someone with real sense and a working set of balls, you can forget about them doing anything remotely usefull.