In my country (Poland, but I can imagine it is the same somwhere else) some titles are not distributed at all -
For the case for BitTorrent downloads, consider too that in nations with severe cultural controls (China, Saudi Arabia, et al), not only would most movies have to be heavily censored for whatever ruling class is in place (don't want any dangerous ideas getting around), if they're actually imported at all.
Now say user "X" watches a movie that his or her government censored. Later, said user manages to download a rip of the movie sometime later, and notices the parts that were cut from it.
Or, for that matter, a movie that is run uncut first, and then has some scenes cut because the current ruling party doesn't like the message said scene provides.
What ideas do you think that user would get from seeing what his or her country doesn't want them to see/know?
So in essense, if anyone's against file trading, they're really infringing against a wider reaching freedom.
Wait a minute, the Presidio was paid for with tax payers dollars, and closed eventually (doing not much more than taking up prime real estate). So Lucas, a private citizen, purchases it.
Meanwhile, there's oodles of cold war era nuclear silos that were paid for with tax payers dollars, which private citizens can purchase (for a song considering).
Slashdot readers are fine with the latter, so what exactly is so wrong with the former? Is it because Lucas is rich? Hell, I bet the average Slashdotter is far more well off than I am, can I hold grudges against anyone making $20K a year or more?
They should just have a warning label: "Do not look directly into lightsaber, keep out of children, not intended as cutlery, do not mock or taunt happy fun lightsaber.".
Or, like certain supreme court justices and vice presidents prefer, shoving them into crates and unloading both barrels the moment the crates are opened.
"There is a third reason--Steve Jobs may not want to position themselves to compete directly with MS. It isn't exactly the most healthy way to do business."
Honestly I don't agree with that. Apple has a completely hardware dependant market for their OS, so it's a guaranteed sale no matter what for their existing OS. Having OSX* available for the PC only stands to risk their having a further market.
Considering too, that OSX* is largely Unixish in structure, there's an ample amount of drivers available in *nix (both open source, and OEM coded), then there's only what, a chance of 10% devices not actually supported? Chances are, more PC hardware will actually function under OSX* than there is that would run under a G*/PPC* system.
More appropriately, why doesn't Apple make Safari available for the PC? I mean hey, Netscape managed to keep solvent, despite the fact that they have heavy competition from Microsoft, so why not Apple?
But then again, I wish Apple would just go ahead and build an OSX* for x86 systems, and give the consumer market a *real* choice. Currently there's a "choice" between Linux (which, regardless of how simplified they make the installation, still requires learning a new OS from scratch) or Windows (hole ridden spyware laden bloatware that is slightly easier to learn from scratch).
However, OSX* runs straight out of the box and is easily learned from the start. Windows is *technically* harder to learn from scratch, always has been, and probably always will be.
Back in the day, it didn't matter about the fact that we had stupid stereoscopic goggles, they kept trying to make it into a Gibsonesque cyberpunk fantasy, that strapping on a pair of goggles was equivilent to actually having a living, breathing, and dying if you got shot variety experience.
The problem is, even today the general media STILL promotes this image.
But back to the point, the reason V.R. fails, is due to the reality compared to the fantasy. People (eg; the consumer market) expects the Hollywood definition. People aren't going to throw their money into what they view as an entertainment product, when said entertainment product doesn't even approach 5% of what they expect.
In England, they have a practice of disguising cel phone antennae in a variety of creative ways, for example, with a fiberglass stone facade to blend in with a church's spires.
Why can't they do this in the US? For that matter, why not just attach a cel phone antenna to the top of a tall, already existing tree? Unless there's major hurricanes or tornadoes to knock one over (a condition which would effect a tower mounted antenna as well), you wouldn't see them, except for fall (unless you bolt them to conifers).
If you use the preexisting tree scenario, you save millions if not more, because you aren't wasting money on constructing towers out of steel. In fact, with that scenario, you can built antennae on mountains, etc, as far as you want. The added benefit is, of course, conservation, because the more trees standing around your antenna, the more relocation options you have for virtually zero cost.
1: If you eat any of these chimera animals, does that technically make you a cannibal?
2: In the event that chimera hybrids accidentally make it into the food chain, does that mean that humans have a higher risk of contracting spongiform encephalopathy (if, for example, the nervous system/brains of said critters are even a small percentile human)?
From just a cursory lookaround, I see ATSC converter boxes running over $200 on average. $160 or so if you shop WalMart. However, this is still an unacceptable requirement.
Lets run the wayback machine to the 60s, when color television was slowly creeping into the market. Back then, you didn't need a major expense like a new television (or tuner) to still watch TV if you couldn't afford the upgrade price.
Hell, for some, you could even listen to TV on the radio if that was your thing. If the digital switcheroo goes into effect, that's gone as well.
What is truly criminal, however, is how few ATSC tuners are actually on the market.
Add to that how many of the functions of ATSC tuners would be completely wasted for some (for example, take USDTV.com's service, where you have all of three cities to choose from).
Add to that how many retailers are completely failing to note to their customers that their TVs will be obsolete within 8 months.
Add to that the utter lack of "real" news (eg; print/video media) coverage, or at the least a 30 second spot explaining the process.
I mean seriously, what's WRONG with these people???
And in other parts of the US, Star Wars fans have remained huddled around their analog televisions since January 1, 2006, watching the snow and claiming to see Chewbacca.
Okay, lets say you were 50-100 lbs overweight, but you put in at least 3-5 miles walking per day. Or even just standing still. All your muscles are working no matter what, such as your legs, supporting that weight (compare that to military training, they can at least drop that weight once they're done hiking).
So who the hell decided that living under such conditions is unhealthy? Compare the above to the skinny guys who have no real exercise habits, who sit on the couch all day eating and drinking junk food and soda. Ironically we hear more about them dropping dead the moment they get their first taste of real exercise.
Now while muscle is denser and heavier in weight than fat, unless you're a body builder, there's no way you could match the weight you would be carrying if you were overweight or obese. In addition, your options for exercise are more limited, since that build requires constant maintenance(and risks of transitioning from musclebound to lardbottom are actually higher).
What's that worth? Made before you could get an MP3 CD player everywhere and nowhere for $50 or less. Made when Compaq was actually a company. Oh, about 5-7 years back in ye olden days.
Can't play MP3s worth a damn, without skipping, if you ummm, look at it funny, or do nothing at all.
As seen in the article, the Modular Computing Company logo is almost a dead ringer (except in typeface) for the Delorean Motor Company's: http://bttfportugal.no.sapo.pt/DMC_logo_B.jpg
Lets see, an incredibly esoteric product from an esoteric company with little business experience?
They've got three things in common, it'll be four to four if their CEO pops up on the news in a coke bust.
Is as much as radio has become, TV has become more or less a source of background noise. Unless it's a first run episode or movie most can't resist watching, most of us tune it out at least as much as we tune it in.
Take soap operas, for example. They have moving pictures and moving colors and stuff, but how many viewers actually focus on anything other than the "John, I thought you were dead! So did I!" audio track?
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, you make a good point;
In my country (Poland, but I can imagine it is the same somwhere else) some titles are not distributed at all -
For the case for BitTorrent downloads, consider too that in nations with severe cultural controls (China, Saudi Arabia, et al), not only would most movies have to be heavily censored for whatever ruling class is in place (don't want any dangerous ideas getting around), if they're actually imported at all.
Now say user "X" watches a movie that his or her government censored. Later, said user manages to download a rip of the movie sometime later, and notices the parts that were cut from it.
Or, for that matter, a movie that is run uncut first, and then has some scenes cut because the current ruling party doesn't like the message said scene provides.
What ideas do you think that user would get from seeing what his or her country doesn't want them to see/know?
So in essense, if anyone's against file trading, they're really infringing against a wider reaching freedom.
Usually it's the other way around with Wal-Mart.
Wait a minute, the Presidio was paid for with tax payers dollars, and closed eventually (doing not much more than taking up prime real estate). So Lucas, a private citizen, purchases it.
Meanwhile, there's oodles of cold war era nuclear silos that were paid for with tax payers dollars, which private citizens can purchase (for a song considering).
Slashdot readers are fine with the latter, so what exactly is so wrong with the former? Is it because Lucas is rich? Hell, I bet the average Slashdotter is far more well off than I am, can I hold grudges against anyone making $20K a year or more?
That isn't the point. The author stated that his "slower" laptop's hard drive was outperforming a drive of a similar form factor in his Mini.
Unless, of course, someone managed to start manufacturing Powerbooks with 3.5" HDs, which I'm pretty certain isn't the case.
They should just have a warning label: "Do not look directly into lightsaber, keep out of children, not intended as cutlery, do not mock or taunt happy fun lightsaber.".
That's no moon, that's a space station!
What? Your eyes are going old man, that's no space station, that's a Slashdot effect resistant server!
Or, like certain supreme court justices and vice presidents prefer, shoving them into crates and unloading both barrels the moment the crates are opened.
And you gets a turbolift!
"There is a third reason--Steve Jobs may not want to position themselves to compete directly with MS. It isn't exactly the most healthy way to do business."
Honestly I don't agree with that. Apple has a completely hardware dependant market for their OS, so it's a guaranteed sale no matter what for their existing OS. Having OSX* available for the PC only stands to risk their having a further market.
Considering too, that OSX* is largely Unixish in structure, there's an ample amount of drivers available in *nix (both open source, and OEM coded), then there's only what, a chance of 10% devices not actually supported? Chances are, more PC hardware will actually function under OSX* than there is that would run under a G*/PPC* system.
More appropriately, why doesn't Apple make Safari available for the PC? I mean hey, Netscape managed to keep solvent, despite the fact that they have heavy competition from Microsoft, so why not Apple?
But then again, I wish Apple would just go ahead and build an OSX* for x86 systems, and give the consumer market a *real* choice. Currently there's a "choice" between Linux (which, regardless of how simplified they make the installation, still requires learning a new OS from scratch) or Windows (hole ridden spyware laden bloatware that is slightly easier to learn from scratch).
However, OSX* runs straight out of the box and is easily learned from the start. Windows is *technically* harder to learn from scratch, always has been, and probably always will be.
There are the split screen (interesting for comparisons)Wookie Groomer DVDs on Myspleen.com, or the TR47 LD to DVD remasterings, both on bittorrent.
But don't hold back, let us know how you REALLY feel.
Namely, by Hollywood.
Back in the day, it didn't matter about the fact that we had stupid stereoscopic goggles, they kept trying to make it into a Gibsonesque cyberpunk fantasy, that strapping on a pair of goggles was equivilent to actually having a living, breathing, and dying if you got shot variety experience.
The problem is, even today the general media STILL promotes this image.
But back to the point, the reason V.R. fails, is due to the reality compared to the fantasy. People (eg; the consumer market) expects the Hollywood definition. People aren't going to throw their money into what they view as an entertainment product, when said entertainment product doesn't even approach 5% of what they expect.
In England, they have a practice of disguising cel phone antennae in a variety of creative ways, for example, with a fiberglass stone facade to blend in with a church's spires.
Why can't they do this in the US? For that matter, why not just attach a cel phone antenna to the top of a tall, already existing tree? Unless there's major hurricanes or tornadoes to knock one over (a condition which would effect a tower mounted antenna as well), you wouldn't see them, except for fall (unless you bolt them to conifers).
If you use the preexisting tree scenario, you save millions if not more, because you aren't wasting money on constructing towers out of steel. In fact, with that scenario, you can built antennae on mountains, etc, as far as you want. The added benefit is, of course, conservation, because the more trees standing around your antenna, the more relocation options you have for virtually zero cost.
1: If you eat any of these chimera animals, does that technically make you a cannibal?
2: In the event that chimera hybrids accidentally make it into the food chain, does that mean that humans have a higher risk of contracting spongiform encephalopathy (if, for example, the nervous system/brains of said critters are even a small percentile human)?
Is that it also allows third parties to strip offensive content from movies without creators' consent.
So I suppose that also means that The Phantom Edit is now a legitimate and legally distributable video.
Myself, I'd be complaining about the Pinto exploding at random for no apparent reason... Oh, wait, we ARE talking Microsoft.
From just a cursory lookaround, I see ATSC converter boxes running over $200 on average. $160 or so if you shop WalMart. However, this is still an unacceptable requirement.
Lets run the wayback machine to the 60s, when color television was slowly creeping into the market. Back then, you didn't need a major expense like a new television (or tuner) to still watch TV if you couldn't afford the upgrade price.
Hell, for some, you could even listen to TV on the radio if that was your thing. If the digital switcheroo goes into effect, that's gone as well.
What is truly criminal, however, is how few ATSC tuners are actually on the market.
Add to that how many of the functions of ATSC tuners would be completely wasted for some (for example, take USDTV.com's service, where you have all of three cities to choose from).
Add to that how many retailers are completely failing to note to their customers that their TVs will be obsolete within 8 months.
Add to that the utter lack of "real" news (eg; print/video media) coverage, or at the least a 30 second spot explaining the process.
I mean seriously, what's WRONG with these people???
And in other parts of the US, Star Wars fans have remained huddled around their analog televisions since January 1, 2006, watching the snow and claiming to see Chewbacca.
Okay, lets say you were 50-100 lbs overweight, but you put in at least 3-5 miles walking per day. Or even just standing still. All your muscles are working no matter what, such as your legs, supporting that weight (compare that to military training, they can at least drop that weight once they're done hiking).
So who the hell decided that living under such conditions is unhealthy? Compare the above to the skinny guys who have no real exercise habits, who sit on the couch all day eating and drinking junk food and soda. Ironically we hear more about them dropping dead the moment they get their first taste of real exercise.
Now while muscle is denser and heavier in weight than fat, unless you're a body builder, there's no way you could match the weight you would be carrying if you were overweight or obese. In addition, your options for exercise are more limited, since that build requires constant maintenance(and risks of transitioning from musclebound to lardbottom are actually higher).
What's that worth? Made before you could get an MP3 CD player everywhere and nowhere for $50 or less. Made when Compaq was actually a company. Oh, about 5-7 years back in ye olden days.
Can't play MP3s worth a damn, without skipping, if you ummm, look at it funny, or do nothing at all.
But it's gotta be worth something.
I think it's simply for the "I want a really cool looking custom PC, but don't want to risk losing digits to my dremel" crowd.
As seen in the article, the Modular Computing Company logo is almost a dead ringer (except in typeface) for the Delorean Motor Company's: http://bttfportugal.no.sapo.pt/DMC_logo_B.jpg
Lets see, an incredibly esoteric product from an esoteric company with little business experience?
They've got three things in common, it'll be four to four if their CEO pops up on the news in a coke bust.
Is as much as radio has become, TV has become more or less a source of background noise. Unless it's a first run episode or movie most can't resist watching, most of us tune it out at least as much as we tune it in.
Take soap operas, for example. They have moving pictures and moving colors and stuff, but how many viewers actually focus on anything other than the "John, I thought you were dead! So did I!" audio track?
"It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."
Yeah, because we all know of the secret Al Qaeda tactic of turning up those thumping woofers and annoying the hell out of the neighbors.
Quick, somebody call the Department of Homeboy Security!