Take students that have ambition. Saddle them with a debt they can never repay. Wonder why they don't get a career and pay high taxes, but become welfare reciepients and always taking jail space instead.
Smart move on someone's part.
How about a better punishment to fit the crime.
With DUI, each offence gets worse. The first one is a stiff warning.
I would think loss of the computer and such for the first offence should be a good shot over the bow. The second offence should be about the price of the student's first car. The third strike should be about the price of their first house.. They should learn well before it gets that far. But if they don't...
With one minor difference. Regen braking. Trains do not carry enough battery to store regen braking from a long incline. Since they don't do much stop and go driving like a city bus, they had no reason to spend for huge battery banks.
A car on the other hand has lots of stop and go driving with stop signs and traffic lights everywhere. The car can and does make good use of the temporary energy storage. It even shuts off the engine while waiting at the railroad crossing. Trains don't shut down the engine while waiting for traffic to clear.
Look up synergy as it relates to AC power. It's a very valid term and is what the new Prius uses.
In old style hybrid stuff, AC was converted to DC then back to AC at another frequency to drive a motor. Synergy is the method of elimiting one of the inverter stages and possibly the DC step entirely by sampling from one AC frequency to generate a second AC frequency by switching at diffrent points on the AC waveform. This makes the inverter smaller, cheaper, and more effecient. You no longer use a phase controlled converter to regulate DC voltage from the alternator portion of the drive. The PM alternator runs unregulated and it's output waveform is sampled to create a lower or higher AC frequency of the needed voltage.
I thought the electric motor only kicked in when you didn't need much power.
Actualy, the electric motor combo (there are two in a Prius) are used as a transmission. This eliminates all friction parts in the transmission and hydraulic parts. Nothing shifts ever, even reverse. I expect the electric motors to have much less troubles than a typical transmission with it's torque converter, bands, clutches, shifters, fluid hoses, cooling...
In a nutshell, the electric motors are used all the time. The car won't go without them to deliver the engine torque. Sometimes they take extra power from batteries to help acceleration and sometimes they dump extra power generated back into the batteries.
Do some research on the Synergy drive the car uses. The mechanical transmission is simply a planetary gear pancaked in-between the two motor/generators. This makes the mechanical part of the transmission very compact and light.
Did I miss something? I have a Prius. It has a very low center of gravity. It's weight balanced front to rear with the engine in front and gas and batteries in back. It's the zippiest curvy road car I've ever owned. Sneaking up on people in a parking lot is just loads of fun. My last car was a Ford Mustang. I prefer the Prius. It's more fun.
I got the loaded one. I like the NAV system and traction control.
which means no more bumblebee-like 4-banger revving at the red light
Funny you mention this. I have a Prius. I tested this. Guess what happens when you put it in nutral and floor the gas...
If the engine was idling, it continues idling. If it was off. It remains off. You can't blow it up by over-revving it at a light.
Having it in park and flooring it is more interesting. It does something. Over a period of about 15 seconds, the idle picks up to a fast idle. I guess you could use it to help the defroster.
If held at high idle very long then it shuts off when you take the foot off the gas. The engine is warm and the battery is topped off. It's ready for action. Silently slide it into drive and the ricer is about to get a suprise..
The hybrids available today have acceleration times comparable to their class of vehicles they compete with.
I have one. I couldn't agree more. My first car was an old VW beetle. It was gutless. Driving in Maine was a challange. I would take a run at hills just to do the limit when I neared the top.
My old AMC Hornet was almost as bad, but with a bigger engine, it did better.
My last car was a 4 cyl Ford Mustang. (OK Mustang Wannabe) It could not keep speed up the hill to where I work a 6.5% grade.
My Toyota has the tightest regulated cruise control of any car I've owned. This applies to hills included. I drive to work with the cruise control set and it doesn't even slow down for the hill.
Passing on the freeway is no problem. If I'm doing 55 Mph and need to pass a truck, I just do it. If I'm not careful I'm pushing 70 in no time.
It's like haveing a second standby engine that kicks in when you need it.
You might want to pick up an HD tuner before June 2005 then.
I have my serious doubts that a tuner card is going to fix broken HD DVD's that require MS Media Player 9, and an internet connection, and 3rd party DRM software, and an account, and online location verification. Good internet connections are hard to find for the mobile retirees.
A self contained (bring it home, plug it in and it works) solution will work for these folks. A product that requires downloading, installing, setting up an account, verifying online, etc just to watch a movie doesn not work.
I simply don't buy CD's that don't have the Philips "Compact Disk" logo. The logo indicates a certan quality standard. Many manufactures found consumers don't look for the logo and make assumptions on the shiny thing being a CD. Because standards have to be met and royalty to be paid to use the Comapact Disk logo on products, many manufactures simply quit paying the royalty because it didn't affect sales.
Now that broken CD's are out there, the lack of the compact disk logo is hurting sales. Too bad there isn't an ad campaign promotiing the quality of music that has the Compact Disk logo.
It's getting hard to find the logo. The lack of the logo makes it hard to find music that I'm willing to buy. It's gotten so bad, I don't bother going into record stores anymore.
but I've become disillusioned, and no longer even try.:-(
Want to bet?? Maybe you didn't get your way 100% but between them and you, you found a settlement price.
I bought a laser disk player. The claim was made that the disks would be cheaper because they could be mass produced. I didn't buy many disks due to the price.
Pre-recorded VHS movies used to be $50 and up. Blank T120 tape was $20 each. I didn't buy many.
They lowered the prices.. even to the point that I could live with Magnavision. Now that movies are selling for less than blank tape used to. I sometimes pick one up.
Compact disks were the same story. I still don't buy the high priced ones. My collection isn't very big. I bought the 2 hour movie instead of a 40 minute CD for the same price.
How does your purchased Compact Disk collection compare against your DVD and VHS library?
A mass boycott will not work. If they are expensive and don't work, It'll go by the wayside like the Circuit City DVD. If they adjust the price, quality, and reduce the problems of broken disks, then they will sell. Overly encumbered DVD's at moderate to high prices will not sell. Just look at the rapid adoption of the SACD's. people are voting with their wallets. SACD's have very few votes. I've seen a small amount of shelf space provided for them. I don't know anybody that actualy has one. MP3 Jukeboxes on the other hand sell well even though they are a little spendy. They just work. I rest my case.
Tell them you'll file a complaint with the state consumer protection and/or attorney generals office
Tell them you'll start documenting the problems everywhere on the web you can
Tell them you'll contact the local press (many local TV news shows have consumer alert segments)
Forget threats. Take action and do those first. Otherwise, you'll get brushed under the rug and refunded only after much hastle that everyone else has to do also. They will only grease the squeekiest of parts and keep the money of those who feel trying for a return is useless.
Starting with a media campaign (like this slashdot forum) will protect others. They will notice the bump in sales just like Circuit City did with their failed DVD. The fantastic DVD's that turn black when exposed to air... Have you bought any? Would you even if they were cheap?
I stopped buying MS hardware when I was building a PC on my coffee table. Optical mice just came out. I bought a MS one. I installed the mouse and loaded the driver software. I was presented with a big EULA.. WTF?? for a mouse??? I continued it's instalation and then got a complaint that the driver could not find my Internet connection.. WTF??? I removed the mouse and gave it away and bought a Logitech optical mouse. No hastles. I've never purchased another MS hardware product since. Logitech has me as a loyal consumer now. I've heard MS fixed the problems due to the backlash, but I'm not taking chances. I expect to see a breakdown in the HD format DVD's. Some studios will try real hard to lock the content down and will suffer sales problems. Indi studios will show them how it's done. Good product at a great price. When that's demonstrated, then maybe some big studios will break ranks and follow the money of volume sales.
I expect this DVD format to have backlash for the unplayability of these disks. It'll take many years for the damage to the reputation to be fixed.
It is why SACD has such a slow start. It's copy protected. The unprotected layer is deliberately downgraded to make the protected content sound better by comparison. I don't know if they still do that, but they were caught cheating in this manner. Now the reputation is get the regular CD instead. It plays the same in all players and isn't crippled in sound quality.
Why pay more for a deliberately downgraded product. Maybe they no longer downgrade the redbook layer.. The damage to the reputation is already done. Nobody is paying more for the format because of the demonstrated intentional lack of quality.
Hiting the Media first is the way to go. Finding the reviews of the product is the bigest reason I'm not considering a SACD player anytime soon.
HD DVD's now have the same black eye for the same reason. It's proven that it doesn't just work out of the box. When they simply work out of the box like the original CD's and DVD's, then I might be interested, but I'll be cautious knowing there is already broke stuff out there.
Knowing there is broken CD's out there is one of the biggest reasons I have curtailed my CD purchases. I don't want to have to deal with defective CD returns.
It's all about your reputation. Loose it in business and you loose business. Why can't they get it?
Snowbirds (retirees that move seasonaly) are not going to be interested in a product that requires a moving van to enjoy. It's much easier to simply carry a DVD from the summer home to the winter home. Having it break or not work in the motorhome (no Internet connection), this product seems doomed to the Circuit City DVD rental failure. For Americans temporaraly overseas, using a region free player or even bringing along your player will find these useless. The media black eye over these breaking all the time and the associated return problems isn't going to help either.
I'm not getting into HD until it just works and it is affordable.
I've been looking at them. When my old HP 722 dies, that's probably what I'll get. The 722 uses a somewhat affordable cartridge. It's physicaly the same size as the cart that fits the 950 printer. They even interchange mechanicaly, but not electricaly. A twin pack of color ink for the 722 is near $40. A single color cart for the 950 is about $60. The 950 sits on a shelf and gathers dust. The Laserjet III get the most use. It uses a $35 cart that I change about once every 18 months.
I guess to reach price points, they are offering a 30 pack instead of a 50 or 100 pack. I'm still waiting to see prices. If the price is about $30 like it is for a typical 100 spindle, then it's a buck a disk instead of about 30 cents. I'll wait to see the media prices.
I've learned that with printers and a laser disk player. Ignore the price of the printer at first. Price the supplies first, then quality, then the printer. I got the laser disk player with the promise that disks would become cheaper than videotape because they could be stamped and mass produced. For some reason, videotape prices came down but the laser disks went up as a high end product. Grr. I got the player and less than a dozen movies. Due to price I was buying less than a movie a year on laserdisk. Now I buy none. My wife got a Dell all in one printer. It came with the computer. I checked the price of supplies. I noted the thimble size of the supplies. Now that it's out of ink, it's just a scanner to send faxes and scan photos. We use our other priters for printing. The Dell is never getting an ink re-order.
I took a wait and see aproach to Compact Disks when they came out, DVD's, and recordable CD's. Taking that aproach has saved me lots of money. I didn't buy any $500 CD players. My first DVD player was less then $80. I buy DVD movies for less then $10 most of the time.
I'll wait for the market to decide if the product becomes mainstream or dies a geek only item such as the Yamaha recorder.
There is enough noise in the market now about ink prices that it's starting to affect the printer sales. I hope this will sort out the greedy ink suppliers.
Did that a long time ago for my Non-Color printing. In 3 years my total costs are..
$60 for the printer at Goodwill $35 for a toner cartridge after the original one died. $59.99 for a Hawking print server to hang it on my LAN.
This whole printer setup and 3 years operation cost less than 2 replacement sets of carts for my HP 950 inkjet printer. Not using the inkjet saves lots. Laser CD lables are smudge proof to boot.
When I want to print e-mail, photocopy, fax, print manuals, mailing lables, envelopes, posters (on colored paper) etc, it goes on the laser, not the inkjet. The inkjet is limited to a few small photos and some web graphic printing.
Don't wait for color laser. Start with a good monocrome laser and start saving now.
And as stated in the FAQ it will be up to the licensees to determine their pricing, not HP.
And the cost of the license is ultimately paid by who?
If HP charges a manufacture $5 per disk for the license, then there is absolutely no way you will find 20 cent blanks. This is the way it is to get a tape recorder with Dolby, a Printer with Kodak Photosmart, a DVD with Macrovision, A Philips Compact Disk, a VHS blank tape, a MiniDisk, etc. (yes the cost of macrovision license is included in your Shrek DVD. The cost of the license is passed on.
WalMart does about $250 billion in sales annually. That's a single company taking in 10X the annual revenue of two entire industries combined. Yes, but when I buy a DVD at WalMart, does Walmart get to count the sale or does the movie industry? WalMart sells movies and more. At least I don't have to pay consession stand prices when I pick up the soda and red vines.
I wonder if they include a disclamer for Linspire... a big red "DOES NOT INCLUDE MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP" on the box somewhere.
I doubt it. They don't tout the software that does come with it in any good terms except saying it is compatible with the MS products.
The copy mentions MS office by name for compatibility reason, but fail to even mention what the software suite is. They do not mention manufacture, model, or version. Who the heck advertises a software package listing it's features (ouptuts PDF's etc) and does not even bother to name the product? They have a long way to go.
I wish they listed it as having Firefox, Open Office, Thunderbird, etc and listing their compatiblilites and security. (I'm only guessing on installed applications.. They are not telling.)
The review started by trashing some compteitiors. After reading further I found;
The TX-P2775H is one of the few HD sets on the market that come equipped with an ATSC high definition digital tuner; all you need to do is connect an antenna. Television stations that had HD content at the time looked stunning; the viewer witnesses perfect color rendering, realistic image depth, and unbelievable resolution.
Thanks for the info. I'll watch for the prices to come down and tuners in smaller sets.
The closest I've seen is the Samsung TX-P2775H, a 27" CRT with HDTV tuner for $600.
I just looked up that set that has a HDTV tuner.. The review indicated it does not have a HDTV tuner.
Full Review The Samsung TX-P2775H best 27inch Flat Tube HDTV
Other Brands considered:
Panasonic and Philips Panasonic: good hi definition television yet no internal HD tuner and some slight noise issues (emits buzzing sound more so than other sets)
Philips: lack of a three line comb filter, no 3:2 film correction, very low quality progressive scan conversion, horrible over scan bounce, bad color saturation, and unbelievable geometric distortion.
Picture Quality 10 out of 10:
So where is it offered with the tumer for $600? I haven't found it.
At that pricepoint it sounds like you're looking for a low resolution TV with a digital tuner.
I wish I could mod you up. You got it exactly right. Just as MP3's are good enough, VCD's of movies are good enough, JPEG's are good enough, etc. for students and many others, a cheap TV of about the same price, resolution and size will be of much use to many. Take a hint. Did you buy the latest SACD player and recordings because they had great sound, or did you buy a MP3 player or use Winamp instead to jukebox your collection? Cheap MP3's are easy to get. SACD is a little more spendy and not near as plentiful. Not everyone is willing to pay high prices to get the best. With all the trash on over the air TV, who wants to pay for HD to catch the evening news and the latest pipeline bombing photos from Iraq?
It's the same reason the news page on Yahoo has small compressed photos. Nobody wants to pay for the bandwidth for uncompressed 600 X 800 or larger news photos. The news and Nova are about all I watch on over the air TV anymore. Do you have any idea how many people are simply going to subscribe or remain a subscriber to a pay TV service simply so they don't have to replace their NTSC TV with an expensive one?
Yes we are looking for the MP3 version of TV. HD is nice, but for the content, I don't want to pay the extra. I just want to catch the news once in a while. Homes used to have several TV's in them. Living room, family room, bedrooms, etc. If they were all $600 and up instead of $200 and below, it gets spendy fast.
I don't want to watch Barney or Elmo. The wife doesn't want to watch the war, and I don't want to watch Days of our lives. We are not looking for one expensive family HD solution. We are looking for several small sets. It looks like we are going to use several aging PC's on the Internet instead. The transition has already started. I catch Yahoo news first to see if anyting interesting is going on. I don't have to TIVO the Yahoo news. If there is something interesting (9-11 for example) hapening, then I'll kick on the TV for the video.
Then when you sign the receipt you're also signing the EULA.
That would only last until the next release of Windows came out. 3 or 4 people reading the EULA at the checkout could tie up the store business for hours. It could take that long while the PHB's called their legal staff on a cell phone because they don't understand the legalease in the EULA.
I considered the source. If they sell blank media like they sell $60 ink cartridges...
I expect their blank CD's to be priced like their replacement ink when it has a vendor lock in.
The blanks will be protected just like the chipped ink cart. 3rd parties will be locked out. Don't expect an open free market to influence the price of the blanks. It'll be monopoly market pricing. Their competetion will be the Ink Jet compatible printers and CD's. HP will be religated to monochrome printing. That's the only thing that will limit the price. I expect it to die as consumers are spoiled on color printing.
Beautiful picture, yes, but they have a fairly limited lifespan as the gas starts to lose its charge.
Nice guess. The real killer is the plasma. Plasma is made of excited high speed atoms. (speed equates to heat at these geometries) If only a photon hit the phosphor then things would be fine, but the plasma (hot gas) hits the phosphor and sputters it away (much like a sputter dep tool or etcher in the manufacture of semiconductors). The display is a plasma etcher sputtering away the phosphors that produce the pretty colors.
In newer sets they are trying to reduce this erosion of the phosphors. I'm not sure how they are doing this, but a hot plasma near a soft phosphor still equates to some sputtering.
At least in an LCD TV, the lamp is replaceable for less than $50 in parts. (cold cathode tube) This is not the case in a plasma set.
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder when our government will get a clue.
Take students that have ambition. Saddle them with a debt they can never repay. Wonder why they don't get a career and pay high taxes, but become welfare reciepients and always taking jail space instead.
Smart move on someone's part.
How about a better punishment to fit the crime.
With DUI, each offence gets worse. The first one is a stiff warning.
I would think loss of the computer and such for the first offence should be a good shot over the bow. The second offence should be about the price of the student's first car. The third strike should be about the price of their first house.. They should learn well before it gets that far. But if they don't...
So it really does go like a freight train!
With one minor difference. Regen braking. Trains do not carry enough battery to store regen braking from a long incline. Since they don't do much stop and go driving like a city bus, they had no reason to spend for huge battery banks.
A car on the other hand has lots of stop and go driving with stop signs and traffic lights everywhere. The car can and does make good use of the temporary energy storage. It even shuts off the engine while waiting at the railroad crossing. Trains don't shut down the engine while waiting for traffic to clear.
Look up synergy as it relates to AC power. It's a very valid term and is what the new Prius uses.
In old style hybrid stuff, AC was converted to DC then back to AC at another frequency to drive a motor. Synergy is the method of elimiting one of the inverter stages and possibly the DC step entirely by sampling from one AC frequency to generate a second AC frequency by switching at diffrent points on the AC waveform. This makes the inverter smaller, cheaper, and more effecient. You no longer use a phase controlled converter to regulate DC voltage from the alternator portion of the drive. The PM alternator runs unregulated and it's output waveform is sampled to create a lower or higher AC frequency of the needed voltage.
I thought the electric motor only kicked in when you didn't need much power.
Actualy, the electric motor combo (there are two in a Prius) are used as a transmission. This eliminates all friction parts in the transmission and hydraulic parts. Nothing shifts ever, even reverse. I expect the electric motors to have much less troubles than a typical transmission with it's torque converter, bands, clutches, shifters, fluid hoses, cooling...
In a nutshell, the electric motors are used all the time. The car won't go without them to deliver the engine torque. Sometimes they take extra power from batteries to help acceleration and sometimes they dump extra power generated back into the batteries.
Do some research on the Synergy drive the car uses. The mechanical transmission is simply a planetary gear pancaked in-between the two motor/generators. This makes the mechanical part of the transmission very compact and light.
Welcome to dullsville.
Did I miss something? I have a Prius. It has a very low center of gravity. It's weight balanced front to rear with the engine in front and gas and batteries in back. It's the zippiest curvy road car I've ever owned. Sneaking up on people in a parking lot is just loads of fun. My last car was a Ford Mustang. I prefer the Prius. It's more fun.
I got the loaded one. I like the NAV system and traction control.
which means no more bumblebee-like 4-banger revving at the red light
Funny you mention this. I have a Prius. I tested this. Guess what happens when you put it in nutral and floor the gas...
If the engine was idling, it continues idling. If it was off. It remains off. You can't blow it up by over-revving it at a light.
Having it in park and flooring it is more interesting. It does something. Over a period of about 15 seconds, the idle picks up to a fast idle. I guess you could use it to help the defroster.
If held at high idle very long then it shuts off when you take the foot off the gas. The engine is warm and the battery is topped off. It's ready for action. Silently slide it into drive and the ricer is about to get a suprise..
The hybrids available today have acceleration times comparable to their class of vehicles they compete with.
I have one. I couldn't agree more. My first car was an old VW beetle. It was gutless. Driving in Maine was a challange. I would take a run at hills just to do the limit when I neared the top.
My old AMC Hornet was almost as bad, but with a bigger engine, it did better.
My last car was a 4 cyl Ford Mustang. (OK Mustang Wannabe) It could not keep speed up the hill to where I work a 6.5% grade.
My Toyota has the tightest regulated cruise control of any car I've owned. This applies to hills included. I drive to work with the cruise control set and it doesn't even slow down for the hill.
Passing on the freeway is no problem. If I'm doing 55 Mph and need to pass a truck, I just do it. If I'm not careful I'm pushing 70 in no time.
It's like haveing a second standby engine that kicks in when you need it.
You might want to pick up an HD tuner before June 2005 then.
I have my serious doubts that a tuner card is going to fix broken HD DVD's that require MS Media Player 9, and an internet connection, and 3rd party DRM software, and an account, and online location verification. Good internet connections are hard to find for the mobile retirees.
A self contained (bring it home, plug it in and it works) solution will work for these folks. A product that requires downloading, installing, setting up an account, verifying online, etc just to watch a movie doesn not work.
/got a lot of LDs back in the late '90s when they were being clearanced
If you need another player, I have a commercial Sony LD1000 with RS 232 interface I don't use much anymore.
So I dont buy anymore CD's. That was a year ago.
I simply don't buy CD's that don't have the Philips "Compact Disk" logo. The logo indicates a certan quality standard. Many manufactures found consumers don't look for the logo and make assumptions on the shiny thing being a CD. Because standards have to be met and royalty to be paid to use the Comapact Disk logo on products, many manufactures simply quit paying the royalty because it didn't affect sales.
Now that broken CD's are out there, the lack of the compact disk logo is hurting sales. Too bad there isn't an ad campaign promotiing the quality of music that has the Compact Disk logo.
It's getting hard to find the logo. The lack of the logo makes it hard to find music that I'm willing to buy. It's gotten so bad, I don't bother going into record stores anymore.
but I've become disillusioned, and no longer even try. :-(
Want to bet?? Maybe you didn't get your way 100% but between them and you, you found a settlement price.
I bought a laser disk player. The claim was made that the disks would be cheaper because they could be mass produced. I didn't buy many disks due to the price.
Pre-recorded VHS movies used to be $50 and up. Blank T120 tape was $20 each. I didn't buy many.
They lowered the prices.. even to the point that I could live with Magnavision. Now that movies are selling for less than blank tape used to. I sometimes pick one up.
Compact disks were the same story. I still don't buy the high priced ones. My collection isn't very big. I bought the 2 hour movie instead of a 40 minute CD for the same price.
How does your purchased Compact Disk collection compare against your DVD and VHS library?
A mass boycott will not work. If they are expensive and don't work, It'll go by the wayside like the Circuit City DVD. If they adjust the price, quality, and reduce the problems of broken disks, then they will sell. Overly encumbered DVD's at moderate to high prices will not sell. Just look at the rapid adoption of the SACD's. people are voting with their wallets. SACD's have very few votes. I've seen a small amount of shelf space provided for them. I don't know anybody that actualy has one. MP3 Jukeboxes on the other hand sell well even though they are a little spendy. They just work. I rest my case.
Tell them you'll file a complaint with the state consumer protection and/or attorney generals office
Tell them you'll start documenting the problems everywhere on the web you can
Tell them you'll contact the local press (many local TV news shows have consumer alert segments)
Forget threats. Take action and do those first. Otherwise, you'll get brushed under the rug and refunded only after much hastle that everyone else has to do also. They will only grease the squeekiest of parts and keep the money of those who feel trying for a return is useless.
Starting with a media campaign (like this slashdot forum) will protect others. They will notice the bump in sales just like Circuit City did with their failed DVD. The fantastic DVD's that turn black when exposed to air... Have you bought any? Would you even if they were cheap?
I stopped buying MS hardware when I was building a PC on my coffee table. Optical mice just came out. I bought a MS one. I installed the mouse and loaded the driver software. I was presented with a big EULA.. WTF?? for a mouse??? I continued it's instalation and then got a complaint that the driver could not find my Internet connection.. WTF??? I removed the mouse and gave it away and bought a Logitech optical mouse. No hastles. I've never purchased another MS hardware product since. Logitech has me as a loyal consumer now. I've heard MS fixed the problems due to the backlash, but I'm not taking chances. I expect to see a breakdown in the HD format DVD's. Some studios will try real hard to lock the content down and will suffer sales problems. Indi studios will show them how it's done. Good product at a great price. When that's demonstrated, then maybe some big studios will break ranks and follow the money of volume sales.
I expect this DVD format to have backlash for the unplayability of these disks. It'll take many years for the damage to the reputation to be fixed.
It is why SACD has such a slow start. It's copy protected. The unprotected layer is deliberately downgraded to make the protected content sound better by comparison. I don't know if they still do that, but they were caught cheating in this manner. Now the reputation is get the regular CD instead. It plays the same in all players and isn't crippled in sound quality.
Why pay more for a deliberately downgraded product. Maybe they no longer downgrade the redbook layer.. The damage to the reputation is already done. Nobody is paying more for the format because of the demonstrated intentional lack of quality.
Hiting the Media first is the way to go. Finding the reviews of the product is the bigest reason I'm not considering a SACD player anytime soon.
HD DVD's now have the same black eye for the same reason. It's proven that it doesn't just work out of the box. When they simply work out of the box like the original CD's and DVD's, then I might be interested, but I'll be cautious knowing there is already broke stuff out there.
Knowing there is broken CD's out there is one of the biggest reasons I have curtailed my CD purchases. I don't want to have to deal with defective CD returns.
It's all about your reputation. Loose it in business and you loose business. Why can't they get it?
Snowbirds (retirees that move seasonaly) are not going to be interested in a product that requires a moving van to enjoy. It's much easier to simply carry a DVD from the summer home to the winter home. Having it break or not work in the motorhome (no Internet connection), this product seems doomed to the Circuit City DVD rental failure. For Americans temporaraly overseas, using a region free player or even bringing along your player will find these useless. The media black eye over these breaking all the time and the associated return problems isn't going to help either.
I'm not getting into HD until it just works and it is affordable.
That is why I bought a Cannon printer
I've been looking at them. When my old HP 722 dies, that's probably what I'll get. The 722 uses a somewhat affordable cartridge. It's physicaly the same size as the cart that fits the 950 printer. They even interchange mechanicaly, but not electricaly. A twin pack of color ink for the 722 is near $40. A single color cart for the 950 is about $60. The 950 sits on a shelf and gathers dust. The Laserjet III get the most use. It uses a $35 cart that I change about once every 18 months.
30 pack spindle...
I guess to reach price points, they are offering a 30 pack instead of a 50 or 100 pack. I'm still waiting to see prices. If the price is about $30 like it is for a typical 100 spindle, then it's a buck a disk instead of about 30 cents. I'll wait to see the media prices.
I've learned that with printers and a laser disk player. Ignore the price of the printer at first. Price the supplies first, then quality, then the printer. I got the laser disk player with the promise that disks would become cheaper than videotape because they could be stamped and mass produced. For some reason, videotape prices came down but the laser disks went up as a high end product. Grr. I got the player and less than a dozen movies. Due to price I was buying less than a movie a year on laserdisk. Now I buy none.
My wife got a Dell all in one printer. It came with the computer. I checked the price of supplies. I noted the thimble size of the supplies. Now that it's out of ink, it's just a scanner to send faxes and scan photos. We use our other priters for printing. The Dell is never getting an ink re-order.
I took a wait and see aproach to Compact Disks when they came out, DVD's, and recordable CD's. Taking that aproach has saved me lots of money. I didn't buy any $500 CD players. My first DVD player was less then $80. I buy DVD movies for less then $10 most of the time.
I'll wait for the market to decide if the product becomes mainstream or dies a geek only item such as the Yamaha recorder.
There is enough noise in the market now about ink prices that it's starting to affect the printer sales. I hope this will sort out the greedy ink suppliers.
Can't wait to drop inkjet to go laser!
Did that a long time ago for my Non-Color printing. In 3 years my total costs are..
$60 for the printer at Goodwill
$35 for a toner cartridge after the original one died.
$59.99 for a Hawking print server to hang it on my LAN.
This whole printer setup and 3 years operation cost less than 2 replacement sets of carts for my HP 950 inkjet printer. Not using the inkjet saves lots. Laser CD lables are smudge proof to boot.
When I want to print e-mail, photocopy, fax, print manuals, mailing lables, envelopes, posters (on colored paper) etc, it goes on the laser, not the inkjet. The inkjet is limited to a few small photos and some web graphic printing.
Don't wait for color laser. Start with a good monocrome laser and start saving now.
And as stated in the FAQ it will be up to the licensees to determine their pricing, not HP.
And the cost of the license is ultimately paid by who?
If HP charges a manufacture $5 per disk for the license, then there is absolutely no way you will find 20 cent blanks. This is the way it is to get a tape recorder with Dolby, a Printer with Kodak Photosmart, a DVD with Macrovision, A Philips Compact Disk, a VHS blank tape, a MiniDisk, etc. (yes the cost of macrovision license is included in your Shrek DVD. The cost of the license is passed on.
WalMart does about $250 billion in sales annually. That's a single company taking in 10X the annual revenue of two entire industries combined.
Yes, but when I buy a DVD at WalMart, does Walmart get to count the sale or does the movie industry? WalMart sells movies and more. At least I don't have to pay consession stand prices when I pick up the soda and red vines.
I wonder if they include a disclamer for Linspire... a big red "DOES NOT INCLUDE MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP" on the box somewhere.
I doubt it. They don't tout the software that does come with it in any good terms except saying it is compatible with the MS products.
The copy mentions MS office by name for compatibility reason, but fail to even mention what the software suite is. They do not mention manufacture, model, or version. Who the heck advertises a software package listing it's features (ouptuts PDF's etc) and does not even bother to name the product? They have a long way to go.
I wish they listed it as having Firefox, Open Office, Thunderbird, etc and listing their compatiblilites and security. (I'm only guessing on installed applications.. They are not telling.)
The review started by trashing some compteitiors. After reading further I found;
The TX-P2775H is one of the few HD sets on the market that come equipped with an ATSC high definition digital tuner; all you need to do is connect an antenna. Television stations that had HD content at the time looked stunning; the viewer witnesses perfect color rendering, realistic image depth, and unbelievable resolution.
Thanks for the info. I'll watch for the prices to come down and tuners in smaller sets.
The closest I've seen is the Samsung TX-P2775H, a 27" CRT with HDTV tuner for $600.
I just looked up that set that has a HDTV tuner.. The review indicated it does not have a HDTV tuner.
Full Review
The Samsung TX-P2775H best 27inch Flat Tube HDTV
Other Brands considered:
Panasonic and Philips
Panasonic: good hi definition television yet no internal HD tuner and some slight noise issues (emits buzzing sound more so than other sets)
Philips: lack of a three line comb filter, no 3:2 film correction, very low quality progressive scan conversion, horrible over scan bounce, bad color saturation, and unbelievable geometric distortion.
Picture Quality 10 out of 10:
So where is it offered with the tumer for $600? I haven't found it.
At that pricepoint it sounds like you're looking for a low resolution TV with a digital tuner.
I wish I could mod you up. You got it exactly right. Just as MP3's are good enough, VCD's of movies are good enough, JPEG's are good enough, etc. for students and many others, a cheap TV of about the same price, resolution and size will be of much use to many. Take a hint. Did you buy the latest SACD player and recordings because they had great sound, or did you buy a MP3 player or use Winamp instead to jukebox your collection? Cheap MP3's are easy to get. SACD is a little more spendy and not near as plentiful. Not everyone is willing to pay high prices to get the best. With all the trash on over the air TV, who wants to pay for HD to catch the evening news and the latest pipeline bombing photos from Iraq?
It's the same reason the news page on Yahoo has small compressed photos. Nobody wants to pay for the bandwidth for uncompressed 600 X 800 or larger news photos. The news and Nova are about all I watch on over the air TV anymore. Do you have any idea how many people are simply going to subscribe or remain a subscriber to a pay TV service simply so they don't have to replace their NTSC TV with an expensive one?
Yes we are looking for the MP3 version of TV. HD is nice, but for the content, I don't want to pay the extra. I just want to catch the news once in a while. Homes used to have several TV's in them. Living room, family room, bedrooms, etc. If they were all $600 and up instead of $200 and below, it gets spendy fast.
I don't want to watch Barney or Elmo. The wife doesn't want to watch the war, and I don't want to watch Days of our lives. We are not looking for one expensive family HD solution. We are looking for several small sets. It looks like we are going to use several aging PC's on the Internet instead. The transition has already started. I catch Yahoo news first to see if anyting interesting is going on. I don't have to TIVO the Yahoo news. If there is something interesting (9-11 for example) hapening, then I'll kick on the TV for the video.
Then when you sign the receipt you're also signing the EULA.
That would only last until the next release of Windows came out. 3 or 4 people reading the EULA at the checkout could tie up the store business for hours. It could take that long while the PHB's called their legal staff on a cell phone because they don't understand the legalease in the EULA.
Maybe the EULA will get shorter...
Nah, never happen.
I considered the source. If they sell blank media like they sell $60 ink cartridges...
I expect their blank CD's to be priced like their replacement ink when it has a vendor lock in.
The blanks will be protected just like the chipped ink cart. 3rd parties will be locked out. Don't expect an open free market to influence the price of the blanks. It'll be monopoly market pricing. Their competetion will be the Ink Jet compatible printers and CD's. HP will be religated to monochrome printing. That's the only thing that will limit the price. I expect it to die as consumers are spoiled on color printing.
Beautiful picture, yes, but they have a fairly limited lifespan as the gas starts to lose its charge.
Nice guess. The real killer is the plasma. Plasma is made of excited high speed atoms. (speed equates to heat at these geometries) If only a photon hit the phosphor then things would be fine, but the plasma (hot gas) hits the phosphor and sputters it away (much like a sputter dep tool or etcher in the manufacture of semiconductors). The display is a plasma etcher sputtering away the phosphors that produce the pretty colors.
In newer sets they are trying to reduce this erosion of the phosphors. I'm not sure how they are doing this, but a hot plasma near a soft phosphor still equates to some sputtering.
At least in an LCD TV, the lamp is replaceable for less than $50 in parts. (cold cathode tube) This is not the case in a plasma set.