I wonder how many of those downloads are for music one already has? I know I had to P2P some songs because some idiot put protection on my CD, so I could not listen to it in my car (my car and "protected" cd's don't work well).
The problem is even greater for those wanting to put it on their Zen, Zoon, and most importantly i-Pod.
Most people no longer take original CDs on the road anymore but instead take a burned copy to prevent loss due to breakage and theft. The added advantage is playing only the good tracks and leaving the junk off the compilation. Obviously DRM is consumer unfriendly and makes the product a lower value.
This lower value product has poisoned the pot of anything on the retail shelves. You just don't know if it will work without doing online research first. As long as you are online, you can get a working copy. In the end we get blamed for the problem.
There's no doubt that people are buying music less, but it's still a stretch to correlate that drop entirely to piracy. I wonder how much of that drop is due to high CD prices due to price fixing, people getting pissed for the RIAA suing the American public, and the lack of creative new music.
Add in to the mix the competition for the entertainment dollar. When CDs came out 25 years ago, there was no XM radio, DVD's, Internet, Game consoles, and few PC games.
Many ex-CD buyers have found better value for their entertainment dollar. I for example now spend the money on computer upgrades, printer supplies, Broadband Internet, MP3 players, DVD's, DVD players, and a nice LCD TV. In the meantime the music industry did little to make their product a better competitive value, and thus lost sales. Their Defective by Design experiment and high prices are the main reasons to leave the product on the shelf.
The overcharging the file sharers in the legal maneuvers designed to bleed them to death is the icing on the cake. A suit for damages is one thing. It would be reasonable to charge for dropped eggs, but to try to claim damages that the sharing was used by the whole world is over-reaching, just like charging for several generations of chickens for a couple broken eggs. They provide no justice. The settlement center NEVER takes evidence of innocence. Failure of the extortion is an automatic lawsuit with it's costs. This has been a PR nightmare and rightfully so. They earned that black eye fair and square.
It's simply not worth it to have to deal with electronics that break, batteries that die, etc.
That has turned out to be FUD now that they are getting lots of miles now. The battery pack is easier to change than a typical transmission and now costs less. In addition it has been proven more reliable. (Google search Prius Battery Failures). The little 12 volt battery is a much higher failure rate item needing a 3-5 year replacement cycle just like their conventional counterparts.
In the trade of of mechanical parts for electronic, most mechanical high failure items on the Prius has been eliminated.
Here is a short list.. No belts, not even for a water pump or AC. No Hydraulics hoses or lines except the brakes. No leaky AC rubber hoses or shaft seals. No clutches, pressure plates, bands, or hydraulics of any kind in the transmission
Here is how the improvements work. The AC is a sealed electric unit like a home refrigerator. The compressor is body mounted eliminating Leaky shaft seals, belts, clutch, and hoses.
The transmission has 7 moving parts. None of them is any kind of friction, shift, or hydraulic part. It's built like and as reliable as a differential. The battery pack is composed of 7.2 volt modules. A module failure does not equal a battery pack replacement.
The Power steering is a linear electric motor for assist. This eliminates the power steering pump, hoses, and power steering fluid issues.
The power brakes use a compressor so it is a trade off for the vacuum module for a compressor.
The cooling system is powered by electric pumps. It traded belt driven problems for electric pump problems. I haven't seen reliability reports on these pumps yet which is a good thing.
Even the starter moter with it's brushes, solonoid bendix gear and other failure items has been eliminated. The brushless AC Motor/Generator set in the transmission starts the engine.
I studied all these issues before I bought a Prius. TCO is an important number to me.
For me personally, Here are some of my stats.
I have 120,000 on my Prius. At 20,000 and 80,000 miles I changed tires (the originals don't wear well). At 70,000 miles I had to change the 12 volt battery in late 2005 so it lasted almost 4 years. At the last tire change, I had the brakes checked. I have 80% remaining. Other than give it gas and regular oil changes, it has required zero repairs except a rock chip in the windshield.
Most other cars I drove with over 100,000 miles were getting into needing starters, alternators, brakes, belts, power steering, Air Conditioner, and transmission service.
There's an place to attach the key (doesn't have metal teeth or anything), and a big "Start/Stop" button.
I like my Prius also. I have an older one that still uses a chip in the key. When you hack my remote, you also have to hack my key. The Prius does not have a 12 volt starter at all. The throttle is fly by wire. The EV transmission is a computer controlled motor/generator set. Unless you can convince the computer to operate, there is absolutely no way to drive it off with nothing but the data from the remote.
The new model with the keyless fob for the ignition may be wirelessly exploitable. It is a cool idea though. Walk up to your car and the door unlocks. Nice if you are carrying packages. Get in and press start and drive away. The wireless key fob, even though very nice, may be a security hole.
"We're sorry, your operating system is incompatible. To provide the best download experience, we can no longer support Windows 98, ME or NT. Please visit again after you upgrade to Windows 2000 or XP. Visit our Help section for complete system requirements information."
Thanks for saving me the time to find that out. I use Ubuntu. I have one dual boot machine that runs 98SE for legacy applications. Oh well. Maybe later Wal*Mart will upgrade to service the rest of the market.
"We're sorry, your online shopping system is incompatible. To provide the best download experience, we can no longer support closed solutions. Please advertise music again after you upgrade to Open Standards. Visit ODL for complete system requirements information."
Until they fix the quality, price, licensing, and DRM issues, I'll stick with either Creative Commons, or Public Domain works.
Commercial offerings are often limited to private home use only. The other offerings can be played at the block party on the big screen or other social gathering. I just downloaded the older Little Shop of Horrors and Night of the Living Dead.
Use the D/L links on the left side of the page or use a torrent to save bandwidth.
This is one of the reasons the studios hate public domain. It can compete with commercial markets.
For audio, there is lots of public domain material. Look for Old Time radio. Much of the material is tied up in compiliations for a price due to bandwidth costs, but some free for the taking is out there.
if they were paid to support one technology over another, isn't that illegal, anti-competitive and/or monopolistic behaviour by the HD-DVD consortium? If so, would it be illegal if the consortium were innocent but the payoff came from some backer who stands to gain from HD-DVD beating out Blu-Ray?
The market has a strange way of sorting some of this stuff out. While the players are several hundred dollars and the movies are well over $20 each, this is just a niche format at the moment. When the players are under $60 and the movies are under $15, wake me up. In the meantime, I'll stick with a Linux MCE setup and use the format that works in the movie jukebox. The last DVD player I bought retailed for under $30. Pre-viewed movies at Blockbuster are either 2 for $20 or 4 for $20. Only those with lots of cash will bother with the expensive formats. Right now they are in the Laserdisk catagory. Nice format, but limited selection at high prices. I did the Laserdisk thing. It had an advantage.. No copy protection. It met broadcast spec NTSC output unlike videotape.
Unless someone with the bill posts the results, we may never know. However it probably will wind up in abritration with the right to modify terms at any time clause being played as a trump card in the contract. In short, pay the bill, get the new terms or be in breach of contract with a credit ding on your report for late payment.
It's like everything you buy has a long, long string literally attached to it; and at any time your new tv could start jerking toward your front door, outside, and back up the street to corporate headquarters.
If Google wanted to keep the money and the sale, all they would have had to do was exchange the string tethered one for one without the string. A simple exchange for DRM free copies would have sufficed. I presume this was not up to Google to offer. The actual content copyright holders probably nixed the deal. I hope Google passes the refund bill back to the copyright holders. There is no way Google should be stuck with the bill for the copyright holders policy. If Google is stuck with the bill, I could see Google learning from the mistake and as a policy simply refusing DRM content in any shape in the future.
Or tell your print server to print multiple copies of your jobs, print coupons, profit.
Forgot to read the article? It covers the serial numbered coupons, photocopying, and being banned for multiple coupons with the same serial number.
This guy's hack was to re-auth with the server to get a new set of serial numbers from the coupon vendor exceeding his permitted number of serial numbered coupons.
I sure hope so. I've been holding off buying into one of these technologies until the format war ends.
I'm waiting till the DRM war ends. CSS on regular DVD's is broken. AcidRip, Kalidascope and other programs can load your DVD's on your hard drive so the kids don't break the originals. The HD formats haven't quite gotten there in consumer friendliness yet.
I can rip regular DVD's to put on my kids Zen Video. It may take a few more years, but I'll wait and use regular DVD's in the meantime.
45nm process has nothing to do with innovation. It's just the same technology, the same process, on a different scale.
Is this a troll or are you serious? Lately in the Intel release schedule they have been following a pattern of a new design on old technology (Core Duo), followed by a new Technology (Core 2 Duo). The design is getting difficult enough they take one thing that works and try it on something new. When they get that working they then they redesign on tech that works. Trying both a shrink and redesign at the same time introduces so many inter-actions that debugging becomes impossible.
Design a new chip on existing technology and debug. Do-able. Work on speed and size inmporvements and debug problems.. Do-able. Do both at the same time = a debugging nightmare. Remember the early hardware and software days. New hardware and new software.. Something didn't work. Who was to blame? Was it a hardware or software problem?
Adding better graphics to a DOS machine was do-able. Adding Windows 3.0 to that was do-able (sort of), That was de-buggable. From there faster better hardware came out and new OS'es came out to take advantage of the new hardware.
A good example of this is the cycle of USB. Hardware was designed and built. Some developers drivers were released validating the functioning of the hardware, then Windows 98 SE came out with USB drivers built-in.
USB and Windows 98 SE did not fully appear at the same time. To the end user it just looked that way. When both worked, they were bundled, but they developed somewhat seprately. The same is true for chip shrinks and major chip redesigns. One and then the other gets tweaked to be the best and then the other is re-designed for something new.
Switching to 45nm chips is in Intel's best interests long term. Short term, selling down 65nm stock and spinning up production of 45nm tooling is in their best interest.
It's good for us too. Each shrink is usualy coupled with more cache, faster speeds, lower prices, and less power IE Dual core using the same power as a single core. I know many look at this as anit-competitive, but would you rather Intel kept it's prices high? I for one love the price competition. It makes a rough market, but it puts some serious computing in reasonable price range. Now if we can get some serious price wars going for Office software and Operating systems.
Given the options I believe Intel is likely still working out some non-trivial (i.e. no microcode workaround) issues in the 45nM process before releasing. Which sounds more plausible?
Much more plausable is they are getting the pipeline filled while the manufactures are finishing evaluating the engineerinng samples (the chips marked Intel Confidential) and building a product. In a new product launch, having a shortage of product is bad. Manufacturing has little surge capacity built-in. It looks like a normal product roll-out to me.They are either aiming for the back to school launch or the fall Christmas shopping season. This is less about hitting AMD and more about beating the January market downturn. Just because AMD is trying to hit the same fall release schedule is not an accurate indicater Intel is doing this to hit AMD. Intel would release this fall if possible regardless of whether AMD was there or not. Check their release cycles. The only times they miss a cycle is when they have problems. They aim for back to school or the Christmas buying season. Early spring launches are rare and are usually covered by press coverage of missed launch dates.
Hell, recently I got a postcard from Sprint saying that my monthly web service was going to rise a few dollars a month and that by paying my next bill I agree to their service and conditions and the raise.
Enclose a photocopy of the postcard with your bill and without a check and send it in with a note.
"Please contact me regarding the rejection of your new rate offer, my contract and payment of this bill."
I could care less about minutes. Even with the minimum minutes on the AT&T iPhone plan, I'll never use that many in a month, and I will continue to rack up rollover minutes.
In your case.. Single.
In my case.. Married with 2 teens. Family plan minutes rarely roll over. Curbing run-away costs is a prime factor in carrier and plan selection.
Or is this an indicator that Alienware has been completely absorbed by Dell, and has nothing left of what once made it good?
It's more of a case of cablecard secrets and DRM. They are not going to pass any trade secrets along to end users. Read any of the CableCard forums for the problems. They are many.
From a Forum here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=77 1387 Even if someone is to sell you the OCUR (CableCARD reader), it will not work by just plugging it in. You are going to be purchasing a new system if you want CableCARD.
I heard this before somewhere but no one has said why it will not work. Can you give me some details as to why this will not work in another system. Is it drivers, new mobo, connectors, etc....
Surely like everything else there maybe some hack/diy guide to install these in another system.
There are specific bits both in Windows and outside of Windows that are needed. The hardware itself is the smallest part of the picture. You can only get the other parts needed if you are a Microsoft Certified OEM (not System Builder).
Frankly, I could care less what carrier my iPhone works on, because the iPhone is great. I didn't buy my phone because of or in spite of the carrier; I bought it because it is a good phone.
Many people feel that way. Many people don't. Take for example VOIP adapters. Linksys and many others make very nice adapters. When I walk into my local retailer, I reject them because they are locked to Vontage when my application is to use them on Asterisk with Broadvoice.
In the case of Vontage tied adaptors, each adaptor needs an account for about $30/month each. With Asterisk they can be all extensions on my PBX. The family can share the Landline for local calls, VOIP on Broadvoice, and each have custom voice mailboxes on their own extension.
Neutered hardware and forced choice of carrier is a factor for many services.
Joining the carrier of the rest of your family and extended circle of friends often provides free daytime minutes but only when they are all on the same carrier. Someone switching carriers often means using daytime minutes for both parties that was once free and unlimited. There are plan reasons to prefer a carrier other than just your bottom line. How much does it now cost for your extended family to keep in touch? Do they now feel the meter running when calling you?
This is nice and lovley until you realize that everyone cripples the service, so you have no choice.
Actually I do have a choice. In the world of instant gratification many see the glass as half full, ie there are features that don't work.
I look at the package offered, and then move on.
Case in point. I bought a cell phone with the understanding that it is just a phone. We deliberately had the carrier eliminate all web access. They said "text messaging won't work". I said "Good, neither does the company store". I carry a 2 way pager. I don't need anything for a fee in the company store. This has kept our phone bill reasonable. When we get data charges, I call the fraud department, then the billing department. (I know I should just start with the billing department, but it's more fun that way)
I use a Laptop for Web, music, video and e-mail on the go. I have an MP3 player which has no charges to sync. I use a 2 way pager for IM. The phone provider could have offered a competitive package, but failed badly on price.
Don't ever think you have no choice. Look at the glass half full and decide if you want a cordless phone. Add on from there if the offerings are good. If they aren't then look for other glasses.
Many carriers think they are a monopoly and don't want to have their low end rob the profit from the high end.
They are forgetting something. There is competition. They should strive to make all of their products and services more valuable to consumers.
Here is what we have so far.. 1 An i-phone which is cool who's bill comes in a box shipped by UPS Oh and by the way is has a monopoly carrier.
2 A Blackberry. They are obtainable from several carriers, but AT&T cripples them worse than other carriers.
3 A Blackberry on another carrier.
4.. The rest of the market
If you avoid #1 due to the carrier issues and monster bills, you are now likely to avoid #2 for both the service and carrier reputation. Just what were they thinking? They don't hold a monopoly on Blackberries.
Even though there is a "Looming Problem" with outgrowing bandwidth, it has been very obvious to me that some services are being very limited. When downloading my favorite distro, I did a test. I started 2 transfers of the CD ISO. One using Bit Torrent and the other using a simple download mirror. When the mirror transfer was completed, the Bit Torrent transfer was almost 1/3rd completed. From then on, I've just stuck with mirrors with one exception.
When SONY had the defective by design DVD's so I couldn't add Open Season to the kids Zen Video, I DL/ed the ISO. It took 4 days. Later with the Slashdot discussion and the recall of the defective disks, I ordered a replacement. When ordering they asked what player I had trouble with. I was up front with them. I told them I had trouble with Acid Rip on Linux so I couldn't play it on a Creative Zen Video. They sent me a replacement with no excuses. At least their database includes Acid rip and the Creative Zen Video.
I wouldn't trust some bum off the street to tell me if a movie is good or not; I don't know them, I don't know what biases they might have, and I don't know what tastes they have.
As always, the reputation of the reviewers is important. Very seldom do we see a review of the reviewers. Often however we do find reviewers using examples and repeatable experiments. The older Tom's Hardware of AMD and Intel P4 chips with the heatsink removed is an excellent example of a useful review which lends credibility to the results. This was not an optomised review to make one look better. This was an off the street test.
Reviewers who are good earn respect and publish their tests and test results and even analyse why the results are the way they are, such as this program takes advantage of MMX extensions or this does not take advantage of a dual core and etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I wonder how many of those downloads are for music one already has? I know I had to P2P some songs because some idiot put protection on my CD, so I could not listen to it in my car (my car and "protected" cd's don't work well).
The problem is even greater for those wanting to put it on their Zen, Zoon, and most importantly i-Pod.
Most people no longer take original CDs on the road anymore but instead take a burned copy to prevent loss due to breakage and theft. The added advantage is playing only the good tracks and leaving the junk off the compilation. Obviously DRM is consumer unfriendly and makes the product a lower value.
This lower value product has poisoned the pot of anything on the retail shelves. You just don't know if it will work without doing online research first. As long as you are online, you can get a working copy. In the end we get blamed for the problem.
There's no doubt that people are buying music less, but it's still a stretch to correlate that drop entirely to piracy. I wonder how much of that drop is due to high CD prices due to price fixing, people getting pissed for the RIAA suing the American public, and the lack of creative new music.
Add in to the mix the competition for the entertainment dollar. When CDs came out 25 years ago, there was no XM radio, DVD's, Internet, Game consoles, and few PC games.
Many ex-CD buyers have found better value for their entertainment dollar. I for example now spend the money on computer upgrades, printer supplies, Broadband Internet, MP3 players, DVD's, DVD players, and a nice LCD TV. In the meantime the music industry did little to make their product a better competitive value, and thus lost sales. Their Defective by Design experiment and high prices are the main reasons to leave the product on the shelf.
The overcharging the file sharers in the legal maneuvers designed to bleed them to death is the icing on the cake. A suit for damages is one thing. It would be reasonable to charge for dropped eggs, but to try to claim damages that the sharing was used by the whole world is over-reaching, just like charging for several generations of chickens for a couple broken eggs. They provide no justice. The settlement center NEVER takes evidence of innocence. Failure of the extortion is an automatic lawsuit with it's costs. This has been a PR nightmare and rightfully so. They earned that black eye fair and square.
Your sig is incorrect. "The truth shall MAKE you free."
Um, that's someone else's tagline. I'll keep mine. The only change I've considered is changing it to "keep you free".
It's simply not worth it to have to deal with electronics that break, batteries that die, etc.
That has turned out to be FUD now that they are getting lots of miles now. The battery pack is easier to change than a typical transmission and now costs less. In addition it has been proven more reliable. (Google search Prius Battery Failures). The little 12 volt battery is a much higher failure rate item needing a 3-5 year replacement cycle just like their conventional counterparts.
In the trade of of mechanical parts for electronic, most mechanical high failure items on the Prius has been eliminated.
Here is a short list..
No belts, not even for a water pump or AC.
No Hydraulics hoses or lines except the brakes.
No leaky AC rubber hoses or shaft seals.
No clutches, pressure plates, bands, or hydraulics of any kind in the transmission
Here is how the improvements work.
The AC is a sealed electric unit like a home refrigerator. The compressor is body mounted eliminating Leaky shaft seals, belts, clutch, and hoses.
The transmission has 7 moving parts. None of them is any kind of friction, shift, or hydraulic part. It's built like and as reliable as a differential. The battery pack is composed of 7.2 volt modules. A module failure does not equal a battery pack replacement.
The Power steering is a linear electric motor for assist. This eliminates the power steering pump, hoses, and power steering fluid issues.
The power brakes use a compressor so it is a trade off for the vacuum module for a compressor.
The cooling system is powered by electric pumps. It traded belt driven problems for electric pump problems. I haven't seen reliability reports on these pumps yet which is a good thing.
Even the starter moter with it's brushes, solonoid bendix gear and other failure items has been eliminated. The brushless AC Motor/Generator set in the transmission starts the engine.
I studied all these issues before I bought a Prius. TCO is an important number to me.
For me personally, Here are some of my stats.
I have 120,000 on my Prius. At 20,000 and 80,000 miles I changed tires (the originals don't wear well). At 70,000 miles I had to change the 12 volt battery in late 2005 so it lasted almost 4 years.
At the last tire change, I had the brakes checked. I have 80% remaining. Other than give it gas and regular oil changes, it has required zero repairs except a rock chip in the windshield.
Most other cars I drove with over 100,000 miles were getting into needing starters, alternators, brakes, belts, power steering, Air Conditioner, and transmission service.
There's an place to attach the key (doesn't have metal teeth or anything), and a big "Start/Stop" button.
I like my Prius also. I have an older one that still uses a chip in the key. When you hack my remote, you also have to hack my key. The Prius does not have a 12 volt starter at all. The throttle is fly by wire. The EV transmission is a computer controlled motor/generator set. Unless you can convince the computer to operate, there is absolutely no way to drive it off with nothing but the data from the remote.
The new model with the keyless fob for the ignition may be wirelessly exploitable. It is a cool idea though. Walk up to your car and the door unlocks. Nice if you are carrying packages. Get in and press start and drive away. The wireless key fob, even though very nice, may be a security hole.
"We're sorry, your operating system is incompatible. To provide the best download experience, we can no longer support Windows 98, ME or NT. Please visit again after you upgrade to Windows 2000 or XP. Visit our Help section for complete system requirements information."
Thanks for saving me the time to find that out. I use Ubuntu. I have one dual boot machine that runs 98SE for legacy applications. Oh well. Maybe later Wal*Mart will upgrade to service the rest of the market.
"We're sorry, your online shopping system is incompatible. To provide the best download experience, we can no longer support closed solutions. Please advertise music again after you upgrade to Open Standards. Visit ODL for complete system requirements information."
Until they fix the quality, price, licensing, and DRM issues, I'll stick with either Creative Commons, or Public Domain works.
o rs.avig _dead
Commercial offerings are often limited to private home use only. The other offerings can be played at the block party on the big screen or other social gathering. I just downloaded the older Little Shop of Horrors and Night of the Living Dead.
http://www.archive.org/details/Little_ShopOf_Horr
http://www.archive.org/details/night_of_the_livin
Note many of these links are at higher resolution than the commercial offerings.
Home page.. http://www.archive.org/details/movies Please don't slashdot them too bad. I'm still downloading some stuff.
Use the D/L links on the left side of the page or use a torrent to save bandwidth.
This is one of the reasons the studios hate public domain. It can compete with commercial markets.
For audio, there is lots of public domain material. Look for Old Time radio. Much of the material is tied up in compiliations for a price due to bandwidth costs, but some free for the taking is out there.
if they were paid to support one technology over another, isn't that illegal, anti-competitive and/or monopolistic behaviour by the HD-DVD consortium? If so, would it be illegal if the consortium were innocent but the payoff came from some backer who stands to gain from HD-DVD beating out Blu-Ray?
The market has a strange way of sorting some of this stuff out. While the players are several hundred dollars and the movies are well over $20 each, this is just a niche format at the moment. When the players are under $60 and the movies are under $15, wake me up. In the meantime, I'll stick with a Linux MCE setup and use the format that works in the movie jukebox. The last DVD player I bought retailed for under $30. Pre-viewed movies at Blockbuster are either 2 for $20 or 4 for $20. Only those with lots of cash will bother with the expensive formats. Right now they are in the Laserdisk catagory. Nice format, but limited selection at high prices. I did the Laserdisk thing. It had an advantage.. No copy protection. It met broadcast spec NTSC output unlike videotape.
The suspense is killing me. What would happen?
Unless someone with the bill posts the results, we may never know. However it probably will wind up in abritration with the right to modify terms at any time clause being played as a trump card in the contract. In short, pay the bill, get the new terms or be in breach of contract with a credit ding on your report for late payment.
It's like everything you buy has a long, long string literally attached to it; and at any time your new tv could start jerking toward your front door, outside, and back up the street to corporate headquarters.
If Google wanted to keep the money and the sale, all they would have had to do was exchange the string tethered one for one without the string. A simple exchange for DRM free copies would have sufficed. I presume this was not up to Google to offer. The actual content copyright holders probably nixed the deal. I hope Google passes the refund bill back to the copyright holders. There is no way Google should be stuck with the bill for the copyright holders policy. If Google is stuck with the bill, I could see Google learning from the mistake and as a policy simply refusing DRM content in any shape in the future.
Or tell your print server to print multiple copies of your jobs, print coupons, profit.
Forgot to read the article? It covers the serial numbered coupons, photocopying, and being banned for multiple coupons with the same serial number.
This guy's hack was to re-auth with the server to get a new set of serial numbers from the coupon vendor exceeding his permitted number of serial numbered coupons.
I sure hope so. I've been holding off buying into one of these technologies until the format war ends.
I'm waiting till the DRM war ends. CSS on regular DVD's is broken. AcidRip, Kalidascope and other programs can load your DVD's on your hard drive so the kids don't break the originals. The HD formats haven't quite gotten there in consumer friendliness yet.
I can rip regular DVD's to put on my kids Zen Video. It may take a few more years, but I'll wait and use regular DVD's in the meantime.
I smell someone making an argument to get a better deal.
- 0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b 5df10621.html
Doubly suspicious since the family friendly Blockbuster Rental stores simply will be stocking mostly Blu-Ray.
"Paramount's move comes weeks after Blockbuster, the DVD rental chain, said it would stock more Blu-ray discs to cope with rising consumer demand."
From the article here;
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e8569e16-4f61-11dc-b485
45nm process has nothing to do with innovation. It's just the same technology, the same process, on a different scale.
Is this a troll or are you serious? Lately in the Intel release schedule they have been following a pattern of a new design on old technology (Core Duo), followed by a new Technology (Core 2 Duo). The design is getting difficult enough they take one thing that works and try it on something new. When they get that working they then they redesign on tech that works. Trying both a shrink and redesign at the same time introduces so many inter-actions that debugging becomes impossible.
Design a new chip on existing technology and debug. Do-able. Work on speed and size inmporvements and debug problems.. Do-able. Do both at the same time = a debugging nightmare. Remember the early hardware and software days. New hardware and new software.. Something didn't work. Who was to blame? Was it a hardware or software problem?
Adding better graphics to a DOS machine was do-able. Adding Windows 3.0 to that was do-able (sort of), That was de-buggable. From there faster better hardware came out and new OS'es came out to take advantage of the new hardware.
A good example of this is the cycle of USB. Hardware was designed and built. Some developers drivers were released validating the functioning of the hardware, then Windows 98 SE came out with USB drivers built-in.
USB and Windows 98 SE did not fully appear at the same time. To the end user it just looked that way. When both worked, they were bundled, but they developed somewhat seprately. The same is true for chip shrinks and major chip redesigns. One and then the other gets tweaked to be the best and then the other is re-designed for something new.
Switching to 45nm chips is in Intel's best interests long term. Short term, selling down 65nm stock and spinning up production of 45nm tooling is in their best interest.
It's good for us too. Each shrink is usualy coupled with more cache, faster speeds, lower prices, and less power IE Dual core using the same power as a single core. I know many look at this as anit-competitive, but would you rather Intel kept it's prices high? I for one love the price competition. It makes a rough market, but it puts some serious computing in reasonable price range. Now if we can get some serious price wars going for Office software and Operating systems.
Given the options I believe Intel is likely still working out some non-trivial (i.e. no microcode workaround) issues in the 45nM process before releasing.
Which sounds more plausible?
Much more plausable is they are getting the pipeline filled while the manufactures are finishing evaluating the engineerinng samples (the chips marked Intel Confidential) and building a product. In a new product launch, having a shortage of product is bad. Manufacturing has little surge capacity built-in. It looks like a normal product roll-out to me.They are either aiming for the back to school launch or the fall Christmas shopping season. This is less about hitting AMD and more about beating the January market downturn. Just because AMD is trying to hit the same fall release schedule is not an accurate indicater Intel is doing this to hit AMD. Intel would release this fall if possible regardless of whether AMD was there or not. Check their release cycles. The only times they miss a cycle is when they have problems. They aim for back to school or the Christmas buying season. Early spring launches are rare and are usually covered by press coverage of missed launch dates.
Hell, recently I got a postcard from Sprint saying that my monthly web service was going to rise a few dollars a month and that by paying my next bill I agree to their service and conditions and the raise.
Enclose a photocopy of the postcard with your bill and without a check and send it in with a note.
"Please contact me regarding the rejection of your new rate offer, my contract and payment of this bill."
See what happens.
I could care less about minutes. Even with the minimum minutes on the AT&T iPhone plan, I'll never use that many in a month, and I will continue to rack up rollover minutes.
.. Married with 2 teens. Family plan minutes rarely roll over. Curbing run-away costs is a prime factor in carrier and plan selection.
In your case.. Single.
In my case
Or is this an indicator that Alienware has been completely absorbed by Dell, and has nothing left of what once made it good?
7 1387
It's more of a case of cablecard secrets and DRM. They are not going to pass any trade secrets along to end users. Read any of the CableCard forums for the problems. They are many.
From a Forum here
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=7
Even if someone is to sell you the OCUR (CableCARD reader), it will not work by just plugging it in. You are going to be purchasing a new system if you want CableCARD.
I heard this before somewhere but no one has said why it will not work. Can you give me some details as to why this will not work in another system. Is it drivers, new mobo, connectors, etc....
Surely like everything else there maybe some hack/diy guide to install these in another system.
There are specific bits both in Windows and outside of Windows that are needed. The hardware itself is the smallest part of the picture. You can only get the other parts needed if you are a Microsoft Certified OEM (not System Builder).
Frankly, I could care less what carrier my iPhone works on, because the iPhone is great. I didn't buy my phone because of or in spite of the carrier; I bought it because it is a good phone.
Many people feel that way. Many people don't. Take for example VOIP adapters. Linksys and many others make very nice adapters. When I walk into my local retailer, I reject them because they are locked to Vontage when my application is to use them on Asterisk with Broadvoice.
In the case of Vontage tied adaptors, each adaptor needs an account for about $30/month each. With Asterisk they can be all extensions on my PBX. The family can share the Landline for local calls, VOIP on Broadvoice, and each have custom voice mailboxes on their own extension.
Neutered hardware and forced choice of carrier is a factor for many services.
Joining the carrier of the rest of your family and extended circle of friends often provides free daytime minutes but only when they are all on the same carrier. Someone switching carriers often means using daytime minutes for both parties that was once free and unlimited. There are plan reasons to prefer a carrier other than just your bottom line. How much does it now cost for your extended family to keep in touch? Do they now feel the meter running when calling you?
This is nice and lovley until you realize that everyone cripples the service, so you have no choice.
Actually I do have a choice. In the world of instant gratification many see the glass as half full, ie there are features that don't work.
I look at the package offered, and then move on.
Case in point. I bought a cell phone with the understanding that it is just a phone. We deliberately had the carrier eliminate all web access. They said "text messaging won't work". I said "Good, neither does the company store". I carry a 2 way pager. I don't need anything for a fee in the company store. This has kept our phone bill reasonable. When we get data charges, I call the fraud department, then the billing department. (I know I should just start with the billing department, but it's more fun that way)
I use a Laptop for Web, music, video and e-mail on the go. I have an MP3 player which has no charges to sync. I use a 2 way pager for IM. The phone provider could have offered a competitive package, but failed badly on price.
Don't ever think you have no choice. Look at the glass half full and decide if you want a cordless phone. Add on from there if the offerings are good. If they aren't then look for other glasses.
There is indeed competition in some places and in others they just scare you from leaving with their high service termination fees.
Very true,--- until the 2 year contract is up. Consumers have a memory of the problems and pains they have with a carrier. Churn is very real.
2 year contracts may only slow it down to the next contract renewal. Better service would reduce churn.
Many carriers think they are a monopoly and don't want to have their low end rob the profit from the high end.
b lackberry-carrier-retailers-who-gets-it-and/
They are forgetting something. There is competition. They should strive to make all of their products and services more valuable to consumers.
Here is what we have so far..
1 An i-phone which is cool who's bill comes in a box shipped by UPS Oh and by the way is has a monopoly carrier.
2 A Blackberry. They are obtainable from several carriers, but AT&T cripples them worse than other carriers.
3 A Blackberry on another carrier.
4.. The rest of the market
If you avoid #1 due to the carrier issues and monster bills, you are now likely to avoid #2 for both the service and carrier reputation. Just what were they thinking? They don't hold a monopoly on Blackberries.
http://www.bbhub.com/2006/09/18/rating-the-major-
Even though there is a "Looming Problem" with outgrowing bandwidth, it has been very obvious to me that some services are being very limited. When downloading my favorite distro, I did a test. I started 2 transfers of the CD ISO. One using Bit Torrent and the other using a simple download mirror. When the mirror transfer was completed, the Bit Torrent transfer was almost 1/3rd completed. From then on, I've just stuck with mirrors with one exception.
When SONY had the defective by design DVD's so I couldn't add Open Season to the kids Zen Video, I DL/ed the ISO. It took 4 days. Later with the Slashdot discussion and the recall of the defective disks, I ordered a replacement. When ordering they asked what player I had trouble with. I was up front with them. I told them I had trouble with Acid Rip on Linux so I couldn't play it on a Creative Zen Video. They sent me a replacement with no excuses. At least their database includes Acid rip and the Creative Zen Video.
I wouldn't trust some bum off the street to tell me if a movie is good or not; I don't know them, I don't know what biases they might have, and I don't know what tastes they have.
As always, the reputation of the reviewers is important. Very seldom do we see a review of the reviewers. Often however we do find reviewers using examples and repeatable experiments. The older Tom's Hardware of AMD and Intel P4 chips with the heatsink removed is an excellent example of a useful review which lends credibility to the results. This was not an optomised review to make one look better. This was an off the street test.
Reviewers who are good earn respect and publish their tests and test results and even analyse why the results are the way they are, such as this program takes advantage of MMX extensions or this does not take advantage of a dual core and etc.
Unknown reviewers get taken with a grain of salt.