As someone above nicely posted the EULA...READ IT. It turns your linux box into a spyware-style Windoze XP box. Helix Player phones home to RN to send your data, and forces upgrades upon you, whether you like it or not.
I will no install any app on my system that communicates with any other computer without my express consent and full control. I will not install any app on my system that sends any personal data to any computer for any reason without my express consent. I will not install any app on my system that will not work unless my information is sent and/or if it will not function unless I permit "automatic" upgrades without notification/warning/personal control.
Sorry Helix. When you remove the DRM, insecure automagic updating, and uncontrollable phone home nonsense from the player, THEN I might consider it for installation and use. Until then, one might as well give up control of their computer and install Windoze XP instead of linux.
You can also possibly view the Mazur and Mottola submission (preprint) at:
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/grqc/0109035
A google search on gravistars turns up several sources that are perhaps better than the space.com readers digest article.
Now people, get a hold of yourselves. Most, if not ALL, of you are fully unqualified to poo-poo the idea just as you are unqualified to critique black hole "science". It is downright stupid to poo-poo the idea and hold the classic black hole idea as sacrosanct. No one. NO ONE has seen a black hole. They are ENTIRELY ghosts of the imagination INFERRED from observations that are wholly in accordance with the idea of gravistars OR black holes.
Claiming that the idea of gravistars requires too much "hand waving" ignores the fact (stone cold fact, that is) that the idea of a black hole itself requires an incredible amount of hand waving and eye covering to get past its very real problems.
The jury is still out on black holes. If another idea accounts for the same observations while at the same time avoiding the many problems that black holes create...well, it would end up being a better theory outright. The gravistar deserves a real chance to germinate and grow on its merits and math and must not be tossed out the door on the principal that it violates the holy black hole doctrine.
He seems quite happy to try to export US labour laws into China but I imagine there would be a bit of a cry from him if Europeans tried to export EU labour laws to the US
You wouldn't hear any cry from ME about exporting European labor law to the US. Their laws are BETTER than ours. Their workers better protected and have better conditions. I think that would be a smashing idea. As a matter of fact, I would like to see FRENCH labor laws become global laws. Shorter work week for EVERYONE. Happier lives from less stress and guaranteed time off. Sign us up!
The Romans NEVER developed a proper cavalry. Chariots were not really cavalry. The only cavalry, of sorts, that the Romans had were essentially hired - Celtic riders/mercenaries.
Romans on horseback didn't actually do much fighting on horseback. The horse was simply used as a transport device to get to a battle, where the rider dismounted to fight on the ground.
Chariots were somewhat more a mobile archer's or spearman's platform where a driver would haul the soldier to a battle point. In any case, a chariot doesn't really make a very good cavalry platform.
Instead of charging them face-on, I'd try to flank them/come around from behind. It was a rather shallow oliphant line.
If you had archers, they could act as snipers and take out the single oliphant drivers. Ah well, the Rohirrim had no archers, just swordsmen on horseback.
I loved the movie (just saw it last night) but I also just couldn't help but shake my head at the stupidity of the battle management. An army made up ENTIRELY of cavalry? Or an army made up entirely of foot soldiers? Crap armies, say I.
The huge cavalry charge by the Rohirrim at the big battle...breathtaking, and stupid. The DEPTH of the charge, hundreds of horses deep. LOGJAM! As soon as the first row or two of horses/riders go down you have a mountain of bodies upon which to jam up with the following riders.
As for an entire army made up of foot soldiers, and no cavalry at all...this is essentially the great weakness of the Roman army. The Romans loved horses and horse racing, yet they NEVER developed a cavalry. Throughout their entire military history the Romans NEVER learned from their opponents and NEVER modified their military tactics. Early on, they got their asses handed to them about as often as they did the handing. The ONLY reason they did as well as they did later on was because they never came upon an army that was better organized or designed (The Gauls and the like were poor armies overall. They fought en mass but still largely as many individuals, never developing the discipline and control of the Roman armies). The Romans ultimately fell to Teutons and Goths, and the like, who DID use a good mix of cavalry and footsoldier. A proper cavalry is an adjunct to the overall army, not the end in itself. The entire Rohan army/cavalry was a military disaster waiting to happen - in a real world.
Finally, that Gondor charge on the orc-held city...made me think of the French vs Henry V's army at Agincourt. A heavily armored army of (largely) mounted knights charging across a muddy field and UP a hill towards an army loaded with archers using the longbow. Disaster.
I'm not completely up on Midieval military tactics, so perhaps they were all terribly stupid in such matters, but...it would be nice to see some reasonable military strategy and tactics employed by Middle-Earth armies.
Have you READ the LOTR trilogy? Or any of the other side-books? In the world of Middle-Earth, etc, magic isn't something simply and easily conjured up (like it is in some roll-playing games) at a whim. It apparently takes/took a lot of preparation, concentration, effort. It didn't just fall out of a staff or finger tip whenever you needed it. I LIKED that about the whole LOTR story. It is simply too easy to make the magic simple and overuse it. Why have armies or soldiers at all when all you need is a wizard to sling magic fireballs or lightening at an enemy?
You seem to complain because magic didn't play a larger role in LOTRs. Be thankful. It makes for a better, more interesting story. Recall, if you will, the Knights of the Round Table and their great wizard Merlin. He was a Gandalf of sorts, a very powerful wizard, yet he didn't bring forth constant walls of flame, fireballs, lightening, etc, and thus make himself the equivalent to an entire army. He (apparently) had to ration his magic and it took energy to wield it. Better story that way.
If it is so easy, then it merely becomes a child's game/story...like so many computer role playing games.
Balderdash. I am rural but I was born in suburban Topeka, Kansas. If I lived or grew up in New York but then moved and lived (and preferred) the country, then I am not a "city slicker", I am rural. When one moves into a new environ and adapts to that environ, you become OF that environ every bit as much as someone born there. Rural doesn't automatically mean "gun-loving" or "god fearing" or "farmer" or "poor", etc.
Now, I don't know if Dean actually lives/makes his home with his family in a country/rural setting. His wife having just enough patients to know them all personally suggests it is possible without me looking...but be that what it may. Being born or reared in a city (or in the country) and then making your home in the opposite environ makes you of that new environ. You are NOT always a city-slicker, nor hayseed simply because you were born in either locale.
Bzzt! Sorry, but I doubt a dead person will ever show up for an e-vote. The paper printout for use as a hard, long-term copy/record is secure. As secure as e-voting can possibly get.
If a "dead" person can vote via punch card ballot or any other paper type ballot, they can certainly vote just as well on an e-voting machine. You must actually USE the e-voting machine to get the printout.
You don't keep the receipt. The receipt is there for you to verify that what you thought you were voting for is what the machine tallied (or at least printed out). After you verify that the printout is correct, it is deposited in a secure box and held as a record. If a recount is called for (either random check or a full recount in contested election) then the secured box with the receipts in it is used for the final tally.
You don't get to keep the receipt, thus you don't get to be punished for your vote by evil husband or whatnot.
Eh? We KNOW who Darth Vader is from episode I. EVERYONE knows who DV is...it is told in the original movies. Sheesh.
There is no possibility of suspense on that score. Done deal. All that can be done is make more or less hystrionics on HOW Anakin is DV-ized. But knowing Lucas' ham-handedness with storyline, it will be as cartoonish as Ep I and II.
from that kook, Erik Von Daniken of Ancient Astronauts fame? In one of his interpretations of a Mayan carven rock image, he sees an astronaut in a reclined position operating instruments. Outside the "vehicle" he sees a rocket plume, etc. The thing is, and I always wondered about the possibility of this working, he produced an "engineered" drawing of the "spacecraft" and added annotations. One of them indicated a magnetic shield around the spacecraft.
Since way back when Ancient Astronauts was new and I saw that drawing, I have wondered about that idea. Could you not generate a magnetic field around your spacecraft so as to deflect charged high speed particles? You could also use water shielding. Water tanks could be placed to completely encircle the crew compartment(s)/living quarters and act as shielding as well. So...what about combining an artificial ship's magnetic field and water shielding?
Besides the huge latency and extortionate price (mentioned in my other post to this thread) there is also that nice weather blackout behavior.
I always know when a nice storm is about to hit my immediate area when I'm watching directtv. The screen starts pixellizing and gapping. Then there is the blanking of the screen and the message "searching for signal". Then the rain or snow starts pelting the house. It gives me about a 10 minute warning EVERY time. Real handy, except for television and/or internet service.
Hah! Satellite. Yeah, right, satellite. HUGE latencies, high price. I'd rather stick with 56k modem than pay $70+/per month just for the internet connection via satellite.
If they charged ~$20-30/month and I didn't want to be able to play networked games, then satellite would be fine. If you have more money than sense and don't do anything but browse and email then satellite is fine.
Australia is large, geographically, but they are in no way large demographically. Australia doesn't have the population numbers, nor the broad population density, of the USA. Thus, while Australia can perhaps easily dish out freqs to ISPs and whatnot, that is not the case in the USA where anywhere you go there are people and the frequencies are pretty much used up no matter where you go.
Really? How about the command "play"? It is not a gui app, it is a sound app for CLI and it is available whether you are running a GUI desktop or not. You do not need X to use play.
You thus declare that anyone using play from the CLI/non-X interface is invalid use of the system and they MUST use a gui desktop and X to play sounds? There are also other CLI apps for sound that are not in any way tied to X or any desktop. They are not invalid apps if not used in a GUI desktop.
Yes...but I think that happens anyway. Accident rate of cell phone users (while driving) is roughly equivalent to that of alcohol-addeled drivers. Unfortunately, the likelihood of them simply driving off a cliff is infinitisimal vs the likelihood of them striking another motorist/pedestrian.
The problem isn't your sex toy person, whomever, who is on call. The problem are the vast bulk of others who take/make calls anywhere and everywhere irrespective of how rude it is. I have known medical doctors and I myself have been on call. Not a single medical doctor (nor myself) takes or makes calls in theaters or at the dinner table in nice dinning establishments. As a matter of fact, at several universities I have been at and attended a play, they TAKE all cell phones and pagers at the door unless the person is a medical person. Such people are required (usually they don't need to be told) to place their pager or phone on vibrate. They also don't need to be told to leave the room and make their calls elsewhere. This is not the case with the general public.
The general rude populace leaves their phone on ring, takes their calls in the middle of movies or plays (when allowed to keep their toy). Such people need to be either A) killed; or B) stopped. They have no excuse for rudeness under any circumstance.
Not a backpedal, just an adjustment based on what I decided was a valid concern: a DOCTOR or similar needed to be able to receive messages. This can be done without screwing others around him/her. This can be done by even allowing candyassed rude polesmokers that constantly and pointlessly use their cell phones anywhere and everywhere without regards to how rude and obnoxious it is.
Even such idiots can still receive their precious inane phone calls...they just can't take them in certain areas. They can look at their beeper (there precious cell phone) and decide if it is important enough to warrant leaving the theater or their table and actually return the call. No problem. Doctors and other people with valid reason to NEED to receive calls still do while others who are just fools, idiots, and dorks, get to receive their messages too - they just can't be complete fools, idiots, and dorks by taking the call and blathering on and on right there and then. Better for eveyone.
As I think about it, and in order to get past you inconsiderati moronics that think you be important and just HAVE to yak on your cell phones in everyone else's face... In order to still allow IMPORTANT calls to get by, I suggest a design change, both to the phones and to the jammer.
In theaters, restaurants (say, sit-down dining establishments, no McDs and the like), libraries, etc, a "jammer" be placed. This jammer doesn't really "jam" the phone, but changes the phone into a vibrating pager and prevents it from being switched back into a cell phone within the range of the "jammer". Thus, a "doctor" in a theater still gets to receive (silently) "important" phonecalls but still be unable to disturb, like the typical rude, cell phone-using bastards you all are, eveyone around you.
There, no more complaints. This is a true solution because there is NO phone call that just HAS to be taken IN THE THEATER or in the nice restaurant right then and there. You can get up, walk to a semi-private location where you can spout inane dribble to your heart's content.
Depends. The math strongly favors the hdd over the burner if the backups you refer to are system backups (rather than movie backups, etc). You OVERWRITE your last backup with the most recent. One hdd is all that is needed for this.
Then perhaps they shouldn't be in the theater. What kind of monster is it that is expecting some important call about some life threatening situation...and still goes to the theater and insists on ruining the experience for everyone else?
Amazing...how we all got by in life VERY WELL without cell phones. People, they are NOT essentially, they are nothing more than a dispensible luxury item. As such, theaters, restaurants, play houses, and classrooms are not acceptable places to be using them. End of story.
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As someone above nicely posted the EULA...READ IT. It turns your linux box into a spyware-style Windoze XP box. Helix Player phones home to RN to send your data, and forces upgrades upon you, whether you like it or not.
I will no install any app on my system that communicates with any other computer without my express consent and full control. I will not install any app on my system that sends any personal data to any computer for any reason without my express consent. I will not install any app on my system that will not work unless my information is sent and/or if it will not function unless I permit "automatic" upgrades without notification/warning/personal control.
Sorry Helix. When you remove the DRM, insecure automagic updating, and uncontrollable phone home nonsense from the player, THEN I might consider it for installation and use. Until then, one might as well give up control of their computer and install Windoze XP instead of linux.
Oops. The link for the presubmission should be:
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0109035
on the subject can be found in the New Scientist journal or...here:
http://www.sciforums.com/t5376/scd6aa1f3497a9a8949 43c2c19febdb24/thread.html
You can also possibly view the Mazur and Mottola submission (preprint) at:
http://www.arxiv.org/abs/grqc/0109035
A google search on gravistars turns up several sources that are perhaps better than the space.com readers digest article.
Now people, get a hold of yourselves. Most, if not ALL, of you are fully unqualified to poo-poo the idea just as you are unqualified to critique black hole "science". It is downright stupid to poo-poo the idea and hold the classic black hole idea as sacrosanct. No one. NO ONE has seen a black hole. They are ENTIRELY ghosts of the imagination INFERRED from observations that are wholly in accordance with the idea of gravistars OR black holes.
Claiming that the idea of gravistars requires too much "hand waving" ignores the fact (stone cold fact, that is) that the idea of a black hole itself requires an incredible amount of hand waving and eye covering to get past its very real problems.
The jury is still out on black holes. If another idea accounts for the same observations while at the same time avoiding the many problems that black holes create...well, it would end up being a better theory outright. The gravistar deserves a real chance to germinate and grow on its merits and math and must not be tossed out the door on the principal that it violates the holy black hole doctrine.
He seems quite happy to try to export US labour laws into China but I imagine there would be a bit of a cry from him if Europeans tried to export EU labour laws to the US
You wouldn't hear any cry from ME about exporting European labor law to the US. Their laws are BETTER than ours. Their workers better protected and have better conditions. I think that would be a smashing idea. As a matter of fact, I would like to see FRENCH labor laws become global laws. Shorter work week for EVERYONE. Happier lives from less stress and guaranteed time off. Sign us up!
The Romans NEVER developed a proper cavalry. Chariots were not really cavalry. The only cavalry, of sorts, that the Romans had were essentially hired - Celtic riders/mercenaries.
Romans on horseback didn't actually do much fighting on horseback. The horse was simply used as a transport device to get to a battle, where the rider dismounted to fight on the ground.
Chariots were somewhat more a mobile archer's or spearman's platform where a driver would haul the soldier to a battle point. In any case, a chariot doesn't really make a very good cavalry platform.
Instead of charging them face-on, I'd try to flank them/come around from behind. It was a rather shallow oliphant line.
If you had archers, they could act as snipers and take out the single oliphant drivers. Ah well, the Rohirrim had no archers, just swordsmen on horseback.
I loved the movie (just saw it last night) but I also just couldn't help but shake my head at the stupidity of the battle management. An army made up ENTIRELY of cavalry? Or an army made up entirely of foot soldiers? Crap armies, say I.
The huge cavalry charge by the Rohirrim at the big battle...breathtaking, and stupid. The DEPTH of the charge, hundreds of horses deep. LOGJAM! As soon as the first row or two of horses/riders go down you have a mountain of bodies upon which to jam up with the following riders.
As for an entire army made up of foot soldiers, and no cavalry at all...this is essentially the great weakness of the Roman army. The Romans loved horses and horse racing, yet they NEVER developed a cavalry. Throughout their entire military history the Romans NEVER learned from their opponents and NEVER modified their military tactics. Early on, they got their asses handed to them about as often as they did the handing. The ONLY reason they did as well as they did later on was because they never came upon an army that was better organized or designed (The Gauls and the like were poor armies overall. They fought en mass but still largely as many individuals, never developing the discipline and control of the Roman armies). The Romans ultimately fell to Teutons and Goths, and the like, who DID use a good mix of cavalry and footsoldier. A proper cavalry is an adjunct to the overall army, not the end in itself. The entire Rohan army/cavalry was a military disaster waiting to happen - in a real world.
Finally, that Gondor charge on the orc-held city...made me think of the French vs Henry V's army at Agincourt. A heavily armored army of (largely) mounted knights charging across a muddy field and UP a hill towards an army loaded with archers using the longbow. Disaster.
I'm not completely up on Midieval military tactics, so perhaps they were all terribly stupid in such matters, but...it would be nice to see some reasonable military strategy and tactics employed by Middle-Earth armies.
Have you READ the LOTR trilogy? Or any of the other side-books? In the world of Middle-Earth, etc, magic isn't something simply and easily conjured up (like it is in some roll-playing games) at a whim. It apparently takes/took a lot of preparation, concentration, effort. It didn't just fall out of a staff or finger tip whenever you needed it. I LIKED that about the whole LOTR story. It is simply too easy to make the magic simple and overuse it. Why have armies or soldiers at all when all you need is a wizard to sling magic fireballs or lightening at an enemy?
You seem to complain because magic didn't play a larger role in LOTRs. Be thankful. It makes for a better, more interesting story. Recall, if you will, the Knights of the Round Table and their great wizard Merlin. He was a Gandalf of sorts, a very powerful wizard, yet he didn't bring forth constant walls of flame, fireballs, lightening, etc, and thus make himself the equivalent to an entire army. He (apparently) had to ration his magic and it took energy to wield it. Better story that way.
If it is so easy, then it merely becomes a child's game/story...like so many computer role playing games.
Balderdash. I am rural but I was born in suburban Topeka, Kansas. If I lived or grew up in New York but then moved and lived (and preferred) the country, then I am not a "city slicker", I am rural. When one moves into a new environ and adapts to that environ, you become OF that environ every bit as much as someone born there. Rural doesn't automatically mean "gun-loving" or "god fearing" or "farmer" or "poor", etc.
Now, I don't know if Dean actually lives/makes his home with his family in a country/rural setting. His wife having just enough patients to know them all personally suggests it is possible without me looking...but be that what it may. Being born or reared in a city (or in the country) and then making your home in the opposite environ makes you of that new environ. You are NOT always a city-slicker, nor hayseed simply because you were born in either locale.
Bzzt! Sorry, but I doubt a dead person will ever show up for an e-vote. The paper printout for use as a hard, long-term copy/record is secure. As secure as e-voting can possibly get.
If a "dead" person can vote via punch card ballot or any other paper type ballot, they can certainly vote just as well on an e-voting machine. You must actually USE the e-voting machine to get the printout.
You don't keep the receipt. The receipt is there for you to verify that what you thought you were voting for is what the machine tallied (or at least printed out). After you verify that the printout is correct, it is deposited in a secure box and held as a record. If a recount is called for (either random check or a full recount in contested election) then the secured box with the receipts in it is used for the final tally.
You don't get to keep the receipt, thus you don't get to be punished for your vote by evil husband or whatnot.
Eh? We KNOW who Darth Vader is from episode I. EVERYONE knows who DV is...it is told in the original movies. Sheesh.
There is no possibility of suspense on that score. Done deal. All that can be done is make more or less hystrionics on HOW Anakin is DV-ized. But knowing Lucas' ham-handedness with storyline, it will be as cartoonish as Ep I and II.
All I want to see is Natalie Portman nekkid.
from that kook, Erik Von Daniken of Ancient Astronauts fame? In one of his interpretations of a Mayan carven rock image, he sees an astronaut in a reclined position operating instruments. Outside the "vehicle" he sees a rocket plume, etc. The thing is, and I always wondered about the possibility of this working, he produced an "engineered" drawing of the "spacecraft" and added annotations. One of them indicated a magnetic shield around the spacecraft.
Since way back when Ancient Astronauts was new and I saw that drawing, I have wondered about that idea. Could you not generate a magnetic field around your spacecraft so as to deflect charged high speed particles? You could also use water shielding. Water tanks could be placed to completely encircle the crew compartment(s)/living quarters and act as shielding as well. So...what about combining an artificial ship's magnetic field and water shielding?
Besides the huge latency and extortionate price (mentioned in my other post to this thread) there is also that nice weather blackout behavior.
I always know when a nice storm is about to hit my immediate area when I'm watching directtv. The screen starts pixellizing and gapping. Then there is the blanking of the screen and the message "searching for signal". Then the rain or snow starts pelting the house. It gives me about a 10 minute warning EVERY time. Real handy, except for television and/or internet service.
Hah! Satellite. Yeah, right, satellite. HUGE latencies, high price. I'd rather stick with 56k modem than pay $70+/per month just for the internet connection via satellite.
If they charged ~$20-30/month and I didn't want to be able to play networked games, then satellite would be fine. If you have more money than sense and don't do anything but browse and email then satellite is fine.
Australia is large, geographically, but they are in no way large demographically. Australia doesn't have the population numbers, nor the broad population density, of the USA. Thus, while Australia can perhaps easily dish out freqs to ISPs and whatnot, that is not the case in the USA where anywhere you go there are people and the frequencies are pretty much used up no matter where you go.
Really? How about the command "play"? It is not a gui app, it is a sound app for CLI and it is available whether you are running a GUI desktop or not. You do not need X to use play.
You thus declare that anyone using play from the CLI/non-X interface is invalid use of the system and they MUST use a gui desktop and X to play sounds? There are also other CLI apps for sound that are not in any way tied to X or any desktop. They are not invalid apps if not used in a GUI desktop.
Yes...but I think that happens anyway. Accident rate of cell phone users (while driving) is roughly equivalent to that of alcohol-addeled drivers. Unfortunately, the likelihood of them simply driving off a cliff is infinitisimal vs the likelihood of them striking another motorist/pedestrian.
The problem isn't your sex toy person, whomever, who is on call. The problem are the vast bulk of others who take/make calls anywhere and everywhere irrespective of how rude it is. I have known medical doctors and I myself have been on call. Not a single medical doctor (nor myself) takes or makes calls in theaters or at the dinner table in nice dinning establishments. As a matter of fact, at several universities I have been at and attended a play, they TAKE all cell phones and pagers at the door unless the person is a medical person. Such people are required (usually they don't need to be told) to place their pager or phone on vibrate. They also don't need to be told to leave the room and make their calls elsewhere. This is not the case with the general public.
The general rude populace leaves their phone on ring, takes their calls in the middle of movies or plays (when allowed to keep their toy). Such people need to be either A) killed; or B) stopped. They have no excuse for rudeness under any circumstance.
Not a backpedal, just an adjustment based on what I decided was a valid concern: a DOCTOR or similar needed to be able to receive messages. This can be done without screwing others around him/her. This can be done by even allowing candyassed rude polesmokers that constantly and pointlessly use their cell phones anywhere and everywhere without regards to how rude and obnoxious it is.
Even such idiots can still receive their precious inane phone calls...they just can't take them in certain areas. They can look at their beeper (there precious cell phone) and decide if it is important enough to warrant leaving the theater or their table and actually return the call. No problem. Doctors and other people with valid reason to NEED to receive calls still do while others who are just fools, idiots, and dorks, get to receive their messages too - they just can't be complete fools, idiots, and dorks by taking the call and blathering on and on right there and then. Better for eveyone.
As I think about it, and in order to get past you inconsiderati moronics that think you be important and just HAVE to yak on your cell phones in everyone else's face... In order to still allow IMPORTANT calls to get by, I suggest a design change, both to the phones and to the jammer.
In theaters, restaurants (say, sit-down dining establishments, no McDs and the like), libraries, etc, a "jammer" be placed. This jammer doesn't really "jam" the phone, but changes the phone into a vibrating pager and prevents it from being switched back into a cell phone within the range of the "jammer". Thus, a "doctor" in a theater still gets to receive (silently) "important" phonecalls but still be unable to disturb, like the typical rude, cell phone-using bastards you all are, eveyone around you.
There, no more complaints. This is a true solution because there is NO phone call that just HAS to be taken IN THE THEATER or in the nice restaurant right then and there. You can get up, walk to a semi-private location where you can spout inane dribble to your heart's content.
Between procmail and spamassassin, I don't see that stuff anymore. It is sent directly to /dev/null without ever having to first pass by my eyes.
Just produce a whitelist so that any idiot friend/family member can still send you those great viagra or erection jokes.
Depends. The math strongly favors the hdd over the burner if the backups you refer to are system backups (rather than movie backups, etc). You OVERWRITE your last backup with the most recent. One hdd is all that is needed for this.
I will most definitively be buying one of these things. No more rude bastards in restaurants or theaters. You can ALL thank me.
Then perhaps they shouldn't be in the theater. What kind of monster is it that is expecting some important call about some life threatening situation...and still goes to the theater and insists on ruining the experience for everyone else?
Amazing...how we all got by in life VERY WELL without cell phones. People, they are NOT essentially, they are nothing more than a dispensible luxury item. As such, theaters, restaurants, play houses, and classrooms are not acceptable places to be using them. End of story.