Having lived in the US from the mid 90s until 2002, I can tell you for certain the worst adverts are from car dealers. They are all uniformly loud and obnoxious, and involve the owner of the dealership SHOUTING his message, followed by slogans like "Prices driven down" in a loud echoy voice. They are truly appalling. Mind you, the corporate ads by car companies in the US aren't much better than the dealership ones - mostly, they are corny, and over-rely on country and western music (especially pick up truck ads). There is NOTHING that comes even close to the Honda Civic choir ad on US television. Nothing.
The most telling thing: In the US, the Simpson's takes a half hour slot. When the Simpsons was on BBC2, they fit two episodes in a half hour slot.
Typical US advertising for a half hour program goes:
Ads Intro credits Ads Programme first half Ads Programme second half Ads Ending credits Ads
Typical UK advertising on a half hour slot:
Ads Intro credits Programme first half Ads Programme second half Ending credits Ads
Generally, the ad breaks are shorter, too. When I lived in the US, I practically gave up watching TV because the advertising was so frequent, invasive - and especially car adverts - loud and obnoxious.
Most commercials in the UK are utter shite. However, unlike in the US (where ALL commercials are utter shite - I lived in Houston for 7 years, so yes - I've seen them), there are the gems that make you stop fast forwarding the video - or stop you channel surfing.
Indeed - it's on YouTube too (get it before the DMCA does) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s22N8ZLPEaY - although it's not as effective as a poor quality YouTube video. It's fantastic on a hi-fi stereo system like I have hooked up to my satellite receiver.
They have plenty of new music (new music appears all the time). If by mainstream, you mean the big labels - then not much, because big labels don't allow music to be sold online without DRM. However, if you're willing to not just listen to what you hear on ClearChannel, exploring eMusic is very rewarding - each month when I get my new download allocation, I go exploring for new stuff. Not just what ClearChannel want to play over and over again. If I want that stuff I can always mail order it off Amazon on a DRM-free (hopefully) CD.
Since getting an eMusic subscription about 6 months ago, I've probably found more music I genuinely like than in the preceeding 10 years. I've explored genres of music that I never would without the downloads working out to be incredibly cheap (less than 1/4 the price of iTunes). It's worth taking the risk of downloading something and finding out perhaps later that it never really was your thing at that price.
If all you want is mainstream chart music, it's not for you. But if you just want music that's good and you don't particularly care whether it gets played on the radio, then it's a very good service. My only complaint is that the samples are only 20 seconds - quite a bit of music needs a longer sampler than that (especially tracks that are long).
The current models suggest that the decrease in the Atlantic currents that bring warm air to the UK will be more than offset by global warming, certainly over the next 100 years. Unfortunately I can't find the original article (it was something published this year by the UK Met. Office). The precis is that the worst case is that the Atlantic ocean circulation may decrease by 20% over the next 100 years, and the cooling this will bring will be less than the expected effect of global warming.
A lot of academics are completely missing the point about an encyclopaedia. It doesn't matter whether it's a sober tome like Britannica, or something with a less formal structure such as Wikipedia - NO encyclopaedia should be cited in an academic work, whether it's a first year student paper or a Ph.D thesis. An encyclopaedia is a repository of general knowledge, not research - it should be used as a _starting point_ only in your line of enquiry.
Wikipedia as a whole is no better or worse than the Internet as a whole. Generally, I find it very useful because there are style guidelines, there is a consistent layout, and it makes a good starting point on most subjects which would otherwise be hours of frustrating searching to get going on. To take recent hobby projects as an example, although Wikipedia might not turn me into an electrical engineer, it still gave me a good enough starting point that I could build a switch mode power supply to make 170 volts from 12 volts. It's often my first port of call to find out what I need to do next for my hobby electronics point. Not the ending point, or the absolute fount of all knowledge - but a very useful starting point which is far easier to use than, say, Britannica, and covers far more subject matter.
Try eMusic. No DRM, and it's actually LEGAL. They have pretty much every genre - but probably just not what the ClearChannel radio stations play to death (which is a good thing).
I doubt they pay 50% tax on all their income. I suspect the taxation system is progressive in Italy - i.e. you pay no tax at all on the first $X,000, a lower rate of tax on $X000 - $Y0,000 and perhaps some further steps until you get to the top rate of $Z0,000. You're only being taxed at the high rate on earnings above $Z0,000 - not on your entire income. So if you actually calculate the rate you pay on your entire income, you may find it comes out at about 30% even though you earn in the top tax bracket. This is before claiming deductions (such as mortgage/loan interest tax relief, if Italy has those things).
But then again you take your choices. I sort of like having 30 days of vacation - I work to live, not live to work. If you can move country it's a choice you can make rather than being lumped with a pathetic 10 days.
The article doesn't make this clear: Amazon could have come to IBM first, claiming IBM was infringing on one of their patents. IBM is generally not known as a patent troll - however, Amazon have a long running track record of this kind of thing. If Amazon did try and get money out of IBM for infringing one of their patents, that was a very foolhardy thing to do.
Obsoleting CFCs (not just Freon) has helped, but it will take decades - CFCs linger for an awfully long time, depleting ozone for an awfully long time.
You may like emusic - no DRM, plain MP3s. It's not a piracy site. They don't sell much top 40 stuff (i.e. big record label stuff) but they have pretty much every genre covered. In the 6 months I've had an account with emusic, I have obtained more new music than I have in the previous decade.
Life doesn't reduce net entropy - it increases it. It only appears to reduce entropy if you only consider the Earth (and then only an incomplete consideration) and ignore the rest of the universe.
Recent below average temperatures? 2006 has been the hottest year on record in Britain - records beginning in the 1600s (the south of England reaching temperatures normally reserved for subtropical areas - around 35 celcius). Autumn is currently unseasonably warm. Although it's turned to typical autumn wetness, temperatures are more in line with mid summer - pushing 19 or 20 celcius.
American football can hardly be called football - the ball is hardly ever in contact with the foot. Football (soccer) on the other hand is all about foot contact with the ball. American Football should really be called American Rugby, since that's the game it really resembles and probably is derived from.
Free energy would hurt the economy by eliminating a huge market segment, leading to reduced GDP, increased unemployment, and a slew of other effects associated with completely killing off a significant part of the economy.
No it wouldn't - energy users who now no longer have to pay huge energy costs would be able to do more without the "energy tax", and would therefore employ more people. You could quite easily argue the other way that free energy would create more jobs than it would destroy in the energy industry, therefore having a net benefit to the economy.
No, you don't need to kill yourself - merely have no children. Telling someone who thinks population reduction is a good idea to kill themselves IS trolling - sorry.
On a point of pedantry, there isn't really a lack of pirates - piracy on the high seas is a serious problem. Although the pirates now carry automatic weapons instead of cutlasses.
That said, presumably the GPU has its own instruction set architecture, and much of the driver will consist of GPU instructions that need to be sent to the card. How do you disassemble an undocumented, secret instruction set architecture?
Slashdot Mirror
I have to ask - is this Slashdot Anti-Wikipedia day? There have been three anti-Wikipedia articles in the last 24 hours or so.
Having lived in the US from the mid 90s until 2002, I can tell you for certain the worst adverts are from car dealers. They are all uniformly loud and obnoxious, and involve the owner of the dealership SHOUTING his message, followed by slogans like "Prices driven down" in a loud echoy voice. They are truly appalling. Mind you, the corporate ads by car companies in the US aren't much better than the dealership ones - mostly, they are corny, and over-rely on country and western music (especially pick up truck ads). There is NOTHING that comes even close to the Honda Civic choir ad on US television. Nothing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s22N8ZLPEaY - the full 2 minute ad that Honda ran in the UK.
The most telling thing: In the US, the Simpson's takes a half hour slot. When the Simpsons was on BBC2, they fit two episodes in a half hour slot.
Typical US advertising for a half hour program goes:
Ads
Intro credits
Ads
Programme first half
Ads
Programme second half
Ads
Ending credits
Ads
Typical UK advertising on a half hour slot:
Ads
Intro credits
Programme first half
Ads
Programme second half
Ending credits
Ads
Generally, the ad breaks are shorter, too. When I lived in the US, I practically gave up watching TV because the advertising was so frequent, invasive - and especially car adverts - loud and obnoxious.
Most commercials in the UK are utter shite. However, unlike in the US (where ALL commercials are utter shite - I lived in Houston for 7 years, so yes - I've seen them), there are the gems that make you stop fast forwarding the video - or stop you channel surfing.
- choir.html .
Take for example the contrast between car ads in the US - where they are almost uniformly loud, in your face, and obnoxious - with a recent Honda Civic ad in the UK: http://tvadverts.blogspot.com/2006/01/honda-civic
Indeed - it's on YouTube too (get it before the DMCA does) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s22N8ZLPEaY - although it's not as effective as a poor quality YouTube video. It's fantastic on a hi-fi stereo system like I have hooked up to my satellite receiver.
They have plenty of new music (new music appears all the time). If by mainstream, you mean the big labels - then not much, because big labels don't allow music to be sold online without DRM. However, if you're willing to not just listen to what you hear on ClearChannel, exploring eMusic is very rewarding - each month when I get my new download allocation, I go exploring for new stuff. Not just what ClearChannel want to play over and over again. If I want that stuff I can always mail order it off Amazon on a DRM-free (hopefully) CD.
Since getting an eMusic subscription about 6 months ago, I've probably found more music I genuinely like than in the preceeding 10 years. I've explored genres of music that I never would without the downloads working out to be incredibly cheap (less than 1/4 the price of iTunes). It's worth taking the risk of downloading something and finding out perhaps later that it never really was your thing at that price.
If all you want is mainstream chart music, it's not for you. But if you just want music that's good and you don't particularly care whether it gets played on the radio, then it's a very good service. My only complaint is that the samples are only 20 seconds - quite a bit of music needs a longer sampler than that (especially tracks that are long).
The current models suggest that the decrease in the Atlantic currents that bring warm air to the UK will be more than offset by global warming, certainly over the next 100 years. Unfortunately I can't find the original article (it was something published this year by the UK Met. Office). The precis is that the worst case is that the Atlantic ocean circulation may decrease by 20% over the next 100 years, and the cooling this will bring will be less than the expected effect of global warming.
A lot of academics are completely missing the point about an encyclopaedia. It doesn't matter whether it's a sober tome like Britannica, or something with a less formal structure such as Wikipedia - NO encyclopaedia should be cited in an academic work, whether it's a first year student paper or a Ph.D thesis. An encyclopaedia is a repository of general knowledge, not research - it should be used as a _starting point_ only in your line of enquiry.
Wikipedia as a whole is no better or worse than the Internet as a whole. Generally, I find it very useful because there are style guidelines, there is a consistent layout, and it makes a good starting point on most subjects which would otherwise be hours of frustrating searching to get going on. To take recent hobby projects as an example, although Wikipedia might not turn me into an electrical engineer, it still gave me a good enough starting point that I could build a switch mode power supply to make 170 volts from 12 volts. It's often my first port of call to find out what I need to do next for my hobby electronics point. Not the ending point, or the absolute fount of all knowledge - but a very useful starting point which is far easier to use than, say, Britannica, and covers far more subject matter.
Try eMusic. No DRM, and it's actually LEGAL. They have pretty much every genre - but probably just not what the ClearChannel radio stations play to death (which is a good thing).
I doubt they pay 50% tax on all their income. I suspect the taxation system is progressive in Italy - i.e. you pay no tax at all on the first $X,000, a lower rate of tax on $X000 - $Y0,000 and perhaps some further steps until you get to the top rate of $Z0,000. You're only being taxed at the high rate on earnings above $Z0,000 - not on your entire income. So if you actually calculate the rate you pay on your entire income, you may find it comes out at about 30% even though you earn in the top tax bracket. This is before claiming deductions (such as mortgage/loan interest tax relief, if Italy has those things).
But then again you take your choices. I sort of like having 30 days of vacation - I work to live, not live to work. If you can move country it's a choice you can make rather than being lumped with a pathetic 10 days.
The article doesn't make this clear: Amazon could have come to IBM first, claiming IBM was infringing on one of their patents. IBM is generally not known as a patent troll - however, Amazon have a long running track record of this kind of thing. If Amazon did try and get money out of IBM for infringing one of their patents, that was a very foolhardy thing to do.
It's a binary file that contains functions for programs to call of course!
Frontier Elite:2 wasn't bad at all if you can grok 'realistic' space physics. It still had more bugs than it should have, though.
I think some PICs also have internal oscillators - not that I've yet built anything that uses a uC (but I've been looking around for my next project).
Obsoleting CFCs (not just Freon) has helped, but it will take decades - CFCs linger for an awfully long time, depleting ozone for an awfully long time.
You may like emusic - no DRM, plain MP3s. It's not a piracy site. They don't sell much top 40 stuff (i.e. big record label stuff) but they have pretty much every genre covered. In the 6 months I've had an account with emusic, I have obtained more new music than I have in the previous decade.
Life doesn't reduce net entropy - it increases it. It only appears to reduce entropy if you only consider the Earth (and then only an incomplete consideration) and ignore the rest of the universe.
Nah, we had crap (pardon the pun) recycling back then. Horse shit makes excellent garden fertilizer!
Recent below average temperatures? 2006 has been the hottest year on record in Britain - records beginning in the 1600s (the south of England reaching temperatures normally reserved for subtropical areas - around 35 celcius). Autumn is currently unseasonably warm. Although it's turned to typical autumn wetness, temperatures are more in line with mid summer - pushing 19 or 20 celcius.
American football can hardly be called football - the ball is hardly ever in contact with the foot. Football (soccer) on the other hand is all about foot contact with the ball. American Football should really be called American Rugby, since that's the game it really resembles and probably is derived from.
But then the lobbies will form anti anti lobby lobby groups!
No it wouldn't - energy users who now no longer have to pay huge energy costs would be able to do more without the "energy tax", and would therefore employ more people. You could quite easily argue the other way that free energy would create more jobs than it would destroy in the energy industry, therefore having a net benefit to the economy.
No, you don't need to kill yourself - merely have no children. Telling someone who thinks population reduction is a good idea to kill themselves IS trolling - sorry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulose_ethanol
No corn required. Not even fertilizer - just use weeds.
On a point of pedantry, there isn't really a lack of pirates - piracy on the high seas is a serious problem. Although the pirates now carry automatic weapons instead of cutlasses.
That said, presumably the GPU has its own instruction set architecture, and much of the driver will consist of GPU instructions that need to be sent to the card. How do you disassemble an undocumented, secret instruction set architecture?