I'm not saying he's Muslim. I'm saying that it won't matter when Republicans unleash a smear campaign on the guy! Here's how they could play it: 1. Show Indonesians burning US flags on the streets 2. Mention Obama's stepfather is from Indonesia where they fucking hate US and he spent quite a chunk of his childhood there. 3. Profit!
Remember, we're talking about a country which sincerely believes Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11 and had "nucular weapons".
The primary thing that decides the success or failure of a format is content available on it. There's only one HD-DVD exclusive studio (Universal). There are quite a few that are Blu-Ray only, including all of the Sony studios and Disney. There are rumors of Universal throwing in the towel on HD-DVD.
Besides, Blu Ray is a better format. 50 GB per disk allows for lower compression ratios and uncompressed multichannel sound. The only advantage HD-DVD has is the "extras" and "interactivity features". I don't know about you, but I don't give a shit about picture-in-picture that they push so heavily. I just want to watch the goddamn movie.
As if this wasn't enough, Blu Ray also enjoys much broader industry support, including Apple (which gives you a hint as to what Final Cut / DVD Studio types will be using) and Dell. PS3 is by far the best value on the market as far as 1080p players are concerned. The fact that it plays games as well is gravy. Xbox HD-DVD add-on has an abysmal attach rate, and even if it did have a better attach rate, Xbox doesn't support HDMI, so it's not an option for folks who want an entirely digital signal path.
That one was gone by the time Barack was 2 years old. Chances are, the guy doesn't remember him at all. His stepfather, though, was from Indonesia. 88% of Indonesia population is Muslim.
He's not white though. There are only 12.9% of black people in this country (according to CIA factbook), and a lot of the rest just try to hide their prejudices while they're at work. Educated people tend to underestimate the scope of this phenomenon because a lot of the people they communicate with either aren't racist or hide it really well. This guy will get slaughtered in southern states in particular, no matter how much of a bible thumper he is.
My point is, Dems can't afford to fuck this up one more time. They need a charismatic candidate electable by majority, including disillusioned conservatives. Not a woman, not a racial minority candidate. Just a well spoken, smart, white male with a somewhat decent reputation that could appeal to fence-sitting moderate conservatives. They have to stop pretending that stereotypes and prejudices don't exist. In fifty years that might be the case. It is not the case now.
This country is not yet ready for a black prez, particularly the one whose father is from a predominantly Muslim country and who has the last name that rhymes with Osama. If he goes on ballot, Republicans will win again by unleashing a horrific misinformation campaign right before the election. Sadly, in order to win presidency in this country one needs to be a white, Christian-god-fearing male. I'd love to be wrong about this, though.
And here's how this works, folks. They go to Eastern Europe and elsewhere and hire cream of the crop to entry level positions. You see, Microsoft has a system of "levels" according to which salaries and benefits are allocated. Typical starting level is 59. You can hire an average US college grad to that level (good ones go to Google these days), or you can go to, say, Moscow and hire a highly qualified, top notch software engineer with a few years of experience who has no opportunity to interview with Google first and whose negotiation skills equate to those of a squirrel. Who would you rather hire for your $70K? And you can keep L59 foreigner at 59 for much longer than a native, because his H1B process will only _start_ a year after he begins his employment and will take a few years (6 years and counting for some folks), during which moves are risky.
Now the thing is, both US college grad and experienced H1-B will be at the same starting level and will be paid the same wage. This DOES NOT mean they'll be doing the same job. There's a shortage of experienced folks, so the guy with experience will be doing things that require experience, when college grad will be doing something else. H1-B is therefore paid below the market wage for what he's doing (but not for his level). This, coupled with slower promotion rate puts him at a huge disadvantage. Given that promotion velocity is capped no matter how hard you bust your ass, you may never reach higher levels because you started lower and were promoted slower.
This is fully within the constraints of law, and not everyone ends up like this. I was in this situation and so were many of my H1-B coworkers.
Apple Mail has recently switched to using *.emlx files as opposed to mbox to make emails easier to index using Spotlight. So Microsoft stole that feature, too.
You have to have worked at Microsoft to understand this. Here's the most likely scenario that led to this departure. J Allard wanted it all to himself. So how does one with a strategic sense play this game? That's right, put out a so-so device and blame its failure on marketing. When it fails to sell, fire the head of marketing and take over. Pretty good, eh? This is not to say that v2 will be any better (honestly, I'll take a miracle to eclipse the iPhone and the upcoming full-screen iPod), but by then hopefully Xbox will be in the black and J Allard will be un-fireable no matter how badly he screws up.
I bought PS3 specifically for Blu Ray. There aren't any games for it that I'd want to play yet, so I bought it because it was a relatively cheap, high quality DVD/Blu Ray player with HDMI output (Xbox is component only, so disks that require HDCP won't play in it). Now wait until it actually gets some games that will make it worth purchasing by gamers. Once that happens, you will see another spike in sales. It's a double whammy of sorts. Currently a lot of folks are buying it for Blu Ray. These folks will buy games later on because thing also plays games. OTOH folks who will buy it for games will buy Blu Ray disks as well because what the heck, if it plays them - why not?
It also helps that Blu Ray has greater studio and industry support. The only studio that's HD-DVD exclusive is Universal. There are quite a few studios (including those owned by Sony) that are exclusive to Blu Ray. And lastly, Apple and Dell are Blu-Ray only. Need I say more.
Google personalized page loads in 1 second. Yahoo takes about the same, maybe a bit longer but is harder to use due to visually noisy design. Windows Live personalized page takes 6 seconds. Net Vibes takes even longer.
Anyone who says that "Vista UI is beautiful" should be automatically banned from commenting on the subject because they (like Microsoft) have no taste. Personally, I find Vista UI horrific, transparency notwithstanding. Office 2007 has what I'd call beautiful UI.
Is it the same guy who didn't see Internet coming? Are we talking about the same bill Gates that didn't see the iPod taking over the DAP market? The same one who didn't see Search and online services becoming important?
Wny TF would anyone even listen to this guy anymore?
What he did crack is one software based player. There's now a difference. Key holders will now revoke the keys for that particular player, so it won't play newer movies anymore. There's no crack yet that would defeat the entire protection scheme.
As long as it doesn't violate GPL (and it does not), I'm fine with Google not releasing their stuff to the masses. Nearly every big Linux shop has their own tweaked version of Linux kernel, so it's not like they're evil or something.
Take this from this satisfied Google Checkout customer - I bought more shit this Christmas season than I did in two previous combined. Why? Because of two things - Checkout promo gave me $10 off $30 and $20 off $50, and I didn't have to enter my fucking credit card info again and again. Now that promotion is over, I prefer stores that have Checkout as a payment option and if price is not drastically higher, buy my stuff there. I hate "creating accounts" in stores and trying to recall what the password was two months down the road when shopping there again. Google Checkout also has hands down the most convenient UI and most readable emails. As an added bonus, merchant DOES NOT HAVE your email, so they can't spam you. Try it, it's a great service.
Folks at near-VP level get $1M a year in just stock grants. That's not your daddy's options, real stock is given to these folks. Sure it vests over 5 year period, but you get a ton of it every year. I think he'll be one of those rest-and-vest types. Which is perfectly fine by Microsoft if that's the price to pay to decapitate a competitor. There are exceptions to this rule, though, most notably Anders Hejlsberg. But back when he joined there weren't any $1M a year stock payouts, and to be fair, he's worth it.
Blu-Ray movies (a first batch of them, anyway) are so large because they're encoded in MPEG-2, which is an inferior format in terms of compression and image quality, but allows them to fill the disk to the brim. Once they move away from that, most movies will not even take up a single layer and none will need more than two layers (5.4 hours of HD playback). Given that 3 layer disks are a possibility, there's quite a bit of safety margin there as well.
The war is already won by HD-DVD, for three reasons: 1. It's cheaper to produce 2. There's porn on it 3. Higher capacities don't matter for H.264/VC-1 encoded content
These map very closely to VHS vs Betamax war: 1. VHS was cheaper to product 2. There was porn on it 3. Higher image quality didn't matter much
Except #3 is not even about image quality this time around. Image quality is identical between two standards, they use the same codecs at the same bitrates.
If it's RedHat, I'd rather he didn't patent this. I trust good ol Alan. I don't trust a corporate entity. Their interests change. If, say, five years from now IBM buys RH, we may very well see this patent enforced.
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Don't these people get a cut from each DVD burner and disk sold in Canada? WTF are they complaining about then?
A lot of TV sets don't support HDCP. So the studios are reluctant to screw the early adopters.
I'm assuming you don't want Casino Royale or any of the Pixar stuff? 'cause you aren't getting them on HD-DVD.
And yes, HDMI is fully digital path. There's even encryption support in it (even though it's not on right now).
I'm not saying he's Muslim. I'm saying that it won't matter when Republicans unleash a smear campaign on the guy! Here's how they could play it:
1. Show Indonesians burning US flags on the streets
2. Mention Obama's stepfather is from Indonesia where they fucking hate US and he spent quite a chunk of his childhood there.
3. Profit!
Remember, we're talking about a country which sincerely believes Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11 and had "nucular weapons".
The primary thing that decides the success or failure of a format is content available on it. There's only one HD-DVD exclusive studio (Universal). There are quite a few that are Blu-Ray only, including all of the Sony studios and Disney. There are rumors of Universal throwing in the towel on HD-DVD.
Besides, Blu Ray is a better format. 50 GB per disk allows for lower compression ratios and uncompressed multichannel sound. The only advantage HD-DVD has is the "extras" and "interactivity features". I don't know about you, but I don't give a shit about picture-in-picture that they push so heavily. I just want to watch the goddamn movie.
As if this wasn't enough, Blu Ray also enjoys much broader industry support, including Apple (which gives you a hint as to what Final Cut / DVD Studio types will be using) and Dell. PS3 is by far the best value on the market as far as 1080p players are concerned. The fact that it plays games as well is gravy. Xbox HD-DVD add-on has an abysmal attach rate, and even if it did have a better attach rate, Xbox doesn't support HDMI, so it's not an option for folks who want an entirely digital signal path.
So there you have it.
That one was gone by the time Barack was 2 years old. Chances are, the guy doesn't remember him at all. His stepfather, though, was from Indonesia. 88% of Indonesia population is Muslim.
He's not white though. There are only 12.9% of black people in this country (according to CIA factbook), and a lot of the rest just try to hide their prejudices while they're at work. Educated people tend to underestimate the scope of this phenomenon because a lot of the people they communicate with either aren't racist or hide it really well. This guy will get slaughtered in southern states in particular, no matter how much of a bible thumper he is.
My point is, Dems can't afford to fuck this up one more time. They need a charismatic candidate electable by majority, including disillusioned conservatives. Not a woman, not a racial minority candidate. Just a well spoken, smart, white male with a somewhat decent reputation that could appeal to fence-sitting moderate conservatives. They have to stop pretending that stereotypes and prejudices don't exist. In fifty years that might be the case. It is not the case now.
This country is not yet ready for a black prez, particularly the one whose father is from a predominantly Muslim country and who has the last name that rhymes with Osama. If he goes on ballot, Republicans will win again by unleashing a horrific misinformation campaign right before the election. Sadly, in order to win presidency in this country one needs to be a white, Christian-god-fearing male. I'd love to be wrong about this, though.
And here's how this works, folks. They go to Eastern Europe and elsewhere and hire cream of the crop to entry level positions. You see, Microsoft has a system of "levels" according to which salaries and benefits are allocated. Typical starting level is 59. You can hire an average US college grad to that level (good ones go to Google these days), or you can go to, say, Moscow and hire a highly qualified, top notch software engineer with a few years of experience who has no opportunity to interview with Google first and whose negotiation skills equate to those of a squirrel. Who would you rather hire for your $70K? And you can keep L59 foreigner at 59 for much longer than a native, because his H1B process will only _start_ a year after he begins his employment and will take a few years (6 years and counting for some folks), during which moves are risky.
Now the thing is, both US college grad and experienced H1-B will be at the same starting level and will be paid the same wage. This DOES NOT mean they'll be doing the same job. There's a shortage of experienced folks, so the guy with experience will be doing things that require experience, when college grad will be doing something else. H1-B is therefore paid below the market wage for what he's doing (but not for his level). This, coupled with slower promotion rate puts him at a huge disadvantage. Given that promotion velocity is capped no matter how hard you bust your ass, you may never reach higher levels because you started lower and were promoted slower.
This is fully within the constraints of law, and not everyone ends up like this. I was in this situation and so were many of my H1-B coworkers.
Apple Mail has recently switched to using *.emlx files as opposed to mbox to make emails easier to index using Spotlight. So Microsoft stole that feature, too.
You have to have worked at Microsoft to understand this. Here's the most likely scenario that led to this departure. J Allard wanted it all to himself. So how does one with a strategic sense play this game? That's right, put out a so-so device and blame its failure on marketing. When it fails to sell, fire the head of marketing and take over. Pretty good, eh? This is not to say that v2 will be any better (honestly, I'll take a miracle to eclipse the iPhone and the upcoming full-screen iPod), but by then hopefully Xbox will be in the black and J Allard will be un-fireable no matter how badly he screws up.
I bought PS3 specifically for Blu Ray. There aren't any games for it that I'd want to play yet, so I bought it because it was a relatively cheap, high quality DVD/Blu Ray player with HDMI output (Xbox is component only, so disks that require HDCP won't play in it). Now wait until it actually gets some games that will make it worth purchasing by gamers. Once that happens, you will see another spike in sales. It's a double whammy of sorts. Currently a lot of folks are buying it for Blu Ray. These folks will buy games later on because thing also plays games. OTOH folks who will buy it for games will buy Blu Ray disks as well because what the heck, if it plays them - why not?
It also helps that Blu Ray has greater studio and industry support. The only studio that's HD-DVD exclusive is Universal. There are quite a few studios (including those owned by Sony) that are exclusive to Blu Ray. And lastly, Apple and Dell are Blu-Ray only. Need I say more.
Google personalized page loads in 1 second. Yahoo takes about the same, maybe a bit longer but is harder to use due to visually noisy design. Windows Live personalized page takes 6 seconds. Net Vibes takes even longer.
The winner is Google, case closed.
Just call it Google GMail. Problem solved. No confusion whatsoever.
She was 14 in 2002.
Seriously.
Anyone who says that "Vista UI is beautiful" should be automatically banned from commenting on the subject because they (like Microsoft) have no taste. Personally, I find Vista UI horrific, transparency notwithstanding. Office 2007 has what I'd call beautiful UI.
Is it the same guy who didn't see Internet coming? Are we talking about the same bill Gates that didn't see the iPod taking over the DAP market? The same one who didn't see Search and online services becoming important?
Wny TF would anyone even listen to this guy anymore?
What he did crack is one software based player. There's now a difference. Key holders will now revoke the keys for that particular player, so it won't play newer movies anymore. There's no crack yet that would defeat the entire protection scheme.
As long as it doesn't violate GPL (and it does not), I'm fine with Google not releasing their stuff to the masses. Nearly every big Linux shop has their own tweaked version of Linux kernel, so it's not like they're evil or something.
Take this from this satisfied Google Checkout customer - I bought more shit this Christmas season than I did in two previous combined. Why? Because of two things - Checkout promo gave me $10 off $30 and $20 off $50, and I didn't have to enter my fucking credit card info again and again. Now that promotion is over, I prefer stores that have Checkout as a payment option and if price is not drastically higher, buy my stuff there. I hate "creating accounts" in stores and trying to recall what the password was two months down the road when shopping there again. Google Checkout also has hands down the most convenient UI and most readable emails. As an added bonus, merchant DOES NOT HAVE your email, so they can't spam you. Try it, it's a great service.
Folks at near-VP level get $1M a year in just stock grants. That's not your daddy's options, real stock is given to these folks. Sure it vests over 5 year period, but you get a ton of it every year. I think he'll be one of those rest-and-vest types. Which is perfectly fine by Microsoft if that's the price to pay to decapitate a competitor. There are exceptions to this rule, though, most notably Anders Hejlsberg. But back when he joined there weren't any $1M a year stock payouts, and to be fair, he's worth it.
Blu-Ray movies (a first batch of them, anyway) are so large because they're encoded in MPEG-2, which is an inferior format in terms of compression and image quality, but allows them to fill the disk to the brim. Once they move away from that, most movies will not even take up a single layer and none will need more than two layers (5.4 hours of HD playback). Given that 3 layer disks are a possibility, there's quite a bit of safety margin there as well.
The war is already won by HD-DVD, for three reasons:
1. It's cheaper to produce
2. There's porn on it
3. Higher capacities don't matter for H.264/VC-1 encoded content
These map very closely to VHS vs Betamax war:
1. VHS was cheaper to product
2. There was porn on it
3. Higher image quality didn't matter much
Except #3 is not even about image quality this time around. Image quality is identical between two standards, they use the same codecs at the same bitrates.
If it's RedHat, I'd rather he didn't patent this. I trust good ol Alan. I don't trust a corporate entity. Their interests change. If, say, five years from now IBM buys RH, we may very well see this patent enforced.