Aside from X10s ingenious marketing tactics, it appears that/. was getting paid to post puff stories on them a long time ago when X10 was starting out.
Anyone remember that? There were at least 5 stories within a short period of time descring what a cool geek toy the crappy cameras are, right along with links to purchase it. Everyone was pissed. No one had any proof that/. was shilling those stories to make extra $$$, but as far as I know, there was no denial either.
You claim that film is so superior, and that digital can't touch it. The problem is, you are just repeating an old catchphrase. While the statement may have been true in the early 90s, it is not true anymore.
Many magazines, newspapers, publications, etc use digital and I dare you all to open up your favorite magazine and distinguish digital from film.
I have a 20gig Archos Jukebox. It's a souped up mp3 player. In additition to storing and playing mp3s, the thing has a little LCD screen, and it plays MOVIES! Or it can output the signal to a TV.
Additionally, it has compact flash and SD adaptors, so you can download the pictures from your camera to the device. This is handy when travelling: you can empty your CF cards and browse photos on the Archos whenever you feel like.
Additional size is always a plus, but stats rarely tell the whole story.
Witold www.witold.org
Film is not dead/"resolution" is not everything
on
First HDTV Camcorder
·
· Score: 1
A $2000 digital camera will compete with a $100 walmart film camera. For your digital camera, you need to get high end lenses, because sensors are more sensitive and crappy lenses produce soft, poor quality images. That ads big $$$$. Not to mention all the other gadgets you need to purchase.
Manufacturers focus on "resulution," so they can stick a big pixel count on their box, but the quality of 5 "megapixels" customer grade cameras produce are laughable to most amateur photographers. Sharpness, speed, noise, color saturation and all the other things that culminate in a great photo are simply not present in most customer grade digi cameras, regardless of resolution. Pro cameras do a better job in these aspects, but they generally fall on their face to film.
If you want to shoot digital for magazines, or newspapers, you're looking at $5000 digital camera. That camera will produce images that your $500 film camera does. Oh yeah... guess which one will be worth sh*t in resale value in 2 years?
The point I'm trying to make is that digital is getting there, but it will be many years before an affordable digital camera produces film quality images.
If you want to see crooks running countries into the ground and getting themselves and their friends rich, Africa is a great place to go. Most of those African countries would've been much better staying colonies.
All of the rebates are sent to PO Boxes, so one can't mail it with reciept confirmation. The fulfillment house has an easy out of saying that they never recieved it, or didn't recieve it in time.
With rebates accounting for 1/3 of some product's cost, (hard drives come to mind) it's just not a risk I'm willing to take.
To get in shape, I bought myself a road bicycle and commuted to work 15 miles each way, every day. My morning ride served as my training ride, when I would ride as hard as I could, and my evening ride was optional. I either took the Metro home, or I would ride relatively easy.
After a few months of this, I was in awesome shape. I could eat anything, and eat as much as I wanted to (or drink as much as I wanted:) ), and this would have virtually no impact on my weight. In fact, I had to consciously eat more than I felt like just to maintain my weight and not get burned out during riding.
Riding at an average of 22mph on a bicycle for 15 every morning doesn't sound that great, but it's pretty fun, and you get used to it. On days when I wanted to challenge myself, I would run those 15 miles to work. I still can't belive it.
So what happened since then? Winter happened:( I put the bike away, and didn't get back into it since purchasing a motorcycle.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither
liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin, 1759
Witold
www.witold.org
This is relatively easy. To open an account, you need to submit your credit card and your information. Your credit card gets debited or credited with your loses and winnings. If you are identified as a cheater,
1) your account winnings are taken away, 2) you are fined a certain amount, and 3) your information is stored and you are banned from opening an account in the future
Under this system, you could still open accounts under your friends name/cc number, but most people will run out of people that are willing to share their credit card number pretty quickly, stopping that particular cheater permanently.
...out of city limits, you're more likely than not out of luck. Your PDA+camera+MMS+butler will be short on its cell phone feature, as it's GSM only.
For me, a cell phone is *most* important when I'm driving between cities or flying around. It's when I'm in the bunies and my car breaks down that I need my phone the most. IE. The developers of this phone, forgot TDMA,analog, or a secondary alternative!
If you have ever been ripped off or defrauded on ebay, you would look at this from a different perspective.
The last thing I want to do when someone defrauds me using ebay is jump through the many legal hoops to obtain a warrant.
As stated, this information can only be requested by law enforcement, and trust me, law enforcement officials don't get off of from violating your privacy and requesting it just for kicks. This is a welcome move that will help people that got screwed recover their money a little easier and a little faster. I, and many other ebayers, welcome the policy.
As a motorcycle rider, I would like to note that this doesn't apply to two-wheeled vehicles.
As a privacy advocate, I would like everyone to note how full of BS the guys who put up these cameras were when they said the CC cameras would only be used to prevent crime.
If you are wearing leathers, helmet and gear, then it's not really the fall that causes your injuries, as much as it is whatever object that eventually stops you from sliding down the pavement (tree, guardrail, car etc) If you look at some motorcycle races, you will see that the tracks have big runoff areas where racers can just slide to a stop from their 100mph crashes and usually get up and walk away!
The problem with the "airbag" is that it sticks out so much that you are unlikely to actually slide to a stop. Instead you will likely tumble down the street, and even though your torso may be protected, you can break plenty of other bones in the meantime.
The bag will help you when you eventually hit that guardrail, but by that point you may already have broken legs/arms...
Witold
Check out the link below for pics of my bike:) www.witold.org/bike/bike.php3
Please note that motorcycles already deliver fuel efficiency far more superior to fuel efficiency of cars.
For example, Harley-Davidson's Blast 492cc motorcycle gets 69mpg (city) and 73mpg (highway) and retails for $4,395. (source)
And that's the first bike I could find details on. There are bikes that are better.
Witold
www.witold.org
After reading this: "Not necessarily: for $5,000 I got everything that I wanted, plus I was able to add a bunch of outlets that I hadn't thought of at the last minute for free cause the subcontractor was a nice guy. Now I love that TV above Jacuzzi tub. "
I think I found the fatal flaw to designing and building your own house.
$100? Yeah, right. They probably:
-used a form letter,
-some pimply faced "user support" high schooler penned your reply,
-or, at best case scenario, they retain a lawer to take care of this stuff. The laywer gets paid regardless of the amount of work he does each month.
The service provided long distance in exchange for listening to an ad at the beginning of the call. 30 second ad gave you 2 minutes of long distance. I used the service often, and it came in very handy at payfones. According to their site they seem to be still running, but for the past month or so, I can't get through the number--at first it was disconnected, now it just rings forever. So it looks like they're gone.
Getting numbers to backup a claim is easy. The above article simply misses a logical point most 10 year olds would comprehend--if you can get something for free, why buy it?
SO... even if there's more records being sold, maybe they're not selling as much as they would have if people were not getting the same music for free. (You can't honestly say with a straight face that at least some people will download music now that they can instead of buying... can you?)
Despite some very fashist policies--you're supposed to use everything for "school-related" activites--that goes for email, web and high-speed connections--these rules are not actively enforced.
However, people DO get in trouble on regular basis. For example, they swear out their former g/f or b/f--who forwards the message to the appropriate office.
I assume this is the case for most other colleges as well. (Oh, yeah... Napster is gone too--though this may not be an issue for too much longer.)
How exactly did they operate the plant after the disaster. I thought the surrounding areas were evacuaded and till this day, you can't live there. So, did all of the people running the plantput on suits 10 miles before they got to the plant or what????
Think about it: how many govt employees work 70 hours/week? How many come into work on weekends? Not many that I know. I work in DC (not in govt, though) but I know plenty of govt workers. They do get paid less, but they sure don't have to work as hard. Beurocracy is a wonderful thing sometimes. They get job security, long vacations, plenty of holidays, great benefits, and work regular hours. They get paid less in base salary, but they have all these benefits to compensate them for it.
Slashdot Mirror
Aside from X10s ingenious marketing tactics, it appears that
Anyone remember that? There were at least 5 stories within a short period of time descring what a cool geek toy the crappy cameras are, right along with links to purchase it. Everyone was pissed. No one had any proof that
You claim that film is so superior, and that digital can't touch it. The problem is, you are just repeating an old catchphrase. While the statement may have been true in the early 90s, it is not true anymore.
Many magazines, newspapers, publications, etc use digital and I dare you all to open up your favorite magazine and distinguish digital from film.
Witold
Fuji S2 Pro. (6MP)
... who's annoyed that we hear about this a month after the event, and not a week before so that we could actually make plans to attend?
Witold
www.witold.org
I have a 20gig Archos Jukebox. It's a souped up mp3 player. In additition to storing and playing mp3s, the thing has a little LCD screen, and it plays MOVIES! Or it can output the signal to a TV.
Additionally, it has compact flash and SD adaptors, so you can download the pictures from your camera to the device. This is handy when travelling: you can empty your CF cards and browse photos on the Archos whenever you feel like.
Additional size is always a plus, but stats rarely tell the whole story.
Witold
www.witold.org
A $2000 digital camera will compete with a $100 walmart film camera. For your digital camera, you need to get high end lenses, because sensors are more sensitive and crappy lenses produce soft, poor quality images. That ads big $$$$. Not to mention all the other gadgets you need to purchase.
Manufacturers focus on "resulution," so they can stick a big pixel count on their box, but the quality of 5 "megapixels" customer grade cameras produce are laughable to most amateur photographers. Sharpness, speed, noise, color saturation and all the other things that culminate in a great photo are simply not present in most customer grade digi cameras, regardless of resolution. Pro cameras do a better job in these aspects, but they generally fall on their face to film.
If you want to shoot digital for magazines, or newspapers, you're looking at $5000 digital camera. That camera will produce images that your $500 film camera does. Oh yeah... guess which one will be worth sh*t in resale value in 2 years?
The point I'm trying to make is that digital is getting there, but it will be many years before an affordable digital camera produces film quality images.
Witold
www.witold.org
If you want to see crooks running countries into the ground and getting themselves and their friends rich, Africa is a great place to go. Most of those African countries would've been much better staying colonies.
Witold
www.witold.org
All of the rebates are sent to PO Boxes, so one can't mail it with reciept confirmation. The fulfillment house has an easy out of saying that they never recieved it, or didn't recieve it in time.
With rebates accounting for 1/3 of some product's cost, (hard drives come to mind) it's just not a risk I'm willing to take.
Witold
www.witold.org
You can zoom into prOn pictures!
'nuff said.
To get in shape, I bought myself a road bicycle and commuted to work 15 miles each way, every day. My morning ride served as my training ride, when I would ride as hard as I could, and my evening ride was optional. I either took the Metro home, or I would ride relatively easy.
After a few months of this, I was in awesome shape. I could eat anything, and eat as much as I wanted to (or drink as much as I wanted
Riding at an average of 22mph on a bicycle for 15 every morning doesn't sound that great, but it's pretty fun, and you get used to it. On days when I wanted to challenge myself, I would run those 15 miles to work. I still can't belive it.
So what happened since then? Winter happened
Witold
www.witold.org
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin, 1759 Witold www.witold.org
This is relatively easy. To open an account, you need to submit your credit card and your information. Your credit card gets debited or credited with your loses and winnings. If you are identified as a cheater,
1) your account winnings are taken away,
2) you are fined a certain amount, and
3) your information is stored and you are banned from opening an account in the future
Under this system, you could still open accounts under your friends name/cc number, but most people will run out of people that are willing to share their credit card number pretty quickly, stopping that particular cheater permanently.
Witold
www.witold.org
For me, a cell phone is *most* important when I'm driving between cities or flying around. It's when I'm in the bunies and my car breaks down that I need my phone the most. IE. The developers of this phone, forgot TDMA,analog, or a secondary alternative!
Witold
www.witold.org
To me, that's more important than the silly camera they put on there.
How good is the phone at picking up a signal?
Lastly, why in the world aren't there any GSM phones that have analog or digital as backup, given how scarce the GSM network is in the US?
Witold
www.witold.org
If you have ever been ripped off or defrauded on ebay, you would look at this from a different perspective.
The last thing I want to do when someone defrauds me using ebay is jump through the many legal hoops to obtain a warrant.
As stated, this information can only be requested by law enforcement, and trust me, law enforcement officials don't get off of from violating your privacy and requesting it just for kicks. This is a welcome move that will help people that got screwed recover their money a little easier and a little faster. I, and many other ebayers, welcome the policy.
Witold
www.witold.org
As a motorcycle rider, I would like to note that this doesn't apply to two-wheeled vehicles.
As a privacy advocate, I would like everyone to note how full of BS the guys who put up these cameras were when they said the CC cameras would only be used to prevent crime.
Witold
www.witold.org
I have a sportsbike, and here's my take on it:
:)
If you are wearing leathers, helmet and gear, then it's not really the fall that causes your injuries, as much as it is whatever object that eventually stops you from sliding down the pavement (tree, guardrail, car etc) If you look at some motorcycle races, you will see that the tracks have big runoff areas where racers can just slide to a stop from their 100mph crashes and usually get up and walk away!
The problem with the "airbag" is that it sticks out so much that you are unlikely to actually slide to a stop. Instead you will likely tumble down the street, and even though your torso may be protected, you can break plenty of other bones in the meantime.
The bag will help you when you eventually hit that guardrail, but by that point you may already have broken legs/arms...
Witold
Check out the link below for pics of my bike
www.witold.org/bike/bike.php3
Please note that motorcycles already deliver fuel efficiency far more superior to fuel efficiency of cars.
For example, Harley-Davidson's Blast 492cc motorcycle gets 69mpg (city) and 73mpg (highway) and retails for $4,395. (source)
And that's the first bike I could find details on. There are bikes that are better.
Witold
www.witold.org
This is how I do it:
I use Opera, which allows you to accept or block popups on the fly. It also allows you to enable/disable javascript on the fly...
Add a nice hosts file and you're set.
Witold
www.witold.org
After reading this:
"Not necessarily: for $5,000 I got everything that I wanted, plus I was able to add a bunch of outlets that I hadn't thought of at the last minute for free cause the subcontractor was a nice guy. Now I love that TV above Jacuzzi tub. "
I think I found the fatal flaw to designing and building your own house.
Witold
www.witold.org
$100? Yeah, right. They probably:
-used a form letter,
-some pimply faced "user support" high schooler penned your reply,
-or, at best case scenario, they retain a lawer to take care of this stuff. The laywer gets paid regardless of the amount of work he does each month.
Witold
www.witold.org
The service provided long distance in exchange for listening to an ad at the beginning of the call. 30 second ad gave you 2 minutes of long distance. I used the service often, and it came in very handy at payfones. According to their site they seem to be still running, but for the past month or so, I can't get through the number--at first it was disconnected, now it just rings forever. So it looks like they're gone.
Getting numbers to backup a claim is easy. The above article simply misses a logical point most 10 year olds would comprehend--if you can get something for free, why buy it?
SO... even if there's more records being sold, maybe they're not selling as much as they would have if people were not getting the same music for free. (You can't honestly say with a straight face that at least some people will download music now that they can instead of buying... can you?)
Despite some very fashist policies--you're supposed to use everything for "school-related" activites--that goes for email, web and high-speed connections--these rules are not actively enforced.
However, people DO get in trouble on regular basis. For example, they swear out their former g/f or b/f--who forwards the message to the appropriate office.
I assume this is the case for most other colleges as well. (Oh, yeah... Napster is gone too--though this may not be an issue for too much longer.)
How exactly did they operate the plant after the disaster. I thought the surrounding areas were evacuaded and till this day, you can't live there. So, did all of the people running the plantput on suits 10 miles before they got to the plant or what????
Think about it: how many govt employees work 70 hours/week? How many come into work on weekends? Not many that I know. I work in DC (not in govt, though) but I know plenty of govt workers. They do get paid less, but they sure don't have to work as hard. Beurocracy is a wonderful thing sometimes. They get job security, long vacations, plenty of holidays, great benefits, and work regular hours. They get paid less in base salary, but they have all these benefits to compensate them for it.