For many, paying for the on-demand movie is preferrable to making a trip to the video store. Especially when the price is the same.
Kinda.
I've used video-on-demand on my satellite box, but it isn't the same as going to Blockbuster. The satellite transmission is limited to Dolby Pro Logic sound at best (because that can be encoded into a stereo stream), so no Dolby Digital or DTS sound for you. Also, the movies are normally shown in the 4:3 aspect ratio. They have a couple of channels carrying widescreen versions, but the choice is far more limited. Oh, and the TV channels have less bandwidth to play with, so the overall quality suffers.
That's my experience with Sky in the UK, at least. I'll watch something on pay-per-view for the convenience of it, but if I really like it, I'll get it on DVD for the better quality picture and sound.
I *like* having CD and DVD racks stuff with discs. Shows me where a lot of my money is. I don't think I'd ever be happy having it all stored as licence keys on my PC.
Just checked them out. Man, that cameraman should be slapped upside the head and be told to use a tripod next time. The wavering video no doubt makes the beast looks far shakier than it really is.
John's explaining his new purchase, a Thermos Flask.
"What does it do?" asks Bill. "It keeps hot things hot, and cold things cold," replies John. "What have you put in there?" "2 cups of a coffee and an ice cream."
If the mirror was a perfect mirror, i.e. reflects 100% of the light, then I imagine the photons (treating light as a particle) would bounce around for all time. But of course that wouldn't happen.
Mirrors can't be 100% efficient, so light energy would be absorbed and the light would dim to nothing. If these mirrors were perfect, yet an observer was present, their eyes (and the surfaces of the observer) would eventually absorb every last photon, and therefore the light inside the ball would dim again...
I might be wrong, although it makes sense to me. Has this situation ever been simulated?
...I think whoever cracks this one is going to die richer than Bill Gates. The amount of pictures I'd take on a summer day's walk around town looking at the barely-dressed ladies would necessitate a 20Gb hard disk stuffed up my ass.:-)
(Of course, doing it with a camera behind some with sunglasses would be a good start.)
And I'm sure there'd be significant applications in the medical and military fields. I've been thinking how cool this would be for years...
I have the Hauppauge Win-TV PVR (PCI) and its on-board MPEG-2 encoder is shite. Definitely not worth the money I paid for it. I grab stuff in RGB24 (although after reading the Ars guide I'll be trying YUY2) and encode to DivX, although I can grab DivX in real-time if I want.
Good point. I had wondered where the whole 'virtual reality' thing had gone. Most of the games I played when it came out 8 or 9 years ago sucked, but with modern tech. surely we can create something decent.
Does anyone know of any modern virtual reality games out there?
She has a fan club, which you can find at www.wcat.com/ysfc - I'm the one responsible for it.
Hasn't been updated in forever, but people interested in her and her work will find lots of useful info. I've also included a 'diary' of the day I met her at the London Animation Art gallery a few years ago. It was nice to chat with her for a couple of minutes. Dunno if I'll ever get the opportunity again.
Cars are just metal boxes with a wheel at each corner
Ah, I guess you drive a Volvo.;-)
the only way to make them look better ir to put them throug a scrap yard and recycle the metal into something interesting.
Wow, I really picked a bad analogy, didn't I? You really seem to hate cars...
Same goes for beige box computers. Putting a hole in the side just gives you and ugly box with an ugly hole. What's the point?
Because it makes it look better, that's all. Also, why not?
Stick it under the desk or put a plant in front of it and use the effort/cash to do something which has some chance of atually improving something.
Would you decorate your house, seeing as it doesn't actually improve anything? Why bother with painting the walls, seeing as most of us only stare at the TV when we're at home, anyway? Man, we could take all our spare cash and effort and donate it to good causes if we really wanted to improve things, but I bet most of us don't do that, do they?
Re:A good question to ask with casemods is...
on
Indiglo Clock Case Mod
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
You may not be interested in a mod that doesn't improve the computer's performance, but surely you can see why people do this kind of thing? To make their box look cooler and more interesting than the standard beige box. I know every kid and his dog has a window and cold cathode lighting in their machine these days, but these people (myself included) are no 'worse' than people who decorate their cars with fluffy dice, bodykits, etc. They don't improve how the car runs, but (when properly done) can sure make it look better.
I'm windowing/lighting one of my old PC's 'cos it's going to be a backup machine/MP3 player in my living room, and when I'm done with it it'll definitely look better than a beige box in the corner of the room. Also, it gives me something to do 'cos I'm bored out of my mind at home.:-)
Bah! Who plays on-line with a modem these days? You don't stand a chance playing against the low-ping broadband lot. I gave up playing through my 56kbit a long time ago. If I could get broadband, I'd still be whuppin' ass.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Bastard!
Not work safe, AT ALL!
Kinda.
I've used video-on-demand on my satellite box, but it isn't the same as going to Blockbuster. The satellite transmission is limited to Dolby Pro Logic sound at best (because that can be encoded into a stereo stream), so no Dolby Digital or DTS sound for you. Also, the movies are normally shown in the 4:3 aspect ratio. They have a couple of channels carrying widescreen versions, but the choice is far more limited. Oh, and the TV channels have less bandwidth to play with, so the overall quality suffers.
That's my experience with Sky in the UK, at least. I'll watch something on pay-per-view for the convenience of it, but if I really like it, I'll get it on DVD for the better quality picture and sound.
I *like* having CD and DVD racks stuff with discs. Shows me where a lot of my money is. I don't think I'd ever be happy having it all stored as licence keys on my PC.
Just checked them out. Man, that cameraman should be slapped upside the head and be told to use a tripod next time. The wavering video no doubt makes the beast looks far shakier than it really is.
Other than that, it's pretty cool.
~S
This is a better one.
John's explaining his new purchase, a Thermos Flask.
"What does it do?" asks Bill.
"It keeps hot things hot, and cold things cold," replies John.
"What have you put in there?"
"2 cups of a coffee and an ice cream."
Yeah, but I only know one person in my school year that had one. Loads of people had Speccys, and there were quite a few C64's.
:-)
The Speccy ruled them all. Admit it.
Oh, and I used to love Crash and Your Sinclair.
If the mirror was a perfect mirror, i.e. reflects 100% of the light, then I imagine the photons (treating light as a particle) would bounce around for all time. But of course that wouldn't happen.
Mirrors can't be 100% efficient, so light energy would be absorbed and the light would dim to nothing. If these mirrors were perfect, yet an observer was present, their eyes (and the surfaces of the observer) would eventually absorb every last photon, and therefore the light inside the ball would dim again...
I might be wrong, although it makes sense to me. Has this situation ever been simulated?
Cheers,
Steve.
Real drivers know how fast they're going from the engine pitch and knowing what gear they're in...
Ah yes, but none of these people pertaining to have documented Jesus' existance posted pics, so how would you expect people to believe it? ;-)
Praise Bob!
...I think whoever cracks this one is going to die richer than Bill Gates. The amount of pictures I'd take on a summer day's walk around town looking at the barely-dressed ladies would necessitate a 20Gb hard disk stuffed up my ass. :-)
(Of course, doing it with a camera behind some with sunglasses would be a good start.)
And I'm sure there'd be significant applications in the medical and military fields. I've been thinking how cool this would be for years...
68K.
Agreed.
I have the Hauppauge Win-TV PVR (PCI) and its on-board MPEG-2 encoder is shite. Definitely not worth the money I paid for it. I grab stuff in RGB24 (although after reading the Ars guide I'll be trying YUY2) and encode to DivX, although I can grab DivX in real-time if I want.
Cheers,
Steve.
Good point. I had wondered where the whole 'virtual reality' thing had gone. Most of the games I played when it came out 8 or 9 years ago sucked, but with modern tech. surely we can create something decent.
Does anyone know of any modern virtual reality games out there?
I copied some text from the page into the synthesizer:
:-)
"Our recorded demos showcase the broadband versions of each voice"
"BroadBAAAAND".
"It's" is not just short for "it is," it's (jhar har) also short for "it has."
Let's see a PC made to fit inside a ZX Spectrum (Timex 1000 for you Americans?)
;-)
Then I'll be impressed.
She has a fan club, which you can find at www.wcat.com/ysfc - I'm the one responsible for it.
Hasn't been updated in forever, but people interested in her and her work will find lots of useful info. I've also included a 'diary' of the day I met her at the London Animation Art gallery a few years ago. It was nice to chat with her for a couple of minutes. Dunno if I'll ever get the opportunity again.
Cheers,
Steve.
I live in Bristol, too. I get about 1 or 2 spam messages to my mobile every week as it is. I wonder what's going to happen now...
Then why do BT describe my 56Kbit connection as Narrowband?
You may not be interested in a mod that doesn't improve the computer's performance, but surely you can see why people do this kind of thing? To make their box look cooler and more interesting than the standard beige box. I know every kid and his dog has a window and cold cathode lighting in their machine these days, but these people (myself included) are no 'worse' than people who decorate their cars with fluffy dice, bodykits, etc. They don't improve how the car runs, but (when properly done) can sure make it look better.
:-)
I'm windowing/lighting one of my old PC's 'cos it's going to be a backup machine/MP3 player in my living room, and when I'm done with it it'll definitely look better than a beige box in the corner of the room. Also, it gives me something to do 'cos I'm bored out of my mind at home.
Cheers,
68K.
Bah! Who plays on-line with a modem these days? You don't stand a chance playing against the low-ping broadband lot. I gave up playing through my 56kbit a long time ago. If I could get broadband, I'd still be whuppin' ass. :-)
(Well, maybe)
Fine... if you like having cyanide gas in your kitchen.
Dude, there's only one groove per side on a vinyl record. :-)