I know that this technology isn't supposed to replace rental stores, but what no-one has pointed out yet is another money-making factor in the rental model: When you make the trip to return the film you rented you may well make an impulse rental of another film.
I wish companies whose products I like would sell stuff at a loss: Red Bull, Lego bricks, Sony plasma TVs and slaptops (sic), Intel processors, Toblerones and other tasty snax (sic), anything with plasma or neon that is shiny and cool.
Hmm, I think I just defined myself, and I like what I see!;)
I think human beings are very quickly evolving (or adapting- whatever) to reach a state where they in part don't grow up, maintaining characteristics of children through adulthood.
Scientists (yes 'them') reckon that domesticated cats are like this- still in many ways kittens because their easy lifestyle in the homes of hu-mans allows them to.
Here is a picture of an electronic Japanese toilet.
I got paranoid when I used it because I couldn't get it to flush- I tried everything. So I waited until no-one else was around, then dashed out of the cubicle....At which point the toilet detected I had left, and flushed.
I signed up with the various *PS preference serviecs but unfortunately still get spam.
The worst one is phone calls. I moved into a rented place a few years back and took over the phone there. Then, when I moved to a house I was actually buying I thought I'd pay the small fee to transfer the number, because everyone knew it by now.
Unfortunately the last person to use the number before me (A Mr. Brown) seems to have signed up to everything in the universe, given them his phone number and not ticked the "Oh God, please do not phone me" box on them all.
So now I get lots of calls that go like this:
spammer: is that mr. brown? me: no. This has not been mr. brown's number for at least 3 years. spammer: well, i wonder if you might be interested anyway. we're doing a promotion on gym membership... me: please remove my number from your database and do not call it again.
So you see, the problem is that the phone number was "tainted" by this Mr. Brown; now all these calls are not technically "unsolicited", because he signed up and gave permission for them to call him.
I have a similar problem with email spam. I actually get very little spam, but nearly all of it is from companies where I used my email address to sign up for something and forgot to tick the damn box for "do not spam me", or from companies who got the email address from them. The reason I continue to get spam from them is because their unsubscribe procedure fails.
OK, that's phone spam and email spam. Now for letter spam. I get lots of this, most of which is unavoidable. Some of it is addressed to the person who lived in the house before me, but most of it is random leaflets advertising stuff that the postal delivery person is forced to deliver along with my mail, or that comes with the local paper (open paper, 5000 leaflets fall out, you know how it goes).
Anyway, my point is that spam, in all forms is not necessarily "unsolicited". It may be unwanted, but it could be that at some point either you or someone before you FAILED TO TICK THE BOX.
"This is why you have a printer user, even though the printer is most unlikely to grow arms and eyes, log in, and play VGA Pac Man."
LOL! Nice one.
graspee
"massive human intervention"
on
Searching Sound
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
For Massive Human Intervention...
I call CowboyNeil!
graspee
P.S. Apologies to the real-life original but I expect he's used to the jokes by now...
Re:"Oh! I have an idea!" said one Microsoftee...
on
Looking at Longhorn
·
· Score: 1
Sorry to reply to my own post but I was just thinking about it in the shower (makes a change) and realized that you could write something for win32 that would let you create a "virtual folder". When you created it, via the "new..." context menu it could set the icon to be a custom new one for v folders, then add the directory to its global list.
Then you have to have a background service that hooks (some win32 call) and makes "create shortcut" the default for when you drag files into a virtual folder.
Hmm. What else am I doing today?
graspee
Re:"Oh! I have an idea!" said one Microsoftee...
on
Looking at Longhorn
·
· Score: 1
"Now IF (and this is a big if) Microsoft would just allow users to create their own"
Oh, you are so damn right! When I first heard about this feature of "virtual directories" I assumed it was going to be a thing that the user could control and use themselves and I was getting quite excited at the prospect of being able to rearrange my directories of pictures and movies without moving the physical files.
You can sort of do it now by creating directories of "shortcuts", but it's suboptimal because you have to right drag everything and select "create shortcut" because the default is to move (if on the same drive) or copy (if not), and also because the new shortcut is always named "shortcut to..." (although I have a feeling there is a registry setting to change this).
At least the thumbnail view still shows the original picture, which is good.
" If you wanted to make video files that will have the best chance of being viewable in 10 or 20 years, what are the best file formats and codecs?"
I am concerned about this too. Just imagine the chaos in 20 years or so and we're trying to play back video with all these different MPG4 codecs with different versions etc.
My advice is to use xvid because YOU CAN GET THE SOURCE. This is the most important thing in the world because in the "Mysterious Future" (tm) you then won't have to have a Windows x86 emulator to play the video from some dusty old binary, you can tweak it a bit and compile on your shiny new MysteriousFutureBox and it will work.
Here's my new idea that I intend to use when I become ruler of the universe. (haha).
I'd make ripping stuff off like CDs, books, games etc AND THEN SELLING IT illegal, punishable by fines (no prison).
Then I'd make copyright infringement where no profit is made (you can still charge for media, shipping etc.) NOT AGAINST THE LAW AT ALL.
I think it should be the responsibility of content providers to secure their material against copying with whatever protection methods they like. If you can copy it, you can legally copy it and also give it away, share it etc.
It's just so stupidly easy to copy DVDs, CDs, games, apps etc. that you have to make a conscious effort to NOT break the current law, and I think anything that is against the law should at least be difficult to do...;)
Slashdot Mirror
On the 0.5 series there was an option when you right-clicked a tab to "close other tabs" (leaving you with just that one).
I found it useful. I noticed it disappeared in the 0.6 nightlies and thought it would reappear in this official 0.6 release.
No such luck!
graspee
I know that this technology isn't supposed to replace rental stores, but what no-one has pointed out yet is another money-making factor in the rental model: When you make the trip to return the film you rented you may well make an impulse rental of another film.
graspee
" i would never consider this form of entertainment, i prefer my movies last a little longer than a chocolate bar"
If your chocolate bars currently last longer than your movies then you must eat pretty damn slowly.
graspee
I wish companies whose products I like would sell stuff at a loss: Red Bull, Lego bricks, Sony plasma TVs and slaptops (sic), Intel processors, Toblerones and other tasty snax (sic), anything with plasma or neon that is shiny and cool.
;)
Hmm, I think I just defined myself, and I like what I see!
graspee
AOD or BluRay ?
Easy choice- "BluRay" sounds a billion times cooler.
Like what is "AOD"? "Attack of the DMCA"?
Pfff.
graspee
I think human beings are very quickly evolving (or adapting- whatever) to reach a state where they in part don't grow up, maintaining characteristics of children through adulthood.
Scientists (yes 'them') reckon that domesticated cats are like this- still in many ways kittens because their easy lifestyle in the homes of hu-mans allows them to.
Er, like, "Discuss!"
graspee
The watches, already mentioned on slashdot.
Amongst other places: here
graspee
Here is a picture of an electronic Japanese toilet.
...At which point the toilet detected I had left, and flushed.
I got paranoid when I used it because I couldn't get it to flush- I tried everything. So I waited until no-one else was around, then dashed out of the cubicle.
graspee
" It's teflon coated so when your pad goes up in flames, it doesn't produce poisonous gas and kill you before you can get out"
Yeah, but loads of other stuff will quite happily fill in for your cable to produce toxic fumes while burning.
graspee
"I hope that you're not planning to use Longhorn for all your datacenter needs, or Server 2003 for all your desktop needs. :)"
... NotResist .. Joke...) ;)
Yeah? Well I hope no-one is going to use Server 2003 for all their datacenter needs or Longhorn for all their desktop needs!
But what do I know, I'm a -1 flamebait... (Could
graspee
"Or just hit him. No, wait, I'm a Quaker. I keep forgetting that..."
Yeah, a Quaker would shoot him with a nailgun, railgun or rocket launcher.
I'm an Unreal Tounnamenter myself.
graspee
I signed up with the various *PS preference serviecs but unfortunately still get spam.
The worst one is phone calls. I moved into a rented place a few years back and took over the phone there. Then, when I moved to a house I was actually buying I thought I'd pay the small fee to transfer the number, because everyone knew it by now.
Unfortunately the last person to use the number before me (A Mr. Brown) seems to have signed up to everything in the universe, given them his phone number and not ticked the "Oh God, please do not phone me" box on them all.
So now I get lots of calls that go like this:
spammer: is that mr. brown?
me: no. This has not been mr. brown's number for at least 3 years.
spammer: well, i wonder if you might be interested anyway. we're doing a promotion on gym membership...
me: please remove my number from your database and do not call it again.
So you see, the problem is that the phone number was "tainted" by this Mr. Brown; now all these calls are not technically "unsolicited", because he signed up and gave permission for them to call him.
I have a similar problem with email spam. I actually get very little spam, but nearly all of it is from companies where I used my email address to sign up for something and forgot to tick the damn box for "do not spam me", or from companies who got the email address from them. The reason I continue to get spam from them is because their unsubscribe procedure fails.
OK, that's phone spam and email spam. Now for letter spam. I get lots of this, most of which is unavoidable. Some of it is addressed to the person who lived in the house before me, but most of it is random leaflets advertising stuff that the postal delivery person is forced to deliver along with my mail, or that comes with the local paper (open paper, 5000 leaflets fall out, you know how it goes).
Anyway, my point is that spam, in all forms is not necessarily "unsolicited". It may be unwanted, but it could be that at some point either you or someone before you FAILED TO TICK THE BOX.
graspee
Grand Moff was not said in the movies, but it was in the credits. Outlands Regions and mastermind of the Death Star project are in the script.
graspee
There are two references in the film to Tarkin where a title is used:
...but the credits call him "Grand Moff Tarkin".
;)
" Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board."
"Governor Tarkin, we have an emergency alert in
detention block A A-twenty-three."
so there!
graspee
You had to look that up? I thought this was a geek site! If you can't quote the original trilogy from memory then what are you doing here? ;)
graspee
" Plus IPv6 has something like enough ip addresses for every grain of sand or something"
Cool, let's make a massive Beowulf Cluster on the beach!
graspee
"This is why you have a printer user, even though the printer is most unlikely to grow arms and eyes, log in, and play VGA Pac Man."
LOL! Nice one.
graspee
For Massive Human Intervention...
I call CowboyNeil!
graspee
P.S. Apologies to the real-life original but I expect he's used to the jokes by now...
Sorry to reply to my own post but I was just thinking about it in the shower (makes a change) and realized that you could write something for win32 that would let you create a "virtual folder". When you created it, via the "new ..." context menu it could set the icon to be a custom new one for v folders, then add the directory to its global list.
Then you have to have a background service that hooks (some win32 call) and makes "create shortcut" the default for when you drag files into a virtual folder.
Hmm. What else am I doing today?
graspee
"Now IF (and this is a big if) Microsoft would just allow users to create their own"
..." (although I have a feeling there is a registry setting to change this).
Oh, you are so damn right! When I first heard about this feature of "virtual directories" I assumed it was going to be a thing that the user could control and use themselves and I was getting quite excited at the prospect of being able to rearrange my directories of pictures and movies without moving the physical files.
You can sort of do it now by creating directories of "shortcuts", but it's suboptimal because you have to right drag everything and select "create shortcut" because the default is to move (if on the same drive) or copy (if not), and also because the new shortcut is always named "shortcut to
At least the thumbnail view still shows the original picture, which is good.
graspee
" If you wanted to make video files that will have the best chance of being viewable in 10 or 20 years, what are the best file formats and codecs?"
I am concerned about this too. Just imagine the chaos in 20 years or so and we're trying to play back video with all these different MPG4 codecs with different versions etc.
My advice is to use xvid because YOU CAN GET THE SOURCE. This is the most important thing in the world because in the "Mysterious Future" (tm) you then won't have to have a Windows x86 emulator to play the video from some dusty old binary, you can tweak it a bit and compile on your shiny new MysteriousFutureBox and it will work.
graspee
I like Sun.
Well, I don't like Solaris, the hardware is overpriced and I detest Java, but it's still a good company.
Maybe it's because of the Self programming language.
graspee
" Nah, the whole Gothic thing really took off in 267 A.D. when they sacked Athens."
They didn't sack Athens. It had to be let go as a result of the downsizing.
graspee
Colossus was a scary computer.
/. seems to have turned AC off for logged in people. Hmm.
"Obey me and live, or disobey and die"
I know this will get modded offtopic so I was going to AC post it, but
graspee
Here's my new idea that I intend to use when I become ruler of the universe. (haha).
;)
I'd make ripping stuff off like CDs, books, games etc AND THEN SELLING IT illegal, punishable by fines (no prison).
Then I'd make copyright infringement where no profit is made (you can still charge for media, shipping etc.) NOT AGAINST THE LAW AT ALL.
I think it should be the responsibility of content providers to secure their material against copying with whatever protection methods they like. If you can copy it, you can legally copy it and also give it away, share it etc.
It's just so stupidly easy to copy DVDs, CDs, games, apps etc. that you have to make a conscious effort to NOT break the current law, and I think anything that is against the law should at least be difficult to do...
graspee