When our little one was born in 2000, we found that NetGrocer had a much better selection of packaging options and types for the baby formula we'd selected than our local grocery stores. We bought quite a bit of it from them.
When our little one was born in 2000, we found that NetGrocer had a much better selection of packaging options for the baby formula we had selected than our local grocery stores. We bought quite a bit from them.
FNCB Not Happy With This Proposal
on
Making Change
·
· Score: 1
Heard on CNN: "Nick L. Quarter, spokesman for the First National Change Bank, opposes the consideration of an 18-cent coin to replace the dime, as it is un-American. 'My company has a lot invested in dimes, and we feel that 18-cent coins would confuse our customers, staff, and most cashiers. In addition to pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, we provide 50-cent coins and the customer's choice of one-dollar coins. There is obviously no need for a new coin.'"
The extent of this security hole is that someone could cause a DOS on the machine through port 135. If you are an IS person worth anything, said machine is behind a firewall or is hardened to not have this port open.
If you aren't clueful enough to take these basic precautions, would you be clueful enough to install a patch from MS? Maybe. Maybe not.
The RPC Endpoint Mapper service is used for software like Exchange Server in its communications to clients. Behind a corporate firewall that blocks port 135, an Exchange server can talk just fine to clients also behind the firewall. Blocking port 135 usage on each server would cause clients that use RPC-based communcation (i.e. Outlook) to be unable to talk to the server.
It's just a matter of time before an exploit is crafted that might just happen to attach itself to a client machine (i.e. a laptop) that connects to both the Internet and a corporate network. The exploit could possibly knock out all the company's Exchange services.
As a admin partially responsible for a number of NT4-based Exchange 5.5 servers, I'm wondering why MS is treating NT4 with relative disdain prior to its official end-of-support.
I agree with you. I'm only interested in the major networks for the most part, so I have the lightest cable package - about 25 channels for about $10 a month. I refuse to pay the $12/month Tivo charges when I'd be using a fraction of the scheduling information that someone with more channels would. Not to mention the fact that the Tivo fee is higher than the price I'm paying for cable.
I'm keeping an eye on hardware (specifically the Shuttle XPC barebone systems, HDTV tuner/capture cards, and RF remotes) and software (anything that will work with said hardware) that might allow me to build a small-form-factor PC that could sit in my entertainment center and act as:
HDTV tuner
PVR
Progressive-scan DVD player
Music Server
I'm still a ways away from purchasing an HDTV-capable TV, and am taking the time to educate myself along the way. An affordable (less than $1k) home-built entertainment appliance like I've described that doesn't require a keyboard for light operation is probably a ways away.
..another beautiful audio server that I won't think of buying because it doesn't support Vorbis. And it only supports MP3 at 2 CBR bitrates (128, 320kbps) and 192kbps VBR.
A "working relationship" in this context means to me that SNOsoft wanted to let HP know that they had valuable security info about Tru64, and wanted to give HP the opportunity to enter into a contract that bound HP to pay them a consulting fee in the event that the info was genuine.
But I'm not really into this stuff, so what would I know?
Last week, Jamie Kellner, chairman of Turner Broadcasting System, also owned by AOL Time Warner, said television viewers could face paying for channels they now receive at no cost if PVRs kill commercials.
Give me a break. The only advertising methods where reliable effectiveness measurements can be made are where the customer physically calls the vendor at an advertised number (or surfs to an advertised URL) within a given timeframe after an ad has been shown. Anything else is guesswork.
If TV execs and advertisers are going to use PVR penetration as their effectiveness metric, their view will definitely be flawed.
Perhaps if more ads were closed captioned, the ad auto-skip logic wouldn't automatically skip so many ads. Ads don't have to be integrated into the programming to defeat automation.
In the last few years, first-run movie admission prices have risen, more previews are shown, and non-movie advertisements are shown (at least in the theaters I go to). I assume from this that the theaters are making more money per customer than they were years ago.
Is it costing them more money to show films, on a per-projector, per-showing basis? Who knows? In newer theaters with digital audio, there is probably more infrastructure cost, but do the actual films cost more?
Making motion picture media digital will require lots of new infrastructure to be installed at theaters to achieve playback equivalent to conventional film. If the delivery of movies to theaters is digital as well, think of the network required to make that happen!
The only way digital will catch on in theaters is for the studios and theaters to rethink their entire economic relationship. Studios *must* finance the distribution and playback infrastructure to enable the cost savings that will be seen when analog media is no longer the primary deliverable. The theaters don't seem to be able to manage their costs very well, or understand how to amortize their infrastructure costs. It's only a matter of time before the insult of paying more to be advertised to more will drive people away from theaters.
What I meant is that a CD isn't introduced at a premium price and then discounted in the course of several months.
I think our arguments are both valid, since certainly a 6-9 month old game is not cutting edge, but it's not obsolete. As demand dies down for the game, its price settles to a more reasonable level. The same is not true of CDs. But you're right, the game is unmarketable after a few years. As long as CDDA is still a popular format, the audio CD is still marketable.
Why can't a CD be released at the $14-$15 level, and then settle down to a $8-$10 price point after it's been out a while? Because of the RIAA cartel, in my opinion.
If you can hold out on buying a game you want, their price usually drops over the course of a few months. (At least for PC games.) I've seen games that came out for $50-$60 in the bargain bin for $10-$20 in 6-9 months in some cases.
A similar price reduction is usually not seen with most CDs. This is indicative of a monopoly.
Cinemas: Both ticket prices and the amount of advertising before the movies has increased in the last few years. I'm definitely not opposed to seeing three or four previews before the feature presentation, but advertising products totally unrelated to movies or showing more than five previews shows is insulting. I went to a showing of "The Count of Monte Cristo" at the Regal Transit in Buffalo, NY last month, and I had to go tell one of the cinema workers to start the movie (I'm sorry, the advertising, previews, and the movie) 15 minutes after the movie's start time. I think many cinemas can afford to stay in business this way because the public (myself included) want the experience of seeing certain movies in the theater as opposed to home. And many patrons appear to be less picky than me, based on the box office figures.
DVDs: I'd like video rental stores to apply the amount I paid for a rental of a DVD to the purchase of a new copy of the same DVD title, if I decide I like the movie enough to add it to my library.
This idea is silly. I can't think of any good reason for this from a recording perspective; A/D convertors in guitars would be an unwanted variable in trying to get a consistent, quality recorded sound.
Why not leave A/D conversion outside of the guitar, and outfit the guitar with a balanced analog connection using TRS 1/4" or XLR jacks? This would theoretically cut out most of the noise picked up on the unbalanced guitar cables in use today. Plug the balanced connection into and analog or digital mixer or audio interface and go to town...
...but speed during primetime (i.e. between 5pm-midnight Eastern) has been noticably slower than off-peak times. Between last night and 6:30am this morning, I saw a 10x increase in download speed from a well-connected server. Web browsing is slower as well, but I don't use @Home's software or proxy servers. My email is still accessible.
From what I'm reading in the news, it looks like Comcast is one of the companies still negotiating with Excite@Home. I just hope things are ironed out by early next week without service interruptions.
I'm surprised Verizon hasn't called me to solicit DSL given the state of things...
I thought I read that Guido van Rossum never wanted Python to be associated with snakes. Based on the Python 2.0 website, I guess he lost that battle...
Thanks for your well-drawn comment; I agree with your reasoning - hopefully Napster's lawyers or their associates read Slashdot.;)
Based on what you're pointing out, the RIAA painted themselves into a corner, legally speaking. I think they're going to have to live with MP3 swapping of whatever form as a quasi-legal activity. The fact is that MP3's are not a bit-for-bit copy of the original source material; also, they use a lossy compression scheme. They are not technically a digital copy of the source material. Plus, with the ability of newer CD-ROMs and software to virtualize CD audio tracks as WAV/AIFF/etc, MP3 encoding of CD audio can be done without ever extracting a copy of the original audio onto the computer's hard drive! This means that no copyright-infringing digital copy of the source recording is ever actually produced! MP3 encoding involves making a lower-quality backup recording of CD audio, not a copy. The main difference between this activity and previous methods (analog tape, DAT, MD) is that this is regulated by neither an analog transfer nor by SCMS regulation.
Just because MP3's sound pretty good does not mean that they're an exact replacement of the audio tracks, physical media, and artwork/lyrics included with most mainstream CD's. IMHO, there is no legal basis for the RIAA to contend that MP3 trading can be directly linked to a decline in CD sales.
Do you think that Microsoft's Windows monopoly (at least as it pertains to pre-loaded copies of Windows on new PC's) has enabled the boom of tech publishers like ZD, CMP, and C|Net? If so, do you think it is positive? Do you think that your programs, books, and columns are similarly buoyed by this fact?
It also seems logical that people who can download new CD's for free won't pay $16 for them, and perhaps shouldn't have to.
Perhaps the MPAA should sue every person who thinks a 128kbps MP3 sounds equal to the CD audio it was encoded from. The majority of people who listen to MP3's (and whom don't encode MP3's) don't seem to be very picky.
Bottom line - compiling an album's tracks by collecting a set of MP3's (even higher bitrate ones) is not an exact substitution for a published, mainstream CD. ---
Slashdot Mirror
Use Ogg Theora! It's a free and open spec.
TotalRecorder
When our little one was born in 2000, we found that NetGrocer had a much better selection of packaging options and types for the baby formula we'd selected than our local grocery stores. We bought quite a bit of it from them.
When our little one was born in 2000, we found that NetGrocer had a much better selection of packaging options for the baby formula we had selected than our local grocery stores. We bought quite a bit from them.
"Don't squeeze the Sharman!"
Heard on CNN:
"Nick L. Quarter, spokesman for the First National Change Bank, opposes the consideration of an 18-cent coin to replace the dime, as it is un-American. 'My company has a lot invested in dimes, and we feel that 18-cent coins would confuse our customers, staff, and most cashiers. In addition to pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, we provide 50-cent coins and the customer's choice of one-dollar coins. There is obviously no need for a new coin.'"
The extent of this security hole is that someone could cause a DOS on the machine through port 135. If you are an IS person worth anything, said machine is behind a firewall or is hardened to not have this port open.
If you aren't clueful enough to take these basic precautions, would you be clueful enough to install a patch from MS? Maybe. Maybe not.
The RPC Endpoint Mapper service is used for software like Exchange Server in its communications to clients. Behind a corporate firewall that blocks port 135, an Exchange server can talk just fine to clients also behind the firewall. Blocking port 135 usage on each server would cause clients that use RPC-based communcation (i.e. Outlook) to be unable to talk to the server.
It's just a matter of time before an exploit is crafted that might just happen to attach itself to a client machine (i.e. a laptop) that connects to both the Internet and a corporate network. The exploit could possibly knock out all the company's Exchange services.
As a admin partially responsible for a number of NT4-based Exchange 5.5 servers, I'm wondering why MS is treating NT4 with relative disdain prior to its official end-of-support.
I agree with you. I'm only interested in the major networks for the most part, so I have the lightest cable package - about 25 channels for about $10 a month. I refuse to pay the $12/month Tivo charges when I'd be using a fraction of the scheduling information that someone with more channels would. Not to mention the fact that the Tivo fee is higher than the price I'm paying for cable.
HDTV tuner
PVR
Progressive-scan DVD player
Music Server
I'm still a ways away from purchasing an HDTV-capable TV, and am taking the time to educate myself along the way. An affordable (less than $1k) home-built entertainment appliance like I've described that doesn't require a keyboard for light operation is probably a ways away.
..another beautiful audio server that I won't think of buying because it doesn't support Vorbis. And it only supports MP3 at 2 CBR bitrates (128, 320kbps) and 192kbps VBR.
I noticed a little bit of the Tea Party's "Touch" at the end of the 5-minute "orientation" video. These guys are cool in my book...
A "working relationship" in this context means to me that SNOsoft wanted to let HP know that they had valuable security info about Tru64, and wanted to give HP the opportunity to enter into a contract that bound HP to pay them a consulting fee in the event that the info was genuine.
But I'm not really into this stuff, so what would I know?
Last week, Jamie Kellner, chairman of Turner Broadcasting System, also owned by AOL Time Warner, said television viewers could face paying for channels they now receive at no cost if PVRs kill commercials.
Give me a break. The only advertising methods where reliable effectiveness measurements can be made are where the customer physically calls the vendor at an advertised number (or surfs to an advertised URL) within a given timeframe after an ad has been shown. Anything else is guesswork.
If TV execs and advertisers are going to use PVR penetration as their effectiveness metric, their view will definitely be flawed.
Perhaps if more ads were closed captioned, the ad auto-skip logic wouldn't automatically skip so many ads. Ads don't have to be integrated into the programming to defeat automation.
In the last few years, first-run movie admission prices have risen, more previews are shown, and non-movie advertisements are shown (at least in the theaters I go to). I assume from this that the theaters are making more money per customer than they were years ago.
Is it costing them more money to show films, on a per-projector, per-showing basis? Who knows? In newer theaters with digital audio, there is probably more infrastructure cost, but do the actual films cost more?
Making motion picture media digital will require lots of new infrastructure to be installed at theaters to achieve playback equivalent to conventional film. If the delivery of movies to theaters is digital as well, think of the network required to make that happen!
The only way digital will catch on in theaters is for the studios and theaters to rethink their entire economic relationship. Studios *must* finance the distribution and playback infrastructure to enable the cost savings that will be seen when analog media is no longer the primary deliverable. The theaters don't seem to be able to manage their costs very well, or understand how to amortize their infrastructure costs. It's only a matter of time before the insult of paying more to be advertised to more will drive people away from theaters.
What I meant is that a CD isn't introduced at a premium price and then discounted in the course of several months.
I think our arguments are both valid, since certainly a 6-9 month old game is not cutting edge, but it's not obsolete. As demand dies down for the game, its price settles to a more reasonable level. The same is not true of CDs. But you're right, the game is unmarketable after a few years. As long as CDDA is still a popular format, the audio CD is still marketable.
Why can't a CD be released at the $14-$15 level, and then settle down to a $8-$10 price point after it's been out a while? Because of the RIAA cartel, in my opinion.
If you can hold out on buying a game you want, their price usually drops over the course of a few months. (At least for PC games.) I've seen games that came out for $50-$60 in the bargain bin for $10-$20 in 6-9 months in some cases.
A similar price reduction is usually not seen with most CDs. This is indicative of a monopoly.
Cinemas: Both ticket prices and the amount of advertising before the movies has increased in the last few years. I'm definitely not opposed to seeing three or four previews before the feature presentation, but advertising products totally unrelated to movies or showing more than five previews shows is insulting. I went to a showing of "The Count of Monte Cristo" at the Regal Transit in Buffalo, NY last month, and I had to go tell one of the cinema workers to start the movie (I'm sorry, the advertising, previews, and the movie) 15 minutes after the movie's start time. I think many cinemas can afford to stay in business this way because the public (myself included) want the experience of seeing certain movies in the theater as opposed to home. And many patrons appear to be less picky than me, based on the box office figures.
DVDs: I'd like video rental stores to apply the amount I paid for a rental of a DVD to the purchase of a new copy of the same DVD title, if I decide I like the movie enough to add it to my library.
This idea is silly. I can't think of any good reason for this from a recording perspective; A/D convertors in guitars would be an unwanted variable in trying to get a consistent, quality recorded sound.
Why not leave A/D conversion outside of the guitar, and outfit the guitar with a balanced analog connection using TRS 1/4" or XLR jacks? This would theoretically cut out most of the noise picked up on the unbalanced guitar cables in use today. Plug the balanced connection into and analog or digital mixer or audio interface and go to town...
...but speed during primetime (i.e. between 5pm-midnight Eastern) has been noticably slower than off-peak times. Between last night and 6:30am this morning, I saw a 10x increase in download speed from a well-connected server. Web browsing is slower as well, but I don't use @Home's software or proxy servers. My email is still accessible.
From what I'm reading in the news, it looks like Comcast is one of the companies still negotiating with Excite@Home. I just hope things are ironed out by early next week without service interruptions.
I'm surprised Verizon hasn't called me to solicit DSL given the state of things...
I thought I read that Guido van Rossum never wanted Python to be associated with snakes. Based on the Python 2.0 website, I guess he lost that battle...
Check out this page:
http://www.vorbis.com/download.html
Thanks for your well-drawn comment; I agree with your reasoning - hopefully Napster's lawyers or their associates read Slashdot. ;)
Based on what you're pointing out, the RIAA painted themselves into a corner, legally speaking. I think they're going to have to live with MP3 swapping of whatever form as a quasi-legal activity. The fact is that MP3's are not a bit-for-bit copy of the original source material; also, they use a lossy compression scheme. They are not technically a digital copy of the source material. Plus, with the ability of newer CD-ROMs and software to virtualize CD audio tracks as WAV/AIFF/etc, MP3 encoding of CD audio can be done without ever extracting a copy of the original audio onto the computer's hard drive! This means that no copyright-infringing digital copy of the source recording is ever actually produced! MP3 encoding involves making a lower-quality backup recording of CD audio, not a copy. The main difference between this activity and previous methods (analog tape, DAT, MD) is that this is regulated by neither an analog transfer nor by SCMS regulation.
Just because MP3's sound pretty good does not mean that they're an exact replacement of the audio tracks, physical media, and artwork/lyrics included with most mainstream CD's. IMHO, there is no legal basis for the RIAA to contend that MP3 trading can be directly linked to a decline in CD sales.
Do you think that Microsoft's Windows monopoly (at least as it pertains to pre-loaded copies of Windows on new PC's) has enabled the boom of tech publishers like ZD, CMP, and C|Net?
If so, do you think it is positive?
Do you think that your programs, books, and columns are similarly buoyed by this fact?
It also seems logical that people who can download new CD's for free won't pay $16 for them, and perhaps shouldn't have to.
Perhaps the MPAA should sue every person who thinks a 128kbps MP3 sounds equal to the CD audio it was encoded from. The majority of people who listen to MP3's (and whom don't encode MP3's) don't seem to be very picky.
Bottom line - compiling an album's tracks by collecting a set of MP3's (even higher bitrate ones) is not an exact substitution for a published, mainstream CD.
---
Silly me, I thought we were talking about AGP x86...