I think the key, though, is that groups of five or more people have only 10 minutes. The proposed law, as written, does not even require that pictures are being actively taken, only that the group is visibly in possession of one or more cameras. So here you have a situation where tour groups would undoubtedly require permits with the law as written, despite that being "unintended", which I think is debatable. It is clear they made no effort to ensure this does not apply to amateur photographers and tourists, and expect people to take them on their word that this will not be used against them.
I assume NYC has laws prohibiting obstruction of sidewalks and traffic. Why not enforce those instead?
My point was that no other games came out to support those peripherals and no other developers incorporated those peripherals into their games. People buy them because they want to play THAT game.
It makes absolutely no difference whatsoever if people buy the add-ons if they're not supported, and developers have shown over and over that they are basically unwilling to develop for hardware that didn't come with the system. That's the real issue, and what you're missing.
having a button that says "watch DVD" that can tell if the system is off or on and if off turn everything on, set it all up for DVD and even start the DVD that is in the player is worth every penny these executives and sports figures spend. and they cherish that $500.00 remote.
Hell, you just described the way my $80 Harmony remote is set up, discrete On/Off codes and all. I wouldn't pay $300 more for RF capabilities, that's for sure. Sounds like a tough sell to anyone not already spending $50,000 on a theater.
A purpose-built controller meant for one game doesn't really prove your point. A lot of DDR mats were sold too, but I don't see those being used for general gameplay, either.
Developers aren't likely to support something that didn't come with the system as it limits the amount of people they can sell their game to. There's a reason why Guitar Hero came with the guitar.
iPods, iTunes, and AppleTV all support MP3s. You could probably have made the exact same argument for that. I don't think them selling protected videos in their store would preclude them from supporting Divx. At the same time, I think the chances of it supporting Divx out of the box are slim as their computers don't even support it natively (needs a codec download).
I didn't really see any public lockers around, but that doesn't necessarily mean they weren't there. It was cheap (free) and easy to just keep things locked up in the hotel/hostels, so that's what we did.
So does mine, but do you REALLY want to risk losing a major piece of technology to water damage? Especially if you have every hostel you plan on staying in loaded up on it already. That's a pretty big risk, and when you're that far away from home with no real concept of direction since it's the first time you're visiting, AND you can make only barely passable attempts at the local language, it's probably not a risk you want to take.
Without knowing your exact travel plans it's difficult to make a recommendation, but I'd certainly consider leaving the laptop at home. I was on the fence about bringing a laptop with me when we went to Europe for about 2-3 weeks. I'm glad I didn't, as you'd just worry about it getting stolen the whole time. If you're sticking to major cities, most hostels have internet connections to use for free or cheaply, and internet cafes are still common. In Rome we found a place that does your laundry for you (!!) while you use the computers. You'll have to get used to the different keyboard layouts in each country, but it's not too difficult when you get the hang of it.
If you're a shutterbug, I HIGHLY recommend a camera that takes AA batteries. Sometimes power outlets are difficult to come by, and you need converters to get anything to work anyway (although you can just fit a different set of prongs on your iPod and MacBook chargers, they accept all the input voltages you'll encounter natively). Take multiple flash cards, not one giant card. We scoured Rome with a guy we just met looking for the flash card he lost somewhere that day. It had every picture he'd taken for his entire 2 month trip on it. I took 3 cards in rotation, uploading them to a server I set up whenever I found a place with a fast internet connection (rarer than you'd hope).
My handheld GPS unit was invaluable for striking out on your own, but you can't take it anywhere. Keep a compass and a basic map with you at all times, if at all possible. You will get lost.
I'd leave behind everything you possibly can. Most people over-pack and end up ditching stuff along the way. If you're not going to use something at least 4-5 times a week over a 1yr trip, leave it. If you end up needing it, you can always get it there.
Because often the sounds of the train and the loud ramblings of a half-dozen languages you don't understand while you're trying to get a few hours of sleep is too much to bear.
Some sort of MP3/music player is a good idea. Ear plugs too.
Couldn't agree more. I took a handheld GPS unit across Europe for a month, but we got hopelessly lost in Nice, France after a trip to the beach. You cant take the GPS in the water, and it'll get stolen on the beach so it stayed behind. Our map and compass got us back to our hostel safely.
Sure, but how many of those technologies were superior? Most every thing you listed was Apple abandoning an inferior technology for a more advanced one (although they never abandoned Firewire for USB2). In some cases, they moved from proprietary technology to something more widespread. In this case, they'd abandon the more advanced techonology for the more primative one. I just don't see it happening.
Why dump AAC for MP3 when it's the better codec? Nearly every MP3 player currently made supports it. There's no reason at all to switch to MP3 other than public awareness of the format.
I doubt Apple would ever switch to MP3s. They've got too much invested in their format to abandon it now. However, I think that if the music industry would let them they'd be more than happy to sell unprotected AAC files. They've gotten as far as they have because of the iPod itself, not the DRM locking users into the system. If you ask iPod users without any iTunes Music Store purchases if they'd switch players when it's time to upgrade, I doubt more than a small percentage plan to follow their iPod up with anything else.
Nintendo will also replace any remote damaged in such an incident. It also seemed that they may have been willing to replace anything broken in the incident, judging from my conversation with them.
I strongly agree with Nintendo's introduction of a new strap, but this lawsuit is stupid.
You know you just agreed with the guy you were arguing with, right? He explained that keeping extra change isn't a valid analogy because it's the clerk that takes the hit, not the store.
Youve said this several times, but I don't see any proof anywhere that it is true. If you look closely, every box talks about a startup disc. They covered all mention of this with a sticker on the units that went to retail, replacing the mention of a startup disc with Wii Sports. This isn't all that surprising since we know they've been in production for months already. I've seen about 12-14 boxes at various stores and numerous pictures online and they've all had that sticker.
Every retail unit was a demonstration/PR machine? Not likely.
It probably depends on your definition of quality. Reliable cars at affordable prices? Only Toyota can compete there. If your definition of quality is a luxury-type automobile, then Honda is not the place to start.
Honda does pretty well in the US. They're consistently #1 in resale value, and always within the top 5-10 marques worldwide in both initial quality and long-term quality. I'm not sure where you're from, but ask someone from the US who makes a quality car and I'd bet the majority will give you one of two answers: Toyota or Honda.
It'll get you pretty far if you choose a good wedding photographer. Many now assign the rights to the photos over to you. The only places we found that retain photo rights anymore were places that show on film or a mixture of film/digital. The all-digital places, it seemed, universally assign the rights to their employer (me). We own all our wedding pictures, and most people who've been married recently, at least, should too.
I was frankly a little surprised about the medical numbers. My wife is at a major med school, and you'd not believe the safegaurds they have in place. They can bring nothing in to exams, and pockets are checked. All exams are done on a computer which is locked down in every way possible, in a little study carrol where they can't even see another student, let alone cheat off them. They are offered 1 hour of break for every 8 hours of testing, split up any way they like, but they're restricted to specific areas and without access to their belongings. Upon reentry, they're checked again for materials. The tests themselves vary by student, and the questions are never provided in any permanent form. When you get your grades, you merely know that you missed question #8, not the topic or content of that particular question. This prevents the previously class from divulging the tests to younger students, and the varying topics ensures that you cannot with any certainty say "study this topic." Grades are adjusted for "bad questions", so you don't get to argue anything.
How anyone could conceivably cheat in such an environment is beyond me.
You don't even have to mute it before you shut down. You can shut the laptop down with the sound on. When you press the power on button, start holding down the Audio Off/Mute button on the keyboard. Hold it until you see the Apple. Bingo. No startup chime, and sound is still enabled (or disabled, whatever it was before) once you get to the desktop.
Definately not true. They have a special PDA-like thing that plugs into the keys to program them, like flashing a BIOS. As a note, new Honda keys have the keyless entry controls and all that integrated with the key, so there's already a bunch of electronic stuff on the key.
Reasonable doubt is not the required weight of evidence in a civil matter. In civil matters, only the less strict "preponderance of evidence" is required. Therefore, the RIAA only has to show that it was likely you, not you beyond a reasonable doubt.
That's not completely the case for cars with immobilizers. Your car's ECU has a specific rolling immobilization code. Any key you order must be programmed with the current code to match your car's ECU. When this is done, all keys you wish to use must be present or they are locked out. In this way, both the key and ECU are mated to each other. At least that's how it works on new Hondas, I watched the process when I picked up my new Civic. It helps to get around the "corrupt dealer employee" hole by requiring all keys AND the car to be in the same place and reprogrammed at the same time. There's no way to make a key at the dealership without the car present and expect it to start the car.
Of course, if you have your car in for service with all your keys, then they could do it without your knowledge.
I think the key, though, is that groups of five or more people have only 10 minutes. The proposed law, as written, does not even require that pictures are being actively taken, only that the group is visibly in possession of one or more cameras. So here you have a situation where tour groups would undoubtedly require permits with the law as written, despite that being "unintended", which I think is debatable. It is clear they made no effort to ensure this does not apply to amateur photographers and tourists, and expect people to take them on their word that this will not be used against them.
I assume NYC has laws prohibiting obstruction of sidewalks and traffic. Why not enforce those instead?
My point was that no other games came out to support those peripherals and no other developers incorporated those peripherals into their games. People buy them because they want to play THAT game.
It makes absolutely no difference whatsoever if people buy the add-ons if they're not supported, and developers have shown over and over that they are basically unwilling to develop for hardware that didn't come with the system. That's the real issue, and what you're missing.
having a button that says "watch DVD" that can tell if the system is off or on and if off turn everything on, set it all up for DVD and even start the DVD that is in the player is worth every penny these executives and sports figures spend. and they cherish that $500.00 remote.
Hell, you just described the way my $80 Harmony remote is set up, discrete On/Off codes and all. I wouldn't pay $300 more for RF capabilities, that's for sure. Sounds like a tough sell to anyone not already spending $50,000 on a theater.
A purpose-built controller meant for one game doesn't really prove your point. A lot of DDR mats were sold too, but I don't see those being used for general gameplay, either.
Developers aren't likely to support something that didn't come with the system as it limits the amount of people they can sell their game to. There's a reason why Guitar Hero came with the guitar.
It's amusing that they also consider the slowdown that swimming will cause, as they estimate the travel time at 29 days, 7 hours.
iPods, iTunes, and AppleTV all support MP3s. You could probably have made the exact same argument for that. I don't think them selling protected videos in their store would preclude them from supporting Divx. At the same time, I think the chances of it supporting Divx out of the box are slim as their computers don't even support it natively (needs a codec download).
I didn't really see any public lockers around, but that doesn't necessarily mean they weren't there. It was cheap (free) and easy to just keep things locked up in the hotel/hostels, so that's what we did.
So does mine, but do you REALLY want to risk losing a major piece of technology to water damage? Especially if you have every hostel you plan on staying in loaded up on it already. That's a pretty big risk, and when you're that far away from home with no real concept of direction since it's the first time you're visiting, AND you can make only barely passable attempts at the local language, it's probably not a risk you want to take.
Without knowing your exact travel plans it's difficult to make a recommendation, but I'd certainly consider leaving the laptop at home. I was on the fence about bringing a laptop with me when we went to Europe for about 2-3 weeks. I'm glad I didn't, as you'd just worry about it getting stolen the whole time. If you're sticking to major cities, most hostels have internet connections to use for free or cheaply, and internet cafes are still common. In Rome we found a place that does your laundry for you (!!) while you use the computers. You'll have to get used to the different keyboard layouts in each country, but it's not too difficult when you get the hang of it.
If you're a shutterbug, I HIGHLY recommend a camera that takes AA batteries. Sometimes power outlets are difficult to come by, and you need converters to get anything to work anyway (although you can just fit a different set of prongs on your iPod and MacBook chargers, they accept all the input voltages you'll encounter natively). Take multiple flash cards, not one giant card. We scoured Rome with a guy we just met looking for the flash card he lost somewhere that day. It had every picture he'd taken for his entire 2 month trip on it. I took 3 cards in rotation, uploading them to a server I set up whenever I found a place with a fast internet connection (rarer than you'd hope).
My handheld GPS unit was invaluable for striking out on your own, but you can't take it anywhere. Keep a compass and a basic map with you at all times, if at all possible. You will get lost.
I'd leave behind everything you possibly can. Most people over-pack and end up ditching stuff along the way. If you're not going to use something at least 4-5 times a week over a 1yr trip, leave it. If you end up needing it, you can always get it there.
Have fun!
Because often the sounds of the train and the loud ramblings of a half-dozen languages you don't understand while you're trying to get a few hours of sleep is too much to bear.
Some sort of MP3/music player is a good idea. Ear plugs too.
Couldn't agree more. I took a handheld GPS unit across Europe for a month, but we got hopelessly lost in Nice, France after a trip to the beach. You cant take the GPS in the water, and it'll get stolen on the beach so it stayed behind. Our map and compass got us back to our hostel safely.
I'd never heard of that story before. I looked it up, and it turns out it was pretty interesting. I used to watch that show long ago.
Thanks for the tip!
Sure, but how many of those technologies were superior? Most every thing you listed was Apple abandoning an inferior technology for a more advanced one (although they never abandoned Firewire for USB2). In some cases, they moved from proprietary technology to something more widespread. In this case, they'd abandon the more advanced techonology for the more primative one. I just don't see it happening.
Why dump AAC for MP3 when it's the better codec? Nearly every MP3 player currently made supports it. There's no reason at all to switch to MP3 other than public awareness of the format.
I doubt Apple would ever switch to MP3s. They've got too much invested in their format to abandon it now. However, I think that if the music industry would let them they'd be more than happy to sell unprotected AAC files. They've gotten as far as they have because of the iPod itself, not the DRM locking users into the system. If you ask iPod users without any iTunes Music Store purchases if they'd switch players when it's time to upgrade, I doubt more than a small percentage plan to follow their iPod up with anything else.
Nintendo will also replace any remote damaged in such an incident. It also seemed that they may have been willing to replace anything broken in the incident, judging from my conversation with them.
I strongly agree with Nintendo's introduction of a new strap, but this lawsuit is stupid.
You know you just agreed with the guy you were arguing with, right? He explained that keeping extra change isn't a valid analogy because it's the clerk that takes the hit, not the store.
Youve said this several times, but I don't see any proof anywhere that it is true. If you look closely, every box talks about a startup disc. They covered all mention of this with a sticker on the units that went to retail, replacing the mention of a startup disc with Wii Sports. This isn't all that surprising since we know they've been in production for months already. I've seen about 12-14 boxes at various stores and numerous pictures online and they've all had that sticker.
Every retail unit was a demonstration/PR machine? Not likely.
It probably depends on your definition of quality. Reliable cars at affordable prices? Only Toyota can compete there. If your definition of quality is a luxury-type automobile, then Honda is not the place to start.
Honda does pretty well in the US. They're consistently #1 in resale value, and always within the top 5-10 marques worldwide in both initial quality and long-term quality. I'm not sure where you're from, but ask someone from the US who makes a quality car and I'd bet the majority will give you one of two answers: Toyota or Honda.
A missed Office Space reference? I'm shocked.
It'll get you pretty far if you choose a good wedding photographer. Many now assign the rights to the photos over to you. The only places we found that retain photo rights anymore were places that show on film or a mixture of film/digital. The all-digital places, it seemed, universally assign the rights to their employer (me). We own all our wedding pictures, and most people who've been married recently, at least, should too.
I was frankly a little surprised about the medical numbers. My wife is at a major med school, and you'd not believe the safegaurds they have in place. They can bring nothing in to exams, and pockets are checked. All exams are done on a computer which is locked down in every way possible, in a little study carrol where they can't even see another student, let alone cheat off them. They are offered 1 hour of break for every 8 hours of testing, split up any way they like, but they're restricted to specific areas and without access to their belongings. Upon reentry, they're checked again for materials. The tests themselves vary by student, and the questions are never provided in any permanent form. When you get your grades, you merely know that you missed question #8, not the topic or content of that particular question. This prevents the previously class from divulging the tests to younger students, and the varying topics ensures that you cannot with any certainty say "study this topic." Grades are adjusted for "bad questions", so you don't get to argue anything.
How anyone could conceivably cheat in such an environment is beyond me.
You don't even have to mute it before you shut down. You can shut the laptop down with the sound on. When you press the power on button, start holding down the Audio Off/Mute button on the keyboard. Hold it until you see the Apple. Bingo. No startup chime, and sound is still enabled (or disabled, whatever it was before) once you get to the desktop.
Definately not true. They have a special PDA-like thing that plugs into the keys to program them, like flashing a BIOS. As a note, new Honda keys have the keyless entry controls and all that integrated with the key, so there's already a bunch of electronic stuff on the key.
Reasonable doubt is not the required weight of evidence in a civil matter. In civil matters, only the less strict "preponderance of evidence" is required. Therefore, the RIAA only has to show that it was likely you, not you beyond a reasonable doubt.
That's not completely the case for cars with immobilizers. Your car's ECU has a specific rolling immobilization code. Any key you order must be programmed with the current code to match your car's ECU. When this is done, all keys you wish to use must be present or they are locked out. In this way, both the key and ECU are mated to each other. At least that's how it works on new Hondas, I watched the process when I picked up my new Civic. It helps to get around the "corrupt dealer employee" hole by requiring all keys AND the car to be in the same place and reprogrammed at the same time. There's no way to make a key at the dealership without the car present and expect it to start the car.
Of course, if you have your car in for service with all your keys, then they could do it without your knowledge.