Yes there are legitimate threats and huge legitimate issues, but the idea that the Legislative branch should just be able to knock any company or ISP or individual off the internet at any time in the interest of national security isn't a good idea at all. I also find the idea that all privately held infrastructure deemed "critical" to the internet, economy, etc should be required to have all of their security people be licenesed (note: this is not a certification) by the federal government under penalty of law.
They want the public to support it because it's got some fairly awful stuff in it, therefore the propoganda machine has started to insure that the public will ignore just how awful this thing is and cheer them on when they pass it.
Actually the attitude on the part of the computer public to buggy games is VERY different from the attitude of most of the console gaming public. Historically, console games have been relatively bug free, and most people do NOT connect their consoles to public networks to patch them. Most people will NOT buy a console that requires them to keep an internet connection simply to keep it running/up to date at the present.
Most crt specs lie (not in the same way as LCD specs) but they aren't exactly truthful either.
As for how long CRT monitors are available, just take a hard look at the projector market. Yes digital displays are everywhere (DLP/LCD/LCOS - well okay LCOS isn't everywhere) but there are still manufacturers building CRT projectors. The prices on high-end CRT projectors are about the same place they were 10-12 years ago. There's even a market now in rebuilding CRT projector tubes (I doubt that ever flys with crt monitors though because of the shadow mask or aperture grille.)
Yes the high end CRT projector market is a niche market, but so is the ultra high end CRT monitor market. Most people don't buy $1200+ crt's. In the meantime the middle ground of the CRT market will continue to erode and the bottom end of the CRT market is already dead.
So I would expect the really high end CRT's to not disappear from the market anytime in the next 8-12 years (barring something really nuts like OLED sheets costing 10 bux.) That said, I seriously doubt anyone will be building 15-17" 1024x768/60hz max CRT monitors ever again.
I'd only accept DRM in the case of a low priced subscription sort of service, but if a media company is going to do that then they had damn well better make ALL of their catalog available and not just certain more popular or more recent titles.
I find myself more annoyed at the large number of things that have gone out of print and are about impossible to find in any other format than mp3's than I do at about anything else when it comes to music. I don't mind buying CD's when I can find what I want to buy.
The truth is that the Hong Kong street vendors selling pirated copies of movies, software, etc are taking a beating from the people choosing to use P2P methods of obtaining their media. A group of street vendors has taken it upon themselves to turn in every BT user they can identify in the hopes that people will quit using P2P and go back to the street vendors. The cops are rather upset about it to as they get kickbacks from the street vendors which have gotten smaller as well.
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Yes there are legitimate threats and huge legitimate issues, but the idea that the Legislative branch should just be able to knock any company or ISP or individual off the internet at any time in the interest of national security isn't a good idea at all. I also find the idea that all privately held infrastructure deemed "critical" to the internet, economy, etc should be required to have all of their security people be licenesed (note: this is not a certification) by the federal government under penalty of law.
If you want to know why these articles are popping up all over the place now, all you have to do is realize this.
Our federal government wants to pass this really awful piece of legislation which you can find a draft of here.
http://static.arstechnica.com/tech-policy/CYBERSEC5.pdf
They want the public to support it because it's got some fairly awful stuff in it, therefore the propoganda machine has started to insure that the public will ignore just how awful this thing is and cheer them on when they pass it.
Actually the attitude on the part of the computer public to buggy games is VERY different from the attitude of most of the console gaming public. Historically, console games have been relatively bug free, and most people do NOT connect their consoles to public networks to patch them. Most people will NOT buy a console that requires them to keep an internet connection simply to keep it running/up to date at the present.
Most crt specs lie (not in the same way as LCD specs) but they aren't exactly truthful either.
As for how long CRT monitors are available, just take a hard look at the projector market. Yes digital displays are everywhere (DLP/LCD/LCOS - well okay LCOS isn't everywhere) but there are still manufacturers building CRT projectors. The prices on high-end CRT projectors are about the same place they were 10-12 years ago. There's even a market now in rebuilding CRT projector tubes (I doubt that ever flys with crt monitors though because of the shadow mask or aperture grille.)
Yes the high end CRT projector market is a niche market, but so is the ultra high end CRT monitor market. Most people don't buy $1200+ crt's. In the meantime the middle ground of the CRT market will continue to erode and the bottom end of the CRT market is already dead.
So I would expect the really high end CRT's to not disappear from the market anytime in the next 8-12 years (barring something really nuts like OLED sheets costing 10 bux.) That said, I seriously doubt anyone will be building 15-17" 1024x768/60hz max CRT monitors ever again.
I'd only accept DRM in the case of a low priced subscription sort of service, but if a media company is going to do that then they had damn well better make ALL of their catalog available and not just certain more popular or more recent titles.
I find myself more annoyed at the large number of things that have gone out of print and are about impossible to find in any other format than mp3's than I do at about anything else when it comes to music. I don't mind buying CD's when I can find what I want to buy.
The truth is that the Hong Kong street vendors selling pirated copies of movies, software, etc are taking a beating from the people choosing to use P2P methods of obtaining their media. A group of street vendors has taken it upon themselves to turn in every BT user they can identify in the hopes that people will quit using P2P and go back to the street vendors. The cops are rather upset about it to as they get kickbacks from the street vendors which have gotten smaller as well.