1) People will get infected with worms, trojans, etc because of Windows security flaws. Because they can't update anymore (potentially), they'll run out and buy a legit copy of windows for $150-$200.
or
2) People will get infected with worms, trojans, etc because of Windows security flaws. They'll say "who cares if my box sends spam or transmits worms, I'm not spending a dime" and just let their box be infected so long as they can keep using it. Spammers and such will love this, and create worms that are purposefully non-destructive and simply allow for remote DoS attacks, email spamming, etc.
It was only after I wrote this that I realized that the printer I used to really like in school was an HP Laserjet 4. It was built like a tank, had a toner cart that lasted a long time, and was generally a good all-around printer.
What happened to HP? They used to have good hardware that was extremely reliable and which performed well.
When I saw a laserjet 6 around '99 or 2000, I laughed, it was all cheap plastic and didn't last more than a couple months in our office.
And on a side note, it's been a long time since I've watched my DVD of "The Black Hole", so I may have to do that now:). The last time I watched it, I was surprised how dark it was (no pun intended) for a "Disney Movie". May also have explained why I liked it so much as a kid...
Well, actually, I'm interested in getting it. But not because I have any interest in using it in a digital camera (mine use CF as well).
But my PDA on the other hand DOES use SD cards, and it would be very, very handy to be able to just pop the memory card out of the PDA when I'm away on a jobsite, copy a few files to/from it, then pop it back into the unit.
Infact, I'd keep one of these SD cards with me instead of using USB keychain drives. Smaller and handier.
So perhaps not as useful for digital cameras, but it could be a useful technology for others that don't want to worry about packing around cables or readers.
I don't know where they got #5 from... I'm running an X800 right now and I didn't have any problem finding one / buying one.
I was under the impression that for something to be vaporware, it had to be almost completely unavailable. Going into a local computer store and picking up one off the shelf would seem to negate this...
You are correct - analog sound waves originating in an environment can never be represented in a digital format with the same clarity as the original sound pressure waves.
That said, digital sampling provides the best possible resolution and reproduction for storing and reproducing analog sound captures if you aim to get back exactly what was fed-in.
You don't have to agree, you're just totally wrong.
Analog storage is limited by the speed of the recording medium and the amount of surface area utilized to store the analog soundwaves (in whatever fashion).
Even professional recording gear resolves far less sound information than what digital audio gear can do... Sure, a standard CD is a pretty paltry 44khz/16bit. So crank it up to professional units... 96khz or higher, go to 24bit recording... Still not enough? Go even higher if you want, but you'd be deluding yourself if you think you'll hear the difference.
The sound quality that people tend to like in analog gear is a result of the imprecision of the devices. Signals tend to leak, get transformed and modified by the analog gear they pass through, and also as it relates to the environment the gear is in (RF interference, atmospherics, etc). Some would argue that it gives them a "wamer, richer tone", but it all boils down to analog devices not maintaining an exact representation of the sound they are conveying.
So yes, you probably can tell the difference, but what you're hearing isn't a result of the storage medium, but of interm processing and modification through imprecise devices.
If you were to take the same output of the analog tape deck and record it into a high-quality digital deck (at the aforementioned 96/24), then play both of those back, you'd never be able to tell the difference.
So, if you want to argue that you prefer sound processed through analog gear, that's just fine. To call digital "lower quality" is foolish.
Yup - advertising (of course), paint up your brand new promotional vehicle with the latest ad-campaign, and when the campaign is over, just peel it off and paint-on the new one.
As they say in the link though, it's only for temporary use - it probably wouldn't survive in "the elements" very well. It would start looking like a car with a bad sunburn after a while when the latex stuff starts peeling off.
I used to put TechTV on because I enjoyed the personalities of the hosts and it was genuinely a fun and entertaining channel to watch.
As soon as they merged (got taken-over by) G4, it became a dumb, loud "gamer channel" that I probably havn't watched more than 30 min of the entire year.
So, screw 'em. Hopefully the producers of G4 will be out of work soon. Sadly, knowing the industry, they'll go on to find other good shows to destroy.
Well, Japanese consumers are also willing to pay for quality. Unlike the vast majority of north americans who want cheap cheap cheap.
For example, say Walmart has a DVD player on for $50 and a much better DVD player that will last longer with more features for $100. Any bets which will sell out first?
People will buy the cheap POS and then cherfully return it for a replacement 6 months down the road when the power supply packs it in, or when the laser optics go out of alignment.
Is it any wonder that few Japanese (or Asian manufacturers for that matter) want to sell us cutting-edge technology first? They'd rather sell to Japanese consumers as a built-in "test market", and refine their products to decrease the price before releasing them internationally.
Take VCRs for example. When a brand new S-VHS deck was introduced by mitsubishi years ago in Japan, if you had a look inside it, it was built like a tank, had tons of digital effects built-in, and was a very high-end piece of AV gear designed to last years.
By the time the north american models were introduced, the internal components were mostly redesigned with plastic (gears, feed arms, etc), all the extra digital features were stripped out to save money, and it was basically a cheap POS disposable machine that could actually be sold to north american consumers at a price they were willing to pay.
Ya, I had a similar problem with a DVD that I got as a gift - opened it up and discovered it was infact fullscreen.
Brought it back to Walmart where I waited in line for 20 min at the returns counter to find out that "they had to process it at the DVD counter", so off to the DVD counter.
Give it to the guy at the DVD counter who says "no problem", gets the widescreen version, and proceeds to whip out a big knife to cut the package open (store policy! if you bring back an opened DVD, they have to cut-open the replacement they give you!). Bozo's knife slips into the DVD case as he's hacking away, and scratches the disc (which I don't discover 'till I get home - fortunately it still plays OK).
Then it's back to the original line I waited in to wait for another 20 min so they can "process the return". I was about ready to kill...
I tried freenet a couple years ago as a bit of an experiment, but the transfer speeds I was experiencing were akin to dialup... On a 300baud modem.
Seriously, it was painful to use. I think I had it installed for a couple days before I announced it as a "failed experiment" and erased it.
Maybe it has improved now, but it would take far faster speeds, and a self-contained native windows client with built-in browser before I'd be interested in trying it again.
A CO2 laser is completely invisible, but you can cut steel with it... It makes no difference whatsoever if the beam is visible or not. It's the power rating that determines the laser class, not the wavelength of the beam.
http://www.asu.edu/radiationsafety/laser/appn_C. ht ml
What they DO say is that class 1 lasers sometimes have more powerful beams inside the device, so opening it may expose you to a more powerful beam than what's coming out of the aperature.
As far as I'm concerned, the Archos Gmini 400 IS an iPod killer.
-20gb -Colour screen -MP3, WAV, WMV playback -Line in for recording (or built-in mic)
Oh yes... Did I mention it's also about the same size as an iPod, can play video (divx/xvid at up to 640x400), either sized-down for the internal screen, or via a video-out on it to hook to your TV that you can also use to view photos, or play games (yes, you can load games onto it too).
It also has a built-in CF interface for transferring photos from a CF-equipped camera to the HD for storage/offloading.
A lot of people will remove the tire or seat to make it less appealing to thieves. A thief walking away with a bike missing a tire, or rolling one along without a seat is going to be more obvious than one who just cuts the chain.
Yup, all it means (from the article) is that the companies are now putting their EULAs on their websites and a sticker or label on the box that says "the EULA is here (insert URL), you may wish to check it before purchasing this product".
Slashdot Mirror
Yup, same here. R200, beautiful prints in about 3 minutes directly onto inkjet printable media (cheap, from many manufacturers). Full color.
I'll take this any day over a B&W only printer that takes 45 minutes for a high quality label and uses proprietary discs... (cawf).
N.
Well, I can see this working two ways...
1) People will get infected with worms, trojans, etc because of Windows security flaws. Because they can't update anymore (potentially), they'll run out and buy a legit copy of windows for $150-$200.
or
2) People will get infected with worms, trojans, etc because of Windows security flaws. They'll say "who cares if my box sends spam or transmits worms, I'm not spending a dime" and just let their box be infected so long as they can keep using it. Spammers and such will love this, and create worms that are purposefully non-destructive and simply allow for remote DoS attacks, email spamming, etc.
I bet on #2...
N.
I think the final page of the review said it best "Tenomichi's 3D Edit is a curious beast, and a very British kind of editing application."
Lots of style, not so much substance. I'll stick with Avid.
N.
It was only after I wrote this that I realized that the printer I used to really like in school was an HP Laserjet 4. It was built like a tank, had a toner cart that lasted a long time, and was generally a good all-around printer.
What happened to HP? They used to have good hardware that was extremely reliable and which performed well.
When I saw a laserjet 6 around '99 or 2000, I laughed, it was all cheap plastic and didn't last more than a couple months in our office.
How the mighty have fallen...
N.
Exactly...
HP makes shitty printers and even shittier scanners...
Don't buy their crap.
N.
Oddly enough, the pirated MP3s often have higher bitrates than I use myself. A lot of people are using 384kbps CBR encoding for MP3s they share.
I prefer more efficient VBR encoding, so I use that and get smaller file sizes. Well, or OGG for my pocketpc.
N.
And for some more black-hole info:
:). The last time I watched it, I was surprised how dark it was (no pun intended) for a "Disney Movie". May also have explained why I liked it so much as a kid...
Black Hole FAQ
And on a side note, it's been a long time since I've watched my DVD of "The Black Hole", so I may have to do that now
N.
Well, actually, I'm interested in getting it. But not because I have any interest in using it in a digital camera (mine use CF as well).
But my PDA on the other hand DOES use SD cards, and it would be very, very handy to be able to just pop the memory card out of the PDA when I'm away on a jobsite, copy a few files to/from it, then pop it back into the unit.
Infact, I'd keep one of these SD cards with me instead of using USB keychain drives. Smaller and handier.
So perhaps not as useful for digital cameras, but it could be a useful technology for others that don't want to worry about packing around cables or readers.
N.
So you're representing what, like %0.000000000001 of the population then?
I imagine they'll be sad to lose your business.
N.
I don't know where they got #5 from... I'm running an X800 right now and I didn't have any problem finding one / buying one.
I was under the impression that for something to be vaporware, it had to be almost completely unavailable. Going into a local computer store and picking up one off the shelf would seem to negate this...
N.
Ok, I suppose I should clarify:
You are correct - analog sound waves originating in an environment can never be represented in a digital format with the same clarity as the original sound pressure waves.
That said, digital sampling provides the best possible resolution and reproduction for storing and reproducing analog sound captures if you aim to get back exactly what was fed-in.
N.
You don't have to agree, you're just totally wrong.
Analog storage is limited by the speed of the recording medium and the amount of surface area utilized to store the analog soundwaves (in whatever fashion).
Even professional recording gear resolves far less sound information than what digital audio gear can do... Sure, a standard CD is a pretty paltry 44khz/16bit. So crank it up to professional units... 96khz or higher, go to 24bit recording... Still not enough? Go even higher if you want, but you'd be deluding yourself if you think you'll hear the difference.
The sound quality that people tend to like in analog gear is a result of the imprecision of the devices. Signals tend to leak, get transformed and modified by the analog gear they pass through, and also as it relates to the environment the gear is in (RF interference, atmospherics, etc). Some would argue that it gives them a "wamer, richer tone", but it all boils down to analog devices not maintaining an exact representation of the sound they are conveying.
So yes, you probably can tell the difference, but what you're hearing isn't a result of the storage medium, but of interm processing and modification through imprecise devices.
If you were to take the same output of the analog tape deck and record it into a high-quality digital deck (at the aforementioned 96/24), then play both of those back, you'd never be able to tell the difference.
So, if you want to argue that you prefer sound processed through analog gear, that's just fine. To call digital "lower quality" is foolish.
N.
Yup - advertising (of course), paint up your brand new promotional vehicle with the latest ad-campaign, and when the campaign is over, just peel it off and paint-on the new one.
As they say in the link though, it's only for temporary use - it probably wouldn't survive in "the elements" very well. It would start looking like a car with a bad sunburn after a while when the latex stuff starts peeling off.
N.
I had a look - it's intersting that they only pay out what's left after taking their "administrative expenses" into account...
I'd be eager to hear from small and up & coming artists themselves to prove that they're actually receiving nice fat paycheques...
I suspect they're not, and won't be...
N.
I used to put TechTV on because I enjoyed the personalities of the hosts and it was genuinely a fun and entertaining channel to watch.
As soon as they merged (got taken-over by) G4, it became a dumb, loud "gamer channel" that I probably havn't watched more than 30 min of the entire year.
So, screw 'em. Hopefully the producers of G4 will be out of work soon. Sadly, knowing the industry, they'll go on to find other good shows to destroy.
N.
Actually, it's not collected by SOCAN.
It's collected by the CPCC (Canadian Private Copying Collective).
http://www.cpcc.ca/english/index.htm
And to my knowledge, they have never paid out a cent of the levy they have collected.
N.
Well, Japanese consumers are also willing to pay for quality. Unlike the vast majority of north americans who want cheap cheap cheap.
For example, say Walmart has a DVD player on for $50 and a much better DVD player that will last longer with more features for $100. Any bets which will sell out first?
People will buy the cheap POS and then cherfully return it for a replacement 6 months down the road when the power supply packs it in, or when the laser optics go out of alignment.
Is it any wonder that few Japanese (or Asian manufacturers for that matter) want to sell us cutting-edge technology first? They'd rather sell to Japanese consumers as a built-in "test market", and refine their products to decrease the price before releasing them internationally.
Take VCRs for example. When a brand new S-VHS deck was introduced by mitsubishi years ago in Japan, if you had a look inside it, it was built like a tank, had tons of digital effects built-in, and was a very high-end piece of AV gear designed to last years.
By the time the north american models were introduced, the internal components were mostly redesigned with plastic (gears, feed arms, etc), all the extra digital features were stripped out to save money, and it was basically a cheap POS disposable machine that could actually be sold to north american consumers at a price they were willing to pay.
N.
Ya, I had a similar problem with a DVD that I got as a gift - opened it up and discovered it was infact fullscreen.
Brought it back to Walmart where I waited in line for 20 min at the returns counter to find out that "they had to process it at the DVD counter", so off to the DVD counter.
Give it to the guy at the DVD counter who says "no problem", gets the widescreen version, and proceeds to whip out a big knife to cut the package open (store policy! if you bring back an opened DVD, they have to cut-open the replacement they give you!). Bozo's knife slips into the DVD case as he's hacking away, and scratches the disc (which I don't discover 'till I get home - fortunately it still plays OK).
Then it's back to the original line I waited in to wait for another 20 min so they can "process the return". I was about ready to kill...
N.
I tried freenet a couple years ago as a bit of an experiment, but the transfer speeds I was experiencing were akin to dialup... On a 300baud modem.
Seriously, it was painful to use. I think I had it installed for a couple days before I announced it as a "failed experiment" and erased it.
Maybe it has improved now, but it would take far faster speeds, and a self-contained native windows client with built-in browser before I'd be interested in trying it again.
N.
A CO2 laser is completely invisible, but you can cut steel with it... It makes no difference whatsoever if the beam is visible or not. It's the power rating that determines the laser class, not the wavelength of the beam.
. ht ml
http://www.asu.edu/radiationsafety/laser/appn_C
What they DO say is that class 1 lasers sometimes have more powerful beams inside the device, so opening it may expose you to a more powerful beam than what's coming out of the aperature.
N.
I forwarded this to our IT guys at work... I never heard back from them...
Not sure if they're amused, annoyed, scared, or they just tried it themselves and have no ethernet connection with which to reply to me...
N.
As far as I'm concerned, the Archos Gmini 400 IS an iPod killer.
-20gb
-Colour screen
-MP3, WAV, WMV playback
-Line in for recording (or built-in mic)
Oh yes... Did I mention it's also about the same size as an iPod, can play video (divx/xvid at up to 640x400), either sized-down for the internal screen, or via a video-out on it to hook to your TV that you can also use to view photos, or play games (yes, you can load games onto it too).
It also has a built-in CF interface for transferring photos from a CF-equipped camera to the HD for storage/offloading.
Gmini 400
If I was buying a HD player, it's where my money would be as a consumer.
N.
How about just a DVD-R left in a burner with a cron script that just keeps adding sessions as it does backups during (whatever) timeframe?
Once it's burned, it's not going anywhere...
N.
A lot of people will remove the tire or seat to make it less appealing to thieves. A thief walking away with a bike missing a tire, or rolling one along without a seat is going to be more obvious than one who just cuts the chain.
N.
Yup, all it means (from the article) is that the companies are now putting their EULAs on their websites and a sticker or label on the box that says "the EULA is here (insert URL), you may wish to check it before purchasing this product".
Not exactly a vast improvement...
N.