One advantage MP3 will always have is that if I see a file with a mp3 extension, I know it won't have DRM crap on it. If the extension for.aac is the same for DRM or non, then you will never know. Why risk using files that may or may not be protected when you know you are safe with mp3?
I don't think your historical analogy about the correlation between oppressiveness and efficiency holds up. Maoist China, Soviet Russia, and Mobutu's Zaire were all highly oppressive and inefficient governments.
I would think that sailing between individual pacific islands is a far more difficult task than sailing between continents... This is because small islands present a much smaller target. Whereas Columbus could sail west from Spain and eventually hit some part of the giant landmass of the Americas, finding and sailing to Easter Island - a tiny isolated spec of land in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, is a far more remarkable accomplishment.
Yeah, think of how many lives could be saved if the billions of dollars this will cost was instead spent on this was spent on, say, childhood immunizations, prenatal care, or automobile safety. Why do we spend money for creating the appearance of action against obscure but frightening risks, instead of focusing on less glamorous areas where our efforts can actually make a difference?
I pity the developers who are making this product. They have been given a complex task and an arbitrarily chosen deadline, probably pulled out of the air by marketing/legal/upper management. Since September they have been on a death march to meet this date, sacrificing family time around the holiday season.
But you know what? It just ain't ready because it was a fools errand to begin with. My guess is they are working off of half-assed specs that weren't even ready before Thanksgiving. Maybe in a few more months they can have something good. But media partners getting pissy about it isn't going to help the code mature any faster.
In all honesty, if you were to ask me to construct a pyramid today--knowing what I know, I would build the core of the pyramid out of laid brick.
A lot of the later pyramids actually were built with a core of laid brick, and cased in stone. These didn't hold up as well as the older, all stone pyramids, like the Great Pyramid, because the bricks were made out of mud and eventually turned to dust. Today, a lot of the brick pyramids basically resemble mounds of dirt and rock, with the original pyramid shape just barely distinguishable.
But could you name even one fiat currency that isn't inflating and hasn't been inflating?
The Yen was deflating fairly recently. It has since gone back to very modest inflation, which is a good thing because it means the Japanese economy is finally growing again.
Currencies can inflate or deflate based on a number of factors, and the ability of the government to print more money is only one of them.
Inflation isn't just a function of money supply, its a funciton of velocity - how quickly that money changes hands. You could spend gold coins on ten different items, or you could spend one gold coin ten times on each different item.... but the price per item would remain at one gold coin because the change in velocity has negated the change in money supply.
This is to point out but one reason that the notion that there would be no inflation under a gold-backed money regime is clearly wrong. To pick historical examples of inflation in gold-backed economies, there was significant inflation throughout Eurasia during the 12th to 14th centuries, the 16th-17th and centuries, and the later 18th and early 19th century.
Social Security and Medicare are going to bankrupt us a lot faster than tomahawk missiles.
Last year military spending last year, at $494 billion, which exceeded combined Medicare and Social Security spending by $16 billion. Military spending also has a far higher growth rate... and will grow at an even more rediculous pace if George Bush desides to pick a fight with Iran.
At least social security and medicare have thier own dedicated source of funding. To fund all those tomahawk missles, we are borrowing money from the Chinese. So yes, the tomahawk missles are driving us to bankruptcy.
It kills me when people advocate cutting social programs, but wouldn't consider touching the bloated military budget. If we didn't spend so much money blowing things up, there would be plenty of money left over to make sure people aren't destitute in their old age.
The absolute *worst* UI paradigm that has plagued the computing world for the past decade is the maximize button.
Dissagree 100%. Not being able to maximize means having distracting clutter in the background, and increased opportunity to accedentally click on a back ground window and having it pop up in the middle of the page when you didn't want it, throwign you for a distraction when you are trying to get stuff done. Lack of maximize is one of my least favorite features in OS X.
Slashdot Mirror
1 candle = 1 hour * 1 candlepower
.00014 lumens/watt
.0021 candles/hundredweight of coal
.0092 candles/hundredweight of coal
.00336 candles/hundredweight of coal
1 candlepower = 12.57 lumens.
1 kg coal = 2000 watt hours
1 hundredweight coal = 100 lbs / 2.2 lb/kg = 45.5 kg = 91 kilowatt hours = 91000 watt-hours
1 candle/hundredweight coal = (1 candle * 1 hour * 12.57)/(91000 watts * 1 hour) = 12.57 lumens/91000 watts =
So, the 60 watt bulb at 15 lumens/watt =
The CFL at 69.2 lumens/watt =
And the LED at 24 lumens/watt =
Or something like that...
Yeah, but here we have Free Speech Zones. If you go to a Free Speech Zone, you can say anything you want. How cool is that?
The Yankees have weak-ass pitching this year. No chance they win 110 games. More likely 90.
One advantage MP3 will always have is that if I see a file with a mp3 extension, I know it won't have DRM crap on it. If the extension for .aac is the same for DRM or non, then you will never know. Why risk using files that may or may not be protected when you know you are safe with mp3?
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those things...
What advantage does Lua have over perl/python/ruby/other existing scripting languages that makes it worth investing the time to learn?
I don't think your historical analogy about the correlation between oppressiveness and efficiency holds up. Maoist China, Soviet Russia, and Mobutu's Zaire were all highly oppressive and inefficient governments.
If this came to pass, I would foresee a huge market for Congressional Cliffs Notes.
We must destroy the sun!
Care to explain what XHTML 1 accomplishes that HTML 4 doesn't?
Buzzword compliance.
I would think that sailing between individual pacific islands is a far more difficult task than sailing between continents... This is because small islands present a much smaller target. Whereas Columbus could sail west from Spain and eventually hit some part of the giant landmass of the Americas, finding and sailing to Easter Island - a tiny isolated spec of land in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, is a far more remarkable accomplishment.
Yeah, think of how many lives could be saved if the billions of dollars this will cost was instead spent on this was spent on, say, childhood immunizations, prenatal care, or automobile safety. Why do we spend money for creating the appearance of action against obscure but frightening risks, instead of focusing on less glamorous areas where our efforts can actually make a difference?
Must be because terrorists hate freedom.
Sen. Barbara Baxter (D-California) is one of the supporters of the system.
These expensive new anti-missile systems wouldn't happen to be made in Senator Boxer's home state of California, would they?
Yeah, all the money these days is in Giant Rabbits.
I pity the developers who are making this product. They have been given a complex task and an arbitrarily chosen deadline, probably pulled out of the air by marketing/legal/upper management. Since September they have been on a death march to meet this date, sacrificing family time around the holiday season.
But you know what? It just ain't ready because it was a fools errand to begin with. My guess is they are working off of half-assed specs that weren't even ready before Thanksgiving. Maybe in a few more months they can have something good. But media partners getting pissy about it isn't going to help the code mature any faster.
nullity*14 = nullity
So what is nullity * infinity?
nullity? infinity? nullfinity?
In all honesty, if you were to ask me to construct a pyramid today--knowing what I know, I would build the core of the pyramid out of laid brick.
A lot of the later pyramids actually were built with a core of laid brick, and cased in stone. These didn't hold up as well as the older, all stone pyramids, like the Great Pyramid, because the bricks were made out of mud and eventually turned to dust. Today, a lot of the brick pyramids basically resemble mounds of dirt and rock, with the original pyramid shape just barely distinguishable.
After the first attack on the WTT, there were no more attacks on American soil
*cough* ANTHRAX *cough*
But could you name even one fiat currency that isn't inflating and hasn't been inflating?
The Yen was deflating fairly recently. It has since gone back to very modest inflation, which is a good thing because it means the Japanese economy is finally growing again.
Currencies can inflate or deflate based on a number of factors, and the ability of the government to print more money is only one of them.
Inflation isn't just a function of money supply, its a funciton of velocity - how quickly that money changes hands. You could spend gold coins on ten different items, or you could spend one gold coin ten times on each different item.... but the price per item would remain at one gold coin because the change in velocity has negated the change in money supply.
This is to point out but one reason that the notion that there would be no inflation under a gold-backed money regime is clearly wrong. To pick historical examples of inflation in gold-backed economies, there was significant inflation throughout Eurasia during the 12th to 14th centuries, the 16th-17th and centuries, and the later 18th and early 19th century.
Social Security and Medicare are going to bankrupt us a lot faster than tomahawk missiles.
Last year military spending last year, at $494 billion, which exceeded combined Medicare and Social Security spending by $16 billion. Military spending also has a far higher growth rate... and will grow at an even more rediculous pace if George Bush desides to pick a fight with Iran.
At least social security and medicare have thier own dedicated source of funding. To fund all those tomahawk missles, we are borrowing money from the Chinese. So yes, the tomahawk missles are driving us to bankruptcy.
It kills me when people advocate cutting social programs, but wouldn't consider touching the bloated military budget. If we didn't spend so much money blowing things up, there would be plenty of money left over to make sure people aren't destitute in their old age.
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
North Korea
Northern Mariana Islands
Norway
Those are just the N's...
The absolute *worst* UI paradigm that has plagued the computing world for the past decade is the maximize button.
Dissagree 100%. Not being able to maximize means having distracting clutter in the background, and increased opportunity to accedentally click on a back ground window and having it pop up in the middle of the page when you didn't want it, throwign you for a distraction when you are trying to get stuff done. Lack of maximize is one of my least favorite features in OS X.
The 10% tax is on a Jackson. The tax on Benjamins is 2%.
Oh, and I disagree that Axis is any good at all
I agree that Axis sucks. XFire is another nice java alternative.
Well, I'm sorry to miss it then. I'll be busy watching paint dry...