True, but hydrogen is really the ultimate fuel if we can produce and store it well and that's why research is needed - its not totally far off that we'll crack these problems. Before that its important to wake people up to the idea of alternative vehicles, at the moment hydrogen and electric cars are seen as a joke (partly because car manufactures design them to look like a joke), tho gas-electric hybrids seem like a good idea especially in the city, its depressing to sit in traffic thinking of all the petrol being burnt for absolutely no reason and the hordes of low-mileage cunts who don't seem to understand the idea of non-renewable energy.
..so i'll say again, its not 'piracy', that's when you COPY someone's product and SELL it cheaper but at a higher profit to you. Technically this is IP 'theft' for the sharers and potential sale circumvention for the views. But really who cares.
Seriously, if the retards at Blockbuster marketing had just said "we've added an extra week to all rentals" - which is really what they've done, then there wouldn't be any of this hassle for them. They deserve everything they are about to get for a stupid marketing gimmick that just obfuscates their real policy.
Its weird because TV here hasn't gotten to the stage where advertising makes it unwatchable, from what i see/hear in the 'states you guys have to deal with adverts around every 5 minutes, scrolling crap, banners, and stupid station logos, we have none of that, adverts every 15 or 30 minutes and at least the oldy free terrestrial channels have the sense to understand that the channel name can be transmitted with the teletext so its really really not needed on screen. Most US shows are about one series behind, sometimes more or less, and free-to-air digital (from aerial) tv is becoming quite popular which has more stuff. I download shows when they just aren't being shown soon enough over hear - what can I say: if you go and make your show SO exciting that I cant wait for the next series then im going to want to watch the next series one way or another, either cash in or shut up. Ok yes i know i can pay for cable/satellite/extra stuff but id rather just pay for the one or two things i want to see, and not be ripped off buy some £50 DVD set - not enough is being done to provide these things the way people want and at the price people want, so people are taking matters into their own hands, they're probably going to watch the shows again when they come on TV so whats the big deal? You can give me some moral crap but my morals are questionable so i dont care.
Actually women here are hot, at least in London, and the.. erm foreign restaurants are great, but way too expensive, and rain is cool too. Oh and since privatisation, our transport system is second to none, i don't think there's been a train crash, or air traffic control failure in at least 2 days, London roads are clear thanks to our wonderful Mayors use of public funds, you can actually set your watch by the bus.
OMG! i play GTA too! do you think im going to be safe? i really hope i don't suddenly start shooting people, im going to go and unplug everything and break the disk in half, should i burn it too? Seriously, im really scared because this guy was obviously hypnotised or something buy this game and was helpless to go and kill people.
This sort of bullshit really pisses me off, where do these people get off gold-digging like this? The fact is, normal people do not get hypnotised or 'motivated' by video games, only mentally unstable people are prone and these people should probably NOT be allowed out on the streets.
I say it didn't go far enough, instead of just RFID tags, full GPS should have been used, that way kids could be caught running in the halls, crowding round a toilet (that means someone is getting dunked), cutting in line for lunch and making-out in the bike shed (2 people should NOT be that close together). There would be a display with little dots showing their position at all times. You could even add sensors to this device to make sure its never removed, and a microphone and camera so you can patch in to any kid. Im certain the school would run like clockwork, no-one would be out-of-line, especially after the electric shock modules were installed.
How much is actually produced in the US, vs produced in other countries on behalf of us companies which make the profit? turn over all the electronic gadgets in your house and tell me how many say "made in the USA" on the back? where are the components in your PC made from? The US makes 14% of the worlds cars but uses closer to 25%
The USA's GDP is 21% of the worlds, the EU's is very slightly higher but its green-house and co2 emissions are nearly half.
(Source, CIA-world-factbook, BBC, some weird car population chart, correct me if the figures are wrong)
So wait this can be good or bad, either you will no longer be able submit digital pictures and financial records as evidence of XYZ Corp.'s illegal under the table dealings with Senator Cock-Nose allowing them to kill babies, dump nuclear waste and go tax free, or it can make it impossible for the RIAA/MPAA/DMCARCALSVPT to subpoena you with a print-out of your ISP's traffic log for stealing Britney Spears record sales or talking about breaking encryption schemes.
Just to clarify what wasn't quite mentioned in the articles:
Kyoto countries account for 55% of 'Greenhouse Emissions' together, and the USA accounts for 36%.
Population wise, the USA makes up 4.6% of the world. I don't know about the combined populations of Kyoto countries but it includes the 3 greatest populations: China, India and the EU which means Kyoto countries make up at least 45% of the worlds population.
In the worlds economy (don't know how this is calculated) the USA makes up 30% and the EU 23%, Japan 14%, China 3.2%. Which puts Kyoto countries' economies at at least 40% of the world
It is somewhat unfair on people who buy small, fuel inefficient vehicles -- such as porsches and BMWs. I think they can afford it.
It's ironic that the alleged reason for Oregon exploring this system is that they fear improved fuel economy will reduce gasoline tax revenue. If so, good -- raise gasoline taxes more: it will create a virtuous cycle of improved fuel efficiency and reduced road use.
one reason: dirty, greedy, earth polluting Hummer loving lobbyists.
What you probably had was Macrovisions analog protection system - AFAIK, all DVD Players are fitted with Macrovisions system which does some trickery with the analog output of the DVD player (modulation or something) which fools the automatic gain controls in most video recorders but doesn't otherwise show up on TV. The clever bit I believe is that in order for this protection system to be activated, the actual DVD must contain a flag, so that Macrovision can scam COUGH charge each film maker royalties for using the system with their disk. This is monopoly at work because Macrovision probably also collects royalties from whoever manufactures DVD players, even though the DVD 'authorities' probably mandate the inclusion of the Macrovision circuit. As usual, this protection can get in the way of legitimate users, people with old TVs for example often have to plug their DVD player into their video machine which plugs into their TV, which then won't play the DVD properly. Of course it can be defeated - most video capture cards are too smart for it, simple filtering devices can be bought or made or signal modulators can be used, and more professional machines can get around it.
Theres an ideal price at which a company will make the most money from selling at: lets say market research shows that you will sell 1 million units at $1, revenue will be $1m. But what if research shows that if you up the price to $2 you will sell only 600,000 units - your revenue is $1.2m! further still if you set the price at $3 the prediction may be that you will sell 300,000 and only make $900,000. Prices are determined not by cost, but by the price that people are willing to pay. Luckily for anyone with a business sense (and one day I hope thats me) you can charge people allot more than you should be able to because generally people are dumb, lazy and desperate for whatever it is you are selling and better still: consumers aren't unionised!!
From the article (and it leaves allot to the imagination) im guessing they've basically slowed down the read time of the disk to x1 speed (ie the same speed that a DVD player reads at when you watch a film). It doesn't seem impossible to do this, maybe by adding some fake errors or doing something to the disk's tracks so that it has to slow down for example. It would have to cause roughly the same slow-down on all players though no matter how well engineered they were. However TFA is confusing, at the top it says 'blocks' copying software and further down it says it stops copying software from ripping quickly, and then there's the 97% figure, it only takes 3% of programs to break it and _everyone_ will switch to using those 3% of programs. And of course it only takes 1 copy to make a million copies, but for the moment they just want to slow the process, that is until they manage to get the government to mandate the death penalty for the DMCA.
I think in this case the data was stolen, not sold (at least that's what they say eh?) but the DPA would have some sort of compensation for that, or the company would be in shit for incompetence so that's their motivation to make sure your data is safe. I really don't understand this ID card exemption, it makes absolutely no sense - putting aside the arguments for and against ID cards for a second and just assuming they are a good idea, what possible reason is there to make them DPA exempt!?
I agree, certainly with digital cameras that also play mp3s - thats just a stupid combo. But mobile phones are quickly becoming the modern urban Swiss army knife. they are so small, most people don't so much as take the rubbish out without theirs. They have already become most peoples' 3rd essential item, only your wallet and keys are more important when you're out and about and phones will probably replace those for some people quite soon.
COUGH erm.. im pretty sure it will have head-phones and the sound quality of any current mini mp3 player. But yes, the phone industry is about making obscene amounts of money off of your investment (comms equipment) without actually doing much.
As long as it plays mp3's and connects directly to my PC i don't care.
Yes i realise that, and thats totally fine, but the government bought it up and frankly i think the government can do a better job of running it unless you can argue otherwise? why did it go back to private companies? did the government make so much money from the sale as to make it worthwhile for the most important people: the general public? - sometimes in management, democracy works better than capitalism, better for the voters that is.
After reading some of the comments here im shocked, lucky I don't need to take trains much, the tube is bad enough. but seriously - the fikin doors wont open because theres no satellite reception to tell the train that its in a station wtf? This is beyond a joke, how is it even possible for some fucking idiot to design a system like that? Who is responsible and why haven't they been fired? This just brings down the country, we used to be able to run trains so punctually people could set their clocks by them - literally, and now we've been reduced to the entire system coming to a halt because of some leaves or clouds in a country that is leafy and cloudy half the bloody time! Margaret Thatcher was a bitch, at least when major back-bone systems are controlled by the government, the voter can hire and fire any idiots and still only pay half price. I can't wait until we privatise the police and army, it'll be designer uniforms, advertising-patches and 'you have the right to remain silent, sponsored by Vodaphone text&go'
ok thats the privatisation and incompetent people rant over..
Slashdot Mirror
True, but hydrogen is really the ultimate fuel if we can produce and store it well and that's why research is needed - its not totally far off that we'll crack these problems. Before that its important to wake people up to the idea of alternative vehicles, at the moment hydrogen and electric cars are seen as a joke (partly because car manufactures design them to look like a joke), tho gas-electric hybrids seem like a good idea especially in the city, its depressing to sit in traffic thinking of all the petrol being burnt for absolutely no reason and the hordes of low-mileage cunts who don't seem to understand the idea of non-renewable energy.
..so i'll say again, its not 'piracy', that's when you COPY someone's product and SELL it cheaper but at a higher profit to you. Technically this is IP 'theft' for the sharers and potential sale circumvention for the views. But really who cares.
Straw + Lots of electric cables packed as tight as possible.. Hmmmmm
Seriously, if the retards at Blockbuster marketing had just said "we've added an extra week to all rentals" - which is really what they've done, then there wouldn't be any of this hassle for them. They deserve everything they are about to get for a stupid marketing gimmick that just obfuscates their real policy.
Its weird because TV here hasn't gotten to the stage where advertising makes it unwatchable, from what i see/hear in the 'states you guys have to deal with adverts around every 5 minutes, scrolling crap, banners, and stupid station logos, we have none of that, adverts every 15 or 30 minutes and at least the oldy free terrestrial channels have the sense to understand that the channel name can be transmitted with the teletext so its really really not needed on screen. Most US shows are about one series behind, sometimes more or less, and free-to-air digital (from aerial) tv is becoming quite popular which has more stuff. I download shows when they just aren't being shown soon enough over hear - what can I say: if you go and make your show SO exciting that I cant wait for the next series then im going to want to watch the next series one way or another, either cash in or shut up. Ok yes i know i can pay for cable/satellite/extra stuff but id rather just pay for the one or two things i want to see, and not be ripped off buy some £50 DVD set - not enough is being done to provide these things the way people want and at the price people want, so people are taking matters into their own hands, they're probably going to watch the shows again when they come on TV so whats the big deal? You can give me some moral crap but my morals are questionable so i dont care.
Actually women here are hot, at least in London, and the.. erm foreign restaurants are great, but way too expensive, and rain is cool too. Oh and since privatisation, our transport system is second to none, i don't think there's been a train crash, or air traffic control failure in at least 2 days, London roads are clear thanks to our wonderful Mayors use of public funds, you can actually set your watch by the bus.
OMG! i play GTA too! do you think im going to be safe? i really hope i don't suddenly start shooting people, im going to go and unplug everything and break the disk in half, should i burn it too? Seriously, im really scared because this guy was obviously hypnotised or something buy this game and was helpless to go and kill people.
This sort of bullshit really pisses me off, where do these people get off gold-digging like this? The fact is, normal people do not get hypnotised or 'motivated' by video games, only mentally unstable people are prone and these people should probably NOT be allowed out on the streets.
I say it didn't go far enough, instead of just RFID tags, full GPS should have been used, that way kids could be caught running in the halls, crowding round a toilet (that means someone is getting dunked), cutting in line for lunch and making-out in the bike shed (2 people should NOT be that close together). There would be a display with little dots showing their position at all times. You could even add sensors to this device to make sure its never removed, and a microphone and camera so you can patch in to any kid. Im certain the school would run like clockwork, no-one would be out-of-line, especially after the electric shock modules were installed.
AFAIK Kyoto targets greenhouse gasses as a whole, not just CO2.
How much is actually produced in the US, vs produced in other countries on behalf of us companies which make the profit? turn over all the electronic gadgets in your house and tell me how many say "made in the USA" on the back? where are the components in your PC made from? The US makes 14% of the worlds cars but uses closer to 25%
The USA's GDP is 21% of the worlds, the EU's is very slightly higher but its green-house and co2 emissions are nearly half.
(Source, CIA-world-factbook, BBC, some weird car population chart, correct me if the figures are wrong)
So wait this can be good or bad, either you will no longer be able submit digital pictures and financial records as evidence of XYZ Corp.'s illegal under the table dealings with Senator Cock-Nose allowing them to kill babies, dump nuclear waste and go tax free, or it can make it impossible for the RIAA/MPAA/DMCARCALSVPT to subpoena you with a print-out of your ISP's traffic log for stealing Britney Spears record sales or talking about breaking encryption schemes.
Currently:
USA: CO2: 24%, Population: 4.6%
China: CO2: 13%, Population: 21%
India: CO2: 4%, Population: 17%
Damn lameness filter
Can't help myself.. who's family and friends' business interests profit most from the war in Iraq?
Just to clarify what wasn't quite mentioned in the articles:
Kyoto countries account for 55% of 'Greenhouse Emissions' together, and the USA accounts for 36%.
Population wise, the USA makes up 4.6% of the world. I don't know about the combined populations of Kyoto countries but it includes the 3 greatest populations: China, India and the EU which means Kyoto countries make up at least 45% of the worlds population.
In the worlds economy (don't know how this is calculated) the USA makes up 30% and the EU 23%, Japan 14%, China 3.2%. Which puts Kyoto countries' economies at at least 40% of the world
Source is mostly BBC, not sure of the accuracy.
Its already nearly $10 a gallon in the UK!
It is somewhat unfair on people who buy small, fuel inefficient vehicles -- such as porsches and BMWs. I think they can afford it.
It's ironic that the alleged reason for Oregon exploring this system is that they fear improved fuel economy will reduce gasoline tax revenue. If so, good -- raise gasoline taxes more: it will create a virtuous cycle of improved fuel efficiency and reduced road use.
one reason: dirty, greedy, earth polluting Hummer loving lobbyists.
Yes but whats their bullshit (ie public) reason?
What you probably had was Macrovisions analog protection system - AFAIK, all DVD Players are fitted with Macrovisions system which does some trickery with the analog output of the DVD player (modulation or something) which fools the automatic gain controls in most video recorders but doesn't otherwise show up on TV. The clever bit I believe is that in order for this protection system to be activated, the actual DVD must contain a flag, so that Macrovision can scam COUGH charge each film maker royalties for using the system with their disk. This is monopoly at work because Macrovision probably also collects royalties from whoever manufactures DVD players, even though the DVD 'authorities' probably mandate the inclusion of the Macrovision circuit. As usual, this protection can get in the way of legitimate users, people with old TVs for example often have to plug their DVD player into their video machine which plugs into their TV, which then won't play the DVD properly. Of course it can be defeated - most video capture cards are too smart for it, simple filtering devices can be bought or made or signal modulators can be used, and more professional machines can get around it.
Theres an ideal price at which a company will make the most money from selling at: lets say market research shows that you will sell 1 million units at $1, revenue will be $1m. But what if research shows that if you up the price to $2 you will sell only 600,000 units - your revenue is $1.2m! further still if you set the price at $3 the prediction may be that you will sell 300,000 and only make $900,000. Prices are determined not by cost, but by the price that people are willing to pay. Luckily for anyone with a business sense (and one day I hope thats me) you can charge people allot more than you should be able to because generally people are dumb, lazy and desperate for whatever it is you are selling and better still: consumers aren't unionised!!
From the article (and it leaves allot to the imagination) im guessing they've basically slowed down the read time of the disk to x1 speed (ie the same speed that a DVD player reads at when you watch a film). It doesn't seem impossible to do this, maybe by adding some fake errors or doing something to the disk's tracks so that it has to slow down for example. It would have to cause roughly the same slow-down on all players though no matter how well engineered they were. However TFA is confusing, at the top it says 'blocks' copying software and further down it says it stops copying software from ripping quickly, and then there's the 97% figure, it only takes 3% of programs to break it and _everyone_ will switch to using those 3% of programs. And of course it only takes 1 copy to make a million copies, but for the moment they just want to slow the process, that is until they manage to get the government to mandate the death penalty for the DMCA.
because when someone aquires a rare part, the first thing the geek in them says is "duuude i could build an X with this!"
I think in this case the data was stolen, not sold (at least that's what they say eh?) but the DPA would have some sort of compensation for that, or the company would be in shit for incompetence so that's their motivation to make sure your data is safe. I really don't understand this ID card exemption, it makes absolutely no sense - putting aside the arguments for and against ID cards for a second and just assuming they are a good idea, what possible reason is there to make them DPA exempt!?
I agree, certainly with digital cameras that also play mp3s - thats just a stupid combo. But mobile phones are quickly becoming the modern urban Swiss army knife. they are so small, most people don't so much as take the rubbish out without theirs. They have already become most peoples' 3rd essential item, only your wallet and keys are more important when you're out and about and phones will probably replace those for some people quite soon.
COUGH
erm.. im pretty sure it will have head-phones and the sound quality of any current mini mp3 player. But yes, the phone industry is about making obscene amounts of money off of your investment (comms equipment) without actually doing much.
As long as it plays mp3's and connects directly to my PC i don't care.
Yes i realise that, and thats totally fine, but the government bought it up and frankly i think the government can do a better job of running it unless you can argue otherwise? why did it go back to private companies? did the government make so much money from the sale as to make it worthwhile for the most important people: the general public? - sometimes in management, democracy works better than capitalism, better for the voters that is.
After reading some of the comments here im shocked, lucky I don't need to take trains much, the tube is bad enough. but seriously - the fikin doors wont open because theres no satellite reception to tell the train that its in a station wtf? This is beyond a joke, how is it even possible for some fucking idiot to design a system like that? Who is responsible and why haven't they been fired? This just brings down the country, we used to be able to run trains so punctually people could set their clocks by them - literally, and now we've been reduced to the entire system coming to a halt because of some leaves or clouds in a country that is leafy and cloudy half the bloody time! Margaret Thatcher was a bitch, at least when major back-bone systems are controlled by the government, the voter can hire and fire any idiots and still only pay half price. I can't wait until we privatise the police and army, it'll be designer uniforms, advertising-patches and 'you have the right to remain silent, sponsored by Vodaphone text&go'
ok thats the privatisation and incompetent people rant over..