First, Sony already has an MP3 ready MiniDisc player. Check it out.
But unfortunatly all Sony portable "mp3 players" are not really MP3 players. They all require you to re-encode the files into Sony's proprietary, DRM locked format, ATRAC3. And you have to use their crappy software too. And files must be checked in and checked out so you can't have them on more than one device at a time.
No thanks, Sony.
Ha! I'm 22, don't have a credit card, have absolutely no debt and I'm loving it. Everything I own, including my car, was paid for in cash. I only buy things I can afford and this strategy has not lead me astray. Sure, I don't have the nicest car or loudest stereo or an Italian leather sofa. But I also am not being hounded by creditors and don't have to pay 20% interest on all my purchases. Besides, when you're in debt that stuff isn't yours anyway.
My advice: cut up your credit card. Quit buying shit. If you can't afford it, you don't need it.
Maybe my imagination just sucks from too much TV, but verbal imagery never seems to affect my appetite. I was told that after reading Upton Sinclair's The Jungle I would never want to eat meat again, but as the book vividly described the unsanitary factory conditions, the diseased meat being passed by inspectors, the rancid smell of dead flesh, humans being made into lard after falling into the rendering machine, fingers and rats and whatnot being ground into sausages... all I could think is, "Damn! I really want a cheeseburger right about now."
You know, roast squirrel sounds really good right now.
Not in California. The cops here couldn't give a flying fuck about weed. Even if you are busted, at absolute worst you'll get sentenced to a couple months of out-patient rehab. More likely is they will write you a ticket (possesion of less than 28g is an infraction in CA). Even more likely is they will take your pot and let you go. You aren't going to get arrested for smoking weed in the bathroom at a concert.
Not every state has backward-thinking, regressive lawmakers who want to lock you away for 5 years for possessing a pipe or smoking a jay. Some states are actually trying to move things forward.
I first played Metal Gear Solid after I had finished MGS2, and even though the first game had poorer graphics and more limited gameplay mechanics, I thought it was a superior game on the whole. A remake of MGS would be incredible and I will probably buy a Gamecube just for this.
Of course, what I would really love to see is a remake of Final Fantasy 7. That would be truely amazing. Probably will never happen though. Square isn't that kind of company
That's pretty stupid. $1 coins are a total failure in the US, despite numerous attempts to get people to use them. And for good reason: Change is always falling out of my pocket. If I loose a penny or a dime, whatever. I don't want to be loosing whole dollars though.
Anyone wearing a costume where you went? I saw it at the Metreon in San Francisco on opening night, and there were actually quite a few people dressed up. A few Trinitys, a Neo or two, at least one Morpheous, and some other misc. characters were there. The best costume I saw was one girl went as The Matrix itself. She had painted her face black and drawn green characters on it. Very creative.
I dunno. When I rent a movie, I usually only get 1 or 2, because that's all I can fit into a two or three day period. But if these things were available, I might buy 10 movies at a time and watch them at my convenience. The countdown doesn't start until you open the package. If these things become popular, it will definitely change people's movie renting habits, but that doesn't necessarily spell doom for big rental chains.
You think most of that $20 cost is disc production? You're trippin'. You're paying for the movie, not for the disc. The cost of the DVD is high because movies are expensive to make. A DVD itself probably costs less than $2 to press, including the case. I would imagine these things will cost about $4 or so. About the same as Blockbuster, and a hell of a lot easier.
I had to stop using NetFlix a couple months ago because my USPS carrier wouldn't consistently put them in my apartment's mailbox (leaving them outside risking theft--those big red & white envelopes just scream FREE DVD!).
This is the exact reason I haven't subscribed to Netflix. My apartment has very small, unlockable mailboxes. Too small for a DVD. The mailman leaves anything too big for the mailbox just sitting out. I would never get my DVDs that way. People already steal my newspaper every day.
I was thinking about having them sent to my office, but the mailroom guy takes days and days to sort the mail, so I would never get them that way either. I also thought about getting a PO box for it, but that's an additional $10/mo just so DVDs wont get stolen. Seems excessive.
Guess there's no winning for apartment dwellers like myself.
I think you're wrong. You can tell the quality of the voice acting if you don't speak the language. Even though you can't understand the words, you can definitely understand the underlying emotion from the tone of voice. It makes a big difference compared to the usually monotonous toned American voice actors who couldn't emote their way out of a paper bag.
Sometimes a dub comes out really well (Inuyasha and Cowboy Bebop for some Cartoon Network examples), but typically, it's unbearable crap. Even though I can't understand the japanese track for Rouroni Kenshin, it is most certainly less harsh on the ears than the US dub.
I agree. We need to take it to the streets with large-scale, non-violent protests. It's the only way we can ever get noticed by big media. Our biggest problem is that very few people are aware of the cause, and the reason being that most people get all their info from TV news. TV news chooses to ignore us because we are against their cause, but you can't ignore 50,000 geeks marching outside RIAA headquaters.
The US has too many apathetic citizens who don't care enough about anything to vote third party.
We also have too many zealous sheep who strongly support their "party line", no matter what it is.
In addition, most people consider a third party vote as "throwing your vote away", as it means a vote is being taken away from a realistic candidate, and gives a person you absolutely don't want in power a better chance (many people blame Nader for Gore's loss in the 2000 election).
Finally, most third-party candidates are either out-of-touch idealists or teetering on the edge of insanity. Who's to say having them in power would be a good thing
A non-Repub/Demo leadership in Washington is not very likely. Ever.
Heh... well I'm on the working class side of the class war. I'm taking it to the streets every chance I get. Doesn't mean I have to buy a piece of crap computer though.
I myself have been thinking about getting a laptop. I am looking for something very portable, but something that isn't a piece of trash (like Dell or Compaq). I have been considering the IBM ThinkPad xSeries and Apple 12" Powerbook. Both appear to be quality machines. I have experience with IBM laptops and know they are built rock solid. However, the IBM is a little pricey. Apple is notorious for quality and seem to give you more features for less money than IBM, but I'm an x86 person so it would be quite an adjustment.
So, which one would my fellow Slashdotters recommend? IBM or Apple, or something else entirely?
Arrr, but the content industry's attitude is along the lines of, "What are you going to do about it, asshole?" Boo-hoo, their public image was hurt. What's the average trendy, oblivious, gullible consumer going to do? They need to obtain all the Brittany Spears albums that was forced down their throats, and there's only one source. While we know that there are alternatives to the oppresive music oligopoly, most people don't realize and will continue to buy thier product, love or hate the company. People were pissed about being Napster shut down. That was a huge blow to the record industry's PR. Didn't stop them from making millions and millions of dollars last year.
You could tell everyone in the audience was into the show, as there were big cheers any time there was any kind of "in-joke", such as Andy's appearance. The old, senile guys (do they have names?) got big cheers out of the crowd. My favorite in-joke was the resurrection of Big Shots. That entire scene was hysterical, but you wouldn't get it unless you were a fan of the show.
But the best line in the whole movie was Jet saying, "That ends another episode of 'Wasting Time with Faye'". I almost died laughing.
I got this translation of the RF features by running the Koren page (http://www.gamepark.co.kr/gp32zone/feature.asp) through Babelfish:
With the radio communication which is stabilized (obstacle or it shakes it does not woo) it is 1, ~4 the person li el the water supply shoes will do a time data in one group and it will be able to embody a network game only the bay it knows there is a possibility of enjoying the game whose 4 groups are different each.
¦ Superior proof of the short distance radio data communication technique which does not write the base country.
I've got to wonder how Babelfish comes up with these Koren translations. "Water supply shoes"?
No, Tekken is a "Fighter", where you have a one-on-one dual in a small arena. Beat'em Ups were games like Double Dragon and Final Fight, where you had large side-scrolling levels and fought many enemies.
I blame Street Fighter II for the Beat'em Up demise. It was such a hit that everyone decided to clone it and abandon the old side-scroller style. To this day, most fighting games are basically vastly improved clones of Street Figher II.
I was looking at Cartoon Network's schedule, and it looks like, starting April 20th, Cartoon Network is getting rid of The Oblongs and Home Movies and will start showing Family Guy in the 11:30 timeslot Sun-Thu. How tight is that?
There was a story on Slashdot about "naming consultants" many many moons ago. They are the people who came up with all those dot-com era company names like "Agilent", "Accenture", and all those other stupid names by basically scouring the dictionary and inventing a new word out of two existing ones. And I think the fee was something like $50k per name.
I'm sure most of the people who went into that line of work are now living under a freeway overpass in a cardboard box.
I currently work on a helpdesk, and I feel am very fortunate to have the position (considering I got the job after only one month of unemployment and also that over 300 people applied for the spot). However, there are no promotion opportunities at my company and it is unlikely that there will be in the foreseeable future. The likelihood that I could get another job paying what I make now is also unlikely and probably will be for some time to come (I was offered a job as a Linux admin that paid $5000/yr less than the helpdesk). Although I do have some somewhat esoteric and uncommon skill sets (particularly AS/400), the IT future on the whole looks grim.
One of my coworkers had an interesting idea though. He was considering signing up with the California Highway Patrol. It seems like a good plan. Officers make over $50k a year for entry level, get tons of benefits (like $3000 a year for meals), extra perks/pay for specialized skills (such as piloting or even bilingual), and there is a real growth opportunity. Police officers are in high demand in California right now. Look in the classified in any paper and you will see several listings for several cities. Even my sleepy little hometown of Half Moon Bay, CA is always looking for new officers.
I actually considered, and am still considering, signing up too. I'll have to get in a little bit better shape before I do, but that's not a problem. It would be a rewarding job where I could make a difference, and make some cash too. Something to think about, anyway. You gotta give it up to the Uncle Sam. Best employer you could ever have.
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But unfortunatly all Sony portable "mp3 players" are not really MP3 players. They all require you to re-encode the files into Sony's proprietary, DRM locked format, ATRAC3. And you have to use their crappy software too. And files must be checked in and checked out so you can't have them on more than one device at a time.
No thanks, Sony.
My advice: cut up your credit card. Quit buying shit. If you can't afford it, you don't need it.
You know, roast squirrel sounds really good right now.
Not every state has backward-thinking, regressive lawmakers who want to lock you away for 5 years for possessing a pipe or smoking a jay. Some states are actually trying to move things forward.
Of course, what I would really love to see is a remake of Final Fantasy 7. That would be truely amazing. Probably will never happen though. Square isn't that kind of company
That's pretty stupid. $1 coins are a total failure in the US, despite numerous attempts to get people to use them. And for good reason: Change is always falling out of my pocket. If I loose a penny or a dime, whatever. I don't want to be loosing whole dollars though.
Anyone wearing a costume where you went? I saw it at the Metreon in San Francisco on opening night, and there were actually quite a few people dressed up. A few Trinitys, a Neo or two, at least one Morpheous, and some other misc. characters were there. The best costume I saw was one girl went as The Matrix itself. She had painted her face black and drawn green characters on it. Very creative.
I dunno. When I rent a movie, I usually only get 1 or 2, because that's all I can fit into a two or three day period. But if these things were available, I might buy 10 movies at a time and watch them at my convenience. The countdown doesn't start until you open the package. If these things become popular, it will definitely change people's movie renting habits, but that doesn't necessarily spell doom for big rental chains.
You think most of that $20 cost is disc production? You're trippin'. You're paying for the movie, not for the disc. The cost of the DVD is high because movies are expensive to make. A DVD itself probably costs less than $2 to press, including the case. I would imagine these things will cost about $4 or so. About the same as Blockbuster, and a hell of a lot easier.
Kazaa and Grokster's built in IM feature
This is the exact reason I haven't subscribed to Netflix. My apartment has very small, unlockable mailboxes. Too small for a DVD. The mailman leaves anything too big for the mailbox just sitting out. I would never get my DVDs that way. People already steal my newspaper every day.
I was thinking about having them sent to my office, but the mailroom guy takes days and days to sort the mail, so I would never get them that way either. I also thought about getting a PO box for it, but that's an additional $10/mo just so DVDs wont get stolen. Seems excessive.
Guess there's no winning for apartment dwellers like myself.
Sometimes a dub comes out really well (Inuyasha and Cowboy Bebop for some Cartoon Network examples), but typically, it's unbearable crap. Even though I can't understand the japanese track for Rouroni Kenshin, it is most certainly less harsh on the ears than the US dub.
"Who's internet? Our internet!"
A non-Repub/Demo leadership in Washington is not very likely. Ever.
Heh... well I'm on the working class side of the class war. I'm taking it to the streets every chance I get. Doesn't mean I have to buy a piece of crap computer though.
So, which one would my fellow Slashdotters recommend? IBM or Apple, or something else entirely?
Arrr, but the content industry's attitude is along the lines of, "What are you going to do about it, asshole?" Boo-hoo, their public image was hurt. What's the average trendy, oblivious, gullible consumer going to do? They need to obtain all the Brittany Spears albums that was forced down their throats, and there's only one source. While we know that there are alternatives to the oppresive music oligopoly, most people don't realize and will continue to buy thier product, love or hate the company. People were pissed about being Napster shut down. That was a huge blow to the record industry's PR. Didn't stop them from making millions and millions of dollars last year.
But the best line in the whole movie was Jet saying, "That ends another episode of 'Wasting Time with Faye'". I almost died laughing.
With the radio communication which is stabilized (obstacle or it shakes it does not woo) it is 1, ~4 the person li el the water supply shoes will do a time data in one group and it will be able to embody a network game only the bay it knows there is a possibility of enjoying the game whose 4 groups are different each. ¦ Superior proof of the short distance radio data communication technique which does not write the base country.
I've got to wonder how Babelfish comes up with these Koren translations. "Water supply shoes"?
I blame Street Fighter II for the Beat'em Up demise. It was such a hit that everyone decided to clone it and abandon the old side-scroller style. To this day, most fighting games are basically vastly improved clones of Street Figher II.
I was looking at Cartoon Network's schedule, and it looks like, starting April 20th, Cartoon Network is getting rid of The Oblongs and Home Movies and will start showing Family Guy in the 11:30 timeslot Sun-Thu. How tight is that?
I'm sure most of the people who went into that line of work are now living under a freeway overpass in a cardboard box.
If that is true, then what the hell is "Intellectual Property" and why do we have laws protecting it? You can own ideas/concepts in this country.
I kind of like their other poster better.
"When you pay for MP3s, You're rockin' out with The Man"
One of my coworkers had an interesting idea though. He was considering signing up with the California Highway Patrol. It seems like a good plan. Officers make over $50k a year for entry level, get tons of benefits (like $3000 a year for meals), extra perks/pay for specialized skills (such as piloting or even bilingual), and there is a real growth opportunity. Police officers are in high demand in California right now. Look in the classified in any paper and you will see several listings for several cities. Even my sleepy little hometown of Half Moon Bay, CA is always looking for new officers.
I actually considered, and am still considering, signing up too. I'll have to get in a little bit better shape before I do, but that's not a problem. It would be a rewarding job where I could make a difference, and make some cash too. Something to think about, anyway. You gotta give it up to the Uncle Sam. Best employer you could ever have.