Re:How can this possibly be accurate?
on
AAC Put To The Test
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· Score: 2, Insightful
While the first post was way off-base, there are two massive problems with this testing method: first, there is no standardized reproduction equipment. If you wanted to test only the codec, the test would need to be performed with everyone listening on the same (reference-quality) equipment. Secondly, because the test uses a nonrandom sample of people rather than professional listeners, the test measures how good people think the music sounds, rather than which codec actually reproduces the original recording the best; because people will typically not pick faithful reproductions as the best, the test cannot be construed as a measure of which codec works the best, but only of which one produces the sound most desirable to the the nonrandom sample group over imperfect reproduction equipment.
I think he was referring to the fact that Apple already started their own service, and after its monumental failure, they probably weren't too eager to get back into that market.
You just need to look at the response time when you buy an LCD; you want around 20ms to really eliminate streaking in games and video. Most cheap LCDs will have a 35-50ms response time, which is almost unwatchable; Samsungs are around 25ms, which is quite a lot better, and will work in most situations.
The best I've seen is Formac's Gallery 2010 Platinum with a response of 15ms; that's a really great display all-around.
If you have an AirPort Exteme Base Station, you can just go to the AirPort Admin Utility and select "802.11g Only" from the Mode pop-up menu in the AirPort tab.
Well, Pixar is moving away from Marrionete, if you look at the making of Monsters, Inc you can see where Sully is modeled in Maya.
Pixar has always done their modeling in Maya; Marionette only does animation. Mainstream software is definitely being used in more and more of the production, however.
It's very surprising MS would let the date slip this far; I'm sure they would like to be getting some revenue from this next year. Apple will be on Mac OS X 10.5 by then!
It should also be noted that the Zen can get FM radio stations with an optional remote control and can use USB 2 or Firewire. The iPod has a bigger screen, but it can only use Firewire. In addition to mp3 format, the Zen supports WMA and WAV. The iPod supports mp3 and AAC audio.
No, the new iPods support USB2 and FireWire. In fact, the current Nomad Zen only supports USB2 or FireWire (the FireWire model only supports USB1.1; hopefully this will change with the new version). And the iPod also supports WAV (and AIFF and Audible).
Those are all very culturally-limited metaphors; it's a very high priority that the design be as international as possible; if you have to modify even your basic window contols, localized documentation and support is going to be a nightmare. It's certainly a high priority that the metaphors at least hold up for Japan and other huge markets.
_X is a good metaphor for close. X, as in EXIT._
Only in certain langauges
_Maximize: Crescendo triangle (smaller on left, larger on right...this, reading left to right, implies getting larger)._
Only in RTL scripts
The traffic light metaphor is very widespread; the basic association between Red->Stop->Close and Green->Go->Expand, and association that works without language, is very clever. I'm not saying it's perfect, but among people I've taught to use computers on OS X vs, XP, they seem to get it a little faster with the colors, because once you understand the metaphor, you can figure out that yellow will be an intermediate state and feel free to experiment with it, whereas XP uses symbols that require individual explanation (XP's maximize icon certanly makes less sense than OS X's + icon: it shows you a picture of a window, without explaining what will happen to the window).
Now, the up/down triangles (as opposed to left/right ones that only make sense in cultures with RTL scripts) are a good idea, and lots of themes for all of the OSes use that; it's just not relevant to a OS X v. XP argument. My point was simply that the OS X system is equally if not more _intuitive_, and what you were talking about was the fact that it is merely _different from Windows_, which made it difficult for someone used to Windows to use.
_My sister comes and sits down in front of MacOSX, and she's like, "wtf do these colored butons -- green, yellow, red -- mean?_
Yes, because there certainly isn't any real-life metaphor for a set of circles that are red, yellow and green. Intuitive means that it's easy for someone who has never used a computer before, not for someone who has used Windows all thier life (by your definition, "intuitive" means "the same way Windows does it").
Following the successful launch of the iTunes Music Store, recent information reveals that Apple plans on providing access to its digital music shop from the dozens of retail outlets spread throughout the United States.
Although the iMac-powered kiosks will double as information and showcase displays, customers will be able to purchase music and take it home with them, provided they bring along an iPod or purchase a disc to burn. "Apple wants to get the point across that the [iTunes Music Store] is a real music shop," says our source. "It's just digital."
Last time I checked, the way you put your music on cassette was to make a playlist and plug a tape recorder into the audio out on your computer, which you can do just as easily with M4P files as anything else.
The other big news yesterday was that Steve Jobs confirmed that Apple is going to start putting up independent music once they get all of the big label music they negotiated for uploaded:
TIME: What about independent labels? Will they follow suit?
Jobs: Yes. They've already been calling us like crazy. We've had to put most of them off until after launch just because the big five have most of the music, and we only had so many hours in the day. But now we're really going to have time to focus on a lot of the independents and that will be really great.
As was pointed out, it's coming to windows this winter. Mac users are the obvious group to test it out on, both for load and seeing how much people will buy, since iTunes for Mac is already complete.
There's no point in ever going above 128k for an AAC file; it's all but impossible to tell the difference from the original at that point. You can get average MP3 quality out of a 64k AAC.
I'm pretty sure every Blockbuster has that. Of course, the whole point of getting Netflix is that Blockbuster has a very small selection. I've never had any problem getting movies, maybe because I didn't get Netflix so I could have the latest Hollywood crap on release day, I got it so that I could get all the independent and foreign films that Blockbuster either doesn't have or is always out of.
I can't beleive people have overlooked this. How in the hell do you design a font with no italics?!? And it's a serif font, no less, so people can't even use simulated oblique on it!
Should geeks around the world take the lead in getting Iraq back online?
Absolutely, but not before giving at least a small contribution to the World Food Programme, which is in desperate need of funds to combat starvation in both Iraq and sub-Saharan Africa at the same time. Then there will be enough people alive to use the internet!
That audience is pretty damn massive compared to the audience that could afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars on an Avid. And FCP Express costs the same as Photoshop, which is certainly used by masses of people.
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While the first post was way off-base, there are two massive problems with this testing method: first, there is no standardized reproduction equipment. If you wanted to test only the codec, the test would need to be performed with everyone listening on the same (reference-quality) equipment. Secondly, because the test uses a nonrandom sample of people rather than professional listeners, the test measures how good people think the music sounds, rather than which codec actually reproduces the original recording the best; because people will typically not pick faithful reproductions as the best, the test cannot be construed as a measure of which codec works the best, but only of which one produces the sound most desirable to the the nonrandom sample group over imperfect reproduction equipment.
I think he was referring to the fact that Apple already started their own service, and after its monumental failure, they probably weren't too eager to get back into that market.
The best I've seen is Formac's Gallery 2010 Platinum with a response of 15ms; that's a really great display all-around.
If you have an AirPort Exteme Base Station, you can just go to the AirPort Admin Utility and select "802.11g Only" from the Mode pop-up menu in the AirPort tab.
Of course, I was only talking about their recent feature films. When Pixar was founded there wasn't off the shelf software!
Pixar has always done their modeling in Maya; Marionette only does animation. Mainstream software is definitely being used in more and more of the production, however.
It's very surprising MS would let the date slip this far; I'm sure they would like to be getting some revenue from this next year. Apple will be on Mac OS X 10.5 by then!
No, the new iPods support USB2 and FireWire. In fact, the current Nomad Zen only supports USB2 or FireWire (the FireWire model only supports USB1.1; hopefully this will change with the new version). And the iPod also supports WAV (and AIFF and Audible).
Those are all very culturally-limited metaphors; it's a very high priority that the design be as international as possible; if you have to modify even your basic window contols, localized documentation and support is going to be a nightmare. It's certainly a high priority that the metaphors at least hold up for Japan and other huge markets. _X is a good metaphor for close. X, as in EXIT._ Only in certain langauges _Maximize: Crescendo triangle (smaller on left, larger on right...this, reading left to right, implies getting larger)._ Only in RTL scripts The traffic light metaphor is very widespread; the basic association between Red->Stop->Close and Green->Go->Expand, and association that works without language, is very clever. I'm not saying it's perfect, but among people I've taught to use computers on OS X vs, XP, they seem to get it a little faster with the colors, because once you understand the metaphor, you can figure out that yellow will be an intermediate state and feel free to experiment with it, whereas XP uses symbols that require individual explanation (XP's maximize icon certanly makes less sense than OS X's + icon: it shows you a picture of a window, without explaining what will happen to the window). Now, the up/down triangles (as opposed to left/right ones that only make sense in cultures with RTL scripts) are a good idea, and lots of themes for all of the OSes use that; it's just not relevant to a OS X v. XP argument. My point was simply that the OS X system is equally if not more _intuitive_, and what you were talking about was the fact that it is merely _different from Windows_, which made it difficult for someone used to Windows to use.
_My sister comes and sits down in front of MacOSX, and she's like, "wtf do these colored butons -- green, yellow, red -- mean?_ Yes, because there certainly isn't any real-life metaphor for a set of circles that are red, yellow and green. Intuitive means that it's easy for someone who has never used a computer before, not for someone who has used Windows all thier life (by your definition, "intuitive" means "the same way Windows does it").
All you have to do is run the Convert to MP3... command in iTunes. I know you'll get massive quality loss, but it's not so important for spoken word.
Last time I checked, the way you put your music on cassette was to make a playlist and plug a tape recorder into the audio out on your computer, which you can do just as easily with M4P files as anything else.
The other big news yesterday was that Steve Jobs confirmed that Apple is going to start putting up independent music once they get all of the big label music they negotiated for uploaded:
from: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,4 48048,00.html
As was pointed out, it's coming to windows this winter. Mac users are the obvious group to test it out on, both for load and seeing how much people will buy, since iTunes for Mac is already complete.
It's the playlists that are limited, not the songs.
AAC at 128 is as good or beter than MP3 at 256.
You can get the firmware update to add AAC and iTunes 4 support right now at: http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/
There's no point in ever going above 128k for an AAC file; it's all but impossible to tell the difference from the original at that point. You can get average MP3 quality out of a 64k AAC.
I'm pretty sure every Blockbuster has that. Of course, the whole point of getting Netflix is that Blockbuster has a very small selection. I've never had any problem getting movies, maybe because I didn't get Netflix so I could have the latest Hollywood crap on release day, I got it so that I could get all the independent and foreign films that Blockbuster either doesn't have or is always out of.
I can't beleive people have overlooked this. How in the hell do you design a font with no italics?!? And it's a serif font, no less, so people can't even use simulated oblique on it!
The dowloadable version is zipped so that it downloads instead of loading in the browser, not to save space.
Absolutely, but not before giving at least a small contribution to the World Food Programme, which is in desperate need of funds to combat starvation in both Iraq and sub-Saharan Africa at the same time. Then there will be enough people alive to use the internet!
That audience is pretty damn massive compared to the audience that could afford to spend tens of thousands of dollars on an Avid. And FCP Express costs the same as Photoshop, which is certainly used by masses of people.
www.comedycentral.com/dailyshow/