What did they add to 1.6 anyhow? I know 1.5 just introduced a bunch of non-OO crap to please.NET developers. Generics were cool, but otherwise 1.5 was a waste of time.
Look, i'm all for the progressive viewpoint myself, but in this case i'm just not so sure its that cut and dry. Many of these terorist cells popping up in Western Europe, Canada and the US are young kinds raised in the west, but taught from an islamist viewpoint. We haven't "invaded and oppressed" those people. I DO completely agree that meddling in the middle east is our biggest mistake, and is making it 100x worse, but Islam isn't an innocent victim.
Sorry... why on earth are you a "devoted fan"? You should seriously take a good, long look at yourself as the victim of marketing. I mean, how can you possibly be a "fan" of a publicly traded conglomerate? I'm a fan of certain bands, TV shows, and a hockey team. I idolize a few people I consider ethical or brilliant. I worship a few beautiful women.
But I am completely, benignly indifferent, to corporations. They're just organizations, man! Its not that I hate them - they just aren't worth having an emotional investment in. They're legal entities with slick logos. Nothing more.
I haven't downloaded it yet, but I'm going to, and I don't plan on paying.
Why?
Because I'm gonna buy it on CD next year! I want a lossless copy and their constant-bitrate MP3s just don't cut it. Why should I pay for the album twice?
I own hundreds of CDs, and I'm not going to pay. Do you think i'm especially unique? I think the REAL message will be delivered come 2008, when this free, 6 month old album goes PLATINUM.
No, on playback it isn't interpreted identically each time. This is correct.
However, the discs will be identical, or should be unless they are damaged. Sometimes the offsets are different for different pressings, but the actual audio is identical.
You can test this!
Use Exact Audio Copy with the AccurateRip library. it'll do a secure (bit-perfect) rip of your CD, and then compare the MD5 hash of each track with those in an internet database. They'll match, unless there was an unrecoverable error reading the disc. Or they were from a different master with a different offset. Usually even those, you can adjust for.
Records are overcompressed too, at least as much as they can make them. In fact, within the industry, compressed recordings are called "hot" records, because they tend to heat up the needle more than quiet recordings. They also degrade faster.
Also, I agree with everything you said. There is more information in a record, but most of it is BAD information (scratches, warping, imperfections) that is far, far above the noise floor of a CD. CDs have many times over more detailed information for reproducing the actual recording.
I'm really torn on this one... javascript is compliant, yeah. i also hate it. HATE. WPF/C# is soooo much easier to work with for this stuff. But browser plugins are bad, as is proprietary code. But Silverlight works on all platforms. Argh! I'd probably use Ruby on Rails for most ajax web-apps, but for really interactive stuff, its gonna be Silverlight. Flash? Blech.
I'm one of them. I just like computers! I have a linux server (Gentoo), a Vista Ultimate box (mostly visual studio and games, plus a media center server for my XBOX 360). For most day-to-day stuff (surfing, email) I use a cheap intel macbook.
They all have their selling points, too: Media center is really fucking slick, and I wouldn't trade it for anything else. Linux is an awsome (and free) everything-server that's fun to tinker with. And Macs are just...comfy, or something. I grew up with them. I like using it.
... and have viable offspring. Yeesh. Always with the insults here on/.
There is no gene flow between horses and donkeys becuase they don't have viable offspring. There are various degrees of "viable" as well... finches from various islands in the galapagos do breed, but tend to have less fit offspring because their beaks aren't specialized enough for the food available. So gene flow is restricted, and separate species are apparent.
We get such bad hail in the summer here in Calgary, that they've been successfully seeding storm clouds for years. They spray something on the clouds before they hit the city, so that the hail stones form early.
It seems to be working; I haven't seen or heard about hail damage in a few years now.
There is a lot of energy in a thunderstorm... not hurricane energy, but I expect such a thing IS doable.
The whole concept of "subspecies" is arbitrary and non-scientific, sort of like "race". I received my BSc. in primatology only a few years ago, and have never heard of these. We did however discuss different tool cultures within H. Sapiens, which are probably a more useful (and identifiable) distinction. Species actually biologically exist; (with a few exceptions) they are pretty much defined as a group of individuals who can (and do) interbreed. Even the species model sort of falls apart when you're talking about evolutionary timelines... when does a species end and another begin? Is it sudden, or gradual?
Most likely all H. Sapiens came from a relatively small group of people (now, apparenlty longer than) 100,000 years ago. Since then, there has been constant gene flow between the populations, enough so as to prevent another speciation event. "Races", and "subspecies" are just arbitrary designations for groups of people where some physically expressed genes appear at a different frequency.
I actually find Vista's UI to be much more professional looking and quite easy on the eyes vs. XP.
Heavy DRM? How so? I've been ripping CDs and DVDs the same as ever. I know they included some stuff to let me play new DRM-laden formats, but I can choose to use them or not. you'd have prefered they leave the functionality out entirely?
Resource hungry, slower? This is true. You need lots of RAM and it does run slower. Agreed. This will become less important over time, as was the case with XP, 2000, NT etc.
Ultimately I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't improve very much, but it IS an improvement over XP. I expect the first service pack will make it paletable to most people who don't have an irrational hate-on for Microsoft.
Transistors sound harsher because they don't have as much harmonic distortion. Same goes for CDs vs. records. If you want your guitar to sound warm, then yeah - tubes are where it's at. I use them myself.
But i don't want to colour the sound coming from my CD - the musician already chose what he wanted it to sound like. So my amp is solid state.
Oh get bent. Why do people keep saying this? I have a 2 year old 360 that works great with every game and peripheral ever released. Yeah, i'm missing the HDMI output, but the component looks perfectly fine at 1080p, so who cares? I knew it was missing when I bought it.
If i'd gone with the Core at the time, I could have added a HD later. If I want to upgrade to the 120GB drive, I can do that at any time. Internal process changes are irrelevant to everyone except us nerds.
The PS2 changed processes, changed drives, added progressive output, and probably made a thousand other changes over its lifetime. If you can find a 1st gen PS2 that still actually works (mine doesn't) it'll play the same games as one I bought yesterday.
If you can see the code, it's visible source. The word "open" has many different connotations. Open to view? Open to change? Open to redistribute? The open source community almost always assumes the latter two definitions, so Microsoft has done well by avoiding this loaded terminology. As you can see, the author of the article puts the words "open source" in Microsoft's mouth anyhow, because they knew it would cause controversy where there otherwise isn't any.
Installation can be streamlined... For windows, you put the DVD in, boot the machine, and when windows comes up you put your Dell/whoever's drivers CD in the drive and click "install". That should be easy enough for anyone.
Dell will then include a windows drivers CD with each PC instead of windows itself. The drivers CD will be loaded with crapware just like their PCs are now. Users will purchase Windows at full retail and end up spending more for the same thing.
I don't see the benefit, beyond saving us nerds $100 or so on a new PC purchase. I build my own boxes, so I see no benefit whatsoever.
I'd also like room for movies. You know... to watch on the giant screen? I like to bring a few movies on trips as well as a lot of music.
In addition to what you said... 8GB is just not nearly enough. And I'm sooo disappointed in the iPod touch. If it was a 32gb or larger device, i'd buy one right now.
Did you know Maureen Tucker (influential drummer from the Velvet Underground) actually worked at WAL-MART (!) as a single mother for years after the band's breakup?
I'm not sure what my point is here (they admittedly weren't that popular, and hadn't yet become legends) but... shit! Mo Tucker! WTF?
Oh get off it. Creating an event in Facebook is an extremely easy way to invite everyone to something, find out who is coming (who ever RSVPs emails? like 20% of the attendees?), and then remind them its coming up. Its probably the best feature (along with birthday reminders).
The initial draw was finding long-lost friends and aquaintences, but I keep going back for the social event organizing features. I still usually send out an email, but people's addresses change and sometimes someone gets missed. And if you aren't on facebook, the chances of that person being you are much higher.
Slashdot Mirror
Now I'm a Canadian, but watching your news once in a while... aren't most republicans pro-gay? I sure hear a lot about them flaunting it.
What did they add to 1.6 anyhow? I know 1.5 just introduced a bunch of non-OO crap to please .NET developers. Generics were cool, but otherwise 1.5 was a waste of time.
Look, i'm all for the progressive viewpoint myself, but in this case i'm just not so sure its that cut and dry. Many of these terorist cells popping up in Western Europe, Canada and the US are young kinds raised in the west, but taught from an islamist viewpoint. We haven't "invaded and oppressed" those people. I DO completely agree that meddling in the middle east is our biggest mistake, and is making it 100x worse, but Islam isn't an innocent victim.
Sorry... why on earth are you a "devoted fan"? You should seriously take a good, long look at yourself as the victim of marketing. I mean, how can you possibly be a "fan" of a publicly traded conglomerate? I'm a fan of certain bands, TV shows, and a hockey team. I idolize a few people I consider ethical or brilliant. I worship a few beautiful women.
But I am completely, benignly indifferent, to corporations. They're just organizations, man! Its not that I hate them - they just aren't worth having an emotional investment in. They're legal entities with slick logos. Nothing more.
I haven't downloaded it yet, but I'm going to, and I don't plan on paying.
Why?
Because I'm gonna buy it on CD next year! I want a lossless copy and their constant-bitrate MP3s just don't cut it. Why should I pay for the album twice?
I own hundreds of CDs, and I'm not going to pay. Do you think i'm especially unique? I think the REAL message will be delivered come 2008, when this free, 6 month old album goes PLATINUM.
God, i wish we'd had wikipedia when i was in school. The references section is often a wonderful, up-to-date collection of very citeable resources.
The library was a wonderful place to get peer-reviewed articles that were 20, 30 years obsolete.
Actually they tend to sound worse than needles, because a needle pushes dust out of the way instead of reading it. Very crackly, and hardly ever used.
No, on playback it isn't interpreted identically each time. This is correct.
However, the discs will be identical, or should be unless they are damaged. Sometimes the offsets are different for different pressings, but the actual audio is identical.
You can test this!
Use Exact Audio Copy with the AccurateRip library. it'll do a secure (bit-perfect) rip of your CD, and then compare the MD5 hash of each track with those in an internet database. They'll match, unless there was an unrecoverable error reading the disc. Or they were from a different master with a different offset. Usually even those, you can adjust for.
Records are overcompressed too, at least as much as they can make them. In fact, within the industry, compressed recordings are called "hot" records, because they tend to heat up the needle more than quiet recordings. They also degrade faster.
Also, I agree with everything you said. There is more information in a record, but most of it is BAD information (scratches, warping, imperfections) that is far, far above the noise floor of a CD. CDs have many times over more detailed information for reproducing the actual recording.
I'm really torn on this one... javascript is compliant, yeah. i also hate it. HATE. WPF/C# is soooo much easier to work with for this stuff. But browser plugins are bad, as is proprietary code. But Silverlight works on all platforms. Argh! I'd probably use Ruby on Rails for most ajax web-apps, but for really interactive stuff, its gonna be Silverlight. Flash? Blech.
I'm one of them. I just like computers! I have a linux server (Gentoo), a Vista Ultimate box (mostly visual studio and games, plus a media center server for my XBOX 360). For most day-to-day stuff (surfing, email) I use a cheap intel macbook.
They all have their selling points, too: Media center is really fucking slick, and I wouldn't trade it for anything else. Linux is an awsome (and free) everything-server that's fun to tinker with. And Macs are just...comfy, or something. I grew up with them. I like using it.
True for CRTs, but LCDs have to add colour to an otherwise white backlight. Black is more energy-intensive than white.
... and have viable offspring. Yeesh. Always with the insults here on /.
There is no gene flow between horses and donkeys becuase they don't have viable offspring. There are various degrees of "viable" as well... finches from various islands in the galapagos do breed, but tend to have less fit offspring because their beaks aren't specialized enough for the food available. So gene flow is restricted, and separate species are apparent.
I did say "with a few exceptions".
We get such bad hail in the summer here in Calgary, that they've been successfully seeding storm clouds for years. They spray something on the clouds before they hit the city, so that the hail stones form early.
It seems to be working; I haven't seen or heard about hail damage in a few years now.
There is a lot of energy in a thunderstorm... not hurricane energy, but I expect such a thing IS doable.
The whole concept of "subspecies" is arbitrary and non-scientific, sort of like "race". I received my BSc. in primatology only a few years ago, and have never heard of these. We did however discuss different tool cultures within H. Sapiens, which are probably a more useful (and identifiable) distinction. Species actually biologically exist; (with a few exceptions) they are pretty much defined as a group of individuals who can (and do) interbreed. Even the species model sort of falls apart when you're talking about evolutionary timelines... when does a species end and another begin? Is it sudden, or gradual?
Most likely all H. Sapiens came from a relatively small group of people (now, apparenlty longer than) 100,000 years ago. Since then, there has been constant gene flow between the populations, enough so as to prevent another speciation event. "Races", and "subspecies" are just arbitrary designations for groups of people where some physically expressed genes appear at a different frequency.
I actually find Vista's UI to be much more professional looking and quite easy on the eyes vs. XP.
Heavy DRM? How so? I've been ripping CDs and DVDs the same as ever. I know they included some stuff to let me play new DRM-laden formats, but I can choose to use them or not. you'd have prefered they leave the functionality out entirely?
Resource hungry, slower? This is true. You need lots of RAM and it does run slower. Agreed. This will become less important over time, as was the case with XP, 2000, NT etc.
Ultimately I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't improve very much, but it IS an improvement over XP. I expect the first service pack will make it paletable to most people who don't have an irrational hate-on for Microsoft.
Transistors sound harsher because they don't have as much harmonic distortion. Same goes for CDs vs. records. If you want your guitar to sound warm, then yeah - tubes are where it's at. I use them myself.
But i don't want to colour the sound coming from my CD - the musician already chose what he wanted it to sound like. So my amp is solid state.
Oh get bent. Why do people keep saying this? I have a 2 year old 360 that works great with every game and peripheral ever released. Yeah, i'm missing the HDMI output, but the component looks perfectly fine at 1080p, so who cares? I knew it was missing when I bought it.
If i'd gone with the Core at the time, I could have added a HD later. If I want to upgrade to the 120GB drive, I can do that at any time. Internal process changes are irrelevant to everyone except us nerds.
The PS2 changed processes, changed drives, added progressive output, and probably made a thousand other changes over its lifetime. If you can find a 1st gen PS2 that still actually works (mine doesn't) it'll play the same games as one I bought yesterday.
If you can see the code, it's visible source. The word "open" has many different connotations. Open to view? Open to change? Open to redistribute? The open source community almost always assumes the latter two definitions, so Microsoft has done well by avoiding this loaded terminology. As you can see, the author of the article puts the words "open source" in Microsoft's mouth anyhow, because they knew it would cause controversy where there otherwise isn't any.
Installation can be streamlined... For windows, you put the DVD in, boot the machine, and when windows comes up you put your Dell/whoever's drivers CD in the drive and click "install". That should be easy enough for anyone.
Dell will then include a windows drivers CD with each PC instead of windows itself. The drivers CD will be loaded with crapware just like their PCs are now. Users will purchase Windows at full retail and end up spending more for the same thing.
I don't see the benefit, beyond saving us nerds $100 or so on a new PC purchase. I build my own boxes, so I see no benefit whatsoever.
Still, it'd be nice to see MS get a black eye.
I'd also like room for movies. You know... to watch on the giant screen? I like to bring a few movies on trips as well as a lot of music.
In addition to what you said... 8GB is just not nearly enough. And I'm sooo disappointed in the iPod touch. If it was a 32gb or larger device, i'd buy one right now.
No, but she should have received some sort of payments for general awsomeness. Enough to at least cover her basic expenses.
Again, not sure what my point was, just that such a household name (admittedly amongst industry and hipster circles only) could be flat-ass broke.
You can bet her drumming has put at least a few record executives' children through college.
I mostly just want more memory... my CD collection is at about 30GB right now. Put 32GB of flash in there and we have a deal.
I'm not carrying one of these AND my iPod. I want an all-in-one.
Did you know Maureen Tucker (influential drummer from the Velvet Underground) actually worked at WAL-MART (!) as a single mother for years after the band's breakup?
I'm not sure what my point is here (they admittedly weren't that popular, and hadn't yet become legends) but... shit! Mo Tucker! WTF?
Oh get off it. Creating an event in Facebook is an extremely easy way to invite everyone to something, find out who is coming (who ever RSVPs emails? like 20% of the attendees?), and then remind them its coming up. Its probably the best feature (along with birthday reminders).
The initial draw was finding long-lost friends and aquaintences, but I keep going back for the social event organizing features. I still usually send out an email, but people's addresses change and sometimes someone gets missed. And if you aren't on facebook, the chances of that person being you are much higher.