The answer is yes. Soon everyone must wear brain scanners to make sure that every song you hear in your head is paid for. Also, if you inadvertently hear a song whether it's in a dream or from someone else's radio, the brain scanner will pick that up too and you must pay for that too. If you're pregnant, you must pay for each fetus. The deaf will be fitted with a recording devices so that they can pay for the songs they would have heard if they weren't deaf. If you die, you are required to pay for all the songs you hear in the afterlife with your remaining assets.
A smarter solution would just be to increase gas tax. That would automagically people to drive more fuel efficient cars and drive less. This is a perfect example of government regulation dragging down the efficiency of free markets. But since increasing any tax is political suicide, more regulation is passed instead, increasingly paralyzing the US economy.
Is VBR worse then fixed bitrate? I would have to assume so. A question though, is 192kbps VBR better than 128kbps fixed? I can't figure out the best settings to use when encoding my CDs. I want the smallest file that's good enough quality where I wouldn't notice playing on an iPod. Just asking, because you seem to be an expert.
In Canada, the government provides interest free loans until you graduate. After you graduate, interest starts accumulating, but there's a lot of help for those who can't find employment after graduation. Also, universities in Canada aren't as expensive as in the US, so students graduate with a lot less debt. Also, Canada did not bail out any banks. Americans may scream communism, but I think this system is very fair and allows access to education regardless of wealth. Why do Americans have the "tough shit, it's your own fault" attitude?
Personally, I would like to see computer AI to adapt. Otherwise, you find one flaw with the AI, and you can exploit it all you want. That's why I stopped playing single player games. Either the computer AI was too good, too easy, or too predictable. I still love playing Counter-Strike because playing against other human players is just more rewarding and challenging. If I find a hiding spot where I get 10 kills, the next round that same spot won't work. The fun is adapting to the other players, and the challenge of defeating the other players who are also adapting. Also, the teamwork aspect is something that you just can't have with computer AI. I can't foresee any computer AI responding to voice chat, like "Can anyone buy me a weapon? Please?".
I remember some time ago, that people were upset that a video card manufacturer was optimizing drivers so certain games run fast (thus will score higher on benchmarks). I welcome this. I want my games to run faster, and if the manufacturer is putting a ton of effort to optimize their drivers so that some games will run faster, FOR FREE, then it's a boon for the customers. Although, optimizing for 3D Mark helps no one. But who actually cares about 3D Mark scores anyway?
So why should the casual user deal with ads in something that will be feature crippled and basically "consumer" branded (read CRAP) when they can fire up a free non-ad infested version of Open Office.
Because everyone is already familiar with Word and Excel, and it's more painful to switch to Open Office than to see some ads. Speaking from experience, switching to Open Office is quite annoying if you're used to Word and Excel. (Although it is more annoying to switch to Office 2007 from Office 2003, with that stupid ribbon interface).
So instead of buying the watered-down game, people in Australia will just go download the pirated version of the full game. Don't get me wrong, I'm not for piracy, but I'm not for policies that encourages it, like DRM and censorship.
I think it's the other way around, never ascribe evilness that which can be explained by incompetence. Sony may be evil, but its most likely incompetence.
Sony has a long track record of shooting themselves in the foot. In the days of mini-disc, it required you to encode the music in the Sony proprietary format onto minidisc. As a result, recording stuff to minidisc took a long time, a 5 minute song took 5 minutes to record. Sony digital cameras force you to use Memory Stick, which is much more expensive than standard SD cards. Oh, and a Sony DVD player will not let you play DVDs from other regions.
Sony cares more about screwing their customers into proprietary lock than actually providing value. That's why Sony is doomed as a company.
That means Apple owns all logos that are apple shaped? Also, I think it's totally wrong to cater to the "lowest common denominator". At some point, people have to take responsibility for their own actions. This thinking is a huge problem in America. Whenever something happens, the first question is "Who do I sue?"
And maybe a primer on what those measures mean. Maybe I'm a dummy, but it took me the first 2 years of university to really understand what voltage, current, resistance (capacitance and inductance) really means.
I think this research is actually quite interesting. It shows that our aggression is different towards people we are close to vs people who we don't know. This has implications in real warfare.
Ummm, do you not realize how expensive it is to hire lawyers to file thousands of lawsuits against music fans? And don't you know how expensive it is to maintain the salaries of music executives who figure out how to squeeze more profit from music? And don't forget, it costs a lot of money to do DRM research and development to make sure your fans don't enjoy their music too much.
Hollywood already started encrypting the story lines of movies. I watched Quantum of Solace, and the story made no sense, it was completely scrambled. I'm waiting for the brain-implant chip that will unscramble the story.
That sounds like too much effort. They should just close the digital hole first. Encrypt the content using a 8192bit key and then throw it away. It fixes all the piracy issues. It would be decades before any pirate could recover the key, and since no player could play it, there would be no way for the pirates to steal the analog signal. It kills 2 birds with 1 stone. If the MPAA wants to buy the patent from me, that'll be $1M please.
How is this even possible? No matter how badly Take-Two screwed up, the fact is, the game had to be hacked to get it to work! Regardless, who cares? Why are Americans so hung up on these type of issues, such as wardrobe malfunctions, gay marriage, steroids in baseball? In the meantime, bankers have effectively stolen trillions of dollars directly out of the pockets of every American. Less and less people are able to afford health care. Thousands of Americans are needlessly dying in Iraq. Middle class jobs are being decimated. The list is long... America is screwed.
lolwut? I c wut shee did thar. Were all loosing r minds, u no?
I really hate people who type in this manner. It saves almost no time, so what's the point in purposely making the spelling error? What does it prove? That you're some sort of Internet badass? I don't think so, it makes that person look like a complete moron. One time, I ran into a message board where the whole thread was like this, my head almost exploded.
This is like buying a car, and saying that you don't use the radio, so you would like a refund for the radio. If you don't like Lenovo's package, then buy from a competitor. This is how competition works. If enough people demand this, then the companies will comply.
Paul Martin saved Canada. He had the foresight not to follow the banking deregulation craze that America started, and as a result, Canadian banks didn't leverage themselves into certain death. As far as I know, the only bail out Canada gave out was to Chrysler. Second of all, the blank media levy is far lesser of an evil than DCMA and allowing the CRAA to extort people via lawsuits. This was Canada's compromise to the recording industry, so now it will be very difficult for the CRAA to get anything else.
This is completely beyond my comprehension that the Feds are surprised by this. I just assumed that they were doing this on purpose to achieve some grander goal. It's either that, or they are retarded. In fact, there are many things that are happening now which makes me think: "Are they doing this on purpose? Or are they retarded?"
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The answer is yes. Soon everyone must wear brain scanners to make sure that every song you hear in your head is paid for. Also, if you inadvertently hear a song whether it's in a dream or from someone else's radio, the brain scanner will pick that up too and you must pay for that too. If you're pregnant, you must pay for each fetus. The deaf will be fitted with a recording devices so that they can pay for the songs they would have heard if they weren't deaf. If you die, you are required to pay for all the songs you hear in the afterlife with your remaining assets.
A smarter solution would just be to increase gas tax. That would automagically people to drive more fuel efficient cars and drive less. This is a perfect example of government regulation dragging down the efficiency of free markets. But since increasing any tax is political suicide, more regulation is passed instead, increasingly paralyzing the US economy.
Is VBR worse then fixed bitrate? I would have to assume so. A question though, is 192kbps VBR better than 128kbps fixed? I can't figure out the best settings to use when encoding my CDs. I want the smallest file that's good enough quality where I wouldn't notice playing on an iPod. Just asking, because you seem to be an expert.
In Canada, the government provides interest free loans until you graduate. After you graduate, interest starts accumulating, but there's a lot of help for those who can't find employment after graduation. Also, universities in Canada aren't as expensive as in the US, so students graduate with a lot less debt. Also, Canada did not bail out any banks. Americans may scream communism, but I think this system is very fair and allows access to education regardless of wealth. Why do Americans have the "tough shit, it's your own fault" attitude?
Her work performance was so bad, she lost $10M.
Personally, I would like to see computer AI to adapt. Otherwise, you find one flaw with the AI, and you can exploit it all you want. That's why I stopped playing single player games. Either the computer AI was too good, too easy, or too predictable. I still love playing Counter-Strike because playing against other human players is just more rewarding and challenging. If I find a hiding spot where I get 10 kills, the next round that same spot won't work. The fun is adapting to the other players, and the challenge of defeating the other players who are also adapting. Also, the teamwork aspect is something that you just can't have with computer AI. I can't foresee any computer AI responding to voice chat, like "Can anyone buy me a weapon? Please?".
I remember some time ago, that people were upset that a video card manufacturer was optimizing drivers so certain games run fast (thus will score higher on benchmarks). I welcome this. I want my games to run faster, and if the manufacturer is putting a ton of effort to optimize their drivers so that some games will run faster, FOR FREE, then it's a boon for the customers. Although, optimizing for 3D Mark helps no one. But who actually cares about 3D Mark scores anyway?
So why should the casual user deal with ads in something that will be feature crippled and basically "consumer" branded (read CRAP) when they can fire up a free non-ad infested version of Open Office.
Because everyone is already familiar with Word and Excel, and it's more painful to switch to Open Office than to see some ads. Speaking from experience, switching to Open Office is quite annoying if you're used to Word and Excel. (Although it is more annoying to switch to Office 2007 from Office 2003, with that stupid ribbon interface).
So instead of buying the watered-down game, people in Australia will just go download the pirated version of the full game. Don't get me wrong, I'm not for piracy, but I'm not for policies that encourages it, like DRM and censorship.
I think it's the other way around, never ascribe evilness that which can be explained by incompetence. Sony may be evil, but its most likely incompetence.
Sony has a long track record of shooting themselves in the foot. In the days of mini-disc, it required you to encode the music in the Sony proprietary format onto minidisc. As a result, recording stuff to minidisc took a long time, a 5 minute song took 5 minutes to record. Sony digital cameras force you to use Memory Stick, which is much more expensive than standard SD cards. Oh, and a Sony DVD player will not let you play DVDs from other regions.
Sony cares more about screwing their customers into proprietary lock than actually providing value. That's why Sony is doomed as a company.
That means Apple owns all logos that are apple shaped? Also, I think it's totally wrong to cater to the "lowest common denominator". At some point, people have to take responsibility for their own actions. This thinking is a huge problem in America. Whenever something happens, the first question is "Who do I sue?"
And maybe a primer on what those measures mean. Maybe I'm a dummy, but it took me the first 2 years of university to really understand what voltage, current, resistance (capacitance and inductance) really means.
I think this research is actually quite interesting. It shows that our aggression is different towards people we are close to vs people who we don't know. This has implications in real warfare.
What about wireless routers? Does grandma get thrown in jail because her wireless router was not secured and allowed someone else to download music?
Ummm, do you not realize how expensive it is to hire lawyers to file thousands of lawsuits against music fans? And don't you know how expensive it is to maintain the salaries of music executives who figure out how to squeeze more profit from music? And don't forget, it costs a lot of money to do DRM research and development to make sure your fans don't enjoy their music too much.
Hollywood already started encrypting the story lines of movies. I watched Quantum of Solace, and the story made no sense, it was completely scrambled. I'm waiting for the brain-implant chip that will unscramble the story.
That sounds like too much effort. They should just close the digital hole first. Encrypt the content using a 8192bit key and then throw it away. It fixes all the piracy issues. It would be decades before any pirate could recover the key, and since no player could play it, there would be no way for the pirates to steal the analog signal. It kills 2 birds with 1 stone. If the MPAA wants to buy the patent from me, that'll be $1M please.
There should be a reality show on these people who are up in arms about this. They are probably the biggest morons on the planet.
How is this even possible? No matter how badly Take-Two screwed up, the fact is, the game had to be hacked to get it to work! Regardless, who cares? Why are Americans so hung up on these type of issues, such as wardrobe malfunctions, gay marriage, steroids in baseball? In the meantime, bankers have effectively stolen trillions of dollars directly out of the pockets of every American. Less and less people are able to afford health care. Thousands of Americans are needlessly dying in Iraq. Middle class jobs are being decimated. The list is long... America is screwed.
lolwut? I c wut shee did thar. Were all loosing r minds, u no?
I really hate people who type in this manner. It saves almost no time, so what's the point in purposely making the spelling error? What does it prove? That you're some sort of Internet badass? I don't think so, it makes that person look like a complete moron. One time, I ran into a message board where the whole thread was like this, my head almost exploded.
tl;dr
tl;dr
This is like buying a car, and saying that you don't use the radio, so you would like a refund for the radio. If you don't like Lenovo's package, then buy from a competitor. This is how competition works. If enough people demand this, then the companies will comply.
Paul Martin saved Canada. He had the foresight not to follow the banking deregulation craze that America started, and as a result, Canadian banks didn't leverage themselves into certain death. As far as I know, the only bail out Canada gave out was to Chrysler. Second of all, the blank media levy is far lesser of an evil than DCMA and allowing the CRAA to extort people via lawsuits. This was Canada's compromise to the recording industry, so now it will be very difficult for the CRAA to get anything else.
This is completely beyond my comprehension that the Feds are surprised by this. I just assumed that they were doing this on purpose to achieve some grander goal. It's either that, or they are retarded. In fact, there are many things that are happening now which makes me think: "Are they doing this on purpose? Or are they retarded?"