That's becoming a big part of it for me. With Handbrake and ffmpegX, I can take a DVD movie and put it on any device I want (and no, I don't file-stea...share). The convenience of watching movies on my laptop during long airplane trips without swapping discs is great, plus it's nice to have movie playing in a corner of my screen while working at home.
Ironically the mistake the major labels made was the same one that IBM made when it gave the DOS franchise to Microsoft nearly 30 years ago. They were faced with a new market that they didn't understand. They had a piece of work that they couldn't do on their own or didn't want to do on their own and they didn't view it as critical or important, so they outsourced it to a partner. The partner turned that seemingly unimportant work into a way to accrue power and create a monopoly and control the industry. Today in the music business we're about where IBM and Microsoft were in 1989, when IBM finally got hit with the clue stick and realized what Microsoft was doing.
This recent evidence would seem to confirm speculation that egg-shaped saucers are notoriously difficult to fly safely at low altitude.
Clearly, the only way we're going to get to the bottom of this is have the FAA do a full inspection on the flight-worthiness of egg-shaped saucers.
Um, "Egg-shaped" + "Saucer" ? Does anyone else have a problem with that description ?
I digress.
The good news is, the FAA is good at this, and can investigate the paint off a wall. The bad news is, being a government agency, it'll take them a few hundred years, and by that time, Zeffrim Cochrane will already have made First Contact...
For anyone who doesn't get this, it's a reference to AT&T's monopoly days when Saturday Night Live had a sketch starting Lilly Tomlin in '76 called simply enough... "The Phone Company." Surprisingly, I can't find a YouTube video.
That's because that character of Tomlin's, Ernestine the Phone Operator, pre-dates SNL: It goes back to Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in.
I thought that both HDDVD and Blu-Ray were pretty much stillborn and that everybody--even people with HDTV--is still using DVD.
I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with reasons why I need to upgrade to an HD disc format. We love movies and have the A/V firepower to work with an HD disc player, but we use our DVD player for so much more than just movies, such as Firefly discs and videos for my kids. At best, then, any HD disc would be used for 1/3 of the things we use our current DVD player.
I gotta agree with you. I'm as big of an Apple fanboy as you'll find (check my posting history if you doubt that), but what will advance the cause ("Glory and power to our Fearless Leader Jobs! Death to the Trotskyite Gassee followers!") is clear, unbiased writing about the iPhone and other Apple products. Roughly Drafted's feed is on my Netvibes page, but I read his articles with the same shaker of salt that I use for, say, a Paul Thurott column. You know there will be an inherent bias for one OS over another, and you set your BS filters appropriately.
In what universe is this "below the board"? The printer cartridge model itself is a scam perpetrated on unsuspecting customers.
The universe in which your actions are determined by what you know is ethical and moral to do, not the one that says you must sink to the standards of the lowest cretin around. "But he did it first!" is unacceptable from my three-year-old, and it's unacceptable for adults, too.
This phone will live or die depending on how easy to use the mult-touch gizmos and UI are for the public. Period. People aren't going to abandon the familiarity of their iPod clickwheels and cellphone numberpads for something that's not as or more intuitive. Whether or not the iPhone is easy enough for them to ditch both of those remains to be seen, but even Uncle Walt seems to think it'll take some getting used to.
this will be another kick in pants to all the web developers out there who don't/can't/won't test their sites in anything other than IE before deployment. Developing an intraweb app for a controllable and known set of apps, and something else altogether to build a customer-facing website that tells 20%+ of your audience that they're not welcome the minute they land on your homepage. Now, with the ability to test in all the major browsers right from one OS, there's no excuse not to have cross-browser functionality.
Gosh darn it all, that must have been why I had a 35mmf2, 50mm f1.4, 85mmf2 and a 180mmf2.8 in my bag, and a 300mmf2.8 at the studio.
And when you're shooting architecture with a 4x5 at sunset with people, you need enough strobes to make the lights in the next county dim during recycles.
I am sick and tired of camera snobs thinking that more money = better pictures. Look people, I worked as a commercial still photog for 15 years, with clients like IBM, ITT Finance and Compaq and I got out around the turn of the millenium because I saw how things were headed. I just can't compete with the millions of great cheap/free photos out there now. If you all think OSS is revolutionizing the software world, wait 'til you see what websites like istockphoto and sxc.hu are doing to commercial shooters.
Ok, where was I... Oh yeah, cheap cameras. I had Sinars and 'Blads with enough lights to blind a whole regiment and still have my Nikons. But my favorite camera of all time was/is the Olympus XA becuase it was there when I needed it (and I'm in some good company in that regards). I ended up getting hundreds of great candids and quick landscape shots with my XA because it was with me when it was the right time and place to take a great picture. Fat lot of good that EOS 1DS will do you sitting on the closet shelf at home does you if a great picture happens to be right in front of your eyes.
And another thing about small cameras (and to some extent, cameraphones): You don't look like a freaking dork when you're shooting. Unless you're God's gift to hospitality, getting a candid, relaxed environmental portrait while trying to light the place like Yusef Karsh is a recipe for disaster. Learning how to slow down and get to know my subjects before I picked up a camera made a bigger difference in my work than anything I bought at a camera store.
Slashdot Mirror
Which are filled with woodland creatures.
Ok, maybe it'll be safer where I am...
I think Hanna-Barbera has prior art on that...
1. Load gun.
2. Aim at foot.
3. Shoot.
4. Repeat as often as possible.
(Yes, I know, "Step 5: Profit!" should go there, but seriously, have you looked at their quarterly reports recently?)
That's becoming a big part of it for me. With Handbrake and ffmpegX, I can take a DVD movie and put it on any device I want (and no, I don't file-stea...share). The convenience of watching movies on my laptop during long airplane trips without swapping discs is great, plus it's nice to have movie playing in a corner of my screen while working at home.
Until either format can do that, count me out.
The Fake Steve Blog had the absolute best analogy for the music business and digital delivery and the iTunes Store:
Ironically the mistake the major labels made was the same one that IBM made when it gave the DOS franchise to Microsoft nearly 30 years ago. They were faced with a new market that they didn't understand. They had a piece of work that they couldn't do on their own or didn't want to do on their own and they didn't view it as critical or important, so they outsourced it to a partner. The partner turned that seemingly unimportant work into a way to accrue power and create a monopoly and control the industry. Today in the music business we're about where IBM and Microsoft were in 1989, when IBM finally got hit with the clue stick and realized what Microsoft was doing.
Holy crap, that's a great idea. Nicely played!
:-)
Although an album of the Brad Hall years might not sell that well...
Clearly, the only way we're going to get to the bottom of this is have the FAA do a full inspection on the flight-worthiness of egg-shaped saucers.
Um, "Egg-shaped" + "Saucer" ? Does anyone else have a problem with that description ?
I digress.
The good news is, the FAA is good at this, and can investigate the paint off a wall. The bad news is, being a government agency, it'll take them a few hundred years, and by that time, Zeffrim Cochrane will already have made First Contact...
Yeah, I was kinda surprised at that myself. Even her Laugh-In bit is AWOL on YouTube.
That's because that character of Tomlin's, Ernestine the Phone Operator, pre-dates SNL: It goes back to Rowan and Martin's Laugh-in.
Here's a clip from The Cher Show.
They did. It did ok overseas, not so well in the U.S.
And all that resolution means diddly when I put in a disc of, oh, say, Hill Street Blues season one.
Now I'll admit that Veronica Hamel in HD is an intriguing possibility, but that means Joe Spano in HD, too...
And why do I want to spend $400 (or very, very much more) on a player $40 each for my kids discs just so I can watch them in HD now?
HD discs are the new laserdisc: Sure, if you're into movies enough to get one, get one. But it's never going to be the next DVD.
Some people said that SACD or DVD-Audio would be the next CD...
:-)
Oops.
I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with reasons why I need to upgrade to an HD disc format. We love movies and have the A/V firepower to work with an HD disc player, but we use our DVD player for so much more than just movies, such as Firefly discs and videos for my kids. At best, then, any HD disc would be used for 1/3 of the things we use our current DVD player.
Not worth the money and time.
I gotta agree with you. I'm as big of an Apple fanboy as you'll find (check my posting history if you doubt that), but what will advance the cause ("Glory and power to our Fearless Leader Jobs! Death to the Trotskyite Gassee followers!") is clear, unbiased writing about the iPhone and other Apple products. Roughly Drafted's feed is on my Netvibes page, but I read his articles with the same shaker of salt that I use for, say, a Paul Thurott column. You know there will be an inherent bias for one OS over another, and you set your BS filters appropriately.
it was *RIGHT HERE* when I saw it last.
I can quit anytime.
No, really.
After I get a new Macbook. And we need a flat-panel TV for the den, and some kind of media server. And oh yeah, I want a GPS for the car.
But I'm not addicted. Really.
In what universe is this "below the board"? The printer cartridge model itself is a scam perpetrated on unsuspecting customers.
The universe in which your actions are determined by what you know is ethical and moral to do, not the one that says you must sink to the standards of the lowest cretin around. "But he did it first!" is unacceptable from my three-year-old, and it's unacceptable for adults, too.MP3 player and laptop only when they take them from [Charlton Heston Voice] MY COLD, DEAD, HANDS! [/Charlton Heston Voice] :-)
This phone will live or die depending on how easy to use the mult-touch gizmos and UI are for the public. Period. People aren't going to abandon the familiarity of their iPod clickwheels and cellphone numberpads for something that's not as or more intuitive. Whether or not the iPhone is easy enough for them to ditch both of those remains to be seen, but even Uncle Walt seems to think it'll take some getting used to.
this will be another kick in pants to all the web developers out there who don't/can't/won't test their sites in anything other than IE before deployment. Developing an intraweb app for a controllable and known set of apps, and something else altogether to build a customer-facing website that tells 20%+ of your audience that they're not welcome the minute they land on your homepage. Now, with the ability to test in all the major browsers right from one OS, there's no excuse not to have cross-browser functionality.
And when you're shooting architecture with a 4x5 at sunset with people, you need enough strobes to make the lights in the next county dim during recycles.
Huh. Someone better tell all the shooters out there that use this camera that their work sucks 'cause it's unpredictable...
Warning: Photography Rant Ahead!
I am sick and tired of camera snobs thinking that more money = better pictures. Look people, I worked as a commercial still photog for 15 years, with clients like IBM, ITT Finance and Compaq and I got out around the turn of the millenium because I saw how things were headed. I just can't compete with the millions of great cheap/free photos out there now. If you all think OSS is revolutionizing the software world, wait 'til you see what websites like istockphoto and sxc.hu are doing to commercial shooters.
Ok, where was I... Oh yeah, cheap cameras. I had Sinars and 'Blads with enough lights to blind a whole regiment and still have my Nikons. But my favorite camera of all time was/is the Olympus XA becuase it was there when I needed it (and I'm in some good company in that regards). I ended up getting hundreds of great candids and quick landscape shots with my XA because it was with me when it was the right time and place to take a great picture. Fat lot of good that EOS 1DS will do you sitting on the closet shelf at home does you if a great picture happens to be right in front of your eyes.
And another thing about small cameras (and to some extent, cameraphones): You don't look like a freaking dork when you're shooting. Unless you're God's gift to hospitality, getting a candid, relaxed environmental portrait while trying to light the place like Yusef Karsh is a recipe for disaster. Learning how to slow down and get to know my subjects before I picked up a camera made a bigger difference in my work than anything I bought at a camera store.
Hmmn, so Germany and France aren't in Europe?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Steinhäuser
(Note that he was stopped by a teacher brave enough to not be a victim)
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Durn
And that was with 30 seconds of Google-ing. I'm sure 5 minutes worth would dig up pages of results.
Take care getting off that high horse of yours.
Ken Kataguri, the more customers will slip through your fingers."