You are aware that trying to debug/reverse-engineer Windows code voids your rights under the EULA? Microsoft specifically prohibits disassembly of Windows code in their EULA.
Umm.. no. MP3s are not bit-for-bit perfect. In fact, an MP3 has about 10% of the content of a CD. Yet most people don't mind listening to them.
Converting stuff from analog to digital is not bad at all, assuming you have a decent soundcard that doesn't introduce tons of hiss and distortion. Remember, any microphone, electric guitar, or any other instrument produces analog sound that typically gets encoded to digital by a device very similar to an expensive soundcard. In any case, the MP3 sound quality is bad enough that these small things won't matter.
I think what you were trying to talk about is analog degradation - the degradation that occurs when you make an analog copy of an analog copy, thus introducing more artifacts in an exponential manner. In this case, this cannot occur since you are digitally recording an analog source and since MP3s do not degrade from simply being copied.
You can't judge the bugginess of the software such as Mozilla by the number of bugs in bugzilla. Any major bug will have 20-30 duplicates reported, many bugs are requests for enhancement, some are incorrect, some are just bullshit, some are meta-bugs that actually track the progress on a certain component, and most of them are currently closed.
You can't even get Intel processors as slow as the ones inside most Macs. 800MHz? A ~2GHz AMD now costs about $80 and is inside most news PCs, so I don't see how macs are cutting edge. Sure, PPC has maybe 10% extra performance because it's a better architecture, but it doesn't compensate for the huge gap in clock frequency.
Sure, apple design is great, but the price/performance ratio is dismal. PC prices are so low that the mac cannot compete with them.
All cable modems sold in stores are DOCSIS compliant. DOCSIS requires that they support throttling. If they weren't DOCSIS certified, they would not be able to connect to the network and would probably be illegal. Any questions?
FBI damage trigger is $5000. Since the theft has been going on for a while, it adds up to that sum.
Posting names and addresses of people arrested is not illegal. In fact, most newspapers in the US have an "arrests" section, complete with names, addresses, and reason for arrest ("parole violation", etc).
If you think the cable ISPs could meter game traffic and stay in business, you're wrong. I'd think about 40-60% of the people who have cable installed got it for gaming and downloading, and not for just surfing the web. The other 40-60% percentage have it because they either have money to waste or can't find the phone number to unsubscribe -- they are not long-term customers.
Metering only works if 99% of the users are going to fall below the limit. If you are excluding more than half of your users (which would be the case with online games), you will not be able to come up with the cash to maintain the network. And I can assure you that there are many people who want fast, unmetered internet access, and there is money to be made by providing such a service. If ATT and others started metering my connection, I would find a DSL or some other provider who didn't or just stick with dialup. After all, 5GB/sec is less than what I could download with a 2nd phone line ($10 a month) and a dialup provider ($10-$20 / month).
JUst for your info, fcc has no oversight on cable. FTC does. FCC is airwaves, FTC is trade.
Have you been living in a cave?
[from http://www.fcc.gov/mb/]
"The Media Bureau develops, recommends and administers the policy and licensing programs relating to electronic media, including cable television, broadcast television, and radio in the United States and its territories. The Media Bureau also handles post-licensing matters regarding Direct Broadcast Satellite service."
Not really. A single cable modem is 1.5Mbps down/128k up where I live ($50/month). Divide by 5 neighbors: you get 300Kbps symmetric for $80 a month. Looks pretty expensive to me.
As much as I hate to shatter your imaginary world, I have to say that NAV is a completely useless program designed to suck money out of your pocket. There are no more viruses on Windows than there are on Linux. What gets media attention are the Outlook scripting worms, and the only reason Linux can't get them is because it doesn't have Outlook. Run Outlook under wine, and you will get the same worms. It's not a fault of the OS, be it Linux+Wine or Windows, but a problem of the Outlook application.
Hold it. One thing is talking about how ugly something is. Win3.11 is definitely more ugly than Aqua; you could see that even if you evaluated it on an objective basis. However, if I don't like Aqua because I don't like the color scheme, I shouldn't bash it in my review. Post some screenshots, let the people decide if they like it. Otherwise, it's a biased review.
As for flaky hardware: how am I making it up? She had problems with 3 mice (one of which I own and have never had problems with). She has problems with her hard drive being slow (flaky chipset -> dma disabled). The system logs in slowly (the login works faster on my 200 MHz i-opener). How is this not flaky hardware? As for the other distributions: she actually installed them on a clean system, and probably a different hard drive. Don't you think that renders the entire comparison invalid?
I agree with most of your points, but I seriously disagree with Eugenia. She doesn't review the product, she bitches about how she doesn't like the color scheme. These two are different, and the reviewer's personal taste should not interfere with the review.
In this case, the review is basically an editorial about the author's personal tastes, which is not good for that site's credibility. Sort of reminds me of Linux and Main's KDE bashing.
Also, some of your points are valid, and some are simply opinions on taste. I know a lot of windows users who tried Linux, and the number of programs is something they _really_ like. People like choice. The same applies to inconsistent menus - people don't care that much. The settings part is a bigger problem, but most distros are finally starting to get it right.
Overall, I'd say the review is overly negative and ignores many important aspects of the distribution. Note (in the comments section) how Eugenia rudely brushes off someone who says that Mandrake integrates well with Windows networks. Finally, she seems to be testing the distro on flaky hardware, with no less than 8 other OSs installed, and in expert mode, yet she tries to review it as if she was a dummy. That just doesn't seem fair to me.
That doesn't exactly prove anything, does it now? At least he had a larger sample size (20 vs. 1) and builds machines (which means he actually has some experience with hard drives and failure rates). Don't talk about the reliability of products based on one sample. I have an IBM 75GXP that works fine and a Western Digital WD1000 that failed. That doesn't mean IBM drives are the best, and WD sucks.
They typically just replace the platters and possibly the head mechanism or the logic board if it was an electronic failure and turn that into a refurbished drive. I know the drive WD sent me as a replacement (refurb) had scratches all over the casing, so I'll bet it was someone else's failed drive.
That would be because a "THX-certified" amp does not even come close to a high-quality audio system. Let me guess: you are listening to it on small cheap satellite speakers and a big crappy subwoofer. Real audiophiles use separate speakers that EACH cost about a grand. You don't have to have them that expensive, but try listening to things on some real speakers instead of crappy surround satellites. You'll notice A LARGE difference.
The amp itself probably sucks, too. $1500 is pretty cheap for a surround amp. It probably is fairly low-wattage per channel, uses cheap components (i.e. ceramic capacitors in the signal path, not enough output transistors, insufficient power transformer), and has tons of crappy cheap sound-corrupting electronics in it, especially since you say the decoder is integrated. Inexpensive audiophile amps cost something like $1000 PER CHANNEL, unless you build it yourself (about 3x cheaper). The only feature they have is a power switch - their sole job is to amplify sound and not do other stuff. Finally, toslink is not as good as the coax output; the only good thing about it is that it does not cause ground loops.
Anyway, my point is that there is a good reason you can't tell the difference between high-end and lower-end equipment: you have tons of cheap equipment in the middle of the signal path, so the one or two good components that you have (DAC and speaker cable) do not make a difference. I can assure you that if you will be able to tell the difference between lamp cord and real cable if you get some real speakers and a high-end amp (and possibly a better transport). You'll just find that the sound takes on another dimension, one which you can't perceive with cheap gear. However, be prepared to shell out some serious bucks.
Eminem albums at wally's world are censored/bleeped, btw. Also, if I owned a store, I would _not_ sell a game called "BMX XXX". The name is inappropriate by itself, and implies that it's porn (even though it's not). Besides, it's probably crap, so who cares?
Wow, unlike all those posters praising Vorbis, you actually have a clue. You forget one another thing. There are many mp3/wma decoder single-chip solutions, but there isn't a single one that supports Ogg. Implementing Ogg would require a very expensive general-purpose DSP, a discrete DAC chip, and glue circuitry in addition to paying the normal patent license fees (no, MP3 is not going anywhere). That would increase the cost by more than $50 just for the hardware, and several dollars more to amortize the cost of developing a software decoder for the DSP.
Besides, hardly anyone wants ogg. I personally don't give a shit about patent fees and whatnot, and I don't see any reason to encode things to Ogg when everything works with MP3.
Actually, most of the mice out there have a third button. Most mice nowadays come with a wheel, and the wheel is the third button on most systems.
As for the UI: it needs to be well-documented. You should be able to read the docs, follow through the tutorials, and learn it. That is true for any UI. You can't just sit down behind a wheel of a car for the first time and start driving, you have to learn it first. Yet, I haven't seen people complain about their car's UI.
It is open-source except for the licensed/patented code. It is not GPL; it is licensed under the Aladdin license, meaning no commercial redistribution of it is permitted. The copy protection code has nothing to do with the DMCA; the reason they can't open-source it is because it's licensed from a third party.
The reason modchips don't fall under the DMCA is because they don't bypass access controls. The dmca defines protection devices as something that "effectively controls access to a work". Since you can't access data on a game CD any better with a modchip, it doesn't bypass anything. IANAL, though, so I might be wrong.
I totally agree with you. Obviously, a large corporation with thousands of employees is more important than some random guy operating out of his basement.
Also, it is pretty damn obvious that the value in that domain name comes from the popularity of the Nissan Motor company, and not Nissan Computer, whatever that is. Given that Nissan spends millions of dollars promoting their brand and that they own the trademark, I don't see how this is not cybersquatting. Just because my last name is "Ford" doesn't mean I have the right to start a business called "Ford Motor Company". And when I go to nissan.com, I better damn well find the car company's website and not some random small business.
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You are aware that trying to debug/reverse-engineer Windows code voids your rights under the EULA? Microsoft specifically prohibits disassembly of Windows code in their EULA.
Dude, many cellphones transmit at more than 5 watts. And they're right next to your brain when they're on.
Umm.. no. MP3s are not bit-for-bit perfect. In fact, an MP3 has about 10% of the content of a CD. Yet most people don't mind listening to them.
Converting stuff from analog to digital is not bad at all, assuming you have a decent soundcard that doesn't introduce tons of hiss and distortion. Remember, any microphone, electric guitar, or any other instrument produces analog sound that typically gets encoded to digital by a device very similar to an expensive soundcard. In any case, the MP3 sound quality is bad enough that these small things won't matter.
I think what you were trying to talk about is analog degradation - the degradation that occurs when you make an analog copy of an analog copy, thus introducing more artifacts in an exponential manner. In this case, this cannot occur since you are digitally recording an analog source and since MP3s do not degrade from simply being copied.
You can't judge the bugginess of the software such as Mozilla by the number of bugs in bugzilla. Any major bug will have 20-30 duplicates reported, many bugs are requests for enhancement, some are incorrect, some are just bullshit, some are meta-bugs that actually track the progress on a certain component, and most of them are currently closed.
You can't even get Intel processors as slow as the ones inside most Macs. 800MHz? A ~2GHz AMD now costs about $80 and is inside most news PCs, so I don't see how macs are cutting edge. Sure, PPC has maybe 10% extra performance because it's a better architecture, but it doesn't compensate for the huge gap in clock frequency.
Sure, apple design is great, but the price/performance ratio is dismal. PC prices are so low that the mac cannot compete with them.
All cable modems sold in stores are DOCSIS compliant. DOCSIS requires that they support throttling. If they weren't DOCSIS certified, they would not be able to connect to the network and would probably be illegal. Any questions?
FBI damage trigger is $5000. Since the theft has been going on for a while, it adds up to that sum.
Posting names and addresses of people arrested is not illegal. In fact, most newspapers in the US have an "arrests" section, complete with names, addresses, and reason for arrest ("parole violation", etc).
Capacitors have very low energy density. They are also more expensive.
If you think the cable ISPs could meter game traffic and stay in business, you're wrong. I'd think about 40-60% of the people who have cable installed got it for gaming and downloading, and not for just surfing the web. The other 40-60% percentage have it because they either have money to waste or can't find the phone number to unsubscribe -- they are not long-term customers.
Metering only works if 99% of the users are going to fall below the limit. If you are excluding more than half of your users (which would be the case with online games), you will not be able to come up with the cash to maintain the network. And I can assure you that there are many people who want fast, unmetered internet access, and there is money to be made by providing such a service. If ATT and others started metering my connection, I would find a DSL or some other provider who didn't or just stick with dialup. After all, 5GB/sec is less than what I could download with a 2nd phone line ($10 a month) and a dialup provider ($10-$20 / month).
JUst for your info, fcc has no oversight on cable. FTC does. FCC is airwaves, FTC is trade.
Have you been living in a cave?
[from http://www.fcc.gov/mb/]
"The Media Bureau develops, recommends and administers the policy and licensing programs relating to electronic media, including cable television, broadcast television, and radio in the United States and its territories. The Media Bureau also handles post-licensing matters regarding Direct Broadcast Satellite service."
Not really. A single cable modem is 1.5Mbps down/128k up where I live ($50/month). Divide by 5 neighbors: you get 300Kbps symmetric for $80 a month. Looks pretty expensive to me.
As much as I hate to shatter your imaginary world, I have to say that NAV is a completely useless program designed to suck money out of your pocket. There are no more viruses on Windows than there are on Linux. What gets media attention are the Outlook scripting worms, and the only reason Linux can't get them is because it doesn't have Outlook. Run Outlook under wine, and you will get the same worms. It's not a fault of the OS, be it Linux+Wine or Windows, but a problem of the Outlook application.
Hold it. One thing is talking about how ugly something is. Win3.11 is definitely more ugly than Aqua; you could see that even if you evaluated it on an objective basis. However, if I don't like Aqua because I don't like the color scheme, I shouldn't bash it in my review. Post some screenshots, let the people decide if they like it. Otherwise, it's a biased review.
As for flaky hardware: how am I making it up? She had problems with 3 mice (one of which I own and have never had problems with). She has problems with her hard drive being slow (flaky chipset -> dma disabled). The system logs in slowly (the login works faster on my 200 MHz i-opener). How is this not flaky hardware? As for the other distributions: she actually installed them on a clean system, and probably a different hard drive. Don't you think that renders the entire comparison invalid?
I agree with most of your points, but I seriously disagree with Eugenia. She doesn't review the product, she bitches about how she doesn't like the color scheme. These two are different, and the reviewer's personal taste should not interfere with the review.
In this case, the review is basically an editorial about the author's personal tastes, which is not good for that site's credibility. Sort of reminds me of Linux and Main's KDE bashing.
Also, some of your points are valid, and some are simply opinions on taste. I know a lot of windows users who tried Linux, and the number of programs is something they _really_ like. People like choice. The same applies to inconsistent menus - people don't care that much. The settings part is a bigger problem, but most distros are finally starting to get it right.
Overall, I'd say the review is overly negative and ignores many important aspects of the distribution. Note (in the comments section) how Eugenia rudely brushes off someone who says that Mandrake integrates well with Windows networks. Finally, she seems to be testing the distro on flaky hardware, with no less than 8 other OSs installed, and in expert mode, yet she tries to review it as if she was a dummy. That just doesn't seem fair to me.
That doesn't exactly prove anything, does it now? At least he had a larger sample size (20 vs. 1) and builds machines (which means he actually has some experience with hard drives and failure rates). Don't talk about the reliability of products based on one sample. I have an IBM 75GXP that works fine and a Western Digital WD1000 that failed. That doesn't mean IBM drives are the best, and WD sucks.
They typically just replace the platters and possibly the head mechanism or the logic board if it was an electronic failure and turn that into a refurbished drive. I know the drive WD sent me as a replacement (refurb) had scratches all over the casing, so I'll bet it was someone else's failed drive.
That would be because a "THX-certified" amp does not even come close to a high-quality audio system. Let me guess: you are listening to it on small cheap satellite speakers and a big crappy subwoofer. Real audiophiles use separate speakers that EACH cost about a grand. You don't have to have them that expensive, but try listening to things on some real speakers instead of crappy surround satellites. You'll notice A LARGE difference.
The amp itself probably sucks, too. $1500 is pretty cheap for a surround amp. It probably is fairly low-wattage per channel, uses cheap components (i.e. ceramic capacitors in the signal path, not enough output transistors, insufficient power transformer), and has tons of crappy cheap sound-corrupting electronics in it, especially since you say the decoder is integrated. Inexpensive audiophile amps cost something like $1000 PER CHANNEL, unless you build it yourself (about 3x cheaper). The only feature they have is a power switch - their sole job is to amplify sound and not do other stuff. Finally, toslink is not as good as the coax output; the only good thing about it is that it does not cause ground loops.
Anyway, my point is that there is a good reason you can't tell the difference between high-end and lower-end equipment: you have tons of cheap equipment in the middle of the signal path, so the one or two good components that you have (DAC and speaker cable) do not make a difference. I can assure you that if you will be able to tell the difference between lamp cord and real cable if you get some real speakers and a high-end amp (and possibly a better transport). You'll just find that the sound takes on another dimension, one which you can't perceive with cheap gear. However, be prepared to shell out some serious bucks.
Eminem albums at wally's world are censored/bleeped, btw. Also, if I owned a store, I would _not_ sell a game called "BMX XXX". The name is inappropriate by itself, and implies that it's porn (even though it's not). Besides, it's probably crap, so who cares?
Wow, unlike all those posters praising Vorbis, you actually have a clue. You forget one another thing. There are many mp3/wma decoder single-chip solutions, but there isn't a single one that supports Ogg. Implementing Ogg would require a very expensive general-purpose DSP, a discrete DAC chip, and glue circuitry in addition to paying the normal patent license fees (no, MP3 is not going anywhere). That would increase the cost by more than $50 just for the hardware, and several dollars more to amortize the cost of developing a software decoder for the DSP.
Besides, hardly anyone wants ogg. I personally don't give a shit about patent fees and whatnot, and I don't see any reason to encode things to Ogg when everything works with MP3.
Actually, most of the mice out there have a third button. Most mice nowadays come with a wheel, and the wheel is the third button on most systems.
As for the UI: it needs to be well-documented. You should be able to read the docs, follow through the tutorials, and learn it. That is true for any UI. You can't just sit down behind a wheel of a car for the first time and start driving, you have to learn it first. Yet, I haven't seen people complain about their car's UI.
RPMSs are OK. Read the license. TG does discourage them (so there is an incentive to subscribe) but it's permitted legally.
That would be an induction coil, not a solenoid.
It is open-source except for the licensed/patented code. It is not GPL; it is licensed under the Aladdin license, meaning no commercial redistribution of it is permitted. The copy protection code has nothing to do with the DMCA; the reason they can't open-source it is because it's licensed from a third party.
The reason modchips don't fall under the DMCA is because they don't bypass access controls. The dmca defines protection devices as something that "effectively controls access to a work". Since you can't access data on a game CD any better with a modchip, it doesn't bypass anything. IANAL, though, so I might be wrong.
I totally agree with you. Obviously, a large corporation with thousands of employees is more important than some random guy operating out of his basement.
Also, it is pretty damn obvious that the value in that domain name comes from the popularity of the Nissan Motor company, and not Nissan Computer, whatever that is. Given that Nissan spends millions of dollars promoting their brand and that they own the trademark, I don't see how this is not cybersquatting. Just because my last name is "Ford" doesn't mean I have the right to start a business called "Ford Motor Company". And when I go to nissan.com, I better damn well find the car company's website and not some random small business.