Like the Anonymous Coward says below: International Baccalaureate (you can use his link). I.B. is very much like A.P., apparently, except it's on an international scale. So there are I.B. schools in France, Russia, Japan, etc. Of course, the tests are only in English, French, and Spanish.
You're making this harder than it is. Forget the modchip, and softmod. XBMC will still run superbly. And, since it's video system is built off of MPlayer, you'll have practically every codec known to Man (and some super-inteligent shades of blue) available for use, including containers.
...five classes a day with twenty students per class...
Wow, where did you go to school (or perhaps when is a better question)? At my school, depending on the class, it could be in the high twenties to low thirties. Seriously: I had a History class with 32+ people in it. However, that was an I.B. class, and that made motivation a little less of an importance factor (because we're all masochists in the I.B. program). Plus, there are many high schools that use a seven period day. We spent a total of one year on the seven period system, but that one year was hell.
So, here's part of the problem. Teachers have to help thirty five students (yes, this number seems accurate to me, especially in required non-I.B. classes), some of which are trouble students (trouble makers) and troubled students (students who need a little extra help). Throw on to the heap that there are possibly seven periods in a day (could be four, could be five, I've seen all three in our school and other schools, but I'm going to a worst case scenario here). Take in one or two "prep" periods, and the teacher still has 175 students (assuming two prep periods) to deal with. It seems a little far fetched that even a great teacher could help that many students without becoming swamped or neglecting other students.
And that brings up problem number two: not all teachers are good teachers! I've had a couple. For them, this is just a job. It's not about inspiring students, but it's just their way to make a buck. Sadly, in the standard or lower tracks of education, you might run across quite a number of these teachers. My sister had a history teacher who spent more time talking about sociology than history.
So, the problem here isn't just the heaps of homework (which can be detrimental, especially if in higher level classes), but it's also teachers who are overloaded, and teachers who aren't at the level they should be.
I agree that Star Trek is a wonderful franchise, I just don't like where it's been taken, in terms of quality, these days.
Now, this Brand of Brothers guy has proven that he can write at a better then average level, but has zero experience with the science fiction genre. If they are going to continue this "let's not have experienced sci-fi writers and directors", the chances of them putting together a good film is low.
I disagree. I happen to think that Band of Brothers was one of the best miniseries ever created. One key reason for this was because of the writing. It put you into the heads of the characters. Because you could see the world through their eyes (And near the end, you got to see it through individuals' eyes, giving a better perspective). Now, one of the things I think that made series like Next Generation and even the Original Series great was the characters. Who didn't enjoy the infamous "I'm a Doctor, not a *Insert Job Here*" jokes, or Data's inadvertent blunders, among a great number of other things, both funny and otherwise. When Roddenberry (sp?) was alive, Star Trek was characters.
In addition, Star Trek has three television series with characters that have never seen the big screen. Why break with tradition? Why use some completely new cast, then add them to a writer and (probably) a director combination with no real experience in sci-fi?
I think that they don't see too big a future with the other Star Trek series. I mean, let's face it, after Next Generation, the series started to gradually lose quality. True, it's true core of fans stuck with it, but I'm sure the die-hards won't tell you that Voyager was their favorite series. So, I think rather than take a risk with a series that had relatively limited success, they want to try to make a movie from scratch. And let's be honest, there have been movies made with no connection to anything else (that would be most movies) and have still been damn good movies.
It's as if they are constructing this movie from the ground up to be bad. There are plenty of decent sci-fi writers out there (heck, just look to some of the better episodes of TNG... I'm sure the writers of those episodes wouldn't mind seeing work). Find a decent director with sci-fi experience (off hand I think somebody like Andrew Niccol could probably do a good job).
Well, I agree that TNG had some great episodes, and introduced a lot of neat stuff (including the Trek universe's most beloved characters: Q, and one of the most frightening enemies (until they introduced a Queen, IMHO): the Borg) But, the thing to remember here is that there is a vast difference between a television series and a movie. Writing isn't just you say "you need more" and pluck it from the air. All Star Trek episodes were 44 minutes long. A movie would be at least double that. A television writer might have trouble making something that long, after having written 44 minute segments for most of his career.
Nonetheless, this is one I'll be keeping an eye on.
True, small hard disks are highly efficient, and come in sizes as large as 80GB already. But, here's one of the problems that many cite as problems with VHS: HDD's have moving parts, and thus they wear out. And when things wear out, we can lose data.
As a person who runs his own server, I've had a hard disk wear out, and a CD-ROM drive die on me. In both cases, I've been set back in one way or another. The hard disk was bigger set back because I can't just force the drive door open and take the discs out.
Plus, a hard disk is more easily damaged if dropped. I wouldn't risk dropping my XBox or my HDD equipped PS2, let alone my laptop in a bet to prove their stability. I would drop my DVD-Rs and CD-Rs to prove their stability.
However, portable hard disks are a good idea. For those of us who work with media files, having files small enough to fit on cheap flash memory is a luxury, and burning a disc is wasteful. When I've dealt with Illustrator files that are about 148 MB, and whole projects that are larger than 1.8 GB, a portable hard disk that I could just plug in would be a nice thing. But, I wouldn't trust a purchased video on a miniature hard disk, but rather an optical disc, where I can replace the physical mechanisms easily without having to worry about damaging the media itself.
Plus, discs are backwards compatible. All DVD drive read CDs, and there's no reason Blu-Ray or HD-DVD won't be able to run older discs. However, hard disks on the other hand... it's like saying that DV can run Hi8. Plus, anyone remember when the newer model hard disks came out, replacing the old standard (I forget what it was called, I remember my 386 had it). When I tried to pull data off of it, only to find out that the connectors for EIDE and the older hard disks are incompatible.
And don't think that this is an extreme case. My brother plays individual game disc, and reviews parts of videos often enough to wear down a cassette or hard disk. Unless you can guarantee that this hard disk is going to survive no less than five years of constant abuse, I'm not going to rely on it for my media.
(Sorry about the double post, I accidentally hit the post button and stopped it, realizing I forgot my
True, small hard disks are highly efficient, and come in sizes as large as 80GB already. But, here's one of the problems that many cite as problems with VHS: HDD's have moving parts, and thus they wear out. And when things wear out, we can lose data.
As a person who runs his own server, I've had a hard disk wear out, and a CD-ROM drive die on me. In both cases, I've been set back in one way or another. The hard disk was bigger set back because I can't just force the drive door open and take the discs out.
Plus, a hard disk is more easily damaged if dropped. I wouldn't risk dropping my XBox or my HDD equipped PS2, let alone my laptop in a bet to prove their stability. I would drop my DVD-Rs and CD-Rs to prove their stability.
However, portable hard disks are a good idea. For those of us who work with media files, having files small enough to fit on cheap flash memory is a luxury, and burning a disc is wasteful. When I've dealt with Illustrator files that are about 148 MB, and whole projects that are larger than 1.8 GB, a portable hard disk that I could just plug in would be a nice thing. But, I wouldn't trust a purchased video on a miniature hard disk, but rather an optical disc, where I can replace the physical mechanisms easily without having to worry about damaging the media itself.
Plus, discs are backwards compatible. All DVD drive read CDs, and there's no reason Blu-Ray or HD-DVD won't be able to run older discs. However, hard disks on the other hand... it's like saying that DV can run Hi8. Plus, anyone remember when the newer model hard disks came out, replacing the old standard (I forget what it was called, I remember my 386 had it). When I tried to pull data off of it, only to find out that the connectors for EIDE and the older hard disks are incompatible.
And don't think that this is an extreme case. My brother plays individual game disc, and reviews parts of videos often enough to wear down a cassette or hard disk. Unless you can guarantee that this hard disk is going to survive no less than five years of constant abuse, I'm not going to rely on it for my media.
Ahh, true. I realized that, but however, it seems that might be optional, depending. Or you could replace the fan with other circulation devices, thus, in the most literal sense, fanless.
I whole heartedly agree. one of the problems with buying music from iTMS is that you're buying music at sub-CD quality. I believe that the store should offer the option to download in either AAC or ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), giving you the option as to how much hard disk space you want to sacrifice, as well as bandwidth. Can you imagine downloading an Apple Lossless song via dial-up? But a Broadbroad user with a couple extra hard disks sitting around...
I actually just discovered this last night. I'm working on finding a solution to my printer-sharing woes (Windows Networking on the Family XP box is royally b0rked) and I figured I would give Bonjour (formerly Rendezvous) a spin.
As best as I can figure, Bonjour for Windows only seems to be a client. I can't tell if it has the ability to share printers yet. Anyone got info on this?
As far as this being a marketing ploy on Apple's part, let's face it, it's just as much a marketing ploy for Apple, as it was for Microsoft to start making Internet Explorer and Office for Macs. It's nothing new, just Apple's attempt to spread their technology. Everyone does it, even the FOSS guys (gVIM for Windows, MPlayer binaries for OS X and Windows, FireFox for every imaginable platform).
Best buy screwed me a long time ago. It was about 1999 I think. I had just bought a Jornada 525 (Yeah, I know, I was a traitor to all of Linux-dom, but I hadn't seen the light back then). It made sense back then to get a three year protection plan. After all, it was a PocketPC, which meant it would be going places and being dropped and bumped and so on and so forth.
Well, I used my machine for a long time. Of course, maybe I used it too much. It's probably a bad sign when you get out of school, and boot it up to play some MP3s on the walk home, and find out you blew all your batteries on games of Go in class.
So, eventually, I get up one morning, and try to start the machine. No go. I can't even do a hard restart on it. So, after work, my mom and I go down to Best Buy (I was a minor in '99, so it was all in her name). At first, they won't take it. No proof of purchase. So, for the next few weeks, we're comming back and forth with different forms of proofs of purchases. Eventually, we call up the Best Buy corporate office and have them fax us a copy of the recipt.
So, now we're getting somewhere, right? Now, remember, this is Winter, and I live in Minnesota. Every time I go into Best Buy, they have to put a little sticker on the PPC to make sure that I didn't steal it. Now, I walk into the store, and take the PPC out of my pockets, with my gloves still on. I hand it to the guy, and it slips from my hand and falls to the ground. When we go to the service counter to get this all wrapped up, the guy refuses to service it. He said he was us drop it, and pointed to a small plastic piece that was exposed, pointing out the obvious physical damage. Now, this was no physical damage. originally, this piece was covered by a chunk of rubber, but to affix the flip cover, you had to remove the rubber chunk, and clip it into the plastic piece. Either way, the guy won't service it.
from then on out, we've never been happy with Best Buy. In fact, the next PDA I bought was from OfficeMax, and was a Visor Edge, specifically because Visor offered a proctetion against droppage clause in their warrantee and because OfficeMax had never screwed us. To this day, OfficeMax has yet to screw us.
Well, sort of. My friend, long ago, had written these hilarious little scripts of a ficticious interview show. There were (sadly only) four episodes in all, but I still re-read them occasionally. Anyway, I had an idea that I could run this through a Text-to-speech converter and listen to it on my Rio 600. I knew the scripts well enough that I could recognize who's lines were whose, but it was kind of lack-luster.
Later on, I created my own scripts for my own interview show (It sucked in comparison). I then decided I'd do seperate voices. However, customizing Computer-Generated voices was not easy, and each line for each character would have to be recorded seperatly and then in the end edited together. It was quite a task, but in the end I churned out the source audio for the first episode. Editing them together was a problem becuase of the enormous spaces between lines, and it took a while for my simple editor to load the sometimes long lines. I never finished the project, and when an accident required the reformatting of my hard disk, I lost the source audio, and I don't think I'll ever be bored enough to finish it. But should a multi-voice text-to-speech program be available, I'll gladly put it to work.
This story, however, made me become interesting in actually having my friends, on whom my characters are based, do the voices. We all have computers, but only one of us has a burner and a broadband connection (me!), which is a bit of a problem. Also, none of us happen to have a microphone. But I suppose with a little bit of work, these limitations could be overcome. Microphones can be bought cheap, and quality isn't that big of a matter. I wonder if this is a good idea:
Buy 3 microphones. Give one to each participant
Have each one of us record our lines. Each line gets a seperate file. Use monaural format, and compress to 96kbps MP3.
I set up an FTP server where the participants upload their files overnight (If their parrents will let them!)
I edit them together and offer each participant a copy on CD-Audio (With MP3 on the disc as well)
The idea seems like it could work, but the uploading part could be the big hump. What do you/.-ers think?
I've been a big fan of audio drama for some time now. When I was 9, I'd listen to recorded versions of Star Trek novels. One time my mom rented me a copy of Star Wars done by the BBC. I'll never forget lying in bed with my tape player by my side. I still listen to audio-books, but more due to time constraints. But 16 discs for The Fellowship of the Ring, 14 for The Two Towers and 16 for The Return of the King almost makes me wish I wasn't such a stickler for unabriged copies!
I think Katsushiro Otomo is about the same level as Miyazaki. I mean, he did make the graphic novels Domu, and Akira, which was later made into the anime staple that is Akira.
I don't import, so I hope this is true. I like Mononoke(And own it on VHS), and I liked what I saw from the Sprited Away trailer (Available in QuickTime 5 from Apple). But I mean, it's hard to pick a single greatest director of all time. Akira Kurosawa is considered the greatest director of all time. And Katsushiro Otomo is considered to be the greatest anime genius to ever walk the face of the earth. I'm inclined to agree with all three views. (Kurosawa, Otomo and Miyazaki are some of the greatest)
As far as all the Japanese specials go, BRING IT ON. The japanese often include everything from the film's trailer, to Coca Cola commercials featuring thier characters (Sorta like Square did about Final Fantasy IX soundtrack: They included the Coke ad music) I'm one of those guys who sits there are trolls through all the specials. Even on my little brother and sister's Monsters Inc. disc. However, they just murdered it. But then again, there's some films where I don't want to see the specials (I.E. Spider-Man) and some where I wish I had bought the two disc set instead (I.E. Akira). If you ask me, the proper way for taking DVDs from another country and moving it to another country is to make an exact duplicate of the disc. Then, translate everything, but offer the original version. I'm always paranoid about improper conversions/translations. My fears came true when I got the Roshomon DVD, and I had proof that it had happened with Akira. I'd seen it once before on VHS. When I looked at the DVD features for Roshomon, it said it had an original Japanes track, Original English Dub track, and a new Subtitle track with an improved translation. Also, Pioneer re-dubbed Akira and redid the translation from scratch. I'm always leary about translations. That, and I'm always interested in seeing the originals, just to compare.
Meh. I know the feeling. I watch a lot of foreign films (Like Spriggan, Seven Samurai, Das Boot). My sister can't stand them, however. Hates the subtitles. So, when I can, I try to lure her in by putting it in English. However, Spriggan doesn't allow this to be done outside of the menu. Why the hell not?! The whole point of putting in the AUDIO menu on DVD players is for the convinience of being able to switch audio tracks without having to go to the main menu! This just defeats the purpose!
I think you'd have to get a special DVD Set-Top DVD player, or get some special DVD software for your computer. But, in theory, it's possible.
What's the point anyway? How does importing DVDs hurt the MPAA? It's baseless! I could go and get a european VHS cassette, grab a PAL-NTSC player, and watch the film. That's the only advantage to VHS: None of this region coding crap.
It gets worse: ERC. Enhanced Region Coding (or is it RCE). It detects Region 0 or Multi-Region players, and doesn't play on them. I read about it on Amazon when I was looking at the Special Edition of Memento. It's ERC too. But I'm serious, what's the point behind it? I want a reson. We all oughta go on a riot. I know I can get loads of people from Australia and New Zealand behind me. (Acutally, it's legal to MOD a game system in Australia, for the purposes of playing imported games. MODding is legal in UK, as long as it isn't used to play pirated games) They're furious about this. Anyone from the UK want to join me? I might not grab the common man from the street here in the USA, or possibly in parts of Asia, but I will grab those who think logically, and are smart. Come on! RIOT! RIOT! RIOT!
The MPAA and RIAA: Worst things ever done in the United States of America.
I had an idea for that. But I thought it would be kinda dumb. But I eventually liked the idea, but mentally voted it down, thinking that the ARM processor in it couldn't handle it. But, if it is an entirely rebuilt iPod, it could work. But I'd be pretty sad. No RotK Trailers on the go for me!
My friend hosts my site. He runs the whole kit and cabootle from his desktop for free, using DYNDNS to give him a textual URL. All he has to do is pay for the Broadband line.
But his site is relativly low-traffic. It's at http://scanman.mine.nu. Except for a few times where he did something to it, his site has been running almost non-stop, and still does high-process operations. But again, I said his site is relativly low traffic, and may not be for you. He runs an Athelon 750 MHz.
If Desktop machines do use up as much energy as stated in this reply, then perhaps some households that are experiencing a slight budget crisis should consider limiting the amount of energy they use. I know my dad does this, just to save cash. He gets pretty perturbed when he walks into a room and finds no one there, and the light turned on. He has no trouble if you're in there, but if you're not...
If you ask me, there's nothing like seeing the little silvery steel ball fall square between the two flippers when your friend goes for the game. I don't care how much technology advances, you cannot capture REAL pinball on a screen. They can get close, but it's impossible. One can't play Pinball by squinting one's eyes at a 15" screen! They have to gaze upon a foot-and-a-half minimum slanted table! The game isn't the game unless I can see my grinning face look back at me in that little ball once I hit 100,000,000 points. And then there's the lost art of nudging the machine slightly enough so you don't set off the Tilt alarm, but enough to move the ball in the direction you choose! The main loss in Computer Pinball is the size of the screen. You'd need a Two-Foot-Tall screen to be able to get a good view, and then there's the controlls. Pushing "z" and "/" just arn't good enough, they need to be on the side! Pinball needs to be played while standing too. May Pinball never truly die!
So true! When Napster got busted, Morpheus, KaZaA, and Audio Galaxy popped up.
But let's face facts: as long as there's been pirates as long as there's been the Audio and Video cassette, as well as the Personal Computer, like the Apple ][, there have been pirates! The Pirating "Industry" will all ways be here. Unless that there is some sort of PHYSICAL prevention, like the difficulty of creating Vynil Discs from LPs, people will always have work-arounds. Even these new "Copy-Protected" CDs and DVDs have workarounds! For DVDs, there's a software solution, for CDs, there's a physical soulution, and for CDs, it a simple method that it totally logical.
The pirates won't dissappear unless new laws pop up that would practically squelch our rights, and put our legal system in a light that makes it seem like the old commie Soviet Union. Let's face it, pirates will allways exist, but what can be done is to reduce the numbers of pirates, which reduces the loss of money. The evoloution of DVD-A bringing beter audio, and promising more storage will bring richer media. More things need to be on music discs. Things like full lyrical lists, artist information, music videos, and, for those who like it, Kareoke videos, but these will probably be pirated too. It's a never ending cycle caused by the Digital Revolution and supported by more powerful and better computers and Broad-Band Internet Connections.
The RIAA shouldn't be attacking P2P like Napster, which claims to have supported small artists, or KaZaA and Morpheus. When those P2P programs were in their hay-day, they had upwards of a million people on the servers, with hundreds of gigabytes of files being shared. The RIAA can't expect that these companies can filter these services! And P2P ought to adopt a policy similar to Slashdot's "Reply" policy: You are responcible for what you say, do, or share. NOT the service. The people are preforming the illegal acts, not the company. About time the RIAA got on people's cases!
If the Spam problem is truly that bad then something must be done, and I mean at a governmental level. I'm usually very anti-govermnent involvement, but if the spam problem is as bad as it's made out to be, something must be done!.
However, since the goverment hasn't really done anything, then power to the anti-spam groups that set up these networks and put a stop to this attrocity(Pardon me, I kan spel gud)! Their hardwork shows in my inbox almost daily! I've noticed a dramatic decrese in the ammount of spam I get daily. Instead of 30 messages daily with 27 of them being spam, it's more like 7 messages daily, 4-6 of them being newsletters I've subscribed to and the rest being personal. I salute you!
Slashdot Mirror
Like the Anonymous Coward says below: International Baccalaureate (you can use his link). I.B. is very much like A.P., apparently, except it's on an international scale. So there are I.B. schools in France, Russia, Japan, etc. Of course, the tests are only in English, French, and Spanish.
You're making this harder than it is. Forget the modchip, and softmod. XBMC will still run superbly. And, since it's video system is built off of MPlayer, you'll have practically every codec known to Man (and some super-inteligent shades of blue) available for use, including containers.
Wow, where did you go to school (or perhaps when is a better question)? At my school, depending on the class, it could be in the high twenties to low thirties. Seriously: I had a History class with 32+ people in it. However, that was an I.B. class, and that made motivation a little less of an importance factor (because we're all masochists in the I.B. program). Plus, there are many high schools that use a seven period day. We spent a total of one year on the seven period system, but that one year was hell.
So, here's part of the problem. Teachers have to help thirty five students (yes, this number seems accurate to me, especially in required non-I.B. classes), some of which are trouble students (trouble makers) and troubled students (students who need a little extra help). Throw on to the heap that there are possibly seven periods in a day (could be four, could be five, I've seen all three in our school and other schools, but I'm going to a worst case scenario here). Take in one or two "prep" periods, and the teacher still has 175 students (assuming two prep periods) to deal with. It seems a little far fetched that even a great teacher could help that many students without becoming swamped or neglecting other students.
And that brings up problem number two: not all teachers are good teachers! I've had a couple. For them, this is just a job. It's not about inspiring students, but it's just their way to make a buck. Sadly, in the standard or lower tracks of education, you might run across quite a number of these teachers. My sister had a history teacher who spent more time talking about sociology than history.
So, the problem here isn't just the heaps of homework (which can be detrimental, especially if in higher level classes), but it's also teachers who are overloaded, and teachers who aren't at the level they should be.
Now, this Brand of Brothers guy has proven that he can write at a better then average level, but has zero experience with the science fiction genre. If they are going to continue this "let's not have experienced sci-fi writers and directors", the chances of them putting together a good film is low.
I disagree. I happen to think that Band of Brothers was one of the best miniseries ever created. One key reason for this was because of the writing. It put you into the heads of the characters. Because you could see the world through their eyes (And near the end, you got to see it through individuals' eyes, giving a better perspective). Now, one of the things I think that made series like Next Generation and even the Original Series great was the characters. Who didn't enjoy the infamous "I'm a Doctor, not a *Insert Job Here*" jokes, or Data's inadvertent blunders, among a great number of other things, both funny and otherwise. When Roddenberry (sp?) was alive, Star Trek was characters.
In addition, Star Trek has three television series with characters that have never seen the big screen. Why break with tradition? Why use some completely new cast, then add them to a writer and (probably) a director combination with no real experience in sci-fi?
I think that they don't see too big a future with the other Star Trek series. I mean, let's face it, after Next Generation, the series started to gradually lose quality. True, it's true core of fans stuck with it, but I'm sure the die-hards won't tell you that Voyager was their favorite series. So, I think rather than take a risk with a series that had relatively limited success, they want to try to make a movie from scratch. And let's be honest, there have been movies made with no connection to anything else (that would be most movies) and have still been damn good movies.
It's as if they are constructing this movie from the ground up to be bad. There are plenty of decent sci-fi writers out there (heck, just look to some of the better episodes of TNG... I'm sure the writers of those episodes wouldn't mind seeing work). Find a decent director with sci-fi experience (off hand I think somebody like Andrew Niccol could probably do a good job).
Well, I agree that TNG had some great episodes, and introduced a lot of neat stuff (including the Trek universe's most beloved characters: Q, and one of the most frightening enemies (until they introduced a Queen, IMHO): the Borg) But, the thing to remember here is that there is a vast difference between a television series and a movie. Writing isn't just you say "you need more" and pluck it from the air. All Star Trek episodes were 44 minutes long. A movie would be at least double that. A television writer might have trouble making something that long, after having written 44 minute segments for most of his career.
Nonetheless, this is one I'll be keeping an eye on.
As a person who runs his own server, I've had a hard disk wear out, and a CD-ROM drive die on me. In both cases, I've been set back in one way or another. The hard disk was bigger set back because I can't just force the drive door open and take the discs out.
Plus, a hard disk is more easily damaged if dropped. I wouldn't risk dropping my XBox or my HDD equipped PS2, let alone my laptop in a bet to prove their stability. I would drop my DVD-Rs and CD-Rs to prove their stability.
However, portable hard disks are a good idea. For those of us who work with media files, having files small enough to fit on cheap flash memory is a luxury, and burning a disc is wasteful. When I've dealt with Illustrator files that are about 148 MB, and whole projects that are larger than 1.8 GB, a portable hard disk that I could just plug in would be a nice thing. But, I wouldn't trust a purchased video on a miniature hard disk, but rather an optical disc, where I can replace the physical mechanisms easily without having to worry about damaging the media itself.
Plus, discs are backwards compatible. All DVD drive read CDs, and there's no reason Blu-Ray or HD-DVD won't be able to run older discs. However, hard disks on the other hand... it's like saying that DV can run Hi8. Plus, anyone remember when the newer model hard disks came out, replacing the old standard (I forget what it was called, I remember my 386 had it). When I tried to pull data off of it, only to find out that the connectors for EIDE and the older hard disks are incompatible.
And don't think that this is an extreme case. My brother plays individual game disc, and reviews parts of videos often enough to wear down a cassette or hard disk. Unless you can guarantee that this hard disk is going to survive no less than five years of constant abuse, I'm not going to rely on it for my media.
(Sorry about the double post, I accidentally hit the post button and stopped it, realizing I forgot my
tags)
True, small hard disks are highly efficient, and come in sizes as large as 80GB already. But, here's one of the problems that many cite as problems with VHS: HDD's have moving parts, and thus they wear out. And when things wear out, we can lose data. As a person who runs his own server, I've had a hard disk wear out, and a CD-ROM drive die on me. In both cases, I've been set back in one way or another. The hard disk was bigger set back because I can't just force the drive door open and take the discs out. Plus, a hard disk is more easily damaged if dropped. I wouldn't risk dropping my XBox or my HDD equipped PS2, let alone my laptop in a bet to prove their stability. I would drop my DVD-Rs and CD-Rs to prove their stability. However, portable hard disks are a good idea. For those of us who work with media files, having files small enough to fit on cheap flash memory is a luxury, and burning a disc is wasteful. When I've dealt with Illustrator files that are about 148 MB, and whole projects that are larger than 1.8 GB, a portable hard disk that I could just plug in would be a nice thing. But, I wouldn't trust a purchased video on a miniature hard disk, but rather an optical disc, where I can replace the physical mechanisms easily without having to worry about damaging the media itself. Plus, discs are backwards compatible. All DVD drive read CDs, and there's no reason Blu-Ray or HD-DVD won't be able to run older discs. However, hard disks on the other hand... it's like saying that DV can run Hi8. Plus, anyone remember when the newer model hard disks came out, replacing the old standard (I forget what it was called, I remember my 386 had it). When I tried to pull data off of it, only to find out that the connectors for EIDE and the older hard disks are incompatible. And don't think that this is an extreme case. My brother plays individual game disc, and reviews parts of videos often enough to wear down a cassette or hard disk. Unless you can guarantee that this hard disk is going to survive no less than five years of constant abuse, I'm not going to rely on it for my media.
Ahh, true. I realized that, but however, it seems that might be optional, depending. Or you could replace the fan with other circulation devices, thus, in the most literal sense, fanless.
Here you go: fanless box: here (as reported on Slashdot earlier)
I whole heartedly agree. one of the problems with buying music from iTMS is that you're buying music at sub-CD quality. I believe that the store should offer the option to download in either AAC or ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), giving you the option as to how much hard disk space you want to sacrifice, as well as bandwidth. Can you imagine downloading an Apple Lossless song via dial-up? But a Broadbroad user with a couple extra hard disks sitting around...
As best as I can figure, Bonjour for Windows only seems to be a client. I can't tell if it has the ability to share printers yet. Anyone got info on this?
As far as this being a marketing ploy on Apple's part, let's face it, it's just as much a marketing ploy for Apple, as it was for Microsoft to start making Internet Explorer and Office for Macs. It's nothing new, just Apple's attempt to spread their technology. Everyone does it, even the FOSS guys (gVIM for Windows, MPlayer binaries for OS X and Windows, FireFox for every imaginable platform).
Well, I used my machine for a long time. Of course, maybe I used it too much. It's probably a bad sign when you get out of school, and boot it up to play some MP3s on the walk home, and find out you blew all your batteries on games of Go in class.
So, eventually, I get up one morning, and try to start the machine. No go. I can't even do a hard restart on it. So, after work, my mom and I go down to Best Buy (I was a minor in '99, so it was all in her name). At first, they won't take it. No proof of purchase. So, for the next few weeks, we're comming back and forth with different forms of proofs of purchases. Eventually, we call up the Best Buy corporate office and have them fax us a copy of the recipt.
So, now we're getting somewhere, right? Now, remember, this is Winter, and I live in Minnesota. Every time I go into Best Buy, they have to put a little sticker on the PPC to make sure that I didn't steal it. Now, I walk into the store, and take the PPC out of my pockets, with my gloves still on. I hand it to the guy, and it slips from my hand and falls to the ground. When we go to the service counter to get this all wrapped up, the guy refuses to service it. He said he was us drop it, and pointed to a small plastic piece that was exposed, pointing out the obvious physical damage. Now, this was no physical damage. originally, this piece was covered by a chunk of rubber, but to affix the flip cover, you had to remove the rubber chunk, and clip it into the plastic piece. Either way, the guy won't service it.
from then on out, we've never been happy with Best Buy. In fact, the next PDA I bought was from OfficeMax, and was a Visor Edge, specifically because Visor offered a proctetion against droppage clause in their warrantee and because OfficeMax had never screwed us. To this day, OfficeMax has yet to screw us.
Later on, I created my own scripts for my own interview show (It sucked in comparison). I then decided I'd do seperate voices. However, customizing Computer-Generated voices was not easy, and each line for each character would have to be recorded seperatly and then in the end edited together. It was quite a task, but in the end I churned out the source audio for the first episode. Editing them together was a problem becuase of the enormous spaces between lines, and it took a while for my simple editor to load the sometimes long lines. I never finished the project, and when an accident required the reformatting of my hard disk, I lost the source audio, and I don't think I'll ever be bored enough to finish it. But should a multi-voice text-to-speech program be available, I'll gladly put it to work.
This story, however, made me become interesting in actually having my friends, on whom my characters are based, do the voices. We all have computers, but only one of us has a burner and a broadband connection (me!), which is a bit of a problem. Also, none of us happen to have a microphone. But I suppose with a little bit of work, these limitations could be overcome. Microphones can be bought cheap, and quality isn't that big of a matter. I wonder if this is a good idea:
- Buy 3 microphones. Give one to each participant
- Have each one of us record our lines. Each line gets a seperate file. Use monaural format, and compress to 96kbps MP3.
- I set up an FTP server where the participants upload their files overnight (If their parrents will let them!)
- I edit them together and offer each participant a copy on CD-Audio (With MP3 on the disc as well)
The idea seems like it could work, but the uploading part could be the big hump. What do youI've been a big fan of audio drama for some time now. When I was 9, I'd listen to recorded versions of Star Trek novels. One time my mom rented me a copy of Star Wars done by the BBC. I'll never forget lying in bed with my tape player by my side. I still listen to audio-books, but more due to time constraints. But 16 discs for The Fellowship of the Ring, 14 for The Two Towers and 16 for The Return of the King almost makes me wish I wasn't such a stickler for unabriged copies!
I don't import, so I hope this is true. I like Mononoke(And own it on VHS), and I liked what I saw from the Sprited Away trailer (Available in QuickTime 5 from Apple). But I mean, it's hard to pick a single greatest director of all time. Akira Kurosawa is considered the greatest director of all time. And Katsushiro Otomo is considered to be the greatest anime genius to ever walk the face of the earth. I'm inclined to agree with all three views. (Kurosawa, Otomo and Miyazaki are some of the greatest)
As far as all the Japanese specials go, BRING IT ON. The japanese often include everything from the film's trailer, to Coca Cola commercials featuring thier characters (Sorta like Square did about Final Fantasy IX soundtrack: They included the Coke ad music) I'm one of those guys who sits there are trolls through all the specials. Even on my little brother and sister's Monsters Inc. disc. However, they just murdered it. But then again, there's some films where I don't want to see the specials (I.E. Spider-Man) and some where I wish I had bought the two disc set instead (I.E. Akira). If you ask me, the proper way for taking DVDs from another country and moving it to another country is to make an exact duplicate of the disc. Then, translate everything, but offer the original version. I'm always paranoid about improper conversions/translations. My fears came true when I got the Roshomon DVD, and I had proof that it had happened with Akira. I'd seen it once before on VHS. When I looked at the DVD features for Roshomon, it said it had an original Japanes track, Original English Dub track, and a new Subtitle track with an improved translation. Also, Pioneer re-dubbed Akira and redid the translation from scratch. I'm always leary about translations. That, and I'm always interested in seeing the originals, just to compare.
I think you'd have to get a special DVD Set-Top DVD player, or get some special DVD software for your computer. But, in theory, it's possible.
It gets worse: ERC. Enhanced Region Coding (or is it RCE). It detects Region 0 or Multi-Region players, and doesn't play on them. I read about it on Amazon when I was looking at the Special Edition of Memento. It's ERC too. But I'm serious, what's the point behind it? I want a reson. We all oughta go on a riot. I know I can get loads of people from Australia and New Zealand behind me. (Acutally, it's legal to MOD a game system in Australia, for the purposes of playing imported games. MODding is legal in UK, as long as it isn't used to play pirated games) They're furious about this. Anyone from the UK want to join me? I might not grab the common man from the street here in the USA, or possibly in parts of Asia, but I will grab those who think logically, and are smart. Come on! RIOT! RIOT! RIOT!
The MPAA and RIAA: Worst things ever done in the United States of America.
I had an idea for that. But I thought it would be kinda dumb. But I eventually liked the idea, but mentally voted it down, thinking that the ARM processor in it couldn't handle it. But, if it is an entirely rebuilt iPod, it could work. But I'd be pretty sad. No RotK Trailers on the go for me!
My friend hosts my site. He runs the whole kit and cabootle from his desktop for free, using DYNDNS to give him a textual URL. All he has to do is pay for the Broadband line.
But his site is relativly low-traffic. It's at http://scanman.mine.nu . Except for a few times where he did something to it, his site has been running almost non-stop, and still does high-process operations. But again, I said his site is relativly low traffic, and may not be for you. He runs an Athelon 750 MHz.
===---===
So true! When Napster got busted, Morpheus, KaZaA, and Audio Galaxy popped up. But let's face facts: as long as there's been pirates as long as there's been the Audio and Video cassette, as well as the Personal Computer, like the Apple ][, there have been pirates! The Pirating "Industry" will all ways be here. Unless that there is some sort of PHYSICAL prevention, like the difficulty of creating Vynil Discs from LPs, people will always have work-arounds. Even these new "Copy-Protected" CDs and DVDs have workarounds! For DVDs, there's a software solution, for CDs, there's a physical soulution, and for CDs, it a simple method that it totally logical. The pirates won't dissappear unless new laws pop up that would practically squelch our rights, and put our legal system in a light that makes it seem like the old commie Soviet Union. Let's face it, pirates will allways exist, but what can be done is to reduce the numbers of pirates, which reduces the loss of money. The evoloution of DVD-A bringing beter audio, and promising more storage will bring richer media. More things need to be on music discs. Things like full lyrical lists, artist information, music videos, and, for those who like it, Kareoke videos, but these will probably be pirated too. It's a never ending cycle caused by the Digital Revolution and supported by more powerful and better computers and Broad-Band Internet Connections.
The RIAA shouldn't be attacking P2P like Napster, which claims to have supported small artists, or KaZaA and Morpheus. When those P2P programs were in their hay-day, they had upwards of a million people on the servers, with hundreds of gigabytes of files being shared. The RIAA can't expect that these companies can filter these services! And P2P ought to adopt a policy similar to Slashdot's "Reply" policy: You are responcible for what you say, do, or share. NOT the service. The people are preforming the illegal acts, not the company. About time the RIAA got on people's cases!
However, since the goverment hasn't really done anything, then power to the anti-spam groups that set up these networks and put a stop to this attrocity(Pardon me, I kan spel gud)! Their hardwork shows in my inbox almost daily! I've noticed a dramatic decrese in the ammount of spam I get daily. Instead of 30 messages daily with 27 of them being spam, it's more like 7 messages daily, 4-6 of them being newsletters I've subscribed to and the rest being personal. I salute you!