Interesting, but how are is the user able to produce motion on a mouse pointer with no on-screen assistance? I don't think the device I saw was this same exact one in the article, but I did see a demo of a man controlling a mouse pointer by thought alone. It wasn't very accurate, but it's a pretty amazing feat. Anyone know how that was accomplished?
Excuse my ignorance, but if I have a wireless router, what's the advantage in having it be a "wireless hotspot" as well? Isn't a wireless hotspot just a wireless router that is available to connect to?
If noone bought things they didn't need, we'd eliminate all jobs but agriculture and medicine with a 90+% unemplyment rate. Maybe if you applied that life stlye to our current population, yes. But since that would never happen, instead think about how things would be if people were always that way. There wouldn't be as many jobs, but people wouldn't be reproducing so many children either. I suspect the unemployment rate would be under 10%, depending on if you're counting stay-at-home parents.
Now that I think about it, what jobs would exist if we only bought things we need? First... what do we need?
Food
Shelter
Medical care
Education
So the careers would boil down to:
Hunter/Gatherer/Cook
Construction
Doctor/Nurse/Receptionist
Teacher/Superintendent
Of course, we as humans would never be satisfied with such a simple life. Our minds are designed with a desire to learn... a curiosity of "how would things be if....". We would always create new things, new ways of living, and in the process create a lot of objects/jobs/things that could be considered unnecessary.
Just because his ISP warned him about his upload/downloading does not mean he will be getting sued, or even get reprimanded at all. Over the course of 5 years, I have gotten two DMCA notices from Comcast, two 'warnings' from Charter, and Millenium Digital has shut off my service once because they were threatened by some @#$wad from the **AA. All it takes is a phone call or letter to make it all better.
What's funny is that the most 'official' looking letter I got (DMCA violation) was completely incorrect in it's accusations. It stated that I had downloaded the movie "Waterworld", and instructed me to remove the offending material immediately. It even listed some details, like the IP address that was used to track me down (not even the same prefix or subnet as the one I was assigned by Comcast) and the dates/times as well as the filename.
I wrote them back telling them that they must be confused, because I don't even know how to download that kind of stuff (snicker), and if I did, I wouldn't risk being caught by downloading garbage like "Kevin Costner's Wet Dream", or whatever it was. Talk about offending material, sheesh. I then went on to happily use my Internet connection as normal for the next few months until I moved.
Anyway, even as an "alleged" copyright violator, you do have rights, and keep in mind that there are people out there who can help you if you do get into trouble.
www.eff.org
According to the Discovery channel, people won't be driving their cars much longer. As high-tech entertainment gadgets and software find their way into our vehicles, eventually we'll be letting the cars do the driving for us. Makes a lot of sense to me... driving (especially commuting) amounts to 100% wasted time for many people. Imagine if you could use that extra 30+ minutes each day to actually do something! In my case, I'd probably just sleep in the morning, but on the way home, I could pop in a movie or take care of some phone calls/emails.
Driving while distracted is a serious problem, and it's not going to get any better. Allowing machines/robots/computers to drive us around would be a much safer way to travel, considering the amount of accidents that occur on a daily basis due to any of the following reasons:
Sure, there's a chance the software could fail, even after extensive testing. But a computer will never be effected by the above items. Unless you say that using Microsoft software in a vehicle counts as idiocy.;)
I disagree.... anyone who is old enough to remember Commodore has probably been building their own PC's for many years, and the magic of assembling a working computer from various parts has lost any magic it once had.
Now, I'll spend a couple hundred extra dollars just so I don't have to go through the work of buying/ordering the parts and assembling the machine myself. Building a PC used to be fun, but it's a process that hasn't really changed much in years. Now, just let me pick the parts I want via an online order form, and ship it to me when it's done. That way all I have to do is format the drive and load my OS of choice.
A lot of people don't want to donate but many would be more than happy to donate a few gigs of my hard drive and some small part of my bandwidth I'm more than happy to donate a few gigs of your hard drive and some of your bandwidth.;)
Buying a PSP with your main purpose not being to play games sounds like the dumbest idea ever.
I guess I'm the dumbest person ever.
I have 3 UMD games for my PSP, which I rarely play. My main reason for getting a PSP was to have a portable device that I can watch movies on, listen to music, look at (and share) my babies pictures, scan for wifi spots while traveling (without opening my briefcase and turning on my laptop), and to occasionally play some Lumines, GTA, or any of the free homebrew games that interest me.
Of course, I think the UMD format is a waste for movies, I just convert the ones I already have to MPG (PSP-compatible) and throw them on to one of my 1 or 2GB memory sticks, which are getting cheap these days. One of my sticks holds a collection of Family Guy episodes and other videos. Another has 2GB of music, and my third has a bunch of photos and videos of my baby girl. It's very quick and easy to swap them out.
Games may be all there is for some people, and maybe those people should buy a system that focuses solely on that. Personally, I don't like having a different device for everything, and the PSP is more than adequate for my non-gaming needs. If I want to play a game, I'd rather fire up one of my computers or consoles and immerse myself, instead of holding the system in my hand and moving the screen every time I hit a button.
Just my opinion, I don't think anyone is dumb for thinking otherwise.
After looking at that GPX2, I think it might be more of what I would want, since it has TV-out and can emulate old game systems. Too bad I never heard of it back when I made the decision to get a PSP.
Very good post. If I had mod points, they would be used on you right now. Alas, I am more of a reader than a commenter, so I'm not qualified to rate the submissions of others.
Perhaps those people who don't blink at paying $20+ for a movie just don't care that it's overpriced. Or maybe some of them think it's worth the extra money to own a High Definition copy of a movie, with subtitles and extra features that they can enjoy in the privacy of their own home. But then they could always rent it for a fraction of the price, as you mentioned.
Personally, I own about 20-25 DVDs, all of which I would be willing to sit down and watch again, especially if I have a friend who has not seen it before. At that point, I can just gawk at them and say "You've NEVER seen Office Space!?!?", then grab the DVD and push play. I'll never get sick of that movie, haha! And watching it with someone who hasn't seen it before can be enjoyable too, as long as you're not the type of person who likes to add your own knowledge of the film in the form of commentary.
All in all, I think $9.99 is a reasonable price for new releases, with prices dropping to $4.99 after a few months or so. Nonetheless, some people will always pirate movies/music/software that has a price tag above $0, just because they can!
You're right, there's no games out that would really push this graphics card. I haven't found a game yet that will yeild unplayable framerates at maximum detail and resolution on my GeForce6800 Ultra.
But when you're creating 3D graphics (such as a video game, or in my case, virtual reality/simulations), the data that you deal with is uncompressed, and uses much more horsepower. Running multiple instances of an OpenGL application can get pretty intesive. I am usually working in 3dsMax and I also have a run-time engine open at the same time, switching from editing to viewing. The data sets I work with are usually quite large, so the more power I can get from my computer, the easier and faster it is to do my job.
This class of graphics card appeals to companies that want to have the best possible hardware to develop 3D graphics. I doubt there are many gamers that are that obsessive that they need to rush out and buy a $1000 graphics card that's not really going to give them any improvements over a $300-400 one. Not that there aren't geeks out there with too much money (not having a girlfriend sure pays off in that respect!).
But, it will only be a matter of time before games can push this hardware to the max, and we repeat the endless cycle yet again.
This means an entire season of "The Simpsons" will fit on one disc! Although, "24" will still need two discs- but hey, that's better than 6.
But I'm not so sure that reducing the number of DVD's will bring down the price of the set. List price for a season of 24 is $70. Just under $3 per episode. Anyone think it will get any lower based on new media technology?
I don't know about that.... every time I see Shatner, I see Captain James T. Kirk. I've seen a few of his other roles, but I always expect him to whip out a stun gun, or call out for Spock. I'd say out of any actors I currently follow, he is the MOST typecast of any of them.
Although, Hugo Weaving will always be Agent Smith to me. Even in Lord of the Rings, I expected him to say things like:
You must carry the ring to the fiery chasm from whence it came..... Mister Anderson.
Anyway, about Shatner- it doesn't help that nearly every sitcom ever made has had a spoof on Star Trek, with someone doing a humorous impression of Captain Kirk. His role is so popular, being typecast is inevitable.
As some others have already pointed out, this is potentially a very expensive idea. But expensive is not always bad, as long as the technology is not going to be obselete before it pays for itself. One Gigabit per second sure sounds great right now, but looking at the exponential increase of data transfer rates over the last decade or so, I wonder how long that will keep us (American consumers) happy.
Also, like all other "high-tech" services, it will most likely be offered only to downtowns and wealthy areas for the first phase. By the time it rolls out to all the surrounding suburbs and stretches into the woods, we will all have satellites linked directly with the antenna atop of our tin foil hats.
It's pretty shallow to assume that anyone in an "office" wouldn't need 3D acelleration for their work. In our office, we buy high-end Dell PC's with Quadro FX cards, take those out, and replace them with 3d Labs Wildcat cards (512MB) so we can run our 3d modelling software.
It takes a lot of power to have Multigen Creator (3d modeller), our custom OpenGL viewer, and sometimes another intermediate modeller such as Max or Polytrans running at the same time. I am usually running Outlook, Photoshop, and one or two small apps as well, which use up a lot of the system memory.
In case you were wondering, those Quadro FX cards get put into our test machines to see how our application will run on a consumer level PC.
Oh, and we always play a couple rounds of Quake or UT during lunch on the office lan. =)
It is already very easy to plug your computer into a television via S-Video cable (with a decent graphics card, of course). But, as the article states, you 'need' to have your computer in your living room (mine are) to connect to the TV.
At least in my situation, my computer monitor has much better resolution than my 27" TV, and has the ability to play games, audio, and dvd's. Not to mention it has a 5.1 sound system with some nice speakers, about the same or better quality than my stereo that's hooked up to my TV. I prefer watching movies and playing games on my PC rather than my TV, unless I want to fall asleep watching something, in which case I switch my TV to 'Input 2' coming from my PC.
Also, the DISCover system includes wireless keyboard and mouse, but how comfortable is it to sit at your couch with a keyboard and mouse on a coffee table? A computer desk is designed to make the usage of these devices more comfortable... not to mention you are only ~12 inches from your high-res monitor (more visible detail/clarity) rather than several feet from a television. Does anyone here play FPS games on their TV (with keyboard and mouse)? If so, explain the setup you have, and why you like it over a computer setup.
I have stopped playing console games altogether, even though I have all the major systems. It's nice to not have to deal with Windoze to try and get your game working (drivers, patches, etc), but when it does work, it's a much better experience on a PC. This is just my opinion, of course, and I am sure I'll get flamed for it!
Well, just because you heard thunder first doesn't mean there wasn't lightning a few sconds before that. They just didn't show that part.
I'm not defending the game, since I haven't played it, but I would think it a bit hasty to point out inconsistencies in the game, given such a small amount of material shown in the trailer.
if a high percentage (or even not so high percentage) of P2P users are downloading legitimate files, i.e. things they own or are otherwise allowed to access, doesn't this make it darn near impossible for the MPAA/RIAA/NSA/CIA/FBI to decide whose infringing and who is not ?
It is true that it would be close to impossible for them to prove that the music you are downloading is allowable by law. But their interest lies in the other end of your connection, the person(s) who are making that file available for you to download. They are the true law-breakers, as they are distributing copyrighted data without permission (assumably).
The RIAA has not been focusing on downloaders so far, just people who are sharing copyrighted material. Now, they would have to download the file themselves and verify it to be an authentic replication of the copyrighted material. Then they would need personal information (name and address) so they could sue the pants off the offender.
But yes, I agree with your statement that the CSA has been ever moving in that direction of assuming guilt until innocence is proven.
Slashdot Mirror
You obviously had enough energy to type a paragraph about it, rather than moving on to a story that would interest you more.
Charge $15-$25 for a CD that has (maybe) one decent song on it.
-ADR
Interesting, but how are is the user able to produce motion on a mouse pointer with no on-screen assistance? I don't think the device I saw was this same exact one in the article, but I did see a demo of a man controlling a mouse pointer by thought alone. It wasn't very accurate, but it's a pretty amazing feat. Anyone know how that was accomplished?
Excuse my ignorance, but if I have a wireless router, what's the advantage in having it be a "wireless hotspot" as well? Isn't a wireless hotspot just a wireless router that is available to connect to?
Now that I think about it, what jobs would exist if we only bought things we need? First... what do we need?
Food
Shelter
Medical care
Education
So the careers would boil down to:
Hunter/Gatherer/Cook
Construction
Doctor/Nurse/Receptionist
Teacher/Superintendent
Of course, we as humans would never be satisfied with such a simple life. Our minds are designed with a desire to learn... a curiosity of "how would things be if....". We would always create new things, new ways of living, and in the process create a lot of objects/jobs/things that could be considered unnecessary.
What's funny is that the most 'official' looking letter I got (DMCA violation) was completely incorrect in it's accusations. It stated that I had downloaded the movie "Waterworld", and instructed me to remove the offending material immediately. It even listed some details, like the IP address that was used to track me down (not even the same prefix or subnet as the one I was assigned by Comcast) and the dates/times as well as the filename.
I wrote them back telling them that they must be confused, because I don't even know how to download that kind of stuff (snicker), and if I did, I wouldn't risk being caught by downloading garbage like "Kevin Costner's Wet Dream", or whatever it was. Talk about offending material, sheesh. I then went on to happily use my Internet connection as normal for the next few months until I moved.
Anyway, even as an "alleged" copyright violator, you do have rights, and keep in mind that there are people out there who can help you if you do get into trouble. www.eff.org
Actually, the 'Spear of Destiny' preceded 'Escape from Castle Wolfenstein'. But they were very similar games.
"The game isn't totally ready, but we've reached our release date- just push it out the door and we'll release a patch next month."
Will those without access to the Network be stuck with the bugged version?
According to the Discovery channel, people won't be driving their cars much longer. As high-tech entertainment gadgets and software find their way into our vehicles, eventually we'll be letting the cars do the driving for us. Makes a lot of sense to me... driving (especially commuting) amounts to 100% wasted time for many people. Imagine if you could use that extra 30+ minutes each day to actually do something! In my case, I'd probably just sleep in the morning, but on the way home, I could pop in a movie or take care of some phone calls/emails.
Driving while distracted is a serious problem, and it's not going to get any better. Allowing machines/robots/computers to drive us around would be a much safer way to travel, considering the amount of accidents that occur on a daily basis due to any of the following reasons:
Distraction
Drowsiness
Inebriation
Inexperience
Carelessness
Idiocy
Sure, there's a chance the software could fail, even after extensive testing. But a computer will never be effected by the above items. Unless you say that using Microsoft software in a vehicle counts as idiocy. ;)
~ ADRenaline
Now, I'll spend a couple hundred extra dollars just so I don't have to go through the work of buying/ordering the parts and assembling the machine myself. Building a PC used to be fun, but it's a process that hasn't really changed much in years. Now, just let me pick the parts I want via an online order form, and ship it to me when it's done. That way all I have to do is format the drive and load my OS of choice.
I guess I'm the dumbest person ever.
I have 3 UMD games for my PSP, which I rarely play. My main reason for getting a PSP was to have a portable device that I can watch movies on, listen to music, look at (and share) my babies pictures, scan for wifi spots while traveling (without opening my briefcase and turning on my laptop), and to occasionally play some Lumines, GTA, or any of the free homebrew games that interest me.
Of course, I think the UMD format is a waste for movies, I just convert the ones I already have to MPG (PSP-compatible) and throw them on to one of my 1 or 2GB memory sticks, which are getting cheap these days. One of my sticks holds a collection of Family Guy episodes and other videos. Another has 2GB of music, and my third has a bunch of photos and videos of my baby girl. It's very quick and easy to swap them out.
Games may be all there is for some people, and maybe those people should buy a system that focuses solely on that. Personally, I don't like having a different device for everything, and the PSP is more than adequate for my non-gaming needs. If I want to play a game, I'd rather fire up one of my computers or consoles and immerse myself, instead of holding the system in my hand and moving the screen every time I hit a button.
Just my opinion, I don't think anyone is dumb for thinking otherwise.
After looking at that GPX2, I think it might be more of what I would want, since it has TV-out and can emulate old game systems. Too bad I never heard of it back when I made the decision to get a PSP.
Thanks-- as a Gmail user, I've been wondering what this "Spam" stuff is.
Very good post. If I had mod points, they would be used on you right now. Alas, I am more of a reader than a commenter, so I'm not qualified to rate the submissions of others. Perhaps those people who don't blink at paying $20+ for a movie just don't care that it's overpriced. Or maybe some of them think it's worth the extra money to own a High Definition copy of a movie, with subtitles and extra features that they can enjoy in the privacy of their own home. But then they could always rent it for a fraction of the price, as you mentioned. Personally, I own about 20-25 DVDs, all of which I would be willing to sit down and watch again, especially if I have a friend who has not seen it before. At that point, I can just gawk at them and say "You've NEVER seen Office Space!?!?", then grab the DVD and push play. I'll never get sick of that movie, haha! And watching it with someone who hasn't seen it before can be enjoyable too, as long as you're not the type of person who likes to add your own knowledge of the film in the form of commentary. All in all, I think $9.99 is a reasonable price for new releases, with prices dropping to $4.99 after a few months or so. Nonetheless, some people will always pirate movies/music/software that has a price tag above $0, just because they can!
Do most people on slashdot really pull shit out of their asses or their uninformed minds and just post it ?
Of course! The best way to get a desired answer is to post a false one as bait! Then someone who actually knows will come along and "correct" you!
You're right, there's no games out that would really push this graphics card. I haven't found a game yet that will yeild unplayable framerates at maximum detail and resolution on my GeForce6800 Ultra.
But when you're creating 3D graphics (such as a video game, or in my case, virtual reality/simulations), the data that you deal with is uncompressed, and uses much more horsepower. Running multiple instances of an OpenGL application can get pretty intesive. I am usually working in 3dsMax and I also have a run-time engine open at the same time, switching from editing to viewing. The data sets I work with are usually quite large, so the more power I can get from my computer, the easier and faster it is to do my job.
This class of graphics card appeals to companies that want to have the best possible hardware to develop 3D graphics. I doubt there are many gamers that are that obsessive that they need to rush out and buy a $1000 graphics card that's not really going to give them any improvements over a $300-400 one. Not that there aren't geeks out there with too much money (not having a girlfriend sure pays off in that respect!).
But, it will only be a matter of time before games can push this hardware to the max, and we repeat the endless cycle yet again.
This means an entire season of "The Simpsons" will fit on one disc! Although, "24" will still need two discs- but hey, that's better than 6. But I'm not so sure that reducing the number of DVD's will bring down the price of the set. List price for a season of 24 is $70. Just under $3 per episode. Anyone think it will get any lower based on new media technology?
Although, Hugo Weaving will always be Agent Smith to me. Even in Lord of the Rings, I expected him to say things like:
You must carry the ring to the fiery chasm from whence it came..... Mister Anderson.
Anyway, about Shatner- it doesn't help that nearly every sitcom ever made has had a spoof on Star Trek, with someone doing a humorous impression of Captain Kirk. His role is so popular, being typecast is inevitable.
Funny, the only article posted today to have recieved over 100 comments is the one which has no content!
I hope they aren't using Dual Shock controllers to remote pilot that thing.
Also, like all other "high-tech" services, it will most likely be offered only to downtowns and wealthy areas for the first phase. By the time it rolls out to all the surrounding suburbs and stretches into the woods, we will all have satellites linked directly with the antenna atop of our tin foil hats.
It takes a lot of power to have Multigen Creator (3d modeller), our custom OpenGL viewer, and sometimes another intermediate modeller such as Max or Polytrans running at the same time. I am usually running Outlook, Photoshop, and one or two small apps as well, which use up a lot of the system memory.
In case you were wondering, those Quadro FX cards get put into our test machines to see how our application will run on a consumer level PC. Oh, and we always play a couple rounds of Quake or UT during lunch on the office lan. =)
It is already very easy to plug your computer into a television via S-Video cable (with a decent graphics card, of course). But, as the article states, you 'need' to have your computer in your living room (mine are) to connect to the TV.
At least in my situation, my computer monitor has much better resolution than my 27" TV, and has the ability to play games, audio, and dvd's. Not to mention it has a 5.1 sound system with some nice speakers, about the same or better quality than my stereo that's hooked up to my TV. I prefer watching movies and playing games on my PC rather than my TV, unless I want to fall asleep watching something, in which case I switch my TV to 'Input 2' coming from my PC.
Also, the DISCover system includes wireless keyboard and mouse, but how comfortable is it to sit at your couch with a keyboard and mouse on a coffee table? A computer desk is designed to make the usage of these devices more comfortable... not to mention you are only ~12 inches from your high-res monitor (more visible detail/clarity) rather than several feet from a television. Does anyone here play FPS games on their TV (with keyboard and mouse)? If so, explain the setup you have, and why you like it over a computer setup.
I have stopped playing console games altogether, even though I have all the major systems. It's nice to not have to deal with Windoze to try and get your game working (drivers, patches, etc), but when it does work, it's a much better experience on a PC. This is just my opinion, of course, and I am sure I'll get flamed for it!
I'm not defending the game, since I haven't played it, but I would think it a bit hasty to point out inconsistencies in the game, given such a small amount of material shown in the trailer.
if a high percentage (or even not so high percentage) of P2P users are downloading legitimate files, i.e. things they own or are otherwise allowed to access, doesn't this make it darn near impossible for the MPAA/RIAA/NSA/CIA/FBI to decide whose infringing and who is not ?
It is true that it would be close to impossible for them to prove that the music you are downloading is allowable by law. But their interest lies in the other end of your connection, the person(s) who are making that file available for you to download. They are the true law-breakers, as they are distributing copyrighted data without permission (assumably).
The RIAA has not been focusing on downloaders so far, just people who are sharing copyrighted material. Now, they would have to download the file themselves and verify it to be an authentic replication of the copyrighted material. Then they would need personal information (name and address) so they could sue the pants off the offender.
But yes, I agree with your statement that the CSA has been ever moving in that direction of assuming guilt until innocence is proven.