Cheapass pendrives/IDE HDDs in USB converter boxes don't have line out, or indeed any of the necessary audio processing chips.
It might not be the _best_ reason in the world, but it does sound like a nice feature to be able to just stick a cheap 40GB drive in your car with a USB adaptor, don't you think?
That's an interesting counterpoint to what I was thinking actually. While I fully support the whole "It's their OS, they don't have a monopoly, it's still beta, they can do what they like" idea, I was under the impression that Intel piracy could actually be good for them (something I want, since I, like you, want to continue using Apple's products). For now I'll ignore the debate of whether they could maintain their quality of software over a wider range of hardware or not.
If Apple released a generic version of OSX86, MS would jump up and crush them with all the marketers, lawyers and assasins in it's arsenal, so that's a bad plan. With OSX86 only on Apple hardware, nothing will change - MS don't care, you and I will still use it, everyone else will use Windows. With people pirating the OS, however, MS still won't react since they have nothing to react against, you and I still buy Apple products, but some of those Windows users try and like MacOS. After a while one of two things happens: they go out and buy a Mac, or Apple decides it's "unofficial" installed userbase is large enough for them to deploy a generic OS and still survive Microsoft's retaliation. End result: more tasty Apple goodness but with the advantages of PC or Mac hardware too. Maybe not the perfect plan, but plausible nonetheless.
I have to disagree - there is some minor scratching on the left lense of my glasses from an encounter with the floor that left the right lense liberated from the frame and in need of replacement, and that's the only thing that's ever marked them. It's the kind of scuff that you wouldn't ever even notice if it were on an iPod (rather than a piece of glass in front of your eye).
OTOH, we probably don't realise how much abuse iPods and the like get. Glasses take the odd fall but otherwise stay safely untouched, but portable electronics are bashed around all over the place without you even noticing.
I'm not even going to step in to agree or disagree, I'm just going to point out that there is already a precident on saying what is unsuitable for your hypothetical child/teenager: they can't buy porn, even if you as a parent decide that it's acceptable for them to do so. Alcohol too, although that's in a different league I guess - still could be argued as a matter of whether the teenager is responsible enough or not though.
Like I said, not condemning or condoning, just saying that this is not the first time.
This is moving slightly off on a tangent from the question, but it seems worth saying: United Nuclear are currently working on a hydrogen conversion kit for various cars, and have apparently clocked 50,000 successful miles on their prototypes. Probably the kind of thing to take with a pinch of salt, and the estimated cost is $7-10k, but it will come with a solar powered hydrogen generator, so might be worthwhile.
I've been using a nice pair of mid-end "real" speakers (~£300/pair) and a nice ~£100 amp for a year or so, and even to my untrained ear they blow the crap out of even high end computer speakers. Fair enough, that setup cost maybe 3 times what an integrated computer speaker system would have done, but the quality is great, they look very nice indeed and they should last for god knows how long. Seems like a good purchase to me.
I definitely see where you're coming from, and the guy in the original story sounds like he was a bit of a dick about the whole situation, but as others have said, hotlinking != hyperlinking.
If I recieved a Slashdotting aimed at a page on my site then that's fair enough - they simply directed more traffic than I was expecting to a public resource I had put up. If, however, Slashdot decided that they liked the look of one of my images and then hotlinked it from my server to use on this site, I would be a bit pissed. It's not illegal, there are measures I could take to avoid it, but nonetheless it's downright rude to take someone elses work and incorporate it into your own site rather than throwing out a link to have it displayed on the author's site, or even just asking if it's OK to copy it.
What I want to know is when VLC's going to get WMV3 (aka Windows Media Player 9) codec support on non-windows platforms. Our good friend Jon demonstrated it in November 2004, yet playing those files on a Mac was, for a long time, impossible and even now requires a paid for Quicktime plugin (only $10 or so, but even that took it's own sweet time to be released).
The problem here (and elsewhere) is that people seem to treat computer related problems as a whole different concept to anything else.
To condense some of the comments on the original CNet page: you wouldn't expect the cop to identify the cause of death in a murder investigation, you'd leave it to an expert (the coroner). You wouldn't expect the cop to check a car engine for tampering, you'd leave it to an expert (a mechanic). As such, there shouldn't be any expectation that the cop should have to go through the logs of ceased machines. Assuming you did leave it to an expert (coroner, mechanic or computer engineer), you'd sure as hell expect them to know their job - the mechanic shouldn't be confused if you bring them a Toyota rather than a Ford, the coroner shouldn't be confused because a person was diabetic, the computer engineer shouldn't be confused because the machine had Firefox or even, god forbid, Linux or BSD installed.
I guess that regular keys probably could survive that, but if it happened to mine I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they snapped or were bent out of shape to the extent that they didn't fit the lock.
Yes, your linux box can probably be cracked, but I wouldn't say security software is "almost as important" as it is on Windows simply because there are many, many people trying to get into your Windows machines and install spyware in order to make money. There are none trying this on Linux because there aren't enough people using it and those who are probably know how to avoid spyware. As such, Linux users only really need to be worried if they've given themselves a specific reason to be targeted, since Linux boxen will normally be cracked individually by actual people rather than wholesale by random software.
Reality doesn't matter. Being right is what matters!
I'm not entirely sure of the tone in which you meant that, and I'm inclined to think that it was sarcastic, but I actually think that's a very insightful statement. My interpretation: If you accept what the current reality is, nothing will change, and you won't feel good about the world because what you feel matters is not what you are doing. If you do what is "right" (in terms of what you feel is moral, what makes you happy, what you think will make things better, etc.) and accept that that is what really matters then you will end up much better off.
I'm probably being very dumb here, but how come many machines on the pi_css5 page are doing it significantly faster than this? Is the method used in that program innacurate in some way?
Generally cannabis, by far the most common illegal (well, decriminalised, but whatever) drug that normal people come into contact with, is measured in 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 etc. oz. Is that not the way it's done in the US?
There were plenty of shops selling imports until Sony threatened legal action. To be honest I don't quite know how they could stop anyone from selling an item that's been legally shipped and taxed on entry to the country, but it (understandably) looks like there aren't many shops willing to take the risk of going against Sony.
It may not fit everyone's needs.. but this is PERFECT for me.
I agree - I'm suprised that more/.ers haven't reacted well to this. I'd personally say 10GB would be the sweet spot, but 4GB is a very nice start - it's a shame it's not actually $100 for the whole unit - if it was I'd buy three and RAID0 them, then mirror the lot onto a 12GB partition on a standard SATA drive - fast, usable and redundant, all in one. Not entirely necessary for most, but we're geeks - this is the kind of stuff we do.
Having said all that, I'd probably wait a year or two for a slightly cheaper, slightly larger version to be released when you look at what 4GB of DDR actually costs (especially since I don't really actually need one, I just think it would be cool, and more speed+less noise is always good).
I did think the same thing - I'm typing on a Mac and judging by your sig you like them too, but there are some places that you don't need ease of use or a solid interface. Having said that, three of the team are previous NeXT/Apple software developers - if it's what they know then there's a good chance they can code faster for OSX than Linux/BSD and they can also probably take advantage of some nice features either of the PowerPC architecture or of OSX itself.
Nope, just dies if I feed it a WMV3 file. Thanks for the link anyway though. It's not all.wmv videos that are a problem, it's just the WMV3 codec (which is Windows Media Player 9 upwards), VLC can handle anything below that.
Almost correct. It can't (AFAIK) play WMV3 or IV50 on OSX though, which is damn annoying sometimes (I refuse to install Windows Media Player on my Mac). It looks like DVD Jon got WMV3 running in VLC on Linux back in November last year, but I still haven't seen a build anywhere for Linux or OSX that's actually being distributed.
So why should your DVD player require a DRMed interface in order to output HD content? There isn't a technical reason preventing it from having a standard DVI port that you could attach a standard LCD to, is there? Going back to the cost issue, it's been my experience that something marketed as an LCD TV is considerably more expensive than an equivalent or better LCD monitor and a TV tuner - sounds like price fixing to me.
Just because they're all doing something doesn't make it right.
Slashdot Mirror
Cheapass pendrives/IDE HDDs in USB converter boxes don't have line out, or indeed any of the necessary audio processing chips.
It might not be the _best_ reason in the world, but it does sound like a nice feature to be able to just stick a cheap 40GB drive in your car with a USB adaptor, don't you think?
That's an interesting counterpoint to what I was thinking actually. While I fully support the whole "It's their OS, they don't have a monopoly, it's still beta, they can do what they like" idea, I was under the impression that Intel piracy could actually be good for them (something I want, since I, like you, want to continue using Apple's products). For now I'll ignore the debate of whether they could maintain their quality of software over a wider range of hardware or not.
If Apple released a generic version of OSX86, MS would jump up and crush them with all the marketers, lawyers and assasins in it's arsenal, so that's a bad plan. With OSX86 only on Apple hardware, nothing will change - MS don't care, you and I will still use it, everyone else will use Windows. With people pirating the OS, however, MS still won't react since they have nothing to react against, you and I still buy Apple products, but some of those Windows users try and like MacOS. After a while one of two things happens: they go out and buy a Mac, or Apple decides it's "unofficial" installed userbase is large enough for them to deploy a generic OS and still survive Microsoft's retaliation. End result: more tasty Apple goodness but with the advantages of PC or Mac hardware too. Maybe not the perfect plan, but plausible nonetheless.
I have to disagree - there is some minor scratching on the left lense of my glasses from an encounter with the floor that left the right lense liberated from the frame and in need of replacement, and that's the only thing that's ever marked them. It's the kind of scuff that you wouldn't ever even notice if it were on an iPod (rather than a piece of glass in front of your eye).
OTOH, we probably don't realise how much abuse iPods and the like get. Glasses take the odd fall but otherwise stay safely untouched, but portable electronics are bashed around all over the place without you even noticing.
I'm not even going to step in to agree or disagree, I'm just going to point out that there is already a precident on saying what is unsuitable for your hypothetical child/teenager: they can't buy porn, even if you as a parent decide that it's acceptable for them to do so. Alcohol too, although that's in a different league I guess - still could be argued as a matter of whether the teenager is responsible enough or not though.
Like I said, not condemning or condoning, just saying that this is not the first time.
Don't worry, their mind rays can't get to you through a RadMax hat.
This is moving slightly off on a tangent from the question, but it seems worth saying: United Nuclear are currently working on a hydrogen conversion kit for various cars, and have apparently clocked 50,000 successful miles on their prototypes. Probably the kind of thing to take with a pinch of salt, and the estimated cost is $7-10k, but it will come with a solar powered hydrogen generator, so might be worthwhile.
I've been using a nice pair of mid-end "real" speakers (~£300/pair) and a nice ~£100 amp for a year or so, and even to my untrained ear they blow the crap out of even high end computer speakers. Fair enough, that setup cost maybe 3 times what an integrated computer speaker system would have done, but the quality is great, they look very nice indeed and they should last for god knows how long. Seems like a good purchase to me.
Every iPod so far has had the capability to transport data, so I don't see why this one would be any different.
And why am I buying the assinine secured player instead of the grey market Chinese one, exactly?
Because everyone knows you get better quality from good western brands like Sony and Samsung than you would from any of those dodgy Asian knock offs.
I definitely see where you're coming from, and the guy in the original story sounds like he was a bit of a dick about the whole situation, but as others have said, hotlinking != hyperlinking.
If I recieved a Slashdotting aimed at a page on my site then that's fair enough - they simply directed more traffic than I was expecting to a public resource I had put up. If, however, Slashdot decided that they liked the look of one of my images and then hotlinked it from my server to use on this site, I would be a bit pissed. It's not illegal, there are measures I could take to avoid it, but nonetheless it's downright rude to take someone elses work and incorporate it into your own site rather than throwing out a link to have it displayed on the author's site, or even just asking if it's OK to copy it.
I stand corrected - time to try it then :)
What I want to know is when VLC's going to get WMV3 (aka Windows Media Player 9) codec support on non-windows platforms. Our good friend Jon demonstrated it in November 2004, yet playing those files on a Mac was, for a long time, impossible and even now requires a paid for Quicktime plugin (only $10 or so, but even that took it's own sweet time to be released).
The problem here (and elsewhere) is that people seem to treat computer related problems as a whole different concept to anything else.
To condense some of the comments on the original CNet page: you wouldn't expect the cop to identify the cause of death in a murder investigation, you'd leave it to an expert (the coroner). You wouldn't expect the cop to check a car engine for tampering, you'd leave it to an expert (a mechanic). As such, there shouldn't be any expectation that the cop should have to go through the logs of ceased machines. Assuming you did leave it to an expert (coroner, mechanic or computer engineer), you'd sure as hell expect them to know their job - the mechanic shouldn't be confused if you bring them a Toyota rather than a Ford, the coroner shouldn't be confused because a person was diabetic, the computer engineer shouldn't be confused because the machine had Firefox or even, god forbid, Linux or BSD installed.
I guess that regular keys probably could survive that, but if it happened to mine I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they snapped or were bent out of shape to the extent that they didn't fit the lock.
Yes, your linux box can probably be cracked, but I wouldn't say security software is "almost as important" as it is on Windows simply because there are many, many people trying to get into your Windows machines and install spyware in order to make money. There are none trying this on Linux because there aren't enough people using it and those who are probably know how to avoid spyware. As such, Linux users only really need to be worried if they've given themselves a specific reason to be targeted, since Linux boxen will normally be cracked individually by actual people rather than wholesale by random software.
That's my overanalysis anyway
I'm probably being very dumb here, but how come many machines on the pi_css5 page are doing it significantly faster than this? Is the method used in that program innacurate in some way?
Generally cannabis, by far the most common illegal (well, decriminalised, but whatever) drug that normal people come into contact with, is measured in 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 etc. oz. Is that not the way it's done in the US?
There were plenty of shops selling imports until Sony threatened legal action. To be honest I don't quite know how they could stop anyone from selling an item that's been legally shipped and taxed on entry to the country, but it (understandably) looks like there aren't many shops willing to take the risk of going against Sony.
Having said that, there's still eBay or Lik-Sang.
It may not fit everyone's needs.. but this is PERFECT for me.
/.ers haven't reacted well to this. I'd personally say 10GB would be the sweet spot, but 4GB is a very nice start - it's a shame it's not actually $100 for the whole unit - if it was I'd buy three and RAID0 them, then mirror the lot onto a 12GB partition on a standard SATA drive - fast, usable and redundant, all in one. Not entirely necessary for most, but we're geeks - this is the kind of stuff we do.
I agree - I'm suprised that more
Having said all that, I'd probably wait a year or two for a slightly cheaper, slightly larger version to be released when you look at what 4GB of DDR actually costs (especially since I don't really actually need one, I just think it would be cool, and more speed+less noise is always good).
I did think the same thing - I'm typing on a Mac and judging by your sig you like them too, but there are some places that you don't need ease of use or a solid interface. Having said that, three of the team are previous NeXT/Apple software developers - if it's what they know then there's a good chance they can code faster for OSX than Linux/BSD and they can also probably take advantage of some nice features either of the PowerPC architecture or of OSX itself.
Nope, just dies if I feed it a WMV3 file. Thanks for the link anyway though. It's not all .wmv videos that are a problem, it's just the WMV3 codec (which is Windows Media Player 9 upwards), VLC can handle anything below that.
Almost correct. It can't (AFAIK) play WMV3 or IV50 on OSX though, which is damn annoying sometimes (I refuse to install Windows Media Player on my Mac). It looks like DVD Jon got WMV3 running in VLC on Linux back in November last year, but I still haven't seen a build anywhere for Linux or OSX that's actually being distributed.
So why should your DVD player require a DRMed interface in order to output HD content? There isn't a technical reason preventing it from having a standard DVI port that you could attach a standard LCD to, is there? Going back to the cost issue, it's been my experience that something marketed as an LCD TV is considerably more expensive than an equivalent or better LCD monitor and a TV tuner - sounds like price fixing to me.
Just because they're all doing something doesn't make it right.
Can't you just copy the ghost floppy onto CDR and boot from that instead? Seems easier than installing all those drives.