Opening up UMD has no value other than allowing PCs to write to UMD-Rs or UMD-RWs for their PSPs. Nobody is going to be interested in a 1.8GB format like this when DVD writers have just gone dual-layer (8.5GB) and blu-ray is around the corner.
It's just another oddball optical format. If they start selling movies in this format it's not going to take off. How many people are going to want to buy movies in two formats just so they can play them on their PSP? They are going to just want to rip their DVDs to DIVX and burn UMDs for their PSP.
In fact, they now have these "Mini-DVDs" with kids movies coming out for miniature portable DVD players like the Cyberhome CH-MDP2500.
The world does not need any more optical formats for prerecorded movies (or music for that matter).
If you look at games as similar to movies, ask yourself how many free movies you watch. By free I mean indie films put online. IFILM serves stuff like that, and for the most part, people aren't really that into them vs. the next big budget sequel coming out.
It's all a problem of scale.
You will never see a free game of the scale of a Halo 2 for the same reason you'll never be able to download a movie that looks like Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings.
The amount of time and money it takes to create works of that scale go beyond what anyone is willing to donate for free.
The few exceptions to the rule out there where games have been created that look halfway decent usually came about because a handful of people made MAJOR sacrifices in their life. It's not something that is going to be commonplace.
Look, lots of people like playing flash and java applet games. But it's a whole other category from the mainstream game industry. These games are not a threat because nobody would pay for them if they had to.
It doesn't mean they aren't fun. It doesn't mean they aren't games. It's just a whole different sector.
When you buy a game you are buying the production values more than anything else.
Having game engines closed-source does slow innovation somewhat, but money is a strong motivator. People will reinvent the wheel in order to implement their own feature to match what the competition can do. It's not a terrible situation. Plus a lot of problems can draw upon theories from elsewhere in the computer field (AI for instance) or just continue to build within the knowledgebase of the corporation (which would be extensive in the case of any major publisher today). It's not necessarily a matter of starting from scratch the way the article implies.
Kyoto was supposed to get to the heart of the matter with CO2 emissions.
Actually, the real problem is human overpopulation, but there is no way we'll globally regulate that without a dictatorship.
It really doesn't matter where we got our fuel if we were a fraction of our total population. It's just that at the current and future size of the human species, we stress the planet too much no matter what we do.
-- One thing that could separate WikiNews from that is the presence of actual experts - or, at least, people who have more than just a passing familiarity with the subject at hand. --
Who determines whether someone is an expert or not on Wiki?
== The hot chicks look good in the bar. But what do you think they look like in the morning? Have you ever seen a famous female celebrity without her makeup and the lighting set just right? Telling a woman she should chase a false ideal is the height of arrogance and you should be ashamed. ==
Demonizing the other sex for their laundry lists is natural, but it's also completely unproductive.
You have to work within the rules whether you like it or not, and it cuts both ways (sex vs. success objects).
If he were all style and no substance he wouldn't be accomplishing anything in California. As it turns out, he is accomplishing a great deal more than career politician Gray Davis ever did.
Republican governors in Democratic states are excellent candidates because they are moderates who can appeal to the "blue states". Since Cheney will be lucky if he's even still alive in another 4 years, I think the Republicans would be hard pressed to find a candidate with more appeal than Arnold.
The only thing I really miss in Firefox is the magnification feature. I have a 15" LCD screen and I sometimes sit a fair distance from it as I have it pushed to the edge of my desk and it helps readability to be able to increase magnification to 150-200% sometimes.
-- I have great respect for people who argue for equal wages and labor conditions and then live by their ideals (which means their level of life is significantly lower than what they could afford otherwise). I may not agree with their ideas, but I respect them. Hypocrites who yak about terrible working conditions in the 3rd world and then go by chineese t-shirts on sale get no respect from me. --
Do we really have a choice? How often do YOU see a product that doesn't say Made in China on the back of it?
You make it sound like there are US-made alternatives to everything we buy. It's just not true, especially in the arena of consumer electronics and toys.
>> Let me clue you into something - the muslim extremists are about as Islamic as the KKK are Christian. Taking what they say as representative of the religion is a great way to delude yourself, and justify all kinds of terrible things.
Say what you want about the Pope, but he does spend all his time preaching peace across the globe, not putting a religious stamp of approval on wars.
Where is the Muslim analogue to the Pope???
The only peacemaking I've seen so far has been Sistani and he only has influence on Shiites.
Who is going to clean up the dirty laundry in Islam? Personally I think the majority of believers like it just the way it is, and feel they are being consistent with the truth of Islam, whether you want to admit it or not.
I'm telling you that even if Iraqis were driving tanks through main street that we would NEVER resort to car bombing OUR OWN FREAKING POLICE STATIONS set up by the Iraqis during reconstruction, or cutting OUR OWN FREAKING OIL PIPELINES.
The analogy just doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
The "insurgents" (your quotes) are doing a heck of a lot more than just fighting a guerilla war against the US. They are also killing plenty of Iraqi civilians and others just trying to rebuild the country to the point where the US can actually leave, which is only serving to PROLONG the occupation.
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Opening up UMD has no value other than allowing PCs to write to UMD-Rs or UMD-RWs for their PSPs. Nobody is going to be interested in a 1.8GB format like this when DVD writers have just gone dual-layer (8.5GB) and blu-ray is around the corner.
It's just another oddball optical format. If they start selling movies in this format it's not going to take off. How many people are going to want to buy movies in two formats just so they can play them on their PSP? They are going to just want to rip their DVDs to DIVX and burn UMDs for their PSP.
In fact, they now have these "Mini-DVDs" with kids movies coming out for miniature portable DVD players like the Cyberhome CH-MDP2500.
The world does not need any more optical formats for prerecorded movies (or music for that matter).
As long as this thing can degrade elegantly I don't see a problem with it.
Even for CGI you need voice actors.
I haven't heard much innovation lately in speech synthesis to think you could do away with the voice actors.
If you look at games as similar to movies, ask yourself how many free movies you watch. By free I mean indie films put online. IFILM serves stuff like that, and for the most part, people aren't really that into them vs. the next big budget sequel coming out.
It's all a problem of scale.
You will never see a free game of the scale of a Halo 2 for the same reason you'll never be able to download a movie that looks like Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings.
The amount of time and money it takes to create works of that scale go beyond what anyone is willing to donate for free.
The few exceptions to the rule out there where games have been created that look halfway decent usually came about because a handful of people made MAJOR sacrifices in their life. It's not something that is going to be commonplace.
Look, lots of people like playing flash and java applet games. But it's a whole other category from the mainstream game industry. These games are not a threat because nobody would pay for them if they had to.
It doesn't mean they aren't fun. It doesn't mean they aren't games. It's just a whole different sector.
When you buy a game you are buying the production values more than anything else.
Having game engines closed-source does slow innovation somewhat, but money is a strong motivator. People will reinvent the wheel in order to implement their own feature to match what the competition can do. It's not a terrible situation. Plus a lot of problems can draw upon theories from elsewhere in the computer field (AI for instance) or just continue to build within the knowledgebase of the corporation (which would be extensive in the case of any major publisher today). It's not necessarily a matter of starting from scratch the way the article implies.
So that you can buy cheap goods at Wal Mart. Don't neglect that you are part of the engine that makes corporations wealthy.
Kyoto was supposed to get to the heart of the matter with CO2 emissions.
Actually, the real problem is human overpopulation, but there is no way we'll globally regulate that without a dictatorship.
It really doesn't matter where we got our fuel if we were a fraction of our total population. It's just that at the current and future size of the human species, we stress the planet too much no matter what we do.
Hey, Einstein, it's ARCTIC, not ARTIC. ARC-tic, like, you know, the arctic circle, an arc that runs around the globe?
--
One thing that could separate WikiNews from that is the presence of actual experts - or, at least, people who have more than just a passing familiarity with the subject at hand.
--
Who determines whether someone is an expert or not on Wiki?
--
How dare they lecture *anyone* about something being "safe" when they disregard safety like that.
--
And the Space Shuttle has a good safety record in comparison??
==
The hot chicks look good in the bar. But what do you think they look like in the morning? Have you ever seen a famous female celebrity without her makeup and the lighting set just right? Telling a woman she should chase a false ideal is the height of arrogance and you should be ashamed.
==
Demonizing the other sex for their laundry lists is natural, but it's also completely unproductive.
You have to work within the rules whether you like it or not, and it cuts both ways (sex vs. success objects).
He did a great job on The Fugitive, and we got a look at his pecs in that picture to show he still had Indy-like musculature.
That's when they should have done Indy IV. I'm not too sure he's in as good shape today, and his face has really roughened up a lot.
==
(Actually, the live action parts of Chewbacca's home world were perfectly reasonable. It's the cartoon stuff that was crap.)
==
I especially liked the part where they play around with a C= Pet and they used that hairdryer thing as a VR helmet.
Yep, sure beats the Nelvana Boba Fett toon.
Why don't you read what the Koran has to say about the infidel while you are at it before trying to cast that situation in such black and white terms.
Perfect for the West Bank and Gaza Strip!!
If he were all style and no substance he wouldn't be accomplishing anything in California. As it turns out, he is accomplishing a great deal more than career politician Gray Davis ever did.
Republican governors in Democratic states are excellent candidates because they are moderates who can appeal to the "blue states". Since Cheney will be lucky if he's even still alive in another 4 years, I think the Republicans would be hard pressed to find a candidate with more appeal than Arnold.
The only thing I really miss in Firefox is the magnification feature. I have a 15" LCD screen and I sometimes sit a fair distance from it as I have it pushed to the edge of my desk and it helps readability to be able to increase magnification to 150-200% sometimes.
--
I have great respect for people who argue for equal wages and labor conditions and then live by their ideals (which means their level of life is significantly lower than what they could afford otherwise). I may not agree with their ideas, but I respect them. Hypocrites who yak about terrible working conditions in the 3rd world and then go by chineese t-shirts on sale get no respect from me.
--
Do we really have a choice? How often do YOU see a product that doesn't say Made in China on the back of it?
You make it sound like there are US-made alternatives to everything we buy. It's just not true, especially in the arena of consumer electronics and toys.
--
Of course, we only took the unpopulated half, because we didn't want all those Mexicans in our country.
--
Well, speaking as a Californian, I can say that Mexico has already repopulated the area we "took".
What would prevents any military technology deemed "defensive" to be used offensively?
>
Just got back from throwing roses on Arafat's tomb have you?
>>
Let me clue you into something - the muslim extremists are about as Islamic as the KKK are Christian. Taking what they say as representative of the religion is a great way to delude yourself, and justify all kinds of terrible things.
Say what you want about the Pope, but he does spend all his time preaching peace across the globe, not putting a religious stamp of approval on wars.
Where is the Muslim analogue to the Pope???
The only peacemaking I've seen so far has been Sistani and he only has influence on Shiites.
Who is going to clean up the dirty laundry in Islam? Personally I think the majority of believers like it just the way it is, and feel they are being consistent with the truth of Islam, whether you want to admit it or not.
Okay Mr. Moral Equivalancy...
I'm telling you that even if Iraqis were driving tanks through main street that we would NEVER resort to car bombing OUR OWN FREAKING POLICE STATIONS set up by the Iraqis during reconstruction, or cutting OUR OWN FREAKING OIL PIPELINES.
The analogy just doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
The "insurgents" (your quotes) are doing a heck of a lot more than just fighting a guerilla war against the US. They are also killing plenty of Iraqi civilians and others just trying to rebuild the country to the point where the US can actually leave, which is only serving to PROLONG the occupation.
Another guy who just wants to justify his pot smoking.
Programmed not to worry about it but watch plenty of action movies where cars and gas stations explode even more than they do in real-life.
There's too much of a break in tech continuity to try to revive the Staturn V.
We should just license russian technology and start making Soyuz and Energias over here, but our pride won't allow that.