Sorry, I'm just flamebait!!! No reason here.... Just making stuff up..... I don't have to prove it's NOT happening, you have to prove it is. You make the statement the world is going to end, oh, say next Tuesday then you want me to prove it's a lie. Well, frankly, I think you should go sell your house for $50 (to me hopefully), but I'll just wait 'til Tuesday.
It's interesting how the GW crowd wants us to believe that they can predict a 0.8 C increase in temperature in about 100 years (yes, that's what the latest theory predicts) when they can't tell you what the temperture will be to within a 10 degree variance tomorrow. The problem is the lack of logic applied to the statements being make to the general public. The climatic and geologic system that makes up the earth is far more complex than any of the current models predict and we see proof of that daily. Why would we believe models that can't predict the course of a hurrican could do any better with longer term, far more complex events? These predictions are all based on computer models (something I do for a living mind you) that have a whole hell of a lot of guess work where there is not any real data. To spend 10's of billions of dollars and destroy economies (which is why even Japan, who wrote the Kyoto agreement, didn't sign it!!!) on models that are as provably flawed as the current ones is not silly it's criminal. Too many people are sheep to what the NEWS reports say to get your attention even when it's not accepted by most of the scientists in the field in question (and GW isn't). Most of the scientists you will here talking about GW aren't climatologists or meteorologists they're typically soft science types trying to get a grant. I'll not waste time citing references on a site like this. It's like teaching calculus to apes. Do some research yourself. If you're truely unbiased you'll find the truth.
"bogus (but authoritative sounding) research institutes designed to convince laypeople that human causation of global warming is scientifically controversial."
Oh no, it's a given. After all, the inventor of the internet has said it so it must be true. What, with all of Al Gores impressive scientific background, how could anyone doubt it.....
You guys are such a bunch of chicken littles it's unreal. Much of the "scientific" (by that I mean those working in climatology and meterology not those working on womens rights and black issues) community does have considerable doubt about human interactions effect on climate and, so called, "global warming". Global warming itself has never been shown to exist by anyone other than pseudo scientists and folks working for agencies that benefit from the idea of same. Get facts and stop regurgitating the what you're told. Why not look at some of the data yourself? It's out there.....
Wiretapping, under very specific circumstances, is not unconstitutional at this time. By the way, international lines have been monitored by the government since the first undersea cables were layed. Western Union entered into an agreement before the first messages were ever passed through it.
However, listening in on me tell my wife I'll be home at 6PM is a long way from putting my name on a list with creatures that molest children without ever convicting me before a jury. I need to read more about what conditions allow this but from what I've seen so far it simply takes an accusation. That would be totally unconstitutional and downright dumb. I can't believe that's all there is to it. It sounds like they were trying to give victims of the Catholic priest scandal a means for warning others without having to face a courtroom. Even in that case this isn't the way to do things. If you can't prove it to a jury there's just no way a person should be persecuted for it.
Would that be your mindset of mine? I've not seen a college dorm since 1980. I've been living in the bad old world for a while and I've not seen anything that makes me believe that government corruption is not rampant. No, not at an all time high and not worse than anywhere else, just rampant. Our current preoccupation with money (similar, historically, to the mid to late 1920's) will lead us to some very hard times. When the distance between the wealthy classes and the working classes grows too great things get bad. Combine that with the lobby system we have for letting corporations and individuals literally buy our government representatives I see some pretty ugly stuff going on. Stuff that makes no sense to the common person (like letting between 10 and 30 million uneducated, unskilled laborers invade our country unchallenged. like paying 10's of billions to support/protect Saudi Arabia). I am not anti-business nor anti-rich (hope to be in the "wealthy class" some day) but we haven't done a signifigant thing scientifically, technologically or socially since the 60's. Mostly we're just making more money......
"Money, at least, has the virtue of flowing automatically to those who labor and innovate and create pleasure for others."
STEPPING UP ON SOAP BOX ===>
Sure it does. At the same time it is just as likely (maybe more) to flow to those that are corrupt and evil (Sadam, Castro, Kim Jong Il, arguably Bill Gates). Certainly many people labor all their lives (slaves in Syria and IT workers in the US for example) do more for far, far less. That's my problem with money as an ends and not just a means for doing REAL stuff. I feel (just my opinion) that the US has lost it's way about what is important. Having a few million or billion dollars is of no interest in and of itself. My dog could be a billionaire if the right nut job left her the money, who cares? The things that made the US great are things like fighting to keep our country united and eliminate slavery at the same time. Defending the world from tyrants (then as now) in two world wars. Building some of the greatest civil works projects of the century, putting man on the moon, all the fantastic inventions that have come from US owned laboratories (LBL, PARC, Bell Labs, more). The US was DOING STUFF. Some good, some bad and opions will very as to which was what but we weren't just doing things to stuff more money in our pockets. Look at the current cultural icons, (C)rap stars, Paris Hilton (Lord help us all), athletes. They do nothing for mankind (well, Paris... never mind). What about scientists, explorers, inventors, people that risk their lives to do things bigger than themselves? People that spend years in school educating themselves are laughed at and called geeks (or worse). Hell, we don't even defend ourselves as a country or take pride in being an American anymore.
I think we've lost our way and we need a good smack (maybe from an Iranian, Chinese, Russian alliance for WW3?) to wake us up.
I'm sure with for a few extra bucks MS can buy whatever legal resources (including judges, prosecutors, congressmen, lobbyists) it needs to make it all better. Ain't it great living in a society where money rules all....
"Money's like honey, my little sonny, and a rich man's joke is always funny"
"And you had better NOT try doing the work with your iron first yourself, because she is one HELL of a lot better at it than you and you'll foul it up and make her job harder."
Hardly a recommendation of you...... I work with lots of tech's (male and female) and they are all capable and do a good job. The point of the article was that Linux was too obtuse for women so they would reject it. The fact of the matter is that there are so few women in the engineering and software fields (go ahead, quote some bullshit statistic, in my undergrad class of 1200 people we had about 10 women, in my graduate class we had 1, in my last job we had 2 women in a group of seven and that's because I HIRED THEM, in my current position we have 1 in a group of 15) that it couldn't matter less what women think. Ask the MBA's what they think, they have more control (though fewer brains).
Is this an April fools day joke posting? Really, it's just got a be! (that or Phil Donahue is back to sticking tampons up his ass and wearing dressing to show what a bitch he is).
Not sure about this posting but if you're serious you need mental help. Suggesting that Linux could or should be banned because the little ladies find it difficult to use is like suggesting we put little pink traces on circuit boards so that the female brain gets a little smiley face when they look at them. If women don't like it they don't have to use it. Get some balls and act like a man. Men and women are SUPPOSED to be different. It's better that way.
Give the guy a break.....? No, don't think so. Considering that he's become the wealthiest human being of all time through unethical and underhanded business practices that have destroyed other mens work I think I'd just as soon say "To hell with him".
Just because he's reached an age where he wants to buy peoples admiration for being something other than a thief doesn't make him any less a scum bag than he ever was. If others benefit from his vested self interest, great, but don't ask me to applaud. He's a crook and he always will be. Giving back 80% of what he took (and I'll believe it when I see it) is still only 80%. Give it ALL back and try to do it honestly, then I'll give him some credit. Till then I await the day we evaluate people not on much money then can gather but rather on how they did the gathering.....
"The HD signals are carried only in the first adjacent channels. (95.3 & 95.7 for a HD station on 95.5)"
IBOC - In Band On Channel.............. Don't know what you're talking about with 95.3 and 95.7? Those are adjacent, separate channels. The HD signal is ON channel in the upper and lower sidebands for that channel. What you're suggesting would mean that an HD FM station on 95.5 would consume 3 channels Vs 1 and that's simply not the case.
Maybe I'm not understanding what you're saying but I think I right...
You're pretty much on the money on the rest though....
"Clearchannel crap radio has alot of the stations in this market, consequently in an hour there is 25 minutes of music, 15 minutes of commercials, 15 minutes of station self promotion, and five minutes of stuff that I have a hard time categorizing..."
Agreed, if the content sucks the sound quality and added programming is meaningless...
"I wonder if this moron actually uses HD radio, or is just using this as a promotion attempt, so his company can sell more crap transmitters to the radio cartel ? Actual users of HD, who have commented here, dispute the claims of CD quality sound, and, in fact, say that the sound quality (on FM band) IS USUALLY MUCH WORSE than regular FM radio."
Yeah, I'm the moron (that's why I fall back on name calling rather than a technical conversation..... ) I actually have nearly every model of HD Radio currently made sitting about 2 feet from me. I'm responsible for confirming the technology works correctly with every different manufacturer trying to do their own take on how to process the signal. The sound is always better but there are degrees. Some radio's definately sound better than others. If you're on the fringe of the signal you're radio may blend back and forth from analog to digital (bad ones) and that's problematic. Some of the lesser radio's don't sound much better and, OK, may arguably not sound better at all in bad listening conditions. I would love to have a conversation with anyone claiming they sound worse. That's only going to happen if a station is set up wrong and that's VERY unusual (and costly). The added value for the listener, if the sound is only arguably better to you, is that you can get multiple programs over the same signal. That means more programs to listen to (maybe something you actually like) for the same bandwidth. There's also added value to the radio station (and ClearChannel and Infinity and the other biggies don't own everything (yet)) that the power required to broadcast to the same area is only about 25% of that for the analog signal. So when (or if) digital displaces analog broadcasts entirely that will be a huge savings to the smaller stations.
Try not acting like a jerk and maybe people will like you more. You might even get a date and not be so grumpy.....
I think you're right about content. If they can't get it right they're lost anyway. I think the additional stimulus of new tech and new listeners might drive better content that will lead to better broadcast radio in general. That would be a great thing.
The use of political power by corporate interests to kill small business is nothing new (and it is usually an evil thing). However, what I know about broadcasting leads me to believe that a lack of controls on these "small" local stations would probably have caused as much trouble as good. A noisy or out of band or over-power or over-modulated signal is a menace to every station in the area and without controls there wouldn't be much you could do about it. I hate government regs of any kind but there's got to be some control or everyone would suffer.
Weeeellll, we certainly don't give it away to them but NPR is a MAJOR player in HD Radio and they are a leader in getting out there with the very latest (bleeding edge) technology that can be provided. No I don't work for PBS or NPR but I do work for a technology provider for them. If you want to hear the best quality that money can by, NPR and PBS are the ticket.... (IMO)
I'm a developer for one of the MAJOR transmitter manufactures that's helping to bring HD Radio to the air. Though we've had a tough couple of years getting things stable and working I think we're now at a point where the options that will soon be available will make XM look like a pretty silly business model. Whereas XM wants you to continue to pay for every bit you receive (like cable TV has done) the HD model is to provide you with quality programming along with the added bonuses of CD quality sound on FM and FM quality on AM for the same price you've always paid for broadcast, FREE!!! In addition to the enourmous improvements in quality you can now listen to multiple program streams (up to 6) on each tunable station. This allows stations that had to be devoted to a single genre to now have just about as many as they can stand. More options, better quality, and the only additional cost comes if you go out and buy a radio now. Soon HD will become standard and ANY radio you buy (or get as a result of buying a car or boat) will already have HD cabability.
There's also the fact that the content delivered (particularly FM) is a 44.1 KHz sampled digital stream arriving and being decoded at your personal radio. Any thoughts about what you might do with that very high quality digital stream of music? If you don't I do..... The MPAA might be suing XM because it's a pay service but different rules apply to HD (broadcast) and adding recording cabability to receivers will certainly happen and if it doesn't it won't be hard to add yourself.
Additional applications for this digital stream haven't even been thought of yet. There are already systems in the works to provide information services, schedule services for setting up and recording programs just as you do with digital cable today. I've often felt the killer app for this has yet to be found. It's a whole new world for those that open their mind to it.
I guess you work in VB or VB.net. I've got Java apps that outperform similiar C programs and I work with scientific and engineering apps all the time (FFT, FEA, matrix ops...). I don't know why people keep talking about Java like it's slow while at the same time working in Microsloth languages. Get a clue dude!!
"Those customers can file a claim and receive certain benefits, such as a nonprotected replacement CD, free downloads of music from that CD and additional cash payments "
At the same time they collect $150K for every song someone downloads without their permission. Oh yeah, that sounds fair...
How about this, Sony has to pay $1 billion to every customer that had this root kit installed without their knowledge. Yeah, that's a nice fair figure factoring from the $150K now considered reasonable for illegal downloading a single song or movie. Ooops, I forgot, that would hurt BUSINESS (Vs hurting those pesky people). Gotta protect those poor businesses. Wouldn't want them to have to pay for their behavior.... Now way Josey....
"Ok, if you sick a lawyer on the poor user, you can sting them for their minimum 800 hours fees. "
Yeah... like the RIAA can only sue you for the cost of the song/movie you download. That's why a couple in Cincy Ohio is contemplating $600,000.00 for the 4 movies their grandson downloaded on their computer.
NEVER assume fairness or equity in the legal relm, it's run by liars (lawyers...whatever).
In my life I've been a member of a union three times. I was a Teamster twice and in the UAW once. At no time did I feel represented and most of the time my dues were taken and used for whatever the union leadership (closely releated to corporate leadership....) felt like using it for. Teamsters cost me $180 to join (1982 dollars) and then refused to give me a withdrawl card when I quit the job (UPS). Less than a year later I had to join Teamster's again and had to pay nearly $300 (California this time) to join again. Major crookedness....
On the other hand, I've often felt that all of us together could bring about some needed changes (better working conditions, time off, banning ridiculous practices like being on call attached to a pager 24x7 with no compensation unless you're called). The thing is that the current business community WILL send your job to a country with slave labor at the first sign that they can do so for less money than having to deal with you. The government (both sides) and our current social structure (profit isn't everything it's the only thing) supports them in this.
I think that until some basic controls on business are put in place governing the outsourcing of the labor force and controlling the influx of foreign labor we don't have much hope. As a country we have much more respect for entertainers and sports figures (traditionally the least useful people in society) than scientists and engineers. This means that those that do manage to get through school and overcome all the other hurdles involved in being in the technical work force do so for little more than the reward of doing what they (hopefully) love to do. Big suprise that enrollment in the sciences and engineering is WAY down for Americans (though we have plenty of foreigners coming through our schools).
I think at this point in time we're all pretty much screwed.Fighting either of the above mentioned problems and you'll be called anti-business, anti-capitalist, anti-American or (if all else fails) a racist xenophobe. Good luck to you young guys................
For instance, I have a BS and MS in Computer Science. I graduated top of my class in undergrad and first in my graduate class. I've worked in the Civil and Electrical engineering fields and have what I consider to be a great job for a great company (14000+ employees) and make 90K+ with bonuses.
My wife graduated from a So California HS with decent grades. No college though she's a very bright person with lots of personality. She taught herself to be an entertainer using balloons in various sculptures, designs and decorations. She currently gets between $120 and $200 and hour and often entertains in venues for large corporate functions (for companies like mine) where she'll make 2 and 3 thousand dollars (entertaining and decorating) for a single days work. On top of this I can tell you with great certainty that she has a hell of a lot more fun at work than I do. Sets her own hours, picks her own clients and jobs, and works at will.
So much for 6 hard years of school and many long hours at work.....
Sounds like 10000 monkeys typing for 10000 years will turn out another MacBeth. So we just need a little bigger IT staff and a little more time..... Or maybe go back to letting the pro's do it. You remember us, the ones that write the code the whole world runs. Why does anyone become a developer these days. You get all the respect of a janitor. People bow down before engineers that usually couldn't write anything beyond "Hello World" without screwing it up but still the idea that anybody can write software persists. Anyone can write a novel too guys but how many Steven Kings are there?
I love it! I just tried to post with everything capitalized and the post was refused because "All caps is like yelling". However if I were to have used every foul disgusting word (as many here have) known to mankind, now that would be fine!
Slashdot, you guys crack me up! If you had morals you'd be dangerous!!
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry, I'm just flamebait!!! No reason here.... Just making stuff up..... I don't have to prove it's NOT happening, you have to prove it is. You make the statement the world is going to end, oh, say next Tuesday then you want me to prove it's a lie. Well, frankly, I think you should go sell your house for $50 (to me hopefully), but I'll just wait 'til Tuesday.
It's interesting how the GW crowd wants us to believe that they can predict a 0.8 C increase in temperature in about 100 years (yes, that's what the latest theory predicts) when they can't tell you what the temperture will be to within a 10 degree variance tomorrow. The problem is the lack of logic applied to the statements being make to the general public. The climatic and geologic system that makes up the earth is far more complex than any of the current models predict and we see proof of that daily. Why would we believe models that can't predict the course of a hurrican could do any better with longer term, far more complex events? These predictions are all based on computer models (something I do for a living mind you) that have a whole hell of a lot of guess work where there is not any real data. To spend 10's of billions of dollars and destroy economies (which is why even Japan, who wrote the Kyoto agreement, didn't sign it!!!) on models that are as provably flawed as the current ones is not silly it's criminal. Too many people are sheep to what the NEWS reports say to get your attention even when it's not accepted by most of the scientists in the field in question (and GW isn't). Most of the scientists you will here talking about GW aren't climatologists or meteorologists they're typically soft science types trying to get a grant. I'll not waste time citing references on a site like this. It's like teaching calculus to apes. Do some research yourself. If you're truely unbiased you'll find the truth.
"bogus (but authoritative sounding) research institutes designed to convince laypeople that human causation of global warming is scientifically controversial."
Oh no, it's a given. After all, the inventor of the internet has said it so it must be true. What, with all of Al Gores impressive scientific background, how could anyone doubt it.....
You guys are such a bunch of chicken littles it's unreal. Much of the "scientific" (by that I mean those working in climatology and meterology not those working on womens rights and black issues) community does have considerable doubt about human interactions effect on climate and, so called, "global warming". Global warming itself has never been shown to exist by anyone other than pseudo scientists and folks working for agencies that benefit from the idea of same. Get facts and stop regurgitating the what you're told. Why not look at some of the data yourself? It's out there.....
Wiretapping, under very specific circumstances, is not unconstitutional at this time. By the way, international lines have been monitored by the government since the first undersea cables were layed. Western Union entered into an agreement before the first messages were ever passed through it.
However, listening in on me tell my wife I'll be home at 6PM is a long way from putting my name on a list with creatures that molest children without ever convicting me before a jury. I need to read more about what conditions allow this but from what I've seen so far it simply takes an accusation. That would be totally unconstitutional and downright dumb. I can't believe that's all there is to it. It sounds like they were trying to give victims of the Catholic priest scandal a means for warning others without having to face a courtroom. Even in that case this isn't the way to do things. If you can't prove it to a jury there's just no way a person should be persecuted for it.
I'm not even a big fan. I just happened to be listening one day and heard the bit. Pretty funny though.....
I thought people would learn not to mess with Barney when he had Ean St Eane kneecapped.... Geez, I wouldn't want to get on his bad side.
"college-dorm-room Slashdot mindset "
Would that be your mindset of mine? I've not seen a college dorm since 1980. I've been living in the bad old world for a while and I've not seen anything that makes me believe that government corruption is not rampant. No, not at an all time high and not worse than anywhere else, just rampant. Our current preoccupation with money (similar, historically, to the mid to late 1920's) will lead us to some very hard times. When the distance between the wealthy classes and the working classes grows too great things get bad. Combine that with the lobby system we have for letting corporations and individuals literally buy our government representatives I see some pretty ugly stuff going on. Stuff that makes no sense to the common person (like letting between 10 and 30 million uneducated, unskilled laborers invade our country unchallenged. like paying 10's of billions to support/protect Saudi Arabia). I am not anti-business nor anti-rich (hope to be in the "wealthy class" some day) but we haven't done a signifigant thing scientifically, technologically or socially since the 60's. Mostly we're just making more money......
"Money, at least, has the virtue of flowing automatically to those who labor and innovate and create pleasure for others."
STEPPING UP ON SOAP BOX ===>
Sure it does. At the same time it is just as likely (maybe more) to flow to those that are corrupt and evil (Sadam, Castro, Kim Jong Il, arguably Bill Gates). Certainly many people labor all their lives (slaves in Syria and IT workers in the US for example) do more for far, far less. That's my problem with money as an ends and not just a means for doing REAL stuff. I feel (just my opinion) that the US has lost it's way about what is important. Having a few million or billion dollars is of no interest in and of itself. My dog could be a billionaire if the right nut job left her the money, who cares? The things that made the US great are things like fighting to keep our country united and eliminate slavery at the same time. Defending the world from tyrants (then as now) in two world wars. Building some of the greatest civil works projects of the century, putting man on the moon, all the fantastic inventions that have come from US owned laboratories (LBL, PARC, Bell Labs, more). The US was DOING STUFF. Some good, some bad and opions will very as to which was what but we weren't just doing things to stuff more money in our pockets. Look at the current cultural icons, (C)rap stars, Paris Hilton (Lord help us all), athletes. They do nothing for mankind (well, Paris
I think we've lost our way and we need a good smack (maybe from an Iranian, Chinese, Russian alliance for WW3?) to wake us up.
STEPPING DOWN FROM SOAP BOX
I'm sure with for a few extra bucks MS can buy whatever legal resources (including judges, prosecutors, congressmen, lobbyists) it needs to make it all better. Ain't it great living in a society where money rules all....
"Money's like honey, my little sonny, and a rich man's joke is always funny"
Use number 3409 for rapists, child molesters and crooked politians (or is crooked politian redundant)....
"And you had better NOT try doing the work with your iron first yourself, because she is one HELL of a lot better at it than you and you'll foul it up and make her job harder."
Hardly a recommendation of you...... I work with lots of tech's (male and female) and they are all capable and do a good job. The point of the article was that Linux was too obtuse for women so they would reject it. The fact of the matter is that there are so few women in the engineering and software fields (go ahead, quote some bullshit statistic, in my undergrad class of 1200 people we had about 10 women, in my graduate class we had 1, in my last job we had 2 women in a group of seven and that's because I HIRED THEM, in my current position we have 1 in a group of 15) that it couldn't matter less what women think. Ask the MBA's what they think, they have more control (though fewer brains).
Is this an April fools day joke posting? Really, it's just got a be! (that or Phil Donahue is back to sticking tampons up his ass and wearing dressing to show what a bitch he is).
Not sure about this posting but if you're serious you need mental help. Suggesting that Linux could or should be banned because the little ladies find it difficult to use is like suggesting we put little pink traces on circuit boards so that the female brain gets a little smiley face when they look at them. If women don't like it they don't have to use it. Get some balls and act like a man. Men and women are SUPPOSED to be different. It's better that way.
Give the guy a break.....? No, don't think so. Considering that he's become the wealthiest human being of all time through unethical and underhanded business practices that have destroyed other mens work I think I'd just as soon say "To hell with him".
Just because he's reached an age where he wants to buy peoples admiration for being something other than a thief doesn't make him any less a scum bag than he ever was. If others benefit from his vested self interest, great, but don't ask me to applaud. He's a crook and he always will be. Giving back 80% of what he took (and I'll believe it when I see it) is still only 80%. Give it ALL back and try to do it honestly, then I'll give him some credit. Till then I await the day we evaluate people not on much money then can gather but rather on how they did the gathering.....
"The HD signals are carried only in the first adjacent channels. (95.3 & 95.7 for a HD station on 95.5)"
IBOC - In Band On Channel.............. Don't know what you're talking about with 95.3 and 95.7? Those are adjacent, separate channels. The HD signal is ON channel in the upper and lower sidebands for that channel. What you're suggesting would mean that an HD FM station on 95.5 would consume 3 channels Vs 1 and that's simply not the case.
Maybe I'm not understanding what you're saying but I think I right...
You're pretty much on the money on the rest though....
"Clearchannel crap radio has alot of the stations in this market, consequently in an hour there is 25 minutes of music, 15 minutes of commercials, 15 minutes of station self promotion, and five minutes of stuff that I have a hard time categorizing..."
Agreed, if the content sucks the sound quality and added programming is meaningless...
"I wonder if this moron actually uses HD radio, or is just using this as a promotion attempt, so his company can sell more crap transmitters to the radio cartel ? Actual users of HD, who have commented here, dispute the claims of CD quality sound, and, in fact, say that the sound quality (on FM band) IS USUALLY MUCH WORSE than regular FM radio."
Yeah, I'm the moron (that's why I fall back on name calling rather than a technical conversation..... ) I actually have nearly every model of HD Radio currently made sitting about 2 feet from me. I'm responsible for confirming the technology works correctly with every different manufacturer trying to do their own take on how to process the signal. The sound is always better but there are degrees. Some radio's definately sound better than others. If you're on the fringe of the signal you're radio may blend back and forth from analog to digital (bad ones) and that's problematic. Some of the lesser radio's don't sound much better and, OK, may arguably not sound better at all in bad listening conditions. I would love to have a conversation with anyone claiming they sound worse. That's only going to happen if a station is set up wrong and that's VERY unusual (and costly). The added value for the listener, if the sound is only arguably better to you, is that you can get multiple programs over the same signal. That means more programs to listen to (maybe something you actually like) for the same bandwidth. There's also added value to the radio station (and ClearChannel and Infinity and the other biggies don't own everything (yet)) that the power required to broadcast to the same area is only about 25% of that for the analog signal. So when (or if) digital displaces analog broadcasts entirely that will be a huge savings to the smaller stations.
Try not acting like a jerk and maybe people will like you more. You might even get a date and not be so grumpy.....
I think you're right about content. If they can't get it right they're lost anyway. I think the additional stimulus of new tech and new listeners might drive better content that will lead to better broadcast radio in general. That would be a great thing.
The use of political power by corporate interests to kill small business is nothing new (and it is usually an evil thing). However, what I know about broadcasting leads me to believe that a lack of controls on these "small" local stations would probably have caused as much trouble as good. A noisy or out of band or over-power or over-modulated signal is a menace to every station in the area and without controls there wouldn't be much you could do about it. I hate government regs of any kind but there's got to be some control or everyone would suffer.
Weeeellll, we certainly don't give it away to them but NPR is a MAJOR player in HD Radio and they are a leader in getting out there with the very latest (bleeding edge) technology that can be provided. No I don't work for PBS or NPR but I do work for a technology provider for them. If you want to hear the best quality that money can by, NPR and PBS are the ticket.... (IMO)
I'm a developer for one of the MAJOR transmitter manufactures that's helping to bring HD Radio to the air. Though we've had a tough couple of years getting things stable and working I think we're now at a point where the options that will soon be available will make XM look like a pretty silly business model. Whereas XM wants you to continue to pay for every bit you receive (like cable TV has done) the HD model is to provide you with quality programming along with the added bonuses of CD quality sound on FM and FM quality on AM for the same price you've always paid for broadcast, FREE!!! In addition to the enourmous improvements in quality you can now listen to multiple program streams (up to 6) on each tunable station. This allows stations that had to be devoted to a single genre to now have just about as many as they can stand. More options, better quality, and the only additional cost comes if you go out and buy a radio now. Soon HD will become standard and ANY radio you buy (or get as a result of buying a car or boat) will already have HD cabability.
There's also the fact that the content delivered (particularly FM) is a 44.1 KHz sampled digital stream arriving and being decoded at your personal radio. Any thoughts about what you might do with that very high quality digital stream of music? If you don't I do..... The MPAA might be suing XM because it's a pay service but different rules apply to HD (broadcast) and adding recording cabability to receivers will certainly happen and if it doesn't it won't be hard to add yourself.
Additional applications for this digital stream haven't even been thought of yet. There are already systems in the works to provide information services, schedule services for setting up and recording programs just as you do with digital cable today. I've often felt the killer app for this has yet to be found. It's a whole new world for those that open their mind to it.
I guess you work in VB or VB.net. I've got Java apps that outperform similiar C programs and I work with scientific and engineering apps all the time (FFT, FEA, matrix ops...). I don't know why people keep talking about Java like it's slow while at the same time working in Microsloth languages. Get a clue dude!!
"Those customers can file a claim and receive certain benefits, such as a nonprotected replacement CD, free downloads of music from that CD and additional cash payments "
At the same time they collect $150K for every song someone downloads without their permission. Oh yeah, that sounds fair...
How about this, Sony has to pay $1 billion to every customer that had this root kit installed without their knowledge. Yeah, that's a nice fair figure factoring from the $150K now considered reasonable for illegal downloading a single song or movie. Ooops, I forgot, that would hurt BUSINESS (Vs hurting those pesky people). Gotta protect those poor businesses. Wouldn't want them to have to pay for their behavior.... Now way Josey....
"Ok, if you sick a lawyer on the poor user, you can sting them for their minimum 800 hours fees. "
Yeah... like the RIAA can only sue you for the cost of the song/movie you download. That's why a couple in Cincy Ohio is contemplating $600,000.00 for the 4 movies their grandson downloaded on their computer.
NEVER assume fairness or equity in the legal relm, it's run by liars (lawyers...whatever).
In my life I've been a member of a union three times. I was a Teamster twice and in the UAW once. At no time did I feel represented and most of the time my dues were taken and used for whatever the union leadership (closely releated to corporate leadership....) felt like using it for. Teamsters cost me $180 to join (1982 dollars) and then refused to give me a withdrawl card when I quit the job (UPS). Less than a year later I had to join Teamster's again and had to pay nearly $300 (California this time) to join again. Major crookedness....
On the other hand, I've often felt that all of us together could bring about some needed changes (better working conditions, time off, banning ridiculous practices like being on call attached to a pager 24x7 with no compensation unless you're called). The thing is that the current business community WILL send your job to a country with slave labor at the first sign that they can do so for less money than having to deal with you. The government (both sides) and our current social structure (profit isn't everything it's the only thing) supports them in this.
I think that until some basic controls on business are put in place governing the outsourcing of the labor force and controlling the influx of foreign labor we don't have much hope. As a country we have much more respect for entertainers and sports figures (traditionally the least useful people in society) than scientists and engineers. This means that those that do manage to get through school and overcome all the other hurdles involved in being in the technical work force do so for little more than the reward of doing what they (hopefully) love to do. Big suprise that enrollment in the sciences and engineering is WAY down for Americans (though we have plenty of foreigners coming through our schools).
I think at this point in time we're all pretty much screwed.Fighting either of the above mentioned problems and you'll be called anti-business, anti-capitalist, anti-American or (if all else fails) a racist xenophobe. Good luck to you young guys................
Go into entertainment or a sports.
For instance, I have a BS and MS in Computer Science. I graduated top of my class in undergrad and first in my graduate class. I've worked in the Civil and Electrical engineering fields and have what I consider to be a great job for a great company (14000+ employees) and make 90K+ with bonuses.
My wife graduated from a So California HS with decent grades. No college though she's a very bright person with lots of personality. She taught herself to be an entertainer using balloons in various sculptures, designs and decorations. She currently gets between $120 and $200 and hour and often entertains in venues for large corporate functions (for companies like mine) where she'll make 2 and 3 thousand dollars (entertaining and decorating) for a single days work. On top of this I can tell you with great certainty that she has a hell of a lot more fun at work than I do. Sets her own hours, picks her own clients and jobs, and works at will.
So much for 6 hard years of school and many long hours at work.....
Sounds like 10000 monkeys typing for 10000 years will turn out another MacBeth. So we just need a little bigger IT staff and a little more time..... Or maybe go back to letting the pro's do it. You remember us, the ones that write the code the whole world runs. Why does anyone become a developer these days. You get all the respect of a janitor. People bow down before engineers that usually couldn't write anything beyond "Hello World" without screwing it up but still the idea that anybody can write software persists. Anyone can write a novel too guys but how many Steven Kings are there?
I love it! I just tried to post with everything capitalized and the post was refused because "All caps is like yelling". However if I were to have used every foul disgusting word (as many here have) known to mankind, now that would be fine!
Slashdot, you guys crack me up! If you had morals you'd be dangerous!!
I can't imagine where the kids get it from. I mean, it's not like they're exposed to it anywhere..........
Like for instance:
You bastards!! You killed Kenny! G** damnit Cartman! You fatass! You f****** Jew Kyle, give me your Jew gold!