The company already has HD movies on demand ready to go, but is delaying them because of ownership concerns.
HBO already has a 24-hour-a-day HD channel, which broadcasts movies, the Sopranos, etc. without DRM. I can record these directly to a HD tape deck or computer capture device if I wanted (and it would be legal fair use). So, does this mean that HBO has no ownership concerns over these movies, or over the Sopranos? I doubt it.
Why do you want to do this? Sure, it's "cool" and you'll get modded up for life on/. - but is it a wise decision?
With Nucleus, for example, you spend 99.9% of your time writing/testing your own code. You're on a solid, well-known base that you have prior experience with. Clearly your management has no problems with their licensing scheme or pricing.
If you go to linux, you'll get:
A learning curve - things work differently, and all the function names are different.
You spend some significant time configuring and compiling a Linux distribution. On your second project this may take a minor amount of time - but on your first project, it will take longer than you think.
You need to worry (and involve the corporate lawyers) about licensing.
If you want any support, you need to pay - so there may not actually be any cost difference. (If you already have a site license for Nucleus, then Linux would be more expensive).
I'm not saying that Linux is necessarily bad here.... just that it may not be the nirvana that you think.
I don't mind paying $10 for a cartridge. That's fair.
But: why is there so little ink inside? In my case (HP) there's 6 mL in a color, and 10 mL in a black. The cartridge is sealed, has a shelf life of a few years, and has no moving parts to wear out. So all HP has to do is put in, say one ounce of color and two ounces of black (about 4x current levels). The extra ink costs pennies, there's no new engineering required, the customer is happy, and HP can respond to Kodak in the marketplace.
I'd rather throw out a cartridge I bought last year because the ink has dried out, than throw out one I bought last month becase it's empty already.
Sure, brick-and-mortar pipebending stores that can do business by fax & phone don't need to accomodate all web browsers.
But: this is Movielink, a service that is renting and selling movies over the internet. In other words, they are selling something that you cannot get by fax or phone - you need an internet connection, a computer, and a reasonable amount of knowledge to be their customer in the first place.
So: by restricting their customer base to IE only, they are artificially limiting their customer base. They could target 100% of people on the Internet, but they choose voluntarily to limit themselves to only selling to people who are able to (and want to) run a recent copy of IE.
In short: they are artificially limiting themselves to maybe 50% (and falling) of their potential customer base. What a grand business model that is.
Our school district "blocks" sites like LiveJournal and MySpace. This provides our student body with an excellent education in some branches of computer science - like tunnelling, overseas proxy servers, and anonymous browsing in general.
Besides, to state the obvious, students generally do their homework papers at home - where Wikipedia is freely available.
OK, they will start arriving in 3 years, they don't do true HDTV when everyone else is at 1080p, and they're only 20 inch diagonal. Wow, I'm sure the marketplace will just snap them up like hotcakes - especially since they'll start off at an inflated "new technology" price point.
When you've got a $5000 20" OLED set, and your buddy's got a $3000 50" plasma 1080p set, who's going to win the pissing war, or host the cool SuperBowl party??
Maybe I'm alone here, but I don't think I want to travel in a vacuum - no matter how short the journey.
If you start to seal and pressurize the train cars, you get into a lot more complex vehicle - and one with a limited lifetime due to metal fatigue (the same as a passenger plane). One of the beauties of trains is that they have an essentially infinite lifespan.
So no, the iPhone will NOT kill the iPod. For the people that own an iPhone, maybe they will use it as their music/video player; but for most people. the iPod is still the best choice.
The iPod Nano also has huge advantages over the iPhone - much smaller, much more reliable, much longer battery life, and much more rugged. I've dropped my Nano into the spokes of my bike wheel while riding along at 20 MPH - the Nano is fine, only one tiny scratch. Try that with your iPhone.
Make the manufacturer of any consumer item responsible for collecting and recycling old equipment.
Two big advantages:
The manufacturer will make their goods easier and cheaper to recycle, since they will be the ones paying for it;
It keeps the government out of it.
Yes, of course, the manufacturer will up their prices a little. But, that makes the fee proportional to the actual cost, instead of a flat government fee.
Ideally you could apply this to ALL consumer goods - including televisions, monitors, and automobiles.
Bulk pack of LEDs at DigiKey: $9.95 on debit card.
Four D-Cell batteries: $6.95 on debit card.
Tourist map of Boston: $4.95 on debit card.
Making Boston the laughing stock of the nation: priceless.
No. PCI specs are only available to members of PCI SIG; to get them or to develop hardware you need to be a member. If you thought AGP was secret, wait until you try to get technical details on PCIe.
Even then it isn't easy - my company is a member but it's easier for me to go to the store and buy a copy of the Anderson book on PCIe than to get the official spec.
Never mind the patents - Lego is a trademark. The Danish toy manufacturer very strongly defends that trademark.
If you have silicon chips that fit together like little plastic children's toy blocks, that's perfectly fine. But if you mention the word Lego - even in internal company documents - you'll have a swarm of lawyers knocking at your door. (Yes, this has happened before).
Nobody uses 100% of the power of their desktop computer either - and nobody complains about it. It would take a very, very tricky program to simultaneously max out the processors, graphics, memory, and disk bandwidth.
Nobody every uses 100% of the power of their car, either. Sure, you LIKE to have the 250 HP engine, but you only use it for 3 seconds on the on-ramp. And hopefully nobody uses the full power of their 800 watt home theatre system. The excess power is there for the momentary condition - not to use all of the time.
Nintendo is both a game delivery system (they make the consoles), and a game manufacturer (78 varieties of Mario, to start with). It hasn't hurt them at all, and game companies like Sega, Activision, Ubisoft, and EA are lining up to write and sell games for Nintendo consoles.
Personally I think that Steam is a stroke of genius, much like iTunes - you can shop for and buy games online, and start playing them immediately, without having to go to the store and buy a physical CD.
Re:But what about the battery?
on
The Zune Cometh
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
You're confusing removable with user removable. The iPod's battery is certainly removable; Apple stores will swap in a new battery for a fixed price.
There are several advantages of a soldered-in battery. The iPod can be made smaller (no need for a battery holder) and lighter. The case can be better sealed. And there is no chance that a bump to the iPod will interrupt playback by interrupting battery voltage - important to those that wear the iPod while exercising.
Basically, a better user experience for three years, with slightly higher battery replacement cost at the end.
1. There should be a certain intelligence standard to be eligible to vote.
Yes, that is a thorny issue; but the idea does have some merit. But, you are also saying:
2. Intelligence follows racial and/or age groups.
I heartily disagree, as will many eligible voters.
Oh, and those Southern officials were NOT trying to enforce any form of intelligence standard - they were banning smart blacks, but allowing idiot whites to vote.
Slashdot Mirror
So when an officer stops you for speeding, does handing them your license constitute offering a bribe??
Boy, this sure sounds a lot like what Valeo announced last year.
HBO already has a 24-hour-a-day HD channel, which broadcasts movies, the Sopranos, etc. without DRM. I can record these directly to a HD tape deck or computer capture device if I wanted (and it would be legal fair use). So, does this mean that HBO has no ownership concerns over these movies, or over the Sopranos? I doubt it.
Are automobile drivers responsible for the design flaws in their cars?
With Nucleus, for example, you spend 99.9% of your time writing/testing your own code. You're on a solid, well-known base that you have prior experience with. Clearly your management has no problems with their licensing scheme or pricing.
If you go to linux, you'll get:
I'm not saying that Linux is necessarily bad here.... just that it may not be the nirvana that you think.
I was in a vaguely similar circumstance once. $300 for a lawyer's opinion was well worth it.
But: why is there so little ink inside? In my case (HP) there's 6 mL in a color, and 10 mL in a black. The cartridge is sealed, has a shelf life of a few years, and has no moving parts to wear out. So all HP has to do is put in, say one ounce of color and two ounces of black (about 4x current levels). The extra ink costs pennies, there's no new engineering required, the customer is happy, and HP can respond to Kodak in the marketplace.
I'd rather throw out a cartridge I bought last year because the ink has dried out, than throw out one I bought last month becase it's empty already.
I'm not really outraged when somebody is falsely arrested
You mean, you're not really outraged when someone else is falsely arrested.
If you were falsely arrested, I bet you'd be extremely outraged.
But: this is Movielink, a service that is renting and selling movies over the internet. In other words, they are selling something that you cannot get by fax or phone - you need an internet connection, a computer, and a reasonable amount of knowledge to be their customer in the first place.
So: by restricting their customer base to IE only, they are artificially limiting their customer base. They could target 100% of people on the Internet, but they choose voluntarily to limit themselves to only selling to people who are able to (and want to) run a recent copy of IE.
In short: they are artificially limiting themselves to maybe 50% (and falling) of their potential customer base. What a grand business model that is.
Our school district "blocks" sites like LiveJournal and MySpace. This provides our student body with an excellent education in some branches of computer science - like tunnelling, overseas proxy servers, and anonymous browsing in general.
Besides, to state the obvious, students generally do their homework papers at home - where Wikipedia is freely available.
When you've got a $5000 20" OLED set, and your buddy's got a $3000 50" plasma 1080p set, who's going to win the pissing war, or host the cool SuperBowl party??
If you start to seal and pressurize the train cars, you get into a lot more complex vehicle - and one with a limited lifetime due to metal fatigue (the same as a passenger plane). One of the beauties of trains is that they have an essentially infinite lifespan.
iPhone per month $80 or more.
So no, the iPhone will NOT kill the iPod. For the people that own an iPhone, maybe they will use it as their music/video player; but for most people. the iPod is still the best choice.
The iPod Nano also has huge advantages over the iPhone - much smaller, much more reliable, much longer battery life, and much more rugged. I've dropped my Nano into the spokes of my bike wheel while riding along at 20 MPH - the Nano is fine, only one tiny scratch. Try that with your iPhone.
Scientists have named this new species Republicanus Typicalus.
Two big advantages:
Yes, of course, the manufacturer will up their prices a little. But, that makes the fee proportional to the actual cost, instead of a flat government fee.
Ideally you could apply this to ALL consumer goods - including televisions, monitors, and automobiles.
Won't you please help support their work? Just visit any web site, you'll get some downloaded for free!
Identity cards make things easier (for the government); they don't make them better (for the people).
Bulk pack of LEDs at DigiKey: $9.95 on debit card. Four D-Cell batteries: $6.95 on debit card. Tourist map of Boston: $4.95 on debit card. Making Boston the laughing stock of the nation: priceless.
Even then it isn't easy - my company is a member but it's easier for me to go to the store and buy a copy of the Anderson book on PCIe than to get the official spec.
If you have silicon chips that fit together like little plastic children's toy blocks, that's perfectly fine. But if you mention the word Lego - even in internal company documents - you'll have a swarm of lawyers knocking at your door. (Yes, this has happened before).
Nobody uses 100% of the power of their desktop computer either - and nobody complains about it. It would take a very, very tricky program to simultaneously max out the processors, graphics, memory, and disk bandwidth.
Nobody every uses 100% of the power of their car, either. Sure, you LIKE to have the 250 HP engine, but you only use it for 3 seconds on the on-ramp. And hopefully nobody uses the full power of their 800 watt home theatre system. The excess power is there for the momentary condition - not to use all of the time.
Nintendo is both a game delivery system (they make the consoles), and a game manufacturer (78 varieties of Mario, to start with). It hasn't hurt them at all, and game companies like Sega, Activision, Ubisoft, and EA are lining up to write and sell games for Nintendo consoles.
Personally I think that Steam is a stroke of genius, much like iTunes - you can shop for and buy games online, and start playing them immediately, without having to go to the store and buy a physical CD.
You're confusing removable with user removable. The iPod's battery is certainly removable; Apple stores will swap in a new battery for a fixed price.
There are several advantages of a soldered-in battery. The iPod can be made smaller (no need for a battery holder) and lighter. The case can be better sealed. And there is no chance that a bump to the iPod will interrupt playback by interrupting battery voltage - important to those that wear the iPod while exercising.
Basically, a better user experience for three years, with slightly higher battery replacement cost at the end.
So, you are saying:
1. There should be a certain intelligence standard to be eligible to vote.
Yes, that is a thorny issue; but the idea does have some merit. But, you are also saying:
2. Intelligence follows racial and/or age groups.
I heartily disagree, as will many eligible voters.
Oh, and those Southern officials were NOT trying to enforce any form of intelligence standard - they were banning smart blacks, but allowing idiot whites to vote.
Ah. It all fits now - the iPod is a tool of the devil.