While the parent makes a few good points, I have to correct point #3 and make a comment about the first 2 points.
3. Unlike the US - the people of China do not have the "I've gotta have it!" kind of outlook. It is more like how the US used to be. The "If it won't solve my problems I don't want it." kind of outlook. And their major problems are food, clean water, medicines, and shelter.
I think parent is stuck in the 1980's mindset of China. I've visted China 4x in the past decade and I was most recently there just a year ago. The fast growing Chinese middle-class is probably the MOST brand conscious demographic I've ever seen. The obsession with status and spending money on gadgets, electronics, cars, and entertainment is wild; much more so than the US. We're not talking about a country of 1.3billion (not 3.5 billion) farmers here. We're talking about a country who's number Internet users just hit 130million and whose purchasing power will soon rival the top developed-countries. Yes, of course 50% of China's population are agrarian, but that doesn't mean the millions upon millions of people living in urban center's don't have cash to burn. If anything, the average middle-class Chinese have more percentage of their money to spend on electronics than their US counter part. China's social security system promises housing, healthcare, and retirement means more money that is taken home can be spent on non-essentials. Sure less money is taken home, but since food is cheap and most family don't need to own a car or pay for mortgage, most of that money is spent on entertainment. Did you know the total number of cellphones sold in China last year was 60 million? And is set to surpass the US in cellphone usage is just 3 years? This hardly sounds like a country of poor farms barely getting by on food and water, like the picture you're trying to paint.
If the post above were made 20 years ago I would have whole-heartly agreed. But anyone who's looked at China recently would completely disagree.
Who modded the parent up Insightful?
Ok troll, I'll bite. Unless you meant setup a Linux box next to the Windows box as the firewall, your suggestion of migrating from one server platform to another is rediculous. When I was worked in an university lab as tech support and server admin we used Active Directory and SQL Server. Our DNS servers were all *nix of one variety or another. We used Windows and *nix where they made the most sense. Sure there were security issues with our Win2000, but we knew the costs of patching them and they were far less than switching to the alternatives.
Monetary and time costs for replacing Active Directory and SQL Server is far far more expensive then buying firewall software, routers, and implementing a good security policy. The OP was asking for a cheap solution to a simple problem and instead you're telling him to use a shotgun to kill a fly.
I thought Baryons and dark matter are two different things. It was my impression that the clouds of baryons mass they discovered were suppose to be "out there" and and we know what it's comprised of. Where as with dark matter, our scientists have no idea what it is or what it's made of. All we know is it's exerting gravitational forces and is holding back the expansion of the universe. As far as I'm concerned this discovery did nothing to shed light on dark matter... Can any astrophysists out there explain more?
...the phone lines are all listened to, and they don't want to be mistaken for troublemakers...
Ok, I think you're being just a *tad* bit paranoid. Without even having to going to the logistical issues, I'll solve this with math. Let's say the average Chinese makes 15 minutes in phone calls a day. That about 1.11% of the day spent on the phone. With a population of 1.3billion, that equates to about 325,000,000 hours of phone time. Assuming each eavesdroppers listens in for 10 hours a day (Hey, the Chinese work hard to oppress their people!) that's 32,500,000 people working for the Ministry of Information. In otherwords, the entire nation of Canada would have to work for the Chinese government to make sure people aren't talking about overthrowing the nation...
So the US government isn't unlawfully detaining thousands oin Cuba without a trial?
So that whole Iran-Contra thing was just a myth cooked up by the media?
So is it really ok to show an exposed boobie on national tv?
So that whole Waco thing is just dust under the carpet?
What about the US government's constant intervention in South American politics.
Weren't we the ones that supplied Saddam with WMD in the first place?
Wasn't this the government that beat black protesters in the 60s?
What about how we dealt with Cuba in the past?
Just asking if these are all myths that I have seen on TV?
My point is, governments are flawed, you'd be hard pressed to find a large nation of 100+ million that haven't done something stupid or illegal. But to use those examples to equate the entire country or government and its everyday affairs as evil is short-sighted and ignorant. America is still the most free country in the world but you wouldn't believe me if you only looked at the bullet points above.
China is not 1984. Repeat after me, China is not 1984. China is not EastAsia.
It seems to me very few of you have actually been to China or even understand how the system there works. For the same reason why Europeans think we're a country of hicks driving around in a pickup with shotguns who elected a idiot to office is why you think the Chinese is some sort of omni-present superpower that oversees all of the minute details of its citizens' lives and takes sadistic pleasure in torture. You're taking in media hype and a fear of the unknown. China has its share of problems: freedom of speech and freedom of religion come to mind. These are serious issues that need to be addressed but that doesn't mean everytime you commit a crime in China you will be sent into "reeducation." That also doesn't mean if you use a proxy to surf the web that they're going to break your thumbs. The Chinese government are too busy with the same serious issues that the US is dealing with to be bothered by these minor offenses.
While it may sound like the Chinese police force operate a Gestapo-like regime but that's far from the truth. Believe or not, China has laws and 99% of the time, they are followed. They also have lawyers that will free an innocent man. Some people vision of a totalitarian society governed by "The Party" are just too far fetched. Do they honestly think that the police operate on whatever laws they please and the people live in constant fear? I'll tell you from actually lived in China that it is hardly the case. People are way too reoccupied w/ making money to give a shit. Just remember the same media that is telling you to be afraid of China is the same one that ran the special on 20/20 about the wide-spread dangers of drier lint fires and the world-wide SARS epedemic.
Who bloody the hell modded this troll post up to Insightful? I normally don't chime in on posts like this, but the above is just plain ignorant. I lived in China til I was 8 and I've been back 4 times since then. I will tell you from first hand experience that the Chinese government is not nearly as omnipotent as some of you may believe it is. It does not seek out the individual that's looking up porn or the guy sitting next to you in a webcafe using a proxy to read the BBC. Hell, the majority of teenagers in China learn about sex from the web. *gasp* The government is going to swoop down and arrest them any day now... I'm not defending its censorship guidelines (I think they're pointless) but trash posts like the parent should not be given any credibility!
I will assume that the poster is an American citizen working in China, since he/she did not mention being there before. There is such a thing as extradition. Yes, that means they can't just randomly arrest US citizens for surfing the BBC and proceed with a closed-door trial w/ US Embassy intervention. Chances are, the poster will not try to start a revolution or organize a mass protest and will not be at any risk. And even if he/she did, the government would find it simply easier to just revoke the Visa and deport him/her than unlawfully detain the person. Unauthorized jailing of US citizens is equal to an international incident and it would just be easier to deport the offender. It sounds like the parent saw one too many viewings of The Red Corner. I'll say this again, the Chinese government is WAYYY too inefficent and lazy to pursue ex-pats looking at western news sources. They've got bigger fish to fish.
If you're not trying to topple the Chinese government from the inside, you've got nothing to worry about.
You missed my point. QT (and Real) are 3rd party codec has the most market penetration next to WMV. So if you are posting a video w/ a 3rd party codec, it should be the one which you can assume a majority of the people will already have. That way, they wouldn't have to goto another site to install it just to view a short video. I can say with 100% certainty that more people have QT installed on their system than DivX, XVid or any other more efficent codecs. See?
Again, the answer to the original question is not which codec is most efficent at compression (or even the fastest), but which codec is "best suited" for his business. Sure QT has its problems; but if you want to make sure your user has the least obstacles to overcome before viewing a video compressed on a cross-platform codec, you'd be hard pressed to find a better choice. QT also has brand recognition, people will be wary of installing some "open-source" codec over a codec branded with a company they trust. Besides, with QT, you're gauranteed 100% of the Mac user-base will have it installed.
The best choices are Quicktime or mpeg. I wouldn't recommend DivX or XVid simply because the user has to install a 3rd party codec. More often than not, they're just going to skip over it and move on to another page. The hassle of installing the codec will outweight their interest in actually seeing the video. Sure QT is proprietary, but it has the highest market penetration next to standard Windows video codecs. So if you must have a cross platform codec that isn't mpeg, you should go with QT. Also keep in mind, ofthat 7%, the majority will be using Macs and very few will be using *nix.
Desipte what the demographic on/. maybe, you'll need to think less like a geek and more like a sports agent.:)
Back in the day when hard-drives were measured in MB not GB, there were tape disks that can backup GBs at a time. So it was possible to backup an entire harddrive relatively cheaply and easily. How the hell am I suppose to backup 500GB?!? That's over 120 DVD-Rs, 20 Blue-Rays, 700 CD-Rs...you get the idea. I would imagine, I'd need some sort of special hardware just to do something simple like backing up. Jeez, do I need to buy another 500GB as a backup drive?
Isn't this what people with ugly girlfriends tell themselves to make themselves feel better? "Sure the hot chicks are hot and look great, but they
re all dumb I'll get bored with them. On the other hand my ugly girlfriend has a personality and I won't get bored with her." Nevermind the fact that there are plenty of great looking games/women that can look amazing but are also fun to play with. Blanket generalizations like this are pretty ignorant.
See, that's why I've been honing my aggresive driving, sword-fighting and other misc. pizza-delivery skills: Jobs that can be done overseas will be done overseas.
WOAH! Hiro? Hiro Protagonist? Dude...like...watch out for that Raven guy, I hear he's after your ass and that cute chick YT. You know...just a heads up.
Does anyone else find it weird that searching up 'google' comes up with nothing useful on Accoona? Given that Google is one of the most popular sites on the web and it's chief competitor, I find this very suspicious. Either the engine is completely useless or we're definitely seeing censorship at work. The Chinese would have to be idiots to think this is a "real" search engine.
Am I the only one that notice just how tall, wide, and long these things are? They would be impractical to use for any day-to-day operation. The standing robot looks to be 8' tall and its feet looks to be 1'x2'. It would hardly be able to climb stairs with ease. Doorways, staircases, and almost all archways in Japan are smaller and more cramped than their US counter-part. I just don't see this thing fitting into a Japanese-sized apartment or office.
The other robotic device would need to run on the street because it looks 50% larger than our current electric wheelchairs and is about as long as motorcycle. I mean sure they look cool and sound great. But when you consider its practical applications, especially in Japan, it's just rediculous.
And WTF is up with that chick dressed up in the white latex suit?!? I mean really...WTF?!?
Where's Darl McBride in this?? How can they put in that hack Torvalds and leave out the man that's responsible for creating Linux?!? OUTRAGEOUS! Who's with me on writing a letter-to-the-editor???
I atteneded an undergraduate entrepreneurship class at UMD's Smith School taught by Dr. Kirsch. He's a great professor and is very passionate about archiving the.COM history. He used a lot of these business plans as part of his class. For each lecture we would do a case study of successful companies like Starbucks and many unsuccessful businesses. I must of read over a dozen business plans and case studies as part of his course. I think this resource is great for business professors and MBA students studying entrepreneurship. It showed the businesses that turned out to be failures were the ones that wrote the business plans to find money but didn't bother to follow through on it. The successful businesses were the ones that stuck to the original plan (assuming it was a good plan) and used it as a roadmap. You would be surprised by how many companies used astronomical figures like "$15 billion industry by 2005, with only a 1% market share..." Looking back at articles written in the 90's about rejected business plans, it made sense that so many were rejected... Business school and intro business/marketing classes should be required to teach these business plans as part of the ciriculum.
The option for ~$2k, 42" HDTVs are still out there. The fact of the matter is Intel would have been one of the last companies to stand by the LCOS technology. Pretty much every TV company has abandoned it for LCD or DLP technology. I was recently in the market for HDTVs and went through looking at all the sub-$3k ones. I did my research and was very eager to check out how LCOS stacked up against the competition. A lot of articles made it sound like the holy grail of HD quality... Surprisingly, the LCOS TVs by Phillip looked the worst and I was informed by the sales guy at Tweeters that Phillips is discontinue selling LCOS due to technical and quality issues. And that was the only LCOS TV they carried among the over 2 dozen big screens. The LCD projection (not LCD flat panel) by Sony and DLPs by Samsung were much much better quality for almost the same or less price. I personally think DLP projection is now the way to go and so many new manufacturers are jumping in that LCOS will not be missed.
Maybe you should have used a debugger and stepped through the code. A good programmer knows when he's defeated and when he has to step through the code. Maybe that should be one of the rules. Use the debugger, it's there for a reason. Don't assume you're wiz and will fix the problem by just reading the code line by line. If you're a neophyte, chances are you're going to mess up existing working code.
When I saw D Squared, my immediate thought was the extremely popular fashion brand, D Squared, started by Dean and Dan (hence the name D Squared). But then I remembered.... "News for nerds" and I'm probably the only guy who knows about this.
Fyi: I have a manual Rx-8 @ 13k miles. I drive the car hard (gear 1,2,3 shifting at 6k) and I'm getting about 17-18 mpg @ 30/70 (city/highway) driving.
I realize it guzzles gas but I didn't buy the car for its effiency, I bought it cause it's fun and I'm gonna have fun driving it. Oh yeah, the Rx-8's emissions are very clean.
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3. Unlike the US - the people of China do not have the "I've gotta have it!" kind of outlook. It is more like how the US used to be. The "If it won't solve my problems I don't want it." kind of outlook. And their major problems are food, clean water, medicines, and shelter.
I think parent is stuck in the 1980's mindset of China. I've visted China 4x in the past decade and I was most recently there just a year ago. The fast growing Chinese middle-class is probably the MOST brand conscious demographic I've ever seen. The obsession with status and spending money on gadgets, electronics, cars, and entertainment is wild; much more so than the US. We're not talking about a country of 1.3billion (not 3.5 billion) farmers here. We're talking about a country who's number Internet users just hit 130million and whose purchasing power will soon rival the top developed-countries. Yes, of course 50% of China's population are agrarian, but that doesn't mean the millions upon millions of people living in urban center's don't have cash to burn. If anything, the average middle-class Chinese have more percentage of their money to spend on electronics than their US counter part. China's social security system promises housing, healthcare, and retirement means more money that is taken home can be spent on non-essentials. Sure less money is taken home, but since food is cheap and most family don't need to own a car or pay for mortgage, most of that money is spent on entertainment. Did you know the total number of cellphones sold in China last year was 60 million? And is set to surpass the US in cellphone usage is just 3 years? This hardly sounds like a country of poor farms barely getting by on food and water, like the picture you're trying to paint.
If the post above were made 20 years ago I would have whole-heartly agreed. But anyone who's looked at China recently would completely disagree.
Who modded the parent up Insightful?
Ok troll, I'll bite. Unless you meant setup a Linux box next to the Windows box as the firewall, your suggestion of migrating from one server platform to another is rediculous. When I was worked in an university lab as tech support and server admin we used Active Directory and SQL Server. Our DNS servers were all *nix of one variety or another. We used Windows and *nix where they made the most sense. Sure there were security issues with our Win2000, but we knew the costs of patching them and they were far less than switching to the alternatives.
Monetary and time costs for replacing Active Directory and SQL Server is far far more expensive then buying firewall software, routers, and implementing a good security policy. The OP was asking for a cheap solution to a simple problem and instead you're telling him to use a shotgun to kill a fly.
I thought Baryons and dark matter are two different things. It was my impression that the clouds of baryons mass they discovered were suppose to be "out there" and and we know what it's comprised of. Where as with dark matter, our scientists have no idea what it is or what it's made of. All we know is it's exerting gravitational forces and is holding back the expansion of the universe. As far as I'm concerned this discovery did nothing to shed light on dark matter... Can any astrophysists out there explain more?
Ok, I think you're being just a *tad* bit paranoid. Without even having to going to the logistical issues, I'll solve this with math. Let's say the average Chinese makes 15 minutes in phone calls a day. That about 1.11% of the day spent on the phone. With a population of 1.3billion, that equates to about 325,000,000 hours of phone time. Assuming each eavesdroppers listens in for 10 hours a day (Hey, the Chinese work hard to oppress their people!) that's 32,500,000 people working for the Ministry of Information. In otherwords, the entire nation of Canada would have to work for the Chinese government to make sure people aren't talking about overthrowing the nation...
So the US government isn't unlawfully detaining thousands oin Cuba without a trial? So that whole Iran-Contra thing was just a myth cooked up by the media? So is it really ok to show an exposed boobie on national tv? So that whole Waco thing is just dust under the carpet? What about the US government's constant intervention in South American politics. Weren't we the ones that supplied Saddam with WMD in the first place? Wasn't this the government that beat black protesters in the 60s? What about how we dealt with Cuba in the past? Just asking if these are all myths that I have seen on TV? My point is, governments are flawed, you'd be hard pressed to find a large nation of 100+ million that haven't done something stupid or illegal. But to use those examples to equate the entire country or government and its everyday affairs as evil is short-sighted and ignorant. America is still the most free country in the world but you wouldn't believe me if you only looked at the bullet points above.
It seems to me very few of you have actually been to China or even understand how the system there works. For the same reason why Europeans think we're a country of hicks driving around in a pickup with shotguns who elected a idiot to office is why you think the Chinese is some sort of omni-present superpower that oversees all of the minute details of its citizens' lives and takes sadistic pleasure in torture. You're taking in media hype and a fear of the unknown. China has its share of problems: freedom of speech and freedom of religion come to mind. These are serious issues that need to be addressed but that doesn't mean everytime you commit a crime in China you will be sent into "reeducation." That also doesn't mean if you use a proxy to surf the web that they're going to break your thumbs. The Chinese government are too busy with the same serious issues that the US is dealing with to be bothered by these minor offenses.
While it may sound like the Chinese police force operate a Gestapo-like regime but that's far from the truth. Believe or not, China has laws and 99% of the time, they are followed. They also have lawyers that will free an innocent man. Some people vision of a totalitarian society governed by "The Party" are just too far fetched. Do they honestly think that the police operate on whatever laws they please and the people live in constant fear? I'll tell you from actually lived in China that it is hardly the case. People are way too reoccupied w/ making money to give a shit. Just remember the same media that is telling you to be afraid of China is the same one that ran the special on 20/20 about the wide-spread dangers of drier lint fires and the world-wide SARS epedemic.
I will assume that the poster is an American citizen working in China, since he/she did not mention being there before. There is such a thing as extradition. Yes, that means they can't just randomly arrest US citizens for surfing the BBC and proceed with a closed-door trial w/ US Embassy intervention. Chances are, the poster will not try to start a revolution or organize a mass protest and will not be at any risk. And even if he/she did, the government would find it simply easier to just revoke the Visa and deport him/her than unlawfully detain the person. Unauthorized jailing of US citizens is equal to an international incident and it would just be easier to deport the offender. It sounds like the parent saw one too many viewings of The Red Corner. I'll say this again, the Chinese government is WAYYY too inefficent and lazy to pursue ex-pats looking at western news sources. They've got bigger fish to fish.
If you're not trying to topple the Chinese government from the inside, you've got nothing to worry about.
Does it taste like chicken??
Again, the answer to the original question is not which codec is most efficent at compression (or even the fastest), but which codec is "best suited" for his business. Sure QT has its problems; but if you want to make sure your user has the least obstacles to overcome before viewing a video compressed on a cross-platform codec, you'd be hard pressed to find a better choice. QT also has brand recognition, people will be wary of installing some "open-source" codec over a codec branded with a company they trust. Besides, with QT, you're gauranteed 100% of the Mac user-base will have it installed.
I didn't recommend Real for obvious reasons...
The best choices are Quicktime or mpeg. I wouldn't recommend DivX or XVid simply because the user has to install a 3rd party codec. More often than not, they're just going to skip over it and move on to another page. The hassle of installing the codec will outweight their interest in actually seeing the video. Sure QT is proprietary, but it has the highest market penetration next to standard Windows video codecs. So if you must have a cross platform codec that isn't mpeg, you should go with QT. Also keep in mind, ofthat 7%, the majority will be using Macs and very few will be using *nix. Desipte what the demographic on /. maybe, you'll need to think less like a geek and more like a sports agent. :)
Is Sega the new Apple?
Don't you mean 'Is Sega the old Apple?' Last time I checked Apple's last quarter was the strongest in its history.
close... what about these two?
Back in the day when hard-drives were measured in MB not GB, there were tape disks that can backup GBs at a time. So it was possible to backup an entire harddrive relatively cheaply and easily. How the hell am I suppose to backup 500GB?!? That's over 120 DVD-Rs, 20 Blue-Rays, 700 CD-Rs...you get the idea. I would imagine, I'd need some sort of special hardware just to do something simple like backing up. Jeez, do I need to buy another 500GB as a backup drive?
Isn't this what people with ugly girlfriends tell themselves to make themselves feel better? "Sure the hot chicks are hot and look great, but they re all dumb I'll get bored with them. On the other hand my ugly girlfriend has a personality and I won't get bored with her." Nevermind the fact that there are plenty of great looking games/women that can look amazing but are also fun to play with. Blanket generalizations like this are pretty ignorant.
WOAH! Hiro? Hiro Protagonist? Dude...like...watch out for that Raven guy, I hear he's after your ass and that cute chick YT. You know...just a heads up.
Does anyone else find it weird that searching up 'google' comes up with nothing useful on Accoona? Given that Google is one of the most popular sites on the web and it's chief competitor, I find this very suspicious. Either the engine is completely useless or we're definitely seeing censorship at work. The Chinese would have to be idiots to think this is a "real" search engine.
The other robotic device would need to run on the street because it looks 50% larger than our current electric wheelchairs and is about as long as motorcycle. I mean sure they look cool and sound great. But when you consider its practical applications, especially in Japan, it's just rediculous.
And WTF is up with that chick dressed up in the white latex suit?!? I mean really...WTF?!?
Interview: What irritates you most about the software industry?
Linus: Bad spellers. Definitely...
</sarcasm>
The hear the multiplayer sequel lets your friends play as the shooters on the grassy knoll!
I atteneded an undergraduate entrepreneurship class at UMD's Smith School taught by Dr. Kirsch. He's a great professor and is very passionate about archiving the .COM history. He used a lot of these business plans as part of his class. For each lecture we would do a case study of successful companies like Starbucks and many unsuccessful businesses. I must of read over a dozen business plans and case studies as part of his course. I think this resource is great for business professors and MBA students studying entrepreneurship. It showed the businesses that turned out to be failures were the ones that wrote the business plans to find money but didn't bother to follow through on it. The successful businesses were the ones that stuck to the original plan (assuming it was a good plan) and used it as a roadmap. You would be surprised by how many companies used astronomical figures like "$15 billion industry by 2005, with only a 1% market share..." Looking back at articles written in the 90's about rejected business plans, it made sense that so many were rejected... Business school and intro business/marketing classes should be required to teach these business plans as part of the ciriculum.
The option for ~$2k, 42" HDTVs are still out there. The fact of the matter is Intel would have been one of the last companies to stand by the LCOS technology. Pretty much every TV company has abandoned it for LCD or DLP technology. I was recently in the market for HDTVs and went through looking at all the sub-$3k ones. I did my research and was very eager to check out how LCOS stacked up against the competition. A lot of articles made it sound like the holy grail of HD quality... Surprisingly, the LCOS TVs by Phillip looked the worst and I was informed by the sales guy at Tweeters that Phillips is discontinue selling LCOS due to technical and quality issues. And that was the only LCOS TV they carried among the over 2 dozen big screens. The LCD projection (not LCD flat panel) by Sony and DLPs by Samsung were much much better quality for almost the same or less price. I personally think DLP projection is now the way to go and so many new manufacturers are jumping in that LCOS will not be missed.
Maybe you should have used a debugger and stepped through the code. A good programmer knows when he's defeated and when he has to step through the code. Maybe that should be one of the rules. Use the debugger, it's there for a reason. Don't assume you're wiz and will fix the problem by just reading the code line by line. If you're a neophyte, chances are you're going to mess up existing working code.
http://www.newyorkmetro.com/fashion/fashionshows/d esigners/bios/dsquared.htm
Fyi: I have a manual Rx-8 @ 13k miles. I drive the car hard (gear 1,2,3 shifting at 6k) and I'm getting about 17-18 mpg @ 30/70 (city/highway) driving.
I realize it guzzles gas but I didn't buy the car for its effiency, I bought it cause it's fun and I'm gonna have fun driving it. Oh yeah, the Rx-8's emissions are very clean.