"What more can you say about a state that can't even figure out voting?"
This is such bullshit to have repeated over and over. As a Floridian I can say that its a sad state of affairs to have misinformed and ignorant people such as yourself make such a general statement (or regurgitate one for that matter). Due to the overwhelmingly large population of elderly in this state I can say that the image is definitely not representative of every Floridian....just the elderly and mostly socialist....err...I meant Democratic retired population. This would be much like my early Linux experiences where I felt as though most Linux users were complete assholes that could only speek in their leet acronyms such as RTFM, FUD, AFAIK, IMANASSHOLE, etc.
Now back on to the subject at hand. I would normally doubt that this type of bill would pass except for the fact that the previously mentioned elderly would vote it in based on the fact that it doesn't affect them in any way at all. These are the same socialistic morons that voted in a classroom size reduction bill (with no clue as to where the money would come from), and a school choice program that has quite literally several buses that run with maybe 3 to 6 students based on their school choice, again with no clue as to where the money would come from. This kind of thing is just the opportunity for those bastards to provide their funding without dipping into their Social Security collecting pockets. If only more younger people voted we wouldn't get into these kinds of messes.
Uhh....actually, there are no pits being burned in the media. It's rather a phase change in the plastic that either leaves the area translucent or makes it opaque. Stamped CD's do have pits...as they are pressed by a glass master in most cases.
Well, we would probably end up seeing more divorces. Hell, you would both probably get sick of each other at some point in time and casually agree to walk away from the marriage.
As for emotions...bah.....who needs those anyways.
Well, actually it can in fact run quite a few Linux applications. A friend of mine (ack, how cliche') has a Quake III Arena server running on his BSD box and as far as I know most Linux ELF binaries can be coaxed to run on BSD without too much of a hassle (again from what my friend says).
From http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/h andbook/linuxemu.html , actually it can in fact run quite a few Linux applications.
"In a nutshell, the compatibility allows FreeBSD users to run about 90% of all Linux applications without modification. This includes applications such as Star Office, the Linux version of Netscape, Adobe Acrobat, RealPlayer 5 and 7, VMWare, Oracle, WordPerfect, Doom, Quake, and more. It is also reported that in some situations, Linux binaries perform better on FreeBSD than they do under Linux." "In a nutshell, the compatibility allows FreeBSD users to run about 90% of all Linux applications without modification. This includes applications such as Star Office, the Linux version of Netscape, Adobe Acrobat, RealPlayer 5 and 7, VMWare, Oracle, WordPerfect, Doom, Quake, and more. It is also reported that in some situations, Linux binaries perform better on FreeBSD than they do under Linux."
How do I afford to do all the free PC repair and cleanup work for my friends and relatives and still pay my bills?? How do I afford to help one of my friends move and still pay my bills?? How do I afford to waste time playing video games and still pay my bills??
For many people, free software coding is a labor of love. They do it for the sheer enjoyment of coding and for the sense of giving something to the community. Hell, I'm one of those sick bastards that loves setting up servers more than playing video games; for all my friends I'm pretty much the free server guy. If I had the attention span to program, I would probably be included in that group of people that work full time jobs, compile code as a hobby, and give it back to the community.
As for the root of your question....i.e. making a living, It can be done and has been done by many people. I think the side to make money in free software has and always will be in setup, support, and packaging.
Probably quite a bit. Most of the world is still on a dialup connection. For many years before I had broadband in my area (and then the money to pay for it), I used to buy all of my Linux CD's from cheapbytes. It actually seems to represent what I consider to be a very good price point.
Looks to me like they compiled using pretty much generic flags. As an exaple, my cflags are as follows: CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -fprefetch-loop-arrays -falign-functions=4 -funroll-loops -ffast-math -fforce-addr -mmmx -msse -msse2 -mfpmath=sse,387" Also, we may have to question their ability to properly compile a kernel. Possibly they did a generic kernel with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in. The idea of Gentoo is that you compile the kernel for YOUR system and not generically.
Ok folks, I'll probably get flamed to hell and back for this one but here goes. Linux is not anywhere near ready for a desktop environment and I don't think it will be any time in the near future. The problem is that there are too many widgets, toolkits, window managers, etc etc to provide a consistent experience. The masses do NOT want to be able to fully tweak and customize their GUI right down to every last little pixel!! What people look for (myself included) is a nice simple painless interface to use. Notice I didn't say painless OS....since Windows definitely has its share of issues....but the interface is clean, uncluttered, and you can pretty much expect uniform appearance, intergration, and function of most applications. If it were up to me, and provided that I had a bazillion dollars to blow, I'd own a nice shiny new Mac with OSX.
For a desktop OS, Linux is just plain cumbersome and cluttered in its current state and XFree definitely needs to go the way of the dinosaurs. Yeah...it's pretty cool that I can launch remote X sessions from other machines....but hell...this is not a server we are talking about, it's a single person desktop PC for %!@#&^$ sake!!
I definitely think Linux will remain a server OS. My servers are all running on Gentoo Linux or Slackware and I think it's absolute suicide to run a server on Windows. As far as the software vendors and developers....hell...you go where the money is. Chances are that programming an application for Windows will be much more profitable than one for Linux, after all, most of you Linux zealots just expect that everything should be free....as in beer, at the very least.
Actually what I am trying to say is that you should in fact do everything in your means to change the situation to your liking. After all...if you quit someone else would be more than happy to take your job. I know it may sound like a bad attitude to you but the fact remains the same. This is the job....if you don't like the job either don't take it or don't bitch when you get EXACTLY what you signed up for.
If the artists all felt a great need to change the situation....maybe they should all refuse to sign on with the big labels. If there are no artists willing to sign then maybe we (the consumer) will be forced to buy from the independant labels and the radio stations will have no content unless they follow suit....................
Or......maybe some other marketing department assembled talentless boy band would be more than happy to sign up for fame and a steady supply of fresh young groupies while regurgitating lyrics they did not write over the top of music that was generated by what amounts to a modern day Amiga mod tracker program teamed up with a sampler and a Casio keyboard drum track.
You socialists....err....I meant Democrats whine about being poor but aren't willing to do anything about it. You expect either a handout or to ride on the backs of people that unlike you ARE in fact motivated to get their ass in gear and make money. Yes....I do check that nice under 35K salary box...but ya' know what, the only thing seperating me from making millions is my own laziness and lack of motivation. Maybe these artists should have enough motivation to start their own labels and quit whining about the absolutely horrendous sweatshop conditions they are forced to work and live in. Cry me a friggin' river!!
This is yet another profession where you kinda' know what you are getting into before you sign the contract. I'm sure the bands agents are aware of the contract terms and they themselves want the artist to make more as their profit depends on it as well. I could absolutely promise you that given the choice of playing in some shady dump of a bar, or signing with a label knowing that the record company makes millions to your thousands but getting the fame and endless parties with groupies and 1st class red carpet treatment wherever they go, that any band would choose to sign on the dotted line....press hard.....three copies. I'm fairly certain that the larger acts aren't exactly waiting in the bread lines and that the smaller acts are still getting their 15 minutes as well as my 15 minutes too.
Not to sound like a total conservative republican bastard....but hell....they know the rules of the game up front. Can we please stop crying for these musicians that get to live the life that most of us only dream of. Kinda' reminds me of teachers. They go into the profession with the full understanding that the pay sucks...but it doesn't seem to matter to them at first because they want to "make a difference". Several years later...all they do is bitch about the money!! Hell, you knew this up front when you accepted the job.
I'll probably get modded as a troll...but what the hell. If you don't like the system....don't sign on to it. If you can't make it without the system....find a different profession.
After seeing posts like these and the cease & desist story on FreeCraft, I have to wonder how much "innovation" open source software actually accomplishes. It seems the entire OSS movement is more interested in stealing other people's ideas than concocting their own.
Well, actually.....the concept of OSS is sharing and enhancing the ideas of others. Hence the open source part. I contribute some code, and many others take my idea and "run" with it.
Insightful?? I personally vote troll for this guy.
Not to be an ass or anything, but I personally have at least 6 different resumes' to cover various types of work I can/have done. Also, you don't exactly have to fill out on your application that your previous job was some high end white collar gig that you were paid obnoxious amounts of money for. C'mon man, haven't you at least delivered pizza or done something blue collar in the past?? From the end of that job until now you have been a student. Works every time.
Jesus f'ing christ people!!!! You are all whining like there is nothing that can be done for these poor unemployed white collar people. News flash, get a blue collar job!!!
The way I grew up you did what you had to do to keep a roof over your head and put food on the table. It seems like todays generation are a bunch of prissy ass whiners who refuse to do anything that might involve getting their hands dirty or breaking a sweat. No, it's not the job you want....but damnit....it WILL keep a roof over your head and food in the mouths of your family!!!
As a current blue collar man myself (field tech for a cable company) it really pisses me off to drive down the road every day and see literally 20 to 30 job opportunities a day on the sides of buildings or in the store window with no takers. Hell, the manager at the local Circle-K was pulling double shifts beacause he was unable to find any applicants....let alone employees!! It might be a job as head chicken boy at KFC or lead burger flipper at Mickey D's....but it's a job!!! Tighten up that belt, stop buying expensive dinner out and quit buying those geek gadgets that you so cherish until you get back on your feet.
It's pretty sad that we have an unemployment rate at all with all of these open jobs that people would rather collect welfare than take. It's even more sad that we have a government that would take (steal) my hard earned money to give to people that REFUSE to accept one of these many jobs that are available. Learn the meaning of "Ramen Noodles".....then come back and talk to me about a handout.
Well, I for one am a Republican and I don't support the massive amounts of money that are filtered from me to fund those that CHOOSE to live in underprivileged areas, CHOOSE to not get an education or higher paying job and CHOOSE to think that somehow, since I have become successful and have earned my money that I OWE them a free meal ticket. At this rate we will no longer be a republic and we will start to become a socialistic society (as the Democrats would have it).
Seriously, some of us, no matter how hard we try will NEVER be able to write legible cursive writing. I believe that cursive writing is a throwback to the old feather quill days where it was advantageous to not lift the pen from the paper lest you get a nice blob of ink dripped on your page from the lifted pen. Furthermore, I think it is an art form. I can't even draw a stick figure for (insert favorite mythical supreme being here)'s sake...let alone nice pretty (artsy) cursive writing.
Well, I'm not too sure about that one, but I definitely know that my "Sun Pass" (Florida State toll pass) is read by a small sensor that looks similar to the door opener radar units at the grocery store at in excess of 40Mph at the booths and 70+Mph at the express lane locations. (Yes...yes...run on sentence; I'm just lazy.) Each one is a unique tag as they bill you based on your toll usage. Hell...maybe they aren't RFID at all, not sure.......*scratches head*, Ok...I'll go now.
The best house to burglarize based on who has the best goodies:-)
My problem is with the fact that RFID tags could possibly be read by anyone with very easily obtained equipment. How would you like a perfect stranger knowing exatly what you had in your home by simply driving past it?? I don't know about you but I personally find that very unsettling. Hell, my trailerpark white trash neighbors next door always make me nervous and it drives me absolutely insane when my mom comes down to visit and opens all of my blinds!!! Ack!!! Those dirt bags can see what I have (to them, them thar very spensive looking computer thingies....bet they pull a good price at dat yonder pawn shop....YeeeeeeeHaaaaaaaaw, I'll come back later...time to go beat the wife and molest my young daughters.....).
If those things aren't completely deactivated before I leave the store...well....I guess they won't get my business anymore.
C'mon man, you KNOW damned well that modifying code that is protected by the copyright laws in most countries is illegal. The problem with todays society is that nobody expects to 'man up' and take responsibility for their own actions. I know.....we'll just sue someone else for our own mistakes. Everyone is so quick to cry foul and try to play ignorant. Yes, sharing (stealing) music, software and Microsoft code is illegal....even if it doesn't explicitly say so on the box. It's just a chance you take that you won't get caught. Has it really come to such a lack of common sense that we need to label everything as to avoid lawsuits?? WARNING: Inserting (insert random body part here) into fan may cause injury.
Is it illegal to modify your Xbox??? No.... Is it illegal to modify and use Microsoft code in the Xbox....YES!!! What really has to happen is a totally clean BIOS needs to be made that doesn't use Microsoft code (such as the Linux BIOS), then I would assume that you would be somewhat safe posting that....just don't get caught circumventing the encryption in the damned thing....hmmmm..............
Well, most things posted here are not really "practical" but they are rich on the pure geek factor alone. Hell, Linux on a cash register, web servers on C-64's, and Dreamcast VMU's, etc. None of these are at all practical....but damn it's nifty...isn't it.
Doesn't being geeky also involve having some fun and playing with your toys in a non-practical way?
I still have several old Apple's ranging from//e's to several IIgs systems. The real shame is that I used to run a mirror of the Cabi, Asimov, and Ground Apple archives but was sent a nice nasty letter from my ISP to shut it down due to it's "illegal" content. Seems that some kind fellow on the comp.sys.apple2 news group felt a moral obligation to turn me in.
"We feel very good about the evidence that is going to show up in court. We will be happy to show the evidence we have at the appropriate time in a court setting," McBride said. "The Linux community would have me publish it now, (so they can have it) laundered by the time we can get to a court hearing. That's not the way we're going to go."
Unbelievable!! So this guy doesn't even want the issue resolved??? I guess it's true that they are simply trolling for dollars in the form of a quick settlement or buyout.
As far as I understand it, don't the attorneys on both sides have to share the information they have regarding the lawsuit??
Once you get into digital CATV, channels (in the classical sense) become irrelevant. In the digital cable world a channel is nothing more than a 6Mhz strip of badwidth that can in reality transmit approximately 10 "channels" to your TV. What this means is that if you are watching "channel 13" it is most likely NOT running in the standard 211.2500 to 215.7500 Mhz range as your old TV tuner does. Channel 13 will in fact be far higher up...likely above the 500Mhz range where 256 QAM is used to essentially stuff 10 channels of MPEG compressed, groomer allocated digital on what used to be 1 channel of analog. Of course you do have a limitation in the fact that 256 QAM is capable of approximately 48.81 Mbps of data....depending on who you talk to. A groomer box essentially figures out what channels have higher bitrates and tries to pair them up with lower bitrate channels. Trying to stuff 10 action packed sports channels onto one 6Mhz strip won't work too well as your bitrate needs increase dramatically in high motion encoding. The breakdown for HD channels is approximately 2 per analog channel.
In my area we have HD HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and all of our local channels that broadcast in HD. Granted, the HD boxes are like gold and are very hard to get ahold of (waiting list)....but it is offered.
So....I guess in summary....what your digital cable box says on it for a channel actually has nothing to do with true "channels" as you know them. The Discovery Channel, for example, could be reallocated to a different band if it was deemed necessary to move it for bitrate reasons. It would just be too hard to ensure that a standard will be devoloped that will account for different channel lineups in different regions and among different cable carriers etc.
Unfortunately, that is not entireley correct. DD 5.1 can definitely be encoded and used on DivX, Xvid and Ogg encoded movies. I have seen several of these formats that used the AC3 codec on them and did in fact contain all 5.1 channels of audio. As for DTS, well...I imagine you should be able to do that as well. While I have not seen a DTS encoded DivX et al....I have seen DTS encoded audio in "wav" format.
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This is such bullshit to have repeated over and over. As a Floridian I can say that its a sad state of affairs to have misinformed and ignorant people such as yourself make such a general statement (or regurgitate one for that matter). Due to the overwhelmingly large population of elderly in this state I can say that the image is definitely not representative of every Floridian....just the elderly and mostly socialist....err...I meant Democratic retired population. This would be much like my early Linux experiences where I felt as though most Linux users were complete assholes that could only speek in their leet acronyms such as RTFM, FUD, AFAIK, IMANASSHOLE, etc.
Now back on to the subject at hand. I would normally doubt that this type of bill would pass except for the fact that the previously mentioned elderly would vote it in based on the fact that it doesn't affect them in any way at all. These are the same socialistic morons that voted in a classroom size reduction bill (with no clue as to where the money would come from), and a school choice program that has quite literally several buses that run with maybe 3 to 6 students based on their school choice, again with no clue as to where the money would come from. This kind of thing is just the opportunity for those bastards to provide their funding without dipping into their Social Security collecting pockets. If only more younger people voted we wouldn't get into these kinds of messes.
Uhh....actually, there are no pits being burned in the media. It's rather a phase change in the plastic that either leaves the area translucent or makes it opaque. Stamped CD's do have pits...as they are pressed by a glass master in most cases.
As for emotions...bah.....who needs those anyways.
From http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/h andbook/linuxemu.html , actually it can in fact run quite a few Linux applications.
"In a nutshell, the compatibility allows FreeBSD users to run about 90% of all Linux applications without modification. This includes applications such as Star Office, the Linux version of Netscape, Adobe Acrobat, RealPlayer 5 and 7, VMWare, Oracle, WordPerfect, Doom, Quake, and more. It is also reported that in some situations, Linux binaries perform better on FreeBSD than they do under Linux." "In a nutshell, the compatibility allows FreeBSD users to run about 90% of all Linux applications without modification. This includes applications such as Star Office, the Linux version of Netscape, Adobe Acrobat, RealPlayer 5 and 7, VMWare, Oracle, WordPerfect, Doom, Quake, and more. It is also reported that in some situations, Linux binaries perform better on FreeBSD than they do under Linux."
That is all..
For many people, free software coding is a labor of love. They do it for the sheer enjoyment of coding and for the sense of giving something to the community. Hell, I'm one of those sick bastards that loves setting up servers more than playing video games; for all my friends I'm pretty much the free server guy. If I had the attention span to program, I would probably be included in that group of people that work full time jobs, compile code as a hobby, and give it back to the community.
As for the root of your question....i.e. making a living, It can be done and has been done by many people. I think the side to make money in free software has and always will be in setup, support, and packaging.
Probably quite a bit. Most of the world is still on a dialup connection. For many years before I had broadband in my area (and then the money to pay for it), I used to buy all of my Linux CD's from cheapbytes. It actually seems to represent what I consider to be a very good price point.
Looks to me like they compiled using pretty much generic flags. As an exaple, my cflags are as follows: CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O3 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -fprefetch-loop-arrays -falign-functions=4 -funroll-loops -ffast-math -fforce-addr -mmmx -msse -msse2 -mfpmath=sse,387" Also, we may have to question their ability to properly compile a kernel. Possibly they did a generic kernel with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in. The idea of Gentoo is that you compile the kernel for YOUR system and not generically.
For a desktop OS, Linux is just plain cumbersome and cluttered in its current state and XFree definitely needs to go the way of the dinosaurs. Yeah...it's pretty cool that I can launch remote X sessions from other machines....but hell...this is not a server we are talking about, it's a single person desktop PC for %!@#&^$ sake!!
I definitely think Linux will remain a server OS. My servers are all running on Gentoo Linux or Slackware and I think it's absolute suicide to run a server on Windows. As far as the software vendors and developers....hell...you go where the money is. Chances are that programming an application for Windows will be much more profitable than one for Linux, after all, most of you Linux zealots just expect that everything should be free....as in beer, at the very least.
If the artists all felt a great need to change the situation....maybe they should all refuse to sign on with the big labels. If there are no artists willing to sign then maybe we (the consumer) will be forced to buy from the independant labels and the radio stations will have no content unless they follow suit....................
Or......maybe some other marketing department assembled talentless boy band would be more than happy to sign up for fame and a steady supply of fresh young groupies while regurgitating lyrics they did not write over the top of music that was generated by what amounts to a modern day Amiga mod tracker program teamed up with a sampler and a Casio keyboard drum track.
You socialists....err....I meant Democrats whine about being poor but aren't willing to do anything about it. You expect either a handout or to ride on the backs of people that unlike you ARE in fact motivated to get their ass in gear and make money. Yes....I do check that nice under 35K salary box...but ya' know what, the only thing seperating me from making millions is my own laziness and lack of motivation. Maybe these artists should have enough motivation to start their own labels and quit whining about the absolutely horrendous sweatshop conditions they are forced to work and live in. Cry me a friggin' river!!
Not to sound like a total conservative republican bastard....but hell....they know the rules of the game up front. Can we please stop crying for these musicians that get to live the life that most of us only dream of. Kinda' reminds me of teachers. They go into the profession with the full understanding that the pay sucks...but it doesn't seem to matter to them at first because they want to "make a difference". Several years later...all they do is bitch about the money!! Hell, you knew this up front when you accepted the job.
I'll probably get modded as a troll...but what the hell. If you don't like the system....don't sign on to it. If you can't make it without the system....find a different profession.
But I can set up a hell of a server :-)
Well, actually.....the concept of OSS is sharing and enhancing the ideas of others. Hence the open source part. I contribute some code, and many others take my idea and "run" with it.
Insightful?? I personally vote troll for this guy.
Not to be an ass or anything, but I personally have at least 6 different resumes' to cover various types of work I can/have done. Also, you don't exactly have to fill out on your application that your previous job was some high end white collar gig that you were paid obnoxious amounts of money for. C'mon man, haven't you at least delivered pizza or done something blue collar in the past?? From the end of that job until now you have been a student. Works every time.
The way I grew up you did what you had to do to keep a roof over your head and put food on the table. It seems like todays generation are a bunch of prissy ass whiners who refuse to do anything that might involve getting their hands dirty or breaking a sweat. No, it's not the job you want....but damnit....it WILL keep a roof over your head and food in the mouths of your family!!!
As a current blue collar man myself (field tech for a cable company) it really pisses me off to drive down the road every day and see literally 20 to 30 job opportunities a day on the sides of buildings or in the store window with no takers. Hell, the manager at the local Circle-K was pulling double shifts beacause he was unable to find any applicants....let alone employees!! It might be a job as head chicken boy at KFC or lead burger flipper at Mickey D's....but it's a job!!! Tighten up that belt, stop buying expensive dinner out and quit buying those geek gadgets that you so cherish until you get back on your feet.
It's pretty sad that we have an unemployment rate at all with all of these open jobs that people would rather collect welfare than take. It's even more sad that we have a government that would take (steal) my hard earned money to give to people that REFUSE to accept one of these many jobs that are available. Learn the meaning of "Ramen Noodles".....then come back and talk to me about a handout.
Well, I for one am a Republican and I don't support the massive amounts of money that are filtered from me to fund those that CHOOSE to live in underprivileged areas, CHOOSE to not get an education or higher paying job and CHOOSE to think that somehow, since I have become successful and have earned my money that I OWE them a free meal ticket. At this rate we will no longer be a republic and we will start to become a socialistic society (as the Democrats would have it).
Seriously, some of us, no matter how hard we try will NEVER be able to write legible cursive writing. I believe that cursive writing is a throwback to the old feather quill days where it was advantageous to not lift the pen from the paper lest you get a nice blob of ink dripped on your page from the lifted pen. Furthermore, I think it is an art form. I can't even draw a stick figure for (insert favorite mythical supreme being here)'s sake...let alone nice pretty (artsy) cursive writing.
Well, I'm not too sure about that one, but I definitely know that my "Sun Pass" (Florida State toll pass) is read by a small sensor that looks similar to the door opener radar units at the grocery store at in excess of 40Mph at the booths and 70+Mph at the express lane locations. (Yes...yes...run on sentence; I'm just lazy.) Each one is a unique tag as they bill you based on your toll usage. Hell...maybe they aren't RFID at all, not sure.......*scratches head*, Ok...I'll go now.
My problem is with the fact that RFID tags could possibly be read by anyone with very easily obtained equipment. How would you like a perfect stranger knowing exatly what you had in your home by simply driving past it?? I don't know about you but I personally find that very unsettling. Hell, my trailerpark white trash neighbors next door always make me nervous and it drives me absolutely insane when my mom comes down to visit and opens all of my blinds!!! Ack!!! Those dirt bags can see what I have (to them, them thar very spensive looking computer thingies....bet they pull a good price at dat yonder pawn shop....YeeeeeeeHaaaaaaaaw, I'll come back later...time to go beat the wife and molest my young daughters.....).
If those things aren't completely deactivated before I leave the store...well....I guess they won't get my business anymore.
Is it illegal to modify your Xbox??? No.... Is it illegal to modify and use Microsoft code in the Xbox....YES!!! What really has to happen is a totally clean BIOS needs to be made that doesn't use Microsoft code (such as the Linux BIOS), then I would assume that you would be somewhat safe posting that....just don't get caught circumventing the encryption in the damned thing....hmmmm..............
Just don't get caught (scratches head)
Doesn't being geeky also involve having some fun and playing with your toys in a non-practical way?
I still have several old Apple's ranging from //e's to several IIgs systems. The real shame is that I used to run a mirror of the Cabi, Asimov, and Ground Apple archives but was sent a nice nasty letter from my ISP to shut it down due to it's "illegal" content. Seems that some kind fellow on the comp.sys.apple2 news group felt a moral obligation to turn me in.
In my area we have HD HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and all of our local channels that broadcast in HD. Granted, the HD boxes are like gold and are very hard to get ahold of (waiting list)....but it is offered.
So....I guess in summary....what your digital cable box says on it for a channel actually has nothing to do with true "channels" as you know them. The Discovery Channel, for example, could be reallocated to a different band if it was deemed necessary to move it for bitrate reasons. It would just be too hard to ensure that a standard will be devoloped that will account for different channel lineups in different regions and among different cable carriers etc.
Unfortunately, that is not entireley correct. DD 5.1 can definitely be encoded and used on DivX, Xvid and Ogg encoded movies. I have seen several of these formats that used the AC3 codec on them and did in fact contain all 5.1 channels of audio. As for DTS, well...I imagine you should be able to do that as well. While I have not seen a DTS encoded DivX et al....I have seen DTS encoded audio in "wav" format.