5 minutes to rip and encode sounds about right. I use the LAME preset that results in about 200 Kbps and encodes at 15x real time. Therefore, a 75 minute CD is encoded in 5 minutes. Since most CDs are less than 75 minutes, his estimate was reasonable.
Better graphics is pretty much the only improvement.
You say that like graphics are not important. But since the PS2 and XBox came out, there has been a lot of developement in the area of TVs, specifically HD and larger screens. The PS2 looks like crap on a big screen TV. The Xbox is better, but not true high definition on all games. Xbox 360 and PS3 will have true HD. That is a HUGE deal for people with big screen TVs.
That may be true of, e.g. an individual scientist at Pfizer. But it is not true of Pfizer as a corporate entity. They don't develop drugs because it's fun or cool. They develop drugs to make money.
How the hell does tripe like this get modded insightful? Yes, there were free speech zones, but that was for two specific events, the nomination conventions. And that was done to lessen the chances of confrontations that could lead to violence. There are many protests of the current administration and they aren't being shut down by any fascist society that you imagine to be in existence.
Sound Levels of Music
Symphonic music peak 120 - 137dB
Amplifier rock, 4-6' 120dB
Rock music peak 150dB
I have no idea where you got these figures. For the longest time, The Who had the record for loudest rock band at 120 dB. They were overtaken a few years ago, I believe with a figure of 127 dB. That is not anywhere close to the figure of 150 dB. And I also find it hard to believe that a symphony can reach 137 dB (10dB higher than amplified rock? I doubt it).
I'm pretty sure that Neteller meets your requirements. It is used by many on-line gambling sites (Paypal doesn't do gaming); I personally know of Americans, Canadians, and Englishmen who use the system, so that meets your international requirement; its fees are reasonable (no fees at all for certain types of transfers); and well-established and trust is shown by the fact that all the major gaming sites allow deposits and withdrawals by Neteller.
FWIW, Firepay is also used by many of the on-line gambling sites, though Neteller seems more popular.
My point was this--the general assertion was made, "gambling is legal in the US." My point, gambling in general is not legal, although there are certain, specific exceptions.
IOW, if gambling was legal in the US, I could place bets for the Super Bowl wherever I wanted. Nope, can't do that. Can only do that in Nevada and Atlantic City. (Most Indian casinos don't do sports betting, don't know about riverboat casinos). Can a restaurant owner just put a craps table in the waiting area? No.
Can you do some forms of gambling in certain restricted areas? Of course, but the fact that you can place one particular type of bet at a dog track or buy a lotto ticket at the grocery store doesn't make gambling "legal" in the US.
As for floating casinos, AFAIK, they are only on the Mississippi River, even then only in 6 states. A far cry from being in "most states" as you assert.
It's silly to say that no one will ever need 500 gigs. I remember 13 years ago when the place I was interning at was closing at 2pm on Friday for computer reasons. I asked the IT guy why they were closing. They were shutting down the server to do maintenance . . . and add a new hard drive-- 5GB !! Sounded huge to me, considering I had just bought a 200 MB hard drive. Does 5GB sound like a lot now? Of course not. And in 13 years, 500 GB is not going to sound like a lot.
As for more, smaller drives, there is a limit to the number of drives that fit in a case.
I'll give you home video enthusiasts, up to a point. But I was emphasising everyday users, not any specialty professions such as photographers or videographers.
I agree with you about photographers. But not about video. It's not just videographers who need space. It's anyone with a miniDV camera. Each tape is 13GB of space. When you edit, you need scratch space on the hard drive to work. It's easy to fill up 500 GB with video.
Personally, I have 500 GB (a 200 and a 300). While I have an abnormally large music collection (115GB), I only have about 100 GB free on the hard drive. So it was pretty easy for me to have 250+GB of video. (Basically anyone with a kid and a video camera fills up tapes quickly).
First, we're talking about poker. Since the players don't actually compete against the house, there's no such thing as an abnormally high advantage. Second, the big sites are all audited by independent firms.
I don't believe (although I could be wrong) that the USA has much in the way of gambling laws.
Aside from the fact that, in general, gambling is illegal in 49 of the 50 states, you're right. (Yes, there are exceptions, but the odd bingo game and horse track is a far cry from no gambling laws in the US.
I think playing against people you can't see, especially with most people playing free chips is bullshit.
What does that mean? Play money tables are crap, agreed. You don't learn anything there and no one plays like that in real life. But real money tables are more real.
Ever notice when you play online, almost every hand has someone sucking out? (sucking out is when someone with crappy cards stays in and wins when you had a great hand all along.)
First, that may be true in play money tables. But generally false on real money tables. There is much less bluffing on real money tables. I was just playing at the $0.02 tables. Even at stakes that low, people wouldn't chase bad cards in the face of a 2 cent bet.
Second, even if true, that presents a good opportunity to make money. If a donkey always calls with 72 against AA, yes, you'll occassionally lose when the flop is 772. But, much more often, the AA will hold up against the 72.
Riverboat gambling in Missouri, Illinois, most other states.
Most states don't have riverboat gambling. Lottery is not gambling as being discussed in this thread (e.g., it is not poker or typical casino gambling.) Horse racing is allowed in many states, but you can't just start a craps game at a race track. It's a single form of gambling available at a particular place.
Original poster said something like I can't believe gambling is legal in the US. As a general statement, that is false. Aside from Nevada, gambling is illegal, with a few exceptions. That's a far cry from "gambling is legal in the U.S."
The article is about Party, a publicly traded company. They never admit the odds are in their favor. In fact, you don't play against the on-line site, they just take a portion of the pot.
TV didn't steal users from on-line poker. Watching poker is completely unlike playing poker. It'd be a lot more accurate to say that TV brought a lot more players on-line--especially after an on-line player won $2.5 million on TV.
The rake is a lot higher in a B&M poker room than on-line. The difference can easily pay for the "free" drink. In addition, no tipping of the dealer (which costs another dollar or so per pot won). Plus no gas costs. On-line poker is a LOT cheaper than B&M poker, go buy your own drinks.
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5 minutes to rip and encode sounds about right. I use the LAME preset that results in about 200 Kbps and encodes at 15x real time. Therefore, a 75 minute CD is encoded in 5 minutes. Since most CDs are less than 75 minutes, his estimate was reasonable.
You say that like graphics are not important. But since the PS2 and XBox came out, there has been a lot of developement in the area of TVs, specifically HD and larger screens. The PS2 looks like crap on a big screen TV. The Xbox is better, but not true high definition on all games. Xbox 360 and PS3 will have true HD. That is a HUGE deal for people with big screen TVs.
There should be a rule that a post longer than X number of character can't be modded insightful if it lacks paragraph tags.
That may be true of, e.g. an individual scientist at Pfizer. But it is not true of Pfizer as a corporate entity. They don't develop drugs because it's fun or cool. They develop drugs to make money.
That page lists games. Nowhere does it say that they are all launch games or that they are the only launch games. Just that they are games.
How the hell does tripe like this get modded insightful? Yes, there were free speech zones, but that was for two specific events, the nomination conventions. And that was done to lessen the chances of confrontations that could lead to violence. There are many protests of the current administration and they aren't being shut down by any fascist society that you imagine to be in existence.
Symphonic music peak 120 - 137dB
Amplifier rock, 4-6' 120dB
Rock music peak 150dB
I have no idea where you got these figures. For the longest time, The Who had the record for loudest rock band at 120 dB. They were overtaken a few years ago, I believe with a figure of 127 dB. That is not anywhere close to the figure of 150 dB. And I also find it hard to believe that a symphony can reach 137 dB (10dB higher than amplified rock? I doubt it).
I'm not sure if this is the biggest ever, but this Lian Li case has 7 5.25 inch bays and 12 3.25 inch bays.
Yep, both companies are headquartered in San Mateo County, California. They are two exits away from each other on the 101.
FWIW, Firepay is also used by many of the on-line gambling sites, though Neteller seems more popular.
IOW, if gambling was legal in the US, I could place bets for the Super Bowl wherever I wanted. Nope, can't do that. Can only do that in Nevada and Atlantic City. (Most Indian casinos don't do sports betting, don't know about riverboat casinos). Can a restaurant owner just put a craps table in the waiting area? No.
Can you do some forms of gambling in certain restricted areas? Of course, but the fact that you can place one particular type of bet at a dog track or buy a lotto ticket at the grocery store doesn't make gambling "legal" in the US.
As for floating casinos, AFAIK, they are only on the Mississippi River, even then only in 6 states. A far cry from being in "most states" as you assert.
3 276 800
As for more, smaller drives, there is a limit to the number of drives that fit in a case.
I agree with you about photographers. But not about video. It's not just videographers who need space. It's anyone with a miniDV camera. Each tape is 13GB of space. When you edit, you need scratch space on the hard drive to work. It's easy to fill up 500 GB with video.
Personally, I have 500 GB (a 200 and a 300). While I have an abnormally large music collection (115GB), I only have about 100 GB free on the hard drive. So it was pretty easy for me to have 250+GB of video. (Basically anyone with a kid and a video camera fills up tapes quickly).
I'd trust Apple's site before some random internet photoshop job.
First, we're talking about poker. Since the players don't actually compete against the house, there's no such thing as an abnormally high advantage. Second, the big sites are all audited by independent firms.
Aside from the fact that, in general, gambling is illegal in 49 of the 50 states, you're right. (Yes, there are exceptions, but the odd bingo game and horse track is a far cry from no gambling laws in the US.
Very few? Tell that to the 81,977 people on PartyPoker and the 60,096 people on PokerStars. (I checked the sites just now).
What does that mean? Play money tables are crap, agreed. You don't learn anything there and no one plays like that in real life. But real money tables are more real.
Ever notice when you play online, almost every hand has someone sucking out? (sucking out is when someone with crappy cards stays in and wins when you had a great hand all along.)
First, that may be true in play money tables. But generally false on real money tables. There is much less bluffing on real money tables. I was just playing at the $0.02 tables. Even at stakes that low, people wouldn't chase bad cards in the face of a 2 cent bet.
Second, even if true, that presents a good opportunity to make money. If a donkey always calls with 72 against AA, yes, you'll occassionally lose when the flop is 772. But, much more often, the AA will hold up against the 72.
Most states don't have riverboat gambling. Lottery is not gambling as being discussed in this thread (e.g., it is not poker or typical casino gambling.) Horse racing is allowed in many states, but you can't just start a craps game at a race track. It's a single form of gambling available at a particular place.
Original poster said something like I can't believe gambling is legal in the US. As a general statement, that is false. Aside from Nevada, gambling is illegal, with a few exceptions. That's a far cry from "gambling is legal in the U.S."
Slots are controlled by a computer generating random numbers. What's the difference between that and on-line poker?
The article is about Party, a publicly traded company. They never admit the odds are in their favor. In fact, you don't play against the on-line site, they just take a portion of the pot.
The free market makes them accountable--if they want to maintain a user base, they don't cheat their players.
TV didn't steal users from on-line poker. Watching poker is completely unlike playing poker. It'd be a lot more accurate to say that TV brought a lot more players on-line--especially after an on-line player won $2.5 million on TV.
The rake is a lot higher in a B&M poker room than on-line. The difference can easily pay for the "free" drink. In addition, no tipping of the dealer (which costs another dollar or so per pot won). Plus no gas costs. On-line poker is a LOT cheaper than B&M poker, go buy your own drinks.