I'll just stick with the old tried and true method.
Cash....until they stop printing and accepting that, I'll be happily anonymous in my purchases.
If on the rare occasion of using a customer card to get a discount...well, that one says I'm a 98 year old hispanic lady named Chang, that is from Sweden.
I'm sure the shopping habits associated with that account are kinda looking skewed....
I don't watch Blu-Ray discs (why bother when you can stream it in HD, Amazon Video OnDemand offers all the new stuff, so I don't want to hear about having to wait...that's BS)
Well, here's the thing. I do like the convenience for streaming, but I generally only stream older non-HD content, but for newer stuff.....I want the highest quality I can get, which you just can't get on streaming content.
I didn't buy a new, expensive HD tv just to run inferior content on it, you know?
Then again, likely it is me. I like to save and get really good AV equipment. I don't buy my music online...because they don't offer it in a lossless format. I buy CD's. For my home, I have an excellent sound system, and want to play the best possible format I can on it. And, since I own the media, I can then rip it to lossy formats for sound environments where the fidelity isn't a factor (iPod for car, gym, etc).
Streaming to a phone or iPad of the like isn't bad...nice to have while on the road.
But if you've shelled out for a nice big tv for the living or movie room...why settle for highly compressed less than full HD quality content to watch on it?
This past Xmas, I bought myself a gift due to the good deals out there.
I bought a PS3. I bought it because (in order):
1. It is a 3D blu ray player
2. It streams Netflix
3. Oh yes...apparently, it happens to play games too (and if network gaming, no extra charge).
Honestly, since I've had it...I tried playing Red Dead Redemption about twice on it...man, game controls are much more complex than back in the day..I keep getting killed.
I've tried maybe a couple of other free demos, but only a couple of times, literally....the only one I've played a couple of times is "You Don't Know Jack"...due to remembering it being fun from the old days.
But, I've used it almost constantly to stream Netflix...and now that I bought a new Samsung 59" plasma tv...I'm having fun renting bluray and 3D movies....
To me, it was pretty incidental that it played games....I'm gonna try this summer while it gets too damned hot to do much of anything fun outdoors to sit and learn a few games....but really it was only a secondary thought to me buying the PS3.
I accidentally installed it because I either missed unchecking an "install chrome" box on some piece of software I was installing
Granted, I've not installed a lot of different windows software lately.....but what software are you installing that wants to also install a browser with it???
Can you cite some specific software packages that want to install a browser (chrome) specifically? This is something new to me...
He did say after a cold start. Perhaps he's one of those idiots who turn their computers off when not using them to save on energy and GHG emissions and the planet and so on.
People actually do that and worry about that stuff?
Wow...about the only time the many computers in my house get turned off...is at a power failure, or when I move.
You know..aside from those here on Slashdot....I've yet to meet a single soul to this point in time, that has ever used Chrome, much less installed it.
Most lay people (non-tech) that I know of, haven't even heard of it...heck, many are just now hearing about something called firefox and asking me what that is all about.
I can't recall the last time I saw a glossy TV or desktop display unit... they are, so far, rare to me.
Go shopping for a plasma tv.
I just got a nice Samsung 59" model plasma...some people complained about the reflections they saw in it...I don't have that problem that I can notice, but then again...the room it is in, while having windows, doesn't usually lend itself to being flooded by bright daylight.
I love the thing...talk about inky deep blacks...I've not see television look this good in a long time.
If it's given for free, then it's better if you get it from a torrent. That way, you don't use (potentially) expensive bandwidth that the artist has to pay. Cheap content distribution is what p2p is made for.
I dunno...the times I've tried BT...and granted this was a few years ago...I found it to be horribly slow for me...I could usually download from USENET much faster. I've got a pretty decent speed connection..usually about 15 down and 7 up or so...and BT just took FOREVER to download things. And this is aside from the fact it is much easier to have 'them' trace you and get your IP...not as much a problem with USENET.
I don't think I had anything set wrong with my BT set up...but I've never gotten the speeds other people mentioned with it.
The stupid thing with glossy screens is that they're completely unusable in the sun. Every year I spend half of the year in Thailand and want to get some work done by the pool...
You know...as I was reading your post, my first thought was "who the hell works outside in the sun with a computer?", then, I read the next part about you wanting to work by the pool.
You're work habits, it sounds like, are definitely one of the far outlier scenarios if you were to look at the general pool of those that do work on a computer.
Man...wish I could do my job out by the pool somewhere. Sounds like the life....and the kind of complaints and problems one would LIKE to have.
Remember Dubya's "free speech zones" that were a mile or more from where he was giving a speech, and the protesters were herded into these areas, nowhere near the media or the president?
Is Obama continuing these same free speech zones wherever he speaks?
Is it just me, or is it getting increasingly difficult to find a computer monitor that has greater resolution than a HDTV?? It seems the choices for greater vertical resolution are getting fewer and fewer...and what you can find, is generally getting kinda pricy.
Well, I can see your logic with sorting...however, it doesn't make much sense to me on a common day to day usage.
I mean, makes logical sense...month and day....year, I pretty much know since it doesn't change that often. I don't think it terms of day date first...I think of what month it is, THEN, I like to know what day of that month...just seems to sync with day to day life.
Trouble is...we HAD a nice 4th amendment in the US constitution, however, the Supreme Court just kind fscked us on this one a day or two ago.
I'm worried when they can blow off the constitution so readily...if they can do that, well, they'll certainly NOT have a 2nd thought about blowing off an internet mandate about using info collected from it....if the tool is there, the authorities WILL abuse it at some time in the future.
Their track record shows this....over and over again.
Remember how RICO was only supposed to be used to go after the mafia? Hmm...well, its being used in new and creative ways all the time.
If they can now kick down your door without a warrant just because they hear some (non-threatening sounds) and smell weed outside a bunch of apt. doors...they'll have no compunction about tracking your ass down by forced internet ID marked transactions, why wait for using it for criminal investigation, just continuously fishing for information on everyone...someone will slip and we'll get them, even if we have to change the laws and go after them retroactively.
For example, no one really cares that we lost New Orleans unless they have/had friends and family there...
Err...we didn't lose New Orleans...still alive and better than ever I'd say.
And as for no one caring....well, you might wanna rethink that. If not from a historical/cultural standpoint (the city IS older that the USA itself you know)...from a merely financial standpoint, you don't wanna lose NOLA.
It is the port city to the world off the MS river...a huge amount of product from the middle of the US has to make its way through NOLA to the world, it is one of the larger port cities in the US.
Fully 1/3 of the US seafood comes from this area...you like oil don't you? NOLA and the immediate surrounding areas are the main place foreign oil comes in as well as domestic drilling (and supporting infrastructure and workers in this area)...not to mention the refining of said petroleum coming into this area.
Aside from the feelings of fellow countrymen should have for one of their sister cities...the financial and geographical importance of New Orleans should not be underestimated.
And if nothing else...pretty much any part of the US has problems...tornado alley, the MS has flooded much of the midwest at times, NYC seems to be a terrorist target (not to mention they are WAY overdue for a catastrophic hurricane, look it up they have a doomsday scenario like NOLA has), earthquakes out west with a dose of wildfires and mudslides....and yet, no one is talking about how useless those areas are or that we could abandon them for stupidly building in the 'wrong place'.
Well, over the past couple years....been trying to change the diet...lower carb, more fresh foods.
One part of that change for me is....drastically cutting down caffeine...this mostly came from cokes and other soft drinks.
I read the headline and it said 6 or so cups a day of coffee are NORMAL?!?!?! Geez.....I'd be climbing the walls. Do people actually normally drink that much coffee a day?
Maybe it is me...I was not a coffee drinking till maybe the past 2-4 years. I like the New Orleans strong stuff...with chicory...and some times make some on Sunday mornings. It is strong and I like to cut it with heavy cream, and some booze (brandy, Kahlua, whatever's handy). But man..usually on the 2nd cup, I'm so wired that I can start to see my heart beat under my shirt....
I don't see how anyone could drink over 6 cups a day on average. I know I'm a bit sensitive to caffeine now that I've cut back a few years...but wow...
Well, I've gone through and watched the entire collection they have of American Dad. I'm starting on Futurerama...but there's just not that many TV shows they offer that interest me. I didn't watch them on tv when aired...etc.
I'm looking mostly for movies...I have my queue filled to the max with movies and concerts I want to see on DVD/bluray...but apparently hardly any of those is available on streaming.
I did see they had that series "24" which I heard was good. I might try to look at that.
Heck..wish they had the Sopranos on streaming..I'd likely watch that series again...but quality stuff like that I don't see on there.
The rich generally depend on the enforcement of contracts, the protection of the police and military, fire services, education and employment, roads etc.
I'll cede the contracts part, but, I'd almost say the poor benefit even more from police and fire (more arson and crime in poor areas..then need more of the police and fire services to combat this).
The poor need more education dollars...so more for them. And everyone needs the roads to travel on. The more wealthy have nicer cars, the poor either have rattle traps or use buses which also tear the roads up more than a car.
I recently got a decent TV (Samsung 59" plasma) and have been enjoying watching a lot of content lately.
I'd bought a PS3 for Xmas to have a 3D bluray player that also streamed Netflix (I may learn to game soon too).
I've found, however that my initial high consumption of Netflix streaming content has really dropped, and much of that was...the lack of shows I really want to watch available for streaming!!
I mean, the choice of movies seems to largely be...crap I'd never have wanted to watch if the DVD was given to me.
I have a 3 movie out at a time Netflix account..have had since about a year after they started business ( I was just a week or so shy of the 4 out at at time they initially started with)....so I have a full queue of titles. It just seems that there aren't THAT many of them available for streaming.
Until they are allowed to stream about anything they have to offer....I dunno..I'll stream every couple weeks when it looks like they may offer some new titles.
Also...with the new big tv...the quality of the rented physical bluray vs the compressed streaming content...shows sometimes.
I just signed up for Uverse....and have been watching that a lot lately for my content 'surfing' moods....
Until netflix starts to up the number of quality titles they have for streaming...my use of it will likely continue to decline. That and they changed the user interface to be a LOT less easy to scan and search for streaming title available. I wish they'd just have a menu drop down for genre...let me select that and then display all that's available....
You know...I'm thinking that there might be a good black market demand for good old fashioned, incandescent light bulbs...no IP addresses, nothing to monitor your use with....and good nice lighting that is pleasant on the eyes.
Hmm...wonder what it would cost to make a few of these on the side?
Slashdot Mirror
Cash....until they stop printing and accepting that, I'll be happily anonymous in my purchases.
If on the rare occasion of using a customer card to get a discount...well, that one says I'm a 98 year old hispanic lady named Chang, that is from Sweden.
I'm sure the shopping habits associated with that account are kinda looking skewed....
Well, here's the thing. I do like the convenience for streaming, but I generally only stream older non-HD content, but for newer stuff.....I want the highest quality I can get, which you just can't get on streaming content.
I didn't buy a new, expensive HD tv just to run inferior content on it, you know?
Then again, likely it is me. I like to save and get really good AV equipment. I don't buy my music online...because they don't offer it in a lossless format. I buy CD's. For my home, I have an excellent sound system, and want to play the best possible format I can on it. And, since I own the media, I can then rip it to lossy formats for sound environments where the fidelity isn't a factor (iPod for car, gym, etc).
Streaming to a phone or iPad of the like isn't bad...nice to have while on the road.
But if you've shelled out for a nice big tv for the living or movie room...why settle for highly compressed less than full HD quality content to watch on it?
This past Xmas, I bought myself a gift due to the good deals out there.
I bought a PS3. I bought it because (in order):
1. It is a 3D blu ray player
2. It streams Netflix
3. Oh yes...apparently, it happens to play games too (and if network gaming, no extra charge).
Honestly, since I've had it...I tried playing Red Dead Redemption about twice on it...man, game controls are much more complex than back in the day..I keep getting killed.
I've tried maybe a couple of other free demos, but only a couple of times, literally....the only one I've played a couple of times is "You Don't Know Jack"...due to remembering it being fun from the old days.
But, I've used it almost constantly to stream Netflix...and now that I bought a new Samsung 59" plasma tv...I'm having fun renting bluray and 3D movies....
To me, it was pretty incidental that it played games....I'm gonna try this summer while it gets too damned hot to do much of anything fun outdoors to sit and learn a few games....but really it was only a secondary thought to me buying the PS3.
Granted, I've not installed a lot of different windows software lately.....but what software are you installing that wants to also install a browser with it???
Can you cite some specific software packages that want to install a browser (chrome) specifically? This is something new to me...
Can you cite some specific examples?
I'm talking mostly at the workplace, where most people (I had admin on my machines) don't have admin and can't install software on a whim.
Most non-tech people I have known of...don't seem to install a bunch of random software off the net, no...you're right there.
But I know other friends that are at least semi-tech..and they seem happy with FF and IE...and Safari for the ones with a mac.
Honestly though...I've never heard of software that includes a browser on it's own install. That's interesting.
People actually do that and worry about that stuff?
Wow...about the only time the many computers in my house get turned off...is at a power failure, or when I move.
You know..aside from those here on Slashdot....I've yet to meet a single soul to this point in time, that has ever used Chrome, much less installed it.
Most lay people (non-tech) that I know of, haven't even heard of it...heck, many are just now hearing about something called firefox and asking me what that is all about.
Wow..where do you live that a movie is THAT expensive???
Go shopping for a plasma tv.
I just got a nice Samsung 59" model plasma...some people complained about the reflections they saw in it...I don't have that problem that I can notice, but then again...the room it is in, while having windows, doesn't usually lend itself to being flooded by bright daylight.
I love the thing...talk about inky deep blacks...I've not see television look this good in a long time.
I dunno...the times I've tried BT...and granted this was a few years ago...I found it to be horribly slow for me...I could usually download from USENET much faster. I've got a pretty decent speed connection..usually about 15 down and 7 up or so...and BT just took FOREVER to download things. And this is aside from the fact it is much easier to have 'them' trace you and get your IP...not as much a problem with USENET.
I don't think I had anything set wrong with my BT set up...but I've never gotten the speeds other people mentioned with it.
You know...as I was reading your post, my first thought was "who the hell works outside in the sun with a computer?", then, I read the next part about you wanting to work by the pool.
You're work habits, it sounds like, are definitely one of the far outlier scenarios if you were to look at the general pool of those that do work on a computer.
Man...wish I could do my job out by the pool somewhere. Sounds like the life....and the kind of complaints and problems one would LIKE to have.
Is Obama continuing these same free speech zones wherever he speaks?
WTF...the Supreme court makes a horrible decision with regard to warrant-less searches.
I believe it was Indiana that just made warrantless searches ok, and you can't defend yourself against them...and now this??
Geez...the police state is gathering steam MUCH faster than I'd expected.
Sounds good to me, I'd rather get blown by a good looking blonde chick, that Halle Berry any day of the week.
I honestly don't see the appeal many people see in HB.
Is it just me, or is it getting increasingly difficult to find a computer monitor that has greater resolution than a HDTV?? It seems the choices for greater vertical resolution are getting fewer and fewer...and what you can find, is generally getting kinda pricy.
Other countries use a different date format?
Well, I can see your logic with sorting...however, it doesn't make much sense to me on a common day to day usage.
I mean, makes logical sense...month and day....year, I pretty much know since it doesn't change that often. I don't think it terms of day date first...I think of what month it is, THEN, I like to know what day of that month...just seems to sync with day to day life.
But again, I see your point on the sorting thing.
Trouble is...we HAD a nice 4th amendment in the US constitution, however, the Supreme Court just kind fscked us on this one a day or two ago.
I'm worried when they can blow off the constitution so readily...if they can do that, well, they'll certainly NOT have a 2nd thought about blowing off an internet mandate about using info collected from it ....if the tool is there, the authorities WILL abuse it at some time in the future.
Their track record shows this....over and over again.
Remember how RICO was only supposed to be used to go after the mafia? Hmm...well, its being used in new and creative ways all the time.
If they can now kick down your door without a warrant just because they hear some (non-threatening sounds) and smell weed outside a bunch of apt. doors...they'll have no compunction about tracking your ass down by forced internet ID marked transactions, why wait for using it for criminal investigation, just continuously fishing for information on everyone...someone will slip and we'll get them, even if we have to change the laws and go after them retroactively.
Err...we didn't lose New Orleans...still alive and better than ever I'd say.
And as for no one caring....well, you might wanna rethink that. If not from a historical/cultural standpoint (the city IS older that the USA itself you know)...from a merely financial standpoint, you don't wanna lose NOLA.
It is the port city to the world off the MS river...a huge amount of product from the middle of the US has to make its way through NOLA to the world, it is one of the larger port cities in the US.
Fully 1/3 of the US seafood comes from this area...you like oil don't you? NOLA and the immediate surrounding areas are the main place foreign oil comes in as well as domestic drilling (and supporting infrastructure and workers in this area)...not to mention the refining of said petroleum coming into this area.
Aside from the feelings of fellow countrymen should have for one of their sister cities...the financial and geographical importance of New Orleans should not be underestimated.
And if nothing else...pretty much any part of the US has problems...tornado alley, the MS has flooded much of the midwest at times, NYC seems to be a terrorist target (not to mention they are WAY overdue for a catastrophic hurricane, look it up they have a doomsday scenario like NOLA has), earthquakes out west with a dose of wildfires and mudslides....and yet, no one is talking about how useless those areas are or that we could abandon them for stupidly building in the 'wrong place'.
Err...date format? I don't get that reference...
One part of that change for me is....drastically cutting down caffeine...this mostly came from cokes and other soft drinks.
I read the headline and it said 6 or so cups a day of coffee are NORMAL?!?!?! Geez.....I'd be climbing the walls. Do people actually normally drink that much coffee a day?
Maybe it is me...I was not a coffee drinking till maybe the past 2-4 years. I like the New Orleans strong stuff...with chicory...and some times make some on Sunday mornings. It is strong and I like to cut it with heavy cream, and some booze (brandy, Kahlua, whatever's handy). But man..usually on the 2nd cup, I'm so wired that I can start to see my heart beat under my shirt....
I don't see how anyone could drink over 6 cups a day on average. I know I'm a bit sensitive to caffeine now that I've cut back a few years...but wow...
I'm looking mostly for movies...I have my queue filled to the max with movies and concerts I want to see on DVD/bluray...but apparently hardly any of those is available on streaming.
I did see they had that series "24" which I heard was good. I might try to look at that.
Heck..wish they had the Sopranos on streaming..I'd likely watch that series again...but quality stuff like that I don't see on there.
I'll cede the contracts part, but, I'd almost say the poor benefit even more from police and fire (more arson and crime in poor areas..then need more of the police and fire services to combat this).
The poor need more education dollars...so more for them. And everyone needs the roads to travel on. The more wealthy have nicer cars, the poor either have rattle traps or use buses which also tear the roads up more than a car.
I'd bought a PS3 for Xmas to have a 3D bluray player that also streamed Netflix (I may learn to game soon too).
I've found, however that my initial high consumption of Netflix streaming content has really dropped, and much of that was...the lack of shows I really want to watch available for streaming!!
I mean, the choice of movies seems to largely be...crap I'd never have wanted to watch if the DVD was given to me.
I have a 3 movie out at a time Netflix account..have had since about a year after they started business ( I was just a week or so shy of the 4 out at at time they initially started with)....so I have a full queue of titles. It just seems that there aren't THAT many of them available for streaming.
Until they are allowed to stream about anything they have to offer....I dunno..I'll stream every couple weeks when it looks like they may offer some new titles.
Also...with the new big tv...the quality of the rented physical bluray vs the compressed streaming content...shows sometimes.
I just signed up for Uverse....and have been watching that a lot lately for my content 'surfing' moods....
Until netflix starts to up the number of quality titles they have for streaming...my use of it will likely continue to decline. That and they changed the user interface to be a LOT less easy to scan and search for streaming title available. I wish they'd just have a menu drop down for genre...let me select that and then display all that's available....
I see this bandied about all the time...but I don't see it. How, in fact, do the rich benefit more that the middle income or poor?
I'd almost say the poor benefit more..they had welfare and other handouts, special services, and pay no income tax in general.
Hmm...wonder what it would cost to make a few of these on the side?