Sadly I capture from VHS on a composite video in. I will write up a JE on video capture (I'm no pro) soon and if you aer inclined you can look at it. I've been meaning to do that anyway. My capture card does have S-Video, but I use it for my camcorder (haven't gone digital there yet).
But you woudln't even feel the difference once you were assim^H^H^H part of the new civilization. Besides, sleeping is overrated. You can't be productive if you are asleep. As it is, I get 4-6 hours a night myself.;)
Wow... the Google results are all over the place. Some say we are the most charitable others say we aren't and still other say that we would be if it weren't for the lie that FDR saved the economy with the New Deal. However, I don't care about the numbers. I'm dealing in the cold hard fact of numan nature. Individuals are selfish. They are not going to contribute to anything that doesn't directly benefit them unless they are goaded to do so. This is one of the biggest failings of the human animal. And it's not going to go away any time soon.
We are better off when the money is taken from us before we even get a chance to see it. As I said before, taxes aren't perfect, but they do a lot better than charity. Who takes care of your roads? Who pays the police men? Who takes away your trash? Who educates those that can't afford private schooling? It all comes from our taxes. People are just plain to stupid and selfish to see the truth. They clamor for reduced taxes and yet they are angered when they lose something that their taxes paid for.
Americans are another matter. As a culture, we tend to be selfish and fearful. Because of this we are easily manipulated by the people who want to take things away from the people at the bottom. Corporations put fear into people by saying... "We'll move out of your fair city if you don't give us what we want". Conservative politicians appeal to people's selfishness by saying, "I will reduce those taxes so that you have more money for yourselves to help the economy" with the unspoken subtext being 'go out and spend this money on big ticket items that you don't need but you are being made to think you need so that you can "reinvest" in the economy. Be a good American and SPEND! Besides, I'll take it out of your hide later.' Those checks that G.W's administration sent out to all Americans to go out and spend were simply tacked onto the tax bill at the end of the year. So how, exactly, did that really help me? I'd far rather have never had the money knowing that I could get a refund or at least break even at the end of the year instead of owing more. And don't get me started on the idiots who think everyone wants to be an investor. I sure could gie a rat's ass about investing on my own or through a broker. I want this shit done for me so I don't have to think about it if I'm going to get into it at all. Not all of us share the same disease that makes people fanatics about "the market".
I have my computer record stuff for me to HD. All of my old VHS tapes have been archived as MPEG2 and I will eventually have all my DVDs done too. I keep the CDs and DVDs in a dry location stored in a box as backup material.
I think you are right though. It really will be a long time before people "get" it.
I've been waiting for people to "get" the whole concept of why there is little in the physical world that we should be concerned about. I've completely eliminated most paper from my life. I no longer deal with physical media for movies and music. And hopefully, soon I won't have any need of floppies and old CD-ROMs. Everything should be archived to redundant disk arrays with all forms of information and media being completely electronic. Every room in the house should have extended input and output devices that go beyond Montior/KB/Mouse and speakers. The masses are finally getting why this approach is better...
The problem with your suggestion about charity is that people are not naturally very charitable. Even less so these days and it has nothing to do with taxes and more to do with the selfishness our culture and capitalism encourage. Americans have become like freakin' Pokemon collectors when it comes to money. They try to get as much as they can for themselves. The end result is corruption in every facet of society that deals with large amounts of money (government, corporations, churches, etc...).
Good luck trying to get the average joe to contribute to things they believe in. Most people can't be bothered to do much because there isn't enough time in the day. As it is, for myself I make a contribution to a local charity to provide Thanksgiving dinners for the homeless. But, I can't be arsed to do much more than that because I've got other things to worry about. I'd much rather have the funds automatically deducted from my paycheck so I don't even have to think about it. I care about my fellow man, but I haven't the time or energy to do anything about it. I would love to give more to people who need it, but I don't care for the work related charities like United Way or religious organizations. I much prefer a system with no "god" connection that is impersonal and impartial. the closest thing going it government. Well... at least until G.W. Chimpboy stole the office.
Taxes aren't the perfect solution, but they've provided me with plenty of needed services over my lifetime so I have no interest in seeing them go away. The fools who proclaim that they don't want to pay taxes are typically more interested in their own personal gain. But as soon as some public service deteriorates or disappears because of the lack of funding, they cry out wondering why this happened. I'll tell you why morons, there's no money to pay for it because your being an arse and putting it all into your own personal till.
This is SO true. When I was in college I had this really great history professor named Drimmer. He told the class that the biggest mistake people make when they vote is that they vote with their emotions. He said they should vote with their pocketbooks. If a candidate is going to help you out or an incumbent has helped you out before, then you should support that person with your vote. You shouldn't vote for someone because of things like pro-choice/pro-life, oss/proprietary software, or pro-gay/anti-gay. While these things might help you in the short run, in the long run the same candidate that helped you may harm you in the wallet. I don't agree with him 100% since I tend to think money is overrated as a motivator. But, I believe the point was that emotional issue are a bad criteria to vote on since emotional issues can be manipulated in very bad ways.
This (among other things) is why I support him. I know he has a slim chance of winning, but at least he's got the closest views to mine: money isn't everything, and we should do good for our fellow man at all levels. Those who fail to comply should be pushed to the bottom of the barrel where they belong. I mean honestly, how much effort does it take to dedicate some of your work or money to someone else's well being who actually needs it. You neocons seem to have no problem giving money to your cronies (who don't need it).
While your trolling games may be fun and entertaining to you, they serve no purpose in the real world. May I suggest that you go outside and breath in some air. Maybe take in a little sunshine or gloom depending on where you live. Perhaps even meet a girl. For believe it or not, whilst you type away at your keyboard sliding deeper and deeper into irrelevance, there are those of us that are actually DOING something (or someone as the case may be). Leave the trolling to the professionals.
It would take longer than eight minutes. Probably more on the order of a few hours. But I think if the governments of the world let the cat out of the bag on the alien forces they are hiding in various locations on the planet, we can probably work something out in that time. The ships orbiting the earth would probably be able to direct some heat our way. Or not.;P (I take off my foil hat)
OK... this whole thing is silly people. But I'll contribute to this thread since I find it entertaining. Farmlands could be pointless at such a time. Instead we will need to do away with agriculture and build on synthetic nutrients. If we can make artificial nutrients and nanomachines that get integrated into our bodies, it's likely there will be lots of improvements in human physiology. Imagine only needing to eat once a week and never sleep. Our civilization would progress at a much faster pace. As it is, we are barely evolved primitives compared to what we could be if we augmneted ourselves. Eating and sleeping are useless apendages that should be shed. We need to expand on our mental abilities and begin to eschew the physical. This will prepare us for the eventuality of becoming nebulous, sentient entities with no physical form whatsoever. Or not.
Whoohoo NineNine! Hot button topic for you I guess? Fucking retard. I only use the "losing team" analogy since that's all people like you seem to be able to relate to. Running around and yelling, "I RULE" all the time. People like you are never satisfied unless you are "winners". Well, you're a winner alright. Just not in the way you think you are.
OSes are NOT comsumer products. Computers ARE consumer products. OSes are something a user shouldn't have to deal with unless they want to. I am NOT a consumer.
If you love switching OS's, that's good for you. I have a life, so while you're drooling over installing OS's, I'm getting laid. Have fun!
What a coincidence. I like getting laid often too. And I do a boatload more of that than I shift OSes. Besides, it's not like it takes that long to install an OS these days... if you KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Now if you're a moron, it might take you hours to install and configure an OS. But I wouldn't know about that. You, on the other hand, probably have a very intimate knowledge of what it's like to be a moron.
Some people enjoy having story threads left dangling. That's what makes a movie like Memento or Mullholland Drive so incredibly enjoyable. The average viewer gets a disconnect from something like that immediately, but for those of us who can understand and appreciate the artistic vision, there will never be anything better. This applies to much Anime as well. Lain was perfect in every way.
It seems that every time Microsoft is going to "innovate", all they do is buy something that someone else already came up with (and that someone else may have actually not even been the first) and then use their PR people to give is a shiny, happy, friendly name. Microsoft wants to knock Google out of the water and since they can't buy them, they are going to try and find the second best search engine and buy that instead. Then they will add the MS logo, a nice friendly face and add some new noob terminology to it to make it "new" and "different".
So... if I go out to the audio store and buy THE second best home theater system and remove the names and button labels and put my own "brand" on it and friendly button text like, "Honey, press this button when you want to listen to a CD when I'm not home" or "Press this button for movies from the satellite", can I then say I "innovated"? I think not.
This is why I STILL bristle when I hear people claiming that Microsoft innovates when the answer is staring them right in the face. Innovating is more than simply taking someone else's work and making a few name changes while adding some dubious functionality. Innovating is taking existing concepts/technologies/ideas and COMBINING them in ways that NO ONE ELSE has ever done before. Microsoft does NOT do this.
There is a boatload more innovation happening in the open source/free software world. OSS/Free is a much better environment to innovate in because the tools that they provide are so much more specialized than Windows and have ways of being interconnected. Windows is sorely lacking in this ability unless you are willing to pay the costs to get development tools.
This whole search engine fiasco is just more of the same. They are going to buy someone else's search engine, integrate it into MSN, make sure it gets integrated into their OS and apps in some fashion and then stick friendly names and fuzzy warm feelings (not too warm though... might be mistaken for being a commie) all over it. Then market it to death with that goddamned butterfly dork making people feel like Microsoft actually gives a rat's ass.
I remember seeing a replica of the Voyager and it's accompanying disc at the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee. One of the questions that came to my mind right away was... what if this thing lands/crashes on a primitive planet and the disc winds up being used for grinding some sort of grain against or maybe they try to melt it to use it in an artifact. Boom! All the info is gone. I think the main problem with any form of data storage is that no one ever thinks about the material it's made of. If you want it to last, it had better be made of something that will last for millennia or even eons. And that's just the material that it's made of. The data also needs to be stored on it in a way that it won't be erased in any way. It will also need to be clearly marked in some fashion that any post agricultural society will recognize it for what it is; a special artifact. And finally, it needs to be indestructible. Of course... that's all assuming some kind of non-biological approach. I suppose one other way to store information could be done with some sort of biological chemical mechanism. Something that can reproduce itself perpetually, thereby reproducing the data. The combinations of these chemical machanisms could form more complex combinations resulting in various new and larger forms of data with differently evolving data security and physical security mechanisms. The final goal being that this vast data pool would eventually spread itself through space to other locations in the universe to provide a lasting redundancy. I don't know if anyone's though of that though...;P
What good is digital media to a post-apocalyptic society that has no ability to read it? Or... a society where humanity has evolved into something else that no longer cares (grey goo). Or... if the Earth just plain isn't here anymore (Planet X - which is dubious at best).
Slashdot Mirror
Sadly I capture from VHS on a composite video in. I will write up a JE on video capture (I'm no pro) soon and if you aer inclined you can look at it. I've been meaning to do that anyway. My capture card does have S-Video, but I use it for my camcorder (haven't gone digital there yet).
But you woudln't even feel the difference once you were assim^H^H^H part of the new civilization. Besides, sleeping is overrated. You can't be productive if you are asleep. As it is, I get 4-6 hours a night myself. ;)
Wow... the Google results are all over the place. Some say we are the most charitable others say we aren't and still other say that we would be if it weren't for the lie that FDR saved the economy with the New Deal. However, I don't care about the numbers. I'm dealing in the cold hard fact of numan nature. Individuals are selfish. They are not going to contribute to anything that doesn't directly benefit them unless they are goaded to do so. This is one of the biggest failings of the human animal. And it's not going to go away any time soon.
We are better off when the money is taken from us before we even get a chance to see it. As I said before, taxes aren't perfect, but they do a lot better than charity. Who takes care of your roads? Who pays the police men? Who takes away your trash? Who educates those that can't afford private schooling? It all comes from our taxes. People are just plain to stupid and selfish to see the truth. They clamor for reduced taxes and yet they are angered when they lose something that their taxes paid for.
Americans are another matter. As a culture, we tend to be selfish and fearful. Because of this we are easily manipulated by the people who want to take things away from the people at the bottom. Corporations put fear into people by saying... "We'll move out of your fair city if you don't give us what we want". Conservative politicians appeal to people's selfishness by saying, "I will reduce those taxes so that you have more money for yourselves to help the economy" with the unspoken subtext being 'go out and spend this money on big ticket items that you don't need but you are being made to think you need so that you can "reinvest" in the economy. Be a good American and SPEND! Besides, I'll take it out of your hide later.' Those checks that G.W's administration sent out to all Americans to go out and spend were simply tacked onto the tax bill at the end of the year. So how, exactly, did that really help me? I'd far rather have never had the money knowing that I could get a refund or at least break even at the end of the year instead of owing more. And don't get me started on the idiots who think everyone wants to be an investor. I sure could gie a rat's ass about investing on my own or through a broker. I want this shit done for me so I don't have to think about it if I'm going to get into it at all. Not all of us share the same disease that makes people fanatics about "the market".
I have my computer record stuff for me to HD. All of my old VHS tapes have been archived as MPEG2 and I will eventually have all my DVDs done too. I keep the CDs and DVDs in a dry location stored in a box as backup material.
I think you are right though. It really will be a long time before people "get" it.
How about; "Can you find me now?"
I've been waiting for people to "get" the whole concept of why there is little in the physical world that we should be concerned about. I've completely eliminated most paper from my life. I no longer deal with physical media for movies and music. And hopefully, soon I won't have any need of floppies and old CD-ROMs. Everything should be archived to redundant disk arrays with all forms of information and media being completely electronic. Every room in the house should have extended input and output devices that go beyond Montior/KB/Mouse and speakers. The masses are finally getting why this approach is better...
The problem with your suggestion about charity is that people are not naturally very charitable. Even less so these days and it has nothing to do with taxes and more to do with the selfishness our culture and capitalism encourage. Americans have become like freakin' Pokemon collectors when it comes to money. They try to get as much as they can for themselves. The end result is corruption in every facet of society that deals with large amounts of money (government, corporations, churches, etc...).
Good luck trying to get the average joe to contribute to things they believe in. Most people can't be bothered to do much because there isn't enough time in the day. As it is, for myself I make a contribution to a local charity to provide Thanksgiving dinners for the homeless. But, I can't be arsed to do much more than that because I've got other things to worry about. I'd much rather have the funds automatically deducted from my paycheck so I don't even have to think about it. I care about my fellow man, but I haven't the time or energy to do anything about it. I would love to give more to people who need it, but I don't care for the work related charities like United Way or religious organizations. I much prefer a system with no "god" connection that is impersonal and impartial. the closest thing going it government. Well... at least until G.W. Chimpboy stole the office.
Taxes aren't the perfect solution, but they've provided me with plenty of needed services over my lifetime so I have no interest in seeing them go away. The fools who proclaim that they don't want to pay taxes are typically more interested in their own personal gain. But as soon as some public service deteriorates or disappears because of the lack of funding, they cry out wondering why this happened. I'll tell you why morons, there's no money to pay for it because your being an arse and putting it all into your own personal till.
GEEZ!!!! Will you shut up!? We're counting on the fact that the RIAA doesn't know the difference. ;P
This is SO true. When I was in college I had this really great history professor named Drimmer. He told the class that the biggest mistake people make when they vote is that they vote with their emotions. He said they should vote with their pocketbooks. If a candidate is going to help you out or an incumbent has helped you out before, then you should support that person with your vote. You shouldn't vote for someone because of things like pro-choice/pro-life, oss/proprietary software, or pro-gay/anti-gay. While these things might help you in the short run, in the long run the same candidate that helped you may harm you in the wallet. I don't agree with him 100% since I tend to think money is overrated as a motivator. But, I believe the point was that emotional issue are a bad criteria to vote on since emotional issues can be manipulated in very bad ways.
This (among other things) is why I support him. I know he has a slim chance of winning, but at least he's got the closest views to mine: money isn't everything, and we should do good for our fellow man at all levels. Those who fail to comply should be pushed to the bottom of the barrel where they belong. I mean honestly, how much effort does it take to dedicate some of your work or money to someone else's well being who actually needs it. You neocons seem to have no problem giving money to your cronies (who don't need it).
Yeah.... I like my women with seams!
Dear sirs,
While your trolling games may be fun and entertaining to you, they serve no purpose in the real world. May I suggest that you go outside and breath in some air. Maybe take in a little sunshine or gloom depending on where you live. Perhaps even meet a girl. For believe it or not, whilst you type away at your keyboard sliding deeper and deeper into irrelevance, there are those of us that are actually DOING something (or someone as the case may be). Leave the trolling to the professionals.
Thank You,
T4D Esq.
Laugh... it's funny people. >:|
It would take longer than eight minutes. Probably more on the order of a few hours. But I think if the governments of the world let the cat out of the bag on the alien forces they are hiding in various locations on the planet, we can probably work something out in that time. The ships orbiting the earth would probably be able to direct some heat our way. Or not. ;P (I take off my foil hat)
I doubt it. ;P
OK... this whole thing is silly people. But I'll contribute to this thread since I find it entertaining. Farmlands could be pointless at such a time. Instead we will need to do away with agriculture and build on synthetic nutrients. If we can make artificial nutrients and nanomachines that get integrated into our bodies, it's likely there will be lots of improvements in human physiology. Imagine only needing to eat once a week and never sleep. Our civilization would progress at a much faster pace. As it is, we are barely evolved primitives compared to what we could be if we augmneted ourselves. Eating and sleeping are useless apendages that should be shed. We need to expand on our mental abilities and begin to eschew the physical. This will prepare us for the eventuality of becoming nebulous, sentient entities with no physical form whatsoever. Or not.
OSes are NOT comsumer products. Computers ARE consumer products. OSes are something a user shouldn't have to deal with unless they want to. I am NOT a consumer.
If you love switching OS's, that's good for you. I have a life, so while you're drooling over installing OS's, I'm getting laid. Have fun!
What a coincidence. I like getting laid often too. And I do a boatload more of that than I shift OSes. Besides, it's not like it takes that long to install an OS these days... if you KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Now if you're a moron, it might take you hours to install and configure an OS. But I wouldn't know about that. You, on the other hand, probably have a very intimate knowledge of what it's like to be a moron.
Sir... I have to say this is THE funniest post I've seen in this thread. Welcome to my friends list.
Some people enjoy having story threads left dangling. That's what makes a movie like Memento or Mullholland Drive so incredibly enjoyable. The average viewer gets a disconnect from something like that immediately, but for those of us who can understand and appreciate the artistic vision, there will never be anything better. This applies to much Anime as well. Lain was perfect in every way.
It seems that every time Microsoft is going to "innovate", all they do is buy something that someone else already came up with (and that someone else may have actually not even been the first) and then use their PR people to give is a shiny, happy, friendly name. Microsoft wants to knock Google out of the water and since they can't buy them, they are going to try and find the second best search engine and buy that instead. Then they will add the MS logo, a nice friendly face and add some new noob terminology to it to make it "new" and "different".
So... if I go out to the audio store and buy THE second best home theater system and remove the names and button labels and put my own "brand" on it and friendly button text like, "Honey, press this button when you want to listen to a CD when I'm not home" or "Press this button for movies from the satellite", can I then say I "innovated"? I think not.
This is why I STILL bristle when I hear people claiming that Microsoft innovates when the answer is staring them right in the face. Innovating is more than simply taking someone else's work and making a few name changes while adding some dubious functionality. Innovating is taking existing concepts/technologies/ideas and COMBINING them in ways that NO ONE ELSE has ever done before. Microsoft does NOT do this.
There is a boatload more innovation happening in the open source/free software world. OSS/Free is a much better environment to innovate in because the tools that they provide are so much more specialized than Windows and have ways of being interconnected. Windows is sorely lacking in this ability unless you are willing to pay the costs to get development tools.
This whole search engine fiasco is just more of the same. They are going to buy someone else's search engine, integrate it into MSN, make sure it gets integrated into their OS and apps in some fashion and then stick friendly names and fuzzy warm feelings (not too warm though... might be mistaken for being a commie) all over it. Then market it to death with that goddamned butterfly dork making people feel like Microsoft actually gives a rat's ass.
Disgusting.
I remember seeing a replica of the Voyager and it's accompanying disc at the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee. One of the questions that came to my mind right away was... what if this thing lands/crashes on a primitive planet and the disc winds up being used for grinding some sort of grain against or maybe they try to melt it to use it in an artifact. Boom! All the info is gone. I think the main problem with any form of data storage is that no one ever thinks about the material it's made of. If you want it to last, it had better be made of something that will last for millennia or even eons. And that's just the material that it's made of. The data also needs to be stored on it in a way that it won't be erased in any way. It will also need to be clearly marked in some fashion that any post agricultural society will recognize it for what it is; a special artifact. And finally, it needs to be indestructible. Of course... that's all assuming some kind of non-biological approach. I suppose one other way to store information could be done with some sort of biological chemical mechanism. Something that can reproduce itself perpetually, thereby reproducing the data. The combinations of these chemical machanisms could form more complex combinations resulting in various new and larger forms of data with differently evolving data security and physical security mechanisms. The final goal being that this vast data pool would eventually spread itself through space to other locations in the universe to provide a lasting redundancy. I don't know if anyone's though of that though... ;P
Hey... no fair! I posted this same joke last week in another thread! Someone's been astroturfing without my permission!
Hey... wasn't the "big bang" supposed to be more of a hum? Kinda like a jet engine over head? At least that's what /. said last week.
What good is digital media to a post-apocalyptic society that has no ability to read it? Or... a society where humanity has evolved into something else that no longer cares (grey goo). Or... if the Earth just plain isn't here anymore (Planet X - which is dubious at best).
Dood... get your history straight. The goths didn't come about until the 1980s when Siouxie and the Banshees invaded. ;P