It starts getting expensive though if you want to have more than 8GB in your computer. You either have to buy find 4GB sticks at that point ($$$) or a server-class board ($$$). It's actually kind of annoying - DDR2 is crazy cheap, but it starts to get difficult to use more than about 8GB of it, and really difficult to use more than 16GB.
I'm about the same size as you, and there are lots of small cars that I can fit into, including the Nissan Sentra, Toyota Yaris, Mini Cooper, Infiniti G35 Coupe, and the previous generation Scion xB (which being a box, has an incredible amount of room inside). Of course, there are others I don't really fit into, or thanks to the popular sloping rooflines - I can fit into but can't see out of very well. If you have a car show close to where you live, I suggest you go to it and check the different cars out.
I don't buy the cost argument at all. You can go to Walmart and buy a DVD player for $30. That DVD player has to do a lot of the same things. It has to decode a MPEG2 signal, and convert it to analog out. It has a case, power supply, and a remote control. It even does some things that these convertor boxes don't (the DVD player I saw has S-Video and component out). It's true that you don't have the RF-in, but the converter box doesn't have to deal with reading optical media either and contains no moving parts, so I'm going to say that the DVD player is actually more complex. And it costs $30.
I'm still betting that once the coupon program is ended and mad rush to get a hold of a convertor box ends, we'll see them as cheap as $20.
I've heard a lot of stories like this, but has anyone else had improved reception with their convertor box? My analog reception was never that great (I believe due to hill between me and the transmitters). I pretty much get all the analog channels that would sort-of come in now perfectly fine with the DTV signal and the converter box. In addition, I have a few more channels that are rather marginal, but I couldn't pick up with the analog so I can't really complain. There is some fiddling with the antenna, but my converter box has a signal strength indicator that helps a lot with the alignment. I'm hoping that when the DTV broadcasts go full power, I won't have to fiddle with the antenna as much anymore.
There's 250 milion TVs in the US of A? With a pop of 300 mill that sounds like a lot.
Not really. Even the poorest people I know have at least one TV per person in their household, and many households have more than one TV per person. I hardly watch TV, yet I own two TVs myself (granted, one is one of those battery powered portable LCD TVs that is about to become a paperweight when the analog signal is turned off). You can also add a few more million if you want to count older CRT TVs sitting in closets and basements that were replaced but still work. It doesn't surprise me at all that the number of television sets outnumber the population in this country.
To be fair, there is always Blackle for all your late night Googling needs. I really wish that everyone would switch to a light-on-dark color scheme as it's easier on the eyes, but I guess that's just not going to happen.
I'm sure they'd rather give you a copy of Windows rather than have you run Linux. They've got a monopoly to maintain. Some reason why they don't seriously try to stop piracy of their OS by home users.
Sounds like your inverter, which powers the backlight, is crapping out - which is probably the most common failure mode of LCDs. If the monitor is several years old, it could just be the bulging capacitor problem rearing its ugly head, in which case if you pull the monitor apart and replace the bad caps it could come back to life for you. Otherwise, you could scour eBay/Craigslist for an inverter from a donor monitor, but it's generally not worth the bother at that point.
Actually, I don't know if I would say LCD technology is mature yet. LCD technology really hasn't done much in the past few years except get cheaper. In some ways it's moving backwards, with new problems like input lag cropping up in the pursuit of meaningless marketing numbers. You could argue days of the best LCD panels are behind us - you can't even get a decent quality LCD anymore in any new laptop (they are all TN-based), and the most amazing LCD ever made (the IBM T221) was discontinued several years ago with nothing to replace it. You would think that the Sony LCD I bought, like you, about 5 years ago would be an antique by now, but sadly with its IPS panel, it's probably better than anything being sold in Best Buy right now.
I just want to add that overdrive was originally developed for TVs, where the lag doesn't matter (as long as you also delay the sound by the same duration).
Actually, it's a huge problem for console gamers who hook their systems up to their TVs. I agree though that it doesn't matter for watching broadcast TV.
But I have seen some other areas do a thing which I thought was odd at first, but makes sense. That is they have a one to two second 4 way red between swapping the roads that are given the green. It's helpful for clearing an intersection where there's a lot of left turn traffic.
This seems like a good idea, but I noticed that after it was phased in the area that I live, people started to expect this delay and would think nothing of running a light that had just turned red, or go through a very stale yellow. End result being that the number of cars that would go through a light that had just turned red went way up after this was put in. This probably had an overall effect of lowering safety, since there seemed to be no standard for the delay time, so each light was different (including some that still had no delay), so more people were going through intersections where the other side had already turned green and the cars were already moving.
You must be thinking of Apple, as they are the ones that only support one release older than what they currently ship. Windows XP will be ending mainstream support in April of this year and goes into extended support. That means pretty much all that Microsoft is going to do is fix critical bugs and security holes. This will last until April 2014, which isn't so bad for a 13 year old OS. Even Windows 2000 is still under extended support for another year and a half or so. It's unknown what Microsoft is going to do in terms of activation at this point.
So in other words a computer that costs 4 times as much has a better screen, better keyboard, faster processor, and a larger battery? Who would have thought?
Fermi's paradox is a lot more broad than just EM emissions. It basically says that we have billions of star systems in our galaxy that has existed for billions of years, and even if you assume spacefaring civilizations are extremely uncommon, chances are there are still dozens or hundreds of them in the galaxy. Given the timescales involved, all one of these civilizations would need is a small headstart by galatic terms (say, a few tens of millions of years) and the desire to colonize the galaxy, and it would have been done by now. So, where are the aliens?
Of course, one explaination is that they don't us to know about them, and you're right - so long as they stay out of our solar system we'll probably never detect them (assuming they do exist).
Do they really show it live, which would be the middle of the night in England? Otherwise, if it's taped and aired the next day they could just edit it down to a more reasonable length.
I also can't see them showing the ads too. The ads are copyrighted so it's not like they can just rebroadcast them. While many companies probably wouldn't mind the free airtime, it would probably still be a mess to secure all the rights and do everything proper.
Take a Windows XP machine & tell me what SP it's running without going to System Properties....just using it like grandma would. You probably won't be able to.
I can tell you if it has SP2 on it just by watching it start up (SP2 dropped the "Professional" and "Home" branding on the boot screen).
Obviously you think that all PCs are made by eMachines and Acer. Macs aren't any different than the better PC hardware, and they are still willing to cut corners when they feel they can get away with it (same with Dell, etc.) And at least the PCs are cheaper and easier to fix when they do break.
It's not surprising to see a lot of out of date information, as for some reason it seems that there are lot of really old versions of Labview still being used. I still see people programming in Labview 5, a version that dates back to the Windows 98 days.
I've told other people, and I'll post it on Slashdot, for which I'll get ridiculed. Unless there are some dramatic sunset provisions in this bill, or the economy starts magically growing at 4-5% a year, people will remember the days of Bush as "The Good Old Days", when budget deficits were no more than a few hundred billion, and the national debt was under $20 trillion. When spending $600 billion on a war over 5 years was considered profligate waste.
I don't see it that way, as we've haven't really paid for things like the war yet. All that Bush did was put everything on the credit card for eight years, and managed to almost get away with it, except that the inevitable meltdown started about 5 months too early. Of course, I guess you could then argue that the "Good Old Days" ended a long time ago as deficit spending has been the norm for a long time, with only a few attempts to address it in past few decades.
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It starts getting expensive though if you want to have more than 8GB in your computer. You either have to buy find 4GB sticks at that point ($$$) or a server-class board ($$$). It's actually kind of annoying - DDR2 is crazy cheap, but it starts to get difficult to use more than about 8GB of it, and really difficult to use more than 16GB.
I'm about the same size as you, and there are lots of small cars that I can fit into, including the Nissan Sentra, Toyota Yaris, Mini Cooper, Infiniti G35 Coupe, and the previous generation Scion xB (which being a box, has an incredible amount of room inside). Of course, there are others I don't really fit into, or thanks to the popular sloping rooflines - I can fit into but can't see out of very well. If you have a car show close to where you live, I suggest you go to it and check the different cars out.
150 miles @ 25 MPG is 3,750 miles. That's a couple of road trips by my standards, and a lot of cars do better than 25 MPG on the freeway anyway.
I don't buy the cost argument at all. You can go to Walmart and buy a DVD player for $30. That DVD player has to do a lot of the same things. It has to decode a MPEG2 signal, and convert it to analog out. It has a case, power supply, and a remote control. It even does some things that these convertor boxes don't (the DVD player I saw has S-Video and component out). It's true that you don't have the RF-in, but the converter box doesn't have to deal with reading optical media either and contains no moving parts, so I'm going to say that the DVD player is actually more complex. And it costs $30.
I'm still betting that once the coupon program is ended and mad rush to get a hold of a convertor box ends, we'll see them as cheap as $20.
I've heard a lot of stories like this, but has anyone else had improved reception with their convertor box? My analog reception was never that great (I believe due to hill between me and the transmitters). I pretty much get all the analog channels that would sort-of come in now perfectly fine with the DTV signal and the converter box. In addition, I have a few more channels that are rather marginal, but I couldn't pick up with the analog so I can't really complain. There is some fiddling with the antenna, but my converter box has a signal strength indicator that helps a lot with the alignment. I'm hoping that when the DTV broadcasts go full power, I won't have to fiddle with the antenna as much anymore.
Not really. Even the poorest people I know have at least one TV per person in their household, and many households have more than one TV per person. I hardly watch TV, yet I own two TVs myself (granted, one is one of those battery powered portable LCD TVs that is about to become a paperweight when the analog signal is turned off). You can also add a few more million if you want to count older CRT TVs sitting in closets and basements that were replaced but still work. It doesn't surprise me at all that the number of television sets outnumber the population in this country.
To be fair, there is always Blackle for all your late night Googling needs. I really wish that everyone would switch to a light-on-dark color scheme as it's easier on the eyes, but I guess that's just not going to happen.
I'm sure they'd rather give you a copy of Windows rather than have you run Linux. They've got a monopoly to maintain. Some reason why they don't seriously try to stop piracy of their OS by home users.
Sounds like your inverter, which powers the backlight, is crapping out - which is probably the most common failure mode of LCDs. If the monitor is several years old, it could just be the bulging capacitor problem rearing its ugly head, in which case if you pull the monitor apart and replace the bad caps it could come back to life for you. Otherwise, you could scour eBay/Craigslist for an inverter from a donor monitor, but it's generally not worth the bother at that point.
Actually, I don't know if I would say LCD technology is mature yet. LCD technology really hasn't done much in the past few years except get cheaper. In some ways it's moving backwards, with new problems like input lag cropping up in the pursuit of meaningless marketing numbers. You could argue days of the best LCD panels are behind us - you can't even get a decent quality LCD anymore in any new laptop (they are all TN-based), and the most amazing LCD ever made (the IBM T221) was discontinued several years ago with nothing to replace it. You would think that the Sony LCD I bought, like you, about 5 years ago would be an antique by now, but sadly with its IPS panel, it's probably better than anything being sold in Best Buy right now.
I just want to add that overdrive was originally developed for TVs, where the lag doesn't matter (as long as you also delay the sound by the same duration).
Actually, it's a huge problem for console gamers who hook their systems up to their TVs. I agree though that it doesn't matter for watching broadcast TV.
20 pounds? The ones that go up to 2048x1536 generally are at least 20" and weigh in well over 50 lbs.
The problem isn't the lawyers, it's the laws and the lawmakers.
Who do you think become law makers, and who do you think make the laws? The root of problem *is* lawyers.
But I have seen some other areas do a thing which I thought was odd at first, but makes sense. That is they have a one to two second 4 way red between swapping the roads that are given the green. It's helpful for clearing an intersection where there's a lot of left turn traffic.
This seems like a good idea, but I noticed that after it was phased in the area that I live, people started to expect this delay and would think nothing of running a light that had just turned red, or go through a very stale yellow. End result being that the number of cars that would go through a light that had just turned red went way up after this was put in. This probably had an overall effect of lowering safety, since there seemed to be no standard for the delay time, so each light was different (including some that still had no delay), so more people were going through intersections where the other side had already turned green and the cars were already moving.
So if the warhead doesn't explode, follow up with another one in the same spot. It's not like we don't have enough of them.
And you have Windows Fundamentals, and Windows Starter Edition. And don't forget Media Center Edition.
You must be thinking of Apple, as they are the ones that only support one release older than what they currently ship. Windows XP will be ending mainstream support in April of this year and goes into extended support. That means pretty much all that Microsoft is going to do is fix critical bugs and security holes. This will last until April 2014, which isn't so bad for a 13 year old OS. Even Windows 2000 is still under extended support for another year and a half or so. It's unknown what Microsoft is going to do in terms of activation at this point.
So in other words a computer that costs 4 times as much has a better screen, better keyboard, faster processor, and a larger battery? Who would have thought?
Fermi's paradox is a lot more broad than just EM emissions. It basically says that we have billions of star systems in our galaxy that has existed for billions of years, and even if you assume spacefaring civilizations are extremely uncommon, chances are there are still dozens or hundreds of them in the galaxy. Given the timescales involved, all one of these civilizations would need is a small headstart by galatic terms (say, a few tens of millions of years) and the desire to colonize the galaxy, and it would have been done by now. So, where are the aliens?
Of course, one explaination is that they don't us to know about them, and you're right - so long as they stay out of our solar system we'll probably never detect them (assuming they do exist).
Do they really show it live, which would be the middle of the night in England? Otherwise, if it's taped and aired the next day they could just edit it down to a more reasonable length.
I also can't see them showing the ads too. The ads are copyrighted so it's not like they can just rebroadcast them. While many companies probably wouldn't mind the free airtime, it would probably still be a mess to secure all the rights and do everything proper.
Take a Windows XP machine & tell me what SP it's running without going to System Properties....just using it like grandma would. You probably won't be able to.
I can tell you if it has SP2 on it just by watching it start up (SP2 dropped the "Professional" and "Home" branding on the boot screen).
A simple Google search leads to this:
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220090009628%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20090009628&RS=DN/20090009628
Obviously you think that all PCs are made by eMachines and Acer. Macs aren't any different than the better PC hardware, and they are still willing to cut corners when they feel they can get away with it (same with Dell, etc.) And at least the PCs are cheaper and easier to fix when they do break.
It's not surprising to see a lot of out of date information, as for some reason it seems that there are lot of really old versions of Labview still being used. I still see people programming in Labview 5, a version that dates back to the Windows 98 days.
I don't see it that way, as we've haven't really paid for things like the war yet. All that Bush did was put everything on the credit card for eight years, and managed to almost get away with it, except that the inevitable meltdown started about 5 months too early. Of course, I guess you could then argue that the "Good Old Days" ended a long time ago as deficit spending has been the norm for a long time, with only a few attempts to address it in past few decades.