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User: toddestan

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  1. Re:I doubt it on The Death of the Music CD · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It takes a high end 486 to a Pentium to decode MP3 files in the x86 world, yet there are MP3 players that last a long time on a single AA battery. All that someone would have to do is create a dedicated FLAC decoding chip.

  2. Re:What I always wondered... on College Students Turn Away From Landlines · · Score: 1

    Not any that I know of. Actually, the trend seems to be moving to not having a TV at all, being that there is nothing to watch on it anyways. Now, if I could only convince the school to not force everyone to pay for cable TV that a sizable portion of the residents never watch, it would be even better.

  3. Re:That's great and all ... on College Students Turn Away From Landlines · · Score: 1

    Considering that about 99.99% of the conversations I overhear on cell phones is just inane chatter, the chances of this happening are *extremely* low.

    And no, I don't have a cell phone.

  4. Re:90%? on College Students Turn Away From Landlines · · Score: 1

    You should come to St. Cloud, where I know many people who do not have a computer. The computer labs are always packed, so people come around begging to use your computer to do stuff. A Dvorak keyboard works great to keep them away.

    I know one other person with 2 computers here, and they are the only other person I know with their own Linux computer. Browsing the network shares, there is one other computer in the dorms which identifies as OSX running Samba, otherwise it's pretty much Windows everywhere.

  5. Re:Come on on Enterprise Fans Buy Full-Page Ad In LA Times · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Enterprise gets some of the hardcore trekkies into a dilemma - they eat and breathe Star Trek, so naturally they must watch everything Trek. They've seen every movie, every TOS episode, every TNG episode, DS9, Voyager - certainly more than once. But they also find Enterprise painful. So do they:

    1. Endure watching Enterprise for sake of completeness?
    -or-
    2. Don't watch Enterprise cause it stinks, but miss out on this corner of the Star Trek universe?

    The easiest way to get around this delimma is to have Enterprise canceled. That way they won't have to endure any more episodes if they chose option 1, or if they chose option 2 - they can stop worrying about what they might of missed.

    I also must note that a simular problem exists for Star Wars fans, and the upcoming Episode III.

  6. Re:LMAO, AGAIN on Opera Claims Microsoft Has Poor Interoperability · · Score: 1

    That's really surprising, considering that IE3 is considerably different than IE4. IE3 was just a browser, but IE4 actually integrated into Windows, replacing the shell and adding features from Windows 98 to Windows 95 like active desktop and quicklaunch.

  7. Re:What a waste of Money on Napster To Campaign Aggressively Against iPod · · Score: 1

    How, exactly? Steve Jobs personally comes over and wipes my hard drive? Bill Gates buys the rights to iTunes and slips in code that makes my computer blow up?

    The tunes have DRM in them. iTunes unlocks the DRM to play it. That is the iffy step. What if in future releases of iTunes doesn't support the old songs? What if Apple abandons iTunes, and the old legacy versions of iTunes don't run on MacOS 11? What if Apple goes of business?

    Sure, you can probably keep the file forever, but what good is it if you can't play it?

  8. Re:Speaking of linux booting... on Anatomy of the Linux Boot Process · · Score: 1

    Somewhat unrelated ???!!!

    I wish that would work. With the old computer, I would make my choice in LILO, and it would instantly start booting. With the new one, I make my choice in LILO, and get this progress bar accross the bottom of the LILO screen, which inches accross while the computer appears to be doing absolutely nothing, gets stuck almost at the end, sits there a while, then launches into the graphical boot (where ESC does work). That part goes slow but no surprises there.

  9. Re:Sorry, Napster... on Napster To Campaign Aggressively Against iPod · · Score: 1

    You have *four* iPods? What does someone do with four iPods?

  10. Re:Mktg Lesson #1: Don't Call Your Target Mkt Stup on Napster To Campaign Aggressively Against iPod · · Score: 1

    Napster needs to court current iPod/iTMS users, not denigrate them.

    How would Napster do that? Apple doesn't let anyone else use their DRM. Apple has everyone with iPod's locked into using iTunes as an online music store, and they aren't going to give that up. Real tried, and they lost. The only way Napster could court iPod users is to sell non-DRM'd MP3's in their store that the iPod will play. And that's pretty unlikely.

  11. Re:Not exactly a winning marketing angle. on Napster To Campaign Aggressively Against iPod · · Score: 1

    To the average consumer it's not iTunes that's proprietary, it's anything that can't play on an iPod that's considered incompatible.

    We're talking about a online music store that only works with one brand of music player. People in general may be pretty clueless, but they aren't that clueless.

  12. Re:What a waste of Money on Napster To Campaign Aggressively Against iPod · · Score: 1

    Yes, but Napster being a suscription service wants you to pay for the rest of your life - just like for phone/cable/... Not just 3 years (altough the comparison is still good). I sure don't want to pay 15$ USD a month for the next 50+ years. That's around 10k$ (depending on how long you'd live, and price may go up). That's a lot of songs off iTunes. Not to mention that when napster dies (with such a business model, I bet it will), you're left with nothing at all to listen to and have to to turn to buying CDs or iTunes then.

    You really expect the songs you buy from iTunes to last 50 years? Maybe if you burn them to CD. Remember, songs from iTunes are still DRM'd, the plug could still be pulled.

  13. Re:What a waste of Money on Napster To Campaign Aggressively Against iPod · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, you can compare this to satellite radio. They both stop working when you stop paying. The cost per month is simular. They both stream music. The quality is simular. With Napster, you get the advantage of being able to listen to whatever you want when you want to (provided it's in Napster's library). You can also get copies of tracks to store on your computer and portable music player. With satellite, you get the option of streaming radio in your car, or a dedicated unit for your stereo, or the option of buying a pricy portable player. Not to mention more variety in the number of streams offered.

    Perhaps Napster should try to convert satellite radio folks over? It may work pretty well, though it would be tough to get convert the people who use it in their cars.

  14. Re:Look at flipside... on Napster To Campaign Aggressively Against iPod · · Score: 1

    Atleast the CD doesn't get tied to the first CD player I stick it in.

    I can be pretty sure that I will be able to play the CDs I currently own in 20 years. As for DRM'd tunes from any online music store (including iTunes), it's really hard to say, but I kind of doubt it.

  15. Re:Favorite mis-typed URLs? on The Typo Millionaires · · Score: 1

    The link didn't work, but using copy and paste, I got the site to come up.

    That's very interesting, I wonder if I could register http:///..org ?

  16. Re:Login screen way to late. on Anatomy of the Linux Boot Process · · Score: 1

    Just between where the login screen appears and the end of boot system dies. A little bug. Found it on 2 ghz or faster machines due to the short time of boot.

    You can even do it after pressing ESC. It is simpler to do that way.


    I seem to recall Microsoft released a patch to fix that very problem. Though I haven't worked with a "fast" Win9x system for a while now. (where fast is better than a 800Mhz Celeron)

    I always just disabled the splash screens in Win9x anyway, I think using TweakUI.

  17. Re:Speaking of linux booting... on Anatomy of the Linux Boot Process · · Score: 1

    My experience with the Mandrake 10.1 progress bar is that it's really dumb. It will zip up to a point, then spend 95% of the time stuck there, and then zip to the end. They should just go with some simple animation like what Windows XP / OS X does.

    On a somewhat unrelated note, I have also not figured out why Mandrake 10.1 takes far longer to boot up on a much more powerful computer than my Mandrake 10.0 system.

  18. Re:Rot = Market Saturation - Not with Word 6! on Microsoft: The Faint Smell of Rot · · Score: 1

    Wrong. MSWord 6.0 has a very definite life as follows:

    1: No security patches.

    Does Word 6.0 even need security fixes?

    2: No bug fixes.
    Granted, though I can't remember any Word 6.0 bugs of any real consequence (back in those days, software generally shipped without many bugs, because fixing a hopelessly broken program wasn't just a Windows Update away)

    3: Can't read newer document formats. (Can you really ask all your friends to keep saving in RTF just because you won't update?)
    Get the latest Word Viewer. Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C, switch to Word 6.0, Ctrl-V. I've heard that this is actually a recommended way to avoid getting macro viruses.

    4: May not be supported on newer operating
    systems. (You say you'll never upgrade from Win98SE, however when you find your new Dell notebook only has the necessary drivers for XP, hey, you'll be running XP too.)

    VMWare!

    5: CD rot of your only remaining install disc.
    Make backups. Besides, I would think that you would be more worried about the 3.5" floppies Word 6.0 came on.

    Wait, floppies? Better get working on that backup.

    6: Lost your serial number.
    Make backups. Does Word 6.0 even need a Ckey? If it does, I would bet that 111-1111111 works great.

    7: Won't play with other applications you want to run because it's COM model is too ancient.
    VMWare!

    Not that you would want to, but I can see how someone could rin Word 6.0 forever if they really wanted to.

  19. Re:Aha. "Depriving" someone of a sale on LokiTorrent Shut Down · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Actually, the recipe for Pepsi (and many commercial food products) is a trade secret. That means it is not illegal for anyone to make Pepsi, it's just that no one except Pepsi actually knows how do it. If you somehow manage to make a liquid that tastes exactly like Pepsi, there is nothing Pepsi Co can do about it.

    Not that I think Pepsi would really care. They have the name brand, the advertising budget, and the exclusive contracts. Even if you sold a beverage that was indistinguishable, you would still be a small third party that neither Pepsi or Coke would lose any sleep over.

  20. Re:Minor correction to the story: on LokiTorrent Shut Down · · Score: 1

    There were ancient Viking societies in which murder was punishable by merely paying a fine.

    You know, now that I think about it, that really isn't that bad of an idea.

  21. Re:Point of Note on LokiTorrent Shut Down · · Score: 1

    Not to debate the profit margins on sales of DVDs, but he's not an idiot. There are many movies made each year that lose piles of money.

    Name a popular movie that didn't make piles of money. Go ahead, I'm waiting.

    That's not to say that there aren't plenty of movies out there that do lose piles of money. Probably because those movies suck. Just because a movie studio invests millions in a movie does not mean they are entitled to a profit.

  22. Re:Most Blogs are turning in to Spamblogs on Blog Content Based Solely on High Paying Keywords · · Score: 1

    Engadget (where slashdot gets a lot of its stories) is a great site, but the ad content has risen significantly over the past few months.

    Well, that explains a lot.

  23. Re:Another nail in the coffin of journalism. on U.S. Scientists Say They Are Told to Alter Finding · · Score: 1

    Fuck you and your anti-republican group-think. I'm a moderate liberal, but this knee-jerk republican bashing over anything and everything is getting ridiculous. Did it ever occur to you that "those red staters" might have honest and well thought-out reasons for being republican? Did it ever occur to you that two intelligent enlightened people can have an honest disagreement over politics?

    There are plenty of good and well thought-out honest reasons to be a Republican.

    The thing people don't realize is that Bush is not really a Republican.

  24. Re:Why stock analysts should stick to analyzing st on Sirius Confirms iPod Satellite Talks · · Score: 2, Informative

    Have you ever had a close look at one of the satellite units? I have. First, they have rather beefy power adaptors, and second, they get really warm under use. Granted, part of the reason is for the backlight, etc, but the main reason is that they have a fairly powerful chip in there to decode the signal, and this chip sucks up a bit of power. I'm pretty sure that the portable satellite unit others have linked to that supposedly gets a mere 5 hours of battery life probably has a considerably larger battery than the iPod.

  25. Re:Hey dudes, there is this thing called competiti on Sirius Confirms iPod Satellite Talks · · Score: 1

    He's basically saying that since Apple won't do a satellite radio MP3 player someone else will step up to the plate. Just like how others are adding features like OGG, FM tuners, video, built in mics, replacable batteries, and other features not found in the iPod.