"1080 is supposed to be the vertical resolution, with horizontal at 1920. This is less than half the horizontal resolution."
Most likely they offset one CCD by half a pixel, which is a common technique in video cameras to improve resolution with small CCDs. That way they can get a good approximation to the full 1920x1080 luminance signal by mixing the signals from the three CCDs... the chroma signal is probably only being recorded at half resolution anyway, so it's less important.
Again, HDV is MPEG-2 compressed, so you won't need much more disk space than for editing DV. The downside is that if you want to avoid nasty artifacts you'll only really get one chance at the edit.. unlike DV, every time you cut and output a copy you'll have to recompress in a lossy format.
AFAIR HDV is MPEG-2 recording at about 3.6MB/sec, so you'll get a similar amount of recording time to DV on the same tape, but with the artifacts from MPEG-2.
"Personally, I am not a big fan of being watched everytime I enter the city centre - but I offset this against the fact the Police Officers could be deployed more effectively."
They _could_ be, perhaps. But, in reality, they're either sitting in control rooms eating donuts, or standing by the side of the road with laser speed guns or cameras looking for expired road tax.
Every year we have more cameras, yet the crime rates keep on going up. Cameras are just 'security theater' for the proles... the odd thing is that the lefties support them when they'll be used to round up all political opponents as soon as a truly fascist government arises here (my guess is within 20 years, the way things are going).
"The universe is WAY too fricken big for us to be alone."
In that case, why isn't the galaxy obviously teeming with life? Any technological civilisation can easily colonise the entire galaxy in a million years, so if there's another one out there, they should have done so by now.
I think it's far more likely that we're the first than that every other technological civilisation in the galaxy is so young that they've barely escaped from their solar system.
"In short, his method would allow really [really-really] fast code breaking using quantum 'computers'."
AFAIR the best known quantum algorithm for breaking conventional crypto merely reduces search time to about its square root. So increase your key length from 128 to 256 bits, and it will take about as long to crack a key as a current computer would for a 128-bit key.
This is one reason why most new crypto algorithms have 256-bit keys rather than 128-bit.
"Someone please explain to me how this is different than Linux?"
Most programs on Linux run happily as a non-root user. So many programs on Windows force you to run as an admin user that most people who even think about trying to run as a non-root user quickly give up...
Every Java program I've run sucks up tons of memory and runs dog-slow. Now, I'm sure there are plenty of programs where people spend most of the time interacting with the user interface so raw performance doesn't matter and ease of programming is more important, but for general use, Java is a poor choice of language.
My attitude is very simple. If some moronic game company is going to install drivers on my PC without even asking, and then try to tell me that I can't use their game on my PC because I have unusual hardware or unusual software running, then they can go fsck themselves. I'm one of the people who do actually buy games, but I'm damned if I'm going to bend over for these morons.
Seriously, almost every game I own I've ended up downloading a CD crack for because either it's far too much of a pain to have to find a particular CD just to play a game that's already on my hard drive, or their appallingly bad 'copy protection' crap doesn't work with my SCSI DVD drive. These people are fscking over their customers who actually pay for the games, and wondering why we stop buying them.
No game should ever, ever, ever install a driver on a PC without asking and without making clear on the box that they will be doing so. Some of us use our PCs for real work as well as games, and the last thing I want is some stupid 'copy protection' driver screwing up my system.
Buying them would merely encourage other dying companies to sue IBM. Better to beat them down into the dirt: even if it costs more in the short term, it will save money in the long term.
"I guess it wasn't a bad start for this director!"
Wasn't exactly a 'start' for him, given he'd made two feature films already before 'Brain Dead'. Also, AFAIR, 'Dead Alive' was a hacked-up version of 'Brain Dead' for the US market, with a lot of the good parts taken out.
I mean, who could really hate a movie with lines like 'I kick ass for the Lord!' and where the use of fake blood in the gore scenes was literally measured in gallons per second?
"Every time we did not effectively respond to this terrorist group made them think that America was a paper tiger and further emboldened them."
As has invading Iraq while bin Laden sits and laughs at Bush's inability to catch him. What kind of 'effective response' has Bush made by invading Afghanistan, letting bin Laden get away, and then invading an Arab nation in the Middle East, just as bin Laden's propaganda said the Great Satan would do?
An 'effective response' would have been to give the Taliban a deadline to hand bin Laden over, then, if that failed, to get him at all costs. Not to throw up your hands after a short while and go invade a completely unrelated country to steal their oil.
Slashdot Mirror
"1080 is supposed to be the vertical resolution, with horizontal at 1920. This is less than half the horizontal resolution."
Most likely they offset one CCD by half a pixel, which is a common technique in video cameras to improve resolution with small CCDs. That way they can get a good approximation to the full 1920x1080 luminance signal by mixing the signals from the three CCDs... the chroma signal is probably only being recorded at half resolution anyway, so it's less important.
Again, HDV is MPEG-2 compressed, so you won't need much more disk space than for editing DV. The downside is that if you want to avoid nasty artifacts you'll only really get one chance at the edit.. unlike DV, every time you cut and output a copy you'll have to recompress in a lossy format.
"It's similar to the Canon XL1"
Uh, aside from the minor fact that the XL1 records 720x480 SDTV resolution while the Sony records 1920x1080 HDTV resolution!
AFAIR HDV is MPEG-2 recording at about 3.6MB/sec, so you'll get a similar amount of recording time to DV on the same tape, but with the artifacts from MPEG-2.
"Okay okay -- especially when XBOX and many other consoles approach PC graphics?"
Approach PC graphics? At 640x480 with 32MB of RAM? Huh?
"Overall crime rates in the UK have been falling for the last 10 years or so."
That'll be news to pretty much everyone I know.
"Personally, I am not a big fan of being watched everytime I enter the city centre - but I offset this against the fact the Police Officers could be deployed more effectively."
They _could_ be, perhaps. But, in reality, they're either sitting in control rooms eating donuts, or standing by the side of the road with laser speed guns or cameras looking for expired road tax.
Every year we have more cameras, yet the crime rates keep on going up. Cameras are just 'security theater' for the proles... the odd thing is that the lefties support them when they'll be used to round up all political opponents as soon as a truly fascist government arises here (my guess is within 20 years, the way things are going).
"I wonder how people were convicted before the cameras?"
And, indeed, why violent crime rates are much higher now than they were before CCTV?
"The universe is WAY too fricken big for us to be alone."
In that case, why isn't the galaxy obviously teeming with life? Any technological civilisation can easily colonise the entire galaxy in a million years, so if there's another one out there, they should have done so by now.
I think it's far more likely that we're the first than that every other technological civilisation in the galaxy is so young that they've barely escaped from their solar system.
"In short, his method would allow really [really-really] fast code breaking using quantum 'computers'."
AFAIR the best known quantum algorithm for breaking conventional crypto merely reduces search time to about its square root. So increase your key length from 128 to 256 bits, and it will take about as long to crack a key as a current computer would for a 128-bit key.
This is one reason why most new crypto algorithms have 256-bit keys rather than 128-bit.
"Was hazmat called because this rocket dumped thousands of gallons of OXYGEN?"
Quite possibly: AFAIR liquid oxygen is actually fairly dangerous, and can cause spontaneous combustion if it comes into contact with some materials.
Source is here.
Hmm, for some reason that link got screwed up: here's another try.
"then integrate the whole thing into Orbiter."
e r_ agc.jpg
Already being worked on:
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/marui/orbit
"Is this true?" Uh, no.
AFAIR that used to be the case, but was changed in the dot com bust so that companies aren't automatically delisted.
"Someone please explain to me how this is different than Linux?"
Most programs on Linux run happily as a non-root user. So many programs on Windows force you to run as an admin user that most people who even think about trying to run as a non-root user quickly give up...
Every Java program I've run sucks up tons of memory and runs dog-slow. Now, I'm sure there are plenty of programs where people spend most of the time interacting with the user interface so raw performance doesn't matter and ease of programming is more important, but for general use, Java is a poor choice of language.
"Incidentally, I remember something to the effect that modifying a system without the user's permission is a criminal offence in the UK?"
Yes, it is. Unfortunately I'd guess they'd claim that by agreeing to the EULA you're agreeing to them doing anything they want to your PC.
Odd, though, that if a trojan did this to your PC it would be a crime, but when a business does it, they claim it's legal.
My attitude is very simple. If some moronic game company is going to install drivers on my PC without even asking, and then try to tell me that I can't use their game on my PC because I have unusual hardware or unusual software running, then they can go fsck themselves. I'm one of the people who do actually buy games, but I'm damned if I'm going to bend over for these morons.
Seriously, almost every game I own I've ended up downloading a CD crack for because either it's far too much of a pain to have to find a particular CD just to play a game that's already on my hard drive, or their appallingly bad 'copy protection' crap doesn't work with my SCSI DVD drive. These people are fscking over their customers who actually pay for the games, and wondering why we stop buying them.
No game should ever, ever, ever install a driver on a PC without asking and without making clear on the box that they will be doing so. Some of us use our PCs for real work as well as games, and the last thing I want is some stupid 'copy protection' driver screwing up my system.
Buying them would merely encourage other dying companies to sue IBM. Better to beat them down into the dirt: even if it costs more in the short term, it will save money in the long term.
"Finally, if you're poor and trying to make sure your kids won't be poor,"
Why are you having kids if you can't afford to support them?
"I guess it wasn't a bad start for this director!"
Wasn't exactly a 'start' for him, given he'd made two feature films already before 'Brain Dead'. Also, AFAIR, 'Dead Alive' was a hacked-up version of 'Brain Dead' for the US market, with a lot of the good parts taken out.
I mean, who could really hate a movie with lines like 'I kick ass for the Lord!' and where the use of fake blood in the gore scenes was literally measured in gallons per second?
"Every time we did not effectively respond to this terrorist group made them think that America was a paper tiger and further emboldened them."
As has invading Iraq while bin Laden sits and laughs at Bush's inability to catch him. What kind of 'effective response' has Bush made by invading Afghanistan, letting bin Laden get away, and then invading an Arab nation in the Middle East, just as bin Laden's propaganda said the Great Satan would do?
An 'effective response' would have been to give the Taliban a deadline to hand bin Laden over, then, if that failed, to get him at all costs. Not to throw up your hands after a short while and go invade a completely unrelated country to steal their oil.
"Graphics processing speed no longer seems to be the primary limiting factor in games."
:).
Try playing 1600x1200 with 4xAA (or higher)... then see how your graphics card isn't the limiting factor
Even with no AA, FS2004 can get my Radeon 9500 Pro down to 10 fps or less in heavy weather at 1600x1200.