What happens if I'm listening to non-terrestrial radio (XM, Sirrus) or listening to a CD, like say, the new System of a Down CD (then they'd know how much I hate ads and corporate america). I still think billboards that have video are too much of a distraction. In todays world of abstracted liability, is it possible that I can sue this company if someone is distracted by their billboard and hits me?
On one side, the client can block popups. Its perfectly legal/morally right.
On the other side, when I request a HTML document from a website, they are no way obligated to send it to me. Calling blockers thieves is bullshit, but they are in no way obligated to serve me data if I block popups. And if IE ever implements popup blocking, the sites that block users who block popups could find themselves with no audience.
Yea, the when part is what gets me. If I download a 30MB file, does it matter if I do it in 10 seconds or 5 minutes? It does from the point that I'll download more if I can get it faster, but not from the standpoint that I'm still going to consume 30MB of the incoming pipe, regardless of the timespan I consume it in.
The monorail will not go to the airport in the initial building. The taxicab authority is too damn powerful to let the monorail go to the airport, they'd lose too much money. The money talks and the people walk... or hail a cab...
This will never happen. Sales tax varies so much from city to county to state. My local govt just put a question on the ballot (and it passed) to increase the local sales tax to build a highway faster. How would this type of fundraising occur under this new "unified" system?
The dish 500 satellite only recieves data from orbital locations 9 degrees apart. Its part of the physical specifics of the dish. It can only focus information from two close locations in space. There is no way you could use the dish 500 unit to get signal from both 110 and 61.5 in the same dish. Besides, dish sends its core programming from 119.
The biggest point is that in most areas (in temrs of geography) of the country, this reduces multi-channel tv systems from two to one company, and it cities with cable, from 3 to 2.
When the merger first came out it didnt seem so bad, because both satellite companies had stagnated for a while in terms of adding content and local markets (aka local-in-local, or LiL). But in the past year, three spot-beam satellites have become operational, and one more is scheduled to come online. Both Dish network and DirecTV have (or will have soon) the capability to serve the top 100 or so television markets (there are around 220 DMA, or designated viewing areas). Dish Network actually has the capability to serve all 220 DMAs using other oribtal locations for satellites that can see half the country (at 61.5 degrees Wests and 148 degrees West, where as the current satellites that can see all of the CONtinental US are located at 101, 110, and 119 degrees west, aka the three CONUS slots).
The only thing that the merger would have helped is HDTV offerings. Right now, each provider has 4-5 HD channels. As more come online, there will be a bandwidth crunch (since each HD channel will take up the space of 4-6 regular channels). Maybe at the maximum, there will be room for about 20 HD channels for each provider, but there is not enough bandwidth to provide more than that.
Also, Charlie Ergan (the CEO of Echostar, the owner of Dish Network), has done a number of things to piss off the FCC (like challenging the law that says if a provider carries any number of local channels from a city, it must carry all of the channels for that city, regardless of how popular the station is). After he lost the appeal for this law, he tried to do an end-run around the law, and put the most popular networks (the big four plus WB and UPN and in some cases PBS) on the main satellites, and require users to put up a second dish for the smaller stations. The FCC got pissed and told Echostar to do a number of remedies to fix the situation. They have come into compliance of the recomendations, but its still very iffy.
All and all, its a good thing this merger was rejected. The downside is that now Rupert Murdoch will now be the likely owner for DirecTV. Which is better, the devil you know, or the devil you dont?
Yea, whats the restriction on taking that DVD-R to my computer and ripping the data off that onto my computer? Or copying the DVD-R. It seems to meet half way, and its a good compromise, but its not totally secured. Someone could still burn it to DVD, then divx it, then put it up on the net.
While listening to music on a PC is perfectly acceptable, no one is going to pay money to watch the movie on a computer. Not until PCs (with good tv-in/out) become part of the typical home theater setup, movies online wont fly. Or 24" LCD flat panel monitors suddenly drop in price (I'd love the latter).
I do see an opportunity for Tivo et al, they are already putting a 1/2 a computer in the home theater. If they make a linux client and put it on a tivo, then all of a sudden there is a platform to distribute and watch movies. Its VOD via the net. The only problem is you have all the tivo hackers, but oh well.
No you cant!! You buy. And its yours to keep, but it for personal/private use. You cant open a theater and charge people to get in. You dont have "the license" to redistribute it (the content of the movie). Yea you can have friends over to watch it, but you cant charge people and advertise.
The last part of your is true though, DVDs can really dent box office sales.
Adam Smith (D)* Microsoft Corp $22,900 Carpenters & Joiners Union $10,000 Coalition for Amer Financial Security $10,000 Machinists/Aerospace Workers Union $10,000
http://www.opensecrets.org/races/contrib.asp?ID= WA 09&cycle=2002&special=N
I'm sure the people who use the GIS data care more about its usability on a daily basis rather than to rebuild it if it gets destroyed. In fact, as someone who works in GIS (I write pieces software for use with Arc/Info and Autodesk Map), the value of having the whole city layed out with associated attributes is extremely important when it comes to utilities and roads are much more useful during or just after a disaster in compairson to long after the disater is over.
There have been documentaries discussing the fact that the mega media companies, many of whom own one or more huge casinos in Las Vegas
As I resident of vegas, I call bullshit. Most casinos are owned by one of four companies.
Parkplace Entertainment
MGM/Mirage
Stations Casinos
Coast Resorts
I see one name thats a "mega media company". Thats it. So mabye 4 of the top 20 vegas casinos are owned by MGM/Mirage. Thats it. I dont think Sony or Paramount own any casinos.
First, if you were to discover something that important, the govt would have wind of your discovery before you go to reveal it.
Say you invented a new power source, that would put all the electricity companies out of business, and runs off methane. Yes, it would provide great benefits to the average consumer but do you think the energy companies wouldnt do their damnest to keep from going out of business? Wouldnt that including paying off the manufacturers of your product to keep them from producing it? What about arbitrarily raising electricty rates for businesses who produce it? Or cutting off their power supply completely? Dont underestimate the ability of those in control to completely freak out when their world comes crashing down (Hillary Rosen asking for the ability to hack P2P users).
If you came out with an engine that could have thte power of a V8 and the gas milage of a insight, and almost zero maintenence (no oil changes, belts, spark plugs, etc). Do you think the auto industry would be receptive to this? Even worse, do you think the oil industry, with all their power over the white house, would stand for such an invention that would sharply reduce their revenue stream? Hell no, because car dealerships make a good deal of money off the service of vehicles in addition to selling vehicles. You take away a revenue stream, they're going to make less. And you dont want the people selling your stuff to be pissed at you, because they wont do that good of a job. What? start up your own automaker? Oh yea, I've got the money for that in my back pocket, lemme find it....
Look at your computer, its a digital replicator. You can have information, and make thousands of copies of it for "free" (no material expenses, since you already own the computer itself). The computers and the internet poses a threat in the same way the two inventions above pose a threat. Look at the way the internet has been accepting by those in power (control control control, status quo all the way). What makes you think any equally revolutionary invention will be treated differently.
is to sell "monitors" that dont come with *any* tuners. It would actually be nice because then you plug in any device (VCR, Satellite, cable box, etc) and use the tuner provided in that. There is no need to have a tuner in TVs nowadays...
Agreed, for making some rinky-dink database table front end app that I can pump out in 30 minutes for some manager who doesnt know shit for SQL, its pretty good. I use VBA a lot as well, inside of AutoCAD and excel to generate reports and format data.
Student help desk: basically kids can bring their computers in from home or from the dorms and have the techs take a look at it and fix whats wrong. They can call in and get help over the phone too. Open to undergrads/grad students (prolly staff too but I havent seen it advertised)
Keeping the computers up to date: P4s and high end P3s are in all the open computing labs, no P2-450s are left in the open/teaching labs.
15" LCDs: this I think was a waste but thats what they did with the money, they prolly justified it by saying it was a good deal and they are saving money on power consumption (important here in the western US)
Rentable equipment: Laptops, digital cameras, digital camcorders, etc. CC needed for deposit for equipment, rental time is in 4 hour blocks, everything is due back at the end of the day.
IMO, it can't hurt to be very, very, very sure this will be safely stored. A couple more years of study are not all that much when you consider this crap will still be radioactive 10,000 years from now.
Yea, there is no harm in studying it and making sure all the problems can be resolved... that is unless of course its really NOT safe, and more study endangers the project. Its better to get all the funding now and then if they are problems in the future to sweep them under the rug when you arent as accountable. Or at least thats the governments perspective. They can sit on their thumbs and spin for all I care.
As someone who lives in Las Vegas (90 or so miles from Yucca Mtn), I was pretty pissed that the it took only three days for the energy secretary to decide that Yucca mtn would be a suitable home for waste after visiting the site. I'm pretty fucking sure that he got $$ from all the nuke companies. As I'm sure local and state politicians will fight but it wont do any good. I was about to buy a house in vegas, but now I am moving out of town after I graduate from college in two years.
The 721 model is NOT for HDTV. The 921 which is HDTV for all we know might never come out (it probably wouldnt be introduced until after the merger gets approved/denied). The 721 has dual tuners, 75 hours of recording time (but a 100GB HD, they are most likely setting aside some HD space for video on demand, music on demand, etc), USB/ethernet connections (imagine downloading guide info over broadband instead of a phone line or satellite). Anyways..
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What happens if I'm listening to non-terrestrial radio (XM, Sirrus) or listening to a CD, like say, the new System of a Down CD (then they'd know how much I hate ads and corporate america). I still think billboards that have video are too much of a distraction. In todays world of abstracted liability, is it possible that I can sue this company if someone is distracted by their billboard and hits me?
On one side, the client can block popups. Its perfectly legal/morally right.
On the other side, when I request a HTML document from a website, they are no way obligated to send it to me. Calling blockers thieves is bullshit, but they are in no way obligated to serve me data if I block popups. And if IE ever implements popup blocking, the sites that block users who block popups could find themselves with no audience.
The "my" in "my hardware" is totally redundant, is a user really going to wonder if they are configuring someone else's hardware?
Heh, after the next generation of DMCAs and DRM in general, it wont be your hardware in the same way that your car is yours.
Yea, the when part is what gets me. If I download a 30MB file, does it matter if I do it in 10 seconds or 5 minutes? It does from the point that I'll download more if I can get it faster, but not from the standpoint that I'm still going to consume 30MB of the incoming pipe, regardless of the timespan I consume it in.
The monorail will not go to the airport in the initial building. The taxicab authority is too damn powerful to let the monorail go to the airport, they'd lose too much money. The money talks and the people walk... or hail a cab...
This will never happen. Sales tax varies so much from city to county to state. My local govt just put a question on the ballot (and it passed) to increase the local sales tax to build a highway faster. How would this type of fundraising occur under this new "unified" system?
I did shoehorn Win98 onto a 486/66 for my burglar alarm, but it's not a pretty sight.
Well, at least we know your burglar system always locks up.
Hah! I kill me!!
The dish 500 satellite only recieves data from orbital locations 9 degrees apart. Its part of the physical specifics of the dish. It can only focus information from two close locations in space. There is no way you could use the dish 500 unit to get signal from both 110 and 61.5 in the same dish. Besides, dish sends its core programming from 119.
GM needs to pay back into GM's pension fund that they borrowed out of. They need cash, thats the reason.
The biggest point is that in most areas (in temrs of geography) of the country, this reduces multi-channel tv systems from two to one company, and it cities with cable, from 3 to 2.
When the merger first came out it didnt seem so bad, because both satellite companies had stagnated for a while in terms of adding content and local markets (aka local-in-local, or LiL). But in the past year, three spot-beam satellites have become operational, and one more is scheduled to come online. Both Dish network and DirecTV have (or will have soon) the capability to serve the top 100 or so television markets (there are around 220 DMA, or designated viewing areas). Dish Network actually has the capability to serve all 220 DMAs using other oribtal locations for satellites that can see half the country (at 61.5 degrees Wests and 148 degrees West, where as the current satellites that can see all of the CONtinental US are located at 101, 110, and 119 degrees west, aka the three CONUS slots).
The only thing that the merger would have helped is HDTV offerings. Right now, each provider has 4-5 HD channels. As more come online, there will be a bandwidth crunch (since each HD channel will take up the space of 4-6 regular channels). Maybe at the maximum, there will be room for about 20 HD channels for each provider, but there is not enough bandwidth to provide more than that.
Also, Charlie Ergan (the CEO of Echostar, the owner of Dish Network), has done a number of things to piss off the FCC (like challenging the law that says if a provider carries any number of local channels from a city, it must carry all of the channels for that city, regardless of how popular the station is). After he lost the appeal for this law, he tried to do an end-run around the law, and put the most popular networks (the big four plus WB and UPN and in some cases PBS) on the main satellites, and require users to put up a second dish for the smaller stations. The FCC got pissed and told Echostar to do a number of remedies to fix the situation. They have come into compliance of the recomendations, but its still very iffy.
All and all, its a good thing this merger was rejected. The downside is that now Rupert Murdoch will now be the likely owner for DirecTV. Which is better, the devil you know, or the devil you dont?
Yea, whats the restriction on taking that DVD-R to my computer and ripping the data off that onto my computer? Or copying the DVD-R. It seems to meet half way, and its a good compromise, but its not totally secured. Someone could still burn it to DVD, then divx it, then put it up on the net.
While listening to music on a PC is perfectly acceptable, no one is going to pay money to watch the movie on a computer. Not until PCs (with good tv-in/out) become part of the typical home theater setup, movies online wont fly. Or 24" LCD flat panel monitors suddenly drop in price (I'd love the latter).
I do see an opportunity for Tivo et al, they are already putting a 1/2 a computer in the home theater. If they make a linux client and put it on a tivo, then all of a sudden there is a platform to distribute and watch movies. Its VOD via the net. The only problem is you have all the tivo hackers, but oh well.
No you cant!! You buy. And its yours to keep, but it for personal/private use. You cant open a theater and charge people to get in. You dont have "the license" to redistribute it (the content of the movie). Yea you can have friends over to watch it, but you cant charge people and advertise.
The last part of your is true though, DVDs can really dent box office sales.
From OpenSecrets:
= WA 09&cycle=2002&special=N
Top Contributors
2002 RACE: Washington DISTRICT 9
Adam Smith (D)*
Microsoft Corp $22,900
Carpenters & Joiners Union $10,000
Coalition for Amer Financial Security $10,000
Machinists/Aerospace Workers Union $10,000
http://www.opensecrets.org/races/contrib.asp?ID
I'm sure the people who use the GIS data care more about its usability on a daily basis rather than to rebuild it if it gets destroyed. In fact, as someone who works in GIS (I write pieces software for use with Arc/Info and Autodesk Map), the value of having the whole city layed out with associated attributes is extremely important when it comes to utilities and roads are much more useful during or just after a disaster in compairson to long after the disater is over.
There have been documentaries discussing the fact that the mega media companies, many of whom own one or more huge casinos in Las Vegas
As I resident of vegas, I call bullshit. Most casinos are owned by one of four companies.
Parkplace Entertainment
MGM/Mirage
Stations Casinos
Coast Resorts
I see one name thats a "mega media company". Thats it. So mabye 4 of the top 20 vegas casinos are owned by MGM/Mirage. Thats it. I dont think Sony or Paramount own any casinos.
First, if you were to discover something that important, the govt would have wind of your discovery before you go to reveal it.
Say you invented a new power source, that would put all the electricity companies out of business, and runs off methane. Yes, it would provide great benefits to the average consumer but do you think the energy companies wouldnt do their damnest to keep from going out of business? Wouldnt that including paying off the manufacturers of your product to keep them from producing it? What about arbitrarily raising electricty rates for businesses who produce it? Or cutting off their power supply completely? Dont underestimate the ability of those in control to completely freak out when their world comes crashing down (Hillary Rosen asking for the ability to hack P2P users).
If you came out with an engine that could have thte power of a V8 and the gas milage of a insight, and almost zero maintenence (no oil changes, belts, spark plugs, etc). Do you think the auto industry would be receptive to this? Even worse, do you think the oil industry, with all their power over the white house, would stand for such an invention that would sharply reduce their revenue stream? Hell no, because car dealerships make a good deal of money off the service of vehicles in addition to selling vehicles. You take away a revenue stream, they're going to make less. And you dont want the people selling your stuff to be pissed at you, because they wont do that good of a job. What? start up your own automaker? Oh yea, I've got the money for that in my back pocket, lemme find it....
Look at your computer, its a digital replicator. You can have information, and make thousands of copies of it for "free" (no material expenses, since you already own the computer itself). The computers and the internet poses a threat in the same way the two inventions above pose a threat. Look at the way the internet has been accepting by those in power (control control control, status quo all the way). What makes you think any equally revolutionary invention will be treated differently.
is to sell "monitors" that dont come with *any* tuners. It would actually be nice because then you plug in any device (VCR, Satellite, cable box, etc) and use the tuner provided in that. There is no need to have a tuner in TVs nowadays...
Does the pilot have to call and authorize the OS if he fires ammunition off too quickly??
Agreed, for making some rinky-dink database table front end app that I can pump out in 30 minutes for some manager who doesnt know shit for SQL, its pretty good. I use VBA a lot as well, inside of AutoCAD and excel to generate reports and format data.
IMO, it can't hurt to be very, very, very sure this will be safely stored. A couple more years of study are not all that much when you consider this crap will still be radioactive 10,000 years from now.
Yea, there is no harm in studying it and making sure all the problems can be resolved... that is unless of course its really NOT safe, and more study endangers the project. Its better to get all the funding now and then if they are problems in the future to sweep them under the rug when you arent as accountable. Or at least thats the governments perspective. They can sit on their thumbs and spin for all I care.
As someone who lives in Las Vegas (90 or so miles from Yucca Mtn), I was pretty pissed that the it took only three days for the energy secretary to decide that Yucca mtn would be a suitable home for waste after visiting the site. I'm pretty fucking sure that he got $$ from all the nuke companies. As I'm sure local and state politicians will fight but it wont do any good. I was about to buy a house in vegas, but now I am moving out of town after I graduate from college in two years.
I'm pissed, can ya tell?
The 721 model is NOT for HDTV. The 921 which is HDTV for all we know might never come out (it probably wouldnt be introduced until after the merger gets approved/denied). The 721 has dual tuners, 75 hours of recording time (but a 100GB HD, they are most likely setting aside some HD space for video on demand, music on demand, etc), USB/ethernet connections (imagine downloading guide info over broadband instead of a phone line or satellite). Anyways..
How long before the RIAA comes in and tries to force owners of CRTs to stop rebroadcasting copyrighted material. =^/