Exactly. I would never buy a single-format player. Until there are inexpensive dual-format players, I will buy nothing (and yes, I have had a huge HDTV for many years). Even if I end up with a dual-format player, the whole DRM thing is extremly irritating.... so I probably won't BUY any HD movies, just rent them from Netflix, instead of LD (Low Def) DVD's.
Once there are dual-format players, the format war is mostly over. Most consumers will only care about the prices of the movies. The competition between the two might actually help force prices lower. I don't know about you, but I think even $20 for a movie disc is too much... unless it is a REALLY DAMN GOOD MOVIE (which are rare). $10 seems about right to me.
The tiny amount it would make doesn't matter to the environment. However, when in a confined space, ozone will very effectively attack rubber and flexible plastic. My mom had an ozone generator ON LOW in her kitchen, where the computer is. I had to replace her CDROM/DVD drive in the computer 6 times before she finally believed me and turned the damn thing off. That was a year ago- not a single problem since.
Now, if it is that effective on cdrom belts, what does it do to human tissues, like your lungs?
I very rarely pick on grammar. In this case, however, it is warranted. Your posting is interesting and well written, EXCEPT for the word "where". It is extremely distracting, and is not a typo... since you misused it twice. The misuse undermines the quality (and credibility) of the posting.
"Where" is an indication of the location of something. (Where do you want to eat dinner tonight?) "Were" is the past, imperfect, plural tense of "be" or "are". (We were going to eat here, but decided against it.)
> Not, of course, a good option. But, if you just HAVE to download a movie from WalMart.com, you actually can.
If you mean IES4Linux, yes
>The IEs 4 Linux project will install IE 5.0,5.5,6.0 on a Linux box, and I believe they have a beta working with IE7.
And it was IES4Linux that was actually letting me "get by"... it was a life saver... UNTIL, after upgrading from MDK 2006.0 to 2007.0 (or 2007.1). Then, no matter what I did, it was simply not possible to get Acrobat Reader plugin working in IES anymore. Downgraded IES, downgraded WINE, nothing. So I am stuck again:(
>It's better to complain and get the issue fixed than it is to waste time on the endless task of chasing M$'s tail.
Well, I agree with that, which is why I *do* complain, and give lots of info and why. I also tell my staff the same thing, and also my LUG. But if they don't fix it, it is still me that suffers. This is a case where I can't choose to just "use another vendor", unfortunately.
Well, I wish that were the case in the US. There are still *FAR* too many sites that have IE-only components. So, although the vast majority (90%+) of sites we use (at work) work for us (we use only FireFox), there are still a few important sites that cause a nightmare for us. Since we use Linux only, running IE is not an option. (And yes, I know about emulators and IES4Linux, which are nice, but don't work everywhere, don't work well for thin clients, and/or are difficult to maintain).
What is more irritating is that those few IE-only sites are about 95% working with Firefox. There are usually only a few parts of the site that don't work (but that is all it takes). With minimal correction/effort, those sites would work on any platform. But even after repeated begging (on one, for YEARS), a few such sites have still had no interest in "fixing" things. I do wish there was a version of Firefox/Mozilla that had an IE-compatibility mode... "FireIE Fox" or something, for use in such cases.
Fortunately, another few broken sites finally "saw the light", probably due to complaints from people like us, and fixed things.
"Normal", whatever that is. You have to pull down your pants and underwear some, regardless of standing or sitting... unless you think messing with a silly "fly" on underwear makes any sense at all.... (And no, none of my underwear even HAVE "flies").
Next topic: What type of underwear men wear.... ug!!!!!!!
I am a man- I sit down ALL THE TIME with private toilets- you have to more than 50% of the time, ANYWAY. Much less messy, much less noise, slightly faster, no conflicts. I don't give a rat's a** what anyone thinks (not like anyone would know, anyway, unless I post it in a stupid message on Slashdot for a million people to read).
Now, public restrooms? I will use the urinal when possible, which is what it is there for. My conclusion? Unless the private bathroom also has a urnal, just sit, for crying out loud!
If you want another interesting thing to statistically fight over: Do you leave the LID closed or open? At my house, it is always to be closed. Why? Because it grosses me out when the cats drink out of the toilets!!!
(This has got to be the silliest thread I have ever seen on Slashdot!)
I think you are overestimating how expensive fiber components are. I am going to guess that the connectors and associated electronics to support HDMI are more expensive than what is necessary for fiber.
Almost every reasonable DVD player has fiber for audio. All mid/high-end recievers have fiber for audio. Doesn't have to be laser based for shorter ( under 100 feet) runs (although I don't know the exact length limits).
>Quick gripe - fibre has resistance of a sort. The signal strength
True, but over the distances we are talking about (typical cable 6-8feet, long cable Consumers will bend, kink and otherwise break fibre leads -----------
oops, I had a paste mistake... try 2
>Quick gripe - fibre has resistance of a sort. The signal strength
True, but over the distances we are talking about (typical cable 6-8feet, long cable Consumers will bend, kink and otherwise break fibre leads
>Quick gripe - fibre has resistance of a sort. The signal strength
True, but over the distances we are talking about (typical cable 6-8feet, long cable Consumers will bend, kink and otherwise break fibre leads
Also true, but wind it in something a little more robust and trade ultra-thinness for a lot more kink-resistance and there you go. I have always been VERY afraid of fiber damage, but in over a decade of working with it (even in hostile environments with VERY flimsy cables) I haven't had any fail.
Of course I say that, and now Monday one will get broken:)
The simple fact is that the ONLY choice for HD digital video transmission SHOULD have been fiber optic:
1) With two fibers in a cable, there would be more than enough bandwidth for 1080P + digital surround sound. It is future proof. 2) It is fully bidirectional, which can be useful for error correction or detection, or for signal confirmation, or perhaps for two-way audio/video. 3) It can operate at great distance. 4) The cables would be FAR cheaper than the extremely complex and expensive DVI/HDMI cables. 5) With serial transmissions over a single pair, the encoding could be changed at any point in the future for different formats.
Let's look at the author's problems with twisted pairs and what it would mean with optical:
1) Time- not a problem, because it is all serial 2) Resistance: fiber has none 3) Skin effect: fiber has none 4) Capacitance: fiber has none 5) Impedance: fiber has none 6) Crosstalk: fiber has none 7) Inductance: fiber has none
Lets add
8) RFI: fiber has none 9) Signal leak (causing potential interference with OTHER devices): fiber has none 10) Cable thickness: fiber would be 6+ times narrower and easier to route and hide 11) Connector size: perhaps 4 times smaller with fiber? (Think handhelds, laptops, etc)
When I first saw DVI, I thought the designers had gone insane. WHO CARES about analog signals? We already have PLENTY of cable standards for that (VGA, Component, SVideo, Composite)! It looks tremendously complex and overkill to relay a stream of information THAT IS ALREADY being delivered serially over the air, from DVD's, from tuners, from ANY source. Then they "fixed" it with HDMI?? Right- make the connector IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to ever make their own or repair, add audio, and ignore all other issues (oh, and the cable costs are even more expensive than the already expensive DVI). Then to have to throw "dual link" into the mess because the "standard" set of over a dozen wires doesn't have enough bandwidth...
About the only negative with fiber is that you can't kink the cable and expect it to survive. I say "small price to pay". Oh well, maybe the next revision they will wake up??
>But Calc will treat the column headings as data and sort them into the middle of the list! >Excel knows that the first line is not data if it's a different text style from the rest of the list. Polish.
Um, I use calc all the time. It's default is that the first row is headings and it will not "sort them into the middle of the list" unless you specifically tell it to do that.
>Having a sheet loaded and trying to print will print the whole entire freaking spreadsheet, all sheets, all ranges in Calc. > That's just stupid. Excel will (for obvious reasons) default to printing only the sheet you're on. More polish.
That isn't polish- that is opinion. Calc will print just the current sheet or all sheets. The default is all. You can change that at will. Although I agree that a more logical default (for me) would be to print just the current sheet.
Don't get me wrong, I have a list of annoyances with OO, but it doesn't include those:) Even so, for a free, cross-platform Office package, OpenOffice is quite impressive and does almost everything that I and my 150 users need (even many things that MS-Office would not, even it if COULD run on our systems AND we could afford it).
It is not convenient when you use Linux. ITunes is not an open site (like Emusic is). I want a site that I can buy non-DRM, non-lossy, any-label music, using any major browser, under any OS, for a reasonable price... guess I will be waiting a while. But Lord help me if it does happen because my wallet will drain quickly.
It's not OS/X. It's OS X. And it's not "oh ess ex" it's "oh ess ten"
I find it much more descriptive, logical, and accurate to just call it "MacOS 10", because that is what it is- version 10 of MacOS. If you want more detail, just tack it on: "MacOS 10.2". Nothing looks more insanely stupid than someone saying "MacOS X version 10.2".... it is like saying "Linux 2 version 2.6" or perhaps "Linux II version 2.6"
Besides, does that mean there will never be a version 11 of MacOS? Will it be "MacOS X version 11", "MacOS XI version 11", or just "MacOS 11"?
You (and the "anonymous coward" poster) have some very good points. I did neglect to take the Openstep history into better account, which was a mistake.
Of course, we must recognize that X really is and has been *the* choice for all Unix systems and had been the most mature solution at any given point in time. I understand it wasn't what Apple was looking for, and that Openstep/DPS did/does have certain advantages. But the amount of development effort that went into adapting Openstep to mutate into what Apple now uses (Quartz/Aqua) could probably have been applied to X, extending it in ways more flexible for everyone. They already had experience with X under A/UX, and A/UX could run with just X. But, that was not their objective.
It is unfortunate it had to turn out this way, because there could have been a situation that developers would not be faced with three choices: MS-Windows, Unix/X, and Unix/Quartz, but only two.... it would have made the decision to support non-MS-Windows platforms more attractive to those who didn't and easier to expand for those who did... a win for Apple and non-Apple *ix platforms. Oh well.
MacOS's BSD-like basis (and X11 support) means it is usually fairly simple to port Unix applications to MacOS (often just a recompile); the other direction is a lot more difficult.
To that I would say: That is probably the #1 reason Apple chose to shun/reject X and use their own, proprietary GUI.
As Compiz/Beryl now show, X (X11, of course) is quite capable of doing anything that Apple's GUI can do. Apple could have used X in MacOS 10 by adding/extending the 3D support, adding X extensions, and developing an Appley toolkit and window manager (they had to do that ANYWAY for their own propietary stuff). But if Apple HAD chosen to use X, then they would have made it FAR too easy for companies to port Apple MacOS software to Linux. Instead, they have an Xserver for the purpose of running non-native (read: all the GNU/BSD/Linux/Native Unix GUI) stuff in addition to their own apps.
Many people have to wake up and realize that Apple has very little altruism... they have no desire to have competition from Linux any more that Microsoft does. Apple is quite happy to take apps/technology/whatever from BSD, GNU, X, even Linux... but it unfortunately doesn't work the other way around.
You can't compare any other ipod model's battery life to the Nano... hard drive models have HUGE batteries in comparison, and the shuffle has hardly any brain and no display (I owned a shuffle too, and the battery life seemed like FOREVER on it).
Yes, skipping a song would turn on the backlight- but just a few seconds. Skipping a song every 15 minutes should be, overall, negligible on total battery life. So either Apple's claims are completely bogus, or my unit is defective (from purchase, a year ago).
I generally believe in the half-battery theory. Whatever the manufacturer claims for electronics' battery life... cut it in half, and that will be much more accurate. Seems to work with my cell phone, laptop, ipods, recorders, wireless phones... just about everything.
I had it set to 15 seconds on the backlight. The way I use it, I always listen to random, with an occasional skip to next song (sometimes never skipping, without triggering backlight). I have never seen greater than about 5.5 hours. I don't think 24 hours is a reasonable claim, ever. Skipping to the next song infrequenty should make all that much difference on a Nano, since it has no hard drive to spin up? Maybe mine is a bum unit or something.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly. I would never buy a single-format player. Until there are inexpensive dual-format players, I will buy nothing (and yes, I have had a huge HDTV for many years). Even if I end up with a dual-format player, the whole DRM thing is extremly irritating.... so I probably won't BUY any HD movies, just rent them from Netflix, instead of LD (Low Def) DVD's.
Once there are dual-format players, the format war is mostly over. Most consumers will only care about the prices of the movies. The competition between the two might actually help force prices lower. I don't know about you, but I think even $20 for a movie disc is too much... unless it is a REALLY DAMN GOOD MOVIE (which are rare). $10 seems about right to me.
The tiny amount it would make doesn't matter to the environment. However, when in a confined space, ozone will very effectively attack rubber and flexible plastic. My mom had an ozone generator ON LOW in her kitchen, where the computer is. I had to replace her CDROM/DVD drive in the computer 6 times before she finally believed me and turned the damn thing off. That was a year ago- not a single problem since.
Now, if it is that effective on cdrom belts, what does it do to human tissues, like your lungs?
I very rarely pick on grammar. In this case, however, it is warranted. Your posting is interesting and well written, EXCEPT for the word "where". It is extremely distracting, and is not a typo... since you misused it twice. The misuse undermines the quality (and credibility) of the posting.
"Where" is an indication of the location of something. (Where do you want to eat dinner tonight?)
"Were" is the past, imperfect, plural tense of "be" or "are". (We were going to eat here, but decided against it.)
>Well, actually it is an option.
:(
Not IE tab, it isn't.
> Not, of course, a good option. But, if you just HAVE to download a movie from WalMart.com, you actually can.
If you mean IES4Linux, yes
>The IEs 4 Linux project will install IE 5.0,5.5,6.0 on a Linux box, and I believe they have a beta working with IE7.
And it was IES4Linux that was actually letting me "get by"... it was a life saver... UNTIL, after upgrading from MDK 2006.0 to 2007.0 (or 2007.1). Then, no matter what I did, it was simply not possible to get Acrobat Reader plugin working in IES anymore. Downgraded IES, downgraded WINE, nothing. So I am stuck again
>IE Tab
Runs under MS-Windows only.
>It's better to complain and get the issue fixed than it is to waste time on the endless task of chasing M$'s tail. Well, I agree with that, which is why I *do* complain, and give lots of info and why. I also tell my staff the same thing, and also my LUG. But if they don't fix it, it is still me that suffers. This is a case where I can't choose to just "use another vendor", unfortunately.
>$this->isa(joke)&&laugh()
I assure you, it is not a joke, nor is it funny
Well, I wish that were the case in the US. There are still *FAR* too many sites that have IE-only components. So, although the vast majority (90%+) of sites we use (at work) work for us (we use only FireFox), there are still a few important sites that cause a nightmare for us. Since we use Linux only, running IE is not an option. (And yes, I know about emulators and IES4Linux, which are nice, but don't work everywhere, don't work well for thin clients, and/or are difficult to maintain).
What is more irritating is that those few IE-only sites are about 95% working with Firefox. There are usually only a few parts of the site that don't work (but that is all it takes). With minimal correction/effort, those sites would work on any platform. But even after repeated begging (on one, for YEARS), a few such sites have still had no interest in "fixing" things. I do wish there was a version of Firefox/Mozilla that had an IE-compatibility mode... "FireIE Fox" or something, for use in such cases.
Fortunately, another few broken sites finally "saw the light", probably due to complaints from people like us, and fixed things.
>For one thing, no employer should ever have the right to demand the violation of an employee's body.
They already do. It is called "drug testing" without probable cause.
Go F yourself. Seriously, you should go F yourself, since your brain levels must be off or something.
Even if you sit to #1, you still have to aim, silly. It isn't a hands-free endeavour!
"Normal", whatever that is. You have to pull down your pants and underwear some, regardless of standing or sitting... unless you think messing with a silly "fly" on underwear makes any sense at all.... (And no, none of my underwear even HAVE "flies").
Next topic: What type of underwear men wear.... ug!!!!!!!
I am a man- I sit down ALL THE TIME with private toilets- you have to more than 50% of the time, ANYWAY. Much less messy, much less noise, slightly faster, no conflicts. I don't give a rat's a** what anyone thinks (not like anyone would know, anyway, unless I post it in a stupid message on Slashdot for a million people to read).
Now, public restrooms? I will use the urinal when possible, which is what it is there for. My conclusion? Unless the private bathroom also has a urnal, just sit, for crying out loud!
If you want another interesting thing to statistically fight over: Do you leave the LID closed or open? At my house, it is always to be closed. Why? Because it grosses me out when the cats drink out of the toilets!!!
(This has got to be the silliest thread I have ever seen on Slashdot!)
I think you are overestimating how expensive fiber components are. I am going to guess that the connectors and associated electronics to support HDMI are more expensive than what is necessary for fiber.
Almost every reasonable DVD player has fiber for audio. All mid/high-end recievers have fiber for audio. Doesn't have to be laser based for shorter ( under 100 feet) runs (although I don't know the exact length limits).
I give up, obviously it won't allow me to type and paste the way I want! "My bad" for not previewing first. You get the idea, though :)
>Quick gripe - fibre has resistance of a sort. The signal strength
True, but over the distances we are talking about (typical cable 6-8feet, long cable Consumers will bend, kink and otherwise break fibre leads
-----------
oops, I had a paste mistake... try 2
>Quick gripe - fibre has resistance of a sort. The signal strength
True, but over the distances we are talking about (typical cable 6-8feet, long cable Consumers will bend, kink and otherwise break fibre leads
(see posting above).
>Quick gripe - fibre has resistance of a sort. The signal strength
:)
True, but over the distances we are talking about (typical cable 6-8feet, long cable Consumers will bend, kink and otherwise break fibre leads
Also true, but wind it in something a little more robust and trade ultra-thinness for a lot more kink-resistance and there you go. I have always been VERY afraid of fiber damage, but in over a decade of working with it (even in hostile environments with VERY flimsy cables) I haven't had any fail.
Of course I say that, and now Monday one will get broken
The simple fact is that the ONLY choice for HD digital video transmission SHOULD have been fiber optic:
1) With two fibers in a cable, there would be more than enough bandwidth for 1080P + digital surround sound. It is future proof.
2) It is fully bidirectional, which can be useful for error correction or detection, or for signal confirmation, or perhaps for two-way audio/video.
3) It can operate at great distance.
4) The cables would be FAR cheaper than the extremely complex and expensive DVI/HDMI cables.
5) With serial transmissions over a single pair, the encoding could be changed at any point in the future for different formats.
Let's look at the author's problems with twisted pairs and what it would mean with optical:
1) Time- not a problem, because it is all serial
2) Resistance: fiber has none
3) Skin effect: fiber has none
4) Capacitance: fiber has none
5) Impedance: fiber has none
6) Crosstalk: fiber has none
7) Inductance: fiber has none
Lets add
8) RFI: fiber has none
9) Signal leak (causing potential interference with OTHER devices): fiber has none
10) Cable thickness: fiber would be 6+ times narrower and easier to route and hide
11) Connector size: perhaps 4 times smaller with fiber? (Think handhelds, laptops, etc)
When I first saw DVI, I thought the designers had gone insane. WHO CARES about analog signals? We already have PLENTY of cable standards for that (VGA, Component, SVideo, Composite)! It looks tremendously complex and overkill to relay a stream of information THAT IS ALREADY being delivered serially over the air, from DVD's, from tuners, from ANY source. Then they "fixed" it with HDMI?? Right- make the connector IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to ever make their own or repair, add audio, and ignore all other issues (oh, and the cable costs are even more expensive than the already expensive DVI). Then to have to throw "dual link" into the mess because the "standard" set of over a dozen wires doesn't have enough bandwidth...
About the only negative with fiber is that you can't kink the cable and expect it to survive. I say "small price to pay". Oh well, maybe the next revision they will wake up??
Just a few observations:
:) Even so, for a free, cross-platform Office package, OpenOffice is quite impressive and does almost everything that I and my 150 users need (even many things that MS-Office would not, even it if COULD run on our systems AND we could afford it).
>But Calc will treat the column headings as data and sort them into the middle of the list!
>Excel knows that the first line is not data if it's a different text style from the rest of the list. Polish.
Um, I use calc all the time. It's default is that the first row is headings and it will not "sort them into the middle of the list" unless you specifically tell it to do that.
>Having a sheet loaded and trying to print will print the whole entire freaking spreadsheet, all sheets, all ranges in Calc.
> That's just stupid. Excel will (for obvious reasons) default to printing only the sheet you're on. More polish.
That isn't polish- that is opinion. Calc will print just the current sheet or all sheets. The default is all. You can change that at will. Although I agree that a more logical default (for me) would be to print just the current sheet.
Don't get me wrong, I have a list of annoyances with OO, but it doesn't include those
>[Itunes] It's also considerably more convenient.
It is not convenient when you use Linux. ITunes is not an open site (like Emusic is). I want a site that I can buy non-DRM, non-lossy, any-label music, using any major browser, under any OS, for a reasonable price... guess I will be waiting a while. But Lord help me if it does happen because my wallet will drain quickly.
Besides, does that mean there will never be a version 11 of MacOS? Will it be "MacOS X version 11", "MacOS XI version 11", or just "MacOS 11"?
You (and the "anonymous coward" poster) have some very good points. I did neglect to take the Openstep history into better account, which was a mistake.
Of course, we must recognize that X really is and has been *the* choice for all Unix systems and had been the most mature solution at any given point in time. I understand it wasn't what Apple was looking for, and that Openstep/DPS did/does have certain advantages. But the amount of development effort that went into adapting Openstep to mutate into what Apple now uses (Quartz/Aqua) could probably have been applied to X, extending it in ways more flexible for everyone. They already had experience with X under A/UX, and A/UX could run with just X. But, that was not their objective.
It is unfortunate it had to turn out this way, because there could have been a situation that developers would not be faced with three choices: MS-Windows, Unix/X, and Unix/Quartz, but only two.... it would have made the decision to support non-MS-Windows platforms more attractive to those who didn't and easier to expand for those who did... a win for Apple and non-Apple *ix platforms. Oh well.
As Compiz/Beryl now show, X (X11, of course) is quite capable of doing anything that Apple's GUI can do. Apple could have used X in MacOS 10 by adding/extending the 3D support, adding X extensions, and developing an Appley toolkit and window manager (they had to do that ANYWAY for their own propietary stuff). But if Apple HAD chosen to use X, then they would have made it FAR too easy for companies to port Apple MacOS software to Linux. Instead, they have an Xserver for the purpose of running non-native (read: all the GNU/BSD/Linux/Native Unix GUI) stuff in addition to their own apps.
Many people have to wake up and realize that Apple has very little altruism... they have no desire to have competition from Linux any more that Microsoft does. Apple is quite happy to take apps/technology/whatever from BSD, GNU, X, even Linux... but it unfortunately doesn't work the other way around.
This is a 4GB nano. I play 160Kbit MP3s, only.
You can't compare any other ipod model's battery life to the Nano... hard drive models have HUGE batteries in comparison, and the shuffle has hardly any brain and no display (I owned a shuffle too, and the battery life seemed like FOREVER on it).
Yes, skipping a song would turn on the backlight- but just a few seconds. Skipping a song every 15 minutes should be, overall, negligible on total battery life. So either Apple's claims are completely bogus, or my unit is defective (from purchase, a year ago).
I generally believe in the half-battery theory. Whatever the manufacturer claims for electronics' battery life... cut it in half, and that will be much more accurate. Seems to work with my cell phone, laptop, ipods, recorders, wireless phones... just about everything.
I had it set to 15 seconds on the backlight. The way I use it, I always listen to random, with an occasional skip to next song (sometimes never skipping, without triggering backlight). I have never seen greater than about 5.5 hours. I don't think 24 hours is a reasonable claim, ever. Skipping to the next song infrequenty should make all that much difference on a Nano, since it has no hard drive to spin up? Maybe mine is a bum unit or something.