GEs are pure junk. It should say right on the box "the worse junk for the money." We have a GE here that is useless - not because it doesn't play, but because it only plays when it wants. And even then it only plays the channels it wants, at the volume setting it wants. Basically the cheap shit PC boards are pure junk, fail, with the result of a microprocessor (that runs the show in virtually ALL teevees these days) that seems to have a will of its own. if it turns on it may turn right back off, and if it stays on you may have to unplug it to shut it off. Oh, and you'll need to leave it unplugged overnight so the juice will drain low enough to allow the fucked up microprocessor to reset. Teevees, after all, don't have RESET buttons.
I would never buy a Sony because they are overpriced junk, but I'd also never buy a GE just because there are so many brands of the same price that ARE NOT junk - Philips/Magnavox, Sanyo, etc. Just find one that looks good, use the remote to turn it ALL THE WAY UP and watch for picture shrinkage in sync wiht the audio. The ones with the least picture shrinkage have the better power supplies, which is the number one failure point in any TV. Buy it, take it home and run the balls off it for 90 days. After that, if it's still reasonably good as new, keep it.
Oh, and waiting for HDTV top "stabilize" at this point is like waiting for the polar caps to thaw. You can get a fucking HD set now for like $500, and the greater picture quality improves regular TV, DVDs, satellite - even here in buttfuck, mississippi there's plenty of programming to take advantage of it. Why on earth would anyone at this point spend $1000 on a "non HD" set when it would be guaranteed to be obsolete before the end of the decade?
It's not pirating if the law allows it. If your government chooses not to recognize the copyright protections afforded by other nations, then it ain't piracy. The US did exactly this in the beginning - just as many underpriviledged nations still do today.
Why do you think the US is so keen on coercing the world's nations into signing onto the WTO treaty? In the case of china, who has the power? The US, who buys all those goods? Or china, who supplies all those cheap goods the people of the US depends on?
When you become the leading supplier of technology and those same factories can be used to build pretty much any technology, who says the engineering has to come from the US?
You can call a chinese manufacturing company, tell them what you want the product to do, and (assuming thye don't already have such a product) they will design it (or add your eatures to their existing product), build a prototype, and schedule production and delivery for you. All you need is an idea and a marketing plan and you, too, could become the next tivo.
Why doesn't law matter? Because even if the license holder loses a case (as has already happened with adobe regarding shrinkwrap licenses) they can (and do) STILL make the very same threats against others. Precedents mean nothing until they are parlayed into orders from a judge; not everyone has the money to fight a case in court, and many more (even if they have the money) realize it's cheaper to just pay the extortion fees and be done with it.
This is how our corporate culture works, and the only way around it is to tell the crooks to fuck off and not use their products.
True (sorta) but if you spend an hour or two "getting up" then an hour coming down - and you're doing a couple of machs peak speed, then you can travel a really, really long way in that last hour.
Wasn't the plan to launch this thing at 60,000 feet or more at 300+ MPH?
Don't buy their shit in the first place and you'll be sure to "win." Or, if you want to protest, buy the CD, use EAC to rip it, post it to usenet, and return the fucking CD. The other poor schmucks who don't have the skills to rip it themselves will benefit, the artist's fans will benefit, and the record company will take *yet another) hit due to their own stupid greed.
One thing is sure: nobody wins so long as you keep giving them money.
I'm still waiting for those "self destruct" DVDs to show up. I live an hour from the nearest DVD rental shop and would love nothing more than to plunk down five bucks for a DVD of a movie that I could take home, rip to my hard drive, and then throw away.
It's not like DVDs aren't already self destructable. This new technology (that I still haven't seen) has just sped up the process slightly. If the price is right, it's a better bargain than a rental.
In the older press release they mentioned the entire flight would be very short - something like 30-45 minutes. But with this sort of glide rate (avg sink less than 12fps when moving 150fps?) the possibilities for "space" (subspace? suborbital?) tourism seem much more clear. A 30 minute trip doesn't sound like much fun at all, but if you're in a ship that can glide back to earth over 4 or 5 hours, that opens all sorts of new doors - like transatlantic flight, to name one. Not as many passengers as the Concorde, but an infinitely cooler trip.
Being an introvert doesn't mean not being around any people, it just means you don't like being around lots of people. I pretty much despise large parties and always have, but that doesn't mean I don't like being around a few friends and having a good time. I can fearlessly deliver a speech, presentation or even get up and do a sermon if I have to, but that still doesn't mean I'm not an introvert - nor does it mean I do not "hate people" in a mroe general sense.
"People" are, by and large, assholes, bigots and users. I have little tolerance for this on a personal level, but that doesn't mean one can't function and even lead in a group of people - just as being an introvert (apparently) didn't stop Mr. Jordan from flying around the court, or stop Johnny Carson from making america laugh every night for 30-odd years.
Not liking people (and saying it) isn't necessarily about "enabling" at all. More likely, it's just about not liking people and all the bullshit they put each other through.
It is not a sustainable business. There is no room for growth here, only short term gain. And when the FTC investigation begins they may well find themselves libel for damages as well as (dare we hope) a bit of jail time for select executives. I dunno about you, but I would say that's a supremely flawed business model.
hey I don't fault anyone for living in a gated community - if that floats yer boat better you than me. Calling such a place "free" however, is absurd.
You know, I'm beginning to take more pride in the stuff the dittoheads here mod as "troll" than I am the stuff that gets modded up. It seems as if exhibiting any critical thinking here (that doesn't tow the party line) gets a post modded as "troll."
I sure understand why perens and katz can hardly be found around here any more. this community has lost its balls to a bunch of corporate shills and jobs-droids.
Life is so much simpler when you don't have shareholders, boards of directors, lawyers and... well, money.
Right, it is. That's why this is a joke of a "free" license. You have to "have an ID" to "accept" terms of the license? Contributing to this "free" code is the closest you can come to being Apple's indentured servent. This does bring with it all sorts of "free" connotations, unfortunately none of them really embody what freedom is supposed to be about.
Saw this earlier today. My first thought was how cool it was to see the old cray logo again. More than that, 'tho, I can see some real possibilities here. Since home computers are increasingly looking like supercomputers of yore, it will be interesting to see if any of this technology trickles down to the home market. I want a CRAY AMD box.
for example, they haven't yet finished the page http://www.respectcopyrights.org/howwestolecopyrig ht.html
or http://www.respectcopyrights.org/televisionisyourg odandweownit.html
So, you haven't "bothered" with the place in years because "you know" what's there sucks?
Three months ago I posted a 'real" (disposable) email address in a sex group. Then I did it a few more times. Since then I have received TWO spams to that address - in contrast to what I considered a "permanent" email address that apparently got into the hands of one of those allegedly "opt in" sex site lists about six months ago and is now utterly useless due to the dozens of spams the box gets every single day (more than 500 a week, in fact).
It's easy to identify the "spam" groups - just look at a page of stats at all the binaries groups that average the same number of posts. Generally, any groups with message counts notably above or below the average are either very active groups or are "occupied" groups that are well maintained by their communities.
So far as "quality" I have found far more "quality" in usenet than I have ever found in p2p apps and most of the free web. Even when i had the prodicgious bandwidth to share via p2p I didn't bother, for usenet was far more compelling than anything napster or imesh had to offer: well informed opinions (in the right discussion groups) and a large amount of high quality and carefully catalogued content in the binaries groups.
To wit: if you want to collect complete albums of good quality you don't do the onesy-twosy crap of p2p; you hit the newsgroups. And if you want to collect the complete collection of playboy scans, suze randall, or amateur teen kingdom, you don't do the onesy twosey shit of p2p; again, you hit the newsgroups, where the people who share and post do so for the glory and, therefore, actually take some amount of pride in their service - not only in posting, but in keeping the community culled of spam. There even (at least) one group I know of where a community member with his own website (and server) makes automated hourly posts - sort of anti-spams - of on-topic material just to help keep the community S/N level high.
There are few places you find such a collection of individuals so dedicated to their communities as you find on usenet.
you're only looking at half the picture. Because it is free for you and me to download does NOT mean the artist gives up ownership of copyright. I can publish my song on my website, give it away to the usenet and p2p community, and still sue the balls off any broadcaster who plays it without my consent. (This, BTW, is why the fools who call for abolition of copyright need a big whack with the clue stick.)
If an artists asks for $10,000 to publish a work they can do so without giving up all rights to it. And under such a system there would be no "platinum records" because there are no records. however, if an unkown artist releases a song that's an instant club fave and is getting scads of p2p and usenet traffic, then it's also going to attract the attention of those same people that pay britney and jlo and all the rest: the advertisers. So, the unkown artist gets a chance to make their money the same way as the rest: on commercials and tv appearances and sponsored tours.
Slashdot Mirror
What an unfortunate acronym. Maybe when they get an editor put together they can call it STD Edit.
I would never buy a Sony because they are overpriced junk, but I'd also never buy a GE just because there are so many brands of the same price that ARE NOT junk - Philips/Magnavox, Sanyo, etc. Just find one that looks good, use the remote to turn it ALL THE WAY UP and watch for picture shrinkage in sync wiht the audio. The ones with the least picture shrinkage have the better power supplies, which is the number one failure point in any TV. Buy it, take it home and run the balls off it for 90 days. After that, if it's still reasonably good as new, keep it.
Oh, and waiting for HDTV top "stabilize" at this point is like waiting for the polar caps to thaw. You can get a fucking HD set now for like $500, and the greater picture quality improves regular TV, DVDs, satellite - even here in buttfuck, mississippi there's plenty of programming to take advantage of it. Why on earth would anyone at this point spend $1000 on a "non HD" set when it would be guaranteed to be obsolete before the end of the decade?
Why do you think the US is so keen on coercing the world's nations into signing onto the WTO treaty? In the case of china, who has the power? The US, who buys all those goods? Or china, who supplies all those cheap goods the people of the US depends on?
You can call a chinese manufacturing company, tell them what you want the product to do, and (assuming thye don't already have such a product) they will design it (or add your eatures to their existing product), build a prototype, and schedule production and delivery for you. All you need is an idea and a marketing plan and you, too, could become the next tivo.
Hilarious. So in what capacity are you working on this project?
Uh... dude... the thing has a fucking rocket engine on it to take it up to 100,000+ feet. Did you miss that part?
This is how our corporate culture works, and the only way around it is to tell the crooks to fuck off and not use their products.
Wasn't the plan to launch this thing at 60,000 feet or more at 300+ MPH?
One thing is sure: nobody wins so long as you keep giving them money.
It's not like DVDs aren't already self destructable. This new technology (that I still haven't seen) has just sped up the process slightly. If the price is right, it's a better bargain than a rental.
In the older press release they mentioned the entire flight would be very short - something like 30-45 minutes. But with this sort of glide rate (avg sink less than 12fps when moving 150fps?) the possibilities for "space" (subspace? suborbital?) tourism seem much more clear. A 30 minute trip doesn't sound like much fun at all, but if you're in a ship that can glide back to earth over 4 or 5 hours, that opens all sorts of new doors - like transatlantic flight, to name one. Not as many passengers as the Concorde, but an infinitely cooler trip.
...many folks still use tubes. Take one hell of an EMP even to pop a couple of 6LF6's.
There's a very good reason the military uses so much RF gear, you know. You don't really think all hams do is chat on HF.. do you?
you can talk about anything you like, and leave it open for comments and discussion.
"People" are, by and large, assholes, bigots and users. I have little tolerance for this on a personal level, but that doesn't mean one can't function and even lead in a group of people - just as being an introvert (apparently) didn't stop Mr. Jordan from flying around the court, or stop Johnny Carson from making america laugh every night for 30-odd years.
Not liking people (and saying it) isn't necessarily about "enabling" at all. More likely, it's just about not liking people and all the bullshit they put each other through.
It is not a sustainable business. There is no room for growth here, only short term gain. And when the FTC investigation begins they may well find themselves libel for damages as well as (dare we hope) a bit of jail time for select executives. I dunno about you, but I would say that's a supremely flawed business model.
the only "quality" I see in streaming real is that vivid green bar.
You know, I'm beginning to take more pride in the stuff the dittoheads here mod as "troll" than I am the stuff that gets modded up. It seems as if exhibiting any critical thinking here (that doesn't tow the party line) gets a post modded as "troll."
I sure understand why perens and katz can hardly be found around here any more. this community has lost its balls to a bunch of corporate shills and jobs-droids.
life in a gated community. That ain't "free" for anyone - especially when a corporation holds the keys to the kingdom.
Right, it is. That's why this is a joke of a "free" license. You have to "have an ID" to "accept" terms of the license? Contributing to this "free" code is the closest you can come to being Apple's indentured servent. This does bring with it all sorts of "free" connotations, unfortunately none of them really embody what freedom is supposed to be about.
Saw this earlier today. My first thought was how cool it was to see the old cray logo again. More than that, 'tho, I can see some real possibilities here. Since home computers are increasingly looking like supercomputers of yore, it will be interesting to see if any of this technology trickles down to the home market. I want a CRAY AMD box.
for example, they haven't yet finished the page http://www.respectcopyrights.org/howwestolecopyrig ht.html
or http://www.respectcopyrights.org/televisionisyourg odandweownit.html
Three months ago I posted a 'real" (disposable) email address in a sex group. Then I did it a few more times. Since then I have received TWO spams to that address - in contrast to what I considered a "permanent" email address that apparently got into the hands of one of those allegedly "opt in" sex site lists about six months ago and is now utterly useless due to the dozens of spams the box gets every single day (more than 500 a week, in fact).
It's easy to identify the "spam" groups - just look at a page of stats at all the binaries groups that average the same number of posts. Generally, any groups with message counts notably above or below the average are either very active groups or are "occupied" groups that are well maintained by their communities.
So far as "quality" I have found far more "quality" in usenet than I have ever found in p2p apps and most of the free web. Even when i had the prodicgious bandwidth to share via p2p I didn't bother, for usenet was far more compelling than anything napster or imesh had to offer: well informed opinions (in the right discussion groups) and a large amount of high quality and carefully catalogued content in the binaries groups.
To wit: if you want to collect complete albums of good quality you don't do the onesy-twosy crap of p2p; you hit the newsgroups. And if you want to collect the complete collection of playboy scans, suze randall, or amateur teen kingdom, you don't do the onesy twosey shit of p2p; again, you hit the newsgroups, where the people who share and post do so for the glory and, therefore, actually take some amount of pride in their service - not only in posting, but in keeping the community culled of spam. There even (at least) one group I know of where a community member with his own website (and server) makes automated hourly posts - sort of anti-spams - of on-topic material just to help keep the community S/N level high.
There are few places you find such a collection of individuals so dedicated to their communities as you find on usenet.
Don't forget to check out Futureworld with the life size funtime barbies!
If an artists asks for $10,000 to publish a work they can do so without giving up all rights to it. And under such a system there would be no "platinum records" because there are no records. however, if an unkown artist releases a song that's an instant club fave and is getting scads of p2p and usenet traffic, then it's also going to attract the attention of those same people that pay britney and jlo and all the rest: the advertisers. So, the unkown artist gets a chance to make their money the same way as the rest: on commercials and tv appearances and sponsored tours.