Analogue noise is not the same as mpeg artifacts - the former is generally localised to tiny areas of the screen, the latter to blocks which are more noticeable. Add interference and whilst you get a brief glitch on the analogue signal, the digital one can end up with a smeared block (anyone who's a satellite DXer will have seen this).
yes, true, both make the picture imperfect. However, a strong PAL signal (in fact, a lot of the shortcomings of NTSC have been overcome) has low enough noise for it not to be noticeable.
since analogue TV transmits every frame, every pixel, regardless of whether it changes or not, it always uses maximum bandwidth, but also it could render video where *every* pixel changes every frame. Mpeg2 is simply not designed for this scenario, you can't for example make an mpeg2 video consisting of random noise without needing MORE bandwidth than the analogue version. Sure, there's statistical multiplexers for broadcast TV which allow sudden peaks of data, but there's a limit to what can be achieved.
in the end, the problem is that consumers will happily accept sub-analogue quality as content providers attempt to boost profits by cutting costs for delivery (i.e. squeeze in more channels per multiplex or transponder, or compress the mp3's for download even more). in an ideal world, fussy consumers would ensure that the digital delivery meant quality at least as high as analogue without the shortcomings of that medium (inability to make perfect recordings, recover from errors etc).
"Vinyl will never go away because analog sound IS better than digital"
The biggest problem with "digital sound" is that it enables a huge amount of abuse of the signal and yet make it *apparently* still OK, but on closer listening the flaws become noticeable.
Digital radio, mp3s downloads, digital TV, and all such digital delivery mechanisms have conned the consumer into expecting more choice whilst compression has killed the quality with artifacts - i.e. visible blocking on video, distortion on video.
It's still hard to beat the quality of a quality FM radio receiver tuned to a well-engineered radio station. And for an action movie, artifact free analogue TV is better than most DVDs.
That all said, I think that CD (44.1kHz, 16 bit) is *good enough* for most people. DVD audio, which has higher sampling rates and more bits *should* be better than the theoretical maximum quality of vinyl, subject only to the studio's ability to not ruin the sound.
actually, you can already do this if you have bluetooth connected to your phone (e.g. on/dev/rfcomm0), just send "ATD nnnnnn;" to the phone - note the semicolon to do a voice call.
Linux User Group Radio interviewed some of the people from Nokia, you can find it in S2E19 from the link above. Warning: adult language content!
The interesting thing, for me, was the timescale they discussed to get the N770 approved and out of the door. I'd have thought it'd be a year at most, given that linux on arm is well understood, used on iPaqs, Zauruses, etc. But the were talking nearly two years!
Embedded linux has come a long way in the last few years, but the lack of linux smartphones on the supermarket shelves hints that it's not a trivial process.
Trolltech have a QT package specifically for phones, and yet Nokia rolled their own. Are Nokia re-inventing the wheel, or do they think they can bring something new?
A few months ago I took a good look around to see what was available for this sort of thing, and the best I found was "IT Moonlighter", which has changed its name to http://www.guru.com/
The thing that struck me most was that it was well thought out; the way you can register a profile, search for work packages, and the escrow service to get paid - particularly valuable to me as I am in the UK and the things I was looking for were mainly in the USA.
Having said all that, my day job suddenly got better and I only ended up applying for a few very interested jobs but they picked people who were clearly happy with a very low wage!
I would not be surprised if these business-2-programmer direct sites attract a lot of freelance Indian programmers.
the only real problem in setting up linux is that damn x.org config file
this is why I like SuSE; I could wrestle with X configs, printer configs, and generally waste a lot of time, but SAX2 and Yast's printer configs "just work". Get the install bootable CDROM.iso from the boot directory, run manual install and point it back at this URL ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/
There's already a perfectly good technical way to prevent spidering of your site, just add tags to pages to prevent caching, and if you don't want any indexing at all, just use robots.txt.
All Canadian law needs to do is say that web search engines *must* observe these controls, i.e. respect the sites' owners in their access controls. There's probably some law already about privacy or copyright that could be extended to cover this aspect of web sites.
However, governments love knee-jerk reactions especially if there's a chance of some political funding from big business lobbyists (or lawyers sensing a way of benefitting from arbitrary and nebulous laws - see the push for software patents).
that poster highlighted what the RIAA and MPAA should have known all along: how to unlock the consumers' purse.
It's all about
laziness - make it trivial to buy/download and people will be too lazy to make the effort to p2p the tracks and manually check they're ok, and they'll overlook the reduced quality or digital watermarking
ignorance - people just don't understand what digital compression means, hence the way digital radio** TV providers can get away with appalling picture quality
the sheep mentality - people will pay a premium for the newest/popular music, even if they'd save 50% if they waited three months*
They should have known most of this from the pricing* curve of CDs and DVDs and from the take up of DAB radio in the UK**.
In England, we currently have 3G (based on CDMA) which is gaining ground on the well established and saturated market of GSM (at 1800 and 900MHz). GSM took over from the old analogue TACS system (which was based on the US amps system), and although most subscribers were migrated across, the TACS system was maintained for quite a while.
It was only when someone discovered that the TACS system had failed over a wide area, and noone noticed and complained, that the cellular operators realised that the system could be truly killed off.
Likewise, the analogue TV system will simply probably be allowed to decay; its power can be reduced to save money and the decreasing quality of the signal will persuade consumers to move. Here in the UK that's particularly significant because digital and analogue share the same frequency bands, with the digital signals being put in the gaps (at a lower power), so when the analogue system is shut down we can have more digital channels.
There have been similar parallels with analogue satellite TV. A quick look at http://www.lyngsat.com/ will reveal that it's shifted from perhaps 90% analogue in 1997 to 90% digital in 2005.
From a providers point of view, digital communications channels, be it for mobile phone or media streams, are superior for access control and protection of revenue.
It's very sad that Gerard Hoffnung's wonderful legacy of musical parody has disappeared from the playlists of the BBC. I'd have thought that they'd be prime material for April 1st.
Well that's just great
by Anonymous Coward
Unfortunately, ATI can't seem to actually deliver on time or in any reasonable quantity.
nor will ATI provide stable drivers until the card is obsolete and you can only buy remaindered stock (me, bitter, after buying an ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder who had to wait 6 months for stable drivers etc!)
I've heard it from a reliable commentator that the Sharp Zaurus is the most popular PDA in Japan...
My own guess is probably due to the fact it comes with built-in Japanese-English dictionary/translation software (I don't speak Jp so I can't tell you anything about it, I blatted over my Japanese ROM with the Cacko distribution within hours of receiving it).
The interesting thing is that the latest Zaurus, the SL-C3100, the successor to the C3000 (which was the first ever PDA with a built-in hard drive), is marked as FCC approved. Hopefully Sharp will bring the Zaurus back to the North American market sooner than later, to make up for pulling the much missed 6000L model (which they initially rebutted but later turned out to be effectively true when they disappeared from retail sellers like amazon).
for me, linux sucks a lot less than the alternatives for 90% of what I do. But I'm not much of a zealot, except for security which is where Windows shows its main weakness.
it's horses for courses:
I use windows for point-and-click DVS authoring
I use a debian derivative on my firewall
I use SuSE for my desktop OS for work
My PDAs run PalmOS (T3) or linux (Zaurus).
For java servers solaris10 (Sun has to be trusted on this one!)
and my Xbox (chipped) runs, well, Microsoft stuff and Xbox media centre
.. etc...
Whenever linux gains some new and stable features, then I'll switch another server/service.
another example, openTV - whose technology is used in many satellite tv receiver boxes.
This company in Israel were taken to task for abusing the GPL - they used the GNU tool chain which they modified to produce a compiler/linker for their STBs: JFGI.
Since Sun keep NFS alive, it should be good on Solaris!
Try SMB support on solaris and you're quickly in a whole world of pain.
Solaris10 might be a great step forward for Sun, but having lived with FreeBSD5.3, SuSE9.2 Linux and Solaris10, I can say that the user experience of Sol feels like going back in time 6 years compared to FreeBSD or Linux. Hell, even Debian3.0 felt positively new-fangled!
the article in NS said that "Just as physical exercise can boost the brain, mental exercise can boost the body. In 2001, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio asked volunteers to spend just 15 minutes a day thinking about exercising their biceps. After 12 weeks, their arms were 13 per cent stronger."
Slashdot Mirror
yes, true, both make the picture imperfect. However, a strong PAL signal (in fact, a lot of the shortcomings of NTSC have been overcome) has low enough noise for it not to be noticeable.
since analogue TV transmits every frame, every pixel, regardless of whether it changes or not, it always uses maximum bandwidth, but also it could render video where *every* pixel changes every frame. Mpeg2 is simply not designed for this scenario, you can't for example make an mpeg2 video consisting of random noise without needing MORE bandwidth than the analogue version. Sure, there's statistical multiplexers for broadcast TV which allow sudden peaks of data, but there's a limit to what can be achieved.
in the end, the problem is that consumers will happily accept sub-analogue quality as content providers attempt to boost profits by cutting costs for delivery (i.e. squeeze in more channels per multiplex or transponder, or compress the mp3's for download even more). in an ideal world, fussy consumers would ensure that the digital delivery meant quality at least as high as analogue without the shortcomings of that medium (inability to make perfect recordings, recover from errors etc).
The biggest problem with "digital sound" is that it enables a huge amount of abuse of the signal and yet make it *apparently* still OK, but on closer listening the flaws become noticeable.
Digital radio, mp3s downloads, digital TV, and all such digital delivery mechanisms have conned the consumer into expecting more choice whilst compression has killed the quality with artifacts - i.e. visible blocking on video, distortion on video.
It's still hard to beat the quality of a quality FM radio receiver tuned to a well-engineered radio station. And for an action movie, artifact free analogue TV is better than most DVDs.
That all said, I think that CD (44.1kHz, 16 bit) is *good enough* for most people. DVD audio, which has higher sampling rates and more bits *should* be better than the theoretical maximum quality of vinyl, subject only to the studio's ability to not ruin the sound.
makecall?
/dev/rfcomm0), just send "ATD nnnnnn;" to the phone - note the semicolon to do a voice call.
actually, you can already do this if you have bluetooth connected to your phone (e.g. on
http://www.lugradio.org/episodes/
Season 2 Episode 19
Linux User Group Radio interviewed some of the people from Nokia, you can find it in S2E19 from the link above. Warning: adult language content!
The interesting thing, for me, was the timescale they discussed to get the N770 approved and out of the door. I'd have thought it'd be a year at most, given that linux on arm is well understood, used on iPaqs, Zauruses, etc. But the were talking nearly two years!
Embedded linux has come a long way in the last few years, but the lack of linux smartphones on the supermarket shelves hints that it's not a trivial process.
Trolltech have a QT package specifically for phones, and yet Nokia rolled their own. Are Nokia re-inventing the wheel, or do they think they can bring something new?
A few months ago I took a good look around to see what was available for this sort of thing, and the best I found was "IT Moonlighter", which has changed its name to http://www.guru.com/
The thing that struck me most was that it was well thought out; the way you can register a profile, search for work packages, and the escrow service to get paid - particularly valuable to me as I am in the UK and the things I was looking for were mainly in the USA.
Having said all that, my day job suddenly got better and I only ended up applying for a few very interested jobs but they picked people who were clearly happy with a very low wage!
I would not be surprised if these business-2-programmer direct sites attract a lot of freelance Indian programmers.
this is why I like SuSE; I could wrestle with X configs, printer configs, and generally waste a lot of time, but SAX2 and Yast's printer configs "just work". Get the install bootable CDROM .iso from the boot directory, run manual install and point it back at this URL ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/9.3/
All Canadian law needs to do is say that web search engines *must* observe these controls, i.e. respect the sites' owners in their access controls. There's probably some law already about privacy or copyright that could be extended to cover this aspect of web sites.
However, governments love knee-jerk reactions especially if there's a chance of some political funding from big business lobbyists (or lawyers sensing a way of benefitting from arbitrary and nebulous laws - see the push for software patents).
It's all about
They should have known most of this from the pricing* curve of CDs and DVDs and from the take up of DAB radio in the UK**.
a parallel,if I may.
In England, we currently have 3G (based on CDMA) which is gaining ground on the well established and saturated market of GSM (at 1800 and 900MHz). GSM took over from the old analogue TACS system (which was based on the US amps system), and although most subscribers were migrated across, the TACS system was maintained for quite a while.
It was only when someone discovered that the TACS system had failed over a wide area, and noone noticed and complained, that the cellular operators realised that the system could be truly killed off.
Likewise, the analogue TV system will simply probably be allowed to decay; its power can be reduced to save money and the decreasing quality of the signal will persuade consumers to move. Here in the UK that's particularly significant because digital and analogue share the same frequency bands, with the digital signals being put in the gaps (at a lower power), so when the analogue system is shut down we can have more digital channels.
There have been similar parallels with analogue satellite TV. A quick look at http://www.lyngsat.com/ will reveal that it's shifted from perhaps 90% analogue in 1997 to 90% digital in 2005.
From a providers point of view, digital communications channels, be it for mobile phone or media streams, are superior for access control and protection of revenue.
JFGI
by Anonymous Coward
Unfortunately, ATI can't seem to actually deliver on time or in any reasonable quantity.
nor will ATI provide stable drivers until the card is obsolete and you can only buy remaindered stock (me, bitter, after buying an ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder who had to wait 6 months for stable drivers etc!)
fit one with a wifi adaptor and you've got the ultimate way of remote-controlling your wife!
Wouldn't mind pinging a bunch of that kind of computer, but I'd hate to see a roomful of beautiful girls undergoing a blue screen of death!
I've heard it from a reliable commentator that the Sharp Zaurus is the most popular PDA in Japan...
My own guess is probably due to the fact it comes with built-in Japanese-English dictionary/translation software (I don't speak Jp so I can't tell you anything about it, I blatted over my Japanese ROM with the Cacko distribution within hours of receiving it).The interesting thing is that the latest Zaurus, the SL-C3100, the successor to the C3000 (which was the first ever PDA with a built-in hard drive), is marked as FCC approved. Hopefully Sharp will bring the Zaurus back to the North American market sooner than later, to make up for pulling the much missed 6000L model (which they initially rebutted but later turned out to be effectively true when they disappeared from retail sellers like amazon).
I am wondering whether an RSA/DES/AES key cracker could be rewritten like this... e.g. the dnetc/rc5-72 cracker.
infrared cameras see through most clouds just fine, and you can choose the right wavelength of radar to penetrate them too.
why else do you think so many satellite weather images are in false colour but still show details on the ground?
sorry for taking so long to post a reply, but I haven't got the dual-core upgrade for my abacus yet!
http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/
for me, linux sucks a lot less than the alternatives for 90% of what I do. But I'm not much of a zealot, except for security which is where Windows shows its main weakness.
it's horses for courses:
Whenever linux gains some new and stable features, then I'll switch another server/service.
This company in Israel were taken to task for abusing the GPL - they used the GNU tool chain which they modified to produce a compiler/linker for their STBs: JFGI.
Fastest I've personally witnessed is 38Mkeys/s on a dual G5, 18Mk/s on a dual opteron.
Anyone from IBM care to visit http://www.distributed.net/download/clients.php and download/build/run and report the results?
Since Sun keep NFS alive, it should be good on Solaris!
Try SMB support on solaris and you're quickly in a whole world of pain.
Solaris10 might be a great step forward for Sun, but having lived with FreeBSD5.3, SuSE9.2 Linux and Solaris10, I can say that the user experience of Sol feels like going back in time 6 years compared to FreeBSD or Linux. Hell, even Debian3.0 felt positively new-fangled!
it's a pity that Apple don't just buy transmeta to get themselves into the x86 architecture scene.
with apple joining the intel camp, it means there's no rival to the x86 architecture, which is a great shame.
you could probably use it for testing the HCF [halt and catch fire] instruction:a /Halt_and_Catch_Fire.htm
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/H/H
I reckon they got taken in by this BBSpot spoof which I remembered from ages ago: http://www.bbspot.com/News/2001/01/exercise.html
Or maybe BBSpot somehow stumbled on the truth?! If so, truth really is stranger than fiction!
I've emailed the author at BBSpot, although it's four years on,