The IT dept in my company can show you a shelf full of busted laptops that never went to Iraq and never made 18 months.
...and also weren't iBooks, most likely. Seriously, I own one of those and their cases really are much better than most other laptops (including the last Thinkpad I owned).
And the problem with using military grade GPS is that -- apparently -- it doesn't exist in sufficient quantities. So which is better: imprecise GPS or no GPS at all?
So does their device withstand extremes of temperature duration both operation and storage? High humidity? Is it impervious to dust? How does it handle shock and vibration?
Who cares?
If it breaks, you can replace it about 1000 times and it'll still cost less than the "official" solution!
Anyway, I always thought that was the last real quality assurance before something went out the door, so to sell with no OS, you'd have to load one, burn it in to see if it worked, then wipe the disk several times.
Why would that have anything to do with the hard disk? Just net-boot it, let the tests run (including one that checks the operation of the hard disk, but doesn't necessarily load anything on it), and shut it down again.
But that's a bit short sighted. The same argument was (is?) used with regards to things like NES/SNES roms, but now Nintendo is reselling the games (virtual console). Sure the new versions may not be quite the same since they play one the Wii, but either way, there's still a potential for damage. So the trick is that you have to determine that something is not only unavailible, but that it will also never be availible.
Why? I, for one, see absolutely nothing wrong with requiring that the things be continuously available in order for copyright to be retained.
No, what I'm saying is that they could be pretty sure, if they talked with their lawyers, that the owners have no rights at all; whether or not they want to defend those rights is irrelevant if they haven't got them to begin with.
And, as a lawyer (but not one dispensing legal advice), are you asserting that Northrop-Grumman couldn't at least make things difficult for the game company right up to the point that its lack of rights were established?
It's damn hard to find a windows laptop for $1099 that matches the performance, features, and robustness of a macbook. Believe me, I tried.
The Lenovo Z series seems pretty comparable (including the price), although I'd prefer the MacBook anyway. Of course, sometimes you have no choice but to get a non-Apple, such as when you want a tablet.
He didn't say "multiple operating systems," he just said "not Windows." I imagine the overhead of having an extra build-to-order option would be offset by the savings caused by not having to install anything at all on the machine's hard drive.
I just bought a Thinkpad (and am learning that Lenovo's order fulfillment department is incompetent, but that's another story). If I could have gotten it without Windows for even a marginally lower price, I would have. As it is, the only reason I'm even considering not wiping Windows off it immediately is that it's a Tablet PC, and I want to have a basis of comparison with Linux's (and Mac OS's, if I can manage it) tablet applications.
More importantly, why would anyone care about a measly 1080p (or worse!) seen from 8 feet, when you could just be playing at 1600x1200 or better seen from 2 feet on a real PC?!
[Clinton] was impeached for committing perjury which is essentially the most heinous thing anyone can do...
So, lying is bad? Okay then, to reiterate the original post: why hasn't Bush been impeached yet? Clinton lied about his sex life, which ought to have been a private matter anyway. Bush lied about Iraq having WMDs, resulting in thousands of people dying!
And don't try to tell me some bullshit about how "lying in court is heinous but lying to the American people (and Congress) is A-OK!"
-- in the mid term, perhaps extensions should be renamed "ogv", "ogt", and "ogs" for Vorbis, Theora, and Speex respectively. But what then of Ogg files that contain FLAC, or MPEG, or whatever codec you can think of?
I don't think it's necessary to distinguish between Vorbis and Speex (and FLAC) as they're all audio -- perhaps they could all use the extension "oga." Also, Ogg files can't contain MPEG codecs.
I browse to the file in any of GNOME, Windows XP, Vista, KDE, or MacOS X. I click or double-click on the icon for that file, as is appropriate for my OS. The OS runs the app associated with ogg files. The app does not understand the file.
Ah, but how does that app become associated with ogg files in the first place? The answer is, it registers the file association with the OS during the app's installation. This process is controlled by the developer of the app (specifically, the person who wrote the installer). The only good reason to register a file association is to open the file, so if any given app is registered for ogg it's a reasonable assumption that it understands the format!
So you think the app should then IGNORE the file? Woah. I click and nothing happens. Sweet. That's a user experience all right!
I didn't say it should ignore the file, I said it should ignore the stream. As in, the program shouldn't start trying to decode a stream type it doesn't know how to handle (which would just produce unpleasant audio or visual gibberish). That does not preclude it from displaying an error message, however.
The use of ogg for audio helps to make Ogg Theora unviable, because clicking on an ogg file will start an audio player.
Only if you have an audio player registered for ogg files. Personally, on my machines ogg files tend to be set to open with VLC, so there's no problem.
Wow, that's great -- that bill has exactly (almost word-for-word) the same four requirements as the Texas one! You should submit that as a story -- if the Texas one made the front page, this should too.
So is the only difference between an Ogg Theora and a.OGM file that.OGM doesn't use Theora for its video streams? Why is the extension different when they're both Ogg containers?
Oddly enough, I actually know the answer to that question! (Note that I'm not an expert on media formats, nor am I affiliated with Xiph.org.) I just happened to read about that on Wikipedia the other day.
Basically, the difference is that.OGM isn't actually an Ogg file. That extension indicates an "Ogg Media" file, which is a container format based on Ogg but hacked to support non-Xiph stream types. See the Wikipedia article:
Fundamentally, the format is a hack of the Ogg container format, which has only been designed to support encoders endorsed by Xiph.org (website), the creators of Ogg. It is most likely going to be viewed as a temporary solution, to be phased out when other media container formats (for example, Matroska) mature and come to support the same services.
I'm not sure why being a so-called "red state" means that it's people or government agencies are supporters of MS.
The Republican Party (note: not just Bush) currently favors the interests of large corporations. Texas is controlled by Republicans. Microsoft is a large corporation. Therefore, Texas supports MS.
Maybe it's not that cut-and-dried, but that's the logical train of thought that would cause people to reasonably assume such.
Well, if the application can handle Ogg files at all, then it can figure out what kinds of streams exist in the file and open the ones it understands while ignoring the rest.
The author is pretty dismissive about OpenXML, yet doesn't explain why OpenXML wouldn't meet the criteria.
Okay, then I will instead:
OpenXML doesn't meet the criteria because parts of it are patented. Besides, even if it weren't patented parts of the "standard" essentially say "re-implement the behavior of Word" which, for obvious reasons, is entirely unreasonable and should also disqualify it.
By then OpenXML will probably be an ISO standard...
If this post above yours is accurate, no it won't.
"published without restrictions or royalties": OpenXML already fulfills this today
No, you're wrong. Patents qualify as restrictions.
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...and also weren't iBooks, most likely. Seriously, I own one of those and their cases really are much better than most other laptops (including the last Thinkpad I owned).
And the problem with using military grade GPS is that -- apparently -- it doesn't exist in sufficient quantities. So which is better: imprecise GPS or no GPS at all?
Who cares?
If it breaks, you can replace it about 1000 times and it'll still cost less than the "official" solution!
No, a hack means that it can run, but merely isn't supported.
Why would that have anything to do with the hard disk? Just net-boot it, let the tests run (including one that checks the operation of the hard disk, but doesn't necessarily load anything on it), and shut it down again.
Why? I, for one, see absolutely nothing wrong with requiring that the things be continuously available in order for copyright to be retained.
And, as a lawyer (but not one dispensing legal advice), are you asserting that Northrop-Grumman couldn't at least make things difficult for the game company right up to the point that its lack of rights were established?
Does it matter? Having a radar signature the size of an engine block is still an improvement compared to having one the size of an entire plane!
Besides, modern stealth aircraft aren't entirely invisible to radar, either.
The Lenovo Z series seems pretty comparable (including the price), although I'd prefer the MacBook anyway. Of course, sometimes you have no choice but to get a non-Apple, such as when you want a tablet.
Are you sure about that?
He didn't say "multiple operating systems," he just said "not Windows." I imagine the overhead of having an extra build-to-order option would be offset by the savings caused by not having to install anything at all on the machine's hard drive.
I just bought a Thinkpad (and am learning that Lenovo's order fulfillment department is incompetent, but that's another story). If I could have gotten it without Windows for even a marginally lower price, I would have. As it is, the only reason I'm even considering not wiping Windows off it immediately is that it's a Tablet PC, and I want to have a basis of comparison with Linux's (and Mac OS's, if I can manage it) tablet applications.
Just secure it for him yourself. When he suddenly can't access it because you've enabled WPA, he'll understand the importance of security.
(And if he gets upset with you, tell him "just be glad I didn't download a bunch of kiddy pr0n and try to hack the NSA with it!")
No kidding -- if I'd heard about this a few months ago I might have done it for a class project!
More importantly, why would anyone care about a measly 1080p (or worse!) seen from 8 feet, when you could just be playing at 1600x1200 or better seen from 2 feet on a real PC?!
So, lying is bad? Okay then, to reiterate the original post: why hasn't Bush been impeached yet? Clinton lied about his sex life, which ought to have been a private matter anyway. Bush lied about Iraq having WMDs, resulting in thousands of people dying!
And don't try to tell me some bullshit about how "lying in court is heinous but lying to the American people (and Congress) is A-OK!"
The answer to that question is in your own sig.
I don't think it's necessary to distinguish between Vorbis and Speex (and FLAC) as they're all audio -- perhaps they could all use the extension "oga." Also, Ogg files can't contain MPEG codecs.
Ah, but how does that app become associated with ogg files in the first place? The answer is, it registers the file association with the OS during the app's installation. This process is controlled by the developer of the app (specifically, the person who wrote the installer). The only good reason to register a file association is to open the file, so if any given app is registered for ogg it's a reasonable assumption that it understands the format!
I didn't say it should ignore the file, I said it should ignore the stream. As in, the program shouldn't start trying to decode a stream type it doesn't know how to handle (which would just produce unpleasant audio or visual gibberish). That does not preclude it from displaying an error message, however.
Only if you have an audio player registered for ogg files. Personally, on my machines ogg files tend to be set to open with VLC, so there's no problem.
Wow, that's great -- that bill has exactly (almost word-for-word) the same four requirements as the Texas one! You should submit that as a story -- if the Texas one made the front page, this should too.
Oddly enough, I actually know the answer to that question! (Note that I'm not an expert on media formats, nor am I affiliated with Xiph.org.) I just happened to read about that on Wikipedia the other day.
Basically, the difference is that .OGM isn't actually an Ogg file. That extension indicates an "Ogg Media" file, which is a container format based on Ogg but hacked to support non-Xiph stream types. See the Wikipedia article:
The Republican Party (note: not just Bush) currently favors the interests of large corporations. Texas is controlled by Republicans. Microsoft is a large corporation. Therefore, Texas supports MS.
Maybe it's not that cut-and-dried, but that's the logical train of thought that would cause people to reasonably assume such.
Maybe the ClamAV people ought to submit their program for testing.
Well, if the application can handle Ogg files at all, then it can figure out what kinds of streams exist in the file and open the ones it understands while ignoring the rest.
Okay, then I will instead:
OpenXML doesn't meet the criteria because parts of it are patented. Besides, even if it weren't patented parts of the "standard" essentially say "re-implement the behavior of Word" which, for obvious reasons, is entirely unreasonable and should also disqualify it.
If this post above yours is accurate, no it won't.
No, you're wrong. Patents qualify as restrictions.