Zope is a very powerful, yet friendly content management system. If you ever get beyond the basics of a bunch of text and images, it allows Python scripts. Zope is written using Python. Everything I've seen about it seems pretty nice, and I haven't heard a bad word against it.
More than once I've had to go back up to Block Buster to bitch and ask for a replacement rental. My (cheap, older Pioneer) player does particularly poorly with scrached DVDs... bad artifacts (and given the audio dynamics of a DVD -- very LOUD audio glitches).
Yeah. Rental DVDs can really suck. That's exactly why DVDs needed to be tougher.
From my experience, all VHS decks are cheap (not "inexpensive", but "shoddy"). Whether you pay $59 at WalMart or $300 at Best Buy, it won't last as long as you'd like.
Hmmm... not the news I wanted to hear, but it's best to hear it now.
No, you don't have to buy your stuff again. VCRs will continue to be sold for many years to come, I'm sure. You can still buy cassette players and turn-tables today. Surely you didn't throw out your VCR when you got a DVD player?
You're right. When I was writing that sentence initially I was thinking something that I wanted to add. I do have to re-buy my stuff if I want it at the higher quality audio/video. My bad, but that was my point and that's why I'm not so concerned at paying for it. Incidently, I don't have a video player but am considering getting one so I can watch all the things that haven't made the transition yet.
How about this: don't drop it! Seriously, if you drop a VHS cassette onto carpet, you're more likely to dammage it than a DVD disc. If you are out dropping your media onto concrete, I think you have more problems...
Your DVDs don't spend much time around kids or lent to other people, do they?
You get what you pay for. However, if properly stored I think any DVD/CD will outlast any magnetic media format. Likewise, DVD/CD does not wear out from play (normal use), where magnetic media does.
Cheap CDs/DVDs will seperate early no matter how you treat them. I'm sure the same is true for VHS. I'll absolutely agree that they don't degrade from normal use.
How much do you get out of a VHS with "reasonable quality"? Certainly not 6 hours; noone concerned with quality uses anything but SP on high-quality tapes.
With many of my points, they were not saying that DVD was better than VHS. Many of them are deficiencies in both formats. The point is that they were introducing a new format and they could have made that format substantially better rather than just a little better.
You mean that little pause as the laser seeks to the next layer? High-end players don't do that, all it takes is a couple megs of buffering to eliminate that.
So I have to spend AU$1000 on a player so it won't do it? Ever watched a scratched DVD? The picture and/or sound will break in really annoying patterns. Not worse than the worst VHS, but the kind of pops and MPEG artifacts missing data cause don't gel well with the human senses.
Just to reiterate my main point: DVDs are great for their intended purpose (distributing main-stream media content), and for those things it cannot do, there are still many alternatives.
My main point is that DVDs are only adequete for that intended purpose but they could have been truly great.
I don't think many people threw out their VHS deck when they bought a DVD player... and you don't have to, either. Nobody ever said the DVD had to replace VHS, or that you couldn't use both. All of your points seem to assume that this is the case.
I don't know which of the DVD ads you've seen, but I have seen ads where they directly compare the quality of DVD and VHS. I don't think anyone would disagree that they have generally the same function. I guess what I would have liked to have seen was DVD as a VHS on steroids.
But having said that, I have to agree with you - I don't have to throw away any of my old equipment.
Also note how inexpensively a mid-grade 4-head "hifi" VCR goes for now days... coincidence?
Yeah, they sure know when they can charge for 'em. It's a good thing I'm looking to get a video player now. I don't want to spend too much on one because I realise it will probably be obsolete before too long, but I want one that'll last long enough to play the videos that I have sitting in boxes (from the last time I did have a video).
You can still get a PERFECT new copy made off of it, or off of the original source files sitting on some studio's file server somewhere.
While I see what you mean by this, that's not the way it works in the real-world. I was talking about my movie collection. There is no way in hell I'll be able to send of in 10 years and say 'My Matrix DVD is worn out, can you send me a new one'.
Anyway, the original point I was trying to make is that it is still a short-coming of DVDs. I would prefer to know that the content I paid for is going to be working in 50 years. There is a built-in time-limit. I'm not saying that they're necessarily worse, just that it's an area that format could have been improved.
You're absolutely right. They can be really good - it gives you that choice. Normally I would prefer to watch a program in its native language with sub-titles than an ordinary dub. With my Spirited Away disc, I checked that option out, but found that the English dub was preferable (to me). So that is more than just a gimmick.
I haven't seen anyone really use the multi-angle thing that well yet. I hear there's a pretty cool version of Die Hard that lets you edit together your own scene using it, but I haven't seen it yet.
A friend of mine was very disappointed when he took home a copy of From Dusk Till Dawn and it fell onto the road from his hand. It was still in its case and yet the force was enough to make it (visibly) crack from the middle to about half the radius of the disc. He wasn't real happy about that.
I'll let you try this one out: crack the corner off a VHS video and try playing it. Sure it will get dust in it quicker, but I'm pretty certain you'll be able to play it still.
It took forever for people to fully embrace DVDs, even with all the benefits over VHS.
I was a reasonably early adopter of DVDs. But it was more for the toy factor. What are these benefits over VHS?
1. Higher resolution video
2. Higher resolution, multi-channel sound
3. Extras
You know what I think? That's not a huge list. How's this for a list:
1. I have to pay for all of my old stuff again. Not so bad - it's a new format, someone has to be paid for the conversion
2. They're fragile. You can drop a VHS cassette onto concrete - don't try this with your DVDs
3. They still degrade. Not in the same way as VHS, but some of these manufacturers are putting out discs so cheap they're not even lasting as long as VHS
4. They don't actually hold that much. What's the longest thing you've seen on a single DVD? For any reasonable quality, you only seem to get about 4-5 (maybe 6) hours.
5. They're not recordable. Yeah, yeah I know - not technically true, but how many people actually have a DVD recorder in front of the TV? It's going to be 10-15 years after the standard has been in place before recording will be an everyday thing.
6. Layer skips. For anyone else who has digital TV, don't you find you notice it more when there is a sudden little pop of sound than a constant hum? I find the same goes for video and audio. It doesn't annoy me that much, but hell, I'm having a rant:-)
What do you think? I want more storage, that'll last until the next big thing and presented perfectly. Oh well, I might go some more DVDs.
They work by flooding us with crap, hoping that they get one in a million to answer. We could fight them by flooding them so they have to look through a million emails to find the one legit order. Hmmm...
Sorting through a pile of junk to get the stuff you're looking for. Sound familiar email junkies?
At the moment in Australia, we're enjoying Dr. Who weeknights at 6:00. The ABC (Our government run station), is showing them from the very first episodes. Great days for Australian 'Who' Geeks. It's great seeing the emergence of the Daleks and all your old fav's.
The device boasts a 400MHz Intel PXA255 processor equipped with 128MB of Flash memory (65MB available for user programs) along with 64MB of SDRAM memory, has a 640x480 resolution full-VGA color display
OK, OK. Just give us the specs we need: What's it like for porn?
Fine. My CDs/DVDs are in great condition because I look after them. I look after rental DVDs because their not mine. Other people do not look after theirs.
These are products that are meant to be used by the general populace. If this is how even 10% of people treat them, then maybe we should improve the formula.
Making the CD, DVD and similar media seem enormous and clunky by comparison
I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I don't want my media to get much smaller. There is a limit to how small something can get before you just start losing it. Ever dropped a tablet somewhere? CDs/DVDs are a bit of an awkward size/shape though to.
I'd appreciate media that wasn't so delicate. One thing that really sucks about DVDs is the rental market. I've rented discs that are no more than 3 months old, and are scratched so badly that entire chapters are unplayable. Video cassettes can survive a bit of a drop - I can't say the same for DVDs. And let's not get started on greasy finger prints.
I'll take your storage (more storage is always welcome), but could you package it a bit more user-friendly?
That's a smart way of doing things. I've found version control to be worthwhile on even single user projects. Having the same kind of backup/restore and history tracking on every one of your files just makes sense. I'm suprised no-one has done this sooner.
In a slightly more abstract sense, it provides a 'working set' of documents on your computer. Comments on your version history adds meta-data to files that is time-based. Most systems at the moment add meta-data that is for the current file. Imagine, you check in some files with a comment like 'Project: holiday snaps 03'. Then later on, you use one of those files in a presentation 'Project: report for Bill 03'. With standardised formatting of such tags, the file keeps with it the idea that it has been used with multiple projects at different times. That's a powerful method of grouping.
Ever been in the situation where a file belongs with multiple projects? With your standard directory structures, you might put it in one directory and shortcut/alias/whatever it in the other (or maybe make a second copy). It's pretty ugly right? What if you could say, this file belongs to both of these projects, and you could even provide the old version that was used in another project. OK, so all of that would require some more automation - we can dream can't we?
And as the freaks^H^H^H^H^H^Hparents failed to mention, Dance Dance Revolution has got all the kids going dancing every night. Pikmin as got them out in the garden turning all the rocks over. Super Monkey Ball has got 'em putting their pets in beach balls and hurling them around the back yard. SimCity has made it "cool" to be a civil servant in local government. Railroad Tycoon has seen a whole bunch of us invest in the thriving rail industry. I can't take this horned hat off my head after playing ICO for 5 god-damn minutes. And as for Vib Ribbon... You know what? I don't know what the hell Vib Ribbon has done to me, but it sure as hell can't be good.
Help me parents of America. I can't distinguish between reality and a friggin' CRT. I'm idolizing fast, furry, blue hedgehogs and Italian plumbing families. You know why? Because you guys seem to think that I'm the friggin' mental case. Well let me know how it all works out for you.
Personally, I can't wait for Walmart to have another way to tell me that baby food is on sale as soon as I walk in the door.
They won't tell you about the baby food. Your Bluetooth enabled credit/loyalty card will already have identified your buying habits. The store's database will crunch away, and in an instant, your phone/pda/gaming device/watch will all message you telling you about the offers that do pertain to you.
You bought Corn Flakes once before, perhaps you'd like to try this new Cereal. We think it tastes just as good, and is even cheaper (and their marketing department are definantly not paying us - honest).
The scary thing is, they'll probably work it out so smoothly, you probably will buy the things that they suggest.
I think it's getting to the stage where you could dedicate a site to games with (partially) open source code. The list seems to grow all the time. The list of Doom and Quake modifications people have done since they went GPL is huge. Following Elite Force 2, Call to Power source was released in the last week as well. It just seems to be the way that works for developers (and their publishers) at the moment.
Think about it more like not reading the articles in Playboy or turning down the sound in a Britney Spears film clip. It's more like selective viewing.
These guys are selling Playboy that automatically covers all their revenue raising ads.
Yes, that's because it parodies scarface amoungst other references. There have been movie parodies before. A movie parody topped the box office last week (Scary Movie 3). The point is that GTA has enough of its own story and background that you could make a movie.
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Zope is a very powerful, yet friendly content management system. If you ever get beyond the basics of a bunch of text and images, it allows Python scripts. Zope is written using Python. Everything I've seen about it seems pretty nice, and I haven't heard a bad word against it.
But $20 says that SCO still claim IP rights ;-).
I'm having an evening of mastication and social intercourse. Anyone want to come around?
Gee... I wish I could speak whale.
More than once I've had to go back up to Block Buster to bitch and ask for a replacement rental. My (cheap, older Pioneer) player does particularly poorly with scrached DVDs... bad artifacts (and given the audio dynamics of a DVD -- very LOUD audio glitches).
Yeah. Rental DVDs can really suck. That's exactly why DVDs needed to be tougher.
From my experience, all VHS decks are cheap (not "inexpensive", but "shoddy"). Whether you pay $59 at WalMart or $300 at Best Buy, it won't last as long as you'd like.
Hmmm... not the news I wanted to hear, but it's best to hear it now.
No, you don't have to buy your stuff again. VCRs will continue to be sold for many years to come, I'm sure. You can still buy cassette players and turn-tables today. Surely you didn't throw out your VCR when you got a DVD player?
You're right. When I was writing that sentence initially I was thinking something that I wanted to add. I do have to re-buy my stuff if I want it at the higher quality audio/video. My bad, but that was my point and that's why I'm not so concerned at paying for it. Incidently, I don't have a video player but am considering getting one so I can watch all the things that haven't made the transition yet.
How about this: don't drop it! Seriously, if you drop a VHS cassette onto carpet, you're more likely to dammage it than a DVD disc. If you are out dropping your media onto concrete, I think you have more problems...
Your DVDs don't spend much time around kids or lent to other people, do they?
You get what you pay for. However, if properly stored I think any DVD/CD will outlast any magnetic media format. Likewise, DVD/CD does not wear out from play (normal use), where magnetic media does.
Cheap CDs/DVDs will seperate early no matter how you treat them. I'm sure the same is true for VHS. I'll absolutely agree that they don't degrade from normal use.
How much do you get out of a VHS with "reasonable quality"? Certainly not 6 hours; noone concerned with quality uses anything but SP on high-quality tapes.
With many of my points, they were not saying that DVD was better than VHS. Many of them are deficiencies in both formats. The point is that they were introducing a new format and they could have made that format substantially better rather than just a little better.
You mean that little pause as the laser seeks to the next layer? High-end players don't do that, all it takes is a couple megs of buffering to eliminate that.
So I have to spend AU$1000 on a player so it won't do it? Ever watched a scratched DVD? The picture and/or sound will break in really annoying patterns. Not worse than the worst VHS, but the kind of pops and MPEG artifacts missing data cause don't gel well with the human senses.
Just to reiterate my main point: DVDs are great for their intended purpose (distributing main-stream media content), and for those things it cannot do, there are still many alternatives.
My main point is that DVDs are only adequete for that intended purpose but they could have been truly great.
I don't think many people threw out their VHS deck when they bought a DVD player... and you don't have to, either. Nobody ever said the DVD had to replace VHS, or that you couldn't use both. All of your points seem to assume that this is the case.
I don't know which of the DVD ads you've seen, but I have seen ads where they directly compare the quality of DVD and VHS. I don't think anyone would disagree that they have generally the same function. I guess what I would have liked to have seen was DVD as a VHS on steroids.
But having said that, I have to agree with you - I don't have to throw away any of my old equipment.
Also note how inexpensively a mid-grade 4-head "hifi" VCR goes for now days... coincidence?
Yeah, they sure know when they can charge for 'em. It's a good thing I'm looking to get a video player now. I don't want to spend too much on one because I realise it will probably be obsolete before too long, but I want one that'll last long enough to play the videos that I have sitting in boxes (from the last time I did have a video).
Yep, gotta give you those.
:-)
Jeez, can't a guy go on a rant without everyone bring all these 'facts' into play?
What are the speakers BTW? I hope to get some B&W 603s soon, so I'm on the lookout for any good speaker advice.
You can still get a PERFECT new copy made off of it, or off of the original source files sitting on some studio's file server somewhere.
While I see what you mean by this, that's not the way it works in the real-world. I was talking about my movie collection. There is no way in hell I'll be able to send of in 10 years and say 'My Matrix DVD is worn out, can you send me a new one'.
Anyway, the original point I was trying to make is that it is still a short-coming of DVDs. I would prefer to know that the content I paid for is going to be working in 50 years. There is a built-in time-limit. I'm not saying that they're necessarily worse, just that it's an area that format could have been improved.
You're absolutely right. They can be really good - it gives you that choice. Normally I would prefer to watch a program in its native language with sub-titles than an ordinary dub. With my Spirited Away disc, I checked that option out, but found that the English dub was preferable (to me). So that is more than just a gimmick.
I haven't seen anyone really use the multi-angle thing that well yet. I hear there's a pretty cool version of Die Hard that lets you edit together your own scene using it, but I haven't seen it yet.
A friend of mine was very disappointed when he took home a copy of From Dusk Till Dawn and it fell onto the road from his hand. It was still in its case and yet the force was enough to make it (visibly) crack from the middle to about half the radius of the disc. He wasn't real happy about that.
I'll let you try this one out: crack the corner off a VHS video and try playing it. Sure it will get dust in it quicker, but I'm pretty certain you'll be able to play it still.
It took forever for people to fully embrace DVDs, even with all the benefits over VHS.
:-)
I was a reasonably early adopter of DVDs. But it was more for the toy factor. What are these benefits over VHS?
1. Higher resolution video
2. Higher resolution, multi-channel sound
3. Extras
You know what I think? That's not a huge list. How's this for a list:
1. I have to pay for all of my old stuff again. Not so bad - it's a new format, someone has to be paid for the conversion
2. They're fragile. You can drop a VHS cassette onto concrete - don't try this with your DVDs
3. They still degrade. Not in the same way as VHS, but some of these manufacturers are putting out discs so cheap they're not even lasting as long as VHS
4. They don't actually hold that much. What's the longest thing you've seen on a single DVD? For any reasonable quality, you only seem to get about 4-5 (maybe 6) hours.
5. They're not recordable. Yeah, yeah I know - not technically true, but how many people actually have a DVD recorder in front of the TV? It's going to be 10-15 years after the standard has been in place before recording will be an everyday thing.
6. Layer skips. For anyone else who has digital TV, don't you find you notice it more when there is a sudden little pop of sound than a constant hum? I find the same goes for video and audio. It doesn't annoy me that much, but hell, I'm having a rant
What do you think? I want more storage, that'll last until the next big thing and presented perfectly. Oh well, I might go some more DVDs.
They work by flooding us with crap, hoping that they get one in a million to answer. We could fight them by flooding them so they have to look through a million emails to find the one legit order. Hmmm...
Sorting through a pile of junk to get the stuff you're looking for. Sound familiar email junkies?
At the moment in Australia, we're enjoying Dr. Who weeknights at 6:00. The ABC (Our government run station), is showing them from the very first episodes. Great days for Australian 'Who' Geeks. It's great seeing the emergence of the Daleks and all your old fav's.
The device boasts a 400MHz Intel PXA255 processor equipped with 128MB of Flash memory (65MB available for user programs) along with 64MB of SDRAM memory, has a 640x480 resolution full-VGA color display
OK, OK. Just give us the specs we need: What's it like for porn?
You're probably thinking of Minority Report.
Fine. My CDs/DVDs are in great condition because I look after them. I look after rental DVDs because their not mine. Other people do not look after theirs.
These are products that are meant to be used by the general populace. If this is how even 10% of people treat them, then maybe we should improve the formula.
Making the CD, DVD and similar media seem enormous and clunky by comparison
I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I don't want my media to get much smaller. There is a limit to how small something can get before you just start losing it. Ever dropped a tablet somewhere? CDs/DVDs are a bit of an awkward size/shape though to.
I'd appreciate media that wasn't so delicate. One thing that really sucks about DVDs is the rental market. I've rented discs that are no more than 3 months old, and are scratched so badly that entire chapters are unplayable. Video cassettes can survive a bit of a drop - I can't say the same for DVDs. And let's not get started on greasy finger prints.
I'll take your storage (more storage is always welcome), but could you package it a bit more user-friendly?
That's a smart way of doing things. I've found version control to be worthwhile on even single user projects. Having the same kind of backup/restore and history tracking on every one of your files just makes sense. I'm suprised no-one has done this sooner.
In a slightly more abstract sense, it provides a 'working set' of documents on your computer. Comments on your version history adds meta-data to files that is time-based. Most systems at the moment add meta-data that is for the current file. Imagine, you check in some files with a comment like 'Project: holiday snaps 03'. Then later on, you use one of those files in a presentation 'Project: report for Bill 03'. With standardised formatting of such tags, the file keeps with it the idea that it has been used with multiple projects at different times. That's a powerful method of grouping.
Ever been in the situation where a file belongs with multiple projects? With your standard directory structures, you might put it in one directory and shortcut/alias/whatever it in the other (or maybe make a second copy). It's pretty ugly right? What if you could say, this file belongs to both of these projects, and you could even provide the old version that was used in another project. OK, so all of that would require some more automation - we can dream can't we?
That has a lot of possibilities.
And as the freaks^H^H^H^H^H^Hparents failed to mention, Dance Dance Revolution has got all the kids going dancing every night. Pikmin as got them out in the garden turning all the rocks over. Super Monkey Ball has got 'em putting their pets in beach balls and hurling them around the back yard. SimCity has made it "cool" to be a civil servant in local government. Railroad Tycoon has seen a whole bunch of us invest in the thriving rail industry. I can't take this horned hat off my head after playing ICO for 5 god-damn minutes. And as for Vib Ribbon... You know what? I don't know what the hell Vib Ribbon has done to me, but it sure as hell can't be good.
Help me parents of America. I can't distinguish between reality and a friggin' CRT. I'm idolizing fast, furry, blue hedgehogs and Italian plumbing families. You know why? Because you guys seem to think that I'm the friggin' mental case. Well let me know how it all works out for you.
Personally, I can't wait for Walmart to have another way to tell me that baby food is on sale as soon as I walk in the door.
They won't tell you about the baby food. Your Bluetooth enabled credit/loyalty card will already have identified your buying habits. The store's database will crunch away, and in an instant, your phone/pda/gaming device/watch will all message you telling you about the offers that do pertain to you.
You bought Corn Flakes once before, perhaps you'd like to try this new Cereal. We think it tastes just as good, and is even cheaper (and their marketing department are definantly not paying us - honest).
The scary thing is, they'll probably work it out so smoothly, you probably will buy the things that they suggest.
Good to see the system works.
And what if we just haven't discovered the code that got through yet...
You've got to ask - assume nothing.
+5, Tin-foil hat.
I think it's getting to the stage where you could dedicate a site to games with (partially) open source code. The list seems to grow all the time. The list of Doom and Quake modifications people have done since they went GPL is huge. Following Elite Force 2, Call to Power source was released in the last week as well. It just seems to be the way that works for developers (and their publishers) at the moment.
Think about it more like not reading the articles in Playboy or turning down the sound in a Britney Spears film clip. It's more like selective viewing.
These guys are selling Playboy that automatically covers all their revenue raising ads.
Yes, that's because it parodies scarface amoungst other references. There have been movie parodies before. A movie parody topped the box office last week (Scary Movie 3). The point is that GTA has enough of its own story and background that you could make a movie.
No, it wasn't like that. This guy was huge .