Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but by using an xBox 360 you can get a really nice picture while playing a dvd. My bro-in-law uses one bascially just to play dvds. You could say it's pretty close to a Media Center PC.
Note: I am not an MS fanboy or even xbox for that matter. I don't own an xbox, and I also have only purchased Macs my whole life.
A long time ago I used to backup to zip (click of death destroyed my files), then I went to cds, then dvds. However, I find that there really is not a good way other than using another hard drive since I have just too many files (mp3s, video, tons of large graphic files from projects). What I do now is I'll burn dvds occasionally for projects to store, but I just have an extra hard drive I'll occasionally stick in my computer and then copy all my files that I would want if something went wrong (don't need system files or whatever as I can easily reinstall programs and whatnot - I consider that cleaning up a bit also since I won't put all the crap that has accumulated over the years). After I backup I will just take the drive out and throw it in a small fireproof safe. I do this a few times a year, although it should probably be more. A firewire drive would probably be easier but this works for me. I also recommend if it is important store it off-site which I should do but haven't.
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I just don't like console games. Granted I lived through the NES generation and played all the time and borrowed games from my friends and whatnot, but since then I haven't had another console. Never got a SNES, Nintendo 64, Cube, Playstation, xBox, etc. However, I always had my computer and enjoy the games on that much more. I just can play much better with a keyboard and mouse than with any gamepad. For me I think I'd rather hook up my computer to the TV than to buy a console.
My story is very similar. I average playing 4 hours a day, every day, for a year and a half. I still had a social life, and did other things, but WoW did hurt that a bit (I would rather raid then go hang out with friends usually). I also was very tired at work all the time. I got to the point where it became a chore and the only way to progress were the 40 man raids. I finally just sold the account and in the process ticked off a few guildmates. I will never go back since I don't have an account or a guild to go to, however I still read the guild forums and WoW related news for some reason. It's hard to let go sometimes.
My Background: My family bought their first Mac back in 1988. Since then we have probably bought 8 or 9 Macs. You can consider me a "Mac Fanboi" if you'd like because I easily fit the category. I tend to avoid using Windows machines, but I can do what I need on them just rather wouldn't like to deal with them. Right now I'm typing this on a G5 Tower I bought 2 years ago.
So now that that's out of the way this is what I have noticed. Being a Mac user in the 90s really sucked. Sure I still liked using Macs, but for whatever reason as soon as anyone found out you used one you'd be persecuted and ridiculed to no end. I lived through it and would try to counter arguments made, but the points I tried to make usually fell on deaf ears. I learned that while I wouldn't deny using a Mac or back down from an argument, I wouldn't go out of my way to declare myself a user. So I continued to use my Mac and enjoyed it...
Now in the past few years things have changed quite a bit. Most of the people around me started asking me why I used a Mac and overall everyone seemed curious about Macs. I'd tell them what I liked, would give them a demo, or whatever they wanted. I've actually helped at least 5 people I know move to Macs. This would have been unheard of before. I'm not even going out of my way, people are coming to me. While I don't have numbers or whatever on conversion rates, I can tell you there is a wave of people (however large or small) that are moving. IIn fact, I just got an email this last week from a high school buddy wondering if I still used Macs because he just bought a Macbook Pro and was loving it (never would have expected it coming from him). Apple is doing better than ever, and while they will probably never bee the guy on top, they are making ground.
Remember the Slashdot pool is very specific. While people fight over stuff like "closed systems," customizing hardware, or whatever other nerdy stuff you want to argue about, the average user: checks email, writes papers, downloads photos off their camera, and other basic things. They hate dealing with viruses, spyware, crashes, driver problems, or things that don't work. While Macs aren't perfect, they sure make a computer less an obstacle and more an extension of what the user wants to do.
Let me guess. You paid all that extra money for a 'name brand' iPod, eh?
If by extra money you mean I spent just over a hundred dollars on an iPod that would have cost $300 (got a Powerbook at the same time and there was a promotion to get a $200 rebate on any iPod) then I guess you could say that. Of course I've only used Macs in my house since we first got one in around 1988 so I probably would have bought an iPod eventually. Anyway, for the majority of the time I use my iPod as a portable drive for files to and from work and use it less for listening to music.
Ah, but Google isn't a generic word for "web-search". It's a word for "web-search using Google". That's quite a distinction. People don't Google things on Yahoo.
And when everyone says iPod they only mean the player from Apple right? Sure, that's what it should be, but a lot of people will say iPod in reference to any mp3 player (yes, that does irritate me), and the same goes for Google to mean web-search. I really don't care what the specific definition says in the latest version of Webster or wherever (come on, some of the words they added this year shouldn't have made it). If people use Google as a verb for web-seach then web-search is Google, and while you don't "Google" on Yahoo you most likely don't search there either.
A bit of my background: I played WoW for about a 1.5 years (just recently quit). WoW took up way too much of my time and I neglected other things in my life to focus on WoW. It was a fun diversion and I enjoyed playing a lot. However there were times when I simply hated it also. For myself, MMORPGs are something I shouldn't do. I tend to be pretty goal oriented so in a regular game once I beat it I'm done with the game and move on. In fact in the past two weeks I've finished two games and have no desire to play them again. The problem with WoW (which was my first MMORPG) was that there is always something else to go for...
Get a mount at 40...
Grind/quest to 60...
Get all your Dugeon 1 armor (valor in my case, and this was when it actually was leet)...
Get an epic mount...
Start raiding MC...
Next dugeon... BWL...
Next....
Grind PVP Ranks...
Get Rep for a million factions...
Etc...
I could never run out of goals so I would keep playing. I even leveled cooking, fishing, and first aid to 300 at a time when only very few guilds were in MC since I was looking for things to do. One of the reasons I stopped was because I really couldn't progress anymore unless I was with 39 other people in some high-end instance for 6 hours and then if I had enough dkp I may get a drop for the night. The time vs rewards was way too much out of proportion so I ended up selling my account and have found myself with much more free time.
So my theory on why games (WoW in this case) are addictive: I think most people continue to play or play excessively due to the power or recognition they receive from the game. This is what I think is addicting. Because WoW tends to award players for grinding and spending a ton of time the people in the best gear will be the ones that play the most. These also tend to be in the best guilds and if you are one of them you will have opposing faction members run from you by just your guild tag. You will also have same faction players constantly whispering you or inspecting you in awe as they remark on how leet your gear is. This makes the players feel good so they continue to do what it takes (mainly time) to keep at it. If you don't play as much, others will advance past you and you just won't be as "cool" anymore. If you quit you become a regular joe again doing the same stuff as everyone else. Sure your fame is only virtual but it's fame nonetheless and since you probably won't get it in real life you might as well somewhere.
You can relate this to games, sports, academics, whatever. People tend to do things for power and recognition. Once you get it is is addicting (varies depending on the person). I'm sure this causes chemical reactions or whatever to happen in the brain/body so that you could explain it in some scientific way, but I can't so I won't.
I'm guessing if the researchers at the clinic rigged the games the patients used so that they could only lose or the players couldn't interact with others (for example chat is garbled or not allowed) then the players would very soon lose interest in playing and would look for other activities to spend their time doing.
Re:Does it have a "healing brush"?
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Beginning GIMP
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· Score: 3, Insightful
If you know how to use the healing brush you will use it more than "half the time." However, I agree there are times when you have to go the route of using the clone stamp. I find myself using both interchangeably all the time. However, I have yet to use the spot healing brush that came out in CS2. That thing just does not do what I want it to after years of practice using the other ways.
I started using Photoshop at version 4 LE (came free with a scanner). For the last 5 years I have used Photoshop 90% of the time in my full-time jobs. I have no reason to learn GIMP. And a high-price is relative. for $599 (full version) or $149 (upgrade) that is not expensive for full-time professionals. I'd rather spend either than take countless hours trying to learn GIMP. For the average home enthusiast maybe GIMP would be worth it, but most people could just get by with stuff they could do in Picassa or iPhoto or whatever else comes free. I've still never been given a reason to download GIMP let alone install it. If anyone could give a 10 year Photoshop Veteran a valid reason why I should use GIMP I'd love to hear it (price is not a valid reason).
I've tried to keep track of this "up-and-coming" format war for quite a while now. I used to favor Blue-Ray quite a bit as it just makes sense to pick the format with the biggest capacity in my opinion. However, I could really care less anymore. I predict there will be no "real" winner. If I, a Slashdot reader and computer nerd, don't care about HD-DVD or Blue-Ray anymore do you think the average consumer will? I highly doubt it. There is no huge convenience factor that sets apart either new format as a must have for consumers. Blue-Ray and HDDVD are glorified DVDs without much benefit over that of what everyone has now. More resolution? Big deal. More DRM? Yeah, that will be a big selling point...
I compare the movie industry to the music industry a lot. I feel the music industry goes through what the movie industry will down the road in a decade or so. Let's take a closer look.
Music:
Cassette Tapes -> CDs (Many benefits such as noticeable higher quality and jumping to any track you want instantly.)
CDs -> SACD, DVD-Audio (Slightly perceivable better quality but both have never been successful in any way, shape or form.)
CDs -> Online Downloads (Very convenient, instant gratification, maybe not better quality but that doesn't seem to matter.)
Movies:
VHS -> DVDs (Many benefits such as noticeable higher quality and jumping to any track you want instantly.)
DVDs -> BlueRay, HD_DVD (Slightly perceivable better quality but both "will not be" successful in any way, shape or form.)
DVDs -> Online Downloads or On Demand (Convenient, and somewhat instant gratification.)
By the end of the decade I see much more progress being made to having home movie servers (media PCs, whatever you want to call them) where all y our movies are stored and you can access them much like you can with music now with programs such as iTunes. I see myself personally gravitating towards this sort of use already.
I once thought that HD-DVD or Blue-Ray would do much better in PCs for backup purposes, but as has been said by others the greater capacities are not keeping up with what is needed now. For me to back up my almost full 250 GB hard drive it is easier for me to just by a new larger drive and transfer everything to it while keeping the old one as a backup somewhere.
So long for being useful Blue-Ray or HD-DVD. Unless you come out at a cost lower than DVDs I don't see either of you getting far.
Interesting concept, overall it wouldn't work well in the US due to corporate pricing and whatnot. However, my brother-in-law does something somewhat related. He is on a mass email group list for DVD releases. I'm not sure how it came about, he might have had a hand in doing it, but what it basically is is a bunch of local people in some sort of organized database that will get emails on new DVDs coming out. If they want to purchase it they will reply with the quantity and after the total is figured this group will buy a palette or two of that DVD at a wholesale price which is usually around $10 cheaper than if they went to Walmart or wherever. Sometimes I get some from him, but if you get enough people you can cut out the middle man.
In theory this could work for most any thing if there were people who wanted to take on the responsibility of tracking data and organizing it. Just think what kind of discounts you could get with a group as big as slashdot. You could get wholesale on who knows what.
Yes, let's talk plot please. For some reason since this is an open source project plot must not matter to slashdot users, although if George Lucas were to have helped out in this it would be a different story. I just watched it and while the animation and rendering were interesting the plot bored me to death. I felt like I was in an bad anime movie (I don't like those anyway), and after hearing the word emo about 10,000 times (someone might want to count the exact number) I thought I might as well turn emo and slash my wrists to save me the pain.
I applaud the work that was done by the open source community in it's creation, but it really did not captivate my attention.
I've used Photoshop for around 10 years now. My last two jobs were jobs were I used Photoshop full-time. Needless to say I use it a lot and feel like I'm qualified to express my opinion about it. You should also know I have never used Gimp. I'm running on OS X, and I know I could install it if I wanted, but I don't see a point. Photoshop is the industry standard in graphics, and no one will care if I'm fluent with the Gimp on a resume (that sounds odd in any case). I've also spent countless hours on figuring out how to do what I need in Photoshop, and I'm not going to throw that away by saving a few bucks ($150 for upgrade, or $500 for full version) by using Gimp instead of Photoshop. The time I would lose figuring out the "quirks" in Gimp wouldn't even justify me thinking about it.
OSS is great, I use a lot of little utilities on my mac that come from those efforts. I don't make a profession by using any of them, but they enhance my experience and make my life easier. I really don't see OSS making inroads in the graphics industry though. It's a cycle because Photoshop is the standard, companies hire those that know how to use the standard, schools teach students how to use the standard so they can be hired, and Photoshop continues to be the standard because it is used and taught everywhere. How do you combat that? I applaud the efforts of the OSS community creating Gimp but I think it will always stay in a niche outside the limelight.
I just got a HD TV for Christmas. It has a HD tuner in it and looking at the difference between over the air NTSC and HD is very noticeable. No doubt about it being an upgrade in that respect.
However, putting a DVD in and trying to compare it to HD makes the difference much harder to determine. I know it doesn't fully realize the potential of HD but perceptually it is getting close (at least on my screen and with my player). Once the HD content comes out in whatever format (HD-DVD, or Blueray) the potential should be filled, but for the average consumer the difference may not be enough. It will eventually catch on, but for the most part it is going to take quite a few years to do so, for what's the point of HD content if you don't even have a HD TV? We will be in the next decade before HD discs are mainstream, just look at how VHS is holding on even though DVD easily demonstrates the superiority of its format.
However, going to your comparison between music and movies. CDs did hit a wall. No one but the audiophiles would find a problem with a standard music CD. Listeners don't know a difference. SACD and DVD-Audio have never taken off and never will. However, music files have taken off whether it is mp3s or aacs or whatever format you prefer. I hardly ever listen to a real CD now. All of mine are ripped onto my computer and I listen to them when I am working or I'll throw them onto my iPod and plug it into my car or put in headphones or whatever. I think movies will end up the same way. Let's say HD discs eventually become the "CD" of the movie industry. Anything afterwards will not have a better perceived picture quality to the average consumer and they will look for value in some other direction most likely being portability. We are already seeing this a bit with the video iPod and the PSP. I would love to have a device where I can carry my whole movie library around and then choose what to watch. Why have little kids scratch DVDs trying to put it in themselves when you can stream the movies off a computer with no possible way for disc destruction? It seems logical to me, although it will take time for all of this to become mainstream (we do see evidence of people already doing all of these things). This is where I see the future: there will be no main disc format after either Blueray or HD-DVD, it will be some type of DRM laden file that you can take wherever you want (similar to how songs from the iTunes store are). Hopefully Blueray or HD-DVD are eventually easy to rip though, because I really like having control over my files without DRM. One can hope at least.
I found that the most abbreviations I've used was in World of Warcraft. I'm sure this is true for any MMORPG. Try to teach someone what the following means:
Lvl 60 LFG UBRS/DM/ZG/BRD/LBRS/Scholo
I constantly find myself emailing friends where I have to remember not to put abbreviations in. QFT, 8, etc. It's interesting to chat and then realize you hardly use a complete word.
Actually there is a penalty to dying numerous times. The more you die the longer it takes for you to resurrect. So even when you do get back to your body in spirit form you have to wait for the timer. Granted you have to die quite often but it still makes it so you don't want to. Also, every time you die your armor and weapons you are using lose durability. The more you die the more it costs to repair them. Your weapon could even break if the durability is low enough and you haven't repaired it. And you can't plow through high level monsters one wack at a time. If you die by the time you get back and resurrect the mob has regenerated its hit points, so you have to start over again. If you a group of mobs they'll attack you together and you're even more screwed. And if you do try to attack mobs 10 lvls above you you won't even knock pts off it, and will die very quickly. Add all this up and you try to stay alive and won't be able to get anywhere you shouldn't until you reach a high enough level.
You know, Blizzard does not stop you from logging on to a server in a different time zone. I am in MST and in the open beta played mostly PST. However, i'm in a guild now and we play CST because there are quite a few players on the east coast (so we compromised time zones). You can sign up wherever you want it is not a problem. So now disregard half of your post and that is what you have to say.
I live just North of Salt Lake City, and since this terrorist act threatens me imminently, I did a bit of research. My conclusion is that someone forgot to tell the pilot that the new mouse he was using was dangerous, he was goofing off, it flipped upside down and burned his retina. Case solved.
The name iTunes refers to what it does - plays tunes (music). It has never been meant for video, although you can now have music videos through iTMS, and they could easily incorporate video because Quicktime is running the show underneath the GUI.
Why the crap do you want to make a thousand folders to put each individual song/movie in so that you can search them? In OSX I could do the same and search in the finder for "Rated-G Animated Movies" following your method of approach and still come up with the same results possibly faster. Using tags or metadata is much better to organize then making folders.
I can't say anything about your PC, but I have a Dual 2.0Ghz G5 and have iTunes running most of the time and it doesn't make a dent in slowing down what I'm doing. I work on Photoshop mostly and usually am not working on a file less then 100 MB. Buy some more RAM.
I can't comment on the iTMS quality as I haven't purchased anything. I do have 65 GBs of music on my drive though, and a 128 kbps AAC is roughly the same as a 160 kbps mp3 to my ears. I rip at 192 kbps mp3 though for compatibilitys sake.
And are people really asking for Ogg playback? Out of/. I don't hear much about it. The average person knows mp3, if I even try to explain AAC to them they get confused, so I tell them to think of it as mp4 and of course the higher number helps them see it as better (I do know what it is, so you don't have to tell me.)
So you have a G4 with a superdrive, why do you assume that a newer G5 isnt' able to burn a DVD faster? The G4s shipped with Pioneer DVR-103, 104, or 105s (possibly 106s also). Before the 105 it was 2x, depending on the media you used. If you used a 4x media then it would got to 1x most likely. From the 105 and latter you can burn 4x if you have the right media. Right now the pioneer DVR-107 is being used in the new eMacs, and also seems to be shipping right now in the G5 (supposedly Apple has depleted their supply of 106s). So in response to your statement, yes Apple is shipping faster DVD burners. There are also other DVD burners that have shipped in various macs (some from Sony, and maybe some others), although for the most part Apple has shipped Pioneer drives.
There is also nothing stopping you from upgrading your drive. You can buy a DVR-107 IDE for $97 right now. The drivers are preset in the latest version of 10.3, so all you have to do is install it and you can use an 8x burner. Not too difficult. I plan on doing it once I get my new G5 as the Apple store charges around a $200 difference between a Superdrive and a combo drive.
All I can say is if you are getting write speeds that slow, when was the last time you defragged your hard drive? I've never experienced that slow of a write for a 17 Mb file on any of my macs. Is your hard drive full?
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Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but by using an xBox 360 you can get a really nice picture while playing a dvd. My bro-in-law uses one bascially just to play dvds. You could say it's pretty close to a Media Center PC.
Note: I am not an MS fanboy or even xbox for that matter. I don't own an xbox, and I also have only purchased Macs my whole life.
A long time ago I used to backup to zip (click of death destroyed my files), then I went to cds, then dvds. However, I find that there really is not a good way other than using another hard drive since I have just too many files (mp3s, video, tons of large graphic files from projects). What I do now is I'll burn dvds occasionally for projects to store, but I just have an extra hard drive I'll occasionally stick in my computer and then copy all my files that I would want if something went wrong (don't need system files or whatever as I can easily reinstall programs and whatnot - I consider that cleaning up a bit also since I won't put all the crap that has accumulated over the years). After I backup I will just take the drive out and throw it in a small fireproof safe. I do this a few times a year, although it should probably be more. A firewire drive would probably be easier but this works for me. I also recommend if it is important store it off-site which I should do but haven't.
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I just don't like console games. Granted I lived through the NES generation and played all the time and borrowed games from my friends and whatnot, but since then I haven't had another console. Never got a SNES, Nintendo 64, Cube, Playstation, xBox, etc. However, I always had my computer and enjoy the games on that much more. I just can play much better with a keyboard and mouse than with any gamepad. For me I think I'd rather hook up my computer to the TV than to buy a console.
My story is very similar. I average playing 4 hours a day, every day, for a year and a half. I still had a social life, and did other things, but WoW did hurt that a bit (I would rather raid then go hang out with friends usually). I also was very tired at work all the time. I got to the point where it became a chore and the only way to progress were the 40 man raids. I finally just sold the account and in the process ticked off a few guildmates. I will never go back since I don't have an account or a guild to go to, however I still read the guild forums and WoW related news for some reason. It's hard to let go sometimes.
My Background: My family bought their first Mac back in 1988. Since then we have probably bought 8 or 9 Macs. You can consider me a "Mac Fanboi" if you'd like because I easily fit the category. I tend to avoid using Windows machines, but I can do what I need on them just rather wouldn't like to deal with them. Right now I'm typing this on a G5 Tower I bought 2 years ago.
So now that that's out of the way this is what I have noticed. Being a Mac user in the 90s really sucked. Sure I still liked using Macs, but for whatever reason as soon as anyone found out you used one you'd be persecuted and ridiculed to no end. I lived through it and would try to counter arguments made, but the points I tried to make usually fell on deaf ears. I learned that while I wouldn't deny using a Mac or back down from an argument, I wouldn't go out of my way to declare myself a user. So I continued to use my Mac and enjoyed it...
Now in the past few years things have changed quite a bit. Most of the people around me started asking me why I used a Mac and overall everyone seemed curious about Macs. I'd tell them what I liked, would give them a demo, or whatever they wanted. I've actually helped at least 5 people I know move to Macs. This would have been unheard of before. I'm not even going out of my way, people are coming to me. While I don't have numbers or whatever on conversion rates, I can tell you there is a wave of people (however large or small) that are moving. IIn fact, I just got an email this last week from a high school buddy wondering if I still used Macs because he just bought a Macbook Pro and was loving it (never would have expected it coming from him). Apple is doing better than ever, and while they will probably never bee the guy on top, they are making ground.
Remember the Slashdot pool is very specific. While people fight over stuff like "closed systems," customizing hardware, or whatever other nerdy stuff you want to argue about, the average user: checks email, writes papers, downloads photos off their camera, and other basic things. They hate dealing with viruses, spyware, crashes, driver problems, or things that don't work. While Macs aren't perfect, they sure make a computer less an obstacle and more an extension of what the user wants to do.
If by extra money you mean I spent just over a hundred dollars on an iPod that would have cost $300 (got a Powerbook at the same time and there was a promotion to get a $200 rebate on any iPod) then I guess you could say that. Of course I've only used Macs in my house since we first got one in around 1988 so I probably would have bought an iPod eventually. Anyway, for the majority of the time I use my iPod as a portable drive for files to and from work and use it less for listening to music.
And when everyone says iPod they only mean the player from Apple right? Sure, that's what it should be, but a lot of people will say iPod in reference to any mp3 player (yes, that does irritate me), and the same goes for Google to mean web-search. I really don't care what the specific definition says in the latest version of Webster or wherever (come on, some of the words they added this year shouldn't have made it). If people use Google as a verb for web-seach then web-search is Google, and while you don't "Google" on Yahoo you most likely don't search there either.
A bit of my background: I played WoW for about a 1.5 years (just recently quit). WoW took up way too much of my time and I neglected other things in my life to focus on WoW. It was a fun diversion and I enjoyed playing a lot. However there were times when I simply hated it also. For myself, MMORPGs are something I shouldn't do. I tend to be pretty goal oriented so in a regular game once I beat it I'm done with the game and move on. In fact in the past two weeks I've finished two games and have no desire to play them again. The problem with WoW (which was my first MMORPG) was that there is always something else to go for...
I could never run out of goals so I would keep playing. I even leveled cooking, fishing, and first aid to 300 at a time when only very few guilds were in MC since I was looking for things to do. One of the reasons I stopped was because I really couldn't progress anymore unless I was with 39 other people in some high-end instance for 6 hours and then if I had enough dkp I may get a drop for the night. The time vs rewards was way too much out of proportion so I ended up selling my account and have found myself with much more free time.
So my theory on why games (WoW in this case) are addictive: I think most people continue to play or play excessively due to the power or recognition they receive from the game. This is what I think is addicting. Because WoW tends to award players for grinding and spending a ton of time the people in the best gear will be the ones that play the most. These also tend to be in the best guilds and if you are one of them you will have opposing faction members run from you by just your guild tag. You will also have same faction players constantly whispering you or inspecting you in awe as they remark on how leet your gear is. This makes the players feel good so they continue to do what it takes (mainly time) to keep at it. If you don't play as much, others will advance past you and you just won't be as "cool" anymore. If you quit you become a regular joe again doing the same stuff as everyone else. Sure your fame is only virtual but it's fame nonetheless and since you probably won't get it in real life you might as well somewhere.
You can relate this to games, sports, academics, whatever. People tend to do things for power and recognition. Once you get it is is addicting (varies depending on the person). I'm sure this causes chemical reactions or whatever to happen in the brain/body so that you could explain it in some scientific way, but I can't so I won't.
I'm guessing if the researchers at the clinic rigged the games the patients used so that they could only lose or the players couldn't interact with others (for example chat is garbled or not allowed) then the players would very soon lose interest in playing and would look for other activities to spend their time doing.
I started using Photoshop at version 4 LE (came free with a scanner). For the last 5 years I have used Photoshop 90% of the time in my full-time jobs. I have no reason to learn GIMP. And a high-price is relative. for $599 (full version) or $149 (upgrade) that is not expensive for full-time professionals. I'd rather spend either than take countless hours trying to learn GIMP. For the average home enthusiast maybe GIMP would be worth it, but most people could just get by with stuff they could do in Picassa or iPhoto or whatever else comes free. I've still never been given a reason to download GIMP let alone install it. If anyone could give a 10 year Photoshop Veteran a valid reason why I should use GIMP I'd love to hear it (price is not a valid reason).
I've tried to keep track of this "up-and-coming" format war for quite a while now. I used to favor Blue-Ray quite a bit as it just makes sense to pick the format with the biggest capacity in my opinion. However, I could really care less anymore. I predict there will be no "real" winner. If I, a Slashdot reader and computer nerd, don't care about HD-DVD or Blue-Ray anymore do you think the average consumer will? I highly doubt it. There is no huge convenience factor that sets apart either new format as a must have for consumers. Blue-Ray and HDDVD are glorified DVDs without much benefit over that of what everyone has now. More resolution? Big deal. More DRM? Yeah, that will be a big selling point... I compare the movie industry to the music industry a lot. I feel the music industry goes through what the movie industry will down the road in a decade or so. Let's take a closer look. Music: Cassette Tapes -> CDs (Many benefits such as noticeable higher quality and jumping to any track you want instantly.) CDs -> SACD, DVD-Audio (Slightly perceivable better quality but both have never been successful in any way, shape or form.) CDs -> Online Downloads (Very convenient, instant gratification, maybe not better quality but that doesn't seem to matter.) Movies: VHS -> DVDs (Many benefits such as noticeable higher quality and jumping to any track you want instantly.) DVDs -> BlueRay, HD_DVD (Slightly perceivable better quality but both "will not be" successful in any way, shape or form.) DVDs -> Online Downloads or On Demand (Convenient, and somewhat instant gratification.) By the end of the decade I see much more progress being made to having home movie servers (media PCs, whatever you want to call them) where all y our movies are stored and you can access them much like you can with music now with programs such as iTunes. I see myself personally gravitating towards this sort of use already. I once thought that HD-DVD or Blue-Ray would do much better in PCs for backup purposes, but as has been said by others the greater capacities are not keeping up with what is needed now. For me to back up my almost full 250 GB hard drive it is easier for me to just by a new larger drive and transfer everything to it while keeping the old one as a backup somewhere. So long for being useful Blue-Ray or HD-DVD. Unless you come out at a cost lower than DVDs I don't see either of you getting far.
Interesting concept, overall it wouldn't work well in the US due to corporate pricing and whatnot. However, my brother-in-law does something somewhat related. He is on a mass email group list for DVD releases. I'm not sure how it came about, he might have had a hand in doing it, but what it basically is is a bunch of local people in some sort of organized database that will get emails on new DVDs coming out. If they want to purchase it they will reply with the quantity and after the total is figured this group will buy a palette or two of that DVD at a wholesale price which is usually around $10 cheaper than if they went to Walmart or wherever. Sometimes I get some from him, but if you get enough people you can cut out the middle man. In theory this could work for most any thing if there were people who wanted to take on the responsibility of tracking data and organizing it. Just think what kind of discounts you could get with a group as big as slashdot. You could get wholesale on who knows what.
Yes, let's talk plot please. For some reason since this is an open source project plot must not matter to slashdot users, although if George Lucas were to have helped out in this it would be a different story. I just watched it and while the animation and rendering were interesting the plot bored me to death. I felt like I was in an bad anime movie (I don't like those anyway), and after hearing the word emo about 10,000 times (someone might want to count the exact number) I thought I might as well turn emo and slash my wrists to save me the pain. I applaud the work that was done by the open source community in it's creation, but it really did not captivate my attention.
I've used Photoshop for around 10 years now. My last two jobs were jobs were I used Photoshop full-time. Needless to say I use it a lot and feel like I'm qualified to express my opinion about it. You should also know I have never used Gimp. I'm running on OS X, and I know I could install it if I wanted, but I don't see a point. Photoshop is the industry standard in graphics, and no one will care if I'm fluent with the Gimp on a resume (that sounds odd in any case). I've also spent countless hours on figuring out how to do what I need in Photoshop, and I'm not going to throw that away by saving a few bucks ($150 for upgrade, or $500 for full version) by using Gimp instead of Photoshop. The time I would lose figuring out the "quirks" in Gimp wouldn't even justify me thinking about it. OSS is great, I use a lot of little utilities on my mac that come from those efforts. I don't make a profession by using any of them, but they enhance my experience and make my life easier. I really don't see OSS making inroads in the graphics industry though. It's a cycle because Photoshop is the standard, companies hire those that know how to use the standard, schools teach students how to use the standard so they can be hired, and Photoshop continues to be the standard because it is used and taught everywhere. How do you combat that? I applaud the efforts of the OSS community creating Gimp but I think it will always stay in a niche outside the limelight.
You're right, there is something wrong! There is no story about the iPod!
I just got a HD TV for Christmas. It has a HD tuner in it and looking at the difference between over the air NTSC and HD is very noticeable. No doubt about it being an upgrade in that respect. However, putting a DVD in and trying to compare it to HD makes the difference much harder to determine. I know it doesn't fully realize the potential of HD but perceptually it is getting close (at least on my screen and with my player). Once the HD content comes out in whatever format (HD-DVD, or Blueray) the potential should be filled, but for the average consumer the difference may not be enough. It will eventually catch on, but for the most part it is going to take quite a few years to do so, for what's the point of HD content if you don't even have a HD TV? We will be in the next decade before HD discs are mainstream, just look at how VHS is holding on even though DVD easily demonstrates the superiority of its format. However, going to your comparison between music and movies. CDs did hit a wall. No one but the audiophiles would find a problem with a standard music CD. Listeners don't know a difference. SACD and DVD-Audio have never taken off and never will. However, music files have taken off whether it is mp3s or aacs or whatever format you prefer. I hardly ever listen to a real CD now. All of mine are ripped onto my computer and I listen to them when I am working or I'll throw them onto my iPod and plug it into my car or put in headphones or whatever. I think movies will end up the same way. Let's say HD discs eventually become the "CD" of the movie industry. Anything afterwards will not have a better perceived picture quality to the average consumer and they will look for value in some other direction most likely being portability. We are already seeing this a bit with the video iPod and the PSP. I would love to have a device where I can carry my whole movie library around and then choose what to watch. Why have little kids scratch DVDs trying to put it in themselves when you can stream the movies off a computer with no possible way for disc destruction? It seems logical to me, although it will take time for all of this to become mainstream (we do see evidence of people already doing all of these things). This is where I see the future: there will be no main disc format after either Blueray or HD-DVD, it will be some type of DRM laden file that you can take wherever you want (similar to how songs from the iTunes store are). Hopefully Blueray or HD-DVD are eventually easy to rip though, because I really like having control over my files without DRM. One can hope at least.
I found that the most abbreviations I've used was in World of Warcraft. I'm sure this is true for any MMORPG. Try to teach someone what the following means: Lvl 60 LFG UBRS/DM/ZG/BRD/LBRS/Scholo I constantly find myself emailing friends where I have to remember not to put abbreviations in. QFT, 8, etc. It's interesting to chat and then realize you hardly use a complete word.
Actually there is a penalty to dying numerous times. The more you die the longer it takes for you to resurrect. So even when you do get back to your body in spirit form you have to wait for the timer. Granted you have to die quite often but it still makes it so you don't want to. Also, every time you die your armor and weapons you are using lose durability. The more you die the more it costs to repair them. Your weapon could even break if the durability is low enough and you haven't repaired it. And you can't plow through high level monsters one wack at a time. If you die by the time you get back and resurrect the mob has regenerated its hit points, so you have to start over again. If you a group of mobs they'll attack you together and you're even more screwed. And if you do try to attack mobs 10 lvls above you you won't even knock pts off it, and will die very quickly. Add all this up and you try to stay alive and won't be able to get anywhere you shouldn't until you reach a high enough level.
You know, Blizzard does not stop you from logging on to a server in a different time zone. I am in MST and in the open beta played mostly PST. However, i'm in a guild now and we play CST because there are quite a few players on the east coast (so we compromised time zones). You can sign up wherever you want it is not a problem. So now disregard half of your post and that is what you have to say.
I live just North of Salt Lake City, and since this terrorist act threatens me imminently, I did a bit of research. My conclusion is that someone forgot to tell the pilot that the new mouse he was using was dangerous, he was goofing off, it flipped upside down and burned his retina. Case solved.
The name iTunes refers to what it does - plays tunes (music). It has never been meant for video, although you can now have music videos through iTMS, and they could easily incorporate video because Quicktime is running the show underneath the GUI.
/. I don't hear much about it. The average person knows mp3, if I even try to explain AAC to them they get confused, so I tell them to think of it as mp4 and of course the higher number helps them see it as better (I do know what it is, so you don't have to tell me.)
Why the crap do you want to make a thousand folders to put each individual song/movie in so that you can search them? In OSX I could do the same and search in the finder for "Rated-G Animated Movies" following your method of approach and still come up with the same results possibly faster. Using tags or metadata is much better to organize then making folders.
I can't say anything about your PC, but I have a Dual 2.0Ghz G5 and have iTunes running most of the time and it doesn't make a dent in slowing down what I'm doing. I work on Photoshop mostly and usually am not working on a file less then 100 MB. Buy some more RAM.
I can't comment on the iTMS quality as I haven't purchased anything. I do have 65 GBs of music on my drive though, and a 128 kbps AAC is roughly the same as a 160 kbps mp3 to my ears. I rip at 192 kbps mp3 though for compatibilitys sake.
And are people really asking for Ogg playback? Out of
So you have a G4 with a superdrive, why do you assume that a newer G5 isnt' able to burn a DVD faster? The G4s shipped with Pioneer DVR-103, 104, or 105s (possibly 106s also). Before the 105 it was 2x, depending on the media you used. If you used a 4x media then it would got to 1x most likely. From the 105 and latter you can burn 4x if you have the right media. Right now the pioneer DVR-107 is being used in the new eMacs, and also seems to be shipping right now in the G5 (supposedly Apple has depleted their supply of 106s). So in response to your statement, yes Apple is shipping faster DVD burners. There are also other DVD burners that have shipped in various macs (some from Sony, and maybe some others), although for the most part Apple has shipped Pioneer drives. There is also nothing stopping you from upgrading your drive. You can buy a DVR-107 IDE for $97 right now. The drivers are preset in the latest version of 10.3, so all you have to do is install it and you can use an 8x burner. Not too difficult. I plan on doing it once I get my new G5 as the Apple store charges around a $200 difference between a Superdrive and a combo drive.
All I can say is if you are getting write speeds that slow, when was the last time you defragged your hard drive? I've never experienced that slow of a write for a 17 Mb file on any of my macs. Is your hard drive full?