.......If they have solid scientific evidence to refute the solid scientific evidence.......
If some dogma becomes "politically correct" whether true or not, is important to many. Right now it is politically correct to believe in the global warming myth. It was politically correct to believe that the earth was flat and at the center of the universe. When the Danish Astronomer Olaf Roemer measured the finite speed of light, when the accepted scientific doctrine was that light took no time at all to travel, it took 50 years for his measurements to be accepted. There is little or no evidence of long term global warming and certainly none as to its cause if there is such a thing even.
.....The prime role of education is to help make people good citizens.....
No, education is for the increase of human knowledge. The teaching of morality and the concomitant result of having good citizens is a function of a good and moral home and family. The schools as we know them today is a modern invention. The people who lived in the centuries before formal schools were good citizens of their time in most cases. To be a good citizens, it doesn't really matter if you believe the earth is flat and is at the center of the universe. It does matter to love and respect your neighbor and live in peace with others.
(....You keep assuming everyone wants to be like an American......)
No, of course not, they just want to have the prosperity Americans have. They drink CocaCola, listen to American music, watch American movies on electronic equipment running American developed microchips and drink CocaCola at McDonalds.
(....So when a Palestinian father all of a sudden is not allowed to go to work......)
He would not have a place to work at all if it were not for the Israeli presence. Before the state of Israel came into being, that part of the world was a barren, largely waterless, unfruitful wasteland caused by centuries of mismanagement by all sorts of governments EXCEPT the Jews.
(......When a farmer wakes up to find a huge concrete wall......)
He can blame that on his militant mullah down the road in a mosque, who promises 72 virgins in Paradise to young men willing to commit suicide by killing as many of the hated Jews and other infidels as possible. The 45+ million Arabs could have long ago taken in and offered a home to the relatively few Palestinians and let the Jews have their homeland after almost 2000 years exile. However, a very powerful, hateful element of Moslems doesn't let that happen and keeps the hate pot boiling.
......but there are cultures who do not want their society be driven by unbridled capitalism......
Why is it then that some of the people of these cultures complain about America from their mountain caves or Bedouin tents while sipping cokes and listening to their radios or TVs which contain American invented technologies? Why do these sons and grandsons of primitive desert tribes come here, take flight training in US flight schools and then fly our airliners into our buildings in our cities. While Americans are not angels, a large reason for such activity is envy and a desire to force their religion and way of life on others. American are not the only ones who have bombs blowing up on their soil in futile attempts by these primitive terrorists to get their way. The only way to deal with these kinds of people is by great, terrible, unceasing force. The nation of Israel has learned this in the last 58 years and is still only there because their military is superior than that of their enemies who wish to push them into the Mediterranean Sea.
......I would judge an education system, for example, by the way in which it raises the average common sense......
I would judge an education system by how much it advanced to frontier of human knowledge. Why is it that most of the highest of high tech, such as the microchips, computers, lasers, communications, medical, pharmaceutical, transportation and other leading edge things come more often from the USA than from any other country? It must be that our educations system is so terrible since in many countries' 6th or 10th graders do so much better in math and science than their American counterparts. In education, it is not the average level of the population that really matters, but the peak achievements of the few.
......that everything related to personality and self awareness occurs in the physical substrate of the brain using neurochemical processes that we are studying.........
That is an assumption (faith) that a collection of atoms gives rise to consciousness, intelligence, mind, thought, emotion etc.
Is it possible, by examining the physical hardware of a computer to determine its function or the origin of its programming? All the hardware of a computer does is to allow the software to express the intent of the mind that created the software. All software ultimately is the product of a mind, a human mind in the case of a computer. No software arises apart from the activity of mind. Unlike hardware, there is no known mathematics that can give a reasonable assurance that the software is bug free.
Is it possible by minutely examining the brain, to determine the origin of its software? Does the software executed by the brain NOT also come from a mind, intelligence of a program designer? Does this software, just as in a computer reflect the intents and purposes of the programmer?
We know a lot more about computers than the brain, but even so, the most detailed examination of the hardware chips and circuits tells is very little about the functioning of the software and NOTHING whatsoever about the software origin until the computer is actually powered up. Even then that is only the case if the programmer decided to tell us about the working of the program and who he/she is. Since the brain is much more complex than a computer and we know very little about it, learning about the software is not very likely by examining its biology.
.....You must be careful how you use that term 'God'. If used in the Christian sense, that there was this grampa-like figure......
There are of course many different ideas "God" that have their various adherents. In the context of the article, concerning the survival of the human race, when the earth is destroyed, the Christian concept of a transcendent Creator and the resurrection from the dead, in a transcendent, immortal physical body fits quite well. Eastern ideas of re-incarnation fail when the all life on this planet is wiped out if or when the sun goes nova or swallows the earth. The Christian God, outside of our time-space dimension demonstrated this survival by physically resurrecting Jesus from the dead. The founders of eastern and other religions are dead. None of them even makes the claim to conquering the greatest enemy -- death. The Bible speaks about the immortal, immaterial parts of man, the spirit, soul, consciousness, mind, intelligence or whatever other terms are applied to the non-physical part of man, becoming resident in a new kind of physical body. This new transcendent body can operate in ADDITIONAL dimensions to the time-space we are now a part of and flesh and blood limit us to.
Just as we load software and data into computer hardware, which determines and expresses the complete functionality thereof, so too our Creator is able to and will do with us.
According to the Bible, all humans will exist eternally, apart from the continuance of this present time-space cosmos. Those who believe, trust and obey the words and work of Jesus will have this continuance in the presence of their Creator. Those who disbelieve and disobey will be in an existence forever shut out from this closeness to the holy and absolutely perfect God.
.....If I started picking your brain apart one neuron at a time, you wouldn't ever notice a specific point at which self-awareness ceased, you would gradually get less and less aware......
That is based on the assumption (faith) that consciousness is part of or caused by the material nature of the brain. It is like saying that the physical hardware of a computer gives rise to the software which controls and runs it and gives the computer its "personality". We can load all sorts of software into the same hardware and this software makes the same hardware do radically different things. If there is a sharp distinction in a computer between the hardware and the software, could this not also be true of us are humans? Just as the software was put into the computer by an external intelligence, so too was our mind and spirit put into the hardware of our bodies by an external intelligence. Even our "hardware", our bodies are constructed and controlled by the software stored in the DNA. We are talking about information and in the case of humans we usually talk about God in this context.
....I really didn't say much in my post other than the fact that certain eastern ideas have very strong backing in QM.....
I'd really be interested in how quantum physics touches on eastern ideas in ways that Christianity does not. I've always thought that QM is science, and as such is limited to the physical world, whereas religion goes beyond science.
......about philosopher and interpreter of Eastern religions......
Eastern religions' common thread of survival is the idea of re-incarnation. So what happens if the earth and all life thereon is destroyed? Where or into what then do people get re-incarnated?
The Christian faith hinges on the idea of a physical resurrection into the some kind of transcendent body, such as Jesus. In that scenario, humanity can and will survive the eventual destruction of this planet. Jesus lived in a tangible, physical body, yet one that was not limited to the physical dimensions our mortal bodies are today.
...... Just as there is reason to believe that the human race will self-destruct, there is equal or greater chance that we will continue to flourish.......
I believe that humanity will continue to flourish, for a reason that few, if any posters on this series have expressed. The underlying assumptions of Hawking and most here is that we humans are in charge of our own destiny. My assumption (faith) that there is indeed a God who created the cosmos and put us here in this tiny corner thereof, changes the whole equation. Until and unless the One who created everything, including people, decides to end His whole experiment, the human race will endure, even beyond the physical destructions of this planet, a grain of sand on the seashore we call home.
Another underlying assumption (faith) of Hawking and most who have posted here is that human existence is limited to this physical time-space domain. About 4000 years ago, Job (Job 14:14) asked the searching question: "If a man die, shall he live again?" The software part of man (mind-spirit) is not subject to some of the laws of physics. Software, thought, mind, intelligence, whatever terms you wish to use, is in and of itself not subject to the rules that govern the human body. In the same way that software can be transmitted through space and then be loaded into new hardware, where it once again finds expression, why does it seem so far fetched that the human software (mind-spirit) could not also be transmitted , recorded and reloaded into new and better hardware, a new, much superior body, than what it runs in right now? Even our hardware, our bodies are constructed and governed by software stored in our DNA. We are able to do this with computers, so why is it thought to be so inconceivable that an all powerful God would not have the ability to do this with the intelligent spirit beings He put on this planet for His purposes?
......Within one week of activating a new POTS phone line, I started receiving about three or four calls per night. It got the point where I stopped answering my home phone unless I was expecting a call. I disconnected my answering machine.....
Caller ID in combination with an old Mac Classic used as an answering machine has solved our unwanted phone call problems almost perfectly.
The Mac allows the audible, live monitoring of the first 10 seconds of any message coming in within which time we can decide to answer the phone or not. Any number we don't know or not listed is not answered live by us at all unless the caller leaves a message, which is also not answered unless we want to. A large display caller ID shows who is calling. The Mac answers all calls we don't recognize. We have not talked to a single phone solicitor in several years. Something like this should work even better for VOIP, since the computer can contain a list of callers the recipient is willing to talk to. The other calls go into the junk call bin, just as the spam junk e-mail does. The only calls that get answered live are the wanted ones. The do not call list is worthless anyway, but just as the spammers use technology, so, technology can also work against them. Fight fire with fire.
....By denying Microsoft the rights you agreed to granting them, you are indeed in breach of contract.....
Since when is a EULA a contract? A contract or agreement requires two or more CLEARLY IDENTIFIED parties giving their consent by a witnessed procedure. Why do REAL, enforceable contracts at least require signatures and, if the contracts are important, an official witness called an notary? How can it be proved WHO inserted a disk, clicked a mouse or ripped open a package? Someone should write a program that automatically approves all so called EULAs, without any user intervention. There is NO way to tell whether a robot or a human "agreed" to such legal nonsense.
....The U.S. system cannot be wrong (except from a technical elegance point of view), and it's not primitive in any meaningful sense. That leaves "irregular," which it certainly is......
The US system is more poetic. A miss is as good as a kilometer just doesn't make for good literature. Going the the second kilometer? How about "Give a man a centimeter and he'll take a kilometer"? Or the 2.54 centimeter worm? We still ned the US measuring system at the very least for literature and poetry.
......I really have no problems...updates happen automatically overnight...I have never had any security problems.....
I too use both PC and Mac and like most/. readers, know much more about computers that the average user. Both of us know not to click on any old link that comes our way and are therefore much safer from malware. I'd say that most/. readers are not bothered all that much by most of the malware out there. However, I get to clean up malware infested Windows systems of clueless users often, but have never had to do this for a Mac or my own Windows boxes.
As a knowledgeable user you know where to find, download, install and configure freebie software and figure out how to use it and get it to work with media peripherals. There are many users who don't have good computer skills, but would nevertheless like to make a DVD of that home movie that is now in their video camera. They'd have a much better chance doing this on a Mac, unless you set up their programs for them and held their hand for a while. Having a lot of software available is good for the likes of you and me, but doesn't help anyone who doesn't have a considerable amount more computer expertise than a Mac requires. For/. type tinkerers like us, a Windows PC is a lot more "messable", especially hardware, although now Windows can also run well on Apple brand systems. All computers have their quirks and challenges, and that is part of the fun of owning several.
.....HDTV is an extension of the DVD home theater.......
I'll certainly agree that anyone who already has or is wanting a home theater, complete with all the bells and whistles, will certainly want to have the highest definition picture possible. I wonder though how many 27" or smaller TV sets there are compared to home theater setups that would benefit from HD quality. How many of these TV viewers can afford or have the room for a 10 foot picture?
We do most everyday TV watching on a 27" TV, but especially on the long wet Oregon winter evenings, we set up our 1024x768 DLP projector and invite our family and friends to a "Movie Night", complete with popcorn and drinks. A laptop with a DVD drive inside provides a clean signal to the projector, quite a bit better than when a DVD is used with that same projector. I'll get a new HD DVD drive when it is time to replace the laptop, which will be a while, if and when the new ones come with such a drive. Normally the projector is used for computer generated presentations.
......New film makers are being born all the time, one day modern films will come out that you want to watch........
I never said that ALL modern films are crap, but a large percentage of them are. The LOTR series are very good, not only because they are well made, but are based on a well written, imaginative story by an author of an earlier generation.
The improvements that HD brings over normal DVD is not nearly as great an advance, as DVD was over VHS tapes. The fact that tapes wear a little with each play, whereas disks don't was a very compelling reason to buy a DVD player. When a tape got stuck in a VCR, it usually meant the end for that tape. This is not the case for a disk. There is no compelling reason to switch and that is why the legislated death of analog TV had to be postponed. People are not buying into the HD "revolution" in the numbers the government and industry had hoped. It is likely that the 2009 deadline will be pushed out once more.
......I think this fight is going to be won by whoever can get their players down below $200 first......
The price of the disks, especially blank ones will be even more important than the players. Manufacturing BL requires investment in new equipment and this cannot be used to make ordinary DVDs. If the BL disks are to be sold for the same price as the HD-DVD, than either the studios and.or the manufacturers will have to eat the higher costs. We all know how the studios feel about that.
....really, its not a lot different of a situation than people face when buying gaming consoles......
We just bought a new x-box360 a while ago and did not have to replace the rest of the system to be able to enjoy it. The old CRT multi-sync monitor we already had works just fine and so do the computer speakers. To enjoy the benefits of HD-DVD, a really expensive, LARGE monitor is needed. Any existing 27" or smaller TV will not make the picture any better than an our $65 DVD player.
..... DVD technology in general I've had some annoying experiences with since along with it came unskippable material, poorly designed menus, unexplainable disc read errors, terrible points for scene and title (I don't understand why TV show DVDs often refuse to organize each episode under a title and break the episode up into scenes).......
Exactly what makes you think that the new formats will be free from EVERY one of the negative things you mention? Add to that, new draconian DRM and there are few if any reasons to spend money on new equipment until the old stuff dies.
The old classic movies which are certainly more worth watching, than some of the drivel Hollywood is churning out these days, will not benefit much, if at all from the new formats.
....(since OSes still haven't gotten around to being resolution independent without bugs).......
Maybe that is true with Windows and PC hardware, but Macs and OSX allow for multiple resolutions on decent monitors.
The switch from VHS to DVD was much more compelling than now from DVD to HD-DVD. It wasn't so much the better resolution that drove the switch, than the convenience of no rewinding, random access and a more compact format, among others. None of these driving factors are present this time. The more draconian DRM will also slow down the new formats. Right now, DMCA notwithstanding, there are easily obtained methods for making more convenient use of the "un-copyable" DVD, such as copying their contents to a hard drive on a laptop before going on a trip, so the original DVD can stay safely on the shelf at home.
So even when the costs come down to the present level, there are really few compelling reasons to throw out working equipment. Only as the old devices die, will they be replaced with the new.
.... Well, I guess the reason a customer might buy it is similar to why a customer would want their PC to display resolutions higher than 1024x768 today,........
Computers are used for entirely different tasks than a TV, although a computer can also display video. Being able to see, read and edit a full page or spreadsheet is a good reason for a hi-res computer screen. Working on images in Photoshop, and still having good access to all those palettes and menus is also a good use for a high-res screen.
Most DVDs these days have the new wide-screen format and look great on a wide screen display. Most of my movies are older classics, since I cannot stand the insane, fast action violence of many of the newer films. This means that anybody who enjoys the older movies will have little or no benefit from the new HD technology. Seeing in detail, the poor shave job of the evening newscaster doesn't add much enjoyment either to the generally bad news he brings each day.
....No, a 27" TV is not sufficient to fully appreciate the level of detail apparent.......
What is the average size of TV sets these days? We here on/. appreciate higher quality of tech toys. Just as mp3 music files are not as "pristine' as a good music CD, the former are still very popular because they are "good enough" for millions of listeners. On the average reproducing system, owned by the masses of consumers, the difference between mp3 and full CD audio is unnoticeable. This is also the case between the new HD formats and the now existing DVDs. Only those who care to have the finest audio and video reproduction will pay the significant difference, whereas the vast majority will keep their existing stuff until the new HD technology prices are about the same as the now existing devices and disks.
The incremental cost of only adding a digital tuner is insignificant compared to having to replace the entire reproducing system. Even if a 45" screen with 2000x4000 or other ridiculous resolution came out for the price of a 27" TV, few people would use such a display at full resolution as a computer monitor, sitting 10 feet away from it and not being able to read the 10 point print such a fantastic monitor could display. Using a huge monitor also presents problems for many people living in small apartments. The HD experience is great for purists, but the take-up rate for the masses will be a LOT slower than it was for the VHS-DVD transition. At that time, only one component had to be replaced, not the entire video setup. Just replacing the existing DVD player, but keeping the rest, will not make a change for which consumers will will spend much money.
..... *if* Blu-Ray starts looking like a failure, those companies you listed will not hesitate to jump ship (same goes for HD-DVD, of course)......
If the two formats are more or less functionally the same, then the price of the players, recorders and blank disks will decide which format will win. The fact that BL can hold a bit more data than HD-DVD will not help if the media for the former is significantly more expensive. I have read that the HD-DVD blank and pre-recorded disks can be made on the same equipment that the current normal DVD are produced with, whereas this is not the case for BL. If this is really true, that should give that format a significant cost advantage, if the player/recorder prices are are about equal.
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.......If they have solid scientific evidence to refute the solid scientific evidence.......
If some dogma becomes "politically correct" whether true or not, is important to many. Right now it is politically correct to believe in the global warming myth. It was politically correct to believe that the earth was flat and at the center of the universe. When the Danish Astronomer Olaf Roemer measured the finite speed of light, when the accepted scientific doctrine was that light took no time at all to travel, it took 50 years for his measurements to be accepted. There is little or no evidence of long term global warming and certainly none as to its cause if there is such a thing even.
.....The prime role of education is to help make people good citizens.....
No, education is for the increase of human knowledge. The teaching of morality and the concomitant result of having good citizens is a function of a good and moral home and family. The schools as we know them today is a modern invention. The people who lived in the centuries before formal schools were good citizens of their time in most cases. To be a good citizens, it doesn't really matter if you believe the earth is flat and is at the center of the universe. It does matter to love and respect your neighbor and live in peace with others.
(....You keep assuming everyone wants to be like an American......)
......)
No, of course not, they just want to have the prosperity Americans have. They drink CocaCola, listen to American music, watch American movies on electronic equipment running American developed microchips and drink CocaCola at McDonalds.
(....So when a Palestinian father all of a sudden is not allowed to go to work
He would not have a place to work at all if it were not for the Israeli presence. Before the state of Israel came into being, that part of the world was a barren, largely waterless, unfruitful wasteland caused by centuries of mismanagement by all sorts of governments EXCEPT the Jews.
(......When a farmer wakes up to find a huge concrete wall......)
He can blame that on his militant mullah down the road in a mosque, who promises 72 virgins in Paradise to young men willing to commit suicide by killing as many of the hated Jews and other infidels as possible. The 45+ million Arabs could have long ago taken in and offered a home to the relatively few Palestinians and let the Jews have their homeland after almost 2000 years exile. However, a very powerful, hateful element of Moslems doesn't let that happen and keeps the hate pot boiling.
......but there are cultures who do not want their society be driven by unbridled capitalism......
Why is it then that some of the people of these cultures complain about America from their mountain caves or Bedouin tents while sipping cokes and listening to their radios or TVs which contain American invented technologies? Why do these sons and grandsons of primitive desert tribes come here, take flight training in US flight schools and then fly our airliners into our buildings in our cities. While Americans are not angels, a large reason for such activity is envy and a desire to force their religion and way of life on others. American are not the only ones who have bombs blowing up on their soil in futile attempts by these primitive terrorists to get their way. The only way to deal with these kinds of people is by great, terrible, unceasing force. The nation of Israel has learned this in the last 58 years and is still only there because their military is superior than that of their enemies who wish to push them into the Mediterranean Sea.
......I would judge an education system, for example, by the way in which it raises the average common sense. .....
I would judge an education system by how much it advanced to frontier of human knowledge. Why is it that most of the highest of high tech, such as the microchips, computers, lasers, communications, medical, pharmaceutical, transportation and other leading edge things come more often from the USA than from any other country? It must be that our educations system is so terrible since in many countries' 6th or 10th graders do so much better in math and science than their American counterparts. In education, it is not the average level of the population that really matters, but the peak achievements of the few.
......that everything related to personality and self awareness occurs in the physical substrate of the brain using neurochemical processes that we are studying.........
That is an assumption (faith) that a collection of atoms gives rise to consciousness, intelligence, mind, thought, emotion etc.
Is it possible, by examining the physical hardware of a computer to determine its function or the origin of its programming? All the hardware of a computer does is to allow the software to express the intent of the mind that created the software. All software ultimately is the product of a mind, a human mind in the case of a computer. No software arises apart from the activity of mind. Unlike hardware, there is no known mathematics that can give a reasonable assurance that the software is bug free.
Is it possible by minutely examining the brain, to determine the origin of its software? Does the software executed by the brain NOT also come from a mind, intelligence of a program designer? Does this software, just as in a computer reflect the intents and purposes of the programmer?
We know a lot more about computers than the brain, but even so, the most detailed examination of the hardware chips and circuits tells is very little about the functioning of the software and NOTHING whatsoever about the software origin until the computer is actually powered up. Even then that is only the case if the programmer decided to tell us about the working of the program and who he/she is. Since the brain is much more complex than a computer and we know very little about it, learning about the software is not very likely by examining its biology.
.....You must be careful how you use that term 'God'. If used in the Christian sense, that there was this grampa-like figure ......
There are of course many different ideas "God" that have their various adherents. In the context of the article, concerning the survival of the human race, when the earth is destroyed, the Christian concept of a transcendent Creator and the resurrection from the dead, in a transcendent, immortal physical body fits quite well. Eastern ideas of re-incarnation fail when the all life on this planet is wiped out if or when the sun goes nova or swallows the earth. The Christian God, outside of our time-space dimension demonstrated this survival by physically resurrecting Jesus from the dead. The founders of eastern and other religions are dead. None of them even makes the claim to conquering the greatest enemy -- death. The Bible speaks about the immortal, immaterial parts of man, the spirit, soul, consciousness, mind, intelligence or whatever other terms are applied to the non-physical part of man, becoming resident in a new kind of physical body. This new transcendent body can operate in ADDITIONAL dimensions to the time-space we are now a part of and flesh and blood limit us to.
Just as we load software and data into computer hardware, which determines and expresses the complete functionality thereof, so too our Creator is able to and will do with us.
According to the Bible, all humans will exist eternally, apart from the continuance of this present time-space cosmos. Those who believe, trust and obey the words and work of Jesus will have this continuance in the presence of their Creator. Those who disbelieve and disobey will be in an existence forever shut out from this closeness to the holy and absolutely perfect God.
.....If I started picking your brain apart one neuron at a time, you wouldn't ever notice a specific point at which self-awareness ceased, you would gradually get less and less aware......
That is based on the assumption (faith) that consciousness is part of or caused by the material nature of the brain. It is like saying that the physical hardware of a computer gives rise to the software which controls and runs it and gives the computer its "personality". We can load all sorts of software into the same hardware and this software makes the same hardware do radically different things. If there is a sharp distinction in a computer between the hardware and the software, could this not also be true of us are humans? Just as the software was put into the computer by an external intelligence, so too was our mind and spirit put into the hardware of our bodies by an external intelligence. Even our "hardware", our bodies are constructed and controlled by the software stored in the DNA. We are talking about information and in the case of humans we usually talk about God in this context.
....I really didn't say much in my post other than the fact that certain eastern ideas have very strong backing in QM.....
I'd really be interested in how quantum physics touches on eastern ideas in ways that Christianity does not. I've always thought that QM is science, and as such is limited to the physical world, whereas religion goes beyond science.
.....It enslaved hundreds of thousands of Africans.......
Who were rounded up by their OWN chiefs and sold for trinkets and guns to the slave traders.
......about philosopher and interpreter of Eastern religions......
Eastern religions' common thread of survival is the idea of re-incarnation. So what happens if the earth and all life thereon is destroyed? Where or into what then do people get re-incarnated?
The Christian faith hinges on the idea of a physical resurrection into the some kind of transcendent body, such as Jesus. In that scenario, humanity can and will survive the eventual destruction of this planet. Jesus lived in a tangible, physical body, yet one that was not limited to the physical dimensions our mortal bodies are today.
...... Just as there is reason to believe that the human race will self-destruct, there is equal or greater chance that we will continue to flourish.......
I believe that humanity will continue to flourish, for a reason that few, if any posters on this series have expressed. The underlying assumptions of Hawking and most here is that we humans are in charge of our own destiny. My assumption (faith) that there is indeed a God who created the cosmos and put us here in this tiny corner thereof, changes the whole equation. Until and unless the One who created everything, including people, decides to end His whole experiment, the human race will endure, even beyond the physical destructions of this planet, a grain of sand on the seashore we call home.
Another underlying assumption (faith) of Hawking and most who have posted here is that human existence is limited to this physical time-space domain. About 4000 years ago, Job (Job 14:14) asked the searching question: "If a man die, shall he live again?" The software part of man (mind-spirit) is not subject to some of the laws of physics. Software, thought, mind, intelligence, whatever terms you wish to use, is in and of itself not subject to the rules that govern the human body. In the same way that software can be transmitted through space and then be loaded into new hardware, where it once again finds expression, why does it seem so far fetched that the human software (mind-spirit) could not also be transmitted , recorded and reloaded into new and better hardware, a new, much superior body, than what it runs in right now? Even our hardware, our bodies are constructed and governed by software stored in our DNA. We are able to do this with computers, so why is it thought to be so inconceivable that an all powerful God would not have the ability to do this with the intelligent spirit beings He put on this planet for His purposes?
......Within one week of activating a new POTS phone line, I started receiving about three or four calls per night. It got the point where I stopped answering my home phone unless I was expecting a call. I disconnected my answering machine .....
Caller ID in combination with an old Mac Classic used as an answering machine has solved our unwanted phone call problems almost perfectly.
The Mac allows the audible, live monitoring of the first 10 seconds of any message coming in within which time we can decide to answer the phone or not. Any number we don't know or not listed is not answered live by us at all unless the caller leaves a message, which is also not answered unless we want to. A large display caller ID shows who is calling. The Mac answers all calls we don't recognize. We have not talked to a single phone solicitor in several years. Something like this should work even better for VOIP, since the computer can contain a list of callers the recipient is willing to talk to. The other calls go into the junk call bin, just as the spam junk e-mail does. The only calls that get answered live are the wanted ones. The do not call list is worthless anyway, but just as the spammers use technology, so, technology can also work against them. Fight fire with fire.
....By denying Microsoft the rights you agreed to granting them, you are indeed in breach of contract.....
Since when is a EULA a contract? A contract or agreement requires two or more CLEARLY IDENTIFIED parties giving their consent by a witnessed procedure. Why do REAL, enforceable contracts at least require signatures and, if the contracts are important, an official witness called an notary? How can it be proved WHO inserted a disk, clicked a mouse or ripped open a package? Someone should write a program that automatically approves all so called EULAs, without any user intervention. There is NO way to tell whether a robot or a human "agreed" to such legal nonsense.
....The U.S. system cannot be wrong (except from a technical elegance point of view), and it's not primitive in any meaningful sense. That leaves "irregular," which it certainly is......
The US system is more poetic. A miss is as good as a kilometer just doesn't make for good literature. Going the the second kilometer? How about "Give a man a centimeter and he'll take a kilometer"? Or the 2.54 centimeter worm? We still ned the US measuring system at the very least for literature and poetry.
......I really have no problems...updates happen automatically overnight...I have never had any security problems.....
/. readers, know much more about computers that the average user. Both of us know not to click on any old link that comes our way and are therefore much safer from malware. I'd say that most /. readers are not bothered all that much by most of the malware out there. However, I get to clean up malware infested Windows systems of clueless users often, but have never had to do this for a Mac or my own Windows boxes.
/. type tinkerers like us, a Windows PC is a lot more "messable", especially hardware, although now Windows can also run well on Apple brand systems. All computers have their quirks and challenges, and that is part of the fun of owning several.
I too use both PC and Mac and like most
As a knowledgeable user you know where to find, download, install and configure freebie software and figure out how to use it and get it to work with media peripherals. There are many users who don't have good computer skills, but would nevertheless like to make a DVD of that home movie that is now in their video camera. They'd have a much better chance doing this on a Mac, unless you set up their programs for them and held their hand for a while. Having a lot of software available is good for the likes of you and me, but doesn't help anyone who doesn't have a considerable amount more computer expertise than a Mac requires. For
.....HDTV is an extension of the DVD home theater.......
I'll certainly agree that anyone who already has or is wanting a home theater, complete with all the bells and whistles, will certainly want to have the highest definition picture possible. I wonder though how many 27" or smaller TV sets there are compared to home theater setups that would benefit from HD quality. How many of these TV viewers can afford or have the room for a 10 foot picture?
We do most everyday TV watching on a 27" TV, but especially on the long wet Oregon winter evenings, we set up our 1024x768 DLP projector and invite our family and friends to a "Movie Night", complete with popcorn and drinks. A laptop with a DVD drive inside provides a clean signal to the projector, quite a bit better than when a DVD is used with that same projector. I'll get a new HD DVD drive when it is time to replace the laptop, which will be a while, if and when the new ones come with such a drive. Normally the projector is used for computer generated presentations.
......New film makers are being born all the time, one day modern films will come out that you want to watch........
I never said that ALL modern films are crap, but a large percentage of them are. The LOTR series are very good, not only because they are well made, but are based on a well written, imaginative story by an author of an earlier generation.
The improvements that HD brings over normal DVD is not nearly as great an advance, as DVD was over VHS tapes. The fact that tapes wear a little with each play, whereas disks don't was a very compelling reason to buy a DVD player. When a tape got stuck in a VCR, it usually meant the end for that tape. This is not the case for a disk. There is no compelling reason to switch and that is why the legislated death of analog TV had to be postponed. People are not buying into the HD "revolution" in the numbers the government and industry had hoped. It is likely that the 2009 deadline will be pushed out once more.
......I think this fight is going to be won by whoever can get their players down below $200 first......
The price of the disks, especially blank ones will be even more important than the players. Manufacturing BL requires investment in new equipment and this cannot be used to make ordinary DVDs. If the BL disks are to be sold for the same price as the HD-DVD, than either the studios and.or the manufacturers will have to eat the higher costs. We all know how the studios feel about that.
....really, its not a lot different of a situation than people face when buying gaming consoles......
We just bought a new x-box360 a while ago and did not have to replace the rest of the system to be able to enjoy it. The old CRT multi-sync monitor we already had works just fine and so do the computer speakers. To enjoy the benefits of HD-DVD, a really expensive, LARGE monitor is needed. Any existing 27" or smaller TV will not make the picture any better than an our $65 DVD player.
..... DVD technology in general I've had some annoying experiences with since along with it came unskippable material, poorly designed menus, unexplainable disc read errors, terrible points for scene and title (I don't understand why TV show DVDs often refuse to organize each episode under a title and break the episode up into scenes).......
Exactly what makes you think that the new formats will be free from EVERY one of the negative things you mention? Add to that, new draconian DRM and there are few if any reasons to spend money on new equipment until the old stuff dies.
The old classic movies which are certainly more worth watching, than some of the drivel Hollywood is churning out these days, will not benefit much, if at all from the new formats.
....(since OSes still haven't gotten around to being resolution independent without bugs).......
Maybe that is true with Windows and PC hardware, but Macs and OSX allow for multiple resolutions on decent monitors.
The switch from VHS to DVD was much more compelling than now from DVD to HD-DVD. It wasn't so much the better resolution that drove the switch, than the convenience of no rewinding, random access and a more compact format, among others. None of these driving factors are present this time. The more draconian DRM will also slow down the new formats. Right now, DMCA notwithstanding, there are easily obtained methods for making more convenient use of the "un-copyable" DVD, such as copying their contents to a hard drive on a laptop before going on a trip, so the original DVD can stay safely on the shelf at home.
So even when the costs come down to the present level, there are really few compelling reasons to throw out working equipment. Only as the old devices die, will they be replaced with the new.
.... Well, I guess the reason a customer might buy it is similar to why a customer would want their PC to display resolutions higher than 1024x768 today,........
Computers are used for entirely different tasks than a TV, although a computer can also display video. Being able to see, read and edit a full page or spreadsheet is a good reason for a hi-res computer screen. Working on images in Photoshop, and still having good access to all those palettes and menus is also a good use for a high-res screen.
Most DVDs these days have the new wide-screen format and look great on a wide screen display. Most of my movies are older classics, since I cannot stand the insane, fast action violence of many of the newer films. This means that anybody who enjoys the older movies will have little or no benefit from the new HD technology. Seeing in detail, the poor shave job of the evening newscaster doesn't add much enjoyment either to the generally bad news he brings each day.
....No, a 27" TV is not sufficient to fully appreciate the level of detail apparent.......
/. appreciate higher quality of tech toys. Just as mp3 music files are not as "pristine' as a good music CD, the former are still very popular because they are "good enough" for millions of listeners. On the average reproducing system, owned by the masses of consumers, the difference between mp3 and full CD audio is unnoticeable. This is also the case between the new HD formats and the now existing DVDs. Only those who care to have the finest audio and video reproduction will pay the significant difference, whereas the vast majority will keep their existing stuff until the new HD technology prices are about the same as the now existing devices and disks.
What is the average size of TV sets these days? We here on
The incremental cost of only adding a digital tuner is insignificant compared to having to replace the entire reproducing system. Even if a 45" screen with 2000x4000 or other ridiculous resolution came out for the price of a 27" TV, few people would use such a display at full resolution as a computer monitor, sitting 10 feet away from it and not being able to read the 10 point print such a fantastic monitor could display. Using a huge monitor also presents problems for many people living in small apartments. The HD experience is great for purists, but the take-up rate for the masses will be a LOT slower than it was for the VHS-DVD transition. At that time, only one component had to be replaced, not the entire video setup. Just replacing the existing DVD player, but keeping the rest, will not make a change for which consumers will will spend much money.
..... *if* Blu-Ray starts looking like a failure, those companies you listed will not hesitate to jump ship (same goes for HD-DVD, of course)......
If the two formats are more or less functionally the same, then the price of the players, recorders and blank disks will decide which format will win. The fact that BL can hold a bit more data than HD-DVD will not help if the media for the former is significantly more expensive. I have read that the HD-DVD blank and pre-recorded disks can be made on the same equipment that the current normal DVD are produced with, whereas this is not the case for BL. If this is really true, that should give that format a significant cost advantage, if the player/recorder prices are are about equal.