>With that being possible, I'm surprised it hasn't found its way to a consumer good yet (ie: disposable rentals... no late fees)
Actually, it was tried, but it failed. The copying issue was a major concern. Many people believed that a cheaper availability of DVD movies (as apposed to what had already been ripped, or the higher cost of buying or renting a 'real' DVD)would encourage people to copy the movies simply for the pleasure of owning a pseudo purchased movie for really cheap.
What also turned people against the self-destructive DVDs was that, although they could buy a movie for only a few dollars, they still felt it was cheaper in the long run to either rent and return or buy the movie. Also, the amount of extra waste that would have been introduced into landfills and even incinerators sparked a lot of controversy.
>If DRM enabled devices will make content creators feel comfortable making more content available, then I'm all for it. Also, since theft won't be an issue (unauthorized copying) they won't have to try to recover their losses by charging more for the content.
Or perhaps the content creators will see a rise in demand (i.e. more purchases through vendors rather than unchecked downloads via other means). Unfortunately it seems believable that most industries would exclude all factors except what they wanted in order to get the results they desire. This could cause a rise in prices, to prevent the depletion of the product, or in this case the results of selling more: the increase in bandwidth due to more downloads from the "authorized" vendors.
So yes, more variety will probably be produced if people begin paying for substantially more downloads. But it's as easy for the people who decide the standard price to raise the bar as it is to lower it.
>It's not the use of blue LEDs that bothers me, it's how damn bright most of them are.
The brightness is not the only issue. What is also being overlooked is the visibility of certain bandwidths of visible light. Blue light appears far brighter than red or green. Green is very noticeable as well, but it's not as harsh in darker rooms. Red is not quite as noticeable as green, but in the dark it does not spoil night vision.
Any way, I'll get back to blue LEDs. Yes, they're being made way too bright simply for power indication. This is partially due to the fact that even at the same brightness, the blue LEDs would seem much brighter than most other colors (excluding light ambers and yellows -- the exact hue can have extreme differences). Dim blue LEDs should be used in stead of bright or even regular-brightness LEDs.
In Technical Training (Air Force), there were Nave students as well. One memorable name in particular was "Swallows". That's right... HER title/name was Seaman Swallows
Something somewhat similar to this has been done in Louisiana for many years (for those who are unfamiliar with the state's statistics: La is known for the worst drivers, close to worst education, etc. -- almost everything is close to the worst). The voters sign an afadavid (sp?) when they enter the voting facility, and the booth number is noted. Inside the booth, there is a very simple interface with buttons next to each candidate's name, and there is a brief description of the candidate's platform. Before submitting the vote (a light is illuminated by the pressed button) the voters are asked to confirm.
Any way, back to the 5-step process:
1. Identify yourself (the afadavid as in Louisiana) -- Most states' driver's licenses have some sort of electronically readable media. That part seems easy enough -- scan the card.
2. A nice, easy format is WAY too easy to do, unless it's for Florida residents (or so it seems)
5. Not quite -- the hard copy ballots should be automatically dropped (or printed in a long strip like a cash register receipt?) within the machine, and only printed after the voter has confirmed his/her choice.
Also, there should be a database of local users at the voting points of only the local registered voters. If a scanned ID (if that is the chosen method) does not match, the voter is denied. The information of voters is kept separate from too easily attaching a name to a vote, but not ipossible in case someone somehow successfully votes twice (another reason for theinitial database check), which would invalidate the person's votes. Of course, this could be modified and expanded for many types of possible fraud detection.
Yesterday I read a comment that Linux isn't doing much in the way of innovation -- and today, people want to compare something that hasn't yet been succesfully done with Microsoft. But who can really say, that if Looking Glass is functional in the "2.5 D" perspective, whether it will take off or not?
It seems that it would be a good thing if Sun is successful. Not only would the iplimentation of such a desktop environment be completely unique among 2D offerings, it would also be a success in a way that other large name groups have not met much success.
Maybe he should have done the same thing in Turkey, where it's illegal to try to persuade others to your own beliefs. At least if he had been sent to a Turkish prison for a few years, it might have set off a chain of events so none of this would have ever happened.
"The caveats are that you have to swap the hard drive in and out of your computer to add more movies, etc"
I'd just find a way to connect a hard drive USB or firewire connector (switchable perhaps?) so at the most, it would require a simple cable connection. There are many kits available to make regular hard drives into portables, so just use the cable from one of the less expensive models. To make it switchable, simply strip the cables and solder the switch to the critical wires, unless simply leaving the adapter disconnected from a computer doesn't interfere since it's unterminated. Of course it seems like a good idea to have the DVD player off, or at least not accessing the hard drive while adding or deleting movies (if the DVDplayer is left off, it's porbablr a decent thought -- except for storage capacity -- to use a smaller hard drive that can be powered by the USB/Firewire port).
heh... have you read the article from CNN yestarday? They already have (to an extent) and today, several of my less than knowledgable about the slightest with computers coworkers did make the connection. It seems something implied strongly enough can work easily...
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>With that being possible, I'm surprised it hasn't found its way to a consumer good yet (ie: disposable rentals... no late fees)
Actually, it was tried, but it failed. The copying issue was a major concern. Many people believed that a cheaper availability of DVD movies (as apposed to what had already been ripped, or the higher cost of buying or renting a 'real' DVD)would encourage people to copy the movies simply for the pleasure of owning a pseudo purchased movie for really cheap.
What also turned people against the self-destructive DVDs was that, although they could buy a movie for only a few dollars, they still felt it was cheaper in the long run to either rent and return or buy the movie. Also, the amount of extra waste that would have been introduced into landfills and even incinerators sparked a lot of controversy.
>If DRM enabled devices will make content creators feel comfortable making more content available, then I'm all for it. Also, since theft won't be an issue (unauthorized copying) they won't have to try to recover their losses by charging more for the content.
Or perhaps the content creators will see a rise in demand (i.e. more purchases through vendors rather than unchecked downloads via other means). Unfortunately it seems believable that most industries would exclude all factors except what they wanted in order to get the results they desire. This could cause a rise in prices, to prevent the depletion of the product, or in this case the results of selling more: the increase in bandwidth due to more downloads from the "authorized" vendors.
So yes, more variety will probably be produced if people begin paying for substantially more downloads. But it's as easy for the people who decide the standard price to raise the bar as it is to lower it.
>You can change default ring tone and in most new phones you can use WAV, MIDI or MP3 files as a ring tone.
That's exactly what people are complaining about (unless you mean make an MP3 of a normal, modest ring tone).
>It's not the use of blue LEDs that bothers me, it's how damn bright most of them are.
The brightness is not the only issue. What is also being overlooked is the visibility of certain bandwidths of visible light. Blue light appears far brighter than red or green. Green is very noticeable as well, but it's not as harsh in darker rooms. Red is not quite as noticeable as green, but in the dark it does not spoil night vision.
Any way, I'll get back to blue LEDs. Yes, they're being made way too bright simply for power indication. This is partially due to the fact that even at the same brightness, the blue LEDs would seem much brighter than most other colors (excluding light ambers and yellows -- the exact hue can have extreme differences). Dim blue LEDs should be used in stead of bright or even regular-brightness LEDs.
>Try going outside. Find out about these things called "women".
And this would help my computer how?
In Technical Training (Air Force), there were Nave students as well. One memorable name in particular was "Swallows". That's right ... HER title/name was Seaman Swallows
Something somewhat similar to this has been done in Louisiana for many years (for those who are unfamiliar with the state's statistics: La is known for the worst drivers, close to worst education, etc. -- almost everything is close to the worst). The voters sign an afadavid (sp?) when they enter the voting facility, and the booth number is noted. Inside the booth, there is a very simple interface with buttons next to each candidate's name, and there is a brief description of the candidate's platform. Before submitting the vote (a light is illuminated by the pressed button) the voters are asked to confirm.
Any way, back to the 5-step process:
1. Identify yourself (the afadavid as in Louisiana) -- Most states' driver's licenses have some sort of electronically readable media. That part seems easy enough -- scan the card.
2. A nice, easy format is WAY too easy to do, unless it's for Florida residents (or so it seems)
5. Not quite -- the hard copy ballots should be automatically dropped (or printed in a long strip like a cash register receipt?) within the machine, and only printed after the voter has confirmed his/her choice.
Also, there should be a database of local users at the voting points of only the local registered voters. If a scanned ID (if that is the chosen method) does not match, the voter is denied. The information of voters is kept separate from too easily attaching a name to a vote, but not ipossible in case someone somehow successfully votes twice (another reason for theinitial database check), which would invalidate the person's votes. Of course, this could be modified and expanded for many types of possible fraud detection.
Yesterday I read a comment that Linux isn't doing much in the way of innovation -- and today, people want to compare something that hasn't yet been succesfully done with Microsoft. But who can really say, that if Looking Glass is functional in the "2.5 D" perspective, whether it will take off or not? It seems that it would be a good thing if Sun is successful. Not only would the iplimentation of such a desktop environment be completely unique among 2D offerings, it would also be a success in a way that other large name groups have not met much success.
Maybe he should have done the same thing in Turkey, where it's illegal to try to persuade others to your own beliefs. At least if he had been sent to a Turkish prison for a few years, it might have set off a chain of events so none of this would have ever happened.
"The caveats are that you have to swap the hard drive in and out of your computer to add more movies, etc" I'd just find a way to connect a hard drive USB or firewire connector (switchable perhaps?) so at the most, it would require a simple cable connection. There are many kits available to make regular hard drives into portables, so just use the cable from one of the less expensive models. To make it switchable, simply strip the cables and solder the switch to the critical wires, unless simply leaving the adapter disconnected from a computer doesn't interfere since it's unterminated. Of course it seems like a good idea to have the DVD player off, or at least not accessing the hard drive while adding or deleting movies (if the DVDplayer is left off, it's porbablr a decent thought -- except for storage capacity -- to use a smaller hard drive that can be powered by the USB/Firewire port).
heh ... have you read the article from CNN yestarday? They already have (to an extent) and today, several of my less than knowledgable about the slightest with computers coworkers did make the connection. It seems something implied strongly enough can work easily ...