Ed the Sock is *great*. There's a very learned and literate man behind that sock.
Some of the jokes and things that he'd say in interviews or segments would make me howl with laughter, as they passed over the heads of the teens and 20 somethings in the audience.
CGW was *the* standard that all others aspired to. Staffed by adults. Well written.
Not to mention crazy policies like actually waiting until a game was available on store shelves *before* reviewing. Imagine that kiddies, reviewing the same version customers actually play, not some pre-release/demo crap thing.
I've still got a hundred of these from the early/mid 90's on my shelf I can't bear to part with.
The only quote in that story is that "No, Microsoft antipiracy technologies cannot and will not turn off your computer". That's not the same thing as saying "No, Microsoft antipiracy technologies cannot and will not stop Windows from operating."
My computer can still be on, but XP refuses to boot.
I'm certainly no expert, but it seemed fairly clear to me. The frames are on the disk intact. If you've got a progressive display, it takes the frames and sends them to the display untouched. If you've got an interlaced display, it takes the frame off the disk, sends the odd half, then the even half, your display merges them back together, shows the frame to you, then moves to the next frame. At no time is any frame mixed with a different frame.
Interlacing is a problem in other formats, because the frames are literally mixed together on the disk. Or so I understand.
On a semi-related note, I was browing the HD-DVD section today just for kicks, and every movie I looked at said it was 1080p. Is it safe to assume that there's just a first-gen player limitation, rather than everyone just assuming that we can't fit 1080p stuff on to 15GB (or 30GB, if DL)?
The whole "but ìt's only 1080i" is a total red-herring. From the dvdtalk review:
"In the last couple of days, several technical issues have been put to rest, at least for me. The first was the common accusation that the initial HD DVD players like the Toshiba HD-A1 are deficient because they don't output "full 1080p" resolution, that they are "1080i only." I don't see this as a practical concern. All HD DVD and Blu-ray discs will encode film-sourced material in full 1920x1080 progressive scan resolution at 24 frames per second, which is the film industry standard.
Unfortunately many folks are confusing 1080i acquisition with 1080i transmission. The primary reason we get interlacing artifacts in a 480i, 576i, or 1080i signal is that the frame was originally captured in interlaced format, with the odd scan lines and even scan lines being recorded at two different moments in time. When you reassemble two fields that are offset in time, you get jaggies, moire patterns, barber pole effects, and line twitter. That is not true of either HD DVD or Blu-ray film transfers since the image is scanned progressively from a film frame that represents a single moment in time.
Therefore we would expect to see none of the common evidence of deinterlacing when watching HD DVD or Blu-ray movies that are being transmitted via 1080i. Our first look at HD DVD in 1080i confirms this expectation. After hours of viewing three different HD DVD movies there is simply no evidence of any artifact that might be attributed to the fact that the signal was transmitted in 1080i format. The picture is as clean, stable, and as artifact-free as it could be. There is no visible defect in the image that would be eliminated by switching to 1080p transmission."
Make your decision on HD-DVD vs Blu Ray, but don't do it based on this bogus 1080i issue.
Windows syncs with an atomic clock? That is news to me. There is the windows time service but that does nothing of the sort. It will slowly sync your time with the master browser on your network but not with an atomic clock.
Control Panel / Date and Time / Internet Time
Check Automatically sync with Internet Time Server.
what?? I don't remember any of that from Borland Turbo Pascal!
No kidding. That's because it isn't true. At least not in any Pascal dialect I'm familiar with, and I used quite a few, Borland, Turbo, Apple Pascal on the Apple II, even an old VMS Pascal.
Maybe it was true of Wirth's initial language design spec, but in the real world, it simply wasn't a problem you had to deal with.
I've read it's a very good drive (unliked the previous 110), but many folks online seem to think the Benq DW 1650/1655 just edges it out, especially in terms of burn quality.
Yup. Reading the first page of comments on the top story, and my eyes are already killing me. Just way too much brightness there. Checked the preferences page, no option for a different css style.:(
Hopefully enough folks complain to get the runner up and a few others added. It's easy to provide the choice.
I've tracked the autocomplete thing down. If I open a new tab from a bookmark or a toolbar link with the middle mouse button, the autocomplete doesn't work right away. I have to click the focus away from the input box, then click back into it and it works. And of course all my most common pages are on the toolbar, so it happens a lot.
If I manually open a new tab first, then just click the bookmark or toolbar link normally, then it's fine.
The way you'd watch a downloaded/on-demand movie is not that much different from the way you'd watch a DVD - you don't interact with the disc at all, except to put it in the player. In fact, no disc is better since you don't have to change discs to watch different movies.
That's true, but the essence of my post is that a big part of dvd is the actual collecting and displaying of them on the shelf. Every aficionado I've ever run into, including myself, has dvd's that are years old and have yet to be watched, and sometimes even removed from the shrink wrap.
Getting a tivo in Canada is easy. The problem beforehand was that the system required you to enter a zip code, but they changed that some time around August last year.
Call up your credit card company, and put an alternate address on your credit card, use the address of a business that receives packages in the US. I used a UPS store just acrosss the border. Call up Tivo, order the machine, give them the UPS address as the shipping address, they'll receive it for you. Drive down to the States, pay the UPS guys $5 or $10 bucks for their part, drive back to Canada. Declare you have a personal video recorder, pay a few bucks in GST.
Alternatively, you can order from Weaknees as stated above.
One bit of advice, now is now the best time to do this. They've got Series 3 high def machines coming (although, it looks like they won't work well for us in Canada, because they've eliminated the method of controlling an external box). But there's also a new standard def Series 2 dual tuner box coming as well, it appeared on Amazon a few weeks back, then disappeared.
Bang on. It's not racism, it's simple name recognition. HP, Toshiba have been around for decades. Lenovo sounds like some el cheapo brand put together by the local corner shop.
So "vote with your wallet" works about as well as "vote for the guy you want".
Which is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tens of millions of people out there, that *would* make a difference if they voted the way they actually felt, but don't because they perceive they have to vote against someone, a third party can't win, etc.
Luckily, the guys who made this cool browser I'm using didn't have this pathetic attitude, or they never would have started developing it.
Seriously. If he was any sort of a normal kid, he's probably been playing video games for nigh on 10 years, maybe even longer, when the only thing he could drive was a Big Wheel or a scooter. And chances are like most of us, he played the full gamut, shooters, strategy, and yes, driving games. It is far more likely that he was interested in driving games first.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not one of those "It's the games fault" and "Ban them!" guys. Ultimately, it's still the kids fault for acting on these impulses and stimuli.
It's *very* clear that people respond to the things they see and hear. The movie "The Program" comes out, and suddenly there's a rash of copycat kids lying down in the middle of road traffic. We have a multi-billion dollar industry called "Advertising" that influences the purchasing and voting behaviour of *adults* by showing them images and sounds.
Yet, when it comes to the far more immersive images and sounds of interactive entertainment, suddenly it's "They have no effect!".
Slashdot Mirror
Yup. It really died about 10 years ago.
I guess Ziff Davis really nailed it to the perch well.
Ed the Sock is *great*. There's a very learned and literate man behind that sock.
Some of the jokes and things that he'd say in interviews or segments would make me howl with laughter, as they passed over the heads of the teens and 20 somethings in the audience.
Argh. One of the greatest games of all time, and the sequels get 18 lousy posts. :(
I just may have to break my little boycott of modern games, and buy this thing.
The guy spent $50 or $60 grand on a vehicle, and you think the extra few bucks in gas are going to break him, and make him commit fraud?
Okayyyyy...
CGW was *the* standard that all others aspired to. Staffed by adults. Well written.
Not to mention crazy policies like actually waiting until a game was available on store shelves *before* reviewing. Imagine that kiddies, reviewing the same version customers actually play, not some pre-release/demo crap thing.
I've still got a hundred of these from the early/mid 90's on my shelf I can't bear to part with.
The only quote in that story is that "No, Microsoft antipiracy technologies cannot and will not turn off your computer". That's not the same thing as saying "No, Microsoft antipiracy technologies cannot and will not stop Windows from operating."
My computer can still be on, but XP refuses to boot.
I'm certainly no expert, but it seemed fairly clear to me. The frames are on the disk intact. If you've got a progressive display, it takes the frames and sends them to the display untouched. If you've got an interlaced display, it takes the frame off the disk, sends the odd half, then the even half, your display merges them back together, shows the frame to you, then moves to the next frame. At no time is any frame mixed with a different frame.
Interlacing is a problem in other formats, because the frames are literally mixed together on the disk. Or so I understand.
The whole "but ìt's only 1080i" is a total red-herring. From the dvdtalk review:
"In the last couple of days, several technical issues have been put to rest, at least for me. The first was the common accusation that the initial HD DVD players like the Toshiba HD-A1 are deficient because they don't output "full 1080p" resolution, that they are "1080i only." I don't see this as a practical concern. All HD DVD and Blu-ray discs will encode film-sourced material in full 1920x1080 progressive scan resolution at 24 frames per second, which is the film industry standard.
Unfortunately many folks are confusing 1080i acquisition with 1080i transmission. The primary reason we get interlacing artifacts in a 480i, 576i, or 1080i signal is that the frame was originally captured in interlaced format, with the odd scan lines and even scan lines being recorded at two different moments in time. When you reassemble two fields that are offset in time, you get jaggies, moire patterns, barber pole effects, and line twitter. That is not true of either HD DVD or Blu-ray film transfers since the image is scanned progressively from a film frame that represents a single moment in time.
Therefore we would expect to see none of the common evidence of deinterlacing when watching HD DVD or Blu-ray movies that are being transmitted via 1080i. Our first look at HD DVD in 1080i confirms this expectation. After hours of viewing three different HD DVD movies there is simply no evidence of any artifact that might be attributed to the fact that the signal was transmitted in 1080i format. The picture is as clean, stable, and as artifact-free as it could be. There is no visible defect in the image that would be eliminated by switching to 1080p transmission."
Make your decision on HD-DVD vs Blu Ray, but don't do it based on this bogus 1080i issue.
Control Panel / Date and Time / Internet Time
Check Automatically sync with Internet Time Server.
No kidding. That's because it isn't true. At least not in any Pascal dialect I'm familiar with, and I used quite a few, Borland, Turbo, Apple Pascal on the Apple II, even an old VMS Pascal.
Maybe it was true of Wirth's initial language design spec, but in the real world, it simply wasn't a problem you had to deal with.
A pretty good defense of modern Pascal is here.I've read it's a very good drive (unliked the previous 110), but many folks online seem to think the Benq DW 1650/1655 just edges it out, especially in terms of burn quality.
Yup. Reading the first page of comments on the top story, and my eyes are already killing me. Just way too much brightness there. Checked the preferences page, no option for a different css style. :(
Hopefully enough folks complain to get the runner up and a few others added. It's easy to provide the choice.
I've tracked the autocomplete thing down. If I open a new tab from a bookmark or a toolbar link with the middle mouse button, the autocomplete doesn't work right away. I have to click the focus away from the input box, then click back into it and it works. And of course all my most common pages are on the toolbar, so it happens a lot.
If I manually open a new tab first, then just click the bookmark or toolbar link normally, then it's fine.
Because people like shiny, tangible things. They call them possessions. It's why e-books have not, and will not replace books.
Not true. The Series 2 Tivo controls the external box, and you can record *everything* including digital, ppv, etc.
Call up your credit card company, and put an alternate address on your credit card, use the address of a business that receives packages in the US. I used a UPS store just acrosss the border. Call up Tivo, order the machine, give them the UPS address as the shipping address, they'll receive it for you. Drive down to the States, pay the UPS guys $5 or $10 bucks for their part, drive back to Canada. Declare you have a personal video recorder, pay a few bucks in GST.
Alternatively, you can order from Weaknees as stated above.
One bit of advice, now is now the best time to do this. They've got Series 3 high def machines coming (although, it looks like they won't work well for us in Canada, because they've eliminated the method of controlling an external box). But there's also a new standard def Series 2 dual tuner box coming as well, it appeared on Amazon a few weeks back, then disappeared.
Bang on. It's not racism, it's simple name recognition. HP, Toshiba have been around for decades. Lenovo sounds like some el cheapo brand put together by the local corner shop.
This change really sucks for those of us who use the bookmark file as our home page. :(
Ah yes, the good ol' Crack-Shot. A friend owned one of those.
Luckily, the guys who made this cool browser I'm using didn't have this pathetic attitude, or they never would have started developing it.
One of the most common, too.
Why?
Seriously. If he was any sort of a normal kid, he's probably been playing video games for nigh on 10 years, maybe even longer, when the only thing he could drive was a Big Wheel or a scooter. And chances are like most of us, he played the full gamut, shooters, strategy, and yes, driving games. It is far more likely that he was interested in driving games first.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not one of those "It's the games fault" and "Ban them!" guys. Ultimately, it's still the kids fault for acting on these impulses and stimuli.
It's *very* clear that people respond to the things they see and hear. The movie "The Program" comes out, and suddenly there's a rash of copycat kids lying down in the middle of road traffic. We have a multi-billion dollar industry called "Advertising" that influences the purchasing and voting behaviour of *adults* by showing them images and sounds.
Yet, when it comes to the far more immersive images and sounds of interactive entertainment, suddenly it's "They have no effect!".
Well, I didn't really solve it myself, there was that hint book, but this time...
If I have something that needs permanent archiving, *then* I transfer it from the tivo to the computer.