AKA an audio version of sodding Macrovision (which does the same thing for video, and all VCRs sold in the past few years are supposed to be calibrated so that it works). Lucky that worked, no such thing as a time-base corrector is there!
Not necessarily - 7MP of itself is enough to show detail with very good clarity. However, the system is only as good as its weakest part, and if the lens is still 3-4 millimeter plastic then all the pixels in the worls won't improve the image. I have a Canon G3 with is only 4MP. However, we did some A3 blow-ups of photos at work and mine blew away comparable camera, and some shots from 6MP cameras. The reason was the G3 has great glass - and is both good at resolving images, and being an F2.0 lens can use an acceptably high shutter speed in normal lighting conditions. In order for more pixels to be any use in resolving the image, the glass has to be good enough to be able to capture it in the first place!
And SCO would claim that lightbulbs could not be created without stealing their design work on buggy whips, and sue users demanding a $699 bulb licencing fee.
I am no apologist for China, and don't like what the Chinese Government does either. However, it least they (mostly) keep their own laws within their own borders. Unlike the US which has a curious view (i.e., US law = *the* law) and tries to cram their own laws down everyone elses throat. Do something perfectly legal in your own country that the US doesn't like, watch out (say, for instance, the Dimitri Skylarov case). Even be a staunch friend of the US and they will wave the big stick and cram laws that you don't want down your throat (IP clauses in the recent agreements with Australia).
If its from Sony, then it will require special Sony connectors, will only burn to special Sony discs, will recognise the broadcast flag, will be so DRM poisoned that a disc won't play on anything but the exact machine that recorded it - and said machine will mysteriously fail a day after its warranty period ends.
Does this mean that those of us who are photo shy can get the Eurion pattern printed onto T-shirts (or ties etc)?
This would be a great way to stuff up company/family/school photos etc. They could not be loaded into photoshop and printed or put into newsletters etc with us in the frame. Instead, the person trying to produce said newsletter would get a scary message about them being a forger, and a PC that won't proceed.
Effectively, in a few years when all photography has been gone digital and old equipment has been obsoleted, no one will be able to take a photo with me in it, ever! Or even better, if they put this stuff into all digital photo systems, I could get a paintjob on my car that foils speed cameras......hmmm
Personally, whenever work changes word around on our machines I have a bit of a routine I go through. Kill Clippy, kill the grammar checker (never use it), and kill most of the autoformat options. At home I use Word 97 (purely for work compatability reasons) which is tolerable. However, at work they have upgraded us, despite my pleas, to a more recent version. Crashes 3 times a day despite all patches being installed (nothing else does this!), corrupts files, and generally has a mind of its own.
Personally, I am sick and tired of Word deciding it knows what I want, and then reformatting what I type. Am pushing our IT types for an Open Office replacement (with some limited progress!) - sadly our damn desktops are locked down and I don't have the priveleges to install it myself.
There is no reason to upgrade - Word is getting worse not better.
Wrong comparison. One dollar in $40.80 does translate to a net margin of around 2.5% on sales. However, investors are concerned with return on capital and, while related, this is a seperate beast. If they sell 1,000,000 units for $40, and make $1 per unit net profit, then they have a 2.5% net margin and a $1,000,000 profit. However, if the plant to make them cost (say) $10,000,000 then they have a 10% return on investment, which would likely make them very happy.
I have Sony gear (TV and a beta VCR that I keep because I have some stuff in the format with sentimental value) that are over 15 years old, and just keep trucking on. However, the last few Sony products I have acquired have been fairly crappy - the build quality is gone, the industrial-strength reliability is gone and the feature set is no better than the opposition. In fact, the feature set is often worse - practically *every* DVD player in this country is sold either multi zone or zone selectable, except for Sony.
They are still trying to premium price their product, but no longer have premium product.
I have a learning unit (a rebadged UC515 I think) that makes life a bit easier.
However, my elegant solution has been the "Lazy Wombat Box". It is a mounted box beside my chair with a number of little compartments (4 wide & 3 deep, making 12 slots, with adjustable spacers). At last count it was up to 8 main remotes (Universal, Stereo, DVD player, DVD recorder, TV, VHS VCR, Cable Box, and heating control) and two seldom used remotes (PC & Beta VCR). Keeps them all in one place and organised. I use the universal most of the time, but only have main settings loaded, so resort to the individual ones as well from time to time.
Mine was store bought, but it could just as easily be a simple (and practical!) construction project as well.
Yep, and when you will want a part or add-on for it you will discover that if it is available it is basically the same as the equivalent bits for other PC gear. However, the fifty generic options from the computer store won't work. In order to connect it you have exactly one option, which uses a special Sony connector, is only available from a Sony dealer, and mysteriously costs five times as much as anyone else's equivalent. Been there! Sony...BAH
They used to be like that here (New Zealand). The pay movie channel is still ad free (except between movies), but for some reason they have started smearing these god-awful logos across the corner of the screen - SKY Movies now has "Sky Movies" smeared across the picture for the duration of the film.
I sent them an email, and got back a nonsensical "cut-n-paste" reply that didn't address a single one of my points. Its really lame - they advertise the movie channel as "uncut and interrupted", so they obviously realise thats what the paying customer wants and values, and then they do both. Also, there is NO GAIN for them - its a premium channel and the only people who can see the damn logo are their own customers. All they are doing is driving away people who *want* to pay good money for their product.
So far I know two movie fans who have dropped their subs over this one, and two more who have said they will. I will do the same at the end of the footy season - I can buy 2-4 DVDs per month with what I am paying those turkeys, and get a *much* better product.
Wombats New World View(tm) the curse of our modern age isn't politicians or religious nutters - its marketers.
I think this misses the point a bit, in terms of the protest action impact. Its not in the parent article, but as I recall from the media coverage here, he was sending most of the messages to himself - using a Sim card he had bought from rival network Vodaphone for the purpose. It's not the data volume that would be hitting Telecom, it's the interconnect fee. As I recall, they pay around 8 cents per message termination fee. If (say) half of his messages were sent this way, he would have given Telecom a bill of around $2,000 - none of which they can recover from him as the texts were free under their offer. I would have said that was a pretty effective protest! >p>
Hmmm, just think if 5,000 pissed off customers (and there are a few down here) did the same thing........
"Sales tax only works if you have an exemption on food"
Nope - sorry. Here (GST in New Zealand) we have a sales tax that applies to everything - basic food, medical equipment, electricity, caviar & french champagne. No exemptions and the same rate for everything. It "works" just fine - and works a lot better than complicated systems with different rates & exemptions.
Equity is a separate issue - but it "works" just fine.
I used to have a lot of Sony stuff. It was great gear and worked well - still have a 14-16yr old beta VCR that gets occasional use when I need to tape multiple channels - it is built like a tank and just keeps going and going and going.
However, in the last few years I while I have evaluated their gear on a number of occasions, have not purchased from them at all. They have basically "lost the plot". Like everyone else they have outsourced a lot of production to China etc, which I have no basic problem with of itself, but quality control has gone to the dogs. They are having gear built in the same factories to the same POS quality as the cheapo "no name" brands, but are still trying to premium price. Not only is much of their gear no better than the competition, its actually worse. For instance, multi zone players are the norm in this country, and even many rental stores have out-of-zone DVDs clearly labeled as such.. When I bought a DVD player the salesman asked what I wanted and I said "multi region and preferably region selectable". His response was "anything in the shop will do that except for the Sony models". He also confided that they were having a *very* high return rate on Sony - both because they would not play multi-zone and because of product failure.
Same story on portable music devices. I looked at Minidisc a year ago. Not bad engineering and good battery life & removable discs kinda compensated for ludicrously small amout of storage. Money was not the constraint, but in the end I went with a cleaper generic solid state because Sony had DRM'ed the Minidisc player to the point the generic cheapie was a *vastly better* product.They seem to think that all consumers are thieves, so we will cripple our hardware, but its all right as long as we put our cool brand on it they will still be sold
The hypocrisy and ethics of Sony New Zealand also have to be seen to be believed. Glading works for Sony NZ and fronts for the RIANZ (our pint-sized two-bit RIAA wannabe). At the same time he is thundering in the press and lobbying politicians that format shifting of stuff consumers have purchased and *own* should be illegal, with heavy penalties for infringing products, Sony NZ is releasing the self same (albeit crippled) products.
I spend a *lot* of money on DVDs and hardware (tho' not CDs, I have a collection of about 800, all legal, but have bought precisely one in the last 14 months - ever since I bought a copy protected Norah Jones one and was pissed off when my stereo barfed). I would love Hi_MD and would buy like a shot if the price was reasonable and it wasn't crippled. Instead, I will buy an IPOD - great product from a company that has some flaws, but is basically ethical and treats customers OK.
Maybe an open letter to Sony "Dear Sony, I am a former customer. I still spend a lot of money on the type of stuff you make and sell. In the next 1-2 years I will be replacing my HiFi and will be in the market for a plasma screen and/or video projector. Your design and engineering is basically good. Respect your customers by releasing products that have not been crippled, fix manufacturing quality control, and above all *get an ethics transplant* and I may even open my wallet to you again"?
In the meantime I will continue to shop elsewhere, and (with considerable success - a few friends treat me as resident techie) actively dissuade people from buying anything from Sony.
Sony NZ should be asked to explain this quote from the article: "Sony NZ managing director Michael Glading said he was totally opposed to the move, which he believed would 'open the floodgates' to unrestricted piracy."
Sony NZ sells Minidisc recorders with software to rip CDs. Also, the NZ Sony Style shop (corner of Lambton Quay and Willis Street for any interested Kiwis) last week (it may still be there this week, have not looked) had a *huge* window display exhibiting their new hard drive jukebox product. This included photos of all the stacks of CDs you could do away with by copying them to said jukebox.
Furthermore, given that the NZ recording industry association clearly opposes this, and considers it illegal and "theft" at present, will they explain why they don't: (1) expel Sony NZ (which is a member); and (2) seek criminal prosecution of Sony executives. After all, Sony is selling the tools that permit the "theft" from their members, and blatantly advertising this capability as the main reason to purchase
It is a bit rich for Sony to sell products and then lobby for it to be illegal for the hapless consumer to use the products Sony has sold them.
Now the obligatory:
1. Sell overpriced product to consumers
2. Profit
3. Lobby to keep using what you have just sold illegal
4. Prosecute your customers for buying from you
5. More profit
A business strategy to make the RIANZ and RIAA proud.
1. Microsoft churns out enormous quantities of patches. OK if you have decent broadband, but in this country (New Zealand) it is *really* expensive and most of us poor saps are on dialup. My modem would be doing nothing else.
2. I am not an IT pro, but I simply just don't trust Microsoft. For instance, install Windows media encoder and it quietly (without telling you) removes MP3 codecs. I won't install something unless I am told *exactly* what it does - otherwise I may just wake up and find out that I have done something like irremovably infested my system with DRM (*cough* media player 9 *cough*).
Eventually, I will learn enough about Linux do ditch the crapware from Redmond. Until then I am just being cautious about what I open and hoping for the best - I have XP SP1 on disc but have not even installed that yet.
My problem with the security stuff at present is that I don't trust MS *at all*. Updates to media player that appear to infest systems with DRM and can't be installed, components (media player) that just keep trying to phone home no matter what setting changes you make, DRM enabled by default when CDs are ripped, and god knows what else. I have not run update for over a year, and have yet to install SP1(XP). My system works just fine, and if it ain't broke I see no reason to trust Microsoft and try to fix it.....
Yes, the Norah Jones (EMI I think) CD did that when I put it in my PC. As soon as I saw it start, I dived for the eject button.
I used to buy a lot of CDs (2-3 new disks a week was typical, plus some second hand). Emailed EMI New Zealand (where I brought the disk) in February 2003 asking where I could get either a refund or exchange for a non-broken disk. I was so pissed off with the stock response replete with "you are a filthy pirate...." inferences that I have given up on CDs. I think I have purchased only one (second hand) disk since.
NB: I don't actually download music, but I do like to rip my disk collection to play at work and listen to on my portable on the way to work etc. The labels have just lost a paying customer, and I would venture to speculate that I was one of the customer types that they don't really want to lose.
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AKA an audio version of sodding Macrovision (which does the same thing for video, and all VCRs sold in the past few years are supposed to be calibrated so that it works). Lucky that worked, no such thing as a time-base corrector is there!
Not necessarily - 7MP of itself is enough to show detail with very good clarity. However, the system is only as good as its weakest part, and if the lens is still 3-4 millimeter plastic then all the pixels in the worls won't improve the image. I have a Canon G3 with is only 4MP. However, we did some A3 blow-ups of photos at work and mine blew away comparable camera, and some shots from 6MP cameras. The reason was the G3 has great glass - and is both good at resolving images, and being an F2.0 lens can use an acceptably high shutter speed in normal lighting conditions. In order for more pixels to be any use in resolving the image, the glass has to be good enough to be able to capture it in the first place!
And SCO would claim that lightbulbs could not be created without stealing their design work on buggy whips, and sue users demanding a $699 bulb licencing fee.
I am no apologist for China, and don't like what the Chinese Government does either. However, it least they (mostly) keep their own laws within their own borders. Unlike the US which has a curious view (i.e., US law = *the* law) and tries to cram their own laws down everyone elses throat. Do something perfectly legal in your own country that the US doesn't like, watch out (say, for instance, the Dimitri Skylarov case). Even be a staunch friend of the US and they will wave the big stick and cram laws that you don't want down your throat (IP clauses in the recent agreements with Australia).
If its from Sony, then it will require special Sony connectors, will only burn to special Sony discs, will recognise the broadcast flag, will be so DRM poisoned that a disc won't play on anything but the exact machine that recorded it - and said machine will mysteriously fail a day after its warranty period ends.
This would be a great way to stuff up company/family/school photos etc. They could not be loaded into photoshop and printed or put into newsletters etc with us in the frame. Instead, the person trying to produce said newsletter would get a scary message about them being a forger, and a PC that won't proceed.
Effectively, in a few years when all photography has been gone digital and old equipment has been obsoleted, no one will be able to take a photo with me in it, ever! Or even better, if they put this stuff into all digital photo systems, I could get a paintjob on my car that foils speed cameras......hmmm
Personally, I am sick and tired of Word deciding it knows what I want, and then reformatting what I type. Am pushing our IT types for an Open Office replacement (with some limited progress!) - sadly our damn desktops are locked down and I don't have the priveleges to install it myself.
There is no reason to upgrade - Word is getting worse not better.
Net Margin != Return on Capital
I have Sony gear (TV and a beta VCR that I keep because I have some stuff in the format with sentimental value) that are over 15 years old, and just keep trucking on. However, the last few Sony products I have acquired have been fairly crappy - the build quality is gone, the industrial-strength reliability is gone and the feature set is no better than the opposition. In fact, the feature set is often worse - practically *every* DVD player in this country is sold either multi zone or zone selectable, except for Sony.
They are still trying to premium price their product, but no longer have premium product.
However, my elegant solution has been the "Lazy Wombat Box". It is a mounted box beside my chair with a number of little compartments (4 wide & 3 deep, making 12 slots, with adjustable spacers). At last count it was up to 8 main remotes (Universal, Stereo, DVD player, DVD recorder, TV, VHS VCR, Cable Box, and heating control) and two seldom used remotes (PC & Beta VCR). Keeps them all in one place and organised. I use the universal most of the time, but only have main settings loaded, so resort to the individual ones as well from time to time.
Mine was store bought, but it could just as easily be a simple (and practical!) construction project as well.
Yep, and when you will want a part or add-on for it you will discover that if it is available it is basically the same as the equivalent bits for other PC gear. However, the fifty generic options from the computer store won't work. In order to connect it you have exactly one option, which uses a special Sony connector, is only available from a Sony dealer, and mysteriously costs five times as much as anyone else's equivalent. Been there! Sony...BAH
I sent them an email, and got back a nonsensical "cut-n-paste" reply that didn't address a single one of my points. Its really lame - they advertise the movie channel as "uncut and interrupted", so they obviously realise thats what the paying customer wants and values, and then they do both. Also, there is NO GAIN for them - its a premium channel and the only people who can see the damn logo are their own customers. All they are doing is driving away people who *want* to pay good money for their product.
So far I know two movie fans who have dropped their subs over this one, and two more who have said they will. I will do the same at the end of the footy season - I can buy 2-4 DVDs per month with what I am paying those turkeys, and get a *much* better product.
Wombats New World View(tm) the curse of our modern age isn't politicians or religious nutters - its marketers.
I think this misses the point a bit, in terms of the protest action impact. Its not in the parent article, but as I recall from the media coverage here, he was sending most of the messages to himself - using a Sim card he had bought from rival network Vodaphone for the purpose. It's not the data volume that would be hitting Telecom, it's the interconnect fee. As I recall, they pay around 8 cents per message termination fee. If (say) half of his messages were sent this way, he would have given Telecom a bill of around $2,000 - none of which they can recover from him as the texts were free under their offer. I would have said that was a pretty effective protest! >p> Hmmm, just think if 5,000 pissed off customers (and there are a few down here) did the same thing........
Nope - sorry. Here (GST in New Zealand) we have a sales tax that applies to everything - basic food, medical equipment, electricity, caviar & french champagne. No exemptions and the same rate for everything. It "works" just fine - and works a lot better than complicated systems with different rates & exemptions.
Equity is a separate issue - but it "works" just fine.
However, in the last few years I while I have evaluated their gear on a number of occasions, have not purchased from them at all. They have basically "lost the plot". Like everyone else they have outsourced a lot of production to China etc, which I have no basic problem with of itself, but quality control has gone to the dogs. They are having gear built in the same factories to the same POS quality as the cheapo "no name" brands, but are still trying to premium price. Not only is much of their gear no better than the competition, its actually worse. For instance, multi zone players are the norm in this country, and even many rental stores have out-of-zone DVDs clearly labeled as such.. When I bought a DVD player the salesman asked what I wanted and I said "multi region and preferably region selectable". His response was "anything in the shop will do that except for the Sony models". He also confided that they were having a *very* high return rate on Sony - both because they would not play multi-zone and because of product failure.
Same story on portable music devices. I looked at Minidisc a year ago. Not bad engineering and good battery life & removable discs kinda compensated for ludicrously small amout of storage. Money was not the constraint, but in the end I went with a cleaper generic solid state because Sony had DRM'ed the Minidisc player to the point the generic cheapie was a *vastly better* product.They seem to think that all consumers are thieves, so we will cripple our hardware, but its all right as long as we put our cool brand on it they will still be sold
The hypocrisy and ethics of Sony New Zealand also have to be seen to be believed. Glading works for Sony NZ and fronts for the RIANZ (our pint-sized two-bit RIAA wannabe). At the same time he is thundering in the press and lobbying politicians that format shifting of stuff consumers have purchased and *own* should be illegal, with heavy penalties for infringing products, Sony NZ is releasing the self same (albeit crippled) products.
I spend a *lot* of money on DVDs and hardware (tho' not CDs, I have a collection of about 800, all legal, but have bought precisely one in the last 14 months - ever since I bought a copy protected Norah Jones one and was pissed off when my stereo barfed). I would love Hi_MD and would buy like a shot if the price was reasonable and it wasn't crippled. Instead, I will buy an IPOD - great product from a company that has some flaws, but is basically ethical and treats customers OK.
Maybe an open letter to Sony "Dear Sony, I am a former customer. I still spend a lot of money on the type of stuff you make and sell. In the next 1-2 years I will be replacing my HiFi and will be in the market for a plasma screen and/or video projector. Your design and engineering is basically good. Respect your customers by releasing products that have not been crippled, fix manufacturing quality control, and above all *get an ethics transplant* and I may even open my wallet to you again"?
In the meantime I will continue to shop elsewhere, and (with considerable success - a few friends treat me as resident techie) actively dissuade people from buying anything from Sony.
Sony NZ sells Minidisc recorders with software to rip CDs. Also, the NZ Sony Style shop (corner of Lambton Quay and Willis Street for any interested Kiwis) last week (it may still be there this week, have not looked) had a *huge* window display exhibiting their new hard drive jukebox product. This included photos of all the stacks of CDs you could do away with by copying them to said jukebox.
Furthermore, given that the NZ recording industry association clearly opposes this, and considers it illegal and "theft" at present, will they explain why they don't: (1) expel Sony NZ (which is a member); and (2) seek criminal prosecution of Sony executives. After all, Sony is selling the tools that permit the "theft" from their members, and blatantly advertising this capability as the main reason to purchase
It is a bit rich for Sony to sell products and then lobby for it to be illegal for the hapless consumer to use the products Sony has sold them.
Now the obligatory:
1. Sell overpriced product to consumers
2. Profit
3. Lobby to keep using what you have just sold illegal
4. Prosecute your customers for buying from you
5. More profit
A business strategy to make the RIANZ and RIAA proud.
1. Microsoft churns out enormous quantities of patches. OK if you have decent broadband, but in this country (New Zealand) it is *really* expensive and most of us poor saps are on dialup. My modem would be doing nothing else.
2. I am not an IT pro, but I simply just don't trust Microsoft. For instance, install Windows media encoder and it quietly (without telling you) removes MP3 codecs. I won't install something unless I am told *exactly* what it does - otherwise I may just wake up and find out that I have done something like irremovably infested my system with DRM (*cough* media player 9 *cough*).
Eventually, I will learn enough about Linux do ditch the crapware from Redmond. Until then I am just being cautious about what I open and hoping for the best - I have XP SP1 on disc but have not even installed that yet.
My problem with the security stuff at present is that I don't trust MS *at all*. Updates to media player that appear to infest systems with DRM and can't be installed, components (media player) that just keep trying to phone home no matter what setting changes you make, DRM enabled by default when CDs are ripped, and god knows what else. I have not run update for over a year, and have yet to install SP1(XP). My system works just fine, and if it ain't broke I see no reason to trust Microsoft and try to fix it.....
Yes, the Norah Jones (EMI I think) CD did that when I put it in my PC. As soon as I saw it start, I dived for the eject button. I used to buy a lot of CDs (2-3 new disks a week was typical, plus some second hand). Emailed EMI New Zealand (where I brought the disk) in February 2003 asking where I could get either a refund or exchange for a non-broken disk. I was so pissed off with the stock response replete with "you are a filthy pirate...." inferences that I have given up on CDs. I think I have purchased only one (second hand) disk since. NB: I don't actually download music, but I do like to rip my disk collection to play at work and listen to on my portable on the way to work etc. The labels have just lost a paying customer, and I would venture to speculate that I was one of the customer types that they don't really want to lose.