Budgetary increases in one area tend to be offset by decreases in related areas. So really what we are talking about is 1B$ that will be spent on NASA instead of other scientific research. Realistically I think that the question isn't "what social programs could we spend it on instead?", but "given 1B$ to spend on scientific research in the next year, what can we accomplish?"
That makes it a lot more clear that this is a cynical "bread and circuses" ploy on the part of an administration that doesn't have much respect for science or truth.
SCO is basing its claim to copyright on Amendment 2, but it is a tenuous claim at best.
Hmm, at first I read that as Amendment 2 of the US constitution. I was only mildy surprised that SCO would try and base a claim to copyright on the right to bear arms.
To address the issues of disk size v. physical size v. price consider:
I have about 6000 songs on my iPod. That is 21 GB.
About 500 of those I've downloaded myself. About 2000 of those I've ripped from CD's. The rest I've copied from friends.
There are about 250 songs that i've listened to more that 10 times. That is about 1GB.
I spend about 90% of the time listenting to random selections of songs. I find that I skip about 25% of the songs.
I spend about 30% of the time listening to random songs that fit some criteria. For example, hip-hop/rap/funk or release date between 1995-1999.
I listen to my iPod about 8-10 hours a day. That includes at work, in the car, at home and walking around. Most of the time I either carry the iPod in my pocket or have it charging up. (The battery life really could be better).
My conclusions from all of this is that I am using my iPod like a person radio station.
So, the most important feature are:
1) disk size, it is really nice to be able to hear "new" music all the time.
2) the "skip to next song" and "go back to last song" buttons.
3) being able to "change the station" (ie. select music by genre or select on of the adaptive playlists).
I think that if i were limited to 4GB (about a thousand songs) I'd actually have to make some decisions about what to store. Can't have that.
Maybe if I had a cell phone or smoked I'd be more worried about the size and pocket space issues.
I imagine that if sales aren't spectacular apple will just lower the price a bit. (Probably by first introducing a version with a 2 GB disk for $150, then upgrading the size of the disk on all the iPod minis). I suspect that some fraction of the $250 price tag is just novelty value. I'll bet that every mo-bio student @ UCSF is saving their beer money.
Which will sadly make the bars down in the mission that much less interesting for the next few months.
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Budgetary increases in one area tend to be offset by decreases in related areas. So really what we are talking about is 1B$ that will be spent on NASA instead of other scientific research. Realistically I think that the question isn't "what social programs could we spend it on instead?", but "given 1B$ to spend on scientific research in the next year, what can we accomplish?"
That makes it a lot more clear that this is a cynical "bread and circuses" ploy on the part of an administration that doesn't have much respect for science or truth.
-A young postdoc who just got sold down the river
SCO is basing its claim to copyright on Amendment 2, but it is a tenuous claim at best.
Hmm, at first I read that as Amendment 2 of the US constitution. I was only mildy surprised that SCO would try and base a claim to copyright on the right to bear arms.
To address the issues of disk size v. physical size v. price consider:
I have about 6000 songs on my iPod. That is 21 GB.
About 500 of those I've downloaded myself.
About 2000 of those I've ripped from CD's.
The rest I've copied from friends.
There are about 250 songs that i've listened to more that 10 times. That is about 1GB.
I spend about 90% of the time listenting to random selections of songs. I find that I skip about 25% of the songs.
I spend about 30% of the time listening to random songs that fit some criteria. For example, hip-hop/rap/funk or release date between 1995-1999.
I listen to my iPod about 8-10 hours a day. That includes at work, in the car, at home and walking around. Most of the time I either carry the iPod in my pocket or have it charging up. (The battery life really could be better).
My conclusions from all of this is that I am using my iPod like a person radio station.
So, the most important feature are:
1) disk size, it is really nice to be able to hear "new" music all the time.
2) the "skip to next song" and "go back to last song" buttons.
3) being able to "change the station" (ie. select music by genre or select on of the adaptive playlists).
I think that if i were limited to 4GB (about a thousand songs) I'd actually have to make some decisions about what to store. Can't have that.
Maybe if I had a cell phone or smoked I'd be more worried about the size and pocket space issues.
I'm particularly surprised that they held this till just after x-mas. The iPod mini seems like a good, albeit expensive) stocking stuffer.
I imagine that if sales aren't spectacular apple will just lower the price a bit. (Probably by first introducing a version with a 2 GB disk for $150, then upgrading the size of the disk on all the iPod minis). I suspect that some fraction of the $250 price tag is just novelty value. I'll bet that every mo-bio student @ UCSF is saving their beer money.
Which will sadly make the bars down in the mission that much less interesting for the next few months.