There isn't much in TFA except a nice point about how we should be able to "browse" video games in the way we browse through books or newspapers. Which does, in fact, make me wonder why stores don't allow you to rent a copy of a game, bring it back and decide whether or not to buy it. I've been doing that for years, but never with one store.
Because people will either:
1) Copy the video game at home and return it saying they don't want it, thus having the game without paying for it.
2) Play the game, beat it, return it, having "used" all the content without paying for it.
For the most part, I understand #1 is the main reason stores no longer allow returning opened games. As for trying out the games, isn't that what playable Demos are for? Such as the Unreal Tournament 2K4 demo?
The first release of Windows XP in 2001 doesn't support drives larger than 137GB.
Either that or his motherboard doesn't support drives over 127(?)GB. When they went to 42bit addressing was it, a lot of older motherboards don't work with the larger drives.
If the guy has a pound of pot, he's not just using he's dealing. Dealers generally don't get a slap on the wrist for ratting out their customers. More likely (at most) a slightly reduced sentence but not a slap on the wrist.
I doubt McCain did this on purpose, but even if he did, should we be surprised?
One thing I'm curious about, does Sen. McCain (or anyone in his employ) run McCain.Senate.Gov or is it all together on one server with all the other Senators web sites? Basically, does he have any control over that site using cookies?
Even a casual look was enough to show the ideas were about interesting electromagnetic propulsion methods, which work for small models but just wont work for anything bigger. It amazed me that these papers got anywhere in the military and irritating that they had lasted for so long without someone adding a comment that it was totally unfeasible. Eh. Physical ignorance is timeless.
Depends on the physics. There was a bomber designed back in WWII that looked a lot like the B-2. However, it was very hard to control due to no vertical stabilizers. 50 years later and computer controls, we have one of the most impressive bombers ever built. The SCRAM Jet was SciFi until we got new materials, so were forward swept wings on a super sonic jet. Sometimes it's just a matter of letting practical science catch up with the theory. After all, if all it takes is more power, wait until you have a denser working power plant.
That said, 11 BILLION dollars? That's more than the GDP some nations
Greater than 97 out of 231, actually. As to the point, it means that if the guy ever gets extradited or shows up someplace where they can get him everything he has gets confiscated to pay for the debt. So now he has to watch out for where he goes.
This goes up there with the 340 year jail terms as being thoroughly silly
To defend multi hundred year jail terms, it is still possible to get out on parole and that is part of the reason for the lengths. Earliest date of parole is usually based on a proportion of time server and good behavior can also help reduce it. So there is a reason. Also, I think some places may not have a "jailed for life" so they get 100 years instead.
Anyone know how draconion the "not allowed to use a computer" laws are? Does it only apply to PC's, or would this guy not even be able to use the friar at McDonalds?
A better question is can he use an ATM or Cellphone given how much computers have permiated our life.
Ever hear of dust? Those mirrors only reflect well for a few weeks or maybe months, then they get dirty from airborne particles settling on them, and then you need an army of homeless people with squeegies and spray bottles to make everything work again.
There is a version of solar that does not use photo voltaic cells. Remember the Sim City 2K solar power plant? It looks a lot like that. An array of mirrors reflects light into a dome atop a tower. The dome contains a circulating supply of water that is heated up into steam and used to drive a turbine. The mirrors are automatically angled to reflect the sun (at pretty much any angle) into the dome.
Over all, there is more than just cost to this. Some of the stations don't yet have full power broadcast sites (you can build a site to broadcast at a max of 5kw or 500kw, and pay a big difference in price too). Some of it has come down to interference, but not usually with analog broadcast. Two cases in point:
In Michigan, CH3 started broadcasting digital at full power and wiped out the cable system in Chicago acoss the lake. In Texas, a DTV went up to full power and overpowered the wireless heart monitors in a hospital who thought they had many patients going code blue simultaniously. This second is partly due to the FCC allowing uses of the TV spectrum for non-licensed uses, so long as they do not interfere with TV. It is coming back to haunt them. The heart monitors are being moved to a new frequency.
As for interference with analog, there might be some in adjacent markets (about halfway between the two transmitters) during the tranistion to all DTV. The way the DTV standard was designed, a DTV station on 6 will not interfere with any station analog or digital on 7, unless there is something wrong with the ch6 transmitter. There currently should not be any issues with interference. However, since unusual things do occur, they are bringing them up well before the deadline to find out any issues that may occur. I haven't yeat heard of a DTV station taking a broadcast TV station off the air anywhere yet.
As (always) size depends on bitrate. H.264 is supposed to be able to encode at 1/4 the bit rate for equivalent quality. This is theoretical. It depends a lot on the encoder. Also, for some scenes you want higher bitrate. I have heard that HD DVDs (refering to HD, not the standard) might be up to a 40Mbps or more, even though broadcast HDTV is limited to 20Mbps (19.4 in reality, but I'm rounding). BTW, I have not yet heard of an h.264 encoder that will use the full capabilities of the codec yet and 20Mbps is the absolute minimum you need for HD, you really need more.
So, given that, for HD equivalent, we are talking 5 to 10 Mbps for h.264 for HDTV. 10 Mbps = 4.5GB/hour. So a 2 hour movie in h.264 might fit on a standard DVD, but you wouldn't have room for anything but the video track. You still need to get audio on there which is another Gig (assuming you only have one). Extras and everything else will still need to be on a second disk.
As much as I agree with you, I do know of some people that can use the vouchers and aren't on assistance. (Mostly these people are in there 80s). Here's a way that money can be saved.
To avoid a consumer revolt, Congress has set aside about $1.5 billion to smooth the transition. Owners of outmoded TV sets will be eligible for two vouchers, worth $40 each, to help buy converter boxes that will enable today's analog TV sets to receive digital signals.
We give 1 voucher out and spend 750 million instead. Or, 1 voucher to twice as many people. If someone really "needs" two converter boxes, they aren't in the group this is targeting.
Digital Terestrial? Sounds like cable. So you are proposing that the US set up a cable network for everyone in the country? How would this work for places like Kansas where some areas have a population of 1/km^2 or less?
Most DTV Transmitters have not been transmitting at full power. There is a deadline coming up at some point where they will have to start transmitting at full power, at that point you should have much better recepetion. As to why they have not been xmitting at full? Power costs a lot of money. TV stations generally spend 10k per month on a single transmitter.
They are not giving people money to buy new TVs. They are giving vouchers to buy a converter box so you can recieve a DTV signal and watch TV on the analog sets!
And I know Evolution v. Creati^H^H^H^H^H^HIntelligent Design is gonna come up in this thread, so I thought I'd share my old confirmation pastor's take on it (I was raised Lutheran)... Stop reading now if you aren't mature enough to handle it, if you are sick of that topic, or if you just plain get annoyed by offtopic posts. Thanks.
Raised Catholic, went to Atheist and Agnostic, came back to being Catholic and on the Evolutionf vs ID vs Creationism I pretty much agree with everthying you got below, except I came to it thinking about it instead of asking a priest. I've noticed that very few people seem to take the bible (in any of it's versions) literaly, especially the creation/first 7 days. Actually, I've yet to meet anyone who does. One of the reasons I get annoyed when people seem to lump any one who's Christian/religious in with "fundamentalists".
How could the life in Africa be more harsher that the one in Europe for example?
Well, given most of the continent. Lack of food (fruit trees aren't everywhere), low ammounts of watter, indiginous animals that can (and do) hunt humans ocasionaly. Savanas aren't great places to live.
If the first civilization arrose in Asia, then it is not a completely abberational jump to say that humans started around there.
Actually, it might be quite a jump. Evolution seems to only occur in harsher conditions. Civilization seems to require surplus (time left to sit on ones but and think about things). So Africa, where life is harsher is more likely to be an evolutionary force that caused humana to evolve. Humans then migrated to places where it was easier to live and started a civilization. One thing we might need to clarify for this is what is a pre-requisite of civilization. Is it permanent buildings, stone buildings, agriculture, or something else? Basically, are hunters and gatherers civilized or do they have to become farmers first? Or do you want to classify it as migratory vs. non-migratory groups? All this could affect the location of the first civilization.
The FDA also does a great deal of good; sure, getting drugs to market takes forever, but the drugs that do get to market usually work.
There is only one drug you need to mention that should take care of getting people to recognize the necessity of the FDA. Thalidomide. Hope this helps you in future arguments.
To help you out, there are three levels of circuit design you would need to learn. The first is the basics. What the NAND, NOR, OR, AND, XOR, and various flip-flops do. That was a sophmore level course in computer/electrical engineering (or CS) at my school. After that, you get into more advanced designs including designing your own microprocessors and such. That level is the most advanced you can learn without being "process specific".
The last level is the physical level. Currently, this involves laying out the parts of the transistors on circuit, all the metal, all the N and P areas (If you don't know what that means, you will when you take basic electronics courses involving transistors) and so on. With this new tech, you will have to relearn this area, but that is it.
When will the FTC/DOJ/FBI/DEA ever get their collective acts together and start jailing people for criminal fraud? Why aren't there RICO prosecutions against the individuals and institutions backing spam enterprises? Can it really be that hard to follow the money trail?
Oh, maybe because some of them are based in other countries whom we do not have extradition treaties with?
If you have to get sneaky or sleazy to try and sell your products, perhaps it's a sign no one wants it?
Most places doing this are scammer/phishers, not legitimate businesses. Thus, they are already sleazy and will do anything they can to get people to click on the links.
Money opens up a lot of options creatively, and while the most creative stuff is not always big budget, it certainly doesn't hurt.
Good point. To be more specific, the two best beer commercials (from my point of view and others I know of) that I have seen was the one at the last superbowl with the soldiers walking down the Airport Terminal and people start to clap and one more recently with this guys house that had his Christmass lights timed to "Wizards of Winter" (among other songs). Here's a link to a site that has a copy of the lights (mind you, this was out before the commercial) http://media.putfile.com/WizardsofWinter-SM
Slashdot Mirror
There isn't much in TFA except a nice point about how we should be able to "browse" video games in the way we browse through books or newspapers. Which does, in fact, make me wonder why stores don't allow you to rent a copy of a game, bring it back and decide whether or not to buy it. I've been doing that for years, but never with one store.
Because people will either:
1) Copy the video game at home and return it saying they don't want it, thus having the game without paying for it.
2) Play the game, beat it, return it, having "used" all the content without paying for it.
For the most part, I understand #1 is the main reason stores no longer allow returning opened games. As for trying out the games, isn't that what playable Demos are for? Such as the Unreal Tournament 2K4 demo?
The first release of Windows XP in 2001 doesn't support drives larger than 137GB.
Either that or his motherboard doesn't support drives over 127(?)GB. When they went to 42bit addressing was it, a lot of older motherboards don't work with the larger drives.
If the guy has a pound of pot, he's not just using he's dealing. Dealers generally don't get a slap on the wrist for ratting out their customers. More likely (at most) a slightly reduced sentence but not a slap on the wrist.
I doubt McCain did this on purpose, but even if he did, should we be surprised?
One thing I'm curious about, does Sen. McCain (or anyone in his employ) run McCain.Senate.Gov or is it all together on one server with all the other Senators web sites? Basically, does he have any control over that site using cookies?
Even a casual look was enough to show the ideas were about interesting electromagnetic propulsion methods, which work for small models but just wont work for anything bigger. It amazed me that these papers got anywhere in the military and irritating that they had lasted for so long without someone adding a comment that it was totally unfeasible. Eh. Physical ignorance is timeless.
Depends on the physics. There was a bomber designed back in WWII that looked a lot like the B-2. However, it was very hard to control due to no vertical stabilizers. 50 years later and computer controls, we have one of the most impressive bombers ever built. The SCRAM Jet was SciFi until we got new materials, so were forward swept wings on a super sonic jet. Sometimes it's just a matter of letting practical science catch up with the theory. After all, if all it takes is more power, wait until you have a denser working power plant.
That said, 11 BILLION dollars? That's more than the GDP some nations
Greater than 97 out of 231, actually. As to the point, it means that if the guy ever gets extradited or shows up someplace where they can get him everything he has gets confiscated to pay for the debt. So now he has to watch out for where he goes.
This goes up there with the 340 year jail terms as being thoroughly silly
To defend multi hundred year jail terms, it is still possible to get out on parole and that is part of the reason for the lengths. Earliest date of parole is usually based on a proportion of time server and good behavior can also help reduce it. So there is a reason. Also, I think some places may not have a "jailed for life" so they get 100 years instead.
Anyone know how draconion the "not allowed to use a computer" laws are? Does it only apply to PC's, or would this guy not even be able to use the friar at McDonalds?
A better question is can he use an ATM or Cellphone given how much computers have permiated our life.
Ever hear of dust? Those mirrors only reflect well for a few weeks or maybe months, then they get dirty from airborne particles settling on them, and then you need an army of homeless people with squeegies and spray bottles to make everything work again.
You think Photo-voltaics would be any different?
There is a version of solar that does not use photo voltaic cells. Remember the Sim City 2K solar power plant? It looks a lot like that. An array of mirrors reflects light into a dome atop a tower. The dome contains a circulating supply of water that is heated up into steam and used to drive a turbine. The mirrors are automatically angled to reflect the sun (at pretty much any angle) into the dome.
e rmal_electric_power_plants
No really nasty chemicals involved, and it uses technology that has been available for a really long time. I'm not sure about efficiency.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power#Solar_th
See Concentrating solar power (CSP) plants.
Reading over it, it looks like it is not always water.
Over all, there is more than just cost to this. Some of the stations don't yet have full power broadcast sites (you can build a site to broadcast at a max of 5kw or 500kw, and pay a big difference in price too). Some of it has come down to interference, but not usually with analog broadcast. Two cases in point:
In Michigan, CH3 started broadcasting digital at full power and wiped out the cable system in Chicago acoss the lake. In Texas, a DTV went up to full power and overpowered the wireless heart monitors in a hospital who thought they had many patients going code blue simultaniously. This second is partly due to the FCC allowing uses of the TV spectrum for non-licensed uses, so long as they do not interfere with TV. It is coming back to haunt them. The heart monitors are being moved to a new frequency.
As for interference with analog, there might be some in adjacent markets (about halfway between the two transmitters) during the tranistion to all DTV. The way the DTV standard was designed, a DTV station on 6 will not interfere with any station analog or digital on 7, unless there is something wrong with the ch6 transmitter. There currently should not be any issues with interference. However, since unusual things do occur, they are bringing them up well before the deadline to find out any issues that may occur. I haven't yeat heard of a DTV station taking a broadcast TV station off the air anywhere yet.
As (always) size depends on bitrate. H.264 is supposed to be able to encode at 1/4 the bit rate for equivalent quality. This is theoretical. It depends a lot on the encoder. Also, for some scenes you want higher bitrate. I have heard that HD DVDs (refering to HD, not the standard) might be up to a 40Mbps or more, even though broadcast HDTV is limited to 20Mbps (19.4 in reality, but I'm rounding). BTW, I have not yet heard of an h.264 encoder that will use the full capabilities of the codec yet and 20Mbps is the absolute minimum you need for HD, you really need more.
So, given that, for HD equivalent, we are talking 5 to 10 Mbps for h.264 for HDTV. 10 Mbps = 4.5GB/hour. So a 2 hour movie in h.264 might fit on a standard DVD, but you wouldn't have room for anything but the video track. You still need to get audio on there which is another Gig (assuming you only have one). Extras and everything else will still need to be on a second disk.
As much as I agree with you, I do know of some people that can use the vouchers and aren't on assistance. (Mostly these people are in there 80s). Here's a way that money can be saved.
To avoid a consumer revolt, Congress has set aside about $1.5 billion to smooth the transition. Owners of outmoded TV sets will be eligible for two vouchers, worth $40 each, to help buy converter boxes that will enable today's analog TV sets to receive digital signals.
We give 1 voucher out and spend 750 million instead. Or, 1 voucher to twice as many people. If someone really "needs" two converter boxes, they aren't in the group this is targeting.
Digital Terestrial? Sounds like cable. So you are proposing that the US set up a cable network for everyone in the country? How would this work for places like Kansas where some areas have a population of 1/km^2 or less?
Most DTV Transmitters have not been transmitting at full power. There is a deadline coming up at some point where they will have to start transmitting at full power, at that point you should have much better recepetion. As to why they have not been xmitting at full? Power costs a lot of money. TV stations generally spend 10k per month on a single transmitter.
They are not giving people money to buy new TVs. They are giving vouchers to buy a converter box so you can recieve a DTV signal and watch TV on the analog sets!
They're not helping you buy a TV. They're helping you buy a converter box that will let you watch DTV on your Analog set.
And I know Evolution v. Creati^H^H^H^H^H^HIntelligent Design is gonna come up in this thread, so I thought I'd share my old confirmation pastor's take on it (I was raised Lutheran)... Stop reading now if you aren't mature enough to handle it, if you are sick of that topic, or if you just plain get annoyed by offtopic posts. Thanks.
Raised Catholic, went to Atheist and Agnostic, came back to being Catholic and on the Evolutionf vs ID vs Creationism I pretty much agree with everthying you got below, except I came to it thinking about it instead of asking a priest. I've noticed that very few people seem to take the bible (in any of it's versions) literaly, especially the creation/first 7 days. Actually, I've yet to meet anyone who does. One of the reasons I get annoyed when people seem to lump any one who's Christian/religious in with "fundamentalists".
How could the life in Africa be more harsher that the one in Europe for example?
Well, given most of the continent. Lack of food (fruit trees aren't everywhere), low ammounts of watter, indiginous animals that can (and do) hunt humans ocasionaly. Savanas aren't great places to live.
If the first civilization arrose in Asia, then it is not a completely abberational jump to say that humans started around there.
Actually, it might be quite a jump. Evolution seems to only occur in harsher conditions. Civilization seems to require surplus (time left to sit on ones but and think about things). So Africa, where life is harsher is more likely to be an evolutionary force that caused humana to evolve. Humans then migrated to places where it was easier to live and started a civilization. One thing we might need to clarify for this is what is a pre-requisite of civilization. Is it permanent buildings, stone buildings, agriculture, or something else? Basically, are hunters and gatherers civilized or do they have to become farmers first? Or do you want to classify it as migratory vs. non-migratory groups? All this could affect the location of the first civilization.
The FDA also does a great deal of good; sure, getting drugs to market takes forever, but the drugs that do get to market usually work.
There is only one drug you need to mention that should take care of getting people to recognize the necessity of the FDA. Thalidomide. Hope this helps you in future arguments.
To help you out, there are three levels of circuit design you would need to learn. The first is the basics. What the NAND, NOR, OR, AND, XOR, and various flip-flops do. That was a sophmore level course in computer/electrical engineering (or CS) at my school. After that, you get into more advanced designs including designing your own microprocessors and such. That level is the most advanced you can learn without being "process specific".
The last level is the physical level. Currently, this involves laying out the parts of the transistors on circuit, all the metal, all the N and P areas (If you don't know what that means, you will when you take basic electronics courses involving transistors) and so on. With this new tech, you will have to relearn this area, but that is it.
When will the FTC/DOJ/FBI/DEA ever get their collective acts together and start jailing people for criminal fraud? Why aren't there RICO prosecutions against the individuals and institutions backing spam enterprises? Can it really be that hard to follow the money trail?
Oh, maybe because some of them are based in other countries whom we do not have extradition treaties with?
If you have to get sneaky or sleazy to try and sell your products, perhaps it's a sign no one wants it?
Most places doing this are scammer/phishers, not legitimate businesses. Thus, they are already sleazy and will do anything they can to get people to click on the links.
Money opens up a lot of options creatively, and while the most creative stuff is not always big budget, it certainly doesn't hurt.
Good point. To be more specific, the two best beer commercials (from my point of view and others I know of) that I have seen was the one at the last superbowl with the soldiers walking down the Airport Terminal and people start to clap and one more recently with this guys house that had his Christmass lights timed to "Wizards of Winter" (among other songs). Here's a link to a site that has a copy of the lights (mind you, this was out before the commercial) http://media.putfile.com/WizardsofWinter-SM