Reprinting 5,000 DVD's would be much less costly than an early pirated version of the movie.
Where do you get " less costly" from ?
There are no real figures available for "losses" due to piracy.
On another point, it's interesting that the reviewers don't have to pay up front to judge whether the movie is worth watching / buying, but the studios expect us to ! I regard downloaded movies as previews, if they're any good I will buy the retail dvd.
So in that regard, their losses are not due to piracy, but due to crap films.
As far as I care, you are doing fine. I don't care about certain people spamming submissions, because unless I really have loads of time to spend, I almost never RTFA ! I come here, as do others, for the discussion, and like you mentioned, it pisses me off when most of the comments have nothing to do with the article.
Perhaps you should stop letting submitters include their own URL but that will probably lead to entire articles being posted on their websites, so no win there either.
Perhaps we should just ignore the crap and carry on regardless. It's your site, I don't have any right telling you how to run it, and the whiners who think they do have such a right need to get a life.
Oh that's right this is/. after all. Never mind, nothing to see here...
(Perhaps there should be a new moderation option (-1) STFU)
Here are a few other points I haven't seen mentioned.
Not all e-books are DRM'd up the wazoo, manybooks.net has 12,537 free un-DRM'd texts available in a variety of formats for each text. They are produced by Project Gutenberg and if you like you can help out too !
I have a palm tungsten C which has ended up being used mainly as an e-reader. I currently have around 70 full length books on it, and one of the best aspects of it is, if I get bored of one book and feel like a change, when I go back to the same book later on, it's still at the same page (dead handy for tomes like War and Peace !). Add to that the inline dictionary, bookmarks and notepad and it's a cool tool.
I have had to play with the background and font colours a bit to get it just right for my eyes, but now I can read comfortably at the same distance as I would a normal book, either while in the dark in bed, or in daylight.
Also, as the Tungsten C is wireless, I can dload the ebooks to my home server, and if I need to add a new selection to the palm, I just dload it over the LAN, and it goes right into the library. No need to fire up the crappy "Documents To Go" software on my XP laptop anymore.
Battery life is fine. I can read a whole book with only one recharge, as long as I turn off the wifi.
I have yet to see any real life "e-paper" and so I'll reserve judgement, but it can't be much easier to use than my tungsten c.
Ext2/Ext3: Mediocre at almost everything. Distros like Fedora that mandate the initial install ONLY use Ext3 are being stupid. The best fall-back filing systems if you can't find anything better for what you want the partition to do, but should never be used in specialized contexts.
How the hell did you come up with that opinion ?
Ext3 came 1st or 2nd in 24 out of the 40 tests done. If you were producing an OS for general purpose computing, would you use a specialist fs or the best performing general purpose one ?
You seem to have good words for JFS and XFS though, and XFS had only 13 1st or 2nd places !
How do you work out that Ext3 is "mediocre" from those figures ?
why is it that TV advertising seems to be totally accepted as a normal thing these days ?
I quite frankly couldn't give a rats ass for any of the items I see advertised on TV. In fact, I'll go further and say that if I see an advert for something that I might actually be in the market for, I'll make damn sure I don't buy it from the company running the TV ad. All these companies have bought into the idea that if they don't advertise more than their competitors, then they lose market share. Well I think that's exactly what the ad agencies want them to think. If I want a certain type of product, I research it carefully over a few weeks or even months, using the net, and well informed store visits, to find the exact thing I am looking for. Anybody who basically shouts at me in my own home to buy their brand gets short shrift.
It is quite plain to me that the advertisers are just loud obnoxious assholes, and I don't like people who behave like that in real life, so why should I do them any favours by buying their products ?
Oh, and before you point out that _most_ people don't think the way I do, hence the advertisers are on the right track, are you sure that's the way you want the world to go on ? I'm sure there are plenty of trolls here here would say that there is nothing to be done about it so why worry. Well, I don't worry, but I don't buy into the advertising either, so those companies have lost a potential customer.
BTW, I probably spend £3000 to £4000 per year on pc and AV equipment alone, so it's not an inconsequential loss, especially as I advise anybody who asks for my opinion on pc gear to steer clear of the loud-mouthed idiots who advertise on TV. Current example in the UK, PC World. Scene starts with a woman looking at a laptop, and she asks a sales assistant if the price is correct. So the assistant starts spouting off all the specs of the machine, with obviously no idea what she's talking about, and the woman could have read the same details from the display stand. The prospective customer then asks about the hard drive, and the assistant says "it's huge, 60 gig !" The customer then says, " I'd better take one now then". Like she had any idea of what she just bought. And please please don't let me get started on the damn "beauty" products and sanitary accessories !
People go on about society being "dumbed down", well this is where it's happening.
I have to resort to hitting the mute button when the ads come on now, because even the (excessive) noise and prattle winds me up.
Nobody here likes being spammed online, so why is it ok on the tv ? It's exactly the same, unsolicited commercial crap.
Firstly, I have seen so many comments from people who have no idea what they talking about, viz. equipment. So here's a link to the UK Freeview sites FAQ page. Freeview is the name for free digital tv in the UK.
Secondly, the service is mostly ok, but as I commented last time this subject came up, it is subject to interference, which renders it unwatchable. Also, there are times when I lose 5 or 6 channels for maybe 3 days at a time. It's not just me or my equipment either, as I talked to someone today who complained about losing the same channels as me at the same time. And he is receiving from a completely different transmitter.
So my main problem with digital tv is the crappy service. There is a slight advantage in the fact that because channels are multiplexed within several different frequencies, you can actually get a pc add on card that can "tune" to 2 different channels within the same multiplex at the same time, with only one tuner on the card.
DRM and politics are areas where we'll have to wait and see...
I've never understood the irrational annoyance that people get when someone in front of them reclines their seat - who fucking cares? Just recline your seat too, then you're back where you started, and a little more comfortable to boot.... I've flown long flights (at least 12 hours on a single hop) for 24 years, and been over six feet tall for the last 9 of them, and I've never had ANY knee damage, not to mention irreversible knee damage.
I am 6'3", and I fucking care.
What you seem to have failed to take into account is that the seat back reclines. The front edge of the seat itself stays where it is, and so, if like me, your knees are already touching the back of an upright seat, with your ass as far back as it will go, when that seat leans back there is no where for you to go, except twist sideways. Try doing that for 12 hours.
What really gets me are the people who believe they have a right to recline their seat, even if they are actively causing me pain by doing it.
I usually respond by exercising my right to rap my knuckles on the top of their head until they stop. Usually works too, and my oh my, do they disappear quick when we get to the terminal !
Of late, I have taken to requesting a seat by an exit, as that's the only guaranteed way to avoid the issue.
so if i have two of these lenses and i place one in front of an apple... and the sister lens 5000 ft away aimed correctly at the first lens, then the apple will appear in the second lens, same size (no magnification or reduction) ?
Yes, but you have to remember to check for the image in the sister lens yesterday !
If you are a Windows OneCare user and your current status is green, you are already protected from known malware that tries to attack this possible vulnerability.
That sounds like they must have some kind of patch out there, or are they hoping to get more users "hooked" on OneCare ?
Otherwise, this statement doesn't make sense:
Upon completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take appropriate action to help protect our customers. This will include providing a security update through our monthly release process or providing an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.
Maybe I'm being picky, but I think all their customers have a quite urgent need, right now !
Written from the sublime security of Fedora Core, thanks.
So a vigilante group has decided that they don't like this decision and have taken action themselves instead of organising a grass roots political oposition to the decsion. That is scary. We have as much to fear from vigilante groups of hackers as we do from overzelous goverments.
... so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those
who wish to tyrranize(sic) will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent,
and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious
and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.
-- Voltarine de Cleyre
You can't help but wonder wether this will change the marketing approach of some online businesses as they adapt to the growing number of females that they can sell to.
The reason we get sick, old, and die is because cells self replicate until they are beoyond damaged and damaged cells can only replicate damaged cells.
Absolute bollocks ! Cells die because they can't heal themselves, for whatever reason. Damaged cells do not produce more damaged cells (excepting cancer - if you can explain that then you will become very very rich).
Cells have to be replaced not replicated !
Basic building blocks ? Hah ! Stem cells are every kind of cell you could need, they just need the correct stimulus to develop into a particular specialised type of cell. That is not a building block - it is a panacea !
Any person who deliberately restricts life-saving treatment to those that pay market rates is a cunt.
I mean, where is the motivation in supplying drugs to some-one who will be dead next year. There is more profit in supplying drugs to people who aren't in mortal danger, but will have to rely on you for the next 40 or 50 YEARS !/sarcasm
As the "geek" in the local area, people often ask you first, or even just tell you what they are about to buy, just to get your opinion. In this instance, having been there before (dvd + - crap) just make out like there is another leet format just around the corner that is gonna completely out-do these two. You don't have to name it, just be certain it's coming - be descriptive, but not definitive (yeah - LIE).
Hopefully, they'll take notice and spread the word, leaving these 2 vile formats dead in the road.
That's what I'm already doing.
It's bad enough having to get another dvd player just to support xvid/divx, without a whole new change on top. Despite the fact that they (divx players) are as cheap as chips.
Here's your chance to make a difference to the market - don't waste it !
There is no way to naturally go from "v" to "l" without either pausing or accidentally saying "fl".
The same applies to ipod and imac but they seem to have done ok. (try pronouncing them with the i as used in him, it always amused me as there is a womens hair remover called Immac)
How do you pronounce Vladivostock, or Vladimir ?
Americans pronounce Z as zee, so why not vee-log ?
What's blogging ? I can honestly say I've never read a "blog".
However, I use rss all the time. For example, I have around 300 xvid files that I like to access quickly, so I wrote a perl script to create an rss feed so that each title links to (and plays via file type association) the relevant file. No internet even needed there, although I do run Apache so that my windows box can run the same files over the LAN and display them through my projector:-> It's useful for me....
Another useful aspect (in Firefox anyway) is the live bookmark. I have live bookmarks for manybooks.net (shows me recent additions to the download list) and Redhat (shows me the latest articles in the RH magazine).
Also, as I run linux, I have access to something called gDesklets, this being a desktop applet system for Gnome. One of the applets is a News/RSS Grabber. I have 2 of these running on the desktop, one gets its feed from/. the other from BBC News. Have a look. (The clock is an applet too)
I don't think it needs to be part of the OS, but that doesn't mean it's not useful.
I have a 1300 MHz Duron with an nVidia geForce 5700 and two harddisks. That thing uses 145 W when it's doing nothing, and that is without the monitor.
Swap out the PSU and CPU fan for new stuff. If you have any case fans, the same applies.
After prolonged usage, they both accumulate dirt and crap which slows them down and heats them up, making them less efficient. I had a pc which was costing me a fortune, until I opened it up and found that one of the case fans had actually stopped turning due to the crap clogging it, thus turning it into a heater. Heat generation is expensive, both in terms of power draw and financially.
Re:So how does one calculate power requirements...
on
A Kilowatt of Power
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Well, professionals (and others) have been known to use an arcane mathematical system called addition.
Equipment: Brain and / or calculator.
Method: Visit the manufacturers homepage for each item you want to build into your system, find the technical specifications for that item, then find the specification for the maximum power draw for that item.
Write that figure down, then repeat the process for each of the other system components. When you have data for all the devices, add them together to produce a total.
Result: Buy a PSU that covers that total figure in normal usage.
Next week we will be covering another difficult subject - Wearing trousers ~ How not to fall over while putting them on.
Todays program was brought to you by the letters D,U,H !
Slashdot Mirror
There are no real figures available for "losses" due to piracy.
On another point, it's interesting that the reviewers don't have to pay up front to judge whether the movie is worth watching / buying, but the studios expect us to ! I regard downloaded movies as previews, if they're any good I will buy the retail dvd.
So in that regard, their losses are not due to piracy, but due to crap films.
Bastard ! Jesus that hurt !
For G*ds sake !
dick
Perhaps you should stop letting submitters include their own URL but that will probably lead to entire articles being posted on their websites, so no win there either.
Perhaps we should just ignore the crap and carry on regardless. It's your site, I don't have any right telling you how to run it, and the whiners who think they do have such a right need to get a life.
Oh that's right this is /. after all. Never mind, nothing to see here ...
(Perhaps there should be a new moderation option (-1) STFU)
*sob*
Not all e-books are DRM'd up the wazoo, manybooks.net has 12,537 free un-DRM'd texts available in a variety of formats for each text. They are produced by Project Gutenberg and if you like you can help out too !
I have a palm tungsten C which has ended up being used mainly as an e-reader. I currently have around 70 full length books on it, and one of the best aspects of it is, if I get bored of one book and feel like a change, when I go back to the same book later on, it's still at the same page (dead handy for tomes like War and Peace !). Add to that the inline dictionary, bookmarks and notepad and it's a cool tool.
I have had to play with the background and font colours a bit to get it just right for my eyes, but now I can read comfortably at the same distance as I would a normal book, either while in the dark in bed, or in daylight.
Also, as the Tungsten C is wireless, I can dload the ebooks to my home server, and if I need to add a new selection to the palm, I just dload it over the LAN, and it goes right into the library. No need to fire up the crappy "Documents To Go" software on my XP laptop anymore.
Battery life is fine. I can read a whole book with only one recharge, as long as I turn off the wifi.
I have yet to see any real life "e-paper" and so I'll reserve judgement, but it can't be much easier to use than my tungsten c.
Search for it !
Ext3 came 1st or 2nd in 24 out of the 40 tests done. If you were producing an OS for general purpose computing, would you use a specialist fs or the best performing general purpose one ?
You seem to have good words for JFS and XFS though, and XFS had only 13 1st or 2nd places !
How do you work out that Ext3 is "mediocre" from those figures ?
(you sound like you run debian)
I quite frankly couldn't give a rats ass for any of the items I see advertised on TV. In fact, I'll go further and say that if I see an advert for something that I might actually be in the market for, I'll make damn sure I don't buy it from the company running the TV ad.
All these companies have bought into the idea that if they don't advertise more than their competitors, then they lose market share. Well I think that's exactly what the ad agencies want them to think. If I want a certain type of product, I research it carefully over a few weeks or even months, using the net, and well informed store visits, to find the exact thing I am looking for. Anybody who basically shouts at me in my own home to buy their brand gets short shrift.
It is quite plain to me that the advertisers are just loud obnoxious assholes, and I don't like people who behave like that in real life, so why should I do them any favours by buying their products ?
Oh, and before you point out that _most_ people don't think the way I do, hence the advertisers are on the right track, are you sure that's the way you want the world to go on ? I'm sure there are plenty of trolls here here would say that there is nothing to be done about it so why worry. Well, I don't worry, but I don't buy into the advertising either, so those companies have lost a potential customer.
BTW, I probably spend £3000 to £4000 per year on pc and AV equipment alone, so it's not an inconsequential loss, especially as I advise anybody who asks for my opinion on pc gear to steer clear of the loud-mouthed idiots who advertise on TV.
Current example in the UK, PC World. Scene starts with a woman looking at a laptop, and she asks a sales assistant if the price is correct. So the assistant starts spouting off all the specs of the machine, with obviously no idea what she's talking about, and the woman could have read the same details from the display stand. The prospective customer then asks about the hard drive, and the assistant says "it's huge, 60 gig !" The customer then says, " I'd better take one now then". Like she had any idea of what she just bought.
And please please don't let me get started on the damn "beauty" products and sanitary accessories !
People go on about society being "dumbed down", well this is where it's happening.
I have to resort to hitting the mute button when the ads come on now, because even the (excessive) noise and prattle winds me up.
Nobody here likes being spammed online, so why is it ok on the tv ? It's exactly the same, unsolicited commercial crap.
Bah !
</rant>
Freeview is the name for free digital tv in the UK.
Secondly, the service is mostly ok, but as I commented last time this subject came up, it is subject to interference, which renders it unwatchable. Also, there are times when I lose 5 or 6 channels for maybe 3 days at a time. It's not just me or my equipment either, as I talked to someone today who complained about losing the same channels as me at the same time. And he is receiving from a completely different transmitter.
So my main problem with digital tv is the crappy service. There is a slight advantage in the fact that because channels are multiplexed within several different frequencies, you can actually get a pc add on card that can "tune" to 2 different channels within the same multiplex at the same time, with only one tuner on the card.
DRM and politics are areas where we'll have to wait and see ...
What you seem to have failed to take into account is that the seat back reclines. The front edge of the seat itself stays where it is, and so, if like me, your knees are already touching the back of an upright seat, with your ass as far back as it will go, when that seat leans back there is no where for you to go, except twist sideways. Try doing that for 12 hours.
What really gets me are the people who believe they have a right to recline their seat, even if they are actively causing me pain by doing it.
I usually respond by exercising my right to rap my knuckles on the top of their head until they stop. Usually works too, and my oh my, do they disappear quick when we get to the terminal !
Of late, I have taken to requesting a seat by an exit, as that's the only guaranteed way to avoid the issue.
according to Microsoft
That sounds like they must have some kind of patch out there, or are they hoping to get more users "hooked" on OneCare ?Otherwise, this statement doesn't make sense :
Maybe I'm being picky, but I think all their customers have a quite urgent need, right now !Written from the sublime security of Fedora Core, thanks.
Well done ;-)
somebody has to do it...
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
(Who watches the watchers ?)
and ...
... so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those
who wish to tyrranize(sic) will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent,
and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious
and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.
-- Voltarine de Cleyre
Flash demos with wings ...
and no, they are not "geostationary" orbits. Just so ya know ;-)
Cells have to be replaced not replicated !
Basic building blocks ? Hah ! Stem cells are every kind of cell you could need, they just need the correct stimulus to develop into a particular specialised type of cell. That is not a building block - it is a panacea !
I mean, where is the motivation in supplying drugs to some-one who will be dead next year. There is more profit in supplying drugs to people who aren't in mortal danger, but will have to rely on you for the next 40 or 50 YEARS ! /sarcasm
You don't have to name it, just be certain it's coming - be descriptive, but not definitive (yeah - LIE).
Hopefully, they'll take notice and spread the word, leaving these 2 vile formats dead in the road.
That's what I'm already doing.
It's bad enough having to get another dvd player just to support xvid/divx, without a whole new change on top. Despite the fact that they (divx players) are as cheap as chips.
Here's your chance to make a difference to the market - don't waste it !
(try pronouncing them with the i as used in him, it always amused me as there is a womens hair remover called Immac)
How do you pronounce Vladivostock, or Vladimir ?
Americans pronounce Z as zee, so why not vee-log ?
However, I use rss all the time. For example, I have around 300 xvid files that I like to access quickly, so I wrote a perl script to create an rss feed so that each title links to (and plays via file type association) the relevant file. No internet even needed there, although I do run Apache so that my windows box can run the same files over the LAN and display them through my projector :->
It's useful for me....
Another useful aspect (in Firefox anyway) is the live bookmark. I have live bookmarks for manybooks.net (shows me recent additions to the download list) and Redhat (shows me the latest articles in the RH magazine).
Also, as I run linux, I have access to something called gDesklets, this being a desktop applet system for Gnome. One of the applets is a News/RSS Grabber. I have 2 of these running on the desktop, one gets its feed from /. the other from BBC News. Have a look. (The clock is an applet too)
I don't think it needs to be part of the OS, but that doesn't mean it's not useful.
After prolonged usage, they both accumulate dirt and crap which slows them down and heats them up, making them less efficient. I had a pc which was costing me a fortune, until I opened it up and found that one of the case fans had actually stopped turning due to the crap clogging it, thus turning it into a heater. Heat generation is expensive, both in terms of power draw and financially.
Equipment:
Brain and / or calculator.
Method:
Visit the manufacturers homepage for each item you want to build into your system, find the technical specifications for that item, then find the specification for the maximum power draw for that item.
Write that figure down, then repeat the process for each of the other system components. When you have data for all the devices, add them together to produce a total.
Result:
Buy a PSU that covers that total figure in normal usage.
Next week we will be covering another difficult subject - Wearing trousers ~ How not to fall over while putting them on.
Todays program was brought to you by the letters D,U,H !
I really do not want to have to buy this shit.