More importantly, will they burden it with an excessively draconian DRM policy? iTunes has been successful mostly because of its (in the opinion of others) liberal DRM.
If Sony locks their movies down as tight as possible, this service will be dead before it hits the water.
Re:No matter how careful you are, you aren't enoug
on
ID Theft Made Easy
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I wish I had know this about a year ago.
Crobar, a giant club in Manhattan, does this. While I normally wouldn't have gone to a place like that, I was on the guest-list (read: free admission), and so I wasn't concerned at all when I handed them my license. Since then I've received numerous mailings from them. I wonder what else they're doing with my personal information.
What I've also heard since then, though I've not been able to confirm it, is that they use this information to keep track of you. If you start a problem and are kicked out of the club, it's an effective lifetime ban (though I'm not sure how they'll be able to scan your ID as they're kicking you out). Furthermore, they share this information with other clubs, so that if you start a problem in one place, you're essentially banned from every club in the area.
Never again will I allow my license to be electronically scanned. If every bar and club in town adopts this technology, I'll have to go back to drinking 40's on the stoop.
Consumer DV (digital video) cameras typically use a 4:1:1 Y'CbCr format, in which luminance is sampled for each pixel, while Cb and Cr are sampled at every fourth pixel. SD (standard definition) cameras use a 4:2:2 format. HD cameras can use 4:2:2, or a 4:2:0 format based on "spatial" samples of 2x2-pixel squares. Dual Link, however, uses a 4:4:4 technique.
"It's really the same as 1:1:1," explains Howard. "It just means 'take RGB, break it up, send part of it down one wire, and part down the other wire.'"
The compromises in traditional Y'CbCr formats were designed to minimize perceptual loss, keying on the human eye's varying sensitivity to luminescence at various color frequencies. We are most sensitive to brightness in green light, less so in reds, and least with blue. This explains why studios often shoot against a "greenscreen" -- Y'CbCr has most information about green, so it's the easiest color for a software program to identify and replace.
Right now I have a POTS line and a budget ISP which together cost me about $35 per month ($25 for the line and $10 for internet). Together they represent the entirety of my communications-related spending.
In a perfect world, I'd have a cell-phone and broadband. Right now I don't have either because I don't want to pay for a cell-phone and a land line (I'm a poor student). I can get DSL, but only if I keep my POTS line, which makes it an extra $20 a month, and suddenly the $30 service isn't too attractive. Verizon has been promising "naked DSL" for almost a year, and I periodicaly call them about it, but I never get a satisfactory response.
Cable broadband would cost me a ton, I'm sure. I don't have a TV at all now, nor do I want one, so I'm sure the minimum cost would be close to at least $60 per month. I live in Manhattan, and my building has an agreement with Time Warner cable. We've therefore effectively granted them a monopoly in the building.
If the cable companies are forced to open their networks, it would hopefully allow one to eventually obtain "naked cable." I'd like cable internet access, but the price for non-subscribers is $20 over their already inflated price.
Many people I've worked with have found that it's more difficult to work from home (especially when it comes down to motivation).
This is a problem that is difficult to overcome. One piece of advice that I once heard is that those who work from home ought to do this every day:
At 8:55am, step out of your home and take a quick five minute walk around the block. Arrive back home at 9am and go straight to a room (home office) that has been specifically set aside for working. At lunch, take another walk, and at 5pm, take yet another walk around the block. Once back home, do NOT go back into the "office" until 9am the next morning. It's very important to distinguish one's home from one's home office.
I realize this is impractical for many system-admins, as they're often "on call," and, while I don't work from home, I still think it's still a solid piece of advice.
Microsoft clearly wants to rule the world by not selling merchandise. It's so brilliant, I wish that I had thought of it first.
Correct me if I misunderstand you, but is the contention here that Microsoft is deliberately decreasing production in order to stimulate demand? Is it that people, by their very nature, always want what they can't have? Are they attempting to instill a mentality of "if I can't purchase one, on account of the previous allotment having sold out, that they therefore must be superior and deserving of my hard-earned currency?" Is their aim to have a mob storm MS's European HQ, demanding access to the XBox?
The dollars valuation has deteriorated pretty dramatically in the past months.
Except that China's currency is tied to the US dollar. This has been a major point of contention for the Bush administration, as well as the US domestic manufacturing sector. Even as the dollar falls, Chinese imports become no less or no more expensive because the exchange rate has stayed the same.
A weak dollar helps increase American exports to Europe, for instance, because Europeans can now get more for their euro. When the Chinese decide to float their currency on an open exchange, the price of their currency will likely rise, and their products will therefore become more expensive in America. This will in turn decrease exports, and that will hurt the Chinese manufacturing sector. And this is why the Chinese government is so reluctant to do this (although once their economy is more stabilized, it would make a lot more sense.
When are they actually going to come up with something that will save you money at the grocery store.
It's not about saving you money, it's about saving them money.
I work part-time at a grocery store (and 9 credits short of a masters', too), and I know how unreliable cashiers are. They call out sick. A lot. Or they simply don't show up. And then there's the whole thing about having to provide benefits--these are all expenses, and the food industry (outside of 5 star restaurants) is notoriously low margin. They have to save money where they can.
To further compound the situation, the grocery industry is facing increased competition from WalMart, everyone's "favorite" discount store. I'm in an area that's, for now at least, immune to behometh, but other areas aren't.
Perhaps you remember the prolonged grocery store workers' strike that occurred last year in California? It was because they simply can't afford to have that many workers on the books. The UPC revolutionized the industry and enormously increased the efficiency of the average cashier. Here's a technology that'll produce even more savings (for the store, of course). Even if a few less-than desirable people use it as an opportunity to walk out of the store with unpaid food, they'll still probably make out in the end.
Oh, and the reason for the open coolers? The stores have to be air-conditioned anyway (heat does evil things to food), so it doesn't make much sense to put doors on any of the cases except the frozen products, especially when lazy people object to having to put forth the effort required to continuously open doors.
Except iTunes isn't the cash cow: the iPod is. Apple has made no secret of the fact that their profit margin on each song sold is extremely low, and the primary objective of the iTunes music store is to sell more iPods, where quite a bit of profit is made off of each unit sold.
It'll also be unlikely that Rehnquist will still be presiding then
Rehnquist has made it clear that he will not actively participate in the court and he will abstain from every decision EXCEPT when the other justices reach a 4-4 tie; only then will he step in to cast the deciding vote.
And the little script-kiddie (or perhaps his more advanced older brother) wants to write a FREE virus for the phone, too.
No, probably not: that scenario isn't very plausible, but I suspect Samsung is wary of potential malicious threats. "Samsung publishes interface specifications" wouldn't even make a 10-page deep headline; "Samsung phones are susceptible to a new phone virus" would be big news, and that could seriously harm them.
Here in NYC you can go to any local computer store and grab a custom system built the way u want for a good price.
OT: Might you be able to recommend a reputable dealer? I'm in NYC and I might soon be ready for a new PC (my aging celerson-500 is, I think, about ready to go). I've seen numerous ads in the Voice and N.Y. Press for places that computers at insanely low prices, but I admit I've never actually gone to one--I've always assumed they were the bait-and-switch types.
Re:My doctorate is in Mechanical Engineering
on
Ph.D Employment?
·
· Score: 1
But the point is, if a tier 3 university can pay $88,000 per year, what can a Tier 1 university such as Purdue, Stanford, MIT can pay their professors?
Top universities actually pay their professors less! Everyone wants to be a professor at Harvard or Yale. For most people, the prestige of being employed by a top university is more important than the extra money. Top universities receive so many qualified applicants that they can offer a relatively small quantity of money and still get the best out there.
Interestingly, university employment bucks another trend: in other fields, pay tends to be higher in major cities like San Fran, Boston, or N.Y. (which makes sense considering the comparatively high cost of real estate and cost of living). For professors, however, rural schools often pay better. Why? Because most professors would rather be located close to cultutal institutions and not stuck off in the cornfields of Iowa.
Re:This should solve a dilemma
on
Re-Pet a Reality
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
This whole experiment should solve the nature-vs-nurture controversy.
Identical twins have existed throughout history, and yet the controversy still persists. This is hardly likely to provide any conclusive evidence.
I'm curious, will Fluxbox be on this "light" disk? I ask because the summary says that the most 'popular desktop'. That would be KDE, but light it is not!
Pure conjecture, but I expect the light CD would include KDE. I think the light CD will be quite similar to the latest Knoppix release, except with a variety of package updates. The maximum CD should have everything, including the token "kitchen sink"
It all depends upon your definition of an "older computer." Theirs, I think, is still in the P-III range (650 mhz - 1.8 ghz). Mine, however, is completely different. My primary computer is a Celeron 500 and I don't expect to upgrade any time soon. KDE is painful on my system, but other lightweight WM's run flawlessly. I beleive they're leave the "really eh'fin old" computer segment to distros like Damn Small Linux (which, incidentally, is a heavily stripped down version of Knoppix).
14.1" LCD panel: I would assume it's a TFT, as every laptop I've seen manufactured in the past few years has had one, but at this price point, that's questionable. Might it use dual-scan technology instead?
4 cell battery: Four cells is low as it is, especially if it's not a lithium-ion battery.
I'd like to believe they cut corners only on the memory and on the processor, but at such a low price I'm wondering what else they had to leave out (not to mention the dubious MS tax, of course).
Slashdot Mirror
As soon as planned obsolesence becomes illegal.
If Sony locks their movies down as tight as possible, this service will be dead before it hits the water.
Crobar, a giant club in Manhattan, does this. While I normally wouldn't have gone to a place like that, I was on the guest-list (read: free admission), and so I wasn't concerned at all when I handed them my license. Since then I've received numerous mailings from them. I wonder what else they're doing with my personal information.
What I've also heard since then, though I've not been able to confirm it, is that they use this information to keep track of you. If you start a problem and are kicked out of the club, it's an effective lifetime ban (though I'm not sure how they'll be able to scan your ID as they're kicking you out). Furthermore, they share this information with other clubs, so that if you start a problem in one place, you're essentially banned from every club in the area.
Never again will I allow my license to be electronically scanned. If every bar and club in town adopts this technology, I'll have to go back to drinking 40's on the stoop.
"It's really the same as 1:1:1," explains Howard. "It just means 'take RGB, break it up, send part of it down one wire, and part down the other wire.'"
The compromises in traditional Y'CbCr formats were designed to minimize perceptual loss, keying on the human eye's varying sensitivity to luminescence at various color frequencies. We are most sensitive to brightness in green light, less so in reds, and least with blue. This explains why studios often shoot against a "greenscreen" -- Y'CbCr has most information about green, so it's the easiest color for a software program to identify and replace.
In a perfect world, I'd have a cell-phone and broadband. Right now I don't have either because I don't want to pay for a cell-phone and a land line (I'm a poor student). I can get DSL, but only if I keep my POTS line, which makes it an extra $20 a month, and suddenly the $30 service isn't too attractive. Verizon has been promising "naked DSL" for almost a year, and I periodicaly call them about it, but I never get a satisfactory response.
Cable broadband would cost me a ton, I'm sure. I don't have a TV at all now, nor do I want one, so I'm sure the minimum cost would be close to at least $60 per month. I live in Manhattan, and my building has an agreement with Time Warner cable. We've therefore effectively granted them a monopoly in the building.
If the cable companies are forced to open their networks, it would hopefully allow one to eventually obtain "naked cable." I'd like cable internet access, but the price for non-subscribers is $20 over their already inflated price.
Many people I've worked with have found that it's more difficult to work from home (especially when it comes down to motivation).
This is a problem that is difficult to overcome. One piece of advice that I once heard is that those who work from home ought to do this every day:
At 8:55am, step out of your home and take a quick five minute walk around the block. Arrive back home at 9am and go straight to a room (home office) that has been specifically set aside for working. At lunch, take another walk, and at 5pm, take yet another walk around the block. Once back home, do NOT go back into the "office" until 9am the next morning. It's very important to distinguish one's home from one's home office.
I realize this is impractical for many system-admins, as they're often "on call," and, while I don't work from home, I still think it's still a solid piece of advice.
Microsoft clearly wants to rule the world by not selling merchandise. It's so brilliant, I wish that I had thought of it first.
Correct me if I misunderstand you, but is the contention here that Microsoft is deliberately decreasing production in order to stimulate demand? Is it that people, by their very nature, always want what they can't have? Are they attempting to instill a mentality of "if I can't purchase one, on account of the previous allotment having sold out, that they therefore must be superior and deserving of my hard-earned currency?" Is their aim to have a mob storm MS's European HQ, demanding access to the XBox?
What chutzpah they have!
The dollars valuation has deteriorated pretty dramatically in the past months.
Except that China's currency is tied to the US dollar. This has been a major point of contention for the Bush administration, as well as the US domestic manufacturing sector. Even as the dollar falls, Chinese imports become no less or no more expensive because the exchange rate has stayed the same.
A weak dollar helps increase American exports to Europe, for instance, because Europeans can now get more for their euro. When the Chinese decide to float their currency on an open exchange, the price of their currency will likely rise, and their products will therefore become more expensive in America. This will in turn decrease exports, and that will hurt the Chinese manufacturing sector. And this is why the Chinese government is so reluctant to do this (although once their economy is more stabilized, it would make a lot more sense.
When are they actually going to come up with something that will save you money at the grocery store.
It's not about saving you money, it's about saving them money.
I work part-time at a grocery store (and 9 credits short of a masters', too), and I know how unreliable cashiers are. They call out sick. A lot. Or they simply don't show up. And then there's the whole thing about having to provide benefits--these are all expenses, and the food industry (outside of 5 star restaurants) is notoriously low margin. They have to save money where they can.
To further compound the situation, the grocery industry is facing increased competition from WalMart, everyone's "favorite" discount store. I'm in an area that's, for now at least, immune to behometh, but other areas aren't.
Perhaps you remember the prolonged grocery store workers' strike that occurred last year in California? It was because they simply can't afford to have that many workers on the books. The UPC revolutionized the industry and enormously increased the efficiency of the average cashier. Here's a technology that'll produce even more savings (for the store, of course). Even if a few less-than desirable people use it as an opportunity to walk out of the store with unpaid food, they'll still probably make out in the end.
Oh, and the reason for the open coolers? The stores have to be air-conditioned anyway (heat does evil things to food), so it doesn't make much sense to put doors on any of the cases except the frozen products, especially when lazy people object to having to put forth the effort required to continuously open doors.
Except iTunes isn't the cash cow: the iPod is. Apple has made no secret of the fact that their profit margin on each song sold is extremely low, and the primary objective of the iTunes music store is to sell more iPods, where quite a bit of profit is made off of each unit sold.
For reference, check out this article: Apple profit surges on iPod sales
It is now called Gwikipedia.
KDE users everywhere are, of course, completely outraged!
Odd. They omitted placing a Microsoft OS onto a computer as a sure-fire way to kill it.
Oh, oh! I know!
You're talking about the American political system, right?
Oh, wait. . .
It'll also be unlikely that Rehnquist will still be presiding then
Rehnquist has made it clear that he will not actively participate in the court and he will abstain from every decision EXCEPT when the other justices reach a 4-4 tie; only then will he step in to cast the deciding vote.
And the little script-kiddie (or perhaps his more advanced older brother) wants to write a FREE virus for the phone, too.
No, probably not: that scenario isn't very plausible, but I suspect Samsung is wary of potential malicious threats. "Samsung publishes interface specifications" wouldn't even make a 10-page deep headline; "Samsung phones are susceptible to a new phone virus" would be big news, and that could seriously harm them.
In related news, 6,000 teen-age girls were heard yelling "OMG! WTF! How will John know I life him if I can't blog about it!"
I understand $500 is a new low price for a Mac, but is it so low that they couldn't include a keyboard and a mouse?
Maybe so you can put two drives on one controller?
Yes.
Here in NYC you can go to any local computer store and grab a custom system built the way u want for a good price.
OT: Might you be able to recommend a reputable dealer? I'm in NYC and I might soon be ready for a new PC (my aging celerson-500 is, I think, about ready to go). I've seen numerous ads in the Voice and N.Y. Press for places that computers at insanely low prices, but I admit I've never actually gone to one--I've always assumed they were the bait-and-switch types.
But the point is, if a tier 3 university can pay $88,000 per year, what can a Tier 1 university such as Purdue, Stanford, MIT can pay their professors?
Top universities actually pay their professors less! Everyone wants to be a professor at Harvard or Yale. For most people, the prestige of being employed by a top university is more important than the extra money. Top universities receive so many qualified applicants that they can offer a relatively small quantity of money and still get the best out there.
Interestingly, university employment bucks another trend: in other fields, pay tends to be higher in major cities like San Fran, Boston, or N.Y. (which makes sense considering the comparatively high cost of real estate and cost of living). For professors, however, rural schools often pay better. Why? Because most professors would rather be located close to cultutal institutions and not stuck off in the cornfields of Iowa.
This whole experiment should solve the nature-vs-nurture controversy.
Identical twins have existed throughout history, and yet the controversy still persists. This is hardly likely to provide any conclusive evidence.
I'm curious, will Fluxbox be on this "light" disk? I ask because the summary says that the most 'popular desktop'. That would be KDE, but light it is not!
Pure conjecture, but I expect the light CD would include KDE. I think the light CD will be quite similar to the latest Knoppix release, except with a variety of package updates. The maximum CD should have everything, including the token "kitchen sink"
It all depends upon your definition of an "older computer." Theirs, I think, is still in the P-III range (650 mhz - 1.8 ghz). Mine, however, is completely different. My primary computer is a Celeron 500 and I don't expect to upgrade any time soon. KDE is painful on my system, but other lightweight WM's run flawlessly. I beleive they're leave the "really eh'fin old" computer segment to distros like Damn Small Linux (which, incidentally, is a heavily stripped down version of Knoppix).
14.1" LCD panel: I would assume it's a TFT, as every laptop I've seen manufactured in the past few years has had one, but at this price point, that's questionable. Might it use dual-scan technology instead?
4 cell battery: Four cells is low as it is, especially if it's not a lithium-ion battery.
I'd like to believe they cut corners only on the memory and on the processor, but at such a low price I'm wondering what else they had to leave out (not to mention the dubious MS tax, of course).