Something a few other people have mentioned, I believe, that is quite important to the idea of Mac's and virii is the number of Mac's in use. See with Windows there simply are sheer numbers of machines to replicate and distribute any bug and in more then 9 out of 10 cases, the next machine it finds is running Windows and the worst of M$'s problems extend throughout multiple operating systems.
The problem for a virus with a Mac is the lack of replicating fodder. There just simply are not enough machines to find in order to properly replicate the virus. It would have to be somehow cross platform in order to guarantee its own survival. There is also the 'ego' side of virus writing, which if it truly exists, means that anyone writing a widespread virus is doing it to show off. It is their idea of a thrill to watch millions of computers crippled and tons of news coverage. The problem is a Mac virus would be little more then a blip on the radar.
Yes, Symantec is probably seeking some revenue; however, I really doubt they need to fear anything M$ puts out with Vista. I mean we are talking about a company that thus far has been unable to create a very successful Firewall and cannot secure their web browser. Besides, it is M$...how long before someone finds the viscious hole in any virus scanner they write...then your virus program can delete all sorts of fun stuff, all in the name of virus protection...
Yeah it is actually called a library or elementary school (possibly some middle and high schools as well). I have learned that librarians and other miscellaneous library staff are often quite tech-illiterate and wouldn't know what to do other then call an 800 number if the machine went because of some careless user. Also library and school PCs have many users coming in who do not actually care about the machine and how much they may mess it up.
My high school was so relatively illiterate with technology that their primary help for computer related issues was me. A high school student who actually understood the technology and had knowingly circumvented a great deal of their attempts to block user access. They realized that going into the technical age would create a transitional problem, but I do not think they realized how inept their teachers and staff (not to mention students) were when it came to computers. Oh the glory days of school in a backwards state (Kentucky).
You realize that Nokia has something like 34% of the total worldwide market share for cellphones?
You may not always be able to get the fanciest or most wonderful cell phone from Nokia, but they have managed to do well by making cheap phones that the average person actually wants. They have tried slowly moving away from this cheap phone image and some of their more recent phones definitely help to this end.
Does this wonderful system take into account local sales taxes too? I live in Northern VA and anyone who lives around here knows that sales tax varies by what city you happen to be in at the time. You cannot use zip code because there are stores in the city where it is 10% sales tax, and I am in the county where it is only the 5%. So you would have to record each address, and the problem with this is that Northern VA is ever growing place. When I moved in, my address wasn't listed by almost every utility. Heck, it still doesn't appear on most maps online. I had to spend almost a whole day on the phone with Comcast while they ADDED my address into the system. Verizon wasn't completely aware of my apartment, nor was the gas company.
But since I do not see us on the list I will not worry too much. But forget about ever ordering anything for my friends in VA or OH anymore. I used to love pulling the shipping trick to avoid KY taxes from some stores and OH taxes from others. Just ship it home instead of to school. Oh well...it figures states would try to get greedy eventually and online retailers who cannot offer free shipping or much better low prices will start to die off, because people who can get stuff at near the same price will go and get it NOW instead of waiting a week.
Actually they do have a good deal of flexibility in pricing. Don't forget that basically every present console is selling at a loss and I am pretty sure they have been from day one. All the money in recent years has been made on games which are insanely priced. Everything I have heard so far seems to point that Microsoft is making a nice profit at the prices listed and the only reason for two price points is to entice people to purchase the Xbox 360 at the lower price if they do not want to drop the huge amount on the expensive one.
And what games do you know of that require the HDD? My understanding is that without it you will have no backwards compatibility, but the only real purpose it had in the original was storage, which can easily be taken care of with memory cards. BTW, it will be retailers who will most likely be eating return cost not Microsoft.
Didn't Sony pull this crap before, by not having playable demos and repeatedly telling us that everything we were seeing was in game? I mean word is the Blu-Ray drives are going to be costing them an arm and a leg. They may be able to take a shot at undershooting Xbox 360, but remember being first means M$ can price drop before PS3 launch and maybe even post holiday '05. There is such a big gap in time that I think the pricing war will actually benefit M$ more then Sony, because M$ will have more and better opportunity for pricing.
But like the theories go, expect Halo 3 and a price drop just as PS3 is coming out. Like I've said, I am waiting for a Revolution and I will probably dig up some poor saps Xbox when they are dumping it for the nextgen, or just dumping it in general (unless there is a nice price drop in the originals).
I am probably going to get modded down on this greatly as a troll or the like, but I have to say it so I will...
Everyone keeps talking about Firefly and Serentity as being wonderful and great programs. While I'll accept these as wonderfully fine opinions, it is important that some of you remember that this isn't what the majority of people are going to think, and don't be too surprised if the numbers for the movies are poor.
Just some thoughts on Whedon's 'great' shows: only one of them ever made it to a major network, Firefly, and we all know it didn't last long. Now it can easily be argued that this is because it was sci-fi or people can start the....the masses just don't understand...speeches, but in reality it might truly be a show that was never meant for network, or at least not the big four. We have all seen FOX makes some dumb decisions on shows (i.e. cancelling Family Guy) and making some dumb decisions on picking up shows. The truth of the matter is that FOX gambled on the show based on success of Buffy and/or Angel on their 2nd tier networks, and they lost.
I am not going to openly say that the show sucks, because some of what I watched of it I did enjoy, while other parts I trulty loathed, though that can possibly be said for other shows as well. It should also be noted that the movies launch date is post-Labor Day. With the exception of LotR in recent years, the movie industry makes its money during the summer run. So it might be possible for this to eke out a first or second place simply on your typical low fall movie turnout.
In the end I would like to see what more people say after seeing it, instead of just the people who went to the preview, most of whom have problem had the day circled on calendars for months. I also am tempted to see what the major movie critics say, because their opinions often influence the decisions of the masses. So there it is said, you can mod me up or down as you see fit...
Like it is being said you get the benefit of less power since no power is required to maintain the image. Also if you have ever read an e-book for an extended period on an LCD with color and one without you'll no that it is generally softer on the eyes to read on the non-color screen over time. This is partially because a well made non-color screen can usually be read with ambient light while this is much more difficult with a color screen that requires a backlight. The backlight is actually rather straining on eyes at times. Trying sitting in front of an LCD all day and your eyes will get tired.
Seriously, I have heard tons of engineering wash out stories. The joy of most of them is that the people themselves were ill prepared for college and in the case of this individual sometimes too cocky for their own good. As he put it he was 'too good for some kiddie intro course.'
College is a completely different beast from the previous 12 years or so of schooling that you get. High school is anything but a prep for college and this is by and large because of standardized testing which forces teachers in HS to teach you the test and not the actual material.
Yes, I graduated high school with a 4.0 GPA and yes I was to some degree humbled by my college by receiving a 3.1 GPA and a 3.0 major GPA from a top 25 engineering school. However, anyone who lets one year of bad school scare them off should not be an engineer because it is HARD WORK. My freshman year ended with a GPA of 1.7 overall. You see that turn-around.
There are a few things that you must come to realize when going into an engineering degree: 1) it will be hard work and if you cannot put forth time and effort move along; 2) the curve will become a friend because teachers in college mostly want to weed out the bottom feeders so by making a VERY HARD test you get a bulk of the class in say the 50-60 (sometimes 70 range) and the low ends get in the 10-20 if not lower range, since curves aren't linear you can fail the 10-20s and pass the 50-60s where a downward curve where the 10-20s might have gotten a 70 is generally frowned upon; 3) Most every professor, at most every major institution (especially public) is there because he brings in research money, not because he is a great teacher. It is important to remember these people have PhD's not degrees in education where they teach you to teach.
I think trying to blame the education system for the lack of engineers might be the right motivation. However, I do not think blaming college is the solution. I think the root goes back to high school, which many people try to say is some preparation for college. This should be the case but often it is not. More high schools need to adopt a college like curriculum where students decide what classes to take. Not going into a science or engineering field, ok take less math. I will not go over how much time I still consider wasted in English and Social Studies course in HS. Heck I do not remember 95% of what was taught in my Sociology or Drama courses. Restructure HS to better prepare students for college, and then we can determine if the lack of engineers is really a education problem or just a fact that most people do not want to do what is starting to become perceived as a well paying job (often) with (often) long hours.
Seriously guys did any of you read the full article or instantly just post here whining. I usually don't take the time to read them because I spend most my time responding to others people. However, in this case it helps to actually read, for if you did you would see that the talk from SD is that they would sell this devices in stores pre-loaded with the content you want to purchase or with content that would be 'unlocked' later.
I do not think, this device is meant for direct marketing to the public in anything resembling the way current flash drives are currently marketed. You would not be buying these and loading the DRM content onto them, the DRM content comes on them when you purchase them. The idea of this is that it will probably allow a set number of devices to read the media. When you insert it into the one device too many you get the cannot read message.
This is how it liberates the 'standard' user from music being stuck on their iPod. Most consumers (and trust me the slashdot community IS NOT most consumers) have no idea how to remove DRM from their iTunes purchases or know how to get the songs on their iPod back off. They have not had the great fortune of hearing about things like ephpod. So now they will have their DRM content on a flash disk that can go into their cell phone, PDA, PC, mp3 player and so on.
So put the foil hats away, and stop contemplating about the demise of SD because this IS NOT targeted for straight sale as a consumer media and WILL NOT replace all the drives and memories that they presently sale.
Here's a hint team. If you have a good system (see PS2, PS3, Snes, Nes, and Gensis) you don't need to constantly remind people about your system.
Then the PS2 must really suck because honestly I would get tired of seeing those commercials for it back in the day. And do not call PS3 a good system until you see it. It is nearly 6 mo. to a year (if not more) from launch, so of course they aren't ad pumping it yet. XBox 360 is suppose to be out for holiday '05 so they want to make sure every little get convinces their stupid parents to buy them one.
The other systems you listed are a bit old to compare to the modern systems. You see back then gaming was still considered a 'niche' market. It wasn't until PSX, and more so PS2 and Xbox, came along that gaming started turning "mainstream." Even some people in the know on the gaming world will probably tell you that Nintendo could quite possibly be the only one shooting for the niche anymore. God I am starting to sound like one of those people who complain about the state of the gaming world...
The safety concern is a legitimate one. Should you be allowed to protest outside the only exit to a building? Nope, and in most cases this kind of congregation is prevented by laws as a fire hazard. You see there are situations where the good of the many outway the rights of the few. It is along the same reason why I cannot shout FIRE in a crowded theater, or hell most any other public place. It is why using speech to insight a riot is also a crime. Your words and your demonstrations are all well and good until they become a safety factor for others.
Like the sibling says, you are greatly overstating the fact here. Even if you had a 1 in 2 discs fail on DVD+/-R you are still getting better cost efficiency. The cost of DVD-RAM is about 5x-10x more then DVD+/-R and with a 1 in 2 fail rate (which would be downright poor and result in the media having failed by now, in reality it is probably a 1 in 10 fail rate) you are doubling the cost of DVD+/-R which would still be 2x-5x less then DVD-RAM.
Hello, in the PC market we all know how wonderfully horrible catridges work. Early CD drives with cartridges were slow and bad. DVD-RAM died a painful death, probably in some part thanks to DVD burners getting out quickly there after. While HD-DVD has less storage, I think the industry will find that users want backwards compatibility (something Blu-Ray lacks if I recall). And history isn't on Sony's side, afterall there were the losers in the Betamax-VHS battle, and some people would say that Beta was the better format.
Seriously though, I love seeing how Bruce Campbell gets put into the movies. I nearly died when I saw the first movie. I think it is great not only because I like some of the stuff Campbell has done, but also that Raimi still manages to get him into his movies.
I do not know many people who REALLY like anime that would ever listen to a dubbed track. Check out some subtitles and some dubbings. Maybe it is a matter of translation, or a matter of censorship but you will constantly see things being said in English dubs that are editted for speech and/or other reasons. Sometimes almost to a comical point.
Now, by using different voice actors you might be able to get enough variety that some people can get over the whole, the voice just doesn't sound right issue. Which I have had with a few anime programs in the past. Personally I do not mind reading subtitles, and so long as they are legible (anyone having seen Battle Royale can tell you about illegible subtitles on a DVD) I just as much figure I will get the movie or show in its original context with the emotion and what not in the voice as the directors originally wanted. There is more to speaking then just words afterall, there is emotion that comes through greatly in voices, and sometimes in anime the vocal emotion might be the only emotion you get.
Protests do still happen, and while some people will argue with you that the federal, state and local governments create these "restricted" areas for these demonstrations as a means to censor the protestors this really isn't the case. There are actually plenty of good and logical safety reasons for this, so as far as our ability to still protest and have protected speech, those aren't going anywhere. You know why those won't go anywhere? Because some of the largest and richest people in the USA are media conglomerates or other people with a high interest in the media.
Due process, however, is one that comes under direct fire. The Patriot Act, as it is so called, actually gave the ability for the US to hold suspected terror suspects as "enemy combatants" taking them outside the realm of Due Process. This "war on terror" is a new beast with no borders, as has been pointed out by the government before. The problem is this law provides no limits to who can be placed in prison indefinitely and not given access to legal counsel or a right to a speedy trial. While it might be a bit paranoid to think that this will turn into a witch hunt where thousands or millions or normal citizens are locked away, it is a possibility thanks to the law.
You are correct in stating we are a long way off from a totalitarian state as China. The bi-partisan government does sort of prevent a single party from gaining too much control, but things could change if Democrats or Republicans were to lose bad in elections resulting in a major lopsided government. The bi-partisan problem also prevents new ideas from being introduced because third parties, two of the largest being the Libertarians and Greens, rarely see much if any coverage, and neither party has had much success getting into the federal government.
It might only be a matter of time before we see the end of China as it is today. The government already relented to a capitalist economy, seeing it as the best way to promote the countries growth and make it a world power to truly be concerned about. I think that slowly they will be forced to change their ways, but not in any sort of rapid progression, unless of course there were to be a political uprising, but I do not see that being too likely.
in the US, is anyone getting service faster than say 6 Mbps without paying ridiculous costs? I think Verizon has FIOS at 6 Mpbs with a 2 Mbps upstream for like $40+. Most cable companies I have seen refuse to give you more then 1 Mbps upstream, though some have started to offer 2 Mbps up for home users.
So has anyone seen numbers above this, including major markets (since I am in one now) that are actually affordable. I would like to have some more upstream available so I can more smoothly access my machines while I am away from home.
Actually the term means nothing. They are simply stating a reason for you to have a right to bear arms. It does not say, you must be in a militia to own a gun. It simply states that in order to maintain a militia, citizens have the right to bear arms. This is by far the most OVER USED and MIS-STATED part of the US Constitution. Gun control people have this one quite backwards.
Actually based on the idea that we need to maintain milita, current laws are even too restrictive. The individual citizen should have the same right to own a fully automatic weapon as the military officer has the use of one. Would every person be walking the streets with guns? Probably not. But it should be noted that concealed carry (one of the gun control people's biggest fears) works. See Northern Va, Maryland and DC. Check out the crime rights and the two areas with poor carry laws or no right to carry at all (DC and Maryland). You will find much more violent gun related crimes. The reason being, if person X could be legally concealing a gun, criminal Y is a lot less likely to carjack, steal, etc. from person X.
Guns are a right that were given to us, because we have the right to defend ourselves. The problem with gun control laws it that is makes it harder for the innocent, law-abiding citizen to get a gun for protection, while the criminals will always find a way to get their hands on the illegal arms.
I would now like to turn everyone to Penn & Teller's Bullshit a great and informative show that address this topic in season 3, along with many other great topics.
Microsoft secretly launches several bad torrents of Linux distributions by using fake pirate groups (or hell real ones) as cover for the act. A bit paranoid sounding, but would anything M$ would do or think of surprise any of us anymore?
Re:Yet another reason I'll never look at Yahoo
on
YahooTV
·
· Score: 1
Umm...Isn't google doing the same thing? Yahoo News -> Google News...Yahoo Shopping->Froogle...YahooTV -> ummm haven't we been talking about GoogleTV?
Type a phone number (a listed one) using the (xxx) xxx-xxxx into Google's search and you get a directory listing back. Sounds likes Yahoo's people search, except its built into the search. Oh what abouts maps.yahoo.com -> maps.google.com
And Google is getting into webmail and into messenging and that crazy toolbar. Oh my. Your argument sort of loses its place. You can find many of the same features on both sites. The difference is Yahoo puts most everything in the open so the normal user can find them, while Google takes a bit more work by non-savvy people to find their little tools sometimes. They are less different then some Google-zealots would like you to think.
Re:Why did you quit visiting Yahoo?
on
YahooTV
·
· Score: 1
Slashdot Mirror
Something a few other people have mentioned, I believe, that is quite important to the idea of Mac's and virii is the number of Mac's in use. See with Windows there simply are sheer numbers of machines to replicate and distribute any bug and in more then 9 out of 10 cases, the next machine it finds is running Windows and the worst of M$'s problems extend throughout multiple operating systems.
The problem for a virus with a Mac is the lack of replicating fodder. There just simply are not enough machines to find in order to properly replicate the virus. It would have to be somehow cross platform in order to guarantee its own survival. There is also the 'ego' side of virus writing, which if it truly exists, means that anyone writing a widespread virus is doing it to show off. It is their idea of a thrill to watch millions of computers crippled and tons of news coverage. The problem is a Mac virus would be little more then a blip on the radar.
Yes, Symantec is probably seeking some revenue; however, I really doubt they need to fear anything M$ puts out with Vista. I mean we are talking about a company that thus far has been unable to create a very successful Firewall and cannot secure their web browser. Besides, it is M$...how long before someone finds the viscious hole in any virus scanner they write...then your virus program can delete all sorts of fun stuff, all in the name of virus protection...
I wish I could live forever
Don't we all, but there can be only one.
Yeah it is actually called a library or elementary school (possibly some middle and high schools as well). I have learned that librarians and other miscellaneous library staff are often quite tech-illiterate and wouldn't know what to do other then call an 800 number if the machine went because of some careless user. Also library and school PCs have many users coming in who do not actually care about the machine and how much they may mess it up.
My high school was so relatively illiterate with technology that their primary help for computer related issues was me. A high school student who actually understood the technology and had knowingly circumvented a great deal of their attempts to block user access. They realized that going into the technical age would create a transitional problem, but I do not think they realized how inept their teachers and staff (not to mention students) were when it came to computers. Oh the glory days of school in a backwards state (Kentucky).
You realize that Nokia has something like 34% of the total worldwide market share for cellphones?
You may not always be able to get the fanciest or most wonderful cell phone from Nokia, but they have managed to do well by making cheap phones that the average person actually wants. They have tried slowly moving away from this cheap phone image and some of their more recent phones definitely help to this end.
This is off-topic, but Thank You. I nearly laughed when I read that passage, it is nearly too good to be true.
Does this wonderful system take into account local sales taxes too? I live in Northern VA and anyone who lives around here knows that sales tax varies by what city you happen to be in at the time. You cannot use zip code because there are stores in the city where it is 10% sales tax, and I am in the county where it is only the 5%. So you would have to record each address, and the problem with this is that Northern VA is ever growing place. When I moved in, my address wasn't listed by almost every utility. Heck, it still doesn't appear on most maps online. I had to spend almost a whole day on the phone with Comcast while they ADDED my address into the system. Verizon wasn't completely aware of my apartment, nor was the gas company.
But since I do not see us on the list I will not worry too much. But forget about ever ordering anything for my friends in VA or OH anymore. I used to love pulling the shipping trick to avoid KY taxes from some stores and OH taxes from others. Just ship it home instead of to school. Oh well...it figures states would try to get greedy eventually and online retailers who cannot offer free shipping or much better low prices will start to die off, because people who can get stuff at near the same price will go and get it NOW instead of waiting a week.
Actually they do have a good deal of flexibility in pricing. Don't forget that basically every present console is selling at a loss and I am pretty sure they have been from day one. All the money in recent years has been made on games which are insanely priced. Everything I have heard so far seems to point that Microsoft is making a nice profit at the prices listed and the only reason for two price points is to entice people to purchase the Xbox 360 at the lower price if they do not want to drop the huge amount on the expensive one.
And what games do you know of that require the HDD? My understanding is that without it you will have no backwards compatibility, but the only real purpose it had in the original was storage, which can easily be taken care of with memory cards. BTW, it will be retailers who will most likely be eating return cost not Microsoft.
Didn't Sony pull this crap before, by not having playable demos and repeatedly telling us that everything we were seeing was in game? I mean word is the Blu-Ray drives are going to be costing them an arm and a leg. They may be able to take a shot at undershooting Xbox 360, but remember being first means M$ can price drop before PS3 launch and maybe even post holiday '05. There is such a big gap in time that I think the pricing war will actually benefit M$ more then Sony, because M$ will have more and better opportunity for pricing.
But like the theories go, expect Halo 3 and a price drop just as PS3 is coming out. Like I've said, I am waiting for a Revolution and I will probably dig up some poor saps Xbox when they are dumping it for the nextgen, or just dumping it in general (unless there is a nice price drop in the originals).
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm
There is your adjusted income based on ticket prices.
I am probably going to get modded down on this greatly as a troll or the like, but I have to say it so I will...
Everyone keeps talking about Firefly and Serentity as being wonderful and great programs. While I'll accept these as wonderfully fine opinions, it is important that some of you remember that this isn't what the majority of people are going to think, and don't be too surprised if the numbers for the movies are poor.
Just some thoughts on Whedon's 'great' shows: only one of them ever made it to a major network, Firefly, and we all know it didn't last long. Now it can easily be argued that this is because it was sci-fi or people can start the....the masses just don't understand...speeches, but in reality it might truly be a show that was never meant for network, or at least not the big four. We have all seen FOX makes some dumb decisions on shows (i.e. cancelling Family Guy) and making some dumb decisions on picking up shows. The truth of the matter is that FOX gambled on the show based on success of Buffy and/or Angel on their 2nd tier networks, and they lost.
I am not going to openly say that the show sucks, because some of what I watched of it I did enjoy, while other parts I trulty loathed, though that can possibly be said for other shows as well. It should also be noted that the movies launch date is post-Labor Day. With the exception of LotR in recent years, the movie industry makes its money during the summer run. So it might be possible for this to eke out a first or second place simply on your typical low fall movie turnout.
In the end I would like to see what more people say after seeing it, instead of just the people who went to the preview, most of whom have problem had the day circled on calendars for months. I also am tempted to see what the major movie critics say, because their opinions often influence the decisions of the masses. So there it is said, you can mod me up or down as you see fit...
Like it is being said you get the benefit of less power since no power is required to maintain the image. Also if you have ever read an e-book for an extended period on an LCD with color and one without you'll no that it is generally softer on the eyes to read on the non-color screen over time. This is partially because a well made non-color screen can usually be read with ambient light while this is much more difficult with a color screen that requires a backlight. The backlight is actually rather straining on eyes at times. Trying sitting in front of an LCD all day and your eyes will get tired.
Seriously, I have heard tons of engineering wash out stories. The joy of most of them is that the people themselves were ill prepared for college and in the case of this individual sometimes too cocky for their own good. As he put it he was 'too good for some kiddie intro course.'
College is a completely different beast from the previous 12 years or so of schooling that you get. High school is anything but a prep for college and this is by and large because of standardized testing which forces teachers in HS to teach you the test and not the actual material.
Yes, I graduated high school with a 4.0 GPA and yes I was to some degree humbled by my college by receiving a 3.1 GPA and a 3.0 major GPA from a top 25 engineering school. However, anyone who lets one year of bad school scare them off should not be an engineer because it is HARD WORK. My freshman year ended with a GPA of 1.7 overall. You see that turn-around.
There are a few things that you must come to realize when going into an engineering degree: 1) it will be hard work and if you cannot put forth time and effort move along; 2) the curve will become a friend because teachers in college mostly want to weed out the bottom feeders so by making a VERY HARD test you get a bulk of the class in say the 50-60 (sometimes 70 range) and the low ends get in the 10-20 if not lower range, since curves aren't linear you can fail the 10-20s and pass the 50-60s where a downward curve where the 10-20s might have gotten a 70 is generally frowned upon; 3) Most every professor, at most every major institution (especially public) is there because he brings in research money, not because he is a great teacher. It is important to remember these people have PhD's not degrees in education where they teach you to teach.
I think trying to blame the education system for the lack of engineers might be the right motivation. However, I do not think blaming college is the solution. I think the root goes back to high school, which many people try to say is some preparation for college. This should be the case but often it is not. More high schools need to adopt a college like curriculum where students decide what classes to take. Not going into a science or engineering field, ok take less math. I will not go over how much time I still consider wasted in English and Social Studies course in HS. Heck I do not remember 95% of what was taught in my Sociology or Drama courses. Restructure HS to better prepare students for college, and then we can determine if the lack of engineers is really a education problem or just a fact that most people do not want to do what is starting to become perceived as a well paying job (often) with (often) long hours.
Seriously guys did any of you read the full article or instantly just post here whining. I usually don't take the time to read them because I spend most my time responding to others people. However, in this case it helps to actually read, for if you did you would see that the talk from SD is that they would sell this devices in stores pre-loaded with the content you want to purchase or with content that would be 'unlocked' later.
I do not think, this device is meant for direct marketing to the public in anything resembling the way current flash drives are currently marketed. You would not be buying these and loading the DRM content onto them, the DRM content comes on them when you purchase them. The idea of this is that it will probably allow a set number of devices to read the media. When you insert it into the one device too many you get the cannot read message.
This is how it liberates the 'standard' user from music being stuck on their iPod. Most consumers (and trust me the slashdot community IS NOT most consumers) have no idea how to remove DRM from their iTunes purchases or know how to get the songs on their iPod back off. They have not had the great fortune of hearing about things like ephpod. So now they will have their DRM content on a flash disk that can go into their cell phone, PDA, PC, mp3 player and so on.
So put the foil hats away, and stop contemplating about the demise of SD because this IS NOT targeted for straight sale as a consumer media and WILL NOT replace all the drives and memories that they presently sale.
Here's a hint team. If you have a good system (see PS2, PS3, Snes, Nes, and Gensis) you don't need to constantly remind people about your system.
Then the PS2 must really suck because honestly I would get tired of seeing those commercials for it back in the day. And do not call PS3 a good system until you see it. It is nearly 6 mo. to a year (if not more) from launch, so of course they aren't ad pumping it yet. XBox 360 is suppose to be out for holiday '05 so they want to make sure every little get convinces their stupid parents to buy them one.
The other systems you listed are a bit old to compare to the modern systems. You see back then gaming was still considered a 'niche' market. It wasn't until PSX, and more so PS2 and Xbox, came along that gaming started turning "mainstream." Even some people in the know on the gaming world will probably tell you that Nintendo could quite possibly be the only one shooting for the niche anymore. God I am starting to sound like one of those people who complain about the state of the gaming world...
The safety concern is a legitimate one. Should you be allowed to protest outside the only exit to a building? Nope, and in most cases this kind of congregation is prevented by laws as a fire hazard. You see there are situations where the good of the many outway the rights of the few. It is along the same reason why I cannot shout FIRE in a crowded theater, or hell most any other public place. It is why using speech to insight a riot is also a crime. Your words and your demonstrations are all well and good until they become a safety factor for others.
Like the sibling says, you are greatly overstating the fact here. Even if you had a 1 in 2 discs fail on DVD+/-R you are still getting better cost efficiency. The cost of DVD-RAM is about 5x-10x more then DVD+/-R and with a 1 in 2 fail rate (which would be downright poor and result in the media having failed by now, in reality it is probably a 1 in 10 fail rate) you are doubling the cost of DVD+/-R which would still be 2x-5x less then DVD-RAM.
Hello, in the PC market we all know how wonderfully horrible catridges work. Early CD drives with cartridges were slow and bad. DVD-RAM died a painful death, probably in some part thanks to DVD burners getting out quickly there after. While HD-DVD has less storage, I think the industry will find that users want backwards compatibility (something Blu-Ray lacks if I recall). And history isn't on Sony's side, afterall there were the losers in the Betamax-VHS battle, and some people would say that Beta was the better format.
Seriously though, I love seeing how Bruce Campbell gets put into the movies. I nearly died when I saw the first movie. I think it is great not only because I like some of the stuff Campbell has done, but also that Raimi still manages to get him into his movies.
I do not know many people who REALLY like anime that would ever listen to a dubbed track. Check out some subtitles and some dubbings. Maybe it is a matter of translation, or a matter of censorship but you will constantly see things being said in English dubs that are editted for speech and/or other reasons. Sometimes almost to a comical point.
Now, by using different voice actors you might be able to get enough variety that some people can get over the whole, the voice just doesn't sound right issue. Which I have had with a few anime programs in the past. Personally I do not mind reading subtitles, and so long as they are legible (anyone having seen Battle Royale can tell you about illegible subtitles on a DVD) I just as much figure I will get the movie or show in its original context with the emotion and what not in the voice as the directors originally wanted. There is more to speaking then just words afterall, there is emotion that comes through greatly in voices, and sometimes in anime the vocal emotion might be the only emotion you get.
Protests do still happen, and while some people will argue with you that the federal, state and local governments create these "restricted" areas for these demonstrations as a means to censor the protestors this really isn't the case. There are actually plenty of good and logical safety reasons for this, so as far as our ability to still protest and have protected speech, those aren't going anywhere. You know why those won't go anywhere? Because some of the largest and richest people in the USA are media conglomerates or other people with a high interest in the media.
Due process, however, is one that comes under direct fire. The Patriot Act, as it is so called, actually gave the ability for the US to hold suspected terror suspects as "enemy combatants" taking them outside the realm of Due Process. This "war on terror" is a new beast with no borders, as has been pointed out by the government before. The problem is this law provides no limits to who can be placed in prison indefinitely and not given access to legal counsel or a right to a speedy trial. While it might be a bit paranoid to think that this will turn into a witch hunt where thousands or millions or normal citizens are locked away, it is a possibility thanks to the law.
You are correct in stating we are a long way off from a totalitarian state as China. The bi-partisan government does sort of prevent a single party from gaining too much control, but things could change if Democrats or Republicans were to lose bad in elections resulting in a major lopsided government. The bi-partisan problem also prevents new ideas from being introduced because third parties, two of the largest being the Libertarians and Greens, rarely see much if any coverage, and neither party has had much success getting into the federal government.
It might only be a matter of time before we see the end of China as it is today. The government already relented to a capitalist economy, seeing it as the best way to promote the countries growth and make it a world power to truly be concerned about. I think that slowly they will be forced to change their ways, but not in any sort of rapid progression, unless of course there were to be a political uprising, but I do not see that being too likely.
in the US, is anyone getting service faster than say 6 Mbps without paying ridiculous costs? I think Verizon has FIOS at 6 Mpbs with a 2 Mbps upstream for like $40+. Most cable companies I have seen refuse to give you more then 1 Mbps upstream, though some have started to offer 2 Mbps up for home users.
So has anyone seen numbers above this, including major markets (since I am in one now) that are actually affordable. I would like to have some more upstream available so I can more smoothly access my machines while I am away from home.
Actually the term means nothing. They are simply stating a reason for you to have a right to bear arms. It does not say, you must be in a militia to own a gun. It simply states that in order to maintain a militia, citizens have the right to bear arms. This is by far the most OVER USED and MIS-STATED part of the US Constitution. Gun control people have this one quite backwards.
Actually based on the idea that we need to maintain milita, current laws are even too restrictive. The individual citizen should have the same right to own a fully automatic weapon as the military officer has the use of one. Would every person be walking the streets with guns? Probably not. But it should be noted that concealed carry (one of the gun control people's biggest fears) works. See Northern Va, Maryland and DC. Check out the crime rights and the two areas with poor carry laws or no right to carry at all (DC and Maryland). You will find much more violent gun related crimes. The reason being, if person X could be legally concealing a gun, criminal Y is a lot less likely to carjack, steal, etc. from person X.
Guns are a right that were given to us, because we have the right to defend ourselves. The problem with gun control laws it that is makes it harder for the innocent, law-abiding citizen to get a gun for protection, while the criminals will always find a way to get their hands on the illegal arms.
I would now like to turn everyone to Penn & Teller's Bullshit a great and informative show that address this topic in season 3, along with many other great topics.
Microsoft secretly launches several bad torrents of Linux distributions by using fake pirate groups (or hell real ones) as cover for the act. A bit paranoid sounding, but would anything M$ would do or think of surprise any of us anymore?
Umm...Isn't google doing the same thing? Yahoo News -> Google News...Yahoo Shopping->Froogle...YahooTV -> ummm haven't we been talking about GoogleTV?
Type a phone number (a listed one) using the (xxx) xxx-xxxx into Google's search and you get a directory listing back. Sounds likes Yahoo's people search, except its built into the search. Oh what abouts maps.yahoo.com -> maps.google.com
And Google is getting into webmail and into messenging and that crazy toolbar. Oh my. Your argument sort of loses its place. You can find many of the same features on both sites. The difference is Yahoo puts most everything in the open so the normal user can find them, while Google takes a bit more work by non-savvy people to find their little tools sometimes. They are less different then some Google-zealots would like you to think.
It is called SARCASM.