I even feel the ipod is a BLOAT, especially with iTynes piggybacking on it, but hey, it is small, has decent battery life, and plays my electronic tunes while I am running or lifting weights....
A Zune? I wanna see the battery life, and the size of that box. For sure you won't run with that strapped onto your arm and sweat into it like a pig....
as a media player (for video and all that) maybe it rulez. For a music player: it just sucks probably....
I do not want to see 5-inch size movies, I just need MP3 so if apple wants my opinion: i keep my ipod and do not care for zune.
On the other hand as soon as it crpas out I just get something half the size of an ipod, with twice the capacity, for 75% of the price with a 100% better software. Something that works on linux and does not need 2 upgrades of 80megs a month twice...
just my 2c. Run and buy the bloat box if you want:)
than use your spare batteries during the flight... i flu last time in 2002 with my laptop though, but i know that my hp packs 4 hours on a battery, so 2 makes a 8hour flight bearable,,,
but hey ! isn't it nice to not stare at a monitor once in a while ?
ooooh, don't even tell me.... I was waiting for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and really hoped to ge my whole team back, I ended up woth my 4-percon crew of completely retarded AI, and super-intelligent AI opponents that woul;d see you thur smnoke, darkness or dense foliage....
Hmm, and the saddest thing is that the XBOX 360 port is still better, more complete, and a full experience:(
anyway at least multiplayer is semi decent...
but alll the games are going this route, i do not even want to buy a game anymore:(
hmm, while mi toshiba dies in 1 hour, my new HP lasts for 4+ hours, using wireless, browsing the net, and dong stuff..... i guess reading a document, or similar would make it for 4.5 hours (official battery time) while wathcing a movie would drain it in 3 hours....
still 2 batteries will fly you to europe, and somehow I always find an airport plug to leach some free juice into my devices (no one ever came up to me telling not to use an outlet):)
my point is : i have a good and a shitty laptop, get one that is decent and 2 spare batteries and they will get you 10-12+ hours comfortably....
get a small laptop (12'' ibook) and it will last forever...
now on the safety issue: i understand any of the companies forbidding faulty laptops. Yhouse burst-in flame videos are scary enough in an apartment, I do not want to see them on a flight:(
Almost all FPS games are better on PC. Console ones are usually simplified. In fact consoles ruined all tactical shooters: GR2, GRAW, RS3 , now they are just console ports, crappier than the Console version, but even the console version is overly simple over the original titles.
There are no simulations for consoles. Yes there are flying games, but nothing like the older sums the PC had (and do not have too many of nowadays).
I was a console gamer for 2 years, just sold my xbox and ps2 with all the games, and only play on pc.
I guess it also really depends on the games you play.... I think i won't get a PS3 either (small chance is there), the xbox 360 leaves me uninterested, and the WII has no chance either....
I think many people think of a ps3/xbox cable as a cable. In fact it is not. It is an interface in most cases, or at least a proprietary cable, that has the required entry/ending.
I mean the ps2 Component is just an other cable, that connects to the ps2 exit, while xbox has a separate box (HD pack) with the required outputs....
I think all that crap could be cleared, if the ps3/xbox360 had a digital (coax or optical) out, and a VGA (dsub 25) out, that can be switched over to component out.
For my Epson projector for example, you can use a VGA cable (included) or you can buy a $110 dsub25-> component out. You can aswell buy the parts in Radio shack (or your favourite part shop) for $10 and build the same cable with 30 mins labour, and a piece of UTP cable....
The problem is, that you cannot buy the xbox or the PS3/2 proprietary plug at these places, so you will need a $40 monster cable.
Hmm damn you gaming companies, put at least a VGA there for us with different outputs. You will save money, we will save money, and you can connect VGA monitors, that a lot of us computer owners would do, especially with sub $300 prices for 1440x900 flat panels woth 8ms response and 500:1 contrast ratios !!!
hmm, i might give bsd it a try, i know it is rock solid, i have a server with 700 days uptime (would be 3 years if i did not screw up routing once 2 years ago) and only one hack attempt through a postnuke site (unsuccessful, the exploit code was for linux:) I would have a bsd at home, but was lazy to figure some firewalling out (was just too busy) so i slapped a linux box together in 3 hours with iptables, mail and squid (that ipfw just sucked:))) with QOS )
the other thing why i am really not pushing the pc based media thing, is that i do not need a DVR, I watch like 5 minutes of TV a day, and that is mostly 10 minutes of news before i go to bed every other day...
hmm so have a good day:) you are pushy a bit but i appreciate/understand it, but for that task for now the HW box is the most appropriate:) i have a GPS/media car pc project upcoming (hopefully) for fun as i will spend more time in my car due to a new job, and I promise it will be linux:)
hmm, nop, I am an everyday linux desktop user, and have 4 different nvidia cards, when using xinerama, the official driver crashes randomly at times, 2 months ago i switched back to my old trusty mga 450, and since then a few crashes maybe....
i used 2 different machines, intel and amd, with 3 or 4 cards from 5200 to 440mx and a 6600, all seem to crash randomly with the nvidia driver:) and it is up to today (well 2 months ago)
i appreciate your effort, really, i know windows drivers are a mess, and i really push open source (i have linux and freebsd servers) everywhere i can, but with the video stuff i really had a bad experience....
on the encoding: on xbmc i only played files, and they have encoding for the subtitles, and sometimes they suck, i need spanish, hungarian, or english. and i had problems, my xbmc install is like a year old though, and haven't turned my xbox on for 6 months, so that might have changed....
so my only point is: being a formal and self educated linux/unix admin for years, i still find that it is a lot easier to slap a $200 dvd player on the shelf. it is 480p, it is silent, it never crashed, and if i feed fresh dogpoo into it, it will play it without downloading a codec. or dumping core....
i guess i just got old, and got sick of messing around for half an hour to play a movie, i just want to press the control of the remote for the AMP, the projector, and the DVD player and i do not want to figure out why something is just not the right way...
and then again, it is just me, and i would still mess around with it, but my wife ???? don't get me wrong, she uses linux and staroffice on her laptop, and only boots windows for the stupid itunes crap//// but i really do not want her to get frustrated because i just changed another thing to be hand;ed by a linux computer:)
one thing i agree on you though is this: i would love to have a decent remote to be as scriptable and cool as lirc for linux is, and i would like to have an X and just use a pda as a remote control.. but at this time i just stay with my stupid 200 sony box... at the end that gives me my dts audio and hassle free movie watching.....
beleive me: at work i have enough unix shit to figure out, after that i am programming, and if i am not doing that and want to watch a movie, i really just want to press that button, and the worst debug i want to make is figure out, that one cable is not connected because my dogs pulled a plug out:) happens once in a while:)...
and yes, i use mplayer once in a while, but no, i prefer using my windows machine for ANY media file, just for the sake of the ignorent webdesigners, that sometimes make it totally impossible to use and watch a media file in a browser anything other than IE... other than that: only to look into videos and/or to rip them if i cannot watch them on time before i have to return them....
btw i might be wrong, but i think subtitles are in text format on dvd's too, but i might be wrong on them... maybe i am not that interested in that to even make a search on it:)... it if friday night anyway...
btw you mentioned freebsd... i wonder how good is all this on freebsd, i really like the system, but haven't considered it to anything other than hosting websites yet.... i mean i installed X like a few weeks ago, and it worked, but then that's it, i did not think about HDTV out or SPDIF or anything..... is BSD there yet ?
" A GUI has nothing at all to do with DVD menus. Your DVD player certainly doesn't have a GUI at all."
A DVD menu is a graphical representation of the content on your disc and a user interface, so it is a Graphical User Interface for the disc = GUI My dvd player has a GUI in fact that works by a remote control to set all the features up:)
What I meant with "messing" was that a good few years ago, the SPDIF out wasn't just a recompile of the kernel to include the drivers for your audio card, but a painful procedure, and than at many times I ended up sound not being decoded the way they were on a hw player.
I am happy, mplayer gets a DVD menu, and if I wanted to I could have used Xine (you mentioned) or even OGLE. But that still does not make the CCS problem go away, that I have experienced just by randomly inserting 1 out of 50 discs into my linux machine (where I many times peek into movies BTW, so I do not have to turn on the projector and all the sound devices).... Mplayer (compiled a few months ago, HAD a problem playing some of the disks, along with xine and OGLE, and it was a CCS error....
so you can throw PEBKAC and all the insults, if using linux for that was an easier solution i would do that...
besides: sharing a game machine, and the video playing was the best option, given the location of the hardware in the room, and the number of connections my audio devices allow.
Now can you answer me this honestly (as you seem to think you MUST PUSH using linux for something I gave up years ago):
Can you use a HDTV output of an NVIDIA card, without using the NON-binary driver of Xorg ? I do not know, but while the binary driver is so crappy, that I had to put a matrix450 back into my wirk machine to restore system stability, I would say: i do not think so.
You know that the binary driver still does not allow safe suspend and hybernation, and is super unstable when using xinerama ?
I am not going to fight with you over this stupid issue of whether I must force myself to use linux on EVERITHING possible:) as i am sitting 12+hours daily looking at my machine running X and Linux:)
I know it rocks, and can do a lot, but I still haven't found a solution, that makes me go : wow, I must run that as my media player, it supports EVERYTHING I want, and it is super stable. Instead I find this: I can hack hours with LIRC, MPLAYER, X, NVIDIA DRIVERS, and when my test DVDs are playing just fine, I will put that rental in and : SEGFAULT XXXXX cannot find whatever CCS shit... or the NVIDIA driver just dumps core, and crashes my card so bad, no XDM/KDM/GDM restart is possible, and have to restart the whole crap...
And yes, there are prepackaged versions: such as XBOX media center... it is also very stable (NOT THAT MUCH) and plays ALMOST all the movies. It's just that sometimes the subtitles have wrong encoding, they do not work, or are just unreadable, or do not fit...
little small problems, that I would have tolerated 5 years ago when I just wanted to use Linux for EVERYTHING just as you now, but now I better focus on whatever gives the best solution, and leave the hacking for projects I enjoy after all, not make my life more miserable, when I just want to lay back, press the button and watch a movie WITH DTS, IN HDTV, correct subtitles, and aspect ratio.....
But hey, not flaming, I am happy if all that works for you on linux on any given hardware and any distro,
For me it seems more like even the drivers do not seem to work that are officially distributed with the hardware on windows at this time:) so I stay with my hardware box until things are different...
yep, MCE is a good things with the TIVO:) but i do not watch TV:) and definetely do not want to record anything:)
yep, hardware is in towers here, 4 machines in that room, that's why i decided to try pc based thing again. The problem is, that decommissioning the pc's here have a slower cycle, 3 out of 4 machines running linux, my older amd athlon with 256 meg is still a perfect machine, but not for video intensive tasks, so to run anything decent I need to use my other rigs for the job, but then there is also the clash between me wanting to do something, and someone else looking at a movie i do not want to see:)
i know about remotes, but whatever i liked started at $500, and then I just stick with my existing $200 dvd player:) Originally i wanted to use my IPAQ as a remote, but did not find a software that I really liked...
hmmm anyway, nowadays I watch 1 movie a week, i am ok with my 800x600 projector and the old sony player for now:)
being a linux admin since linux IS, I would say that that is the very last option I would want for myself...
first of all: i do not have "movie files" I only watch DVDs. they have menus, I want a GUI for them to use the features. last time I checked Mplayer still did not have DVD menus, and took long to find the CCS keys (since linux players still do not have a "legal player".
2nd: i use a surround AMP, last time it was 4 years ago when i started messing with ALSA's SPDIF output. Thanks but no thanks, half the "files" did not have ac3 audio, and DVDs had problems as well, that might have changed. For me SPDIF out is the ONLY option, and if I cannot watch in at least digi 5.1 or DTS i do not want to consider even putting the disc in.
3rd: as i said, said machine was a gaming rig. Given that, you NEED to upgrade drivers very frequently. There is no option no to. You get performance issues, and all kinds of problems if you do not.
So do not misunderstand me: as soon as Linux has a decent DVD player (mean commercial without the CCS crap), and it support native HDTV modes and SPDIF optical out, I will put one together....
Yep I know LIRC is kickass, mplayer is kickass, linnux is kickass, and I can put all this together just fine, it's just that at the end I still won't have DVD menus, and maybe not have DTS sound, and ohh, maybe not be able to play the movie... yes it happened recently, that the CCS lib could not do anything with 2 rental movies, that I wanted to archive onto my laptop, to watch it on the weekend away from the house !!!
So yes, all that is wonderful, but these give me 10x the problems, as soon as my wife will pop in a DVD and ask: so why does not that DVD play/have sound/crappy picture on the projector.,,,, and then my weekend becomes a debugging spree, turning my dey off into a working day...
and yes, i love linux and all that, but the LAST thing i want to use it for is to run a home entertainment center on it with HDTV DTS and DVD needs....
you know, i think the sad truth is, that most people do not care about 5.1 7.1 or whatever else audio
even if they do, most of them do not use an optical or coaxial SPDIF / digital out.....
i tried digital once, and never want my humming speakers back, i have like a 7 meter distance between the pc and the AMP, adn as soon as it is not SPDIF i get all these wierd noises all over, since the cables go near 3 other pcs, network cables, and tv signal, and just pick up all the noise, even though i am using gold-plated, shielded decent cables...
but most don't, and that's why these "small" problems with drivers go unnoticed, and then unpatched for months:(
I figured, that my nvidia made a lot cleaner and higher resolution image than my $200 DVD player, even on my old 800x600 epson projector, but then I met the disturbing truth:
-my wife hated to mess around with my pc just to watch a disc -i did not find a decent remote control -playback software was a lot more complicated than the one the DVD player has - problems started after a driver upgrade (spdif sound disappeared on my ASUS A8n SLI after installing recent NFORCE drivers)...
I mean these are mostly problems for my family, I am ok, watching with a wireless keyboard, and enjoying the better quality, but for everyone else it is just awkward...
Yes, i watched my high bit DVDs, and my matrix collection (at least eyecandy parts) on it and was happy, but for everyday use, it was just a pain.... especially, bc that is my gaming rig as well, so if my wife wanted to watch a chick-flick, while I wanted to shoot at people online, a clash happened:(
I have been to this job fair out of curiosity a month ago, and intel was one of the biggest recruiters there, looking the most professional, with trained HR personnel making quick stand-up interviews.....
Intel, as far as I know is not laying anyone off here, in fact they are hiring as crazy.
but also consider this : with an IT degree as an engineer you make $1500-2000 as a starter at a big firm (most leikely below that), while a CS representative's salary is around $800-1200 or less at most places...
This is monthly, before you wonder and yes, you make an OK living on that.
Now the article probably should have said: Intel joins the other us companies, who want to hire well-educated foreigners, 4 for the price of 1.
Maybe not that off-topic: I think CR and Panama is getting popular because of the physical distance to the US. I mean try to fly to India to manage your company, or give training, a few time a month.
just my observaion.....
OHH btw: I just heard, that many ar criticising Intel, because they are responsible for water levels being 20% lower than usual, and it seems that the government does not care. But that is just people talknig, I am not claiming any of these to be true......
I personally use the "spiral" shaped lights the article was criticising, as well as the straight ones (th compact ones that have 4 tupes and are like 15cm long) and i am pretty happy with them at most places.
First of all they provide enough light if you place them well, and if you use them with a lamp with a reflection surface. Their light is not that horrible colour: yep, the standard ones are very cold, but you can use a colored (partly) reflector, and you have several heat options (talking colour heat), as well as coloured bulbs, such as my favourite: the yellow one that does not bring all the bugs inside.
They are prone to failure: I live in Costa Rica, and an ordinary bulb is dead in a few days, unless you provide surge protection to all the lights (which I cannot do). Electricity is pretty crappy here, and my ups clickity-clicks a lot, and the bulbs died often before I switched to these puppies.
Easy on the purse: I do not pay for electricity, so I do not know how much I am saving, but I know from the numbers, that it must be a lot. (hey I am nice enough to spare even if it is free, call me a treehugger, I do not care)
Reading: now here comes the low power halogen into play: I hate to read with these, I just hate it. For that I use a low power hallogen bulb with a 12v transformer.
I am happily willing to switch all my halogens and long fluorescent tubes over with time, whether they improve it more or not....
I think you are a bit paranoid though. You can disagree with you country's fuel/energy politics, and you can criticise your politicians for pressuring an other country for opening an alternative energy source. Granted, if they make nukes, the UN should take action after considering the dangerousness of the nation in question, but the UN should do that, not any other country. Theoretically I do not agree with it, however I agree, that there are dangerous people out there, who should not have nukes. (IMO no one should at all, they should have been converted to fuel rods, or whatever peaceful purpose. But than again, that should involve the US, the French and every other nuclear power.).
Now on the article: strange that no one else criticised the association. That kind of association of the plant, its county, and a known terrorist, is not right, and if I was of/from the race/country in question, I would be offended (not the kind of offended and upset, that needs to be on a TSA list:> just bothered by it).
How much nicer would that be to put a greenpeace article/ad agains nuke power, in case the news agency disagrees with the whole idea, a hybrid car, a BP commercial, a "support your coal mine friend senator" ad, save the penguins, or Michael More, or whatever else, but an ad, with Bin Laden. That clearly ment, that those guys are claiming to be making clean energy, but in reality, they are going to do something terrible, just as the guy on the right did.
But then again all that is just speculation in my head:) maybe the ad was invoked by a stupid PHP script, that associated the ad with the article based on keywords.
Hmm... well. I am going to bed:) and meditate on that...
I don't think so, and this is a very tasteless joke IMO.
Why would you say that? Just because I think that the article was inappropriate, biased, and totally brainwashing with the Bin Laden commercial on he right? Because I think anyone has the right to open a nuclear powerplant (I am not talking about nukes), I do not think anyone should have flagged me anything wrong.
I am sorry, but I think many peolpe take all the crap granted what they hear on Fox news. I think maybe you should express what you think, instead of just throwing a one-liner, that many would take as a simple insult. If you think it is right to tell someone how to make energy in their own country, while not urging your own people to burn less harmfull stuff into the air totally carelessly, then say so. If you think it is not tasteless to put a terrorist's name with a half page ad, next to a news article talking abount someone opening a nuclear reactor, then say so.
"you are on the tsa list" hahaha very funny, maybe you should have been modded troll haven't you ?
I loaded the article, in the middle the article saying that an arab country is opening a power planet (even that the US does not want it) on the righ I can see a Bin Laden head with " triple cross Bin Laden's spy in america"....
I am sorry I find it inappropriate, and if anyone should apologise for that is that site, its editors, or whoever who put all that stuff on one page. I am sorry for everyone's losses, but putting Iran's nuclear reactor, and that ad on one page is just plain tasteless manipulation, and it brought out all the bad i can think about activities (i think are all about oil) on the surface.....
I better do not get into the middle east crisis issue discussion on any public forum, but i am willing to say this in public: what you do will come back to you, meybe even amplified. Call it karma or faith. Some people did a lot of bad things in that area, and it will get back to them, whether they were refugees there or not. I think it won't matter to the people there how many blood they will have to shed, they will do whatever their religin dictates, wheter it will be nukes or ak47's.
And again, I am a pretty peaceful person with no intention to bother anyone, but that ad made me think, that this news article is just plain manipulation against a country, doing nothing (at this time) but opening a reactor, that will produces cleaner energy that the opposing country (US) is using....
that's all... and if it depended on me, it would be all 70's flowers all around, electric cars, and tofu replacing meat:)
obviously i wan't talking about people who need that carrying force, I was referring to the idiots driving Hummers in the flat city of MIAMI, instead of showing off how cool they are (to the environment) with a hybrid car... or dunno improving public transportation...
But hey, I got modded troll, probably i just made the mistake of posting when all the bored US kids are wathing TV about the evil powers daring to make clean energy, having their daily does of fox channel brainwashing...
seriously.... WHAT EVER....
I think there is too much energy going into the air for no reason, and the US is making a big fuss about IRAN making it's own nuclear energy.... while it should focus on developing an alternate dource itself and educating its people about how to save energy instead of promoting bigger engine cars...
When a country in the middle east close to a lot of oil is thinking about makeing alternative energy, the US should maybe considering doing the same, instead of pushing DIRTY coal energy (what an idiocy) and driving 4liter engine trucks on completely flawless flat roads.....
Oh well, and the us does not seem to be interested in Korea that much anymorem eventhough they are known to produce nuclear weapons and rockets....
Sorry to say, but the US should not have the idea/power/facce of telling countries things like "you cannot have a nuclear plant" because we think you are all arab terrorists/and or financing terrorists and/or might be sometimes financing terrorists...
They could suggest to the UN to tell a country not to make nukes (as in nuclear weapons) but still, on what ground? The US is a big nuke power, so it should not have the right to tell a country not to make the same weapons they are ?entitled? to produce on a God given bases. Because they are not Koreans, Russians, or they read a line in the other direction.
now tag me troll or flamebait, I am a very european and very white person who just cannot watch that injustice constantly without spitting out my thought, at least to the./ crowd who I consider thinking people.
cheers
ps: being as green and vegetarian and all as I can, I think Nuke power, when applied safely, could turn this rottening planet into a better place... definetely better than what we are doing now, burning oil and coal. And before you mention Chernobil, I was very close to taht when it happened, and we got a good dose of it,,,,,, that crap blew bacause it was carelessly maintained, in my country we have the same construction working for 20 years just fine up to today...
Pluto is sooo damn far from here, you barely know it is there. If you are an astronomer, you probably know what Pluto is and do not really care if they call it a planet, a dwarf, a dwarf planet, a moon, or a damn piece of ruck orbiting that fireball some call the SUN.
And for the rest non astronomers: even if you care about that distant little ball of rock at the very edge of our solar system, does it really matter if you call it a planet?
I mean it was a planet for who knows how long, so why start messing with it now?
Besides: you should have already learned, that Planet Earth is flat and is orbited by the Sun. Oh well, maybe it is wise sometimes to revise astronomy..... but that much dust around Pluto.
If you are a "self absorbed" ? Linux geek who speak Klingon (can learn commands?) why would you want to have all the "Ipod generation" masses to use linux?
Why? really why ?
It is fairly enough if those companies that host their stuff use linux, so you can sell your services for the price of gold. You do not want to turn your hard-learnt system to be completely understood by the "ipod generation" or anyone else. You do not want to end up with 500 Linux admins for that one Linux job in your town. You do not want everyone be a "linux admin" as every second user calims to be a windows network admin because they managed to hook up a second windows box on their dsl router.
You just don't. You do not want people to understand what you are sedding and grepping and happy if your network card works so you can do whatever you have to.
And if your sound card has a semi-decent driver so you can listen to some loud mp3 so you do not have to interact with the rest who do not speak klingon, all you need is just a non-nvidia card so your xf86/xorg is not crashing on you every half an hour....
ok, maybe that last tylenol I took for my cold just took my barin over for now....
just looked under my desk and saw a 50 pack DVD RW. The disks are neatly sitting on a rod in the middle of the packaging tube.
Knowing that those damn retailers like to spare space, I would assume that mounting DVD/CD medium on a rod would be quite effective. Imagine a rod, holding 200-300 discs a piece, with sequential numbers.
When you run your weekly purge, you just remove an entire rod, or part of the contents of a rod (you need to be able to open the rod on both ends)
this is a real FIFO system, that makes it easy to purge the oldest....
let's assume a disc is 3mm (it is less, but let's assume it is in a paper/plastic pocket) thick, so 300cds will take up 900mm of space on a rod.....
Hmm I think CDs became the same pain floppies were a few years ago. Nowadays everyone writes a CD instead of using a media that fits the size, on top of that most people do not even know that rewritables exist.
I call my parents in law "environmental terrorists" when they burn a 1Meg file on an 80 minute non RW disc, and they do that at least once a week.... This is typically a file size, you could beam over with your phone, or send in email, still:(
I wonder how much space is used on those discs that will take up a storage space probably bigger than my living room. I bet if you put them on DVDs it would fit into my car.
We need a dynamic size media, imagine, that when you wrote 80megs on a cd, it would be a lot smaller in diameter than a 700M disc, ok, this is a bit far fetched.....
Slashdot Mirror
Zune is BLOAT, ipod is mainly a music player.
....
...
...
:)
I even feel the ipod is a BLOAT, especially with iTynes piggybacking on it, but hey, it is small, has decent battery life, and plays my electronic tunes while I am running or lifting weights....
A Zune? I wanna see the battery life, and the size of that box. For sure you won't run with that strapped onto your arm and sweat into it like a pig
as a media player (for video and all that) maybe it rulez. For a music player: it just sucks probably.
I do not want to see 5-inch size movies, I just need MP3 so if apple wants my opinion: i keep my ipod and do not care for zune.
On the other hand as soon as it crpas out I just get something half the size of an ipod, with twice the capacity, for 75% of the price with a 100% better software. Something that works on linux and does not need 2 upgrades of 80megs a month twice
just my 2c. Run and buy the bloat box if you want
i meant at the airport, use plugs at the airport,
... ,,,
than use your spare batteries during the flight
i flu last time in 2002 with my laptop though, but i know that my hp packs 4 hours on a battery, so 2 makes a 8hour flight bearable
but hey ! isn't it nice to not stare at a monitor once in a while ?
ooooh, don't even tell me.... I was waiting for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and really hoped to ge my whole team back, I ended up woth my 4-percon crew of completely retarded AI, and super-intelligent AI opponents that woul;d see you thur smnoke, darkness or dense foliage ....
:(
...
:(
Hmm, and the saddest thing is that the XBOX 360 port is still better, more complete, and a full experience
anyway at least multiplayer is semi decent
but alll the games are going this route, i do not even want to buy a game anymore
hmm, while mi toshiba dies in 1 hour, my new HP lasts for 4+ hours, using wireless, browsing the net, and dong stuff ..... i guess reading a document, or similar would make it for 4.5 hours (official battery time) while wathcing a movie would drain it in 3 hours ....
:)
....
...
:(
still 2 batteries will fly you to europe, and somehow I always find an airport plug to leach some free juice into my devices (no one ever came up to me telling not to use an outlet)
my point is : i have a good and a shitty laptop, get one that is decent and 2 spare batteries and they will get you 10-12+ hours comfortably
get a small laptop (12'' ibook) and it will last forever
now on the safety issue: i understand any of the companies forbidding faulty laptops. Yhouse burst-in flame videos are scary enough in an apartment, I do not want to see them on a flight
Almost all FPS games are better on PC. Console ones are usually simplified. In fact consoles ruined all tactical shooters: GR2, GRAW, RS3 , now they are just console ports, crappier than the Console version, but even the console version is overly simple over the original titles.
....
There are no simulations for consoles. Yes there are flying games, but nothing like the older sums the PC had (and do not have too many of nowadays).
I was a console gamer for 2 years, just sold my xbox and ps2 with all the games, and only play on pc.
I guess it also really depends on the games you play.... I think i won't get a PS3 either (small chance is there), the xbox 360 leaves me uninterested, and the WII has no chance either
Since in Costa Rica (and in any other earthquake rich country) gas only comes in the bottle, no pipes to fill with bits ...
I think many people think of a ps3/xbox cable as a cable. In fact it is not. It is an interface in most cases, or at least a proprietary cable, that has the required entry/ending.
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I mean the ps2 Component is just an other cable, that connects to the ps2 exit, while xbox has a separate box (HD pack) with the required outputs....
I think all that crap could be cleared, if the ps3/xbox360 had a digital (coax or optical) out, and a VGA (dsub 25) out, that can be switched over to component out.
For my Epson projector for example, you can use a VGA cable (included) or you can buy a $110 dsub25-> component out. You can aswell buy the parts in Radio shack (or your favourite part shop) for $10 and build the same cable with 30 mins labour, and a piece of UTP cable
The problem is, that you cannot buy the xbox or the PS3/2 proprietary plug at these places, so you will need a $40 monster cable.
Hmm damn you gaming companies, put at least a VGA there for us with different outputs. You will save money, we will save money, and you can connect VGA monitors, that a lot of us computer owners would do, especially with sub $300 prices for 1440x900 flat panels woth 8ms response and 500:1 contrast ratios !!!
just my 2c
hmm, i might give bsd it a try, i know it is rock solid, i have a server with 700 days uptime (would be 3 years if i did not screw up routing once 2 years ago) and only one hack attempt through a postnuke site (unsuccessful, the exploit code was for linux :) I would have a bsd at home, but was lazy to figure some firewalling out (was just too busy) so i slapped a linux box together in 3 hours with iptables, mail and squid (that ipfw just sucked :))) with QOS )
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:) you are pushy a bit but i appreciate/understand it, but for that task for now the HW box is the most appropriate :) :)
the other thing why i am really not pushing the pc based media thing, is that i do not need a DVR, I watch like 5 minutes of TV a day, and that is mostly 10 minutes of news before i go to bed every other day
hmm so have a good day
i have a GPS/media car pc project upcoming (hopefully) for fun as i will spend more time in my car due to a new job, and I promise it will be linux
cheers
hmm, nop, I am an everyday linux desktop user, and have 4 different nvidia cards, when using xinerama, the official driver crashes randomly at times, 2 months ago i switched back to my old trusty mga 450, and since then a few crashes maybe ....
:)
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.. but at this time i just stay with my stupid 200 sony box...
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... other than that: only to look into videos and/or to rip them if i cannot watch them on time before i have to return them....
... maybe i am not that interested in that to even make a search on it:) ... it if friday night anyway ...
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i used 2 different machines, intel and amd, with 3 or 4 cards from 5200 to 440mx and a 6600, all seem to crash randomly with the nvidia driver
and it is up to today (well 2 months ago)
i appreciate your effort, really, i know windows drivers are a mess, and i really push open source (i have linux and freebsd servers) everywhere i can, but with the video stuff i really had a bad experience....
on the encoding: on xbmc i only played files, and they have encoding for the subtitles, and sometimes they suck, i need spanish, hungarian, or english. and i had problems, my xbmc install is like a year old though, and haven't turned my xbox on for 6 months, so that might have changed....
so my only point is: being a formal and self educated linux/unix admin for years, i still find that it is a lot easier to slap a
$200 dvd player on the shelf. it is 480p, it is silent, it never crashed, and if i feed fresh dogpoo into it, it will play it without downloading a codec. or dumping core
i guess i just got old, and got sick of messing around for half an hour to play a movie, i just want to press the control of the remote for the AMP, the projector, and the DVD player and i do not want to figure out why something is just not the right way
and then again, it is just me, and i would still mess around with it, but my wife ????
don't get me wrong, she uses linux and staroffice on her laptop, and only boots windows for the stupid itunes crap//// but i really do not want her to get frustrated because i just changed another thing to be hand;ed by a linux computer:)
one thing i agree on you though is this: i would love to have a decent remote to be as scriptable and cool as lirc for linux is, and i would like to have an X and just use a pda as a remote control
at the end that gives me my dts audio and hassle free movie watching.....
beleive me: at work i have enough unix shit to figure out, after that i am programming, and if i am not doing that and want to watch a movie, i really just want to press that button, and the worst debug i want to make is figure out, that one cable is not connected because my dogs pulled a plug out:) happens once in a while:)
and yes, i use mplayer once in a while, but no, i prefer using my windows machine for ANY media file, just for the sake of the ignorent webdesigners, that sometimes make it totally impossible to use and watch a media file in a browser anything other than IE
btw i might be wrong, but i think subtitles are in text format on dvd's too, but i might be wrong on them
btw you mentioned freebsd... i wonder how good is all this on freebsd, i really like the system, but haven't considered it to anything other than hosting websites yet.... i mean i installed X like a few weeks ago, and it worked, but then that's it, i did not think about HDTV out or SPDIF or anything
is BSD there yet ?
" A GUI has nothing at all to do with DVD menus. Your DVD player certainly doesn't have a GUI at all."
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:) :)
... or the NVIDIA driver just dumps core, and crashes my card so bad, no XDM/KDM/GDM restart is possible, and have to restart the whole crap ...
... it is also very stable (NOT THAT MUCH) and plays ALMOST all the movies. It's just that sometimes the subtitles have wrong encoding, they do not work, or are just unreadable, or do not fit ...
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:) so I stay with my hardware box until things are different ...
A DVD menu is a graphical representation of the content on your disc and a user interface, so it is a Graphical User Interface for the disc = GUI
My dvd player has a GUI in fact that works by a remote control to set all the features up:)
What I meant with "messing" was that a good few years ago, the SPDIF out wasn't just a recompile of the kernel to include the drivers for your audio card, but a painful procedure, and than at many times I ended up sound not being decoded the way they were on a hw player.
I am happy, mplayer gets a DVD menu, and if I wanted to I could have used Xine (you mentioned) or even OGLE.
But that still does not make the CCS problem go away, that I have experienced just by randomly inserting 1 out of 50 discs into my linux machine (where I many times peek into movies BTW, so I do not have to turn on the projector and all the sound devices)
Mplayer (compiled a few months ago, HAD a problem playing some of the disks, along with xine and OGLE, and it was a CCS error....
so you can throw PEBKAC and all the insults, if using linux for that was an easier solution i would do that
besides: sharing a game machine, and the video playing was the best option, given the location of the hardware in the room, and the number of connections my audio devices allow.
Now can you answer me this honestly (as you seem to think you MUST PUSH using linux for something I gave up years ago):
Can you use a HDTV output of an NVIDIA card, without using the NON-binary driver of Xorg ? I do not know, but while the binary driver is so crappy, that I had to put a matrix450 back into my wirk machine to restore system stability, I would say: i do not think so.
You know that the binary driver still does not allow safe suspend and hybernation, and is super unstable when using xinerama ?
I am not going to fight with you over this stupid issue of whether I must force myself to use linux on EVERITHING possible
as i am sitting 12+hours daily looking at my machine running X and Linux
I know it rocks, and can do a lot, but I still haven't found a solution, that makes me go : wow, I must run that as my media player, it supports EVERYTHING I want, and it is super stable.
Instead I find this: I can hack hours with LIRC, MPLAYER, X, NVIDIA DRIVERS, and when my test DVDs are playing just fine, I will put that rental in and : SEGFAULT XXXXX cannot find whatever CCS shit
And yes, there are prepackaged versions: such as XBOX media center
little small problems, that I would have tolerated 5 years ago when I just wanted to use Linux for EVERYTHING just as you now, but now I better focus on whatever gives the best solution, and leave the hacking for projects I enjoy after all, not make my life more miserable, when I just want to lay back, press the button and watch a movie WITH DTS, IN HDTV, correct subtitles, and aspect ratio
But hey, not flaming, I am happy if all that works for you on linux on any given hardware and any distro,
For me it seems more like even the drivers do not seem to work that are officially distributed with the hardware on windows at this time
cheers
yep, MCE is a good things with the TIVO :) but i do not watch TV :) and definetely do not want to record anything :)
:)
:) Originally i wanted to use my IPAQ as a remote, but did not find a software that I really liked...
:)
yep, hardware is in towers here, 4 machines in that room, that's why i decided to try pc based thing again. The problem is, that decommissioning the pc's here have a slower cycle, 3 out of 4 machines running linux, my older amd athlon with 256 meg is still a perfect machine, but not for video intensive tasks, so to run anything decent I need to use my other rigs for the job, but then there is also the clash between me wanting to do something, and someone else looking at a movie i do not want to see
i know about remotes, but whatever i liked started at $500, and then I just stick with my existing $200 dvd player
hmmm anyway, nowadays I watch 1 movie a week, i am ok with my 800x600 projector and the old sony player for now
yeah, mplayer and linux ....
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.,,,, and then my weekend becomes a debugging spree, turning my dey off into a working day ...
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being a linux admin since linux IS, I would say that that is the very last option I would want for myself
first of all: i do not have "movie files" I only watch DVDs. they have menus, I want a GUI for them to use the features.
last time I checked Mplayer still did not have DVD menus, and took long to find the CCS keys (since linux players still do not have a "legal player".
2nd: i use a surround AMP, last time it was 4 years ago when i started messing with ALSA's SPDIF output. Thanks but no thanks, half the "files" did not have ac3 audio, and DVDs had problems as well, that might have changed. For me SPDIF out is the ONLY option, and if I cannot watch in at least digi 5.1 or DTS i do not want to consider even putting the disc in.
3rd: as i said, said machine was a gaming rig. Given that, you NEED to upgrade drivers very frequently. There is no option no to. You get performance issues, and all kinds of problems if you do not.
So do not misunderstand me: as soon as Linux has a decent DVD player (mean commercial without the CCS crap), and it support native HDTV modes and SPDIF optical out, I will put one together
Yep I know LIRC is kickass, mplayer is kickass, linnux is kickass, and I can put all this together just fine, it's just that at the end I still won't have DVD menus, and maybe not have DTS sound, and ohh, maybe not be able to play the movie
yes it happened recently, that the CCS lib could not do anything with 2 rental movies, that I wanted to archive onto my laptop, to watch it on the weekend away from the house !!!
So yes, all that is wonderful, but these give me 10x the problems, as soon as my wife will pop in a DVD and ask: so why does not that DVD play/have sound/crappy picture on the projector
and yes, i love linux and all that, but the LAST thing i want to use it for is to run a home entertainment center on it with HDTV DTS and DVD needs
you know, i think the sad truth is, that most people do not care about 5.1 7.1 or whatever else audio
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:(
even if they do, most of them do not use an optical or coaxial SPDIF / digital out.
i tried digital once, and never want my humming speakers back, i have like a 7 meter distance between the pc and the AMP, adn as soon as it is not SPDIF i get all these wierd noises all over, since the cables go near 3 other pcs, network cables, and tv signal, and just pick up all the noise, even though i am using gold-plated, shielded decent cables
but most don't, and that's why these "small" problems with drivers go unnoticed, and then unpatched for months
I figured, that my nvidia made a lot cleaner and higher resolution image than my $200 DVD player, even on my old 800x600 epson projector, but then I met the disturbing truth:
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.... :(
-my wife hated to mess around with my pc just to watch a disc
-i did not find a decent remote control
-playback software was a lot more complicated than the one the DVD player has
- problems started after a driver upgrade (spdif sound disappeared on my ASUS A8n SLI after installing recent NFORCE drivers)
I mean these are mostly problems for my family, I am ok, watching with a wireless keyboard, and enjoying the better quality, but for everyone else it is just awkward
Yes, i watched my high bit DVDs, and my matrix collection (at least eyecandy parts) on it and was happy, but for everyday use, it was just a pain
especially, bc that is my gaming rig as well, so if my wife wanted to watch a chick-flick, while I wanted to shoot at people online, a clash happened
I have been to this job fair out of curiosity a month ago, and intel was one of the biggest recruiters there, looking the most professional, with trained HR personnel making quick stand-up interviews.....
Intel, as far as I know is not laying anyone off here, in fact they are hiring as crazy.
but also consider this : with an IT degree as an engineer you make $1500-2000 as a starter at a big firm (most leikely below that), while a CS representative's salary is around $800-1200 or less at most places...
This is monthly, before you wonder and yes, you make an OK living on that.
Now the article probably should have said: Intel joins the other us companies, who want to hire well-educated foreigners, 4 for the price of 1.
Maybe not that off-topic: I think CR and Panama is getting popular because of the physical distance to the US. I mean try to fly to India to manage your company, or give training, a few time a month.
just my observaion.....
OHH btw: I just heard, that many ar criticising Intel, because they are responsible for water levels being 20% lower than usual, and it seems that the government does not care. But that is just people talknig, I am not claiming any of these to be true......
I personally use the "spiral" shaped lights the article was criticising, as well as the straight ones (th compact ones that have 4 tupes and are like 15cm long) and i am pretty happy with them at most places.
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First of all they provide enough light if you place them well, and if you use them with a lamp with a reflection surface.
Their light is not that horrible colour: yep, the standard ones are very cold, but you can use a colored (partly) reflector, and you have several heat options (talking colour heat), as well as coloured bulbs, such as my favourite: the yellow one that does not bring all the bugs inside.
They are prone to failure: I live in Costa Rica, and an ordinary bulb is dead in a few days, unless you provide surge protection to all the lights (which I cannot do). Electricity is pretty crappy here, and my ups clickity-clicks a lot, and the bulbs died often before I switched to these puppies.
Easy on the purse: I do not pay for electricity, so I do not know how much I am saving, but I know from the numbers, that it must be a lot. (hey I am nice enough to spare even if it is free, call me a treehugger, I do not care)
Reading: now here comes the low power halogen into play: I hate to read with these, I just hate it. For that I use a low power hallogen bulb with a 12v transformer.
I am happily willing to switch all my halogens and long fluorescent tubes over with time, whether they improve it more or not
no insult taken then.
:> just bothered by it).
:) and meditate on that ...
I think you are a bit paranoid though. You can disagree with you country's fuel/energy politics, and you can criticise your politicians for pressuring an other country for opening an alternative energy source. Granted, if they make nukes, the UN should take action after considering the dangerousness of the nation in question, but the UN should do that, not any other country. Theoretically I do not agree with it, however I agree, that there are dangerous people out there, who should not have nukes. (IMO no one should at all, they should have been converted to fuel rods, or whatever peaceful purpose. But than again, that should involve the US, the French and every other nuclear power.).
Now on the article: strange that no one else criticised the association. That kind of association of the plant, its county, and a known terrorist, is not right, and if I was of/from the race/country in question, I would be offended (not the kind of offended and upset, that needs to be on a TSA list
How much nicer would that be to put a greenpeace article/ad agains nuke power, in case the news agency disagrees with the whole idea, a hybrid car, a BP commercial, a "support your coal mine friend senator" ad, save the penguins, or Michael More, or whatever else, but an ad, with Bin Laden. That clearly ment, that those guys are claiming to be making clean energy, but in reality, they are going to do something terrible, just as the guy on the right did.
But then again all that is just speculation in my head:) maybe the ad was invoked by a stupid PHP script, that associated the ad with the article based on keywords.
Hmm... well. I am going to bed
cheers
I don't think so, and this is a very tasteless joke IMO.
Why would you say that? Just because I think that the article was inappropriate, biased, and totally brainwashing with the Bin Laden commercial on he right?
Because I think anyone has the right to open a nuclear powerplant (I am not talking about nukes), I do not think anyone should have flagged me anything wrong.
I am sorry, but I think many peolpe take all the crap granted what they hear on Fox news. I think maybe you should express what you think, instead of just throwing a one-liner, that many would take as a simple insult. If you think it is right to tell someone how to make energy in their own country, while not urging your own people to burn less harmfull stuff into the air totally carelessly, then say so. If you think it is not tasteless to put a terrorist's name with a half page ad, next to a news article talking abount someone opening a nuclear reactor, then say so.
"you are on the tsa list" hahaha very funny, maybe you should have been modded troll haven't you ?
OK OK maybe i was biased ... but why ?
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... and if it depended on me, it would be all 70's flowers all around, electric cars, and tofu replacing meat :)
I loaded the article, in the middle the article saying that an arab country is opening a power planet (even that the US does not want it) on the righ I can see a Bin Laden head with " triple cross Bin Laden's spy in america"
I am sorry I find it inappropriate, and if anyone should apologise for that is that site, its editors, or whoever who put all that stuff on one page.
I am sorry for everyone's losses, but putting Iran's nuclear reactor, and that ad on one page is just plain tasteless manipulation, and it brought out all the bad i can think about activities (i think are all about oil) on the surface
I better do not get into the middle east crisis issue discussion on any public forum, but i am willing to say this in public: what you do will come back to you, meybe even amplified. Call it karma or faith. Some people did a lot of bad things in that area, and it will get back to them, whether they were refugees there or not. I think it won't matter to the people there how many blood they will have to shed, they will do whatever their religin dictates, wheter it will be nukes or ak47's.
And again, I am a pretty peaceful person with no intention to bother anyone, but that ad made me think, that this news article is just plain manipulation against a country, doing nothing (at this time) but opening a reactor, that will produces cleaner energy that the opposing country (US) is using
that's all
obviously i wan't talking about people who need that carrying force, I was referring to the idiots driving Hummers in the flat city of MIAMI, instead of showing off how cool they are (to the environment) with a hybrid car ... or dunno improving public transportation ...
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.... WHAT EVER ....
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But hey, I got modded troll, probably i just made the mistake of posting when all the bored US kids are wathing TV about the evil powers daring to make clean energy, having their daily does of fox channel brainwashing
seriously
I think there is too much energy going into the air for no reason, and the US is making a big fuss about IRAN making it's own nuclear energy.... while it should focus on developing an alternate dource itself and educating its people about how to save energy instead of promoting bigger engine cars
if you think I am a troll for that, than be it
When a country in the middle east close to a lot of oil is thinking about makeing alternative energy, the US should maybe considering doing the same, instead of pushing DIRTY coal energy (what an idiocy) and driving 4liter engine trucks on completely flawless flat roads .....
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./ crowd who I consider thinking people.
Oh well, and the us does not seem to be interested in Korea that much anymorem eventhough they are known to produce nuclear weapons and rockets
Sorry to say, but the US should not have the idea/power/facce of telling countries things like "you cannot have a nuclear plant" because we think you are all arab terrorists/and or financing terrorists and/or might be sometimes financing terrorists
They could suggest to the UN to tell a country not to make nukes (as in nuclear weapons) but still, on what ground? The US is a big nuke power, so it should not have the right to tell a country not to make the same weapons they are ?entitled? to produce on a God given bases. Because they are not Koreans, Russians, or they read a line in the other direction.
now tag me troll or flamebait, I am a very european and very white person who just cannot watch that injustice constantly without spitting out my thought, at least to the
cheers
ps: being as green and vegetarian and all as I can, I think Nuke power, when applied safely, could turn this rottening planet into a better place... definetely better than what we are doing now, burning oil and coal. And before you mention Chernobil, I was very close to taht when it happened, and we got a good dose of it,,,,,, that crap blew bacause it was carelessly maintained, in my country we have the same construction working for 20 years just fine up to today...
Wow, frustration. Upset people.
Pluto is sooo damn far from here, you barely know it is there. If you are an astronomer, you probably know what Pluto is and do not really care if they call it a planet, a dwarf, a dwarf planet, a moon, or a damn piece of ruck orbiting that fireball some call the SUN.
And for the rest non astronomers: even if you care about that distant little ball of rock at the very edge of our solar system, does it really matter if you call it a planet?
I mean it was a planet for who knows how long, so why start messing with it now?
Besides: you should have already learned, that Planet Earth is flat and is orbited by the Sun.
Oh well, maybe it is wise sometimes to revise astronomy..... but that much dust around Pluto.
But wait, Linux does not run Itunes! Your theory is flaved at its roots!
If you are a "self absorbed" ? Linux geek who speak Klingon (can learn commands?) why would you want to have all the "Ipod generation" masses to use linux?
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Why? really why ?
It is fairly enough if those companies that host their stuff use linux, so you can sell your services for the price of gold. You do not want to turn your hard-learnt system to be completely understood by the "ipod generation" or anyone else. You do not want to end up with 500 Linux admins for that one Linux job in your town. You do not want everyone be a "linux admin" as every second user calims to be a windows network admin because they managed to hook up a second windows box on their dsl router.
You just don't. You do not want people to understand what you are sedding and grepping and happy if your network card works so you can do whatever you have to.
And if your sound card has a semi-decent driver so you can listen to some loud mp3 so you do not have to interact with the rest who do not speak klingon, all you need is just a non-nvidia card so your xf86/xorg is not crashing on you every half an hour
ok, maybe that last tylenol I took for my cold just took my barin over for now
just looked under my desk and saw a 50 pack DVD RW. The disks are neatly sitting on a rod in the middle of the packaging tube.
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:(
Knowing that those damn retailers like to spare space, I would assume that mounting DVD/CD medium on a rod would be quite effective.
Imagine a rod, holding 200-300 discs a piece, with sequential numbers.
When you run your weekly purge, you just remove an entire rod, or part of the contents of a rod (you need to be able to open the rod on both ends)
this is a real FIFO system, that makes it easy to purge the oldest
let's assume a disc is 3mm (it is less, but let's assume it is in a paper/plastic pocket) thick, so 300cds will take up 900mm of space on a rod.....
Hmm I think CDs became the same pain floppies were a few years ago. Nowadays everyone writes a CD instead of using a media that fits the size, on top of that most people do not even know that rewritables exist.
I call my parents in law "environmental terrorists" when they burn a 1Meg file on an 80 minute non RW disc, and they do that at least once a week.... This is typically a file size, you could beam over with your phone, or send in email, still
I wonder how much space is used on those discs that will take up a storage space probably bigger than my living room. I bet if you put them on DVDs it would fit into my car.
We need a dynamic size media, imagine, that when you wrote 80megs on a cd, it would be a lot smaller in diameter than a 700M disc, ok, this is a bit far fetched.....