It's high time for the music industry to wake up. Digital music delivery systems are the new media of choice. They need to stop fighting it and embrace it... before it passes them by. The music industry needs to stop thinking "We're in the CD business."
They are a lot like the Railroad Industry of old, whose narrow vision is what led to their rapid demise... They were thinking "We are in the RAILROAD business". If they had thought "We're in the TRANSPORTATION business", instead, things would have been different for them.
F) Lower your prices. Why should I spend $35 for my wife and I to spend the first 20-30 minutes watching commercials and promos for movies we don't want to see, before the real show starts? Why, also, should we spend that kind of money to deal with A-E, above?
Another poster mentiond prices in the NYC area, and another in Podunk. We're somewhat in between the two, and our prices are equal to what the NYC poster reported.
The REAL reason for declining Box Office Sales = too much $$ for too little enjoyment.
The article also has it right. Most of the stuff being released these days really stinks.
Way back when, when letter-quality printers were quite pricey, I had a thought of rigging up a bunch of solenoids to an electric typewriter to make a crude computer printer. It never got off the drawing board.
You can change it to a window, and adjust the size. It works even down to a tiny window in the corner. (Just press ALT-Enter) I have it running right now, while I'm typing this note. Not bad for a little "demo"... well done!
You can also make the car stay on the right side of the road by tapping the left arrow until it's on the right side. The auto-drive will now keep you on the RIGHT side of the road. If you added any cars, it just drives right through them, unless there are two close together. THEN it crashes into them.
If you hold-down F2 (wireframe) you can switch through the 4 scenarios and see how they are "constructed". In the "City", even the "clouds" are wireframed. Reminds me of the Jetsons!;)
I work for a Daytime-only AM station. This is going to take away a whole hour of broadcast time in the morning, which is where peak listenership occurs. Since our broadcast schedule is based on actual sunrise/set times, this change really hurts us.
Sure, the FCC can make an adjustment to the rules to allow us to still sign-on earlier with reduced power, but when you have a 50,000 watt station blasting into your coverage area due to reflection from the ionosphere at night. (See WIKI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_wave ) As a result, that low-power operation might cover the handful of listeners within a mile of your transmitter.
Many AM radio stations either change their antenna patterns or their transmitter power based on sunrise and set times. There are still a number of us that have no nighttime operation at all. In winter, for example, we sign-on at 7:15 am, and off at 5pm.
Right now, the schedule permits us to sign-on at 6am in March. With this change, that would change to 7am. In November, we currently sign-on at 6:45. That would become 7:45!
I wish they'd just leave well enough alone. Can this portion of the bill be repealed before it takes effect???
If you have Firefox, you can set it up to download the file, first. That's what I did. It's kind of weird the way she smiles thru the whole thing and almost looks a little drunk. It's narrated in Japanese.
about the excess moisture. Who said you had to run the thing at full output, 24/7? It's a *decorative* heater/fireplace. If I had one, I would use it for that purpose... Light it when guests come over, or when we're alone, snuggle with the wife on some cold winter evenings.
What is with you people, anyway? It appears to me that none of you have any family members serving in the Military. I do. If this software saves lives, I am all for it. Call it "idealistic" if you want, that's your problem.
I prefer to think of this as being a tool that can help our Troops increase their accuracy during the high stress of combat.
I stand by my original post: If it saves even *one* life, it will be worth it. I will add that the *more* lives it saves, the better.
How about this... when older versions of windows "die" (lose *all* support from the Mothership) why don't they open *those* up to OSS? That would make all versions of Windows from 98 on back become Open Source/PD.
I certainly was. I was a geek pretty much from the womb!;) When I started watching Trek in the late 60's, early 70's, Scotty very quickly became my very favorite character. When my brother and I got together with a fellow Trekker friend to play Star Trek, my Bro was Kirk, our friend was Spock, and I was always Scotty.:)
I've been involved in Electronics since about 2'nd grade, and still continue in the field to this day.
I see the value: Hours of enjoyment, just for the sake of it! It's something that only true geeks can relate to, I guess.:)
But can anyone think that it was built to set the world on fire? Has nobody but me ever built something simply for the love of doing it, or the knowledge gained from figuring out how to do so? There's more to building something (whether it be from a kit or personal design) than the usefulness of the end result.
Being a geek who cut his teeth on 74xx chips, myself, I loved it! (Thanks for the mirrors, guys!)
I, too, have spent the occasional hour building something "retro"... I built an AM transmitter (for Ham Radio use) with tubes. Why? Because I COULD!:)
Read the BBS, download the episode "In Harm's Way" and you'll see just how much dedicated people with no budget can do! It's quite an accomplishment that is getting a LOT of attention! Numerous TOS actors are starting to line-up just for opportunities to play cameos on the show! What does that tell you?:)
Star Trek is something I have loved since I was a kid. This fan-produced episode was like seeing a childhood fantasy come to life.:)
Several posters here have made good suggestions. The 7805, 7809, 7812 regulators all require a heatsink if you plan to draw more than 50 milliamps from them. Been there, done that. Even with a good heatsink, the limit is about 1 amp, each.
I've seen plenty of discussion here about volatge, but very little about CURRENT. Look at the wall warts you are planning to replace, or the device. One or the other (or both) will clearly indicate the voltage AND CURRENT that the device requires.
Let's say, for example, that you had three devices that all require 9 volts. One is 500ma, one is 800, and another is 300. That adds up to 1.6 amps. (1600ma) Your 7809 regulator can only SAFELY handle about 1100ma (1.1 amps) *with a good heatsink*. You would need two regulators, one for the 800ma load, and the other could handle the 300 & 500 together.
It is not a difficult project, but you must consider the total current that all of your "wall-wart" devices will need in order to decide what to use as a "master power supply".
DigiKey is a good source for parts like voltage regulators. You can start with a "12v" power supply (usually, a "12v" supply is regulated to 13.8v) that is rated to deliver at LEAST 1.5 times the total current of all your devices running at once. You always want to keep things at LEAST 20% below maximum ratings, preferably, 30% below if it's continuous duty. (REMEMBER: You DON'T want to let that magic smoke out!)
I've been a tinkerer for years, and work as a Broadcast Engineer. I have plenty of experience with power supplies and homebrew projects, so I can say that if done carefully and properly, this is a very feasable concept.
I've been a Trekker since TOS aired back in the late 60's. For an amateur production, this is really excellent! The sets and the CGI are quite well done! Obviously, it can't compare on a professional level to what we see on TV, but when I watched this, it brought me right back to childhood memories of my brother, a friend, and myself inventing our own Star Trek adventures in the apartment building's (seldom-used) recreation room.:) We had many hours of fun, and watching these guys' production was a real treat. You could tell they were having a blast doing this!
These guys did a great job, and deserve a lot of credit! May they, indeed, live long and prosper!
Interesting article, but it's using a special digitally encoded pattern to "help" the software identify the pieces. You can't just input the picture from a puzzle box, then start showing it pieces, and have it solve them for you.
I've been a fan of Star Trek since the 60's. When TNG came out, I was very reluctant to watch it, but with the encouragement of a friend, I did, and I liked it. My wife and I both got into it, and we have enjoyed Trek in all of it's incarnations thus far.
Of all the Trek series, we think Enterprise, while it has great potential, has missed the mark... until these last few episodes, anyway. First of all, I think Paramount made a HUGE mistake by thumbing its nose at the fans, when they complained about aspects of the show. One of the biggest gripes seems to be the opening theme music. Personally, I don't care that much about the music, but Paramount's ATTITUDE about it disturbs me! Basically, when presented with petitions containing many thousands of signatures, they said "Go pound sand. The music stays."
They have alienated a lot of people... ticked them off, and they have stopped watching. My wife and I are turned-off by the occaisional crude language or "steamy" scenes that they drop-in every now and then. That ain't Star Trek! I wonder how many others feel the same way.
If they had started picking up the current storylines sooner, (and capitulated to the fans regarding the music) I'd be willing to wager that this show would be pulling much better ratings, and would NOT be near extinction.
I have had plans to build a "Tivo" style box for some time, now, but a serious financial crunch has been preventing it. This new chipset could certainly make this task a lot easier and less expensive. We will obviously have to wait and see.
I see value in this new chipset/box as a standalone unit. Not to replace my existing PC, but instead, to function exlusively as a Multimedia Center: IOW, a replacement for my VCR and DVD players. I could use it to record TV programs, edit them, and then burn them to DVD, rather than video cassettes as I do now.
When the time comes, I would, indeed, like to build a box like this. It would connect to my existing LAN, so I could transfer files to/from it easily. With the right case, it would look nice in my Entertainment Center. I already have "spousal approval" as long as it looks like it belongs there.
This is something both my wife and I were thinking a while ago. We expected this series to be showing us how the Vulcans and Humans came to be allies, gradually adding other planets to their alliance, eventually forming the Federation. Now, after all this time, they're finally getting to that... and it's going to be cancelled in a few months. Sigh.
We are sorry to see Enterprise go. Someone else said "Bad Star Trek is better than none". I don't know if I agree with this or not. The episodes that focused on "titillation" certainly didn't do this show any favors, either. Working an attractive cast member into the series is fine, but when episodes (and the promotional spots announcing them) would focus on her anatomy rather than on a good story, we knew the execs must have been getting desperate. Well, their little experiment failed. It's just too bad they "got it" too late! Leave the "skin" for those other dime-a-dozen shows, and give us good STORIES for Star Trek.
I did enjoy the ending last week, where they zoom out to show that the Romulans were remote-controlling that ship. Interesting twist.
To the cast and crew of Star Trek: Enterprise, THANK YOU. It was fun while it lasted.
There's a difference between "Normalization" and "AGC" (or "Compresion"). Normalization scans the entire audio file, looking for the highest peak. It then reduces (or increases) the volume *evenly* over the entire file. It is the same as adjusting the volume control, then not touching it until the next track.
"AGC" or "Compression" is different. It adjusts the volume dynamically as the file is playing. It makes instantaneous adjustments, up or down, to keep the overall average volume constant.
Now, back to the original idea: With the Linux OS on the iPod, users won't necessarily *need* to go to iTunes. They can upload/download files from their own PC, including their own, already edited, M3U playlist files that they've already been listening to in WinAmp. They won't have to "reinvent the wheel".
I'm sure plenty of users here have used WinAmp over the years. You've probably also used any number of different "plugins" for it. Some of my favorites are the ones that do "AGC" (Automatic Gain Control) on the playback audio. The better ones have settings for attack/release, min/max gain, etc. This process works to keep the playback volume relatively constant: Quiet passages are brought up, loud ones reduced.
It would be cool if the iPod/Linux software could incorporate such functionality, along with some of the other features of WinAmp, like the M3U playlists, etc. Imagine dumping your entire MP3 library AND WinAmp playlist(s) into the thing, then calling up the WinAmp emulator in Linux, and enjoying the crossfaded,random,volume-equalized music until the batteries croak.
Because I work for a radio station, I am familiar with what the FCC Rules say about it. You DON'T want to be involved in ANY kind of "pay-for-play" activity. The fines are substantial, and the station would jeopardise its license.
Slashdot Mirror
It's high time for the music industry to wake up. Digital music delivery systems are the new media of choice. They need to stop fighting it and embrace it... before it passes them by. The music industry needs to stop thinking "We're in the CD business."
They are a lot like the Railroad Industry of old, whose narrow vision is what led to their rapid demise... They were thinking "We are in the RAILROAD business". If they had thought "We're in the TRANSPORTATION business", instead, things would have been different for them.
New dance, same old song.
Does putting adhesive tape onto windows have ANY effect on breakage if high wind or sudden air pressure changes occur?
Thanks!
Willie...
You forgot to add an item:
F) Lower your prices. Why should I spend $35 for my wife and I to spend the first 20-30 minutes watching commercials and promos for movies we don't want to see, before the real show starts? Why, also, should we spend that kind of money to deal with A-E, above?
Another poster mentiond prices in the NYC area, and another in Podunk. We're somewhat in between the two, and our prices are equal to what the NYC poster reported.
The REAL reason for declining Box Office Sales = too much $$ for too little enjoyment.
The article also has it right. Most of the stuff being released these days really stinks.
Way back when, when letter-quality printers were quite pricey, I had a thought of rigging up a bunch of solenoids to an electric typewriter to make a crude computer printer. It never got off the drawing board.
Thank the Lord.
You can change it to a window, and adjust the size. It works even down to a tiny window in the corner. (Just press ALT-Enter) I have it running right now, while I'm typing this note. Not bad for a little "demo"... well done!
;)
You can also make the car stay on the right side of the road by tapping the left arrow until it's on the right side. The auto-drive will now keep you on the RIGHT side of the road. If you added any cars, it just drives right through them, unless there are two close together. THEN it crashes into them.
If you hold-down F2 (wireframe) you can switch through the 4 scenarios and see how they are "constructed". In the "City", even the "clouds" are wireframed. Reminds me of the Jetsons!
I work for a Daytime-only AM station. This is going to take away a whole hour of broadcast time in the morning, which is where peak listenership occurs. Since our broadcast schedule is based on actual sunrise/set times, this change really hurts us.
Sure, the FCC can make an adjustment to the rules to allow us to still sign-on earlier with reduced power, but when you have a 50,000 watt station blasting into your coverage area due to reflection from the ionosphere at night. (See WIKI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_wave ) As a result, that low-power operation might cover the handful of listeners within a mile of your transmitter.
Many AM radio stations either change their antenna patterns or their transmitter power based on sunrise and set times. There are still a number of us that have no nighttime operation at all. In winter, for example, we sign-on at 7:15 am, and off at 5pm.
Right now, the schedule permits us to sign-on at 6am in March. With this change, that would change to 7am. In November, we currently sign-on at 6:45. That would become 7:45!
I wish they'd just leave well enough alone. Can this portion of the bill be repealed before it takes effect???
Here, just plug this into your browser, and it will work in an older version of the REAL player. (I have V. 8. I refuse to upgrade beyond it.)
r olledhuman
http://images.forbes.com/video/fvn/misc/radiocont
If you have Firefox, you can set it up to download the file, first. That's what I did. It's kind of weird the way she smiles thru the whole thing and almost looks a little drunk. It's narrated in Japanese.
about the excess moisture. Who said you had to run the thing at full output, 24/7? It's a *decorative* heater/fireplace. If I had one, I would use it for that purpose... Light it when guests come over, or when we're alone, snuggle with the wife on some cold winter evenings.
What is with you people, anyway? It appears to me that none of you have any family members serving in the Military. I do. If this software saves lives, I am all for it. Call it "idealistic" if you want, that's your problem.
I prefer to think of this as being a tool that can help our Troops increase their accuracy during the high stress of combat.
I stand by my original post: If it saves even *one* life, it will be worth it. I will add that the *more* lives it saves, the better.
Anything that can be used to save the lives of our brave young men and women is worth discussing and implementing.
If this software can be set up and used by our Military, even if it only saves *one* life, it will have been worth it.
How about this... when older versions of windows "die" (lose *all* support from the Mothership) why don't they open *those* up to OSS? That would make all versions of Windows from 98 on back become Open Source/PD.
Yeah, we can dream.
I certainly was. I was a geek pretty much from the womb! ;) When I started watching Trek in the late 60's, early 70's, Scotty very quickly became my very favorite character. When my brother and I got together with a fellow Trekker friend to play Star Trek, my Bro was Kirk, our friend was Spock, and I was always Scotty. :)
I've been involved in Electronics since about 2'nd grade, and still continue in the field to this day.
Thanks for the memories, Mr Doohan.
BTW, fellow Trekkers- check out this site: http://www.newvoyages.com/
How about a port of Linux for the Commodore 64?
Someone here said, "if it computes, it can run Linux". OK, the gauntlet has been thrown down... anyone wanna pick it up? Can it be done in just 64K?
But can anyone think that it was built to set the world on fire? Has nobody but me ever built something simply for the love of doing it, or the knowledge gained from figuring out how to do so? There's more to building something (whether it be from a kit or personal design) than the usefulness of the end result.
Being a geek who cut his teeth on 74xx chips, myself, I loved it! (Thanks for the mirrors, guys!)
I, too, have spent the occasional hour building something "retro"... I built an AM transmitter (for Ham Radio use) with tubes. Why? Because I COULD! :)
for you RF-enhanced geeks out there, here's a link to the site, so you can check it out: http://www.mymorninglight.org/ham/6146.htm
If anyone is genuinely interested in seeing how well-done a TOS Trek can be done by fans, you should check out this site:
:)
:)
http://www.newvoyages.com/
Read the BBS, download the episode "In Harm's Way" and you'll see just how much dedicated people with no budget can do! It's quite an accomplishment that is getting a LOT of attention! Numerous TOS actors are starting to line-up just for opportunities to play cameos on the show! What does that tell you?
Star Trek is something I have loved since I was a kid. This fan-produced episode was like seeing a childhood fantasy come to life.
Several posters here have made good suggestions. The 7805, 7809, 7812 regulators all require a heatsink if you plan to draw more than 50 milliamps from them. Been there, done that. Even with a good heatsink, the limit is about 1 amp, each.
I've seen plenty of discussion here about volatge, but very little about CURRENT. Look at the wall warts you are planning to replace, or the device. One or the other (or both) will clearly indicate the voltage AND CURRENT that the device requires.
Let's say, for example, that you had three devices that all require 9 volts. One is 500ma, one is 800, and another is 300. That adds up to 1.6 amps. (1600ma) Your 7809 regulator can only SAFELY handle about 1100ma (1.1 amps) *with a good heatsink*. You would need two regulators, one for the 800ma load, and the other could handle the 300 & 500 together.
It is not a difficult project, but you must consider the total current that all of your "wall-wart" devices will need in order to decide what to use as a "master power supply".
DigiKey is a good source for parts like voltage regulators. You can start with a "12v" power supply (usually, a "12v" supply is regulated to 13.8v) that is rated to deliver at LEAST 1.5 times the total current of all your devices running at once. You always want to keep things at LEAST 20% below maximum ratings, preferably, 30% below if it's continuous duty. (REMEMBER: You DON'T want to let that magic smoke out!)
I've been a tinkerer for years, and work as a Broadcast Engineer. I have plenty of experience with power supplies and homebrew projects, so I can say that if done carefully and properly, this is a very feasable concept.
I've been a Trekker since TOS aired back in the late 60's. For an amateur production, this is really excellent! The sets and the CGI are quite well done! Obviously, it can't compare on a professional level to what we see on TV, but when I watched this, it brought me right back to childhood memories of my brother, a friend, and myself inventing our own Star Trek adventures in the apartment building's (seldom-used) recreation room. :) We had many hours of fun, and watching these guys' production was a real treat. You could tell they were having a blast doing this!
These guys did a great job, and deserve a lot of credit! May they, indeed, live long and prosper!
For when the server melts down, here it is...
b reiden/glyphsaw/
http://www2.parc.com.nyud.net:8090/istl/members/j
Interesting article, but it's using a special digitally encoded pattern to "help" the software identify the pieces. You can't just input the picture from a puzzle box, then start showing it pieces, and have it solve them for you.
I've been a fan of Star Trek since the 60's. When TNG came out, I was very reluctant to watch it, but with the encouragement of a friend, I did, and I liked it. My wife and I both got into it, and we have enjoyed Trek in all of it's incarnations thus far.
Of all the Trek series, we think Enterprise, while it has great potential, has missed the mark... until these last few episodes, anyway. First of all, I think Paramount made a HUGE mistake by thumbing its nose at the fans, when they complained about aspects of the show. One of the biggest gripes seems to be the opening theme music. Personally, I don't care that much about the music, but Paramount's ATTITUDE about it disturbs me! Basically, when presented with petitions containing many thousands of signatures, they said "Go pound sand. The music stays."
They have alienated a lot of people... ticked them off, and they have stopped watching. My wife and I are turned-off by the occaisional crude language or "steamy" scenes that they drop-in every now and then. That ain't Star Trek! I wonder how many others feel the same way.
If they had started picking up the current storylines sooner, (and capitulated to the fans regarding the music) I'd be willing to wager that this show would be pulling much better ratings, and would NOT be near extinction.
I welcome other's thoughts, here. What think ye?
I have had plans to build a "Tivo" style box for some time, now, but a serious financial crunch has been preventing it. This new chipset could certainly make this task a lot easier and less expensive. We will obviously have to wait and see.
;)
I see value in this new chipset/box as a standalone unit. Not to replace my existing PC, but instead, to function exlusively as a Multimedia Center: IOW, a replacement for my VCR and DVD players. I could use it to record TV programs, edit them, and then burn them to DVD, rather than video cassettes as I do now.
When the time comes, I would, indeed, like to build a box like this. It would connect to my existing LAN, so I could transfer files to/from it easily. With the right case, it would look nice in my Entertainment Center. I already have "spousal approval" as long as it looks like it belongs there.
I say: Bring it on!
This is something both my wife and I were thinking a while ago. We expected this series to be showing us how the Vulcans and Humans came to be allies, gradually adding other planets to their alliance, eventually forming the Federation. Now, after all this time, they're finally getting to that... and it's going to be cancelled in a few months. Sigh.
We are sorry to see Enterprise go. Someone else said "Bad Star Trek is better than none". I don't know if I agree with this or not. The episodes that focused on "titillation" certainly didn't do this show any favors, either. Working an attractive cast member into the series is fine, but when episodes (and the promotional spots announcing them) would focus on her anatomy rather than on a good story, we knew the execs must have been getting desperate. Well, their little experiment failed. It's just too bad they "got it" too late! Leave the "skin" for those other dime-a-dozen shows, and give us good STORIES for Star Trek.
I did enjoy the ending last week, where they zoom out to show that the Romulans were remote-controlling that ship. Interesting twist.
To the cast and crew of Star Trek: Enterprise, THANK YOU. It was fun while it lasted.
There's a difference between "Normalization" and "AGC" (or "Compresion"). Normalization scans the entire audio file, looking for the highest peak. It then reduces (or increases) the volume *evenly* over the entire file. It is the same as adjusting the volume control, then not touching it until the next track.
"AGC" or "Compression" is different. It adjusts the volume dynamically as the file is playing. It makes instantaneous adjustments, up or down, to keep the overall average volume constant.
Now, back to the original idea: With the Linux OS on the iPod, users won't necessarily *need* to go to iTunes. They can upload/download files from their own PC, including their own, already edited, M3U playlist files that they've already been listening to in WinAmp. They won't have to "reinvent the wheel".
I'm sure plenty of users here have used WinAmp over the years. You've probably also used any number of different "plugins" for it. Some of my favorites are the ones that do "AGC" (Automatic Gain Control) on the playback audio. The better ones have settings for attack/release, min/max gain, etc. This process works to keep the playback volume relatively constant: Quiet passages are brought up, loud ones reduced.
It would be cool if the iPod/Linux software could incorporate such functionality, along with some of the other features of WinAmp, like the M3U playlists, etc. Imagine dumping your entire MP3 library AND WinAmp playlist(s) into the thing, then calling up the WinAmp emulator in Linux, and enjoying the crossfaded,random,volume-equalized music until the batteries croak.
...and it carries some rather stiff penalties.
Because I work for a radio station, I am familiar with what the FCC Rules say about it. You DON'T want to be involved in ANY kind of "pay-for-play" activity. The fines are substantial, and the station would jeopardise its license.
Hey, Lenny! What's with that, man? Falling asleep outside!? LOL!
Your old friend,