If every new Britney Spears & Madonna disc had the production standards and "reach out and touch the music" clarity that the best Telarc discs had 20 years ago, people would STILL be buying them at stores, even if they intended to rip them to mp3 for convenience.
You're kidding me, right? People just...don't...care that much about audio quality. The least of which being Britney fans and the like.
No, no. The administrative fee is going up to 99 cents. But the fee itself is irrelevant. The interest here is that because they changed the terms of the contract, you can cancel without paying the huge early termination fee. It's basically a loophole.
Actually, many (most?) Microsoft installers I've seen recently now ask if you want to be included in the Customer Experience Improvement Program, with No being the default option.
Haha, if it gives you any comfort, I'm the same way. With how iTunes/iPod work - incrementing the count when the track finishes - I'm constantly waiting for songs to end before picking another one, or leaving tracks that have silence at the end to finish completely. Really wish it incremented at 75% complete or something.
ipod: six generations and 3 variations of this piece of shit and you can't get ogg playback support???? wtf?
OGG is not going anywhere, sorry. If you're lucky it'll be the standard web audio format, but even that's doubtful. I'm not knocking the format itself, this is just the way it is.
mac laptops: sleek form factor but overpriced and WTF why is apple so obsessed with their keyboard layout? It's not 1985 anymore give me a print screen, home, pg up/dn, insert and delete keys already. Stop being snobs and just give me a real keyboard already.
Yes these would be nice but, really, no one cares.
apple TV: apple what?
Yeah you're right. But the problem with ATV isn't style over function, it's control over function.
Mac OSX: ok it's decent. But it still needs a package manager and real window manager. Aqua sucks and it makes my mac a real pain in the ass.
Sounds like you want Linux. Oh look, you ARE running Linux. So what's the problem? Aqua sucks? What, are you afraid of clicking blue, rounded buttons?
Intel Chips: Oh what happened to the "technically superior" PPC chip? Welcome to the rest of the world you stuck up assholes.
Guess this was a no win situation eh? I suppose they should have said "well these chips suck, but wait a couple years and we'll start using Intel ones."
iPhone: OMG I can't stand this piece of shit. Earth to apple - a smart phone without a real keyboard is just retarded. I can't believe that people shelled out 300,600,800 dollars for a phone whose screen is about half an inch tall while typing. This makes using it as an ssh client impossible. plus what's up with those keys being so close together? Steve please think of the men who might like to buy your products next time you say "oh we'll have a soft keyboard it'll be awesome!!!" Idiot. The screen is way too fragile and oh big surprise still no ogg support. and what the hell is the deal with app store? What makes apple think they know better than me what apps should be on my phone? I can't stomach this level of a God complex from a singe corporate entity.
Oh yeah, the masses are clamoring for SSH support. As for apps, look at how it works: you could run any app on WinMo, but apps weren't so popular. You get Apple-approved apps in an easy to use store and sales are through the roof. Which do people want?
Btw, apple, thanks for bringing us the graphic user interface, the adults can take it from here.
Disclaimer: my phone is a G1 and my computer is a macbook pro running gentoo linux.
Good, fine. Obviously you shouldn't have gotten a Mac in the first place and you've saved yourself the agony of having an iPhone. You're falling into the common trap of not realizing that your geeky needs are far different than the average person. Stylish, easy to use devices will continue to be popular and sell well because they're....stylish and easy to use. Even if they are less feature filled.
I won't argue that buying from the ITMS is a problem. I don't touch DRMed music. But the last thing I remember when talking to someone about that was that "he had to rebuy music on CD that he had on cassette." He is just used to the fact that music doesn't work forever...and this was even a technical guy. I was very surprised.
In any case, I was more arguing against the assertion that people put up with Apple to get the newest shiny object. I just don't think that's true.
If there's one thing so many Slashdotters don't understand, it's the common, non-technical person. Here's how that type of person uses their iPod:
Insert a CD
Let iTunes import the CD
Sync the iPod
Know that they can play their music on the computer or the iPod
That's it. They aren't "putting up" with Apple. They're easily organizing and listening to their music.
I used to be a control freak about my music organization. When I first got my iPod I wouldn't dare let iTunes manage my music folder. It didn't take me long to realize that it was pointless, so now I give iTunes control. But guess what? It doesn't even matter because I never access music through the filesystem. I have absolutely no reason to.
I would hazard a guess that most people who didn't enjoy the campaign mode in Gears 1/2 played alone. I played through the first multiple times and am just about to finish the second, exclusively co-op with real world friends over Live. I have never played alone and don't care to.
I don't think many would argue that the gameplay isn't fairly simple. But it's just done so well. The level design, overall production, everything comes together to just make an incredible experience.
I don't know if it would count as cheap (check eBay), but the Mac Mini is great for this. I've been running Plex (see a few posts up) on mine for a while now and it's just beautiful. The Mini is small, quiet, and comes with a remote. Mine is a Core [1] Duo and acts as my dev server/torrent box/media center with no problems. Of course, if you want to record TV it might not work so well.
Personalized search results are supposed to do this already. Many of the privacy advocates are against it (and I see their point) but it's valuable to me so I use it.
I'm not a Linux user but I was curious what results I would get for "wine" and sure enough winehq.org was #1. But then I turned off my personalized results and it was still #1. The first difference I saw was that for my personal results, the Wikipedia entry for Wine (the beverage and the project) was #2, whereas normally it was #3 after wine.com.
I read the title and thought it meant that someone shouldn't have to decrypt HD video they paid for. Almost thought it was the end of the road for DRM! Damn!!
And there is another issue too: Who is going to write these open source textbooks?
I remember a while back when an author regained ownership of the calculus textbook he wrote, he put it out for free as a PDF. I forget if it was "open source" as such or if he released it in an editable form with a license or anything, but for subjects that aren't updated often, this works great.
With a good build/deployment script you can combine all of your CSS and JS files together, giving the advantage of better compression and less HTTP requests. If you have it set up in that way, you can split your script into as many files as you want.
Images are a bit different, you can't do much outside of spriting where you can.
This is not to say a JAR equivalent wouldn't be preferred, just that there are things you can do today.
I'll admit I didn't play X nearly as much, but I never felt the controls in GX lacked anything, and I did beat the whole thing (I'm pretty sure, it's been a while).
I won't argue about the build-a-car, hell I usually ignore this kind of mode, but I did happen to find my favorite vehicle with it. The Fantasista...sure was butt ugly but I kicked ass with it!
...and even they subject us to a shovelware title like F-Zero GX...
Funny you should mention that since Sega actually developed it. NOT funny that you could actually call it shovelware. That was an incredible title and I wasn't the only one who thought so. IMO it was by far the best F-Zero and no other games in the futuristic racing genre - or whatever you want to call it - could touch it. Personally, I hope Nintendo has already knocked on Sega's door to get a sequel on Wii with online play.
One would think that WL Messenger, being written by Microsoft, would be more aware of system settings and their intended effects.. A cynic might imagine they understand this quite well.
Casual Firefox user clicks link from friend
IE opens asking if it should be set as the default
An IE user is reborn
I suppose this list replaces the ??? between "ignore system setting" and "Profit!"
Folding@home is sure to make someone else very rich from their drug patent. Your doing someone elses research. I don't know about you, but if someone gets very rich creating a treatment for Alzheimer's or the like that I may get one day, I'm okay with that.
I'm in the Chicago market and have Wide Open West for my cable (Comcast competitor, woohoo!) and I don't subscribe to their digital plan. But, I found that my TV with integrated digital tuner does pick up my local channels' digital feeds. So without having to use an antenna, I get NBC/CBS/Fox in HD, 5.1 sound and all. Not ABC unfortunately.
I'm assuming these channels are supposed to be for their HD subscribers, but since they happen to be unencrypted, my TV can pick them up. And I'm thinking that ABC is encrypted for some reason.
Anyway, my point is that maybe you can already get digital channels on your MythTV box. All I did on my TV was scan for channels and it found them.
Slashdot Mirror
If every new Britney Spears & Madonna disc had the production standards and "reach out and touch the music" clarity that the best Telarc discs had 20 years ago, people would STILL be buying them at stores, even if they intended to rip them to mp3 for convenience.
You're kidding me, right? People just...don't...care that much about audio quality. The least of which being Britney fans and the like.
No, no. The administrative fee is going up to 99 cents. But the fee itself is irrelevant. The interest here is that because they changed the terms of the contract, you can cancel without paying the huge early termination fee. It's basically a loophole.
Behold the power of the minus operator!
Actually, many (most?) Microsoft installers I've seen recently now ask if you want to be included in the Customer Experience Improvement Program, with No being the default option.
http://www.microsoft.com/products/ceip/EN-US/default.mspx
We as a species have proven ourselves significant.
To who, ourselves? Gee, that was a hard sell. Reminds me a bit of Carlin.
Haha, if it gives you any comfort, I'm the same way. With how iTunes/iPod work - incrementing the count when the track finishes - I'm constantly waiting for songs to end before picking another one, or leaving tracks that have silence at the end to finish completely. Really wish it incremented at 75% complete or something.
ipod: six generations and 3 variations of this piece of shit and you can't get ogg playback support???? wtf?
OGG is not going anywhere, sorry. If you're lucky it'll be the standard web audio format, but even that's doubtful. I'm not knocking the format itself, this is just the way it is.
mac laptops: sleek form factor but overpriced and WTF why is apple so obsessed with their keyboard layout? It's not 1985 anymore give me a print screen, home, pg up/dn, insert and delete keys already. Stop being snobs and just give me a real keyboard already.
Yes these would be nice but, really, no one cares.
apple TV: apple what?
Yeah you're right. But the problem with ATV isn't style over function, it's control over function.
Mac OSX: ok it's decent. But it still needs a package manager and real window manager. Aqua sucks and it makes my mac a real pain in the ass.
Sounds like you want Linux. Oh look, you ARE running Linux. So what's the problem? Aqua sucks? What, are you afraid of clicking blue, rounded buttons?
Intel Chips: Oh what happened to the "technically superior" PPC chip? Welcome to the rest of the world you stuck up assholes.
Guess this was a no win situation eh? I suppose they should have said "well these chips suck, but wait a couple years and we'll start using Intel ones."
iPhone: OMG I can't stand this piece of shit. Earth to apple - a smart phone without a real keyboard is just retarded. I can't believe that people shelled out 300,600,800 dollars for a phone whose screen is about half an inch tall while typing. This makes using it as an ssh client impossible. plus what's up with those keys being so close together? Steve please think of the men who might like to buy your products next time you say "oh we'll have a soft keyboard it'll be awesome!!!" Idiot. The screen is way too fragile and oh big surprise still no ogg support. and what the hell is the deal with app store? What makes apple think they know better than me what apps should be on my phone? I can't stomach this level of a God complex from a singe corporate entity.
Oh yeah, the masses are clamoring for SSH support. As for apps, look at how it works: you could run any app on WinMo, but apps weren't so popular. You get Apple-approved apps in an easy to use store and sales are through the roof. Which do people want?
Btw, apple, thanks for bringing us the graphic user interface, the adults can take it from here.
Disclaimer: my phone is a G1 and my computer is a macbook pro running gentoo linux.
Good, fine. Obviously you shouldn't have gotten a Mac in the first place and you've saved yourself the agony of having an iPhone. You're falling into the common trap of not realizing that your geeky needs are far different than the average person. Stylish, easy to use devices will continue to be popular and sell well because they're....stylish and easy to use. Even if they are less feature filled.
I won't argue that buying from the ITMS is a problem. I don't touch DRMed music. But the last thing I remember when talking to someone about that was that "he had to rebuy music on CD that he had on cassette." He is just used to the fact that music doesn't work forever...and this was even a technical guy. I was very surprised.
In any case, I was more arguing against the assertion that people put up with Apple to get the newest shiny object. I just don't think that's true.
If there's one thing so many Slashdotters don't understand, it's the common, non-technical person. Here's how that type of person uses their iPod:
That's it. They aren't "putting up" with Apple. They're easily organizing and listening to their music.
I used to be a control freak about my music organization. When I first got my iPod I wouldn't dare let iTunes manage my music folder. It didn't take me long to realize that it was pointless, so now I give iTunes control. But guess what? It doesn't even matter because I never access music through the filesystem. I have absolutely no reason to.
I would hazard a guess that most people who didn't enjoy the campaign mode in Gears 1/2 played alone. I played through the first multiple times and am just about to finish the second, exclusively co-op with real world friends over Live. I have never played alone and don't care to.
I don't think many would argue that the gameplay isn't fairly simple. But it's just done so well. The level design, overall production, everything comes together to just make an incredible experience.
They already do that.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how_to/4258805.html
I don't know if it would count as cheap (check eBay), but the Mac Mini is great for this. I've been running Plex (see a few posts up) on mine for a while now and it's just beautiful. The Mini is small, quiet, and comes with a remote. Mine is a Core [1] Duo and acts as my dev server/torrent box/media center with no problems. Of course, if you want to record TV it might not work so well.
Well, apparently the mods are doing what they're told today so let's see if this works. You are completely right.
Personalized search results are supposed to do this already. Many of the privacy advocates are against it (and I see their point) but it's valuable to me so I use it.
I'm not a Linux user but I was curious what results I would get for "wine" and sure enough winehq.org was #1. But then I turned off my personalized results and it was still #1. The first difference I saw was that for my personal results, the Wikipedia entry for Wine (the beverage and the project) was #2, whereas normally it was #3 after wine.com.
I read the title and thought it meant that someone shouldn't have to decrypt HD video they paid for. Almost thought it was the end of the road for DRM! Damn!!
And there is another issue too: Who is going to write these open source textbooks?
I remember a while back when an author regained ownership of the calculus textbook he wrote, he put it out for free as a PDF. I forget if it was "open source" as such or if he released it in an editable form with a license or anything, but for subjects that aren't updated often, this works great.
Haha...
A reading from the letter of Thrall to the Orcish Horde.
With a good build/deployment script you can combine all of your CSS and JS files together, giving the advantage of better compression and less HTTP requests. If you have it set up in that way, you can split your script into as many files as you want.
Images are a bit different, you can't do much outside of spriting where you can.
This is not to say a JAR equivalent wouldn't be preferred, just that there are things you can do today.
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree :)
I'll admit I didn't play X nearly as much, but I never felt the controls in GX lacked anything, and I did beat the whole thing (I'm pretty sure, it's been a while).
I won't argue about the build-a-car, hell I usually ignore this kind of mode, but I did happen to find my favorite vehicle with it. The Fantasista...sure was butt ugly but I kicked ass with it!
...and even they subject us to a shovelware title like F-Zero GX...
Funny you should mention that since Sega actually developed it. NOT funny that you could actually call it shovelware. That was an incredible title and I wasn't the only one who thought so. IMO it was by far the best F-Zero and no other games in the futuristic racing genre - or whatever you want to call it - could touch it. Personally, I hope Nintendo has already knocked on Sega's door to get a sequel on Wii with online play.
Crockford's website has a bunch of great articles about JavaScript. I've learned quite a bit from there.
http://www.crockford.com/javascript/
- Casual Firefox user clicks link from friend
- IE opens asking if it should be set as the default
- An IE user is reborn
I suppose this list replaces the ??? between "ignore system setting" and "Profit!"I don't know if this will help, but...
I'm in the Chicago market and have Wide Open West for my cable (Comcast competitor, woohoo!) and I don't subscribe to their digital plan. But, I found that my TV with integrated digital tuner does pick up my local channels' digital feeds. So without having to use an antenna, I get NBC/CBS/Fox in HD, 5.1 sound and all. Not ABC unfortunately.
I'm assuming these channels are supposed to be for their HD subscribers, but since they happen to be unencrypted, my TV can pick them up. And I'm thinking that ABC is encrypted for some reason.
Anyway, my point is that maybe you can already get digital channels on your MythTV box. All I did on my TV was scan for channels and it found them.
No problem, it's a legitimate concern when someone may be playing WoW!