Re:Another reason to hate my PC
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D&D Trailer
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· Score: 2
I heard recently that Apple and RealNetworks both agreed to make the next versions of their players stop taking over everything when installed. Here is a press release about it. I'll quote the relevant part for you here:
RealNetworks and Apple also agreed today to support the principles of the "Ask, Tell, Help" initiative, which promotes good 'Internet manners' by ensuring that each company's player applications will inform and ask the user before changing the user's default player selection for common media formats.
So, starting in the next release, you won't have to worry about that anymore. Of course, that doesn't help for the current release...
Re:Flash graphics....Poor.....
on
D&D Trailer
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· Score: 2
that young Princess reminded so much of the one out Star Wars Epi 1 that I am fearful of watching it....
Actually, I thought she looked just like the princess in "The Neverending Story".
You might be right, but the trouble with creating an artificial shortage is that it could cost them in terms of market share if they overdo it. It's the sort of thing that has to be very carefully calculated. I can imagine some execs being nervous at the idea, since market share is the ultimate goal for a new game console like the PS2. This could be an actual shortage, or perhaps an actual shortage slightly exaggerated by a small artificial shortage on top of it. Hmm.
Just wait until a few months from now when the Screen Writers Guild goes on strike. There might be a 1% or so decline in the quality of screenplays... (couldn't resist)
Digital Betacam is a relatively new development. The original analog beta format (exactly the same as the now-defunct consumer format) enjoyed many years of popularity as a broadcast production medium. It has only recently been supplanted by the newer digital beta format, which as you pointed out, shares just shares the cassette size (and the name) with the original format.
Neither was the C64, which also appeared in his list.
I think what he meant to say was "this only happens in FIXED platforms". That is, platforms whose hardware capabilities remain constant or nearly constant over time. Consoles certainly fit that bill, as do long-lived proprietary computer/OS platforms like the C64, the Amiga, the Atari series, and others (if I left out your favorite, don't flame me).
Post a web site where you have authentic-looking op-ed piece that takes the position of DeCSS being "wrong", draconian intellectual property laws being good, etc.
The MPAA links to your website as part of a campaign to show that there is public support for them, a la Microsft's "Freedom to Innovate" network.
Change the op-ed piece to instead be a copy of DeCSS.
With good timing, you could do it at the right point during the appeal trial. "Your honor, the plantiffs have a link to DeCSS on their own website!"
Yep, I've read it. His constant "I don't know"s and "I don't recall"s are just like Clinton in his sexual harassment lawsuit, and Bill Gates in the anti-trust trial. Their lawyers appear to have given them the instruction beforehand: "Say nothing. I mean nothing. Just answer every question as 'I don't know'." The technique has a grand tradition, going back many years. Remeber the Iran-Contra scandal? Ronald Reagan swore under oath that he pretty much didn't know anything about what went on in his office!
If what these people say is to be believed (and since they are under oath, it presumably is), then it could be taken as proof of their complete incompetence, and thus they should be removed from their positions of power and replaced by someone who at least knows what planet they are on. The fact that this doesn't happen just goes to show everone knows their supposedly sworn testimony is complete bullshit.
Just once I'd love to see some really powerful person who thinks they're above the law get nailed for giving Reagan-esque testimony. They answer "I don't know" to some question, and the defense produces a tape of them talking about said subject, proving that they do know. That person goes to jail for perjury, and everyone lives happily ever after!
After Judge Kaplan's decision, the MPAA said all the talk of an appeal was "posturing". Since then, I expected to see them forced to eat crow due to numerous news stories about the appeals process going forward. Instead, I find... nothing.
This is the first story I've read about this since the decision. I must say I'm very glad to see it. I was beginning to wonder if the appeal was going to happen or not. I'm also extremely happy that someone like Mr. Corely is willing to actually go to court to back up what he believes in. Would I have the guts to do the same if I were in his position? I don't know. I would hope so, but you just never know until you're actually in the situation.
Side note: Anyone else find it ironic (or maybe just an odd coincidence) that the author of this article's name is just a couple of letters off from that of the friend-to-artists-and-consumers-alike Hillary Rosen?
I think this columns stereotypes new media as inherently inferior.
I don't get that impression at all. Despite the title and the first sentence, the story is pretty specifically about Slashdot, and not about "new media" in general.
To me, the questions this story is asking can be phrased as, "Is Slashdot in fact, a commercial news site? (Yes.) Shouldn't it act like one, instead of pretending to still be someone's hobby? (Yes.)"
Sure, the RIAA is going to be reluctant to back out of it, but after this incident , the electronics manufacturers, on whom the success of SDMI depends, might start to get fed up and being pulling out. They certainly will after the SDMI team goes back to the drawing board for a while, and people just crack it again.
Of course, the RIAA will try to spin it and make it sound like they aren't really backing out, just postponing it, but the end result will be the same.
It's "National Discount Brokers" or something like that. When the recording listing the menu choices gets to #7, the woman says, in complete dead pan:
If you would like to hear a duck quack, press 7.
Sure enough, when you press 7, you hear a recording of someone blaring on a duck call two times. Then it hangs up on you.
I can't believe they posted this to Slashdot. Companies that have 1-800 numbers get charged for each call that comes in. Those people are going to be in big trouble when management sees their 1-800 bill skyrocket due to a bunch of/.ers calling in to hear a duck quack. Ha, ha!
You're right. This can only help matters. The fact that this was done by academics at reputable institutions makes them much harder to ignore.
If some l33t h4x0r out there claims he's cracked it, the SDMI nitwits can just deny it and people will believe them. But when some guys from Princeton, Rice, and Xerox's PARC say they've cracked it and post the results for all the world to see, they can't deny it and expect people to take them seriously.
This is definitely going to send them back to the drawing board for while, perhaps even cause them to scrap the idea altogether.
I notice now that the only link in Andrew Leonard's writeup is to Salon's story. After it gets Slashdotted, I'm sure he'll happily brag to his boss about how many pageviews he generated. The author of the article, Janelle Brown, won't be looking to shabby either. All in a day's work.
Good point. Although I would imagine things like that are already pretty well taken care of by the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the various presidential libraries, etc.
Wow, it's encouraging to hear that. I don't have any first hand experience with it, I based my statements on things I've read, such interviews with film restorers like Robert A. Harris. People like him always talk gravely about what appallingly bad condition old movies are usually in. I suppose things must have gotten better, or perhaps they only take good care of the new stuff, and "old" films are left to rot. Dunno. Interesting info, though. Thanks for posting that.
DVD sure as hell beats the scratched up, been played 100 times 35mm I usually see in theaters.
I don't know where people like you go to see movies. I hardly ever see problems at the theater I usually go to. I keep hearing about these "dirty, scratched up" film presentations, but I never see them. I guess I'm just spoiled. If the theater you go to does such a sloppy job, why don't you complain? Or try a different theater?
The heavily compressed (gotta love those MPEG2 artifacts, they really heighten the experience!), 720x480 images on DVDs are no match for even 16mm film, let alone 35mm. Hell, 35mm has higher resolution than even HDTV. Have a look at this resolution chart for movie special effects. The effective resolution of film is about 4000x3000 for a full-frame image. You really prefer 720x480 DVDs to that?
That's not even getting into the issues of color and brightness ranges, both of which are much greater on film than on video.
I've no doubt that digital video will eventually replace film, but it's not good enough yet. Those people who go around saying it's already better have probably just never seen (or don't want to see) a really high-quality film presentation. Properly done, film still provides much greater image quality than any currently existing video system. (Not to say that video won't eventually catch up, but it's got a ways to go yet.)
The article doesn't specify, but I would imagine that for archival quality they would be using an uncompressed format (or lossless compression). I doubt anyone who knew what they were doing would allow lossy compression for a permanent archive.
Decay of digital media can of course be overcome by simply making a new copy, but you have to be careful. Failure of digital media is usually a catastrophic failure; i.e., you lose everything all at once. With film, if it fades, you still get an image, just a faded one. With digital media, it's all or nothing. One day, poof! The disk is unreadable. You have to make sure and create a new copy often enough so that there is no danger of that happening.
The thing is, film can be an archival-quality medium. With things like dye-transfer prints and silver-based separations, the image can last a long time with no degradation -- thousands of years in theory. Too bad major movie studios don't care about that. Many films have been lost permanently due to improper storage. Ironic that they lobby Congress for more protections for their "valuable property" while said property is rotting in a vault due to negligence. Does anybody wanna bet they're going to be just as sloppy with digital media? "Oops, we waited too long between making fresh copies, and the media it was stored on has become unreadable -- it's gone forever. Oh, well."
I was talking about e-mail. If they get an e-mail message from %lt;l33tD00d@hotgrits.org> they will have no idea if Mr. "D00d" lives in their district or not. If you're sending e-mail, it's a good idea to include your full name and address.
Actually, I've read on some of the cryonics web sites out there that there have been some "cryoprotectants" developed which prevent water from freezing and bursting cells. Unfortunately, the only ones that have so far been developed require toxic concentrations to work.
Interesting side note, the movie Iceman didn't just ignore the issue of cryoprotectants; they came up with a clever explanation. The caveman had a habit of eating a certain type of flower that acted as a natural cryoprotectant, which saved his cells from bursting, thus allowing him to be revived after thousands of years. That was a pretty good flick; it had a surprisingly intelligent script.
Slashdot editors, please stop telling people to e-mail their representatives! It will simply get routed/dev/null by their staff.
Congress people still tend to only respond to faxes, phone calls, in-person visits, and most of all, postal mail ("snail mail"). E-mail is typically ignored.
However, if you feel you absolutely cannot bring yourself to go Herculean task of printing out your message and putting it in an envelope, then at least include your mailing address at the bottom of your e-mail. Otherwise, your Congressional representative will have no way of verifying that you actually live in their district, and will definitely ignore your message. They will probably ignore it anyway, so send snail mail. It is much more effective.
Oh, happy day! I loved Cosmos as a kid. It helped foster in me an appreciation for science, not to mention that it taught me a lot. Hell, there's stuff I learned from watching that series that I still found useful years later.
Here's an interesting quote from the website about the DVD edition:
Fully international edition - DVD Region Zero - playable everywhere.
Very cool. Also note that the soundtrack is avaiable on a 2 CD set as well. It has Vangelis's awesome score, along with all the bits of incidental music used throughout the series. Damn, I'm going to order me a copy right now!
Slashdot Mirror
So, starting in the next release, you won't have to worry about that anymore. Of course, that doesn't help for the current release...
Actually, I thought she looked just like the princess in "The Neverending Story".
You might be right, but the trouble with creating an artificial shortage is that it could cost them in terms of market share if they overdo it. It's the sort of thing that has to be very carefully calculated. I can imagine some execs being nervous at the idea, since market share is the ultimate goal for a new game console like the PS2. This could be an actual shortage, or perhaps an actual shortage slightly exaggerated by a small artificial shortage on top of it. Hmm.
Just wait until a few months from now when the Screen Writers Guild goes on strike. There might be a 1% or so decline in the quality of screenplays... (couldn't resist)
Digital Betacam is a relatively new development. The original analog beta format (exactly the same as the now-defunct consumer format) enjoyed many years of popularity as a broadcast production medium. It has only recently been supplanted by the newer digital beta format, which as you pointed out, shares just shares the cassette size (and the name) with the original format.
Neither was the C64, which also appeared in his list.
I think what he meant to say was "this only happens in FIXED platforms". That is, platforms whose hardware capabilities remain constant or nearly constant over time. Consoles certainly fit that bill, as do long-lived proprietary computer/OS platforms like the C64, the Amiga, the Atari series, and others (if I left out your favorite, don't flame me).
With good timing, you could do it at the right point during the appeal trial. "Your honor, the plantiffs have a link to DeCSS on their own website!"
If what these people say is to be believed (and since they are under oath, it presumably is), then it could be taken as proof of their complete incompetence, and thus they should be removed from their positions of power and replaced by someone who at least knows what planet they are on. The fact that this doesn't happen just goes to show everone knows their supposedly sworn testimony is complete bullshit.
Just once I'd love to see some really powerful person who thinks they're above the law get nailed for giving Reagan-esque testimony. They answer "I don't know" to some question, and the defense produces a tape of them talking about said subject, proving that they do know. That person goes to jail for perjury, and everyone lives happily ever after!
This is the first story I've read about this since the decision. I must say I'm very glad to see it. I was beginning to wonder if the appeal was going to happen or not. I'm also extremely happy that someone like Mr. Corely is willing to actually go to court to back up what he believes in. Would I have the guts to do the same if I were in his position? I don't know. I would hope so, but you just never know until you're actually in the situation.
Side note: Anyone else find it ironic (or maybe just an odd coincidence) that the author of this article's name is just a couple of letters off from that of the friend-to-artists-and-consumers-alike Hillary Rosen?
I don't get that impression at all. Despite the title and the first sentence, the story is pretty specifically about Slashdot, and not about "new media" in general.
To me, the questions this story is asking can be phrased as, "Is Slashdot in fact, a commercial news site? (Yes.) Shouldn't it act like one, instead of pretending to still be someone's hobby? (Yes.)"
Of course, the RIAA will try to spin it and make it sound like they aren't really backing out, just postponing it, but the end result will be the same.
Sure enough, when you press 7, you hear a recording of someone blaring on a duck call two times. Then it hangs up on you.
I can't believe they posted this to Slashdot. Companies that have 1-800 numbers get charged for each call that comes in. Those people are going to be in big trouble when management sees their 1-800 bill skyrocket due to a bunch of /.ers calling in to hear a duck quack. Ha, ha!
If some l33t h4x0r out there claims he's cracked it, the SDMI nitwits can just deny it and people will believe them. But when some guys from Princeton, Rice, and Xerox's PARC say they've cracked it and post the results for all the world to see, they can't deny it and expect people to take them seriously.
This is definitely going to send them back to the drawing board for while, perhaps even cause them to scrap the idea altogether.
I notice now that the only link in Andrew Leonard's writeup is to Salon's story. After it gets Slashdotted, I'm sure he'll happily brag to his boss about how many pageviews he generated. The author of the article, Janelle Brown, won't be looking to shabby either. All in a day's work.
But just imagine the reality TV shows that would spring up. "World's worst personal air vehicle disasters". They'd never run out of material!
Good point. Although I would imagine things like that are already pretty well taken care of by the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the various presidential libraries, etc.
Wow, it's encouraging to hear that. I don't have any first hand experience with it, I based my statements on things I've read, such interviews with film restorers like Robert A. Harris. People like him always talk gravely about what appallingly bad condition old movies are usually in. I suppose things must have gotten better, or perhaps they only take good care of the new stuff, and "old" films are left to rot. Dunno. Interesting info, though. Thanks for posting that.
Uh, they're talking about the sound not the image. Duh.
I don't know where people like you go to see movies. I hardly ever see problems at the theater I usually go to. I keep hearing about these "dirty, scratched up" film presentations, but I never see them. I guess I'm just spoiled. If the theater you go to does such a sloppy job, why don't you complain? Or try a different theater?
The heavily compressed (gotta love those MPEG2 artifacts, they really heighten the experience!), 720x480 images on DVDs are no match for even 16mm film, let alone 35mm. Hell, 35mm has higher resolution than even HDTV. Have a look at this resolution chart for movie special effects. The effective resolution of film is about 4000x3000 for a full-frame image. You really prefer 720x480 DVDs to that?
That's not even getting into the issues of color and brightness ranges, both of which are much greater on film than on video.
I've no doubt that digital video will eventually replace film, but it's not good enough yet. Those people who go around saying it's already better have probably just never seen (or don't want to see) a really high-quality film presentation. Properly done, film still provides much greater image quality than any currently existing video system. (Not to say that video won't eventually catch up, but it's got a ways to go yet.)
Decay of digital media can of course be overcome by simply making a new copy, but you have to be careful. Failure of digital media is usually a catastrophic failure; i.e., you lose everything all at once. With film, if it fades, you still get an image, just a faded one. With digital media, it's all or nothing. One day, poof! The disk is unreadable. You have to make sure and create a new copy often enough so that there is no danger of that happening.
The thing is, film can be an archival-quality medium. With things like dye-transfer prints and silver-based separations, the image can last a long time with no degradation -- thousands of years in theory. Too bad major movie studios don't care about that. Many films have been lost permanently due to improper storage. Ironic that they lobby Congress for more protections for their "valuable property" while said property is rotting in a vault due to negligence. Does anybody wanna bet they're going to be just as sloppy with digital media? "Oops, we waited too long between making fresh copies, and the media it was stored on has become unreadable -- it's gone forever. Oh, well."
Are you saying you think DVD-Video is better than 35mm film?
I was talking about e-mail. If they get an e-mail message from %lt;l33tD00d@hotgrits.org> they will have no idea if Mr. "D00d" lives in their district or not. If you're sending e-mail, it's a good idea to include your full name and address.
Interesting side note, the movie Iceman didn't just ignore the issue of cryoprotectants; they came up with a clever explanation. The caveman had a habit of eating a certain type of flower that acted as a natural cryoprotectant, which saved his cells from bursting, thus allowing him to be revived after thousands of years. That was a pretty good flick; it had a surprisingly intelligent script.
Congress people still tend to only respond to faxes, phone calls, in-person visits, and most of all, postal mail ("snail mail"). E-mail is typically ignored.
However, if you feel you absolutely cannot bring yourself to go Herculean task of printing out your message and putting it in an envelope, then at least include your mailing address at the bottom of your e-mail. Otherwise, your Congressional representative will have no way of verifying that you actually live in their district, and will definitely ignore your message. They will probably ignore it anyway, so send snail mail. It is much more effective.
Here's an interesting quote from the website about the DVD edition:
Very cool. Also note that the soundtrack is avaiable on a 2 CD set as well. It has Vangelis's awesome score, along with all the bits of incidental music used throughout the series. Damn, I'm going to order me a copy right now!