Call me crazy, but aren't a lot of these movies terrible because they were high on effects, and low on plot/story? Isn't that the kind of movie that benefits most from HD?
How about making it so applications can't change the focus on the user while your in the middle of doing something? If I'm renaming a file, and a DVD is loaded, it really pisses me off to have it break that off and show the DVD. Gah!!! There a million examples, but I'm sure you've all run afoul of plenty on your own.
The underlying issue here with all of this next-gen DVD format stuff is that the old system of competion between formats has supplanted cooperation on formats. The DVD format was a cooperation, and IBM was called in to decide who's submitted format would be best. They determined that a combination of the features of the two formats would be best, and that's what we got (Divx aside). I'm not saying the DVD format doesn't have it's limitations, but the end result of competition in the design phase and cooperation during the production phase beats the hell out of what we're seeing now.
Oh yeah, and it's too soon for a next-gen DVD anyway. I don't own a HDTV. Most of the world doesn't either. They keep forgetting that in many ways, the extra features of DVDs, not just the higher quality were a big selling point.
DVDs came too late, HD-DVDs are coming too early, IMO.
>You know, if each American who reads slashdot went out and smashed just ONE voting machine each with a sledgehammer, this entire argument would be a moot point.
How about this: teach the bloody scientific method in all schools?
I was never formally presented with it during my public school education, which I find shocking. The US system is filled with mediocre teachers because of the low pay. I spent my school days bored out of my mind, until I went to college, where even then I found the professors more interested in research than in teaching (and they certainly weren't very good at it). All this was in an ivy league school, no less. We take children who love to learn (a child will almost drive you crazy asking "why, why, why?" and bore the love of learning right the hell out of them. One college I toured had monitors halfway back in the lecture halls so the students could see the teacher clearly at the blackboard. Totally pathetic. I think a system of hypermedia and peer tutoring could reduce the number of teachers allowing for far fewer, much more talented, much better paid teachers to oversee it all. I have a professor friend (much older) at a state school who earns a very good salary working about 10 hours a week. He's totally honest about being paid far too much for far too little; and he's got tenure.
We keep learning too abstract in the US. How about having young students work on real engineering projects where they actually need trigonometry and statics & dynamics? Maybe have a dozen different projects they can participate on (a go-kart design class, for example), where they can learn to work in groups and where the rubber will meet the road math-wise. I know I would've taken to that approach like a fish to water. Of course, I'm an engineer, so I may be biased, but I believe everyone should be trained as an engineer, since it really just boils down to solving problems with the available methods, which I think is a useful skill for everyone to have, regardless of how good they are at it. I believe science will dominate humanity's future, and that everyone who possibly can should go into it. Who knows which one of use will have that moment of revelation that changes history forever? Even if it's in another country, innovation crosses borders soon enough.
The US had about a century's worth of head start, and we squandered it. Out-sourcing isn't about other country's stealing our jobs, it's about why nations with much smaller degrees of wealth can produce graduates who can rival our best and brightest. It's all on us: quit your whining, turn off the TV, and pick up a freakin' book. Given how our nation's been acting lately, our losing our sole-superpower status is a good thing in my estimation.
Oh yeah, and get rid of the summer vacation thing. The agrarian society is over, so the number of kids working in the fields is too small to penalize all the rest. We have too many farmers anyway, but that's the subject of another post...
I believe that tryting to go seriously into space would be extremely wasteful and yield almost no benefit, until our technological level rises significantly. It's just too expensive at this point and I think limiting our forays to robotic ships and space telescopes is a good short-term strategy.
Case in point: moon landing. What did we get out of it? Zip, that's what. To argue that the spin-off technologies justified the expense assumes we would have been sitting on our hands during that time period, which is just silly.
If I thought a piracy tax would end all other forms of litigation and DRM from the RIAA, I might give it some credence, but we all know it won't. They want it both ways.
The trick is to keep grow your company as a series of, essentially, small companies, rather than as one huge one. A lot of Japanese businesses do this, apparently.
I see a real opportunity for input devices suych as this to drastically simplify not only individual programs, but OS interface as well. Program input can get daunting very quickly for users and this could really cut through all that.
But not at $400, so don't hold your breath.
I saw a membrane switch equiavlent of this years ago You slipped a printed sheet over the buttons that said what they did. Very low-tech and awful buttons, but it was all of $20 and I've kicked myself for not grabbing one given the very complcated programs I often run. Oh well.
Usually on this sort of thing, they're not correct because it gets bad enough that we change of polices or becuase an unexpected technology comes along. All it says is that if we continue on our current trajectory, this will be the result.
Where this approach will bite us in the ass is with problems with long lead times. Global warming may be the ultimate example. We'll finally take it seriously but it'll be too late and we'll have to endure droughts, famines, etc because of the buffering effect.
You realize that "sexual preference" is an out-dated term that's considered offensive by a lot of people, right?
"Sexual orientation" is a lot more accurate. I don't know about you, but I never spent any time wondering if I was more attracted to women or men, it was women from day one.
Maybe I'm a throwback, but I'm still more interested in speeding up a single thread than in having 80 seperate ones. It's fundamentally harder, but that's why it's useful, no?
Those of you who haven't worked in the computer graphics field for long (or ever) may not be aware that there have been many cylces of "let's get some specialized hardware in here to help with graphics" followed by it being incorporated into the general purpose CPU eventually. This is simply the first time it's occurred for the mainstream market.
Vinyl may very well outlive the CD, but the big deal about CDs isn't the media itself, it's the superior quality and convenience of digital encoding. Show me analog formats making serious inroads against digital formats as a whole and THEN I'll be surprised.
I opened a new window on my browser, and slashdot came up as my homepage. In the instant it took the bookmark to start loading, I thought it said "bedroom spying debacle at HP".
Needless to say, I reacted with "what the hell?" and hit the previous page button immediately.
Slashdot Mirror
Subject pretty much says it all...
Call me crazy, but aren't a lot of these movies terrible because they were high on effects,
and low on plot/story? Isn't that the kind of movie that benefits most from HD?
Maxim
And what if I link to someone who links to something illegal? (:
Maxim
>> I've always been curious why more people don't use gas.
My wife and I went with electric because the smooth-top burners are really easy to clean.
Maxim
How about making it so applications can't change the focus on the user while your in the middle of doing something?
If I'm renaming a file, and a DVD is loaded, it really pisses me off to have it break that off and show the DVD. Gah!!!
There a million examples, but I'm sure you've all run afoul of plenty on your own.
Maxim
The underlying issue here with all of this next-gen DVD format stuff is that the old system of
competion between formats has supplanted cooperation on formats. The DVD format was a
cooperation, and IBM was called in to decide who's submitted format would be best. They
determined that a combination of the features of the two formats would be best, and that's
what we got (Divx aside). I'm not saying the DVD format doesn't have it's limitations, but the
end result of competition in the design phase and cooperation during the production phase
beats the hell out of what we're seeing now.
Oh yeah, and it's too soon for a next-gen DVD anyway. I don't own a HDTV. Most of the world
doesn't either. They keep forgetting that in many ways, the extra features of DVDs, not just the
higher quality were a big selling point.
DVDs came too late, HD-DVDs are coming too early, IMO.
Maxim
He admitted he's essentially a ruthless MOFO, who's willing to do anything to win.
It makes me want to puke.
Maxim
>You know, if each American who reads slashdot went out and smashed just ONE voting machine each with a sledgehammer, this entire argument would be a moot point.
Think I can get the internet in prison?
How about this: teach the bloody scientific method in all schools?
I was never formally presented with it during my public school education, which I find shocking. The US system
is filled with mediocre teachers because of the low pay. I spent my school days bored out of my mind, until I went to
college, where even then I found the professors more interested in research than in teaching (and they certainly weren't
very good at it). All this was in an ivy league school, no less. We take children who love to learn (a child will almost drive you crazy
asking "why, why, why?" and bore the love of learning right the hell out of them. One college I toured had monitors halfway
back in the lecture halls so the students could see the teacher clearly at the blackboard. Totally pathetic. I think a system of
hypermedia and peer tutoring could reduce the number of teachers allowing for far fewer, much more talented, much better paid
teachers to oversee it all. I have a professor friend (much older) at a state school who earns a very good salary working about
10 hours a week. He's totally honest about being paid far too much for far too little; and he's got tenure.
We keep learning too abstract in the US. How about having young students work on real engineering projects where they
actually need trigonometry and statics & dynamics? Maybe have a dozen different projects they can participate on (a go-kart design
class, for example), where they can learn to work in groups and where the rubber will meet the road math-wise. I know
I would've taken to that approach like a fish to water. Of course, I'm an engineer, so I may be biased, but I believe everyone
should be trained as an engineer, since it really just boils down to solving problems with the available methods, which I
think is a useful skill for everyone to have, regardless of how good they are at it. I believe science will dominate humanity's future,
and that everyone who possibly can should go into it. Who knows which one of use will have that moment of revelation that
changes history forever? Even if it's in another country, innovation crosses borders soon enough.
The US had about a century's worth of head start, and we squandered it. Out-sourcing isn't about other country's stealing our
jobs, it's about why nations with much smaller degrees of wealth can produce graduates who can rival our best and brightest.
It's all on us: quit your whining, turn off the TV, and pick up a freakin' book. Given how our nation's been acting lately, our
losing our sole-superpower status is a good thing in my estimation.
Oh yeah, and get rid of the summer vacation thing. The agrarian society is over, so the number of kids working in the fields
is too small to penalize all the rest. We have too many farmers anyway, but that's the subject of another post...
Maxim
>> At 40% efficiency, it looks like a square 265 miles on a side in the American southwest would do it.
Buy windex stock now, that's all I'm saying.
Well, as long as the area is sunny, solar panels are quite suitable for local power generation, since they do not pollute.
I believe that tryting to go seriously into space would be extremely wasteful and yield almost no
benefit, until our technological level rises significantly. It's just too expensive at this point and I think
limiting our forays to robotic ships and space telescopes is a good short-term strategy.
Case in point: moon landing. What did we get out of it? Zip, that's what. To argue that the spin-off technologies
justified the expense assumes we would have been sitting on our hands during that time period, which is
just silly.
Maxim
That's becuase every new version of Windows IS more bloated than the previous one! Duh!
If I thought a piracy tax would end all other forms of litigation and DRM from the RIAA,
I might give it some credence, but we all know it won't. They want it both ways.
Maxim
The trick is to keep grow your company as a series of, essentially, small companies, rather than as one huge one.
A lot of Japanese businesses do this, apparently.
Maxim
I see a real opportunity for input devices suych as this to drastically simplify not only
individual programs, but OS interface as well. Program input can get daunting very
quickly for users and this could really cut through all that.
But not at $400, so don't hold your breath.
I saw a membrane switch equiavlent of this years ago You slipped a printed sheet
over the buttons that said what they did. Very low-tech and awful buttons, but it
was all of $20 and I've kicked myself for not grabbing one given the very complcated
programs I often run. Oh well.
Maxim
Usually on this sort of thing, they're not correct because it gets bad enough that we change of polices or
becuase an unexpected technology comes along. All it says is that if we continue on our current
trajectory, this will be the result.
Where this approach will bite us in the ass is with problems with long lead times. Global warming
may be the ultimate example. We'll finally take it seriously but it'll be too late and we'll
have to endure droughts, famines, etc because of the buffering effect.
I hope I'm wrong. Nothing would make me happier.
Maxim
You realize that "sexual preference" is an out-dated term that's
considered offensive by a lot of people, right?
"Sexual orientation" is a lot more accurate. I don't know about you,
but I never spent any time wondering if I was more attracted to women
or men, it was women from day one.
Maxim
Now the robot can be the un-cool member of the band!
Maybe I'm a throwback, but I'm still more interested in speeding up a single thread than in having 80
seperate ones. It's fundamentally harder, but that's why it's useful, no?
Those of you who haven't worked in the computer graphics field for long (or ever) may not be aware that there have been many cylces of "let's get some specialized hardware in here to help with graphics" followed by it being incorporated into the general purpose CPU eventually. This is simply the first time it's occurred for the mainstream market.
Maxim
Vinyl may very well outlive the CD, but the big deal about CDs isn't the media itself, it's
the superior quality and convenience of digital encoding. Show me analog formats making
serious inroads against digital formats as a whole and THEN I'll be surprised.
Maxim
You should make a poorly-written, shallow, space opera about it!
Conservation of mass, people. Unless that sucker has a HELL of a lot of mass, we have nothing to worry about. How
easy can it get?
I opened a new window on my browser, and slashdot came up as my homepage. In the
instant it took the bookmark to start loading, I thought it said "bedroom spying debacle at HP".
Needless to say, I reacted with "what the hell?" and hit the previous page button immediately.