There are so many of those because they are cheap and functional. It's not for lack of interest that people don't buy sexier cars, it's for lack of money (or lack of suitability of the car). And when many people do buy a more interesting car (see: PT Cruiser) it suddenly becomes uninteresting. Go to a wealthy neighborhood, and notice how boring the rows of BMWs and Audis become.
and beige computers (less, these days though)
I don't think anybody makes beige computers anymore. HPs and Dells are typically silver and black plastic. Gamer rigs are garish transparent neon-lit things. Macs are either white plastic or solid aluminum.
It's really not about the color, it's the feel. The "50th percentile" computer is made of cheap plastic, that you can feel is cheap. It doesn't feel solid, it feels flimsy. The fit-and-finish is all wrong.
Beige is irrelevant, because historically speaking, there have been some beautifully built, solid machines that were beige in color.
Maybe I'm just being dense, but how, exactly, would this be different than the web server I already have in my garage?
I'm thinking the main difference would be that it consumes far less power. Most people wouldn't want to be powering a traditional server 24/7. It also takes up a lot less space, and is a lot cheaper.
Really? I would think that's the easiest part to understand. Your device controls your data. Period. Otherwise it's not really your data. It being your server, you can actually decide which external accounts (other friends) get access to particular data.
But why can't you just encrypt that data, and have it hosted on a server somewhere (with much more reliable up-times and network connections)? Why does the server have to be located domestically?
Do you know what payola is? It's a company secretly paying a radio station to play songs so they become popular and sell records.
Yes, I know this, but how does it constitute fraud against the listener? It's not like anybody who listens to commercial radio would expect the music to be untainted by commercial interests.
In any case, this still happens, and nobody is being prosecuted for it, which brings into question the illegality of the practice.
But ultimately, I wonder why there are different standards for different mediums. Why is payola (sometimes) illegal on the radio, but it's perfectly legal for companies to pay for product placement on TV shows, without disclosure to the viewer? As I said earlier, there is materially no difference between the two actions.
It was a time when a young man could still dream of being a delivery boy in space, and maybe, just maybe it was possible...
Yes, in those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were REAL men, women were REAL women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were REAL small furry creatures from Aplha Centauri.
I jumped immediately to DVD, and the higher resolution had little to do with it. Tape doesn't support random seek, it degrades in quality noticably over time, and DVD media is smaller. DVDs were functionally better.
That's true. Many people went to DVDs because of functionality. However, even if resolution wasn't a factor in your decision to switch, you'd have to admit it would be pretty rough going back to VHS now that you're used to that resolution. Seriously, break out a VHS tape sometime. Picture quality is truly awful, and you don't get things like native widescreen.
That's the main thrust of my argument - you don't know what you want until you have experienced it. Like those early computers, where people were perfectly happy with 128k of memory - but today 4GB isn't even enough.
Slashdot Mirror
--but seriously, now that I think of it, a Twilight-themed Excel file would nauseate me to no end.
And that is why you don't mess with Stephenie Meyer.
bland US and Japanese brand sedans,
There are so many of those because they are cheap and functional. It's not for lack of interest that people don't buy sexier cars, it's for lack of money (or lack of suitability of the car). And when many people do buy a more interesting car (see: PT Cruiser) it suddenly becomes uninteresting. Go to a wealthy neighborhood, and notice how boring the rows of BMWs and Audis become.
and beige computers (less, these days though)
I don't think anybody makes beige computers anymore. HPs and Dells are typically silver and black plastic. Gamer rigs are garish transparent neon-lit things. Macs are either white plastic or solid aluminum.
It's really not about the color, it's the feel. The "50th percentile" computer is made of cheap plastic, that you can feel is cheap. It doesn't feel solid, it feels flimsy. The fit-and-finish is all wrong.
Beige is irrelevant, because historically speaking, there have been some beautifully built, solid machines that were beige in color.
My backup script pushes the new AP names to my web server and you can read it on line.
You're not hosting your page via one of those access points, are you? I think it just melted.
Hey, let's engineer a couple of oil-spills, too! Jobs for thousands of people, and those people will be performing valuable services!
Hey, let's make specious comparisons and stupid remarks on internet forums!
It's myspace all over again!
No, this is FaceGovernment. Much cooler.
Maybe I'm just being dense, but how, exactly, would this be different than the web server I already have in my garage?
I'm thinking the main difference would be that it consumes far less power. Most people wouldn't want to be powering a traditional server 24/7. It also takes up a lot less space, and is a lot cheaper.
Make sure you refer to them as freedoms 0-3 too.
Also, it's necessary to refer to freedom 0 as the "zeroeth freedom," and Linux as GNU/Linux.
Really? I would think that's the easiest part to understand. Your device controls your data. Period. Otherwise it's not really your data. It being your server, you can actually decide which external accounts (other friends) get access to particular data.
But why can't you just encrypt that data, and have it hosted on a server somewhere (with much more reliable up-times and network connections)? Why does the server have to be located domestically?
Yeah, but 680 of those fingers were probably pinkies... which are like the lizard's tail of the human body.
They grow back?!
The above quote, although written many eons ago, seems remarkably accurate for the not-so-distant future...
Except for the part where it's a card, and not a mark on the skin, of course.
At 60 FPS, a frame is 16.7 ms long. I.E. adding 7ms to your input latency doesn't even show up on the screen.
It does if your baseline input latency is 10ms.
Do you know what payola is? It's a company secretly paying a radio station to play songs so they become popular and sell records.
Yes, I know this, but how does it constitute fraud against the listener? It's not like anybody who listens to commercial radio would expect the music to be untainted by commercial interests.
In any case, this still happens, and nobody is being prosecuted for it, which brings into question the illegality of the practice.
But ultimately, I wonder why there are different standards for different mediums. Why is payola (sometimes) illegal on the radio, but it's perfectly legal for companies to pay for product placement on TV shows, without disclosure to the viewer? As I said earlier, there is materially no difference between the two actions.
It's a fraud perpetuated on the public
How so?
And it is quite clearly different than paid advertising on the radio, because paid advertising is legal while payola was made a crime 50 years ago.
But payola is not materially different than advertising. So, if payola is a crime, then why isn't advertising?
Sorry, have to disagree there. I say fairly controversial (read: anything remotely approaching a conservative viewpoint
Since when was being a conservative on slashdot controversial? It's actually the status-quo.
So many made up words, so little meaning. The term 'fraud' has been around since the dawn of the English language.
How is "payola" fraud? It is no different than paying to have advertisements run on the radio. It is paying for an advertising service.
Knowladge is power
Weird. I thought that Knowladge was Powar.
Wernstrom!
It was a time when a young man could still dream of being a delivery boy in space, and maybe, just maybe it was possible...
Yes, in those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were REAL men, women were REAL women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were REAL small furry creatures from Aplha Centauri.
Good news, everyone! I've invented a device that lets you hear my voice in your head as you read this!
That's weird. You sound exactly like Professor Farnsworth.
I jumped immediately to DVD, and the higher resolution had little to do with it. Tape doesn't support random seek, it degrades in quality noticably over time, and DVD media is smaller. DVDs were functionally better.
That's true. Many people went to DVDs because of functionality. However, even if resolution wasn't a factor in your decision to switch, you'd have to admit it would be pretty rough going back to VHS now that you're used to that resolution. Seriously, break out a VHS tape sometime. Picture quality is truly awful, and you don't get things like native widescreen.
That's the main thrust of my argument - you don't know what you want until you have experienced it. Like those early computers, where people were perfectly happy with 128k of memory - but today 4GB isn't even enough.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Have you never read slashdot? Troll is used as a replacement for "I disagree" quite regularly.
This is partly due to a levy imposed on blank media, CD-Rs and cassette tapes,
So, blank CD-Rs and tapes are somehow different than "blank media"?
you're likely too young to boot!
That never stopped Lord British.
Histrionics over strange data formats is so 90s.
KB? SI units are meant to be computationally convenient, not arbitrarily assigned.
The irony between these two statements is intense.
Is there any way to specify multiple formats? Ex: that points to H.264, but falls back to H.264 if that isn't supported?
If H.264 isn't supported, then how could it fall back on H.264 as a supported option?