Oh wait...a lot of people started using it (It was cheaper and mini-series were 6 hours long) and even tho it was much worse than Beta, it won the format wars.
Open video just has to not suck and be used in a lot of places. The fact that it should be cheaper will be another bonus.
While I agree and disagree with parts of your post, I don't see a line of it that is a troll.
Someone mod him back up.
--
I think the prices are too high. You can easily drop the price of a *good* new car in under 10 years. That's insane.
I watch and listen to indie stuff, I play the service changing game (now on directv and back at $34 a month again. I cut my service repeatedly at Dish to get it down to 60 and they kept raising the price back to over $70 for less and less product).
I watch shows on the free sites (hulu, network, etc.)
There is a price point where it is more convenient to let them hold the content and serve it to me- but it's somewhere about $40 a month and they want triple that (or more).
And they've completely hijacked the copyright rules. Anything over 28 years, I don't respect. However- I keep my head on straight that it's potentially illegal so I don't act like an idiot. And there are legal ways to get a lot of copyrighted content free.
There is an increasingly large glut of entertainment now tho. I skip things all the time. I'm years behind on some shows. Which will make them cheaper when I finally watch them.
However, with these drones, they are specifically targeting people.
So they know "this is john smith of 1390 mockingbird lane, CA and a U.S. citizen." That's the point of the protest-- known U.S. citizens are being targeted for execution.
"Basically, to keep its currency fixed against the U.S. dollar, China must promise to be able to redeem one U.S. dollar for every 8 yuan. As China's economy grows, it must buy more and more U.S. currency to meet the growing number of yuan."
China will not be able to sell those bonds at face value.
For example, if they sell 10%, the price of the rest would drop (from a glut of bonds for sale on the market).
If they hold 10 trillion dollars in bonds, selling them all too quickly could lose them several trillion dollars.
I recognize the risks you are talking about. You can never eliminate it (heck- even commercial software and hardware is caught installing virii). The same applies to open source, firefox plugins, etc.
The only reliable risk mitigation is waiting a few months, then checking it again.
I've had one virus ever. That was on my Amiga.
"Something wonderful is happening" "Your Amiga has come alive!"
Friends told me "bullshit", "no way" for at least a few weeks until someone else saw the screen and it became common knowledge it was out there.
My main way of security outside of the cool down and rescan is the machine's fire wall and looking at the lights on the modems and router.
I use Avast and AVG virus scanners.
They've detected a grand total of 3 viruses in the last 5 years. I simply deleted the items.
But after 15 or 20 people post "it's clean as far as I can tell" then no.
Likewise, if the first person posts "this ate my machine" or "my virus scanner detects "BLAH" in this" then it's not safe.
I've only used RAR type programs personally. Everything else I use is free (as in beer) except Dragon Dictate which is reasonably priced for what it does so I buy it periodically. Someday there will be a free text recognition program (that WORKS at least as well with Openoffice) and I'll be done with DD.
The interesting thing is... at some point, these sources in the US will be much more valuable. And they'll still be available. When we really need them, we'll have them.
If oil went to $300 a barrel - this fall - we would start to drill for oil in all these sensitive areas and even bypass our procedures.
The loans are not callable. And the limit of our liability is whatever assets are in their countries.
China has bought trillions to keep their currency from appreciating. When they stop buying, the currency appreciates anyway and those trillions in purchases lose significant value. So yea, they are going to lose trillions of bucks whatever they do.
In the meant time, the US got cheap goods and they got jobs and a chance to build infrastructure.
But you don't suppress your currency value for as long as they did and as much as they did without paying for it at some point.
Okay.. I'm going to have to blow my moderations to reply.
>As I understand it, (again, someone feel free to jump in here and correct me) man is created in God's image, therefore is as close to perfection as you can already make it (i.e. body is temple, etc). To alter your body (tattoos, organ donations) is to desecrate it (the temple of God) is to disrespect God.
So why is it not desecrated when you alter it to receive part of another person's body into it???!!!
Sorry-- this guy is tattoo'd-- he's desecrated. But this guy has a woman's heart, and another man's kidney-- he's fine. Oh wait, it says here he Donated his corneas! Sacrilege! Throw his body on the ash heap!
FYI: There is a tool for removing these under firefox.
It's called "Better Privacy" and removes LSO cookies.
I felt a little foolish installing it since I wasn't seeing anything I would call a negative effect but it don't hurt performance and regularly cleans up a half dozen to several dozen LSO cookies when I exit the browser.
Well I usually tip well but I agree with your point. The best solution would be to have higher cab rates combined with more accurate fares. Corruption is generally bad for societies that practice it widely.
People are just so harsh and the system has become so unequal over the last thirty years that I'm starting to lose respect for it. (and don't take me wrong- I do well personally- have built houses for charity, given money to the policeman's survivors fund, and red-cross).
I've been called conservative and liberal here based on my posts so my belief that I'm somewhere in the middle seems well founded.
But what's going on at the lower middle class level of society is just driving me up the wall lately. It's so finely tuned it's more like a kind of slavery.
Stealing someone's diamond or someone's cash would be wrong.
Boosting the daily fares up a fair wage isn't wrong.
(I mean.. come on- they make $50k in a town where $126k has the same purchasing power as making $50k in Houston. So $50k is like earning about under $25k-- i.e. near poverty if not below).
When they start to retire rich like the Wall Street folks I'll feel a little differently.
And we are going to begrudge them a few bucks in fares? $26,092 is just above the federal poverty level. (cost of living is so bad in new york that they are starting to calculate poverty levels differently because "poverty level" is actually in the low $30k's in NYC).
---
The arrogance and sense of entitlement of the wealthy and my fellow boomers really makes me irritated sometimes.
More than national health care, we need a law saying "a consumer is never required to pay more than 50% over the insurance companies negotiated rates".
With insurance, procedure is $75. ($75 out of my pocket for the first $500 and then "free" to me but $75 on my bill). Without insurance, procedure is over $1000.
With insurance, pills are $45 a month. (about $1.50) Without insurance pills are $5.5 *each*.
You can't explain nearly 4x as expensive from economies of scale. The rates for the uninsured are not reasonable.
As our information collection gets better, hidden income sources get eliminated. Then the question becomes- does the "honest" rate really need to be raised?
For example- truck drivers used to be expected to make 8 stops and were paid 8x dollars.
Once GPS came in, suddenly they are being expected to make 11 stops (because the gps showed they were sitting around for 20 minutes) and work 100% while on. But the pay is still 8x dollars.
I wonder if there is a correlation between how much the out of town rate was activated and how slow a day the driver was having?
Our drivers in Houston are certainly not retiring wealthy (unlike some of our police sergeants). Cab driving should provide a decent living and with government intervention in rates, that can be tricky at times.
Well we have one point of agreement-- should I go for two or quit while I'm ahead.../devilish grin...
> Taxes meant to promote jobs? Mmm those are new to me. Ok assuming that a hypothetical tax to promote jobs exist, that portion of tax money should not be awarded to IBM.
During bad economic times, the government distributes current and future revenues (i.e. taxes) to bolster jobs to mollify the extremes of the business cycle and to help the next up-cycle start sooner.
Sort of like helping consumers buy a car, so the car companies keep car employees employed so they keep spending money so other people's jobs are preserved. Each dollar we keep moving goes around locally about 7 times. So each employment dollar lost has an effect far beyond the one person that lost their job (they don't buy coffee any more, quit getting that massage, cut off their cable bill, etc.)
Where we are now is: The government gives out credits to the businesses to keep jobs going in the united states (to mitigate the current downstroke) and these cheese heads are taking those dollars and immediately shipping them overseas. It's actually *worse* than the people just losing their jobs because we are taxing the survivors and taking that money (and even incurring future debts) and giving it to other countries. I mean-- that's at least a bit goofy right?
---
On the other matter- a simple search shows there appears to be a real issue with Chinese chips and "fake" Chinese chips in our military supply chain. You have to wonder what they are thinking. I mean-- at the least, say we ever get in a war with China. No replacement parts. And that's assuming they don't have some secret add-on's. Didn't we learn from what we did to the russians with those trick oil pumps that created one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history?
---
It comes down to the fact that we really are not in control any more- our votes matter very little- the media is controlled by the wealthy and corporations. I guess everyone is just coasting along looting and pillaging until it all falls over at this point. I was talking to a conservative baby boomer friend of mine-- pointing out how I felt it was wrong she was going to get way more in benefits than she put in- and it was going to come from young people who could ill afford the increased taxes. "Conservative" went right out the window. Those damn benefits were *hers*. Screw the kids and grandkids. Myself- I'd take reduced benefits. But I'm fiscally conservative, not "conservative".
Mexico is a sad, sad story and the drug war has a lot to do with it.
I do not think Mexico can begin to recover until many drugs are legalized.
As for china...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8432514.stm China executions shrouded in secrecy... Amnesty International's figure is lower. It estimates the number of executions in 2008 was about 1,700, still a considerable number. The disparity shows just how little is known about the process here.
Reports in the Chinese media suggest about one in 10 executions is for non-violent, economic crimes.... The courts here describe themselves as independent, but the reality is the Communist Party controls them. --- http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=19981&t=10%2C000+Uighur+disappear+in+China%2C+U.S.+silent "About 10,000 people disappeared in Urumqi in one night. Where have they gone? If they are dead, where are they" now, she said during a press conference through an interpreter. --- And here's the one that would apply to executives moving to china...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8186849.stm Two Chinese business people have been executed for defrauding investors out of more than 850m yuan ($120m, £70m), China's state news agency reports.
These are *tiny* amounts of money compared to the frauds committed by wall street, bernie madoff, stanford, the enron crew, the worldcom crew. All the while laying off and destroying middle class and lower class jobs by the thousands while also bilking shareholders and investors.
Slashdot Mirror
CD's are much prettier coasters after you burn them in the microwave.
But you can find those all over the planet.
Sure lots are smaller... but some even fit ten inches.
You're right. VHS has no shot against Beta.
Oh wait.. .a lot of people started using it (It was cheaper and mini-series were 6 hours long) and even tho it was much worse than Beta, it won the format wars.
Open video just has to not suck and be used in a lot of places. The fact that it should be cheaper will be another bonus.
While I agree and disagree with parts of your post, I don't see a line of it that is a troll.
Someone mod him back up.
--
I think the prices are too high. You can easily drop the price of a *good* new car in under 10 years. That's insane.
I watch and listen to indie stuff, I play the service changing game (now on directv and back at $34 a month again. I cut my service repeatedly at Dish to get it down to 60 and they kept raising the price back to over $70 for less and less product).
I watch shows on the free sites (hulu, network, etc.)
There is a price point where it is more convenient to let them hold the content and serve it to me- but it's somewhere about $40 a month and they want triple that (or more).
And they've completely hijacked the copyright rules. Anything over 28 years, I don't respect. However- I keep my head on straight that it's potentially illegal so I don't act like an idiot. And there are legal ways to get a lot of copyrighted content free.
There is an increasingly large glut of entertainment now tho. I skip things all the time. I'm years behind on some shows. Which will make them cheaper when I finally watch them.
However, with these drones, they are specifically targeting people.
So they know "this is john smith of 1390 mockingbird lane, CA and a U.S. citizen." That's the point of the protest-- known U.S. citizens are being targeted for execution.
Very nice polite response!
Clap clap clap!
One Happy Positive Karma thought headed your way.
Cool.
Downloaded and installed.
Nothing to unrar yet, I'll give it a test when something comes in.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5353313
"Basically, to keep its currency fixed against the U.S. dollar, China must promise to be able to redeem one U.S. dollar for every 8 yuan. As China's economy grows, it must buy more and more U.S. currency to meet the growing number of yuan."
China will not be able to sell those bonds at face value.
For example, if they sell 10%, the price of the rest would drop (from a glut of bonds for sale on the market).
If they hold 10 trillion dollars in bonds, selling them all too quickly could lose them several trillion dollars.
Seems like 7 zip didn't support RAR decoding at the time.
Does it do so natively now?
I recognize the risks you are talking about. You can never eliminate it (heck- even commercial software and hardware is caught installing virii). The same applies to open source, firefox plugins, etc.
The only reliable risk mitigation is waiting a few months, then checking it again.
I've had one virus ever. That was on my Amiga.
"Something wonderful is happening"
"Your Amiga has come alive!"
Friends told me "bullshit", "no way" for at least a few weeks until someone else saw the screen and it became common knowledge it was out there.
My main way of security outside of the cool down and rescan is the machine's fire wall and looking at the lights on the modems and router.
I use Avast and AVG virus scanners.
They've detected a grand total of 3 viruses in the last 5 years. I simply deleted the items.
I see your point on a public site.
It doesn't apply on a closed community invitation only site.
If you are the first person-- sure.
But after 15 or 20 people post "it's clean as far as I can tell" then no.
Likewise, if the first person posts "this ate my machine" or "my virus scanner detects "BLAH" in this" then it's not safe.
I've only used RAR type programs personally. Everything else I use is free (as in beer) except Dragon Dictate which is reasonably priced for what it does so I buy it periodically. Someday there will be a free text recognition program (that WORKS at least as well with Openoffice) and I'll be done with DD.
The interesting thing is... at some point, these sources in the US will be much more valuable. And they'll still be available.
When we really need them, we'll have them.
If oil went to $300 a barrel - this fall - we would start to drill for oil in all these sensitive areas and even bypass our procedures.
The loans are not callable.
And the limit of our liability is whatever assets are in their countries.
China has bought trillions to keep their currency from appreciating. When they stop buying, the currency appreciates anyway and those trillions in purchases lose significant value. So yea, they are going to lose trillions of bucks whatever they do.
In the meant time, the US got cheap goods and they got jobs and a chance to build infrastructure.
But you don't suppress your currency value for as long as they did and as much as they did without paying for it at some point.
The man with one tongue is king.
Okay.. I'm going to have to blow my moderations to reply.
>As I understand it, (again, someone feel free to jump in here and correct me) man is created in God's image, therefore is as close to perfection as you can already make it (i.e. body is temple, etc). To alter your body (tattoos, organ donations) is to desecrate it (the temple of God) is to disrespect God.
So why is it not desecrated when you alter it to receive part of another person's body into it???!!!
Sorry-- this guy is tattoo'd-- he's desecrated. But this guy has a woman's heart, and another man's kidney-- he's fine. Oh wait, it says here he Donated his corneas! Sacrilege! Throw his body on the ash heap!
FYI: There is a tool for removing these under firefox.
It's called "Better Privacy" and removes LSO cookies.
I felt a little foolish installing it since I wasn't seeing anything I would call a negative effect but it don't hurt performance and regularly cleans up a half dozen to several dozen LSO cookies when I exit the browser.
Given a multi gigahertz multi processor computer do I really care if it consumes 10% or 33% or even 50% of the processor while I'm watching a video?
I care about open standards a lot more.
If the performance difference actually affected anything that I saw-- perhaps. But video has been smooth for three or four years now.
Well I usually tip well but I agree with your point. The best solution would be to have higher cab rates combined with more accurate fares.
Corruption is generally bad for societies that practice it widely.
People are just so harsh and the system has become so unequal over the last thirty years that I'm starting to lose respect for it.
(and don't take me wrong- I do well personally- have built houses for charity, given money to the policeman's survivors fund, and red-cross).
I've been called conservative and liberal here based on my posts so my belief that I'm somewhere in the middle seems well founded.
But what's going on at the lower middle class level of society is just driving me up the wall lately. It's so finely tuned it's more like a kind of slavery.
Cabbies are honest by their own standards.
Stealing someone's diamond or someone's cash would be wrong.
Boosting the daily fares up a fair wage isn't wrong.
(I mean.. come on- they make $50k in a town where $126k has the same purchasing power as making $50k in Houston. So $50k is like earning about under $25k-- i.e. near poverty if not below).
When they start to retire rich like the Wall Street folks I'll feel a little differently.
Do you know how hard it is to get to be a cab driver in some cities?
Do you want to be in a cab with a driver who has no clue about the streets and is just kinda wandering around trying to make it to your destination?
I mean- forget the extra money for a second- do you want to get to the airport, or your meeting, or the broadway play 30 minutes late?
As an FYI, these "cheating" cab drivers are making about $50k.
A driver make around 50,000 per year depending on his shift which is 8 to 12 hours.
Sources: http://411newyork.org/guide/2008/03/30/new-york-taxi-cab-driver-salary/
Meanwhile
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/02/05/2009-02-05_nyc_so_costly_you_need_to_earn_six_figur.html
N.Y.C. so costly you need to earn six figures to make middle class
A New Yorker would have to make $123,322 a year to have the same standard of living as someone making $50,000 in Houston.
In Manhattan, a $60,000 salary is equivalent to someone making $26,092 in Atlanta.
---
And we are going to begrudge them a few bucks in fares? $26,092 is just above the federal poverty level. (cost of living is so bad in new york that they are starting to calculate poverty levels differently because "poverty level" is actually in the low $30k's in NYC).
---
The arrogance and sense of entitlement of the wealthy and my fellow boomers really makes me irritated sometimes.
More than national health care, we need a law saying "a consumer is never required to pay more than 50% over the insurance companies negotiated rates".
With insurance, procedure is $75. ($75 out of my pocket for the first $500 and then "free" to me but $75 on my bill).
Without insurance, procedure is over $1000.
With insurance, pills are $45 a month. (about $1.50)
Without insurance pills are $5.5 *each*.
You can't explain nearly 4x as expensive from economies of scale. The rates for the uninsured are not reasonable.
This is a tricky point for me.
As our information collection gets better, hidden income sources get eliminated.
Then the question becomes- does the "honest" rate really need to be raised?
For example- truck drivers used to be expected to make 8 stops and were paid 8x dollars.
Once GPS came in, suddenly they are being expected to make 11 stops (because the gps showed they were sitting around for 20 minutes) and work 100% while on. But the pay is still 8x dollars.
I wonder if there is a correlation between how much the out of town rate was activated and how slow a day the driver was having?
Our drivers in Houston are certainly not retiring wealthy (unlike some of our police sergeants). Cab driving should provide a decent living and with government intervention in rates, that can be tricky at times.
Well we have one point of agreement-- should I go for two or quit while I'm ahead... /devilish grin...
> Taxes meant to promote jobs? Mmm those are new to me. Ok assuming that a hypothetical tax to promote jobs exist, that portion of tax money should not be awarded to IBM.
During bad economic times, the government distributes current and future revenues (i.e. taxes) to bolster jobs to mollify the extremes of the business cycle and to help the next up-cycle start sooner.
Sort of like helping consumers buy a car, so the car companies keep car employees employed so they keep spending money so other people's jobs are preserved. Each dollar we keep moving goes around locally about 7 times. So each employment dollar lost has an effect far beyond the one person that lost their job (they don't buy coffee any more, quit getting that massage, cut off their cable bill, etc.)
Where we are now is: The government gives out credits to the businesses to keep jobs going in the united states (to mitigate the current downstroke) and these cheese heads are taking those dollars and immediately shipping them overseas. It's actually *worse* than the people just losing their jobs because we are taxing the survivors and taking that money (and even incurring future debts) and giving it to other countries.
I mean-- that's at least a bit goofy right?
---
On the other matter- a simple search shows there appears to be a real issue with Chinese chips and "fake" Chinese chips in our military supply chain. You have to wonder what they are thinking. I mean-- at the least, say we ever get in a war with China. No replacement parts. And that's assuming they don't have some secret add-on's. Didn't we learn from what we did to the russians with those trick oil pumps that created one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history?
---
It comes down to the fact that we really are not in control any more- our votes matter very little- the media is controlled by the wealthy and corporations. I guess everyone is just coasting along looting and pillaging until it all falls over at this point. I was talking to a conservative baby boomer friend of mine-- pointing out how I felt it was wrong she was going to get way more in benefits than she put in- and it was going to come from young people who could ill afford the increased taxes. "Conservative" went right out the window. Those damn benefits were *hers*. Screw the kids and grandkids. Myself- I'd take reduced benefits.
But I'm fiscally conservative, not "conservative".
Mexico is a sad, sad story and the drug war has a lot to do with it.
I do not think Mexico can begin to recover until many drugs are legalized.
As for china...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8432514.stm ...
China executions shrouded in secrecy
Amnesty International's figure is lower. It estimates the number of executions in 2008 was about 1,700, still a considerable number. The disparity shows just how little is known about the process here.
Reports in the Chinese media suggest about one in 10 executions is for non-violent, economic crimes. ...
The courts here describe themselves as independent, but the reality is the Communist Party controls them.
---
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=19981&t=10%2C000+Uighur+disappear+in+China%2C+U.S.+silent
"About 10,000 people disappeared in Urumqi in one night. Where have they gone? If they are dead, where are they" now, she said during a press conference through an interpreter.
---
And here's the one that would apply to executives moving to china...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8186849.stm
Two Chinese business people have been executed for defrauding investors out of more than 850m yuan ($120m, £70m), China's state news agency reports.
These are *tiny* amounts of money compared to the frauds committed by wall street, bernie madoff, stanford, the enron crew, the worldcom crew. All the while laying off and destroying middle class and lower class jobs by the thousands while also bilking shareholders and investors.