Dont copy that floppy. ( uh huh )
Home taping kills music ( to show my age )
Just don't upload to public sites (advice to my kids)
Btw, the kids don't torrent, they don't need to.
Im still confused. I'm a ham, and here in the NYC area we have almost zero unallocated space. There are a few blocks of federal space that seem quiet or spread spectrum.
How do you come up with a practical antenna that covers all the possible frequencies ? Trolling a cb radio board shows that antenna tuning is too complicated for the great unwashed. Hams spend a lot of time optimizing antennas using tuners and such. Wifi is transparent as antennas are not an issue. I don't see how any sort of efficient transmit antenna is going to spring out of thin air to serve all possible white space possibilities.....
Here in the US, that is any "new construction" contract for a NYC apartment. The best part is that during the bubble, most had "no contingency" for mortgages, so if you couldn't get the loan, the seller kept your 10% earnest money deposit.
That is the deal with bmw. A third more expensive but 2x the service life. I used to sell stereo back in the day. There was more middle range stuff than now.
"TV" was a push based, realtime entertainment with very limited bandwidth. Much of the programming had to be halfway decent, and the talent was a lot better, as it was competing for that tiny timeslice. If you missed some thing, you truly did, and you'd be out of the loop come water cooler conversation time.
Today, with thousands of channels, the talent has gone way, way down. There are so many ads you NEED a DVR to watch anything...I can't recall the last time I watched a cable or OTA show in real time that wasn't a sports match. Since all those holes need filling, we've gone from Lucille Ball and Mary Tyler Moore to....Snooki and the Kartrashian clan.
TV is now just a big screen. Ask my kids, who don't watch ANY OTA or cable in real time either. The networks are screwed...note all the ads are for drugs for old folks....no one under 45 watches "the news", and no one watches anything in real time anymore.
All our election laws are so written as to make it nearly impossible for a third party to get on ballot. The tea party is running as R to avoid this problem. Even Perot, with unlimited $ had a hard time and the big two "graciously" withdrew objections as not to permanently upset the apple cart. Add to this the corporate control of mass media and we get an illusion of choice. O has gone far to the right and not getting Medicare for all when the D had both houses and the presidency, rather we get a bill perpetuating the horrid health "insurance" system. The so called people's party tweaks the system causing all the problems (for profit health insurance) but leaves the established rapists in place and forces us to marry them instead.
Oh well. The media has turned on O, right on schedule. Our next president may well be a creationist, but he or she will be just dandy for the top 1%
As a ham and a person who has to buy new toys for our local govt.
Take the radios that are being taken out of service. Dedicate five VHF and five UHF channels within the common bands as emergency channels. Use FM only. for bonus points have one pair of channels used for a repeater with a backup power supply. Other than reprogramming existing equipment there would be little cost. The FCC would have to come up with the ten channels, but surely this is faster than moving entire blocks around.
Of course, while it would work, there are no big moneybags to move around (mostly out of our tax dollars to m). you didn't really think this was about public safety or first responders, did you ?
At the computer game museum in Berlin there is a great piece of computer art where these roms are randomly tossed together and the resulting mash up is funny and interesting gameplay.
Used to be 100 % fax.
Became 50% fax
I now have a fax only because 5% still prefer it and it is basically free. I'd have a multifunction printer anyway, and the only extra cost is one phone line. For an office this is trivial-I'd happily pay for a phone line if it gets me one more customer. Lots of folks have a multifunction device, would be flummoxed to have to scan and send, but the fax is there......
I got hung up on by a DJ in 1977 when the rock station went to a power format, and I asked why their signal suddenly became so distorted.
Not much has changed. At least there is digital music that lives up to the promise, not all junky mp3
This is all about maintaining the now artificial divide between "TEEVEE" and Computer. The HDMI is brilliant. The content cartel, realizing that they had to put up a wall against oncoming technology (Maginot Line, anyone ?) came up with the HDMI and control it by licensing. This gives a cross border solution that can be controlled at the manufacturing level, with penalties for the guy in china or elsewhere who comes up with "non HDCP" compliant hardware.
Now, Apple goes and gives you a cable that crosses the boundary between TEEVEE and Computer. Along with "analog sunset", the HDMI is designed to once and for all lock down the signal, for as long as brilliant patent attorneys can prolong the idea. All they needed to do was get every TV maker to sign on... and they did !!!!
Meanwhile, pirates rip and torrent apace, and honest guys like me have to deal with "HDCP handshake issues".
The TV and Computer are only 5 years from total merger, but the idea of a special connector, controlled by licensing and a licensing body, with patent protection, all to protect electronic content, is brilliant. Read the public HDMI and HDCP documentation. In this world, you need "compliant" equipment only attached to HDMI.
They have to fight to maintain the integrity. Wouldn't want those precious content bits in any old format, would we ?
Thank you. Corporations are inherently amoral. not immoral, but amoral. They are machines.
You don't have six local eating places, you have two and four chains.
Likewise, you get competition between fios and cable ONLY if they are on your street. Otherwise, slow speeds and no customer service.
Government should be a counterweight to smooth out the rough edges of Capitalism. All religions teach us this. They are right and I'm an atheist. A just society cares for all to some extent. We get crazy as we won't toss anyone out of an emergency room but won't pay for it. The hypocrisy means paying customers get hammered while some don't pay. We still use private, 30% profit "companies" for our insurance pooling when even poorly run a public option is better. We don't get this, we get "private" insurance for all. The AMA came out with a study showing most markets have two insurers, maybe three. At that level our history of railroads teaches us that the players go for a beer and come back with high prices for us.
The rand nuts then collide with hippies and we end up with no result. Corporate America games the system and I now pay more for disaster health insurance than I used to for actual pays-for stuf[- health insurance.
I'm afraid that the cultural concept of losing face is active here. It is basically being left alone save some poke&hope attempts to drop water on it. Meanwhile, the US and others probably know how it truly is by all that remote sensing/spysat tech in orbit, but can't really say, other than "all americans in 50 miles evacuate".
Ask for help....it's beyond face, it's a truly worldwide disaster.
This is the curve that rules the auto industry. 30 hp and a set of stiffer sway bars adds 15% to the price of the car. Mercedes is top but AMG is topper and Black is topper still. You lose price v value at some point mechanically but that is not the point. You are paying for parking lot parity or status for most, not 185 mph cruise speeds.
At a party, the woman with the tiniest handbag usually wins, and my wife tells me how much it costs.
Chasing that last tiny bit of amplifier distortion in audio or radio will cost 10x as much as the first 90x, which is usually more than adequate anyway.
I like this one....
As the target market (dad) I have an avid gamer (son). These $50 games are hyped and hyped to the kids in ways that the old TV advertisers could only dream of. Worst is the free "demo", which for a kid is like the crack dealers' First one is Free situation. Worst is that the games last as long as it takes a kid and his buddies to beat it...which might not be that long, depending on the game.
Gamefly is a lifesaver for my wallet. Likewise, the $2 game on the Pad/Pod whatever is as well, although you can eat a lot of potato chips at that price.
I sincerely hope the $50 video game goes the way of the $18 CD.
This box has a TV Guide on screen, which IS a grid, and falls under the "patents" discussed. It was released in 2003 or so, and even has a rudimentary search. Sony, for all their faults, has supported this box even into the digital transition with updated software for a six year old gadget.
There must be some agreements between Sony and TV Guide On Screen (now Rovi/Macrovision).
My Dish box is about as smart, and about as easy to use.
Tivo is the BMW to the Sony's Ford and Dish's Chevy, but I can't really say one grid and menu systems is much different than another.
Why a DVR isn't sold much here is a farce. I have an older sony HDD 250, a great OTA DVR which uses Rovi listings to work. This unit is obsolete by today's standards, but has an easy interface and program guide.
Sony never made others here in the US, but has an extensive line elsewhere in the "noncompatible" world.
Dish made a DVR for a while, but such an obivous technology is not easy to get. You can make a HTPC if you have some ability, but you can't buy a simple box at Best Buy.
You can rent it from the Sat or Cable co, but you can't usually buy it.
ridiculous.
The IRS expects you, in an S corp to pay yourself a "reasonable" salary. There is NO actual guidelines, and many accountants are now advising clients (in the absence of a real guideline) to pay themselves 60% of the draw as salary (get hammered on SS taxes, etc - and not that I'll ever see anything back) and the other 40% as dividend. There were folks who on a 150k income paid themselves 10k and then took the rest as dividends, free of SS tax (15%).
Guess "wrong" as a small businessman and get hammered for back "salary" with interest and penalty on the tax. You accountant is navigating for you in the dark and fog.
There was a bill in the last Congress to require SS taxes on 100% of draw. It died but only after a huge upset for small businesses and accountants. Meanwhile, hedge fund guys pay 15% on that, but they are rich so they are more important.
I'm still an S corp but the benefits are way less than, say, ten years ago. As my CPA recently informed me "State and Federal Governments need the money, so they are taking a harder line on everything".
Nothing like uncertainty in paying taxes.
Remember the HDMI port on the back of your computers and TVs. The "industry" got the whole world (USian) to require these special connectors for HD content so you can't easily make a copy. They now control anyone who makes an HDMI connector without the requisite encryption (HDCP, the reason my TV resets every time I change a channel) and you can't make HDMI as you need to be licensed.
Same idea here.
I was very happy when my new computer had a 166 mhz chip with "MMX Technology". They even included a pod racer game to show it off.
It's all one generation away from being "on one chip" All of it.
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No, the firmware is up to date and performing well.
Dont copy that floppy. ( uh huh ) Home taping kills music ( to show my age ) Just don't upload to public sites (advice to my kids) Btw, the kids don't torrent, they don't need to.
Im still confused. I'm a ham, and here in the NYC area we have almost zero unallocated space. There are a few blocks of federal space that seem quiet or spread spectrum. How do you come up with a practical antenna that covers all the possible frequencies ? Trolling a cb radio board shows that antenna tuning is too complicated for the great unwashed. Hams spend a lot of time optimizing antennas using tuners and such. Wifi is transparent as antennas are not an issue. I don't see how any sort of efficient transmit antenna is going to spring out of thin air to serve all possible white space possibilities.....
Here in the US, that is any "new construction" contract for a NYC apartment. The best part is that during the bubble, most had "no contingency" for mortgages, so if you couldn't get the loan, the seller kept your 10% earnest money deposit.
If this technology/enforcement mechanism COST money NO ONE would install it. Private Law Enforcement...What could go wrong ?
That is the deal with bmw. A third more expensive but 2x the service life. I used to sell stereo back in the day. There was more middle range stuff than now.
You sleep when the baby sleeps-it's easier to let it win in the beginning before we destroy their time sense and make them use clocks.
"TV" was a push based, realtime entertainment with very limited bandwidth. Much of the programming had to be halfway decent, and the talent was a lot better, as it was competing for that tiny timeslice. If you missed some thing, you truly did, and you'd be out of the loop come water cooler conversation time. Today, with thousands of channels, the talent has gone way, way down. There are so many ads you NEED a DVR to watch anything...I can't recall the last time I watched a cable or OTA show in real time that wasn't a sports match. Since all those holes need filling, we've gone from Lucille Ball and Mary Tyler Moore to....Snooki and the Kartrashian clan. TV is now just a big screen. Ask my kids, who don't watch ANY OTA or cable in real time either. The networks are screwed...note all the ads are for drugs for old folks....no one under 45 watches "the news", and no one watches anything in real time anymore.
Ten dollars per gallon this summer. Our BMW turbo diesel got forty nine miles per gallon. Still a 140 dollar tank.
All our election laws are so written as to make it nearly impossible for a third party to get on ballot. The tea party is running as R to avoid this problem. Even Perot, with unlimited $ had a hard time and the big two "graciously" withdrew objections as not to permanently upset the apple cart. Add to this the corporate control of mass media and we get an illusion of choice. O has gone far to the right and not getting Medicare for all when the D had both houses and the presidency, rather we get a bill perpetuating the horrid health "insurance" system. The so called people's party tweaks the system causing all the problems (for profit health insurance) but leaves the established rapists in place and forces us to marry them instead. Oh well. The media has turned on O, right on schedule. Our next president may well be a creationist, but he or she will be just dandy for the top 1%
As a ham and a person who has to buy new toys for our local govt. Take the radios that are being taken out of service. Dedicate five VHF and five UHF channels within the common bands as emergency channels. Use FM only. for bonus points have one pair of channels used for a repeater with a backup power supply. Other than reprogramming existing equipment there would be little cost. The FCC would have to come up with the ten channels, but surely this is faster than moving entire blocks around. Of course, while it would work, there are no big moneybags to move around (mostly out of our tax dollars to m). you didn't really think this was about public safety or first responders, did you ?
At the computer game museum in Berlin there is a great piece of computer art where these roms are randomly tossed together and the resulting mash up is funny and interesting gameplay.
Used to be 100 % fax. Became 50% fax I now have a fax only because 5% still prefer it and it is basically free. I'd have a multifunction printer anyway, and the only extra cost is one phone line. For an office this is trivial-I'd happily pay for a phone line if it gets me one more customer. Lots of folks have a multifunction device, would be flummoxed to have to scan and send, but the fax is there......
I got hung up on by a DJ in 1977 when the rock station went to a power format, and I asked why their signal suddenly became so distorted. Not much has changed. At least there is digital music that lives up to the promise, not all junky mp3
This is all about maintaining the now artificial divide between "TEEVEE" and Computer. The HDMI is brilliant. The content cartel, realizing that they had to put up a wall against oncoming technology (Maginot Line, anyone ?) came up with the HDMI and control it by licensing. This gives a cross border solution that can be controlled at the manufacturing level, with penalties for the guy in china or elsewhere who comes up with "non HDCP" compliant hardware. Now, Apple goes and gives you a cable that crosses the boundary between TEEVEE and Computer. Along with "analog sunset", the HDMI is designed to once and for all lock down the signal, for as long as brilliant patent attorneys can prolong the idea. All they needed to do was get every TV maker to sign on ... and they did !!!!
Meanwhile, pirates rip and torrent apace, and honest guys like me have to deal with "HDCP handshake issues".
The TV and Computer are only 5 years from total merger, but the idea of a special connector, controlled by licensing and a licensing body, with patent protection, all to protect electronic content, is brilliant. Read the public HDMI and HDCP documentation. In this world, you need "compliant" equipment only attached to HDMI.
They have to fight to maintain the integrity. Wouldn't want those precious content bits in any old format, would we ?
Thank you. Corporations are inherently amoral. not immoral, but amoral. They are machines. You don't have six local eating places, you have two and four chains. Likewise, you get competition between fios and cable ONLY if they are on your street. Otherwise, slow speeds and no customer service. Government should be a counterweight to smooth out the rough edges of Capitalism. All religions teach us this. They are right and I'm an atheist. A just society cares for all to some extent. We get crazy as we won't toss anyone out of an emergency room but won't pay for it. The hypocrisy means paying customers get hammered while some don't pay. We still use private, 30% profit "companies" for our insurance pooling when even poorly run a public option is better. We don't get this, we get "private" insurance for all. The AMA came out with a study showing most markets have two insurers, maybe three. At that level our history of railroads teaches us that the players go for a beer and come back with high prices for us. The rand nuts then collide with hippies and we end up with no result. Corporate America games the system and I now pay more for disaster health insurance than I used to for actual pays-for stuf[- health insurance.
my berry does a great job playing music...and I can actually download the songs too !!!
I'm afraid that the cultural concept of losing face is active here. It is basically being left alone save some poke&hope attempts to drop water on it. Meanwhile, the US and others probably know how it truly is by all that remote sensing/spysat tech in orbit, but can't really say, other than "all americans in 50 miles evacuate". Ask for help....it's beyond face, it's a truly worldwide disaster.
This is the curve that rules the auto industry. 30 hp and a set of stiffer sway bars adds 15% to the price of the car. Mercedes is top but AMG is topper and Black is topper still. You lose price v value at some point mechanically but that is not the point. You are paying for parking lot parity or status for most, not 185 mph cruise speeds. At a party, the woman with the tiniest handbag usually wins, and my wife tells me how much it costs. Chasing that last tiny bit of amplifier distortion in audio or radio will cost 10x as much as the first 90x, which is usually more than adequate anyway. I like this one....
As the target market (dad) I have an avid gamer (son). These $50 games are hyped and hyped to the kids in ways that the old TV advertisers could only dream of. Worst is the free "demo", which for a kid is like the crack dealers' First one is Free situation. Worst is that the games last as long as it takes a kid and his buddies to beat it...which might not be that long, depending on the game. Gamefly is a lifesaver for my wallet. Likewise, the $2 game on the Pad/Pod whatever is as well, although you can eat a lot of potato chips at that price. I sincerely hope the $50 video game goes the way of the $18 CD.
This box has a TV Guide on screen, which IS a grid, and falls under the "patents" discussed. It was released in 2003 or so, and even has a rudimentary search. Sony, for all their faults, has supported this box even into the digital transition with updated software for a six year old gadget. There must be some agreements between Sony and TV Guide On Screen (now Rovi/Macrovision). My Dish box is about as smart, and about as easy to use. Tivo is the BMW to the Sony's Ford and Dish's Chevy, but I can't really say one grid and menu systems is much different than another.
Why a DVR isn't sold much here is a farce. I have an older sony HDD 250, a great OTA DVR which uses Rovi listings to work. This unit is obsolete by today's standards, but has an easy interface and program guide. Sony never made others here in the US, but has an extensive line elsewhere in the "noncompatible" world. Dish made a DVR for a while, but such an obivous technology is not easy to get. You can make a HTPC if you have some ability, but you can't buy a simple box at Best Buy. You can rent it from the Sat or Cable co, but you can't usually buy it. ridiculous.
The IRS expects you, in an S corp to pay yourself a "reasonable" salary. There is NO actual guidelines, and many accountants are now advising clients (in the absence of a real guideline) to pay themselves 60% of the draw as salary (get hammered on SS taxes, etc - and not that I'll ever see anything back) and the other 40% as dividend. There were folks who on a 150k income paid themselves 10k and then took the rest as dividends, free of SS tax (15%). Guess "wrong" as a small businessman and get hammered for back "salary" with interest and penalty on the tax. You accountant is navigating for you in the dark and fog. There was a bill in the last Congress to require SS taxes on 100% of draw. It died but only after a huge upset for small businesses and accountants. Meanwhile, hedge fund guys pay 15% on that, but they are rich so they are more important. I'm still an S corp but the benefits are way less than, say, ten years ago. As my CPA recently informed me "State and Federal Governments need the money, so they are taking a harder line on everything". Nothing like uncertainty in paying taxes.
Remember the HDMI port on the back of your computers and TVs. The "industry" got the whole world (USian) to require these special connectors for HD content so you can't easily make a copy. They now control anyone who makes an HDMI connector without the requisite encryption (HDCP, the reason my TV resets every time I change a channel) and you can't make HDMI as you need to be licensed. Same idea here.
I was very happy when my new computer had a 166 mhz chip with "MMX Technology". They even included a pod racer game to show it off. It's all one generation away from being "on one chip" All of it.