If MS was really, truly concerned about keeping malware off your PC, they'd rewrite Windows from the ground up so stupid crap like that isn't even possible, just like every other !@#$ing OS out there.
It renamed Wii Points to Nintendo Points, and added clearer warnings about what controllers you have to own in order to play a game before you purchase the game.
Everything I do in OpenOffice gets saved in OpenDocument format, unless I need to copy it to my Palm Tungsten T3, in which case I'm forced to convert it to an MS format. There's nothing for Palm OS 5 that'll allow me to edit ODF documents and spreadsheets. Once something like that is created, I'll be free of.doc and.xls files.
IIRC, his contract is going to be up soon anyways, and if this is how he feels his company is treating him I doubt he'll sign a new one.
With the innovative storytelling he's done with Year Zero, and essentially making open-source music by releasing the original recording data so that anyone can remix it, it'll be interesting to see how he goes about releasing new music without a large distribution network that the major label gives him.
I'd much rather have (and currently do have) a D-Link DSM320. It does everything that Hauppauge unit does, plus a few extra formats, component video, optical SPDIF audio, and wireless networking. Of course, it costs a little more (about $180 CDN), but I've definitely been enjoying it.
Its good to know D-Link does have some (admittedly weak) competition outside of the build-your-own crowd.
The answer is simple, just don't do it. Just do your other jobs instead of following your boss' order to break the law. If he fires you, sue. You'll win multiple years of lost salary easily when the reason you were fired is that you were ordered to commit illegal acts and wouldn't. In the end, it'll look good on the resume for your next job, because future employers will know that you'll stand your ground for the things that are right.
Honestly, I'm speaking from a little bit of experience here, so keep a stiff upper lip and don't give in to your boss.
Re:Does 480p have anything to do with widescreen?
on
Wii Confirmed at 480p
·
· Score: 1
Bah, that's definitely the right way to do the math. I was comparing pixel-count assuming square pixels.
640*480 = 307200 720*480 = 345600
307200 / 345600 = 88.8%, saying that standard-screen is 11.2% smaller than widescreen.
Obviously, I was approaching it wrong.
Re:Does 480p have anything to do with widescreen?
on
Wii Confirmed at 480p
·
· Score: 2, Informative
All video on (professionally mastered) DVDs is presented as a 720x480 picture. If its a widescreen video, the pixels are perfectly square. If its a standard-size video, the pixels are squished so that the 720 pixels per line fit in the screen. When a widescreen video is played on a standard-size screen, the DVD player is responsible for removing lines from the video so that the aspect ratio of the original video is maintained.
And to the GP, the "pillar-boxing" you get when displaying a standard-size picture on a widescreen TV actually only takes up 11% of your screen's real-estate. If the pillar-boxing is taking up more than that, there's a problem with your setup.
You're wrong about The Wall. That album is 81:12 long, and an audio CD can only hold (at an extreme maximum) 80 minutes. You'd have to do some incredibly complicated overburning that wouldn't work in most CD players in order to fit that album onto one disc.
Once the game has been downloaded to your machine, it is possible to force Steam into an "offline" mode which won't hit up servers for anything (updates, verification, etc). So, if the Steam service disappears, you will still be able to play your games. As well, you can back up the Steam installer and the game data to CDs/DVDs, so if the service disappears you can load the games back from your own personal backups.
That's just the first ones that came to mind, I could easily go on. Good music is easy to come by if you look in the right places (and a mainstream FM radio station is not the right place). CBC Radio 3's podcast is a great place to start.
Yep, that's the bug alright. I had the patch in place, and I did a whole bunch of googling but never came up with that fix. I might even still have the game installed, so I'll have to give it a shot. Thanks for your help!
Here's a question I've had rolling around in my head for a while, but never had a good chance to ask it to a bunch of people actually paying attention.
How necessary is playing through KOTOR1 to understanding what's happening in KOTOR2? I ask because I bought the PC version of KOTOR1, and was enjoying it immensely until some nasty bugs cropped up on the second planet in the game and made it impossible for me to play further (all attempts at reporting the bug or getting tech support went completely unanswered).
I've heard KOTOR2 is six different kinds of w00t, but I'm always hesitant to burst into sequels without knowing what's going on.
Tool also did something similar the vinyl release of their album Aenima. There's a hidden track half-way through one side, where the track on the vinyl splits into two. Playing normally, you'd only ever follow the first path. In order to hear the hidden track, you have to put the needle down in precisely the right place. After the hidden track, the album continues playing as normal.
That's definitely how to do a hidden track, none of the 10-minutes of silence at the end of the last track on the CD crap. I always thought that "trick" was fairly lame.
Seriously, though, surround sound format for music? That's a capability that's sure to only ever be used by cheesy, short lived bands.
Yes, because Nine Inch Nails, Beck, Ben Folds, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Neil Young, and David Bowie have all had such short-lived, cheesy careers...
Every last one of those artists have released material in a surround format (either SACD, DVD-A, or a DualDisc), many of them were specifically thinking in three dimensions when originally writing the music in the first place (NIN, Beck, Ben Folds, and David Bowie can all be found in interviews talking about writing for 5.1).
The last three episodes I watched of The Nature Of Things consisted firstly of a two-parter on the history of the human species, complete from ancient ape to modern sapiens, complete with a ton of incredibly well done re-enactments. The third episode (which aired last night) was a history of Tibetan medicine and the role it is now taking in modern Tibetan society, including how it incorporates practices from western medicine to produce the best health-care possible.
No endangered species there. While Suzuki may be an environmental activist, he knows he can't be preachy, and that there's much much more to the modern world than just disappearing animals and icebergs.
Even though I'm from Saskatchewan, I have to admit that I don't watch that much Corner Gas. I really should watch more, its all funny because its all true.
Yes, overall the CBC's ratings are lower than other Canadian networks, but the CBC has a drastically different audience than any other Canadian network. Would CTV or Global air something like The Nature Of Things (one of the greatest science documentary shows ever created) during primetime? Or spend the money to make it in HD? Hell no. Does any other major corporate network (radio, TV, or otherwise) give a crap about independant music in Canada? Hell no. But the CBC does, and the massive success of the Radio 3 podcast is proof of that. Its not so much a corporate network as it is a public service. Being that they're partially funded by tax money, they have a duty to give to the widest possible base of viewers. Even though they're loading up on the reality shows, they're still dedicated to The Nature Of Things and their documentaries (hell, they even have a whole cable channel dedicated to them).
As well, CBC News is still considered to be some of the best in the business. CBC Newsworld is by far the best news channel I've ever seen, and George Stromboulopoulos's The Hour is truly amazing.
While they may be losing out on some major bids due to lack of funds, that doesn't really matter as much to the CBC as it would to a completely corporate network, because the advertising dollar isn't their sole bottom line.
I only speak English, but enjoy my anime (or any foreign film, for that matter) to be subtitled rather than dubbed. This is not because I'm a snob, but because the voice actors are usually rather terrible. I'd like to hear the original actor doing their role, because there is still an inherent amount of inflection in the voice that really gives the actor's performance its power. Take that away, and you're not getting the show that the actors, director, and crew originally wanted you to see. It'd be like turning the color red off on the TV, and then expecting to make proper sense of the picture.
Take, for example, the film Amelie, a gorgeous French film. I could never, ever watch that dubbed, because the actors in that film are such extreme caricatures of reality coloured by French culture that no dubbed English voice could ever do them justice.
I don't see this as snobbishness (although there are plenty of people out there who will play it off as such for their own ego stroking), but just the best way to enjoy an artist's creation. If someone else likes dubs, that's great, but they're not for me.
Agreed 100%. Any time I need to transfer massive amounts of files (and physically moving the hard drive from one machine to another is not an option), Filezilla never lets me down. Server on one side, client on the other... they're a quick setup and just as easy to install as remove when they're no longer needed. Its amazing how much data can fly through a router that's actually working it full capacity.
True, its a good starting point for showing the strengths of some of the open-source tools out there, but there's only so much you can do with a 400MHz Celeron.:-P
Slashdot Mirror
There, fixed that for you.
It renamed Wii Points to Nintendo Points, and added clearer warnings about what controllers you have to own in order to play a game before you purchase the game.
There's no computer drive that'll read SACDs, that's why it remains uncracked.
Of course, that doesn't stop people from using the good ol' analog hole, and circulating DTS-CD images of content only released on SACD.
My first thought:
Zero-G Riverdance
Screw "Metropolis", bring on "A Change Of Seasons". Completing a 23-minute song with 100% accuracy should be worth just a few bragging rights. :-P
Everything I do in OpenOffice gets saved in OpenDocument format, unless I need to copy it to my Palm Tungsten T3, in which case I'm forced to convert it to an MS format. There's nothing for Palm OS 5 that'll allow me to edit ODF documents and spreadsheets. Once something like that is created, I'll be free of .doc and .xls files.
IIRC, his contract is going to be up soon anyways, and if this is how he feels his company is treating him I doubt he'll sign a new one. With the innovative storytelling he's done with Year Zero, and essentially making open-source music by releasing the original recording data so that anyone can remix it, it'll be interesting to see how he goes about releasing new music without a large distribution network that the major label gives him.
I'd much rather have (and currently do have) a D-Link DSM320. It does everything that Hauppauge unit does, plus a few extra formats, component video, optical SPDIF audio, and wireless networking. Of course, it costs a little more (about $180 CDN), but I've definitely been enjoying it.
Its good to know D-Link does have some (admittedly weak) competition outside of the build-your-own crowd.
...George Carlin got a massive headache the same time this HBO exec thought this up.
1) Open development environment of your choice
2) ???
3) Profit!
The answer is simple, just don't do it. Just do your other jobs instead of following your boss' order to break the law. If he fires you, sue. You'll win multiple years of lost salary easily when the reason you were fired is that you were ordered to commit illegal acts and wouldn't. In the end, it'll look good on the resume for your next job, because future employers will know that you'll stand your ground for the things that are right.
Honestly, I'm speaking from a little bit of experience here, so keep a stiff upper lip and don't give in to your boss.
Bah, that's definitely the right way to do the math. I was comparing pixel-count assuming square pixels.
640*480 = 307200
720*480 = 345600
307200 / 345600 = 88.8%, saying that standard-screen is 11.2% smaller than widescreen.
Obviously, I was approaching it wrong.
All video on (professionally mastered) DVDs is presented as a 720x480 picture. If its a widescreen video, the pixels are perfectly square. If its a standard-size video, the pixels are squished so that the 720 pixels per line fit in the screen. When a widescreen video is played on a standard-size screen, the DVD player is responsible for removing lines from the video so that the aspect ratio of the original video is maintained.
And to the GP, the "pillar-boxing" you get when displaying a standard-size picture on a widescreen TV actually only takes up 11% of your screen's real-estate. If the pillar-boxing is taking up more than that, there's a problem with your setup.
You're wrong about The Wall. That album is 81:12 long, and an audio CD can only hold (at an extreme maximum) 80 minutes. You'd have to do some incredibly complicated overburning that wouldn't work in most CD players in order to fit that album onto one disc.
Once the game has been downloaded to your machine, it is possible to force Steam into an "offline" mode which won't hit up servers for anything (updates, verification, etc). So, if the Steam service disappears, you will still be able to play your games. As well, you can back up the Steam installer and the game data to CDs/DVDs, so if the service disappears you can load the games back from your own personal backups.
Just for fun, I'll name five.
That's just the first ones that came to mind, I could easily go on. Good music is easy to come by if you look in the right places (and a mainstream FM radio station is not the right place). CBC Radio 3's podcast is a great place to start.
Yep, that's the bug alright. I had the patch in place, and I did a whole bunch of googling but never came up with that fix. I might even still have the game installed, so I'll have to give it a shot. Thanks for your help!
Here's a question I've had rolling around in my head for a while, but never had a good chance to ask it to a bunch of people actually paying attention.
How necessary is playing through KOTOR1 to understanding what's happening in KOTOR2? I ask because I bought the PC version of KOTOR1, and was enjoying it immensely until some nasty bugs cropped up on the second planet in the game and made it impossible for me to play further (all attempts at reporting the bug or getting tech support went completely unanswered).
I've heard KOTOR2 is six different kinds of w00t, but I'm always hesitant to burst into sequels without knowing what's going on.
Tool also did something similar the vinyl release of their album Aenima. There's a hidden track half-way through one side, where the track on the vinyl splits into two. Playing normally, you'd only ever follow the first path. In order to hear the hidden track, you have to put the needle down in precisely the right place. After the hidden track, the album continues playing as normal. That's definitely how to do a hidden track, none of the 10-minutes of silence at the end of the last track on the CD crap. I always thought that "trick" was fairly lame.
Yes, because Nine Inch Nails, Beck, Ben Folds, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Neil Young, and David Bowie have all had such short-lived, cheesy careers...
Every last one of those artists have released material in a surround format (either SACD, DVD-A, or a DualDisc), many of them were specifically thinking in three dimensions when originally writing the music in the first place (NIN, Beck, Ben Folds, and David Bowie can all be found in interviews talking about writing for 5.1).
The last three episodes I watched of The Nature Of Things consisted firstly of a two-parter on the history of the human species, complete from ancient ape to modern sapiens, complete with a ton of incredibly well done re-enactments. The third episode (which aired last night) was a history of Tibetan medicine and the role it is now taking in modern Tibetan society, including how it incorporates practices from western medicine to produce the best health-care possible.
No endangered species there. While Suzuki may be an environmental activist, he knows he can't be preachy, and that there's much much more to the modern world than just disappearing animals and icebergs.
Even though I'm from Saskatchewan, I have to admit that I don't watch that much Corner Gas. I really should watch more, its all funny because its all true.
Yes, overall the CBC's ratings are lower than other Canadian networks, but the CBC has a drastically different audience than any other Canadian network. Would CTV or Global air something like The Nature Of Things (one of the greatest science documentary shows ever created) during primetime? Or spend the money to make it in HD? Hell no. Does any other major corporate network (radio, TV, or otherwise) give a crap about independant music in Canada? Hell no. But the CBC does, and the massive success of the Radio 3 podcast is proof of that. Its not so much a corporate network as it is a public service. Being that they're partially funded by tax money, they have a duty to give to the widest possible base of viewers. Even though they're loading up on the reality shows, they're still dedicated to The Nature Of Things and their documentaries (hell, they even have a whole cable channel dedicated to them).
As well, CBC News is still considered to be some of the best in the business. CBC Newsworld is by far the best news channel I've ever seen, and George Stromboulopoulos's The Hour is truly amazing.
While they may be losing out on some major bids due to lack of funds, that doesn't really matter as much to the CBC as it would to a completely corporate network, because the advertising dollar isn't their sole bottom line.
As for Corner Gas, that's CTV, not CBC.
I only speak English, but enjoy my anime (or any foreign film, for that matter) to be subtitled rather than dubbed. This is not because I'm a snob, but because the voice actors are usually rather terrible. I'd like to hear the original actor doing their role, because there is still an inherent amount of inflection in the voice that really gives the actor's performance its power. Take that away, and you're not getting the show that the actors, director, and crew originally wanted you to see. It'd be like turning the color red off on the TV, and then expecting to make proper sense of the picture.
Take, for example, the film Amelie, a gorgeous French film. I could never, ever watch that dubbed, because the actors in that film are such extreme caricatures of reality coloured by French culture that no dubbed English voice could ever do them justice.
I don't see this as snobbishness (although there are plenty of people out there who will play it off as such for their own ego stroking), but just the best way to enjoy an artist's creation. If someone else likes dubs, that's great, but they're not for me.
Agreed 100%. Any time I need to transfer massive amounts of files (and physically moving the hard drive from one machine to another is not an option), Filezilla never lets me down. Server on one side, client on the other... they're a quick setup and just as easy to install as remove when they're no longer needed. Its amazing how much data can fly through a router that's actually working it full capacity.
True, its a good starting point for showing the strengths of some of the open-source tools out there, but there's only so much you can do with a 400MHz Celeron. :-P