... their tendancy to foist proprietary formats on us
Ummm, there are 22 manufacturers using that format. I don't see foisting. I see freely licensing. Now, Apple is foisting.
All that said, I too only use open mp3s ripped from CD. I do, however, subscribe to Yahoo Music Unlimited, which allows me unlimited access to WMA (with DRM) - but I only use this when connected to the net, not for burning or downloading to portable players. Seriously, I think this tells us that there is a negligible number of DRMd tracks in PlaysForSure format that people have purchased. Otherwise MS would have added support for it.
There really is no gripe here. There are a wide number of players that can still be purchased that handle PlaysForSure tracks. Microsoft just decided that the player they are launching would not support older PlaysForSure content. But it's not like you would be left high-and-dry. As of today, there are 134 different players from 22 different manufacturers (http://www.playsforsure.com/FindPortableDevices.a spx) that you could buy to play PlaysForSure tracks. Contrast that with what happens if your iPod dies. Apple has a monopoly on the ability to play iTunes-purchased content. Down the road, as people build large collections, it wouldn't shock me if Apple charged a premium for players that could play older content - and there would be nowhere else to turn.
I assume the Zune will not be stamped with the PlaysforSure logo, certifying that it is able to play those tracks. This does not compromise the validity of PlaysForSure at all -- that is merely a way for consumers to know where their media will be playable (ie which portable media players they can buy). There was no guarantee, explicit or otherwise, that these songs would play forever - only that they would play on devices that were certified PlaysForSure compatible (of which, apparently, Zune is not one).
This suggests to me that there haven't been many PlaysForSure track purchases. I suspect most people who play DRM'd WMA files subscribe to unlimited services like Yahoo Unlimited. I am such a person, and I have yet to purchase a "burnable" track.
I think that the first book was in reaction to a culture for programmers that was basically camping in their cubicles in Silicon Valley where people were spending their entire lives living out of cubicles with food brought in and laundry taken out.
There are places where they take out laundry? Real programmers don't change their clothes until the job's done!
My bad. That's 305,740 square kilometers. This actually makes the ratio even more lopsided at 27.1 to 1, for an area-normalized equivalent gas price of $16.38/gallon.
Now, if we use the EU's area instead of Finland's we get a more favorable comparison. That ratio is 2.3, so if you take the average price of gas in the US of $2.90 and multiply by the US/EU area ratio you get an "equivalent" EU price of $6.68. This shows that gas is *still* cheaper in the EU if you normalize for distances. I wonder what the average miles driven per year is in Europe. In the US the typical number used is 12,000 miles/year, though I don't know if that reflects the actual average or if it's just the number the insurance companies and car companies use.
It's election season, dumbasses, they're lowering prices to help out their buddies in Washington.
Nice theory, but what happened in 2004? Remember all those rumors that Bush had a secret arrangement with the Saudis and they were going to lower gas prices around the election to make Bush look good. Well, it never happened. http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publ ications/wrgp/mogas_home_page.html In fact, gas prices peaked in November of 2004, having risen over 20% from March to November of that year.
I'll see your price-per-gallon math and raise you some proportional-area math.
The US is 3,537,438 square miles (land). Finland's is 305,470 (land). So, the US driver must cover 11.58 times as much area. Now that works out to a proportionate gas price of $6.04 / 11.58, or $0.52 per gallon.
For the all the effort involved it would be simpler to just embed a hidden track and read that.
Well for starters, hidden tracks can be copied. I don't expect there to be blank writable media with the RFID included, so it will always be easy to discern a pre-recorded (ie store bought) disc versus a consumer-written disc. As far as disabling the RFID reader in the player, I'm sure that will be extremely difficult in these days of "system on a chip" - more than likely it will be embedded in the one-and-only IC in the player.
OK, as someone who has lived in Mr. Kerry's state during most of his tenure as its junior senator, I have more than a passing familiarity with his patterns. That "voted against it before I voted for it" comment that Bush and the Republicans tatooed him with during the campaign may very well have refered to the type of scenario you posit (i.e. someone changed the bill). However, his remark really captured perfectly his whole political career. He always positions himself on both sides of the issue. He was a "war hero" who protested the war. He is a hunter who supports gun laws. He is a rich man (married into money) who is for the little guy. He is a Catholic who supports abortion. The list goes on and on. In the end, the man has no principals, other that his strong desire to be (re)elected.
Government should not be making laws about particular devices. If people are concerned about "legal gambling" being on the up-and-up a simple law to the effect "No devices may be used in casinos to assist the gambler in betting". The OP is exactly correct - this is a silly waste of tax dollars.
Remember, everyone doesn't vote. This would be a nice theory except for the fact that there is a high correlation between the level of education and the likelihood of voting (the more educated, the more likely you're a voter). So that actually means Bush got roughly 50% of the most educated voters. Quite the opposite of what your are implying. I also suspect, though I can't prove it, that there is also a high correlation showing that the less educated a voter, the more likely they vote for Democrats. This is why the Democrats are always trying to "get out the vote".
Exactly. That was my point. One would expect a Microsoft-sponsored study to highlight any new and unique capabilities if they could think of any;-) Apparently even they are admitting is "just another Windows upgrade".
According to the article, from what I could tell the jobs were all just about upgrading hardware and software. There was no discussion about unique capabilities of Vista spawning whole new industries or applications.
If I were an IT decision-maker in Europe I might read this differently. Hmmm, 50,000 jobs is a lot of Euros. What exactly are we getting for that huge expenditure? Maybe we should think a little more carefully about doing this upgrade and consider the alternatives.
What's even more interesting will be the first virus transferred from zune-to-zune.
Ummm, doesn't a device have to be able to execute code from writable memory to "catch" a virus? I presume (make that hope) this device has its code in flash and doesn't have the ability to install and run other code? Now I guess if someone could find a buffer overflow problem and then somehow get it to execute code from the media file... but that's a bit of a stretch I think.
Nowehere did I say Bush was a saint, nor did I say he's done nothing wrong. I was merely pointing out that politics is dirty business and neither party has a monopoly on bad or evil behavior. There is a tendency around here to blame everything on Bush and the Republicans - as if the world were an idyllic place 6 years ago before Bush took office. I am old enough to have lived through many presidencies and what I can say from my experience is that in most cases the second term is usually a disaster. Maybe they get drunk with power. Whatever, neither party has covered themselves with glory.
Washington DC has vastly increased in size in the past six years
Why only go back 6 years? Oh, I know.
Face it, Washington DC has vastly increased in size continually since it first became the nation's capital. Sorry, this is not something we can blame exclusively on George Bush and the Republicans.
New World Order: What does this term mean?
New World Order is a term used to describe an accord of the world's superpowers to rule, secure, and maintain the premise of "global peace." The concept is to bring the world under submission to one supreme government, enforce one controlled common religion and one worldwide economic system. (The EU has already instituted this with the 'Euro' currency.) In reality, it is a move toward a socialistic, controlled, and godless world.
"Insight" is not a bad thing by any means. To me it's more an issue of dynamic range. How deep can you really go? Mind you, I have always been one of those guys who wants/needs to know how it *all* works. I feel I am much more effective when I understand the lower layers. What has changed over my career however, is how low I have to go to be effective. For example, I no longer worry about the number of clocks per instruction anymore, though I used to have them committed to memory. I do, however, remain congnizant of the performance tradeoffs you make when choosing between floats, doubles and ints.
I don't know who is more dangerous, the "Islamofascists" who are behind terrorism or the Neocons who are willing and able to give away all of our Constitutional rights and freedoms
... or the "New World Order Looney Left" who want to subjugate the U.S. interests to international bodies like the U.N. That also gives away all of our Constitutional rights and freedoms. Really, it's scary whichever way you turn.
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... their tendancy to foist proprietary formats on us
Ummm, there are 22 manufacturers using that format. I don't see foisting. I see freely licensing. Now, Apple is foisting.
All that said, I too only use open mp3s ripped from CD. I do, however, subscribe to Yahoo Music Unlimited, which allows me unlimited access to WMA (with DRM) - but I only use this when connected to the net, not for burning or downloading to portable players. Seriously, I think this tells us that there is a negligible number of DRMd tracks in PlaysForSure format that people have purchased. Otherwise MS would have added support for it.
There really is no gripe here. There are a wide number of players that can still be purchased that handle PlaysForSure tracks. Microsoft just decided that the player they are launching would not support older PlaysForSure content. But it's not like you would be left high-and-dry. As of today, there are 134 different players from 22 different manufacturers (http://www.playsforsure.com/FindPortableDevices.a spx) that you could buy to play PlaysForSure tracks. Contrast that with what happens if your iPod dies. Apple has a monopoly on the ability to play iTunes-purchased content. Down the road, as people build large collections, it wouldn't shock me if Apple charged a premium for players that could play older content - and there would be nowhere else to turn.
I store them with my 8-tracks.
I assume the Zune will not be stamped with the PlaysforSure logo, certifying that it is able to play those tracks. This does not compromise the validity of PlaysForSure at all -- that is merely a way for consumers to know where their media will be playable (ie which portable media players they can buy). There was no guarantee, explicit or otherwise, that these songs would play forever - only that they would play on devices that were certified PlaysForSure compatible (of which, apparently, Zune is not one).
This suggests to me that there haven't been many PlaysForSure track purchases. I suspect most people who play DRM'd WMA files subscribe to unlimited services like Yahoo Unlimited. I am such a person, and I have yet to purchase a "burnable" track.
My bad. That's 305,740 square kilometers. This actually makes the ratio even more lopsided at 27.1 to 1, for an area-normalized equivalent gas price of $16.38/gallon.
Now, if we use the EU's area instead of Finland's we get a more favorable comparison. That ratio is 2.3, so if you take the average price of gas in the US of $2.90 and multiply by the US/EU area ratio you get an "equivalent" EU price of $6.68. This shows that gas is *still* cheaper in the EU if you normalize for distances. I wonder what the average miles driven per year is in Europe. In the US the typical number used is 12,000 miles/year, though I don't know if that reflects the actual average or if it's just the number the insurance companies and car companies use.
It's election season, dumbasses, they're lowering prices to help out their buddies in Washington.
l ications/wrgp/mogas_home_page.html In fact, gas prices peaked in November of 2004, having risen over 20% from March to November of that year.
Nice theory, but what happened in 2004? Remember all those rumors that Bush had a secret arrangement with the Saudis and they were going to lower gas prices around the election to make Bush look good. Well, it never happened. http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_pub
I'll see your price-per-gallon math and raise you some proportional-area math.
The US is 3,537,438 square miles (land). Finland's is 305,470 (land). So, the US driver must cover 11.58 times as much area. Now that works out to a proportionate gas price of $6.04 / 11.58, or $0.52 per gallon.
For the all the effort involved it would be simpler to just embed a hidden track and read that.
Well for starters, hidden tracks can be copied. I don't expect there to be blank writable media with the RFID included, so it will always be easy to discern a pre-recorded (ie store bought) disc versus a consumer-written disc. As far as disabling the RFID reader in the player, I'm sure that will be extremely difficult in these days of "system on a chip" - more than likely it will be embedded in the one-and-only IC in the player.
OK, I'll answer the question. About 75% of web users still use IE.
If you are a sys admin, or a web admin, Deal.
I see you bought the propaganda. Congratulations
OK, as someone who has lived in Mr. Kerry's state during most of his tenure as its junior senator, I have more than a passing familiarity with his patterns. That "voted against it before I voted for it" comment that Bush and the Republicans tatooed him with during the campaign may very well have refered to the type of scenario you posit (i.e. someone changed the bill). However, his remark really captured perfectly his whole political career. He always positions himself on both sides of the issue. He was a "war hero" who protested the war. He is a hunter who supports gun laws. He is a rich man (married into money) who is for the little guy. He is a Catholic who supports abortion. The list goes on and on. In the end, the man has no principals, other that his strong desire to be (re)elected.
Government should not be making laws about particular devices. If people are concerned about "legal gambling" being on the up-and-up a simple law to the effect "No devices may be used in casinos to assist the gambler in betting". The OP is exactly correct - this is a silly waste of tax dollars.
Shhh. I am perfectly fine with him not voting. Every person who "thinks" like him makes my vote count even more!
Actually I voted for Kerry before I voted against him.
Remember, everyone doesn't vote. This would be a nice theory except for the fact that there is a high correlation between the level of education and the likelihood of voting (the more educated, the more likely you're a voter). So that actually means Bush got roughly 50% of the most educated voters. Quite the opposite of what your are implying. I also suspect, though I can't prove it, that there is also a high correlation showing that the less educated a voter, the more likely they vote for Democrats. This is why the Democrats are always trying to "get out the vote".
Exactly. That was my point. One would expect a Microsoft-sponsored study to highlight any new and unique capabilities if they could think of any ;-) Apparently even they are admitting is "just another Windows upgrade".
According to the article, from what I could tell the jobs were all just about upgrading hardware and software. There was no discussion about unique capabilities of Vista spawning whole new industries or applications.
If I were an IT decision-maker in Europe I might read this differently. Hmmm, 50,000 jobs is a lot of Euros. What exactly are we getting for that huge expenditure? Maybe we should think a little more carefully about doing this upgrade and consider the alternatives.
What's even more interesting will be the first virus transferred from zune-to-zune.
... but that's a bit of a stretch I think.
Ummm, doesn't a device have to be able to execute code from writable memory to "catch" a virus? I presume (make that hope) this device has its code in flash and doesn't have the ability to install and run other code? Now I guess if someone could find a buffer overflow problem and then somehow get it to execute code from the media file
Nowehere did I say Bush was a saint, nor did I say he's done nothing wrong. I was merely pointing out that politics is dirty business and neither party has a monopoly on bad or evil behavior. There is a tendency around here to blame everything on Bush and the Republicans - as if the world were an idyllic place 6 years ago before Bush took office. I am old enough to have lived through many presidencies and what I can say from my experience is that in most cases the second term is usually a disaster. Maybe they get drunk with power. Whatever, neither party has covered themselves with glory.
Be a patriot: Murder a Republican.
Nice. Perhaps we should all just wait for N Korea to kill us all with the nucleur technology Clinton gave them. Talk about treason.
... it just happened to be a coincidence in that last six years that it got out of hand.
Got a reference? Or is this just something "everybody knows"?
Washington DC has vastly increased in size in the past six years
Why only go back 6 years? Oh, I know.
Face it, Washington DC has vastly increased in size continually since it first became the nation's capital. Sorry, this is not something we can blame exclusively on George Bush and the Republicans.
From http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/new-world-or
Since when is "insight" a bad thing?
"Insight" is not a bad thing by any means. To me it's more an issue of dynamic range. How deep can you really go? Mind you, I have always been one of those guys who wants/needs to know how it *all* works. I feel I am much more effective when I understand the lower layers. What has changed over my career however, is how low I have to go to be effective. For example, I no longer worry about the number of clocks per instruction anymore, though I used to have them committed to memory. I do, however, remain congnizant of the performance tradeoffs you make when choosing between floats, doubles and ints.
I don't know who is more dangerous, the "Islamofascists" who are behind terrorism or the Neocons who are willing and able to give away all of our Constitutional rights and freedoms
... or the "New World Order Looney Left" who want to subjugate the U.S. interests to international bodies like the U.N. That also gives away all of our Constitutional rights and freedoms. Really, it's scary whichever way you turn.