Whatever! My point wasn't that holography is the next big thing, my point is that there's got to be SOMETHING out there which meets the following requirements:
- As reliable as current hard drives
- Orders of magnitude faster
- No more than $100/gig to start. Yes, that's crazy, $2000 for a 20 gig drive?! But the prices would drop quickly, so $100/gig is a reasonable *start*. Keep in mind that this would be a HUMONGOUS performance increase.
- Whatever else you can think of
There's gotta be SOMETHING out there, THAT'S my point.
I used to work at a computer store. We had 3-foot SCSI cables that cost $70. I'm sure 12 meters is nice, if you've got the $900 it would cost for such a cable. (Also, how often is a hard drive more than 18 inches from the motherboard? I've never seen one...)
Yes, SCSI kicks the crap out of IDE, no argument there. But it is significantly more expensive. Like the other guy said, if you can afford it, great.
...the problem isn't hard drive protocols. Even with SCSI you're still in the millisecond-range for disk access and latency. What we SERIOUSLY need is some hardcore development in permanent storage with micro- or nanosecond seek/latency times. Like that holographic storage we always keep hearing about... you'd think after 20 years of research, someone would have a sellable version out.
I have to wonder, wouldn't it be possible for people to mess with the results, thus returning false positives and false negatives? How would such a thing be checked for? Would there be random double-checking so that if one person screwed up, the project wouldn't suffer?
...but it sure seems like IDC could afford to make better graphs than they did. Those pie charts looked like they were from five-year old versions of Excel...
Um... evolution *is* taught as a theory, and the fact that you used the phrase "Evolution is just a theory" demonstrates that you do not know what a scientific theory is. I'd explain further, but this site talk.origins (specifically here) does it *much* better. If you don't go and immediately read a good portion of that site (start from the top) then I'm sorry, but you have no place saying that evolution is "just a theory" as if that's supposed to be meaninful. Evolution is a theory the same way fluid mechanics, gravitation, and thermodynamics are all just "theories".
What's your point? I didn't say it was right. I said it's NOT GOING TO GO AWAY and we should be figuring out how to deal with it instead of whining about it. Yes, it's hard to stop -- impossible, in fact. Or effectively so. So instead of whining about how wrong it is (or even how you can stop it -- again, you CAN'T), figure out what you CAN do about it!
Murder has been dealt with by establishing law enforcement organizations that handle cases of murder. In the same vein, people should deal with UDCC instead of just whining about the morality and current legality of it.
My point was that people are whining instead of moving on to the important part: dealing with it.
...are of the form, "It doesn't matter if you don't like it, it's still bad/wrong/illegal/piracy/etc."
Am I the only one who's noticed that, regardless of what happens to Napster, UNAUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTION OF COPYRIGHTED CONTENT IS NEVER GOING TO GO AWAY?
Jesus F. Christ! It's not going to go away no matter what happens! Why don't people figure out how to DEAL WITH IT instead of whining about morality and law? God, this is getting annoying.
And to forestall those of you who would demand an answer from me, here it is: Unauthorized distribution of copyrighted content (let's call it UDCC -- I have trouble equating murder and robbery on the high seas with downloading "Enter Sandman") is going to happen no matter what. So people who don't want it to happen should provide a reasonable alternative for the consumer. Ideally, it would be some kind of system where people can download compressed digital audio (MP3 or Ogg Vorbis or something) for something as cheap as 99 cents a pop. Heck, there already ARE lots of sites like this; what if ALL the big labels did it?
This is of course dependent on a few things:
There has to be an easy and secure way for people to pay for these things.
A large segment of all music has to be made available. If it's only 10% of what I can find at the local music store, then screw it! I'll go buy the CD.
It has to be easy to use, portable, and transmittable between devices. (If I download one of these songs, I had damn well better be able to copy it onto my Rio or other portable digital music player.) This pretty much throws out using any kind of encryption. (Digital watermarking or something like that, if it doesn't interfere with the music, is fine by me.)
"But," you say, "everyone will just download it once, copy it, and give it to all their friends!" You know what? No, they won't, for the same reason that all software sold in this country isn't pirated. (China is another matter.) Quite a lot of people buy software, because they want things like original CDs, manuals, and even the nice shiny box that gives you a warm feeling just to look at. Downloading an authorized copy of a song is always going to appeal to those with a certain sense of morality, or just the desire to support the artists they like. (Once nice benefit -- hopefully -- of a system like this is that the artists get a much larger share of the pie, as opposed to the RIAA, who can all shrivel and die for all I care.)
Seriously, would everyone quit bitching about how immoral/illegal it is? Just focus on what IS GOING TO HAPPEN.
One thing to consider: As far as I know, the Post Office is covered by federal laws and regulations, and has Congressional oversight, but it does *not* receive any government funds. The USPS is entirely self-funded via selling stamps, envelopes, services, etc.
The point being that, yes, it is a "government" organization, but you ain't paying for it unless you use it!
I could be wrong but this is true AFAIK. Can anyone corroborate?
They aren't the same color. They aren't targeted at the same group of people. They aren't the same size. Their aesthetic is different. "Qube" is not the same word as "Cube".
Honestly, this is *pathetic* on the part of Cobalt. I hope they lose and lose badly.
(Incidentally, I hate Apple Computer. But this is just insane.)
The trailer can also be downloaded from this site: movie-list. To winnow out stupid people, I have not linked directly to the trailer but rather to the front page of the site. If you can't find it from there... you probably don't deserve to. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!
Note: I have no evidence (aside from the trailer) to support my ideas here; this is merely wild speculation on the part of a programmer and RPG-liking person.
I really do hope this movie is good. The shots from the trailer do look like they have at least halfway decent production values; and the shots that looked completed, really did look pretty good. (It's amazing what a few million dollars will do these days.)
That said, the thing I fear most about this movie is that it will upset the legions of D&D fans in the world. Not that it will suck; but rather that it seems nearly impossible to capture the "feel" of D&D in anything except actually playing the game! Even Baldur's Gate, fantastic as it was, did not feel exactly the same as sitting with friends, delving into a dungeon. This is not to say that it's a "bad" thing that it isn't exactly the same; just that a lot of people are going to be expecting the same feelings they'd get from playing the game, and won't, and will be disappointed or even angry.
I also hope this movie succeeds, to show that the fantasy genre really is viable for movies. If both this and the Lord of the Rings trilogy succeed, I think we'll see a huge resurgence in fantasy film (which of course will also bring the countless bad copies), and I know I'm all for that.
> Chuck out IP, and you can kiss goodbye to any research.
If research will not happen without IP, then how was there scientific progress of any kind before there was IP? (Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, et. al.) Please explain. (Granted, there is probably "more" research done now, but I would like evidence that this is due to IP. Keep in mind that there are also *more people* now than there used to be, and therefore more people to do research, regardless of motivation.)
The reason this isn't a big deal is because, for the most part, EQ is about the player vs. the environment, NOT player vs. another player. Most multiplayer online games are about player vs. player, but (except for on the PvP servers, which are only 3 out of 34), you're just fighting the environment. It's not as big a deal if you cheat the environment, because it doesn't usually affect other players! Verant still doesn't want people cheating, but because of this, when someone does get info using ShowEQ (or whatever), it's not as big of a deal.
To put it another way, you're never getting any info that they aren't already sending you; you're just using a program to ease the analysis of it.
Actually, my point (and my bad for not making this clearer) is that it should be UP TO THE CHILD'S PARENTS TO DECIDE. I'm not saying that every parent should allow their child to go see NC-17 gorefests, but I don't think the government should be regulating it either.
If a company like Blockbuster wants to make it its policy to prevent those under 18 from renting rated-R movies, that's their decision. If the GOVERNMENT wants to make Blockbuster prevent people under 18 from renting rated-R movies, then it has become everyone's problem.
I'm having trouble imagining that this law will stand up to the first suit brought against it. I'm sure ACLU lawyers are cleaning their guns as we speak.
What amazes me is that people think that by obscuring or forbidding access to such things, we will remove their influence upon those who we assume are impressionable (i.e. children). Children may not see rated R movies alone, but they do. Children may not view pornography but they do (and did long before the Internet ever existed).
Why is it that the solution to bad parenting isn't to improve parenting, but rather to make lots of hard-to-enforce laws?
Incandescence is the emission of visible light by a hot object. No doubt the fusion process itself produces some photons (although I could be wrong), but when matter is heated (i.e. energy is added to its electrons to raise them above the ground state), the electrons will spontaneously emit photons so as to lower their energy states. This is the exact same thing that happens with an incandescing light bulb. So the sun actually is incandescing.
Fluorescence is different but I'm not really clear on how it works; I don't know whether the sun fluoresces or not.
Keep in mind this is all based on my understanding; I am not a physicist and I could be completely wrong.
Just curious, what makes up the Holy Trinity of Cyberpunk? I would imagine that Neuromancer and Snow Crash are the first two... or maybe not. Could you elaborate?
WHEN THE HELL DO WE GET THIS TECH?! I first heard about holographic storage research ten or twelve years ago, and they had ALREADY figured out how to put a gigabit of data in a one-centimeter cube. If this has followed the same curve -- hell, even a smaller curve than normal magnetic hard drives have, then we should be popping terabit plastic cubes into our computers by now, with ridiculous access speeds in the microseconds, and so on and so forth.
So my question is, WHAT'S TAKING SO DAMN LONG?! Can someone just PLEASE come out with a holographic storage drive already? Fer chrissake.
Slashdot Mirror
Whatever! My point wasn't that holography is the next big thing, my point is that there's got to be SOMETHING out there which meets the following requirements:
- As reliable as current hard drives
- Orders of magnitude faster
- No more than $100/gig to start. Yes, that's crazy, $2000 for a 20 gig drive?! But the prices would drop quickly, so $100/gig is a reasonable *start*. Keep in mind that this would be a HUMONGOUS performance increase.
- Whatever else you can think of
There's gotta be SOMETHING out there, THAT'S my point.
Yes, SCSI kicks the crap out of IDE, no argument there. But it is significantly more expensive. Like the other guy said, if you can afford it, great.
...the problem isn't hard drive protocols. Even with SCSI you're still in the millisecond-range for disk access and latency. What we SERIOUSLY need is some hardcore development in permanent storage with micro- or nanosecond seek/latency times. Like that holographic storage we always keep hearing about... you'd think after 20 years of research, someone would have a sellable version out.
This is a great idea, assuming we then *leave* the senators in orbit...
I have to wonder, wouldn't it be possible for people to mess with the results, thus returning false positives and false negatives? How would such a thing be checked for? Would there be random double-checking so that if one person screwed up, the project wouldn't suffer?
...but it sure seems like IDC could afford to make better graphs than they did. Those pie charts looked like they were from five-year old versions of Excel...
Um... evolution *is* taught as a theory, and the fact that you used the phrase "Evolution is just a theory" demonstrates that you do not know what a scientific theory is. I'd explain further, but this site talk.origins (specifically here) does it *much* better. If you don't go and immediately read a good portion of that site (start from the top) then I'm sorry, but you have no place saying that evolution is "just a theory" as if that's supposed to be meaninful. Evolution is a theory the same way fluid mechanics, gravitation, and thermodynamics are all just "theories".
What's your point? I didn't say it was right. I said it's NOT GOING TO GO AWAY and we should be figuring out how to deal with it instead of whining about it. Yes, it's hard to stop -- impossible, in fact. Or effectively so. So instead of whining about how wrong it is (or even how you can stop it -- again, you CAN'T), figure out what you CAN do about it!
My point was that people are whining instead of moving on to the important part: dealing with it.
Am I the only one who's noticed that, regardless of what happens to Napster, UNAUTHORIZED DISTRIBUTION OF COPYRIGHTED CONTENT IS NEVER GOING TO GO AWAY?
Jesus F. Christ! It's not going to go away no matter what happens! Why don't people figure out how to DEAL WITH IT instead of whining about morality and law? God, this is getting annoying.
And to forestall those of you who would demand an answer from me, here it is: Unauthorized distribution of copyrighted content (let's call it UDCC -- I have trouble equating murder and robbery on the high seas with downloading "Enter Sandman") is going to happen no matter what. So people who don't want it to happen should provide a reasonable alternative for the consumer. Ideally, it would be some kind of system where people can download compressed digital audio (MP3 or Ogg Vorbis or something) for something as cheap as 99 cents a pop. Heck, there already ARE lots of sites like this; what if ALL the big labels did it?
This is of course dependent on a few things:
- There has to be an easy and secure way for people to pay for these things.
- A large segment of all music has to be made available. If it's only 10% of what I can find at the local music store, then screw it! I'll go buy the CD.
- It has to be easy to use, portable, and transmittable between devices. (If I download one of these songs, I had damn well better be able to copy it onto my Rio or other portable digital music player.) This pretty much throws out using any kind of encryption. (Digital watermarking or something like that, if it doesn't interfere with the music, is fine by me.)
"But," you say, "everyone will just download it once, copy it, and give it to all their friends!" You know what? No, they won't, for the same reason that all software sold in this country isn't pirated. (China is another matter.) Quite a lot of people buy software, because they want things like original CDs, manuals, and even the nice shiny box that gives you a warm feeling just to look at. Downloading an authorized copy of a song is always going to appeal to those with a certain sense of morality, or just the desire to support the artists they like. (Once nice benefit -- hopefully -- of a system like this is that the artists get a much larger share of the pie, as opposed to the RIAA, who can all shrivel and die for all I care.)Seriously, would everyone quit bitching about how immoral/illegal it is? Just focus on what IS GOING TO HAPPEN.
The point being that, yes, it is a "government" organization, but you ain't paying for it unless you use it!
I could be wrong but this is true AFAIK. Can anyone corroborate?
They aren't targeted at the same group of people.
They aren't the same size.
Their aesthetic is different.
"Qube" is not the same word as "Cube".
Honestly, this is *pathetic* on the part of Cobalt. I hope they lose and lose badly.
(Incidentally, I hate Apple Computer. But this is just insane.)
The trailer can also be downloaded from this site: movie-list. To winnow out stupid people, I have not linked directly to the trailer but rather to the front page of the site. If you can't find it from there... you probably don't deserve to. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!
I really do hope this movie is good. The shots from the trailer do look like they have at least halfway decent production values; and the shots that looked completed, really did look pretty good. (It's amazing what a few million dollars will do these days.)
That said, the thing I fear most about this movie is that it will upset the legions of D&D fans in the world. Not that it will suck; but rather that it seems nearly impossible to capture the "feel" of D&D in anything except actually playing the game! Even Baldur's Gate, fantastic as it was, did not feel exactly the same as sitting with friends, delving into a dungeon. This is not to say that it's a "bad" thing that it isn't exactly the same; just that a lot of people are going to be expecting the same feelings they'd get from playing the game, and won't, and will be disappointed or even angry.
I also hope this movie succeeds, to show that the fantasy genre really is viable for movies. If both this and the Lord of the Rings trilogy succeed, I think we'll see a huge resurgence in fantasy film (which of course will also bring the countless bad copies), and I know I'm all for that.
If research will not happen without IP, then how was there scientific progress of any kind before there was IP? (Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, et. al.) Please explain. (Granted, there is probably "more" research done now, but I would like evidence that this is due to IP. Keep in mind that there are also *more people* now than there used to be, and therefore more people to do research, regardless of motivation.)
Hello?
To put it another way, you're never getting any info that they aren't already sending you; you're just using a program to ease the analysis of it.
I though the "Super-Kamiokande" was Nintendo's next-generation game console?
Wouldn't I like to know? ;) I think there's a rogue moderator out there who has it in for me... show your face if you dare!
If a company like Blockbuster wants to make it its policy to prevent those under 18 from renting rated-R movies, that's their decision. If the GOVERNMENT wants to make Blockbuster prevent people under 18 from renting rated-R movies, then it has become everyone's problem.
What amazes me is that people think that by obscuring or forbidding access to such things, we will remove their influence upon those who we assume are impressionable (i.e. children). Children may not see rated R movies alone, but they do. Children may not view pornography but they do (and did long before the Internet ever existed).
Why is it that the solution to bad parenting isn't to improve parenting, but rather to make lots of hard-to-enforce laws?
Fluorescence is different but I'm not really clear on how it works; I don't know whether the sun fluoresces or not.
Keep in mind this is all based on my understanding; I am not a physicist and I could be completely wrong.
The sun is a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace, where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees.
Just curious, what makes up the Holy Trinity of Cyberpunk? I would imagine that Neuromancer and Snow Crash are the first two... or maybe not. Could you elaborate?
So my question is, WHAT'S TAKING SO DAMN LONG?! Can someone just PLEASE come out with a holographic storage drive already? Fer chrissake.