Noticed. But iTunes still DOES NOT pull down my Beatles album art, nor does their store yield search results for any real Beatles tunes... Help! (Gotta put in your own Beatles album art.)
On the bright side, optical discs still boast higher quality than downloads!!
Jobs: "A lot of these phones have low battery life. We've managed to get 5 hours of battery of talk time, video, and browsing. 16 hours of audio playback."
Anyone know if it's a removable battery?
I'm not a total Sony fanboi. But give Blu-ray another look, son.
I will shut up after saying this. (It's time to listen to Mr. Jobs.)
Blu-ray does matter, Fred. Some day you will buy a Blu-ray disc. Heck, you may even _burn_ one some day. I know it's all too much to think about right now but it's gonna happen some day and (until 50 GB downloads are not an issue for you and "crystal-holo-cubes" become more affordable) there is no point in fighting against Blu-ray. Unless you prefer HD-DVD. But why would you go and do a stupid thing like that??
Your analyses of Apple and Sun are extremely short-sighted and dare I say uninformed.
Re: Sony. You didn't mention a certain optical audio connection (prevalent in homes today) which bears the Sony + Philips name.
Anyway, it seems inherent in your weak analysis that MERELY a few days into the launch of Blu-ray / PS3 technologies, there are already some "obvious" conclusions to be drawn. If you really could predict the future, you would be wealthier than Microsoft. Perhaps THEN you'd have what it takes to muscle PS3/Blu-ray out of the future.
Only time will tell my friend. The market (not you, nor any of these blind, one-sided statements) will decide.
For the record, standard def DVDs look great in pseudo HD on the big screen (DVDs are not obsolete--get a nice upconverting, HDMI connected DVD player.) You are correct--it's about what people want. It takes time. Not pundits.
Check out this writeup praising the PS3 (by a non-gamer at that.) As I recall, he preferred the [HDMI Blu-ray] video quality/playback features of the PS3 over [more expensive] standalone units.
He also praises the multimedia (card reader features) and multi-audio format playback options.
http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/hd-dvd-bluray/192 7/shootout-3-blu-ray-disc-players-page2.html
Re:So You Want to Be An Open Source Rockstar...
on
Open Sources 2.0
·
· Score: 1
I've never seen a Flash movie of a Linux distro install before! Nice.
I tested the boot.iso on an XP box, until it failed to detect that I was using a MN-510 (a usb wireless networking adapter made by Microsoft.)
So thumb's up on this review -- but the distro is not a smashing success, because it fails to properly embrace the MS switcher. The test is not can we install it--it's "can the previous generation..."
I'm sure his server can handle the attention, judging from the few replies I got to my post. : )
So You Want to Be An Open Source Rockstar...
on
Open Sources 2.0
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Has it been written yet? AFAIK There is no glut of good books about Open Source, esp. for developers. (I don't mean books about specific OSS projects--of which there are plenty.)
Yes, I'm familiar with "Succeeding with Open Source" by Bernard Golden. But if I'm not mistaken that book is all about USING pre-existing OSS as one uses "off-the-shelf" components.
How about some DIY OSS? I'm sure it's "A Long Way To The Top," but if there were some good OSS do's and don'ts (send links if you got 'em!), maybe more good coders would do it...
Wrong. You can't simply use the high end vendor [Apple] to support your universal argument. You failed to mention that while Apple raises the stakes (and prices) with their wonderful upscale product lines, (btw, we get what we pay for!) there will always be alternative [cheapo] manufacturers touting lower price points.
Key point: no one is forcing us to buy a top-of-the-line iPod. There are TONS of lesser players at substantially lower prices. Granted, possibly a few better players at lower-than-Apple prices--not sure.
But here is evidence that prices will drop, not just in theory but in practice: have you seen how cheaply you can pick up a DVD video recorder at Walmart today? (That is, a friendly consumer electronics DVD PVR that even sports a firewire/1394/iLink hookup.) Cheaper still for their barebones DVD players. It's inevitable.
Why will the situation be any different for Blu-ray equipment?
I'll tell you why I think all of this matters--from both a business and software development perspective.
I was at the opening keynote session of Sun's Java One in San Francisco, June '05. James Gosling stood with a Panasonic representative to demonstrate Blu-ray (news that it called for Java on-board rocked the house). It was more compelling than an earlier 2005 claim by Steve Jobs about the "year of High Def." As a thoughtful software developer and generally a creative type, I do have many choices. Sun and Apple both offer some compelling alternatives to Microsoft technologies. I immediately saw the promise of the Blu-ray format, and I still do.
I reasoned: Maybe this could breathe new life into our boring Java (/PHP,.NET, etc.) web app development careers. It could also bring many pleasant capabilities out of your office and into your living room. Sans Windows. Of course, I'd rather see Java flourish than some other technologies we don't like to mention, because Java is my specialty. But mind you: I choose my specialties carefully.
If we want to exert some control over how the next generation of High Def media fits into our lives, AND WE SHOULD CARE, AS MOST OF US WILL BE AFFECTED BY ALL OF THESE SHADY BUSINESS MANEUVERS IN REDMOND, we ought to support formats that promise to allow us to extend the technology in whatever ways we see fit.
That said, we would be unreasonable fools to expect a blank check from the movie studios.
I see Java being employed for BLU-RAY'S interactive menus, and lots of other gee-whiz Java functionality which could enhance your next-gen, High Def, web-connected living rooms. Web services, and application logic and games burned to the discs--other cool features that would be easy to author using toolkits such as Blue4J.org would presumably deliver...
One poster went so far as to suggest that its *Java*-based DRM was sole reason Bill Gates hated Blu-ray. That could have been simplified to read "Java in itself." But as others suggest, Bill may embrace (and extend??) Blu-ray too at some point...
But all this emphasis on the evils of DRM is childish. Spend your energy hacking and creating things of worth. Blu-ray gives you more chances to do just that--much moreso than if we had no Blu-ray. Would you rather code in Java or XML or.NET?
If downloading "bite-sized" videos with modest resolution and hooking them up to your std def TV appeals to you, iPod + iTunes is there today and it will work well.
If you want to take full advantage of High Definition video* and interactive, networked content, it will necessarily cost you. The decent (1920 X 1080) HD televisions (currently I have my eye on a Sharp AQUOS LCD) will still cost between 1 and 2k for a while, and certainly the player isn't *free*--but all things considered, the player will be a *great buy* considering all it offers:
High Definition movie player with or without broadband capability
Gaming
Network connectivity
Hi Fi, enhanced picture DVD player functionality
Hi Fi CD player functionality
MP3 playback / Photos, other media functionality
Online features galore, TBD
etc.
* If you don't want or cannot afford a home theater setup for movies and gaming, that is understandable. But on the bright side: the technology is coming of age, and prices will continue to drop.
Come on: Blu-ray is a compelling FIRST choice--not a "hedge your bets" alternative. And don't pretend that WE are powerless to shape the qualities of this industry.
We can take control of this spec here and now. People don't have to move on to a replacement technology. They have to want to. If you want to continue to use your Dreamcast as a web browser, feel free... : )
Valid concerns re: compatibillity.But keep in mind that the Blu-ray specification is intelligently designed to read and write data to and from optical media and over the network--good stuff--using built-in Java!--probably not as hardware- or software- dependent as you're suggesting. Do you think Blu-ray title authors will be morons?
Do you expect organizations to give all of their content and/or technology away? If so, perhaps you'd support an open alternative to the commercial offerings... Not such a bad idea. But don't expect studios to beat a path to your door.
Critical thinking is healthy, but perhaps we are too pessimistic. Mind you, with an Internet connection and Java built-in, the Blu-ray players will not only support a variety of DRM *restrictions*, but those very same tech capabilities could be used to support what consumers really want. As a developer, I see a lot of promising capabilities with Blu-ray.
Assuming we are willing to actually *pay* for content on-disc, (and I'd argue for a variety of reasons, we should) what if WE consumers kept a shared scorecard of which BD titles are in fact desirable / "consumer-friendly", thereby influencing demand for said titles, from the consumer side? (Sort of the Amazon-style review system, but with a better data model.)
Remember: this is only the beginning of the High Def era. Don't you think consumers have any say? Most of us haven't even bought our HDTV set. If studios don't give us quality HD content at a compelling price, we will presumably hold out forever. (Some argue that DVDs are "good enough." But that is just nonsense!)
Do we not get exactly what we deserve--essentially *voting* by our spending habits?
What would we buy? And what features would we actually PAY MORE to suppress:
Examples:
Free *everything.* (Dream on!)
No unskippable ads.
Standard navigation features.
Opt-out features integrated with some server-based subscriptions. (Slashdot does it!)
It's not too late to influence the studios' BD authoring habits. (Peter Jackson and George Lucas aren't merely trying to turn a profit--to the contrary, I think they give us what we want.) This is for our enjoyment, right?!
It's a two way street... If people complain too much, eventually I have to say--please stop complaining and tell me what you're going to do about it.
That was the most relevant comment I've seen here all day, by adam31. The relevance of Personal Computers is at stake.
I would add: It's the CONTENT, stupid NOT the operating system. NOR the personal computer.
Please people, stop whining about DRM... Even Gates is complaining about it. Why not rally around PEOPLE (including copyright holding artists) instead of vendors?
As a Java developer, I'm more scared of Microsoft's monopolistic, platform-dependent, self-serving vision for the future than Microsoft is afraid of Java.
Developers! You know the PS3 is going to make a brilliant debut for Blu-ray. Do you want to develop content and services for High Def using a wonderful, object-oriented tool like Java, or some Microsoft XML-laden [who-knows-what] kind of language?
WHAT is iHD?
Can anyone find definitive info on iHD online? I'm interested in learning more about this iHD spec. URLs please.
100 percent behind Blu-ray for all the right reasons!
Slashdot Mirror
Noticed. But iTunes still DOES NOT pull down my Beatles album art, nor does their store yield search results for any real Beatles tunes...
Help! (Gotta put in your own Beatles album art.)
On the bright side, optical discs still boast higher quality than downloads!!
Jobs: "A lot of these phones have low battery life. We've managed to get 5 hours of battery of talk time, video, and browsing. 16 hours of audio playback." Anyone know if it's a removable battery?
I'm not a total Sony fanboi. But give Blu-ray another look, son. I will shut up after saying this. (It's time to listen to Mr. Jobs.) Blu-ray does matter, Fred. Some day you will buy a Blu-ray disc. Heck, you may even _burn_ one some day. I know it's all too much to think about right now but it's gonna happen some day and (until 50 GB downloads are not an issue for you and "crystal-holo-cubes" become more affordable) there is no point in fighting against Blu-ray. Unless you prefer HD-DVD. But why would you go and do a stupid thing like that??
I'm confused. Do you want me to read wikipedia or be educated?
_ supporting_Blu-ray
Anyway, two can play that game (in fact I think I can win that game)!
<sarcasm>btw notice my wikipedia link is longer!</sarcasm>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_corporations
Your analyses of Apple and Sun are extremely short-sighted and dare I say uninformed. Re: Sony. You didn't mention a certain optical audio connection (prevalent in homes today) which bears the Sony + Philips name. Anyway, it seems inherent in your weak analysis that MERELY a few days into the launch of Blu-ray / PS3 technologies, there are already some "obvious" conclusions to be drawn. If you really could predict the future, you would be wealthier than Microsoft. Perhaps THEN you'd have what it takes to muscle PS3/Blu-ray out of the future. Only time will tell my friend. The market (not you, nor any of these blind, one-sided statements) will decide. For the record, standard def DVDs look great in pseudo HD on the big screen (DVDs are not obsolete--get a nice upconverting, HDMI connected DVD player.) You are correct--it's about what people want. It takes time. Not pundits.
Brilliant post. Only one thing you failed to mention: HD-DVD has no superhero on their side. (Just please don't visit my blog. ;)
--
Back to my PS3 cave (after taking in the Apple announcements: http://www.macrumorslive.com/ )
Check out this writeup praising the PS3 (by a non-gamer at that.) As I recall, he preferred the [HDMI Blu-ray] video quality/playback features of the PS3 over [more expensive] standalone units. He also praises the multimedia (card reader features) and multi-audio format playback options. http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/hd-dvd-bluray/192 7/shootout-3-blu-ray-disc-players-page2.html
Thanks Karl! EXACTLY what I had in mind.
I've never seen a Flash movie of a Linux distro install before! Nice.
I tested the boot.iso on an XP box, until it failed to detect that I was using a MN-510 (a usb wireless networking adapter made by Microsoft.)
So thumb's up on this review -- but the distro is not a smashing success, because it fails to properly embrace the MS switcher. The test is not can we install it--it's "can the previous generation..."
FYI, the entire original book Open Sources is available here online:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/to c.html
(answering my own question)
Credits:
I found the link to http://opensource.mit.edu/ on this page:
Matthias Stürmer wrote a thesis available from his site,
http://stuermer.ch/Master_Thesis.html"Open Source Community Building" (PDF format)
http://stuermer.ch/dcs/users/1/OpenSourceCommunitI'm sure his server can handle the attention, judging from the few replies I got to my post. : )
Has it been written yet? AFAIK There is no glut of good books about Open Source, esp. for developers. (I don't mean books about specific OSS projects--of which there are plenty.)
Yes, I'm familiar with "Succeeding with Open Source" by Bernard Golden. But if I'm not mistaken that book is all about USING pre-existing OSS as one uses "off-the-shelf" components.
How about some DIY OSS? I'm sure it's "A Long Way To The Top," but if there were some good OSS do's and don'ts (send links if you got 'em!), maybe more good coders would do it...
Wrong. You can't simply use the high end vendor [Apple] to support your universal argument. You failed to mention that while Apple raises the stakes (and prices) with their wonderful upscale product lines, (btw, we get what we pay for!) there will always be alternative [cheapo] manufacturers touting lower price points.
Key point: no one is forcing us to buy a top-of-the-line iPod. There are TONS of lesser players at substantially lower prices. Granted, possibly a few better players at lower-than-Apple prices--not sure.
But here is evidence that prices will drop, not just in theory but in practice: have you seen how cheaply you can pick up a DVD video recorder at Walmart today? (That is, a friendly consumer electronics DVD PVR that even sports a firewire/1394/iLink hookup.) Cheaper still for their barebones DVD players. It's inevitable.
Why will the situation be any different for Blu-ray equipment?
I'll tell you why I think all of this matters--from both a business and software development perspective.
I was at the opening keynote session of Sun's Java One in San Francisco, June '05. James Gosling stood with a Panasonic representative to demonstrate Blu-ray (news that it called for Java on-board rocked the house). It was more compelling than an earlier 2005 claim by Steve Jobs about the "year of High Def." As a thoughtful software developer and generally a creative type, I do have many choices. Sun and Apple both offer some compelling alternatives to Microsoft technologies. I immediately saw the promise of the Blu-ray format, and I still do.
I reasoned: Maybe this could breathe new life into our boring Java (/PHP, .NET, etc.) web app development careers. It could also bring many pleasant capabilities out of your office and into your living room. Sans Windows. Of course, I'd rather see Java flourish than some other technologies we don't like to mention, because Java is my specialty. But mind you: I choose my specialties carefully.
If we want to exert some control over how the next generation of High Def media fits into our lives, AND WE SHOULD CARE, AS MOST OF US WILL BE AFFECTED BY ALL OF THESE SHADY BUSINESS MANEUVERS IN REDMOND, we ought to support formats that promise to allow us to extend the technology in whatever ways we see fit.
That said, we would be unreasonable fools to expect a blank check from the movie studios.
I see Java being employed for BLU-RAY'S interactive menus, and lots of other gee-whiz Java functionality which could enhance your next-gen, High Def, web-connected living rooms. Web services, and application logic and games burned to the discs--other cool features that would be easy to author using toolkits such as Blue4J.org would presumably deliver...
One poster went so far as to suggest that its *Java*-based DRM was sole reason Bill Gates hated Blu-ray. That could have been simplified to read "Java in itself." But as others suggest, Bill may embrace (and extend??) Blu-ray too at some point...
But all this emphasis on the evils of DRM is childish. Spend your energy hacking and creating things of worth. Blu-ray gives you more chances to do just that--much moreso than if we had no Blu-ray. Would you rather code in Java or XML or .NET?
I choose Java.
I must defend my namesake.
KillShill: Meet you outside by the flagpole at 3:00. We'll settle this ONCE AND FOR ALL!
http://www.apple.com/macosx/
If downloading "bite-sized" videos with modest resolution and hooking them up to your std def TV appeals to you, iPod + iTunes is there today and it will work well.
If you want to take full advantage of High Definition video* and interactive, networked content, it will necessarily cost you. The decent (1920 X 1080) HD televisions (currently I have my eye on a Sharp AQUOS LCD) will still cost between 1 and 2k for a while, and certainly the player isn't *free*--but all things considered, the player will be a *great buy* considering all it offers:
* If you don't want or cannot afford a home theater setup for movies and gaming, that is understandable. But on the bright side: the technology is coming of age, and prices will continue to drop.
Would you like your caviar, Sir, on a golden (not silver) spoon then, I presume?
Come on: Blu-ray is a compelling FIRST choice--not a "hedge your bets" alternative. And don't pretend that WE are powerless to shape the qualities of this industry.
We can take control of this spec here and now. People don't have to move on to a replacement technology. They have to want to. If you want to continue to use your Dreamcast as a web browser, feel free... : )
Valid concerns re: compatibillity.But keep in mind that the Blu-ray specification is intelligently designed to read and write data to and from optical media and over the network--good stuff--using built-in Java!--probably not as hardware- or software- dependent as you're suggesting. Do you think Blu-ray title authors will be morons?
Do you expect organizations to give all of their content and/or technology away? If so, perhaps you'd support an open alternative to the commercial offerings... Not such a bad idea. But don't expect studios to beat a path to your door.
Critical thinking is healthy, but perhaps we are too pessimistic. Mind you, with an Internet connection and Java built-in, the Blu-ray players will not only support a variety of DRM *restrictions*, but those very same tech capabilities could be used to support what consumers really want. As a developer, I see a lot of promising capabilities with Blu-ray.
Assuming we are willing to actually *pay* for content on-disc, (and I'd argue for a variety of reasons, we should) what if WE consumers kept a shared scorecard of which BD titles are in fact desirable / "consumer-friendly", thereby influencing demand for said titles, from the consumer side? (Sort of the Amazon-style review system, but with a better data model.)
Remember: this is only the beginning of the High Def era. Don't you think consumers have any say? Most of us haven't even bought our HDTV set. If studios don't give us quality HD content at a compelling price, we will presumably hold out forever. (Some argue that DVDs are "good enough." But that is just nonsense!)
Do we not get exactly what we deserve--essentially *voting* by our spending habits?
What would we buy? And what features would we actually PAY MORE to suppress:
Examples:
It's not too late to influence the studios' BD authoring habits. (Peter Jackson and George Lucas aren't merely trying to turn a profit--to the contrary, I think they give us what we want.) This is for our enjoyment, right?!
It's a two way street... If people complain too much, eventually I have to say--please stop complaining and tell me what you're going to do about it.
That was the most relevant comment I've seen here all day, by adam31. The relevance of Personal Computers is at stake.
I would add: It's the CONTENT, stupid NOT the operating system. NOR the personal computer.
Please people, stop whining about DRM... Even Gates is complaining about it. Why not rally around PEOPLE (including copyright holding artists) instead of vendors?
As a Java developer, I'm more scared of Microsoft's monopolistic, platform-dependent, self-serving vision for the future than Microsoft is afraid of Java.
Developers! You know the PS3 is going to make a brilliant debut for Blu-ray. Do you want to develop content and services for High Def using a wonderful, object-oriented tool like Java, or some Microsoft XML-laden [who-knows-what] kind of language?
WHAT is iHD?
Can anyone find definitive info on iHD online? I'm interested in learning more about this iHD spec. URLs please.
100 percent behind Blu-ray for all the right reasons!
----http://bluerayman.com/