i understand that it's a quarter the overall resolution, there's no question of that.
however, the majority of tv still isn't broadcast in this quality, and there aren't many other things that come out requiring 1920*1080.
henc my question: what's the fuss about? we can't make serious use of this yet.
how many of you slashdotters are in an NTSC zone? if it's most of you, then i can understand why there's this furore about HD. however, PAL, with its native resolution of 720*576, as opposed to NTSC's 720*480 is actually pretty damn nice as it is.
ergo, my complete bemusement as to why so many people are banging on about a technology that a) hasn't stabilised, b) hasn't really gotten any significant industry-based use yet, and c) costs more than any sane person is willing to afford for something that they're not gonna see the benefit of yet.
as far as i'm concerned, it's the same as with plasma-screen TVs; they're typically (unless you're buying a high-end one) pretty crap; compare the iamge quality of a CRT to a plasma screen of equivalent (notice that i didn't say *the same*) price; there's some serious artefact issues going on there.
now; i'm a resolution purist. i do a great deal of image-based work, since my main field of study at the moment is digital arts. yet i'm happier to have a lower pixel count, if it's a cleaner image that comes through.
it could just be that i'm spoilt, due to my growing up in a PAL zone. i don't know. i personally reckon that the US should've embraced it when it had the chance. of course, it could be that this is the chance that you guys get to supercede us on the TV quality stakes. we shall see, i guess.
indeed, but i wasn't entirely sure if it was some kind of horrific in-joke pertaining to the name of slashdot, or just plain illiteracy.
i'm definitely swinging to the latter.
i never suggested that they'd be a replacement for the m16 or the sa80; i was actually hinting at the possibility of a static placement, or possibly a vehicle-mounted option.
go google the word 'railgun'. you'll notice that most of the first set of site that come up are not affiliated with the military, or even research labs. they're random guys, with too much time. don't forget that 1) al-qaeda has intellignet people on its side too, and 2) you're not only gonna be fighting against afghan rebels that hide out in caves, based upon america's track record of treading on people's toes.
and also, one of the recent successful designs of a railgun is only around four metres long. plenty small enough to be vehicle mounted. more likely set up in a building though. i know it's a moot point, but most slashdotters are good at them, so i figured i'd try my hand at it.
i'm sure if i'd made a comment about how it was useless against lightsabers it's be modded as +3 funny.
it's gonna be precisely bugger all use against railguns, so i give this a workable life of, say, five years? if it can honestly track *and destroy* a projectile moving at approximately 3500 m/s (the desired speed, according to wikipedia), then i will happily eat each and every aol CD that comes through my door, for the rest of my days.
i say it'll be useless before long.
before you mod me a troll, or off-topic, or whatever, DARPA actually managed to make a working railgun, and they are funding a continual effort to generate a more solid design. it only failed to see regular use because the magnetic rails suffered heavy damage every time it was fired.
i've read a few posts saying 'what's the fuss about ubuntu?' - i have to admit, i kinda agree. i use ubuntu, and it's nice. it's not the XP-killer that it's touted as, but it's (almost) a nice parallel. there's still the hardware support issues to deal with, and, of course, the windows-only software doesn't yet entirely have linux-based equivalents. so; it's not gonna take over. yet.
the main point of appeal for me is that ubuntu has debian's core, with a more up-to-date series of updates available. it's still a little slow, though; it only updates as far as 2.6.12, last i checked (about a week ago) - i had to learn how to patch and compile a kernel to get up to date, and improve hardware compatibility on my laptop. it's still not perfect, but it's better.
incidentally; before i get labelled a n00b - i'm an OSX/windows technician - i don't have to support linux; it's a personal hobby.
i honestly think it's going to all level itself out as a competition (in large terms; don't declare a holy war at me) between fedora, ubuntu, and maybe suse. obviously, the other distros will definitely survive, but i'm talking in terms of the larger game here.
however, the hype that ubuntu is totally idiot-proof is not entirely true. you *do* still have to put in a fair bit of work to get it running up to speed, especially when it involves laptops, or proprietary hardware.
i like ubuntu, but it's not perfect. nor has anyone got the right to say that it is.
Thank you!
every time i read one of these evolution/creation threads, i get shot down in flames for saying what you've just said, so iwanted to congratulate you on a cracking point of view, and i just wish i could mod you up further...
this is pathetic. i didn't bang the 'gats is evil' drum, so i get the closest there is to censored? i don't recall supporting him, but we're getting third-hand info here, and everyone takes it as gospel?
this worries me. a lot.
1 - this article is bollocks
2 - i'm sure that all of you slashdotters out there are such paragons of beauty that you have the right to rip this lass apart, based on some mugshots?
having seen the recent conduct of some people on here, i'm wondering why i even bother reading this anymore.
think about it; there's nothing definitive from any of the parties involved in this, and it's not like you get to be a multi-billionare by being nice and cuddly. i don't reckon that gates is satan, but you do have to have a certain ruthless streak to be that much of a success. let's face it; he *is* a success - he's all but won the OS wars. i don't like it much, and i'm not a huge fan of the product involved. i like win2k, xp's ok. DOS is nice, in a single-thread kinda way, but i am a *nix fan through and through.
to be completely even-handed, it's not like the article said that gates was heard saying "let's kill him", he was apparently overheard discussing what should happen if he, a sick man, *were* to die.
not a nice topic, all the same, but one that would be preying on their minds, given the situation. FFS, the dude was working himself to death!
is it like this is going to directly bother any of us (other than in a support role)?
i'm pretty sure that most of us tend to build our own machines, and aren't all that interested in getting vista anyway, much less as soon as it's released.
as far as i'm concerned, they can continue selling underpowered machines for all i care. it keeps work coming my way, when people phone up saying 'my computer's too slow!'. yeah, it's boring work, but so what? money is money.
hmmm. i see your concern, but i don't honestly reckon that there's a likelihood of you meeting a clone/perfect doppelganger out there. the only flaw will be in the data they take, not the actualy possiblity of there being someone out there that genuinely matches. to be fair, i think that they've most likely considered this already. retinal scanse, fingerprints and some kind of genome scan would pretty much make it bulletproof, i think.
i honestly couldn't give less of a toss about it if i tried. i'm mildly irate that there's still talk of them charging us for the pleasure of these little bits of plastic (yet another item to lose, i'm guessing), but it's not really going to change my life. if, of course, they start to integrate other things into them, such as driving license, bank details, tax details and so forth, thus making them into a multiple-purpose item, then that'd be... useful, at most. it's not enough to make me reach for the tinfoil hat yet. i live in a borough of london that is one of the most highly supervised (by cctv), and i don't really care about it, either. everyone's getting so worked up about this 'big brother state', but what are you *honestly* doing that's gonna cause any serious concern/suspicion on the part of the ruling authorities?
you torrent music? you pirate software? so what. you're not the source of these issues, and people will continue to find a way of doing these things. as far as i'm concerned, this could be used as a brilliant way of tracking the motions/actions/interactions of *real* criminals, and making sure that their illicit deeds don't continue to be a factor in their daily lives.
as such, institute the cards. see if i care. they can track me all they like. it's not gonna change me on any fundamental level.
Hah. perversely enough, this is a conversation that i had with a colleague a couple of years back, circa FC1. we decided that we'd quite like to (if we ever got the time) build a new distro of linux, and keep with the tradition of silly names. because we were both RedHat fans at the time, it was going to be BlueCondom. Never was quite sure why... anhways, ubuntu is now my favourite distro; it behaves itself, it installs really, really easily, and it's based on the ever-stable debian, with a workable update cycle. i am most pleased.
of when i read the article, it said something about requiring an initial velocity of five times the speed of sound, before the scramjet even begins to work. basically, it's useless until you force it up to working speed.
oh well.
well, if you're getting down to making personal/religious attacks, and then hiding behind the 'anonymous coward' guest account, then i'm really not all that bothered by what you think. everyone else has, thus far, presented a decent and intelligent argument for or against these ideas. feel free to whinge about it, just be brave enough to do it yourself, instead of hiding.
well, i'm noticing this thread spiralling off-topic, but i'm not all that bothered. either way, my point is this; if you constantly question and challenge your faith, and then find that it's still there - doesn't that tell you something?
Slashdot Mirror
i understand that it's a quarter the overall resolution, there's no question of that. however, the majority of tv still isn't broadcast in this quality, and there aren't many other things that come out requiring 1920*1080. henc my question: what's the fuss about? we can't make serious use of this yet.
how many of you slashdotters are in an NTSC zone? if it's most of you, then i can understand why there's this furore about HD. however, PAL, with its native resolution of 720*576, as opposed to NTSC's 720*480 is actually pretty damn nice as it is. ergo, my complete bemusement as to why so many people are banging on about a technology that a) hasn't stabilised, b) hasn't really gotten any significant industry-based use yet, and c) costs more than any sane person is willing to afford for something that they're not gonna see the benefit of yet. as far as i'm concerned, it's the same as with plasma-screen TVs; they're typically (unless you're buying a high-end one) pretty crap; compare the iamge quality of a CRT to a plasma screen of equivalent (notice that i didn't say *the same*) price; there's some serious artefact issues going on there. now; i'm a resolution purist. i do a great deal of image-based work, since my main field of study at the moment is digital arts. yet i'm happier to have a lower pixel count, if it's a cleaner image that comes through. it could just be that i'm spoilt, due to my growing up in a PAL zone. i don't know. i personally reckon that the US should've embraced it when it had the chance. of course, it could be that this is the chance that you guys get to supercede us on the TV quality stakes. we shall see, i guess.
indeed, but i wasn't entirely sure if it was some kind of horrific in-joke pertaining to the name of slashdot, or just plain illiteracy. i'm definitely swinging to the latter.
also, shouldn't it be a 'backlash', as opposed to a 'backslash'?
haha! brilliant :)
i wondered how long it'd take for the 'windows has sabotaged my mac' articles to surface...
i never suggested that they'd be a replacement for the m16 or the sa80; i was actually hinting at the possibility of a static placement, or possibly a vehicle-mounted option.
go google the word 'railgun'. you'll notice that most of the first set of site that come up are not affiliated with the military, or even research labs. they're random guys, with too much time. don't forget that 1) al-qaeda has intellignet people on its side too, and 2) you're not only gonna be fighting against afghan rebels that hide out in caves, based upon america's track record of treading on people's toes. and also, one of the recent successful designs of a railgun is only around four metres long. plenty small enough to be vehicle mounted. more likely set up in a building though. i know it's a moot point, but most slashdotters are good at them, so i figured i'd try my hand at it. i'm sure if i'd made a comment about how it was useless against lightsabers it's be modded as +3 funny.
it's gonna be precisely bugger all use against railguns, so i give this a workable life of, say, five years? if it can honestly track *and destroy* a projectile moving at approximately 3500 m/s (the desired speed, according to wikipedia), then i will happily eat each and every aol CD that comes through my door, for the rest of my days. i say it'll be useless before long. before you mod me a troll, or off-topic, or whatever, DARPA actually managed to make a working railgun, and they are funding a continual effort to generate a more solid design. it only failed to see regular use because the magnetic rails suffered heavy damage every time it was fired.
i've read a few posts saying 'what's the fuss about ubuntu?' - i have to admit, i kinda agree. i use ubuntu, and it's nice. it's not the XP-killer that it's touted as, but it's (almost) a nice parallel. there's still the hardware support issues to deal with, and, of course, the windows-only software doesn't yet entirely have linux-based equivalents. so; it's not gonna take over. yet. the main point of appeal for me is that ubuntu has debian's core, with a more up-to-date series of updates available. it's still a little slow, though; it only updates as far as 2.6.12, last i checked (about a week ago) - i had to learn how to patch and compile a kernel to get up to date, and improve hardware compatibility on my laptop. it's still not perfect, but it's better. incidentally; before i get labelled a n00b - i'm an OSX/windows technician - i don't have to support linux; it's a personal hobby. i honestly think it's going to all level itself out as a competition (in large terms; don't declare a holy war at me) between fedora, ubuntu, and maybe suse. obviously, the other distros will definitely survive, but i'm talking in terms of the larger game here. however, the hype that ubuntu is totally idiot-proof is not entirely true. you *do* still have to put in a fair bit of work to get it running up to speed, especially when it involves laptops, or proprietary hardware. i like ubuntu, but it's not perfect. nor has anyone got the right to say that it is.
Thank you! every time i read one of these evolution/creation threads, i get shot down in flames for saying what you've just said, so iwanted to congratulate you on a cracking point of view, and i just wish i could mod you up further...
in retrospect... no, not really.
this is pathetic. i didn't bang the 'gats is evil' drum, so i get the closest there is to censored? i don't recall supporting him, but we're getting third-hand info here, and everyone takes it as gospel? this worries me. a lot.
1 - this article is bollocks 2 - i'm sure that all of you slashdotters out there are such paragons of beauty that you have the right to rip this lass apart, based on some mugshots? having seen the recent conduct of some people on here, i'm wondering why i even bother reading this anymore.
think about it; there's nothing definitive from any of the parties involved in this, and it's not like you get to be a multi-billionare by being nice and cuddly. i don't reckon that gates is satan, but you do have to have a certain ruthless streak to be that much of a success. let's face it; he *is* a success - he's all but won the OS wars. i don't like it much, and i'm not a huge fan of the product involved. i like win2k, xp's ok. DOS is nice, in a single-thread kinda way, but i am a *nix fan through and through. to be completely even-handed, it's not like the article said that gates was heard saying "let's kill him", he was apparently overheard discussing what should happen if he, a sick man, *were* to die. not a nice topic, all the same, but one that would be preying on their minds, given the situation. FFS, the dude was working himself to death!
shiny sticker! *drools*
is it like this is going to directly bother any of us (other than in a support role)? i'm pretty sure that most of us tend to build our own machines, and aren't all that interested in getting vista anyway, much less as soon as it's released. as far as i'm concerned, they can continue selling underpowered machines for all i care. it keeps work coming my way, when people phone up saying 'my computer's too slow!'. yeah, it's boring work, but so what? money is money.
That's not a hands-on response, that's a friggin' dissertation!
now *that* scares the hell out of me...
hmmm. i see your concern, but i don't honestly reckon that there's a likelihood of you meeting a clone/perfect doppelganger out there. the only flaw will be in the data they take, not the actualy possiblity of there being someone out there that genuinely matches. to be fair, i think that they've most likely considered this already. retinal scanse, fingerprints and some kind of genome scan would pretty much make it bulletproof, i think.
i honestly couldn't give less of a toss about it if i tried. i'm mildly irate that there's still talk of them charging us for the pleasure of these little bits of plastic (yet another item to lose, i'm guessing), but it's not really going to change my life. if, of course, they start to integrate other things into them, such as driving license, bank details, tax details and so forth, thus making them into a multiple-purpose item, then that'd be... useful, at most. it's not enough to make me reach for the tinfoil hat yet. i live in a borough of london that is one of the most highly supervised (by cctv), and i don't really care about it, either. everyone's getting so worked up about this 'big brother state', but what are you *honestly* doing that's gonna cause any serious concern/suspicion on the part of the ruling authorities? you torrent music? you pirate software? so what. you're not the source of these issues, and people will continue to find a way of doing these things. as far as i'm concerned, this could be used as a brilliant way of tracking the motions/actions/interactions of *real* criminals, and making sure that their illicit deeds don't continue to be a factor in their daily lives. as such, institute the cards. see if i care. they can track me all they like. it's not gonna change me on any fundamental level.
Hah. perversely enough, this is a conversation that i had with a colleague a couple of years back, circa FC1. we decided that we'd quite like to (if we ever got the time) build a new distro of linux, and keep with the tradition of silly names. because we were both RedHat fans at the time, it was going to be BlueCondom. Never was quite sure why...
anhways, ubuntu is now my favourite distro; it behaves itself, it installs really, really easily, and it's based on the ever-stable debian, with a workable update cycle. i am most pleased.
right... so you *want* to be hitting the ground at this speed?
of when i read the article, it said something about requiring an initial velocity of five times the speed of sound, before the scramjet even begins to work. basically, it's useless until you force it up to working speed. oh well.
well, if you're getting down to making personal/religious attacks, and then hiding behind the 'anonymous coward' guest account, then i'm really not all that bothered by what you think. everyone else has, thus far, presented a decent and intelligent argument for or against these ideas. feel free to whinge about it, just be brave enough to do it yourself, instead of hiding.
well, i'm noticing this thread spiralling off-topic, but i'm not all that bothered. either way, my point is this; if you constantly question and challenge your faith, and then find that it's still there - doesn't that tell you something?