If you think about the extra $600 dollars these people spent to get an hdtv, only to realize for the last year there's hardly any content to justify the purchase.. I think these people won't have a problem with spending an extra $4 per disc for BlueRay to have HD quality movies.. and while they may not spend the money to replace their DVDs (which will play on their BR player), their future DVD purchases will be BR purchases.
"Just want to say on the 'better quality' argument: in general I can't tell the difference between VHS and DVD quality."
That's probably because you are watching NTSC VHS (480i) and NTSC DVD (480i). Unless you have a progressive scan DVD player and television (Look for Y, Pr, Pb connectors on each side with a wire between them) you shouldn't be able to tell the difference. The only difference will be in signal loss as the VHS ages. I guarantee you would notice the difference between your current setup, and a switch to progressive scan... not to mention a jump in resolution from 480 to 1080.
BlueRay will output to digital and analog recording devices at 1080i, over double the resolution of NTSC, but half the resolution of 1080p.. roughly equivalent to 480p (DVD max).
The idea that neither format can never gain broad market dominance is absurd. For starters, with their drm technology, the studios are going to create supply shortages in DVD and flood the marketplace with the higher definition formats at the same price to retailers. The studios will want a DRM format to gain the broad market acceptance.
Second, you consider video resolution a "specialized path". I think it is far more accurately an evolutionary path. Laserdisc did gain a broad market acceptance. The fact VHS was writable gave them the advantage for the average consumer. Then why has the DVD succeeded over the VHS tape? Increased resolution paired with televisions capable of showcasing the difference. Video resolution back in the 80s wasn't anywhere near as advanced as it is today. Tens of thousands of homes have televisions capable of performing at 720p (progressive scanned) and these are the early adopters of HDTV. However, most HDTVs now have a resolution of 1080p and even downsampled, BR comes through at 1080i (interlaced), comparing even a high end, 480p DVD and television, the clarity and image quality are unquestionable, even to Joe Duffy.
My big question is, how many people are correctly using the Y, Pb, Pr cables (which are the only cables capable of transferring progressive scan and not to be confused with Y,Cb,Cr) instead of say, S-video? Practically every "Do it yourselfer" I've encountered with the progressive scan DVD player and hi-def TV failed to purchase the correct cable to take advantage of this feature, yet each one of them, unwittingly downsampling their video to interlaced, has bragged about how nice their picture is... It's amazing the psychological effect of consumerism. It's not to be underestimated. While DVD's digital 480i is clearly an advancement from VHS quality.. and 480p is an advancement of that.. 1080p properly implemented with qulity content (video games, movies, et al) is definately the next big "doubler" in video format. Don't sleep on it.
"I love caffeinated soda but if I chug two liters of Code Red, I know I'll get sick from the excess caffeine or sugar. So I drink a couple ounces and stop. Having more is just stupid."
I won't drink caffeine. That doesn't mean scientists were wasting their time for making caffeine free sodas like Sprite. If my only choice was cola or water, I would choose water. If given the between traditional red meat, and red meat whose fat content was replaced with Omega-3 fatty acids, I would choose the latter. Health is about making healthy choices. Giving people more healthy choices, and asking them to sacrifice less, is a perfect play to human nature.
Why else would we "fortify" our milks and cereals?
The idea that immediately strikes me when i hear moon colony is, practice for mars colony. I think the idea of which is more hostile is sort of subjective, but there are a few benefits to trying one on the moon before trying one on mars. We can get to the moon cheaper and faster. We will face many of the same challenges on the moon, but we will be closer to home, and could be more responsive to these challenges. Scientific experiments are the only viable way to make this base "permanent", and yes, that does make private sector investment viable. Corporations (like drug companies) spend millions to have research done aboard the space shuttle and the ISS.
AMD also has plans to release their own 65nm chipsets at something ridiculous like 30 watts.. they also have a line of quad and eight core processors that will beat the shit out of intel... not to mention AMD's crossbar technology blows fsb out of the water, and HT is a complete piece of garbage.. AMD still maintains superior architecture, even if Intel does get the 65nm fabrication to market faster due to their excess $125 billion in cash.. considering AMD has only like $8 billion in cash.. it would be total bewilderment that Intel couldn't beat AMD to the market with new fabrication and manufacturing processes. It's still no secret that AMD has better engineers.
I'm really unimpressed with the "ancient human" fossils, and frankly am tired of seeing new "missing link" fossils discovered. These things always end up failing to live up to the headlines. 90% of these ancient human reconstructions turn out to be complete garbage. But hey, they get the headlines and they have icons, what other scientific evidence do you need? I mean we all know the lochness monster really exists too, right?
We can diminish this argument on the premise that facial recognition isn't identification, but probability matching. not 'john smith' but someone who 'looks like john smith'.
"if your not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about"
That's a strawman if I've ever seen one. I never suggested anything of the sort.
Yes, actual crimes ARE already reported. What if I could have told you someone that matches his description went into the same liquor store three nights in a row, and had also visited five other liquor stores in the preceeding week.
What if I could tell you the a group of five people who match the description of five people who robbed a bank last week just entered a Citibank on 34th and Lexington?
There's alot of beneficial things you can do with this information, and due to the massive amounts of data collected, very specific screens would be the only useful application. But since you threw up the argument, "if you have nothing to be afraid of.." (which is a privacy argument regarding being SEARCHED), would you freak out if your neighbour looked out the window and saw you walking down the street? What about if a police officer recognized you while you were walking down the street? Did you just get your 4th amendment totally violated? What about the video camera at just about every gas station you go to? Do you shield your face as you walk past them? As you stand at the counter? Do you pay for everything in cash, or do you swipe a card and use a pin number? Are checks unconstitutional? The very idea that one should be able to go "out in public" cloaked in "privacy" is not only oxymoronic, but completely moronic.
I worked as an architect on a project that needed access to 120 tb, and had strict performance requirements. It wasn't a daily backup, and our solution was a Disk/WORM library. However, I did get a chance to play around with FileNet, which created an interesting layer, in that it will intelligently determine which files are more commonly accessed/updated and store them online on a disk cache and schedule the other files to automatically move to a library.
In your scenario, this could eliminate the need to differentiate between incremental and full backups, as it will automatically move to nearline anything that isn't being updated on a file by file basis, and your often modified files will be kept online... meanwhile, the entire filesystem will be available 24x7. This replication and data storage solution proved to be worth millions of dollars in my scenario, and sounds like it could save you a ton of money and headache as well.
I agree with this, i mean seriously, terrorist and anti-iraqi forces launch mortar rounds at me on a daily basis. i'm not scared of their websites. It all comes back to the idea that military effectiveness will not win this war. There is a war of ideas and ideals out there that needs to be fought as well. Not that we need to go to war against allah or anything, but I'm talking about fighting people who are recruiting people to throw bombs at us is just as important as fighting the people who are throwing the bombs.
So maybe you DON'T dispatch the police, maybe instead you build statistics and metrics to more effectively determine patrols and police density in different neighbourhoods. The usefulness of this application to law enforcement is limited only by innovation.
The idea is that a pair of cameras, with a shared focus distance, at an angle that replicates the angle of the eyes would be all you need. simply project the video to the corresponding eye, and your eye will be tricked to replicate the same focal distance.. adding instant depth perception to the movie. The only problem to this is your eyes would be forced into a focal distance as determined by the camera, and trying to shift focus onto background images or whatnot could be pretty disorienting, or it could even work.. i'm not sure, I would have to test it out. Maybe I have something to play with once I get back from Iraq.
You can start by repealing the 17th amendment. If Senators are appointed be the congress instead of elected, then maybe they wouldn't spend 4 years campaigning for president instead of going to work, and would be more unbiased to actually reform financing laws. After all, they serve six year terms, and the house serves four.. it was designed that way for a reason. Piss off a congressman by doing the right thing, against his demands, and the public is on your side.. no reprecussions. he's not going to be around when your ready to be appointed to your next term.
Didn't you mother ever teach you the different between CAN and MAY?
Bloggers CAN enjoy the FREEDOM.
If you aks anyone educated in english, they have AFFIRMED speech on the internet is PROTECTED by the first amendment, while COMMERCE is subject to regulation.
If they wanted to take it away, they would not have so unambigiously announced the freedom.
There is nothing "new" about this law, it's not totalitarian, and it only affects capaign spending. This idea that the government is EEEVUL for passing this law is straight up stupid.
Why do people feel the need to make their own arguments, regardless of reality?
"Outstanding warrants number in the hunderds of millions"
I think you need ot shove that statistic right back up your ass where you got it from. Like I said in the post, that was a number for that State, but even still, the US population is less than 300 million. So I guess like everyone between the ages of 18-60 has a warrant for their arrest.
Fcial recognition relies on probability matches, not positive identification. it's just a filter, of varying sensitivity. even being punched in the face or gaining ten pounds might not invalidate your entry. it scans off areas that aren't very suceptible to change with weight or aging. The top of your eye socket, the distance between your pupils, the corners of your mouth, your cheek bone... don't think your going to walk up to an atm and take out cash, you're going to need your implantable rfid and a facial scan to make that happen.
I don't see the government trying to make some ultra-massive computing system linked globally. I see the main use for this would be municipal governments.. perhaps the state. How about a state has entries for all persons with a warrant for arrest? The municipal government has entries for all violent felons and drug dealers. The FBI has their most wanted list, as well as suspects currently under investigation. The US Marshalls Office has all wanted felons. None of this is a bad thing in any way. I can't imagine more than about a million entries to search, and this could be easily cached by a small database server. I don't remember the code that was encoded on my fingerprint card when I applied for security clearance, but it was something like 16 bytes.. meaning a gynormous cache of 16 bytes per entry if the algorithim for face is anything like fingerprint. I believe the face recognition may be simpler even, seeing as insted of identifying all the deltas, tails, et al that a fingerprint records, it only looks at the upper eye socket, the distance between pupils, the cheekbone, and the corners of the mouth.. so if you ever wanted a negative result on a face scn, all you would really need to do is squinsh up your face like you ate a lemon and close one eye.
I know this might not be a popular question, but why should someone be able to walk down the street anonymously? all our tax dollars paid for tht street after all... I draw a line for privacy, and it's called society. I don't think there's much of a right to operate within society anonymously. Noone's going through your pockets or pulling your kids out of bed. They just want to know who the guy going into the grocery store. of course technology like this would be a severe deterrant to crime.. but who cares. now, the government not only knows where I live, they know when i'm on my way home! OH NOS!1
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If you think about the extra $600 dollars these people spent to get an hdtv, only to realize for the last year there's hardly any content to justify the purchase.. I think these people won't have a problem with spending an extra $4 per disc for BlueRay to have HD quality movies.. and while they may not spend the money to replace their DVDs (which will play on their BR player), their future DVD purchases will be BR purchases.
Two words: Xbox + XBMC.
Check out www.xbox-scene.com for more info on reprogramming your xbox with a new dashboard and media player.
That's probably because you are watching NTSC VHS (480i) and NTSC DVD (480i). Unless you have a progressive scan DVD player and television (Look for Y, Pr, Pb connectors on each side with a wire between them) you shouldn't be able to tell the difference. The only difference will be in signal loss as the VHS ages. I guarantee you would notice the difference between your current setup, and a switch to progressive scan... not to mention a jump in resolution from 480 to 1080.
BlueRay will output to digital and analog recording devices at 1080i, over double the resolution of NTSC, but half the resolution of 1080p.. roughly equivalent to 480p (DVD max).
The idea that neither format can never gain broad market dominance is absurd. For starters, with their drm technology, the studios are going to create supply shortages in DVD and flood the marketplace with the higher definition formats at the same price to retailers. The studios will want a DRM format to gain the broad market acceptance.
Second, you consider video resolution a "specialized path". I think it is far more accurately an evolutionary path. Laserdisc did gain a broad market acceptance. The fact VHS was writable gave them the advantage for the average consumer. Then why has the DVD succeeded over the VHS tape? Increased resolution paired with televisions capable of showcasing the difference. Video resolution back in the 80s wasn't anywhere near as advanced as it is today. Tens of thousands of homes have televisions capable of performing at 720p (progressive scanned) and these are the early adopters of HDTV. However, most HDTVs now have a resolution of 1080p and even downsampled, BR comes through at 1080i (interlaced), comparing even a high end, 480p DVD and television, the clarity and image quality are unquestionable, even to Joe Duffy.
My big question is, how many people are correctly using the Y, Pb, Pr cables (which are the only cables capable of transferring progressive scan and not to be confused with Y,Cb,Cr) instead of say, S-video? Practically every "Do it yourselfer" I've encountered with the progressive scan DVD player and hi-def TV failed to purchase the correct cable to take advantage of this feature, yet each one of them, unwittingly downsampling their video to interlaced, has bragged about how nice their picture is... It's amazing the psychological effect of consumerism. It's not to be underestimated. While DVD's digital 480i is clearly an advancement from VHS quality.. and 480p is an advancement of that.. 1080p properly implemented with qulity content (video games, movies, et al) is definately the next big "doubler" in video format. Don't sleep on it.
Have I been missing this section this whole time, or is this something new?
I won't drink caffeine. That doesn't mean scientists were wasting their time for making caffeine free sodas like Sprite. If my only choice was cola or water, I would choose water. If given the between traditional red meat, and red meat whose fat content was replaced with Omega-3 fatty acids, I would choose the latter. Health is about making healthy choices. Giving people more healthy choices, and asking them to sacrifice less, is a perfect play to human nature.
Why else would we "fortify" our milks and cereals?
The idea that immediately strikes me when i hear moon colony is, practice for mars colony. I think the idea of which is more hostile is sort of subjective, but there are a few benefits to trying one on the moon before trying one on mars. We can get to the moon cheaper and faster. We will face many of the same challenges on the moon, but we will be closer to home, and could be more responsive to these challenges. Scientific experiments are the only viable way to make this base "permanent", and yes, that does make private sector investment viable. Corporations (like drug companies) spend millions to have research done aboard the space shuttle and the ISS.
AMD also has plans to release their own 65nm chipsets at something ridiculous like 30 watts.. they also have a line of quad and eight core processors that will beat the shit out of intel... not to mention AMD's crossbar technology blows fsb out of the water, and HT is a complete piece of garbage.. AMD still maintains superior architecture, even if Intel does get the 65nm fabrication to market faster due to their excess $125 billion in cash.. considering AMD has only like $8 billion in cash.. it would be total bewilderment that Intel couldn't beat AMD to the market with new fabrication and manufacturing processes. It's still no secret that AMD has better engineers.
I'm really unimpressed with the "ancient human" fossils, and frankly am tired of seeing new "missing link" fossils discovered. These things always end up failing to live up to the headlines. 90% of these ancient human reconstructions turn out to be complete garbage. But hey, they get the headlines and they have icons, what other scientific evidence do you need? I mean we all know the lochness monster really exists too, right?
We can diminish this argument on the premise that facial recognition isn't identification, but probability matching. not 'john smith' but someone who 'looks like john smith'.
"if your not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about"
That's a strawman if I've ever seen one. I never suggested anything of the sort.
Yes, actual crimes ARE already reported. What if I could have told you someone that matches his description went into the same liquor store three nights in a row, and had also visited five other liquor stores in the preceeding week.
What if I could tell you the a group of five people who match the description of five people who robbed a bank last week just entered a Citibank on 34th and Lexington?
There's alot of beneficial things you can do with this information, and due to the massive amounts of data collected, very specific screens would be the only useful application. But since you threw up the argument, "if you have nothing to be afraid of.." (which is a privacy argument regarding being SEARCHED), would you freak out if your neighbour looked out the window and saw you walking down the street? What about if a police officer recognized you while you were walking down the street? Did you just get your 4th amendment totally violated? What about the video camera at just about every gas station you go to? Do you shield your face as you walk past them? As you stand at the counter? Do you pay for everything in cash, or do you swipe a card and use a pin number? Are checks unconstitutional? The very idea that one should be able to go "out in public" cloaked in "privacy" is not only oxymoronic, but completely moronic.
In your scenario, this could eliminate the need to differentiate between incremental and full backups, as it will automatically move to nearline anything that isn't being updated on a file by file basis, and your often modified files will be kept online... meanwhile, the entire filesystem will be available 24x7. This replication and data storage solution proved to be worth millions of dollars in my scenario, and sounds like it could save you a ton of money and headache as well.
I agree with this, i mean seriously, terrorist and anti-iraqi forces launch mortar rounds at me on a daily basis. i'm not scared of their websites. It all comes back to the idea that military effectiveness will not win this war. There is a war of ideas and ideals out there that needs to be fought as well. Not that we need to go to war against allah or anything, but I'm talking about fighting people who are recruiting people to throw bombs at us is just as important as fighting the people who are throwing the bombs.
So maybe you DON'T dispatch the police, maybe instead you build statistics and metrics to more effectively determine patrols and police density in different neighbourhoods. The usefulness of this application to law enforcement is limited only by innovation.
The idea is that a pair of cameras, with a shared focus distance, at an angle that replicates the angle of the eyes would be all you need. simply project the video to the corresponding eye, and your eye will be tricked to replicate the same focal distance.. adding instant depth perception to the movie. The only problem to this is your eyes would be forced into a focal distance as determined by the camera, and trying to shift focus onto background images or whatnot could be pretty disorienting, or it could even work.. i'm not sure, I would have to test it out. Maybe I have something to play with once I get back from Iraq.
Welcome to the internet.
You can start by repealing the 17th amendment. If Senators are appointed be the congress instead of elected, then maybe they wouldn't spend 4 years campaigning for president instead of going to work, and would be more unbiased to actually reform financing laws. After all, they serve six year terms, and the house serves four.. it was designed that way for a reason. Piss off a congressman by doing the right thing, against his demands, and the public is on your side.. no reprecussions. he's not going to be around when your ready to be appointed to your next term.
Bloggers CAN enjoy the FREEDOM.
If you aks anyone educated in english, they have AFFIRMED speech on the internet is PROTECTED by the first amendment, while COMMERCE is subject to regulation.
If they wanted to take it away, they would not have so unambigiously announced the freedom.
There is nothing "new" about this law, it's not totalitarian, and it only affects capaign spending. This idea that the government is EEEVUL for passing this law is straight up stupid.
Why do people feel the need to make their own arguments, regardless of reality?
So just how many CIA meetings have you watched on C-SPAN?
I think you need ot shove that statistic right back up your ass where you got it from. Like I said in the post, that was a number for that State, but even still, the US population is less than 300 million. So I guess like everyone between the ages of 18-60 has a warrant for their arrest.
Fcial recognition relies on probability matches, not positive identification. it's just a filter, of varying sensitivity. even being punched in the face or gaining ten pounds might not invalidate your entry. it scans off areas that aren't very suceptible to change with weight or aging. The top of your eye socket, the distance between your pupils, the corners of your mouth, your cheek bone... don't think your going to walk up to an atm and take out cash, you're going to need your implantable rfid and a facial scan to make that happen.
I don't see the government trying to make some ultra-massive computing system linked globally. I see the main use for this would be municipal governments.. perhaps the state. How about a state has entries for all persons with a warrant for arrest? The municipal government has entries for all violent felons and drug dealers. The FBI has their most wanted list, as well as suspects currently under investigation. The US Marshalls Office has all wanted felons. None of this is a bad thing in any way. I can't imagine more than about a million entries to search, and this could be easily cached by a small database server. I don't remember the code that was encoded on my fingerprint card when I applied for security clearance, but it was something like 16 bytes.. meaning a gynormous cache of 16 bytes per entry if the algorithim for face is anything like fingerprint. I believe the face recognition may be simpler even, seeing as insted of identifying all the deltas, tails, et al that a fingerprint records, it only looks at the upper eye socket, the distance between pupils, the cheekbone, and the corners of the mouth.. so if you ever wanted a negative result on a face scn, all you would really need to do is squinsh up your face like you ate a lemon and close one eye.
Or when someone who hasn't been caught has knocked off a liquor store, you can alert the police the next time they walk past a sensor.
Having worked as a consultant to the NYPD, I can see how municipalities could find this very useful for controlling local crime.
I know this might not be a popular question, but why should someone be able to walk down the street anonymously? all our tax dollars paid for tht street after all... I draw a line for privacy, and it's called society. I don't think there's much of a right to operate within society anonymously. Noone's going through your pockets or pulling your kids out of bed. They just want to know who the guy going into the grocery store. of course technology like this would be a severe deterrant to crime.. but who cares. now, the government not only knows where I live, they know when i'm on my way home! OH NOS!1
It's never been easier to drain out Bill Gate's bank account. I never imagined my halloween mask collection could make me a billionaire.