I'm pretty sure clearplay has people doing the reviewing and editing. I'm assuming that either you get a disc and periodic updates, or it has a modem and you pay a subscription to their editing service.
There's just no way to do it in software, especially not at the $79 price level.
I'd say that every computer coming in has to be accompanied by a new plant to maintain the computers/living organisms detente.
Re:It was the best of advice, and the worst of adv
on
Real Problems
·
· Score: 1
Yeah, in general I do that. I used Nimo strictly because it had a couple of codecs that I couldn't find anywhere else. Once I realized how dangerous it was, I used it carefully to install only the one codec I needed, and used the normal codec installs for everything else.
You know, the population is aging. The music industry is persuing the young crowd, because they're the ones who buy the most music, but there are steadily less of them as the boomer bump moves down the timeline. Maybe that has something to do with it? Probably not all, but maybe some.
Re:It was the best of advice, and the worst of adv
on
Real Problems
·
· Score: 1
I'm also nervous about codec packs. I used to install Nemo's Codec Pack a couple of years ago, but at a certain point, if I used it at all, it left my machine unable to do anything very well, especially it screwed up DV codecs. I'm sure there are codec packs that work, but then again, all I really ever need is my DVD player, DivX and XviD, and I'm done. I just installed Real Alternative this morning for the first time, and I must say, I have now installed RP for the very last time, it's RA for me from now on!
As much as anything, it's because I've always LOVED media player classic, and hated the new media player with all the happy-assed skins and junk. I was able to get it nearly back to normal once, but you push the wrong button and it starts looking like a refugee from Star Trek.
So you're going > 40% over the speed limit? In order to take 40% off your commute, unless your house and work are right on an onramp, you must be doing 60+% over the speed limit, and are able to sustain that in traffic. This means 112 MPH in a 70 zone.
I used to drive about 80 on the expressway in the 70 zone. I tried switching to 65. I found it made about 2 minutes difference on a 30 minute commute, because much of the commute time is taken up by sitting at stoplights, etc.
I also found that many of the assholes that were really being a danger on the road, driving really fast (20+MPH over the limit, weaving lanes a lot, etc) - quite often if they got off on the same ramp as me, they'd be like, 2 cars in front of me 10 minutes after they passed me. Big deal.
Part of the social contract of using the road is to respect the fact that you're in control of a lethal weapon, and the rules are there to protect everyone. If you're not willing to live within the rules, you need to take alternative steps, like moving closer to work. Either that, or you can petition to have the laws changed. Those are your choices.
That's exactly why the online copies are nice. I throw them on my Palm device, and once I've paid my NPR bill, I plug that into my radio for the rest of the pledge drive week.
Because I am not near the radio or I am at work when my favorite shows are on. I like to time-shift so that I can listen to "Wait, Wait, don't tell me" or Cartalk or even (if I'm in the rare mood) Prarie Home Companion while mowing lawn, cleaning house, etc. In a portable player, it gives me something to listen to on my commute during pledge drive week; since I generally call up pretty quickly with my pledge, I don't feel obliged to listen to them yap after I've given them my CC#.
I do the same thing with Total Recorder, except I spent a total of about 10 minutes setting up the schedule. Any show that has an online version, I grab that, since it's got the local news edited out so I don't have to waste my time or listen to the weather from 14 months ago.
If you're a Windows user and haven't checked out Net Transport, go find it now. I had built up an archive of several years worth of Cartalk using Total Recorder. When they switched to WMP I couldn't do that anymore, but a friend (in the same boat as me) found Net Transport; it'll download the original streams, which means no generation loss. It works for both WMP and RM files. Since I just bought a Palm Tungsten with Real Player built in, I'm happy to have the Real files back; though I also think Real are bastards, on the Palm, it's just a media player with no crap bolted on.
I'm hoping curl starts supporting RTSP: and whatever other protocols are needed; I'd rather use curl than net transport; though NT is a cute looking app, I prefer to script and cron so I don't have to remember to download before it's removed from the website.
Must have been a temporary thing, because I've downloaded Real Player probably 50 times when setting up various machines over the last few years. They alway put it off in a corner of the screen, but I've always been able to find the free player without too much trouble.
What happens to cruise control when you start hydroplaning?
Well, about the same as if you hydroplane without cruise control. The speed of the drive tires is going to shoot way up, then the cruise will drop out (it's a safety thing, keeps from blowing the engine if you drop into neutral or push in the clutch). Without the cruise, the speed will shoot up and you'll take your foot off the brake. In both situations, you're in trouble, better hope you're lucky and good enough to get out of it.
If you're driving in hydroplane conditions and don't disengage the cruise and slow down, then you're a bad enough driver that you're going to get yourself into trouble even without it.
If you had the new stuff, traction control, you're going to be better off than manual reactions, if you get into a hydroplane situation; it's specifically designed to react to low-traction situations, and it'll do better than human reactions; also, it can feather brakes on individual wheels, which humans can't do. Again, you should be aware of your conditions and not drive that fast in the first place.
People wouldn't have road rage if they'd realize that their destination will still be there if they get there 2 minutes later, relax and realize that everyone else on the road has the same rights as they do. A few years ago I decided to lighten up and go the speed limit or a few below. I just set the cruise, sit in the right lane, and relax. Driving is much less stressful and more enjoyable that way. I'm pretty convinced that people get road rage because the highway belongs to THEM, and they're totally pissed that the world doesn't realize it and get the hell off THEIR road and let them do whatever the hell they want.
You sure they didn't come with the CDs? When I was building PCs, I eventually came to believe that the first thing that people did when they got home was to take all the cables and discs out of the box and feed them to the dog, or pile them in the driveway and set fire to them. Because we were a small shop, we had a 2nd person QC checklist on every machine, I know nobody was shirking this, and yet we had many people come in and swear up and down that "there wasn't any power cord in the box." or whatever.
That said, I've always wondered if a good defense against a taser might not be a conducting layer (worn beneath light upper layer clothing) that is hardy enough to stop and seat the probes, and which is connected to a metal plate at the bottom of one's shoes, thereby grounding the charge. I would think you'd get tingled, but it wouldn't be debilitating.
You don't need to be grounded. Unless the tazer has a grounding strap, then the ground is not completing the circuit. Think about it; if the ground were involved with this at all, it'd be going through the person RUNNING the tazer, and would shock him as well.
This is different than getting shocked with mains voltage, which is referenced to ground and ground can provide a return path. This is why you can get a shock from the mains when you only touch one wire. If you were totally insulated, you could touch that one wire without problem.
The circuit for a tazer runs strictly between the two probes.
Because the only reason they'll be free is if you buy them with the bundled software. You can get a satellite TV system for free too, if you agree to a subscription. Much of Microsoft's income already comes from subscription model software; our company pays per seat, and we get to install whatever the hell MS software we want on each seat. I could just as easily be running Word97, or for that matter, OpenOffice (I did until I got this new machine last week) but the machines all hit the desk with Office 2003 on them, and we've already paid for the stuff, and will continue to pay for the latest MS software even if I decide to use OpenOffice. Where's the incentive?
As a fellow michigander, I have a few words for you:
Dish Network DirecTV
(either, just take your pick. I'm on Dish myself but they're basically equivalent).
We have Charter at our house, for the broadband only. The cable quality (even digital cable) doesn't meet the quality of Dish, so we had it disconnected the day after they put it in and never cancelled our Dish subscription.
Dish and DirecTV are also way cheaper than cable. DirecTV right now has a guaranteed infinite price lockin. That's what they told me on the phone yesterday, anyway; they guarantee no price increases, ever.
I'm not sure why people are still subscribing to cable. The systems and the install are free, it's not legal (per the FCC, fed trumps local) for ordinances to disallow your mounting the antenna, the picture is better and the packages are cheaper.
OK, a few people have no clear view of the satellite due to buildings or trees. But not that many.
Well, that's fine. But my point is, they use that info to lower their costs. This means the retail costs might be lowered. It seems to me that this all works out; if you want to use the card and lower costs all around, go ahead, if you don't then don't.
It's too bad the Microdrive inside the iPod turns out to be not reusable. I was very close to buying one to extract the drive and throw the iPod away. Instead I'll have to buy a Muvo2 - they have 4GB microdrives inside that apparently are not crippled.
At $249, it's a good deal, since the drives alone normally sell for > $400.
Heck, I may even grab an old 128MB CF card I'm not using anymore and keep the Muvo servicable.
I wonder how many people are buying them just for the drive inside?
The iPod mini is still too big for me, I only really like the super small units; if I was going for an iPod I would certainly go for the 15 GB unit for $50 more.
John Cleese has said several times that he thinks LoB is their best movie. I have to agree. THG gets more play, but in the end it's a bit flat. LoB is brilliant.
OK, so we know that stores are tracking your purchases. My question: So what? On the pro side: You get targetted coupons Stores get superior inventory flow management. This allows them to cut costs. This may result in: lower cost product, higher wages to employees, higher bonuses to bigwigs. None of those are horrible things.
On the con side: "They" are "watching" me.
Will someone explain to me why the hell a store cares how many bottles of preparation-H you buy, other than to make sure they stock enough to meet demand? To what nefarious purposes are they going to put this info?
I'm limiting this to barcodes/loyalty cards. I'm well aware of the Minority-Report-esque possibilities of RFID outside the store.
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I'm pretty sure clearplay has people doing the reviewing and editing. I'm assuming that either you get a disc and periodic updates, or it has a modem and you pay a subscription to their editing service.
There's just no way to do it in software, especially not at the $79 price level.
I'd say that every computer coming in has to be accompanied by a new plant to maintain the computers/living organisms detente.
Yeah, in general I do that. I used Nimo strictly because it had a couple of codecs that I couldn't find anywhere else. Once I realized how dangerous it was, I used it carefully to install only the one codec I needed, and used the normal codec installs for everything else.
You know, the population is aging. The music industry is persuing the young crowd, because they're the ones who buy the most music, but there are steadily less of them as the boomer bump moves down the timeline.
Maybe that has something to do with it? Probably not all, but maybe some.
I'm also nervous about codec packs. I used to install Nemo's Codec Pack a couple of years ago, but at a certain point, if I used it at all, it left my machine unable to do anything very well, especially it screwed up DV codecs.
I'm sure there are codec packs that work, but then again, all I really ever need is my DVD player, DivX and XviD, and I'm done.
I just installed Real Alternative this morning for the first time, and I must say, I have now installed RP for the very last time, it's RA for me from now on!
As much as anything, it's because I've always LOVED media player classic, and hated the new media player with all the happy-assed skins and junk. I was able to get it nearly back to normal once, but you push the wrong button and it starts looking like a refugee from Star Trek.
So you're going > 40% over the speed limit?
In order to take 40% off your commute, unless your house and work are right on an onramp, you must be doing 60+% over the speed limit, and are able to sustain that in traffic. This means 112 MPH in a 70 zone.
I used to drive about 80 on the expressway in the 70 zone. I tried switching to 65. I found it made about 2 minutes difference on a 30 minute commute, because much of the commute time is taken up by sitting at stoplights, etc.
I also found that many of the assholes that were really being a danger on the road, driving really fast (20+MPH over the limit, weaving lanes a lot, etc) - quite often if they got off on the same ramp as me, they'd be like, 2 cars in front of me 10 minutes after they passed me. Big deal.
Part of the social contract of using the road is to respect the fact that you're in control of a lethal weapon, and the rules are there to protect everyone. If you're not willing to live within the rules, you need to take alternative steps, like moving closer to work. Either that, or you can petition to have the laws changed. Those are your choices.
That's exactly why the online copies are nice. I throw them on my Palm device, and once I've paid my NPR bill, I plug that into my radio for the rest of the pledge drive week.
Because I am not near the radio or I am at work when my favorite shows are on. I like to time-shift so that I can listen to "Wait, Wait, don't tell me" or Cartalk or even (if I'm in the rare mood) Prarie Home Companion while mowing lawn, cleaning house, etc.
In a portable player, it gives me something to listen to on my commute during pledge drive week; since I generally call up pretty quickly with my pledge, I don't feel obliged to listen to them yap after I've given them my CC#.
I do the same thing with Total Recorder, except I spent a total of about 10 minutes setting up the schedule.
Any show that has an online version, I grab that, since it's got the local news edited out so I don't have to waste my time or listen to the weather from 14 months ago.
If you're a Windows user and haven't checked out Net Transport, go find it now. I had built up an archive of several years worth of Cartalk using Total Recorder. When they switched to WMP I couldn't do that anymore, but a friend (in the same boat as me) found Net Transport; it'll download the original streams, which means no generation loss. It works for both WMP and RM files. Since I just bought a Palm Tungsten with Real Player built in, I'm happy to have the Real files back; though I also think Real are bastards, on the Palm, it's just a media player with no crap bolted on.
I'm hoping curl starts supporting RTSP: and whatever other protocols are needed; I'd rather use curl than net transport; though NT is a cute looking app, I prefer to script and cron so I don't have to remember to download before it's removed from the website.
Must have been a temporary thing, because I've downloaded Real Player probably 50 times when setting up various machines over the last few years. They alway put it off in a corner of the screen, but I've always been able to find the free player without too much trouble.
What happens to cruise control when you start hydroplaning?
Well, about the same as if you hydroplane without cruise control. The speed of the drive tires is going to shoot way up, then the cruise will drop out (it's a safety thing, keeps from blowing the engine if you drop into neutral or push in the clutch). Without the cruise, the speed will shoot up and you'll take your foot off the brake. In both situations, you're in trouble, better hope you're lucky and good enough to get out of it.
If you're driving in hydroplane conditions and don't disengage the cruise and slow down, then you're a bad enough driver that you're going to get yourself into trouble even without it.
If you had the new stuff, traction control, you're going to be better off than manual reactions, if you get into a hydroplane situation; it's specifically designed to react to low-traction situations, and it'll do better than human reactions; also, it can feather brakes on individual wheels, which humans can't do. Again, you should be aware of your conditions and not drive that fast in the first place.
People wouldn't have road rage if they'd realize that their destination will still be there if they get there 2 minutes later, relax and realize that everyone else on the road has the same rights as they do.
A few years ago I decided to lighten up and go the speed limit or a few below. I just set the cruise, sit in the right lane, and relax. Driving is much less stressful and more enjoyable that way.
I'm pretty convinced that people get road rage because the highway belongs to THEM, and they're totally pissed that the world doesn't realize it and get the hell off THEIR road and let them do whatever the hell they want.
That's funny, there's been a license on every version of Windows I've seen, and it's specifically said that I've only bought a license.
You sure they didn't come with the CDs? When I was building PCs, I eventually came to believe that the first thing that people did when they got home was to take all the cables and discs out of the box and feed them to the dog, or pile them in the driveway and set fire to them. Because we were a small shop, we had a 2nd person QC checklist on every machine, I know nobody was shirking this, and yet we had many people come in and swear up and down that "there wasn't any power cord in the box." or whatever.
That's equvalent of the five-finger discount. You're not allowed to tranfer licenses, remember (not like everyone doesn't do it anyway, but...)
That said, I've always wondered if a good defense against a taser might not be a conducting layer (worn beneath light upper layer clothing) that is hardy enough to stop and seat the probes, and which is connected to a metal plate at the bottom of one's shoes, thereby grounding the charge. I would think you'd get tingled, but it wouldn't be debilitating.
You don't need to be grounded. Unless the tazer has a grounding strap, then the ground is not completing the circuit. Think about it; if the ground were involved with this at all, it'd be going through the person RUNNING the tazer, and would shock him as well.
This is different than getting shocked with mains voltage, which is referenced to ground and ground can provide a return path. This is why you can get a shock from the mains when you only touch one wire. If you were totally insulated, you could touch that one wire without problem.
The circuit for a tazer runs strictly between the two probes.
Because the only reason they'll be free is if you buy them with the bundled software. You can get a satellite TV system for free too, if you agree to a subscription.
Much of Microsoft's income already comes from subscription model software; our company pays per seat, and we get to install whatever the hell MS software we want on each seat. I could just as easily be running Word97, or for that matter, OpenOffice (I did until I got this new machine last week) but the machines all hit the desk with Office 2003 on them, and we've already paid for the stuff, and will continue to pay for the latest MS software even if I decide to use OpenOffice. Where's the incentive?
This will be like the stinky car episode of Mythbusters; you'll never be able to quite get the smell out of this car.
As a fellow michigander, I have a few words for you:
Dish Network
DirecTV
(either, just take your pick. I'm on Dish myself but they're basically equivalent).
We have Charter at our house, for the broadband only. The cable quality (even digital cable) doesn't meet the quality of Dish, so we had it disconnected the day after they put it in and never cancelled our Dish subscription.
Dish and DirecTV are also way cheaper than cable. DirecTV right now has a guaranteed infinite price lockin. That's what they told me on the phone yesterday, anyway; they guarantee no price increases, ever.
I'm not sure why people are still subscribing to cable. The systems and the install are free, it's not legal (per the FCC, fed trumps local) for ordinances to disallow your mounting the antenna, the picture is better and the packages are cheaper.
OK, a few people have no clear view of the satellite due to buildings or trees. But not that many.
Well, that's fine. But my point is, they use that info to lower their costs. This means the retail costs might be lowered. It seems to me that this all works out; if you want to use the card and lower costs all around, go ahead, if you don't then don't.
Jebus man, take a pill.
It's too bad the Microdrive inside the iPod turns out to be not reusable. I was very close to buying one to extract the drive and throw the iPod away. Instead I'll have to buy a Muvo2 - they have 4GB microdrives inside that apparently are not crippled.
At $249, it's a good deal, since the drives alone normally sell for > $400.
Heck, I may even grab an old 128MB CF card I'm not using anymore and keep the Muvo servicable.
I wonder how many people are buying them just for the drive inside?
The iPod mini is still too big for me, I only really like the super small units; if I was going for an iPod I would certainly go for the 15 GB unit for $50 more.
I guess I better start taping Robot Wars then...
John Cleese has said several times that he thinks LoB is their best movie. I have to agree. THG gets more play, but in the end it's a bit flat. LoB is brilliant.
OK, so we know that stores are tracking your purchases. My question: So what?
On the pro side:
You get targetted coupons
Stores get superior inventory flow management. This allows them to cut costs. This may result in: lower cost product, higher wages to employees, higher bonuses to bigwigs. None of those are horrible things.
On the con side:
"They" are "watching" me.
Will someone explain to me why the hell a store cares how many bottles of preparation-H you buy, other than to make sure they stock enough to meet demand? To what nefarious purposes are they going to put this info?
I'm limiting this to barcodes/loyalty cards. I'm well aware of the Minority-Report-esque possibilities of RFID outside the store.