The way I understand it is that firmware updates can be shipped with new releases. So say they decide to update the keys, they can pick an arbitrary date and all discs made after that date will include the update. When you play the disc your player is automatically updated, probably without you even aware it has occurred.
"DVD-R and DVD+R are nearly indistinguishable from each other, unlike BD and HD-DVD which are very different."
BD and HD-DVD actually have a lot of similarities; for example they both use 405 nm lasers, they both support the same video codecs and they both support a lot of the same audio codecs. Furthermore, while DVD+R and DVD-R may appear identical to the average consumer there are a number of distinct technological differences between them. When the two formats first began competing the possibility of a dual format drive was far from certain, and there were many people saying it was not feasible for a variety of reasons, until such a drive was released.
"It's a lot cheaper to make a dual-format player for the former than it is for the latter."
Saying it would cost a lot more to make a dual format HD drive than a dual format DVD burner is pretty meaningless when single format HD readers are still $100-200+ more than even the most expensive DVD burners.
"Not that it really matters; the massive amount of studio support that BluRay has over HD-DVD makes it rather unlikely that HD-DVD will long enough to where dual-format players would be a viable option."
I don't pretend to know the future, but neither does anyone else, and anyone that is claiming to know the outcome of this format war at this early stage is an idiot. All I'm saying is a dual format player is a definite possibility, it's technologically possible and there is demand for it.
"What I'm hoping happens is that one of the two becomes the dominant format (which it almost certainly will), and the other one will become the "ghetto" HD format."
I think another likely scenario is dual format players. Remember we had a format war just a few years ago with DVD+R and DVD-R and it was negated when dual format burners came out. If we do get dual format players it seems possible HD-DVD could become the more prominent format since it has plenty of space for full length movies *and* is cheaper to produce. Of course Blu-Ray has stronger DRM from what I understand so maybe studios will stick with that format as much as possible.
I have a TI-85 that is going on 10 years old. It got me through an undergraduate engineering program and is now serving me well in grad school. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get a calculator program for a PDA or something but IMHO that wouldn't be nearly as good as a dedicated graphing calculator. And if the price of a new one is prohibitive I'm sure you could find a used TI-85 or 86 for a decent price on ebay.
The benefits of a graphing calculator over any other option I can think of are numerous.
Everyone else has them, so if you are stuck on entering something it is easy to get help. Plus you can share programs.
They are extremely sturdy: My TI has been dropped more times than I can count and it lives in my bookbag, jammed in unceremoniously among pencils and pens, notepads and all other kinds of dirt and crud. Try doing that with a PDA and see how long it lasts.
It is a dedicated math computer; All the buttons and programs are specifically dedicated to math and science. A PDA for example would be a pain because you would constantly have to be working through a device that was not intended specifically for math functions.
Graphing calculators are allowed for virtually all testing that allows calculators in the US. Some other device, especially one that can communicate like a PDA would very likely be banned.
In the end as someone that has been working in academia for over 7 years now I can tell you that if you are serious about a portable device specifically for math and science use the only real option is a graphing calculator. Most people I know have TI's, but as others have mentioned HP is another option. If cost is a factor look for a used one, but keep in mind this a device that could serve you for well over 10 years, from that standpoint $100 bucks is a small investment. If what you need is something for more hardcore math you will obviously have to go with a program like Matlab. But that is a somewhat different application.
Yes, they actually plan to launch this 51 GB disk, it is simply waiting for approval from the standards body. The fact that this 100 GB disk was announced over a year and a half ago and is still unavailable should tell you something. Hell they don't even have a prospective launch date for it.
"Not only that, 100GB and 200GB Blu-ray discs were announced last year."
That's nice, tell me, when exactly will these 100 and 200 GB disks be available, and at what price point? Every time there is a big tech convention these high capacity disks are displayed, but so far they are nothing more than a pie in the sky marketing tool for Sony. Having an experimental version of a device in a lab with no timeframe for release and having a completed device that is simply waiting for approval from a standards body are two very different things.
I don't see why any private website is obligated to support every single browser out there. In fact they don't even have to have a website up at all if they don't feel like it. Yet they have chosen to put one up and have it freely available to the public who can view it using freely available browsers. You really can't claim that they *owe* you more than that. As others have said, if you can't view it in your browser there other, free browsers out there that will work. Why don't you just install one of them?
Most websites have settled on Adobe Acrobat as the preferred format for posting documents for download. Do you think that someone who doesn't have Acrobat is justified in complaining that "X" website has not posted their documents in a format their computer can read? No, that is silly, Acrobat is free and runs on virtually any OS out there, if you don't feel like installing it then that's your problem, not the websites. Same thing here, if you don't feel like installing Firefox and can't view their website properly that's your problem, not theirs. Granted the Globe may lose a few readers who can't view their website but that's their decision to make if they don't feel like supporting Opera.
To be honest with you I don't think you have a leg to stand on. Sure you can complain all you want and that's fine. But at the end of the day the Globe has no obligation to support your specific browser if they don't want to and if you don't like it then you're SOL.
Two tips for cell phone complainants
on
Verizon Can't Do Math
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
1) Instead of spending a half hour, an hour or whatever wading through automated support and going through various levels of customer service trying to resolve an issue simply fill out a complaint form on the FCC's website. The form is available here. Within a few days a representative from the phone company will call you and politely ask what they can do to take care of this problem. I have used this succesfully several times in the past. I think once you get the FCC involved the phone companies are generally much more interested in resolving the issue quickly and to your satisfaction. Of course this probably won't do much if your problem arose in Canada.
2) If you can't get your problem resolved and want to switch providers there is a way to weasel out of your contract with no obligation. This is absolutely the last thing the phone company will ever tell you and most people aren't even aware it's available. Tell them you moved to an area where you no longer have service and they are required, by law, to terminate your contract for you. I myself have never used this but I have several friends that have done it succesfully. Some providers may require you to provide some proof of relocation, like an apartment lease or something. Not that I'm advocating this [ahem], but many apartment companies post their leasing agreements on their websites where you can simply print it out, fill it in and fax it to the phone company.
Remember that we are all working from a translation of Putins' statements. Unless you have a Russian translator to back you up it's pointless to speculate on subleties of semantics because a translation is never perfect. It's certain that some information will be lost or modified.
Here's the scenario I see: If dual format reader/writers become the standard then movie studios may standardise on HD-DVD for most of their movies since it is cheaper to produce. Unless there is a specific reason they need to use Blu-Ray for it's higher capacity why would they pay the extra cost for it? By not allowing dual format players Sony may be trying to prevent this outcome from happening. However if things begin to tip in HD-DVDs' favor they may have no choice but to allow it to try and hang on to some market share.
Well you can say it all you want but that doesn't mean engineers are ok with it. I can't say much about transistors as I'm a mechanical engineer but I never had a professor in 6 years of schooling that would have been ok with me using 10 m/s^2 for g and 3 for pi for calculations. Perhaps rudimentary back of the envelope deals but that's it. It's simply bad form, especially in these days of pocket calculators.
I realize it might not look fair, but unless there is some reason to think the astronomers that voted are biased in some way then 424 voters out of 2700 people is more than enough to give an accurate representation of the group as a whole.
Will Bluetooth become universal enough that I can ditch my flash drive entirely and just use the 10 gig micro HD in my cell phone as storage. And without even having to take it out of my pocket!
The important difference being that the PS2 is towards the end of it's lifecycle while the 360 is at the beginning of its. PS2, figure people will be buying games on a regular basis for it for another 2 years, maybe, after that they will move onto the next generation, and the games they will be buying will probably be cheaper. For the 360 those owners will be buying games for another 5-6 years or more, and the games are selling for 50-60 bucks.
The thing is it's not optional if you want to stay up to date. What if you have a program that won't run on an older version of OS X?? Then you're screwed.
With Windows we were completely up to date for the last 5 years without having to spend a dime.
Well let's see, at the time we dropped A-bombs on Japan (1945), segregation was still alive and well in America.
We also executed prisoners.
We also forcibly relocated approximately 120,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps for no other reason except their ancestry.
Feminism was still in it's infancy; in 1945 in America women had their place and for the most part they stayed in it.
And it was around the time Mccarthyism began (no explanation necessary)
Wow, a country like that certainly was in no position to be in control of A-bombs, what were we thinking??!
We got them first and we're the worlds sole superpower. Others countries may hate us for it and disagree with our foreign policy entirely but that's just the way it is, life isn't always fair. Would you rather we had *NO* nukes at all, at a time when countries like Iran and North Korea were developing them?
This has been HardOCPs' style for some time now, and they are doing pretty well if you weren't aware. Their main theory seems to be that they want to compare real world gameplay, not numbers based on settings that no gamer will ever use. There are tons of other sites that can provide you those numbers if that is what you're interested in.
Projectors work pretty well just pointed at a white wall. If you don't have that then yes, you will have to screw 2 screws into a wall to mount a screen (ooooh). Don't forget many flat panel displays have to be mounted on a wall as well. And most of the time I just have my projector sitting on a coffee table with the dvd player right underneath it, wire routing is minimal. Again, I think a lot of people think it is more complicated and difficult than it actually is.
The thing is if screen sizes continue to grow digital projectors are going to be the only feasible technology. Getting a 60 inch flat panel into your house is doable, (be careful you don't drop it). Getting a 144 inch flat panel into your house is likely impossible. Getting a 144 inch screen and a digital projector into your house however is a piece of cake, one person can do it, and if you drop the screen or bang it into a wall who cares.
Is setup really that complex? The only difference with a projector is you have to adjust the lens. That takes about 5 minutes at most, it's really not difficult. And lighting is not as much of an issue as some people make it out to be. It's true that it looks best in a darkened room, but you could say the same thing about LCDs and Plasmas. I have found that in general just dimming the lights in the immediate vicinity of the screen is plenty adequate to get a very bright picture. And with a good projector and high quality screen it will be fine even with the lights on.
I think a lot of mainstream consumers stay away from the technology because it is so different from the standard display technologies they are used to that they perceive there must be some drawbacks to it. When in reality the drawbacks are minimal at most, and there are lots of benefits.
Am I the only one that thinks digital projectors could leave both these technologies in the dust? I know there are some drawbacks (high cost, bulb life), but as far as the big-screen pissing contest goes digital projectors are untouchable.
It's comical listening to your friends brag about their 60 inch bigscreens and then you have them over to your place and watch their egos crumble when they first set eyes on the 12 foot screen hanging on your wall.
Not only that but the hardware is highly portable; you can easily take it to a party or some other event to set up for guests. And it takes up very little space in your living room. You can even use it to give business presentations on the road.
Until we can buy rolls of OLED wallpaper to turn entire walls into digital displays I will be sticking with the projector.
Slashdot Mirror
The way I understand it is that firmware updates can be shipped with new releases. So say they decide to update the keys, they can pick an arbitrary date and all discs made after that date will include the update. When you play the disc your player is automatically updated, probably without you even aware it has occurred.
"DVD-R and DVD+R are nearly indistinguishable from each other, unlike BD and HD-DVD which are very different."
BD and HD-DVD actually have a lot of similarities; for example they both use 405 nm lasers, they both support the same video codecs and they both support a lot of the same audio codecs. Furthermore, while DVD+R and DVD-R may appear identical to the average consumer there are a number of distinct technological differences between them. When the two formats first began competing the possibility of a dual format drive was far from certain, and there were many people saying it was not feasible for a variety of reasons, until such a drive was released.
"It's a lot cheaper to make a dual-format player for the former than it is for the latter."
Saying it would cost a lot more to make a dual format HD drive than a dual format DVD burner is pretty meaningless when single format HD readers are still $100-200+ more than even the most expensive DVD burners.
"Not that it really matters; the massive amount of studio support that BluRay has over HD-DVD makes it rather unlikely that HD-DVD will long enough to where dual-format players would be a viable option."
I don't pretend to know the future, but neither does anyone else, and anyone that is claiming to know the outcome of this format war at this early stage is an idiot. All I'm saying is a dual format player is a definite possibility, it's technologically possible and there is demand for it.
"What I'm hoping happens is that one of the two becomes the dominant format (which it almost certainly will), and the other one will become the "ghetto" HD format."
I think another likely scenario is dual format players. Remember we had a format war just a few years ago with DVD+R and DVD-R and it was negated when dual format burners came out. If we do get dual format players it seems possible HD-DVD could become the more prominent format since it has plenty of space for full length movies *and* is cheaper to produce. Of course Blu-Ray has stronger DRM from what I understand so maybe studios will stick with that format as much as possible.
I have a TI-85 that is going on 10 years old. It got me through an undergraduate engineering program and is now serving me well in grad school. I wouldn't be surprised if you could get a calculator program for a PDA or something but IMHO that wouldn't be nearly as good as a dedicated graphing calculator. And if the price of a new one is prohibitive I'm sure you could find a used TI-85 or 86 for a decent price on ebay.
The benefits of a graphing calculator over any other option I can think of are numerous.
Everyone else has them, so if you are stuck on entering something it is easy to get help. Plus you can share programs.
They are extremely sturdy: My TI has been dropped more times than I can count and it lives in my bookbag, jammed in unceremoniously among pencils and pens, notepads and all other kinds of dirt and crud. Try doing that with a PDA and see how long it lasts.
It is a dedicated math computer; All the buttons and programs are specifically dedicated to math and science. A PDA for example would be a pain because you would constantly have to be working through a device that was not intended specifically for math functions.
Graphing calculators are allowed for virtually all testing that allows calculators in the US. Some other device, especially one that can communicate like a PDA would very likely be banned.
In the end as someone that has been working in academia for over 7 years now I can tell you that if you are serious about a portable device specifically for math and science use the only real option is a graphing calculator. Most people I know have TI's, but as others have mentioned HP is another option. If cost is a factor look for a used one, but keep in mind this a device that could serve you for well over 10 years, from that standpoint $100 bucks is a small investment. If what you need is something for more hardcore math you will obviously have to go with a program like Matlab. But that is a somewhat different application.
Yes, they actually plan to launch this 51 GB disk, it is simply waiting for approval from the standards body. The fact that this 100 GB disk was announced over a year and a half ago and is still unavailable should tell you something. Hell they don't even have a prospective launch date for it.
"Not only that, 100GB and 200GB Blu-ray discs were announced last year."
That's nice, tell me, when exactly will these 100 and 200 GB disks be available, and at what price point? Every time there is a big tech convention these high capacity disks are displayed, but so far they are nothing more than a pie in the sky marketing tool for Sony. Having an experimental version of a device in a lab with no timeframe for release and having a completed device that is simply waiting for approval from a standards body are two very different things.
I don't see why any private website is obligated to support every single browser out there. In fact they don't even have to have a website up at all if they don't feel like it. Yet they have chosen to put one up and have it freely available to the public who can view it using freely available browsers. You really can't claim that they *owe* you more than that. As others have said, if you can't view it in your browser there other, free browsers out there that will work. Why don't you just install one of them? Most websites have settled on Adobe Acrobat as the preferred format for posting documents for download. Do you think that someone who doesn't have Acrobat is justified in complaining that "X" website has not posted their documents in a format their computer can read? No, that is silly, Acrobat is free and runs on virtually any OS out there, if you don't feel like installing it then that's your problem, not the websites. Same thing here, if you don't feel like installing Firefox and can't view their website properly that's your problem, not theirs. Granted the Globe may lose a few readers who can't view their website but that's their decision to make if they don't feel like supporting Opera. To be honest with you I don't think you have a leg to stand on. Sure you can complain all you want and that's fine. But at the end of the day the Globe has no obligation to support your specific browser if they don't want to and if you don't like it then you're SOL.
1) Instead of spending a half hour, an hour or whatever wading through automated support and going through various levels of customer service trying to resolve an issue simply fill out a complaint form on the FCC's website. The form is available here. Within a few days a representative from the phone company will call you and politely ask what they can do to take care of this problem. I have used this succesfully several times in the past. I think once you get the FCC involved the phone companies are generally much more interested in resolving the issue quickly and to your satisfaction. Of course this probably won't do much if your problem arose in Canada.
2) If you can't get your problem resolved and want to switch providers there is a way to weasel out of your contract with no obligation. This is absolutely the last thing the phone company will ever tell you and most people aren't even aware it's available. Tell them you moved to an area where you no longer have service and they are required, by law, to terminate your contract for you. I myself have never used this but I have several friends that have done it succesfully. Some providers may require you to provide some proof of relocation, like an apartment lease or something. Not that I'm advocating this [ahem], but many apartment companies post their leasing agreements on their websites where you can simply print it out, fill it in and fax it to the phone company.
Remember that we are all working from a translation of Putins' statements. Unless you have a Russian translator to back you up it's pointless to speculate on subleties of semantics because a translation is never perfect. It's certain that some information will be lost or modified.
Here's the scenario I see: If dual format reader/writers become the standard then movie studios may standardise on HD-DVD for most of their movies since it is cheaper to produce. Unless there is a specific reason they need to use Blu-Ray for it's higher capacity why would they pay the extra cost for it? By not allowing dual format players Sony may be trying to prevent this outcome from happening. However if things begin to tip in HD-DVDs' favor they may have no choice but to allow it to try and hang on to some market share.
Well you can say it all you want but that doesn't mean engineers are ok with it. I can't say much about transistors as I'm a mechanical engineer but I never had a professor in 6 years of schooling that would have been ok with me using 10 m/s^2 for g and 3 for pi for calculations. Perhaps rudimentary back of the envelope deals but that's it. It's simply bad form, especially in these days of pocket calculators.
Yea, I mean if only there was some device, that you could plug 2 Zune's into and just transfer media between them without any DRM...
I realize it might not look fair, but unless there is some reason to think the astronomers that voted are biased in some way then 424 voters out of 2700 people is more than enough to give an accurate representation of the group as a whole.
Will Bluetooth become universal enough that I can ditch my flash drive entirely and just use the 10 gig micro HD in my cell phone as storage. And without even having to take it out of my pocket!
The important difference being that the PS2 is towards the end of it's lifecycle while the 360 is at the beginning of its. PS2, figure people will be buying games on a regular basis for it for another 2 years, maybe, after that they will move onto the next generation, and the games they will be buying will probably be cheaper. For the 360 those owners will be buying games for another 5-6 years or more, and the games are selling for 50-60 bucks.
The thing is it's not optional if you want to stay up to date. What if you have a program that won't run on an older version of OS X?? Then you're screwed.
With Windows we were completely up to date for the last 5 years without having to spend a dime.
Well let's see, at the time we dropped A-bombs on Japan (1945), segregation was still alive and well in America. We also executed prisoners. We also forcibly relocated approximately 120,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps for no other reason except their ancestry. Feminism was still in it's infancy; in 1945 in America women had their place and for the most part they stayed in it. And it was around the time Mccarthyism began (no explanation necessary) Wow, a country like that certainly was in no position to be in control of A-bombs, what were we thinking??!
We got them first and we're the worlds sole superpower. Others countries may hate us for it and disagree with our foreign policy entirely but that's just the way it is, life isn't always fair. Would you rather we had *NO* nukes at all, at a time when countries like Iran and North Korea were developing them?
This has been HardOCPs' style for some time now, and they are doing pretty well if you weren't aware. Their main theory seems to be that they want to compare real world gameplay, not numbers based on settings that no gamer will ever use. There are tons of other sites that can provide you those numbers if that is what you're interested in.
Umm read the formula, Slashdot is not so great subscripts. What parent meant was (2)H2O
Projectors work pretty well just pointed at a white wall. If you don't have that then yes, you will have to screw 2 screws into a wall to mount a screen (ooooh). Don't forget many flat panel displays have to be mounted on a wall as well. And most of the time I just have my projector sitting on a coffee table with the dvd player right underneath it, wire routing is minimal. Again, I think a lot of people think it is more complicated and difficult than it actually is.
The thing is if screen sizes continue to grow digital projectors are going to be the only feasible technology. Getting a 60 inch flat panel into your house is doable, (be careful you don't drop it). Getting a 144 inch flat panel into your house is likely impossible. Getting a 144 inch screen and a digital projector into your house however is a piece of cake, one person can do it, and if you drop the screen or bang it into a wall who cares.
Is setup really that complex? The only difference with a projector is you have to adjust the lens. That takes about 5 minutes at most, it's really not difficult. And lighting is not as much of an issue as some people make it out to be. It's true that it looks best in a darkened room, but you could say the same thing about LCDs and Plasmas. I have found that in general just dimming the lights in the immediate vicinity of the screen is plenty adequate to get a very bright picture. And with a good projector and high quality screen it will be fine even with the lights on.
I think a lot of mainstream consumers stay away from the technology because it is so different from the standard display technologies they are used to that they perceive there must be some drawbacks to it. When in reality the drawbacks are minimal at most, and there are lots of benefits.
Am I the only one that thinks digital projectors could leave both these technologies in the dust? I know there are some drawbacks (high cost, bulb life), but as far as the big-screen pissing contest goes digital projectors are untouchable.
It's comical listening to your friends brag about their 60 inch bigscreens and then you have them over to your place and watch their egos crumble when they first set eyes on the 12 foot screen hanging on your wall.
Not only that but the hardware is highly portable; you can easily take it to a party or some other event to set up for guests. And it takes up very little space in your living room. You can even use it to give business presentations on the road.
Until we can buy rolls of OLED wallpaper to turn entire walls into digital displays I will be sticking with the projector.
I know, what I meant was for a 2000 lb volkswagen you would use pound-force, to indicate the force on the flash drive. Sorry I didn't make that clear.
Nitpicky I know, but pounds is not a unit of pressure. What you probably meant is pound-force.