"What I don't understand is why Wal-Mart censors things anyway. If people don't like the content, why don't they just, you know, not buy it?"
Can somebody point me to some info on this Walmart censorship thing? I ask because I bought most of the series Oz there. If they censored that show, they did a terrible job of it.
"Why doesn't speedo put it's supercomputer time to some good use, like finding ways to end poverty or help more efficiently after natural disasters like tsunamis, earthquakes, terrorism or volcanic eruptions?"
Unlike what TV and movies have told you, you cannot just type in "How do we end poverty?" into a super computer and just wait for it to respond.
"In a world where the US is still being niggardly over paying slavery reparations, how can anyone find it acceptable to flagrantly waste resources in this way?"
Some company had the money to spend and they spent it. 'Super-computers' aren't some rare Earth resource that can only be used by the elite. (In other words, we're not talking about Univac.) They're built when they're needed by the entities that have the money to pay for them. This is actually a Good Thing TM. Computers get better, prices come down, 'super' computing resources are used for a broader range of applications.
On another note, I vote we end the "couldn't we spend our time curing cancer?" rationale that tends to earn karma around here. No, we cannot use an aeronautics engineer from Boeing to cure cancer. Open Source programmers cannot write drinkable water for third world countries. Ending consumerism in the United States won't feed the world. This planet thrives on diversity. Embrace it.
"is microsoft planning on releasing a "new" 360 periodically with added features? perhaps faster-clocked processor? more ram? bigger default HD in the more-expensive unit? HD-DVD drive by default? additional ports?"
Faster Clocked processor and more RAM? No. Microsoft won't segment their game systems like that. They actually do talk to game developers.
Bigger HD? Yes. Bigger HD just means more storage. This won't affect game development. This happened with the original XBOX. They started with shipping 8 gig drives and eventually they shipped 10 gig drives. As I understand it, though, this had more to do with the economics of selling HDs. It would have been more expensive to continue buying 8 giggers.
HD-DVD? Yes. Just don't expect many game developers to require it for gaming. Microsoft wants the 360 to be a general purpose entertainment machine, so playing high-def movies on it is important to them. HD-DVD can also read DVD discs.
"Do I smell an anti-Opera Software bias among the editors?"
Maybe... but I'm not sure it's about fanboyism so much. Opera isn't Open Source. Until recently (version 8.5, I believe), it was ad supported.
From the responses I've read here, I'm not convinced Opera's well understood on this site. Everybody thinks FireFox is the bee's knees, so what could Opera possibly bring to the table?
Anyhoo, I wish Slashdot would pay more attention to Opera, though. Not because I'm a rabid Opera fanboy, but because we already know the problems with one browser dominating them all.
"Probably it's not the answer to the question, but I'd love to see a native 64 bit version of Opera. As for the argument "there's no 64bit flash", screw adobe/macromedia/$proprietary_technology_owner. The web is a nice place also without Flash. Maybe even better!"
Though I don't agree with the idea of tossing Flash altogether, there is an annoyance with Opera 9* that I wish they'd do away with. I temporarily used a new machine at work and installed Opera on it. I go to several sites that use Flash in one way or another. A dialog comes up saying "wanna install Flash?" every SINGLE F'N TIME one of those pages load. **It'd be nice to have a "Don't ask me again." option.
* This may not be an Opera 9 specific problem, rather 9 is the first time I've encountered it. In other words, I cannot say that 7 or 8 didn't suffer from it.
** It may be possible, and if somebody knows, please enlighten me.
Depends on what you mean by 'large'. I recently worked with 5 gig.AVI files in Windows XP. Once I got 20% of the way in, the app started slowing down tremendously. I don't know if the fault was within Windows or After Effects, but somewhere along the lines seeking to the latter frames becams a huge time sink.
"I've never had to send anything in for warranty repair, so I can't comment on that."
My first laptop was a Dell. I remember when I ordered it, it took a whole 2 weeks for it to arrive. I was eager to recieve it. As a joke, I'd call the receptionist and ask if it had arrived yet. (She was in on the joke and found it funny... well not after the 3rd time...) 3 months later the screen went out. I didn't pay extra for a special warranty or anything, so I wasn't expecting a quick turn around on the repair. I called on Tuesday. On Thursday I recieved the package to ship my laptop back in. I figured "Great, two days just to get a box to me... guess it'll be a week or two before I see the machine again." I mailed it off on Friday. Monday morning I got a phone message from the receptionist. "You just recieved a package from Dell.""That is not funny." and I hung up on her. 2 minutes later she walked into my cube with a box in her hands and an amused look on her face. (Ok, it was a little more work for her, but she still enjoyed backfiring my earlier joke.) I pulled it out and blammo, had a working laptop. I was stunned that they actually turned it around so quick. I mean... did they work on a Saturday for it?
I'm not going to make broad generalizations about Dell's quality or customer service. I don't have the experience with them to do that. I can say that in my particular case the service was good and the turn around was excellent. Other than this incident with the screen, it was a reliable stable machine and every bit worth the purchase price. This was in late 2002, if that makes a difference.
There's no real point to be made here other than "Not every single customer of Dell's is unahppy."
"If you don't like their customer service, don't buy their products. The market will decide whether good customer service is worth the extra cost."
Oh yeah, that's working real well right now. Either the problems aren't made public enough or they are the sort of problems that don't bite you until you've handed your money over. Not everybody has the time or the inclination to do hours of research before every product purchase is made. Caveat Emptor? Sure. Okay. That doesn't mean companies should be given free reign to act criminally.
"Last but not least - in many cities, if you need to make a call while you are out, you could get your NoCode Tech radio license and use the autopatch to make a call (or if your folks are hams you can even bypass this step). I'd love to see Officer Unfriendly and Principal Suspicious when you walk out with your Yaesu VX7 on your belt:"
Heh. I was an ameteur radio operator in high school, and I had autopatch privileges. Here's a few things you cannot do with it:
- Make a private call. Anybody listening on that frqeuency can hear it. - Talk about busines. You cannot, for example, arrange a sale of one of your Nintendo games. - You cannot swear. It's improper anyway, but my friends wouldn't have observed that. - Recieve a call unless your friends are Hams also.
So... Practically speaking, you could call home and say you're going to be late. You could also... well.. that's about it. Heh. I'm not sure why you don't think they'd confiscate the radio. All they'd have to do is suspect that it has something to do with the students misbehaving and *poof* it's gone.
In any event, it's easy to say "well, you don't really need it". But guess what: It's not your call to make. Some parents want to reach their kids at all times. Some kids want to maintain social growth, which I'd say is pretty important. We could argue all day about the necessity of a cell phone. But at the end of the day, that has nothing to do with this article. It's a violation of the students' rights. I'd love to impose my views on the world and get rid of all the guns. Some would stand up and say "Yeah! That's a good idea!" Even if I had a bunch of people supporting me, it still wouldn't be my call to make.
"It won't serve as a wakeup call to anyone. Anyone who isn't already backing up their work won't start until the same thing happens to them. He wrote the stuff, if he can't recreate three screenplays from memory then he's screwed. It's not like it was three huge, thoroughly researched sci-fi or historical fiction novels."
I'm impressed you guys actually think he didn't have a backup. If there was a million dollar deal in the works, surely he had sent the script to somebody to read and say "we might be interested".
"If you're personally offended by the very thought of someone, somewhere buying a PS3, you need to calm down. People blow their money on ostentatious things all the time -- let them! Must you make the world's purchasing decisions based on 100% rational thinking?"
In all fairness, Sony still has time to fix things before the thing's launched. Enough bad press might actually cause them to make some changes. Just look at the controller.:P
I'm sure there's a way to stream the images onto a single large file rather than dealing with compiling millions of saved images.
(A little over 100,000 images, not millions.:P)
Question: Why save the images into one large file? What good is that, besides having a multi-gig file that takes forever to seek through?
For the uninitiated: Sound syncing is not a problem at all whatsoever. Us digital video types assemble videos from individual images on a daily basis. Nothing to it.
"I'm going to patent old jokes. Just so I don't have to read that every time a patent story comes up on Slashdot."
If I had a nickel for every time I heard a stupid pat... wait... If I just patented the stupid jokes, I could earn a nickel for every time I heard a stupid joke. To the Lawyer Cave!
"While having been a trekkie for years, I feel that I can spend my money in better ways elsewhere."
There are plenty of people out there that would like to own a little piece of history. Somewhere I have an autographed photo of Mark Leonard. He passed away a few years ago, I doubt I'll give it up.
"I hadn't thought about driver until you said something. Now all I think about is how Microsoft made the driver crash through the blue screen of death."
After an abrupt tap on the breaks, my gf said my car needed a new driver. I wasn't in the right state of mind to find it funny, then.
Maybe he was IP banned for earning too many negative moderations over a legitimate complaint about Apple. Go against public opinion, and some dipshits with mod points will go attack posts made in completely unrelated stories. It's happened to me.
She replied, "No, I always use them like this. The new one likes having the old one nearby. Helps it run faster, you know." Honest to goodness truth. I think I ruptured my spleen trying not to laugh in her face.
Heh. You were pwned by a little ol' granny with a Beowulf cluster.
"... but if my kid is reading this then it might be a good idea to put a little disclaimer or warning on top of the article next time."
Oh please, it's not Slashdot's fault you're paying the price for knocking a chick up! If anything, Slashdot tried to help you avoid this mess!! Now go monitor your children.
Meh. That one's understandable. My favorites are the ones that otherwise smart people fall into. Example: A computer literate friend of my dad's made a special boot disc to use in emergencies and hung it on the fridge with a magnet so it'd never get lost. Guess when he discovered his error.
"Maybe Im wrong, but I feel like there has been a huge influx of blatant Microsoft bashing lately in the article descriptions."
Maybe a little more than usual. In this case, this article was just an excuse to put the words "Microsoft" and "Racing" together so people can dust off their crash and driver jokes they've been preparing since 95. I tend to think of it as a sale. You know, something for the moderators to spend their mod points on.
"It's sad to think that this woman might truly believe that a machine somehow corrupted her poor innocent husband and turned him to a live of evil."
Some say temptation is a form of evil. Computer offers temptation, person becomes evil. Though I agree that this rationale is flawed, we're all a little guilty of it at one time or another. The logic usually runs along the lines of "If this hadn't happened, I'd be happy now." Easy to understand, really.
You're talking about the literal evolution of the technology. I'm talking about the culture shock. Supposing he regains full power, he's going to see a world with people anchored to their computers and appearing to talk to themselves walking down the street. Could he adapt to it? Sure. But he's still in for a shock. Heck, if he followed TV at all, he'd wonder why there aren't condos on the moon. Heh.
Slashdot Mirror
"What I don't understand is why Wal-Mart censors things anyway. If people don't like the content, why don't they just, you know, not buy it?"
Can somebody point me to some info on this Walmart censorship thing? I ask because I bought most of the series Oz there. If they censored that show, they did a terrible job of it.
"Why doesn't speedo put it's supercomputer time to some good use, like finding ways to end poverty or help more efficiently after natural disasters like tsunamis, earthquakes, terrorism or volcanic eruptions?"
Unlike what TV and movies have told you, you cannot just type in "How do we end poverty?" into a super computer and just wait for it to respond.
"In a world where the US is still being niggardly over paying slavery reparations, how can anyone find it acceptable to flagrantly waste resources in this way?"
Some company had the money to spend and they spent it. 'Super-computers' aren't some rare Earth resource that can only be used by the elite. (In other words, we're not talking about Univac.) They're built when they're needed by the entities that have the money to pay for them. This is actually a Good Thing TM. Computers get better, prices come down, 'super' computing resources are used for a broader range of applications.
On another note, I vote we end the "couldn't we spend our time curing cancer?" rationale that tends to earn karma around here. No, we cannot use an aeronautics engineer from Boeing to cure cancer. Open Source programmers cannot write drinkable water for third world countries. Ending consumerism in the United States won't feed the world. This planet thrives on diversity. Embrace it.
"is microsoft planning on releasing a "new" 360 periodically with added features? perhaps faster-clocked processor? more ram? bigger default HD in the more-expensive unit? HD-DVD drive by default? additional ports?"
Faster Clocked processor and more RAM? No. Microsoft won't segment their game systems like that. They actually do talk to game developers.
Bigger HD? Yes. Bigger HD just means more storage. This won't affect game development. This happened with the original XBOX. They started with shipping 8 gig drives and eventually they shipped 10 gig drives. As I understand it, though, this had more to do with the economics of selling HDs. It would have been more expensive to continue buying 8 giggers.
HD-DVD? Yes. Just don't expect many game developers to require it for gaming. Microsoft wants the 360 to be a general purpose entertainment machine, so playing high-def movies on it is important to them. HD-DVD can also read DVD discs.
"Do I smell an anti-Opera Software bias among the editors?"
Maybe... but I'm not sure it's about fanboyism so much. Opera isn't Open Source. Until recently (version 8.5, I believe), it was ad supported.
From the responses I've read here, I'm not convinced Opera's well understood on this site. Everybody thinks FireFox is the bee's knees, so what could Opera possibly bring to the table?
Anyhoo, I wish Slashdot would pay more attention to Opera, though. Not because I'm a rabid Opera fanboy, but because we already know the problems with one browser dominating them all.
"Probably it's not the answer to the question, but I'd love to see a native 64 bit version of Opera. As for the argument "there's no 64bit flash", screw adobe/macromedia/$proprietary_technology_owner. The web is a nice place also without Flash. Maybe even better!"
Though I don't agree with the idea of tossing Flash altogether, there is an annoyance with Opera 9* that I wish they'd do away with. I temporarily used a new machine at work and installed Opera on it. I go to several sites that use Flash in one way or another. A dialog comes up saying "wanna install Flash?" every SINGLE F'N TIME one of those pages load. **It'd be nice to have a "Don't ask me again." option.
* This may not be an Opera 9 specific problem, rather 9 is the first time I've encountered it. In other words, I cannot say that 7 or 8 didn't suffer from it.
** It may be possible, and if somebody knows, please enlighten me.
Depends on what you mean by 'large'. I recently worked with 5 gig .AVI files in Windows XP. Once I got 20% of the way in, the app started slowing down tremendously. I don't know if the fault was within Windows or After Effects, but somewhere along the lines seeking to the latter frames becams a huge time sink.
"I've never had to send anything in for warranty repair, so I can't comment on that."
My first laptop was a Dell. I remember when I ordered it, it took a whole 2 weeks for it to arrive. I was eager to recieve it. As a joke, I'd call the receptionist and ask if it had arrived yet. (She was in on the joke and found it funny... well not after the 3rd time...) 3 months later the screen went out. I didn't pay extra for a special warranty or anything, so I wasn't expecting a quick turn around on the repair. I called on Tuesday. On Thursday I recieved the package to ship my laptop back in. I figured "Great, two days just to get a box to me... guess it'll be a week or two before I see the machine again." I mailed it off on Friday. Monday morning I got a phone message from the receptionist. "You just recieved a package from Dell." "That is not funny." and I hung up on her. 2 minutes later she walked into my cube with a box in her hands and an amused look on her face. (Ok, it was a little more work for her, but she still enjoyed backfiring my earlier joke.) I pulled it out and blammo, had a working laptop. I was stunned that they actually turned it around so quick. I mean... did they work on a Saturday for it?
I'm not going to make broad generalizations about Dell's quality or customer service. I don't have the experience with them to do that. I can say that in my particular case the service was good and the turn around was excellent. Other than this incident with the screen, it was a reliable stable machine and every bit worth the purchase price. This was in late 2002, if that makes a difference.
There's no real point to be made here other than "Not every single customer of Dell's is unahppy."
"If you don't like their customer service, don't buy their products. The market will decide whether good customer service is worth the extra cost."
Oh yeah, that's working real well right now. Either the problems aren't made public enough or they are the sort of problems that don't bite you until you've handed your money over. Not everybody has the time or the inclination to do hours of research before every product purchase is made. Caveat Emptor? Sure. Okay. That doesn't mean companies should be given free reign to act criminally.
"I get the feeling that in the upcoming console war this name change is going to be proof of the old adage "There's no such thing as bad publicity"."
Oh, I dunno. Sony's rushed controller addition plus their price tag has got a lot of people waiting and seeing.
"Last but not least - in many cities, if you need to make a call while you are out, you could get your NoCode Tech radio license and use the autopatch to make a call (or if your folks are hams you can even bypass this step). I'd love to see Officer Unfriendly and Principal Suspicious when you walk out with your Yaesu VX7 on your belt:"
Heh. I was an ameteur radio operator in high school, and I had autopatch privileges. Here's a few things you cannot do with it:
- Make a private call. Anybody listening on that frqeuency can hear it.
- Talk about busines. You cannot, for example, arrange a sale of one of your Nintendo games.
- You cannot swear. It's improper anyway, but my friends wouldn't have observed that.
- Recieve a call unless your friends are Hams also.
So... Practically speaking, you could call home and say you're going to be late. You could also... well.. that's about it. Heh. I'm not sure why you don't think they'd confiscate the radio. All they'd have to do is suspect that it has something to do with the students misbehaving and *poof* it's gone.
In any event, it's easy to say "well, you don't really need it". But guess what: It's not your call to make. Some parents want to reach their kids at all times. Some kids want to maintain social growth, which I'd say is pretty important. We could argue all day about the necessity of a cell phone. But at the end of the day, that has nothing to do with this article. It's a violation of the students' rights. I'd love to impose my views on the world and get rid of all the guns. Some would stand up and say "Yeah! That's a good idea!" Even if I had a bunch of people supporting me, it still wouldn't be my call to make.
"It won't serve as a wakeup call to anyone. Anyone who isn't already backing up their work won't start until the same thing happens to them. He wrote the stuff, if he can't recreate three screenplays from memory then he's screwed. It's not like it was three huge, thoroughly researched sci-fi or historical fiction novels."
I'm impressed you guys actually think he didn't have a backup. If there was a million dollar deal in the works, surely he had sent the script to somebody to read and say "we might be interested".
"If you're personally offended by the very thought of someone, somewhere buying a PS3, you need to calm down. People blow their money on ostentatious things all the time -- let them! Must you make the world's purchasing decisions based on 100% rational thinking?"
:P
In all fairness, Sony still has time to fix things before the thing's launched. Enough bad press might actually cause them to make some changes. Just look at the controller.
There's a little bit of social commentary I think some of the Slashdot population should pay attention to. (Myself included.)
(A little over 100,000 images, not millions.
Question: Why save the images into one large file? What good is that, besides having a multi-gig file that takes forever to seek through?
For the uninitiated: Sound syncing is not a problem at all whatsoever. Us digital video types assemble videos from individual images on a daily basis. Nothing to it.
"I'm going to patent old jokes. Just so I don't have to read that every time a patent story comes up on Slashdot."
If I had a nickel for every time I heard a stupid pat... wait... If I just patented the stupid jokes, I could earn a nickel for every time I heard a stupid joke. To the Lawyer Cave!
"While having been a trekkie for years, I feel that I can spend my money in better ways elsewhere."
There are plenty of people out there that would like to own a little piece of history. Somewhere I have an autographed photo of Mark Leonard. He passed away a few years ago, I doubt I'll give it up.
"I hadn't thought about driver until you said something. Now all I think about is how Microsoft made the driver crash through the blue screen of death."
After an abrupt tap on the breaks, my gf said my car needed a new driver. I wasn't in the right state of mind to find it funny, then.
"Let me guess: You were IP-banned for language?"
Maybe he was IP banned for earning too many negative moderations over a legitimate complaint about Apple. Go against public opinion, and some dipshits with mod points will go attack posts made in completely unrelated stories. It's happened to me.
Not every IP ban on Slashdot is just.
Heh. You were pwned by a little ol' granny with a Beowulf cluster.
"... but if my kid is reading this then it might be a good idea to put a little disclaimer or warning on top of the article next time."
Oh please, it's not Slashdot's fault you're paying the price for knocking a chick up! If anything, Slashdot tried to help you avoid this mess!! Now go monitor your children.
Meh. That one's understandable. My favorites are the ones that otherwise smart people fall into. Example: A computer literate friend of my dad's made a special boot disc to use in emergencies and hung it on the fridge with a magnet so it'd never get lost. Guess when he discovered his error.
"Maybe Im wrong, but I feel like there has been a huge influx of blatant Microsoft bashing lately in the article descriptions."
Maybe a little more than usual. In this case, this article was just an excuse to put the words "Microsoft" and "Racing" together so people can dust off their crash and driver jokes they've been preparing since 95. I tend to think of it as a sale. You know, something for the moderators to spend their mod points on.
"It's sad to think that this woman might truly believe that a machine somehow corrupted her poor innocent husband and turned him to a live of evil."
Some say temptation is a form of evil. Computer offers temptation, person becomes evil. Though I agree that this rationale is flawed, we're all a little guilty of it at one time or another. The logic usually runs along the lines of "If this hadn't happened, I'd be happy now." Easy to understand, really.
"True, but the cold war is over. Do we actually care if someone else knows how to get into space nowadays?"
Did you post that before or after North Korea fired 6 missiles?
You're talking about the literal evolution of the technology. I'm talking about the culture shock. Supposing he regains full power, he's going to see a world with people anchored to their computers and appearing to talk to themselves walking down the street. Could he adapt to it? Sure. But he's still in for a shock. Heck, if he followed TV at all, he'd wonder why there aren't condos on the moon. Heh.