I really doubt AAC or OGG at 224 or 256 would sound worse than MP3 at 320. But you're probably right, the reason for Google to pick this format is likely because of something else entirely.
But it still makes no sense to use MP3 in this day and age. If it's quality you're after, why don't go lossless and enjoy perfect quality? Yet if it's efficient use of bandwith you're after, why not use a codec that actually manages to get the best sounding music in the least amount of bits? I still fail to see how the choice of MP3 at 320 kbps is anything but, like I said, worse of both worlds.
I'm just saying the effects of frequent gaming aren't all bad. You're trying to spin that to "you need a video game to get your morale compass straight, because normal non-gamers are all good samaritans". I don't get that. I don't think it's true either, because those two hitchhikers were standing there at the gas station for a few hours at least by the looks of it and apparently nobody helped them out, as they were still trying to figure out how to get around using their crappy little map. And either way, even if it is true that most people are natural inclined to go out of their way to help everyone they encounter, but I'm some horrible human being who isn't like that... What's wrong about me becoming a little nicer to my fellow man because of a game I played? Why do you feel it is needed to point out that that's a sad thing?
How did I not answer your question? MP3 is known for having a worse quality/bitrate ratio in comparison to other, more modern codecs. That fact doesn't change when you put the bitrate all the way up. Sure it sounds fine and indistinguishable from anything else. You're just burning bandwith for no good reason though.
You can hear the difference between MP3 and any other decent codec (OGG, AAC, whatever) at low bitrates. That doesn't mean that difference is suddenly magically gone when you turn up the bitrate. It just means you're wasting bandwith, because you could have gotten the same or better results using a different codec at a lower bitrate.
I really don't get the enormous amount of new music services that have arrived the last few years. Doesn't everybody who cares about music have his favorite stuff on his computer & phone already? What's the use of yet another service that plays everything you already have on all of your devices already?
Don't tell me you've never spotted an open window, high up in a building somewhere while strolling down the street and thinking to yourself: "Hey, I could toss a grenade right in there, that would be sweet!". If you don't recognize this at all, you're not a gamer in my book.
That's obviously very true. I remember playing GTA a lot during the time I was taking driving lessons. I had a very hard time getting my driver's license, and I wonder a lot about the possible relation between learning to drive an actual vehicle in traffic and recklessly speeding through a virtual city for hours on a daily basis. Could that game really have prevented me from getting my license more easily? I really can't say.
I also find I'm caring a lot better for myself after playing The Sims a lot. I'm not making this up, I really react quicker and better to my food, energy, bladder and hygiene needs during periods when I'm really into that game. Or at least, that's what I'm thinking.
How is that relevant to what I'm trying to say? I'm sure there are lots of folks who would have picked those guys up and brought them where ever they wanted to go, just like there are lots of folks who would have walked around them as quickly as possible, because they look a bit scruffy. Different people do different things. So what? That's not the point.
The point is, I'm positive I wouldn't have helped these people if it weren't for that game I was playing. I'm not saying that to tell a story about what sort of a person I am, I'm saying that to tell a story on how frequent gaming can actually change your behavior for the better. That's at least what I experienced.
You can't agree or disagree with the findings of a study. It's the results, they are facts. You can't disagree with facts. You might agree or disagree with the way the study was done or the way conclusions are formulated from the results, but I just can't stand people who reply to the findings of a study by stating their opinion on the matter, completely ignoring the content of the study itself and then rambling on about how they see the world, like that is relevant in any way.
I was playing a lot of Red Dead Redemption when that came out a while back. One day during that time, I was driving to work and stopped for petrol on the way. Two young, shabby-looking foreign tourists approached me and asked for a lift. I wasn't going where they wanted to go, so that didn't work out. But I also noticed they weren't planning their trip very well because I saw them using an awful crappy small map, which didn't include the required detail to really plan a decent route to begin with. So I went into the shop to pay for my petrol and I bought a decent map of the area along with it, which included both the current location and the place they told me they were looking to go to. Before returning to my vehicle, I handed the hitchhikers the map, which I hoped would help them out a little bit. Now you have to understand, I am not the kind of person who would do such a thing regularly. I don't think I'm a mean person or anything, but I'm no saint for sure. I don't help out random strangers on a regular basis, if at all. But after handing over the map, I was thinking to myself: "This will really boost my honor!", which is one of the primary game mechanics in RDR, rewarding the player for decent behaviour in the game world. After realizing my frequent playing of the game might have actually manipulated me into doing some good in real life, I came to the conclusion that maybe frequent gaming isn't such a bad thing per se.
Internet Explorer makes me launch a VM every once in a while. But that's it. I've abandoned Windows since 2003 or so and never really missed it. Mac OS X on the desktop and Linux/BSD on the server, that's the world I've been living in for about 8 years now. And I like it.
The problem is of course that he didn't do anything. It's exactly the same as what happened to Dominique Strauss-Kahn. He was accused of rape, lost his job and any prospects of a future career because of this, then sat in a courtroom for a few months until it was decided the evidence was too weak and the victim's story too incoherent for the court to reach a conclusion. So he was let go and now he has nothing. Which is exactly what the people who set up the "rape victim" intended to do.
What is going on is that the time IT has been around is now starting to exceed the average life expectancy minus the age people usually start their careers.
Apple needs a feature more than it needs a product. Since Google, Microsoft and RIM are playing catchup fast in the software department and HTC, Motorola, LG and Samsung are playing catchup fast in the hardware department, Apple has been looking for a USP to keep them relevant, which is exactly what they bought Siri for.
I have an iMac from 2007 and Spotlight is completely instant as an application launcher. After typing one or two characters, the correct application is already there and I just hit enter to launch it.
I have tried Quicksilver years ago, before Spotlight was introduced, but I didn't like it then, because I didn't get it really.
You're exactly right. Market cap changes rapidly over the years and says mostly something about how "hot" or fashionable a company is a certain time, not about how profitable or anything else really. Ars Technica had a nice article about this a while back and mainly says you can't measure a company by its market cap at all.
But still... think a few years back. If someone would have said to me "In about 10 years IBM will be worth more than Microsoft, but Apple will be worth more than both of them" in 2001, I would have laughed at that person.
It's not really that much work. Just assign an event to the clicking of the something, make it do an Ajax-request to something on your server, let the server process the input, have it send back some output and then use that output to change something on your page. I fail to see how this is significantly more work than to do the exact same thing without Ajax.
Slashdot Mirror
News flash: turing-complete programming languages can be used to created anything. Why is it news when another random project is done in Javascript?
I really doubt AAC or OGG at 224 or 256 would sound worse than MP3 at 320. But you're probably right, the reason for Google to pick this format is likely because of something else entirely.
But it still makes no sense to use MP3 in this day and age. If it's quality you're after, why don't go lossless and enjoy perfect quality? Yet if it's efficient use of bandwith you're after, why not use a codec that actually manages to get the best sounding music in the least amount of bits? I still fail to see how the choice of MP3 at 320 kbps is anything but, like I said, worse of both worlds.
I'm just saying the effects of frequent gaming aren't all bad. You're trying to spin that to "you need a video game to get your morale compass straight, because normal non-gamers are all good samaritans". I don't get that. I don't think it's true either, because those two hitchhikers were standing there at the gas station for a few hours at least by the looks of it and apparently nobody helped them out, as they were still trying to figure out how to get around using their crappy little map. And either way, even if it is true that most people are natural inclined to go out of their way to help everyone they encounter, but I'm some horrible human being who isn't like that... What's wrong about me becoming a little nicer to my fellow man because of a game I played? Why do you feel it is needed to point out that that's a sad thing?
How did I not answer your question? MP3 is known for having a worse quality/bitrate ratio in comparison to other, more modern codecs. That fact doesn't change when you put the bitrate all the way up. Sure it sounds fine and indistinguishable from anything else. You're just burning bandwith for no good reason though.
You can hear the difference between MP3 and any other decent codec (OGG, AAC, whatever) at low bitrates. That doesn't mean that difference is suddenly magically gone when you turn up the bitrate. It just means you're wasting bandwith, because you could have gotten the same or better results using a different codec at a lower bitrate.
The audio format is mp3 @ 320kbps
Ah great. So that's a poor codec, yet huge files. In other words: worst of both worlds. Well done, Google. I really want to pay for this now!
I really don't get the enormous amount of new music services that have arrived the last few years. Doesn't everybody who cares about music have his favorite stuff on his computer & phone already? What's the use of yet another service that plays everything you already have on all of your devices already?
Don't tell me you've never spotted an open window, high up in a building somewhere while strolling down the street and thinking to yourself: "Hey, I could toss a grenade right in there, that would be sweet!". If you don't recognize this at all, you're not a gamer in my book.
That's obviously very true. I remember playing GTA a lot during the time I was taking driving lessons. I had a very hard time getting my driver's license, and I wonder a lot about the possible relation between learning to drive an actual vehicle in traffic and recklessly speeding through a virtual city for hours on a daily basis. Could that game really have prevented me from getting my license more easily? I really can't say.
I also find I'm caring a lot better for myself after playing The Sims a lot. I'm not making this up, I really react quicker and better to my food, energy, bladder and hygiene needs during periods when I'm really into that game. Or at least, that's what I'm thinking.
How is that relevant to what I'm trying to say? I'm sure there are lots of folks who would have picked those guys up and brought them where ever they wanted to go, just like there are lots of folks who would have walked around them as quickly as possible, because they look a bit scruffy. Different people do different things. So what? That's not the point.
The point is, I'm positive I wouldn't have helped these people if it weren't for that game I was playing. I'm not saying that to tell a story about what sort of a person I am, I'm saying that to tell a story on how frequent gaming can actually change your behavior for the better. That's at least what I experienced.
You can't agree or disagree with the findings of a study. It's the results, they are facts. You can't disagree with facts. You might agree or disagree with the way the study was done or the way conclusions are formulated from the results, but I just can't stand people who reply to the findings of a study by stating their opinion on the matter, completely ignoring the content of the study itself and then rambling on about how they see the world, like that is relevant in any way.
I was playing a lot of Red Dead Redemption when that came out a while back. One day during that time, I was driving to work and stopped for petrol on the way. Two young, shabby-looking foreign tourists approached me and asked for a lift. I wasn't going where they wanted to go, so that didn't work out. But I also noticed they weren't planning their trip very well because I saw them using an awful crappy small map, which didn't include the required detail to really plan a decent route to begin with. So I went into the shop to pay for my petrol and I bought a decent map of the area along with it, which included both the current location and the place they told me they were looking to go to. Before returning to my vehicle, I handed the hitchhikers the map, which I hoped would help them out a little bit. Now you have to understand, I am not the kind of person who would do such a thing regularly. I don't think I'm a mean person or anything, but I'm no saint for sure. I don't help out random strangers on a regular basis, if at all. But after handing over the map, I was thinking to myself: "This will really boost my honor!", which is one of the primary game mechanics in RDR, rewarding the player for decent behaviour in the game world. After realizing my frequent playing of the game might have actually manipulated me into doing some good in real life, I came to the conclusion that maybe frequent gaming isn't such a bad thing per se.
This is a true story, I swear.
That's what I was thinking as well... doesn't everything you do (or don't do for that matter) change the way your brain works?
But what if there is life on Europa and we kill it with our probe?
Internet Explorer makes me launch a VM every once in a while. But that's it. I've abandoned Windows since 2003 or so and never really missed it. Mac OS X on the desktop and Linux/BSD on the server, that's the world I've been living in for about 8 years now. And I like it.
The problem is of course that he didn't do anything. It's exactly the same as what happened to Dominique Strauss-Kahn. He was accused of rape, lost his job and any prospects of a future career because of this, then sat in a courtroom for a few months until it was decided the evidence was too weak and the victim's story too incoherent for the court to reach a conclusion. So he was let go and now he has nothing. Which is exactly what the people who set up the "rape victim" intended to do.
What is going on is that the time IT has been around is now starting to exceed the average life expectancy minus the age people usually start their careers.
Apple needs a feature more than it needs a product. Since Google, Microsoft and RIM are playing catchup fast in the software department and HTC, Motorola, LG and Samsung are playing catchup fast in the hardware department, Apple has been looking for a USP to keep them relevant, which is exactly what they bought Siri for.
You couldn't be more wrong. Apple isn't selling iPads at a loss at all and the iTunes Store sales barely make up 1% of Apple's total profits.
Lua is a better scripting language, and Python is a better prototyping language
So you're saying we should build a Lua/Python interpreter in Javascript so we can use these superior languages in our browsers?
I have an iMac from 2007 and Spotlight is completely instant as an application launcher. After typing one or two characters, the correct application is already there and I just hit enter to launch it.
I have tried Quicksilver years ago, before Spotlight was introduced, but I didn't like it then, because I didn't get it really.
I'm sorry, this reply wasn't supposed to be attached to this post. It was actually meant as a reply to this.
You're exactly right. Market cap changes rapidly over the years and says mostly something about how "hot" or fashionable a company is a certain time, not about how profitable or anything else really. Ars Technica had a nice article about this a while back and mainly says you can't measure a company by its market cap at all.
But still... think a few years back. If someone would have said to me "In about 10 years IBM will be worth more than Microsoft, but Apple will be worth more than both of them" in 2001, I would have laughed at that person.
It's not really that much work. Just assign an event to the clicking of the something, make it do an Ajax-request to something on your server, let the server process the input, have it send back some output and then use that output to change something on your page. I fail to see how this is significantly more work than to do the exact same thing without Ajax.