absofreakinlutely. I can tell you i've NEVER decided not to purchase an ebook from Amazon because of DRM. I load them on my kindle and they work. What HAS stopped me is seeing a book (not even a recent book at that) selling for $10 or $15 bucks when the paperback is sitting on the shelf for $5. I don't care if it has DRM or not. At those prices I won't buy it.
there's serious doubt, even among his colleagues that pointed the FBI in his direction, that he did it. Was it him? Was he a patsy? Was he even involved or did he just have a guilty look and happen to be in the right place at the wrong time.
Really interesting read, and plenty of the facts can be found from other sources, I'm just too lazy tonite to find more links. mmm beer good. Read it, whether you still think he's guilty or not, you may learn some interesting stuff.
precisely why i have only a 100 or so, mostly kids stuff, ripped to server. Now handbrake supports queueing, so you could conceivably run 24x7, but yeah it's not going to be fun. I'd love to be able to get an old rack server with 24 cores and a shit ton of RAM and try it there.
The ideal situation would be to take advantage of cheap storage prices and just rip the dvd's in a few minutes each as raw VOB files. The problem i've run into is on the playback end, unless you are transcoding on the fly on the server, a lot of playback devices can't handle VOBs (PS3, WDTV are the ones I tried).
"It's easier to re-rip/download than it is to backup media"
depends. If you're just ripping DVDs and playing the VOB's in some media center that can stream them, then yeah, it's not toooo big a problem. If, however you rip, then re-encode, that's a big pain. I can re-encode most DVDs to MKV in handbrake and get a file size of around 1.5 to 2GB w/ 5.1 and the resulting file is pretty much indistinguishable from the DVD on my 65" DLP. On smaller screens it looks even better. Unfortunately, it runs 45-60 min per encode plus time to rip. I don't have a bleeding edge system, but it is Core i5 @3.2 GHZ w/ 6GB of RAM. It's not really something you want to do more than once (i've got 800+ DVDs) if you can avoid it.
"Comparing a colony on Mars to one anywhere on Earth is absurd"
i don't think he was referring to COLONIES as he specifically said EXPEDITIONS. His point, I believe, was that despite the new national (corporate) pastime of avoiding anything that even smells like risk, there are still people out there willing to follow in the footsteps of the first guys to the poles or to the top of Everest, even if it costs them their lives, to be the first ones there. The ultimate first post I guess.
On a side note, there is always this assumption that a one way trip to Mars is a single event and suicidal. One launch and done. Personally, I'd think you'd have 1 robust man-rated vehicle and several cargo type rockets ready to go before anyone left. You shoot the people there as fast as you can, and follow up with subsequent supply launches on relatively cheap vehicles that don't need the additional complexity of keeping people alive. We can shoot up multi ton satellites with some regularity. Has the country slipped so far that after blasting people to Mars, we couldn't manage to send supplies twice a year?
...or Aussies continue to screw themselves by purchasing games at 2x the US price, encouraging publishers and distributors to set those prices. Like it or not, they are charging exactly what the market has said it's willing to pay and apparently sales are doing well since prices aren't going down. Aussies don't like high prices? Don't buy over priced games. It sucks, but that's really the only way they'll ever listen to you.
true, but the tunnels are inaccessible and most of what's left above ground are nondescript buildings in the middle of nowhere. If you're interested in the SSC you'd be better off reading about it online. There are lots of pics from the construction period and at one point even some sites by people that snuck in years AFTER it was canceled and snooped around. Don't know if those sites are still up. It's not really worth the drive IMO since there's not really anything to SEE.
Kind of a sad testament to science in the US, really. I grew up not far away and we had quite a few students from Russia and other places in my high school whose parents were working on the project. I was big on cycling at the time and put in a lot of miles riding around that area, was neat to see the work and knowing this huge tunnel was going in under me.
See ya Ubi, won't be missing you. Your games are really nothing special anymore and your insistence on requiring your own DRM service ON TOP OF STEAM is just ridiculous. I won't log in twice and maintain separate accounts for you anymore. Likewise, I won't have to lose access to my games when not online (something that Steam is frequently accused of, but MOST games can be played offline on Steam after the initial download and activation).
You look at a PC market where other companies are making millions in SALES and blame piracy for your woes. I haven't bought an Ubi game since the last Splinter Cell, I must be pirating your crap now right? Wrong, I'm just spending my money on games from other publishers. Take your ball and go home, I didn't even know you had a ball anymore.
funny how every other manufacturer manages to make a thin phone with a battery you can replace yet Apple can't seem to pull it off. I'm sure it enhances the user experience in some way I'm failing to see. Think Different indeed...
The problem is that targeting a government agency or what have you might lead to them tracing back and nailing the actual people involved, not just someone that happens to be in the same group but was on vacation that week. With these cartel guys, if you've EVER been associated with Anon and they find you, they don't really give a shit, you're fair game to them. They are just as happy making an example of you as they would be to catch the masked clown that made these idiotic threats to begin with. That's a real problem with groups like Anonymous. With no clear leadership, some "faction" can spout off crap that endangers everyone.
You can throw out all the police state, abuse of power crap you want, the bottom line is in the end the FBI is accountable to SOMEONE and subject to laws and public outrage. There IS a limit to what they can and will do to you. The cartels have no such limit.
seriously? you cannot compare modern 3d to some lame ass crap from 40+ years ago. red/blue glasses, yes it sucked and looks nothing like current 3d. jesus, it's like impossible for some people to accept there have been improvements. every time there's a post here about 3d, guys come out of the woodwork like the 3d monster ate your dog. Just because you saw a couple of movies with jabby things coming out at you doesn't mean every movie does that. I hear all the time about how Avatar did it "right" too bad it was an abysmal bore and a great example of cinematic wanking. It was the cinematic equivalent of an Yngwie Malmsteen song. A whole lot of widdly widdly widdly that goes nowhere fast.
If you don't like 3d or get a headache, great, you have the right not to go see movies in 3d. The fact that it's not for you does not invalidate the technology or reduce the appeal of 3d to a very large number of paying customers. 3d is probably more appealing and understandable to the average movie-goer than something like 60fps or ultra-mega-super hi rez. These are the same people that buy an HD tv then run it @ 480p and rave about the picture quality. They don't CARE, and they outnumber the people that do care by a large enough margin to matter.
The one thing I hate is that much of the content on Netflix streaming expires (sometimes really fast...all James Bond movies for just 2 weeks?), and while it will usually appear again, it may take up to a year. I've been streaming since they first offered it and there have definitely been times when my queue has been devoid of anything i actually want to watch. Too be honest, we hardly use it for movies anymore, it's mostly TV shows, sometimes you just want to throw up a Mythbusters or TNG episode while you work on dinner or read a book. When all that has rolled off, having the cable/dish can fill the gap.
exactly what i was going to post. I get 100MB on server, my local archive file is over 2GB. I can't count the times I'm asked a question about a project from 2 years ago. Click folder, search, fast accurate results. I agree big buckets are the way to do this, project1, project2, boss, admin. Anything too detailed and it does get unwieldy.
jesus, what the hell is up with you people? say BoA and it's tinfoil hats everywhere. I've banked with them for nearly 20 years, had 2 mortgages with them and never seen the kind of horror stories I've read in this thread. For that matter I've logged on several times in the last 5 days to pay bills including my mortgage and have had no issues. Not that there aren't any issues accessing the site, but speculating that they are deliberate is just paranoia.
You want to pack up your money and move? Fine. But you'll be stuck with podunk credit union. Try another large bank and you'll find no differences from BoA. What works for one is quickly made "industry practice". Personally, I've had more unpleasant experiences with Chase bank than I care to recall and would keep my money in the mattress if they were the only bank.
along those lines, why can't i right click the scroll bar and select TOP or BOTTOM like in so many other programs? This has always driven me crazy when i'm on a loooong page and want to get back to the top where the navigation crap is.
jeeez. watch the video. See allllll the other planes flying past well away from the spectators and in a COMPLETELY different trajectory than the one that crashes? I'd say they were following the rules. The real question here isn't who was in charge that can be sued. The question is why the hell was this one plane coming from way out of left field? I mean, really, had he not crashed, he'd have been flying OVER the crowd to keep in the race. The pilot must have turned waayyyy wide at the last pylon. Maybe sticky ailerons or rudder? They mention the guy was 74 years old, you certainly can't rule out a heart attack or stroke causing him to be this far off course.
Horrible judgement on the part of the pilot if it wasn't medical. You can have all the rules you want, but only the guy in the cockpit can really enforce them. RIP to all that died.
that's funny because here in Texas we actually do have a choice of electricity providers. Now, Oncor supports and services most of the infrastructure, but your rates can vary drastically from provider to provider. I actually have 40 providers that service my zip code. http://powertochoose.com./ Of course we also pay higher electricity prices than most of the states on our borders, but hey! we have a choice...
The fact that Mao and Stalin were ruthless pricks that found intentional starvation or ignoring famine conditions a better way of quelling dissent than the international PR mess of just shooting them ALL the time has nothing to do with communism... plenty of 3rd world dictators have done just the same in the complete absence of a communist government.
You might as well say the US killed millions of native Americans because they were a democracy.
Slashdot Mirror
absofreakinlutely. I can tell you i've NEVER decided not to purchase an ebook from Amazon because of DRM. I load them on my kindle and they work. What HAS stopped me is seeing a book (not even a recent book at that) selling for $10 or $15 bucks when the paperback is sitting on the shelf for $5. I don't care if it has DRM or not. At those prices I won't buy it.
damn it! i was responding to this "a US government employed bio-warfare scientist that launched the Anthrax Attack" forgot to quote you...
you might want to read this: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/03/ff_anthrax_fbi/all/1
there's serious doubt, even among his colleagues that pointed the FBI in his direction, that he did it. Was it him? Was he a patsy? Was he even involved or did he just have a guilty look and happen to be in the right place at the wrong time.
Really interesting read, and plenty of the facts can be found from other sources, I'm just too lazy tonite to find more links. mmm beer good. Read it, whether you still think he's guilty or not, you may learn some interesting stuff.
precisely why i have only a 100 or so, mostly kids stuff, ripped to server. Now handbrake supports queueing, so you could conceivably run 24x7, but yeah it's not going to be fun. I'd love to be able to get an old rack server with 24 cores and a shit ton of RAM and try it there.
The ideal situation would be to take advantage of cheap storage prices and just rip the dvd's in a few minutes each as raw VOB files. The problem i've run into is on the playback end, unless you are transcoding on the fly on the server, a lot of playback devices can't handle VOBs (PS3, WDTV are the ones I tried).
"It's easier to re-rip/download than it is to backup media"
depends. If you're just ripping DVDs and playing the VOB's in some media center that can stream them, then yeah, it's not toooo big a problem. If, however you rip, then re-encode, that's a big pain. I can re-encode most DVDs to MKV in handbrake and get a file size of around 1.5 to 2GB w/ 5.1 and the resulting file is pretty much indistinguishable from the DVD on my 65" DLP. On smaller screens it looks even better. Unfortunately, it runs 45-60 min per encode plus time to rip. I don't have a bleeding edge system, but it is Core i5 @3.2 GHZ w/ 6GB of RAM. It's not really something you want to do more than once (i've got 800+ DVDs) if you can avoid it.
"Comparing a colony on Mars to one anywhere on Earth is absurd"
i don't think he was referring to COLONIES as he specifically said EXPEDITIONS. His point, I believe, was that despite the new national (corporate) pastime of avoiding anything that even smells like risk, there are still people out there willing to follow in the footsteps of the first guys to the poles or to the top of Everest, even if it costs them their lives, to be the first ones there. The ultimate first post I guess.
On a side note, there is always this assumption that a one way trip to Mars is a single event and suicidal. One launch and done. Personally, I'd think you'd have 1 robust man-rated vehicle and several cargo type rockets ready to go before anyone left. You shoot the people there as fast as you can, and follow up with subsequent supply launches on relatively cheap vehicles that don't need the additional complexity of keeping people alive. We can shoot up multi ton satellites with some regularity. Has the country slipped so far that after blasting people to Mars, we couldn't manage to send supplies twice a year?
...or Aussies continue to screw themselves by purchasing games at 2x the US price, encouraging publishers and distributors to set those prices. Like it or not, they are charging exactly what the market has said it's willing to pay and apparently sales are doing well since prices aren't going down. Aussies don't like high prices? Don't buy over priced games. It sucks, but that's really the only way they'll ever listen to you.
true, but the tunnels are inaccessible and most of what's left above ground are nondescript buildings in the middle of nowhere. If you're interested in the SSC you'd be better off reading about it online. There are lots of pics from the construction period and at one point even some sites by people that snuck in years AFTER it was canceled and snooped around. Don't know if those sites are still up. It's not really worth the drive IMO since there's not really anything to SEE.
Kind of a sad testament to science in the US, really. I grew up not far away and we had quite a few students from Russia and other places in my high school whose parents were working on the project. I was big on cycling at the time and put in a lot of miles riding around that area, was neat to see the work and knowing this huge tunnel was going in under me.
See ya Ubi, won't be missing you. Your games are really nothing special anymore and your insistence on requiring your own DRM service ON TOP OF STEAM is just ridiculous. I won't log in twice and maintain separate accounts for you anymore. Likewise, I won't have to lose access to my games when not online (something that Steam is frequently accused of, but MOST games can be played offline on Steam after the initial download and activation).
You look at a PC market where other companies are making millions in SALES and blame piracy for your woes. I haven't bought an Ubi game since the last Splinter Cell, I must be pirating your crap now right? Wrong, I'm just spending my money on games from other publishers. Take your ball and go home, I didn't even know you had a ball anymore.
A couple of my favorites are McDonald Observatory and Johnson Space Center
Wi not trei a holiday in Sweeden this yer?
funny how every other manufacturer manages to make a thin phone with a battery you can replace yet Apple can't seem to pull it off. I'm sure it enhances the user experience in some way I'm failing to see. Think Different indeed...
The problem is that targeting a government agency or what have you might lead to them tracing back and nailing the actual people involved, not just someone that happens to be in the same group but was on vacation that week. With these cartel guys, if you've EVER been associated with Anon and they find you, they don't really give a shit, you're fair game to them. They are just as happy making an example of you as they would be to catch the masked clown that made these idiotic threats to begin with. That's a real problem with groups like Anonymous. With no clear leadership, some "faction" can spout off crap that endangers everyone.
You can throw out all the police state, abuse of power crap you want, the bottom line is in the end the FBI is accountable to SOMEONE and subject to laws and public outrage. There IS a limit to what they can and will do to you. The cartels have no such limit.
seriously? you cannot compare modern 3d to some lame ass crap from 40+ years ago. red/blue glasses, yes it sucked and looks nothing like current 3d. jesus, it's like impossible for some people to accept there have been improvements. every time there's a post here about 3d, guys come out of the woodwork like the 3d monster ate your dog. Just because you saw a couple of movies with jabby things coming out at you doesn't mean every movie does that. I hear all the time about how Avatar did it "right" too bad it was an abysmal bore and a great example of cinematic wanking. It was the cinematic equivalent of an Yngwie Malmsteen song. A whole lot of widdly widdly widdly that goes nowhere fast.
If you don't like 3d or get a headache, great, you have the right not to go see movies in 3d. The fact that it's not for you does not invalidate the technology or reduce the appeal of 3d to a very large number of paying customers. 3d is probably more appealing and understandable to the average movie-goer than something like 60fps or ultra-mega-super hi rez. These are the same people that buy an HD tv then run it @ 480p and rave about the picture quality. They don't CARE, and they outnumber the people that do care by a large enough margin to matter.
well if it's something like mythbusters you can basically watch 1 minute in 5 and be pretty well on top of things. lol
The one thing I hate is that much of the content on Netflix streaming expires (sometimes really fast...all James Bond movies for just 2 weeks?), and while it will usually appear again, it may take up to a year. I've been streaming since they first offered it and there have definitely been times when my queue has been devoid of anything i actually want to watch. Too be honest, we hardly use it for movies anymore, it's mostly TV shows, sometimes you just want to throw up a Mythbusters or TNG episode while you work on dinner or read a book. When all that has rolled off, having the cable/dish can fill the gap.
exactly what i was going to post. I get 100MB on server, my local archive file is over 2GB. I can't count the times I'm asked a question about a project from 2 years ago. Click folder, search, fast accurate results. I agree big buckets are the way to do this, project1, project2, boss, admin. Anything too detailed and it does get unwieldy.
i think he meant mono audio, as opposed to stereo/surround
paid shill? believe what you want. My anecdotes about having no problems are just as valid as any other anecdotes about problems.
fuck off? did you get up on the wrong side of the bed?
jesus, what the hell is up with you people? say BoA and it's tinfoil hats everywhere. I've banked with them for nearly 20 years, had 2 mortgages with them and never seen the kind of horror stories I've read in this thread. For that matter I've logged on several times in the last 5 days to pay bills including my mortgage and have had no issues. Not that there aren't any issues accessing the site, but speculating that they are deliberate is just paranoia.
You want to pack up your money and move? Fine. But you'll be stuck with podunk credit union. Try another large bank and you'll find no differences from BoA. What works for one is quickly made "industry practice". Personally, I've had more unpleasant experiences with Chase bank than I care to recall and would keep my money in the mattress if they were the only bank.
along those lines, why can't i right click the scroll bar and select TOP or BOTTOM like in so many other programs? This has always driven me crazy when i'm on a loooong page and want to get back to the top where the navigation crap is.
nah. would probably be $100,000 per stream of the movie.
jeeez. watch the video. See allllll the other planes flying past well away from the spectators and in a COMPLETELY different trajectory than the one that crashes? I'd say they were following the rules. The real question here isn't who was in charge that can be sued. The question is why the hell was this one plane coming from way out of left field? I mean, really, had he not crashed, he'd have been flying OVER the crowd to keep in the race. The pilot must have turned waayyyy wide at the last pylon. Maybe sticky ailerons or rudder? They mention the guy was 74 years old, you certainly can't rule out a heart attack or stroke causing him to be this far off course.
Horrible judgement on the part of the pilot if it wasn't medical. You can have all the rules you want, but only the guy in the cockpit can really enforce them. RIP to all that died.
that's funny because here in Texas we actually do have a choice of electricity providers. Now, Oncor supports and services most of the infrastructure, but your rates can vary drastically from provider to provider. I actually have 40 providers that service my zip code. http://powertochoose.com./ Of course we also pay higher electricity prices than most of the states on our borders, but hey! we have a choice...
The fact that Mao and Stalin were ruthless pricks that found intentional starvation or ignoring famine conditions a better way of quelling dissent than the international PR mess of just shooting them ALL the time has nothing to do with communism... plenty of 3rd world dictators have done just the same in the complete absence of a communist government.
You might as well say the US killed millions of native Americans because they were a democracy.