Comment Re:Only in NZ (Score 1) 333
I was surprised to see 'dickhead' in an official response. Is it a less vulgar term in NZ than in the US?
Comment Re:Get a clue, Olde Skoolers (Score 1) 270
That's true. It's might also be in their interest to allow ala-carte pricing. But it is their content, and they can distribute it how they choose. Since they also distribute it on the Internet (barring any illegal content providers) they can pretty much offer it however they want on any medium.
The only way for them to fight illegal downloaders it to make legitimate downloads/streaming as easy or easier than illegal downloads. That would mean no DRM (or a least a good implementation of it) in a cross platform format consumable by all types of devices.
Comment Re:Get a clue, Olde Skoolers (Score 3, Interesting) 270
"Throwing the gauntlet" worked so well for the music industry. They probably could have made so much more money, much more easily if they had embraced digital media from the onset.
Television needs to get on board with the digital age. If they fight it they are just going to fall behind as users find better alternatives to traditionally TV.
Perhaps it's time to offer ala-carte channel selection. Why should I have to buy a package from my cable company when I can just find what I want online.
The harder they fight it, the faster they will lose viewers. Especially now that TVs have Youtube and Hulu apps embedded, making it much easier for the average user to watch online content.
Comment Re:Tax junk food (Score 1) 978
I'd agree with you on the caloric intake. You can get fat from eating Broccoli and grilled organic skinless chicken breast if you ate 5000 calories worth of it, the same as if you ate 5000 calories of candy and fried cheese and burned less than the number of calories consumed.
However, nutritionally speaking I'd have to say that eating processed food full of preservatives, and artificial flavoring etc has got to be worse for your body than eating something that simply grew from ground.
I keep seeing these news stories that say "did you know that eating can help reduce the risk of ".
Humans evolved eating only stuff that came from the ground. The earth provides nutrition needed by a humans (not to mention every other species).
Not to say that processed food is devoid of nutrients, but there is no doubt that fruits, veggies, and grains balanced with a moderate quantity of meat is what the human body will thrive on.
Comment I'll keep my old shocks (Score 1) 274
I wonder what the price tag would be. Of course, if you never have to replace them that would be a plus.
What I would really like to see is shocks that could generate electricity that recharge the battery in a hybrid/electric vehicle.
It could probably work somewhat akin to those generators that harness power from ocean waves. Not sure how much power you could get from the motion generated by 4 shocks moving a few inches in each direction.
Comment Re:background chatter (Score 1) 395
Indeed, who wants to listen to people dictate commands to their computer, that would be the most annoying thing in the world. If you think hearing a one sided cell phone conversation is annoying, wait until you hear the douche making a snarky status update. No thanks.
Comment Re:dotcom bubble (Score 1) 298
I have never heard anyone describe a myspace page so perfectly! That is exactly how it should be described, haha. I love it.
As for face book, I wasn't sure if it killed myspace or not. All I know is facebook rose up and myspace fell.
Comment Free shipping? (Score 1) 60
Can I get free shipping if I use "Buy it now". What about local pickup?
Oh, and can you post picture of the back of the suits?
Comment Re:dotcom bubble (Score 2) 298
Facebook is an advertisers dream. I don't think it could be any more perfect from an advertisers perspective, and I'm sure facebook charges a premium for this kind of consumer data. However, targeted advertising only works when there are targets...what happens when/if facebook goes the way of Myspace and Live Journal (not that LJ was a behemoth like facebook or myspace).
It seems like myspace was king for a few years, then tanked and facebook filled the void. I'm not sure what caused myspace's drop in popularity, but one has to wonder if facebook will see the same thing. Seeing as how "every one" read - everyone's parents/grandparents, are on facebook, you have to wonder if the people who fueled facebook's uprising (the college age crowd) will packup and move to the next big social net where nobody's parents are there to see the kind of debauchery in which they take part.
Then facebook is left with millions of square feet of data center space filled with thousands of idle servers. Cell phone company stop bundling facebook apps out of the box, and companies and news stations no longer update their facebook pages, because they too have moved on to follow the masses to next big thing.
If I were to invest in facebook, I would ride that wave for a very short time. Maybe I'm wrong, the world is much different than it was in 1999.
Kinect Hack Builds 3D Maps of the Real World 70
Lanxon writes "Noted Kinect-tinkerer Martin Szarski has used a car, a laptop, an Android smartphone and the aforementioned Xbox 360 peripheral to make a DIY-equivalent of Google Street View. The Kinect's multi-camera layout can be used to capture some fuzzy, but astonishingly effortless 3D maps of real world locations and objects. As we saw in Oliver Kreylos' early hack, you can take the data from Kinect's depth-sensitive camera to map out a 3D point-cloud, with real distances. Then use the colour camera's image to see which RGB pixel corresponds to each depth point, and eventually arrive at a coloured, textured model."
The Matrix Re-Reloaded 640
derGoldstein writes "According to Keanu Reeves: ' Matrix 4 and 5 are coming.' At an event that took place at the London International School of Performing Arts, 'Reeves revealed that he met with the Wachowskis around Christmas. They told him that they completed script treatments for two more Matrix installments. They are planning to make the films in 3D and have already met with James Cameron to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the technology. Reeves added that he's excited to return as Neo and promised that the treatments will truly revolutionize the action genre like the first Matrix film did.'"
Starbucks Gets Mobile Payment System 149
Ron writes "Starbucks has started accepting mobile payments. Customers can now use the Starbucks Card Mobile app on their iPhone, iPod touch, or BlackBerry at nearly 6,800 company-operated Starbucks stores in the US plus more than 1,000 outlets inside Target stores. To pay with their phone, app users simply select 'touch to pay' and hold up the barcode on the screen to the 2D scanner at the register. The app also lets users manage Starbucks accounts and find nearby stores. To start using your device as tender, you can download the app now for iOS and BlackBerry. An Android application is also said to be in the works, but the company has not yet given a release date, and there's no word yet on plans for a Windows Phone version."
DSL Installation Fail
371
An anonymous reader writes "Here's an example of fine Qwest workmanship. In our business park, they just installed a DSL connection for our neighbors, for which we share an exterior utility space. They left: a DSL modem stuffed in a cardboard box, wrapped in a Wal-Mart bag, sitting outside in what will be below-zero (F) temps, on top of a bank of ten natural gas meters in some of the driest air of the year. They also left it plugged into an exposed exterior power outlet above a snowbank, with network cables running around the building, through snowbanks, coupled and protected by zip-lock baggies, and into our neighbors office. Not to mention the hack-job of patching the phone cable directly into the demarcation box. And if you're wondering — I was told upon calling them that this is not their problem, and I need to contact my primary phone service provider."
The iPad Will Get Playboy In March 223
Stoobalou writes "Playboy boss Hugh Hefner has confirmed that — despite Steve Jobs' protestations that Apple is pure and Android is for porn — an app for browsing uncensored back issues of Playboy is to launch later this year on the iPad. The news, which is likely to generate significantly more buzz for Apple's popular tablet as a publishing device than Rupert Murdoch's delayed digital newspaper The Daily, comes courtesy of Hefner's Twitter stream, in which he proclaimed: 'Big news! Playboy — both old & new — will be available on [the] iPad beginning in March.'"
New Sunlight Reactor Produces Fuel 269
eldavojohn writes "A new reactor developed by CalTech shows promise for producing renewable fuel from sunlight. The reactor hinges on a metal oxide named Ceria that has very interesting properties at very high temperatures. It exhales oxygen at very high temperatures and inhales oxygen at very low temperatures. From the article, 'Specifically, the inhaled oxygen is stripped off of carbon dioxide (CO2) and/or water (H2O) gas molecules that are pumped into the reactor, producing carbon monoxide (CO) and/or hydrogen gas (H2). H2 can be used to fuel hydrogen fuel cells; CO, combined with H2, can be used to create synthetic gas, or "syngas," which is the precursor to liquid hydrocarbon fuels. Adding other catalysts to the gas mixture, meanwhile, produces methane. And once the ceria is oxygenated to full capacity, it can be heated back up again, and the cycle can begin anew.' The only other piece of the puzzle is a large sunlight concentrator to raise the temperature to the necessary 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The team is working on modifying and refining the reactor to require a lower temperature to achieve the two-step thermochemical cycle. Another issue is the heat loss which the team claims could be reduced to improve efficiency to 15% or higher. Since CO2 is an input, the possibility exists for coal and power plants to collect CO2 emissions to be used in this process which would effectively allow us to "use the carbon twice." Another idea listed is that a "zero CO2 emissions" is developed along these lines: 'H2O and CO2 would be converted to methane, would fuel electricity-producing power plants that generate more CO2 and H2O, to keep the process going.' The team's work was published last month in Science."
