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Comment Re:Windows Media Center (Score 2) 374

Windows 10 Home users will have updates from Windows Update automatically available. Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise users will have the ability to defer updates.

So Windows 10 only gives you the "install ALL updates automatically" option. Wow. Great. What an improvement! Especially with Microsoft's flawless update history.

Submission + - Netflix Is Experimenting with Advertising (vice.com)

derekmead writes: Netflix is experimenting with advertisements that run both before and after users watch a video. It's unclear whether or not the company will eventually push ads to everyone.

For now, the company is primarily experimenting with the HBO model of pitching its own original programming to viewers. The company is only showing trailers for shows like Orange Is the New Black and House of Cards—it has not attempted to sell third party ads, and the company told me that, for the moment, only specific users in specific markets are seeing ads.

Comment Re:Missing the point here (Score 1) 189

The endless discussion on the advantages of analog over digital recording always gloss over the fact that a customer has to pay $10-20 for EACH album purchased in the vinyl analog format, while a $10-$20 64Gb SD card stores 1200 albums (@12 songs; @ 5Mb per song in 256BPS MP3 format) for the same price.

Not just that, there's 24 bit / 96 kHz or even 192 kHz PCM FLAC, or 1-bit DSD (2.8224 Mhz) bitstream, which is equivalent to 20bit/96 kHz PCM if you want to use the SA-CD format. Plus quite a number of albums ("DDD" in CDDA parlance) have been recorded digitally so the mixed/mastered in the actual source digital format version is best. There's a bit more trouble compressing the sound to death in vinyl.

You never know, we now have the bionic eye that gives better than 20/20 vision, next might be the bionic ear that gives you 10Hz-40kHz range

Comment Copyright shouldn't be free-as-in-beer (Score 3, Insightful) 189

One of the problem is that copyrighted works can sit on a shelf for 100+ years and it doesn't cost the rightsholder a cent. So yeah, sure, increase copyright terms. Please. At zero cost, even a trillion-in-one chance of a work-on-the-shelf ever making any kind of money is still better than zero.

Even a use-it-or-lose-it system won't work, as you'll see extremely-limited runs just for copyrights' sake. NOT any other.

A proposal is to limit copyright to (compared to the current situation) a very limited time, say 10 years, with an optional extension -at a fee and with registration- for another 10 years. This would total 20 years, the same as inventors get to exploit their ingenuity and creativity at the cost of filing for a patent. This would level the playing field between the two, open up a gigantic public domain, and still give creators a full 2 decades to exploit works.

The most vocal opponents of this proposal will be: (1) the copyright industry, (2) "made men" (dead or alive) that somehow still cash in today for what they did many decades ago and (3) the Hordes Of Entertainment Lawyers that make a good penny with all the legalities, paperwork, clearances, etc. that comes with the actual use of copyrighted works.

Comment Re: Yes, but because (Score 1) 189

This is easily proven. Artists On Spotify Have Dollar Signs In Eyes (you know the type, the pay-me-a-million-bucks-to-tweet-about-my-own-damn-movie type), Start Their Own Service At A Premium Charge And Withdraw Their Catalogue From Spotify. Poof. Too bad for you if you're on Spotify (and assuming the still-innocent kids are the ones who like them). This happened on Netflix too (Starz anyone? Bla bla our premium shows bla bla?

Comment Re:faster than light never violates Relativity (Score 1) 226

But more abstractly, consider two events that are separated in both space and time, A and B. Let's say A happens first and "causes" B. Maybe A is "someone throws a ball" and B is "someone catches it." In any case if B is outside of the light cone of A, meaning that light or anything slower could not travel from event A to event B, then there is a reference frame in which events A and B happen at the same place. But when you "boost" into this frame of reference, you'll find that B happens before A. Faster-than-light communication implies that effect can precede cause.

Suppose there's a game of FTL baseball. I'm sitting in the audience, and in my peripheral vision the guy next to me get hits by a ball literally coming out of nowhere, while I'm looking at the bat swinging towards that same ball on the other side of the field... it hits and the ball vanishes (say enters Hyperspace). That doesn't mean the impact of the ball happened before the hit, I just saw it happen before the hit because photons coming from the ball next to me reach my eye faster than the ones from the ball being in play across the field. So I know the result of the hit before I see it happen. There's nothing wrong with that.

Now also suppose we can "rewind" the entire universe, and replay the entire event, while you can be a ghost present at any location in Realspace and experience events like you've always been there. Say there's a "ghost" of me sitting right at the other side of the field. Looking through the ghosts eyes, the bat hits the ball, the ball vanishes, then rematerializes hitting the guy -- a lot sooner than expected but not before it vanishes. The ghost can see it no sooner than a photon hits the ball and travels back to the ghost eye. Rewind and put the ghost smack dab in the middle, the ball vanishes and appears hitting the guy at almost the same time.

Finally, you can be the ball... you're actually a 360 degree camera that can take Realspace snapshots. That bat swings towards you, then bang! Looking back, you can see yourself, in the past. The bat is just about to hit you. And the next snapshot is a little bit further in the past as you're farther away from the bat about to hit you. It looks like time is going in reverse. Then you pop out of Hyperspace, hit the guy, but looking back time reverses again and is back in forward. You see the bat swing, hit you and see yourself vanish. Then you can see yourself, just a few times and for minute fractions of seconds, as you get closer and closer when you took those Realspace snapshots.

Comment Re:Clean room implementation? (Score 1) 223

I am bothered by copyrights lasting longer than patents or anything for both.

This is always what I bring up in copyright term discussions: why should an inventor, working for years on an idea and perfecting it, then finally applying for a patent, only get 20 years to exploit their hard work, ingenuity and creativity, after which the invention becomes public domain and benefits society be considered a Great Thing, but it's perfectly fine to have to pay Warner Music Group royalties to "Happy Birthday To You" (super-intelligent lyrics only) as otherwise artists would starve/no longer be bothered to create new works?

Don't forget, the Copyright Industry is not just the RIAA/MPAA, it's also the Hordes Of Lawyers involved in all the "clearances" and other related stuff. And the same way the revolving door PoliticiansRIAA/MPAA/Lobbyists works, the IP Lawyers Judges revolving door works the same way.

Comment Re:Waste of Time & Money (Score 1) 275

...but manned missions are what excite Ye Regular Folks, a/k/a/ Joe and Jane Taxpayer. So there's this thingy driving around on Mars, the other thingamajic orbiting "an asteroid", then the rocket with the camera taking pictures of Pluto. You know about that when you read the science column in Saturday's newspaper (page 8 of section F).

So what if we have this group of Real American Heroes training to go to Mars, the first ones orbiting, the second crew landing? Assuming they're the first ones there, of course. When's the last time you've seen a non-certified-nerd wear a NASA T-shirt?

Comment Corporatism (Score 1) 94

and replaced by a state corporation of the same name by the end of the year. "In its new, corporate identity, Roscosmos will be responsible not only for setting mission goals but managing wages for space industry workers and modernizing production facilities."

THAT'S how you fight corrupt (semi) public officials! You turn the whole thing in a corporation. When the executives then give themselves exorbitant salaries and benefits (incl. pensions), and hand themselves 15-25% wage increases year over year, while at the same time "managing wages for space industry workers" and doing a "realignment" every couple of years, it's just good business!

Comment Re:No sympathy is deserved for these idiots. (Score 3, Insightful) 142

Welcome to the Star Trek: We're Back fan movie website!

Episode downloads:

  1. www.strekwb.test/episode1.mp4
  2. www.strekwb.test/episode2.mp4
  3. www.strekwb.test/episode3.mp4

Episode 4 is ready and we sent the download link to a few people who we think are better than you and get to see it first!

You're a foul, devious, stinking criminal if you think of trying www.strekwb.test/episode4.mp4 just for the heck of it.

Comment Re:Seems a bit harsh (Score 1) 142

If you read the indictment, they did not just create the code, they actually used it themselves and showed others how to use it by demonstrating it. Now of course comes much greater consequences, their customer base is also in the firing line and they will all be turned over for a reduced sentence. This could lead to a whole bunch of crimes being exposed.

If you remember the Aaron Barr/HBGary e-mails, which preceded the Snowden revelations by years, it was already obvious that there was a whole subculture of businesses who bought and *sold* 0-day exploits (HBGary's boss called them 'Juicy Fruits"), of course with the obvious intent of being used against non-censenting targets. So if these Photobucket guys are guilty, let's start filing suits against the dark "security businesses" of this world.

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