Having worked in audio production for many years I can say that in my experience ignorant people from ad agencies judge how good a studio is by how loud they can mix the commercials. Its nothing to do with the TV stations.

The problem is commercials are mixed with LOTS of compression (which limits the dynamic range) and recorded to the master tape at the maximum level it can handle. Movies and TV shows are mixed with a lot more dynamic range to allow for example, a gunshot to sound louder than a voice.

If the TV stations consistently lowered the level of commercials when they transferred them into their systems (by 3-6db), then they would sit better after programs and wouldn't send us all grabbing for the remote to mute them. It's not going to stop me from muting them, but then I hardly ever watch TV as I find it mind numbingly boring and retarded.

Also in response to some sort of volume limiter that kicks in when the level gets loud, its only going to ruin your movie soundtrack and make those huge explosions small... so IMHO its a bad idea.

My idea was to scan the picture for the TV station ID which they impose over the programs but not commercials and detect which is which by this method or link the TV to a internet based service which can tell you when commercials are playing on your channel and auto-mute and dim the picture. Probably people would pay for a service like this.

That subjects everyone who visits the US to this same treatment.

Why not start with a trial project under water? Apart from some minor differences (gravity, increased pressure from the water etc) you have an equally hostile environment to human life. If they could survive for more than a few years whilst only receiving limited imports of supplies, then you could take it to the moon. Certainly the learning curve will be more gentle. Saving a few hundred billion on a return trip is kind of pointless if all your astronauts are dead after 6 months.

I agree the cameras should be upgraded to HD, I always watch the crime and car chase TV programs and its a a shame not to have the footage captured in glorious Hi Def. Also if the timecode and other overlays where captured to an alpha channel then it could be removed for TV broadcast, or just be replaced completly when being used to frame an innocent civilian. The camera may 'replace' an actual coppers eyes (and be more cost efficient) but it cant actually run down the street and stop a crime and the reality is... if only 1 in 1000 cops stopped a crime per year the public would be asking "What are they doing the rest of the time?"

>> when there are no actual units being sold>> I just came from a meeting with Next Window... and they have sold 150k+ units of the first model with HP.

I guess the fact that Windows 7 Operating System is multi-touch enabled makes the whole idea of having a touch screen more attractive. Next ARE selling units believe me and the from the Stats I've seen the PC makers believe they will move from an 80/20 mix of Non-touch/Touch enabled PC's by the end of this year, to an 20/80 mix (with 80% of PC's being Touch enabled) by the end of next year. Why wouldn't you pay the extra $100 for the touch screen?

If you've seen 3-4 year old kids use an iPhone and then try to touch the screen of a normal PC, you would understand that this is the future of user interfaces. Removing one level of abstraction (moving the mouse here... moves the pointer over here) really makes for a much nicer experience IMHO.

Sure its not for everyone or every task (I'm thinking gaming, designers and programmers)... but in a general day to day interaction with a computer... especially in a business presentation, education environment or general day to day browsing... it really works.

Now being a Mac user... I'm jealous, hurry up Apple, can we have a touch enabled iMac please?

It worked for Ozzy Osbourne and his family. Survivor Little Britain anyone?

But seriously... what will putting a camera on these people 24/7 show? Its already understood there is a problem, having a camera to observe the problem doesn't do anything towards solving that problem. The solution of "make it easier to arrest these criminals" doesnt stand up to scrutiny... where would you put them all?

Why not spend 400m pounds (or other ridiculous amounts printed in crappy tabloids) on improving education and 'income assistance' where low wage earners have their wage topped up to make it more worth their while to get that low paying starter job? Not paying welfare beneficiaries any actual money (food coupons and essential utilities payed for instead) may help on the misspending.

This type of downward evolutionary spiral can not be combated from within... by applying opposing force, you simply make them push back harder (making their focus "how do I beat the law?" rather than "how do I make a better life for myself?"), the solution is to prevent new people from entering the vicious cycle and provide as many opportunities for people to leave it as possible. The reality is that human conditioning is very hard to change (even if the subject is willing) but hope is a very strong feeling and a small taste can stay with people for a lifetime.

Of course if you have a controlling elite that deliberately works at undermining the lower class to keep them dumbed down and locked into low income 'slavery', then you would need to resolve that issue first.

Plan V anyone?

Jut smile really hard that first day (using sellotape to get the cheeks up to that 100% happy manic smile if you need to) and then hold the print out up to the camera for the rest of the year. Do I get a salary raise for having a 100% smile all year? ... probably not.

Or in this case just not established in the first place. Thankfully the New Zealand Prime Minister has delayed the implementation of Section 92a and it may well be suspended. A big thank you has to go out to all those who took part in the Internet Blackout NZ... blacking out NZ websites and profiles on popular social networking sites in protest of the proposed changes.

Putting the automated banning systems abuse, 18th century attitudes and humans rights violations aside... 'Think of the Children!"

There are a lot of kids playing video games... so advertising your sexual preference in your profile is a bit off, regardless of what it is.

Apples OSX does not come with any crappy activation key or other pain in the a$$ copy protection system, so their actual install base could be way higher than reported. Of course you still need Mac hardware to install OSX on, but there is nothing to stop you (except the law) from buying 1 copy of OSX and updating all the Macs in your building.

>OSX can only realistically come from one over priced manufactuer where as Linux is free and can be installed on any machine.

Overpriced? Thanks, but my time is valuable... I'd rather pay the very reasonable price and have the OS up and running in an hour than spend days messing around with Linux trying to get some driver working. Please dont compare apples with linuxes. Its called 'choice'... use it and enjoy the results.

I think the reason Microsoft see Linux as the competition is that Apple is in another league and as wfolta stated above 'every Windows box is a potential Linux box'.

Yes... court case at 11.