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Comment Re:One non-disturbing theory (Score 2) 304

Actually, the reason that bottled water has an expiration date is that it is mandated to.

Is there a source for that? I assumed the reason water (and everything else food/drug related) has an expiration date now was for legal liability. That way there's only a limited time you can get a company for injury for using an old product (even if it was something inert enough it wouldn't expire). They can just point to the packaging and say "Well, Your Honor. Look, the item was expired and the label says not to use it past the date. The defendant willfully ingested/used it nonetheless..."

Comment Re:Luddites on the loose. (Score 1) 199

Considering these are basically miniature electric helicopters, I'm not sure a crash is really that big a deal...

To be capable of carrying a package, these are going to be quite a bit larger than some dinky RC copter.
I think being hit with one (or the merchandise it's carrying) could cause significant injury.

Comment Re:Data Security Officer (Score 1) 192

I worked for a very long time in government. And I learned one thing: You are not supposed to know shit. You are supposed to buy knowledge.

Isn't that how the entire job market works? That's why we have the education loan bubble we have -- employers don't believe you know anything without a piece of paper showing you spent thousands of dollars to learn it.

Comment Re:Auctioning money? (Score 1) 101

Maybe because by actually converting the currency to money, they're sending the message that they accept it as real money and will use it. It gives a aire of legitimacy to it they don't want to impart. But selling it is simply offering it and taking what they can get. It doesn't say that they think it's worth anything, just that the bidders do. Kind of like if I took a dirty sock and auctioned it. I can say I believe it to be trash all I want then. If someone pays me $10 for it, it doesn't mean it's really worth $10. It just means someone out there is stupid enough to pay $10 real dollars for it, like any other piece of virtual property.

Comment Re:stupid premise (Score 3, Informative) 116

What "visually lossless" format are you using? Does it have any actual benefits over re-encoding with a recent build of x264, given that quite a lot of DVDs available were apparently encoded with some shitty h262 codec from 1998, given the artifacts all over them?

Yes, DVDs are in MPEG2... because DVD discs have to maintain compatibility with DVD players, even older ones, and back in 1998 MPEG2 was the type of video playback hardware chips could handle. Btw, digital cable streams in the U.S. are still generally done in MPEG2 as well. There are some newer models of converters the last couple years that can handle h264, but to maintain compatibility with all the already deployed equipment providers are still feeding them the older, less efficient format.

Genuine question, I tend to rip my DVDs to 1000kbs video...

If you're encoding at a constant bitrate you're doing it like it's still 2005. Should be using a constant quality (variable bitrate) encoding setting to get more bandwidth when it's needed in high-action shots or grainy footage, and less in stark black/white screens and low movement footage.

which is approximately half the bitrate...

No, DVD's go quite a bit higher than 2000 kbps. Try 6-9000 kbps.

It also means I can deinterlace the fuckers at the same time. I utterly loathe interlacing and it's all over UK DVDs, particularly TV shows from the early 00s and before.

Most DVDs I see nowadays are progressively encoded, but okay.

Comment Streaming-only devices are still a poor choice, (Score 1) 116

Even if streaming services eventually overtake physical media usage it still makes little sense to buy a streaming-only player (AppleTV or Roku) instead of a blu-ray player which can access streaming services as well. The difference in costs between the two is too small given the additional functionality of a blu-ray player for playing physical media, including the library of DVDs people may have already from "the good ol' days" before Netflix instant streaming.

Plus, it's a bit more convenient to take your DVD/BD to a friend's house than uncoupling a VUDU or Amazon-On-Demand account from a device to sign in as someone else and access a different library of content.

Comment Re:Booking Photos Database (Score 1) 143

What's the procedure about booking photos (and fingerprints taken at booking) in the US? Is it possible that your image could be on that database even if you were not convicted of a crime...

You're booked when you're arrested, which is long before your trial. So lots of people have had mugshots taken who later were exonerated.
I doubt they are going to thrown out perfectly good records once they have them.

Comment Re:hmmm (Score 1) 119

Apparently, any former celebrity who doesn't so desperately long for attention that they appear on Dancing With the Stars or jump at every chance for an interview or public appearance is so incomprehensible to most people that the only way to make sense of it is to label them a "recluse".

I don't think being a celebrity has anything to do with it. In today's over-marketed society anyone who likes to live a quiet life where they keep to themselves, and doesn't constantly spill out the details of their business via social networking (read as: anyone introverted) gets labeled as "strange" by the rest of town and feared as potential serial killer or terrorist-making-plans-in-their-basement.

Comment Re:It's Time To Move On. (Score 5, Insightful) 218

Richard Stallman is full of crap if he is claiming that Windows is endemically, technically less secure. Anyone remember the Pwn2Own games? Anyone remember what OS fell first every time? Thats right, fully patched OSX (think that changed ~2012).

Yes, and OSX falling first had nothing to do with the participants specifically targeting it. I mean, they would have nothing to gain from focusing their efforts on a single operating system, like the bragging rights of hacking a supposedly "secure" platform, or taking Macintosh snobs down a notch, or winning a $2000 Mac laptop instead of a $500 Dell. No siree.

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