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Comment: Re:Pre-consumer waste, maybe (Score 1) 241

by mrjb (#43791185) Attached to: 3-D Printable Food Gets Funding From NASA
It has already been invented. It's called pancakes. Your toddler will still get all the nutrition that the egg has to give. Put some freshly made strawberry sauce/jam on top and nutritional content will be better than that of just scrambled eggs. If you're worried about blood glucose spikes, use xylitol instead of sugar.

Comment: Re:Complex geometry (Score 1) 241

by mrjb (#43791149) Attached to: 3-D Printable Food Gets Funding From NASA
Finally someone here that seems to grasp the potential. The point is not to simply pop a powder in a 3d printer and squeezing out a paste in an interesting shape. The point is that ultimately permits us to cook "note by note" - a future discussed by Hervé This ("The man who uncooked an egg") in this excellent lecture:

Comment: That's you're view. (Score 1) 147

by mrjb (#43379187) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Linux Friendly Video Streaming?

Syaing "I've already got [whatever platform], how do I make it do what I want?" is often not a helpful approach."

Sure. But saying "Swap to Windows" isn't exactly any more helpful, is it? I'm not going to shell out for a Windows license and I'm not going to install it illegaly. If I can't play netflix on the operating system of my choice, they're not having my business, simple as that. Besides, at the price I would pay for a netflix movie, I'll get the DVD instead; sometimes at a car boot sale, sometimes at the thrift shop, sometimes at poundland, and I even pay full price, at times. It might score slightly lower on the "instant gratification" scale, but at least I'm watching the films on my own terms.

Comment: The interesting bit is this: (Score 4, Insightful) 124

by mrjb (#43049159) Attached to: Google Publishes Zopfli, an Open-Source Compression Library
"Zopfli is a compression-only library, meaning that existing software can decompress the data." (source: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/page/294495_Google_Compression_Algorithm_Z). As long as the compression can be done on cached pages, hey- that's another 3-8% more people served with the same amount of bandwidth, without any additional requirements on the client side.

Comment: Here we go again. (Score 1) 215

by mrjb (#42638095) Attached to: Microsoft Going Its Own Way On Audio/Video Specification
So MS will be publishing their own standard. What will happen?

1. Looking at VBscript and Silverlight/Moonlight, it will essentially fail - alternatives exist (Javascript, Flash) that are equally viable and more widely supported.

2. Some idiots will use MS-only tech ANYWAY, breaking support for anything but the Windows platform and alienating a substantial user base.

3. If the spec is open (looking at dot net), some open source group will produce their own version to permit interoperability with other platforms.

Wasn't it netflix that required Silverlight to be installed?

4. However, this doesn't guarantee that code written for Windows-based products will actually work out of the box on the other platforms.

An example of this once again is dotnet: Even with the whole CLR available on Linux, some idiot will tie their source code into a proprietary Windows API, e.g. to have SharePoint interoperability.

5. Eventually (looking at CSS and MS' implementation of JavaScript and the document object model) MS will have to give in and better support the actual official standard, but by that time the damage will have been done. Remember the original HTML spec only permitted writing JavaScript in the HTML header - just think for a moment how many cross-site-scripting issues that prevents. But NOOO, MS decided people should be allowed to litter script tags all over the document body. Great going, MS.

6. In some cases, an MS spec will end up sufficiently well-documented that it becomes the de-facto norm across platforms. The .wav file format is a good example of this; it's pretty much always supported. That doesn't mean it's not brain-dead (Why on earth is the length of a WAV file a SIGNED integer?)

Anyway, I'm not exactly looking forward to the implications.

Comment: Get with the times (Score 1) 547

by mrjb (#42021111) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How To Make a DVD-Rental Store More Relevant?
DVD-watcher here.

Your friend may have to get with the times, because let's face it: the days that physical media were a requirement for distribution are over. It's so much more convenient for people not to have to leave the comfort of their own home when they want to watch a movie. It's for a reason that rental places have now started mailing out the media and accepting them back by mail: It's far more convenient than having to go to a DVD store.

I don't rent movies, but I do buy them on DVD. However, I'm cheap; I rarely ever pay full price for them. For the most of it, I either get them refurbished or from the thrift shop. Very sorry but I'm no longer willing to sponsor the thugs that call themselves "the movie industry". Also, I still like having the physical item, which allows me to watch them at my convenience (rather than being forced to watch them within 24 hours from paying), in reasonable full-screen quality. To me, there's still some added value to physical media. If your friend wants to remain in business, he'll have to either switch business model to media-less distribution, or provide significant added value that downloadable movies cannot offer.

In the end, it's not about watching moving images but about entertainment. If your friend provides a one-stop no-hassle solution for that, he might draw people to his shop. In addition to DVD, he might consider selling various snacks and beverages. For rom-coms, perhaps he might provide candles, essential oils or whatever else sets the mood. Perhaps it's worth considering making a deal with a local restaurant and provide dinner vouchers at reduced price.

Now the above isn't new. The media business has been doing many of the above already for a good number of years. If your friend insists focusing on selling or renting out physical media, he'll have a very, very tough time ahead.

Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where's it going to end? -- Tom Stoppard

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