You are aware that you can build a decent multimedia system for about 400$US, right?

Not everyone has 400$ to spare.

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.

Personally, I find it less annoying than those ponies a few years back.

"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.

"We aren't the world! We aren't the children! We aren't the ones who make a better day..."

... Just learn to solve it first. From then on, it won't take you much more than 2 minutes.

Walkie talkie to call self-driving car Feature to make wearer invisible Laser beam No sharks please Please make this watch. Thank you.

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.

<CanHasDIY> Do I look like a cat to you, boy?

Yes.

Destroy badge, get expelled for destruction of school property.

Thank you for fighting for our freedom. Too few people do. Best regards, mrjb

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.

In other words, teflon-coat a 747 for reduced drag, make more money.

I'm aware of those crashes. Some rich people died in them, were left without next of kin and now some kind fellow is offering me a big bunch of cash if I help him to get the money outside of his country. Guess he was afraid to fly it out himself after the fact, but sheesh, how hard is it to wire out money these days?

If you have a good sized garage that is "bouncy", you can get a nice short verb out of that.

Yes, you can, but since you don't have control over the positioning of the walls, they'll be likely to be parallel and thus cause standing waves, which will sound pretty nasty in reverb. To counter that, it helps to randomly scatter the sound waves. Given the choice, a garage with a car parked in it will probably sound better than an empty one. Most impressive live reverb I ever heard in my life was an underground parking lot. I made a point out of slamming my car door shut with the windows open, just to enjoy the sound and long tail of it. Probably useless for most recordings. But man what a sound it was. 12-storey stairwell in my apartment building wasn't bad either... I liked playing acoustic guitar in there quite a lot. Always wondered if occasional passers-by thought I was mad though.