Slashback: Quakery, Lifespans, Barcodes 135
Just stick around and collect on this bet. mindriot writes "The German climatic researcher Manfred Stock has rejected Stephen Hawking's theory which states that man would not exist on earth for another 1,000 years. To him this seems rather unlikely. Stock expects that, in 50 years, mankind will have switched to alternative power resources. Read the german article here." Oder, wenn Sie nicht Deutsch kann, bitte Babelfish benutzen. It's a much more optimistic view of things, but hardly the words of a Pollyanna.
CD-Rs are cheap, cheap, cheap. David Hume writes: "Fox News is reporting that '[a] three-judge panel decided to allow the popular service to continue allowing users to share music files over the Internet, pending further deliberations.' ... "The judges seemed to need more information from the recording industry and were more antagonistic to the RIAA," said copyright expert Leonard Rubin, who observed the proceedings."'
Overall, it sounds like Napster is taking neither the "shoo-in" or "dropped anchor" tacks that many people predicted. The article points out (and presumably the judge knows) that peer-to-peer file transfers have long since left the gate.
Well, they are the guys who make it, after all! You might remember the stink raised by the release of the Q3 1.25 patch. Now Bob Mintern writes: "iD Software, in hue of their current Point Release for Quake 3 1.25, has released a FAQ highlighting sevral issues of the 1.25 patch and what it breaks. The FAQ can be located here. I wonder when the "offical" patch will work and everything will be normal again..."
After this I'll try to shut up for a while about it, OK? There's been so much about the CueCat that perhaps you (and / or digital convergence) are sick of hearing about it. I pledge not to mention it for at least a week, on penalty of an early bedtime or perhaps more vacation days. But today, you must deal a few I thought were neat ;) First, bk1e asks the musical question: "Why :de:claw your :Cue:Cat when you can get it :spayed in about two minutes with a soldering iron? Simply solder on one jumper and it acts like any other barcode scanner." Heh.
Or, even without doing that, hangel points to this "A CueCat decoder for Zope by stevea," which includes source. Specifically, this one will let you scan in a book's bar code and look it up on Amazon.
Finally, photon317 writes: "There's a make-fun-of-DC site at www.digitaldivergence.org." This I leave to your own judgement, but as R. Crumb might say, not everything is for everybody. Think iBrator.
Poor Digital:Convergence (Score:3)
:Spay the :C:u:e::::C:a:t:::: (Score:2)
A quick suggestion for anyone that's going to try this, first of all, be especially careful with the soldering iron (lesson relearned). And try to prefit the wire into the hole, I spent the most time trying to narrow the wire down enough to get it down to size.
Timothy's German Needs Work (Score:1)
"Oder, wenn Sie nicht Deutsch kann, bitte Babelfish benutzen."
It should read, "Oder, wenn Sie Deutsch nicht sprechen koennen, bitte benutzt Babelfish" or similar.
Won't we just run out of fossil fuels? (Score:1)
I guess the only question is how much damage will we have done by then, and if it will be possible to reverse it. Anyone have an estimate on how many years fossil fuel we have left?
Re::Spay the :C:u:e::::C:a:t:::: (Score:2)
It looks like standard solid-core wire such as that used for telephony or ethernet will work. I highly recommend that anyone who likes to solder pick up a spool of solid-core phone wire; It's a fairly thin but still substantial source of reasonably high-grade copper wire with minimal but functional sheathing and which can be easily bend into normally awkward shapes.
The Official Word on Climatic Change (Score:3)
Its an interesting reading that details some of possible causes of the ice age and problems that sun spots could cause to our own climate -- very disturbing.
Re:Timothy's German Needs Work (Score:3)
Leave Timothy alone. At least he doesn't stand around street corners, wearing green tights, green elfen shoes, a Santa Clause belt, a green robin hood hat and a live rat as a nose piercing. Furthermore, he doesn't eat oatmeal and raisin cookies from a ceramic cookie jar while dressed in such attire.
Do Germans? Probably. I think that is their biggest problem there. But, what else is one to do in a rat-infested population with a booming cookie industry. It's not like it can be helped.
DAMN THE WALL!
Hmm? (Score:1)
Slashback has puppy dog eyes regarding CueCat?
Oh dear...
Quake Bugs (Score:3)
If everybody is so tired of Digital Convergence (Score:2)
I have an idea. Why don't you just post a barcode that we can scan and go to the corresponding cuecat story???
Re:Won't we just run out of fossil fuels? (Score:3)
Read the wired article [wired.com] about it. But I do agree we should find an alternative soon so we do not have to be dependent on only that type of fuels.
Re:Slasher (Score:1)
had to get rid of my girlfriend - so i got no quickies coming from her either.
Re:The Official Word on Climatic Change (Score:2)
Seems pretty unlikely, but by the Mayan calender the next grand cycle peaks in 2029, so if their sunspot predictions were on target (and scientific data concurs that there will be major sunspot activity in 2029) it could be the end for our civilisation too!
My money's on 2029. I never believed this end-of-the-world-in-2000 nonsense ;)
.88 magnum -- it goes through schools.
--
It's a
Re:Timothy's German Needs Work (Score:1)
That's what you get for using Bablefish to write your German.
Off topic, but some burning questions... (Score:4)
Back when I first got the thing, I was lucky enough to even find blank CDR's in stores, much worse... they usually came at a price of about $9.99 to $14.99 each.
Over the past 5 or so years... i've watched the prices of CDR's plummet. Yesterday at Staples, I bought a 50 pack spindle of 80 minute blanks for $14.98. My heart sank into my gut when I saw this. All I had to do was wait about a half decade for everything to literally be a fraction of what it cost me to begin with.
The point I wanted to bring up is that... now that CDR Drives and blanks are essentially dirt cheap, and the software is dumbed-down enough for just about anybody to use it... Why did they get so cheap? The big concern, I thought, was the fact that people could easily make digitally perfect copies for little to no cost.
Compare this to DVD writer blanks and recorders. They've existed for a little while now... In the first two years after I bought my CDR, the prices at least went down by half... To the point to where it was actually cost effective (gasp!) to burn copies.
At this point, the cost of DVD blanks are still high enough to reenforce the argument that DeCSS (while it can be used as a tool for such) wasn't made for piracy... after all, the equipment costs too much and blanks are still higher than the cost of buying the actual DVD release itself.
My question is... with so much concern about MP3's, duplicating CD's, why did the CDR media get so insanely cheap... and why is the DVD media continuing to be so expensive? By now, I expected DVD duplicating media to get cheaper.
At this point, it looks like nobody really cares about what we do with CD's. Even after the advent of MPEG4/DivX;-) compressing DVD films at reasonable quality small enough to fit on a single CDR. What the hell is going on here?
I can't really buy the argument that it costs more to make DVD blanks over CDR blanks. To manufacture DVD's is barely more expensive that CD's... and the scary thing is that I can typically find DVD movies on sale for LESS than music CD's on sale.
Okay, I've rambled on enough. Any other thoughts, folks?
Whee.
Is flyingbuttmonkeys.com down? (Score:2)
Re:Timothy's German Needs Work (Score:1)
Re:Won't we just run out of fossil fuels? (Score:1)
can someone explain point of cuecat hacks (Score:2)
FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP.
Nuke the Digital Convergence IPO! (Score:5)
Hey, I've been doing my part all evening to spam investment boards about the upcoming Digital Convergence IPO. The more the merrier, though! Bust in! Here's a sample:
Digital Convergence (DGTL) recently filed plans for an IPO [yahoo.com]. This company gives out free barcode scanners (called "CutCat") and accompanying software. The idea is that you can scan things and their software will pull up an appropriate web page in your browser. On the side, they can collect demographic data. For example, they could determine which gender and age group most often scans a certain type of product.
I think this is a horrible company, a must avoid stock for the following reasons:
These are just my opinions, of course. I did my best to get the facts straight, but I'm not perfect. Additional comments on this corporate disaster slouching toward NASDAQ are available at:
Correct Babelfish Linking (Score:1)
Right to the story, correctly translated and without all the fluff around it like ads.
Re::Spay the :C:u:e::::C:a:t:::: (Score:2)
Ah, the lost art of wire-wrap. The last thing I did in wire-wrap was a PC ISA bus 16550 serial card.
Tell me.. (Score:1)
I went there to steal some code and it's taking FOREVER. It may just be faster to write it myself!
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poor choice of words, perhaps;) (Score:1)
timothy
since the main cuecat sites are down.... (Score:2)
cuecat software, everything imaginable. hardware hacks, too. [firehead.org]
And while I'm at it, here's some hacksdmi.org goodness! [firehead.org]
But did you say you wanted DeCSS, or the newer DecVOB [firehead.org]? Oops, posted another illegal link.
Maybe you could check out ASF Recorder [firehead.org] or (fake) SW Ep2 storyboards [firehead.org] while you're at it...
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Spaying didn't work here (Score:3)
--
No, nix that (Score:2)
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hmm.... (Score:1)
are 50 packs really $14.95 at staples? nice.
- deuterium
Re:Poor Digital:Convergence (Score:4)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:Is flyingbuttmonkeys.com down? (Score:2)
Who know. I'll go upgrade the router with an axe tomorrow.
___________________________
Re:Is flyingbuttmonkeys.com down? (Score:2)
___________________________
Note to self... (Score:4)
---
Re:Quake Bugs (Score:1)
----
Re:Off topic, but some burning questions... (Score:2)
Remember when CD *players* cost $1,000 and up? It's now so cheap to make a CD player they can sell a basic model for around $59. It's the same with blank media. Once there's enough people wanting them, and the factories that make them have paid back their investments, competition forces the prices to rock bottom levels. I can comfortably predict that blank DVDs will be cheap-ass in five years too ... unless they're taxed to hell by then.
CD-Rs are basically a commodity item - anyone can manufacture them and there's no way to make your product stand out from the others. All commodity items generally drop in price over the years until they either hit the cost of raw materials plus a tiny profit, or else if distributing the items becomes more expensive than making them then the distribution cost becomes the main factor. I think this is where we are with blank CD-Rs. They can now be made for a fraction of a cent each, but sending them to shops is expensive ... hence the rise of these spindles, which reduce the distribution costs radically, since the product is far less bulky.
.88 magnum -- it goes through schools.
--
It's a
Re:The Official Word on Climatic Change (Score:3)
Correct (Score:1)
I suspect Babelfish might have issues with contractions like "can't."
Re::Spay the :C:u:e::::C:a:t:::: (Score:1)
They're available for less than that. A wire-wrapping tool I picked up at Rat Shack a few years ago has a stripper in the handle (the spinner pops off the top and the stripper slides inside). It couldn't have cost more than a few dollars. (It only works for one particular wire size, but so does the tool you mentioned.)
_/_
/ v \
(IIGS( Scott Alfter (remove Voyager's hull # to send mail)
\_^_/
Re:can someone explain point of cuecat hacks (Score:2)
To see more ideas check out this Freshmeat search [freshmeat.net].
Re:Poor Digital:Convergence (Score:2)
DigitalConvergence is in it for ads (Score:2)
DigitalDemographics is a wholly owned subsidiary of Digital:Convergence. It is responsible for the creation and analysis of the largest consumer database that provides the unique combination of web tracking with all forms of media. With aggregated data from broadcasters, publishers, and educators, our licensees will always be on the cutting edge of information marketing.
Everybody knows about this cuecat junk, so I decide to see what the company webpage says. Anybody who has looked at this sees the link 'DigitalDemographics' on the left page. Either its just me, but this says that this company is collecting data from the parent companies to sell to advertisers. All the more reason not to use this (or install the software for it) - do we need another wanabe doubleclick?
Re:Poor Digital:Convergence (Score:2)
Re:Won't we just run out of fossil fuels? (Score:1)
However... while it is easy to say:
we should find an alternative soon so we do not have to be dependent on only that type of fuels
It is a logistical nightmare. By the time we actually manage to convert everything that currently runs on petrol over to some alternative fuel we will probably have ruined this planet's atmosphere we will want to get the hell off it anyhow. How many people do you know that are desperatly trying to move out of LA and other high-smog areas due to allergies and asthma? I would be surprised if the same was not the case with other major cities in 50 years.
disc-cord
"Though we say, 'all information should be free', it is not... information is power and currency in the virtual world we inhabit."- Billy Idol (1994)
Hawking, meet nanotech (Score:3)
Once we get nanotech, this will all be moot. We'll either wipe ourselves out or become something much more [transhumanist.org] than human. Either way, it should be interesting...
Re:can someone explain point of cuecat hacks (Score:1)
1. Using it in conjunction with the barcode on a book as the root password to my router.
2. (In conjunction with the database-like Be filesystem, Be OS, mp3flashlight and cl-amp) I can store the scan output from the back of CD jewel cases in the "comment" attribute of an MP3 file. If I have ripped the CD previously I can swipe the barcode on the jewel case and have the query output (the album tracks) piped into my mp3 player.
Right now, with my unhacked cuecat, I am stuck with storing barcode output into my mp3's that is scrambled and has the serial number...as a result I can only do my album swipes with one particular scanner. If I had the know-how (or if I have any volunteers (-: ) I could hack my cuecat and have it put out only standard bar codes. Plus, if I give the mp3 to someone who also owns the jewel case, standard bar code output lets them do album swipes with their own scanners.
Hmmm...there's an idea for a nice little cottage industry....selling modded cuecats. The materials are free, except for the additional wire, so you're mostly paying for a little labor! hehe
100-500 years (Score:3)
Re:since the main cuecat sites are down.... (Score:1)
Once again the "promise of the internet [porn.com]" thwarted by a ravaging gang of geeks
disc-chord
"Though we say, 'all information should be free', it is not... information is power and currency in the virtual world we inhabit"- Billy Idol (1994)
Add to the faq (Score:1)
Can someone also tell me what happened to Karma? How come mine doesn't go up when I get a point? I never liked the moderation system, but now I can't find an explanation of what it's doing --- or at least an description that's different at all from "how it used to be."
Slashdot is a scary place. It feels like the twilight zone or something. Pardon my rant here, but I couldn't think of anyplace else to put it.
Re::Spay the :C:u:e::::C:a:t:::: (Score:1)
"C.K. Precision Wire Stripper" $39, cat no. 125-500
at www.jensentools.com.
Re:Nuke the Digital Convergence IPO! (Score:1)
-since when did 'MTV' stand for Real World Television instead of MUSIC television?
Re:Timothy's German Needs Work (Score:1)
Slashback (Score:4)
Signal 11 left slashdot. [slashdot.org]
He provided many insightful comments in addition to his humorous comments, and occasional trolls. We lost a great member of the Slashdot community, and I feel it should be noted.
You can read his farewell speech HERE [slashdot.org].
oh sure. 5.2 gigs is nothing. (Score:1)
oh yeah. it'll just keep coming. FREE MUSIK 4 LIFE!
fishfucekr.
glad you've ripped 5.2 GIGS worth of other's work.
thanks.
Re:Timothy's German Needs Work (Score:1)
Kinda.
germans, when making sentences such as the above, often drop verbs like sprechen, gehen, etc..
"Wenn Sie Deutsch nicht sprechen koennen" can legitimately become "Wenn Sie Deutsch nicht koennen", and often does.
I have to go home would be...
Ich muss nach Hause -or-
Ich muss nach Hause gehen.
As for word order, because there is a comma, the correct second clause would be "bitte babelfish benutzen."
This is, of course, saying that germans are consistant in grammer, and while in high german they are, from dialect to dialect things change massively..
Re::Spay the :C:u:e::::C:a:t:::: (Score:1)
Babelfish understands Timothy though (Score:2)
Or maybe he had a typo, and meant to say "kenn" (know) instead of "kann" (can). Then at least he has a verb in the sentence. (Babelfish translates that as "Or, if you German do not know, please use Babelfish.")
Re:Off topic, but some burning questions... (Score:1)
The first DVD was just a CD with more bits, made possible by better, cheaper lasers yielding better accuracy. As DVD's progress in the market, more of this technology becomes affordable, to the point where a single DVD contains 17GB of data. So it does cost more to make DVD's right now, but that's not why they cost more. The cost to manufacture blank media is even irrelevant. It's just supply and demand. We're not yet over the hump on the growth curve where the market takes off and the price drops as you've observed with CD-R's. Also, a portion of the cost of most blank media goes to the RIAA megacorps through the federal government, because someone, somewhere, will use some of that media to PIRATE THEIR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.
oh, and you should feel good about being an early adopter of cd recording products because you prime the pump for the rest of us later on
Re:Timothy's German Needs Work (Score:1)
Alternative Energy: I doubt it. (Score:2)
I doubt it. We've been acutely aware of the problem for at least thirty years, and we've hardly made any progress at all on kicking the habit. I think it will take much longer than 50 years to change the way things are done.
For example: One might have thought the "gas crisis" of the early '70's would have been a wakeup call regarding the use of petrol, but thirty years later we're still as dependent on it as ever. And most of the world is dependent on foreign petrol, which is a miserable strategic position to be in (whether "strategic" applies to military needs, or merely to general economic needs). But in spite of the scare and the obvious strategic indisposition, what have any of the non-OPEC, industrialized nations done to free themselves?
For more insight into the underlying problem of economy vs. ecology, direct your favorite search engine to come up with links to the tragedy of the commons. That scenario describes the human eco{nomical,logical} predicament to a T.
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Re:can someone explain point of cuecat hacks (Score:1)
If you want to use your cuecat under BeOS, you can use CueBe [bebits.com].
\end{plug}Guys, can we *stop* bashing DC and the CueCat? (Score:2)
First of all, let me say that I am not trying to defend Digital Convergence. I wholeheartedly agree that on the legal front, they have done some really boneheaded things as of late with regards to their "intellectual property" claims. Their legal department is not exactly composed of the sharpest tools in the shed. I agree that they were extremely short-sighted if they thought that nobody would manage to figure out their "sophisticated" encryption scheme. Yes, they need to figure out that reverse engineering is legal.
But haven't we beaten this horse to death, and then some?
Let me tell you why this bothers me. I work for a large industrial defense contractor, and for four years, I have been working my ass off trying to get my supervisors to let us install Linux on our workstations. From a technical standpoint, it's a no-brainer. We do UNIX development, and Linux on the desktop would be a boon to productivity. But there have been hurdles to overcome. Do you guys know what the biggest hurdle has been? It hasn't been the FUD about open source being "insecure" or "unstable." It hasn't been any Redmond-babble about "total cost of ownership." It hasn't been any of the traditional scaremongering that opponents of open source software use.
The biggest blockade in the road has been this perception that Linux (and similar projects) is associated with this elusive "hacker" community, that it is an operating system used exclusively by rebellious teenagers with black leather jackets and nose rings. My supervisors have viewed Linux as something that could "contaminate" our "pristine development environment." Sure, my case has been helped every time an industry giant like IBM has jumped on the Linux bandwagon.
But when we see news of Linux enthusiasts doing things like cracking DC's web site, or setting up parody sites attacking DC, or repeatedly belittling them ad nauseum on sites such as Slashdot, it's easy to see why people have this misconception that Linux users are immature. I'll say it again: I'm not defending DC, but guys
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. By the way, I've got a Linux pilot project getting started next week
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Re:can someone explain point of cuecat hacks (Score:2)
If anyone wants to send a bunch of CueCats to Australia, I'll swap you some Sydney 2000 Olympic pins for them - mail me.
Re:oh sure. 5.2 gigs is nothing. (Score:1)
Some of us rip because, perhaps, we don't like every song on a CD and it would prefer to create our own "greatest hits" CD.
Re:Off topic, but some burning questions... (Score:1)
That's the whole irony of it all. the cost differences to manufacture a DVD versus a CD is insignificant, less than a buck difference from what I remember...
As far as the 'royalty' goes... kind of hard to fathom how much money the RIAA would actually get when buying a 50 pack spindle for $15 means each blank only costs $0.30 each. Then again, it probably adds up. Like someone else said, distribution/shipping probably makes up for more than the majority of the sale price of such blanks. I wonder if anyone has any information at all as to how much of each blank goes to where. From the looks of it, manufacturers are making very little profit nowadays if we're working it out to under a half a buck for each disc.
Consider how much pressed releases cost, it makes you wonder why they're so damn expensive. $15+ for a new release when a blank disc costs less than a buck. I've checked out manufacturing costs myself when I was considering having discs pressed up for a label release I was working on. For a small lot of 1000 copies, it was still less than a buck per disc, including jewel cases, 4 colour inserts, shrink wrapping, etc... Then again, we *ALL* know where all that extra money is going.
It was a long day at work for me... but AFAICR, only the "music only" blanks were supposenly subject to taxes/fees for royalty payments. The only difference between CDR's and Music Only CDR's is the digital copy protection bit. Personally, I see it more as a stupidity tax for buying a unit that requires proprietary discs over standard plain old blanks. There was also the infamous 'dat tax' that was passed a few years back... back when the music industry was really whining how cassette tape dubbing was killing sales and DAT is too good of quality to let just any ordinary home user get away with copying music. Now it's MP3's and Napster... but all along, record sales keep going up. Go figure. However, I know I'm just preaching to the congregation here.
Re the "burning" questions pun, purely unintentional, but amusing nonetheless.
Re:The Official Word on Climatic Change (Score:2)
Fnord.
slashback and karma (Score:1)
a) slashback -- it's a semi-regular deal where I ("or anyone else --""NOT anyone else!") gather things that are updates or reactions to previous stories, which might not get posted to the front page because of how similar they are to a recent story, say, or because no one wants to see 10 bazillion stories on the same topic
Also, sometimes the punning reference to "flashback" inspires me to include something in Slashback which may never have been in a slashdot story, but which deserves mention nonetheless
Since I am a humorless bastard, the quickies are funnier even when dealing with digital convergence
b) there is now a limit past which karma does not shift upwards. This shouldn't come as *too* great a shock -- the whole moderation point thing exists to make reading the site better, and it's constantly being tweaked, poked, prodded, thought about. It bothers some people more than others, but I don't see how it's a burden to folks who post postively.
I am not an expert on the moderation system, but my karma (once so high and happy) is now much much lower than it used to be
There are very few places, online or IRL, that aren't disorienting if you leave for a while, then return. New York City is one, I find, but only because the change is actually so constant.
timothy
Re: (Score:1)
Re:can someone explain point of cuecat hacks (Score:1)
Re:Off topic, but some burning questions... (Score:1)
I remember when CDs first came out, I thought they wouldn't last because people had too much money in vinyl. By the next year I was converted (philisophically) but I couldn't afford one. In 1989, I think, I finally bought a CD player by mail, waited anxiously for it to arrive
But as to your $59 claim, I think it's too conservative! I see players in WalMart and elsewhere for only $39 all the time! Granted, they look like they might last only through a single pack of AA batteries, but they're sure there.
timothy
re: Note to self... (Score:1)
Grow up (Score:1)
Re:Babelfish understands Timothy though (Score:1)
Actually, "kann" is the right verb, it's just not conjugated correctly. The correct form for use with "Sie"--the second person formal--is "koennen". The form he used is for "sie"--third person feminine.
To "kann" a language is a standard German idiom, and usually a sign that the speaker does, in fact, know a bit of German.
If he'd just gotten the verb form right, we could all be really impressed. Still though, a very worthy effort.
Re:Poor Digital:Convergence (Score:1)
On the other hand, a lot of the
Signal 11 (Score:2)
I did take the time to read Signal's farewell speech, and it showed me somethings that I never really knew before. I happen to be a moderator all the time, I'm apparently the perfect user. I never got moderated up for my posts (thanks a lot) but since the first time I became a moderator, I've gained about 20 karma through metamoderation. This took me about 2 months, at most.
If +50 is the cap, where is the challenge? In a few more months, I'll probably be there, even though my comments, though excellent, never get moderated up. But, I digress.
I love to see a person who actually has the time to post often (Signal 11, _xeno_, Wakko Warner, so many more...). Even if their opinions conflict with mine, I enjoy gettting to see the other side of a topic. It is deeply disheartening to see that a valued member (I'm user 200000+, yeah, don't I feel special) is leaving.
I guess I really didn't get to see the early days of
I'm probably a little incoherant by now, but if you've gotten this far, you might as well keep reading.
Moderation is supposed to be the solution to the problem. We are supposed to be the best and the brightest, I don't have a clue as to why so many people think it is funny to continually post goat sex links. I bear the title of Nerd because I am proud of it. I like that. Being so, shouldn't we be able to figure out a solution to the overpopulation? Well, I'll get to thinking about it, and you all should too.
One more thing, Signal 11 said that emptionally charged statements are moderated up, which isn't right, because they aren't filled with technical statements, but aren't impassioned speeches that way because they have strong fact to back them up? I know that the intellectually superior of
Well, thats about enough ranting for me today. I said I had no time, I now have negative time, which means skipping more homework for me, but at leats i got to voice myself, and though I can only hope for 4 people to read it, it still makes me feel good to know that someone might have.
Re:MEEPT!! (Score:1)
Re:oh sure. 5.2 gigs is nothing. (Score:1)
I have, and it will. See my .sig.
Re:oh sure. 5.2 gigs is nothing. (Score:1)
The mpeg of my Brothers wedding will go on one DVD*, the reception on another, and the hijinks before and after on a third. And then there are 20-30 copies of all three for everyone who wants one.
What am I up to now? 468 Gigabytes?
(*) - Yeah that's right, I need raw mpeg. If you've used it you know that DivX-; has an 'upper quality limit' that prevents it from using any more bandwidth to increase quality. Even though you're telling it to use more than 1500-2000 kbps, your filesize doesn't increase and quality doesn't go up. (It's just the way it's quality settings/algorithm are currently built, not that it couldn't be changed to just isn't good enough for something like this.) And even if I were to use DivX;) at 2000 kbps, the 6 hours would add up to around 5 Gig, a full DVD.
Re:Quake Bugs (Score:2)
Re:Off topic, but some burning questions... (Score:1)
As far as price fixing, I think you are underestimating how much harder it is to make recordable blanks. Commercial DVDs are stamped using the same process as commercial CDs...the tolerances are tighter, but the cost is close for single layer discs. Manufacturing a writable substrate is a lot more complex. As production scales and is streamlined, it will probably approach CDR manufacturing costs, but that takes time.
Re:oh sure. 5.2 gigs is nothing. (Score:1)
Holy shit. I can't believe I just talked casually and seriously about burning A HALF A TERRABYTE of data.
Is that cool or what :) :)
It was only 5+ or so years ago I saw a company demoing their big huge cabinet sized optical tape thingie, that held a terrabyte of data. It was two huge 1.5-2 foot diamager reels of shiny optical tape. One minute seek time to any point. At the time I just boggled at the idea of a terrabyte of data. And now my home computer has 0.06 terrabytes of disk space, and if I spent another $1200-$1500 CDN and filled up the other ide channels with modern drives and replaced one of the older drives, I'd have 0.30 terrabytes.
I could do that right now.
This instant.
Walk down to the local shop and say 'gimme 4 65 gig disks please' and walk out.
- - boggle - -
Re:slashback and karma (Score:1)
Re:Grow up (Score:2)
If you would stick to the facts, that would help.
You're absolutely right, and I've tried to stick to the facts. If I made any errors, please point them out specifically, and I really will follow up with corrections. I definitely don't want to spread false information. Aside the matter of getting sued, I believe DC sinks on its own demerits. As for being inflamatory-- well, I really believe this is one of those bogus .coms out to make a quick buck from an ill-conceived busines model, and I don't think it's right to let them get away with that. People are going to sink their money into this company-- $100 million if all goes as planned-- and the prevailing opinion around here is that they're going to lose it all. What can I say?
(And rest assured that I used the term "spamming" jokingly above. I've posted at most one comment per IPO discussion forum.)
Re:Slasher (Score:1)
No. (Score:2)
Second, companies as clueless as DC deserve to be embarassed, in public and in the courtroom. It's a pity the RIAA and MPAA aren't such easy targets.
Third, if Linux has to depend for its "image" on the behavior of every one of its users, it's in trouble. Luckily, it doesn't.
Fourth, self-censorship is still censorship. You should re-examine your own position before you turn into a PHB.
Re:The Official Word on Climatic Change (Score:1)
Great hardware hack, now let's use it (Score:1)
Now, where's the application? I don't really care about scanning my canned peas and having a database show me that they're canned peas made by Green Giant. I don't keep a large collection of books.
How about a Winamp plugin so I can print a list, scan the songs I want and they'll be enqueued?This would be great for a party, for example, because you could let the people pick the music but they wouldn't be less able to screw with the system.
About the lifespan of the earth... (Score:1)
Besides, space is just damn cool...
Re::Spay the :C:u:e::::C:a:t:::: (Score:1)
Re:oh sure. 5.2 gigs is nothing. (Score:1)
RAM is good. I want a terrabyte of RAM for my hard drive.
Re:Grow up (Score:2)
Also, the overenthusiastic, juvenile tone of "Nuke the Digital Convergence IPO!" and "I've been doing my part all evening to spam investment boards" colored my impression of your letter. "Nuking" D:C's IPO sounds "trollish" and malevolent, at least compared to "warning potential investors."
Finally, "These threatening letters have incensed the open source community-- a group well-qualified to undermine DC's business model by providing alternate software to drive the CueCat, shutting of DC's revenue" would appear to pit the open source community against D:C in a struggle to drive D:C out of business. This sounds a little bit like a threat itself.
Re:About the lifespan of the earth... (Score:1)
ruining the atmosphere is a piece of cake. of course technoly may fix it. all we have to do is bio-enineer new skin and food to eat so we can live in the new and improved world.
oh, and just becuase cows and volcanos fart doesn't mean that we farting too isn't a bad thing.
Re:100-500 years (Score:3)
For the magnetic version the holding of really hot plasmas (a fusion engines main claim to fame) in magnetic bottles has been attempted for oh - about forty or so years..... It has even had some brief (milliseconds) successes too. However, the bottles are terrifically difficult to make and the damn plasmas don't seem to last long. Seems like these doughnut shaped magnetic bottles have some very complex instabilities...(insert really cool mathematical models)
If you go with the inertial confined plasmas as a solution to fusions then you get another whole complex batch on issues regarding getting any appreciable energy out compared to the really huge lasers that put the energy there to start with. And - oh - yeah - some folks say the whole purpose for the inertial confinement program is just to tweak bomb codes any ways...
As for Breeder technology - well you probably won't need them for a while since there is a pant load of Uranium fuel available all over the place. Course we could always blend down those pesky nuclear weapons and mix that very highly enriched stuff (called bomb grade enriched Uranium) with some of the old cheap stuff (not bomb grade stuff). - The pricey stuff is made by liberally adding huge amounts of energy (really really huge) in order to separate U235 from the rest of the old U stuff found in naturally occurring Uranium...)
This would let us literally burn our "swords" into "plowshares" - to really mix a metaphor or two. For more info - please see the Uranium institute at
http://www.uilondon.org/index.htm
Personally I would love to know we are burning up weapons to produce electricity,,,
Oh yeah - and virtually no greenhouse gasses. (no no - really) (well not counting the discharge from employees cars as the drive to work...)
However, Nuclear Power requires political will, a deep sense of environmentalism, and an understanding of the basics of the scientific method that real Science is based on - not junk science -
Political will (or won't) is a precious commodity.. Tons of folks have a deep sense of environmentalism (kids are practically born knowing how to recycle) and there are even a bunch of folks who kind of get the drift of the philosophy of the scientific method (it really is simply a clear way of thinking - similar to good programming)
Solar is nice but imagine what it would take to keep just one Vally - possibly a Silicone one- humming with just sunlight.
Course the solution is a combination of things - ain't it just like life to be a bit complex... Lots of base load nuclear, some clean oil, some cleaner Natural gas, considered use of Solar and Wind (Tidal too like the Bay of Fundy) and a bunch of improved conservation end (demand side) concepts..
Just my thoughts for what its worth.. I could be wrong..
oh the irony (Score:2)
And a "free"
Bwa ha ha ha
*pat* *pat* (Score:2)
Re:oh sure. 5.2 gigs is nothing. (Score:2)
Family videos?
Recordings of local garage bands?
Recordings at sporting events from the helmetcams?
Video of the party this weekend?
I can think of many ways to fill up a DVDR. Bring them on! Just because the music industry claims I can't make a legitimate use of mass storage technology doesn't mean I can't.
Re:Off topic, but some burning questions... (Score:2)
I think the RIAA and MPAA are the pirates. Some people want to use mass storage to record personal events, not some crappy commercial canned entertainment. They pillage our technologies and abilities to record our own performances just so they can stuff thier coffers.
Re:oh sure. 5.2 gigs is nothing. (Score:2)
Then I had to revise my criteria. It became "10 cents per megabyte"
Then "a penny per megabyte"
Now I'm going to wait until disk space hits a dollar per gigabyte before I buy a big hard drive. Right now it's running about $3.50 per gigabyte. How long will I have to wait before I revise my criteria, do you think?
- John
Avoid Global Warming by changing CO/CO2 to Diamond (Score:2)
Here's a summary of the article [yahoo.com]
Re:Poor Digital:Convergence (Score:2)
By the looks of things a lot more than two ways, once it gets into the hands of real engineers and this happens in days.
DC is effectivly saying "we spent so long on it, that it must be good", maybe someone should send them a complimentry copy of "The mythical man month".