In all fairness, their new Blu Ray releases include the DVD disc also. And some "digital copy" (whatever that is, Ipod format maybe?). I guess the goal is to allow a 5-year-old to open the package and play the movie no matter what digital player they own/choose.

Want Blu Ray & amazing 1080p clarity? Check.

Only have a DVD player? You're covered.

Want to see a low-res version on your Ipod? No problem, here's the best encode we've made for it.

Ideally, it would simplify things for kids and grandparents. Not everyone understands the differences or how to convert digital formats.

But I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here. The new blu ray+dvd combo packs are around $20-$25 and is cheaper than the original $40 dvd releases they had 10 years ago. Not to mention early dvds (not just Disney) sometimes had poor transfers, compression artifacts, rainbows/hue problems/shimmers, etc.

We live in an interesting time where having a VHS player, a DVD player, & a Blu Ray player isn't too far-fetched.
Anime/rare movie fans might own laser disc players also. >_>

They're pretty similar in terms of difficulty, though a Venus mission I believe has less transit time. Venus does have the advantage of having a much thicker atmosphere, making it easier to aerobrake and (in some respects) to build landers and similar probes. However, Mars has the advantage that it is not a 900 Kelvin hellhole and has nice-looking surface formations.

As far as specific missions, Manned Venus Flyby would have been a good way to barbeque some astronauts, no benefit there. The US actually had some nice Venus missions which achieved a great deal scientifically--aside from Mariner II, there were Pioneer-Venus and Magellan. The latter produced the first detailed map of Venus (fun fact: Venus is actually better mapped than the Earth since there's no ocean getting in the way), while the former produced a partial map, landed some atmospheric probes (similar in concept to the Galileo atmospheric probes), and generally hung out and did some good science. You're right that we've worked with Mars a lot more, though even that's more of a recent thing than a space race thing.

So don't buy an iPod.

There are plenty of other music players out there.

Actually, the main problem I have with bonuses in the financial industries is not that much about "they're already making so much money", but the fact that they are an incentive to do the "wrong" thing. If you give the reward based on how much money the investments returned, then you are simply rewarding risk-taking. Not only because risky investments pay more, but because bonuses cannot be negative. Hence if you were to "bet" one billion with 50% odds, it would be profitable in terms of bonus. If you win, you make a huge bonus (and you're a hero). If you lose, you get fired and you get to bet again in your next job. I'm of course simplifying a bit, but that still describes the fundamental problem IMO.

Education does frequently pay off, but it doesn't always pay off. Sending anyone who's interested to a college and then having half of them drop out isn't exactly a financial gold mine. Currently if a student does that, they tend to absorb at least part of the cost, and we have a large number of scholarships.

The US is ever increasingly losing manufacturing and gaining service industry jobs. Healthcare, investment, and IT jobs will likely keep growing (well after the recession ends anyways), manufacturing, textiles (what is left of it), steel, etc. will keep shrinking. This is the natural order of economic development. This is obviously going to speed up along with globalization, thanks to comparative advantage. We will probably increasingly design, develop, and support products but produce them overseas and buy them from overseas.

Before some twit brings it up, no the infamous trade deficit will not kill us. If I buy a $30 table from a company China it doesn't mean the Chinese economy just gains $30 and the US economy loses $30. Trade isn't a zero-sum game. What it actually means is that the Chinese company has gained $30 which they value more than their table, while I gain a table I value at more than $30. We both gain something of more value to us that what we had, otherwise one of us would refuse the offer.

I think that you're overstating the issue a little here. Listening in on a cell phone conversation generally requires intent and effort. If I have a conversation in a room, the fact that you can overhear me by standing outside with your ear to the door doesn't mean I can't have a reasonable expectation of privacy. It is neither unreasonable nor ignorant to assume that your conversation is only heard by yourself, the other party, and the cell phone carrier.

It is also reasonable to assume that as far as your cell phone carrier is concerned you have whatever privacy is guaranteed you by your contract and any applicable statutes. I don't know the details on this front, but I'm willing to bet that your cell phone carrier isn't allowed to listen in on your conversations or share them with 3rd parties except in very unusual circumstances.

They don't need to do that. Each MS drive is "programmed" at the factory, and as long as the signature on that sector is valid it's all good to go. The drive contains the serial number *and* the signature (in a sector), this way the MS drive is a self-contained unit that will work in any XBox.

Oh, duh. I knew I should have read your post a 4th time. You already said it might be on the MBR (or another HD lcoation) which of course, is on the hard drive which I still have in my hand when I get my "new" XBox back. My brain is obviously not functioning very well now. I had this idea in my head that you were saying that the HD Serial # and the XBox were somehow "paired", but that's not what you said at all.

I'll just be moving along now...

Sadly, most slashdotters won't be impressed until it can detect the jiggle of the breast of an Orion slave girl.

You mean until we verify the jiggle first-hand (pun intended).
   

These "quit the government" types often define government as that which has a monopoly on force.

I've never met a "quit the government type" who thought the only people who have guns are the ones working for the government.

Not to mention evidence. It's more difficult to conduct a reign of terror if you actually have to start proving things.

A friend of mine that's way more into Star Wars than myself actually told me that somewhere in the expanded universe or something they do offer up this explanation. That apparently when your radar picks up a tiefighter to your right the cockpit plays the sound that would make to provide the pilot with additional environmental information.

Unless your life in unimaginably suckish or you have severe OCD, I have a hard time believing that's the easiest thing you've ever done.

guess what happens when you detonate a small artificial moon near a planetary atmosphere

You get rings of debris like Saturn?