We all get hung up on nostalgia, but lots of good cartoons are perfectly accessible via Netflix, Amazon on Demand, and PBS on Demand. I think that's the problem. It's just a sign of people moving away from network TV and soon cable as well. The Saturday morning cartoon is gone because all of the content has moved away from network TV to on-demand services.
We dumped our DirecTV after a 2 year contract last year. We use a Roku and have a Netflix and Hulu Plus account. I also had an Amazon Prime account so that automatically gives us the free streaming that was added last year. But the content is largely the same as Netflix so we only really use Amazon when we actually want to buy something. We also subscribe to Mog for music.
That's about $22 per month and we can watch or listen to as much as we like. That's about $100 less than I used to pay for a premium satellite package. When we want something random, I play music with the Pandora / Slacker / or Shoutcast channels. When I want news, I just put on Democracy Now.
But it isn't all perfect. You need to be willing to give up some of the benefits of cable / satellite and really learn how to make the most of the Roku. There will be shows that you might want to watch that (legally) will not be available for another year or so. There are a lot of streaming channels that you can't even use yet without a cable subscription (like HBO Go). Amid the myriad of crap that is on TV, there are a handful of shows that you might miss. Ultimately, they make it to Netflix or Hulu but you just have to wait it out.
That said, if you can dig through these streaming services, you will find things that you like. Many things that you might wonder why you hadn't seen them when they'd aired on TV. There is a lot of value in the current streaming offerings but there are still a lot of things that are missing. It will be a few years before streaming TV becomes the norm and people forget about cable completely.
If you can learn to live and watch TV in a different way that you have, then Roku (or similar) can be a great alternative to traditional cable or satellite. If you rely heavily on TV then you may be really disappointed. I've considered the cord-cutting experience to be somewhat life changing. We don't spend much time in front of the TV anymore. But we still generally find quality material to whatch when we do. It can take some adjustment and experiementation, but can be worthwhile and a substantial money-saver.
Beginning Aug. 28, the price of an Xbox 360 Elite console will drop by $100, now priced at just $299.99 estimated retail price (ERP) in the United States. On top of that, the Xbox 360 Pro console will now be priced at $249.99 (ERP), reflecting a price reduction of $50
The arcade version has also had a reduction, down to $199.99. It appears Microsoft has answered Sony's move to offer the PS3 Slim."
I guess that means they beat us to Super Tensile Solids, and will now be able to do orbital insertions as needed...
"In one moment, Earth; in the next, heaven." -- Academecian Prokhor Zakharov, For I Have Tasted The Fruit
The uncanny valley is most certainly is involved. It is caused by a great multitude of factors, and a very important single factor that I can point you to is subsurface scattering, which is performed on the mesh. Without this, you have no hope of breaking out of the uncanny valley. Humans simply cannot be fooled when it comes to such detail, unless they have bad vision.
CGI Emily doing something the real Emily did not do is not the point here. Motion capture is about getting past the barrier of having to model a fully realistic muscular and skeletal system, so in that particular area the uncanny valley in the sense of movement and articulation is solved. The kind of advancement that you are referring to accomplish this will not come until a muscular system and skeletal structure are fully modeled. Oh, and you can't forget about skin either.. quite complex.
Know Thy User.
