PolarBear3 - Slashdot User

Comment Music Industry parallels (Score 1) 1162

by PolarBear3 on Tuesday April 19, 2011 @01:43PM (#35870890) Attached to: Why Has Blu-ray Failed To Catch Hold?

I remember ripping my CDs to mp3 when it took 12 hours to rip and encode. Just about the time it was getting down to an hour per disc I could purchase mp3/aac online. I've purchased maybe 3 CDs since that time. My 80 GB song library is now about half/half CD rips and online purchase. The CD format is what, 30 years old now? And is the last physical medium for audio. When CD came out it was 10 years before cassette tapes weren't sold alongside them.

Now I rip my DVDs and BluRays to mkv/m2ts. A couple years ago it took 8 hours to rip and encode a bluray. Now I can rip/encode in 1 hour. I can also purchase digital copies of movies and tv shows online. I think the pricing model is still too high for now, and I hate streaming options - I want all my library available without having to pay again. (Amazon mp3 in the cloud sounds better - give me video on there with no storage limit for stuff I purchase from Amazon and we are there!)

Soon, however, we will be thinking back on when BluRay was released as the last physical medium for video.

Antec Releases "Skeleton" PC Case 124

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday October 13, 2008 @05:22PM from the case-but-not-a-case dept.

ThinSkin writes "It is appropriate to say that Antec was 'thinking outside the box' when the idea of the 'Skeleton' PC Case sprung to mind. The Antec Skeleton is an open-air PC case with a pair of shelves for the motherboard and other components — held up by arching arms. There are no side panels. This is ideal for the computer user who is constantly fidgeting with his PC parts, or someone who wants to show off his fancy components. Just have a compressed air can nearby. There is also a slideshow of Antec Skeleton images available."

Fallout 3 Gets Leaked, Goes Gold 249

Posted by Soulskill on Monday October 13, 2008 @02:42PM from the sorry-about-your-luck dept.

Fallout 3 is due to be released in a few weeks, and Bethesda recently announced that all versions of the game have gone gold. They provided the systems specs for the PC release as well. Unfortunately for them, the Xbox 360 version was leaked onto torrent sites almost three weeks early. Bethesda is "looking into" how the game was distributed. In preparation for the launch, game director Todd Howard spoke at length with Gamasutra about the scope of the project, and the differences from their previous games, such as Oblivion. CrispyGamer recently ran a three-part series detailing their four hours of hands-on time with the game. We've previously looked at some gameplay videos for Fallout 3, and discussed the fact that no mod tools will ship with the game.

Bugs Delay Release of Debian Lenny 227

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday October 13, 2008 @01:57PM from the better-late-than-buggy dept.

A. B. VerHausen writes to tell us that over 200 release-critical bugs continue to push back Debian Lenny's release date. Originally slated for a September release, there is still a long road to be traveled before Lenny sees the light of day. Project leader Steve McIntyre says they may consider dropping some packages for the release if they continue to cause problems, and while an end of October release is the goal, only time will tell.

Current Scientific Publishing Methods Problematic 154

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday October 13, 2008 @01:12PM from the accurate-problem-bad-analysis dept.

A recent examination of current scientific publishing methods shows that they are problematic at best, treating the entire process like an economic system, with publishers as bidders at an auction, authors as sellers, and the community at large as consumers. "The authors then go on to discuss a variety of economic terms that they think apply to publishing, but the quality of the analogies varies quite a bit. It's easy to accept that the limited number of high-profile publishers act as an oligarchy and that they add value through branding. Some of the other links are significantly more tenuous. The authors argue that scientific research suffers from an uncertain valuation, but this would require that the consumers — the scientists — can't accurately judge what's significant. "

Google's Chrome Declining In Popularity 489

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 13, 2008 @12:20PM from the still-no-mac-version dept.

holy_calamity writes "After launching in a blaze of publicity that even warmed Slashdot, Google's browser grabbed a 3% share of the market, but has been slipping ever since, and now accounts for 1.5%. Google has also stopped promoting the browser on its search page. Assuming they wanted it to grab a significant share of the browser market, have they dropped the ball, or is this part of the plan?" On Slashdot, Chrome is still the #4 browser (after FF, IE, and Safari) but it was ahead of Safari for a few days, hitting almost 10% of our traffic.

Study Links Personal Music Players To Hearing Loss 405

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 13, 2008 @10:45AM from the time-for-this-again dept.

fprintf writes "A recent NY Times article discusses links between personal music players and hearing loss. This is not anything new; personally, I have hearing loss from listening to my Sony Walkman cassette player many years ago. However, given the widespread use of the personal music players, I see people using earbuds everywhere; is there a technical solution to the potential danger?"

New MacBook Case Leak Rumors 243

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 13, 2008 @10:01AM from the dear-god-i-need-a-new-machine dept.

Someone noted that there are more macbook case leaks which look to all but confirm a new MacBook and possibly a MacBook Pro expected to be announced for later this week. There seem to be fewer ports, and no leaks of a 17" aircraft carrier laptop.

OpenOffice.org 3.0 Is Officially Here 284

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday October 13, 2008 @08:30AM from the who-needs-office-anyway dept.

SNate writes "After a grinding three-year development cycle, the OpenOffice.org team has finally squeezed out a new release. New features include support for the controversial Microsoft OOXML file format, multi-page views in Writer, and PDF import via an extension. Linux Format has an overview of the new release, asking the question: is it really worth the 3.0 label?"

YouTube Adds Full-Length Television Shows 197

Posted by timothy on Monday October 13, 2008 @07:26AM from the what-about-magnum-pi-and-square-pegs? dept.

thefickler writes "YouTube has moved to put full-length television shows on its site for the first time. Historically, YouTube has hosted a bewildering and attractive variety of video clips, the vast majority of which have been under ten minutes in length. YouTube has announced that it had finalized a deal with CBS to offer shows such as Star Trek, MacGyver, Beverly Hills 90210, and The Young and the Restless. I can't wait to watch The Young and the Restless!"

New York Times Says Thin Clients Are Making a Comeback 206

Posted by timothy on Monday October 13, 2008 @02:01AM from the dialectic-materialism dept.

One of the seemingly eternal questions in managing personal computers within organizations is whether to centralize computing power (making it easy to upgrade or secure The One True Computer, and its data), or push the power out toward the edges, where an individual user isn't crippled because a server at the other side of the network is down, or if the network itself is unreliable. Despite the ever-increasing power of personal computers, the New York Times reports that the concept of making individual users' screens portals (smart ones) to bigger iron elsewhere on the network is making a comeback.

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