Microsoft exec admits new reality: Market share no longer 90%, it's 14

King Arthur said:

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
Not sure about that --have you seen test transmissions of UHD -- this is 4K but at enhanced frame rates of 100 fps -- it BLOWS you away. BBC are testing this with the Commonwealth Games now on in Glasgow (Scotland).

If you've ever seen a 4K video shot at 100 fps - you will regret at your previous post. !!!

I actually don't mind 60fps films unlike most movie fans. I can only imagine what 2160p@100fps is like on a proper display, though at some point we're no doubt going to achieve a level of video technology that our eyes can't keep up.

jimbo45 said:

My problem with modern movies is usually the AUDIO mixing -- the effects are deafingly loud - and if you lower the volume to make these bearable (and not get "Neighbourly Complaints") then the spoken dialog can't be heard --seems today's Audio mixers (The Humans in the studio - not the hardware versions !!) aren't as good as in the days of the old Hollywood black and white classics -- the dialog was always easy to hear.

This might actually be a side-effect of downmixing 5.1 audio down to stereo, which I found to be the case in most cases. One workaround I've found to address this is DRC, aka Dynamic Range Compression, which can "equalize" some of the audio volume though the process is lossy and does result in some noticable bits of quality loss in some cases.

Hi there

Then great thing about 100 fps is that now the human eye can't perceive any flicker or video "lagging" at all -- it's surprisingly easy to watch and enjoy. No problems at all -- Give me this over 3-D ANY DAY !!.

@any women - the real problem with this super UHD display is that ANY blemishes on one's face will be magnified / exaggerated on the screen in stunning detail -- The Wardrobe / dressing room assistants really will have their work cut out for them -- note not intended to be sexist - just that with Men people don't notice blemishes so much -- or if they do it often adds to the character !!!.

As far as AUDIO is concerned - there's not a lot of adjustment you can do when watching modern movies via satellite or cable. The optical audio output doesn't have (usually) a "Dialog enhancement mode" that can emphasize the speech while supressing a bit of the effects that are geared to a large cinema rather than a person's home.

Cheers
jimbo

hirobo2 said:

King Arthur said:

Ranger4 said:

Windows 3.1 was on 3.5 floppy discs & Windows 95 was on a CD, which I think was the first Windows to be on a CD.

My dad still has a boxed Japanese retail copy of Windows 95 from way back when it first debuted that came as a set of floppies, no CD to be found. I don't remember the exact count, but I think the number of floppies for that boxed copy of Windows 95 came to around 20~30+ floppies total.

Some one gave me a "pirated" version of EN W95 on floppies. I think you were not able to copy the floppies as is and make the OS work. The "pirated" version was just a copy with the copy protection mechanism defeated... Anyways, if memory serves me right, it was about 4-5 floppies total, not the 20-30 floppies in the Japanese version! (Too bad the copier didn't bother to verify the copies he gave me --- one of the floppies was corrupted so I couldn't really install it nor use it!)

Fun fact, if you can use the Linux console it's literally only one line of command to have the computer take a 1-for-1 exact copy of a floppy (or any piece of data really) and dump that into a file or another floppy.

No comment on the Jolly Roger though, I love my rum but this is neither the time nor the place for it.

Sidebar: Piracy is bad. Besides, it just makes our lives harder with crappy safeguards.

This has been a fun read. No worries, as it will probably take another 10 years for the CIOs of bigger companies to care about this.

My take away is that I miss the multi-tasking version of RT-11. Now THAT could have been a fun direction for the industry with a GUI add-on. Anyone got a teen with a few weeks left in summer to re-invent it?