zroger73

fastasleep said:

zroger73 said:

StrangeDays said:

blastdoor said:

pjohnt said:

It's ironic.  Everyone cried when the FCC smartly rescinded the "net neutrality" rules imposed by a former administration.  Now we see the government wanting to do exactly what people feared would happen in the free market but never did."

No, it is not “exactly what people feared would happen.” 

The concern was, and continues to be, that ISPs would favor their own content over content provided by other providers. 

The “free market” (or perhaps “free and fair market) solution to Internet congestion is to adjust the price of every byte sent in order to equalize demand and supply, not to favor one byte over another because of where it originated (a kind of “neutrality”, if you will). Then people could decide whether they really value the difference between 4K and 1080p. My guess is that most people would decide that 1080p is just fine (or even 720p, or even 480p) if they actually had to pay attention to the difference in cost. 

The European solution isn’t a free market solution but it’s also not an “ISP gets to screw everyone else and make a ton of money” solution, either. 

Funnily enough, on the popular bittorrent sites for TV shows, 720p offerings are the most popular, I’m guessing due to a very reasonable file size compared to the 1080p and greater. 

Perhaps that's because most of those TV shows are ripped from OTA/cable/satellite transmissions which are distributed in a maximum of 720p or 1080i and not 1080p? I think you'd have to rip from a Blu-Ray to get 1080p or 4K and that's assuming the show was originally recorded in that high of a resolution, right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television_in_the_United_States

And, since 720p in progressive, there are instances where it can actually look better then 1080i such as during fast motion, no?

https://lifehacker.com/why-you-should-watch-and-record-video-in-720p-instead-o-5908969

Stuff on BitTorrent gets released in SD, 720p, and 1080p all at the same time. Some shows even 2K or 4K depending on the source. Not sure where you got the idea you have to rip a Blu-Ray to get 1080p. The point being made is most people download 720p, probably because it’s more than “good enough” and the file sizes are significantly smaller. (Not advocating any of this for the record, just stating facts).

lam92103 said:

Wow! That is honestly not acceptable. Not when you have corporate clients who rely on employees having access to their machines

GeorgeBMac said:

zroger73 said:

"Vocolinc suggests that the bulb should only cost you $6.30 per year to operate, assuming that you're running it for an average of three hours a day."

9.5 watts (at full brightness) x 3 hours/day x 365 days/year = 10.4025 kWh/year

At a national average of 10.53 cents/kWh, that's $1.10 per year.

In order for this bulb to cost $6.30 per year to operate, it must consuming 5.6 watts even when it's "off". It looks like most of the cost is to keep the bulb connected rather than produce light. A traditional, 60-watt incandescent light bulb that costs less than a dollar will cost $6.91 per year to operate 3 hours per day, but it only produces one color and isn't HomeKit compatible.

Taking your word for the calculations of the cost of keeping the bulb in standby mode (no reason not to!) -- all of that cost could be eliminated simply by turning the bulb off at the light switch when you leave the room.

In practice, it's a lot easier than pulling out an iPhone or selecting HomeKit on the Apple Watch -- which is not to disparage either of those because add to functionality of the bulb.   But it's still easier to hit the light switch to start & stop the bulb.  And isn't that what home automation is at least partly about:   Ease and simplicity of use?