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Domain: concentric.net

Stories and comments across the archive that link to concentric.net.

Stories · 10

  1. Hauppage PVR - A Reasonable Alternative?

    Ask · Tv · · posted by Cliff · from the better-than-TiVo-and-Replay? dept. · 62 comments
    mkrosky asks: "I purchased a new PC recently, and also got a Hauppage PVR USB (http://www.hauppage.com/). This seems much more desirable than Tivo or Replay TV, because I control the hardware (no subscription fees). If Hauppage went broke or chose to stop supporting it, I can still use it in its present form (not true with Tivo). However, the software and drivers that ship with the hardware are beta-quality. I was wondering if anyone reading this owns the hardware. Are there any alternative drivers?"

    "I have the following problems with Hauppage's software:

    - When I set the "pause buffer" to 5GB, it doesn't work properly after 1 hour (1GB per hour, set at coarsest resolution). It works fine at 1GB, the default setting.

    - There is a +10 second button, but it is not configurable. I would also like a +30 second button and +2 minute button.

    - Sometimes, when using the +10 second button, it freezes for awhile.

    Does anyone else out there have this hardware, and have reproduced these problems? I'm using Windows XP and have the PVR USB version of the hardware. I tried contacting Hauppage technical support, and they said that they may someday attempt to reproduce and fix the bug, if they feel like it. Yes, I downloaded the latest driver and software from their website.

    Except for those problems, I'm really satisfied with the hardware. I recommend it to anyone considering a Tivo. I just wish Hauppage tech support would fix the obvious reproducible bugs. They are obviously software flaws, and not hardware flaws, so I'm looking for alternate drivers."

  2. Fault Tolerant Archive Solutions?

    Ask · Technology · · posted by Cliff · from the RAID-is-for-tapes-not-roaches dept. · 18 comments
    Bob Washburne asks: "Does anyone know of a file system or storage protocol which allows you to recover a file even when sections of the media have become corrupt? This would be for archival storage - tapes, CR-R's, etc. - rather than on-line. I have been doing a lot of digital retoration/preservation work. Digitising home recordings from the 50's, photos from the 1890's, etc. and cleaning them up. I now have several gig of files - and it will continue to grow - representing hundreds of hours of work and I'm starting to get nervous about losing it to wear or bad media."

    "There are several solutions for on-line storage; RAID, UPS, and frequent backups. As I fill a CD-R I make several copies of it and send them to reletives who live out of state. So I am fairly well protected against local disaster.

    But what happens when the CD-R itself becomes degraded - possibly from scratches or bad lamination - and cannot be read by the normal file system? Murphy's Law would guarentee that all the backup CD-s were from the same bad batch or were lost, etc. So I am left with a CD that is 90% good, but that ugly 10% prevents me from getting my file.

    I remember studying about N-dimentional parity and Hamming codes in Comp Sci class, so I know that it is possible to store a file with signifficant error correction capabilities. But has any such scheme been actually implemented?

    I would expect any such scheme to include the ability to adjust the degree of recoverability (size vs. robustness) and to be able to span volumes. Since most physical damage is contiguous, you would hope that the storage would be non-contiguous. And you would think that this would either represent a unique file system or a custom raw storage methodology useable only by the storage aplication.

    Thanks for your insights."

  3. Visibility Of The ISS Grows

    Science · Space · · posted by Hemos · from the ground-control-to-major-tom dept. · 124 comments
    ackthpt writes: "NASA has a feature on the growing visibility of the International Space Station, along with naked-eye Visibility Data when and where to look to see it streaking throught the night sky for US and Non-US cities. Will there be a point where corporate sponsorship hangs an ad in space? Already appearing "as the third brightest star in the nighttime sky", it will eventually be second only to Venus. Will we look up and see a Nike swoosh some day?"

  4. Large Open-Source Based Web Sites?

    Ask · Money · · posted by Cliff · from the for-your-information dept. · 5 comments
    nellardo asks: "I know that, these days, most web sites are running on Apache and many are running on Linux or some flavor of BSD as well. But what are the biggest sites that go beyond that? We've talked about open-source application servers and the like here before, but where are these being used? Why do I ask? Well, duh, I'm trying to convince management :-) Seriously, CMP uses Mason and Slashdot uses Slashcode, but what are some of the other large ones?"

  5. Tesla: Erased at the Smithsonian

    Science · Science · · posted by Roblimo · from the more-important-than-Edison-any-day dept. · 358 comments
    Jenny Stevens writes "A group of courageous third graders and their science teacher have decided to try to correct "errors" by the mighty Smithsonian Institution. They are trying to give proper credit to Nikola Tesla (he is my favorite scientist of all time) and his inventions. They have started a campaign and have mailed hundreds of executives of major American corporations asking for donations to their campaign. They have even received a donation from the CEO of Sony Corp. in Japan. To read more, check their Web page. For an intro to Tesla and his contributions check this page."

  6. SQL Book Recommendations?

    Ask · News · · posted by Cliff · from the finding-the-good-reference dept. · 34 comments
    Daniel Myers asks: "I'm designing a MySQL database as a senior project, and I need a decent book on SQL. I've looked at the ORA Msql/MySQL book, but it's not going to be published soon enough for me to use, so does anyone have a decent recommendation? I have some SQL knowledge, but not much (I can write basic SELECT/INSERT/UPDATE statements, but that's about it)."

  7. PCWeek Article on Linux's Enterprise Evolution

    Linux · Linux · · posted by CmdrTaco · from the stuff-to-read dept. · 0 comments
    Prospero writes "PC Week just published an article on "Linux's Enterprise Evolution." The article can be found It discusses the potential for Linux as a standard enterprise operating system. It speaks specifically about a new filesystem, Coda, and the stability of Linux. Makes nice, though subtle, comparisons to NT. Very informed article. "

  8. Ask Slashdot: Serious Sony Serial Situation!

    Linux · Linux · · posted by Cliff · from the save-our-serial-connections dept. · 0 comments
    Sean Kelly sent me this distress call: "I've recently traded an older computer in for a Sony VAIO MicroTower PCV-E204. I took the old hard disk and did a 'cp -a /' to transfer the filesystem to the new Sony box. The Sony also comes with a crappy LT WinModem so I put my ZOOM FAX/Modem V.34 PLUS (model 2836A) on the serial port. On the new Sony box, I am having serious problems with deadlocking sockets. Transfers start out at a normal speed but quickly decrease speeds down to as low as 60-70bytes/second. It seems to be more of a problem on incoming data, and it seems to be on a per-socket basis which leads me to believe that there is something software related going on." Click below for more... Sean continues: "I am not completely sure that it is software related though. I've tried Linux Kernel versions 2.0.34, 2.0.35, 2.1.101, 2.1.125, and 2.1.126pre2ac1. I have had the same problems with transfers on all of these. I sometimes get bursts of fast data, but usually it goes quite slow.

    I have tried connecting to my ISP from within Windows98 (help me... I had to reinstall it) on both the WinModem and the external Zoom. They both seemed to operate at normal speeds. I've also tried calling other ISPs under Linux, and had the same slow results. I've tried older versions of pppd, but they disconnect immediately when the PPP connection is established. I should put more effort into making that work.

    I am using the following software now:
    Linux kernel 2.1.125
    pppd version 2.3 patch level 5 (debian packaged version)

    I've also tried doing what my stupid ISP, Concentric (hello, do you idiots read this? Get new tech support), and tried different modem init strings and baudrates. I've also asked them about POP problems since the same configuration with the same filesystem worked on my old computer the day before I got this Sony. They were unable to give me any information about any POP upgrades or anything, except one guy said "We might have upgraded to be V.90 compliant, but I don't have access to find out.

    I am hoping SOMEBODY who has had this problem or knows what this could be to tell me, please? This is hell. Think about it, how would you like to download stuff at 90bytes/sec???"

    I don't know about you all, but I've done the slow transfer thing, and don't want to go back. Can anyone lend Sean a hand?

  9. Ask Slashdot:Computing Comfort

    Ask · Meta · · posted by CmdrTaco · from the posture-perfect dept. · 0 comments
    Mike writes "Ok, here goes: Being a geek, I spend a lot of time on the computer. I'm a tall geek, around 6'4". That means the chairs I sit in while geeking are usually WAY too small, and I think it's starting to have adverse effects on my back. I'm not willing to give up computing, so...Who out there has advice on ways to reduce the pains associated with computing? I'm thinking perhaps a better-designed chair would help -- am I barking up the wrong tree here? "

  10. Linux Game Coders Wanted

    Games · Games · · posted by CmdrTaco · from the dream-jobs-for-geeks dept. · 0 comments
    Vaibhav Goel wrote in to let us know that John Carmack, a name that all geeks know, as the following currently in his .plan file:

    "A small public announcement:
    The Linux Expo is looking for:
    1. People that develop games or game servers in *nix, and
    2. People interested in learning how to develop games in *nix.
    Either one should give a write to ddt@crack.com.
    "

    I really want to go to Linux Expo this year. Sounds like so much cool stuff is going to be happening. Hope I can afford it, and not take classes during it.