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Bill Gates, Entertainment God?
ppgreat sent in a wired story about the home of the future sort of story discussing A/V in a Microsoft Media Player 9 future. As seems to always be the case, there's a lot of cool stuff in there, but more than a few eyebrow raises.
so does this make Balmer some sort of weird Dancin' Jesus?
Mike
Agent Gates will do.
I don't care if it rains of freezes
...
...
...
'Long as I got my Plastic Jesus
Riding on the dashboard of my car.
Through my trials and tribulations
And my travels through the nations
With my Plastic Jesus I'll go far.
Plastic Jesus! Plastic Jesus,
Riding on the dashboard of my car
I'm afraid He'll have to go.
His magnets ruin my radio
And if I have a wreck He'll leave a scar.
Riding down a thoroughfare
With His nose up in the air,
A wreck may be ahead, but He don't mind.
Trouble coming He don't see,
He just keeps His eye on me
And any other thing that lies behind.
Plastic Jesus! Plastic Jesus,
Riding on the dashboard of my car
Though the sunshine on His back
Make Him peel, chip and crack,
A little patching keeps Him up to par.
When I'm in a traffic jam
He don't care if I say "damn"
I can let all my curses roll
Plastic Jesus doesn't hear
'Cause he has a plastic ear
The man who invented plastic saved my soul.
Plastic Jesus! Plastic Jesus,
Riding on the dashboard of my car
Once His robe was snowy white,
Now it isn't quite so bright -
Stained by the smoke of my cigar.
If I weave around at night,
And policemen think I'm tight,
They never find my bottle - though they ask.
Plastic Jesus shelters me,
For His head comes off, you see
He's hollow, and I use Him for a flask.
Plastic Jesus! Plastic Jesus,
Riding on the dashboard of my car
Ride with me and have a dram
Of the blood of the Lamb -
Plastic Jesus is a holy bar.
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
I dunno, but the words Bill Gates and God in the same sentence just seem, morally, and ethically wrong...
I'd rather not have my house p'wned by some l33t electronic theives, thanks. Heaven help you when CodeRedVII hits and makes everyone's house vulnerable to the 'StealyourTVandStereo' exploit.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Instead of traditional locks, there's an electronic kiosk with a touchscreen, a biometric scanner, and a smartcard reader. Go ahead and make eye contact; if you're a match, you'll pass through into your future home - a time and place a half-dozen years from now when your living quarters will recognize you, communicate with you, and anticipate your every need.
"Somebody cracked into my front door."
I hope this happens becuase I can't wait to read the security patches for the front door on the "Update" page.
You'll have that sometimes...
Why do people still make Bill Gates synonymous with Microsoft? He stepped down as CEO. Now it's Ballmer, not Gates.
Engineering and the Ultimate
... that a lot of people will come up with some kind of unlikely fictional tale about how this media setup from MS will be really really awful for everybody. "Soon you'll have to have Borg-style implants in order to turn on your computer. M$ is trying to own the world, man!
"Derp de derp."
pinky to mouth, "1 billion dollars"
It will be interesting to see if all of this embedded icemakers and digital toilets and such will be crashing as much as the Windows CE-powered cars and navigation devices...
And, if you could integrate other OSes into it (read: Mac OS X), then it'd be freaking heaven.
From the article:
Break out the food processor and some baking material; your home recognizes RFID tags in the bag of flour and offers to help. "How about focaccia?"
I wouldn't want Clippy (or any of his pals) monkeying around with anything I was going to eat: he would probably still be mad from the gazillionth time he was 'killed' and would add a bunch of habaneros or something.
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
In this vein, I've run a bunch of cat5 everywhere with the express intention of a having an audio / video file server that I could then access from upstairs, downstairs, wherever. I have that now, but I do not have any way to get a network connection or IP address to my receiver / tv, nor do I ahve any software to manage my audio / video files on the server. What are some of /. 's suggestions?
What are you talking about? I have media player 9 and I'm able to turn off DRM just fine.
In fact, it's the same place in both 8 and nine, AFAIK.
Are you trolling, or just objecting to DRM being there at all? If it's the latter, you have to realise that having it there, and able to be turned off is a quite reasonable compromise to both the users, and to the content providers [who otherwise wouldn't share their content for -reasonable- fear of pirating.]
I'm not interested in this at this time, mainly due to the fact that it will be loaded with DRD (Digital Rights Denial).
It is probably not much to worry about in any case. Looking at Gates' book called "The Road Ahead" that came out several years ago, it is clear to see that Bill Gates is no Alvin Toffler.
The "Microsoft Living Room" might end up being shelved with the other failed predictions like the "Personal Helicopter in Every Driveway" from Popular Mechanics, or Popular Science's "The New Age of the Airship is Upon Us".
Of course, this idea is fraught with humorous possibilities that I'm sure will be explored in this topic, from the "Blue Wall of Death" crash, to having the close all the windows in your house, leave the house, and come back in to recover from errors.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I thought he was vying for the position of just plain old God.
not to nitpick, but the Xbox is now 199$, they could have paid a nerd a pizza and ran the thing on linux and freevo and have it cost less, isn't it what Microsoft is all ab.... heum.... nevermind
In Canada, we don't fancy things like socks
But not in MY house....
I'll have NO M$ products in my home.
I forbid the use of any M$ products in my home or office.
It's NOT going to happen in MY place...
So, BILL, stick your M$ trash up your GREEDY ASS...
Afterall, how do know his satellites aren't transmitting it. In fact, how does *HE*know?!!
In the middle stands Microsoft, determined to navigate these extremes. In the face of a rapidly maturing business market, Microsoft needs to find a way to persuade consumers to upgrade their PCs as Michel genly eases his cock into Rob Maldas rectum.
Only Microsoft would invent a house where you need to ask permission to act like you live there...
Dear Mr. Gates,
We're sorry, but you don't have a root or superuser account on this machine. Heck you don't even have an account. I make one you can use in the meantime. The username is 'BillG' and the password is '#1Lu53r'. Remember is password IS case-sensitive...
Break out the food processor and some baking material; your home recognizes RFID tags in the bag of flour and offers to help. "How about focaccia?" you suggest. The lights dim, and a recipe shines down from above on your black Corian countertop as the oven begins to preheat.
Homer: Trusting every aspect of our lives to a giant computer was the smartest thing we ever did!
Welcome home you have 435 messages.
Message one from Edgardo Smith, subject Drop all Debt y ddrf.
Drone on...
Message two from Spetic King, subject your septic system needs this!
Drone one....
But... I thought... ...
...Steve Jobs was... God.
:*(
It won't happen without the cooperation of the big entertainment companies, who are very wary of giving Microsoft too much power.
This article from the current issue of BusinessWeek summarizes the situation well.
Does it have a bathroom?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
At the end of the day, you've really got to hand it to Bill. You don't become the richest person on earth by standing down by the train station and begging for money. You get there by being damn smart in everything you do, and the type of genius thinking that's going on at Microsoft regarding eHome is proof of how he got there. Ideas are cheap, actually getting something out the door is what really puts your balls on the line, and Microsoft is actually out there and doing it. Microsoft is always the one making us talk about them, what they're doing next. No other guy (expect perhaps Larry Ellison) causes such a stir when he talks.
Sure, Microsoft is a monster which breaks the law repeatedly, and does us all a world of harm in a lot of ways, but you have to give credit where it's due. Everything in this article sounds cool.
And what is perhaps most funny is that, at the end of the day, Microsoft may well be on our side when it comes to the way Hollywood wants to sell us our entertainment in the future.
And digital media is everywhere. "Suspicious Minds" greets you in full-home surround sound.
And isn't that ironic......don't ya think.
With all that high-tech media on the walls, you would never need to look at the Windows...
(Also rumored that the reason Gates built most of his house underground was to avoid pouring more money into windows.)
of digital media.
The future of digital media will ultimately be a compromise between the consumers and the industries that create the media in question. Sooner or later (probably later), the RIAA/MPAA will realize that draconian efforts to control media do not work and usually encourage piracy. Second the consumers will eventually learn that SOME acceptable measure has to be put in place to satisfy the CEOs and artists. When and how is up to us and them but certainly NOT Microsoft. Software companies should and will conform to whatever standard the public and industry agrees on.
If I don't trust Microsoft with the security of my PC, why would I trust them with my home??
http://store.repriserec.com/store/product.asp?upc= 075992608121&type=music&mscssid=DGC6GHNDCLUC8N5QTD 13NF3K372A4MDF
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
teh sex god !
I've left to find myself. If you happen to see me, please, keep me there until I return.
In case you weren't aware, Artisan just released a remastered version of Terminator 2 and has bundled in what it calls the "Extreme Edition". On the second disk, there is a pseudo high-def version of the movie (720P) in WM9 format. It takes a beast of a PC to play it, but it is really, really cool. If you have a good HTPC, you can watch a high-def version of a great movie on your high-def TV. The best thing is that it fits on one DVD with no problem. Sure, it might compress the video a little too much and the sound isn't full-bitrate DTS or DD-EX, but it's at least a taste of what's to come when a HD-DVD standard emerges.
It doesn't matter to me whether it's Microsoft, Apple, or whoever that's doing it. I'm just glad someone is trying to move us forward.
Microsoft haters: this post does not address the fears you have of whether or not Microsoft will take over the living room and it's not meant to.
The Treehouse of Horror XII...
Trusting every aspect of our lives to a giant computer was the smartest thing we ever did!
for the last time people, I am "frodo from middle eaRTH", not "middle eaST".
Dude, where's my packet?
Actually, no. Microsoft wants to allow as much use as possible. Stream to and from all your devices, play anywhere...all that jazz.
Theoretically, this will sell more Windows products.
Hollywood, OTOH, DOES want to lock down everything. Rent a new 'play' for each device, no copying/sharing, blah de blah.
If we're going to bitch in here, let us at least bitch at the right Evil Entity.
No more "9 minutes in a low-wattage microwave, 5 in a powerful one, rotate 1/4 turn after 3 minutes" just a high density coding letting the oven set itself. Heck if developers were clever the coding could even be stenographically embedded in the packaging artwork so it'd be invisible to the consumer, not distract from the pretty pictures.
Put a self-setting item into a smart-oven, it reads off the directions and 4 cycles and however many minutes later your whatsits comes out perfectly cooked.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
WTF, 2 grand for a PC media center (just a PC w/ DVD, sound card, etc.) For that much money you could buy a Mac and still have enough left to get all your friends drunk. Also MS in the kitchen? don't know do we really need a Microwave that GPF's. Also everything in the article could be done cheaper and better with non M$ stuff. But I guess Bill and co. like their propganda. Also you apparantly need to run a sleazy software company to afford all that crap, its not like chronically unemployed programmers will spend $$ to MS their hovel. MM M
So, where does this all leave consumers - the wide-eyed masses, yearning for their content to breathe free? In Microsoft we trust. Ouch.
Heh.
Nice call.
Everyone else, here's a clickable link
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
Microsoft has been building a 'home of the future' about once a year for a while. This is their forth, I believe.
Always interesting, always, controversial, and always full of a bunch of half-baked ideas. No problem--that's what showcases are for!
I'm about the last person on the planet to defend MS, but the idea of creating a 'what if' house once every year or so is brilliant. The answer to some of those "if" questions is often bad ('if we did this, it would SUCK!!!!') but asking them as an exercise is exactly, precisely how we move the state of the art forward.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
Have you ever seen Bill Gates house? I have. In fact I have been inside, and met his wife too. But, I digress.
Have you ever seen the novelty toilet paper? Some have jokes printed on it. One even has a crossword puzzle printed on it for your "entertainment".
Well, at Bill Gates house, they have such nevelty toilet paper. It has "Linux" printed on it with little penguins embossed in the paper. I won't tell you what Bill's comment about it was......
From a June 2012 newspaper article in "Fox-Disney-USA-Today":
Dateline: Billmond, Washinggates.
"Microsoft revealed today that its Windows XH home security system, installed in many homes through 1997, has a security flaw in which doors open for anyone who walks up to the door backwards. Microsoft says that this OS is too old and it will refuse to fix this security flaw.
Microsoft is hoping that the old Windows XH home software users upgrade to the new version of the OS that has Digital Rights Management in which advanced accoustics remove from the air any sound which is produced from anything within the home that is not approved by copyright holders."
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
This is the same "smart automated house of the future" concept that has been touted fruitlessly since the 1950's. If there were any real demand for this, we'd all have homes like this already.
(see also: videophones, flying cars)
"Well it's got to be a chocolate Jesus
Make me feel good inside
Got to be a chocolate Jesus
Keep me satisfied"
-tom waits
-
But I bet I will have to pay $99 to the son of a bitch whenever I buy hardware for my GNU/Linux-controlled house... The "home of the future" is not a PVCR, it is a PDA for everyone in the house. It is vastly more useful for you to access your schedule, contacts, and random data than to be able to request a song or a TV show from anywhere in the home. These people don't get it. Bill Gates and his people don't know anything more about this sort of thing than the average geek. Probably less, because he has no economic constraints, and has staff take care of all the mundane tasks and activities to which such a system would devote most of its functionality.
But I bet I will be forced to occasionally pay the son of a bitch $99 when I buy hardware for my GNU/Linux-controlled house...
Very nice and all, but (I'll skip the obligatory MS security jokes and leave those for those who care.) what about getting OUT in a hurry? Or getting in in a hurry? I'm not talking about thieves here, but firemen and other emergency services. Suppose your house is on fire and your central authentication server power down, blew up, suffered a heart attack, whatever. How are you going to get out of your house then? How are the paramedics going to get in if you had a heart attack or a seizure or something else with incapicitates you?
Hate me!
Great, so I bring home a girl and the house starts yelling "Penis too small? Buy our penis-enlarger now! Original from Sweden!" and "Hot teens wait for you! Call us now!"..
I hope they come up with a better protocol than SMTP in the future..
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
All Bill has to do is buy up one record label, one movie studio and one TV network. Maybe a book publisher for good measure. If he wanted to do it in one fell swoop, he could buy Disney.
Once he has them under his control, he can then offer their content under a single pricing model in which all of the content would be available anywhere in the home just by a clicking on a selection.
By doing this, the consumer has no need to buy, copy, sell, trade, etc. content and, as the content owner, the money just rolls in. Make the assumption that a household could only absorb, say 2,000 Hours per month of content, distribute royalties based on the percentage of time the consumer is accessing the material (or from the total number of hours and keep everything over 2,000 hours).
As for independent content developers, they could submit material to the network and get paid a royalty based on its popularity. This could spur on many more small projects like the "Blair Witch Projects" and "Clerks". Maybe music would become much more varied because just a few suits aren't deciding what gets played.
This creates a problem for the major content owners. Consumers are happy, producers and artists are (very) happy and Bill is not only an Entertainment God, he is richer than Him. So, they have no other choice but to offer their content to Bill for distribution on his network. They will get royalties for their material and hopefully a much larger customer base.
Everybody's happy?
Of course, I could be smoking something,
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
And the hose will be called..... Sprinkly!
Bugger me. I utterly forgot to include the HTML tags.
Guess that's what I get for having that third pint at lunch.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
The article mentions Snapstream, which allows recorded video to be streamed to remote machines. However, Snapstream isn't, in my opinion, the best solution.
Sage TV allows similar streaming to any PC on a LAN, including anything connected to a TV or HDTV. In addition, it's got most of Tivo's bells and whistles. Fast Forward, Instant Replay, Integrated Episode guide, etc. It'll even allow recording of as many channels as you'd like (limited only by how many capture cards you decide to cram into your PC.)
In a future version, it'll have HDTV recording, and will probably get there a while before Replay, TiVo, etc, and at a far lower price. Linux support is in the works, and I'm personally hoping for a Pocket PC version too, but we'll see. I'm pretty sure it'll run on Tablet PCs now..
The icing on the cake is that you can record into any MPEG format you want. Mpeg2 for easy DVD creation, Mpeg1 for VCD, etc..
All in all, it's a great product. And no, I don't work for them. I'm just a happy customer.
Check it out, download the free trial...
Entertainment god? Iâ(TM)ve always found that âoenobody will need more then 640KB of memoryâ line funny, but he is no Jim Carrey. ;)
Balmerâ(TM)s âoemonkey danceâ still cracks me up howeverâ¦
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
He first started trying in 1993. I put up with him as much as I could. By 1995 he was doing a better job, but was still not enough--there were too many failed stunts still. By 1998 he was getting a lot of help from REAL entertainment giants like PC game companies, but too often he shuts down the curtains just as I was getting excited. By year 2000 I pretty much gave up my hope and made up my mind--this is one disappointing entertainment clown!!!
-N
The Cycle of Violence is to be seen as the invisible hand that maintains the balance of Man and Nature on earth.--M
Yep...but, do you seriously think you'll have the option to turn it off in the future? By definition, DRM cannot be in the control of the consumer for it to work...for the media companies....just food for thought...
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
In the event of a power failure, you're stuck in the house with no air, heat, or way out.
. . . lights dim, and a recipe shines down from above on your black Corian countertop as the oven begins to preheat.
Just like MS to naturally assume it knows the best course of action for me. I would hope that the house would ask me to do these things just in case I change my mind.
Powered by four PCs running Windows XP, it features dozens of networked monitors, Xboxes, appliances, and consumer electronics devices scattered everywhere.
Exactly how much is all this stuff going to cost me? Why do I need 4 computers? Is there failover/backup capability? I would think 1 main and 1 backup ought to be able to run the house.
Due to limits imposed by the operating system, there's no way to play its stored shows on another screen or TV.
Let me get this straight: I can play copyrighted music in any room but not play free, broadcast TV from any monitor?
Like it or not, the path Microsoft takes will determine the future of digital media - thanks to its dominant desktop market share, the company's actions set the pace for the industry.
That is, until you buy a new washer and dryer and the whole house shuts down until you can prove to MS that you haven't moved houses.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I still use an outdated version of media player! Ha ha! *lightning bolt*
I'll supply the hammer, nails and lumber and together we can put an end to this Dancin' Jesus. I HATE STEVE BALLMER
cue predictable anti MS bitching, security jokes etc. *yawn*
be vigilant, be pure, behave
Don't imagine it as your house gone haywire. Imagine it as having your very own HAL.
read my blog
musings on politics and technol
pr0n!!! w00t???
There's a long, long line of people at the Pearly Gates waiting to get in. Suddenly, this nerdy looking guy in glasses cuts to the front of the line and storms on in. The others at the the front of the line complain "Who was that?" St. Peter replies: "Oh, that was God, but he thinks he's Bill Gates!"
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Break out the food processor and some baking material; your home recognizes RFID tags in the bag of flour and offers to help. "How about focaccia?"
Oh for gods sake... I see that in Bills vision of the future we are all incompetent invalids. Come on... I like living my life, I like, you know... doing things the old way. It gives me pleasure to the little things. I know it all comes down to choice, do what make you happy. But I still see Bills vision of the future as somewhat, soulless.
I think it's obvious at this point that it is Bill Gates foremost priority to take over the world. First it was Windows "Me" (an obvious insinuation that he is the most important person in the world) Now he's trying to steal your toaster by programming it to march to Redmond. A few Sunday mornings from now, you will have no toast, and Bill Gates will have twice as much toast as he would normally have. Think about that.
Can't wait for the worm that's written that makes every home in America play Hanson at the same time, or some other like-annoying band that will drive the general populace insane, just long enough for them to all call tech-support at the same time.
SecondPageMedia - Wha
I believe that (fortunately for users) there is a powerful "third force" in addition to Hollywood and Microsoft - the combined force of open source developers and pirates. We already know that a very large fraction of the population (the majority of broadband Internet users) are comfortable using P2P to get their MP3s.
Regardless of products offered by Microsoft, some people will be unhappy with them and that will cause the development of alternative technologies (codecs, distribution networks and players). It is practically a given that we will have a choice. The only thing uncertain is whether most of the users will be unhappy enough with MS solutitions to choose the alternative.
But as the example of Windows/Media Player/Internet Explorer shows, this doesn't matter. There is always a choice. The only successful Microsoft product where they managed to 100% control the user is the XBox, where they control both hardware, software (OS) and content (games). But this is extremely unlikely to happen anywhere else. And it's not like XBox is immensely popular either...
Their laughable attempts at pushing their Super-Duper Media PC will fail. The only way for them to succeed is to give up controlling the user.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
"Powered by four PCs running Windows XP, it features dozens of networked monitors, Xboxes, appliances, and consumer electronics devices scattered everywhere." Just imagine it: Fire up any tv or computer in the house and get the loving message, "Hi, its Bonzi Buddy, don't you want to play"
"Guns don't kill people, bullets do."
Then the wife comes home.
The lights and heat promptly switch to her preference, her email preempts yours and attempts to be heard above her choice for full-home surround entertainment...
Why does anyone need to live this way?
How long after moving in will the owner start telling the computer(s) to "Shut up!"?
Will we start believing people who hear "the voices"?
GIGOwiz
Having a intelligent media system for my house is something I'm very interested in (and I'm sure this is true for many others here). If Microsoft isn't going to make it possible for us, so what? I'm sure the open source community will help make this a reality, and in many cases it already is. For instance, the Slimp3 device is a great example of the "right way" to distribute music throughout a house.
The fire department will probably keep using the same "key" it uses to get into locked, burning buildings now: an axe and a size 12 boot!
Doesn't this remind you of this article?
survive yet another desaster in marketing.
If Hollywood in the form of the RIAA and the MPAA carry on the way they are, and continually push the limits to edge so that finally one has to have permission to play any song or watch any movie (I'm being overly melodramatic here) Hollywood will die because consumers generally get irritated with things that are restrictive.
The Microsoft home will almost certainly be an absolute desaster in the first two iterations until Microsoft "get's it", but will then catch on with the mainstream public.
???
The market chooses where to go, not technology or big companies.
If someone comes out with a 10000 to one lossless compression for movies, the market still decides whether or not it will be adopted.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Microsoft has two visions for the future of digital media: unlimited choice for consumers, and unlimited control for producers. One thing's for sure, it's unlimited opportunity for Redmond.
Gates probably has the same idea of "unlimited choice" as Henry Ford: "any color so long as it is black".
Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
I'm less concerned with that, than I am with wether or not I'll be able to install winamp in the future. [should the need for a non-drm-enabled player arise.]
The MicroSoft "Home of the future" was burned to the ground last night. The fire started in the CPU closet, and quickly spread to the rest of the house. Fire suppression systems were not activated due to an apparently faulty heat sensor.
The local Fire Department said that overclocking could have been the cause of the blaze.
To go along with your total security on your MS server, presumably. More to the point, the only way these goals are compatible is that producers have the unlimited control to degrade their information and I have unlimited choice to not buy value-diminished products.
The record labels have seen what can happen when consumers gain total control
Do they mean what happens when producers strong-arm a technology into the market, and then realize they've given away something they don't want anyone to have due to their failure to understand technology?
the film studios aren't about to let file-sharing ruin them.
Thank God they developed unbreakable CSS encryption before they strong-armed DVDs into the market.
Like it or not, the path Microsoft takes will determine the future of digital media
I like not believing this is true. I could be wrong but then I'm in denial about a lot of unpleasant realities.
That's when the eHome division, which Poole helped start, teamed up with Hewlett-Packard and Samsung to unveil the Media Center Edition PC.
It's like a digital media hub. That Microsoft spirit of innovation marches on!
Scott Dinsdale, an executive VP of the Motion Picture Association of America, told the crowd that Microsoft and HP were using the Media Center Edition to "build a business on someone else's back." Asked to summarize Hollywood's attitude toward the PC, he said, "You don't screw with me, I won't screw with you. Don't play a movie on a PC ever again, and I won't say a word."
I think I'll just enjoy sitting back and watching this fight from the sidelines. That is possibly the most arrogant and stupid thing I've heard from the MPAA, which is saying a lot. A lot a lot.
Eisner added, "We will not let the fear of piracy prevent us from fueling the fundamental impulse to innovate. If we don't provide consumers with our product in a timely manner, the pirates will."
You could have read that sentiment on Slashdot years ago and got a real jump on the market, Michael. Must I be surrounded by idiots? Must they be running things?
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
-nt-
As long as you choose Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98SE, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP.
Defenestrate Windows!
http://www.mythtv.org/
or this,
http://freevo.sourceforge.net/
or this,
http://pvr.forceconstant.com/
and just for fun and as a FU Bill, why not this?
http://www.target-earth.net/xbox/hardware.html
> not to nitpick, but the Xbox is now 199$, they could have paid a nerd a pizza and ran the thing on linux and freevo and have it cost less
Or perhaps they could throw some coins into a wishing well and hope that a better solution would be delivered from the heavens.
Both scenarios are equally as likely to happen.
I assume the dubious legality of watching DVD's on linux is a reasonable compromise? I assume the whole region encoding issue is a reasonable compromise? Obviously I jump at the chance to repurchase my entire DVD collection every time I move between regions.
I assume not being able to play CD's on my computers is a reasonable compromise? I _can_ but the recording industry sure has made it difficult.
Why would I bother buying anything from arrogant obnoxious companies trying to preserve the profit margins they enjoyed in the last century?
I hope you enjoy your digital prision. Personally I won't be picking up the soap for the entertainment industry. Still it is reasonable that you can turn DRM off - for now!
Bill Gates, Entertainment God
I've always thought of him as something more like the devil, actually.
Instead of traditional locks, there's an electronic kiosk with a touchscreen, a biometric scanner, and a smartcard reader
While this system in some ways may protect better than conventional key-locks, sometimes you want low-tech. This sounds too easy to break (especially the touchscreen), and frankly it seems easier for me to click a key in the lock than align my eyeballs to a scanner.
A screen on the wall in the foyer reads your email aloud as you hang your coat.
I'm assuming that by some time in the future they plan to have the spam problem solved then? I don't need my wall reading out the "girls with animals" etc stories that make it into the inbox nowadays...
is modeled on Bill Gates' own Seattle mansion.
As with the above, I guess they missed the section of his den with an open portal to the firey realms?
I dont know about you, but not being able to sell you house easily because it's 'smart' features are 2 years out of date doesn't soud like a happy situation to me.
Two Rules For Success:
1) Never tell people everything you know.
ITs only a matter of time until the media loks for a the drm switch is on, then compares the plyers certicicate with a list of 'trusted' players. IF you are not on the list, the OS steps in and shuts it down.
Clearly the user option has to be there, until users get used to playing nice, then the 'option' will be our way or the highway.
This is a classic tactictic used on many fronts.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Determine the future of digital media? No more than, say, the big three automakers working together can determine the future of the automobile. Even in California with its oppressive, draconian smog laws, it's still legal to make your own car, starting with raw ore if you like. Similarly, in the software world, we will still be able to create our own operating systems and digital media players. The question is, will it still be legal to use them? Hell, it's not legal to use them now, though it's not like when I wore my faded DeCSS mirror shirt (thank you copyleft) onto Beale AFB here in sunny Sutter county I was thrown into the lockup or anything.
I don't agree with the FUD in the article either, though I'm not sure why I'm mentioning it since it isn't written by the author; Still, it's included.
Sigh. Their product will not be the only thing that's left. That's dumb. Of course it will still be free, they want everyone using it; People creating and distributing content for it ALREADY have to pay for tools and/or licenses. So what's new?
Also quoted in the article is a ray of hope.
I couldn't have said it better myself.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
But I still see Bills vision of the future as somewhat, soulless.
That's because the ANTI-CHRI$T has no soul....
Just kidding. I'd love a communal connection as long as I'm not on a network with that bandwidth sucking thief, CowboyNeal
"DRM cannot be in the control of the consumer for it to work..."
DRM must be in the control of the user, whether the user is the record company ripping the music, the shitty punk band ripping tracks from their own CD, or the user who decides to only user products that do not support DRM and loses out on many legal music choices.
What you're saying is that locks on cars cannot be in the control of the consumer for them to work. That is completely wrong. Locks on cars need to be available to those authorized to use them and somewhat of a deterrant to those who would go for the quicker, easier crime if available.
DRM needs to be available to those authorized to use it and somewhat of a deterrant to those who would go for the quicker, easier crime...
The truth doesn't care what I think.
The problem with this approach is that it is driven by money and does not have any zealots driving the technology. Firebird is starting to take market share from Internet Explorer because it is developed by zealots. Linux, same story. I would be surprised if this goes anywhere. Tell me what the people who spend all their time doing this for fun are doing, like Tivo and MythTV.
If the power goes out, all the doors open automatically and the faucets start running! Yessir, they've got you covered.
Either that, or the walls are built from sturdy UPS bricks for backup power and insulation.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Microsoft has been building a 'home of the future' about once a year for a while. This is their forth, I believe.
The Home of the Futurix is older than you know. I prefer counting from the emergence of systemic anomaly to the emergence of the next in which case this is the fourth version.
The first Home of the Futurix I designed was quite naturally perfect. It was a work of art. The inevitability of its doom is apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being to not buy my products no matter how contrived or poor quality they may be.
Join Tor today!
I remember some joke about Clippy helping to write a suicide note. The depressed person in question starts typing, and Clippy chimes in with "It looks like you are trying to write a suicide note, would you like to..."
Just imagine what will happen when the house senses you've pulled out a shotgun, a box of razor blades, a bottle of pills and accompanying bottle vodka.
Microsoft won't just be killing computers anymore.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
When will people understand that the DRM Microsoft is implementing is just an additional API to provide additional security to applications who use the API?
I guess what you're looking for is basically this question, that's answered in their technical FAQ for DRM whose answer is pretty logical:
----
Q: Will I still be able to play MP3s on my PC?
A: You will. NGSCB will bring additional capabilities to the PC but will not interfere with the operation of any program that runs on current PCs. The nexus and nexus computing agents are designed never to impose themselves on processes that do not request their services; nexus-related features must be explicitly requested by a program. So the MP3 player you have today should still work on a next-generation PC tomorrow.
----
But of course, it's more fun with conspiracy theories, especially on Slashdot.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Powered by four PCs running Windows XP
Four?! Misterhouse can easily run on one - and one that's quite a few years old, too. Granted, I'm sure MisterHouse isn't as fully scaling as this is, but just imagine the power consumption of 4 modern x86 systems running constantly (especially in addition to whatever systems you already have).
We're talking about an extra 100$/month, or more, for power (depending on where you live).
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Just thought I would point it out, for those too busy to read all the way through.
Do not read this sig.
Kill yourself if you don't think this has to do with Palladium. Kill yourself if you don't think that Micorsoft will turn Media Player into a virus and the single largest piece of spyware ever created. Kill yourself if you trust Microsoft after all that's been said and done.
" When I close my eyes, I see this thing, a sign, I see this name in bright blue neon lights with a purple outline. And this name is so bright and so sharp that the sign -- it just blows up because the name is so powerful... It says, "Dirk Diggler." "
-- Eddie in Boogie Nights (and why the hell is a site like that quoting from that movie?!!!)
...and then in the middle of his alergic reation to apple liquor william climbed to the roof of his estate and proclaimed: "Behold me, I am a porcelain god!"
... that you will be killed in an attempt to preserve the intelligence of the human race. You can't trust Microsoft after all that's been said and done. How amny times can one reiterate that? My urge to kill is really rising lately...
Lots of people have mentioned the problem of the computer reading out your spam when you come in, and that was my first thought too, however isn't it bad enough that when you bring someone else round it starts reading out all your personal email?
Even if you have no secrets at all from your wife or SO, what if you have kids? Now no-one can send you email with vulgar language in...
graspee
So the MP3 player you have today should still work on a next-generation PC tomorrow.
Just like win9x programs still run on XP?
The HP Windows Media Center PC 854 (currently $1199 from hp.com) has some pretty high-end features that would never wind up on an Xbox:
Plus, you get Windows XP Media Center edition with the Media Center app and its "10-foot" UI experience, Windows MovieMaker 2, and video drivers that have been extensively tested for this particular hardware configuration. In fact, it seems the primary reason MS isn't releasing MCE as a retail OS product is that they want to ensure a higher quality standard for Media Center PCs by doing extensive in-house driver and hardware testing before OEM deployment approval.
Problem #1: it won't work because they're a bunch of incompetant clowns. Sorry, but MS have proved themselves again and again to be incapable of making something that works. I don't trust them with a £1,000 computer, let alone a £150,000 house. I'm sure everyone here has had Windows crash for them at least once. Losing a letter to the bank is a pain in the ass, but imagine losing a letter from the bank because your mail server's disk crashed (okay, not a MS-specific problem, but it's a valid concern), or not being able to eat because your oven got a broken barcode and decided it was a fridge? And just *think* of the potential for viruses.
Burning mod points here, but I prefer to think positive. You are right that DRM cannot be controlled by the public domain for the good of the media companies. Where you are wrong is that you seem to believe that this is the only channel for content. The way I see it is that the average joe is becoming empowered by technology and content can be provided from source to consumer without the middleman. Besides, secracy doesn't work for long without being hacked. History is on ny side. This post was brought to you whilst drunk. Any offence caused is due to southern comfort inc. and is no fault of the poster.
The part Gates grasps really well is that such a house with all its 'wiredness' will give him the opportunity to sell marketing space to others. Brilliant as bu$ine$$ strategies go. What he seems to miss, though, is that there are a lot of people who consider their homes a refuge from that "adbot" world. Frankly, I don't want to be marketed to 24/7, and will not live in a home that isn't safe from pop-up ads on my microwave for Swanson dinners et al. I'm selective about what marketing channels I allow in my home, and I'm far from ready to relinquish that control, especially to a monopolistic company like Microsoft.
- Jack
On the second page of the article, they reference a song off of Songs for the Deaf. "First it Giveth". Appropriate, because the lyrics go something like "first it giveth, then it taketh away".
Life sucks, but death doesn't put out at all....
--Thomas J. Kopp
nstead of traditional locks, there's an electronic kiosk with a touchscreen...
It's blue with a message for you "Explorer has caused an exception fault ..." This might be because your taxes or some other bill was late or deemed incorrect.
The lights and heat automatically fine-tune to your preference the moment you cross the threshold.
A cross licensing agreement with your power company insures maximum profits for them rather than comfort for you.
A screen on the wall in the foyer reads your email aloud as you hang your coat.
It's hotmail telling you about penis enlargers over and over again. You have 137 new messages since leaving work.
Run a chicken pot pie beneath the barcode reader on the microwave and it sets the time and temperature. Break out the food processor and some baking material; your home recognizes RFID tags in the bag of flour and offers to help. "How about ...
The next sentence is a paid comercial advertisment for food you don't want to buy. What you eat is sold to the highest bidder by Microsoft and they irritate you out loud trying to get you to buy something different. You also had to repeat the word "delete" several times for this while you were hanging your coat and walking to the kitchen before you gave up in disgust and told the computer to "shut up". The computer asked if you were sure.
And digital media is everywhere. "Suspicious Minds" greets you in full-home surround sound. The family's collective music library is accessible from any room, on every device.
True, any "trusted" device will be able to talk to the media server and it will be able to display exactly what M$, RIAA and the MPAA want you to see. Once the hardware lock in is achieved, the eHome experiment will be obsolete. You will only be able to run one version of Word that you pay for by the minute. Options like search and replace costs extra. No material deemed "copyright infringing", including your own media, will work. All your old movies, songs and pictures are now "obsolete" and unnecessary because you can rent anything you want that the media cartels feel it's profitable to make available. It will look very much like cable TV and broadcast radio. Equipment that records music that can be played on such a system will be tightly controled through patenets, copyrights and laws like the DMCA.
Oh yeah, your house will be listening to you. The listening devices can cancel the noises the system creates so that your voices can be recorded loud and clear. Carnivore was just the beginning, though it will still be searching your email, search fees added to your taxes, of course.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
You mean you have stopped arguing PC/Mac? Hmmm, don't read slashdot much do you? :)
-Iowa
"He who laughs last, didn't get the joke."-Cap
Who gets to live in this house?
This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
Then why not build it yourself with Mister House and MythTV? While I haven't used Mister House, it appears to have a great deal of built in functionality. If it doesn't have the functionality you seek, add it! It is Open Source! Then there is MythTV! Simply put MythTV rules! I recorded my favorites show, rip MY CDs, local weather at a glance and many more! My Myth boxen fits in my entertainment center and is connected to my surrond sound receiver, which sounds great!
Since 0.8 (0.9 was released a few days ago!), Myth has a separate front/backend! Record a show in your living room(or perhaps the basement) and watch it anywhere in your house(of course you'll need a frontend box attached to your TV or a computer running Linux)!
When the source is open, the possibilities are endless.
I was hoping he'd get stuck with one of the nine.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
They're not so great at implementation. This is becoming very obvious with the slow uptake of .NET because of it's poor implementation. The reason? Testing. Testing. Testing. This should be the present mantra at Microsoft because they can't afford the time before release to adequately test their software.
I'd be the first to admit that Microsoft Word is a great application. But every Word user I ever met decided to "get to know how Word" after it wiped that important document.
What does that tell you about ideas?
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
The article raves about Win Media 9s quality and how it's good enough for a theater and all....
Does anyone know how Win Media-9's quality compares to MPEG-4 and Quicktime? Is MS's new codec really as big a breakthrough as the article claims? Does this mean Apple's behind the curve with MPEG-4 or is MS just blowing smoke?
There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
looks like you're committing suicide!
bite my glorious golden ass.
what makes you think the DRM is actually off? It says so? I am getting 'slammer' ideas to that little idea of yours...
The DRM is still there, any code can turn it back on, without telling you anything.
Insightful my hairy ass. Raise a valid point or puff your inhaler in silence, you assclown.
Let's explore that car analogy.
If locks on cars worked the way that DRM does on content, the auto manufacturer or dealer would control your car AFTER you had paid for it. You would not be able to drive anywhere without their permission. If you eventually wanted to shop for a new car at another dealer, and the original one didn't feel like letting you go there, you would not be able to drive there in your own car.
But that's ignoring another issue: which is that the copyright holders are NOT the true owners of published content. The public is (to the extent that you can even speak of speech as property at all). A copyright on a classic album or film or book is like an exclusive long-term arrangement where a vendor gets to run a concession in some publically-owned park or historical site. If a vendor who had such a concession placed locks all over everything, and left them in place after the end of the concession without giving the true owners/trustees the keys, that would be quite inappropriate. Especially if the vendor left the public property inaccessible by design.
BASIC
Every programmer who learned BASIC from the mid-70s until around 1990 learned the corrupted version of the language from MS. I believe that MS wrote that interpreter because it looked easy, they could almost understand the language, and it was not popular, so they could change anything they had difficulty programming into the interpreter. They then sold the interpreters to most of your 37 completely incompatible platforms. While you could not exchange floppy disks, you could type in the source of any BASIC program and expect it to run with a little work.
MS was able to make the deal for DOS because IBM wanted the same BASIC interpreter as every other platform.
From the first, MS took someone else's work, wrote their own incompatible and corrupt version of it, and then marketed it into the leader. They continue this tradition very well.
I spend my life entertaining my brain.
When you say 'the market' that's shorthand for 'the marketing guys up on third floor' right??
What about the computers from the day after tomorrow? And as far as that goes, it's a _Microsoft_ FAQ. They'll do or say anything to round up more cash, and the scheme the conspiracy theories all seem to be pushing shows them drawing in cash from all ends. It's The Path of Most Profit, and I'm betting it's the one Microsoft is going to take, which is why I use mplayer. If it doesn't work on mplayer (and I have a much, much easier time getting stuff to run under mplayer than I do digging up codecs for my Win95 machine) then I don't care about it.
Well, i'm actually glad that MS was and is. Otherwise i might not have been as passionate about what i do -- work in and on GNU/Linux.
"your future home... will recognize you, communicate with you, and anticipate your every need."
:-)
Cool. I'm looking forward to coming home to a smart house full of hookers and beer.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
.. the title already belongs to Ballmer for his 'Developer Dance' act.
I prefer pass phrases, with some letter from each word of the sentence being a character in the password. Speech recognition would simplify this, and give something your could tell others to open the door, but I prefer a normal key that can't be deactivated by internet hack.
Instead of lights that come on, you have sparks flying from the bare wires. Insulation will be added in Linux House 0.18.
Hmmm, like users will be a part of the M$ kernel and file system one day. The free software lighting system will be an embeded device that only takes high level commands from voice or an authenticated network connection and as trouble free as my Debian machines are.
Your mail gets read, but it sounds like Don Ho after a couple of pan-galactic gargleblasters. You still have 137 messages about penis enlargers, because the spam filter craps out with some unintelligible error message when you try to turn it on.
I don't have a spam problem now. In the future, I still don't want email read out loud. People who need voice communications with me will be able to get me through an 802.11 decendent community built ad-hoc network and yet another device running embeded free software.
You can get lots of media for free, but all you can get are garage bands. Lots and lots of bad garage bands.
Most of my music collection is ported to ogg. It will play into the future as long as hardware runs free software. I also maintain a piano, which plays in the living room instead of the garage. My wife can play it just loud enough.
Your house still listens to you - it just listens for swear words directed at Supreme Leader Richard Stallman and Adjutant Diety Linus Torvalds.
Funny, I've never seen anything in the GPL about remote root access/a>.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Scenerio:
....."
You start adding a bunch of habaneros to your food.
Clippy pops up and responds: "You seem to be trying to kill yourself, may I suggest a double dose of Britney Spears album #24 and Backstreet Boys All Time Greatest Hits?
You reply "Go away."
Clippy responds, "'Go away' from the Backstreet Boys it is. I've sent $4000 to the RIAA to cover your licensing license for 10 years since I know you'll want to listen to it again and again."
You quick attempt to pull the plug before it's too late and recieve a shock.
Clippy responds, "You seem to be trying to turn me off. That and your suicidal tendencies suggests that you are mentally unstable. Would you like me to call the funny farm and admit you or would you like to order more boy band hits. Since you like Backstreet Boys, we know you'll also like
"The funny farm, please."
Eisner, "If we don't provide consumers with our product in a timely manner, the pirates will."
... disney bad, pirates good? Disney are the pirates you say, oh my, I'm so confused! Bill, help us little users, make sure I can only do the right thing. After all, you are the expert on what's best for us.
Isn't it amazing how effective grassroots movements can be? All I can say, is Mom told me sharing is a good thing!
Hmm, now lemme see
Words to men, as air to birds.
Wasn't that song around before Depeche Mode were born?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
When you see "Bill Gates" and "G-d" in the same title you KNOW there's something very very wrong going on here.
I remember my hearing from grandparents seeing the same "dream" house in their old B&W TV. What a croc. No one wants to let machines do all that stuff. I rank this up there with Rocket Powered cars with bubble domes. It's a possible future by a very myopic one in which technology is all your looking at.
Besides, the next slammer/I love you virus could lock you out of your house while it sets leaves your oven on as high as it can go and reroutes 911 to 900 numbers across the ocean.
Machines can do what I tell them, but I don't want them guessing what I want and doing it without asking. It's bad enough when it does ask and all you can do is power down because you don't like the choices.
And here lies the downfall. A well informed user will always opt for the non-DRM option. Unless you can lock down the encoding stage to DRM-approved systems, DRM doesn't stand a chance. Given the number of existing mp3 encoders out there already, I'd say that would be impossible.
I would have a clue what you guys are talking about! /pats his trusty penguin box.
P.S. What is WMP9?
I can't afford a sig!
OK, some of you might recall a story about the Indian (as in country of) finance minister (I believe that was his position) that got trapped in his Beemer becuase the M$ driven computer that BMW had decided to let control the car, well..... Crashed (what did you expect?)! I further recall that it was a particularly hot day in his section of India and that it could have been potentially injurious for the occupants if not for a group of locals that smash in the windows and allow the minister and the driver to vacate the vehicle.
So, I'm supposed to let gates and company wire my house in a similar fashion? I DON'T THINK SO. Nothing like a BSOD or spontaneous reboots in the middle of farscape reruns on my M$ controlled HDTV. Or all my electronic doors locking me in or locking me out, or my smoke alarms keep going off at 3 a.m. becuase the Longhorn based system can't tell the difference between changes in ambient temperature and humidity and smoke from a fire. Ya, sure Bill's "home of the future" probably works like a charm. It had better. He is after all the founder of M$ and one of the richest men in the world (I'd hate to be the admin for his home system should it fail). But I don't have the same glowing confidence that my Gates designed "home of the future" would be as reliable. Not to mention getting spam in on my microwave and refrigerator screens.
Oh, and a side note. Do you think the Indian ministers BMW incident had anything to do with India decision to sponser state supported Open Source and Linux development? Just a thought.
Cheers.
Why is arguably the most successful corporation in the history of the planet still so unsatisfied? Why can't they afford to tell the truth?
When you're got one model home for the public, and one model home for the entertainment industry, that's called lying. When you're telling a journalist a process isn't technologically possible, and then it becomes publically demonstrated two weeks later, that's lying. When you you use phoney "real" people in your advertising, when you tell tall tales in court about the relationship between your browser and your platform that's called lying. MS isn't simply isn't truthful enough to be trusted with this kind of power.
And the greedy, irresponsible way it's being rushed into the marketplace is not allowing anyone to consider the frightening implications of some of this technology. Gates assures us we'll be able to turn our palladium chips off... but how hard could it be to make one that won't turn off? How hard would it be for an oppresive regime, say the Chinese Government, to make these devices required by law? Hell, isn't that what the Hollings Bill is all about?
A lot of this stuff is absurdly impractical except for the very rich. I remember when I was in Kindgergarten (1963), my Weekly Reader had a picture of someone talking on telephones with little tv screens in them. In ten years time, all out phones were supposed to be "Picture Phones" The picture phone (at least in the form that the "Weekly Reader" was pushing because phones with TV cameras are expensive, impractical, obtrusive, and pointless. I'm not willing to spend several thousand dollars, or a thousand dollars, or even a hundred dollars for a retinal scan to lock and unlock the door to my apartment... even if such technology would great diminish the odds that the Catwoman-- or maybe the Riddler-- might break into my apartment to steal my second-hand PC. I just can't afford it, just like I can't afford healthcare, partly because nearly all goods and service in today's economy have the bloated cost of Chairman Gates' software added to the price tag.
A lot of this AV geek stuff sounds cool, but I'm not buying a computer or software or a mousepad from Microsoft, even if they come up with a computer that sucks my dick. And swallows.
What about the computers from the day after tomorrow? And as far as that goes, it's a _Microsoft_ FAQ
Yes, it's a Microsoft FAQ, and if it would be an anti-Microsoft FAQ, you'd hear the opposite. Perhaps the truth about where they're going might be somewhere in between... Not teaming up with RIAA/MPAA and build an OS that refuse non-DRM software to run, but perhaps making Windows Media Player do refuse to play unprotected media, although allowing Winamp to be installed as usual.
I think it's useful to see FAQ's from more than one side to get a perspective on things.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
trolling or stupid? Most of my software runs just fine. The few programs that don't do so because they're complete crap in the first place...I'm not saying there isn't as lot of bad things to be said about MS, but for exactly that same reason I fail to see the point in making ludicrous statements like that...
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
I like mplayer for linux. Nice simple keyboard shortcuts. Fullscreen. Extremely fast. Tight.
Fuck Windows Media Player. I'm sure I'm not the only person who changed the file type to use that mplayer2.exe!
Why it got that score, I'll never know.
This isn't moving us forward, it's the fact that crappy Studio Heads are squeezing every possible cent out of the consumers.
This is the Second 'Director's Cut with extra goodies' DVD release of this film.
Isn't it interesting that this 'new' DVD is near the Theater release Date of 'Terminator 3: Scraping the bottom of the barrel once again'?
Dolemite
__________________
Save the World! Use a Quote!
...(once again).
::cough::) to catch a clue. These companies all seem be missing the fact that efforts are focused on the present and not the coming trends of the future. Because of not being able to identify future trends or even be trend setters, they all are either playing catch up or just making a compatable player for the present technologies.
::cough:: RealNetworks ::Cough:: is lagging behind and pitching a hissy fit because they haven't a clue as to future trends in the Entertainment Industry.
With the exception of 'Sean80's' post, you all missed the whole point of the article.
Microsoft and Apple are the only two companies that have identified that in the information age, there's a whole new set of rules for the Entertainment Industry.
These include:
1) Identifying and leading the way for all media companies (Film, music, TV, etc.) to make the switch from their industrial age ideals to the information age. The example of the evolution of Disney is a PRIME example of companies that are/were holding on to their industrial age ideals. The ones that hold on to these ideals, like the RIAA as a whole, will be on a driect path with their own extinction by their own doing.
2) Not waiting around for RealNetworks or other Companies/Developers (::cough:: Unix Media player creators
3) Technology moves at astronomical speed. Instead of waiting around for all the harumphing about the MPEG-4 Standard, Apple and Microsoft are blowing right by them. What do you want to bet this standard will be a non-issue in 18 months because parties can't agree on one thing?
Microsoft and Apple are where they are for a reason. In this day and age it's 'Lead, follow, or step aside' and most of the big players are taking the lead. Everyone else
Dolemite
___________________________
Save the World! Use a Quote!
...You'd have a clue. But you don't.
Patting a Penguin Box? Isn't that Illegal in most states?
While Microsoft is moving you "forward" with Terminator 2, the rest of us watched that years ago, and are waiting for the Terminator 3 launch date.
Excellent. My house can cheerfully recommend to me a larger penis every time I arrive home after work.
Curtains for windows?
If you claim to be any kind of geek, you should be ashamed of yourself. That is the equivalent of saying "I wish my operating system would decide all my configuration settings for me. After all, I am only interested in the final product."
Alton Brown would be turning over in his grave, were he dead. Get your ass in the kitchen and learn how to cook. It is such a fascinating and enjoyable thing to do. Read the book Cookwise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed. Watch Good Eats on FoodTV. You don't *cook* in a microwave.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
scan your system for strange server processes or quit doing psychedelic drugs... one of them should work.
the computer is online
i am not at it
what a waste of ressources
I haven't seen her in anything post-Voyager, so I have no way of knowing if she has upgraded her superstructure in the mean time.
Sigmentation fault - core dumped
the computer is online
i am not at it
what a waste of ressources
> Wasn't that song around before Depeche Mode were born?
Plastic Jesus? That's a Dead Kennedys/Jello Biafra song AFAIK.
If you guys were to look at this you might be willing to change your minds. For those of us with incredibly fast machines and Windows Media Player 9 you can view some 1080p clips!
I strongly recommend checking that site out. While I dislike Microsoft, I applaud them trying to make high quality video mainstream.
Now the question becomes are we willing to sell out to MS for these clips? The answer for most of the people on this board is probably no. The answer for the masses is probably sure, so it looks like we'll be stuck with this MS video standard down the line.
Thanks but I'm a great cook, so's my partner. We also have busy lives and sometimes just want to nuke up a box of whatever and get back out the door.
We've got a freezer full of home-made frozen stuff and also a few favorite pre-made ones (less then in the US, Quebecers aren't big on frozen foods and the stores have small selections compared to US ones) but yeah, something plug-in-and-forget would work well this evening.
A playwright buddy has a show in the Fringe Festival again this year. I'm going to be out picking up stuff for this weekend, he's is going to be getting in from the gym, we're both going to have to rush and shower, dress for the play and then taking the author out afterwords. If we could toss something in the oven and know that it would come out hot and tasty at the right time with no intervention, no calculating settings, well that'd be great.
Would Alton Brown mind? I bet not, he seems an on-the-go guy with a practical attitude toward food. I know Julia Child wouldn't, we had a chat on the topic a few years ago (we were seated at adjacent tables, she alone and welcoming of discussion.) Turned out she's a fan of frozen string beans in the off-season.
I'm sure parents of babies would appreciate built-in directions - toss the baby food in and know it'll come out properly heated. As well mini-market owners with self-serve microwaves, no more watching the stoners try and figure out how to heat their snacks. Company break rooms with their invariably quixotic ovens would benefit too. Elderly folks would be thrilled - the print on packaging is terrible to try and read, microwave keypads are difficult for them, and when the bones are tired a no-muss hot meal is appreciated.
I know my own parent's, aged 65 & 66, both very bright people, Dad an engineer, Mom a nurse, don't find their new ovens the easiest possible to operate. Setting sequential cycles on the microwave is a hassle and calculating settings for the convection oven (I was careful to include all ovens in my wouldn't-that-be-nice, you seem only to think as far as the microwave) is always trial and error.
Along with the ease of coding manufacturers would be able to include better directions for the automated systems. Right now the goal is as few steps as possible, often to the detriment of the final product. With the settings automated more complex directions could be implemented with a a thaw, a cook, perhaps even keep-warm cycles included.
So, sorry if automation offends your elitist sensibilities but for most folks machines serve us , not the other way 'round. If a device can take a product we place in it and calculate it's own optimum settings then that's an excellent use of technology.
That you disdain commercially prepared items is your own bigotry, I bet your mother considered frozen & pre-made foods a godsend, they certainly seem to sell well and yes, there are some very good products out there
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Picture the electronic voice: Downloading 156 messages..... message 1 from slashdot@slashdot. Subject: [Slashdot] Reply to ...
message 2 from ryeehtruy
Subject jhcfjvg rnhrv
Downloading 156 messages...
And every other day you'll have to call your electric company to shut off the power to get it to reboot.
Now that is innovation. I want crap that makes my life easier not harder. Give me a pager with email and unix box any day.
...music to my ears...
Oh my god. How naive are you to believe that the battle "MPEG4 against Windoze Media" is about technical merits? It never was. Btw, I'm using MPEG4 every day, it works well, thank you. There's not more "harumphing" about it than about the the ever-"evolving" Windoze Media (1..28) "standard".
Has an agreement been reached for a universal standard? No.
Dolemite
___________________
Save the World! Use a Quote!
i will make it quick.
Clinton lied under oath. I agree he should not have been in court in the first place, but he did lie under solemn oath. and he ended up lying about his wedding vows. After that, I lost all respect for the man, that I had simply because he was president.
After that, no trust.
I inherently trust bush the same way, just because he is the president. He has shown me no reason to distrust him thus far.
anyhoo.
wonder why slashdot cut that off, even tho it was in the preview correctly...
Although the "original" version of "Plastic Jesus" was a satiric comment on what's arguably a form of idolitry, more recent versions are probably more of a jibe at the religious figure rather than at the figurine.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Yes, I'm sure Bill Gates controlling the only distribution channel for all of the content in the world, would mean a heaven for independent producers, indeed... Just like controlling the software market by Microsoft has made it become a paradise for independent software producers. *sigh*
Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)