Re:Name sounds familiar
by
ergo98
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· Score: 5, Insightful
If they keep that name for production, I have a feeling these guys may have an issue with it. But I guess the way justice works in the US, whoever has more money is right, so Apple shouldn't be worried.
When's the last time a code name was also used for the retail product? I can't remember that ever happening. It's a "code name" for a reason - the developers and designers needed something to call it, without the hassle of all of the due diligence and legal work.
For a media center to really work, it needs to be anointed by the cable and satellite companies: If it's unable to work with the digital EDTV and digital HDTV signals on their networks, with all of their DRM, then it is close to useless. Microsoft recently got that blessing, though apparently it won't be supported in retail deliveries until next Christmas.
Apple iProduct. You'll buy it. And you'll like it.
by
voice_of_all_reason
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Reminds me of the line "What is it? We're not saying yet, but that won't stop you from posting about it on every message board you have access to."
1) I doubt this thing will be fast enough to transcode a TV show in a timeframe deemed acceptable to Apple's high QA standards.
Apple has a QA standard to tv transcoding? The closest thing I can think of is an iDVD encoding which can take hours on my dual 1.8Ghz. I'm sure that a mac mini can transcode a tv show to low res in less than hours. Hell, even with the hardware that's in the little boxes now shows could almost be transcoded on the fly. How is that not good enough?
2) Revenue sources (why would anyone buy what they can set their shiny new Apple PVR to record?)
The same reason people with tivos still buy DVDs, extra content. If you refer to the music store, then I submit that their ultimate goal is to be the content distribution medium for videos and shows that *aren't* on network television. Think of Star Trek: Beyond; now replace Star Trek with New, Brilliantly Written, Made by the Viewer tv show. Such a beast could never hope to reach a market via television unless they were very lucky; but now anyone can make a show and get it on iTunes.
3) Fear of getting sued.
Silly. It would be no more than a portable tivo.
Times Have Changed
by
PacketScan
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Wow I am very happy with the direction that apple has taken in the past few years. They are truly coming back as a worth while competitor.
Re:Name sounds familiar
by
sootman
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· Score: 2, Insightful
The disclaimer is only to avoid confusion. The Mac was named after the Macintosh apple, "America's favorite apple."
On the other hand, who in the industry should we look to for originality--Microsoft with "Media Center"? Fucking Windows?!?!? "Windows" in a GUI were called "windows" long before MS came along and co-opted the word for their whole stupid OS.
Then again, Apple and MS have one product that infuriates me--both of them call their remote-control app "RemoteDesktop."
-- Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Re:The excuse I need.
by
utexaspunk
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Yeah I know TiVO is big, my friends have them. I also see MCE and some Linux solutions. The first is proprietary and the other two require work on my end to have something that both looks decent and might actually work.
So you dismissed the TiVo because it's proprietary and yet would like a DVR from Apple? I seriously doubt whatever Apple releases will be any less proprietary than TiVo...
Re:Apple's move to get video on the ipod
by
Ravnsgaard
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Apple couldn't care less. They will make more money on hardware, than on selling tv shows. Short term and long term. -Remember that they are gunning for total iTunes dominance.
Re:In other news...
by
MaestroSartori
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Straying dangerously off-topic now, but...
Some things broadcast on TV are entertaining. There's nothing wrong with wanting to watch entertaining things, so a system which helps me sift the entertainment out of the vast mass of TV crap out there is a winner.
Why people like you advocate the wholesale boycott of TV instead of embracing the ways to cherry-pick the good stuff while ignoring the rubbish is beyond me. "We have the technology", and not all of us are vegetative couch potato folks sitting in front of the tube watching rubbish while waiting for the good stuff.
Re:sorry guys...
by
tgibbs
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Sorry guys, this is nothing but another geek masturbatory fantasy. Cheap, good-enough DVRs from the cable company already beat down Tivo, and now, rather than buy a $200 Tivo, you expect me to pay $500 for a DVR mini? And you expect me to use this on my SDTV? Not everyone has HDTV yet.
If everybody was happy with "good enough" then Apple would have gone out of business years ago. As for HD, I'm seeing rows of cheap ($500-600) HD TVs at Walmart. In a lot of areas, all it takes is a cheap roof antenna or even rabbit ears to bring in perfect HD, so why pay for cable, anyway?
Re:In other news...
by
daviddennis
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Let's give credit where credit's due here. I've bought a lot of music through the iTunes Music Store, and other than being asked for a password when I buy a new machine, I've had zero trouble with iTunes DRM. I download the music, and it just works on the computers I have registered for it.
If any company can manage seamless, quality DRM acceptable to all parties, it's Apple.
D
Re:Plus an iPod dock
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 1, Insightful
Will it come with Treacherous/Trusted Computing built in, like the new Intel-based Macs?
Disappointed by Mac Mini as entertainment center
by
Cereal+Box
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· Score: 5, Insightful
This may be a little offtopic, but I just wanted to share my disappointment in using the Mac Mini as an entertainment center (didn't even bother with the DVR stuff).
Cost -- the Mac Mini is a little expensive. But that's OK, I had originally bought it as a general-purpose desktop, and later decided to it a shot as an entertainment center and having constant problems with my Windows entertainment center.
Audio -- the only decent 5.1 audio solutions for the Mini are USB or Firewire hardware from M-Audio. The cheapest one I could find that does proper AC3 passthrough was something like $80-$100, and it was just some cheezy little USB thing! Turtle Beach sells pretty much the same thing for $20, and it works on the Mac, but without the AC3 passthrough (if you're curious, AC3 passthrough works on Windows). Oh, and let's not forget, the M-Audio units require you to do a manual AC3/PCM selection! I.e., you can't just go from listening to MP3s to 5.1 sound when watching a movie unless you manually change the output format. Geez.
Video -- the DVI connection works great on my HDTV. Unfortunately, I have to shell out $20 for a program that will allow me to set the Mini's display resolution to 1280x768 (the TVs native resolution). VGA is not an option, because my TV will do image realignment every time I switch back to the VGA input, and if I'm watching 4:3 pillarboxed material, the image will be shifted quite a bit to the left.
Remotes -- The only IR remote I could find was the crappy Keyspan remote. That thing has only like 20 buttons! You've really got to get creative if you want this thing to control your entertainment center. And before you ask, I can't use the ATI Remote Wonder because it's an RF remote, and I want to use my IR universal remote to control the Mini.
Software -- By far the worst offender. CenterStage just plain didn't work with my ripped DVDs (a series of VIDEO_TS folders on a share). Matinee didn't seem to work either. I wasn't going to bother with MythTV (way too much hassle on OS X). There really is a stunning lack of passable frontend software for the Mac. It's a shame, really.
These are all the problems I ran into, and I can't imagine how much trouble it would've been getting emulators to work in addition to movies/music (none of the frontends seemed to support emulators).
So to all those that think the Mac Mini is a good entertainment center choice, I say think again! It's really expensive, the software is terrible, and the hardware issues are a real pain. You know what I did recently? Spent far less money on an XBox and put XBMC on it. It works just the way I expect it to, and with a lot less hassle!
Re:The famous butt-head astronomer
by
coinreturn
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· Score: 4, Insightful
In partial defense of Carl, let the record show that Apple was designing three PowerMacs right then:
PM 6100: codename Piltdown Man, famous archaeology hoax
PM 7100: codename Sagan
PM 8100: codename Cold Fusion, overhyped physics flop du jour
In his place, I'd also be unhappy about the implication of being placed in between those two.
That's one take on things. Another is to note that the PM6100/7100/8100 were the first Macs to be powered by the PowerPC - a major evolution for Macs (first processor family change). Piltdown man was supposed to be the missing link that would revolutionalize the theories of evolution, whereas Cold Fusion was supposed to revolutionalize power generation. Did Carl Sagan revolutionalize physics? Well, he certainly brought it to the masses.
Still, it was a friggin' internal codename. I'm glad he lost the suit (and the BHA suit).
Why do people buy from iTMS?
by
Johnny+Mozzarella
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· Score: 3, Insightful
People can get music on their iPods for free. Why would anybody buy from iTMS? Once Apple has millions of these in living rooms, there will be a much larger potential audience for paid video content. Not a lot of people are buying iTunes TV shows because not a lot of people have a Digital Home Theater.
Not going to happen. Apple wants no part of DVR.
by
jocknerd
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Apple is too close with Hollywood. Cable and Satellite companies own the DVR market from here on out. Unless Apple and them agree on a way to extract the recordings off the cable box, it just won't happen. Apple knows this.
Apple will make a Mac mini running an Intel chip that will be a media player though. It will connect to your television and stereo. It will show photos, play music, and play videos that are on the computer. But it won't record television broadcasts.
Re:In other news...
by
mrtrumbe
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Just turn the fucking thing off, okay? For ONE FUCKING DAY?
No.
Also, fuck you.
I'm a TV viewer. I've also managed to hold a great development job in the financial industry, learned to play the guitar and piano (well, I might add), brew beer, exercise regularly, be fairly well-read, travel frequently, do development on the side and maintain (relatively) healthy friendships and relationships.
Christ, does my life suck, huh? If only I hadn't watched so much TV!
You know what I hate as much as you seem to hate TV and its viewers? Self-righteous assholes who think anyone not conforming to their way of life is a loser. Man, those guys blow.
Taft
Re:In other news...
by
timeOday
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· Score: 4, Insightful
True...although considering that the mac mini isn't all that much bigger than a VHS tape
But the Mac Mini as we know it is not a PVR. The obvious problem (mentioned in the article) is the use of laptop hard drives, a very bad choice for a PVR. Then they need somewhere to put a tuner for analog signals, and hardware video compression circuitry. They need a digital audio out, plus composite, s-video, and hopefully component video outputs. In other words, of all the specialized requirements for a PVR, the Mac Mini hardly meets any of them, and doesn't have any room inside for expansion.
Besides, I doubt Apple would try to push portability in a PVR design anyways. They'd probably rather people use the video iPod for that.
Re:In other news...
by
tomhudson
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· Score: 2, Insightful
That's okay, as long as you take the appropriate precautions:
Safe TV Viewing: You can watch all the TV you want - just don't plug the damn thing in!
Because if you're going to go blind, you should at least go blind because you're doing something that gives you pleasure.
How TV is like a bad girlfriend:
They both encourage you to empty your wallet as fast as possible
They both lie to you
They both think they're the center of the universe, and you should pay attention only to them
A lot of tease, but you never get to score
They're always ready to make time available for the highest bidder
They're always telling you what you should do to improve yor life, but talking to them is like talking to a wall (or a TV)
They both take time away from your friends and family
You only get their side of the story - as far as they're concerned, their side of the story is the ONLY side of the story.
The opinions of airheads in muffin-top pants, or kooks like Tom Cruise, are just SO important...
Re:In other news...
by
AeroIllini
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Well, its not really off-topic, because PVRs are supposed to help you "cherry-pcik", but in reality people use them to consume even more junk. Just like the original VCR - people tape stuff "becasue they can", and nver get around to watching half of it.
Then I'm glad you are here to tell us how to use our technology properly. News flash: everything on TV is there because lots of people watch it. That's the reality of the business. Just because you and I don't like 90% of the programming available doesn't mean that no one likes it. Obviously people are watching it, or the networks would replace it with something else. The whole point of television is to get people to watch, so they can sell advertising. And as a ten-percenter (someone who only likes 10% of available programming) I'm grateful for technologies that allow me to find what I want without having to watch the things I don't. And if I record something with the intention of watching it and never do, it's not a problem. I didn't pay to record that program, and once I delete it the disk space can be used for other things. No sweat.
So, how much TV have you watched the last year, including the time spent doing the "cherry-picking"? Mine stays off for weeks at a time. Actually, its pretty much only been on this year when friends come over to watch a dvd.
Actually, I've spent quite a bit of time watching program's I've "cherry-picked", but almost all of it was because of my automatic script pulling episodes out of RSS feeds and downloading them via BitTorrent. The actual television was off for most of that time, and the time spent doing the actual "cherry-picking" was minimal; it amounted to me typing a regular expression into my filter list and letting the script automatically download the episodes. Sometimes I hear about a new show, and I download one to try it out. If I like it, it goes into the regular rotation. If not, I delete it and get on with my life.
I am currently in the process of building a MythTV box, to free up my cable modem. And, so I can sit on the couch and watch the episodes, instead of at my desk. And, so I can see them on my big TV instead of my smaller LCD monitor. And, so I can record sports to timeshift (no one on BitTorrent seems to care about distributing NCAA basketball games). And, to free up my hard drive.
The DVR has essentially turned television into a pull medium instead of the push medium it has been since its debut. It has put the consumer back in control. How is this a bad thing, again?
-- For security, the MD5 hash of this message and sig is 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0.
Re:The famous butt-head astronomer
by
coinreturn
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Okay, so the PM7100 wasn't the greatest machine they ever made. You have to admit that their changing to a completely new processor was an amazing accomplishment - fat binaries, 68K emulation/translation. That successful transition is the only thing that makes investors and users believe that the Intel switch is even possible.
Re:In other news...
by
mrtrumbe
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· Score: 2, Insightful
So you have no problem that by the time kids finish high school, they've spent more time in front of a TV than with a teacher?
First, my kids will not have watched nearly that much TV by the time they finish high school. Why? Because I believe in good parenting, which shouldn't include the TV as a babysitter.
Second, do I care if other people's kids watch crazy amounts of TV? Not in the slightest. If parents want to stuff their kids with junk food, sit them in front of the TV for hours, then teach them that evolution is crap and God created all I don't give a goddamn. The great thing about freedom is that it's their choice to make. Their bad decisions shouldn't effect me or my own so long as I'm careful, so what's the big fucking deal.
Look, TV isn't the problem here. It is just a product like any other. Just like any other product that provides some amount of enjoyment, it can certainly be abused and can cause problems if it is. If you are looking for somewhere to focus blame (which it seems to me that you are), point the finger at the bad parents who let their kids watch obscene amounts of TV.
My question to you: why do you want to waste your time? These people obviously think there is nothing wrong with what they are doing, and seem perfectly content watching. They aren't going to change because you are arrogantly screaming at them to give up their junkie ways. Why waste your energy? Just raise your kids right and move along.
FYI, I haven't watched commercials in a few years so I most certainly didn't notice the format changes they have made to ads in the last few years. TIVO keeps me well insulated from the shit on TV I don't want to watch. For those of you without TIVO, I hear the mute button also works pretty well.
Taft
Re:The famous butt-head astronomer
by
Judge_Fire
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Strange.
We came to appreciate all of our 7100's as the sturdy, reliable ones. Later abominations, such as the 4400, would keep crashing all day while the 7100 just chugged along.
Apple will have to give folks like me a compelling reason to "switch", since it's hard to imagine them significantly improving on the Tivo experience.
There is plenty of room for improvement over an non-hacked Tivo, and lets face it, most people will not hack their entertainment center components. Reasons I did not buy a Tivo include lack of DVD burning, lack of the ability to transfer shows to other devices, DRM restrictions, no 30 second skip, and being limited to one provider of scheduling information that charges a monthly fee. Also I prefer an integrated media player that includes ripping of CDs, downloading music and video, DVD and CD playback, VCD playback, etc. The Tivo is a well made PVR, but has a restricted feature set and is no "digital hub." If all my audio and video can reside in one place with easy searching and playback I'll be much happier. As it is I get all the functionality I need from a home made solution but it is not all in one box, took some work to set up properly, and is not one smoothly integrated solution. If Apple can do it right (or anyone else for that matter) they will not only win me as a customer, but also many of my friends and family.
Re:Disappointed by Mac Mini as entertainment cente
by
rjung2k
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· Score: 3, Insightful
This may be a little offtopic, but I just wanted to share my disappointment in using the Mac Mini as an entertainment center
Considering the current incarnation of the MacMini isn't advertised, promoted, or intended to be a media center-style PC, why are you disappointed?
Re:In other news...
by
tomhudson
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I think everyone noticed the gm vans - it was damned annoying.
Now, if we're going to talk advertising impressions, and really amazing numbers, we have to go with the pros - pro sports, that is.
Take hockey. You know all those ads on the sideboards in in the ice? Advertisers have people who count the number of times each ad shows on-screen. The more, the better. It means it was a fast-paced game, and had people looking. It also meant that the camera-work was good. We're talking about generating hundreds of ad views in under a minute. And this is what the advertisers who buy those spots want. They would rather you got 20 quick glimpses of their ad in the space of 30 seconds of hot action that you're really in to, than a 30-second spot that you'll either click away from, or fast forward through. And there's the bonus exposure on the news shows. A good hockey game can generate 10,000 - 50,000 or more "ad views".
But hockey and football are small potatos compared to Formula 1. Spotters count every time each sticker on a car is on-camera. If only some of the stickers are visible, only those stickers count. The car passes someone on the outside, the stickers are hidden temporarily, - well, that's 2 impressions. Bonus! Now, if you've seen an F1 car, the're covered with ads. So don't be surprised when you find out you're getting over 100,000 ad views per hour. Heck, a really good race should generate a million ampressions or more, if the camerawork is done properly. That's what the advertisers pay for - good camerawork. Not for your benefit - for theirs. And someone has counted each ad view. And someone else has audited the counts. And a third someone else writes a check for them.
They account for them that way, and pay for them that way, because that's what works for them. Follow the $$$.
Kind of makes the 5,000 ad impressions your kid got watching the monster trucks featured on The Learning Channel's Big Machines pale in comparison.
Slashdot Mirror
If they keep that name for production, I have a feeling these guys may have an issue with it. But I guess the way justice works in the US, whoever has more money is right, so Apple shouldn't be worried.
When's the last time a code name was also used for the retail product? I can't remember that ever happening. It's a "code name" for a reason - the developers and designers needed something to call it, without the hassle of all of the due diligence and legal work.
For a media center to really work, it needs to be anointed by the cable and satellite companies: If it's unable to work with the digital EDTV and digital HDTV signals on their networks, with all of their DRM, then it is close to useless. Microsoft recently got that blessing, though apparently it won't be supported in retail deliveries until next Christmas.
Reminds me of the line "What is it? We're not saying yet, but that won't stop you from posting about it on every message board you have access to."
this is an obvious step... it better be able to sync with a video ipod.
Seriously, who cares about "Watching their music"
Wow I am very happy with the direction that apple has taken in the past few years. They are truly coming back as a worth while competitor.
The disclaimer is only to avoid confusion. The Mac was named after the Macintosh apple, "America's favorite apple."
On the other hand, who in the industry should we look to for originality--Microsoft with "Media Center"? Fucking Windows?!?!? "Windows" in a GUI were called "windows" long before MS came along and co-opted the word for their whole stupid OS.
Then again, Apple and MS have one product that infuriates me--both of them call their remote-control app "Remote Desktop."
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Yeah I know TiVO is big, my friends have them. I also see MCE and some Linux solutions. The first is proprietary and the other two require work on my end to have something that both looks decent and might actually work.
So you dismissed the TiVo because it's proprietary and yet would like a DVR from Apple? I seriously doubt whatever Apple releases will be any less proprietary than TiVo...
Apple couldn't care less. They will make more money on hardware, than on selling tv shows. Short term and long term. -Remember that they are gunning for total iTunes dominance.
Straying dangerously off-topic now, but...
Some things broadcast on TV are entertaining. There's nothing wrong with wanting to watch entertaining things, so a system which helps me sift the entertainment out of the vast mass of TV crap out there is a winner.
Why people like you advocate the wholesale boycott of TV instead of embracing the ways to cherry-pick the good stuff while ignoring the rubbish is beyond me. "We have the technology", and not all of us are vegetative couch potato folks sitting in front of the tube watching rubbish while waiting for the good stuff.
Game dev and music blog
Sorry guys, this is nothing but another geek masturbatory fantasy. Cheap, good-enough DVRs from the cable company already beat down Tivo, and now, rather than buy a $200 Tivo, you expect me to pay $500 for a DVR mini? And you expect me to use this on my SDTV? Not everyone has HDTV yet.
If everybody was happy with "good enough" then Apple would have gone out of business years ago. As for HD, I'm seeing rows of cheap ($500-600) HD TVs at Walmart. In a lot of areas, all it takes is a cheap roof antenna or even rabbit ears to bring in perfect HD, so why pay for cable, anyway?
Let's give credit where credit's due here. I've bought a lot of music through the iTunes Music Store, and other than being asked for a password when I buy a new machine, I've had zero trouble with iTunes DRM. I download the music, and it just works on the computers I have registered for it.
If any company can manage seamless, quality DRM acceptable to all parties, it's Apple.
D
Will it come with Treacherous/Trusted Computing built in, like the new Intel-based Macs?
These are all the problems I ran into, and I can't imagine how much trouble it would've been getting emulators to work in addition to movies/music (none of the frontends seemed to support emulators).
So to all those that think the Mac Mini is a good entertainment center choice, I say think again! It's really expensive, the software is terrible, and the hardware issues are a real pain. You know what I did recently? Spent far less money on an XBox and put XBMC on it. It works just the way I expect it to, and with a lot less hassle!
In partial defense of Carl, let the record show that Apple was designing three PowerMacs right then:
PM 6100: codename Piltdown Man, famous archaeology hoax
PM 7100: codename Sagan
PM 8100: codename Cold Fusion, overhyped physics flop du jour
In his place, I'd also be unhappy about the implication of being placed in between those two.
That's one take on things. Another is to note that the PM6100/7100/8100 were the first Macs to be powered by the PowerPC - a major evolution for Macs (first processor family change). Piltdown man was supposed to be the missing link that would revolutionalize the theories of evolution, whereas Cold Fusion was supposed to revolutionalize power generation. Did Carl Sagan revolutionalize physics? Well, he certainly brought it to the masses.
Still, it was a friggin' internal codename. I'm glad he lost the suit (and the BHA suit).
People can get music on their iPods for free. Why would anybody buy from iTMS?
Once Apple has millions of these in living rooms, there will be a much larger potential audience for paid video content.
Not a lot of people are buying iTunes TV shows because not a lot of people have a Digital Home Theater.
Apple is too close with Hollywood. Cable and Satellite companies own the DVR market from here on out. Unless Apple and them agree on a way to extract the recordings off the cable box, it just won't happen. Apple knows this.
Apple will make a Mac mini running an Intel chip that will be a media player though. It will connect to your television and stereo. It will show photos, play music, and play videos that are on the computer. But it won't record television broadcasts.
No.
Also, fuck you.
I'm a TV viewer. I've also managed to hold a great development job in the financial industry, learned to play the guitar and piano (well, I might add), brew beer, exercise regularly, be fairly well-read, travel frequently, do development on the side and maintain (relatively) healthy friendships and relationships.
Christ, does my life suck, huh? If only I hadn't watched so much TV!
You know what I hate as much as you seem to hate TV and its viewers? Self-righteous assholes who think anyone not conforming to their way of life is a loser. Man, those guys blow.
Taft
Besides, I doubt Apple would try to push portability in a PVR design anyways. They'd probably rather people use the video iPod for that.
That's okay, as long as you take the appropriate precautions:
Safe TV Viewing: You can watch all the TV you want - just don't plug the damn thing in!
Because if you're going to go blind, you should at least go blind because you're doing something that gives you pleasure.
How TV is like a bad girlfriend:
Well, its not really off-topic, because PVRs are supposed to help you "cherry-pcik", but in reality people use them to consume even more junk. Just like the original VCR - people tape stuff "becasue they can", and nver get around to watching half of it.
Then I'm glad you are here to tell us how to use our technology properly. News flash: everything on TV is there because lots of people watch it. That's the reality of the business. Just because you and I don't like 90% of the programming available doesn't mean that no one likes it. Obviously people are watching it, or the networks would replace it with something else. The whole point of television is to get people to watch, so they can sell advertising. And as a ten-percenter (someone who only likes 10% of available programming) I'm grateful for technologies that allow me to find what I want without having to watch the things I don't. And if I record something with the intention of watching it and never do, it's not a problem. I didn't pay to record that program, and once I delete it the disk space can be used for other things. No sweat.
So, how much TV have you watched the last year, including the time spent doing the "cherry-picking"? Mine stays off for weeks at a time. Actually, its pretty much only been on this year when friends come over to watch a dvd.
Actually, I've spent quite a bit of time watching program's I've "cherry-picked", but almost all of it was because of my automatic script pulling episodes out of RSS feeds and downloading them via BitTorrent. The actual television was off for most of that time, and the time spent doing the actual "cherry-picking" was minimal; it amounted to me typing a regular expression into my filter list and letting the script automatically download the episodes. Sometimes I hear about a new show, and I download one to try it out. If I like it, it goes into the regular rotation. If not, I delete it and get on with my life.
I am currently in the process of building a MythTV box, to free up my cable modem. And, so I can sit on the couch and watch the episodes, instead of at my desk. And, so I can see them on my big TV instead of my smaller LCD monitor. And, so I can record sports to timeshift (no one on BitTorrent seems to care about distributing NCAA basketball games). And, to free up my hard drive.
The DVR has essentially turned television into a pull medium instead of the push medium it has been since its debut. It has put the consumer back in control. How is this a bad thing, again?
For security, the MD5 hash of this message and sig is 09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0.
Okay, so the PM7100 wasn't the greatest machine they ever made. You have to admit that their changing to a completely new processor was an amazing accomplishment - fat binaries, 68K emulation/translation. That successful transition is the only thing that makes investors and users believe that the Intel switch is even possible.
First, my kids will not have watched nearly that much TV by the time they finish high school. Why? Because I believe in good parenting, which shouldn't include the TV as a babysitter.
Second, do I care if other people's kids watch crazy amounts of TV? Not in the slightest. If parents want to stuff their kids with junk food, sit them in front of the TV for hours, then teach them that evolution is crap and God created all I don't give a goddamn. The great thing about freedom is that it's their choice to make. Their bad decisions shouldn't effect me or my own so long as I'm careful, so what's the big fucking deal.
Look, TV isn't the problem here. It is just a product like any other. Just like any other product that provides some amount of enjoyment, it can certainly be abused and can cause problems if it is. If you are looking for somewhere to focus blame (which it seems to me that you are), point the finger at the bad parents who let their kids watch obscene amounts of TV.
My question to you: why do you want to waste your time? These people obviously think there is nothing wrong with what they are doing, and seem perfectly content watching. They aren't going to change because you are arrogantly screaming at them to give up their junkie ways. Why waste your energy? Just raise your kids right and move along.
FYI, I haven't watched commercials in a few years so I most certainly didn't notice the format changes they have made to ads in the last few years. TIVO keeps me well insulated from the shit on TV I don't want to watch. For those of you without TIVO, I hear the mute button also works pretty well.
Taft
Strange.
We came to appreciate all of our 7100's as the sturdy, reliable ones. Later abominations, such as the 4400, would keep crashing all day while the 7100 just chugged along.
J
Apple will have to give folks like me a compelling reason to "switch", since it's hard to imagine them significantly improving on the Tivo experience.
There is plenty of room for improvement over an non-hacked Tivo, and lets face it, most people will not hack their entertainment center components. Reasons I did not buy a Tivo include lack of DVD burning, lack of the ability to transfer shows to other devices, DRM restrictions, no 30 second skip, and being limited to one provider of scheduling information that charges a monthly fee. Also I prefer an integrated media player that includes ripping of CDs, downloading music and video, DVD and CD playback, VCD playback, etc. The Tivo is a well made PVR, but has a restricted feature set and is no "digital hub." If all my audio and video can reside in one place with easy searching and playback I'll be much happier. As it is I get all the functionality I need from a home made solution but it is not all in one box, took some work to set up properly, and is not one smoothly integrated solution. If Apple can do it right (or anyone else for that matter) they will not only win me as a customer, but also many of my friends and family.
This may be a little offtopic, but I just wanted to share my disappointment in using the Mac Mini as an entertainment center
Considering the current incarnation of the MacMini isn't advertised, promoted, or intended to be a media center-style PC, why are you disappointed?
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
I think everyone noticed the gm vans - it was damned annoying.
Now, if we're going to talk advertising impressions, and really amazing numbers, we have to go with the pros - pro sports, that is.
Take hockey. You know all those ads on the sideboards in in the ice? Advertisers have people who count the number of times each ad shows on-screen. The more, the better. It means it was a fast-paced game, and had people looking. It also meant that the camera-work was good. We're talking about generating hundreds of ad views in under a minute. And this is what the advertisers who buy those spots want. They would rather you got 20 quick glimpses of their ad in the space of 30 seconds of hot action that you're really in to, than a 30-second spot that you'll either click away from, or fast forward through. And there's the bonus exposure on the news shows. A good hockey game can generate 10,000 - 50,000 or more "ad views".
But hockey and football are small potatos compared to Formula 1. Spotters count every time each sticker on a car is on-camera. If only some of the stickers are visible, only those stickers count. The car passes someone on the outside, the stickers are hidden temporarily, - well, that's 2 impressions. Bonus! Now, if you've seen an F1 car, the're covered with ads. So don't be surprised when you find out you're getting over 100,000 ad views per hour. Heck, a really good race should generate a million ampressions or more, if the camerawork is done properly. That's what the advertisers pay for - good camerawork. Not for your benefit - for theirs. And someone has counted each ad view. And someone else has audited the counts. And a third someone else writes a check for them.
They account for them that way, and pay for them that way, because that's what works for them. Follow the $$$.
Kind of makes the 5,000 ad impressions your kid got watching the monster trucks featured on The Learning Channel's Big Machines pale in comparison.