they don't like to use freeware, but only consider industry proven and supported software.
What, do they live under a rock? You'd be hard pressed to find another free software project used _more_ than OpenSSH.
Maybe you should forward a note to your CEO about how your clueless IT department is needlessly racking up support and licensing costs, while remaining ignorant of common IT practices.
Why do companies cater to these Audiophile nutcases? Stuff like monster cable, tube amps, and 20 lb power strips. What a waste of money...
Oh wait. Money. THAT's why companies cater to those nuts. I wonder how much extra this mobo will cost, and if they'll send out Jeves with while gloves and a new tube (for a sizable fee) when yours burns out.
Well, if you don't understand the difference between program listings and advertising, I guess you're exactly the kind of customer they're looking for.
Dude, don't you realize? Television listsings are advertising. All Television is advertising! Tivo takes that enormous pile of advertising sandwitched between moments of entertainment, and gives me a random access menu to navigate it. It's like the difference between cassette tapes and CDs; I'm not limited to only fast-forward and reverse any more.
And their Sheryl Crow video just becomes one more menu choice in a very big list. Sure, it has a gold star next to it, and it's on the front page. But the only thing I pick from the front page is "Now Showing", which has all of my selections.
Even if they put it in Now Showing (which I think they should have from an advertising POV), I still don't have to watch it, or even be aware of it beyond the title. I don't watch everything that I choose to record either.
In summary, this is so insignificant to me that I'd be surprised if they can make money doing it. And if they can, awesome. Because if my television experience can be funded by advertisements I don't even have to fast-forward through, I'll be in heaven.
I suppose you don't want it to upgrade its OS without asking you first either? Or downloading tomorrows program listings?
This isn't any different than the rest of the data that the TiVo manages for you. Just like the Network Showcases, or program guide data, it's something that TiVo sends your box and provides a UI to browse.
I'm amazed people are getting so worked up about a new item on their main menu that's prominantly marked as special extra content. Most consumers pay _extra_ for products with bonus content!
If TiVo kills the intersticial TV advertising format, and replaces it with a menu of ads you can choose to watch, I'll be a very happy man.
You can't go measure the current draw of one machine, and then compare it to the spec sheet for another. The spec sheet is going to vastly inflate the power draw, so that people don't under-spec their power supply lines.
What does your athlon system claim on the box for power usage? 240W?
The distributed.net folks have made their point. A lot of machines can be used in parallel to break encryption that most people thought was infeasable.
The SETI, Folding, Kazza, primes, etc., folk learned from dNet that they could tap a huge resource for only the cost of development, but this is a terribly inefficient way to do parallel computation.
Think of all the coal or natural gas that's being converted into sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide, plus hundreds of other nasty things you don't want to be breathing.
Our culture seems to be embracing a tragedy called "Life Without Consequences."
Wake up! That P90 you have in the corner running a pretty screensaver is using 250W/hr. It's connected to wires that run hundreds of miles, ending at a enormous motor powered by BURNING STUFF. Just because the consequences are hidden out of sight doesn't mean they don't exist. The irony of distributed computing is that all those machines doing a little work are connected back to just a FEW power plants, and that work is NOT being done free from consequences.
We must be searching for extraterrestrial intelligence because intelligence is so hard to find right here on earth.
Who specifically do they really mean when they say "partners" in this context? Are the partners the channels that are advertised under "Showcases"? Or is it the manufacturers (Sony, Philips, as mentioned elsewhere in the article)? Someone else?
Well, NBC owns more than 10% of TiVo. Something about "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em"...
This was the last straw. The most blatant shameles self-promotional tripe with no excuse for wasting my time. The final Katz story that actually got me to go to my prefs page and turn off the gasbag.
As long as there is X-compatibility, what incentive do apps have to get off X?
Reasons Apple WON'T Like This
on
iPod on Windows
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
There are several reasons why Apple won't think this is the greatest news.
1) People really are buying Macs just to use the iPod. I know that the slashdot crowd doesn't fit that mold, but if you go into an Apple store and actually ask one of the salespeople, you'll hear story after story about customers that heard about the iPod, and walked out with an iBook to go with it.
2) This might raise Apple's support costs substantially. Every call to Apple's support line costs money, even if the customer doesn't really deserve the support. Does someone who buys an iPod knowing Apple doesn't support using it via Windows deserve 90 days of toll free assistance from Apple if XPlay corrupts data on the iPod? Should Apple have to support callers who are having problems with their FireWire ports on their PC? These are just examples, but keep in mind that Apple exists because these are exactly the kinds of problems PC users have all the time. What should Apple tell the users who call support with these problems?
Now, I don't think Apple should sue anyone over this software. But this isn't the excellent news most people think it is. Apple will be making less money per iPod sold because of this. The iPod's reputation of no-brainer ease of use might be tarnished.
In the end, hopefully Apple will sell more units, make more money, and get positive exposure to new customers.
Before you Apple fans begin to flame me: I once had an apple. It was my favorite computer of all time. I miss it. I just can't afford a Mac.
And how much do you value your time?
I'm amazed at how many people will "save" themselves a few hundred bucks when buying a PC, only to waste months of their own time and effort on keeping it working.
But then again, those $400 MSN "rebates" were a bit hit too. Suckers.
-pmb
iPod will play uncompressed AIFF files
on
Apple @ MacWorld Tokyo
·
· Score: 3, Informative
No lossless compression, but you can still store several 600MB CDs of audio.
Mac OS Support for Sony CLIE handhelds. Version 2.2, now shipping, adds support for the new CLIE PEG-S360. HotSync your Sony handheld with any USB equipped Mac and your Sony handheld USB cradle or cable.
I hope other theaters don't follow their lead. Some of us like going to a theater to see a movie without all the distractions and interruptions of our livingroom.
I need a box that's garunteed to run for long periods of time (2+ years) as a rock solid and stable system. I need to be able to run it headless, without a GUI,
Well, the B&W G3 that I rack mounted at AboveNet running 10.0.1 has been up for 314 days now...
And don't forget your tinfoil hat, so they can't use that amazing Reality Distortion Field to make you think that buying a computer that looks cool out of the box is a good idea.
MPEG-LA is a company that represents the patent holders of technolgy used by all the parts of a multimedia standard known as MPEG-4.
MPEG-LA says that if you want to sell a codec that infringes on any of their _extensive_ patents, you need to pay $0.25 per copy sold, up to $1M per year.
MPEG-LA says that if you want to USE a codec covered by their patents, you have to pay $0.02/hr per stream.
Apple refuses to make QuickTime 6 available until the usage fee is removed.
IMHO:
This is awesome, Apple is standing up for the rights of the individual to create multimedia content and publish it royalty free. Sure, they're saving themselves some $ since they stream video too. But consumers will be the ones paying that $0.02/hr if it sticks, via their Digital Cable subscription, their DirectTV subscription, watching streaming movies on the net, etc...
The $0.25 per codec sold is fair. Many of you might not think the underlying patents are fair, but that's a different issue. If the patents are fair, then it seems fair to charge $0.25 a copy for any other products sold that infringe on the patents.
To deprive others of something that costs one nothing, and anyone could afford is not nice: its like throwing away perfectly good scraps of food that one can't eat or save when others are starving and it is no effort to give it away to them.
But it doesn't cost nothing to create, even in your utopian society where everyone's needs are met. It costs the time of the creator. And in your utopian society, time will be the most valuable commodity of all, since it will be the only limited resouce. (Limited for any single person, unless you add immortality to your list of pie-in-the-sky technological and social advances.)
Patents, and copyright, are ultimately about rewarding the time invested by the creator. They've been perverted to funnel most of those rewards to the creator's employer, which may or may not be fair. (I figure they're about as fair as those places that will buy your long term lottery winnings for a lump sum... minus a big service fee.)
As long as patents and copyrights are limited in duration, society is able to reward creators, and still acknowledge that intellectual property isn't real property by reclaiming it into the public domain. This is a very important (and apparently delicate) balance.
Are you sure they're learning from Apple's mistakes? Dave Nagel (Palm Software's new CEO) was in charge of software development at Apple for quite a while. Check out this little tale.
I wrote a system identical to CDDB at the same time they did, or slightly sooner. (http://mycds.com/) I believe I have a CDR burried somewhere with what might qualify as prior art.
I emailed legal@eff.org and legal@roxio.com with this information when the suit was started. I never recieved a reply from either.
I guess patent invalidation wasn't a vey interesting option to them.
Slashdot Mirror
they don't like to use freeware, but only consider industry proven and supported software.
What, do they live under a rock? You'd be hard pressed to find another free software project used _more_ than OpenSSH.
Maybe you should forward a note to your CEO about how your clueless IT department is needlessly racking up support and licensing costs, while remaining ignorant of common IT practices.
-pmb
So one theory is that the Mafia was behind Munoz's problems. Forget legal trouble... how much trouble might Kevin be getting himself into now?
Why do companies cater to these Audiophile nutcases? Stuff like monster cable, tube amps, and 20 lb power strips. What a waste of money...
Oh wait. Money. THAT's why companies cater to those nuts. I wonder how much extra this mobo will cost, and if they'll send out Jeves with while gloves and a new tube (for a sizable fee) when yours burns out.
-pmb
I still miss being able to find cool ASCII graphics, text-based RPG's, and the Anarchist's Cookbook all in on place.
You mean, like Google?
-pmb, former 80's sysop.
Well, if you don't understand the difference between program listings and advertising, I guess you're exactly the kind of customer they're looking for.
Dude, don't you realize? Television listsings are advertising. All Television is advertising! Tivo takes that enormous pile of advertising sandwitched between moments of entertainment, and gives me a random access menu to navigate it. It's like the difference between cassette tapes and CDs; I'm not limited to only fast-forward and reverse any more.
And their Sheryl Crow video just becomes one more menu choice in a very big list. Sure, it has a gold star next to it, and it's on the front page. But the only thing I pick from the front page is "Now Showing", which has all of my selections.
Even if they put it in Now Showing (which I think they should have from an advertising POV), I still don't have to watch it, or even be aware of it beyond the title. I don't watch everything that I choose to record either.
In summary, this is so insignificant to me that I'd be surprised if they can make money doing it. And if they can, awesome. Because if my television experience can be funded by advertisements I don't even have to fast-forward through, I'll be in heaven.
-pmb
WhatEVER.
I suppose you don't want it to upgrade its OS without asking you first either? Or downloading tomorrows program listings?
This isn't any different than the rest of the data that the TiVo manages for you. Just like the Network Showcases, or program guide data, it's something that TiVo sends your box and provides a UI to browse.
I'm amazed people are getting so worked up about a new item on their main menu that's prominantly marked as special extra content. Most consumers pay _extra_ for products with bonus content!
If TiVo kills the intersticial TV advertising format, and replaces it with a menu of ads you can choose to watch, I'll be a very happy man.
-pmb
You can't go measure the current draw of one machine, and then compare it to the spec sheet for another. The spec sheet is going to vastly inflate the power draw, so that people don't under-spec their power supply lines.
What does your athlon system claim on the box for power usage? 240W?
NiftyTelnet is probably the best free ssh client available for Mac OS 9.
It certainly shames the commercial SSH cleint.
-pmb
Please folks, just turn those machines off.
The distributed.net folks have made their point. A lot of machines can be used in parallel to break encryption that most people thought was infeasable.
The SETI, Folding, Kazza, primes, etc., folk learned from dNet that they could tap a huge resource for only the cost of development, but this is a terribly inefficient way to do parallel computation.
Think of all the coal or natural gas that's being converted into sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide, plus hundreds of other nasty things you don't want to be breathing.
Our culture seems to be embracing a tragedy called "Life Without Consequences."
Wake up! That P90 you have in the corner running a pretty screensaver is using 250W/hr. It's connected to wires that run hundreds of miles, ending at a enormous motor powered by BURNING STUFF. Just because the consequences are hidden out of sight doesn't mean they don't exist. The irony of distributed computing is that all those machines doing a little work are connected back to just a FEW power plants, and that work is NOT being done free from consequences.
We must be searching for extraterrestrial intelligence because intelligence is so hard to find right here on earth.
-pmb
Who specifically do they really mean when they say "partners" in this context? Are the partners the channels that are advertised under "Showcases"? Or is it the manufacturers (Sony, Philips, as mentioned elsewhere in the article)? Someone else?
Well, NBC owns more than 10% of TiVo. Something about "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em"...
-pmb
This was the last straw. The most blatant shameles self-promotional tripe with no excuse for wasting my time. The final Katz story that actually got me to go to my prefs page and turn off the gasbag.
As long as there is X-compatibility, what incentive do apps have to get off X?
There are several reasons why Apple won't think this is the greatest news.
1) People really are buying Macs just to use the iPod. I know that the slashdot crowd doesn't fit that mold, but if you go into an Apple store and actually ask one of the salespeople, you'll hear story after story about customers that heard about the iPod, and walked out with an iBook to go with it.
2) This might raise Apple's support costs substantially. Every call to Apple's support line costs money, even if the customer doesn't really deserve the support. Does someone who buys an iPod knowing Apple doesn't support using it via Windows deserve 90 days of toll free assistance from Apple if XPlay corrupts data on the iPod? Should Apple have to support callers who are having problems with their FireWire ports on their PC? These are just examples, but keep in mind that Apple exists because these are exactly the kinds of problems PC users have all the time. What should Apple tell the users who call support with these problems?
Now, I don't think Apple should sue anyone over this software. But this isn't the excellent news most people think it is. Apple will be making less money per iPod sold because of this. The iPod's reputation of no-brainer ease of use might be tarnished.
In the end, hopefully Apple will sell more units, make more money, and get positive exposure to new customers.
-pmb
Before you Apple fans begin to flame me: I once had an apple. It was my favorite computer of all time. I miss it. I just can't afford a Mac.
And how much do you value your time?
I'm amazed at how many people will "save" themselves a few hundred bucks when buying a PC, only to waste months of their own time and effort on keeping it working.
But then again, those $400 MSN "rebates" were a bit hit too. Suckers.
-pmb
No lossless compression, but you can still store several 600MB CDs of audio.
iPod specs
-pmb
I hope other theaters don't follow their lead. Some of us like going to a theater to see a movie without all the distractions and interruptions of our livingroom.
-pmb
I need a box that's garunteed to run for long periods of time (2+ years) as a rock solid and stable system. I need to be able to run it headless, without a GUI,
Well, the B&W G3 that I rack mounted at AboveNet running 10.0.1 has been up for 314 days now...
-pmb
And don't forget your tinfoil hat, so they can't use that amazing Reality Distortion Field to make you think that buying a computer that looks cool out of the box is a good idea.
-pmb
Dianne Feinstein is one of the most horrible people ever to be given political power.
Pretty much every bad idea revolving around censoring the internet has been spawned from her desk. Check it out.
Only Ashcroft creeps me out more...
-pmb
Wow, people are all over the map on this one.
Simply put:
MPEG-LA is a company that represents the patent holders of technolgy used by all the parts of a multimedia standard known as MPEG-4.
MPEG-LA says that if you want to sell a codec that infringes on any of their _extensive_ patents, you need to pay $0.25 per copy sold, up to $1M per year.
MPEG-LA says that if you want to USE a codec covered by their patents, you have to pay $0.02/hr per stream.
Apple refuses to make QuickTime 6 available until the usage fee is removed.
IMHO:
This is awesome, Apple is standing up for the rights of the individual to create multimedia content and publish it royalty free. Sure, they're saving themselves some $ since they stream video too. But consumers will be the ones paying that $0.02/hr if it sticks, via their Digital Cable subscription, their DirectTV subscription, watching streaming movies on the net, etc...
The $0.25 per codec sold is fair. Many of you might not think the underlying patents are fair, but that's a different issue. If the patents are fair, then it seems fair to charge $0.25 a copy for any other products sold that infringe on the patents.
-pmb
To deprive others of something that costs one nothing, and anyone could afford is not nice: its like throwing away perfectly good scraps of food that one can't eat or save when others are starving and it is no effort to give it away to them.
But it doesn't cost nothing to create, even in your utopian society where everyone's needs are met. It costs the time of the creator. And in your utopian society, time will be the most valuable commodity of all, since it will be the only limited resouce. (Limited for any single person, unless you add immortality to your list of pie-in-the-sky technological and social advances.)
Patents, and copyright, are ultimately about rewarding the time invested by the creator. They've been perverted to funnel most of those rewards to the creator's employer, which may or may not be fair. (I figure they're about as fair as those places that will buy your long term lottery winnings for a lump sum... minus a big service fee.)
As long as patents and copyrights are limited in duration, society is able to reward creators, and still acknowledge that intellectual property isn't real property by reclaiming it into the public domain. This is a very important (and apparently delicate) balance.
-pmb
The system works by having a series of modules linked together connect through sources and sinks.
So they're reinvented QuickTime, but only for audio used for telephony applications.
Whoop.
-pmb
Are you sure they're learning from Apple's mistakes? Dave Nagel (Palm Software's new CEO) was in charge of software development at Apple for quite a while. Check out this little tale.
I wrote a system identical to CDDB at the same time they did, or slightly sooner. (http://mycds.com/) I believe I have a CDR burried somewhere with what might qualify as prior art.
I emailed legal@eff.org and legal@roxio.com with this information when the suit was started. I never recieved a reply from either.
I guess patent invalidation wasn't a vey interesting option to them.
-pmb