What we need is an ITU-T recommendation for voice and video over NAT. Right now, we've got only H.32x and that simply does not cut it. Enter Skype and now this video add-on to make media communication seamless and easy, regardless of NAT.
The ITU needs to get their act in order and bake up an open standard. One freakin' port please. Yes, I am aware of H.350 but even that is too heavy compared to Skype.
I'd like to see Intel one-up Apple and utilize the same hardware for an open laptop spec. Imagine not having to pay $900 to get a 14.1" LCD repaired. Imagine the modding that would come along.
As a side note, I propose a new unit of volume - the MM. Not to be confused with the linear measurement 'mm' (millimeter), MM will stand for Mac Mini. So if something is 1.3MM, then it is 1.3x the volume of a Mac Mini.
That seems to be the new standard. We could use this with LoCps (Libraries of Congress per second).
There are plenty of people that will never use a completely closed PC solution. Jeepers, can you imagine how much we'd all be bitching right now if Apple was the dominant player? The current Microsoft situation is leaps and bounds better than that would be.
Pray tell, why do you need HD for face-to-face conferencing?
Because we're spending $200k per pop on the TeleSuite product. The company for whom I work already has standards-based endpoints that do traditional videoconferencing but people favor the Telesuites or travel over these products. For reference, we have 30 traditional endpoints and 5 TeleSuites. Even with this disparity, the TeleSuites log about 2.5x more usage. That works out to 15x more usage per endpoint for the Telesuites.
People just don't like the quality that is currently available.
You'd think that some bright spark would just sit down with the typical hardware - an nForce motherboard and a Hauppauge PVR250 - do all this work and then distribute an ISO of the system for people to install.
Avast Home Edition - Free for personal use. This stuff works like magic. You *do* have to register in order to get a registration code but it is definitely worth it.
I've actually used this software to fix problems that McAfee couldn't (the boot time scan is not possible with McAfee).
When will "they" realise that this isn't going to cut the mustard?
"They" will allow non-DRM formats when people stop sharing them with a few million of their closest friends. That's pretty much the only reason that Joe User would want a non-DRM solution. And yahoo would find it quite difficult to make people delete all of their music after unsubscribing from their service using the "honor system" alone.
It isn't like their going to give in and let everyone have the music for free.
but let's face it, Picassa is a great app and the price is right!
Picassa needs to get its own camera download interface and replace Microsoft POS. Let's see, I've just downloaded images from a camera, what do you want to do? Thanks to Microsoft, you get two options:
1) Upload to web (Microsoft approved, of course) 2) Print online (Microsoft approved, of course)
PDAs would have been dead a long time ago if the industry wasn't so greedy. For example, as you have illustrated, even the most basic of cell phones have had adequate PDA capabilities for years now. My Nokia 3588i certainly does. But I don't use it because Nokia wants to rape me to the tune of $50 for a data cable. Then I have to get proprietary software. So I don't use this functionality and never will.
If some bright spark in the industry realized that they could win most of the market over by simply offering a "non evil" policy on parts, accessories and service. For example, if someone adopted the USB standard for charging and data transfer, I wouldn't ever have to buy this shit over every time I bought a cell phone. I realize that the ultra high-end has already adopted this but there should be a friggin' law that requires all phones to adopt this policy.
But our government is run by big business so this will likely never happen.
OSS (I refrain from using the term "linux" since it is just a small part of a desktop) has a HUGE thing going for it right now: a complete lack of market penetration.
While Windows has all of this cruft for the sake of backward compatibility, OSS has next to none. This means that OSS can take all of what is wrong with Windows and do it properly. The people who pull the strings NEED to sit down and get things right BEFORE critical mass happens. At that point, there's no turning back.
As it sits, if you broke compatibility with 100 percent of the OSS/KDE/Gnome/etc apps out there, you'd technically only be breaking just a percent or two of the installed base. This is completely worth it.
My wish list:
1) OSS will need a registry. It doesn't need to have the shortcomings of the Windows registry. Don't be so afraid.
2) User data/system data separation - right now, users can save data all over the place. I've seen a user put their Word docs in 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office' because that seemed intuitive. While I realize that there are provisions in OSS to prevent this, none of it is intuitive. The desktop environment should not even present this extra layer of confusion. I've also seen users install applications to the Windows desktop because they wanted to have a shortcut to the program there. All of these stupid choices should be removed from the decision tree. Someone in UI design needs to work on a help desk for a couple hours.
3) "Packaged" configuration - if I get a new PC, there is no real good way to transfer settings or applications. Data is not so difficult if you don't fall into the problem listed above. It would be nice if we could just transfer apps and settings by simply transferring a couple "packages". I realize that this affects #1.
4) Reduced complexity - there is no reason that an install CD should have 12,000 files on it. These should be packaged into a single logical file that is automagically recognized by the system. Additionally, users should not have to deal with.tar.gz, zips or whatever non-intuitive archive that geeks can come up with. Where should we extract them? Everywhere and anywhere, of course. In addition, the normal file system browser should not list individual files for installed applications. It should simply display a "module" that the user can "delete" in order to facilitate for a complete uninstall (the actual uninstall can be handled behind the scenes).
5) Predefined user interface - OSS can be customized up the ying yang. This is good. It is also bad. But it comes with a free frogurt. The frogurt is also cursed. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and then set the user interface to 'beginner' and everything reverts back to old familiar. When your finished, move it back to 'custom' or one of the other predefined states (i.e. - 'intermediate').
6) Remove all non-Joe User stuff from the usermode GUI. Joe User does not need to get intimate details on the north bridge in his system. If someone of a technical nature wants to, then they should have to hit a preset key combo (everyone knows CTRL+ALT+DEL at this point so it should be used) to pull up the admin panel. This panel should be consistent. Come up with some standards.
7) Use the desktop for something other than clutter. Be creative.
8) Create standards for software. The aforementioned.tar.gz file is one of the main reasons that we don't have any penetration in the desktop market. While keeping #4 in mind, also make it a requirement that software vendors *can't* stick their name all over the PC. I don't want a big fat ELECTRONIC ARTS\MY GAME\UNINSTALL MY GAME in my start menu. In addition, I don't want this crap posted all over the file system, either. Put an icon in the system tray, while we're at it. Create a few desktop shortcuts, too. If you allow it, these morons will do it. Simple solution: don't allow it. The package manager should be the only way for a novice or even intermediate user to get software onto a system.
5:00... time to go home... the moral of the story is that I could go on all day about what is wrong with what we've got now. That is quite the Achilles Heel for Microsoft.
Nintendo has the most to gain by releasing a console based on Linux. In this respect, they could capture some console market and then facilitate for the same apps to be released on Linux. At some point, the chicken and the egg problem with Linux will be solved and quite profitable.
This had nothing to do with the fact that they were thin clients. It had everything to do with the fact that they weren't Windows. Just like every other OS that has failed to attain any real market share.
Can someone please entertain the question as to why Apple won't release their OS for commodity hardware such as x86? I'm being completely serious here. I'd use OSX if the whole model weren't a step in the wrong direction (closed OS *and* hardware). Just think if this were the case with Microsoft. Ack.
I'm not trying to be a troll. I'm being completely serious. I do not understand Apple's rationale for keeping OSX so tied down and I'd like to better understand it.
You can pick out a case that makes any one vendor look better than the other. Your high-end, dual-processor boxes with 6GB of RAM aren't going to be the PC-du-jour in a CS lab. You'll probably find something more like a single-processor with 1-2GB RAM. Although I too would rather see SUN, I believe that Dell will win hands-down in most of these cases.
I've already made the decision to dump them. It was just that I really didn't want to go back to Windows. I'll give SuSE a try, I guess. I don't care if it costs.
P.S. The BIGGEST issue you will experience is with graphics drivers. Yes, FOSS is nice, but get an Nvidia card.
I actually went out and bought an Nvidia card because of this recurring theme. That didn't help much so far. Hopefully SuSE will fare better.
The ISO isn't necessary. I just want to understand why everyone seems to be able to put together a linux system that "functions as well or better than a comparable Windows box". It just doesn't seem possible. And it isn't like I'm not capable - I've been using Linux on the server for years (obviously, nothing but a command line) and I'm just four classes shy of my comp sci degree. Almost 20 years total experience with computers.
Woah - what is that comment supposed to mean? Are you saying that Windows and Mac folks will make you an ISA of their drive?
I don't need help with Windows or Macs so I've never asked. But I would certainly make (and have done so) an ISO image of a working Windows configuration for a set of hardware.
But you misunderstood my comment. When begging and asking for help with Linux, I've often asked for someone to simply ISO a drive from a bare configuration that JUST FREAKIN WORKS. I've actually offered to go out and buy the hardware to match the image. I just want off of Windows. But the only way that is going to happen will take one of the following:
1) This VIA stuff works 2) Linux picks a GUI and starts a "desktop linux" environment 3) I get a Mac
If *anyone* in the Detroit area wants to help me out, then I'm all ears. But as it sits, I've got about 8 weeks of fiddling with Gentoo and Ubuntu and I can't get nearly the performance that I can with Windows. I just want responsive graphics, synchronized audio/video and a single media player that will play all of my media. I'll buy whatever hardware that it takes.
In my experience, if you are looking for the "best video", then you'll need to install Windows or buy a Mac. Don't get me wrong - I've been using Ubuntu on my PC at home for almost two months now but this has really showed me the value in a copy of Windows.
I have all these people telling me that I must be doing something wrong but they all get real quiet when I ask them to make an ISO of their drive for me to use.
Hopefully, the VIA hardware isn't envumbered with patents and the whole friggin' thing will be out there for the hackers to make right. Only at this point will OSS have a real desktop environment. Then they just need to sort out the whole KDE/Gnome/etc mess.
Plenty of businesses use it to encrypt a hard drive (boot time password) prior to production. This way, if the drive fails mechanically and the data can't be destroyed (without physically destroying the drive), the data is still encrypted. As a plus, there is no need to wipe a drive since you only need erase the SafeGuard Kernel which renders it just about as useless. There was a case a while back where one of the European countries tried to brute force this software for a criminal trial and could not do so.
For HIPAA, you'll need to physically destroy a drive if it has failed mechanically and you can't otherwise wipe it.
Don't get me wrong - this software is a pain in the ass since you have to decrypt a drive using the admin software if the underlying OS becomes unbootable. But it is a relatively simple solution, otherwise.
I hate to piggyback on your post but I wanted this to be seen.
I am currently working for a company that spends prohibitive amounts of money on videoconferencing. Not because they are stupid but rather because there are no "enterprise" quality videoconferencing products out there at an affordable price. By "enterprise" quality, I mean that the device needs to have the following:
1) PTZ Camera (PTZ = pan, tilt, zoom) 2) Complete control from remote control (including PTZ) 3) H.320, H.323 and SIP 4) Massive profit
Currently, we are paying about $50,000 USD for a dual plasma installation. While I realize that the 42" plasmas are a reasonable portion of the cost ($10,000), the rest is just a PC with a camera and some software. We don't even do any advanced multi-party capabilities - just connect to a bridge and let it do the work. It would be real nice if some bright spark would enter this market and offer something at a reasonable price (but still at huge profit).
Slashdot Mirror
Do we really need more crap?
What we need is an ITU-T recommendation for voice and video over NAT. Right now, we've got only H.32x and that simply does not cut it. Enter Skype and now this video add-on to make media communication seamless and easy, regardless of NAT.
The ITU needs to get their act in order and bake up an open standard. One freakin' port please. Yes, I am aware of H.350 but even that is too heavy compared to Skype.
I like the idea of competition in this space.
I'd like to see Intel one-up Apple and utilize the same hardware for an open laptop spec. Imagine not having to pay $900 to get a 14.1" LCD repaired. Imagine the modding that would come along.
As a side note, I propose a new unit of volume - the MM. Not to be confused with the linear measurement 'mm' (millimeter), MM will stand for Mac Mini. So if something is 1.3MM, then it is 1.3x the volume of a Mac Mini.
That seems to be the new standard. We could use this with LoCps (Libraries of Congress per second).
Alternatively,
We need to find an evil college professor and fill his house with popcorn!
Hilarity will ensue!
And what happens if the Evil Bit gets flipped in the download?
Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun.
For the n-th time, what would Apple have to gain?
Umm, 90% in market share?
There are plenty of people that will never use a completely closed PC solution. Jeepers, can you imagine how much we'd all be bitching right now if Apple was the dominant player? The current Microsoft situation is leaps and bounds better than that would be.
Pray tell, why do you need HD for face-to-face conferencing?
Because we're spending $200k per pop on the TeleSuite product. The company for whom I work already has standards-based endpoints that do traditional videoconferencing but people favor the Telesuites or travel over these products. For reference, we have 30 traditional endpoints and 5 TeleSuites. Even with this disparity, the TeleSuites log about 2.5x more usage. That works out to 15x more usage per endpoint for the Telesuites.
People just don't like the quality that is currently available.
You'd think that some bright spark would just sit down with the typical hardware - an nForce motherboard and a Hauppauge PVR250 - do all this work and then distribute an ISO of the system for people to install.
That'd do wonders for Linux and OSS.
Avast Home Edition - Free for personal use. This stuff works like magic. You *do* have to register in order to get a registration code but it is definitely worth it.
I've actually used this software to fix problems that McAfee couldn't (the boot time scan is not possible with McAfee).
Band Names
Taranchula!
When will "they" realise that this isn't going to cut the mustard?
"They" will allow non-DRM formats when people stop sharing them with a few million of their closest friends. That's pretty much the only reason that Joe User would want a non-DRM solution. And yahoo would find it quite difficult to make people delete all of their music after unsubscribing from their service using the "honor system" alone.
It isn't like their going to give in and let everyone have the music for free.
but let's face it, Picassa is a great app and the price is right!
Picassa needs to get its own camera download interface and replace Microsoft POS. Let's see, I've just downloaded images from a camera, what do you want to do? Thanks to Microsoft, you get two options:
1) Upload to web (Microsoft approved, of course)
2) Print online (Microsoft approved, of course)
What crap.
PDAs are dying.
PDAs would have been dead a long time ago if the industry wasn't so greedy. For example, as you have illustrated, even the most basic of cell phones have had adequate PDA capabilities for years now. My Nokia 3588i certainly does. But I don't use it because Nokia wants to rape me to the tune of $50 for a data cable. Then I have to get proprietary software. So I don't use this functionality and never will.
If some bright spark in the industry realized that they could win most of the market over by simply offering a "non evil" policy on parts, accessories and service. For example, if someone adopted the USB standard for charging and data transfer, I wouldn't ever have to buy this shit over every time I bought a cell phone. I realize that the ultra high-end has already adopted this but there should be a friggin' law that requires all phones to adopt this policy.
But our government is run by big business so this will likely never happen.
Agreed.
.tar.gz, zips or whatever non-intuitive archive that geeks can come up with. Where should we extract them? Everywhere and anywhere, of course. In addition, the normal file system browser should not list individual files for installed applications. It should simply display a "module" that the user can "delete" in order to facilitate for a complete uninstall (the actual uninstall can be handled behind the scenes).
.tar.gz file is one of the main reasons that we don't have any penetration in the desktop market. While keeping #4 in mind, also make it a requirement that software vendors *can't* stick their name all over the PC. I don't want a big fat ELECTRONIC ARTS\MY GAME\UNINSTALL MY GAME in my start menu. In addition, I don't want this crap posted all over the file system, either. Put an icon in the system tray, while we're at it. Create a few desktop shortcuts, too. If you allow it, these morons will do it. Simple solution: don't allow it. The package manager should be the only way for a novice or even intermediate user to get software onto a system.
OSS (I refrain from using the term "linux" since it is just a small part of a desktop) has a HUGE thing going for it right now: a complete lack of market penetration.
While Windows has all of this cruft for the sake of backward compatibility, OSS has next to none. This means that OSS can take all of what is wrong with Windows and do it properly. The people who pull the strings NEED to sit down and get things right BEFORE critical mass happens. At that point, there's no turning back.
As it sits, if you broke compatibility with 100 percent of the OSS/KDE/Gnome/etc apps out there, you'd technically only be breaking just a percent or two of the installed base. This is completely worth it.
My wish list:
1) OSS will need a registry. It doesn't need to have the shortcomings of the Windows registry. Don't be so afraid.
2) User data/system data separation - right now, users can save data all over the place. I've seen a user put their Word docs in 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office' because that seemed intuitive. While I realize that there are provisions in OSS to prevent this, none of it is intuitive. The desktop environment should not even present this extra layer of confusion. I've also seen users install applications to the Windows desktop because they wanted to have a shortcut to the program there. All of these stupid choices should be removed from the decision tree. Someone in UI design needs to work on a help desk for a couple hours.
3) "Packaged" configuration - if I get a new PC, there is no real good way to transfer settings or applications. Data is not so difficult if you don't fall into the problem listed above. It would be nice if we could just transfer apps and settings by simply transferring a couple "packages". I realize that this affects #1.
4) Reduced complexity - there is no reason that an install CD should have 12,000 files on it. These should be packaged into a single logical file that is automagically recognized by the system. Additionally, users should not have to deal with
5) Predefined user interface - OSS can be customized up the ying yang. This is good. It is also bad. But it comes with a free frogurt. The frogurt is also cursed. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL and then set the user interface to 'beginner' and everything reverts back to old familiar. When your finished, move it back to 'custom' or one of the other predefined states (i.e. - 'intermediate').
6) Remove all non-Joe User stuff from the usermode GUI. Joe User does not need to get intimate details on the north bridge in his system. If someone of a technical nature wants to, then they should have to hit a preset key combo (everyone knows CTRL+ALT+DEL at this point so it should be used) to pull up the admin panel. This panel should be consistent. Come up with some standards.
7) Use the desktop for something other than clutter. Be creative.
8) Create standards for software. The aforementioned
5:00... time to go home... the moral of the story is that I could go on all day about what is wrong with what we've got now. That is quite the Achilles Heel for Microsoft.
Nintendo has the most to gain by releasing a console based on Linux. In this respect, they could capture some console market and then facilitate for the same apps to be released on Linux. At some point, the chicken and the egg problem with Linux will be solved and quite profitable.
None ever saw widespread popularity.
This had nothing to do with the fact that they were thin clients. It had everything to do with the fact that they weren't Windows. Just like every other OS that has failed to attain any real market share.
Moller Skycar Info.
Can someone please entertain the question as to why Apple won't release their OS for commodity hardware such as x86? I'm being completely serious here. I'd use OSX if the whole model weren't a step in the wrong direction (closed OS *and* hardware). Just think if this were the case with Microsoft. Ack.
I'm not trying to be a troll. I'm being completely serious. I do not understand Apple's rationale for keeping OSX so tied down and I'd like to better understand it.
You can pick out a case that makes any one vendor look better than the other. Your high-end, dual-processor boxes with 6GB of RAM aren't going to be the PC-du-jour in a CS lab. You'll probably find something more like a single-processor with 1-2GB RAM. Although I too would rather see SUN, I believe that Dell will win hands-down in most of these cases.
just don't get why you need to replace a system that can do the job that Linux can.
Bang for buck?
Mind using SuSE?
Stop fiddling. Dump Gentoo/Ubuntu.
I've already made the decision to dump them. It was just that I really didn't want to go back to Windows. I'll give SuSE a try, I guess. I don't care if it costs.
P.S. The BIGGEST issue you will experience is with graphics drivers. Yes, FOSS is nice, but get an Nvidia card.
I actually went out and bought an Nvidia card because of this recurring theme. That didn't help much so far. Hopefully SuSE will fare better.
The ISO isn't necessary. I just want to understand why everyone seems to be able to put together a linux system that "functions as well or better than a comparable Windows box". It just doesn't seem possible. And it isn't like I'm not capable - I've been using Linux on the server for years (obviously, nothing but a command line) and I'm just four classes shy of my comp sci degree. Almost 20 years total experience with computers.
I just want something that *works*.
Woah - what is that comment supposed to mean? Are you saying that Windows and Mac folks will make you an ISA of their drive?
I don't need help with Windows or Macs so I've never asked. But I would certainly make (and have done so) an ISO image of a working Windows configuration for a set of hardware.
But you misunderstood my comment. When begging and asking for help with Linux, I've often asked for someone to simply ISO a drive from a bare configuration that JUST FREAKIN WORKS. I've actually offered to go out and buy the hardware to match the image. I just want off of Windows. But the only way that is going to happen will take one of the following:
1) This VIA stuff works
2) Linux picks a GUI and starts a "desktop linux" environment
3) I get a Mac
If *anyone* in the Detroit area wants to help me out, then I'm all ears. But as it sits, I've got about 8 weeks of fiddling with Gentoo and Ubuntu and I can't get nearly the performance that I can with Windows. I just want responsive graphics, synchronized audio/video and a single media player that will play all of my media. I'll buy whatever hardware that it takes.
Anyone?
In my experience, if you are looking for the "best video", then you'll need to install Windows or buy a Mac. Don't get me wrong - I've been using Ubuntu on my PC at home for almost two months now but this has really showed me the value in a copy of Windows.
I have all these people telling me that I must be doing something wrong but they all get real quiet when I ask them to make an ISO of their drive for me to use.
Hopefully, the VIA hardware isn't envumbered with patents and the whole friggin' thing will be out there for the hackers to make right. Only at this point will OSS have a real desktop environment. Then they just need to sort out the whole KDE/Gnome/etc mess.
SafeGuard Easy
Plenty of businesses use it to encrypt a hard drive (boot time password) prior to production. This way, if the drive fails mechanically and the data can't be destroyed (without physically destroying the drive), the data is still encrypted. As a plus, there is no need to wipe a drive since you only need erase the SafeGuard Kernel which renders it just about as useless. There was a case a while back where one of the European countries tried to brute force this software for a criminal trial and could not do so.
For HIPAA, you'll need to physically destroy a drive if it has failed mechanically and you can't otherwise wipe it.
Don't get me wrong - this software is a pain in the ass since you have to decrypt a drive using the admin software if the underlying OS becomes unbootable. But it is a relatively simple solution, otherwise.
An Economical Project
Definitely not a new idea.
I hate to piggyback on your post but I wanted this to be seen.
I am currently working for a company that spends prohibitive amounts of money on videoconferencing. Not because they are stupid but rather because there are no "enterprise" quality videoconferencing products out there at an affordable price. By "enterprise" quality, I mean that the device needs to have the following:
1) PTZ Camera (PTZ = pan, tilt, zoom)
2) Complete control from remote control (including PTZ)
3) H.320, H.323 and SIP
4) Massive profit
Currently, we are paying about $50,000 USD for a dual plasma installation. While I realize that the 42" plasmas are a reasonable portion of the cost ($10,000), the rest is just a PC with a camera and some software. We don't even do any advanced multi-party capabilities - just connect to a bridge and let it do the work. It would be real nice if some bright spark would enter this market and offer something at a reasonable price (but still at huge profit).