> 15-Pin Power Connector? What's all that about then?
That's what I thought, too, when I first saw the new connectors. It seems we're trading huge data and slim power connectors for slim data and huge power connectors. Why didn't they take this opportunity to move entirely to 5V drives, just like notebook drives, and have a single power connector? Yeah, they'd have to design entirely new drives rather than just slapping on new drive electronics, but it took long enough even as it is, so they might as well have.
> you could enter the serial number of the opener into the remote
Except that that would complicate the UI of the remote (requiring at least 10 digit keys) and invite data entry errors--heck, some people can't even dial a 7-digit number without misdialling. Garage door openers usually require you to "register" a remote with the opener by pressing a button on the opener while pressing the remote button. This could be modified so that pressing the registration button on the opener makes it transmit a shared key to the remote via low-power INFRARED to lower the possibility of someone snooping the key. They could also use a direct connection instead of IR (maybe some contacts on the opener that the remote is pressed against), but low data rate IR is so damn cheap that cost shouldn't be an issue.
> Don't you miss that 2-tons of Detroit steel [...]?
No. Not everyone finds American classic cars attractive. I myself find none of the American classics nice looking, with the possible exception of the original (underpowered) Corvette. It's all the more sobering to know what hunks of garbage they were in anything but straight-line drags, ridiculously humongous horsepower notwithstanding.
> my guess is that if SCO tries it IBM will fuck SCO. > It's called checks and balances
Heh, the incidental convenience of having newly-Linux-converted 800-pound gorilla IBM around is a designed-in feature of the market. Hail to the providence of the forefathers of the free markets.
1. Stupid symbol. It contains no symbology suggesting wirelessness or radio, and it contains English words (and parts thereof). This is supposed to be an international symbol, so it should use graphics only. Just look at simple symbols like those for radioactivity or biohazards, they're extremely simple and to the point. What's wrong with an idealized graphic of an antenna and radio waves, plus some sort of hint that it's digital?
2. If it's supposed to encourage more widespread adoption of WiFi, the fee will be a super-major downer for a lot of providers (especially in parts of the world where $100 still means something). Plus it sends the wrong signal (no pun intended), charging for something that is supposed to spread the gospel.
> This new box was now the fastest one in the house
The thing is that this year's cheapo bottom scraper systems are faster than last year's mid-range or higher systems. I recently built my wife a new machine to replace her old K6-400, and got her a Biostar M7VKQ and a 950MHz Duron. Slapped in the old SDRAM and HD, and for under $100 she had a brand new machine that screams with her usage (tons of Word and IE sessions). The integrated video is so decent for desktop use that only serious gamers would care to upgrade. I'm definitely cheap when it comes to spending on computer equipment, and it's amazing how much power you can buy for very little nowadays. Except for 3D games it seems the demand for more processing power will slowly level out.
> TiVo charges $150 for a 60 hour unit right now (see http://www.tivo.com)
That's for a refurbished model without a DVD player. A new 60 hour model is $299. Add the life-time subscription and you have $549. Add $100 for a DVD player and you have $649. And that's without tight DVD/PVR integration. At least compare apples to apples, and don't tell me you already have a DVD player either.
First, mine is $12.95. That's several burritos in your currency. I wish I could make do with DirecTivo, but I can't until I get network over DirecTV.
Second, any one single service that you pay a monthly fee for isn't much by itself, and might very well be worth it. What is a big problem is that the TiVo fee is very endemic of the direction marketing seems to be moving. Everyone wants a piece of your monthly budget. Not a one-time lump sum, because once they have that and have given you their product, that's the last they're likely to get from you. No, they want to have an intimate relationship with your wallet, so that--amongst other things--they can readjust periodically how much their product is worth to you, AFTER they've tied you in. First you pay a monthly fee for the phone. Then the cell phone. Then the cable/satellite. Then the ISP. Then the TiVo. Then the NetFlix. Soon the music you listen to, then the software you use, then the washing machine/dryer/oven/coffee maker/fridge/handshake-from-the-friendly-neighborh ood-hand-shaker. Everyone would like to get out of the retail business and into the SERVICE business. Just look at IBM: if it were for some of their decision makers, they'd throw the entire hardware business (which after all too often results in one-time sales) out the window and switch entirely over to "services" that they can bill you regularly for.
That is what I hate about the TiVo business model. It's funny how large numbers are made up of many little numbers.
> Tivo charges for their guide because they are providing a service.
Yes, the guide, which can also be had for free. I could provide to you for a monthly fee the service of allowing you to talk to me, which doesn't mean that you would find it a particularly good value either. They just wanted an on-going source of revenue from their customers, and charging for The Guide seemed as good as any. They might as well charge you a Protection Fee, or an Value Added Enjoyment Fee, and it would be the same. The argument that TiVo provides a very valuable "service" and so you don't mind paying the fee isn't particularly strong, either. If the government started taxing you for the air you breathe, would you feel the same way? After all, the air is also a pretty handy service. I have owned a TiVo since shortly after they came out, and I do very much enjoy its functionality, but that doesn't mean I don't feel charged redundantly, since I receive that same data from DirecTV also. And no, the DirecTiVo won't do, since I can't get network channels here.
if you could pick up a 40GB drive for $40, or a 20GB for $20, without having to fool with rebates. As it is, the cost of hard drives seems to be staying at around $100, almost regardless of capacity, limiting you in just how cheap a system you can build. Right now the most expensive item in a bottom feeder system is the HD. On Newegg you can build a minimal Duron system for:
Don't know about software capabilities in MythTV etc. for cable box control since I have no need for that, but there are hardware projects for IR blasters as well as off-the-shelf products.
This is a far cry from their first attempt. But I'd probably still wait for Apex and the other Taiwanese cheapos to enter the market. While their devices will no doubt heat up and be ugh-lee, at least they will be even cheaper and won't tie you into some backend infrastructure or software like the big players currently are trying to (Sony requires a Vaio at the backend, HP probably requires a proprietary streaming server, Philips does the same). What you really want is something like the Audiotron that just scans network shares, but also plays video and costs $100. Considering the high integration of new chipsets and the lack of storage in these devices, I think that's a realistic price point. I'd say we'll see that within the next couple of years. Until then I'll make do with my MythTV setup.
> an error in repairing a car can easily result in injury or death > of quite a few people, so some accountability is needed
While I don't know what the certification regulations and laws are, I doubt that there is much of an accountability component in there. When was the last time that a mechanic botched up a repair job and his accountability for the poor (or dangerous) job resulted in any satisfactory recourse to the client? You would still end up having to sue for any admission of fault and reparations. I've had my share of bad repair jobs where the shop denied any responsibility and the cost ended up being all mine.
That brings back the original objection about security then--everyone will automatically have access to everything if you put it in Public, which tends to be a BAD THING. So if you want to change that, you're back to having to CONFIGURE things. Which is no big deal in and of itself, but it refutes the original claim that Rendezvous automatically configures everything INCLUDING security, without requiring any kind of manual configuration.
> And unlike Tivo hacking, I haven't read of anyone successfully modifying their ReplayTVs to do this, either.
That's because there's no hacking required on your ReplayTV box itself. ReplayTVs identify themselves "securely" to each other when requesting shows, and if you can impersonate a legitimate ReplayTV unit successfully, a unit will simply stream content to you. That's what the show grabbing software for the ReplayTV does, and it actually requires much less work than the Tivo.
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> 15-Pin Power Connector? What's all that about then?
That's what I thought, too, when I first saw the new connectors. It seems we're trading huge data and slim power connectors for slim data and huge power connectors. Why didn't they take this opportunity to move entirely to 5V drives, just like notebook drives, and have a single power connector? Yeah, they'd have to design entirely new drives rather than just slapping on new drive electronics, but it took long enough even as it is, so they might as well have.
>> who has probably has forgotten more about crypto than 99.9% of us will ever know
> What's the margin of error on that figure?
I'm more intrigued by the obviously new tense introduced in that sentence. Its expressive possibilities are quite are staggering.
> you could enter the serial number of the opener into the remote
Except that that would complicate the UI of the remote (requiring at least 10 digit keys) and invite data entry errors--heck, some people can't even dial a 7-digit number without misdialling. Garage door openers usually require you to "register" a remote with the opener by pressing a button on the opener while pressing the remote button. This could be modified so that pressing the registration button on the opener makes it transmit a shared key to the remote via low-power INFRARED to lower the possibility of someone snooping the key. They could also use a direct connection instead of IR (maybe some contacts on the opener that the remote is pressed against), but low data rate IR is so damn cheap that cost shouldn't be an issue.
> Don't you miss that 2-tons of Detroit steel [...]?
No. Not everyone finds American classic cars attractive. I myself find none of the American classics nice looking, with the possible exception of the original (underpowered) Corvette. It's all the more sobering to know what hunks of garbage they were in anything but straight-line drags, ridiculously humongous horsepower notwithstanding.
> my guess is that if SCO tries it IBM will fuck SCO.
> It's called checks and balances
Heh, the incidental convenience of having newly-Linux-converted 800-pound gorilla IBM around is a designed-in feature of the market. Hail to the providence of the forefathers of the free markets.
1. Stupid symbol. It contains no symbology suggesting wirelessness or radio, and it contains English words (and parts thereof). This is supposed to be an international symbol, so it should use graphics only. Just look at simple symbols like those for radioactivity or biohazards, they're extremely simple and to the point. What's wrong with an idealized graphic of an antenna and radio waves, plus some sort of hint that it's digital?
2. If it's supposed to encourage more widespread adoption of WiFi, the fee will be a super-major downer for a lot of providers (especially in parts of the world where $100 still means something). Plus it sends the wrong signal (no pun intended), charging for something that is supposed to spread the gospel.
> This new box was now the fastest one in the house
The thing is that this year's cheapo bottom scraper systems are faster than last year's mid-range or higher systems. I recently built my wife a new machine to replace her old K6-400, and got her a Biostar M7VKQ and a 950MHz Duron. Slapped in the old SDRAM and HD, and for under $100 she had a brand new machine that screams with her usage (tons of Word and IE sessions). The integrated video is so decent for desktop use that only serious gamers would care to upgrade. I'm definitely cheap when it comes to spending on computer equipment, and it's amazing how much power you can buy for very little nowadays. Except for 3D games it seems the demand for more processing power will slowly level out.
Leave him be. He can do it through sheer power of will.
Overrated? It must really hurt to be wrong!
> TiVo charges $150 for a 60 hour unit right now (see http://www.tivo.com)
That's for a refurbished model without a DVD player. A new 60 hour model is $299. Add the life-time subscription and you have $549. Add $100 for a DVD player and you have $649. And that's without tight DVD/PVR integration. At least compare apples to apples, and don't tell me you already have a DVD player either.
> My TiVo monthly fee is $4.95
h ood-hand-shaker. Everyone would like to get out of the retail business and into the SERVICE business. Just look at IBM: if it were for some of their decision makers, they'd throw the entire hardware business (which after all too often results in one-time sales) out the window and switch entirely over to "services" that they can bill you regularly for.
First, mine is $12.95. That's several burritos in your currency. I wish I could make do with DirecTivo, but I can't until I get network over DirecTV.
Second, any one single service that you pay a monthly fee for isn't much by itself, and might very well be worth it. What is a big problem is that the TiVo fee is very endemic of the direction marketing seems to be moving. Everyone wants a piece of your monthly budget. Not a one-time lump sum, because once they have that and have given you their product, that's the last they're likely to get from you. No, they want to have an intimate relationship with your wallet, so that--amongst other things--they can readjust periodically how much their product is worth to you, AFTER they've tied you in. First you pay a monthly fee for the phone. Then the cell phone. Then the cable/satellite. Then the ISP. Then the TiVo. Then the NetFlix. Soon the music you listen to, then the software you use, then the washing machine/dryer/oven/coffee maker/fridge/handshake-from-the-friendly-neighbor
That is what I hate about the TiVo business model. It's funny how large numbers are made up of many little numbers.
> Tivo charges for their guide because they are providing a service.
Yes, the guide, which can also be had for free. I could provide to you for a monthly fee the service of allowing you to talk to me, which doesn't mean that you would find it a particularly good value either. They just wanted an on-going source of revenue from their customers, and charging for The Guide seemed as good as any. They might as well charge you a Protection Fee, or an Value Added Enjoyment Fee, and it would be the same. The argument that TiVo provides a very valuable "service" and so you don't mind paying the fee isn't particularly strong, either. If the government started taxing you for the air you breathe, would you feel the same way? After all, the air is also a pretty handy service. I have owned a TiVo since shortly after they came out, and I do very much enjoy its functionality, but that doesn't mean I don't feel charged redundantly, since I receive that same data from DirecTV also. And no, the DirecTiVo won't do, since I can't get network channels here.
if you could pick up a 40GB drive for $40, or a 20GB for $20, without having to fool with rebates. As it is, the cost of hard drives seems to be staying at around $100, almost regardless of capacity, limiting you in just how cheap a system you can build. Right now the most expensive item in a bottom feeder system is the HD. On Newegg you can build a minimal Duron system for:
20GB HD: $69
All-in-one mobo: $51
CPU: $31
Case: $28
128MB SDRAM: $22
CD-ROM: $19
Floppy: $8
Total: $228
If that 20GB drive were $20 instead, that would be only $179. Of course, there are reasons why the drive isn't $20, I'm just lamenting.
> D-VHS decks can be had for well under $500
Where exactly? A quick search only finds two brands, JVC and Hughes. Pricegrabber only lists the JVC, and at over $600. And please don't say eBay.
Nice segue from PVRs to OS ranting there. You forgot Freedom, Patriotism and the American Flag, though.
Just search SourceForge, it's all there (http://freevo.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html).
Don't know about software capabilities in MythTV etc. for cable box control since I have no need for that, but there are hardware projects for IR blasters as well as off-the-shelf products.
This is a far cry from their first attempt. But I'd probably still wait for Apex and the other Taiwanese cheapos to enter the market. While their devices will no doubt heat up and be ugh-lee, at least they will be even cheaper and won't tie you into some backend infrastructure or software like the big players currently are trying to (Sony requires a Vaio at the backend, HP probably requires a proprietary streaming server, Philips does the same). What you really want is something like the Audiotron that just scans network shares, but also plays video and costs $100. Considering the high integration of new chipsets and the lack of storage in these devices, I think that's a realistic price point. I'd say we'll see that within the next couple of years. Until then I'll make do with my MythTV setup.
You use MythTV or Freevo and an IR remote. Gives you the same Tivo appliance experience.
> If you can't trust those on your own subnet, then who can you trust? :-P
With wireless, and given how most people just plug stuff in out of the box and use it, how about nobody?
> an error in repairing a car can easily result in injury or death
> of quite a few people, so some accountability is needed
While I don't know what the certification regulations and laws are, I doubt that there is much of an accountability component in there. When was the last time that a mechanic botched up a repair job and his accountability for the poor (or dangerous) job resulted in any satisfactory recourse to the client? You would still end up having to sue for any admission of fault and reparations. I've had my share of bad repair jobs where the shop denied any responsibility and the cost ended up being all mine.
(Ok, let's keep flogging this dead horse)
That brings back the original objection about security then--everyone will automatically have access to everything if you put it in Public, which tends to be a BAD THING. So if you want to change that, you're back to having to CONFIGURE things. Which is no big deal in and of itself, but it refutes the original claim that Rendezvous automatically configures everything INCLUDING security, without requiring any kind of manual configuration.
> And how do you do that?
Google is your friend: google groups search on "replaytv copy shows" will give you the answer in the very first hit.
> in the same way that turning on and off your TV
Yeah, changing permissions on folders is an everyday operation for most users, especially those that would be put out by having to configure a device.
> And unlike Tivo hacking, I haven't read of anyone successfully modifying their ReplayTVs to do this, either.
That's because there's no hacking required on your ReplayTV box itself. ReplayTVs identify themselves "securely" to each other when requesting shows, and if you can impersonate a legitimate ReplayTV unit successfully, a unit will simply stream content to you. That's what the show grabbing software for the ReplayTV does, and it actually requires much less work than the Tivo.