I discovered this site some months ago and was awestruck. Finally a portable computer/workstation/storage capacity/web browser/music listening device that would make sense for me to buy. I think a standard PC-compatible device like this has the potential to wipe out, or at least replace, the PDA industry. Why bother having a PalmOS device? Why would you need a laptop? What use is an iPod that can only copy one-way? Just have this little computer, with a big enough screen to view a standard desktop with, and bring that around where ever you go.
On the site they mention you'll be able to get a Laptop shell accessory that you slide the oQo into, instantly making it a full-keyboard full-monitor laptop. In the corporate world it may be cheaper to buy everyone one of these rather than buying everyone a full blown desktop workstation, laptop computer, and PDA device.
Also it's built by some former Apple engineers (probably ones who worked on the iPod) which makes me hopefull that it won't be just vapourware.
Mesh - I have no idea how this band is not more well known (can you spell RIAA?), simply fantastic music across each of their albums. Lots of influence from Depeche Mode. The latest album "Who Watches Over Me" is sure to please just about anyone.
Evil's Toy (now called just T.O.Y.) - they started out as strictly Industrial, but have transformed their music into dancy/EBM in their latest albums.
Covenant - they've been around for a long time now, and are considered to be one of the founders of the EBM genre. Their last album "United States of Mind" is a definite must have.
Icon Of Coil - A style similar to the of VNV Nation but with a much more energetic and dancy feel. This a popular band that gets played a lot in Industrial clubs.
Echo Image - very very upbeat, pop/dancy, and enjoyable. They're brand new and hit the scene pretty hard with their album "Compuphonic".
Some other's to check out:
Cut.Rate.Box Neuroticfish The Nine The Echoing Green Iris Colony 5 DeVision Fictional
Where the heck do you find this type of music? Metropolis Records (http://www.metropolis-records.com) is the label most of these bands are on. They are independent label, with no affiliation with the RIAA as far as I know. You can get lots of info, and check out short clips from the bands. A Different Drum (http://www.adifferentdrum.com/) signed most of the others I listed.
Metropolis runs the BEST CD mail-order service (http://www.industrial-music.com), and carry music from lots of other labels as well.
I axed the idea of getting an Archos after a work-friend got one which eventually died because of battery problems. That, and the manufacturer wasn't very cooperative in repairing the unit.
The Toshiba is USB 2.0 (USB1 compatible), so you're saving at least $60 over the iPod - that $60 is like the last thorn, I'm just not willing to budget that kind of money for such a tiny, single-function device.
Anyone looked at the cheap portable CD players in Best Buy lately - they cost (no kidding) $25! Now tell me that burning a few CDR's and using a cheap cd player won't hold anyone over until better, cheaper options are around.
$499 for the iPod, plus ~$30 for a firewire addon card (unless you have one on your mb, or have SBAudigy), plus $30 for the software... adds up to a very pricey little toy on a Windows machine.
I've been sitting on the sidelines for a while now because of the costly barrier to entry, and pretty much given up on the iPod. Toshiba's unit, though maybe not as cute and revolutionary, makes a whole lot more sense on a Windows system both technically and financially.
What would go along well with this is double sided CD-R disks. I've always wondered why they aren't around. Have one side completely free to write these pretty graphics, text, warez keys, and the other side for the data or music.
Like, do I have to do a "trial death", spewing out messages all over the internet like "Hey I'm dead, blah, blah, oh by the way I'm just testing my death switch, you may disregard this message". I think after testing it out a couple of times nobody's really going care when you really do die to take notice.
Certainly the chances of an accidental death mode going off are high. So I think there should be different "death alert levels". If you don't sign in after a month, it starts sending out alert messages like "Hey I haven't been around for a while and I might be dead, please check whether or not I'm dead for me, Thanks bud!".
There should also be instructions given in an email to your friends/family so that they too can stop the death switch for you in dire or unusual situations (coma, kidnapping, laziness). And only then if another couple days pass it goes into full blown death mode.
So there must come a point where financially there is no reason to buy a bigger drive because consumers cannot use it up.
That would seem to make sense, but in my experience it's simply not true. No matter how unbelievably enormous my hard drives seem when I get them, over time I really have no trouble filling them up.
My theory is that (a power user's) disk usage scales proportionally with the amount of available disk space. You get a new drive, and fill it up with less 'compressed' data - like using lossless codec instead of MP3, and >1GB DivX files instead of 500MB ones. Install more games in "FULL" rather than playing off the CD's. And use duplicate disks in RAID for backups.
Almost all DVD-Audio disks are 6 channel 24bit/96Khz. They're not releasing 2 channel 24bit/192Khz DVD-Audio disks because they are trying to push multi-channel as the selling point rather than higher quality sound which most people don't care worth jack for.
SACD came out as a 2 channel only format which has significantly higher bitrate than 24/96 - it's 1 bit at (not sure here, but something like) 2.8Mbps - the bit size is not relevant with SACD. Multi-channel was later added as an option to the second layer.
Personally I could care little for multi-channel music and saddened that SACD never took off. If Sony had stuck to their guns by making all their new releases hybrid (CD quality + 2channel SACD) this format could've avoided the blood stained floor it's face down in now. There's not a single SACD that I'm interested in and Sony has scaled back new releases by an order of magnitude - so they too seem to be giving up with the format.
DVD-Audio is probably the best bet for a succeeding format. But they made the royally stupid mistake in requiring a TV to be hooked up to the player in order to hear music. Who the hell wants to turn on their TV, and then sift through visual menus in order to listen to a song. What the hell do they expect people to do for listening in the car? Random play? Changers on randome/loop? Why don't they give us the option of buying either a 2channel or 6channel release??
It's all screwed up and I hope both formats die off so that it may bring rise to a new format, done properly, that succeeds them both.
I think I'd be happy with this news if they decide to replace the alien that was bullying Luke with Jar Jar, and instead of Obiwan cutting off his arm he decides to rid the Star Wars universe of him once and for all:
The Spiderman kiss got all the women to go see the movie. Whereas Star Wars mainly attracts geeks. I'm positive this is the reason that Spiderman out-did Star Wars.
1. Post an interesting Slashdot article to an unsuspecting web server 2. Let sizzle for 6 minutes 3. Laugh at annoyed Slashdot readers when they can't view the article.
"Mr. Baggins... we've had our eye on you... for some time now. It appears as though you have been living two lives. In one life, you are a respectable member of the Shire. In the other life you go by the hobbit alias Underhill, and are guilty of secretly bearing of The One Ring. One of these lives has a future, the other does not.
We're prepared to wipe the slate clean, and give you second chance. All we need is some assistance in bringing a known menace to justice. He goes by the name Sauron...."
The flaw doesn't affect Mozilla 1.0 release candidate 1 because XMLHttpRequest appears to be broken in that release
Hehe, I find that kinda funny;)
Re:Anyone know if TiVo works in Canada w Starchoic
on
TiVo Series 2 Review
·
· Score: 1
Nope, it's not even available for regular cable TV in Canada.
Re:When will TiVo get ReplayTV network features?
on
TiVo Series 2 Review
·
· Score: 1
I don't believe the TV Studio's had a problem specifically with the ability to download recorded shows off the box. Rather they were irked by the built-in functionality of sharing those shows with other ReplayTV users. Saving the shows for your own purposes shouldn't be illegal because we have all had this ability with VCR's since they were introduced. You can stick in a tape, record a show, remove the tape and store it away. If this was illegal then no VCR's sold would have the ability to record anything. And if VCR's are allowed do it, so should DVR's.
I bet the only reason TiVo hasn't gone with full network interface is due to the legal problems ReplayTV is in. But I think if TiVo left out the auto-sharing features they would be in the clear.
When will TiVo get ReplayTV network features?
on
TiVo Series 2 Review
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
One of the main obstacles that is preventing me from getting a TiVo thus far is the inability to save shows externally through a network. With a VCR I can record a show, movie, concert etc. for an unlimited amount of time - why can't TiVo do this? With the much more expensive ReplayTV you can download shows off the machine through a network connection. I find this feature extremely valuable as it would essentially extend the storage capacity to an unlimited amount.
Sure you could buy two 120GB drives for a TiVo, but then a growing amount of that space will be filled with shows stored for the long term. So unfortunately until I can download shows off a TiVo I'm gonna be sitting on the sidelines, or I'll eventually break down and go for the ReplayTV regardless if it's inferior to TiVo in other ways.
At it was last year, I doubt they've upped it that much. Just a generic shuttle that went to every hotel - of course when I went my hotel was the last of the trip so it was like a 20 min ride even though it was but a few miles walk. Those are the breaks.
That answers it right away. I've seen LCD's on laptops from a few years ago, and they are not even near the same league of performance to the latest generation of LCD's - I'm talking the ones from one year ore less ago with DVI-inputs.
To recommend to people that they are better off with a CRT is not only ill-informed, it's just plain wrong. First off you only need high refresh/response rates for gaming applications - most people I know don't play games while on the job. CRT's are just blurry in any resolution and no matter how high I've set the refresh rate I have always have eyestrain and trouble reading.
Getting a LCD was the smartest thing I ever did, my eyes thank me every night I use it.
Slashdot Mirror
and start from a "best of breed"
Does that mean we get to call it Linux BOB(TM) ?
Bah! All you need to do is add another mod to hide the mod they look for. Remenicient of the ever popular radar-detector-detector.
At least that's the guestimated figure. Add up the price of an iPod, and a top end iPaq, and the oQo's already a good deal.
I discovered this site some months ago and was awestruck. Finally a portable computer/workstation/storage capacity/web browser/music listening device that would make sense for me to buy. I think a standard PC-compatible device like this has the potential to wipe out, or at least replace, the PDA industry. Why bother having a PalmOS device? Why would you need a laptop? What use is an iPod that can only copy one-way? Just have this little computer, with a big enough screen to view a standard desktop with, and bring that around where ever you go.
On the site they mention you'll be able to get a Laptop shell accessory that you slide the oQo into, instantly making it a full-keyboard full-monitor laptop. In the corporate world it may be cheaper to buy everyone one of these rather than buying everyone a full blown desktop workstation, laptop computer, and PDA device.
Also it's built by some former Apple engineers (probably ones who worked on the iPod) which makes me hopefull that it won't be just vapourware.
In an effort to improve my health I haven't had any coff... damn I forgot what I was going to type.
Mesh - I have no idea how this band is not more well known (can you spell RIAA?), simply fantastic music across each of their albums. Lots of influence from Depeche Mode. The latest album "Who Watches Over Me" is sure to please just about anyone.
Evil's Toy (now called just T.O.Y.) - they started out as strictly Industrial, but have transformed their music into dancy/EBM in their latest albums.
Covenant - they've been around for a long time now, and are considered to be one of the founders of the EBM genre. Their last album "United States of Mind" is a definite must have.
Icon Of Coil - A style similar to the of VNV Nation but with a much more energetic and dancy feel. This a popular band that gets played a lot in Industrial clubs.
Echo Image - very very upbeat, pop/dancy, and enjoyable. They're brand new and hit the scene pretty hard with their album "Compuphonic".
Some other's to check out:
Cut.Rate.Box
Neuroticfish
The Nine
The Echoing Green
Iris
Colony 5
DeVision
Fictional
Where the heck do you find this type of music? Metropolis Records (http://www.metropolis-records.com) is the label most of these bands are on. They are independent label, with no affiliation with the RIAA as far as I know. You can get lots of info, and check out short clips from the bands. A Different Drum (http://www.adifferentdrum.com/) signed most of the others I listed.
Metropolis runs the BEST CD mail-order service (http://www.industrial-music.com), and carry music from lots of other labels as well.
alternative fuels like biodiesel ... but can also be made from other vegetable oils, animal fat and discarded cooking grease.
Cool, so now McDonald's can now change their signs to:
"Over 6 billion served...
And over 100,000 homes fueled"
all you need to do is become one of their customers.
I axed the idea of getting an Archos after a work-friend got one which eventually died because of battery problems. That, and the manufacturer wasn't very cooperative in repairing the unit.
The Toshiba is USB 2.0 (USB1 compatible), so you're saving at least $60 over the iPod - that $60 is like the last thorn, I'm just not willing to budget that kind of money for such a tiny, single-function device.
Anyone looked at the cheap portable CD players in Best Buy lately - they cost (no kidding) $25! Now tell me that burning a few CDR's and using a cheap cd player won't hold anyone over until better, cheaper options are around.
$499 for the iPod, plus ~$30 for a firewire addon card (unless you have one on your mb, or have SBAudigy), plus $30 for the software... adds up to a very pricey little toy on a Windows machine.
I've been sitting on the sidelines for a while now because of the costly barrier to entry, and pretty much given up on the iPod. Toshiba's unit, though maybe not as cute and revolutionary, makes a whole lot more sense on a Windows system both technically and financially.
What would go along well with this is double sided CD-R disks. I've always wondered why they aren't around. Have one side completely free to write these pretty graphics, text, warez keys, and the other side for the data or music.
Like, do I have to do a "trial death", spewing out messages all over the internet like "Hey I'm dead, blah, blah, oh by the way I'm just testing my death switch, you may disregard this message". I think after testing it out a couple of times nobody's really going care when you really do die to take notice.
Certainly the chances of an accidental death mode going off are high. So I think there should be different "death alert levels". If you don't sign in after a month, it starts sending out alert messages like "Hey I haven't been around for a while and I might be dead, please check whether or not I'm dead for me, Thanks bud!".
There should also be instructions given in an email to your friends/family so that they too can stop the death switch for you in dire or unusual situations (coma, kidnapping, laziness). And only then if another couple days pass it goes into full blown death mode.
So there must come a point where financially there is no reason to buy a bigger drive because consumers cannot use it up.
That would seem to make sense, but in my experience it's simply not true. No matter how unbelievably enormous my hard drives seem when I get them, over time I really have no trouble filling them up.
My theory is that (a power user's) disk usage scales proportionally with the amount of available disk space. You get a new drive, and fill it up with less 'compressed' data - like using lossless codec instead of MP3, and >1GB DivX files instead of 500MB ones. Install more games in "FULL" rather than playing off the CD's. And use duplicate disks in RAID for backups.
Almost all DVD-Audio disks are 6 channel 24bit/96Khz. They're not releasing 2 channel 24bit/192Khz DVD-Audio disks because they are trying to push multi-channel as the selling point rather than higher quality sound which most people don't care worth jack for.
SACD came out as a 2 channel only format which has significantly higher bitrate than 24/96 - it's 1 bit at (not sure here, but something like) 2.8Mbps - the bit size is not relevant with SACD. Multi-channel was later added as an option to the second layer.
Personally I could care little for multi-channel music and saddened that SACD never took off. If Sony had stuck to their guns by making all their new releases hybrid (CD quality + 2channel SACD) this format could've avoided the blood stained floor it's face down in now. There's not a single SACD that I'm interested in and Sony has scaled back new releases by an order of magnitude - so they too seem to be giving up with the format.
DVD-Audio is probably the best bet for a succeeding format. But they made the royally stupid mistake in requiring a TV to be hooked up to the player in order to hear music. Who the hell wants to turn on their TV, and then sift through visual menus in order to listen to a song. What the hell do they expect people to do for listening in the car? Random play? Changers on randome/loop? Why don't they give us the option of buying either a 2channel or 6channel release??
It's all screwed up and I hope both formats die off so that it may bring rise to a new format, done properly, that succeeds them both.
I think I'd be happy with this news if they decide to replace the alien that was bullying Luke with Jar Jar, and instead of Obiwan cutting off his arm he decides to rid the Star Wars universe of him once and for all:
JJ: "Meesa wanted man in 12 systems!!!"
Luke: "I'll be careful"
JJ: "Yousa be dead like a da Gungans!!!"
(swoosh! - lops off his head)
The Spiderman kiss got all the women to go see the movie. Whereas Star Wars mainly attracts geeks. I'm positive this is the reason that Spiderman out-did Star Wars.
1. Post an interesting Slashdot article to an unsuspecting web server
2. Let sizzle for 6 minutes
3. Laugh at annoyed Slashdot readers when they can't view the article.
Agent Elrond at the Matrix Counsel:
"Mr. Baggins... we've had our eye on you... for some time now. It appears as though you have been living two lives. In one life, you are a respectable member of the Shire. In the other life you go by the hobbit alias Underhill, and are guilty of secretly bearing of The One Ring. One of these lives has a future, the other does not.
We're prepared to wipe the slate clean, and give you second chance. All we need is some assistance in bringing a known menace to justice. He goes by the name Sauron...."
The flaw doesn't affect Mozilla 1.0 release candidate 1 because XMLHttpRequest appears to be broken in that release
;)
Hehe, I find that kinda funny
Nope, it's not even available for regular cable TV in Canada.
I don't believe the TV Studio's had a problem specifically with the ability to download recorded shows off the box. Rather they were irked by the built-in functionality of sharing those shows with other ReplayTV users. Saving the shows for your own purposes shouldn't be illegal because we have all had this ability with VCR's since they were introduced. You can stick in a tape, record a show, remove the tape and store it away. If this was illegal then no VCR's sold would have the ability to record anything. And if VCR's are allowed do it, so should DVR's.
I bet the only reason TiVo hasn't gone with full network interface is due to the legal problems ReplayTV is in. But I think if TiVo left out the auto-sharing features they would be in the clear.
One of the main obstacles that is preventing me from getting a TiVo thus far is the inability to save shows externally through a network. With a VCR I can record a show, movie, concert etc. for an unlimited amount of time - why can't TiVo do this? With the much more expensive ReplayTV you can download shows off the machine through a network connection. I find this feature extremely valuable as it would essentially extend the storage capacity to an unlimited amount.
Sure you could buy two 120GB drives for a TiVo, but then a growing amount of that space will be filled with shows stored for the long term. So unfortunately until I can download shows off a TiVo I'm gonna be sitting on the sidelines, or I'll eventually break down and go for the ReplayTV regardless if it's inferior to TiVo in other ways.
At it was last year, I doubt they've upped it that much. Just a generic shuttle that went to every hotel - of course when I went my hotel was the last of the trip so it was like a 20 min ride even though it was but a few miles walk. Those are the breaks.
That answers it right away. I've seen LCD's on laptops from a few years ago, and they are not even near the same league of performance to the latest generation of LCD's - I'm talking the ones from one year ore less ago with DVI-inputs.
To recommend to people that they are better off with a CRT is not only ill-informed, it's just plain wrong. First off you only need high refresh/response rates for gaming applications - most people I know don't play games while on the job. CRT's are just blurry in any resolution and no matter how high I've set the refresh rate I have always have eyestrain and trouble reading.
Getting a LCD was the smartest thing I ever did, my eyes thank me every night I use it.