User: SethJohnson

sure

On: ReplayTV 4500: No Hacking, or Else

Sure it is possible.

Feasible is the bigger question.

If their protocol implements any kind of proprietary encryption scheme, it could take a very long time do decipher. It could also be illegal to do so in the US per the DMCA.

definitely worth the risk

On: What Free Cable?

In Austin, Tx, the penalty for cable TV theft is a Class C Misdemeanor. That's the equivalent of a $50 ticket. The city govt. finally reduced it about two years ago because they were having a bitch of a time prosecuting people under whatever harsher class of crime it was. It was impossible to get a jury to go along with a prosecution of a crime to which there are no witnesses, fingerprints, and the following defenses are available:

1. It was running when we moved in. I thought it was free.

2. There are three people living in this house. Which one of us goes to jail? Who do you think hooked up the line? Do you have fingerprints?

3. Isn't it possible one of your installer techs forgot to unhook the cable from the last time this house was subscribed?

4. We were getting cable tv? We don't even have a tv in the house!

Also, don't worry about some van driving by with an antennae. The real enforcement is a guy walking down the alley checking the connection points and tracing lines to homes. He compares what he finds to his clipboard, then when he finds someone in violation, he knocks on the door to offer them the opportunity to pay for a cable subscription so he won't turn them in. This fellow is paid by commission for the number of people he signs up. The best response to him is the afformentioned, "We don't have a tv set. It is the devil's appliance."

works great for backing up, not restoring...

On: April 1, 1972: Write Only Memory

This reminds me of a friend of mine who had a DAT drive for his Mac. He would do weekly backups of his entire (500meg or so) hard drive on this same tape. He was basically rewriting over the same stuff all the time. Apparently these tapes (I don't know anything about tape drive storage) degrade after repeated writings. So one day his system is hosed and he goes to the tape to recover. Nothing will read.

He called me on the phone to discuss the situation. As we concluded our conversation, I remember him sort of defending the reputation of the device by saying in a very sincere voice, "It works great for backups, it just doesn't work too well for restoration." And he was serious.

Re:Early 90s.

On: 1394 Trade Association Adopts FireWire Brand

I think you're right that Firewire was developed around the 94 time period. There was also some multimedia chipset that was developed around the same time. This was just before Gil Amelio arrived on the scene. When Jobs took over in 96 or so, he was dumping all the technologies that weren't making money. QuickdrawGX, OpenDoc, clone licenses, etc. That multimedia chipset was one of those. FireWire, however, survived. I can't remember the codename for the multimedia chipset, but it was something Austin-related.

I strongly suspect this article meant to say this was developed in the mid 90s as the first Mac was released in the mid 80s.

a typo perhaps?

On: 1394 Trade Association Adopts FireWire Brand

From this article on yahoo news:

" Apple developed FireWire for its own products in the mid-1980s but decided to propose it as an industry standard to broaden its use. "

Who thinks this was the feature that made the Lisa so expensive?

dumb nerds is right..

On: George Lucas May Be Completely Evil

I love that scene in Indiana Jones where he dispatches some dumb nerd with his pistol.

What in the fuck do you have a fake samurai sword for? Get a life and go outside and find a girlfriend you can beat up. Sheesh.

Re:coming soon - the Blind Date mod

On: Augmented Reality Quake

...anyone coming at me wearing one of those things doesn't stand much of a chance of getting a date, much less getting me to wear it.

One advantage to wearing this on a date with a bitchy female such as this specimen is that you could alter the torso rendering to feature larger juggs.

Seth

Re:Why Linux?

On: Microsoft vs. Northwest Schools Part III

In general I do agree with your support for Linux as a solution. It's basically the only thing that extricates the schools from this "buy a site license or we audit you" threat of Microsoft (via the[ir] BSA). Even with Macs, they could get audited because they've agreed to EULA's on Microsoft's apps like Office and Word.

I agree that a lot of Macs have been displaced in schools due to the donation of obsolete PC hardware. Not what I'd consider a good thing, but hey, looks good on the books.

The part where I think you go offcourse is with this statement:

There are a few die-hards still using Macs in education, and they're generally only used for teaching Photoshop.

Schools are still using Macs in a big way. So much so, that Apple released their second education-only computer this year. If they weren't in demand from the education market, Apple wouldn't be making them exclusively for that market. The University Of Texas @ Austin has also determined that the Apple platform is strong in the US education system. College students studying at UT to become teachers themselves must purchase an Apple iBook to use for their classes.

Seth

certainly will reduce the amount of warez installe

On: Microsoft vs. Northwest Schools Part III

Linux labs, beyond the gains of remote administration, lighter hardware requirements, lower license expenses, etc., will also benefit these administrators because they won't have to deal with piles of warez installed. There might be some archives hidden away in user dirs, but I don't think those violate licensing audits.

perhaps that's their advantage over the US

On: China Plans Moonbase

Westerners tend to think in short, digestible timeframes.

A lot of this has to do with the cyclical nature of our political system. Notice how current leaders are eager to hand out tax cuts while everyone under the sun knows that Social Security will be kaput in 20 years. The impact felt 20 years from now is irrelevant to the politician that needs to get re-elected in 4 years and won't need to be re-elected in 20 years. Global warming? "Oh, we've got time to sit on that one. Let's keep saying it needs more research. We've got coal-burning campaign contributors to look after..."

That's why we're having a hard time getting NASA projects funded that take a long time. Mars missions? Too long to plan and execute. That doesn't fit into an election cycle.

But more on topic, I seriously doubt that the goal is to mine the moon. The resources up there would cost way too much to properly exploit and send back to the Earth when there are still plenty of resources here to exploit. This is either military or they are tring to find some place to store all those damn people.

Re:Uhh... This isn't for this crowd.

On: USB Remote Control

Good points. I'd go even more shallow, though, and say what is the point of muting and then pausing when pause will generally provide a muting effect in the first place. Why develop technology around user error in the first place?

guess it was stupid for texas to sue tobacco

On: Microsoft Urged Linux Retaliation

Hmm. Wasting taxpayer money in these pointless lawsuits.

If you want examples of government intervention in the economy, there are plenty. The links I just provided are examples where the government is subsidising american industries that are unable to compete with foreign exporters. Should the govt. also be subsidising tech companies that are unable to compete with microsoft? If there were more companies than microsoft providing OSs, there certainly would be more jobs available for supporting those OSs and applications.

This lawsuit is about protecting consumers from the perils of the microsoft monopoly just as the texas lawsuit against the tobacco manufacturers was intended to protect the funds spent by the taxpayers on all the medical expenses created by their product.

So what are the perils? How about the lack of competition prompting feature-rich products at competitive prices? In normal markets, competitors have to keep their prices low and continue developing features that are better than other products. Is that pressure on Microsoft? No. Microsoft has the freedom from competition, so it can dedicate all its attention towards how to bilk more money out of consumers.

can I have your phone number?

On: MS Judge to Allow Demonstration of Modular Windows

Seth looks a whole lot more attractive to me.

Are you a girl? Maybe we could get together sometime?

same as that Dallas Morning News mess...

On: Program Tivo over AOL

The real irony with yesterday's story about the Dallas Morning News opposing 'deep linking' the technological retards at the dallas morning news had invested heavily in a startup company whose only product "...instructs your Web browser to go directly to a page within a Web site, eliminating the need to go through several links."

Geez. Even when every other critic in the world had pronounced the CueCat a stupid idea and a failed business effort, the Dallas Morning News kept supporting it. Now they've turned a 180 and want to force people to click through as many pages as possible. What gives?

I can understand how a mega-goliath like AOL-TimeWarner might be at opposing ends of an issue. Sort of like how Sony makes CDRW drives and also finances the RIAA in battling piracy. But the Dallas Morning News people who are running their website (and presumeably the CueCat debachle) probably all sit in the same building.

Seth

the real irony- Morning News biggest CueCat funder

On: "Deep Linking" Controversy Renewed in Texas

The real irony here is that the technological retards at the dallas morning news had invested heavily in a startup company whose only product "...instructs your Web browser to go directly to a page within a Web site, eliminating the need to go through several links."


Geez. Even when every other critic in the world had pronounced the CueCat a stupid idea and a failed business effort, the Dallas Morning News kept supporting it. Now they've turned a 180 and want to force people to click through as many pages as possible. What gives?

Here's an insightful look at the Dallas Morning News tech-leadership--

[From http://MediaNews.com]

Dallas Morning News president: People just love that CueCat!
"Our market research shows consumers love this product and can't wait to use it at home," says Robert W. Mong Jr., president and general manager of The Dallas Morning News. "I find that very reassuring." He should; his paper's parent has invested $40 million in the company making the device.
From RENEE HOPKINS: "You may have noticed that the Dallas Morning News' :CueCat artice carries no byline, only the cryptic 'from staff reports.' That tells me that my former DMN coworkers didn't want anyone's name associated with this biased puff piece. If the DMN staffers had been allowed to actually report on the OTHER side of the story -- that the :CueCat has so far received negative reviews for being a fairly useless and hard-to-use piece of technology -- the story would have been bylined."

i don't think so

On: New OpenOffice.org-Based Office Suite

Consider this: Microsoft charges something like $500 for each copy of msOffice. The cost to create msOffice is static. No matter how many copies of the product they sell, it does not cost the company more money to produce it. This is unlike a traditional manufacturing concern like Ford where the profit margin rides barely above the cost to manufacture each car.

Once the cost to produce is covered, you would normally expect the price to drop on a given product. That would be the case in an environment where competition influences pricing. Since microsoft has no competition in this area, it can keep the price abnormally high. Compare this to the current release of Lightwave. That app sells probably a millionth of the number of copies that msOffice sells each year. The app costs $1500. With normal economies of scale, microsoft should be able to sell msOffice for a dime. Why should it? There's no competition out there. That's where free software comes in. As long as there is no pressure for microsoft to lower the price, they'll keep gouging customers. "You don't like the price of our office suite? Go build your own." That's precisely what we're doing.

if they make lots of profits and show VCs and investors that it can be a nice thing to put money into software companies?

I think you need to talk to more people involved in startups who have solicited money from VC's. You want to guarantee yourself NO money from a group of investors? Mention that your product is intended to compete in any way with microsoft. They're the 900 pound gorilla in so many markets. Investors know that throwing money at anything that would attempt to compete with microsoft is basically guaranteeing failure. The more areas where microsoft takes over, the fewer areas a startup can try to develop a business plan. Notice that there are no big companies forming in areas where microsoft has taken over. Anybody that's big was started before microsoft became the goliath- Netscape, Apple, Real Networks, AOL, and Sun. If you want a fewer number of opportunities for new companies to grow, continue to buy and use msOffice. Otherwise, support free software.

no you don't

On: TiVo Series 2 Review

Why in the world would you want to be Harry Knowles? Sure you'd get to have your (huge) ass pampered by movie studios so you'd continue to give flattering reviews of the most formulaic Hollywood product seen on screen.

But do you really want to pay the cost of being Harry Knowles? For starters, you've got a very short expected lifespan. You live with your dad even through your twenties, but you smell like a homeless man. You walk with a cane and can't climb stairs. After you die, you'll quickly be forgotten by the public consciousness-- you're no Gene Siskel.

You're really willing to accept this arrangement so you can get flown around to see movie premieres?

Re:get a second tv...

On: ATi's New All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500 128MB

Yeah, I agree. It's another one of those situations where technology just hasn't quite caught up to our ideas yet...

get a second tv...

On: ATi's New All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500 128MB

Hey. Sometimes the technical daredevil solution is not the best one. I'm speaking from the position of someone who has spent countless hours and weekends on projects like the one you attempted to provide some video (porn?) over your home network for your 'GF' (Gay Friend?).

Granted, your ambitions may have been cheated by ATI's laziness in leveraging some half-assed package provided my microsoft. But even if it had worked, do you really need your computer AND your girlfriend's computer wasting CPU cycles on encoding and decoding video files and tying up your home network with all that data? The lowtech approach of running coax or whatever in parallel with your ethernet cables and plugging it into a seperate TV set might be a more reliable and easier-to-implement solution.

Don't get me wrong, though. I'm not mocking your project. It just echoes some of the technological boondoggles I've sucked myself into.

accountability will kill the linux migration..

On: MS Pressuring NW Schools: Pay Up, Or Face Audit

I fully support the intentions of everyone who is willing to dedicate time to help the school system migrate over to linux. Believe me, I'd fly up there for a week to help out if it were going to happen. But it won't

The school system will not authorize this initiative because there is no accountability with this solution. Let's say we succesfully get all these donated computers switched over to Linux. Three months down the road, who do they call when some teacher needs to select a different printer? The school system is going to want to know who will support all this new stuff. They aren't going to accept that "if you have questions, send an e-mail to this list and someone should answer you."

OTOH, this is a huge opportunity. If anyone still has some of their dotcom fun-money left over, here's a chance to start a new company that should be profitable almost immediately. If school districts are getting blackmailed for $500k, there is definitely some alternate-solution sales opportunities for a company to come in and completely undercut microsoft with free software and make money from the support contracts. Of course the kicker here is that support will need to be via remote administration, via a very uniform distro. Not having someone actually onsite will also increase the profit margin.

If anyone executes on this idea, shoot me an e-mail. I wanna participate.

homeless guy

On: Review: Creative Labs Video Blaster - Digital VCR

As someone who lives in austin, I can shed some insight here.

Although Harry Knowles smells like he's homeless, he's not. He lives with his dad as he has for the last 25 or so years.

the danger of mailing lists.. esp. SuSE user list

On: Stopping Spambots: A Spambot Trap

Another way your e-mail address can be susceptible to spambots is if you participate in any mailing list. If the administrator decides to archive the list on a website, in many cases the email addresses of the participants will be there in plain text. I found this out after doing a google search for my own email address and having it turn up on the SuSE web site. I sent an e-mail asking that they do a regsub on the archive to substitute the '@' with [at] or something similar. That was more than six months ago and the SuSE website admin still hasn't done it.

wonder what this means..

On: Stopping Spambots: A Spambot Trap

I was just checking out one of the email harvesting products and saw this in the description:

Automatically avoids spam trap pages.

I wonder if this is a lie.. I also think it's funny because the rest of the product literature doesn't refer to it as a spam tool, but then this blurb is straight-up admitting it.

Here's another funny 'feature'--

Resume at the same place it left off even if your computer
crashes.

Doesn't exactly instill confidence in the stability of this product..

free speech and anonymity

On: Tattered Cover v. Thornton Reversed

The question you appear to be asking here is whether or not free speech covers anonymous speech. This is still an issue that is being debated in the state courts. The KKK has been semi-succesful in overturning some state courts on this matter because they (along with ACLU backing) claim they should be able to march in rallies with their hoods hiding their identities.

The Tattered Cover is trying to defend its right to sell (publish) books to anonymous readers. The thought here is that if book purchasers were aware that their reading habits were under scrutiny by the govt., then they would be less likely to purchase books containing unpopular opinions. This infringes on the Tattered Cover's ability to speak (sell books containing) unpopular opinions.

Perhaps a more immediate example is your ability to post to slashdot as your own login or an Anonymous Coward. Wouldn't you feel like your 1st Amendment rights were being revoked if there wasn't that 'Post Anonymously' checkbox available? Obviously there are means to backtrack IP addresses, etc. in cases where a poster has threatened the life of the pres., etc. but those mechanisms wouldn't be used to suppress unpopular speech.

how to speak on their level

On: Seeking Arguments Against the CBDTPA?

You say you want to be able to speak on their level. Politicians understand two things: campaign contributions and public awareness.

Both are valuable to the politician to prepare for the next election. All actions by a politician can be traced to these two motivators. In your case, you're up against an issue that is funded by the recording and motion picture industries. Neither of which are headquartered in florida. So what's happened is that these industries have spent money to influence your senator to support them. Your senator is not proposing this law to protect jobs in florida.

Since you probably don't have the funds to match the campaign contributions of the MPAA and RIAA to your senator, you'll need to leverage public awareness. If you can bring with you 5,000 signatures on a petition, then you can demonstrate to your senator that people are aware of his unpopular law. With enough signatures on your petition, then the senator will recognize the damage this law will do to his chances of getting re-elected in spite of all the campaign money he earns from the RI/MPAA. Failing your ability to collect a lot of signatures from people in your state (signatures from people in other states aren't too important to a senator), then you might want to bring a list of people and companies in florida who will be inhibited by his legislation. Ask him to provide a matching list of people and companies in florida who will be protected by his legislation.