I just got a roku for my parents, and at $100 it does what it needs to just fine. I can see Roku easily adding a USB port and "Media" channel to a future box without touching the pricepoint and doing the same thing all of these other boxes do.
Oh and it doesn't look like that stupid melted cube that D-link is trying to sell.
The problem is that many admins still don't understand sudo.
My asshole boss doesn't understand it either and though I consider it best practice as everyone has come to the conclusion, he still insists it's giving up too many rights on the hosts and he'll never use it.
But to be honest, I don't understand why you need root or that level of access on a box either. It works just as easily in the reverse, as a hosting company they could (should?) provide you logins and just enough access to do what you need to.
Seconded... though I would also check to see if they even reserve the right to do this in their Agreements. If they don't I'd bring legal into it because they're now detrimentally hurting your business and potentially violating privacy.
Beyond that, start hosting an "f my isp" website broadcasting the evidence you have against them until no one actually uses them.
And if you have no other isp option, start running a proxy host to jail them in.
My wife purchased a pantech matrix that was configured the same way. If you're at the home screen, if you hit the center button it would go to the web and start their service immediately. There was no way to repurpose the button and AT&T insisted when we buy the phone I should get a data plan for it. I'm not paying an unnecessary $30 a month for a data plan she'll (admittedly herself) never use. They wouldn't even place a block on data for the phone from their side (ludicrous, don't offer a service you can stumble onto).
Needless to say, you can set the home so that entering their service defaults to about:blank so the stumble factor is eliminated. You can also remove all of the wap.att and proxy configuration so that it never accesses the data service. Ultimately this disabled multimedia messaging on the phone though because apparently while they can't force SMS through a cheaper data line multimedia requires it. We're not complaining though, it's a pain in the ass paying for your stupid coworkers to send you 50,000 pictures of their kids that we don't care about and is costing us for their asshatery.
The entire cell phone industry needs to be investigated for the raping they do of their customers.
Ok, well then add mine to the Linux camp. Bought an HP Mini with XP. It had XP on it for all of 20 minutes to verify that hardware worked. Now it runs the latest Ubuntu (9.10) and does it quite handily.
Fix it at your video card: Make sure your video card supports video scaling for your monitor. I know for a while, I could tell my nvidia card to handle the scaling to my display for out of scale screens so that it would either stretch, full, or not scale at all and still display using the best native resolution of the monitor by adding letterboxing (in most cases around the whole screen). The video card would thus override the scalar in the monitor as a result.
Fix it at your video: Buy a screen that allows you to turn off the internal scalar. I know my current TV allows me to do this and at least one of my Dell's did it. I think it was my 2004 24" model.
In either scenario, you'll likely want to buy something that doesn't have a high resolution so you're not staring at a postage stamp on a 24" monitor. I find 17" screens at 1280x1024 are best for the older games.
Starcraft plays fine in a VirtualBox which creates a custom tailored windowed mode without much hacking. Also there is a high likelihood that you have an old Windows Key for 98 or XP to run it on.
If you don't install support for the virtual mouse drivers you can keep it locked in the VM.
If you run VM on Linux you can run Compiz and turn on ADD Helper to black out the rest of the screen.
Because my conversations that revolve around movies go more like:
P1: So, I watched ____ last night. P2: Was it any good? P1: No it sucked/Yes it was good.
And unfortunately there are far more in the "No" category and leads to P2 not bothering with the movie. This is why the industry wants you to think like you do, because it means less chance of a person finding out a movie sucks.
Slashdot Mirror
And good luck finding a retail, non-refurbished netbook at the $200 pricepoint these days.
I paid $300 for mine and I still feel I overpaid by about $100 for its underpoweredness.
I just got a roku for my parents, and at $100 it does what it needs to just fine. I can see Roku easily adding a USB port and "Media" channel to a future box without touching the pricepoint and doing the same thing all of these other boxes do.
Oh and it doesn't look like that stupid melted cube that D-link is trying to sell.
The problem is that many admins still don't understand sudo.
My asshole boss doesn't understand it either and though I consider it best practice as everyone has come to the conclusion, he still insists it's giving up too many rights on the hosts and he'll never use it.
But to be honest, I don't understand why you need root or that level of access on a box either. It works just as easily in the reverse, as a hosting company they could (should?) provide you logins and just enough access to do what you need to.
Seconded... though I would also check to see if they even reserve the right to do this in their Agreements. If they don't I'd bring legal into it because they're now detrimentally hurting your business and potentially violating privacy.
Beyond that, start hosting an "f my isp" website broadcasting the evidence you have against them until no one actually uses them.
And if you have no other isp option, start running a proxy host to jail them in.
My wife purchased a pantech matrix that was configured the same way. If you're at the home screen, if you hit the center button it would go to the web and start their service immediately. There was no way to repurpose the button and AT&T insisted when we buy the phone I should get a data plan for it. I'm not paying an unnecessary $30 a month for a data plan she'll (admittedly herself) never use. They wouldn't even place a block on data for the phone from their side (ludicrous, don't offer a service you can stumble onto).
Needless to say, you can set the home so that entering their service defaults to about:blank so the stumble factor is eliminated. You can also remove all of the wap.att and proxy configuration so that it never accesses the data service. Ultimately this disabled multimedia messaging on the phone though because apparently while they can't force SMS through a cheaper data line multimedia requires it. We're not complaining though, it's a pain in the ass paying for your stupid coworkers to send you 50,000 pictures of their kids that we don't care about and is costing us for their asshatery.
The entire cell phone industry needs to be investigated for the raping they do of their customers.
So long as (stupidly) company internal apps require the browser for "compatibility". It's that way where I work, and it's stupid.
This will never sell. It doesn't fit into the entertainment center paradigm. It looks like a puzzle box and a toy.
Is it time to start "2010 Year of Linux" celebration just yet?
1. It's 3-4 year old integrated graphics.
2. Intel may be open, but their drivers still suck.
3. Flash is awful.
Agree though. Web video is hit or miss on my netbook. Fortunately I use it more for a terminal.
Ok, well then add mine to the Linux camp. Bought an HP Mini with XP. It had XP on it for all of 20 minutes to verify that hardware worked. Now it runs the latest Ubuntu (9.10) and does it quite handily.
Preston and Steve FTW
I wish people would stop jumping on the "wear on the flash chips" issue. It's not that big of a deal anymore, drop it people.
Two options:
Fix it at your video card:
Make sure your video card supports video scaling for your monitor. I know for a while, I could tell my nvidia card to handle the scaling to my display for out of scale screens so that it would either stretch, full, or not scale at all and still display using the best native resolution of the monitor by adding letterboxing (in most cases around the whole screen). The video card would thus override the scalar in the monitor as a result.
Fix it at your video:
Buy a screen that allows you to turn off the internal scalar. I know my current TV allows me to do this and at least one of my Dell's did it. I think it was my 2004 24" model.
In either scenario, you'll likely want to buy something that doesn't have a high resolution so you're not staring at a postage stamp on a 24" monitor. I find 17" screens at 1280x1024 are best for the older games.
Uh, they haven't. My latest MSI motherboard has two of them to change the speeds... (they're just not externally accessable).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130233
:/ I wish that were the case, most of the time UFO Defense/XCom runs "too fast" on my newer hardware making it impossible to navigate the field.
Starcraft plays fine in a VirtualBox which creates a custom tailored windowed mode without much hacking. Also there is a high likelihood that you have an old Windows Key for 98 or XP to run it on.
If you don't install support for the virtual mouse drivers you can keep it locked in the VM.
If you run VM on Linux you can run Compiz and turn on ADD Helper to black out the rest of the screen.
You're confusing high availabilty with disaster recovery. Don't worry, my managers can't get it right either.
Really...
Because my conversations that revolve around movies go more like:
P1: So, I watched ____ last night.
P2: Was it any good?
P1: No it sucked/Yes it was good.
And unfortunately there are far more in the "No" category and leads to P2 not bothering with the movie. This is why the industry wants you to think like you do, because it means less chance of a person finding out a movie sucks.
I think you missed the point, he wants to try out the OS and doesn't want a Mac Mini anyway.
They NEED to charge for it too. People see free and they think "it must be crappy if it's free".
Stop... please... my credit card can't handle this.
I don't need a new mac, I don't need a new mac, I don't need a new mac....
Damnit.... can it run XSAN?
Um, I had a 32MB Diamond RIO Player that came out long before the iPod (around 2 years) that had it's buttons arranged in a wheel-like pattern.
Except that even with your own os, Sony restricts access to the graphics API.
Last time I checked, student loan interest is deductible... I don't know what more of a handout this guy needs.
YOU SIGNED THE PAPERWORK, YOU HAVE NO ONE ELSE TO BLAME, YOU COULD HAVE GONE TO A CHEAPER SCHOOL.
Don't worry they'll packet shape it into oblivion and turn around and blame google or skype for the crappy quality citing exactly what you state.