> most of the people complaining in the USA about broadband live out in the exuburbs or rural areas and want the gubment to pay for the infrastructure
Sounds like the Rural Electrification Act.
Are you really prepared to declare that we are no longer civilized enough to make sure that no one is left behind in this country?
The infastructure you are using right now or even the city you are living in likely is the result of the sort of "gubment" handout you are trying to whine about.
> Yeah, this guy is totally wrong because [insert my own personal anecdote here] !!!
Argument by counterexample is a perfectly acceptable approach. It tends to be more effective when some clueless ass makes some really stupid general statement.
Cable cards aren't proper European style CAM modules. The process at the FCC was perverted by the industry. They still try to enforce end-to-end encryption despite the fact that you already PAID for the cable signal.
This doesn't just limit Linux. It also limits MacOS and can even sabotage an actual Tivo.
This isn't about encryption. It's all encrypted. This is about copy flags and what you are allowed to do with the signal you paid for. Comcast tends to be consumer friendly. Time Warner not. Although each local provider can do what they want.
You can't trust that a channel like HBO will be treated the same by all providers (adding to the confusion).
Even in the US you may find that all you can get are religious and Spanish channels. Broadcast reception remains a tricky thing regardless of the digital switch.
Even if you are building a Linux PVR from scratch for the first time never having used Linux before, you still may find sorting out your broadcast signal to be your biggest challenge.
> Wow--does "patent holder" = "patent troll" now in common parlance?
It fits the metaphor.
The entity is trying to charge for something that really isn't theirs. The fact that they are doing so under the color of law really doesn't change the situation. It just means they are taking advantage of a poorly administered law.
Tivo abuses bad patents. The question of whether or not they are a non-practicing-entity is really a red herring.
It's not obvious, it's trivial. THAT is the real problem and why the idea should be unpatentable.
Whether or not it is "obvious" is really a red herring.
You shouldn't be able to patent every trivial bit of nonsense that flitters through your head. That's not what patents are for. They are not a virtual land grab. They are meant to encourage the disclosure of interesting trade secrets, things that can't be replicated by University undergrads.
No. This is an example of a really BAD patent and you are just a corporate toadie.
The user experience of Tivo is nothing special. While it manages to beat the attempts of entrenched monopolies, that is no special feat. If Tivo has the appearance of being good, it's mainly because they are a patent troll and have chased potential rivals out of their immediate market.
After a few months of using MythTV, my users didn't want to have anything to do with Tivo anymore.
For the younger crowd, the entire PVR concept is simply behind the times. They've moved on to options that are fully on demand.
Basically, you should be able to show up to your local Army base ready for action armed with your own weapons and trained how to use them.
This means being able to own and operate your own pistol, rifle, or machine gun. It's an expectation similar to what you would expect out of the militia in 1790.
Plenty of companies forgo Redhat contracts just as plenty of companies used to forgo Sun contracts.
The idea that you need someone else to blame is mainly an idea of a certain small group of large companies that are darlings of the financial news media.
If you want another kind of movie, you can always go to the art house down the street. It's a wide open market out there. If the good stuff isn't getting enough love then it's your own fault really.
...except stopping piracy is more like creating the kind of police state that the NSA is trying to create.
It's pretty easy for a single entity to stop breaking the law.
It's much harder to police 300 MILLION individuals in an open society with readily available technology and a high speed planetary communications medium.
Telling the NSA no is a lot easier (and far less harmful) than pulling Gestapo tactics on the entire population of a democracy.
Certainly on the demand side there's a lot to devalue a cinematic release. This doesn't just include alternate ways in which you can get Hollywood content for cheap. This also includes nonsense like LOLcats and Zynga games.
It's not just about pirates and the $5 BluRay bin at Walmart.
> You realize that successful blockbusters aren't the norm right?
Are you kidding? They have been the norm probably longer than you've been alive.
Every single gamble doesn't necessarily payoff. However, that's how it is in ALL businesses. Unless you have a gold mine, you don't have a magic money making machine.
> and there is no way a crappy pirated copy is in any way equivalent to seeing the movie in a decent theater.
Unless you want to go through the trouble of seeing something on the best screen in town on opening weekend, what you will end up with will probably be little better than what you can manage at home with a relatively meager investment in equipment.
In that regard, there might be something to these "opening weekend" numbers.
The part that bugged me is the idea of fixing an obviously badly broken application by just throwing more hardware at it. Although doing this with hardware of dubious reliability does seem like a recipe for disaster.
It's easy to be apathetic when you never or rarely fly.
People are much less prone to stick up for others. If you make it clear that they are going to be impacted then the level of interest is going to increase dramatically.
"free speech zones" just sound like tinfoil ramblings to most people.
> You could record on a Win7 DVR, compress to Mp4, and then feed those to the AppleTV through itunes.
Or you could just skip the strange and unecessary step of trying to marry an AppleTV to WMC. Your proposal would probably fail for the target demographic even harder than a conventional WMC setup.
For a pedestrian user that has no interest in multi-room viewing, a solution that requires no PC and neither of the big PC vendors would likely be the most logical option (namely, get them a Tivo).
It's part of the Ayn Rand mentality where all credit is given to the appropriate tyrant whether or not that guy is actually an "entrepenuer" or not. No one considers the little guy whether that's current upstart startups or just the cogs in the tyrant's company.
Smart Watch? That's nothing more than what tinkerers were doing 10 years ago. Tech has just improved since then to make it less of a freakish side show idea.
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> most of the people complaining in the USA about broadband live out in the exuburbs or rural areas and want the gubment to pay for the infrastructure
Sounds like the Rural Electrification Act.
Are you really prepared to declare that we are no longer civilized enough to make sure that no one is left behind in this country?
The infastructure you are using right now or even the city you are living in likely is the result of the sort of "gubment" handout you are trying to whine about.
> Yeah, this guy is totally wrong because [insert my own personal anecdote here] !!!
Argument by counterexample is a perfectly acceptable approach. It tends to be more effective when some clueless ass makes some really stupid general statement.
The article was about one such ass.
Cable cards aren't proper European style CAM modules. The process at the FCC was perverted by the industry. They still try to enforce end-to-end encryption despite the fact that you already PAID for the cable signal.
This doesn't just limit Linux. It also limits MacOS and can even sabotage an actual Tivo.
This isn't about encryption. It's all encrypted. This is about copy flags and what you are allowed to do with the signal you paid for. Comcast tends to be consumer friendly. Time Warner not. Although each local provider can do what they want.
You can't trust that a channel like HBO will be treated the same by all providers (adding to the confusion).
Even in the US you may find that all you can get are religious and Spanish channels. Broadcast reception remains a tricky thing regardless of the digital switch.
Even if you are building a Linux PVR from scratch for the first time never having used Linux before, you still may find sorting out your broadcast signal to be your biggest challenge.
> Wow--does "patent holder" = "patent troll" now in common parlance?
It fits the metaphor.
The entity is trying to charge for something that really isn't theirs. The fact that they are doing so under the color of law really doesn't change the situation. It just means they are taking advantage of a poorly administered law.
Tivo abuses bad patents. The question of whether or not they are a non-practicing-entity is really a red herring.
> How is that obvious?
It's not obvious, it's trivial. THAT is the real problem and why the idea should be unpatentable.
Whether or not it is "obvious" is really a red herring.
You shouldn't be able to patent every trivial bit of nonsense that flitters through your head. That's not what patents are for. They are not a virtual land grab. They are meant to encourage the disclosure of interesting trade secrets, things that can't be replicated by University undergrads.
No. This is an example of a really BAD patent and you are just a corporate toadie.
The user experience of Tivo is nothing special. While it manages to beat the attempts of entrenched monopolies, that is no special feat. If Tivo has the appearance of being good, it's mainly because they are a patent troll and have chased potential rivals out of their immediate market.
After a few months of using MythTV, my users didn't want to have anything to do with Tivo anymore.
For the younger crowd, the entire PVR concept is simply behind the times. They've moved on to options that are fully on demand.
That means your average redneck being able to shoot better than most professional soldiers.
The colonial militia actually joined the British Army on it's little adventures through North America.
Basically, you should be able to show up to your local Army base ready for action armed with your own weapons and trained how to use them.
This means being able to own and operate your own pistol, rifle, or machine gun. It's an expectation similar to what you would expect out of the militia in 1790.
She has the right to not incriminate herself PERIOD.
How hard is this to understand?
It's almost like we need the Ten Commandments on courtroom walls just to give morons a good example of a categorical imperative.
Plenty of companies forgo Redhat contracts just as plenty of companies used to forgo Sun contracts.
The idea that you need someone else to blame is mainly an idea of a certain small group of large companies that are darlings of the financial news media.
In other words they made a Superman movie.
If you want another kind of movie, you can always go to the art house down the street. It's a wide open market out there. If the good stuff isn't getting enough love then it's your own fault really.
...except stopping piracy is more like creating the kind of police state that the NSA is trying to create.
It's pretty easy for a single entity to stop breaking the law.
It's much harder to police 300 MILLION individuals in an open society with readily available technology and a high speed planetary communications medium.
Telling the NSA no is a lot easier (and far less harmful) than pulling Gestapo tactics on the entire population of a democracy.
Certainly on the demand side there's a lot to devalue a cinematic release. This doesn't just include alternate ways in which you can get Hollywood content for cheap. This also includes nonsense like LOLcats and Zynga games.
It's not just about pirates and the $5 BluRay bin at Walmart.
> You realize that successful blockbusters aren't the norm right?
Are you kidding? They have been the norm probably longer than you've been alive.
Every single gamble doesn't necessarily payoff. However, that's how it is in ALL businesses. Unless you have a gold mine, you don't have a magic money making machine.
Although on average it works out.
> and there is no way a crappy pirated copy is in any way equivalent to seeing the movie in a decent theater.
Unless you want to go through the trouble of seeing something on the best screen in town on opening weekend, what you will end up with will probably be little better than what you can manage at home with a relatively meager investment in equipment.
In that regard, there might be something to these "opening weekend" numbers.
The part that bugged me is the idea of fixing an obviously badly broken application by just throwing more hardware at it. Although doing this with hardware of dubious reliability does seem like a recipe for disaster.
It's easy to be apathetic when you never or rarely fly.
People are much less prone to stick up for others. If you make it clear that they are going to be impacted then the level of interest is going to increase dramatically.
"free speech zones" just sound like tinfoil ramblings to most people.
As someone else stated, it's all in how you ask the question.
You can engineer the survey to get the result you want. Survey companies have been doing this for a very long time. It's no big secret.
Add in some misleading journalism and the misinformation becomes easier still.
> You could record on a Win7 DVR, compress to Mp4, and then feed those to the AppleTV through itunes.
Or you could just skip the strange and unecessary step of trying to marry an AppleTV to WMC. Your proposal would probably fail for the target demographic even harder than a conventional WMC setup.
For a pedestrian user that has no interest in multi-room viewing, a solution that requires no PC and neither of the big PC vendors would likely be the most logical option (namely, get them a Tivo).
Alternately, just use a single WMC box.
...it's almost like all of the relevant acquisitions that lead to the creation of these monsters should have been supressed by the FTC to begin with.
You're asking the same entity that allowed this nonsense to happen to fix this nonsense. A bit like letting the fox guard the hen house.
I am sure slashdoters objected to many of these mergers when they happened in the first place.
Yes but did build modern scale coliseums. Some of those are still being used today.
> If you really want to check facts, the Vatican was first recognized as a separate nation
I think you are quibbling over syntax and trying to claim that has any significance.
It's part of the Ayn Rand mentality where all credit is given to the appropriate tyrant whether or not that guy is actually an "entrepenuer" or not. No one considers the little guy whether that's current upstart startups or just the cogs in the tyrant's company.
Smart Watch? That's nothing more than what tinkerers were doing 10 years ago. Tech has just improved since then to make it less of a freakish side show idea.