It's said over and over "Nobody's going to make drivers and software for an os that is only used by 1% of the market" However when I go looking for server hardware (Statistics show Linux has the majority market in servers) I see Windows NT hardware only (The less than 1% in servers) Nothing for Solarus (Linux is pushing Solarus out of the market) nothing for BSD (a strong contender) just Windows NT.
I use Linux religously but often I find hardware makers refuse to make specs available so I have to shop around and use my wireless palm to do netsearches while at the store to see if the hardware on the shelf has available Linux drivers.
And that palm itself is a problem. I use a handspring visor not an actual palm but still palm os. I have to be careful that the hardware I get for it dosen't need support from the desktop as there may not be a Linux driver. Mom got a palm i705 and often Palm relases software updates that only work on Windows. I fix this by taking moms Palm to work install the updates and return it to her.
But I'm douptful many will go so far out of the way to insure Linux support is available before buying new hardware.
Most gammers tell me they can't use Linux becouse the populare game titles often don't have Linux couterparts. I favor free software but thats one reason I use Linux religously. I just don't want to pay for software and with Linux I don't have to. And for me thats reason enough to bend over backwards to make sure the hardware works on Linux. I'm simply not buying the Windows counterpart to use the hardware the way I want.
Becouse Linux hardware is PC hardware I'm sure many Linux users buy PC hardware to find no Linux drivers or specs and so they have little choice.
Thankfully for me some people are even more fanatical and actually reverse engenere hardware to make drivers. With out them I doupt I'd have any drivers for most of the hardware I use now.
Would probably be more realistic for a business person. Pritty wemen while rare enough just aren't as rare as a talking frog. Put em on stage.. just make sure the frog talks when on stage and dosen't go silent like the WB frog did in the Loony toon cartoon where he first appeared.
The geek however would look at the practicality. A talking frog wouldn't have anything intresting to talk about. A butiful woman could tell the story of how she became a frog and the whole experence.
In a DS9 eppisode Quark had to pay to find out what law he has broken.
I can see this.. Police officers with a cash box so you can pay 50 cents to find out your tail light was broken.
TV News being sued for thousands of dollers over copyright infrengment for discussing a new law. and what a way to sillence protesters than to use shrinkwrap liccenses. "Sorry but you can't protest it unless you know what it is. If you know what it is you already agreed to NOT protest it. Unless you pirated the text.."
I wonder how long it'll take for a porn site to be set up under kids.us.
I wonder how soon after the'll lose the domain. and then the lawsutes. Happends every time somebody trys to set aside a segment of the net for something some legalistic jerk comes by and uses the law to force his own "freedom of speach" in a totally innapropreate way.
Most of what they are doing IS illegal inside the US. It takes less effort to advertise a lagit business via other means than to move to China and continue using spam to scam.
I think the problem is SI FI trys to run things as is and expects the shows momentum to keep it good while they learn what makes it good. The flaw is I've noticed when a show switches networks the show is losing or lost momentum and needs some work to stay alive. Additionally the last few epps on the old network are ment to hurt the show on the new network. Example when UPN took over Buffy from WB the last thing WB did was kill the main character. Had UPN just let momentum carry it the UPN Buffy would suck. I don't think it has the same appeal but UPN did a good job using the death of Buffy like a dramatic plot twist. But Sifi is an old show warehouse when they need to repair them. Thats why IMAO Sifi shows don't work. Saint Sinner... I want to see that. Originally a Marval Comic if I remember correctly.
Hmmm I think I can trust the CIA more than 22 (they reported a link between Sadam and the Taliban back when the Taliban wasn't a threat) But given more recent credability Of the news media I'm inclined to take it back.
What I object to on this line of reasoning is if Iraq is a threat then all this is ok. Bad thing. Oh come on Husains not only a fan of the Taliban "Let's kill the infidel americans" club he's a member himself. But I can think of a greater threat to peace and freedom than a large group of religous fanatics intent on killing a whole nation of non-believers. That threat is the ability to electronicly examine every file in my computer for anything someone in power objects to me having. Be it bomb files or the Koran. Oh yeah thowing everyone who is Musslum in internment camps.. we haven't done this before have we?
Justification be dammed you can justify theft and murder if you just try hard enough. It remains fundementally wrong.
AoL is still evil but they don't have to be on the wrong side of EVERY issue.
Way back Universitys were effectivly saying students couldn't use Linux.. Oh they could if they had a second computer. This was wrong it cut off educational opratunitys. Much more recently the same happened to Windows NT based systems leaving Unix like systems as the only servers studens could use. Just as wrong for Windows as it is for Linux. Students need the chance to study the technology they want to use profesionally.
AoL is the bad guy but they won't be on the wrong side of every issue and we won't be on the right side everytime eather.
Libal as I understand implys damage as a result of something someone said. If a drunken bum runs around claming I'm homeless I can't exactly sue. If a newspaper makes the same clame I can. The usenet is akin to the drunk bum. Sorry some random annonomous jerk posted slander amid such trust worthly reports as the FBI blackmailed me and Aliens eat strawbery icecream.
I can't believe anyone would acually believe anything on usenet now a days and so few people even read it anymore I'm douptful that if EVERYONE on usenet belived it that it would make more of an impact than gossup amoung some old ladys at a bingo parrlor.
BTW IAMAL Didn't read a book, consult an aterny, or even watch a tv movie with a totally fictional version of the law. So I'm quite likely full of it but I'm full of it with conviction... Umm that sounds scarry...
Microsoft has a significantly bad history with "open" standards.
First they'd use the open standard. (Horray Microsoft supports a standard) Then the extend it a tad (Why bother it won't be portable. Feh well the standards still there just ignore the extention) (Hay your file is broken) (No it's not it works on Windows) (But it dosen't work on Linux/Mac/Amiga/Anything else) (Not my falt your system is defective. It runs fine on Windows so it's fine.)
Then they break the standard forcing use of the extentions (Well we have thies extentions to make up for the defect for now and Microsoft will fix it) years later (Some day)
In short it ceases to be a portable standard and becomes Microsofts newest propriarty format.
Back in the day people complained when Wordstar added a few features to txt creating it's own wordprocessing file format. It wasn't hard to use Wordstar for standard text plus it included an "export to text" to strip the features.
Now people pritty much accept it when Microsoft Word saves files as.doc when it's not even remotely compatable with text.
(Historicly.doc and.txt files are text files..doc stands for documents such as user manuals etc)
In short we'd like Microsoft to actually use and STAY WITH standards but we know they won't. So we'd prefer Microsoft just not do it at all and leave the standards to others even if they are closed like PDF.
You may be able to get away with implementing only parts of the driver in Linux. Put in a driver pasthrough so your user space driver can have all the access a kernel driver might have. This way your user space driver would be seprate but working in tandum with the simple kenel driver.
Or ask Linus for a seprate liccens or a liccens exception. Offer to send money to the FSF in exchange.
Quickly what intelectual property exsists in a driver? Why dose it need protecting? A driver is just code to support a product. What IP could there be? Some lines of code? The legal side is right I think it's a business mistake to reguard anything in a driver to be IP needing legal protection. What possable avantage dose this give anyone? I know the answer. Compeating companys benifit by not restricting it's costummers. Your products software will not be upgradable should the consummer want to. The compeditor who dosen't restrict his users will get your constummers. And Microsoft...
The PDF format has it's claws in exactly the same way Windows dose. The reason we don't bitch about PDF is Adobe puts out an ok product and dosen't play games. If I want my documents printed at Kinkos I gotta use pdf. If I want to download govenment paperwork it's pdf. If I want to view my palm manual it's pdf. If I want to read the documentation of some of the latest free software documents it's pdf. Adobe sells document creation software and permits free versions unencumbered with encryption. They give away free readers for most platforms. Microsofts history is they don't share. As long as Microsoft word document format enjoys more universal support the xdoc isn't going anywhere. If Netscape owned HTML Microsoft IE wouldn't have gone anywhere. Netscape moved the exsisting web to use Netscape extentions and Microsoft need only support those extentions in it's own product and add more. But PDF is a diffrent. The markets going to switch to xdoc as fast as they'll switch to Linux or Mac.
I have this rule. When an os relese scedual speeds up get worryed. Palm was making major releases once every few years. Thats how in all this time palm os has only gotten to ver 3 then palm releases palm os 4. Well thats about on time. 5 ok major platform change justifyed. 6... ok now we've just dubbled the major version number inside a year.
I like palm I really do. It's a small business tool. I'm posting to./ from my visor right now and mom called to tell me her i705 just crashed again. But maybe that last example is the point. My Visor's not as trubblesom as her palm. And people want movie and mp3 players etc. I don't see the big deal not like the screen on a pocket pc is any bigger. I'll stick with my visor for now becouse I can't see myself forking over for a WinCE or Linux PDA just yet. There are few who want Windows or Linux on a PDA but then that number is dropping...
same as if a door in a house is open, you still cant nick the TV. No. House is a private space. The close approximation is a personal system. A server is more of a libary or store that never closes. htaccess is like posting a sign "Do not enter. Employees only" You'd be amazed how often people ignore those but it's still tresspass.
This is more to the likes of stumbling on a book in a public libary that should have been in the valt. Looking where it would be when it's offically published but it's not offical yet. Thats not hacking it's just being a reporter. Well actually it is but in the same vain as overclocking. The report wasn't to be published yet but soon so the web admin sent it up early with no link. He used the same structure he always used and the reporter just used his brains. "If report for 1-9-02 is rep010902.html then report for 12-25-02 is rep122502.txt" Typical detective work.
Short story: MOS designed and produced the 6500 Moterola sued them to the brink of death. 6502 was the compramise. The chip so named for using Moterola's pateted buss hence the lawsute. Before MOS went to silicon hell (Red Dwarf refence) Commodore bought them up. From then on Commodore would make it's own chips.. Except for rom and ram as anyone looking inside an old Commodore 8 bit can tell.
Moterola never made a 65xx chip.
Side note 6502 clones are still made today and still a populare chip in low end applications (not computers)
http://www.6502.org/
When I saw this story I thought someone cloned the whole 65xx chip line and broke the speed barrer on em. But part of me knew it was just someone gutting a sx64 for a pentium 4 system.
This'll be ideal when I get my time travle card working. Then my computer will look 'normal' when I go back in time and tell my yonger self I'm an idiot.
Wireless: Minstral for palm predates anything for the WinCE machines. Movies: Gmovie been areound for a while but the pda screens to small so it's nothing to take sereously. MP3s: You can add an MP3 device to a Handspring Visor. However your better off to buy an MP3 player for now. The pocket pc sound chip isn't good enough and adds to the price. The Palm net devices are limited in functionility but I've had more problems with the minstral than the palm net based 7 and 705 units. The pocket pc waists memory and processing power. Multitasking on a pda is an eject seat on a motercycle your better off removing it. It's this bloat that makes Linux ill suted for PDAs and WinCE is no better. If you want the features missing on the Palm you want a laptop or a tablet not a pda. I can't find a pocket pc for less than $500 and few palms cost more than that. The only thing that really sets the pocket pc ahead is memory becouse on a PDA thats all that matters.
Windows is only user friendly if you don't care if it works. The oft made explenation fpr ALL of Windows problems is user stupidity. In short Windows fakes being user friendly but when it comes down to the brass it's a hell of a lot harder to install and config than Linux.
The rest is user apps and the user friendlyness of an app is totally up to the vender and indupendant of the os.
Linux isn't consummer friendly becouse nobody is spending thousands to convence the public that Linux is the greatest thing sence sliced bread and anyone who says otherwise is a brainwashed cult folowing hippy.
Oh btw: You are right. Linux isn't consummer ready. Nither is Windows. But the consummer is Linux ready.
I have Win 95 on a spare HD in my computer just for the cable company.
But I'm lucky becouse they are cool about me using Linux as long as they don't need to support my os and I use Windows for tech support calls. "You make it work on Winows I'll make it work on Linux"
Was it the same unit reviewed? There are three ways to make a cheaper product: Use low quality Use better design Built parts yourself (Cost savings in parts optomised for the job and/or not paying somebodys inflated prices on parts).
The price indicates they did something to cut costs so you must be careful. When bargon shopping the thing to remember is to do your homework becouse a lower price isn't automaticly a bargon. Buyer beware. But not be paranoid.
X BOX READY... If that's common enough any enterprising consol maker can FUD "Our games run on ALLTVs. Even the ones that are X Box ready" Leave an image of "If you want to use X Box you gotta buy a brand new tv or use ours on your exsisting perficly good 50 inch wide screen"
Slashdot Mirror
It's said over and over "Nobody's going to make drivers and software for an os that is only used by 1% of the market"
However when I go looking for server hardware (Statistics show Linux has the majority market in servers) I see Windows NT hardware only (The less than 1% in servers) Nothing for Solarus (Linux is pushing Solarus out of the market) nothing for BSD (a strong contender) just Windows NT.
I use Linux religously but often I find hardware makers refuse to make specs available so I have to shop around and use my wireless palm to do netsearches while at the store to see if the hardware on the shelf has available Linux drivers.
And that palm itself is a problem.
I use a handspring visor not an actual palm but still palm os. I have to be careful that the hardware I get for it dosen't need support from the desktop as there may not be a Linux driver.
Mom got a palm i705 and often Palm relases software updates that only work on Windows.
I fix this by taking moms Palm to work install the updates and return it to her.
But I'm douptful many will go so far out of the way to insure Linux support is available before buying new hardware.
Most gammers tell me they can't use Linux becouse the populare game titles often don't have Linux couterparts.
I favor free software but thats one reason I use Linux religously. I just don't want to pay for software and with Linux I don't have to.
And for me thats reason enough to bend over backwards to make sure the hardware works on Linux. I'm simply not buying the Windows counterpart to use the hardware the way I want.
Becouse Linux hardware is PC hardware I'm sure many Linux users buy PC hardware to find no Linux drivers or specs and so they have little choice.
Thankfully for me some people are even more fanatical and actually reverse engenere hardware to make drivers.
With out them I doupt I'd have any drivers for most of the hardware I use now.
Would probably be more realistic for a business person.
Pritty wemen while rare enough just aren't as rare as a talking frog.
Put em on stage.. just make sure the frog talks when on stage and dosen't go silent like the WB frog did in the Loony toon cartoon where he first appeared.
The geek however would look at the practicality.
A talking frog wouldn't have anything intresting to talk about.
A butiful woman could tell the story of how she became a frog and the whole experence.
and thats just a side benifit..
In a DS9 eppisode Quark had to pay to find out what law he has broken.
I can see this..
Police officers with a cash box so you can pay 50 cents to find out your tail light was broken.
TV News being sued for thousands of dollers over copyright infrengment for discussing a new law.
and what a way to sillence protesters than to use shrinkwrap liccenses.
"Sorry but you can't protest it unless you know what it is.
If you know what it is you already agreed to NOT protest it.
Unless you pirated the text.."
This isn't going to ever be considered part of the offical contenuity.
That said... Dr Who seldom folows any rules anyway.
I wonder how long it'll take for a porn site to be set up under kids.us.
I wonder how soon after the'll lose the domain. and then the lawsutes.
Happends every time somebody trys to set aside a segment of the net for something some legalistic jerk comes by and uses the law to force his own "freedom of speach" in a totally innapropreate way.
Most of what they are doing IS illegal inside the US.
It takes less effort to advertise a lagit business via other means than to move to China and continue using spam to scam.
I think the problem is SI FI trys to run things as is and expects the shows momentum to keep it good while they learn what makes it good.
The flaw is I've noticed when a show switches networks the show is losing or lost momentum and needs some work to stay alive. Additionally the last few epps on the old network are ment to hurt the show on the new network.
Example when UPN took over Buffy from WB the last thing WB did was kill the main character.
Had UPN just let momentum carry it the UPN Buffy would suck.
I don't think it has the same appeal but UPN did a good job using the death of Buffy like a dramatic plot twist.
But Sifi is an old show warehouse when they need to repair them.
Thats why IMAO Sifi shows don't work.
Saint Sinner... I want to see that. Originally a Marval Comic if I remember correctly.
Hmmm I think I can trust the CIA more than 22 (they reported a link between Sadam and the Taliban back when the Taliban wasn't a threat)
But given more recent credability Of the news media I'm inclined to take it back.
FYI: I can't spell eather.
What I object to on this line of reasoning is if Iraq is a threat then all this is ok. Bad thing.
Oh come on Husains not only a fan of the Taliban "Let's kill the infidel americans" club he's a member himself.
But I can think of a greater threat to peace and freedom than a large group of religous fanatics intent on killing a whole nation of non-believers. That threat is the ability to electronicly examine every file in my computer for anything someone in power objects to me having.
Be it bomb files or the Koran.
Oh yeah thowing everyone who is Musslum in internment camps.. we haven't done this before have we?
Justification be dammed you can justify theft and murder if you just try hard enough. It remains fundementally wrong.
AoL is still evil but they don't have to be on the wrong side of EVERY issue.
Way back Universitys were effectivly saying students couldn't use Linux.. Oh they could if they had a second computer.
This was wrong it cut off educational opratunitys.
Much more recently the same happened to Windows NT based systems leaving Unix like systems as the only servers studens could use.
Just as wrong for Windows as it is for Linux. Students need the chance to study the technology they want to use profesionally.
AoL is the bad guy but they won't be on the wrong side of every issue and we won't be on the right side everytime eather.
IAALZ- I am A Linux Zellot.
Libal as I understand implys damage as a result of something someone said.
If a drunken bum runs around claming I'm homeless I can't exactly sue.
If a newspaper makes the same clame I can.
The usenet is akin to the drunk bum. Sorry some random annonomous jerk posted slander amid such trust worthly reports as the FBI blackmailed me and Aliens eat strawbery icecream.
I can't believe anyone would acually believe anything on usenet now a days and so few people even read it anymore I'm douptful that if EVERYONE on usenet belived it that it would make more of an impact than gossup amoung some old ladys at a bingo parrlor.
BTW
IAMAL
Didn't read a book, consult an aterny, or even watch a tv movie with a totally fictional version of the law.
So I'm quite likely full of it but I'm full of it with conviction...
Umm that sounds scarry...
Microsoft has a significantly bad history with "open" standards.
.doc when it's not even remotely compatable with text.
.doc and .txt files are text files. .doc stands for documents such as user manuals etc)
First they'd use the open standard.
(Horray Microsoft supports a standard)
Then the extend it a tad
(Why bother it won't be portable. Feh well the standards still there just ignore the extention)
(Hay your file is broken) (No it's not it works on Windows) (But it dosen't work on Linux/Mac/Amiga/Anything else) (Not my falt your system is defective. It runs fine on Windows so it's fine.)
Then they break the standard forcing use of the extentions
(Well we have thies extentions to make up for the defect for now and Microsoft will fix it)
years later
(Some day)
In short it ceases to be a portable standard and becomes Microsofts newest propriarty format.
Back in the day people complained when Wordstar added a few features to txt creating it's own wordprocessing file format.
It wasn't hard to use Wordstar for standard text plus it included an "export to text" to strip the features.
Now people pritty much accept it when Microsoft Word saves files as
(Historicly
In short we'd like Microsoft to actually use and STAY WITH standards but we know they won't.
So we'd prefer Microsoft just not do it at all and leave the standards to others even if they are closed like PDF.
You may be able to get away with implementing only parts of the driver in Linux.
Put in a driver pasthrough so your user space driver can have all the access a kernel driver might have.
This way your user space driver would be seprate but working in tandum with the simple kenel driver.
Or ask Linus for a seprate liccens or a liccens exception. Offer to send money to the FSF in exchange.
Quickly what intelectual property exsists in a driver?
Why dose it need protecting?
A driver is just code to support a product. What IP could there be?
Some lines of code?
The legal side is right I think it's a business mistake to reguard anything in a driver to be IP needing legal protection.
What possable avantage dose this give anyone?
I know the answer. Compeating companys benifit by not restricting it's costummers. Your products software will not be upgradable should the consummer want to.
The compeditor who dosen't restrict his users will get your constummers.
And Microsoft...
The PDF format has it's claws in exactly the same way Windows dose.
The reason we don't bitch about PDF is Adobe puts out an ok product and dosen't play games.
If I want my documents printed at Kinkos I gotta use pdf. If I want to download govenment paperwork it's pdf. If I want to view my palm manual it's pdf. If I want to read the documentation of some of the latest free software documents it's pdf.
Adobe sells document creation software and permits free versions unencumbered with encryption. They give away free readers for most platforms.
Microsofts history is they don't share.
As long as Microsoft word document format enjoys more universal support the xdoc isn't going anywhere.
If Netscape owned HTML Microsoft IE wouldn't have gone anywhere.
Netscape moved the exsisting web to use Netscape extentions and Microsoft need only support those extentions in it's own product and add more.
But PDF is a diffrent. The markets going to switch to xdoc as fast as they'll switch to Linux or Mac.
I have this rule. When an os relese scedual speeds up get worryed.
./ from my visor right now and mom called to tell me her i705 just crashed again.
Palm was making major releases once every few years. Thats how in all this time palm os has only gotten to ver 3 then palm releases palm os 4. Well thats about on time. 5 ok major platform change justifyed. 6... ok now we've just dubbled the major version number inside a year.
I like palm I really do. It's a small business tool. I'm posting to
But maybe that last example is the point. My Visor's not as trubblesom as her palm.
And people want movie and mp3 players etc. I don't see the big deal not like the screen on a pocket pc is any bigger.
I'll stick with my visor for now becouse I can't see myself forking over for a WinCE or Linux PDA just yet.
There are few who want Windows or Linux on a PDA but then that number is dropping...
Maybe I'll ger a Dragonix next time.
Maybe they swapped out the display on her demo unit.
Replaced the crappy LCD with a high quality LCD.
What about online comic heros.
I'd vote for Baka Kitty but she's not exactly a hero.
But she'll kick badguy butt anyway.
same as if a door in a house is open, you still cant nick the TV.
No.
House is a private space. The close approximation is a personal system.
A server is more of a libary or store that never closes.
htaccess is like posting a sign "Do not enter. Employees only" You'd be amazed how often people ignore those but it's still tresspass.
This is more to the likes of stumbling on a book in a public libary that should have been in the valt.
Looking where it would be when it's offically published but it's not offical yet.
Thats not hacking it's just being a reporter. Well actually it is but in the same vain as overclocking.
The report wasn't to be published yet but soon so the web admin sent it up early with no link. He used the same structure he always used and the reporter just used his brains.
"If report for 1-9-02 is rep010902.html then report for 12-25-02 is rep122502.txt"
Typical detective work.
Short story:
MOS designed and produced the 6500 Moterola sued them to the brink of death. 6502 was the compramise.
The chip so named for using Moterola's pateted buss hence the lawsute.
Before MOS went to silicon hell (Red Dwarf refence) Commodore bought them up.
From then on Commodore would make it's own chips.. Except for rom and ram as anyone looking inside an old Commodore 8 bit can tell.
Moterola never made a 65xx chip.
Side note 6502 clones are still made today and still a populare chip in low end applications (not computers)
http://www.6502.org/
When I saw this story I thought someone cloned the whole 65xx chip line and broke the speed barrer on em.
But part of me knew it was just someone gutting a sx64 for a pentium 4 system.
This'll be ideal when I get my time travle card working.
Then my computer will look 'normal' when I go back in time and tell my yonger self I'm an idiot.
Wireless: Minstral for palm predates anything for the WinCE machines.
Movies: Gmovie been areound for a while but the pda screens to small so it's nothing to take sereously.
MP3s: You can add an MP3 device to a Handspring Visor. However your better off to buy an MP3 player for now.
The pocket pc sound chip isn't good enough and adds to the price.
The Palm net devices are limited in functionility but I've had more problems with the minstral than the palm net based 7 and 705 units.
The pocket pc waists memory and processing power. Multitasking on a pda is an eject seat on a motercycle your better off removing it.
It's this bloat that makes Linux ill suted for PDAs and WinCE is no better.
If you want the features missing on the Palm you want a laptop or a tablet not a pda.
I can't find a pocket pc for less than $500 and few palms cost more than that.
The only thing that really sets the pocket pc ahead is memory becouse on a PDA thats all that matters.
Windows is only user friendly if you don't care if it works.
The oft made explenation fpr ALL of Windows problems is user stupidity.
In short Windows fakes being user friendly but when it comes down to the brass it's a hell of a lot harder to install and config than Linux.
The rest is user apps and the user friendlyness of an app is totally up to the vender and indupendant of the os.
Linux isn't consummer friendly becouse nobody is spending thousands to convence the public that Linux is the greatest thing sence sliced bread and anyone who says otherwise is a brainwashed cult folowing hippy.
Oh btw: You are right. Linux isn't consummer ready. Nither is Windows.
But the consummer is Linux ready.
I have Win 95 on a spare HD in my computer just for the cable company.
But I'm lucky becouse they are cool about me using Linux as long as they don't need to support my os and I use Windows for tech support calls.
"You make it work on Winows I'll make it work on Linux"
You remind me of a DS9 epp where someone impersinated an admral and answered questions with
"That is a stupid question"
So care to enlighten us or is there nothing behind your little slam.
Was it the same unit reviewed?
There are three ways to make a cheaper product:
Use low quality
Use better design
Built parts yourself (Cost savings in parts optomised for the job and/or not paying somebodys inflated prices on parts).
The price indicates they did something to cut costs so you must be careful.
When bargon shopping the thing to remember is to do your homework becouse a lower price isn't automaticly a bargon.
Buyer beware. But not be paranoid.
X BOX READY...
If that's common enough any enterprising consol maker can FUD "Our games run on ALLTVs. Even the ones that are X Box ready"
Leave an image of "If you want to use X Box you gotta buy a brand new tv or use ours on your exsisting perficly good 50 inch wide screen"