Thumb's up and down also aren't sent anywhere, I think that is covered on page 70:-) so it only knows what you watched, not how much you claim to like it.
Thumbs *can* be sent, actually. The software provides for that. However, they are not actually sent, and this relates to my next reply:
There is talk of an opt-in service for that, but I think that is all TiVo users talking, not TiVo itself. Similarly web control of the TiVo would break the privacy policy, which is a big part of why they don't have it (and ReplayTV does).
The privacy policy actually allows for an opt-in to send your private viewing data. It's assumed this is for future services like a web interface or some such. Especially the bit about "this may limit the services we can offer to you". So if they ever do make a web service, you'd have to sign up for it and give them permission to get your personal data for the service.
I knew when I got a plus card that I was basically being paid for my demographic data. It's a bit different around here though..
Every item in the store has two prices. One with the card, one without. The one with the card is generally anywhere from 20% to 50% lower than the one without.
So I go in, buy $50 worth of stuff, swipe the card, and watch it turn to $30. And the prices without the card are comparable to other local stores, so you really are getting a discount.
What do they get in return for this? It's obvious, they track everything I buy. I don't mind this, I knew that would happen when I signed up. The signup form was pretty much inclusive: name, address, income, number of people in household, what kind of car I drive, the whole nine yards. It was blatently obvious what the scheme was for. Not only that, but the card they give you has a sticker on it that you peel off and put on the form itself. The numbers match. Thus the tracking becomes very, very simple.
Anyone who didn't see that when they signed up is a complete moron. I saw it, and I signed up anyway, because frankly I don't care if they know what I eat. I don't even care if they sell the information. I'm satisfied with the discount I receive.
What's the most that could happen from them selling the info? More junk mail? Good, more fuel for the fire. More phone calls? Sorry, I dropped my phone line because I found I didn't actually use it anymore, what with my cell phone (and I don't give that number out easily). Targeted ads? Good, maybe they'll advertise something I actually want to buy. I doubt it, but it's a possibility. The fact is that I can think of nothing they can do with that personal buying info that will affect me adversely. So I say, go for it.
It's a stalemate situation. As long as Tivo does nothing to piss off its customers, then there is no reason to hack the thing to the point where you screw with Tivo's revenue stream. We like Tivo, the company. They are cool. They have a fairly good grasp of "the right way" to do things. They also know damn well how easy it would be for someone to hack a unit to not require service, and so they walk the thin line.
I'm satisied with the arrangement. It keeps them honest.:D
It is not said what the extra space is set aside for, however, it is not "stolen" from you, it's more like a side effect of changes to the software in 2.0.
And I doubt it's for "targeted ads" as that seems a bit silly.
From http://www.ssh.com/legal/trademarks/ ---
The ssh® trademark is a significant asset of SSH Communications Security, and the company strives to protect its valuable rights in the SSH brand. SSH Communications Security has invested substantial resources in its ssh® mark, such that its customers have come to recognize that the mark represents SSH Communications Security as the source of the high quality products offered under this brand. This resulting goodwill is vital to SSH Communications Security.
The SSH Secure Shell remote login product was created in 1995 by Tatu Ylönen, CTO and chairman of the company. Free versions of the Secure Shell remote login software have been distributed under the SSH brand since 1995. The latest version, ssh-2.4.0, is free for any use on the Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD operating systems, as well as for universities and charity organizations, and for personal, hobby, and recreational use by individuals.
Confusion has become widespread with respect to OpenSSH and its origin. OpenSSH is not a product of, and the OpenSSH group is not, in any way, related to, the SSH Communications Security company.
The use of the SSH trademark by members of OpenBSD in the OpenSSH project name, products and associated merchandising violates the company's intellectual property rights, and is causing the company, its customers, and its products considerable financial and other damages. The company has requested the OpenSSH group to change the OpenSSH name so as not to infringe on the ssh® trademark, and to prevent further confusion in the industry.
Similarly, the company is requesting other unauthorized users of the ssh® mark to refrain from infringing our valuable intellectual property rights.
The company fully supports the IETF Secure Shell working group in its standardization efforts. Any developer may implement the IETF Secure Shell working group standard without requiring any special licenses from the SSH company. SSH Communications Security has always and will continue to support the efforts of all acknowledged standards bodies and the open development of Internet security products, especially for non-profit, education and personal use.
Recognizing that the phrase "Secure Shell" is well-known within the community to describe the secure remote login protocol developed by Ylönen and SSH Communications Security, SSH has decided to abandon its trademark application for the name "Secure Shell" and dedicate it to public use. When developing and offering products implementing the Secure Shell remote login protocol, developers and integrators may use these words in product names, descriptions, etc., if they wish, without further designation.
Additionally, SSH Communications Security has no desire to cause any inconvenience to users or developers who have been accustomed to using the "ssh" command name with our products. Accordingly, we will provide, free of charge, a trademark license to use the term "ssh" as a command name with proper attribution. It is the use of the ssh® trademark in product names or in ways otherwise likely to cause confusion and infringe the ssh® trademark that the company desires to prevent.
All of SSH's products are marketed under the SSH brand name. SSH has become a widely known global brand to identify the company and the origin, quality and security associated with its offerings.
For more information on SSH trademarks, please refer to our Q&A document.
---
Anyway, it sounds to me like he wrote the program years back, then kept the name because it got into such widespread use. Now, they want to be distinguishable. Bunk. If I went and formed a company called "telnet industries" then there is no way I'd be able to get the protocol name changed.
If they didn't want the confusion regarding names, then they shouldn't have named their company after an existing product/protocol. And he can't claim he didn't know about it either, he wrote the damn thing in the first place!
The new macs play audio digitally; without converting the digital information to analog - but this doesn't mean you can't listen to CDs on these machines without 'ripping the audio off of them'.
Reading the audio digitally == 'ripping the audio off of them'.
That's what a ripper does. It takes the audio off the cd in a digital format, and saves it to a disk.
What the normal method of CD playing does is to convert it to analog (headphone jacks) before letting you have it. The whole idea behind any secure format is to not allow you to access the digital media. So any method of "playing" which requires the digital data will not work.
And I went over there a while back to investigate some industrial handheld solutions they were working on. They showed me a couple of handheld devices running Linux, with 802.11 and Bluetooth, but also running some version of XWindows. Seriously. The one I was most impressed with was running Gnome.
From here: http://www.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/26/napste r.cdsales.ap/index.html
--begin--
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Sales of CD singles plummeted last year, and recording industry officials say the figures prove that Napster, the Internet music-swapping service, has cut into their business.
Shipments of CD singles sank by 39 percent last year, according to data released by the Recording Industry Association of America.
"Napster hurt record sales," said RIAA president Hilary Rosen.
--end quote--
So where did this AP story get changed around at, because they clearly state that it's "singles" on CNN's page.
If he had committed slander or libel, that's a completely different topic. If, however, the company is simply attempting to shut him up for no good reason, then they should be stopped. In either case, the company in question has NO right to call his current employer and harass him in that manner. If they feel wronged, they should prefer charges, or shut the hell up.
Yep, Cisco bought Aironet out and are phasing out the 4500/4800 lines of cards. However, they're making a new line now that is directly compatible with the 4500/4800 drivers and so forth, so look for lots of support for these in the future. I don't have the model numbers of Cisco's new cards right off hand, but keep an eye out. If you see a PCMCIA Cisco 802.11 card, then you'll know that's the one.:)
I ain't got one but I've always assumed the requirement for the server connection was to upload information on your viewing habits rather than the need to get listing information.
Anyone know if this is true or just paranoia?
It's a half truth. The Tivo (standalones anyway) get the guide data from the Dial-up, as well as the network showcases and Tivolution Magazine, which are just "what's hot" lists of shows. At the same time, they send back anonymous viewing data.
The combo boxes get their Guide Data from the sat. feed, but dial-in to get those Network Showcases / Tivolution Magazine. They also send back anonymous viewing data at that time. The call is significantly shorter on the DirecTivo combo boxes (2-3 minutes).
The reason they don't use Teletext type info: most people don't get this type info. There. Simple enough.
Tivo Army Captain (Usually a 'Senior' or 'Special Member' on the forum): "Wait a sec. Wait just a goddamn sec. Do you know the percentage of people who have (cable/dsl/broadband)? Do you know the percentage of people who have a home network? NO ONE NEEDS THIS HACK. NO ONE WANTS THIS HACK. NO ONE NEEDS ETHERNET. NO ONE HAS A HOME NETWORK. THE TIVO IS NOT JUST FOR GEEKS."
I wouldn't go quite that far.
Nobody really needs this hack as it's not useful. It's very cool, admittedly, but in terms of what you can do right now, it's just not that handy. Ooh, yeah, sure, you can get your program guide data in 2.5 seconds, but it still takes 20 minutes - 2 hours to index it. Running a webserver on the Tivo itself is fine and dandy, but man, is it ever slow (due to the tiny processor).
The really good hacks won't need this because there's not the need for that much bandwidth on the Tivo itself. Even WITH this hack, you can only get around 250kbits/sec, so it's still a tad slow to be sending huge MPEG data, even assuming you've figured out how to get the data off of the MFS directly in the first place. Don't forget that even at lowest quality, the video is around.85 Gig/hour.
Please, for crying out loud, the avsforum's aren't built to handle this load and are dying even as I type this. Someone change the URL in the story to this and/or someone post mirrors! ---
Funnily enough, they turn out to be aspects of the same thing.
To solve minesweeper for any size board, you have to place where you think the mines are, then determine if the board is consistent. If it is, you got the mine placement correct. If it isn't, the mines are in the wrong place. This is all explained in the article. ---
RSA is only NP, or at least nobody's proven it to be NP-Complete yet.
Any NP-Complete problem can be transformed into any other NP-Complete problem via a polynomial time transformation. Thus, solving one solves all. I have no idea how to do it, it's over my head. But it can be done.
Anyway, more to the point, this isn't about Minesweeper, it's a problem called the "MineSweeper Consistentcy Problem" and it's important to remember that. Essentially, the MCP is: given a half finished minesweeper board, is it consistent? That is, is it a valid board within the rules of the game? It is possible to get this board through normal play?
That's a bit of a different beast than just playing the game, guys.
You can setup the Tivo to communicate using PPP with a computer via the DSS Serial adapter. Then, give the Tivo an IP on your local LAN, and using NAT or a router or something, the Tivo can connect to Tivo's servers over your permanent connection (Cable modem, DSL, Fractional-T3, whatever). It's actually not extremely difficult to do, but does take a bit of effort.
Slashdot Mirror
Thumb's up and down also aren't sent anywhere, I think that is covered on page 70 :-) so it only knows what you watched, not how much you claim to like it.
Thumbs *can* be sent, actually. The software provides for that. However, they are not actually sent, and this relates to my next reply:
There is talk of an opt-in service for that, but I think that is all TiVo users talking, not TiVo itself. Similarly web control of the TiVo would break the privacy policy, which is a big part of why they don't have it (and ReplayTV does).
The privacy policy actually allows for an opt-in to send your private viewing data. It's assumed this is for future services like a web interface or some such. Especially the bit about "this may limit the services we can offer to you". So if they ever do make a web service, you'd have to sign up for it and give them permission to get your personal data for the service.
---
I knew when I got a plus card that I was basically being paid for my demographic data. It's a bit different around here though..
Every item in the store has two prices. One with the card, one without. The one with the card is generally anywhere from 20% to 50% lower than the one without.
So I go in, buy $50 worth of stuff, swipe the card, and watch it turn to $30. And the prices without the card are comparable to other local stores, so you really are getting a discount.
What do they get in return for this? It's obvious, they track everything I buy. I don't mind this, I knew that would happen when I signed up. The signup form was pretty much inclusive: name, address, income, number of people in household, what kind of car I drive, the whole nine yards. It was blatently obvious what the scheme was for. Not only that, but the card they give you has a sticker on it that you peel off and put on the form itself. The numbers match. Thus the tracking becomes very, very simple.
Anyone who didn't see that when they signed up is a complete moron. I saw it, and I signed up anyway, because frankly I don't care if they know what I eat. I don't even care if they sell the information. I'm satisfied with the discount I receive.
What's the most that could happen from them selling the info? More junk mail? Good, more fuel for the fire. More phone calls? Sorry, I dropped my phone line because I found I didn't actually use it anymore, what with my cell phone (and I don't give that number out easily). Targeted ads? Good, maybe they'll advertise something I actually want to buy. I doubt it, but it's a possibility. The fact is that I can think of nothing they can do with that personal buying info that will affect me adversely. So I say, go for it.
---
It's a stalemate situation. As long as Tivo does nothing to piss off its customers, then there is no reason to hack the thing to the point where you screw with Tivo's revenue stream. We like Tivo, the company. They are cool. They have a fairly good grasp of "the right way" to do things. They also know damn well how easy it would be for someone to hack a unit to not require service, and so they walk the thin line.
:D
I'm satisied with the arrangement. It keeps them honest.
---
It is not said what the extra space is set aside for, however, it is not "stolen" from you, it's more like a side effect of changes to the software in 2.0.
And I doubt it's for "targeted ads" as that seems a bit silly.
---
1-877-FOR-TIVO. Same number as it says in the manual. Call up and request to opt-out.
---
From http://www.ssh.com/legal/trademarks/
---
The ssh® trademark is a significant asset of SSH Communications Security, and the company strives to protect its valuable rights in the SSH brand. SSH Communications Security has invested substantial resources in its ssh® mark, such that its customers have come to recognize that the mark represents SSH Communications Security as the source of the high quality products offered under this brand. This resulting goodwill is vital to SSH Communications Security.
The SSH Secure Shell remote login product was created in 1995 by Tatu Ylönen, CTO and chairman of the company. Free versions of the Secure Shell remote login software have been distributed under the SSH brand since 1995. The latest version, ssh-2.4.0, is free for any use on the Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD operating systems, as well as for universities and charity organizations, and for personal, hobby, and recreational use by individuals.
Confusion has become widespread with respect to OpenSSH and its origin. OpenSSH is not a product of, and the OpenSSH group is not, in any way, related to, the SSH Communications Security company.
The use of the SSH trademark by members of OpenBSD in the OpenSSH project name, products and associated merchandising violates the company's intellectual property rights, and is causing the company, its customers, and its products considerable financial and other damages. The company has requested the OpenSSH group to change the OpenSSH name so as not to infringe on the ssh® trademark, and to prevent further confusion in the industry.
Similarly, the company is requesting other unauthorized users of the ssh® mark to refrain from infringing our valuable intellectual property rights.
The company fully supports the IETF Secure Shell working group in its standardization efforts. Any developer may implement the IETF Secure Shell working group standard without requiring any special licenses from the SSH company. SSH Communications Security has always and will continue to support the efforts of all acknowledged standards bodies and the open development of Internet security products, especially for non-profit, education and personal use.
Recognizing that the phrase "Secure Shell" is well-known within the community to describe the secure remote login protocol developed by Ylönen and SSH Communications Security, SSH has decided to abandon its trademark application for the name "Secure Shell" and dedicate it to public use. When developing and offering products implementing the Secure Shell remote login protocol, developers and integrators may use these words in product names, descriptions, etc., if they wish, without further designation.
Additionally, SSH Communications Security has no desire to cause any inconvenience to users or developers who have been accustomed to using the "ssh" command name with our products. Accordingly, we will provide, free of charge, a trademark license to use the term "ssh" as a command name with proper attribution. It is the use of the ssh® trademark in product names or in ways otherwise likely to cause confusion and infringe the ssh® trademark that the company desires to prevent.
All of SSH's products are marketed under the SSH brand name. SSH has become a widely known global brand to identify the company and the origin, quality and security associated with its offerings.
SSH provides trademark guidelines (PDF, 96 kb) regarding usage and attribution.
For more information on SSH trademarks, please refer to our Q&A document.
---
Anyway, it sounds to me like he wrote the program years back, then kept the name because it got into such widespread use. Now, they want to be distinguishable. Bunk. If I went and formed a company called "telnet industries" then there is no way I'd be able to get the protocol name changed.
If they didn't want the confusion regarding names, then they shouldn't have named their company after an existing product/protocol. And he can't claim he didn't know about it either, he wrote the damn thing in the first place!
Good for the IETF!
---
http://midori.transmeta.com/manual/midori_logo_ful l.gif
---
The new macs play audio digitally; without converting the digital information to analog - but this doesn't mean you can't listen to CDs on these machines without 'ripping the audio off of them'.
Reading the audio digitally == 'ripping the audio off of them'.
That's what a ripper does. It takes the audio off the cd in a digital format, and saves it to a disk.
What the normal method of CD playing does is to convert it to analog (headphone jacks) before letting you have it. The whole idea behind any secure format is to not allow you to access the digital media. So any method of "playing" which requires the digital data will not work.
---
And I went over there a while back to investigate some industrial handheld solutions they were working on. They showed me a couple of handheld devices running Linux, with 802.11 and Bluetooth, but also running some version of XWindows. Seriously. The one I was most impressed with was running Gnome.
:)
So it's entirely possible.
---
From here: http://www.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/Music/02/26/napste r.cdsales.ap/index.html
--begin--
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Sales of CD singles plummeted last year, and recording industry officials say the figures prove that Napster, the Internet music-swapping service, has cut into their business.
Shipments of CD singles sank by 39 percent last year, according to data released by the Recording Industry Association of America.
"Napster hurt record sales," said RIAA president Hilary Rosen.
--end quote--
So where did this AP story get changed around at, because they clearly state that it's "singles" on CNN's page.
---
If he had committed slander or libel, that's a completely different topic. If, however, the company is simply attempting to shut him up for no good reason, then they should be stopped. In either case, the company in question has NO right to call his current employer and harass him in that manner. If they feel wronged, they should prefer charges, or shut the hell up.
---
Tell them to buzz off. They can't control your actions if you didn't sign anything.
And if they call your current employer, call a lawyer and sue their piddly little company into the ground.
---
Yep, Cisco bought Aironet out and are phasing out the 4500/4800 lines of cards. However, they're making a new line now that is directly compatible with the 4500/4800 drivers and so forth, so look for lots of support for these in the future. I don't have the model numbers of Cisco's new cards right off hand, but keep an eye out. If you see a PCMCIA Cisco 802.11 card, then you'll know that's the one. :)
---
Who else is thinking home tape backup solution? I know I was when I read that.
And actually, that's probably all this will ever be good for. Face it, tape is dying.
---
Who says that the ratio only had three dimensions to it?
1:4:9:16:... are the correct dimensions..
---
It's been said to be on hold until Tivo finishes up the lawsuit they are involved in with Gemstar.
---
http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~mbsf/sworde.htm
---
I ain't got one but I've always assumed the requirement for the server connection was to upload information on your viewing habits rather than the need to get listing information.
Anyone know if this is true or just paranoia?
It's a half truth. The Tivo (standalones anyway) get the guide data from the Dial-up, as well as the network showcases and Tivolution Magazine, which are just "what's hot" lists of shows. At the same time, they send back anonymous viewing data.
The combo boxes get their Guide Data from the sat. feed, but dial-in to get those Network Showcases / Tivolution Magazine. They also send back anonymous viewing data at that time. The call is significantly shorter on the DirecTivo combo boxes (2-3 minutes).
The reason they don't use Teletext type info: most people don't get this type info. There. Simple enough.
---
Tivo Army Captain (Usually a 'Senior' or 'Special Member' on the forum): "Wait a sec. Wait just a goddamn sec. Do you know the percentage of people who have (cable/dsl/broadband)? Do you know the percentage of people who have a home network? NO ONE NEEDS THIS HACK. NO ONE WANTS THIS HACK. NO ONE NEEDS ETHERNET. NO ONE HAS A HOME NETWORK. THE TIVO IS NOT JUST FOR GEEKS."
.85 Gig/hour.
I wouldn't go quite that far.
Nobody really needs this hack as it's not useful. It's very cool, admittedly, but in terms of what you can do right now, it's just not that handy. Ooh, yeah, sure, you can get your program guide data in 2.5 seconds, but it still takes 20 minutes - 2 hours to index it. Running a webserver on the Tivo itself is fine and dandy, but man, is it ever slow (due to the tiny processor).
The really good hacks won't need this because there's not the need for that much bandwidth on the Tivo itself. Even WITH this hack, you can only get around 250kbits/sec, so it's still a tad slow to be sending huge MPEG data, even assuming you've figured out how to get the data off of the MFS directly in the first place. Don't forget that even at lowest quality, the video is around
Yes, it's damn cool though.
---
http://linuxcare.com.au/tridge/tivo-ethernet/
Please, for crying out loud, the avsforum's aren't built to handle this load and are dying even as I type this. Someone change the URL in the story to this and/or someone post mirrors!
---
Now we know what Tron was *really* all about. It all makes so much sense!
---
Who's right?
Funnily enough, they turn out to be aspects of the same thing.
To solve minesweeper for any size board, you have to place where you think the mines are, then determine if the board is consistent. If it is, you got the mine placement correct. If it isn't, the mines are in the wrong place. This is all explained in the article.
---
RSA is only NP, or at least nobody's proven it to be NP-Complete yet.
Any NP-Complete problem can be transformed into any other NP-Complete problem via a polynomial time transformation. Thus, solving one solves all. I have no idea how to do it, it's over my head. But it can be done.
Anyway, more to the point, this isn't about Minesweeper, it's a problem called the "MineSweeper Consistentcy Problem" and it's important to remember that. Essentially, the MCP is: given a half finished minesweeper board, is it consistent? That is, is it a valid board within the rules of the game? It is possible to get this board through normal play?
That's a bit of a different beast than just playing the game, guys.
---
The author of this paper has a web page here:
:)
He also has a page specifically about this Minesweeper business here.
I like the other paper proving that minesweeper, with a little variation, on an infinite board, is Turing-complete. Fun!
---
You can setup the Tivo to communicate using PPP with a computer via the DSS Serial adapter. Then, give the Tivo an IP on your local LAN, and using NAT or a router or something, the Tivo can connect to Tivo's servers over your permanent connection (Cable modem, DSL, Fractional-T3, whatever). It's actually not extremely difficult to do, but does take a bit of effort.
---