As I said, they need the organisational and software skills to make use of the power they have available. And IT management with some vision... and balls. This is the real issue.
Software architectures already exist which could be used.
COSM
is a free example, though I suspect the licensing may rule that out in a commercial environment.
More stuff here:
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Computer _Science/Distributed_Computing/Platforms/
There is software to stop mass mailings. It's just that there are loads of dumb schmucks out there who haven't bothered to see if anything actually exists to do the job.
Course, it's the same dumb schmucks who get all the spam mail, which suits me just fine.
The *real* problem is all these bloody spam stories on Slashdot. You only get spam these days because you want spam or are too dumb to do anything about it...
Data protection measures should be comensurate with the risk.
Is it 100Gb of a.b.p.e or will your livelyhood be destroyed?
If your house burns down, making sure you still have copies of your "disgusted from Tunbridge Wells" complaints to Channel 5 will be the least of your worries.
Therefore, going to Linux is going to cause problems if you already have a Windows only infrastructure.
It'll be an uphill struggle to implement a low cost high performance Linux based infrastructure with people who don't really understand the concepts or requirements.
Course the dumber and hence loser management won't understand this either.
The reason your software sucked was cos you paid $50 for the solution.
Quality costs money and a $50 card and some software don't come close to a Tivo. Can your PC control your cable/satellite/DigitalTV set top box to switch it on and change channel? Does your PC have a remote?
One of the first mods made to Tivos which are modified is to replace the existing drive with a couple of 120Gb IDE drives. Tivo can also archive shows to VCR or DVDR if you want.
You say "simply read those listings". The Tivo can't assume that every channel provides schedule info. Some don't at all. The ones which do don't use the same listing format, they use different page numbers, the listings don't provide actor, director, description, category etc etc information.
Tivo works with digital terrestrial TV, cable TV, satellite TV as well as normal analog terrestrial TV. I suggest you go away and look at the complexity of what a Tivo actually does, then try to replicate it using videotext supplied information.
I paid the lifetime sub, I consider it part of the price of the box, £350 instead of £150. It's easily worth the extra £200.
The Tivo knows when everything is on. I just tell it I want a season pass to Farscape. *It* schedules the recording of the whole series. I thumbs up some music shows, it starts recording them and other music shows as suggestions.
It's it's most basic ability. You're missing 90% of it's functionality if you don't subscribe to the schedule service. Since the sub is only £200 for the lifetime of the box, it's hardly a big deal.
They're not interested in producing their own box. They might be interested in a product badged with their own brand though. No reason that shouldn't actually be a Tivo.
Note that Tivo is really the subscription service. The boxes themselves are made by Sony, Thompson, Phillips etc.
Slashdot Mirror
Software architectures already exist which could be used. COSM is a free example, though I suspect the licensing may rule that out in a commercial environment. More stuff here: http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Computer _Science/Distributed_Computing/Platforms/
The corporation I work for has 110,000 desktop PCs. Never mind the servers.
They have plenty of processing power.
What they need is the internal organisation and the software skills to make use of their existing investment in systems.
Because installing one is theft and installing the other is not. You can rationalize it all you like.
I mean, a few people who're dying of cancer anyway getting strip searched on a weekly basis is a small price to pay for the safety of the majority...
Right?
Man builds house by pushing large stones into a big pile.
The quastion is, do you want an original hand made one, or a printout, permanently etched into your skin.
There is software to stop mass mailings. It's just that there are loads of dumb schmucks out there who haven't bothered to see if anything actually exists to do the job.
r ceforge.net/c c/h an.com/itymbi/archives/000656.html
Course, it's the same dumb schmucks who get all the spam mail, which suits me just fine.
The *real* problem is all these bloody spam stories on Slashdot. You only get spam these days because you want spam or are too dumb to do anything about it...
http://pyzor.sourceforge.net/
http://razor.sou
http://www.rhyolite.com/anti-spam/d
http://www.spamassassin.org/
http://www.zant
etc etc etc etc.
Data protection measures should be comensurate with the risk.
Is it 100Gb of a.b.p.e or will your livelyhood be destroyed?
If your house burns down, making sure you still have copies of your "disgusted from Tunbridge Wells" complaints to Channel 5 will be the least of your worries.
All desktop machines are Intel based. Not a PowerPC chip in sight. Macs are banned.
How do you feel about the future of the PowerPC knowing that Motorola refuse to use it themselves?
The tools to stop the spammers have existed for a couple of years now. If you still get spam, it's your own fault.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/28008.html
Therefore, going to Linux is going to cause problems if you already have a Windows only infrastructure.
It'll be an uphill struggle to implement a low cost high performance Linux based infrastructure with people who don't really understand the concepts or requirements.
Course the dumber and hence loser management won't understand this either.
And you might have something semi workable.
Have the capsules fly 18 inches off the surface of the tube using the generated air cushion to keep them up.
N thousand mph are pie in the sky anyway.
You've never used a Tivo... Obviously...
The reason your software sucked was cos you paid $50 for the solution.
Quality costs money and a $50 card and some software don't come close to a Tivo. Can your PC control your cable/satellite/DigitalTV set top box to switch it on and change channel? Does your PC have a remote?
One of the first mods made to Tivos which are modified is to replace the existing drive with a couple of 120Gb IDE drives. Tivo can also archive shows to VCR or DVDR if you want.
You say "simply read those listings". The Tivo can't assume that every channel provides schedule info. Some don't at all. The ones which do don't use the same listing format, they use different page numbers, the listings don't provide actor, director, description, category etc etc information.
Tivo works with digital terrestrial TV, cable TV, satellite TV as well as normal analog terrestrial TV. I suggest you go away and look at the complexity of what a Tivo actually does, then try to replicate it using videotext supplied information.
I paid the lifetime sub, I consider it part of the price of the box, £350 instead of £150. It's easily worth the extra £200.
I use mine to wade through all the junk on the 20 odd channels I get.
It finds all the good stuff and records it for me...
Automatically...
I'm just about to upgrade mine as well. I'm looking about for some quiet 120Gb drives.
You have absolutely no idea of how a Tivo works.
The Tivo knows when everything is on. I just tell it I want a season pass to Farscape. *It* schedules the recording of the whole series. I thumbs up some music shows, it starts recording them and other music shows as suggestions.
Huh?
How would they ban VCRsfor instance? There must be millions of them in the US. That's just a media executives pipe dream. Wouldn't worry about it.
In the UK, that's £200. I don't know what it is in the US.
It's it's most basic ability. You're missing 90% of it's functionality if you don't subscribe to the schedule service. Since the sub is only £200 for the lifetime of the box, it's hardly a big deal.
They're not interested in producing their own box. They might be interested in a product badged with their own brand though. No reason that shouldn't actually be a Tivo.
Note that Tivo is really the subscription service. The boxes themselves are made by Sony, Thompson, Phillips etc.
Comet are doing Tivos for £150 on their web site now. £350 for a tivo and lifetime sub is pretty reasonable I reckon.
And it doesn't cost me a penny!
Sounds ideal as an Xterm running Linux. How much are they? The site's not there.
http://www.oed.com/public/readers/research.htm