...you want people who will complete the work you are asking for...not evangelists rtrying to prove their tech choice is better.
If someone crying the superiority of Java over PHP over ASP, Windows over UNIX/Linux...they are not going to be making the best choices for the various parts of the product.
Each has strengths and weaknesses, and integrates better or wrose with certain things. A key question to ask them if if they know the best X to integrate thier solution with (X). The mythical (x) need not even be what they will be ultimately building against, its thoery question but they don't need to know that when you ask.
I think you have reached a little beyond what I ment with the response. When I am dashing off a comment on Slashdot if I miss a word or two who cares people still get the point. When I am coding its an entirely different story. I don't dash off code like I do prose.
Coding is an entirely different mind set where each word/character requires methodical careful logical thought as it is entered.
Anyway I agree with your further point. Infact thats what I was orginally getting at in most original post. Overtime is stupid. If you need to get a project done get two people to work 40 hours instead of one working 80 on overtime. However if you most make someone work ovetime, pay them for it! The laws currently allow employeers to dodge overtime if the worker makes above a certain wage, is in a certain job classification, etc. The law created those dodges, those laws need to go away and be replaced with a much more sane law that says I don't care what the worker is doing if he works more than x hours he gets ovetime. This would quickly (IMHO) force employeers to do the right things and not over work the guy.
I have often noticed that employeers do not notice the diminishing returns that overtime causes. No matter what your not going to get the kind of work you got for the fisrt 40 hours (or even the first 8 each day) in the second 40+ (or 8+)....
...maybe a TIVO Exec or two might see this, so here goes...
1. Get rid of stupid restrictions. 2. Allow me to mount the drive as a share over my home lan and access the content stored on board. Since you run on linux it should be fairly easy to allow for multiple mounting options. Then I can transfer the data files on and off at will. Or even record in the living room and play back on my computer. 3. Make the Storage drive user upgradeable in a bay..better yet two bays...put the OS and applications on a small internal drive put the content on drives that I can swap in and out at will...in fact you could ever offer the unit with a bring your own storage package. 4. Restore original pause, fast forward, commercial skipping functionality. Stop kowtowing to the media industry. 5. NEVER EVER comply with the broadcast flag. I realize that you might have to in the face the law, but make the broadcast flag support easily fooled and "leak" the bypass on the net. 6. Here is a big one. Do just software releases, and provide TV listing subscriptions same as always. provide me the software and I will build the box myself the way I want it...this is the true way for you to put yourself back in the back, Sell TIVO as a software package, that I can then adapt to my needs. I have no issue with you keeping whatever you want as binary only release, you can even code it to specific hardware (TV decode/decode cards)...just let me build my own linux box then install your recording playback software eon to it.
Slightly offtopic/ Fix the reception method
on
Can TiVo be Saved?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The way that both cable and SAT are received into the home is so stupid to begin with anyway. If it were fixed (which would probably take government intervention to make companies do it right), TIVO's fortunes would probably be better.
I have long believed that the providers should only have to install one box in my house in the basement where the cable enters the house. That box should decode all the channels that I have contacted for with my provider. Then those signals should be sent to all of the cable outlets in my house. They used to do something similar to this (I lived in an apartment in Marlborough, MA that did this up until 1999) with the channels effectively de-scrambled at the pole. Only the cable entered the apartment and any TV could watch any channel including the premium ones. Alas that ended in early 2000 when they sent us a letter saying would have to get boxes for continued premium service. (Might I add right after we got the box and all was well for a brief time, we also had to 4 day outage when the screwed the whole transition up, that's another story.)
...this is really something that is ripe for legistation to deal with esspecially because its legistation that has caused the problem in the first place. The only reason this stuff has come up is because laws exist that allow EA and other companies to deny overtime. I have not seen overtime where I work since the bubble burst. Before that they did give it to me and others who by law they didn't have to; however they had exemptions in out company policy (which still exist) which allowed for overtime on critical approved projects. Since the bubble burst those exemptions never get invoked. Its really to bad because pervious to the change I would regualrly work 55 hour weeks (I unfortunately couldn't collect overtime until 50 hours because of my pay status) Now I go home at 40 since on my pay scale thats the minum number of hours.
...I know the various contries have been refusing to support the measure...thats good it keeps software patents out of Europe......however as OSS supporter do we want the restart? or do we not want the restart? Are we on the side of the commision refusing to restart or the parliment?
...Personally I'd rather be working in PHP all the time personally and professionally. However the place that pays the salary is a Microsoft shop. Therefore my only web programming choices are ASP, and ASP.net, with a little JSP on one specific project(In this case its because the vendor of other call tracking app has a web interface and it runs in JSP) Basically what it boils down too is I can onlt use what the server group here will allow on the servers that means Microsoft Tech, I can't just instal other App server Tech just because I want to and perfer it.
I'd just love to be able to write some CSS and have it render the same in both IE and Mozilla/Firefox. As it stands quite often the same code will render differently in both browsers. The funny part is I found a reference from a firfox developer yesterday on another site where he explains how they had to break certain things on purpose to get them to work like IE to most web sites expected. The funny part is they couldn't figure out just exactly how Microsoft maneged to screw it up so badly no mater what they did they couldn't get certians things to look like IE rendered them.
I'll be shocked if it includes updated (and proper) CCS2/3 support. As a web designer its one of the things I am screaming to see. I somehow doubt they will do it. Updating thier code to do proper support will break most of the sites currently coded for it.
Nearly anything Dream Theater has ever released falls into that description...
Their albums are always highly integrated with each song following off the previous one. Infact two of them are infact Rock opera where the entire album is infact a story. (Metropolis pt2, and 6 Degrees)...
Rush's last studio Album (Vapor Trails) was highly integrated, a sort of struge and rebirth thing, although admittedly the connection isn't entire understood unless you read Ghost Rider the Book that Neil peart wrote at the same time he was composing the album.
No Further patents should be granted until the patent issues and problems are fully worked out and brought to acceptable terms to the entire American Public. This has gotten bad real bad...and it needs to be fixed.
Companies can still submit them for review they just need to realize that it might take 10 years beofre they are approved or rejected while the system gets properly reworked.
...I would rather see them sht down the OS upon detection of an illegal copy...break the network stack entirely. Erase the OS, but leave the data on the drive something like that....
...infact the base machine is still over priced...I thought about getting one...(I figure I have everyother OS running in the house why not add Mac OS)...but like all apple stuff it costs to damn much for why you get.
...the rest of the people in the world on the net have to suffer because someone pirated the OS. Microsoft MUST allow the patching of even pirate copies or they are setting of the biggest virus/bot/spam net in the entire world. I would go so far as to say that the US government should push the issue as a national security problem.
..until the company shut off the bulk of the outbound network ports so now I can't do much more than browse/. to get my mind on other things to relax about the work I am doing.
This is one of the reasons that Google allows its employees to do the 20% on your own projects. It stimulates the mind subcociously to seek answers to the problems you are working on the other 80% of the time. I used to do this at work, primary by working on projects (My web site, new software ideas, etc) on my home system while I was at work if I got stuck or fustrated. They have pretty much deneied my ability to do this shutting off most outboand and inbound ports below 1024 (according to a friend in security there ar only 5 below 1024 now), and all ports above 1024.
Result huge drop in net productivity, and work quality. No one has really noticed yet since I am sort of a workaholic overachiver anyway. The net drop still puts me way above the average around here (Ie. I actually still turn in projects at least on time if not a bit early, though nowhere near as early as I used too(Bugs the hell out of me) There are people here that have not delivered a project in as far as I can remember, the project usually gets killed before they finish it because it has been languishing for so long. Comparitively if I ever turn a project in I look pretty good.
The reason I never get that release of switching to something else to take my mind of the problem.
...OK, I understand that many companies see Red Hat as being "Linux" they have that kind of market share....but there are other distrobutions...could ya maybe also just release a simple tar ball with the install instructions for the individual files.
The problem with the romulan war is its still several years off from the current timeline of Enterprise, so untill they decided to skip a few years to get there...the show would need to last through several seasons to even get to the correct time period.
It only killed the show for the casual viewer. Plot twists & cast changes made the show dynamic, not moribund in its storyline. Nothing stops a viewer from buying DVD sets now (or whatever) and catching up. DVD Sets don't count towards ratings, and Obviously given that its now off the air, will not keep the show in production mode...
...that SCI FI TV needs...becuase its been terrible lately...
I thought me had it with Farscape for a bit, but it feel apart. It was good for the first couple seasons, but then it went off track and the casual watcher (to survive a show needs to be accessible the casual watcher) couldn't keep up with the plot twists and the cast changes. This killed the show...
Enterprise is so far off course its going to exit the galaxy. Its good but its not trek, and its pulling concepts out of the trek archive that only the hardcore trekkies can follow to try to survive...not a good plan. What they need is a good hardcore war, but its not really in the cards because of Trek Cannon for the time period.
StarGate I still love but lately it just seems a bit Earth bound, I have hopes for the second half of the season. And we know there will be a 9th now...the replicators in the new human form lurk and I think this is the way to bring new interesting plots the G'uld, have run thier course for now...
Atlantis is good, but I think its still finding its stride...I'm not in love with the chracters or plots yet, and the main baddies have not really put in a serious appearence since the Opening....
Slashdot Mirror
Use Winamp with the shout plugin...
A shoutcast server
and wwwinamp from halo 8....
...you want people who will complete the work you are asking for...not evangelists rtrying to prove their tech choice is better.
If someone crying the superiority of Java over PHP over ASP, Windows over UNIX/Linux...they are not going to be making the best choices for the various parts of the product.
Each has strengths and weaknesses, and integrates better or wrose with certain things. A key question to ask them if if they know the best X to integrate thier solution with (X). The mythical (x) need not even be what they will be ultimately building against, its thoery question but they don't need to know that when you ask.
I think you have reached a little beyond what I ment with the response. When I am dashing off a comment on Slashdot if I miss a word or two who cares people still get the point. When I am coding its an entirely different story. I don't dash off code like I do prose.
Coding is an entirely different mind set where each word/character requires methodical careful logical thought as it is entered.
Anyway I agree with your further point. Infact thats what I was orginally getting at in most original post. Overtime is stupid. If you need to get a project done get two people to work 40 hours instead of one working 80 on overtime. However if you most make someone work ovetime, pay them for it! The laws currently allow employeers to dodge overtime if the worker makes above a certain wage, is in a certain job classification, etc. The law created those dodges, those laws need to go away and be replaced with a much more sane law that says I don't care what the worker is doing if he works more than x hours he gets ovetime. This would quickly (IMHO) force employeers to do the right things and not over work the guy.
I have often noticed that employeers do not notice the diminishing returns that overtime causes. No matter what your not going to get the kind of work you got for the fisrt 40 hours (or even the first 8 each day) in the second 40+ (or 8+)....
I type to fast, am dyslexic, and Slashdot doesn't have an integrated spellchecker...so sue me...
1. Get rid of stupid restrictions.
2. Allow me to mount the drive as a share over my home lan and access the content stored on board. Since you run on linux it should be fairly easy to allow for multiple mounting options. Then I can transfer the data files on and off at will. Or even record in the living room and play back on my computer.
3. Make the Storage drive user upgradeable in a bay..better yet two bays...put the OS and applications on a small internal drive put the content on drives that I can swap in and out at will...in fact you could ever offer the unit with a bring your own storage package.
4. Restore original pause, fast forward, commercial skipping functionality. Stop kowtowing to the media industry.
5. NEVER EVER comply with the broadcast flag. I realize that you might have to in the face the law, but make the broadcast flag support easily fooled and "leak" the bypass on the net.
6. Here is a big one. Do just software releases, and provide TV listing subscriptions same as always. provide me the software and I will build the box myself the way I want it...this is the true way for you to put yourself back in the back, Sell TIVO as a software package, that I can then adapt to my needs. I have no issue with you keeping whatever you want as binary only release, you can even code it to specific hardware (TV decode/decode cards)...just let me build my own linux box then install your recording playback software eon to it.
The way that both cable and SAT are received into the home is so stupid to begin with anyway. If it were fixed (which would probably take government intervention to make companies do it right), TIVO's fortunes would probably be better.
I have long believed that the providers should only have to install one box in my house in the basement where the cable enters the house. That box should decode all the channels that I have contacted for with my provider. Then those signals should be sent to all of the cable outlets in my house. They used to do something similar to this (I lived in an apartment in Marlborough, MA that did this up until 1999) with the channels effectively de-scrambled at the pole. Only the cable entered the apartment and any TV could watch any channel including the premium ones. Alas that ended in early 2000 when they sent us a letter saying would have to get boxes for continued premium service. (Might I add right after we got the box and all was well for a brief time, we also had to 4 day outage when the screwed the whole transition up, that's another story.)
...this is really something that is ripe for legistation to deal with esspecially because its legistation that has caused the problem in the first place. The only reason this stuff has come up is because laws exist that allow EA and other companies to deny overtime.
I have not seen overtime where I work since the bubble burst. Before that they did give it to me and others who by law they didn't have to; however they had exemptions in out company policy (which still exist) which allowed for overtime on critical approved projects. Since the bubble burst those exemptions never get invoked. Its really to bad because pervious to the change I would regualrly work 55 hour weeks (I unfortunately couldn't collect overtime until 50 hours because of my pay status) Now I go home at 40 since on my pay scale thats the minum number of hours.
...I know the various contries have been refusing to support the measure...thats good it keeps software patents out of Europe... ...however as OSS supporter do we want the restart? or do we not want the restart? Are we on the side of the commision refusing to restart or the parliment?
...Personally I'd rather be working in PHP all the time personally and professionally. However the place that pays the salary is a Microsoft shop. Therefore my only web programming choices are ASP, and ASP.net, with a little JSP on one specific project(In this case its because the vendor of other call tracking app has a web interface and it runs in JSP) Basically what it boils down too is I can onlt use what the server group here will allow on the servers that means Microsoft Tech, I can't just instal other App server Tech just because I want to and perfer it.
I'd just love to be able to write some CSS and have it render the same in both IE and Mozilla/Firefox. As it stands quite often the same code will render differently in both browsers. The funny part is I found a reference from a firfox developer yesterday on another site where he explains how they had to break certain things on purpose to get them to work like IE to most web sites expected. The funny part is they couldn't figure out just exactly how Microsoft maneged to screw it up so badly no mater what they did they couldn't get certians things to look like IE rendered them.
I'll be shocked if it includes updated (and proper) CCS2/3 support. As a web designer its one of the things I am screaming to see. I somehow doubt they will do it. Updating thier code to do proper support will break most of the sites currently coded for it.
His name is Patrick...he's all I need...if something is wrong, he's the one I bitch too and get gets it fixed on my behalf...
Nearly anything Dream Theater has ever released falls into that description...
Their albums are always highly integrated with each song following off the previous one. Infact two of them are infact Rock opera where the entire album is infact a story. (Metropolis pt2, and 6 Degrees)...
Rush's last studio Album (Vapor Trails) was highly integrated, a sort of struge and rebirth thing, although admittedly the connection isn't entire understood unless you read Ghost Rider the Book that Neil peart wrote at the same time he was composing the album.
...They were trying to kill it...
END OF STORY.
They put it on Friday night against the most powerful SCI-FI line up in years, Stargate, Stargate Atlantis, and BattleStar Glactica!
The Season Started Late!
After the first 8 shows (I think it was 8) they started re-running!
Then the first new show was UM weak! Thats the word.
No Wonder it died.
The show had alot of potential however its never truely been realized, the character balence has been totally wrong.
No Further patents should be granted until the patent issues and problems are fully worked out and brought to acceptable terms to the entire American Public. This has gotten bad real bad...and it needs to be fixed.
Companies can still submit them for review they just need to realize that it might take 10 years beofre they are approved or rejected while the system gets properly reworked.
...so whay should kids care about it. Seriously in the days of the patriot act and other govenment suspention of our rights?
...I would rather see them sht down the OS upon detection of an illegal copy...break the network stack entirely. Erase the OS, but leave the data on the drive something like that....
...infact the base machine is still over priced...I thought about getting one...(I figure I have everyother OS running in the house why not add Mac OS)...but like all apple stuff it costs to damn much for why you get.
...the rest of the people in the world on the net have to suffer because someone pirated the OS. Microsoft MUST allow the patching of even pirate copies or they are setting of the biggest virus/bot/spam net in the entire world. I would go so far as to say that the US government should push the issue as a national security problem.
Chain Reaction is much more replated to this story...
..until the company shut off the bulk of the outbound network ports so now I can't do much more than browse /. to get my mind on other things to relax about the work I am doing.
This is one of the reasons that Google allows its employees to do the 20% on your own projects. It stimulates the mind subcociously to seek answers to the problems you are working on the other 80% of the time. I used to do this at work, primary by working on projects (My web site, new software ideas, etc) on my home system while I was at work if I got stuck or fustrated. They have pretty much deneied my ability to do this shutting off most outboand and inbound ports below 1024 (according to a friend in security there ar only 5 below 1024 now), and all ports above 1024.
Result huge drop in net productivity, and work quality. No one has really noticed yet since I am sort of a workaholic overachiver anyway. The net drop still puts me way above the average around here (Ie. I actually still turn in projects at least on time if not a bit early, though nowhere near as early as I used too(Bugs the hell out of me) There are people here that have not delivered a project in as far as I can remember, the project usually gets killed before they finish it because it has been languishing for so long. Comparitively if I ever turn a project in I look pretty good.
The reason I never get that release of switching to something else to take my mind of the problem.
...OK, I understand that many companies see Red Hat as being "Linux" they have that kind of market share....but there are other distrobutions...could ya maybe also just release a simple tar ball with the install instructions for the individual files.
The problem with the romulan war is its still several years off from the current timeline of Enterprise, so untill they decided to skip a few years to get there...the show would need to last through several seasons to even get to the correct time period.
It only killed the show for the casual viewer. Plot twists & cast changes made the show dynamic, not moribund in its storyline. Nothing stops a viewer from buying DVD sets now (or whatever) and catching up.
DVD Sets don't count towards ratings, and Obviously given that its now off the air, will not keep the show in production mode...
...that SCI FI TV needs...becuase its been terrible lately...
I thought me had it with Farscape for a bit, but it feel apart. It was good for the first couple seasons, but then it went off track and the casual watcher (to survive a show needs to be accessible the casual watcher) couldn't keep up with the plot twists and the cast changes. This killed the show...
Enterprise is so far off course its going to exit the galaxy. Its good but its not trek, and its pulling concepts out of the trek archive that only the hardcore trekkies can follow to try to survive...not a good plan. What they need is a good hardcore war, but its not really in the cards because of Trek Cannon for the time period.
StarGate I still love but lately it just seems a bit Earth bound, I have hopes for the second half of the season. And we know there will be a 9th now...the replicators in the new human form lurk and I think this is the way to bring new interesting plots the G'uld, have run thier course for now...
Atlantis is good, but I think its still finding its stride...I'm not in love with the chracters or plots yet, and the main baddies have not really put in a serious appearence since the Opening....