If you have problems in production that you don't have in test, then you're not doing your job properly. Only if you can control your production environment. If you are releasing your software to the general public, there is no way to test all of the configurations that are out there, so it is inevitable that you will have problems on configurations that were not tested against.
In other news SCO announced a new suit against the Santa Claus Operation next for trademark infringement. Lawyers for SCO commented "On one hand a jolly old man that gives stuff away, vs a Darl McBride who says it is all his... of course everybody is going to be confused. This is an open and shut case." Observers note that talks are ongoing and think that this will be settled with Santa Claus Operation signing over all remaining ELF IP in exchange for a much needed coal concession.
How do you control the eyeHome from a (or multiple) remote location(s)? Because silly as it seems, that is usually a fairly hard problem to solve elegantly. Using a Wifi laptop/pda as an RC isn't bad but I prefer a Squeezebox personally.
The eyeHome sits next to the TV, comes with it's own IR remote control, and talks over ethernet to the Mac. It is basically an enhanced version of the Squeezebox (minus the front display) - The input jack is Cat5 - the Output jacks are various video and audio outputs. It relies on server software running on the Mac to serve the vaious files that it can consume (MPG, JPG, MP3, AAC, HTML) to it, just like the Sqzbx relies on server software on the PC or SliMP3 to serve the audio stream to it. So the eyeHome provides the mechanism for remote control as much a the Sqzbox is.
If you want DivX or XviD or tomorrows latest format you're out of luck. My solutions handles every codec available for WMP and could be fairly easily adapted for different players (RealMedia) or different platforms (OS/X).
This is definitely a point in favor of your solution that I hadn't considered. Because you have video being rendered on the PC, to handle a new format you only need to update the software on the PC. In order for eyeHome to handle a new format you would have to wait for ElGato to issue a firmware update (or not be issued and be SOL).
You need a box for every TV
The above comment was about the Pinnacle ShowCenter (thanks for the link BTW), but applies equally to the eyeTV.
The counter point to this is that you could have multiple eyeHomes (or ShowCenters) hooked up to different TV's all watching different movies at the same time. Assuming of course your network and Mac can handle the bandwidth of serving the data. BTW You don't have to dedicate the Mac to the solution. It just has to be on the network, always on and have lots of storage, but you can still use the Mac itself as someone's computer. (I don't know how realistic this would be in actual use, however).
Also your statement is not quite true. Just as you added a TV modulator into your system to distribute the video for all the TVs. You could put a TV modulator at the output of the eyeTV or ShowCenter as well and end up with something close to your system (minus the format support).
The eyeHome hooks up to your PC through ethernet so it most decidely does not need to be in the same room as the Mac. Latency issues asside it doesn't even need to be in the same building or country. Unfortunately for most people, it is only able to use a Mac as it's server source. Some hacking may be able to fix that, but I haven't seen that done yet.
As for the Wireless Media Adapter, that will teach me to pay more attention to the demos rather than the specs. I was at a Intel Developer Conference about 6 months ago, where they were demoing their "Digital Media Adapter" strategy and were demoing TVs playing video streamed over 802.11b from PCs. It looks like this hasn't completely developed yet.
My problem with your Squeezebox solution is the extra video cable that needs to be strung from the PC to the TV. This seems less elegant than using a network connection to stream the video, and more succeptible to signal degradation and interference. However, it sounds like it works well for you and in the end that is what matters.
Since this just makes the $250 Squeezebox a really expensive remote for you 'puter, you might want to consider some other products instead.
If want you want is just a remote for your computer, then the Keyspan Digital Media Remote provides a $40 dollar alternative.
If you want to stream video to you TV from your Mac, then El Gato's eyeHome will pull this off at the same price as the Squeezebox. It will also stream music from iTunes and do slideshows from iPhoto, with no hacking required. ( I know.. what's the fun in that:) )
The older clamshell CE Devices such as the Sharp Mobilon Tripad might be more of what you need.
They are cheap, so when they fall and break, get lost our stolen you aren't out major money. The Tripad can be had on eBay for under $200. The batteries last forever since there are no spindle. I got around 8-10 hours of use out of my Tripad when I had it. They have the touchscreens that allow you to scribble notes and diagrams
Now they aren't full fledged computers and you won't be playing Halo, GTA3, Wolf ET (insert you favorite game here) or storing much on them, but with the money you saved compared to getting a tabled PC you can get a pretty nice desktop system to do all of that on.
Hmm... I wonder if I should send my resume to an industry-leading security company, such as @stake, immediately.
Well @stake does have an opening now. However I pretty sure that when you did find security holes in Windows, pointing them out would be detremental to your job security.
What sucks is that its so hard for tech developers to maintain financial security, thus leading them into situations where buy-outs become necessary for the survival of the product
Which would have nothing to do with the people here whining that "$400 is too much to spend on Dreamweaver" or "$1200 is too much to spend on Director, so I'll just w4r3z it and they aren't losing a sale anyway."
Nope, I don't have any problems with you patching your own version of iDVD to work however you want it to if you have the copy of it legal.
What people are forgetting is that this was a BUSINESS that was selling DVD Burners by offering hacked version of iDVD that they didn't have the right to distribute.
I do however think that the DMCA may not have been the right mechanism for this, as simple copyright law would have taken care of this on not gotten the slashdot crowd up in such a tizzy.
If enough of the big chains went with digital projection, then Movie Producers might feel justified in not producing the 35mm reels. This would cause a squeeze for the smaller theatres, causing their costs of business to increase. So this might be in the big chains best interest (if not the consumers).
I saw a tv story, discovery channel I think, a while back on a suit to help nurses when lifting patients. The prototype works, the problem was the wires out the back for power.
Personal Computer 0S market numbers
MS 87%
Apple 4.5%
no numbers for rest of the market but don't take that to mean 8% linux
numbers from http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-2332817.html
So this definitely looks bad for Apple right?
But remember that Apple is primarily a hardware manufacturer:
New Personel Computer Sales Market Share:
Compaq 12.8%
Dell 10.8%
HP 7.6%
IBM 6.8%
Apple 4.5%
numbers from
http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/6858.html
(yes, unlike katz before rambling I research my information)
"How about a LAPTOP sized appliance , No hard drive, network capablity, guts could be based on one of the small PDA units, for card compatibility etc, only with a full sized keyboard and screen, it's be LIGHT, CHEAP, and battery life could be pretty amazing. Do most anything you need whilst mobile. email, documents editing, etc. LINUX based of course:)"
You are describing the batch of fullsize HPC WinCE device that came out in 1999 at the $1000 price point, the best of which were Vadem Clio or the Sharp Mobilon Tripad. Generally they had a 640x480 screen, full size keyboard, touch screen, and all day battery life. On the down side they had slow processors and only 16 or 32 MB RAM (which you split between memory and storage) and WinCE as the OS but that at least could be changed. While it didn't have a network jack, but it did have a PCMCIA slot.
I haven't seen a refresh of this form factor come it out since, probably since the drop in notebook prices into the sub $1000 range has squeezed these out of profitably. It would be interesting though to see one of these with a lot more memory.
At the risk of being accused of being a company shill...
Adobe has a little advertised web
service that will convert a variety of documents formats, including MS Office, to PDF files. Cost is 9.95 a month, but the 5 conversion freebie trial which is controlled by email address.
Slashdot Mirror
In other news SCO announced a new suit against the Santa Claus Operation next for trademark infringement. Lawyers for SCO commented "On one hand a jolly old man that gives stuff away, vs a Darl McBride who says it is all his... of course everybody is going to be confused. This is an open and shut case." Observers note that talks are ongoing and think that this will be settled with Santa Claus Operation signing over all remaining ELF IP in exchange for a much needed coal concession.
How do you control the eyeHome from a (or multiple) remote location(s)? Because silly as it seems, that is usually a fairly hard problem to solve elegantly. Using a Wifi laptop/pda as an RC isn't bad but I prefer a Squeezebox personally.
The eyeHome sits next to the TV, comes with it's own IR remote control, and talks over ethernet to the Mac. It is basically an enhanced version of the Squeezebox (minus the front display) - The input jack is Cat5 - the Output jacks are various video and audio outputs. It relies on server software running on the Mac to serve the vaious files that it can consume (MPG, JPG, MP3, AAC, HTML) to it, just like the Sqzbx relies on server software on the PC or SliMP3 to serve the audio stream to it. So the eyeHome provides the mechanism for remote control as much a the Sqzbox is.
If you want DivX or XviD or tomorrows latest format you're out of luck. My solutions handles every codec available for WMP and could be fairly easily adapted for different players (RealMedia) or different platforms (OS/X).
This is definitely a point in favor of your solution that I hadn't considered. Because you have video being rendered on the PC, to handle a new format you only need to update the software on the PC. In order for eyeHome to handle a new format you would have to wait for ElGato to issue a firmware update (or not be issued and be SOL).
You need a box for every TV
The above comment was about the Pinnacle ShowCenter (thanks for the link BTW), but applies equally to the eyeTV. The counter point to this is that you could have multiple eyeHomes (or ShowCenters) hooked up to different TV's all watching different movies at the same time. Assuming of course your network and Mac can handle the bandwidth of serving the data. BTW You don't have to dedicate the Mac to the solution. It just has to be on the network, always on and have lots of storage, but you can still use the Mac itself as someone's computer. (I don't know how realistic this would be in actual use, however).Also your statement is not quite true. Just as you added a TV modulator into your system to distribute the video for all the TVs. You could put a TV modulator at the output of the eyeTV or ShowCenter as well and end up with something close to your system (minus the format support).
Greets Xenna
The eyeHome hooks up to your PC through ethernet so it most decidely does not need to be in the same room as the Mac. Latency issues asside it doesn't even need to be in the same building or country. Unfortunately for most people, it is only able to use a Mac as it's server source. Some hacking may be able to fix that, but I haven't seen that done yet.
As for the Wireless Media Adapter, that will teach me to pay more attention to the demos rather than the specs. I was at a Intel Developer Conference about 6 months ago, where they were demoing their "Digital Media Adapter" strategy and were demoing TVs playing video streamed over 802.11b from PCs. It looks like this hasn't completely developed yet.
My problem with your Squeezebox solution is the extra video cable that needs to be strung from the PC to the TV. This seems less elegant than using a network connection to stream the video, and more succeptible to signal degradation and interference. However, it sounds like it works well for you and in the end that is what matters.
Since this just makes the $250 Squeezebox a really expensive remote for you 'puter, you might want to consider some other products instead.
If want you want is just a remote for your computer, then the Keyspan Digital Media Remote provides a $40 dollar alternative.
If you want to stream video to you TV from your Mac, then El Gato's eyeHome will pull this off at the same price as the Squeezebox. It will also stream music from iTunes and do slideshows from iPhoto, with no hacking required. ( I know.. what's the fun in that :) )
If you want to wait for Microsoft Announceware, you could get the Windows Media Center Extender for XBOX and use the XBOX to stream video to your TV.
Or at ~$150 you could get the Linksys Wireless Media Adapter . This is the first round of Intel's Digital Media Adapters , of which there is a good review of the technology at linuxdevices.com
The older clamshell CE Devices such as the Sharp Mobilon Tripad might be more of what you need.
They are cheap, so when they fall and break, get lost our stolen you aren't out major money. The Tripad can be had on eBay for under $200. The batteries last forever since there are no spindle. I got around 8-10 hours of use out of my Tripad when I had it. They have the touchscreens that allow you to scribble notes and diagrams
Now they aren't full fledged computers and you won't be playing Halo, GTA3, Wolf ET (insert you favorite game here) or storing much on them, but with the money you saved compared to getting a tabled PC you can get a pretty nice desktop system to do all of that on.
Hmm... I wonder if I should send my resume to an industry-leading security company, such as @stake, immediately.
Well @stake does have an opening now. However I pretty sure that when you did find security holes in Windows, pointing them out would be detremental to your job security.What sucks is that its so hard for tech developers to maintain financial security, thus leading them into situations where buy-outs become necessary for the survival of the product
Which would have nothing to do with the people here whining that "$400 is too much to spend on Dreamweaver" or "$1200 is too much to spend on Director, so I'll just w4r3z it and they aren't losing a sale anyway."
Nope, I don't have any problems with you patching your own version of iDVD to work however you want it to if you have the copy of it legal.
What people are forgetting is that this was a BUSINESS that was selling DVD Burners by offering hacked version of iDVD that they didn't have the right to distribute.
I do however think that the DMCA may not have been the right mechanism for this, as simple copyright law would have taken care of this on not gotten the slashdot crowd up in such a tizzy.
If enough of the big chains went with digital projection, then Movie Producers might feel justified in not producing the 35mm reels. This would cause a squeeze for the smaller theatres, causing their costs of business to increase. So this might be in the big chains best interest (if not the consumers).
Can't read japanese but there is cool picture atp _i mg/cf82.gif
h tm l
http://www.panasonic.co.jp/pc/prod/dt/82/img/to
which is off of its main product page at
http://www.panasonic.co.jp/pc/prod/dt/82/index.
I saw a tv story, discovery channel I think, a while back on a suit to help nurses when lifting patients. The prototype works, the problem was the wires out the back for power.
There is a story about it hereSome perspective on market share:
Personal Computer 0S market numbers
MS 87%
Apple 4.5%
no numbers for rest of the market but don't take that to mean 8% linux
numbers from http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-2332817.html
So this definitely looks bad for Apple right?
But remember that Apple is primarily a hardware manufacturer:
New Personel Computer Sales Market Share:
Compaq 12.8%
Dell 10.8%
HP 7.6%
IBM 6.8%
Apple 4.5%
numbers from
http://www.crmdaily.com/perl/story/6858.html
(yes, unlike katz before rambling I research my information)
"How about a LAPTOP sized appliance , No hard drive, network capablity, guts could be based on one of the small PDA units, for card compatibility etc, only with a full sized keyboard and screen, it's be LIGHT, CHEAP, and battery life could be pretty amazing. Do most anything you need whilst mobile. email, documents editing, etc. LINUX based of course :)"
You are describing the batch of fullsize HPC WinCE device that came out in 1999 at the $1000 price point, the best of which were Vadem Clio or the Sharp Mobilon Tripad. Generally they had a 640x480 screen, full size keyboard, touch screen, and all day battery life. On the down side they had slow processors and only 16 or 32 MB RAM (which you split between memory and storage) and WinCE as the OS but that at least could be changed. While it didn't have a network jack, but it did have a PCMCIA slot.
I haven't seen a refresh of this form factor come it out since, probably since the drop in notebook prices into the sub $1000 range has squeezed these out of profitably. It would be interesting though to see one of these with a lot more memory.
Adobe has a little advertised web service that will convert a variety of documents formats, including MS Office, to PDF files. Cost is 9.95 a month, but the 5 conversion freebie trial which is controlled by email address.