There is no workaround. Playing Netflix movies on a PC is intentionally difficult.
And I think you might be confused about the reason why: Silverlight isn't used because it's got the best codecs (it doesn't), or because it's popular (it isn't), or because it has the best features (it sucks). They use it because it has good DRM, and this keeps people from ripping the content. Which is important to them, because if ripping streaming Netflix films were automated, good, and easy, they'd certainly have a much harder time appeasing the copyright holders who allow the streaming to exist in the first place.
So mistrusting they are of computer users, that they don't even let them stream HD content, whereas Netflix's HD content works great on (say) a PS3.
Other devices use other forms of DRM which may or may not be stronger, but it is not Silverlight, which very simply doesn't work on these things. Who knows what it is -- and who cares? I, for one, am just happy that it works.
If you're waiting for a magic, open-source Netflix player for Linux...well, good luck with that. You'll be waiting a very, very long time. Open-source and DRM do not cohabitate very effectively, and if someone found a way to make it work, then Netflix would simply make it not work again.
So pick up a Roku, a 360, a PS3, or (perhaps some day) a used iPhone or iPod Touch (and an AV cable), and get on with life. Some hacks just aren't worth the time.
After I clean up the mess, I install Security Essentials, make Firefox default, and turn on automatic updates. I explain to the user about how to avoid infections in the first place, and address any questions or concerns they have.
And, well, that's it. They leave happy, and I never hear from them again unless the hardware breaks, because the software just keeps working.
How many AV packages should a system have installed, anyway?
When someone empties a back account, it is empty. The account holder no longer has access to that account's content, because it's gone. Just like if someone walked into my house and took my CDs -- I would be deprived of them.
This is nothing at all like copying someone else's copyrighted material. Everyone can copy everyone else's stuff, while the creators are never deprived of their own copies of the stuff.
Please feel free to make as many copies of my bank account as you like.
There's lots of ways to watch Netflix without Silverlight, and none of them are on a PC. Since an iPhone is also not a PC, I must assume that they'll follow their previous trend of not using Silverlight on embedded and hardware devices.
Or at least it was. Nowadays, my account is flagged, and my calls go straight through to level 3 support.
A conversation now goes something more like this:
First, an American answers the phone. "This is Mike. What can I do for you?"
"Hi, Mike. My DSL is hosed. Again. I think your RADIUS server is down."
"Let me check on that. [clickity-click] You're right. We'll get right on that. Do you want me to call you back when it's fixed?"
"Sure."
Or, if it's a line problem, I just call the local manager in the AM. If he's not around, or isn't fast enough, I just give the AT&T cancellation line a call, and make them deal with it.
I've been pretty happy with them, having developed this process.:)
Indeed. Moving GPIO from the adapter to the host sounds a whole lot more like the failed (though very cool) BeBox than anything which will actually generate enough money to be worthwhile.
You left out GIF. The patents are expired, and it is a free standard.
[Yes, I know that PNG does the same things as GIF, only better. Except, that it can't do animations. And simple animations, though often annoying, can be very useful, especially in a world like you suggest in which Flash does not exist. See? And though HTML5 + Ogg Theora fills some of the gap, lossy compression like that sucks for technical drawings, whereas lossless formats can do very well. Of course, there's MNG, which is similar to PNG but with animations in mind...which is cool and all, except nobody uses it.)
The Raytheon gear I installed last week has an Ethernet port and an embedded web server, instead of the lone RS-232 port that the previous version of the same thing had.
I used to have an 8-port BocaBoard (on a 486 PC which I stubbornly configured to have 14 working serial ports, just because).
It used 10-pin connectors (RJ-48?). At the time, Ebay didn't exist, and the tooling to put the connectors on was rather expensive, and 10-conductor flat lead was hard to find. You'd think, though, with 8 pin cabling being common, and RS-232 only ever really needing three, five, or seven pins (8 with RING), that they'd have included the most useful lines toward the middle of the connector, and the least useful lines toward the outside.
So that, you know, you could just plug in a 4, 6, or 8-wire cable and things would work.
They did not do this.
I forget if it was DSR, DTR, CTS, RTS, or what, but one of those fucking useful lines was on one of the outer-most pins of that 10-position connector -- the pin that was impossible to crimp properly. And one of the more useless lines was in toward the middle.
I honestly think that it's the fault of some marketer at Boca Research, who possessed enough clue to believe that in doing it this way he'd sell more cables. Instead, it just pissed me off enough that I never considered buying anything from Boca, at all.
I ended up clamping the connectors down in a vice, and with a small screwdriver and a hammer, gently tapping that one outside contact down into place.
That all said, I like the DB-9 connector. I can fasten it in place in bad environments, and it stays put. But they're such a pain to terminate that I usually end up using RJ-45 to DB-9 (or DB-25) adapters, anyway. So: if a standard is to be had, then Cisco's is probably as useful as any other.
This is late enough that you'll probably never see it, but:
There are PCI and PCI Express RS-232 interface cards, which seem to work fine. There are also PCMCIA cards, which also work fine; all of these are "real hardware," and should provide all of the features and bugs of an old 16550-based card in an ISA slot.
Omitted from the above list are ExpressCard RS-232 cards, because of the availability of USB in the ExpressCard slot alongside the PCI Express bus that it provides -- it's not clear, to me, if commonly-available adapters are running on the PCI Express bus or the USB bus. But since hanging them on the USB bus is likely cheaper due to parts availability, I'm not holding my breath on these things being any better than an external USB adapter.
Multidrop is all I've ever used RS-485 for. It's used in the analog PTZ camera world, where you can daisy-chain a bunch of cameras together, along with one or more controllers, all on a single twisted pair that is terminated at each end.
I happen to own an IDE floppy drive in the form of an LS-120, and it worked fine last time I used it. Other variations of that drive had SCSI, parallel, or USB interfaces.
My current floppy drive (read: the last one I'll ever buy) is a USB device made by NEC. It, too, just works.
What about those of us who consider the ability to operate the accelerator and the brake at the same time as something of a feature, and not a bug? (Yes, it can be useful to use both at the same time. No, not often at all -- perhaps never in normal driving. And if you don't know how it can be useful, there's no point in explaining it to you now; it's obviously not a feature for you. (Where "you" is the reader, not necessarily the parent poster.))
The original questioner is obviously aware of the "problem," and appears to be well-versed in dealing with the issues it permits (shift to neutral, turn the key to off but don't remove it, hold the start button for several seconds, etc.). Therefore, there will never be an insurance claim from this Toyota driver over this software issue.
So, that all said, I say no: No software "upgrade." Myself, I expect a car to do what I command it to do, even if it's wrong, because it's just a machine like any other.
There's not much deadly voltage to worry about in an LCD. The only thing high-voltage is the inverter for the backlight, and it's got so little capacitance that there's just not much of anything there. (And even then, by "high voltage" I mean "a couple of hundred volts," not "a couple thousand volts.")
But it's not like the bezels are there just for show. The LCD panel assemblies themselves, with backlighting, circuitry, a supporting frame, and the other fun stuff that lets them work, extend a fair bit beyond the edge of the usable display area.
I don't care if there's a new version of Java, unless I have a problem with it (and then I'll go find it myself). Or iTunes, which I never use but have to have for my iPod Touch. Or what Adobe Updater has to say to me today -- if my Adobe products have security problems, as they often do, I do want to know about that -- but I don't ever want to upgrade "just because". Or about the almost-daily updates to AnyDVD or Playon -- I'll update them when I have a problem. When BOINC failes to connect one time due to some temporary network issue somewhere in the world, I don't care -- although I might care if it can't connect for some lengthy period of time. When there's new antivirus data available, I don't care, I just want them, quietly, and without being informed that it is happening (and I certainly do want to know if it's not happening for some reason).
I either want the updates, or I do not want the updates. But I never want to be bothered with the daily barrage of update requests that I get now.
Please read what you link. You just described the tethering plan, which involves some manner of telephone coupled in some fashion to some manner of computer in order to be useful.
I was talking about the PDA plan, which exists only on the handset, and is unlimited. Research it yourself, if you're so clever.
FWIW, my Droid does not officially support tethering with Verizon. The plan you linked is completely not-fucking-applicable to me.
Most cars with manual transmissions will act that way. There is seldom anything in the transmission to signal that the gear selector is in neutral.
But that's not a safety problem, per se -- after all, the car is in neutral. Worst thing that could happen is that you do this, the engine revs up to no effect, making a lot of noise and winding up the tach. You go "WTF?" and tap the brake pedal (or the clutch pedal, or the whatever pedal), and things resume normalcy.
Even if you manage to get the car into gear while it's doing this (without using the clutch), your "WTF?" moment will still end as soon as you tap the brake, and you'll be very aware that you're doing something wrong (shifting without the clutch while the engine sings its 6,200RPM rev-limited song...).
Verizon unlimited PDA plans have no cap, but don't include tethering.
Their "unlimited" aircard plan does have a cap (instituted several years ago) of 5GB, but you can do whatever the hell you want with those 5GB from the comfort of a real computer.
For reference, I beat the fuck out of the data plan on my Droid, abusing it whenever possible. It just works, at $30/mo.
Yep. I'm familiar with some of those tools, and I'll be checking out the rest -- thanks.
Meanwhile, it's hard to post a sign with "NON-NEGOTIABLE" verbiage when it's just a fly-by-night operation. But I suppose it may help to be a little more upfront, or even bold, with individuals about pricing.
I started off with VIC-20s and TRS-80s (even had a Model I with a 64k RAM expansion, dual double-sided drives, and a wide-carriage line printer, almost none of which I was able to exploit fully), but didn't get in to PCs until around 1986.
Slashdot Mirror
A whole chip? Really? That sounds hard.
Just Ebay an old 20MB Seagate ST-225 MFM drive, and write whatever bits you want.
It doesn't know any better.
There is no workaround. Playing Netflix movies on a PC is intentionally difficult.
And I think you might be confused about the reason why: Silverlight isn't used because it's got the best codecs (it doesn't), or because it's popular (it isn't), or because it has the best features (it sucks). They use it because it has good DRM, and this keeps people from ripping the content. Which is important to them, because if ripping streaming Netflix films were automated, good, and easy, they'd certainly have a much harder time appeasing the copyright holders who allow the streaming to exist in the first place.
So mistrusting they are of computer users, that they don't even let them stream HD content, whereas Netflix's HD content works great on (say) a PS3.
Other devices use other forms of DRM which may or may not be stronger, but it is not Silverlight, which very simply doesn't work on these things. Who knows what it is -- and who cares? I, for one, am just happy that it works.
If you're waiting for a magic, open-source Netflix player for Linux...well, good luck with that. You'll be waiting a very, very long time. Open-source and DRM do not cohabitate very effectively, and if someone found a way to make it work, then Netflix would simply make it not work again.
So pick up a Roku, a 360, a PS3, or (perhaps some day) a used iPhone or iPod Touch (and an AV cable), and get on with life. Some hacks just aren't worth the time.
I think he meant "head first," not "inside out."
Hmm.
After I clean up the mess, I install Security Essentials, make Firefox default, and turn on automatic updates. I explain to the user about how to avoid infections in the first place, and address any questions or concerns they have.
And, well, that's it. They leave happy, and I never hear from them again unless the hardware breaks, because the software just keeps working.
How many AV packages should a system have installed, anyway?
When someone empties a back account, it is empty. The account holder no longer has access to that account's content, because it's gone. Just like if someone walked into my house and took my CDs -- I would be deprived of them.
This is nothing at all like copying someone else's copyrighted material. Everyone can copy everyone else's stuff, while the creators are never deprived of their own copies of the stuff.
Please feel free to make as many copies of my bank account as you like.
There's lots of ways to watch Netflix without Silverlight, and none of them are on a PC. Since an iPhone is also not a PC, I must assume that they'll follow their previous trend of not using Silverlight on embedded and hardware devices.
Hmm. Yeah, it's about like that with AT&T, too.
Or at least it was. Nowadays, my account is flagged, and my calls go straight through to level 3 support.
A conversation now goes something more like this:
First, an American answers the phone.
"This is Mike. What can I do for you?"
"Hi, Mike. My DSL is hosed. Again. I think your RADIUS server is down."
"Let me check on that. [clickity-click] You're right. We'll get right on that. Do you want me to call you back when it's fixed?"
"Sure."
Or, if it's a line problem, I just call the local manager in the AM. If he's not around, or isn't fast enough, I just give the AT&T cancellation line a call, and make them deal with it.
I've been pretty happy with them, having developed this process. :)
Indeed. Moving GPIO from the adapter to the host sounds a whole lot more like the failed (though very cool) BeBox than anything which will actually generate enough money to be worthwhile.
You left out GIF. The patents are expired, and it is a free standard.
[Yes, I know that PNG does the same things as GIF, only better. Except, that it can't do animations. And simple animations, though often annoying, can be very useful, especially in a world like you suggest in which Flash does not exist. See? And though HTML5 + Ogg Theora fills some of the gap, lossy compression like that sucks for technical drawings, whereas lossless formats can do very well. Of course, there's MNG, which is similar to PNG but with animations in mind...which is cool and all, except nobody uses it.)
You might be surprised.
The Raytheon gear I installed last week has an Ethernet port and an embedded web server, instead of the lone RS-232 port that the previous version of the same thing had.
At least they're staying away from USB, I guess.
That's nothing.
I used to have an 8-port BocaBoard (on a 486 PC which I stubbornly configured to have 14 working serial ports, just because).
It used 10-pin connectors (RJ-48?). At the time, Ebay didn't exist, and the tooling to put the connectors on was rather expensive, and 10-conductor flat lead was hard to find. You'd think, though, with 8 pin cabling being common, and RS-232 only ever really needing three, five, or seven pins (8 with RING), that they'd have included the most useful lines toward the middle of the connector, and the least useful lines toward the outside.
So that, you know, you could just plug in a 4, 6, or 8-wire cable and things would work.
They did not do this.
I forget if it was DSR, DTR, CTS, RTS, or what, but one of those fucking useful lines was on one of the outer-most pins of that 10-position connector -- the pin that was impossible to crimp properly. And one of the more useless lines was in toward the middle.
I honestly think that it's the fault of some marketer at Boca Research, who possessed enough clue to believe that in doing it this way he'd sell more cables. Instead, it just pissed me off enough that I never considered buying anything from Boca, at all.
I ended up clamping the connectors down in a vice, and with a small screwdriver and a hammer, gently tapping that one outside contact down into place.
That all said, I like the DB-9 connector. I can fasten it in place in bad environments, and it stays put. But they're such a pain to terminate that I usually end up using RJ-45 to DB-9 (or DB-25) adapters, anyway. So: if a standard is to be had, then Cisco's is probably as useful as any other.
This is late enough that you'll probably never see it, but:
There are PCI and PCI Express RS-232 interface cards, which seem to work fine. There are also PCMCIA cards, which also work fine; all of these are "real hardware," and should provide all of the features and bugs of an old 16550-based card in an ISA slot.
Omitted from the above list are ExpressCard RS-232 cards, because of the availability of USB in the ExpressCard slot alongside the PCI Express bus that it provides -- it's not clear, to me, if commonly-available adapters are running on the PCI Express bus or the USB bus. But since hanging them on the USB bus is likely cheaper due to parts availability, I'm not holding my breath on these things being any better than an external USB adapter.
Are you sure? I seem to recall using it to make some OS/2 install floppies a few years ago, which (IIRC) have a non-standard format.
Multidrop is all I've ever used RS-485 for. It's used in the analog PTZ camera world, where you can daisy-chain a bunch of cameras together, along with one or more controllers, all on a single twisted pair that is terminated at each end.
Define "everyone else," please.
I happen to own an IDE floppy drive in the form of an LS-120, and it worked fine last time I used it. Other variations of that drive had SCSI, parallel, or USB interfaces.
My current floppy drive (read: the last one I'll ever buy) is a USB device made by NEC. It, too, just works.
What about those of us who consider the ability to operate the accelerator and the brake at the same time as something of a feature, and not a bug? (Yes, it can be useful to use both at the same time. No, not often at all -- perhaps never in normal driving. And if you don't know how it can be useful, there's no point in explaining it to you now; it's obviously not a feature for you. (Where "you" is the reader, not necessarily the parent poster.))
The original questioner is obviously aware of the "problem," and appears to be well-versed in dealing with the issues it permits (shift to neutral, turn the key to off but don't remove it, hold the start button for several seconds, etc.). Therefore, there will never be an insurance claim from this Toyota driver over this software issue.
So, that all said, I say no: No software "upgrade." Myself, I expect a car to do what I command it to do, even if it's wrong, because it's just a machine like any other.
There's not much deadly voltage to worry about in an LCD. The only thing high-voltage is the inverter for the backlight, and it's got so little capacitance that there's just not much of anything there. (And even then, by "high voltage" I mean "a couple of hundred volts," not "a couple thousand volts.")
But it's not like the bezels are there just for show. The LCD panel assemblies themselves, with backlighting, circuitry, a supporting frame, and the other fun stuff that lets them work, extend a fair bit beyond the edge of the usable display area.
Open one up and see.
No, it's not better.
I don't care if there's a new version of Java, unless I have a problem with it (and then I'll go find it myself). Or iTunes, which I never use but have to have for my iPod Touch. Or what Adobe Updater has to say to me today -- if my Adobe products have security problems, as they often do, I do want to know about that -- but I don't ever want to upgrade "just because". Or about the almost-daily updates to AnyDVD or Playon -- I'll update them when I have a problem. When BOINC failes to connect one time due to some temporary network issue somewhere in the world, I don't care -- although I might care if it can't connect for some lengthy period of time. When there's new antivirus data available, I don't care, I just want them, quietly, and without being informed that it is happening (and I certainly do want to know if it's not happening for some reason).
I either want the updates, or I do not want the updates. But I never want to be bothered with the daily barrage of update requests that I get now.
Please read what you link. You just described the tethering plan, which involves some manner of telephone coupled in some fashion to some manner of computer in order to be useful.
I was talking about the PDA plan, which exists only on the handset, and is unlimited. Research it yourself, if you're so clever.
FWIW, my Droid does not officially support tethering with Verizon. The plan you linked is completely not-fucking-applicable to me.
Please try again.
Most cars with manual transmissions will act that way. There is seldom anything in the transmission to signal that the gear selector is in neutral.
But that's not a safety problem, per se -- after all, the car is in neutral. Worst thing that could happen is that you do this, the engine revs up to no effect, making a lot of noise and winding up the tach. You go "WTF?" and tap the brake pedal (or the clutch pedal, or the whatever pedal), and things resume normalcy.
Even if you manage to get the car into gear while it's doing this (without using the clutch), your "WTF?" moment will still end as soon as you tap the brake, and you'll be very aware that you're doing something wrong (shifting without the clutch while the engine sings its 6,200RPM rev-limited song...).
TFA says that Photoshop CS3, in 32-bit image mode, handles things properly*.
*: Where by "properly," I mean "differently than everything else."
Verizon unlimited PDA plans have no cap, but don't include tethering.
Their "unlimited" aircard plan does have a cap (instituted several years ago) of 5GB, but you can do whatever the hell you want with those 5GB from the comfort of a real computer.
For reference, I beat the fuck out of the data plan on my Droid, abusing it whenever possible. It just works, at $30/mo.
Hi.
While you were out, NeXT called from 20 years ago. They say their Display Postscript might be just the trick.
Yep. I'm familiar with some of those tools, and I'll be checking out the rest -- thanks.
Meanwhile, it's hard to post a sign with "NON-NEGOTIABLE" verbiage when it's just a fly-by-night operation. But I suppose it may help to be a little more upfront, or even bold, with individuals about pricing.
I started off with VIC-20s and TRS-80s (even had a Model I with a 64k RAM expansion, dual double-sided drives, and a wide-carriage line printer, almost none of which I was able to exploit fully), but didn't get in to PCs until around 1986.
FWIW.