Honestly I'd say Wii but for a different reason. You bring up an excellent point however that the Wii is the most complete system and has a variety of 10 systems* going for it, I would say it's for the viral nature of its' adoption and that it is really bringing gaming to the masses. Like the 2600, NES and PS1 before it, the system is simply expanding the market to people who otherwise would not consider buying a video game system.
You are, of course, absolutely correct. And I'm ashamed to admit that I should have seen it, because I'm in exactly the same market you're talking about: I own a Wii. Before it, the last console that I thought was worth buying/owning was the original Nintendo Entertainment System. I've been a PC gamer since 1989. (though I did want an SNES, my parents wouldn't buy me one, and by the time the N64 came out I'd "outgrown" console gaming)
People prolly won't like me saying this. Seems the obvious choice to me, though... Plays Wii and Gamecube games out of the box, and the virtual console plays games from the NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis, Neo Geo, etc.... It doesn't play games for XBox or Playstation, but the library it brings to the table is much bigger, and covers a much wider array of playstyles. There's simply more variety with the Wii.
The Wiimote is also the only *fun* controller that I've run across in years. Actually changes the gameplay significantly. Some people hate it, some people love it. I love it.
I studied arts at University. Just maybe there's a greater proportion of arab terrorists who are doctors/engineers because there's a greater proportion of arabs who are doctors/engineers? In many of my courses, there simply weren't any arabs at all. Not a one. And I don't think I saw a single class in my major fields of studies (Philosophy, Linguistics, and Japanese language) with more than 5% of the class composed of people who could remotely pass for arab. Usually, it was closer to 1%.
Whereas, when I took math and science electives, usually half the class was arab.
I'm not saying all arabs are terrorists. And I'm not saying all arabs are muslim, nor am I saying all muslims are arabs. And I'm certainly not saying all muslims are terrorists. But I am saying that maybe, just maybe, the reason that a greater proportion of arab muslim terrorists are doctors and engineers could be because there just aren't that many arabs studying disciplines other than those.
Optimizing like that isn't all that comparable, no. But it's a really great way to learn how to code stuff that's still zippy even on derelict hardware. In a world where operating systems like Vista are becoming norm, I'd think that kind of skill is one people should be learning, no?
I've always been partial to Purple Motion, some of the two-channel modules he did as an exercise really withstand the test of time, despite the self-imposed technical limitations. All the FC music was exceptionally high quality overall though, IMO.
I agree... and you're doing Skaven a disservice by not including his name when you mention Second Reality.:) Don't forget that he did half of it, too.... That said, I have the PM part of it on my portable MP3 player, and not Skaven's part.:P I am not an atomic playboy...
I, too, was really surprised when Second Reality didn't show up on the list.:(
It shouldn't be applied to any internet connections, high speed or elsewise, except on a strictly opt-in basis.
Diminishing returns. There's a concept that's related in economics which has a pretty well-written Wikipedia article: the Laffer curve. Essentially, if they make it an opt-in, they have to increase the amount they're asking. As they increase the amount they're asking, fewer people will opt in, meaning that they have to increase the amount again. Rinse. Repeat.
If they're going to do it, they need to do it across the board. To do otherwise would pretty much cut it out of the game entirely, and end up being a colossal waste of time and money.
Honest question (I don't want to hash up capitalism vs socialism). How long did it take you to get scheduled for your surgery?
Started as a partial tear. Low triage, because I could still walk, albeit not a lot. When it gave out at the doctor's office, becoming a full tear, it became high triage and I was in surgery a week later. Well... offered a spot a 5 calendar days later, but I had a vacation scheduled for that week and had to ask for a spot the following week.
You can make a good argument for socialism on necessities like health care, education, road maintenance, etc., etc., but it makes a lot less sense when applied to luxuries. To categorize and treat them in the same way is a mistake.
In this case, the essential service being provided is the money that's being distributed to the artists, not the right to download that's being given to the people. I'm not going to say that the right to download should be socialized, I am, however, going to say that as it's nearly impossible to get a definite answer on who is actually downloading, the fairest way to pay for that essential service is to distribute the cost among everybody.
I was arguing for an exemption on low-speed connections for two reasons: first, they're quite rare in this country. Internet penetration is at about 85-90% right now, and of that, broadband penetration is at 80%. Second, it's simply not fair to charge a $5/month levy on a service that costs less than $5.
What about the three separate connections; two DSL and one cable, that I administer for remote locations to the business I run the network for? I have the firewalls and proxies set up to stop employees from downloading music and video, so should I have to pay $15 per month for a "service" which I am, in fact, expressely forbidding the networks to access?
Ahh. You begin to understand the meaning of "socialism". By spreading the cost out among everybody, rather than just the people who use the service, you can reduce the overall cost for everybody. Kind of like how our medical system works: I'm 26 years old, and I had knee surgery in November of 2007. Before then, I'd never been in the hospital, but I'm still paying for the public health care as part of my taxes. Because I'd paid that health care in my taxes, however, my stay in the hospital for the knee surgery (ACL, Meniscus, and shaving a fracture on the underside of the patella that never healed properly) was completely free. Didn't cost me a dime. Nor did the painkillers I got (and never used after the day of the surgery).
It doesn't matter that you aren't using that functionality. By charging you a small amount of money, it reduces the overall cost for everybody else.
You do realise that Canada isn't a capitalist state, right?
Besides which, they may choose to implement it only on residential services. *shrugs* If you have a "residential" account and are using it for "business" purposes, one has to ask the question: why aren't you using a "business" account? I'm in that boat, too, btw. I have a DSL connection and a cable connection. I do all my hosting off the DSL connection, and my personal uses off the Cable connection. I still think it's a good idea.
Probably the same way the blank media levy is collected/distributed: lump sums given out to the songwriters' and musicians' guilds, which is then distributed by the guild on basis of need. Quite a fair way to do things, really, and one that the majority of Canadian musicians support wholeheartedly.
I agree with the proposal with one caveat: it shouldn't be applied to *all* internet connections. Just the so-called "high speed" ones. Anything 1mbit and over. Anything under that isn't fast enough to make filesharing worthwhile. More importantly, you can get a "high speed" connection in Canada that's 128kbit or 256kbit. For surfing the Internet or checking your e-mail, it's plenty fast enough. Even a 1mbit connection, which is one step above the entry level, is plenty fast enough for surfing and e-mail, and a lot of people will choose these slower services because they are priced much lower than an actual high speed connection.
We shouldn't be applying a levy of $5/month to a dialup Internet account that, itself, only costs $2.95/month, especially when the purpose of that levy is to combat a practice on the Internet that the $3/month connection simply isn't capable of. I'd happily pay an extra $5/month on my 7mbit cable connection, however, if it got rid of the legal grey areas surroudning file sharing. (how it's legal for me to download, sorta, but illegal for me to upload, for example)
Second, Compaq isn't one of the "big boys"? WTF? Regardless of how much your employer tries to spin things, Compaq and HP are the same company now, and actually sell more computers than Dell does. Toshiba and Sony also do not provide an actual Windows install media, regardless of whether you buy the Business Class or Home Class machines. Dell and HP(Compaq) are really the only 2 major players left who do provide them, and they are getting harder and harder to find. Usually only the business class machines have the full install media. Home users get a restore partition or an actual restore disk if they are lucky.
So... you're telling me that the Vista install media that came with my computer doesn't actually exist? Funny. Wonder how I managed to install Vista off it. And the Inspiron line of products *is* the home line of product. I can't speak for other vendors, but Dell *does* include the media on its home line of systems. I've seen it first hand with both the Inspiron family of product and with the XPS line of product. First-hand experience. And my Inspiron was ordered as though I were a regular customer, without even using my employee discount coupon.
And Compaq isn't one of the big boys, because Compaq doesn't exist as a separate entity. It's HP/Compaq, or "The New HP", depending on who you're asking. Compaq/HP are separate in the same way that Dell/Alienware are separate: Dell owns Alienware in its entirety, and it's an illusion that they're separate companies. I was working for CPQ at the time of the buyout... rather enjoyed showing up at work to find a layoff notice on my desk and 8 weeks pay in lieu of notice. *shrugs*
Can I ask when the last time you bought a Dell was? My friend's XPS 420, the one that arrived on Friday, had both a restore partition *and* Vista install media. My Inspiron 1520 may have, but the first thing I did when I got it was reformat and install Linux (only to find out that the sound card I'd chosen wasn't and still isn't supported by Linux). It's possible this is a recent change back from how things have been in the past... shortly before I started with the company there was a bit of a reorganization at the top levels over customer experience which has been flagging in recent years. They were also streamlining and getting rid of unnecessary levels of management in that reorg, but the main impetus was improving CE. Perhaps they've reintroduced the shipment of actual OS discs as part of that?
Compaq and the rest of the big boys do not provide original install cds anymore. They are just cds of images of their custom installs with all the crap they provide. Actually, most of them do not provide any cd anymore. The image is on another partition and well anyway... what I'm asking is obivously is there any hope for these users?
Patently false. For one, Compaq isn't one of the "big boys". They haven't been since HP bought them out in 2002. For two, the last Compaq laptop I had was bought in 2005 and came with a Windows XP CD. Real one. Had a blue printed label because it was OEM, but it was a real copy of the Windows XP Home CD, which, when used, worked exactly like the real, retail, hologrammed XP Home CD. It even asked for the license key, which was on the bottom of the laptop.
And if you're thinking things have changed in the last 3 years, a girl I work with received a Dell XPS 420 on Friday. It came with a real Windows Vista 32-bit CD. The only difference between this CD and a retail Vista CD is that this one doesn't ask for the license key during installation. It being an OEM CD, it will install only Vista Home Premium without asking for the key, whereas the retail CD will determine which version of Windows to install based on the license key you enter. That's it. It doesn't install any other crap that came with the computer. That's provided on separate discs.
And if you're going to say that obviously she got the higher end, because she bought the XPS, but the stuff they foist on normal users is loaded with all the crap, I'm going to say you're full of shit there, too. I have a Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop. My lappy is running XP MCE 2005 right now, but it, too, came with the same bundle of CDs and a copy of the OS disc. I didn't even have to burn my own backup discs: it came with it.
Perhaps, just perhaps, if this is the view you have of major OEMs, it's time you switched to a new OEM?
Obligatory disclaimer: I work in the sales department at Dell, so I do have a vested interest in convincing you to switch. But I'm also not blowing smoke up your arse... we really do ship systems with an OS disc and all of the other pre-loaded software on separate CDs. We also don't load it with all kinds of crap you'll never use like free AOL trials and such. On my laptop, the only stuff that was preinstalled was MS Works (I chose that because it was free and I already have Office 2003), the CD Burner software, and Dell MediaDirect.
Except that a Vista-based laptop with the same hardware specs as the MacBook would cost $600, not $900....
And my laptop "just works". No hassle. No complaints. Running XP MCE 2005. And no paying half the price over again for the bragging rights of saying that I'm running a Mac.
I priced it out. You do the same. I'll give you the specs on my lappy and you go to Apple's site and see how much a system with the same hardware capabilities would cost. Then compare that to the $1500 I paid for it in October. And then tell me, with a straight face, that I should have bought a Mac.
Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 @ 1.66GHz 2GB DDR2 667MHz 120GB 7200RPM SATA HDD onboard Intel HD Audio Intel 8945J 802.11a/g WLAN onboard Bluetooth module 256MB NVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics, with S-Video and D-SUB 15-pin VGA out 15.4" TrueLife LCD, 1680x1050 resolution 8X DVD-RW IEEE-1394a and USB 2.0 ports 9-cell 85watt-hour extended-life battery
If you actually go to check the Apple website, the first thing you're going to notice is that Apple doesn't actually make a laptop with anything approaching these specs. Their screens are smaller, and lower resolution. And, at least when I bought it, Apple didn't have any laptops with that graphics card. And if you check closely, you'll notice that the top end Apple MacBook is twice what I paid for my system, while having lower specs. Now tell me, with a straight face, that I should have bought a Mac.
Even conceding your point about AVG*, there are other free antivirus programs out there. ClamAV, for example, is open source, gets updated as frequently as hourly, and is free as in beer as well as free as in speech. From my own experience, ClamAV actually has a better trap rate than Symantec AV.
* - Your point about AVG's licensing is incorrect, btw. Yes, you do need to buy the $40 license if you're running it on more than one computer. No, you do not need to buy the $140 license if you're connecting it to a network. That clause is talking about using it in a network scanning situation... running it on a mail server, file server, web server... something like that. Are you noticing a common thread? They don't care if you connect a computer running AVG Free to a network, they only care if you are using AVG to protect your network resources. It's well within their licensing terms to run the free version on your desktop PC and have some other antivirus solution on your server.
*shrugs* I actually sell the product. So having a working knowledge of the system, its quirks, etc. helps me answer questions about its idiosyncracies, which in turn helps me sell more of their product.
You tell me whether MS would have a problem with it. Since it was an MS rep who told me that it was a good idea....
2) I wonder if they managed to screw something up/didn't fix it in their service pack i.e. audio vs. network speed?
Well... I'm glad I'm in sales now instead of tech. support (I used to be), in light of one of the "features" they implemented. I'm running Vista Ultimate (MSDN) on my HTPC/Media Center, and downloaded/installed SP1. Now... that system has 3GB of memory, but it has shared video. It's in a small form factor case the size of a toaster, and I simply can't afford the added heat buildup for a high end video card. As a result, the system is running with the onboard X1250 video, with 128MB shared. (motherboard is an ASUS M2A-VM HDMI)
Now... Imagine my surprise when Vista reported 3GB of RAM available, even with as much as 256MB shared with the video card (the max). I knew, thanks to reporting, that it was going to report installed memory in cases where there's more than 3GB of RAM, because 32-bit Windows can't actually access more than 3.25GB of RAM... but this system only has 3GB of RAM, and it's running 64-bit Vista.
Imagine my surprise, then. And it ocurred to me: people are going to play around in their BIOS, and increase the video RAM to 128MB. Then they're going to check, and Windows still says it can use the full 2GB they bought. So they're going to return, and set the video RAM to 256MB. It'll still say 2GB. Depending on the card they have, they could even set it to 512MB or 1GB, and Windows will still report 2GB. And then they're going to wonder why their system has gotten slower. And some poor sap in tech. support is going to have to explain why.
Meh. My media center runs Vista... it's hands down a better interface than XP MCE, and the media center has hardware that's simply not supported by Linux, so MythTV is completely out of the question. It has features that don't exist in XP's MCE, either, which makes it a more attractive option from a multimedia perspective.
Then again, that particular system never runs anything that didn't actually come with Vista x64, except for the AVG Antivirus and drivers, so perhaps it doesn't count.... I also didn't pay for it (MSDN), so I guess it really doesn't count. *shrugs* On computers I actually *use*, I'm on XP or Linux, depending on the use that particular computer sees.
*shrugs* Ubuntu wouldn't work on my laptop. Sound driver. It's not fixed in the current kernel, either. It simply can't load the codec to work with it.
Talk to me when that's fixed. Until that point, I have absolutely no impetus to try Linux again on my laptop. Even if it is faster.
And before you try to write me off, know that I've run Linux on my desktop machine for 3 years, and on various servers since 1997. I do have a clue what I'm talking about here. The laptop is useless to me without even basic multimedia functionality.
For a few applications, though, Vista has a pretty big edge over XP. On my gaming laptop, I run XP, because that's one of the areas where Vista support is a complete wash... but I also run a PVR/HTPC system and that's running Vista Ultimate on it. To be blunt, when compared with the features/interface offered by alternatives like MythTV, or even Windows XP MCE, none of them come close to Vista. It simply is better in virtually every way: faster interface, commands/options are more logically laid out, capable of overlaying the menu on top of current video playback (rather than having to shrink the playback to a corner), and a darned sight stabler. To say nothing of the multimedia enhancements that makes it blow completely past alternatives in a modern setting... things like HDMI support, digital audio out, and built-in compatibility with an awful lot of consumer hardware.
That's not to say that it's without faults, or that a Linux solution couldn't do the job, mind you. But for the average user, Vista's MCE is head and shoulders above everything else out there. About the only gripe I have about it, actually, is that it can't read the tags from some of my music that's stored in OGG/Vorbis format. The information is there, but Vista won't read it. Had to install codecs, and ffdshow, to get it to play back, but it now handles the playback of all of my media quite nicely, and it's only a matter of time before Vista MCE handles that information. Part of the problem could be at my end: I'm running the x64 version of it.
It's got its annoyances. UAC is pretty high up there. But for certain applications, it really is the best choice out there. And I don't think I've ever seen a blue screen under Vista, despite having used it off and on since Beta 1. With ME, I saw 3 BSOD's the first day I used it, and within a week had reformatted and gone back to 98SE.
And lest you think I'm some kind of MS apologist... yes, I do have an MSDN subscription. That's where I got my copy of it. But both my work system and my server run Linux. Wrap your head around that: I have free access to every MS product there is since DOS 5.0 and Win 3.1. I could run any of their software I want, including versions of Windows Server that haven't even been released to market yet, and I still choose to run Zenwalk 4.8 on my workstation, and Zenwalk core on my server. When I say that for a media center, Vista really is the best option, I'm saying it because it really is, not because I'm some kind of fanboi.
Watching TV content isn't the reason to get a proper TV tuner. It's nice to have the computer running as a PVR, but the point is having a hardware MPEG decoder. TV tuners double as MPEG decoders. Having a good one in your system will significantly reduce the CPU load for watching your "rented" movies, allowing you to get away with a much weaker processor in the system. This, in turn, means you've got lower electricity requirements for the system, and less heat buildup, which means you don't need as beefy an exhaust/cooling system, which in turn means a quieter PC.
I'm talking about primarily about electricity consumption, but I'm also talking about the processing power of the system. Perhaps it's not the same class you're talking about, but my ultimate goal is to build an HTPC with no moving parts except for the optical drive.
S/PDIF isn't necessarily optical medium, either. I'm using it in my setup, because that's what my 5.1 decoder uses. But that is connected through a coaxial RCA cable, not through an optical cable. The better HDTVs will have audio out for RCA, Coaxial S/PDIF, and Optical S/PDIF, as is the case with the setup I'm using right now. HDMI from the media center PC (which will be upgraded, probably with a Blu-Ray, when the war is finally over. going to wait it out for now) to the TV, and then Coaxial S/PDIF from the TV to the 5.1 decoder.
Yes, there's going to be downsampling, but when the TV itself outputs the audio, there'd be more downsampling: from as many as 8 channels to 3. With a good 5.1 decoder and speakers, the average user won't ever hear the difference introduced by changing codecs.
You can. And do. A friend of mine just took delivery of a new PC today that has a Blu-Ray burner. BD has higher data capacities than HD-DVD, too, making it more cost effective in the long run.
While it's not a VIA chipset, I built a media center system yesterday using the following: Mobo: ASUS M2A-VM HDMI CPU: AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ AM2 Case: Antec NSK1380
It's about the same form factor as the Shuttle, it's low power with a certified 80Plus PSU, and it has the advantages of being upgradeable: you can replace the motherboard if you need to, and it takes a standard AM2 CPU, which is a lot easier to lay your hands on. Only one caveat: you don't have a lot of space to work with, so if you want to replace the stock heatsink make sure you don't get one that's too high. I had to retire my Arctic Cooling Alpine64 when I switched to the SFF system, because it was about 1cm too high. *and* the motherboard has coaxial digital audio out (which I'm using with my 5.1 decoder) and HDMI/HDCP support. Only one upgrade I'd strongly suggest: get a proper TV tuner. I'm using an AverMedia Combo PCIe m780. Having a hardware MPEG decoder/encoder makes a huge difference to CPU load when watching and recording videos, which makes a *huge* difference to system power consumption and heat. My system runs near silent... in fact, the loudest component in the entire setup is the hard drive, and that's really only audible when it's seeking. For reference, the two hard drives I'm using are an internal Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB, and an external LaCie Big Disk Extreme+ 1TB, connected through the motherboard's onboard IEEE 1394a.
As an added bonus, you can get the CPU/Mobo/case for the price range you're quoting, and the rest of your existing hardware can be transferred over. One caveat though: the HDMI, S-Video, RCA, and Co-axial S/PDIF outputs are on a riser card which occupies the PCIe x16 slot on the motherboard, which isn't as bad as it sounds, really. In a system that small, it's a bad idea to put in a high end video card that amounts to nothing more than a heat factory.
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You are, of course, absolutely correct. And I'm ashamed to admit that I should have seen it, because I'm in exactly the same market you're talking about: I own a Wii. Before it, the last console that I thought was worth buying/owning was the original Nintendo Entertainment System. I've been a PC gamer since 1989. (though I did want an SNES, my parents wouldn't buy me one, and by the time the N64 came out I'd "outgrown" console gaming)
People prolly won't like me saying this. Seems the obvious choice to me, though... Plays Wii and Gamecube games out of the box, and the virtual console plays games from the NES, SNES, N64, Sega Genesis, Neo Geo, etc.... It doesn't play games for XBox or Playstation, but the library it brings to the table is much bigger, and covers a much wider array of playstyles. There's simply more variety with the Wii.
The Wiimote is also the only *fun* controller that I've run across in years. Actually changes the gameplay significantly. Some people hate it, some people love it. I love it.
So that'd be my vote. *shrugs*
I studied arts at University. Just maybe there's a greater proportion of arab terrorists who are doctors/engineers because there's a greater proportion of arabs who are doctors/engineers? In many of my courses, there simply weren't any arabs at all. Not a one. And I don't think I saw a single class in my major fields of studies (Philosophy, Linguistics, and Japanese language) with more than 5% of the class composed of people who could remotely pass for arab. Usually, it was closer to 1%.
Whereas, when I took math and science electives, usually half the class was arab.
I'm not saying all arabs are terrorists. And I'm not saying all arabs are muslim, nor am I saying all muslims are arabs. And I'm certainly not saying all muslims are terrorists. But I am saying that maybe, just maybe, the reason that a greater proportion of arab muslim terrorists are doctors and engineers could be because there just aren't that many arabs studying disciplines other than those.
Optimizing like that isn't all that comparable, no. But it's a really great way to learn how to code stuff that's still zippy even on derelict hardware. In a world where operating systems like Vista are becoming norm, I'd think that kind of skill is one people should be learning, no?
I agree... and you're doing Skaven a disservice by not including his name when you mention Second Reality.
I, too, was really surprised when Second Reality didn't show up on the list.
Diminishing returns. There's a concept that's related in economics which has a pretty well-written Wikipedia article: the Laffer curve. Essentially, if they make it an opt-in, they have to increase the amount they're asking. As they increase the amount they're asking, fewer people will opt in, meaning that they have to increase the amount again. Rinse. Repeat.
If they're going to do it, they need to do it across the board. To do otherwise would pretty much cut it out of the game entirely, and end up being a colossal waste of time and money.
Started as a partial tear. Low triage, because I could still walk, albeit not a lot. When it gave out at the doctor's office, becoming a full tear, it became high triage and I was in surgery a week later. Well... offered a spot a 5 calendar days later, but I had a vacation scheduled for that week and had to ask for a spot the following week.
In this case, the essential service being provided is the money that's being distributed to the artists, not the right to download that's being given to the people. I'm not going to say that the right to download should be socialized, I am, however, going to say that as it's nearly impossible to get a definite answer on who is actually downloading, the fairest way to pay for that essential service is to distribute the cost among everybody.
I was arguing for an exemption on low-speed connections for two reasons: first, they're quite rare in this country. Internet penetration is at about 85-90% right now, and of that, broadband penetration is at 80%. Second, it's simply not fair to charge a $5/month levy on a service that costs less than $5.
Ahh. You begin to understand the meaning of "socialism". By spreading the cost out among everybody, rather than just the people who use the service, you can reduce the overall cost for everybody. Kind of like how our medical system works: I'm 26 years old, and I had knee surgery in November of 2007. Before then, I'd never been in the hospital, but I'm still paying for the public health care as part of my taxes. Because I'd paid that health care in my taxes, however, my stay in the hospital for the knee surgery (ACL, Meniscus, and shaving a fracture on the underside of the patella that never healed properly) was completely free. Didn't cost me a dime. Nor did the painkillers I got (and never used after the day of the surgery).
It doesn't matter that you aren't using that functionality. By charging you a small amount of money, it reduces the overall cost for everybody else.
You do realise that Canada isn't a capitalist state, right?
Besides which, they may choose to implement it only on residential services. *shrugs* If you have a "residential" account and are using it for "business" purposes, one has to ask the question: why aren't you using a "business" account? I'm in that boat, too, btw. I have a DSL connection and a cable connection. I do all my hosting off the DSL connection, and my personal uses off the Cable connection. I still think it's a good idea.
Probably the same way the blank media levy is collected/distributed: lump sums given out to the songwriters' and musicians' guilds, which is then distributed by the guild on basis of need. Quite a fair way to do things, really, and one that the majority of Canadian musicians support wholeheartedly.
I agree with the proposal with one caveat: it shouldn't be applied to *all* internet connections. Just the so-called "high speed" ones. Anything 1mbit and over. Anything under that isn't fast enough to make filesharing worthwhile. More importantly, you can get a "high speed" connection in Canada that's 128kbit or 256kbit. For surfing the Internet or checking your e-mail, it's plenty fast enough. Even a 1mbit connection, which is one step above the entry level, is plenty fast enough for surfing and e-mail, and a lot of people will choose these slower services because they are priced much lower than an actual high speed connection.
We shouldn't be applying a levy of $5/month to a dialup Internet account that, itself, only costs $2.95/month, especially when the purpose of that levy is to combat a practice on the Internet that the $3/month connection simply isn't capable of. I'd happily pay an extra $5/month on my 7mbit cable connection, however, if it got rid of the legal grey areas surroudning file sharing. (how it's legal for me to download, sorta, but illegal for me to upload, for example)
So... you're telling me that the Vista install media that came with my computer doesn't actually exist? Funny. Wonder how I managed to install Vista off it. And the Inspiron line of products *is* the home line of product. I can't speak for other vendors, but Dell *does* include the media on its home line of systems. I've seen it first hand with both the Inspiron family of product and with the XPS line of product. First-hand experience. And my Inspiron was ordered as though I were a regular customer, without even using my employee discount coupon.
And Compaq isn't one of the big boys, because Compaq doesn't exist as a separate entity. It's HP/Compaq, or "The New HP", depending on who you're asking. Compaq/HP are separate in the same way that Dell/Alienware are separate: Dell owns Alienware in its entirety, and it's an illusion that they're separate companies. I was working for CPQ at the time of the buyout... rather enjoyed showing up at work to find a layoff notice on my desk and 8 weeks pay in lieu of notice. *shrugs*
Can I ask when the last time you bought a Dell was? My friend's XPS 420, the one that arrived on Friday, had both a restore partition *and* Vista install media. My Inspiron 1520 may have, but the first thing I did when I got it was reformat and install Linux (only to find out that the sound card I'd chosen wasn't and still isn't supported by Linux). It's possible this is a recent change back from how things have been in the past... shortly before I started with the company there was a bit of a reorganization at the top levels over customer experience which has been flagging in recent years. They were also streamlining and getting rid of unnecessary levels of management in that reorg, but the main impetus was improving CE. Perhaps they've reintroduced the shipment of actual OS discs as part of that?
Patently false. For one, Compaq isn't one of the "big boys". They haven't been since HP bought them out in 2002. For two, the last Compaq laptop I had was bought in 2005 and came with a Windows XP CD. Real one. Had a blue printed label because it was OEM, but it was a real copy of the Windows XP Home CD, which, when used, worked exactly like the real, retail, hologrammed XP Home CD. It even asked for the license key, which was on the bottom of the laptop.
And if you're thinking things have changed in the last 3 years, a girl I work with received a Dell XPS 420 on Friday. It came with a real Windows Vista 32-bit CD. The only difference between this CD and a retail Vista CD is that this one doesn't ask for the license key during installation. It being an OEM CD, it will install only Vista Home Premium without asking for the key, whereas the retail CD will determine which version of Windows to install based on the license key you enter. That's it. It doesn't install any other crap that came with the computer. That's provided on separate discs.
And if you're going to say that obviously she got the higher end, because she bought the XPS, but the stuff they foist on normal users is loaded with all the crap, I'm going to say you're full of shit there, too. I have a Dell Inspiron 1520 laptop. My lappy is running XP MCE 2005 right now, but it, too, came with the same bundle of CDs and a copy of the OS disc. I didn't even have to burn my own backup discs: it came with it.
Perhaps, just perhaps, if this is the view you have of major OEMs, it's time you switched to a new OEM?
Obligatory disclaimer: I work in the sales department at Dell, so I do have a vested interest in convincing you to switch. But I'm also not blowing smoke up your arse... we really do ship systems with an OS disc and all of the other pre-loaded software on separate CDs. We also don't load it with all kinds of crap you'll never use like free AOL trials and such. On my laptop, the only stuff that was preinstalled was MS Works (I chose that because it was free and I already have Office 2003), the CD Burner software, and Dell MediaDirect.
Except that a Vista-based laptop with the same hardware specs as the MacBook would cost $600, not $900....
And my laptop "just works". No hassle. No complaints. Running XP MCE 2005. And no paying half the price over again for the bragging rights of saying that I'm running a Mac.
I priced it out. You do the same. I'll give you the specs on my lappy and you go to Apple's site and see how much a system with the same hardware capabilities would cost. Then compare that to the $1500 I paid for it in October. And then tell me, with a straight face, that I should have bought a Mac.
Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 @ 1.66GHz
2GB DDR2 667MHz
120GB 7200RPM SATA HDD
onboard Intel HD Audio
Intel 8945J 802.11a/g WLAN
onboard Bluetooth module
256MB NVidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics, with S-Video and D-SUB 15-pin VGA out
15.4" TrueLife LCD, 1680x1050 resolution
8X DVD-RW
IEEE-1394a and USB 2.0 ports
9-cell 85watt-hour extended-life battery
If you actually go to check the Apple website, the first thing you're going to notice is that Apple doesn't actually make a laptop with anything approaching these specs. Their screens are smaller, and lower resolution. And, at least when I bought it, Apple didn't have any laptops with that graphics card. And if you check closely, you'll notice that the top end Apple MacBook is twice what I paid for my system, while having lower specs. Now tell me, with a straight face, that I should have bought a Mac.
Even conceding your point about AVG*, there are other free antivirus programs out there. ClamAV, for example, is open source, gets updated as frequently as hourly, and is free as in beer as well as free as in speech. From my own experience, ClamAV actually has a better trap rate than Symantec AV.
* - Your point about AVG's licensing is incorrect, btw. Yes, you do need to buy the $40 license if you're running it on more than one computer. No, you do not need to buy the $140 license if you're connecting it to a network. That clause is talking about using it in a network scanning situation... running it on a mail server, file server, web server... something like that. Are you noticing a common thread? They don't care if you connect a computer running AVG Free to a network, they only care if you are using AVG to protect your network resources. It's well within their licensing terms to run the free version on your desktop PC and have some other antivirus solution on your server.
*shrugs* I actually sell the product. So having a working knowledge of the system, its quirks, etc. helps me answer questions about its idiosyncracies, which in turn helps me sell more of their product.
You tell me whether MS would have a problem with it. Since it was an MS rep who told me that it was a good idea....
Well... I'm glad I'm in sales now instead of tech. support (I used to be), in light of one of the "features" they implemented. I'm running Vista Ultimate (MSDN) on my HTPC/Media Center, and downloaded/installed SP1. Now... that system has 3GB of memory, but it has shared video. It's in a small form factor case the size of a toaster, and I simply can't afford the added heat buildup for a high end video card. As a result, the system is running with the onboard X1250 video, with 128MB shared. (motherboard is an ASUS M2A-VM HDMI)
Now... Imagine my surprise when Vista reported 3GB of RAM available, even with as much as 256MB shared with the video card (the max). I knew, thanks to reporting, that it was going to report installed memory in cases where there's more than 3GB of RAM, because 32-bit Windows can't actually access more than 3.25GB of RAM... but this system only has 3GB of RAM, and it's running 64-bit Vista.
Imagine my surprise, then. And it ocurred to me: people are going to play around in their BIOS, and increase the video RAM to 128MB. Then they're going to check, and Windows still says it can use the full 2GB they bought. So they're going to return, and set the video RAM to 256MB. It'll still say 2GB. Depending on the card they have, they could even set it to 512MB or 1GB, and Windows will still report 2GB. And then they're going to wonder why their system has gotten slower. And some poor sap in tech. support is going to have to explain why.
Meh. My media center runs Vista... it's hands down a better interface than XP MCE, and the media center has hardware that's simply not supported by Linux, so MythTV is completely out of the question. It has features that don't exist in XP's MCE, either, which makes it a more attractive option from a multimedia perspective.
Then again, that particular system never runs anything that didn't actually come with Vista x64, except for the AVG Antivirus and drivers, so perhaps it doesn't count.... I also didn't pay for it (MSDN), so I guess it really doesn't count. *shrugs* On computers I actually *use*, I'm on XP or Linux, depending on the use that particular computer sees.
*shrugs* Ubuntu wouldn't work on my laptop. Sound driver. It's not fixed in the current kernel, either. It simply can't load the codec to work with it.
Talk to me when that's fixed. Until that point, I have absolutely no impetus to try Linux again on my laptop. Even if it is faster.
And before you try to write me off, know that I've run Linux on my desktop machine for 3 years, and on various servers since 1997. I do have a clue what I'm talking about here. The laptop is useless to me without even basic multimedia functionality.
Have you ever heard of a "class action lawsuit"?
MS is ballsy. But not *that* ballsy.
Well... it *is* a 700MB download from MSDN....
For a few applications, though, Vista has a pretty big edge over XP. On my gaming laptop, I run XP, because that's one of the areas where Vista support is a complete wash... but I also run a PVR/HTPC system and that's running Vista Ultimate on it. To be blunt, when compared with the features/interface offered by alternatives like MythTV, or even Windows XP MCE, none of them come close to Vista. It simply is better in virtually every way: faster interface, commands/options are more logically laid out, capable of overlaying the menu on top of current video playback (rather than having to shrink the playback to a corner), and a darned sight stabler. To say nothing of the multimedia enhancements that makes it blow completely past alternatives in a modern setting... things like HDMI support, digital audio out, and built-in compatibility with an awful lot of consumer hardware.
That's not to say that it's without faults, or that a Linux solution couldn't do the job, mind you. But for the average user, Vista's MCE is head and shoulders above everything else out there. About the only gripe I have about it, actually, is that it can't read the tags from some of my music that's stored in OGG/Vorbis format. The information is there, but Vista won't read it. Had to install codecs, and ffdshow, to get it to play back, but it now handles the playback of all of my media quite nicely, and it's only a matter of time before Vista MCE handles that information. Part of the problem could be at my end: I'm running the x64 version of it.
It's got its annoyances. UAC is pretty high up there. But for certain applications, it really is the best choice out there. And I don't think I've ever seen a blue screen under Vista, despite having used it off and on since Beta 1. With ME, I saw 3 BSOD's the first day I used it, and within a week had reformatted and gone back to 98SE.
And lest you think I'm some kind of MS apologist... yes, I do have an MSDN subscription. That's where I got my copy of it. But both my work system and my server run Linux. Wrap your head around that: I have free access to every MS product there is since DOS 5.0 and Win 3.1. I could run any of their software I want, including versions of Windows Server that haven't even been released to market yet, and I still choose to run Zenwalk 4.8 on my workstation, and Zenwalk core on my server. When I say that for a media center, Vista really is the best option, I'm saying it because it really is, not because I'm some kind of fanboi.
Watching TV content isn't the reason to get a proper TV tuner. It's nice to have the computer running as a PVR, but the point is having a hardware MPEG decoder. TV tuners double as MPEG decoders. Having a good one in your system will significantly reduce the CPU load for watching your "rented" movies, allowing you to get away with a much weaker processor in the system. This, in turn, means you've got lower electricity requirements for the system, and less heat buildup, which means you don't need as beefy an exhaust/cooling system, which in turn means a quieter PC.
I'm talking about primarily about electricity consumption, but I'm also talking about the processing power of the system. Perhaps it's not the same class you're talking about, but my ultimate goal is to build an HTPC with no moving parts except for the optical drive.
S/PDIF isn't necessarily optical medium, either. I'm using it in my setup, because that's what my 5.1 decoder uses. But that is connected through a coaxial RCA cable, not through an optical cable. The better HDTVs will have audio out for RCA, Coaxial S/PDIF, and Optical S/PDIF, as is the case with the setup I'm using right now. HDMI from the media center PC (which will be upgraded, probably with a Blu-Ray, when the war is finally over. going to wait it out for now) to the TV, and then Coaxial S/PDIF from the TV to the 5.1 decoder.
Yes, there's going to be downsampling, but when the TV itself outputs the audio, there'd be more downsampling: from as many as 8 channels to 3. With a good 5.1 decoder and speakers, the average user won't ever hear the difference introduced by changing codecs.
You can. And do. A friend of mine just took delivery of a new PC today that has a Blu-Ray burner. BD has higher data capacities than HD-DVD, too, making it more cost effective in the long run.
While it's not a VIA chipset, I built a media center system yesterday using the following:
Mobo: ASUS M2A-VM HDMI
CPU: AMD Athlon64 X2 3800+ AM2
Case: Antec NSK1380
It's about the same form factor as the Shuttle, it's low power with a certified 80Plus PSU, and it has the advantages of being upgradeable: you can replace the motherboard if you need to, and it takes a standard AM2 CPU, which is a lot easier to lay your hands on. Only one caveat: you don't have a lot of space to work with, so if you want to replace the stock heatsink make sure you don't get one that's too high. I had to retire my Arctic Cooling Alpine64 when I switched to the SFF system, because it was about 1cm too high. *and* the motherboard has coaxial digital audio out (which I'm using with my 5.1 decoder) and HDMI/HDCP support. Only one upgrade I'd strongly suggest: get a proper TV tuner. I'm using an AverMedia Combo PCIe m780. Having a hardware MPEG decoder/encoder makes a huge difference to CPU load when watching and recording videos, which makes a *huge* difference to system power consumption and heat. My system runs near silent... in fact, the loudest component in the entire setup is the hard drive, and that's really only audible when it's seeking. For reference, the two hard drives I'm using are an internal Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB, and an external LaCie Big Disk Extreme+ 1TB, connected through the motherboard's onboard IEEE 1394a.
As an added bonus, you can get the CPU/Mobo/case for the price range you're quoting, and the rest of your existing hardware can be transferred over. One caveat though: the HDMI, S-Video, RCA, and Co-axial S/PDIF outputs are on a riser card which occupies the PCIe x16 slot on the motherboard, which isn't as bad as it sounds, really. In a system that small, it's a bad idea to put in a high end video card that amounts to nothing more than a heat factory.