I like me a Windows platform, so I've settled on XBMC as a front end (you can do multi-room with a MySQL database and profiles). I use a HDHomeRun for a few ClearQAM channels available for free with my cable internet and USENET (supernews.com) for all my tv downloading needs. I don't miss my old satellite setup at all.
Of course, I'm 'stealing' TV from Usenet, but that's a moral decision I can easily live with.
And I think that's the point... it's hard to feel bad for big media when we all feel like they are raking us over the coals and have been for as long as we can remember. The only think I'm ever going to be willing to pay for again is an all-I-can-watch buffet of 720p or better streaming content. And it had better be cheap, since it needs to compete with free...
I'm not sure about your provider, but at least with Time Warner if you call up and threaten to drop service or go to a lower tier they will give you a discount. I'm currently saving around $15/mo and every time it runs out I just call in and get a new discount applied to my account.
So I have completely gotten rid of cable/satellite by going the Pirate way (arrr...). I've got a subscription to Usenet, coupled with sabnzbd, Sick Beard, Couch Potato and Media Browser on Windows Media Center.
It takes a while to setup and get working, but it's really the best solution I've found. A nice bonus is that there are no commercials...
Your post makes me think that might be *just* a bit of a technological Luddite.
Sure, some things in Windows 7 are harder, but lots of things are easier...
As a counter example, I would hold out search in the start menu.
If you wanted a novice user to open a particular program, and you were explaining to them how to find it over the phone when they had Windows XP it always went: 1. click on the start menu 2. click on all programs 3. click on FOLDER 4. you don't see folder? try clicking on the double arrows at the bottom... do you see it now? 5. did you find it? (it's taking forever because they have three or four columns of stuff) 6. OK, click on APPLICATION
That's 10 minutes you'll never get back.
In Windows 7: 1. click on the start menu 2. type APPLICATION into the search box 3. click APPLICATION at the top of the list
I'll tell you, my life as a system administrator is 100% easier because of Windows 7. Between MDT, Group Policy Extensions and the user friendliness of Windows 7 I spend less time supporting the OS and more time improving our systems. Now look what you've done, I sound like a freeking Microsoft commercial.
With three years for transition (and several where we knew the end was coming) this isn't an issue for our company. Our transition plan is for new computers to be on Windows 7 and any computer that gets re-imaged is automatically upgraded too. Right now a little more than 60% of our desktops are on Windows 7 due to this policy being in effect for the last two years.
The biggest consumer of time was learning to use MDT, and now that we have it in place our deployments actually take LESS time than they did when we were rolling out Windows XP.
I worked until just recently at a small IT consulting firm... and let me tell you that at most places their IT staff (if they have any) is no better...
I think the problem lies in HOW people get into IT, not how knowledgeable people who are in IT are. Right now, and in the recent past, you have diploma mills churning out IT "graduates" who know nothing more about computers than the fact that people who work on them charge a lot. What you end up with is all the Joe T. Plumbers out there, who hate their jobs and don't even like computers at home, going to school for IT jobs.
There are just a lot of people on the market right now who don't know anything beyond what they learn in school... they are just in it for the money. How can you expect that these people who have no drive to learn on their own are going to be good at what they do... It doesn't matter where they end up working.
If you look at the site they show a new tag, NOEXTERNALDATA, which basically nullifies this change... I think we will see a lot of sites violating the patent while Microsoft sits is in compliance.
Slashdot Mirror
I like me a Windows platform, so I've settled on XBMC as a front end (you can do multi-room with a MySQL database and profiles). I use a HDHomeRun for a few ClearQAM channels available for free with my cable internet and USENET (supernews.com) for all my tv downloading needs. I don't miss my old satellite setup at all.
Of course, I'm 'stealing' TV from Usenet, but that's a moral decision I can easily live with.
And I think that's the point... it's hard to feel bad for big media when we all feel like they are raking us over the coals and have been for as long as we can remember. The only think I'm ever going to be willing to pay for again is an all-I-can-watch buffet of 720p or better streaming content. And it had better be cheap, since it needs to compete with free...
I'm not sure about your provider, but at least with Time Warner if you call up and threaten to drop service or go to a lower tier they will give you a discount. I'm currently saving around $15/mo and every time it runs out I just call in and get a new discount applied to my account.
So I have completely gotten rid of cable/satellite by going the Pirate way (arrr...). I've got a subscription to Usenet, coupled with sabnzbd, Sick Beard, Couch Potato and Media Browser on Windows Media Center. It takes a while to setup and get working, but it's really the best solution I've found. A nice bonus is that there are no commercials...
Your post makes me think that might be *just* a bit of a technological Luddite.
Sure, some things in Windows 7 are harder, but lots of things are easier...
As a counter example, I would hold out search in the start menu.
If you wanted a novice user to open a particular program, and you were explaining to them how to find it over the phone when they had Windows XP it always went:
1. click on the start menu
2. click on all programs
3. click on FOLDER
4. you don't see folder? try clicking on the double arrows at the bottom... do you see it now?
5. did you find it? (it's taking forever because they have three or four columns of stuff)
6. OK, click on APPLICATION
That's 10 minutes you'll never get back.
In Windows 7:
1. click on the start menu
2. type APPLICATION into the search box
3. click APPLICATION at the top of the list
I'll tell you, my life as a system administrator is 100% easier because of Windows 7. Between MDT, Group Policy Extensions and the user friendliness of Windows 7 I spend less time supporting the OS and more time improving our systems. Now look what you've done, I sound like a freeking Microsoft commercial.
With three years for transition (and several where we knew the end was coming) this isn't an issue for our company. Our transition plan is for new computers to be on Windows 7 and any computer that gets re-imaged is automatically upgraded too. Right now a little more than 60% of our desktops are on Windows 7 due to this policy being in effect for the last two years.
The biggest consumer of time was learning to use MDT, and now that we have it in place our deployments actually take LESS time than they did when we were rolling out Windows XP.
I worked until just recently at a small IT consulting firm... and let me tell you that at most places their IT staff (if they have any) is no better...
I think the problem lies in HOW people get into IT, not how knowledgeable people who are in IT are. Right now, and in the recent past, you have diploma mills churning out IT "graduates" who know nothing more about computers than the fact that people who work on them charge a lot. What you end up with is all the Joe T. Plumbers out there, who hate their jobs and don't even like computers at home, going to school for IT jobs.
There are just a lot of people on the market right now who don't know anything beyond what they learn in school... they are just in it for the money. How can you expect that these people who have no drive to learn on their own are going to be good at what they do... It doesn't matter where they end up working.
I just put my computer in the basement and after buying a super cheap video and usb cable I can run everything from my office totally noise free.
You got me, read it wrong...
If you look at the site they show a new tag, NOEXTERNALDATA, which basically nullifies this change... I think we will see a lot of sites violating the patent while Microsoft sits is in compliance.
Sometimes it helps to read...
I guess I'll do my searches -yahoo from now on.
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Brooks138
read the page:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCa naveral/Hangar/9587/
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Brooks138