Which spec? Would you care to give references? While the heatpipe/blower is indeed massive, I see nothing to indicate that it does not comply to the ATX 2.03 spec.
since when I need to free up two slots to add a graphics card?
Well, with the Voodoo2 I had to clear up 3 - the main video card and 2 more for the dual V2 setup.
And who uses all their slots anyway? Excepting micro ATX systems like Shuttle how many people actually have an AGP card and 4-5 PCI cards? Oh, sure, there will be some here since this is/., but most people have video, sound, and network. And nowadays you can do without the network and perhaps the sound - it's called the magic of integration.
Another poster made some good comments about why you should leave the PCI slot next to your video empty anyway.
Oh, and would you like to take a guess at how many current cards prevent use of the adjoining PCI slot because of the normal fan/heatsinks? Most of the high-end Ti4600 designs fall into this category.
Obviously inserting it wont be easy and expect many breakage and damage returns
Doubt it. About the only problem with inserting it will be the mass - it's going to be rather ungainly compared to a normal card. The distance between slots is spec'd, so actually lining it up is a non-issue. And it's not actually plugging into the PCI slot either, so alignment isn't a problem there either.
Of course, if this whole thing scares you, or makes too much noise (which it probably will - sigh), then don't buy it. There will be a slower version available that has a more normal profile. I still wouldn't recommend utilizing the PCI slot next to it though.
Or they could place the GPU back on the 'top' of the card so that heat can rise off it and out of the case, equip it with a more conventional GF4 style sink/fan, and there ya go.
Can't do that -- there's not enough clearance between the AGP slot and the CPU slot or other MB components to put in a HS/fan, much less this monstrosity.
Heck, I bet the heatsink on the back renders it incompatible with some motherboards because there are large caps too close to the AGP slot.
In a desktop the reference design is already FUBAR - the output vent is below the intake vent.
Oops.
You can't suck in air from the case because you can't be sure that there's enough ventilation to let you suck the air in -- you always want to maintain an equal ratio of input and output airflow. The only way Nvidia could do this is to put the intake and the output on the card itself, which leads to the situation we see currently.
Preventing the output being sucked back into the intake is pretty trivial though - take a piece of cardboard and put it between the two. That will solve the majority of the problem. Yes, it's inelegant. But if the cooling problem has gotten to the point where you need a heat pipe with a blower separate from the rest of the system then you're pretty much SOL on elegant solutions anyway.
Uh... yeah, a large portion is still dedicated to UHF television because it's in use.
Until HD takes off, that spectrum will continue to be in use. Once 80% of US households are capable of receiving HD then the old UHF (as well as VHF) analog frequencies will be reclaimed and reallocated.
Cell phones are but one service that is starved in spectrum allocation. If the government was to let the free market allocate the spectrum, an entire new universe of wireless network services could become available.
Yes. And we'd have no conflicts at all from different companies rampaging across the "free market allocated" spectrum, right? Because that never happens. Nope. No interference between wireless networks and wireless phones. No interference from jacked up CB transmitters either. And we know that unallocated spectrum won't ever have two wildly conflicting technologies utilizing it, right?
Not to mention that the free market does tend to ignore certain costs and needs. Part of the VHF/UHF reallocation will be used to greatly expand the number of emergency channels for police, fire, ambulance, and other services. Think the free market will care about that? Doubt it.
It's funny, because generally I'm against government interference in things, but I think the kinds of interference that would occur otherwise are far worse.
any other business with ventures losing money like Xbox and MSN would kill them off as clearly bad business decisions
If they were short-sighted, sure. Microsoft is not short-sighted. They very much have a long term plan, and know that short-term sacrifices are often necessary to realize long term gain.
Microsoft believes that, long-term, Internet access and console gaming are going to be high-profit ventures. I question the first (it's commodity), but I think they're right on the second. Sony poured tons of money into the PS1 before it became profitable. And they were up against corporations like Nintendo and Sega, both of which have a much longer history in gaming and had established markets. Sega is now out of the market and Nintendo has been floundering recently. Sony's Playstation division is now hugely profitable. But by your logic they should have ditched after the first year since they were losing so much money.
Sony shareholders should be damned glad you're not senior management.
Microsoft shareholders are damn glad too.
A normal business, run to increase profits, would look at the margins on Office and Windows and simply jack up their prices
Uh... they're running at over 80% profit right now. They did just effectively jack up prices with the last licensing agreement for corporations. They are now losing business on new sales from Gateway and HP (Office or Works no longer bundled). They are facing increased downside pressure from Linux on the server, primarily due to TCO. So they should raise prices more?
I am a MSFT shareholder. And I am damn glad you aren't on the board. Frankly, I'd like to know if you have influential decisions on any other corporations, simply so I can make sure I don't own any of their stock.
But if my daughter wants to spend some time looking for books on subjects that interest her while I run a few errands, I won't be able to do that if I'm forced to watch her every activity
So, in other words, you don't trust your daughter?
Because that, sir, is what it boils down to. If you're so worried, I really recommend against looking at the medical textbooks (610), human anatomy texts (611), human physiology (612), human figures in art (757), or sexuality (176) then. And beware the young adults section - entire volumes that deal with emerging sexuality. And the adult section is downright full of filth, including written descriptions of sexual acts!
So maybe we should stop the federal government from deciding what goes in my local library and have a public vote on the issue.
You don't get it. You can have regulations blocking strip clubs, but that doesn't prevent someone from putting in a clinic instead. Filtering software doesn't work that way - it not only blocks some (not all) of the porn sites, but also blocks political, religious, health, and minority rights sites.
Sorry, the library is not an alternative to child care.
I've worked at a library, and except for specifically designed children's programs, it's not someplace you should just drop your kid off anymore than you'd just drop them off at the mall without supervision.
Furthermore, the library is not just for your child. It's for the community as a whole. And as such it should serve the community as a whole. No, I don't want someone to be surfing for porn from the library, but I do want someone to be able to do research on breast or testicular cancer while at a public library. Currently the two are mutually exclusive - there is no way to block only the porn sites.
Ah, cool... I was actually hoping someone would pipe up and say what actually occurred. I did some (very minimal) searching prior to posting but couldn't quickly find the story.
The self-reported statistics are of fairly little value, but it's more than what we have now - stories like this one, vague rememberances of failures past (yes, I remember the Seagate Stickition problem, but I really doubt it has much to do with their drives nearly 20 years later), and utterly useless MTBF numbers. Sure, you can go to various forums and read people who say they are a dealer, or work for a wholesaler, or whatever and have huge returns on xyzzy's drives, but that's about even less reliable than the self-reported statistics.
I'll check out your website sometime... thanks for the post.
It's noisy, it's power inefficient, and no good if you have pets or children. And it winds up putting even more dust into your case -- and dust is a wonderful insulator for heat.
I think the combination of high rpms with super dense platters is what is causing the most problems
Well... kinda...
A vast number of problems are being caused by the side effect of high rpms and dense platters -- heat. Modern drives get really, really hot, and most people don't adequately cool them. Heck, they don't even adequately cool their CPUs.
Look at the operating temperature of your drive. Get a probe thermometer and read the ambient temperature of your case. Then realize that the air around the drive is probably 5-10 degrees C hotter than the ambient temperature, and unless you've specifically addressed it there's little or no ventilation of the drive cage.
So most people end up operating the drives in excess of their rated operating temps... and they fail.
There are some easy things you can do for drive ventillation - the easiest is to put the drive as far down as you can get in the case. Most cases vent from bottom front to top back. Take advantage of that. More extreme measures involve mounting a heat sink on the drive or even fans (either on the drive bay or to the sides).
I think a collection of real stats which were somehow reliably collected would be really useful in terms of all this commodity hardware
Storage Review had such a database at once upon a time. It was widely hailed as the most comprehensive database of the kind, and pretty accurate (given that "reliable collection" is an oxymoron when it comes to the net).
Then their hard drive crashed and they lost everything.
Yes, it's horribly ironic. It also struck me as really freaking idiotic that a website dedicated to storage wouldn't back up their own data. I'm not an SR regular, so I didn't follow the story that closely at the time.
As it happens, SR is now restarting the reliability database. It'll take time to get accurate data, of course, but it's better than nothing. Here's hoping they succeed.
Yes, it's all a horrible and evil conspiracy, with the Gates foundation existing as nothing more than an extention of the Evil Empire.
Get real.
wouldn't it have made more sense to donate to the #1 country (Africa) dealing with an AIDS epidemic than #2 (India)?
Ok, first off, Africa is not a country. You've failed 3rd grade Geography. Perhaps you should apply for some of the $1.6B that the Gates Foundation has given out for global education.
Obviously the $50M for Botswana was to insure they wouldn't go start using Linux either. Good business strategy there Bill!
Of course, that excludes the other $450M or so that has been donated to other countries or groups specifically for fighting HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. It also excludes the $2 Billion for other health programs. Which, overall, is roughly half of the $5.5B donated on behalf of the Gates foundation for charitable causes around the world.
Sorry, I hate Microsoft too, but this foaming-at-the-mouth, ad-hominum attacks on the Gates Foundation proves just how shallow and thoughtless a lot of the Linux fans are. Frankly, it's disgusting.
No, the hardware isn't the problem. That's victem to Moore's Law and keeps falling.
The software, however, is the problem. Taking an arbitrary data stream with audio and video, compressing it, and then being able to decompress it and do tricks (pause, FF, rewind, etc), isn't easy. At least not if you want to keep the A/V streams in synch. As I understand it this is exactly where the homebrew solutions still have issues. It's where TiVo spent most of their time tweaking.
The UI isn't easy either. Hell, just look at how many godawful VCR and DVD UIs there are out there as proof that it's easier to do a bad job than a mediocre one.
The box you want may become available someday, but I doubt it. You really are removing features (the ability to do searches based on title, actors, etc.), and asking a higher price (because you won't ever reclaim the software costs via subscription).
You may buy that. So may a few others. But I really doubt there's enough of a market for the $2000 device you're asking for.
The patents on this stuff are locked up for another 14 years BTW -- it's exactly what TiVo and Replay have patents on. So the software won't be cheap until after that point.
The subscription fee is for downloading the guide data only
No it's not!
I wish people would stop saying this. Because it gives the naysayers a wedge -- the guide data is less than $3/mo in raw format (note - that particular guide data is nowhere close to the detail that the TiVo provides, but the naysayers ignore this).
It's also not just to provide the guide data - which is an ever-reducing cost. DirecTiVos capture their data from the sat feed, which already provides it. Stand alone (SA) TiVos now get much of their data from late-night TV "shows" on cable TV, which is a much cheaper distribution method than TiVo paying AOL for local dialup access or for 800 access.
So what, exactly, is the fee for then?
The software. You are leasing the software, plain and simple. That's why you get free software upgrades, which contain new features, on a fairly regular basis. I bought my TiVo with v1.2 of the software on it. Since that time it's been upgraded to 1.3, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0. And it keeps getting better and more useful.
If you're against software leasing, fine. Don't buy one. If you want a PVR, but don't want the monthly fee or lifetime sub - go for it. Buy a TiVo and wipe the hard drive clean (or at least delete the proprietary bits). Because, frankly, you're not legally allowed to use the software that came on the drive (it requires a subscription), and if you think it has so little value then you can clearly build new software yourself.
I want a PVR that will act just like a VCR - programmable, by channel and time. Too much to ask? Is there something out there that will do what I want, that isn't a DIY soloution?
No there isn't. Neither TiVo nor Replay will fit your bill because they require activation/subscriptions of some kind.
A computer that will do this costs about $600, has crappy software, poor I/O, and does integrate into a home theater well (the Achille's heel of all HTPCs).
And you want a box to do that for how much and is integrated into your home theater?
Gee... wonder why TiVo and Replay have subscriptions... maybe the software is actually worth something. I know, that's tantamount to heresy on/.
There's a reason that nobody markets these crippled PVRs - they cost more and do less.
Uh... have you looked at either TiVo, Inc. or SonicBlue?
They're hardly "megacompanies" or megacorps.
Yes, this is precisely what they're going to do. Good for them. They thought of the idea first, implemented it (i.e. - they didn't just patent it and sit on their asses waiting for someone else to do it), and they expect to make a return on investment on it.
What's so horrible about that? It's called capitalism. I find it ironic that you'd call it communism.
Goddamn it. I had a lengthy reply written, but my cat jumped on the mouse and it got erased.
Briefly - you're wrong about the TV costs. Go look at the Best Buy circular for this week - there are more sub-$2k HDTV monitors advertised than there are $2k+ ones advertised.
You're wrong about the standards - they're well defined and sensible. There was no reasonable alternative to Dolby Digital anyway.
You're somewhat wrong about cable HDTV - there are at least 6 test markets currently, from various providers. It's expected that HDTV cable will be widespread within 3 years. Both Dishstar and DirecTV are adding more HDTV as well.
You're clueless about the rollout requirements on DTV, but that's ok - so was the FCC. A 10 year changeout on broadcast standards was insane, and that's what was originally mandated. Roughly 75% of all stations requested an extention on the requirement to be broadcasting DTV by May 1, 2002. That means 25% of them are, which isn't bad really. All top 10 markets have the 4 major networks broadcasting (with some caveats in NYC due to 9/11).
Is DTV behind schedule? Yes. Is it bungled? Somewhat -- the biggest disaster was the FCC stating that cable "must carry" laws did not extend to HDTV. Rupert Murdoch (Fox) is being a total asshole about the entire thing. But it's still happening, sets are falling lower, and the requirement for TVs to include receivers will clinch the deal. The spectrum of the old analog channels will be reclaimed in a decade or so, and that's that.
Yes... this is the "short" version. Maybe it's a good thing the cat rampaged on my computer.
I'm not a ChemE... all I know was that there were overhead lines and storage tanks marked 80M HF (as well as dilutions ranging from 40M to 0.8M).
I could very well have misread the markings though.
Re:What we have in parts of Canada
on
Cable TV A La Carte?
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· Score: 4, Interesting
This is how most cable companies are running things now -- a lot of them actually restructured channel numbers when they went "digital" to do it too.
The wonderful thing about "digital" cable is that it isn't. Only some of the channels are digital - generally everything below 80-100 is still analog. You can tell which are which by looking at the packages - the basic cable and extended basic are all analog. But any channels that get added by upgrading to a digital cable package are digital. Heck, if you're on digital cable you can still plug in a TV/VCR to the cable feed without a box and tune to any of the analog channels.
Important safety note: When working in such a place, always wash your hands up to the elbows before going to the bathroom, or rubbing your eyes. I've been told that sulfuric on the willy is an unforgettable experience...
Where on earth did you work with such shitty fab safety that you were likely to get any of those chemicals on you?
I've worked in fabs too, and wrote software to control PVD/CVD and etchers. When I started the job I went to about a week worth of fab safety classes where they scared the hell out of you from doing stupid things with chemicals. Probably my favorite line was "if you hear the gas alarm, leave the chemical storage room immediately. If you choose to linger, at least try to die within 6 feet of the door, because that's how long the hook is to drag your body out."
The chemicals being used in modern fabs are, indeed, incredibly, ungodly nasty. HF, arsenic, H2SO4, etc are the tip of the iceberg. We couldn't wear contacts in the fab because of a cleaning chemical in the floor with the trade name Pirhana. If something ever went wrong and the fans backblasted, Pirhana would melt plastic - and thus your contacts. To your eyes. So we got safety glasses. There were gasses in use that would kill you before they could be detected.
The point of all this is that safety procedures were taken very, very seriously. It didn't matter if it was deionized water or 80 molar HF - you didn't screw around with the chemicals. Having to "wash up to the elbows" wasn't necessary because there weren't going to be chemicals around that you could get on you. Not to mention that you were in a fab suit in the first place.
Damn, I'm glad I didn't work wherever you did. I value my health more than that.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but there is a limit to the amount of space you can store programs on a TiVo.
Yes... and there's a limit to how much space on a VCR tape too. Or your computer's hard drive. TiVos are upgradable (and if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, there are companies that will do it for you now and give you a warrantee on their work and/or the unit). We have two TiVos. They came with 30 GB HDs, and we could store about 24 hours of video on them in medium resolution. We did occasionally run into problems with space, since a couple week vacation could cause older programs to be deleted.
I upgraded both with 80G drives, giving them 110G total and roughly 100 hours of video. I have never had anything deleted before I could watch it now. I have programs that are over 6 months old on my TiVo still. My wife has stuff over a year old (or maybe we finally dumped it to tape, I don't recall). Heck, I still have 6+ pages of "Suggestions" recorded by the TiVo, which is over half the storage space.
And if I ever wanted to dump something to tape, then I can - TiVo has a "Record to VCR" feature that makes this easy. But I'd be more likely to rip the video out to my PC and store it on SVCD or something. Which you can't do very easily with a VCR.
Plus with a VCR, I can tell my friend, "Hey I missed Buffy last night, did you tape it?". Again, I could be wrong, but I don't know if TiVo offers such a feature
I can, and have, dumped stuff to tape from my TiVo for friends that missed something - even friends with a TiVo. With Replay you can just send them the episode via Internet. You can, theoretically, do the same with TiVo, but it's not officially supported or condoned.
Yes, that means you'll need a VCR too. I have to dig mine up and pray it still works when I actually need it.
While the commercial skip feature is nice, it's not so much better than the fast forward button to warrant an additional expense
Commercial skipping is really one of the lesser features of PVRs... it's hard for people to get this, but it's true. I'd be deeply annoyed if it wasn't there of course. The real feature is that a TiVo frees you from having to watch TV except when you want to. You don't have to worry about when shows are on - TiVo takes care of it. You don't have to worry about having enough tape in the VCR - the HD records more than any tape. You don't have to label tapes because TiVo has the program guide data already. Watching something live? Phone rings? No problem, hit pause. Or maybe you missed that last line - hit 6 second rewind. And everything's instant.
About the best comparison I can give you is how much better CDs are compared to tapes. Instant access, cleaner, faster, better.
TiVo is an example where word-of-mouth should be working.
Actually, TiVo is an example of where word-of-mouth is working.
The problem is that nobody has figured out how to market to Joe Consumer... the advertising campaigns have been magnificant failures. But everyone who tries one becomes a convert, and proselytizes them to anyone that shows even vague interest.
I've personally gotten both of my sisters and one of my friends to buy TiVos. I may have convinced a contractor who did some work on my house. And a coworker keeps talking about getting one. It's not an easy sell though (the main concerns are cost and company viability), but once they do buy one they swear it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
It really does change how you watch TV... and contrary to the naysayers, there is good TV out there to be watched. It just may not be on at times that's convienent for you to watch it at. Will you watch more TV? Maybe. Or you may watch less. But you'll watch it only when you want to and in ways you want. Being able to skip commercials is nice. Being able to flip back 6 seconds to hear the line you missed is better. Not having to sit in front of the TV at 8pm, or worry about if the VCR has enough tape, is the best.
Great... there I go trying to convert the unfaithful again. And here I thought I was an atheist.
These are just the three most recently granted patents. TiVo has others. Between TiVo and Replay pretty much every function and capability of a PVR is patented.
Offtopic - but is that deal still available? After having numerous trees removed I may be able to get sat service now and definitely want a DirecTiVo (will have to see if they'll transfer my subscription... if not then one of our TiVo's will get eBay'd).
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This board is clearly out of spec...
/., but most people have video, sound, and network. And nowadays you can do without the network and perhaps the sound - it's called the magic of integration.
Which spec? Would you care to give references? While the heatpipe/blower is indeed massive, I see nothing to indicate that it does not comply to the ATX 2.03 spec.
since when I need to free up two slots to add a graphics card?
Well, with the Voodoo2 I had to clear up 3 - the main video card and 2 more for the dual V2 setup.
And who uses all their slots anyway? Excepting micro ATX systems like Shuttle how many people actually have an AGP card and 4-5 PCI cards? Oh, sure, there will be some here since this is
Another poster made some good comments about why you should leave the PCI slot next to your video empty anyway.
Oh, and would you like to take a guess at how many current cards prevent use of the adjoining PCI slot because of the normal fan/heatsinks? Most of the high-end Ti4600 designs fall into this category.
Obviously inserting it wont be easy and expect many breakage and damage returns
Doubt it. About the only problem with inserting it will be the mass - it's going to be rather ungainly compared to a normal card. The distance between slots is spec'd, so actually lining it up is a non-issue. And it's not actually plugging into the PCI slot either, so alignment isn't a problem there either.
Of course, if this whole thing scares you, or makes too much noise (which it probably will - sigh), then don't buy it. There will be a slower version available that has a more normal profile. I still wouldn't recommend utilizing the PCI slot next to it though.
Or they could place the GPU back on the 'top' of the card so that heat can rise off it and out of the case, equip it with a more conventional GF4 style sink/fan, and there ya go.
Can't do that -- there's not enough clearance between the AGP slot and the CPU slot or other MB components to put in a HS/fan, much less this monstrosity.
Heck, I bet the heatsink on the back renders it incompatible with some motherboards because there are large caps too close to the AGP slot.
In a desktop the reference design is already FUBAR - the output vent is below the intake vent.
Oops.
You can't suck in air from the case because you can't be sure that there's enough ventilation to let you suck the air in -- you always want to maintain an equal ratio of input and output airflow. The only way Nvidia could do this is to put the intake and the output on the card itself, which leads to the situation we see currently.
Preventing the output being sucked back into the intake is pretty trivial though - take a piece of cardboard and put it between the two. That will solve the majority of the problem. Yes, it's inelegant. But if the cooling problem has gotten to the point where you need a heat pipe with a blower separate from the rest of the system then you're pretty much SOL on elegant solutions anyway.
Uh... yeah, a large portion is still dedicated to UHF television because it's in use.
Until HD takes off, that spectrum will continue to be in use. Once 80% of US households are capable of receiving HD then the old UHF (as well as VHF) analog frequencies will be reclaimed and reallocated.
Cell phones are but one service that is starved in spectrum allocation. If the government was to let the free market allocate the spectrum, an entire new universe of wireless network services could become available.
Yes. And we'd have no conflicts at all from different companies rampaging across the "free market allocated" spectrum, right? Because that never happens. Nope. No interference between wireless networks and wireless phones. No interference from jacked up CB transmitters either. And we know that unallocated spectrum won't ever have two wildly conflicting technologies utilizing it, right?
Not to mention that the free market does tend to ignore certain costs and needs. Part of the VHF/UHF reallocation will be used to greatly expand the number of emergency channels for police, fire, ambulance, and other services. Think the free market will care about that? Doubt it.
It's funny, because generally I'm against government interference in things, but I think the kinds of interference that would occur otherwise are far worse.
any other business with ventures losing money like Xbox and MSN would kill them off as clearly bad business decisions
If they were short-sighted, sure. Microsoft is not short-sighted. They very much have a long term plan, and know that short-term sacrifices are often necessary to realize long term gain.
Microsoft believes that, long-term, Internet access and console gaming are going to be high-profit ventures. I question the first (it's commodity), but I think they're right on the second. Sony poured tons of money into the PS1 before it became profitable. And they were up against corporations like Nintendo and Sega, both of which have a much longer history in gaming and had established markets. Sega is now out of the market and Nintendo has been floundering recently. Sony's Playstation division is now hugely profitable. But by your logic they should have ditched after the first year since they were losing so much money.
Sony shareholders should be damned glad you're not senior management.
Microsoft shareholders are damn glad too.
A normal business, run to increase profits, would look at the margins on Office and Windows and simply jack up their prices
Uh... they're running at over 80% profit right now. They did just effectively jack up prices with the last licensing agreement for corporations. They are now losing business on new sales from Gateway and HP (Office or Works no longer bundled). They are facing increased downside pressure from Linux on the server, primarily due to TCO. So they should raise prices more?
I am a MSFT shareholder. And I am damn glad you aren't on the board. Frankly, I'd like to know if you have influential decisions on any other corporations, simply so I can make sure I don't own any of their stock.
But if my daughter wants to spend some time looking for books on subjects that interest her while I run a few errands, I won't be able to do that if I'm forced to watch her every activity
So, in other words, you don't trust your daughter?
Because that, sir, is what it boils down to. If you're so worried, I really recommend against looking at the medical textbooks (610), human anatomy texts (611), human physiology (612), human figures in art (757), or sexuality (176) then. And beware the young adults section - entire volumes that deal with emerging sexuality. And the adult section is downright full of filth, including written descriptions of sexual acts!
So maybe we should stop the federal government from deciding what goes in my local library and have a public vote on the issue.
You don't get it. You can have regulations blocking strip clubs, but that doesn't prevent someone from putting in a clinic instead. Filtering software doesn't work that way - it not only blocks some (not all) of the porn sites, but also blocks political, religious, health, and minority rights sites.
Sorry, the library is not an alternative to child care.
I've worked at a library, and except for specifically designed children's programs, it's not someplace you should just drop your kid off anymore than you'd just drop them off at the mall without supervision.
Furthermore, the library is not just for your child. It's for the community as a whole. And as such it should serve the community as a whole. No, I don't want someone to be surfing for porn from the library, but I do want someone to be able to do research on breast or testicular cancer while at a public library. Currently the two are mutually exclusive - there is no way to block only the porn sites.
Ah, cool... I was actually hoping someone would pipe up and say what actually occurred. I did some (very minimal) searching prior to posting but couldn't quickly find the story.
The self-reported statistics are of fairly little value, but it's more than what we have now - stories like this one, vague rememberances of failures past (yes, I remember the Seagate Stickition problem, but I really doubt it has much to do with their drives nearly 20 years later), and utterly useless MTBF numbers. Sure, you can go to various forums and read people who say they are a dealer, or work for a wholesaler, or whatever and have huge returns on xyzzy's drives, but that's about even less reliable than the self-reported statistics.
I'll check out your website sometime... thanks for the post.
It's noisy, it's power inefficient, and no good if you have pets or children. And it winds up putting even more dust into your case -- and dust is a wonderful insulator for heat.
I think the combination of high rpms with super dense platters is what is causing the most problems
Well... kinda...
A vast number of problems are being caused by the side effect of high rpms and dense platters -- heat. Modern drives get really, really hot, and most people don't adequately cool them. Heck, they don't even adequately cool their CPUs.
Look at the operating temperature of your drive. Get a probe thermometer and read the ambient temperature of your case. Then realize that the air around the drive is probably 5-10 degrees C hotter than the ambient temperature, and unless you've specifically addressed it there's little or no ventilation of the drive cage.
So most people end up operating the drives in excess of their rated operating temps... and they fail.
There are some easy things you can do for drive ventillation - the easiest is to put the drive as far down as you can get in the case. Most cases vent from bottom front to top back. Take advantage of that. More extreme measures involve mounting a heat sink on the drive or even fans (either on the drive bay or to the sides).
I think a collection of real stats which were somehow reliably collected would be really useful in terms of all this commodity hardware
Storage Review had such a database at once upon a time. It was widely hailed as the most comprehensive database of the kind, and pretty accurate (given that "reliable collection" is an oxymoron when it comes to the net).
Then their hard drive crashed and they lost everything.
Yes, it's horribly ironic. It also struck me as really freaking idiotic that a website dedicated to storage wouldn't back up their own data. I'm not an SR regular, so I didn't follow the story that closely at the time.
As it happens, SR is now restarting the reliability database. It'll take time to get accurate data, of course, but it's better than nothing. Here's hoping they succeed.
And that this time, they have backups.
I don't think it's reasonable to merely put *good* and *bad* on a balance. If *bad* is bad enough, no amount of good can erase it.
Who said anything about balance?
The problem is the attempt to assert a connection between what Microsoft does and what the Gates Foundation does. There isn't one.
Yes, it's all a horrible and evil conspiracy, with the Gates foundation existing as nothing more than an extention of the Evil Empire.
Get real.
wouldn't it have made more sense to donate to the #1 country (Africa) dealing with an AIDS epidemic than #2 (India)?
Ok, first off, Africa is not a country. You've failed 3rd grade Geography. Perhaps you should apply for some of the $1.6B that the Gates Foundation has given out for global education.
That said - $5.9M over 5 years for research in Uganda, $10M over 3 years for African Children, $1M for 1 year for African First Ladies against AIDS, $25M over 5 years to fight AIDS in Nigeria, $7M for South Africa, another $1M for children with AIDS in Africa, and, finally, $50M for fighting AIDS in Botswana.
Obviously the $50M for Botswana was to insure they wouldn't go start using Linux either. Good business strategy there Bill!
Of course, that excludes the other $450M or so that has been donated to other countries or groups specifically for fighting HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. It also excludes the $2 Billion for other health programs. Which, overall, is roughly half of the $5.5B donated on behalf of the Gates foundation for charitable causes around the world.
Sorry, I hate Microsoft too, but this foaming-at-the-mouth, ad-hominum attacks on the Gates Foundation proves just how shallow and thoughtless a lot of the Linux fans are. Frankly, it's disgusting.
The problem is, what you want to do is expensive.
No, the hardware isn't the problem. That's victem to Moore's Law and keeps falling.
The software, however, is the problem. Taking an arbitrary data stream with audio and video, compressing it, and then being able to decompress it and do tricks (pause, FF, rewind, etc), isn't easy. At least not if you want to keep the A/V streams in synch. As I understand it this is exactly where the homebrew solutions still have issues. It's where TiVo spent most of their time tweaking.
The UI isn't easy either. Hell, just look at how many godawful VCR and DVD UIs there are out there as proof that it's easier to do a bad job than a mediocre one.
The box you want may become available someday, but I doubt it. You really are removing features (the ability to do searches based on title, actors, etc.), and asking a higher price (because you won't ever reclaim the software costs via subscription).
You may buy that. So may a few others. But I really doubt there's enough of a market for the $2000 device you're asking for.
The patents on this stuff are locked up for another 14 years BTW -- it's exactly what TiVo and Replay have patents on. So the software won't be cheap until after that point.
The subscription fee is for downloading the guide data only
No it's not!
I wish people would stop saying this. Because it gives the naysayers a wedge -- the guide data is less than $3/mo in raw format (note - that particular guide data is nowhere close to the detail that the TiVo provides, but the naysayers ignore this).
It's also not just to provide the guide data - which is an ever-reducing cost. DirecTiVos capture their data from the sat feed, which already provides it. Stand alone (SA) TiVos now get much of their data from late-night TV "shows" on cable TV, which is a much cheaper distribution method than TiVo paying AOL for local dialup access or for 800 access.
So what, exactly, is the fee for then?
The software. You are leasing the software, plain and simple. That's why you get free software upgrades, which contain new features, on a fairly regular basis. I bought my TiVo with v1.2 of the software on it. Since that time it's been upgraded to 1.3, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0. And it keeps getting better and more useful.
If you're against software leasing, fine. Don't buy one. If you want a PVR, but don't want the monthly fee or lifetime sub - go for it. Buy a TiVo and wipe the hard drive clean (or at least delete the proprietary bits). Because, frankly, you're not legally allowed to use the software that came on the drive (it requires a subscription), and if you think it has so little value then you can clearly build new software yourself.
Funny that nobody's done that yet.
I want a PVR that will act just like a VCR - programmable, by channel and time. Too much to ask? Is there something out there that will do what I want, that isn't a DIY soloution?
/.
No there isn't. Neither TiVo nor Replay will fit your bill because they require activation/subscriptions of some kind.
A computer that will do this costs about $600, has crappy software, poor I/O, and does integrate into a home theater well (the Achille's heel of all HTPCs).
And you want a box to do that for how much and is integrated into your home theater?
Gee... wonder why TiVo and Replay have subscriptions... maybe the software is actually worth something. I know, that's tantamount to heresy on
There's a reason that nobody markets these crippled PVRs - they cost more and do less.
Uh... have you looked at either TiVo, Inc. or SonicBlue?
They're hardly "megacompanies" or megacorps.
Yes, this is precisely what they're going to do. Good for them. They thought of the idea first, implemented it (i.e. - they didn't just patent it and sit on their asses waiting for someone else to do it), and they expect to make a return on investment on it.
What's so horrible about that? It's called capitalism. I find it ironic that you'd call it communism.
Goddamn it. I had a lengthy reply written, but my cat jumped on the mouse and it got erased.
Briefly - you're wrong about the TV costs. Go look at the Best Buy circular for this week - there are more sub-$2k HDTV monitors advertised than there are $2k+ ones advertised.
You're wrong about the standards - they're well defined and sensible. There was no reasonable alternative to Dolby Digital anyway.
You're somewhat wrong about cable HDTV - there are at least 6 test markets currently, from various providers. It's expected that HDTV cable will be widespread within 3 years. Both Dishstar and DirecTV are adding more HDTV as well.
You're clueless about the rollout requirements on DTV, but that's ok - so was the FCC. A 10 year changeout on broadcast standards was insane, and that's what was originally mandated. Roughly 75% of all stations requested an extention on the requirement to be broadcasting DTV by May 1, 2002. That means 25% of them are, which isn't bad really. All top 10 markets have the 4 major networks broadcasting (with some caveats in NYC due to 9/11).
Is DTV behind schedule? Yes. Is it bungled? Somewhat -- the biggest disaster was the FCC stating that cable "must carry" laws did not extend to HDTV. Rupert Murdoch (Fox) is being a total asshole about the entire thing. But it's still happening, sets are falling lower, and the requirement for TVs to include receivers will clinch the deal. The spectrum of the old analog channels will be reclaimed in a decade or so, and that's that.
Yes... this is the "short" version. Maybe it's a good thing the cat rampaged on my computer.
I'm not a ChemE... all I know was that there were overhead lines and storage tanks marked 80M HF (as well as dilutions ranging from 40M to 0.8M).
I could very well have misread the markings though.
This is how most cable companies are running things now -- a lot of them actually restructured channel numbers when they went "digital" to do it too.
The wonderful thing about "digital" cable is that it isn't. Only some of the channels are digital - generally everything below 80-100 is still analog. You can tell which are which by looking at the packages - the basic cable and extended basic are all analog. But any channels that get added by upgrading to a digital cable package are digital. Heck, if you're on digital cable you can still plug in a TV/VCR to the cable feed without a box and tune to any of the analog channels.
Important safety note: When working in such a place, always wash your hands up to the elbows before going to the bathroom, or rubbing your eyes. I've been told that sulfuric on the willy is an unforgettable experience...
Where on earth did you work with such shitty fab safety that you were likely to get any of those chemicals on you?
I've worked in fabs too, and wrote software to control PVD/CVD and etchers. When I started the job I went to about a week worth of fab safety classes where they scared the hell out of you from doing stupid things with chemicals. Probably my favorite line was "if you hear the gas alarm, leave the chemical storage room immediately. If you choose to linger, at least try to die within 6 feet of the door, because that's how long the hook is to drag your body out."
The chemicals being used in modern fabs are, indeed, incredibly, ungodly nasty. HF, arsenic, H2SO4, etc are the tip of the iceberg. We couldn't wear contacts in the fab because of a cleaning chemical in the floor with the trade name Pirhana. If something ever went wrong and the fans backblasted, Pirhana would melt plastic - and thus your contacts. To your eyes. So we got safety glasses. There were gasses in use that would kill you before they could be detected.
The point of all this is that safety procedures were taken very, very seriously. It didn't matter if it was deionized water or 80 molar HF - you didn't screw around with the chemicals. Having to "wash up to the elbows" wasn't necessary because there weren't going to be chemicals around that you could get on you. Not to mention that you were in a fab suit in the first place.
Damn, I'm glad I didn't work wherever you did. I value my health more than that.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but there is a limit to the amount of space you can store programs on a TiVo.
Yes... and there's a limit to how much space on a VCR tape too. Or your computer's hard drive. TiVos are upgradable (and if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself, there are companies that will do it for you now and give you a warrantee on their work and/or the unit). We have two TiVos. They came with 30 GB HDs, and we could store about 24 hours of video on them in medium resolution. We did occasionally run into problems with space, since a couple week vacation could cause older programs to be deleted.
I upgraded both with 80G drives, giving them 110G total and roughly 100 hours of video. I have never had anything deleted before I could watch it now. I have programs that are over 6 months old on my TiVo still. My wife has stuff over a year old (or maybe we finally dumped it to tape, I don't recall). Heck, I still have 6+ pages of "Suggestions" recorded by the TiVo, which is over half the storage space.
And if I ever wanted to dump something to tape, then I can - TiVo has a "Record to VCR" feature that makes this easy. But I'd be more likely to rip the video out to my PC and store it on SVCD or something. Which you can't do very easily with a VCR.
Plus with a VCR, I can tell my friend, "Hey I missed Buffy last night, did you tape it?". Again, I could be wrong, but I don't know if TiVo offers such a feature
I can, and have, dumped stuff to tape from my TiVo for friends that missed something - even friends with a TiVo. With Replay you can just send them the episode via Internet. You can, theoretically, do the same with TiVo, but it's not officially supported or condoned.
Yes, that means you'll need a VCR too. I have to dig mine up and pray it still works when I actually need it.
While the commercial skip feature is nice, it's not so much better than the fast forward button to warrant an additional expense
Commercial skipping is really one of the lesser features of PVRs... it's hard for people to get this, but it's true. I'd be deeply annoyed if it wasn't there of course. The real feature is that a TiVo frees you from having to watch TV except when you want to. You don't have to worry about when shows are on - TiVo takes care of it. You don't have to worry about having enough tape in the VCR - the HD records more than any tape. You don't have to label tapes because TiVo has the program guide data already. Watching something live? Phone rings? No problem, hit pause. Or maybe you missed that last line - hit 6 second rewind. And everything's instant.
About the best comparison I can give you is how much better CDs are compared to tapes. Instant access, cleaner, faster, better.
TiVo is an example where word-of-mouth should be working.
Actually, TiVo is an example of where word-of-mouth is working.
The problem is that nobody has figured out how to market to Joe Consumer... the advertising campaigns have been magnificant failures. But everyone who tries one becomes a convert, and proselytizes them to anyone that shows even vague interest.
I've personally gotten both of my sisters and one of my friends to buy TiVos. I may have convinced a contractor who did some work on my house. And a coworker keeps talking about getting one. It's not an easy sell though (the main concerns are cost and company viability), but once they do buy one they swear it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.
It really does change how you watch TV... and contrary to the naysayers, there is good TV out there to be watched. It just may not be on at times that's convienent for you to watch it at. Will you watch more TV? Maybe. Or you may watch less. But you'll watch it only when you want to and in ways you want. Being able to skip commercials is nice. Being able to flip back 6 seconds to hear the line you missed is better. Not having to sit in front of the TV at 8pm, or worry about if the VCR has enough tape, is the best.
Great... there I go trying to convert the unfaithful again. And here I thought I was an atheist.
I'm assuming Tivo doesn't own a patent on their TV recording technology
You'd be assuming very, very wrong. Not that any searching would have told you this. Nope.
These are just the three most recently granted patents. TiVo has others. Between TiVo and Replay pretty much every function and capability of a PVR is patented.
Offtopic - but is that deal still available? After having numerous trees removed I may be able to get sat service now and definitely want a DirecTiVo (will have to see if they'll transfer my subscription... if not then one of our TiVo's will get eBay'd).