I used to own givesafuck.com and tried using that as a "for fun" email address (i.e. easy for people to remember). I had to give it up because of the same issues. People were constantly making it up as a fake email address. I amused myself a few times by logging into the accounts people created with my email address and resetting their passwords/etc, but eventually give it up due to the spam load...
Given the cost of blank media (not to mention the burners), it doesn't make sense to convert your HDDVDs to BluRay. Assuming you have a computer connected to your TV, I'd propose instead ripping the DVDs to a HD (or storage array). You can connect a 360 HDDVD drive to a computer and do this.
You can get a 500GB disk for ~$100. This will hold ~25 movies and will probably provide a superior playback experience (i.e. no need to swap out disks).
Eventually HD prices as well as BluRay optical media prices will drop...
It was dropped early on. That was a battle that was lost many contracts ago. WGA management (IMHO wisely) chose to focus there energies instead on the future (Internet/new media residuals).
The other "major" demand that was dropped was jurisdiction over "reality TV" and animation.
The strike started immediately after the WGA contract expired. Most people in the industry were expecting that the WGA would keep working through an expired contract and would strike when SAG's contract expired. Therefore, plenty of people were caught off guard.
FYI - WGA offers loans to its members who have financial problems due to the strike.
WGAW is having a meeting Saturday night with its members to discuss the deal points proposed by the studios. I don't know if the studios have finished "inking" their proposal (i.e. I believe that there was a verbal "fuzzy" agreement but specific legal language is still being drafted).
The deal will be presented to the membership on Saturday where I believe an informal vote will be taken. I believe that a full ratification vote is required by the constitution for the deal to be formally accepted but that the Board of Directors can lift the strike without before that happens.
The terms for compensation for Internet re-usage in the DGA deal were not very appealing for Writers and Actors. I haven't seen what the deal terms are that have been proposed to the WGA, but if they didn't make good progress on this, the deal might be met with a mixed reception by members.
That said, the Negotiating Committee and the Board of Directors have the pulse of the membership my guess is that the membership will go along with the recommendations of the Negotiating Committee and the Board of Directors. I don't know how unanimous the NC/BoD are with respect to the deal (i.e. whether there is agreement that the deal is fair enough or whether the strike should go on longer).
#1 - #2 = wait for end of season #3 = I didn't realize that recent TV episodes were being sold by NBC on the xbox live market place?? #4 = What if you miss an episode? Want HD, but don't have a HD receiver or HD tivo? Are willing to pay $$$s to watch without commercials?
Those FCC restrictions are only relevant for your property. The HOA can't restrict you from putting an antenna or satellite dish on your balcony, but if you do not own the balcony, you could be screwed. Also, it doesn't grant you the right to put your dish on the roof of your condo as that is likely not considered your property.
IMHO, the best Trackball known to man. You use your index finger instead of your thumb and the mouse shape is very ergonomically friendly. Your thumb controls the traditional left, right, and scroll wheel/middle buttons and there are two other buttons that can also be used. My only gripe is that extended scrolling is uncomfortable.
Unfortunately, Microsoft discontinued the mouse. Last I checked people were selling them on eBay at huge markups over the original price (i.e. $150 instead of $50). I've got a bunch of them at home and am hoping that they will last me until a better product is developed.
This has been covered in a few previous "ask slashdots". When I was looking for a ticket system last time, I found some references to OTRS and ended up implementing at my company. IT supports ~200 people and we use it to track helpdesk, report, and feature requests. The system is open source and runs on a number of platforms including Linux and Windows.
I remember something about that... I suppose since I don't play any games on my old xbox any more that the game performance wouldn't matter. I wonder if they still sell the conversion kits...
Open source project. Plays just about everything. The only real bummer is that it really can't hack 1080 very well, but it handles 720P just fine.
I'm not sure that there is a world of difference between Component and DVI and/or HDMI in quality. If someone would just work out a relatively easy way to upgrade the CPU/memory of the Xbox, I doubt that anyone would be able to do much better for quite some time...
This is an awesome feature. I really wish that they would have some way where you could print a higher than 72 DPI version of the maps (i.e. export to PDF for printing)..
I suspect you have hit the mark (i.e. the replacement consoles are not up to the same quality levels as the original). I read an article written by a game journalist who had to send his 360 back for repair. He noted the serial numbers/etc and in spite of being told that they had returned his 360 when he called/asked, he was sent back a different model.
My 360 just started experiencing the dreaded ring of death. I managed to bring it back to life (for who knows how long) by using the "towel trick". I'm planning on returning mine to Costco because I'm confident that if I go through the MS "repair" process that the odds of me having another equipment failure will go up significantly.
Fighting against software piracy may be understandable, but this goes deeper. The original Xbox when modified becomes an extremely powerful home media center. I still use my old (hacked) Xbox on regular basis for watching movies/music/etc and only rarely play games on it.
You should be able to modify hardware that you have purchased to extend its functionality. MS ethically (IMHO) should ban people caught pirating software or cheating but not ban solely based upon the presence of modified hardware.
I think this article has it backwards. Spammers often times will go after your secondary MX records instead of your primary. This strategy = waste of time.
I had a simiar problem. For me SA was working as a SMTP proxy server in front of my Exchange server. By exporting a list of valid email addresses from AD into a valid_recipients list, I was able to *massively* cut down the amount of processing that SA needed to perform as Postfix would slam the door on the spam earlier in the process...
I'm constantly fiddling with my hardware (i.e. I change MBs every year). In fact, I believe that Vista will even force revalidation if you add enough memory to your system. This is completely unreasonable. I'm not going to buy a new copy of an OS once/year!
It's completely true that at the "lower" end of the spectrum (i.e. pre core 2 duo), that you get better bang for your back w/ AMD. However, if you are planning on spending ~$200+ on a processor, then you clearly get more value out of the Core 2 Duo.
As to the value of dual cores, I'm a huge fan. I assume that for most games it doesn't make much of a difference, but if you are power using your computer (i.e. doing development work or running other CPU intensive applications, its a godsend).
Interesting enough when I play Star Wars: Empire at War, I notice that that both cores seem to be getting a fair amount of activity. I wonder if more games are starting to take advantage of...
The last Intel processor I bought for home use was a P2. I recently purchased a Core 2 Duo 6400 and I am *so happy* with it. As discussed at this article:
The Core 2 Duos are tremendously and easily overclockable. I upped my performance 25% by changing the FSB from 266 to 333. While this sounds like a significant overclock, for the Core 2 Duo it is actually rather conservative. You juse switch to DDR-667 memory. I'm using the stock Intel cooler and my chips are running just fine temperature wise. People who are more ambitious are going for 400+. When you combine the inherent performance and value in the line with the ease of significant overclocking, AMD isn't even in the same ball game anymore.
Slashdot Mirror
I used to own givesafuck.com and tried using that as a "for fun" email address (i.e. easy for people to remember). I had to give it up because of the same issues. People were constantly making it up as a fake email address. I amused myself a few times by logging into the accounts people created with my email address and resetting their passwords/etc, but eventually give it up due to the spam load...
Given the cost of blank media (not to mention the burners), it doesn't make sense to convert your HDDVDs to BluRay. Assuming you have a computer connected to your TV, I'd propose instead ripping the DVDs to a HD (or storage array). You can connect a 360 HDDVD drive to a computer and do this.
...
You can get a 500GB disk for ~$100. This will hold ~25 movies and will probably provide a superior playback experience (i.e. no need to swap out disks).
Eventually HD prices as well as BluRay optical media prices will drop
It was dropped early on. That was a battle that was lost many contracts ago. WGA management (IMHO wisely) chose to focus there energies instead on the future (Internet/new media residuals).
The other "major" demand that was dropped was jurisdiction over "reality TV" and animation.
The strike started immediately after the WGA contract expired. Most people in the industry were expecting that the WGA would keep working through an expired contract and would strike when SAG's contract expired. Therefore, plenty of people were caught off guard.
FYI - WGA offers loans to its members who have financial problems due to the strike.
WGAW is having a meeting Saturday night with its members to discuss the deal points proposed by the studios. I don't know if the studios have finished "inking" their proposal (i.e. I believe that there was a verbal "fuzzy" agreement but specific legal language is still being drafted).
The deal will be presented to the membership on Saturday where I believe an informal vote will be taken. I believe that a full ratification vote is required by the constitution for the deal to be formally accepted but that the Board of Directors can lift the strike without before that happens.
The terms for compensation for Internet re-usage in the DGA deal were not very appealing for Writers and Actors. I haven't seen what the deal terms are that have been proposed to the WGA, but if they didn't make good progress on this, the deal might be met with a mixed reception by members.
That said, the Negotiating Committee and the Board of Directors have the pulse of the membership my guess is that the membership will go along with the recommendations of the Negotiating Committee and the Board of Directors. I don't know how unanimous the NC/BoD are with respect to the deal (i.e. whether there is agreement that the deal is fair enough or whether the strike should go on longer).
#1 - #2 = wait for end of season
#3 = I didn't realize that recent TV episodes were being sold by NBC on the xbox live market place??
#4 = What if you miss an episode? Want HD, but don't have a HD receiver or HD tivo? Are willing to pay $$$s to watch without commercials?
Those FCC restrictions are only relevant for your property. The HOA can't restrict you from putting an antenna or satellite dish on your balcony, but if you do not own the balcony, you could be screwed. Also, it doesn't grant you the right to put your dish on the roof of your condo as that is likely not considered your property.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117970671.html?
IMHO, the best Trackball known to man. You use your index finger instead of your thumb and the mouse shape is very ergonomically friendly. Your thumb controls the traditional left, right, and scroll wheel/middle buttons and there are two other buttons that can also be used. My only gripe is that extended scrolling is uncomfortable.
Unfortunately, Microsoft discontinued the mouse. Last I checked people were selling them on eBay at huge markups over the original price (i.e. $150 instead of $50). I've got a bunch of them at home and am hoping that they will last me until a better product is developed.
This has been covered in a few previous "ask slashdots". When I was looking for a ticket system last time, I found some references to OTRS and ended up implementing at my company. IT supports ~200 people and we use it to track helpdesk, report, and feature requests. The system is open source and runs on a number of platforms including Linux and Windows.
DVI + HDMI are digital
f ace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Inter
I remember something about that... I suppose since I don't play any games on my old xbox any more that the game performance wouldn't matter. I wonder if they still sell the conversion kits...
HDMI > DVI > Component > Svideo > Composite
...
I don't think it is even possible to push HD resolutions out on composite
Component is just 3 wires. Audio is independent. Optical audio outputs are only one cable. i.e. my xbox is connected using 4 cables
Open source project. Plays just about everything. The only real bummer is that it really can't hack 1080 very well, but it handles 720P just fine.
I'm not sure that there is a world of difference between Component and DVI and/or HDMI in quality. If someone would just work out a relatively easy way to upgrade the CPU/memory of the Xbox, I doubt that anyone would be able to do much better for quite some time...
This is an awesome feature. I really wish that they would have some way where you could print a higher than 72 DPI version of the maps (i.e. export to PDF for printing)..
I suspect you have hit the mark (i.e. the replacement consoles are not up to the same quality levels as the original). I read an article written by a game journalist who had to send his 360 back for repair. He noted the serial numbers/etc and in spite of being told that they had returned his 360 when he called/asked, he was sent back a different model.
My 360 just started experiencing the dreaded ring of death. I managed to bring it back to life (for who knows how long) by using the "towel trick". I'm planning on returning mine to Costco because I'm confident that if I go through the MS "repair" process that the odds of me having another equipment failure will go up significantly.
I'm sure that the fact that Pirates 3 is out in theaters has no effect on sales.
A useful analysis would compare sales for titles released in both formats. Anything else is Apples to Oranges....
Fighting against software piracy may be understandable, but this goes deeper. The original Xbox when modified becomes an extremely powerful home media center. I still use my old (hacked) Xbox on regular basis for watching movies/music/etc and only rarely play games on it.
You should be able to modify hardware that you have purchased to extend its functionality. MS ethically (IMHO) should ban people caught pirating software or cheating but not ban solely based upon the presence of modified hardware.
I'd be very interested to know what sort of effects this has on battery life? I'm not sure how much energy the CPU vs Screen vs HD consume...
No shit. Hello!?!?! Topic moderation please!!
I think this article has it backwards. Spammers often times will go after your secondary MX records instead of your primary. This strategy = waste of time.
I had a simiar problem. For me SA was working as a SMTP proxy server in front of my Exchange server. By exporting a list of valid email addresses from AD into a valid_recipients list, I was able to *massively* cut down the amount of processing that SA needed to perform as Postfix would slam the door on the spam earlier in the process...
I'm constantly fiddling with my hardware (i.e. I change MBs every year). In fact, I believe that Vista will even force revalidation if you add enough memory to your system. This is completely unreasonable. I'm not going to buy a new copy of an OS once/year!
It's completely true that at the "lower" end of the spectrum (i.e. pre core 2 duo), that you get better bang for your back w/ AMD. However, if you are planning on spending ~$200+ on a processor, then you clearly get more value out of the Core 2 Duo.
As to the value of dual cores, I'm a huge fan. I assume that for most games it doesn't make much of a difference, but if you are power using your computer (i.e. doing development work or running other CPU intensive applications, its a godsend).
Interesting enough when I play Star Wars: Empire at War, I notice that that both cores seem to be getting a fair amount of activity. I wonder if more games are starting to take advantage of...
The last Intel processor I bought for home use was a P2. I recently purchased a Core 2 Duo 6400 and I am *so happy* with it. As discussed at this article:
8 02
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2
The Core 2 Duos are tremendously and easily overclockable. I upped my performance 25% by changing the FSB from 266 to 333. While this sounds like a significant overclock, for the Core 2 Duo it is actually rather conservative. You juse switch to DDR-667 memory. I'm using the stock Intel cooler and my chips are running just fine temperature wise. People who are more ambitious are going for 400+. When you combine the inherent performance and value in the line with the ease of significant overclocking, AMD isn't even in the same ball game anymore.