Better commercial skipping? Myth. DVR and Region Free NTSC & PAL DVD playing? Myth. Will play ANYTHING on a CD/DVD? Myth. No one snooping on viewing habits? Myth. Easily stream music and video files from a Macintosh? Myth. Monthly subscription fees? TiVo/Comcast. Built in "Broadcast flag" functionality? TiVo/Comcast. Automatic "upgrades" that can limit functionality and you have no say in the matter? TiVo/Comcast.
Pleasure and satisfaction of a DIY repurposing of discarded hardware/diverting perfectly good hardware from the waste stream/saving money and having a superior media center? Myth.
All things considered, I can do without the "Based on your viewing habits, TiVo thinks you might like this..." feature.
Cheap used Tuner card (eBay) Cheap used Video card (eBay) Nearly new 160 GB ATA hard drive (Salvaged from dead Macintosh) Software (Download for free) Some time messing with software and whatnot. Bits and pieces (IR Blaster, Bluetooth USB dongle for wireless keyboard, etc)
Cheaper than TiVo and Comcast DVRs by a damn sight and much more functionality.
... young people today, with their loud hair and long music, and their propensity for lounging in a most insouciant manner upon his lawn.
At this point in the diatribe, well known sci-fi writer and self-proclaimed "Master Storyteller" Mr. Harlan "I don't take a piss without getting paid" Ellison mounted his soapbox, two milk crates and a folding chair, thus barely getting his eyes above the seated audience. "You tell 'em, Ray! Fuck the Internet!" Mr. Ellison sputtered in a cracked and whiney voice.
Mr. Bradbury inquired after the publishing date of "The Last Dangerous Visions", whereupon Mr. Ellison threw his false teeth at Mr. Bradbury, whereupon the two aged scifi writers began to box each other about the head and shoulders. The assembled crowd wagered upon who would be the first to fling the contents of their Depends at the other, while several witnesses used their iPhones to upload video of the struggle to YouTube. Others in the crowd were content to chant, "Codger Fight! Codger Fight!" at the geriatric combatants.
...to TV DRM comes to BluRay and all players sold in the United States tomorrow.
In two weeks, you'll pay US$50 for a player made in China on the gray market that'll have a backpanel FULL of ports, each one squirting out the unencrypted video and audio, as well as region free.
You'll also be able to get at the same time, the "upgraded" digital to analog TV converter, also equipped with RF, composite, digital, etc, in/out ports for your old analog TV. With an easily removed label: "Not to be used for avoiding DRM!"
In three weeks, Mac The Ripper, Handbrake, FFMPEG, etc, et al will have upgraded versions.
In a month, TPB, Demonoid, all those NZB sites, etc, et al, will be back to normal with unencrypted rips of all the latest DVDs, ready for downloading.
man, that forced attempt at humor is even worse than the time I had to give Hitler a sponge bath! (jumpcut to Hitler's Berlin bunker, circa 1943) (Hitler): "Zo, de spongebath, it comes mitt der Happy Ending, ja?"
Nah! Once you finally got the load schedule tweaked just right, via Conflict Catcher, startup freezes were a thing of the past.
I was able to get my Mac safely loading a ton of Extensions and Control Panels after a day of messing with the load order. Once that was perfected, it never bombed or froze on startup.
I was also able to sneak a copy of SoundJam MP onto that same Mac. The streaming audio kept me sane for the few months of the horribly boring temp gig.
I found the march of Extensions and Control Panels imbued an almost Zen contentment as each one of those little gems added more and more usefulness to the Mac OS.
And with enough of them, you had time to grab an extra cup of that sweet, sweet office coffee as the machine booted for the first time in the morning.
"It's an entirely streamed service, offering no download-to-own content"
Anyone remember the first series of The IT Crowd, streamed online only to the UK, WMV DRMed up one side and down the other. And on The Pirate Bay as a.avi file within minutes after each streamed episode was over?
Good times, good times!
Really, why do they bother? The stream will be intercepted somewhere inside the XBox, or fed from the XBox into a digital recorder or computer, converted to.avi and upped to TPB. all automatically.
Assuming, of course, the programming is worth it and is unavailable elsewhere.
Indeed! The last hard drive I bought was earlier this year.
Approx. US$50.00 for 160GB. Next month, I'm buying a 1TB drive and enclosure and using it as the Time Machine drive on the Mac. I'll also be replacing the 2 sub-100GB drives with 160GB drives.
So, 640GB in the Mac, a Terabyte as the Time Machine drive, with a few hundred GB left on the Time Machine drive should give me enough space for data until I can get more TB drives and set up a bigass Time Machine box or a RAID of some kind.
By the way, my very first hard drive upgrade was on a Mac SE. 30MB. Got it for US$300. It was a hell of a bargain at the time!
I mention this as US$300 is about what I'll be spending for the TB drive and the 2 160GB drives and the TB drive enclosure. And money left over for a a case of Red Bull.
Slashdot Mirror
For free NOAA/National Weather Service forecasts for your ZIP code (USA only) go to weather.gov , input your city and state.
Then, at that next page, input your ZIP code.
Save the URL of the resulting page with the forecast for your ZIP code.
This will make EX-Senator Santorum weep bitter, bitter tears.
And you'll get, essentially, the same forecast you'd get from the local media. After all, the NWS is where they get their weather info from.
If you can refute anything I stated, please, go right ahead!
If you could explain how you got your TiVo to play a DVD, I would be most interested in hearing how you did that!
Better commercial skipping? Myth. DVR and Region Free NTSC & PAL DVD playing? Myth. Will play ANYTHING on a CD/DVD? Myth. No one snooping on viewing habits? Myth. Easily stream music and video files from a Macintosh? Myth. Monthly subscription fees? TiVo/Comcast. Built in "Broadcast flag" functionality? TiVo/Comcast. Automatic "upgrades" that can limit functionality and you have no say in the matter? TiVo/Comcast.
Pleasure and satisfaction of a DIY repurposing of discarded hardware/diverting perfectly good hardware from the waste stream/saving money and having a superior media center? Myth.
All things considered, I can do without the "Based on your viewing habits, TiVo thinks you might like this..." feature.
Myth TV FTW!
Free Compaq Deskpro (salvaged from the curb)
Cheap used Tuner card (eBay)
Cheap used Video card (eBay)
Nearly new 160 GB ATA hard drive (Salvaged from dead Macintosh)
Software (Download for free)
Some time messing with software and whatnot.
Bits and pieces (IR Blaster, Bluetooth USB dongle for wireless keyboard, etc)
Cheaper than TiVo and Comcast DVRs by a damn sight and much more functionality.
Actually, the Commodore 128 would be a better candidate for recreation.
2 modes of CBM, 1Mhz 40 column mode, 2Mhz 40 column mode, 2Mhz 80column mode (3! 3 CBM modes!)
AND... CP/M.
So, there's the classic pre-Windows "serious" computer environment to mess with as well.
Of course, being a lazy sod, when I want to enjoy the Commodore experience, I boot up my 128 system.
Yes, I still have my original C128, because sometimes, you really need a few hours of Pac-Man and Marble Madness on an 8-bit machine.
Seriously, does anyone other than a first time Windows user actaully use IE for serious/prolonged web sessions?
Between Firefox, Opera and Safari, is IE still being used to any great extent?
... young people today, with their loud hair and long music, and their propensity for lounging in a most insouciant manner upon his lawn.
At this point in the diatribe, well known sci-fi writer and self-proclaimed "Master Storyteller" Mr. Harlan "I don't take a piss without getting paid" Ellison mounted his soapbox, two milk crates and a folding chair, thus barely getting his eyes above the seated audience. "You tell 'em, Ray! Fuck the Internet!" Mr. Ellison sputtered in a cracked and whiney voice.
Mr. Bradbury inquired after the publishing date of "The Last Dangerous Visions", whereupon Mr. Ellison threw his false teeth at Mr. Bradbury, whereupon the two aged scifi writers began to box each other about the head and shoulders. The assembled crowd wagered upon who would be the first to fling the contents of their Depends at the other, while several witnesses used their iPhones to upload video of the struggle to YouTube. Others in the crowd were content to chant, "Codger Fight! Codger Fight!" at the geriatric combatants.
...is thick in the air this afternoon.
The piles of the stuff are everywhere, too.
Watch your step, ladies and gentlemen, lest you inadvertantly step in their disgusting filth.
For myself, I buy "previously" viewed DVDs from any one of the diverse used CD/DVD places here in Boston/Cambridge/Somerville.
No reason to give Hollywood any more money than necessary.
I get it home, rip it to whatever format I want for whatever purpose I want. The DVD goes into the closet with the rest of them.
Its MY PROPERTY. And I do whatever I want with MY PROPERTY.
Botnets, worldwide botnets.
What kind of boxes are on botnets?
Compaq, H.P., Dell and Sony, true!
Gateway, Packard Bell, maybe even Asus, too!
Are boxes, found on botnets,
All running Windows! Foo!
...to TV DRM comes to BluRay and all players sold in the United States tomorrow.
In two weeks, you'll pay US$50 for a player made in China on the gray market that'll have a backpanel FULL of ports, each one squirting out the unencrypted video and audio, as well as region free.
You'll also be able to get at the same time, the "upgraded" digital to analog TV converter, also equipped with RF, composite, digital, etc, in/out ports for your old analog TV.
With an easily removed label: "Not to be used for avoiding DRM!"
In three weeks, Mac The Ripper, Handbrake, FFMPEG, etc, et al will have upgraded versions.
In a month, TPB, Demonoid, all those NZB sites, etc, et al, will be back to normal with unencrypted rips of all the latest DVDs, ready for downloading.
It was done to stop the hate mail from everyone who saw "Jurassic Bark".
It is obvious to the most casual of observers that BBS is a retcon of the climax of "Jurassic Bark".
All that other stuff was just there to pad it out and little bit.
After all, they couldn't really call it, "OK! Enough Already With The Hate Mail! Look, see, we're fixing it. Seymour had a long happy life with Fry."
If for no other reason than that long title wouldn't fit on the box.
man, that forced attempt at humor is even worse than the time I had to give Hitler a sponge bath!
(jumpcut to Hitler's Berlin bunker, circa 1943)
(Hitler): "Zo, de spongebath, it comes mitt der Happy Ending, ja?"
"I can haz cheeseburger?"
Actually, the plaque should say:
"Ascent Module recovered, restored and emplaced by the Historical Sticklers Society"
As the Descent Module (lander) was already in place.
You are all now living in The Village.
You have a choice.
You can be numbers, or you can be free men and women.
The choice is yours.
Choose wisely.
"Or do what I do. Make your machine super-efficient but very hard to learn. Using my machine is sort of a keyboard-mouse hybrid of vi!"
Everything old is new again.
My HP-45 was known as the "Calculator That Nobody Borrows" or, "Where the hell is the ENTER key? How the hell do you work this goddamned thing?"
Oh, RPN, is there no problem you can't solve?
Nah! Once you finally got the load schedule tweaked just right, via Conflict Catcher, startup freezes were a thing of the past.
I was able to get my Mac safely loading a ton of Extensions and Control Panels after a day of messing with the load order. Once that was perfected, it never bombed or froze on startup.
I was also able to sneak a copy of SoundJam MP onto that same Mac. The streaming audio kept me sane for the few months of the horribly boring temp gig.
"Ah the days of watching the Extensions loading."
I found the march of Extensions and Control Panels imbued an almost Zen contentment as each one of those little gems added more and more usefulness to the Mac OS.
And with enough of them, you had time to grab an extra cup of that sweet, sweet office coffee as the machine booted for the first time in the morning.
Really! It's like pirating the Saturday night SciFi Original Movies.
<ComicBookGuy>"Check it out! First generation TV rip of 'Mansquito'. NO COMMERCIALS!"</ComicBookGuy>
"It's an entirely streamed service, offering no download-to-own content"
Anyone remember the first series of The IT Crowd, streamed online only to the UK, WMV DRMed up one side and down the other. And on The Pirate Bay as a .avi file within minutes after each streamed episode was over?
Good times, good times!
Really, why do they bother? The stream will be intercepted somewhere inside the XBox, or fed from the XBox into a digital recorder or computer, converted to .avi and upped to TPB. all automatically.
Assuming, of course, the programming is worth it and is unavailable elsewhere.
The stench of Randroid droppings is thick in the air this evening.
One that would use the net to distribute files in a manner that makes it virtually impossible to trace where and to whom they were distributed.
I'm sure there are groups of people worldwide who await the news of such a breakthrough.
...the thieves and vandals who steal data and wreck servers.
THIEVES AND VANDALS.
Not "hackers".
What was done was not hacking. It was vandalism. Plain and simple.
Hackers create. Vandals destroy. Thieves steal.
I'm surprised that this needs to be explained to the Slashdot community.
Indeed! The last hard drive I bought was earlier this year.
Approx. US$50.00 for 160GB. Next month, I'm buying a 1TB drive and enclosure and using it as the Time Machine drive on the Mac. I'll also be replacing the 2 sub-100GB drives with 160GB drives.
So, 640GB in the Mac, a Terabyte as the Time Machine drive, with a few hundred GB left on the Time Machine drive should give me enough space for data until I can get more TB drives and set up a bigass Time Machine box or a RAID of some kind.
By the way, my very first hard drive upgrade was on a Mac SE. 30MB. Got it for US$300. It was a hell of a bargain at the time!
I mention this as US$300 is about what I'll be spending for the TB drive and the 2 160GB drives and the TB drive enclosure. And money left over for a a case of Red Bull.