I'm not sure about your specific application, but Matrox has always been pretty progressive with DVI support. I think they have at least one model of the G400 series with two DVI ports, and the new I think the new Parhelia card has three.
Re:Model 921 will include HDTV recording
on
DishPVR 721 Review
·
· Score: 1
What makes you think that? All other models of Dish PVRs (including the E*/M$ "DishPlayer" bastard child) record the mpeg program stream directly from the satellite. Do you have solid info that the HDTV model will resample on recording?
are their hardware products. I use the V1 "Natural" keyboard, and it is much easier to type on than a "normal" keyboard. Since I started using these ergo keyboards, I haven't had any trouble with my wrists at all.
I've had problems with CPS since I was a teenager (very unusual, aparently - but most teenagers aren't geeks like me), and it's probably inherited. It's so bad that I can't wear a watch without my hand getting numb.
There is no problem at all with the compression (really an acceleration proxy) under Windows 2000. The only problem is that it's an application program, rather than a service, so you need to make sure someone is logged on if you're using Win2k box as a NAT router (which also works fine as long as you set the proxy server on the client boxes correctly). See Starband Users for more info.
I don't know about the system this poster is referring to, but the Starband service uses a (Windows-based) HTTP proxy running on the system connected to the satellite modem. The proxy works by replacing the HTTP requests with some proprietary (UDP-based) protocol that is not affected by high latencies. It also receives and caches page images before they are requested by the client browser.
If it's set up properly, web browsing is quite usable. The main difference between satellite and a fast terrestrial connection is that there is a delay of a second or two after clicking on a link, and then the entire page pops up at once - you don't see bits and peices of the page loading.
As many other people have commented, truly interactive stuff (character echo telnet, ssh, most games) are painful at best. The high-lag SSH connections are tolerable - I'm used to running systems halfway around the world, so 500ms is workable, if not strictly pleasant.
5 figures? I'd be really surprised if it's that cheap. I'd tend to think that something like would be WELL into the multi-hundred-kbux - and that's just for the storage we're talking about in this article. Hell, I'd be surprised if the power supply alone is less than 5 figures. Not that I'm criticising Cray... outfits that need this can afford it by definition - the technology will trickle down to the rest of us eventually.
Output from a solar cell is not DC. It varies depending on the amount of light. If you have an oscillating light source, you get an oscillating output. The output is positive with respect to ground, but the voltage is not constant (=DC).
It's 120Hz because the light would peak twice during each 60Hz cycle - at 90 and 270 degrees. (unless you're using one of those cheapo dimmers with a diode that kills 180 degrees of the cycle).
I'm a little surprised that you'd hear it tho. I would have thought that the light output would be smoothed almost completely by the thermal loading of the filament. I'm sure it would vary from bulb to bulb - a 5 watt xmas-tree bulb would be more noticable than a 100 watt light bulb, I'd imagine.
Some of them at least are sourced from VHS tapes. The Frankenstein movie they are running for free today had some noticable tracking errors and other glitches from low quality video tape.
Also, that movie at least was 4:3, so they could avoid reformatting it.
Granted, the quality of the source material sucks, and even the 300k stream quality isn't as good as it could be, but film purists are not going to be watching movies on a PC screen over the net.
Just because the head-in-the-sand US market has never been very enthusiastic about them doesn't mean they have failed. They are extremely popular in Asia, and prior to dirt-cheap CDRs, they were the most effective way of compiling your own music. And they're still better for some appications because of the small size - the portable players are about 3" square, and they consume less power and are more stable than traditional portable CD players.
Granted, they never became popular for pre-recorded media, but they were never targeted heavily for that (read-only) market.
Just like DAT, Minidisc hasn't failed - it has found a niche market and is very successful in it.
They weren't alians (even if they DID scream 'Close Encounters'. They were evolved robots. Remember Gigelo Joe's line something like "in the end, only the machines will remain"?
I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. It was definately well done, but I was expecting the credits to roll while he was talking to the Blue Fairy, even if the ending did prove the point made earlier.
More than likely, they'll dump them on an electronics surplus place like Weird Stuff Warehouse. Remember "Interactive Network", the gadget that was going to let you play along with TV game shows like Jeopardy? When they went under, Weird Stuff liquidated their stock of the remotes, coffee cups, gym bags, t-shirts, and all sorts of other trade-show goodies. That was 5 years ago or so... I think they STILL have some of the gym bags. I've still got a couple T-shirts.
I was looking for a web site for Interactive Network, and came across This... History is repeating itself. They're trying to make something back from their patents too.
(Yes, I know you were kidding, but it's a point that should be made early in this discussion)
No, it won't cool your beer. This is NOT a phase change system like some of the systems posted here before. It just uses the (water-based) liquid for heat transfer (exactly like your car radiator), so it can't get the temperature below ambient room temp.
A phase change "heat pump" system (like an air conditioner or refrigerator) needs a compressor, coils, and special fluid. It would hard to make quiet.
The preview looked good, and with Haley Joel Osment as roboboy, it will probably be up to Kubrick's standards. He is one of the best child actors in a LONG time, and should be able to handle the emotional subleties of that role very well.
Now I just wish Card would get off his ass and make Ender's Game...
IAANAL, but my understanding is that federal law (which would apply when dealing with a company outside of your state) requires that only ONE of the parties on the call know it is being recorded.
For some states (California for one), BOTH parties must be aware it is being recorded *OR* the recording device must beep every 15 seconds.
Uhm... you can't make this stuff up as you go along, you know. The PSX, PS1, and PS2 ALL accept CD-Rs. For both games AND audio. The protection has nothing to do with CDRs or "wobbles". It's encoded on the R-W subcode channel, which can't be reproduced by consumer CDR drives, and and the chip for PSX and PS1 use a PAL (not the the PLA, the terririst organization) to "simulate" this channel so the game will boot... the machine can read the disc fine (well, older PSX units have trouble with high speed burns and some media types, but generally work). It is not possible for a typical CD player to tell what kind of media is being used.
For what it's worth, and this is a hunch (the above is what I _KNOW_ to be true), Sony was forced to support CDRs on the PS2 because they needed an IR laser in order to read the "black" PSX discs for compatability mode (these "black" discs are actually IR transparent). If they hadn't gone with the fancy black discs on the original PSX, they could have made piracy on the PS2 a hell of a lot harder by using only a red laser (for DVDs and CDs) which doesn't do well on CDRs.
I've tried this... the sound output on the Libretto has a lot of background hiss. It's okay for driving when there's already a lot of noise, but that's about it.
And running the Libretto power supply from an cheap inverter (in a car) generates so much 60Hz noise on the output that it's useless there too.
Not since the days of the C64, Atari 400/800, and others of that era. Audio tape is designed to hold relatively low frequency analog audio information. This, combined with the linear format of the tape, lack of sync, tape stretching, and other issues makes it ineffective at speeds of much more than a few hundred bps.
A better option is video tape; there was an adapter for the Amiga that let you use a VCR as a backup device. You would record the video output from the Amiga on a VCR, and it had a serial or parallel interface that would convert the video signal back to data the software could recover. It wasn't too reliable, and from what I remember, only did about a megabyte per minute.
So basically, nothing that makes the US cell phone technology any more compatible with the rest of the world. And it's hard to see how this will be any good for roaming users, unless they're planning on making all phones dual-mode 1800/1900.
I'm working in Hong Kong now, and the mobile saturation and technology is FAR ahead of the US. There are around a dozen mobile service providers, and usage is around 60% of the population.
The ITU meeting will be here next week, and technology will be exhibited that will be deployed here YEARS before it shows up in the US. The biggest reason for this is that the US networks are completly non-standard both in terms of frequencies and standards.
It would be nice if the US gets around to joining the rest of the world one of these days.
Since Slashdot NEVER posts old news (cough), I assume that AT&T will be offering GSM service at 1800 MHz, instead of the GSM 1900 service that has existed in the US for years.
If this is true, then this IS good news. While GSM has been around for years and is relatively "old" technology, it is heavily deployed around the world - at 900 and 1800 MHz. As is typical for the US, the FCC decided to ignore the rest of the world and allocate _1900_ MHz for mobile service in the US.
If AT&T has managed to get a license for GSM 1800, this will be terrific for anyone that travels internationally. You will finally be able to use a normal GSM phone that works anywhere ELSE in the world in the US. There are a couple tri-mode 900/1800/1900 phones (such as the Motorola L2000/timeport and a new Nokia phone), but these are exceptions.
Of course, we would still need to deal with the obnoxious habit of US GSM providers of SIM-locking their phones so you can't use them with other providers, even if they are compatible. In the rest of the world, you can choose from a number of providers, or even buy prepaid SIMM cards on the street. And get this - YOU DON'T NEED TO BUY A NEW HANDSET. Whata concept.
Of course, it's more likely that Slashdot got conned by the AT&T press release into thinking they were up to something new. They're probably just doing GSM 1900, like Pac Bell, VoiceStream, and dozens of others.
GSM 1900 is only used in North America. The rest of the world uses GSM 1800 (1800 MHz) and GSM 900. This means that you can't use most US GSM phones (ie, Nokia 5190/6190) anywhere else, and you can't use a phone that you buy anywhere else in the US. There are a couple exceptions, including the Motorola L2000 ("Timeport" in the US) which are tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900, but these are expensive and have a lousy menu system.
Unless AT&T is going to be supporting GSM1800, which I doubt (because 1800 is not an available mobile band in the US), there is nothing unique about this article. GSM service @1900 MHz has been available in the US for years.
The Nokia 6190 has an optional AMPS module available. Or it did at one point anyway; a quick check of their web site doesn't show it. In any case, I don't know if Pacific Bell (or otheer GSM1900 providers) offer AMPS roaming service, however.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not sure about your specific application, but Matrox has always been pretty progressive with DVI support. I think they have at least one model of the G400 series with two DVI ports, and the new I think the new Parhelia card has three.
What makes you think that? All other models of Dish PVRs (including the E*/M$ "DishPlayer" bastard child) record the mpeg program stream directly from the satellite. Do you have solid info that the HDTV model will resample on recording?
are their hardware products. I use the V1 "Natural" keyboard, and it is much easier to type on than a "normal" keyboard. Since I started using these ergo keyboards, I haven't had any trouble with my wrists at all.
I've had problems with CPS since I was a teenager (very unusual, aparently - but most teenagers aren't geeks like me), and it's probably inherited. It's so bad that I can't wear a watch without my hand getting numb.
There is no problem at all with the compression (really an acceleration proxy) under Windows 2000. The only problem is that it's an application program, rather than a service, so you need to make sure someone is logged on if you're using Win2k box as a NAT router (which also works fine as long as you set the proxy server on the client boxes correctly). See Starband Users for more info.
I don't know about the system this poster is referring to, but the Starband service uses a (Windows-based) HTTP proxy running on the system connected to the satellite modem. The proxy works by replacing the HTTP requests with some proprietary (UDP-based) protocol that is not affected by high latencies. It also receives and caches page images before they are requested by the client browser.
If it's set up properly, web browsing is quite usable. The main difference between satellite and a fast terrestrial connection is that there is a delay of a second or two after clicking on a link, and then the entire page pops up at once - you don't see bits and peices of the page loading.
As many other people have commented, truly interactive stuff (character echo telnet, ssh, most games) are painful at best. The high-lag SSH connections are tolerable - I'm used to running systems halfway around the world, so 500ms is workable, if not strictly pleasant.
5 figures? I'd be really surprised if it's that cheap. I'd tend to think that something like would be WELL into the multi-hundred-kbux - and that's just for the storage we're talking about in this article. Hell, I'd be surprised if the power supply alone is less than 5 figures.
Not that I'm criticising Cray... outfits that need this can afford it by definition - the technology will trickle down to the rest of us eventually.
Output from a solar cell is not DC. It varies depending on the amount of light. If you have an oscillating light source, you get an oscillating output. The output is positive with respect to ground, but the voltage is not constant (=DC).
It's 120Hz because the light would peak twice during each 60Hz cycle - at 90 and 270 degrees. (unless you're using one of those cheapo dimmers with a diode that kills 180 degrees of the cycle).
I'm a little surprised that you'd hear it tho. I would have thought that the light output would be smoothed almost completely by the thermal loading of the filament. I'm sure it would vary from bulb to bulb - a 5 watt xmas-tree bulb would be more noticable than a 100 watt light bulb, I'd imagine.
Some of them at least are sourced from VHS tapes. The Frankenstein movie they are running for free today had some noticable tracking errors and other glitches from low quality video tape.
Also, that movie at least was 4:3, so they could avoid reformatting it.
Granted, the quality of the source material sucks, and even the 300k stream quality isn't as good as it could be, but film purists are not going to be watching movies on a PC screen over the net.
Just because the head-in-the-sand US market has never been very enthusiastic about them doesn't mean they have failed. They are extremely popular in Asia, and prior to dirt-cheap CDRs, they were the most effective way of compiling your own music. And they're still better for some appications because of the small size - the portable players are about 3" square, and they consume less power and are more stable than traditional portable CD players.
Granted, they never became popular for pre-recorded media, but they were never targeted heavily for that (read-only) market.
Just like DAT, Minidisc hasn't failed - it has found a niche market and is very successful in it.
Naw. Don't need it. They'll just charge anyone using it that they don't like under the new anti-terrorism crap. Saves a ton of cycles.
Why would they do that when they can sell the typos to the owners of the original domain or their competitors?
They weren't alians (even if they DID scream 'Close Encounters'. They were evolved robots. Remember Gigelo Joe's line something like "in the end, only the machines will remain"?
I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. It was definately well done, but I was expecting the credits to roll while he was talking to the Blue Fairy, even if the ending did prove the point made earlier.
More than likely, they'll dump them on an electronics surplus place like Weird Stuff Warehouse. Remember "Interactive Network", the gadget that was going to let you play along with TV game shows like Jeopardy? When they went under, Weird Stuff liquidated their stock of the remotes, coffee cups, gym bags, t-shirts, and all sorts of other trade-show goodies. That was 5 years ago or so... I think they STILL have some of the gym bags. I've still got a couple T-shirts.
I was looking for a web site for Interactive Network, and came across This... History is repeating itself. They're trying to make something back from their patents too.
(Yes, I know you were kidding, but it's a point that should be made early in this discussion)
No, it won't cool your beer. This is NOT a phase change system like some of the systems posted here before. It just uses the (water-based) liquid for heat transfer (exactly like your car radiator), so it can't get the temperature below ambient room temp.
A phase change "heat pump" system (like an air conditioner or refrigerator) needs a compressor, coils, and special fluid. It would hard to make quiet.
The preview looked good, and with Haley Joel Osment as roboboy, it will probably be up to Kubrick's standards. He is one of the best child actors in a LONG time, and should be able to handle the emotional subleties of that role very well.
Now I just wish Card would get off his ass and make Ender's Game...
IAANAL, but my understanding is that federal law (which would apply when dealing with a company outside of your state) requires that only ONE of the parties on the call know it is being recorded.
For some states (California for one), BOTH parties must be aware it is being recorded *OR* the recording device must beep every 15 seconds.
Uhm... you can't make this stuff up as you go along, you know. The PSX, PS1, and PS2 ALL accept CD-Rs. For both games AND audio. The protection has nothing to do with CDRs or "wobbles". It's encoded on the R-W subcode channel, which can't be reproduced by consumer CDR drives, and and the chip for PSX and PS1 use a PAL (not the the PLA, the terririst organization) to "simulate" this channel so the game will boot... the machine can read the disc fine (well, older PSX units have trouble with high speed burns and some media types, but generally work). It is not possible for a typical CD player to tell what kind of media is being used.
For what it's worth, and this is a hunch (the above is what I _KNOW_ to be true), Sony was forced to support CDRs on the PS2 because they needed an IR laser in order to read the "black" PSX discs for compatability mode (these "black" discs are actually IR transparent). If they hadn't gone with the fancy black discs on the original PSX, they could have made piracy on the PS2 a hell of a lot harder by using only a red laser (for DVDs and CDs) which doesn't do well on CDRs.
Read that article again. He developed blue and shorter LEDs, and was WORKING on diode lasers, but blue diode lasers are still not commercially viable.
I just need to get me a green laser pointer... I know they exist, but are $$$.
I've tried this... the sound output on the Libretto has a lot of background hiss. It's okay for driving when there's already a lot of noise, but that's about it.
And running the Libretto power supply from an cheap inverter (in a car) generates so much 60Hz noise on the output that it's useless there too.
Not since the days of the C64, Atari 400/800, and others of that era. Audio tape is designed to hold relatively low frequency analog audio information. This, combined with the linear format of the tape, lack of sync, tape stretching, and other issues makes it ineffective at speeds of much more than a few hundred bps.
A better option is video tape; there was an adapter for the Amiga that let you use a VCR as a backup device. You would record the video output from the Amiga on a VCR, and it had a serial or parallel interface that would convert the video signal back to data the software could recover. It wasn't too reliable, and from what I remember, only did about a megabyte per minute.
So basically, nothing that makes the US cell phone technology any more compatible with the rest of the world. And it's hard to see how this will be any good for roaming users, unless they're planning on making all phones dual-mode 1800/1900.
I'm working in Hong Kong now, and the mobile saturation and technology is FAR ahead of the US. There are around a dozen mobile service providers, and usage is around 60% of the population.
The ITU meeting will be here next week, and technology will be exhibited that will be deployed here YEARS before it shows up in the US. The biggest reason for this is that the US networks are completly non-standard both in terms of frequencies and standards.
It would be nice if the US gets around to joining the rest of the world one of these days.
Since Slashdot NEVER posts old news (cough), I assume that AT&T will be offering GSM service at 1800 MHz, instead of the GSM 1900 service that has existed in the US for years.
If this is true, then this IS good news. While GSM has been around for years and is relatively "old" technology, it is heavily deployed around the world - at 900 and 1800 MHz. As is typical for the US, the FCC decided to ignore the rest of the world and allocate _1900_ MHz for mobile service in the US.
If AT&T has managed to get a license for GSM 1800, this will be terrific for anyone that travels internationally. You will finally be able to use a normal GSM phone that works anywhere ELSE in the world in the US. There are a couple tri-mode 900/1800/1900 phones (such as the Motorola L2000/timeport and a new Nokia phone), but these are exceptions.
Of course, we would still need to deal with the obnoxious habit of US GSM providers of SIM-locking their phones so you can't use them with other providers, even if they are compatible. In the rest of the world, you can choose from a number of providers, or even buy prepaid SIMM cards on the street. And get this - YOU DON'T NEED TO BUY A NEW HANDSET. Whata concept.
Of course, it's more likely that Slashdot got conned by the AT&T press release into thinking they were up to something new. They're probably just doing GSM 1900, like Pac Bell, VoiceStream, and dozens of others.
GSM 1900 is only used in North America. The rest of the world uses GSM 1800 (1800 MHz) and GSM 900. This means that you can't use most US GSM phones (ie, Nokia 5190/6190) anywhere else, and you can't use a phone that you buy anywhere else in the US. There are a couple exceptions, including the Motorola L2000 ("Timeport" in the US) which are tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900, but these are expensive and have a lousy menu system.
Unless AT&T is going to be supporting GSM1800, which I doubt (because 1800 is not an available mobile band in the US), there is nothing unique about this article. GSM service @1900 MHz has been available in the US for years.
The Nokia 6190 has an optional AMPS module available. Or it did at one point anyway; a quick check of their web site doesn't show it. In any case, I don't know if Pacific Bell (or otheer GSM1900 providers) offer AMPS roaming service, however.
This has been around years... it's in the same category as the Modem Tax. It looks as if it was copied exactly from the old article.
In any case, it's nowhere as lame as last year's "M$ shut down user friendly" idiocy that built up for MONTHS before April 1.