Digital Cable Boxes are Bare-Bones!
on
The Joys of HDTV
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· Score: 1
I'm pissed as hell that my box doesn't include S-Video, only coax and RCA. Why? I don't know. When will we be able to buy our own boxes with the features we want?
I don't know where you are, but AT&T in MA doesn't offer a complete Digital Cable box, they just aren't ready for it yet. In a move they made so they could keep up with DirectTV, they instead offer a bare-bones Digital Cable Box for the time being. The complete box(which you can look at online at the manufacurer), which hopefully will be distributed in the future contains all the fixings, including a Dolby Digital decoder!
The painful truth is that Linux consumers aren't your average consumer. They know more about how their computers work. They expect more. They're not taken in by the p.r. and the marketing as much as your average computer user.
You sir have just summed up the headline to the article in 4 sentences. Please explain to me how you intend on making the 99.9% of "average consumers" know more about their computers.
Face it, people *don't* want to know more about their computers! It's a box that does it's thing, like a TV or Microwave. People don't care how stuff gets to the screen they just want it there.
Your average consumer doesn't want to be running.conf files buried in the/usr/bin directory, they don't want to have to mount drives, they want plug-and-play in some form or another. Linux doesn't have anything resembling plug-and-play.
Ok maybe I'm being a tad naive, but in my experience, NOT EVERYONE IS A COMPUTER GEEK!
You could tell my sister, "this is an mp3" then play it. You could then tell her "this is an Ogg Vorbis file". Then play it. She's not going to say, "mp3 sucks... I like Ogg Vorbis because it's open source" because she has no concept of technology or computers outside of Windows booting and it allowing her to talk to her friends. I'm assuming neither do these people in the test group. She only cares what sounds good to her. If they all play through the same player(like winamp, which plays everything except Ogg Vorbis I believe) she never would know the difference because all the audio files are associated to Winamp.
While this may seem to most/. readers like a poor test because they(*gasp*) told the format to the people before hand, what you people don't understand is that most people have no concept of what those format names mean!
Also why did the listeners know what they where listening to. The comments should have been sample a sounded better then sample b not about which format sounded better.
I think that the person would want to know what they are listening to before the test. How can anyone trully judge something based on its merits if you don't have some baseline for opinion? If you know the piece, then you know the intricacies of the piece and how the instruments *should* sound together. Being a non-musician/musician I can assure you it doesn't take an audiophile/musician to notice the difference between encoding bit rates of mp3s with a decent set of headphones, as long as you're concentrating on the sound.
Besides, they did say which one sounded better...the Windows Audio format. Hence the recording encoded with that sounded best overall.
So I take it when *anything* goes wrong with these Linux Boxes that you propose to have in schools, the/. community or some Open Source/Free Software guy is going to be right there to troubleshoot it?
I really believe that this kind of thing is completely assinine. Teachers, at least in my area, don't know how to use anything except Apple IIe's! Even the *remotely* computer literate teachers know OS 9, and even a just a scant bit of Windows. How are you going to teach the teachers to monitor this?
With school budgets dwindling faster than VA Linux's stock price, teachers are being paid less and less. The lucky few who do make a fair amount aren't likely to give back $$ so that a Linux professional can be brought in to teach/admin the computers.
So/. is going to be Mr. Bigshot, drop 10 Linux workstations in an environment where no one will know how to use them, but they will be saved from Microsoft...Are you going to teach classes to the kids/teachers? No. Are you going to be the one to troubleshoot them when something happens? No. Unless you or anyone else can answer "YES" to any of the above, please can this idea of Forcing Linux into the schools, unless the Open Source/Free Software//. community is willing to pay out of their own pocket for these educators to come into the schools and do this.
Also, just out of curiosity, why are schools in fear of being audited? Schools are a business, should pirating be acceptable for them, and not other businesses? Also FYI there are only 50 WINDOWS total machines in all of my cities schools(40 of them are at the high school). The rest of the computers in town? Macs, Apples, Amigas, and a Huge AS/400 that is Broken.
Have you ever been to a computer show? or an event like E3?
I took a buddy to a show, and the first thing he said was "Jesus! What the hell is that smell!" Nothing makes me more sick, than to be leaning in to check out a price, then catching a wiff of some guy who smells like he hasn't showered for days.
If you really want to see geeks/hackers making a bad impression, try going to an E3. I have never seen so many guys who had bad hygene. The "booth babes" were doing their best to aviod the worst of the bunch. One girl I spoke to said she'd been hit on tons of times that day, and not one guy had good hygene! I wrote up a paper on my experience for my Graphics programming class. I'll post it if I find it.
What does this mean?
KDE features Konqueror, a state-of-the-art web browser, as an integrated component of its user-friendly desktop environment...
I thought integration == evil?
They really need to change the wording. I thought I was reading an announcement for the next release of Windows!
I don't mean this to be a troll, but isn't the point of Linux to buck trends? Isn't integration of products something Linux tries to avoid?
I second that argument, you anonymous coward. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I was discouraged when I attempted to program creatively in Windows. No one ever told me I couldn't develop or start my own business either.
Not all creativity exists only in free software or whatever you want to call it. Sure things have become stagnant as far as games and such, but that's because ideas that fly in the face of common ideas isn't widely accepted or revenue generating. People fear/don't want change. That's why we're stuck with hundreds of crappy Quake/Counter-Strike/Unreal/Doom clones in the FPS genre. Who wants to innovate when just simply being generic makes money?
So try to think about what's going on outside your little "free" world before making blanket and incorrect statements.
Well If you'd rather not watch any Television/cable/Dish whatsoever, I wouldn't say "fuck my company". My company is responsible for getting the ads/programming/content delivered from the companies to the distributors.
Ok. I'm versed in the field(not a layman), and it's complex. If other companies got ahold of this algorithm, it would level the playing field and we would no longer be the industry leader.
Patenting this is not stifling innovation, it's fostering innovation. You are taking the extreme stance of being a complete ass. "Should we allow patenting complex calculations too?! I think NOT." Everyone seems to jump completely over the edge when it comes to arguments here on/.
Ok, try this on. You create an industry wide revolution with an agorithm. You are the industry leader and making oodles of $$. Now since you have no patent on this algorithm, some competing company copies it(through some manner which is not theft so you can't sue), and now has completely leveled the playing field and you are back at square one.
The/. eutopian society where everyone shares and where companies don't try to make money and become powerful industry leaves, just doesn't and will never exist. Try getting out there in the real world and being in this situation...you'll change your tune.
Listen, I totally agree that most patents that are out there for software is completely bull$hit. But, what about those companies who have created such a complex algorithm for a product and have it coded in a product? I work for such a company(I really can't explain the algorithm that'd be a breach of contract). The product is based on an extremely fault-resilient algorithm for broadcasting encoded data.
This algorithm is patented, and I completely agree with it. I don't buy that by patenting certain things we're stifling innovation or hurting anyone. There are plenty of other companies still creating algorithms, it's just that ours is by far the most scalable and most creative(IMO). We're the industry leader in the market we're in, but by no means are we of M$ caliber.
But, as it's been said here on/. before, until the patent office wises up we're still going to see plenty of bull$hit patents corrupting people's views on patents in general.
First off I think that any training that doesn't directly pertain to the product you are actively working on should be done on your own time. If a project that you are working on requires Visual C++, you shouldn't be trying to get company-time training in Java/Perl/etc.
That said, my company offers $10,000 in tuition reimbursement + $200/year for textbooks. All I have to do is fill out a form, and as long as it's "in my field" I'm approved. I can take any course I want in my field, but on my own time.
My company is also pretty good at allowing for RTFM type training. I've recently been asked to do some Perl scripting(I'm a Python guy), so I asked them to buy me the O'Rielly books and I'd read them, instead of whining "I need training". Sure enough, the next day I walked into my cube and 3 O'Rielly Perl books were on my desk!(Learning Perl, Programming Perl, Perl Cookbook).
It all depends on the company I guess, I might have just been lucky with mine. Doesn't hurt that I took stock options over salary bonus, and subsequently I've made and extra $20,000 in the last 6 months instead of the paltry $5,000 signing bonus they offered:)
You actually think that "ReBOOTING WILL NOT FIX THE PROBLEM". I work in the software/cable/digital video industry, and more often that not, when something is "wonky", you have to reboot the hardware.
And yes...the documentation actually says to reboot the hardware as a Troubleshooting technique. I've read countless docs that indicate that as a mid to last resort reboot hardware.
But you have the attitude of every Linux/*nix/whatever except Windows user I work with(yes I'm a software guy too). I know everything about everything, I'll tell you how to do your job because I use Linux/*nix/whatever except Windows. Let the guys alone and let them figure it out, that's what they're paid to do.
The reason I'm coming down on this, is because I actually lost a previous job because I helped out a new Hardware guy that was in trouble. I did his job for him, and subsequently got fired.
The DVDs actually came out yesterday 6/19/01. I picked up the box set for $32. Good stuff. I too watched it as a kid, and I was really waiting for this. I just wish these things weren't so expensive. It's a friggin cartoon! Same with Star Blazers...I can't justify $25-$30 for 1 DVD for a few episodes of Cartoons. At least I'm getting 12 episodes of Robotech and a Bonus Disc in the box set.
I really don't know jack about Anime(I mostly ingore it), and it seems that I pretty much hate all the popular Anime films I've seen(Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Ninja Scroll, Princess Moanoke), I really have no basis for comparison to give anyone who doesn't know about Robotech(those people do exist) an informed opinion as to quality of this series versus other movies/TV progs, because I think most are pretty weak.
Could anyone recommend some Anime Titles? I was thinking of renting the Gundam titles and Cowboy Bebop, but outside of those none of the titles at my local store caught my eye.
I'm not saying that it wouldn't or doesn't look better, I know it does. I'm forever changing batteries in my Turbo Express and Sega Nomad, but Nintendo wants to make sure that the GBA can sustain battery life like the GB and GB Color did.
I completely agree that a little switch would be perfect(kinda like the ones some Palm Devices have).
Btw, you didn't come off sounding like an ass, just someone with a well thought out opinion. If you said "d00d y0u 5ucK a$$" then you would have sounded like an ass:)
Anyone remember why the GameBoy Advance isn't backlit?
Ah yes...battery consumption! Take a look at the Sega Game Gear(4 or 6 AA), Sega Nomad(6AA), Atari Lynx(4 AA plus a 6 D battery expansion pack), Turbo Express(6-8 AA I think and the best handheld ever). Those all had backlight displays! You also were only able to play a maximum of 4-8 hours depending on the system before the batteries were dead.
Now I don't know about any of you, but I'd rather pay $5 for a little clip on worm light for the system(which works quite well), and still have my 20 hours of gameplay on the GBA.
Hahaha... Their Stock options are in the toilet!!! HAHA all that is in the money are the PUTS!!! What a waste. That is why no Linux company(at the moment) should be public and trading on the market, there just isn't any money in trading Linux Stock.
This is really old news. I have a buddy that works QA at e-ink. He's been there almost two years and he says the thing is ok. If you've been to a few real trade shows you've probably seen the product. I saw it at a show about a year ago.
why is this funny? why is it clever? Is it because you mentioned Microsoft? I've had a crappy mobo work just as bad in Linux as it does in Windows. Or are you saying Linux can magically turn really crappy pieces of hardware into something special?
well if you guys would put your money where your mouth is you could have made a killing by buying the Puts on the Rambus Options or even just sold short on the stock. I've sold short on VALinux and I've made a killing. Linux stocks can keep drying up for all I care...I keep making more money.
This is a bad thing? If the Palm product was so great, then people wouldn't buy WinCE and PocketPC devices. I'm still kicking myself for buying a Palm IIIxe, what a piece. I should have sprung for the WinCE device, it's a better product. Someone said that the start button is a bad thing on the device...why? It's no different than having those shortcut buttons on the Palm.
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I'm pissed as hell that my box doesn't include S-Video, only coax and RCA. Why? I don't know. When will we be able to buy our own boxes with the features we want?
I don't know where you are, but AT&T in MA doesn't offer a complete Digital Cable box, they just aren't ready for it yet. In a move they made so they could keep up with DirectTV, they instead offer a bare-bones Digital Cable Box for the time being. The complete box(which you can look at online at the manufacurer), which hopefully will be distributed in the future contains all the fixings, including a Dolby Digital decoder!
Give it time, Rome wasn't built in a day.
The painful truth is that Linux consumers aren't your average consumer. They know more about how their computers work. They expect more. They're not taken in by the p.r. and the marketing as much as your average computer user.
.conf files buried in the /usr/bin directory, they don't want to have to mount drives, they want plug-and-play in some form or another. Linux doesn't have anything resembling plug-and-play.
You sir have just summed up the headline to the article in 4 sentences. Please explain to me how you intend on making the 99.9% of "average consumers" know more about their computers.
Face it, people *don't* want to know more about their computers! It's a box that does it's thing, like a TV or Microwave. People don't care how stuff gets to the screen they just want it there.
Your average consumer doesn't want to be running
Ok maybe I'm being a tad naive, but in my experience, NOT EVERYONE IS A COMPUTER GEEK!
/. readers like a poor test because they(*gasp*) told the format to the people before hand, what you people don't understand is that most people have no concept of what those format names mean!
You could tell my sister, "this is an mp3" then play it. You could then tell her "this is an Ogg Vorbis file". Then play it. She's not going to say, "mp3 sucks... I like Ogg Vorbis because it's open source" because she has no concept of technology or computers outside of Windows booting and it allowing her to talk to her friends. I'm assuming neither do these people in the test group. She only cares what sounds good to her. If they all play through the same player(like winamp, which plays everything except Ogg Vorbis I believe) she never would know the difference because all the audio files are associated to Winamp.
While this may seem to most
Don't be so obtuse...
Also why did the listeners know what they where listening to. The comments should have been sample a sounded better then sample b not about which format sounded better.
I think that the person would want to know what they are listening to before the test. How can anyone trully judge something based on its merits if you don't have some baseline for opinion? If you know the piece, then you know the intricacies of the piece and how the instruments *should* sound together. Being a non-musician/musician I can assure you it doesn't take an audiophile/musician to notice the difference between encoding bit rates of mp3s with a decent set of headphones, as long as you're concentrating on the sound.
Besides, they did say which one sounded better...the Windows Audio format. Hence the recording encoded with that sounded best overall.
So I take it when *anything* goes wrong with these Linux Boxes that you propose to have in schools, the /. community or some Open Source/Free Software guy is going to be right there to troubleshoot it?
/. is going to be Mr. Bigshot, drop 10 Linux workstations in an environment where no one will know how to use them, but they will be saved from Microsoft...Are you going to teach classes to the kids/teachers? No. Are you going to be the one to troubleshoot them when something happens? No. Unless you or anyone else can answer "YES" to any of the above, please can this idea of Forcing Linux into the schools, unless the Open Source/Free Software/ /. community is willing to pay out of their own pocket for these educators to come into the schools and do this.
I really believe that this kind of thing is completely assinine. Teachers, at least in my area, don't know how to use anything except Apple IIe's! Even the *remotely* computer literate teachers know OS 9, and even a just a scant bit of Windows. How are you going to teach the teachers to monitor this?
With school budgets dwindling faster than VA Linux's stock price, teachers are being paid less and less. The lucky few who do make a fair amount aren't likely to give back $$ so that a Linux professional can be brought in to teach/admin the computers.
So
Also, just out of curiosity, why are schools in fear of being audited? Schools are a business, should pirating be acceptable for them, and not other businesses? Also FYI there are only 50 WINDOWS total machines in all of my cities schools(40 of them are at the high school). The rest of the computers in town? Macs, Apples, Amigas, and a Huge AS/400 that is Broken.
Have you ever been to a computer show? or an event like E3?
I took a buddy to a show, and the first thing he said was "Jesus! What the hell is that smell!" Nothing makes me more sick, than to be leaning in to check out a price, then catching a wiff of some guy who smells like he hasn't showered for days.
If you really want to see geeks/hackers making a bad impression, try going to an E3. I have never seen so many guys who had bad hygene. The "booth babes" were doing their best to aviod the worst of the bunch. One girl I spoke to said she'd been hit on tons of times that day, and not one guy had good hygene! I wrote up a paper on my experience for my Graphics programming class. I'll post it if I find it.
What does this mean? KDE features Konqueror, a state-of-the-art web browser, as an integrated component of its user-friendly desktop environment... I thought integration == evil? They really need to change the wording. I thought I was reading an announcement for the next release of Windows! I don't mean this to be a troll, but isn't the point of Linux to buck trends? Isn't integration of products something Linux tries to avoid?
I second that argument, you anonymous coward. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I was discouraged when I attempted to program creatively in Windows. No one ever told me I couldn't develop or start my own business either.
Not all creativity exists only in free software or whatever you want to call it. Sure things have become stagnant as far as games and such, but that's because ideas that fly in the face of common ideas isn't widely accepted or revenue generating. People fear/don't want change. That's why we're stuck with hundreds of crappy Quake/Counter-Strike/Unreal/Doom clones in the FPS genre. Who wants to innovate when just simply being generic makes money?
So try to think about what's going on outside your little "free" world before making blanket and incorrect statements.
Well If you'd rather not watch any Television/cable/Dish whatsoever, I wouldn't say "fuck my company". My company is responsible for getting the ads/programming/content delivered from the companies to the distributors.
Ok. I'm versed in the field(not a layman), and it's complex. If other companies got ahold of this algorithm, it would level the playing field and we would no longer be the industry leader.
/.
/. eutopian society where everyone shares and where companies don't try to make money and become powerful industry leaves, just doesn't and will never exist. Try getting out there in the real world and being in this situation...you'll change your tune.
Patenting this is not stifling innovation, it's fostering innovation. You are taking the extreme stance of being a complete ass. "Should we allow patenting complex calculations too?! I think NOT." Everyone seems to jump completely over the edge when it comes to arguments here on
Ok, try this on. You create an industry wide revolution with an agorithm. You are the industry leader and making oodles of $$. Now since you have no patent on this algorithm, some competing company copies it(through some manner which is not theft so you can't sue), and now has completely leveled the playing field and you are back at square one.
The
Listen, I totally agree that most patents that are out there for software is completely bull$hit. But, what about those companies who have created such a complex algorithm for a product and have it coded in a product? I work for such a company(I really can't explain the algorithm that'd be a breach of contract). The product is based on an extremely fault-resilient algorithm for broadcasting encoded data.
/. before, until the patent office wises up we're still going to see plenty of bull$hit patents corrupting people's views on patents in general.
This algorithm is patented, and I completely agree with it. I don't buy that by patenting certain things we're stifling innovation or hurting anyone. There are plenty of other companies still creating algorithms, it's just that ours is by far the most scalable and most creative(IMO). We're the industry leader in the market we're in, but by no means are we of M$ caliber.
But, as it's been said here on
First off I think that any training that doesn't directly pertain to the product you are actively working on should be done on your own time. If a project that you are working on requires Visual C++, you shouldn't be trying to get company-time training in Java/Perl/etc.
:)
That said, my company offers $10,000 in tuition reimbursement + $200/year for textbooks. All I have to do is fill out a form, and as long as it's "in my field" I'm approved. I can take any course I want in my field, but on my own time.
My company is also pretty good at allowing for RTFM type training. I've recently been asked to do some Perl scripting(I'm a Python guy), so I asked them to buy me the O'Rielly books and I'd read them, instead of whining "I need training". Sure enough, the next day I walked into my cube and 3 O'Rielly Perl books were on my desk!(Learning Perl, Programming Perl, Perl Cookbook).
It all depends on the company I guess, I might have just been lucky with mine. Doesn't hurt that I took stock options over salary bonus, and subsequently I've made and extra $20,000 in the last 6 months instead of the paltry $5,000 signing bonus they offered
You actually think that "ReBOOTING WILL NOT FIX THE PROBLEM". I work in the software/cable/digital video industry, and more often that not, when something is "wonky", you have to reboot the hardware.
And yes...the documentation actually says to reboot the hardware as a Troubleshooting technique. I've read countless docs that indicate that as a mid to last resort reboot hardware.
But you have the attitude of every Linux/*nix/whatever except Windows user I work with(yes I'm a software guy too). I know everything about everything, I'll tell you how to do your job because I use Linux/*nix/whatever except Windows. Let the guys alone and let them figure it out, that's what they're paid to do.
The reason I'm coming down on this, is because I actually lost a previous job because I helped out a new Hardware guy that was in trouble. I did his job for him, and subsequently got fired.
note to self: Next time, salary, not options!
I don't know about you...but I've made oodles(at least $10,000) from my options and I've only been working at my current job for 6 months!
The better Note to self should have been...Learn something about the stock of the company before blindly accepting options.
Anyone that doesn't even bother looking at a stock report from time-to-time for the company they are working at is a moron.
The DVDs actually came out yesterday 6/19/01. I picked up the box set for $32. Good stuff. I too watched it as a kid, and I was really waiting for this. I just wish these things weren't so expensive. It's a friggin cartoon! Same with Star Blazers...I can't justify $25-$30 for 1 DVD for a few episodes of Cartoons. At least I'm getting 12 episodes of Robotech and a Bonus Disc in the box set.
I really don't know jack about Anime(I mostly ingore it), and it seems that I pretty much hate all the popular Anime films I've seen(Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Ninja Scroll, Princess Moanoke), I really have no basis for comparison to give anyone who doesn't know about Robotech(those people do exist) an informed opinion as to quality of this series versus other movies/TV progs, because I think most are pretty weak.
Could anyone recommend some Anime Titles? I was thinking of renting the Gundam titles and Cowboy Bebop, but outside of those none of the titles at my local store caught my eye.
I'm not saying that it wouldn't or doesn't look better, I know it does. I'm forever changing batteries in my Turbo Express and Sega Nomad, but Nintendo wants to make sure that the GBA can sustain battery life like the GB and GB Color did.
:)
I completely agree that a little switch would be perfect(kinda like the ones some Palm Devices have).
Btw, you didn't come off sounding like an ass, just someone with a well thought out opinion. If you said "d00d y0u 5ucK a$$" then you would have sounded like an ass
Anyone remember why the GameBoy Advance isn't backlit?
Ah yes...battery consumption! Take a look at the Sega Game Gear(4 or 6 AA), Sega Nomad(6AA), Atari Lynx(4 AA plus a 6 D battery expansion pack), Turbo Express(6-8 AA I think and the best handheld ever). Those all had backlight displays! You also were only able to play a maximum of 4-8 hours depending on the system before the batteries were dead.
Now I don't know about any of you, but I'd rather pay $5 for a little clip on worm light for the system(which works quite well), and still have my 20 hours of gameplay on the GBA.
What? I don't HAVE to install IIS. I can install any Web Server I want on my Windows Box.
HAHA stuff it all you Penguin lovin hippies!!! Closed source is here to stay!
Hahaha... Their Stock options are in the toilet!!! HAHA all that is in the money are the PUTS!!! What a waste. That is why no Linux company(at the moment) should be public and trading on the market, there just isn't any money in trading Linux Stock.
This is really old news. I have a buddy that works QA at e-ink. He's been there almost two years and he says the thing is ok. If you've been to a few real trade shows you've probably seen the product. I saw it at a show about a year ago.
why is this funny? why is it clever? Is it because you mentioned Microsoft? I've had a crappy mobo work just as bad in Linux as it does in Windows. Or are you saying Linux can magically turn really crappy pieces of hardware into something special?
well if you guys would put your money where your mouth is you could have made a killing by buying the Puts on the Rambus Options or even just sold short on the stock. I've sold short on VALinux and I've made a killing. Linux stocks can keep drying up for all I care...I keep making more money.
Just an FYI...
Dune 2 came out long before C&C, so C&C was essentially a Dune 2 ripoff.
This is a bad thing? If the Palm product was so great, then people wouldn't buy WinCE and PocketPC devices. I'm still kicking myself for buying a Palm IIIxe, what a piece. I should have sprung for the WinCE device, it's a better product. Someone said that the start button is a bad thing on the device...why? It's no different than having those shortcut buttons on the Palm.