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User: Kentamanos

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Comments · 138

  1. Re:hotmail on U.S. Spam Law to Take Effect Jan. 1 · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure of the reason either, but a hotmail account I have pretty much given up on (I posted to a development newsgroup once back when I was naive) seems like it might actually be usable again. I usually have around 100 pieces of spam a day, but everything I got today was from legitimate email subscriptions.

  2. Re:Guide Information on Building A Low-Budget TiVo Substitute? · · Score: 1

    Hopefully we won't have to resort to hosting US TV programming information in Sealand :).

    I don't think they're trying to monopolize it really, I think you just have to make it worth someone's time to give it away while somehow compensating for bandwidth if nothing else. Currently I guess they figure they're showing enough banner ads etc. to make it worthwhile. You could argue the whole P2P thing for some of the bandwidth issues, but someone has to "seed" it.

    The only people who REALLY want you to get the guide information is each individual channel. They want you to know what's on so you might watch. The problem then would be talking to 200 or so web services all with a different interface :).

  3. Re:Guide Information on Building A Low-Budget TiVo Substitute? · · Score: 1

    Well, if there were LOTS of people using XMLTV (if there was one person using it for every 10 Tivos for instance) in an automated manner, zap2it would really start to analyze who is using them and how. They'd then change the way they provide their information. It would require subscription with credentials or they'd do something like "please type in the code below" like free email registration systems currently use.

    So if you're currently using XMLTV and like the way it works, don't tell too many people ;). I'm not saying XMLTV isn't cool. If nothing else, they've created an XML format for TV listings that other services could easily create a plugin for at a later time. I just think if it got too popular it would stop being as reliable.

  4. Re:Guide Information on Building A Low-Budget TiVo Substitute? · · Score: 1

    The problem is that nobody will give away free TV listings out of the goodness of their heart (bandwidth etc.). They expect you to at least see a few ads. The only people that TRULY want you to know what's on TV is the various stations, and the chances of them all providing this service the same way is very slim.

    If something like XMLTV became really popular due to LOTS of people using it, I think the providers that are getting banged will intentionally:

    1 - Code their site to be hard to parse (and continue to change the output)
    2 - Start blocking IPs
    3 - Do something like free email account registration sites use (words "impossible" to OCR, etc.)

    I personally have owned a TIVO for over 3 years with a lifetime subscription, and I've never regretted buying the thing.

  5. Guide Information on Building A Low-Budget TiVo Substitute? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Isn't the biggest problem STILL programming guide information? Don't things like XMLTV use web sites that sometimes block IP's from using them?

  6. $6k?!!! on 2000 Year Old Roman d20 Up For Auction · · Score: 1

    $6k and you don't even get the crayons to fill in the etchings!? What a jip! :)

  7. Re:Why Family Guy? on Fox Considering a Return of "Family Guy" · · Score: 1

    I posted this in another thread, but maybe you'll like this equation better:

    Last X episodes of Family Guy > Last X episodes of The Simpsons

    Where X = Number of Family Guy episodes

  8. Re:Better Than The Simpsons? on Fox Considering a Return of "Family Guy" · · Score: 1

    You're right. When I stop and think about it, they are in the same episode. I've seen everything from Seasons 1-3, but apparently that one is fresh on the mind.

    I agree Simpsons are better over their respective lifetimes, but I'd take the last X number of Family Guy episoders over the last X number of Simpsons episodes where X = number of Family Guy episodes :).

  9. Re:Better Than The Simpsons? on Fox Considering a Return of "Family Guy" · · Score: 1

    Read the end of his comment. I'm pretty sure he was joking :).

  10. Re:Family Guy.. on Fox Considering a Return of "Family Guy" · · Score: 1

    Paraphrase I know...

    Lois: Brian and Greg Gumble are brothers.

    Peter: Just because they're black we can't learn from them?

  11. Re:Better Than The Simpsons? on Fox Considering a Return of "Family Guy" · · Score: 1

    On Rottentomatoes (movie website mainly), the discussion about Simpsons vs. Family Guy (and sometimes Southpark gets thrown in) comes up often.

    In the end, most rational people agree that the volume of work in the Simpsons gives it the edge. It's easy to forget the past.

    The writing in Southpark (especially the last couple of seaons) and the writing in Family Guy are superior to recent Simpsons activity though.

  12. Re:Better Than The Simpsons? on Fox Considering a Return of "Family Guy" · · Score: 5, Informative

    The show is very clever. Some of the things they parody are brilliant.

    Ever seen the episode where Stewie says "I know what it takes to be cool" and then imagines himself doing an Elton John "Rocket Man" spoken word exactly like the one William Shatner did?

    Ever seen the episode with the National Gun Association? They talk about how child gun safety is a top priority. They then show a video with a kid talking to a puppet gun (Petey the Pistol, I believe). Petey says he gets lonely and wants the kid to hold him. He also says "when you squeeze me, I make the bad people go away". Insanely funny...

    I know I'm not doing these two scenes in particular justice, but the show really is great. Find a friend who has the DVDs and give them a watch or check out the episodes on Adult Swim.

  13. Re:So hands up who bought it :-) on Fox Considering a Return of "Family Guy" · · Score: 1

    I bought Seasons 1-2, and Season 3.

    Damn funny show

  14. Re:remember the game defender? on Mail Server Flaw Opens MS Exchange to Spam · · Score: 1

    Doh! I couldn't quite remember and did a search for "Berzerker" first. Apparently I'm not the only one messing it up out there. Guess I should have checked both ;).

    The main thing I remember from that game is how annoying that bouncing smiley face was.

  15. Re:remember the game defender? on Mail Server Flaw Opens MS Exchange to Spam · · Score: 0

    That was Berzerker that said Intruder Alert.

  16. Kid tracking...Simpsons...I mean Southpark did it! on Small Supercomputer, XPC, Notebook, and Gaming Thingy · · Score: 1
  17. Re:Isn't it obvious? on Windows Program Enables MP3 Downloading From iTunes · · Score: 1

    Forget that last post. Their front page was a bit misleading...

  18. Re:Isn't it obvious? on Windows Program Enables MP3 Downloading From iTunes · · Score: 1

    This looks like a free one that does among other things the same thing:
    VDM Sound Project

  19. Re:Isn't it obvious? on Windows Program Enables MP3 Downloading From iTunes · · Score: 1

    Apparently, someone's trying to make a living selling among other things a "virtual sound driver" for Windows machines. It's a sound driver that is able to write the stream straight to the hard disk. I'm not recommending anyone buy it (since it seems pretty cheesy to me), but here's a link talking about it.

  20. Re:When lawyers present code in documents... on JBoss Queries Apache Geronimo Code Similarity · · Score: 1

    I assumed it wasn't, but I was too lazy to check :).

  21. Userfriendly cartoon bashing... on Belkin To Offer Firmware Fix For Router Hijacking · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sorry if everyone's seen it already, just saw someone post it on another messageboard I read.

    UserFriendly ad

  22. Re:When lawyers present code in documents... on JBoss Queries Apache Geronimo Code Similarity · · Score: 1

    You can't start an identifier with a copyright symbol, which was really the issue in this case.

  23. Re:When lawyers present code in documents... on JBoss Queries Apache Geronimo Code Similarity · · Score: 1

    While it doesn't Auto Correct a cut and paste (the most likely way it would have been added into a Word document), it does make the AutoCorrect if you "Auto Format" the text. I'm guessing they did that or some other formatting option that causes Auto Correct to fire off.

  24. Re:When lawyers present code in documents... on JBoss Queries Apache Geronimo Code Similarity · · Score: 1

    I hadn't thought of the OCR possibility. I'm guessing it's Word AutoCorrect though.

  25. Re:When lawyers present code in documents... on JBoss Queries Apache Geronimo Code Similarity · · Score: 1

    I putting my money on the fact that MS Word AutoCorrect reared its ugly head ;).