Yup, I've considered it - is why I mentioned it. Unfortunatly where I live the gorund is rock - they actually had to dynamite to run some sewer lines I'm told. We've got a HUGE quarry not too far away too. Given a choice I'll stick to gas for heat in the Winter, at least the air FEELS warm coming out of the register and I can bring the house from freezing cold dormant to comfortable fast - and have. The upstairs is the only one with a year round heat pump, so far so good.
My insulator offered a service where they would remove old insulation for say an attic or crawlspace - if it's blown in like an attic they use a vac to remove it and then spray. To meet code in my area they also had to blow insulation on top of the foam since we have a minimum thickness reg that doesn't take into consideration how well foam works.
I considered making my attic a controlled space, sealing it and spraying the ceiling. None of the builders I spoke to was very comfortable with this. They had concerns about roofing material issues since this drives temps up and moisture issues with the sealed space. I read a great number of studies including some done by the Govt. in Florida and elsewhere. Temps of the shingles DO go up measurably and there was some contention about having additional space to heat\cool. In the end I said screw it and had them spray foam on the attic flooring w\blown in on top and vent the attic, I used a tin roof. I may yet put foil covered foam board on the attic plywood but I'm not sure I really need much more insulation up there:-D
What I REALLY want is to find a cheap way to inspect my home with an IRDA camera like the RazIR. Sadly no cheap way to do this appears to exist - I feel certain I could find insulation leakage in my first floor if I used this.
Expansion is an issue even with the low expansion foams. Fishing out old insulation is often doable though so it's worth a shot. I actually went with the spray foam stuff while doing an upstairs addition and while the R value isn't shit hot the fact that NO drafts occur more than makes up for it. The house is quiet as a tomb and the wind can blow like mad with ZERO drafts. I'm looking into having this applied in my crawlspace now - possibly by me since it seems there are a few DIY options with this stuff. IMO foam is awesome but you really need to have access to open cavities to really do it right:-(
P.S. Figure foam will run you double what normal insulation runs.
Used primarily for bridging the gap between grid breakdown and backup startup from what I read in a recent HomePower. Flywheels are being used for short term(ish)storage apparently - this from a response to a letter to the editor of Homepower I read recently - no personal experience with it.
Deep Cycle batteries can be taken down to 20% and live and they do this far better than standard cells but it DOES shorten their life. peak to a solar installer who has experience with battery backed systems and you will be told not to discharge below 50%. That is from experience gained from using the batteries not from reading a manufacturer spec sheet. Someone who lives off-grid and ignores their battery bank is in big trouble. Deep discharge is one of the worst things you can do, that and overcharging. you might want to pick up a copy of HomePower magazine for information from users and contacts with installers vs reading the Wikipedia....
As I understand the problem - the outside temp is so low that the refrigerant cannot reclaim any heat from it at those temps yes? A possible solution to this is buried coils below the frost line, in an area that cold perhaps WAY below the frost line. Some folks already do this and it supposedly works well but I'd imagine it makes installation and troubleshooting much more expensive.
I've got a 2 zone system with gas downstairs and heat pump upstairs. I was pretty apprehensive about the heat pump having had nightmare experiences growing up where the damned things just never put out HEAT. I'll grant that we do not get super cold in my area, NOVA, but so far this new system is working out pretty well. Super insulating the upstairs (spray foam everywhere, Tyvek, rigid foil covered foam boards etc.) has helped I'm sure as does having gas heat rising from downstairs. The new heatpumps certainly seem much better, just glad I'm not 100% reliant on one though:-)
Is already being done. Microsoft and Google are also taking advantage of their rooftops and open spaces. There's a stadium somewhere that has also gone solar over their walkways and roofspace and is generating a huge amount of power when it sits mostly unused during the day. Pretty neat stuff IMO and I'd like to see solar charging stations for plug-in hybrids. For to and from work a plug-in would work well for my use.
Where are you sourcing your panels from? I'm at the point where I'd like to experiment some but am not yet ready for an array covering my roof. Down the line, particularly if this breakthrough is as cheap as they say, I'd like to run a decent sized grid-tied system. The sun in my area isn't as good as the West (Northern VA) but I've got a South facing roof and reasonable sun. Starting with a small panel to say charge a battery or try to take a portion of my office offgrid would be a good start in the learning curve. I learn as much as I can from Homepower magazine and sites like Otherpower but nothing beats hands on tinkering, the cheaper the better:-) A source for panels on the cheap would be valuable....
The saddest part is that every rabid foaming at the mouth Microsoft basher quotes his silly paper as if it were handed down from God. They cannot be bothered to absorb other sources of input, like from folks using the software in forums like Doom9 or AVS, and simply parrot back Gutmann whenever they are told they are wrong. If someone writes something bashing Microsoft it's automatically trusted and disseminated as gospel and anything that doesn't sit with that world view is ignored. It really is pretty sad that folks cannot at least have *some* objectivity! Saddest of all is that when this kind of discussion comes up I end up having to support Microsoft from the foaming ones when in fact I can readily agree that they have done some pretty bad\stupid stuff in the past. But I will not let FUD pass by ignored when the facts are easily found out with a little independent research.
CableCard... Google can probably give a better explanation but in a nutshell it's a device designed to replace set top boxes for cable video systems here in the States. The FCC mandated that cable systems do away with the STB and provide consumers a way to interface video with computers (as I understand it). Sadly the providers simply took this mandate and turned it into yet another way to screw the consumer. It seems that in order to actually USE a CableCard device the hardware must be "certified" which in the case of XP's Media Center they deemed the OS "too insecure" to protect their precious "content". Thus Vista, which has been certified, got a ton of protections and DRM crap added to it (CableCard only partially to blame IMO). A bonus being that if you want to run CableCard with Vista the entire SYSTEM must be purchased and it's configuration "certified" - we will not be able to build our own systems using this hardware apparently. The cable guy who comes out to give you your CableCard must VERIFY the silly box is "authorized" and there's a multi-step convoluted handshake process that the head-end must authorize in order to get the silly thing to work. Needless to say this has also proven fragile
Anyway, if you want to read a horror story read up on this newest pile of dung foisted on us. Microsoft wanted badly to have it's previous OS work with this hardware and was denied. They want to rule the living room and as such are doing backflips to appease the providers, it's sad.
Okay, I'll feed the troll. Yeah, Gutmann is full of crap in much of what he wrote and Ed is actually right on much of what he says. Yeah he devoted a page to large monitors but that was simply to point out that Gutmann did JACK for research and has zero experience with the OS he's bashing.
Is there a DRM subsystem in Vista? Yeah, and Microsoft said so from the word Go. They had to put it in there in order to satisfy the "content providers". CableCard wasn't allowed on XP because such a subsystem wasn't there "too insecure". HD content from BluRay and HD-DVD wanted it too and the restrcitions levied on MS are the SAME as on the hardware players. Microsoft could've said no but in case no one has noticed they are going after the living room market and saying no to some of the leading media technologies would've been suicidal in that endeavor. So, they caved.
Signing drivers, I am surprised that no one here has mentioned it and that Ed didn't say anything but... I've seen unsigned drivers loaded (video in this case) on 64bit Vista. It warns with a red box and then allows the loading - no reg hacking was done. Yeah MS made a huge deal out of this but it appears to allow them anyway. Getting a cert is also not a big deal - as he pointed out. Why are folks so against signed drivers? Is it so much to ask for the provider of the drivers that will run at such a low level on a system to at least have *some* attribution? You'd think people would see this as a good thing so long as Microsoft cannot use it to choke competitors and as it stands that doesn't seem to be the case. Why is this security feature such a boogie man?
HDMI on the 360 - many folks want that interface, yes to even play games! Guess what, they ARE providing a cable to allow HDMI on older boxes - right from Microsoft. So far as I can tell it's straight hardware too. http://www.xbox.com/en-ushardware/x/xbox360hdmiavcable/default.htm There are 3rd parties gearing up to release hardware like this as well. Wow, MS sure is sticking it to us for HDMI huh? Not sure what this has to do with Vista though. The HD-DVD drive works in Vista when removed from it's case and properly hooked up, Microsoft never intended that but wow it works. Works well too as many on the Doom9 forums can attest. What's the beef?
Polling. The first time I read Gutmann go on and on about 30 polls a second killing performance I nearly fell out of my chair with laughter. I never bothered to do the math but it was pointedly obvious to me that any machine capable of HD playback was going to laugh at the overhead he was moaning about. To read Gutmann's paper you'd think no one would ever be able to get HD working on Vista because of this. And yet it seems very few people are having the issues he screamed about. I guess if Gutmann had bothered to actually USE the software he was bitching about he'd know he was off in the weeds. Want a laugh? Gutmann mentions a specific error message that he claims hoards of people are getting when using Vista with HD media, something about not having a proper path I think it was - he was pretty specific but I cannot find hi "suicide" paper on his site to quote it. I Googled it after reading his paper the first time and the ONLY links to that error message I found were excerpts from his silly "paper"! Nothing on the AVS forums, Doom9, nowhere did I find people screaming about this error that he claimed was so prevalent. How is it that so many people are reading Gutmann's FUD and swallowing it so readily when something as simple as a Google search like I did can debunk some of his claims? Bottom line for me when it comes to this DRM crap - if I put in an HD DVD or some sort, load the proper software, and push play do I get video\audio? If the answer is yes then the silly system could be dancing on it's head for all I care, the mission is accomplished. To read that stupid FUD filled whitepaper you'd think such an operation is impossible with Vista and yet it's not and
Yeah, there's that too. Put up old shows, hell keep the OLD commercials, and let folks DL them. Use Torrent so the bandwidth is less of a burden - I'd still share. There's LOTS of old shows i'd like to see and I too have been asked about them. Carol Burnette is an awesome example - I'd watch it too!
Easier than that - cement patio block. Drill holes, put in anchors, bolt it down. Had one on my porch for 5 years now and it cannot even be seen behind my railing. Just don't stand in front of it or you lose signal. lol
I TIVO most stuff and skip past the commercials unless they look interesting. If I miss something or learn about a new show after it's started (Flash Gordon, Saving Grace, Burn Notice, Robin Hood all found out about after they started) then I download it and setup a season pass to get the new ones. Yup, Torrent has no commercials but if the studios offered Torrents of these shows WITH commercials in something that wasn't DRM'd then I'd watch them just like I do TIVO. If the commercial sux blip blip blip and if it doesn't or I forget then I see the commercial and ponder the product. I have an aTV too and I'm working to hack it into an HD version of my XBMC'd XBOX - sorry but paying for something I could just as easily have recorded is nutz to me. Put it out there with commercials for free and you've at least got a fighting chance that I'll see the commercial....
Last time I checked there was actually a documentary segment filmed during shooting that showed the bus indeed flying the 50 ft required to clear the CGI gap. In the movie the highway ramp was on an upwards slope and in reality they used a ramp to help launch the bus. I have little doubt they did calculations more advanced than your's and in the end actually overachieved as the bus flew out of frame in height. They also documented the distance the bus flew but I don't have that info offhand - it was at least 50 ft.
Google is your friend should you wish to learn more. Wikipedia has some info but I'm sure there are more detailed sources as this was a pretty spectacular stunt.
Sorry no he wasn't on the roof - that would be one of the worst places to be should it roll!
The bus was driven from about midway back in the passenger compartment - a dummy was in the bus driver's seat. The driver steered it electrically somehow. The stunt driver was suspended in a harness that allowed him to free float with the notion that should bad things happen this would help keep him safe. There was indeed a rollbar of sorts around him and he wore a helmet. It was done in one take and the bus actually flew much higher than expected - out of the frame which in the end didn't matter so much - there were multiple high speed cameras running. The bus launched from a ramp and I too do not recall the launch speed, on landing the front suspension collapsed and the oil pan was taken out. Surprisingly, to me, the windows stayed intact and it was brought to a controlled stop.
The movie was on the other day as was the special talking about how they did the stunt - was pretty interesting to watch (again). And also amusing that now someone is acting like it didn't actually make the jump to make a point about science when in fact it did jump - it just had a ramp to help is all.:-)
This is sort of being done today. The copper was exclusive but then 3rd parties were allowed in - think COVAD etc. The Telcos were most pissed when this occurred and slowed fiber rollouts to a crawl until they could get lock-ins for the fiber. That achieved they are now rolling FIOS out like mad. Guess what they are doing to the copper? They have ceased preventitive maintenance on the copper infrastructure! They are allowing the copper to rot, they are also tearing down some of the copper stuff at homes as they install the fiber. Local Govts in my area are only just now waking up to the fact that Verizon has laid off the guys responsible for trimming trees and whatnot. The public paid for a goodly chunk of that and now they are letting it fall apart while they have a lockdown on fiber. Their apparent goal, per a friend who told me about this before the local Govt's noticed (and works for Verizon), is to move as many as possible to fiber and when it's about worth crap lease it to the variosu 3rd parties.
Soo... what we seem to have is just what you described. They were given a limited monopoly and then others were allowed in for fees. You see how well that's working out....:-(
Lies indeed. The gentleman from Doom9 who first decrypted HD-DVD did it because his hardware wasn't complaint. When he was done he was able to watch full rez HD-DVD using his original hardware and Vista. Vista does *not* somehow magically that the resolution is too high and downrez. Guttman is full of crap and you've simply swallowed it hook line and sinker. Here's a fun one for you - the error he claims users will see, try Googling it. How come all the hits are on his paper and not screaming consumers? Big problem huh?
Huh? How exactly did Microsoft cause this? Blame the "content providers" if you want to blame someone. Microsoft followed the specs handed to them by the content providers to play back their stuff. Cablecard is a good example too - Microsoft wanted this working on XP and were denied, told it wasn't secure enough. So they loaded up Vista to comply.
Argue all you want that Microsoft shouldn't have done these things but as a company they wanted the sales that would result from being capable of playing these formats.
Umm, does Vista "natively" support XVID? No? Oh well load a CODEC then. H.264? Load a CODEC if it's not "native"! Who cares if it's not supported right out of the box exactly, why is that a big deal? Did you notice the article you linked regarding the non-support was written before VISTA even shipped?
As for Vegas if you'll scroll up just a bit there's a gentleman claiming no issues with Vista who specifically mentions using Vegas to do his mixing professionally....
Go read his first paper - the suicide one. He claims that high rez video, no specific codec, will be degraded as it will somehow be magically detected. He says it will look like an old analog TV or words to that effect. Clearly this is NOT the case. This last fluff piece was no more accurate than his original cry of Wolf and that anyone is taking him seriously is a shock. What he says resonates with those who love to hate Microsoft so it's swallowed but if you spend some time researching it you have to wonder where he's coming up with this stuff.
Yeah, HD-DVD and Bluay will downrez due to DRM but if you strip the DRM and use a properly player Vista won't touch it. Yes, there are some players that will apparently downrez no matter what as their programmers were apparentyl afraid of being sued. Blame the content industry and the companies who made the players not the OS for that bit of stupidity. Want to bet that VLC will play these formats just fine once they are supported?
Google the error message he claims is such an issue. Hits will include his paper and.... wow mostly just his paper. Must be a huge issue with the handycam folks huh? His first paper was equally laughable too IMO.
Look, I'm no DRM lover and Microsoft isn't my fave but WTF is with this guy? Take an HD-DVD, decode it, play it back. Wow, surprise it PLAYS! In fact it plays at full resolution. According to this guy it won't and if it does it will look like it's being played on an old tube TV - except it doesn't. The very first guy to break HD-DVD did it because his system wasn't DRM compliant and refused to play his legally purchased media - as documented on Doom9 months ago. Gee, remove the DRM and it worked fine and still this guy keeps insisting that Vista won't play back high quality video. I call Bullshit! $100 dollar video cards outperforming $900 video cards? Is no one fact checking this guy? Odd, I know folks who have been running Vista, 64bit at that, who haven't seen ANY of the issues that this guy bitches and moans about. These folks DL HD content and play it with zero issues but to hear this guy that's simply not possible - what's he smoking?
Has anyone who's shot HD video with a camcorder seen the errors he's claiming? Tracked them down? What consumer camcorder supports ICT? Why in this world would it support ICT? ICT is what tells Vista and other devices to protect apparently and if it's not turned on Vista doesn't do anything. Where this guy got the idea that Vista would arbitrarily protect video just because it's a high rez is beyond me. If that were the case wouldn't it also try to protect all of the other various CODECS out there?
BTW how come when I search this mystery error message about OPM resolution being too high I get a zillion hits on his paper but nothing from users screaming from the rooftops? Does it strike anyone else as weird that he seems to be the ONLY one complaining about this? If it's such an issue then finding users screaming shouldn't be a problem. Seems like every other bizarre error I've entered into Google has found others with the problem so why not this error?
As much as it is fun to bash Microsoft this guy doesn't even pass the giggle test....
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Yup, I've considered it - is why I mentioned it. Unfortunatly where I live the gorund is rock - they actually had to dynamite to run some sewer lines I'm told. We've got a HUGE quarry not too far away too. Given a choice I'll stick to gas for heat in the Winter, at least the air FEELS warm coming out of the register and I can bring the house from freezing cold dormant to comfortable fast - and have. The upstairs is the only one with a year round heat pump, so far so good.
Thanks! I had actually heard of the Harbor Freight panels but had forgotten and there's actually a HF store near me - kewl!
My insulator offered a service where they would remove old insulation for say an attic or crawlspace - if it's blown in like an attic they use a vac to remove it and then spray. To meet code in my area they also had to blow insulation on top of the foam since we have a minimum thickness reg that doesn't take into consideration how well foam works.
:-D
I considered making my attic a controlled space, sealing it and spraying the ceiling. None of the builders I spoke to was very comfortable with this. They had concerns about roofing material issues since this drives temps up and moisture issues with the sealed space. I read a great number of studies including some done by the Govt. in Florida and elsewhere. Temps of the shingles DO go up measurably and there was some contention about having additional space to heat\cool. In the end I said screw it and had them spray foam on the attic flooring w\blown in on top and vent the attic, I used a tin roof. I may yet put foil covered foam board on the attic plywood but I'm not sure I really need much more insulation up there
What I REALLY want is to find a cheap way to inspect my home with an IRDA camera like the RazIR. Sadly no cheap way to do this appears to exist - I feel certain I could find insulation leakage in my first floor if I used this.
Expansion is an issue even with the low expansion foams. Fishing out old insulation is often doable though so it's worth a shot. I actually went with the spray foam stuff while doing an upstairs addition and while the R value isn't shit hot the fact that NO drafts occur more than makes up for it. The house is quiet as a tomb and the wind can blow like mad with ZERO drafts. I'm looking into having this applied in my crawlspace now - possibly by me since it seems there are a few DIY options with this stuff. IMO foam is awesome but you really need to have access to open cavities to really do it right :-(
P.S. Figure foam will run you double what normal insulation runs.
Used primarily for bridging the gap between grid breakdown and backup startup from what I read in a recent HomePower. Flywheels are being used for short term(ish)storage apparently - this from a response to a letter to the editor of Homepower I read recently - no personal experience with it.
Deep Cycle batteries can be taken down to 20% and live and they do this far better than standard cells but it DOES shorten their life. peak to a solar installer who has experience with battery backed systems and you will be told not to discharge below 50%. That is from experience gained from using the batteries not from reading a manufacturer spec sheet. Someone who lives off-grid and ignores their battery bank is in big trouble. Deep discharge is one of the worst things you can do, that and overcharging. you might want to pick up a copy of HomePower magazine for information from users and contacts with installers vs reading the Wikipedia....
As I understand the problem - the outside temp is so low that the refrigerant cannot reclaim any heat from it at those temps yes? A possible solution to this is buried coils below the frost line, in an area that cold perhaps WAY below the frost line. Some folks already do this and it supposedly works well but I'd imagine it makes installation and troubleshooting much more expensive.
:-)
I've got a 2 zone system with gas downstairs and heat pump upstairs. I was pretty apprehensive about the heat pump having had nightmare experiences growing up where the damned things just never put out HEAT. I'll grant that we do not get super cold in my area, NOVA, but so far this new system is working out pretty well. Super insulating the upstairs (spray foam everywhere, Tyvek, rigid foil covered foam boards etc.) has helped I'm sure as does having gas heat rising from downstairs. The new heatpumps certainly seem much better, just glad I'm not 100% reliant on one though
Like this? http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/07/kyocera_solar_g.html
Is already being done. Microsoft and Google are also taking advantage of their rooftops and open spaces. There's a stadium somewhere that has also gone solar over their walkways and roofspace and is generating a huge amount of power when it sits mostly unused during the day. Pretty neat stuff IMO and I'd like to see solar charging stations for plug-in hybrids. For to and from work a plug-in would work well for my use.
Where are you sourcing your panels from? I'm at the point where I'd like to experiment some but am not yet ready for an array covering my roof. Down the line, particularly if this breakthrough is as cheap as they say, I'd like to run a decent sized grid-tied system. The sun in my area isn't as good as the West (Northern VA) but I've got a South facing roof and reasonable sun. Starting with a small panel to say charge a battery or try to take a portion of my office offgrid would be a good start in the learning curve. I learn as much as I can from Homepower magazine and sites like Otherpower but nothing beats hands on tinkering, the cheaper the better :-) A source for panels on the cheap would be valuable....
The saddest part is that every rabid foaming at the mouth Microsoft basher quotes his silly paper as if it were handed down from God. They cannot be bothered to absorb other sources of input, like from folks using the software in forums like Doom9 or AVS, and simply parrot back Gutmann whenever they are told they are wrong. If someone writes something bashing Microsoft it's automatically trusted and disseminated as gospel and anything that doesn't sit with that world view is ignored. It really is pretty sad that folks cannot at least have *some* objectivity! Saddest of all is that when this kind of discussion comes up I end up having to support Microsoft from the foaming ones when in fact I can readily agree that they have done some pretty bad\stupid stuff in the past. But I will not let FUD pass by ignored when the facts are easily found out with a little independent research.
CableCard... Google can probably give a better explanation but in a nutshell it's a device designed to replace set top boxes for cable video systems here in the States. The FCC mandated that cable systems do away with the STB and provide consumers a way to interface video with computers (as I understand it). Sadly the providers simply took this mandate and turned it into yet another way to screw the consumer. It seems that in order to actually USE a CableCard device the hardware must be "certified" which in the case of XP's Media Center they deemed the OS "too insecure" to protect their precious "content". Thus Vista, which has been certified, got a ton of protections and DRM crap added to it (CableCard only partially to blame IMO). A bonus being that if you want to run CableCard with Vista the entire SYSTEM must be purchased and it's configuration "certified" - we will not be able to build our own systems using this hardware apparently. The cable guy who comes out to give you your CableCard must VERIFY the silly box is "authorized" and there's a multi-step convoluted handshake process that the head-end must authorize in order to get the silly thing to work. Needless to say this has also proven fragile
Anyway, if you want to read a horror story read up on this newest pile of dung foisted on us. Microsoft wanted badly to have it's previous OS work with this hardware and was denied. They want to rule the living room and as such are doing backflips to appease the providers, it's sad.
Okay, I'll feed the troll. Yeah, Gutmann is full of crap in much of what he wrote and Ed is actually right on much of what he says. Yeah he devoted a page to large monitors but that was simply to point out that Gutmann did JACK for research and has zero experience with the OS he's bashing.
Is there a DRM subsystem in Vista? Yeah, and Microsoft said so from the word Go. They had to put it in there in order to satisfy the "content providers". CableCard wasn't allowed on XP because such a subsystem wasn't there "too insecure". HD content from BluRay and HD-DVD wanted it too and the restrcitions levied on MS are the SAME as on the hardware players. Microsoft could've said no but in case no one has noticed they are going after the living room market and saying no to some of the leading media technologies would've been suicidal in that endeavor. So, they caved.
Signing drivers, I am surprised that no one here has mentioned it and that Ed didn't say anything but... I've seen unsigned drivers loaded (video in this case) on 64bit Vista. It warns with a red box and then allows the loading - no reg hacking was done. Yeah MS made a huge deal out of this but it appears to allow them anyway. Getting a cert is also not a big deal - as he pointed out. Why are folks so against signed drivers? Is it so much to ask for the provider of the drivers that will run at such a low level on a system to at least have *some* attribution? You'd think people would see this as a good thing so long as Microsoft cannot use it to choke competitors and as it stands that doesn't seem to be the case. Why is this security feature such a boogie man?
HDMI on the 360 - many folks want that interface, yes to even play games! Guess what, they ARE providing a cable to allow HDMI on older boxes - right from Microsoft. So far as I can tell it's straight hardware too. http://www.xbox.com/en-ushardware/x/xbox360hdmiavcable/default.htm There are 3rd parties gearing up to release hardware like this as well. Wow, MS sure is sticking it to us for HDMI huh? Not sure what this has to do with Vista though. The HD-DVD drive works in Vista when removed from it's case and properly hooked up, Microsoft never intended that but wow it works. Works well too as many on the Doom9 forums can attest. What's the beef?
Polling. The first time I read Gutmann go on and on about 30 polls a second killing performance I nearly fell out of my chair with laughter. I never bothered to do the math but it was pointedly obvious to me that any machine capable of HD playback was going to laugh at the overhead he was moaning about. To read Gutmann's paper you'd think no one would ever be able to get HD working on Vista because of this. And yet it seems very few people are having the issues he screamed about. I guess if Gutmann had bothered to actually USE the software he was bitching about he'd know he was off in the weeds. Want a laugh? Gutmann mentions a specific error message that he claims hoards of people are getting when using Vista with HD media, something about not having a proper path I think it was - he was pretty specific but I cannot find hi "suicide" paper on his site to quote it. I Googled it after reading his paper the first time and the ONLY links to that error message I found were excerpts from his silly "paper"! Nothing on the AVS forums, Doom9, nowhere did I find people screaming about this error that he claimed was so prevalent. How is it that so many people are reading Gutmann's FUD and swallowing it so readily when something as simple as a Google search like I did can debunk some of his claims? Bottom line for me when it comes to this DRM crap - if I put in an HD DVD or some sort, load the proper software, and push play do I get video\audio? If the answer is yes then the silly system could be dancing on it's head for all I care, the mission is accomplished. To read that stupid FUD filled whitepaper you'd think such an operation is impossible with Vista and yet it's not and
Yeah, there's that too. Put up old shows, hell keep the OLD commercials, and let folks DL them. Use Torrent so the bandwidth is less of a burden - I'd still share. There's LOTS of old shows i'd like to see and I too have been asked about them. Carol Burnette is an awesome example - I'd watch it too!
Easier than that - cement patio block. Drill holes, put in anchors, bolt it down. Had one on my porch for 5 years now and it cannot even be seen behind my railing. Just don't stand in front of it or you lose signal. lol
I TIVO most stuff and skip past the commercials unless they look interesting. If I miss something or learn about a new show after it's started (Flash Gordon, Saving Grace, Burn Notice, Robin Hood all found out about after they started) then I download it and setup a season pass to get the new ones. Yup, Torrent has no commercials but if the studios offered Torrents of these shows WITH commercials in something that wasn't DRM'd then I'd watch them just like I do TIVO. If the commercial sux blip blip blip and if it doesn't or I forget then I see the commercial and ponder the product. I have an aTV too and I'm working to hack it into an HD version of my XBMC'd XBOX - sorry but paying for something I could just as easily have recorded is nutz to me. Put it out there with commercials for free and you've at least got a fighting chance that I'll see the commercial....
Meh, makes too much sense for them to do it!
Last time I checked there was actually a documentary segment filmed during shooting that showed the bus indeed flying the 50 ft required to clear the CGI gap. In the movie the highway ramp was on an upwards slope and in reality they used a ramp to help launch the bus. I have little doubt they did calculations more advanced than your's and in the end actually overachieved as the bus flew out of frame in height. They also documented the distance the bus flew but I don't have that info offhand - it was at least 50 ft.
Google is your friend should you wish to learn more. Wikipedia has some info but I'm sure there are more detailed sources as this was a pretty spectacular stunt.
Sorry no he wasn't on the roof - that would be one of the worst places to be should it roll!
:-)
The bus was driven from about midway back in the passenger compartment - a dummy was in the bus driver's seat. The driver steered it electrically somehow. The stunt driver was suspended in a harness that allowed him to free float with the notion that should bad things happen this would help keep him safe. There was indeed a rollbar of sorts around him and he wore a helmet. It was done in one take and the bus actually flew much higher than expected - out of the frame which in the end didn't matter so much - there were multiple high speed cameras running. The bus launched from a ramp and I too do not recall the launch speed, on landing the front suspension collapsed and the oil pan was taken out. Surprisingly, to me, the windows stayed intact and it was brought to a controlled stop.
The movie was on the other day as was the special talking about how they did the stunt - was pretty interesting to watch (again). And also amusing that now someone is acting like it didn't actually make the jump to make a point about science when in fact it did jump - it just had a ramp to help is all.
This is sort of being done today. The copper was exclusive but then 3rd parties were allowed in - think COVAD etc. The Telcos were most pissed when this occurred and slowed fiber rollouts to a crawl until they could get lock-ins for the fiber. That achieved they are now rolling FIOS out like mad. Guess what they are doing to the copper? They have ceased preventitive maintenance on the copper infrastructure! They are allowing the copper to rot, they are also tearing down some of the copper stuff at homes as they install the fiber. Local Govts in my area are only just now waking up to the fact that Verizon has laid off the guys responsible for trimming trees and whatnot. The public paid for a goodly chunk of that and now they are letting it fall apart while they have a lockdown on fiber. Their apparent goal, per a friend who told me about this before the local Govt's noticed (and works for Verizon), is to move as many as possible to fiber and when it's about worth crap lease it to the variosu 3rd parties.
:-(
Soo... what we seem to have is just what you described. They were given a limited monopoly and then others were allowed in for fees. You see how well that's working out....
Paid shill? Need to loosen that tinfoil there bud and perhaps engage a little common sense. GL with that...
Lies indeed. The gentleman from Doom9 who first decrypted HD-DVD did it because his hardware wasn't complaint. When he was done he was able to watch full rez HD-DVD using his original hardware and Vista. Vista does *not* somehow magically that the resolution is too high and downrez. Guttman is full of crap and you've simply swallowed it hook line and sinker. Here's a fun one for you - the error he claims users will see, try Googling it. How come all the hits are on his paper and not screaming consumers? Big problem huh?
Huh? How exactly did Microsoft cause this? Blame the "content providers" if you want to blame someone. Microsoft followed the specs handed to them by the content providers to play back their stuff. Cablecard is a good example too - Microsoft wanted this working on XP and were denied, told it wasn't secure enough. So they loaded up Vista to comply.
Argue all you want that Microsoft shouldn't have done these things but as a company they wanted the sales that would result from being capable of playing these formats.
Umm, does Vista "natively" support XVID? No? Oh well load a CODEC then. H.264? Load a CODEC if it's not "native"! Who cares if it's not supported right out of the box exactly, why is that a big deal? Did you notice the article you linked regarding the non-support was written before VISTA even shipped?
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As for Vegas if you'll scroll up just a bit there's a gentleman claiming no issues with Vista who specifically mentions using Vegas to do his mixing professionally....
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=267865&cid
Go read his first paper - the suicide one. He claims that high rez video, no specific codec, will be degraded as it will somehow be magically detected. He says it will look like an old analog TV or words to that effect. Clearly this is NOT the case. This last fluff piece was no more accurate than his original cry of Wolf and that anyone is taking him seriously is a shock. What he says resonates with those who love to hate Microsoft so it's swallowed but if you spend some time researching it you have to wonder where he's coming up with this stuff.
Yeah, HD-DVD and Bluay will downrez due to DRM but if you strip the DRM and use a properly player Vista won't touch it. Yes, there are some players that will apparently downrez no matter what as their programmers were apparentyl afraid of being sued. Blame the content industry and the companies who made the players not the OS for that bit of stupidity. Want to bet that VLC will play these formats just fine once they are supported?
Google the error message he claims is such an issue. Hits will include his paper and.... wow mostly just his paper. Must be a huge issue with the handycam folks huh? His first paper was equally laughable too IMO.
Look, I'm no DRM lover and Microsoft isn't my fave but WTF is with this guy? Take an HD-DVD, decode it, play it back. Wow, surprise it PLAYS! In fact it plays at full resolution. According to this guy it won't and if it does it will look like it's being played on an old tube TV - except it doesn't. The very first guy to break HD-DVD did it because his system wasn't DRM compliant and refused to play his legally purchased media - as documented on Doom9 months ago. Gee, remove the DRM and it worked fine and still this guy keeps insisting that Vista won't play back high quality video. I call Bullshit! $100 dollar video cards outperforming $900 video cards? Is no one fact checking this guy? Odd, I know folks who have been running Vista, 64bit at that, who haven't seen ANY of the issues that this guy bitches and moans about. These folks DL HD content and play it with zero issues but to hear this guy that's simply not possible - what's he smoking?
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Has anyone who's shot HD video with a camcorder seen the errors he's claiming? Tracked them down? What consumer camcorder supports ICT? Why in this world would it support ICT? ICT is what tells Vista and other devices to protect apparently and if it's not turned on Vista doesn't do anything. Where this guy got the idea that Vista would arbitrarily protect video just because it's a high rez is beyond me. If that were the case wouldn't it also try to protect all of the other various CODECS out there?
Some discussions on AVS about this -> http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=8
BTW how come when I search this mystery error message about OPM resolution being too high I get a zillion hits on his paper but nothing from users screaming from the rooftops? Does it strike anyone else as weird that he seems to be the ONLY one complaining about this? If it's such an issue then finding users screaming shouldn't be a problem. Seems like every other bizarre error I've entered into Google has found others with the problem so why not this error?
As much as it is fun to bash Microsoft this guy doesn't even pass the giggle test....