[problems with pronto] There's firmware updates for the Pronto models that solve the problems you describe.
it's not any faster than picking up a regular remote and hitting the button
I've had my ProntoPro for a few weeks now and can say it's much faster than using the regular remotes. My setup includes HDTV, surround sound receiver, cable, DVD, Laser disk, PS2, and SVHS deck. What makes it faster than normal remotes is the macros you can program - you can set up a single button to control all your equipment.
For example, I have mine set up so that hitting the HDTV button will power on the TV, receiver & cable box, switch the TV & receiver to the HD inputs, and finally change the display to show 9 channel logos for the HD stations I receive. Pressing a single logo and the 3 digit channel code is sent to the cable box. - So to watch any HD show I only have to grab a single remote and press 2 buttons.
Prior to that I had to dig the TV remote out of the stack, turn it on, swith it's input, dig the receiver remote out of the stack, turn it on, switch it's input, and finally dig the cable remote out, turn it on and enter the channel number.
A major benefit is that my mom(currently visiting) can work my TV without calling me at work:-)
Atari 2600 games often had numerous game variations, such as Space Invaders which had 112 different combinations of visible/invisible aliens, slow/fast missles, various 2 player options, etc.
For Adventure there where 3 difficulty levels: 1 - smaller map - only the blue maze, gold and black castles 2 - full map - all items started in a preset location(though the bat would move things around during game play) 3 - full map - all items started in random locations
This bit of the article has a rather interesting point -
Then last year, the Washington State Supreme Court upheld the law, finding that the only burden the rule "places on spammers is the requirement of truthfulness."
All cellphone numbers start with 07. Other ranges of numbers are reserved for various things. And what happens when you run out of 07 numbers? Don't tell me "it'll never happen".
You can opt out of all junk phone calls by joining the Telephone Preference System. You can do so here in Texas via the No Call List. Not sure what's it's like in the other states. What's it like in the other Euro-States(France, Germany, etc)?(as an aside, since the Europian Union get's a seat in the UN for each of their states, when will the USA get a seat for each of our 50 states?!?!)
You don't pay for receiving calls, unless you are out of the country... It seems absolutely crazy to charge to receive calls, as this would cause the penetration of mobiles to drop dramatically as it would exclude poor people Don't you have that "crazy" per-minute charge for local calls on your land lines? We don't here. Anyway, there's so many minutes included with my calling plan that I've never paid an extra charge.
CTRL-ENTER will open up a new tab showing whatever site you just entered in the address bar. However, you need to enable it under Preferences before it will work. Very handy.
Sure USB2.0 is about the same speed as FireWire, but FireWire hasn't been standing still - it's next version calls for speeds of 800Mbps and 1.2Gbps. There's even plans for fiber and wireless based versions.
However, even more import is that FireWire is PEER based. A computer is not required to transfer video from one device to another. There's already a bunch of video equipment that has FireWire support, camcorders as well as the Playstation 2(Sony calls it i.LINK instead of FireWire or IEEE 1394) come to mind.
While it might be possible to hack USB 2.0 for use without a computer, USB 2.0 wasn't designed for it. I suspect such a hack would be a successful as the "patched on security" we see in Windows.
One might come away from a first reading of this report thinking that the differences between the two are now only modest and, indeed, often favoring the 8-VSB. The results certainly do not give COFDM a sweeping victory, which its proponents had long-predicted. The 8-VSB did better than most had thought it would.
COFDM is clearly superior in large Single Frequency Networks that are used in Europe
(Last time I looked, the USA wasn't Europe). ... PBS will not support efforts to test COFDM as a replacement for 8VSB. The issue has been examined before, and based on technical factors 8VSB was chosen over COFDM. More recent analysis indicates the decision was the proper one.
As demonstrated by more than ten years of laboratory and field tests, 8-VSB is clearly the best system for broadcasting digital television in the United States.
(once again - this isn't Europe)
Each transmission system has strengths and weaknesses. COFDM requires higher transmitter power output than 8-VSB for similar coverage. Higher power not only increases costs to broadcast stations, it raises the specter of excessive interference with existing analog service. This goes against clearly established public policy
... The 8-VSB modulation scheme was chosen for reasons that far outweigh its multipath performance. The reasons remain valid, especially in the U.S., where the terrain and market structure call for performance characteristics quite different from those in most of Europe. ... Canada, Argentina, South Korea, and Taiwan have all chosen to use 8-VSB for terrestrial broadcast of DTV as part of the ATSC standard, and it is under consideration by many other countries as well. (I guess you didn't really mean "The Rest Of The World)
Computers don't have to be exactly the same to be "compatible". As long as they can communicate in some fashion and exchange data, then they are compatible.
Slashdot is a perfect example of this compatibility between different platforms - I'm able to access Slashdot from my OS/2 and Linux systems at home as well as the Windows 2000 system on my desktop at work. My friends who run Macs can also access the site without any problems.
I've had my HDTV set for a few months. Houston's cable provides 9 HDTV channels(though not everything broadcast is HD). I found that I've significantly cut back on watching TV shows that are not being sent as an HD signal - because of the image quality. For instance I now watch CSI instead of ER because CBS is broadcasting their evening lineup as HDTV while NBC is just sending an upconverted signal.
TV stations are out for market share. When the SDTV channels find themselves losing market share to the HDTV channels you can bet they'll change their ways.
Slashdot Mirror
If I needed one, I'd get one like this . It is remote controlled so I could set up my ProntoPro's macros to switch to the proper video source.
HDTV FAQ
480p comes in 4 flavors:
704x480 4:3
704x480 16:9
640x480 4:3
osFree
They're currently creating drop-in replacements for OS/2's command line utilities.
[problems with pronto]
:-)
There's firmware updates for the Pronto models that solve the problems you describe.
it's not any faster than picking up a regular remote and hitting the button
I've had my ProntoPro for a few weeks now and can say it's much faster than using the regular remotes. My setup includes HDTV, surround sound receiver, cable, DVD, Laser disk, PS2, and SVHS deck. What makes it faster than normal remotes is the macros you can program - you can set up a single button to control all your equipment.
For example, I have mine set up so that hitting the HDTV button will power on the TV, receiver & cable box, switch the TV & receiver to the HD inputs, and finally change the display to show 9 channel logos for the HD stations I receive. Pressing a single logo and the 3 digit channel code is sent to the cable box. - So to watch any HD show I only have to grab a single remote and press 2 buttons.
Prior to that I had to dig the TV remote out of the stack, turn it on, swith it's input, dig the receiver remote out of the stack, turn it on, switch it's input, and finally dig the cable remote out, turn it on and enter the channel number.
A major benefit is that my mom(currently visiting) can work my TV without calling me at work
out for the X-box and other game systems. ... first game that supports the HDTV 1080i resoloution the X-box is capable of
The reason the X-Box is specificially mentioned is that it's the only system supporting the HDTV 1080i signal.
Atari 2600 games often had numerous game variations, such as Space Invaders which had 112 different combinations of visible/invisible aliens, slow/fast missles, various 2 player options, etc.
For Adventure there where 3 difficulty levels:
1 - smaller map - only the blue maze, gold and black castles
2 - full map - all items started in a preset location(though the bat would move things around during game play)
3 - full map - all items started in random locations
wish I could mod you up :-(
As SPAM is advertising, wouldn't invalid return addresses and bogus subjects fall under deception...
underneath the first photo recycling computers from the US and Europe ...
Time to get off your typical European High Horse...
All cellphone numbers start with 07. Other ranges of numbers are reserved for various things.
And what happens when you run out of 07 numbers? Don't tell me "it'll never happen".
You can opt out of all junk phone calls by joining the Telephone Preference System.
You can do so here in Texas via the No Call List. Not sure what's it's like in the other states. What's it like in the other Euro-States(France, Germany, etc)?(as an aside, since the Europian Union get's a seat in the UN for each of their states, when will the USA get a seat for each of our 50 states?!?!)
You don't pay for receiving calls, unless you are out of the country... It seems absolutely crazy to charge to receive calls, as this would cause the penetration of mobiles to drop dramatically as it would exclude poor people
Don't you have that "crazy" per-minute charge for local calls on your land lines? We don't here. Anyway, there's so many minutes included with my calling plan that I've never paid an extra charge.
such as Samsung SPH-I300? A pointer device could be useful to keep all those fingerprints off the touch screen :-)
The following line occured in a paragraph all by itself, thus making it very noticable:
CTRL-ENTER will open up a new tab showing whatever site you just entered in the address bar. However, you need to enable it under Preferences before it will work. Very handy.
I was replying to part of the post by beldraen: So what is the point of your post?
information - what was the point of yours?
FireWire Faq
Sure USB2.0 is about the same speed as FireWire, but FireWire hasn't been standing still - it's next version calls for speeds of 800Mbps and 1.2Gbps. There's even plans for fiber and wireless based versions.
However, even more import is that FireWire is PEER based. A computer is not required to transfer video from one device to another. There's already a bunch of video equipment that has FireWire support, camcorders as well as the Playstation 2(Sony calls it i.LINK instead of FireWire or IEEE 1394) come to mind.
While it might be possible to hack USB 2.0 for use without a computer, USB 2.0 wasn't designed for it. I suspect such a hack would be a successful as the "patched on security" we see in Windows.
I've seen it running everytime I update my car tags.
8VSB/COFDM Comparison Report PBS Position Paper on Industry Reconsideration of DTV Modulation System - COFDM vs. 8VSB CEA APPLAUDS FCC'S UNANIMOUS DECISION TO DISMISS SINCLAIR DTV PROPOSAL DIGITAL TELEVISION AND 8-VSB
doesn't mean there's no point in having it for those of us who can.
Remember when 19" monitors were over $1000? There was still a point to having one back then...
Microvision was the first hand held video game system with cartridges.
:-)
Oh, wait - that's a different Microvision
I love the concept, but have found that most of what I now watch is on HDTV (we've 9 channels on Houston's cable system).
Computers don't have to be exactly the same to be "compatible". As long as they can communicate in some fashion and exchange data, then they are compatible.
Slashdot is a perfect example of this compatibility between different platforms - I'm able to access Slashdot from my OS/2 and Linux systems at home as well as the Windows 2000 system on my desktop at work. My friends who run Macs can also access the site without any problems.
and switch to HDTV or die.
I've had my HDTV set for a few months. Houston's cable provides 9 HDTV channels(though not everything broadcast is HD). I found that I've significantly cut back on watching TV shows that are not being sent as an HD signal - because of the image quality. For instance I now watch CSI instead of ER because CBS is broadcasting their evening lineup as HDTV while NBC is just sending an upconverted signal.
TV stations are out for market share. When the SDTV channels find themselves losing market share to the HDTV channels you can bet they'll change their ways.
[US] wireless services are about eight years behind the curve
Those who implement later can implement newer standards w/out obsoleting(and thus pissing off) all the existing users of the cellphone network.
My new T22 has a 1400x1050 display. There are apparently laptops that go up to 1600x1200 as well.
Why do the fonts have to be small? You do know you can adjust what font size everything is rendered in?