I have no illusions about AT&T/Comcast, but at least they will be able to offer me service. I'm out of options otherwise.
Residential SDSL (at least in Denver) is totally dead since Rhythms burned out. I can't find it for less than $150 a month. The morons at Qwest have yet to install an ADSL remote terminal to my neighborhood (I'm at 18k+ wire feet), although my friends living farther away, but hanging off the same CO can get ADSL.
I've been on Qwest's DSL waiting list since the product was announced back in 1997. Likewise, I've been on AT&T's broadband waiting list since buying my house in 1998.
I truly enjoyed the year I had with SDSL, even though I had to survive three different ISPs. By far, the worst one was DIRECTV Broadband. If they can't manage to serve someone who was pounding on their door desperately trying to remain a customer, then they deserve to fail.
All I can say is about time, and it serves you right.
I got nothing but crap from DIRECTV Broadband in the wake of the Rhythms collapse last fall. Despite being guaranteed that my SDSL service would continue, it shut down mid-September. I tried for three months to get it repaired and got repeated promises that it would be fixed. Finally, I "cancelled" (how can you cancel non-existant service?) in frustration. Three months later, the bills starting rolling in. DIRECTV was trying to charge me for two months of service I never got, and they claimed that I cancelled my service!
Needless to say, I was furiously pissed. I spent six months trading letters and faxes, got sent to collections, appealed, and was denied. I finally deemed the issue not worth my time and paid the stupid bill.
So, F*ck You, DIRECTV. You got what you deserved. I've spent the last year at 26kbps dialup. Thank God that AT&T/Comcast will finally be completing their broadband upgrade in my city next month.
No way in Hell do I have 20 hours to watch a "mini" series. Unless Sci-Fi reruns this in some all-day marathon session, while my wife and kids are out of town, this one will pass me by.
I have never used or even seen a Tivo, but I find my Dish Network PVR to be awesome, although it could use a bigger hard drive. The fact that it is completely integrated into the satellite receiver and programming makes it child's play to use. I only recorded with the old VCR a single time since getting DISH a year and a half ago, and found the old double scheduling (receiver and VCR) routine to be a major hassle.
Just recently, my very non-technical wife remarked how much she has gotten used to the PVR, and how she would never tolerate TV without one again. Now my 9-year old son is begging me to buy another one for the TV in the kid's playroom.
I don't know or care about Tivo, but if a PVR can have that affect on the average person, the concept is around to stay.
I live in metro Denver in a suburb of 100k people. I actually had an SDSL line for about a year before Rhythms crashed and got bought out, leaving me without service. I've been on the DSL and cable modem waiting lists for Qwest and AT&T for FIVE YEARS, and I still have no broadband access.
Don't tell me this bullshit about how most people have broadband available (and NO, satellite with it's 500ms latency does NOT count). They don't. It's all a lie.
Still waiting...
- Necron69
Re:Good idea for nuclear waste?
on
Going Up?
·
· Score: 1
You guys are missing the obvious fact that space is swimming with radiation. Harmful radiation is a norm in the universe, just not on Earth. Just dump the radioactive waste on the moon or someplace where there isn't a biosphere to harm. Why bother trying to drop it into the sun?
Assuming this case isn't dismissed, my bet is the court says you have the right to domestic travel anywhere you like - by car or on foot.
- Necron69
Re:Its decent, but I would scarecely call it a PVR
on
DishPVR 721 Review
·
· Score: 1
The 'record to end of show' feature was in a software update about six months ago. Works fine for me.
I LOVE my Dish500 PVR. This new one looks even better.:) The fact that it is totally integrated with the Dish Network service is what appeals to me. AT&T Digital Cable doesn't even come close.
While you have a point about not being able to watch the kids 24x7, you do still have to watch them sometime.
I recently took exception to my wife's uncle buying my son two of the 007 Bond series PlayStation games as gifts. I simply don't allow my 8-yr old to play first person shooters. Not that I don't like them, hell I own the entire Quake series and love Doom too, but the kids don't get to play or watch.
The games are headed to GameTrader to be exchanged for something different. All that, and the government didn't need to tell me what to do. Wow.....
Since I recently had two books of checks stolen from my mailbox. I now have a different perspective on biometric IDs.
The check thieves quickly produced at least six fake driver's licenses to go with their newly stolen checks, and proceeded to spend their way across metro Denver. At last count, they've run up over $5,000 in bad checks. Guess who gets all the collection notices?
Setting aside the fact that checks are evil and I plan to rarely if ever use them again, if we had biometric verified IDs, then the assholes who stole my checks wouldn't have been able to use them. At least, not as easily as they did.
The obvious conclusion to widespread use of nanotechnology is indeed the collapse of economics as we know it. However, there is one thing that will still have value not affected by nanotechnology - land. Buy real estate now and save it for your kids.:)
I tried to get the Sprint wireless service a while back. It would work if I put a 40' pole on top of my house, to see over the trees. Not exactly allowed by the homeowners association.:(
Microwave has severe limitations if you have any reasonable amount of vegetation in the direction of the antenna.
I've had the Dish 501 PVR for about six months and have generally been happy with it.
I am not any sort of videophile, but the picture quality appears to be exactly what you get when you watch something live off the satellite, and the controls and on-screen menu system are excellent. It would be nice though, if it would hide the title of rating locked recordings from the playback menu. This could save you from embarrasing questions asked by your 8 year old.;)
My only major complaint with the system is that when I first got it, I always left it on. After a few weeks, it began to flake out badly. Channels would often suddenly pixellate, the audio would develop static, and every morning the system would force you to download 'program information' and lock up afterwords. The only way to fix it was to 'reset' the unit by removing and replacing the smart card.
After several rounds of this, we called their tech support and they told us to turn it off at night, so it could 'rest' (I'm NOT kidding). Deciding to play dumb consumer, I do this faithfully now, and the unit has since worked fine. My observation is that the unit is not always off even when it appears to be. You can still hear the drive spinning. I assume it runs some sort of maintenance disk check or something late at night. It also seems to periodically download software updates, noticeable only when the menus change.
Contrary to some reports I read about the Tivo, the Dish PVR record time seems to be quite steady. I get exactly 30 hours of recording, no matter what type of material I'm watching.
One final observation I have is the price of the remote control. You can only use the special remote that comes with the unit. After my two year old tossed this in the toilet, we had to order a replacement at the outrageous price of $60.
Despite a few flaws, the Dish PVR works out quite well. I use it extensively to record shows I would otherwise miss, and I rarely use my VCR any more.
You need to consider disabilties a bit broader than the guy in the wheelchair.
I, like many people, have red-green colorblindness. This doesn't mean that I can't tell those colors apart, but certain shades give me problems.
For example, those damn red LED screens that all the fast food restaurants are putting in their drive-throughs look completely blank to me during the daytime.
My own company's application, OpenView, uses green, red, and yellow icons to show status of managed nodes. I can't tell the default green and yellow apart, forcing me to modify the Xdefaults file.
Unix does need work. In Windows, I can easily make my mouse pointer larger, add trails, and change the color so I don't lose it on the screen. Under X11, I'm hosed and at the mercy of each application.
I've been doing Unix (and other OS) administration for almost ten years now. I started out in college, getting a student assistant job with the Computing and Network Services department at CU Boulder. My only Unix experience at that time was a one semester C/Unix workshop I had to take for CS.
Day one:
Boss: "Go ftp this new patch from UUnet."
Me: "What's ftp?"
(Boss smacks forehead and groans)
The rest is history.:) I spent two and half years in that student job learning about ten different Unix variants, got a job three weeks after graduation doing Unix admin. I've picked up a lot of networking knowledge, NT, and even some VMS skills along the way. I've worked for government contractors, done classified work, and even shared in the dot-Com Internet startup bust. Its been a wild ride.
To date, I don't have any certifications, but I plan to change that with the job market getting so tight. My one word of caution would be that many experienced Unix admins are out of work right now, and are going to win out for a job every time against a newcomer. The best advice I can give is to try and find a volunteer or entry-level part time position to build up some experience before trying to jump in full-time.
From July 2000 to September 2001, I enjoyed a moderate speed SDSL line from Rhythms Netconnections and a variety of ISPs as they failed, got bought and consolidated. I have been on the waiting lists for ADSL from Qwest and cable modem service from AT&T for several years each. Neither are available in my area, although they seem to be available in every other Denver suburb but mine.
In September my Rhythms line died and I have been trying to switch to another provider ever since. Not a damn thing is available for under $100 a month. These days, I share a 26.6k dialup line with my wife. Even casual web surfing is an extreme pain.
Fuck the broadband companies who whine about people leaving. I didn't leave you, you left me!!!
What are you worried about, astronauts infecting the Moon people or the Martians? Maybe mass rape and genocide of the Venusians?
NASA needs to get out of the space vehicle market and make room for the dozen or so companies dying to get in. They just can't get any investment money due to massive government red tape and government monopoly over space launches.
I used to be an idealistic NASA fan. Not any more. Get the hell out of the way, NASA.
I have an ASUS board with a Via KT133 chipset in my home PC. I tried out WinXP and it crashed like crazy on this board, until I remembered to update my BIOS. No crashes for several days now, and Quake III works on it too.:)
If you are going to upgrade, do the obvious thing and update all your BIOS, firmware, etc., first.
As an aside, I've had an HP OmniBook 6000 with Win2k on it since June. Note a single BSOD yet.
I just don't see that this hurts the migration path. HP-UX for IA64 is RELEASED already! It now becomes a maintenance and tuning issue, like any other product. The PORT is over.
Yes, this sucks for the people that got layed off. I knew a number of people here in Fort Collins that were layed off recently. One guy had 24 years with HP, another had 33. Both were good friends. Being layed off at any time is terrible. It is that much worse in this economy.
Nonetheless, I can see the logic in closing down a small, 100 person facility. HP has plants that serve thousands of employees with tons of empty space in them right now.
Lovely. I just spent $400 on ISDN setup costs in the wake of losing my Rhythms SDSL line. No ADSL, cable, or wireless available, despite the fact I live in a densely populated area of Metro Denver. Qwest and AT&T both suck rocks.
Please tell me I didn't just waste all that cash? Exactly who are they going to continue serving?
- Necron69
Thank You Rhythms Employees.
on
Rhythms Flatlines
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I would just like to say thank you to the employees of Rhythms (including my now unemployed sister-in-law), who worked hard to make a decent company out of that mess. I've had my SDSL line for a year, and although I had four different ISPs in that time, my line was Rhythms all the way with very few problems.
Fuck Rhythms management, who made off with millions while the employees and customers get screwed.
Slashdot Mirror
I have no illusions about AT&T/Comcast, but at least they will be able to offer me service. I'm out of options otherwise.
Residential SDSL (at least in Denver) is totally dead since Rhythms burned out. I can't find it for less than $150 a month. The morons at Qwest have yet to install an ADSL remote terminal to my neighborhood (I'm at 18k+ wire feet), although my friends living farther away, but hanging off the same CO can get ADSL.
I've been on Qwest's DSL waiting list since the product was announced back in 1997. Likewise, I've been on AT&T's broadband waiting list since buying my house in 1998.
I truly enjoyed the year I had with SDSL, even though I had to survive three different ISPs. By far, the worst one was DIRECTV Broadband. If they can't manage to serve someone who was pounding on their door desperately trying to remain a customer, then they deserve to fail.
- Necron69
I got nothing but crap from DIRECTV Broadband in the wake of the Rhythms collapse last fall. Despite being guaranteed that my SDSL service would continue, it shut down mid-September. I tried for three months to get it repaired and got repeated promises that it would be fixed. Finally, I "cancelled" (how can you cancel non-existant service?) in frustration. Three months later, the bills starting rolling in. DIRECTV was trying to charge me for two months of service I never got, and they claimed that I cancelled my service!
Needless to say, I was furiously pissed. I spent six months trading letters and faxes, got sent to collections, appealed, and was denied. I finally deemed the issue not worth my time and paid the stupid bill.
So, F*ck You, DIRECTV. You got what you deserved. I've spent the last year at 26kbps dialup. Thank God that AT&T/Comcast will finally be completing their broadband upgrade in my city next month.
- Necron69
I have a DISH Network PVR, but family politics prohibit blocking out prime time for two solid weeks. :)
- Necron69
No way in Hell do I have 20 hours to watch a "mini" series. Unless Sci-Fi reruns this in some all-day marathon session, while my wife and kids are out of town, this one will pass me by.
WTF were they thinking?
- Necron69
I have never used or even seen a Tivo, but I find my Dish Network PVR to be awesome, although it could use a bigger hard drive. The fact that it is completely integrated into the satellite receiver and programming makes it child's play to use. I only recorded with the old VCR a single time since getting DISH a year and a half ago, and found the old double scheduling (receiver and VCR) routine to be a major hassle.
Just recently, my very non-technical wife remarked how much she has gotten used to the PVR, and how she would never tolerate TV without one again. Now my 9-year old son is begging me to buy another one for the TV in the kid's playroom.
I don't know or care about Tivo, but if a PVR can have that affect on the average person, the concept is around to stay.
- Necron69
I'm so f*cking sick of articles like this.
I live in metro Denver in a suburb of 100k people. I actually had an SDSL line for about a year before Rhythms crashed and got bought out, leaving me without service. I've been on the DSL and cable modem waiting lists for Qwest and AT&T for FIVE YEARS, and I still have no broadband access.
Don't tell me this bullshit about how most people have broadband available (and NO, satellite with it's 500ms latency does NOT count). They don't. It's all a lie.
Still waiting...
- Necron69
You guys are missing the obvious fact that space is swimming with radiation. Harmful radiation is a norm in the universe, just not on Earth. Just dump the radioactive waste on the moon or someplace where there isn't a biosphere to harm. Why bother trying to drop it into the sun?
- Necron69
Assuming this case isn't dismissed, my bet is the court says you have the right to domestic travel anywhere you like - by car or on foot.
- Necron69
The 'record to end of show' feature was in a software update about six months ago. Works fine for me.
:) The fact that it is totally integrated with the Dish Network service is what appeals to me. AT&T Digital Cable doesn't even come close.
I LOVE my Dish500 PVR. This new one looks even better.
- Necron69
Well, my real boss at my real job bought the whole team free lunch and tickets to the lunchtime premiere on Thursday - out of his own pocket.
:)
So you're damn right I skipped work to see the movie.
- Necron69
While you have a point about not being able to watch the kids 24x7, you do still have to watch them sometime.
I recently took exception to my wife's uncle buying my son two of the 007 Bond series PlayStation games as gifts. I simply don't allow my 8-yr old to play first person shooters. Not that I don't like them, hell I own the entire Quake series and love Doom too, but the kids don't get to play or watch.
The games are headed to GameTrader to be exchanged for something different. All that, and the government didn't need to tell me what to do. Wow.....
- Necron69
Since I recently had two books of checks stolen from my mailbox. I now have a different perspective on biometric IDs.
The check thieves quickly produced at least six fake driver's licenses to go with their newly stolen checks, and proceeded to spend their way across metro Denver. At last count, they've run up over $5,000 in bad checks. Guess who gets all the collection notices?
Setting aside the fact that checks are evil and I plan to rarely if ever use them again, if we had biometric verified IDs, then the assholes who stole my checks wouldn't have been able to use them. At least, not as easily as they did.
I say bring on the national ID card!
- Necron69
The obvious conclusion to widespread use of nanotechnology is indeed the collapse of economics as we know it. However, there is one thing that will still have value not affected by nanotechnology - land. Buy real estate now and save it for your kids. :)
- Necron69
I tried to get the Sprint wireless service a while back. It would work if I put a 40' pole on top of my house, to see over the trees. Not exactly allowed by the homeowners association. :(
Microwave has severe limitations if you have any reasonable amount of vegetation in the direction of the antenna.
- Necron69
I've had the Dish 501 PVR for about six months and have generally been happy with it.
;)
I am not any sort of videophile, but the picture quality appears to be exactly what you get when you watch something live off the satellite, and the controls and on-screen menu system are excellent. It would be nice though, if it would hide the title of rating locked recordings from the playback menu. This could save you from embarrasing questions asked by your 8 year old.
My only major complaint with the system is that when I first got it, I always left it on. After a few weeks, it began to flake out badly. Channels would often suddenly pixellate, the audio would develop static, and every morning the system would force you to download 'program information' and lock up afterwords. The only way to fix it was to 'reset' the unit by removing and replacing the smart card.
After several rounds of this, we called their tech support and they told us to turn it off at night, so it could 'rest' (I'm NOT kidding). Deciding to play dumb consumer, I do this faithfully now, and the unit has since worked fine. My observation is that the unit is not always off even when it appears to be. You can still hear the drive spinning. I assume it runs some sort of maintenance disk check or something late at night. It also seems to periodically download software updates, noticeable only when the menus change.
Contrary to some reports I read about the Tivo, the Dish PVR record time seems to be quite steady. I get exactly 30 hours of recording, no matter what type of material I'm watching.
One final observation I have is the price of the remote control. You can only use the special remote that comes with the unit. After my two year old tossed this in the toilet, we had to order a replacement at the outrageous price of $60.
Despite a few flaws, the Dish PVR works out quite well. I use it extensively to record shows I would otherwise miss, and I rarely use my VCR any more.
- Necron69
You need to consider disabilties a bit broader than the guy in the wheelchair.
I, like many people, have red-green colorblindness. This doesn't mean that I can't tell those colors apart, but certain shades give me problems.
For example, those damn red LED screens that all the fast food restaurants are putting in their drive-throughs look completely blank to me during the daytime.
My own company's application, OpenView, uses green, red, and yellow icons to show status of managed nodes. I can't tell the default green and yellow apart, forcing me to modify the Xdefaults file.
Unix does need work. In Windows, I can easily make my mouse pointer larger, add trails, and change the color so I don't lose it on the screen. Under X11, I'm hosed and at the mercy of each application.
- Necron69
I've been doing Unix (and other OS) administration for almost ten years now. I started out in college, getting a student assistant job with the Computing and Network Services department at CU Boulder. My only Unix experience at that time was a one semester C/Unix workshop I had to take for CS.
:) I spent two and half years in that student job learning about ten different Unix variants, got a job three weeks after graduation doing Unix admin. I've picked up a lot of networking knowledge, NT, and even some VMS skills along the way. I've worked for government contractors, done classified work, and even shared in the dot-Com Internet startup bust. Its been a wild ride.
Day one:
Boss: "Go ftp this new patch from UUnet."
Me: "What's ftp?"
(Boss smacks forehead and groans)
The rest is history.
To date, I don't have any certifications, but I plan to change that with the job market getting so tight. My one word of caution would be that many experienced Unix admins are out of work right now, and are going to win out for a job every time against a newcomer. The best advice I can give is to try and find a volunteer or entry-level part time position to build up some experience before trying to jump in full-time.
- Necron69
From July 2000 to September 2001, I enjoyed a moderate speed SDSL line from Rhythms Netconnections and a variety of ISPs as they failed, got bought and consolidated. I have been on the waiting lists for ADSL from Qwest and cable modem service from AT&T for several years each. Neither are available in my area, although they seem to be available in every other Denver suburb but mine.
In September my Rhythms line died and I have been trying to switch to another provider ever since. Not a damn thing is available for under $100 a month. These days, I share a 26.6k dialup line with my wife. Even casual web surfing is an extreme pain.
Fuck the broadband companies who whine about people leaving. I didn't leave you, you left me!!!
- Necron69
Oh please....
What are you worried about, astronauts infecting the Moon people or the Martians? Maybe mass rape and genocide of the Venusians?
NASA needs to get out of the space vehicle market and make room for the dozen or so companies dying to get in. They just can't get any investment money due to massive government red tape and government monopoly over space launches.
I used to be an idealistic NASA fan. Not any more. Get the hell out of the way, NASA.
- Necron69
I have an ASUS board with a Via KT133 chipset in my home PC. I tried out WinXP and it crashed like crazy on this board, until I remembered to update my BIOS. No crashes for several days now, and Quake III works on it too. :)
If you are going to upgrade, do the obvious thing and update all your BIOS, firmware, etc., first.
As an aside, I've had an HP OmniBook 6000 with Win2k on it since June. Note a single BSOD yet.
- Necron69
Hey, this is obviously stolen from my senior project back in 92'-93. I'll have to file for a patent violation!!
I'm rich! I'm rich!!!!
- Necron69
I just don't see that this hurts the migration path. HP-UX for IA64 is RELEASED already! It now becomes a maintenance and tuning issue, like any other product. The PORT is over.
Yes, this sucks for the people that got layed off. I knew a number of people here in Fort Collins that were layed off recently. One guy had 24 years with HP, another had 33. Both were good friends. Being layed off at any time is terrible. It is that much worse in this economy.
Nonetheless, I can see the logic in closing down a small, 100 person facility. HP has plants that serve thousands of employees with tons of empty space in them right now.
Lovely. I just spent $400 on ISDN setup costs in the wake of losing my Rhythms SDSL line. No ADSL, cable, or wireless available, despite the fact I live in a densely populated area of Metro Denver. Qwest and AT&T both suck rocks.
Please tell me I didn't just waste all that cash? Exactly who are they going to continue serving?
- Necron69
I would just like to say thank you to the employees of Rhythms (including my now unemployed sister-in-law), who worked hard to make a decent company out of that mess. I've had my SDSL line for a year, and although I had four different ISPs in that time, my line was Rhythms all the way with very few problems.
Fuck Rhythms management, who made off with millions while the employees and customers get screwed.
I guess my only choice now is Qwest.
- Necron69
Hmmm. Can you say "Microsoft Passport"??
- Necron69