You should be able to drop one of those SIMM sized linux modules in the mouth of a Mickey's Big Mouth. If only they had an equally small wireless module, you might fit the whole thing including enough AA batteries to run for a few days and have a working linux bottle with the cap on.
The first alternative formats are just now being introduced. If you rewind the wayback machine, the first DVD format wars started in the early 1990s with the first consumer players not becoming available until 1997 in the US. Betamax was released in 1984 with "a winner" in the tape format wars not being declared until 1988. I'm not up on HDTV's timeline enough to quote actual dates, but I picked up my first "digital ready" HDTV in 2000 and it wasn't until just last year that the industry had actually agreed to an input standard for digital content.
Despite what the industry says, I'm betting on at least 4 years before I really have to worry about my precious DVD's being truly obsolete.
I could even see a future where we could do away with DNS in the long term as we could access webpages or other information through this network of shared temporary file folders.
Another idiotic idea. Why the hell would I want to spend my time LOOKING for the website I want, instead of just plain visiting it? Yes, this WOULD require me to look for the website. Also, security (Login information, et cetera) is practically impossible in such situations.
Why would you have to look for the site any more than you would have to currently? The P2P infrastructure can handle "p2p://myurl.com" just as easily as a browser handles "http://myurl.com". Where the system breaks down is with dynamic content like shopping sites and such.
However, since everyone will be using it to download porn and linux distros, rather than Amazon.com, that's not really an issue.
Seriously, until mini-itx motherboards come down in price there doesn't seem to be any advantage, imnsho, over a MAC-Mini. Factor in the time you spend dorking around with the miniitx and it gets worse. Oh, and just about every case I've seen is just plain ugly. Modded cases are like ringtones, even if you think yours is an exception, it isn't, they all suck.
I disagree on the pricing. You should have no trouble putting together a complete miniITX sytem with a 1.2ghz CPU, 1gb RAM, 100gb HD, DVDROM, and case for under $450. The cheapest Mac Mini is still $499 and expanding the hard drive means either an expensive new laptop drive or an expensive firewire/usb external drive. Cases.. well, that's a matter of taste. I've been perfectly happy with the IBM NetVista mini-atx cases that keep showing up on eBay for ~$20. And as for the dorking around with it - The "why hack?" horse has been fully beaten in pretty much every hardware thread already.
But a question for any who really know: Will the user be able to use this wireless capability to move pictures and mp3s to the device? That would just about lock it for me, but it's not clear from the feature list and description that that is doable.
Historically, Palm devices have supported HotSyncing wirelessly - it's not easy to set up, but it can be done. Media can be loaded onto the device using the Palm Installation Application and HotSync. So, if you can HotSync wirelessly, you can load media wirelessly. I see no reason why newer devices wouldn't support this functionality.
For what it's worth, the RSS reader QuickNews supports downloading attachments directly to the SD card. I've used it to download podcasts on my Treo, but the download rates aren't fast enough to make this a particularly viable option.
I recommend getting a copy of The Career Programmer: Guerilla Tactics for an Imperfect World by Christopher Duncan.
Actually, I give this book a thumbs down - Duncan spends most of the book ranting about miserable work conditions and seems to evangelize adopting a "cover your ass" attitude rather than actually trying to fix anything. It's been my experience that the CYA attitude is pretty much a dead-end option and only prolongs/aggravates the situation. If you do read this book, follow it up with the ubiquitous "7 Habits for Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey to unlearn the bad habits that Duncan teaches.
I'm shopping for DirecTV now, and was amazed that their 'free' PVRs come with a monthly fee! While the software PVRs get better and easier to install, I'm going to go that route to be free of fees and restrictions. So, the million dollar question, which is the best bet right now:
FYI - If you're still going with DirecTV, be aware that there is not yet (nor will there ever likely be) a tuner card for DirecTV. If you really want satellite, you'll have to use an external DirecTV tuner box and a digitizer card, which means decompressing and recompressing the signal to get it onto your hard disk and yet again decompressing it to watch it - you might not notice the loss in quality, then again, you might.
California's new law allowing Hybrid cars to drive in carpool lanes is not very good. Honda makes a hybrid Accord that pollutes more and gets worse fuel economy than several non-hybrid cars. GM is about to release a hybrid pickup truck that only gets 10% better fuel economy than a standard truck - 10% of 15MPG is only 1.5MPG more (partly because the hybrid setup is primarily designed to provide 120V AC power outlets throughout the truck for contractors). Imagine that owners of these hybrids get rewarded in CA by being allowed to drive in the carpool lane!
FYI - There IS a fuel efficiency requirement for hybrid vehicles in California carpool lanes. As a result, only the Honda Civic Hybrid, the Honda Insight Hybrid, and the Toyota Prius Hybrid are actually eligible, and on top of that, there's only a limited number of permits available, so even some eligible vehicle owners will be left out.
"Now we can look forward to yet another way to get brain cancer."
Given that the parent company is relatively small and not established, articles posted on Slashdot could potentially have huge effects on their market preception. Wouldn't the comment that their product causes brain cancer be considere libelous with potentially large damages at stake (since, AFAIK, there's no proof that it causes brain cancer)?
What if I like both eighties hair metal and symphonic orchestra? I guess it's okay to reccomend songs from each of those categories, but as the number of preferences rises, wouldn't it become harder and harder to pick even a specific genre to reccomend, much less a specific album?
If the system is truly that brilliant, it'll find the commonalities between your favorite songs of those genres and be able to still suggest good music (who knows, maybe you'll find out you really like twangy C&W but never even gave it a chance).
According to HBO's copyright protection rules, which you enter into agreement with when you sign up for their service, you CAN create a single copy of the show for yourself but NOT distribute it to others. For bittorrent to work though, you have to upload as well as download, thereby breaking your service agreement with HBO regarding not distributing your copy to others.
[hypothetical]
But what if I dont upload the whole thing? I've got DSL, so my upload speed is almost 1/10th of my upload speed, there's no way anyone will get a complete copy of the show from me before I'm done downloading (because I'm a bad P2P user and disconnect as soon as it's done).
[/hypothetical]
If you choose to not make your music available on iTunes, I will not stop using iTunes. I will just stop paying for your music... again.
Sincerely,
Joe Consumer
I didnt see anything about how they determine if the files are illegal. I'd be mighty pissed if it went and nuked my collection of mp3.com, itunes, and personal CD rips.
Syncing without plugging in cables would be appreciated. That's my prediction for the next incremental improvement in the full-sized iPod.
The idea of wireless syncing sure seems great in theory, but in practice, I don't see it as being a worthwhile engineering effort.
As long as Apple keeps coming up with these uber-small form-factors, you're going to need to charge the device somehow, and that means plugging it into a cradle/cable.
I suppose they could re-work the guts of the full-sized iPod to fit a few AAA batteries, but I doubt they'd be as efficient as the specific-application rechargeable one they build in currently.
For what it's worth, my Amex Blue replacement card now has an RFID tag in it as well as the old-school smart-chip. Alas, there's only a dozen or so locations listed that support the RFID and none are in the S.F. Bay Area (where I am).
Well it seems that this could completely demolish the protocol. If everyone used this and then set their upload to the minimum (what, 1kbps?) it would take forever and a day to get files from Bittorrent.
I would think that the vast majority of folks using BT to get "legitimate" downloads won't be using this hack (I must get this Knoppix ISO and not share!). Really, it just exploits the greed of the pirate community, for which I have little sympathy.
Can be configured to scan make at DATA time in the SMTP conversation. A LOT of configuration work here to make it play nice on a massively scaled platform, but it can be done. Mostly it needs to have things like the auto whitelisting and bayseasn filtering turned off, as the extra DB file work is a bit excessive.
Actually, I'm sure there is a way to make it work with a less resource intensive repository, but using the standard SA rules seems to work well for my environment. *shrug*
I'm no professional at this, but wouldn't you want to start looking at adding some dedicated anti-spam pre-filtering hardware when you start getting into > 100k recipients? A recent bit in Infoworld had even the lowest reviewed appliance cutting server loads in half.
Actually, after quite some time of searching, I did find software for Windows that will optimize files/folders for maximixing disk space on a variety of target media sizes. Ignition by KC Software.
It's not something I'd want to use for backing up an entire system, but for archiving specific folders of files, it's great.
Ignition itself is just the organizer and it's free - it'll output text files of the catalog for each optimized target disk. You can purchase supported burning software so it'll write media directly or create ISOs.
I'm hoping that iTunes treats it like a regular iPod and doesn't cripple it for Podcasts. Unless I'm missing something, there's no way to automatically sync podcasts to the shuffle, why? If anything, the shuffle is even more appropriate for podcast listening.
Yes, but the added width is a big deal. It means you cant really share it in a pocket with your wallet or cellphone or jacket pocked with sunglasses case anymore unless you want them facing eachother. Something that'll kill the finish unless you add a sleeve which will make it as thick as the shuffle again.
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You should be able to drop one of those SIMM sized linux modules in the mouth of a Mickey's Big Mouth. If only they had an equally small wireless module, you might fit the whole thing including enough AA batteries to run for a few days and have a working linux bottle with the cap on.
Despite what the industry says, I'm betting on at least 4 years before I really have to worry about my precious DVD's being truly obsolete.
Just so we're clear, you represent less than 2% of the population of the United States and I'd guess less than .05% of people reading your post.
Another idiotic idea. Why the hell would I want to spend my time LOOKING for the website I want, instead of just plain visiting it? Yes, this WOULD require me to look for the website. Also, security (Login information, et cetera) is practically impossible in such situations.
Why would you have to look for the site any more than you would have to currently? The P2P infrastructure can handle "p2p://myurl.com" just as easily as a browser handles "http://myurl.com". Where the system breaks down is with dynamic content like shopping sites and such.
However, since everyone will be using it to download porn and linux distros, rather than Amazon.com, that's not really an issue.
I disagree on the pricing. You should have no trouble putting together a complete miniITX sytem with a 1.2ghz CPU, 1gb RAM, 100gb HD, DVDROM, and case for under $450. The cheapest Mac Mini is still $499 and expanding the hard drive means either an expensive new laptop drive or an expensive firewire/usb external drive. Cases.. well, that's a matter of taste. I've been perfectly happy with the IBM NetVista mini-atx cases that keep showing up on eBay for ~$20. And as for the dorking around with it - The "why hack?" horse has been fully beaten in pretty much every hardware thread already.
Who is Evan Koblentz and why is he hosting the trivia contest and not Stewart Cheifet?
Historically, Palm devices have supported HotSyncing wirelessly - it's not easy to set up, but it can be done. Media can be loaded onto the device using the Palm Installation Application and HotSync. So, if you can HotSync wirelessly, you can load media wirelessly. I see no reason why newer devices wouldn't support this functionality.
For what it's worth, the RSS reader QuickNews supports downloading attachments directly to the SD card. I've used it to download podcasts on my Treo, but the download rates aren't fast enough to make this a particularly viable option.
Actually, I give this book a thumbs down - Duncan spends most of the book ranting about miserable work conditions and seems to evangelize adopting a "cover your ass" attitude rather than actually trying to fix anything. It's been my experience that the CYA attitude is pretty much a dead-end option and only prolongs/aggravates the situation. If you do read this book, follow it up with the ubiquitous "7 Habits for Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey to unlearn the bad habits that Duncan teaches.
FYI - If you're still going with DirecTV, be aware that there is not yet (nor will there ever likely be) a tuner card for DirecTV. If you really want satellite, you'll have to use an external DirecTV tuner box and a digitizer card, which means decompressing and recompressing the signal to get it onto your hard disk and yet again decompressing it to watch it - you might not notice the loss in quality, then again, you might.
FYI - There IS a fuel efficiency requirement for hybrid vehicles in California carpool lanes. As a result, only the Honda Civic Hybrid, the Honda Insight Hybrid, and the Toyota Prius Hybrid are actually eligible, and on top of that, there's only a limited number of permits available, so even some eligible vehicle owners will be left out.
Here's the California DMV's chart on eligible vehicles (hybrid, electric and CNG): http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/carpool/carpool.htm
Given that the parent company is relatively small and not established, articles posted on Slashdot could potentially have huge effects on their market preception. Wouldn't the comment that their product causes brain cancer be considere libelous with potentially large damages at stake (since, AFAIK, there's no proof that it causes brain cancer)?
If the system is truly that brilliant, it'll find the commonalities between your favorite songs of those genres and be able to still suggest good music (who knows, maybe you'll find out you really like twangy C&W but never even gave it a chance).
[hypothetical] But what if I dont upload the whole thing? I've got DSL, so my upload speed is almost 1/10th of my upload speed, there's no way anyone will get a complete copy of the show from me before I'm done downloading (because I'm a bad P2P user and disconnect as soon as it's done). [/hypothetical]
If you choose to not make your music available on iTunes, I will not stop using iTunes. I will just stop paying for your music... again. Sincerely, Joe Consumer
I didnt see anything about how they determine if the files are illegal. I'd be mighty pissed if it went and nuked my collection of mp3.com, itunes, and personal CD rips.
The idea of wireless syncing sure seems great in theory, but in practice, I don't see it as being a worthwhile engineering effort.
As long as Apple keeps coming up with these uber-small form-factors, you're going to need to charge the device somehow, and that means plugging it into a cradle/cable.
I suppose they could re-work the guts of the full-sized iPod to fit a few AAA batteries, but I doubt they'd be as efficient as the specific-application rechargeable one they build in currently.
Could this be a result of them blocking IP's out of their rollout area (I'm assuming you're not logging in from one of those areas)?
For what it's worth, my Amex Blue replacement card now has an RFID tag in it as well as the old-school smart-chip. Alas, there's only a dozen or so locations listed that support the RFID and none are in the S.F. Bay Area (where I am).
I would think that the vast majority of folks using BT to get "legitimate" downloads won't be using this hack (I must get this Knoppix ISO and not share!). Really, it just exploits the greed of the pirate community, for which I have little sympathy.
Can be configured to scan make at DATA time in the SMTP conversation. A LOT of configuration work here to make it play nice on a massively scaled platform, but it can be done. Mostly it needs to have things like the auto whitelisting and bayseasn filtering turned off, as the extra DB file work is a bit excessive.
Actually, I'm sure there is a way to make it work with a less resource intensive repository, but using the standard SA rules seems to work well for my environment. *shrug*
I'm no professional at this, but wouldn't you want to start looking at adding some dedicated anti-spam pre-filtering hardware when you start getting into > 100k recipients? A recent bit in Infoworld had even the lowest reviewed appliance cutting server loads in half.
Ignition by KC Software.
It's not something I'd want to use for backing up an entire system, but for archiving specific folders of files, it's great.
Ignition itself is just the organizer and it's free - it'll output text files of the catalog for each optimized target disk. You can purchase supported burning software so it'll write media directly or create ISOs.
I'm hoping that iTunes treats it like a regular iPod and doesn't cripple it for Podcasts. Unless I'm missing something, there's no way to automatically sync podcasts to the shuffle, why? If anything, the shuffle is even more appropriate for podcast listening.
Because I refuse to support all the poker spam.
Yes, but the added width is a big deal. It means you cant really share it in a pocket with your wallet or cellphone or jacket pocked with sunglasses case anymore unless you want them facing eachother. Something that'll kill the finish unless you add a sleeve which will make it as thick as the shuffle again.
I find the flickr whatsinyourbag photo thread to be a lot more fascinating and less biased.