Terry Gross is an idiot. I have heard her at times and it seems as if she is just reading off of a script. Some of her questions seem so out of context to what her subject is talking about (as she moves from interview question #13 to question #14).
I have heard her in fact ask questions of people right after they just finished talking about something.
Subject: ...which reminds me of my childhood spending summers playing with my bother.
Terry: Interesting. So, tell me, did you have any siblings?
I have heard some people get pissed at her for not seeming to pay attention to the interview. (And some pretty prominent figures that one would have thought that she would have taken greater care/interest about.)
That being said, she does usually get really good people on the show, so I listen anyway and grumble when she starts acting like an idiot.
I heard part of the Linus interview earlier today and found him interesting. (Never heard him other than through phospher.)
______
Re:Why haven't others used wood?
on
Hardwoodware
·
· Score: 1
Well, there have been a ton of hacks to put computers in other cases.
A friend and I sere speculating about this back in the 1990-91 timeframe.
I don't mean to be glib about this (well, maybe a little), but where is your device you speculated about? What? Just speculating about a product isn't enough to magically make a finished device appear???
Just thinking about the fact that torching gas makes a nice explosion that can be harnessed, isn't the same thing as designing an internal combustion engine. A lot more work went into the design of the TiVo that just thinking about writing an MPEG stream to disk.
In fact, go back and re-read the patent. You will see that it is much more specific than what 90% of the posts here seem to think it is.
TiVo's success wasn't about a great idea. Lots of people had the same idea.
It is really easy to take a look at a finished product and declare how anyone could have thought of it.
In fact, hyperbole in place, everything that ever was invented or ever will be, would have eventually been thought of by someone else anyway, so why bother granting intellectual protection to encourage the investment of thought/energy in the creative process.
Wasn't WebTV just a browser-in-a-box to surf on your TV (theoretically saving Joe Consumer from having to buy a home computer just to get some of this "internet" stuff Time and Newsweek keep talking about)?
I can duct-tape together 2 VCRs and claim I have a "system" for watching a recording whilst something else records, but that still isn't the same thing as a TiVo.
Let me put it another way--I can wedge two motherboards in a box and claim I have a dual processor machine.
The dual tape GO decks are little more that two VCR's in the same case.
Since I have to watch the TV to advance past the commercials, and if I am scanning I have to pay particular attention so I can detect when a show starts back up, I am a "captive audience at high speed."
You know how the _Mad Magazine_ inside back cover had the folding page that produced another image when compressed?
They should build commercials that are *also* meant to be viewed in "time-folded space" (ie, FF). I guess there are a handful of factors that would affect if this works (what scan speed, the FF start point affects which frames would be viewed), but I wonder if this wouldn't become an option as equipment becomes more standardized...
With Tivo and other PVRs allowing a person to skip over the commercials easily
I have never understood that argument.
I have a VCR and a TiVo (108hrs) and I can skip commercials on either. In fact, I can do it with greater easy on the VCR because
A) the remote has a "skip Commercial" button that advances the tape 30 seconds (hit it X times (all breaks are predictable in lenght based on when in the show they happen) and you are back watching the show), and
B) the TiVo (v2.0.1) jumps you back further when you hit play and I haven't gotten the hang of this yet, so I still see the last few seconds of commercials anyways.
So, why do people keep making this noise about PVR's "cheating" the advertiser, when we have had this tech since the BetaMax (early 80's?)
Every time I have looked at buying a processor upgrade for a machine, I start looking at A) other things that have to be upgraded due to a change in the processor (like a motherboard for example--and if the mother board changes, don't you have to, at the rate things change, buy other new parts like newer RAM) and B) Things that would be nice to add (but not necessary) to bring the machine in line with more recent developments (USB 2.0 or FireWIre for example).
You start nickle and diming your system up with all of these add ons, and I find that it is just much cheaper to go out and buy a new system with the latest everything on it.
But if you insist on upgrading your processor and motherboard, what are you left with? RAM, Harddrives, PCI/AGP/ISA cards, a case and a power supply.
If the motherboard changes, the RAM is probably useless. No Gain.
You can keep the HD, but who wants a 2 year-old 10GB HD when you can pick up an 80GB new one for 200$USD. No real gain.
All of the cards you can pickup and move to another machine just as easy as keep them in the same box, and besides, these get upgraded by themselves at will everytime the latest 3-D grafix card or whatnot comes out. No Gain
So, gee... upgrading saved you the cost of a powersupply and a case. Big deal.
Buy a new computer, migrate all of your latest cards into it (moving the slightly older ones they replaced back into the old box), get a KVM box, and then toss *BSD, Linux, BeOS, or something else on the old box, and now you have two systems--One to work on, and the other to play with a new OS on.
Or just donate you old computer to a school or the like and get the tax credit.
RE-REGULATION of utilities *cough* electricity, *mumble*, California...
CA electricity was *NOT* deregulated. They just reregulated it in a different fashion, and slapped a new label on it:
"New Deregulated Version!!! Now with 10% less regulation!!!!"
Joe Idiot on the street was fooled into thinking that their electric service was going to be stream-lined and more affordable because it was now "deregulated". Of course this wasn't true.
And now everyone is blaming deregulation without bothering to think about what really is the case.
Slashdot Mirror
I have heard her in fact ask questions of people right after they just finished talking about something.
Subject: ...which reminds me of my childhood spending summers playing with my bother.
Terry: Interesting. So, tell me, did you have any siblings?
I have heard some people get pissed at her for not seeming to pay attention to the interview. (And some pretty prominent figures that one would have thought that she would have taken greater care/interest about.)
That being said, she does usually get really good people on the show, so I listen anyway and grumble when she starts acting like an idiot.
I heard part of the Linus interview earlier today and found him interesting. (Never heard him other than through phospher.)
______
here is a sample: http://applefritter.com/hacks/index.html
I Rather like the machine in the Zenith radio case (wood), the popsicle stick case (also wood) the ShopMac, and the 33.6 in the antique toaster.
go up one level and look at the computers built out of building blocks.
______
Twice the carple tunnel...
Do they make a mirror version for when you blow out one hand from repetitive stress???
______
I don't mean to be glib about this (well, maybe a little), but where is your device you speculated about? What? Just speculating about a product isn't enough to magically make a finished device appear???
Just thinking about the fact that torching gas makes a nice explosion that can be harnessed, isn't the same thing as designing an internal combustion engine. A lot more work went into the design of the TiVo that just thinking about writing an MPEG stream to disk.
In fact, go back and re-read the patent. You will see that it is much more specific than what 90% of the posts here seem to think it is.
______
It is really easy to take a look at a finished product and declare how anyone could have thought of it.
In fact, hyperbole in place, everything that ever was invented or ever will be, would have eventually been thought of by someone else anyway, so why bother granting intellectual protection to encourage the investment of thought/energy in the creative process.
______
______
Let me put it another way--I can wedge two motherboards in a box and claim I have a dual processor machine.
The dual tape GO decks are little more that two VCR's in the same case.
______
Since I have to watch the TV to advance past the commercials, and if I am scanning I have to pay particular attention so I can detect when a show starts back up, I am a "captive audience at high speed."
You know how the _Mad Magazine_ inside back cover had the folding page that produced another image when compressed?
They should build commercials that are *also* meant to be viewed in "time-folded space" (ie, FF). I guess there are a handful of factors that would affect if this works (what scan speed, the FF start point affects which frames would be viewed), but I wonder if this wouldn't become an option as equipment becomes more standardized...
____
______
I have never understood that argument.
I have a VCR and a TiVo (108hrs) and I can skip commercials on either. In fact, I can do it with greater easy on the VCR because
A) the remote has a "skip Commercial" button that advances the tape 30 seconds (hit it X times (all breaks are predictable in lenght based on when in the show they happen) and you are back watching the show), and
B) the TiVo (v2.0.1) jumps you back further when you hit play and I haven't gotten the hang of this yet, so I still see the last few seconds of commercials anyways.
So, why do people keep making this noise about PVR's "cheating" the advertiser, when we have had this tech since the BetaMax (early 80's?)
_____
______
It is the teen's job to rebel against this. And do everything to thwart a system like this.
If nothing else this will teach kids good computer skills as they try to hack the school's computer for something else than changing grades.
And I for one look forward to having kids, just so I can PING them all day long...
______
Every time I have looked at buying a processor upgrade for a machine, I start looking at A) other things that have to be upgraded due to a change in the processor (like a motherboard for example--and if the mother board changes, don't you have to, at the rate things change, buy other new parts like newer RAM) and B) Things that would be nice to add (but not necessary) to bring the machine in line with more recent developments (USB 2.0 or FireWIre for example).
You start nickle and diming your system up with all of these add ons, and I find that it is just much cheaper to go out and buy a new system with the latest everything on it.
But if you insist on upgrading your processor and motherboard, what are you left with? RAM, Harddrives, PCI/AGP/ISA cards, a case and a power supply.
If the motherboard changes, the RAM is probably useless. No Gain.
You can keep the HD, but who wants a 2 year-old 10GB HD when you can pick up an 80GB new one for 200$USD. No real gain.
All of the cards you can pickup and move to another machine just as easy as keep them in the same box, and besides, these get upgraded by themselves at will everytime the latest 3-D grafix card or whatnot comes out. No Gain
So, gee... upgrading saved you the cost of a powersupply and a case. Big deal.
Buy a new computer, migrate all of your latest cards into it (moving the slightly older ones they replaced back into the old box), get a KVM box, and then toss *BSD, Linux, BeOS, or something else on the old box, and now you have two systems--One to work on, and the other to play with a new OS on.
Or just donate you old computer to a school or the like and get the tax credit.
______
CA electricity was *NOT* deregulated. They just reregulated it in a different fashion, and slapped a new label on it:
Joe Idiot on the street was fooled into thinking that their electric service was going to be stream-lined and more affordable because it was now "deregulated". Of course this wasn't true.
And now everyone is blaming deregulation without bothering to think about what really is the case.