1. My dream TiVo would have ethernet(fast) and USB 2.0 ports, 2 or more. 1a. The USB ports should be able to be used to add additional storage in an external hard drive. 2. The TiVo should be able to have ANY show recorded on its downloaded to your PC for conversion to any video file format you want, not the shows dictated by networks. 3. The TiVo should be able view/play more than mp3s and pictures over your home network, ie. video mpgs, divx, xvid files using plugins. 4. You should be able to copy media files onto your TiVo. 4a. You should be able manage media files on your TiVo. 5. TiVo should have the choice to download program info from other places, FREE places,they can continue to give their own if it has some value added to it. 6. Not to mention HD recording. EXTRA. User upgradable (hackable)
Those are just the main features I would like. This might mean tey have to move away from the subscription method, except maybe for updates or lower the amount. They are not making a profit and are going to be supplanted by cable companies with their cheaper pvrs rented to customers.
The phone issue occurred when I moved out of state to go to school and did not have a home phone line, just my cell phone. So I was unable to change my TiVo setup from cable source to antenna source. When I entered the setup program to change sources it asked for a phone, when I didn't have it I could NOT get out of the setup, it just stayed there demanding to make a call. My TiVo became completely useless, even after rebooting it returned to the setup program. So I had to carry my TiVo and cables to some far off apartment with a phone line and do the 30 minute setup there.
The main feature of TiVo is the program guide functions associated with season passes, but the device shouldn't be handicapped to only work with program guide material when it still can record. My nephew cannot even record something he is watching at that moment by pressing the record button, why would I need program info to record what I seeing at that very moment. Plus there are many places you can get program times for FREE; where does FreeVo or whoever get their info. If the TiVo is self sufficient you could theoretically get program material elsewhere without them at all. Plus an ethernet port cost basically nothing, it is anymore than one USB port. The Media Option basically necessitates a network so why not include in right out of the box. Believe me I used to and sort of still love TiVo. But I got a little turned off when I saw its limits and saw that they were self imposed limits.
I remember the good old days when I could hit record and hit confirm and just record a fragment of a show, then hit stop when I was done; this is great for recording videos. Now after some 'upgrades' all recording is based on recording whole shows, which isn't bad, even when you are using the instant record feature. If you are watching a tv and want to record something you are watching at the moment, you have to hit the record button, then it take you to a full screen menu asking you to record in High quality or a lower quality; required no less than 5 or more clicks of the remote not adding navigation. Before you could do it in about 2 clicks with a maximum of one navigation move, while still watching the show without going to a fullscreen menu.
They could try to move into the Windows arena and make software to compete with Windows Media PC. Sure there are Linux programs that act like TiVo, but Windows is bigger and that could carry them. Vendors could build these Media PCs and put TiVo software on there instead of Windows pvr software. Then they could build interoperability with the set-top. TiVo is chasing volume, and with a tech device the best way to do that is put as many features people want in it and also allow for newer features to be added, some not even from the company itself. Look at the way they half heartedly added the Media Option; pictures and mp3s, who cares.
They could save themselves, but do they want to. For God's sake, put a damn fast ethernet port in the device.
They were so busy allowing 'content' providers to decide what features to include they forgot to keep an eye on the market. The law about timeshifting was on there side so have the balls to put on the features that will keep at the head of the pack. They could have been selling branded TiVos to cable companies, just like the DirecTV TiVo. The should have encouraged the hackable TiVo. Since anyone can make a pvr they should have made it more open so they would be the M$ of pvrs. Now it seems they are moving to put TiVo on the PC, something that people had been wanting for years.
I knew it was a bad sign when Series 2 DID NOT come with an ethernet port, my god; just so they could sell licenses to TiVo certified USB ethernet cards. Plus the company seems to have moved away from the geeky silicon valley feel, if it was ever there to the greedy dumbass business types who want as much control as possible but forgot what made them successful. You cannot even set up a TiVo without a phone line or internet connection to connect to them. Something as simple as switching from cable source to antenna source has become a pain. On the Series 1 you could do manual recordings without a subscription. My nephew got Series 2 and you cannot do anything but switch channels without a subscription. That kind of crap annoys the hell out of me. They want absolute control of everything and still want their hand in your pocket after you buy the device. It was fun while it lasted Hopefully some company will make a device that did what the TiVo didn't, or maybe they'll just hack the Xbox 2.
If they really wanted to stop gun violence that would make sure the gun laws were strictly being enforced and kept guns off the street. It says a lot about a society that would rather wait for guns to be fired in the civilian setting then try and find who dunnit.
Put all the detectors in poor and minority neighborhoods with gun shots going off everyday and then catch some guys so you can give them their 3rd strike and lock them away forever.
How about keeping the guns out of your state and off the streets. When you are playing that kind of catch up you have already lost.
And who says the cops would come to those high crime neighborhoods anyway when they know suspect is armed; in some of those places it can take 30 minutes for cops or ambulance to come. I'm sure cops want to run right into the middle of a gun battle, they would rather arrest you in your underwear while you are sleeping.
We don't even need touch screen voting machines. I think the best solution which allows for fast counting and a paper trail is the scan-tron ballot in which you fill in the circle next to your candidates and the computer counts it when you feed it into the machine. That is all you need. No secret code running some algorithm adding or subtracting votes from a candidate without us knowing.
That is a much less ambiguous voting system.
You should know something is wrong when after 2000 the solution was new secret black box voting created by big corporations who are benefitting from the current administration.
Lets not jump for joy quite yet. Bush hasn't been known for appointing moderates. This might be so they have a new face with less baggage to push for Patriot Act II, or just abuse Patriot Act I some more. I am not sure how hard Democratic Senators will fight new appointments.
I heard it mentioned Giuliani wanted the job. He as been trying to parle 9-11 into a bigger political career. He might be a lot worse, don't forget Giuliani started the NO TOLERANCE laws in NY and arrested the homeless. Giuliani has been shilling around for Bush these last few months. He has been shouting down anyone who doesn't agree and claiming they cannot disagree because we are in the middle of a war. As though being a lemming would get us out of this mess.
I really love my Mandrake installation, I think it is 8.x.
I've downloaded some 9.x distro and 10 before but cannot use them. You install all the packages then you get some disabled version that only has a few applications and that it unless you join the club. Is that what Linux is about, limited OS unless you pay licensing fees.
ICANN just controls or maintains the registration of domain names. Since when did they exercise control of the content of the internet? And if we move web registration from ICANN to a government that is still not control.
The simplest solution is to limit content on machine based on the laws of the country they are placed. Other countries should not believe they can dictate to others what is allowed.
Just because they have the IP that is not enough to trace the guy back to his house. He logged in a someone else's AOL account, they could get the IP from AOL. AOL could backtrack to the modem bank that gave out that IP.
The IP has no connection what so ever to someone's home when they are on a modem. So then AOL/FBI had to find out what phone number called and got that IP assigned, then they either looked up the guys address on a GOOGLE search or put the screws to the phone company to give them an address to the number.
What happens when the company can make an onboard system that allows bugging and doesn't disable road side assistance?
The article said it came from a case about listening on criminals who stole a car. What about cases not involving car theft?
If you do not have the service shouldn't it be illegal for them to activate the service just to use it to spy on you? That isn't like using a phone and then having it bugged.
The Cold War is over but obviously we need an enemy so we claim the Evil Doers are working on this, Iran come on, maybe we should invade them then. This is just another aggressive move by the US, which then gets turned into THOSE other people are the danger and we are just reacting to them.
It is being developed at a US military base, another government would think the government is planning something for THOSE who aren't with us and therefore against us. I'm sure the CIA would love an non-contagious sure fire assassination weapon like that.
9-11 CANNOT be used as the answer to everything. We cannot do anything we want and then when asked say, ohh remember Sept. 11, be Patriotic. I don't think guys using boxcutters, AK-47s and C4 are really up to genetic engineering, you do enough damage without seeking perfection.
I recently came back from Africa on the equator where it is possible to run your house on solar power. Has anyone heard of hybrid makers combining solar power also to help recharge the battery, and not just the regenerative breaking.
As I heard it the terrorists were using computers in the libraries to keep in touch. I never heard of 9/11 hijackers ever taking out any book related to their act, they might have but I have not heard that raised yet.
So now they are using the mere fact that the terrorists were in a library to have secret courts and secret police track your reading habbits under J Edgar Ashcroft. So what about college computers that anyone can use without signing up or passwords, how about internet cafes or wireless hotspots that give free access. Will they now shut all those things down or require people to track anyone that uses them.
1. First of all where does the movie industry get off trying to mandate the standards in any industry outside the movie industry, they didn't create the TV, CD, DVD or any media to my knowledge. They should suddenly set the standards for hardware that is capable or delivery their content. Then do stop all piracy maybe the MPAA will decide the internet protocols that allow so many downloads, the routers that pass the traffic, the CD/DVD/TV/radio/floppy/hard drive/anything makers that in any possible way could delivery movies.
a. Why should I have to pay a royalty to some "media" guy for buying a blank piece of media that may or may not have something people like him publish.
2. The MPAA is more like a censorship board then a purely rating board, just listen to the commentary on some of you dvds like Gladiator or Scream, they don't rate content, they decide what content is allowed, what happened to the right of the artists.
3. "What is fair use? Fair use is not a law. There's nothing in law." I don't remember any copyright law that somebody didn't pay to put it.
4. How would have censorship made the Vietnam War anymore winnable. The government is supposed to win are support for a war without giving truthful information.
Lastly. What happened to the free market, where does it say it is the government's job to protect an industry or business model from itself. It's not the governments job to keep you afloat even if you are sinking, movies are a utility. They don't want change so they pay big money for bill's to stop any.
Is MS going to put in all those new features they want in the MS Home Media Network, meaning PVR anyone, media player over home network or XBox as a hub/router. Sony shrunk the PS1 and what did that really do. The XBox is big but making the same thing in a smaller package really is anything.
The government uses tax money to support research and then publishes the results to the public for free. Now the researchers have to pay, using their grant money from the government to pay private companies what the government provided internally. Now the tax payer is still paying for research but we are paying more to greedy information hordes.
I was under the impression that Nintendo bought Rare completely or had a majority stake in it. Is M$'s plan to buy every competitor's top developer and have them stop making games for the original partners. What about Donkey Kong Racing and Perfect Dark 2 for the Gamecube. Next they'll buy Namco or EA and kill the PS2.
Thats a shame since the only 2 shows I watched on SciFi was SG-1 and Farscape. I thought they were trying to move into creating original show for themselves, now they just dump one and do what.
They do known that to expect from patent restrictions otherwise they wouldn't have turned it down. The engineered corn would affect the exports and food they grow for themselves.
They would care because the US has no problem taking poorer nations to the WTO because of patent issue, just look at what the US is doing to Brazil and Uganda over AIDS vaccine usage.
THe Zimbabwe President is on the outs with the West for his land reforms and this engineered corn is a countermeasure. If even Britain isn't allowing engineered corn why is the US trying to push it on poorer nations. There isn't a food shortage anywhere in the world because of the lack of use of engineered plants. Engineered food biggest benefits is for the patent holder not mankind. I do not fear engineered food but most situations are not so grave that we need to use them over natural food.
I was at the Club in Boston on Friday and all the games looked great. Only one seem kind of DOA, it looked like a Resident Evil clone but it might take a bit to get into. WaveRace was its usual great on all accounts. I liked the idea of Pikmin and its look but I didn't get into it, it does have great promise. I didn't get around to playing Luigi's Mansion or Rogue Squadron but those 2 titles really make the system shine. They actually where able to turn the lame N64 version of Courtside to a good cube game, Courtside 2002. Madden was like someone else said, looked like a broadcast. Smash Brothers was Smash Brothers but a better system made it better also. If you don't want a gamecube that's one thing but it is far from lame. I only played Monkey Ball battle a little, but the game comes highly rated.
P.S. They gave out Nintendo Powers with a CD with demos of the first 10 games include an amazing demo of SSX. You could win one for just going so it is a win-win.
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1. My dream TiVo would have ethernet(fast) and USB 2.0 ports, 2 or more.
1a. The USB ports should be able to be used to add additional storage in an external hard drive.
2. The TiVo should be able to have ANY show recorded on its downloaded to your PC for conversion to any video file format you want, not the shows dictated by networks.
3. The TiVo should be able view/play more than mp3s and pictures over your home network, ie. video mpgs, divx, xvid files using plugins.
4. You should be able to copy media files onto your TiVo.
4a. You should be able manage media files on your TiVo.
5. TiVo should have the choice to download program info from other places, FREE places,they can continue to give their own if it has some value added to it.
6. Not to mention HD recording.
EXTRA. User upgradable (hackable)
Those are just the main features I would like. This might mean tey have to move away from the subscription method, except maybe for updates or lower the amount. They are not making a profit and are going to be supplanted by cable companies with their cheaper pvrs rented to customers.
The phone issue occurred when I moved out of state to go to school and did not have a home phone line, just my cell phone. So I was unable to change my TiVo setup from cable source to antenna source. When I entered the setup program to change sources it asked for a phone, when I didn't have it I could NOT get out of the setup, it just stayed there demanding to make a call. My TiVo became completely useless, even after rebooting it returned to the setup program. So I had to carry my TiVo and cables to some far off apartment with a phone line and do the 30 minute setup there.
The main feature of TiVo is the program guide functions associated with season passes, but the device shouldn't be handicapped to only work with program guide material when it still can record. My nephew cannot even record something he is watching at that moment by pressing the record button, why would I need program info to record what I seeing at that very moment. Plus there are many places you can get program times for FREE; where does FreeVo or whoever get their info.
If the TiVo is self sufficient you could theoretically get program material elsewhere without them at all.
Plus an ethernet port cost basically nothing, it is anymore than one USB port. The Media Option basically necessitates a network so why not include in right out of the box.
Believe me I used to and sort of still love TiVo. But I got a little turned off when I saw its limits and saw that they were self imposed limits.
I remember the good old days when I could hit record and hit confirm and just record a fragment of a show, then hit stop when I was done; this is great for recording videos. Now after some 'upgrades' all recording is based on recording whole shows, which isn't bad, even when you are using the instant record feature. If you are watching a tv and want to record something you are watching at the moment, you have to hit the record button, then it take you to a full screen menu asking you to record in High quality or a lower quality; required no less than 5 or more clicks of the remote not adding navigation. Before you could do it in about 2 clicks with a maximum of one navigation move, while still watching the show without going to a fullscreen menu.
They could try to move into the Windows arena and make software to compete with Windows Media PC. Sure there are Linux programs that act like TiVo, but Windows is bigger and that could carry them. Vendors could build these Media PCs and put TiVo software on there instead of Windows pvr software. Then they could build interoperability with the set-top.
TiVo is chasing volume, and with a tech device the best way to do that is put as many features people want in it and also allow for newer features to be added, some not even from the company itself.
Look at the way they half heartedly added the Media Option; pictures and mp3s, who cares.
They could save themselves, but do they want to.
For God's sake, put a damn fast ethernet port in the device.
They were so busy allowing 'content' providers to decide what features to include they forgot to keep an eye on the market. The law about timeshifting was on there side so have the balls to put on the features that will keep at the head of the pack.
They could have been selling branded TiVos to cable companies, just like the DirecTV TiVo. The should have encouraged the hackable TiVo. Since anyone can make a pvr they should have made it more open so they would be the M$ of pvrs. Now it seems they are moving to put TiVo on the PC, something that people had been wanting for years.
I knew it was a bad sign when Series 2 DID NOT come with an ethernet port, my god; just so they could sell licenses to TiVo certified USB ethernet cards.
Plus the company seems to have moved away from the geeky silicon valley feel, if it was ever there to the greedy dumbass business types who want as much control as possible but forgot what made them successful.
You cannot even set up a TiVo without a phone line or internet connection to connect to them. Something as simple as switching from cable source to antenna source has become a pain.
On the Series 1 you could do manual recordings without a subscription. My nephew got Series 2 and you cannot do anything but switch channels without a subscription. That kind of crap annoys the hell out of me. They want absolute control of everything and still want their hand in your pocket after you buy the device.
It was fun while it lasted
Hopefully some company will make a device that did what the TiVo didn't, or maybe they'll just hack the Xbox 2.
Put all the detectors in poor and minority neighborhoods with gun shots going off everyday and then catch some guys so you can give them their 3rd strike and lock them away forever.
How about keeping the guns out of your state and off the streets. When you are playing that kind of catch up you have already lost.
And who says the cops would come to those high crime neighborhoods anyway when they know suspect is armed; in some of those places it can take 30 minutes for cops or ambulance to come. I'm sure cops want to run right into the middle of a gun battle, they would rather arrest you in your underwear while you are sleeping.
That is a much less ambiguous voting system. You should know something is wrong when after 2000 the solution was new secret black box voting created by big corporations who are benefitting from the current administration.
I heard it mentioned Giuliani wanted the job. He as been trying to parle 9-11 into a bigger political career. He might be a lot worse, don't forget Giuliani started the NO TOLERANCE laws in NY and arrested the homeless. Giuliani has been shilling around for Bush these last few months. He has been shouting down anyone who doesn't agree and claiming they cannot disagree because we are in the middle of a war. As though being a lemming would get us out of this mess.
I really love my Mandrake installation, I think it is 8.x.
I've downloaded some 9.x distro and 10 before but cannot use them. You install all the packages then you get some disabled version that only has a few applications and that it unless you join the club. Is that what Linux is about, limited OS unless you pay licensing fees.
ICANN just controls or maintains the registration of domain names. Since when did they exercise control of the content of the internet? And if we move web registration from ICANN to a government that is still not control.
The simplest solution is to limit content on machine based on the laws of the country they are placed. Other countries should not believe they can dictate to others what is allowed.
Just because they have the IP that is not enough to trace the guy back to his house. He logged in a someone else's AOL account, they could get the IP from AOL. AOL could backtrack to the modem bank that gave out that IP.
The IP has no connection what so ever to someone's home when they are on a modem. So then AOL/FBI had to find out what phone number called and got that IP assigned, then they either looked up the guys address on a GOOGLE search or put the screws to the phone company to give them an address to the number.
What happens when the company can make an onboard system that allows bugging and doesn't disable road side assistance?
The article said it came from a case about listening on criminals who stole a car. What about cases not involving car theft?
If you do not have the service shouldn't it be illegal for them to activate the service just to use it to spy on you? That isn't like using a phone and then having it bugged.
The Cold War is over but obviously we need an enemy so we claim the Evil Doers are working on this, Iran come on, maybe we should invade them then. This is just another aggressive move by the US, which then gets turned into THOSE other people are the danger and we are just reacting to them.
It is being developed at a US military base, another government would think the government is planning something for THOSE who aren't with us and therefore against us. I'm sure the CIA would love an non-contagious sure fire assassination weapon like that.
9-11 CANNOT be used as the answer to everything. We cannot do anything we want and then when asked say, ohh remember Sept. 11, be Patriotic. I don't think guys using boxcutters, AK-47s and C4 are really up to genetic engineering, you do enough damage without seeking perfection.
I recently came back from Africa on the equator where it is possible to run your house on solar power. Has anyone heard of hybrid makers combining solar power also to help recharge the battery, and not just the regenerative breaking.
As I heard it the terrorists were using computers in the libraries to keep in touch. I never heard of 9/11 hijackers ever taking out any book related to their act, they might have but I have not heard that raised yet.
So now they are using the mere fact that the terrorists were in a library to have secret courts and secret police track your reading habbits under J Edgar Ashcroft.
So what about college computers that anyone can use without signing up or passwords, how about internet cafes or wireless hotspots that give free access. Will they now shut all those things down or require people to track anyone that uses them.
1. First of all where does the movie industry get off trying to mandate the standards in any industry outside the movie industry, they didn't create the TV, CD, DVD or any media to my knowledge. They should suddenly set the standards for hardware that is capable or delivery their content. Then do stop all piracy maybe the MPAA will decide the internet protocols that allow so many downloads, the routers that pass the traffic, the CD/DVD/TV/radio/floppy/hard drive/anything makers that in any possible way could delivery movies.
a. Why should I have to pay a royalty to some "media" guy for buying a blank piece of media that may or may not have something people like him publish.
2. The MPAA is more like a censorship board then a purely rating board, just listen to the commentary on some of you dvds like Gladiator or Scream, they don't rate content, they decide what content is allowed, what happened to the right of the artists.
3. "What is fair use? Fair use is not a law. There's nothing in law." I don't remember any copyright law that somebody didn't pay to put it.
4. How would have censorship made the Vietnam War anymore winnable. The government is supposed to win are support for a war without giving truthful information.
Lastly. What happened to the free market, where does it say it is the government's job to protect an industry or business model from itself. It's not the governments job to keep you afloat even if you are sinking, movies are a utility. They don't want change so they pay big money for bill's to stop any.
Is MS going to put in all those new features they want in the MS Home Media Network, meaning PVR anyone, media player over home network or XBox as a hub/router. Sony shrunk the PS1 and what did that really do. The XBox is big but making the same thing in a smaller package really is anything.
The government uses tax money to support research and then publishes the results to the public for free. Now the researchers have to pay, using their grant money from the government to pay private companies what the government provided internally. Now the tax payer is still paying for research but we are paying more to greedy information hordes.
I was under the impression that Nintendo bought Rare completely or had a majority stake in it. Is M$'s plan to buy every competitor's top developer and have them stop making games for the original partners. What about Donkey Kong Racing and Perfect Dark 2 for the Gamecube. Next they'll buy Namco or EA and kill the PS2.
Thats a shame since the only 2 shows I watched on SciFi was SG-1 and Farscape. I thought they were trying to move into creating original show for themselves, now they just dump one and do what.
They do known that to expect from patent restrictions otherwise they wouldn't have turned it down. The engineered corn would affect the exports and food they grow for themselves.
They would care because the US has no problem taking poorer nations to the WTO because of patent issue, just look at what the US is doing to Brazil and Uganda over AIDS vaccine usage.
THe Zimbabwe President is on the outs with the West for his land reforms and this engineered corn is a countermeasure. If even Britain isn't allowing engineered corn why is the US trying to push it on poorer nations. There isn't a food shortage anywhere in the world because of the lack of use of engineered plants. Engineered food biggest benefits is for the patent holder not mankind. I do not fear engineered food but most situations are not so grave that we need to use them over natural food.
I was at the Club in Boston on Friday and all the games looked great. Only one seem kind of DOA, it looked like a Resident Evil clone but it might take a bit to get into. WaveRace was its usual great on all accounts. I liked the idea of Pikmin and its look but I didn't get into it, it does have great promise. I didn't get around to playing Luigi's Mansion or Rogue Squadron but those 2 titles really make the system shine. They actually where able to turn the lame N64 version of Courtside to a good cube game, Courtside 2002. Madden was like someone else said, looked like a broadcast. Smash Brothers was Smash Brothers but a better system made it better also. If you don't want a gamecube that's one thing but it is far from lame. I only played Monkey Ball battle a little, but the game comes highly rated.
P.S. They gave out Nintendo Powers with a CD with demos of the first 10 games include an amazing demo of SSX. You could win one for just going so it is a win-win.