Besides, one typically pays the lifetime service fee doesn't have to pay a monthly subscription. Even though the hardware will depreciate to $0 value in a couple years, the lifetime service never goes down in value if you decide to resell.
Indeed, I bought my $200 standalone at a time where both Circuit City and TiVo were offering $100 rebates, so I got the unit for the $200 lifetime service fee. On top of that, since the lifetime service fee has since increased, I can probably sell the thing for a profit.
Not that I'd want to...
Re:If anyone's interested in picking one up...
on
Book Review: Hacking TiVo
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I think the price decrease is across the board, as well--you might find Hughes units at 99 at Circuit City.
I'm not sure about your setup--I live in a condo, and hence the dishes I use are multi-dwelling units, and so my signal comes in via a single stacked and diplexed coax line. I need to destack it, re-diplex it, and then feed both the odd and even transponder signals to the DTivo.
When you say your basement only has one input, does that mean just one coax drop? If so, you'll either want to run another length of cable down, or stack the odd and even transponder signals on the one line (and destack after it comes out. Since stackers run in the hundred+ dollar range, I think the extra cabling would be a more cost effective option.
If, however, you're already using a Sony B-55 DirecTV receiver (what I believe is known as a wideband receiver) down there, you might already have a stacked signal going down to the basement, and all you'd need is a destacker and a signal splitter.
Otherwise, you might look into putting the Basement TiVo with your living room setup and using something like a remote and video sender combination or something that to get reception in the basement...
This thread at the Tivo community forum was most helpful in figuring out my problem with the stackers and destackers.
As far as I know, you can't do this with TiVo, but you can fast-forward at speeds up to 60x the regular broadcast rate. Your usual commercial break takes less than a minute to run through, and you can optionally go back to check out the Victoria Secret commercial that they snuck in there.
I think eliminating the recording of commercials is something that TiVo (the company) would be leery of doing especially since they want to stay in business.
TiVo has just marked down the early Series 2 DirecTiVo units (35 hour capacity) to 100 dollars. Best Buy is currently selling the Philips DSR7000 unit for 93 dollars. You obviously need to have DirecTV to use the unit, however.
The Standalone 40 and 80 hours are still running between 200-300 dollars.
...I thought we were training children to be sneaky and hide in shadows, a la Splinter Cell
Re:Isn't TIVO bankrupt yet?
on
Open Source at TiVo
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· Score: 3, Interesting
selling hardware that forces you to pay monthly fees for unnecessary service, and leaving you with a useless piece of garbage when they finally die
I believe that TiVo has stated that if they do go out of business, they'll open the scheduling code so that users aren't left with useless pieces of garbage.
The Nevada Gaming commission says otherwise. Card counting is not officially cheating, but as a business, the casino has the option of refusing to let you play.
In fact, many, but not all, casino's will sell a 'cheat sheet' that shows what the odds are in each situation.
Not a cheat sheet, per se. Basic strategy (which is what the card teaches) is the way you can minimize the house edge by following a few generally accepted rules--but the house still maintains an edge.
There are very few people that can sit at a table and count cards by themselves, without any outside assistance.
Depends on the system. In the most common system, they don't really keep track of every card, but maintain a running sum of the low vs. high cards which have been dealt.
Once the cheats have a hot deck, they ramp up their bets to take the house for all they can. they *know* the deck will pay out, and they adjust their bet to take as much money as they can.
They don't necessarily *know* the deck will pay out--they have a higher percentage chance of hitting the cards they need or having the dealer bust out.
Of course, if you read the article, you'd realize that they're not going to develop the "clone" to have any lifespan--they're trying to create a method to harvest stem cells (without the need for abortions).
Trailer makers use music from all over--music from Come See the Paradise for Rob Roy's trailer, music from Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story for the Forrest Gump trailer, music from Last of the Mohicans in many trailers, Braveheart included.
Face it, since the movie is still in production, they're likely not going to hire some composer to come up with music just for the trailer. On a few occasions they do, like Men in Black, Titanic, and Judge Dredd, but in the latter case, Jerry Goldsmith decided to do another movie at the last minute.
There's two ways of looking at it. The more jaded among us might point our fingers at insider trading, and the use of the lawsuit to pump up the stock price before bailing.
Then again, Wilson and the others (most of whom I've never seen interviewed in a Linux/IBM/SCO lawsuit-related article) might be part of the Caldera old-guard who believe that the lawsuit is stupid, baseless, or suicidal and are using this opportune time to pull out of an investment that they believe is doomed to fail.
You should read the article. A computer isn't intimidated by bluffing or aggression, and it has a better capability to analyze betting patterns, pot odds, and drawing odds.
If you've got AK(s) and the computer has a pair of tens, your raising T$100,000 might scare some meat players out, but given the circumstances, the computer might just call you and win.
A computer, properly programmed, can be relied upon to do the right thing.
You have high confidence in programmers.
As for Airbus jets: most airplane crashes occur due to pilot error. Others occur due to mechanical failure. Very few accidents of any sort have ever occurred due to computer failure. Therefore, I would think that a computer, which probably has a much better grip on the situation, given that airplanes have hundreds of sensors that a pilot could not possibly monitor simultaneously, is better prepared to make certain decisions.
Isn't one accident, one too many? I'm not insisting that the computer not have a part in the system--I'm suggesting that these fly-by-wire systems should not be so rigid as to completely lock-out the human factor.
When pilots can recount a few stories (enough to merit an entire television program) where they had to fight with the computer to either get it to recognize that either its input or actions were wrong, I'd say the system has some serious design flaws (linked article is long, but very informative).
And until we (as the human race) have acheived complete infallibility, the system will continue to have design flaws.
I can see your side of things, but with computers becoming more and more ubiquitous, I think there's a real danger to assuming that a computer is always going to do the right thing. Especially as a programmer, I find my trust of computer programs to do that "Right Thing" declining every day.
The Airbus problem can be even worse than your usual Microsoft Word spell checker screwup, because of the complexity of the interface. In this case, it got some 250 or so people killed.
Why should techology -- with less sensory input and a poorer decision making ability -- be permitted to do this?
Because a lot of people have an inexplicable confidence in technology. They think computers are infallible. Airbus jets, for example, are programmed to override the pilot in crisis situations.
In all honesty, I don't even know if the takeover would be hostile. As others have hypothesized, all of these machinations appear as though Darl is inviting a buy-out option for IBM.
Personally, I'd prefer the multi-billion dollar countersuit so their respective fortunes are laid waste for burnination...
The problem here is that one major alternative for IBM to escape this idiocy is to buy SCO outright. In that case, then SCOX shares skyrocket, and you might lose your shirt.
I first found Uplink about two years ago, and it was the first time I'd been obsessed with playing a computer game since Star Control II. Despite the simple interface (or perhaps because of it), the game was extremely involving--you learned your way around systems and security. I have a few reservations about Uplink though--once you've learned how to hack well, and you've earned enough credits for some really good equipment, the game becomes rather repetitive, and the storyline isn't especially compelling enough to warrant more than two replays.
As Washington National Cathedral approached completion, the west towers rose towards the sky, striking toward heaven. During the building a startling idea was hatched: hold a competition for children to design decorative sculpture for the Cathedral.
Word of the competition was spread nationwide through National Geographic World Magazine. The third-place winner was Christopher Rader, with his drawing of that fearful villain, Darth Vader. The fierce head was sculpted by Jay Hall Carpenter, carved by Patrick J. Plunkett and placed high upon the northwest tower of the Cathedral...
Slashdot Mirror
Besides, one typically pays the lifetime service fee doesn't have to pay a monthly subscription. Even though the hardware will depreciate to $0 value in a couple years, the lifetime service never goes down in value if you decide to resell.
Indeed, I bought my $200 standalone at a time where both Circuit City and TiVo were offering $100 rebates, so I got the unit for the $200 lifetime service fee. On top of that, since the lifetime service fee has since increased, I can probably sell the thing for a profit.
Not that I'd want to...
I think the price decrease is across the board, as well--you might find Hughes units at 99 at Circuit City.
I'm not sure about your setup--I live in a condo, and hence the dishes I use are multi-dwelling units, and so my signal comes in via a single stacked and diplexed coax line. I need to destack it, re-diplex it, and then feed both the odd and even transponder signals to the DTivo.
When you say your basement only has one input, does that mean just one coax drop? If so, you'll either want to run another length of cable down, or stack the odd and even transponder signals on the one line (and destack after it comes out. Since stackers run in the hundred+ dollar range, I think the extra cabling would be a more cost effective option.
If, however, you're already using a Sony B-55 DirecTV receiver (what I believe is known as a wideband receiver) down there, you might already have a stacked signal going down to the basement, and all you'd need is a destacker and a signal splitter.
Otherwise, you might look into putting the Basement TiVo with your living room setup and using something like a remote and video sender combination or something that to get reception in the basement...
This thread at the Tivo community forum was most helpful in figuring out my problem with the stackers and destackers.
Hope this helps...
I'm an existing subscriber, and I picked it up for the $93 price. Good luck finding one, I had to drive all over town to find one in stock.
The discounted price is really worth it because I need about $100 in equipment to hook it up...
As far as I know, you can't do this with TiVo, but you can fast-forward at speeds up to 60x the regular broadcast rate. Your usual commercial break takes less than a minute to run through, and you can optionally go back to check out the Victoria Secret commercial that they snuck in there.
I think eliminating the recording of commercials is something that TiVo (the company) would be leery of doing especially since they want to stay in business.
TiVo has just marked down the early Series 2 DirecTiVo units (35 hour capacity) to 100 dollars. Best Buy is currently selling the Philips DSR7000 unit for 93 dollars. You obviously need to have DirecTV to use the unit, however.
The Standalone 40 and 80 hours are still running between 200-300 dollars.
Or just hold down Shift when you pop the CD into the drive...
...I thought we were training children to be sneaky and hide in shadows, a la Splinter Cell
selling hardware that forces you to pay monthly fees for unnecessary service, and leaving you with a useless piece of garbage when they finally die
I believe that TiVo has stated that if they do go out of business, they'll open the scheduling code so that users aren't left with useless pieces of garbage.
No, card counting is cheating.
The Nevada Gaming commission says otherwise. Card counting is not officially cheating, but as a business, the casino has the option of refusing to let you play.
In fact, many, but not all, casino's will sell a 'cheat sheet' that shows what the odds are in each situation.
Not a cheat sheet, per se. Basic strategy (which is what the card teaches) is the way you can minimize the house edge by following a few generally accepted rules--but the house still maintains an edge.
There are very few people that can sit at a table and count cards by themselves, without any outside assistance.
Depends on the system. In the most common system, they don't really keep track of every card, but maintain a running sum of the low vs. high cards which have been dealt.
Once the cheats have a hot deck, they ramp up their bets to take the house for all they can. they *know* the deck will pay out, and they adjust their bet to take as much money as they can.
They don't necessarily *know* the deck will pay out--they have a higher percentage chance of hitting the cards they need or having the dealer bust out.
Card counters don't literally count every card. They usually keep a running count of how many low (3-6) vs. high (10s and Aces) card have been dealt.
Could someone give me some insight as to why in the world we need rabbit-human hybrids?
I think reading the article could give you insight as to why in the world we need rabbit-human hybrids...
Of course, if you read the article, you'd realize that they're not going to develop the "clone" to have any lifespan--they're trying to create a method to harvest stem cells (without the need for abortions).
Trailer makers use music from all over--music from Come See the Paradise for Rob Roy's trailer, music from Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story for the Forrest Gump trailer, music from Last of the Mohicans in many trailers, Braveheart included.
Face it, since the movie is still in production, they're likely not going to hire some composer to come up with music just for the trailer. On a few occasions they do, like Men in Black, Titanic, and Judge Dredd, but in the latter case, Jerry Goldsmith decided to do another movie at the last minute.
Get used to it.
There's two ways of looking at it. The more jaded among us might point our fingers at insider trading, and the use of the lawsuit to pump up the stock price before bailing.
Then again, Wilson and the others (most of whom I've never seen interviewed in a Linux/IBM/SCO lawsuit-related article) might be part of the Caldera old-guard who believe that the lawsuit is stupid, baseless, or suicidal and are using this opportune time to pull out of an investment that they believe is doomed to fail.
You should read the article. A computer isn't intimidated by bluffing or aggression, and it has a better capability to analyze betting patterns, pot odds, and drawing odds.
If you've got AK(s) and the computer has a pair of tens, your raising T$100,000 might scare some meat players out, but given the circumstances, the computer might just call you and win.
A computer, properly programmed, can be relied upon to do the right thing.
You have high confidence in programmers.
As for Airbus jets: most airplane crashes occur due to pilot error. Others occur due to mechanical failure. Very few accidents of any sort have ever occurred due to computer failure. Therefore, I would think that a computer, which probably has a much better grip on the situation, given that airplanes have hundreds of sensors that a pilot could not possibly monitor simultaneously, is better prepared to make certain decisions.
Isn't one accident, one too many? I'm not insisting that the computer not have a part in the system--I'm suggesting that these fly-by-wire systems should not be so rigid as to completely lock-out the human factor.
When pilots can recount a few stories (enough to merit an entire television program) where they had to fight with the computer to either get it to recognize that either its input or actions were wrong, I'd say the system has some serious design flaws (linked article is long, but very informative).
And until we (as the human race) have acheived complete infallibility, the system will continue to have design flaws.
This is a real good thing, in my opinion.
I can see your side of things, but with computers becoming more and more ubiquitous, I think there's a real danger to assuming that a computer is always going to do the right thing. Especially as a programmer, I find my trust of computer programs to do that "Right Thing" declining every day.
The Airbus problem can be even worse than your usual Microsoft Word spell checker screwup, because of the complexity of the interface. In this case, it got some 250 or so people killed.
Why should techology -- with less sensory input and a poorer decision making ability -- be permitted to do this?
Because a lot of people have an inexplicable confidence in technology. They think computers are infallible. Airbus jets, for example, are programmed to override the pilot in crisis situations.
I don't think it's an unfair suppository to make at all that Microsoft is viewing this as a high-risk low-cost gamble on SCO winning this fight.
I hate those unfair suppositories, especially from Microsoft.
I always knew Bill Gates was trying to shove something up my bunghole.
In all honesty, I don't even know if the takeover would be hostile. As others have hypothesized, all of these machinations appear as though Darl is inviting a buy-out option for IBM.
Personally, I'd prefer the multi-billion dollar countersuit so their respective fortunes are laid waste for burnination...
The problem here is that one major alternative for IBM to escape this idiocy is to buy SCO outright. In that case, then SCOX shares skyrocket, and you might lose your shirt.
...it died after about two months of steady use. It kind of has these little spasms now and then.
That sucks. I was thinking about getting one.
The Roomba sucks, Steve--The Segway blows...
I first found Uplink about two years ago, and it was the first time I'd been obsessed with playing a computer game since Star Control II. Despite the simple interface (or perhaps because of it), the game was extremely involving--you learned your way around systems and security. I have a few reservations about Uplink though--once you've learned how to hack well, and you've earned enough credits for some really good equipment, the game becomes rather repetitive, and the storyline isn't especially compelling enough to warrant more than two replays.
I look forward to Introversion's future work.
As Washington National Cathedral approached completion, the west towers rose towards the sky, striking toward heaven. During the building a startling idea was hatched: hold a competition for children to design decorative sculpture for the Cathedral.
Word of the competition was spread nationwide through National Geographic World Magazine. The third-place winner was Christopher Rader, with his drawing of that fearful villain, Darth Vader. The fierce head was sculpted by Jay Hall Carpenter, carved by Patrick J. Plunkett and placed high upon the northwest tower of the Cathedral...