I had FiOS internet installed a couple of years ago and the TV service installed over the summer in my home. I'll focus on the TV like the original article. I don't have a HD set, and I already owned a TiVo (with the lifetime subscription) so I just got the regular tuner box, not the DVR. Installation was pretty straight forward. My ONT was a little too old (it didn't have the sort of DOCSIS-like support that the modern ones have that allow the tuner boxes to call back and set up streaming video sessions), so I had to have a separate box installed on the network. It wasn't a problem, but it's the second wall plug Verizon has needed for FiOS (the first being on the ONT itself). Install took a couple of hours all told and the tech was very well informed and friendly. He didn't mind that I was using a TiVo instead of spending the extra $12/month for their DVR, he even supplied the somewhat oddball digital optical cables needed to connect the box to my receiver.
The box itself isn't bad. It has a program guide and a reasonably extensive selection of PPV and Video on Demand. There is even a decent amount of free VoD options. That said, the quality of the VoD is not all that wonderful (even at SD resolution), and the ones that they're actually trying to sell are grossly overpriced. For stuff you can purchase, the cost is generally in the $10-$15/hour range, and for something that you can only view for a couple of hours and has somewhat crummy quality I can't see myself ever using it. Frankly, even the free VoD offerings aren't all that compelling and I've used the feature a grand total of twice--both times I was just playing around too. Example free VoD things are: One of the better sketches from the latest Robot Chicken, A discovery channel program about something or the other, some music videos, ads for videogames, extremely patronizing "help on making the most of your FiOS service" clips, and so on.
Some bad news: The box has USB and serial ports on the back, with an optional ethernet port. All impressive features that could set it apart from the normal cable boxes, all disabled. Yes, this means if you want to use a TiVo you have to set up an IR blaster. I believe the serial port was disabled entirely out of spite. If you don't use the router they gave you when you got the FiOS install it is very difficult to get the VoD working. The router they give you is a buggy piece of crap Linksys DI-604. I had to swap out the router because it was constantly generating packet storms over my FiOS link, and I still haven't managed to get VoD working again.
Overall, I prefer Verizon over the old Cox service we used to have. The base price is slightly cheaper, but since we didn't have to rent the box from Cox the price is a wash in the end (although Cox bumped their prices a few months ago around here, making FiOS cheaper again). One interesting thing with their plan is that they offer several ala cart options, typically for foreign language channels. While they're somewhat pricey ($7-$10/month for each channel), Cox didn't offer them at all. The HD selection is much better than Cox, not that I care yet since I still only have a SD TV.
From what I understand, Verizon is dragging their feet on coming out with a Cablecard for FiOS TV, which is a real shame because I hate cable boxes and I don't really care about their VoD options or guide. IR blasters suck.
Oh, about the guide: Unlike TiVo they apparently don't have a staff that double checks the guide info they get. It's not unusual to fire up a show on the TiVo and notice that the guide information that the TiVo recorded on the bottom of the screen is wrong or generic.
I notice that there was no column in there about how aggravating the installed firewall rendered your system. How many of those firewalls are going to try to pop up a dialog box on a game that just went full screen and freeze the game (so you can't even alt-tab out) until you click on a box you can't even see? I mean I could have designed a firewall that would easily pass their tests with 100% reliability, it's called "unplug the network firewall", and it's very simple to install, just reach behind your computer, find the ethernet cable, and pull it out. Viola! Perfect Score!
One thing that struck me about Windows Firewalls as compared to Unix firewalls is that Unix firewalls are focused on keeping malicious traffic out of your machine. Windows firewalls are designed to keep malicious traffic from getting out to the internet. In the end, it's no surprise that the results are a mixed bag, once your system is compromised you really can't expect these firewalls to save you. It's a lot like the antivirus market, where you have a constant arms race between the virus writers (do people write honest to goodness viruses anymore?) and the antivirus companies.
My final complaint is that programs like ZoneAlarm Pro are exceedingly resource hungry for what they do. ZoneAlarm takes over a minute to start on my fairly modern laptop, whereas everything else in the system takes about 30 seconds or so total. Why does a firewall need 24 MB of resident memory?
The biggest giveaway is right on the header. Nobody in real life tries to work in the X, O, Square, and Triangle into their website, only Sony Marketing would do that. I mean the writeup complained that it was not obviously labeled as an ad, but honestly, how many people are going to think otherwise?
The thing is, I know at least in my case I didn't own the CD with a lot of those songs, neither did my wife. Frankly, the rest of the CD was crap and I wasn't going to spend $15 on one good song. That's why I bought a bunch of them off of iTMS.
The other fun thing is to have your party die and look at Elanee's spell list and notice that she still has all of her heals ready to go. The AI really hates to cast heals; it'd rather spend it's time casting every single buff spell, from Bulls Strength, to Cats grace on Elanee. Fortunatly, the AI patch I mentioned elsewhere can fix a lot of this behavior. Imagine the shock you'll feel when Cassovir uses Lay on Hands in battle?
The biggest complaint is that the camera by default doesn't turn to face the direction you're going, so you spend a tremendous amount of time just turning the damn thing so you're not running straight at the camera. It also tends to get lodged behind walls and in decorations far too easily indoors. I find it difficult to strike a good balance between overhead and over the shoulder views too, especially when you're looking out for traps and spawns but want to also keep tabs on where your NPCs are (oh look, Neeshka is stuck behind a post again...). If your system is slow (that is to say average) it's even worse because the camera pans in such large jumps that getting it to point the right way is an exercise in futilty. I'll often use the click-to-move feature just to get the camera pointed where I want it to go with chase mode. That works, but I've seen lots of games with way better cameras.
Nope, T-Mobile is still the same. I have a Blackberry 7100t, and while I love the phone the coverage just isn't as good as my wife's Cingular phone. T-Mobile has great data plans though, and most other carriers rape you on data. My stepmother has Verizon (because it works in the Metro), and while the coverage is decent (pretty similar to Cingular around here), the service reps are total assholes. I was with her one day when she went into the Verizon store to get some minor work done on the phone and they were like: "You know you have to take anything we dish out. We have an exclusive contract with the Metro! You're SOL, now take a number and stand around for 30 minutes while we talk among ourselves." Phone support apparently isn't much better. Plus, they have the highest rates of anybody around here.
There are alternate camera modes, did you give them a try? I found the "close follow" camera works the best, although it's not nearly as close or following as the description says. In general though it was just barely good enough that I don't have to constantly fix the camera like you do with the default mode.
There is an unofficial AI patch for NWN2 that makes your companions considerably less retarded. It's a must install for anybody who wants to use spellcasting classes (like Qara) on the harder modes because otherwise they'll spend most of the fight tossing spells into the middle of your party. It also fixes Neeshka's retarded behavior mostly.
Unfortunatly, there's not much review for the online creation stuff because online play is still quite buggy (even with the enormous patch that came out a few days ago). If they work the bugs out though, it should be quite a good game.
I've always wondered what the patients on House think when they get the bill afterward? I mean every show has the same formula:
1. Patient gets sick with some obscure condition.
2. Doctor 1 orders standard stuff, it doesn't work/makes it worse
3. Doctor 2 orders some obscure test
4. Doctor 3 orders an MRI
5. Doctor 2 orders another weird test
6. House has some drama with his own life/leg/whatever
7. Doctor 4 makes some final off the wall test, and decides on a rather extreme course of action
8. House jumps in at the last minute and explains how all they needed was an aspirin
I mean what HMO would authorize that crazy list of tests? You gotta figure these people get back and have enormous hospital bills.
I watched it for awhile with my wife and the first few shows were interesting, but then the whole "House is a jerk" angle got kinda stale and I didn't really have any hope of trying to figure out the medical mysteries when half of the stuff they say sounds like it came from the medical version of the Star Trek Technobabble generator.
I thought the Dilithium was not so much a catalyst as a moderator. Generally you don't need to do much to cause matter/antimatter combinations to react once they touch, the trick was not having the energy release blow the matter (and more importantly antimatter) streams against the walls of the engine.
I'm surprised you can do this. Most ISPs block port 25 traffic that isn't sent to or from their own badly overloaded email servers. The more breathless among us might even claim that spam is outright killing email as a communication tool.
On the other hand, it's very hard to read code if you can't write it. It's only after you write your own for awhile that you can really start to be able to read it, especially when you're looking for flaws in the code.
You know, if you count my mortgage as debt (the bank still owns the house), then I'm very far in debt--to the tune of $120k or so, if my back of the envelope calculation on my assets is accurate. Clearly this is not a good way to measure my standard of living or even social stature in the world. I don't even have credit card debt per say because I pay them off at the end of each month, but that one item completely dwarfs everything else in my assets - debts calculation.
Two things:
1 Manufacturing solar cells is currently an extremely energy intensive process, it also creates a startling amount of toxic waste. Solar Cells need to be replaced on a regular basis as well.
2. Solar Cells are extremely expensive. I don't know about these 40% jobs, but something tells me they won't be a lot cheaper than our current top of the line cells. We're talking about a project in the trillions of dollars to do what you describe.
That would be great if Software Engineering was a major at most universities. Most of the time you're choosing between Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or maybe Computer Engineering. Because Computer Engineering tends to be more closely aligned with EE, most students opt for Computer Science, even though it's not a perfect fit for what they want to do.
Obviously there is a "choose a better school" factor in here, but school choice is often limited by external factors (can't afford out of state, got a scholarship for State U, etc...). Worse, this is the sort of stuff that High School students don't even know they need and won't realize until after they are out of college. It's just a shame that most CS courses seem to be designed to teach people how to become CS Professors instead of stuff that will be infinitely useful in the real world.
Read the last sentence of my post again. I do think those tools are being abused, but there is hardly anything new about this. Assuming this device doesn't interfere with pacemakers (how many people with pacemakers attend these sorts of events anyway?), it seems safer than rubber bullets or tear gas.
I think it's a bit too harsh to say that all of that stuff is useless, but it is true that few students will get much use out of it until much later in their careers.
My complaint is that most schools don't teach good large project management skills. Everybody works on toy programs by themselves or in small groups and on short deadlines. That is highly unrealistic in the real world and teaches the kids a lot of bad habits IMHO. I think it would be better if the schools put more emphasis on project management (both from a manager and coder perspective), including version control, planning, testing, debugging, and so forth. Grading would be a bit more difficult, but the ability to compare students based on their amount and general quality (how many fixes did it require afterward?) of checkins would be a good place to start.
The class could even mix it up a bit between writing their own project and maintain last year's project, especially if they build stuff that is actually useful and post it online. Granted, this is an ambitious project for a classroom, but I think it's the only way to properly prepare students for the real world.
Angry mobs are often the result of an underlying social problem, but the fact of the matter is that mob mentality is dangerous even when the individuals aren't all that violent. Breaking up angry mobs can save a lot of lives and property because people just don't think straight when they're in one.
With crowd control you're really talking about the lesser of two evils:
1. Inflicting pain and possibly infringing peoples rights, maybe even killing people depending on what means you use.
2. Letting the angry mob run wild and trash the city, inflicting damage to property and also possibly injuring/killing people depending on how angry they are.
That's not to say that crowd control measures haven't been misused in the past (or the future), but ultimately it's someone's job to stop the rampaging mob before they destroy everything.
It's cool that Mac/Linux users can now access their media in the same way as Windows users have been able to. It's not *too* cool (ie: dangerous to TiVo, and by extension the implementors) because you still need your MAK key, and all it does is provide the same level of access as TiVo already provide to windows users.
While technically true, I don't think this is quite the same as Windows access. While it's true that you can use TiVos codec to decode their.tivo files on Windows, it requires some hackery. By default, all you are supposed to be able to do with them is play.tivo files in media player (or whatever you use to play movies), and it asks you for your MAK when you play them. This means if you wanted to distribute the.tivo files you would have to distribute your MAK with them, and it would be easy for TiVo to shut off your box (they would be in their rights, it says so right on the page you copy the MAK from on the TiVo) when they found the files online. This system allows you to decode the files to an unprotected MPEG2 file that you could re-encode and stick anywhere on the net.
On the other hand, just running Linux requires about as much technical proficency as decoding a.tivo file on Windows, so the effective protection is about the same, even if the spirit isn't. I'll look past the fact that you can run this on windows for now because it's a console app and anything on the console already bumps the proficiency level up a notch.
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I had FiOS internet installed a couple of years ago and the TV service installed over the summer in my home. I'll focus on the TV like the original article. I don't have a HD set, and I already owned a TiVo (with the lifetime subscription) so I just got the regular tuner box, not the DVR. Installation was pretty straight forward. My ONT was a little too old (it didn't have the sort of DOCSIS-like support that the modern ones have that allow the tuner boxes to call back and set up streaming video sessions), so I had to have a separate box installed on the network. It wasn't a problem, but it's the second wall plug Verizon has needed for FiOS (the first being on the ONT itself). Install took a couple of hours all told and the tech was very well informed and friendly. He didn't mind that I was using a TiVo instead of spending the extra $12/month for their DVR, he even supplied the somewhat oddball digital optical cables needed to connect the box to my receiver.
The box itself isn't bad. It has a program guide and a reasonably extensive selection of PPV and Video on Demand. There is even a decent amount of free VoD options. That said, the quality of the VoD is not all that wonderful (even at SD resolution), and the ones that they're actually trying to sell are grossly overpriced. For stuff you can purchase, the cost is generally in the $10-$15/hour range, and for something that you can only view for a couple of hours and has somewhat crummy quality I can't see myself ever using it. Frankly, even the free VoD offerings aren't all that compelling and I've used the feature a grand total of twice--both times I was just playing around too. Example free VoD things are: One of the better sketches from the latest Robot Chicken, A discovery channel program about something or the other, some music videos, ads for videogames, extremely patronizing "help on making the most of your FiOS service" clips, and so on.
Some bad news: The box has USB and serial ports on the back, with an optional ethernet port. All impressive features that could set it apart from the normal cable boxes, all disabled. Yes, this means if you want to use a TiVo you have to set up an IR blaster. I believe the serial port was disabled entirely out of spite. If you don't use the router they gave you when you got the FiOS install it is very difficult to get the VoD working. The router they give you is a buggy piece of crap Linksys DI-604. I had to swap out the router because it was constantly generating packet storms over my FiOS link, and I still haven't managed to get VoD working again.
Overall, I prefer Verizon over the old Cox service we used to have. The base price is slightly cheaper, but since we didn't have to rent the box from Cox the price is a wash in the end (although Cox bumped their prices a few months ago around here, making FiOS cheaper again). One interesting thing with their plan is that they offer several ala cart options, typically for foreign language channels. While they're somewhat pricey ($7-$10/month for each channel), Cox didn't offer them at all. The HD selection is much better than Cox, not that I care yet since I still only have a SD TV.
From what I understand, Verizon is dragging their feet on coming out with a Cablecard for FiOS TV, which is a real shame because I hate cable boxes and I don't really care about their VoD options or guide. IR blasters suck.
Oh, about the guide: Unlike TiVo they apparently don't have a staff that double checks the guide info they get. It's not unusual to fire up a show on the TiVo and notice that the guide information that the TiVo recorded on the bottom of the screen is wrong or generic.
I notice that there was no column in there about how aggravating the installed firewall rendered your system. How many of those firewalls are going to try to pop up a dialog box on a game that just went full screen and freeze the game (so you can't even alt-tab out) until you click on a box you can't even see? I mean I could have designed a firewall that would easily pass their tests with 100% reliability, it's called "unplug the network firewall", and it's very simple to install, just reach behind your computer, find the ethernet cable, and pull it out. Viola! Perfect Score!
One thing that struck me about Windows Firewalls as compared to Unix firewalls is that Unix firewalls are focused on keeping malicious traffic out of your machine. Windows firewalls are designed to keep malicious traffic from getting out to the internet. In the end, it's no surprise that the results are a mixed bag, once your system is compromised you really can't expect these firewalls to save you. It's a lot like the antivirus market, where you have a constant arms race between the virus writers (do people write honest to goodness viruses anymore?) and the antivirus companies.
My final complaint is that programs like ZoneAlarm Pro are exceedingly resource hungry for what they do. ZoneAlarm takes over a minute to start on my fairly modern laptop, whereas everything else in the system takes about 30 seconds or so total. Why does a firewall need 24 MB of resident memory?
Perhaps, but that still doesn't help the fact that ZoneAlarm is a shocking resource hog on a system.
The biggest giveaway is right on the header. Nobody in real life tries to work in the X, O, Square, and Triangle into their website, only Sony Marketing would do that. I mean the writeup complained that it was not obviously labeled as an ad, but honestly, how many people are going to think otherwise?
The thing is, I know at least in my case I didn't own the CD with a lot of those songs, neither did my wife. Frankly, the rest of the CD was crap and I wasn't going to spend $15 on one good song. That's why I bought a bunch of them off of iTMS.
With documentation? Having access to the hardware and being able to use it can be two very different things.
The other fun thing is to have your party die and look at Elanee's spell list and notice that she still has all of her heals ready to go. The AI really hates to cast heals; it'd rather spend it's time casting every single buff spell, from Bulls Strength, to Cats grace on Elanee. Fortunatly, the AI patch I mentioned elsewhere can fix a lot of this behavior. Imagine the shock you'll feel when Cassovir uses Lay on Hands in battle?
The biggest complaint is that the camera by default doesn't turn to face the direction you're going, so you spend a tremendous amount of time just turning the damn thing so you're not running straight at the camera. It also tends to get lodged behind walls and in decorations far too easily indoors. I find it difficult to strike a good balance between overhead and over the shoulder views too, especially when you're looking out for traps and spawns but want to also keep tabs on where your NPCs are (oh look, Neeshka is stuck behind a post again...). If your system is slow (that is to say average) it's even worse because the camera pans in such large jumps that getting it to point the right way is an exercise in futilty. I'll often use the click-to-move feature just to get the camera pointed where I want it to go with chase mode. That works, but I've seen lots of games with way better cameras.
Nope, T-Mobile is still the same. I have a Blackberry 7100t, and while I love the phone the coverage just isn't as good as my wife's Cingular phone. T-Mobile has great data plans though, and most other carriers rape you on data. My stepmother has Verizon (because it works in the Metro), and while the coverage is decent (pretty similar to Cingular around here), the service reps are total assholes. I was with her one day when she went into the Verizon store to get some minor work done on the phone and they were like: "You know you have to take anything we dish out. We have an exclusive contract with the Metro! You're SOL, now take a number and stand around for 30 minutes while we talk among ourselves." Phone support apparently isn't much better. Plus, they have the highest rates of anybody around here.
There are alternate camera modes, did you give them a try? I found the "close follow" camera works the best, although it's not nearly as close or following as the description says. In general though it was just barely good enough that I don't have to constantly fix the camera like you do with the default mode.
There is an unofficial AI patch for NWN2 that makes your companions considerably less retarded. It's a must install for anybody who wants to use spellcasting classes (like Qara) on the harder modes because otherwise they'll spend most of the fight tossing spells into the middle of your party. It also fixes Neeshka's retarded behavior mostly.
Here's the lowdown on it
Unfortunatly, there's not much review for the online creation stuff because online play is still quite buggy (even with the enormous patch that came out a few days ago). If they work the bugs out though, it should be quite a good game.
One more strike against reality.
I've always wondered what the patients on House think when they get the bill afterward? I mean every show has the same formula:
1. Patient gets sick with some obscure condition.
2. Doctor 1 orders standard stuff, it doesn't work/makes it worse
3. Doctor 2 orders some obscure test
4. Doctor 3 orders an MRI
5. Doctor 2 orders another weird test
6. House has some drama with his own life/leg/whatever
7. Doctor 4 makes some final off the wall test, and decides on a rather extreme course of action
8. House jumps in at the last minute and explains how all they needed was an aspirin
I mean what HMO would authorize that crazy list of tests? You gotta figure these people get back and have enormous hospital bills.
I watched it for awhile with my wife and the first few shows were interesting, but then the whole "House is a jerk" angle got kinda stale and I didn't really have any hope of trying to figure out the medical mysteries when half of the stuff they say sounds like it came from the medical version of the Star Trek Technobabble generator.
I thought the Dilithium was not so much a catalyst as a moderator. Generally you don't need to do much to cause matter/antimatter combinations to react once they touch, the trick was not having the energy release blow the matter (and more importantly antimatter) streams against the walls of the engine.
I'm surprised you can do this. Most ISPs block port 25 traffic that isn't sent to or from their own badly overloaded email servers. The more breathless among us might even claim that spam is outright killing email as a communication tool.
Especially if that button is labeled "Do what I want".
On the other hand, it's very hard to read code if you can't write it. It's only after you write your own for awhile that you can really start to be able to read it, especially when you're looking for flaws in the code.
You know, if you count my mortgage as debt (the bank still owns the house), then I'm very far in debt--to the tune of $120k or so, if my back of the envelope calculation on my assets is accurate. Clearly this is not a good way to measure my standard of living or even social stature in the world. I don't even have credit card debt per say because I pay them off at the end of each month, but that one item completely dwarfs everything else in my assets - debts calculation.
Two things:
1 Manufacturing solar cells is currently an extremely energy intensive process, it also creates a startling amount of toxic waste. Solar Cells need to be replaced on a regular basis as well.
2. Solar Cells are extremely expensive. I don't know about these 40% jobs, but something tells me they won't be a lot cheaper than our current top of the line cells. We're talking about a project in the trillions of dollars to do what you describe.
That would be great if Software Engineering was a major at most universities. Most of the time you're choosing between Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or maybe Computer Engineering. Because Computer Engineering tends to be more closely aligned with EE, most students opt for Computer Science, even though it's not a perfect fit for what they want to do.
Obviously there is a "choose a better school" factor in here, but school choice is often limited by external factors (can't afford out of state, got a scholarship for State U, etc...). Worse, this is the sort of stuff that High School students don't even know they need and won't realize until after they are out of college. It's just a shame that most CS courses seem to be designed to teach people how to become CS Professors instead of stuff that will be infinitely useful in the real world.
Read the last sentence of my post again. I do think those tools are being abused, but there is hardly anything new about this. Assuming this device doesn't interfere with pacemakers (how many people with pacemakers attend these sorts of events anyway?), it seems safer than rubber bullets or tear gas.
I think it's a bit too harsh to say that all of that stuff is useless, but it is true that few students will get much use out of it until much later in their careers.
My complaint is that most schools don't teach good large project management skills. Everybody works on toy programs by themselves or in small groups and on short deadlines. That is highly unrealistic in the real world and teaches the kids a lot of bad habits IMHO. I think it would be better if the schools put more emphasis on project management (both from a manager and coder perspective), including version control, planning, testing, debugging, and so forth. Grading would be a bit more difficult, but the ability to compare students based on their amount and general quality (how many fixes did it require afterward?) of checkins would be a good place to start.
The class could even mix it up a bit between writing their own project and maintain last year's project, especially if they build stuff that is actually useful and post it online. Granted, this is an ambitious project for a classroom, but I think it's the only way to properly prepare students for the real world.
Angry mobs are often the result of an underlying social problem, but the fact of the matter is that mob mentality is dangerous even when the individuals aren't all that violent. Breaking up angry mobs can save a lot of lives and property because people just don't think straight when they're in one.
With crowd control you're really talking about the lesser of two evils:
1. Inflicting pain and possibly infringing peoples rights, maybe even killing people depending on what means you use.
2. Letting the angry mob run wild and trash the city, inflicting damage to property and also possibly injuring/killing people depending on how angry they are.
That's not to say that crowd control measures haven't been misused in the past (or the future), but ultimately it's someone's job to stop the rampaging mob before they destroy everything.
On the other hand, just running Linux requires about as much technical proficency as decoding a