If they were asking for a $5, or hell, even a $100 subscription, I'd be pissed... but not complaining. See, that makes sense. They want money, and they insist on getting it from you, if you want to read their crap. It's easy to be pissed at that, but hard to argue about it.
Actually though, they want you to register. Put all your personal information in... and they don't even do checks for duplicates, bullshit info... nothing. Supposedly it doesn't matter. In which case, it leads me to believe that A) They don't need our info at all, they merely want some very general registration statistics or B) They're up to no good with out personal info, and if 1 out of 100 people fill it out with bullshit, it's not enough to worry about.
A is worth complaining about, because it's like going to the grocery store, and having them insist on seeing 5 forms of identification, 3 with pictures, social security numbers, birth certificate, and the last 6 months worth of electric bills complete with your current address. It's not necessary, it's a burden, it means that I'll avoid it and never buy anything there... and it's so fucking stupid that someone deserves to be bitch-slapped for it. Tell the truth, if they did that at your grocery store, and its the only one for miles around, so you're forced to go there, you'd bitchslap the store manager, wouldn't you?
And as for B, that possibility is downright scary. Do I even need to explain it?
When we all learn it was a big practical joke, and that the genome that was sequenced actually belongs to Bubbles, Michael Jackson's pet chimpanzee. I mean, after all, there is what, less than 1% difference overall?
"Monetary motivation is needed to keep innovation at its current rate"...
Huh? How bout your example of drug companies... whatever it is that they need, it isn't money.
Sorry, but in many cases, those who truly love what they do, do it for alot less. There are days, that a $100,000 grant to some unknown researcher in a backwater university, is worth $10 billion in pharmcorp capital.
What the world needs, is fewer greedmongers and profitsluts. This reminds me too much of the current intellectual property fiasco, where the RIAA claims that if they only have $5 billion in sales, instead of $6 billion, they'll starve and no music will ever be recorded again for the next 1000 years.
True. But how overloaded do they have to be? For instance, I know of one major street with 5 stoplights. You can't make it through all of them, and on some days, you'll see more than 2 redlights before you're through it. At rush hour, you'll see all 5. During rush hour, some of the cross-streets will have 1 or 2 cars waiting for their light, but it's just as likely there won't be. Do you ignore those one or two cars, and make them wait 20 minutes to cross? Do you hold up traffic every two minutes, even when those cars aren't there?
Is it just me, or is there something wrong with this? Hell, I'm sure they haven't stolen our traffic control computers... so what gives? Maybe they have, but there was a coverup? Heh. My solution would solve all this, and a few more problems... and not be some multimillion dollar smartroad project with a 20 year timetable and unbelievable cost overruns.
Which pretty much guarantees no one would ever want anything to do with it.
I find it hard to believe that most city streets operate at anything even approaching 100% capacity. It's probably more like 60-70%. Even dumb old me, could think of ways to further optimize it.
And it wouldn't even consist of locking the server room, and posting a rent-a-cop. LOL.
I agree with you absolutely. However, something this grand... it's like it was planned somehow, to make a point. I couldn't make up a funnier story, if I were some kind of comedic legend, and slaved over the taale for 20 years... it's literally a miracle of Irony. That capital "I" wasn't a typo, I meant that.
I don't think that you should forever distrust those that insist on reinventing the wheel, after all, everyone does this to learn, at one time or another.
That said, why in the hell would anyone ever share files this way? Unix and its relatives have devised any number of ways to share files, complete with a multi-user/security foundation that despite its few flaws, is unparalleled.
Sure, they have a cool way to index files, but why not implement this as a seperate service? Oh, I forgot. Windows.
Actually I've been considering that myself. I've been wanting to go into business for myself selling all sorts of goofy shit, and that would be one item in my catalog. Imagine putting on on the front door, and someone knocks. The fish head turns toward them, the mouth moves, and says "Whattaya want?"... the key of course, would be syncing the lips to the voice playing through it. Maybe some sort of DSP programmed to pick out the hard consonants (not perfect, but would be close enough).
Then again, re-apholstering a Furby with a custom red felt skin, complete with barbed tail and horns would rock, wouldn't it? Have it chant out evil sounding things, "Worship me!" "I command you to desecrate churchs!" all in that sweet little furby voice.
Of course, I would always have more serious products too. Just some thoughts.
What we really need is either a Billy Bass Intercom system, or a trash talking Furby. Servo motor geeks, perform your magic and summon these things for me.
Besides, if I was going to do an android head, I'd at least build it out down to the boobs. It is a she, isn't it?
Yeh. Too bad that prudes, morons, and those that make even me look social and friendly have mod points too. And while I'm sure they occasionally mod down the turd tossers and crapflooders, they seem to spend an equal amount of time modding down anyone with a controversial opinion, or any other thing that they dislike.
Yes, it is the best system so far. It could use alot of improvement.
Yeh, if they had a PCI version. This guy needs PCI for what he wants to do.
Besides, Tivo's dedicated solution is over-engineered enough to guarantee that you'll never experience dropped frames. Can't say the same about the ATI card.
No, I didn't argue against the usefulness of evidence. If it sounds like that, then I apologize for causing a misunderstanding.
It sounds to me, as if you are arguing that statements made without evidence are useless. Often times they are, but never once did I misrepresent mine. Yes, there is no evidence to support this, and normally that would bother me too. But... this looks to me as if its a relatively new phenomena, and one without precedent. Corps themselves are only a few hundred years old, economies in which corps are massively dominant (and by this I mean run by committee)are probably only 50-75 years old. And even now, things are yet again different. Nothing compares. Corps have realized that there is a possibility to control things to a degree never before realized. Sure, Standard Oil could control all aspects of its business, forcing competitors into bankruptcy... but even in its (forget which tycoon this was) wildest dreams, couldn't have imagined controling when people could read books, how many times, when, where, if they can read them more than once, and prevent them from selling it to someone else. To be paid every single time someone reads it. And to do that with movies, books, music, pictures, and yes, even ideas. He would have sold off his oil business, if he thought that possible, and went into the media business. But that wasn't possible then. It is now.
And the worst part? I don't want to be proven right. I hope I'm wrong. But don't insult me because I have to choose how to fight this, with little evidence on which is the right choice, and that I make choices that you wouldn't.
Email me if you want to hear what method I think would be more effective.
Facts are something you have after the situation. So let's wait. 20 years from now, we can agree to meet somewhere, and I can gloat over you being a complete moron and the fact that the USA is a 1984ish police state, with all technology locked down to prevent terrorism and piracy.
Or... I could agree with you, and be a totally naive weeny, and still have this happen. And you could be happy knowing that I wasn't intuitively predicting things you don't want to believe will happen. Would that make you feel better?
We're on the same side, it would seem. Maybe if you'd give my ideas just a little bit of time to simmer, before dismissing them outright, it would serve you well. Can't be too cautious, can you?
Yes, it's futile. No, it's not a defeatist attitude. A defeatist attitude say that there is absolutely no way to win. I never espoused such a belief. I merely criticized one or two approaches to the problem, as being ineffective, and a waste of effort/resources.
It may be evidence that you're a fool, for not being able to make that distinction.
#1 works out of the box. The thing by default records up to an hour's previous footage constantly, allowing pause, replay, etc. Changing the channel kills this (it starts a new buffer).
#2 is possible, and somewhat simple. You'll have to screw around a bit, to get a bash prompt on the serial port. Once there, you send a few pre-compiled binaries to it, allowing some more functionality (this doesn't require opening the thing, no idea how it affects the warranty). The simplest way would be to set up some script on a cron tab that shells in and manually starts up the appropriate binaries. You can of course manually record shows.
Also, the guide format is partially/completely hacked, but isn't public. It wouldn't be too tough to write a libwww perl script to grep tvguide.com listings, and reformat it in a way that the tivo would understand. I'm not sure what more I can say that would be legally safe.
Dude, for the price of such a card, you could buy a tivo. With some money left over for the 100baseT card for it. I wasn't required to subscribe when I bought mine, and I don't plan on it. A dedicated solution, a cheap solution.. no dropped frames or segfaults. If you want to build your own, to say that you've done such a thing, good luck. But if you just want a kickass linux PVR... someone already makes it.
To be honest, I can think of many early PCI TV tuner cards you might buy, but without checking I'd think the performance on those would be horrible. Everything that is current, is high end, for professional use. $700 and up.
Sure, Ep. 4-6 kick ass, with ESB being the best of the three.
And yes, Lucas is mostly responsible. But, isn't it possible, I ask, that this has nothing to do with talent? When I see something like this, my first reaction is to assume the man in charge is talented, but this is by no means a certainty. Maybe it was a 1 in 10,000,000,000,000 thing. Something he lucked out on, and could never do again. Maybe inspiration is a fleeting thing, and abandoned him. Maybe he has a million monkeys in his skull, and those days they had Shakespeare to offer him. There are lots of possible answers, and no good way to prove one or the other.
This isn't meant as flamebait, exactly. Just some thoughts. Besides, it is possible that I'll be proven wrong, there is only a month or so to wait.
Vote? Christ. I want to stop now, it's not my duty to educate all you weenies.
This may be an important issue to me, but it is far from the only one. Which is more important? Hell, they're all nearly equally important. Do I choose this one, and 20 years from now say to myself "well, 1 out of 60 isn't too bad". Voting is my implicit validation of a system that is broken beyond repair.
But hell, you are going further than that. It's not just my duty to vote, but to encourage others to vote? Homer said it best, with "Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos".
Don't try to maake the excuse that you were fighting the good fight from the beginning, when you miss the SINGLE good opportunity you had to win this, simply because you've wasted every bit of effort/resources by then.
You and every other fool thinks this is a game that you can play just because it became interesting to you recently. How many suckers think they can pick the shell with the coin underneath it, even though they have to know its a scam? "But hey, I'm different!". Good luck....
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a gun control advocate. I credit the NRA as having performed the best PR/political campaign that anyone could ever hope to, in the situation that they are in. But they are losing the war. Not for having fought poorly, rather for being outnumbered, so to speak.
A single election here and there means nothing, when the sheer weight of all the rest add up over the years. And as I pointed out, you actually have a specific enumerated constitutional right on your side. Computer geeks don't have that.
Think about it this way, it applies to both situations. Even now, children are being taught, both directly, and indirectly how evil guns are, in school. Sure, you can teach them differently, and even though you may be correct in doing so, it pushes you to the fringe. The little kid goes into class, telling everyone how his daddy says that gun control is wrong, even unconstitutional. It pushes him to the fringe. Either he stops believing what daddy has told him (NRA loses), or he continues to believe it, the slightest bit more fanatical and at the fringes, than he was before (NRA loses). Lather, rinse, repeat. And it's a cumulative effect. As a whole, this nation distrusts guns, and trusts implicitly the politicians that tell them we need to ban guns. Have you ever been labeled a gun nut? If not, start telling people what you believe, that you're a card carrying NRA member. See if it doesn't happen. Of course, you could remain quiet. But then how does it help the cause?
Oh, and don't worry. The next step, is for them to demonize even those of you that have the sense to stay below the radar. In the next 10 years, expect gun control PR to suggest that you are all terrorists waiting to happen, simply because you believe these things, but are so secretive about it. That is, after all, the behavior of a terrorist mole, is it not? You're probably waiting for your chance to do another Okie City, is what. So, even staying quiet won't be a safe strategy.
My god, don't believe me if you don't want. But at least see that there is truth in this. Hell, tell your other NRA members... let them know about this. Maybe there is a strategy to combat this, but only if you start soon. I look at the chessboard, and I see that you're all about 6 moves from being checkmated.
Us computer geeks... well, we don't even have guns to shoot back with.
For them, the killer app would be a small cut of the fees involved in DRM. Profit margins on "piracy" hardware are razor thin. Not to butcher a cliche, but if they had a nickel for every time someone pirated an MP3...
Christ. I wish people could understand, this is important. Trust Slashdot to turn this into the world's biggest masturbation festival. "Oh no, they'd never do that. *WHACK* *WHACK* *WHACK*"
Slashdot Mirror
If they were asking for a $5, or hell, even a $100 subscription, I'd be pissed... but not complaining. See, that makes sense. They want money, and they insist on getting it from you, if you want to read their crap. It's easy to be pissed at that, but hard to argue about it.
Actually though, they want you to register. Put all your personal information in... and they don't even do checks for duplicates, bullshit info... nothing. Supposedly it doesn't matter. In which case, it leads me to believe that
A) They don't need our info at all, they merely want some very general registration statistics
or
B) They're up to no good with out personal info, and if 1 out of 100 people fill it out with bullshit, it's not enough to worry about.
A is worth complaining about, because it's like going to the grocery store, and having them insist on seeing 5 forms of identification, 3 with pictures, social security numbers, birth certificate, and the last 6 months worth of electric bills complete with your current address. It's not necessary, it's a burden, it means that I'll avoid it and never buy anything there... and it's so fucking stupid that someone deserves to be bitch-slapped for it. Tell the truth, if they did that at your grocery store, and its the only one for miles around, so you're forced to go there, you'd bitchslap the store manager, wouldn't you?
And as for B, that possibility is downright scary. Do I even need to explain it?
When we all learn it was a big practical joke, and that the genome that was sequenced actually belongs to Bubbles, Michael Jackson's pet chimpanzee. I mean, after all, there is what, less than 1% difference overall?
"Monetary motivation is needed to keep innovation at its current rate" ...
Huh? How bout your example of drug companies... whatever it is that they need, it isn't money.
Sorry, but in many cases, those who truly love what they do, do it for alot less. There are days, that a $100,000 grant to some unknown researcher in a backwater university, is worth $10 billion in pharmcorp capital.
What the world needs, is fewer greedmongers and profitsluts. This reminds me too much of the current intellectual property fiasco, where the RIAA claims that if they only have $5 billion in sales, instead of $6 billion, they'll starve and no music will ever be recorded again for the next 1000 years.
Now you can mod me offtopic, and I can wait for the comments, to try and glean what the article says...
True. But how overloaded do they have to be? For instance, I know of one major street with 5 stoplights. You can't make it through all of them, and on some days, you'll see more than 2 redlights before you're through it. At rush hour, you'll see all 5. During rush hour, some of the cross-streets will have 1 or 2 cars waiting for their light, but it's just as likely there won't be. Do you ignore those one or two cars, and make them wait 20 minutes to cross? Do you hold up traffic every two minutes, even when those cars aren't there?
Is it just me, or is there something wrong with this? Hell, I'm sure they haven't stolen our traffic control computers... so what gives? Maybe they have, but there was a coverup? Heh. My solution would solve all this, and a few more problems... and not be some multimillion dollar smartroad project with a 20 year timetable and unbelievable cost overruns.
Which pretty much guarantees no one would ever want anything to do with it.
I find it hard to believe that most city streets operate at anything even approaching 100% capacity. It's probably more like 60-70%. Even dumb old me, could think of ways to further optimize it.
And it wouldn't even consist of locking the server room, and posting a rent-a-cop. LOL.
You forgot the Animal House scenario. Shame Belushi isn't alive for a cameo. :(
I agree with you absolutely. However, something this grand... it's like it was planned somehow, to make a point. I couldn't make up a funnier story, if I were some kind of comedic legend, and slaved over the taale for 20 years... it's literally a miracle of Irony. That capital "I" wasn't a typo, I meant that.
I don't think that you should forever distrust those that insist on reinventing the wheel, after all, everyone does this to learn, at one time or another.
That said, why in the hell would anyone ever share files this way? Unix and its relatives have devised any number of ways to share files, complete with a multi-user/security foundation that despite its few flaws, is unparalleled.
Sure, they have a cool way to index files, but why not implement this as a seperate service? Oh, I forgot. Windows.
Nevermind.
P2P companies complaining about their intellectual properties being infringed?!?!?
HAHAHAHAHA... LOL.
I'm still an atheist, but if God keeps things up like this, how will I have any choice but to believe?
Actually I've been considering that myself. I've been wanting to go into business for myself selling all sorts of goofy shit, and that would be one item in my catalog. Imagine putting on on the front door, and someone knocks. The fish head turns toward them, the mouth moves, and says "Whattaya want?"... the key of course, would be syncing the lips to the voice playing through it. Maybe some sort of DSP programmed to pick out the hard consonants (not perfect, but would be close enough).
Then again, re-apholstering a Furby with a custom red felt skin, complete with barbed tail and horns would rock, wouldn't it? Have it chant out evil sounding things, "Worship me!" "I command you to desecrate churchs!" all in that sweet little furby voice.
Of course, I would always have more serious products too. Just some thoughts.
What we really need is either a Billy Bass Intercom system, or a trash talking Furby. Servo motor geeks, perform your magic and summon these things for me.
Besides, if I was going to do an android head, I'd at least build it out down to the boobs. It is a she, isn't it?
Yeh. Too bad that prudes, morons, and those that make even me look social and friendly have mod points too. And while I'm sure they occasionally mod down the turd tossers and crapflooders, they seem to spend an equal amount of time modding down anyone with a controversial opinion, or any other thing that they dislike.
Yes, it is the best system so far. It could use alot of improvement.
Yeh, if they had a PCI version. This guy needs PCI for what he wants to do.
Besides, Tivo's dedicated solution is over-engineered enough to guarantee that you'll never experience dropped frames. Can't say the same about the ATI card.
No, I didn't argue against the usefulness of evidence. If it sounds like that, then I apologize for causing a misunderstanding.
It sounds to me, as if you are arguing that statements made without evidence are useless. Often times they are, but never once did I misrepresent mine. Yes, there is no evidence to support this, and normally that would bother me too. But... this looks to me as if its a relatively new phenomena, and one without precedent. Corps themselves are only a few hundred years old, economies in which corps are massively dominant (and by this I mean run by committee)are probably only 50-75 years old. And even now, things are yet again different. Nothing compares. Corps have realized that there is a possibility to control things to a degree never before realized. Sure, Standard Oil could control all aspects of its business, forcing competitors into bankruptcy... but even in its (forget which tycoon this was) wildest dreams, couldn't have imagined controling when people could read books, how many times, when, where, if they can read them more than once, and prevent them from selling it to someone else. To be paid every single time someone reads it. And to do that with movies, books, music, pictures, and yes, even ideas. He would have sold off his oil business, if he thought that possible, and went into the media business. But that wasn't possible then. It is now.
And the worst part? I don't want to be proven right. I hope I'm wrong. But don't insult me because I have to choose how to fight this, with little evidence on which is the right choice, and that I make choices that you wouldn't.
Email me if you want to hear what method I think would be more effective.
Facts are something you have after the situation. So let's wait. 20 years from now, we can agree to meet somewhere, and I can gloat over you being a complete moron and the fact that the USA is a 1984ish police state, with all technology locked down to prevent terrorism and piracy.
Or... I could agree with you, and be a totally naive weeny, and still have this happen. And you could be happy knowing that I wasn't intuitively predicting things you don't want to believe will happen. Would that make you feel better?
We're on the same side, it would seem. Maybe if you'd give my ideas just a little bit of time to simmer, before dismissing them outright, it would serve you well. Can't be too cautious, can you?
Yes, it's futile. No, it's not a defeatist attitude. A defeatist attitude say that there is absolutely no way to win. I never espoused such a belief. I merely criticized one or two approaches to the problem, as being ineffective, and a waste of effort/resources.
It may be evidence that you're a fool, for not being able to make that distinction.
#1 works out of the box. The thing by default records up to an hour's previous footage constantly, allowing pause, replay, etc. Changing the channel kills this (it starts a new buffer).
#2 is possible, and somewhat simple. You'll have to screw around a bit, to get a bash prompt on the serial port. Once there, you send a few pre-compiled binaries to it, allowing some more functionality (this doesn't require opening the thing, no idea how it affects the warranty). The simplest way would be to set up some script on a cron tab that shells in and manually starts up the appropriate binaries. You can of course manually record shows.
Also, the guide format is partially/completely hacked, but isn't public. It wouldn't be too tough to write a libwww perl script to grep tvguide.com listings, and reformat it in a way that the tivo would understand. I'm not sure what more I can say that would be legally safe.
Dude, for the price of such a card, you could buy a tivo. With some money left over for the 100baseT card for it. I wasn't required to subscribe when I bought mine, and I don't plan on it. A dedicated solution, a cheap solution.. no dropped frames or segfaults. If you want to build your own, to say that you've done such a thing, good luck. But if you just want a kickass linux PVR... someone already makes it.
To be honest, I can think of many early PCI TV tuner cards you might buy, but without checking I'd think the performance on those would be horrible. Everything that is current, is high end, for professional use. $700 and up.
Sure, Ep. 4-6 kick ass, with ESB being the best of the three.
And yes, Lucas is mostly responsible. But, isn't it possible, I ask, that this has nothing to do with talent? When I see something like this, my first reaction is to assume the man in charge is talented, but this is by no means a certainty. Maybe it was a 1 in 10,000,000,000,000 thing. Something he lucked out on, and could never do again. Maybe inspiration is a fleeting thing, and abandoned him. Maybe he has a million monkeys in his skull, and those days they had Shakespeare to offer him. There are lots of possible answers, and no good way to prove one or the other.
This isn't meant as flamebait, exactly. Just some thoughts. Besides, it is possible that I'll be proven wrong, there is only a month or so to wait.
You accused me of not even trying. You're too foolish to not waste your efforts on unwinnable battles, and futile tactics. What more is there to say?
I've never had a drop of liquor in my life. Strange you should ask.
Vote? Christ. I want to stop now, it's not my duty to educate all you weenies.
This may be an important issue to me, but it is far from the only one. Which is more important? Hell, they're all nearly equally important. Do I choose this one, and 20 years from now say to myself "well, 1 out of 60 isn't too bad". Voting is my implicit validation of a system that is broken beyond repair.
But hell, you are going further than that. It's not just my duty to vote, but to encourage others to vote? Homer said it best, with "Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos".
Don't try to maake the excuse that you were fighting the good fight from the beginning, when you miss the SINGLE good opportunity you had to win this, simply because you've wasted every bit of effort/resources by then.
You and every other fool thinks this is a game that you can play just because it became interesting to you recently. How many suckers think they can pick the shell with the coin underneath it, even though they have to know its a scam? "But hey, I'm different!". Good luck....
Don't get me wrong. I'm not a gun control advocate. I credit the NRA as having performed the best PR/political campaign that anyone could ever hope to, in the situation that they are in. But they are losing the war. Not for having fought poorly, rather for being outnumbered, so to speak.
A single election here and there means nothing, when the sheer weight of all the rest add up over the years. And as I pointed out, you actually have a specific enumerated constitutional right on your side. Computer geeks don't have that.
Think about it this way, it applies to both situations. Even now, children are being taught, both directly, and indirectly how evil guns are, in school. Sure, you can teach them differently, and even though you may be correct in doing so, it pushes you to the fringe. The little kid goes into class, telling everyone how his daddy says that gun control is wrong, even unconstitutional. It pushes him to the fringe. Either he stops believing what daddy has told him (NRA loses), or he continues to believe it, the slightest bit more fanatical and at the fringes, than he was before (NRA loses). Lather, rinse, repeat. And it's a cumulative effect. As a whole, this nation distrusts guns, and trusts implicitly the politicians that tell them we need to ban guns. Have you ever been labeled a gun nut? If not, start telling people what you believe, that you're a card carrying NRA member. See if it doesn't happen. Of course, you could remain quiet. But then how does it help the cause?
Oh, and don't worry. The next step, is for them to demonize even those of you that have the sense to stay below the radar. In the next 10 years, expect gun control PR to suggest that you are all terrorists waiting to happen, simply because you believe these things, but are so secretive about it. That is, after all, the behavior of a terrorist mole, is it not? You're probably waiting for your chance to do another Okie City, is what. So, even staying quiet won't be a safe strategy.
My god, don't believe me if you don't want. But at least see that there is truth in this. Hell, tell your other NRA members... let them know about this. Maybe there is a strategy to combat this, but only if you start soon. I look at the chessboard, and I see that you're all about 6 moves from being checkmated.
Us computer geeks... well, we don't even have guns to shoot back with.
For us.
For them, the killer app would be a small cut of the fees involved in DRM. Profit margins on "piracy" hardware are razor thin. Not to butcher a cliche, but if they had a nickel for every time someone pirated an MP3...
Christ. I wish people could understand, this is important. Trust Slashdot to turn this into the world's biggest masturbation festival. "Oh no, they'd never do that. *WHACK* *WHACK* *WHACK*"