Having moved twice in the last year, I've grown rather fond of the idea of having electronic magazines as opposed to paper versions. I used to be really against the idea of paying for unique organizations of electrons until I nearly broke my back throwing away all my issues of Maxim to lighten the load.
PDAs are becoming more and more suited to this type of work. Sony has Palms now that run at 320 by 480. Sure beats the 240 by 320 I'm running on my PocketPC. Death to paper!
That's funny, because I had my own Windows based PVR that required a reboot every 3 months tops. Okay, that's not Linux quality I suppose, but from what I hear, Tivo's hard pressed to make that kind of uptime.
Since we've both had differing experiences, I'd say your post is no more insightful as mine.
"Granted, it requires some flavor of Windows (that can run.Net libraries),"
For those of you curious about uptime, my Snapstream machine running Win2k needed rebooting about once every 3 months. The sound driver would die for some reason. (Perhaps a new card as opposed to on-bard sound would have solved that?) Seems like the simple solution is to schedule a reboot once a month or something. Capturing a show without audio sucks. heh.
One other feature that Snapstream had (haven't used it in a couple of years) was that you could use a web page to config it. Pretty handy if your PC is hooked up to a TV like mine was.
"But anyone who picks a PC based solution is someone with too much time on their hands, and needs to examine their lifestyle, perhaps."
Oh lighten up. The advantage a PC has is you can archive what you download. This doesn't sound interesting until you realize you'd like to watch something in order. When I first tried this with Snapstream, that's exactly what I did. I discovered that Quantum Leap was on the scifi-channel. So I set up the record and let it go. A month or so later scifi got to the end and started it over from episode one. That kicked ass.
I have a ReplayTV now, and I've pretty much abandoned my PC solution. The PC solution sucked for getting those 'random access' shows. Tivo still owns there. Additionally, most shows are coming out on DVD now. (Quantum Leap's first season recently arrived...) So... I agree with you! heh
Still, though, I ache for MPEG 4 and the ability to acrhive stuff. If TiVo wants me to switch, that'd be the feature that makes me pony up dough.
"Hey...guess what I've never had to reboot so far...my Tivo. I don't intend for that to change anytime soon either."
So, do you have the Microsoft Media Center and it's unstable, or are you just making an assumption as ill-informed as saying your Linux based TiVo requires a keyboard to use?
"Maybe I'm being reactionary, but if 'playing war games can influenece you politcally', are you not opening yourself up to the slippery slope that ends with 'playing video games can make you violent'?"
I don't see a direct correlation, no. Being politically biased doesn't mean being violent.
"Chalk this one up to the media looking for scapegoats and excuses to explain personal behaviours yet again."
Actually I'm not sure it's scapegoats so much as it scares people. Most parents have kids that drive them up the wall. If it were only so easy for the real problem to be games. It takes attention away from the "spend more time with kids" solution that's akin to eating less means losing weight diet.
So.. it's not a tool that'll teach people how to interact with people from far-away lands, it's a tool that allows people to be lazy...? What, are we all going to cancel our trips to that side of the planet?
"I wouldn't go with a renderfarm - people are too used to seeing the 60fps stuff that comes out of hardware acceleration to be THAT impressed by software rendering, even if it looks great at 1 frame every 10 seconds."
Welllll it kind of depends on the target audience. If they're talking about Siggraph, which is coming next month, the people there would get it.
Essentially, I agree, though. I saw an Itanium demo where was rendering a pretty detailed engine. Whoop-de-do, my workstation could top that. I wasn't the slightest bit impressed until the sales guy (as opposed to the video...) used the word 'voxels'. Suddenly that was pretty cool. I had nothing to compare it with. They didn't have a P4 doing the same task next to it.
Which brings me to my next point, the solution I can see is to have it side by side with a typical render farm. "Who will win?" *Shrug* I agree, show me a chart instead of a machine.
"Boo hoo. Tastes differ, you pays your money and you takes your chances. If you want to cry "poor" then wait for it to hit the second run theatres or the video store.."
So, the movie industry should be allowed to misrepresent their products. You win.
"Computer make and model": In order to figure out if particular motherboards need a fix applied. The AGP problem with Athlons immediately comes to mind.
"Version information for the operating system, browser, and any other Microsoft software for which updates might be available": For security updates to IE, Outlook, Word, etc...
"Plug and Play ID numbers of hardware devices": In case there is a fix for a particular bit of hardware. Maybe a DirectX update or something.
"Region and language setting": What, you don't want your driver interfaces to be in Bulgarian?
"Globally Unique Identifier (GUID)": Eh, not terribly interested in defending this one unless it's to count how many times a particular machine gets updated. I can't say I'm terribly concerned about this one either.
"Product ID and Product Key": Filed under D for DUH.
"BIOS name, revision number, and revision date": Again, may be related to fixes for a particular computer.
This stuff is far less scary when you read through some of the MSDN articles for quick fixes etc. It's pretty obvious that they attain this info for the Automatic Update to actually work. Damn them for creating this free service!
"Does ANYBODY have good customer service anymore?"
Portland Water Works certainly does. They extended my billding date twice because I called up, politely explained that I was a little short, and asked nicely if there was a way to delay it. They cheerfully extended my deadline. They were understanding of all things. I was stunned, but pleasantly surprised.
In that same week, however, Washington Mutual turned down my application for a checking account (despite having $3,000 in hand) because I was in the process of moving. "You don't have a permenant address" "I will when I can write a check so I can get my apartment down here." (The story's a little more detailed than that, but that's the general idea. Never tell a bank you spent the previous night in a hotel.)
"There is absolutely No justification for stealing, regardless of the quality of the product."
I'd agree with that except for a couple of things.
1.) If somebody's spending >24 hours downloading a questionable quality movie for the sake of saving a few bucks, it is a true indication that ticket prices are too high.
2.) There is no guarantee of quality or satisfaction. Trailers can lie to get you to see the movie, but you can't get a refund if it really sucks. (Boy, imagine if they had a refund policy back when Godzilla came out.)
It may be immoral to download and watch movies without paying anything blah blah blah, but it's a powerful expression of supply and demand that we (the consumers) have. The mere fact that Hollywood is thriving illustrates the point that there is SOMETHING wrong with what they're doing, but people are still willing to spend money.
I really wish Hollywood would just listen to why people would jump through so many hoops to download a movie and figure out what to do to compete with that instead of trying to buy senators to change the laws. Only then would they know that Rob Schnider is a money repellent.
"I'm guessing movie studio executives don't get together around the boardroom table and have conversations like, "gentlemen, our fare has been too highly reviewed of late. It's time to make a real stinker. One for the record books. Instant flop."
Perhaps not, but I am guessing that they have said "ah screw it, the licensed character is all we need, write a script over the weekend."
"nagora writes "The BBC is reporting that the movie industry, in yet another illustration of just how much damage the Internet is doing to the long-suffering members of the MPAA, has just endured a record breaking $1Billion dollar takings for the single month of June. Clearly there is a desperate need to tighten up copyright laws in the face of this huge mountain of cash that is literally being metaphorically syphoned into the studios' pockets. How will they survive? "
Oh dear I thought I was reading a trasncript from the Daily Show there. Clever!
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Having moved twice in the last year, I've grown rather fond of the idea of having electronic magazines as opposed to paper versions. I used to be really against the idea of paying for unique organizations of electrons until I nearly broke my back throwing away all my issues of Maxim to lighten the load.
PDAs are becoming more and more suited to this type of work. Sony has Palms now that run at 320 by 480. Sure beats the 240 by 320 I'm running on my PocketPC. Death to paper!
That's funny, because I had my own Windows based PVR that required a reboot every 3 months tops. Okay, that's not Linux quality I suppose, but from what I hear, Tivo's hard pressed to make that kind of uptime.
Since we've both had differing experiences, I'd say your post is no more insightful as mine.
"Granted, it requires some flavor of Windows (that can run .Net libraries),"
For those of you curious about uptime, my Snapstream machine running Win2k needed rebooting about once every 3 months. The sound driver would die for some reason. (Perhaps a new card as opposed to on-bard sound would have solved that?) Seems like the simple solution is to schedule a reboot once a month or something. Capturing a show without audio sucks. heh.
One other feature that Snapstream had (haven't used it in a couple of years) was that you could use a web page to config it. Pretty handy if your PC is hooked up to a TV like mine was.
"But anyone who picks a PC based solution is someone with too much time on their hands, and needs to examine their lifestyle, perhaps."
Oh lighten up. The advantage a PC has is you can archive what you download. This doesn't sound interesting until you realize you'd like to watch something in order. When I first tried this with Snapstream, that's exactly what I did. I discovered that Quantum Leap was on the scifi-channel. So I set up the record and let it go. A month or so later scifi got to the end and started it over from episode one. That kicked ass.
I have a ReplayTV now, and I've pretty much abandoned my PC solution. The PC solution sucked for getting those 'random access' shows. Tivo still owns there. Additionally, most shows are coming out on DVD now. (Quantum Leap's first season recently arrived...) So... I agree with you! heh
Still, though, I ache for MPEG 4 and the ability to acrhive stuff. If TiVo wants me to switch, that'd be the feature that makes me pony up dough.
"Hey...guess what I've never had to reboot so far...my Tivo. I don't intend for that to change anytime soon either."
So, do you have the Microsoft Media Center and it's unstable, or are you just making an assumption as ill-informed as saying your Linux based TiVo requires a keyboard to use?
"Maybe I'm being reactionary, but if 'playing war games can influenece you politcally', are you not opening yourself up to the slippery slope that ends with 'playing video games can make you violent'?"
I don't see a direct correlation, no. Being politically biased doesn't mean being violent.
"Chalk this one up to the media looking for scapegoats and excuses to explain personal behaviours yet again."
Actually I'm not sure it's scapegoats so much as it scares people. Most parents have kids that drive them up the wall. If it were only so easy for the real problem to be games. It takes attention away from the "spend more time with kids" solution that's akin to eating less means losing weight diet.
"Kill the lawyers!"
"I think you mean the fetus, after all, you can't kill something thats never been born."
This statement isn't true. You can kill something that hasn't passed through a vagina. The rules of Scream will not protect you!
"Whats abortion do in this case?"
It kills the baby. Next question?
"No, really - sound in KDE has always 'just worked'."
Yeah, that's why old joke gets as many yucks as BSOD comments. Heh.
"This is yet another form of justification in ones mind that it is Ok to steal."
If that's what you took away from my post then I'm not sure it's worth replying to the rest of your comment.
"Now I can talk to that muslim chick at school!"... and discover Arabic slang for "loser"!
"Another reason for ignorance"
So.. it's not a tool that'll teach people how to interact with people from far-away lands, it's a tool that allows people to be lazy...? What, are we all going to cancel our trips to that side of the planet?
"Has anyone ever built a device for shooting CDs in a horizontal or vertical fashion?"
Sort of. I used to fling bad CDs into my friend's cubicle. Written on each one was "SCUD... Don't worry, you probably weren't the intended target."
... or is the USPO just really stupid?
I vote for the latter.
"I get grey hair just thinking about Windows. Is that in the knowledge base?"
Are the grey hairs I got trying to make sound work in KDE in the Linux knowledgebase?
(Well I figure we might as well translate this joke to both sides.)
"I wouldn't go with a renderfarm - people are too used to seeing the 60fps stuff that comes out of hardware acceleration to be THAT impressed by software rendering, even if it looks great at 1 frame every 10 seconds."
Welllll it kind of depends on the target audience. If they're talking about Siggraph, which is coming next month, the people there would get it.
Essentially, I agree, though. I saw an Itanium demo where was rendering a pretty detailed engine. Whoop-de-do, my workstation could top that. I wasn't the slightest bit impressed until the sales guy (as opposed to the video...) used the word 'voxels'. Suddenly that was pretty cool. I had nothing to compare it with. They didn't have a P4 doing the same task next to it.
Which brings me to my next point, the solution I can see is to have it side by side with a typical render farm. "Who will win?" *Shrug* I agree, show me a chart instead of a machine.
"Boo hoo. Tastes differ, you pays your money and you takes your chances. If you want to cry "poor" then wait for it to hit the second run theatres or the video store.."
So, the movie industry should be allowed to misrepresent their products. You win.
"Computer make and model": In order to figure out if particular motherboards need a fix applied. The AGP problem with Athlons immediately comes to mind.
"Version information for the operating system, browser, and any other Microsoft software for which updates might be available": For security updates to IE, Outlook, Word, etc...
"Plug and Play ID numbers of hardware devices": In case there is a fix for a particular bit of hardware. Maybe a DirectX update or something.
"Region and language setting": What, you don't want your driver interfaces to be in Bulgarian?
"Globally Unique Identifier (GUID)": Eh, not terribly interested in defending this one unless it's to count how many times a particular machine gets updated. I can't say I'm terribly concerned about this one either.
"Product ID and Product Key": Filed under D for DUH.
"BIOS name, revision number, and revision date": Again, may be related to fixes for a particular computer.
This stuff is far less scary when you read through some of the MSDN articles for quick fixes etc. It's pretty obvious that they attain this info for the Automatic Update to actually work. Damn them for creating this free service!
"The article submitter's laziness in finding cheap HDs does not mean I cannot find them"
Guess you missed this bit:
"This way, no hard drive means no moving parts, which means better battery life,"
For what he wants, your solution is half-assed at best. You certainly had no right to be rude about it.
"Too bad you don't know enough about HTML to make a link.."
Too bad you don't know enough about your browser to simply copy/paste the address into your address bar.
"Does ANYBODY have good customer service anymore?"
Portland Water Works certainly does. They extended my billding date twice because I called up, politely explained that I was a little short, and asked nicely if there was a way to delay it. They cheerfully extended my deadline. They were understanding of all things. I was stunned, but pleasantly surprised.
In that same week, however, Washington Mutual turned down my application for a checking account (despite having $3,000 in hand) because I was in the process of moving. "You don't have a permenant address" "I will when I can write a check so I can get my apartment down here." (The story's a little more detailed than that, but that's the general idea. Never tell a bank you spent the previous night in a hotel.)
"There is absolutely No justification for stealing, regardless of the quality of the product."
I'd agree with that except for a couple of things.
1.) If somebody's spending >24 hours downloading a questionable quality movie for the sake of saving a few bucks, it is a true indication that ticket prices are too high.
2.) There is no guarantee of quality or satisfaction. Trailers can lie to get you to see the movie, but you can't get a refund if it really sucks. (Boy, imagine if they had a refund policy back when Godzilla came out.)
It may be immoral to download and watch movies without paying anything blah blah blah, but it's a powerful expression of supply and demand that we (the consumers) have. The mere fact that Hollywood is thriving illustrates the point that there is SOMETHING wrong with what they're doing, but people are still willing to spend money.
I really wish Hollywood would just listen to why people would jump through so many hoops to download a movie and figure out what to do to compete with that instead of trying to buy senators to change the laws. Only then would they know that Rob Schnider is a money repellent.
"I'm guessing movie studio executives don't get together around the boardroom table and have conversations like, "gentlemen, our fare has been too highly reviewed of late. It's time to make a real stinker. One for the record books. Instant flop."
Perhaps not, but I am guessing that they have said "ah screw it, the licensed character is all we need, write a script over the weekend."
"nagora writes "The BBC is reporting that the movie industry, in yet another illustration of just how much damage the Internet is doing to the long-suffering members of the MPAA, has just endured a record breaking $1Billion dollar takings for the single month of June. Clearly there is a desperate need to tighten up copyright laws in the face of this huge mountain of cash that is literally being metaphorically syphoned into the studios' pockets. How will they survive? "
Oh dear I thought I was reading a trasncript from the Daily Show there. Clever!