They are $200 and you save time, money and effort.
Even the geek effect isn't worth it this time.
Spend the money and help a company."
Or you can reuse an old computer and save the environment. *eyeroll*
Seriously, though, PC-based PVR != Tivo. You can (easily) dump shows to your laptop. I found that useful when I was sent on a rather boring business trip. You can also easily archive what you capture, which isn't very easy to do today with Tivo and related units. It may not seem that important to you, but the reason to do that is so that you can watch a show in order. You Farscape fans know what I'm talking about.
Then there's the whole matter of just being tinkerers. Why spend $200 (plus $10 you convienently forgot to mention) on a non-upgradable device when you've got old computer parts laying around that can do it almost as well + the benefits mentioned above?
I have a Replay TV today, and I'm quite satisfied with it. I still wish I had my old PC-based PVR, though. I liked watching Quantum Leap while fartin around on the net.
"It depends on your IM client and protocol. I receive spam on the MSN network and on the ICQ network."
I'm on the ICQ network via Trillian. I haven't gotten spam in ages. I wasn't having that problem on ICQ either, I had it set up to where ppl could only message me if they were authorized. If I could do that with email, my spam problems would be over.
"Furthermore, Instant Messanging is designed for quick, well...instant messages. Short little things that might replace a phone call. Email on the other hand can be utilized for long, drawn out topics, that require several pages of typing to argue through."
Fundamentally, email and IM really aren't that different from one another. If you're not on-line, messages get stored on a server. If you're on-line, they get sent straight to you. Though the UI is definitely tuned for fast quick messages, it wouldn't take a whole lot to make it work with bigger messages.
I'm a little confused about this article. It talks about rebuilding the net, but it focuses on a protocol that's really only a software change. You don't need a whole new internet to do that. Just create your messaging service and entice people to use it.
Frankly, I'm surprised more people haven't ditched email for Instant Messaging. Spam just doesn't work on it anymore because permission has to be granted before anybody can contact you. Etc etc.
"Even if it may result in more use and sales of their product, the name of the game is control and MS values that, it seems, more than potential profits."
Of course the game is control. If Microsoft doesn't control the environment that their product is running in, then how can they possibly support it? Afterall, people have a way of blaming Microsoft for other people's problems.
"Netscape crashed, damn Microsoft!"
How do you tell if any problems are a result of FP or a result of Wine?
In any case, I have no doubt that MS doesn't want its stuff running on Linux, afterall that does mean that Linux is easier to adopt. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that's what the main motivation is here. Frankly, I'm sick of how everything is about how evil and greedy Microsoft is. Microsoft's world is not that b&w. There are humans working there afterall.
"Dell Computer Corp. confirmed for MacCentral today that the company has stopped selling Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iPod MP3 player. Dell is discontinuing sales of the iPod because of changes Apple wants to implement in the reseller agreement between the two companies."
"Knowing/. most people will just fax him a black page. The MPAA will be quaking in their boots at the huge bills for toner! "
Actually that'd get the point across. "Why is this ink so expensive? The DMCA prevents companies from providing cheap alternative ink cartridges. You idiot! It was only supposed to work in our price gouging policies."
"wow... thats all i have to say, something like this could make waiting over a min or two to boot totally obselete... sort of like a "turn on" welcome to your OS of choise type of thing.."
Then why do they.... keep telling me that size doesn't matter!?!
Maybe in your case their lack of spatial acuity works in your favor.
Re:Recordable DVD Drive a Deal-Breaker?
on
Rabid TiVo Fanaticism
·
· Score: 2, Informative
"If only ReplayTV didn't pretty much just go down the crapper... "
It hasn't gone down the crapper, yet at least. It's still working just fine and I'm still being billed. I also got a notification that service isn't going to be interrupted.
However, I agree, these are scary times for us Replay Subscribers.
Re:Recordable DVD Drive a Deal-Breaker?
on
Rabid TiVo Fanaticism
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
"What I think would work really well for me is to have it set up where I could use the tivo as normal and when I wanted to archive some content I could dump it to DVD."
It's a bit round-about, but if you buy a ReplayTV it's got an ethernet port on the back of it. You can download an app to pull the show off the Replay to your PC to have your way with.
It's not as good as having a built in DVD-R or anything like that, but on the flip side you could re-encode to DivX and burn to much cheaper CD's.:)
Re:4/20/03 - 4 years after Columbine
on
Rabid TiVo Fanaticism
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
"As many Slashdotters know, the gunmen were avid players of the game 'Doom'. If this game had not been created by a one John Carmack, then the tragedy may not have occurred."
For the record, if you read the journal of one of the kids that commited that terrible act, you'd see his reference too Doom as a point of illustration. The kid could just as easily have said "It'll be like the Matrix!" and the media would have ran with that. Blaming Doom for Columbine is like blaming South Park for 9-11. On the surface it might appear that there's some link that could have been avoided. But when you take the time to understand it, you realize that somebody would have to be deeply disturbed to be that bothered by it. There's no cause there.
Simply put, what happened there was a combination of social barriers, bad parenting, kids who seriously needed counseling, and deep seated anger. High School happens during that time in everybody's life where your mental state is heavily affected by mood swings and other chemcial imbalances. Students can be particularly cruel at that time, and they're overly sensitive to it at the same time. Without some way to vent anger, it just builds up. If anything, Doom might have delayed the shooting by giving these kids something to vent into. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. They should have joined wrestling or something.
One thing I'm amazed about is how the people in the media who reported that Doom was the cause of the shooting can't seem to remember what high school was like. This type of thing was bound to happen sooner or later, it didn't need Doom's help.
In any case, I'm off-topic enough here. It is the 4th anniversary of Columbine, and sadly there's no article where people can discuss it. I have to admit, though, I'm rather tired of Doom being blamed for what happened here.
So, sorry to drift guys. It's a topic that's of importance to me. Felt the need to post.:)
" Personally, I won't bother to find out first hand until they slap a recordable DVD drive in there."
Why are you more worried about what you don't get than what you do get?
Re:Recordable DVD Drive a Deal-Breaker?
on
Rabid TiVo Fanaticism
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
"Huh? What a bizarre, ill-informed remark to make. The cost-benefit ratio would be ridiculous."
Not to mention that you'd have to constantly change discs on that thing. Kinda defeats the purpose. Do what I did, spend $300, get it with an 80 gig drive. I still haven't filled that thing up. When I do, I've got another 80 gigger I'm going to throw in there.
"...why TiVo owners are at times frighteningly fanatical."
I can't say it's a huge surprise. Tivo (and variants, I have a Replay TV for example...) has this way of making your TV work within your schedule. It's just a glimpse of how cool TV really could be. Sadly, the broadcasting companies think it'll hurt their ad revenue.
Personally, I can't wait until I can easily exchange shows with friends. (that would include knowing a bunch of people with a similar device...) If I had this capability a couple of years ago, who knows what Futurama's fate would have been? I mean, how was anybody supposed to catch it the way Fox schedules their shows?
"men. I would be WAY more than willing to shell out $20 a month to have AG running the way it used to. The fact that it was "set and forget" was the best thing going for it. I never liked Napster either, but AG did it right. Too bad the record companies are too stupid to see a VIABLE SOURCE OF INCOME when they see one. Dipshits. "
For $10 a month you could use Listen.com. As long as ya pay that, you have access to any song of their library. plus playlists etc. It's like a server-side MP3 locker, only they're all there. Click a song and you're listening to it within moments instead of having to wait for it to download. (then it caches so it's not like you go through that every time...)
Not a bad deal. It's not quite perfect in that you don't get to keep the compressed version and it's Windows only. Oh well, it's not for everybody. Still, $10 is less than one CD per month.
I'm thinking about writing up a review of it for Slashdot, but I'm concerned about whether there'd be any interest in it.
"Here's a hint, if I shoplift a CD, the store doesn't have it anymore, if I use Napster, no one is deprived of anything."
Not to mention that the CD's still had value, seeing as how the RIAA doesn't sell singles of every song on every album. Frankly, Napster was about as harmful as radio. If people were using Napster to save money, then how come $400 iPods are popular? $400 buys you a pretty good number of CDs.
I hope the next GTA..
on
GTA3 Multiplayer
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
... is a massively multi-player online game. Imagine a huge city where people can log in and out and wander around the simulation of a city. With all the rules that Vice City has, just the human intelligence behind some of the characters would make this game live forever.
Now that I think about it, being a cop would be fun. "Where the F did that cop get a rocket launcher?" hehe. I'd be happy to pay $10 a month for that, especially if it guaranteed high-bandwidth servers.
Man, I hope that's next in the pipe-line.
Re:Linux Server but no LINUX GAME!!!!
on
GTA3 Multiplayer
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
"Im going to assume that when you say Linux, you mane a console app just for serving. So where's the Linux game? You use us just for running a server because its rock solid stable, but dont put the time in to make it playable on linux?
Im appauled. "
I'm appauled that you think somebody should rewrite an entire game for you because you're too stubborn to dual boot with Windows or buy a PS2.
"I'd play this even in single-player mode if I can have new vehicles added. No, I don't mean sportscars as tough as tanks or any "cheat" kind of vehicles, I have several friends who are vintage car fans, and it'd be cool to play GTA3 the day of a classic car convention in the game, and have 1937 Hudson Terraplanes, the old Mini-Coopers, '40s and '50s Cadillacs, hearses, etc. "
Screw that. I want the Knight Rider car (with all features enabled), the Gadget Mobile (with all features enabled), and Bumblebee (with all features enabled).
Slashdot Mirror
"Well I for one am not buying it until it plays Ogg. "
Ugh. If I don't explain the joke, I'm off-topic. If I do explain it, I'm overrated
"How many of these topics will we see?
They are $200 and you save time, money and effort.
Even the geek effect isn't worth it this time.
Spend the money and help a company."
Or you can reuse an old computer and save the environment. *eyeroll*
Seriously, though, PC-based PVR != Tivo. You can (easily) dump shows to your laptop. I found that useful when I was sent on a rather boring business trip. You can also easily archive what you capture, which isn't very easy to do today with Tivo and related units. It may not seem that important to you, but the reason to do that is so that you can watch a show in order. You Farscape fans know what I'm talking about.
Then there's the whole matter of just being tinkerers. Why spend $200 (plus $10 you convienently forgot to mention) on a non-upgradable device when you've got old computer parts laying around that can do it almost as well + the benefits mentioned above?
I have a Replay TV today, and I'm quite satisfied with it. I still wish I had my old PC-based PVR, though. I liked watching Quantum Leap while fartin around on the net.
"It depends on your IM client and protocol. I receive spam on the MSN network and on the ICQ network."
I'm on the ICQ network via Trillian. I haven't gotten spam in ages. I wasn't having that problem on ICQ either, I had it set up to where ppl could only message me if they were authorized. If I could do that with email, my spam problems would be over.
"Furthermore, Instant Messanging is designed for quick, well...instant messages. Short little things that might replace a phone call. Email on the other hand can be utilized for long, drawn out topics, that require several pages of typing to argue through."
Fundamentally, email and IM really aren't that different from one another. If you're not on-line, messages get stored on a server. If you're on-line, they get sent straight to you. Though the UI is definitely tuned for fast quick messages, it wouldn't take a whole lot to make it work with bigger messages.
I'm a little confused about this article. It talks about rebuilding the net, but it focuses on a protocol that's really only a software change. You don't need a whole new internet to do that. Just create your messaging service and entice people to use it.
Frankly, I'm surprised more people haven't ditched email for Instant Messaging. Spam just doesn't work on it anymore because permission has to be granted before anybody can contact you. Etc etc.
"Even if it may result in more use and sales of their product, the name of the game is control and MS values that, it seems, more than potential profits."
Of course the game is control. If Microsoft doesn't control the environment that their product is running in, then how can they possibly support it? Afterall, people have a way of blaming Microsoft for other people's problems.
"Netscape crashed, damn Microsoft!"
How do you tell if any problems are a result of FP or a result of Wine?
In any case, I have no doubt that MS doesn't want its stuff running on Linux, afterall that does mean that Linux is easier to adopt. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that's what the main motivation is here. Frankly, I'm sick of how everything is about how evil and greedy Microsoft is. Microsoft's world is not that b&w. There are humans working there afterall.
"Why is it... ...that i never trust any product that has the word "trust" in it? "
It's probably an immune reaction to all the fud that flew around Slashdot during the Microsoft anti-trust suit.
"hat they keep the 5 gig and drop the price down to $200."
Or, if you're willing to spend $215, you can get a 20 gig Jukebox. I'd have one on it's way here right now if it used Firewire instead of USB 2.0. Oh well.
"He said getting rid of stock, you nincompoop, not stopping selling. "
Wrong.
"Dell Computer Corp. confirmed for MacCentral today that the company has stopped selling Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iPod MP3 player. Dell is discontinuing sales of the iPod because of changes Apple wants to implement in the reseller agreement between the two companies."
"Knowing /. most people will just fax him a black page. The MPAA will be quaking in their boots at the huge bills for toner! "
Actually that'd get the point across. "Why is this ink so expensive? The DMCA prevents companies from providing cheap alternative ink cartridges. You idiot! It was only supposed to work in our price gouging policies."
"I guess that got the automatic "+1: Open Source Is Good"
Well I for one am not buying it until it plays Ogg.
"I know plenty of women that get energy from vibrating objects."
Is that why you have so much credit card debt?
"wow... thats all i have to say, something like this could make waiting over a min or two to boot totally obselete... sort of like a "turn on" welcome to your OS of choise type of thing.."
Kinda like Windows CE!
... no women have actually read this article.
Then why do they.... keep telling me that size doesn't matter!?!
Maybe in your case their lack of spatial acuity works in your favor.
"If only ReplayTV didn't pretty much just go down the crapper... "
It hasn't gone down the crapper, yet at least. It's still working just fine and I'm still being billed. I also got a notification that service isn't going to be interrupted.
However, I agree, these are scary times for us Replay Subscribers.
"What I think would work really well for me is to have it set up where I could use the tivo as normal and when I wanted to archive some content I could dump it to DVD."
:)
It's a bit round-about, but if you buy a ReplayTV it's got an ethernet port on the back of it. You can download an app to pull the show off the Replay to your PC to have your way with.
It's not as good as having a built in DVD-R or anything like that, but on the flip side you could re-encode to DivX and burn to much cheaper CD's.
"As many Slashdotters know, the gunmen were avid players of the game 'Doom'.
:)
If this game had not been created by a one John Carmack, then the tragedy may not have occurred."
For the record, if you read the journal of one of the kids that commited that terrible act, you'd see his reference too Doom as a point of illustration. The kid could just as easily have said "It'll be like the Matrix!" and the media would have ran with that. Blaming Doom for Columbine is like blaming South Park for 9-11. On the surface it might appear that there's some link that could have been avoided. But when you take the time to understand it, you realize that somebody would have to be deeply disturbed to be that bothered by it. There's no cause there.
Simply put, what happened there was a combination of social barriers, bad parenting, kids who seriously needed counseling, and deep seated anger. High School happens during that time in everybody's life where your mental state is heavily affected by mood swings and other chemcial imbalances. Students can be particularly cruel at that time, and they're overly sensitive to it at the same time. Without some way to vent anger, it just builds up. If anything, Doom might have delayed the shooting by giving these kids something to vent into. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. They should have joined wrestling or something.
One thing I'm amazed about is how the people in the media who reported that Doom was the cause of the shooting can't seem to remember what high school was like. This type of thing was bound to happen sooner or later, it didn't need Doom's help.
In any case, I'm off-topic enough here. It is the 4th anniversary of Columbine, and sadly there's no article where people can discuss it. I have to admit, though, I'm rather tired of Doom being blamed for what happened here.
So, sorry to drift guys. It's a topic that's of importance to me. Felt the need to post.
" Personally, I won't bother to find out first hand until they slap a recordable DVD drive in there."
Why are you more worried about what you don't get than what you do get?
"Huh? What a bizarre, ill-informed remark to make. The cost-benefit ratio would be ridiculous."
Not to mention that you'd have to constantly change discs on that thing. Kinda defeats the purpose. Do what I did, spend $300, get it with an 80 gig drive. I still haven't filled that thing up. When I do, I've got another 80 gigger I'm going to throw in there.
"...why TiVo owners are at times frighteningly fanatical."
I can't say it's a huge surprise. Tivo (and variants, I have a Replay TV for example...) has this way of making your TV work within your schedule. It's just a glimpse of how cool TV really could be. Sadly, the broadcasting companies think it'll hurt their ad revenue.
Personally, I can't wait until I can easily exchange shows with friends. (that would include knowing a bunch of people with a similar device...) If I had this capability a couple of years ago, who knows what Futurama's fate would have been? I mean, how was anybody supposed to catch it the way Fox schedules their shows?
"men. I would be WAY more than willing to shell out $20 a month to have AG running the way it used to. The fact that it was "set and forget" was the best thing going for it. I never liked Napster either, but AG did it right. Too bad the record companies are too stupid to see a VIABLE SOURCE OF INCOME when they see one. Dipshits. "
For $10 a month you could use Listen.com. As long as ya pay that, you have access to any song of their library. plus playlists etc. It's like a server-side MP3 locker, only they're all there. Click a song and you're listening to it within moments instead of having to wait for it to download. (then it caches so it's not like you go through that every time...)
Not a bad deal. It's not quite perfect in that you don't get to keep the compressed version and it's Windows only. Oh well, it's not for everybody. Still, $10 is less than one CD per month.
I'm thinking about writing up a review of it for Slashdot, but I'm concerned about whether there'd be any interest in it.
"Here's a hint, if I shoplift a CD, the store doesn't have it anymore, if I use Napster, no one is deprived of anything."
Not to mention that the CD's still had value, seeing as how the RIAA doesn't sell singles of every song on every album. Frankly, Napster was about as harmful as radio. If people were using Napster to save money, then how come $400 iPods are popular? $400 buys you a pretty good number of CDs.
... is a massively multi-player online game. Imagine a huge city where people can log in and out and wander around the simulation of a city. With all the rules that Vice City has, just the human intelligence behind some of the characters would make this game live forever.
Now that I think about it, being a cop would be fun. "Where the F did that cop get a rocket launcher?" hehe. I'd be happy to pay $10 a month for that, especially if it guaranteed high-bandwidth servers.
Man, I hope that's next in the pipe-line.
"Im going to assume that when you say Linux, you mane a console app just for serving. So where's the Linux game? You use us just for running a server because its rock solid stable, but dont put the time in to make it playable on linux?
Im appauled. "
I'm appauled that you think somebody should rewrite an entire game for you because you're too stubborn to dual boot with Windows or buy a PS2.
"I'd play this even in single-player mode if I can have new vehicles added. No, I don't mean sportscars as tough as tanks or any "cheat" kind of vehicles, I have several friends who are vintage car fans, and it'd be cool to play GTA3 the day of a classic car convention in the game, and have 1937 Hudson Terraplanes, the old Mini-Coopers, '40s and '50s Cadillacs, hearses, etc. "
Screw that. I want the Knight Rider car (with all features enabled), the Gadget Mobile (with all features enabled), and Bumblebee (with all features enabled).