Third; I have the same setup as you (NAS box, MP3s, wife...) and iTunes + Airport Express + iPhone/iPod Touch Remote works great. I have one hooked up to the main stereo in the living room, and another one to a bookshelf system in the kitchen.
Same experience, same impression. We already had an underutilized Netflix account; this box makes the subscription worthwhile. Very good value and dead simple to configure and use.
Okay, nerds can use Linux on the desktop. And they can set it up for their grandparents. But there's a large group of people -- let's call them "normal people" -- in between; neither expert nor clueless. Normal people use some specialized application that may not be available on Windows. Normal people like Outlook (tip: that why it's so popular!) Normal people buy computers with operating systems pre-loaded and never think to replace them. Normal people do some configuration of their desktop, but don't recompile the kernel. Linux on the desktop is fine for nerds and grandparents but still not there for normal people.
It's not clear to me why Internet Explorer is a requirement; the download worked fine for me in Firefox. Perhaps confusion between Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer?
There's a strong governance flavor to this problem, which likely will not be solved by software alone. Who's responsible for deciding if the request is worth acting upon? Who's responsible for making sure they do it? What standards need to be followed? Documentation? Does it have dependencies? And so on. Then you have to educate your customers about the process, and enforce it.
Definitely, pick a good tool. But there may be more to it than just that.
I don't think you're giving the airlines enough credit. Trains might work in the US if we spent money on them, but the fact is that people drive and fly instead.
I flew LaGuardia - O'Hare every week for months while I was working on a project in Oak Brook. Monday mornings I'd take the six AM flight out of LaGuardia, which mean that I left my apartment at 5:00 or 5:15. The taxi took twenty minutes from Manhattan (I think sixteen minutes was my personal best) at that time of the morning. Getting through security takes a few minutes, ten if you're unlucky. Two hours to get through security is not realistic; El Al, maybe? Checking in at the gate or the club room takes another couple of mintues. Checking luggage makes it harder, but there are still work-arounds: you can use the new kiosks, or cut the lines if you have status with the airline. Unless you're travelling with kids, or emigrating, checking luggage isn't a great idea.
I could be in Oak Brook within an hour of landing, depending on taxiing times, the car rental bus, Chicago traffic, and other variables. Three and a half total, at the outside. And that's not theoretical.
Week before last, I made it onto a flight out of Raliegh in twenty five minutes, from arriving at the airport in a rental car to boarding the place, and that includes a long wait at security.
Another example: on several occasions I've had meetings in rural Oklahoma with a client and made it there and back to NYC in a single day on commercial flights.
Given the experiences I've heard about on NE corridor trains (my mom recently took nine hours to go from Boston to NY!), I don't think I'd trust Amtrak to get me to Chicago in three and a half hours.
The shuttle flights between Boston-NY-DC are very efficient, although not cheap.
The reality today is that for fast travel beyond driving distance, people in the US fly.
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I'm writing this, quietly, on a machine from End PC Noise; great stuff.
Third; I have the same setup as you (NAS box, MP3s, wife...) and iTunes + Airport Express + iPhone/iPod Touch Remote works great. I have one hooked up to the main stereo in the living room, and another one to a bookshelf system in the kitchen.
Same experience, same impression. We already had an underutilized Netflix account; this box makes the subscription worthwhile. Very good value and dead simple to configure and use.
Okay, nerds can use Linux on the desktop. And they can set it up for their grandparents. But there's a large group of people -- let's call them "normal people" -- in between; neither expert nor clueless. Normal people use some specialized application that may not be available on Windows. Normal people like Outlook (tip: that why it's so popular!) Normal people buy computers with operating systems pre-loaded and never think to replace them. Normal people do some configuration of their desktop, but don't recompile the kernel. Linux on the desktop is fine for nerds and grandparents but still not there for normal people.
It's not clear to me why Internet Explorer is a requirement; the download worked fine for me in Firefox. Perhaps confusion between Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer?
There's a strong governance flavor to this problem, which likely will not be solved by software alone. Who's responsible for deciding if the request is worth acting upon? Who's responsible for making sure they do it? What standards need to be followed? Documentation? Does it have dependencies? And so on. Then you have to educate your customers about the process, and enforce it. Definitely, pick a good tool. But there may be more to it than just that.
I don't think you're giving the airlines enough credit. Trains might work in the US if we spent money on them, but the fact is that people drive and fly instead. I flew LaGuardia - O'Hare every week for months while I was working on a project in Oak Brook. Monday mornings I'd take the six AM flight out of LaGuardia, which mean that I left my apartment at 5:00 or 5:15. The taxi took twenty minutes from Manhattan (I think sixteen minutes was my personal best) at that time of the morning. Getting through security takes a few minutes, ten if you're unlucky. Two hours to get through security is not realistic; El Al, maybe? Checking in at the gate or the club room takes another couple of mintues. Checking luggage makes it harder, but there are still work-arounds: you can use the new kiosks, or cut the lines if you have status with the airline. Unless you're travelling with kids, or emigrating, checking luggage isn't a great idea. I could be in Oak Brook within an hour of landing, depending on taxiing times, the car rental bus, Chicago traffic, and other variables. Three and a half total, at the outside. And that's not theoretical. Week before last, I made it onto a flight out of Raliegh in twenty five minutes, from arriving at the airport in a rental car to boarding the place, and that includes a long wait at security. Another example: on several occasions I've had meetings in rural Oklahoma with a client and made it there and back to NYC in a single day on commercial flights. Given the experiences I've heard about on NE corridor trains (my mom recently took nine hours to go from Boston to NY!), I don't think I'd trust Amtrak to get me to Chicago in three and a half hours. The shuttle flights between Boston-NY-DC are very efficient, although not cheap. The reality today is that for fast travel beyond driving distance, people in the US fly.