First, everyone should check out the AVS Forum site to discuss the 8000HD and other recorders.
The 8000HD does what it's supposed to do (record HD programming) but it doesn't do it as well as a ReplayTV or similar.
I came in with no expectations for features, so that helps. The 8000HD does not do theme based recordings, has no search capability, and I'm finding my PBSHD schedule is not accurate. Even more jugheaded, you can't start a show that's recording from the beginning. You have to actually REWIND manually through the show to start from the top.. Stupid stupid stupid.
In the end, I don't mind it. Movies on HBO are incredible, and I hope they will eventually match the aspect ratio for 2.35:1 films. I already have two hacked ReplayTV units for recording standard programming (200 hours of it per device:) ), so the ability to capture some of my favorite shows in HD is gravy. The ability of the unit to record two HD streams simultaenously is also nice.
I'm hoping they'll add capability for 1394 output soon, since I appeared in the background on an HD documentary on the Demoratic Convention and would like to archive it.
I don't need the high end features (I already have them on the Replay) so just having a fairly spartan recorder does the trick. I do, however, look forward to the day I can utilize 'cable card' technology and choose my own hardware. Comcast limits me to just the 8000HD.
..an Apple smartphone ala the Treo 600. Imagine a mobile OSX based device with a 60 gig drive for playing music. Now that I'd pay a few hundred bucks for..
When I bought my treo, I was so happy to ditch having to walk around with two geeky devices. So of course I ended up buying a 20 gig iPod and still walk around with two geeky devices. Jobs has said the smartphone is the future of the PDA - does that mean an eventual merging of these technologies?
I got a kick out of this story because I had experienced some mouse trouble when I first got my Dell 2001FP.
For some reason, all of my games ran like crap after picking up the display... Game after game simply ran like a slug after the LCD was added to the mix and I couldn't figure out what the problem was.
I finally noticed that if I took my hand off the mouse, things ran smoother.. After some trial and error I discovered my first generation optical Intellimouse Explorer didn't like the USB hub on the Dell monitor (I plugged it into the 2001FP's USB ports to add some slack on the mouse cable). While the problems were not readily apparent on the 2D apps, they were incredibly apparent in the games.
So after moving the mouse back to the PC's main USB ports, everything improved dramatically. It gave me an excuse to pick up that new fancy Logitech laser deal.
I fear that the United States risks losing its potential economic dominance in space if we don't act soon. President Bush's space proposal is a good start, but I don't see it being a priority for him or the Congress, which means it's just another 'wishlist' as opposed to real policy.
Given that the development of space could significantly grow the economy (and humanity for that matter), will you make space development a real priority in your administration?
For anyone uncertain about the voting process in key battleground states, I compiled a comprehensive listing of resources in each state. You can donwnload PDF forms direct from the source when available, and get information on deadlines, etc:
First, to the comment about 'emotional responses' and elections - All American elections are decided by emotions.. Period. If people voted for policy, George W and the rest of the Republicans would never win an office. Their policies stink but they don't need good policy to get elected.
Now on the topic at hand - Since Moore recently did not discourage the distribution of the film through online peer-to-peer networks, couldn't he conceivably also look the other way if people happened to air the film on cable access stations across the country? Some of the larger stations in NYC and other metropolitan areas can potentially reach millions of viewers. Even my cable company in rural connecticut has over 60,000 subscribers.
The best part is that if people can be encouraged to pursue this route on their own and air the film without his involvement, perhaps it
could circumvent some of the restrictions he's finding in getting this thing on television. It would give the grassroots folks the ability to promote the airdate as well.
Verizon is really all about nickel and diming the customer. Walk into any retail store and you can see many 'packages' to be added on to a normal account. They charge for everything beyond a typical phone call, even on the more premium accounts.
I used to be a Verizon customer and switched to Sprint when the Treo 600 came out. I was expecting a decline in service quality, and was quite surprised the actual service was about the same.
What I did get was far more bang for the buck. For around $110 US a month, I get 2000 peak minutes, unlimited nights and weekends which start at 7 p.m. (versus 9 for Verizon), unlimited picture and SMS messaging, unlimited data, including unlimited modem use (thanks PDANet!), and a host of other features.
Bottom line, I'm not sad I left Verizon.. At least with Sprint I know I won't be charged extra for something as simple as an SMS message or photo transmission.
I was an RA in college and dealt with a few of these situations. The biggest theft problems we had were people who simply did not lock the doors to their dorm room/apartments. I can't tell you how many nights I'd go on rounds to see dorm rooms not only unlocked, but the lights on and the doors wide open.
I recall one theft ring that could have easily been avoided by a locked door. The crooks would walk down a first floor hallway, knock on the door to see if anybody was home, open the unlocked door, and haul the loot out a back window to an accomplice. The rooms that locked their doors avoided it. What a concept!:).
My gear and me survived all four years, and nothing was swiped during that time. By my senior year I would have been a treasure trove with my Kodak DC120 (the first consumer megapixel digital camera), a fancy P233MMX notebook, and let's not forget my Newton 2000! I miss those days..
I for one am excited about Valve's STEAM distribution technology.
I am so sick of forking over my hard earned dollars to companies (thieves?) like EB Games, so it's nice to see I can get a sorta immediate iTunesesque download for games and send the $$ directly to the developers. EB is evil because they rip off children, buying their used games at well below their Ebay value..
The preloading is a great idea, should balance out the bandwidth for when the game is 'released.' Hopefully the fact that we're preloading means it won't be much more of a wait.
Am I missing something? I bought The Sims like everyone else when it first came out a few years ago. I played it for an evening or two but just couldn't get into it. I don't know, but instructing an onscreen avatar to piss and shit constantly is rather annoying. Add to that I couldn't get him to wake up to go to work, clean up his house, etc. etc.
I don't want to knock it, and I probably will pick up a copy of the Sims 2 with the hope that the micromanagement tasks are optional.
The Powerglove was a gimmick but Mike Tyson's punchout was awesome with it. I suspect this new controller, too, will be a one hit wonder, but the fighting game looks great.
One thing the article doesn't mention is how often you have to buy one of these things to consider yourself an owner of one:). I had a $40 Wal-Mart Apex player that lasted all of six months - just long enough to surpass the warranty period. No thanks..
I'm sure the government is subsidizing the manufacturers like they do in other industries to squash foreign competition. They've been doing this on cotton products for years to lock out the Pakistanis and other rival producers.
Although the article above links to a portion of this site, the full Lunar Surface Journal offers an incredibly detailed look at the Apollo program, including audio, video, and high resolution images from the missions. Be warned, you will spend hours there:).
What's the damn holdup with the transition to DVD games? I'm fed up with this Multi-CD crap.
At least it's not on floppies:). I remember having to install Strike Commander from 15+ disks including the speech pack.
I miss the good 'ol days of having a limited edition shareware version to keep me occupied until the full version was available.
I have fond memories from about 9 or 10 years ago sitting in IRC channels with other geeks waiting for the files to appear on IDs FTP server, and miracously stumbling upon them one night after they were just released.
It's too bad ID doesn't do that kind of thing anymore, it was fun to have something as soon as the code was locked down.
I voted this topic up because I think it's a good discussion, but I have to disagree with your point on price and artist royalties.
I've done the Ebay route and had to wait weeks for lazy sellers to send me a CD, which most of the time amounts to a promo version (they have the barcode punched out). The artists certianly didn't get a cut of that sale!
On price, iTunes is cheaper for instant gratification. Find me a local corporatized record store that will sell you the latest album releases for less than $17. I can't.. Sure, you can run into walmart and pick up a compilation disc for less than $.99 cents a track, but you're often buying $8 worth of CD for the one or two songs you're after (which can be purcyhased for less than 2 bucks on iTunes). Ebay and the like are great, but as noted above it can sometimes take a week or more to get the music. Not fast enough for me.
I could care less about liner notes.. I'm such a disorganized mess that they get lost in a week anyhow:).
Tonight I'm running up to the mall with my girlfriend and her college bound sister to purchase a 12" iBook G4. She was initially opposed to the mac until she looked at the following benefits:
Surprisingly a lower price than other light weight notebook competitors. With her student discount she will get a 1ghz G4 ibook with 12" screen, 512 megs of ram, 60 gig drive, combo DVD-ROM/cd burner, 802.11g, firewire, usb, etc. for just over $1200.
It's unfortunate that Apple doesn't have competitive pricing for desktop models and other notebooks like they do for the 12" iBook. It's really the best bang for the buck in the light weight market now.
Less aggravation and thus lower TCO- On her current aging PC I had to clean viruses and spyware off at least a half dozen times. She just can't get it on the iBook(at least not yet at any rate).
My experience with modern macs has been that once they're configured they work and stay that way. Her sister's iBook from three years ago is heavily used but still works just as good as it did on day 1.
Awesome MS Office ImplementationThe latest Office edition rocks and it's cheap for students too ($149). Completely compatible, and a lot more slick too.
It runs Unix:)
Apple would be best advised to begin touting the fact that these machines are really immune to the tons of crap that are being heaped on Windows units. If they can get their prices in line with the market, they'd have a slam dunk on their hands.
ReplayTV 4000 series units (and I believe the newer ones as well) do not have Macrovision circuitry on board. So that means that even a Macrovision encoded DVD will not be distorted if routed through a ReplayTV unit. So, all one needs to do is run the video into the ReplayTV, runDVArchive to transfer the video, and voila - one MPEG 2 stream.
The only down side is you'll lose the 5.1 channel audio, which IMHO is the best part about DVD's.
I can really see Linux gaming going from something you boot from an existing Linux installation to something more along the lines of liveCD games like we've been seeing trickling out lately.
It'll be kinda neat to return to the days of the Apple II when you'd pop in a disc, boot, and get the game:).
One thing nobody seems to have pointed out yet is how big media is making a fortune exasperating the divisions in American society. Whether it's Richard Clarke's book, the Franken vs. O'Reilley fight, Fox News vs. Franken, etc. etc., the fact remains that some big company is publishing these books, distributing these movies, and making a fortune.
You can call Moore a liar, call Franken a liar, Coulter a liar, Limbaugh a big fat liar, and it won't make any difference. The same publishing companies will run both books from both points of view, make big bucks, and leave our country seeking conflict before compromise.
Oh, and their news divisions will cover the aftermath:).
Reply-to Feature Tops My List
on
Gmail in the News
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
What I like most about Gmail is its ability to have a 'reply-to' option in the setup screen. I was using a cranky old IMAP account on my web hosting provider which was proving to be a nuisance (and I had far from a gig of storage!).
Since I am a Treo user, I still valued having the ability to check my account from my phone. But I also really liked the Gmail interface when I was at my desktop. So here's what I did:
I was pleased to see that Google allows you to override the reply-to address, so I immediately changed that to my current email address.
I then deleted my IMAP account and set up a mail forwarding alias that directs any incoming messages to my Gmail account as well as a pop account on the hosting provider's server.
I use the POP account to check mail from my Treo, and it also gets picked up by my Outlook client for permanent archiving.
The best part is I was able to switch my email exclusively to Gmail without anyone noticing the switch. This is top notch stuff.. Google has done something extraordinary here.
I'm sure you all remember the story regarding Propeller Arena, a great game that was canceled just before its release. Few knew it ever made it out of Sega until Slashdot referenced an article on it not too long ago. Somebody purchased the GD-ROM for over $1500, turned it over to a hacker, and the game suddenly found its way to the Net:).
I wonder how many other games like this are out there sitting on dev boxes somewhere just waiting to be discovered.
Considering that the price for a magazine/newspaper is generally used to recoup the costs of production and distribution, these magazines would be better advised to offer the digital versions for free. They can increase their circulation which in turn could increase their revenues.
Slashdot Mirror
The 8000HD does what it's supposed to do (record HD programming) but it doesn't do it as well as a ReplayTV or similar.
I came in with no expectations for features, so that helps. The 8000HD does not do theme based recordings, has no search capability, and I'm finding my PBSHD schedule is not accurate. Even more jugheaded, you can't start a show that's recording from the beginning. You have to actually REWIND manually through the show to start from the top.. Stupid stupid stupid.
In the end, I don't mind it. Movies on HBO are incredible, and I hope they will eventually match the aspect ratio for 2.35:1 films. I already have two hacked ReplayTV units for recording standard programming (200 hours of it per device :) ), so the ability to capture some of my favorite shows in HD is gravy. The ability of the unit to record two HD streams simultaenously is also nice.
I'm hoping they'll add capability for 1394 output soon, since I appeared in the background on an HD documentary on the Demoratic Convention and would like to archive it.
I don't need the high end features (I already have them on the Replay) so just having a fairly spartan recorder does the trick. I do, however, look forward to the day I can utilize 'cable card' technology and choose my own hardware. Comcast limits me to just the 8000HD.
When I bought my treo, I was so happy to ditch having to walk around with two geeky devices. So of course I ended up buying a 20 gig iPod and still walk around with two geeky devices. Jobs has said the smartphone is the future of the PDA - does that mean an eventual merging of these technologies?
For some reason, all of my games ran like crap after picking up the display... Game after game simply ran like a slug after the LCD was added to the mix and I couldn't figure out what the problem was.
I finally noticed that if I took my hand off the mouse, things ran smoother.. After some trial and error I discovered my first generation optical Intellimouse Explorer didn't like the USB hub on the Dell monitor (I plugged it into the 2001FP's USB ports to add some slack on the mouse cable). While the problems were not readily apparent on the 2D apps, they were incredibly apparent in the games.
So after moving the mouse back to the PC's main USB ports, everything improved dramatically. It gave me an excuse to pick up that new fancy Logitech laser deal.
Given that the development of space could significantly grow the economy (and humanity for that matter), will you make space development a real priority in your administration?
http://www.lonseidman.com/voteinfo.html
-Lon
I suppose it's the same as the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button, but I have a feeling more people would use the keyword feature on their local browser.
Now on the topic at hand - Since Moore recently did not discourage the distribution of the film through online peer-to-peer networks, couldn't he conceivably also look the other way if people happened to air the film on cable access stations across the country? Some of the larger stations in NYC and other metropolitan areas can potentially reach millions of viewers. Even my cable company in rural connecticut has over 60,000 subscribers. The best part is that if people can be encouraged to pursue this route on their own and air the film without his involvement, perhaps it could circumvent some of the restrictions he's finding in getting this thing on television. It would give the grassroots folks the ability to promote the airdate as well.
I used to be a Verizon customer and switched to Sprint when the Treo 600 came out. I was expecting a decline in service quality, and was quite surprised the actual service was about the same.
What I did get was far more bang for the buck. For around $110 US a month, I get 2000 peak minutes, unlimited nights and weekends which start at 7 p.m. (versus 9 for Verizon), unlimited picture and SMS messaging, unlimited data, including unlimited modem use (thanks PDANet!), and a host of other features.
Bottom line, I'm not sad I left Verizon.. At least with Sprint I know I won't be charged extra for something as simple as an SMS message or photo transmission.
I recall one theft ring that could have easily been avoided by a locked door. The crooks would walk down a first floor hallway, knock on the door to see if anybody was home, open the unlocked door, and haul the loot out a back window to an accomplice. The rooms that locked their doors avoided it. What a concept! :).
My gear and me survived all four years, and nothing was swiped during that time. By my senior year I would have been a treasure trove with my Kodak DC120 (the first consumer megapixel digital camera), a fancy P233MMX notebook, and let's not forget my Newton 2000! I miss those days..
I am so sick of forking over my hard earned dollars to companies (thieves?) like EB Games, so it's nice to see I can get a sorta immediate iTunesesque download for games and send the $$ directly to the developers. EB is evil because they rip off children, buying their used games at well below their Ebay value..
The preloading is a great idea, should balance out the bandwidth for when the game is 'released.' Hopefully the fact that we're preloading means it won't be much more of a wait.
I don't want to knock it, and I probably will pick up a copy of the Sims 2 with the hope that the micromanagement tasks are optional.
The Powerglove was a gimmick but Mike Tyson's punchout was awesome with it. I suspect this new controller, too, will be a one hit wonder, but the fighting game looks great.
I'm sure the government is subsidizing the manufacturers like they do in other industries to squash foreign competition. They've been doing this on cotton products for years to lock out the Pakistanis and other rival producers.
Although the article above links to a portion of this site, the full Lunar Surface Journal offers an incredibly detailed look at the Apollo program, including audio, video, and high resolution images from the missions. Be warned, you will spend hours there :).
What's the damn holdup with the transition to DVD games? I'm fed up with this Multi-CD crap. At least it's not on floppies :). I remember having to install Strike Commander from 15+ disks including the speech pack.
I have fond memories from about 9 or 10 years ago sitting in IRC channels with other geeks waiting for the files to appear on IDs FTP server, and miracously stumbling upon them one night after they were just released.
It's too bad ID doesn't do that kind of thing anymore, it was fun to have something as soon as the code was locked down.
We need iTunes for games!!
I've done the Ebay route and had to wait weeks for lazy sellers to send me a CD, which most of the time amounts to a promo version (they have the barcode punched out). The artists certianly didn't get a cut of that sale!
On price, iTunes is cheaper for instant gratification. Find me a local corporatized record store that will sell you the latest album releases for less than $17. I can't.. Sure, you can run into walmart and pick up a compilation disc for less than $.99 cents a track, but you're often buying $8 worth of CD for the one or two songs you're after (which can be purcyhased for less than 2 bucks on iTunes). Ebay and the like are great, but as noted above it can sometimes take a week or more to get the music. Not fast enough for me.
I could care less about liner notes.. I'm such a disorganized mess that they get lost in a week anyhow :).
Surprisingly a lower price than other light weight notebook competitors. With her student discount she will get a 1ghz G4 ibook with 12" screen, 512 megs of ram, 60 gig drive, combo DVD-ROM/cd burner, 802.11g, firewire, usb, etc. for just over $1200. It's unfortunate that Apple doesn't have competitive pricing for desktop models and other notebooks like they do for the 12" iBook. It's really the best bang for the buck in the light weight market now.
Less aggravation and thus lower TCO- On her current aging PC I had to clean viruses and spyware off at least a half dozen times. She just can't get it on the iBook(at least not yet at any rate). My experience with modern macs has been that once they're configured they work and stay that way. Her sister's iBook from three years ago is heavily used but still works just as good as it did on day 1.
Awesome MS Office ImplementationThe latest Office edition rocks and it's cheap for students too ($149). Completely compatible, and a lot more slick too.
It runs Unix :)
Apple would be best advised to begin touting the fact that these machines are really immune to the tons of crap that are being heaped on Windows units. If they can get their prices in line with the market, they'd have a slam dunk on their hands.
ReplayTV 4000 series units (and I believe the newer ones as well) do not have Macrovision circuitry on board. So that means that even a Macrovision encoded DVD will not be distorted if routed through a ReplayTV unit. So, all one needs to do is run the video into the ReplayTV, runDVArchive to transfer the video, and voila - one MPEG 2 stream.
The only down side is you'll lose the 5.1 channel audio, which IMHO is the best part about DVD's.
It'll be kinda neat to return to the days of the Apple II when you'd pop in a disc, boot, and get the game :).
You can call Moore a liar, call Franken a liar, Coulter a liar, Limbaugh a big fat liar, and it won't make any difference. The same publishing companies will run both books from both points of view, make big bucks, and leave our country seeking conflict before compromise.
Oh, and their news divisions will cover the aftermath :).
Since I am a Treo user, I still valued having the ability to check my account from my phone. But I also really liked the Gmail interface when I was at my desktop. So here's what I did:
I was pleased to see that Google allows you to override the reply-to address, so I immediately changed that to my current email address.
I then deleted my IMAP account and set up a mail forwarding alias that directs any incoming messages to my Gmail account as well as a pop account on the hosting provider's server.
I use the POP account to check mail from my Treo, and it also gets picked up by my Outlook client for permanent archiving.
The best part is I was able to switch my email exclusively to Gmail without anyone noticing the switch. This is top notch stuff.. Google has done something extraordinary here.
I wonder how many other games like this are out there sitting on dev boxes somewhere just waiting to be discovered.
Considering that the price for a magazine/newspaper is generally used to recoup the costs of production and distribution, these magazines would be better advised to offer the digital versions for free. They can increase their circulation which in turn could increase their revenues.