Let's agree that each plan has equal administrative overhead costs, and that for each plan this cost is $10 (actual admin cost should be nowhere near that, but hey, this AT&T we're talking about). So, that leaves $5 for 200MB of data, and $15 for 2GB of data. So, 1/3 the cost for only 1/10 the data? OP's point still stands. They're screwing you on the high(er) end plans, but they're screwing you even worse on the low end.
I wasn't discounting it, just saying it's nothing new, not to mention it's nowhere near novel. Visible light communication was pioneered in the 1880s! http://bemri.org/visible-light-communication.html
Old modems with external LEDs (as well as other network equipment with TX/RX LEDs) were susceptible to data leakage just by reading the LED modulations. This is just faster. http://www.alge.no/ebooks/Optical_tempest.pdf
Hell, I just bought a *color* networked LED printer (similar to laser) for $140 shipped to my door, and I've used some of those sub-$100 HP lasers. For most home desktop use, they're fine, and you can't beat the cost per page on a laser/LED...the one I just bought is in the $.03-.04 per page range for color.
Yes, it was obvious even then. There are plenty of examples of prior art, just google for them. Like both myself and others have said in previous posts in this thread, the reason Tivo came out when it did wasn't because of the idea of HD based recording/viewing, it was just that drive technology had just reached the point of capacity, speed, and price that it was economically feasible to do it.
Credit to Tivo for getting there first (commercially), no doubt, and I still think they have the best dvr out there, but their marketing/pricing strategy has gone to hell and their legal tactics are starting to look like they are a company in desperation.
Does TiVo's patent explicitly state that it's recording to, and reading from the same media at the same time? I was making a point that you could be recording one program with the DVR while watching another in normal TV mode. With Echostar's Satelite dish's, unless you have a dual tuner model, this is directly impossible within the same unit regardless.
If you're saying what I think you're saying here, ie: that a dish dvr can't record one show and watch another one that it has already recorded at the same time, then you're wrong. I do it all the time on my single tuner 508. If you're not saying that, then please ignore me:)
Yet if the disk based DVR and such was so obvious why wasn't it out and established before tivo?
Simple...the necessary HD space just didn't exist at the time (well, economically anyway). First gen Tivos hit the street in what, 1997 or so? HDs then, 4GB to maybe 8GB if you were lucky, were just barely spacious and speedy enough to do what a DVR needs to do. The market appeared because the core technology (hard disks) had matured enough, not because of the idea of recording/viewing directly from HD had been patented.
This is good news for consumers. With a little luck, the original judgment will be dismissed, perhaps even Tivo's obvious patent invalidated. I can't believe the case made it this far in the first place.
You're right, on the other models, they do call it a "lease" and you do have to pay the $5/month or whatever it is for service. That said, all they have to do is drop the service fee and write off the equipment..problem solved. It would be smarter business-wise for them to do that than to stop service altogether. Also, I've never seen them come take the DVR back when someone drops their service after the initial contract time has elapsed. I'm not saying they don't, but I've never seen it.
remember, Echostar's dvr is a service...the customer does not own the dvr software, Echostar does
This is not true in a lot of cases. I for one own my echostar dvr and don't pay a monthly service fee for it. Also, most people (unless they got the dvr for free at initial order time) paid for the hardware as well, even if they do pay a monthly service fee. Seems to me that Echostar could just drop the monthly dvr service fee and they would be in compliance, provided they didn't ship any more dvr units. That said, I think Echostar will find a way to keep their customers in DVRs without having to pay Tivo an extortion fee.
Microsoft does this all the time. They call it eating their own dogfood. In a way, it's quite smart actually. One, it shows customers that they aren't afraid to run their own product. Two, it helps them learn how to use and support their products in a large network. And three, it helps them find defects in the software.
That doesn't actually disconnect power from the PC. If you were to take a look at the motherboard after holding in the powerbutton, you'd probably see an led on on the board showing that power is still hot to the board. This is why things like WOL work, because the board still has power. Some ATX powersupplies have true physical switches on them though, and that *does* kill all power to the PC, though I'm not sure if the supply itself still draws power in that state.
The new development is that the dye used in the bubbles does 2 things:
1) it actually covers the whole bubble uniformly, rather than sliding to the bottom of the bubble like most colorings do
2) it loses its color if you rub it or if you just wait about a half hour. And when I say lose, I mean goes away completely, not just fades.
Very neat chemistry behind it all, actually.
I don't know where you got your info from, but plugging in a hotswap disk does NOT require a reboot, and hasn't since at least Windows 2000, but probably even NT 4. Open computer management, go to disk configuration, and click "rescan disks". It'll detect the drive just fine.
Actually, I believe in Vista, MS did exactly that...or at least it was per user copies of the registry, but a virtual one seems to be what I remember reading.
No, there was no mess until other people wanted to take control of something that wasn't theirs to take. Say what you want about ICANN, but I'd say the status quo has been just fine, thank you.
Except what we are talking about is property, which human life is not....in most places anyway...though there are some places where your "ex-mother's" statement might hold true. Your analogy is flawed.
Slashdot Mirror
Whomever modded this offtopic needs to read the front page. And then mod it funny.
Let's agree that each plan has equal administrative overhead costs, and that for each plan this cost is $10 (actual admin cost should be nowhere near that, but hey, this AT&T we're talking about). So, that leaves $5 for 200MB of data, and $15 for 2GB of data. So, 1/3 the cost for only 1/10 the data? OP's point still stands. They're screwing you on the high(er) end plans, but they're screwing you even worse on the low end.
I wasn't discounting it, just saying it's nothing new, not to mention it's nowhere near novel. Visible light communication was pioneered in the 1880s! http://bemri.org/visible-light-communication.html
Old modems with external LEDs (as well as other network equipment with TX/RX LEDs) were susceptible to data leakage just by reading the LED modulations. This is just faster. http://www.alge.no/ebooks/Optical_tempest.pdf
even worse, if the controller is, in fact, a bitch.
Even at full light speed, something as relatively close as the moon is over 2.5 seconds for minimum RTT.
the days bills come.
Hell, I just bought a *color* networked LED printer (similar to laser) for $140 shipped to my door, and I've used some of those sub-$100 HP lasers. For most home desktop use, they're fine, and you can't beat the cost per page on a laser/LED...the one I just bought is in the $.03-.04 per page range for color.
That bit was too funny. What was his dog's name in that...Rene Blanche or something like that...classic.
I wasn't citing anything specific, hence no citation, but if you must: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_video_recorde r. The first one was tested in 1965. Is that prior enough for you?
n ts/bartonjohnh.htm That's less than it takes to write the patent application itself. That isn't exactly a recipe for good research.
By your logic, what you've just said is that if the patent office said it was so, then it must be. You are far too trusting.
Did you know that the average patent is researched for about 25 to 30 hours? http://www.ftc.gov/os/comments/intelpropertycomme
Yes, it was obvious even then. There are plenty of examples of prior art, just google for them. Like both myself and others have said in previous posts in this thread, the reason Tivo came out when it did wasn't because of the idea of HD based recording/viewing, it was just that drive technology had just reached the point of capacity, speed, and price that it was economically feasible to do it.
Credit to Tivo for getting there first (commercially), no doubt, and I still think they have the best dvr out there, but their marketing/pricing strategy has gone to hell and their legal tactics are starting to look like they are a company in desperation.
Does TiVo's patent explicitly state that it's recording to, and reading from the same media at the same time? I was making a point that you could be recording one program with the DVR while watching another in normal TV mode. With Echostar's Satelite dish's, unless you have a dual tuner model, this is directly impossible within the same unit regardless.
:)
If you're saying what I think you're saying here, ie: that a dish dvr can't record one show and watch another one that it has already recorded at the same time, then you're wrong. I do it all the time on my single tuner 508. If you're not saying that, then please ignore me
Yet if the disk based DVR and such was so obvious why wasn't it out and established before tivo?
Simple...the necessary HD space just didn't exist at the time (well, economically anyway). First gen Tivos hit the street in what, 1997 or so? HDs then, 4GB to maybe 8GB if you were lucky, were just barely spacious and speedy enough to do what a DVR needs to do. The market appeared because the core technology (hard disks) had matured enough, not because of the idea of recording/viewing directly from HD had been patented.
This is good news for consumers. With a little luck, the original judgment will be dismissed, perhaps even Tivo's obvious patent invalidated. I can't believe the case made it this far in the first place.
You're right, on the other models, they do call it a "lease" and you do have to pay the $5/month or whatever it is for service. That said, all they have to do is drop the service fee and write off the equipment..problem solved. It would be smarter business-wise for them to do that than to stop service altogether. Also, I've never seen them come take the DVR back when someone drops their service after the initial contract time has elapsed. I'm not saying they don't, but I've never seen it.
remember, Echostar's dvr is a service...the customer does not own the dvr software, Echostar does
This is not true in a lot of cases. I for one own my echostar dvr and don't pay a monthly service fee for it. Also, most people (unless they got the dvr for free at initial order time) paid for the hardware as well, even if they do pay a monthly service fee. Seems to me that Echostar could just drop the monthly dvr service fee and they would be in compliance, provided they didn't ship any more dvr units. That said, I think Echostar will find a way to keep their customers in DVRs without having to pay Tivo an extortion fee.
I'm pretty sure zotob came out after the patch.
um....the Jetsons, not Jeffersons.
Microsoft does this all the time. They call it eating their own dogfood. In a way, it's quite smart actually. One, it shows customers that they aren't afraid to run their own product. Two, it helps them learn how to use and support their products in a large network. And three, it helps them find defects in the software.
Nope.
That doesn't actually disconnect power from the PC. If you were to take a look at the motherboard after holding in the powerbutton, you'd probably see an led on on the board showing that power is still hot to the board. This is why things like WOL work, because the board still has power. Some ATX powersupplies have true physical switches on them though, and that *does* kill all power to the PC, though I'm not sure if the supply itself still draws power in that state.
The new development is that the dye used in the bubbles does 2 things: 1) it actually covers the whole bubble uniformly, rather than sliding to the bottom of the bubble like most colorings do 2) it loses its color if you rub it or if you just wait about a half hour. And when I say lose, I mean goes away completely, not just fades. Very neat chemistry behind it all, actually.
I don't know where you got your info from, but plugging in a hotswap disk does NOT require a reboot, and hasn't since at least Windows 2000, but probably even NT 4. Open computer management, go to disk configuration, and click "rescan disks". It'll detect the drive just fine.
Actually, I believe in Vista, MS did exactly that...or at least it was per user copies of the registry, but a virtual one seems to be what I remember reading.
No, there was no mess until other people wanted to take control of something that wasn't theirs to take. Say what you want about ICANN, but I'd say the status quo has been just fine, thank you.
Except what we are talking about is property, which human life is not....in most places anyway...though there are some places where your "ex-mother's" statement might hold true. Your analogy is flawed.