Re:hillarious interview with Steve Jobs about OS X
on
OS X
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· Score: 2
Except the PHB answered "Mauve" without any concern or confusion.
Of course most PHB's haven't founded three extremely succesful companies either (Apple, Next, & Pixar.) Nor have most PHB's been reponsible for many of the major changes in computing we've seen in the past two decades. I'm not much of a fan of Steve Jobs but one does have to accord him respect for his accomplishments.
-- Michael
ps Before some not-very-knowledgable person cuts in with the old urban legend about Xerox PARC & GUI's: It's been debunked, The Lisa team was well advanced on their own GUI well before they visited Xerox.
Whoever's at the controls of/. today: Take the hint & cut the crap. It's not clever, it's not interesting, it's not not worth a damn. If you honestly can't find anything that belongs under the "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters" banner then just go silent.
Posting stupid article after stupid article is NOT getting you folks any favor-points.
What if/. were hijacked by script-kiddies? Could we tell today?
Welcome to the mid-90's: V-Chips are a USAian invention, are standard because the US gov't deemed them nec.
Canada just said sure, what the heck, we'll use 'em. Thus Canadian TV is now rated but it's not native technology, it's US stuff.
The not-really newsflash is that all Canadian networks now use it thtoughout the programming. It is *supposed* to be in the US to but it's spotty. Here Global, CanWest, CTV, CBC (all Canadian networks) apply it on all of their programming. I presume Bravo, A&E, Discover, TLC, Showtime, HGTV etc. (all based in Canada) are also rating their programs.
Finally, Canada uses NTSC same as USA, that's why so much programming gets sold back & forth across the border.
Every telecom has delayed or placed on "indertiminate" stutus their 3G roll-outs, even NTT. At this point in spite of all of the billions recently invested in licenses 3G is not going to be seen until at least 2003/2004.
Furthermore 2.5 stands to steal much of 3's thunder at a lower cost & with less disruption. Thus it's entirely poosible that 3G will be still-born. Indeed with a number of new LEO space-based technologies being developed it's entirely possble 3G may be completely leapfrogged.
Thus your question may be entirely moot. In any case it's at least less timely then would have been a few months ago when 3G was assumed to be the 'next big thing'.
Re:Rampant homophobia? Not necessarily.
on
eFront From Inside
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· Score: 2
But have you used the homosexual key-word (complete give-away that whoever uses it is a raging homosexual desparately tring to keep under cover!)
"
and "
Remember - you heard it here first - your 100% accurate guide to spotting practicioners of "the homosexual lifestyle."
Re:Rampant homophobia? Not necessarily.
on
eFront From Inside
·
· Score: 2
"straight" implies that the person has sex with women! (or wants to)
So straight women just want to have sex with woman? Is that what she told you? And you believed it?
No wonder you're home Saturday evening posting on/.
Re:Rampant homophobia? Not necessarily.
on
eFront From Inside
·
· Score: 2
And what, exactly, is "the homosexual lifestyle" ?
Re:Rampant homophobia? Not necessarily.
on
eFront From Inside
·
· Score: 2
It seems to have evolved into more of a slang term rather than 'anti-homosexual'. I use the word "gay" all the time, but verbally the same way I'd say "lame" (which the dictionary describes as being "disabled so that movement, especially walking, is difficult or impossible", which also isn't really what I mean either).
But, seems people don't want to see it that way. It's more fun, I guess, to run around crying about how people are "degrading the gay community" or some nonsense. It's more dramatic that way.
OHMYGOODNESS!
Everyone else so TOTALLY forgot to get your take on vocabulary!
OK, so when you say "that's so gay" you don't mean it in a negative way connoting unnaceptable, wrong, innapropriate; you just mean it in a nice, affirming, we're-all-in-this-together kinda way. Oh yeah, I can really see where you're coming from on this.
How could everyone else have so grossly misunderstood you?
So please, when I note that you're an ignorant clueless twit who simply thinks everyone else should forgive him for his offensive comments understand that I don't really mean those things and of course you should have no reason to be offended ('cause like, they shouldn't really bother anyone 'cause *I* don't see how they would) well, you'll understand.
Slackers are per definition white - their equivalent exist everywhere. Spend some time "on da block" & you'll meet enough non-white slacker-equivalents.
Recording involves a *lot* more then plugging in a HD; it means hardware built to suport this this (a fast processor / hw assist video system / sound generations / etc.) If it was trivial every linux box out there would be happly DVCRing away.
Since possible DVCR not in the announcement then I don't expect it in this model.
Indeed I wouldn't be suprised if the IDE port is simply a leftover from whatever design they licensed. Perhaps they have an internal goal of a DVCR in v.2 or something but dollars to donuts it won't be possible in what they've got listed now.
So it's a TV with WebTV built in - BFD (exactly my point.) except of course at least webTV has some sort of show ie-ins and this is just a plain browser.
If it was somehow different / more / groundbreaking (like any of the items I listed) then it might be worth attention. Without that it's just a TV with WebTV built in (and just 'cause it's Linux-based doesn't make it any less a yawner.)
So would you let a friend buy something that's so clearly going to outlive it's usefulness?
It's likely not viewed as a market 'cause personal phones are very unwelcome on aircraft.
They're noisy little transmitters with lots of spill-over, spill-over that can affect the avionics. Many civilian aircraft already come with tested-and-approved Skyphone-type services, they're not gonna start allowing some bozo back in the cabin pull out his sat-phone and start broadcasting.
Whine how you want about the FAA being too conservative it's not gonna matter, it aint happening soon. As to the service-providers suggesting any such thing, nooo way they wanna get hit with any litigation if a plane goes off course / goes down.
This could be of use to folks in the aviation industry as it's not unusual to ship out on short notice for emergancies (no, not just crashes, typically repairs in odd places etc.) For those folks this is a big win. I've a buddy in Yellowknife tonight inpecting a an aircraft with problems I'm sure he'd love a phone number that HQ could reach him on wherever he is at the moment without him hoping there's a cell. service that he can get onto.
But onboard aircraft, not gonna happen, civilian or militairy.
A 27" TV with what's basically a WebTV built into it.
So why not just buy any other 27" TV with line-doubling and plug in a cheapie home PC? It'll do more and be easier to upgrade in the future. I dunno 'bout you but I expect my TV sets to last at least 10 years, anyone here expect Ch.1 Inc. to last that long or to coninue supporting this product?
Indeed it apparently can't even do Digital-VCR functions. Give me TiVo + router + firewall + webcaching + light fileserving + telephone + HDTV (& not via some damn 3rd-party add-on but integrated & used throughout) + in-house streaming and I'll buy. Otherwise it's just another TV with yet-another fancy channel guide & some pre-set "portal" crap.
Many moons ago I worked for one of the first companies to roll out "active badges" (the first on East Coast USA.) Along the way we discovered a few interesting things:
It could be annoying. Yes it was kewl that whenever the phone in the hall rang as you passed you knew it was for you. It was a feature to the VC folks that customers could reach us continiously. On the other hand it meant you were continually being interupted, often when you didn't have the resources to make sense of the call. Since our system was overseen by the company operators we soon settled on popping into their pen and explictly telling them when we were "unavailiable" or eventually just ditching our cards in our desk when we wanted to be 'offline'.
Our system showed how long one had been in a location with a five-minute line trailing behind us. This proved to be a great way for monitoring (spying) who was meeting with who and for how long & where. It also proved to be a great way to 'look busy' whenever one's boss came down the hall.
We quickly killed the transponders in the bathrooms - we all felt there was a limit to the services we would need in there (aluminum foil works nicely over these devices.)
Many of the staff had half-height offices; imagine cubes but with real wall open on two sides. I recall one way 'seeing' one of my co-workers (a rather sturdy woman) suddenly 'leap' from her own half-height office directly into the adjacent one without going into the hallway. Curious as to why (the fellow in the next office wasn't a prize) I walked down only to discover her missing. It turned out she'd snuck out for an extended lunch (to pick up a gift we'd all chipped in for) and her badge was being tossed around to make it look like she was still around.
Since most of us had multiple systems in our offices (3 & 4 wasn't unusual, 7 & 8 were getting extreme simply due to heat-issues) it was typical to keep one window open monitoring the badges. It soon got so we could tell at a glance who was each track simply by their habits - so & so always walks clockwise around the building,it must be noon since A has gone to B's office, they usually eat together, etc. It was amzing how much detail on eachothers personal habits we all quickly absorbed, often times more then any of us cared to know or have known.
Frankly it was interesting but I'd not be enthused in using such a system again.
To a large extent cellphones with text-messaging & email gateways have replaced much of the functioniality (it's easier to reach us at our designated phone then have a nearby one ring for us plus we can accept/decline the call based on who it is and recieve simple text-messages.)
Corporate directory services & biometric logins have replaced another large part of the functioniality. It's not much more of a bother to stick one's thumb in the reader then to walk into the office & since the system was sometimes overzealous (I just walked in to talk, not to log out some poor coder halfway through a thought simply 'cause I was Sr.) this feature was soon turned off.
What's left is more of the Big-Brother people-tracking features that weren't so appreciated.
Frankly while I think it's a neat technology much of it will probably appear in a less-automated way. We'll be able to adjust common things using our phones / palmstops / whatever using a virtual dimmer / volume control / etc. and come up with a room consensus, or at least local variations. Secured doors will unlock automagically as we push against them instead of requiring an explicit keycard swipe.
But tracking, thanks, been there / done that / not interested.
As opposed to a Southern Baptist culture or a Native American culture or Cuban American culture or a first generation Laotian American culture or...
Yes, MIT's student body has become more diverse. However I still don't see any divergence from the MIT-population-mean in the folks into pulling hacks. Indeed if one were to follow stereotypes few of the Asains would be involved in hacks, particularly considering the streses placed upon them by their sponsoring nations and the possible consequences of a hack gone wrong. However they seem to hack as enthusiastically as everyone else.
If you haven't noticed many hacks then you haven't been paying attention.
The weather-balloon-exploding-from-the-field-covered-i n-"MIT"s during a Harvard/Yale game was a classic. Indeed at the same game the sound system had been rewired (by 3 independant MIT groups) to play MIT material, the MIT marching band succesfully infiltrated the game (for free) and took to the field to spell out MIT, and of course the Harvard placards were re-arranged to spell out "MIT" (much to the confusion of the Yale folks across the stadium.)
That's probably the most spectacular but there have been many, many others since then.
Finally as to your comments about non-white / non-male / non-middle class students being less into hacking: I have no idea where you derive this theory but it seems to have no basis in reality - perhaps it comes out of your own worldview?.
From my acquaintence of the folks who've performed notable hacks at MIT there seems to be no correlation between their racial / gender / economic backgrounds and their desire & ability to pull off a clever hack. Indeed if there's any correlation it seems to be the members of GAMIT (Gays At MIT) who are usually involved somewhere in these activities.
Why are you manually word-wrapping your postings? Is it part of that whole "narrow" thing?
Because Closed Captioning also includes contextual information and is often not a literal transcription but a synopsis slighty rewritten to contain the originial elements but shorter as so to be more easily read on a TV screen while remaining synchronous with the action.
No, they would most likely not be liable. In most states in the US, anyone who calls 911 or performs any other lifesaving measure during an emergency that does not permit them the ability to obtain the express consent of the person they are trying to help is usually covered by what's called the good samaritan clause.
First off this is Canada, no states here.
Secondly in the US most folks are not shielded by any Good Samaritan protection. Indeed that's the point of the article you referenced. If you collapse in front of me in a heart attack & I crack your ribs attempting CPR, or I pull you unconscious from a damaged car (in some TV-fueled belief that they all explode in a ball of flames) & permanently injure your spine in the process...
I'm totally & completely liable for any injuries you suffer as a result of my actions.
True there are some places in the US where these actions would be protected and even a fewer where my actions would be required but this is not the case in the majority of the US.
But since the original articcle is all about Canada (big country to the north of continental USA, 2nd largest in world, #1 in UN livability ratings, bilingual, not-US) it's all moot.
I am not a lawyer nor assert these statements to be accurate. You should obtain competent legal advice in your own jurisdiction.
If someone had a heart attack or something, and a cell phone jammer prevented someone else from dialing 911 (or its equivalent), could the owner of the cell phone jammer face legal liability?
No.
This is Canada we're speaking about. Those sorts of lawsuits nor the mentality behind them aren't common here. Indeed they're derided as a US thing.
Cellphones aren't considered a reliable form of communication anyhow. There are numerous 'dead spots' so it's not as if this doesn't occur unassisted.
Cellphones have indicators to signal when they're in contact and when not. It's up to their owners to monitor their reception and act accordingly. We have (well, several just closed) a number of cinemas in Montreal that are underground and thus cellphones are already not a problem in them - the signal simply can't reach. This would simply be creating artificial blocks.
Finally, please folks don't start making statements based on "In this State or that State"; this is Canada, a separate & distinct country (visits to Toronto notwithstanding.) Here it's Provinces, decentralized government, social good & CRTC.
OK, I admit my knowledge of HDTV is limited. Likely more then random folks but still not up there with the videophiles.
First off it's my understanding that there are multiple HDTV formats, not just the single 1,280x720 one listed in the article.
Second the visual content of HDTV is, according to all reports I've heard & demos I've seen, dramatically better then what we see with NTSC video. This story presents this flavor as being almost as good ("you can barely tell the difference") which begs the question: Why bother?
Third the whole price theme seems to be irrelevant in most other parts of the world where better-then NTSC/PAL/SECAM TV is available. True this sort of stuff comes out in high-end video first but apparently the majority of TV purchases in the EU are now their better-flavor.
Fourth why are my tax dollars paying for research & developments that I need to pay for again to use? Hell - I already paid for it to get it invented. If manufacturers want to do their own R&D and pass the costs on to me fine but I don't see why a Federal Lab is patenting & licensing the products of it's publicly financed work.
So, for those who do know more then I about HDTV what are the advantages of this almost-as-good format, how does it stack up against "real" HDTV, how interoperable is it (since HDTV is more then just the broadcasting but also the recording & editing) and finally will anyone care since HDTV is already rolling out?
The dubious wisdom of going to MS's ActiveDirectory aside...
Playing holier-then-thou is childish. The point is that MS's product ties into MS network but BSD & Linux don't. In the market Maxtor is selling to that's a key feature.
Thus Maxtor did a reasonable thing & will presumably make more profit then they would have staying with BSD or Linux.
Great. I want my BSD or Linux box to operate as a peer on my NDS or ActiveDirectory architecture.
Show me a way that isn't some crufty hack but that's reliable, robust, and efficient.
The dubious wisdom of going to MS's ActiveDirectory aside there's a lot of customers looking to buy products to plug into this as well as the amazingly awesome NDS. While BSD & Linux have great strengths this is one area they're not strong in right now and for MS's price (apparently dirt cheap) I can't blame Maxtor for going with 'em.
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Of course most PHB's haven't founded three extremely succesful companies either (Apple, Next, & Pixar.) Nor have most PHB's been reponsible for many of the major changes in computing we've seen in the past two decades. I'm not much of a fan of Steve Jobs but one does have to accord him respect for his accomplishments.
-- Michael
ps Before some not-very-knowledgable person cuts in with the old urban legend about Xerox PARC & GUI's: It's been debunked, The Lisa team was well advanced on their own GUI well before they visited Xerox.
Whoever's at the controls of /. today: Take the hint & cut the crap. It's not clever, it's not interesting, it's not not worth a damn. If you honestly can't find anything that belongs under the "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters" banner then just go silent.
Posting stupid article after stupid article is NOT getting you folks any favor-points.
What if /. were hijacked by script-kiddies? Could we tell today?
V-Chips technology was invented at SFU.
However it was the US that took the technology & ran with it. Had it remained Canadian it would have sank without a trace.
Nonetheless we have the fine folks of BC to thank.
Welcome to the mid-90's: V-Chips are a USAian invention, are standard because the US gov't deemed them nec. Canada just said sure, what the heck, we'll use 'em. Thus Canadian TV is now rated but it's not native technology, it's US stuff. The not-really newsflash is that all Canadian networks now use it thtoughout the programming. It is *supposed* to be in the US to but it's spotty. Here Global, CanWest, CTV, CBC (all Canadian networks) apply it on all of their programming. I presume Bravo, A&E, Discover, TLC, Showtime, HGTV etc. (all based in Canada) are also rating their programs. Finally, Canada uses NTSC same as USA, that's why so much programming gets sold back & forth across the border.
Furthermore 2.5 stands to steal much of 3's thunder at a lower cost & with less disruption. Thus it's entirely poosible that 3G will be still-born. Indeed with a number of new LEO space-based technologies being developed it's entirely possble 3G may be completely leapfrogged.
Thus your question may be entirely moot. In any case it's at least less timely then would have been a few months ago when 3G was assumed to be the 'next big thing'.
Remember - you heard it here first - your 100% accurate guide to spotting practicioners of "the homosexual lifestyle."
So straight women just want to have sex with woman? Is that what she told you? And you believed it?
No wonder you're home Saturday evening posting on /.
And what, exactly, is "the homosexual lifestyle" ?
Everyone else so TOTALLY forgot to get your take on vocabulary!
OK, so when you say "that's so gay" you don't mean it in a negative way connoting unnaceptable, wrong, innapropriate; you just mean it in a nice, affirming, we're-all-in-this-together kinda way. Oh yeah, I can really see where you're coming from on this.
How could everyone else have so grossly misunderstood you?
So please, when I note that you're an ignorant clueless twit who simply thinks everyone else should forgive him for his offensive comments understand that I don't really mean those things and of course you should have no reason to be offended ('cause like, they shouldn't really bother anyone 'cause *I* don't see how they would) well, you'll understand.
Slackers are per definition white - their equivalent exist everywhere. Spend some time "on da block" & you'll meet enough non-white slacker-equivalents.
Recording involves a *lot* more then plugging in a HD; it means hardware built to suport this this (a fast processor / hw assist video system / sound generations / etc.) If it was trivial every linux box out there would be happly DVCRing away.
Since possible DVCR not in the announcement then I don't expect it in this model.
Indeed I wouldn't be suprised if the IDE port is simply a leftover from whatever design they licensed. Perhaps they have an internal goal of a DVCR in v.2 or something but dollars to donuts it won't be possible in what they've got listed now.
If it was somehow different / more / groundbreaking (like any of the items I listed) then it might be worth attention. Without that it's just a TV with WebTV built in (and just 'cause it's Linux-based doesn't make it any less a yawner.)
So would you let a friend buy something that's so clearly going to outlive it's usefulness?
They're noisy little transmitters with lots of spill-over, spill-over that can affect the avionics. Many civilian aircraft already come with tested-and-approved Skyphone-type services, they're not gonna start allowing some bozo back in the cabin pull out his sat-phone and start broadcasting.
Whine how you want about the FAA being too conservative it's not gonna matter, it aint happening soon. As to the service-providers suggesting any such thing, nooo way they wanna get hit with any litigation if a plane goes off course / goes down.
This could be of use to folks in the aviation industry as it's not unusual to ship out on short notice for emergancies (no, not just crashes, typically repairs in odd places etc.) For those folks this is a big win. I've a buddy in Yellowknife tonight inpecting a an aircraft with problems I'm sure he'd love a phone number that HQ could reach him on wherever he is at the moment without him hoping there's a cell. service that he can get onto.
But onboard aircraft, not gonna happen, civilian or militairy.
So why not just buy any other 27" TV with line-doubling and plug in a cheapie home PC? It'll do more and be easier to upgrade in the future. I dunno 'bout you but I expect my TV sets to last at least 10 years, anyone here expect Ch.1 Inc. to last that long or to coninue supporting this product?
Indeed it apparently can't even do Digital-VCR functions. Give me TiVo + router + firewall + webcaching + light fileserving + telephone + HDTV (& not via some damn 3rd-party add-on but integrated & used throughout) + in-house streaming and I'll buy. Otherwise it's just another TV with yet-another fancy channel guide & some pre-set "portal" crap.
- It could be annoying. Yes it was kewl that whenever the phone in the hall rang as you passed you knew it was for you. It was a feature to the VC folks that customers could reach us continiously. On the other hand it meant you were continually being interupted, often when you didn't have the resources to make sense of the call. Since our system was overseen by the company operators we soon settled on popping into their pen and explictly telling them when we were "unavailiable" or eventually just ditching our cards in our desk when we wanted to be 'offline'.
-
Our system showed how long one had been in a location with a five-minute line trailing behind us. This proved to be a great way for monitoring (spying) who was meeting with who and for how long & where. It also proved to be a great way to 'look busy' whenever one's boss came down the hall.
-
We quickly killed the transponders in the bathrooms - we all felt there was a limit to the services we would need in there (aluminum foil works nicely over these devices.)
-
Many of the staff had half-height offices; imagine cubes but with real wall open on two sides. I recall one way 'seeing' one of my co-workers (a rather sturdy woman) suddenly 'leap' from her own half-height office directly into the adjacent one without going into the hallway. Curious as to why (the fellow in the next office wasn't a prize) I walked down only to discover her missing. It turned out she'd snuck out for an extended lunch (to pick up a gift we'd all chipped in for) and her badge was being tossed around to make it look like she was still around.
-
Since most of us had multiple systems in our offices (3 & 4 wasn't unusual, 7 & 8 were getting extreme simply due to heat-issues) it was typical to keep one window open monitoring the badges. It soon got so we could tell at a glance who was each track simply by their habits - so & so always walks clockwise around the building,it must be noon since A has gone to B's office, they usually eat together, etc. It was amzing how much detail on eachothers personal habits we all quickly absorbed, often times more then any of us cared to know or have known.
Frankly it was interesting but I'd not be enthused in using such a system again.To a large extent cellphones with text-messaging & email gateways have replaced much of the functioniality (it's easier to reach us at our designated phone then have a nearby one ring for us plus we can accept/decline the call based on who it is and recieve simple text-messages.)
Corporate directory services & biometric logins have replaced another large part of the functioniality. It's not much more of a bother to stick one's thumb in the reader then to walk into the office & since the system was sometimes overzealous (I just walked in to talk, not to log out some poor coder halfway through a thought simply 'cause I was Sr.) this feature was soon turned off.
What's left is more of the Big-Brother people-tracking features that weren't so appreciated.
Frankly while I think it's a neat technology much of it will probably appear in a less-automated way. We'll be able to adjust common things using our phones / palmstops / whatever using a virtual dimmer / volume control / etc. and come up with a room consensus, or at least local variations. Secured doors will unlock automagically as we push against them instead of requiring an explicit keycard swipe.
But tracking, thanks, been there / done that / not interested.
Actually you're recalling a program on Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) and their pervasive computing model.
Yes, MIT's student body has become more diverse. However I still don't see any divergence from the MIT-population-mean in the folks into pulling hacks. Indeed if one were to follow stereotypes few of the Asains would be involved in hacks, particularly considering the streses placed upon them by their sponsoring nations and the possible consequences of a hack gone wrong. However they seem to hack as enthusiastically as everyone else.
The weather-balloon-exploding-from-the-field-covered-i n-"MIT"s during a Harvard/Yale game was a classic. Indeed at the same game the sound system had been rewired (by 3 independant MIT groups) to play MIT material, the MIT marching band succesfully infiltrated the game (for free) and took to the field to spell out MIT, and of course the Harvard placards were re-arranged to spell out "MIT" (much to the confusion of the Yale folks across the stadium.)
That's probably the most spectacular but there have been many, many others since then.
Finally as to your comments about non-white / non-male / non-middle class students being less into hacking: I have no idea where you derive this theory but it seems to have no basis in reality - perhaps it comes out of your own worldview?.
From my acquaintence of the folks who've performed notable hacks at MIT there seems to be no correlation between their racial / gender / economic backgrounds and their desire & ability to pull off a clever hack. Indeed if there's any correlation it seems to be the members of GAMIT (Gays At MIT) who are usually involved somewhere in these activities.
Why are you manually word-wrapping your postings? Is it part of that whole "narrow" thing?
My English teacher would cringe at that run-on.
Secondly in the US most folks are not shielded by any Good Samaritan protection. Indeed that's the point of the article you referenced. If you collapse in front of me in a heart attack & I crack your ribs attempting CPR, or I pull you unconscious from a damaged car (in some TV-fueled belief that they all explode in a ball of flames) & permanently injure your spine in the process...
I'm totally & completely liable for any injuries you suffer as a result of my actions.
True there are some places in the US where these actions would be protected and even a fewer where my actions would be required but this is not the case in the majority of the US.
But since the original articcle is all about Canada (big country to the north of continental USA, 2nd largest in world, #1 in UN livability ratings, bilingual, not-US) it's all moot.
I am not a lawyer nor assert these statements to be accurate. You should obtain competent legal advice in your own jurisdiction.
First off it's my understanding that there are multiple HDTV formats, not just the single 1,280x720 one listed in the article.
Second the visual content of HDTV is, according to all reports I've heard & demos I've seen, dramatically better then what we see with NTSC video. This story presents this flavor as being almost as good ("you can barely tell the difference") which begs the question: Why bother?
Third the whole price theme seems to be irrelevant in most other parts of the world where better-then NTSC/PAL/SECAM TV is available. True this sort of stuff comes out in high-end video first but apparently the majority of TV purchases in the EU are now their better-flavor.
Fourth why are my tax dollars paying for research & developments that I need to pay for again to use? Hell - I already paid for it to get it invented. If manufacturers want to do their own R&D and pass the costs on to me fine but I don't see why a Federal Lab is patenting & licensing the products of it's publicly financed work.
So, for those who do know more then I about HDTV what are the advantages of this almost-as-good format, how does it stack up against "real" HDTV, how interoperable is it (since HDTV is more then just the broadcasting but also the recording & editing) and finally will anyone care since HDTV is already rolling out?
The dubious wisdom of going to MS's ActiveDirectory aside ...
Playing holier-then-thou is childish. The point is that MS's product ties into MS network but BSD & Linux don't. In the market Maxtor is selling to that's a key feature.
Thus Maxtor did a reasonable thing & will presumably make more profit then they would have staying with BSD or Linux.
I'm runnnig BSD, Redhat & Mandrake. Point me to the packages to make 'em NDS peers.
Show me a way that isn't some crufty hack but that's reliable, robust, and efficient.
The dubious wisdom of going to MS's ActiveDirectory aside there's a lot of customers looking to buy products to plug into this as well as the amazingly awesome NDS. While BSD & Linux have great strengths this is one area they're not strong in right now and for MS's price (apparently dirt cheap) I can't blame Maxtor for going with 'em.