There are about 10 models of digital tuners - some of them second generation. Yes, connection to TVs are analogue, not digital, but who cares? No signal loss here - between TV and tuner.
There is digital HD content in every major metropolitan area and it's coming free of charge through OTA (over the air). There are HD channels on DirecTV and Dish and also on some cable (Comcast etc).
There is a choice which DTV to buy and most affordable are rear projection TVs - $2000-$4000 depending on size and features. Plazmas about three-four times more expensive.
Well, YMMV, but your approach is to wait for something to happen, my approach is to wath HDTV NOW.
Check this out - a lot of info on HDTV
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/
"nSync *down* from 36 to 163"...
Damn, that must be a personal tradgedy for them;)
Wellll, if they know what the Internet is...
Re:I wonder how much of this is quality . . .
on
Critics Pan Nemesis
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· Score: 1
I always hated hearing someone call themselves a Star Wars or Star Trek geek and then I ask them "Have you read Asimov, Heinlein, Bear, Benford, Brin, Adams, Niven, Pournelle?" And the answer was invariably "Huh?". Sad. So much more out there.
Worse part of it - movie makers could answer "Huh?" to that question... A lot of movies considered to be Science Fiction shot by guys who seems never read Science Fiction.
Re:I wonder how much of this is quality . . .
on
Critics Pan Nemesis
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· Score: 1
While we're at it, there's a lot of other good writing out there. Have you read Voltaire, Dickens, Bronte, Shelly, Twain, Crane, Poe, Swift, Doyle, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Morrison, Moliere, Angelou, Morrow, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, Pope, Perleman, Woodhouse, Dahl,
I read some of them;)). Very often their writings are related to their own times - now it's boring and seems silly if you don't know background. They could be eyeopeners at the time but now most of them belongs to literature history.
You could read literature and you could study it.
Your choice to have entertainment or to have grades;))
The idea behind Trek is that it's supposed to be fun. You want hard SF, or at least serious SF, look to Solaris (no, not that Solaris, Tarkovsky's Solaris), 2001, or Alien (maybe Pitch Black; though a lot of it smelled like warmed over Ridley Scott, it did have a good idea behind it and some very interesting performances). If the SF you want is filet mingon, remember that Trek is junk food. Filling, but lacking in sophistication.
Oh, not a Tarkovsky's Solaris - it has it's own agenda and, as usual in Soviet times poor financing and hence no special effects and basically was shot in one room. Actually Stanislaw Lem (book author) disliked Tarkowsky's movie a lot.
You'd better get a book.
NOT a Pitch Black! We are talking about science fiction, not about cheesy horror story, right?
cheezedawg, did you read the story?
It's not finished yet, he may recover money or Mac.
He hasn't failed finals. It's kinda hard for 4.0 honors student;))
I refuse to buy most big brand names now. I've been burnt by just about everyone, mostly recently Microsoft and my xbox that died 3 weeks after the warranty was up.
1. Cost. Current digital STBs are already ~$400. Double that for one that includes two tuners and a fat hard drive. Few consumers will pay $800 for this device. Given the current economic climate, it's doubtful that cablecos will lease the device to the customer, as that requires a *large* initial capital outlay, and cable companies just aren't in a position right now to justify that to Wall Street.
That's cable companies' problem. Why digital satellite STB cost less than $100, including dish? Something rotten in cable technology? Or in marketing?;)
And satellite receivers with integrated PVR cost less than $300. (and they include two tuners)
Conditional access
What the problem? Just have two different boxes. If customer rents it - it is not customer's problem. If customer owns it - customer have to sell it and buy a new one. That's why we have eBay;)
PVRs are in no way like Napster, in the past, present or future. PVRs are like tape decks, VCRs, etc.
Those bastards from replayTV introduced Internet Video Sharing. How much it is different from Napster?
And their skip commercials feature?
Those guys just party-breakers - they introduce features really really hated by Hollywood and TV networks.
Tivo approach more conservative - so they have more chances to survive.
advertisers don't have the right to make truly horrible ads (like every car or shampoo ad ever) and force them down our throats.
You have it half right: They have the right (free speech) to make their commercial as uninteresting as they want, but you also have the right to not watch the commercial.
Hmm, may I sue them for creating hostile watching environment?
Re:Not Open enough for OpenBSD
on
VRRP
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· Score: 1
Cisco maintains patent encumberances upon VRRP - if you use/sell VRRP, and get into a completely unrelated patent/licensing/whathaveyou war with Cisco, Cisco maintains the right to seek damages for your use of VRRP.
I have come to see the merits of this position (dhartmei@ makes a good case, btw;-) ) . The OpenBSD guys have been sitting on a VRRP package for *years* that they cannot include because this is not really an open standard.
Cisco just said - if you have patents on VRRP - do not sue us and we will not sue you. Nothing more, nothing less.
OpenBSD guys are just overreacted IMHO. FreeBSD and Linux guys do not care...
A major improvement in FreeBSD 5.x over 4.x is the new modular init. Instead of one monolithic script (classical BSD) or several scripts in a symlink farm with manual sorting and dependency resolution (SysV / Debian, RedHat, SuSE...), it uses an internal automatic sorting and dependency resolution comparable to apt-get or modprobe on GNU/Linux. I would like to see mainstream adoption of this in the GNU/Linux world of this. To date, Gentoo Linux is the only distribution offering and supporting this excellent feature.
It looks like some confusion there -
1. It's not a new init. There are new rc.* scripts.
2. Those scripts do not relate to modprobe in Linux (kernel mode loader) or apt-get in Debian (install/upgrade package utility)
I've heard a lot of people describe Richard Stallman as "unreasonable." I find Stallman instead to be one of the most persistently, relentlessly reasonable people whose thoughts I've ever encountered. Stallman may be a dogmatist, but the dogma is sincere and his own, not borrowed.
So communists and fascists are reasonable too - their reasoning is persistent and relentless;)
I've got a standalone Tivo and as I got it as open box without any cables/IR blasters I had to buy IR LED and attach it to Tivo. And I manage RCA DirecTV unit with it. That part was a bit tricky - maybe I got too powerfull LED - I had to aim it a bit to side of RCA unit.
It works for a year for me.
While at the same time, TiVo gets a record of everything you watch, requires you to pay a monthly fee, prohibits you from space-shifting content, and will stop working if TiVo goes out of business, or gets shut down by a court order.
Tivo (company) doesn't get a record of everything you watch.
Tivo works without subscription and will not stop working if anything happens with company - you just can't have TV schedule. BTW Tivo device is a Linux box - there are some underground projects to use different sources for TV guide on Tivo.
You just use it as VCR.
Look into TV guide and program Tivo to record, for example - every Wednesday from 4pm till 5pm channel 242. Or you watch live TV, pause it, take a leak and then play it..
Ever try to buy a computer in a corporate environment? There are no "low end" machines available from normal supply chains. Going outside the supply chain ends up being more expensive from the bureaucratic overhead.
Ever try to buy a computer?;)
You could choose model you buy - cheaper or more expensive (Compaq).You could customize it (IBM). You could specify almost everything you want to be installed (Dell).
Download and install a Suse ISO, I dare ya. Oops, there's a proprietary installer, isn't there?
Surprise, surprise!
You could buy Compaq with preinstalled Mandrake,
Dell with preinstalled Red Hat. IBM does not have desktops with preinstalled Linux. But if you want servers - it could be Red Hat, Caldera, Suse, Turbo Linux.
I admit you have more choice with Windows when buying as corporation..
$100 is a very low estimate of the cost of the techie's time to install and configure a Linux desktop.
Yes, for one desktop. But if you installing hundreds of them you install it different, right? You may clone disks or use kickstart network install. Techie time cost per computer is significally less then.
Now go play with your Gimp, I have work to get done with Adobe. And it'll take me 1/10 the time it would on the Gimp.
BTW if you are designer treating yourself with selfrespect you are working on Apple box, aren't you?;))
Slashdot Mirror
Excuse me for direct manner, but it's bullshit.
There are about 10 models of digital tuners - some of them second generation. Yes, connection to TVs are analogue, not digital, but who cares?
No signal loss here - between TV and tuner.
There is digital HD content in every major metropolitan area and it's coming free of charge through OTA (over the air). There are HD channels on DirecTV and Dish and also on some cable (Comcast etc).
There is a choice which DTV to buy and most affordable are rear projection TVs - $2000-$4000 depending on size and features. Plazmas about three-four times more expensive.
Well, YMMV, but your approach is to wait for something to happen, my approach is to wath HDTV NOW.
Check this out - a lot of info on HDTV
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/
http://www.flyingmachines.org/
Wellll, if they know what the Internet is...
Worse part of it - movie makers could answer "Huh?" to that question... A lot of movies considered to be Science Fiction shot by guys who seems never read Science Fiction.
I read some of them ;)). Very often their writings are related to their own times - now it's boring and seems silly if you don't know background. They could be eyeopeners at the time but now most of them belongs to literature history.
You could read literature and you could study it. Your choice to have entertainment or to have grades ;))
Oh, not a Tarkovsky's Solaris - it has it's own agenda and, as usual in Soviet times poor financing and hence no special effects and basically was shot in one room. Actually Stanislaw Lem (book author) disliked Tarkowsky's movie a lot. You'd better get a book.
NOT a Pitch Black! We are talking about science fiction, not about cheesy horror story, right?
Material Boy he is ;)
cheezedawg, did you read the story? ;))
It's not finished yet, he may recover money or Mac.
He hasn't failed finals. It's kinda hard for 4.0 honors student
Big Macs? just eat it..
USPS money order - you just receive cash in post office immediately. And they are not easily forged..
Well - if somebody forge USPS money order - it is, I believe, treated as federal felony..
Are you saying that Microsoft is brandname? ;))))
That's cable companies' problem. Why digital satellite STB cost less than $100, including dish? Something rotten in cable technology? Or in marketing? ;)
And satellite receivers with integrated PVR cost less than $300. (and they include two tuners)
Conditional access
What the problem? Just have two different boxes. If customer rents it - it is not customer's problem. If customer owns it - customer have to sell it and buy a new one. That's why we have eBay ;)
Those bastards from replayTV introduced Internet Video Sharing. How much it is different from Napster? And their skip commercials feature?
Those guys just party-breakers - they introduce features really really hated by Hollywood and TV networks.
Tivo approach more conservative - so they have more chances to survive.
Hmm, may I sue them for creating hostile watching environment?
Cisco just said - if you have patents on VRRP - do not sue us and we will not sue you. Nothing more, nothing less.
OpenBSD guys are just overreacted IMHO. FreeBSD and Linux guys do not care...
It looks like some confusion there -
1. It's not a new init. There are new rc.* scripts.
2. Those scripts do not relate to modprobe in Linux (kernel mode loader) or apt-get in Debian (install/upgrade package utility)
Or you asking about kernel threads?
LEENUKS is not a UNIX !
You may try BSD instead..
So communists and fascists are reasonable too - their reasoning is persistent and relentless
Oh, well, one more high school book review...
I've got a standalone Tivo and as I got it as open box without any cables/IR blasters I had to buy IR LED and attach it to Tivo. And I manage RCA DirecTV unit with it. That part was a bit tricky - maybe I got too powerfull LED - I had to aim it a bit to side of RCA unit.
It works for a year for me.
Tivo (company) doesn't get a record of everything you watch.
Tivo works without subscription and will not stop working if anything happens with company - you just can't have TV schedule. BTW Tivo device is a Linux box - there are some underground projects to use different sources for TV guide on Tivo.
Look into TV guide and program Tivo to record, for example - every Wednesday from 4pm till 5pm channel 242. Or you watch live TV, pause it, take a leak and then play it..
You just could not get program guide - that's it.
The only problem with that approach - thousands of virtual Linuxes require hardware that costs much more than thousand PCs with Linuxes.
That's nice argument -;)
Ever try to buy a computer in a corporate environment? There are no "low end" machines available from normal supply chains. Going outside the supply chain ends up being more expensive from the bureaucratic overhead.
Ever try to buy a computer? ;)
You could choose model you buy - cheaper or more expensive (Compaq).You could customize it (IBM). You could specify almost everything you want to be installed (Dell).
Download and install a Suse ISO, I dare ya. Oops, there's a proprietary installer, isn't there?
Surprise, surprise!
You could buy Compaq with preinstalled Mandrake, Dell with preinstalled Red Hat. IBM does not have desktops with preinstalled Linux. But if you want servers - it could be Red Hat, Caldera, Suse, Turbo Linux.
I admit you have more choice with Windows when buying as corporation..
$100 is a very low estimate of the cost of the techie's time to install and configure a Linux desktop.
Yes, for one desktop. But if you installing hundreds of them you install it different, right? You may clone disks or use kickstart network install. Techie time cost per computer is significally less then.
Now go play with your Gimp, I have work to get done with Adobe. And it'll take me 1/10 the time it would on the Gimp.
BTW if you are designer treating yourself with selfrespect you are working on Apple box, aren't you? ;))
Why do you have such narrow poin of view?
Why not in SOVIET UNION?