Nope, neither of those places sells Pioneer Elite. The first store was Audio Advice in Raleigh, NC. It's *THE* place for serious high-end AV equipment. They offered to let me borrow a demo unit for a week, but I knew I wasn't going to buy there so I didn't. The price was high, and the resident expert gave me the wrong specs for the player I bought. He wasn't even right for any player Pioneer makes.
The second place was Now! Audio/Video. Not as high end as the first (no $20K speaker sets). The salesman there said, and I quote, "I don't know much about this one...but all DVD players are about the same.".
Now, I agree...my local retailers suck. But if Pioneer had their way that's all I'd get to deal with. If they want to force me to buy local they should force their resellers to know their damn product. Else, I'm buying cheaper elsewhere.
The Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai I just got wasn't B stock. I paid $650 for it. MSRP is $1200 and the local "on sale!!!!" price is $1K ($1100 normal). I'm not paying +$350 for the experience to buy it from some stuffy store that doesn't know much about the gear. I didn't waste their time, I walked in knowing what I wanted.
If they want to offer more service for more money that's fine, but I don't use them...therefore I don't want to pay for it.
I hate this "you have to buy from a local retailer" BS. It's like this with a lot of AV equipment. I can't mailorder the speakers I want...they want me to get ripped off at a local dealer. So, I end up ordering from a grey market dealer for 1/2 MSRP.
The problem isn't with the Internet. If you want to charge more locally do it, but I better get some good service for the extra money. Plus, you better stock the exact model I want and not take 3 weeks to get it.
The problem with the MX-500 I have is that someone that doesn't know it can't just sit down and use it. My Marantz is set up so well that you can. They don't need to know to hit the FAV button to choose a channel. It's spelled out for them on the display. They just press the channel logo they want. While the MX-500 may work fine for the single geek, it probably wouldn't with a family that didn't want to learn the ins and outs of the remote. That was my goal.
I'm also not a fan of set remotes. I like the display on the Marantz/Pronto becuase *I* get to decide which buttons to show and where. It really makes the setup easier to use. You configure the panels for how you use the whole system...not just mimic all your remotes and buttons in one place. That's the hard part of setting up something like a Pronto, you have to get out of the "put all my remotes in this one remote" mindset. You learn to build the remote like you USE it.
You'll probably see these come back as Philips branded devices, assuming they don't have a exclusive agreement with TiVo. A lot of Denon/Marantz products are released in a lesser form as Philips... My Marantz remote control is almost exactly the same as the Philips TSU-2000 remote.
I had one. For a little bit more you can get a Pronto TSU-2000 and a charger. That has a lot more features, a much nicer screen, and a bigger screen for more buttons. You also get to enter discrete codes and download FAR more pre-done configs off the web.
I have a Marantz RC-5000i, which is the Pronto TSU-2000 in the Marantz form. The MX-500 would not run my system...nor several of my friend's systems.
We make heavy use of macros. I have high-def cable and a non-HD TiVo so I do a lot of input switching on the TV and the receiver. You also end up usually switching TV stretch modes.
Then...there is the TiVo. None of these semi-programmable remotes do well with a TiVo. They dont' have the right buttons and I don't really care to make "Function 4" my main TiVo button. With something like the Pronto you can lay out your system however you want. My TiVo screens look like a customized TiVo remote. When I tell it to go to a certain channel it sends the channel to the TiVo, changes all inputs, and then flips to the TiVo panels. It's hard to do that on a lesser remote.
I run a SMTP server at home too, but this is a good idea. If you want to run a home mail server let it forward mail to your ISP for delivery.
Go look at where the spam you get actually originates. A *LOT* of it is from dsl/cable modems. Why bother hijacking an open server when any idiot on broadband can send mail directly? This is a good way to block out a large number of spam sending people.... 99.99% of people do NOT run a SMTP server at home....
It's Linksys. Their gear sucks. They have terrible firmware. I never have stability problems with wireless gear from Cisco, D-Link, or even Microsoft (made by TI). Update your firmware...look on the Linksys FTP site for newer firmware than is on the web site... or just replace it with a better brand.
OpenBSD has been commercial. They sell CDs and shirts and stuff to make money. People have to eat. Almost all big open source projects are commercial. You have to be commercial to have full time developers.
Equipment doesn't pay bills. My grocery store won't take a hard drive as payment. Many of these large projects have core developers that work on it full time. They have to make money to live. That's where this money is going. If you read the article it says they can now hire a few more full time developers which will get more features in the software faster.
The MSRP on the HD TiVo is expected to be $1700. That's crazy. They can keep it...and that's from a TiVo and HD nut. Though, I don't use DSS so they don't have a product for me yet.
I think it'll help Cisco to open up the bottom end of the market. The two companies are in no way competing. I just deployed some Cisco 1100APs at work. We compared them to the MS wireless router and Linksys WAP11. The Cisco easily got twice the range in an office environment than the other two. So yeah, they might cost more but you definately get more. Plus we get the advantage of using LEAP.
I really hope Cisco helps Linksys write better firmware. They have AWFUL, AWFUL firmware on their wireless products.
My WAP11s have bridging and client mode bugs when using the latest public firmware. I had to go to a leaked firmware that was never released. I have a dualband.a/.b AP from them that slows WAY down to about 15KB/sec after being on for 2 days. So I get to reset that every two days and they have NEVER updated the firmware on it since release. Their.a PCMCIA NICs don't do Turbo mode in XP...even though they don't mention that anywhere until you get to the very bottom of the FAQ included with the card. D-Link's cards do it. Why not Linksys?
They suck. Suck, suck, suck. I have a D-Link.g setup on the way to replace my dualband rig. I have since replaced the firmware on my WAP11s with the hacked D-Link firmware to get more features and more stability.
I agree. This has shown up in the HP/Compaq move to offshore call centers recently. I've had a hard time understanding some of the techs. The problem is that it's hard enough to learn another language for normal conversation, but now it's in a technical environment where it's hard to work around language barriers. I can only give you the exact error one way. You can only give me the exact command one way. There isn't room to work around that.
It's already on WindowsUpdate, so it makes for an easy patch. Just the damned reboot...
But let's not get too smug, there have been a number of open source exploits found lately. They just don't seem to make it to the front page of Slashdot...for some reason.:)
We still receive the spam, it is just marked as spam with a subject flag. Our AV/Content Management software, Antigen, is set up to purge all emails with that flag. I quarantine them and look through them sometimes. We especially did it the first week. No false positives.
We use BrightMail and are very happy with them. If anyone can give you fairly accurate stats, it is them due to how they work.
They monitor a LOT of mail boxes...many customers plus many created mailboxes for spam. If a message hits a number of mailboxes in a short time span that message is forwarded to their NOC. A person looks at it and decides if it's spam. If so they tag it as spam before sending it to other customers that receive it.
It works very well. We now block almost all of the spam we receive and have not had ONE single false positive.
Slashdot Mirror
Thank God Linux helped you save your porn and mp3s!
Nope, neither of those places sells Pioneer Elite. The first store was Audio Advice in Raleigh, NC. It's *THE* place for serious high-end AV equipment. They offered to let me borrow a demo unit for a week, but I knew I wasn't going to buy there so I didn't. The price was high, and the resident expert gave me the wrong specs for the player I bought. He wasn't even right for any player Pioneer makes.
The second place was Now! Audio/Video. Not as high end as the first (no $20K speaker sets). The salesman there said, and I quote, "I don't know much about this one...but all DVD players are about the same.".
Now, I agree...my local retailers suck. But if Pioneer had their way that's all I'd get to deal with. If they want to force me to buy local they should force their resellers to know their damn product. Else, I'm buying cheaper elsewhere.
The Pioneer Elite DV-47Ai I just got wasn't B stock. I paid $650 for it. MSRP is $1200 and the local "on sale!!!!" price is $1K ($1100 normal). I'm not paying +$350 for the experience to buy it from some stuffy store that doesn't know much about the gear. I didn't waste their time, I walked in knowing what I wanted.
If they want to offer more service for more money that's fine, but I don't use them...therefore I don't want to pay for it.
I hate this "you have to buy from a local retailer" BS. It's like this with a lot of AV equipment. I can't mailorder the speakers I want...they want me to get ripped off at a local dealer. So, I end up ordering from a grey market dealer for 1/2 MSRP.
The problem isn't with the Internet. If you want to charge more locally do it, but I better get some good service for the extra money. Plus, you better stock the exact model I want and not take 3 weeks to get it.
The problem with the MX-500 I have is that someone that doesn't know it can't just sit down and use it. My Marantz is set up so well that you can. They don't need to know to hit the FAV button to choose a channel. It's spelled out for them on the display. They just press the channel logo they want. While the MX-500 may work fine for the single geek, it probably wouldn't with a family that didn't want to learn the ins and outs of the remote. That was my goal.
I'm also not a fan of set remotes. I like the display on the Marantz/Pronto becuase *I* get to decide which buttons to show and where. It really makes the setup easier to use. You configure the panels for how you use the whole system...not just mimic all your remotes and buttons in one place. That's the hard part of setting up something like a Pronto, you have to get out of the "put all my remotes in this one remote" mindset. You learn to build the remote like you USE it.
I don't use a full pre-done config, but I usually will pull out a device or two from another config.
You'll probably see these come back as Philips branded devices, assuming they don't have a exclusive agreement with TiVo. A lot of Denon/Marantz products are released in a lesser form as Philips... My Marantz remote control is almost exactly the same as the Philips TSU-2000 remote.
I had one. For a little bit more you can get a Pronto TSU-2000 and a charger. That has a lot more features, a much nicer screen, and a bigger screen for more buttons. You also get to enter discrete codes and download FAR more pre-done configs off the web.
I really don't recommend the Neo.
I have a Marantz RC-5000i, which is the Pronto TSU-2000 in the Marantz form. The MX-500 would not run my system...nor several of my friend's systems.
We make heavy use of macros. I have high-def cable and a non-HD TiVo so I do a lot of input switching on the TV and the receiver. You also end up usually switching TV stretch modes.
Then...there is the TiVo. None of these semi-programmable remotes do well with a TiVo. They dont' have the right buttons and I don't really care to make "Function 4" my main TiVo button. With something like the Pronto you can lay out your system however you want. My TiVo screens look like a customized TiVo remote. When I tell it to go to a certain channel it sends the channel to the TiVo, changes all inputs, and then flips to the TiVo panels. It's hard to do that on a lesser remote.
I run a SMTP server at home too, but this is a good idea. If you want to run a home mail server let it forward mail to your ISP for delivery.
Go look at where the spam you get actually originates. A *LOT* of it is from dsl/cable modems. Why bother hijacking an open server when any idiot on broadband can send mail directly? This is a good way to block out a large number of spam sending people.... 99.99% of people do NOT run a SMTP server at home....
It's Linksys. Their gear sucks. They have terrible firmware. I never have stability problems with wireless gear from Cisco, D-Link, or even Microsoft (made by TI). Update your firmware...look on the Linksys FTP site for newer firmware than is on the web site... or just replace it with a better brand.
OpenBSD has been commercial. They sell CDs and shirts and stuff to make money. People have to eat. Almost all big open source projects are commercial. You have to be commercial to have full time developers.
Equipment doesn't pay bills. My grocery store won't take a hard drive as payment. Many of these large projects have core developers that work on it full time. They have to make money to live. That's where this money is going. If you read the article it says they can now hire a few more full time developers which will get more features in the software faster.
The MSRP on the HD TiVo is expected to be $1700. That's crazy. They can keep it...and that's from a TiVo and HD nut. Though, I don't use DSS so they don't have a product for me yet.
My main system at work is Windows. RealPlayer for Windows is TERRIBLE. It puts itself everywhere. It thinks it's the most important app ever created.
FYI, CNN offers it to a Windows Media Player feed.
Do they offer it in something besides RealPlayer? That's all I see on their page.
I think it'll help Cisco to open up the bottom end of the market. The two companies are in no way competing. I just deployed some Cisco 1100APs at work. We compared them to the MS wireless router and Linksys WAP11. The Cisco easily got twice the range in an office environment than the other two. So yeah, they might cost more but you definately get more. Plus we get the advantage of using LEAP.
I really hope Cisco helps Linksys write better firmware. They have AWFUL, AWFUL firmware on their wireless products.
.a/.b AP from them that slows WAY down to about 15KB/sec after being on for 2 days. So I get to reset that every two days and they have NEVER updated the firmware on it since release. Their .a PCMCIA NICs don't do Turbo mode in XP...even though they don't mention that anywhere until you get to the very bottom of the FAQ included with the card. D-Link's cards do it. Why not Linksys?
.g setup on the way to replace my dualband rig. I have since replaced the firmware on my WAP11s with the hacked D-Link firmware to get more features and more stability.
My WAP11s have bridging and client mode bugs when using the latest public firmware. I had to go to a leaked firmware that was never released. I have a dualband
They suck. Suck, suck, suck. I have a D-Link
I agree. This has shown up in the HP/Compaq move to offshore call centers recently. I've had a hard time understanding some of the techs. The problem is that it's hard enough to learn another language for normal conversation, but now it's in a technical environment where it's hard to work around language barriers. I can only give you the exact error one way. You can only give me the exact command one way. There isn't room to work around that.
When does it take a week? The WebDav exploit? That's because blackhats found it... They usually don't disclose.
It's already on WindowsUpdate, so it makes for an easy patch. Just the damned reboot...
:)
But let's not get too smug, there have been a number of open source exploits found lately. They just don't seem to make it to the front page of Slashdot...for some reason.
Read my other reply to this thread from someone with a similar question.
We still receive the spam, it is just marked as spam with a subject flag. Our AV/Content Management software, Antigen, is set up to purge all emails with that flag. I quarantine them and look through them sometimes. We especially did it the first week. No false positives.
We use BrightMail and are very happy with them. If anyone can give you fairly accurate stats, it is them due to how they work.
They monitor a LOT of mail boxes...many customers plus many created mailboxes for spam. If a message hits a number of mailboxes in a short time span that message is forwarded to their NOC. A person looks at it and decides if it's spam. If so they tag it as spam before sending it to other customers that receive it.
It works very well. We now block almost all of the spam we receive and have not had ONE single false positive.