The company I work for currently uses Plasmon jukeboxes for DVD media coupled with Kofax's Ascent products. We store document images on them and you would be surprised how quickly they go. It's certainly not the end all of storage solutions. After messing with these things for over a year, I'd say they're more trouble than they're worth. Explore other routes unless this is for extremely limited access. Although the jukeboxes can be occasionally found for cheap on E-bay, you still might be better off running good 'ol fashioned hard disks.
If you do go the DVD route, watch out for:
Running out of discs (these things go faster than you think)
Jammed discs
Depending on the client software, inane Windows error messages - quite a few programs don't know how to handle waiting for a disk to move into an active drive.
...and if you don't use Windows, well... lucky you. Just my experiences - everyone else's will undoubtedly vary.
What a shame. I googled around in hopes of finding some sort of extras but everywhere I looked they listed no extra features. Here's what Amazon had to say:
Release Information:
Studio: Columbia Tristar Hom
Theatrical Release Date: August 7, 1985
DVD Release Date: June 11, 2002
Run Time: 106 minutes
Edition Details:
Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen
ASIN: B000065U1Q
Well, from a personal standpoint I was thinking of the guy at my work (where I am currently) who goes through all of the URLs visited during the day. I'm not so stupid as to use my work/important passwords on a site on the internet, but it's the principal. I *always* want to see my password in dots or asterisks or blank space. I never like having them tossed right back at me. Bah. Whatever.
Someone mod up the AC who made that "your left" joke below. I liked that.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not an insane security freak, but this kinda bothered me. After you sign up look at your address bar (all relevant information changed):
Neat find. I'll admit that this white paper business was the first I'd really paid attention to ADTI. Some of these little misc. pages are kind of unnerving. How in the world do they say that they're "non profit, non partisan?" Their leanings and bias are painfully obvious to even the man with the worst eyesight in the world.
Bah. I need to stop reading this junk. This was very insightful, so I won't complain. I was secretly hoping that if I kept going up the parent directories I'd eventually hit their system root or some bizarre spreadsheet that documented their "non-profits." Oh well.
I went to the site I thought it was and the paper appears to be for sale(?) But, being the web wizards that they are, they left the directories publically readable, so... here's the white paper (don't know if it's the revised version or not - I don't have time to dig through it again)
Just drop down to the/defense/ directory to browse whatever else they have.
Re:Gentoo is a giant step, too long for mere morta
on
Is RPM Doomed?
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
There's been quite a discussion on the installer issue in the Gentoo forums (the thread can be found here). The general consesus from the users seems to be that they like Gentoo being kind of a "niche" distro. If the idea of the source based distro really appeals to you, I would suggest giving it another go and leaning very heavily on the forums (if you need to). Gentoo's Forums have the most helpful and friendly user base I have ever seen on the internet. I have yet to see a single person give a n00b a hard time (outside of the occasional rtfm...). I realize that it's not for everyone and that it takes a little bit of work, but I think Gentoo is definitely worth it after the dust settles. It's nice to install an OS and feel like you actually accomplished something.
Well, I just managed to spend 6 straight hours playing The Legend of Zelda yesterday (and an hour trying to beat Mike Tyson the day before). I think gameplay mechanics, creativity and replay value were all *much* better/higher in the days of the Nintendo. Same holds true for the arcade games of the "old days". Going to an arcade you could find really fun games that you *wanted* to play instead of a bunch of expensive eye candy that has to lure you into playing.
And for the record, even by today's standards the gameplay of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out is not a joke. Maybe the graphics, but video games are still all about reflexes and skill (see any good FPS), not how many buttons/moves are involved in playing the game.
Can this be done and besides money what are the obstacles to this idea?
This is getting super off-topic, but what the hell. The most obvious obstacle (to me) is that there's no reason for Sony to do this. Why would they? Financially there isn't a good reason for them to push ahead with this kind of steam. It's not as if they have as much of a reason to try and cripple Microsoft's iron grip on the desktop market as other companies do, so inane corporate vengeance is probably out of the picture. Destroying competition? Well, Sony doesn't have a Linux distro and the X-Box is killing itself for the most part.
While this is a nice thought, I doubt it'll happen. The more likely path is a company like Bioware really stepping it up and announcing complete support for Linux on all future releases. That would make a dent and an impression on the industry, but I also find it slightly less likely than me getting laid tonight.
What would happen to the gaming world at large if Sony was to start developing games for Linux?
If I had to guess, nothing major would happen except there'd be a few more games for Linux and there'd be a lot of articles about it on Linux Games.
Would developers support Sony?
Probably, but it depends on what you mean by developers. Hardware (read as video and sound card) developers may try and throw Linux gamers a bone in the driver arena (but it'll be a small, closed source one). Since nvidia already does this and most (if not all) Linux gamers opt for their cards because of it, impact would be minimal. Software developers could care less about what Sony does in the software market. It would probably go down as follows:
1.) Sony develops games for Linux.
2.) Other developers develop games for Linux thinking that Sony had some special information.
3.) Sales aren't immediately stellar, other developers back out and snicker behind Sony's back thinking that they're superior.
Would Linux gaming become a very viable option?
IMHO, and don't take this as a flame because I'm a supporter and user of Linux, but I don't think it'll be really great until a brand new/standarized API (a la direct X - so shoot me) is developed (or a current one is seriously overhauled). There's something to be said in an all-in-one multimedia package that doesn't depend on a bunch of other things. Or until there's a working alternative to X which will never happen. *shrug* I'm probably wrong, but that's just my 2 cents.
It seems like it has been 15 or 20 years since I've been able to experience an eclipse. Every single time one comes around it's either storming or cloud covered in the area that I live in (was this time too). Thanks for the pics, though. Maybe next time (2005?) I'll take a road trip and get it out of my system.
Now all you'd have to do is mod the tub with a computer and wireless internet, and you'd never have to leave!
Good thing that the NHP 200NC "case" floats (although not completely waterproof)... might destroy the look, though. Now if only I could fit this thing into my parent's basement... oh yeah, and could afford it.
I searched and found this article, so I guess that answers about 1/3 of my own question, although it seemed like a fair question after looking at the modchip webpage:
Works Perfect with all PS2 CD-R and DVD-R Backups!
I'd like to know if the PS2 modchip alleviates the cd-r/dvd-r problem. If so, is there enough to this $350 system to make a decent little home system to play with? Is anyone working on something for the ps2 similar to the XBox Linux Project?
Geez... 15 posts and they all have to do with 'gnoogle.' *sigh*
Personally, I don't even bother looking at a manual for troubleshooting anymore because a lot of them (not all) tend to have the answers to questions that should come before anyone even needs to say RTFM (i.e. Q:Why won't my motherboard boot? A: There isn't a CPU in the socket). They rarely contain the things that actually go wrong (at least for me). It seems to me that a lot of companies have gotten used to leaning on the shoulders of the internet, allowing newsgroups and websites to answer all of their support questions for them, thus making the need for extensive documentation obsolete.
However, I think this leaves Joe-Blow-Who-Doesn't-Think-To-Search-Google in the dark. Not *everyone* thinks to do that before they assume that something's broken and make a support call. Hell, half the people at my work would sooner log a call with Compaq before searching for an error code.
So should companies even bother writing extensive information on their product if most people are going to either be too lazy to look it up, don't know to look it up, or find their own answers without the company's help?
I'm honestly asking. Would a single tube of that size after digital processing really have a major effect on sound quality? I thought the neat thing about tubes were the warmth and natural distortion they provide (in the same way as analog recording). If it has already gone through digital processing with the inherently less forgiving limits and peaks, wouldn't that actually hurt the quality? And what's the deal with that power input near the tube?
This whole thing seems kinda skimpy on details... I hope this doesn't give Creative any ideas. The last thing we need is a PCI SB Live card with this stuff on it: This quality Creative Sound Blaster(tm) product requires the space of four PCI slots and a special attachment for your power supply.
Hey, thanks for the info. I would like to point out that, as fun as it must be for you to quote the concept behind that webpage, clearly I don't have the creativity to "make up the word." If I did, I would've made it something a lot more fun than the tongue tying "virii", so it was obviously not my goal to "sound smarter."
I suppose I'm just another fool among the masses who doesn't have the time or the desire to look up plurals in the dictionary. *sigh* Life sure is hard.
Weird... that guy sounds exactly like the guy I talked to when my copy of XP wouldn't activate. I guess it's neat that they promote from within (although it might explain the XBox's lack of success).
I'll give them some credit,though - that's the friendliest threat I've ever heard:
We'd certainly like you to remove that [rom image] if you could...
I know it's cliched, but I would've liked to have had one of those handheld tape recorders for lectures. I had no problems listening in high school, but college somehow weakend that ability in me. Being able to take notes after class is a good thing.
I guess it depends on your opinion of expensive... I'll spend 50 bucks on a stinkin power supply alone. Coinceidentally, they only have three cases over a hundred bucks (w/o power supplies) and all three are pretty huge.
Besides, if I don't sit on it, how am I supposed to know if it's any good?
Slashdot Mirror
If you do go the DVD route, watch out for:
Running out of discs (these things go faster than you think)
Jammed discs
Depending on the client software, inane Windows error messages - quite a few programs don't know how to handle waiting for a disk to move into an active drive.
...and if you don't use Windows, well... lucky you. Just my experiences - everyone else's will undoubtedly vary.
What a shame. I googled around in hopes of finding some sort of extras but everywhere I looked they listed no extra features. Here's what Amazon had to say:
Release Information:
Studio: Columbia Tristar Hom
Theatrical Release Date: August 7, 1985
DVD Release Date: June 11, 2002
Run Time: 106 minutes
Edition Details:
Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen
ASIN: B000065U1Q
Well, from a personal standpoint I was thinking of the guy at my work (where I am currently) who goes through all of the URLs visited during the day. I'm not so stupid as to use my work/important passwords on a site on the internet, but it's the principal. I *always* want to see my password in dots or asterisks or blank space. I never like having them tossed right back at me. Bah. Whatever.
Someone mod up the AC who made that "your left" joke below. I liked that.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not an insane security freak, but this kinda bothered me. After you sign up look at your address bar (all relevant information changed):
m ypasswordisbeingprintedinplaintext&terms=on&action =join&zip=00000&localeId=&setLocale=1
http://slashdot.meetup.com/?email=x@y.z&password=
*sigh*...
Neat find. I'll admit that this white paper business was the first I'd really paid attention to ADTI. Some of these little misc. pages are kind of unnerving. How in the world do they say that they're "non profit, non partisan?" Their leanings and bias are painfully obvious to even the man with the worst eyesight in the world.
My personal favorite: "Conservative Think Tanks Having Impact"
Bah. I need to stop reading this junk. This was very insightful, so I won't complain. I was secretly hoping that if I kept going up the parent directories I'd eventually hit their system root or some bizarre spreadsheet that documented their "non-profits." Oh well.
I went to the site I thought it was and the paper appears to be for sale(?) But, being the web wizards that they are, they left the directories publically readable, so... here's the white paper (don't know if it's the revised version or not - I don't have time to dig through it again)
/defense/ directory to browse whatever else they have.
Just drop down to the
There's been quite a discussion on the installer issue in the Gentoo forums (the thread can be found here). The general consesus from the users seems to be that they like Gentoo being kind of a "niche" distro. If the idea of the source based distro really appeals to you, I would suggest giving it another go and leaning very heavily on the forums (if you need to). Gentoo's Forums have the most helpful and friendly user base I have ever seen on the internet. I have yet to see a single person give a n00b a hard time (outside of the occasional rtfm...). I realize that it's not for everyone and that it takes a little bit of work, but I think Gentoo is definitely worth it after the dust settles. It's nice to install an OS and feel like you actually accomplished something.
Oh yeah, and I don't like RPMs.
Well, I just managed to spend 6 straight hours playing The Legend of Zelda yesterday (and an hour trying to beat Mike Tyson the day before). I think gameplay mechanics, creativity and replay value were all *much* better/higher in the days of the Nintendo. Same holds true for the arcade games of the "old days". Going to an arcade you could find really fun games that you *wanted* to play instead of a bunch of expensive eye candy that has to lure you into playing.
And for the record, even by today's standards the gameplay of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out is not a joke. Maybe the graphics, but video games are still all about reflexes and skill (see any good FPS), not how many buttons/moves are involved in playing the game.
Can this be done and besides money what are the obstacles to this idea?
This is getting super off-topic, but what the hell. The most obvious obstacle (to me) is that there's no reason for Sony to do this. Why would they? Financially there isn't a good reason for them to push ahead with this kind of steam. It's not as if they have as much of a reason to try and cripple Microsoft's iron grip on the desktop market as other companies do, so inane corporate vengeance is probably out of the picture. Destroying competition? Well, Sony doesn't have a Linux distro and the X-Box is killing itself for the most part.
While this is a nice thought, I doubt it'll happen. The more likely path is a company like Bioware really stepping it up and announcing complete support for Linux on all future releases. That would make a dent and an impression on the industry, but I also find it slightly less likely than me getting laid tonight.
What would happen to the gaming world at large if Sony was to start developing games for Linux?
If I had to guess, nothing major would happen except there'd be a few more games for Linux and there'd be a lot of articles about it on Linux Games.
Would developers support Sony?
Probably, but it depends on what you mean by developers. Hardware (read as video and sound card) developers may try and throw Linux gamers a bone in the driver arena (but it'll be a small, closed source one). Since nvidia already does this and most (if not all) Linux gamers opt for their cards because of it, impact would be minimal. Software developers could care less about what Sony does in the software market. It would probably go down as follows:
1.) Sony develops games for Linux.
2.) Other developers develop games for Linux thinking that Sony had some special information.
3.) Sales aren't immediately stellar, other developers back out and snicker behind Sony's back thinking that they're superior.
Would Linux gaming become a very viable option?
IMHO, and don't take this as a flame because I'm a supporter and user of Linux, but I don't think it'll be really great until a brand new/standarized API (a la direct X - so shoot me) is developed (or a current one is seriously overhauled). There's something to be said in an all-in-one multimedia package that doesn't depend on a bunch of other things. Or until there's a working alternative to X which will never happen. *shrug* I'm probably wrong, but that's just my 2 cents.
It seems like it has been 15 or 20 years since I've been able to experience an eclipse. Every single time one comes around it's either storming or cloud covered in the area that I live in (was this time too). Thanks for the pics, though. Maybe next time (2005?) I'll take a road trip and get it out of my system.
and it will never go flat a long as your arms work!
a heavy-hearted sigh is heard from the collective armless community of the world
Now all you'd have to do is mod the tub with a computer and wireless internet, and you'd never have to leave!
Good thing that the NHP 200NC "case" floats (although not completely waterproof)... might destroy the look, though. Now if only I could fit this thing into my parent's basement... oh yeah, and could afford it.
PS2 + Linux kit = $350
I searched and found this article, so I guess that answers about 1/3 of my own question, although it seemed like a fair question after looking at the modchip webpage:
Works Perfect with all PS2 CD-R and DVD-R Backups!
I'd like to know if the PS2 modchip alleviates the cd-r/dvd-r problem. If so, is there enough to this $350 system to make a decent little home system to play with? Is anyone working on something for the ps2 similar to the XBox Linux Project?
Geez... 15 posts and they all have to do with 'gnoogle.' *sigh*
Personally, I don't even bother looking at a manual for troubleshooting anymore because a lot of them (not all) tend to have the answers to questions that should come before anyone even needs to say RTFM (i.e. Q:Why won't my motherboard boot? A: There isn't a CPU in the socket). They rarely contain the things that actually go wrong (at least for me). It seems to me that a lot of companies have gotten used to leaning on the shoulders of the internet, allowing newsgroups and websites to answer all of their support questions for them, thus making the need for extensive documentation obsolete.
However, I think this leaves Joe-Blow-Who-Doesn't-Think-To-Search-Google in the dark. Not *everyone* thinks to do that before they assume that something's broken and make a support call. Hell, half the people at my work would sooner log a call with Compaq before searching for an error code.
So should companies even bother writing extensive information on their product if most people are going to either be too lazy to look it up, don't know to look it up, or find their own answers without the company's help?
I'm honestly asking. Would a single tube of that size after digital processing really have a major effect on sound quality? I thought the neat thing about tubes were the warmth and natural distortion they provide (in the same way as analog recording). If it has already gone through digital processing with the inherently less forgiving limits and peaks, wouldn't that actually hurt the quality? And what's the deal with that power input near the tube?
This whole thing seems kinda skimpy on details... I hope this doesn't give Creative any ideas. The last thing we need is a PCI SB Live card with this stuff on it:
This quality Creative Sound Blaster(tm) product requires the space of four PCI slots and a special attachment for your power supply.
Hey, thanks for the info. I would like to point out that, as fun as it must be for you to quote the concept behind that webpage, clearly I don't have the creativity to "make up the word." If I did, I would've made it something a lot more fun than the tongue tying "virii", so it was obviously not my goal to "sound smarter."
I suppose I'm just another fool among the masses who doesn't have the time or the desire to look up plurals in the dictionary. *sigh* Life sure is hard.
...there's a group of people trying to get Windows-only virii to run via wine to see if they can get faster infection times under Linux.
Weird... that guy sounds exactly like the guy I talked to when my copy of XP wouldn't activate. I guess it's neat that they promote from within (although it might explain the XBox's lack of success).
I'll give them some credit,though - that's the friendliest threat I've ever heard:
We'd certainly like you to remove that [rom image] if you could...
I got a grudging thumbs up, so to speak, from Microsoft on my Xbox reverse engineering work
I think I'd much rather he post what must've been a very entertaining conversation with a Microsoft spokesperson than the bios to the XBox.
One missing 'e'. I've done worse.
I know it's cliched, but I would've liked to have had one of those handheld tape recorders for lectures. I had no problems listening in high school, but college somehow weakend that ability in me. Being able to take notes after class is a good thing.
I guess it depends on your opinion of expensive... I'll spend 50 bucks on a stinkin power supply alone. Coinceidentally, they only have three cases over a hundred bucks (w/o power supplies) and all three are pretty huge.
Besides, if I don't sit on it, how am I supposed to know if it's any good?
As a side note, thanks for that Soldam link? Those Prism cases - er, tables are neat (even they are $477 U.S. - yipes).