the software can be installed on any version of Windows you like. I have a home built PC running a self installed OEM XP Pro.
The box says it requires a pre-installed version of windows, and even puts it in bold print. I've read reviews from people who couldn't get it to install on their homebuilt machines. I don't know if it will work on my computer, and I have no way to find out short of buying one.
I don't mind re-ripping my CDs into the ATRAC3 format because there will be quality loss if I convert my mp3s directly to ATRAC3, but I will want to write the same songs to MD several times. I haven't touched my CD library in years. They're in a box in the basement. I do all my listening from mp3s on the computer because it's so much more convenient. I want to be able to rip all of them to ATRAC3 at one time and then have them on the HD to write to the MD whenever I feel like it. Having to dig up the CDs every time I want to write a disk ruins it for me. If I use your nero idea, I still have the quality loss problems.
ZyXel should set it so the password is randomized by default. That way, it might not be possible for the user to get in, but at least it will be more secure. For boosted security, they could make it re-randomize the password every hour.
I used to be a big fan of Sony, all my stereo equipment more than 3 years old is from them and I have a PSX. With all the crap their music and movie divisions have pulled with anti-piracy attempted, I will never buy from them again. I also check before I see a movie in theaters to make sure it's not made by Sony.
There is no way I'm buying a PS2. I almost gave in and bought a netMD minidisc player because it sounded so good, but luckily I read the reviews and it just confirmed that a total boycott of Sony is the only way to go. The player can only be recorded to with special software bundled with it. For some incomprehensible reason, the software will only work on a pre-installed version of windows on a brand name computer. Since I always assemble my systems from parts, that means I can't even use the player. The software is also much to paranoid about piracy, you have to re-rip your music using their software to a secure sony file format. Then, you can only write each song to MD 3 times before having to re-rip the file. Why in the world would anyone pay for a music device that has so much in it designed to work against them?
As far as X-Box being too little too late, remember OS/2? Warp came out in 1994 and did everything windows 95 promised it would do and a lot more. People still waited for Windows 95 which turned out to fall far short of its promises. MS also missed the early boat on the Internet. There is no such thing as too little too late where MS is concerned.
2 of the best Killer apps for the X-Box I've heard of are the DivX player and the PVR. This chip will go a long way towards making it quick and easy to set those up.
It's too bad MS doesn't jump on the bandwagon. If they produced PVR software and sold it for the price of a normal game, I'd happily buy an X-Box and that software. I'd also pay at least $20 for DivX player software for it.
Is the quality as high as when they started? I went there when they were first mentioned on slashdot. The quality control process they described was very impressive but also daunting for anyone wanting to contribute. If they've reached the 100k article threshold with the same quality control it is world-class resource.
One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's back yard, and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun'
This is a projection screen between the panes of glass, so one minute you neighbor's watching you sitting in your living room, and the next minute he's watching a mirror image of Top Gun
Won't the glass of the window create a glare problem? The wall beside the window probably makes a much better projection screen.
I find it easier because it does exactly what I want at install time. With the other distros, I can never get the installation process to install it the way I want to.
When I say the installation is easier, I'm including the part after installing it where I configure everything.
Red Hat and Mandrake are probably the worst, I didn't even find half the configuration files I needed.
Actually, I've never used apt-get. After reading this thread, I've already decided to give debian an other try just to try apt-get. It's not that hard to type 4-6 commands to install a tarball, but the dependancies can get annoying; the worst was when I installed the PERL drivers to access mySQL, I ended up installing about 20 items to handle the dependencies for 4 items I actually needed. That's one of the major reasons ProfQuotes uses PHP instead of PERL.
It's not very re-assuring when you click on help and get a message that says "Page not found: help".
They also make you provide your credit card info and confirm the order before they tell you how much shipping is and what the total price is.
That being said, I've used slackware since version 2.3, and it's by far my favourite distro. I've tried most of the distros, and imo they don't come close to slackware's functionality and ease of use.
Yeah lots of us have tuner cards and can have all the digital copies of shows we want. But most users don't know how to do that.
All it takes is one person who does know how to put it on Kazaa and that's enough. What does this have to do with the internet as another cable-like broadcast medium? Allowing the general public to easily get these files legally (with commercials) much more easily that kazaa spyware will discourage people from downloading the illegal (commercial free) copies. The proof is that people watch and pay for cable with commercials.
My computer can do all that with the signal from my satellite dish too. Should satellite be illegal?
The legalities of all this were hashed out in the betamax case.
It should be illegal for the internet broadcasters to modify the signal (by trimming commercials). I said this in my original post. But as far as the end user's ability to trim commercials, it makes absolutely no difference whether it comes from an internet stream, a satellite signal, cable, or broadcast.
It's exactly the same thing as before. The cable companies didn't care about benefiting the broadcasters, they were out for a quick buck and the fact that the broadcasters benefitted was incidental.
Internet TV will help broadcasters in exactly the same way. If more people watch the broadcasters are better off. As far as the problems with local affiliates, there was the same problem with early cable, and it was only solved by regulation; not banning cable.
I'm in a location where I can get 2 channels by broadcast (and I have a cablemodem). For me, broadcast isn't a viable option, but I do have the bandwidth to download a TV stream. I have a satellite dish, so this doesn't affect me much, but if I were limited to broadcast this would make the difference between my watching or not for most of the broadcasters
This is how the cable companies got started. They set up big receiving antennea, and rebroadcast the signal for a fee. They didn't get permission from or pay the broadcasters. It was perfectly legal 30 years ago. Why does the fact that this involves the internet change anything?
Up until today, as long as you didn't modify it (like trimming out commercials), it would be perfectly legal to retransmit a broadcast signal. The whole point of broadcast is that it's freely put out over the public airwaves for anyone who wants to view it.
The Canadian Alliance is a political party that is not in power right now. The Minister of Heritage is a member of the party in power now (the Liberals). Since it's a majority government, the party in power can do whatever they want, and the other parties can just slow things down a bit.
There is no viable alternative to the Liberals, so they can and do whatever they want.
For example, a vet got his benefits cut off due to a government error. His representitive (who happened to be Liberal)said "you didn't vote for me, why should I help you?" The prime minister backed up the representitive and basically said they shouldn't have to do anything since they're in charge.
There's hundreds of examples, but Canada is basically being run as a tyranny now, and this new law being muscled through is just another example.
I remember back when the Bernardo case was going on, people were making trips into the US to get Wired magazine.
It was banned in Canada because it talked about the publication ban, and just happened to mention that one of the banned pieces of information was that homolka pled guilty.
It was quite funny, customs set a limit on the number of copies of Wired you could bring across the border. They generally treated it as a controlled substance.
Wired probably sold more copies to Canadians that month than any other time before then, which made the whole ban ineffective. I had no trouble getting my hands an a copy from a 'dealer' at school
The discharge curve is also very important. If I draw 10 amps from that 17 Ah alkaline D battery, it will last about 30 minutes instead of 1.7 hours. If I take 10 amps from a 9 Ah NiMH D battery, it will last the full 0.9 hours.
The car battery can easily handle 600 amps for a few seconds while starting your car. There's no way the laptop battry can handle 80 amps even for a fraction of a second
This just makes the "10 hour battery" in the article even more meaningless.
Hour is not a measure of power. How many amp- hours is this battery capable of? What terminal voltage?
A standard size D Alkaline battery is 17 amp-hours at 1.5 volts. That sounds a lot more impressive than a 10 hour battery, and it's using 30 year old technology.
The recording industry already has a tax on most computer media in Canada.
It's already 21 cents per CD, and is going up to 59 cents soon. There's also a fee of 21 cents/megabyte for digital camera memory and tiny HDs because they can also be used in mp3 players.
Taxing ISPs is probably just the next logical step up here
The could sue me for breathing if they wanted. There's a big difference between suing someone and actually having a legal leg to stand on.
If they sued me, I'd be in the right, but they have a multi-million dollar legal department, and I don't. When being right goes up against multi-million dollar lawyers, money wins. That's the way the legal system works in the US.
Slashdot Mirror
the software can be installed on any version of Windows you like. I have a home built PC running a self installed OEM XP Pro.
The box says it requires a pre-installed version of windows, and even puts it in bold print. I've read reviews from people who couldn't get it to install on their homebuilt machines. I don't know if it will work on my computer, and I have no way to find out short of buying one.
I don't mind re-ripping my CDs into the ATRAC3 format because there will be quality loss if I convert my mp3s directly to ATRAC3, but I will want to write the same songs to MD several times. I haven't touched my CD library in years. They're in a box in the basement. I do all my listening from mp3s on the computer because it's so much more convenient. I want to be able to rip all of them to ATRAC3 at one time and then have them on the HD to write to the MD whenever I feel like it. Having to dig up the CDs every time I want to write a disk ruins it for me. If I use your nero idea, I still have the quality loss problems.
Jason
ProfQuotes
It was a joke.
Jason
ProfQuotes
ZyXel should set it so the password is randomized by default. That way, it might not be possible for the user to get in, but at least it will be more secure. For boosted security, they could make it re-randomize the password every hour.
Jason
ProfQuotes
I used to be a big fan of Sony, all my stereo equipment more than 3 years old is from them and I have a PSX. With all the crap their music and movie divisions have pulled with anti-piracy attempted, I will never buy from them again. I also check before I see a movie in theaters to make sure it's not made by Sony.
There is no way I'm buying a PS2. I almost gave in and bought a netMD minidisc player because it sounded so good, but luckily I read the reviews and it just confirmed that a total boycott of Sony is the only way to go. The player can only be recorded to with special software bundled with it. For some incomprehensible reason, the software will only work on a pre-installed version of windows on a brand name computer. Since I always assemble my systems from parts, that means I can't even use the player. The software is also much to paranoid about piracy, you have to re-rip your music using their software to a secure sony file format. Then, you can only write each song to MD 3 times before having to re-rip the file. Why in the world would anyone pay for a music device that has so much in it designed to work against them?
As far as X-Box being too little too late, remember OS/2? Warp came out in 1994 and did everything windows 95 promised it would do and a lot more. People still waited for Windows 95 which turned out to fall far short of its promises. MS also missed the early boat on the Internet. There is no such thing as too little too late where MS is concerned.
Jason
ProfQuotes
2 of the best Killer apps for the X-Box I've heard of are the DivX player and the PVR. This chip will go a long way towards making it quick and easy to set those up.
It's too bad MS doesn't jump on the bandwagon. If they produced PVR software and sold it for the price of a normal game, I'd happily buy an X-Box and that software. I'd also pay at least $20 for DivX player software for it.
Jason
ProfQuotes
How about Dan Quayle, he doesn't seem too busy and he's not too bright, but a lot brighter than Hilary; just perfect
Jason
ProfQuotes
Steve Jobs for RIAA Head!
Jason
ProfQuotes
Yeah, in the same sense that MS isn't Bill Gates...he isn't even CEO anymore.
Jason
ProfQuotes
This is the way cats get their nine lives
Jason
ProfQuotes
Is the quality as high as when they started? I went there when they were first mentioned on slashdot. The quality control process they described was very impressive but also daunting for anyone wanting to contribute. If they've reached the 100k article threshold with the same quality control it is world-class resource.
Jason
ProfQuotes
The biggest security problem with running apache on Windows is Windows. Anyone who uses windows for a server deserves what happens to their server.
Jason
ProfQuotes
One minute you're looking out your bay window at your neighbor's back yard, and the next you're watching Tom Cruise and 'Top Gun'
This is a projection screen between the panes of glass, so one minute you neighbor's watching you sitting in your living room, and the next minute he's watching a mirror image of Top Gun
Won't the glass of the window create a glare problem? The wall beside the window probably makes a much better projection screen.
Jason
ProfQuotes
I find it easier because it does exactly what I want at install time. With the other distros, I can never get the installation process to install it the way I want to.
When I say the installation is easier, I'm including the part after installing it where I configure everything.
Red Hat and Mandrake are probably the worst, I didn't even find half the configuration files I needed.
Actually, I've never used apt-get. After reading this thread, I've already decided to give debian an other try just to try apt-get. It's not that hard to type 4-6 commands to install a tarball, but the dependancies can get annoying; the worst was when I installed the PERL drivers to access mySQL, I ended up installing about 20 items to handle the dependencies for 4 items I actually needed. That's one of the major reasons ProfQuotes uses PHP instead of PERL.
Jason
ProfQuotes
It's not very re-assuring when you click on help and get a message that says "Page not found: help".
They also make you provide your credit card info and confirm the order before they tell you how much shipping is and what the total price is.
That being said, I've used slackware since version 2.3, and it's by far my favourite distro. I've tried most of the distros, and imo they don't come close to slackware's functionality and ease of use.
Jason
ProfQuotes
Yeah lots of us have tuner cards and can have all the digital copies of shows we want. But most users don't know how to do that.
All it takes is one person who does know how to put it on Kazaa and that's enough. What does this have to do with the internet as another cable-like broadcast medium? Allowing the general public to easily get these files legally (with commercials) much more easily that kazaa spyware will discourage people from downloading the illegal (commercial free) copies. The proof is that people watch and pay for cable with commercials.
Jason
ProfQuotes
My computer can do all that with the signal from my satellite dish too. Should satellite be illegal?
The legalities of all this were hashed out in the betamax case.
It should be illegal for the internet broadcasters to modify the signal (by trimming commercials). I said this in my original post. But as far as the end user's ability to trim commercials, it makes absolutely no difference whether it comes from an internet stream, a satellite signal, cable, or broadcast.
Jason
ProfQuotes
It's exactly the same thing as before. The cable companies didn't care about benefiting the broadcasters, they were out for a quick buck and the fact that the broadcasters benefitted was incidental.
Internet TV will help broadcasters in exactly the same way. If more people watch the broadcasters are better off. As far as the problems with local affiliates, there was the same problem with early cable, and it was only solved by regulation; not banning cable.
I'm in a location where I can get 2 channels by broadcast (and I have a cablemodem). For me, broadcast isn't a viable option, but I do have the bandwidth to download a TV stream. I have a satellite dish, so this doesn't affect me much, but if I were limited to broadcast this would make the difference between my watching or not for most of the broadcasters
Jason
ProfQuotes
This is how the cable companies got started. They set up big receiving antennea, and rebroadcast the signal for a fee. They didn't get permission from or pay the broadcasters. It was perfectly legal 30 years ago. Why does the fact that this involves the internet change anything?
Up until today, as long as you didn't modify it (like trimming out commercials), it would be perfectly legal to retransmit a broadcast signal. The whole point of broadcast is that it's freely put out over the public airwaves for anyone who wants to view it.
Jason
ProfQuotes
The Canadian Alliance is a political party that is not in power right now. The Minister of Heritage is a member of the party in power now (the Liberals). Since it's a majority government, the party in power can do whatever they want, and the other parties can just slow things down a bit.
There is no viable alternative to the Liberals, so they can and do whatever they want.
For example, a vet got his benefits cut off due to a government error. His representitive (who happened to be Liberal)said "you didn't vote for me, why should I help you?" The prime minister backed up the representitive and basically said they shouldn't have to do anything since they're in charge.
There's hundreds of examples, but Canada is basically being run as a tyranny now, and this new law being muscled through is just another example.
Jason
ProfQuotes
I remember back when the Bernardo case was going on, people were making trips into the US to get Wired magazine.
It was banned in Canada because it talked about the publication ban, and just happened to mention that one of the banned pieces of information was that homolka pled guilty.
It was quite funny, customs set a limit on the number of copies of Wired you could bring across the border. They generally treated it as a controlled substance.
Wired probably sold more copies to Canadians that month than any other time before then, which made the whole ban ineffective. I had no trouble getting my hands an a copy from a 'dealer' at school
Jason
ProfQuotes
Once microsoft extends their monopoly to include this, they really will own every throught in the world.
Jason
ProfQuotes
The discharge curve is also very important. If I draw 10 amps from that 17 Ah alkaline D battery, it will last about 30 minutes instead of 1.7 hours. If I take 10 amps from a 9 Ah NiMH D battery, it will last the full 0.9 hours.
The car battery can easily handle 600 amps for a few seconds while starting your car. There's no way the laptop battry can handle 80 amps even for a fraction of a second
This just makes the "10 hour battery" in the article even more meaningless.
Jason
ProfQuotes
Hour is not a measure of power. How many amp- hours is this battery capable of? What terminal voltage?
A standard size D Alkaline battery is 17 amp-hours at 1.5 volts. That sounds a lot more impressive than a 10 hour battery, and it's using 30 year old technology.
Jason
ProfQuotes
The recording industry already has a tax on most computer media in Canada.
It's already 21 cents per CD, and is going up to 59 cents soon. There's also a fee of 21 cents/megabyte for digital camera memory and tiny HDs because they can also be used in mp3 players.
Taxing ISPs is probably just the next logical step up here
Jason
ProfQuotes
The could sue me for breathing if they wanted. There's a big difference between suing someone and actually having a legal leg to stand on.
If they sued me, I'd be in the right, but they have a multi-million dollar legal department, and I don't. When being right goes up against multi-million dollar lawyers, money wins. That's the way the legal system works in the US.
Jason
ProfQuotes