Anyone who thinks checksums for encoded music files would work has no idea what they are talking about. A checksum for two music files, ripped and encoded by different people would only work if both files were ripped, without error and encoded with the same identical encoder with the same exact options, id3 tags and all. Anything less would produce two files with different checksums. You could encode the same file at the same rate with the same encoder, options and everything else. 1 character different in an id3 tag and you have a different checksum.
Fuzzy checksums would detect this but now we are getting off track. This supposed checksum database would have literally hundreds or thousands of valid checksums for each ripped file.
So,.. yawn. Learn what you are talking about before posting.
Yeah, had no problems huh? Sitting them in front of a computer and acknowledging they can figure out how to get to a web page is much different than having a real lasting solution. The proof comes when you can have them upgrade or install some new applications, put some more true type fonts in the system, change the X resolution, add a new inkjet printer or USB scanner, fire up a decent personal finance package with online payments, and so on without trouble. These things are all fairly easy to do in other OS's and for me and what I do, quite important. I'm a die hard Linux user for the last 8 years but not without my share of frustrations with it. These, my friend, are just a few.
I think everybody agrees the only reason someone who prefers Linux, would keep a windows box around is because of the applications. Don't get me wrong,.. I am a Linux user at heart. Linux has been my primary desktop machine since early 1995 and it has not been easy watching all my Windows friends have access to all these cool applications.
Currently the applications I am missing are:
1.) Full featured DVD Authoring. - Admitedly I do this on MAC OS X right now, but this is because there is no software, commercial or otherwise that can do this on linux right now. And yes I do have my eye on dvd-create and I have made a few DVD with dvdauthor. I would hardly call the end result full featured.
2.) MS Money - Does not run under Codeweavers CrossOver Office product, which I did buy. I know there was a recent report of Quicken being able to run under CrossOver Office on Linux but Quicken != MS Money. I have over 6 years of MS Money data. Before you say that I can export/import that into Quicken, learn something about what you are talking about. The export functionality does not support all the features of the product.
3.) Decent CD burner Application - I burn ALOT of CD's. I've tried them all on Linux and none of them work as smoothly as say Nero or Prassi on Windows. I use Prassi myself. Yes I've tried kcreate, xcdroast and so on. Why heck, I can never get cdrecord to record any faster than 4x, no matter what the speed capability of my drive or blanks. And my name is in the man page!
4.) A sensible GUI file manager. I've looked at Nautilus and probably a few others. On my Redhat 8.0 desktop right this minute I can not do a simple search of files by right clicking on a directory.
This one will be kind of tricky for the zealots to comprehend so listen to what I do, A LOT. I have about 20,000 MP3 files and I buy at least 2 or 3 CD's a week, all get converted to MP3. When loading up my portable mp3 player, I like to open a WinXP explorer window so I can see the root of my mp3 directory, right click on it and pick search. I pick a date of the last 2 months or so and *.mp3 and it gives my a new window with my recent mp3s. I interactively pick enough (while the size of my pick updates in real time) mp3s to file my Compact Flash card, then I drag them to the Compact Flash. Seems simple doesn't it. Try doing this under Linux without writing your own application. Yes, I know how to use the shell, Nautilus, find and all other relevant tools. None of them make the process I just described very easy. This is simple as pie under Windows.
4.) Still flaky applications (although this is better than no applications) - Specifically, the only decent PIM app is Evolution, I just loaded the released a few days ago 1.2 version and it is still riddled with bugs and hangs 4 or 5 times a day on my system. Matter of fact I have a icon on my toolbar which does a kill -9 on all the evolution processes and restarts it, that's how often it happens. This really stinks if you're like me and your productivity depends on being able to access your email, tasks, calendar, etc.
I guess this list isn't all that bad, considering just a year ago it included a whole bunch more things that I needed my Windows for. When I switched to this Linux thing in 1995 I said I'd give it 10 years to come out with the applications I needed. Well,.. I've got three years to go. We'll see what happens.
Very odd that most DVD players will play CDs with mp3s burnt onto them, but won't play a DVD burnt with the same mp3s. Anyone else ever think this is very strange? I wonder if this player will play mp3s burnt onto a DVD-R. That would be nice.
Anyone ever seen Office Space? "If you want me to wear 37 pieces of flair, then why don't you just make them minimum 37 pieces".
This reminds me of this ridiculous GNU/Crying. If they wanted GNU attached to every project that used it's software, then why don't they just make that a requirement for using the software. If it's not a requirement and people choose not to attach GNU to the name of the project, don't be surprised.
Well truth is I have both an A03 and an A04 drive so I am hoping DVD-R will win. There is also the simple fact that DVD-R seems to be most compatabile in most non computer hardware playback machines.
If you are going to pay $600 for these things, you would be better off getting a Dell. I paid about that much for a couple of 2Ghz P4 systems fairly well loaded.
My 2Ghz P4 Dells are:
256MB DDR Ram
80GB 7200RPM Maxtor HD
Builtin Sound, Ethernet
CD-RW Drive
Full Tower case (solid)
I've been building clone boxes my whole life, but I couldn't pass this Dell up. This is pretty typical on Dell's site.
Today they have a business class Dell P4 1.6GHz GX240 for $357.64 shipped. You can't build a loaded clone machine from scratch for that much, let alone one covered by a 3 year warranty.
My pvr production is running slick as can be, now that I have ditched all the capture card madness (WinTV, Buz, etc). All I need now is a $30 firewire card and my trusty Canopus ADVC-100 and I capture full frame 720x480 video in better than DVD quality. If you are considering doing a lot of capture/encoding of anything, I highly recommend this setup. dvgrab running under linux seems to be very stable and the captured video is virtually identical to the source.
Those Tivo, Replay boxes are nice and shiny looking, but I'll stick with my homebrewed Linux based recorder boxes any day of the week.
My current setup includes an Athlon 1.4 hooked to a digital cable receiver and another Athlon 1.4 system hooked to a DSS satellite receiver.
And why is this so cool? Choice,.. that's why. I can watch these recorded files anywhere. I can choose their final resting format as well. MPEG1, no problem. MPEG2,.. no problem. VCD,.. coming right up. Divx file,.. got that too. All this and the commerials get removed in the process.
The flexibility of the recording format is nearly eclipsed by the ease of use the custom web interface offers. I am free to manage the queue of TV shows from any computer anywhere.
So for those reasons,.. You'll probably never see a Tivo in my house.
After my client spent a whole lot of money putting together a VPN solution, we found out the hard way that Cox strictly forbids IP protocols that they don't explictly allow, IPSec being one of these. So why didn't we use ssh as a VPN? Anyone who asks that question is obviously not in the business of providing these kinds of solutions to clients. Ssh might work for a hacker like me but for an average Joe user, this solution is not very seamless.
Hmm,.. how much money for those CDs I bought? Well probably a lot I guess. I own less than a thousand CDs myself, the other CDs to make up my mp3 collection were really borrowed from friends, etc. I have some friends with rather massive CD collections.
We have well over 100GB,.. and that doesn't include ripping entire CD's, for many CD's we only rip the songs we like. If we ripped every song from every CD, it would probably be a 300GB collection at least. So for those of you thinking 80GB is a lot,.. think twice. It only took me about 4 years to go from a few songs ripped from a few CD's taking up a few MB,.. to what I have now which is a MASSIVE collection of music, built mostly from ripping mine and my friends CD collections. I have at least 4 friends with 1000+ CD collections. Currently they are mostly played through my Rio 60GB car stereo (or most of them at least) and a custom Linux based jukebox based on mp3sb.
This article should be called, "Getting The Data Port To Work on your Digital Cable Box". Mine has a dataport too, but I'll dammned if I can find any information on how to make it do something useful.
Anyone have a clue if the Zapstation from Zapmedia will ever make it to market. I actually slapped my credit card down on one about this time last year. They were actually hopeful of getting them shipped by LAST Christmas. It's over a year later and they still can't seem to get it together.
Anyone who thinks that using Paypal protects you,.. is completley wrong. I have a close friend who was defrauded to the tune of $2,000 and paid via paypal. Paypal says they can not help him and the credit card company will not remove the charge. So be careful out there people. You could really loose some money if the seller decides to skate.
Might be the killer application to finally get MPEG4 or OpenDivx codecs into hardware. This alone could probably get higher bitrate, higher quality video transmitted over the lines.
Show the record companies we won't stand for this half-baked copy protection crap,.. and just say no. Don't buy any CD with this protection enabled. Record companies will soon get the idea when it affects the bottom line.
I looked at the PhatNoise when they first announced it,.. I think at CES last winter. After checking their site everyday for more news on when I could buy this thing,.. I finnaly gave up. They would not post any information on which headunits they would support or when the damn thing would be available. Less than a month after I bought my Rio, they finally announced the limited availability and then only for a few Kenwood headunits. So I was out of luck anyway,.. I had previously run strictly Eclipse head units because they sound so much better, so if there would be no support for them,.. then I was wasting my time waiting anyway. So if you're thinking about getting one of these things and you dont have a kenwood that is supported, then think twice. The $999 Rio will probably still be cheaper overall.
You have no clue what you are talking about. Many people have enabled their Empeg/Rio units to do 802.11 while in the car. I will be one of them,.. I just got my home side (with a laptop and access point) working and the Rio player in the car is next. And as far as hackinmg together your own linux computer for the car,.. good f'n luck. I tried it is a lot easier than it sounds,.. dealing with power supplies, custom on/off delay circuits, filesystem woas and the like are a major pain in the ass. I wish I would have bought the Empeg first instead wasting so much time on trying to hack together a good looking usable system. It was a complete waste of time.
What good is it? Anyone who would ask that question obviously does not appreciate music as much as I do. First of the the 60GB model was about $2,600 when I bought it and admitedly that was a little tough to swallow. But, I had finally come to the conclusion that the EPEG was the only way. mp3 cd stereos like the Aiwa and Kenwood are curiously amusing, but more of a pain in the ass than a real solution. For one, my collection would consume about 150 compact disk CDRs so carrying my collection around on CDR is completly out of the question. Not to mention that my collection grows quite consistently and always making CDRs would be a real pain. But the real reason is,,. the kenwood and aiwa type systems are not a "lil computer in your dash",.. or at least I don't think of them that way. They don't run Linux (the empeg does), they don't have any easily hackable means, they don't support playlists or searching by song title, artist, genre. Well they really are a stopgap for the inevitable. Hopefully someday all car stereos follow suit and do what the empeg did. And to answer your other question I am currently working on getting the wireless 802.11 bridge hooked up to the Ethernet port on my Empeg, so when I pull in my garage the latest files will automatically stream over to my player for me. There are a few people on the list who have done it all ready, so it's only a matter of time. Let's see your Kenwood do that.
Slashdot Mirror
Fuzzy checksums would detect this but now we are getting off track. This supposed checksum database would have literally hundreds or thousands of valid checksums for each ripped file.
So,.. yawn. Learn what you are talking about before posting.
--Aaron
Yeah, had no problems huh? Sitting them in front of a computer and acknowledging they can figure out how to get to a web page is much different than having a real lasting solution. The proof comes when you can have them upgrade or install some new applications, put some more true type fonts in the system, change the X resolution, add a new inkjet printer or USB scanner, fire up a decent personal finance package with online payments, and so on without trouble. These things are all fairly easy to do in other OS's and for me and what I do, quite important. I'm a die hard Linux user for the last 8 years but not without my share of frustrations with it. These, my friend, are just a few.
I I think think this this is is a a dupe dupe.
I wonder how many of these teenage slashdot script kiddies got that one. Man I feel old.
Currently the applications I am missing are:
1.) Full featured DVD Authoring. - Admitedly I do this on MAC OS X right now, but this is because there is no software, commercial or otherwise that can do this on linux right now. And yes I do have my eye on dvd-create and I have made a few DVD with dvdauthor. I would hardly call the end result full featured.
2.) MS Money - Does not run under Codeweavers CrossOver Office product, which I did buy. I know there was a recent report of Quicken being able to run under CrossOver Office on Linux but Quicken != MS Money. I have over 6 years of MS Money data. Before you say that I can export/import that into Quicken, learn something about what you are talking about. The export functionality does not support all the features of the product.
3.) Decent CD burner Application - I burn ALOT of CD's. I've tried them all on Linux and none of them work as smoothly as say Nero or Prassi on Windows. I use Prassi myself. Yes I've tried kcreate, xcdroast and so on. Why heck, I can never get cdrecord to record any faster than 4x, no matter what the speed capability of my drive or blanks. And my name is in the man page!
4.) A sensible GUI file manager. I've looked at Nautilus and probably a few others. On my Redhat 8.0 desktop right this minute I can not do a simple search of files by right clicking on a directory.
This one will be kind of tricky for the zealots to comprehend so listen to what I do, A LOT. I have about 20,000 MP3 files and I buy at least 2 or 3 CD's a week, all get converted to MP3. When loading up my portable mp3 player, I like to open a WinXP explorer window so I can see the root of my mp3 directory, right click on it and pick search. I pick a date of the last 2 months or so and *.mp3 and it gives my a new window with my recent mp3s. I interactively pick enough (while the size of my pick updates in real time) mp3s to file my Compact Flash card, then I drag them to the Compact Flash. Seems simple doesn't it. Try doing this under Linux without writing your own application. Yes, I know how to use the shell, Nautilus, find and all other relevant tools. None of them make the process I just described very easy. This is simple as pie under Windows.
4.) Still flaky applications (although this is better than no applications) - Specifically, the only decent PIM app is Evolution, I just loaded the released a few days ago 1.2 version and it is still riddled with bugs and hangs 4 or 5 times a day on my system. Matter of fact I have a icon on my toolbar which does a kill -9 on all the evolution processes and restarts it, that's how often it happens. This really stinks if you're like me and your productivity depends on being able to access your email, tasks, calendar, etc.
I guess this list isn't all that bad, considering just a year ago it included a whole bunch more things that I needed my Windows for. When I switched to this Linux thing in 1995 I said I'd give it 10 years to come out with the applications I needed. Well,.. I've got three years to go. We'll see what happens.
--Aaron
It's about time.
Very odd that most DVD players will play CDs with mp3s burnt onto them, but won't play a DVD burnt with the same mp3s. Anyone else ever think this is very strange? I wonder if this player will play mp3s burnt onto a DVD-R. That would be nice.
This reminds me of this ridiculous GNU/Crying. If they wanted GNU attached to every project that used it's software, then why don't they just make that a requirement for using the software. If it's not a requirement and people choose not to attach GNU to the name of the project, don't be surprised.
--Aaron
Well truth is I have both an A03 and an A04 drive so I am hoping DVD-R will win. There is also the simple fact that DVD-R seems to be most compatabile in most non computer hardware playback machines.
My 2Ghz P4 Dells are:
- 256MB DDR Ram
- 80GB 7200RPM Maxtor HD
- Builtin Sound, Ethernet
- CD-RW Drive
- Full Tower case (solid)
I've been building clone boxes my whole life, but I couldn't pass this Dell up. This is pretty typical on Dell's site.I usually check gotapex.com for deals.
Today they have a business class Dell P4 1.6GHz GX240 for $357.64 shipped. You can't build a loaded clone machine from scratch for that much, let alone one covered by a 3 year warranty.
My pvr production is running slick as can be, now that I have ditched all the capture card madness (WinTV, Buz, etc). All I need now is a $30 firewire card and my trusty Canopus ADVC-100 and I capture full frame 720x480 video in better than DVD quality. If you are considering doing a lot of capture/encoding of anything, I highly recommend this setup. dvgrab running under linux seems to be very stable and the captured video is virtually identical to the source.
Wait a sec,.. and this is news for nerds how? Stuff that matters? To who?,.. certainly not me.
My current setup includes an Athlon 1.4 hooked to a digital cable receiver and another Athlon 1.4 system hooked to a DSS satellite receiver.
And why is this so cool? Choice,.. that's why. I can watch these recorded files anywhere. I can choose their final resting format as well. MPEG1, no problem. MPEG2,.. no problem. VCD,.. coming right up. Divx file,.. got that too. All this and the commerials get removed in the process.
The flexibility of the recording format is nearly eclipsed by the ease of use the custom web interface offers. I am free to manage the queue of TV shows from any computer anywhere.
So for those reasons,.. You'll probably never see a Tivo in my house.
--Aaron
After my client spent a whole lot of money putting together a VPN solution, we found out the hard way that Cox strictly forbids IP protocols that they don't explictly allow, IPSec being one of these. So why didn't we use ssh as a VPN? Anyone who asks that question is obviously not in the business of providing these kinds of solutions to clients. Ssh might work for a hacker like me but for an average Joe user, this solution is not very seamless.
Is there a reason why no one is commenting on this story? Could it signify that no one really gives a crap about this technology? I know I don't.
Hmm,.. how much money for those CDs I bought? Well probably a lot I guess. I own less than a thousand CDs myself, the other CDs to make up my mp3 collection were really borrowed from friends, etc. I have some friends with rather massive CD collections.
We have well over 100GB,.. and that doesn't include ripping entire CD's, for many CD's we only rip the songs we like. If we ripped every song from every CD, it would probably be a 300GB collection at least. So for those of you thinking 80GB is a lot,.. think twice. It only took me about 4 years to go from a few songs ripped from a few CD's taking up a few MB,.. to what I have now which is a MASSIVE collection of music, built mostly from ripping mine and my friends CD collections. I have at least 4 friends with 1000+ CD collections. Currently they are mostly played through my Rio 60GB car stereo (or most of them at least) and a custom Linux based jukebox based on mp3sb.
This article should be called, "Getting The Data Port To Work on your Digital Cable Box". Mine has a dataport too, but I'll dammned if I can find any information on how to make it do something useful.
Anyone have a clue if the Zapstation from Zapmedia will ever make it to market. I actually slapped my credit card down on one about this time last year. They were actually hopeful of getting them shipped by LAST Christmas. It's over a year later and they still can't seem to get it together.
Anyone who thinks that using Paypal protects you,.. is completley wrong. I have a close friend who was defrauded to the tune of $2,000 and paid via paypal. Paypal says they can not help him and the credit card company will not remove the charge. So be careful out there people. You could really loose some money if the seller decides to skate.
Might be the killer application to finally get MPEG4 or OpenDivx codecs into hardware. This alone could probably get higher bitrate, higher quality video transmitted over the lines.
Show the record companies we won't stand for this half-baked copy protection crap,.. and just say no. Don't buy any CD with this protection enabled. Record companies will soon get the idea when it affects the bottom line.
I looked at the PhatNoise when they first announced it,.. I think at CES last winter. After checking their site everyday for more news on when I could buy this thing,.. I finnaly gave up. They would not post any information on which headunits they would support or when the damn thing would be available. Less than a month after I bought my Rio, they finally announced the limited availability and then only for a few Kenwood headunits. So I was out of luck anyway,.. I had previously run strictly Eclipse head units because they sound so much better, so if there would be no support for them,.. then I was wasting my time waiting anyway. So if you're thinking about getting one of these things and you dont have a kenwood that is supported, then think twice. The $999 Rio will probably still be cheaper overall.
You have no clue what you are talking about. Many people have enabled their Empeg/Rio units to do 802.11 while in the car. I will be one of them,.. I just got my home side (with a laptop and access point) working and the Rio player in the car is next. And as far as hackinmg together your own linux computer for the car,.. good f'n luck. I tried it is a lot easier than it sounds,.. dealing with power supplies, custom on/off delay circuits, filesystem woas and the like are a major pain in the ass. I wish I would have bought the Empeg first instead wasting so much time on trying to hack together a good looking usable system. It was a complete waste of time.
What good is it? Anyone who would ask that question obviously does not appreciate music as much as I do. First of the the 60GB model was about $2,600 when I bought it and admitedly that was a little tough to swallow. But, I had finally come to the conclusion that the EPEG was the only way. mp3 cd stereos like the Aiwa and Kenwood are curiously amusing, but more of a pain in the ass than a real solution. For one, my collection would consume about 150 compact disk CDRs so carrying my collection around on CDR is completly out of the question. Not to mention that my collection grows quite consistently and always making CDRs would be a real pain. But the real reason is,,. the kenwood and aiwa type systems are not a "lil computer in your dash",.. or at least I don't think of them that way. They don't run Linux (the empeg does), they don't have any easily hackable means, they don't support playlists or searching by song title, artist, genre. Well they really are a stopgap for the inevitable. Hopefully someday all car stereos follow suit and do what the empeg did. And to answer your other question I am currently working on getting the wireless 802.11 bridge hooked up to the Ethernet port on my Empeg, so when I pull in my garage the latest files will automatically stream over to my player for me. There are a few people on the list who have done it all ready, so it's only a matter of time. Let's see your Kenwood do that.