Completely agree with you - I'm sure MS are proud to see Xbox with Mod-chip running GNU/Linux:-)
Re:Apple's (& RIAA's) long-term plan
on
The Law and P2P
·
· Score: 1
The cellphone pricing plans can be quite suitable for some people.
In the UK, for example, I pay Orange rental of GBP 50 per month (USD 80) which gives me:
200 minutes to any UK mobile network; 150 free SMS 10mb GPRS transfer (emails on PDA); Free handset upgrade each year (I like my gadgets);
and my cellphone insurance.
I can guarantee you that my monthly bill would be a lot higher without these pricing plans - while people like yourself may see them as a con, a cellphone can be most useful, and affordable.
Upto the Champ Man 3 series of games, it has been very addictive and all people like myself end up doing is playing constantly.
The game even has an addictiveness rating which is calculated upon how many hours you have played, such as "Remember to feed the cat" and "Remember to wash".
Tim
Re:You can have filenames as long as you like
on
High Density CDs
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Serious question with regards to filenames:
Why would you want a file name of longer than 64 characters? Surely a proper filing systems including directories etc would be best more suitable.
Generally on a CD I've bought, I listen to maybe 5 songs - yes, there are some CDs on which every song is high quality - but in general, I can pay $15-$20 for a CD, or I can pay $15 for 15 songs of *my* choice.
So, I'll let people like you pay your $15 for a producer's choice of 15 tracks, and I'll pay $15 for my own choice of tracks:-)
Whatever way you look at it, imho Napster was a tool to violate copyrights. Yes, perhaps Shaun didn't originally plan it like that, but in the final days, that is mainly what it was used for.
I received a PPT presentation via e-mail, and tried to open it in OpenOffice.org Impress. Until I forwarded it to my work e-mail address (NT4/Office 2000) I was unable to view it.
It's all to do with economics and value. If you value your number, then the cost of it will go up. Its similar to how the value of a bottle of water would go up (and expect to pay more for it) in the desert etc.
I envisige going into a local retailer, and paying the same fee for the PS2 as I would pay at the moment. Imho, the new features don't warrant a price increase or even an advertising campaign as the masses simply won't be as interested as some people are.
All this upgrade is, is a simple revision of the PS2 hardware.
In my "office" I have my workstation, my media server and internet servers. In the cupboard in the same room I have most of my networking equipment - routers/switches/cable modem/dsl modem - and two links downstairs to the rest of the house (one of them is redundant - overkill for a house?!)
I also have a couple of switches downstairs for the likes of my parents' and brothers' computers, the PS2, and the home entertainment center. There is also an airport floating about for the laptop.
I designed it in a specific way for my likings and no doubt any other geek would probably come to my house, rip everything up, and start again because it's not suitable.
I think the term engineer and architect could quite safely be used interchangably in this respect - you sometimes hear of job titles such as Software Architects. I would say this is exactly the same sort of idea.
I myself am a code monkey: I sit down in my spare time at work and at home writing php from the top of my head which clearly isn't an engineering feat.
Folks like those who write desktop environments and operating systems could be classed as engineers as they do the same type of work as an engineer - except the end result is 0s and 1s instead of buildings and bridges.
It might, however, be useful for the likes of hillwalkers and walkers. As long as the user has ultimate control of all GPS functions, then the possiblities are there for a single device instead of a multitude of different devices.
Granted, the XBox doesn't make a great PC - it's fairly rigid in terms of hardware, with exception of the very important upgradable hard drive.
With a Linux-based OS running on XBox, you have a machine capable of playing some great games, with a bit of work a PVR using Myth TV, and also a general entertainment center capable of playing music, DVDs, and the like - all in a box specifically designed for the TV room instead of a beige box.
I'm pretty sure this is also Microsoft's vision, however making it Linux-based would give us the choice of operating system and the choice between paying.Net (or whatever they call it these days) subscriptions and paying a one-time fee (or not) for the brains of the system.
I have a Radeon 7500 OEM with TV-Out on my home entertainment box. This supports fullscreen TV out for me on all applications. Perhaps you're using the wrong type of television (I use widescreen).
Have you ever downloaded any app from Sourceforge or the like? If so, were you familiar with the company?
Why wait until something is free as in beer? Do you not believe in rewarding coders for their work?
I take it as you are a GPL promoter that you have read and understood the entire source code for the GNU/Linux distro which you use and every app which you use. If not, why not? Who knows what kind of data your distro may be sending back to the vendor?
Have you ever shopped online? A lot of the shopping carts on ecommerce sites are also proprietary. How do you know that the vendor of the shopping cart doesn't know all your shopping habits?
Slashdot Mirror
However, a Tivo for television is called a VCR....
Completely agree with you - I'm sure MS are proud to see Xbox with Mod-chip running GNU/Linux :-)
In the UK, for example, I pay Orange rental of GBP 50 per month (USD 80) which gives me:
200 minutes to any UK mobile network;
150 free SMS
10mb GPRS transfer (emails on PDA);
Free handset upgrade each year (I like my gadgets); and my cellphone insurance.
I can guarantee you that my monthly bill would be a lot higher without these pricing plans - while people like yourself may see them as a con, a cellphone can be most useful, and affordable.
Tim
Upto the Champ Man 3 series of games, it has been very addictive and all people like myself end up doing is playing constantly.
The game even has an addictiveness rating which is calculated upon how many hours you have played, such as "Remember to feed the cat" and "Remember to wash".
Tim
Why would you want a file name of longer than 64 characters? Surely a proper filing systems including directories etc would be best more suitable.
So, I'll let people like you pay your $15 for a producer's choice of 15 tracks, and I'll pay $15 for my own choice of tracks :-)
Why would you want more than 10 users though? If you have more than 10 users you'd want Windows Server with per client licenses :)
I use BT and they have a customer service guarantee for residential services which includes guaranteed fix times at less than 24 hours.
Tim
My mother refuses to use Mozilla on her box, so I downloaded the IE theme - work's a treat.
Valid reason?
I suspect this is so it takes longer to figure out how to get round the schemes.
Tim
It's all to do with economics and value. If you value your number, then the cost of it will go up. Its similar to how the value of a bottle of water would go up (and expect to pay more for it) in the desert etc.
I envisige going into a local retailer, and paying the same fee for the PS2 as I would pay at the moment. Imho, the new features don't warrant a price increase or even an advertising campaign as the masses simply won't be as interested as some people are.
All this upgrade is, is a simple revision of the PS2 hardware.
Tim
A properly configured Windows box is more secure than a badly configured Linux box - it all depends on the user.
Where there's a will, there's a way.
In my "office" I have my workstation, my media server and internet servers. In the cupboard in the same room I have most of my networking equipment - routers/switches/cable modem/dsl modem - and two links downstairs to the rest of the house (one of them is redundant - overkill for a house?!)
I also have a couple of switches downstairs for the likes of my parents' and brothers' computers, the PS2, and the home entertainment center. There is also an airport floating about for the laptop.
I designed it in a specific way for my likings and no doubt any other geek would probably come to my house, rip everything up, and start again because it's not suitable.
Tim
I myself am a code monkey: I sit down in my spare time at work and at home writing php from the top of my head which clearly isn't an engineering feat.
Folks like those who write desktop environments and operating systems could be classed as engineers as they do the same type of work as an engineer - except the end result is 0s and 1s instead of buildings and bridges.
Tim
Tim
With a Linux-based OS running on XBox, you have a machine capable of playing some great games, with a bit of work a PVR using Myth TV, and also a general entertainment center capable of playing music, DVDs, and the like - all in a box specifically designed for the TV room instead of a beige box.
I'm pretty sure this is also Microsoft's vision, however making it Linux-based would give us the choice of operating system and the choice between paying .Net (or whatever they call it these days) subscriptions and paying a one-time fee (or not) for the brains of the system.
Tim
Remember the Russians lured illegally to the US by the FBI?
Tim
Why wait until something is free as in beer? Do you not believe in rewarding coders for their work?
I take it as you are a GPL promoter that you have read and understood the entire source code for the GNU/Linux distro which you use and every app which you use. If not, why not? Who knows what kind of data your distro may be sending back to the vendor?
Have you ever shopped online? A lot of the shopping carts on ecommerce sites are also proprietary. How do you know that the vendor of the shopping cart doesn't know all your shopping habits?
Tim
I've yet to find a Sony PDA which costs near to the same cost as a Nintendo handheld console.
Tim
Believe it or not, for every STB which accesses a PPV movie, the cable company is charged by the PPV provider.
Cable descrambling isn't a victimless crime - it's akin to walking into your local Walmart and pocketing $6.50 worth of groceries.
Tim