Call it what you want, it's a chemical weapon. It's purpose is incendiary, but it's still a particularly nasty chemical weapon. What exactly do you think phosphorus is?
It's not a biological weapon; perhaps you are confusing the two terms?
Just download the lossless copies, for example the Ape format. It's really a turnup for the books when the illegal stuff is actually safer than the legitimate stuff. Sony's shareholders should be tearing the board apart for their complete incompitence in getting us to this point.
It wasn't "silly". It was a great idea as it forced developers to deal with paths with spaces in them. Otherwise half of the Windows freeware wouldn't work in a non-standard configuration as free stuff is rarely tested well. Commercial stuff is only marginally better. By forcing the space in the most common places ("Program Files", "My Documents") you couldn't just ignore it.
There's a story, possibly an urban myth, about an investigator who used a photocopier to do this. He put a sheet stating "he's lying" in it and hit the "copy" button whenever he felt it would help the investigation.
I happen to be all in favor of free speech, and would like you to stop accusing me not being such.
I never said you weren't, apologies if you got that impression. The US government isn't however; they are positively against it from what I can see. Phosporous rounds is this weeks "oops, you've got me". Can't argue with video evidence it seems. Also, they denied torture and look how that turned out. Then they tried to claim it was isolated to some "bad apples", despite the director of the prisons in Iraq resigning over the issue and writing a book about how the inteligence officers took over the prison system. I could go on for ages citing examples of lies and deliberate misdirection. The fact the over 50% of your population believes that Saddam was involved in 9-11 is testament to that. Much has been written on that particular disinformation campaign.
The public face of the US government is very different from the reality, and the fact that the majority of the population are completely in the dark is a serious insult to the framers of the constitution. For example, did you know that your troops are routinely desecrating corpses and performing religiously sacriligous acts against them in order to provoke reaction from your enemies? This story (from Afganistan) has not been reported in any US media that I see. You probably think I'm making it up.
So, please forgive me if I cannot see your point of view here when you present the US government as being a bastion of free speach and freedom of information. Which is really tragic, as only 30/40 years ago you were undoubtably at the forefront of this globally. Especially WRT freedom of information on government proceedures and records. However, things have changed dramatically, and just because Hollywood presents the old image, it doesn't make it so.
Second, I agree that the.xxx is a bad idea.
I'd probably second that. It would have point if all the filth was there and could be filtered by parents, but that's not going to happen. However, it was rejected purely for moral and political reasons, and the Bush adminstration got involved in something that is not in it's mandate. It's this action that has gotten us worried.
It's not the US that censors data in China, it's the Chinese government.
Agreed. However, if the US were to actually start following it's own rhetoric, then the US companies would be at the very least asked to reconsider their position. But the fact is that the US has only one interest in mind; the same interest as any other country: it's own well being. Will you are told you are fighting for freedom in Iraq, the actuality of it all is that it's being done for ecconomic and strategic gain. The US has a long history of backing dictators and "interviening" (to put it nicely) in foreign elections. Again, this is something that the US population has next to no knowledge of.
Why mention Iraq? Well, I mentioned the.iq domain in another post. This domain should be owned by Iraqis, but it is not. I believe that just recently plans have been made to revert this.
Now, Iraq was a repressive regime. Why did you not allow its citizens to air their views? Why was the.iq domain blocked? You are saying that you "fight for free speach". I'm pointing out that this is not true and is a delusion.
Because the UN is so free of corruption (oil for food) and would never mess this up at all.
Wooo, ONE dodgy scandal, perpetuated by businesses outside the UN, against the UN. On the other hand, don't get me started on US government corruption. Will Sony get sued? No chance, they gave your leaders 2.5 million dollars last year, all legal and above board. Want to make a real load of money? Just invade an oil rich country and give the rebuilding profits to your former employer. Step four? Profit. Just ask Harliburton.
The oil for food scandal is being promoted by your government to distract attention away from it's own crime and corruption. Bahh, you all bleet in reply.
Because the UN knows how to take a stand and has the balls to actually do something when a country acts out of line??
See, that's where we differ. Must be a cultural thing. If we don't like the leaders of another country, we enter dialog and try to find a mutual compramise. If "having balls" is sending in the CIA to assasinate a leader, rig an election or failing that, enact "regime change", then I'd rather be a bitch.
The original point made was that "the US is a champion for free speach". You aren't, and nothing in your post suggests otherwise. If you were so for it, you would actually make some effort to promote it. Name one example of the US government protecting free speach on the internet.
What free-speech-endorsing entity would you prefer?
Root DNS isn't about free-speach anyway. It's just a top-level domain. I'd prefer an organization that doesn't base it's decisions on puritan beliefs (.xxx) and strategic goals (ever seen a.iq website?)
So far, the US has been the only player who wants to maintain the free and open nature of the internet, with little-to-no censoring.
Care to back up that assertion with some facts? Seriously. I don't see the US fighting for "free speach" anywhere, it's all information management and lies until the lies get proven beyond all doubt and they have to come clean. Do I need to provide examples of this??
And it's US companies that are destroying the free and open nature of the internet, in case you didn't notice. Perhaps you might want to practice what you preach; remember the great firewall of china was built by you. Where is this "little-to-no censoring" you speak of? Your ideals do not match your actions.
Your argument that the US should control it for the greater good doesn't hold water anymore.
Well, the Chinese bloggers, Iranian dissidents, Christians hiding in Saudi Arabia, and just about anyone else who would suffer a crack-down have another day to live.
You actually feel as though the US maintaining control of the DNS root has any bearing on the above? Wow. Way to give yourself a "god" complex.
Anyways, didn't the US take down a pro-islamic website just this week? Dissent is good, as long as it's not against us?:-)
Putting XBMC on probably requires some work too (I don't know how it works, did you burn a disc after downloading XBMC?)
Several options. You usually first use a boot disc with an installer that replaces the default.xbe file that loads the MS dashboard, and also installs some other useful tools. Then you can optionally choose to install XMBC as the default program (and use it to launch other apps). Configure an IP in the xml config file, then you can use FTP from then on in. Add some network shares and it's pretty much done. 10 minutes work if you know what you are doing, first time of course takes longer.
as an onlooker I can't say it seems like less hassle than getting codecs.
Agreed. I also considered a linux based device, say MythTV, which in comparison the xbox is much easier. For the windows media centre, things may be sighly easier, if you can live with the DRM telling you what to do.
And I guess you don't understand much about video cards because that is what they do, output video at variable resolutions and scan rates.
That's for HD resolutions and rates. If they are just straight hookups, they won't work at 50/60 Hz. I'd be completely surprised if a DVI port could be hooked up to a non HDTV without some sort of rate conversion. DVI carries analogue monitor signals, mine has a VGA style D-type adapter for hook up to a normal monitor (dual head). These signals are completely incompatible with non HDTV sets.
And I guess you don't understand much about video cards because that is what they do, output video at variable resolutions and scan rates.
It's not as simple as that. You've got things like interlacing to deal with. Computers are non-interlaced, and this is largely why HDTV kicks ass. But for displaying to a tube TV, many gfx cards fail. I've tried many of them over the years and my current VIVO card is pretty good I have to say. But it had better be, given it's cost! (this is my gaming PC). The TV out on cheap cards is, well, pretty dismal. I've had five different laptops, and at least the same again in gfx cards. With the exception of two +$70 ones, they were all dreadful. My current laptop is OK, but I wouldn't want to use it as a regular playback device.
My point is you can buy a computer with the same if not better hardware specs for the same price as the xbox
Where? The xbox is dirt cheap and you are talking about buying a cpu, mb, memory, processor, hd, cdrom and gfx card. For the price of an xbox? Never. You'll want a decent sound card (with digital output) and gfx card, and that alone will match the cost of the xbox. I bought mine for the specific purpose as a media player, after much research. The games are a bonus.
and then you aren't limited to one os
It doesn't even have an OS, it's single-tasking, very retro. It's essentially more firmware than an OS. It means that 100% of the device is available for video playback. This makes a huge difference and is the reason you can get away with "such a slow p.o.s.". And with nothing running in the background, you don't need an additional 50% CPU power in reserve to prevent slowdown when some other task needs some CPU time. It never stutters or anything, even with all of the post-processing filters turned on.
If it works for you great but realize it is not the ideal you make it out to be.
With the exception of no video recording, it's 100% perfect at what it does. Seriously, it does everything a media player does, and rather well. It's the little things, like being able to tweak the audio delay on playback (handy on some rips/shows), that make it what it is. I can't think of a feature it doesn't have in all my years of watching a computer on a TV, something I've been doing for at least six years.
is keeping the records for two years - I can't see any good reason for that.
I can't see how they will do that. This isn't my field, but surely the data storage demands here are massive. Every UK car, clocked every 0.25 mile? That is a shit load of data to manage, I've not done the maths but I'd be surprised if it were possible.
It's really nothing fancy. Just a large amount of network storage, copious p2p downloading of TV shows and music, a decent widescreen tube telly and a surround-sound system. The only cost was the TV, hi-fi and xbox, the rest is hand-me-down PCs running linux fileservers etc. Wiring my house for ethernet is the only "special" thing I did, but that's moot nowadays with wireless.
If I do say one thing that is "special", it's backups. I've lost way too many drives over the years to not setup scheduled backups.
I'm willing to bet you could submit it as an article on/. and get it posted at least twice.
Hmm, a self-submitted site with some google ads on it...you could be on to something, papa needs a new gfx card for my gaming machine...
Why are you so defensive about it? Did I hit a nerve there?
Stupid people annoy me.
No one is impressed by your pathetic little toy masquerading as a multimedia machine.
Really? I'd better call my friends and ask why they were lying then.
impressed your loser friends a few years ago
Hey, don't force your slashdot stereotypes on me. Just because I'm geeky doesn't mean I have "loser friends".
More to the point though, a barebones box, with a 60 dollar video card and some extra memory will crush your xbox.
You could probably get an xbox for 60 bucks. Next you'll be telling me how your ferrari is faster than my bicycle, even though we are only needing to go 100 yards to the shops.
(you should really try to spell your insults correctly),
Another person that missed the reference...sigh, didn't you get the memo? A moran is someone so stupid that they can't spell moron. That's the point, it comes from a famous photograph of a pro-war faggot. I'm really gonna have to stop using it...too many people miss the point and reflect the insult back at me.
The truth is you wanted to crow about your little project
It's not my project, that was my original point! It was ZERO TIME INVESTMENT. Fuck, you probably spent more time installing codecs than I did on the whole thing from end-to-end.
With XBMC, you have hundreds of devs designing a system specicially for your hardware. I'm happy to let them do the work. I on the other hand will thank them for this by defending their efforts from people who are unable to view things in context.
Never seen a video card with component out before?
That runs at 50/60 Hz? And is affordable?
Is the overscan even adjustable on the XBox?
Yes, and the range it can go is really flexible. Unlike every gfx card with TV-out I've ever tried, but I gave up on that hacked-together malarky several years ago. Running the same output to a 50Hz and 120Hz display isn't going to work well. My last two laptops could not eliminate the border, what is this, 19 fucking 90 and we are all running Ataris? I ended up dicking in the service menu of the TV to remove it. Then I got the xbox, which "just worked".
Besides component is for suckers, go DVI or HDMI.
No such thing when I set the system up, and we won't be getting either of them in the UK for a couple of years. No need as we've have PAL and RGB component since day one. There isn't the same drive to update that NTSC gives you.
You can but a $20 video card with DVI output and have better picture quality than any xbox, period
Again, this is recent and nobody in the real world has TV sets with DVI. Yet.
I'm glad you think a little box with a celeron 733 and a 64 mb nvidia card (your precious xbox)
Why would you need more? And it's not precious; I just replied to an arsehole that has no experience in what he's talking about. I on the other hand have been hooking TVs up to computers since they started putting composite video out on laptops, which predates most desktops IIRC. So, you could say that I'm not "uninformed" in this region, I've been round the block several times and I went with the xbox because it does what it does, well, for the lowest price of any comparable system, with zero hastle. I really fail to see how this is "retarded".
as being a fixed hardware, some programmers do not care about timing issues and processing speed (actually why would I care if I had everyone running the same hardware, so no pu intended)
Because xbox 360 owners won't purchase your games as you broke backwards compatibility by using sloppy coding?;-)
No, we get the point. We just think it's retarded to buy a game console for the purposes of hacking it up, when better solutions are available.
Read my post, moran. This IS the best solution right now. Care to point out a better solution that's even in a similar price range? It's a box designed for displaying f'ing digital media to a television. Doing so with a computer is a way bigger hack. Go read up on the differences in the display formats, TV-out is far more of a hack than running some media software. The Xbox display hardware has been tuned for running on an interlaced display, with the normal amount of overscan. And as your PC was originally designed for spreadsheets and the like, aren't you the one who is hacking it? Have you ever even tried to get a good (i.e. not acceptible) picture on a PC tv-out?
And yes, I do play games on it, not that it would have affected my decision to buy it either way.
Seriously, if your sole purpose is to play movies, get a computer. [snip] This is a GAME console, if you don't care about it for playing games, there's little reason to get one, espically at the current prices. $500 is plenty to build a media PC better than any X-box.
You miss the point. I had my XBMC set up in three hours. It can play just about any media, has digital audio out, hooks up to my TVs component inputs (and has done since it came out). Say a weeks work to produce something similar using off-the-shelf components? And at what cost? I've never even seen a video card with component-out that'll work in UK TVs. (we've always had RGB component inputs).
Also, you miss something MAJOR that most who undertake making a media pc miss out. The user interface. With the xbox, the UI is designed for the device. The remote control works out the box. No need to assign buttons to an existing remote, and "hack" buttons that don't exist on your remote. No "menu" button? Well, I'll use the "1" for that. No "display" button, guess I'll put that on "2" then. With XBMC the UI is specifically designed for the hardware, and it works beautifully. It has a better UI than ANY media device I've seen. Seriously, it's the dogs bollocks. The standard hardware is one of the things that benefits games developers, and guess what...it applies here too.
It's small, fits under the telly and it's cheap. I update it every other month and I am always pleasanly surprised by the new functionality they add. Last month it was an Apple website browser (lot's of quicktime media) as well as an iFilm browser. Watching streaming media to your TV over the net from the confort of your armchair? Bah, that's old news for us, and now we have a massive library to watch.
The only thing it doesn't do is TIVO style recording HOWEVER that's doable. It can display streams over the network, so all you need is a centralised PC doing the recording. And in essence this is a far superiour solution, as you can buy additional xbox "clients" for pennies now and watch the media in ANY room.
You really don't know what you are missing. Every tech-head who has seen my (cheap) setup now has one.
Consumers don't care about record labels, they care about the acts. The fact that any particular artist is on Sony isn't going to bother at least 90% of the buying public. They don't even look, and why should they?
I agree, and I've to admit to a little selfishness myself here. I bought a saloon car, the kind you see mostly with one occupant and a blazer hanging in the back. (hint: two occupants and no-blazer means there's a high chance of it being an unmarked police car. Slow down.;-)
The length helps. I notice this when I borrow the lil' pug 206 I have access to. People just don't give you any space on the road. There is a distinct difference in the attitude presented to me in either car. But at least it's a 1.8 and gets decent milage for me.
My point is that if, historically, oil prices in Europe had been identical to those of the US, Europe would have similar infrastructure (i.e. - more malls).
Yes and no. It's more a function of town planning. In the 60s and 70s the UK built a number of "new towns", moving people out of some of the more deprived areas in the cities (which were then flattened and rebuilt). Many, if not all, of these new towns are based around the car. Centralised shops vs local shops, the whole infrastructure requires a car really. This seems to be a continuing trend, in fact I believe it is nigh on impossible to get planning permission for e.g. a shop in these "residential areas". It's like someone is playing a very bad game of sim city!
There are many malls of course now, and the majority seem to be out of town. However, the ones near where I am do seem to have decent public transport links.
why do these Europeans buy *SUVs* when they could have remained "environmentally responsible" and purchased a compact or subcompact as they would have in Europe?
Because they are selfish, brain-dead morans. Here's my logic: People buy SUVs for a number of reasons, all of which are false. First there is the issue of percieved safety. People feel safer in them, despite the fact that they are entirely unstable; especially if you go over 50 mph. The number of SUVs on the road cruzing at 90 mph is staggering. I'd like to see them swerve to avoid a colision with their high centres-of-gravity. This "safety" aspect is also 100% selfish. Colide with a small car, who comes off worse? Fuck you buddy, as long as I'm alright.
Another reason why people by these heaps of junk is that they like the elevated driving position. Again, 100% selfish, as your high vehicle means I can no longer see the road through their windows. So, their improved vantage point is at my expense. When driving at speed, you should be watching the car 3 or 4 infront, not the one in front of you. Unless you want a SUV spare tire embedded in your brain.
One reason might be the olde cock-contest. Big is better, gotta "stay one up on the neighbours" as we say over here. SUVs became fashionable for a while with the 2.4 children brigade.
I'll tell you why - the selection of a vehicle has more to do with the fixed percentage of disposable income that a person is willing to spend on a vehicle and related expenditures.
To a certain extent. However, there are many expensive beautiful executive and sports cars costing way more. Perhaps, bang-for-buck you get "more" for your SUV, I couldn't say. I've never priced them as I literally hate the damn things. At least now bullbars are banned, making things slightly better for the pedestrian, but the chances are you are still going under the wheels as opposed to the up-and-over design of most cars.
Nothing annoys me more than seeing a SUV loaded with one person. Well, perhaps the SUV owner illegally stopping outside the school to drop the kids off. God forbid that they might get any exercise from the 5 minute walk!
I don't believe that taxing the hell out of the most basic element of an economoy is the roght method, either.
Yeah, but it makes a lot of money for the treasury, so guess which option they are going to pick? Our government doesn't have the same level of "investment" (sorry, "campain contributions") from the oil industry. I'd imagine if the US were to take a similar tack, Hariburton et al would instruct congress to vote against it.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not a biological weapon; perhaps you are confusing the two terms?
It's Digital Restrictions Management. Please encourage the use of this correct term and use their double-speak against them.
Just download the lossless copies, for example the Ape format. It's really a turnup for the books when the illegal stuff is actually safer than the legitimate stuff. Sony's shareholders should be tearing the board apart for their complete incompitence in getting us to this point.
It wasn't "silly". It was a great idea as it forced developers to deal with paths with spaces in them. Otherwise half of the Windows freeware wouldn't work in a non-standard configuration as free stuff is rarely tested well. Commercial stuff is only marginally better. By forcing the space in the most common places ("Program Files", "My Documents") you couldn't just ignore it.
There's a story, possibly an urban myth, about an investigator who used a photocopier to do this. He put a sheet stating "he's lying" in it and hit the "copy" button whenever he felt it would help the investigation.
By the time they've wired you up to the lie detector and had you take the test, I think they have already "checked closer". What more do they want?
I never said you weren't, apologies if you got that impression. The US government isn't however; they are positively against it from what I can see. Phosporous rounds is this weeks "oops, you've got me". Can't argue with video evidence it seems. Also, they denied torture and look how that turned out. Then they tried to claim it was isolated to some "bad apples", despite the director of the prisons in Iraq resigning over the issue and writing a book about how the inteligence officers took over the prison system. I could go on for ages citing examples of lies and deliberate misdirection. The fact the over 50% of your population believes that Saddam was involved in 9-11 is testament to that. Much has been written on that particular disinformation campaign.
The public face of the US government is very different from the reality, and the fact that the majority of the population are completely in the dark is a serious insult to the framers of the constitution. For example, did you know that your troops are routinely desecrating corpses and performing religiously sacriligous acts against them in order to provoke reaction from your enemies? This story (from Afganistan) has not been reported in any US media that I see. You probably think I'm making it up.
So, please forgive me if I cannot see your point of view here when you present the US government as being a bastion of free speach and freedom of information. Which is really tragic, as only 30/40 years ago you were undoubtably at the forefront of this globally. Especially WRT freedom of information on government proceedures and records. However, things have changed dramatically, and just because Hollywood presents the old image, it doesn't make it so.
Second, I agree that the .xxx is a bad idea.
I'd probably second that. It would have point if all the filth was there and could be filtered by parents, but that's not going to happen. However, it was rejected purely for moral and political reasons, and the Bush adminstration got involved in something that is not in it's mandate. It's this action that has gotten us worried.
It's not the US that censors data in China, it's the Chinese government.
Agreed. However, if the US were to actually start following it's own rhetoric, then the US companies would be at the very least asked to reconsider their position. But the fact is that the US has only one interest in mind; the same interest as any other country: it's own well being. Will you are told you are fighting for freedom in Iraq, the actuality of it all is that it's being done for ecconomic and strategic gain. The US has a long history of backing dictators and "interviening" (to put it nicely) in foreign elections. Again, this is something that the US population has next to no knowledge of.
Why mention Iraq? Well, I mentioned the .iq domain in another post. This domain should be owned by Iraqis, but it is not. I believe that just recently plans have been made to revert this.
Now, Iraq was a repressive regime. Why did you not allow its citizens to air their views? Why was the .iq domain blocked? You are saying that you "fight for free speach". I'm pointing out that this is not true and is a delusion.
Wooo, ONE dodgy scandal, perpetuated by businesses outside the UN, against the UN. On the other hand, don't get me started on US government corruption. Will Sony get sued? No chance, they gave your leaders 2.5 million dollars last year, all legal and above board. Want to make a real load of money? Just invade an oil rich country and give the rebuilding profits to your former employer. Step four? Profit. Just ask Harliburton.
The oil for food scandal is being promoted by your government to distract attention away from it's own crime and corruption. Bahh, you all bleet in reply.
Because the UN knows how to take a stand and has the balls to actually do something when a country acts out of line??
See, that's where we differ. Must be a cultural thing. If we don't like the leaders of another country, we enter dialog and try to find a mutual compramise. If "having balls" is sending in the CIA to assasinate a leader, rig an election or failing that, enact "regime change", then I'd rather be a bitch.
What free-speech-endorsing entity would you prefer?
Root DNS isn't about free-speach anyway. It's just a top-level domain. I'd prefer an organization that doesn't base it's decisions on puritan beliefs (.xxx) and strategic goals (ever seen a .iq website?)
Care to back up that assertion with some facts? Seriously. I don't see the US fighting for "free speach" anywhere, it's all information management and lies until the lies get proven beyond all doubt and they have to come clean. Do I need to provide examples of this??
And it's US companies that are destroying the free and open nature of the internet, in case you didn't notice. Perhaps you might want to practice what you preach; remember the great firewall of china was built by you. Where is this "little-to-no censoring" you speak of? Your ideals do not match your actions.
Your argument that the US should control it for the greater good doesn't hold water anymore.
You actually feel as though the US maintaining control of the DNS root has any bearing on the above? Wow. Way to give yourself a "god" complex.
Anyways, didn't the US take down a pro-islamic website just this week? Dissent is good, as long as it's not against us? :-)
Neither are we. If that were the way the world worked we'd be begging the middle east every time we wanted to make a calculator.
Several options. You usually first use a boot disc with an installer that replaces the default.xbe file that loads the MS dashboard, and also installs some other useful tools. Then you can optionally choose to install XMBC as the default program (and use it to launch other apps). Configure an IP in the xml config file, then you can use FTP from then on in. Add some network shares and it's pretty much done. 10 minutes work if you know what you are doing, first time of course takes longer.
as an onlooker I can't say it seems like less hassle than getting codecs.
Agreed. I also considered a linux based device, say MythTV, which in comparison the xbox is much easier. For the windows media centre, things may be sighly easier, if you can live with the DRM telling you what to do.
That's for HD resolutions and rates. If they are just straight hookups, they won't work at 50/60 Hz. I'd be completely surprised if a DVI port could be hooked up to a non HDTV without some sort of rate conversion. DVI carries analogue monitor signals, mine has a VGA style D-type adapter for hook up to a normal monitor (dual head). These signals are completely incompatible with non HDTV sets.
And I guess you don't understand much about video cards because that is what they do, output video at variable resolutions and scan rates.
It's not as simple as that. You've got things like interlacing to deal with. Computers are non-interlaced, and this is largely why HDTV kicks ass. But for displaying to a tube TV, many gfx cards fail. I've tried many of them over the years and my current VIVO card is pretty good I have to say. But it had better be, given it's cost! (this is my gaming PC). The TV out on cheap cards is, well, pretty dismal. I've had five different laptops, and at least the same again in gfx cards. With the exception of two +$70 ones, they were all dreadful. My current laptop is OK, but I wouldn't want to use it as a regular playback device.
My point is you can buy a computer with the same if not better hardware specs for the same price as the xbox
Where? The xbox is dirt cheap and you are talking about buying a cpu, mb, memory, processor, hd, cdrom and gfx card. For the price of an xbox? Never. You'll want a decent sound card (with digital output) and gfx card, and that alone will match the cost of the xbox. I bought mine for the specific purpose as a media player, after much research. The games are a bonus.
and then you aren't limited to one os
It doesn't even have an OS, it's single-tasking, very retro. It's essentially more firmware than an OS. It means that 100% of the device is available for video playback. This makes a huge difference and is the reason you can get away with "such a slow p.o.s.". And with nothing running in the background, you don't need an additional 50% CPU power in reserve to prevent slowdown when some other task needs some CPU time. It never stutters or anything, even with all of the post-processing filters turned on.
If it works for you great but realize it is not the ideal you make it out to be.
With the exception of no video recording, it's 100% perfect at what it does. Seriously, it does everything a media player does, and rather well. It's the little things, like being able to tweak the audio delay on playback (handy on some rips/shows), that make it what it is. I can't think of a feature it doesn't have in all my years of watching a computer on a TV, something I've been doing for at least six years.
I can't see how they will do that. This isn't my field, but surely the data storage demands here are massive. Every UK car, clocked every 0.25 mile? That is a shit load of data to manage, I've not done the maths but I'd be surprised if it were possible.
If I do say one thing that is "special", it's backups. I've lost way too many drives over the years to not setup scheduled backups.
I'm willing to bet you could submit it as an article on /. and get it posted at least twice.
Hmm, a self-submitted site with some google ads on it...you could be on to something, papa needs a new gfx card for my gaming machine...
Stupid people annoy me.
No one is impressed by your pathetic little toy masquerading as a multimedia machine.
Really? I'd better call my friends and ask why they were lying then.
impressed your loser friends a few years ago
Hey, don't force your slashdot stereotypes on me. Just because I'm geeky doesn't mean I have "loser friends".
More to the point though, a barebones box, with a 60 dollar video card and some extra memory will crush your xbox.
You could probably get an xbox for 60 bucks. Next you'll be telling me how your ferrari is faster than my bicycle, even though we are only needing to go 100 yards to the shops.
(you should really try to spell your insults correctly),
Another person that missed the reference...sigh, didn't you get the memo? A moran is someone so stupid that they can't spell moron. That's the point, it comes from a famous photograph of a pro-war faggot. I'm really gonna have to stop using it...too many people miss the point and reflect the insult back at me.
The truth is you wanted to crow about your little project
It's not my project, that was my original point! It was ZERO TIME INVESTMENT. Fuck, you probably spent more time installing codecs than I did on the whole thing from end-to-end.
With XBMC, you have hundreds of devs designing a system specicially for your hardware. I'm happy to let them do the work. I on the other hand will thank them for this by defending their efforts from people who are unable to view things in context.
That runs at 50/60 Hz? And is affordable?
Is the overscan even adjustable on the XBox?
Yes, and the range it can go is really flexible. Unlike every gfx card with TV-out I've ever tried, but I gave up on that hacked-together malarky several years ago. Running the same output to a 50Hz and 120Hz display isn't going to work well. My last two laptops could not eliminate the border, what is this, 19 fucking 90 and we are all running Ataris? I ended up dicking in the service menu of the TV to remove it. Then I got the xbox, which "just worked".
Besides component is for suckers, go DVI or HDMI.
No such thing when I set the system up, and we won't be getting either of them in the UK for a couple of years. No need as we've have PAL and RGB component since day one. There isn't the same drive to update that NTSC gives you.
You can but a $20 video card with DVI output and have better picture quality than any xbox, period
Again, this is recent and nobody in the real world has TV sets with DVI. Yet.
I'm glad you think a little box with a celeron 733 and a 64 mb nvidia card (your precious xbox)
Why would you need more? And it's not precious; I just replied to an arsehole that has no experience in what he's talking about. I on the other hand have been hooking TVs up to computers since they started putting composite video out on laptops, which predates most desktops IIRC. So, you could say that I'm not "uninformed" in this region, I've been round the block several times and I went with the xbox because it does what it does, well, for the lowest price of any comparable system, with zero hastle. I really fail to see how this is "retarded".
Jeez, not only are you unable to read other peoples posts, you seen to have been living under a rock for the past couple of years:
image. (found via google image search for "get a brain morans", repeat the search if this site dies).
I wonder if you are the guy in the picture...your probably related at least.
Because xbox 360 owners won't purchase your games as you broke backwards compatibility by using sloppy coding? ;-)
Read my post, moran. This IS the best solution right now. Care to point out a better solution that's even in a similar price range? It's a box designed for displaying f'ing digital media to a television. Doing so with a computer is a way bigger hack. Go read up on the differences in the display formats, TV-out is far more of a hack than running some media software. The Xbox display hardware has been tuned for running on an interlaced display, with the normal amount of overscan. And as your PC was originally designed for spreadsheets and the like, aren't you the one who is hacking it? Have you ever even tried to get a good (i.e. not acceptible) picture on a PC tv-out?
And yes, I do play games on it, not that it would have affected my decision to buy it either way.
You miss the point. I had my XBMC set up in three hours. It can play just about any media, has digital audio out, hooks up to my TVs component inputs (and has done since it came out). Say a weeks work to produce something similar using off-the-shelf components? And at what cost? I've never even seen a video card with component-out that'll work in UK TVs. (we've always had RGB component inputs).
Also, you miss something MAJOR that most who undertake making a media pc miss out. The user interface. With the xbox, the UI is designed for the device. The remote control works out the box. No need to assign buttons to an existing remote, and "hack" buttons that don't exist on your remote. No "menu" button? Well, I'll use the "1" for that. No "display" button, guess I'll put that on "2" then. With XBMC the UI is specifically designed for the hardware, and it works beautifully. It has a better UI than ANY media device I've seen. Seriously, it's the dogs bollocks. The standard hardware is one of the things that benefits games developers, and guess what...it applies here too.
It's small, fits under the telly and it's cheap. I update it every other month and I am always pleasanly surprised by the new functionality they add. Last month it was an Apple website browser (lot's of quicktime media) as well as an iFilm browser. Watching streaming media to your TV over the net from the confort of your armchair? Bah, that's old news for us, and now we have a massive library to watch.
The only thing it doesn't do is TIVO style recording HOWEVER that's doable. It can display streams over the network, so all you need is a centralised PC doing the recording. And in essence this is a far superiour solution, as you can buy additional xbox "clients" for pennies now and watch the media in ANY room.
You really don't know what you are missing. Every tech-head who has seen my (cheap) setup now has one.
Consumers don't care about record labels, they care about the acts. The fact that any particular artist is on Sony isn't going to bother at least 90% of the buying public. They don't even look, and why should they?
The length helps. I notice this when I borrow the lil' pug 206 I have access to. People just don't give you any space on the road. There is a distinct difference in the attitude presented to me in either car. But at least it's a 1.8 and gets decent milage for me.
Yes and no. It's more a function of town planning. In the 60s and 70s the UK built a number of "new towns", moving people out of some of the more deprived areas in the cities (which were then flattened and rebuilt). Many, if not all, of these new towns are based around the car. Centralised shops vs local shops, the whole infrastructure requires a car really. This seems to be a continuing trend, in fact I believe it is nigh on impossible to get planning permission for e.g. a shop in these "residential areas". It's like someone is playing a very bad game of sim city!
There are many malls of course now, and the majority seem to be out of town. However, the ones near where I am do seem to have decent public transport links.
why do these Europeans buy *SUVs* when they could have remained "environmentally responsible" and purchased a compact or subcompact as they would have in Europe?
Because they are selfish, brain-dead morans. Here's my logic: People buy SUVs for a number of reasons, all of which are false. First there is the issue of percieved safety. People feel safer in them, despite the fact that they are entirely unstable; especially if you go over 50 mph. The number of SUVs on the road cruzing at 90 mph is staggering. I'd like to see them swerve to avoid a colision with their high centres-of-gravity. This "safety" aspect is also 100% selfish. Colide with a small car, who comes off worse? Fuck you buddy, as long as I'm alright.
Another reason why people by these heaps of junk is that they like the elevated driving position. Again, 100% selfish, as your high vehicle means I can no longer see the road through their windows. So, their improved vantage point is at my expense. When driving at speed, you should be watching the car 3 or 4 infront, not the one in front of you. Unless you want a SUV spare tire embedded in your brain.
One reason might be the olde cock-contest. Big is better, gotta "stay one up on the neighbours" as we say over here. SUVs became fashionable for a while with the 2.4 children brigade.
I'll tell you why - the selection of a vehicle has more to do with the fixed percentage of disposable income that a person is willing to spend on a vehicle and related expenditures.
To a certain extent. However, there are many expensive beautiful executive and sports cars costing way more. Perhaps, bang-for-buck you get "more" for your SUV, I couldn't say. I've never priced them as I literally hate the damn things. At least now bullbars are banned, making things slightly better for the pedestrian, but the chances are you are still going under the wheels as opposed to the up-and-over design of most cars.
Nothing annoys me more than seeing a SUV loaded with one person. Well, perhaps the SUV owner illegally stopping outside the school to drop the kids off. God forbid that they might get any exercise from the 5 minute walk!
I don't believe that taxing the hell out of the most basic element of an economoy is the roght method, either.
Yeah, but it makes a lot of money for the treasury, so guess which option they are going to pick? Our government doesn't have the same level of "investment" (sorry, "campain contributions") from the oil industry. I'd imagine if the US were to take a similar tack, Hariburton et al would instruct congress to vote against it.