If it didn't work entirely, yes, definitely. Analog sound works, so one patch cord later, I can get something my receiver thinks is Dolby Surround. That's good enough for wife and daughter, who are the primary users of the box. What I don't have at the moment is full AC/3 support, which is *my* requirement, dammit.
The media center not supporting mkv is an annoyance but not necessarily a show stopper. It supports other containers, and I can play mkv videos in media player, although it sucks having to use the mouse instead of the wireless remote.
It's broken, but there are work-arounds, else I'd have backed it out by now. (I installed on a new disk so I could swap in the old system disk if necessary.) I'm hoping these issues are short-lived.
My article reflected the price of what I have, (Windows 7 Ultimate -- about $200 for upgrade, about $300 for the full version) not what I speculate others will be buying. Your mileage, as always, will vary.
I think the issue here is that I'm not getting Windows 7 so I can have a new operating system; I'm getting it to do a particular task. In this case, a home media center. What I've noticed:
It has native support for SATA3. Disk operations, specifically file transfers, are MUCH faster. Big improvement over previous version.
It recognized my HDTV card and supported it without me having to dink with it. Big improvement. Same with memory card multi-reader. Very nice.
Network seems faster. I hope to do some more testing this weekend.
Windows 7 supports my multi-core proc natively (no driver necessary) and seems to do a better job of task management. Big win here.
However:
Graphics on games fail in the same way -- Spore, for instance, tears and flickers as it did before. I didn't expect Windows 7's new graphics features to fix this, but was hoping.
S/PDIF ceased working after installing Windows 7. It sees the device but no sound comes out. This is a bummer. I hope there is a fix for this.
Media Center does not recognize video in mkv containers, even though media player will play them. Previous version would play them fine. Don't have a solution for this yet.
Desktop improvements? Not interesting. Winders is an OS, not an application. When I get time, I will be turning off all the fancy-dancy eye candy. I want the CPU to work on my applications, now how they are presented.
So, for me, Windows 7 gave me some very welcome compatibility with my existing hardware, (but not the video card, unfortunately) at the cost of a couple of hiccups. Generally positive, especially if I can fix the last remaining issues. But... $300? You're kidding, right? Throw a party? Gimme a break.
Geeze, it's an OPERATING SYSTEM. A minor update on Vista. What does he think he's selling?
I'm using the beta, (which is working rather well -- imagine my surprise) and it occurs to me that I'm being asked to pay $200 to $300 (depending on version) for what is essentially an improved TCP stack and a new bunch of drivers. Throw a party? I don't see why they even designed a new box.
>> I'll continue to buy it on CD and rip it to MP3, thanks.
> I don't mind buying online so long as I can buy it or easily convert it to a DRM-free form that I can be sure of being able to be in control of my purchase in perpetuity.
I agree with both of you. I buy the CDonline (always at a discount, used if possible), rip it and then put it in the big rubbermaid tub with all the other CDs, where it becomes my long term backup in case of disaster. The only real difference between buying CDs online or downloads is one of immediate gratification. If you can wait 3 days, one should go for the CD, in my opinion.
Enh... In the interest of completeness, I'd like to point out the needing Windows, and *thinking* you need Windows, are two separate things. If your requirement is for the OS to be called "Microsoft Windows", then there is literally no alternative. If what you need is a set of resources, and the only solution you're aware of runs on Windows, then you still only have one choice. At least, until you educate yourself further on what choices are available.
As you so succinctly pointed out, GIMP doesn't fill the bill if you need Photoshop. Some people need Photoshop and really can't do their job without it. Others think they need Photoshop, but really don't use all the features or may not be aware of the features in GIMP. Then, it gets into a grey area. Is the requirement to use Photoshop a company decision, a feature only Photoshop has, some unresolvable compatibility issue? Or is it lack of information on alternatives, wishful thinking on what features one *would* get around to using, or brand snobbery?
Mind you, I use CS3, not GIMP. But I started with GIMP, and I could go back to it if there was some reason I couldn't continue to use Photoshop.
I can't sit for hours in a room watching any kind of tv, with anyone. 'S why wife has her own TV room downstairs and my projects and so forth are either upstairs in the spare bedroom or in the garage. I need to escape the constant roar of the tv or tear my hair out, and having it confined to a corner of the house gives me a chance to seek peace in the other corner.
Wife and I were both old-school tv-as-babysitter, eat-on-tv-trays, no-life-but-tv kids. I broke out of that as an adult, and like a reformed smoker, I can't stand being around it. She grew up to be a 600 channel barcalounger pilot. Fortunately, daughter seems to be taking after me.
Because he hated the series and wanted to be done with it. He did a beautiful, satisfying ending with "So long and thanks for all the fish" and that should have ended it. Did end it, as far as I'm concerned. When I read the series to my daughter (about 11 at the time) I told her ahead of time that Mostly Harmless was a book Adams did not want to write, it wasn't very good, and if it's ok, I'd rather end with Fish. She agreed, and we ended the series with Arthur and Fenchurch going off to explore the galaxy, the end.
Don't misunderstand, I'm not against YOU reading the book. It's a free world. I'm explaining why a Hitchhiker fan might not be interested in another Hitchhiker book.
I wonder if it's an uniquely American thing, to drag a series past it's ending, whether it be novels, TV, or a movie franchise. "When will there be an end?" "When there's no more bucks in it!" Pfah.
I think Mostly Harmless made it pretty clear that Douglas Adams was more than done with the series. If any further proof was necessary, I had an opportunity to talk with Adams shortly before his death, and got the same impression -- he was sick of the series, and wrote Mostly Harmless because he had to.
I would much rather have read a third Dirk Gentley novel than a half-hearted Hitchhiker novel, and might have but for rabid Hitchhiker fans. Not that I'm bitter.
It doesn't really matter what the new novel is like. I'm done with that.
> Seems Flikr's owners are Democrats; or maybe they're Republicans afraid of backlash. I wonder what they'd have done if they were there while Bush was in office if he had been similarly parodied? I know if it had happened to Bush, the neocons would have had pitchforks in hand.
Not sure what you're asking. Do a Flickr search on "bush hitler". Lots of stuff worse than the obama/joker photo, and it's all still up, even where it's pretty obvious that the photogs didn't own the original media.
Slashdot Mirror
I replied to this but the Gods of the Internet apparently didn't think it worthy.
What you describe may very well be the problem. Where do I pick SPDIF? I mean, in what window?
Indeed. Sounds like the premise for "the big bang theory". Many yucks as Leonard tries to explain to Penny why this is fun.
If it didn't work entirely, yes, definitely. Analog sound works, so one patch cord later, I can get something my receiver thinks is Dolby Surround. That's good enough for wife and daughter, who are the primary users of the box. What I don't have at the moment is full AC/3 support, which is *my* requirement, dammit.
The media center not supporting mkv is an annoyance but not necessarily a show stopper. It supports other containers, and I can play mkv videos in media player, although it sucks having to use the mouse instead of the wireless remote.
It's broken, but there are work-arounds, else I'd have backed it out by now. (I installed on a new disk so I could swap in the old system disk if necessary.) I'm hoping these issues are short-lived.
You're so cute.
My article reflected the price of what I have, (Windows 7 Ultimate -- about $200 for upgrade, about $300 for the full version) not what I speculate others will be buying. Your mileage, as always, will vary.
I think the issue here is that I'm not getting Windows 7 so I can have a new operating system; I'm getting it to do a particular task. In this case, a home media center. What I've noticed:
It has native support for SATA3. Disk operations, specifically file transfers, are MUCH faster. Big improvement over previous version.
It recognized my HDTV card and supported it without me having to dink with it. Big improvement. Same with memory card multi-reader. Very nice.
Network seems faster. I hope to do some more testing this weekend.
Windows 7 supports my multi-core proc natively (no driver necessary) and seems to do a better job of task management. Big win here.
However:
Graphics on games fail in the same way -- Spore, for instance, tears and flickers as it did before. I didn't expect Windows 7's new graphics features to fix this, but was hoping.
S/PDIF ceased working after installing Windows 7. It sees the device but no sound comes out. This is a bummer. I hope there is a fix for this.
Media Center does not recognize video in mkv containers, even though media player will play them. Previous version would play them fine. Don't have a solution for this yet.
Desktop improvements? Not interesting. Winders is an OS, not an application. When I get time, I will be turning off all the fancy-dancy eye candy. I want the CPU to work on my applications, now how they are presented.
So, for me, Windows 7 gave me some very welcome compatibility with my existing hardware, (but not the video card, unfortunately) at the cost of a couple of hiccups. Generally positive, especially if I can fix the last remaining issues. But... $300? You're kidding, right? Throw a party? Gimme a break.
Geeze, it's an OPERATING SYSTEM. A minor update on Vista. What does he think he's selling?
I'm using the beta, (which is working rather well -- imagine my surprise) and it occurs to me that I'm being asked to pay $200 to $300 (depending on version) for what is essentially an improved TCP stack and a new bunch of drivers. Throw a party? I don't see why they even designed a new box.
Man, I'm in the wrong business.
It's time to re-read "The Stainless Steel Rat for President".
>> I'll continue to buy it on CD and rip it to MP3, thanks.
> I don't mind buying online so long as I can buy it or easily convert it to a DRM-free form that I can be sure of being able to be in control of my purchase in perpetuity.
I agree with both of you. I buy the CD online (always at a discount, used if possible), rip it and then put it in the big rubbermaid tub with all the other CDs, where it becomes my long term backup in case of disaster. The only real difference between buying CDs online or downloads is one of immediate gratification. If you can wait 3 days, one should go for the CD, in my opinion.
"For the life of me,
I can not
n-n-n-not remem
ber
What made us th
th think that we were wise"
Yeah, downloads please. Streaming over cellular service is not interesting.
It's got a removable battery!
And, a real keyboard and a micro-SD slot.
Things the i-Phone will never ever have.
Enh... In the interest of completeness, I'd like to point out the needing Windows, and *thinking* you need Windows, are two separate things. If your requirement is for the OS to be called "Microsoft Windows", then there is literally no alternative. If what you need is a set of resources, and the only solution you're aware of runs on Windows, then you still only have one choice. At least, until you educate yourself further on what choices are available.
As you so succinctly pointed out, GIMP doesn't fill the bill if you need Photoshop. Some people need Photoshop and really can't do their job without it. Others think they need Photoshop, but really don't use all the features or may not be aware of the features in GIMP. Then, it gets into a grey area. Is the requirement to use Photoshop a company decision, a feature only Photoshop has, some unresolvable compatibility issue? Or is it lack of information on alternatives, wishful thinking on what features one *would* get around to using, or brand snobbery?
Mind you, I use CS3, not GIMP. But I started with GIMP, and I could go back to it if there was some reason I couldn't continue to use Photoshop.
I can't sit for hours in a room watching any kind of tv, with anyone. 'S why wife has her own TV room downstairs and my projects and so forth are either upstairs in the spare bedroom or in the garage. I need to escape the constant roar of the tv or tear my hair out, and having it confined to a corner of the house gives me a chance to seek peace in the other corner.
Wife and I were both old-school tv-as-babysitter, eat-on-tv-trays, no-life-but-tv kids. I broke out of that as an adult, and like a reformed smoker, I can't stand being around it. She grew up to be a 600 channel barcalounger pilot. Fortunately, daughter seems to be taking after me.
Because he hated the series and wanted to be done with it. He did a beautiful, satisfying ending with "So long and thanks for all the fish" and that should have ended it. Did end it, as far as I'm concerned. When I read the series to my daughter (about 11 at the time) I told her ahead of time that Mostly Harmless was a book Adams did not want to write, it wasn't very good, and if it's ok, I'd rather end with Fish. She agreed, and we ended the series with Arthur and Fenchurch going off to explore the galaxy, the end.
Don't misunderstand, I'm not against YOU reading the book. It's a free world. I'm explaining why a Hitchhiker fan might not be interested in another Hitchhiker book.
I wonder if it's an uniquely American thing, to drag a series past it's ending, whether it be novels, TV, or a movie franchise. "When will there be an end?" "When there's no more bucks in it!" Pfah.
I think Mostly Harmless made it pretty clear that Douglas Adams was more than done with the series. If any further proof was necessary, I had an opportunity to talk with Adams shortly before his death, and got the same impression -- he was sick of the series, and wrote Mostly Harmless because he had to.
I would much rather have read a third Dirk Gentley novel than a half-hearted Hitchhiker novel, and might have but for rabid Hitchhiker fans. Not that I'm bitter.
It doesn't really matter what the new novel is like. I'm done with that.
My favorites were "classic" Joker (from the Adam West series) and Two-Face.
Yeah, except that those photos of Bush on Flickr, they're all still up. Do you understand the distinction?
> Seems Flikr's owners are Democrats; or maybe they're Republicans afraid of backlash. I wonder what they'd have done if they were there while Bush was in office if he had been similarly parodied? I know if it had happened to Bush, the neocons would have had pitchforks in hand.
Not sure what you're asking. Do a Flickr search on "bush hitler". Lots of stuff worse than the obama/joker photo, and it's all still up, even where it's pretty obvious that the photogs didn't own the original media.
> Actually, the guy who created the image is a rabid leftist. He dislikes Obama because he's not liberal enough.
I think this is what the Chinese meant by "Interesting Times".
I wonder if you'll still feel that way when Congress flips again.
So... This is ok:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21244223@N04/2105170638/
and this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cocktailia/460463335/
and this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wgeis/11346587/
but not this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/3834570613/
Got it...
Aren't they already?
Because... it's not true.
> Bring on the U.N. sanctions. No one sell pocket protectors to NASA. They might be used for nefarious purposes.
Indeed. I'm virtually certain that 100% of the scientists that invented the atomic bomb used them.