The reason this hasn't been done yet is probably because it's not needed yet. We have Zap2It, TitanTV, TV Guide, hell even Yahoo has TV listings now. As long as websites and online services are providing listings, XMLTV (at least) will be able to grab them and it doesn't look like things are going to change for the worse any time soon.
Think about it from the content provider's point of view. They want you to watch therefore they want you to know when what you watch is on. I'd venture to guess most people aren't just sitting in front of the TV watching 'whatever's on' for hours on end anymore.
If you don't mind tweaking the settings and videofilters a bit the el-cheapo bt8x8 cards can look just as good (some even claim better) than the expensive PVR-2/3xx line.
XMLTV basically snags listings from internet websites. As long as TitanTV, TVGuide, et al show you TV listings on the internet, XMLTV will be able to grab them. Web pages do change and new XMLTV versions are released to change with them. It's one line to upgrade XMLTV and about a 35 second download.
Actually, MythTV just changed their default listing backend. Now, they default to a datadirect service that requires a free (renewable) subscription. Of course, you can still use XMLTV if you want to do the leg work but this new service seems faster and appears to be more robust.
I understand your concerns about TV listing capabilities going away as that's one of the main draws of TiVo but I think your concerns are unfounded... and listing services are actually expanding.
1) Cost: I've used probably 5 different distros between 3 or 4 PCs at my home and work for a net cost of $0. I do have a single XP home license should I need to use it though.
2) Viruses/Malware: Immediately after installation before even getting to windowsupdate I'd have a virus and 30 adaware-cleanable programs on my machine. I currently have my fiance's machine and her friends machine waiting at the house for a good virus removal/adaware/spybot cleanup.
3) Comfort: I've now been using Linux long enough that the tools I need to do what I want are just as obvious and easy to use as their windows counter parts.
4) !!!APT!!!: Goes for yum, uprmi, and portage as well. Installing software is now stupid-easy as long as you know what it is you want.
I can agree with you on 90% of what you're saying however I disagree with your car analogy.
True, Linux does require some computing knowledge to use; definitely more than Windows but your internal combustion engine comparison is a bit overkill. The days of massive source compiles and miles of broken dependencies are over. Software installation in most cases is easier in linux than in windows thanks to apt, urpmi, even click-and-run. True that may be more than Joe User should be required to know but Linux is quickly getting better and the swath of 'newbie' and live CD distros proves it. It's more like knowing how to change your oil than internal combustion.
On the contrary, the problem with Windows is it's too dumbed down... it's too easy to use. There's no barrier to entry or accountability for a user's actions. So we have idiots running around opening every.pif attachment they see and bazillions of unpatched zombies destroying everyone's internet. Linux may require you to know how to perform basic maintenance on your vehicle, but with Windows you don't even have to know how to work the blinkers. Guess which one causes more crashes.
I don't spend much time in SecondLife any more as my real life keeps getting in the way but anyone that hasn't should really give it a try. Keep in mind it's not necessarily a game but more a really advanced social tool. You get a free trial and if the whole land-owning idea doesn't appeal to you, you can pay a one time $10 fee and hang out all you want. The in-game tools are very capable and getting more advanced all of the time. Some of the things people have come up with in SecondLife are extremely creative and your time would not be wasted there if you were just to spend it wandering around seeing what others have done.
For the Linuxites, it runs under winex as indicated *shameless plug*here*/shameless plug*.
I'm an applications developer...
on
Mono Beta 2 Released
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
... let's see those windows.forms! By the release notes it sounds like progress is being made but they said what's shipping with 1.0 will be pre-alpha.
Hey now... I listen like hell when she talks. I could recite it back 2 minutes after she said it... but 2 weeks later when she asks "Didn't I tell you that baby was ugly" and I accidently point and snicker at her niece, then she gets all pissed off.
BTW, just for posterity's sake, I am screwing around here. I don't play games so much any more and she has learned to only share the important things with me because I can only remember like 2 new things every day.
I'm right there with you. My SO absolutely HATES gaming... but she'll talk on the phone for 6 hours straight given the opportunity. Both of us are happy.
The only difference is after she's done she actually thinks I'm interested in how ugly her best friends brother's cousin's roomate's nephew's baby is while I'm fully aware she couldn't give a crap if my Necromancer leveled !twice! tonight.:)
That's correct but the parent poster was only asking for a multimedia iPod and not a full out PDA. The SL-6000's screen puts these things to shame as well as most other PDAs on the market.
The reviewer seems to stress the fact over and over again, with a much redundnacy, and many repeats, simply restating the idea that the unit locked up a lot. Maybe *gasp* he had a defective unit...
And it doesn't seem he has anything against Linux besides a poor word choice. He even sort of commends Linux on the TiVo.
The ZUG has great forums and a number of developer resources and there are rumors flying around that Sharp's developer pages will be available again 'real soon now.'
As for the camera... I doubt enterprise would be very interested in it and if they were, there's a camera addon for the 5xxx line that is rumored to work fine in the 6000.
Well, the Archos and the Lyra have already done this. The Archos especially has a great screen on it but both are around 3.5". The newest Archos is even rumored to be using an embedded Qt similar to the Zauri. The 20gig Lyra is only 399 which is the same price as the audio-only 20gig iPod.
However, these devices won't be 'sleek and elegant' (aka pretentious) enough to consider until Apple makes one.
I was in the same boat. I bought in to each generation. I had an old Palm IIIxe, a Compaq Aero, and they're running around here with iPaqs and e750s. None of these devices are capable of replacing my trusty, although quite huge, laptop. The PDAs floated around in my pocket for maybe 6-8 months each before realizing I don't know enough people or have enough appointments to waste my time with these devices.
However, I bought a SL-6000L over the weekend. It's amazing what these devices will do. These 2 reviews cover the hardware pretty comprehensively and the included apps ok but they only allude to its true capabilities. It's surely everything my laptop did for me and it fits in my (larger) pockets. I admit, the USB host and VGA screen are what pushed me over the edge. Check out ZUG for a better idea of what people are doing with these machines.
Well, my Myth box encodes it to a special nuv just for MythTV. I occassionally reencode them to DivX for viewing on the Windows PCs in the house. Sometimes, I'll throw them on VCD for a friend that forgot to record something -- that's far easier than lending them a VHS IMO. I put an episode or 2 of Aqua Teen Hunger Force on my USB pen drive. My Zaurus will probably have a show or 2 on it just for the slow times. A buddy of mine uses various 4 second clips of the Mooninites for his laptop startup/shutdown/etc.
Basically, a single episode of ATHF can make it to about 5 different places none of which violate fair use... ok, lending to a friend I'm sure they'd call questionable so we'll say 4.
The hundreds of thousands of Linux users probably have used Windows once or twice in their lives. I'd venture to say most of those Windows users probably barely know what Linux is. Ignorance doesn't prove much.
We use Dell development boxes and laptops here and, in our collective opinion, they've gone drastically downhill the past couple years. The DVD-Rs in these machines are terrible and the case and ports are inconvenient. They just feel more shoddy than our old Dells. The laptops, as you say, are a crap-shoot and, while I don't have to deal with them, supposedly support pales compared to what it was 2 years ago.
And I never was a big fan of the plastic air channel "we only need 1 fan" style of cooling both Dell and Compaq *cough* I mean HP tend to use... although it's yet to prove detrimental.
As to the submitter's question about online grocery marketing, I don't think it will change too much. I for one go to the aisle of what I want to buy and look for the little yellow sale tags... then buy that one. I don't think website shopping and flashy ads will change that so much and at 10$ per delivery, I don't think you're going to have a lot of hunt and peck shoppers getting their 69 cent soup from one grocer and their 3$ microwave pizzas from another.
Not to mention at 10$ per delivery people like me who spend maybe $40 a trip on the high end will be willing to spend another 25% for delivery. That's where competition needs to happen. Drive those delivery costs below $5 and I can eliminate my single social burden!
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The reason this hasn't been done yet is probably because it's not needed yet. We have Zap2It, TitanTV, TV Guide, hell even Yahoo has TV listings now. As long as websites and online services are providing listings, XMLTV (at least) will be able to grab them and it doesn't look like things are going to change for the worse any time soon.
Think about it from the content provider's point of view. They want you to watch therefore they want you to know when what you watch is on. I'd venture to guess most people aren't just sitting in front of the TV watching 'whatever's on' for hours on end anymore.
If you don't mind tweaking the settings and videofilters a bit the el-cheapo bt8x8 cards can look just as good (some even claim better) than the expensive PVR-2/3xx line.
XMLTV basically snags listings from internet websites. As long as TitanTV, TVGuide, et al show you TV listings on the internet, XMLTV will be able to grab them. Web pages do change and new XMLTV versions are released to change with them. It's one line to upgrade XMLTV and about a 35 second download.
Actually, MythTV just changed their default listing backend. Now, they default to a datadirect service that requires a free (renewable) subscription. Of course, you can still use XMLTV if you want to do the leg work but this new service seems faster and appears to be more robust.
I understand your concerns about TV listing capabilities going away as that's one of the main draws of TiVo but I think your concerns are unfounded... and listing services are actually expanding.
1) Cost: I've used probably 5 different distros between 3 or 4 PCs at my home and work for a net cost of $0. I do have a single XP home license should I need to use it though.
2) Viruses/Malware: Immediately after installation before even getting to windowsupdate I'd have a virus and 30 adaware-cleanable programs on my machine. I currently have my fiance's machine and her friends machine waiting at the house for a good virus removal/adaware/spybot cleanup.
3) Comfort: I've now been using Linux long enough that the tools I need to do what I want are just as obvious and easy to use as their windows counter parts.
4) !!!APT!!!: Goes for yum, uprmi, and portage as well. Installing software is now stupid-easy as long as you know what it is you want.
5) MythTV: Nothing comparable on windows.
I can agree with you on 90% of what you're saying however I disagree with your car analogy.
.pif attachment they see and bazillions of unpatched zombies destroying everyone's internet. Linux may require you to know how to perform basic maintenance on your vehicle, but with Windows you don't even have to know how to work the blinkers. Guess which one causes more crashes.
True, Linux does require some computing knowledge to use; definitely more than Windows but your internal combustion engine comparison is a bit overkill. The days of massive source compiles and miles of broken dependencies are over. Software installation in most cases is easier in linux than in windows thanks to apt, urpmi, even click-and-run. True that may be more than Joe User should be required to know but Linux is quickly getting better and the swath of 'newbie' and live CD distros proves it. It's more like knowing how to change your oil than internal combustion.
On the contrary, the problem with Windows is it's too dumbed down... it's too easy to use. There's no barrier to entry or accountability for a user's actions. So we have idiots running around opening every
I don't spend much time in SecondLife any more as my real life keeps getting in the way but anyone that hasn't should really give it a try. Keep in mind it's not necessarily a game but more a really advanced social tool. You get a free trial and if the whole land-owning idea doesn't appeal to you, you can pay a one time $10 fee and hang out all you want. The in-game tools are very capable and getting more advanced all of the time. Some of the things people have come up with in SecondLife are extremely creative and your time would not be wasted there if you were just to spend it wandering around seeing what others have done.
For the Linuxites, it runs under winex as indicated *shameless plug*here*/shameless plug*.
... let's see those windows.forms! By the release notes it sounds like progress is being made but they said what's shipping with 1.0 will be pre-alpha.
Hey now... I listen like hell when she talks. I could recite it back 2 minutes after she said it... but 2 weeks later when she asks "Didn't I tell you that baby was ugly" and I accidently point and snicker at her niece, then she gets all pissed off.
BTW, just for posterity's sake, I am screwing around here. I don't play games so much any more and she has learned to only share the important things with me because I can only remember like 2 new things every day.
See... that's all I'm asking for. Thank you very much! And I'd be sorry to hear someone you hardly even know's baby might be ugly. :)
I'm right there with you. My SO absolutely HATES gaming... but she'll talk on the phone for 6 hours straight given the opportunity. Both of us are happy.
:)
The only difference is after she's done she actually thinks I'm interested in how ugly her best friends brother's cousin's roomate's nephew's baby is while I'm fully aware she couldn't give a crap if my Necromancer leveled !twice! tonight.
...it would be so much better if they could just write code instead!
Well, you stick to what you're good at.
That's correct but the parent poster was only asking for a multimedia iPod and not a full out PDA. The SL-6000's screen puts these things to shame as well as most other PDAs on the market.
The reviewer seems to stress the fact over and over again, with a much redundnacy, and many repeats, simply restating the idea that the unit locked up a lot. Maybe *gasp* he had a defective unit...
And it doesn't seem he has anything against Linux besides a poor word choice. He even sort of commends Linux on the TiVo.
The ZUG has great forums and a number of developer resources and there are rumors flying around that Sharp's developer pages will be available again 'real soon now.'
As for the camera... I doubt enterprise would be very interested in it and if they were, there's a camera addon for the 5xxx line that is rumored to work fine in the 6000.
Well, the Archos and the Lyra have already done this. The Archos especially has a great screen on it but both are around 3.5". The newest Archos is even rumored to be using an embedded Qt similar to the Zauri. The 20gig Lyra is only 399 which is the same price as the audio-only 20gig iPod.
However, these devices won't be 'sleek and elegant' (aka pretentious) enough to consider until Apple makes one.
I was in the same boat. I bought in to each generation. I had an old Palm IIIxe, a Compaq Aero, and they're running around here with iPaqs and e750s. None of these devices are capable of replacing my trusty, although quite huge, laptop. The PDAs floated around in my pocket for maybe 6-8 months each before realizing I don't know enough people or have enough appointments to waste my time with these devices.
However, I bought a SL-6000L over the weekend. It's amazing what these devices will do. These 2 reviews cover the hardware pretty comprehensively and the included apps ok but they only allude to its true capabilities. It's surely everything my laptop did for me and it fits in my (larger) pockets. I admit, the USB host and VGA screen are what pushed me over the edge. Check out ZUG for a better idea of what people are doing with these machines.
Well, my Myth box encodes it to a special nuv just for MythTV. I occassionally reencode them to DivX for viewing on the Windows PCs in the house. Sometimes, I'll throw them on VCD for a friend that forgot to record something -- that's far easier than lending them a VHS IMO. I put an episode or 2 of Aqua Teen Hunger Force on my USB pen drive. My Zaurus will probably have a show or 2 on it just for the slow times. A buddy of mine uses various 4 second clips of the Mooninites for his laptop startup/shutdown/etc.
Basically, a single episode of ATHF can make it to about 5 different places none of which violate fair use... ok, lending to a friend I'm sure they'd call questionable so we'll say 4.
The hundreds of thousands of Linux users probably have used Windows once or twice in their lives. I'd venture to say most of those Windows users probably barely know what Linux is. Ignorance doesn't prove much.
We use Dell development boxes and laptops here and, in our collective opinion, they've gone drastically downhill the past couple years. The DVD-Rs in these machines are terrible and the case and ports are inconvenient. They just feel more shoddy than our old Dells. The laptops, as you say, are a crap-shoot and, while I don't have to deal with them, supposedly support pales compared to what it was 2 years ago.
And I never was a big fan of the plastic air channel "we only need 1 fan" style of cooling both Dell and Compaq *cough* I mean HP tend to use... although it's yet to prove detrimental.
For a while I think they had some $199 Lindows closeouts. But that's so not the point he was trying to make.
Actually, I think that's some whacked out form of dyslexia. I so do not remember doing that.
So what he's trying to say is playing video games for a living doesn't get you chicks?!?! Incredible paradigm shift from my usual way of thinking.
As to the submitter's question about online grocery marketing, I don't think it will change too much. I for one go to the aisle of what I want to buy and look for the little yellow sale tags... then buy that one. I don't think website shopping and flashy ads will change that so much and at 10$ per delivery, I don't think you're going to have a lot of hunt and peck shoppers getting their 69 cent soup from one grocer and their 3$ microwave pizzas from another.
Not to mention at 10$ per delivery people like me who spend maybe $40 a trip on the high end will be willing to spend another 25% for delivery. That's where competition needs to happen. Drive those delivery costs below $5 and I can eliminate my single social burden!