I don't know that SCO was every a great company. They had some great products. As a company, my cut is that they always sucked. I can remember the days of being on the phone with their arrogant staff while they explained to me why I had to pay extra to be able to compile, extra to have standard communications packages, extra.... After paying $6000 for a single server license of Unix. As a company, I am not sure that SCO (regardless of incarnation) every GOT the UNIX market. Had they been able to pull their greedy heads out of their arses long enough to see the light of day, they might have been a force to be reckoned with. As it is, good riddance. I will drink a beer to their memory when they are delisted. I hope their story is captured in MBA case studies so that the budding entrepreneurs of tomorrow learn a lesson.
1) Tone down the potty mouth little Jimmy or we will call a GPS reading on you to your parents so they can wash you mouth out.
2) Good one on the 'ass hat'. It is equally as good as 'ass clown', both of which can send liquid back up through the nose.
3) Finally, just when I was buying into the EAT SH*T program, you go and misspell throat. It is rather shocking that you got the correct spelling on all the potty mouth words and then miss one that my first grader could get. Maybe we need Teach Our Kids Excellent Spelling TOKES, not wait, thats what I did.
Opteron 250's are pricy, but actually $900 if you check
Pricewatch. If you look
under CPUs, you will see the Opteron's. Availability will have an
impact on prices, but AMDs and Intels release schedule will have more
of an impact.
My thoughts exactly. I also had a fond memory of my Laser
PC3 that I got from Tiger Direct many years ago. It was simple, but
effective and ran forever on a set of batteries.
Also, VLC = 10.7MB download versus MPC which is a couple of hundred K and a single executable. If you are going to be a fanboy, at least be an informed fanboy.
I tried Gordian Knot and could not seem to get there. If you are
like me and not too bright and just want to rip your legally
purchased DVDs, you might also check out DVX at:
and the use DVX on the resulting.vob file. I end up with a
xvid/ogg/ogm file that is around 1GB per movie.
From what I have been reading, XBMC and and the pc version will
play ogg vorbis audio files, but not video in ogm containers.
Hopefully that is coming soon.
I also wondered about Speex. I signed up with Bitpass, but don't have enough bandwidth to download a book yet. I am wondering if they do music and soundeffects backgrounds to their reading. If so, some folks wouldn't like what Speex does to the music. I have used Speex to encode some talkradio. I am no expert and did not monkey with all of the settings, but there was a noticeable difference in voice quality (not that bothered me) but when music started playing in the background it was poor and broken.
Just a thought. I too would like to have the option of Speex. I am hoping to be able to play Speex files on my Neuros some day. If not, I am happy with my Oggs.
I hear you, but the artists are in on this with the RIAA. They are doing this to themselves. Until we show them that they are on the path to destruction, they will continue. I hope for a Creative Commons with a lot less post production and a much greater percentage of the profit going to the artist. Sooner or later, monopolistic behavior will get you in trouble. I think that buying used music is probably the best illustration of the point that needs to be made. People will pay for music. They won't pay a ridiculous price and they are getting tired of heavy-handed attempts by associations, etc to limit choice and fair use. Hopefully, someone will begin tracking used music sales (like Amazon) and the case will become clear. Pound on the music thieves all you want. (carefully dismounts soapbox).
Just when it seems the world is going to hell in a handbasket and everything is changing.... Come to \. where any discussion topic migrates to M$ bashing. I love you guys.
Someone mentioned KnoppixMyth earlier and I went a googlin'. No such thing, but there is KnoppMyth and you can find it here.
Which is available where? An afternoon of googling and clicking through seemingly dead sites and the software you mention can't be found. The release notes for the latest software available on the empeg website does not mention ogg.
Yes. I have had mine for a few weeks. I have loaded the latest pre-beta versions of the firmware and sync software. I have about 3.7GB of.ogg files encoded at 140KB and it works like a champ. The HD backpack is a bit bulky, but when I am traveling, I load up the flash backpack. I have used the MiFi which broadcasts via FM to your radio with a cheapo tabletop and it works fine at about 12-15 feet. I have really been surprised, but I have used the HiSi feature a lot. When you hear a song you like on the built-in FM radio, you hit the button. It takes a 30 second snapshot and when you sync the next time, it identifies it. It is not perfect, but I have gotten about 90% positive ID. You can also use the HiSi via the line in.
I would think that the premise of the Neuros would appeal to/.'ers. They intend to open the software and the firmware. The backpacks are a hackers dream. There is a linux and a windows version of the sync software that are open source. The companies statement of intent seems to be anti-DRM. They are very responsive to their customers via the forum and email.
The Neuros has not changed my life and like the author of the article says concerning the iPod, it is probably not for everyone. The downside is that the USB is 1.1 and it is somewhat slow to transfer files. There are some other limitations in sorting, etc that some may not like. I like the product and like where the company seems to be headed. For $229, it was a good buy and I am satisfied.
The link to the Wiki is informative. The Wiki page is not. The information is out of date and not very well organized. It would be more helpful if the information were organize along the lines of sourceforge. Describe the product (briefly) and then the state of development. The/. crowd and technofiles in general are quick to get a case of the arse about vaporware. If it is a rumor, state it is such. If they have a projected release date, list it. If not, say so. I am close to buying a Neuros although it is not exactly what I want. I think the price is fair and I want to see businesses suceed that listen to their customers. I bought a Nex II because those lying pieces of crap said it was firmware upgradeable and they gave every indication that eventually it would support Ogg. I am satisfied with the Nex II although it could be improved (traverse more than one directory deep for example). However, it really chaps me that once again with the Nex IIe they are intimating that they are going to provide Ogg support and I am pretty confident that they are not a step closer and are not really working on it./rant.
The front page of the iRivernordic site lists the following information as to inputs:
Digital Optical-in/out, analogue-in/out & Mic-in iHP-120 is packed with in and out features. Plug in an external soundsystem to the players optical or analogue sockets. With iHP-120 you know have the ability to plug-in an external mic, when you're in need of those highquality recordings.
Great idea. I think it would be even better if you broke it down into desktop and server. I imagine the answers would be different. Being on my umpteeth attempt at a satisfying Linux box, I would love for developers to see why I am typing this from a W2K system.
I guess that I need to point out that despite most folks using a Windows platform for 10 years or more, they STILL don't know the OS. They are familiar with a UI and some not too familiar with that. They primarily know applications. It is very difficult to get a user (not luser, since they are the reason you have a job) to take an interest in the OS. They want to create documents, presentations, send email, etc.
In one of the few on topic posts for this article, someone mentioned thinclients. One of the reasons that they meet with some acceptance is that they remove the user another standard deviation or two from the OS and get them where they want to be which is using the applications. One of the great thing about thinclients is that your help desk can solve a good percentage of user issues with 'Do you see that small button under your screen? OK, turn it off, OK, now turn it back on, your welcome, have a nice day'.
I was with the writer of the article (yes, you remember that, you probably didn't read it, but that is what we are discussing) until he devolved into blatant Win bashing. I imagined him wearing a tin foil hat and 3DES t-shirt by the end of the article. I haven't yet figured out how DHCP and proxies are windows-unique sins that were thrust upon us by Bill and the great shadow conspiracy.
When I see short-sighted comments like 'RTFM or read the man page' it is obviously that some *nixers don't seem to understand that time is money. The company is probably not paying an accountant for their OS skills. They are paying them for their technical skills and the ability to use a particular APPLICATION that company uses. The more an OS gets in the way of that, the less effective it is.
I am sure there were people participating before who work in large data shops, but if not, there is now. We routine bought server 5-10 at a time with processor upgrades in mind. Specifically ML/DL class compacts the could use quad-processor that we purchased with a single processor. We also routinely added processors and memory. As the Xeon processors dropped in price and end-of-year money was available, we upgraded. A hardware upgrade is just around the corner named the next new application.
We bought Compaq for a number of reasons already stated. Apple is even beginning to lose the graphic design and education markets that they used to have in their pocket. Many Mac graphic design shops converted years ago. The X-Serve looks like a neat product, but comparing it to similarly price x86-based, enterprise hardware just makes people look silly.
Also, for the $200 G3 + $100 upgrade post, if there was, I would have bought one. I had a search define for used G3 blue/white towers for ever and finally gave up. By the time you got one, got it upgraded and running, you were looking at $800 when you could by a new PC that would run wrings around it and could be upgrade for one quarter the price.
If the X-Serve meets your needs, great. Yes the http://www.army.mil website does run on a mac. Not based on performance, but based on security issues. It was a quick fix, but has performed well, no disagreement.
Actually, if you read the original story, it provides a link to the company that modifies the printers. They state that they no longer sell kits. They sell 'refurbished', upgraded printers. Their refurbished printers are about twice the price of the new one and can only be truck shipped (no air). It also appears that you trade one ink czar for another as now you can only buy your ink from them. You've got to love it. I think I will build a plotter that uses crayons instead. Don't know if they are slashdot advertisers and this was a subliminal plug or not.
I would have liked to see a jack for an external antenna. That might help the poor reception (might not). I added this to my Christmas list. For the next months/year, I don't think that there will be much on AFN that I want to record:) I don't own a Tivo/Replay yet, so I am not disappointed that some of the features are not there. Many of my favorite radio programs (CarTalk, etc.) are on at inconvenient times and are not available as stream on demand. How well this will sell, I don't know. I would have liked to see an option for recording in ogg or another non-proprietary format. I don't know if this will replace my Nex II or not, will have to wait and see. I am still waiting for the Nex to support ogg which is what I was hoping for when I bought it. I think that it would be interesting if they also produced a 1U stereo component type device that would connect into your stereo/AV system. I think they will probably get my $$. I hope that they keep improving between now and December. Thanks for the article.
Maybe, this is already apparent, but most of us don't go too far complaining to the University because we want to graduate and hopefully with a decent gradepoint average. I have been very disappointed with my professors and their dedication. This is my first graduate degree, but I have taken face-to-face graduate level classes. A TA taught the course, but at least he was present and prepared. I attend an online University in NC. I would estimate that my professors missed about 40% of the class meetings. Some didn't grade assignments for 4-6 weeks after we turned them in. The problem is that by the time you find out it is not just one professor, but a University standard, you are too far along to transfer your credits without a significant setback. FWIW. I do provide feedback at the end of every class. These are anonymous forms and I have been pretty harsh with the worst of the professors, but I have not seen much improvement. They do the surveys before finals are graded, so I think it is easy for students to get intimidated. My suggestion would be that if you have a problem with your first class, I would give serious consideration to changing institutions unless you are sure that it is an isolated incident. My first class was with the chairman of the department so that should have given me a clue (cut it didn't). Good luck.
I am a registered user of the Win/Linux versions. I am pretty disappointed. It has some unique features, but if you do much ecommerce, etc on the web, you will have to have another browser (i.e. MSN Money, etc, I know the evil M$). I did the advocacy thing, but had to get work done. I also don't appreciate their licensing model that is pretty Microsoft-ish. My question is why a closed, not free product gets a plug every time they put out a new release? Is this one of those nested advertisements?
I purchased Opera for Win and Linux at 6.1 (or so) a few months ago. Guess what, when 7.0 came out, they want me to buy it again. 7.0 looks nice, but this is the same type of behavior that seems to piss everyone off about M$. There is a lot of positive press on/. ref Opera, but I don't quite get it. I quit using it and am looking at Mozilla or Gecko, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know that SCO was every a great company. They had some great products. As a company, my cut is that they always sucked. I can remember the days of being on the phone with their arrogant staff while they explained to me why I had to pay extra to be able to compile, extra to have standard communications packages, extra.... After paying $6000 for a single server license of Unix. As a company, I am not sure that SCO (regardless of incarnation) every GOT the UNIX market. Had they been able to pull their greedy heads out of their arses long enough to see the light of day, they might have been a force to be reckoned with. As it is, good riddance. I will drink a beer to their memory when they are delisted. I hope their story is captured in MBA case studies so that the budding entrepreneurs of tomorrow learn a lesson.
1) Tone down the potty mouth little Jimmy or we will call a GPS reading on you to your parents so they can wash you mouth out.
2) Good one on the 'ass hat'. It is equally as good as 'ass clown', both of which can send liquid back up through the nose.
3) Finally, just when I was buying into the EAT SH*T program, you go and misspell throat. It is rather shocking that you got the correct spelling on all the potty mouth words and then miss one that my first grader could get. Maybe we need Teach Our Kids Excellent Spelling TOKES, not wait, thats what I did.
Opteron 250's are pricy, but actually $900 if you check Pricewatch. If you look under CPUs, you will see the Opteron's. Availability will have an impact on prices, but AMDs and Intels release schedule will have more of an impact.
My thoughts exactly. I also had a fond memory of my Laser PC3 that I got from Tiger Direct many years ago. It was simple, but effective and ran forever on a set of batteries.
Also, VLC = 10.7MB download versus MPC which is a couple of hundred K and a single executable. If you are going to be a fanboy, at least be an informed fanboy.
I tried Gordian Knot and could not seem to get there. If you are like me and not too bright and just want to rip your legally purchased DVDs, you might also check out DVX at:
http://www.planetdvb.net/dvx/
It is similar to GK, but I found it easier. I want minimum filesize, so I rip the DVD using DVD Shrink
http://www.dvdshrink.org/
and the use DVX on the resulting .vob file. I end up with a
xvid/ogg/ogm file that is around 1GB per movie.
From what I have been reading, XBMC and and the pc version will play ogg vorbis audio files, but not video in ogm containers. Hopefully that is coming soon.
I also wondered about Speex. I signed up with Bitpass, but don't have enough bandwidth to download a book yet. I am wondering if they do music and soundeffects backgrounds to their reading. If so, some folks wouldn't like what Speex does to the music. I have used Speex to encode some talkradio. I am no expert and did not monkey with all of the settings, but there was a noticeable difference in voice quality (not that bothered me) but when music started playing in the background it was poor and broken.
Just a thought. I too would like to have the option of Speex. I am hoping to be able to play Speex files on my Neuros some day. If not, I am happy with my Oggs.
I hear you, but the artists are in on this with the RIAA. They are doing this to themselves. Until we show them that they are on the path to destruction, they will continue. I hope for a Creative Commons with a lot less post production and a much greater percentage of the profit going to the artist. Sooner or later, monopolistic behavior will get you in trouble. I think that buying used music is probably the best illustration of the point that needs to be made. People will pay for music. They won't pay a ridiculous price and they are getting tired of heavy-handed attempts by associations, etc to limit choice and fair use. Hopefully, someone will begin tracking used music sales (like Amazon) and the case will become clear. Pound on the music thieves all you want. (carefully dismounts soapbox).
Just when it seems the world is going to hell in a handbasket and everything is changing.... Come to \. where any discussion topic migrates to M$ bashing. I love you guys.
Someone mentioned KnoppixMyth earlier and I went a googlin'. No such thing, but there is KnoppMyth and you can find it here.
The Neuros also records from FM plus many other features. http://www.neurosaudio.com
How about Kevin Poulsen? Pretty famous, had some skills, still does and uses them intelligently.
WTF -over-. If you follow the download link,
you will see that they are charging the same price for a
downloaded ISO as the boxed set. Great idea...
Which is available where? An afternoon of googling and clicking through seemingly dead sites and the software you mention can't be found. The release notes for the latest software available on the empeg website does not mention ogg.
Yes. I have had mine for a few weeks. I have loaded the latest pre-beta versions of the firmware and sync software. I have about 3.7GB of .ogg files encoded at 140KB and it works like a champ. The HD backpack is a bit bulky, but when I am traveling, I load up the flash backpack. I have used the MiFi which broadcasts via FM to your radio with a cheapo tabletop and it works fine at about 12-15 feet. I have really been surprised, but I have used the HiSi feature a lot. When you hear a song you like on the built-in FM radio, you hit the button. It takes a 30 second snapshot and when you sync the next time, it identifies it. It is not perfect, but I have gotten about 90% positive ID. You can also use the HiSi via the line in.
/.'ers. They intend to open the software and the firmware. The backpacks are a hackers dream. There is a linux and a windows version of the sync software that are open source. The companies statement of intent seems to be anti-DRM. They are very responsive to their customers via the forum and email.
I would think that the premise of the Neuros would appeal to
The Neuros has not changed my life and like the author of the article says concerning the iPod, it is probably not for everyone. The downside is that the USB is 1.1 and it is somewhat slow to transfer files. There are some other limitations in sorting, etc that some may not like. I like the product and like where the company seems to be headed. For $229, it was a good buy and I am satisfied.
The link to the Wiki is informative. The Wiki page is not. The information is out of date and not very well organized. It would be more helpful if the information were organize along the lines of sourceforge. Describe the product (briefly) and then the state of development. The /. crowd and technofiles in general are quick to get a case of the arse about vaporware. If it is a rumor, state it is such. If they have a projected release date, list it. If not, say so. I am close to buying a Neuros although it is not exactly what I want. I think the price is fair and I want to see businesses suceed that listen to their customers. I bought a Nex II because those lying pieces of crap said it was firmware upgradeable and they gave every indication that eventually it would support Ogg. I am satisfied with the Nex II although it could be improved (traverse more than one directory deep for example). However, it really chaps me that once again with the Nex IIe they are intimating that they are going to provide Ogg support and I am pretty confident that they are not a step closer and are not really working on it. /rant.
The front page of the iRivernordic site lists the following information as to inputs:
Digital Optical-in/out, analogue-in/out & Mic-in
iHP-120 is packed with in and out features. Plug in an external soundsystem to the players optical or analogue sockets. With iHP-120 you know have the ability to plug-in an external mic, when you're in need of those highquality recordings.
Great idea. I think it would be even better if you broke it down into desktop and server. I imagine the answers would be different. Being on my umpteeth attempt at a satisfying Linux box, I would love for developers to see why I am typing this from a W2K system.
I guess that I need to point out that despite most folks using a Windows platform for 10 years or more, they STILL don't know the OS. They are familiar with a UI and some not too familiar with that. They primarily know applications. It is very difficult to get a user (not luser, since they are the reason you have a job) to take an interest in the OS. They want to create documents, presentations, send email, etc.
In one of the few on topic posts for this article, someone mentioned thinclients. One of the reasons that they meet with some acceptance is that they remove the user another standard deviation or two from the OS and get them where they want to be which is using the applications. One of the great thing about thinclients is that your help desk can solve a good percentage of user issues with 'Do you see that small button under your screen? OK, turn it off, OK, now turn it back on, your welcome, have a nice day'.
I was with the writer of the article (yes, you remember that, you probably didn't read it, but that is what we are discussing) until he devolved into blatant Win bashing. I imagined him wearing a tin foil hat and 3DES t-shirt by the end of the article. I haven't yet figured out how DHCP and proxies are windows-unique sins that were thrust upon us by Bill and the great shadow conspiracy.
When I see short-sighted comments like 'RTFM or read the man page' it is obviously that some *nixers don't seem to understand that time is money. The company is probably not paying an accountant for their OS skills. They are paying them for their technical skills and the ability to use a particular APPLICATION that company uses. The more an OS gets in the way of that, the less effective it is.
I am sure there were people participating before who work in large data shops, but if not, there is now. We routine bought server 5-10 at a time with processor upgrades in mind. Specifically ML/DL class compacts the could use quad-processor that we purchased with a single processor. We also routinely added processors and memory. As the Xeon processors dropped in price and end-of-year money was available, we upgraded. A hardware upgrade is just around the corner named the next new application.
We bought Compaq for a number of reasons already stated. Apple is even beginning to lose the graphic design and education markets that they used to have in their pocket. Many Mac graphic design shops converted years ago. The X-Serve looks like a neat product, but comparing it to similarly price x86-based, enterprise hardware just makes people look silly.
Also, for the $200 G3 + $100 upgrade post, if there was, I would have bought one. I had a search define for used G3 blue/white towers for ever and finally gave up. By the time you got one, got it upgraded and running, you were looking at $800 when you could by a new PC that would run wrings around it and could be upgrade for one quarter the price.
If the X-Serve meets your needs, great. Yes the http://www.army.mil website does run on a mac. Not based on performance, but based on security issues. It was a quick fix, but has performed well, no disagreement.
If we can just harness Mark McGuire's brainpower then, imagine what we can do. He's so big, no one will tell him if he smells.
Actually, if you read the original story, it provides a link to the company that modifies the printers. They state that they no longer sell kits. They sell 'refurbished', upgraded printers. Their refurbished printers are about twice the price of the new one and can only be truck shipped (no air). It also appears that you trade one ink czar for another as now you can only buy your ink from them. You've got to love it. I think I will build a plotter that uses crayons instead. Don't know if they are slashdot advertisers and this was a subliminal plug or not.
I would have liked to see a jack for an external antenna. That might help the poor reception (might not). I added this to my Christmas list. For the next months/year, I don't think that there will be much on AFN that I want to record :) I don't own a Tivo/Replay yet, so I am not disappointed that some of the features are not there. Many of my favorite radio programs (CarTalk, etc.) are on at inconvenient times and are not available as stream on demand. How well this will sell, I don't know. I would have liked to see an option for recording in ogg or another non-proprietary format. I don't know if this will replace my Nex II or not, will have to wait and see. I am still waiting for the Nex to support ogg which is what I was hoping for when I bought it. I think that it would be interesting if they also produced a 1U stereo component type device that would connect into your stereo/AV system. I think they will probably get my $$. I hope that they keep improving between now and December. Thanks for the article.
Maybe, this is already apparent, but most of us don't go too far complaining to the University because we want to graduate and hopefully with a decent gradepoint average. I have been very disappointed with my professors and their dedication. This is my first graduate degree, but I have taken face-to-face graduate level classes. A TA taught the course, but at least he was present and prepared. I attend an online University in NC. I would estimate that my professors missed about 40% of the class meetings. Some didn't grade assignments for 4-6 weeks after we turned them in. The problem is that by the time you find out it is not just one professor, but a University standard, you are too far along to transfer your credits without a significant setback. FWIW. I do provide feedback at the end of every class. These are anonymous forms and I have been pretty harsh with the worst of the professors, but I have not seen much improvement. They do the surveys before finals are graded, so I think it is easy for students to get intimidated. My suggestion would be that if you have a problem with your first class, I would give serious consideration to changing institutions unless you are sure that it is an isolated incident. My first class was with the chairman of the department so that should have given me a clue (cut it didn't). Good luck.
I am a registered user of the Win/Linux versions. I am pretty disappointed. It has some unique features, but if you do much ecommerce, etc on the web, you will have to have another browser (i.e. MSN Money, etc, I know the evil M$). I did the advocacy thing, but had to get work done. I also don't appreciate their licensing model that is pretty Microsoft-ish. My question is why a closed, not free product gets a plug every time they put out a new release? Is this one of those nested advertisements?
I purchased Opera for Win and Linux at 6.1 (or so) a few months ago. Guess what, when 7.0 came out, they want me to buy it again. 7.0 looks nice, but this is the same type of behavior that seems to piss everyone off about M$. There is a lot of positive press on /. ref Opera, but I don't quite get it. I quit using it and am looking at Mozilla or Gecko, etc.