But TIVO is not getting anything from the media companies.
Sadly, you're wrong. TiVo is getting a lack of lawsuits from the media companies for implementing a variety of anti-consumer, anti-fair use features in their boxes.
If the currently proposed version of GPLv3 is widely adopted, we may be unable to incorporate future enhancements to the GNU/Linux operating system into our software, which could adversely affect our business,
Or you could remember who your true customers are and quit putting anti-consumer features (e.g. DRM, removal of the 30-second forward skip, automatically deleting recordings) into your product!
The two 'Pirates' flicks sold an estimated 47,000 units, while the 'Matrix' sets sold just about 13,900 units. Is this an indication of movie quality, or another notch in the belt for the Blu-ray format?"
Don't know about you, but I don't see either of those sales figures setting the world on fire. Not with 1.2 Billion DVD's being sold in 2004, and Finding Nemo selling 28 million DVDs alone in 2003.
Eolas: It's the same patent!
Microsoft: IsNot!
Eolas: How can you say it IsNot the same patent?
Microsoft: because we've patented IsNot,, which means we can say it, and you can't!
Eolas: IsNot IsNot IsNot!
Microsoft: Lawyers!!!
Whether a key is cracked the day the first disc containing it is sold, or weeks/months later, once cracked it's cracked permanently. This means that all discs will be available unencoded sooner or later.
So the question becomes, is the industry striving for a few weeks of exclusivity for their product that's worth this high cost and customer anger? I think the answer is yes, and that's why they continue to go through this long, arduous exercise. After all, people aren't very patient. Many (too many, IMHO) have to buy new discs the day they're released, rather than wait for a DRM-free solution that lets you decide which parts and how you'll watch the disc (skip that redundant FBI warning), rather than them.
I also think they tried -- very unsuccessfully -- to scare away the hackers by saying, it's all wasted effort on your part. Even if you ever break our much stronger than CSS encryption, we'll just revoke the key on you anyway. Didn't work, but then their real goal was maybe to just hold the fort for the first 3 weeks of sales.
As for the BD+ extra security for BluRay -- talk abut one way to lose the format wars quickly as everyone moves to HD-DVD to avoid it.
My concern isn't that they can cram 80 processors of some capability onto a single chip (how many i486 processors could you put on the current Core 2 Duo die and transistor budget at 65/45nm?), but how can you feed enough data on and back off the chip to keep these processors running at near full speed? 8000 processors on a chip are worthless if they can't get to their data.
And I'm not impressed by the Flop rate. Not with the Cell Processor already out for a year.
Does it break geographical boundaries if I make a tape of the game and carry it with me to watch on my trip? Can I be sued for doing that?
Slingbox simply automates a process that has been done the old fashioned way since the advent of the home VCR. It's better. It's nicer. It's far more consumer friendly, but it's essentially the same thing!
The unfortunate problem is that the courts tend to be anal about these things. A court ruled recently that while it's legal for the cable company to rent you a DVR and place it next to your television set, it's illegal for them to move the DVR functionality to their own servers and send you the program on demand over the cable in a way that looks the same as though you'd recorded it yourself. It's the same d@mn thing in every regard except in the eyes of some dumb judge.
The courts seem to need to inspect (meddle in) every little piece of technological progress and nitpick reasons why this isn't legal, although the same functionality implemented in an earlier was was completely legal. Just how far away from your TV set will this judge allow your legal DVR to be placed before it becomes illegal. That's what I'd like to know.
Of course, I'll bet that the moment Sling Media is ready to hand over a substantial wad of cash to MLB for providing this functionality to their fans, that MLB will have no problems with it at all.
I say that Fair Use lets me both time and place-shift. No industry in America deserves the right, or the power, to not only tell you what (show the program in another country, but not yours for a year) and when (Do Not Record flag that idiots who forget who their customers really are, like TiVo, slavishly obey) you can watch their show, but where as well. If I pay for it, I should be able to watch it anywhere I am! It's not like Sling Media hasn't taken effective steps to limit the viewing or distribution of the program to the purchaser alone.
It's also no wonder that the more the content industry tightens the screws (no fast forwarding now through commercials, let alone 30-second skip, on new programming) that the more people turn to alternative methods (e.g. BitTorrent) for getting their content, and the ability to watch it, as they desire.
If this was an honest comparison, rather than thinly veiled Windows bashing, you'd be comparing a Mac 6.0.8 against the latest OS/X. But then one of the Apples would have to look bad. Since a modern Apple is reasonably comparable to a modern Windows PC in basic functions of 20 years ago expecially (does your Apple really scroll that much faster than XP?), you would have gotten pretty similar results to the ones against modern Windows -- which is obviously not what you wanted.
Much of what we did in the 80's as basic everyday functions bears small relationship to what we do now, starting with having multiple windows open, and high resolution COLOR, which nobody's going to give up for more speed.
And even if it does require 500X more memory than 20 years ago, memory is how many times cheaper and faster today than then?
Why not compare printers as well? An 8ppm Apple LaserWriters for big $$$'s against what today?
Slashdot Mirror
And you can call your airplane Air Force Vista 3.0.
Sadly, you're wrong. TiVo is getting a lack of lawsuits from the media companies for implementing a variety of anti-consumer, anti-fair use features in their boxes.
Really? Where?
Of course, this would be a problem then because it would prevent them from implementing more effective DRM.
Or you could remember who your true customers are and quit putting anti-consumer features (e.g. DRM, removal of the 30-second forward skip, automatically deleting recordings) into your product!
But there is a shortage of space, and load bearing capacity, on my roof, which could make these desirable over less efficient models.
I suppose this will be great for satellites though.
There is no shortage of space in outer space.
And I'm sure we're projected to see them in the magic next 5 years.
And they're the idiots who voted for Chavez in the first place.
Venezuela blocks YouTube.
Be nice if it was global, and not just USA.
Don't know about you, but I don't see either of those sales figures setting the world on fire. Not with 1.2 Billion DVD's being sold in 2004, and Finding Nemo selling 28 million DVDs alone in 2003.
Eolas: It's the same patent!
Microsoft: IsNot!
Eolas: How can you say it IsNot the same patent?
Microsoft: because we've patented IsNot,, which means we can say it, and you can't!
Eolas: IsNot IsNot IsNot!
Microsoft: Lawyers!!!
At the rate that people are dying, Vipers and fleet ships being lost, fuel and food being consumed, they'll be lucky to make it to season 3.5.
Always be careful when dealing with the paranoid beast. You'll be the one to lose fingers, not it!
Whether a key is cracked the day the first disc containing it is sold, or weeks/months later, once cracked it's cracked permanently. This means that all discs will be available unencoded sooner or later.
So the question becomes, is the industry striving for a few weeks of exclusivity for their product that's worth this high cost and customer anger? I think the answer is yes, and that's why they continue to go through this long, arduous exercise. After all, people aren't very patient. Many (too many, IMHO) have to buy new discs the day they're released, rather than wait for a DRM-free solution that lets you decide which parts and how you'll watch the disc (skip that redundant FBI warning), rather than them.
I also think they tried -- very unsuccessfully -- to scare away the hackers by saying, it's all wasted effort on your part. Even if you ever break our much stronger than CSS encryption, we'll just revoke the key on you anyway. Didn't work, but then their real goal was maybe to just hold the fort for the first 3 weeks of sales.
As for the BD+ extra security for BluRay -- talk abut one way to lose the format wars quickly as everyone moves to HD-DVD to avoid it.
Give up on DRM!
And I'm not impressed by the Flop rate. Not with the Cell Processor already out for a year.
Yeah. 80 different distributions at once.
Yet that's part of the bloat, and part of the current user experience, so I feel it would qualify as a valid comparison.
Slingbox simply automates a process that has been done the old fashioned way since the advent of the home VCR. It's better. It's nicer. It's far more consumer friendly, but it's essentially the same thing!
The unfortunate problem is that the courts tend to be anal about these things. A court ruled recently that while it's legal for the cable company to rent you a DVR and place it next to your television set, it's illegal for them to move the DVR functionality to their own servers and send you the program on demand over the cable in a way that looks the same as though you'd recorded it yourself. It's the same d@mn thing in every regard except in the eyes of some dumb judge.
The courts seem to need to inspect (meddle in) every little piece of technological progress and nitpick reasons why this isn't legal, although the same functionality implemented in an earlier was was completely legal. Just how far away from your TV set will this judge allow your legal DVR to be placed before it becomes illegal. That's what I'd like to know.
Of course, I'll bet that the moment Sling Media is ready to hand over a substantial wad of cash to MLB for providing this functionality to their fans, that MLB will have no problems with it at all.
It's also no wonder that the more the content industry tightens the screws (no fast forwarding now through commercials, let alone 30-second skip, on new programming) that the more people turn to alternative methods (e.g. BitTorrent) for getting their content, and the ability to watch it, as they desire.
That would, btw, be a great password method. Place your palm down on it to login.
As far as automated fortune telling, that would certainly be the app that many people would come over to try first.
If this was an honest comparison, rather than thinly veiled Windows bashing, you'd be comparing a Mac 6.0.8 against the latest OS/X. But then one of the Apples would have to look bad. Since a modern Apple is reasonably comparable to a modern Windows PC in basic functions of 20 years ago expecially (does your Apple really scroll that much faster than XP?), you would have gotten pretty similar results to the ones against modern Windows -- which is obviously not what you wanted.
And even if it does require 500X more memory than 20 years ago, memory is how many times cheaper and faster today than then?
Why not compare printers as well? An 8ppm Apple LaserWriters for big $$$'s against what today?
Run your system off of a bootable CD. A little slower to boot, but once it's in memory...
Hey, can you forward them to a pay-by-the-minute sex-chat or psychic hotline number, and have it appear on their bill -- not yours?