I am not "wrong" for any reason. I said that Sprint + WebOS already has "free" GPS/Nav services. That has nothing to do with Nokia or Android phones. If I bought an unlocked Nokia GSM phone, that phone can't be used on Verizon or Sprint. But that has little to do with anything I said.
Please note that the Palm Pre and Pixi (WebOS) already has "free" navigation. The base Sprint dataplan (unlike Verizon) for those phones includes turn-by-turn Sprint navigation at no extra cost (Verizon is $10/mo more, I believe for that feature and that is on top of the service plan already $20 beings per month than Sprint when you include unlimited text messaging. Sprint also has free mobile to ANY mobile communication, and better nights/weekends.)
My point is, although it is not "stand alone" navigation, it is essentially already free with the above combination. And coverage is very good. Unless users are way out in nowhere, those users already have most all of the same features of a stand-alone GPS. So although the Nokia news is interesting, it is not quite as "fantastic" as some might think.
>Microsoft may have an exclusive deal with Netflix to have built-in Netflix support
Nonsense. The TiVo has had Netflix built-in streaming for a long while now. Unless you meant an exclusive deal on GAMING CONSOLES only. But I can't imagine how that could possibly be in Netflix's best interest.
3D does not cause eye strain nor headaches when it is done PROPERLY (like it was done with Avatar 3D Imax).
Now, with 30/60Hz flicker-glasses, yeah, that could be an issue. And since that is the technology they will have to use with home TV, I am not overly optimistic... but I will reserve judgment until I experience it.
I thought that 3D added a *LOT* to Imax Avatar. It was extremely well done- visually. The story was so-so, but the visuals were beyond compare.
Would I enjoy 3D HDTV? Sure- but only if the refresh were high, and only if they keep the bitrate up. As it is, the bitrate on Cox for HDTV is horrible, there are all kinds of artifacting on my 52" LCD. Over-the-air is *MUCH* better.
Sorry, that is just not true as a blanket statement. If a check has an expiration date printed on it, then it does, indeed, expire. However, if it is not printed on the check, then you are right- it is pretty open ended and nebulous at that point.
As consumers, we might hate it, but you have to think of it this way... a gift card is an outstanding debt. A business doesn't want to have thousands or tens of thousands of tiny outstanding debts floating around FOREVER. That is the main reason there are "fees" to reduce the value of the card to zero when it isn't used.
It is the same idea as having checks expire after 180 days. If someone doesn't cash the check, it can't just sit out there "forever". The business needs to write off that debt so they can clean up their books. Otherwise, someone could come back 10 years later and cash it. Think of your own checks- would you like it if someone you wrote a check to sat on it for 5 years, then cashed it at a time when you least had the ability to pay for it?
I don't think it is unreasonable to have some type of expiration date or balance reduction time limit on gift cards, as long as it isn't too soon.
>2. The First Amendment of the Constitution [...]Treating members of a particular faith as second-class citizens would definitely violate that
Right. So we treat EVERYONE like second-class citizens so it is fair.
Not that I disagree with you, I am just pissed about the whole plane security thing. Typical reaction? They will spent hundreds of million dollars to perform background checks on passengers to see if they have ever attended a fireworks show. Passengers wearing clothing depicting fireworks or who have laptops with a fireworks screen saver will be banned. If the "firecracker terrorist" wore an earring, earrings will be banned from planes. You get the idea- a bunch of pretty meaningless steps to further ruin air travel, delay passengers, violate privacy, push prices up, all so people will feel "safe" again.
Oh, this is wonderful. Now we will probably be strip searched and forced to wear airline clothing. Why not just reconfigure planes to be more like cargo vehicles and put all passengers into a coma and pack and transport them like packages?:(
Unfortunately, Quickbooks doesn't run on *ix. Some of us don't mind (at all) paying for accounting/hr/payroll software, but we want it for the platform of our choice. I asked on Slashdot several years ago about open OR CLOSED commercial, multiplatform accounting/hr/payroll software and there really wasn't much out there, which just blew me away. Not much has changed- I located only a few companies and had to settle for something, wishing I had more choices. However, for us, the platform was very important (as much so as the end software). Unix (and now Linux) has a long, long history in business software.
Of course, the original poster didn't seem to be asking for actual software, just "templates" (whatever the hell that is supposed to be). Tax and other payroll and accounting *forms* are pretty much useless without the software that goes into tracking the data and generating the reports! Besides, those "forms" are available all over the web already.
At least YOU provided some reasons why you don't like the Pre. Even in your case, not liking the keyboard and the "UI" not being as "smooth" as the iPhone doesn't make the Pre a "POS", as the grandparent called it. It might make it "not the phone for you" or "not ideal", but certainly not a "POS".
He was a -1 Troll post, and I called it exactly that.
Had he wanted to elaborate on what he thought was wrong with it (which he didn't) and perhaps say he didn't like it... fine. That might even be "+1 Informative".
That aside, I find that the keyboard works OK. When I compare it to my Treo 700p, I MUCH prefer the Treo. The UI is actually quite innovative and works well, though it tends to be a bit jerky or laggy at times. Hopefully this will be greatly improved when the update WebOS to use the GPU (it doesn't use it AT ALL right now, which is a shame).
We use over 150 "thin clients" on our network, all Linux based and all controlled by a single (large) Linux [xdm] server. We used to use "real" thin clients (Xterminals) by Tektronix, but as their prices rose and the price of cheap, fanless, low power, small, VIA boards dropped 8-9 years ago, we decided to start making our own.
We have not regretted the decision. Now we have complete control over the hardware and software. We have the ability to run real local clients when necessary.
Right now, we are in the process of upgrading to fanless Atom 270 based motherboards from Jetway. Total cost- about $250/ea.
Is there really any huge advantage of watching 1080P on a small 10 or 11" screen??? I mean, it is nice that it can do it, and many people will be able to tell the difference from DVD quality. And perhaps one might connect a larger external monitor. But content resolution necessity is really more dictated by what the human eye can resolve and I am guessing most people won't be able to tell any significance difference on smaller screens. (And if one DOES think it matters at 11", at what point will it not matter? 10? 9? 8?)
If the objective is to be small, inexpensive, and lower resourced (and no optical), it doesn't seem like Bluray "rips" would be a high priority for that market. Besides, somehow I doubt that a [so-called] "netbook" screen would be 1920x1080, anyway (and most are not even 1280x720, although that might catch on).
You can't really have "inexpensive" *and* full-featured (based on whatever the current level of tech denotes feature rich)... If that is what they want, then they want a low-end *notebook* computer. It is not a "netbook". That is my whole beef about the terminology. The concept of the "netbook" was not born to represent a small, full-featured, yet somehow inexpensive notebook.
I bought an 11" Sony T series *notebook* in 2006 that was every bit as small and thin as my EEE 1000 netbook- but had a fast processor, built-in optical drive, high-res screen, cell modem, firewire, PC Card slot, hard drive, etc. But I paid $2000 for it (of course, that price did drop over the next few years of the T series model).
If full-featured means (relatively) faster, larger, optical drive, big hard drive, tons of memory, etc, then the term "netbook" should be incompatible with "full-featured".
Most people I know that want to run Linux (and I know quite a few) don't want to pay a Microsoft tax. Even if it is only a small savings. They want the choice to purchase a machine of their choice with the OS of their choice.
Exactly. The whole concept of "netbook" was supposed to be small, inexpensive, light, long battery life, lesser specs, solid state hard drive, and MS-Windows-Free. Asus essentially invented the category based on that. Simple, rugged, very portable, cheap.
Pretty much all of those criteria were perverted to the point that now they are really just turning into run-of-the-mill notebooks. Double the RAM, rip out the SDD, blow up the screen and case size, pack on the weight, lower the battery life, install MS-Windows, and jack up the price 50%. It just becomes a low-end notebook or sub-notebook.
Kinda like Firefox.... it was supposed to be fast, light, simple- that was it's born mission. But with each release, it was getting more complicated, bigger, harder to use, packing on more and more "features". Seems like it has been moving back to the right direction again, though (I hope).
Oh well. Maybe the true "netbook" concept will be rediscovered again soon, too.
>Seriously though, it can't be a cost issue here, the market price for aluminum is $1.1475/lb today. Why don't more manufacturers use it?
Because you can't quickly injection-mold aluminum. It is not that aluminum costs so much more than plastic, it is just much more expensive to form into parts!
Although I like aluminum housings, I am fine with plastic for most uses... AS LONG AS IT IS NOT THAT DAMN "GLOSS BLACK"!!! UG!
Now if they would just go back to their true *netbook* roots and also offer a Linux + SSD version!! That was a killer combination.
I will stick with my Linux EEE 1000 for now. Better value than the MS-Win version (for me), uncrashable "hard drive", great battery life, nice form factor, decent keyboard, reasonably fast, respectable screen. About the only two annoying things are the right shift key in the wrong place (which really kills me when using vi) and the battery light starting to blink at something like 75% power left (obviously a boo boo).
Was that "engineering application" you were after through bittorrent a copyrighted, commercial program?
If so, you accidentally, illegally downloaded kiddie porn while trying to intentionally, illegally download something else. Hmmm. That would be somewhat ironic!
OK! I got the time to install pytivo again. WOW! Everything just works!!! 264/AC3/avi streams perfectly with all features and quality intact. I threw other formats, bitrates, codecs, and containers at it and I couldn't find a SINGLE thing that didn't work. I am extremely impressed! This is the best thing that ever happened to a TiVo.
Apparently my experiences with pytivo from 1.5 years ago are way beyond outdated. Thanks to everyone on Slashdot for prompting me to try it again.:)
>If it thinks you have a series2, it will change the res, presumably to 640x480 but i haven't checked. Perhaps you misconfigured it so it thought you had a series2.
Interesting. I will check that out. Although DVD quality isn't much better than 640x480 to start with (which I want I wanted- DVD SD quality). I seem to remember it lowering the bitrate more than anything- HORRIBLE motion artifacts.
>I *have* had problems with 5.1 sound not being properly mixed down to stereo (yeah, yuck, but it's what i had until recently). The center channel was always sent to one speaker or the other. not sure if it's pytivo (ffmpeg really, it does the transcoding) or the tivo that causes this. I haven't really tried to debug it.
You mean PyTivo downmixing it? TiVo? Or your amp? I don't want it downmixed at all- I want/need to hear the original 5.1 sound of the source material. I just checked the docs on pytivo and it certainly seems to support ac3 in transcoded or copy mode (if compatible... which I think DVD AC3 should be). I REALLY need to try again... this could be great.
>you need to make sure you have a good ffmpeg build. this can be non-trivial; the one that comes with your linux distro may not be good/new enough
I am using the PLF version so that should be as good as it gets;)
Slashdot Mirror
I am not "wrong" for any reason. I said that Sprint + WebOS already has "free" GPS/Nav services. That has nothing to do with Nokia or Android phones. If I bought an unlocked Nokia GSM phone, that phone can't be used on Verizon or Sprint. But that has little to do with anything I said.
Please note that the Palm Pre and Pixi (WebOS) already has "free" navigation. The base Sprint dataplan (unlike Verizon) for those phones includes turn-by-turn Sprint navigation at no extra cost (Verizon is $10/mo more, I believe for that feature and that is on top of the service plan already $20 beings per month than Sprint when you include unlimited text messaging. Sprint also has free mobile to ANY mobile communication, and better nights/weekends.) My point is, although it is not "stand alone" navigation, it is essentially already free with the above combination. And coverage is very good. Unless users are way out in nowhere, those users already have most all of the same features of a stand-alone GPS. So although the Nokia news is interesting, it is not quite as "fantastic" as some might think.
>Microsoft may have an exclusive deal with Netflix to have built-in Netflix support
Nonsense. The TiVo has had Netflix built-in streaming for a long while now. Unless you meant an exclusive deal on GAMING CONSOLES only. But I can't imagine how that could possibly be in Netflix's best interest.
3D does not cause eye strain nor headaches when it is done PROPERLY (like it was done with Avatar 3D Imax).
Now, with 30/60Hz flicker-glasses, yeah, that could be an issue. And since that is the technology they will have to use with home TV, I am not overly optimistic... but I will reserve judgment until I experience it.
I thought that 3D added a *LOT* to Imax Avatar. It was extremely well done- visually. The story was so-so, but the visuals were beyond compare.
Would I enjoy 3D HDTV? Sure- but only if the refresh were high, and only if they keep the bitrate up. As it is, the bitrate on Cox for HDTV is horrible, there are all kinds of artifacting on my 52" LCD. Over-the-air is *MUCH* better.
Sorry, that is just not true as a blanket statement. If a check has an expiration date printed on it, then it does, indeed, expire. However, if it is not printed on the check, then you are right- it is pretty open ended and nebulous at that point.
As consumers, we might hate it, but you have to think of it this way... a gift card is an outstanding debt. A business doesn't want to have thousands or tens of thousands of tiny outstanding debts floating around FOREVER. That is the main reason there are "fees" to reduce the value of the card to zero when it isn't used.
It is the same idea as having checks expire after 180 days. If someone doesn't cash the check, it can't just sit out there "forever". The business needs to write off that debt so they can clean up their books. Otherwise, someone could come back 10 years later and cash it. Think of your own checks- would you like it if someone you wrote a check to sat on it for 5 years, then cashed it at a time when you least had the ability to pay for it?
I don't think it is unreasonable to have some type of expiration date or balance reduction time limit on gift cards, as long as it isn't too soon.
>2. The First Amendment of the Constitution [...]Treating members of a particular faith as second-class citizens would definitely violate that
Right. So we treat EVERYONE like second-class citizens so it is fair.
Not that I disagree with you, I am just pissed about the whole plane security thing. Typical reaction? They will spent hundreds of million dollars to perform background checks on passengers to see if they have ever attended a fireworks show. Passengers wearing clothing depicting fireworks or who have laptops with a fireworks screen saver will be banned. If the "firecracker terrorist" wore an earring, earrings will be banned from planes. You get the idea- a bunch of pretty meaningless steps to further ruin air travel, delay passengers, violate privacy, push prices up, all so people will feel "safe" again.
Oh, this is wonderful. Now we will probably be strip searched and forced to wear airline clothing. Why not just reconfigure planes to be more like cargo vehicles and put all passengers into a coma and pack and transport them like packages? :(
Unfortunately, Quickbooks doesn't run on *ix. Some of us don't mind (at all) paying for accounting/hr/payroll software, but we want it for the platform of our choice. I asked on Slashdot several years ago about open OR CLOSED commercial, multiplatform accounting/hr/payroll software and there really wasn't much out there, which just blew me away. Not much has changed- I located only a few companies and had to settle for something, wishing I had more choices. However, for us, the platform was very important (as much so as the end software). Unix (and now Linux) has a long, long history in business software.
Of course, the original poster didn't seem to be asking for actual software, just "templates" (whatever the hell that is supposed to be). Tax and other payroll and accounting *forms* are pretty much useless without the software that goes into tracking the data and generating the reports! Besides, those "forms" are available all over the web already.
At least YOU provided some reasons why you don't like the Pre. Even in your case, not liking the keyboard and the "UI" not being as "smooth" as the iPhone doesn't make the Pre a "POS", as the grandparent called it. It might make it "not the phone for you" or "not ideal", but certainly not a "POS".
He was a -1 Troll post, and I called it exactly that.
Had he wanted to elaborate on what he thought was wrong with it (which he didn't) and perhaps say he didn't like it... fine. That might even be "+1 Informative".
That aside, I find that the keyboard works OK. When I compare it to my Treo 700p, I MUCH prefer the Treo. The UI is actually quite innovative and works well, though it tends to be a bit jerky or laggy at times. Hopefully this will be greatly improved when the update WebOS to use the GPU (it doesn't use it AT ALL right now, which is a shame).
It is a Troll because he is calling it a curse word and adding absolutely NO objective backing, whatsoever. That is pretty much a Troll, defined.
You are a troll. I suspect you know nothing about the Pre nor WebOS.
We use over 150 "thin clients" on our network, all Linux based and all controlled by a single (large) Linux [xdm] server. We used to use "real" thin clients (Xterminals) by Tektronix, but as their prices rose and the price of cheap, fanless, low power, small, VIA boards dropped 8-9 years ago, we decided to start making our own.
We have not regretted the decision. Now we have complete control over the hardware and software. We have the ability to run real local clients when necessary.
Right now, we are in the process of upgrading to fanless Atom 270 based motherboards from Jetway. Total cost- about $250/ea.
Is there really any huge advantage of watching 1080P on a small 10 or 11" screen??? I mean, it is nice that it can do it, and many people will be able to tell the difference from DVD quality. And perhaps one might connect a larger external monitor. But content resolution necessity is really more dictated by what the human eye can resolve and I am guessing most people won't be able to tell any significance difference on smaller screens. (And if one DOES think it matters at 11", at what point will it not matter? 10? 9? 8?)
If the objective is to be small, inexpensive, and lower resourced (and no optical), it doesn't seem like Bluray "rips" would be a high priority for that market. Besides, somehow I doubt that a [so-called] "netbook" screen would be 1920x1080, anyway (and most are not even 1280x720, although that might catch on).
You can't really have "inexpensive" *and* full-featured (based on whatever the current level of tech denotes feature rich)... If that is what they want, then they want a low-end *notebook* computer. It is not a "netbook". That is my whole beef about the terminology. The concept of the "netbook" was not born to represent a small, full-featured, yet somehow inexpensive notebook.
I bought an 11" Sony T series *notebook* in 2006 that was every bit as small and thin as my EEE 1000 netbook- but had a fast processor, built-in optical drive, high-res screen, cell modem, firewire, PC Card slot, hard drive, etc. But I paid $2000 for it (of course, that price did drop over the next few years of the T series model).
If full-featured means (relatively) faster, larger, optical drive, big hard drive, tons of memory, etc, then the term "netbook" should be incompatible with "full-featured".
Most people I know that want to run Linux (and I know quite a few) don't want to pay a Microsoft tax. Even if it is only a small savings. They want the choice to purchase a machine of their choice with the OS of their choice.
Exactly. The whole concept of "netbook" was supposed to be small, inexpensive, light, long battery life, lesser specs, solid state hard drive, and MS-Windows-Free. Asus essentially invented the category based on that. Simple, rugged, very portable, cheap.
Pretty much all of those criteria were perverted to the point that now they are really just turning into run-of-the-mill notebooks. Double the RAM, rip out the SDD, blow up the screen and case size, pack on the weight, lower the battery life, install MS-Windows, and jack up the price 50%. It just becomes a low-end notebook or sub-notebook.
Kinda like Firefox.... it was supposed to be fast, light, simple- that was it's born mission. But with each release, it was getting more complicated, bigger, harder to use, packing on more and more "features". Seems like it has been moving back to the right direction again, though (I hope).
Oh well. Maybe the true "netbook" concept will be rediscovered again soon, too.
>Seriously though, it can't be a cost issue here, the market price for aluminum is $1.1475/lb today. Why don't more manufacturers use it?
Because you can't quickly injection-mold aluminum. It is not that aluminum costs so much more than plastic, it is just much more expensive to form into parts!
Although I like aluminum housings, I am fine with plastic for most uses... AS LONG AS IT IS NOT THAT DAMN "GLOSS BLACK"!!! UG!
Now if they would just go back to their true *netbook* roots and also offer a Linux + SSD version!! That was a killer combination.
I will stick with my Linux EEE 1000 for now. Better value than the MS-Win version (for me), uncrashable "hard drive", great battery life, nice form factor, decent keyboard, reasonably fast, respectable screen. About the only two annoying things are the right shift key in the wrong place (which really kills me when using vi) and the battery light starting to blink at something like 75% power left (obviously a boo boo).
>The article notes that DECAF is not open source, so you aren't really going to know for sure what it will do to your computer.
And most people running MS-Windows know for sure what THAT will do to their computers?
Does seem odd, though, that DECAF would not be open so people (in the know) would trust it and could learn from it. Oh well.
>What's a district attorney to do when someone anonymously sends the D.A. an email with kiddie porn attached?
I thought that was pretty clear from the article. Of course, he should immediately turn himself into the Cops/FBI! Can they really be serious???
Was that "engineering application" you were after through bittorrent a copyrighted, commercial program?
If so, you accidentally, illegally downloaded kiddie porn while trying to intentionally, illegally download something else. Hmmm. That would be somewhat ironic!
OK! I got the time to install pytivo again. WOW! Everything just works!!! 264/AC3/avi streams perfectly with all features and quality intact. I threw other formats, bitrates, codecs, and containers at it and I couldn't find a SINGLE thing that didn't work. I am extremely impressed! This is the best thing that ever happened to a TiVo.
Apparently my experiences with pytivo from 1.5 years ago are way beyond outdated. Thanks to everyone on Slashdot for prompting me to try it again. :)
>If it thinks you have a series2, it will change the res, presumably to 640x480 but i haven't checked. Perhaps you misconfigured it so it thought you had a series2.
Interesting. I will check that out. Although DVD quality isn't much better than 640x480 to start with (which I want I wanted- DVD SD quality). I seem to remember it lowering the bitrate more than anything- HORRIBLE motion artifacts.
>I *have* had problems with 5.1 sound not being properly mixed down to stereo (yeah, yuck, but it's what i had until recently). The center channel was always sent to one speaker or the other. not sure if it's pytivo (ffmpeg really, it does the transcoding) or the tivo that causes this. I haven't really tried to debug it.
You mean PyTivo downmixing it? TiVo? Or your amp? I don't want it downmixed at all- I want/need to hear the original 5.1 sound of the source material. I just checked the docs on pytivo and it certainly seems to support ac3 in transcoded or copy mode (if compatible... which I think DVD AC3 should be). I REALLY need to try again... this could be great.
>you need to make sure you have a good ffmpeg build. this can be non-trivial; the one that comes with your linux distro may not be good/new enough
I am using the PLF version so that should be as good as it gets ;)