Unless you are using an external AC/DC inverter, there usually isn't one in an embedded application. Anything with an LCD the size of a PDA uses a frontlight display. Laptops use inverters to power the CCFL because their screens are simply to large for an effective frontlight to work.
So email, telephone, and paper mail are all immune to this effect? Are you are saying Instant Messangers are the only form of communication that is private, goes outside of a company, and sniffable/unsecure?
Let me get this straight. You are working at a health care facility asking about a health care solution, from slashdot? Where do you work? I want to make sure I stay as far away from there as possible.
The last thing I want to see at a health care facility is someone rolling in a laptop and a lead-acid battery. (Which is probably the worse idea.) It seems to me there is a better solution, however, you have given no details. Instead, as is the new usual fashion, you have posted an idea you had in the shower to see if 1) you could get posted on slashdot and 2) anyone thought it was a good idea. (which, by the way, it isn't.) Or at least I don't think it is... you haven't told us what you're doing so its hard to determine that.
Call me silly but I choose not to play it because it won't run on my computer. It requires Doors or something like that.
Honestly though the only computer I have powerful enough to run it has never had Windows installed on it. My laptop has no hope of being able to play games (without branding the HP logo on my legs.) That in combination with confusing legal moves, I have mixed emotions about it.
Now slow down there professor. I did not say I placed all of the blame on Sony. My intention was to show how those issues were mounting to my dissatisfaction. The only thing I blame on Sony is the final installation dialog. It is extremely vauge and does not provide the user any feedback to what its doing. In fact the manual (which I did read) says 20) "The "Complete" messages appears. Select "OK" to quit the install program. That, in conjunction with a dialog that tells you to reset the machine now, is confusing.
As for the network adapter. Now you are just trying to make it look like I'm whining for no reason. You are offering vauge suggestions to show me I'm being zealous. The issue has nothing to do with mp3s. It is not related to the sound system, it is not related to splay, and it has nothing to do with the playback rate. There is nothing in the paper manual about changing the playback rate. I say that only because I haven't had a chance to read the electronic versions. The issue with the network adapter is soley based on network traffic. It just so happened (as I found out) that streaming mp3s caused the issue to initially occur. Perhaps if you RTFM (message) then you would see that transfering large files caused the problem as well.
Do you really think I did not express my concern about not sending the entire kit back? I asked the woman several times if she was sure about it. She came back and said "Yes, my manager says we can not accept the invdividual components. We must receive the entire kit so that we can send you an entirely new one. Please note on the return sheet that only the keyboard is defective." So, as you can see, she fully understood that only 1 component needed to be returned. Furthermore if you had, again, RTFM, you would see that using it remotely was causing problems. Therefore your suggestion, again, would not have done any good.
The next time you want to disagree with someone and try to discredit them, please take the time to actually read their message. It would also be helpful to provide actual suggestions. (Not suggestions that show you thumbing your nose at the orginal poster.)
So far I have to say I am probably on the disappointed side of the scale. First of all, there is a lack of quaility help with the kit. Why? Because, for example, www.playstation2-linux.com has been overrun by people who can't read. When purchasing the kit they failed to notice the pre-req's which said "SOG Monitor Required" and "a basic understanding of the Linux operating system." While this wouldn't be a large problem, it is making it hard to get support when you have a real issue. It seems everyday someone posts "I can't believe my montior doesn't work" or "Can I run Windows games on the PS2?" or someone posts "Why don't CDRs work?" Apparently none of these people know what a FAQ is.
Right now I am sitting without a kit, but I'll get to that in a second.
I pre-ordered my kit on March 7th. I received an email which I assumed to be the confirmation. In my email header it said: " Your PlayStation.com Order #711699 has been d." I even took a cursory look at the message and it looked just like a receipt from any other online store. What I failed to do was read the actual message. It was in fact telling me my credit card (for no apparent reason) was declined. I admit I should have read the message more closely, but it would have been nice if an actual confirmation didn't look exactly the same. I realized this error on May 25th.
After finally receiving my kit I eagerly ripped everything open and got my PS2 hooked up. Having done my homework, I was very happy to see it talk nicely to my SOG compatible monitor. I even commented "wow, this is a really nice quality keyboard." So I threw in my Linux Disc 2 DVD since, again, I failed to read. This time it was pure excitement to blame. Disc 2 had placed in the disc holder on top, with Disc 1 below it. This was highly intitive.
The install was going normally. After the RTE loads it looks just like a RedHat install. I got all the way up to the point of partitioning my hard drive. Being that I've been using Linux for longer than I can remember, I defaulted by selecting fdisk. After I was done I hit 'w' to write my table, and nothing happened. In fact the PS2 locked up. I couldn't believe it. So I rebooted. I very quickly found that the keyboard had failed, as it would no longer respond. Neither my Desktop (Mandrake) or my laptop (Win2k) would recognize it as a USB device. Of course this happened at 8:55pm. 5 minutes before all of the electronic stores in town closed.
So the next morning I went to Fry's and bought a $20 USB keyboard. I came home and got Linux installed. Again this concept of reading got to me. The final dialog says something that reads like: "Press Enter, Put Disc 1 in, and reboot." So I did. I was greated to a hard drive FSCKing itself, a corrupted modules.conf, and an ethernet adapter that wouldn't init. So I re-installed. This time I read the screen more carefully. Apparently it is intiutively obvious that you are to wait 2-3 minutes while the system shuts down. It would have been nice if they let you see the shutdown progress (or told you to wait.) (I know I ragged people for not reading when they bought the kit, but I am willing to admit I should have read all of the above more carefully.)
Finally my machine is up and running. I even have XMMS complied and installed. So I hook it up to my stereo, connect to it remotely, and mount a NFS share. I'm ready to listen to MP3s on my surround sound system for the first time ever. I launch XMMS and my PS2, again, freezes. After rebooting I am told I can't login because the system has lost power and is rebooting. Uh huh. So I login at the console and do a proper reboot. This time XMMS loaded without a hitch. It played exactly 1 mp3 and locked up again. This time I realized that it was not the PS2 locking up, but the network adapter. This is becoming a known problem at the aforementioned website.
Finally, my last woe in this whole story. In order to replace my USB keyboard (BTW, all of the components come in their own retail boxes) I must return the entire kit. Yes, playstation.com is incapable of only replacing 1 component. They instead, insisit, I ship back the entire kit (at my cost) to get a keyboard replaced. How nice.
If the network adapter issue isn't solved in the next 30 days, then I am going to sadly return the kit, as so far, it hasn't been worth $200.
JTAG ports only require 5 pins. I've never seen one that is 30-some signals. The data of a JTAG port is clocked in/out serially. Since JTAG is meant as a test port, you don't usually see it taking up more than a few pins of a device. I know for a fact that Intel Processors do not use more than 5 pins for their JTAG ports.
"...shouldn't it take a lot of money to get ICs printed and tested?"
This is entirely dependant on the type of IC you are producing. Take the modchips for PS, for example. They are all PLDs of some variety. Some guy just buys 100 of them and a programmer. With that, he is spitting out $30 chips at a cost to him of $2/chip. I very much doubt anyone with the resources to fund having a mask'd ICs would do a modchip. The offended company would probably go directly after them for the lawsuit.
My guess would be these are just a cheap FPGA or PLD that can be programmed by a PC or a gang-bang programmer. Cheap to design, build, and test.
This is excellent! I can spend $200 on the XBox and $100 on this modchip and $0 on games! This is great because if it wasn't for the modchip I'd spend $200 on the XBox and $0 on the modchip and $0 on the games! Oh wait, that doesn't save me any money. =)
Seriously until there is a game worth playing (let alone worth buying), I won't even pirate on the XBox. My real fear is that a number of people (somewhat like me, but even less honest...I still buy games that I PLAY) have been waiting for a modchip. This will inflate console sales, but still not see a significant increase in game sales. I guess we'll see.
Yeah my that is how my VCR worked. In fact, now that I think about it, the quailty was so bad I couldn't tell what any of the commericals were for when I watched it. At least with my TiVo I can make out what is being shown. I know at least a couple (but not many) of times I've gone back to see what the commercial was...usually for movie trailers or sexy girls.
The 0.75 provides a two-fold measurement system. First it protects them from having people take 3 copies of the paper and use them as a toliet paper replacement. Secondly, it is far easier to count how many people are reading your paper if they are purchasing it. Most of the time when someone purchases something they intend to use it. It isn't very often we buy something and then immediately proceed to place it into the trash can (trash bags aside.) However, when given something for free we tend to not care about it and waste it.
Yes, but you're still SEEING the commercials - they're just going extremely quickly.
Not really. The VCR I bought 3 years ago has built in commerical skip. It has the option of letting you watch it skip through the commercials or blue screening while doing so. I usually left it on the blue so that I would know once it was done skipping. My TiVo doesn't let you instantly skip the commercials. Granted you can enable the 30-second skip, but that still doesn't get you to the exact end of them.
Not all PVR's let you skip over them in 0 seconds and not all VCRs require you to watch them while skipping.
I would say do NOT lie on your resume. Even if you lie by understatement it is still a lie. If you lie, you run the risk of being fired from the job at any time. Say you get hired at CompUSA and work there for a year. On your anniversery you get fired because some overacheiving assistant manager noticed a problem on your old application. Well then next month when you have to go and apply for a job how are you going to explain being fired? Or will you lie again? In that case, how will you explain not working for an entire year? Not to mention that lieing in any form shows poor character.
I believe omitting glorious details would be the way to go. Simply restructure your resume not to include information that may hinder your chances. For example, do not not salary information. CompUSA probably does not care about your salary history anyway. You are required to tell them either. Instead of talking up your previous job like you normally would, talk it down. For example:
"...where I was responsible for rebuilding the database from a Micorsoft Access db into 3rd normal form SQL based database. At that point I trained a team of programmers on 3NF and proceeded to become a certified Oracle Expert." Let's change that to: "...where I worked with an Access database to track our inventory."
You're not lieing, but you are showing you have some abilities above most others. Remember, lieing (even if to make yourself look worse) is wrong and could cost you a any job.
No its not. Because all you see is a green light blurring around the screen. It looks more like a Pinball tournament than a lightsaber fight. Oh and don't forget the overly (and I mean OVERLY) cheesy line, "It appears we can not settle this fight with our knowledge of the force..." bah. Episode II is an improvement over I, but not by much.
I read through comments on subscription stories and laugh. People bitch and moan about paying and give alternate places to go for the information. Worse yet, some people make comments to sound cool like "Man, another site I have to adjust Junkbuster for" or whatever. Those are the most irritating.
What I find is funny that I am annoyed by people who block ads or complain about having to pay. The irony of it is, I have a TiVo and I skip through commericals like mad. Makes me wonder if I should stop paying for online content too. (BTW, $20/yr is far cheaper than my subscription to Playstatioin Magazine. AND the information on Gamespot is far more up to date than what's on paper.)
Where did you get your information? Power supplies aren't designed with "frequency encoders" or anything like that. Either a power supply outputs DC or AC. Since solid state electronics require DC, it seems pretty obvious ALL you need to do is strap 12V worth of batteries on it.
what is this blackout you are talking about? I've been using slashdot for a long long long time. I post comments almost daily, and I have a maxed out Karma (for a couple years it seems like). Must not be a "Great Slashdot Blackout" if someone who frequents slashdot a couple times a day doesn't know what it is. Sounds more like the "Lame Slashdot Blackout."
Yes it is. Its also the same product/company that apologized for doing so. On the next software update much of that convience was put back into place. There was never any functionaily removed. The recorder has always allowed you to manually record shows and pause live TV. The only people that were upset were the people who were not subscribing. The #1 complaint was the fact that everytime you hit the TiVo button, it'd ask you to subscribe.
I'd also like to add that its cost effective for me to spend $12/mo to let TiVo get the guide and take care of itself. Sure someone might say the data is free (from some easily obtainable resource which I have yet to see someone mention) and that you could write/download the software to handle it all. Of course, $12 equals about 15 minutes of my time. So I can either spend $12 or 2-4 hours a month dicking around with a computer sitting in my living room that lets me watch TV.
I'd rather just spend the $12 and know there is a 1-800 number I can call when something goes wrong.
Although not directly related to the article, I did get an idea. Some may say this is slightly off-topic, but we'll see. I've picked "test equipment" because I want a reputable source. Meaning, this scenario would be a honest accident.
Okay so I write some code for a piece of test equipment. Let's just pick an example situation. I don't want to argue if this is a good or bad idea, but say I did it anyway. Every once in a while the machine checks to see if it is slipping its calibration. If it is, it contacts some server to say "hey look at me." Then the server responds and says "yeah I see you." Well with my expansive programming skills I accidentally code a bug. Let's say instead of contacting the intended target, I just start contacting anything I can find. Well another analyzer sees my cries for help and starts yelling too. See where I am going?
The code was never intended to broadcast huge amounts of useless traffic. It happened by accident. I picked this haphazard example to be similar to Code Red. The machines are basically messaging, like mad, between each other. So does this mean my company or I should have charged (civil or criminal) against us? I say no, but I'm sure a lawyer would scream yes.
Slashdot Mirror
what inverter?
Unless you are using an external AC/DC inverter, there usually isn't one in an embedded application. Anything with an LCD the size of a PDA uses a frontlight display. Laptops use inverters to power the CCFL because their screens are simply to large for an effective frontlight to work.
Will you be able to set up a doctor's appointment for organ removal and simultaneously list the spare kindey for sale?
I find that prospect likely. Afterall, Ebay does provide you with the necessary (unused) tools.
So email, telephone, and paper mail are all immune to this effect? Are you are saying Instant Messangers are the only form of communication that is private, goes outside of a company, and sniffable/unsecure?
Interesting.
Let me get this straight. You are working at a health care facility asking about a health care solution, from slashdot? Where do you work? I want to make sure I stay as far away from there as possible.
The last thing I want to see at a health care facility is someone rolling in a laptop and a lead-acid battery. (Which is probably the worse idea.) It seems to me there is a better solution, however, you have given no details. Instead, as is the new usual fashion, you have posted an idea you had in the shower to see if 1) you could get posted on slashdot and 2) anyone thought it was a good idea. (which, by the way, it isn't.) Or at least I don't think it is... you haven't told us what you're doing so its hard to determine that.
Call me silly but I choose not to play it because it won't run on my computer. It requires Doors or something like that.
Honestly though the only computer I have powerful enough to run it has never had Windows installed on it. My laptop has no hope of being able to play games (without branding the HP logo on my legs.) That in combination with confusing legal moves, I have mixed emotions about it.
I found it humorous that in the "Special Offers" Box there was a ad/link that read: "Access Your PC from Anywhere - Free Download"
Now slow down there professor. I did not say I placed all of the blame on Sony. My intention was to show how those issues were mounting to my dissatisfaction. The only thing I blame on Sony is the final installation dialog. It is extremely vauge and does not provide the user any feedback to what its doing. In fact the manual (which I did read) says 20) "The "Complete" messages appears. Select "OK" to quit the install program. That, in conjunction with a dialog that tells you to reset the machine now, is confusing.
As for the network adapter. Now you are just trying to make it look like I'm whining for no reason. You are offering vauge suggestions to show me I'm being zealous. The issue has nothing to do with mp3s. It is not related to the sound system, it is not related to splay, and it has nothing to do with the playback rate. There is nothing in the paper manual about changing the playback rate. I say that only because I haven't had a chance to read the electronic versions. The issue with the network adapter is soley based on network traffic. It just so happened (as I found out) that streaming mp3s caused the issue to initially occur. Perhaps if you RTFM (message) then you would see that transfering large files caused the problem as well.
Do you really think I did not express my concern about not sending the entire kit back? I asked the woman several times if she was sure about it. She came back and said "Yes, my manager says we can not accept the invdividual components. We must receive the entire kit so that we can send you an entirely new one. Please note on the return sheet that only the keyboard is defective." So, as you can see, she fully understood that only 1 component needed to be returned. Furthermore if you had, again, RTFM, you would see that using it remotely was causing problems. Therefore your suggestion, again, would not have done any good.
The next time you want to disagree with someone and try to discredit them, please take the time to actually read their message. It would also be helpful to provide actual suggestions. (Not suggestions that show you thumbing your nose at the orginal poster.)
So far I have to say I am probably on the disappointed side of the scale. First of all, there is a lack of quaility help with the kit. Why? Because, for example, www.playstation2-linux.com has been overrun by people who can't read. When purchasing the kit they failed to notice the pre-req's which said "SOG Monitor Required" and "a basic understanding of the Linux operating system." While this wouldn't be a large problem, it is making it hard to get support when you have a real issue. It seems everyday someone posts "I can't believe my montior doesn't work" or "Can I run Windows games on the PS2?" or someone posts "Why don't CDRs work?" Apparently none of these people know what a FAQ is.
Right now I am sitting without a kit, but I'll get to that in a second.
I pre-ordered my kit on March 7th. I received an email which I assumed to be the confirmation. In my email header it said: " Your PlayStation.com Order #711699 has been d." I even took a cursory look at the message and it looked just like a receipt from any other online store. What I failed to do was read the actual message. It was in fact telling me my credit card (for no apparent reason) was declined. I admit I should have read the message more closely, but it would have been nice if an actual confirmation didn't look exactly the same. I realized this error on May 25th.
After finally receiving my kit I eagerly ripped everything open and got my PS2 hooked up. Having done my homework, I was very happy to see it talk nicely to my SOG compatible monitor. I even commented "wow, this is a really nice quality keyboard." So I threw in my Linux Disc 2 DVD since, again, I failed to read. This time it was pure excitement to blame. Disc 2 had placed in the disc holder on top, with Disc 1 below it. This was highly intitive.
The install was going normally. After the RTE loads it looks just like a RedHat install. I got all the way up to the point of partitioning my hard drive. Being that I've been using Linux for longer than I can remember, I defaulted by selecting fdisk. After I was done I hit 'w' to write my table, and nothing happened. In fact the PS2 locked up. I couldn't believe it. So I rebooted. I very quickly found that the keyboard had failed, as it would no longer respond. Neither my Desktop (Mandrake) or my laptop (Win2k) would recognize it as a USB device. Of course this happened at 8:55pm. 5 minutes before all of the electronic stores in town closed.
So the next morning I went to Fry's and bought a $20 USB keyboard. I came home and got Linux installed. Again this concept of reading got to me. The final dialog says something that reads like: "Press Enter, Put Disc 1 in, and reboot." So I did. I was greated to a hard drive FSCKing itself, a corrupted modules.conf, and an ethernet adapter that wouldn't init. So I re-installed. This time I read the screen more carefully. Apparently it is intiutively obvious that you are to wait 2-3 minutes while the system shuts down. It would have been nice if they let you see the shutdown progress (or told you to wait.) (I know I ragged people for not reading when they bought the kit, but I am willing to admit I should have read all of the above more carefully.)
Finally my machine is up and running. I even have XMMS complied and installed. So I hook it up to my stereo, connect to it remotely, and mount a NFS share. I'm ready to listen to MP3s on my surround sound system for the first time ever. I launch XMMS and my PS2, again, freezes. After rebooting I am told I can't login because the system has lost power and is rebooting. Uh huh. So I login at the console and do a proper reboot. This time XMMS loaded without a hitch. It played exactly 1 mp3 and locked up again. This time I realized that it was not the PS2 locking up, but the network adapter. This is becoming a known problem at the aforementioned website.
Finally, my last woe in this whole story. In order to replace my USB keyboard (BTW, all of the components come in their own retail boxes) I must return the entire kit. Yes, playstation.com is incapable of only replacing 1 component. They instead, insisit, I ship back the entire kit (at my cost) to get a keyboard replaced. How nice.
If the network adapter issue isn't solved in the next 30 days, then I am going to sadly return the kit, as so far, it hasn't been worth $200.
My bad. I thought you meant the 30 connections somehow meant there was going to be a JTAG port. I didn't realize the mod itself had a jtag on it.
JTAG ports only require 5 pins. I've never seen one that is 30-some signals. The data of a JTAG port is clocked in/out serially. Since JTAG is meant as a test port, you don't usually see it taking up more than a few pins of a device. I know for a fact that Intel Processors do not use more than 5 pins for their JTAG ports.
"...shouldn't it take a lot of money to get ICs printed and tested?"
This is entirely dependant on the type of IC you are producing. Take the modchips for PS, for example. They are all PLDs of some variety. Some guy just buys 100 of them and a programmer. With that, he is spitting out $30 chips at a cost to him of $2/chip. I very much doubt anyone with the resources to fund having a mask'd ICs would do a modchip. The offended company would probably go directly after them for the lawsuit.
My guess would be these are just a cheap FPGA or PLD that can be programmed by a PC or a gang-bang programmer. Cheap to design, build, and test.
This is excellent! I can spend $200 on the XBox and $100 on this modchip and $0 on games! This is great because if it wasn't for the modchip I'd spend $200 on the XBox and $0 on the modchip and $0 on the games! Oh wait, that doesn't save me any money. =)
Seriously until there is a game worth playing (let alone worth buying), I won't even pirate on the XBox. My real fear is that a number of people (somewhat like me, but even less honest...I still buy games that I PLAY) have been waiting for a modchip. This will inflate console sales, but still not see a significant increase in game sales. I guess we'll see.
Yeah my that is how my VCR worked. In fact, now that I think about it, the quailty was so bad I couldn't tell what any of the commericals were for when I watched it. At least with my TiVo I can make out what is being shown. I know at least a couple (but not many) of times I've gone back to see what the commercial was...usually for movie trailers or sexy girls.
The 0.75 provides a two-fold measurement system. First it protects them from having people take 3 copies of the paper and use them as a toliet paper replacement. Secondly, it is far easier to count how many people are reading your paper if they are purchasing it. Most of the time when someone purchases something they intend to use it. It isn't very often we buy something and then immediately proceed to place it into the trash can (trash bags aside.) However, when given something for free we tend to not care about it and waste it.
Yes, but you're still SEEING the commercials - they're just going extremely quickly.
Not really. The VCR I bought 3 years ago has built in commerical skip. It has the option of letting you watch it skip through the commercials or blue screening while doing so. I usually left it on the blue so that I would know once it was done skipping. My TiVo doesn't let you instantly skip the commercials. Granted you can enable the 30-second skip, but that still doesn't get you to the exact end of them.
Not all PVR's let you skip over them in 0 seconds and not all VCRs require you to watch them while skipping.
I would say do NOT lie on your resume. Even if you lie by understatement it is still a lie. If you lie, you run the risk of being fired from the job at any time. Say you get hired at CompUSA and work there for a year. On your anniversery you get fired because some overacheiving assistant manager noticed a problem on your old application. Well then next month when you have to go and apply for a job how are you going to explain being fired? Or will you lie again? In that case, how will you explain not working for an entire year? Not to mention that lieing in any form shows poor character.
I believe omitting glorious details would be the way to go. Simply restructure your resume not to include information that may hinder your chances. For example, do not not salary information. CompUSA probably does not care about your salary history anyway. You are required to tell them either. Instead of talking up your previous job like you normally would, talk it down. For example:
"...where I was responsible for rebuilding the database from a Micorsoft Access db into 3rd normal form SQL based database. At that point I trained a team of programmers on 3NF and proceeded to become a certified Oracle Expert."
Let's change that to:
"...where I worked with an Access database to track our inventory."
You're not lieing, but you are showing you have some abilities above most others. Remember, lieing (even if to make yourself look worse) is wrong and could cost you a any job.
No its not. Because all you see is a green light blurring around the screen. It looks more like a Pinball tournament than a lightsaber fight. Oh and don't forget the overly (and I mean OVERLY) cheesy line, "It appears we can not settle this fight with our knowledge of the force..." bah. Episode II is an improvement over I, but not by much.
I read through comments on subscription stories and laugh. People bitch and moan about paying and give alternate places to go for the information. Worse yet, some people make comments to sound cool like "Man, another site I have to adjust Junkbuster for" or whatever. Those are the most irritating.
What I find is funny that I am annoyed by people who block ads or complain about having to pay. The irony of it is, I have a TiVo and I skip through commericals like mad. Makes me wonder if I should stop paying for online content too. (BTW, $20/yr is far cheaper than my subscription to Playstatioin Magazine. AND the information on Gamespot is far more up to date than what's on paper.)
Where did you get your information? Power supplies aren't designed with "frequency encoders" or anything like that. Either a power supply outputs DC or AC. Since solid state electronics require DC, it seems pretty obvious ALL you need to do is strap 12V worth of batteries on it.
No but Wesley might.... =)
what is this blackout you are talking about? I've been using slashdot for a long long long time. I post comments almost daily, and I have a maxed out Karma (for a couple years it seems like). Must not be a "Great Slashdot Blackout" if someone who frequents slashdot a couple times a day doesn't know what it is. Sounds more like the "Lame Slashdot Blackout."
Yes it is. Its also the same product/company that apologized for doing so. On the next software update much of that convience was put back into place. There was never any functionaily removed. The recorder has always allowed you to manually record shows and pause live TV. The only people that were upset were the people who were not subscribing. The #1 complaint was the fact that everytime you hit the TiVo button, it'd ask you to subscribe.
I agree with you.
I'd also like to add that its cost effective for me to spend $12/mo to let TiVo get the guide and take care of itself. Sure someone might say the data is free (from some easily obtainable resource which I have yet to see someone mention) and that you could write/download the software to handle it all. Of course, $12 equals about 15 minutes of my time. So I can either spend $12 or 2-4 hours a month dicking around with a computer sitting in my living room that lets me watch TV.
I'd rather just spend the $12 and know there is a 1-800 number I can call when something goes wrong.
Although not directly related to the article, I did get an idea. Some may say this is slightly off-topic, but we'll see. I've picked "test equipment" because I want a reputable source. Meaning, this scenario would be a honest accident.
Okay so I write some code for a piece of test equipment. Let's just pick an example situation. I don't want to argue if this is a good or bad idea, but say I did it anyway. Every once in a while the machine checks to see if it is slipping its calibration. If it is, it contacts some server to say "hey look at me." Then the server responds and says "yeah I see you." Well with my expansive programming skills I accidentally code a bug. Let's say instead of contacting the intended target, I just start contacting anything I can find. Well another analyzer sees my cries for help and starts yelling too. See where I am going?
The code was never intended to broadcast huge amounts of useless traffic. It happened by accident. I picked this haphazard example to be similar to Code Red. The machines are basically messaging, like mad, between each other. So does this mean my company or I should have charged (civil or criminal) against us? I say no, but I'm sure a lawyer would scream yes.
"If there is a mistake...well, you should have used the 'Preview' button!"
Besides, a spell check would not have picked that up anyway.