I frequently refer to some of my aunt's and uncles as my aunt's husband or my uncle's wife. Why? Well because in those cases the person with the blood relation to me has divorced an remarried. Even though the new spouse is technically an aunt or uncle, my mind has a hard time calling them that when they are not the aunt or uncle I had when growing up.
it's just about $160/month... that includes the cable modem and the DVR charge though. Sometimes it's a little more, sometimes less depending on the amount of pay per view.
I've been with comcast for 3+ years (it was at&t before) and they've never increased my price. Maybe it's simply because I'm on a plan that doesn't exist anymore.
What were you doing, changing your programming package every 9 months? I've had the same programming package for 3+ years and one move. It isn't even offered anymore. And I pay the same price now as I did then. The only difference was my cable modem was 1/2 price for the first 6 months or something like that.
Now if I ever changed my package (and I considered it) I would have to pay the new rate for the new packages they have, but they haven't increased anything on me.
It is cheap enough to make me buy one though. To build an entire PC from scratch It usually costs me $400-$500. Granted the PC will have much better features than the mini, but hear me out. This is for my fiance. She only uses mac's and her G3 iMac really isn't enough machine to run OS X very well. It's time to replace it. If the mac mini didn't exist, she'd be running Ubuntu on a mini-itx box themed to look just like OS X. I'd have spent about the same amount of money, and she wouldn't be as happy.
This is a win, win, win situation. Apple gets a sale and retains a customer (actually gets a new customer, because I'm buying the thing). My fiance gets a new mac and she's happy. And I win, becase when your fiance is happy good things happen to you:)
Pretty accurate, but not very telling.
Here are the actual music stations in dallas:
89.7 Power FM, Christian rock
K104 104.5 FM, hip-hop/R&B
KISS 106.1 FM, Top 40*
KRNB 105.7 FM, old-school R&B
KDMX 102.9 FM, Hot Mix*
KSCS 96.3 FM, Country radio
KEGL 97.1 FM, Classic Rock*
KVIL 103.7 FM, Dallas soft rock
KDGE 102.1 FM, Alternative rock*
KZPS 92.5 FM, Classic rock*
The Beat 97.9 FM, hip-hop
The Bone 93.3 FM, Rock radio
The Wold 99.5 FM, Country
The Oasis 107.5 FM, Smooth jazz
WRR 101.1 FM, Classical
The * denotes a clear channel station.
Unfortunately I was never able to pick up the any of the hip hop stations effectively and don't care for contempoary country or christian rock. That narrows the field in favor of Clear Channel. You can also see that they are the only station that plays 'alternative rock' or top 40. So they are in essence a monopoly over certain formats.
Are you doing 50% of the total radio market, or 50% of the music market. For instance when I lived in Dallas there were tons of radio stations. But almost all of the music stations were owned by clear channel. Of course there were many more talk radio stations so clear channel had less than 50% of the total market. However, I'd guess they had more than 50% of the music market. But it gets worse. If you want top 40 they might have 100%, 100% of classic rock, and 100% of 'alternative rock'.
Why not just use grip? That's what I do and I am doing the same thing that you are. I figure I have to be at the computer to swap the cd's and an extra click for rip & encode isn't too much work. I do have a script that the encoder calls that does the wav -> mp3 and the wav -> flac.
My comcast pvr with the microsoft software definately does not suck. It might not be the greatest, and I wish I could use mythTV, but for the price it can't be beat. Plus, I can pull video off of it via firewire, and I do have the 30 second skip.
FLAC support is desireable, but not completly necessary. The reason I would like it is not necessailry for the quality. The reason is that I already have every CD I own ripped to FLAC (I have a 200gb hard drive just for this purpose). Right now I have another directory that houses all the same songs transcoded to mp3. Every time I get a new cd, I do both things. If I have a player that plays FLAC I can wipe out the mp3 directory and have a one step ripping process.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tennebaums, Lost in Translation... I could go on for hours, but I don't see the need.
I too would prefer the rio karma... except it has no FM tuner. That's a killer feature to me.
Here is the list of features I need:
FM Radio
5gig (if it only plays MP3 or Vorbis)
20gig (if it plays flac)
A remote (optional is acceptable, but included is preferebale)
The ability to work with linux (mounts as a removeable disk prefered)
FM tuner
Here are the features I would like but don't need:
Ability to play FLAC
Works with a Mac
Can be used as removeable storage for files
Replaceable battery
The iRiver iHP-120 seemed like the perfect player for me, but they had to discontinue it. The rio karma is close, but I NEED the FM tuner. Right now I have my choices limited to the Nomad Zen Micro and the iAudio M3. I'm leaning towards the iAudio as it has all the needed features, and does very well on the desired features. The micro seems like a great player, but linux support is kind of a hack (and you need windows to update the firmware). Plus by the time you buy the remote, you've spent more than you would on the iAudio.
The only thing holding me back is that I don't know anyone with an iAudio player.
The best part about the Comcast DVR versus the TiVo or MythTV (at least for me) is the fact that I only have one extra component on my AV rack. If I was to use myth, I would need two set top boxes and two IR blasters (or use serial cables) to get the same functionality.
I KNOW I would be able to tell the difference between my turntable and my CD player. My ears aren't golden and I can tell the difference between the DAC in my DVD player and the DAC in my reciever. The difference between the vinyl and the CD is much greater.
I know no one who prefers the sound of an 8 track, but I know many who prefer the sound of vinyl.
I'm not saying the kid should give up. What I am saying is that if I am more successful than he is, I can't just say that he remains poor because he didn't take responsibility. I'm not saying it is impossible for him to come out just fine, but I started out in life with a head start. He should continue to work hard, but we as a society should recognize that he was at a disadvantage and try to level the playing field. You yourself took advantage of one such thing when you used the GI bill to go to college.
that's because I'm not actually 12... I'm 27 and middle class... my parents were well to do, I was always well fed and clothed. I got a car when I was 16. They bought me computers growing up. They paid for my college.
The point I was trying to make is that my hypothetical 12 year old kid has a very low probability of success in life. He could work 10x as hard as I ever had to and still wind up no where. So, basically what I'm saying is that it doesn't all come down to personal responsability. If I don't work at all and still come out ahead of him no matter how hard he tries, does that mean I was more responsible then him?
I can't hear above 22KHz, yet vinyl still sound superior to me. I believe it's because of the way the distortion actually is produced. But the fact that we can even argue this point proves that vinyl should be lumped in with lossy compression and FM radio.
I'm born poor... I live in a trailer. I'm 12. I value education, but I'm tired from being kept awake at night by my screaming brothers and sisters and/or hiding from my mothers drunk boyfriend. I can't concentrate at school because of lack of sleep and the fact that I only had a slice of velvetta for dinner. How did my bad choices lead me to this situation? Other peoples bad choices have made it extremely hard for me to better myself. Yet I'm the one who needs to take personal responsibility?
Do you also know that most bankruptcies are caused by being unable to pay medical expenses, and most of those people actually do have insurance?
Please remove vinyl from your list. A well taken care of record on a good turntable with a good phono pre-amp can often sound superior to the CD of the same music.
I still prefer CD's because of their ease of use and portability, but when I'm sitting alone in my main listening environment, I definately perfer the sound of vinyl.
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I frequently refer to some of my aunt's and uncles as my aunt's husband or my uncle's wife. Why? Well because in those cases the person with the blood relation to me has divorced an remarried. Even though the new spouse is technically an aunt or uncle, my mind has a hard time calling them that when they are not the aunt or uncle I had when growing up.
it's just about $160/month... that includes the cable modem and the DVR charge though. Sometimes it's a little more, sometimes less depending on the amount of pay per view.
I've been with comcast for 3+ years (it was at&t before) and they've never increased my price. Maybe it's simply because I'm on a plan that doesn't exist anymore.
What were you doing, changing your programming package every 9 months? I've had the same programming package for 3+ years and one move. It isn't even offered anymore. And I pay the same price now as I did then. The only difference was my cable modem was 1/2 price for the first 6 months or something like that.
Now if I ever changed my package (and I considered it) I would have to pay the new rate for the new packages they have, but they haven't increased anything on me.
It is cheap enough to make me buy one though. To build an entire PC from scratch It usually costs me $400-$500. Granted the PC will have much better features than the mini, but hear me out. This is for my fiance. She only uses mac's and her G3 iMac really isn't enough machine to run OS X very well. It's time to replace it. If the mac mini didn't exist, she'd be running Ubuntu on a mini-itx box themed to look just like OS X. I'd have spent about the same amount of money, and she wouldn't be as happy.
:)
This is a win, win, win situation. Apple gets a sale and retains a customer (actually gets a new customer, because I'm buying the thing). My fiance gets a new mac and she's happy. And I win, becase when your fiance is happy good things happen to you
- 89.7 Power FM, Christian rock
- K104 104.5 FM, hip-hop/R&B
- KISS 106.1 FM, Top 40*
- KRNB 105.7 FM, old-school R&B
- KDMX 102.9 FM, Hot Mix*
- KSCS 96.3 FM, Country radio
- KEGL 97.1 FM, Classic Rock*
- KVIL 103.7 FM, Dallas soft rock
- KDGE 102.1 FM, Alternative rock*
- KZPS 92.5 FM, Classic rock*
- The Beat 97.9 FM, hip-hop
- The Bone 93.3 FM, Rock radio
- The Wold 99.5 FM, Country
- The Oasis 107.5 FM, Smooth jazz
- WRR 101.1 FM, Classical
The * denotes a clear channel station.Unfortunately I was never able to pick up the any of the hip hop stations effectively and don't care for contempoary country or christian rock. That narrows the field in favor of Clear Channel. You can also see that they are the only station that plays 'alternative rock' or top 40. So they are in essence a monopoly over certain formats.
Are you doing 50% of the total radio market, or 50% of the music market. For instance when I lived in Dallas there were tons of radio stations. But almost all of the music stations were owned by clear channel. Of course there were many more talk radio stations so clear channel had less than 50% of the total market. However, I'd guess they had more than 50% of the music market. But it gets worse. If you want top 40 they might have 100%, 100% of classic rock, and 100% of 'alternative rock'.
What you say is technically true. However, in most major markets, excluding talk radio, Clear Channel probably owns closer to 50-80% of the market.
Why not just use grip? That's what I do and I am doing the same thing that you are. I figure I have to be at the computer to swap the cd's and an extra click for rip & encode isn't too much work. I do have a script that the encoder calls that does the wav -> mp3 and the wav -> flac.
That's what I did... the disc space isn't huge... but it took like 2.5 days of constant running to finish the batch :)
I find that telling them that IE allows in hackers who could use their computer to store kiddie porn always makes people switch.
My comcast pvr with the microsoft software definately does not suck. It might not be the greatest, and I wish I could use mythTV, but for the price it can't be beat. Plus, I can pull video off of it via firewire, and I do have the 30 second skip.
FLAC support is desireable, but not completly necessary. The reason I would like it is not necessailry for the quality. The reason is that I already have every CD I own ripped to FLAC (I have a 200gb hard drive just for this purpose). Right now I have another directory that houses all the same songs transcoded to mp3. Every time I get a new cd, I do both things. If I have a player that plays FLAC I can wipe out the mp3 directory and have a one step ripping process.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tennebaums, Lost in Translation... I could go on for hours, but I don't see the need.
Here is the list of features I need:
Here are the features I would like but don't need:
The iRiver iHP-120 seemed like the perfect player for me, but they had to discontinue it. The rio karma is close, but I NEED the FM tuner. Right now I have my choices limited to the Nomad Zen Micro and the iAudio M3. I'm leaning towards the iAudio as it has all the needed features, and does very well on the desired features. The micro seems like a great player, but linux support is kind of a hack (and you need windows to update the firmware). Plus by the time you buy the remote, you've spent more than you would on the iAudio.
The only thing holding me back is that I don't know anyone with an iAudio player.
What you say is true. But I don't forsee the cable companies ever doing it. What is in it for them?
The best part about the Comcast DVR versus the TiVo or MythTV (at least for me) is the fact that I only have one extra component on my AV rack. If I was to use myth, I would need two set top boxes and two IR blasters (or use serial cables) to get the same functionality.
I KNOW I would be able to tell the difference between my turntable and my CD player. My ears aren't golden and I can tell the difference between the DAC in my DVD player and the DAC in my reciever. The difference between the vinyl and the CD is much greater.
I know no one who prefers the sound of an 8 track, but I know many who prefer the sound of vinyl.
Plant more trees... grow more algae... less CO2 in the air.
I'm not saying the kid should give up. What I am saying is that if I am more successful than he is, I can't just say that he remains poor because he didn't take responsibility. I'm not saying it is impossible for him to come out just fine, but I started out in life with a head start. He should continue to work hard, but we as a society should recognize that he was at a disadvantage and try to level the playing field. You yourself took advantage of one such thing when you used the GI bill to go to college.
that's because I'm not actually 12... I'm 27 and middle class... my parents were well to do, I was always well fed and clothed. I got a car when I was 16. They bought me computers growing up. They paid for my college.
The point I was trying to make is that my hypothetical 12 year old kid has a very low probability of success in life. He could work 10x as hard as I ever had to and still wind up no where. So, basically what I'm saying is that it doesn't all come down to personal responsability. If I don't work at all and still come out ahead of him no matter how hard he tries, does that mean I was more responsible then him?
And BTW, there were 1,312,990 abortions in 2000. America needs to start addressing the real threats to society.
By giving kids reliable information about sex and access to birth control? Or simply keeping them ignorant and telling them not to do it?
I can't hear above 22KHz, yet vinyl still sound superior to me. I believe it's because of the way the distortion actually is produced. But the fact that we can even argue this point proves that vinyl should be lumped in with lossy compression and FM radio.
I'm born poor... I live in a trailer. I'm 12. I value education, but I'm tired from being kept awake at night by my screaming brothers and sisters and/or hiding from my mothers drunk boyfriend. I can't concentrate at school because of lack of sleep and the fact that I only had a slice of velvetta for dinner. How did my bad choices lead me to this situation? Other peoples bad choices have made it extremely hard for me to better myself. Yet I'm the one who needs to take personal responsibility?
Do you also know that most bankruptcies are caused by being unable to pay medical expenses, and most of those people actually do have insurance?
Sometimes it's not your fault, honestly.
Please remove vinyl from your list. A well taken care of record on a good turntable with a good phono pre-amp can often sound superior to the CD of the same music.
I still prefer CD's because of their ease of use and portability, but when I'm sitting alone in my main listening environment, I definately perfer the sound of vinyl.