I am using Amazon S3 file storage and some software (S3 Backup (www.maluke.com)) to backup ~300GB of digital media. Amazon's off-site, always on, fully fault tolerant storage costs me about $23/mo. + my internet connection. The major downside is that you need to download or upload your content. It took almost 2 mos to do my first complete backup due to my slow uplink.
As far as on-site storage, the only option is to stay current with technology, and rely on common or open standards where possible. For example, don't encode your video with an obscure manufacturer's codec. This often means you will need to pre-process backups, or dedicate time for conversion at some periodic interval. Every time you upgrade your OS, you should recover your files and test them. If there are any compatibility issues or technology upgrades, then you should convert to new media at that time.
When you burn media, you need to burn 3 copies - keep at least one off site. This way, if one goes bad, you have a third copy to which you can compare 1 and 2, telling you which is out of synch.
Also a Vonage customer here - I've recently decided to drop them over ongoing voice quality issues. As others have pointed out, the problem is likely my cable provider ISP and not Vonage, however the two go hand-in-hand. Without another cable ISP, I need to use DSL. As soon as DSL enters the equation, it is cheaper to go with a POTS line. Despite my inquries with AT&T about "unbundled" DSL so I could keep Vonage, it was less expensive to get a straight metered line with AT&T ($6.00) + DSL ($20-40), then add Vonage on top ($10 for basic IIRC) if I still want all the Vonage goodies.
I've used them for almost two years now, and have finally got sick of people saying "You're breaking up" when I called them. Never had an issue with receiving audio, but got a lot of complaints about people not being able to hear me well. Overall their service offers some outstanding customization which I will sorely miss, but ultimately all the features in the world are no good if your called party can't hear you.
The unit in the video demonstrates features that were not available until the Series II units w/ LAN capability were introduced (photos, music), so I'm thinking this was meant to promote the series II, or perhaps the forthcoming Cable Card models.
This must be planned for - This isn't a real FTP link, rather HTML. The images are hosted on akamai, so they're clearly expecting some traffic. Of course, can't wait to see if my guess is right muwahaaaa
Great spoof - The file timestamp is actually a GIF =). Makes me wonder what this was meant to promote, or perhaps just a good piece of viral marketing. According to some of those rabid Tivo fans, "Bluemoon" was the codename for the original Tivo iteration.
Gee, big surprise, another Sony product format DOA. I would swear sometimes they are DETERMINED to lose. I can't think of any other CE company that has such a lousy track record with failed formats. This must be a new record though - they're putting themselves out of the market before they even launch.
I was a little disappointed after reading the article to see that this seems to be applied more for photonic switching, than camera optics. (Not that those things aren't cool too, but I had visions of self-focusing eywear, and tiny cameras) From the article:
The only snag with the new device is its long focusing time of about three minutes. This is because the lens is relatively large (9 mm), which means that molecular diffusion across it is slow. However, this should not be problem in micro-sized lenses in which the estimated response time is around 1 second at room temperature. The technique could also be used to make other adaptive microdevices such as prism arrays and phase gratings, say the researchers.
Now I don't know the specific details of what you're saying, but even if it's true, that sounds fairly reasonable. SDKs are not cheap. Even if you pay for one, there are support costs (calls from developers wanting answers to questions on how X works), as well as all the fees associated with getting a game actually launched to shelves (contracts, lawyer fees, game certification costs, etc.). None of the platform companies are in the business of letting EVERY Joe Gamer who-thinks-they-have-a-cool-idea an easy way to get their game launched.
One might argue that if platform manufacturers invested more some time and money in a more open SDK that anyone could easily get ahold of, that the influx of content from amature developers would help the platform stay viable, not become a drain. You make this point yourself by referencing the PC game market. As an example, look at the development community around the Unreal Tournament series. Because they've been supportive of community development, there is a rich community driven mod and map set that has kept the title alive for some time now.
It's time that platform manufacturers wake up and allow the average joe to tweak their games and have a low cost of entry to their SDKs. The first one that lowers this barrier to entry will see a huge explosion of content to keep their platform breathing long after the "big commercial hits" have passed them by. Now that would be a competitive advantage.
To actually experience this, yes, you need to try it. But try this experiment: I'd wager that if you try moving your tounge about your teeth, and really pay attention, you'll notice a surprising amount of detail about their surface: where there are gaps, ridges, smoothed, pitted, etc. When you happen to find a particularly interesting spot, take a look in the mirror at what you've pinpointed with your tounge. You'll be surprised to see how tiny and insignificant the detail is when visually inspected. If you really focus, you can actually visualize what your mouth looks like just from your tounge. This shows you a simple but surprising fact about your tounge: you can perceive increadible detail with it. I could imagine how a sensitive electrode grid could easily simulate images directly on the tounge after trying that experiment. This is quite an amazing idea!
While I agree in principle, the world _can_ walk and chew gum at the same time. This is the same flawed argument that comes up when funding for the arts or humanities comes under attack. In order to generally improve the world, you can't target a single solution or approach - you'll never get done, and scores of other valid concerns never get addressed. A diversified approach allows many needs to be incrementally satisfied, and progress is much more attainable. In addition, there are much more resources than you would think available to target specific efforts. All-or-nothing budgeting is too simple a proposal to reflect the realities and complexities of the real world.
It's the propensity of churches to try to "save" or convert someone to their viewpoint, with little apparent tolerance for other perspectives that leads many to see some religions as manipulative and exploitative. While I realize outreach is central to the core mission of many religions, I think it's easy to see how that mission could be perceived as overbearing and controlling.
If I know Google, they're probably building more of an online aggregating store than an itunes killer. Think Froogle for music. There are plenty of other itunes competitors out there they could interface with, and who knows, maybe even itunes themselves.
Vinyl LPs are not dead as a doornail - There's plenty of new vinyl being pressed up. Being a DJ is every kid's dream. Some "turntable-ists" are actual well-respected muscians. Records are a very much alive, albeit underground media. New albums by indie rock bands are often presseed in limited runs on vinyl and are treasured by record-player and music nuts everywhere. Believe it or not, many audiophiles consider records to still be the superior-sounding medium.
And by the way, it was 78 RPM was the standard, not 70.
Sorry - I know I'm off topic.
I agree - Microsoft seems to want to be "better" at search than Google, but I think there's more to it than being better - It's about sucking less.
People love Google not just because it returns good results, but because it looks good doing it: Less clutter, helpful features, pretty interfaces, etc. I'm not sure Microsoft has ever been good at sucking less. I doubt they're about to get better at it than Google.
This is just market leveling. Everyone seems to forget that IT IS QUITE POSSIBLE that the entertainment industry is OVERVALUED. The democratization of technology has merely commodatized what was once a monopoly on distribution. Now all of the overhead inherent in supporting the massive distribution infrastructure of traditional media, is waste for an industry struggling to keep the numbers working.
The revenue is declining because market forces (enabled by technology) are working around the inefficient and costly traditional distribution infrastructure. Unfortunally, the entertainment conglomerates have not realized they are in the CREATIVE business, not the distribution business, and have still failed to adopt radical and cost efficient models (for instance, http://www.allofmp3.com/) to transform themselves to a new business model.
Instead, they burrow in like ticks, protecting old and unsustainable busness models through litigation.
I believe in the short term, there will be pain as the market transitions to new driving forces. That means yes, some networks and congolmerates will put out crap, in the form of content, or ads, or whatever. But there are alternatives. If not now, they will develop. That's the beauty of free markets. The only ones that will lose in this game, are the media that refuse to adopt.
So I come to my point: Media companies are losing money because they SHOULD. Their products are overvalued and overpriced because they are saddled with overhead of a distribution system that is virtually obsolete in this new digital age.
I disagree. While there are some obvious psychological manipulation aspects to Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People", the core of what he proposes centers around you being yourself, having fun, and treating people with respect. In short, being an inspirational and charismatic leader. The debate about Dale Carnegie vs. not, comes down to this basic equation - Would you rather be liked, or feared as a leader? Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but in my experience, the leaders that people gravitate to (and therefore attract more talent, and success) tend to be the ones that are liked.
Perhaps this simple discussion raises a great point about the difficulty of transitioning from geek to management: to be a successful manager, you have to get things done...geeks are great at that...To be a successful leader, you need to inspire people. Your apparent failure to recognize this subtlety shows why it can be challenging for geeks to make the switch to management.
...as many have pointed out, even more often, they are recorded.
Most large financial institutions have some type of permanent or long-term call logging (recording) function. While this may have privacy folks in an uproar, this situation can also be turned to your advantage:
Several times my bank or insurance company told me something once, only to have it found to be incorrect or untrue later. Of course you call back up and argue with the Rep, but they don't believe you. I've merely said "I know you record these calls", and demand that their supervisor pull the recording from the conversation. This has resolved several disputes for me!
If you really want to be a prick, this stuff (the calls, their records or notes on any coversations, etc.) are technically discoverable in legal proceedings too. Small Claims Court case anyone?
Here-here! I agree - I am as anti-MS as the rest of the lot, and believe me I do some crazy shit with my PC that the "average" user would not (frequent driver updates, occasional warez, lots of un/installs, etc.). Despite this, I've had perhaps 4 blues screens in the last year (twice it was my fault as I overclocked my system too far, and the other two were driver issues due to beta or recent drivers), and no problems I have been unable to repair. The most severe problem took me about 20 min to resolve (most of that boot/cycle time). Granted I'm an IT guy and all, but I really don't see the unstability that is so widely critizied in XP! (And "yes": I reboot my machine regularly - once a month).
Perhaps years of exposure to MS has made me tolerant of problems, but seriously - I've got little issue with that level of stability.
While I am dead set against this practice, keep in mind they also need to cover
+ employee overhead
+ space
+ legal and business fees
+ R&D and production of the system that manages it all
+ chairs, desks,tables, etc.
+ 3rd party fees...And I'm sure they'd like to live above the Federal Poverty Level, so add some in for profit, and $4/hr seems fairly realistic.
If you want to be pissed off, get mad at the scum-suckers downstream that charge thousands for a business license, tens of thousands for leasing space, lawyers that charge $300/hour to help set the business up, and all the others that add to the overhead [tounge firmly in cheek].
My point is, countries with high standards of living pay a premium for everything, just because of the sheer cost of sustaining it. Go to Bangladesh, and I'll bet their fees are much more inline with their economy.
Then it would be a Mercedes Benz "AMG", not a Ferrari (and those can keep up pretty well with a Ferrari, and can still be safely driven by my grandmother).
So, my point is that it IS possible to be simple, elegant, and powerful simultaneously - you just need to look at it from a different perspective: To continue the analogy, a person buying a Mecedes is probably not the same person who wants a Ferrari, but they're looking for similar results.
Slashdot Mirror
I am using Amazon S3 file storage and some software (S3 Backup (www.maluke.com)) to backup ~300GB of digital media. Amazon's off-site, always on, fully fault tolerant storage costs me about $23/mo. + my internet connection. The major downside is that you need to download or upload your content. It took almost 2 mos to do my first complete backup due to my slow uplink. As far as on-site storage, the only option is to stay current with technology, and rely on common or open standards where possible. For example, don't encode your video with an obscure manufacturer's codec. This often means you will need to pre-process backups, or dedicate time for conversion at some periodic interval. Every time you upgrade your OS, you should recover your files and test them. If there are any compatibility issues or technology upgrades, then you should convert to new media at that time. When you burn media, you need to burn 3 copies - keep at least one off site. This way, if one goes bad, you have a third copy to which you can compare 1 and 2, telling you which is out of synch.
Also a Vonage customer here - I've recently decided to drop them over ongoing voice quality issues. As others have pointed out, the problem is likely my cable provider ISP and not Vonage, however the two go hand-in-hand. Without another cable ISP, I need to use DSL. As soon as DSL enters the equation, it is cheaper to go with a POTS line. Despite my inquries with AT&T about "unbundled" DSL so I could keep Vonage, it was less expensive to get a straight metered line with AT&T ($6.00) + DSL ($20-40), then add Vonage on top ($10 for basic IIRC) if I still want all the Vonage goodies.
I've used them for almost two years now, and have finally got sick of people saying "You're breaking up" when I called them. Never had an issue with receiving audio, but got a lot of complaints about people not being able to hear me well. Overall their service offers some outstanding customization which I will sorely miss, but ultimately all the features in the world are no good if your called party can't hear you.
Good coherent thoughts here...
The unit in the video demonstrates features that were not available until the Series II units w/ LAN capability were introduced (photos, music), so I'm thinking this was meant to promote the series II, or perhaps the forthcoming Cable Card models.
This must be planned for - This isn't a real FTP link, rather HTML. The images are hosted on akamai, so they're clearly expecting some traffic. Of course, can't wait to see if my guess is right muwahaaaa
Great spoof - The file timestamp is actually a GIF =). Makes me wonder what this was meant to promote, or perhaps just a good piece of viral marketing. According to some of those rabid Tivo fans, "Bluemoon" was the codename for the original Tivo iteration.
Gee, big surprise, another Sony product format DOA. I would swear sometimes they are DETERMINED to lose. I can't think of any other CE company that has such a lousy track record with failed formats. This must be a new record though - they're putting themselves out of the market before they even launch.
To actually experience this, yes, you need to try it. But try this experiment: I'd wager that if you try moving your tounge about your teeth, and really pay attention, you'll notice a surprising amount of detail about their surface: where there are gaps, ridges, smoothed, pitted, etc. When you happen to find a particularly interesting spot, take a look in the mirror at what you've pinpointed with your tounge. You'll be surprised to see how tiny and insignificant the detail is when visually inspected. If you really focus, you can actually visualize what your mouth looks like just from your tounge. This shows you a simple but surprising fact about your tounge: you can perceive increadible detail with it. I could imagine how a sensitive electrode grid could easily simulate images directly on the tounge after trying that experiment. This is quite an amazing idea!
While I agree in principle, the world _can_ walk and chew gum at the same time. This is the same flawed argument that comes up when funding for the arts or humanities comes under attack. In order to generally improve the world, you can't target a single solution or approach - you'll never get done, and scores of other valid concerns never get addressed. A diversified approach allows many needs to be incrementally satisfied, and progress is much more attainable. In addition, there are much more resources than you would think available to target specific efforts. All-or-nothing budgeting is too simple a proposal to reflect the realities and complexities of the real world.
It's the propensity of churches to try to "save" or convert someone to their viewpoint, with little apparent tolerance for other perspectives that leads many to see some religions as manipulative and exploitative. While I realize outreach is central to the core mission of many religions, I think it's easy to see how that mission could be perceived as overbearing and controlling.
If I know Google, they're probably building more of an online aggregating store than an itunes killer. Think Froogle for music. There are plenty of other itunes competitors out there they could interface with, and who knows, maybe even itunes themselves.
To borrow a great philandering president's comments, I suppose it all depended on what the definition of the word "is" is.
And indie rock...And classical...
Vinyl LPs are not dead as a doornail - There's plenty of new vinyl being pressed up. Being a DJ is every kid's dream. Some "turntable-ists" are actual well-respected muscians. Records are a very much alive, albeit underground media. New albums by indie rock bands are often presseed in limited runs on vinyl and are treasured by record-player and music nuts everywhere. Believe it or not, many audiophiles consider records to still be the superior-sounding medium. And by the way, it was 78 RPM was the standard, not 70. Sorry - I know I'm off topic.
I agree - Microsoft seems to want to be "better" at search than Google, but I think there's more to it than being better - It's about sucking less. People love Google not just because it returns good results, but because it looks good doing it: Less clutter, helpful features, pretty interfaces, etc. I'm not sure Microsoft has ever been good at sucking less. I doubt they're about to get better at it than Google.
I think the lesson here is, you get greedy, you go down. Look for the P2Ps that are generating profit to be the losers.
The revenue is declining because market forces (enabled by technology) are working around the inefficient and costly traditional distribution infrastructure. Unfortunally, the entertainment conglomerates have not realized they are in the CREATIVE business, not the distribution business, and have still failed to adopt radical and cost efficient models (for instance, http://www.allofmp3.com/) to transform themselves to a new business model.
Instead, they burrow in like ticks, protecting old and unsustainable busness models through litigation.
I believe in the short term, there will be pain as the market transitions to new driving forces. That means yes, some networks and congolmerates will put out crap, in the form of content, or ads, or whatever. But there are alternatives. If not now, they will develop. That's the beauty of free markets. The only ones that will lose in this game, are the media that refuse to adopt.
So I come to my point: Media companies are losing money because they SHOULD. Their products are overvalued and overpriced because they are saddled with overhead of a distribution system that is virtually obsolete in this new digital age.
Good advice for any young person! Mod this parent up!
I disagree. While there are some obvious psychological manipulation aspects to Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People", the core of what he proposes centers around you being yourself, having fun, and treating people with respect. In short, being an inspirational and charismatic leader. The debate about Dale Carnegie vs. not, comes down to this basic equation - Would you rather be liked, or feared as a leader? Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but in my experience, the leaders that people gravitate to (and therefore attract more talent, and success) tend to be the ones that are liked. Perhaps this simple discussion raises a great point about the difficulty of transitioning from geek to management: to be a successful manager, you have to get things done...geeks are great at that...To be a successful leader, you need to inspire people. Your apparent failure to recognize this subtlety shows why it can be challenging for geeks to make the switch to management.
...as many have pointed out, even more often, they are recorded.
Most large financial institutions have some type of permanent or long-term call logging (recording) function. While this may have privacy folks in an uproar, this situation can also be turned to your advantage:
Several times my bank or insurance company told me something once, only to have it found to be incorrect or untrue later. Of course you call back up and argue with the Rep, but they don't believe you. I've merely said "I know you record these calls", and demand that their supervisor pull the recording from the conversation. This has resolved several disputes for me!
If you really want to be a prick, this stuff (the calls, their records or notes on any coversations, etc.) are technically discoverable in legal proceedings too. Small Claims Court case anyone?
Here-here! I agree - I am as anti-MS as the rest of the lot, and believe me I do some crazy shit with my PC that the "average" user would not (frequent driver updates, occasional warez, lots of un/installs, etc.). Despite this, I've had perhaps 4 blues screens in the last year (twice it was my fault as I overclocked my system too far, and the other two were driver issues due to beta or recent drivers), and no problems I have been unable to repair. The most severe problem took me about 20 min to resolve (most of that boot/cycle time). Granted I'm an IT guy and all, but I really don't see the unstability that is so widely critizied in XP! (And "yes": I reboot my machine regularly - once a month). Perhaps years of exposure to MS has made me tolerant of problems, but seriously - I've got little issue with that level of stability.
While I am dead set against this practice, keep in mind they also need to cover + employee overhead + space + legal and business fees + R&D and production of the system that manages it all + chairs, desks,tables, etc. + 3rd party fees ...And I'm sure they'd like to live above the Federal Poverty Level, so add some in for profit, and $4/hr seems fairly realistic.
If you want to be pissed off, get mad at the scum-suckers downstream that charge thousands for a business license, tens of thousands for leasing space, lawyers that charge $300/hour to help set the business up, and all the others that add to the overhead [tounge firmly in cheek].
My point is, countries with high standards of living pay a premium for everything, just because of the sheer cost of sustaining it. Go to Bangladesh, and I'll bet their fees are much more inline with their economy.
Then it would be a Mercedes Benz "AMG", not a Ferrari (and those can keep up pretty well with a Ferrari, and can still be safely driven by my grandmother). So, my point is that it IS possible to be simple, elegant, and powerful simultaneously - you just need to look at it from a different perspective: To continue the analogy, a person buying a Mecedes is probably not the same person who wants a Ferrari, but they're looking for similar results.