Excuse me, but the manufactures aren't using "retail" modems. They buy chips. Go price modem hardware chips vs. ethernet chips. Then go think about how much design time would be required to make sure the ethernet designed hardware would be "secure" -- both from external attack and from the user "stealing" the device.
As much as _I_ want ethernet, the majority of people (read: the target user) don't understand ethernet. One can always assume the existance of an analog phone line.
[BTW, I have every intention of putting an ethernet controller in my TiVo.]
Actually, in most C++ compilers, enum's are "not just integers" either. This is making my life hard making Solaris (Workshop 4.2) code compile under NT (MSVC++ 6.0SP3).
Re:Digital audio support on the TiVO
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Interesting question. I'll have to look at the chip specs to see if it is even possible. This might require different microcode or different controll settings. I'll get back to ya.:-)
Re:Hashed to death on gnu.misc.discuss
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Are you trying to tell me it costs 25$ to make a CD? Umm, CD-R's are about 1$US; it takes 5 minutes (if that) to burn one; and USPS Priority Mail is about 3$ to anywhere in the TiVo serviced area. CD mastering houses make CDs for pennies -- I know because I've ordered custom pressed CDs.
So, please justify the 25$ "media cost"? Just how much is that intern being paid to burn CDs?
I don't know about you, but my changes and adjustments will be sent back to TiVo. Heck, all the modifications are out in the open so who's to say TiVo cannot wire them into their next update?
Adding a drive to your TiVo voids your warantee, so TiVo shouldn't care as long as you don't bug them when your TiVo melts. The drive(s) you add are not the same type in there from the factory. I don't know of many IDE drives that can take the kind of continuous use the TiVo throws at it. I would have gone with SCSI, but I understand the cost reasons for IDE. (Personally, I give the TiVo drive about two years.) And what happens when the power randomly goes out or I just unplug it (there's no reset button, power switch, or "halt" button)?
Re:Not files, singular (as in one big glob)
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As I understand it (and I've not yet decompiled my TiVo), their MFS is basically a "really big file" much like an Oracle database on a partition. The MFS kernel part is just the linkage between the userland applications and the drive -- it's based off NFS with "the networking removed" (there's files in the tree explaining this.) Personally, I think this is a perfect way to do this sort of thing.
The thing needs a network interface (how expensive is a controller chip? 6$?) and a FireWire/USB connector. That last bit would be a problem for the version of linux they are using, but seeing as they've designed all sorts of custom ASICs, this shouldn't be a problem.
The TiVo is a great creation, but it isn't perfect. (Not by a long shot.)
I only point at it as a "for instance" as I looked at one page of it (and still shake my head at it) a few days ago. I use NT(4.0), Linux, Solaris, *cough*SCO*cough*... have you ever searched the "customer only" Solaris bug database? Holy mother...
I stopped caring about "OS Wars" years ago. Newsflash: "They all suck." Just find one and live with it. (I've been staring at NT all month.)
I always look at these kinds of stats with extreme prejudice. Just exactly how do they determine if a host is alive, where it is, how many IPs are on the same physical machine, etc? "Ping" is a VERY bad way to locate devices. It has the lowest possible priority (read: NONE) and in fact is ignored/filtered at most sites.
As for location... With the increasing use of non-IP transports for IP (read: ATM and SONET), it's even more impossible to guess where something is. Looking at the traceroute to one of my machines, one might think it's in CLT -- that's just the last place it was IP along the ATM path to the IDSL router 200miles away. (Heck, ALL of Interpath's dialup -- three entire states -- looks like the machines are at RDU.)
Obviously, no one has sent him the links (yes link_s_) to the "What's fixed in Win2k SP1" pages. I swear there are more bugs listed there than there are lines of source to Mozilla.
The table is the part the DVD CCA "owns". The code part is just a simple LFSR (linear feedback shift register) -- which they clearly cannot own.
Never-the-less, they are ditributing the DeCSS source code in its entirity on Copyleft letterhead with every purchase -- technically, they could be charged with selling the DVD CCAs trade secret:-)
Oh jez, the conspiracy nuts come out of the woodwork... The T-Shirt isn't the problem -- there isn't anything useful on the damned shirt anyway. The problem is the printout of the source code Copyleft is shipping with each t-shirt. That puts them in the same boat as 2600. (Well mostly as they cannot call themselves "the press" -- they are a distributor.)
Sometimes it's not a political statement; it's simply clothing. (Most of my wardrobe is t-shirts.)
You're intermixing hardware and application terms. The thing you go download from a web page and run is the SETI@home client application. It downloads work and reports results to a SETI@home server application. For the purposes of discussion, both applications could be running on the same hardware "server". The SETI@home application (client) running on your machine doesn't talk to the SETI@home application (client) on any other machines; it can only communicate with a SETI@home server application. This is the definition of Client/Server Computing.
In contrast, look at Gnutella. The application serves both as an information/processing client and server (i.e. a node). Your Gnutella node connects to N other Gnutella nodes who in turn connect to N other Gnutella nodes, and so forth, forming a complex web. You can remove any number of nodes and the web will heal in short order. USENET is built in much the same fashion (albeit much slower and less interconnected.)
Well except that all the "SETI@home type programs out there" are NOT DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING. Those sorts of things are called "CLIENT/SERVER COMPUTING"... SETI clients talk to SETI servers, not each other. All of the nodes within the network form a tree, not a web.
Exactly what do you mean by "distributed"? What about the OS will make it "distributed"? I don't understand what you're asking... any multi-CPU system is already "distributed" -- even more so in cases where the CPUs are in different geographic locations (i.e. a trans-puter, or "cluster".) [And, Solaris has had this ability in it's "HA" versions for several years. I've seen it in use linking two E4500's 12 miles apart.]
Telemarketing calls to cell phones are strictly illegal. Unlike land lines, cell phones have per minute (or second) charges and telemarketers are prohibited from calling them _AT ALL_. Now, if you have your home phone forwarded to your cell phone, there's no way they can know that -- just tell them and hang up. However, they can know the NPANXX they are dialing is a wireless number.
Imagine a GSM phone registered in Cary, NC (Bellsouth DCS) online in Paris France... I can dial a local 919 number and it will ring a few seconds later in Paris! (at a cost of about 3$/min.) (I've actually done this.)
Simple, get ISDN and then REFUSE calls that don't provide a number. It's so satisfying to NACK a call setup request -- no phone rings; I don't have to clear a channel (hang up); nothing... the D channel light flashes, an event is logged and that's the end of it. They get a friendly "your call did not go through" message:-) That alone is worth 85$ per month.
I also like being able to do a fast reverse number lookup (I know it's a "wrong number") and tell the caller who they are and that they most certainly have the wrong number. [My ISDN line is for data, not inbound voice.] One poor lady in Clearwater FL almost had a heart attack when I did that -- she kept dialing the wrong number (mine) every 15 minutes for an entire day.
People haven't seemed to be too pissed about the "true" 3D available on alot of Asus cards -- those shutter goggles (and it is impressive when it actually works.) Personally, I think playing UT in wireframe mode would be wicked.
It's called "BURN-Proof". Only the latest (IDE based, BTW) Plextor CD-RW's have this technology. It's rather required for an IDE device processing data at such speeds (12x CD-R, 10x CD-RW -- max.)
Wrong. Does your cd writing software restart at 605M of a 606M burn if there is an underflow? NO, it restarts at ground zero after blanking the disk (read: erasing the TOC which can take two minutes on some drives/disks.)
Just because the error is "recoverable" (in the SCSI sense) doesn't mean the software will or even can recover from it. Even the good windows based softwares don't deal with recovery very well.
This is incorrect. DeCSS is a WINDOWS PROGRAM to descramble and copy the files from a DVD to the hard drive. Once it's on the drive then it can be played back by just about anything (including linux, SCO, Solaris, etc.)
However, yes, linux does have DVD support. It's basically just a big CD (with a UDF filesystem.) There isn't any real magic in writing to a DVD. Although, you cannot access a DVD-RAM as a "hard drive" -- yes, there is experimental packet writing capability out there.
Yes, technology was supposed to unburden us working folk from our jobs. However, in the new hightech world, there have to be those that really do make the world go 'round. These people live for that kind of environment -- I was like that for several years, but it becomes a serious drain on one's life (read: life expectancy.)
Additionally, the problem is multiplied by people not leaving their work at work. The pager, cell phone, and/or laptop are generally accepted without question. People go home and continue to work on their employer's problems.
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Excuse me, but the manufactures aren't using "retail" modems. They buy chips. Go price modem hardware chips vs. ethernet chips. Then go think about how much design time would be required to make sure the ethernet designed hardware would be "secure" -- both from external attack and from the user "stealing" the device.
As much as _I_ want ethernet, the majority of people (read: the target user) don't understand ethernet. One can always assume the existance of an analog phone line.
[BTW, I have every intention of putting an ethernet controller in my TiVo.]
Actually, in most C++ compilers, enum's are "not just integers" either. This is making my life hard making Solaris (Workshop 4.2) code compile under NT (MSVC++ 6.0SP3).
Interesting question. I'll have to look at the chip specs to see if it is even possible. This might require different microcode or different controll settings. I'll get back to ya. :-)
Are you trying to tell me it costs 25$ to make a CD? Umm, CD-R's are about 1$US; it takes 5 minutes (if that) to burn one; and USPS Priority Mail is about 3$ to anywhere in the TiVo serviced area. CD mastering houses make CDs for pennies -- I know because I've ordered custom pressed CDs.
So, please justify the 25$ "media cost"? Just how much is that intern being paid to burn CDs?
I don't know about you, but my changes and adjustments will be sent back to TiVo. Heck, all the modifications are out in the open so who's to say TiVo cannot wire them into their next update?
Adding a drive to your TiVo voids your warantee, so TiVo shouldn't care as long as you don't bug them when your TiVo melts. The drive(s) you add are not the same type in there from the factory. I don't know of many IDE drives that can take the kind of continuous use the TiVo throws at it. I would have gone with SCSI, but I understand the cost reasons for IDE. (Personally, I give the TiVo drive about two years.) And what happens when the power randomly goes out or I just unplug it (there's no reset button, power switch, or "halt" button)?
As I understand it (and I've not yet decompiled my TiVo), their MFS is basically a "really big file" much like an Oracle database on a partition. The MFS kernel part is just the linkage between the userland applications and the drive -- it's based off NFS with "the networking removed" (there's files in the tree explaining this.) Personally, I think this is a perfect way to do this sort of thing.
The thing needs a network interface (how expensive is a controller chip? 6$?) and a FireWire/USB connector. That last bit would be a problem for the version of linux they are using, but seeing as they've designed all sorts of custom ASICs, this shouldn't be a problem.
The TiVo is a great creation, but it isn't perfect. (Not by a long shot.)
I only point at it as a "for instance" as I looked at one page of it (and still shake my head at it) a few days ago. I use NT(4.0), Linux, Solaris, *cough*SCO*cough*... have you ever searched the "customer only" Solaris bug database? Holy mother...
I stopped caring about "OS Wars" years ago. Newsflash: "They all suck." Just find one and live with it. (I've been staring at NT all month.)
Well, I had an HP48 calculator pingable once :-)
I always look at these kinds of stats with extreme prejudice. Just exactly how do they determine if a host is alive, where it is, how many IPs are on the same physical machine, etc? "Ping" is a VERY bad way to locate devices. It has the lowest possible priority (read: NONE) and in fact is ignored/filtered at most sites.
As for location... With the increasing use of non-IP transports for IP (read: ATM and SONET), it's even more impossible to guess where something is. Looking at the traceroute to one of my machines, one might think it's in CLT -- that's just the last place it was IP along the ATM path to the IDSL router 200miles away. (Heck, ALL of Interpath's dialup -- three entire states -- looks like the machines are at RDU.)
Obviously, no one has sent him the links (yes link_s_) to the "What's fixed in Win2k SP1" pages. I swear there are more bugs listed there than there are lines of source to Mozilla.
The table is the part the DVD CCA "owns". The code part is just a simple LFSR (linear feedback shift register) -- which they clearly cannot own.
:-)
Never-the-less, they are ditributing the DeCSS source code in its entirity on Copyleft letterhead with every purchase -- technically, they could be charged with selling the DVD CCAs trade secret
Oh jez, the conspiracy nuts come out of the woodwork... The T-Shirt isn't the problem -- there isn't anything useful on the damned shirt anyway. The problem is the printout of the source code Copyleft is shipping with each t-shirt. That puts them in the same boat as 2600. (Well mostly as they cannot call themselves "the press" -- they are a distributor.)
Sometimes it's not a political statement; it's simply clothing. (Most of my wardrobe is t-shirts.)
What? Put down the crackpipe...
You're intermixing hardware and application terms. The thing you go download from a web page and run is the SETI@home client application. It downloads work and reports results to a SETI@home server application. For the purposes of discussion, both applications could be running on the same hardware "server". The SETI@home application (client) running on your machine doesn't talk to the SETI@home application (client) on any other machines; it can only communicate with a SETI@home server application. This is the definition of Client/Server Computing.
In contrast, look at Gnutella. The application serves both as an information/processing client and server (i.e. a node). Your Gnutella node connects to N other Gnutella nodes who in turn connect to N other Gnutella nodes, and so forth, forming a complex web. You can remove any number of nodes and the web will heal in short order. USENET is built in much the same fashion (albeit much slower and less interconnected.)
See also: MyriNet
Well except that all the "SETI@home type programs out there" are NOT DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING. Those sorts of things are called "CLIENT/SERVER COMPUTING"... SETI clients talk to SETI servers, not each other. All of the nodes within the network form a tree, not a web.
Exactly what do you mean by "distributed"? What about the OS will make it "distributed"? I don't understand what you're asking... any multi-CPU system is already "distributed" -- even more so in cases where the CPUs are in different geographic locations (i.e. a trans-puter, or "cluster".) [And, Solaris has had this ability in it's "HA" versions for several years. I've seen it in use linking two E4500's 12 miles apart.]
Telemarketing calls to cell phones are strictly illegal. Unlike land lines, cell phones have per minute (or second) charges and telemarketers are prohibited from calling them _AT ALL_. Now, if you have your home phone forwarded to your cell phone, there's no way they can know that -- just tell them and hang up. However, they can know the NPANXX they are dialing is a wireless number.
Imagine a GSM phone registered in Cary, NC (Bellsouth DCS) online in Paris France... I can dial a local 919 number and it will ring a few seconds later in Paris! (at a cost of about 3$/min.) (I've actually done this.)
Yes and no, respectively. Does your answering machine record the calling number? (this assumes the number is actually announced.)
... because the telco's network is loaded enough as it is.
"... and thus, the Infinite Improbablity Drive appeared out of thin air." (That's one of my all time favorite bits of logic.)
Simple, get ISDN and then REFUSE calls that don't provide a number. It's so satisfying to NACK a call setup request -- no phone rings; I don't have to clear a channel (hang up); nothing... the D channel light flashes, an event is logged and that's the end of it. They get a friendly "your call did not go through" message :-) That alone is worth 85$ per month.
I also like being able to do a fast reverse number lookup (I know it's a "wrong number") and tell the caller who they are and that they most certainly have the wrong number. [My ISDN line is for data, not inbound voice.] One poor lady in Clearwater FL almost had a heart attack when I did that -- she kept dialing the wrong number (mine) every 15 minutes for an entire day.
People haven't seemed to be too pissed about the "true" 3D available on alot of Asus cards -- those shutter goggles (and it is impressive when it actually works.) Personally, I think playing UT in wireframe mode would be wicked.
It's called "BURN-Proof". Only the latest (IDE based, BTW) Plextor CD-RW's have this technology. It's rather required for an IDE device processing data at such speeds (12x CD-R, 10x CD-RW -- max.)
Wrong. Does your cd writing software restart at 605M of a 606M burn if there is an underflow? NO, it restarts at ground zero after blanking the disk (read: erasing the TOC which can take two minutes on some drives/disks.)
Just because the error is "recoverable" (in the SCSI sense) doesn't mean the software will or even can recover from it. Even the good windows based softwares don't deal with recovery very well.
This is incorrect. DeCSS is a WINDOWS PROGRAM to descramble and copy the files from a DVD to the hard drive. Once it's on the drive then it can be played back by just about anything (including linux, SCO, Solaris, etc.)
However, yes, linux does have DVD support. It's basically just a big CD (with a UDF filesystem.) There isn't any real magic in writing to a DVD. Although, you cannot access a DVD-RAM as a "hard drive" -- yes, there is experimental packet writing capability out there.
Yes, technology was supposed to unburden us working folk from our jobs. However, in the new hightech world, there have to be those that really do make the world go 'round. These people live for that kind of environment -- I was like that for several years, but it becomes a serious drain on one's life (read: life expectancy.)
Additionally, the problem is multiplied by people not leaving their work at work. The pager, cell phone, and/or laptop are generally accepted without question. People go home and continue to work on their employer's problems.
Welcome to the new "dot com" world...
Yea... it's too bad people don't know how to really program anymore.
Asm: it's like moving a mountain with a teaspoon. It takes a longer, but you have control over every bit of dirt.