Sorry iPod boy, it is a scam, it's called a pyramid scheme.
Pyramid scheme (n tier). An illegal financial scheme in which: (1) participants are recruited by chain letter, by friends, or at meetings, (2) a list of n names is displayed or distributed (often sold) to new participants, and (3) the payment of an "ante" to the top name on the list by new participants is notarized or supervised. Developed from money chain letters in May 1935.
This is pyramid marketing, not a pyramid scheme. Two very different things. Note that one is illegal and the other is not.
Now, please visit a place properly suited for your silly name calling.
Thanks for the suggestion. I went to the trouble of modding my box and putting it to use without actually opening a manual. Go figure.:)
I do believe that recording TV shows off to tape, DVD, or whatever for private use is covered by fair use, and the old Betamax case that is so oft debated around here on/.
Yeah. This is true. But, modifying a system that utilizes DRM to actually practice your Fair Usage rights can get you in trouble under the DMCA. That is the point I was driving at, but failed to communicate effectively. Of course, I face the negative moderation because I imply that DRM isn't going away and there isn't much we can do about it.
An example of a DMCA breach:
Someone who modifies their Tivo to accept a network adaptor, then copies programs from the device over to their PC and removal of the encryption to allow you to play the media, and archive it broke the law by removing the encryption.
The same thing goes with DVDs. If you want to backup a DVD you have to get past the encryption.
Since video tape and analog video capture are typically of poor quality and not utilized in my home, Fair Use is effectively dead to me. I guess it is alive and well for people who use VHS and cassette tapes, though.
Honestly I am glad that I went w/even less painful option of Tivo but that's me.
Don't be ashamed of taking the easy route. After having experienced each of these solutions, a simple PVR like a $70 DSR704 by Phillips is superior to any PC based solution. Here's what you get for $70:
- 30 hours (40 gig drive) - auto recording using your "thumbs up/down" buttons based on genre, actors, category, etc. - the ability to record two different shows at once while watching one of them, or to watch one channel while recording on another - tuner integration - no loss in quality since the raw digital signal is recorded - search based recording, seasons passes, and other means to record upcoming shows. You can even do an "On Demand" type thing by just recording your PPV programs Thursday, then your movies will be waiting Friday night.
Upon modding a DSR704 you can: toss in extra hard drives, use the USB ports as network adapters, rip/edit/encode any shows on the HDD via FTP, etc..
The people who say MythTV or Media Edition are "better" solutions likely do not use their setups in a living room with a wife and kids around; or they are not taking into account the household's ability to manage the system. With a Tivo, all you need is a remote and if there is a problem you press one button to nuke and pave the system to start over from scratch.
The only dislike I have for the Tivo is the flat list of programs it displays. I miss the old Microsoft Ultimate TV system, which categorized by titles. This helped reduce clutter when the drive starts to fill up.
On the issue of DRM, I can only say that DRM is there to protect the people who make the shows you so want to record. If you want every episode of The Family Guy without commercials and in perfect quality, I would suggest purchasing it on DVD and not cry about DRM on a recording device. If you are going to steal things, then go ahead, but again, circumvent the DRM using information obtained on Google and don't come crying to/. about it.:)
Re:Nobody has a legitimate reason for 2 GB of RAM
on
Assault Weapons Ban
·
· Score: 1
KryonD,
You must not be a history major. The US will not last forever and its people are not immune to terrible fates. Will it fall apart during our lives? Probably not. But, at the same time, I would consider it wise to make sure you and your family are protected.
Amen to that... The headline demonstrates the flaw of "thinking like an engineer" by mistaking creative chatter in food preparation articles for being feminine.
Sadly, this is all I can imagine myself ever using one for. That is, if I were to ever own such an expensive novelty. I think it is cool, just not too terribly useful.
For $800 I could get a pretty nice laptop and a 4-pack of Redbull.
Not having thought it through much, I am guessing some sites would be upset about a:8090 link because it could affect advertising tracking and revenue.
Hopefully, someone who knows a bit more about this matter will hop in the thread and explain it all.
Up until 7 years ago, I only had broadcast. When I worked nights there was nothing on except a CBS news feed, the christian channel, and 5 channels worth of infomercials.
It sucked so bad.. My girlfriend and I would get stoned and make fun of the preachers on the bible channel for entertainment.
No kidding, I have gotten to where I listen to the iPod while driving and avoid all stations except for NPR when listening to broadcast radio.
The one thing I hate more than ads after every song is the asinine chatter of morning/evening DJs. The content, at least for stations in Atlanta, seems to all be gauged for eigth graders. Don't get me started on the non-stop right-wing blathering being the ONLY thing on broadcast talk radio. Anyone else notice this??
I bought a subscription to XM radio simply so I could escape the endless right-wing influence in the broadcast talk radio circles. This must be the "liberal media" I keep hearing people bitch so much about.
BTW, Don't fall for the ads! XM radio has commercials on some stations. They spend a lot of time pimping themselves, too. Just like DirecTV. It is still well worth 9 bucks a month if you have a boring job.
What about BIOS updates or virus recovery? Can you boot from a USB dongle? That is where floppies (still) come in handy. Unless you have a Mac (which can boot off just about anything with a "System" folder on it). floppies make good quick and dirty boot devices.
I am late and it seems everyone has managed to spew out a bunch of non-answers in response to your question. So here is a straight answer:
Yes, you can boot off a USB dongle if your BIOS supports it. It is a relatively new feature, so not all systems will support it.
It also depends on whether or not your USB dongle has this capability built into it. I do not know the technical reasons as to why, but when shopping for one, the bootable ones are usually clearly marked.
If your dongle supports USB2 and you have a good BIOS, the file transfer rates are much greater than a floppy disk.
Personally, I still use CDRW for just about everything that falls under the category of "quick and dirty" boots.
What dissapoints me is that it only holds 20B. Larger models are definitely needed. 20GB will fit my music collection just fine, but when I start putting movies on it I'm going to need a bit more. Hell, there are people who buy 80GB players _just_ for music.
Yeah, but how many people with 80GB mp3 players really listen to 80GB worth of music over the course of a week/month/year? The only person I know with a 40GB iPod listens to the same worn out dance albums from 1998 over and over and over and over . Then he makes fun of my 4GB mini, which has new music rotated onto it weekly.
I guess what I am driving at is that you can effectively manage your media regardless of whether or not your entire collection of stuff fits on it. 20GB is enough for a damn lot of movies in divx; more than I would watch on a 2 week vacation. It seems more than enough if you plan on removing items you have viewed enough times, too.
This makes me concerned that the NHS administration is adopting the classic 'head up arse' approach to IT administration, buying 'cool' new kit before they have any clue what they will be using it for.
I get the impression the representative is not a CIO or even one that really understands the technical side of things. He probably came to the media armed with just enough information to satisfy the masses.
I'm sure there is a very detailed plan, just not one we are privy to.
Yeah, me too. I do not use a mouse pad at work, but I could care less about scratching that desk.
At home, I use some giant mousepad I found at CompUSA. Unfortunately, they do not list the product on their website. It is about 4x the size of a normal pad and is the old school fabric over foam type. It does great for FPS gaming, as I never run out of room.
The ones with fabric/velvet do suck for ball mousing due to the amount of crud they tend to transfer to the ball over time, but seem to be the best thing for an optical.
Another thing I have learned from using a mouse on a desktop surface for years is that the little feet on the bottom of the mouse wear out quicker, causing the mouse's action to not feel very smooth.
T-Mobile does not appear to cripple their phones in the US. The worst I have seen them do on my phone is set some files as read-only. I have two stupid wallpapers and a game that will not delete.
Anybody have any suggestions which does not involve a hammer?
Personally, I use Bluetooth between my phone and PC to manage ringtones, make additional phonebook entries, install games/apps, and copy pictures from the phone to the PC. This cuts out the middleman and any unexpected charges.
I find this especially useful since I compose my own music. Simply export a mix to a MIDI file and copy it over. Instant custom ring-tones like none other!
You do not need Windows, as suggested in other posts. Dig around on SourceForge and other Open Source sites, all the tools you need are there regardless of your OS.
Personally, I do not like the idea of MP3 ringtones. It is much easier on the brain to hear a dinky midi of an Emeniem song a thousand times than to hear the real thing with vocals. I know, I'm screwed on that one. It is enevitable.
I do find it amazing that simply being negative about Microsoft will cause a post to magically get moderated +5, Insightful when all it contains is negative opinion and nothing to do with the actual product.
At $25, it seems like a reasonably priced product. Definitely not something you would find in a museum. Mind you, if you will gripe about this products advertising, then it would only be fair to point out how other businesses pitch their mice.
Lets take a look at Logitech's sales pitch on a MX510:
"The Red Mouse for Gamers. Break through with the extreme optical power of the Logitech MX 510, the mouse designed with you in mind. You get the ultimate in mouse precision with no lag, and the gaming-tuned software drivers will help you dominate the competition."
Well, instead of being a museum masterpiece, it touts itself as having no lag. While lag has not been a problem since 1st generation cordless mice (by Logitech), an advertisement for a corded mouse is bringing up the fact that it has no latency issues. Why? Because it will cause people who are not very keen on what "lag" means in a gaming environment. They will be more likely to purchase this product thinking, "Hey, it will help my lag problems". Another thing this mouse comes close to claiming is that it will make you a better gamer and will dominate the game if you buy this product. The "ultimate" precision they claim is also a slight exaggeration since almost all optical mice have similar resolution and precision.
Another fine example of bullshit in advertising is Logitech's product description for the MX700 cordless mouse. It claims "Business never stops, neither should your mouse." In regards to a mouse whose batteries only stay charged about 7-8 hours under continuous use. Once the batteries have been depleted, it takes a solid 20-30 minutes of charge time to get another hour or two of use out of it. For this reason, I had to move mine from my work computer to my game PC since I cannot afford abrupt downtimes while working on projects, not over mouse battery issues anyway.
Is this evil? Perhaps. But this is what marketing departments do. They try to craft a particular product image that will always be more fantasy than reality. Attempting to single one company out for this is rather silly.
Personally, I take anything Mr. Dvorak has to say with a grain of salt. Most of his articles read almost as delusions and have very little to do with the lives of people who use the technologies he often gripes about.
Word, for instance, is used by millions of office workers around the globe. I am one of those people who use it for writing technical documentation. While I agree it is not perfect, I do not see a need for an immediate replacement. Really, it does what it was intended to do.
Now, if you are using Word to do layout for magazines and newspapers, perhaps you should invest into more appropriate packages for your task. I hear Adobe has a great lineup of software for advanced layout and design. But, if you plan on typing up manuals, legal papers, and doing the things people buy word to do, then I don't see the big deal.
I guess Dvorak is out to just get people talking and mentioning his name. What better way is there to trick people into thinking you are smart?
Hmm, I recall having a Mac OS6 desktop whose widgets were just as customizable as anything in E's interface.
I will take a look at the new release, as I do with all window managers. I probably will only pick apart the things I don't like, as I do with anything internet forum related.:)
I am not saying this is what a firing supervisor should say to employees, I am saying this is how I feel about things.
Sure, I could be bitter about making half of what I did a few years ago, but I am not a lobbyist with millions of dollars to buy my congressman. So, the best thing to do is to move on and do my best to get ahead with the resources I've got.
Or you could just stress out about everything.. Not a very fun way to live, my friend.
But it seems that now since the checks have all been cashed, there's no room left for the people who built it, and that's a shame.
Welcome to how the world functions. The key is to remain competitive and not dwell on the lack of rewards of past efforts.
I think these things as I guide this broken body through an imperfect world.... And where are my 40 acres and a mule?!
Re:My rule is usually fairly simple
on
Anti-Phishing Tools
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
No kidding, Email should go back to being a text only messaging system. Strip out all the html, urls, and binary attachments and watch the world become a better place.
Then again, I work in the security sector so all these flaws bring home the bacon. It is still frustrating to watch such broken systems dominate the world.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry iPod boy, it is a scam, it's called a pyramid scheme.
Pyramid scheme (n tier). An illegal financial scheme in which: (1) participants are recruited by chain letter, by friends, or at meetings, (2) a list of n names is displayed or distributed (often sold) to new participants, and (3) the payment of an "ante" to the top name on the list by new participants is notarized or supervised. Developed from money chain letters in May 1935.
This is pyramid marketing, not a pyramid scheme. Two very different things. Note that one is illegal and the other is not.
Now, please visit a place properly suited for your silly name calling.
Thanks for the suggestion. I went to the trouble of modding my box and putting it to use without actually opening a manual. Go figure. :)
/.
I do believe that recording TV shows off to tape, DVD, or whatever for private use is covered by fair use, and the old Betamax case that is so oft debated around here on
Yeah. This is true. But, modifying a system that utilizes DRM to actually practice your Fair Usage rights can get you in trouble under the DMCA. That is the point I was driving at, but failed to communicate effectively. Of course, I face the negative moderation because I imply that DRM isn't going away and there isn't much we can do about it.
An example of a DMCA breach:
Someone who modifies their Tivo to accept a network adaptor, then copies programs from the device over to their PC and removal of the encryption to allow you to play the media, and archive it broke the law by removing the encryption.
The same thing goes with DVDs. If you want to backup a DVD you have to get past the encryption.
Since video tape and analog video capture are typically of poor quality and not utilized in my home, Fair Use is effectively dead to me. I guess it is alive and well for people who use VHS and cassette tapes, though.
Honestly I am glad that I went w/even less painful option of Tivo but that's me.
/. about it. :)
Don't be ashamed of taking the easy route. After having experienced each of these solutions, a simple PVR like a $70 DSR704 by Phillips is superior to any PC based solution. Here's what you get for $70:
- 30 hours (40 gig drive)
- auto recording using your "thumbs up/down" buttons based on genre, actors, category, etc.
- the ability to record two different shows at once while watching one of them, or to watch one channel while recording on another
- tuner integration
- no loss in quality since the raw digital signal is recorded
- search based recording, seasons passes, and other means to record upcoming shows. You can even do an "On Demand" type thing by just recording your PPV programs Thursday, then your movies will be waiting Friday night.
Upon modding a DSR704 you can: toss in extra hard drives, use the USB ports as network adapters, rip/edit/encode any shows on the HDD via FTP, etc..
The people who say MythTV or Media Edition are "better" solutions likely do not use their setups in a living room with a wife and kids around; or they are not taking into account the household's ability to manage the system. With a Tivo, all you need is a remote and if there is a problem you press one button to nuke and pave the system to start over from scratch.
The only dislike I have for the Tivo is the flat list of programs it displays. I miss the old Microsoft Ultimate TV system, which categorized by titles. This helped reduce clutter when the drive starts to fill up.
On the issue of DRM, I can only say that DRM is there to protect the people who make the shows you so want to record. If you want every episode of The Family Guy without commercials and in perfect quality, I would suggest purchasing it on DVD and not cry about DRM on a recording device. If you are going to steal things, then go ahead, but again, circumvent the DRM using information obtained on Google and don't come crying to
KryonD,
You must not be a history major. The US will not last forever and its people are not immune to terrible fates. Will it fall apart during our lives? Probably not. But, at the same time, I would consider it wise to make sure you and your family are protected.
That is so retarded.
Will they send the black helicopters after me if I use my headphone jack to connect a DAT drive and record the Al Franken Show for later listening?
Amen to that... The headline demonstrates the flaw of "thinking like an engineer" by mistaking creative chatter in food preparation articles for being feminine.
There is no bit.
Sadly, this is all I can imagine myself ever using one for. That is, if I were to ever own such an expensive novelty. I think it is cool, just not too terribly useful.
For $800 I could get a pretty nice laptop and a 4-pack of Redbull.
Not having thought it through much, I am guessing some sites would be upset about a :8090 link because it could affect advertising tracking and revenue.
Hopefully, someone who knows a bit more about this matter will hop in the thread and explain it all.
Up until 7 years ago, I only had broadcast. When I worked nights there was nothing on except a CBS news feed, the christian channel, and 5 channels worth of infomercials.
It sucked so bad.. My girlfriend and I would get stoned and make fun of the preachers on the bible channel for entertainment.
No kidding, I have gotten to where I listen to the iPod while driving and avoid all stations except for NPR when listening to broadcast radio.
The one thing I hate more than ads after every song is the asinine chatter of morning/evening DJs. The content, at least for stations in Atlanta, seems to all be gauged for eigth graders. Don't get me started on the non-stop right-wing blathering being the ONLY thing on broadcast talk radio. Anyone else notice this??
I bought a subscription to XM radio simply so I could escape the endless right-wing influence in the broadcast talk radio circles. This must be the "liberal media" I keep hearing people bitch so much about.
BTW, Don't fall for the ads! XM radio has commercials on some stations. They spend a lot of time pimping themselves, too. Just like DirecTV. It is still well worth 9 bucks a month if you have a boring job.
What about BIOS updates or virus recovery? Can you boot from a USB dongle? That is where floppies (still) come in handy. Unless you have a Mac (which can boot off just about anything with a "System" folder on it). floppies make good quick and dirty boot devices.
I am late and it seems everyone has managed to spew out a bunch of non-answers in response to your question. So here is a straight answer:
Yes, you can boot off a USB dongle if your BIOS supports it. It is a relatively new feature, so not all systems will support it.
It also depends on whether or not your USB dongle has this capability built into it. I do not know the technical reasons as to why, but when shopping for one, the bootable ones are usually clearly marked.
If your dongle supports USB2 and you have a good BIOS, the file transfer rates are much greater than a floppy disk.
Personally, I still use CDRW for just about everything that falls under the category of "quick and dirty" boots.
What dissapoints me is that it only holds 20B. Larger models are definitely needed. 20GB will fit my music collection just fine, but when I start putting movies on it I'm going to need a bit more. Hell, there are people who buy 80GB players _just_ for music.
Yeah, but how many people with 80GB mp3 players really listen to 80GB worth of music over the course of a week/month/year? The only person I know with a 40GB iPod listens to the same worn out dance albums from 1998 over and over and over and over . Then he makes fun of my 4GB mini, which has new music rotated onto it weekly.
I guess what I am driving at is that you can effectively manage your media regardless of whether or not your entire collection of stuff fits on it. 20GB is enough for a damn lot of movies in divx; more than I would watch on a 2 week vacation. It seems more than enough if you plan on removing items you have viewed enough times, too.
Not at all, sir. :)
This makes me concerned that the NHS administration is adopting the classic 'head up arse' approach to IT administration, buying 'cool' new kit before they have any clue what they will be using it for.
I get the impression the representative is not a CIO or even one that really understands the technical side of things. He probably came to the media armed with just enough information to satisfy the masses.
I'm sure there is a very detailed plan, just not one we are privy to.
Yeah, me too. I do not use a mouse pad at work, but I could care less about scratching that desk.
At home, I use some giant mousepad I found at CompUSA. Unfortunately, they do not list the product on their website. It is about 4x the size of a normal pad and is the old school fabric over foam type. It does great for FPS gaming, as I never run out of room.
The ones with fabric/velvet do suck for ball mousing due to the amount of crud they tend to transfer to the ball over time, but seem to be the best thing for an optical.
Another thing I have learned from using a mouse on a desktop surface for years is that the little feet on the bottom of the mouse wear out quicker, causing the mouse's action to not feel very smooth.
Just an FYI on this subject:
T-Mobile does not appear to cripple their phones in the US. The worst I have seen them do on my phone is set some files as read-only. I have two stupid wallpapers and a game that will not delete.
Anybody have any suggestions which does not involve a hammer?
Personally, I use Bluetooth between my phone and PC to manage ringtones, make additional phonebook entries, install games/apps, and copy pictures from the phone to the PC. This cuts out the middleman and any unexpected charges.
I find this especially useful since I compose my own music. Simply export a mix to a MIDI file and copy it over. Instant custom ring-tones like none other!
You do not need Windows, as suggested in other posts. Dig around on SourceForge and other Open Source sites, all the tools you need are there regardless of your OS.
Personally, I do not like the idea of MP3 ringtones. It is much easier on the brain to hear a dinky midi of an Emeniem song a thousand times than to hear the real thing with vocals. I know, I'm screwed on that one. It is enevitable.
Face it, half the stuff on /. is free advertising.
I do find it amazing that simply being negative about Microsoft will cause a post to magically get moderated +5, Insightful when all it contains is negative opinion and nothing to do with the actual product.
At $25, it seems like a reasonably priced product. Definitely not something you would find in a museum. Mind you, if you will gripe about this products advertising, then it would only be fair to point out how other businesses pitch their mice.
Lets take a look at Logitech's sales pitch on a MX510:
"The Red Mouse for Gamers. Break through with the extreme optical power of the Logitech MX 510, the mouse designed with you in mind. You get the ultimate in mouse precision with no lag, and the gaming-tuned software drivers will help you dominate the competition."
Well, instead of being a museum masterpiece, it touts itself as having no lag. While lag has not been a problem since 1st generation cordless mice (by Logitech), an advertisement for a corded mouse is bringing up the fact that it has no latency issues. Why? Because it will cause people who are not very keen on what "lag" means in a gaming environment. They will be more likely to purchase this product thinking, "Hey, it will help my lag problems". Another thing this mouse comes close to claiming is that it will make you a better gamer and will dominate the game if you buy this product. The "ultimate" precision they claim is also a slight exaggeration since almost all optical mice have similar resolution and precision.
Another fine example of bullshit in advertising is Logitech's product description for the MX700 cordless mouse. It claims "Business never stops, neither should your mouse." In regards to a mouse whose batteries only stay charged about 7-8 hours under continuous use. Once the batteries have been depleted, it takes a solid 20-30 minutes of charge time to get another hour or two of use out of it. For this reason, I had to move mine from my work computer to my game PC since I cannot afford abrupt downtimes while working on projects, not over mouse battery issues anyway.
Is this evil? Perhaps. But this is what marketing departments do. They try to craft a particular product image that will always be more fantasy than reality. Attempting to single one company out for this is rather silly.
Personally, I take anything Mr. Dvorak has to say with a grain of salt. Most of his articles read almost as delusions and have very little to do with the lives of people who use the technologies he often gripes about.
Word, for instance, is used by millions of office workers around the globe. I am one of those people who use it for writing technical documentation. While I agree it is not perfect, I do not see a need for an immediate replacement. Really, it does what it was intended to do.
Now, if you are using Word to do layout for magazines and newspapers, perhaps you should invest into more appropriate packages for your task. I hear Adobe has a great lineup of software for advanced layout and design. But, if you plan on typing up manuals, legal papers, and doing the things people buy word to do, then I don't see the big deal.
I guess Dvorak is out to just get people talking and mentioning his name. What better way is there to trick people into thinking you are smart?
I have never had a coaster on my NEC (generic label) 4X DVD+R(W) burner and have burned approx 500 DVDs with it.
This is using soley Verbatim media.
Hmm, I recall having a Mac OS6 desktop whose widgets were just as customizable as anything in E's interface.
:)
I will take a look at the new release, as I do with all window managers. I probably will only pick apart the things I don't like, as I do with anything internet forum related.
I think going as far as to say "redefine the desktop" is a bit over the top.
While it had a few bits of eye candy, it had no extended functionality over any of the other options at the time.
Let us forgo the zealotry and remember E as it was: The script kiddy's first Linux desktop.
I am not saying this is what a firing supervisor should say to employees, I am saying this is how I feel about things.
Sure, I could be bitter about making half of what I did a few years ago, but I am not a lobbyist with millions of dollars to buy my congressman. So, the best thing to do is to move on and do my best to get ahead with the resources I've got.
Or you could just stress out about everything.. Not a very fun way to live, my friend.
But it seems that now since the checks have all been cashed, there's no room left for the people who built it, and that's a shame.
... And where are my 40 acres and a mule?!
Welcome to how the world functions. The key is to remain competitive and not dwell on the lack of rewards of past efforts.
I think these things as I guide this broken body through an imperfect world.
No kidding, Email should go back to being a text only messaging system. Strip out all the html, urls, and binary attachments and watch the world become a better place.
Then again, I work in the security sector so all these flaws bring home the bacon. It is still frustrating to watch such broken systems dominate the world.