Yes, but when Microsoft did it to IBM, IBM THANKED them for it. IBM's viewpoint at that time revolved around hardware. The operating system was (and still is, despite the ridiculous complexity) a way to get applications to communicate with the processor. IBM was still of the belief that the world was going to operate on 390's and (for the 'small business') things like the AS/400. Microsoft's offering was for 'toy' computers, that the geeks and hackers could play with in their basements, to learn some rudimentary programming before graduating to Cobol and Fortran on big iron....
Ummm... do you mean Slackware in 1996? That would have been, what, 3.5? That's the earliest version I remember running. I've been running Linux on my desktop since then, as well, and although it works quite well for me, I don't recommend it for everybody. The people who want to be able to go to Best Buy and purchase software are NOT good candidates for desktop Linux. It's gotten easier over the years, though because of the Google Play Store. Anybody who's familiar with installing apps on a smartphone can operate a Linux distribution. Installing software on Linux Mint (my current desktop) is actually EASIER than the Play Store most of the time. But still - when anybody talks about 'install our software' chances are they mean Windows. Unless you're a 'nix user who understands that there are suitable replacements for most of the Windows programs, you don't want to be burdened with finding them.
Keeping in mind that VHS resolution is 480p AT BEST, and you're not going to improve it unless you do lots of filtering (I'm sure there are companies which will do that for you, but I can't afford that kind of service). I have a VHS player / DVD recorder that is relatively simple to operate. I have managed to transfer most of my VHS stuff (personal videos, weddings, parties, like that) to DVD, from which I can rip MP4s with ease. I'm sure there are easier/more efficient/better quality ways, but these videos were shot by drunks at parties - how much better is it gonna get? AND - the price is right.
Umm, no. Early televisions had dual telescoping antennas in a dipole configuration, for reception of VHF signals (channels 2-13). What you're thinking of is the 'bowtie' configuration that was used for UHF - that came later. The early dipoles were called 'rabbit ears' because you adjusted them at various angles to improve reception.
Now, get off my lawn!
You can use a toothbrush to clean your teeth, and there's a thing called a comb which is very handy for arranging your hair....
This story belongs on the Onion. I'd mod it for sarcasm, but I'm commenting...
Which makes it all the more memorable. I grew up in Northern Ohio, and (back before FM) we listened to CKLW out of Windsor, Ontario, because they were a 50kW powerhouse, and they played 'popular' music. To this day, I can't hear the final notes of American Pie (the day the music died....) without chiming in "See, Kay, Ell, Dubble Yooooooooo"
Yeah, it wasn't pristine, clean, antiseptic MP3's like they have now, but it was what was available (on my Radio Shack cassette recorder, no less) and it's fond memories.
Now, GET OFF MY LAWN!!!
Further to my A/C post above - I didn't mean to demean or diminish the importance and excitement of the SDR / digital / low power experimentation being done. The digital modes have attracted people who normally wouldn't have been involved - when you can show a computer fanatic that he can communicate around the world with 5 watts of power and a laptop (and no internet) it usually gets 'em interested. The only point I was trying to make is that Amateur Radio is a niche hobby - there will always be those who are into experimentation, or ragchewing, or satellites, or moonbounce, or any of the myriad options that a license offers. It's just a harder sell nowadays when a 10 year old kid can pull his smartphone out of his pocket and call Japan with it....
That's the only downside. On the other tv's in the house, which are connected to the OTA antenna, and each have some variety of Roku, I have access to live tv or to the plex server. If I wanted to, there's a Tivo solution available (some kind of streaming box) but it's quite cost-prohibitive in my situation. The solution I've found is that if I can't see it live, and I want to watch it, say, in the bedroom, is the aforementioned 'disreputable source' (you can find at least the popular shows on the intarwebs within 4 hours of air time) and put 'em on the plex server...
Recent cord-cutter here (less than 30 days). After 4 years of DirecTV, the announcement of their assimilation by the Borg/AT&T turned me off to the point where I was ready to move to a less-troublesome arrangement. I installed an OTA antenna on the house over the summer anyway, because DirecTV doesn't stream the 'secondary' channels which my local digital broadcasters provide.
Anyway, we decided to drop DirecTV and go OTA + Netflix + Amazon Prime (both of which I was paying for before, anyway). Along with my Plex server, running on a Linux box, I figured we'd have enough entertainment options. While reviewing the available hardware (wife didn't want to do without her 'rewind live TV' functionality) I researched and bought a Tivo OTA box. The cost for the hardware was $50, with a 1-year agreement for their service at $15 a month. The Tivo service provides a searchable TV guide, which also includes content available through my subscribed providers (Netflix, etc) as well as scheduled recordings, and a very nice interface. It's well worth the $15 to me, since I WAS paying ~120.
Very happy with the Tivo arrangement, and anything I can't get OTA is available through various disreputable sources for download and stream via Plex.
That depends on how much 'history' you want to absorb. There are a plethora of sites around that have timelines, plot summaries, and even some of the dialogue of the early Hartnell episodes. My suggestion is to pick out a villian (Daleks, Cybermen, Martians, whatever) and grab the DVD's of each Doctor dealing with 'em. There are Dalek episodes from EVERYBODY available at Netflix. I've done that, and used it to judge just exactly who my 'favorite Doctor' is (and no, I'm not telling). But that will give you a 'jumping off point' to work from - once you pick a Doctor, you can find the more well-reviewed storylines from that particular actor and rent them, etc...
Get over yourself. I keep seeing these "windows users don't read slashdot" posts, as if this was some elitist gated community with guards and dobermans at the doors. I read slashdot because it's (work with me here, this is going to be a big word) ENTERTAINMENT. If I lived and breathed by the 'news for nerds' that this site proclaims as gospel, I'd probably be running CP/M on an Apple IIe in my parents' basement.
There are probably good reasons why the 'windows crowd' doesn't POST here, but I'll bet you there are a hell of a lot more windows users who peruse these pages than you think.
Amen to this! Once I've paid for the 'rights' to your content, on whatever media I've obtained it, that's MY business. Let's talk about folks that have screen readers (a device used by the visually impaired) - if they obtain a PDF copy of a copyrighted work, then have it 'screen read' to them, they're converting it to audio - which DMCA would have a fit about. I think we'd all agree that it's a perfectly legitimate and legal use, but Big Brother says it's illegal....
Not only that, but with my cable internet connection, I get free, bundled, 8 channels of HBO. Granted, I may have to wait a few weeks/months/whatever to see the movie in the first f'in place, but the low price of digital storage (hard disks) and the ease with which I can connect my CATV tuner to a TV tuner card means that I now have a SHITLOAD of movies on the hard drive, to watch any time I damn well please. Yeah, it's not digital, and yeah, it's not 'theater quality' but I'm old enough to remember watching black & white TV with a pair of rabbit ears, so this is pretty okay with me....
Well, you might as well ask why people collect coins, or why people jump out of perfectly good airplanes. We do it because, to us, it's fun. I enjoy turning on the radio and not knowing who, or where, I'll talk to next. Yeah, I can IRC to any of the places to which I've talked with a lot less effort, but you can get to the top of Mt. Everest in a helicopter too.
The other side of the argument is that, when everything goes to hell in a handbasket, due to flood, hurricane, tornado, or terrorist act, the ham operator (most of 'em anyway) has emergency power to provide critically needed communications into the affected area. You say 'I'll just use my cell phone' but how effective were those on 9/11/01? Amateur radio is still a fascinating hobby, and it's still a valuabe resource for emergency communication.
BPL would kill off a hobby I and many others have a great love for. There are other more suitable methods for providing low-cost connectivity, without the side effects.
Umm... NO
Harmonics are MULTIPLES of the base frequency, therefore if you're transmitting on 10,000 Mhz, you'll generate harmonics at 20K, 30K, 40K, etc...
Please don't embarass yourself by talking about something you obviously don't understand
You know, this whole thread has been full of nothing but people bitching about how bad this is gonna be, waah waah waah. I saw EP4 in a 35mm theater 25 years ago, and at the time it kicked ASS!
How many of the rest of you can remember getting stoned and then sitting in the front row of the theater for the jump to lightspeed? Man, it was probably the wildest experience of my life til that point (yeah, I was still a virgin, okay?)
Slashdot Mirror
Have they uncovered the monolith yet?
AMEN, and sorry, I'm out of mod points!
Yes, but when Microsoft did it to IBM, IBM THANKED them for it. IBM's viewpoint at that time revolved around hardware. The operating system was (and still is, despite the ridiculous complexity) a way to get applications to communicate with the processor. IBM was still of the belief that the world was going to operate on 390's and (for the 'small business') things like the AS/400. Microsoft's offering was for 'toy' computers, that the geeks and hackers could play with in their basements, to learn some rudimentary programming before graduating to Cobol and Fortran on big iron....
Ummm... do you mean Slackware in 1996? That would have been, what, 3.5? That's the earliest version I remember running. I've been running Linux on my desktop since then, as well, and although it works quite well for me, I don't recommend it for everybody. The people who want to be able to go to Best Buy and purchase software are NOT good candidates for desktop Linux. It's gotten easier over the years, though because of the Google Play Store. Anybody who's familiar with installing apps on a smartphone can operate a Linux distribution. Installing software on Linux Mint (my current desktop) is actually EASIER than the Play Store most of the time. But still - when anybody talks about 'install our software' chances are they mean Windows. Unless you're a 'nix user who understands that there are suitable replacements for most of the Windows programs, you don't want to be burdened with finding them.
Keeping in mind that VHS resolution is 480p AT BEST, and you're not going to improve it unless you do lots of filtering (I'm sure there are companies which will do that for you, but I can't afford that kind of service). I have a VHS player / DVD recorder that is relatively simple to operate. I have managed to transfer most of my VHS stuff (personal videos, weddings, parties, like that) to DVD, from which I can rip MP4s with ease. I'm sure there are easier/more efficient/better quality ways, but these videos were shot by drunks at parties - how much better is it gonna get? AND - the price is right.
But I can't wait to see what 'Paul' looks like in a PINK polo!
Umm, no. Early televisions had dual telescoping antennas in a dipole configuration, for reception of VHF signals (channels 2-13). What you're thinking of is the 'bowtie' configuration that was used for UHF - that came later. The early dipoles were called 'rabbit ears' because you adjusted them at various angles to improve reception. Now, get off my lawn!
You can use a toothbrush to clean your teeth, and there's a thing called a comb which is very handy for arranging your hair.... This story belongs on the Onion. I'd mod it for sarcasm, but I'm commenting...
Which makes it all the more memorable. I grew up in Northern Ohio, and (back before FM) we listened to CKLW out of Windsor, Ontario, because they were a 50kW powerhouse, and they played 'popular' music. To this day, I can't hear the final notes of American Pie (the day the music died....) without chiming in "See, Kay, Ell, Dubble Yooooooooo" Yeah, it wasn't pristine, clean, antiseptic MP3's like they have now, but it was what was available (on my Radio Shack cassette recorder, no less) and it's fond memories. Now, GET OFF MY LAWN!!!
Further to my A/C post above - I didn't mean to demean or diminish the importance and excitement of the SDR / digital / low power experimentation being done. The digital modes have attracted people who normally wouldn't have been involved - when you can show a computer fanatic that he can communicate around the world with 5 watts of power and a laptop (and no internet) it usually gets 'em interested. The only point I was trying to make is that Amateur Radio is a niche hobby - there will always be those who are into experimentation, or ragchewing, or satellites, or moonbounce, or any of the myriad options that a license offers. It's just a harder sell nowadays when a 10 year old kid can pull his smartphone out of his pocket and call Japan with it....
That's the only downside. On the other tv's in the house, which are connected to the OTA antenna, and each have some variety of Roku, I have access to live tv or to the plex server. If I wanted to, there's a Tivo solution available (some kind of streaming box) but it's quite cost-prohibitive in my situation. The solution I've found is that if I can't see it live, and I want to watch it, say, in the bedroom, is the aforementioned 'disreputable source' (you can find at least the popular shows on the intarwebs within 4 hours of air time) and put 'em on the plex server...
Recent cord-cutter here (less than 30 days). After 4 years of DirecTV, the announcement of their assimilation by the Borg/AT&T turned me off to the point where I was ready to move to a less-troublesome arrangement. I installed an OTA antenna on the house over the summer anyway, because DirecTV doesn't stream the 'secondary' channels which my local digital broadcasters provide. Anyway, we decided to drop DirecTV and go OTA + Netflix + Amazon Prime (both of which I was paying for before, anyway). Along with my Plex server, running on a Linux box, I figured we'd have enough entertainment options. While reviewing the available hardware (wife didn't want to do without her 'rewind live TV' functionality) I researched and bought a Tivo OTA box. The cost for the hardware was $50, with a 1-year agreement for their service at $15 a month. The Tivo service provides a searchable TV guide, which also includes content available through my subscribed providers (Netflix, etc) as well as scheduled recordings, and a very nice interface. It's well worth the $15 to me, since I WAS paying ~120. Very happy with the Tivo arrangement, and anything I can't get OTA is available through various disreputable sources for download and stream via Plex.
That depends on how much 'history' you want to absorb. There are a plethora of sites around that have timelines, plot summaries, and even some of the dialogue of the early Hartnell episodes. My suggestion is to pick out a villian (Daleks, Cybermen, Martians, whatever) and grab the DVD's of each Doctor dealing with 'em. There are Dalek episodes from EVERYBODY available at Netflix. I've done that, and used it to judge just exactly who my 'favorite Doctor' is (and no, I'm not telling). But that will give you a 'jumping off point' to work from - once you pick a Doctor, you can find the more well-reviewed storylines from that particular actor and rent them, etc...
Get over yourself. I keep seeing these "windows users don't read slashdot" posts, as if this was some elitist gated community with guards and dobermans at the doors. I read slashdot because it's (work with me here, this is going to be a big word) ENTERTAINMENT. If I lived and breathed by the 'news for nerds' that this site proclaims as gospel, I'd probably be running CP/M on an Apple IIe in my parents' basement.
There are probably good reasons why the 'windows crowd' doesn't POST here, but I'll bet you there are a hell of a lot more windows users who peruse these pages than you think.
Nope - it was McCoy
Amen to this! Once I've paid for the 'rights' to your content, on whatever media I've obtained it, that's MY business. Let's talk about folks that have screen readers (a device used by the visually impaired) - if they obtain a PDF copy of a copyrighted work, then have it 'screen read' to them, they're converting it to audio - which DMCA would have a fit about. I think we'd all agree that it's a perfectly legitimate and legal use, but Big Brother says it's illegal....
Linux and OS X are operating systems - PDP11 was a platform. Your attempt at appearing wise beyond your years has failed miserably.
Not only that, but with my cable internet connection, I get free, bundled, 8 channels of HBO. Granted, I may have to wait a few weeks/months/whatever to see the movie in the first f'in place, but the low price of digital storage (hard disks) and the ease with which I can connect my CATV tuner to a TV tuner card means that I now have a SHITLOAD of movies on the hard drive, to watch any time I damn well please. Yeah, it's not digital, and yeah, it's not 'theater quality' but I'm old enough to remember watching black & white TV with a pair of rabbit ears, so this is pretty okay with me....
Well, you might as well ask why people collect coins, or why people jump out of perfectly good airplanes. We do it because, to us, it's fun. I enjoy turning on the radio and not knowing who, or where, I'll talk to next. Yeah, I can IRC to any of the places to which I've talked with a lot less effort, but you can get to the top of Mt. Everest in a helicopter too.
The other side of the argument is that, when everything goes to hell in a handbasket, due to flood, hurricane, tornado, or terrorist act, the ham operator (most of 'em anyway) has emergency power to provide critically needed communications into the affected area. You say 'I'll just use my cell phone' but how effective were those on 9/11/01? Amateur radio is still a fascinating hobby, and it's still a valuabe resource for emergency communication.
BPL would kill off a hobby I and many others have a great love for. There are other more suitable methods for providing low-cost connectivity, without the side effects.
WD8JMM
Umm... NO Harmonics are MULTIPLES of the base frequency, therefore if you're transmitting on 10,000 Mhz, you'll generate harmonics at 20K, 30K, 40K, etc... Please don't embarass yourself by talking about something you obviously don't understand
You know, this whole thread has been full of nothing but people bitching about how bad this is gonna be, waah waah waah. I saw EP4 in a 35mm theater 25 years ago, and at the time it kicked ASS! How many of the rest of you can remember getting stoned and then sitting in the front row of the theater for the jump to lightspeed? Man, it was probably the wildest experience of my life til that point (yeah, I was still a virgin, okay?)