Hasn't anyone made a "blackbox" to fix that yet? One would think somebody could come up with a way to trick your system into thinking ANYTHING is an "HDCP Compliant" monitor by now.
I guess everyone would be hailing this guy as a hero if he uploaded the documents to Wikileaks.
Unlikely, given who is now in the Oval Office.
Let's face it. If this guy/gal had uploaded this stuff to Wikileaks during the LAST administration, half (or more) of slashdotters would be cheering. Now, well they'd call for his/her head.
Seriously, I'm as rabidly anti-windows as they come, but isn't this a little unfair? Windows 7 is still beta, it doesn't surprise me that there are still some driver issues.
The idea that we will have to either buy Vista AND Windows 7, or do a clean install, just plain sucks.
While I agree with you to a to a certain point in that Win 7 is still beta, it's LATE beta, and a beta that has already been released for public testing. What we have here is essentially a release candidate version. If not RC 1, maybe RC 0.9 or 0.8 At this point there aren't likely to be many major changes in the OS. Of course, doing an upgrade from one version of Windows to another has always been a dicey affair, so some failure is unsurprising.
However, even taken with those two rather large grains of salt, the fact that Win 7 can't recognize a T43 synaptics trackpad (same one as in all the T4x series) is rather unnerving. And the lack of an upgrade path from XP to Win 7, when Microsoft KNOWS that people have been picking XP over Vista since Vista's launch, just smacks of petty sour grapes.
I swear, it's as though Microsoft is just DARING people and businesses to find reasons to use other OSes.
The problem with the GP's comments is that he fails to take into consideration that XP (and other versions of Windows) REQUIRE the use of:
a) Antivirus software. Yes, you CAN do without it, and many technically minded people do. But you HAVE to know how to properly secure your machine and you will still need to use a one-shot scanner like Trend Micro's on occasion. For the AVERAGE (IE: most of the population) user, they will want AV software. Once that's installed you can kiss your speed goodbye. Especially if you load up what MOST users load up, either Symantec or Macaffee.
b) Anti-Spyware software. See Antivirus software.
Those two items, particularly the first one, completely KILL any speed advantage Windows has, handing the speed mantle to any of a dozen linux distros quite easily. Again, to keep it honest, we MUST compare standard setups to standard setups. Linux does not require AV software, Windows does. Simple fact of life in the modern computing world.
So, rather then your strawman argument of stupid people starting the "Linux is faster" meme, it was actually experienced users used to dealing with (and setting up) multiple platforms that have seen the difference and let others know.
Just a short "Spelling Nazi" break: It's spelled "baling" wire, not "bailing" wire.
Baling wire is wire used for strapping bales of hay together. I'm not entirely how one would use wire for bailing out a sinking boat, but if you can figure it out then you can call it "bailing" wire. Until then, please spell correctly.
One interesting item of note: The old reg hack to move the IE menu bar back up on top where it belongs no longer works. Oh, the reg key is there, and you can change it, but simply changing it to 0 or 1 no longer works. The default setting is decimal 21, and I haven't been able to figure out the correct decimal number to fix it. So I installed FF3 on it instead.
Otherwise it seems fine I suppose. I'm running it in VMware off of a USB drive and it's still acceptably snappy. This is on an older Athlon 64 3500+ based machine (Asus A8V Deluxe motherboard) with 2 gigs of RAM, so I'm certainly not running anything that would remotely be considered "top of the line".
Of course, I haven't really put it through it's paces yet, and since it's running in a VM I'm limited in testing parameters. but so far it's looking very much like the OS that Vista should have been. Biggest plus so far, UAC is OFF from the start. Or so unobtrusive that it might as well be off. Biggest annoyance: That damn menu bar in IE, and the complete lack of a quick launch section on the taskbar. (although you CAN bring it back with a reg hack, which I did and it worked fine.)
Actually I'm not at all impressed with the much vaunted new taskbar. Yes, there are some improvements, but most of the changes I found more annoying than helpful. The lack of a quick launch (you can stick shortcuts directly onto the taskbar, but the damn icons are so fucking huge they waste space), The stupid "Iconified" taskbar buttons (you can change them to the old style via the "properties" right-click choice) and the fact that EVERYTHING IS SO DAMN FUCKING HUGE! I realize that monitor resolutions are going up up up, but is it really necessary to make the icons and the taskbar so freaking thick and huge that it's as though the "I'm fucking ancient and blind as a bat" setting is turned on? SOME of us still have 20-20 vision and would like to save screen real estate by using smaller icons.
Ironically, while the icons for most everything are huge, the "notification area" (read: System tray) icons are about 2/3 the size they are in XP. IE: SMALLER! So instead of having all similarly sized icons, we now swing between gargantuan and miniscule. Naturally the icons that will have dynamic information to display (those in the "notification area") are the TINY ones. Nice one Microsoft.
But overall I guess it's OK. The theme manager is spiffy and access to Media Center is nice. Another odd and disconcerting item; It is no longer possible to opt out of the WMP "usage statistics" collection. The checkbox is there, but greyed out. so whether you want to or not, you are sending WMP usage data to Microsoft. (Note to self; use VLC for porn!)
In the end I would recommend Win7 as an upgrade for Vista users, but still recommend that XP users either move to an Open Source OS, buy a Mac, or wait for SP1 or 2 for Win7.
I suppose one could also use a very wide stiff leather sheath open at one end. Although the "clam-shell" style case seems like it would be practical as well.
Most of the times you see a Batleth on the show they are either carried at the side, hung off of a body armor hook on the back, or hanging from pegs on a wall. I don't think the show writers ever though of having a sheath that you wear. For a weapon that large, any sheath big enough to contain it is also going to be too big to wear in most situations.
Which doesn't mean things this time will be the same.
Are you willing to bet the life sustaining characteristics of the earth on that?
Yes, it does.
Almost all of the major advances of civilization have been because of private individuals creatively solving a personal problem or looking to make a buck. The only thing Government can do is get in the way.
Personally, I see TFA as nothing more than CYA. The few scientists left publicly espousing the "anthropogenic global warming" myth are realizing that the scientific community of the world has moved on as the evidence against that theory has piled up. While governments and the media of the world are lagging behind by about 10 years, Science has found that AGW is BS, and that man simply cannot do anything to affect the global climate in any meaningful way. (Perhaps if we deliberately set out to destroy the environment, maybe. But certainly NOT by simply continuing to exist in the manner in which we are accustomed to.)
Thus, the few AGW supporting scientists left are trying to recover what scraps of scientific integrity they have (and to save their funding) by saying: Well, it's too late! You blew it up! You blew it all to Hell, you damn dirty Humans!
How much you wanna bet the above post gets a +5 insightful whereas a similar post about Clinton (or god help us, Obama) would get -1 troll?
Indeed.
In that same vein, I'm wondering how badly "troll" or "offtopic" I'll get modded for this comment:
Somehow I find it rather satisfying that the technology "black hole" means that, very likely, the last President on "permanent record" will be Ronald Reagan.
Because ALL software has to run the DRM hook gauntlet. basically, the way Microsoft has set it up is that the DRM processes are ALWAYS running and CANNOT be disabled. So every single bit of data is processed through the DRM loop, slowing everything down.
Basically, this article states the obvious: Windows XP 64 is just plain faster than Vista 64 or Win7 64. By a factor of 20-40%. But to understand why, you need to read the MONEY quote. Here it is:
In the end, it all comes down to the complexity of the execution path. With its simpler legacy kernel devoid of DRM hooks and other performance-sapping baggage, Windows XP provides a cleaner code path for the workloads to navigate as they execute. This, in turn, translates into better overall performance with lower consumption of CPU cycles.
It's the DRM baby. You strip that out of the Kernel, and Vista and Win7 will EASILY outpace XP with their more advanced and flexible SMP capability. Until Microsoft understands that people DO NOT WANT DRM and removes it from their newer OSes, these new OSes will continue to suffer from performance problems, and thusly, acceptance and sales problems.
Come on Microsoft. Apple has figured it out, DRM is a sales loser. Do you really want to keep wasting time on a loser technology in the midst of a global recession? You blew it with Vista, but you still have a chance with Win7. Offer people a DRM-Free kernel and Win7 will FLY off the shelves.
As a Conservative I am also more likely to disagree with what Obama's decisions and policy. But even I find this refreshing and good. The extreme secrecy lent to presidential and governmental documentation, current and past was not something I agreed with President Bush on. I'm happy to see Obama reverse this.
1) Go to junkyard, purchased barely functional automobile for a hundred bucks.
2) Drive hundred dollar jalopy to federal turn-in station
3) Turn in hundred dollar jalopy.
4) $$PROFIT!$$
If anyone thinks this program will be used in any way OTHER than the list above, they are naive beyond belief.
It's a government program. OF COURSE it will be abused! And the honest taxpayers get to foot the bill AGAIN. Becoming a crook is looking more and more like the smart choice. Being honest just gets you screwed.
An article based around a single one-year competition on a year that had lower than average rainfall does not a weather trend make. While Buffalo is certainly no London England, we do get our share of cloudy days. Average rainfall in Buffalo NY is between 38 and 40.50 inches. 2007 had around 30 inches. A drier than normal year, although not the driest. 2008 was much wetter, right near 40 inches, with many more cloudy days than 2007.
Notably, nobody here on/. seems to have thought about SNOW or TREES. Buffalo is known as the "City of trees" for a good reason. We are an arborist's wet dream around here. I personally have a VERY large Sycamore within 10 feet of the rear of my house. Because Sycamore's are rather rare I'm loath to cut it down, but it's actually causing moss to grow on several areas of my roof due to the large amount of shade. Although we had an arborist trim it back a bit, which should help this coming summer. I won't even get into the bark shedding that Sycamores do.
Of course, there is always snow to contend with. I don't know about you all, but I'm not about to climb up a 20 foot aluminum ladder in the winter to clean the snow off solar panels on the roof of my two-story home. I LIKE being alive, and the idea of being found dead in a snow drift with a broken neck from slipping off a ladder while sweeping off solar panels is not particularly appealing to me.
The point is, while solar panels might help a little, the high initial investment cost plus high (and potentially dangerous) maintenance they would need in a northern climate makes them practically worthless, if not literally so. I want to save money as much as the next person, but Solar ain't gonna cut it for me or pretty much anybody in my region. We need another option, and I don't see any. Which really sucks.
Man, you BOTH must have either HUGE houses, electric heating systems, or stupidly high power taxation in your area.
My last electric bill, with a family of four, 6 PC's and sundry other electronics (server, smoothwall linux firewall running on an old PC, my Desktop, the wife's Desktop + two laptops + networking devices connecting all the above) only amounted to $250.00 in November. I expect December's bill to come out only slightly higher. $400.00 for Electric is INSANE.
I live in the Buffalo NY area, so Solar is out of the question for me (clouds, many trees in the region and, oh yeah, SNOW) so while an article like this is nice for people that live in desert areas, for the rest of us it's basically worthless.
Dang blast it, it's nearly 2010! If Science isn't going to give me a flying car the LEAST it could do is provide me with a "Mr. Fusion" to power my house!
No, docks are so you don't HAVE to waste time plugging and unplugging your monitor, keyboard, mouse, external speakers, USB/Firewire devices, Etc. Just slap down (or slide in) the laptop and fire it up. Business-class laptops have had and still have this feature. For some reason home PC users and Mac users don't get that option.
I have yet to hear a logical reason why beyond "well, you can just manually plug them in." Which isn't a good reason because it doesn't address the inevitable wear and tear (and breakage) on a port that constant removal and reattachment of connectors causes.
Heck, this is why Apple swapped to the magnetic power plug! Why are the rest of the connections less important?
How about a DOCK so that people who don't want to work all the time hunched over a laptop screen but DO want the convenience and reliability of a Mac laptop can work without having to place their laptop on a stack of paper reams to get it to eye level?
Frankly, I've never understood why any manufacturer of ANY laptop, Mac or PC, would make a desktop-replacement grade laptop with no way to dock it so you can comfortably work AT A DESKTOP!
the Direct TV "Choice" Package (includes Noggin) is $29.95 a month for the first year, and $54.95 a month after that.
Roadrunner Turbo as a standalone from Time Warner costs $53.95 a month
My current Time Warner bill including the the Surf+View package and Turbo costs...
$134.95 a month.
Soo, just over $100.00 a month vs $130+ a month. And Direct TV has more channels and more channels in HD.
Anyone care to guess what will be happening at MY house as soon as I can swing the service call from Direct TV?
Frankly, I don't care WHO is at fault for the Viacom debacle (although it's probably the greedy TV execs mostly) I am not going down the "missing channels" road again. Bye Bye TWC TV, Hello Direct TV!
I thought that Noggin was 24/7 everywhere now? Adelphia and TWC used to have that 12 hour Noggin thing and then "TheN" with all it's sucky programming. We hated it. My daughter (son was just a baby) would throw a tantrum every night at 6PM like clockwork when "TheN" came on. So if we go to Dish, we are basically turning back the clock 3-4 years on the Noggin programming schedule. Great.
Yeah, I'm thinking I'm gonna have to hit the bittorrent sites tonight when I get home and look for torrents of Noggin shows (I don't expect to have much luck) Thankfully, my daughter knows how to use a computer (in a limited fashion) so I can set her up on that for a while and she will rewind and pause and pick different shows. but she gets easily frustrated and can really only be on the PC for an hour or so before she starts getting upset.
I suspect it's going to be Veggietales and the few other random Kid's shows on DVD for the forseeable future.
In the meantime the pressure from my wife to swap to the Dish is going to be enormous. She's been wanting a Dish (Direct TV or Dish Network) for a good long while, and the only thing stopping a switch has been the cheaper HSI/TV combo we get with Time Warner. But if TWC can't get it's act together, I'll settle for paying a bit more for some peace in my home. (If mama ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy. Know what I mean?)
1) I have not one, but TWO small children (6 and 8 respectively) with mild-moderate Autism spectrum disorder that are OBSESSED with Noggin. My 6 year old son in particular has a hard time going through the day without watching his favorite shows. Did I mention they have Autism Spectrum Disorder? You DO NOT KNOW what a tantrum is until you have dealt with an Autism tantrum. So my New Years Day is going to be a NIGHTMARE. The only reason I have Digital Cable is so I can get Noggin for my kids. That's the ONLY REASON, THAT SINGLE CHANNEL.
2) As an IT guy and general all-around computer geek I absolutely must have a high-speed connection. Both for work, AND for play. This means no Direct TV as I would end up having to deal with the SHITTY DSL service available in my area, or continue to pay Time Warner for HSI Cable (plus extra costs since I'm not getting T.V. from them).
3) FIOS is not available in my area. I don't expect it in my neighborhood for at least 10 years.
So there you have it. I'm screwed.
THANK YOU GREEDY SONOFABITCH VIACOM AND TIME WARNER EXECUTIVES FOR RUINING MY VACATION AND MAKING MY DISABLED CHILDREN MISERABLE, YOU ASSHOLES!
I'll be expecting a refund of my ENTIRE MONTH'S BILL and EVERY MONTH until the Viacom situation is resolved.
How does crap like this make it to the front page?
Can we get an edit on the summary? Not only are there spelling mistakes, but the summary is just flat wrong about how Microsoft is reacting to the problem.
Look, I have issues with Microsoft as much as the next geek, but this summary is just moronic and childish. Can we get a fix please?
Slashdot Mirror
And timely, given what has been happening in the US lately.
Hasn't anyone made a "blackbox" to fix that yet? One would think somebody could come up with a way to trick your system into thinking ANYTHING is an "HDCP Compliant" monitor by now.
Or is it already out there and I just missed it?
Unlikely, given who is now in the Oval Office.
Let's face it. If this guy/gal had uploaded this stuff to Wikileaks during the LAST administration, half (or more) of slashdotters would be cheering. Now, well they'd call for his/her head.
Sad, but true.
While I agree with you to a to a certain point in that Win 7 is still beta, it's LATE beta, and a beta that has already been released for public testing. What we have here is essentially a release candidate version. If not RC 1, maybe RC 0.9 or 0.8 At this point there aren't likely to be many major changes in the OS. Of course, doing an upgrade from one version of Windows to another has always been a dicey affair, so some failure is unsurprising.
However, even taken with those two rather large grains of salt, the fact that Win 7 can't recognize a T43 synaptics trackpad (same one as in all the T4x series) is rather unnerving. And the lack of an upgrade path from XP to Win 7, when Microsoft KNOWS that people have been picking XP over Vista since Vista's launch, just smacks of petty sour grapes.
I swear, it's as though Microsoft is just DARING people and businesses to find reasons to use other OSes.
The problem with the GP's comments is that he fails to take into consideration that XP (and other versions of Windows) REQUIRE the use of:
a) Antivirus software. Yes, you CAN do without it, and many technically minded people do. But you HAVE to know how to properly secure your machine and you will still need to use a one-shot scanner like Trend Micro's on occasion. For the AVERAGE (IE: most of the population) user, they will want AV software. Once that's installed you can kiss your speed goodbye. Especially if you load up what MOST users load up, either Symantec or Macaffee.
b) Anti-Spyware software. See Antivirus software.
Those two items, particularly the first one, completely KILL any speed advantage Windows has, handing the speed mantle to any of a dozen linux distros quite easily. Again, to keep it honest, we MUST compare standard setups to standard setups. Linux does not require AV software, Windows does. Simple fact of life in the modern computing world.
So, rather then your strawman argument of stupid people starting the "Linux is faster" meme, it was actually experienced users used to dealing with (and setting up) multiple platforms that have seen the difference and let others know.
Just a short "Spelling Nazi" break: It's spelled "baling" wire, not "bailing" wire.
Baling wire is wire used for strapping bales of hay together. I'm not entirely how one would use wire for bailing out a sinking boat, but if you can figure it out then you can call it "bailing" wire. Until then, please spell correctly.
I snagged the 7022 build off Bit torrent today.
It's the "Ultimate" version.
One interesting item of note: The old reg hack to move the IE menu bar back up on top where it belongs no longer works. Oh, the reg key is there, and you can change it, but simply changing it to 0 or 1 no longer works. The default setting is decimal 21, and I haven't been able to figure out the correct decimal number to fix it. So I installed FF3 on it instead.
Otherwise it seems fine I suppose. I'm running it in VMware off of a USB drive and it's still acceptably snappy. This is on an older Athlon 64 3500+ based machine (Asus A8V Deluxe motherboard) with 2 gigs of RAM, so I'm certainly not running anything that would remotely be considered "top of the line".
Of course, I haven't really put it through it's paces yet, and since it's running in a VM I'm limited in testing parameters. but so far it's looking very much like the OS that Vista should have been. Biggest plus so far, UAC is OFF from the start. Or so unobtrusive that it might as well be off. Biggest annoyance: That damn menu bar in IE, and the complete lack of a quick launch section on the taskbar. (although you CAN bring it back with a reg hack, which I did and it worked fine.)
Actually I'm not at all impressed with the much vaunted new taskbar. Yes, there are some improvements, but most of the changes I found more annoying than helpful. The lack of a quick launch (you can stick shortcuts directly onto the taskbar, but the damn icons are so fucking huge they waste space), The stupid "Iconified" taskbar buttons (you can change them to the old style via the "properties" right-click choice) and the fact that EVERYTHING IS SO DAMN FUCKING HUGE! I realize that monitor resolutions are going up up up, but is it really necessary to make the icons and the taskbar so freaking thick and huge that it's as though the "I'm fucking ancient and blind as a bat" setting is turned on? SOME of us still have 20-20 vision and would like to save screen real estate by using smaller icons.
Ironically, while the icons for most everything are huge, the "notification area" (read: System tray) icons are about 2/3 the size they are in XP. IE: SMALLER! So instead of having all similarly sized icons, we now swing between gargantuan and miniscule. Naturally the icons that will have dynamic information to display (those in the "notification area") are the TINY ones. Nice one Microsoft.
But overall I guess it's OK. The theme manager is spiffy and access to Media Center is nice. Another odd and disconcerting item; It is no longer possible to opt out of the WMP "usage statistics" collection. The checkbox is there, but greyed out. so whether you want to or not, you are sending WMP usage data to Microsoft. (Note to self; use VLC for porn!)
In the end I would recommend Win7 as an upgrade for Vista users, but still recommend that XP users either move to an Open Source OS, buy a Mac, or wait for SP1 or 2 for Win7.
I suppose one could also use a very wide stiff leather sheath open at one end. Although the "clam-shell" style case seems like it would be practical as well.
Most of the times you see a Batleth on the show they are either carried at the side, hung off of a body armor hook on the back, or hanging from pegs on a wall. I don't think the show writers ever though of having a sheath that you wear. For a weapon that large, any sheath big enough to contain it is also going to be too big to wear in most situations.
Yes, it does.
Almost all of the major advances of civilization have been because of private individuals creatively solving a personal problem or looking to make a buck. The only thing Government can do is get in the way.
Personally, I see TFA as nothing more than CYA. The few scientists left publicly espousing the "anthropogenic global warming" myth are realizing that the scientific community of the world has moved on as the evidence against that theory has piled up. While governments and the media of the world are lagging behind by about 10 years, Science has found that AGW is BS, and that man simply cannot do anything to affect the global climate in any meaningful way. (Perhaps if we deliberately set out to destroy the environment, maybe. But certainly NOT by simply continuing to exist in the manner in which we are accustomed to.)
Thus, the few AGW supporting scientists left are trying to recover what scraps of scientific integrity they have (and to save their funding) by saying: Well, it's too late! You blew it up! You blew it all to Hell, you damn dirty Humans!
(With apologies to the late Charlton Heston)
Indeed.
In that same vein, I'm wondering how badly "troll" or "offtopic" I'll get modded for this comment:
Somehow I find it rather satisfying that the technology "black hole" means that, very likely, the last President on "permanent record" will be Ronald Reagan.
Because ALL software has to run the DRM hook gauntlet. basically, the way Microsoft has set it up is that the DRM processes are ALWAYS running and CANNOT be disabled. So every single bit of data is processed through the DRM loop, slowing everything down.
Basically, this article states the obvious: Windows XP 64 is just plain faster than Vista 64 or Win7 64. By a factor of 20-40%. But to understand why, you need to read the MONEY quote. Here it is:
It's the DRM baby. You strip that out of the Kernel, and Vista and Win7 will EASILY outpace XP with their more advanced and flexible SMP capability. Until Microsoft understands that people DO NOT WANT DRM and removes it from their newer OSes, these new OSes will continue to suffer from performance problems, and thusly, acceptance and sales problems.
Come on Microsoft. Apple has figured it out, DRM is a sales loser. Do you really want to keep wasting time on a loser technology in the midst of a global recession? You blew it with Vista, but you still have a chance with Win7. Offer people a DRM-Free kernel and Win7 will FLY off the shelves.
As a Conservative I am also more likely to disagree with what Obama's decisions and policy. But even I find this refreshing and good. The extreme secrecy lent to presidential and governmental documentation, current and past was not something I agreed with President Bush on. I'm happy to see Obama reverse this.
Other conservatives agree as well.
NOTE TO SELF:
1) Go to junkyard, purchased barely functional automobile for a hundred bucks.
2) Drive hundred dollar jalopy to federal turn-in station
3) Turn in hundred dollar jalopy.
4) $$PROFIT!$$
If anyone thinks this program will be used in any way OTHER than the list above, they are naive beyond belief.
It's a government program. OF COURSE it will be abused! And the honest taxpayers get to foot the bill AGAIN. Becoming a crook is looking more and more like the smart choice. Being honest just gets you screwed.
An article based around a single one-year competition on a year that had lower than average rainfall does not a weather trend make. While Buffalo is certainly no London England, we do get our share of cloudy days. Average rainfall in Buffalo NY is between 38 and 40.50 inches. 2007 had around 30 inches. A drier than normal year, although not the driest. 2008 was much wetter, right near 40 inches, with many more cloudy days than 2007.
Notably, nobody here on /. seems to have thought about SNOW or TREES. Buffalo is known as the "City of trees" for a good reason. We are an arborist's wet dream around here. I personally have a VERY large Sycamore within 10 feet of the rear of my house. Because Sycamore's are rather rare I'm loath to cut it down, but it's actually causing moss to grow on several areas of my roof due to the large amount of shade. Although we had an arborist trim it back a bit, which should help this coming summer. I won't even get into the bark shedding that Sycamores do.
Of course, there is always snow to contend with. I don't know about you all, but I'm not about to climb up a 20 foot aluminum ladder in the winter to clean the snow off solar panels on the roof of my two-story home. I LIKE being alive, and the idea of being found dead in a snow drift with a broken neck from slipping off a ladder while sweeping off solar panels is not particularly appealing to me.
The point is, while solar panels might help a little, the high initial investment cost plus high (and potentially dangerous) maintenance they would need in a northern climate makes them practically worthless, if not literally so. I want to save money as much as the next person, but Solar ain't gonna cut it for me or pretty much anybody in my region. We need another option, and I don't see any. Which really sucks.
Man, you BOTH must have either HUGE houses, electric heating systems, or stupidly high power taxation in your area.
My last electric bill, with a family of four, 6 PC's and sundry other electronics (server, smoothwall linux firewall running on an old PC, my Desktop, the wife's Desktop + two laptops + networking devices connecting all the above) only amounted to $250.00 in November. I expect December's bill to come out only slightly higher. $400.00 for Electric is INSANE.
I live in the Buffalo NY area, so Solar is out of the question for me (clouds, many trees in the region and, oh yeah, SNOW) so while an article like this is nice for people that live in desert areas, for the rest of us it's basically worthless.
Dang blast it, it's nearly 2010! If Science isn't going to give me a flying car the LEAST it could do is provide me with a "Mr. Fusion" to power my house!
No, docks are so you don't HAVE to waste time plugging and unplugging your monitor, keyboard, mouse, external speakers, USB/Firewire devices, Etc. Just slap down (or slide in) the laptop and fire it up. Business-class laptops have had and still have this feature. For some reason home PC users and Mac users don't get that option.
I have yet to hear a logical reason why beyond "well, you can just manually plug them in." Which isn't a good reason because it doesn't address the inevitable wear and tear (and breakage) on a port that constant removal and reattachment of connectors causes.
Heck, this is why Apple swapped to the magnetic power plug! Why are the rest of the connections less important?
How about a DOCK so that people who don't want to work all the time hunched over a laptop screen but DO want the convenience and reliability of a Mac laptop can work without having to place their laptop on a stack of paper reams to get it to eye level?
Frankly, I've never understood why any manufacturer of ANY laptop, Mac or PC, would make a desktop-replacement grade laptop with no way to dock it so you can comfortably work AT A DESKTOP!
Get a clue laptop makers!
I did. Direct TV carries the 24/7 version.
the Direct TV "Choice" Package (includes Noggin) is $29.95 a month for the first year, and $54.95 a month after that.
Roadrunner Turbo as a standalone from Time Warner costs $53.95 a month
My current Time Warner bill including the the Surf+View package and Turbo costs...
$134.95 a month.
Soo, just over $100.00 a month vs $130+ a month. And Direct TV has more channels and more channels in HD.
Anyone care to guess what will be happening at MY house as soon as I can swing the service call from Direct TV?
Frankly, I don't care WHO is at fault for the Viacom debacle (although it's probably the greedy TV execs mostly) I am not going down the "missing channels" road again. Bye Bye TWC TV, Hello Direct TV!
Damn.
I thought that Noggin was 24/7 everywhere now? Adelphia and TWC used to have that 12 hour Noggin thing and then "TheN" with all it's sucky programming. We hated it. My daughter (son was just a baby) would throw a tantrum every night at 6PM like clockwork when "TheN" came on. So if we go to Dish, we are basically turning back the clock 3-4 years on the Noggin programming schedule. Great.
I'm screwed no matter what. :(
Sorry about the allcaps there, but does anyone here really expect the channel drop to NOT happen?
Yeah, I'm thinking I'm gonna have to hit the bittorrent sites tonight when I get home and look for torrents of Noggin shows (I don't expect to have much luck) Thankfully, my daughter knows how to use a computer (in a limited fashion) so I can set her up on that for a while and she will rewind and pause and pick different shows. but she gets easily frustrated and can really only be on the PC for an hour or so before she starts getting upset.
I suspect it's going to be Veggietales and the few other random Kid's shows on DVD for the forseeable future.
In the meantime the pressure from my wife to swap to the Dish is going to be enormous. She's been wanting a Dish (Direct TV or Dish Network) for a good long while, and the only thing stopping a switch has been the cheaper HSI/TV combo we get with Time Warner. But if TWC can't get it's act together, I'll settle for paying a bit more for some peace in my home. (If mama ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy. Know what I mean?)
This is pissing me off TO NO END.
1) I have not one, but TWO small children (6 and 8 respectively) with mild-moderate Autism spectrum disorder that are OBSESSED with Noggin. My 6 year old son in particular has a hard time going through the day without watching his favorite shows. Did I mention they have Autism Spectrum Disorder? You DO NOT KNOW what a tantrum is until you have dealt with an Autism tantrum. So my New Years Day is going to be a NIGHTMARE. The only reason I have Digital Cable is so I can get Noggin for my kids. That's the ONLY REASON, THAT SINGLE CHANNEL.
2) As an IT guy and general all-around computer geek I absolutely must have a high-speed connection. Both for work, AND for play. This means no Direct TV as I would end up having to deal with the SHITTY DSL service available in my area, or continue to pay Time Warner for HSI Cable (plus extra costs since I'm not getting T.V. from them).
3) FIOS is not available in my area. I don't expect it in my neighborhood for at least 10 years.
So there you have it. I'm screwed.
THANK YOU GREEDY SONOFABITCH VIACOM AND TIME WARNER EXECUTIVES FOR RUINING MY VACATION AND MAKING MY DISABLED CHILDREN MISERABLE, YOU ASSHOLES!
I'll be expecting a refund of my ENTIRE MONTH'S BILL and EVERY MONTH until the Viacom situation is resolved.
Thank you.
(can you tell I'm a tad upset?)
Everyone seems to have their own method of doing this. It seems to me it's a rather simple process:
1) Go to Home Depot store or website.
2) Plunk down cash (or credit/debit card) for THIS plus installation costs.
3) Enjoy whole house LP or NG powered emergency backup power.
See? That wasn't so hard now, was it? And nobody got electrocuted in the process either.
(yeah, yeah, I skipped the stupid ??? -> Profit! meme. So sue me.)
Indeed.
How does crap like this make it to the front page?
Can we get an edit on the summary? Not only are there spelling mistakes, but the summary is just flat wrong about how Microsoft is reacting to the problem.
Look, I have issues with Microsoft as much as the next geek, but this summary is just moronic and childish. Can we get a fix please?