Washington state has a similar program called Running Start. Basically, if you're a junior or senior stuck in HS and manage to pass a ridiculously easy aptitude test, the state will pay community college tuition. I did this, mainly out of boredom, but a couple months in (deciding for my junior year I'd still take 2 HS courses), I realized that this was a great way to avoid all the idiots in HS (A fact really driven home when I got to grade all of the finals for my US History class on the grounds that I finished the test first by a wide margin).
Even if you don't necessarily loathe high school, it's still a great way to kill two birds with one stone by taking care of GE credits in college while they'll still count for your high school diploma. I inadvertantly did this, as I did absolutely no planning regarding college (besides getting in, of course). Two people I know maxed out on transfer credits (one was quite a bit over), and they'll be graduating in a quarter or two, getting a degree (or two) in less than 3 years total.
I can attest to this, at least in a second-hand account. I'm currently interning for HP, and one of my co-workers was talking about She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named (seriously, I've listened in on about a dozen conversations about her, only heard her name once), and he said that the day her booting was announced, he could tell when people first checked their e-mail in the morning because it'd be followed up by a "Woo-hoo!"
Even if Forbes is right, the odds of you being able to find a current or former employee who worked under her agreeing with Forbes is infinitesimally small.
I was another person who tried it out at PAX. I actually fell on my ass simply because I fragged all of the enemies that spawned around me in about 3 seconds and started running around. You literally have to learn to walk again to navigate around this thing safely.
Besides that, the way they had it setup was so that you aimed with your head, instead of the gun device you used to fire. While that makes sense using when you're using a modified version of UT for this thing (at least that's what I remember the spokesperson saying it was), it's bass-ackwards from real-life. Oh, and turning your head also had a tendency to make you lean, which is unnatural in an FPS (beyond being able to lean around corners in some games).
Definitely needs a lot of work before it comes practical...but it would make a killer "controller" for Katamari Damacacy.
Re:PAX Concerts were incredible
on
PAX05 Writeup
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· Score: 1
Just to clarify, Leroy was NOT the person who barely scored in KR. Leroy lost in the final round to Coreside in Combat 12-11 in the fourth round (which, BTW, was INCREDIBLE to watch).
I have this tuner along with BeyondTV. I used to have a ATI TV Wonder Pro using ATI MMC. My beef wasn't necessarily with the hardware, but the software ATI chose to make for it sucked ass.
Anyway, the WinTV USB2 was definitely worth every penny ($225, which included BeyondTV), as my computer is not a dedicated PVR. I got the USB unit since I'm getting a laptop, which I may dedicate for PVR duties, as I don't see myself being mobile with it. Anyway, the picture quality is as good as you can expect from coax connection, although it's not really fair to compare a 800x600 tops TV at 5+ ft. to 1280x1024 LCD from 2ft. away.However, I can honestly say though that you can record TV and play Doom 3 at the same time with dropping frames for on either side (and my rig is fairly modest; Barton 2500+, 512MB PC2700, Radeon 9500). For a gamer who wants to save TV series on his hard drive, that's a real plus. If I stressed the computer too hard on my old ATI setup, I'd risk screwing up the rest of the recording. This thing also pipes audio through USB, so that's one less cable to mess with.
Major issue I found it is that, being a hardware MPEG2 encoder, playing consoles on it using the inputs is impossible as there's a ~3 sec delay between controller input and audio/visual feedback. I was kind of hoping to use it for some Xbox sessions piping out of my Klipsch speakers, but it looks like I'll have to get a VGA converter to accomplish that.
Plus, there seems to be issues with it and wireless adapters. I've had both the Linksys WUSB11 (first rev.) and the Belkin F5D6050 hooked up to my system, and both brought up the same issue when viewing or recording TV. When recording, all signs would indicate that it was going normally, but the final file would only cap about a minute and a half. If you watch TV, then after the same time period the output will be black, and you'll need to reinitialize TV. I do need to point out that these two POS adapters barely work with XP as it is, so you can probably take it for a grain of salt.
A few minor quibbles for those of you interested:
This is not a cool-running unit, but it is by no means finger burning. The tuner is not bus-powered. Might be an issue for those of you on the go. The included remote only works with the WinTV app. Thankfully I have the Remote Wonder (which doesn't suck ass), so I can change channels from across my house). No IR blasting support. Just means you'll have to shell out for one that uses a PC connection.
All in all, an awesome unit if you have the cash and are serious about turning a computer into even a part-time PVR.
"The Build program is a kick. Building systems from salvaged parts gives is giving me a whole different perspective."
Couldn't agree more. Combines my addiction with all things computer-related with something beneficial to society. Plus the place looks any living space I have been/will be in, except they have a hell of a lot more dead hardware than I could ever accumulate (although I did get a few "whoas" when I brought in all of this stuff in along with a 6x4x2' box full of other computer miscellany to donate).
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Washington state has a similar program called Running Start. Basically, if you're a junior or senior stuck in HS and manage to pass a ridiculously easy aptitude test, the state will pay community college tuition. I did this, mainly out of boredom, but a couple months in (deciding for my junior year I'd still take 2 HS courses), I realized that this was a great way to avoid all the idiots in HS (A fact really driven home when I got to grade all of the finals for my US History class on the grounds that I finished the test first by a wide margin). Even if you don't necessarily loathe high school, it's still a great way to kill two birds with one stone by taking care of GE credits in college while they'll still count for your high school diploma. I inadvertantly did this, as I did absolutely no planning regarding college (besides getting in, of course). Two people I know maxed out on transfer credits (one was quite a bit over), and they'll be graduating in a quarter or two, getting a degree (or two) in less than 3 years total.
I can attest to this, at least in a second-hand account. I'm currently interning for HP, and one of my co-workers was talking about She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named (seriously, I've listened in on about a dozen conversations about her, only heard her name once), and he said that the day her booting was announced, he could tell when people first checked their e-mail in the morning because it'd be followed up by a "Woo-hoo!" Even if Forbes is right, the odds of you being able to find a current or former employee who worked under her agreeing with Forbes is infinitesimally small.
I was another person who tried it out at PAX. I actually fell on my ass simply because I fragged all of the enemies that spawned around me in about 3 seconds and started running around. You literally have to learn to walk again to navigate around this thing safely.
Besides that, the way they had it setup was so that you aimed with your head, instead of the gun device you used to fire. While that makes sense using when you're using a modified version of UT for this thing (at least that's what I remember the spokesperson saying it was), it's bass-ackwards from real-life. Oh, and turning your head also had a tendency to make you lean, which is unnatural in an FPS (beyond being able to lean around corners in some games).
Definitely needs a lot of work before it comes practical...but it would make a killer "controller" for Katamari Damacacy.
Just to clarify, Leroy was NOT the person who barely scored in KR. Leroy lost in the final round to Coreside in Combat 12-11 in the fourth round (which, BTW, was INCREDIBLE to watch).
I have this tuner along with BeyondTV. I used to have a ATI TV Wonder Pro using ATI MMC. My beef wasn't necessarily with the hardware, but the software ATI chose to make for it sucked ass.
Anyway, the WinTV USB2 was definitely worth every penny ($225, which included BeyondTV), as my computer is not a dedicated PVR. I got the USB unit since I'm getting a laptop, which I may dedicate for PVR duties, as I don't see myself being mobile with it. Anyway, the picture quality is as good as you can expect from coax connection, although it's not really fair to compare a 800x600 tops TV at 5+ ft. to 1280x1024 LCD from 2ft. away.However, I can honestly say though that you can record TV and play Doom 3 at the same time with dropping frames for on either side (and my rig is fairly modest; Barton 2500+, 512MB PC2700, Radeon 9500). For a gamer who wants to save TV series on his hard drive, that's a real plus. If I stressed the computer too hard on my old ATI setup, I'd risk screwing up the rest of the recording. This thing also pipes audio through USB, so that's one less cable to mess with.
Major issue I found it is that, being a hardware MPEG2 encoder, playing consoles on it using the inputs is impossible as there's a ~3 sec delay between controller input and audio/visual feedback. I was kind of hoping to use it for some Xbox sessions piping out of my Klipsch speakers, but it looks like I'll have to get a VGA converter to accomplish that.
Plus, there seems to be issues with it and wireless adapters. I've had both the Linksys WUSB11 (first rev.) and the Belkin F5D6050 hooked up to my system, and both brought up the same issue when viewing or recording TV. When recording, all signs would indicate that it was going normally, but the final file would only cap about a minute and a half. If you watch TV, then after the same time period the output will be black, and you'll need to reinitialize TV. I do need to point out that these two POS adapters barely work with XP as it is, so you can probably take it for a grain of salt.
A few minor quibbles for those of you interested:
This is not a cool-running unit, but it is by no means finger burning.
The tuner is not bus-powered. Might be an issue for those of you on the go.
The included remote only works with the WinTV app. Thankfully I have the Remote Wonder (which doesn't suck ass), so I can change channels from across my house).
No IR blasting support. Just means you'll have to shell out for one that uses a PC connection.
All in all, an awesome unit if you have the cash and are serious about turning a computer into even a part-time PVR.
"The Build program is a kick. Building systems from salvaged parts gives is giving me a whole different perspective." Couldn't agree more. Combines my addiction with all things computer-related with something beneficial to society. Plus the place looks any living space I have been/will be in, except they have a hell of a lot more dead hardware than I could ever accumulate (although I did get a few "whoas" when I brought in all of this stuff in along with a 6x4x2' box full of other computer miscellany to donate).