My experience has differed from yours. And, I think there are plenty of other reports out there to prove that MPEG2 acceleration is not a "lie". Do a google search and you'll find a lot. You'll also find a lot of comments on problems getting it working well. Or, you can even look at source code from the Linux apps implementing XvMC to see exactly what is being offloaded.
I have had Fusion cards for almost two years, and I originally used it with a 1GHz P3. The HD playback with DxVA acceleration was good on that system. (although, at that time the Fusion software was not exactly reliable, so the overall solution wasn't great)
Software playback is also much more sensitive to other system issues. You have high CPU utilizatin, and high AGP Bus utilization. So, it's sensitive to any resource limitations. On a system that had interrupts shared among multiple devices, I would often get stutters in the video and audio glitches. With some of the video drivers I tried, I had big problems with DxVA. So, everything needs to be working well. But, when it is, DxVA works well.
> That is a marketing lie which was commonly told a few years ago.
Actually, No.. DxVA is what makes the CPU requirements reasonable, even with the software decode products. The 2.4GHz -> 800MHz was specifically addressing DxVA offload of HDTV MPEG2 decode.
I have two MyHD cards and two FusionHDTV cards. The MyHD cards have an onboard MPEG2 decoder and they display the HDTV output directly from the receiver card - not through your video card. It does the complete MPEG2 decode in hardware, so the CPU requirements on the host are VERY low. You could do it with a Pentium II.
The Fusion cards only do the reception of the ATSC Transport Stream - they pass that 20Mbps data stream to the host for processing. All MPEG decoding and display is done in software (which is the same as with the Sasem USB HDTV device, ATI HDTV Wonder, pchdtv.com HD-3000 for Linux, and the EyeTV 500). In this model, the decoding is done on the CPU in software, and some of the more compute intensive portions are offloaded to the video card via the DxVA API. Specifically, the iDCT (inverse discrete cosine transform) and motion compensation are hardware accelerated. So, it still takes a decent CPU, to do the MPEG decoding, but much less than for full software decode. On my Athlon64 3400+, the CPU utilization goes from ~ 70% to ~ 35% when I turn DxVA on.
I prefer the MyHD cards for a number of reasons. But, their main drawback is flexibility. They just do the HD video output. If you want to integrate with a PVR solution, like XP Media Center, you need the video to be displayable on the PC video output. So, the hardware decode cards are becoming less popular.
> Also it is worth noting that although Apple's DVD player uses MPEG2 acceleration it still doesn't do de-interlacing decently. You can probably get better results with VLC.
That's just a limitation of Apple's software.. DVD Player is not exactly renowned for its video quality. The video hardware and MPEG2 accel are fully capable of good de-interlaced display. The FusionHDTV software does a good job of de-interlacing 1080i output when using DxVA. It looks almost as good as the output from the MyHD.
> Getting a good signal, on the other hand, is a problem. Does anybody have reccomendations on what Antenna to buy? I live in Berkeley, so the signal I'm getting is coming from San Francisco, which is across the bay. ~20 miles...
20 miles across the bay should be pretty good for reception.. not too many obstructions.
Most stations broadcast from Mt. Sutro, and all locals but KNTV (NBC 11/12) are UHF.
I have had good results with are the Radio Shack Double Bowtie indoor antenna (it's not carried in-store anymore, but they can special order it for you. It's only ~$15)
If you can put up an outdoor antenna (even just tacked up on a balcony) the ChannelMaster 4228 four bay bowtie works great for a lot of people.
Many people like the Silver Sensor indoor antenna. It's a very directional UHF antenna. But, it didn't work well for me in Mountain View.
I have also heard that the Winegard Square Shooter is good. But, I have no direct experience with it.
A dual G5 requirement for smooth HDTV playback is a big problem. You should be able to easily do this with a midrange G4 system.
The problem is that Apple has not opened the API for the MPEG2 acceleration available in most of the video chips in Macs. ( The equivalent of DxVA in Windows, or XvMC in XFree86 ). In the x86 world, this takes the CPU requirement down from ~ 2.4GHz P4 to ~ 800MHz P3.
Apple's DVD player uses the MPEG2 acceleration, but they don't allow others to use it. So, we're stuck with extremely high CPU requirements of dec oding those hi-res HDTV files.
But, the point is that this is an example of what is to come in the general purpose computing arena. There are a number of initiatives already well along on the PC side that will look an awful lot like this.
BIOS manufacturers are implementing several DRM security mechanisms, which will work with the OS DRM mechanisms that microsoft is putting into the OS. These will be required components for HD-DVDs to work in PCs, or for Digital TV tuners which support the broadcast flag.
Basically, the content producer will decide how your PC is going to operate, not you. Your Digital TV tuner will not pass the HDTV Transport Stream to the host PC unless it is encrypted. So, any modification of the content (downscaling to resolution for smaller files, cutting out commercials, or just taking samples of the video) will not be allowed.
So, no.. don't just bury your head and say it's not a big deal, or claim that someone will just crack the security anyway. If people are complacent, they will end up with what Bill Gates and Disney think are reasonable usage rights, and hobbyists or small startups will be locked out of any innovation in this space.
The original poster seems a bit confused. The CableCard version they are working on is their solution for cable TV systems.
CableCard is the open standard for digital cable. It allows a TV to work with a cable system without needing a seperate cable box. The CableCard is a PCMCIA card that works with the cable security system to allow viewing of premium channels, PPV, etc. CableCard support is currently available in several high end HDTVs (it's only in the high end units now, because it requires a built-in HD tuner).
The new Tivo will have dual tuners, and will support QAM256, for full HDTV viewing/recording. It will be very similar in functionality to the HD DirecTivo (dual tuners - record two programs while watching a third).
> But, if 2wire can deliver on their claims, it will leapfrog 2wire by a long margin.
obviously, that should read
But, if 2wire can deliver on their claims, it will leapfrog Tivo by a long margin.
--
If they do the home networking integration right, this box could kick ass. Integration with XP Media Center, or HDTV transport streams captured with other cards (MyHD MDP-120) would make for a powerful / extensible setup.
You must not have even looked at the 2wire site.. It clearly states that it supports satellite and OTA HDTV (with dual tuners for both, like the Tivo. But, the 2wire info says they can record 3 streams at once). They also support HDTV over IP, but I'm not sure how feasible that is with DSL bandwidths.
The 2wire appears to be much more open and flexible than the Tivo, with network integration of photos, broadband services, music, messaging, remote access/scheduling, and multi-room media support.
Of course, the Tivo is available and proven.. It's the best thing going for HDTV recording right now. But, if 2wire can deliver on their claims, it will leapfrog 2wire by a long margin.
I don't know what it takes to merit innovation in your book. But, to me GMail was a big innovation. Yes, there are other webmail services. I used Yahoo Mail for years, and they were happy to let it stay the same forever with no attempt to improve. It was only after GMail came on the scene that they increased their storage and added several usability features (but they are still not even close to GMail).
That is what I see as the difference between innovators and complacent companies. Google continues to improve, tweak, and add features. Stagnant companies like MS and Yahoo only react to competitive threats.
I think you're looking for something more in the revolutionary department if you don't think things like location based searches and gmail are innovations.
Yes, at the user side there is nothing directly needed to support SecurID authentication. But, on the application server side it needs to be built into the app using RSA's API. But, since SecurID is so broadly deployed, pretty much all security related applications implement SecurID auth.
For corporate uses, it's much easier to dictate Smart Cards, and integrate a bunch of different corporate applications - multiplying the benefit of the card.
But, thinking about the problem a bit more.. I guess that clunky two factor authentication processes solve some real problems. They protect against worms/viruses reading all the stored passwords on a users's system. They also minimize the risk of the phishing scams, because the passwords only last 60 seconds. Although, they don't totally eliminate the risk. A phishing site could ask for the SecurID code, then connect out to the bank site in real time to authenticate and do what they want.
Let me use my amazing visibility into the future to predict what will happen...
Google will continue to innovate, developing new features, integrating new capabilities into the developing 'user portal' centered around GMail. They will continue to develope advanced ways to organize, search, and use huge amounts of data.
Microsoft will wait to see what the users gravitate to the most, and will create a nearly identical version of the feature. They will extend it in a few minor ways to integrate more tightly with their operating systems. Since it will be in the OS by default, they will quickly gain a large market share.
On a lesser note, other 'competitors' like Yahoo, will continue to innovate in areas of banner advertising, and flash advertisement integration. They will add new features only after Google releases products that make theirs look primitive by comparison.
The only question my visions have not answered is: How large will Google have to become before slowing their innovation and playing it safe.
"RSA keys" in the title is a bit misleading.. It makes it sounds like a full crypto implementation, using smart cards and all the capabilities that implies. Confusing the RSA crypto algorithm, with the SecurID card, a product made by the company RSA.
SecurID is just a clunky authentication system using a hardware token to display numbers used for the authentication (although, they do also offer software tokens. there is nothing magical about the hardware)
Why not go to a modern smart card system? It can store full certificates, and tie directly into really strong security/crypto. Tie the smart card / cert into the autentication of your system, and into IPSec, SSL, etc.
SecurID offers only the authentication piece, based on a completely closed algorithm.
Yeah, it's too bad the interviewer didn't jump on that terrible response.
There is a case to be made for his point about content creators needing protection. But, the PC standards thing is irrelevant to the Broadcast Flag argument, and is completely wrong from a historical perspective.
It is also completely at odds with his previous point about the FCC trying to kill new competitors (cable TV, MCI, etc.) in the past, and how they have changed and are embracing new things like WiFi. The broadcast flag is protecting the big media players, at the expense of new upstarts... old-school FCC.
Some of the Bush administration's corporatist policies will only effect us through the administration. But, like the raping of environmental standards, we'll be living with the effects of this FCC for a long time.
Before I get out my PowerBook, I whip out the Zaurus to see what WiFi networks are available, open, and operational.
The Zaurus can go all the way, and actually connect to the network and use a WWW browser to connect to sites. So, you can verify that everything is fully operational, available, and open.
If I just want to check something quick on a www site, I might not even need to get my laptop out. I certainly wouldn't want to be writing many emails from the tiny Zaurus keyboard. But, for some quick checks it's great.
Also -- A new version of OpenZaurus was recently released. It includes updated Opie apps, and improves on the WiFi capabilities of the old Sharp firmwares.
Exactly.. Who cares if spam is sent to my account. It only matters that GMail correctly identifies it as such and keeps it out of my Inbox.
Especially since Google seems to be bringing their Groups (usenet) feature closer to GMail. Once you post a usenet message with your gmail account, spam detection is the game, not spam avoidance.
Yeah, I believe MS gets a cut from every game licensed / sold for X-Box use. But, with Halo they get all the profits.. they made this game. So, the equation would change because they are getting much more on Halo sales than EA's Madden Football.
Also, I don't know how the financials on the X-box have changed over time. I know they brought the cost of production down on the hardware. But, certainly not enough to offset the price drop to $150. So, they're probably still losing $50++ per X-Box sale.
This seems like it could have a chilling effect on startups, where a big part of the value proposition for all involved is potential option profits. If I don't get a good option package, why would I want to sign on with a startup, with loads of risk, and a relatively low salary?
While even in startups the executive option profits can be obscene. More reasonable rewards are often achieved by the rank and file developers and marketing types. If accounting changes are made, guess who will lose out? Yeah, it won't be the execs. Us little guys will no longer have the potential for good gains.
Will the equation change at all for Pre-IPO companies, where the shares are not on the open market? Can they report a share price below what it would probably go for in the open market? Can they grant shares, effectively giving ownership of the company, rathern than options - and would that make a difference?
Once a company goes IPO, it seems like this would make it tough to "get over the hump" to being a larger company where they can absorb option costs without totally killing reported profits.
Maybe it's time to look for one of those stable corporate IT jobs, with all salary compensation. The IPOs are a lot more risky these days, and reducing options will not leave much incentive to stay.
That may have been true in the days of the Internet Bubble, when companies were valued by a really optimistic view of potential future earnings. But, in today's market, even startups need to show real potential to turn a profit.
Depending on how these changes work in practice, option costs could easily outweigh the meager profits of a company just getting started.
Isn't this basically what many Japanese companies do? They get the product to beta quality, then do a limited release in the Japanese market. They work out the bugs there, then have a much better quality product for the international release.
The only difference here is that the PSP is so well known that they can't keep the status quiet. People here find out about it, and write comments as if the PSP was a product they could go purchase at Best Buy. It's not... and by the time it is, the PSP will be very high quality.
Most slashdotters would agree that the current system could use some changes. But, transferring all software over to the already broken patent system is a worst case scenario.
Personally, I think the current copyright system has been manipulated into a terrible state by big businesses. But, a judge is not the guy to redesign the system. It needs to go before Congress to make fundamental changes (which is probably a bad idea right now, as our current government is so hopelessly corporatist that you might as well let Disney make the rules).
Copyright covers so many different types of media. Why is the protection the same for a newspaper article as for a software program, or a movie?
And, there are some things that companies may want to protect for centuries. But, that is just a huge burden on 99% of the other material that it makes no sense for. Give companies the ability to register copyrights, and extend them at a cost that increases as the term goes longer. Let them bear the cost burden of the system they benefit from.
Actually, we really should organize to push for better use of public airwaves.
A good example of a success here was the outcry against all of the media consolidation. Powell and the FCC tried to slip through some changes to ease limits on media ownership. (I guess based on all the great things that ClearChannel has brought us) Under that pressure, Congress and the FCC were forced to re-think things. It's still not great, but it's harder for them to continue corporate handouts under intense public pressure.
I would love to see similar public pressure to bring back the "Fairness Doctrine" that Reagan eliminated in the 80's. Basically, it says that the companies are allowed to use a public resource - the broadcast spectrum, and as such they have a responsibility to the public to provide balanced and beneficial programming. This meant, for example, that if they provided airtime to a political candidate, they need to provide equal time for their competitor. As we saw with Sinclair, with the anti-Kerry program before the last election, we have no concept of a fairness doctrine any more.
-- "the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism" - Franklin Roosevelt
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My experience has differed from yours. And, I think there are plenty of other reports out there to prove that MPEG2 acceleration is not a "lie". Do a google search and you'll find a lot. You'll also find a lot of comments on problems getting it working well. Or, you can even look at source code from the Linux apps implementing XvMC to see exactly what is being offloaded.
I have had Fusion cards for almost two years, and I originally used it with a 1GHz P3. The HD playback with DxVA acceleration was good on that system. (although, at that time the Fusion software was not exactly reliable, so the overall solution wasn't great)
Software playback is also much more sensitive to other system issues. You have high CPU utilizatin, and high AGP Bus utilization. So, it's sensitive to any resource limitations. On a system that had interrupts shared among multiple devices, I would often get stutters in the video and audio glitches. With some of the video drivers I tried, I had big problems with DxVA. So, everything needs to be working well. But, when it is, DxVA works well.
> That is a marketing lie which was commonly told a few years ago.
Actually, No.. DxVA is what makes the CPU requirements reasonable, even with the software decode products. The 2.4GHz -> 800MHz was specifically addressing DxVA offload of HDTV MPEG2 decode.
I have two MyHD cards and two FusionHDTV cards. The MyHD cards have an onboard MPEG2 decoder and they display the HDTV output directly from the receiver card - not through your video card. It does the complete MPEG2 decode in hardware, so the CPU requirements on the host are VERY low. You could do it with a Pentium II.
The Fusion cards only do the reception of the ATSC Transport Stream - they pass that 20Mbps data stream to the host for processing. All MPEG decoding and display is done in software (which is the same as with the Sasem USB HDTV device, ATI HDTV Wonder, pchdtv.com HD-3000 for Linux, and the EyeTV 500). In this model, the decoding is done on the CPU in software, and some of the more compute intensive portions are offloaded to the video card via the DxVA API. Specifically, the iDCT (inverse discrete cosine transform) and motion compensation are hardware accelerated. So, it still takes a decent CPU, to do the MPEG decoding, but much less than for full software decode. On my Athlon64 3400+, the CPU utilization goes from ~ 70% to ~ 35% when I turn DxVA on.
I prefer the MyHD cards for a number of reasons. But, their main drawback is flexibility. They just do the HD video output. If you want to integrate with a PVR solution, like XP Media Center, you need the video to be displayable on the PC video output. So, the hardware decode cards are becoming less popular.
> Also it is worth noting that although Apple's DVD player uses MPEG2 acceleration it still doesn't do de-interlacing decently. You can probably get better results with VLC.
That's just a limitation of Apple's software.. DVD Player is not exactly renowned for its video quality.
The video hardware and MPEG2 accel are fully capable of good de-interlaced display. The FusionHDTV software does a good job of de-interlacing 1080i output when using DxVA. It looks almost as good as the output from the MyHD.
> Getting a good signal, on the other hand, is a problem. Does anybody have reccomendations on what Antenna to buy? I live in Berkeley, so the signal I'm getting is coming from San Francisco, which is across the bay. ~20 miles...
20 miles across the bay should be pretty good for reception.. not too many obstructions.
Most stations broadcast from Mt. Sutro, and all locals but KNTV (NBC 11/12) are UHF.
I have had good results with are the Radio Shack Double Bowtie indoor antenna (it's not carried in-store anymore, but they can special order it for you. It's only ~$15)
If you can put up an outdoor antenna (even just tacked up on a balcony) the ChannelMaster 4228 four bay bowtie works great for a lot of people.
Many people like the Silver Sensor indoor antenna. It's a very directional UHF antenna. But, it didn't work well for me in Mountain View.
I have also heard that the Winegard Square Shooter is good. But, I have no direct experience with it.
A dual G5 requirement for smooth HDTV playback is a big problem. You should be able to easily do this with a midrange G4 system.
The problem is that Apple has not opened the API for the MPEG2 acceleration available in most of the video chips in Macs. ( The equivalent of DxVA in Windows, or XvMC in XFree86 ). In the x86 world, this takes the CPU requirement down from ~ 2.4GHz P4 to ~ 800MHz P3.
Apple's DVD player uses the MPEG2 acceleration, but they don't allow others to use it. So, we're stuck with extremely high CPU requirements of dec oding those hi-res HDTV files.
But, the point is that this is an example of what is to come in the general purpose computing arena. There are a number of initiatives already well along on the PC side that will look an awful lot like this.
BIOS manufacturers are implementing several DRM security mechanisms, which will work with the OS DRM mechanisms that microsoft is putting into the OS. These will be required components for HD-DVDs to work in PCs, or for Digital TV tuners which support the broadcast flag.
Basically, the content producer will decide how your PC is going to operate, not you. Your Digital TV tuner will not pass the HDTV Transport Stream to the host PC unless it is encrypted. So, any modification of the content (downscaling to resolution for smaller files, cutting out commercials, or just taking samples of the video) will not be allowed.
So, no.. don't just bury your head and say it's not a big deal, or claim that someone will just crack the security anyway. If people are complacent, they will end up with what Bill Gates and Disney think are reasonable usage rights, and hobbyists or small startups will be locked out of any innovation in this space.
The original poster seems a bit confused. The CableCard version they are working on is their solution for cable TV systems.
CableCard is the open standard for digital cable. It allows a TV to work with a cable system without needing a seperate cable box. The CableCard is a PCMCIA card that works with the cable security system to allow viewing of premium channels, PPV, etc. CableCard support is currently available in several high end HDTVs (it's only in the high end units now, because it requires a built-in HD tuner).
The new Tivo will have dual tuners, and will support QAM256, for full HDTV viewing/recording. It will be very similar in functionality to the HD DirecTivo (dual tuners - record two programs while watching a third).
There are some pictures of it here.
> But, if 2wire can deliver on their claims, it will leapfrog 2wire by a long margin.
obviously, that should read
But, if 2wire can deliver on their claims, it will leapfrog Tivo by a long margin.
--
If they do the home networking integration right, this box could kick ass. Integration with XP Media Center, or HDTV transport streams captured with other cards (MyHD MDP-120) would make for a powerful / extensible setup.
You must not have even looked at the 2wire site.. It clearly states that it supports satellite and OTA HDTV (with dual tuners for both, like the Tivo. But, the 2wire info says they can record 3 streams at once). They also support HDTV over IP, but I'm not sure how feasible that is with DSL bandwidths.
The 2wire appears to be much more open and flexible than the Tivo, with network integration of photos, broadband services, music, messaging, remote access/scheduling, and multi-room media support.
Of course, the Tivo is available and proven.. It's the best thing going for HDTV recording right now. But, if 2wire can deliver on their claims, it will leapfrog 2wire by a long margin.
I don't know what it takes to merit innovation in your book. But, to me GMail was a big innovation. Yes, there are other webmail services. I used Yahoo Mail for years, and they were happy to let it stay the same forever with no attempt to improve. It was only after GMail came on the scene that they increased their storage and added several usability features (but they are still not even close to GMail).
That is what I see as the difference between innovators and complacent companies. Google continues to improve, tweak, and add features. Stagnant companies like MS and Yahoo only react to competitive threats.
I think you're looking for something more in the revolutionary department if you don't think things like location based searches and gmail are innovations.
Yes, at the user side there is nothing directly needed to support SecurID authentication. But, on the application server side it needs to be built into the app using RSA's API. But, since SecurID is so broadly deployed, pretty much all security related applications implement SecurID auth.
For corporate uses, it's much easier to dictate Smart Cards, and integrate a bunch of different corporate applications - multiplying the benefit of the card.
But, thinking about the problem a bit more.. I guess that clunky two factor authentication processes solve some real problems. They protect against worms/viruses reading all the stored passwords on a users's system. They also minimize the risk of the phishing scams, because the passwords only last 60 seconds. Although, they don't totally eliminate the risk. A phishing site could ask for the SecurID code, then connect out to the bank site in real time to authenticate and do what they want.
Let me use my amazing visibility into the future to predict what will happen...
Google will continue to innovate, developing new features, integrating new capabilities into the developing 'user portal' centered around GMail. They will continue to develope advanced ways to organize, search, and use huge amounts of data.
Microsoft will wait to see what the users gravitate to the most, and will create a nearly identical version of the feature. They will extend it in a few minor ways to integrate more tightly with their operating systems. Since it will be in the OS by default, they will quickly gain a large market share.
On a lesser note, other 'competitors' like Yahoo, will continue to innovate in areas of banner advertising, and flash advertisement integration. They will add new features only after Google releases products that make theirs look primitive by comparison.
The only question my visions have not answered is: How large will Google have to become before slowing their innovation and playing it safe.
"RSA keys" in the title is a bit misleading.. It makes it sounds like a full crypto implementation, using smart cards and all the capabilities that implies. Confusing the RSA crypto algorithm, with the SecurID card, a product made by the company RSA.
SecurID is just a clunky authentication system using a hardware token to display numbers used for the authentication (although, they do also offer software tokens. there is nothing magical about the hardware)
Why not go to a modern smart card system? It can store full certificates, and tie directly into really strong security/crypto. Tie the smart card / cert into the autentication of your system, and into IPSec, SSL, etc.
SecurID offers only the authentication piece, based on a completely closed algorithm.
Yeah, it's too bad the interviewer didn't jump on that terrible response.
There is a case to be made for his point about content creators needing protection. But, the PC standards thing is irrelevant to the Broadcast Flag argument, and is completely wrong from a historical perspective.
It is also completely at odds with his previous point about the FCC trying to kill new competitors (cable TV, MCI, etc.) in the past, and how they have changed and are embracing new things like WiFi. The broadcast flag is protecting the big media players, at the expense of new upstarts... old-school FCC.
Some of the Bush administration's corporatist policies will only effect us through the administration. But, like the raping of environmental standards, we'll be living with the effects of this FCC for a long time.
Before I get out my PowerBook, I whip out the Zaurus to see what WiFi networks are available, open, and operational.
The Zaurus can go all the way, and actually connect to the network and use a WWW browser to connect to sites. So, you can verify that everything is fully operational, available, and open.
If I just want to check something quick on a www site, I might not even need to get my laptop out. I certainly wouldn't want to be writing many emails from the tiny Zaurus keyboard. But, for some quick checks it's great.
Also -- A new version of OpenZaurus was recently released. It includes updated Opie apps, and improves on the WiFi capabilities of the old Sharp firmwares.
Exactly.. Who cares if spam is sent to my account. It only matters that GMail correctly identifies it as such and keeps it out of my Inbox.
Especially since Google seems to be bringing their Groups (usenet) feature closer to GMail. Once you post a usenet message with your gmail account, spam detection is the game, not spam avoidance.
Yeah, I believe MS gets a cut from every game licensed / sold for X-Box use. But, with Halo they get all the profits.. they made this game. So, the equation would change because they are getting much more on Halo sales than EA's Madden Football.
Also, I don't know how the financials on the X-box have changed over time. I know they brought the cost of production down on the hardware. But, certainly not enough to offset the price drop to $150. So, they're probably still losing $50++ per X-Box sale.
I don't see any MacOS X packages on their site, or any mention of improvements in that area.
Anyone have news on this? Or is Open Office effectively dead on the Mac?
With the huge profits they are raking in on Halo 2, does this offset the big losses they have taken on the hardware?
This seems like it could have a chilling effect on startups, where a big part of the value proposition for all involved is potential option profits. If I don't get a good option package, why would I want to sign on with a startup, with loads of risk, and a relatively low salary?
While even in startups the executive option profits can be obscene. More reasonable rewards are often achieved by the rank and file developers and marketing types. If accounting changes are made, guess who will lose out? Yeah, it won't be the execs. Us little guys will no longer have the potential for good gains.
Will the equation change at all for Pre-IPO companies, where the shares are not on the open market? Can they report a share price below what it would probably go for in the open market? Can they grant shares, effectively giving ownership of the company, rathern than options - and would that make a difference?
Once a company goes IPO, it seems like this would make it tough to "get over the hump" to being a larger company where they can absorb option costs without totally killing reported profits.
Maybe it's time to look for one of those stable corporate IT jobs, with all salary compensation. The IPOs are a lot more risky these days, and reducing options will not leave much incentive to stay.
That may have been true in the days of the Internet Bubble, when companies were valued by a really optimistic view of potential future earnings. But, in today's market, even startups need to show real potential to turn a profit.
Depending on how these changes work in practice, option costs could easily outweigh the meager profits of a company just getting started.
This used to happen to me all the time.
That little sticker that holds the igniter up in the engine probably came loose. Either that, or the alligator clip came off the igniter.
Estes is usually good to deal with, just call their 800 number and they'll send a new pack of igniters.
There is a helpful guide here.
Isn't this basically what many Japanese companies do? They get the product to beta quality, then do a limited release in the Japanese market. They work out the bugs there, then have a much better quality product for the international release.
The only difference here is that the PSP is so well known that they can't keep the status quiet. People here find out about it, and write comments as if the PSP was a product they could go purchase at Best Buy. It's not... and by the time it is, the PSP will be very high quality.
Most slashdotters would agree that the current system could use some changes. But, transferring all software over to the already broken patent system is a worst case scenario.
Personally, I think the current copyright system has been manipulated into a terrible state by big businesses. But, a judge is not the guy to redesign the system. It needs to go before Congress to make fundamental changes (which is probably a bad idea right now, as our current government is so hopelessly corporatist that you might as well let Disney make the rules).
Copyright covers so many different types of media. Why is the protection the same for a newspaper article as for a software program, or a movie?
And, there are some things that companies may want to protect for centuries. But, that is just a huge burden on 99% of the other material that it makes no sense for. Give companies the ability to register copyrights, and extend them at a cost that increases as the term goes longer. Let them bear the cost burden of the system they benefit from.
The Sasem USB HDTV device also supports QAM. I haven't tried it, but I hear it works.
I use the FusionHDTV with Comcast cable, and it works fine.
I use a MyHD card for OTA programming, it's much better than the Fusion, but doesn't support QAM.
Actually, we really should organize to push for better use of public airwaves.
A good example of a success here was the outcry against all of the media consolidation. Powell and the FCC tried to slip through some changes to ease limits on media ownership. (I guess based on all the great things that ClearChannel has brought us) Under that pressure, Congress and the FCC were forced to re-think things. It's still not great, but it's harder for them to continue corporate handouts under intense public pressure.
I would love to see similar public pressure to bring back the "Fairness Doctrine" that Reagan eliminated in the 80's. Basically, it says that the companies are allowed to use a public resource - the broadcast spectrum, and as such they have a responsibility to the public to provide balanced and beneficial programming. This meant, for example, that if they provided airtime to a political candidate, they need to provide equal time for their competitor. As we saw with Sinclair, with the anti-Kerry program before the last election, we have no concept of a fairness doctrine any more.
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"the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism"
- Franklin Roosevelt