FYI folks, there is a pretty easy hack out there that lets Mac users (and Windows) extract shows from their TiVo, and UPLOADING them as well! Here's what I have - in a nutshell, and how I do it:
My hardware:
DirecTiVo Series 2. The original 40Gig HD was removed and upgraded to a 160Gig drive about 2 years ago.
Powerbook G4 867MHz
Linksys USB100M
Most of the setup is automated, you just have to answer a couple of questions that pop up when you run the setup scripts. I enabled vserver and chose to have it load at bootup. I downloaded TivoTool and it provides a Mac interface to vserver. TivoTool basically does everything on the Mac that TiVoToGo does on Windows. The main difference - you have to hack your TiVo to run it (not that complicated).
As others have stated, I also feel that this is a slap in the face to Mac owners. I can't understand TiVo's mentality on this. It is absurd to think that there is nothing wrong with charging us for something that is freely provided to Windows users. With this mentality, there is no wonder that the hacker community has developed free tools for the TiVo that are actually better than the $69 Roxio program.
TivoTool is awesome. With it, you can rip movies from DVD (encode with mpeg4) and upload them to TiVo, as TivoTool has a "TivoServer" program built in!
Actually - this would be a good application for load balancing. Why bother with data caps at all? What I'd rather see widely implemented by ISP's (and this is what my ISP does) is for the ISP to allow the client to purchase a data plan that is "burstable". If network traffic is light, then the connection runs at full speed. However, if the network loads up, then traffic to you is throttled until it lessens. This is very easy to do - Mikrotik has software that can do this and the routers can be purchased or built for a few hundred dollars.
There have been some wonderful suggestions made. The guy that suggested using NoCat was right on target. You have to provide yourself some security in limiting who is getting on. You also have to have some bandwidth management in place to keep one neighbor from hogging it all.
Look at LocustWorld http://www.locustworld.com/, a freely downloadable, open source solution that addresses all of these concerns. These open source guys have already solved all of your problems, you can get your 6Mb/s DSL line and you are in business.
Better yet, I bet everyone of these neighbors / potential clients have an old PC stuffed in a closet somewhere. Stick a WiFi card in each one of them, load the software on the PC, and create a WiFi "Hotzone" in your neighborhood for little to nothing invested.
I disagree. I do not think the intent of the article was to throw mud on the US... but rather the big telcos that would rather provide over-priced services in high-density areas and squash competition.
In LA, on every phone bill, there is a tax levied to provide funding for the telcos to deploy service in areas that are so rural they will never recoup their investment. BellSouth will simply draw money from this fund to pay for this. So in reality, the taxpayers of the state have already funded this... it's just a matter of pulling the telcos away from the big-city feeding trough and get them to provide basic telephone service to a small, rural community.
You make an excellent point - business as usual in LA. I live in the northern part of the state and see this all the time. However, I do believe that LA residents have realized that in the technology markets (such as broadband), we are being left behind. I hope the LPSC will get out of bed with the Telco's and push them to do what they should have done years ago.
My company approached the state about installing multiple towers around town and in a couple of locations outside of town to deliver broaband internet to Mink - over which we could deliver phone service through VoIP. I never heard from anyone after the 2nd email when I outlined my proposal... Business as usual. If it doesn't conform to the "old way" of doing this... forget it.
Still, the exciting part thing that is not mentioned in this article is what is being done elsewhere in LA. All over the state, little communities are jumping on the wireless broadband-wagon, er bandwagon, um... well you get the idea! I predict we'll see some exciting things happen in LA in 2005 as more and more communities embrace the technology that is available.
Re:Won't the (free) markets sort this out?
on
SBC's VoIP End Run
·
· Score: 1
Well, back to my original post on this thread - I think all that has been said here only strengthens what I was trying to say. SBC can charge all they want to for termination fees, but at some point the customers will decide that enough is enough. They will demand a better rate (by switching to another provider). The power companies are chomping at the bit to deliver BPL - why? Their intentions are just like the cable companies... not only will they provide electricity, but television, and VoIP telephony. I see VoIP turning the telecom market upside down.
I operate a WiFi (mesh) WISP. I currently sell telephone service on my network (using LocustWorld and Asterisk software - both Open Source). We offer local phone numbers at a better price (and free long distance) than our local carrier - CenturyTel in this market. So if you don't like CenturyTel, we say sign up with us. The same thing will start to happen in the SBC territories. My company is demonstrating how easy and affordable one can deploy wireless broadband - then go into that market and offer VoIP. It's only a matter of time before a big player decides to do the same thing on a larger scale than what we are doing.
Regardless of how monopolistic people think SBC is, they operate in the US, and free markets breed competition. Competition breeds innovation. People will always look for a better way to sell the same or better service (and still make money doing so).
Won't the (free) markets sort this out?
on
SBC's VoIP End Run
·
· Score: 1
All of this is reality if you are on SBC's network, but what if you have cable, wireless or the newly opened Broadband over Powerline available?
It's a free market and it's not as if SBC is the only provider! SBC has to be competitive. I think this could drive business away from them.
I see the post referencing my deployments in LA & TX - thanks Entity1633. Actually - not to toot my own horn, there are several towns in this region of the US that have city-wide WiFi. In addition to the TWO citywide Fastline http://www.fastlineinternet.com/ networks that have been running for over a year now(Vivian, LA & Linden, TX) another group NETWI http://www.netwi.org/ has deployed city-wide WiFi across Queen City & Atlanta, Texas. NETWI are working on other cities in East Texas. In addition, there are at least three other WISP's in this region actively deploying citywide WiFi. All of us use LocustWorld software & off-the-shelf hardware.
Still, I applaud these guys. What they have done is to be commended.
I like the suggestion about booting from Compact Flash, but the DOM (Disk-On-Module) is probably a better alternative. Do a Google for "disk on module". These usually retail for the same price as CF, but they are 3x's faster and plug directly into either a 40 or 44 pin IDE interface.
These still aren't as fast as a hard drive, but they do offer the same benefit of no moving parts & longer battery life.
Actually, you are only partially right. Traditional mesh networks, such as the one that MIT has been working on, require routing tables that grow (exponentially) each time a new node is added to the mesh. However, you should read up how LW has solved those issues. From the LW website:
"As each mesh node is autonomous, discovering routes on demand, there is no central control to act as a bottle neck. As the network grows the routing task for each node does not grow exponentially, as they only build routes to the resources that they need. Routes are established on demand, and un-used routes are flushed out after a short time."
(Read complete article)
No, you only add about 3 ms of latency to each hop. 100ms would be absurd.
I have gamers, VoIP, web surfing, and yes the dreaded PtP... all peacefully co-existing!
In the real world, this isn't the case. You have multiple uplinks into the "wired" interent, so you are only going 3 or 4 hops into the mesh. Ping times to the internet never exceed 100ms on a properly designed mesh network.
I use Packet8 over my network... http://www.fastlineinternet.com , we are the first US deployment of the LocustWorld system. So this is a voice of experience.
Slashdot Mirror
My hardware:
DirecTiVo Series 2. The original 40Gig HD was removed and upgraded to a 160Gig drive about 2 years ago.
Powerbook G4 867MHz
Linksys USB100M
Most of the instructions to follow to upgrade HD are in these two threads:h p?t=265929 h p?t=250680
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.p
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.p
Software for Mac:
http://www.tivotool.com/
Most of the setup is automated, you just have to answer a couple of questions that pop up when you run the setup scripts. I enabled vserver and chose to have it load at bootup. I downloaded TivoTool and it provides a Mac interface to vserver. TivoTool basically does everything on the Mac that TiVoToGo does on Windows. The main difference - you have to hack your TiVo to run it (not that complicated).
As others have stated, I also feel that this is a slap in the face to Mac owners. I can't understand TiVo's mentality on this. It is absurd to think that there is nothing wrong with charging us for something that is freely provided to Windows users. With this mentality, there is no wonder that the hacker community has developed free tools for the TiVo that are actually better than the $69 Roxio program.
TivoTool is awesome. With it, you can rip movies from DVD (encode with mpeg4) and upload them to TiVo, as TivoTool has a "TivoServer" program built in!
Actually - this would be a good application for load balancing. Why bother with data caps at all? What I'd rather see widely implemented by ISP's (and this is what my ISP does) is for the ISP to allow the client to purchase a data plan that is "burstable". If network traffic is light, then the connection runs at full speed. However, if the network loads up, then traffic to you is throttled until it lessens. This is very easy to do - Mikrotik has software that can do this and the routers can be purchased or built for a few hundred dollars.
Look at LocustWorld http://www.locustworld.com/, a freely downloadable, open source solution that addresses all of these concerns. These open source guys have already solved all of your problems, you can get your 6Mb/s DSL line and you are in business.
Better yet, I bet everyone of these neighbors / potential clients have an old PC stuffed in a closet somewhere. Stick a WiFi card in each one of them, load the software on the PC, and create a WiFi "Hotzone" in your neighborhood for little to nothing invested.
In LA, on every phone bill, there is a tax levied to provide funding for the telcos to deploy service in areas that are so rural they will never recoup their investment. BellSouth will simply draw money from this fund to pay for this. So in reality, the taxpayers of the state have already funded this... it's just a matter of pulling the telcos away from the big-city feeding trough and get them to provide basic telephone service to a small, rural community.
My company approached the state about installing multiple towers around town and in a couple of locations outside of town to deliver broaband internet to Mink - over which we could deliver phone service through VoIP. I never heard from anyone after the 2nd email when I outlined my proposal... Business as usual. If it doesn't conform to the "old way" of doing this... forget it.
Still, the exciting part thing that is not mentioned in this article is what is being done elsewhere in LA. All over the state, little communities are jumping on the wireless broadband-wagon, er bandwagon, um... well you get the idea! I predict we'll see some exciting things happen in LA in 2005 as more and more communities embrace the technology that is available.
I operate a WiFi (mesh) WISP. I currently sell telephone service on my network (using LocustWorld and Asterisk software - both Open Source). We offer local phone numbers at a better price (and free long distance) than our local carrier - CenturyTel in this market. So if you don't like CenturyTel, we say sign up with us. The same thing will start to happen in the SBC territories. My company is demonstrating how easy and affordable one can deploy wireless broadband - then go into that market and offer VoIP. It's only a matter of time before a big player decides to do the same thing on a larger scale than what we are doing.
Regardless of how monopolistic people think SBC is, they operate in the US, and free markets breed competition. Competition breeds innovation. People will always look for a better way to sell the same or better service (and still make money doing so).
All of this is reality if you are on SBC's network, but what if you have cable, wireless or the newly opened Broadband over Powerline available? It's a free market and it's not as if SBC is the only provider! SBC has to be competitive. I think this could drive business away from them.
I see the post referencing my deployments in LA & TX - thanks Entity1633. Actually - not to toot my own horn, there are several towns in this region of the US that have city-wide WiFi. In addition to the TWO citywide Fastline http://www.fastlineinternet.com/ networks that have been running for over a year now(Vivian, LA & Linden, TX) another group NETWI http://www.netwi.org/ has deployed city-wide WiFi across Queen City & Atlanta, Texas. NETWI are working on other cities in East Texas. In addition, there are at least three other WISP's in this region actively deploying citywide WiFi. All of us use LocustWorld software & off-the-shelf hardware. Still, I applaud these guys. What they have done is to be commended.
I like the suggestion about booting from Compact Flash, but the DOM (Disk-On-Module) is probably a better alternative. Do a Google for "disk on module". These usually retail for the same price as CF, but they are 3x's faster and plug directly into either a 40 or 44 pin IDE interface. These still aren't as fast as a hard drive, but they do offer the same benefit of no moving parts & longer battery life.
Actually, you are only partially right. Traditional mesh networks, such as the one that MIT has been working on, require routing tables that grow (exponentially) each time a new node is added to the mesh. However, you should read up how LW has solved those issues. From the LW website: "As each mesh node is autonomous, discovering routes on demand, there is no central control to act as a bottle neck. As the network grows the routing task for each node does not grow exponentially, as they only build routes to the resources that they need. Routes are established on demand, and un-used routes are flushed out after a short time."
(Read complete article)
No, you only add about 3 ms of latency to each hop. 100ms would be absurd. I have gamers, VoIP, web surfing, and yes the dreaded PtP... all peacefully co-existing!
In the real world, this isn't the case. You have multiple uplinks into the "wired" interent, so you are only going 3 or 4 hops into the mesh. Ping times to the internet never exceed 100ms on a properly designed mesh network. I use Packet8 over my network... http://www.fastlineinternet.com , we are the first US deployment of the LocustWorld system. So this is a voice of experience.