Actually, TiVo gets some of its ancillary content (those BMW films that have been running, the 8 Mile previews and interviews, etc.) from Discovery - it will automatically switch to Discovery to record the material.
And, no, it doesn't take up any of your available space.
Confusion will be their epitaph...
on
Ask Donald Becker
·
· Score: 1
The popular "pro-warez" argument is that if software companies made big-ticket products (for example, Photoshop) available for a lower cost, the demand for warez would drop. As someone in the know, do you think that's at all true?
I was talking to a co-worker today about how much we were both looking forward to seeing The Who at Madison Square Garden in August. Having had the good fortune of seeing them twice on their last tour, and once during the Quadrophenia tour in 1996, I agree with the sentiment that Entwistle was one of the finest rock bassists ever. Watching his fingers during his bass solo on 5:15 during the Quadrophenia tour was like watching a frenetic genius.
Why the double-standard? Why do we just accept that any VHS tape we buy will be uncopyable thanks to Macrovision (barring any specialized hardware to bypass it that's beyond the reach of the lay consumer), but we so vigorously oppose those similar protections on CDs? I can't copy my VHS tapes, even if I own them and want to make a copy to take on the road in my van, or to preserve the slowly-degrading quality inherent in repeated playing of such media. But we don't cry about it - we just accept it. Why?
Because the copy protection on VHS tapes doesn't render my VCR useless for simple playing. That's the crux of the argument - legally purchased copy-protected CDs cannot be played on my home PC, whereas copy-protected DVDs can. The record labels are knowingly selling goods that could potentially damage my computer equipment through no fault of my own.
When TiVo was pushing its Series2 a few months ago, they added a menu option to plug the new models, including a two-minute commercial you could play for friends who don't understand the PVR concept, outtakes from the Joe Montana/Ronnie Lott commercial they ran last year, and a five-minute infomercial on the new boxes. More recently (in fact, it left my TiVo today), they offered a Sheryl Crow video as part of a promotional tie-in.
None of this interrupted my regular viewing (in fact, I'm fairly sure it got downloaded to my TiVo during its daily call to update TV listings and look for new software). For the most part, it's been unobtrusive. OK, fine - there's an added menu item. Big deal!
Those of you crying foul probably don't own a TiVo anyway, so don't let this talk sway you.
Any theories on how she and her corporate masters will circumvent this?
Like I said, perhaps the RIAA will seek to get a piece of the pie on hard drive sales and whatnot.
Beyond that, does anyone know if any of these copy protection schemes will screw with the disc-to-disc component systems?
"Covered devices" an out for the RIAA?
on
Future of Music Summit
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
As you know from your personal involvement in its drafting, the AHRA clearly requires content owners to code their material appropriately to implement a basic compromise: in return for the receipt of royalties on compliant recorders and media, copyright owners may not preclude consumers from making a first-generation, digital-to-digital copy of an album on a compliant device using royalty-paid media. Under the AHRA, any deliberate change to a CD by a content owner that makes one generation of digital recording from the CD on covered devices no longer possible would appear to violate the content owner's obligations under the statute.
And how much of a royalty does the RIAA get on the sale of hard drives/MP3 encoders/iPods/Nomads?
I'm sure Ms. Rosen will gleefully point out to our well-intentioned friend in Congress that she's more concerned about CD-to-MP3 copying than CD-to-CD, which might, unfortunately, render Rep. Boucher's argument moot.
The full script is available in Google's cache here, but here's the twelve days in condensed form... well, the eight they managed to finish:
Eight comic books,
Seven packs of smokes,
Six packs of two-four,
Five golden touques,
Four pounds of backbacon,
Three French toast,
Two turtlenecks,
And a beer in a tree!
Sure, the gifts are great... but how can you work that into your Christmas carolling? I mean, the rhythm is all wrong! Bob & Doug McKenzie at least made their list work as both a song and a workable gift list...:)
I'm on very good terms with my entire department. The group I hang out with tends to spend lunch hours together, go to the bar on Fridays after work, etc. Part of that group is my direct supervisor and others one level above me. I enjoy their company, and it never hurts to grease the wheels a little bit when things need to get done.
Having seen a number of office romances self-destruct and become awkward, I completely agree with the "no dating" rule. But if you continue to view everyone around you as a competitor ready to slit your throat at a moment's notice, you're going to end up lonely, isolated and bitter.
On the other hand, PS2 has some incredible graphic, violent, adult games like Resident Evil: Codename Veronica and Silent Hill II. I have no interest at all in even considering a GameCube.
In that case, you're going to be pissed - Capcom signed an exclusivity deal with Nintendo that will see all future RE titles as Cube-exclusive. They're starting by redoing all the existing RE games for the Cube.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- An American Airlines jet with 255 people on board crashed Monday on takeoff from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The plane went down at 9:17 a.m. EST in the Rockways section of the New York City borough of Queens, about five miles from Kennedy Airport.
CNN confirmed the plane was American Airlines Flight 587 from New York to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The plane was a Boeing Airbus A300. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said the plane was carrying 246 passengers and nine crew members.
Asked if terrorism was suspected, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Bill Schumann said, "All options are open at this time. We have very limited information."
The Pentagon said surveillance fights were going on in the area and nothing unusual had been spotted.
At least four houses were on fire, and a huge plume of smoke could be seen rising from the site. The New York Fire Department dispatched 44 firetrucks and 200 firefighters to the scene.
All three New York City-area airports -- Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark -- closed after the crash, along with all the city's bridges and tunnels. Mayor Rudy Giuliani declared a Level One emergency, mobilizing all available police, fire and emergency personnel.
The MPEGs from theforce.ca seem to be gone - now it's replaced with links to the MOV files.
Re:The Palm is already dying
on
Pocket PC 2002
·
· Score: 1
I can't tell you how many times it's crashed on me (taking out all of my configurations, files, and network card drivers), when I'm somewhere very far from my backup computer.
The only time anything like that happened to me was when I ran Compaq's first ROM upgrade, and they were very good about fixing it for me (and yanking the upgrade as soon as others complained about the same thing.
Did I mention that the ActiveSync software doesn't automatically back up your file system whenever you sync? Maybe it could, but I can't find a way to make it so.
Tools / Backup/Restore. I found it within three minutes of first installing ActiveSync. And while PalmOS and Hotsync Manager back up a good portion of your data, it still doesn't back up all applications; if it did, programs like Backup Buddy wouldn't be necessary.
And for all the gadgetry, I still can't mount an external drive via the network connection. What a useful feature that'd be... Too bad.
PocketPC 2002 supports that in File Explorer and Windows Media Player.
Go ahead and spend your money if you want a cool gadget, but gadgets get boring after a while unless they're useful.
I'm perfectly happy with my iPAQ - with the CF sleeve, a network card and the vxUtil program, I can troubleshoot my network. I don't know if the Handera Palm devices w/ CF slots can do that, or if they even support CF network cards. The terminal services client lets me remote into NT/2K boxen (pity the VNC client doesn't work better). In short, I can find a lot of uses for it that I can't do with my Palm. And that's without getting into the MP3/video player.
As for battery life, that hasn't been a concern for me. When I'm not using it, it rests in its cradle and charges. When I'm ready to use it, it's fully charged. Same goes for my Palm m500.
Perhaps someone should mark you -1 Redundant, seeing as you said the exact same thing 11 minutes prior...
The mighty Palm killer isn't the $600 PPC...
on
Pocket PC 2002
·
· Score: 2, Informative
...it's the PalmOS emulator for the PPC. Of course, you still need to buy the $600 PPC to use it, but people who want to continue using their Palm apps and want bells and whistles PPC provides will be able to stick with just one device rather than juggling a Palm and a PPC.
Bah - Emacs is already at version 20. Clearly this means Emacs is 333% better than vim!
Wait, you mean version numbers aren't a measure of quality? Dang!
Retaliation - How We Can Fight Back
on
Our New Pearl Harbor
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Sent by a co-worker to our entire campus this afternoon:
---
In the immediate wake of this monstrous tragedy, one thing that strikes me is the resilience of New Yorkers. Reports of people aiding victims at ground zero, buying cases of water for victims, and of many hour waits to donate at local blood centers. I shudder to think of how this tragedy may have affected members of our small community, I saw a few vicitms already on campus today, but I also saw a busload of students leaving to brave the congested evacuation routes of Long Island to give blood.
They are celebrating our tragedy in areas of the world that would seek to do us harm. Already I hear cries that this is war, we should turn [certain countries] into parking lot, they kill our kids, we should level their whole civilizations.
It is obvious to state the following: The perpetrators of this heinous attack would want exactly that. For us to turn against one another and fuel the fires of prejudice and hate. For us to weaken the bonds of strength that is the diversity of us. They have succeded in attacking our land, our people, and our psyche.
They can bomb America today, but we will be open for business tomorrow.
Now is the time we reach out to help each other thru the post-traumatic period of time. It is important that everyone talk to each other to overcome the shock of this tragedy. Hopefully, people with information to catch these terrorists will not be afraid to come forth, and the forces who have sworn to give their lives for this country can and will bring them to justice.
But I hope that people will continue to show the passion and courage to continue to reach out and help our fellow Americans in a time when we need it the most. The Red Cross had enough blood in reserve for today, but in the coming days they will need more.
We can retaliate by showing the engineers of this tragedy that the greatest nation on earth will be back to work and school tommorow, shaken but not undaunted. We can show them that they will not change our way of life, our love of freedom, nor turn us against each other. The history of this nation has shown that a multicultural nation can and will overcome the most insurmountable obstacles. I think history will show future generations that the aftermath of this tragedy displayed Americans in their finest hour. I hope some of you out there feel the same way I do.
Fox News just confirmed that the area of the Pentagon that the plane crashed into this morning was under construction, and as such there weren't as many people there as there could have been.
Whether it's related or not, one of the offices destroyed was the Office for Homeland Defense, which does anti-terrorism work.
Re:Believe it or not...
on
Dorm Storm?
·
· Score: 1
Hmmm... moderate or participate...
I met my current girlfriend (soon to be fiancee) by selling her a 14.4 modem so she could do her SPSS work from her dorm room (this predated wired dorms by about two years).
Sometimes geeks and non-geeks make that love connection. Of course, every time she has a minor computer problem, I have to fix it immediately or I get no sleep...
Buy Vinyl. If it isn't released on Vinly it probably is some pop bullshit that isn't meant to last (or be good anyway). Records sound better anyway, pure analog, can't copy protect that.
Sure, no problem... just as soon as they make turntables for the car, or a portable turntable I can attach to my belt loop while jogging.
I'll certainly admit that a brand new vinyl LP played with a brand new needle is going to produce a better-quality sound than a new CD on a new CD player. But on repeated playings, that vinyl record you hold so dear is going to sound worse and worse, even when you change the needle. A CD may not be perfect, but it's a little bit more resistant to defects caused by time.
That and, well, it's easier to rip a CD to make an MP3/OGG file. Point me in the direction of an LP-ROM that'll make it just as easy to rip vinyl, and I'll convert.
On an even more general GBA note - putting an external light onto the machine will sap the batteries and then everyone will complain about poor battery life, but at least they'll be able to see their screens without the benefit of sunlight.
Are Interact, Mad Catz, etc. yet more examples of enthusiasm misguided?
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, TiVo gets some of its ancillary content (those BMW films that have been running, the 8 Mile previews and interviews, etc.) from Discovery - it will automatically switch to Discovery to record the material.
And, no, it doesn't take up any of your available space.
Aren't you sick of people confusing you with me?
Wow, nearly-instant reruns!
The popular "pro-warez" argument is that if software companies made big-ticket products (for example, Photoshop) available for a lower cost, the demand for warez would drop. As someone in the know, do you think that's at all true?
I was talking to a co-worker today about how much we were both looking forward to seeing The Who at Madison Square Garden in August. Having had the good fortune of seeing them twice on their last tour, and once during the Quadrophenia tour in 1996, I agree with the sentiment that Entwistle was one of the finest rock bassists ever. Watching his fingers during his bass solo on 5:15 during the Quadrophenia tour was like watching a frenetic genius.
Thank you, John...
Why the double-standard? Why do we just accept that any VHS tape we buy will be uncopyable thanks to Macrovision (barring any specialized hardware to bypass it that's beyond the reach of the lay consumer), but we so vigorously oppose those similar protections on CDs? I can't copy my VHS tapes, even if I own them and want to make a copy to take on the road in my van, or to preserve the slowly-degrading quality inherent in repeated playing of such media. But we don't cry about it - we just accept it. Why?
Because the copy protection on VHS tapes doesn't render my VCR useless for simple playing. That's the crux of the argument - legally purchased copy-protected CDs cannot be played on my home PC, whereas copy-protected DVDs can. The record labels are knowingly selling goods that could potentially damage my computer equipment through no fault of my own.
When TiVo was pushing its Series2 a few months ago, they added a menu option to plug the new models, including a two-minute commercial you could play for friends who don't understand the PVR concept, outtakes from the Joe Montana/Ronnie Lott commercial they ran last year, and a five-minute infomercial on the new boxes. More recently (in fact, it left my TiVo today), they offered a Sheryl Crow video as part of a promotional tie-in.
None of this interrupted my regular viewing (in fact, I'm fairly sure it got downloaded to my TiVo during its daily call to update TV listings and look for new software). For the most part, it's been unobtrusive. OK, fine - there's an added menu item. Big deal!
Those of you crying foul probably don't own a TiVo anyway, so don't let this talk sway you.
It's a question: Shouldn't this have gone under "Ask Slashdot?" :)
Good luck, Taco...
Any theories on how she and her corporate masters will circumvent this?
Like I said, perhaps the RIAA will seek to get a piece of the pie on hard drive sales and whatnot.
Beyond that, does anyone know if any of these copy protection schemes will screw with the disc-to-disc component systems?
As you know from your personal involvement in its drafting, the AHRA clearly requires content owners to code their material appropriately to implement a basic compromise: in return for the receipt of royalties on compliant recorders and media, copyright owners may not preclude consumers from making a first-generation, digital-to-digital copy of an album on a compliant device using royalty-paid media. Under the AHRA, any deliberate change to a CD by a content owner that makes one generation of digital recording from the CD on covered devices no longer possible would appear to violate the content owner's obligations under the statute.
And how much of a royalty does the RIAA get on the sale of hard drives/MP3 encoders/iPods/Nomads? I'm sure Ms. Rosen will gleefully point out to our well-intentioned friend in Congress that she's more concerned about CD-to-MP3 copying than CD-to-CD, which might, unfortunately, render Rep. Boucher's argument moot.
The full script is available in Google's cache here, but here's the twelve days in condensed form... well, the eight they managed to finish:
Eight comic books,
Seven packs of smokes,
Six packs of two-four,
Five golden touques,
Four pounds of backbacon,
Three French toast,
Two turtlenecks,
And a beer in a tree!
Sure, the gifts are great... but how can you work that into your Christmas carolling? I mean, the rhythm is all wrong! Bob & Doug McKenzie at least made their list work as both a song and a workable gift list... :)
I'm on very good terms with my entire department. The group I hang out with tends to spend lunch hours together, go to the bar on Fridays after work, etc. Part of that group is my direct supervisor and others one level above me. I enjoy their company, and it never hurts to grease the wheels a little bit when things need to get done.
Having seen a number of office romances self-destruct and become awkward, I completely agree with the "no dating" rule. But if you continue to view everyone around you as a competitor ready to slit your throat at a moment's notice, you're going to end up lonely, isolated and bitter.
On the other hand, PS2 has some incredible graphic, violent, adult games like Resident Evil: Codename Veronica and Silent Hill II. I have no interest at all in even considering a GameCube.
In that case, you're going to be pissed - Capcom signed an exclusivity deal with Nintendo that will see all future RE titles as Cube-exclusive. They're starting by redoing all the existing RE games for the Cube.
November 12, 2001 Posted: 10:06 AM EST (1506 GMT)
NEW YORK (CNN) -- An American Airlines jet with 255 people on board crashed Monday on takeoff from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The plane went down at 9:17 a.m. EST in the Rockways section of the New York City borough of Queens, about five miles from Kennedy Airport.
CNN confirmed the plane was American Airlines Flight 587 from New York to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The plane was a Boeing Airbus A300. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said the plane was carrying 246 passengers and nine crew members.
Asked if terrorism was suspected, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Bill Schumann said, "All options are open at this time. We have very limited information."
The Pentagon said surveillance fights were going on in the area and nothing unusual had been spotted.
At least four houses were on fire, and a huge plume of smoke could be seen rising from the site. The New York Fire Department dispatched 44 firetrucks and 200 firefighters to the scene.
All three New York City-area airports -- Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark -- closed after the crash, along with all the city's bridges and tunnels. Mayor Rudy Giuliani declared a Level One emergency, mobilizing all available police, fire and emergency personnel.
The MPEGs from theforce.ca seem to be gone - now it's replaced with links to the MOV files.
I can't tell you how many times it's crashed on me (taking out all of my configurations, files, and network card drivers), when I'm somewhere very far from my backup computer.
The only time anything like that happened to me was when I ran Compaq's first ROM upgrade, and they were very good about fixing it for me (and yanking the upgrade as soon as others complained about the same thing.
Did I mention that the ActiveSync software doesn't automatically back up your file system whenever you sync? Maybe it could, but I can't find a way to make it so.
Tools / Backup/Restore. I found it within three minutes of first installing ActiveSync. And while PalmOS and Hotsync Manager back up a good portion of your data, it still doesn't back up all applications; if it did, programs like Backup Buddy wouldn't be necessary.
And for all the gadgetry, I still can't mount an external drive via the network connection. What a useful feature that'd be... Too bad.
PocketPC 2002 supports that in File Explorer and Windows Media Player.
Go ahead and spend your money if you want a cool gadget, but gadgets get boring after a while unless they're useful.
I'm perfectly happy with my iPAQ - with the CF sleeve, a network card and the vxUtil program, I can troubleshoot my network. I don't know if the Handera Palm devices w/ CF slots can do that, or if they even support CF network cards. The terminal services client lets me remote into NT/2K boxen (pity the VNC client doesn't work better). In short, I can find a lot of uses for it that I can't do with my Palm. And that's without getting into the MP3/video player.
As for battery life, that hasn't been a concern for me. When I'm not using it, it rests in its cradle and charges. When I'm ready to use it, it's fully charged. Same goes for my Palm m500.
Perhaps someone should mark you -1 Redundant, seeing as you said the exact same thing 11 minutes prior...
...it's the PalmOS emulator for the PPC. Of course, you still need to buy the $600 PPC to use it, but people who want to continue using their Palm apps and want bells and whistles PPC provides will be able to stick with just one device rather than juggling a Palm and a PPC.
The first public beta should be out this month.
Bah - Emacs is already at version 20. Clearly this means Emacs is 333% better than vim!
Wait, you mean version numbers aren't a measure of quality? Dang!
Sent by a co-worker to our entire campus this afternoon:
---
In the immediate wake of this monstrous tragedy, one thing that strikes me is the resilience of New Yorkers. Reports of people aiding victims at ground zero, buying cases of water for victims, and of many hour waits to donate at local blood centers. I shudder to think of how this tragedy may have affected members of our small community, I saw a few vicitms already on campus today, but I also saw a busload of students leaving to brave the congested evacuation routes of Long Island to give blood.
They are celebrating our tragedy in areas of the world that would seek to do us harm. Already I hear cries that this is war, we should turn [certain countries] into parking lot, they kill our kids, we should level their whole civilizations.
It is obvious to state the following: The perpetrators of this heinous attack would want exactly that. For us to turn against one another and fuel the fires of prejudice and hate. For us to weaken the bonds of strength that is the diversity of us. They have succeded in attacking our land, our people, and our psyche.
They can bomb America today, but we will be open for business tomorrow.
Now is the time we reach out to help each other thru the post-traumatic period of time. It is important that everyone talk to each other to overcome the shock of this tragedy. Hopefully, people with information to catch these terrorists will not be afraid to come forth, and the forces who have sworn to give their lives for this country can and will bring them to justice.
But I hope that people will continue to show the passion and courage to continue to reach out and help our fellow Americans in a time when we need it the most. The Red Cross had enough blood in reserve for today, but in the coming days they will need more.
We can retaliate by showing the engineers of this tragedy that the greatest nation on earth will be back to work and school tommorow, shaken but not undaunted. We can show them that they will not change our way of life, our love of freedom, nor turn us against each other. The history of this nation has shown that a multicultural nation can and will overcome the most insurmountable obstacles. I think history will show future generations that the aftermath of this tragedy displayed Americans in their finest hour. I hope some of you out there feel the same way I do.
--Protik Majumdar
Fox News just confirmed that the area of the Pentagon that the plane crashed into this morning was under construction, and as such there weren't as many people there as there could have been.
Whether it's related or not, one of the offices destroyed was the Office for Homeland Defense, which does anti-terrorism work.
Hmmm... moderate or participate...
I met my current girlfriend (soon to be fiancee) by selling her a 14.4 modem so she could do her SPSS work from her dorm room (this predated wired dorms by about two years).
Sometimes geeks and non-geeks make that love connection. Of course, every time she has a minor computer problem, I have to fix it immediately or I get no sleep...
Buy Vinyl. If it isn't released on Vinly it probably is some pop bullshit that isn't meant to last (or be good anyway). Records sound better anyway, pure analog, can't copy protect that.
Sure, no problem... just as soon as they make turntables for the car, or a portable turntable I can attach to my belt loop while jogging.
I'll certainly admit that a brand new vinyl LP played with a brand new needle is going to produce a better-quality sound than a new CD on a new CD player. But on repeated playings, that vinyl record you hold so dear is going to sound worse and worse, even when you change the needle. A CD may not be perfect, but it's a little bit more resistant to defects caused by time.
That and, well, it's easier to rip a CD to make an MP3/OGG file. Point me in the direction of an LP-ROM that'll make it just as easy to rip vinyl, and I'll convert.
On an even more general GBA note - putting an external light onto the machine will sap the batteries and then everyone will complain about poor battery life, but at least they'll be able to see their screens without the benefit of sunlight.
Are Interact, Mad Catz, etc. yet more examples of enthusiasm misguided?
And if you want to relive those days, telnet to operagost.com - the only known GALTRADER server in the Universe.
Of course, fistfights with fellow UB alumns aren't as easy as those carefree days when everyone was in Baldy or Bell...