Go to campchaos.com - they have an entire series of the "Napster Bad" cartoons. It followed along with the lawsuit and media stories. The entire series consists of:
Napster: BAD! (The original)
MetalliCOPS (Pretty decent)
Metallica Millionaire (Better yet)
MP3: Good or Goblin? (Ft. Nutty McShithead of the RIAA)
Sue All The World (w/ Elton John, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Sheryl Crow, & more)
Napster Dead? (HYSTERICAL!)
Bizarro Napster Bad (The Final Episode to date)
And the following "Special Features":
Special Fucking Edition (featuring "Monkey Notes")
Fire Bad! (video game)
I recommend you watch them in series... they make more sense that way, and it adds to the comical flavor. The series exists at:
The things TiVo downloads are no secret. They have never been hidden from people who have been curious enough to look for them. Some of the download info is even available from the GUI without even hacking a bash prompt on TiVo, by merely enabling backdoors and using the "view TiVo logs" backdoor.
Regardless, on the initial call, TiVo doesn't download new software. It has been stated several times that the initial call and the software update call are fundamentally different, and it is impossible to get a software update on the initial call. Any other calls you force can lead to software updates, and 2.0.1 has an "unplanned feature" that cripples your PVR beyond what TiVo intended. This will be fixed in a future upgrade that is still a few months off.
Regardless, the inital call sets the internal clock, and does the initial population of the guide data. After that call, you can yank the phone cord and never plug it in again. And if you don't plan to have the service and don't want the software upgrade, yanking the phone cord is highly recommended.
If you want functionality beyond that, people have devised ways to set the internal clock, modify the channel lineup, prevent software updates, and even populate the guide data from public sources. The hacks all exist, but have been created by and for people who have special circumstances that don't allow them to use the service as listed. Don't expect help from places like the AVS TiVo forum if you're merely trying to bypass the service fee... and even if you have good intent, you're going to have to look elsewhere for hacks that bypass the need for the service. People frown heavilly on bypassing TiVo's service fee if service can be obtained by legitimate means. The reasons for this are many, but mainly because TiVo's business model involves selling the units for less than cost, and making up the money in subscription fees. Thus, bypassing the service fee is a major blow to TiVo, and could put them out of business easily.
Also, why not look into buying a TiVoNET ethernet adapter for daily calls? It's a hack that puts an ethernet jack on your TiVo, and scripts to redirect the daily call from the modem to an ethernet connection. Or, if you're stuck with a slow 'net connection, PPP-over-serial hacks are available as well, that make the call use a PPP connection over the DSS port as opposed to dialing. Both of the above hacks still help TiVo out by using their service, just merely using your own 'net connection as opposed to a UUNet phone number.
Do searches in the AVS TiVo Underground Forum, the TiVo Hack FAQ, and 9th Tee for all of the information I've stated above. Take some time to look around, all the info I've talked about and more is out there.
For my money, the combination of my TiVo and their subscription is the best entertainment purchase I've ever made. I find myself using TiVo combined with my premium channels more than I use even my DVD player. But that, of course, is just my opinion.
I have one of the (first) PIII 500 processors. Yay, I'm flawed!:) But my question is this... in any of the new mother-of-all processors, is there really that much difference between a processor that is at 90% processing capacity, a processor that is idle for 90% of it's processes, or a processor that is being issued HLT commands in it's downtime?
I use a HLT program on my Dell PII laptop (that runs HOT!), and I have noticed that when I send HLTs to the processor while idle, it does cool down quite a bit. Is that really a significant drop in power usage? Is thermal output in direct relation with power usage on processors?
I seem to recall a thread no more than a day ago where legions of people were going to start class-action lawsuits against a company for not being able to use their product (which they sell for much less than cost) in a manner opposing what the box says is required for full functionality (namely the TiVo service)... but now when someone breaks into the TiVo and figures out how to do something illegal with it, everyone sings it's praises!
I can't stand it anymore. I can't stand this hypocrisy. When someone wants to use the product in an unintended manner and fails (hence full recording capabilities without service), they scream, whine, bitch and moan to the company and every available media outlet possible. They threaten legal action, and promise to make said company's life a living hell until they get what they want. But when someone is successful in getting TiVo to do something that it was designed not to do (hence perfect video extraction), people flock to it.
I have NO PROBLEM getting TiVo to do all these incredibly bizarre things it was never meant to do (like Caller ID, video extraction, or asking me if it should call for chinese takeout). The only problem I have is when people can't make it do something, and they threaten the well-being of the company. TiVo is bar none the GREATEST electronic device I own, and I can't imagine my TV viewing experience without it. So now TiVo will not only have to deal with the legions of imbeciles that want to sue to use their product (again, sold AT A LOSS) without service, but now the legal problems with decoding DirecTV service and digital distribution of said service is going to keep TiVo more than occupied for a long while. And as stated elsewhere in this posting, all the public release of this hack will lead to, is TiVo doing a lot more anti-hacking coding, which makes all of us in the TiVo hacking community much worse off.
(P.S. When I stated this was illegal, I'm referring specifically to the DirecTV combo boxen, for which this is SURELY going to be a major legal problem. Other applications, such as the standalone boxen, present a blurry legal issue that I'm sure this discovery will bring to the forefront.)
Selling at a loss, big blue sticker, stupid people
on
TiVo Upgrade Isn't
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· Score: 2
I'm sorry, I have absolutely no sympathy for you people. TiVo is an excellent product, and I would never think twice about "tipping" the creators $10/month for DAILY updates of time data, guide data for 15 days in the future, and the feature-rich menus that involve rather in-depth program searching, down to actors names. The software will even pick programs for you based on your likes and dislikes! What more could you ask from this?
It is stated on every (at least Phillips) box with a large blue sticker that it "Requires subscription to the TiVo service" for full functionality. If you don't read the box, it's your own damn fault. It's like drinking weed killer because you didn't read the label to find out it was harmful to humans.
This post, and the other anti-TiVo posts here are disgraceful. They do NOT have a "moral obligation to make the devices work for all customers". Not at all! They clearly state both on the box and in BOTH manuals that you need the TiVo service! It's like bitching that you bought a cable modem but can't use it because it didn't clearly state you needed to have cable modem service with it. You just can't separate some things. And as far as morals go, the dealers and manufacturers sell TiVos at a loss, only to be reimbursed later in advertising and subscription money that TiVo brings in.
So the fact is, you can get TiVo without a subscription. It costs an extra $200 or so - just like the box SHOULD cost if the manufacturers were selling them with a standard mark-up. I have less than NO sympathy whatsoever for people that whine about this sort of thing. If you bitch about the money, you obviously have less than half a clue as to what goes into these things, and what it costs to keep them up-and-running with the full subset of features, not to mention the added features that are coming out every few months (like DirecTV dual tuners, coming summer 2000). Give it a rest.
Ok, I agree that the more "into" a game you get the better, but can electroshock be considered a GOOD IDEA?
What's going to happen to the first person with health issues that uses this joystick? Can you imagine the legal problems this company is going to have if it enduces cardiac failure in someone? I know that low levels of voltage shouldn't be a big deal, but this CAN'T be healthy, can it?
This is all I need... some other electronic device I own that is slowly killing me.
The big thing that CD-R had going for it (and hopefully DVD-R will follow suit) is that it was functional in a huge number of existing devices. CDs were wildly popular in both computers and stereo systems by the time that CD-Rs became feasible for the end user. That's why everyone HAD to have one when they became cheap... this single device would copy audio CDs, data CDs AND mixed mode CDs... it was an awesome tool.
Hopefully DVD-Rs will follow suit, and become functional in regular DVD players and DVD-ROM drives. Again, the major advantage is the fact that there's already a huge number of DVD devices out there in the wild. That's why everyone wants a writer - to be able to write discs for a device they already own.
This format will fail... if not soon, in the long run. The problem, is they've put the cart before the horse - they're making a writer for a format that doesn't have any real world existance as of yet. There's no appeal - larger storage is already available in DVD-Rs, and the new higher density CD doesn't have any compatability with existing CD devices. Plus, it's a different kind of media, so you can't even use your old CD media in this device. I can't see a single reason to pick this new format for anything... the ONLY bright spot is that the writer doubles for a standard CD writer, but then why not just buy a regular CD writer?
Thus, in my opinion, this format is doomed. Standard or not.
The coolest looking formula, due to it's many cool symbols and two-tiered layout, is the Quadratic Formula. I can't even come close to typing it out here, but written down it looks pretty badass.
In words, it is as follows:
X equals negative B plus or minus the square root of (B squared minus 4 times A times C) all over 2 times A
Plus, it's a very widely recognized formula, so you have that going for you also.
I wholeheartedly agree here. Dell has offered such outstanding equipment and tech support to me with my laptop, that I would never even CONSIDER buying from another company. Their service is second-to-none.
I had a problem with the hard drive in my laptop about a year and a half after buying it (completely my fault), and had another hard drive at my door in under a week.
Even better, three days before my warranty expired I broke the latch on the screen right off of the unit... I called, not really expecting much more than a "well don't be a moron next time"... but sure enough they took care of it. I didn't have to do a THING. Two days later, a UPS guy shows up at my house with a box with packing foam in it. He says, "Just take out the HD, RAM, and cards, and I'll take the computer." I did so, and as he was walking back to his vehicle with my laptop I asked, "Don't I need to address a label or something?" He responded, "It's all taken care of. Have a nice day." Six business days later, I had a new case, which replaced another crack that I didn't even care about. They paid for EVERYTHING, and took care of the problem very quickly, with no effort on my part.
I can't believe you're defaming Dell over a faulty battery they didn't even make that only had one incident of malfunction. They're recalling EVERY like battery at their cost, just in case. This doesn't even make me BLINK as far as recommending Dell laptops to others, and it shouldn't make anyone else think twice either.
Now, if only they'd make the mother-of-all laptops with one of the new AMD mobile chips in it... then I'd be a happy boy. That chip sounds bad-ass.:)
This whole acoustic fingerprinting is amazing from the technological side... but looking at how it could be used, frightens me to no end.
Imagine a computer (Big Brother) hooked up to a major television head-end (let's use DirecTV for an example). 24 hours a day, this computer listens to the audio and SAP from every television show passing through the head-end. It logs exactly what music it heard at what time, samples some audio, and takes video stills of questionable events. Then, later that day, an ASCAP henchman looks through the Big Brother logfiles, and finds a list of offenses a mile long. ASCAP then immediately files lawsuits with the long list of offending companies, some of which include Jim Bob's Deli for the use of Simply The Best in a localized ad without an appropriate licensing agreement, Channel 7 News in Detroit for broadcasting a segment where through the background noise of a rave party "That Zipper Track" by DJ Dan was audible, and the Detroit Red Wings who, during their last playoff game, played a techno song to rile the crowd in the arena which made it onto Fox's effect microphones that violated the terms of DRW's exclusive playlist agreement.
Sure, I made these scenarios up. But how long until we're seeing this story on the news? This technology can already do a tremendously good job of identifying songs through all sorts of audio compression and noise... I'd imagine we could see a machine capable of doing this in under 2 years.
Dvorak is nuts -
He hates new technologies -
Someone smack him please.
What a bunch of BS... why not just make it illegal for me to leave the couch when a commercial comes on - because since I'm not watching the commercials, I must be stealing the programming.
Well - you're not gonna like the answer, but here it is. As clark625 has stated, ??-over-IP is NOT always the solution - and here is a perfect example. But what you want can be done with dedicated boxes.
Clearcom makes wildly popular icom boxes. They have mainstations of all shapes and sizes - the more popular ones with either two or four isolated channels that can be "party-lined" together. The connector is XLR (3-wire mic cable), and each channel can support quite a few beltpacks at the same time. I also hear tell that they make wireless units, but I have no experience with these.
Now - if you've got big bucks, you can get exactly what you want - an RTS Zeus DSP Intercom matrix. It is computer controlled, and allows for an unbelievable amount of private channels, grouping, external audio sources, etc etc etc. You can either get dumb stations (where their listen and talk sources and destinations are constant and pre-programmed), or you can buy the intelligent stations that have 12 programmable sources/destinations (not to mention you can have multiple pages and many other things). Each destination can be a party line, a private tunnel with an individual station, or an external source (like radio in our config). The stations are all 9-pin connections, and I can't tell you how wonderful this system is, if you have the money. They also make VERY reliable full duplex wireless units that I use daily.
So those are the best bets for your situation - in this case, there's NO reason to reinvent the wheel. Use boxes that were MEANT to do the job properly, and don't overcomplicate things. Besides - I'm sure that in the middle of a production, the last thing you want is a script kiddie 0wn1ng your intercom system. Remember - there's no such thing as rm -rf / in the world of professional intercoms.
This information is not secret, and in fact is well documented. It is even freely discussed in the AVS TiVo Forums. As a matter of fact, here is exactly what is sent out to TiVo headquarters, as reported by moderator Otto:
For the record, the Tivo sends back two files.
The first one is a debug logfile for the software. It contains the serial number, a bunch of good identifying info, but no viewing data or remote keypresses or anything like that.
The second file contains *only* viewing info and remote keypresses. It is time-stamped, but it has no serial number.
They are both sent back to an FTP server (in 1.3) or an HTTP server (in 2.0). The command to send them back in 2.0 includes the serial in the debug file send request, but not in the anonymous viewing data request. While it would be possible to sync them via http logfiles, it's not worth the trouble.
Face it, your individual viewing data is WORTHLESS. You're just not that important of a person. Viewing data is only worthwhile as an aggregate, despite what everyone seems to think.
Your viewing data combined with 150,000 other people's viewing data, sorted by region (zipcode is included), might have some value to it after all. Nobody cares that you watch ER, but they might care that Everybody in your zipcode watches ER. Or that everybody in your zipcode doesn't watch ER. They might try to increase advertising in that region because it does so poorly there. Or some other such thing. This is not an invasion of your privacy.
...
One more thing, while the data was sent unencrypted in 1.3, it definitely is encrypted in 2.0. Ever notice that the lights on the front of the tivo blink a few times just before the call? That's the Tivo accessing the crypto chip to encrypt the anonymous information and the debugging log.
So you need not worry about the dark black circle in the middle of your TiVo glowing red or the machine referring to you as "Dave". It's all just anonymous viewing data harvested by area, and has no ties with you whatsoever. For more info on this sort of thing, go do a search over at the AVS TiVo Forum.
...and now we're all one step closer to being able to set our toaster to "dark" from work. All we need is a couple million MORE IP addresses in the world.
It's funny you mentioned the registry keys, because something really fun to do with an old windoze computer you're going to format (or do away with) is to gather a bunch of friends around the screen and play some DLL Jenga.
The rules: Remove one DLL at a time, and reboot. The person who removes the DLL that makes the computer not boot anymore loses.:)
The same link now states that the object's trajectory has been recalculated, and they have now ruled out the collision in 2030. The previous story was merely an IAU technicality in reporting non-zero Torino events in no more than 72 hours of the calculation.
Damn... and I was really looking forward to Y2.03K.
It's like me making the grandeous statement, "I'm going to tax OC-3 lines." It's rather ambiguous to say that you're going to tax any part of the Internet, simply because the Internet is a medium in which an unlimited amount of resources and programs can be run on it, as long as they conform to regular transport protocols. If you eliminate e-mail, what's going to happen? People will find other (if not better) messaging options!
Ok, let's assume that the government taxes each e-mail $.10 just for the sake of argument. Services such as ICQ and AIM are going to skyrocket, and offer features like "offline messaging" which leaves a message stored in the system until the target person logs on. What's that sound exactly like? E-MAIL! GO FIGURE!
Not to mention that discussion groups and NNTP posting are just various kinds of messaging, basicly "open-ended e-mail" where it's not specificly addressed to one person, but to a variety of people. So what can you do with the news protocol? 256-bit encryption that only a single user can decrypt. Now you've just created the world's largest inbox, with each post addressed to somebody. It's far fetched, but it's still a feasible idea, and it's still e-mail.
Ok, so now e-mail has been obliterated by taxes. What else is gonna happen? IP-to-IP messaging! You're going to log on to a service which when your computer connects, you'll receive a log of all the people who tried to contact you last, and what they wanted. E-mail again!
These are three ideas that I just basicly pulled out of the air. You're telling me that with the long future the Internet has in front of it, you think that a bunch of free messaging services aren't gonna pop up the milisecond that the government taxes e-mail? Please. Taxation of e-mail is not only absurd, but if it happened, it would be the death of e-mail as people abandon it for other communications medium. I think the government is smarter than that.
Maybe it's just me, but I think a team of computer specialists can spot a problem that an 18-year old punk sitting at his computer in his boxers (too much info?) can come up with. It's not going to happen. You can't tax a service or a protocol, simply because if you do, we'll all just make another communication standard and abandon your precious e-mail protocol you hate so much. Either way, we're still communicating. You can never tax that.
Someone write me a letter when they start taxing keystrokes and enact hourly vocal cord usage taxes.
Slashdot Mirror
Go to campchaos.com - they have an entire series of the "Napster Bad" cartoons. It followed along with the lawsuit and media stories. The entire series consists of:
x .html
Napster: BAD! (The original)
MetalliCOPS (Pretty decent)
Metallica Millionaire (Better yet)
MP3: Good or Goblin? (Ft. Nutty McShithead of the RIAA)
Sue All The World (w/ Elton John, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Sheryl Crow, & more)
Napster Dead? (HYSTERICAL!)
Bizarro Napster Bad (The Final Episode to date)
And the following "Special Features":
Special Fucking Edition (featuring "Monkey Notes")
Fire Bad! (video game)
I recommend you watch them in series... they make more sense that way, and it adds to the comical flavor. The series exists at:
http://www.campchaos.com/cartoons/napsterbad/inde
The things TiVo downloads are no secret. They have never been hidden from people who have been curious enough to look for them. Some of the download info is even available from the GUI without even hacking a bash prompt on TiVo, by merely enabling backdoors and using the "view TiVo logs" backdoor.
Regardless, on the initial call, TiVo doesn't download new software. It has been stated several times that the initial call and the software update call are fundamentally different, and it is impossible to get a software update on the initial call. Any other calls you force can lead to software updates, and 2.0.1 has an "unplanned feature" that cripples your PVR beyond what TiVo intended. This will be fixed in a future upgrade that is still a few months off.
Regardless, the inital call sets the internal clock, and does the initial population of the guide data. After that call, you can yank the phone cord and never plug it in again. And if you don't plan to have the service and don't want the software upgrade, yanking the phone cord is highly recommended.
If you want functionality beyond that, people have devised ways to set the internal clock, modify the channel lineup, prevent software updates, and even populate the guide data from public sources. The hacks all exist, but have been created by and for people who have special circumstances that don't allow them to use the service as listed. Don't expect help from places like the AVS TiVo forum if you're merely trying to bypass the service fee... and even if you have good intent, you're going to have to look elsewhere for hacks that bypass the need for the service. People frown heavilly on bypassing TiVo's service fee if service can be obtained by legitimate means. The reasons for this are many, but mainly because TiVo's business model involves selling the units for less than cost, and making up the money in subscription fees. Thus, bypassing the service fee is a major blow to TiVo, and could put them out of business easily.
Also, why not look into buying a TiVoNET ethernet adapter for daily calls? It's a hack that puts an ethernet jack on your TiVo, and scripts to redirect the daily call from the modem to an ethernet connection. Or, if you're stuck with a slow 'net connection, PPP-over-serial hacks are available as well, that make the call use a PPP connection over the DSS port as opposed to dialing. Both of the above hacks still help TiVo out by using their service, just merely using your own 'net connection as opposed to a UUNet phone number.
Do searches in the AVS TiVo Underground Forum, the TiVo Hack FAQ, and 9th Tee for all of the information I've stated above. Take some time to look around, all the info I've talked about and more is out there.
For my money, the combination of my TiVo and their subscription is the best entertainment purchase I've ever made. I find myself using TiVo combined with my premium channels more than I use even my DVD player. But that, of course, is just my opinion.
I have one of the (first) PIII 500 processors. Yay, I'm flawed! :) But my question is this... in any of the new mother-of-all processors, is there really that much difference between a processor that is at 90% processing capacity, a processor that is idle for 90% of it's processes, or a processor that is being issued HLT commands in it's downtime?
I use a HLT program on my Dell PII laptop (that runs HOT!), and I have noticed that when I send HLTs to the processor while idle, it does cool down quite a bit. Is that really a significant drop in power usage? Is thermal output in direct relation with power usage on processors?
I seem to recall a thread no more than a day ago where legions of people were going to start class-action lawsuits against a company for not being able to use their product (which they sell for much less than cost) in a manner opposing what the box says is required for full functionality (namely the TiVo service)... but now when someone breaks into the TiVo and figures out how to do something illegal with it, everyone sings it's praises!
I can't stand it anymore. I can't stand this hypocrisy. When someone wants to use the product in an unintended manner and fails (hence full recording capabilities without service), they scream, whine, bitch and moan to the company and every available media outlet possible. They threaten legal action, and promise to make said company's life a living hell until they get what they want. But when someone is successful in getting TiVo to do something that it was designed not to do (hence perfect video extraction), people flock to it.
I have NO PROBLEM getting TiVo to do all these incredibly bizarre things it was never meant to do (like Caller ID, video extraction, or asking me if it should call for chinese takeout). The only problem I have is when people can't make it do something, and they threaten the well-being of the company. TiVo is bar none the GREATEST electronic device I own, and I can't imagine my TV viewing experience without it. So now TiVo will not only have to deal with the legions of imbeciles that want to sue to use their product (again, sold AT A LOSS) without service, but now the legal problems with decoding DirecTV service and digital distribution of said service is going to keep TiVo more than occupied for a long while. And as stated elsewhere in this posting, all the public release of this hack will lead to, is TiVo doing a lot more anti-hacking coding, which makes all of us in the TiVo hacking community much worse off.
(P.S. When I stated this was illegal, I'm referring specifically to the DirecTV combo boxen, for which this is SURELY going to be a major legal problem. Other applications, such as the standalone boxen, present a blurry legal issue that I'm sure this discovery will bring to the forefront.)
I'm sorry, I have absolutely no sympathy for you people. TiVo is an excellent product, and I would never think twice about "tipping" the creators $10/month for DAILY updates of time data, guide data for 15 days in the future, and the feature-rich menus that involve rather in-depth program searching, down to actors names. The software will even pick programs for you based on your likes and dislikes! What more could you ask from this?
It is stated on every (at least Phillips) box with a large blue sticker that it "Requires subscription to the TiVo service" for full functionality. If you don't read the box, it's your own damn fault. It's like drinking weed killer because you didn't read the label to find out it was harmful to humans.
This post, and the other anti-TiVo posts here are disgraceful. They do NOT have a "moral obligation to make the devices work for all customers". Not at all! They clearly state both on the box and in BOTH manuals that you need the TiVo service! It's like bitching that you bought a cable modem but can't use it because it didn't clearly state you needed to have cable modem service with it. You just can't separate some things. And as far as morals go, the dealers and manufacturers sell TiVos at a loss, only to be reimbursed later in advertising and subscription money that TiVo brings in.
So the fact is, you can get TiVo without a subscription. It costs an extra $200 or so - just like the box SHOULD cost if the manufacturers were selling them with a standard mark-up. I have less than NO sympathy whatsoever for people that whine about this sort of thing. If you bitch about the money, you obviously have less than half a clue as to what goes into these things, and what it costs to keep them up-and-running with the full subset of features, not to mention the added features that are coming out every few months (like DirecTV dual tuners, coming summer 2000). Give it a rest.
Ok, I agree that the more "into" a game you get the better, but can electroshock be considered a GOOD IDEA?
What's going to happen to the first person with health issues that uses this joystick? Can you imagine the legal problems this company is going to have if it enduces cardiac failure in someone? I know that low levels of voltage shouldn't be a big deal, but this CAN'T be healthy, can it?
This is all I need... some other electronic device I own that is slowly killing me.
The big thing that CD-R had going for it (and hopefully DVD-R will follow suit) is that it was functional in a huge number of existing devices. CDs were wildly popular in both computers and stereo systems by the time that CD-Rs became feasible for the end user. That's why everyone HAD to have one when they became cheap... this single device would copy audio CDs, data CDs AND mixed mode CDs... it was an awesome tool.
Hopefully DVD-Rs will follow suit, and become functional in regular DVD players and DVD-ROM drives. Again, the major advantage is the fact that there's already a huge number of DVD devices out there in the wild. That's why everyone wants a writer - to be able to write discs for a device they already own.
This format will fail... if not soon, in the long run. The problem, is they've put the cart before the horse - they're making a writer for a format that doesn't have any real world existance as of yet. There's no appeal - larger storage is already available in DVD-Rs, and the new higher density CD doesn't have any compatability with existing CD devices. Plus, it's a different kind of media, so you can't even use your old CD media in this device. I can't see a single reason to pick this new format for anything... the ONLY bright spot is that the writer doubles for a standard CD writer, but then why not just buy a regular CD writer?
Thus, in my opinion, this format is doomed. Standard or not.
The coolest looking formula, due to it's many cool symbols and two-tiered layout, is the Quadratic Formula. I can't even come close to typing it out here, but written down it looks pretty badass.
In words, it is as follows:
X equals negative B plus or minus the square root of (B squared minus 4 times A times C) all over 2 times A
Plus, it's a very widely recognized formula, so you have that going for you also.
I wholeheartedly agree here. Dell has offered such outstanding equipment and tech support to me with my laptop, that I would never even CONSIDER buying from another company. Their service is second-to-none.
:)
I had a problem with the hard drive in my laptop about a year and a half after buying it (completely my fault), and had another hard drive at my door in under a week.
Even better, three days before my warranty expired I broke the latch on the screen right off of the unit... I called, not really expecting much more than a "well don't be a moron next time"... but sure enough they took care of it. I didn't have to do a THING. Two days later, a UPS guy shows up at my house with a box with packing foam in it. He says, "Just take out the HD, RAM, and cards, and I'll take the computer." I did so, and as he was walking back to his vehicle with my laptop I asked, "Don't I need to address a label or something?" He responded, "It's all taken care of. Have a nice day." Six business days later, I had a new case, which replaced another crack that I didn't even care about. They paid for EVERYTHING, and took care of the problem very quickly, with no effort on my part.
I can't believe you're defaming Dell over a faulty battery they didn't even make that only had one incident of malfunction. They're recalling EVERY like battery at their cost, just in case. This doesn't even make me BLINK as far as recommending Dell laptops to others, and it shouldn't make anyone else think twice either.
Now, if only they'd make the mother-of-all laptops with one of the new AMD mobile chips in it... then I'd be a happy boy. That chip sounds bad-ass.
Yes, you can.
This whole acoustic fingerprinting is amazing from the technological side... but looking at how it could be used, frightens me to no end.
Imagine a computer (Big Brother) hooked up to a major television head-end (let's use DirecTV for an example). 24 hours a day, this computer listens to the audio and SAP from every television show passing through the head-end. It logs exactly what music it heard at what time, samples some audio, and takes video stills of questionable events. Then, later that day, an ASCAP henchman looks through the Big Brother logfiles, and finds a list of offenses a mile long. ASCAP then immediately files lawsuits with the long list of offending companies, some of which include Jim Bob's Deli for the use of Simply The Best in a localized ad without an appropriate licensing agreement, Channel 7 News in Detroit for broadcasting a segment where through the background noise of a rave party "That Zipper Track" by DJ Dan was audible, and the Detroit Red Wings who, during their last playoff game, played a techno song to rile the crowd in the arena which made it onto Fox's effect microphones that violated the terms of DRW's exclusive playlist agreement.
Sure, I made these scenarios up. But how long until we're seeing this story on the news? This technology can already do a tremendously good job of identifying songs through all sorts of audio compression and noise... I'd imagine we could see a machine capable of doing this in under 2 years.
Dvorak is nuts -
He hates new technologies -
Someone smack him please.
What a bunch of BS... why not just make it illegal for me to leave the couch when a commercial comes on - because since I'm not watching the commercials, I must be stealing the programming.
Whatever.
Well - you're not gonna like the answer, but here it is. As clark625 has stated, ??-over-IP is NOT always the solution - and here is a perfect example. But what you want can be done with dedicated boxes.
Clearcom makes wildly popular icom boxes. They have mainstations of all shapes and sizes - the more popular ones with either two or four isolated channels that can be "party-lined" together. The connector is XLR (3-wire mic cable), and each channel can support quite a few beltpacks at the same time. I also hear tell that they make wireless units, but I have no experience with these.
Now - if you've got big bucks, you can get exactly what you want - an RTS Zeus DSP Intercom matrix. It is computer controlled, and allows for an unbelievable amount of private channels, grouping, external audio sources, etc etc etc. You can either get dumb stations (where their listen and talk sources and destinations are constant and pre-programmed), or you can buy the intelligent stations that have 12 programmable sources/destinations (not to mention you can have multiple pages and many other things). Each destination can be a party line, a private tunnel with an individual station, or an external source (like radio in our config). The stations are all 9-pin connections, and I can't tell you how wonderful this system is, if you have the money. They also make VERY reliable full duplex wireless units that I use daily.
So those are the best bets for your situation - in this case, there's NO reason to reinvent the wheel. Use boxes that were MEANT to do the job properly, and don't overcomplicate things. Besides - I'm sure that in the middle of a production, the last thing you want is a script kiddie 0wn1ng your intercom system. Remember - there's no such thing as rm -rf / in the world of professional intercoms.
So you need not worry about the dark black circle in the middle of your TiVo glowing red or the machine referring to you as "Dave". It's all just anonymous viewing data harvested by area, and has no ties with you whatsoever. For more info on this sort of thing, go do a search over at the AVS TiVo Forum.
Oh yeah, and STOP BEING SO PARANOID!!!
...and now we're all one step closer to being able to set our toaster to "dark" from work. All we need is a couple million MORE IP addresses in the world.
Look out IPv6, here we come!!!
It's funny you mentioned the registry keys, because something really fun to do with an old windoze computer you're going to format (or do away with) is to gather a bunch of friends around the screen and play some DLL Jenga.
:)
The rules: Remove one DLL at a time, and reboot. The person who removes the DLL that makes the computer not boot anymore loses.
The same link now states that the object's trajectory has been recalculated, and they have now ruled out the collision in 2030. The previous story was merely an IAU technicality in reporting non-zero Torino events in no more than 72 hours of the calculation.
Damn... and I was really looking forward to Y2.03K.
It's like me making the grandeous statement, "I'm going to tax OC-3 lines." It's rather ambiguous to say that you're going to tax any part of the Internet, simply because the Internet is a medium in which an unlimited amount of resources and programs can be run on it, as long as they conform to regular transport protocols. If you eliminate e-mail, what's going to happen? People will find other (if not better) messaging options!
Ok, let's assume that the government taxes each e-mail $.10 just for the sake of argument. Services such as ICQ and AIM are going to skyrocket, and offer features like "offline messaging" which leaves a message stored in the system until the target person logs on. What's that sound exactly like? E-MAIL! GO FIGURE!
Not to mention that discussion groups and NNTP posting are just various kinds of messaging, basicly "open-ended e-mail" where it's not specificly addressed to one person, but to a variety of people. So what can you do with the news protocol? 256-bit encryption that only a single user can decrypt. Now you've just created the world's largest inbox, with each post addressed to somebody. It's far fetched, but it's still a feasible idea, and it's still e-mail.
Ok, so now e-mail has been obliterated by taxes. What else is gonna happen? IP-to-IP messaging! You're going to log on to a service which when your computer connects, you'll receive a log of all the people who tried to contact you last, and what they wanted. E-mail again!
These are three ideas that I just basicly pulled out of the air. You're telling me that with the long future the Internet has in front of it, you think that a bunch of free messaging services aren't gonna pop up the milisecond that the government taxes e-mail? Please. Taxation of e-mail is not only absurd, but if it happened, it would be the death of e-mail as people abandon it for other communications medium. I think the government is smarter than that.
Maybe it's just me, but I think a team of computer specialists can spot a problem that an 18-year old punk sitting at his computer in his boxers (too much info?) can come up with. It's not going to happen. You can't tax a service or a protocol, simply because if you do, we'll all just make another communication standard and abandon your precious e-mail protocol you hate so much. Either way, we're still communicating. You can never tax that.
Someone write me a letter when they start taxing keystrokes and enact hourly vocal cord usage taxes.